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- Lucifer, vol. 4, no. 23, July 1889, pp. 393-394
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Title for references: Edge H.T. - The Nature of Matter and the Personality
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393
IT is well-known that throughout the universe runs the fundamental distinction into subject and object. Thus knowledge consists of a knower and a thing that is known, sight is made up of a seer and a thing seen, and so on. A great deal may be learnt by studying things in their two aspects side by side. I propose in this way to consider personality and matter, which are the positive and negative aspect of the same thing.
What we call “Matter” can be known to an ordinary mind only through impressions conveyed to the senses. All we can be certain of with regard to it is that it produces certain sensations, and we have no reason for supposing that anything exists apart from these sensations. Now, considering the five senses separately, it appears that we derive our idea of matter or substance from sight and touch alone; for we are unable to form any conception, from the senses of smell, taste and hearing, of any object or substance which may possess these qualities as attributes. All we know is that there is a certain odour or a certain flavour or a certain sound, but in the absence of sight and touch we should never think of connecting them with any idea of substance. There seems to be a specially mayavic character about the senses of sight and touch, and in order to get an unbiassed view of the nature of matter, we ought to recognise their illusory nature and regard them in the same way as we do the three other senses. In short we should regard form and touch as separate entities, rather than as attributes of a substance which could exist apart from them.
Matter thus becomes reduced to a bundle of agents producing certain sensory impressions in our minds. But what are these agents? Eastern metaphysics teaches that they are certain forces in nature called “tatwas,” which permeate the whole objective universe, so that a substance may be described as “a centre of tatwic vibration.” The objective aspect of these tatwas affects universal or primordial substance, and causes what we call matter; while the subjective aspect affects universal mind, and causes what we call our senses. Thus, when we perceive an object, the centres of tatwic force which we call our senses, vibrate in unison with the centres of tatwic forces which we call the object. Thus we have arrived at a conception of matter as being a bundle of forces 394working in primordial substance, and hence we realise that actual identity of matter and force which is a tenet of the occultists.
Bearing in mind this fact, it is evident that in order to obtain complete control over the objective universe, it is only necessary to be able to control these forces and manipulate them at our will. But we have seen that these same forces, in their subjective aspect, form our sensorium and produce all the effects of perception. Eastern occultists further maintain that our animal souls are made up of the same vibrations, which are known to us under the name of emotions, feelings, desires or wishes.
Hence, if we are to control the tatwic forces as they exist in the objective universe, we must be able to control them as they manifest themselves in our souls; in other words, we must learn to master our passions, so that by resisting the forces of nature we may become independent of them, and be their masters instead of their slaves. And is not this the great lesson taught by all occult teachers to their pupils, and impressed upon us at every turn as the great object of achievement for the aspirant? When we first enter upon our esoteric studies we have to take these and similar truths on faith, but when by pondering the mysteries of nature we are able to deduce the same truths for ourselves, an additional stimulus to our progress is afforded.
And now, in pursuance of my original plan, let me apply to the subjective aspect, or “personality,” the same reasoning as I have applied to the objective aspect, or “Matter.” Just as Matter, when stripped of all the forces which endow it with distinctive characteristics, is reduced to a universal and undifferentiated substance; so, when the forces which constitute the personality are removed, nothing is left behind but the true Self, which being undifferentiated is common to all individuals. For what we call our personality is nothing more than a collection of emotions and fancies, which are merely centres of tatwic vibration in the soul, and when we have obtained the mastery over them and can control them at will, we shall have destroyed personality, and be in a position to realise that the only true operator is the Higher Self.
Thus we shall have arrived at the great occult Truth of the one universal “Something” in its true aspects of Spirit and Matter, the former being Universal Mind, and the latter the Akâsa or Waters of Space in which the former is reflected.
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