POKROV IS A SPIRITUAL ASSOCIATION OF ESOTERIC.
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The Friendly Philosopher-Eternal Verities
The friendly philosopher
THE LAW OF CORRESPONDENCES
“Law of Correspondences” is a greater subject than people are liable to suspect; yet we all know something of
correspondences in the simple facts of nature—the seven colors of the spectrum, the seven notes of the scale. Each color of
each octave corresponds to the same color of another octave. We see only a certain number of rates of vibration, but above
the number perceptible to us are those too fine for us to perceive with our physical senses, and, also below, are vibrations
too coarse for our perception. ‘We stand in the middle, as it were, of a great range of perceptions, aware of only a portion of
the universe in which we live. The same is true with regard to sounds——from the note do up to Si; do corresponds to every
other do in the seven octaves which we are able to perceive physically; but these seven octaves are merely a portion of all
the great octaves of nature above us and below us. There is correspondence between the high and the low throughout all
nature, because the great Center of Life, of Consciousness, of Perception is the same in every being of what ever grade;
and because from within that Center proceeds all action. The use of the power to act which is inherent in that Center is the
cause of all manifestation.
All things which are visible come from the invisible. In the evolution of a planet there is a beginning in homogeneous, radiant
matter—such as composes the Milky Way—the basis of all subsequent forms that are brought about, or produced, by the
beings existent in that homogeneous state. Each being is a Center and each Center is the same as the One Great Center.
Proceeding from the same Source, necessarily, all beings proceed under the same laws. The same Law rules all beings.
The power to act and the subsequent reaction—the law of laws which we know as Karma—is brought into operation by all
beings to produce the manifested universe and all the differentiations in forms and substance. Thus there is a connection
between each being and every other being. There is a correspondence between each being and every other being. There is
a correspondence between the constituents of each being and the constituents of every other being.
The law which rules the atoms of our world as well as the highest spiritual beings in it—that law inherent in the Center of each
being—proceeds in a definite, orderly mode. This progress is known to be divided into seven degrees, or the septenary
nature, from the states of fine matter down to the matter that we now know in the body. All beings go through forms in the
various states, and not only do they go through them but they possess them at the present time. Man possesses every body
which ever has existed for him in any stage of matter. But our planet is one of many planets. It exists in a solar system which
is one of many solar systems. There are inhabitants of other planets— some of them below us in point of development and
others so much higher than we that if we knew the state of their progress we would esteem them divine beings. All beings of
each and every planet are of the same Center and proceed under the same universal law of manifestation. Thus, there is a
correspondence between each and every planet: we are related to Mars, to Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon by
certain correspondences in fact, there are organs in our bodies which correspond to the various planets.
At the root of all these correspondences with planets, beings and states of matter, and behind all these points of attachment
with every thing—the most minute as well as the coarsest—lies a tremendous, almost immeasurable SCIENCE related to all
portions of the universe, to every state of matter and every plane of consciousness—a science which by our self-induced and
self- devised efforts it is possible for us to attain it ourselves. For knowledge does not exist outside of us, nor does
knowledge exist without the knowers of it. Always the knowers of the greater knowledge have achieved it through observation
and experience. Those Beings who are greater than we are and who have handed down to us Theosophy—the science of
life and the art of living—in the far distant past had to go through similar experiences to those we are now encountering. So
again we see there is a correspondence in ourselves with those higher Beings, and, as well, with lower beings. We have to
manifest as various classes of beings, some on higher planes and some on lower planes. The forms of the kingdoms below
us are embodiments of minor grades of consciousness on their way up to our estate, which they will reach when we have
progressed to still higher states, under the law of evolution. For evolution of form is always brought about by the extension of
the Consciousness of the being in habiting the form, and our own purpose, as spiritual beings connected with all states of
matter, is to evolve a better and better instrument on this plane of being to correspond to, or be accessible to, those inner
states of being and higher planes of consciousness which we all in reality possess. It may seem strange to us that we
possess what we know nothing of, and that there are powers latent in us which in our present case we are unable to manifest.
But we ought to see that we have the power to learn. We have the power to learn sciences of various kinds, or languages
entirely different from those we now know. The power to learn is within us. We could not learn these things if they were new—
that is, due to some formation of nature separate from ourselves. There is a power that we may gain over all nature, and ‘use,
for in fact nothing is of use by way of knowledge that can not be practical for the true evolution of man, for the forwarding of
humanity. There is a certain knowledge in the possession of some which relates to the occult sciences, to powers which we
do not presently possess but which are latent in us—the reason for either latency or possession lying in the fact that this life is
the reaping of what has gone on be fore. As day succeeds day and life succeeds life, as planet succeeds planet and solar
system succeeds solar system, so we have come down through the immeasurable past to the present conditions—to
conditions, let it be remembered, where spirit and matter conjoin, where man may become higher than any being in our solar
system because he is conjoined with the lower kingdoms; because he may so increase his knowledge in connection with
those lower kingdoms that lie may raise them up and use the powers that exist there and are produced by beings of every
grade. Let us remember, too, that even on this physical plane there are beings other than those we ordinarily see in mineral,
vegetable, animal and human embodiments; there are invisible beings existing in what we call our air, in the ether, in
electricity, in fire—for it is life everywhere in this universe; there is not a hand’s breadth of vacant ‘ space anywhere. However
minute, visible or invisible, the forms of life may be, they are Centers of Consciousness, beginnings of perception, the
beginnings of individuality—ever increasing from form to form until the human form is reached, and then, on and on. For we
as human beings are not the product of this earth. Our bodies are; but as spiritual beings we were present before this earth
was formed. Once more we have come down through the stairway of the seven worlds from that primal state which is the very
Center of being, plus all that we had gained before in other worlds. ‘We bring with us all that we have gained in similar states
and planes of substance before, and go on with the world in each stage, just as we go on from day to day with our various
occupations. Thus we may see that there is a continuity throughout the entire course of evolution; what we have to learn is that
knowledge of it along the line of true correspondences will never be acquired by mere study, nor by information given us by
any being or beings whatever.
True knowledge has to be gained through an increasing perception of the universality of all law and the universal line of
progress for every being of whatever grade. We have to think and practise altruism before the higher and more recondite
powers of the universe can be placed in our possession for our use. The thought and the motive must be that which makes
for the good of all beings. What has been given to us in the philosophy of Theosophy is for the purpose of arousing the
attention of that Center within us which can see, which can know and which can do, when it resumes its own nature and
status. For there is a deep knowledge of all these things in the soul of every human being and the soul knows what it needs; it
can understand when the brain can not understand; it can feel when the senses are not capable of transmitting feeling. This
knowledge is open to every human being; but only when the mind that we now possess is in exact accord with the nature of
the indwelling Spirit, shall we begin to see, from within outwards, all the lines of correspondence and relation that exist
between us and all other beings. Only when we realize that we are a part of the Great Chain of being, that no one of us is
unnecessary and no one can drop out, that the development is one for all, that we are all from the same Source and going
towards the same goal; only when we shall think and act from that basis, will we move onward with the great force
proceeding from the Center in that true direction which leads to enlightenment and power. The law of correspondences
constitutes a science which is perhaps beyond the idea of any one of us. Can we realize that — all beings are forces and all
forces proceed from beings? Can we realize that there are forces or beings in nature which can be moved without the lifting
of a finger—just by the thought, just by the will of one who knows the law of correspondences? Fortunate, indeed, it is that
men as they are now constituted, with the wrong ideas that rule their actions, do not possess these powers which they could
use against their fellow men! For is it not true that if we had them we would use them to blot out of existence many human
beings who are running counter to our own ideas? And those beings are, just like ourselves, controlled by ideas foreign to the
true progress of the whole and must meet the exact results of their wrong course of thought. Even without knowing it, perhaps,
we may fight the battle of humanity merely by taking one idea of Theosophy—one universal idea— towards the freedom of
the soul, and holding to that help. But we have to go much farther than that, which is but one step on the way. We have to
realize within ourselves the kind of bodies, inner and outer, which we possess and the powers that belong to those bodies.
We must bring those higher powers into operation through this physical body. We must build a higher and greater civilization
than ever yet has existed. Whether it is accomplished in this or in ten million lives, whether we go straight to the goal or
through suffering after suffering, it must ultimately be brought about.
We are here for a great purpose. A great mission lies before every one of us, as well as a great knowledge. We are here as
knowing, self-conscious beings, buried in, and identified with this body, with this matter. Involved in the very work we had to
do on this plane of being, we have forgotten our own true natures. It behooves us to understand what our true nature is and to
think and act in accordance with it. Let us remember, too, that “the true nature” is not far away; it is right within us— within our
hearts. In the silence of our own hearts there pulsates that One Life, which beats in correspondence in the action of the lungs,
the action of the tides, the flux and reflux which is going on all the time and everywhere in nature. Can we not see that the laws
of correspondences are the same now that they were millions of years ago? Nor has humanity changed. We have changed
the conditions surrounding us, but we ourselves are experiencing the same desires, the same feelings, the same stupidities
which were ours millions of years ago. We have not advanced spiritually beyond the civilizations that are dead and gone, but
in what we call “advancement” we have made merely another closer bond to physical existence. So there is much for us to do.
We move from death to death until we realize our true natures and take the course pointed out by the Wise Men of all ages—
the course by which They gained Their wisdom. Theosophy was brought into the world to wake up the souls who are in the
least degree susceptible to an awakening, to join that body of pilgrims moving on their way with their faces turned in the
direction of the Masters of Wisdom, regardless of their present conditions, quickly or slowly clearing away their defects that
they may be the pioneers and helpers and guides of the humanities that are to follow. Moving on with courage and
confidence in the Great Beings, they gradually learn and come to a resumption of those powers which we all possess but do
not express. Nor can one express in words the power, the happiness, the freedom from fear of any kind, the realization, while
in a body, of immortality which spiritual knowledge brings. This knowledge and these powers are within the reach of all of us.
As the ancients said, “The Great Self shines in all beings, but in all it does not shine forth.” We may reach that One Self, the
One Spirit, whence come all law, all possibilities—which has the power to produce all changes, but of itself changes not at
all— ever the experiencer, the enjoyer or the sufferer of the changes. Power comes from this knowledge, which springs up
spontaneously within us because it resides in the innermost parts of our natures.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
CULTURE OF CONCENTRATION
Concentration, or the use of the attention in the direction of anything that we wish to do, consistently and persistently, has long
been recognized as the most effective means of arriving at the full expression of our powers and energies. The ancients
called the power to focus the attention upon a subject or object for as long a time as is required, to the exclusion of every
other thought and feeling, ‘one-pointedness.” Concentration is difficult to obtain among us as a people, because the key-note
of our civilization is, in fact, distraction rather than concentration. Constantly and in every direction we are having presented to
our minds objects and subjects—one thing after another to take our attention and then to pull it off from what we are putting it
on. So, our minds have acquired the tendency to jump from one thing to another; to fly to a pleasant idea or to an unpleasant
idea, to remain passive. Remaining passive is normally sleep; abnormally, its tendency is towards insanity. That we have be
come habituated to these distractions and are not able to place our minds on any given thing for any length of time may be
easily proved by anyone. If he will sit down and try to think of one single thing, one single object or subject, for only five
minutes, he will find even in a very few seconds, perhaps, that he has wandered miles away mentally from the thing he
intended to place his mind upon.
We have first to understand what man is, his real nature, what the cause of his present condition, before we can arrive at any
pure and true concentration, before we can use the higher mind and the powers that flow from it. For the powers that we use
in the body are transmitted powers, drawn, indeed, from our inner spiritual nature, but so disturbed and limited that they are
not powerful. We need to know about our minds, and we need to control our minds—that is, the lower mind, occupied with
personal and physical things, known in Theosophical phraseology, as Lower Manas. It is this “organ,” the thinking principle,
which the ancients said is the great producer of illusion—the great distracter of concentration. For there is no possibility of
obtaining real concentration until the possessor of the mind can place it where he will, when he will, and for as long a time as
he pleases.
It is written in The Voice of the Silence: ‘ Mind is the great slayer of the Real. Let the disciple slay the Slayer.” The disciple,
who is the Real Man—the spiritual man—has to act as such. He has to stop the switchings and fittings of his thinking
principle and become calm in that knowledge to which the consideration of his own true nature brings him. The object of all
advancement is the realization of the true nature of each one and an employment of the powers which belong to it. What
hinders is the thinking principle. WE are the thinkers, but we are not what we think. If we think wrongly, then all the results of
our thoughts and actions must lead to a wrong conclusion, or to a partial one, at best; but if we realize that we are the thinker,
and the creator—the evolver of all the conditions through which we have been, in which we now are, and in which we shall find
ourselves in the future—then we have reached the point of view of the Real man, and it is only to the Real man that the power
of concentration belongs.
Again, in order to obtain concentration, we need an understanding of the classification of the principles of man. We all have
the same principles, the same kinds of substances within us, the same spirit within us. We all contain every element that
exists anywhere or in any being. So, too, each one has all the powers that exist anywhere, in himself, though latent. We are all
of the same Source, all parts of one great Whole, all sparks and rays from the Infinite Spirit, or the Absolute Principle. The
second principle is Buddhi, or the acquired wisdom of past lives, as well as this one. It is the cream of all our past
experiences. The next principle is Manas, the Higher mind, the real power to think, the creator—not concerned with this
physical phase of existence, but with the spirit and the acquired wisdom. These three principles together make the Real
Man—Atma Buddhi-Manas—and these three each one of us is in his inner nature.
Our Lower Manas is the transitory aspect of the Higher mind; that is, the portion of our attention, our thoughts and feelings
addressed to life in a body. But if our thinking faculty is concerned only with the personal self—only with the body— the
powers which reside in the Triad, the Real man, and the acquired wisdom of the past, can not force themselves through that
cloud of illusion. Lower Manas is the principle of balance. It is the place from which the man in a body either goes up towards
his higher nature or down towards his earthly nature, made up of the desires pertaining to sensuous existence. Life about us
is throwing its impressions and energies upon us all the time. We are constantly subject to them and connected with them by
our ideas, our feelings and emotions, so that there is a constant turmoil going on within that inner mind which makes a barrier
to absolute calmness and concentration.
Then we have the astral body, itself an aspect of the real inner body which has lasted through the vast period of the past and
must continue through the far distant future. This astral body is the prototype, or design, around which the physical body is
built, and which, considered from the point of view of the powers, is the real physical body. Without it the physical body would
be nothing but a mass of matter—an aggregation of smaller lives. It is the astral body which contains the organs, or centers
from which the organs have been evolved in accord with the needs of the thinker within. The real senses of man are not in the
physical but in the astral body. The astral body lasts a little over one lifetime. It does not die when the physical body dies, but
is used as a body in the immediate after-death states.
Now as soon as we begin to make the effort to control the mind, and desire to know and to assume the position of the inner
man, the effort and the assumption bring an accession of power and of steadiness. We have started something going in the
astral body. What were before merely centers of force around which organs were builded now tend to become separate
astral organs. A gradual building of those organs goes on within us, until in the completion of our effort we have an astral
body, with all the organs of the physical completely synthesized, and we are beyond the vicissitudes of physical existence; we
have the power of the action of the astral body. The astral body is even more complete and effective on its own plane that our
bodily instrument here on the physical plane, for it has a wider range of action in its seven super-senses, where physically we
have use of only five senses.
Many hindrances arise, however, as soon as the effort is begun. Old habits of thought and feeling press us on every hand, be
cause we have not yet been able to check our responsiveness to them, and so we find ourselves subject to certain feelings
and emotions which tend to destroy that astral body which is being built. First, and most potent, is anger. Anger has an
explosive effect, and no matter how much we may have progressed in our growth, the uncontrollable inner shock coming from
anger will tear that inner body to pieces so that the work has to be done all over again. Next to contend with is vanity—vanity
of some kind or another, of some accomplishment, of ourselves, our family, our nation, or what not. Vanity tends to grow and
grow, until finally we will not listen to anybody and are too vain to learn anything. So, vanity tends to disintegrate this inner
body, although it is less disruptive than anger. Envy is another hindrance. Fear is another, but fear is the least of them all
because it can be destroyed by knowledge. Fear is always the child of ignorance. We fear those things we do not know, but
when we know, we do not fear.
We are all a prey to those fears that tend to disrupt the very instrument by means of which true concentration may be attained;
but it may be attained. The peculiar power and nature of concentration is that, when complete, the attention can be placed on
any subject or object to the exclusion of every other for any given length of time; and this thinking principle— this mind of ours
which has been flitting about—can be used to shape itself to the object gazed upon, to the nature of the subject thought
about. While the mind takes the shape of the object, we get from that shape the form, the characteristics of every kind that
flow from it; and when our inquiry is complete, we are able to know everything that can be known of the subject or object.
Such a height of concentration we can easily see is not to be attained by intermittent efforts, but by efforts made from “a firm
position assumed” with the end in view. All efforts made from that basis are bound to be of avail; every effort made from the
point of view of the spiritual man counts, because it makes the body subservient to the thinking principle.
Other things come about from that true power of concentration. We begin to open up the channels that reach from our brains
to the astral body, and from the astral body to the inner man. Then, that which is temporary tends to become a part of that
which is eternal. All the planes become synthesized from above down, and all the vestures of the soul which we have evolved
from the past become in accord with each other. It is just like the tumblers in a lock: when they work together, the lock works
accurately. So we have to bring all the sheaths of the soul into exact accord, and that we can do only by taking the position of
the spiritual being and acting as such.
The height of concentration is possible to us, but not on a selfish basis. The concentration of the brain mind stands beside
true concentration as a rush light beside the sun. True concentration is, first of all, a position assumed out of regard for the
end in view of union with the Higher Self. That is the highest Yoga. Concentration upon the Self is true concentration. And
concentration must be attained before we can ever reach that stage where eternal knowledge of every kind is ours to the last
degree; before we shall once more resume and wield those powers which are the heritage of all.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
MENTAL HEALING AND HYPNOSIS
Mental healing, metaphysical healing, mind cure, spiritual healing and Christian Science all come under the same head;
there is no difference between them in the range of their action or the basis upon which they are founded. All are forms of
self- hypnotism. But hypnosis is something of itself, and in itself, which calls for extensive consideration, its basis being a sort
of artificial catalepsy. Whoever is hypnotized is thrown out of his normal modes of perception; his own external perceptions
are closed to him and he sees only from the basis which the operator presents to him. Mental healers and Christian
Scientists make use of certain ideas and abstractions in formula which take the mind off the body, though it is generally
believed that thought” is the means by which the healing is effected. Now thought differs entirely in its nature and relation
according to the knowledge of the thinker, and to use a prescribed formula, as do the adherents of these healing cults, is by
no means to employ thought. What passes for ‘thought” is the idea that diseases are caused by thinking of them, and that the
only way to over come them is by thinking of that which is not disease. Of course, this is only a formula.
Are there cures brought about by such practices? Certainly; by each and every system, no matter how much they suffer from
one another in their claims. Just so, there are cures made by every remedy” ever proposed under the sun. Testimonials are
found for every kind of remedy and to every kind of formula that was ever presented mankind. Medical practitioners bring
about their cures also, and even the ‘quack” remedies advertised in the newspapers bring floods of testimonials from people
who have been cured of disease after having been given up by physicians. Since, then, healing is brought about in many
ways, it is clear that neither the fact of healing, nor any number of testimonials, have any value as evidence that any one of
these systems of healing is a true system.
We need to inquire into these systems from the point of view of Theosophy, for let it be understood that the Theosophist does
not attack any form of belief nor any form of philosophy what ever; he merely compares them with Theosophy. If that
comparison shows a lack in their theories of explanation and a failure to give human beings a true basis to think from, by
which they shall gain a realization of their own nature and the laws ruling everything in every place, it can not be said that
Theosophy is at fault, but that the partial philosophy under consideration has failed to withstand the test.
People are attracted to these partial systems of thought by the healing of disease promised. What they need to look for is not
the cure, but the cause of disease. The fact that no one specific method is a cure-all ought to show that there are different
kinds of disease; some, the result of bad habits, lack of exercise, wrong diet, and the failure to observe the ordinary laws of
hygiene; others, nervous diseases, the effect of wrong ways of thinking, of worriments of various kinds. There are also
diseases which are mechanical and organic, where certain organs have become affected to such an extent that they can not
respond to normal action in accord with the other organs. The organs are materially formed of the matter of the three lower
kingdoms—mineral, vegetable and animal—taken from the food eaten and transmuted into the organs. Consequently, where
some kind of element is discovered to be lacking, something of a material nature may be added which, in most cases, in
itself will restore the organ to its natural condition. Diseases caused by wrong habits are, of course, cured by correcting the
habits. Where an irritation and nervous condition has been caused by too much thinking about some ailment that may exist in
the body, mental” operators have their great field of ‘success"; for when the mind is with drawn from the ailment, the body has
within itself the power to restore itself to a normal condition in many, many cases. Where the mind is self-centered and
concentrated, it does not permit the body to resume normal operation, but rather increases the disease the power of
consciousness being is placed upon that. The body has its own immunizing power, if left alone. The body is a mechanical
instrument which has been brought into being and is kept in action by the thinker who inhabits it. But those who put forward
ideas in regard to mental healing have never concerned themselves for a single moment with determining the cause of
humanity’s having such bodies, being born into such bodies at this time on the earth. They do not inquire where they
themselves have come from, whither they are going, and what the purpose of life is. All these panaceas for ills fail absolutely
to recognize the operation of law—the operation of cause and effect. They call for no understanding, nor do they present a
basis for right thinking, right conduct, and right progress. Therefore, people who take up these lines get nowhere. If
perchance, by taking their minds off the disease, the body gets better of itself, they have gained no knowledge by the
experience; they are only made better able to continue along their ignorant lines; they die when the time comes no wiser than
when they were born, believing this to be the only physical existence they will ever have.
To minds engaged with universal ideas, such as the Self of all creatures, the Divine Law of Justice, the evolution of all grades
of beings, the great cycles of men and planets and universes—ideas of healing these temporary bodies appear very, very
small. For what does healing mean? Getting rid of the effects which we ourselves have produced, consciously or
unconsciously. What does a diseased body mean but that we have ignored our own natures and acted as though we were
bodies, and broken every law of hygiene that we know of? If we lived according to the laws of hygiene as we know them,
these diseases would not be upon us. The savage does not know anything about Christian Science; the Red Indians of the
past knew nothing about mental healing of any kind, but they had remarkably healthy bodies. Was it their thought? No, for the
Red Indians did much murder. It was not their thinking that made them healthy.It was,mode of life—because they lived
naturally. It is our modes of life that make us unhealthy. It is our modes of thought that make us take up these modes of life.
We have not discerned what we are, and consequently we have acted in ignorance.
All these healing systems are presented for one purpose—to enable us to relieve ourselves of the responsibility of our own
acts. In Occultism that is a crime. We may use natural bodily methods, but we may not try to drag the Spirit itself down to
relieve us of the diseases that we have brought upon ourselves. That we can think for a moment that Spirit, the root of all
being, can be dragged down to relieve us of those troubles brought upon ourselves is a blasphemy to anyone who thinks
deeply, and a denial of the Real Self. The body is a machine, which represents the effects of causes set in motion, whether
ignorantly or consciously. We should recognize that being a machine—an instrument formed from the matter of the earth—it
can be kept in balance by restoring those elements it lacks. We should not think too much of the body, nor think of it at all,
save as an instrument—our present physical automobile, so to say—which we ought to keep in running order and use as we
would any machine. We have to run it according to the laws of its operation to make the body a perfect instrument; but we
should keep our consciousness on the plane to which it belongs— not chained to the body.
In these mental healing processes there is a great danger. The powers of Spirit are far greater than any known power we
possess—greater than dynamite, or the applications of electricity. Moving along these lines blindly as many do is liable to
bring disaster, has brought insanity time and time again. We hear the “demonstration” of cures, but we do not get the
demonstration of failures. They are many. Mental healing may throw the disease back into the place from which it came, back
into the mind, but just so surely will it come out in some other form and also with more force than before. The spiritual nature
itself will not permit us to avoid the results of causation which we ourselves have set in motion. Those abstractions which take
the mind
off the body, such as “God is all Good,” “There is no imperfection,” set certain currents in motion in what is known as the
Pranic or Astral body. These currents act and re-act and interact between the inner and outer body, and in the end are bound
to produce injury, no matter what the present benefit may appear to be. At the best, we have only delayed the day of
settlement.
The only way in which the affairs of life may be brought into their proper relation and harmony is by an understanding of our
own nature, and fulfilling it. That course would make a heaven of this civilization, compared with what it is now. It would
obviate nine-tenths, yes, one hundred percent, of those diseases which now afflict us, whether individual or general, sporadic
or epidemic. For all diseases are caused by men, individually and collectively; even the catastrophes in nature are the result
of man’s misunderstanding of his own nature, and the thinking and acting based upon it. The spiritual power that lies in man’s
thinking goes much farther than the formulation of it. Whatever of error he produces finds its return from all parts of nature—
from fire and air and earth and water—for all the elements are but the embodiments of so many degrees of intelligence, and
we affect them against the nature of the whole, which is a synchronous evolution. We hinder the lives and they resent it. Even
the forces of our bodies are composed of lives or different kinds; the very organs in our bodies are composed of different
kinds of elemental lives, all having their relations to different parts of nature.
All these healing schemes, ‘isms, and religions are attempts to dodge our responsibility. Our complaints about our
environments are attempts to dodge our responsibility. Our belief in this God or the other God, or this system of belief, this
salvation, are attempts to dodge our responsibility. We have to accept that responsibility, and stay with it, first, last and all the
time. For we are all bound up in one great tie; we can not separate ourselves from each other, nor from any other being. The
high beings above us who have passed through the stages which we are
now passing through are just as closely related to us—and more so—than we are to each other; for They desire to help us in
every way, if we would only allow Them. Savior after Savior has come to the earth for our benefit, but no one can give us any
more benefit than to point to the truths that have been given all down the ages. We must take advantage of that knowledge
and advance out of the state in which we have placed ourselves. No Savior can save us. No God can protect us. No devil can
torment us. For both the God and the devil are within. The devil is the misunderstanding of our nature. The God is that place
in ourselves that we come to know and realize and see reflected in the eyes of every living being. It is the God in us which
demands self-advancement, self-induced and self-devised exertions, and the full acceptance of responsibility.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THE OCCULT SIDE OF NATURE
The word Nature used in its widest sense, as when we speak of Great Nature, or Mother Nature, means the whole of the
outside—all that is external to us—the trees, the open places, and the world of men. We do not, in fact, know what that nature
is, because it presents to us something external to our perceptions. We speak of “the laws of nature,” seeing that nature
always acts in an orderly way, without in fact knowing at all what those laws spring from nor what they rest in. Yet nature
cannot exist of itself, by itself, and come from nothing. It must come from a sufficient cause. There must of necessity be an
occult side to nature. The “sufficient cause” in reality lies upon those planes which are invisible to us, but constitute a part of
nature. The invisible side is the producing side—the causal side— of what we see; all the laws noted on the visible side are
really existent in and proceed from the invisible side of nature.
First, then, let us try to understand what composes the basis of nature—what lies behind it all. Certainly not a Creator, by
whose whim or command all beings and things in nature exist and move about in their established places. THAT in which lie
all powers, all possibilities, all infinitude, is greater than any being,
however high. IT is an impersonal Deity. Call the divine in all of us Spirit, if you will, the Self, or God—if you do not personify
or limit or define it. This One Spirit is not divided, though it seems to be divided in all creatures, just as the Sun’s rays are
merely the Sun extended—they do not dissipate when the Sun disappears from our view but indraw to the Source from which
they came. That which lives and thinks and perceives in each of us, and that which suffers and enjoys in each of us, is Spirit.
All anyone can know of the Highest—of God—is what he knows in himself, through himself, and by himself. No out side
information can bring us that perception, but only the indrawing into the very essence of our being—the center, the same
center as the Great Center whence it sprang.
The laws which rule in us are not imposed by any Being or beings whatsoever. In the center of every being, whatever its form,
the power of action is present. Action always brings its re-action, and it is this Law—or Karma—which operates from within
alike upon every individual, incessantly and unerringly. So, too, we have collective actions and reactions of all the beings of
every grade that make up the world and its inhabitants. These collective actions make what we regard as the laws of the
various elements and kingdoms, but they are contained in and subservient to that one universal Law of Karma, which is
ethically stated as sowing and reaping.
Law rules all the time from the very first beginning in the finest radiant matter. That matter was builded by beings of all grades
of every kind—beings of a world which preceded this where they had their course of evolution and from which they were
indrawn again to the Center of the Self. Then came the dawning of another Great Day of manifestation, and all those beings
were there with all the potencies, the ideas, and all their past experience—once more to go forth and carry on the work which
they had started. It is the action and reaction by different classes of beings which causes a change and concretion in
primordial substance, and this goes on from stage to stage down through seven steps of the stairway of matter. On each
plane the beings
clothedthemselves in the substance of that plane, and we are the beings who have come down through all those stages.
There is, then, hidden within us a nature, and natures, which we have not suspected. There is something within us which is
not clear to us with our present modes of perception. Yet these invisible natures are ours; they are not apart from us; we have
not left them anywhere on the stairway of the seven worlds. This outside nature which we all perceive through the body and
with the physical senses is only the external envelope of states and stages of consciousness hidden to the generality of man
kind.
There is an occult side not only to our own nature but to the nature of all beings, as should always have been apparent to us, if
we had been observant; had we thought for ourselves; had we not taken for granted what others have handed down to us as
religion or revelation. For there are stages in our very daily lives which are hidden from us. While we are awake, we operate
through the body; then we sleep—we do not operate through the body—and that side of our nature is hidden to most people.
They may know they dream, but they think the dreaming has no relation to the lines under which they operate when awake;
they do not understand that dreaming is a transitional stage which precedes the reaching into our own spiritual nature and
also precedes the return into operation of the body again. Usually, the dreaming state is a repetition of the scenes or
experiences of daily life, but sometimes things come to us in dream that are far, far away and apart from any experience in
this body. Oftentimes, the dreams which occur upon waking bring an influx from our inmost self; they bring down with us some
of the experiences of a vast past. We have premonitions. We have presentiments. We have sometimes what are called
minor initiations” occurring in dreams. Never for a moment do we cease to be conscious, whether in the dreaming state, or in
the full consciousness of the finer sheaths of the soul beyond dreaming, or in the stage of “dreaming” after “death”; how, then,
could we ever know death?
In every direction in the air about us are lives which are invisible to us. There is no vacant space—not one vacant point of
space. All is life. All is being of some kind or another. We take in with every breath small lives invisible to us. All these lives
are classes of beings which have their own laws—laws which pertain to their own actions and reactions in kind. But to
understand our own natures, we must understand the laws which operate upon those planes of being of which we are a part
and on which none of us is separate from the others. This immense knowledge is back of us and within us and to be
regained. There is always a high and a low expression. There is a full and an incomplete expression. The fullness of our
expression is upon the highest plane; the incompleteness of our expression is on this lowest plane. We have touched the
bottom of the stairway, plus all the experience gained; but if we are to reach that state from which we have descended,
without any misstep, we have to understand the real occult laws which rule all the different stages of our being.
There are pretenders to a knowledge of these occult laws— for unfortunately no great amount of good can be given at any
time without opening the doors to an equal amount of evil. Consider, for instance, the power of dynamite: it is good for man
when properly used, but in the hands of an evil-minded one it can work great evil to humanity. Thus, a knowledge of occult
laws makes it possible for a man to do good in any direction he chooses without raising a finger—or, also, to do evil. The
means by which either the evil or the good is done is always a control of invisible beings—messengers for the man who
knows how to use them and who understands them. All he has to do is to loose that power within himself which propels those
beings to execute his mission, whatever it may be. Those powers, let it be known, lie sleeping in the sheaths of every man,
and in the human body— for this body which we now possess is formed under the same laws as those of the solar system,
and there is not an organ in it which does not correspond with some one or other of the celestial mansions, with some sheath
or plane of consciousness, and with all the powers belonging to them. We have to ask ourselves if
we are ready to accept the responsibility which a knowledge of these laws implies. Could we trust ourselves to have these
laws imparted to us—laws which are set into operation merely by our thinking and feeling?
To use these powers rightly, a universal attitude must be held, and all actions based upon that universal nature. The
philosophy of Theosophy presents that universal attitude and basis, showing that each one is the SELF; each one looks upon
all others and gathers from all others what he may of understanding and of knowledge; each one must act for that SELF and
as that SELF, which includes all other selves. So acting, all ideas of selfishness, of personality, of desire for reward, of fear of
punishment, leave us; defects are corrected, and the whole force of what we may call nature in its fullest sense comes into
play; all the great powers of nature flow into the one moving in that direction and from that basis. We shall come to
understand all laws; for, as we progress, those laws exhibit themselves spontaneously within us. We find in our possession
the power to accomplish by thought, the power to do this or that at a distance, the power to speak at a distance, to be heard
at a distance, to be seen at a distance, to know anything at a distance. There is nothing hidden for the one who works on and
with nature; with the interests of all, he has the force of all.
The powers that were used by Jesus, as recorded in the New Testament, and those of some of the older Prophets as
recorded in the Old Testament, were not “God-given” powers. They came from a knowledge of the occult laws, the hidden
laws of so-called “nature.” The miracles of Jesus—transforming water into wine, raising the dead, operating where his body
was not—were all part of his occult knowledge. Everyone who moves along that universal line learns the operation of these
laws. H. P. B. and W. Q. J. did as wonderful things, and even more wonderful things than were ever recorded of Jesus. They
knew the occult laws of nature. They knew the workings of occult law in themselves and therefore in all other natures. These
powers are latent in every human being—not peculiar to some great ones. H. P. B.
and W. Q. J. knew the story of “Give up thy life, if thou wouldst live.” If we would live the life of a spiritual being, then all these
sheaths of ours—this body and all—would be at our service. Possessing everything, we would want nothing. We should be
able to do anything, but we would use no powers for ourselves. Just as we have to live Theosophy if we are to know the
doctrine, so we have to “live the life” if we are to know its laws.
The minor laws by which phenomena are produced on this plane are a small part of occult study in its universal aspect. For in
it lie every science, all the laws and all the powers of all, all the planes of existence and all the states of consciousness that
ever have been. We are never alone. Always in some of our sheaths, bodily or bodiless, we are connected with other beings,
other stages and states of substance and other planes of consciousness. Never can we be lost in that sense. But we may
suffer, and suffer immensely, through making a mistake in regard to our own natures and acting with the power of our spiritual
nature along false lines, creating, as the ancients said, “the black doves of death and sorrow.” It is for us to arouse ourselves
to take the path pointed out, to test it for ourselves. Then, only, will each one know the truth about himself and about all other
beings; then, only, will he gain what we all seek—the power to be a beneficent force in nature.
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THE LAW OF CORRESPONDENCES
“Law of Correspondences” is a greater subject than people are liable to suspect; yet we all know something of
correspondences in the simple facts of nature—the seven colors of the spectrum, the seven notes of the scale. Each color of
each octave corresponds to the same color of another octave. We see only a certain number of rates of vibration, but above
the number perceptible to us are those too fine for us to perceive with our physical senses, and, also below, are vibrations
too coarse for our perception. ‘We stand in the middle, as it were, of a great range of perceptions, aware of only a portion of
the universe in which we live. The same is true with regard to sounds——from the note do up to Si; do corresponds to every
other do in the seven octaves which we are able to perceive physically; but these seven octaves are merely a portion of all
the great octaves of nature above us and below us. There is correspondence between the high and the low throughout all
nature, because the great Center of Life, of Consciousness, of Perception is the same in every being of what ever grade;
and because from within that Center proceeds all action. The use of the power to act which is inherent in that Center is the
cause of all manifestation.
All things which are visible come from the invisible. In the evolution of a planet there is a beginning in homogeneous, radiant
matter—such as composes the Milky Way—the basis of all subsequent forms that are brought about, or produced, by the
beings existent in that homogeneous state. Each being is a Center and each Center is the same as the One Great Center.
Proceeding from the same Source, necessarily, all beings proceed under the same laws. The same Law rules all beings.
The power to act and the subsequent reaction—the law of laws which we know as Karma—is brought into operation by all
beings to produce the manifested universe and all the differentiations in forms and substance. Thus there is a connection
between each being and every other being. There is a correspondence between each being and every other being. There is
a correspondence between the constituents of each being and the constituents of every other being.
The law which rules the atoms of our world as well as the highest spiritual beings in it—that law inherent in the Center of each
being—proceeds in a definite, orderly mode. This progress is known to be divided into seven degrees, or the septenary
nature, from the states of fine matter down to the matter that we now know in the body. All beings go through forms in the
various states, and not only do they go through them but they possess them at the present time. Man possesses every body
which ever has existed for him in any stage of matter. But our planet is one of many planets. It exists in a solar system which
is one of many solar systems. There are inhabitants of other planets— some of them below us in point of development and
others so much higher than we that if we knew the state of their progress we would esteem them divine beings. All beings of
each and every planet are of the same Center and proceed under the same universal law of manifestation. Thus, there is a
correspondence between each and every planet: we are related to Mars, to Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon by
certain correspondences in fact, there are organs in our bodies which correspond to the various planets.
At the root of all these correspondences with planets, beings and states of matter, and behind all these points of attachment
with every thing—the most minute as well as the coarsest—lies a tremendous, almost immeasurable SCIENCE related to all
portions of the universe, to every state of matter and every plane of consciousness—a science which by our self-induced and
self- devised efforts it is possible for us to attain it ourselves. For knowledge does not exist outside of us, nor does
knowledge exist without the knowers of it. Always the knowers of the greater knowledge have achieved it through observation
and experience. Those Beings who are greater than we are and who have handed down to us Theosophy—the science of
life and the art of living—in the far distant past had to go through similar experiences to those we are now encountering. So
again we see there is a correspondence in ourselves with those higher Beings, and, as well, with lower beings. We have to
manifest as various classes of beings, some on higher planes and some on lower planes. The forms of the kingdoms below
us are embodiments of minor grades of consciousness on their way up to our estate, which they will reach when we have
progressed to still higher states, under the law of evolution. For evolution of form is always brought about by the extension of
the Consciousness of the being in habiting the form, and our own purpose, as spiritual beings connected with all states of
matter, is to evolve a better and better instrument on this plane of being to correspond to, or be accessible to, those inner
states of being and higher planes of consciousness which we all in reality possess. It may seem strange to us that we
possess what we know nothing of, and that there are powers latent in us which in our present case we are unable to manifest.
But we ought to see that we have the power to learn. We have the power to learn sciences of various kinds, or languages
entirely different from those we now know. The power to learn is within us. We could not learn these things if they were new—
that is, due to some formation of nature separate from ourselves. There is a power that we may gain over all nature, and ‘use,
for in fact nothing is of use by way of knowledge that can not be practical for the true evolution of man, for the forwarding of
humanity. There is a certain knowledge in the possession of some which relates to the occult sciences, to powers which we
do not presently possess but which are latent in us—the reason for either latency or possession lying in the fact that this life is
the reaping of what has gone on be fore. As day succeeds day and life succeeds life, as planet succeeds planet and solar
system succeeds solar system, so we have come down through the immeasurable past to the present conditions—to
conditions, let it be remembered, where spirit and matter conjoin, where man may become higher than any being in our solar
system because he is conjoined with the lower kingdoms; because he may so increase his knowledge in connection with
those lower kingdoms that lie may raise them up and use the powers that exist there and are produced by beings of every
grade. Let us remember, too, that even on this physical plane there are beings other than those we ordinarily see in mineral,
vegetable, animal and human embodiments; there are invisible beings existing in what we call our air, in the ether, in
electricity, in fire—for it is life everywhere in this universe; there is not a hand’s breadth of vacant ‘ space anywhere. However
minute, visible or invisible, the forms of life may be, they are Centers of Consciousness, beginnings of perception, the
beginnings of individuality—ever increasing from form to form until the human form is reached, and then, on and on. For we
as human beings are not the product of this earth. Our bodies are; but as spiritual beings we were present before this earth
was formed. Once more we have come down through the stairway of the seven worlds from that primal state which is the very
Center of being, plus all that we had gained before in other worlds. ‘We bring with us all that we have gained in similar states
and planes of substance before, and go on with the world in each stage, just as we go on from day to day with our various
occupations. Thus we may see that there is a continuity throughout the entire course of evolution; what we have to learn is that
knowledge of it along the line of true correspondences will never be acquired by mere study, nor by information given us by
any being or beings whatever.
True knowledge has to be gained through an increasing perception of the universality of all law and the universal line of
progress for every being of whatever grade. We have to think and practise altruism before the higher and more recondite
powers of the universe can be placed in our possession for our use. The thought and the motive must be that which makes
for the good of all beings. What has been given to us in the philosophy of Theosophy is for the purpose of arousing the
attention of that Center within us which can see, which can know and which can do, when it resumes its own nature and
status. For there is a deep knowledge of all these things in the soul of every human being and the soul knows what it needs; it
can understand when the brain can not understand; it can feel when the senses are not capable of transmitting feeling. This
knowledge is open to every human being; but only when the mind that we now possess is in exact accord with the nature of
the indwelling Spirit, shall we begin to see, from within outwards, all the lines of correspondence and relation that exist
between us and all other beings. Only when we realize that we are a part of the Great Chain of being, that no one of us is
unnecessary and no one can drop out, that the development is one for all, that we are all from the same Source and going
towards the same goal; only when we shall think and act from that basis, will we move onward with the great force
proceeding from the Center in that true direction which leads to enlightenment and power. The law of correspondences
constitutes a science which is perhaps beyond the idea of any one of us. Can we realize that — all beings are forces and all
forces proceed from beings? Can we realize that there are forces or beings in nature which can be moved without the lifting
of a finger—just by the thought, just by the will of one who knows the law of correspondences? Fortunate, indeed, it is that
men as they are now constituted, with the wrong ideas that rule their actions, do not possess these powers which they could
use against their fellow men! For is it not true that if we had them we would use them to blot out of existence many human
beings who are running counter to our own ideas? And those beings are, just like ourselves, controlled by ideas foreign to the
true progress of the whole and must meet the exact results of their wrong course of thought. Even without knowing it, perhaps,
we may fight the battle of humanity merely by taking one idea of Theosophy—one universal idea— towards the freedom of
the soul, and holding to that help. But we have to go much farther than that, which is but one step on the way. We have to
realize within ourselves the kind of bodies, inner and outer, which we possess and the powers that belong to those bodies.
We must bring those higher powers into operation through this physical body. We must build a higher and greater civilization
than ever yet has existed. Whether it is accomplished in this or in ten million lives, whether we go straight to the goal or
through suffering after suffering, it must ultimately be brought about.
We are here for a great purpose. A great mission lies before every one of us, as well as a great knowledge. We are here as
knowing, self-conscious beings, buried in, and identified with this body, with this matter. Involved in the very work we had to
do on this plane of being, we have forgotten our own true natures. It behooves us to understand what our true nature is and to
think and act in accordance with it. Let us remember, too, that “the true nature” is not far away; it is right within us— within our
hearts. In the silence of our own hearts there pulsates that One Life, which beats in correspondence in the action of the lungs,
the action of the tides, the flux and reflux which is going on all the time and everywhere in nature. Can we not see that the laws
of correspondences are the same now that they were millions of years ago? Nor has humanity changed. We have changed
the conditions surrounding us, but we ourselves are experiencing the same desires, the same feelings, the same stupidities
which were ours millions of years ago. We have not advanced spiritually beyond the civilizations that are dead and gone, but
in what we call “advancement” we have made merely another closer bond to physical existence. So there is much for us to do.
We move from death to death until we realize our true natures and take the course pointed out by the Wise Men of all ages—
the course by which They gained Their wisdom. Theosophy was brought into the world to wake up the souls who are in the
least degree susceptible to an awakening, to join that body of pilgrims moving on their way with their faces turned in the
direction of the Masters of Wisdom, regardless of their present conditions, quickly or slowly clearing away their defects that
they may be the pioneers and helpers and guides of the humanities that are to follow. Moving on with courage and
confidence in the Great Beings, they gradually learn and come to a resumption of those powers which we all possess but do
not express. Nor can one express in words the power, the happiness, the freedom from fear of any kind, the realization, while
in a body, of immortality which spiritual knowledge brings. This knowledge and these powers are within the reach of all of us.
As the ancients said, “The Great Self shines in all beings, but in all it does not shine forth.” We may reach that One Self, the
One Spirit, whence come all law, all possibilities—which has the power to produce all changes, but of itself changes not at
all— ever the experiencer, the enjoyer or the sufferer of the changes. Power comes from this knowledge, which springs up
spontaneously within us because it resides in the innermost parts of our natures.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
CULTURE OF CONCENTRATION
Concentration, or the use of the attention in the direction of anything that we wish to do, consistently and persistently, has long
been recognized as the most effective means of arriving at the full expression of our powers and energies. The ancients
called the power to focus the attention upon a subject or object for as long a time as is required, to the exclusion of every
other thought and feeling, ‘one-pointedness.” Concentration is difficult to obtain among us as a people, because the key-note
of our civilization is, in fact, distraction rather than concentration. Constantly and in every direction we are having presented to
our minds objects and subjects—one thing after another to take our attention and then to pull it off from what we are putting it
on. So, our minds have acquired the tendency to jump from one thing to another; to fly to a pleasant idea or to an unpleasant
idea, to remain passive. Remaining passive is normally sleep; abnormally, its tendency is towards insanity. That we have be
come habituated to these distractions and are not able to place our minds on any given thing for any length of time may be
easily proved by anyone. If he will sit down and try to think of one single thing, one single object or subject, for only five
minutes, he will find even in a very few seconds, perhaps, that he has wandered miles away mentally from the thing he
intended to place his mind upon.
We have first to understand what man is, his real nature, what the cause of his present condition, before we can arrive at any
pure and true concentration, before we can use the higher mind and the powers that flow from it. For the powers that we use
in the body are transmitted powers, drawn, indeed, from our inner spiritual nature, but so disturbed and limited that they are
not powerful. We need to know about our minds, and we need to control our minds—that is, the lower mind, occupied with
personal and physical things, known in Theosophical phraseology, as Lower Manas. It is this “organ,” the thinking principle,
which the ancients said is the great producer of illusion—the great distracter of concentration. For there is no possibility of
obtaining real concentration until the possessor of the mind can place it where he will, when he will, and for as long a time as
he pleases.
It is written in The Voice of the Silence: ‘ Mind is the great slayer of the Real. Let the disciple slay the Slayer.” The disciple,
who is the Real Man—the spiritual man—has to act as such. He has to stop the switchings and fittings of his thinking
principle and become calm in that knowledge to which the consideration of his own true nature brings him. The object of all
advancement is the realization of the true nature of each one and an employment of the powers which belong to it. What
hinders is the thinking principle. WE are the thinkers, but we are not what we think. If we think wrongly, then all the results of
our thoughts and actions must lead to a wrong conclusion, or to a partial one, at best; but if we realize that we are the thinker,
and the creator—the evolver of all the conditions through which we have been, in which we now are, and in which we shall find
ourselves in the future—then we have reached the point of view of the Real man, and it is only to the Real man that the power
of concentration belongs.
Again, in order to obtain concentration, we need an understanding of the classification of the principles of man. We all have
the same principles, the same kinds of substances within us, the same spirit within us. We all contain every element that
exists anywhere or in any being. So, too, each one has all the powers that exist anywhere, in himself, though latent. We are all
of the same Source, all parts of one great Whole, all sparks and rays from the Infinite Spirit, or the Absolute Principle. The
second principle is Buddhi, or the acquired wisdom of past lives, as well as this one. It is the cream of all our past
experiences. The next principle is Manas, the Higher mind, the real power to think, the creator—not concerned with this
physical phase of existence, but with the spirit and the acquired wisdom. These three principles together make the Real
Man—Atma Buddhi-Manas—and these three each one of us is in his inner nature.
Our Lower Manas is the transitory aspect of the Higher mind; that is, the portion of our attention, our thoughts and feelings
addressed to life in a body. But if our thinking faculty is concerned only with the personal self—only with the body— the
powers which reside in the Triad, the Real man, and the acquired wisdom of the past, can not force themselves through that
cloud of illusion. Lower Manas is the principle of balance. It is the place from which the man in a body either goes up towards
his higher nature or down towards his earthly nature, made up of the desires pertaining to sensuous existence. Life about us
is throwing its impressions and energies upon us all the time. We are constantly subject to them and connected with them by
our ideas, our feelings and emotions, so that there is a constant turmoil going on within that inner mind which makes a barrier
to absolute calmness and concentration.
Then we have the astral body, itself an aspect of the real inner body which has lasted through the vast period of the past and
must continue through the far distant future. This astral body is the prototype, or design, around which the physical body is
built, and which, considered from the point of view of the powers, is the real physical body. Without it the physical body would
be nothing but a mass of matter—an aggregation of smaller lives. It is the astral body which contains the organs, or centers
from which the organs have been evolved in accord with the needs of the thinker within. The real senses of man are not in the
physical but in the astral body. The astral body lasts a little over one lifetime. It does not die when the physical body dies, but
is used as a body in the immediate after-death states.
Now as soon as we begin to make the effort to control the mind, and desire to know and to assume the position of the inner
man, the effort and the assumption bring an accession of power and of steadiness. We have started something going in the
astral body. What were before merely centers of force around which organs were builded now tend to become separate
astral organs. A gradual building of those organs goes on within us, until in the completion of our effort we have an astral
body, with all the organs of the physical completely synthesized, and we are beyond the vicissitudes of physical existence; we
have the power of the action of the astral body. The astral body is even more complete and effective on its own plane that our
bodily instrument here on the physical plane, for it has a wider range of action in its seven super-senses, where physically we
have use of only five senses.
Many hindrances arise, however, as soon as the effort is begun. Old habits of thought and feeling press us on every hand, be
cause we have not yet been able to check our responsiveness to them, and so we find ourselves subject to certain feelings
and emotions which tend to destroy that astral body which is being built. First, and most potent, is anger. Anger has an
explosive effect, and no matter how much we may have progressed in our growth, the uncontrollable inner shock coming from
anger will tear that inner body to pieces so that the work has to be done all over again. Next to contend with is vanity—vanity
of some kind or another, of some accomplishment, of ourselves, our family, our nation, or what not. Vanity tends to grow and
grow, until finally we will not listen to anybody and are too vain to learn anything. So, vanity tends to disintegrate this inner
body, although it is less disruptive than anger. Envy is another hindrance. Fear is another, but fear is the least of them all
because it can be destroyed by knowledge. Fear is always the child of ignorance. We fear those things we do not know, but
when we know, we do not fear.
We are all a prey to those fears that tend to disrupt the very instrument by means of which true concentration may be attained;
but it may be attained. The peculiar power and nature of concentration is that, when complete, the attention can be placed on
any subject or object to the exclusion of every other for any given length of time; and this thinking principle— this mind of ours
which has been flitting about—can be used to shape itself to the object gazed upon, to the nature of the subject thought
about. While the mind takes the shape of the object, we get from that shape the form, the characteristics of every kind that
flow from it; and when our inquiry is complete, we are able to know everything that can be known of the subject or object.
Such a height of concentration we can easily see is not to be attained by intermittent efforts, but by efforts made from “a firm
position assumed” with the end in view. All efforts made from that basis are bound to be of avail; every effort made from the
point of view of the spiritual man counts, because it makes the body subservient to the thinking principle.
Other things come about from that true power of concentration. We begin to open up the channels that reach from our brains
to the astral body, and from the astral body to the inner man. Then, that which is temporary tends to become a part of that
which is eternal. All the planes become synthesized from above down, and all the vestures of the soul which we have evolved
from the past become in accord with each other. It is just like the tumblers in a lock: when they work together, the lock works
accurately. So we have to bring all the sheaths of the soul into exact accord, and that we can do only by taking the position of
the spiritual being and acting as such.
The height of concentration is possible to us, but not on a selfish basis. The concentration of the brain mind stands beside
true concentration as a rush light beside the sun. True concentration is, first of all, a position assumed out of regard for the
end in view of union with the Higher Self. That is the highest Yoga. Concentration upon the Self is true concentration. And
concentration must be attained before we can ever reach that stage where eternal knowledge of every kind is ours to the last
degree; before we shall once more resume and wield those powers which are the heritage of all.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
MENTAL HEALING AND HYPNOSIS
Mental healing, metaphysical healing, mind cure, spiritual healing and Christian Science all come under the same head;
there is no difference between them in the range of their action or the basis upon which they are founded. All are forms of
self- hypnotism. But hypnosis is something of itself, and in itself, which calls for extensive consideration, its basis being a sort
of artificial catalepsy. Whoever is hypnotized is thrown out of his normal modes of perception; his own external perceptions
are closed to him and he sees only from the basis which the operator presents to him. Mental healers and Christian
Scientists make use of certain ideas and abstractions in formula which take the mind off the body, though it is generally
believed that thought” is the means by which the healing is effected. Now thought differs entirely in its nature and relation
according to the knowledge of the thinker, and to use a prescribed formula, as do the adherents of these healing cults, is by
no means to employ thought. What passes for ‘thought” is the idea that diseases are caused by thinking of them, and that the
only way to over come them is by thinking of that which is not disease. Of course, this is only a formula.
Are there cures brought about by such practices? Certainly; by each and every system, no matter how much they suffer from
one another in their claims. Just so, there are cures made by every remedy” ever proposed under the sun. Testimonials are
found for every kind of remedy and to every kind of formula that was ever presented mankind. Medical practitioners bring
about their cures also, and even the ‘quack” remedies advertised in the newspapers bring floods of testimonials from people
who have been cured of disease after having been given up by physicians. Since, then, healing is brought about in many
ways, it is clear that neither the fact of healing, nor any number of testimonials, have any value as evidence that any one of
these systems of healing is a true system.
We need to inquire into these systems from the point of view of Theosophy, for let it be understood that the Theosophist does
not attack any form of belief nor any form of philosophy what ever; he merely compares them with Theosophy. If that
comparison shows a lack in their theories of explanation and a failure to give human beings a true basis to think from, by
which they shall gain a realization of their own nature and the laws ruling everything in every place, it can not be said that
Theosophy is at fault, but that the partial philosophy under consideration has failed to withstand the test.
People are attracted to these partial systems of thought by the healing of disease promised. What they need to look for is not
the cure, but the cause of disease. The fact that no one specific method is a cure-all ought to show that there are different
kinds of disease; some, the result of bad habits, lack of exercise, wrong diet, and the failure to observe the ordinary laws of
hygiene; others, nervous diseases, the effect of wrong ways of thinking, of worriments of various kinds. There are also
diseases which are mechanical and organic, where certain organs have become affected to such an extent that they can not
respond to normal action in accord with the other organs. The organs are materially formed of the matter of the three lower
kingdoms—mineral, vegetable and animal—taken from the food eaten and transmuted into the organs. Consequently, where
some kind of element is discovered to be lacking, something of a material nature may be added which, in most cases, in
itself will restore the organ to its natural condition. Diseases caused by wrong habits are, of course, cured by correcting the
habits. Where an irritation and nervous condition has been caused by too much thinking about some ailment that may exist in
the body, mental” operators have their great field of ‘success"; for when the mind is with drawn from the ailment, the body has
within itself the power to restore itself to a normal condition in many, many cases. Where the mind is self-centered and
concentrated, it does not permit the body to resume normal operation, but rather increases the disease the power of
consciousness being is placed upon that. The body has its own immunizing power, if left alone. The body is a mechanical
instrument which has been brought into being and is kept in action by the thinker who inhabits it. But those who put forward
ideas in regard to mental healing have never concerned themselves for a single moment with determining the cause of
humanity’s having such bodies, being born into such bodies at this time on the earth. They do not inquire where they
themselves have come from, whither they are going, and what the purpose of life is. All these panaceas for ills fail absolutely
to recognize the operation of law—the operation of cause and effect. They call for no understanding, nor do they present a
basis for right thinking, right conduct, and right progress. Therefore, people who take up these lines get nowhere. If
perchance, by taking their minds off the disease, the body gets better of itself, they have gained no knowledge by the
experience; they are only made better able to continue along their ignorant lines; they die when the time comes no wiser than
when they were born, believing this to be the only physical existence they will ever have.
To minds engaged with universal ideas, such as the Self of all creatures, the Divine Law of Justice, the evolution of all grades
of beings, the great cycles of men and planets and universes—ideas of healing these temporary bodies appear very, very
small. For what does healing mean? Getting rid of the effects which we ourselves have produced, consciously or
unconsciously. What does a diseased body mean but that we have ignored our own natures and acted as though we were
bodies, and broken every law of hygiene that we know of? If we lived according to the laws of hygiene as we know them,
these diseases would not be upon us. The savage does not know anything about Christian Science; the Red Indians of the
past knew nothing about mental healing of any kind, but they had remarkably healthy bodies. Was it their thought? No, for the
Red Indians did much murder. It was not their thinking that made them healthy.It was,mode of life—because they lived
naturally. It is our modes of life that make us unhealthy. It is our modes of thought that make us take up these modes of life.
We have not discerned what we are, and consequently we have acted in ignorance.
All these healing systems are presented for one purpose—to enable us to relieve ourselves of the responsibility of our own
acts. In Occultism that is a crime. We may use natural bodily methods, but we may not try to drag the Spirit itself down to
relieve us of the diseases that we have brought upon ourselves. That we can think for a moment that Spirit, the root of all
being, can be dragged down to relieve us of those troubles brought upon ourselves is a blasphemy to anyone who thinks
deeply, and a denial of the Real Self. The body is a machine, which represents the effects of causes set in motion, whether
ignorantly or consciously. We should recognize that being a machine—an instrument formed from the matter of the earth—it
can be kept in balance by restoring those elements it lacks. We should not think too much of the body, nor think of it at all,
save as an instrument—our present physical automobile, so to say—which we ought to keep in running order and use as we
would any machine. We have to run it according to the laws of its operation to make the body a perfect instrument; but we
should keep our consciousness on the plane to which it belongs— not chained to the body.
In these mental healing processes there is a great danger. The powers of Spirit are far greater than any known power we
possess—greater than dynamite, or the applications of electricity. Moving along these lines blindly as many do is liable to
bring disaster, has brought insanity time and time again. We hear the “demonstration” of cures, but we do not get the
demonstration of failures. They are many. Mental healing may throw the disease back into the place from which it came, back
into the mind, but just so surely will it come out in some other form and also with more force than before. The spiritual nature
itself will not permit us to avoid the results of causation which we ourselves have set in motion. Those abstractions which take
the mind
off the body, such as “God is all Good,” “There is no imperfection,” set certain currents in motion in what is known as the
Pranic or Astral body. These currents act and re-act and interact between the inner and outer body, and in the end are bound
to produce injury, no matter what the present benefit may appear to be. At the best, we have only delayed the day of
settlement.
The only way in which the affairs of life may be brought into their proper relation and harmony is by an understanding of our
own nature, and fulfilling it. That course would make a heaven of this civilization, compared with what it is now. It would
obviate nine-tenths, yes, one hundred percent, of those diseases which now afflict us, whether individual or general, sporadic
or epidemic. For all diseases are caused by men, individually and collectively; even the catastrophes in nature are the result
of man’s misunderstanding of his own nature, and the thinking and acting based upon it. The spiritual power that lies in man’s
thinking goes much farther than the formulation of it. Whatever of error he produces finds its return from all parts of nature—
from fire and air and earth and water—for all the elements are but the embodiments of so many degrees of intelligence, and
we affect them against the nature of the whole, which is a synchronous evolution. We hinder the lives and they resent it. Even
the forces of our bodies are composed of lives or different kinds; the very organs in our bodies are composed of different
kinds of elemental lives, all having their relations to different parts of nature.
All these healing schemes, ‘isms, and religions are attempts to dodge our responsibility. Our complaints about our
environments are attempts to dodge our responsibility. Our belief in this God or the other God, or this system of belief, this
salvation, are attempts to dodge our responsibility. We have to accept that responsibility, and stay with it, first, last and all the
time. For we are all bound up in one great tie; we can not separate ourselves from each other, nor from any other being. The
high beings above us who have passed through the stages which we are
now passing through are just as closely related to us—and more so—than we are to each other; for They desire to help us in
every way, if we would only allow Them. Savior after Savior has come to the earth for our benefit, but no one can give us any
more benefit than to point to the truths that have been given all down the ages. We must take advantage of that knowledge
and advance out of the state in which we have placed ourselves. No Savior can save us. No God can protect us. No devil can
torment us. For both the God and the devil are within. The devil is the misunderstanding of our nature. The God is that place
in ourselves that we come to know and realize and see reflected in the eyes of every living being. It is the God in us which
demands self-advancement, self-induced and self-devised exertions, and the full acceptance of responsibility.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THE OCCULT SIDE OF NATURE
The word Nature used in its widest sense, as when we speak of Great Nature, or Mother Nature, means the whole of the
outside—all that is external to us—the trees, the open places, and the world of men. We do not, in fact, know what that nature
is, because it presents to us something external to our perceptions. We speak of “the laws of nature,” seeing that nature
always acts in an orderly way, without in fact knowing at all what those laws spring from nor what they rest in. Yet nature
cannot exist of itself, by itself, and come from nothing. It must come from a sufficient cause. There must of necessity be an
occult side to nature. The “sufficient cause” in reality lies upon those planes which are invisible to us, but constitute a part of
nature. The invisible side is the producing side—the causal side— of what we see; all the laws noted on the visible side are
really existent in and proceed from the invisible side of nature.
First, then, let us try to understand what composes the basis of nature—what lies behind it all. Certainly not a Creator, by
whose whim or command all beings and things in nature exist and move about in their established places. THAT in which lie
all powers, all possibilities, all infinitude, is greater than any being,
however high. IT is an impersonal Deity. Call the divine in all of us Spirit, if you will, the Self, or God—if you do not personify
or limit or define it. This One Spirit is not divided, though it seems to be divided in all creatures, just as the Sun’s rays are
merely the Sun extended—they do not dissipate when the Sun disappears from our view but indraw to the Source from which
they came. That which lives and thinks and perceives in each of us, and that which suffers and enjoys in each of us, is Spirit.
All anyone can know of the Highest—of God—is what he knows in himself, through himself, and by himself. No out side
information can bring us that perception, but only the indrawing into the very essence of our being—the center, the same
center as the Great Center whence it sprang.
The laws which rule in us are not imposed by any Being or beings whatsoever. In the center of every being, whatever its form,
the power of action is present. Action always brings its re-action, and it is this Law—or Karma—which operates from within
alike upon every individual, incessantly and unerringly. So, too, we have collective actions and reactions of all the beings of
every grade that make up the world and its inhabitants. These collective actions make what we regard as the laws of the
various elements and kingdoms, but they are contained in and subservient to that one universal Law of Karma, which is
ethically stated as sowing and reaping.
Law rules all the time from the very first beginning in the finest radiant matter. That matter was builded by beings of all grades
of every kind—beings of a world which preceded this where they had their course of evolution and from which they were
indrawn again to the Center of the Self. Then came the dawning of another Great Day of manifestation, and all those beings
were there with all the potencies, the ideas, and all their past experience—once more to go forth and carry on the work which
they had started. It is the action and reaction by different classes of beings which causes a change and concretion in
primordial substance, and this goes on from stage to stage down through seven steps of the stairway of matter. On each
plane the beings
clothedthemselves in the substance of that plane, and we are the beings who have come down through all those stages.
There is, then, hidden within us a nature, and natures, which we have not suspected. There is something within us which is
not clear to us with our present modes of perception. Yet these invisible natures are ours; they are not apart from us; we have
not left them anywhere on the stairway of the seven worlds. This outside nature which we all perceive through the body and
with the physical senses is only the external envelope of states and stages of consciousness hidden to the generality of man
kind.
There is an occult side not only to our own nature but to the nature of all beings, as should always have been apparent to us, if
we had been observant; had we thought for ourselves; had we not taken for granted what others have handed down to us as
religion or revelation. For there are stages in our very daily lives which are hidden from us. While we are awake, we operate
through the body; then we sleep—we do not operate through the body—and that side of our nature is hidden to most people.
They may know they dream, but they think the dreaming has no relation to the lines under which they operate when awake;
they do not understand that dreaming is a transitional stage which precedes the reaching into our own spiritual nature and
also precedes the return into operation of the body again. Usually, the dreaming state is a repetition of the scenes or
experiences of daily life, but sometimes things come to us in dream that are far, far away and apart from any experience in
this body. Oftentimes, the dreams which occur upon waking bring an influx from our inmost self; they bring down with us some
of the experiences of a vast past. We have premonitions. We have presentiments. We have sometimes what are called
minor initiations” occurring in dreams. Never for a moment do we cease to be conscious, whether in the dreaming state, or in
the full consciousness of the finer sheaths of the soul beyond dreaming, or in the stage of “dreaming” after “death”; how, then,
could we ever know death?
In every direction in the air about us are lives which are invisible to us. There is no vacant space—not one vacant point of
space. All is life. All is being of some kind or another. We take in with every breath small lives invisible to us. All these lives
are classes of beings which have their own laws—laws which pertain to their own actions and reactions in kind. But to
understand our own natures, we must understand the laws which operate upon those planes of being of which we are a part
and on which none of us is separate from the others. This immense knowledge is back of us and within us and to be
regained. There is always a high and a low expression. There is a full and an incomplete expression. The fullness of our
expression is upon the highest plane; the incompleteness of our expression is on this lowest plane. We have touched the
bottom of the stairway, plus all the experience gained; but if we are to reach that state from which we have descended,
without any misstep, we have to understand the real occult laws which rule all the different stages of our being.
There are pretenders to a knowledge of these occult laws— for unfortunately no great amount of good can be given at any
time without opening the doors to an equal amount of evil. Consider, for instance, the power of dynamite: it is good for man
when properly used, but in the hands of an evil-minded one it can work great evil to humanity. Thus, a knowledge of occult
laws makes it possible for a man to do good in any direction he chooses without raising a finger—or, also, to do evil. The
means by which either the evil or the good is done is always a control of invisible beings—messengers for the man who
knows how to use them and who understands them. All he has to do is to loose that power within himself which propels those
beings to execute his mission, whatever it may be. Those powers, let it be known, lie sleeping in the sheaths of every man,
and in the human body— for this body which we now possess is formed under the same laws as those of the solar system,
and there is not an organ in it which does not correspond with some one or other of the celestial mansions, with some sheath
or plane of consciousness, and with all the powers belonging to them. We have to ask ourselves if
we are ready to accept the responsibility which a knowledge of these laws implies. Could we trust ourselves to have these
laws imparted to us—laws which are set into operation merely by our thinking and feeling?
To use these powers rightly, a universal attitude must be held, and all actions based upon that universal nature. The
philosophy of Theosophy presents that universal attitude and basis, showing that each one is the SELF; each one looks upon
all others and gathers from all others what he may of understanding and of knowledge; each one must act for that SELF and
as that SELF, which includes all other selves. So acting, all ideas of selfishness, of personality, of desire for reward, of fear of
punishment, leave us; defects are corrected, and the whole force of what we may call nature in its fullest sense comes into
play; all the great powers of nature flow into the one moving in that direction and from that basis. We shall come to
understand all laws; for, as we progress, those laws exhibit themselves spontaneously within us. We find in our possession
the power to accomplish by thought, the power to do this or that at a distance, the power to speak at a distance, to be heard
at a distance, to be seen at a distance, to know anything at a distance. There is nothing hidden for the one who works on and
with nature; with the interests of all, he has the force of all.
The powers that were used by Jesus, as recorded in the New Testament, and those of some of the older Prophets as
recorded in the Old Testament, were not “God-given” powers. They came from a knowledge of the occult laws, the hidden
laws of so-called “nature.” The miracles of Jesus—transforming water into wine, raising the dead, operating where his body
was not—were all part of his occult knowledge. Everyone who moves along that universal line learns the operation of these
laws. H. P. B. and W. Q. J. did as wonderful things, and even more wonderful things than were ever recorded of Jesus. They
knew the occult laws of nature. They knew the workings of occult law in themselves and therefore in all other natures. These
powers are latent in every human being—not peculiar to some great ones. H. P. B.
and W. Q. J. knew the story of “Give up thy life, if thou wouldst live.” If we would live the life of a spiritual being, then all these
sheaths of ours—this body and all—would be at our service. Possessing everything, we would want nothing. We should be
able to do anything, but we would use no powers for ourselves. Just as we have to live Theosophy if we are to know the
doctrine, so we have to “live the life” if we are to know its laws.
The minor laws by which phenomena are produced on this plane are a small part of occult study in its universal aspect. For in
it lie every science, all the laws and all the powers of all, all the planes of existence and all the states of consciousness that
ever have been. We are never alone. Always in some of our sheaths, bodily or bodiless, we are connected with other beings,
other stages and states of substance and other planes of consciousness. Never can we be lost in that sense. But we may
suffer, and suffer immensely, through making a mistake in regard to our own natures and acting with the power of our spiritual
nature along false lines, creating, as the ancients said, “the black doves of death and sorrow.” It is for us to arouse ourselves
to take the path pointed out, to test it for ourselves. Then, only, will each one know the truth about himself and about all other
beings; then, only, will he gain what we all seek—the power to be a beneficent force in nature.
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