Path/Vol2/Text
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Electronic journal edition: articles by authors with dictionary entries are linked to their separate pages; other materials are reproduced here in journal order. The texts in this draft are prepared directly from the 1887 scan (Google Books digitization of the bound volume), checked page by page against the page images — not taken from Project Gutenberg or any other electronic edition.
No. 1 – April 1887
The Theosophical Society, as such, is not responsible for any opinion or declaration in this magazine, by whomsoever expressed, unless contained in an official document.
Where any article, or statement, has the author's name attached, he alone is responsible, and for those which are unsigned, the Editor will be accountable.
The Second Year
Heralds from the Unseen
6
"Seek Out the Way."
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F. T. S.
A Perplexed Inquirer
Studies in the Numeric Powers
Suggestions as to Primary Concepts
Thoughts in Solitude
16 III.
The ideas these words represent lie at opposite poles of the circle. The former should stand for the philosophic calm, the minor peace, the comparative equability of Soul which the disciple has attained, while the latter implies the stagnation of Will, the death of aspiration and of all true progress.
When the first impetuous burst of feeling is over and time with her slowly disenchanting hand has begun to blur the outlines of the first vivid creation of thought, the knowledge gained seems to be the only possession
17 left—the knowledge that there is a Path to tread and that no thought is worth thinking, and no word worth uttering that has not for its aim the one supreme object—the finding and the treading of this path that leads to deliverance from conditioned existence. But it is one thing to be possessed of this merely intellectual knowledge, and another to have the Will, the Courage and the Strength to find and to tread the path.
After much uncertain questioning and many anxious thoughts about the path, remembering always that "it is not found by devotion alone, by religious contemplation alone, by ardent progress, by self sacrificing labour, by studious observations of life, that none alone can take the disciple more than one step onwards, and that all steps are necessary to make up the ladder," a clue may yet be obtained from the lines in the Bhagavat-Gita, so beautifully rendered by Mr. Edwin Arnold
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Aye! "The aids to noble life are all within"—the path indeed lies there, in other words there are as many pathways to perfection as there are individual Souls.
There is no doubt a saturation point for Energy as there is for Truth in the individual—it may come in the form of lethargic weariness, or it may come in the form of satisfaction. To the old man, weary of life, the rest of death is sweet, but even though he may seem to have earned repose, such feeling still appertains to the quality of "Tamas," and should be resisted at any cost. The feeling of satisfaction is far more insidious—indeed it is the limit to any further possible advance placed by the man's own deepest sub-conscious self. Around us are to be seen men in all stages of moral growth who have attained to this satisfaction. Though the mere gratification of the senses and the social amenities of civilized countries may become to the majority of the votaries of pleasure a dull meaningless treadmill, we yet see some to whom such life affords true satisfaction. They have reached their goal. And if we turn to the Religious world who does not know one or two of the many happy Souls who have attained the complete rest of satisfaction? Burning questions do not exist for them—they deem that they have solved the insolvable—They too have reached their goal. Nor does this sphere of objective life in which we dwell alone exemplify the working of this law of nature. The realm of the Deva-lokas, could we penetrate to those serene heights of being, would show us Souls who had attained to their Saintly rest,
18 who had reached their supreme satisfaction—rest and satisfaction however that must along with all conditioned existence come to an end some time. But to the god in the Deva-loka as to the worldly epicure, the satisfaction he has reached is the evidence of the limit of advance—the advance made in the different cases being merely one of degree. Each has shown an incapacity for further endurance, whether of suffering or of joy, though in most cases it must be suffering, and their progress has therefore come to an end. But man has within him the potentiality of Godhead, not the Deva (god) in his realms of bliss, but the absolute unity with the divine Spirit of Life of which nature is a manifestation—the Being where all individuality is merged in one—the one ever-permanent state of Nirvana—the Peace of God that passeth all understanding.
When after long years of incessant goading, the goad within ceases to act, a minor peace is attained. It is a matter of wonder to the disciple, who cannot understand why it should be so—he has had no hand in the slackening of the torture cords—he only knows that the strain is withdrawn, and that in the quietude his thought can range undisturbed. But with the removal of the pain, he seems to feel as if his search were less intense, and then follows the inexplicable paradox of the actual invocation of pain by one part of his nature, while the other part of him regards with fear and dismay any recurrence of it. Nevertheless this tranquility of content continues. It goes without saying that this state includes the perfect content in all outward conditions. It may not have reached the transcendent light, where fear of any earthly catastrophy as well as desire for any earthly gain are alike non-existent. The disciple still remains a creature of habit, and imagination can easily conjure up situations where the equanimity would be entirely overthrown. But at least fresh desire for earthly objects has as a rule ceased to operate. All earthly life indeed stands before his mind in its true colour, as possessing value only so far as giving opportunity of recognizing its utter valuelessness, and of stretching forward to those things which have permanence and value, and the one-absorbing desire that remains, is that when the burden of earthly existence has again to be taken up, the progress gained in the last life may not be lost; that in the words of Plato we may so pass through the waters of Lethe as not to defile our souls with absolute oblivion.
In one of the early numbers of the Theosophist the aspirants for chelaship are warned against too soon undertaking a life for which they are not yet fitted, and all are advised to master first their most apparent weaknesses—their most besetting sins—The mastering of such, and the continuing to be
19 the master, until relapse is constitutionally impossible (though this may imply a period which one life may not cover) would indeed seem to be for most the necessary entrance to the Path. While by this exercise of self restraint the aspirant is acquiring the necessary Will, Strength and Courage for the treading of the Path when found, "new hands and new feet are being born within him" with which to scale the heights that lie beyond. The search for perfection may well find its simile in the scaling of some seemingly inaccessible peak. After journeying for long years through the dim forest on the plain, and falling into many a slough of despond, with torn garments and with bleeding feet the climber has at last emerged. The forest lies below him and he sees the dim plain stretching to the horizon, but it is only the first plateau of the mountain he has scaled, and straight in front of him rises a seemingly perpendicular face of rock. Yet up this face of rock he has to go, for there can be no turning back when it is realized that what he has undertaken is the one thing worth doing.
But while insisting on the necessity of the gradual strengthening of the character by victory over all the faults of which the disciple is conscious, the common mistake of the religious must not here be made, and the conquering of any one sin or of all sins is mistaken for the goal, instead of a mere preparation for the treading of the path. Indeed—given a sufficiently ardent desire for the ultimate goal—all sins and weaknesses that stand between the disciple and the object of his desire will by that very fire of desire be annihilated in a flash of thought. One of the most important means of keeping alive and intensifying this desire is by keeping the goal constantly in view. And as it must have been by the failure of all earthly things to satisfy the heaven-born longings of the aspirant that first set his face towards the path, so the bringing back before the mind's eye the past experience of futile longings and disillusions will best serve as impetus for the next transport of Heavenward flight.
What a man sets his whole heart on that he will undoubtedly attain sooner or later. The man whose desires do not rise above the gratification of his physical senses gets what he desires and that, as a rule, quickly. He whose life is concentrated in the emotional nature will in time achieve his "summum bonum" in the union of love he has dreamt of with another soul. He to whom the acquirement of knowledge is the one thing needful, must attain what he desires, and that in exact ratio with his energetic search for it, while the philanthropist whose aim is to do good to others—whether on the material or the moral plane, and who feels impelled to the so-called sacrifice of self in some definite course of action—though this lies far apart from the "killing out of all sense of separateness" which constitutes the true self-sacrifice—will doubtless also achieve his reward though in some less obvious way. But
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We who recognizes the finger of Maya in all these things, and whose search is for that intuitive Wisdom in which they are all embraced, but which transcends them all, does it not behoove us to lift our minds more and more continuously to the Supreme? and to free our thoughts more and more from all limitations? for as it was the inability to fix the soul in worship on the attributeless Deity (though he had freed himself from all personal desires) that prevented the devotee from straightway attaining Nirvana, and instead landed him in the heavens of the Devaloka, where the conditions of bliss he had pictured to his mind as the Supreme were his inevitable reward, so should we even now begin to free our minds from all limited conceptions, and strain our minds more and more towards the infinite.
I cannot better conclude than by quoting the last few lines in Faridu-d-din Attâr's description of the seven stages in the road leading to union with the Divine Essence.
"Last stage of all is the Valley of Annihilation of Self: of complete Poverty,[1]—the seventh and supreme degree which no human words can describe. There is the great ocean of Divine Love. The world present and the world to come are but as figures reflected in it—And as it rises and falls how can they remain? He who plunges in that sea and is lost in it finds perfect peace."
Pilgrim.
Paracelsus
The Bhagavad-Gita
On the Soul of Man
Tea Table Talk
The altar on which the sacrifice is offered is Man, O Gautama; its fuel speech itself, the smoke the breath, the light the tongue, the coals the eye, the sparks the ear.
No. 2 – May 1887
Grasping without hands, hasting without feet, he sees without eyes, he hears without ears. He knows what can be known, but no one knows him; they call him the first, the Great Person.
The Theosophical Society, as such, is not responsible for any opinion or declaration in this magazine, by whomsoever expressed, unless contained in an official document.
Where any article, or statement, has the author's name attached, he alone is responsible, and for those which are unsigned, the Editor will be accountable.
Reincarnation. A Western Study of the Subject
The Doctrine of Innate Ideas
Paracelsus
Suggestions as to Primary Concepts
Some Teachings of a German Mystic
Thoughts in Solitude
57 IV.
As said Solomon the wise, "there is no new thing under the sun." Our thoughts are but the thoughts of preceding ages. That this must be so will be apparent when one considers the Eternity behind. All possibilities of nature must have been realized and all thoughts thought in the—to us—dim past. And while the wheel of evolution still turns this must be so. At the apex of the orbit in each revolution, a few of the greatest souled ones have attained emancipation, a few have been able to lift the latch of the Golden Gate. But the remainder of the candidates in nature's school who have failed at the final test have again to begin the weary round, along
58 with those evolving from lower conditions, with only so much light to guide them through the labyrinth of life as may have been enshrined in the traditions or religions evolved during the previous efflorescence of Humanity. How are they to regain the thoughts of the past and obtain some true interpretation of the mystery of life? All thoughts indeed are writ in the Akasa from which the Prophets and Poets of all ages have drawn their inspiration, and in proportion to a man's striving to get below the mere surface of things, will be the degree in which he succeeds in making part of that inheritance of the ages his own possession.
The scholar too would seem to have a part to play. What worthier object can he be than that of rendering intelligible in the speech of his epoch, the thoughts and ideas enshrined in the dead languages of the great thinking races of the past? The scholars of to-day, those who have drunk deep at the wells of Sanscrit and Greek learning, have indeed a heavy responsibility upon their shoulders. Were it not a worthier aim of life to make common property the thoughts and ideas of the sublime ancients than to wrap themselves up in them as so many do—though there are one or two notable and glorious exceptions—in the self-gratulation of exclusive culture and stagnate in the memory of past achievement?
Those too who are animated by the Theosophic spirit, and who feel the supreme desirability of the path they are striving to tread, are bound to find words more or less appropriate to carry to the world a conviction of this supreme desirability, words which may convey some idea of the animating life within which is quite as much an embodiment of the scientific spirit of the seeker after truth, and the single-eyed determination of the man of the world to achieve his object, as of any devotional or religious feeling. Religion—in Christian countries at least—has made far too much a thing of sentiment, it has its use no doubt in prompting the initial effort, but when the path is chosen it would seem that singleheartedness of aim and firm determination were the dominant qualities required.
The thought that prompted the present paper was expressed in a foot note written by a friend in that mystical work of the middle ages "Theologia Germanica." The text expresses the thought that all that is, is well pleasing and in God's eyes, while the foot note by citing one out of the many instances of earthly action so diametrically opposed to what the most optimistic could consider as pleasing to God, commands as the necessary corollary to the text its converse proposition.
Search as deeply as we may into Nature's life, and obtain though we may some intuition of the love which may be regarded as "creation's final
59 law," that law in its working throughout all objective existence must still appear to us as unutterably hideous. The cosmos exists indeed for those who have extended enough vision, in other words the faith to see it, its picture may be seen in the depths of the soul, that very throne of God, but to us who tread the pathways of the world, who are daily brought in contact with the social evils of this generation, the crime, the ignorance, the poverty, the suffering, how can such existence appear to us other than as a chaos? Is it not a veritable Hell on Earth? But is there no "best Philosophy" such as Shelley speaks of
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The reproach of being unpractical is often made against those who are deeply imbued with the philosophic spirit—they may not have the ready panacea for the cure of existing evils demanded by the philanthropist, whose partial remedy he is so apt to consider as such, and to apply with ill-considered action—but they who look deep down see the real remedy, though their words may fall as vain sounds on the ears of the world.
The forces too that have long set in motion are not lightly to be diverted from the goal towards which they have been hastening, and that goal is for us beginning to loom but too clearly in view. That child born of man's deep sense of justice (perverted though it may be) out of the dam, dire poverty, the shrieking red-clad socialist stalks among us, and following the inevitable law of retribution, over the people who have fallen deepest in the slough of materialism, and have been most dominated by the lusts of the flesh, is beginning to tremble the moan of the coming storm, while in their most populous cities the cries rise loudest. It may be too late now entirely to ward off the storm, but surely its fury might be mitigated were we even now to read the lesson aright.
To a people whose upper classes are pandered to by nameless lusts, and whose lower classes breed like beasts of the field, without recognizing, as the beasts do, a non-breeding season, to this adulterous and lascivious generation were it not a worthy aim to show by word and deed that it is possible to dissociate love from lust, and that the loftiest emotion of which Humanity is capable has no necessary connection with the sexual bond? But what advance can be made till society recognizes that instead of offering a premium on marriage, they rather are worthy of admiration who can guard inviolate the sacred seed, under the influence of an aim the worldling knows not of—the aim of transferring the life-force from the material into the spiritual plane, with whatever results may accrue from this transformation of energy, of transcendental powers, or sweeter far the realization of the Platonic dream of union with our other half, the finding that within ourselves lay the twin soul which has been the object of our life-long search, in other words that in the microcosm, man, as in the macrocosm, God, are contained both the male and the female elements of existence.
What a contrast to this age of materiality to read of that old time
60 when to prevent the depopulation of the country, it was necessary to enjoin each true-hearted Brahman to marry and beget one child before devoting himself to the main object of existence which should be to-day as it was then, the practise of Yoga.
But besides helping to counteract the dominant evil of our time another reason can be given for the practise of celibacy, though this lies more on the interior plane, and is therefore more a subject of speculation. For it is a satisfaction to think that by refusing further to swell the already overteeming populations, the ranks of the unborn are lessened to a smaller degree, that a few more souls continue to enjoy the rosy dreams of Heaven.
But though the general acceptance of a less gross form of life would greatly tend towards the amelioration of human existence, to expect it from this generation would seem like putting the effect before the cause, for what is there to impel towards any curbing of the passions while Ignorance holds almost undivided sway? All evils under which Humanity groans may indeed be ascribed to that baleful influence, and it is useless to lop off one of the hydra heads of the monster, while she is capable of replacing it by a still more hideous growth. Andromeda truly pictures Humanity to-day, but where is the redeemer Perseus to be looked for save under the shining garb of the occult wisdom? The worldly knowledge with its glittering train of physical sciences and mechanical inventions can never set Humanity free, but it weaves round its votaries still more deluding webs of darkness. But we may hope that Reason will once more "shed her beams of dawn" over the dim world, and that true faith will once more shine in the hearts of men, for when the knowledge has filtered in that this life is but one of an endless chain of similar existences, will not the futility of gratifying every whim of the senses, which must so often before have been gratified give place to the desire for freedom from such dominance, and to the yearning for some lasting bliss? and when it is realized that our present thoughts and acts are the factors that determine our future lives and that the pain (or joy) of the present is the retribution of the past, will not a goad be fixed in the hearts of many to drive them on the right way? and finally, when it is dimly perceived that the soul in past existences has experienced all heights and depths of earthly things—has realized all the sweets of wealth, of honor, of power, of love—that the bitter has been very bitter indeed and that the sweetest of the sweet has failed to give permanent satisfaction, will there not spring up in the soul a deep distaste for this loathsome life, a firm intent to pierce the veil of Maya that hides from us the celestial region?
This piercing of the veil, or to adopt a simile which will carry us a little
61 further, this scaling of the mountain is conceived of in very different ways. To some it seems as the culmination of one gigantic effort, to others the result of infinitely slow progress. It is now pictured as "the killing of the deadly serpent of self for which Supreme moment is needed a strength such as no hero of the battle field needs." Elsewhere it is described as the steadfast toil of the will "till efforts end in ease and thought has passed from thinking," as the gradual centreing of all thought in the eternal thought till all earth-born desires and fears die out through sheer lack of the nourishment whereby they may be kept alive. The truth may lie in the union of these two apparently contradictory modes of thought, or it may be that as the different natures of men impel them to different lines of action, the pathways are really different though conducting to the same goal, or it may be suggested that the desperate effort referred to above, the supreme moment when the strength of the hero is needed, may be symbolised in the action of one of the mountain climbers, who has strayed from the true mountain side, into some rocky cul-de-sac, up some misleading pinnacle. A desperate leap will doubtless be required of him to reach the true breast of the mountain again. But he who has started on the ascent with a true guide will not mistake the rocky pinnacle for the snow-clad summit. His progress will be fast or slow as the strength and will within him shall decide. Therefore to the aspirant should it ever seem like the steady ascent of the mountain for which are demanded all his combined energies of courage, prudence and steadfastness. And as the summit is approached, all dread anticipation of what the future may bring as well as the fever of personal desire and earthly passion will be left behind like the mist of the valley. Hope and Fear alike will disappear in the purity of that serene air.
And the love which could no longer identify itself with any one object of desire, or find any resting place on earth will have been gradually purged from all taint of animal passion, until personal likes and dislikes melt away before the intensity of its diffusion, until Godlike in its worship of the one supreme Perfection. All appearances of difference will then be blotted out—friends and enemies, kinsmen and aliens, yea, good and evil men—all will appear alike—for God only will be seen in all, and the bliss of Yoga will be attained.
Pilgrim.
Tea Table Talk
One moment in eternity is of as great consequence as another moment, for eternity changes not, neither is one part better than another part.
Footnotes
- ↑ This is the common term among the Muslim Mystics for the highest degree of the contemplative life.