POKROV IS A SPIRITUAL ASSOCIATION OF ESOTERIC.
The Friendly Philosopher-The Eternal Verities
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The friendly philosopher
THE FOUNDATION OF RELIGION
To most people the word "religion" signifies something separate from human existence, and presents the idea of
preparation for some unknown future existence. Some religions are based upon the knowledge of an individual who laid the
foundation for them; others are believed to be the revelations of a Supreme Being at the time of the creation of the world.
Each people has a God of its own; so many peoples, so many Supreme Beings corresponding to the mental ideas of the
people. And so with individuals—as the ideas of men differ widely—so many individuals, so many Gods. All these Gods or
Supreme Beings are the creations of men, and not facts in themselves. But back of all those ideas does lie a Reality. The
very power that resides in man to create images and endow them with virtues which he does not possess points to
something greater than the things created. The creatures cannot be greater than the creators. That which in man creates
ideas is greater than any idea he may at any time have held or now holds. We have, then, to get back of all ideas to find the
true ‘ true religion.
True religion must give us a basis for thinking, and consequently, a basis for acting; it must give us an understanding of
nature, of ourselves and of other beings. Religion is a bond uniting men together—not a particular set of dogmas or beliefs—
binding not only all Men, but also all Beings and all things in the entire Universe, into one grand whole. Just that basis and that
bond are presented in the three fundamental propositions of the Secret Doctrine.
Behind everything that exists is the Sustainer of all that exists, of all that ever was, is, or shall be. Nothing exists without It. It is
omnipresent, and It is infinite. But, if we take that idea and endeavor to confine it to the form of any Being whatever, we shall
find we have attempted the impossible. We cannot hold the idea of being with that which is omnipresent and infinite. No
being can exist outside of Space which itself is, whether there is void or fulness, whether there are planets, gods or men, or
none; which itself is not altered in any way by objects occupying it; which is illimitable—without beginning and without end. A
Being must exist in Space, and so must be less than Space. We can then call the Highest Power any name we choose—the
Supreme, the Self—so long as we do not limit It, or give It attributes. We may not say It is pleased, nor angry, nor rewards,
nor punishes; doing so, we limit It. If Space itself cannot be measured or limited, how can we limit the Supreme? The Highest
Power cannot be less than Space. Even to name It is to limit It; yet It must be the One Reality, the One Sustainer, the One
Cause of all existences, the One Knower, the One Experiencer, in all directions and in every thing. This proposition drives us
back to the very basis of all thought—the power to think, itself—the power which is in each and every being.
We cannot understand nature, other beings and ourselves, by going outside to any conceivable being. The growth of
knowledge must be within the perceiver, the thinker himself. All his observation and experience bring him knowledge which
he relates to himself in connection with others. Each stands in the vast assemblage of beings, seeing them all, understanding
what he may of them all, but himself the only one who sees; all the rest are seen. All others are the same as he is in their
essential nature; all are endowed with the same qualities, the same perfections and imperfections; all are copies of every
other, differing only in the predominance of one or another quality. But the thinker is the Self—the only Self, so far as he is
concerned—the One Life, the One Consciousness, the One Power. As action proceeds from that basis, the greater the
powers which flow from that spiritual quality, the greater the increase of knowledge.
Knowledge is religion—not a supposed “revelation” from some superior being who created us as inferior beings, but an
actual knowledge gained through myriads of years and many existences by Those who have expressed them all. Those
beings above us on the ladder of evolution, who are greater than any “Gods” we can conceive of, passed through the same
trials and the same sufferings which we are undergoing, until they learned to know their innermost nature and to act in
accordance with it. They came to know that true religion is a knowledge of one’s own self, and action in accordance.
Drawing nearer in themselves to the very Source of their being, they found the source of every other being to be the same—
only the knowledge acquired and the use of that knowledge making the differences between all beings. Their knowledge is
an absolutely accurate knowledge of the essence of everything in nature, which alone is the foundation of all true religion.
What is it that prevents us from understanding true religion? It is our minds, which we have filled with narrow ideas of life, with
small ideas of the nature of humanity and of ourselves. It is our beliefs which constrain us. A belief is always a statement of
ignorance. If we believe, we do not know; if we know, there is no occasion for belief. Unless beliefs are tested out in the fires
of experience and show themselves true, they are absolutely useless and worse than useless, because they tempt us to use
the very powers of our spiritual being in wrong directions which bring suffering and disaster upon ourselves. It is our very
spiritual nature which makes our present unhappy condition possible, for from it flows the One power, either exercising itself
through small ideas—its obstacles—or acting fully and without constraint. Each man is his own creator, and each one has to
be his own savior through learning right use of the One Power. Those who have learned can only point out to us the Way they
learned it; no one can learn for us. We ourselves have to clear away the obstacles that prevent us from knowing our inner
selves. We ourselves have to throw aside the hindrances in thinking, in forms of religion, in mental as well as physical idols.
There is one realization which immediately sets our minds in order: it is of That in us which is unchangeable and unchanging.
We are that Spirit in very essence; all that has been in our past lives and in our present life, all that will in future be, proceeds
from the power of that Spirit itself, and is sustained by the power of that Spirit itself. There is nothing apart from us. Nature
does not exist separate and apart from us. The laws of nature are but the interrelations and interdependence of all the beings
concerned in this stream of evolution. The forces of nature do not exist of themselves. There never was a force of any kind
that was not the result of intelligent action. We as spiritual beings are eternally creating forces; for every man’s brain and
every thought has a dynamic power. Are they lost? No: all the thoughts, all the feelings of all the beings in the universe,
provide a store of dynamic energy which constitutes the forces, as we know them, of nature. We draw upon that general
reservoir of force in accordance with the ideas held and in accord with our present inward nature. All the time we are adding
to the powers of nature for good or for evil. So, too, we are taking from the powers of nature the additions which other beings
have put in—the forces which other beings have aroused in nature.
All the powers in the universe are latent in us if we only open the doors to their use. Everyone of us is a little copy of the whole
universe. There is not one single element existing any where which each one of us does not contain within his own sphere;
there is not a power anywhere that can not be drawn upon. Always the director of that power is the Self within each one. If that
Self sees darkly, it is because the mirror into which the Self looks is covered with the dust of false ideas; he sees distorted
images. He moves in the directions suggested by the mirror, but it is the Self which supplies the power to move. We would
open the door to all powers by a daily and hourly living in accordance with the nature of the Self—seeing that every other
being is but an aspect of Self, and acting so that every other being will be helped on its way. For we can not go on our way
alone. We have our duty to fulfill by every other being, whether in the kingdoms below us, without which we could not exist, or
in the human kingdom. Every other stands as a vicarious atonement for us—an object lesson—and if we have reached a
point higher than that which is ordinarily reached by men, then all the more are we constrained to duty by them.
We come to physical existence incarnation after incarnation under the law inherent in our natures, to work with mortal ideas
and passions and thoughts; but we who created them, we who sustain them, are immortal. If we were not immortal in our very
natures, never by any chance could we become immortal. If we were less than Divinity, then we never could by any possibility
understand divinity. Those beings who have been men and who have gone beyond our degrees of illusion—like Jesus of
Nazareth, Buddha, and many others—have attained to Their Divinity. They accept the woes of birth to which Their younger
brothers are subject, to remind us of our own natures—the only natures over which we have permanent control—that we may
become as One of Them, bound to Them as to all nature. To live for others is the foundation and basis of religion—of true
spiritual knowledge.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
OUR GOD AND OTHER GODS
As a people we speak of “our God,” imagining that we all have the same idea, that we all mean the same thing by the term.
Peoples of the past had their meaning of “our God,” and peoples of the present time also say “our God and other Gods,”
imagining that their conception is the only true one—all others, untrue, false. The Great War was fought among so-called
Christian peoples, who, so far as a consideration of Christianity is concerned, ought to have been worshipping the same
God, and guiding thought and action by the precepts ascribed to that God. But is it not true that our theologians and the
theologians of those people at war with us addressed petitions to the same “Our God,” in order to bring success to their
efforts as against other peoples worshipping the same God? There would then appear to be a multiplicity of Gods, or else
something wrong in the conceptions of all of us. If we ask ourselves individually, “What do I mean by the term God?” perhaps
we would all say: “The highest there is.” But do we mean the highest there is? Do we mean that great power which sustains
all beings, all forms, that which by its very nature and by our contemplation of it must appear as in finite, as eternal, as
changeless? If we do mean that, then we shall have to amend a great many other ideas which generally connote with the term
God. For instance, we shall have to leave the idea of a being entirely outside of our calculations. We have thought that the
source and sustainer of all things, all beings, from all time and in all time, is a being; that the something in us which reaches
up beyond everything physical, beyond every thing thinkable, is outside ourselves. How could that possibly be? How could
we possibly prove that this God is a being existing in some far-off heaven unknown to us and separate from us? How can we
imagine a being as omnipresent, and at the same time separate from us or from anything? If Deity is infinite and
omnipresent, there is not a grain of sand nor a point of vacant space anywhere where Deity is not. And how again can we
give to the idea of Deity, attributes—such as being angry or pleased, rewarding or punishing, since every attribute that we
give is a limitation and precludes the idea of omnipresence? No being could be the origin, the sustainer, the source of all that
was, is or ever shall be. Any being, however great, is contained and limited in space; no being can be omnipresent.
There is that which is beyond speech, beyond description, and beyond conception—the highest there is in the universe. But
are we to look outside in the heavens, in the sea, in the secret places of the earth, in any place whatever; or are we to find it
in a much nearer place, that is, within ourselves? For all that anyone can know of God, or the Highest, is what he knows in
himself, through himself and by himself. There is no other place of knowledge for us. Yet at the same time we have to
perceive that God, or Deity, is not absent from anything, is immanent in the whole, is omnipresent, is at the root and is the
seed of every being of every kind anywhere; that there is no thing, not even a grain of sand nor a speck of dust, no point in
space, absent from that Source which sustains the whole manifested universe. We can imagine, then, that God, as the
ancients put it, “seated in the hearts of all beings;” for there is something in the heart of man whence proceeds all feeling, all
true life, all true conception. The heart is not the same as the head—a man’s heart may be right and sound and his head
wrong. The feeling of the true in the heart is not deceived by this thought or that thought or the other thought; it can only be
experienced by each one for himself within himself. God is not an outside God, but is to be sought in the very innermost
recesses of our own nature— in the silent chamber, the temple, within us—and nowhere else.
We think that our present civilization far transcends any past civilizations that ever have been; yet there are many records and
relics of arts, sciences, of knowledge, of religion, of philosophy such as we have not yet mastered. We are but a young
people, as a matter of fact. It is not so many centuries ago since the Founder of the Christian Religion lived upon the earth,
and there were many thousands of centuries before that. The people who lived down the course of those centuries knew far
more than we. They knew, as we may know, that there is no such thing as creation. No being ever created the earth, or its
conditions. This planet, or any other planet, was never created by any being. This solar system and other solar systems were
not created by any being. Something produced them. Yes, and it is possible to understand how that production was brought
about! By evolution—always an unfolding from within outward—from the very root of every being, from the Deity, the Soul of
all, the Spirit of all. Spirit is the root, the sustainer, the energy producing force for all the evolution that has gone on. Every
being in the universe is a product of evolution—all from the same identical root of being, all drawing their powers of
expression from the one Source. All are rays from and one with that Absolute Principle, which is our very Self—the Self of all
creatures. What of all those beings who were the Self in process of evolution, who reached a realization of this truth ages and
ages before the present civilization? What became of them? Have all their hopes and fears been lost? What is the meaning
of those races, those civilizations—was it death for them when their civilization passed out as ours must, since just so surely
as it had a beginning so it will have an ending? Just so surely as there are those rises and falls in civilizations, so is there a
cycle of time through which the conscious man goes, and a cycle of form which the conscious man animates, uses, and
leaves—to take another—from civilization to civilization. When, then, we look about us for the results of the civilizations that
have been, and try to understand the conditions of the present civilization, we have to see that the people of the world to-day
are the very ones who passed through those ancient civilizations, left them, and carried forward whatever of knowledge or of
ignorance, of truth or of error, they had gained during those vast periods of time. For LAW rules in every thing and every
circumstance, every where. There is a law of birth—of successive lives on earth, each life the successor and result of the life
or lives which preceded. That which sustains man, garners all experience, retains it, carries it forward, and propels evolution,
is the One changeless, eternal, immortal Self—the real perceiver, the real knower, the real experiencer in every body, in
every form.
The Self is its own law. Each one is the Self, and each—as Self—has produced the conditions under which he finds him self.
When the Self acts, it receives the re-action. If it acts not at all, then there is no re-action. Every action brings its re-action
from those who are affected by it for good or for evil. For good and evil do not exist of themselves nor in ourselves; they are
but effects we feel and classify as good or bad according to our attitude toward them; that which seems ‘good to one is “evil”
to another. When we have rid ourselves of the idea that there is a God who produced and sustains good, and a devil who
produced and sustains evil, we have come to the fact of true perception from within outwards.
Every civilization that has been, and the one in which we now are living, is due to a true or false perception of what our real
nature is. If we would ever know and understand our natures, we must first understand that there is in us That which never
changes at all, whatever changes are brought about by it. We never are the things we see, or feel, or hear, or know, or
experience. No matter how many the experiences may be, we are still unchanged with the possibility of infinite other
experiences. That the Self in us is changeless may seem difficult for the Western mind to grasp, thinking that without change
there is no progress; but it may be perceived by the fact of our identity remaining ever the same in a child’s body and through
all the changes of body that have occurred since childhood. If the identity ever changed, it could never observe change. Only
that which is permanent and stable can see change, can know it, can make it. And—what theology, modern philosophy,
modern science have never taught us—there is this fact: as we are immortal spirit at the very root of our being, we have
made for ourselves many mansions all down through the process of nature’s changes. The gradual condensation which goes
on with every planet and in every solar system goes on with every body; every form has its initial existence as form in the
finest state of matter, from which it is condensed and hardened to the present physical state of matter. But the illimitable
experiences of higher planes, back through all those changes, are now resident within ourselves— present with us wherever
we are or may be—except as we have shut the doors on them. Why? Because this brain of ours, the most responsive organ
in the body, since it is used in our modifications of thought, is concerned with things of the earth, in relation to the body. A
brain trained and sustained by this kind of thinking can not register from the higher nature—from the finer sheaths of the soul.
But once we begin to think and act from the basis of these verities, the brain—which is the most rapidly changing organ in
the body—becomes porous to the impressions of our inner life. Dimly at first, and more strongly as time goes on, we begin
to realize the fact of this inner experience, and—what is more to us than all else—the continuity of our consciousness; the fact
that consciousness never ceases, no matter on what plane we may be acting. Therefore, we may have in our own bodies
and during our lifetime—not a promise—but a sense, a realization, a knowledge of immortality here and now!
We have been taught to believe. But, belief is not knowledge. We have been taught to believe in a formula, but a formula is
not knowledge. So we have gone astray in every direction and made of this life a terror to ourselves. We are afraid of death,
of disaster; we are always buttressing ourselves with some sort of guard in this or that direction. We are afraid to trust the
very God we say we believe in. We will not trust Christ. We will use all the means we can think of to look out for ourselves.
Each one of us is Spirit and each one of us is using spiritual powers to induce what we call good and what we call evil; but
the misapplication of the spiritual powers, in default of real knowledge, must lead us to misery. So we have to know what we
are, and to think and live in the light of our own real natures. Then we shall know the truth within ourselves. We shall
understand ourselves and we shall understand our fellow-men, and we shall never again say, “Our God and other Gods,” but
the SELF of all creatures. We shall see the Self as all and in all; we will act for and as the Self, because the Self acts only
through the creatures; and we shall see every being—man, below man, or above man—as an aspect of ourselves; as
individualized beings we will try more and more to exercise the spiritual knowledge that is our own heritage. Like the prodigal
son who ate the husks with the swine and then suddenly remembered his Father’s house, we will say: “I will arise and go to
my Father.” For there is no one so wicked, so ignorant, so poorly endowed that he may not make good progress in the right
direction; on whom the light may not dawn and a feeling of power and strength and purpose arise that will do away with fear
and make him a strong helpful being in the world of men. Far from taking us away from our families, our duties, our business,
or our citizenship, this knowledge will make us better citizens, better husbands, better fathers, better patriots, if you will, than
ever we were before—patriots of not just one country, but of all.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THE KINGLY MYSTERY
The “kingly mystery” is Life itself. We all have Life. We all are Life. Every being everywhere is Life—expresses Life. To know
what is Life itself is to know the mystery. But there is a condition precedent to this mysterious knowledge, stated by Krishna,
in the opening of the Ninth Chapter of the Bhagavad Gita: “Unto thee who findeth no fault I will now make known this most
mysterious knowledge, coupled with a realization of it, which having known thou shalt be delivered from evil.” When the one
who desires to learn is not in a critical attitude, when he has sensed in one way or another that truth lies in a certain direction
and gives all his attention to it without quarreling with terms or the ideas put forward, his is the attitude of the true student. The
one who desires to know must set aside for the time being all preconceptions, pride, and prejudices which he may have
held, and then he is ready to begin his studies— to take the first step in the right direction.
The world is full of false ideas, false religions, false philosophies which must be thrown away. We of the Western peoples
have been taught that we were poor miserable sinners who could do nothing of ourselves. We have assumed that we are
poor miserable sinners and have acted as such. Our whole civilization is colored and steeped through with this falsity. Our
theologies, our sciences, our commercial, social and political conditions are all based on this false idea, which in its turn
rests upon another equally false—that man is here on earth for once only. Hence, that his entrance on this physical scene
was through the act of others, and we believe that whatever of merit or demerit is his was handed on to him by his forebears.
As a consequence, man constantly shifts his responsibility, and acts as an irresponsible being. The whole falsity of our
existence is centered there, for we are responsible for every ill that exists among us; every kind of suffering on every hand
has been brought about through a false idea, and the false action which followed. What are sin, disease, sorrow and
suffering but the result of our own thoughts and actions?
Again, we say “we cannot know;” or, “this life is all there is.” Therefore, the whole force of our consciousness is directed in the
line of that one false idea and inhibited in the expression of any other; whereas all directions lie absolutely open to us, if only
we understand our own natures. Man circumscribes his own conditions by the false ideas he holds in regard to life. No one
holds him back. He holds himself back. Yet, even with his narrowing, limiting ideas and conceptions, he is able to
accomplish wonderful things. Whatever he sets out to do on the purely physical, material plane of life, he accomplishes in a
shorter or greater length of time. If his ideas of religion are all concerned with the physical aspect of life, however, how can he
know more? All the conquests that he can make will be physical conquests. What could it avail him in the direction of real
knowledge, if he continued similar conquests from civilization to civilization, age to age, planet to planet, solar system to
solar system? He could gain nothing but a small sum of possible combinations and correlations, and in all that search and
effort would not have gained the first fundamental of true knowledge, of true thought and action.
The kingly mystery of Life can not mean physical existence, which is merely one aspect of the Great Life. We have to go
deeper into our own natures, and into the natures of all beings, in order to grasp what that great mystery is. Then the lives of
all beings become clear Unto us; we understand what all phases of existence mean; we see the causes for all the difficulties
that surround us; we know how to bring about better results, and we perceive from the very first that the power lies in us, and
in us alone, to bring about all future changes for ourselves. Looking at all existence from a universal point of view, we
become able
to exercise the power which lies in the essential spiritual basis of every being, high or low. The One Self appears only to be
divided among the creatures; in reality, It is not divided at all. Each being is That in his essential nature. In It is the foundation
of all power; in It lies the power of unfolding, of evolution, which makes possible for each being—representing one ray of that
One Life—the attainment of a full knowledge of Life in his own true nature.
Each one of us stands in the midst of a great and silent evolution. Each one of us sees many expressions of different
beings— those of the same grade as ourselves and beings of grades below us. We find relations with other elements, the
power of which we do not see, the source of which we do not grasp, yet the effects of which we feel. On every hand we are
getting effects from different beings of different grades, each one receiving those effects differently. The beings below us in
forms of the mineral, vegetable, and animal world are all working, just as we are working, toward a greater and greater
realization of the whole. Sparks of the One Spirit, of the One Consciousness, they have begun their little lives in forms, or
bodies, by which they may contact others. As they have need for better and better instruments, need for further and further
contact, they evolve, from within, a better instrument. Such is the whole course of evolution, always from within outwards, and
always with the tendency to an increasing individuality. From the one ocean of Life there finally tends to arise—Divinity.
Divinity is always acquired. It is not an endowment. It does not exist of itself. If we could be made good, if we could be made
to turn around and take a righteous course, life might seem very much easier to us. But there is no escaping the law; no one
can get us “off” from the effects of our wrong-doing; no one can confer knowledge on another. Each one has to see and know
for himself. Each one has to gain Divinity of himself, and in his own way. We think of this as a common world. But it is not so.
There are no two people who look at life from the same view point, who have the same likes and dislikes, whom the same
things affect in exactly the same way. No two people are alike either in life or after the death of the body. Each makes his
own state; each makes his own limitations; each acquires his own Divinity. Divinity lies latent in each one of us; all powers lie
latent in every one, and no being anywhere can be greater than we may become.
What is Divinity but all-inclusive knowledge? True spirituality is not a hazy condition. It is not something that denies any
portion of the universe, nor any kind of being. A hazy abstract condition would mean no men, no principles, no opposites; but
Divine spirituality is the power to know and see whatever is wished known or seen; it is an intimate knowledge of the ultimate
essence of everything in nature. Such knowledge would not mean seeing all things at once, nor being everywhere at the
same time, but it is the power to see and know in any direction—the power to grasp whatever it wishes, the power to shut out
whatever it wishes. Otherwise it would be no power at all; there would be no use in having power and wisdom, and such
beings as the Masters could be afflicted with all the grief and misery in the world, unable to help where help is needed and
possible.
All-inclusive knowledge lies before every living being, if lie will but take the necessary steps. What prevents him are the false
ideas he holds; for thought is the basis of all action, and wrong ideas in regard to life inevitably bring about wrong actions.
We have thought we are all different, because we have different ideas, but, in essence, we are One. The One Life is in each
of us. Each one of us stands in the same position, looking out; all the rest are seen. Starting from this point, we begin to find
ourselves, to see ourselves, to feel ourselves, and, in feeling ourselves, feel all others. All that a man can know of God is what
he knows in himself, through himself, and by himself. Never by any outside presentation can that realization be gained. All the
great saviors of all times have never asked man to rely on some outside God, to fear some devil, to go by this or that
revelation, to believe in any book, church, ‘ology,” or ism” of any kind. They have asked him to take the step that the height of
his calling demands—to know himself, to know his own true nature, and the nature of every other being. They have shown that
the Real Man must assert himself, and must act in accordance with his own nature, and the responsibility which the oneness
of all nature demands.
Man occupies the most important place in the whole scheme of evolution. He stands where Spirit and matter meet. He is the
link between the higher beings and those below. He has so to act, so to think and act, in and upon and with this physical
matter that he raises it all up, and gives it another tendency, another trend. By the very constitution of his nature, by reason of
his being connected as he is in a physical body with all nature, the Secret Doctrine states that man can become greater than
any one of the Dhyan Chohans and equal to all of them put together. That is the goal which lies before him—the goal of the
‘Kingly Mystery”—the seeing and knowing and feeling and acting universally. For there is a power in man which enables him
to judge aright; he has the all-seeing eye—the all-encompassing sight which permits him to see the justice of all things. And
always there is present the power of choice in one direction or another. The questions before each human being are: Whom
will ye serve? Will you serve the higher spiritual nature, or the body of flesh? WHOM CHOOSE YE THIS DAY?
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THE RECOGNITION OF LAW
We have to assume either that this is a universe of law or a universe of chaos, chance, accident. In fact, we know perfectly
well that it is not a universe of chance, because everything we use and understand we see to be under law; and where
something befalls us, the cause of which we cannot discern, we none the less assume a cause and try to find it. We cannot
even imagine an effect without a cause.
The first thing that the student has to learn to perceive in everything and in every circumstance is the reign of law. We
recognize law in part, but not in full, as it should be recognized.
Mistaking our own nature, by the very power of that nature, we set in motion causes that produce the results we now feel, and
then call those results by such terms as “destiny,” “fate,” “chance,” or the “will of God.” The operation of law to most minds
means a fate which befalls us wherein we are benefited or afflicted, but over which we have no control, and in producing
which we had no hand. Yet the operation of law can be easily understood. It has been enunciated by all the great Teachers of
the past as meaning action and its consequent reaction. Let us remember that these are not two separate and unrelated
things— Cause and Effect, Action and Reaction, are the two aspects of one and the same thing. In Sanskrit, both these
aspects are included in the one word, Karma.
Karma has been recognized in the Christian scriptures, with which we are most familiar, in the expression, “Whatsoever a
man soweth, that shall he also reap.” By consequence, we should easily see that whatever a man is reaping, that he must
have sown. Once we get the conception that actions do not produce themselves, that law does not operate of itself, we can
see that we cause actions and experience their reactions; that it is we who set up causes and feel their effects. Cause and
effect, action and reaction—the operation of law—are seen to be in ourselves, not outside. There is no action unless there is
a being to make it and to feel its effects. Everything that happens to any being has its antecedent cause, and that cause lies
in some past action of the being himself. In other words, law rules on every plane of being, and every being of every grade is
under that law.
We are all reaping what we have sown, individually and collectively; for we must know that we never act alone. We always act
on and in connection with others, affecting them for good or evil, and we get the necessary reaction from the causes set in
motion by ourselves. This presents to us the idea of absolute Justice, for under such a conception of Law each being
receives exactly what he gives.
This points to another conception: there could not be action and its consequent reaction, unless there were a community of
being amongst us. There must be that in our natures which is peculiar to none, but common to all. In other words, we have all
sprung from the same Source; we are all traveling toward the same Goal. The path differs only with the pilgrims. The causes
that each one sets in motion determine the path that one must follow. This might be called “destiny,” if we understand that it is
a destiny of our own creation. Being created by us, it can be sustained by us or changed by us. If we do not like the “destiny”
that befalls us, the effects that surround us, the conditions that encompass us, all we have to do is to set in motion such
causes as will produce other and more desirable effects. But we have to do it; no one else can do it for us. No one holds us
back. No one propels us forward.
There is no difference in our powers. Each one of us has the same power to perceive, to experience, to learn. ‘What we learn
differs, our experiences differ, our perceptions differ, but that does not show a difference in our powers—it shows a
difference only in the application of those powers. Each one of us contains within himself the same possibilities as exist
anywhere and everywhere in the universe. The lines that we have hitherto taken have brought us to whatever pass, conditions
or surroundings that may obtain at the present time. But we might have gone another way and produced an altogether
different environment. We ought to see that even now, however hampered we may be as the result of mistaken actions in the
past, we have not lost and can never lose our power to set other and better causes in motion. The path toward all knowledge
lies before us: “All nature lies before you—take what you can.”
This means that all beings below man, and all beings above man, as well as man himself, have gained whatever individual
positions they may now be in by their own exertions. It means that no being is standing still; all are acting, all progressing in
one direction or another, according to the lines they have followed and are following. It also means that all the beings below
man will some time reach our stage, and that every being above man has passed through stages similar to our own—which
is evolution carried to its highest point, spiritual and mental, as well as physical. We have applied the great Truths of nature
only in a partial, a limited, a personal sense. These are universal truths and should be applied in a universal sense, if we
desire to arrive at the fullest recognition of them.
The life in each of us is the Universal Life. Many imagine that Life means existence in a physical body, and that only; that out
side of physical existence there is no life. But Life includes all things and forms from the highest spiritual down to life in its
grossest form; it is the same Life all through, common to all. It is the One Life, the One Spirit in each and all, so that in each
being of every grade there lies the potentiality of All-Being. There is that in each which is beginningless and endless, which is
changeless; and that, though illimitable, invisible, inconceivable, can be realized by every human being.
Some illustrations will bring this fact forcibly to our minds. We speak of ourselves, of our identity. We say, “I was a child; when
I was a young man or woman; when I was middle-aged; as I am today; as I will be in the future.” Now, what is That, itself
unchanged, which is going through all those changes? The same “I,” the same identity. That does not change. The body
changes, the ideas—the mind—change, the surroundings change. But the Man himself, the identity, remains unchanged
through all these changes of body, scene and circumstance.
Again, take the power of seeing: we all have that power, and no matter how much we exercise it, it still remains the power to
perceive. It is not changed by what we see. And we may consider this: change cannot see change. Only that which is
permanent can see change. So there is that in us which is permanent, which is Real, which is of the highest, which is a ray
from and one with the Supreme, the universal Principle or Power, the creator, the sustainer, the regenerator of all that was, is,
or ever shall be. We have to realize That—each one for himself—first by recognizing that IT IS, omnipresent, eternal,
boundless and immutable; second, by divesting ourselves of those things we thought It to be: that It is this body, this mind,
these circumstances. All these are changing things, things seen; but that which is the Real, the Supreme, our very Self and
the Self of all things, is not subject to change; It is changeless; It cannot be seen, for It is the Perceiver.
The ideas we entertain of the Supreme, of Law, of Nature, and of our own Being govern the actions we perform. When we
were children we had certain ideas, and we acted according to them, and so on, all through the years. Some of our ideas we
have from time to time discarded, and others that we have collected have taken their place. We are now acting according to
the ideas we now hold. Are they the best and highest possible to us?
If we change our ideas, we change our actions. If we see that Law rules, that this Law is inherent in our highest nature and not
outside of us, we shall see that it is the Spirit in us—our very Self—that is the cause and sustainer of all our actions; and this
Spirit by its very power as the Highest, through false ideas creates for itself false positions and false destinies. We have
often adopted and we often change our ideas without any real consideration as to their truth, as to their relation to Life, as to
their bearing upon existence. We must adopt and hold fast to three great ideas: that each human being has what are called
the ‘ attributes of the God power of creation, the power of preservation as long as that creation seems satisfactory, and the
power to destroy that creation and regenerate better ones. All we have to do is to realize our own real nature, see what our
defects are, strengthen our virtues, and move on. Just so surely as we do this, we shall find that our Virtues and strength
increase, and our defects gradually fall away.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
Christian theology states that evil came into the world through the sin of the first man’s eating of the tree of forbidden fruit. All
men sinned in Adam; because of Adam’s sin, every other being is and has been a sinner. Strangely enough this first man
was made by a Superior Being in His own image, or, in other words, perfect;yet, he was not able to restrain himself from
doing those things which he had been forbidden to do. In the very first being created in the image of the “Supreme,” there
was a tendency to do wrong!
We have, then, in this creation, out of nothing, a very limited Creator, as it is perfectly patent that any being must be. A being
could be neither infinite, supreme, nor omnipresent; for there is That in which all beings, however high, or planets, or solar-
systems, have their existence—Space, which exists whether there is anything in it or not; which has no beginning nor ending;
which always is; which is outside as well as inside of every being. Any being must be less than Space; could the Absolute be
less than Space? Illimitability and infinitude are not in relation to any being whatever; hence creation from the point of view of
a Creator has to be abandoned.
But the existence of all beings—not only of mankind, but of beings of every grade and everywhere—has to be accounted for:
what is the basis of all existence? We have to go back of all form, back of every kind of being, to see that all beings and all
forms spring from One Source, which is not different in any. It is in deed the Supreme which lies within and behind every
being; every being of every kind in the universe is in its innermost essence a ray from and one with It. It is Life. It is Spirit. It is
Consciousness. Each is God in his innermost Essence. Taking this basis for our thinking, let us ask the question: under what
process do things become? What brings about the operation of all the different forms that we see? Whether consciously or
unconsciously, we all recognize the fact that Law rules in this universe, but what we have to understand is that Law is merely
the inter-relation and inter-action and inter-dependence of all the acts of all beings concerned in the universe. The one
inclusive law is the law of action and reaction—a law not outside of, but inherent in the nature of every being. From the very
Source there is the power to act, but there is no action unless there is a being to act and feel the effects of the action. If I act, I
get re-action. If the highest archangel acts, he gets the re-action of his action.
There are two kinds of re-actions produced from acts: those that are good or beneficent; those that are evil or maleficent.
The whole responsibility of every action rests upon each and every being. So, if any being finds himself in any given state,
good or bad, it is because of his thoughts, words and deeds—his own, and those of nobody else. We get some good and
we get some evil, all of our own reaping; but all the time, every single moment of our existence, we have the power of choice
in the direction of good or evil.
Good has no existence by itself; evil has no existence by itself. The two terms relate to matters of conduct and of impressions
we receive. They merely characterize the effects produced upon us: a thing is “good” to us if it benefits us in any way, and
“evil” if it does not benefit us. Who is it that judges between good and evil effects? In every case, it is the man himself. One
man will say such and such things are good for me, and such and such things are evil; while another man, with a different
point of view and different relations to things, will perhaps say the exact contrary about the very same matters. So it always
resolves itself into the individual point of view: in the last analysis each man is himself the sole director and final authority as
to what is good and what is evil, so far as he is concerned.
We need to ask ourselves if we have always followed that which seemed to us to be the best course to follow; and, then
again, if we have, did we consider that course from the point of view of personal self-benefit, or from the point of view of
benefit to all others. For if we moved along the line of that which at the time seemed best for us personally, we must have
acted in a way that afflicted others; we must have done evil to others, whether consciously or unconsciously, by obstructing
their path. There we sowed evilly, and we either have reaped or will reap evilly. The very first act that was selfishly done was
the origin of evil so far as that being was concerned. Likewise, wherever there was an unselfish act, there was the origin of
good for him. Let us remember, too, that the Tree of Knowledge mentioned in the Bible was the knowledge of both good and
evil. Good and evil are not to be considered separately, but together. You cannot tell good except by its opposite, evil.
Goodness would speedily cease to be such, were it not for the operation of its contrary.
There are many things in life regarded by us as evils----like sorrow and death—which are not, in fact, evils. They are merely
stages and conditions through which we pass in our progress up the ladder of development. We need not be afraid of death,
for death will never touch us at all. We pass on out of life, and on. One of the Great Teachers said that death ever comes to
the Ego as a friend. There is no need to fear anything, for there is nothing in the universe, high or low, that can ever destroy
us—our consciousness, or our acquired individuality. Mistakes occur, for many of our actions are performed through
ignorance, and evil results follow. Even so, it is through those very wrong actions that we learn. It is through the operation of
vice that virtue is seen as a resistance to vice.
The origin of evil is to be found in ignorance of our own true natures. There are no afflictions put upon us by any being other
than ourselves. We are afflicted just to the extent that we make ourselves open to affliction. Things affect some people
terribly. The same things affect other people very little or not at all. Why? Because of their point of view. Attitude towards
things makes the suffering or the not suffering, the pleasure or the pain—not the things in themselves. If we knew ourselves to
be divine beings merely going through a school of life—our whole purpose to learn—what would there be to fear, or even to
be anxious about? If it were not for the obstacles in life—if life were one happy, placid dream—we never would make the
motion or the effort that would arouse the highest characteristics of thought and action. It is by reason of the obstacles we
have to overcome that we become stronger and obtain nobler traits. There is no such thing as a divinely created being, for
everything that exists becomes.
Is it not true that now we can look back upon and smile at anything ‘ that ever happened to us in the past? It looked awful at
the time, but it has passed, and we can see that from those very things came something of gain, of strength and wisdom.
Under the law no one can meet with an obstacle which he is not able to overcome; the obstacle is but an opportunity for him
to get rid of some defect which he now possesses. Often the very things which seem the most difficult for us prove to be the
most beneficent.
Those who stand the greatest chance of loss in the future are those who have the easy times. When one has ‘ Karma—that
is, when everything is coming his way—he is prone to take the ease of it and flow with the current of the river, missing many
an opportunity to do good. Through these errors of omission, which are as bad as any errors of commission, he fails to under
stand that he has diminished his own stock of good Karma and must of necessity share in the evil which flows from his lack
of appreciation of the situation and his opportunity. We need never fear our opportunities, but should always act up to them,
relying on the law of our own spiritual being to carry us through any thing and everything. The Path is within ourselves, not
outside; each of us is the stair to his own development.
We have so long been ruled by political and religious man made laws that we have come to believe in them. Yet, goodness
does not need laws. Our laws are based on the ignorance and selfishness and wickedness in men’s natures; they are made
to restrain the evil which we think is ineradicable and incurable because ‘we all sinned in Adam and cannot help it.” Then,
too, because we think we know what is good and what is evil, we are very anxious that everybody else should be made to
think in the same way. We want to prohibit those things which we do not desire ourselves; we want other people to eat what
we think they ought to eat, and to clothe themselves as we think they should be clothed. We talk much of the “rights” of men.
But we have just one right, and that is the right to do right. No man was ever made “good” by law; no man was ever made
moral by law. Each man must be a law for himself, both moral and spiritual.
Are we proud of this civilization, made by the collective thought and action of every individual in it? Have our telephones,
automobiles, airplanes, and radiographs made us any more divine? Do they measure our true progress? No; because
ignorance and selfishness still lie in every human heart; because men, according to the vicarious atonement idea, blame
their parents for their wrong attributes and tendencies, and accept only the good as their own. They are unjust, for both good
and bad are their own earnings. If we have good, let us be happy that at some time we earned it; if we are in bad case, let us
be glad, claim it, understand it and correct it. If we want a civilization better than the one we have now, we are the ones to
start right now to make it. No one else will make it for us. We have to set the lines in motion towards a true civilization from a
true basis; but if we think we are not able to do much and are not now doing what we can, it is certain we never can do more.
As we do what we can, greater opportunities arise to do. Until we do what is before us, never will any greater opportunities
arise.
When we get the right attitude of mind—and that is what discipleship is—there is not a quality in us, not a force, not an at
tribute, but can be put to the best and highest use. We do not get off this plane. We do not cut off any part of our being. We
do not destroy the usefulness of any part of us, but put all to the proper use and for the proper end. Herein is seen the
difference between one who knows and one who does not know. One who knows does not get off to the Christian’s heaven,
nor to any other heaven. He works right here where he finds himself and does the best work he can with the instrument he
now has, fearing nothing, trusting the Law of his own being. If any being will trust the Law of his own nature, if he will work on
with nature by helping all others in every direction possible, then all nature will turn and help him. It never was otherwise. It
cannot be otherwise.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
WHAT REINCARNATES?
What reincarnates is a mystery to many minds because they find a difficulty in understanding such a permanency as must
stand behind repeated incarnations. They know that the body is born and dies and is dissolved, but their minds are so
identified with the body in its relations and surroundings that they are unable to dissociate themselves from it. They think of
themselves as persons, as bodies of a physical nature, and hence can not see where in them may reside that power of
incarnating from life to life.
Theosophy presents a larger view in showing that man is not his body, because the body is continually changing; that man is
not his mind, because he is constantly changing his mind; that there is in man a permanency which is the identity throughout
all kinds of embodiments. There has been no change in our identity from childhood up to the present day. The body has
changed; the surroundings have changed; but the identity remains the same and will not change from now on through all
changes of body or mind or circumstance. That in us which is itself unchanging is the only real. Nothing is real that changes. It
is only the real that perceives change. Change can not see change. Only that which is constant perceives change; only the
permanent can perceive impermanence. However dimly we may perceive it, there is that in us which is eternal and
changeless.
This unchanging, constant, and immortal something in us is not absent from any particle or any being whatever. There is only
one Life in the world to which we, as well as all other beings, pertain. We all proceeded from the same one Source—not
many— and we are proceeding on the same path to the same great goal. The ancients said that the Divine Self is in all
beings, but in all it does not shine forth. The real is within, and may be realized by any human being in himself. Everyone
needs that realization that he may shine forth and express the God within, which all beings but partially express.
If then the Source is the same—the One Spirit—in all beings, why so many forms, so many, personalities, so many
individualizations? All, again Theosophy shows, are developments. In that great Ocean of Life, which is at the same time
Consciousness and Spirit, we move and live and have our being. That ocean is separable into its constituent drops and the
separation is effected through the great course of evolution. Even in the kingdoms below us, which are from the same
Source, the tendency to separate into drops of individualized consciousness goes on in ever-increasing degree. In the
animal kingdom, those species that are nearest to us make an approach to self-consciousness; but we as human beings
have arrived at that stage where each is a constituent drop of the great ocean of Consciousness. As with an ocean of water,
each drop of it contains all the elements of the great body, so each constituent drop of humanity—a human being—contains
within its range every element of the great universe.
The same power exists in all of us, yet where we stand on the ladder of being we see many below us and others greater than
we above us. Humanity now is building the bridge of thought, the bridge of that connects the lower with the higher. The whole
purpose of incarnation, or our descent into matter, was not only to gain further knowledge of matter, but to impel the lower
kingdoms to come up to where we are. We stand as gods to the lower kingdoms. It is our impulsion that brings them weal or
woe. It is our misconception of the aim of life that makes Nature so hard; that causes all the distress and disasters which
afflict us in cyclones, tornadoes, diseases, pestilences of every kind. All are our own doing; and why? Because there is a
sublimation of mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms in our bodies, which are lives in themselves. Every cell in our bodies
has its birth, youth, manhood, decay and death, and its reincarnation. We are impelling each one of those lives according to
whatever thought, will, or feeling we may have, whether for help or injury to others. These lives go out from us for good or evil,
back into their kingdoms with good or evil. So by our lack of understanding of our own true natures, without a comprehension
of universal brotherhood, we are imperfectly performing our duties on this plane and are imperfectly helping the evolution of
the lower kingdoms. We shall realize our responsibility to them only as we see that every being is on his way upward; that all
above man have been men at one time; that all below man will some time reach man’s estate, when we have gone on further;
that all forms, all beings, all individualizations are but aspects of the One Spirit. Granted, then, that this one unchanging Spirit
is in all—the cause of all evolutionary development, the cause of all incarnations —where, we may ask, do we carry the
power to see and know from life to life? How is continuity of knowledge, gained by observation and experience, preserved?
How is the individual maintained as such?
We should remember that we were self-conscious beings when this planet began; some even were self-conscious when this
solar system began; for there is a difference in degree of development among human beings. If the planet or solar system
began in a state of primordial substance, or nebulous matter, as Science calls it, then we must have had bodies of that state
of substance. In that finest substance are all the possibilities of every grade of matter, and hence it is that within the true body
of primordial matter all the changes of coarser and coarser substance have been brought about; and within that body is all
experience. Our birth is within that body. Everything that occurs to us is within that body—a body of a nature which does not
change throughout the whole Manvantara. Each one has such a body of finest substance, of the inner nature, which is the real
container for the individual. In it he lives and moves and has his being, and yet even the great glory and fineness of that body
is not the man; it is merely the highest vesture of the Soul. The Real Man we are is the Man that was, that is, and that ever
shall be, for whom the hour will never strike— Man, the thinker; Man, the perceiver—always thinking, continually acting.
Life is one. Spirit is one. Consciousness is one. These three are one—a trinity—and we are that trinity. All the changes of
substance and form are brought about by Spirit and Consciousness and expressed in various forms of life. We are that One
Spirit, each standing in a vast assemblage of beings in this great universe, seeing and knowing what he can through the
instruments he has. We are the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; or, in theosophical parlance, we are Alma,
Buddhi, and Manas. Atma is the One Spirit, not belonging to any one, but to all. Buddhi is the sublimated experience of all
the past. Manas is the thinking power, the thinker, the man, the immortal man. There is no man without the Spirit, and no man
without that experience of the past; but the mind is the realm of creation, of ideas; and the Spirit itself, with all its power, acts
according to the ideas that are in the mind.
The Voice of The Silence says, “Mind is like a mirror. It gathers dust while it reflects.” It needs soul-wisdom to brush away the
dust. This mind of ours, or that which we call the mind, is merely the reflector, which presents as we train it, different pictures.
The Spirit acts in accord with the ideas seen, for good or for evil. Is there evil in the world? It is the power of Spirit that
caused it. Is there good in the world? It is the power of Spirit that caused it. For there is only one power. The misdirection of
that power brings evil; its right direction brings good.
We must give up the idea that we are poor, weak, miserable creatures who can never do anything for ourselves; for as long
as we hold that idea, so long will we never do anything. We must get the other idea—that we are Spirit, that we are
immortal—and when we come to realize what that means, the power of it will flow directly in and through us, unrestricted in
any direction, save by the instruments which we ourselves caused to be imperfect. let us get away from the idea that we are
this poor, miserable, defective physical body over which we have so little control. We can not stop a heart beat; we can not
stop the breath without destroying the body; we can not stop the constant dissociation of matter that goes on in it, nor prevent
its final dissolution. Some people talk of “demonstrating” against death, but we might as well try to demonstrate against the
trees shedding their leaves when the winter blasts come. Death will always be, and there is a great advantage in it. If we
could not change our bodies, how would there be any chance for advancement? Are we so well pleased with the bodies now
ours that we would desire no change? Certainly not. There is only one thing in this life that can be retained permanently, and
that is the spiritual nature, and the great divine compassion which we may translate by the word “love.”
We are the reincarnating Egos who will continue to incarnate until the great task which we undertook is completed. That task
is the raising up of the whole of humanity to the highest possible stage of perfection on an earth of this kind. We incarnate
from age to age for the preservation of the just, the destruction of wickedness, and the establishment of righteousness. That
is what we are here for, whether we know it or not, and we must come to a recognition of the immortality of our own natures
before we shall ever relieve ourselves from the distresses that afflict humanity everywhere. We have to bring ourselves in
touch and tune with the whole great purpose of Nature which is the evolution of Soul, and for which alone all the universe
exists.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
REAL MEMORY
The general idea with regard to memory is that it depends entirely on the orderly functioning of the physical brain, and that
where derangement of that function occurs, there is loss of memory. It is quite true that certain forms of memory depend upon
the brain, as in those two particular functions known as remembrance and recollection. In remembrance, we can get the idea,
but not all the particulars that have brought about some feeling, event, or circumstance of the past; in recollection, we can
collect back from one point all the other points connected with it. But there is a third function of the memory, known as
reminiscence, which is not at all dependent upon the brain. It is brought into function oftentimes, not by any present object or
occurrence arousing attention in that direction, but as it were, springs direct from the soul itself. It is a direct perception of
what was. It comes from something behind the brain—the brain serving merely as a sort of filter, or interceptor, or translator
of impressions.
We can understand why remote memories are difficult to recall to our brain perception, when we consider the fact that the
brain cells are constantly changing. It is not conceivable that the millions of impressions received during a lifetime could be
retained and given out again by those changing cells. All the time during our lives there is a continuity of perception, but we
do not re member one-thousandth part of the impressions that we have received in those days or years. Very few events are
impressed upon us, or are immediately translatable through the brain, by way of remembrance. Even if we so desired, we
could never make any complete history of all those impressions through the faculty of recollection. Yet there is the innate
faculty of recalling and recollecting in such a way as to have a consecutive or synthetic grasp of all those impressions through
reminiscence, that faculty of memory which applies to the soul—is a peculiarly innate quality of the soul.
To reach into and exercise soul memory, we must first under stand the real nature of man. We must first see that all beings of
every grade—not only man, but the beings above man and the beings below man—are of the same essence, the same
Spirit, the same Life, and of the same potential powers. The higher beings have brought these potential powers into activity,
and differ from the lower orders by reason of a greater degree of development, a greater range of perception and a finer
evolution of form. But highest as well as lowest are rays from and one with the Divine Absolute Principle. Each one is the
Seer, the Perceiver, who stands in the center of his own universe, through which alone we may know all that may be known of
the Highest.
We must recognize the fact that this is a universe of law, with no chance or accident anywhere in it, and that we have arrived
at our present position under law—the law of our own being, set in operation by ourselves; that the same law rules in every
direction in space and in nature. The races of men that now exist are the result of races of men which preceded them; the
planet on which we now live is the result of a planet that preceded it; the solar system of which our planet is a part is the result
of a solar system that preceded it. Everything is an exact consequence of that which preceded it—everything is a repetition
of that which was. This return of the same action or preceding impression occurs under the true aspect of memory; it is the
memory of what we have been through that brings about the repetition.
On the physical plane, the action of true memory is seen in all those stages through which the human form goes from
conception to birth—representations, in fact, of the evolution of earlier races. In every act of our existence we are exhibiting
true memory, whether we realize it
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THE FOUNDATION OF RELIGION
To most people the word "religion" signifies something separate from human existence, and presents the idea of
preparation for some unknown future existence. Some religions are based upon the knowledge of an individual who laid the
foundation for them; others are believed to be the revelations of a Supreme Being at the time of the creation of the world.
Each people has a God of its own; so many peoples, so many Supreme Beings corresponding to the mental ideas of the
people. And so with individuals—as the ideas of men differ widely—so many individuals, so many Gods. All these Gods or
Supreme Beings are the creations of men, and not facts in themselves. But back of all those ideas does lie a Reality. The
very power that resides in man to create images and endow them with virtues which he does not possess points to
something greater than the things created. The creatures cannot be greater than the creators. That which in man creates
ideas is greater than any idea he may at any time have held or now holds. We have, then, to get back of all ideas to find the
true ‘ true religion.
True religion must give us a basis for thinking, and consequently, a basis for acting; it must give us an understanding of
nature, of ourselves and of other beings. Religion is a bond uniting men together—not a particular set of dogmas or beliefs—
binding not only all Men, but also all Beings and all things in the entire Universe, into one grand whole. Just that basis and that
bond are presented in the three fundamental propositions of the Secret Doctrine.
Behind everything that exists is the Sustainer of all that exists, of all that ever was, is, or shall be. Nothing exists without It. It is
omnipresent, and It is infinite. But, if we take that idea and endeavor to confine it to the form of any Being whatever, we shall
find we have attempted the impossible. We cannot hold the idea of being with that which is omnipresent and infinite. No
being can exist outside of Space which itself is, whether there is void or fulness, whether there are planets, gods or men, or
none; which itself is not altered in any way by objects occupying it; which is illimitable—without beginning and without end. A
Being must exist in Space, and so must be less than Space. We can then call the Highest Power any name we choose—the
Supreme, the Self—so long as we do not limit It, or give It attributes. We may not say It is pleased, nor angry, nor rewards,
nor punishes; doing so, we limit It. If Space itself cannot be measured or limited, how can we limit the Supreme? The Highest
Power cannot be less than Space. Even to name It is to limit It; yet It must be the One Reality, the One Sustainer, the One
Cause of all existences, the One Knower, the One Experiencer, in all directions and in every thing. This proposition drives us
back to the very basis of all thought—the power to think, itself—the power which is in each and every being.
We cannot understand nature, other beings and ourselves, by going outside to any conceivable being. The growth of
knowledge must be within the perceiver, the thinker himself. All his observation and experience bring him knowledge which
he relates to himself in connection with others. Each stands in the vast assemblage of beings, seeing them all, understanding
what he may of them all, but himself the only one who sees; all the rest are seen. All others are the same as he is in their
essential nature; all are endowed with the same qualities, the same perfections and imperfections; all are copies of every
other, differing only in the predominance of one or another quality. But the thinker is the Self—the only Self, so far as he is
concerned—the One Life, the One Consciousness, the One Power. As action proceeds from that basis, the greater the
powers which flow from that spiritual quality, the greater the increase of knowledge.
Knowledge is religion—not a supposed “revelation” from some superior being who created us as inferior beings, but an
actual knowledge gained through myriads of years and many existences by Those who have expressed them all. Those
beings above us on the ladder of evolution, who are greater than any “Gods” we can conceive of, passed through the same
trials and the same sufferings which we are undergoing, until they learned to know their innermost nature and to act in
accordance with it. They came to know that true religion is a knowledge of one’s own self, and action in accordance.
Drawing nearer in themselves to the very Source of their being, they found the source of every other being to be the same—
only the knowledge acquired and the use of that knowledge making the differences between all beings. Their knowledge is
an absolutely accurate knowledge of the essence of everything in nature, which alone is the foundation of all true religion.
What is it that prevents us from understanding true religion? It is our minds, which we have filled with narrow ideas of life, with
small ideas of the nature of humanity and of ourselves. It is our beliefs which constrain us. A belief is always a statement of
ignorance. If we believe, we do not know; if we know, there is no occasion for belief. Unless beliefs are tested out in the fires
of experience and show themselves true, they are absolutely useless and worse than useless, because they tempt us to use
the very powers of our spiritual being in wrong directions which bring suffering and disaster upon ourselves. It is our very
spiritual nature which makes our present unhappy condition possible, for from it flows the One power, either exercising itself
through small ideas—its obstacles—or acting fully and without constraint. Each man is his own creator, and each one has to
be his own savior through learning right use of the One Power. Those who have learned can only point out to us the Way they
learned it; no one can learn for us. We ourselves have to clear away the obstacles that prevent us from knowing our inner
selves. We ourselves have to throw aside the hindrances in thinking, in forms of religion, in mental as well as physical idols.
There is one realization which immediately sets our minds in order: it is of That in us which is unchangeable and unchanging.
We are that Spirit in very essence; all that has been in our past lives and in our present life, all that will in future be, proceeds
from the power of that Spirit itself, and is sustained by the power of that Spirit itself. There is nothing apart from us. Nature
does not exist separate and apart from us. The laws of nature are but the interrelations and interdependence of all the beings
concerned in this stream of evolution. The forces of nature do not exist of themselves. There never was a force of any kind
that was not the result of intelligent action. We as spiritual beings are eternally creating forces; for every man’s brain and
every thought has a dynamic power. Are they lost? No: all the thoughts, all the feelings of all the beings in the universe,
provide a store of dynamic energy which constitutes the forces, as we know them, of nature. We draw upon that general
reservoir of force in accordance with the ideas held and in accord with our present inward nature. All the time we are adding
to the powers of nature for good or for evil. So, too, we are taking from the powers of nature the additions which other beings
have put in—the forces which other beings have aroused in nature.
All the powers in the universe are latent in us if we only open the doors to their use. Everyone of us is a little copy of the whole
universe. There is not one single element existing any where which each one of us does not contain within his own sphere;
there is not a power anywhere that can not be drawn upon. Always the director of that power is the Self within each one. If that
Self sees darkly, it is because the mirror into which the Self looks is covered with the dust of false ideas; he sees distorted
images. He moves in the directions suggested by the mirror, but it is the Self which supplies the power to move. We would
open the door to all powers by a daily and hourly living in accordance with the nature of the Self—seeing that every other
being is but an aspect of Self, and acting so that every other being will be helped on its way. For we can not go on our way
alone. We have our duty to fulfill by every other being, whether in the kingdoms below us, without which we could not exist, or
in the human kingdom. Every other stands as a vicarious atonement for us—an object lesson—and if we have reached a
point higher than that which is ordinarily reached by men, then all the more are we constrained to duty by them.
We come to physical existence incarnation after incarnation under the law inherent in our natures, to work with mortal ideas
and passions and thoughts; but we who created them, we who sustain them, are immortal. If we were not immortal in our very
natures, never by any chance could we become immortal. If we were less than Divinity, then we never could by any possibility
understand divinity. Those beings who have been men and who have gone beyond our degrees of illusion—like Jesus of
Nazareth, Buddha, and many others—have attained to Their Divinity. They accept the woes of birth to which Their younger
brothers are subject, to remind us of our own natures—the only natures over which we have permanent control—that we may
become as One of Them, bound to Them as to all nature. To live for others is the foundation and basis of religion—of true
spiritual knowledge.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
OUR GOD AND OTHER GODS
As a people we speak of “our God,” imagining that we all have the same idea, that we all mean the same thing by the term.
Peoples of the past had their meaning of “our God,” and peoples of the present time also say “our God and other Gods,”
imagining that their conception is the only true one—all others, untrue, false. The Great War was fought among so-called
Christian peoples, who, so far as a consideration of Christianity is concerned, ought to have been worshipping the same
God, and guiding thought and action by the precepts ascribed to that God. But is it not true that our theologians and the
theologians of those people at war with us addressed petitions to the same “Our God,” in order to bring success to their
efforts as against other peoples worshipping the same God? There would then appear to be a multiplicity of Gods, or else
something wrong in the conceptions of all of us. If we ask ourselves individually, “What do I mean by the term God?” perhaps
we would all say: “The highest there is.” But do we mean the highest there is? Do we mean that great power which sustains
all beings, all forms, that which by its very nature and by our contemplation of it must appear as in finite, as eternal, as
changeless? If we do mean that, then we shall have to amend a great many other ideas which generally connote with the term
God. For instance, we shall have to leave the idea of a being entirely outside of our calculations. We have thought that the
source and sustainer of all things, all beings, from all time and in all time, is a being; that the something in us which reaches
up beyond everything physical, beyond every thing thinkable, is outside ourselves. How could that possibly be? How could
we possibly prove that this God is a being existing in some far-off heaven unknown to us and separate from us? How can we
imagine a being as omnipresent, and at the same time separate from us or from anything? If Deity is infinite and
omnipresent, there is not a grain of sand nor a point of vacant space anywhere where Deity is not. And how again can we
give to the idea of Deity, attributes—such as being angry or pleased, rewarding or punishing, since every attribute that we
give is a limitation and precludes the idea of omnipresence? No being could be the origin, the sustainer, the source of all that
was, is or ever shall be. Any being, however great, is contained and limited in space; no being can be omnipresent.
There is that which is beyond speech, beyond description, and beyond conception—the highest there is in the universe. But
are we to look outside in the heavens, in the sea, in the secret places of the earth, in any place whatever; or are we to find it
in a much nearer place, that is, within ourselves? For all that anyone can know of God, or the Highest, is what he knows in
himself, through himself and by himself. There is no other place of knowledge for us. Yet at the same time we have to
perceive that God, or Deity, is not absent from anything, is immanent in the whole, is omnipresent, is at the root and is the
seed of every being of every kind anywhere; that there is no thing, not even a grain of sand nor a speck of dust, no point in
space, absent from that Source which sustains the whole manifested universe. We can imagine, then, that God, as the
ancients put it, “seated in the hearts of all beings;” for there is something in the heart of man whence proceeds all feeling, all
true life, all true conception. The heart is not the same as the head—a man’s heart may be right and sound and his head
wrong. The feeling of the true in the heart is not deceived by this thought or that thought or the other thought; it can only be
experienced by each one for himself within himself. God is not an outside God, but is to be sought in the very innermost
recesses of our own nature— in the silent chamber, the temple, within us—and nowhere else.
We think that our present civilization far transcends any past civilizations that ever have been; yet there are many records and
relics of arts, sciences, of knowledge, of religion, of philosophy such as we have not yet mastered. We are but a young
people, as a matter of fact. It is not so many centuries ago since the Founder of the Christian Religion lived upon the earth,
and there were many thousands of centuries before that. The people who lived down the course of those centuries knew far
more than we. They knew, as we may know, that there is no such thing as creation. No being ever created the earth, or its
conditions. This planet, or any other planet, was never created by any being. This solar system and other solar systems were
not created by any being. Something produced them. Yes, and it is possible to understand how that production was brought
about! By evolution—always an unfolding from within outward—from the very root of every being, from the Deity, the Soul of
all, the Spirit of all. Spirit is the root, the sustainer, the energy producing force for all the evolution that has gone on. Every
being in the universe is a product of evolution—all from the same identical root of being, all drawing their powers of
expression from the one Source. All are rays from and one with that Absolute Principle, which is our very Self—the Self of all
creatures. What of all those beings who were the Self in process of evolution, who reached a realization of this truth ages and
ages before the present civilization? What became of them? Have all their hopes and fears been lost? What is the meaning
of those races, those civilizations—was it death for them when their civilization passed out as ours must, since just so surely
as it had a beginning so it will have an ending? Just so surely as there are those rises and falls in civilizations, so is there a
cycle of time through which the conscious man goes, and a cycle of form which the conscious man animates, uses, and
leaves—to take another—from civilization to civilization. When, then, we look about us for the results of the civilizations that
have been, and try to understand the conditions of the present civilization, we have to see that the people of the world to-day
are the very ones who passed through those ancient civilizations, left them, and carried forward whatever of knowledge or of
ignorance, of truth or of error, they had gained during those vast periods of time. For LAW rules in every thing and every
circumstance, every where. There is a law of birth—of successive lives on earth, each life the successor and result of the life
or lives which preceded. That which sustains man, garners all experience, retains it, carries it forward, and propels evolution,
is the One changeless, eternal, immortal Self—the real perceiver, the real knower, the real experiencer in every body, in
every form.
The Self is its own law. Each one is the Self, and each—as Self—has produced the conditions under which he finds him self.
When the Self acts, it receives the re-action. If it acts not at all, then there is no re-action. Every action brings its re-action
from those who are affected by it for good or for evil. For good and evil do not exist of themselves nor in ourselves; they are
but effects we feel and classify as good or bad according to our attitude toward them; that which seems ‘good to one is “evil”
to another. When we have rid ourselves of the idea that there is a God who produced and sustains good, and a devil who
produced and sustains evil, we have come to the fact of true perception from within outwards.
Every civilization that has been, and the one in which we now are living, is due to a true or false perception of what our real
nature is. If we would ever know and understand our natures, we must first understand that there is in us That which never
changes at all, whatever changes are brought about by it. We never are the things we see, or feel, or hear, or know, or
experience. No matter how many the experiences may be, we are still unchanged with the possibility of infinite other
experiences. That the Self in us is changeless may seem difficult for the Western mind to grasp, thinking that without change
there is no progress; but it may be perceived by the fact of our identity remaining ever the same in a child’s body and through
all the changes of body that have occurred since childhood. If the identity ever changed, it could never observe change. Only
that which is permanent and stable can see change, can know it, can make it. And—what theology, modern philosophy,
modern science have never taught us—there is this fact: as we are immortal spirit at the very root of our being, we have
made for ourselves many mansions all down through the process of nature’s changes. The gradual condensation which goes
on with every planet and in every solar system goes on with every body; every form has its initial existence as form in the
finest state of matter, from which it is condensed and hardened to the present physical state of matter. But the illimitable
experiences of higher planes, back through all those changes, are now resident within ourselves— present with us wherever
we are or may be—except as we have shut the doors on them. Why? Because this brain of ours, the most responsive organ
in the body, since it is used in our modifications of thought, is concerned with things of the earth, in relation to the body. A
brain trained and sustained by this kind of thinking can not register from the higher nature—from the finer sheaths of the soul.
But once we begin to think and act from the basis of these verities, the brain—which is the most rapidly changing organ in
the body—becomes porous to the impressions of our inner life. Dimly at first, and more strongly as time goes on, we begin
to realize the fact of this inner experience, and—what is more to us than all else—the continuity of our consciousness; the fact
that consciousness never ceases, no matter on what plane we may be acting. Therefore, we may have in our own bodies
and during our lifetime—not a promise—but a sense, a realization, a knowledge of immortality here and now!
We have been taught to believe. But, belief is not knowledge. We have been taught to believe in a formula, but a formula is
not knowledge. So we have gone astray in every direction and made of this life a terror to ourselves. We are afraid of death,
of disaster; we are always buttressing ourselves with some sort of guard in this or that direction. We are afraid to trust the
very God we say we believe in. We will not trust Christ. We will use all the means we can think of to look out for ourselves.
Each one of us is Spirit and each one of us is using spiritual powers to induce what we call good and what we call evil; but
the misapplication of the spiritual powers, in default of real knowledge, must lead us to misery. So we have to know what we
are, and to think and live in the light of our own real natures. Then we shall know the truth within ourselves. We shall
understand ourselves and we shall understand our fellow-men, and we shall never again say, “Our God and other Gods,” but
the SELF of all creatures. We shall see the Self as all and in all; we will act for and as the Self, because the Self acts only
through the creatures; and we shall see every being—man, below man, or above man—as an aspect of ourselves; as
individualized beings we will try more and more to exercise the spiritual knowledge that is our own heritage. Like the prodigal
son who ate the husks with the swine and then suddenly remembered his Father’s house, we will say: “I will arise and go to
my Father.” For there is no one so wicked, so ignorant, so poorly endowed that he may not make good progress in the right
direction; on whom the light may not dawn and a feeling of power and strength and purpose arise that will do away with fear
and make him a strong helpful being in the world of men. Far from taking us away from our families, our duties, our business,
or our citizenship, this knowledge will make us better citizens, better husbands, better fathers, better patriots, if you will, than
ever we were before—patriots of not just one country, but of all.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THE KINGLY MYSTERY
The “kingly mystery” is Life itself. We all have Life. We all are Life. Every being everywhere is Life—expresses Life. To know
what is Life itself is to know the mystery. But there is a condition precedent to this mysterious knowledge, stated by Krishna,
in the opening of the Ninth Chapter of the Bhagavad Gita: “Unto thee who findeth no fault I will now make known this most
mysterious knowledge, coupled with a realization of it, which having known thou shalt be delivered from evil.” When the one
who desires to learn is not in a critical attitude, when he has sensed in one way or another that truth lies in a certain direction
and gives all his attention to it without quarreling with terms or the ideas put forward, his is the attitude of the true student. The
one who desires to know must set aside for the time being all preconceptions, pride, and prejudices which he may have
held, and then he is ready to begin his studies— to take the first step in the right direction.
The world is full of false ideas, false religions, false philosophies which must be thrown away. We of the Western peoples
have been taught that we were poor miserable sinners who could do nothing of ourselves. We have assumed that we are
poor miserable sinners and have acted as such. Our whole civilization is colored and steeped through with this falsity. Our
theologies, our sciences, our commercial, social and political conditions are all based on this false idea, which in its turn
rests upon another equally false—that man is here on earth for once only. Hence, that his entrance on this physical scene
was through the act of others, and we believe that whatever of merit or demerit is his was handed on to him by his forebears.
As a consequence, man constantly shifts his responsibility, and acts as an irresponsible being. The whole falsity of our
existence is centered there, for we are responsible for every ill that exists among us; every kind of suffering on every hand
has been brought about through a false idea, and the false action which followed. What are sin, disease, sorrow and
suffering but the result of our own thoughts and actions?
Again, we say “we cannot know;” or, “this life is all there is.” Therefore, the whole force of our consciousness is directed in the
line of that one false idea and inhibited in the expression of any other; whereas all directions lie absolutely open to us, if only
we understand our own natures. Man circumscribes his own conditions by the false ideas he holds in regard to life. No one
holds him back. He holds himself back. Yet, even with his narrowing, limiting ideas and conceptions, he is able to
accomplish wonderful things. Whatever he sets out to do on the purely physical, material plane of life, he accomplishes in a
shorter or greater length of time. If his ideas of religion are all concerned with the physical aspect of life, however, how can he
know more? All the conquests that he can make will be physical conquests. What could it avail him in the direction of real
knowledge, if he continued similar conquests from civilization to civilization, age to age, planet to planet, solar system to
solar system? He could gain nothing but a small sum of possible combinations and correlations, and in all that search and
effort would not have gained the first fundamental of true knowledge, of true thought and action.
The kingly mystery of Life can not mean physical existence, which is merely one aspect of the Great Life. We have to go
deeper into our own natures, and into the natures of all beings, in order to grasp what that great mystery is. Then the lives of
all beings become clear Unto us; we understand what all phases of existence mean; we see the causes for all the difficulties
that surround us; we know how to bring about better results, and we perceive from the very first that the power lies in us, and
in us alone, to bring about all future changes for ourselves. Looking at all existence from a universal point of view, we
become able
to exercise the power which lies in the essential spiritual basis of every being, high or low. The One Self appears only to be
divided among the creatures; in reality, It is not divided at all. Each being is That in his essential nature. In It is the foundation
of all power; in It lies the power of unfolding, of evolution, which makes possible for each being—representing one ray of that
One Life—the attainment of a full knowledge of Life in his own true nature.
Each one of us stands in the midst of a great and silent evolution. Each one of us sees many expressions of different
beings— those of the same grade as ourselves and beings of grades below us. We find relations with other elements, the
power of which we do not see, the source of which we do not grasp, yet the effects of which we feel. On every hand we are
getting effects from different beings of different grades, each one receiving those effects differently. The beings below us in
forms of the mineral, vegetable, and animal world are all working, just as we are working, toward a greater and greater
realization of the whole. Sparks of the One Spirit, of the One Consciousness, they have begun their little lives in forms, or
bodies, by which they may contact others. As they have need for better and better instruments, need for further and further
contact, they evolve, from within, a better instrument. Such is the whole course of evolution, always from within outwards, and
always with the tendency to an increasing individuality. From the one ocean of Life there finally tends to arise—Divinity.
Divinity is always acquired. It is not an endowment. It does not exist of itself. If we could be made good, if we could be made
to turn around and take a righteous course, life might seem very much easier to us. But there is no escaping the law; no one
can get us “off” from the effects of our wrong-doing; no one can confer knowledge on another. Each one has to see and know
for himself. Each one has to gain Divinity of himself, and in his own way. We think of this as a common world. But it is not so.
There are no two people who look at life from the same view point, who have the same likes and dislikes, whom the same
things affect in exactly the same way. No two people are alike either in life or after the death of the body. Each makes his
own state; each makes his own limitations; each acquires his own Divinity. Divinity lies latent in each one of us; all powers lie
latent in every one, and no being anywhere can be greater than we may become.
What is Divinity but all-inclusive knowledge? True spirituality is not a hazy condition. It is not something that denies any
portion of the universe, nor any kind of being. A hazy abstract condition would mean no men, no principles, no opposites; but
Divine spirituality is the power to know and see whatever is wished known or seen; it is an intimate knowledge of the ultimate
essence of everything in nature. Such knowledge would not mean seeing all things at once, nor being everywhere at the
same time, but it is the power to see and know in any direction—the power to grasp whatever it wishes, the power to shut out
whatever it wishes. Otherwise it would be no power at all; there would be no use in having power and wisdom, and such
beings as the Masters could be afflicted with all the grief and misery in the world, unable to help where help is needed and
possible.
All-inclusive knowledge lies before every living being, if lie will but take the necessary steps. What prevents him are the false
ideas he holds; for thought is the basis of all action, and wrong ideas in regard to life inevitably bring about wrong actions.
We have thought we are all different, because we have different ideas, but, in essence, we are One. The One Life is in each
of us. Each one of us stands in the same position, looking out; all the rest are seen. Starting from this point, we begin to find
ourselves, to see ourselves, to feel ourselves, and, in feeling ourselves, feel all others. All that a man can know of God is what
he knows in himself, through himself, and by himself. Never by any outside presentation can that realization be gained. All the
great saviors of all times have never asked man to rely on some outside God, to fear some devil, to go by this or that
revelation, to believe in any book, church, ‘ology,” or ism” of any kind. They have asked him to take the step that the height of
his calling demands—to know himself, to know his own true nature, and the nature of every other being. They have shown that
the Real Man must assert himself, and must act in accordance with his own nature, and the responsibility which the oneness
of all nature demands.
Man occupies the most important place in the whole scheme of evolution. He stands where Spirit and matter meet. He is the
link between the higher beings and those below. He has so to act, so to think and act, in and upon and with this physical
matter that he raises it all up, and gives it another tendency, another trend. By the very constitution of his nature, by reason of
his being connected as he is in a physical body with all nature, the Secret Doctrine states that man can become greater than
any one of the Dhyan Chohans and equal to all of them put together. That is the goal which lies before him—the goal of the
‘Kingly Mystery”—the seeing and knowing and feeling and acting universally. For there is a power in man which enables him
to judge aright; he has the all-seeing eye—the all-encompassing sight which permits him to see the justice of all things. And
always there is present the power of choice in one direction or another. The questions before each human being are: Whom
will ye serve? Will you serve the higher spiritual nature, or the body of flesh? WHOM CHOOSE YE THIS DAY?
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THE RECOGNITION OF LAW
We have to assume either that this is a universe of law or a universe of chaos, chance, accident. In fact, we know perfectly
well that it is not a universe of chance, because everything we use and understand we see to be under law; and where
something befalls us, the cause of which we cannot discern, we none the less assume a cause and try to find it. We cannot
even imagine an effect without a cause.
The first thing that the student has to learn to perceive in everything and in every circumstance is the reign of law. We
recognize law in part, but not in full, as it should be recognized.
Mistaking our own nature, by the very power of that nature, we set in motion causes that produce the results we now feel, and
then call those results by such terms as “destiny,” “fate,” “chance,” or the “will of God.” The operation of law to most minds
means a fate which befalls us wherein we are benefited or afflicted, but over which we have no control, and in producing
which we had no hand. Yet the operation of law can be easily understood. It has been enunciated by all the great Teachers of
the past as meaning action and its consequent reaction. Let us remember that these are not two separate and unrelated
things— Cause and Effect, Action and Reaction, are the two aspects of one and the same thing. In Sanskrit, both these
aspects are included in the one word, Karma.
Karma has been recognized in the Christian scriptures, with which we are most familiar, in the expression, “Whatsoever a
man soweth, that shall he also reap.” By consequence, we should easily see that whatever a man is reaping, that he must
have sown. Once we get the conception that actions do not produce themselves, that law does not operate of itself, we can
see that we cause actions and experience their reactions; that it is we who set up causes and feel their effects. Cause and
effect, action and reaction—the operation of law—are seen to be in ourselves, not outside. There is no action unless there is
a being to make it and to feel its effects. Everything that happens to any being has its antecedent cause, and that cause lies
in some past action of the being himself. In other words, law rules on every plane of being, and every being of every grade is
under that law.
We are all reaping what we have sown, individually and collectively; for we must know that we never act alone. We always act
on and in connection with others, affecting them for good or evil, and we get the necessary reaction from the causes set in
motion by ourselves. This presents to us the idea of absolute Justice, for under such a conception of Law each being
receives exactly what he gives.
This points to another conception: there could not be action and its consequent reaction, unless there were a community of
being amongst us. There must be that in our natures which is peculiar to none, but common to all. In other words, we have all
sprung from the same Source; we are all traveling toward the same Goal. The path differs only with the pilgrims. The causes
that each one sets in motion determine the path that one must follow. This might be called “destiny,” if we understand that it is
a destiny of our own creation. Being created by us, it can be sustained by us or changed by us. If we do not like the “destiny”
that befalls us, the effects that surround us, the conditions that encompass us, all we have to do is to set in motion such
causes as will produce other and more desirable effects. But we have to do it; no one else can do it for us. No one holds us
back. No one propels us forward.
There is no difference in our powers. Each one of us has the same power to perceive, to experience, to learn. ‘What we learn
differs, our experiences differ, our perceptions differ, but that does not show a difference in our powers—it shows a
difference only in the application of those powers. Each one of us contains within himself the same possibilities as exist
anywhere and everywhere in the universe. The lines that we have hitherto taken have brought us to whatever pass, conditions
or surroundings that may obtain at the present time. But we might have gone another way and produced an altogether
different environment. We ought to see that even now, however hampered we may be as the result of mistaken actions in the
past, we have not lost and can never lose our power to set other and better causes in motion. The path toward all knowledge
lies before us: “All nature lies before you—take what you can.”
This means that all beings below man, and all beings above man, as well as man himself, have gained whatever individual
positions they may now be in by their own exertions. It means that no being is standing still; all are acting, all progressing in
one direction or another, according to the lines they have followed and are following. It also means that all the beings below
man will some time reach our stage, and that every being above man has passed through stages similar to our own—which
is evolution carried to its highest point, spiritual and mental, as well as physical. We have applied the great Truths of nature
only in a partial, a limited, a personal sense. These are universal truths and should be applied in a universal sense, if we
desire to arrive at the fullest recognition of them.
The life in each of us is the Universal Life. Many imagine that Life means existence in a physical body, and that only; that out
side of physical existence there is no life. But Life includes all things and forms from the highest spiritual down to life in its
grossest form; it is the same Life all through, common to all. It is the One Life, the One Spirit in each and all, so that in each
being of every grade there lies the potentiality of All-Being. There is that in each which is beginningless and endless, which is
changeless; and that, though illimitable, invisible, inconceivable, can be realized by every human being.
Some illustrations will bring this fact forcibly to our minds. We speak of ourselves, of our identity. We say, “I was a child; when
I was a young man or woman; when I was middle-aged; as I am today; as I will be in the future.” Now, what is That, itself
unchanged, which is going through all those changes? The same “I,” the same identity. That does not change. The body
changes, the ideas—the mind—change, the surroundings change. But the Man himself, the identity, remains unchanged
through all these changes of body, scene and circumstance.
Again, take the power of seeing: we all have that power, and no matter how much we exercise it, it still remains the power to
perceive. It is not changed by what we see. And we may consider this: change cannot see change. Only that which is
permanent can see change. So there is that in us which is permanent, which is Real, which is of the highest, which is a ray
from and one with the Supreme, the universal Principle or Power, the creator, the sustainer, the regenerator of all that was, is,
or ever shall be. We have to realize That—each one for himself—first by recognizing that IT IS, omnipresent, eternal,
boundless and immutable; second, by divesting ourselves of those things we thought It to be: that It is this body, this mind,
these circumstances. All these are changing things, things seen; but that which is the Real, the Supreme, our very Self and
the Self of all things, is not subject to change; It is changeless; It cannot be seen, for It is the Perceiver.
The ideas we entertain of the Supreme, of Law, of Nature, and of our own Being govern the actions we perform. When we
were children we had certain ideas, and we acted according to them, and so on, all through the years. Some of our ideas we
have from time to time discarded, and others that we have collected have taken their place. We are now acting according to
the ideas we now hold. Are they the best and highest possible to us?
If we change our ideas, we change our actions. If we see that Law rules, that this Law is inherent in our highest nature and not
outside of us, we shall see that it is the Spirit in us—our very Self—that is the cause and sustainer of all our actions; and this
Spirit by its very power as the Highest, through false ideas creates for itself false positions and false destinies. We have
often adopted and we often change our ideas without any real consideration as to their truth, as to their relation to Life, as to
their bearing upon existence. We must adopt and hold fast to three great ideas: that each human being has what are called
the ‘ attributes of the God power of creation, the power of preservation as long as that creation seems satisfactory, and the
power to destroy that creation and regenerate better ones. All we have to do is to realize our own real nature, see what our
defects are, strengthen our virtues, and move on. Just so surely as we do this, we shall find that our Virtues and strength
increase, and our defects gradually fall away.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
Christian theology states that evil came into the world through the sin of the first man’s eating of the tree of forbidden fruit. All
men sinned in Adam; because of Adam’s sin, every other being is and has been a sinner. Strangely enough this first man
was made by a Superior Being in His own image, or, in other words, perfect;yet, he was not able to restrain himself from
doing those things which he had been forbidden to do. In the very first being created in the image of the “Supreme,” there
was a tendency to do wrong!
We have, then, in this creation, out of nothing, a very limited Creator, as it is perfectly patent that any being must be. A being
could be neither infinite, supreme, nor omnipresent; for there is That in which all beings, however high, or planets, or solar-
systems, have their existence—Space, which exists whether there is anything in it or not; which has no beginning nor ending;
which always is; which is outside as well as inside of every being. Any being must be less than Space; could the Absolute be
less than Space? Illimitability and infinitude are not in relation to any being whatever; hence creation from the point of view of
a Creator has to be abandoned.
But the existence of all beings—not only of mankind, but of beings of every grade and everywhere—has to be accounted for:
what is the basis of all existence? We have to go back of all form, back of every kind of being, to see that all beings and all
forms spring from One Source, which is not different in any. It is in deed the Supreme which lies within and behind every
being; every being of every kind in the universe is in its innermost essence a ray from and one with It. It is Life. It is Spirit. It is
Consciousness. Each is God in his innermost Essence. Taking this basis for our thinking, let us ask the question: under what
process do things become? What brings about the operation of all the different forms that we see? Whether consciously or
unconsciously, we all recognize the fact that Law rules in this universe, but what we have to understand is that Law is merely
the inter-relation and inter-action and inter-dependence of all the acts of all beings concerned in the universe. The one
inclusive law is the law of action and reaction—a law not outside of, but inherent in the nature of every being. From the very
Source there is the power to act, but there is no action unless there is a being to act and feel the effects of the action. If I act, I
get re-action. If the highest archangel acts, he gets the re-action of his action.
There are two kinds of re-actions produced from acts: those that are good or beneficent; those that are evil or maleficent.
The whole responsibility of every action rests upon each and every being. So, if any being finds himself in any given state,
good or bad, it is because of his thoughts, words and deeds—his own, and those of nobody else. We get some good and
we get some evil, all of our own reaping; but all the time, every single moment of our existence, we have the power of choice
in the direction of good or evil.
Good has no existence by itself; evil has no existence by itself. The two terms relate to matters of conduct and of impressions
we receive. They merely characterize the effects produced upon us: a thing is “good” to us if it benefits us in any way, and
“evil” if it does not benefit us. Who is it that judges between good and evil effects? In every case, it is the man himself. One
man will say such and such things are good for me, and such and such things are evil; while another man, with a different
point of view and different relations to things, will perhaps say the exact contrary about the very same matters. So it always
resolves itself into the individual point of view: in the last analysis each man is himself the sole director and final authority as
to what is good and what is evil, so far as he is concerned.
We need to ask ourselves if we have always followed that which seemed to us to be the best course to follow; and, then
again, if we have, did we consider that course from the point of view of personal self-benefit, or from the point of view of
benefit to all others. For if we moved along the line of that which at the time seemed best for us personally, we must have
acted in a way that afflicted others; we must have done evil to others, whether consciously or unconsciously, by obstructing
their path. There we sowed evilly, and we either have reaped or will reap evilly. The very first act that was selfishly done was
the origin of evil so far as that being was concerned. Likewise, wherever there was an unselfish act, there was the origin of
good for him. Let us remember, too, that the Tree of Knowledge mentioned in the Bible was the knowledge of both good and
evil. Good and evil are not to be considered separately, but together. You cannot tell good except by its opposite, evil.
Goodness would speedily cease to be such, were it not for the operation of its contrary.
There are many things in life regarded by us as evils----like sorrow and death—which are not, in fact, evils. They are merely
stages and conditions through which we pass in our progress up the ladder of development. We need not be afraid of death,
for death will never touch us at all. We pass on out of life, and on. One of the Great Teachers said that death ever comes to
the Ego as a friend. There is no need to fear anything, for there is nothing in the universe, high or low, that can ever destroy
us—our consciousness, or our acquired individuality. Mistakes occur, for many of our actions are performed through
ignorance, and evil results follow. Even so, it is through those very wrong actions that we learn. It is through the operation of
vice that virtue is seen as a resistance to vice.
The origin of evil is to be found in ignorance of our own true natures. There are no afflictions put upon us by any being other
than ourselves. We are afflicted just to the extent that we make ourselves open to affliction. Things affect some people
terribly. The same things affect other people very little or not at all. Why? Because of their point of view. Attitude towards
things makes the suffering or the not suffering, the pleasure or the pain—not the things in themselves. If we knew ourselves to
be divine beings merely going through a school of life—our whole purpose to learn—what would there be to fear, or even to
be anxious about? If it were not for the obstacles in life—if life were one happy, placid dream—we never would make the
motion or the effort that would arouse the highest characteristics of thought and action. It is by reason of the obstacles we
have to overcome that we become stronger and obtain nobler traits. There is no such thing as a divinely created being, for
everything that exists becomes.
Is it not true that now we can look back upon and smile at anything ‘ that ever happened to us in the past? It looked awful at
the time, but it has passed, and we can see that from those very things came something of gain, of strength and wisdom.
Under the law no one can meet with an obstacle which he is not able to overcome; the obstacle is but an opportunity for him
to get rid of some defect which he now possesses. Often the very things which seem the most difficult for us prove to be the
most beneficent.
Those who stand the greatest chance of loss in the future are those who have the easy times. When one has ‘ Karma—that
is, when everything is coming his way—he is prone to take the ease of it and flow with the current of the river, missing many
an opportunity to do good. Through these errors of omission, which are as bad as any errors of commission, he fails to under
stand that he has diminished his own stock of good Karma and must of necessity share in the evil which flows from his lack
of appreciation of the situation and his opportunity. We need never fear our opportunities, but should always act up to them,
relying on the law of our own spiritual being to carry us through any thing and everything. The Path is within ourselves, not
outside; each of us is the stair to his own development.
We have so long been ruled by political and religious man made laws that we have come to believe in them. Yet, goodness
does not need laws. Our laws are based on the ignorance and selfishness and wickedness in men’s natures; they are made
to restrain the evil which we think is ineradicable and incurable because ‘we all sinned in Adam and cannot help it.” Then,
too, because we think we know what is good and what is evil, we are very anxious that everybody else should be made to
think in the same way. We want to prohibit those things which we do not desire ourselves; we want other people to eat what
we think they ought to eat, and to clothe themselves as we think they should be clothed. We talk much of the “rights” of men.
But we have just one right, and that is the right to do right. No man was ever made “good” by law; no man was ever made
moral by law. Each man must be a law for himself, both moral and spiritual.
Are we proud of this civilization, made by the collective thought and action of every individual in it? Have our telephones,
automobiles, airplanes, and radiographs made us any more divine? Do they measure our true progress? No; because
ignorance and selfishness still lie in every human heart; because men, according to the vicarious atonement idea, blame
their parents for their wrong attributes and tendencies, and accept only the good as their own. They are unjust, for both good
and bad are their own earnings. If we have good, let us be happy that at some time we earned it; if we are in bad case, let us
be glad, claim it, understand it and correct it. If we want a civilization better than the one we have now, we are the ones to
start right now to make it. No one else will make it for us. We have to set the lines in motion towards a true civilization from a
true basis; but if we think we are not able to do much and are not now doing what we can, it is certain we never can do more.
As we do what we can, greater opportunities arise to do. Until we do what is before us, never will any greater opportunities
arise.
When we get the right attitude of mind—and that is what discipleship is—there is not a quality in us, not a force, not an at
tribute, but can be put to the best and highest use. We do not get off this plane. We do not cut off any part of our being. We
do not destroy the usefulness of any part of us, but put all to the proper use and for the proper end. Herein is seen the
difference between one who knows and one who does not know. One who knows does not get off to the Christian’s heaven,
nor to any other heaven. He works right here where he finds himself and does the best work he can with the instrument he
now has, fearing nothing, trusting the Law of his own being. If any being will trust the Law of his own nature, if he will work on
with nature by helping all others in every direction possible, then all nature will turn and help him. It never was otherwise. It
cannot be otherwise.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
WHAT REINCARNATES?
What reincarnates is a mystery to many minds because they find a difficulty in understanding such a permanency as must
stand behind repeated incarnations. They know that the body is born and dies and is dissolved, but their minds are so
identified with the body in its relations and surroundings that they are unable to dissociate themselves from it. They think of
themselves as persons, as bodies of a physical nature, and hence can not see where in them may reside that power of
incarnating from life to life.
Theosophy presents a larger view in showing that man is not his body, because the body is continually changing; that man is
not his mind, because he is constantly changing his mind; that there is in man a permanency which is the identity throughout
all kinds of embodiments. There has been no change in our identity from childhood up to the present day. The body has
changed; the surroundings have changed; but the identity remains the same and will not change from now on through all
changes of body or mind or circumstance. That in us which is itself unchanging is the only real. Nothing is real that changes. It
is only the real that perceives change. Change can not see change. Only that which is constant perceives change; only the
permanent can perceive impermanence. However dimly we may perceive it, there is that in us which is eternal and
changeless.
This unchanging, constant, and immortal something in us is not absent from any particle or any being whatever. There is only
one Life in the world to which we, as well as all other beings, pertain. We all proceeded from the same one Source—not
many— and we are proceeding on the same path to the same great goal. The ancients said that the Divine Self is in all
beings, but in all it does not shine forth. The real is within, and may be realized by any human being in himself. Everyone
needs that realization that he may shine forth and express the God within, which all beings but partially express.
If then the Source is the same—the One Spirit—in all beings, why so many forms, so many, personalities, so many
individualizations? All, again Theosophy shows, are developments. In that great Ocean of Life, which is at the same time
Consciousness and Spirit, we move and live and have our being. That ocean is separable into its constituent drops and the
separation is effected through the great course of evolution. Even in the kingdoms below us, which are from the same
Source, the tendency to separate into drops of individualized consciousness goes on in ever-increasing degree. In the
animal kingdom, those species that are nearest to us make an approach to self-consciousness; but we as human beings
have arrived at that stage where each is a constituent drop of the great ocean of Consciousness. As with an ocean of water,
each drop of it contains all the elements of the great body, so each constituent drop of humanity—a human being—contains
within its range every element of the great universe.
The same power exists in all of us, yet where we stand on the ladder of being we see many below us and others greater than
we above us. Humanity now is building the bridge of thought, the bridge of that connects the lower with the higher. The whole
purpose of incarnation, or our descent into matter, was not only to gain further knowledge of matter, but to impel the lower
kingdoms to come up to where we are. We stand as gods to the lower kingdoms. It is our impulsion that brings them weal or
woe. It is our misconception of the aim of life that makes Nature so hard; that causes all the distress and disasters which
afflict us in cyclones, tornadoes, diseases, pestilences of every kind. All are our own doing; and why? Because there is a
sublimation of mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms in our bodies, which are lives in themselves. Every cell in our bodies
has its birth, youth, manhood, decay and death, and its reincarnation. We are impelling each one of those lives according to
whatever thought, will, or feeling we may have, whether for help or injury to others. These lives go out from us for good or evil,
back into their kingdoms with good or evil. So by our lack of understanding of our own true natures, without a comprehension
of universal brotherhood, we are imperfectly performing our duties on this plane and are imperfectly helping the evolution of
the lower kingdoms. We shall realize our responsibility to them only as we see that every being is on his way upward; that all
above man have been men at one time; that all below man will some time reach man’s estate, when we have gone on further;
that all forms, all beings, all individualizations are but aspects of the One Spirit. Granted, then, that this one unchanging Spirit
is in all—the cause of all evolutionary development, the cause of all incarnations —where, we may ask, do we carry the
power to see and know from life to life? How is continuity of knowledge, gained by observation and experience, preserved?
How is the individual maintained as such?
We should remember that we were self-conscious beings when this planet began; some even were self-conscious when this
solar system began; for there is a difference in degree of development among human beings. If the planet or solar system
began in a state of primordial substance, or nebulous matter, as Science calls it, then we must have had bodies of that state
of substance. In that finest substance are all the possibilities of every grade of matter, and hence it is that within the true body
of primordial matter all the changes of coarser and coarser substance have been brought about; and within that body is all
experience. Our birth is within that body. Everything that occurs to us is within that body—a body of a nature which does not
change throughout the whole Manvantara. Each one has such a body of finest substance, of the inner nature, which is the real
container for the individual. In it he lives and moves and has his being, and yet even the great glory and fineness of that body
is not the man; it is merely the highest vesture of the Soul. The Real Man we are is the Man that was, that is, and that ever
shall be, for whom the hour will never strike— Man, the thinker; Man, the perceiver—always thinking, continually acting.
Life is one. Spirit is one. Consciousness is one. These three are one—a trinity—and we are that trinity. All the changes of
substance and form are brought about by Spirit and Consciousness and expressed in various forms of life. We are that One
Spirit, each standing in a vast assemblage of beings in this great universe, seeing and knowing what he can through the
instruments he has. We are the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; or, in theosophical parlance, we are Alma,
Buddhi, and Manas. Atma is the One Spirit, not belonging to any one, but to all. Buddhi is the sublimated experience of all
the past. Manas is the thinking power, the thinker, the man, the immortal man. There is no man without the Spirit, and no man
without that experience of the past; but the mind is the realm of creation, of ideas; and the Spirit itself, with all its power, acts
according to the ideas that are in the mind.
The Voice of The Silence says, “Mind is like a mirror. It gathers dust while it reflects.” It needs soul-wisdom to brush away the
dust. This mind of ours, or that which we call the mind, is merely the reflector, which presents as we train it, different pictures.
The Spirit acts in accord with the ideas seen, for good or for evil. Is there evil in the world? It is the power of Spirit that
caused it. Is there good in the world? It is the power of Spirit that caused it. For there is only one power. The misdirection of
that power brings evil; its right direction brings good.
We must give up the idea that we are poor, weak, miserable creatures who can never do anything for ourselves; for as long
as we hold that idea, so long will we never do anything. We must get the other idea—that we are Spirit, that we are
immortal—and when we come to realize what that means, the power of it will flow directly in and through us, unrestricted in
any direction, save by the instruments which we ourselves caused to be imperfect. let us get away from the idea that we are
this poor, miserable, defective physical body over which we have so little control. We can not stop a heart beat; we can not
stop the breath without destroying the body; we can not stop the constant dissociation of matter that goes on in it, nor prevent
its final dissolution. Some people talk of “demonstrating” against death, but we might as well try to demonstrate against the
trees shedding their leaves when the winter blasts come. Death will always be, and there is a great advantage in it. If we
could not change our bodies, how would there be any chance for advancement? Are we so well pleased with the bodies now
ours that we would desire no change? Certainly not. There is only one thing in this life that can be retained permanently, and
that is the spiritual nature, and the great divine compassion which we may translate by the word “love.”
We are the reincarnating Egos who will continue to incarnate until the great task which we undertook is completed. That task
is the raising up of the whole of humanity to the highest possible stage of perfection on an earth of this kind. We incarnate
from age to age for the preservation of the just, the destruction of wickedness, and the establishment of righteousness. That
is what we are here for, whether we know it or not, and we must come to a recognition of the immortality of our own natures
before we shall ever relieve ourselves from the distresses that afflict humanity everywhere. We have to bring ourselves in
touch and tune with the whole great purpose of Nature which is the evolution of Soul, and for which alone all the universe
exists.
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
REAL MEMORY
The general idea with regard to memory is that it depends entirely on the orderly functioning of the physical brain, and that
where derangement of that function occurs, there is loss of memory. It is quite true that certain forms of memory depend upon
the brain, as in those two particular functions known as remembrance and recollection. In remembrance, we can get the idea,
but not all the particulars that have brought about some feeling, event, or circumstance of the past; in recollection, we can
collect back from one point all the other points connected with it. But there is a third function of the memory, known as
reminiscence, which is not at all dependent upon the brain. It is brought into function oftentimes, not by any present object or
occurrence arousing attention in that direction, but as it were, springs direct from the soul itself. It is a direct perception of
what was. It comes from something behind the brain—the brain serving merely as a sort of filter, or interceptor, or translator
of impressions.
We can understand why remote memories are difficult to recall to our brain perception, when we consider the fact that the
brain cells are constantly changing. It is not conceivable that the millions of impressions received during a lifetime could be
retained and given out again by those changing cells. All the time during our lives there is a continuity of perception, but we
do not re member one-thousandth part of the impressions that we have received in those days or years. Very few events are
impressed upon us, or are immediately translatable through the brain, by way of remembrance. Even if we so desired, we
could never make any complete history of all those impressions through the faculty of recollection. Yet there is the innate
faculty of recalling and recollecting in such a way as to have a consecutive or synthetic grasp of all those impressions through
reminiscence, that faculty of memory which applies to the soul—is a peculiarly innate quality of the soul.
To reach into and exercise soul memory, we must first under stand the real nature of man. We must first see that all beings of
every grade—not only man, but the beings above man and the beings below man—are of the same essence, the same
Spirit, the same Life, and of the same potential powers. The higher beings have brought these potential powers into activity,
and differ from the lower orders by reason of a greater degree of development, a greater range of perception and a finer
evolution of form. But highest as well as lowest are rays from and one with the Divine Absolute Principle. Each one is the
Seer, the Perceiver, who stands in the center of his own universe, through which alone we may know all that may be known of
the Highest.
We must recognize the fact that this is a universe of law, with no chance or accident anywhere in it, and that we have arrived
at our present position under law—the law of our own being, set in operation by ourselves; that the same law rules in every
direction in space and in nature. The races of men that now exist are the result of races of men which preceded them; the
planet on which we now live is the result of a planet that preceded it; the solar system of which our planet is a part is the result
of a solar system that preceded it. Everything is an exact consequence of that which preceded it—everything is a repetition
of that which was. This return of the same action or preceding impression occurs under the true aspect of memory; it is the
memory of what we have been through that brings about the repetition.
On the physical plane, the action of true memory is seen in all those stages through which the human form goes from
conception to birth—representations, in fact, of the evolution of earlier races. In every act of our existence we are exhibiting
true memory, whether we realize it
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The Friendly Philosopher-Eternal Verities