POKROV IS A SPIRITUAL ASSOCIATION OF ESOTERIC.
The Friendly Philosopher-Eternal Verities
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The friendly philosopher
makes it good or makes it evil. How can we draw a fine line between good and bad in every case? Good and evil are judged
by the effects that flow from the action done, but what might seem bad in one case might be in fact the highest good, and what
might seem good in another case might, in fact, lead to the greatest evil. Just a hair’s line divides the Divine from the Satanic.
And that hair’s line consists, not in this nor in that mode of conduct, but in the clearly presented motive or intention of the one
who acts. A good motive can never produce altogether evil results, and yet a good motive is not enough. We may have the
best motive in the world, but if we have not also knowledge and wisdom, we may unintentionally do a wrong thing when
we intended to do good; and sometimes we may do a good thing when we intended to do evil. Thus true morality may be
seen to lie not in the act itself, but in the motive; it depends on the knowledge and intelligence of the being acting.
The lines of true morality may go anywhere, but by this is not meant that we do evil that good may come! How could we do evil
if our perception is good, if our knowledge is clear, if our motive is unquestioned and without self-interest? No imaginable evil
could flow under such conditions, which are of the nature of the Spirit. The widest range of intelligence and wisdom are
required to make it possible for no evil effects to flow even if good is intended. Wisdom is always required, because the very
nature and essence of our being is wisdom itself, the object of wisdom, and that which is to be obtained by wisdom. There is
nothing higher than that essence of our being, and we may consciously gain it by first setting aside all those ideas that conflict
with it, and then, acting from the basis of our spiritual nature, from the basis of absolute, unerring Law. Once these ideas are
held in mind to the exclusion of all other separative ideas, unity of Spirit, unity of thought and unity of action take place.
This great philosophy of Theosophy, then, presents a basis from which the truest kind of morality can be perceived. True
morality does not depend upon words, phrases, or conventions, but upon a universal perception of all things, whereby
everything is done for good, every thought and feeling expended for the benefit of others rather than for one’s self. A clear
perception of one’s own spiritual nature, and the motive to benefit mankind in every direction and in every case, without self-
interest, are the two essentials for true morality. True morality is, in fact, a universal existence, and the beginning of it is in the
desire to live to benefit mankind without self-interest or hope of any reward whatever; then, to practice and to help those who
know still less than we do.
This is quite the reverse of prevailing religious ideas of personal salvation, yet this universal existence is our salvation. At
once, when these universal ideas are seen and to some extent realized, one loses all fears. Neither change nor death, nor
things present or to come, can have any effect upon that one. He meets conditions as they come, does what he can, and lets
other conditions succeed them. He moves through life, far from an un happy being, quite capable of taking all the joy and
pleasure that exist in the world—all that upon which his fellow-men only subsist or hope to subsist. He moves among his fellow-
men, understanding everything that they are going through, enjoying with their joy and sorrowing when they sorrow, yet himself
free from either joy or sorrow. When we arrive at that condition, our sense of morality will be based on the nature of man. We
shall then look on each and every being as of the same kind as ourselves, differing only in degree of understanding. There can
not be in us anything but tolerance and mercy, for we shall know we can not judge others in their struggles; we can not say that
there is good in this case, bad in that; we shall understand that goodness and badness are entirely relative in men, while they
perceive the Reality not at all; we shall see that the best thing we can do for anyone is to assist him to understand himself, so
that he may reach that point of perception and knowledge and power which is, in reality, his own and which he has but to
realize.
Man’s false conceptions of life are what prevent him from knowing the truth, and it is evident that the first step towards true
perception lies in throwing aside the prejudices and predilections he has lived by. And there is always help. Never have we
been, left alone. Always there are beings greater in evolution than we, who return to this field of physical existence to help us,
to wake us up to a perception of our natures. Such has been the mission of all Divine Incarnations down the ages. Those
beings have come and lived among us, have become “in all things like unto us,” as was said of Jesus, in order that the human
words They spoke should be words we would understand. They meet us on the basis of our ideas and try to clarify them and
set them in a true course. They can do nothing to stop what we have done and what we want to do; They can not interfere; but
They can help us to see the right direction, if we are so willed; They can give help when we turn to that direction which They
indicate—that Path which They themselves followed so many ages ago. Always They try to help us, even when we are
proceeding along wrong lines and bringing upon ourselves the suffering such wrong lines entail—even then They try to direct
the results into a better channel. They hold back the awful Karma that would shake the world, and let the effects come so
gradually that we can stand and bear them. That is part of the protective power of the spiritual nature, and it operates in every
direction.
It is for us, then, to say which way we shall go. We are not creatures of circumstance. We are not the creatures of environment.
We are their creators. It is for us to see that we think right, that we build right, that we build upon the strong foundation of the
eternal verities, and that we keep our eyes upon that Path which the great Masters of Wisdom have sought to open before us.
So in our turn we shall point out the Way among the hosts who are moving in delusion and ignorance, and as we help each
one, we help ourselves. As we help ourselves by helping others, we raise all.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THE STOREHOUSE OF THOUGHT
When we consider the idea of thought we must remember that there cannot be thought without a thinker. There are no
thoughts that arise of themselves; they are all produced by intelligent beings, no matter what kind of thoughts they are.
We are all thinkers, and we all assume that we have minds, but of what does the mind consist? What we call our mind is not, in
reality, mind at all. The mind itself is the power to think. The bundles of ideas that we call our minds are the products of the
thinking faculty; they are the effects of intelligent ideation, and we have to get further and further back from the effects
perceived to the causes of those effects.
Mind itself is not limited; we all have the unlimited power to think in any and all directions. But we all are born into or come in
contact with different sets of ideas which we consciously or unconsciously adopt and cling to. Yet we ought to recognize and
realize from the very outset that we are not those ideas, because we have the power to “change our minds”; if we were in fact
our ideas, we could not change them, could never get a new idea nor expel an old one.
We think that our ideas are our own; but, when we come to self-analysis, we find that as a matter of fact not one in a million is
an independent Thinker who creates his thoughts from a realization of the universality of nature and the common source from
which we all derive or draw what seem to be our separate powers. It is strange that we do not see that there is a common
source for us all, and for all our powers; that only the use of life and the life-powers differ in each, according to the ideas each
one holds. We all have the power to think, and we all think differently, and that makes us seem to be different.
We live in a world of effects, overwhelmed mentally by them, unable to extricate ourselves from them. So what is most needed
in the world is a realization of what our own real nature is. If we find what our own real nature is, then we shall know what the
real nature of every other being is, whether that other being is below us in point of intelligence, or as far above us as has yet
been attained by any being.
If we are ever going to know anything of the common Source of all our being and of all our powers, we have to gain that
knowledge within ourselves. For no one is separate from It; each one springs from the same Supreme, is one with It in his
inner most nature. The idea is beyond any conception of the Deity as people hold God today, or that has been popularly held
in the past.
The Supreme is beyond form. It is beyond expression. Where is the man who can say what That is within himself which sees,
which knows, which feels, which experiences, which garners the results of all experience? Each one is of that Infinite Source,
because all have the same infinite root; each one is an expression of It.
If a man does not understand what his real Source is, what his real nature is, and assumes himself to be that which he is not,
then all his exercise of the power to think, all his creative thoughts, all his subsequent actions, will follow the lines of his wrong
basis of thought and action. If he thinks he is a poor miserable sinner who cannot do anything of himself and for him self, then
a poor, miserable sinner he will remain. But if he realizes that all the effects which surround him are due to thinking, that he can
create better effects, that all things are within his reach, he will gain a new insight and a greater strength. He gets beyond
effects to the field of causes, and begins to realize that all things are alike in essential nature. He finds from that consideration
that the universe is under Law. The very highest being is under law, just the same as the very lowest. That Law does not exist
outside of us, and is not put in motion by some being or beings outside us, but is inherent in each. As we act, we experience
the reaction; as we think, so are we. In accordance with the intelligence of our action, so will be the expression returning to us.
‘ ye sow, so shall ye also reap;” as we are reaping, so we must have sown.
We have there the first and final expression of Justice: that we reap what we have sown. In whatever conditions we may find
ourselves, we have to admit that they are our own productions. How were they originally produced? By the thoughts of the
thinker based on a false conclusion. The power of the Supreme is in every one. No matter what the man thinks, there is power
in it; and if he holds to that thinking he is bound to produce the effects that flow from the lines of his special endeavor. If he is
creating things that perish, if he is creating things that do not relate to his own true nature—if his power to think is wrapped up
in the things that have to do only with his body or the bodily surroundings, or his physical advancement—is it any wonder that
soon or late we find ourselves in a complex situation and with such usually disastrous consequences to ourselves? We are
bewildered by the very effects that we have produced by our thinking based upon wrong ideas.
We have then to beware that we do not set the power of our spiritual nature in a personal direction, for personal, selfish ends;
such will only bring reaction upon us, of necessity. Each one has pursued his own individual path, as if he were separate from
all the rest, and so has created the conditions under which he exists, the experiences that bring him suffering or enjoyment.
We have considered that good and evil are things in themselves. They are not. There is nothing good in itself; there is nothing
evil in itself. Good and evil are the effects felt by us. What is good to one may be evil to another. It depends on the recipient, on
his attitude of mind. If we see that Law rules and recognize that these effects were produced by ourselves, that we receive the
exact return of causes set in motion by ourselves, then we see that whatever we do or have done affects others either for good
or evil, and that we must in the nature of things in time pay that debt incurred or receive back the benefit conferred. The good
that comes is what we have earned through service to others. The evil that befalls us is also what we have earned, by lack of
service or by injury to others—every effect is the continuation of the cause set in motion by ourselves.
There is the true idea to be established in us—that of our individual responsibility to all others for the use of our powers. In it is
implied the Spiritual Identity of all beings, the divinity of every being that exists—not only of mankind—the good and bad
natures there—but every being below us, as well as every being above us. This presents the fact that all powers—of
perception, of experience, of knowledge, of wisdom—lie for each being within himself, in his inmost nature. And it brings
instantly to our minds the idea of development, of unfoldment, of evolution, for every being high or low. There are embryonic
souls below us in their various stages of progress; there are the souls of men with their varying degrees of development; and
there are Great Souls—Men who have gone through the stages we are now passing through. The whole universe is made up
of beings. The form is the home, the instrument, of some minor or greater intelligence. No intelligence, no form; no
intelligence, no action of any kind, no responsibilities of any kind. Wherever you find actions and conditions, there you get
intelligence, and where ever there is intelligence there is responsibility, whether recognized or not. So that the universe exists
for one purpose, and for one purpose only—for the Soul’s experience and emancipation.
Soul means the acquired experience of the Spiritual Being. In the vast universe, with such an innumerable and immeasurable
range of intelligent beings, differing infinitely in their respective degrees of acquired intelligence, or Soul, where or what would
be the Storehouse of Thought?
In this vast assemblage of beings there are many, many kinds of thought. There are the thoughts or ideas of all the men now
on earth and of those who have been; the thoughts or expressions of the beings below man; the ideas and still wider
expressions of the beings above man. All these make a vast storehouse; but no one of us can draw from that storehouse any
more, nor any different than he puts himself in a position to receive. He must make room for it. All that we perceive directly is
ideas. Behind all action is thought of some kind. It is the kind of ideas we hold that makes us do everything—good or evil.
Now we can see how important it is that we should know what we really are—become acquainted with our own nature— and
have that as a basis of our thought and action. Upon the quality of thought depends the quality or kind of action. It is all a
sequence, and so what is needed is an orderly succession of thoughts based on our true natures, and action in accordance
with them. Then everything flows along the line of divine unfoldment, of divine evolution; then we are working in accord with
nature, in accord with all others.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THE LANGUAGE OF THE SOUL
The Soul is pictured in the ancient teachings as the real Self man. There are many different conceptions of what man is and
what the soul. From Christian teachings we are led to believe that man has a soul, and may save it or lose it—the idea
generally held in the West. But the conception of the ancients, and that of Theosophy, which is a re-presentation of this eternal
idea, is different. The teaching is that Man is a Soul; that Soul is in fact the one who perceives; that it is vision itself, pure and
simple, unmodified—not subject to change—and that it looks directly on ideas.
This idea presents the fact that the real Man in whatever condition he may be existing, whether asleep or awake, whether in a
physical body during his lifetime, or whether in another form of body after death or before birth, or before the existence of this
planet or this solar system—that this real Man was the same Perceiver, then as now, the same Soul all the time; the Creator of
all the conditions that have arisen; the intelligent Creator of this universe, in connection with all the beings below him and all
the beings above him. Man thus forms part of one great Brotherhood, and this bond of brotherhood extends throughout, from
the lowest being to the very highest.
They are all Souls; even the very lowest forms of matter are none the less Souls, for in the lowest form of matter is the power to
perceive, the power to act, the power to gain experience. The potentiality is the same in all, and that potentiality becomes a
potency ever expanding as the Soul increases its range of experience. All the forms, the bodies, that compose the universe
are the results of the experience and action of the souls inhabiting them. They are all the instruments of the soul, and we
always act with others in any grade or class of beings. There is that unity of action which produces a similarity of instrument. In
these similarities of instrument we play upon and are played upon by beings of the same class in the fullest degree, and by
lower and higher classes in a greater or less degree.
So, taking this conception that the Self is the same in each being, no matter how great that being may be, nor how low, we get
another idea in regard to soul—that soul also represents the acquired experience gained through evolution by each and every
class of being. Each individual being is not only Self, but, in addition, the acquired experience gained through contact with all
other beings. Realizing that there are individual souls, we can see that the only differences between souls are in their degrees
of acquired experience. Taking the soul from this point of view, then, as the acquired experience of individuals, when we
speak of God, or the Over-Soul, the Universal Over-Soul, we simply mean the acquired experiences, or wisdom, of every soul
and all souls. That would be the meaning of the sentence in the Bhagavad Gita that the Self is “Wisdom itself, the object of
Wisdom and that which is to be attained by Wisdom”—full consciousness of the union of all-souls, or Spiritual Identity.
If we are to try to relate these conceptions to language we would, perhaps, have to clear up many ideas which we now hold.
Supposing there is a real language of the soul, what would it be capable of expressing? Undoubtedly every experience
through which it had ever been.
Theosophy teaches the doctrine of reincarnation—of successive lives, both on this earth and in other states of substance and
consciousness. Continuity of Consciousness, or Spirit, is preserved through all these states and environments, and the record
of all that occurred in all these lives is present at all times in any one-life in manifestation, because the Self, the Spirit, is
present. The language of the Soul would be capable of expressing all that we ever experienced.
In those past lives we have undoubtedly spoken different languages from those we now speak; in those personal existences
we used languages now altogether deserted and forgotten by us as persons. But the memory of those languages must be
there, if we are a continuing Self and preserve the continuity of experience gained, as well as the continuity of consciousness.
Those old languages which we once used, in themselves amount to nothing, because any language and all languages are only
the expression of the feeling and thought of the individual soul; his emotions, hopes, fears, ideas and aspirations. So there
must be at all times behind any language whatever, the basis for it—the Soul and its experience. Where is that recorded? It is
impacted in the imperishable part of man’s nature. It cannot be any spoken tongue what ever. What, then, is its nature?
To understand these propositions we have again to consider the philosophy of Theosophy. Theosophy points out that matter
is in seven states or degrees of substances, and each of these with seven sub-states, the whole ranging from the very finest,
most plastic and enduring state down to the very coarsest—what we may call the material plane, or matter as it is known and
suspected by us, with its many differing gradations and combinations. Man, as the highest and most evolved being concerned
in the evolution of this solar system, is clothed in all these seven states of substance derived from the original primordial
substance—the homogeneous matter from which every form is evolved. These degrees of substance are indicated in the
seven colors of the spectrum; they are also pointed to in the seven notes of the scale of music.
The notes and colors are not exactly what we think they are: they represent the seven great distinct states of matter; sound
itself, or light itself, represents the homogeneous state from which the seven notes and the seven prismatic colors are derived.
Our colors and our musical notes are only replicas of these—their reflections or correspondences in this one state of matter
and sound with which we are acquainted. We know there are seven colors; we know that there are other octaves of color
beyond those, which our eyes are unable to transmit to us—some so high, some so low that our eyes will not register their
vibrations. The same is true with sound. We are able to detect several, but there are degrees of sound beyond the highest we
are able to detect, and also sounds too low for us to hear.
Let us call the Soul the Ego; perhaps that, for us, is the most compact expression for what is meant by Soul, since it includes
both the one who perceives and his perceptions, both the one who knows and his experiences. Well, then, the Ego has a
language of his own, and that language is one of color, sound and symbol. It is a language that may be seen; that may be
heard; that may be felt. It is by means of this language of the soul that the experiences of others may become directly known to
us, comprehensible to us, no matter what vocal tongues we may use. This is why it was said in old times, as mentioned in the
Bible, that the Wise understood every man speaking in his own tongue, although many different languages were used, then as
now. It was because these Wise men could read back of the spoken language, that they knew the very thoughts, feelings and
natures of the speakers. That is why in any person’s motion—even so simple an action as in moving from one chair to
another— quality of the thought, the very nature of the person, is clearly shown by the assemblage of colors and shades of
colors produced by the action. The same with any uttered sounds or speech, no matter what—the centers in the body are set
in motion, each having its own particular tell tale colors and rates of vibration.
Strange as it may seem to us, colors may be heard, sounds may be seen, and forms may be experienced, because all are
merely different rates of vibration—the motion of Intelligent Consciousness, or Spirit. They are all correlated, and one does not
exist with out the others. They are merely aspects of that which is the real propulsion of the soul itself, or the conscious being.
So, in our thoughts we have a great combination of colors and sounds, constantly changing their form, or appearance. Our
brain is the finest material instrument we use. It, like everything else we use, is an evolution. It is the organ of thought on this
plane of substance where we are now acting. If we think high and noble thoughts, then our brains become very susceptible to
that kind of use. Every kind of thought has its own particular rate and range of vibration, its own particular colors. If we were
acquainted with ourselves, in reality, we could read thought as we now read a book. We could read thoughts as we now hear
sounds. If our brains are trained to high thoughts while we are awake; if we try to understand what we really are while
occupying this physical instrument; what this body of ours represents; what it is capable of— then gradually the brain will begin
to respond to something of our higher knowledge. It will carry forward and transmit more and more of the Language of the
Soul, of all the garnered experience of the past.
The ideas that we have, even in regard to Spirit and Soul, to Life hitherto, here and hereafter, are those we have been taught.
They are nearly all personal and keep us entirely on the personal plane—the plane of merely physical existence. They give us
no true ideas whatever of the real inner self. We have not yet begun to think—in any true sense, in any true direction; and it is
only true ideas that will give us knowledge of the inner nature of man. Our habits are merely memory impacted in our nature,
whether they be habits of body or habits of thought. We do not store knowledge anywhere but within ourselves; but sometimes
we forget where we have hidden it, or we cover it up with a lot of the useless rubbish of mere mental activity. Most of our
mental activity is applied solely to the things of this life, to things of the body; so, mankind is continually moving along a false
path. No being, however high, can prevent this, because each man is Soul, is Spirit, is Consciousness—is of the Highest,
however he use and apply his powers.
Theosophy endeavors to present to man what his real nature is; that he is first, last, and all the time SPIRIT. Spirit means Life
and Consciousness—the power to see, to know, to experience. We all have that. That is common to all of us. It is not separate
in self—it is the One Life in all beings of every grade. But we, as individuals, have evolved into individuals from the great
Ocean of Life. We are Individualized Spirit, and so we each have a separate individual existence, which is continuous. In that
sense we are an evolution, but an evolution of Spirit, not Matter—an evolution of Knowledge, not of form only. This has been
obtained through observation and experience; whatever differences exist are because of more or less experience, or a better
adaptation and application of it; there is no difference in the Source or Potentialities of any being. All this we shall find out, if
we move along the Path shown. For it is not an uncharted path. Remember, others have been along that path before us. They
are our Elder Brothers—Jesus, for example; Buddha for another; and all those who came at different times as Saviours to the
many different peoples. They had all acquired the Language of the Soul. They all had a common body of knowledge. They
come amongst men from time to time, as the intelligence of humanity progresses, and give out as much of that knowledge as
the then existing state of humanity permits. They came again in our own time; and greater than Those who so came there has
not been. Why should anyone say that? Because other Saviours came to separate and distinct peoples, but the Message of
Theosophy is not to any one nation, not to any one class of beings, but to the whole world.
That knowledge is obtainable by any self-conscious being for himself, for it is not a question of our ideas, of our present
perceptions of morality or success, nor of external power, but of Spiritual perception—of the Language of the Soul. We may
make all the mistakes in the world, according to the world, in the body and through the body, and yet have a power of Spiritual
perception that would do away with all “mistakes. We would not have to have any vicarious atonement, but would be able to
act in a proper relation with every being. Our thoughts and actions would be in accord. (but we would have to go through the
crucifixion of the false ideas in ourselves, and arise as the Saviour did, to the right hand of the Father—the Ego free from all
these delusions which have caused him to maintain himself in sin, sorrow and suffering.
All men desire Spiritual knowledge, yet the great bulk will not abate one jot or tittle of their mental and physical absorption in
present and worldly things to obtain the spiritual knowledge they say they ardently long for. They will have to move on through
suffering and pain till they really desire to know the truth about themselves. If any man thinks he can get that knowledge by
merely desiring to possess it, or by desiring to possess it for himself alone, he is not in the position that would permit of his
knowing it. The Language of the Soul can be acquired only when the being realizes that his duty is not to himself, but to the
highest interests of his fellowmen; not to “save his own soul”
but to lead as many of his neighbors as he possibly can in the direction of the Truth, desiring nothing for himself. This very
attitude opens the flood-gates of spiritual knowledge within himself. Then he becomes the true enjoyer, using every power he
has, all the knowledge he has, to benefit others. The man who has come to that knowledge and is on the road to its realization
finds “spiritual knowledge springing up spontaneously in him self in the progress of time.” He requires no books to tell him; he
cares not what religions have been, that now are, that ever will be. He knows the truth about himself and consequently the truth
about all others.
Why do not all men take the path to this realization? Is it because they have no organs of perception, are incapable of seeing?
No, it is because they will not listen; they will not take what is given and try it out. They will rather follow anything that promises
some success in this life. Yet they know just as well as anyone that they cannot take a single one of the “successes” away with
them from the earth. When they go, they leave on earth every earthly thing they have accumulated. And they have to go,
because they do not belong here; they are of Spirit, not earth; they are only working in this matter for awhile. They all know that,
and yet dream of “possessions.”
No one damned any of us to this condition in which we find so many. No conditions compel us to stay in a state of mental
unrest, inactivity or ignorance. All these things are imposed on us by our own hard and fast conclusions as to men, things and
methods. These keep us fast bound in our present conditions and will continue to hold us, as long as we maintain that attitude
of mind, and cling to false ideas of God, of Nature, and of Man. We keep the doors closed of our own will. In ignorance? Yes;
but who remains ignorant? Those only who will not hear, those only who doubt the Language of the Soul.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THEOSOPHY IN DAILY LIFE
Many people think that religion means a preparation for death or the states of the future. Religion really means a preparation
for and a knowledge of life—a living of our life as it should be lived. That which prepares for death is life, and ever living.
Formal religions do not even answer the question, why is death—nor any of the other burning questions in daily life. Why do
we have suffering and sorrow? Why are we here? What was the origin of man? Why so many different conditions among
mankind; why are some born to sorrow, and others to joy; why some in lowly places, some in high; why some with great
faculties and others with very few and poor ones? Justice demands an answer which is not furnished by religion, with its ‘ —for
if man is the creature of a creator he can not help himself and is absolutely irresponsible. Any being, if “perfect,” would
maintain justice; yet there are injustices among men. The caprice or whim of a creator does not explain the difficulty. Any
being, however great or high, must of necessity be limited, finite, and imperfect—something outside us, something which
does not contain the universe but is contained by it.
We have to go behind any idea of a Being, to the source of all being—to a basis common to the highest and to the lowest
being. That basis and source is not to be found by looking outward at all, but is the very power to perceive, wherever there is
life. Spirit, Life, Consciousness are the same in every being—undivided, however many and varied the perceptions. Evolution
is not a compelling force from without, but the impelling force of Spirit from within, urging on to better and better expression. All
advancement is from within. All the knowledge that we gain, all the experience that we obtain, is obtained and held within.
Each one, then, is the Seer; all the rest are seen. So, the knowledge that we have to obtain is not information from without, not
the thoughts of other men, but an under standing of our own essential nature, which represents every element in the great
universe, from the basis of all life to every outward expression, and every possibility of further expression— just as each drop
of water contains in itself everything existing in the great ocean from which it came. Nor does Law exist outside of us. Law is
always inherent in Spirit; it is the action which brings re-action in every individual case, and to the collective mass of humanity.
We are here under law and under justice. There is no such thing as injustice in the universe.
Knowing something as to our essential nature, knowing some thing of the purpose of life, and that life is all made up of
learning, knowing that the universe is all alive, and that there is in reality no injustice save that which we inflict upon our selves
by re-action, we would take an entirely different view of life and put these ideas into daily practice. We would take the position
which most of all we need to take—that of our own responsibility, which religions have taught us to shift on to some God or
devil. Recognizing that each one of us is from the same Source and going towards the same goal, though the path will vary
with the pilgrim, we will act toward each one as if he were a part of ourselves. Like us, each one is moving onward— perhaps
below us, possibly above. From the one above, we can obtain help. To the one below, we can give help. Such is the
interdependence which should exist between all conscious beings; and under such a conception our civilization would not be
as it is now. We should not find every man’s hand raised against every other man. We should not see those in poor case
finding fault with the wrong conditions, but finding fault rather with their own wrong relations to others at some time when they
abused the power they had. We should see each one trying to discipline himself, trying to bring himself into proper relation
with all the rest—not so much outwardly, perhaps, as inwardly; for we may be sure that if we make clean the inside of the bowl,
the outside will take care of itself. We have no greater duty to perform than to make clear and clean our natures—to make
them true, to make them in accord with the great object of all life, the evolution of soul.
We can not wait to make our start in this direction until the nation wakes up to Theosophy; for the nation will itself awake only
when each individual wakes up to that which is in himself and by his thought and action instills a similar thought and action in
other human beings. Supposing each one determined to do all he could for every other one wherever he could, do you think
that anybody would suffer? Not one! There would be more to help than those to suffer. But we are afraid that if we so act, the
other man will not. So we do not move at all along that line. The majority of people are thinking about quite other things. They
are busy at the shrine of their gods of comfort, seeking to get the best of everything in life at the expense of someone else. Or
they are seeking to acquire “the power of will,” so that they can get something for nothing from someone else. That is the kind
of “will” which is generally desired, its object being the getting of exactly what one pleases. Is not this psychic banditry?
Anything gotten that way is taken from another, and we shall have to pay it back to the uttermost farthing—if not in this life, then
in some other, for the scales of justice are unerring.
Do we not see that we can trust a universe that moves along unerringly under the law of perfect justice? ‘We certainly can. We
can go forward with an absolute reliance on the law of our own spiritual being, knowing whatever conditions come are
necessary for us, knowing that those very things we feel so hardly are object lessons for us because they indicate a wrong
tendency or defect in us which this present distress affords us an opportunity to overcome, to strengthen our true character.
That is all we have at the end of life, whatever of character—good, bad, or indifferent—we have acquired. Men spend their
lives trying to avoid what they do not like, and trying to get what they like—what they can and while they can. Yet if they got all
the wealth of the world, every possession and every possible desire, what good would it do them? At death everything would
be left where they got it, because nothing adheres to Spirit. The idea of getting for themselves is one of the false notions which
prevent men from understanding themselves as spiritual beings and using the power which belongs to them—for all powers of
every kind—electrical, dynamic or explosive—come from the One Universal Spirit, and each man has latent in him all the
powers in the universe.
Physical life is not necessarily a vale of sorrow. The time must come when we shall have made man’s life on earth what it
ought to be, when we shall have no fear of anything, when we shall not be afraid of our fellowmen. It was said of Daniel, when
he entered the lions’ den, the beasts of prey did not touch him at all. Why? Because his heart was pure. He had no harm in it
for anyone. He trusted to the spiritual law of his own being, and all nature makes obeisance to that. We could go out calmly,
courageously, happily, relying on the laws of our own natures. If we did so, we would bring our daily lives in line with that nature;
for there is nothing of our action which does not come from the mind, and back of the mind is the ‘motive we have in acting.
Motive is what makes our actions really “good” or “bad.” If we are righteous in ourselves and desirous of doing right, then all
that we do will flow rightly from us and every function will be a righteous function. All action springs from and is colored by the
motive held in performing it.
Theosophy is the only philosophy that can be used in every direction in daily life. It can be used in all directions, high or low,
because that use comes from an understanding of the Spirit itself, from acting for that Self and as that Self—for the Self acts
only through the creatures. Acting for and as that Self in every direction, all else flows into line. All the destruction that is around
us, all the misery that we see, has been brought about through our denial of the Holy Ghost—our denial of the Spirit within us.
We deny it when we act as if we are our bodies, or our minds. THAT will not be denied. So man, meeting all the results of that
denial and seeing them to be evil, learns that this is not the way. Then he seeks for Truth, and finding the truth, obtains all that
he can desire—hope, happiness and a better understanding of his and all existence. It was to give to men all they could take
in regard to the nature of the soul—that they might come out from this vale of sorrow—that those Beings known as Divine
Incarnations have descended here of Their own will. They have carried forward from age to age this knowledge of nature and
of man and of the purpose of life, learned through many civilizations of mankind. It is this knowledge which makes Them as
gods to us in Their glory and power.
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makes it good or makes it evil. How can we draw a fine line between good and bad in every case? Good and evil are judged
by the effects that flow from the action done, but what might seem bad in one case might be in fact the highest good, and what
might seem good in another case might, in fact, lead to the greatest evil. Just a hair’s line divides the Divine from the Satanic.
And that hair’s line consists, not in this nor in that mode of conduct, but in the clearly presented motive or intention of the one
who acts. A good motive can never produce altogether evil results, and yet a good motive is not enough. We may have the
best motive in the world, but if we have not also knowledge and wisdom, we may unintentionally do a wrong thing when
we intended to do good; and sometimes we may do a good thing when we intended to do evil. Thus true morality may be
seen to lie not in the act itself, but in the motive; it depends on the knowledge and intelligence of the being acting.
The lines of true morality may go anywhere, but by this is not meant that we do evil that good may come! How could we do evil
if our perception is good, if our knowledge is clear, if our motive is unquestioned and without self-interest? No imaginable evil
could flow under such conditions, which are of the nature of the Spirit. The widest range of intelligence and wisdom are
required to make it possible for no evil effects to flow even if good is intended. Wisdom is always required, because the very
nature and essence of our being is wisdom itself, the object of wisdom, and that which is to be obtained by wisdom. There is
nothing higher than that essence of our being, and we may consciously gain it by first setting aside all those ideas that conflict
with it, and then, acting from the basis of our spiritual nature, from the basis of absolute, unerring Law. Once these ideas are
held in mind to the exclusion of all other separative ideas, unity of Spirit, unity of thought and unity of action take place.
This great philosophy of Theosophy, then, presents a basis from which the truest kind of morality can be perceived. True
morality does not depend upon words, phrases, or conventions, but upon a universal perception of all things, whereby
everything is done for good, every thought and feeling expended for the benefit of others rather than for one’s self. A clear
perception of one’s own spiritual nature, and the motive to benefit mankind in every direction and in every case, without self-
interest, are the two essentials for true morality. True morality is, in fact, a universal existence, and the beginning of it is in the
desire to live to benefit mankind without self-interest or hope of any reward whatever; then, to practice and to help those who
know still less than we do.
This is quite the reverse of prevailing religious ideas of personal salvation, yet this universal existence is our salvation. At
once, when these universal ideas are seen and to some extent realized, one loses all fears. Neither change nor death, nor
things present or to come, can have any effect upon that one. He meets conditions as they come, does what he can, and lets
other conditions succeed them. He moves through life, far from an un happy being, quite capable of taking all the joy and
pleasure that exist in the world—all that upon which his fellow-men only subsist or hope to subsist. He moves among his fellow-
men, understanding everything that they are going through, enjoying with their joy and sorrowing when they sorrow, yet himself
free from either joy or sorrow. When we arrive at that condition, our sense of morality will be based on the nature of man. We
shall then look on each and every being as of the same kind as ourselves, differing only in degree of understanding. There can
not be in us anything but tolerance and mercy, for we shall know we can not judge others in their struggles; we can not say that
there is good in this case, bad in that; we shall understand that goodness and badness are entirely relative in men, while they
perceive the Reality not at all; we shall see that the best thing we can do for anyone is to assist him to understand himself, so
that he may reach that point of perception and knowledge and power which is, in reality, his own and which he has but to
realize.
Man’s false conceptions of life are what prevent him from knowing the truth, and it is evident that the first step towards true
perception lies in throwing aside the prejudices and predilections he has lived by. And there is always help. Never have we
been, left alone. Always there are beings greater in evolution than we, who return to this field of physical existence to help us,
to wake us up to a perception of our natures. Such has been the mission of all Divine Incarnations down the ages. Those
beings have come and lived among us, have become “in all things like unto us,” as was said of Jesus, in order that the human
words They spoke should be words we would understand. They meet us on the basis of our ideas and try to clarify them and
set them in a true course. They can do nothing to stop what we have done and what we want to do; They can not interfere; but
They can help us to see the right direction, if we are so willed; They can give help when we turn to that direction which They
indicate—that Path which They themselves followed so many ages ago. Always They try to help us, even when we are
proceeding along wrong lines and bringing upon ourselves the suffering such wrong lines entail—even then They try to direct
the results into a better channel. They hold back the awful Karma that would shake the world, and let the effects come so
gradually that we can stand and bear them. That is part of the protective power of the spiritual nature, and it operates in every
direction.
It is for us, then, to say which way we shall go. We are not creatures of circumstance. We are not the creatures of environment.
We are their creators. It is for us to see that we think right, that we build right, that we build upon the strong foundation of the
eternal verities, and that we keep our eyes upon that Path which the great Masters of Wisdom have sought to open before us.
So in our turn we shall point out the Way among the hosts who are moving in delusion and ignorance, and as we help each
one, we help ourselves. As we help ourselves by helping others, we raise all.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THE STOREHOUSE OF THOUGHT
When we consider the idea of thought we must remember that there cannot be thought without a thinker. There are no
thoughts that arise of themselves; they are all produced by intelligent beings, no matter what kind of thoughts they are.
We are all thinkers, and we all assume that we have minds, but of what does the mind consist? What we call our mind is not, in
reality, mind at all. The mind itself is the power to think. The bundles of ideas that we call our minds are the products of the
thinking faculty; they are the effects of intelligent ideation, and we have to get further and further back from the effects
perceived to the causes of those effects.
Mind itself is not limited; we all have the unlimited power to think in any and all directions. But we all are born into or come in
contact with different sets of ideas which we consciously or unconsciously adopt and cling to. Yet we ought to recognize and
realize from the very outset that we are not those ideas, because we have the power to “change our minds”; if we were in fact
our ideas, we could not change them, could never get a new idea nor expel an old one.
We think that our ideas are our own; but, when we come to self-analysis, we find that as a matter of fact not one in a million is
an independent Thinker who creates his thoughts from a realization of the universality of nature and the common source from
which we all derive or draw what seem to be our separate powers. It is strange that we do not see that there is a common
source for us all, and for all our powers; that only the use of life and the life-powers differ in each, according to the ideas each
one holds. We all have the power to think, and we all think differently, and that makes us seem to be different.
We live in a world of effects, overwhelmed mentally by them, unable to extricate ourselves from them. So what is most needed
in the world is a realization of what our own real nature is. If we find what our own real nature is, then we shall know what the
real nature of every other being is, whether that other being is below us in point of intelligence, or as far above us as has yet
been attained by any being.
If we are ever going to know anything of the common Source of all our being and of all our powers, we have to gain that
knowledge within ourselves. For no one is separate from It; each one springs from the same Supreme, is one with It in his
inner most nature. The idea is beyond any conception of the Deity as people hold God today, or that has been popularly held
in the past.
The Supreme is beyond form. It is beyond expression. Where is the man who can say what That is within himself which sees,
which knows, which feels, which experiences, which garners the results of all experience? Each one is of that Infinite Source,
because all have the same infinite root; each one is an expression of It.
If a man does not understand what his real Source is, what his real nature is, and assumes himself to be that which he is not,
then all his exercise of the power to think, all his creative thoughts, all his subsequent actions, will follow the lines of his wrong
basis of thought and action. If he thinks he is a poor miserable sinner who cannot do anything of himself and for him self, then
a poor, miserable sinner he will remain. But if he realizes that all the effects which surround him are due to thinking, that he can
create better effects, that all things are within his reach, he will gain a new insight and a greater strength. He gets beyond
effects to the field of causes, and begins to realize that all things are alike in essential nature. He finds from that consideration
that the universe is under Law. The very highest being is under law, just the same as the very lowest. That Law does not exist
outside of us, and is not put in motion by some being or beings outside us, but is inherent in each. As we act, we experience
the reaction; as we think, so are we. In accordance with the intelligence of our action, so will be the expression returning to us.
‘ ye sow, so shall ye also reap;” as we are reaping, so we must have sown.
We have there the first and final expression of Justice: that we reap what we have sown. In whatever conditions we may find
ourselves, we have to admit that they are our own productions. How were they originally produced? By the thoughts of the
thinker based on a false conclusion. The power of the Supreme is in every one. No matter what the man thinks, there is power
in it; and if he holds to that thinking he is bound to produce the effects that flow from the lines of his special endeavor. If he is
creating things that perish, if he is creating things that do not relate to his own true nature—if his power to think is wrapped up
in the things that have to do only with his body or the bodily surroundings, or his physical advancement—is it any wonder that
soon or late we find ourselves in a complex situation and with such usually disastrous consequences to ourselves? We are
bewildered by the very effects that we have produced by our thinking based upon wrong ideas.
We have then to beware that we do not set the power of our spiritual nature in a personal direction, for personal, selfish ends;
such will only bring reaction upon us, of necessity. Each one has pursued his own individual path, as if he were separate from
all the rest, and so has created the conditions under which he exists, the experiences that bring him suffering or enjoyment.
We have considered that good and evil are things in themselves. They are not. There is nothing good in itself; there is nothing
evil in itself. Good and evil are the effects felt by us. What is good to one may be evil to another. It depends on the recipient, on
his attitude of mind. If we see that Law rules and recognize that these effects were produced by ourselves, that we receive the
exact return of causes set in motion by ourselves, then we see that whatever we do or have done affects others either for good
or evil, and that we must in the nature of things in time pay that debt incurred or receive back the benefit conferred. The good
that comes is what we have earned through service to others. The evil that befalls us is also what we have earned, by lack of
service or by injury to others—every effect is the continuation of the cause set in motion by ourselves.
There is the true idea to be established in us—that of our individual responsibility to all others for the use of our powers. In it is
implied the Spiritual Identity of all beings, the divinity of every being that exists—not only of mankind—the good and bad
natures there—but every being below us, as well as every being above us. This presents the fact that all powers—of
perception, of experience, of knowledge, of wisdom—lie for each being within himself, in his inmost nature. And it brings
instantly to our minds the idea of development, of unfoldment, of evolution, for every being high or low. There are embryonic
souls below us in their various stages of progress; there are the souls of men with their varying degrees of development; and
there are Great Souls—Men who have gone through the stages we are now passing through. The whole universe is made up
of beings. The form is the home, the instrument, of some minor or greater intelligence. No intelligence, no form; no
intelligence, no action of any kind, no responsibilities of any kind. Wherever you find actions and conditions, there you get
intelligence, and where ever there is intelligence there is responsibility, whether recognized or not. So that the universe exists
for one purpose, and for one purpose only—for the Soul’s experience and emancipation.
Soul means the acquired experience of the Spiritual Being. In the vast universe, with such an innumerable and immeasurable
range of intelligent beings, differing infinitely in their respective degrees of acquired intelligence, or Soul, where or what would
be the Storehouse of Thought?
In this vast assemblage of beings there are many, many kinds of thought. There are the thoughts or ideas of all the men now
on earth and of those who have been; the thoughts or expressions of the beings below man; the ideas and still wider
expressions of the beings above man. All these make a vast storehouse; but no one of us can draw from that storehouse any
more, nor any different than he puts himself in a position to receive. He must make room for it. All that we perceive directly is
ideas. Behind all action is thought of some kind. It is the kind of ideas we hold that makes us do everything—good or evil.
Now we can see how important it is that we should know what we really are—become acquainted with our own nature— and
have that as a basis of our thought and action. Upon the quality of thought depends the quality or kind of action. It is all a
sequence, and so what is needed is an orderly succession of thoughts based on our true natures, and action in accordance
with them. Then everything flows along the line of divine unfoldment, of divine evolution; then we are working in accord with
nature, in accord with all others.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THE LANGUAGE OF THE SOUL
The Soul is pictured in the ancient teachings as the real Self man. There are many different conceptions of what man is and
what the soul. From Christian teachings we are led to believe that man has a soul, and may save it or lose it—the idea
generally held in the West. But the conception of the ancients, and that of Theosophy, which is a re-presentation of this eternal
idea, is different. The teaching is that Man is a Soul; that Soul is in fact the one who perceives; that it is vision itself, pure and
simple, unmodified—not subject to change—and that it looks directly on ideas.
This idea presents the fact that the real Man in whatever condition he may be existing, whether asleep or awake, whether in a
physical body during his lifetime, or whether in another form of body after death or before birth, or before the existence of this
planet or this solar system—that this real Man was the same Perceiver, then as now, the same Soul all the time; the Creator of
all the conditions that have arisen; the intelligent Creator of this universe, in connection with all the beings below him and all
the beings above him. Man thus forms part of one great Brotherhood, and this bond of brotherhood extends throughout, from
the lowest being to the very highest.
They are all Souls; even the very lowest forms of matter are none the less Souls, for in the lowest form of matter is the power to
perceive, the power to act, the power to gain experience. The potentiality is the same in all, and that potentiality becomes a
potency ever expanding as the Soul increases its range of experience. All the forms, the bodies, that compose the universe
are the results of the experience and action of the souls inhabiting them. They are all the instruments of the soul, and we
always act with others in any grade or class of beings. There is that unity of action which produces a similarity of instrument. In
these similarities of instrument we play upon and are played upon by beings of the same class in the fullest degree, and by
lower and higher classes in a greater or less degree.
So, taking this conception that the Self is the same in each being, no matter how great that being may be, nor how low, we get
another idea in regard to soul—that soul also represents the acquired experience gained through evolution by each and every
class of being. Each individual being is not only Self, but, in addition, the acquired experience gained through contact with all
other beings. Realizing that there are individual souls, we can see that the only differences between souls are in their degrees
of acquired experience. Taking the soul from this point of view, then, as the acquired experience of individuals, when we
speak of God, or the Over-Soul, the Universal Over-Soul, we simply mean the acquired experiences, or wisdom, of every soul
and all souls. That would be the meaning of the sentence in the Bhagavad Gita that the Self is “Wisdom itself, the object of
Wisdom and that which is to be attained by Wisdom”—full consciousness of the union of all-souls, or Spiritual Identity.
If we are to try to relate these conceptions to language we would, perhaps, have to clear up many ideas which we now hold.
Supposing there is a real language of the soul, what would it be capable of expressing? Undoubtedly every experience
through which it had ever been.
Theosophy teaches the doctrine of reincarnation—of successive lives, both on this earth and in other states of substance and
consciousness. Continuity of Consciousness, or Spirit, is preserved through all these states and environments, and the record
of all that occurred in all these lives is present at all times in any one-life in manifestation, because the Self, the Spirit, is
present. The language of the Soul would be capable of expressing all that we ever experienced.
In those past lives we have undoubtedly spoken different languages from those we now speak; in those personal existences
we used languages now altogether deserted and forgotten by us as persons. But the memory of those languages must be
there, if we are a continuing Self and preserve the continuity of experience gained, as well as the continuity of consciousness.
Those old languages which we once used, in themselves amount to nothing, because any language and all languages are only
the expression of the feeling and thought of the individual soul; his emotions, hopes, fears, ideas and aspirations. So there
must be at all times behind any language whatever, the basis for it—the Soul and its experience. Where is that recorded? It is
impacted in the imperishable part of man’s nature. It cannot be any spoken tongue what ever. What, then, is its nature?
To understand these propositions we have again to consider the philosophy of Theosophy. Theosophy points out that matter
is in seven states or degrees of substances, and each of these with seven sub-states, the whole ranging from the very finest,
most plastic and enduring state down to the very coarsest—what we may call the material plane, or matter as it is known and
suspected by us, with its many differing gradations and combinations. Man, as the highest and most evolved being concerned
in the evolution of this solar system, is clothed in all these seven states of substance derived from the original primordial
substance—the homogeneous matter from which every form is evolved. These degrees of substance are indicated in the
seven colors of the spectrum; they are also pointed to in the seven notes of the scale of music.
The notes and colors are not exactly what we think they are: they represent the seven great distinct states of matter; sound
itself, or light itself, represents the homogeneous state from which the seven notes and the seven prismatic colors are derived.
Our colors and our musical notes are only replicas of these—their reflections or correspondences in this one state of matter
and sound with which we are acquainted. We know there are seven colors; we know that there are other octaves of color
beyond those, which our eyes are unable to transmit to us—some so high, some so low that our eyes will not register their
vibrations. The same is true with sound. We are able to detect several, but there are degrees of sound beyond the highest we
are able to detect, and also sounds too low for us to hear.
Let us call the Soul the Ego; perhaps that, for us, is the most compact expression for what is meant by Soul, since it includes
both the one who perceives and his perceptions, both the one who knows and his experiences. Well, then, the Ego has a
language of his own, and that language is one of color, sound and symbol. It is a language that may be seen; that may be
heard; that may be felt. It is by means of this language of the soul that the experiences of others may become directly known to
us, comprehensible to us, no matter what vocal tongues we may use. This is why it was said in old times, as mentioned in the
Bible, that the Wise understood every man speaking in his own tongue, although many different languages were used, then as
now. It was because these Wise men could read back of the spoken language, that they knew the very thoughts, feelings and
natures of the speakers. That is why in any person’s motion—even so simple an action as in moving from one chair to
another— quality of the thought, the very nature of the person, is clearly shown by the assemblage of colors and shades of
colors produced by the action. The same with any uttered sounds or speech, no matter what—the centers in the body are set
in motion, each having its own particular tell tale colors and rates of vibration.
Strange as it may seem to us, colors may be heard, sounds may be seen, and forms may be experienced, because all are
merely different rates of vibration—the motion of Intelligent Consciousness, or Spirit. They are all correlated, and one does not
exist with out the others. They are merely aspects of that which is the real propulsion of the soul itself, or the conscious being.
So, in our thoughts we have a great combination of colors and sounds, constantly changing their form, or appearance. Our
brain is the finest material instrument we use. It, like everything else we use, is an evolution. It is the organ of thought on this
plane of substance where we are now acting. If we think high and noble thoughts, then our brains become very susceptible to
that kind of use. Every kind of thought has its own particular rate and range of vibration, its own particular colors. If we were
acquainted with ourselves, in reality, we could read thought as we now read a book. We could read thoughts as we now hear
sounds. If our brains are trained to high thoughts while we are awake; if we try to understand what we really are while
occupying this physical instrument; what this body of ours represents; what it is capable of— then gradually the brain will begin
to respond to something of our higher knowledge. It will carry forward and transmit more and more of the Language of the
Soul, of all the garnered experience of the past.
The ideas that we have, even in regard to Spirit and Soul, to Life hitherto, here and hereafter, are those we have been taught.
They are nearly all personal and keep us entirely on the personal plane—the plane of merely physical existence. They give us
no true ideas whatever of the real inner self. We have not yet begun to think—in any true sense, in any true direction; and it is
only true ideas that will give us knowledge of the inner nature of man. Our habits are merely memory impacted in our nature,
whether they be habits of body or habits of thought. We do not store knowledge anywhere but within ourselves; but sometimes
we forget where we have hidden it, or we cover it up with a lot of the useless rubbish of mere mental activity. Most of our
mental activity is applied solely to the things of this life, to things of the body; so, mankind is continually moving along a false
path. No being, however high, can prevent this, because each man is Soul, is Spirit, is Consciousness—is of the Highest,
however he use and apply his powers.
Theosophy endeavors to present to man what his real nature is; that he is first, last, and all the time SPIRIT. Spirit means Life
and Consciousness—the power to see, to know, to experience. We all have that. That is common to all of us. It is not separate
in self—it is the One Life in all beings of every grade. But we, as individuals, have evolved into individuals from the great
Ocean of Life. We are Individualized Spirit, and so we each have a separate individual existence, which is continuous. In that
sense we are an evolution, but an evolution of Spirit, not Matter—an evolution of Knowledge, not of form only. This has been
obtained through observation and experience; whatever differences exist are because of more or less experience, or a better
adaptation and application of it; there is no difference in the Source or Potentialities of any being. All this we shall find out, if
we move along the Path shown. For it is not an uncharted path. Remember, others have been along that path before us. They
are our Elder Brothers—Jesus, for example; Buddha for another; and all those who came at different times as Saviours to the
many different peoples. They had all acquired the Language of the Soul. They all had a common body of knowledge. They
come amongst men from time to time, as the intelligence of humanity progresses, and give out as much of that knowledge as
the then existing state of humanity permits. They came again in our own time; and greater than Those who so came there has
not been. Why should anyone say that? Because other Saviours came to separate and distinct peoples, but the Message of
Theosophy is not to any one nation, not to any one class of beings, but to the whole world.
That knowledge is obtainable by any self-conscious being for himself, for it is not a question of our ideas, of our present
perceptions of morality or success, nor of external power, but of Spiritual perception—of the Language of the Soul. We may
make all the mistakes in the world, according to the world, in the body and through the body, and yet have a power of Spiritual
perception that would do away with all “mistakes. We would not have to have any vicarious atonement, but would be able to
act in a proper relation with every being. Our thoughts and actions would be in accord. (but we would have to go through the
crucifixion of the false ideas in ourselves, and arise as the Saviour did, to the right hand of the Father—the Ego free from all
these delusions which have caused him to maintain himself in sin, sorrow and suffering.
All men desire Spiritual knowledge, yet the great bulk will not abate one jot or tittle of their mental and physical absorption in
present and worldly things to obtain the spiritual knowledge they say they ardently long for. They will have to move on through
suffering and pain till they really desire to know the truth about themselves. If any man thinks he can get that knowledge by
merely desiring to possess it, or by desiring to possess it for himself alone, he is not in the position that would permit of his
knowing it. The Language of the Soul can be acquired only when the being realizes that his duty is not to himself, but to the
highest interests of his fellowmen; not to “save his own soul”
but to lead as many of his neighbors as he possibly can in the direction of the Truth, desiring nothing for himself. This very
attitude opens the flood-gates of spiritual knowledge within himself. Then he becomes the true enjoyer, using every power he
has, all the knowledge he has, to benefit others. The man who has come to that knowledge and is on the road to its realization
finds “spiritual knowledge springing up spontaneously in him self in the progress of time.” He requires no books to tell him; he
cares not what religions have been, that now are, that ever will be. He knows the truth about himself and consequently the truth
about all others.
Why do not all men take the path to this realization? Is it because they have no organs of perception, are incapable of seeing?
No, it is because they will not listen; they will not take what is given and try it out. They will rather follow anything that promises
some success in this life. Yet they know just as well as anyone that they cannot take a single one of the “successes” away with
them from the earth. When they go, they leave on earth every earthly thing they have accumulated. And they have to go,
because they do not belong here; they are of Spirit, not earth; they are only working in this matter for awhile. They all know that,
and yet dream of “possessions.”
No one damned any of us to this condition in which we find so many. No conditions compel us to stay in a state of mental
unrest, inactivity or ignorance. All these things are imposed on us by our own hard and fast conclusions as to men, things and
methods. These keep us fast bound in our present conditions and will continue to hold us, as long as we maintain that attitude
of mind, and cling to false ideas of God, of Nature, and of Man. We keep the doors closed of our own will. In ignorance? Yes;
but who remains ignorant? Those only who will not hear, those only who doubt the Language of the Soul.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THEOSOPHY IN DAILY LIFE
Many people think that religion means a preparation for death or the states of the future. Religion really means a preparation
for and a knowledge of life—a living of our life as it should be lived. That which prepares for death is life, and ever living.
Formal religions do not even answer the question, why is death—nor any of the other burning questions in daily life. Why do
we have suffering and sorrow? Why are we here? What was the origin of man? Why so many different conditions among
mankind; why are some born to sorrow, and others to joy; why some in lowly places, some in high; why some with great
faculties and others with very few and poor ones? Justice demands an answer which is not furnished by religion, with its ‘ —for
if man is the creature of a creator he can not help himself and is absolutely irresponsible. Any being, if “perfect,” would
maintain justice; yet there are injustices among men. The caprice or whim of a creator does not explain the difficulty. Any
being, however great or high, must of necessity be limited, finite, and imperfect—something outside us, something which
does not contain the universe but is contained by it.
We have to go behind any idea of a Being, to the source of all being—to a basis common to the highest and to the lowest
being. That basis and source is not to be found by looking outward at all, but is the very power to perceive, wherever there is
life. Spirit, Life, Consciousness are the same in every being—undivided, however many and varied the perceptions. Evolution
is not a compelling force from without, but the impelling force of Spirit from within, urging on to better and better expression. All
advancement is from within. All the knowledge that we gain, all the experience that we obtain, is obtained and held within.
Each one, then, is the Seer; all the rest are seen. So, the knowledge that we have to obtain is not information from without, not
the thoughts of other men, but an under standing of our own essential nature, which represents every element in the great
universe, from the basis of all life to every outward expression, and every possibility of further expression— just as each drop
of water contains in itself everything existing in the great ocean from which it came. Nor does Law exist outside of us. Law is
always inherent in Spirit; it is the action which brings re-action in every individual case, and to the collective mass of humanity.
We are here under law and under justice. There is no such thing as injustice in the universe.
Knowing something as to our essential nature, knowing some thing of the purpose of life, and that life is all made up of
learning, knowing that the universe is all alive, and that there is in reality no injustice save that which we inflict upon our selves
by re-action, we would take an entirely different view of life and put these ideas into daily practice. We would take the position
which most of all we need to take—that of our own responsibility, which religions have taught us to shift on to some God or
devil. Recognizing that each one of us is from the same Source and going towards the same goal, though the path will vary
with the pilgrim, we will act toward each one as if he were a part of ourselves. Like us, each one is moving onward— perhaps
below us, possibly above. From the one above, we can obtain help. To the one below, we can give help. Such is the
interdependence which should exist between all conscious beings; and under such a conception our civilization would not be
as it is now. We should not find every man’s hand raised against every other man. We should not see those in poor case
finding fault with the wrong conditions, but finding fault rather with their own wrong relations to others at some time when they
abused the power they had. We should see each one trying to discipline himself, trying to bring himself into proper relation
with all the rest—not so much outwardly, perhaps, as inwardly; for we may be sure that if we make clean the inside of the bowl,
the outside will take care of itself. We have no greater duty to perform than to make clear and clean our natures—to make
them true, to make them in accord with the great object of all life, the evolution of soul.
We can not wait to make our start in this direction until the nation wakes up to Theosophy; for the nation will itself awake only
when each individual wakes up to that which is in himself and by his thought and action instills a similar thought and action in
other human beings. Supposing each one determined to do all he could for every other one wherever he could, do you think
that anybody would suffer? Not one! There would be more to help than those to suffer. But we are afraid that if we so act, the
other man will not. So we do not move at all along that line. The majority of people are thinking about quite other things. They
are busy at the shrine of their gods of comfort, seeking to get the best of everything in life at the expense of someone else. Or
they are seeking to acquire “the power of will,” so that they can get something for nothing from someone else. That is the kind
of “will” which is generally desired, its object being the getting of exactly what one pleases. Is not this psychic banditry?
Anything gotten that way is taken from another, and we shall have to pay it back to the uttermost farthing—if not in this life, then
in some other, for the scales of justice are unerring.
Do we not see that we can trust a universe that moves along unerringly under the law of perfect justice? ‘We certainly can. We
can go forward with an absolute reliance on the law of our own spiritual being, knowing whatever conditions come are
necessary for us, knowing that those very things we feel so hardly are object lessons for us because they indicate a wrong
tendency or defect in us which this present distress affords us an opportunity to overcome, to strengthen our true character.
That is all we have at the end of life, whatever of character—good, bad, or indifferent—we have acquired. Men spend their
lives trying to avoid what they do not like, and trying to get what they like—what they can and while they can. Yet if they got all
the wealth of the world, every possession and every possible desire, what good would it do them? At death everything would
be left where they got it, because nothing adheres to Spirit. The idea of getting for themselves is one of the false notions which
prevent men from understanding themselves as spiritual beings and using the power which belongs to them—for all powers of
every kind—electrical, dynamic or explosive—come from the One Universal Spirit, and each man has latent in him all the
powers in the universe.
Physical life is not necessarily a vale of sorrow. The time must come when we shall have made man’s life on earth what it
ought to be, when we shall have no fear of anything, when we shall not be afraid of our fellowmen. It was said of Daniel, when
he entered the lions’ den, the beasts of prey did not touch him at all. Why? Because his heart was pure. He had no harm in it
for anyone. He trusted to the spiritual law of his own being, and all nature makes obeisance to that. We could go out calmly,
courageously, happily, relying on the laws of our own natures. If we did so, we would bring our daily lives in line with that nature;
for there is nothing of our action which does not come from the mind, and back of the mind is the ‘motive we have in acting.
Motive is what makes our actions really “good” or “bad.” If we are righteous in ourselves and desirous of doing right, then all
that we do will flow rightly from us and every function will be a righteous function. All action springs from and is colored by the
motive held in performing it.
Theosophy is the only philosophy that can be used in every direction in daily life. It can be used in all directions, high or low,
because that use comes from an understanding of the Spirit itself, from acting for that Self and as that Self—for the Self acts
only through the creatures. Acting for and as that Self in every direction, all else flows into line. All the destruction that is around
us, all the misery that we see, has been brought about through our denial of the Holy Ghost—our denial of the Spirit within us.
We deny it when we act as if we are our bodies, or our minds. THAT will not be denied. So man, meeting all the results of that
denial and seeing them to be evil, learns that this is not the way. Then he seeks for Truth, and finding the truth, obtains all that
he can desire—hope, happiness and a better understanding of his and all existence. It was to give to men all they could take
in regard to the nature of the soul—that they might come out from this vale of sorrow—that those Beings known as Divine
Incarnations have descended here of Their own will. They have carried forward from age to age this knowledge of nature and
of man and of the purpose of life, learned through many civilizations of mankind. It is this knowledge which makes Them as
gods to us in Their glory and power.
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