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Judge W.Q. - Environment: Difference between revisions
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Retrofit: add Path-specific markup ({{Page aside margins}}, {{Page aside in Path}}) and correct one transcription error against the 1886 scan ('whether to right and die' -> 'whether to fight or die in the struggle')
m (Add additional read links (TheosophyTrust.org / Blavatsky.net)) |
m (Retrofit: add Path-specific markup ({{Page aside margins}}, {{Page aside in Path}}) and correct one transcription error against the 1886 scan ('whether to right and die' -> 'whether to fight or die in the struggle')) |
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| publication date sortable = 1887-02 | | publication date sortable = 1887-02 | ||
| publication place = ''The Path'' | | publication place = ''The Path'' | ||
| read links = [https://theosophylib.com/wqj/environment/ TheosophyLib.com]; [https://theosophytrust.org/70-environment TheosophyTrust.org]; [https://blavatsky.net/environment/ Blavatsky.net] | | read links = [https://theosophylib.com/wqj/environment/ TheosophyLib.com]; [https://theosophytrust.org/70-environment TheosophyTrust.org]; [https://blavatsky.net/environment/ Blavatsky.net]; [[Path/Vol1/Text|Electronic journal edition in Teopedia]] | ||
| publications = ''The Path'', February 1887; ''Echoes of the Orient: The Writings of William Quan Judge'', comp. Dara Eklund, 2nd ed. (Pasadena, California: Theosophical University Press, 2011), vol. I, p. 31 | | publications = [[Path/Vol1/Text|''The Path'', vol. I, no. 11]], February 1887, pp. 346-348; ''Echoes of the Orient: The Writings of William Quan Judge'', comp. Dara Eklund, 2nd ed. (Pasadena, California: Theosophical University Press, 2011), vol. I, p. 31 | ||
| ctd rus = Джадж У.К. - Окружающая среда | | ctd rus = Джадж У.К. - Окружающая среда | ||
| previous = [[Judge W.Q. - Matters Touching Theosophy|Matters Touching Theosophy]] | | previous = [[Judge W.Q. - Matters Touching Theosophy|Matters Touching Theosophy]] | ||
| next = [[Judge W.Q. - Theosophical Studies|Theosophical Studies]] | | next = [[Judge W.Q. - Theosophical Studies|Theosophical Studies]] | ||
| note = Printed signature "Hadjii Erinn," the pseudonym under which Judge also published [[Judge W.Q. - Aum|"Aum!"]] (April 1886). Checked against the 1886 scan: corrected "whether to right and die" to "whether to fight or die in the struggle," a transcription error against the original printing. | |||
}} | }} | ||
{{Page aside margins}} | |||
{{Page aside in Path|v=1|n=11|p=346}} | |||
To the Western mind the doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation contain difficulties which while they seem imaginary to the Eastern student, are nevertheless for the Western man as real as any of the other numerous obstructions in the path of salvation. All difficulties are more or less imaginary, for the whole world and all its entanglements are said to be an illusion resulting from the notion of a separate I. But while we exist here in matter, and so long as there is a manifested universe, these illusions are real to that man who has not risen above them to the knowledge that they are but the masks behind which the reality is hidden. | To the Western mind the doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation contain difficulties which while they seem imaginary to the Eastern student, are nevertheless for the Western man as real as any of the other numerous obstructions in the path of salvation. All difficulties are more or less imaginary, for the whole world and all its entanglements are said to be an illusion resulting from the notion of a separate I. But while we exist here in matter, and so long as there is a manifested universe, these illusions are real to that man who has not risen above them to the knowledge that they are but the masks behind which the reality is hidden. | ||
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So when out of such a nation rises a mind that asks for help to find again the path that was lost, he is unconsciously much affected by the education not only of himself but also of his nation through all these centuries. He has inherited tendencies that are hard to be overcome. He battles with phantasms, real for him but mere dreams for the student who has been brought up under other influences. | So when out of such a nation rises a mind that asks for help to find again the path that was lost, he is unconsciously much affected by the education not only of himself but also of his nation through all these centuries. He has inherited tendencies that are hard to be overcome. He battles with phantasms, real for him but mere dreams for the student who has been brought up under other influences. | ||
When, therefore, he is told to rise above the body, to conquer it, to subdue his passions, his vanity, anger and ambition, he asks, “what if borne down by this environment, which I was involuntarily born into, I shall fail.” Then when told that he must fight or die in the struggle, he may reply that the doctrine of Karma is cold and cruel because it holds him responsible for the consequences which appear to be the result of that unsought environment. It then becomes with him a question whether to | {{Page aside in Path|v=1|n=11|p=347}} | ||
When, therefore, he is told to rise above the body, to conquer it, to subdue his passions, his vanity, anger and ambition, he asks, “what if borne down by this environment, which I was involuntarily born into, I shall fail.” Then when told that he must fight or die in the struggle, he may reply that the doctrine of Karma is cold and cruel because it holds him responsible for the consequences which appear to be the result of that unsought environment. It then becomes with him a question whether to fight or die in the struggle, or to swim on with the current careless as to its conclusion but happy if perhaps it shall carry him into smooth water whose shores are elysian. | |||
Or perhaps he is a student of occultism whose ambition has been fired by the prospect of adeptship, of attaining powers over nature, or what not. | Or perhaps he is a student of occultism whose ambition has been fired by the prospect of adeptship, of attaining powers over nature, or what not. | ||
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There is nothing but the SELF — using the word as Max Müller does to designate the Supreme Soul — and its environment. The Aryans for the latter use the word Kosams or sheaths. So that there is only this Self and the various sheaths by which it is clothed, beginning with the most intangible and coming down to the body, while outside of that and common to all is what is commonly known as environment, whereas the word should be held to include all that is not The Self. | There is nothing but the SELF — using the word as Max Müller does to designate the Supreme Soul — and its environment. The Aryans for the latter use the word Kosams or sheaths. So that there is only this Self and the various sheaths by which it is clothed, beginning with the most intangible and coming down to the body, while outside of that and common to all is what is commonly known as environment, whereas the word should be held to include all that is not The Self. | ||
{{Page aside in Path|v=1|n=11|p=348}} | |||
How unphilosophical therefore it is to quarrel with our surroundings, and to desire to escape them? We only escape one kind to immediately fall into another. And even did we come into the society of the wisest devotees we would still carry the environment of the Self in our own bodies, which will always be our enemy so long as we do not know what it is in all its smallest details. Coming down then to the particular person, it is plain that that part of the environment which consists in the circumstances of life and personal surroundings is only an incident, and that the real environment to be understood and cared about is that in which Karma itself inheres in us. | How unphilosophical therefore it is to quarrel with our surroundings, and to desire to escape them? We only escape one kind to immediately fall into another. And even did we come into the society of the wisest devotees we would still carry the environment of the Self in our own bodies, which will always be our enemy so long as we do not know what it is in all its smallest details. Coming down then to the particular person, it is plain that that part of the environment which consists in the circumstances of life and personal surroundings is only an incident, and that the real environment to be understood and cared about is that in which Karma itself inheres in us. | ||
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“All this Universe has the Deity for its life. That Deity is the Truth. He is the Universal soul. He Thou art, O Svetaketu!”<ref>''Chandogya-Upanishad'', vi</ref> | “All this Universe has the Deity for its life. That Deity is the Truth. He is the Universal soul. He Thou art, O Svetaketu!”<ref>''Chandogya-Upanishad'', vi</ref> | ||
{{Style P-Signature|Hadjii Erinn.}} | |||
{{Footnotes}} | {{Footnotes}} | ||