POKROV IS A SPIRITUAL ASSOCIATION OF ESOTERIC.
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The Friendly Philosopher-Eternal Verities
The friendly philosopher
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
A LEAGUE OF HUMANITY
Now that the most frightful and destructive war known to the annals of history is over, the questions that arise in every thinker’
s mind are: What has been learned from the war? Has there been any lesson learned? Do we think for a single moment that
the end of the war has brought an end to our troubles? Do we not see the clouds gathering in the skies of humanity?
Revelations of every kind are spread before us as panaceas. On the part of some there is evidence of a desire to bring
people to “a moral sense”—a sense which they think resides in the Christian religion. So, they are trying to effect an
amalgamation of the churches, imagining that to be the remedy for preventing wars and causing men to act more humanely
towards each other. But the moral sense existed in times before the Christian religion was ever thought of, in other religions;
in fact, the basis of all religions is morality. How comes it, if Christianity is to be the remedy, that after its being the basis of
thought and action for nearly two thousand years, such a struggle has gone on among Christian nations? Does Christianity
give any promise whatever of what ought to be? Would there be any benefit whatever in returning to Christianity, the whole
history of which has been one of intolerance and persecution? If the Christian church had the power today, would it be any
less dogmatic or intolerant than it was in the days of the Spanish Inquisition?
There is no hope in the direction of the church, because, in the first place, the people will have none of it. It has not satisfied
their minds; it has not answered their questions. Instead of the knowledge they asked for, it has: given them only hope or
fear. The church has lost its hold upon the people—for the great majority are not adherents of any Christian church—be
cause of its poverty of idea, because of its dogmas and creeds. People have tried out the ideas and found them wanting.
Nothing else will do but that which appeals to their sense of judgment and to their spiritual perception.
Others have placed their faith in a league of nations. Yet, they begin to see that though the ideal is beautiful, it does not prove
out in practice. The members of the league have each desired to take all they could, and give as little as they could. The
same spirit exists between nations now, after the settlement of peace, as existed during the conflict; the same nations are
just as grasping and just as selfish as they were before the war. In this country, too, our public men still voice the particular
interests of this particular nation as against all others. A league of nations could only fulfill its purpose by a common aim and
by a like ideal. Such do not obtain. The nations are not alike. None of them have high ideals—not even our own nation, which
should have the greatest ideal of humanity and of nature. In stead, our ideal is one common idea—of trading, of gaining
dollars or possessions, of getting advantage and prestige over other nations. Such an ideal will never give us peace, will
never bring happiness, content, nor right progress, and there will always be struggle until we change that ideal. A league of
nations among similar selfish nations can only bring what self-interest always brings—disasters of some kind. The seeds of
war are in it.
Where shall we find the true foundation for a changed civilization that all men and women can see and stand on? It is not
philosophies nor religions nor political panaceas that are needed; but Knowledge, and a wider scope of vision than the
vicissitudes of one short physical life. The knowledge that is greater than all the forms of religion ever invented is the
knowledge of the very nature of man himself, for himself and in him self. For we are not here as things apart; we are here
because of one great sustaining Cause—infinite and omnipresent, not separate from us, nor from any other being. It is the
same in all beings above the human and in all beings below the human—the very root of our natures, the very man himself. It
is the Source of all powers and of all actions, whether good or evil. Then, everything that is done by beings affects all beings,
and all that is has been caused by beings, each one affected according to its share in the cause. What the past has been,
we are experiencing now—our lives now being but repetitions of lives that preceded them. What the future will be, we are
making now—the lives to come depending entirely on the choice and direction of our thoughts and actions now.
The war of this or any time is the result of the warring spirit, of the selfishness of mankind. It is the result of the failure to
understand the great purpose of life, the nature of our minds, the full power of attainment within each being, the one Law of
absolute justice inherent in all beings, the One Deity behind and in all, the one Goal for every Pilgrim, however the path
varies. As soon as men are brought to the perception that every one reaps exactly what he sows, no one will do harm to any
other being;
there will then be no war. There will be no such misery as now exists; for to realize our own responsibility to all others and to
act in accordance, is to have become unselfish, and to have done away with the prime cause of sin, sorrow and suffering.
Back of the failure to understand our own true natures lie false ideas, false conceptions of life, false ideals—the heritage of
our Christian civilization. We have believed that we were born in this condition or environment by the “will” of some God. We
have imagined a personal God, a personal devil, and a personal Savior. We have imagined an impossible heaven and an
equally impossible hell. We have imagined a “creation,” instead of evolution. We have believed that we are poor, weak,
miserable sinners, and have acted out the part. We have laid all our troubles and evils and pain upon some other imaginary
Being. Thus, we have remained irresponsible creatures, mere rationalized animals; not immortal souls. We have dodged our
responsibility. But we must guide ourselves according to the realities of our own nature. We must take care of each other, not
of ourselves according to the personal basis on which this and every other nation in the world is proceeding today.
We are going to have a league of humanity only when the ancient truths of the Wisdom Religion are once more perceived—
when there is one purpose and one teaching. Its truths are self- evident, not to be accepted because written in some book,
nor because they are the dicta of some particular church. They are the only truths worth considering because in the use of
them they prove themselves true. And truth, as we ought to know, always explains. When we have the explanation, we have
the truth. Each has to make his own verification of the truth, but the fact remains that there is truth, and it has always existed. It
has come to us from Beings higher than we, because once They turned Their faces in the right direction and pursued the
course pointed out to Them as leading to spiritual, divine perfection. They know all that has been known. They know us,
although we may not know Them. They know our needs, although we may be densely ignorant of them. They come again and
again to present
the truths of life to man, hoping that some echo may be aroused in his soul so that he, too, shall arrive at a realization of Self,
of Spirit—which is Knowledge.
Those who can see the course of humanity see nothing but much trouble yet for the world in general. Nothing but severe, dire
disaster will make men stop and think. The war has not ceased! The war is going on between us all the time. Consider our
selfish pursuits, our condemnations, our judgments, our criticisms, our foolish laws, which seek to make men “good” by
legislation with no attempt to arouse the real nature of man, but only to repress what is considered “bad.” Prohibitions of all
kinds serve only to exasperate the evil nature in men. We need not to prohibit. We need to educate, and first of all, we need
to educate ourselves. Let us take the beam out of our own eyes before we try to remove the mote from the eyes of others.
Let us retreat into the shrine of our own being. Let us be that Self, and act for and as that Self. Let us follow the lines of the
law of our own being—compassion, love, helpfulness for all—and then we shall be able to understand ourselves and the
natures of all others. Then we shall be able to help men in a way they are sometimes not aware of; we shall be able to help
leaven the whole lump.
It is because there are those in the world desirous of helping humanity to proceed further, that we are not worse off. Often the
ideas given out by men in high places are not the result of their own cogitations, although thought to be such. Many an idea is
received by those who have the ear of the public, who speak and will be heard, from Those with a far deeper knowledge of
the issues at stake, yet whose voices would not be heard at all. So, though there may seem to be little action on the part of
Theosophical disciples, there is much action on inner planes of being, and that action never but for the benefit of humanity. If
only once any considerable number of persons could take the true position and act from the true nature, right ideas would
soon spread all over the earth. Once the ideas are implanted in our minds, we can help the world by speaking of them, and by
exemplifying them. We can do that much, however selfishly the world moves on.
A true league of humanity could be formed—without social distinctions, class distinctions, national distinctions. In their stead
would come a common perception and a common realization of the universe and a common course for humanity. We must
know that we are all of other peoples. We came through all the civilizations that have been. We have passed through the
Eastern, the near East, and the European peoples and now we are here, at the farthest confines of the West, under the law
of Karma. Civilization must roll back over the course it came, and as it goes back in spirit, speech, act, and example towards
the East from which it came, the misconceptions that have arisen around religious and other ideas will be cleared away by
the power of our knowledge and example.
We are here as the best representatives of the people of the world—the most intelligent, the freest in mind and opinion, the
freest in action. All that means something under Law, and it means that every being coming in contact with the Ancient
Wisdom has an opportunity devolved upon him. We have not met for the first time, nor have we met for the last. Once more
we are together, and listening to what we do absolutely know inside. There is that in us which sees and knows when the word
is spoken which gives first indication of the life within a life, of a life greater than this we have conceived life to be. Then we
begin to tread that small old path that stretches far away—the Path that our great Predecessors, the Masters, have trod
before us.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
All have doubtless made New Year’s resolutions, and all, no doubt, have failed to keep them. There must be a reason for our
failures, as well as for the fact that there comes a certain season in the year when we have the inclination to make
resolutions. These reasons lie hidden in the depths of our own being. Unconsciously to ourselves,, it may be, we have a
natural perception of occult law in our observance of this particular period of the year. The ancients celebrated and
understood what was called by them “the birth of the Sun,” or the return of the Sun on its northern course, beginning the 21st
of December. They knew that all the occult forces in nature have an upward and increasing tendency at the return of the Sun.
When the Sun’s rays become warmer and stronger, all the other forces behind the Sun itself, and behind ourselves, become
stronger within us. In the rising wave of spiritual and psychic renewal, all that we desire to do has a greater impulsion than at
some other time of the year.
The reason for our failures is that we do not understand our own natures. Consequently, we are not able to use the force and
influence that lie within us, so far as we are physically concerned, and we have difficulty in endeavoring to carry out
resolutions of any kind. Our first mistake is to make negative resolutions. We say, I will not drink; I will not lie; I will not do this;
I will not do that. Whereas the proper resolve to make is that—I will do this, the opposite of what we are now doing. In this
case, we make a direct affirmation of will, while the other form of resolution puts us in a purely negative position. Perhaps we
have thought with regard to others or ourselves, that because we do not do a number of questionable things, therefore we
are “good.” On the contrary, we are merely not bad—again a negative position. True goodness is a positive position.
To effect our resolutions we have to call on the will of man, for that will is not restrained by any form of obstacle what ever. By
will, however, is not meant what is ordinarily called will. We are prone to think that a person who is very determined on
gaining his ends has “a strong will,” and is very positive in his character; but such a person exhibits only a kind of will. He has
very, very strong desires, rather than Will itself, and will follow them out.
There are many exhibitions of the will itself, some phases being quite unrecognized. The very will to live is a recondite aspect
of Will. If the will to live were not present, we would not live. It is not the body which holds us here but the desire to live. Always
behind Will stands Desire. Again, everyone of man’s bodily organs and processes was at one time evolved by conscious
effort. Even the process of digestion, of assimilation, the heart beat, the various qualities and functions of all the organs were
consciously evolved. Now we have bodies which will proceed automatically, while we use our consciousness, perceptions
and attention in other directions. Our will, then, operates in reality in every part of our physical life though we may not be able
to perceive it and understand it. There is also a mental phase of the will which can be cultivated by practice: the fixed
attention, or concentration in certain directions capable of effecting desired results.
But the real and true Will is known as the Spiritual Will, which flies like light and cuts all obstacles like a sharp sword. It is that
Will proceeding from the highest spiritual part of our natures which causes man to be an evolution from within out wards,
through all the forms of substance that have been, and to continue evolving instruments in this state of matter. All the powers
that exist or can exist are latent, however ill expressed, in the spiritual nature. We draw from it in degree, but in small degree
because most of us, having our ideas so fixed on physical existence, have come to the conclusion that life means nothing
more than physical existence.
We were once conscious of our spiritual nature, but as we came down through the planes of matter to this plane, we made a
growth in intellectuality at the expense of spiritual perception. With our intellect we always reason from premises to
conclusions, whereas the spiritual nature has the power of direct cognition of the nature of anything regarded. So our
intellectual gain was at the loss of spiritual insight, and it is useless for theology, science, and psychology to proceed from
the personal and physical perceptions in order to get an understanding of what man really is: their psychological causes are
but reflections of the physical ideas. If we are going to realize our own natures, we must begin at the highest point of our
nature—by assuming that.
It is, and by holding to the power of that assumption. We begin to see light by the very affirmation of the spiritual nature.
As we stand, we are always using our will along the line of our desires and of our likes and dislikes, imagining these to be a
proper basis for thought and action. What is most necessary for us is a proper basis for thinking. We need to eject the false
idea of our being weak, sinful creatures, with all the faults of our parents and their parents before them, because we were
born that way. We need to eject the mental idol of an outside creator. We need to understand the purpose of life, to see that
we are the product of many of our own prior lives, and to recognize an evolution under law—a law both true and merciful—
which operates everywhere. It is because that law operates in a round of impression that we have the tendency each year to
make New Year’s resolutions. We could by an understanding and using of this law of recurrence bring into effect those
resolutions.
Often, however, resolutions are made because it is ‘proper” to make them—with no real expectation of keeping them. We
remember them for a few days—they choke us off for a little while—and then gradually the old desires assert themselves and
we find ourselves traveling along the old way. Resolutions will never do us any good if we do not sustain them. A desire is not
a condition. The mere desire will never get us anywhere. We have to maintain the desire; we have to stick. to the resolution;
we have to exert our will, and cleave to the object of that will throughout. We can’t get rid of the evil in us by thinking of it, nor
can we get rid of any unpleasant thing by thinking about it; for it is truly said that we are attached to anything by thinking about
it. The harder we don’t think about the evil things in us, the better; think about their opposites, and the evil will not have the
chance to return. Attachment is by thought, first of all. Desire exists in thought, first of all. Then follows the action. We have to
have a firm basis for our thinking if we are ever going to express ourselves as we should, as spiritual beings. Why do we all
have our pet theories of life, our pet religions or philosophies? Because they conform to our own desires; not because they
conform to truth or that they provide an explanation of all the mysteries we see about us. This is why after so many thousands
of years of what we call civilization, we have become none the wiser, still moving in the same old tread-mill of life and death
and sorrow and suffering and pain. Yet we are not bound to it, save as we bind ourselves by our own thoughts and action.
We are not under the necessity of following along on those planes of error as we are now doing.
There is a chance for us if we understand our own natures. Then, let us resolve one great thing: resolve to know; resolve to
think right, and do right; resolve to acquire some of the knowledge that always has existed—the knowledge of man as a
spiritual being through all his fluctuations in the realm of matter. As we rely more and more upon the Self within, we begin to
express and use the power which we already have—and that is far more than we imagine. We have to help ourselves by
taking the suggestions already given in the teachings of Theosophy—which are Masters’ suggestions. And then, as the
sustaining power of the will is held along the line in which we desire to do, more direct help comes from those Elder
Brothers, who at every hour of each day “are willing and anxious to meet those clear-eyed enough to see their true destiny
and noble-hearted enough to work for ‘the great orphan, Humanity’.”
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
OCCULT KNOWLEDGE
Occult Knowledge means knowledge which is “hidden,” but it also means knowledge which is known. If it is knowledge that is
known, there must be Those who know it; there could be no knowledge without the knowers of it. True occult knowledge can
be obtained only by those who follow the path to it. That path was set down by Those Who Know; all who will may and can
arrive at that knowledge. This is not a path open only to certain persons; it is open to every living human being, and limited
only by the limitations we ourselves place around it through choice or through ignorance.
Much is heard in the world today of what passes for “occult knowledge.” Much experiment goes on under that name in
various directions: we have societies for psychical and psychological research, and there is much talk of psychic and astral
“experiences” and “communications” with the dead. All these various methods of research are from below, upwards, and will
never find the goal. Scientific methods, psychological methods, the methods of the Spiritualists, alike proceed from
particulars to universals. Particulars are infinite, and those who follow that path will inevitably get lost in its infinite
ramifications, with no real knowledge gained. The goal is to be found from above, below—from universals to particulars, and
not the reverse.
The Path of real occult knowledge begins where all begin. It is the Path of all beings, and we need to see the reason why it is
an open path for all. We find ourselves in the midst of a vast evolution, with beings of many grades still below us—lower in
point of consciousness and intelligence than ourselves—as also we ought to see there must be beings above us far greater
than we are. All these beings have sprung from a common Source; all differ seemingly, yet there exists, supreme in all, the
same power to perceive, to know, to learn.
We have to understand the reason for the differences in beings and for our own limitations. Let us, then, seek out the
beginnings of things—for everything that exists had a beginning, and, of course, everything that had a beginning will have an
ending. If our beginning was with this life only, the end of this life would be our complete extinction; then we would have no
concern with anything else. But there is knowledge that extends prior to this birth and beyond this life, and in that hidden
knowledge we may get the clue to an understanding of not only our own natures, but the nature of all beings everywhere.
Our first firm basis is in the perception that all knowledge must lie in and be sustained by the common Source of which we
are a part and an expression. That common Basis could not be any supreme Being, for “Being” means finiteness and
limitation, and outside of it must still be that which is not contained.
We have to go far back of all beings and creations and creatures to that Cause which lies behind all life, all consciousness,
all spirit, all being. That is not different in any being. IT is the same in all, so must be the essential Divinity in all beings of
every grade. There is one Absolute Principle which is the origin, the sustainer, the container, of all that ever was, is, or shall
be. We call it a PRINCIPLE, because to name IT is to define IT, to limit IT, to belittle IT. To endeavor to give IT attributes of
any kind is a limitation, and we must go back of all limitations if we are to understand the Omnipresent and Immortal in us
and in all things.
Our search for knowledge is almost universally a looking for something outside. We are looking for information, for
instruction, in the thoughts of other men, in the ideas of other peoples, which, in this school of Occult Knowledge, is not
knowledge at all. The only knowledge we can have is that which we gain for ourselves, and within ourselves, as actual
experience. External facts and information can never give us any understanding whatever of the higher, more divine parts of
our nature.
There is no understanding, no explanation, of the mysteries of our own existence, on the basis of a single life. We have to go
beyond that, back of that, to realize what evolution means. Evolution means an unfolding from within outwards. That is the
way all beings grow—physically, intellectually, spiritually. The beings below us are unfolding; they are embryonic souls not yet
arrived at the human stage of self-consciousness and self-realization, but they are on their way to where we already are. The
same thing is true of all the beings above us. They have already passed through stages similar to ours. The inner part— the
Enduring in every being—is illimitable, infinite, in its power of unfolding and expression, because it is the Immortal.
But, one may say, there was a beginning to this life. So, too, there was a beginning to this day, to this experience, to this
collection of experiences, to this body. Yes; but in each and every case this beginning and those beginnings were the
repetitions of other beginnings and endings—of what? Of experiences, of instruments, of perceptions; not of the Perceiver,
the real being.
This brings us to the perception of Law; the Law of Periodicity, of Cycles, which is illustrated in every department of nature.
Our being here under evolution ought to show any intelligent person that no one has reached his present stage save through
previous stages. That which pushes “us” on, that which is the basis of all the powers we show or express, is the Spirit in us,
our real Self. The Spirit of man has all the powers that any Spirit has. That Spirit is universal, not limited to any one being or
class of beings. In man it is individualized and is the true Ego in each of us. As such Ego we have the direction of that inflow
of universal force which we call the Spirit, and we direct that power in various ways, some of which we call good, and others
we recognize as evil; for it must be understood that neither good nor evil exist of themselves, but only as the results of action.
We have imagined that good and evil have come to us from others, but as directors of the forces of Spirit, as Egos, we can
see there is nothing brought to us nor upon us except as we cause that operation ourselves. ‘We have often heard it said,
“Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap,” and we have perhaps believed it. But have we ever applied it in another
way, that whatever we are reaping we must have sown?
The Law of Periodicity, of Cycles, being universal, must apply in every particular to every particular being. That is justice. If
Law is not universal then this is not a universe of law, but of chance. If it is a universe of law, then our very conditions, our
possessions, our intelligence, our beliefs, everything that comes to us, comes as the result of our thought and action. As we
are reaping at any time, so we must have sown at some time. As we are sowing at any time, so we must reap at some time.
Our birth, our circumstances, are reapings. Our attitude towards them, our use of them, are sowings. We are born into any
body, any conditions, as the result of our past sowing—our past lives. This is justice, and it alone explains the differences
between people.
We are responsible beings, and the feeling of responsibility is the first step towards selflessness. The thought that Law is
imposed upon us by any being or beings, is destroyed by the recognition that Law is inherent in ourselves: as each one
acts—that is, affects others—so is the re-action upon himself.
The differences between people, and the contradictions in ourselves, are in the fundamental ideas held; for as a man thinks,
so he acts. If he thinks this is the first time he has been on earth, that it is the only time; if he believes that some being brought
him here, governs him while here, is going to take care of him when he dies—if he has those ideas, he will act in accordance
with them, and will receive the inevitable reaction.
But if we see that the Spirit is behind everything, that all Law is the action of Spirit, that we are Spirit, we shall have a true
perception of our own natures. We will begin to think in ages, instead of the days of one short life; the basis of our actions will
be those Eternal verities that have been proven again and again by Supermen—those Beings above us who once passed
through our stage, and who are now the Knowers of the Eternal. They hold this knowledge, and that which has been given out
by Them as Theosophy is a statement of a portion of Their knowledge. It is as much as we can assimilate, or understand, or
use.
So, being Spirit, and acting under the Law of our own Being, we grow to realize what the whole Universe means: that the
Universe exists for no other purpose than the evolution of Soul—the embryonic souls below us, the partially developed souls
here among us, and the perfectly developed souls above us—all climbing the great stair of development, of Self-evolution.
No one can force us up the stair. We may go on and on, remaining on the same level for myriads of lives; we may go lower;
but if we are ever to make the ascent from Man to Superman, from Soul to Great Soul, we ourselves must fulfill the conditions
that will enable us to do so.
Along these lines lies Occult Knowledge. There is such a knowledge, and it is far beyond what we call reason; for reason is
merely working from premises to conclusions, whereas real knowledge is direct cognition. We do not reason about the
things we know. We do not have to reason about all the knowledge we have attained in the past; when we are on the plane of
Knowledge, we know without any reasoning whatever. This goes far deeper than most people imagine. It is possible for the
human being to reach that stage where by looking at anything he can tell the whole nature of it—from its origin, all the
processes through which it has passed, all the incidental relations it may have had. This is direct cognition—Occult
Knowledge. It is to be gained by the recognition and conscious use of the powers of the Inner Self. It cannot be gained by
reasoning, nor by the inferences reached from looking at things from outside and judging from what we are able to perceive;
it is gained by what we call the Intuition—the acquired knowledge of all the past. Occult Knowledge enables one absolutely to
determine what is the nature and essence of anything regarded.
True and full Intuition can come to us as a steady light only through our doing away with the false ideas that we now hold and
employ. What is required is a correction of our basis of thinking. Theosophy gives us the true basis for right thinking, and so
for right action. The consistent and persistent effort to think and act from the right basis draws out a certain power in
ourselves, and that power manifests, first of all, as the power of concentration—the ability to hold our mind upon a single
subject or object to the exclusion absolute of every other thing.
How many of us have that power? I venture to say, not one. We have no stability of mind, and we must get that. But the power
of concentration cannot be used if we imagine ourselves to be changeable, perishable beings. We think that in order to
“develop,” we must change. It is not true. We need to change our fundamental ideas, our minds, our modes of thought, our
instruments. That is where the development comes. If we are ever going to learn to concentrate, we must concentrate from
the basis of the steady point in us, the Perceiver, the Spirit, our real unchanging Immortal Self. We cannot come to or
connect with that Power in ourselves unless we realize that all life is One, that all beings like ourselves are moving on the
same path. In that way we realize Universal Brotherhood in a spiritual sense: Altruism should actuate us in every thought,
word and deed.
If we consider these things we shall see how far away we may be from making a beginning in the direction of Occult
Knowledge. A beginning has to be made, and the sooner we start the better. It calls for the arousal of the Spiritual Will. Will is
not a thing in itself, a power in itself. The will is consciousness in action, as distinguished from consciousness inactive. As
soon as we think or desire in any direction the ‘will” works. That will is weak or strong according to our idea of ourselves, our
thoughts, our desires, our aspirations, our considerations of our weaknesses, our limitations. If we realize that we are
Spiritual beings and think and act in the right direction, at once the Spiritual Will begins to work, the power of Concentration
is strengthened, the feeling of responsibility grows, the whole nature begins to change, to be transformed—the Great
Transition is going on.
These are the Eternal Verities that we ought to grasp. We ought to grasp them first and apply them in ourselves and to
ourselves, and then we will find that these ideas are true, because their truth is realized—has become as evident to us as the
sun in heaven.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THE POWER OF SUGGESTION
The power of suggestion means many different things to many minds. It is coupled with the idea of hypnosis, where the
operator is able to make the subject think, say, do, or imagine anything he chooses. That is possible through the abnormal
condition of the subject. The means and methods of inducing this abnormal condition are not generally known, although
some practitioners have hit upon various ways of bringing on hypnosis in some subjects.
But what is to be discussed is the fact of suggestion itself, generally considered, and as it affects all men. People are not
aware that they act almost entirely under suggestion. From our birth we are surrounded by those who suggest certain ideas
to us as true, and we follow these suggested ideas. There is very little original thought anywhere, and particularly is this true
in those lines to which the public pays the most attention—that is, politics, religion, science. Whatever system of thought is
presented to us, that we adopt. We follow the suggestion given, with no attempt to reach to the basis of that which is
suggested. The foundation upon which the suggestion rests is taken for granted, even in the most important things in life.
Our religion, for example, is stated to be a ‘revelation.” We accepted it in childhood, accepted it as a fact, without looking
into it to see what it is and on what it is founded. Our powers of thought and action being based upon a false suggestion
does not inhibit their exercise, but as a result all our possibilities of thought and action, all our mental creations, the whole
super structure of our existence, are false, because, thinking from false premises, our thinking will inevitably lead to false
conclusions.
This is just as truly the fact as in the case of the hypnotized subject. He is thrown into an abnormal condition; he has nothing
before his mind; the operator presents a given idea and with it the suggestion of a certain mode of action. Immediately the
subject adopts the suggestion, goes to work on it, and will continue working along the suggested line cumulatively until the
suggestion is changed.
Those who are born into any particular sect ought to know this. With our first sense of understanding, ideas are presented to
us, instilled into our minds as absolute facts. We proceed from that basis, and however long it is followed, no true
understanding or conclusion can be reached. What do we know of the truth or falsity of these ideas when presented to us in
childhood? Nothing whatever. What do our parents and teachers know of them? Nothing whatever. They have merely passed
on to us the suggestions which they received in childhood and which have operated in them cumulatively ever since.
We must learn not to accept statements, no matter by whom made, simply because they are made to us. We must get at the
basis of whatever is presented, know what its principles are—whether those principles are self-evident. If they are not self-
evident, how can they be basic?
The idea is common to everybody in the Western world that there is a Creator of this universe. What do we know about it? If
it is true that a being created the universe and all the beings in it, then we are not responsible. In continuance of that idea
other ideas follow it: that man is here but once, that this is his only birth, and that from here he knows not where he goes. We
have followed the suggestion that a man lives but one life, that he is fundamentally irresponsible for his being here, and we
have built up our thoughts and actions on that basis. Does it make us wiser, happier, while we live? Does it produce peace
and happiness for others? Does it bring us to the end of life any wiser, any better off? For we know that when we come to the
end of life we leave every earthly thing we have gained while here.
But this earth is only one of many earths. What of the other planets, the other solar systems with which space is filled? Have
we any vital knowledge in regard to them or the reason for their existence under the suggestions that have been handed to
us?
When our religious impressions are changed, when other suggestions are given us, are they not handed to us in the same
way? Whatever they are— Science,” “New Thought,” “Christian Science,” and so on—we adopt them, move along the lines
suggested by those who give them to us, and what do we really learn? Nothing. We come to the end of life just as encased in
ignorance, despite all the “revelations” ever given us. What do we know of their bases? Are they true or only partially so? We
are never asked to look into their fundamentals, to see for ourselves if they are true, self-evident. No; we are asked to accept
what is given us and go to work on that. That is suggestion.
Our municipal life, our national life, our political life, are all under suggestion, and few are they who try to go to the root of
things and understand what the nature of being is, so that they can know for themselves and thus act with power and
knowledge. As we look the field over, we find that we are all prey to the power of suggestion in every direction.
What is the criterion which we should apply to every suggestion presented to us? Just this: If we have the truth, it will explain
what was before a mystery. And as we are surrounded by mysteries, the Truth must explain them all.
This power of suggestion must still be used, whatever line may be pointed out to us. If Truth exists and is possible to us—the
Truth in religion, science and philosophy—it must first come to us by suggestion from Those who know. If it were not possible
for this to be done, were not possible for us to avail ourselves of it, then there would be no use talking of these things. But
when the true is suggested to us, there is always a means presented by which we may see and verify it. That means is not in
anyone’s authority or endorsement, but in the fact that we can perceive it and test it for ourselves. The final authority is the
man himself.
An outside God is an idol. We have to reach into the very recesses of our own being and understand that it is ourself that
chooses and determines for itself what it shall accept and what reject. The very power of Divinity—the power of choice—is in
each one of us. When we begin to understand that, we get the first clue to our own immortality. So we may see that That
which lives and thinks in man is the Eternal Pilgrim. If you prefer to use the term God, you may say, “So many men on earth,
so many Gods in heaven.”
There are many beings below man; perhaps some will admit that there may be, that there are, beings greater than man.
None of these beings can be omnipresent, none of them can be the Supreme. What is that which is omnipresent and
supreme in each and every being—in man, in the beings below man, in the beings above man? is it not this Power to
perceive, to think, to choose, to act upon the thinking and the choosing—upon the Intelligence which the being has? That
Power transcends all beings, all conceptions. It is that Power which lies at the root of all evolution, and is the very Essence of
every being. No one is separate from That. No one is without That. All are rays from and one with That. There is no possibility
of any existence apart from That.
Man stands in the midst of a vast and silent evolution—the evolution of Intelligence, of Soul. All the beings below man must
be coming up the ladder of being to our stage, and whatever beings may exist beyond man, they must have passed through
our stage and gone still farther up the ladder. They are our Elder Brothers and have passed through civilizations before
ours—many, many ages before ours—and have reached a point of development far higher than ours. It is They who have
carried forward all the knowledge gained in that vast evolution which has preceded ours.
These Elder Brothers of the human family are not spirits in the ordinary sense of the word, nor are they hazy beings, ‘ or ‘
They are men, Mahatmas (Great Souls), who are perfected beings physically, mentally, morally, psychically, spiritually—who
stand now where we shall one day stand, when we have perfected ourselves in the same way that They have done, through
self-induced and self-devised exertions.
These Masters stand to us in Their knowledge and power, in Their ability and efforts to help and guide us, as the greatest
and most powerful suggestion that could be made to any human being. They are willing and ready to help whenever and
where ever we are willing and ready to receive. They never ask for anything; They are always ready to give to those who may
be willing to follow the lines indicated, so that we in our turn may become as They are—may know for ourselves.
If we take Their philosophy as given to us in Theosophy, if we take it as a theory to be examined on its merits, we shall find
that it explains. It explains why there are so many different kinds of people; it explains different natures; it explains why some
suffer more and others suffer less. It explains why each one is born in a particular place, in that family, in that nation, at that
time. It explains every inequality in life, every injustice, every mystery. It will enable a man to realize his own immortality, to live
a conscious existence in Spirit, even while incarnated in a body here on this earth. At present we live in matter; we think that
we exist in matter and are dependent on matter for our existence. We think in matter. Our religion is materialistic; our
science is materialistic; our philosophy is materialistic. All this is due to the misuse of the power of suggestion and to our
acceptance of ideas without investigation, without comparison, upon authority. We believe; we do not know.
There is no Divinity, save it has evolved as such from the One Spirit. Every Divine being is an evolution. Where ever divinity
is spoken of it means an evolution of a being. All intelligence is based in the Power to perceive, and that exists in every
grade of being. Intelligence is the extension of the power to know. This idea sets aside a great many suggestions that we
have perhaps depended upon. It would be well for us if we did not depend upon anything save our own inherent power to
learn, to extricate ourselves from our difficulties. All our powers are born with us; all our past experiences are with us, but they
are crowded out by the suggestions given to us when we were children, and by the false ideas which we still entertain.
Nothing but the Truth can ever set us free, and that Truth each one can find and follow, and thus come to know for himself.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
TRUE CLAIRVOYANCE
Since the Theosophical Movement took outward expression in 1875, the term clairvoyance (clear seeing) has become
familiar to many people. In the latter part of last century and in the early part of this century, many kinds of clairvoyance have
been observed and experienced. Clairvoyance itself had its own peculiar development and facility, the different kinds of
clairvoyance relating to varying degrees of perception of matter where there was no physical thing to be seen, and to events
transpiring at a great distance from where the seer was located. Unfortunately, all of these kinds of clairvoyance were limited
in their scope; they were but partial clairvoyance.
Societies of psychology and of psychical research have under taken the task of finding out what the power of clairvoyance
may or may not be, from the basis of brain, or mere physical existence. They seek the necessary causes in effects which
themselves have been set in motion by causes which are hidden. Consequently, their researches are limited. Yet,
clairvoyance itself, however followed, points to the fact that there is latent in man the power to see, hear, feel, contact, at any
distance whatever; and the power is not limited to any special person, or persons, but is common to all humanity.
There is a true clairvoyance. There is a true school of occultism. There are many false clairvoyants. There are many false
schools of occultism. All the false schools go in some particular direction that is attractive to the ordinary human mind—the
mind that desires to obtain something for itself, as it believes itself to be. So with the different kinds of clairvoyance—if the
desire on the part of one endeavoring to find the power in himself is to obtain something for himself, the clairvoyance
obtained will never lead him in any true direction. Nothing can give a true understanding of clairvoyance, nor bring to our
minds what true clairvoyance may be, but a study of the nature of man, of the nature of the world in which he lives, and the
nature of the solar system in which that world exists.
The clue to true clairvoyance lies in the septenary nature of man. There are seven distinct planes of consciousness; there are
seven distinct states of matter, of which the physical is one. These seven distinct planes of action are the different
departments of man’s nature, but it is the same One who acts in all the different departments. Clairvoyance, then, in any true
sense, we should understand to be clear seeing in each and every one of these seven departments of the nature of man. All
other partial clairvoyance can bring us no great results, and, certainly, no great knowledge.
Many are those who have ‘sat for development,” have endeavored to obtain the state that is termed “the astral plane,” in
order to be able to see and hear at a distance. But the greatest danger imaginable lies in that direction. The mere seeing or
hearing things does not give any understanding of their nature, and many things to which we may be attracted on the astral
plane are dangerous and poisonous in their nature. The efforts made to reach that plane are always by means of passivity,
and, when we allow ourselves to become passive, any influence what ever outside of the normal physical perceptions may
reach us. We are just as much the prey of evil effects as we are open to good effects, but we are not choosers in either
direction. What ever may be in our nature attracts the good, or evil, or mixed, accordingly; but the mere seeing or hearing
would of itself give us no knowledge, nor carry us one step on the way of progress. For illustration, say we were transported
to the planet Mars, saw the operation of the beings there and heard the sounds made in their speech. If they were a different
kind of beings from ourselves we would have no understanding at all of what they were doing. True knowledge and true
understanding are gained by a comprehension of laws and principles, and in no other way. Just as there is a law which from
the very beginning of our being prompted us to advance step by step in development, so there is a law which admits us step
by step up the stairs of knowledge. Not one of those steps may be omitted. To attempt to get to the top by springing from the
bottom is not possible, for each step depends upon every other—the highest resting upon all the rest, the lowest preceding
the highest.
The septenary nature of man is best explained by reference to the three great principles which underlie all life, as well as
every religion and every philosophy that ever has been, or ever can be. They may be indicated by the brief terms God, Law,
and Being. As to God, the ancients have recorded that there is One Absolute Principle—Unspeakable, Untranslatable,
Undefinable, Infinite, Omnipresent—the Cause, the Sustainer of all that was, is, or ever shall be. Deity, the Omnipresent, can
be absent from no point of space, and we are inseparable from It. Each one is of That—a ray from and one with that
Absolute Principle. The power in us to perceive, to know, to experience—apart from any thing that is seen, known, or
experienced—is the One Self, the One Life, and the One Consciousness, shared by all alike—the
Source of every being, the Life of every being, the Power of every being. Behind all perceiving and knowing and
experiencing is the One undivided Self. Herein lies the true basis of Brotherhood—the unifying bond for all above man and
for all below man—and the real growth into divine life is the increasing realization of the fullness of that Life in each. Acting
for and as that Self in every direction, realizing that the Self acts in all and through all, and endeavoring to realize more and
more that each one is that Self, the fullness of one’s own nature and of other natures comes to be seen, appreciated,
understood, and helped.
The second great principle—Law—shows that the universe is a boundless plane, in which occur periodical manifestations.
This earth had a beginning; this solar system had a beginning. So, too, they will have an ending, since everything that begins
in time ends in time. All earths, solar systems, and beings of every grade, have reached their present stage through
evolution—that evolution under exact law, inherent in the nature of the beings concerned. All evolution proceeds from beings.
It is the force of the beings in action which causes individual and collective results. The law of laws is Karma—the law of
action and re-action, of cause and effect, which are the aspects of action, and which can not be separated. All progress
goes on under this law in the natural sequence of periods of activity and periods of rest. As after night comes morning again;
as after spring, summer, autumn, winter comes spring again; so after birth, youth, manhood, death comes birth again. The
process of reincarnation, or coming into a body again, is just as natural as coming into another day which is not yet. This life
is; last life was; next life will be. So, as planets or solar systems have their ending, will they and the beings who composed
them, have their re-incarnation—a new beginning.
The third fundamental principle points to the fact that all beings in the universe have evolved from lower points of perception
into greater and greater individualization; that the beings above man have gone through our stage; that there never can never
be a stoppage of evolution in an infinite universe of infinite possibilities; that whatever stage of perfection may be reached in
any race, on any planet, or in any solar system there are always greater opportunities beyond.
When this solar system began, then, it was merely a continuation of that which had been. In another aggregation, on another
planet, beings of every grade, corresponding to our mineral, animal, man, and superman, were working together. That great
day of operation ceased; that world stopped so far as any further action was concerned, just as we stop when we cease
waking consciousness and go into sleep. Then the dawn of the next day comes. There is an arousal and operation again. All
the beings that had hitherto expressed themselves, that had been indrawn into the primordial state of matter, go forth again
on a new basis to further development.
We were self-conscious beings when this world began, clothed in that primordial state of matter from which all subsequent
states have proceeded, and in which the possibilities of change are infinite. Just as our planet, beginning in a nebulous
state, tends to a concretion, gradually cooling, hardening, and condensing, so every living human being has made himself
concretions of substance, until he has reached this most dense plane, and final concretion in the present physical body.
Those stairs down which he has descended are seven in number. That this solar system, this earth and man are septenary in
nature is the teaching. Observe the seven notes of the scale, and the seven colors of the spectrum. These colors do not
‘happen,” by chance; they are evolutions, differentiations of the one substance. Both sound and color are different rates of
vibration caught by the instruments of the ear, the eye, or both. Some think that while we have now only five senses, we are
gradually acquiring another sense. What we really have are five organs that give five distinct characteristics of matter. What
we shall next arrive at is an understanding of the sixth characteristic of matter, and beyond that is the seventh synthetic
sense, which covers all and belongs to the higher planes of being.
If we are that being who is the perceiver, the knower, the spirit, Life, Consciousness itself—what would be true clairvoyance?
Could that by any possibility be called true clairvoyance which would be embraced in the mere looking through fleshly eyes
upon a state of matter only a little removed from this of the earth? There are true clairvoyants who not only know what is
apparent to everybody, but who see everything that is in a human being, or in any being. In their sight, one can not make a
motion of any kind—such a simple motion as moving from one chair to another—without setting every one of his seven
senses into action and exhibiting along the line of those seven senses every single qualification and motive he may ever
have held. It is within the power of some to know the very hearts of men, to know the very motives that actuate them. In true
clairvoyance, the real being is absolutely and unconditionally awake. He is using every one of the instruments with precision
and in exact line with one another. He has clear seeing. He reaches down into the motives of man, because he sees
everything. How can he see? Every center in man—that is, every organ—has been evolved under the operation of the laws
that govern the solar system. These laws may be known. Every center has its own distinctive color and its own distinctive
sound; it also presents a distinctive symbol and form. If, then, one knew the laws of sounds, colors, symbols and form, he
could tell, just as exactly as we tell the simplest thing, what caused the nature of any motion and the motive that underlay it.
From him, deception could not be hid; evil could not be hid; motives could not be hid. Such an acquisition, without any
possibility of failure, would be divine—the true clairvoyance.
True clairvoyance is not gained by “sitting for development.” One might sit for development ten million years, and in the end
be only capable of sitting. The true power is gained by trying to realize our own divine nature, and to act as divinity acts; by
trying to get all the possessions possible, that we may place them at the service of our fellow-men. The power is gained by
self sacrificing service, and in no other way. The divine in us has its fullest expression in self-sacrifice. As man moves along,
realizing more and more his own nature, working more and more for the natures of every other, he finds spiritual knowledge
springing up spontaneously within him. He seeks nothing for himself. He seeks all power and all knowledge only that he may
help others less endowed. Jesus said: “Let him who would be the greatest among you serve the least.” And so it has always
been in this great work, that those who were the greatest among us served the least, were the humble ones, who sought no
preference, no recognition.
Altruism, self-sacrifice, devotion to the highest interests of humanity—these constitute the one password to true clairvoyance.
If it could be had in any other way, would not a great many things that have happened, a great many disasters that have
befallen different peoples, been avoided? If such knowledge could be bought, would not institutions be despoiled, people
robbed, the stock-market exploited, and all sorts of self-advantages gained? But true knowledge is never used for self-
advantage; not even for defence. When Jesus was on the cross, they said: “Let Him save Himself; let Him come down from
the cross. He saved others; Himself He cannot save.” ‘Was He powerless to come down? Not at all. They had wreaked their
natures upon Him, and He suffered it. He could have destroyed them all, if He chose, but He said: “Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do.” Nor would those who were able to read the inner most thoughts of a person be “peering about,”
be endeavoring to discover what others desired to hide. Never would they look where the demand had not been made upon
them. They would take each person at his own valuation. If such an one deceived—whatever the deception—they would
meet him on his own ground, striving all the time to give him a higher point of view.
There are beings who come into the world from time to time, with no marks of distinction that we, as human beings, can
recognize, yet the possessors of a knowledge which we ardently desire to possess. They are never recognized, save by the
very few while they are among us; but when they go, that which they have given tells us what they were. By the very character
of the teachings of Jesus we recognize the nature of the being who brought them. So the teachings of Theosophy—a
knowledge which is absolutely scientific, covering every department of nature, explaining all that now are mysteries—declare
the nature of those beings who brought Theosophy, our Elder Brothers. And They, who have raised themselves out of our
ranks, do not leave us in trouble, in darkness, in ignorance. Their desire is that we shall see, under stand, know ourselves;
that, quickly setting right the ideas which we hold of life, and letting right actions flow from right ideas, we may act as divine
beings. However blind, however ignorant, we are not left alone, but are helped just so far as we desire and merit help, and
just so far as we, with what we learn, help others who know still less than we. Unselfishness, and that alone, brings us all the
gifts there are. As Jesus said: ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all the rest will be added unto you.”
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
TRUE MORALITY
True morality is not a thing of words or phrases or modes of action of any kind, nor is its basis to be found in the many kinds
of ideas of morality in the world, which vary as to time and place. What is “moral” at one time is “immoral” at another. There is
no basis whatever in this changing attitude towards actions, changing classifications of good and evil, in a changing “division
of the universe.” Intolerance is their sure resultant; for those who pride themselves upon their own special brands of “morality”
are always intolerant of others who do not accept that brand. True morality rests in an understanding and in a realization of
man’s own spiritual nature, and must of necessity flow from it, irrespective of all kinds of conventions. We need to know our
own inner natures in order to know what is, in truth, morality.
The conventions of external life are established merely by a consensus of opinion of the beings living at any one time and in
any one place. They are not necessarily based on truth, and certainly not on a perception of the whole of truth. As we may
see, the best interests of all are not served by the ideas that are generally held. The world is in a tremendously evil and
selfish state. With all our prevailing ideas of progress, of morality and of religion, it is not anywhere nearly so happy a place
as it was perhaps a century or two ago; it is not nearly so good a place for human beings to live in as it was in the more
innocent and less complex civilizations of the older nations. There is evidently some thing wrong with the ideas that we hold,
if we find it impossible to deny the fact that instead of the world getting better and in stead of life becoming more simple, the
world is growing worse and life is becoming more and more complex. We should not find ourselves in the present condition
if our ideas, religious and moral, flowed from the underlying basic ideas of all religions, philosophies, and systems of thought.
The basis of understanding of life accepted by the majority of Western peoples has been a revealed religion, and a personal
God who revealed that religion. From this basis have sprung all our wrong conceptions. Hence the great stress laid on
physical existence. in fact, one might say that the generality of human thinking is centered entirely on physical existence. The
question has not even been asked, “How is it that I am born at this time, under such conditions, in this people, and not at
some previous or future time, when the world might be better?” The question has not been asked, “Why are we here at all?”
Nor have we asked, “What is the pre-existing cause that brought us into this relation? Was it at the whim or caprice of a
special Being, or was it under the operation of an indwelling, inherent law within ourselves?” If we are here with our present
qualities, surrounded with difficulties, not because of anything we ourselves have done, but because of the whim or caprice
of some Being, then we must regard ourselves as absolutely irresponsible for anything what ever. If we were so created,
there is nothing that can undo that creation and we must suffer the consequences, the causes for which we did not set in
motion!
The true ideas of the ancient philosophy relieve us of two misconceptions: one, the idea that there is a revengeful God who
punishes us for those things that we are unable to prevent ourselves from doing; and second, the idea of a Devil to whom we
are consigned if we do not follow the lines that some people have laid down for us. A knowledge of Theosophy enables us to
understand that there never was any “creation,” in the sense of making something out of nothing; but that everything—every
being of every kind—has evolved, and is still evolving. The beings below us are evolving to our estate, where the beings, now
evolved so far beyond us, some time in the distant past went through a similar stage. All beings are what they are through
evolution from within outwards, that evolution proceeding under Law.
Law is operative everywhere and upon every being, because the Law is not something separate from him; it is not separate
from the inner spiritual man. Law is the law of man’s own action. So, as we act along those lines that affect others for good or
for evil, we necessarily receive the return from those good or evil effects which we cause others to experience. Each
individual is the operator of the Law; according to his actions he gets the re-actions; according to his sowing, does he reap.
In place, then, of the idea of a revengeful God, we have the ideas of absolute Justice and individual responsibility.
If, from the point of view of Law, we ask ourselves what pre-existing causes brought us into these relations, we can see that
what now is must have been brought about by ourselves, and what now is is similar to what was. At once the idea is
presented to our minds that this is not the first time, by many times, we have been in a body; that re-incarnation is the
process by which human beings reach greater and greater heights; that there is no other way or means to learn all the
lessons to be gained in physical life among our fellow-men, except through repeated incarnations.
We come, then, to another phase of our being—for we see there is in us something that is continuous in its operation,
something which was never born and never dies. If it continues from one life to another, through many lives, and for many
lives, there must be a permanency in us which no change of condition or body or circumstance can alter for a single instant.
As we thus think in terms of ages rather than in the days of one short life, we begin to get a glimpse of that Reality which lies
within us; we open the door so that those internal, real, more permanent perceptions can find operation in our daily waking
thoughts—for every single human being has sprung from the One Great Source, is animated by That, is, in fact, That at the
very root of his being; in That is his power of perception and of action, which is spiritual and permanent. The power of
perception and of action exists in everyone; the direction of that perception and action rests in each one. Each has the
power to take the course which to him seems best; but, in taking the course, he sows, and must also reap as was the nature
of his sowing. Every being in this universe of Law is experiencing as he is because of his own thoughts, words, and deeds;
every circumstance, every misshapen day, every evil that comes to us as well as every good, is due to thought, word of deed
of ours in the past. In each incarnation we find friends as well as enemies. So our minds may be set at rest with regard to
either God or Devil. Each one of us represents both the Spirit—the highest divine nature—and also, the very lowest—the
infernal nature. Man is spiritual, in fact, but, thinking himself material and separate, and acting in accordance with his
thinking, he brings about the battle between the two natures in him.
The great mistake of religionists in our age has been the classification of good and evil. There is nothing good in itself. There
is nothing evil in itself. It is the use to which anything is put that
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NEXT
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
A LEAGUE OF HUMANITY
Now that the most frightful and destructive war known to the annals of history is over, the questions that arise in every thinker’
s mind are: What has been learned from the war? Has there been any lesson learned? Do we think for a single moment that
the end of the war has brought an end to our troubles? Do we not see the clouds gathering in the skies of humanity?
Revelations of every kind are spread before us as panaceas. On the part of some there is evidence of a desire to bring
people to “a moral sense”—a sense which they think resides in the Christian religion. So, they are trying to effect an
amalgamation of the churches, imagining that to be the remedy for preventing wars and causing men to act more humanely
towards each other. But the moral sense existed in times before the Christian religion was ever thought of, in other religions;
in fact, the basis of all religions is morality. How comes it, if Christianity is to be the remedy, that after its being the basis of
thought and action for nearly two thousand years, such a struggle has gone on among Christian nations? Does Christianity
give any promise whatever of what ought to be? Would there be any benefit whatever in returning to Christianity, the whole
history of which has been one of intolerance and persecution? If the Christian church had the power today, would it be any
less dogmatic or intolerant than it was in the days of the Spanish Inquisition?
There is no hope in the direction of the church, because, in the first place, the people will have none of it. It has not satisfied
their minds; it has not answered their questions. Instead of the knowledge they asked for, it has: given them only hope or
fear. The church has lost its hold upon the people—for the great majority are not adherents of any Christian church—be
cause of its poverty of idea, because of its dogmas and creeds. People have tried out the ideas and found them wanting.
Nothing else will do but that which appeals to their sense of judgment and to their spiritual perception.
Others have placed their faith in a league of nations. Yet, they begin to see that though the ideal is beautiful, it does not prove
out in practice. The members of the league have each desired to take all they could, and give as little as they could. The
same spirit exists between nations now, after the settlement of peace, as existed during the conflict; the same nations are
just as grasping and just as selfish as they were before the war. In this country, too, our public men still voice the particular
interests of this particular nation as against all others. A league of nations could only fulfill its purpose by a common aim and
by a like ideal. Such do not obtain. The nations are not alike. None of them have high ideals—not even our own nation, which
should have the greatest ideal of humanity and of nature. In stead, our ideal is one common idea—of trading, of gaining
dollars or possessions, of getting advantage and prestige over other nations. Such an ideal will never give us peace, will
never bring happiness, content, nor right progress, and there will always be struggle until we change that ideal. A league of
nations among similar selfish nations can only bring what self-interest always brings—disasters of some kind. The seeds of
war are in it.
Where shall we find the true foundation for a changed civilization that all men and women can see and stand on? It is not
philosophies nor religions nor political panaceas that are needed; but Knowledge, and a wider scope of vision than the
vicissitudes of one short physical life. The knowledge that is greater than all the forms of religion ever invented is the
knowledge of the very nature of man himself, for himself and in him self. For we are not here as things apart; we are here
because of one great sustaining Cause—infinite and omnipresent, not separate from us, nor from any other being. It is the
same in all beings above the human and in all beings below the human—the very root of our natures, the very man himself. It
is the Source of all powers and of all actions, whether good or evil. Then, everything that is done by beings affects all beings,
and all that is has been caused by beings, each one affected according to its share in the cause. What the past has been,
we are experiencing now—our lives now being but repetitions of lives that preceded them. What the future will be, we are
making now—the lives to come depending entirely on the choice and direction of our thoughts and actions now.
The war of this or any time is the result of the warring spirit, of the selfishness of mankind. It is the result of the failure to
understand the great purpose of life, the nature of our minds, the full power of attainment within each being, the one Law of
absolute justice inherent in all beings, the One Deity behind and in all, the one Goal for every Pilgrim, however the path
varies. As soon as men are brought to the perception that every one reaps exactly what he sows, no one will do harm to any
other being;
there will then be no war. There will be no such misery as now exists; for to realize our own responsibility to all others and to
act in accordance, is to have become unselfish, and to have done away with the prime cause of sin, sorrow and suffering.
Back of the failure to understand our own true natures lie false ideas, false conceptions of life, false ideals—the heritage of
our Christian civilization. We have believed that we were born in this condition or environment by the “will” of some God. We
have imagined a personal God, a personal devil, and a personal Savior. We have imagined an impossible heaven and an
equally impossible hell. We have imagined a “creation,” instead of evolution. We have believed that we are poor, weak,
miserable sinners, and have acted out the part. We have laid all our troubles and evils and pain upon some other imaginary
Being. Thus, we have remained irresponsible creatures, mere rationalized animals; not immortal souls. We have dodged our
responsibility. But we must guide ourselves according to the realities of our own nature. We must take care of each other, not
of ourselves according to the personal basis on which this and every other nation in the world is proceeding today.
We are going to have a league of humanity only when the ancient truths of the Wisdom Religion are once more perceived—
when there is one purpose and one teaching. Its truths are self- evident, not to be accepted because written in some book,
nor because they are the dicta of some particular church. They are the only truths worth considering because in the use of
them they prove themselves true. And truth, as we ought to know, always explains. When we have the explanation, we have
the truth. Each has to make his own verification of the truth, but the fact remains that there is truth, and it has always existed. It
has come to us from Beings higher than we, because once They turned Their faces in the right direction and pursued the
course pointed out to Them as leading to spiritual, divine perfection. They know all that has been known. They know us,
although we may not know Them. They know our needs, although we may be densely ignorant of them. They come again and
again to present
the truths of life to man, hoping that some echo may be aroused in his soul so that he, too, shall arrive at a realization of Self,
of Spirit—which is Knowledge.
Those who can see the course of humanity see nothing but much trouble yet for the world in general. Nothing but severe, dire
disaster will make men stop and think. The war has not ceased! The war is going on between us all the time. Consider our
selfish pursuits, our condemnations, our judgments, our criticisms, our foolish laws, which seek to make men “good” by
legislation with no attempt to arouse the real nature of man, but only to repress what is considered “bad.” Prohibitions of all
kinds serve only to exasperate the evil nature in men. We need not to prohibit. We need to educate, and first of all, we need
to educate ourselves. Let us take the beam out of our own eyes before we try to remove the mote from the eyes of others.
Let us retreat into the shrine of our own being. Let us be that Self, and act for and as that Self. Let us follow the lines of the
law of our own being—compassion, love, helpfulness for all—and then we shall be able to understand ourselves and the
natures of all others. Then we shall be able to help men in a way they are sometimes not aware of; we shall be able to help
leaven the whole lump.
It is because there are those in the world desirous of helping humanity to proceed further, that we are not worse off. Often the
ideas given out by men in high places are not the result of their own cogitations, although thought to be such. Many an idea is
received by those who have the ear of the public, who speak and will be heard, from Those with a far deeper knowledge of
the issues at stake, yet whose voices would not be heard at all. So, though there may seem to be little action on the part of
Theosophical disciples, there is much action on inner planes of being, and that action never but for the benefit of humanity. If
only once any considerable number of persons could take the true position and act from the true nature, right ideas would
soon spread all over the earth. Once the ideas are implanted in our minds, we can help the world by speaking of them, and by
exemplifying them. We can do that much, however selfishly the world moves on.
A true league of humanity could be formed—without social distinctions, class distinctions, national distinctions. In their stead
would come a common perception and a common realization of the universe and a common course for humanity. We must
know that we are all of other peoples. We came through all the civilizations that have been. We have passed through the
Eastern, the near East, and the European peoples and now we are here, at the farthest confines of the West, under the law
of Karma. Civilization must roll back over the course it came, and as it goes back in spirit, speech, act, and example towards
the East from which it came, the misconceptions that have arisen around religious and other ideas will be cleared away by
the power of our knowledge and example.
We are here as the best representatives of the people of the world—the most intelligent, the freest in mind and opinion, the
freest in action. All that means something under Law, and it means that every being coming in contact with the Ancient
Wisdom has an opportunity devolved upon him. We have not met for the first time, nor have we met for the last. Once more
we are together, and listening to what we do absolutely know inside. There is that in us which sees and knows when the word
is spoken which gives first indication of the life within a life, of a life greater than this we have conceived life to be. Then we
begin to tread that small old path that stretches far away—the Path that our great Predecessors, the Masters, have trod
before us.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
All have doubtless made New Year’s resolutions, and all, no doubt, have failed to keep them. There must be a reason for our
failures, as well as for the fact that there comes a certain season in the year when we have the inclination to make
resolutions. These reasons lie hidden in the depths of our own being. Unconsciously to ourselves,, it may be, we have a
natural perception of occult law in our observance of this particular period of the year. The ancients celebrated and
understood what was called by them “the birth of the Sun,” or the return of the Sun on its northern course, beginning the 21st
of December. They knew that all the occult forces in nature have an upward and increasing tendency at the return of the Sun.
When the Sun’s rays become warmer and stronger, all the other forces behind the Sun itself, and behind ourselves, become
stronger within us. In the rising wave of spiritual and psychic renewal, all that we desire to do has a greater impulsion than at
some other time of the year.
The reason for our failures is that we do not understand our own natures. Consequently, we are not able to use the force and
influence that lie within us, so far as we are physically concerned, and we have difficulty in endeavoring to carry out
resolutions of any kind. Our first mistake is to make negative resolutions. We say, I will not drink; I will not lie; I will not do this;
I will not do that. Whereas the proper resolve to make is that—I will do this, the opposite of what we are now doing. In this
case, we make a direct affirmation of will, while the other form of resolution puts us in a purely negative position. Perhaps we
have thought with regard to others or ourselves, that because we do not do a number of questionable things, therefore we
are “good.” On the contrary, we are merely not bad—again a negative position. True goodness is a positive position.
To effect our resolutions we have to call on the will of man, for that will is not restrained by any form of obstacle what ever. By
will, however, is not meant what is ordinarily called will. We are prone to think that a person who is very determined on
gaining his ends has “a strong will,” and is very positive in his character; but such a person exhibits only a kind of will. He has
very, very strong desires, rather than Will itself, and will follow them out.
There are many exhibitions of the will itself, some phases being quite unrecognized. The very will to live is a recondite aspect
of Will. If the will to live were not present, we would not live. It is not the body which holds us here but the desire to live. Always
behind Will stands Desire. Again, everyone of man’s bodily organs and processes was at one time evolved by conscious
effort. Even the process of digestion, of assimilation, the heart beat, the various qualities and functions of all the organs were
consciously evolved. Now we have bodies which will proceed automatically, while we use our consciousness, perceptions
and attention in other directions. Our will, then, operates in reality in every part of our physical life though we may not be able
to perceive it and understand it. There is also a mental phase of the will which can be cultivated by practice: the fixed
attention, or concentration in certain directions capable of effecting desired results.
But the real and true Will is known as the Spiritual Will, which flies like light and cuts all obstacles like a sharp sword. It is that
Will proceeding from the highest spiritual part of our natures which causes man to be an evolution from within out wards,
through all the forms of substance that have been, and to continue evolving instruments in this state of matter. All the powers
that exist or can exist are latent, however ill expressed, in the spiritual nature. We draw from it in degree, but in small degree
because most of us, having our ideas so fixed on physical existence, have come to the conclusion that life means nothing
more than physical existence.
We were once conscious of our spiritual nature, but as we came down through the planes of matter to this plane, we made a
growth in intellectuality at the expense of spiritual perception. With our intellect we always reason from premises to
conclusions, whereas the spiritual nature has the power of direct cognition of the nature of anything regarded. So our
intellectual gain was at the loss of spiritual insight, and it is useless for theology, science, and psychology to proceed from
the personal and physical perceptions in order to get an understanding of what man really is: their psychological causes are
but reflections of the physical ideas. If we are going to realize our own natures, we must begin at the highest point of our
nature—by assuming that.
It is, and by holding to the power of that assumption. We begin to see light by the very affirmation of the spiritual nature.
As we stand, we are always using our will along the line of our desires and of our likes and dislikes, imagining these to be a
proper basis for thought and action. What is most necessary for us is a proper basis for thinking. We need to eject the false
idea of our being weak, sinful creatures, with all the faults of our parents and their parents before them, because we were
born that way. We need to eject the mental idol of an outside creator. We need to understand the purpose of life, to see that
we are the product of many of our own prior lives, and to recognize an evolution under law—a law both true and merciful—
which operates everywhere. It is because that law operates in a round of impression that we have the tendency each year to
make New Year’s resolutions. We could by an understanding and using of this law of recurrence bring into effect those
resolutions.
Often, however, resolutions are made because it is ‘proper” to make them—with no real expectation of keeping them. We
remember them for a few days—they choke us off for a little while—and then gradually the old desires assert themselves and
we find ourselves traveling along the old way. Resolutions will never do us any good if we do not sustain them. A desire is not
a condition. The mere desire will never get us anywhere. We have to maintain the desire; we have to stick. to the resolution;
we have to exert our will, and cleave to the object of that will throughout. We can’t get rid of the evil in us by thinking of it, nor
can we get rid of any unpleasant thing by thinking about it; for it is truly said that we are attached to anything by thinking about
it. The harder we don’t think about the evil things in us, the better; think about their opposites, and the evil will not have the
chance to return. Attachment is by thought, first of all. Desire exists in thought, first of all. Then follows the action. We have to
have a firm basis for our thinking if we are ever going to express ourselves as we should, as spiritual beings. Why do we all
have our pet theories of life, our pet religions or philosophies? Because they conform to our own desires; not because they
conform to truth or that they provide an explanation of all the mysteries we see about us. This is why after so many thousands
of years of what we call civilization, we have become none the wiser, still moving in the same old tread-mill of life and death
and sorrow and suffering and pain. Yet we are not bound to it, save as we bind ourselves by our own thoughts and action.
We are not under the necessity of following along on those planes of error as we are now doing.
There is a chance for us if we understand our own natures. Then, let us resolve one great thing: resolve to know; resolve to
think right, and do right; resolve to acquire some of the knowledge that always has existed—the knowledge of man as a
spiritual being through all his fluctuations in the realm of matter. As we rely more and more upon the Self within, we begin to
express and use the power which we already have—and that is far more than we imagine. We have to help ourselves by
taking the suggestions already given in the teachings of Theosophy—which are Masters’ suggestions. And then, as the
sustaining power of the will is held along the line in which we desire to do, more direct help comes from those Elder
Brothers, who at every hour of each day “are willing and anxious to meet those clear-eyed enough to see their true destiny
and noble-hearted enough to work for ‘the great orphan, Humanity’.”
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
OCCULT KNOWLEDGE
Occult Knowledge means knowledge which is “hidden,” but it also means knowledge which is known. If it is knowledge that is
known, there must be Those who know it; there could be no knowledge without the knowers of it. True occult knowledge can
be obtained only by those who follow the path to it. That path was set down by Those Who Know; all who will may and can
arrive at that knowledge. This is not a path open only to certain persons; it is open to every living human being, and limited
only by the limitations we ourselves place around it through choice or through ignorance.
Much is heard in the world today of what passes for “occult knowledge.” Much experiment goes on under that name in
various directions: we have societies for psychical and psychological research, and there is much talk of psychic and astral
“experiences” and “communications” with the dead. All these various methods of research are from below, upwards, and will
never find the goal. Scientific methods, psychological methods, the methods of the Spiritualists, alike proceed from
particulars to universals. Particulars are infinite, and those who follow that path will inevitably get lost in its infinite
ramifications, with no real knowledge gained. The goal is to be found from above, below—from universals to particulars, and
not the reverse.
The Path of real occult knowledge begins where all begin. It is the Path of all beings, and we need to see the reason why it is
an open path for all. We find ourselves in the midst of a vast evolution, with beings of many grades still below us—lower in
point of consciousness and intelligence than ourselves—as also we ought to see there must be beings above us far greater
than we are. All these beings have sprung from a common Source; all differ seemingly, yet there exists, supreme in all, the
same power to perceive, to know, to learn.
We have to understand the reason for the differences in beings and for our own limitations. Let us, then, seek out the
beginnings of things—for everything that exists had a beginning, and, of course, everything that had a beginning will have an
ending. If our beginning was with this life only, the end of this life would be our complete extinction; then we would have no
concern with anything else. But there is knowledge that extends prior to this birth and beyond this life, and in that hidden
knowledge we may get the clue to an understanding of not only our own natures, but the nature of all beings everywhere.
Our first firm basis is in the perception that all knowledge must lie in and be sustained by the common Source of which we
are a part and an expression. That common Basis could not be any supreme Being, for “Being” means finiteness and
limitation, and outside of it must still be that which is not contained.
We have to go far back of all beings and creations and creatures to that Cause which lies behind all life, all consciousness,
all spirit, all being. That is not different in any being. IT is the same in all, so must be the essential Divinity in all beings of
every grade. There is one Absolute Principle which is the origin, the sustainer, the container, of all that ever was, is, or shall
be. We call it a PRINCIPLE, because to name IT is to define IT, to limit IT, to belittle IT. To endeavor to give IT attributes of
any kind is a limitation, and we must go back of all limitations if we are to understand the Omnipresent and Immortal in us
and in all things.
Our search for knowledge is almost universally a looking for something outside. We are looking for information, for
instruction, in the thoughts of other men, in the ideas of other peoples, which, in this school of Occult Knowledge, is not
knowledge at all. The only knowledge we can have is that which we gain for ourselves, and within ourselves, as actual
experience. External facts and information can never give us any understanding whatever of the higher, more divine parts of
our nature.
There is no understanding, no explanation, of the mysteries of our own existence, on the basis of a single life. We have to go
beyond that, back of that, to realize what evolution means. Evolution means an unfolding from within outwards. That is the
way all beings grow—physically, intellectually, spiritually. The beings below us are unfolding; they are embryonic souls not yet
arrived at the human stage of self-consciousness and self-realization, but they are on their way to where we already are. The
same thing is true of all the beings above us. They have already passed through stages similar to ours. The inner part— the
Enduring in every being—is illimitable, infinite, in its power of unfolding and expression, because it is the Immortal.
But, one may say, there was a beginning to this life. So, too, there was a beginning to this day, to this experience, to this
collection of experiences, to this body. Yes; but in each and every case this beginning and those beginnings were the
repetitions of other beginnings and endings—of what? Of experiences, of instruments, of perceptions; not of the Perceiver,
the real being.
This brings us to the perception of Law; the Law of Periodicity, of Cycles, which is illustrated in every department of nature.
Our being here under evolution ought to show any intelligent person that no one has reached his present stage save through
previous stages. That which pushes “us” on, that which is the basis of all the powers we show or express, is the Spirit in us,
our real Self. The Spirit of man has all the powers that any Spirit has. That Spirit is universal, not limited to any one being or
class of beings. In man it is individualized and is the true Ego in each of us. As such Ego we have the direction of that inflow
of universal force which we call the Spirit, and we direct that power in various ways, some of which we call good, and others
we recognize as evil; for it must be understood that neither good nor evil exist of themselves, but only as the results of action.
We have imagined that good and evil have come to us from others, but as directors of the forces of Spirit, as Egos, we can
see there is nothing brought to us nor upon us except as we cause that operation ourselves. ‘We have often heard it said,
“Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap,” and we have perhaps believed it. But have we ever applied it in another
way, that whatever we are reaping we must have sown?
The Law of Periodicity, of Cycles, being universal, must apply in every particular to every particular being. That is justice. If
Law is not universal then this is not a universe of law, but of chance. If it is a universe of law, then our very conditions, our
possessions, our intelligence, our beliefs, everything that comes to us, comes as the result of our thought and action. As we
are reaping at any time, so we must have sown at some time. As we are sowing at any time, so we must reap at some time.
Our birth, our circumstances, are reapings. Our attitude towards them, our use of them, are sowings. We are born into any
body, any conditions, as the result of our past sowing—our past lives. This is justice, and it alone explains the differences
between people.
We are responsible beings, and the feeling of responsibility is the first step towards selflessness. The thought that Law is
imposed upon us by any being or beings, is destroyed by the recognition that Law is inherent in ourselves: as each one
acts—that is, affects others—so is the re-action upon himself.
The differences between people, and the contradictions in ourselves, are in the fundamental ideas held; for as a man thinks,
so he acts. If he thinks this is the first time he has been on earth, that it is the only time; if he believes that some being brought
him here, governs him while here, is going to take care of him when he dies—if he has those ideas, he will act in accordance
with them, and will receive the inevitable reaction.
But if we see that the Spirit is behind everything, that all Law is the action of Spirit, that we are Spirit, we shall have a true
perception of our own natures. We will begin to think in ages, instead of the days of one short life; the basis of our actions will
be those Eternal verities that have been proven again and again by Supermen—those Beings above us who once passed
through our stage, and who are now the Knowers of the Eternal. They hold this knowledge, and that which has been given out
by Them as Theosophy is a statement of a portion of Their knowledge. It is as much as we can assimilate, or understand, or
use.
So, being Spirit, and acting under the Law of our own Being, we grow to realize what the whole Universe means: that the
Universe exists for no other purpose than the evolution of Soul—the embryonic souls below us, the partially developed souls
here among us, and the perfectly developed souls above us—all climbing the great stair of development, of Self-evolution.
No one can force us up the stair. We may go on and on, remaining on the same level for myriads of lives; we may go lower;
but if we are ever to make the ascent from Man to Superman, from Soul to Great Soul, we ourselves must fulfill the conditions
that will enable us to do so.
Along these lines lies Occult Knowledge. There is such a knowledge, and it is far beyond what we call reason; for reason is
merely working from premises to conclusions, whereas real knowledge is direct cognition. We do not reason about the
things we know. We do not have to reason about all the knowledge we have attained in the past; when we are on the plane of
Knowledge, we know without any reasoning whatever. This goes far deeper than most people imagine. It is possible for the
human being to reach that stage where by looking at anything he can tell the whole nature of it—from its origin, all the
processes through which it has passed, all the incidental relations it may have had. This is direct cognition—Occult
Knowledge. It is to be gained by the recognition and conscious use of the powers of the Inner Self. It cannot be gained by
reasoning, nor by the inferences reached from looking at things from outside and judging from what we are able to perceive;
it is gained by what we call the Intuition—the acquired knowledge of all the past. Occult Knowledge enables one absolutely to
determine what is the nature and essence of anything regarded.
True and full Intuition can come to us as a steady light only through our doing away with the false ideas that we now hold and
employ. What is required is a correction of our basis of thinking. Theosophy gives us the true basis for right thinking, and so
for right action. The consistent and persistent effort to think and act from the right basis draws out a certain power in
ourselves, and that power manifests, first of all, as the power of concentration—the ability to hold our mind upon a single
subject or object to the exclusion absolute of every other thing.
How many of us have that power? I venture to say, not one. We have no stability of mind, and we must get that. But the power
of concentration cannot be used if we imagine ourselves to be changeable, perishable beings. We think that in order to
“develop,” we must change. It is not true. We need to change our fundamental ideas, our minds, our modes of thought, our
instruments. That is where the development comes. If we are ever going to learn to concentrate, we must concentrate from
the basis of the steady point in us, the Perceiver, the Spirit, our real unchanging Immortal Self. We cannot come to or
connect with that Power in ourselves unless we realize that all life is One, that all beings like ourselves are moving on the
same path. In that way we realize Universal Brotherhood in a spiritual sense: Altruism should actuate us in every thought,
word and deed.
If we consider these things we shall see how far away we may be from making a beginning in the direction of Occult
Knowledge. A beginning has to be made, and the sooner we start the better. It calls for the arousal of the Spiritual Will. Will is
not a thing in itself, a power in itself. The will is consciousness in action, as distinguished from consciousness inactive. As
soon as we think or desire in any direction the ‘will” works. That will is weak or strong according to our idea of ourselves, our
thoughts, our desires, our aspirations, our considerations of our weaknesses, our limitations. If we realize that we are
Spiritual beings and think and act in the right direction, at once the Spiritual Will begins to work, the power of Concentration
is strengthened, the feeling of responsibility grows, the whole nature begins to change, to be transformed—the Great
Transition is going on.
These are the Eternal Verities that we ought to grasp. We ought to grasp them first and apply them in ourselves and to
ourselves, and then we will find that these ideas are true, because their truth is realized—has become as evident to us as the
sun in heaven.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THE POWER OF SUGGESTION
The power of suggestion means many different things to many minds. It is coupled with the idea of hypnosis, where the
operator is able to make the subject think, say, do, or imagine anything he chooses. That is possible through the abnormal
condition of the subject. The means and methods of inducing this abnormal condition are not generally known, although
some practitioners have hit upon various ways of bringing on hypnosis in some subjects.
But what is to be discussed is the fact of suggestion itself, generally considered, and as it affects all men. People are not
aware that they act almost entirely under suggestion. From our birth we are surrounded by those who suggest certain ideas
to us as true, and we follow these suggested ideas. There is very little original thought anywhere, and particularly is this true
in those lines to which the public pays the most attention—that is, politics, religion, science. Whatever system of thought is
presented to us, that we adopt. We follow the suggestion given, with no attempt to reach to the basis of that which is
suggested. The foundation upon which the suggestion rests is taken for granted, even in the most important things in life.
Our religion, for example, is stated to be a ‘revelation.” We accepted it in childhood, accepted it as a fact, without looking
into it to see what it is and on what it is founded. Our powers of thought and action being based upon a false suggestion
does not inhibit their exercise, but as a result all our possibilities of thought and action, all our mental creations, the whole
super structure of our existence, are false, because, thinking from false premises, our thinking will inevitably lead to false
conclusions.
This is just as truly the fact as in the case of the hypnotized subject. He is thrown into an abnormal condition; he has nothing
before his mind; the operator presents a given idea and with it the suggestion of a certain mode of action. Immediately the
subject adopts the suggestion, goes to work on it, and will continue working along the suggested line cumulatively until the
suggestion is changed.
Those who are born into any particular sect ought to know this. With our first sense of understanding, ideas are presented to
us, instilled into our minds as absolute facts. We proceed from that basis, and however long it is followed, no true
understanding or conclusion can be reached. What do we know of the truth or falsity of these ideas when presented to us in
childhood? Nothing whatever. What do our parents and teachers know of them? Nothing whatever. They have merely passed
on to us the suggestions which they received in childhood and which have operated in them cumulatively ever since.
We must learn not to accept statements, no matter by whom made, simply because they are made to us. We must get at the
basis of whatever is presented, know what its principles are—whether those principles are self-evident. If they are not self-
evident, how can they be basic?
The idea is common to everybody in the Western world that there is a Creator of this universe. What do we know about it? If
it is true that a being created the universe and all the beings in it, then we are not responsible. In continuance of that idea
other ideas follow it: that man is here but once, that this is his only birth, and that from here he knows not where he goes. We
have followed the suggestion that a man lives but one life, that he is fundamentally irresponsible for his being here, and we
have built up our thoughts and actions on that basis. Does it make us wiser, happier, while we live? Does it produce peace
and happiness for others? Does it bring us to the end of life any wiser, any better off? For we know that when we come to the
end of life we leave every earthly thing we have gained while here.
But this earth is only one of many earths. What of the other planets, the other solar systems with which space is filled? Have
we any vital knowledge in regard to them or the reason for their existence under the suggestions that have been handed to
us?
When our religious impressions are changed, when other suggestions are given us, are they not handed to us in the same
way? Whatever they are— Science,” “New Thought,” “Christian Science,” and so on—we adopt them, move along the lines
suggested by those who give them to us, and what do we really learn? Nothing. We come to the end of life just as encased in
ignorance, despite all the “revelations” ever given us. What do we know of their bases? Are they true or only partially so? We
are never asked to look into their fundamentals, to see for ourselves if they are true, self-evident. No; we are asked to accept
what is given us and go to work on that. That is suggestion.
Our municipal life, our national life, our political life, are all under suggestion, and few are they who try to go to the root of
things and understand what the nature of being is, so that they can know for themselves and thus act with power and
knowledge. As we look the field over, we find that we are all prey to the power of suggestion in every direction.
What is the criterion which we should apply to every suggestion presented to us? Just this: If we have the truth, it will explain
what was before a mystery. And as we are surrounded by mysteries, the Truth must explain them all.
This power of suggestion must still be used, whatever line may be pointed out to us. If Truth exists and is possible to us—the
Truth in religion, science and philosophy—it must first come to us by suggestion from Those who know. If it were not possible
for this to be done, were not possible for us to avail ourselves of it, then there would be no use talking of these things. But
when the true is suggested to us, there is always a means presented by which we may see and verify it. That means is not in
anyone’s authority or endorsement, but in the fact that we can perceive it and test it for ourselves. The final authority is the
man himself.
An outside God is an idol. We have to reach into the very recesses of our own being and understand that it is ourself that
chooses and determines for itself what it shall accept and what reject. The very power of Divinity—the power of choice—is in
each one of us. When we begin to understand that, we get the first clue to our own immortality. So we may see that That
which lives and thinks in man is the Eternal Pilgrim. If you prefer to use the term God, you may say, “So many men on earth,
so many Gods in heaven.”
There are many beings below man; perhaps some will admit that there may be, that there are, beings greater than man.
None of these beings can be omnipresent, none of them can be the Supreme. What is that which is omnipresent and
supreme in each and every being—in man, in the beings below man, in the beings above man? is it not this Power to
perceive, to think, to choose, to act upon the thinking and the choosing—upon the Intelligence which the being has? That
Power transcends all beings, all conceptions. It is that Power which lies at the root of all evolution, and is the very Essence of
every being. No one is separate from That. No one is without That. All are rays from and one with That. There is no possibility
of any existence apart from That.
Man stands in the midst of a vast and silent evolution—the evolution of Intelligence, of Soul. All the beings below man must
be coming up the ladder of being to our stage, and whatever beings may exist beyond man, they must have passed through
our stage and gone still farther up the ladder. They are our Elder Brothers and have passed through civilizations before
ours—many, many ages before ours—and have reached a point of development far higher than ours. It is They who have
carried forward all the knowledge gained in that vast evolution which has preceded ours.
These Elder Brothers of the human family are not spirits in the ordinary sense of the word, nor are they hazy beings, ‘ or ‘
They are men, Mahatmas (Great Souls), who are perfected beings physically, mentally, morally, psychically, spiritually—who
stand now where we shall one day stand, when we have perfected ourselves in the same way that They have done, through
self-induced and self-devised exertions.
These Masters stand to us in Their knowledge and power, in Their ability and efforts to help and guide us, as the greatest
and most powerful suggestion that could be made to any human being. They are willing and ready to help whenever and
where ever we are willing and ready to receive. They never ask for anything; They are always ready to give to those who may
be willing to follow the lines indicated, so that we in our turn may become as They are—may know for ourselves.
If we take Their philosophy as given to us in Theosophy, if we take it as a theory to be examined on its merits, we shall find
that it explains. It explains why there are so many different kinds of people; it explains different natures; it explains why some
suffer more and others suffer less. It explains why each one is born in a particular place, in that family, in that nation, at that
time. It explains every inequality in life, every injustice, every mystery. It will enable a man to realize his own immortality, to live
a conscious existence in Spirit, even while incarnated in a body here on this earth. At present we live in matter; we think that
we exist in matter and are dependent on matter for our existence. We think in matter. Our religion is materialistic; our
science is materialistic; our philosophy is materialistic. All this is due to the misuse of the power of suggestion and to our
acceptance of ideas without investigation, without comparison, upon authority. We believe; we do not know.
There is no Divinity, save it has evolved as such from the One Spirit. Every Divine being is an evolution. Where ever divinity
is spoken of it means an evolution of a being. All intelligence is based in the Power to perceive, and that exists in every
grade of being. Intelligence is the extension of the power to know. This idea sets aside a great many suggestions that we
have perhaps depended upon. It would be well for us if we did not depend upon anything save our own inherent power to
learn, to extricate ourselves from our difficulties. All our powers are born with us; all our past experiences are with us, but they
are crowded out by the suggestions given to us when we were children, and by the false ideas which we still entertain.
Nothing but the Truth can ever set us free, and that Truth each one can find and follow, and thus come to know for himself.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
TRUE CLAIRVOYANCE
Since the Theosophical Movement took outward expression in 1875, the term clairvoyance (clear seeing) has become
familiar to many people. In the latter part of last century and in the early part of this century, many kinds of clairvoyance have
been observed and experienced. Clairvoyance itself had its own peculiar development and facility, the different kinds of
clairvoyance relating to varying degrees of perception of matter where there was no physical thing to be seen, and to events
transpiring at a great distance from where the seer was located. Unfortunately, all of these kinds of clairvoyance were limited
in their scope; they were but partial clairvoyance.
Societies of psychology and of psychical research have under taken the task of finding out what the power of clairvoyance
may or may not be, from the basis of brain, or mere physical existence. They seek the necessary causes in effects which
themselves have been set in motion by causes which are hidden. Consequently, their researches are limited. Yet,
clairvoyance itself, however followed, points to the fact that there is latent in man the power to see, hear, feel, contact, at any
distance whatever; and the power is not limited to any special person, or persons, but is common to all humanity.
There is a true clairvoyance. There is a true school of occultism. There are many false clairvoyants. There are many false
schools of occultism. All the false schools go in some particular direction that is attractive to the ordinary human mind—the
mind that desires to obtain something for itself, as it believes itself to be. So with the different kinds of clairvoyance—if the
desire on the part of one endeavoring to find the power in himself is to obtain something for himself, the clairvoyance
obtained will never lead him in any true direction. Nothing can give a true understanding of clairvoyance, nor bring to our
minds what true clairvoyance may be, but a study of the nature of man, of the nature of the world in which he lives, and the
nature of the solar system in which that world exists.
The clue to true clairvoyance lies in the septenary nature of man. There are seven distinct planes of consciousness; there are
seven distinct states of matter, of which the physical is one. These seven distinct planes of action are the different
departments of man’s nature, but it is the same One who acts in all the different departments. Clairvoyance, then, in any true
sense, we should understand to be clear seeing in each and every one of these seven departments of the nature of man. All
other partial clairvoyance can bring us no great results, and, certainly, no great knowledge.
Many are those who have ‘sat for development,” have endeavored to obtain the state that is termed “the astral plane,” in
order to be able to see and hear at a distance. But the greatest danger imaginable lies in that direction. The mere seeing or
hearing things does not give any understanding of their nature, and many things to which we may be attracted on the astral
plane are dangerous and poisonous in their nature. The efforts made to reach that plane are always by means of passivity,
and, when we allow ourselves to become passive, any influence what ever outside of the normal physical perceptions may
reach us. We are just as much the prey of evil effects as we are open to good effects, but we are not choosers in either
direction. What ever may be in our nature attracts the good, or evil, or mixed, accordingly; but the mere seeing or hearing
would of itself give us no knowledge, nor carry us one step on the way of progress. For illustration, say we were transported
to the planet Mars, saw the operation of the beings there and heard the sounds made in their speech. If they were a different
kind of beings from ourselves we would have no understanding at all of what they were doing. True knowledge and true
understanding are gained by a comprehension of laws and principles, and in no other way. Just as there is a law which from
the very beginning of our being prompted us to advance step by step in development, so there is a law which admits us step
by step up the stairs of knowledge. Not one of those steps may be omitted. To attempt to get to the top by springing from the
bottom is not possible, for each step depends upon every other—the highest resting upon all the rest, the lowest preceding
the highest.
The septenary nature of man is best explained by reference to the three great principles which underlie all life, as well as
every religion and every philosophy that ever has been, or ever can be. They may be indicated by the brief terms God, Law,
and Being. As to God, the ancients have recorded that there is One Absolute Principle—Unspeakable, Untranslatable,
Undefinable, Infinite, Omnipresent—the Cause, the Sustainer of all that was, is, or ever shall be. Deity, the Omnipresent, can
be absent from no point of space, and we are inseparable from It. Each one is of That—a ray from and one with that
Absolute Principle. The power in us to perceive, to know, to experience—apart from any thing that is seen, known, or
experienced—is the One Self, the One Life, and the One Consciousness, shared by all alike—the
Source of every being, the Life of every being, the Power of every being. Behind all perceiving and knowing and
experiencing is the One undivided Self. Herein lies the true basis of Brotherhood—the unifying bond for all above man and
for all below man—and the real growth into divine life is the increasing realization of the fullness of that Life in each. Acting
for and as that Self in every direction, realizing that the Self acts in all and through all, and endeavoring to realize more and
more that each one is that Self, the fullness of one’s own nature and of other natures comes to be seen, appreciated,
understood, and helped.
The second great principle—Law—shows that the universe is a boundless plane, in which occur periodical manifestations.
This earth had a beginning; this solar system had a beginning. So, too, they will have an ending, since everything that begins
in time ends in time. All earths, solar systems, and beings of every grade, have reached their present stage through
evolution—that evolution under exact law, inherent in the nature of the beings concerned. All evolution proceeds from beings.
It is the force of the beings in action which causes individual and collective results. The law of laws is Karma—the law of
action and re-action, of cause and effect, which are the aspects of action, and which can not be separated. All progress
goes on under this law in the natural sequence of periods of activity and periods of rest. As after night comes morning again;
as after spring, summer, autumn, winter comes spring again; so after birth, youth, manhood, death comes birth again. The
process of reincarnation, or coming into a body again, is just as natural as coming into another day which is not yet. This life
is; last life was; next life will be. So, as planets or solar systems have their ending, will they and the beings who composed
them, have their re-incarnation—a new beginning.
The third fundamental principle points to the fact that all beings in the universe have evolved from lower points of perception
into greater and greater individualization; that the beings above man have gone through our stage; that there never can never
be a stoppage of evolution in an infinite universe of infinite possibilities; that whatever stage of perfection may be reached in
any race, on any planet, or in any solar system there are always greater opportunities beyond.
When this solar system began, then, it was merely a continuation of that which had been. In another aggregation, on another
planet, beings of every grade, corresponding to our mineral, animal, man, and superman, were working together. That great
day of operation ceased; that world stopped so far as any further action was concerned, just as we stop when we cease
waking consciousness and go into sleep. Then the dawn of the next day comes. There is an arousal and operation again. All
the beings that had hitherto expressed themselves, that had been indrawn into the primordial state of matter, go forth again
on a new basis to further development.
We were self-conscious beings when this world began, clothed in that primordial state of matter from which all subsequent
states have proceeded, and in which the possibilities of change are infinite. Just as our planet, beginning in a nebulous
state, tends to a concretion, gradually cooling, hardening, and condensing, so every living human being has made himself
concretions of substance, until he has reached this most dense plane, and final concretion in the present physical body.
Those stairs down which he has descended are seven in number. That this solar system, this earth and man are septenary in
nature is the teaching. Observe the seven notes of the scale, and the seven colors of the spectrum. These colors do not
‘happen,” by chance; they are evolutions, differentiations of the one substance. Both sound and color are different rates of
vibration caught by the instruments of the ear, the eye, or both. Some think that while we have now only five senses, we are
gradually acquiring another sense. What we really have are five organs that give five distinct characteristics of matter. What
we shall next arrive at is an understanding of the sixth characteristic of matter, and beyond that is the seventh synthetic
sense, which covers all and belongs to the higher planes of being.
If we are that being who is the perceiver, the knower, the spirit, Life, Consciousness itself—what would be true clairvoyance?
Could that by any possibility be called true clairvoyance which would be embraced in the mere looking through fleshly eyes
upon a state of matter only a little removed from this of the earth? There are true clairvoyants who not only know what is
apparent to everybody, but who see everything that is in a human being, or in any being. In their sight, one can not make a
motion of any kind—such a simple motion as moving from one chair to another—without setting every one of his seven
senses into action and exhibiting along the line of those seven senses every single qualification and motive he may ever
have held. It is within the power of some to know the very hearts of men, to know the very motives that actuate them. In true
clairvoyance, the real being is absolutely and unconditionally awake. He is using every one of the instruments with precision
and in exact line with one another. He has clear seeing. He reaches down into the motives of man, because he sees
everything. How can he see? Every center in man—that is, every organ—has been evolved under the operation of the laws
that govern the solar system. These laws may be known. Every center has its own distinctive color and its own distinctive
sound; it also presents a distinctive symbol and form. If, then, one knew the laws of sounds, colors, symbols and form, he
could tell, just as exactly as we tell the simplest thing, what caused the nature of any motion and the motive that underlay it.
From him, deception could not be hid; evil could not be hid; motives could not be hid. Such an acquisition, without any
possibility of failure, would be divine—the true clairvoyance.
True clairvoyance is not gained by “sitting for development.” One might sit for development ten million years, and in the end
be only capable of sitting. The true power is gained by trying to realize our own divine nature, and to act as divinity acts; by
trying to get all the possessions possible, that we may place them at the service of our fellow-men. The power is gained by
self sacrificing service, and in no other way. The divine in us has its fullest expression in self-sacrifice. As man moves along,
realizing more and more his own nature, working more and more for the natures of every other, he finds spiritual knowledge
springing up spontaneously within him. He seeks nothing for himself. He seeks all power and all knowledge only that he may
help others less endowed. Jesus said: “Let him who would be the greatest among you serve the least.” And so it has always
been in this great work, that those who were the greatest among us served the least, were the humble ones, who sought no
preference, no recognition.
Altruism, self-sacrifice, devotion to the highest interests of humanity—these constitute the one password to true clairvoyance.
If it could be had in any other way, would not a great many things that have happened, a great many disasters that have
befallen different peoples, been avoided? If such knowledge could be bought, would not institutions be despoiled, people
robbed, the stock-market exploited, and all sorts of self-advantages gained? But true knowledge is never used for self-
advantage; not even for defence. When Jesus was on the cross, they said: “Let Him save Himself; let Him come down from
the cross. He saved others; Himself He cannot save.” ‘Was He powerless to come down? Not at all. They had wreaked their
natures upon Him, and He suffered it. He could have destroyed them all, if He chose, but He said: “Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do.” Nor would those who were able to read the inner most thoughts of a person be “peering about,”
be endeavoring to discover what others desired to hide. Never would they look where the demand had not been made upon
them. They would take each person at his own valuation. If such an one deceived—whatever the deception—they would
meet him on his own ground, striving all the time to give him a higher point of view.
There are beings who come into the world from time to time, with no marks of distinction that we, as human beings, can
recognize, yet the possessors of a knowledge which we ardently desire to possess. They are never recognized, save by the
very few while they are among us; but when they go, that which they have given tells us what they were. By the very character
of the teachings of Jesus we recognize the nature of the being who brought them. So the teachings of Theosophy—a
knowledge which is absolutely scientific, covering every department of nature, explaining all that now are mysteries—declare
the nature of those beings who brought Theosophy, our Elder Brothers. And They, who have raised themselves out of our
ranks, do not leave us in trouble, in darkness, in ignorance. Their desire is that we shall see, under stand, know ourselves;
that, quickly setting right the ideas which we hold of life, and letting right actions flow from right ideas, we may act as divine
beings. However blind, however ignorant, we are not left alone, but are helped just so far as we desire and merit help, and
just so far as we, with what we learn, help others who know still less than we. Unselfishness, and that alone, brings us all the
gifts there are. As Jesus said: ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all the rest will be added unto you.”
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
TRUE MORALITY
True morality is not a thing of words or phrases or modes of action of any kind, nor is its basis to be found in the many kinds
of ideas of morality in the world, which vary as to time and place. What is “moral” at one time is “immoral” at another. There is
no basis whatever in this changing attitude towards actions, changing classifications of good and evil, in a changing “division
of the universe.” Intolerance is their sure resultant; for those who pride themselves upon their own special brands of “morality”
are always intolerant of others who do not accept that brand. True morality rests in an understanding and in a realization of
man’s own spiritual nature, and must of necessity flow from it, irrespective of all kinds of conventions. We need to know our
own inner natures in order to know what is, in truth, morality.
The conventions of external life are established merely by a consensus of opinion of the beings living at any one time and in
any one place. They are not necessarily based on truth, and certainly not on a perception of the whole of truth. As we may
see, the best interests of all are not served by the ideas that are generally held. The world is in a tremendously evil and
selfish state. With all our prevailing ideas of progress, of morality and of religion, it is not anywhere nearly so happy a place
as it was perhaps a century or two ago; it is not nearly so good a place for human beings to live in as it was in the more
innocent and less complex civilizations of the older nations. There is evidently some thing wrong with the ideas that we hold,
if we find it impossible to deny the fact that instead of the world getting better and in stead of life becoming more simple, the
world is growing worse and life is becoming more and more complex. We should not find ourselves in the present condition
if our ideas, religious and moral, flowed from the underlying basic ideas of all religions, philosophies, and systems of thought.
The basis of understanding of life accepted by the majority of Western peoples has been a revealed religion, and a personal
God who revealed that religion. From this basis have sprung all our wrong conceptions. Hence the great stress laid on
physical existence. in fact, one might say that the generality of human thinking is centered entirely on physical existence. The
question has not even been asked, “How is it that I am born at this time, under such conditions, in this people, and not at
some previous or future time, when the world might be better?” The question has not been asked, “Why are we here at all?”
Nor have we asked, “What is the pre-existing cause that brought us into this relation? Was it at the whim or caprice of a
special Being, or was it under the operation of an indwelling, inherent law within ourselves?” If we are here with our present
qualities, surrounded with difficulties, not because of anything we ourselves have done, but because of the whim or caprice
of some Being, then we must regard ourselves as absolutely irresponsible for anything what ever. If we were so created,
there is nothing that can undo that creation and we must suffer the consequences, the causes for which we did not set in
motion!
The true ideas of the ancient philosophy relieve us of two misconceptions: one, the idea that there is a revengeful God who
punishes us for those things that we are unable to prevent ourselves from doing; and second, the idea of a Devil to whom we
are consigned if we do not follow the lines that some people have laid down for us. A knowledge of Theosophy enables us to
understand that there never was any “creation,” in the sense of making something out of nothing; but that everything—every
being of every kind—has evolved, and is still evolving. The beings below us are evolving to our estate, where the beings, now
evolved so far beyond us, some time in the distant past went through a similar stage. All beings are what they are through
evolution from within outwards, that evolution proceeding under Law.
Law is operative everywhere and upon every being, because the Law is not something separate from him; it is not separate
from the inner spiritual man. Law is the law of man’s own action. So, as we act along those lines that affect others for good or
for evil, we necessarily receive the return from those good or evil effects which we cause others to experience. Each
individual is the operator of the Law; according to his actions he gets the re-actions; according to his sowing, does he reap.
In place, then, of the idea of a revengeful God, we have the ideas of absolute Justice and individual responsibility.
If, from the point of view of Law, we ask ourselves what pre-existing causes brought us into these relations, we can see that
what now is must have been brought about by ourselves, and what now is is similar to what was. At once the idea is
presented to our minds that this is not the first time, by many times, we have been in a body; that re-incarnation is the
process by which human beings reach greater and greater heights; that there is no other way or means to learn all the
lessons to be gained in physical life among our fellow-men, except through repeated incarnations.
We come, then, to another phase of our being—for we see there is in us something that is continuous in its operation,
something which was never born and never dies. If it continues from one life to another, through many lives, and for many
lives, there must be a permanency in us which no change of condition or body or circumstance can alter for a single instant.
As we thus think in terms of ages rather than in the days of one short life, we begin to get a glimpse of that Reality which lies
within us; we open the door so that those internal, real, more permanent perceptions can find operation in our daily waking
thoughts—for every single human being has sprung from the One Great Source, is animated by That, is, in fact, That at the
very root of his being; in That is his power of perception and of action, which is spiritual and permanent. The power of
perception and of action exists in everyone; the direction of that perception and action rests in each one. Each has the
power to take the course which to him seems best; but, in taking the course, he sows, and must also reap as was the nature
of his sowing. Every being in this universe of Law is experiencing as he is because of his own thoughts, words, and deeds;
every circumstance, every misshapen day, every evil that comes to us as well as every good, is due to thought, word of deed
of ours in the past. In each incarnation we find friends as well as enemies. So our minds may be set at rest with regard to
either God or Devil. Each one of us represents both the Spirit—the highest divine nature—and also, the very lowest—the
infernal nature. Man is spiritual, in fact, but, thinking himself material and separate, and acting in accordance with his
thinking, he brings about the battle between the two natures in him.
The great mistake of religionists in our age has been the classification of good and evil. There is nothing good in itself. There
is nothing evil in itself. It is the use to which anything is put that
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