{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_14002/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_14002","id":"gutenberg_14002","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14002","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Theosophy"],"text":"COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS\n\nThe Man-God Whom We Await\n\nby\n\nALI NOMAD\n\n1915\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE NEW BIRTH; WHAT IT IS; INSTANCES DESCRIBED\n\n\nThe religions and philosophies of the Orient and the Occident compared;\ntheir chief difference; The mistaken idea of death. Cosmic Consciousness\nnot common in the Orient. Why? What the earnest disciple strives for. The\nReal and the unreal. Buddha's agonized yearnings; why he was moved by them\nwith such irresistible power; the ultimate victory. The identity of The\nAbsolute; The Oriental teachings; \"The Spiritual Maxims of Brother\nLawrence;\" The seemingly miraculous power of the Oriental initiate; does\nhe really \"talk\" to birds and animals? How they learn to know and read \"the\nheart of the world.\" The inner temples throughout Japan. The strange\nexperience of a Zen (a Holy Order of Japan), student-priest in attaining\n_mukti_. The key to Realization. An address by Manikyavasayar, one of the\ngreat Tamil saints of Southern India. The Hindu conception of Cosmic\nConsciousness. The Japanese idea of the state. The Buddhist \"Life-saving\"\nmonasteries; how the priests extend their consciousness to immeasurable\ndistances at will. The last incarnation of God in India. His marvelous\ninsight. The urge of the spiritual yearning for the \"Voice of the Mother.\"\nHis twelve years of struggle. His final illumination. The unutterable bliss\npictured in his own words. What the Persian mystics allusion to \"union with\nthe Beloved\" signifies; its exoteric and its esoteric meaning. The \"Way of\nthe Gods.\" The chief difference between the message of Jesus and that of\nother holy men. The famous \"Song of Solomon\" and the different\ninterpretations; a new version. A French writer's evident glimpses of the\nnew birth. Man's relation to the universe.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nMAN'S RELATION TO GOD AND TO HIS FELLOW-MEN\n\n\nThe great riddle and a new solution. The persistence of the ideal of\nPerfected Man; Has it any basis in history? The superlative faculty of\nspiritual sight as depicted by artists, painters and sculptors. Symbols of\nconsciousness. The way in which the higher consciousness expresses itself.\nCertain peculiar traits which distinguish those destined to the influx. The\nabode of the gods; The conditioned promise of godhood in Man. What is\nNirvana? The Vedantan idea. The Christian idea. Did Jesus teach the kingdom\nof God on earth? Is there a basis for belief in physical immortality? A\nnew explanation. The perilous paths. Those who \"will see God.\" Evolution\nof consciousness from prehistoric man to the highest developed beings.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nAREAS OF CONSCIOUSNESS\n\n\nThe Divine spark. Consciousness the essence of everything. Axioms of\nuniversal Occultism. The great central light. The teachings of Oriental\nseers regarding the ultimate goal. Different stages of mankind. Births in\nconsciousness. Physical consciousness: its limitations. Mental\nconsciousness: the jungles of the mind. Soul consciousness; whither it\nleads. The irresistible urge. Why we obey it. Sayings of ancient\nmanuscripts. Perfecting Light. The disciple's test. Awakening of the divine\nman. Is he now on earth? What is meant by the awakening of the inner Self.\nIs the _atman_ asleep? The doctrine of illusion; its relation to Cosmic\nConsciousness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nSELF-NESS AND SELFLESSNESS\n\n\nThe Dark Ages. The esoteric meaning of religious practices. The penetrating\npower of spiritual insight. The mystery of conversion. The paradox of\nSelf-attainment and the necessity for selflessness. The Oriental teachings\nregarding the Self. The wisdom of the Illumined Master. The test of fitness\nfor Nirvana. What caused Buddha the greatest anxiety? Experiences of\nOriental sages and their testimony. What correlation exists between\nBuddha's desire and the attainment of Cosmic Consciousness among\nOccidental disciples.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nINSTANCES OF ILLUMINATION AND ITS AFTER EFFECTS\n\n\nThe wonderful brilliancy of Illumination. Dr. Bucke's description of the\nCosmic Light; his opinion regarding the possibility of becoming more\ngeneral. Peculiar methods of producing spiritual ecstacy, as described by\nLord Tennyson and others. The Power and Presence of God, as a reality. The\ndissolution of race barriers. The effacement of the sense of sin among the\nIlluminati. What is meant by the phrase \"naked and unashamed.\" Will such a\nstate ever exist on the earth? Efforts of those who have experienced Cosmic\nConsciousness to express the experience; the strange similarity found in\nall attempts. Is there any evidence that Cosmic Consciousness is possible\nto all?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nEXAMPLES OF COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, WHO HAVE FOUNDED NEW SYSTEMS OF RELIGION\n\n\nThe simple religion of early Japan. The inner or secret shrine: its\nesoteric and its exoteric office. The Mystic Brotherhoods. Why the esoteric\nmeanings have always been veiled. The great teachers and the uniformity of\ntheir instructions. Philosophy as taught by Vivekananda. The fundamental\ndoctrine of Buddhism. Have the present-day Buddhists lost the key? Is\nreligion necessary to Illumination? The fruits of Cosmic Consciousness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nMOSES, THE LAW-GIVER\n\n\nThe salient features of the Law as given by Moses to his people. Had the\nancient Hebrews any knowledge of Illumination and its results? The symbol\nof liberation. Its esoteric meaning.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nGAUTAMA--THE COMPASSIONATE\n\n\nPrenatal conditions influencing Buddha. His strange temperament. His\npeculiar trances and their effect upon him. Why Buddha endured such\nterrible struggles; is suffering necessary to Cosmic Consciousness? From\nwhat was Buddha finally liberated? The simplicity of Buddha's commandments\nin the light of Cosmic Consciousness. The fundamental truths taught by\nBuddha and all other sages. Buddha's own words regarding death and Nirvana.\nLast words to his disciples. How the teachings of Buddha compare with the\nvision of Cosmic Consciousness. His method of development of spiritual\nconsciousness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nJESUS OF NAZARETH\n\n\nThe astonishing similarity found in all religious precepts; the\ndistinguishing feature of the teachings as delivered by Jesus. His repeated\nallusion to \"the light within.\" The great commandment he gave to his\ndisciples. Love the basis of the teachings of all Illumined minds. The\n\"Second Coming of Christ.\" The signs of the times.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nPAUL OF TARSUS\n\n\nHis undoubted experience of illumination and its effects. Was Paul changed\nby \"conversion,\" or what was the wonderful power that altered his whole\nlife? Why Paul sought seclusion after his illumination. Characteristics of\nall Illumined ones. The desire for simplicity. Paul's incomparable\ndescription of \"the Love that never faileth.\" The safe guide to\nillumination. The \"first fruits of the spirit,\" as prophesied by Paul.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nMOHAMMED\n\n\nMohammed a predestined Leader. Condition of Arabia at his birth. Prophecies\nof a Messiah. His peculiar psychic temperament; his frequent attacks of\ncatalepsy; his sufferings because of doubt; his never-ceasing urge toward a\nfinal revelation. His changed state after the revelation on Mt. Hara. His\nunswerving belief in his mission; his devotion to Truth; His simplicity and\nhumility. His claim to Cosmic Consciousness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nEMANUEL SWEDENBORG\n\n\nSwedenborg's early life. His sudden change from materialism. The difficulty\nof clear enunciation. His unfailing belief in the divinity of his\nrevelations. How they compare with experiences of others. The frequent\nreception of the Light. The blessing of Cosmic Consciousness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nMODERN EXAMPLES OF INTELLECTUAL COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: EMERSON; TOLSTOI;\nBALZAC\n\n\nThe way to Illumination through intellectual cultivation; Emerson a notable\nexample; The Cosmic note in his essays and conversations. Emerson's\nreligious nature. His familiarity with Oriental philosophy; his remarkable\ndiscrimination; the peculiar penetrating quality of his intellect. His\nnever failing assurance of unity with the Divine. His belief in a spiritual\nlife. Did Emerson predict a Millenium? His writings as they reflect light\nupon his attainment of Cosmic Consciousness.\n\n\n\n\nLEO TOLSTOI--RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHER\n\n\nTolstoi the strangest and most unusual figure of the Nineteenth Century;\nHis almost unbearable sufferings; his avowed materialism; his horror of\ndeath; The prevailing gloom of his writings and to what due. Incidents in\nhis life previous to his illumination. The remarkable and radical change\nmade by his experience. To what was due Tolstoi's great struggle and\nsuffering? Why the great philosopher sought to die in a hut. His idea not\none of penance. The signal change in his life after illumination. What he\nsays of this.\n\n\n\n\nHONORE DE BALZAC\n\n\nBalzac's classification as of the psychic temperament. His amazing power of\nmagnetic attraction. His feminine refinement in dress. His power of\ninspiration gave him his place in French literature. The dominant motive of\nall his writings. His unshakable conviction of immortality. His power to\nfunction on both planes of consciousness. The lesson to be drawn from\nSeraphita. Balzac's evident intention, and why veiled. The inevitable\nconclusion to be drawn from the Symbolical character.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nILLUMINATION AS EXPRESSED IN THE POETICAL TEMPERAMENT\n\n\nPoetry the language of Cosmic Consciousness. Unconscious instruments of the\nCosmic law. The true poet and the maker of rhymes. The mission and scope of\nthe poetical temperament. How \"temperament\" affects expression. No royal\nroad to Illumination. Teaching of Oriental mysticism. Whitman's\nextraordinary experience. His idea of \"Perfections.\" Lord Tennyson's two\ndistinct states of consciousness; his early boyhood and strange\nexperiences. Facts about his illumination. The after effects. Tennyson's\nvision of the future. Wordsworth, the poet of Nature. How he attained and\nlost spiritual illumination. How he again received the great Light. The\nevidences of two states of consciousness. Outline of his illumination.\nNoguchi--a most remarkable instance of Illumination in early youth; Lines\nexpressive of an exalted state of consciousness; how it resulted in later\nlife. The strange case of William Sharp and \"Fiona Macleod:\" a perfect\nexample of dual consciousness; the distinguishing features of the self and\nthe Self; the fine line of demarcation. How the writer succeeded in living\ntwo distinct lives and the result. Remarkable contribution to literature. A\npuzzling instance of phases of consciousness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nMETHODS OF ATTAINMENT: THE WAY OF ILLUMINATION\n\n\nThe four Oriental methods of liberation. The goal of the soul's pilgrimage.\nStrange theory advanced. Revolutionary results that follow. How to perceive\nthe actuality of the higher Self. Gaining immortality \"In the flesh;\" What\nRevelation has promised and its substantiation in modern Science. The prize\nand the price. Some valuable Yoga exercises to induce spiritual ecstacy.\nWhat \"union with God\" really means. The \"Brahmic Bliss\" of the Upanashads.\nThe new race; its powers and privileges. \"The man-god whom we await\" as\ndescribed by Emerson.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SELF AND SYMBOL\n\n\n  Thou most Divine! above all women\n  Above all men in consciousness.\n\n  Thou in thy nearness to me\n  Hast shown me paths of love.\n  Yea; walks that lead from hell\n  To the great light; where life and love\n    Do ever reign.\n\n  Thou hast taught to me a patience\n  To behold whatever state;\n  However beautiful and joyful; however ugly and sorrowful.\n\n  To know that these are--all!--but\n  The glimmerings of the greater life--\n  Expressions of the infinite.\n\n  According to the finality of that moment\n  Now to come; in the eternal now, which thou\n  Sweet Presence, hast awakened me to--\n  I see the light--the way.\n\n  An everlasting illumination\n  That takes me to the gate; the open door\n  To the house of God.\n  There I find most priceless jewels;\n  The key to all the ways,\n  That lead from _Om_ to thee.\n\n  A mistake--an off-turn from the apparent road of right\n  Is but the bruising of thy temple,\n  Calling thy Self--thy soul--\n  The God within; showing thee,\n  The _nita_ of it all; which is but the half of me.\n\n  And as thy consciousness of the two\n  The _nita_ and the _ita_, comes to thee\n  A three is formed--the trinity is found.\n\n  Through thee the Deity hast spoken\n  Uniting the two in the one;\n\n  Revealing the illusion of mortality\n  The message of _Om_ to the Illumined.\n\n--Ali Nomad.\n\n\n\n\nARGUMENT\n\n\n\n\nMan is essentially a spiritual being.\n\nThe source of this spiritual Omniscience we may not, in our finite\nintelligence, fully cognize, because full cognition would preclude the\npossibility of finite expression.\n\nThe destiny of man is perfection.\n\nMan perfected becomes a god.\n\n\"Only the gods are immortal,\" we are told.\n\nLet us consider what this means, supposing it to be an axiom of truth.\n\nMortality is subject to change and death. Mortality is the manifest--the\nstage upon which \"man in his life plays many parts.\"\n\nImmortality, is what the word says it is--godhood re-cognized in the\nmortal. \"Im\" or, \"Om\"--the more general term--stands for the Changeless.\nBirthless. Deathless. Unnamable Power that holds the worlds in space, and\nputs intelligence into man.\n\nBiologists, even though they were to succeed in reproducing life by\nchemical processes from so-called \"lifeless\" (sterilized) _matter_, making\nso high a form of manifestation as man himself, yet could never name _the\npower by which they accomplished it_.\n\nAlways there must remain the Unknownable--the Absolute.\n\n\"Om,\" therefore, is the word we use to express this Omniscient, Omnipotent\nand Omnipresent power.\n\nThe term \"mortal\" we have already defined. The compound immortal, applied\nto individual man, stands for one who has made his \"at-one-ment\" with Om,\nand who has, while still in the mortal body, re-cognized himself as one\nwith Om.\n\nThis is what it means to escape the \"second death,\" to which the merely\nmortal consciousness is subject.\n\nThis is the goal of every human life; this is the essence, the _substance_\nof all religious systems and all philosophies.\n\nThe only chance for disputation among theologians and philosophers, lies in\nthe way of accomplishing this at-one-ment. There is not the slightest\nopportunity for a difference of opinion as what they wish to accomplish.\n\nAdmitting then, that the goal of every soul is the same--immortality--(the\nmortal consciousness cognizing itself as Om), we come to a consideration of\nthe evidence we may find in support of this axiom. This evidence we do\n_not_ find satisfactory, in spirit communication; in psychic experiences;\nin hypnotic phenomena; and astral trips; important, and reliable as these\nmany psychic research phenomena are.\n\nThese are not satisfactory or convincing evidences of our at-one-ment with\nOm, because they do not preclude the probability of the \"second death;\" but\non the contrary, they verify it.\n\nHowever, aside from all these psychic phenomena, there is a phase of human\nexperience, much more rare but becoming somewhat general, that transcends\nphenomena of every kind.\n\nThe western world has given to these experiences the term \"cosmic\nconsciousness,\" which term is self explanatory.\n\nThe Orientals have long known of this goal of the soul, and they have terms\nto express this, varying with the many types of the Oriental mind, but all\nmeaning the same thing. This meaning, from our Occidental viewpoint, is\nbest translated in the term liberation, signifying to be set free from the\nlimitations of sense, and of self-consciousness, and to have glimpsed the\nlarger area of consciousness, that takes in the very cosmos.\n\nThis experience is accompanied by a great light, whether this light is\nmanifested as spiritual, or as intellectual power, determines its\nexpression.\n\nThe object of this book is to call attention to some of the more pronounced\ninstances of this Illumination, and to classify them, according as they\nhave been expressed through religions enthusiasm; poetical fervor; or great\nintellectual power.\n\nBut we have also one other argument to make, and this we present with a\nconviction of its _truth_, while conceding that it must remain a _theory_,\nuntil proven, each individual, man or woman, for himself and herself. The\npostulate is this: immortality (i.e. godhood) is bi-sexual. No male person\ncan by any possibility become an immortal god, in, of and by himself; no\nfemale person can be complete without the \"other half\" that makes the ONE.\n\nEach and every SOUL, therefore, has its spiritual counterpart--its \"other\nhalf,\" with which it unites on the spiritual plane, when the time comes for\nattainment of immortality.\n\nSex is an eternal verity. The entire Cosmos is bi-sexual. Everything in the\nvisible universe; in the manifest, is the result of this universal\nprinciple. \"As above so below,\" is a safe rule, as far as the IDEA goes.\nThis hypothesis does not preclude _perfection_ above, of that which we find\nbelow, but any radical reversion or repudiation of nature is inconceivable.\n\n\"Male and female created he them.\" This being true, male and female must\nthey return to the source from which they sprung, completing the circle,\nand gaining what?\n\n_Consciousness of godhood; of completeness in counterpartal union. Not\nabsorption_ of consciousness, but _union_, which is quite a different\nidea.\n\nOut of this counterpartal union a race of gods will be born, and these\n_supermen_, shall \"inherit the earth\" making it a \"fit dwelling place for\nthe gods.\"\n\nThis earth is now being made fit. This fact may seem a far distant hope if\nwe do not judge with the eyes of the seer, but its proof lies in the\nemancipation of woman. Its evidences are many and varied, but the awakening\nof woman is the _cause_.\n\nThis awakening of woman constitutes the first rays of the dawn--that\nlong-looked for Millenium, which many of us have regarded as a mere figure\nof speech, instead of as a literal truth.\n\nThe argument is not that there has been no individual awakening until the\npresent time; but that never before in the finite history of the world has\nthere been such a general awakening, and as it is self evident that\nconditions will reflect the idea of the majority, the fact that woman is\nbeing given her rightful place in the sense-conscious life, proves that the\nearth will be a fit dwelling place for a higher order of beings than have\nhitherto constituted the majority.\n\nThe numerous instances of Illumination, or cosmic consciousness which are\nforcing attention at the present time, prove that there is a\n_race-awakening_ to a realization of our unity with Om.\n\nAnother point which we trust these pages will make clear is this: So-called\n\"revelation\" is neither a personal \"discovery,\" nor any special act of a\ndivine power. \"God spake thus and so to me,\" is a phrase which the\nself-conscious initiate employs, _because he has lost sight of the_ cosmic\nlight, or because he finds it expedient to use that phraseology in\ndelivering the message of cosmic consciousness.\n\nIf we will substitute the term \"_initiation_,\" for the term \"_revelation_,\"\nwe will have a clearer idea of the truth.\n\nPerhaps some of our readers will feel that the terms mean the same, but for\nthe most part, those who have employed the word \"revelation,\" have used it\nas implying that the plan of the cosmos was unfinished, and that the\nCreator, having found some person suitable to convey the latest decision\nto mankind, natural laws had been suspended and the revelation made.\n\nIt is to correct this view, that we emphasize the distinction between the\ntwo words.\n\nThe cosmos is complete. \"As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever\nshall be, worlds without end.\"\n\nA circle is without beginning or end. We, in our individual consciousness\nmay traverse this circle, but our failure to realize its completeness does\nnot change the fact that it is finished.\n\nWe can not add to the universal consciousness; nor take away therefrom.\n\nBut we can extend our own area of consciousness from the narrow limits of\nthe personal self, into the heights and depths of the atman and who shall\nset limitations to the power of the atman, the higher Self, when it has\nattained at-one-ment with Om?\n\nIt is not the purpose of this book to trace the spiritual ascent of man\nfurther than to point out the wide gulf between the degrees of\nconsciousness manifested in the lower animals and that of human\nconsciousness; again tracing in the human, the ever-widening area of his\ncognition of the personal self, and its needs, to the awakening of the soul\nand its needs; which needs include the welfare of all living things as an\nabsolute necessity to individual happiness.\n\nAltruism, therefore, is not a virtue. It is a means of\nself-preservation--without this degree of initiation into the boundless\narea of universal, or cosmic consciousness, we may not escape the karmic\nlaw.\n\nThe revelations, therefore, upon which are founded the numerous religious\nsystems, are comparable with the many and various degrees of initiation\ninto THAT WHICH IS.\n\nThey represent the degree which the initiate has taken in the lodge.\n\nIt may be argued that this fact of individual initiation into the\never-present truth of Being, as into a lodge, offers no proof that this\nearth is to ultimately become a heaven. It may be that this planet is the\nouter-most lodge room and that there will never be a sufficient number of\ninitiates to make the earth a fit dwelling place for a higher order of\nbeings than now inhabit it. This may, indeed, be true. But all evidence\ntends toward the hope that even the planet itself will come under the\nregenerating power of Illumination.\n\nAll prophecies embody this promise; all that we know of what materialists\ncall \"evolution\" and occultists might well name \"uncovering of\nconsciousness,\" points to a time when \"God's will,\" \"shall be done on earth\nas it is in heaven.\"\n\nAll who have attained to cosmic consciousness in whatever degree, have\nprophecied a _time_, when this blessing would descend upon every one; but\nthe difficulty in adequately explaining this great gift seems also to have\nbeen the burden of their cry.\n\nJesus sought repeatedly to describe to his hearers the wonders of the\ncosmic sense, but realized that he was too far in advance of the cyclic\nend; but even as at that time, a number of disciples were capable of\nreceiving the Illumination, so to-day, a larger number are capable of\nattainment. If this number is great enough to bring about the\nregeneration--the perfecting--of the earth conditions, then it _must be\naccomplished_.\n\nWe believe that it is. We make the claim that the Millenium _has dawned_;\nand although it may be many years before the light of the morning breaks\ninto the full light of the day, yet the rays of the dawn are dispelling the\nworld's long night.\n\nIn his powerful and prophetic story \"In the Days of the Comet,\" H.G. Wells,\ntells of a _great change_ that comes over the world following an\natmospheric phenomenon in which a \"green vapor\" is generated in the clouds\nand falls upon the earth with instantaneous effect.\n\nAs this peculiar vapor descends, it has the effect of putting every one to\nsleep; this sleep continues for three days and when people finally awake,\ntheir interior nature has undergone a complete change.\n\nWhere before they \"saw dimly,\" they now see clearly; the petty differences\nand quarrels are perceived in their true perspective. Instead of place, and\npower, and influence, and wealth, being all-important goals of ambition as\nbefore the change, every one now strives to be of service to the world.\nLove and kindness become greater factors than commercial expediency and\nbusiness success.\n\nIn many respects, Wells' description of the great change and its effect\nupon people, corresponds with the effect of Illumination.\n\nThe sense of entering into the very heart of things; of growing plants; the\nbirds and the little wood animals; the intense sympathy and understanding\nof life described by him, sounds like the effect of cosmic consciousness,\nas related by nearly all who have attained it.\n\nHow the world's activities are resumed after the change, and under what\nvastly different incentives people work, form a part of the story, which is\nwritten as fiction, but which contains the seed of a great truth.\n\nThis truth is expressed in science, as human achievement, and in religion\nas fulfilled prophecy, but the truth is the same.\n\nBoth religion and science point to a _time_ when this earth will know\nfreedom from strife and suffering. Even the elements which have hitherto\nbeen regarded as beyond the boundaries of man's will, may be completely\ncontrolled; not _may be_, but _will be_. Manual labor will cease. National\nEugenic societies will put a stop to war, when they come to the inevitable\nconclusion, that no race can by any possibility be improved, while the most\nperfect physical species are reserved for armies.\n\nAwakening woman will refuse--indeed they are now refusing--to bear children\nto be shot down in warfare, and crushed under the juggernaut of commercial\ncompetition.\n\nThose who realize the signs of the times, look for the birth of cosmic\nconsciousness as a race-consciousness, foreshadowing the new day; the\n\"second coming of Christ,\" not as a personal, vicarious sacrifice, but as a\nfactor in human attainment.\n\n\"For I am persuaded,\" said St. Paul, \"that neither death nor life, nor\nangels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor\npowers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to\nseparate us from the love of God.\"\n\nIf we interpret this in the light of cosmic consciousness, we realize that\nwe shall know, and _experience_ that boundless, deathless, perfect,\nsatisfying, complete and all-embracing love which is the goal of\nimmortality; which is an attribute (we may say the _one_ attribute) of\nGod.\n\nWe are not looking for the birth of _a_ Christ-child, but of _the_\nChrist-child; we are not looking for a second coming of _a_ man who shall\nbe as Jesus was, but we are anticipating the coming of _the_ man (homo),\nwho shall be cosmically conscious, even as was Jesus of Nazareth; as was\nGuatama, the Buddha.\n\nThat there may be one man and one woman who shall first achieve this\nconsciousness and realization is barely possible, but the preponderance of\nevidence is for a more general awakening to the light of Illumination.\n\n\"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the twinkling of an\neye,\" said St. Paul.\n\nThe prophecy of \"the woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under\nher feet,\" is not of _a_ woman, but of Woman, in the light of a race of men\nwho have attained cosmic consciousness.\n\nNothing more is needed to make a heaven of earth, than that the great light\nand love that comes of Illumination, shall become dominant.\n\nIt will solve all problems, because problems arise only because we are\ngroping in the dark. The elimination of selfishness; of condemnation; of\nfear and anger, and doubt, must have far greater power for universal\nhappiness and well-being than all the systems which theology or science or\npolitics could devise. Indeed, all these systems are sporadic and empirical\nattempts to express the vague dawning of Illumination.\n\nIn the fullness of its light, the need for systems will have passed away.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE NEW BIRTH: WHAT IT IS: INSTANCES DESCRIBED\n\n\nThe chief difference between the religions and the philosophies of the\nOrient and those of the Occident, lies in the fact that the Oriental\nsystems, methods, and practices, emphasize the assumption that the goal of\nthese efforts, is attainable at any moment, as it were.\n\nThat is, Oriental religion--speaking in the broad sense--teaches that the\ndisciple need not wait for the experience called death to liberate the\nSelf, the _atman_, from the enchantment or delusion, the _maya_, of the\nexternal world. Indeed, the Oriental devotee well knows that physical\ndeath, _mrityu_, is not a guarantee of liberation; does not necessarily\nbring with it immortality.\n\nHe well recognizes that physical death is but a procedure in existence.\nDeath does not of itself, change the condition of _maya_, in which the\ndisciple is bound until such a time, as he has earned liberation--_mukti_,\nwhich condition may be defined as immunity from further incarnation.\n\nImmortality is our rightful heritage but it must be claimed,--yea, it must\nbe _earned_.\n\nIt is a mistake to imagine that death makes man immortal. Immortality is\nan attribute of the gods. But since all souls possess a spark of the divine\nessence of Brahman (The Absolute), _mukti_ may be attained by earnest\nseeking, and thus immortality be _realized_.\n\nThis condition of awakening, is variously named among Oriental sages and\nchelas, such for instance as glimpsing the _Brahmic splendor; mutki;\nsamadhi; moksha; entering Nirvana_; becoming \"_twice-born_.\"\n\nIn recent years there have come to light in the Occident a number of\ninstances of the attainment of this state, and these have been described\nas \"cosmic consciousness;\" \"illumination;\" \"liberation;\" the \"baptism of\nthe Holy Ghost;\" and becoming \"immersed in the great white light.\"\n\nBaptism, which is a ceremony very generally incorporated into religious\nsystems, is a symbol of this esoteric truth, namely the necessity for\nIllumination in order that the soul may be \"saved\" from further\nincarnations--from further experience.\n\nThe term cosmic consciousness as well describes this condition of the\ndisciple, as any words can, perhaps, although the term liberation is more\nliteral, since the influx of this state of being, is actually the\nliberation of the _atman_, the eternal Self, from the illusion of the\nexternal, or _maya_.\n\nContrary to the general belief, instances of cosmic consciousness are not\nextremely rare, although they are not at all general. Particularly is this\ntrue in the Orient, where the chief concern as it were, of the people has\nfor centuries been the realization of this state of liberation.\n\nThe Oriental initiate in the study of religious practices, realizes that\nthese devotions are for the sole purpose of attaining _mukti_, whereas in\nthe Occident, the very general idea held by the religious devotee, is one\nof penance; of propitiation of Deity. This truth applies essentially to the\ninitiate, the aspirant for priesthood, or guru-ship. No qualified priest or\nguru of the Orient harbors any doubt regarding the _object_, or purpose of\nreligious practices. The attainment of the spiritual experience described\nin occidental language as \"cosmic consciousness\" is the goal.\n\nThe goal is not a peaceful death; nor yet an humble entrance into heaven as\na place of abode; nor is it the ultimate satisfying of a God of extreme\njustice; the \"eye for an eye\" God of the fear-stricken theologian.\n\nOne purpose only, actuates the earnest disciple, like a glorious star\nlighting the path of the mariner on life's troublous sea. That goal is the\nattainment of that beatific state in which is revealed to the soul and the\nmind, the real and the unreal; the eternal substance of truth, and the\nshifting kaleidoscope of _maya_.\n\nNor can there be any purpose in the pursuit of either religion or\nphilosophy other than this attainment; nor does the unceasing practice of\nrites and ceremonies; of contemplation; renunciation; prayers; fasting;\npenance; devotion; service; adoration; absteminousness; or isolation,\ninsure the attainment of this state of bliss. There is no bartering; no\nassurance of reward for good conduct. It is not as though one would say,\n\"Ah, my child, if thou wouldst purchase liberation thou shalt follow\nthis recipe.\"\n\nNo golden promises of speedy entrance into Paradise may be given the\ndisciple. Nor any exact rules, or laws of equation by virtue of which the\ngoal shall be reached. Nor yet may any specific time be correctly estimated\nin which to serve a novitiate, before final initiation.\n\nMany indeed, attain a high degree of spirituality, and yet not have found\nthe key of perfect liberation, although the goal may be not far off.\n\nMany, very many, on earth to-day, are living so close to the borderland of\nthe new birth that they catch fleeting glimpses of the longed-for freedom,\nbut the full import of its meaning does not dawn. There is yet another\nveil, however thin, between them and the Light.\n\nThe Buddha spent seven years in an intense longing and desire to attain\nthat liberation which brought him consciousness of godhood--deliverance\nfrom the sense of sin and sorrow that had oppressed him; immunity from the\nnecessity for reincarnation.\n\nJesus became a _Christ_ only after passing through the agonies of\nGethsemane. A Christ is one who has found liberation; who has been born\nagain in his individual consciousness into the inner areas of consciousness\nwhich are of the _atman_, and this attainment establishes his identity with\nThe Absolute.\n\nAll oriental religions and philosophies teach that this state of\nconsciousness, is possible to all men; therefore all men are gods in\nembryo.\n\nBut no philosophy or religion may promise the devotee the realization of\nthis grace, nor yet can they deny its possible attainment to any.\n\nStrangely enough, if we estimate men by externalities, we discover that\nthere is no measure by which the supra-conscious man may be measured. The\nobscure and unlearned have been known to possess this wonderful power which\ndissolves the seeming, and leaves only the contemplation of the Real.\n\nSo also, men of great learning have experienced this rebirth; but it would\nseem that much cultivation of the intellectual qualities, unless\naccompanied by an humble and reverent spirit, frequently acts as a barrier\nto the realization of supra-consciousness.\n\nIn \"Texts of Taoism,\" Kwang-Tse, one of the Illuminati, writes:\n\n\"He whose mind is thus grandly fixed, emits a heavenly light. In him who\nemits this heavenly light, men see the true man (i.e., the _atman_; the\nSelf). When a man has cultivated himself to this point, thenceforth he\nremains constant in himself. When he is thus constant in himself, what is\nmerely the human element will leave him, but Heaven will help him. Those\nwhom Heaven helps, we call the sons of Heaven. Those who would, by\nlearning, attain to this, seek for what they _can not learn_.\"\n\nThus it will be seen, that according to the reports offered us by this wise\nman, that which men call learning guarantees no power regarding that area\nof consciousness which brings Illumination--liberation from enchantment, of\nthe senses--_mukti_.\n\nAgain, in the case of Jacob Boehme, the German mystic, although he left\ntomes of manuscript, it is asserted authoritatively, that he \"possessed no\nlearning\" as that word is understood to mean accumulated knowledge.\n\nIn \"The Spiritual Maxims\" of Brother Lawrence, the Carmelite monk, we find\nthis:\n\n\"You must realize that you reach God through the heart, and not through the\nmind.\"\n\n\"Stupidity is closer to deliverance than intellect which innovates,\" is a\nphrase ascribed to a Mohammedan saint, and do not modern theologians report\nwith enthusiasm, the unlettered condition of Jesus?\n\nIn the Orient, the would-be initiate shuts out the voice of the world, that\nhe may know the heart of the world. Many, very many, are the years of\nisolation and preparation which such an earnest one accepts in order that\nhe may attain to that state of supra-consciousness in which \"nothing is\nhidden that shall not be revealed\" to his clarified vision.\n\nIn the inner temples throughout Japan, for example, there are persons who\nhave not only attained this state of consciousness, but who have also\nretained it, to such a degree and to such an extent, that no event of\ncosmic import may occur in any part of the world, without these illumined\nones instantly becoming aware of its happening, and indeed, this knowledge\nis possessed by them _before_ the event has taken place in the external\nworld, since their consciousness is not limited to time, space, or place\n(relative terms only), but is cosmic, or universal.\n\nThis power is not comparable with what Occidental Psychism knows as\n\"clairvoyance,\" or \"spirit communication.\"\n\nThe state of consciousness is wholly unlike anything which modern\nspiritualism reports in its phenomena. Far from being in any degree a\nsuspension of consciousness as is what is known as mediumship, this power\npartakes of the quality of omniscience. It harmonizes with and blends into\nall the various degrees and qualities of consciousness in the cosmos, and\nbecomes \"at-one\" with the universal heart-throb.\n\nA Zen student priest was once discovered lying face downward on the grass\nof the hill outside the temple; his limbs were rigid, and not a pulse\nthrobbed in his tense and immovable form. He was allowed to remain\nundisturbed as long as he wished. When at length he stood up, his face wore\nan expression of terrible anguish. It seemed to have grown old. His _guru_\nstood beside him and gently asked: \"What did you, my son?\"\n\n\"O, my Master,\" cried out the youth, \"I have heard and felt all the burdens\nof the world. I know how the mother feels when she looks upon her starving\nbabe. I have heard the cry of the hunted things in the woods; I have felt\nthe horror of fear; I have borne the lashes and the stripes of the convict;\nI have entered the heart of the outcast and the shame-stricken; I have been\nold and unloved and I have sought refuge in self-destruction; I have lived\na thousand lives of sorrow and strife and of fear, and O, my Master, I\nwould that I could efface this anguish from the heart of the world.\"\n\nThe _guru_ looked in wonder upon the young priest and he said, \"It is well,\nmy son. Soon thou shalt know that the burden is lifted.\"\n\nGreat compassion, the attribute of the Lord Buddha, was the key which\nopened to this young student priest, the door of _mukti_, and although his\ncompassion was not less, after he had entered into that blissful\nrealization, yet so filled did he become with a sense of bliss and\ninexpressible realization of eternal love, that all consciousness of sorrow\nwas soon wiped out.\n\nThis condition of effacement of all identity, as it were, with sorrow, sin,\nand death, seems inseparable from the attainment of liberation, and has\nbeen testified to by all who have recorded their emotions in reaching this\nstate of consciousness. In other respects, the acquisition of this\nsupra-consciousness varies greatly with the initiate.\n\nIn all instances, there is also an overwhelming conviction of the\ntransitory character of the external world, and the emptiness of all\nman-bestowed honors and riches.\n\nA story is told of the Mohammedan saint Fudail Ibn Tyad, which well\nillustrates this. The Caliph Harun-al-Rashid, learning of the extreme\nsimplicity and asceticism of his life exclaimed, \"O, Saint, how great is\nthy self-abnegation.\"\n\nTo which the saint made answer: \"Thine is greater.\" \"Thou dost but jest,\"\nsaid the Caliph in wonderment. \"Nay, not so, great Caliph,\" replied the\nsaint. \"I do but make abnegation of this world which is transitory, and\nthou makest abnegation of the next which will last forever.\"\n\nHowever, the phrase, \"self-abnegation,\" predicates the concept of\nsacrifice; the giving up of something much to be desired, while, as a\nmatter of truth, there arises in the consciousness of the Illumined One, a\nnatural contempt for the \"baubles\" of externality; therefore there is no\nsacrifice. Nothing is given up. On the contrary, the gain is infinitely\ngreat.\n\nManikyavasayar, one of the great Tamil saints of Southern India, addressed\na gathering of disciples thus:\n\n\"Why go about sucking from each flower, the droplet of honey, when the\nheavy mass of pure and sweet honey is available?\" By which he questioned\nwhy they sought with such eagerness the paltry pleasures of this world,\nwhen the state of cosmic consciousness might be attained.\n\nThe thought of India, is however, one of ceaseless repudiation of all that\nis external, and the Hindu conception of _mukti_, or cosmic consciousness,\ndiffers in many respects from that reported by the Illumined in other\ncountries, even while all reports have many emotions in common.\n\nAgain we find that reports of the cosmic influx, differ with the century in\nwhich the Illumined one lived. This may be accounted for in the fact that\nan experience so essentially spiritual can not be accurately expressed in\nterms of sense consciousness.\n\nFar different from the Hindu idea, for example, is the report of a woman\nwho lived in Japan in the early part of the nineteenth century. This woman\nwas very poor and obscure, making her frugal living by braiding mats. So\nintense was her consciousness of unity with all that is, that on seeing a\nflower growing by the wayside, she would \"enter into its spirit,\" as she\nsaid, with an ecstacy of enjoyment, that would cause her to become\nmomentarily entranced.\n\nShe was known to the country people around her as _Sho-Nin_, meaning\nliterally \"above man in consciousness.\"\n\nIt is said that the wild animals of the wood, were wont to come to her\ndoor, and she talked to them, as though they were humans. An injured hare\ncame limping to her door in the early morning hours and \"spoke\" to her.\n\nUpon which, she arose and dressed, and opened the door of her dwelling with\nwords of greeting, as she would use to a neighbor.\n\nShe washed the soil from the injured foot, and \"loved\" it back to\nwholeness, so that when the hare departed there was no trace of injury.\n\nShe declared that she spoke to and was answered by, the birds and the\nflowers, and the animals, just as she was by persons.\n\nIndeed, among the high priests of the Jains, and the Zens (sects which may\nbe classed as highly developed Occultists), entering into animal\nconsciousness, is a power possessed by all initiates.\n\nPassing along a highway near a Zen temple, the driver of a cart was stopped\nby a priest, who gently said: \"My good man, with some of the money you have\nin your purse please buy your faithful horse a bucket of oats. He tells me\nhe has been so long fed on rice straw that he is despondent.\"\n\nTo the Occidental mind this will doubtless appear to be the result of keen\nobservation, the priest being able to see from the appearance of the animal\nthat he was fed on straw. They will believe, perhaps, that the priest\nexpressed his observations in the manner described to more fully impress\nthe driver, but this conclusion will be erroneous. The priest, possessing\nthe enlarged or all-inclusive consciousness which in the west is termed\n\"cosmic,\" actually did speak to the horse.\n\nNor is this fact one which the western mind should be unable to follow.\nScience proves the fact of consciousness existing in the atoms composing\neven what has been termed _inanimate_ objects. How much more comprehensible\nto our understanding is the consciousness of an animate organism, even\nthough this organism be not more complex than the horse.\n\nThere is a Buddhist monastery built high on the cliff overlooking the Japan\nInland sea, which is called a \"life-saving\" monastery.\n\nThe priests who preside over this temple, possess the power of extending\ntheir consciousness over many miles of sea, and on a vibration attuned to a\npitch above the sound of wind and wave, so that they can hear a call of\ndistress from fishermen who need their help.\n\nThis fact being admitted, might be accounted for by the uninitiated, as a\nwonderfully \"trained ear,\" which by cultivation and long practice detects\nsounds at a seemingly miraculous distance.\n\nBut the priests know how many are in a wrecked boat, and can describe them,\nand \"converse\" with them, although the fishermen are not aware that they\nhave \"talked\" to the priest.\n\nSri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the latest incarnation of God in India, and\nthe master to whom the late Swami Vivekananda gives such high praise and\ndevotion, lived almost wholly in that exalted state of consciousness which\nwould appear to be more essentially _spiritual_, than _cosmic_ in the\nstrict sense of the latter word, since _cosmic_ should certainly imply\nall-inclusiveness, rather than wholly _spiritual_ (spiritual being here\nused as an extremely high vibration of the cosmos).\n\nWe learn that Sri Ramakrishna was a man comparatively unlettered, and yet\nhis insight was so marvelous, his consciousness so exalted that the most\nlearned pundits honored and respected him as one who had attained unto the\ngoal of all effort--liberation, _mukti_, while to many persons throughout\nIndia to-day, and indeed throughout the whole world, he is looked upon as\nan incarnation of Krishna.\n\nIt is related of Sri Ramakrishna that his yearning for Truth (his mother,\nhe called it), was so great that he finally became unfit to conduct\nservices in the temple, and retired to a little wood near by. Here he\nseemed to be lost in concentration upon the one thought, to such an extent\nthat had it not been for devoted attendants, who actually put food into his\nmouth, the sage would have starved to death. He had so completely lost all\nthought of himself and his surroundings that he could not tell when the day\ndawned or when the night fell. So terrible was his yearning for the voice\nof Truth that when day after day passed and the light he longed for had not\ncome to him he would weep in agony.\n\nNor could any words or argument dissuade him from his purpose.\n\nHe once said to Swami Vivekananda:\n\n\"My son, suppose there is a bag of gold in yonder room, and a robber is in\nthe next room. Do you think that robber can sleep? He cannot. His mind will\nbe always thinking how he can enter that room and obtain possession of\nthat gold. Do you think, then, that a man firmly persuaded that there is a\nreality behind all these appearances, that there is a God, that there is\nOne who never dies, One who is Infinite Bliss, a bliss compared with which\nthese pleasures of the senses are simply playthings,--can rest contented\nwithout struggling to attain it? No, he will become mad with longing.\"\n\nAt length, after almost twelve years unceasing effort, and undivided\npurpose Sri Ramakrishna was rewarded with what has been described as \"a\ntorrent of spiritual light, deluging his mind and giving him peace.\"\n\nThis wonderful insight he displayed in all the after years of his earthly\nmission, and he not only attained glimpses of the cosmic conscious state,\nbut he also retained the Illumination, and the power to impart to a great\ndegree, the realization of that state of being which he himself possessed.\n\nLike the Lord Buddha, this Indian sage also describes his experience as\naccompanied by \"unbounded light.\" Speaking of this strange and overpowering\nsense of being immersed in light, Sri Ramakrishna described it thus: \"The\nliving light to which the earnest devotee is drawn doth not burn. It is\nlike the light coming from a gem, shining yet soft, cool and soothing. It\nburneth not. It giveth peace and joy.\"\n\nThis effect of great light, is an almost invariable accompaniment of\nsupra-consciousness, although there are instances of undoubted cosmic\nconsciousness in which the realization has been a more gradual growth,\nrather than a sudden influx, in which the phenomenon of _light_ is not\ngreatly marked.\n\nMohammed is said to have swooned with the \"intolerable splendor\" of the\nflood of white light which broke upon him, after many days of constant\nprayer and meditation, in the solitude of the cavern outside the gates of\nMecca.\n\nSimilar is the description of the attainment of cosmic consciousness, given\nby the Persian mystics, although it is evident that the Sufis regarded the\nresult as reunion with \"the other half\" of the soul in exile.\n\nThe burden of their cry is love, and \"union with the beloved\" is the\nlonged-for goal of all earthly strife and experience.\n\nWhether this reunion be considered from the standpoint of finding the other\nhalf of the perfect one, as exemplified in the present-day search for the\nsoul mate, or whether it be considered in the light of a spiritual merging\ninto the One Eternal Absolute is the question of questions.\n\nCertainly the terms used to express this state of spiritual ecstacy are\nwords which might readily be applied to lovers united in marriage.\n\nOne thing is certain, the Sufis did not personify the Deity, except\nsymbolically, and the \"beloved one\" is impartially referred to as masculine\nor feminine, even as modern thought has come to realize God as\nFather-Mother.\n\nIn all mystical writings, we find the conclusion that there is no _one way_\nin which the seeker may find reunion with The Beloved.\n\n\"The ways of God are as the number of the souls of men,\" declare the\nfollowers of Islam, and \"for the love that thou wouldst find demands the\nsacrifice of self to the end that the heart may be filled with the passion\nto stand within the Holy of Holies, in which alone the mysteries of the\nTrue Beloved can be revealed unto thee,\" is also a Sufi sentiment, although\nit might also be Christian or Mohammedan, or Vedantan.\n\nIndeed, if the student of Esotericism, searches deeply enough, he will find\na surprising unity of sentiment, and even of expression, in all the variety\nof religions and philosophies, including Christianity.\n\nIt has been said that the chief difference between the message of Jesus\nand those of the holy men of other races, and times, lies in the fact that\nJesus, more than his predecessors, emphasized the importance of love. But\nconsider the following lines from Jami, the Persian mystic:\n\n  \"Gaze, till gazing out of gazing\n  Grew to BEING HER I gazed on,\n  She and I no more, but in one\n  Undivided Being blended.\n  All that is not One must ever\n  Suffer with the wound of absence;\n  And whoever in Love's city\n  Enters, finds but room for one\n  And but in Oneness, union.\"\n\nThese lines express that religious ecstacy which results from spiritual\naspiration, or they express the union of the individual soul with its mate\naccording to the viewpoint. In any event, they are an excellent description\nof the realization of that much-to-be-desired consciousness which is\nfittingly described in Occidental phraseology as \"cosmic consciousness.\"\nWhether this realization is the result of union with the soul's \"other\nhalf,\" or whether it is an impersonal reunion with the Causeless Cause, The\nAbsolute, from which we are earth wanderers, is not the direct purpose of\nthis volume to answer, although the question will be answered, and that\nsoon.\n\nFrom whence and by whom we are not prepared to say, but the \"signs and\nportents\" which precede the solution of this problem have already made\ntheir appearance.\n\nChristian students of the Persian mystics, take exception to statements\nlike the above, and regard them as \"erotic,\" rather than spiritual.\n\nMahmud Shabistari employs the following symbolism, but unquestionably seeks\nto express the same emotion:\n\n  \"Go, sweep out the chamber of your heart,\n  Make it ready to be the dwelling-place of the Beloved.\n  When you depart out, he will enter in,\n  In you, void of your_self_, will he display his beauty.\"\n\nThe \"Song of Solomon\" is in a similar key, and whether the wise king\nreferred to that state of _samadhi_ which accompanies certain experiences\nof cosmic consciousness, or whether he was reciting love-lyrics, must be a\nmoot question.\n\nThe personal note in the famous \"song\" has been accounted for by many\ncommentators, on the grounds that Solomon had only partial glimpses of the\nsupra-conscious state, and that, in other words, he frequently \"backslid\"\nfrom divine contemplation, and allowed his yearning for the state of\nliberation, to express itself in love of woman.\n\nAn attribute of the possession of cosmic consciousness is wisdom, and this\nSolomon is said to have possessed far beyond his contemporaries, and to a\ndegree incompatible with his years. It is said that he built and\nconsecrated a \"temple for the Lord,\" and that, as a result of his extreme\npiety and devotion to God, he was vouchsafed a vision of God.\n\nAs these reports have come to us through many stages of church history and\nas Solomon lived many centuries before the birth of Jesus, it seems hardly\nfitting to ascribe the raptures of Solomon as typifying the love of the\nChurch (the bride) for Christ (the bridegroom).\n\nRather, it is easier to believe, the wisdom of the king argues a degree of\nconsciousness far beyond that of the self-conscious man, and he rose to the\nquality of spiritual realization, expressing itself in a love and longing\nfor that soul communion which may be construed as quite personal, referring\nto a personal, though doubtless non-corporeal union with his spiritual\ncomplement.\n\nAlthough the pronoun \"he\" is used, signifying that Solomon's longing was\nwhat theology terms \"spiritual\" and consequently impersonal, meaning God\nThe Absolute, yet we suggest that the use of the masculine pronoun may be\ndue entirely to the translators and commentators (of whom there have been\nmany), and that, in their zeal to reconcile the song with the\necclesiastical ideas of spirituality, the gender of the pronoun has been\nchanged. We submit that the idea is more than possible, and indeed in view\nof the avowed predilections of the ancient king and sage, it is highly\nprobable.\n\nHe sings:\n\n  \"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth\n  For his love is better than wine.\"\n\nAgain he cries:\n\n\"Behold thou art fair my love, behold thou art fair, thou _hast dove's\neyes_.\"\n\nThe realization of _mukti_, i.e., the power of the _atman_ to transcend the\nphysical, is thus expressed by Solomon, clearly indicating that he had\nfound liberation:\n\n\"My beloved spoke and said unto me, 'Rise up my love my fair one, and come\naway. For lo, the winter is passed, the rain is over and gone.\n\n\"'The flowers appear upon the earth; the time of singing of birds has come,\nand the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land.\n\n\"'The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vine with the tender\ngrapes gives a goodly smell. Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.'\"\n\nIt is assumed that these lines do not refer to a personal hegira, but\nrather to the act of withdrawing the Self from the things of the outer\nlife, and fixing it in contemplation upon the larger life, the\nsupra-conscious life, but there is no reason to doubt that they may refer\nto a longing to commune with the beautiful and tender things of nature.\n\nAnother point to be noted is that in the spring and early summer it is with\ndifficulty that the mind can be made to remain fixed upon the petty details\nof everyday business life. The awakening of the earth from the long cold\nsleep of winter is typical of the awakening of the mind from its hypnotisms\nof external consciousness.\n\nInstinctively, there arises a realization of the divinity of creative\nactivity, and the mind soars up to the higher vibrations and awakes to the\nreal purpose of life, more or less fully, according to individual\ndevelopment.\n\nThis has given rise to the assumption, predicated by some writers on cosmic\nconsciousness, that this state of consciousness is attained in the early\nsummer months, and the instances cited would seem to corroborate this\nassumption.\n\nBut, as a poet has sung, \"it is always summer in the soul,\" so there is no\nspecific time, nor age, in which individual cosmic consciousness may be\nattained.\n\nA point which we suggest, and which is verified by the apparent connection\nbetween the spring months, and the full realization of cosmic\nconsciousness, is the point that this phenomenon comes through\ncontemplation and desire for love. Whether this love be expressed as the\nawakening of creative life, as in nature's springtime, or whether it be\nexpressed as love of the lover for his bride; the dove for his mate; the\nmother for her child, or as the religious devotee for the Lord, the key\nthat unlocks the door to illumination of body, soul and spirit, is Love,\n\"the maker, the monarch and savior of all,\" but whether this love in its\nfullness of perfection may be found in that perfect spiritual mating, which\nwe see exemplified in the tender, but ardent mating of the dove (the symbol\nof Purity and Peace), or whether it means spiritual union with the Absolute\nis not conclusive.\n\nThe mystery of Seraphita, Balzac's wonderful creation, is an evidence that\nBalzac had glimpses of that perfect union, which gives rise to the\nexperience called cosmic consciousness.\n\nIt is well to remember that in every instance of cosmic consciousness, the\nperson experiencing this state, finds it practically impossible to fully\ndescribe the state, or its exact significance.\n\nTherefore, when these efforts have been made, we must expect to find the\ndescription colored very materially by the habit of _thought_, of the\nperson having the experience.\n\nBalzac was essentially religious, but he was also extremely suggestible,\nand, until very recently, Theology and Religion were supposed to be\nsynonymous, or at least to walk hand in hand. Balzac's early training and\nhis environment, as well as the thought of the times in which he lived,\nwere calculated to inspire in him the fallacious belief that God would have\nus renounce the love of our fellow beings, for love of Him.\n\nBalzac makes \"Louis Lambert\" renounce his great passion for Pauline, and\nseems to suggest that this renunciation led to the subsequent realization\nof cosmic consciousness, which he unquestionably experienced.\n\nNor is it possible to say that it did not, since renunciation of the lower\nmust inevitably lead to the higher, and we give up the lesser only that we\nmay enjoy the greater.\n\nIn \"Seraphita\" Balzac expressed what may be termed spiritual love and that\nspiritual union with the Beloved, which the Sufis believed to be the result\nof a perfect and complete \"mating,\" between the sexes, on the spiritual\nplane, regardless of physical proximity or recognition, but which is also\nelsewhere described as the soul's glimpse of its union with the Absolute or\nGod.\n\nThe former view is individual, while the latter is impersonal, and may, or\nmay not, involve absorption of individual consciousness.\n\nIn subsequent chapters we shall again refer to Balzac's Illumination as\nexpressed in his writings, and will now take up the question of man's\nrelation to the universe, as it appears in the light of cosmic\nconsciousness, or liberation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nMAN'S RELATION TO GOD AND TO HIS FELLOW-MEN\n\n\nThe riddle of the Sphinx is no riddle at all. The strange figure, the lower\npart animal; the upper part human; and the sprouting wings epitomize the\ngrowth and development of man from the animal, or physical (carnal),\nconsciousness to the soul consciousness, represented by woman's head and\nbreast, to the supra-conscious, winged god.\n\nNo higher conception of life has ever emanated from any source, than the\nconcept of man developed to a state of perfection represented by wings (a\nsymbol of freedom). These winged humans are sometimes called angels and\nsometimes gods, although the words may not be synonymous.\n\nThe point is, that no theory of life and its purposes seems more general or\nmore unescapable than that of man's growth from sin (limitations) to\ngod-hood--freedom.\n\nWhether this consummation is brought about through an unbroken chain of\nupward tendencies from the lowest forms of life to the highest; or whether\nit is symbolized by the old theologic idea of man's fall from godhood to\nsin, the fact remains that we know no other ideal than that represented by\nperfected man; and we know no lower idea than that of man still in the\nanimal stage of consciousness.\n\nArtists, painters, sculptors, wishing to depict the beauty of spiritual\nthings, must still use the human idea for a model--refined, spiritualized,\nsupra-human, but still man.\n\nIt is a truism that man epitomizes the universe. Therefore, the law of\ngrowth, which science names evolution, may be studied and applied with\nequal precision and accuracy to the individual; to a body of individuals\ncalled a nation; and to worlds, or planets.\n\nThe evolution of an individual is accomplished when he has learned through\nthe various avenues of experience, the fact of his own godhood; and when he\nhas established his union with that indescribable spiritual essence which\nis called Om; God; Nirvana; Samadhi; Brahm; Kami; Allah; and the Absolute.\n\nA Japanese term is _Dai Zikaku_. The Zen sect of Japanese Buddhists say\n_Daigo Tettei_, and one who has attained to this superior phase of\nconsciousness is called Sho-Nin, meaning literally \"above man.\"\n\nEmerson, the great American seer, expressed this Nameless One, as The\nOversoul, and Herbert Spencer, the intellectual giant of England, used the\nterm Universal Energy.\n\nEmerson was a seer; Spencer was a scientist, which word, until recently,\nwas a synonym for materialist.\n\nBut what are words?\n\nMere symbols of consciousness, and subject to change and evolvement, as\nman's consciousness evolves. The student of truth will recognize in these\ndifferent words, exactly the same meaning. The \"eternal energy from which\nall things proceed\" is a phrase identical with \"The Oversoul,\" or \"The\nAbsolute,\" from which all manifestation comes.\n\nMan's evolution, then, is an evolution in consciousness, from the\nsubjective _awareness_ of the monad to a realization of the entire cosmos.\n\nEach phase of life is a specific degree of consciousness and each\nsuccessive degree brings the individual nearer to the realization of the\n_sum_ of all degrees of consciousness, into godhood--the highest degree\nwhich we can conceive.\n\nSuch, briefly, is a statement of that phenomenon which is attracting the\nattention of occidental students of psychology, and which has been\nfittingly termed \"the attainment of cosmic consciousness.\"\n\nThe phrase expresses a degree of consciousness which includes the entire\ncosmos--not only this planet called earth, and everything thereon, but also\nthe spheres of the Constellation.\n\nNot that this degree of consciousness carries with it the power to express\nin words, that which it is. In fact, the one who has had this marvelous\nawakening, cannot adequately describe, or even _retain_, a full\ncomprehension of what it signifies.\n\nAll-inclusive knowledge would indeed, preclude the possibility of\nexpression. Therefore, even if it were possible to retain in the finite\nmind, the full realization of cosmic consciousness, words could not be\nfound in which to express it to others.\n\nThought is the creator of words, but thought is but the material which the\nmind employs, and cosmic consciousness transcends the mind, engulfs the\nsoul, and reaches to the trackless areas of Spirit.\n\nIt may be doubted if any one may retain a full realization of cosmic\nconsciousness, and remain in the physical body.\n\nGreat and wonderful as have been the experiences of those who have sought\nto relate their sensations, it is probable that these flashes of insight\nhave been in the nature of cosmic _perception_, and have lacked full\nrealization.\n\nOf those who have had glimpses of that larger area of consciousness which\nincludes an awareness of eternal unity with the cosmos, there are, we\nbelieve, many more than students of the subject have any idea of.\n\nThis century marks a distinct epoch in what is called evolution.\n\nThe end of a _kalpa_, or cycle of manifestation, is symbolized by the\npresence on a planet of many avatars, masters, and angels.\n\nBy their very presence these enlightened ones arouse in all who are ready\nfor the experience a glimpse of that state of being to which all souls are\ndestined, and to which all shall ultimately attain.\n\nA time when \"gods shall walk the earth\" is a prophecy which all nations\nhave heard and looked forward to.\n\nThat time is now. We see the effect of their presence in Peace Conferences;\nin abolition of child labor; in prison reform; in the amalgamation of the\nraces; in attempts at social equality; in National Eugenic Societies, and\nabove all, as we have before stated, in the Emancipation of Woman. In fact,\nit is seen in all the various ways in which the higher consciousness finds\nexpression.\n\nOne of the characteristic signs of this awakening, the Millenium Dawn, as\nit has been named, lies in a very general optimism shining through the\nmists of doubt and unrest and inexpressible desire, which accompany the\nnew birth in consciousness.\n\nAmid the seeming chaos of present day conditions is it not easy to discern\nthe coming of that dawn of which all great ones of earth have foretold--a\ntime when \"the earth shall be made a fit habitation for the gods\"?\n\n\"The heavens\" is a term employed to specify the Constellation which is\ncomposed of planets and stars, but we use the term \"Heaven\" also to mean a\nstate of happiness and bliss attainable through certain methods, a\nconsideration of which we will take up later.\n\nThe immediate point is that this planet is being prepared for a position in\nthe solar system consistent with that which is the abode of the\ngods--Heaven.\n\nThis proposition is made in its literal meaning. Corroborative of this\nstatement, which is consistent with all prophecies, is the information\nrecently given to the world, by Camille Flammarion, and other great\nastronomers, that \"the earth is changing its position in the heavens at an\nastonishing rate.\" The idea that \"there shall be no night there,\" is\nforeshadowed by the estimate that this change will give to the earth a\nperpetual and uniform light, and heat.\n\nThe New Thought preachment of physical immortality is but a faint and\nimperfect perception of this time, when \"there shall be no death,\" because\nthe animal man, subject to change, shall give place to the changeless,\ndeathless, spiritual man; not through cataclysms, and destruction, but\nthrough the natural birth into a higher consciousness.\n\nThe Occidental mind is easily affrighted by a name. Perhaps we should not\nspecify the Occidental mind, but rather the mind of man among all races is\neasily put to sleep by the hypnotism of a word.\n\nThe word Pantheism is a bugaboo to the Occidentalist. He fears the\ndestruction of the Monistic faith, if he admits that man is in essence a\ngod, and that therefore there are many gods in the one God, even as there\nare many members to the one physical organism.\n\nNevertheless all literature, whether sacred or profane, teaches the\nattainment of godhood by Man. This can not mean other than the attainment\nof _realization_ of godhood, by the individual and the _retention_ of this\nrealization to the end that reincarnation shall cease and identity with the\ncosmic, principle, be established, beyond further loss, or doubt, or\nstrife, or death.\n\nThis is what it means to attain to cosmic consciousness. It is inclusive\nconsciousness. It is not absorption into the vast unknown, in the sense of\nannihilation of identity. It is consciousness _plus_, not minus.\n\nAn ancient writing says:\n\n\"And thou shalt awake as from a long dream. Thou shalt be like the perfume\narising from the flower in which it has been so long enclosed. And thou\nwilt float above the opened flower. And thou wilt say 'There is time before\nme in eternity.'\"\n\nThere is nothing in the testimony of those who have described, as best they\ncould, their emotions upon attainment of this consciousness, which would\nargue the absorption of the individual soul into The Absolute.\n\nThere is no testimony to argue that the attainment of cosmic consciousness,\ncarries with it anything approaching annihilation of _sentiency_.\n\nRather it would seem to testify to an acceleration of all the higher\nfaculties.\n\nThat this would be a more apt interpretation may be seen by comparing the\ndifferent reports of those experiencing the phenomenon of Illumination.\n\nNevertheless there has been much controversy regarding the meaning of the\nterms nirvana; samadhi; dai zikaku, etc.--words expressing the condition\nwhich we are considering under the phrase cosmic consciousness.\n\n\nWHAT IS NIRVANA?\n\nLet us consider briefly, what is meant by Nirvana, and see if it is not\nhighly probable that the word describes the state of consciousness which\nwe are considering, referring later on to the question, and its\ninterpretation by the various schools of religion and philosophy.\n\nIt is apparent that the most learned sages of the Orient fail to agree as\nto the exact meaning of Nirvana. Occidental writers and leaders of the\nTheosophical philosophy, differ somewhat as to its import, but at the same\ntime we find enough unity on this point to make it evident that the state\nof Nirvana is a desirable attainment--the goal of the religious enthusiast.\n\nGoing back for a moment, to a consideration of the earliest recorded\nreligion of Japan, we find that Sintoism means literally \"the way of the\ngods,\" meaning the way in which men who have become god-like, found the\npath that led thereunto, but as to exactly what conditions are represented\nby godhood, how indeed, is it possible for man to _know_, much less to\nexpress?\n\nSince we are conscious of a divine and irresistible urge toward the\nattainment of this state of being, it is hardly consistent with what we\nknow of merely _human_ nature, that the way lies in the direction of loss\nof identity, or in other words, in what is popularly comprehended as\n_absorption_. That this idea prevails in many Oriental sects of Buddhism\nand Vedanta we are aware, but we are confident that this idea is erroneous,\nand comes from the fact that it is impossible to describe the condition of\nconsciousness enjoyed by the initiate into Nirvana, which term we believe,\nis identical, or at least comparable with cosmic consciousness.\n\nThe very fact that external life represents so universal a struggle for\nattainment of this state of being, or higher consciousness, indicates at\nleast, even if it does not actually _guarantee_ a fuller, deeper, more\ncomplete state of consciousness than hitherto enjoyed, rather than an\nabsorption or annihilation of any of that dearly bought consciousness which\ndistinguishes the self from its environment, and which says with conviction\n\"I am.\"\n\nIt is admitted that those who have experienced liberation, illumination,\n_mukti_, have reported their sensations with such relative vagueness and\nwith such apparent variance of conclusion as regards the _meaning_ of the\nexperience that the reader is left to his own interpretation of the\ncharacter of that state of being, other than a general uniformity of\ndescription.\n\nReferring to the pleasure which the lower nature feels under certain\nconditions, the late Swami Vivekananda says:\n\n\"The whole idea of this nature is to make the soul know that it is entirely\nseparate from nature and when the soul knows this, nature has no more\nattraction for it. But the whole of nature vanishes only for that man who\nhas become free. There will always remain an infinite number of others for\nwhom nature will go on working.\"\n\nBut did Vivekananda employ the phrase \"nature has no more attraction for\nhim,\" to describe the sensation of unappreciativeness of the wonders of the\nnatural world? We think not. Rather the gentle-hearted sage meant to report\nthe fact that the soul is no longer _held in bondage_ to the external\nworld, when it has once attained supra-consciousness.\n\nIf this expression referred to the pleasure the true lover of nature feels\nin the out-of-doors, he might well say \"I trust that I shall never attain\nto that state of consciousness. Or if attainment be compulsory, then shall\nI prolong the time of accomplishment as long as possible.\"\n\nAnd who would blame him? Why should we strive for the attainment of a state\nof being described so unattractively as to give us the impression of entire\n_loss_ of so enjoyable and unselfish a sensation as love of nature?\n\nThe Vedantic idea, according to interpreted translations is that out of The\nAbsolute, the All (Om), we _come_, and therefore back to it we go, being\nnow in our present state of consciousness, en route, as it were to return.\n\nBut returning to _what_? That is the unanswerable problem of all religions;\nall philosophies; all science. If we _return_ to a void, such as some\ninterpreters of the Vedas declare, then surely this urge within mankind\ntoward this annihilatory state would hardly be expected. It would be\ninconsistent with that instinct of self-preservation which we are told is\nthe first law of nature.\n\nCompared to this Vedantic concept of the Absolute, the Christian's simple,\nand very empirical ideal of eternal happiness is preferable.\n\nTo walk streets paved with gold and play a harp incessantly while chanting\ndoleful praises to a Deity who ought to become wearied of the never-ceasing\nadulation, would still be a more desirable goal of our strife, than that so\ninaccurately and unattractively described by many students of Oriental\nreligions and philosophies as the state _nirvana_, or _samadhi_.\n\nAgain quoting from Vivekananda's Raja Yoga:\n\n\"There are not wanting persons who think that this manifest state (our\npresent existence) is the highest state of man. Thinkers of great caliber\nare of the opinion that we are manifested specimens of undifferentiated\nBeing, and this differentiated state is _higher than the Absolute_.\"\n\nAlthough as Vivekananda says there are thinkers who make this claim, the\nidea does not find ready acceptance among theologians, either Eastern, or\nWestern. Neither do philosophers, as a general thing incline to adopt this\nview. The reason for this general disinclination is not difficult of\ndiscovery. It is due to the present state of man on this planet.\n\nIf man, as we see and know mankind, is the highest state of Being (not\nmerely of manifestation, but of Being) \"then,\" they say, \"we have nothing\nto hope for.\"\n\nBut have we not? May we not hope that man will _manifest_, on this planet a\nfuller realization, of that which he _is_ in _Being_, and that, far from\ndissolving what consciousness he has, he will but _plus_ this consciousness\nby a larger--an all-embracing consciousness that shall make earth a fit\nhabitation for god-like men?\n\nIn Vivekananda's Raja Yoga we find the following:\n\n\"There was an old solution that man, after death, remained the same; that\nall his good sides, minus his evil sides, remained forever. Logically\nstated, this means that man's goal is the world; this world meaning earth\ncarried to a state higher and with elimination of its evils is the state\nthey call heaven. This theory, on the face of it, is absurd and puerile\nbecause it cannot be. There cannot be good without evil, or evil without\ngood. To live in a world where there is all good and no evil, is what\nSanskrit logicians call a 'dream in the air.'\"\n\nIt is not necessary to argue here that there is no such thing as positive\nevil.\n\nSt. Paul said: \"I know and am persuaded that nothing is unclean of itself;\nsave that to him who accounteth anything to be unclean, to him it is\nunclean.\"\n\nAnd again we are assured that \"there is nothing good or bad, but thinking\nmakes it so;\" which means that evil has no more foundation in reality than\nhas thought, and thought is ever-changing; transitory. Evil therefore may\nbe entirely eliminated by thought, since it is created by thought.\n\nThat there is a condition of mankind which has been alluded to as \"evil\" is\nself-evident. The term has been employed to describe a condition of either\nan individual, or a society, or a nation or a race, wherein there is in\nharmony; disease; unhappiness. Anything that makes for suffering on any\nplane of consciousness, may be termed \"evil\" as here used.\n\nLet us consider for a moment if it be illogical to imagine a world in which\nthis in harmony has been eliminated. Imagine a family in which all the\nmembers radiate love and unselfish consideration. Add to this, or we may\nsay complementary to this, we have perfect health and prosperity; and over\nand above all we have a conviction of immortality, eliminating doubt and\nfear and worry as to future sorrows or partings, with no knowledge that\nthere are others in the world suffering.\n\nDo we not find it quite possible, to say the least, and even desirable, to\nlive in such a family, particularly if we had previously acquired a\nknowledge of that which is evil and that which is good--merely terms used\nto describe limited, or enlarged consciousness.\n\nIf we admit the desirability of living in such a family, why not in such a\nworld? \"Logically stated,\" says the Hindu swami, \"this means that man's\ngoal is this world (earth planet); carried to a state higher and with the\nelimination of its evils, this world is the state (place) they call\nheaven.\"\n\nAgain we must question. Why not?\n\nThis planet we call earth, is a great and marvelous work, whether it be the\nwork of an abstract God, or whether it be the work of the god in Man.\n\nAnd whether this earth be the gift of an abstract God, or whether it be\nthe generating bed of the life now upon it, the fact remains that we have\nno business to despise the gift, or the work of self-generation. Our\nbusiness is to enhance its beauties and eliminate its ugliness. Why have we\nprayed that the will of God which is Love, \"be done on earth as it is in\nthe heavens,\" if we despise the planet and hope to leave it?\n\nAlthough the general impression given in all religious systems is that\nthe perfected soul leaves this earth, yet there is nothing in any of them\nto prove that it does so, or if it has hitherto, that it shall continue so\nto do. We have no right to assume that the outer life--the external,\nmanifested life which we perceive with our physical senses, is all there is\nto this earth and that when we leave this outer life, we go to some other\n_place_. The _invisible_ life on this planet is unquestionably far greater\nthan the _visible_ but both visible and invisible doubtless belong to the\nplanet earth.\n\nThe Absolute, presumably occupies all space, and therefore it may as\nreasonably be postulated that this state of Nirvana or Samadhi, may be\nentered within the area of this planet's vibrations, as in that of the\nother planets. The finite mind cannot conceive of a state of being apart\nfrom motion, space or time, even though these concepts are crude in their\nrelation to the state of consciousness to which the sum of all\nconsciousness is tending, whether the individual would, or not.\n\nWe speak of \"the heavens\" when we refer to the immeasurable, and little\nknown region of the solar system, and we use the same term when we refer to\na state of being in which the perfected soul of man will finally enter. And\nthis term implies that when we are thus in heaven, we are _with_ God, if\nnot _absorbed into_ God.\n\nJesus, the master, taught the coming of the kingdom of God _on earth_ and\nurged mankind to _pray_ for its coming, asking that the will of God\n(or gods) be done on earth as it is in the heavens, from which it is not\nillogical to infer that the earth itself, as a planet, is not outside the\npale of that blissful state which we ascribe to God, and which, at the same\ntime, we expect to enter without being swallowed up in the sense that we\nlose that consciousness which cognizes itself as an eternal verity.\n\nIf then, the \"heavens\" as applied to the planets revolving above the earth\nin the solar system, and \"Heaven\" as a term used to describe a state of\nhappiness, bliss, samadhi, nirvana, or \"life with God,\" be synonymous it\nmay reasonably be inferred that in the solar system are planets upon which\nlive sentient beings, in a state to which we on earth, are seeking to\nattain; a state wherein so-called evil has been eliminated and the good\nretained.\n\nIn fact, we may see with none too prophetic eyes the elimination of evil\nright here in the visible. All who have attained a glimpse of Illumination\nhave reported the loss of the \"sense of sin and death,\" and have retained\nthis feeling of security and \"all-is-well-ness\" as long as they have lived\nthereafter.\n\nFrom the old conception of \"evil\" as a positive, opposing and independent\nforce, modern thought, in all its branches, namely science; religion;\nsocial evolution, and philosophy, has arrived at the conclusion that evil\nis not a power or force in and of itself, but that it is evidence of a\nlimited degree of consciousness which sees only one side of a subject--only\na limited area of an infinitely wide and varied manifestation of the one\nsupreme consciousness. Therefore, it is, that evil per se, does not exist\nas power, but that it is the effect of a misapplication of power.\n\nThe cure then, for this state of Relativity, is found logically enough, in\nan extension of individual consciousness.\n\nThat this idea is logical may be deduced from the fact that as the mind\nexpands, through the various channels of learning; observation; contact\nwith each other, and by the many roads of Experience, altruism becomes more\ngeneral. Almost every one readily admits that the world is \"growing\nbetter,\" as they express it.\n\nThis means that the individual consciousness is becoming broadened,\ndeepened, enlarged; and this enlargement makes it possible to show that\nthe happiness of each one, means the happiness of all, and that no one\nhuman life can reach the goal of freedom and eternal life (_mukti_, which\ncan mean nothing less than godhood) unless he does so by some one of the\nmany paths of selflessness.\n\nUp through the perilous paths and the devious ways of brute consciousness\ntoward a more or less perfect perception of that blissful state which the\nIllumined have sought to describe, each individual has come to his present\nstate; and it is only by virtue of the ability to look back over the path,\nand to look onward a little into relative futurity, that each may record\nthe fact of his gain in consciousness, and what this gain means to the\nfuture of this earth.\n\nBut who is there who cannot see that each step in attainment of\nconsciousness brings with it a corresponding freedom from suffering?\n\nThe planet itself does not make us suffer. The latest discoveries of\nastronomers indicate that as the standard of morality (using the term\n\"morality\" in its true sense), becomes higher, the position of the earth\nitself becomes changed, in its relation to the solar system.\n\nIn this way, it is expected that a uniform temperature will prevail all\nover the earth's surface; and with the cessation of war, and of\ncompetition (which is mental warfare) cataclysms, storms, and earthquakes\nwill cease. When we come, as we will, in succeeding chapters of this book,\nto a review of the experiences of those who have attained cosmic\nconsciousness (mukti) we will find that, in each instance, there has come\na realization of the _nothingness_ of sin and consequent suffering.\n\nThe trouble then, is not with the earth as a planet, but with the lack of\nconsciousness of earth's inhabitants, which lack makes possible all the\nsuffering which afflicts human life.\n\nThose who have attained to the state of cosmic consciousness in both\nOccidental and Oriental instances of this perception, have reported an\nabiding sense of rest and peace and satisfaction--a condition which we\nassociate with accepted ideals of heaven as taught in Occidental creeds\nand among some schools of Oriental philosophers, and sects of religious\nworship.\n\nThere is a far greater unity of idea between the Oriental and the\nOccidental methods and systems, as to the _goal_ of ultimate attainment\nthan is generally believed, or understood.\n\nThe highest expression of Japanese Buddhism differs from Hindu Buddhism and\nfrom Vedanta, and the many other forms of Hindu philosophy and religion, in\nthe same way that the Japanese, as a nation, differ from their Hindu\nbrothers.\n\nThe Japanese emphasize, more than do the Hindus, the preservation of the\nnation, and to this end, they are called more \"practical\" minded, but with\nthe Japanese, as with all the Orientals, we find an intense contempt for\nany one who would seek to preserve his physical existence, or hesitate at\nany personal sacrifice.\n\nThis unwritten code has its origin, as have all Oriental traditions and\nconcepts, in the teachings of religious systems. According to Oriental\nethics, the person is very low in the scale of consciousness, when he\nconsiders his physical body as of comparative consequence, when the\nquestion of expediency, or of the welfare of his country, is in the\nbalance.\n\nNevertheless, Japan has offered, far more than has India, a fertile field\nfor the growth of materialism, owing to the fact that underlying the\napparent observance of and loyalty to, religious practices, the Japanese\ntemperament inclines to a practical application of the wisdom attained\nthrough religious instruction.\n\nTherefore we find among the Illumined Ones of Japanese history, sages who\ntaught the attainment of liberation through paths which are not generally\naccepted by interpreters of Hinduism.\n\nFor example, among the orthodox Sintoists, (the original religion of the\nJapanese, before the advent of Buddhism), we find that cleanliness of mind\nand body, was taught as the prime essential to attainment of unity with\n_Kami_, rather than contemplation, meditation and isolation, as with the\nHindus.\n\nAnd in the Christian world we have a corresponding admonition in the phrase\n\"cleanliness is next to godliness.\"\n\nSimple as this rule of conduct is, it nevertheless embodies the key to the\nsituation, inasmuch as we are assured that \"blessed are the pure in heart\nfor they shall see God.\"\n\nAgain Jesus told his hearers that they \"must become as little children,\"\nevidently meaning that they must possess the clean, pure, guileless mind\nof a little child, if they would reach the goal of liberation, from strife;\ndeath (repeated incarnation); and all so-called \"evil.\"\n\nTo this end man is striving, whether by rites and ceremonies of religion;\nby worship; by contemplation; by effort and struggle; by invention; by\naspiration; by sacrifice; or by whatever path, or device, or system.\n\nWhat, then is the goal, and how may it be attained?\n\nBefore taking up this question, let us go back a little over the history of\nhuman life and attainment, and trace, briefly, the evolution of\nconsciousness, from pre-historic man, to the highest examples of human\ndevotion and wisdom, of which, happily, the world affords not a few\ninstances.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nAREAS OF CONSCIOUSNESS\n\n\nConsciousness may be termed, simply, \"the divine spark,\" which enters into\nevery form and phase of manifested life emanating from that one Eternal\nPower which materialists designate as \"energy\" and which Occultists, both\nOriental and Occidental, best define as \"Aum,\" God! The Absolute--The\nDivine Mind, and many other terms.\n\nConsciousness, therefore, enters into everything--is the life essence of\neverything.\n\nThe materialistic hypothesis formerly predicated the axiom that there were\ntwo distinct phases of manifestation, namely organic and inorganic.\n\nOrganic life was sentient, or conscious, while inorganic life was\ninsensate--a structure acted upon from forces outside itself, and dependent\nupon an exterior force for its action.\n\nOther names for this differentiation, would be \"matter\" and \"spirit.\" The\npoint is, that the old materialistic philosophy failed to recognize the\nfact that consciousness, in varying degrees, characterizes all manifested\nlife.\n\nThis fact every phase of Oriental philosophy recognized, and always has\nrecognized. The assumption of the Christian Science devotee, that there is\nanything new in the postulate that \"all is spirit,\" is possible only\nbecause of his ignorance of Oriental philosophy, as will be seen later on\nin these pages, when we take up the relative comparison between the\nOriental and the Occidental systems of \"salvation.\"\n\nTo resume therefore, we postulate the following recognized axioms of\nUniversal Occultism.\n\nAll life is sentient or conscious.\n\nAll life is from the one source, and therefore contains this \"divine\nspark.\"\n\nAll manifestation expresses degrees or phases of consciousness.\n\nThe degree of this consciousness fixes the status of the organism, and\ndetermines its classification, whether it is organic or inorganic; simple,\nor complex.\n\nEvery cell, each separate cell, in fact, has its own consciousness--that is\neach cell is a center of this power that we term consciousness; a group of\ncells with this power focalized to a given point, or center, makes an organ\nof consciousness, and so on up the scale through many many degrees of\ncomplexity of organism, until we come to man.\n\nWebster defines consciousness as \"the ability to know ones mental\noperations.\" But, we do not take this definition in Occultism, for the\nobvious reason, that it is not possible to state arbitrarily whether or\nnot, the cell \"knows its operations,\" and since all operations are\nnecessarily mental in the final analysis, we assume that there is a phase\nof consciousness below that of cognition of \"self,\" which may be termed\n\"the unconscious consciousness,\" which again is synonymous with the phrase\n\"automatic cerebration.\"\n\nComing up through the various myriad degrees of sub-conscious life (sub\nbeing here used as below self consciousness) we arrive at the stage of\nsimple consciousness which characterizes the animal kingdom, remembering\nthat consciousness in the abstract is not a _condition_, or state of\nenvironment. It is one of the eternal verities. It _is_ just as Aum _is_.\n\nThe attainment of a wider and wider area of consciousness, is but the\n_uncovering_, or the attracting to a central point or to an individual\norganism of _this that is_. Thus consciousness, in the abstract, may say\nof itself \"before creation was, I am.\"\n\nThat is what is meant when it is said that God is omnipotent, and\nomniscient.\n\nThe difference between mere power, or energy, and consciousness, whether\nconsidered from the standpoint of the organic or the inorganic kingdom, may\nbe likened to the difference between a blind force, and a power that knows\nitself.\n\nConsciousness is practically the great central light that \"lighteth every\nman that cometh into the world.\" Without consciousness, manifestation would\nbe darkness. Thus it is said, \"the light shineth in darkness and the\ndarkness comprehendeth it not.\" This applies to that tiny spark of divinity\nin which consciousness exists but where there is not realization of its\ndivinity.\n\nThis fact is not applicable to the inorganic, or the animal kingdoms alone.\nMany men are not conscious of the light that shineth within them, save as\nthere is an aggregate of cell consciousness which recognizes its focalized\npower as an organism.\n\nManifestation then, is the vehicle (carrying character) of universal\nconsciousness, and we may logically assume that manifestation is due to\nthe necessity of developing individualized entities, who may, through\nsuccessive phases of conscious unfoldment, or uncovering of areas of\nBeing, become gods.\n\nThe western writers, and indeed, many Oriental seers prefer to put it thus:\n\"become fit to dwell with God, in eternal bliss and power.\"\n\nTo dwell with God, must be to become gods. Once more, we must remember that\nonly gods are immortal. Souls continue to exist after the physical body has\nbeen discarded, for the reason that no body in these days, lives as long as\nits psychic counterpart or dweller. But, although the soul continues to\nexist on another plane of note of the _scale of vibration_, it does not\nargue that the identity shall continue eternally, except in such instances,\nas when the soul through numbers of incarnations shall have finally\naccomplished the purpose of its pilgrimage and attained to _mukti_\n(liberation from the law of change and death).\n\nReturning to a consideration of what may be said to constitute certain\nspecific phases of consciousness, we will take into consideration the\nphase of consciousness, which we see expressed in the mineral kingdom.\nThat there is a distinct and separate character of consciousness thus\nexpressed is evident from the fact that there is a law of chemical\naffinity, i.e. attraction and repulsion, which causes different minerals\nto respond, or to refuse to respond, as the case may be, to certain\nconditions or chemical processes, more or less crude in character.\n\nFrom this to the vegetable kingdom we assume a step in advance, as\nvegetable life measured by complexity and refinement, responds with a\ngreater degree of sensitiveness to the laws of evolution, as expressed in\ncultivation, selection and environment.\n\nEven in this phase of manifestation, we find the law of Being, is measured\nby the perfection of species. Evolution of inorganic life, is as real, and\nas much a part of the plan, (or whatever name we choose), as is organic,\nand self-conscious life.\n\nThat which is less perfect, measured by the law of beauty and usefulness,\nwe find gradually being exterminated. That the earth, as a planet, is\nobeying this cosmic law of evolution from grossness to refinement; from\ncrudity to perfection; from the limited to the all-inclusive, is\nindisputable. As the motor power of electricity has become general, we find\nthat beasts of burden are fast disappearing from the earth, according to\nthe law of the \"survival of the fittest,\" this law, always being subject to\nchange. The \"fittest\" means that which is best fitted to the conditions of\nthe time.\n\nBrute force survives among brutes, in the degree that it is strong or weak;\ncoming out of that expression of law into the mental areas of\nconsciousness, we find that the _mentally_ fit survive among those who live\nonly in the areas of the mind; so on, into the spiritual, we will find the\n\"survival of the fittest\" will be those who are best fitted for spiritual\neternity--for godhood.\n\nComing again, to our consideration of the term consciousness, we will take\na brief survey of that phase of consciousness which we see manifested in\nthe forms of life that have the power to move from their immediate\nenvironment; such for instance would include the fish in the sea; insect\nlife; reptiles; the birds in the air; and all forms of animal life.\n\nWhile expressing a very limited degree of consciousness, yet there is\nevident a certain degree or aggregate of cell consciousness, which\ntranscends that of the mineral and vegetable life. This apparently\n_advanced_ degree of consciousness, does not, as we have stated, presuppose\na nearer approach to immortality, however, for the reason that we apply\nthe law of the survival of the fittest to all manifestation, and that\nwhich is best fitted for certain stages of the planet's life during the\nprocess of evolvement, may be most unfitted for succeeding stages, and\nwill, by the inexorable law of survival, be discontinued--discarded, even\nas the properties and stage-settings of a drama are thrown aside, when the\nplay has been \"taken off the boards.\"\n\nIt is admitted, therefore, that those forms of life having the power of\nlocomotion, involve a more complex degree of consciousness, than does that\nof the mineral or vegetable.\n\nIn that phase of life that we see possessing the power to move, to change\nits immediate environment, even though not capable of changing its\n_habitat_ we may perceive the beginning of that consciousness expressed as\n\"free-will.\" Here, we assume, the organism recognizes its self as distinct\nfrom its environment, and from its counterparts, etc., but this recognition\nhas not sufficient consciousness to _assert_ that recognition, and so we\nsay that there is no _self_-consciousness. There is what occultists have\nagreed to call simple consciousness, but this does not include a\nrealization of identity, as apart from environment. This may be better\nunderstood if we separate these degrees or phases of consciousness into\ngroups, applicable to the human organism, leaving, for a time the\nconsideration of whether or not some human specimens are higher in the\nscales than are some animals.\n\nPhysical, or sense consciousness, is shared alike by man and the animals.\n\nBeyond this phase of consciousness we may classify the human species in the\nfollowing terms:\n\nPhysical self-consciousness.\n\nMental self-consciousness.\n\nSoul (individual) \"I\" consciousness.\n\nSpiritual self-consciousness.\n\nPhysical self-consciousness is that phase of self-recognition which knows\nitself as a body distinct from its neighbors; from its natural environment.\nThis awareness of the self it is that actuated pre-historic man when he\nmanifested the blind force that is sometimes called \"self-preservation,\"\nwhich force has erroneously been termed \"the first law of nature.\"\n\nPreservation of this physical self is the most \"primitive\" law of nature,\nbut not \"first\" in the sense that it is the most important, or the\nstrongest.\n\nThe world's long list of heroes refutes this idea. The pre-historic species\nof human, then, in common with his brother, the animal, sought to preserve\nthis physical self, because he felt that this physical self, his body, was\nall there was of him, and he wished to preserve it, even as the _wise_ man\nof to-day, sacrifices everything to the preservation of the moral and\nspiritual Self which he realizes is the _real_ of him.\n\nTo this end, he cultivated physical force, sufficient to overcome his\nenvironment; and as he developed a little of that consciousness which we\nterm mental (using the term merely as a part of the physical organism\ncalled the brain), he realized that co-operation would greatly enhance his\nchances for self-preservation, and therefore, this mental consciousness\nimpelled him to annex to his forces other physical organisms so that their\nunited strength might preserve each other.\n\nThis side of the story of man's evolution in consciousness is not however a\npart of our present work, and we will therefore leave it, for a brief\nconsideration of the successive steps in attainment of consciousness,\nleading through devious paths, and through millions of relative time called\nyears, into the present state of man's consciousness which in so many\ninstances presages the oncoming of that state, called liberation, or\nillumination--mukti.\n\nThrough mental self-consciousness the way has been long and arduous. There\nare many, many degrees of this phase of consciousness, and to this phase we\nowe what is called our present civilization.\n\nThe true occultist, whether viewing manifestation from the standpoint of\nOriental or of Occidental ideals, realizes that everything is right which\nmakes for human betterment, and that _dharma_ (right-action) consists in\nacting in accordance with the highest motive of which one's consciousness\nis capable.\n\nThat our present civilization is most _uncivilized_ in many respects, will\nbe admitted by all whose range of consciousness has touched in any degree,\nthe infinite areas of wisdom expressed in altruistic action.\n\nBut, though the path be long, and thorny, the cycle is closing, and many\nhave reached the goal through its zigzag course.\n\nBut, underlying, as it were, and upholding and uplifting the expression of\nsense consciousness in which so many persons seem lost to-day, there are\nevidences of a consciousness which _observes the effects_, of this\ntremendous mental activity, and knows itself as something apart from, and\nsuperior to this manifestation.\n\nThis, we define as soul--individualized expression of the spiritual\nconsciousness--the central light, which as we previously quoted, \"lighteth\nevery man that cometh into the world.\"\n\nMany there are who merely _perceive_ this. To them there is a vague and\nindefinable _something_ which seems to realize that the operations of the\nmind are something phenomenal and apart from the _real_ Self. Psychology,\neven so empirical a psychology as is possible of demonstration in western\nschools and colleges, evidences the fact that there is a far greater field\nof mental operation than is covered by the outer, or _mental_\nconsciousness.\n\nThe outer, or objective action of the mind, considers but one subject, one\nquestion, one problem at a time. Many varied _phases_ of this problem may\npresent themselves, but the mental forces are focalized upon one subject at\na time. And yet to state that but one idea, thought-concept, or desire, can\nenter the mind at a time, is not a safe assumption.\n\nAfter many centuries of material strife, with the object of satisfying the\ndemands of human life, the conviction is forcing itself upon people in all\nwalks of life, that wealth, ambition, power and possessions, do not give us\nthe answer to the eternal unescapable and insistent question of the way to\nhappiness.\n\nThis means that there is awakening in the human race more generally than at\nany other time in recorded history, a realization that the human organism\nis not merely a physical aggregate of cells, nor yet that it is mind\nindividualized and in operation for the purpose of exercising new powers.\nThe fact is becoming apparent that all discovery is but an uncovering of\nthose vast areas of consciousness which are limitless; and which include\nnot only all life on this planet, but all life in the Cosmos. In short,\ncosmic consciousness is becoming _perceived_, by a vast majority, and is\nbeing _realized_ by not a few.\n\nBut in the immediate future of the race, we find the next step, for the\nmajority to be that of soul-consciousness.\n\nBack of thought, like a guardian angel stands the desire of the soul,\nstimulating and directing; back of action stands thought, as the master\ndirects the servant, or as the captain decides the course of the ship.\n\nSpiritual evolution may be understood, or at least _perceived_, from a\nstudy of physical and mental evolution. From the crude to the perfect is\nthe law; if this perfection of species, or of phases, could be attained\nwithout pain, it were well. Pain comes from lack of wisdom to realize that\nout of the lower the higher inevitably springs, as the butterfly springs\nfrom the cocoon; as the flower springs from the seed; \"as above so below\"\nis a translation of an old Sinto saying, which also bids us \"trust in Kami\nand keep clean.\"\n\nAgain it is said \"to him who overcometh, will I give the inheritance.\"\n_Overcoming_ may be variously interpreted. In the past, it has been\npresented to the initiate, as sacrifice. If so it be, then is it because of\nlack of that wisdom which knows that there is no sacrifice in exchanging\nthe physical for the spiritual--the ephemeral for the abiding.\n\nSays the ancient manuscripts:\n\n\"The body is purified by water, the mind by truth, the soul by knowledge\nand austerity, the reason by wisdom.\"\n\nBut as the groping, undeveloped soul struggles for consciousness, it\nreaches out for the gratification of mental desires. The soul is moved by\ndesire for perfect happiness. The mind seeks to satisfy this craving for\nhappiness in increased activities; in accumulation; in so-called pleasure,\ni.e. always looking outside--thinking outside, living in the outside--the\n_maya_. But the soul has but one answer to this quest for happiness. It is\nlove, because only love and wisdom give immortality--which is\nself-preservation in the true sense.\n\nIt is written in the Shruti: \"Brahman is wisdom and bliss.\"\n\nNo higher text can be given the disciple.\n\nWisdom comes from reflection upon the results of Experience, in the search\nfor happiness.\n\nWhen the mind has sounded the depths of its resources, and the urge forward\ncan not be appeased, when the voice of the inner self--the soul, cannot be\nsilenced; the disciple pauses to ask _the way_. He wants to know what it is\nall about, and why it is that all he has so striven and struggled for fails\nto satisfy. He wants to know how to avoid pain; and how to find the most\ndirect road to that satisfaction which endures; and which is not synonymous\nwith the so-called \"pleasures\" of the senses.\n\nWhen this stage of development has been reached, the disciple is ready for\nanother phase of Experience which shall extend his consciousness into\nthose areas of knowledge, in which the Real is distinguishable from the\nIllusory.\n\nExperience will then teach him that only Love is real.\n\nThat which is for the permanent good of all, as opposed to that which is\ntransitory and only seemingly satisfying to the few, may be said to\nconstitute the perception of the Real, and the avoidance of Illusion.\n\nTo exchange a present seeming advantage to the physical environment, for a\nfuture and permanent satisfaction of the soul is the prerogative of the\nwise--the soul that has discovered itself and its mission.\n\nIn all organisms below the scale of the human, there is a constant growth\nin complexity of organism, with specialization of functions.\n\nWhen we come to this last-mentioned stage of human development, we find\nthat there is no more specialization in the way of development of the\nphysical functions. Instead, there is a determined effort at perfecting\nthe higher functions, through the gradations of consciousness, until the\nspiritual consciousness of the individual entity has been awakened.\n\nThen, indeed, has been awakened the \"divine man\" and the path to\nimmortality is henceforth comparatively short, although by no means strewn\nwith roses, judged from the limited standard of Relativity.\n\nA man's karma simply and mathematically, proves the direction of his former\ndesires. Karma does not punish or reward, as is frequently imagined.\n\nThe general impression that one is reaping \"good or bad karma\" according as\nhis life is one of pleasure or of pain, is not the solution of the problem\nof karma, and has no relation to the law of karmic action.\n\nIf a soul has in a previous life outgrown or outworn that evolutionary\nphase of development, in which the mind seeks temporary pleasures, and has\ncome to the place where he wants to distinguish the Real from the Illusory,\nhis karma, in compliance with the law of desire, will bring him in relation\nto those conditions which will teach him to know the Real from the\nIllusory, and in those conditions he will experience pain because he will,\nif he remain in the activities of the world, be acting contrary to the\nideas of the _average_.\n\nThus, to the onlooker, and in accordance with the general misinterpretation\nof the law of karma, he will be thought to have reaped a \"bad\" karma, while\nas a matter of reality, he will be making very rapid strides on the path to\ngodhood. Said a famous Japanese high priest:\n\n\"Desire is the bird that carries the soul to the object in which his mind\nis immersed, and thus his future actions are the result.\"\n\nThis means that by the law of desire, acting in accordance with the\nevolutionary pilgrimage of the soul, the karma is produced. The American\npoet, Lowell, says: \"No man is born into the world whose work is not born\nwith him.\" However, whether or not this applies to man in the first stages\nof his upward climb to the goal of attainment of conscious godhood, it most\nassuredly applies to those souls who have become aware of their purpose,\nand who have made a _conscious_ choice of their karma. And of this class of\nsouls, the world to-day has a goodly number.\n\nThe end of a kalpa finds many avatars, and angels on earth, and however\nobscured the mind of these may become in the fog of Illusion, the inner\nlight guides them through its mists to the safe accomplishment of their\nmission.\n\nThere is a story of a Buddhist priest, who when dying, was comforted by his\nloving disciples with the reminder that he was at last entering upon a\nstate of bliss and rest. To which the earnest one replied:\n\n\"Never so long as there is misery to be assuaged, shall I enter Nirvana. I\nshall be reborn where the need is greatest. I shall wish to be reborn in\nthe nethermost depths of hell, because that is the place that most needs\nenlightenment; that is the place to point out the path to deliverance; that\nis the place where the light will shine most brightly.\"\n\nThus it will be seen we may not readily determine what is \"good\" and what\nis \"bad\" karma, by judging from external conditions.\n\nAs we are told that we may entertain \"angels unawares,\" so we may pass the\nworld's avatars upon the street, and judging from the external, the\nphysical environment, we may not know them from the vampire souls that\ncontact them.\n\nThe point of our present consideration is that this \"year of grace,\"\nmeaning not the mere twelve months of the calendar year, but the century,\nis the end of the present _kalpa_ (cycle), and demonstrates that period of\nevolution has terminated, and the era is at hand when spiritual alchemy\nshall transform the old into the new, and that the desire, which has so\nlong ministered to the wants of the physical body, shall be turned\n(converted) into the channels that lead to spiritual consciousness.\n\nThe undefined, instinctive urge that has actuated so many intrepid souls,\nis becoming recognized for what it is--the awakening of the inner Self; the\nblind groping in the dark will cease and there shall arise a race of human\nbeings liberated; free; aware of their spiritual origin and their inherent\ndivinity.\n\nAll who have conformed their life activities to the divine law of action,\nwhich may be tersely stated as \"Not mine, but thine, dear brother,\" will\nhave achieved the goal of the soul's purpose--will have found Nirvana.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nSELF-NESS AND SELFLESSNESS\n\n\nDuring what is historically known as the Dark Ages, the esoteric meaning of\nreligious practices became obscured. This is true no less, and no more, of\nOriental countries, than of European. The long night through which the\nearth passed during that time and since, but foreshadowed a coming dawn. In\nthe still very imperfect light of the dawning day, truth is seen but dimly,\nand its rays appear distorted, whereas, when seen with the \"pure and\nspotless eye\" they are straight and clear and simple.\n\nIndeed, the very simplicity of Truth causes her to pass unnoticed.\n\nWhile to the superficial observer; the student who is mentally eager but\nwho lacks the wonderful penetrating power of spiritual insight, there seems\nto be a great complexity in Oriental philosophy, the fact is, that the\nentire aggregation of systems is simple enough when we have the key.\n\nOne of the stumbling blocks; the inexplicable enigma to many Occidental\nstudents, is the problem of the preservation, of the Self, and the constant\nadmonition to become selfless. The two appear paradoxical.\n\nHow may the Self acquire consciousness and yet become selfless?\n\nThroughout the Oriental teachings, no matter which of the many systems we\nstudy, we find the oft-repeated declaration that liberation can never be\naccomplished and Nirvana reached, by him \"who holds to the idea of self.\"\n\nIt is this universally recognized aphorism which has given rise to the\nerroneous conception of Nirvana as absorption of all identity.\n\nHakuin Daisi, the St. Paul of Japanese Buddhism, cautioned his disciples\nthat they must \"absorb the self into the whole, the cosmos, if they would\nnever die,\" and Jesus assured his hearers that \"he who loses his life for\nmy sake shall find it.\"\n\nChristians have taken this simple statement to mean that he who endured\npersecution and death because of his espousal of Christianity, would be\nrewarded in the way that a king bestows lands and titles, for defense of\nhis person and throne.\n\nThis is the limited viewpoint of the personal self; it is far from being\nconsistent with the wisdom of the Illumined Master.\n\nHe who has sufficient spiritual consciousness to desire the welfare of\n_all_, even though his own life and his own possessions were the price\ntherefore, can not lose his life. Such a one is fit for immortality and\nhis godhood is claimed by the very act of renunciation--not as a reward\nbestowed for such renunciation.\n\nBy the very act of willingness to lose the self we find the Self. Not the\nself of externality. Not the self that says \"I am a white man; or a black\nman; or a yellow man; or a red man.\" That says \"I am John Smith\"--or any\nother name. The awareness of this kind of selfhood, this personal self, is\nlike looking at one's reflection in the mirror and saying, \"Ah, I have on a\nbecoming attire,\" or \"my face looks sickly to-day.\" It is the same \"I\" that\nlooked yesterday and found the face looking excellently well, so that there\nmust have been consciousness behind the observation, that could take\ncognizance of the difference in appearance of yesterday's reflection and\nthat which met that cognizing eye to-day.\n\nEagerness to retain consciousness of the personal self blocks the way of\nIllumination which uncovers the real, the greater, the higher Self--the\n_atman_.\n\nThis constant adjuration to sink the self into The Absolute, is what has\ngiven rise to so much difference of interpretation as to the meaning of\n_mukti_, liberation. It sounds paradoxical to state that it is only by\ngiving up all consciousness of self, that immortal Self-hood is gained.\n\nThus has arisen all the confusion as to the meaning of \"absorption into a\nstate of bliss.\" How may the Self realize a state of selflessness and yet\nnot be lost in a sea of _un_ consciousness?\n\nOnly one who is capable of self-sacrifice were he called upon, can\ncorrectly answer this question, and by what may be termed the very _law of\nequation_, the sacrifice becomes impossible.\n\nShould any one seek to bargain with himself to pay the price of loss of\nself, so that he might gain the higher, fuller life, his sacrifice would be\nin vain because it would not be selflessness, but selfishness--there could\nbe no _sacrifice_, were it a bargain.\n\nLet no one think that this unchanging law of the Cosmos is in the nature of\neither reward or punishment, or that it was devised by the gods, as a\nmethod of initiation--a test of fitness for Nirvana. Even though the test\nbe applied by the gods, it is not of their planning.\n\nIt _is_, just as the absolute _is_, and analysis of the way and wherefrom\nis not possible of contemplation.\n\nIf it sometimes appears that Illumined Ones have seemed to infer a loss of\nidentity of the Self, it should be remembered that not only have these\nreported instances of liberation (cosmic consciousness attained), been\nvague, but they have necessarily suffered from the impossibility of\ndescribing that which is indescribable. We should also remember that\ntranslators employ the words in the English language which most nearly\nexpress their interpretation of the original meaning.\n\nWords are at best but clumsy symbols.\n\nPerfect bliss is voiceless--inexpressible.\n\nThis does not, however, mean that perfect bliss is nothingness. Rather is\nit _everything-ness_, in that it is all-embracing in its realization. In\ncomplete realization of the Cosmos nothing is excluded. Exclusiveness is a\nconcomitant of the state of consciousness pertinent to the personal self,\nwhich state is not excluded from the consciousness described as cosmic,\n_nirvana_ or _mukti_, but on the contrary, is included in it, even as the\nsimple vibrations of the musical scale are included in the great harmonies\nof Wagner's compositions.\n\n\"He who has realized Brahman becomes silent,\" says Ramakrishna.\n\"Discussions and argumentations exist so long as the realization of The\nAbsolute does not come. If you melt butter in a pan over a fire, how long\ndoes it make a noise? So long as there is water in it. When the water is\nevaporated it ceases to make further noise. The soul of the seeker after\nBrahman may be compared to fresh butter. Discussions and argumentations of\na seeker are like the noise caused during the process of purification by\nthe fire of knowledge. As the water of egotism and worldliness is\nevaporated and the soul becomes purer, all noise of debates and discussions\nceases and absolute silence reigns in the state of _samadhi_.\"\n\nA better translation of the word \"noise\" would be \"sputtering.\"\n\nSound is not necessarily _noise_. The idea conveyed is not intended to be a\ncondition in which the soul becomes an\u00e6sthetized as it were, but a state of\n_knowing_, and the effort and the sputtering of _questioning_ and\n_searching_ is passed.\n\nThe same gospel better expresses the meaning thus:\n\n\"The bee buzzes so long as it is outside the lotus, and does not settle\ndown in its heart to drink of the honey. As soon as it tastes of the honey\nall buzzing is at an end. Similarly all noise of discussion ceases when the\nsoul of the neophyte begins to drink the nectar of Divine Love, at the\nlotus feet of the Blissful One.\"\n\nWho will not say that the bee is more satisfied when he has found and drank\nof the honey than when he is buzzingly seeking it?\n\nSurely it is not necessary to be of one mind, in order that we may be of\none heart. Even though we were as \"like as two peas in a pod,\" it is well\nto note that the two peas are _two_ spheres--nature has made them separate\nand distinct despite their close resemblance.\n\nTo unite with the absolute should correspond to this unity of all hearts in\nthe desire for a common effort to establish harmony, while we permit to\neach individual the freedom of mind; of taste; of choice of pursuits; of\nchoice of pleasure; of discrimination; and preservation of identity.\n\nOur contention is that _mukti_, or liberation (which we believe to be\nidentical with attainment of cosmic consciousness) does not mean an\nabsorption into the Universal, the Absolute, Brahm, to the extent of\nannihilation of identity. And we claim that this view finds corroboration\nin the best interpretation of Oriental philosophies and religions, as well\nas in the Christian doctrine.\n\nSays Nagasena, the Buddhist sage:\n\n\"He who is not free from passion experiences both the taste of food, and\nalso the passion due to that taste; while he who is free from passion\nexperiences the taste of food but no passion.\"\n\nHence we discover that the state of Illumination, _samadhi_, or _mukti_,\naccording to the most enlightened and logical interpretation, means a calm\nand peaceful consciousness, undisturbed by passion. But we should not\ninterpret the word \"passion\" as here used, to mean absence of all\nsensation, feeling or knowledge.\n\nThere is absolutely no arbitrary interpretation or translation of the words\nof Buddha, nor can there be. The same is true of Confucius; of Mohammed; of\nKrishna; of Laotze; of Jesus; of all the teachers and philosophers of the\nworld.\n\nWho of you who read these words has not listened to debates and endless\ndiscussions as to what even so modern a writer as Emerson or Whitman, or\nNietzche or Kobo Daisi, or some other, may have meant by certain\nstatements?\n\nIn the Samyutta Nikaya we read:\n\n\"Let a man who holds the Self clear, keep that Self free from wickedness.\"\n\nThis does not imply annihilation of identity, _absorption_ of\nconsciousness, although it has been so interpreted by many students. On the\ncontrary, instead of losing consciousness of the Self (which is not merely\nthe personality), we _find_ the Real Self.\n\nAs an adult we realize more consciousness than we do as infants. Not that\nwe possess more consciousness. We cannot acquire consciousness as we\naccumulate _things_. We can not add one iota to the sum of consciousness,\nbut we can and do uncover portion upon portion of the vast area of\nconsciousness which _is_.\n\nSays the Dhammapada:\n\n\"As kinsmen, friends and lovers salute a man who has been long away and\nreturns safe from afar; in like manner his good deeds receive him who has\ndone good, and who has gone from this world to the other, as kinsmen\nreceive a friend on his return.\"\n\nIf this state of _mukti_ were annihilation of individual consciousness it\nwould hardly be an incentive to do good deeds, except that good deeds in\nthemselves bring happiness, but if the bringing of happiness did not also\nbring with it a larger consciousness, it would not be true happiness, but\nmerely a _condition_, and conditions are always subject to change.\n\n\"It is not separateness you should hope and long for; it is _union_--the\nsense of oneness with all that is, that has ever been and that can ever\nbe--the sense that shall _enlarge the horizon of your being_, to the limits\nof the universe; to the boundaries of time and space; that shall lift you\nup into a new plane far beyond, outside all mean and miserable care for\nself. Why stand shrinking there? Give up the fool's paradise of 'This is\nI'; 'This is mine.' It is the great reality you are asked to grasp. Leap\nforward without fear. You shall find yourself in the ambrosial waters of\nNirvana and sport with the Arhats who have conquered birth and death.\"\n\nThis admonition to give up the struggle and strife for separateness is\ninterpreted by many to declare for annihilation of consciousness of\nidentity, but we contend that _union_ is in no wise akin to annihilation,\nand since this assurance of union is further described as an enlargement of\nthe horizon of _your being_, it is evident that your being can not be\nenlarged by becoming annihilated, or even _absorbed into_ The Absolute, as\nin that event it would cease to be _your being_. Moreover, you are told\nthat you will \"sport with the Arhats who have conquered birth and death.\"\nArhats are alluded to in the plural, and not as One Being.\n\nTo be sure there may be a final state of absorption of consciousness far\nbeyond this state of being which is described as Nirvana.\n\nTheosophy lays much stress upon the assumption that the attainment of\ngodhood is possible to every human soul, but that this godhood must\ninevitably have an ultimate conclusion. That is, there is a _place_ or\nheaven, which is called the Devachanic plane, and this plane, or place,\nis inhabited by \"gods,\" for a definite period, approximating thousands of\nyears, but that the final conclusion must be, absorption of identity into\nthe universal reservoir of mind, or consciousness. But we may readily see\nthat beyond the Devachanic plane, we may not penetrate with the limited\nconsciousness which takes cognizance of external conditions. Any attempt,\ntherefore, at a description of what occurs to the individual consciousness\nbeyond the areas of Devachan, must be futile.\n\nThe argument that most logically postulates the assumption that all\nidentity, or differentiation of consciousness, becomes absorbed into The\nAbsolute, is based upon the fact that we remember nothing of previous\nstates of consciousness. That is, the devious pathway by which the\nadvanced and progressive individual has reached his present state or\nrealization of consciousness, is shrouded in oblivion. From this it is\nnot unnatural to assume that since we have come OUT OF THE VOID, having\napparently no memory or realization of what preceded this coming, we will\nreturn to the same state, when we shall have completed the round of\nevolution.\n\nThis postulate, is, however, merely the result of our limited power of\ncomprehension, and may or may not be true. The answer is as yet\ninexplicable to the finite mind, considered from the standpoint of relative\nproof.\n\nIf it were a fact, that all Oriental sages experiencing the phenomenon of\nliberation, _mukti_, had reported what would seem to be annihilation of\nidentity of consciousness, we still maintain that this fact would not be\nproof sufficient upon which to postulate this conclusion, for the very\nobvious reason that the present era promises what Occidental theology,\nscience, and philosophy unite in designating as a \"new dispensation,\"\nwherein the \"old shall pass away,\" and a \"new order\" shall be established.\n\n\"Look how the fine and valuable gold-dust shifts through the screen,\nleaving only the useless stones and debris in the catches; even so that\nwhich is infinitely fine substance becomes lost when sifted through the\nscreen of the limited mind of man,\" said a wise Japanese high priest.\n\nHowever, it is our contention that Buddhism, far indeed from postulating\nthe assumption that individual consciousness is swallowed up in The\nAbsolute, as is frequently understood by Occidental translators of\nBuddhistic writings, announces a calm and unquestioning conviction in the\npower of man to attain to immortality, and consequent godhood, through\ncontemplation of faith in his own identity with the _Supreme One_.\n\nWhen we consider that there are in the religion of Buddhism, as many as\nsixty different expositions of the teachings of the Lord Buddha, and that\nthese vary, even as the Christian sects vary in their interpretations and\npresentments of the instructions of the Master, Jesus of Nazareth, we begin\nto have some idea of the difficulties of correct interpretation of the\nobscure and mystical language in which _mukti_ is ever described.\n\nOne of the most quoted of the translations of the Life of Buddha, reaches\nthe English readers through devious ways, namely, from the Sanskrit into\nChinese, and from the Chinese into English, and again edited by an English\nscientist who is also an Oriental scholar.\n\nWe must also consider the poverty of the English language when used to\ndescribe supra-conscious experiences, or what modern thought terms\nMetaphysics. Only within very recent times, approximating twenty-five\nyears, there have been coined innumerable words in the English language.\n\nThe advances made in mechanical, scientific, ethical and philosophical\nthought, have made this a necessity, while, when it comes to an attempt at\nclarifying the meaning of mystical terms, a very wide range of\ninterpretation is imperative.\n\nBuddha, addressing his servant, says:\n\n\"Kandaka, take this gem and going back to where my father is, lay it\nreverently before him, to signify my heart's relation to him.\"\n\nIt is related that the gem mentioned was a beryl, which in the language of\ngems signifies purity and peace. It must be remembered that all Oriental\nlanguages give power to gems, perfumes and talismanic symbols. This fact\nmakes direct translation of Oriental writings a difficult task for the\nOccidental scholar, who, until recently at least, gave no power to\nso-called \"inanimate\" things.\n\n\"And then for me request the king to stifle every fickle feeling of\naffection, and say that I, to escape from birth and age and death, have\nentered the forest of painful discipline.\n\n\"Not that I may get a heavenly birth, much less because I have no\ntenderness of heart, or that I cherish any cause of bitterness, but Only\nthat I may escape this weight of sorrow; the accumulated long-night weight\nof covetous desire. I now desire to ease the load, so that it may be\noverthrown forever; therefore I seek the way of ultimate escape.\n\n\"If I should gain the way of emancipation, then shall I never need to put\naway my kindred, to leave my home, to sever ties of love. O grieve not for\nyour son. The five desires of sense beget the sorrow; those held by lust\nthemselves induce sorrow; my very ancestors, victorious kings, have handed\ndown to me their kingly wealth; I, thinking only on eternal bliss, put it\nall away.\"\n\nThe meaning here conveyed is simple enough to understand. From a long line\nof ancestors who had ruled with the unquestioned authority of Oriental\nmonarchs, the young prince felt that he had inherited much that would\nretard his soul's freedom. The examples of kings and emperors who have\nabandoned their possessions have been too few to cause us to believe that\nthey have held these possessions as naught.\n\nThrough rivers of blood; through ages of despotism, and self-seeking, kings\nand emperors have maintained their vested rights bequeathing to their\nprogeny the same desires; the same covetousness of worldly power; the same\nconsideration for the lesser self; the same hypnotism that takes account of\ncaste.\n\nTo escape from these fetters of the soul, into a realization of the Eternal\nOneness of life, was no easy task for the inheritor of such desires and\nbeliefs and appetites as an ancestry of rulers imposes.\n\nAnd Prince Siddhartha was anxious to escape reincarnation--a theory or\nconviction inseparable from Oriental religion.\n\nHis reference to \"fickle affection\" means literally that selfish affection\nof the parent, which would retain the fleeting joy of a few short earthly\nyears of companionship, while the larger and more perfect love would bid\nthe child seek its birthright of godhood. The word \"fickle\" here would more\nproperly be translated transitory.\n\nBuddha's desire to escape from a continuous round of deaths and\n\"leave-takings from kindred,\" does not necessarily imply an absorption into\nThe Absolute; it may as logically be interpreted to mean, that liberation\nfrom the hypnotisms of externality _(mukti)_ insures the possession and\npower of the gods--power over physical life and death, and this power need\nnot mean a cessation from individual consciousness, but rather, a full\nrealization of individual _unity_ with the sum of all consciousness.\n\nThere is another mistaken interpretation of the means of attainment of that\nstate of liberation, which has been alluded to in so many varied terms. The\nfact that Buddha, like many of the Oriental Masters, sought the seclusion\nof the forest; the isolation, and simplicity of the hermit,--has given rise\nto the belief, almost universally held among Oriental disciples, that\nliberation from _maya_, the delusions of the world, can not be attained\nsave by these methods.\n\nMonasteries are the result of this idea, and this Buddhistic practice was\nadopted by the first Christian church, since which time the real purpose\nand intention of the monastery and the nunnery have become lost in the\nconcept of sacrifice or punishment. The Christian monk almost invariably\nretires to a monastery, not for the purpose of consciously attaining to\nthat enlarged area of consciousness which insures liberation, _mukti_, but\nas an \"outward and visible sign\" that he is willing to undergo the\nsacrifice of worldly pleasures at the behest of the Lord Jesus. Thus, the\nreal object of retirement is lost, and the sacrifice again becomes in the\nnature of a \"bargain.\"\n\nIn the Bhagavad-Gita, we find these words:\n\n\"Renunciation and yoga by action both lead to the highest bliss; of the\ntwo, yoga by action is verily better than renunciation of action. He who is\nharmonized by yoga, the self-purified, self-ruled, the senses subdued,\nwhose self is the self of all beings, although _acting_, yet is such an one\nnot _affected_.\n\n\"He who acteth, placing all action in the _eternal_, abandoning attachment,\nis unaffected by sin as a lotus leaf by the waters.\"\n\nThis is interpreted according to the viewpoint of the translator, even as,\namong an audience of ten thousand persons, we may find almost as many\ninterpretations, and shades of meaning of a musical composition.\n\nTrue, the Oriental meaning _seems_ to be the one that we shall cease to\nlove friends, relatives, and lovers, abandoning them as one would abandon\nthe furniture of one's household when outworn, and no longer of service.\n\nWe do not accept this interpretation.\n\nTo abandon one's friends, one's loved ones, yea, even one's would-be\nenemies is equivalent to leaving one's companions on a sinking raft and,\nwithout sentiment or remorse, save one's physical self from destruction.\n\nNo higher sentiment is known to struggling humanity than love of each\nother. \"Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for a\nfriend.\"\n\nOriental or Occidental philosophy, whichever may be presented to the mind,\nas an unfailing guide, should be distrusted, if that philosophy prescribes\nthe abandonment of lover, friend, relative, neighbor, brother, companion.\nThat is, if we accept the dictionary meaning of the word \"abandoned\" as\ntranslated into English.\n\nA western avatar has said:\n\n\"I will not have what my brother can not,\" and in this we heartily concur,\nnot hesitating to say that until all human life shall accept and realize\nthe fullness of this message, we shall not, as a race, have attained to the\ninheritance that is ours.\n\nBut shall we then believe, that the Oriental doctrine is erroneous? Not\nnecessarily.\n\nErrors of interpretation are not only natural but inevitable, and this\ninterpretation of abandonment is in line with the idea of sacrifice (using\nthe word in its old sense of paying a debt), which prevailed throughout all\nthe centuries just passed--centuries in which the idea of God was estimated\nby the conduct of the kings and monarchs of earth.\n\nA later revelation or dispensation has given what the Illumined One said\nwas a \"new commandment,\" and it is one more in accord with our ideals of\ngodhood.\n\n\"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye _love_ one another.\"\n\nBut love, like everything which _is_, means much or little, according as\nthe soul is advanced in knowledge, or is undeveloped.\n\nPerfect and complete love is not selfish; it desires not possession, but\nunion. There is a world of difference between the two words.\n\n\"The soul enchained is man, and free from chain is God,\" said Sri\nRamakrishna.\n\nAnd the soul is enchained by illusion--by mistaking the effect for the\ncause, and by regarding the effect as the real, instead of realizing the\nincompleteness; the limitedness; the unsatisfying character of the\nchanging--the external.\n\nNot that the pursuit of the external is sinful, but it is unsatisfying,\nwhile the soul that has caught a glimpse of that wonderful ecstasy of\nIllumination, has found that which satisfies.\n\nUpon this point of attainment of complete satisfaction, and certainty, all\nwho have experienced the consciousness we are considering seem to agree,\naccording to the testimony here submitted.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nINSTANCES OF ILLUMINATION AND ITS EFFECTS\n\n\nThe term Illumination seems a fitting description of the state of\nconsciousness which is frequently alluded to as cosmic consciousness.\nWithout the light of understanding, which is a spiritual quality, words\nthemselves are meaningless. When the mind becomes Illumined the spirit of\nthe word is clear and where before the meaning was clouded, or perhaps\naltogether obscured, there comes to the Illumined One a depth of\ncomprehension undreamed of by the merely sense-conscious person.\n\nIf we consider the recorded instances of Illumination found among\nOccidentals, we will find that such extreme intensity of effort as that\nwhich is reported of Sri Ramakrishna, and other Oriental sages, does not\nappear.\n\nIt would seem that the late Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke of Toronto, Canada,\nwas the first in this country to present a specific classification of what\nhe termed the \"new\" consciousness, and to describe in some detail, he\nexperience of himself and others, notably Walt Whitman.\n\nDr. Bucke's first public exposition of these experiences was made at a\ncongress of the British Medical Association in Montreal, Canada, in\nSeptember of the year 1897. Dr. Bucke described this state of\nconsciousness--a subject that seemed to him at that time to be a new\none--in the following words:\n\n\"But of infinitely more importance than telepathy, and so-called\nspiritualism--no matter what explanation we give of these, or what their\nfuture is destined to be--is the final act here touched upon. This is, that\nsuperimposed upon self-consciousness as is that faculty upon simple\nconsciousness, a third and higher form of consciousness is at present\nmaking its appearance in our race. This higher form of consciousness, when\nit appears, occurs as it must, at the full maturity of the individual, at\nor about the age of thirty-five, but almost always between the ages of\nthirty and forty. There have been occasional cases of it for the last two\nthousand years, and it is becoming more and more common. In fact, in all\nappearances, as far as observed, it obeys the laws to which every nascent\nfaculty is subject. Many more or less perfect examples of this new faculty\nexist in the world to-day, and it has been my privilege to know personally\nand to have had the opportunity of studying, several men and women who have\npossessed it. In the course of a few more milleniums there should be born\nfrom the present human race, a higher type of man, possessing this higher\ntype of consciousness. This new race, as it may well be called, would\noccupy toward us, a position such as that occupied by us toward the simple\nconscious 'alulus homo.' The advent of this higher, better and happier\nrace, would simply justify the long agony of its birth through countless\nages of our past. And it is the first article of my belief, some of the\ngrounds for which I have endeavored to lay before you, that a new race is\nin course of evolution.\"\n\nAt a subsequent date, having given the subject further consideration and\nhaving collected data corroborative of his former observations, Dr. Bucke\nsaid:\n\n\"I have, in the last three years, collected twenty-three cases of this\nso-called cosmic consciousness. In each case the onset or incoming of the\nnew faculty is always sudden, instantaneous. Among the unusual feelings the\nmind experiences, is a sudden sense of being immersed in flame or in a\nbrilliant light. This occurs entirely without worrying or outward cause,\nand may happen at noonday or in the middle of the night, and the person at\nfirst feels that he is becoming insane.\n\n\"Along with these feelings comes a sense of immortality; not merely a\nfeeling of certainty that there is a future life,--that would be a small\nmatter--but a pronounced _consciousness_ that the life now being lived is\neternal, death being seen as a trivial incident which does not affect its\ncontinuity.\n\n\"Further, there is annihilation of the sense of sin, and an intellectual\ncompetency, not simply surpassing the old plane, but on an entirely new and\nhigher plane. * * * The cosmic conscious race will not be the race that\nexists to-day, any more than the present is the same race that existed\nprior to the evolution of self-consciousness. A new race is being born from\nus, and this new race will in the near future, possess the earth.\"\n\nDr. Bucke later published an article in a current magazine, illustrating\nthe illumination of his friend Walt Whitman, and supplemented with an\naccount of his own experience. We quote briefly from Dr. Bucke's account of\nhis own experience:\n\n\"I had spent the evening in a great city with some friends reading and\ndiscussing poetry and philosophy. We had occupied ourselves with\nWordsworth, Shelley, Browning, and especially Whitman. We parted at\nmidnight. I had a long drive in a hansom to my lodgings. My mind, deeply\nunder the influence of the ideas, images and emotions called up by the\nreading and talk, was calm and peaceful. I was in a state of quiet, almost\npassive enjoyment, not actually thinking, but letting ideas, images and\nemotions flow of themselves, as it were, through my mind. All at once,\nwithout warning of any kind, I found myself wrapped in a flame-colored\ncloud. For an instant I thought of fire, an immense conflagration somewhere\nclose by in that great city. The next moment I knew that the fire was\nwithin myself.\"\n\nWhile Dr. Bucke is unquestionably right in his estimate of the fact that \"a\nnew race is being born,\" as he expresses it, there can scarcely be any\nquestion of individual age, in which the new consciousness may be expected.\nPhysical maturity can have nothing whatever to do with the matter, since\nthe acquisition of supra-consciousness is a matter of the maturity of the\nsoul. This completement of the cycle of the soul's pilgrimage and service,\nmay come at any age, as far as the physical body is concerned. Indeed,\nscience records no definite age at which even physical maturity is\ninvariably reached, although there is an approximate age.\n\nA case recently widely commented upon was that of a child of six years who\nshowed every symptom of senility or old age, which could hardly be possible\nwithout having passed what we call \"maturity.\"\n\nAgain, we find that some persons retain every indication of youth, both of\nmind and body, long after their contemporaries have reached and passed\nmiddle age. It is coming more and more to be admitted that age is relative,\nand that what we know as the relative is the effect of mental operations.\nMental operations are subject to change--to enlargement.\n\nThe advent of cosmic consciousness is, therefore, not subject to what we\nknow as time, as applied to physical development.\n\nNor should we speak of cosmic consciousness as an acquisition, but rather\nas a _realization_, since the consciousness _is_, at all times. It always\nhas been, it will always be. Our relation to it changes, as we develop from\nthe sense conscious to the self-conscious state and finally to what we term\nthe \"cosmic\" conscious state. This latter must of necessity have been as\nyet only imperfectly realized, even by those of the Illuminati, who are\nknown to the world as avatars and saviours.\n\nSeveral instances of the possession of cosmic consciousness by children,\nare personally known to the writer. A well-known woman writer in America\nthus describes a succession of experiences in what were evidently\nconditions of cosmic consciousness, although as she said, she did not\nuntil many years later realize what had taken place.\n\nLike Lord Alfred Tennyson, who tells of inducing in himself a state of\nspiritual ecstasy or liberation, by repeatedly intoning his own name, this\nlady acquired the habit of repeating in wonder and awe the name by which\nshe was called in the household, which was an abbreviation of her baptismal\nname. The effect is best described in her own words:\n\n\"It seems to me that I never could quite become accustomed to hear myself\naddressed by name. When some member of the household would call me from\nstudy or play--even at the early age of five or six years--I would\ninstantly be seized with a feeling of great and almost overwhelming awe and\namazement, at the sound, which I knew was in some way associated with me.\n\n\"I found it extremely difficult to identity myself with that name, and\noften when alone would repeat the name over and over, trying to find a\nsolution of the 'why and wherefore.'\n\n\"At length this wonderment grew upon me to such an extent that I felt I\nmust see this self of me that was called by a name.\n\n\"I acquired the habit of standing on a chair to gaze into the mirror above\nthe chest of drawers in my mother's bed-room, and putting my face close to\nthe mirror, I would gaze and gaze into the eyes I saw there, and repeat\nover and over the name which seemed to me not to belong to that 'other\nself' hidden behind those eyes. On one occasion I became quite entranced\nand fell from the chair, after which I refrained from looking into the\nmirror, although I did not for many years get over the feeling of\nwonderment at the sound of my own name, and many times, on repeating the\nname aloud, I would feel myself being lifted up into what seemed to me the\nclouds above my head, until I felt myself being 'melted,' as I termed it,\ninto the moving cloud of soft transparent light.\n\n\"At this time I was between seven and eight years of age, and although I\nwas far beyond children of my age, in my school studies, I was frequently\nadmonished for being 'stupid,' owing to the fact that I could not remember\nthe names of objects, nor could I be trusted on an errand.\n\n\"While walking from our house to the grocer's, scarcely a block away, I\nwould feel that sudden wonderment and awe of my name steal over me, and\nagain I would be transported to some unknown, yet immanent region, utterly\nlosing consciousness of my surroundings. I would sometimes awake to find\nmyself standing before the counter of the grocery store, struggling to\nremember who and where I was, and what it was that I had been sent to that\nstrange place for.\"\n\nThis lady relates that she never dared to tell of her strange experiences,\nalthough she did not \"outgrow\" them until early womanhood, when she dropped\nthe abbreviation of her name, and assumed her full baptismal name. Whether\nthis latter fact had anything to do with the cessation of the experience is\ndoubtful. At the same time, she declares that she can even now induce the\nsame sensations, and transport herself into childhood again by repeating\nher childhood name.\n\nThe following extract from a paper published in London, England, in 1890,\ngives a description of an experience of a young man who had fallen into a\ncondition which the physicians pronounced \"catalepsy.\" This young man was\nat the time a medical student, and had always exhibited a tendency to\nentrancement, or catalepsy. On recovering from one of these cataleptic\nattacks, and being asked to give a description of his sensations or\nexperiences, the young man said:\n\n\"I felt a kind of soothing slumber stealing over me. I became aware that I\nwas floating in a vast ocean of light and joy. I was here, there, and\neverywhere. I was everybody and everybody was I. I knew I was I, and yet I\nknew that I was much more than myself. Indeed, it seemed to me that there\nwas no division. That all the universe was in me and I in it, and yet\nnothing was lost or swallowed up. Everything was alive with a joy that\nwould never diminish.\"\n\nSuch, in substance, was the attempt of this young man to describe what all\nwho have experienced cosmic consciousness unite in saying is indescribable,\nfor the very obvious reason that there are no words in which to express\nwhat is wordless, and inexpressible. This authentic account of a young man\nunder twenty years of age, however, serves to prove that there is no\nspecial age of physical maturity in which the attainment of this state of\nconsciousness may be expected.\n\nThis account was published seven years previous to Dr. Bucke's statement,\nand yet, since it is not quoted in Dr. Bucke's account, it is most unlikely\nthat he had seen the article. Certainly the young man had never heard of\nthe experience which Dr. Bucke later records, as \"cosmic consciousness,\"\nand yet the similarity of the experience, with the many which have been\nrecorded is almost startling.\n\nThe salient point in this account, as in most of the others which have\nfound their way into public print, is the feeling of being in perfect\nharmony and union with everything in the universe. \"I was everything and\neverything was I,\" said this young man, and again \"I was here, there and\neverywhere at once,\" he says in an effort to describe something which in\nthe very nature of it, must be indescribable in terms of sense\nconsciousness.\n\nIllustrative of the connection between religious ecstasy and cosmic\nconsciousness, we find the experience of an illiterate negro woman, a\ncelebrated religious and anti-slavery worker of the early part of the last\ncentury.\n\nThis woman was known as \"Sojourner Truth\" and was at least forty years of\nage in 1817, when she was given her freedom under a law which freed all\nslaves in New York state, who had attained the age of forty years.\n\nSojourner Truth never learned to read or write, and her education consisted\nalmost entirely of that presentation of religious truth which finds its\nmost successful converts in revivalism.\n\nWith this fact in mind, nothing less than the attainment of a wonderful\ndegree of spiritual consciousness could account for her marvelous power of\ndescription, and her ready flow of language, when \"exhorting.\"\n\nMrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote of her, in an article published in the\nAtlantic Monthly, as early as 1863:\n\n\"I do not recollect ever to have been conversant with any one who had more\nof that silent and subtle power which we call personal presence, than this\nwoman. In the modern spiritualistic phraseology, she would be described as\nhaving a 'strong sphere.'\"\n\nThe wonderful mental endowment which seems to follow as a complement to the\nexperience of Illumination, when not already present, as in the case of\nWhitman, for example, is characteristic of \"Sojourner Truth,\" or Isabella,\nas she was baptized.\n\nNaturally, this mental power, seemingly inconsistent with her humble\norigin, and her unlettered condition, is evidenced along those lines which\nmade up the sum and substance of her life. Judging her from the broader\nconcept of philosophy, Isabella appears somewhat fanatical, but the\ninfluence of her life and work was so great, that Wendell Phillips wrote of\nher:\n\n\"I once heard her describe the captain of a slave ship going up to\njudgment, followed by his victims as they gathered from the depths of the\nsea, in a strain that reminded me of Clarence's dream in Shakespeare, and\nequalled it. The anecdotes of her ready wit and quick striking replies are\nnumberless. But the whole together give little idea of the rich, quaint,\npoetic and often profound speech of a most remarkable person, who used to\nsay to us: 'You read books; God Himself talks to me.'\"\n\nIsabella's conviction that she had \"talked to God,\" was unshakable, and\nwas, indeed, the dynamic force which moved her. She was accustomed to tell\nof the strange and startling experience in which she met God face to face,\nand in which she said to Him: \"Oh, God, I didn't know as you was so big.\"\nIn the New England Magazine for March, 1901, there was given a full account\nof the work of this noted negro woman. Commenting on her sense of awe of\nthe immensity of God \"when she met him,\" the writer says:\n\n\"The consciousness of God's presence was like a fire around her and she was\nafraid, till she began to feel that somebody stood between her and this\nbrilliant presence; and after a while she knew that this somebody loved\nher. At first, she thought it must be Cato, a preacher whom she knew or\nDeencia or Sally--people who had been her friends.\n\n\"We are not told whether these persons were living or dead, or whether she\nthought they had come in the flesh, or in the spirit to her relief. However\nthis may be, she soon perceived that their images looked vile and black and\ncould not be the beautiful presence that shielded her from the fires of\nGod. She began to experiment with her inner vision, and found that when she\nsaid to the presence 'I know you, I know you,' she perceived a light; but\nwhen she said 'I don't know you,' the light went out.\n\n\"At last, she became aware that it was Jesus who was shielding her and\nloving her, and the world grew bright, her troubled thoughts were banished,\nand her heart was filled with praise and with love for all creatures.\n'Lord, Lord,' she cried, 'I can love even de white folks.'\"\n\nThe question will legitimately arise here, as to the authenticity of an\nexperience in which Jesus is said to be personally guiding and shielding\nher, but it must be remembered that the mind is the medium through which\nthe spiritual realization must be _expressed_ and, as has been stated\npreviously, the description of the phenomenon of Illumination, particularly\nwhen experienced in a sudden influx must partake of the character of the\nmind of the illumined one.\n\nWilliam James, late professor of Psychology of Harvard University, in his\nexhaustive book _The Varieties of Religious Experiences_, in the chapter on\n\"The Value of Saintliness,\" says:\n\n\"Now in the matter of intellectual standards, we must bear in mind that it\nis unfair, where we find narrowness of mind, always to impute it as a vice\nto the individual for in religious and theological matters, he probably\nabsorbs his narrowness from his generation. Moreover, we must not confound\nthe essentials of saintliness with its accidents, which are the special\ndetermination of these passions at any historical moment. In these\ndeterminations the saints will usually be loyal to the temporary idols of\ntheir tribe.\"\n\nApplying this explanation to the case of \"Sojourner Truth,\" we may realize\nthat the literal conception of Jesus as her guide and shield, was a mental\nimage, inevitable with her, as Jesus was the motive power of her every\nthought and act. And although at the moment of her Illumination, she\nrealized the \"bigness\" of God, later, in arranging and recording the\nphenomenon, in her mental note-book, she tabulated it with all she knew of\nGod--the religious enthusiasm of her work of conversion to the religion of\nJesus.\n\nSays James, commenting upon the question of conversion in human experience:\nand this tendency to what seems a narrow and limited viewpoint:\n\n\"If you open the chapter on 'Association,' of any treatise on Psychology,\nyou will read that a man's ideas, aims and objects form diverse internal\ngroups, and systems, relatively independent of one another. Each 'aim'\nwhich he follows awakens a certain specific kind of interested excitement,\nand gathers a certain group of ideas together in subordination to it as\nits associates.\"\n\nIt is perhaps natural to assume that most instances of the attainment of\nIllumination, have been inseparable from religious devotion, or at least\ncontemplative mysticism. This view is held almost exclusively by\nOrientals, and seems to have been shared to a great extent by western\ncommentators upon the subject.\n\nA notable example among Occidentals, bearing the religious aspect, and one\nwhich is important from the fact that the person detailing his experience,\nwas a man of mental training, is the case of Rev. Charles G. Finney,\nformerly president of Oberlin College.\n\nIn his \"Memoirs,\" Dr. Finney describes what Orthodox Christians generally\ncall the \"baptism of the Holy Spirit\":\n\n\"I had retired to a back room for prayer,\" writes Dr. Finney, \"and there\nwas no fire or light in the room; nevertheless it appeared to me as if it\nwere perfectly light. As I went in and shut the door after me, it seemed as\nif I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It did not occur to me then\nnor did it for some time afterwards, that it was wholly a mental state.\n\n\"On the contrary, it seemed to me a reality, that he stood before me and I\nfell down at his feet and poured out my soul to him. I wept aloud like a\nchild and made such confessions as I could with choked utterance.\n\n\"It seemed to me that I bathed his feet with my tears, and yet I had no\ndistinct impression that I touched him, that I recollect. As I turned and\nwas about to take my seat, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost.\n\n\"Without any expectation, without even having the thought in my mind, that\nthere was any such thing for me, without any recollection that I had ever\nheard the thing mentioned, by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit\ndescended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me body and soul.\n\n\"I could feel the impression like the waves of electricity going through me\nand through me. Indeed, it seemed to come in _waves of liquid love_. For I\ncould not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of\nGod. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me like immense\nwings. No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my\nheart.\n\n\"I wept aloud with joy and love. These waves came over me, and over me,\none after the other, until I recollect that I cried out, 'I shall die if\nthese waves continue to pass over me.' I said 'Lord, I cannot bear any\nmore.'\"\n\nWe will note, that although Dr. Finney says that he could not remember ever\nhaving heard the thing mentioned by any person, yet he felt \"the baptism of\nthe Holy Spirit.\" It is practically impossible that Dr. Finney could have\nlived in an age and a community which was essentially strict in its\nOrthodoxy, without having heard of the phrase \"baptism of the Holy Spirit,\"\neven though the words had escaped his immediate recollection. However, the\npoint that characterizes Dr. Finney's experience, in common with all\nothers, is that of seeing an intense light, and of the realization of the\noverwhelming force of love.\n\nThe relation of this experience to a creed or system of religion, is\nsomething which, we believe, may be accounted for, as Professor James has\nsaid, on the fact of \"historical determination.\"\n\nUntil very recently, the idea that spirituality was impossible save in\nconnection with religious systems, and rigid discipline, has been quite\ngeneral.\n\nIn the case of Dr. Finney, we find that all his life previous to this\nexperience he had been noted for his simplicity and child-like trust.\nFollowing his Illumination we learn that he became a man of great\ninfluence, and power, because of \"the wonderful humanity which he\nradiated.\"\n\nSimilar in experience, in its effects, is a case related by Theodore F.\nSeward, the well-known American philanthropist, Mr. Seward relates the\nfollowing story:\n\n\"The strange experience which I here relate came to a friend whom I knew\nintimately, and from whose lips I received the account. It is a lady in\nmiddle life, who has for years been an earnest seeker for truth and\nspiritual light. She was alone in her room sewing.\n\n\"Thinking, as was her wont, of spiritual things and feeling a strong sense\nof the presence and power of God, she suddenly had a consciousness of being\nsurrounded by a brilliant white light, which seemed to radiate from her\nperson. The light continued for some minutes, and at the same time, she\nfelt a great spiritual uplifting and an enlargement of her mental powers,\nas if the limitations of the body were transcended, and her soul's\ncapacities were in a measure set free for the moment. The experience was\nunique, above and beyond the ordinary current of human life, and while the\nvision or impression passed away, a permanent effect was produced upon her\nmind. She had never heard the term 'cosmic consciousness,' and did not know\nthat the subject it covers is beginning to be discussed.\"\n\nIt must be noted that in these experiences, the idea most strongly felt was\nthe one of the \"power and presence of God,\" and we are impressed with the\nfact that, no matter how varied may be the _creeds_ of the world, as\nfounded by \"saviours\" and incarnations of God, there is a unity among all\nraces, as to the fact of a one supreme universal power, which is Aum, the\nAbsolute, and which must represent perfect love and perfect peace, since\nall who have glimpsed their unity with this power, testify to a feeling of\nhappiness, peace and satisfaction, rare and exalted.\n\nBy comparing the experience of those who have attained this state of\nliberation from illusion, through religious rites and ceremonies, or\n\"sacrifice to God,\" as it is not infrequently called, with the experience\nof those who have recorded the phenomenon, apparently arriving at the goal\nthrough intellectual and moral aspiration, we will find that the results\nare almost identical, and the after-effects similar.\n\nIt has been said that those who attain liberation have invariably sought to\nfound a new system of worship, and this fact has given rise to the many\npaths or methods of attainment which have been taught by various Illumined\nOnes, both in the Orient and in the western world, supplementary as it were\nto the main great religious systems.\n\nWe will take a short survey of a few of these systems in Japan and India in\ncomparatively modern times, or at least during the last two thousand years,\nwhich is modern compared to the history of the Orient.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nEXAMPLES OF COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, WHO HAVE FOUNDED NEW SYSTEMS OF RELIGION\n\n\nThe early religion of Japan, before the advent of Buddhism, was extremely\nsimple.\n\nIt consists of the postulate that there was but one God, _Kami_, from him\nall things came, and to him all things shall return. As has been stated\npreviously, the chief injunction of Shintoism is: \"Keep your body and your\nmind clean, and trust _Kami_.\"\n\nShintoism literally translated, means \"the way to God,\" and includes the\nbelief that all persons ultimately reach the place where God dwells, and\nbecome \"one with Him.\"\n\nIn present day interpretations and descriptions of Shintoism, we read of\nthe \"heathen\" belief that _Kami_ himself dwells in person, in the \"inner\ntemple\" or sacred place of Shinto temples.\n\nThis idea doubtless exists as a reality among the very ignorant\nsuperstitious devotees, much as among the ignorant Catholics we find the\nunquestioned belief that the actual body and blood of Jesus the Christ is\ncontained in the Eucharist.\n\nThe Shinto temple always contains an \"inner or sacred shrine,\" which is\nequivalent to the \"holy of holies,\" of the Mystic Brotherhoods, and\ntypifies the fact that _within_ and not _without_, will be found the God in\nman, by finding which, man reaches liberation, or cessation from the cycle\nof births and deaths.\n\nA Shinto funeral is an occasion for rejoicing, because the departed one may\nbe a step farther on the way to God, and since his ancestors were directly\nresponsible, as a favor, for his occasion to become reborn, thus fulfilling\nthe law of _karma_, the Shintoist pays much respect to his ancestors.\n\nThe advent of Buddhism into Japan was made possible by the simple fact that\nthe people were becoming somewhat disgruntled with Shintoism, because of\nits emphasis upon the never-to-be questioned postulate that the Mikado and\nhis progeny was the direct gift of _Kami_ to his people, to be obeyed\nwithout demur, and to be adored as divine.\n\nSeveral generations of Mikados who did not fulfil the ideal of Deity--an\nideal to which even savages attach the qualities of justice and mercy--left\nthe masses ready and eager to grasp at a religion that gave them some other\npersonified god, than the Mikado, much as a drowning man clutches at a\nstraw.\n\nThe Lord Buddha was a prince, therefore worship of him would not be an\nabsolutely impossible step--an unforgivable breach of contract with the\nMikado, and as he exhibited the qualities of humility and mercy and\ntolerance, he was welcomed. The religion of Japan is to-day regarded as\nBuddhistic, although the Imperial family, and consequently the army and the\nnavy are to all outward appearance, Shintoists.\n\nComing, then, to a consideration of the varying sects of Buddhism in Japan,\nand the corresponding sects in India, we find that there have been nine\ndifferent incarnations of God, and that another, and, it is believed the\nfinal one, is expected.\n\nThe intelligent and open minded seeker after truth of whatever race or\ncolor, will find in the instructions given man by each and every great\nteacher, whether we believe in them as especially \"divine\" or as mere\nhumans who have attained to the realization of their godhood (_avatars,_) a\ncomplete unity of _purpose_, and if these teachers differ in _method of\nattainment_, it is only because of the immutable fact that there can be no\n_one and only_ way of attainment.\n\nMethods and systems are established consistently with the age and character\nof those whom they are designed to assist in finding the way.\n\nAnd again we must emphasize the fact that by the phrase \"the way,\" we mean\nthe way to a realization of the godhood within the inner temple of man's\nthreefold nature.\n\nThus, the intelligent, unprejudiced student of the religions and\nphilosophies of all times and all races, will find that, while there are\nmany and diverse paths to the goal of \"salvation,\" the goal itself means\nunity with the Causeless Cause, wherein exists perfection.\n\nPerhaps it has been left for the expected Incarnate God, which Christians\nspeak of as \"the second coming of Christ,\" to make clear the problem as to\nwhether this attainment or completement means an absorption of individual\nconsciousness, or whether it will be an adding to the present incarnation,\nof the memory of past lives, in such a manner that no consciousness shall\nbe lost, but all shall be found.\n\nIn considering instances of cosmic consciousness, _mukti_, which have been\nrecorded as distinctly religious experiences, and the effect of this\nattainment, the system best known to the Occident, is contained in the\nphilosophy of Vedanta, expounded and interpreted to western understanding\nby the late Swami Vivekananda.\n\nBut it should be understood that the philosophy taught by Vivekananda is\nnot strictly orthodox Hinduism. It bears the same relation to the old\nreligious systems of India that Unitarianism bears to orthodox Christianity\nsuch as we find in Catholicism, and its off-shoots.\n\nVivekananda honored and revered and followed, according to his\ninterpretation of the message, Sri Ramakrishna, whom an increasing number\nof Hindus regard as the latest incarnation of Aum--the Absolute. Not that\nthe reader is to understand, that Sri Ramakrishna's message contradicted\nthe essential character of the basic principles of orthodox Hinduism, as\nset down in the Vedas and the Upanashads.\n\nThe same difference of _emphasis_ upon certain points, or interpretations\nof meaning exists in the Orient, as in the western world, in regard to the\npossible meaning of the Scriptures.\n\nSri Ramakrishna, who passed from this earth life at Cossipore, in 1886, was\na disciple of the Vedanta system, as founded by Vyasa, or by Badarayana,\nauthorities failing to agree as to which of these traditional sages of\nIndia founded the Vedantic system of religion or philosophy.\n\nVedanta, particularly as interpreted by Sri Ramakrishna and his successors,\noffers a wider field of effort, and a more intellectual consideration of\nHindu religion than that of the Yoga system as interpreted from the\noriginal Sankhya system by Patanjali, about 300 B.C.\n\nPatanjali's sutras are considered the most complete system of Yoga\npractice, for the purpose of mental control, and psychic development.\nPatanjali's sutras are almost identical with those employed in the Zen sect\nof Buddhist monasteries, throughout Japan.\n\nThese sutras, together with Buddhist mantrams will be considered in a\nsubsequent chapter, devoted to the development of spiritual consciousness\nas taught by the Oriental sages and philosophers.\n\nOne other great teacher of modern times who has left a large following, was\nLord Gauranga, who was born in India in the early part of the fifteenth\ncentury. Gauranga was worshipped as the Lord God, whether with his consent,\nor without, it is not exactly clear, even though his biographers are united\non the fact of his divine origin.\n\nThose who have espoused the message of Gauranga claim that he brought to\nthe world \"a beautiful religion, such as had never before been known.\" But,\nas this claim is made for all teachers and founders of religions and\nphilosophies, we suggest that the reader compare the message of Lord\nGauranga with those of other avatars and teachers.\n\nLord Gauranga's message is known as Vaishnavitism, and we will here\nconsider only those passages of his doctrine which shed light upon his\nattainment of cosmic consciousness. Certainly his breadth of mind, and his\nstandards of tolerance, justice and consideration for all other systems of\nworship, would indicate his claim to cosmic consciousness.\n\nOne of the contentions of the Vaishnavas is that they alone of all\nreligious faiths, admit the divine birth and mission of the founders of all\nreligions.\n\nThus the Christians have declared that Jesus was the only Son of God; the\nBuddhists have claimed Buddha; the Hebrews have clung tenaciously to their\nprophets as the only true messengers from heaven, and the Mohammedans have\nrefused, until the present century, to even sit at the table with the\n\"infidels\" who would not acknowledge Mohammed as the only true incarnation\nof Allah.\n\nIt is well to remember that these claims have been made by the blind\nfollowers of these great teachers, and that it is almost certain that not\nany one of them made such claim for himself. Certainly he did not, if he\nhad attained to spiritual consciousness.\n\nOne passage from the doctrines of Gauranga is almost identical with many\nothers who have sought to express the feeling of security, of\n_deathlessness_ which comes to the soul which has realized cosmic\nconsciousness. He says:\n\n\"My Beloved, whether you clasp me unto your heart, or you crush me by that\nembrace, it is all the same to me. For you are no other than my own, the\nsole partner of my soul.\"\n\nThe gospel of Gauranga and his followers is, indeed, much more a gospel of\nlove, than of methods of worship, or of intellectual research.\n\nThe realization of our union with God, in deathless love, is the key-note\nof the message, and this great joy or bliss comes to the soul as soon as it\nhas attained Illumination through love.\n\nGod is alluded to in Vaishnavism most frequently as _Anandamaya_--meaning\nall joy. Vaishnavism more nearly resembles the gospel of Jesus, as taught\nby orthodoxy, than it does the Vedantic systems, since it does, not claim\nthat God is _within each_ human organism, as the seed is within the fruit,\nbut that, by love, we may gain heaven or the state or place where God\ndwells.\n\n\"If you would worship God, as the Giver of Bounties, then shall the prayer\nbe answered, and further connection cut off, God having answered the\ndemand. So if you would worship God in simple love, He will send love. The\nreal devotee seeks to establish a relationship with God which will endure.\nHe will ask only to worship and love God, and pray that his soul may cling\nto God in divine reverence and love.\" Thus, say the Vaishnavas, \"God serves\nas he is served, in absolute justice.\"\n\nAnother salient point which the followers of Lord Gauranga emphasize, is\nthe \"All-Sweetness\" of God. This idea is impressed, doubtless that the\ndevotee may not feel an impossible barrier between himself and so great and\nall-powerful a being, as God, when His Omnipotence is considered. The idea\nis similar to that of the Roman church, which bids its untutored children\nto select some patron saint, or to say prayers to the Virgin Mary, because\nthese characters were once human and seem to be nearer, and more\napproachable than the Great God whose Majesty and All-Mightiness have been\nexploited.\n\nBe that as it may, the fact remains, that Lord Gauranga is said to have\nearned the devotion and love of some of the most learned pundits of India\nand, according to a recent biographer, \"he had all the frailties of a man;\nhe ate and slept like a man. In short, he behaved generally like an\nordinary human being, but yet he succeeded in extorting from the foremost\nsages of India, the worship and reverence due a God.\"\n\nThe fact that Lord Gauranga \"behaved like a man,\" is comforting, to say the\nleast, and presages the coming of a day when \"behaving like a man\" will not\nbe considered ungodly. When that time shall have arrived, surely there will\nbe less mysticism of the hysterical variety and probably fewer hypocrites.\n\nVery unlike Lord Gauranga, is the report of a writer of India, who tells of\nthe effects of cosmic consciousness upon Tukaram, considered to be one of\nthe greatest saints and poets of Ancient India. Tukaram lived early in the\nsixteenth century, some years later than Lord Gauranga.\n\nThis Maharashtra saint is chiefly remembered for his beautiful description\nof the effects of Illumination, in which he likens the human soul to the\nbride, and the bridegroom is God. This poem is called \"Love's Lament,\" and\nmight have been written by an impassioned lover to his promised bride.\n\nThe life of Tukaram, like that of the late Sri Ramakrishna Paramanansa, was\none long agony of yearning and struggle for that peace of soul which he\ncraved. One of his chroniclers thus describes, in brief, the final struggle\nand the subsequent attainment of Illumination of this good man:\n\n\"Selfless, he sought to gather no crowds of idle admiring disciples about\nhim, but followed what his conscience dictated. He listened not to the\ncounsel of his relatives and friends, who thought he had gone mad; and he\nbore in patience the well-meant but harsh rebukes of his second wife. After\na long mental struggle, the agonies of which he has recorded in\nheart-rending words, now entreating God in the tenderest of terms, now\nresigning himself to despair, now appealing with the petulance of a pet\nchild for what he deemed his birthright, now apologizing in all humility\nfor thus taking liberties with his Mother-God, he succeeded at last in\ngaining a restful place of beatitude--a state in which he merged his soul\nin the universal soul,\"--that is, Illumination, or cosmic consciousness.\n\nSadasiva Brahman, one of the great Siddhas, and a comparatively modern sage\nof India, left a Sanskrit poem called _Atmavidyavilasa_, which gives a\ncomprehensive description of the experience and the effects of\nIllumination, as for example:\n\n\"The sage whose mind by the grace of his blessed Guru is merged in his own\ntrue nature (Existence, Intelligence, and Bliss Absolute), that great\nIllumined one, wise, with all egotism suppressed, and extremely delighted\n_within himself_, sports in joy.\"\n\n\"He who is himself alone, who has known the secret of bliss, who has firmly\nembraced peace, who is magnanimous and whose feelings other than those of\nthe _atman_, have been allayed, that person sports on his pleasant couch of\nself-bliss.\"\n\n\"The pure moon of the prince of recluses, who is fit to be worshipped by\ngods and whose moonlight of intelligence that dispels the darkness of\nignorance causes the lily of the earth to blossom, shines forth in the\nabode of the all-pervading Essence of Light.\"\n\nThe above stanzas represent a more impersonal idea of the bliss of\nattainment than those of many others who have experienced Illumination, but\nthey emphasize the same point that we find throughout all writings of the\nIlluminati, namely, the realization of the kingdom _within_, rather than\nwithout, and the necessity of selflessness--meaning the subjugation of the\nlesser self, the mental, to the soul.\n\nWe come now to a consideration of the life and character of the Lord\nBuddha, whose influence is still stronger in all parts of the world than\nthat of any other person who has ever taught the precepts of attainment.\n\nIn Japan, for example, Buddhism, in its various branches, or\ninterpretations, is the religion of the vast majority and even where\nShintoism is the method of worship, the influence of Buddhism may be seen.\nSo too, we find in Japan, a form of Buddhism, which shows evidences of the\ninfluence of Shintoism, but I think it may be admitted that Japan, above\nall other countries, represents to-day, the religion of Buddhism.\n\nBuddhism has been called the \"religion of enlightenment,\" but the term\n\"illumination\" as it is used to describe the attainment of cosmic\nconsciousness, is what is meant, rather than the purely intellectual\nquality which we are accustomed to think of as enlightenment.\n\nSakyamuni, another name for Buddhism, means also illumination, or\nrealization of the saving character of the light within.\n\nThe lamp is the most important symbol in, Buddhism, as it typifies the\ndivine flame or illumination (which is cosmic consciousness), as the goal\nof the disciple.\n\nAnother interpretation of the symbol of the lamp, is that of the power of\nthe lamp to shed its rays to light the way of those who are traveling \"in\nthe gloom,\" and by so doing, it lights the flame of illumination in others,\nwithout diminishing its own power. An article of faith reads:\n\n\"As one holds out a lamp in the darkness that those who have eyes may see\nthe objects, even so has the doctrine been made clear by the Lord in\nmanifold exposition.\"\n\nAgain, in the _Book of the Great Decease_, we learn that Buddha admonished\nhis disciples to \"dwell as lamps unto yourselves.\" Another symbol used\nthroughout Japan as a means of teaching the masses the essential doctrines\nof \"The Compassionate One,\" has become familiar to occidental people as a\nsort of \"curio.\" It is that of the three monkeys carved in wood or ivory.\n\nOne monkey is covering his eyes with both paws; another has stopped his\nears; and the third has his paw pressed tightly over his mouth. The lesson\nbriefly told is to \"see no evil; hear no evil; speak no evil,\" and the\nreason that the monkey is employed as the symbol, is because the monkey,\nmore than any other animal, resembles primitive man. If, then, we would\nrise from the monkey, or animal condition (the physical or animal part of\nthe human organism), we must avoid a karma of consciousness of evil.\n\nBuddhism is full of symbolism, and these symbols must be interpreted\naccording to the age, or of the individual consciousness of the\ninterpreter, or the translator. But the fundamental doctrine of Buddha is\nessentially one of renunciation as applied to the things of the world.\nNevertheless this quality of renunciation has been greatly exaggerated\nduring the centuries, because of the fact that the Lord Buddha had so much\nto give up, viewed from the standpoint of worldly ethics.\n\nIn the following \"sayings of Buddha,\" we find that the quest of the noble\nsage was for that supraconsciousness wherein change and decay were _not_,\nrather than that he regarded the things of the senses, as sinful. For\nexample:\n\n\"It is not that I am careless about beauty, or am ignorant of human joys;\nbut only that I see on all the impress of change; therefore, my heart is\nsad and heavy.\" Or this:\n\n\"A hollow compliance and a protesting heart, such method is not for me to\nfollow: I now will seek a noble law, unlike the worldly methods known to\nmen. I will oppose disease, and change and death, and strive against the\nmischief wrought by these, on men.\"\n\nAccording to the _Samyutta Nikaya_, the twelve _Nidanas_ (or chain of\nconsequences) are:\n\n\"On ignorance depends karma;\n\n\"On karma depends consciousness;\n\n\"On consciousness depends name and form;\n\n\"On name and form depends the six organs of sense.\"\n\n\"On contact depends sensation;\n\n\"On sensation depends desire;\n\n\"On desire depends attachment;\n\n\"On attachment depends existence;\n\n\"On existence depends birth;\n\n\"On birth depend old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief, and\ndespair.\n\n\"Thus does this entire aggregation of misery arise.\"\n\nHaving arrived at this conclusion, the problem may be solved by learning\nhow to avoid existence. But, let us consider what the term \"existence\"\nmeans. The common acceptance of the word, as used in the English, seems to\ninclude _being_; but if we will consider the word in its literal meaning,\nwhen analyzed, we find that it comes from \"est\" (to be), and the prefix\n\"ex,\" meaning actually \"_not-being_.\"\n\nThe word _Being_, is a synonym for eternal life--for Deity. It does not\nsavor of anything that has been created, or that will terminate. _Being\nis_, therefore, to cease to _ex_-ist, is to cease to live under the spell\nof the illusory and changing quality of _maya_, or externality.\n\nFar from meaning to be \"wiped out,\" or absorbed into The Absolute, in the\nsense of complete loss of consciousness, it means the eternal retention of\nconsciousness, unhampered by the delusion of sense as a reality.\n\nTo escape from this chain of illusory ideas,\nand their consequences, the obvious necessity is\nto claim the soul's right to _Being_. This is done\nby dispelling ignorance (_A-vidya_) by vidya\n(knowledge). Thus karma ceases:\n\n\"On the cessation of karma ceases consciousness of self;\n\n\"On the cessation of this consciousness of self, cease name and form;\n\n\"On the cessation of name and form, cease the organs of sense;\n\n\"On the cessation of sense, ceases contact;\n\n\"On the cessation of contact, ceases sensation;\n\n\"On the cessation of sensation, ceases desire;\n\n\"On the cessation of desire ceases attachment;\n\n\"On the cessation of attachment ceases existence;\n\n\"On the cessation of existence, ceases birth.\n\n\"On the cessation of birth cease old age, and death; sorrow; lamentation;\nmisery; grief and despair. Thus does the entire aggregation of misery\ncease.\"\n\nBut, as to the exact interpretation of all these, Buddha himself says:\n\n\"Ye must rely upon the truth; this is your highest, strongest vantage\nground; the foolish masters practicing superficial wisdom, grasp not the\nmeaning of the truth; but to receive the law, not skillfully to handle\nwords and sentences, the meaning then is hard to know, as in the\nnight-time, if traveling and seeking for a house, if all be dark within,\nhow difficult to find.\"\n\nBut let it be understood, that Buddhism as now taught and practiced is\nnecessarily colored by the effect of the centuries which have elapsed since\nthe Lord Buddha lived and taught the precepts of his Illumination. Modern\nBuddhism, as a religious system of worship bears the same relation to\nPrince Siddhartha, as does modern Christianity to Jesus of Nazareth.\n\nA short review of the life and character of the personalities around whom\nthe great religious systems of the world have been formed will aid us in\nperceiving the unity of thought and character of the Illumined, and the\nsimilarity of reports as to the effect of this realization of cosmic\nconsciousness will be apparent.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nMOSES, THE LAW-GIVER\n\n\nThe salient feature of the law as given by Moses unto his people, the Jews,\nis that of strict cleanliness of mind and body. In this we find a\nsimilarity to the oft-repeated behest of Gautama, the Buddha, who\nconstantly admonished his followers to keep their hearts pure and their\nminds and bodies clean.\n\nThis spirit of cleanliness finds also a counterpart in the saying ascribed\nto Jesus, \"blessed are the pure in heart.\"\n\nThe cleanliness here referred to is doubtless not so much physical neatness\nas mental purity of thought--thought free from doubt and calumny and petty\ndeceits and hypocrisy and selfishness and debasing perversions of the life\nforces; but during various stages of history we find that all teachings\nhave their esoteric and their exoteric application.\n\nThe law, as enunciated by Moses, according to the Jewish reports, laid much\nstress upon physical cleanliness, as an attribute of godhood.\n\nBut Moses, if we may credit reports, was something far more inspired and\nillumined than a mere physical culturist--commendable as is personal\ncleanliness--and his admonitions were the result of that fine sense of\ndiscrimination and enlightenment which comes from cosmic perception even if\nhe had not experienced the deeper, fuller realization of liberation, of\nwhich Buddha is a shining example.\n\nIt is evident that the laws laid down by Moses were taught and practised by\nthe Egyptians many many years prior to the time in which Moses lived, which\nfrom the most reliable authorities, must have been about four to five\nhundred years before the Exodus.\n\nThis does not detract from the evidence that the great Egyptian-Hebrew, was\na man of wonderful intellectual attainments, and from what we know of\nmodern examples of Illumination, he also possessed a degree of cosmic\nconsciousness.\n\nThe story of the seemingly miraculous birth of Moses, and the mystery with\nwhich his ancestry is surrounded, is also typical of one who has attained\nto cosmic consciousness.\n\nThe Illumined one realizes his birthlessness and his deathlessness, and\nexpresses it in symbolism, meaning of course, the realization that as the\nspirit is never born and can never die, the idea of age is an\nunreality--and should find no place in the consciousness of one who regards\nhimself as an indestructible atom of the Cosmos.\n\nBut the evidences regarding the probable Illumination of Moses are to be\nfound in the reports of his ascension of Mt. Sinai, and what occurred\nthere.\n\nThe phenomenon of the great light which is inseparable from instances of\ncosmic consciousness, and which gives to the phenomenon its name\n\"Illumination,\" was apparently marked in the case of Moses.\n\nThe \"burning bush,\" which he describes is the experience of the mind when\nthe illusion of sense has ceased, even temporarily, to obscure the mental\nvision.\n\n\"And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, and out of\nthe midst of a bush; and he looked and behold, the bush burned with fire\nand the bush was not consumed.\"\n\nThere is a subtler interpretation to this report than that usually given,\neven by those who realize that this expression is an evidence of the sudden\ninflux of supra consciousness which attends the soul's liberation from the\nlimits of sense consciousness.\n\nThe \"burning bush\" is synonymous with the \"tree of life\" which is ever\nalive with the \"fires of creation.\"\n\nAll who realize liberation are endowed with the power to understand this\nsymbol. For those who have not attained to this degree of consciousness,\nthe esoteric meaning is necessarily hidden.\n\nThe phenomenon of the strange mystical light which seems to enfold and\nbathe the Illumined one, is concisely expressed in the case of Moses.\n\n\"And it came to pass, that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the\ntablets of the testimony in hand, that Moses wist not that the skin of his\nface shone, or sent forth beams by reason of his speaking with Him.\n\n\"And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses behold! the skin\nof his face shone and they were afraid to come nigh him.\"\n\nAgain we find in the case of Moses, a momentary fear of the phenomenon\nwhich he was experiencing, in the influx of light and the sound of the\nvoice which seems to accompany the light.\n\nThe interpretation given the words spoken, and the identity of the voice is\never dependent upon the time and character of the mind experiencing the\nIllumination.\n\nThus Moses claims to have heard the voice of the God of the Hebrews, but\nthe probabilities are, that the \"voice\" is the mental operations of the\nperson experiencing the phenomenon of supra-consciousness, and this\ninterpretation will vary with what Professor James calls the \"historical\ndetermination,\" i.e. it is dependent upon the age in which the illumined\none lived, and upon the character of the impressions previously absorbed.\n\nThis apparent difference of report, as to the identity of the \"voice,\" is\nof small import.\n\nThe salient point is that each person relating his experience has heard a\n_voice_ giving more or less explicit instructions and promises.\n\nIn each instance it has been characterized as the voice of the God of their\ndesire, _and adoration_.\n\nCertainly, whatever may be our opinions as to whether God, as we understand\nthe term, talked to Moses, giving him such explicit commands as the great\nleader afterwards laid down to his people accompanied by the insurmountable\nbarrier to dissent or discussion, \"thus saith the Lord,\" we can but admit\nthat the prophet was possessed of intellectual power far in advance of his\ntime, and his laws did indeed, save his people from self destruction,\nthrough uncleanliness and strife, and dense ignorance.\n\nThe ten commandments have been the \"word of God\" to all men for lo! these\nmany ages, and even Jesus could but add one other commandment to those\nalready in use: \"Another commandment give I unto you--_that ye love one\nanother_.\"\n\nTo sum up the evidences of cosmic consciousness, or Illumination, as\nreported in the case of Moses, we find:\n\nThe experience of great light as seen on Horeb.\n\nThe \"voice\" which he calls the voice of \"The Lord.\"\n\nThe sudden and momentary fear, and humility.\n\nThe shining of his face and form, as though bathed in light.\n\nThe subsequent intellectual superiority over those of his time.\n\nThe perfect assurance and confidence of authority and \"salvation.\"\n\nThe desire for solitude, which caused him to die alone in the vale of Moab.\n\nThe intense desire to uplift his people to a higher consciousness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nGAUTAMA--THE COMPASSIONATE\n\n\nGautama, prince of the house of Siddhartha, of the Sakya class, was born in\nnorthern India in the township of Kapilavastu, in the year 556 B.C.,\naccording to the best authorities, as interpreted and reported by Max\nMuller.\n\nThe Japanese tradition agrees with this, practically, stating that O Shaka\nSama (signifying one born of wisdom and love) was born as a Kotai Si, crown\nprince of the Maghada country.\n\nWe have the assurance that as a youth, Gautama, like Jesus, exhibited a\nserious mindedness and an insight into matters spiritual, which astonished\nand dumbfounded his hearers, and the sages who gave him respectful\nattention.\n\nSome accounts even go so far as to state that at the very moment of his\nbirth the young prince was able to speak, and that his words ascended \"even\nto the gods of the uppermost Brahma-world.\"\n\nDivesting the traditions that surround the birth and early life of the\nworld's great masters, of much that has been interpolated by a designing\npriesthood, we may yet conclude that a certain seriousness, and a deep\nsympathy with the sorrows of their fellowmen, would naturally characterize\nthese inspired ones, even while they were still in their early youth.\n\nIt is evident that the young Prince Siddhartha was subject to meditation\nand that these meditations led at times to complete trance.\n\nIt is reported that one day while out riding in all the pomp and\naccoutrements of the son of a ruling king, he was visited by an angel (a\nmessenger from the gods of Devachan), and told that if he would lessen\nthe sorrows of the world that he must renounce his right to his father's\nkingdom and go into the jungle, becoming a hermit, and devoting his life to\nfasting, prayer and meditation, in order to fit himself for the work of\npreaching the \"way of liberation,\" which consisted of, first of all, to\ntake no life; be pure in mind; be as the humblest, which latter admonition\nfound little favor with the world of his personal environment where caste\nwas and still is, a seemingly ineradicable race-thought.\n\nThe sorrows of humanity weighed heavily upon his heart, and the\nsuperficialities of the wealthy and ostentatious court in which he lived,\nirked his outspoken and truth-loving spirit.\n\nSurrounded, as he was, by wealth and ease, with time for contemplation and\na mind given to philosophic speculation, the young prince found no sense of\ncomfort or permanent satisfaction in his own immunity from want and sorrow.\nHe pondered long upon the way to become freed from the \"successive round of\nbirths and deaths,\" and thus pondering, he sought solitude in which to find\nhis questions answered.\n\nFasting and penance have ever been the gist of the instruction given to\nthose who would \"find the way to God,\" and so to this end Gautama fasted\nand prayed, and practised self-sacrifice.\n\nBut the attainment of liberation was not easy, and Siddhartha suffered long\nand practiced self-mortification assiduously, at length being rewarded; and\n\"there arose within him the eye to perceive the great and noble truths\nwhich had been handed down; the knowledge of their nature; the\nunderstanding of their cause; the wisdom that lights the true path; the\nlight that expels darkness.\"\n\nThe terrible struggle which characterized the attainment of cosmic\nconsciousness, by so many of the sages and saviours of history, is, we\nbelieve, clue to the fact that no one individual may hope to rise so\nimmeasurably above the plane of the race-consciousness of his day and age,\nexcept through intense and overwhelming desire.\n\nGautama abandoned his heritage, his relatives, his wife to whom he was\ndevoted, and his infant son, as we have previously stated, not because\nIllumination is purchasable at so terrible a price, but because his desire\nto _know_ transcended all other desires, and in order to be free from the\ndemands made upon him, he must of necessity, seek solitude.\n\nFew examples of the attainment of cosmic consciousness are as complete and\nof such fullness, as that attained by Buddha, and no instance which history\naffords has left so great an effect upon the world.\n\nIt is estimated that at least one-third of the human race are Buddhists.\nThis is not saying that any such number of persons are like unto Buddha,\nnor do we contend that this is any evidence that his message is greater or\nmore fraught with truth than that of other illumined ones.\n\nThe intelligent student of occultism in all its phases will arrive, sooner\nor later, at the inevitable conclusion that all illumined souls have seen\nand have taught the same fundamental truth.\n\nBuddha was convinced that in The Absolute, or First Cause, there could be\nno sin and consequently no sorrow, and he persistently sought to inaugurate\nsuch systems of conduct and such a standard of morals as would lead the\ndisciple back to godhood, or liberation from the \"wheel of causation.\"\n\nTo keep the mind pure and clean was the burden of his cry, well knowing\nthat the mind is the fertile field wherein illusions of sense consciousness\nthrive. He says:\n\n\"Mind is the root (of evil); actions proceed from the mind. If anyone speak\nor act from a corrupt mind, suffering will follow, as the dust follows the\nrolling wheel.\"\n\nThat we can not expect to escape the result of our thoughts and acts was\never a doctrine of Buddha, albeit, he seems also to have sought to make\nclear to his disciples, the UNREALITY of sin as a part of the\nindestructible \"First Cause.\"\n\nMany Buddhist sects interpret the doctrines of Buddha to deny a belief in\na future existence, in at least as far as identity is concerned, but this\nconception is not consistent with the most reliable reports, neither is it\nin keeping with the extreme peace and satisfaction which all illumined ones\nexperience.\n\nIf extinction of identity were the goal of Illumination, it is\ninconceivable that the illumined ones should report the attainment of\nperfect satisfaction and bliss.\n\nBesides, it is clearly stated that Gautama told his disciples that he had\nalready entered Nirvana, while yet in the body.\n\n\"My mind is free from passions; is released from the follies of the world.\nI have gained the victory,\" said Lord Buddha to his disciple Ananda.\n\nIt is also asserted that Buddha appeared in his own \"glorified body\" to\nhis disciples after his physical dissolution, plainly indicating that far\nfrom being swallowed up in The Absolute, he had acquired godhood in his\npresent body.\n\nDetailing the advantages of a pure life, Buddha said to his disciples:\n\n\"The virtuous man rejoices in this world, and he will rejoice in the next;\nin both worlds has he joy. He rejoices, he exults, seeing the purity of his\ndeed.\"\n\nAgain, alluding to a sage (rahan), Buddha is reported to have said:\n\n\"He is indeed blest, having conquered all his passions, and attained the\nstate of Nirvana.\"\n\nThis alluded to the acquisition of _Nirvana_ while still in the physical\nbody. In other words, as we of this century understand the teaching, he\nhad experienced cosmic consciousness.\n\nThe modern version of the commandments of Buddha are almost identical with\nthose of the Christian creed, and these commandments are, as we have\npreviously observed, the same that Moses laid down for the guidance of his\npeople. That they were old before Moses was born, is also more than\nproblematical.\n\nIt is also more than probable that Buddha did not personally write the\nethical code which we now find submitted as the \"Commandments of Buddha,\"\nbut that Buddha merely emphasized them.\n\nThese commandments are not, however, understood, by the intelligent\nBuddhist as \"sacred,\" in the sense that \"God spoke unto Buddha.\"\n\nMoses doubtless assumed to have been divinely instructed in the law,\nalthough that supposition may be erroneous. He may have had in mind the\nsame fundamental idea which all those expressing cosmic consciousness have\nhad, that of being a mouthpiece of a higher power, rather than to attract\nto themselves any adulation or worship, as being specially divine.\n\nThe \"Commandments,\" therefore, as translated and ascribed to modern\nBuddhism, are an ethical and moral code for the _MORTAL_ consciousness,\nrather than a _formula_ for developing cosmic consciousness. These\ncommandments are:\n\n1--Thou shalt kill no animal whatever, from the meanest insect up to man.\n\n2--Thou shalt not steal.\n\n3--Thou shalt not violate the wife of another.\n\n4--Thou shalt speak no word that is false.\n\n5--Thou shalt not drink wine, nor anything that may intoxicate.\n\n6--Thou shalt avoid all anger, hatred and bitter\nlanguage.\n\n7--Thou shalt not indulge in idle and vain talk, but shall do all for\nothers.\n\n8--Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.\n\n9--Thou shalt not harbor envy, nor pride, nor revenge, nor malice, nor the\ndesire of thy neighbor's death or misfortune.\n\n10--Thou shalt not follow the doctrines of false gods.\n\nAnd the devotee is assured, even as in the Christian creed, that \"he who\nkeeps these commandments, shall enter Nirvana--the rest of Buddha.\" But let\nit be understood that Gautama, the Lord Buddha, did not formulate these\ncommandments. Neither are they considered as infallible formul\u00e6, by the\nenlightened Buddhist.\n\nThey constitute the ethical and moral code of the undeveloped man in all\nages of the world, and among all peoples. They had become traditional long\nbefore Buddha came to interpret \"the way of the gods.\" But Gautama, like\nJesus, was an evolutionist, and not a revolutionist. He came \"not to\ndestroy, but to fulfill,\" and so Buddha paid no attention to the code of\nmorals as it stood, but merely contented himself with emphasizing the\nimportance of unselfishness--purity of heart and mind, because he realized\nthat the mental world is the trap of the soul, even as \"the elephant is\nheld tethered by a galucchi creeper.\"\n\nBuddha taught the way of emancipation of the soul held in bondage by means\nof the illusions of _maya_, even as the elephant is held in captivity by so\nweak a thing as a galucchi creeper, which could be broken by a single\neffort.\n\nThat many who keep the commandments are yet a long way from cosmic\nconsciousness must be apparent to all. Therefore we are justified in\nassuming that the mere keeping of the commandments will not bring about\n_mukti_. Many a man follows the letter of the law, and escapes prison, but\nif he does this through fear of punishment, and not because of a desire to\nmaintain peace that his neighbors may be benefited, then he is not keeping\nthe spirit of the law at all, and his reward is a negative one.\n\nAccording to the most reliable authorities, Buddha died in his eightieth\nyear, having spent about fifty years in preaching, in healing the sick, in\nconversing with exalted beings in the heavenly worlds, and in leaving at\nwill his physical body and visiting other worlds.\n\nBuddha prophesied his coming dissolution, and expressed to his disciples, a\nhope that they would realize that he still lived, even when his physical\nbody should have become ashes.\n\nAs his last hour approached, Buddha summoned his disciples, and after a\nmoment's silent meditation, he addressed himself to Ananda, his relative;\nas well as his favorite disciple, thus:\n\n\"When I shall have disappeared from this state of existence, and be no\nlonger with you, do not believe that the Buddha has left you, and ceased to\ndwell among you. Do not think therefore, nor believe, that the Buddha has\ndisappeared, and is no more with you.\"\n\nFrom these words, it is evident that the state of Nirvana which Buddha\nassured his followers that he had already attained, did not argue loss of\nidentity, nor translation to another planet.\n\nNor is there anywhere in the sayings of Buddha, rightly interpreted, any\nsuggestion of expecting or desiring personal worship. This, the great sage\nparticularly avoided, as indeed have all illumined ones.\n\nIt is evident that Gautama the Buddha had experienced that divine influx of\nlight and wisdom in which he sought for others the happiness he had gained\nfor himself, and to this end he was eager to leave to his friends and\ndisciples such rules of conduct of life as should aid them in attaining the\ndivine peace that comes from illumination.\n\nBut that he founded a religious system of worship of himself, is wholly\nunbelievable in the light of a study of comparative religions and the\nwisdom which illumination confers.\n\nTo realize that one has attained to immortality, and claimed his\nbirthright of godhood, is not synonymous with the claim to worship as the\none eternal source of life.\n\nIt is a part of human weakness to insist upon idealizing the personality of\na teacher, and this tendency becomes in time merged into actual worship,\nwhereas the teacher, if he or she be truly illumined, seeks only to\ninculcate the philosophy which will bring his faithful followers into a\nrealization of cosmic consciousness.\n\nThe points which characterize the person who has experienced a degree of\nillumination (entered into cosmic consciousness), were particularly evident\nin the life and character of Gautama, the Buddha. They may be summed up\nthus:\n\nA marked seriousness in youth.\n\nA great sympathy and compassion with the sorrows of others.\n\nA deep tenderness for all forms of life.\n\nA realization of the nothingness of caste and pomp and power.\n\nThe firm conviction that he was instructed by angels.\n\nThe wonderful magnetism and illumination of his person.\n\nThe firm conviction of immortality--released from the \"wheel of life\" as\nhe expressed it.\n\nThe knowledge of when and where he was to pass out from the life of the\nbody.\n\nThe love of solitude and meditation. The intellectual power maintained even\ninto old age.\n\nThe unselfish desire to help others.\n\nGreat and never-failing sympathy with suffering, a divine patience, and\ninsight into the hearts of all forms of life, earned for this great soul\nthe name \"Buddha--The Compassionate.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nJESUS OF NAZARETH\n\n\nTurning now to the next in order of the world's great masters, or illumined\nones, we come to a consideration of Jesus of Nazareth, in whose name the\ngreat moral system of religion, called \"Christianity,\" is promulgated.\n\nIt has been conclusively shown that the essential features of the\npresent-day _system_ of religion, known as Christianity, were instituted by\nPaul rather than by Jesus, and that the system itself, like Buddhism, is\nthe work of the followers of the great teacher, rather than that of the\nMaster.\n\nOur present concern, however, is not with the system or method of the\nchurch, but with those historic facts which bear upon the question of the\nIllumination of Jesus, classifying Him, not as an incarnate son of God, in\nthe accepted theological interpretation, but in the light of cosmic\nconsciousness.\n\nJesus the Christ was born, according to the most reliable authorities,\nabout six hundred years after Gautama, the Buddha.\n\nWhether or not the Nazarene was familiar with the Buddhist doctrines or\nwhether He spent the years of His life which are shrouded in mystery, in\nthe inner temples of either Thibet, India, Persia, China, or other oriental\ncountry, will doubtless always be a disputed point among controversialists.\n\nThe fact does not matter, either way.\n\nThere is an encouraging similarity in the fundamentals of all religious\nprecepts, arguing that when a teacher is really inspired, the truth makes\nfriends with him or her.\n\nSome writers on the subject of Illumination give exact dates when the flash\nof cosmic consciousness came to the various teachers of the world, but\nthese dates are problematical, and they are also inconsequential.\n\nThat Jesus was among those historic characters who had attained cosmic\nconsciousness, there can be no possible doubt, even though his exact words\nwill be disputed.\n\nEnough has come down to us through the ages to prove the fact that Jesus\nknew and taught the illusory character of external life (_maya_) and that\nhe was himself absolutely certain of the \"kingdom within,\" which he\nadmonished his hearers to seek, rather than to live so much in the\nexternal. This he did because he well knew that constant dwelling in the\nexternal consciousness led not to liberation.\n\n_The light within_, was the substance of his cry, and that light, when\nperceived, leads to illumination of everything, both the within and the\nwithout.\n\nThe transfiguration of Jesus was undoubtedly the effect of his being in a\nsupra-conscious state, a state of exaltation, in which many mystics enter\nat more or less frequent intervals, according to their mode of life, and\ntheir objective environment.\n\n\"And he was transfigured before them; and his garments became exceedingly\nwhite,\" we are told in the gospels, and there are many persons in the world\nto-day possessing the power of the inner or clairvoyant vision (not\nidentical with cosmic consciousness), who have witnessed similar phenomena.\n\nIn the \"Sermon on the Mount,\" we find that Jesus spoke with such certainty\nand such authority, as one who had experienced the very essence of the\ncosmic conscious state, and was already freed from the illusions of the\nsenses. His words, like those of all who have sought to give directions and\ninstructions for the attainment of freedom from externality, are capable\nof interpretation in various ways, according to the degree of consciousness\nof the age in which the interpretations have been made.\n\nFor example, we find these words of Jesus given different meanings, and in\nfact, there have been many and diverse discussions and conclusions as to\nexactly what the Master did mean by them:\n\n\"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\"\n\nLet us examine the phrase, and see if it accords with our ideas of cosmic\nconsciousness. To be \"poor in spirit,\" is not consistent with our\nunderstanding of the requirements for the expansion of the soul.\n\nThose who take this phrase literally, and who are opposed to religious\nconcepts, as a factor in human betterment, are fond of using this phrase as\nan evidence of the fanaticism of Jesus, and his concurrence in the worldly\nhabit of exploiting the poor, and \"riding the backs of the wage slaves,\" as\nour Socialist brothers put it.\n\nNow let us, for a moment, consider the phrase _as a person who possessed\ncosmic consciousness would have said it_.\n\nOne possessing the cosmic sense, viewing the external more as a trap of the\nsenses, than as realities, would readily perceive that to amass wealth\n(external possessions), the mind must be in harmony with the methods and\nthe ideals of the world, rather than that it should be concentrated upon\nthe \"things of the spirit.\"\n\nThis idea is expressed in the phrase, \"no man can serve two masters,\"\nand while we are not prepared to say that the possession of worldly\ngoods is absolutely _impossible_ to the attainment of cosmic\nconsciousness--observation, reflection, and intuition will unite in the\nconclusion that they are more or less _improbable_.\n\nIf then, we will interpret these sayings of Jesus in the light of a broader\noutlook than was possible to the understanding of his chroniclers, we will\nfind that what he doubtless said was:\n\n\"_Blessed in spirit_ are the poor, for theirs shall be the kingdom of\nheaven.\"\n\nAnd in his vision, which extended beyond the times in which he lived, and\nforesaw that the attainment of cosmic consciousness must involve a degree\nof physical hardship, he said:\n\n\"Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for\ntheirs is the kingdom of heaven.\"\n\nA survey of the world's progress will readily prove the fact that those who\nhave bent their talents and their energies toward the uplift of the race,\nhave done so under great stress, and in the face of persistent opposition.\n\nThis opposition is an accompaniment to altruistic effort, for the very\nobvious reason that the race-thought of the world is still materialistic.\n\nThe thoughts that predominate are commercial. This is due to the fact that\nthose who are wealthy have large financial interests to maintain; business\nproblems to solve; that take about all their time. The poor find the\nmaintenance of physical existence a task that absorbs the greater part of\ntheir mortal mind, and therefore, those who are devoting their time and\ntalents to the work of regeneration (the coming of the cosmic sense), are\nnecessarily in the minority, and the majority rules in thought, as in act.\n\nThe present metaphysical movement lays great stress upon worldly success\nand \"attraction\" of wealth, as an evidence of possession of power and\ntruth, but the law of equation proves that we obtain _that which we most\ndesire_. A religious system which amasses great wealth in a short time does\nso, only because its _dominant_ teaching inspires the desire for worldly\nadvancement, as the _prime requisite_.\n\nThe same is true of an individual, as of a system.\n\nNot that the attainment of cosmic consciousness is absolutely impossible to\na rich man, because a man may inherit riches and position and power, as in\nthe case of Prince Siddhartha, the Lord Buddha; or he may have set in\nmotion certain currents of desire for wealth, and later in life may change\nthat desire, when naturally, the \"business\" he has created will follow the\nlaw which instigated it, and increasing wealth will result.\n\nBut, let it be known, that Buddha renounced all his possessions, and there\nare many instances to-day of renunciation of worldly life and wealth, in\norder to attain to that supreme consciousness in which the illumined one\npossesses all that he desires, even though he have but one coat to his\nback.\n\nLet it not be thought that we mean to infer that God is partial to poverty,\nand that the rich man will be excluded from the attainment of the kingdom,\nmerely because of his riches; but if riches be any man's aim, then\nassuredly he cannot \"serve two masters\" and it will not be possible for him\nto become illumined while in pursuit of worldly goods.\n\nJesus said:\n\n\"It is easier for a camel to go through the needle's eye, than for a rich\nman to enter the kingdom of heaven.\"\n\nIt is now thoroughly established that the \"Needle's Eye\" was the name given\nto a certain narrow and difficult pass through which camels bearing heavy\nburdens, could not find room to pass, and Jesus sought to convey to his\nhearers the truth that persons bearing in their mental desires the load\nof many possessions, would hardly find room for the one supreme desire\nwhich would bring them into the kingdom (the possession of cosmic\nconsciousness).\n\nBut the most significant of the utterances of the illumined Nazarene is the\none in which he said:\n\n\"Except ye become as little children, ye can in no wise enter the kingdom\nof heaven.\"\n\nThe possession of cosmic consciousness brings with it, invariably, the\nsimplicity, the faith and _innocence_ of a little child. The child is\npleased with natural pleasures, and does not know the worldly standard of\nvaluation. And above all, the soul, while still attached to the physical\nbody, is like a little child.\n\nThe attainment of cosmic consciousness is possible only to one who has\nfirst \"got acquainted with his soul\"; when we are really soul-conscious we\npossess the innocence (not ignorance), of a little child, and we also\npossess a child's wisdom. We are, in other words, \"as wise as the serpent\nand as harmless as the dove.\" Wisdom brings with it harmlessness. The truly\nwise person would not wilfully harm any living thing; wisdom knows no\nrevenge; no \"eye for an eye\" philosophy; makes no demands.\n\nAnd what may be considered the second most significant remark of the Master\n_is_ this:\n\n\"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say Lo,\nhere; or Lo, there, for Lo, the kingdom of heaven is within you.\"\n\nJesus, although forced by the conventions of the time in which he taught to\nconform to the laws laid down by the scribes and Pharisees, influenced by\nthe strict views of the Israelites, who honored the law laid down by Moses\nand the prophets, still possessed cosmic consciousness to such an extent\nthat he knew the folly of judging others by outward appearance, and also\nof promising them cosmic consciousness in return for obedience to\nprescribed rules or commandments.\n\nWhen it would seem to his critics that he did not sufficiently emphasize\nthe traditional laws, that he was seemingly making it too simple and too\neasy for people to live, they sought to trap him into a statement that\nwould oppose the accepted commandments.\n\nBut this Jesus steadfastly refused to do. \"I came not to destroy the law,\nbut to fulfill it,\" he said.\n\nLike all those who have experienced cosmic consciousness, his policy was\none of construction, and not of destruction. Evolution accomplishes\npeacefully what revolution seeks to do by force.\n\nJesus laid little stress upon the commandments as they stood. He neither\nsought to emphasize them, nor to criticise them. All that he said was:\n\n\"A new commandment give I unto you: that ye love one another.\"\n\nAll truly illumined minds have made love the basis of their teaching, well\nknowing that where true love reigns there can be no destruction.\n\nLove conquers fear--the arch-enemy of mankind.\n\nLove makes it impossible to harm the thing loved, and universal love would\nmake it impossible, for one experiencing it, to consciously bring the\nslightest pain to any living thing.\n\nTherefore Jesus taught repeatedly the doctrine of love, and he made no new\ncommandments other than this.\n\nIt has been said that inasmuch as Jesus laid greater emphasis upon this one\ngreat need than had any previous inspired teacher, he deserves greater\nhonor.\n\nTheologians whose purpose it is to promulgate the doctrine of Christianity\nas superior to others, use this argument in support of their contention\nthat Jesus was the only true son of God.\n\nBut this view will be recognized as prejudiced, and lacking in the very\nessentials taught and practiced by the Christ.\n\nIn the light of Illumination, it will readily be perceived that all persons\nexpressing any considerable degree of cosmic consciousness, have taught the\nsame fundamental and simple truths, as witness the following:\n\nDo as you would be done by.--_Persian._\n\nDo not that to a neighbor which you would take ill from him.--_Grecian_.\n\nWhat you would not wish done to yourself, do not unto others.--_Chinese_.\n\nOne should seek for others the happiness one desires for\noneself.--_Buddhist_.\n\nHe sought for others the good he desired for himself. Let him pass\non.--_Egyptian_.\n\nAll things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do you even so to\nthem.--_Christian_.\n\nLet none of you treat his brother in a way he himself would dislike to be\ntreated.--_Mohammedan_.\n\nThe true rule in life is to guard and do by the things of others as they do\nby their own.--_Hindu_.\n\nThe law imprinted on the hearts of all men is to love the members of\nsociety as themselves.--_Roman_.\n\nWhatsoever you do not wish your neighbor to do to you, do not unto him.\nThis is the whole law. The rest is a mere exposition of it.--_Jewish_.\n\nWhile it is probable that Jesus gave no directions or methods of\nattainment, yet the records of his sayings give the clue to the character\nof his instruction to those of his students who were capable of\nunderstanding, particularly as shown in a recently discovered papyrus,\nauthentically identified as belonging to the early Christians. This-papyrus\nwas discovered by Egyptian explorers in 1904. Although the papyrus was more\nor less mutilated, the meaning is sufficiently clear to justify the\ntranslators in inserting certain words. However, we will here quote only\nsuch of the \"sayings\" as were decipherable, without having anything\nsupplied by translators.\n\nEvidently having been asked when his kingdom should be realized on earth he\nanswered:\n\n\"When ye return to the state of innocence which existed before the fall\"\n(i.e., when manifestation will be perceived in its illusory character, and\nthe soul freed from the enchantment of the mortal consciousness).\n\n\"I am come to end the sacrifices and if ye cease not from sacrificing, the\nwrath shall not cease from you.\"\n\nThis evidently corresponds to his saying, \"They who use the sword, shall\nperish by the sword.\"\n\nThe conclusion is obvious that hate and destruction beget their kind, and\nthat love is the only power that can prevent the continuation of\ndestruction. This may with equal logic, be applied to the sacrifice of\nanimal and bird life for food, as well as the sacrifices of blood which\nformed a part of ancient ritual.\n\nHis disciples said unto him:\n\n\"When will thou be manifest to us, and when shall we see thee?\"\n\nHe saith:\n\n\"When ye shall be stripped and not be ashamed.\"\n\nThe time is near at hand, when the body will not be regarded as something\nvile and unworthy; something of which to be ashamed and to keep covered, as\nif God's handiwork were vile.\n\nIn fact, the function of sex, from the extreme of ancient sex worship to\nthe present extreme of sex degradation, shall soon be established in its\nrightful place. It is not the purpose of this book to deal with this\nimportant subject, so we will say no more here.\n\nNevertheless, this saying attributed to Jesus, the Christ, resurrected as\nit has been in this century, is timely. It is almost universally conceded\nthat the time of the \"Second Coming of Christ\" is already at hand. Just\nwhat this second coming means, is interpreted differently by theologians,\nphilosophers, scientists, poets and prophets, but there is a unanimous\nbelief that the time is here and now.\n\nThose who have the comprehension to read the signs of the times, are\ncheerfully expectant of radical changes in our attitude toward the function\nof sex and the divinity of love.\n\n\"When the two shall be one, and the outside as the inside, and the male as\nthe female, neither male nor female--these things if ye do, the kingdom of\nMy Father shall come.\"\n\nAgain, the meaning of these words depends upon the degree of illumination\nof the person reading them. They mean the present inevitable equality of\nthe sexes, when each individual will count not as a mere man or a mere\nwoman, but as an important factor in the world's redemption. Or, it will\nappeal to a few as the promised time when every soul which has completed\nthe circle, ended its karma, and claimed its god-hood, unites with the soul\nof its mate, the two blending into one perfect whole--the Father-Mother God\nof the New Dispensation.\n\nAgain we find in these newly discovered papyri a phrase bearing upon this\nsubject:\n\nTo the question of Salome:\n\n\"How long shall death reign?\" The Lord answered:\n\n\"As long as ye women give birth. For I am come to make an end to the works\nof the woman.\"\n\nThen Salome said to him:\n\n\"Then have I done well that I have not given birth?\"\n\nTo this the Lord replied:\n\n\"Eat of every herb, but of the bitter one eat not.\"\n\nWhen Salome asked when it shall be known what she asked, the Lord said:\n\n\"When you tread under foot the covering of shame, and when two is made one,\nand the male with the female, neither male nor female.\"\n\n\"How be it, he who longs to be rich is like a man who drinketh sea water:\nthe more he drinketh the more thirsty he becomes, and never leaves off\ndrinking till he perish.\"\n\n\"Blessed is he who also fasts that he may feed the poor, for it is more\nblessed to give than to receive.\"\n\n\"Let thy alms sweat in thy hand until thou knowest to whom thou givest.\"\n\nIt is not probable that any one who reads these words will make the mistake\nof assuming that Jesus advised us to inquire into the character or the\nantecedents of the one on whom we are to bestow a gift. Neither are we\nexpected to ascertain whether he belongs to our \"lodge\" or not.\n\nIf you give alms as though to an inferior; if you assume a self-righteous\nmind; if you give for hope of reward; then withhold your gift. In fact,\nunless you can realize that you are giving as though to yourself, keep your\ngift. It will do neither you nor the one receiving it, any good whatsoever.\n\n\"Good things must come. He is blessed through whom they come.\"\n\nThis presages the coming of the kingdom of love on earth, as a foregone\nconclusion. Yet, those who lend themselves _consciously_, as _servants_ of\nthe cause--helpers in the establishment of the new order--are blessed.\n\n\"Love covereth a multitude of sins, so be not joyful save when you look\nupon your brother's countenance in love.\"\n\n\"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, for the greatest of crimes is\nthis: if a man shall sadden his brother's spirit.\"\n\n\"For our possessions are in heaven; therefore, sons of men, purchase unto\nyourselves by these transitory things which are not yours, _what is yours_,\nand shall not pass away.\"\n\nFor the Lord has said in a mystery: \"Unless ye make the right as the left;\nthe left as the right; the top as the bottom; and the front as the\nbackward, ye shall not know the kingdom of God.\"\n\n\"Keep the flesh holy and the seal undented, that ye may receive eternal\nlife.\"\n\n\"If a man shall sadden his brother's spirit.\" This indeed is the greatest\nof all crimes, because out of man's inhumanity to man springs all the sin\nand sorrow of the world.\n\n\"Unless ye make the right as the left; the top as the bottom; the front as\nthe backward.\" The meaning should be clear enough and the words are worthy\nof the illumined mind of Jesus of Nazareth.\n\nThe great sin is separation; segregation; \"My and mine\" as opposed to \"Thee\nand thine.\" To the truly illumined one there can be no \"mine,\" as distinct\nfrom another's.\n\nThe sinner is no less my brother than is the saint. The beggar is as dear\nto me as is the rich man. Every man is a king. There are no \"chosen of God\"\nto the one who has entered cosmic consciousness.\n\n\"For our possessions are in heaven. Use, therefore, the things of earth,\nwhile ye are living in the flesh (sons of men), in such a way and to such\npurpose that they will not enchain you in the maze of manifestation, and\nthereby require that you postpone your claim to immortality.\"\n\nThis statement is distinct enough, as is also the one: \"He who longs to be\nrich is like a man drinking sea water. The more he drinketh, the more\nthirsty he becomes and _never leaves off drinking until he perisheth_.\"\n\nThe hypnotism of the external world is too well illustrated to need further\ncomment. The man who enters upon the pursuit of worldly possessions;\ntemporal power; personal ambition; thinking that when he shall have\nattained all these, then will he turn to the solution of the mystery of\nmysteries, finds himself caught in the trap of his desires, and he can not\nescape. He is under the spell of enchantment, wherein the unreal appears as\nreal, and the real becomes the illusory.\n\nTo sum up, the fragmentary accounts we have of the life and character of\nthe man Jesus are conclusive proof that he had entered into full\nrealization of cosmic consciousness.\n\nLike Lord Gautama, he appeared to his disciples after he had left the\nphysical body, \"glorified,\" as one who had taken on immortality.\n\nNor was there ever, it would appear, any doubt in the mind of Jesus, of his\nright to godhood, while retaining, also, his self-consciousness.\n\nThe intellectual superiority.\n\nThe wonderful spiritual magnetism and attraction of his presence.\n\nThe absolute, unwavering conviction of his mission, and of his immortality.\n\nThe transfiguration, after his \"temptation\" and his prophetic vision.\n\nHis great love and compassion for even his enemies.\n\nThese are what made him indeed a Christ.\n\nThe term \"Christ\" and the term \"Buddha\" are synonymous. They both mean one\nwho has entered into his godhood. One who has attained to cosmic\nconsciousness, leaving forever the limitations of the lower self.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nPAUL OF TARSUS\n\n\nThe system of worship known as Christianity owes its systematic foundation\nto Paul of Tarsus. Paul's sudden conversion from zealous persecution of the\nfollowers of Jesus of Nazareth to an equally zealous propaganda of the\ngospel of Light, offers a perfect example of the peculiar oncoming of\ncosmic consciousness.\n\nPaul evidently occupied a position of authority among the Jews and it is\nequally probable that he was near the same age as Jesus, as he is referred\nto as a \"young man named Saul\" in Bible accounts of the persecution of the\nearly Christians. His illumination occurred shortly after the crucifixion,\nprobably within two or three years.\n\nIn Acts, chapter 8-9, we read:\n\n\"And Saul was consenting unto his death (Stephen). And at that time there\nwas a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem and they\nwere all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea, and Samaria,\nexcept the apostles.\n\n\"And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation\nover him.\n\n\"As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and\nhailing men and women, committed them to prison.\n\n\"And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings, and slaughter against the\ndisciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest and desired of him letters\nto Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether\nthey were men or women, he might bring them bound, unto Jerusalem.\n\n\"And as he journeyed he came near unto Damascus, and suddenly there shone\nround about him a light from heaven.\n\n\"And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him: 'Saul, Saul,\nwhy persecutest thou me?'\n\n\"And he said: 'Who art thou, Lord?' And the Lord said: 'I am Jesus, whom\nthou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.'\n\n\"And he trembling and astonished, said: 'Lord, what wilt thou have me do?'\n\n\"And the Lord said unto him: 'Arise and go into the city, and it shall be\ntold thee what thou must do.'\n\n\"And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but\nseeing no man.\n\n\"And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened he saw no\nman; but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.\n\n\"And he was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink.\n\n\"And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias, and to him\nsaid the Lord in a vision: 'Ananias;' and he said: 'Lord, behold, I am\nhere.' And the Lord said unto him: 'Arise and go into the street called\nStraight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus;\nfor behold, he prayeth. And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias\ncoming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.'\nThen Ananias answered: 'Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much\nevil he hath done by thy saints at Jerusalem. And here he hath authority\nfrom the high priests to bind all that call on thy name.' But the Lord said\nunto him: 'Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name\nbefore the Gentiles, and kings, and children of Israel. For I will show him\nhow great things he must suffer for my name's sake.'\n\n\"And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his\nhands on him, said: 'Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto\nthee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive\nthy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.' And immediately there fell\nfrom his eyes, as it had been scales; and he received sight forthwith, and\narose and was baptized.\"\n\nLike all those who have entered cosmic consciousness, Paul sought the\nblessing of solitude, that he might readjust himself to his changed\nviewpoint, since he now saw things in the light of the larger\nconsciousness.\n\nHe says:\n\n\"Immediately I conferred, not with flesh and blood; neither went I up to\nJerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went away into\nArabia; and again I returned unto Damascus.\"\n\nThe irresistible longing to get away from the sights and sounds of the\nexternal world, is one of the most characteristic phases of Illumination.\nIt is only in order that they may take up the work of bringing to others\nthis great blessing that those who have entered into the larger\nconsciousness, eventually bring themselves to enter the life of the world.\n\nThus, we find that Paul's great desire to bring the light to others, took\nhim again to Damascus; and from the records we have of his utterances and\nhis mode of living, we may gather some idea of the great change which\nIllumination made in him.\n\nCertain statements, which characterize all who possess cosmic\nconsciousness, in any degree of fullness, emanate from the converted Paul.\nHe says:\n\n\"I must needs glory though it is not expedient, but I will come to visions\nand revelations of the Lord--for if I should desire to glory I shall not be\nfoolish; for I shall speak the truth; but I forbear, lest any man should\naccount of me above that which he seeth me to be, or heareth from me. And\nby reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations--wherefore that I\nshould not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,\na messenger of Satan to buffet me.\"\n\nOne of the characteristics of the Illumined is a deep humility. This is\nnot in any sense an abasement of the self; not in any sense a feeling that\nit is necessary to \"bow down and worship;\" nor yet a tinge of that nameless\nfear, which the carnal-minded self feels in the presence of exalted beings.\n\nIt is a humility born of the desire to make every one know and feel a sense\nof kinship with him; he hesitates to reveal all that has been revealed to\nhim, lest those who hear his words may think he is either \"speaking\nfoolishly,\" through egotism, or else that they may look upon him as a being\nsuperior, more exalted, than themselves. And a divine compassion and love\nfor his fellow being characterizes the Illumined. Again, Paul wishes to\nmake clear the fact that he is still living in the physical body; living\nthe life of a body, and until liberated from the conditions that influence\nthe external world, he is himself subject to the lesser consciousness, and\nhe does not want them to expect more of the personal self, than that\npersonal self is capable of, under the conditions in which he lives.\n\nHe desires no personal exaltation, or praise, therefore he hesitates to\nspeak fully of his own revelations, but prefers to teach by reference to\nthe experiences of others.\n\nNevertheless, he tries to make clear the fact that he is not merely\npreaching a \"belief,\" which he has embraced because of doubt or fear, or\nbecause it is a creed. Indeed, he is free from the \"law\" and is, therefore,\nnot merely following a system, neither the old one which he has abandoned,\nnor a new one which he has accepted. He speaks from the \"Lord,\" which is no\nother than the highest authority that man may know--namely, the authority\nthat comes from the realization of his own imperishable godhood--the effect\nof cosmic consciousness.\n\nHe says:\n\n\"For I make known to you brethren, as touching the gospel as preached by\nme, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor\nwas I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Christ.\n\n\"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. But before faith came, we\nwere kept inward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should\nafterwards be revealed. For ye are all sons of God through faith in Christ.\nFor with freedom did Christ set us free.\"\n\nThis we take to refer to his former adherence to, and belief in, the system\nof worship taught by the Jews, as a necessary and probably the only \"way of\nsalvation\" acceptable to God. He wishes his hearers to understand that he\nis not bound by adherence to any creed; neither the old one, nor yet the\nnew one, but that what he preached came from the light of cosmic\nconsciousness, in which there is no law, nor sense of law. Cosmic\nconsciousness gives to the illumined one a sense of freedom (Christ means\ncosmic consciousness, and not a personality).\n\nCosmic consciousness confers, above all else, perhaps, a sense of freedom\nfrom every form of bondage.\n\nThe duty and the obligations that bind the average person, are impossible\nto the cosmically conscious one. Not that he displays indifference toward\nthe welfare and the rights of others. Far from that, he feels an added\nsense of responsibility for the irresponsible; an overwhelming compassion\nfor the unfortunate, and a relationship greater than ever to mankind.\n\nBut this sense of freedom causes him to do all _in love_, which he hitherto\ndid because it was so \"laid down in the law.\"\n\nAgain St. Paul makes this plain:\n\n\"The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness,\ngoodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance; against such as these there\nis no law--neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new\ncreature.\"\n\nWhen we are armored with the \"fruit of the spirit,\" we have no need for\nrules of conduct; for methods of salvation; or for any of the bonds that\nare necessary to the merely sense-conscious man.\n\nPlainly, Paul recognized the fact that systems of religion, of philosophy,\nof rules and ethics of intercourse, are necessary only so long as man\nremains on the sense-conscious plane. When Illumination comes, there comes\nwith it absolute freedom. God does not want to be worshipped on bended\nknee; by rites and ceremonies; by obedience to commandments, but the\nundisciplined soul acquires power and poise through these exercises, and in\ntime grows to the full stature of god-consciousness.\n\nNor is intellectual greatness to be confounded with the godlike character\nof the one who has attained to Illumination.\n\nElsewhere in these pages we have made the distinction between knowledge and\nwisdom. Knowledge alone can never bring a soul into the path of\nIllumination. Wisdom will point the way, but love is the unerring guide to\nthe very goal.\n\nSt. Paul's expression of this fact is concise, and to the point. This\nobservation alone, stamps him as one possessing a very high degree of\nrealization of what cosmic consciousness is.\n\n\"If any man thinketh that he is wise among you in this world, let him\nbecome a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is\nfoolishness to God.\"\n\nThe worldly wise man or woman asks \"how much do I get?\" The truly wise\nperson cares nothing at all for possessions. He only asks \"how much can I\ngive?\"\n\nAnd although we find in the marts of commercialism a contempt for the\ngullible, and the credulous; the trusting and the confiding, let it be\nknown that the \"smart\" bargainer will indeed smart for his smartness, for\nin the light of cosmic consciousness, this alleged \"wisdom\" of men,\nappears as utter foolishness; wasted effort; a perversion of opportunity.\n\nBecause \"all these things shall pass away.\"\n\nLove alone is imperishable.\n\nLove alone is the savior of the human race, and whenever we fail to act\nfrom motives of love, we are disloyal to the light within us.\n\nAgain says St. Paul:\n\n\"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am\nas sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.\n\n\"And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all\nknowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have\nnot love, I am nothing.\n\n\"And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be\nburned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.\n\n\"_LOVE NEVER FAILETH_.\n\n\"But whether there be prophecies they shall be done away; whether there be\ntongues they shall cease; whether there be knowledge it shall be done away.\nFor we know in part and we prophecy in part, but when that which is perfect\nis come, that which is in part shall be done away.\"\n\nIt must be remembered that in the days of St. Paul the high priests and the\nprophets were accounted the wisest and most exalted persons in the\ncommunity.\n\nThe ability to prophecy presupposed a special favor of the God of the Jews.\nSt. Paul's exposition of the changed viewpoint that comes to one who has\nentered into cosmic consciousness, was therefore aptly illustrated by his\nopen avowal that there was a far greater power--a more exalted state of\nconsciousness, than that of the gift of prophecy and of \"knowing all\nmysteries;\" that state of one in which love was the ruler, and in order\nthat they might the more fully comprehend the simplicity, and yet the\nperfection, of this state of consciousness, he made clear the fact that no\none truly who became \"a new creature\", as he characterized this change,\never exalted himself, or made high claims; or became exclusive, or\n\"superior,\" or \"holy,\" in the sense the latter word had been used.\n\nHow, then, would they know when they had attained to this state of\nconsciousness, of which he spoke, and which they but dimly understood?\n\nHow might they know when they had found this great love that was to make\nthem \"a new creature\"?\n\nFirst of all, they might know because:\n\n_LOVE NEVER FAILETH_.\n\nLove suffereth long and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not\nitself; is not puffed up, does not behave unseemly; seeketh not its own; is\nnot provoked; taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness,\nbut rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things; believeth all things;\nhopeth all things; endureth all things.\n\nIn fact, _LOVE NEVER FAILETH_. Love is always a safe guide. No matter what\nmay be said to the contrary; no matter how much suffering it entails; no\nmatter how seemingly fruitless the sacrifice; or how ungrateful the\nresults, _love_ never faileth.\n\nHow can it fail when we \"seek not our own,\" but only love for love's own\nsake, without regard to compensation or gratitude?\n\nSt. Paul, with all who have expressed in any considerable degree this\ncosmic realization, seems to have expected a time, when cosmic\nconsciousness should become so general, as to bring the kingdom of love\nupon earth. This corresponds to the Millenium, which has always been\nprophesied, and which the present era fulfills, in all the \"signs of the\ntimes\" that were to usher in The Dawn.\n\nMoreover, the idea that there shall come a time when death shall be\novercome, is a persistent part of every prophecy, and of every religious\ncult. In these days we find that science is speculating upon the\nprobability of discovering a specific for senile death, as well as for the\nfinal elimination of death from disease and accidents.\n\nWhether or not this is to be the manner of \"overcoming the last enemy,\" the\nfact remains that the almost universally held idea of physical immortality\nhas a basis in fact, which this postulate of science symbolizes.\n\n\"For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortality must put\non immortality, but when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,\nand this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the\nsaying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'\"\n\nSo said St. Paul, and his words show clearly that before his time there had\nbeen a prophecy and belief in the final triumph of love over death, not as\nan article of faith, but as a common knowledge.\n\nSt. Paul speaks of the time when \"we shall not all sleep, but we shall all\nbe changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.\n\n\"And then come to the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God,\neven the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule, all authority, and\nall power.\"\n\nUnquestionably, if all men on earth in the flesh and in the astral, were to\ncome into the light of the cosmic consciousness, there would be no need for\nlaws, for authority or power. The kingdom, which signifies the earth as a\nplanet, would indeed be delivered to God, which means Love, and \"Love never\nfaileth.\"\n\nAnd while we admit that these words of St. Paul may be applied to\nindividual attainment of cosmic consciousness, and not refer to an era of\nearth life, in which the fruits of this larger consciousness are to be\ngathered in the physical, yet we maintain that the argument for such an\nhypothesis is strong indeed. He says:\n\n\"For the earnest expectation of creation waiteth for the revealing of the\nsons of God.\"\n\nFor the term \"sons of God\" interpret \"those who have attained cosmic\nconsciousness,\" and we may readily parallel this with the many allusions to\nthe earth's redemption, with which history is strewn.\n\nTo \"redeem\" the earth is quite comparable with the idea of redeeming any\npart of the earth's surface--either as a nation, or as a tract of\nland--which is not yielding the best that it is capable of.\n\nIn the cosmogony of the heavens, the planet earth may well be likened to a\nterritory that has possibilities, but which needs cultivation;\nencouragement; work; to bring out its possibilities and make it a place of\ncomfort and enlightenment.\n\nSo we have been informed--and an understanding of deeper occultism will\nbear out the information--that this earth is being made a \"fit habitation\nfor the gods\" (i.e., cosmically conscious beings, to whom love is the only\nauthority necessary).\n\nPaul clearly alludes to the redemption of the body, as well as the\ncontinuance of the life of the soul, when he says:\n\n\"For the creation was subject to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason\nof him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be\ndelivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of\nthe children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and\ntravaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also,\nWHICH HAVE THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT, even we ourselves, waiting for\nour adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body.\"\n\nSt. Paul declared that even those who had glimpsed that wonderful\nIllumination (which have the first fruits of the spirit), are not free from\nthe travail of the sense-conscious world, until such time as the cycle has\nbeen completed, and those who \"are already in Christ, and then they that\nare Christ's at his coming,\" shall have made possible the perfected\ncreation, and brought about the reign of love on earth.\n\nSo that, when a sufficient number of souls shall have attained to this\nIllumination (cosmic consciousness), the \"last enemy shall be overcome.\"\nThat this present era gives promise of this hope, is evident.\n\nThe attainment of cosmic consciousness brings with it immunity from\nreincarnation, as a necessity--as a law, but it does not provide against\nthe coming of avatars--\"sons of God,\" who are to \"deliver Creation from the\nbondage of corruption.\"\n\nThis also is clearly stated by Paul:\n\n\"There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. For the law of the\nspirit of life in Christ made me free from the law of sin and death.\"\n\nThere never is any doubt in the minds of those who have attained cosmic\nconsciousness, that they are spiritual beings and immortal--free from the\nlaw of karma; neither is there any thought of evil or of condemnation.\n\nThey know that men are gods in embryo and that until they have been born\ninto the cosmic consciousness--the realization of their _reality as\nspirit_, they must travail; but this sense-conscious state is not to be\ncondemned any more than the child is to be condemned because it has not\nyet grown to adultship.\n\nThe advice of St. Paul himself was simple enough and straight-forward\nenough. It was devoid of all subtleties; free from complexity; free from\nfear, or haste, or doubt, or strife, while confidently awaiting the\nuniversal attainment of Illumination.\n\nTo the question as to what path to follow; what should be done to gain\nthis great boon, if the law of the ancient Hebrews was not to be followed\nin its literal significance, Paul said:\n\n\"Whatsoever things are honest; whatsoever things are true; whatsoever\nthings are just; whatsoever things are pure; whatsoever things are lovely;\nwhatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there\nbe any praise, _THINK ON THESE THINGS_.\"\n\nWhich is to say, do not seek the letter of the way of Illumination. Do not\nlook for forms and ceremonies and rules and systems, but look for that\nwhich is clean and pure and good wherever it may be found.\n\nIn St. Paul we have fulfilled all the points that characterize those who\nhave been blessed with the great Illumination.\n\nHis broad outlook upon humanity, which refused to see evil or to condemn\nwhere formerly he had been noted for his zeal in bringing to condemnation\nall whom he believed to be heretics; his conviction of immortality; his\nhumility, as far as personal aggrandizement was concerned; the great light\nin which was revealed to him the truth; the annihilation of the idea of sin\nand death; the realization that systems and laws and methods of worship and\ngiving of alms and all the by-paths which formerly he had deemed necessary,\nwere as naught compared to the great illuminating, all-embracing power of\nLove--the Savior whose kingdom should sometime be established upon\nearth--the time being when cosmic consciousness should be general.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nMOHAMMED\n\n\nDespite the fact that the followers of Mohammed, the prophet, are among the\nmost fanatical and prejudiced of all religious sects, Mohammed himself was\nunquestionably among the Illumined Ones of earth, and had attained and\nretained a high degree of cosmic consciousness.\n\nThe wars; the persecutions; the horrors that have been committed in the\nname of Islam, are perhaps a little more atrocious than any in history\nalthough the unspeakable cruelties of the Inquisition would seem to have no\nparallel.\n\nThe religion of Persia, wrongly alluded to as \"fire-worship,\" marks\nZoroaster as among the Illuminati, but as the present volume is concerned,\nin the religious aspect of it, only with those cases of Illumination which\nwe are classifying among the present great religious systems, we cite the\ncase of Mohammed, the Arab, as one clearly establishing the characteristic\npoints of Illumination.\n\nWhen Mohammed was born, in the early part of the fifth century, the\ncondition of his countrymen was primitive in the extreme.\n\nThe most powerful force among them was tribal or clan loyalty, and a\ncorresponding hatred of, and readiness to make war with, opposing clans.\n\nAlthough at the time of Mohammed's birth, Christianity had made great\nheadway in different parts of the old world, it had made very little\nimpress upon the Arabs. They worshipped their tribal gods, and there are\ntraces of a belief in a supreme God (Allah ta-ala), but they were not as a\nrace inclined to a deeply religious sentiment.\n\nOne and all, whether given to superstitions or denying a belief in Allah,\nthey dreaded the dark after-life and although the different tribes made\ntheir yearly pilgrimages to Mecca, and faithfully kissed the stone that\nhad fallen from heaven in the days of Adam, the inspiration of their\nancient prophets had long since died, and a new prophet was expected and\nlooked for.\n\nThe yearly pilgrimage to Mecca, which was at once the center of trade and\nthe goal of the religious enthusiast, was observed by all the tribes of\nArabia, but it is a question whether the pilgrimage was not more often made\nin a holiday spirit than in that of the devotee to the _Kaabeh,_ the most\nsacred temple in all Arabia.\n\nIndeed, it is agreed by all commentators, that the ancient Arab, \"In the\nTime of Ignorance,\" before the coming of Mohammed, knew little and cared\nless about those spiritual qualities that look beyond the physical; not\nquestioning, as did Mohammed, what lies beyond this vale of strife, whose\nonly exit is the dark and inscrutable face of death.\n\nBesides the tribal gods, individual households had their special Penates,\nto whom was due the first and the last salam of the returning or out-going\nhost. But in spite of all this superstitious apparatus, the Arabs were\nnever a religious people. In the old days, as now, they were reckless,\nskeptical, materialistic. They had their gods and their divining arrows,\nbut they were ready to demolish both if the responses proved contrary to\ntheir wishes. A great majority believed in no future life, nor in a\nreckoning day of good and evil.\n\nSuch, then, was the condition of thought among the various tribes when\nMohammed was born.\n\nIt was not, however, until he was past forty years of age, that the\nrevelations came to him, and although it was some time later that these\nwere set down, together with his admonitions and counsel to his followers,\nit is believed that they are for the most part well authenticated, as the\nKoran was compiled during Mohammed's lifetime, and thus, in the original,\ndoubtless represents an authentic account of Mohammed's experiences.\n\nIt is related that Mohammed's father died before his son's birth and his\nmother six years later. Thus Mohammed was left to the care of his\ngrandfather, the virtual chief of Mecca. The venerable chief lived but two\nyears and Mohammed, who was a great favorite with his grandfather, became\nthe special charge of his uncle, Aboo-Talib, whose devotion never wavered,\neven during the trying later years, when Mohammed's persecutions caused the\nuncle untold hardships and trials.\n\nAt an early age Mohammed took up the life of a sheep herder, caring for the\nherds of his kinsmen. This step became necessary because the once princely\nfortune of his noble ancestors had dwindled to almost the extreme of\npoverty, but although the occupation of sheep herder was despised by the\ntribes, it is said that Mohammed himself in later life often alluded to his\nearly calling as the time when \"God called him.\"\n\nAt the age of twenty-five he took up the more desirable post of camel\ndriver, and was taken into the employ of a wealthy kinswoman, Khadeejeh,\nwhom he afterwards married, although she was fifteen years his senior--a\ndisparity in age which means far more in the East, where physical charm\nand beauty are the only requisites for a wife, than it does in the West\nwhere men look more to the mental endowments of a wife than to the fleeting\ncharm of youth.\n\nIt is also to Mohammed's credit that his devotion to his first wife never\nwavered to the day of her death and, indeed, as long as he himself lived\nhe spoke with reverence and deep affection of Khadeejeh.\n\nWe learn that the next fifteen years were lived in the usual manner of a\nman of his station. Khadeejeh brought him wealth and this gave him the\nnecessary time and ease in which to meditate, and the never-varying\ndevotion and trust of his faithful wife brought him repose and the power to\naid his impoverished uncle, and to be regarded among the tribes as a man\nof influence.\n\nHis simple, unostentatious, and even ascetic life during these years was\nnoted. He was known as a man of extremely refined tastes and sensitive\nthough not querulous nature. A commentator says of him:\n\n\"His constitution was extremely delicate. He was nervously afraid of bodily\npain; he would sob and roar under it. Eminently unpractical in the common\nthings of life, he was gifted with mighty powers of imagination, elevation\nof mind, delicacy and refinement of feeling.\n\n\"He is more modest than a virgin behind her curtain,\" it has been said of\nhim.\n\n\"He was most indulgent to his inferiors and would not allow his awkward\nlittle page to be scolded, whatever he did. He was most affectionate toward\nhis family. He was very fond of children, and would stop them in the\nstreets and pat their little cheeks. He never struck anyone in his life.\nThe worst expression he ever made use of in conversation was: 'What has\ncome to him--may his forehead be darkened with mud.'\n\n\"When asked to curse some one he replied: 'I have not been sent to curse,\nbut to be a mercy to mankind.' He visited the sick, followed any bier he\nmet, accepted the invitation of a slave to dinner, mended his own clothes,\nmilked his goats and waited upon himself.\n\n\"He never withdrew his hand out of another's palm, and turned not before\nthe other had turned.\n\n\"He was the most faithful protector of those he protected, the sweetest and\nmost agreeable in conversation; those who saw him were suddenly filled with\nreverence; those who came to him, loved him. They who described him would\nsay: 'I have never seen his like, either before or after.'\n\n\"He was, however, very nervous and restless withal, often low-spirited,\ndowncast as to heart and eyes. Yet he would at times suddenly break through\nthese broodings, become gay, talkative, jocular, chiefly among his own.\"\n\nThis picture corresponds with the temperament which is alluded to as the\n\"artistic,\" or \"psychic\" temperament, and allowing that in these days there\nis much posing and pretense, we still must admit that the quality known as\n\"temperament\" is a psychological study suggesting a stage of development\nhitherto unclassified. It is said also, that in his youth Mohammed was\nsubject to attacks of catalepsy, evidencing an organism peculiarly\n\"psychic.\"\n\nIt is evident that Mohammed regarded himself as one having a mission upon\nearth, even before he had received the revelations which announced him as a\nprophet chosen of Allah, for he long brooded over the things of the spirit,\nand although he had not, up to his fortieth year, openly protested against\nthe fetish worship of the Kureysh, yet he was regarded as one who had a\ndifferent idea of worship from that of the men with whom he came in\ncontact.\n\nGradually, he became more and more inclined to solitude, and made frequent\nexcursions into the hills, and in his solitary wanderings, he suffered\nagonies of doubt and self distrust, fearing lest he be self-deceived, and\nagain, lest he be indeed called to become a prophet of God and fail in his\nmission.\n\nHere in a cave, the revelation came. Mohammed had spent nights and days in\nfasting and prayer beseeching God for some sign, some word that would\nsettle his doubts and agonies of distrust and longing for an answer to\nlife's riddle.\n\nIt is related that suddenly during the watches of the night, Mohammed awoke\nto find his solitary cave filled with a great and wondrous light out of\nwhich issued a voice saying: \"Cry, cry aloud.\" \"What shall I cry?\" he\nanswers, and the voice answered:\n\n\"Cry in the name of thy Lord who hath created; He hath created man from a\nclot of blood. Cry--and thy Lord is the most bountiful, who hath taught by\nthe pen; He hath taught man that which he knew not.\"\n\nIt is reported that almost immediately, Mohammed felt his intelligence\nilluminated with the light of spiritual understanding, and all that had\npreviously vexed his spirit with doubt and non-comprehension, was clear\nas crystal to his understanding. Nevertheless, this feeling of assurance\ndid not remain with him at that time, definitely, for we are told that\n\"Mohammed arose trembling and went to Khadeejeh and told her what he had\nseen and heard; and she did her woman's part and believed in him and\nsoothed his terror and bade him hope for the future. Yet he could not\nbelieve in himself. Was he not perhaps, mad? or possessed by a devil?\nWere these voices of a truth from God? And so he went again on the\nsolitary wanderings, hearing strange sounds, and thinking them at one\ntime the testimony of heaven and at another the temptings of Satan, or\nthe ravings of madness. Doubting, wondering, hoping, he had fain put an\nend to a life which had become intolerable in its changings from the\nhope of heaven to the hell of despair, when he again heard the voice:\n'Thou art the messenger of God and I am Gabriel.' Conviction at length\nseized hold upon him; he was indeed to bring a message of good tidings\nto the Arabs, the message of God through His angel Gabriel. He went back\nto his faithful wife exhausted in mind and body, but with his doubts\nlaid at rest.\"\n\nWith the history of the spread of Mohammed's message we are not concerned\nin this volume. The fact that his own nearest of kin, those of his own\nhousehold, believed in his divine mission, and held to him with unwavering\nfaith during the many years of persecution that followed, is proof that\nMohammed was indeed a man who had attained Illumination. If the condition\nof woman did not rise to the heights which we have a right to expect of the\ncosmic conscious man of the future, we must remember that eastern\ntraditions have ever given woman an inferior place, and for the matter of\nthat, St. Paul himself seems to have shared the then general belief in the\ninferiority of the female.\n\nIt is undeniable that Mohammed's domestic relations were of the most\nagreeable character; his kindness and consideration were without parallel;\nhis harem was made up for the most part of women who were refused and\nscorned by other men; widows of his friends. And the fact that the prophet\nwas a man of the most abstemious habits argues the claim that compassion\nand kindness was the motive in most instances where he took to himself\nanother and yet another wife.\n\nHowever, the points which we are here dealing with, are those which\ndirectly relate to Mohammed's unquestioned illumination and the spirit of\nhis utterances as contained in the Ku-ran, corroborate the experience of\nBuddha, of Jesus, and of all whose illumination has resulted in the\nestablishment of a religious system.\n\nMohammed taught, first of all, the fact of the one God. \"There is no God\nbut Allah,\" was his cry, and, following the example, or at least\nparalleling the example of Jesus, he \"destroyed their idols\" and\nsubstituted the worship of one God, in place of the tribal deities, which\nwere a constant source of disputation among the clans.\n\nCompare the following, which is one of the five daily prayers of the\nfaithful Muslim, with the Lord's prayer as used in Christian theology.\n\n  \"In the name of God, the compassionate--the merciful.\n  Praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds,\n  The compassionate, the merciful.\n  The king of the day of judgment.\n  Thee do we worship and of Thee do we beg assistance.\n  Guide us in the right way,\n  The way of those to whom Thou hast been gracious,\n  Not of those with whom Thou art wroth, nor of the erring.\"\n\nMohammed never tired of telling his disciples and followers that God was\n\"The Very-Forgiving.\" Among the many and sometimes strangely varied\nattributes of God (The Absolute), we find this characteristic most strongly\nand persistently dwelt upon--the ever ready forgiveness and mercifulness of\nGod.\n\nEvery _soorah_ of the _Kur-an_ begins with the words: \"In the name of God,\nthe compassionate, the merciful,\" but, even as Jesus laid persistent\nemphasis upon the _love_ of God, and yet up to very recent times,\nChristianity taught the _fear and wrath_ of God, losing sight of the one\ngreat and important fact that _God is love_, and that _love is God_, so the\nMuslims overlooked the _real_ message, and the greatness and the power and\nthe fearfulness of God, is the incentive of the followers of the Illumined\nMohammed.\n\nThe following extracts from the Kur-an are almost identical with many\npassages in the Holy Scriptures of the Christian, and are comparable with\nthe sayings of the Lord Buddha.\n\n\"God. There is no God but He, the ever-living, the ever-subsisting. Slumber\nseizeth Him not nor sleep. To Him belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens\nand whatsoever is in the earth. Who is he that shall intercede with Him,\nsave by His permission?\"\n\nThe Muslim is a fatalist, but this may be due less to the teachings of the\nprophet than to the peculiar quality of the Arab nature, which makes him\nstake everything, even his own liberty upon the cast of a die.\n\nThe leading doctrine of the all-powerfulness of God seems to warrant the\nbelief in fatalism--belief which offers a stumbling block to all\ntheologians, all philosophers, all thinkers. If God is omnipotent,\nomnipresent, omniscient, how and where and in what manner can be explained\nthe necessity of individual effort?\n\nThis problem is not at all clear to the western mind, and it is equally\nobscure to that of the East.\n\nIt is said of Mohammed that when asked concerning the doctrine of\n\"fatalism\" he would show more anger than at any other question that could\nbe put to him. He found it impossible to explain that while all knowledge\nwas God's, yet the individual was responsible for his own salvation, by\nvirtue of his good deeds and words. Nevertheless, it is not unlikely that\nMohammed possessed the key to this seeming riddle; but how could it be\npossible to speak in a language which was totally incomprehensible to them\nof this knowledge--the language of cosmic consciousness?\n\nLike Jesus, who said: \"Many things I have to tell you, but you can not bear\n(understand) them now,\" so, we may well believe that Mohammed was\nhard-pressed to find language comprehensible to his followers, in which to\nexplain the all-knowingness and all-powerfulness of God, and at the same\ntime, not have them fall into the error of the _fatal_ doctrine of\nfatalism.\n\nBut throughout all his teachings Mohammed's chief concern seemed to be to\ndraw his people away from their worship of idols, and to this end he laid\nconstant and repeated emphasis upon the one-ness of God; the all-ness, the\ncompleteness of the one God; always adding \"_the Compassionate_, the\nLoving.\"\n\nThis constant allusion to the all-ness of God is in line with\nall who have attained to cosmic consciousness. Nothing more\nimpresses the illumined mind, than the fact that the universe is\nOne--uni--(one)--verse--(song)--one glorious harmony when taken in its\nentirety, but when broken up and segregated, and set at variance, we\nfind discord, even as the score of a grand operatic composition when\nplayed in unison makes perfect harmony but when incomplete, is\nnerve-racking.\n\nLike all inspired teachers, Mohammed taught the end of the world of sense,\nand the coming of the day of judgment, and the final reign of peace and\nlove. This may, of course, be interpreted literally, and applied to a life\nother than that which is to be lived on this planet, but it may also with\nequal logic be assumed that Mohammed foresaw the dawn of cosmic\nconsciousness as a race-endowment, belonging to the inheritors of this\nsphere called earth. In either event the ultimate is the same, whether the\none who suffers and attains, comes into his own in some plane or place in\nthe heavens, or whether he becomes at-one with God, The Absolute Love and\nPower of the spheres, and \"inherits the earth,\" in the days of the\non-coming higher degree of consciousness, which we are here considering.\n\nThat Mohammed realized the nothingness of form and ritual, except it be\naccompanied by sincerity and understanding, is evident in the following:\n\n\"Your turning your faces _in prayer_, towards the East and the West, is not\npiety; but the pious is he who believeth in God, and the last day, and in\nthe angels and in the Scripture; and the prophets, and who giveth money\nnotwithstanding his love of it to relations and orphans, and to the needy\nand the son of the road, and to the askers for the _freeing of slaves_; and\nwho performeth prayer and giveth the alms, and those who perform their\ncovenant when they covenant; and the patient in adversity and affliction\nand the time of violence. These are they who have been true; and these are\nthey who fear God.\"\n\nParallel with the doctrine taught by Buddha, and Jesus, is the advice to\novercome evil with good. In our modern metaphysical language, we must\ndissolve the vibrations of hate, by the power of love, instead of opposing\nhate with hate, war with war, revenge with revenge.\n\nMohammed expressed this doctrine of non-resistance thus:\n\n\"Turn away evil by that which is better; and lo, he, between whom and\nthyself was enmity, shall become as though he were a warm friend.\"\n\n\"But none is endowed with this, except those who have been patient and none\nis endowed with it, except he who is greatly favored.\"\n\nMohammed meant by these words \"he who is greatly favored,\" to explain that\nin order to see the wisdom and the glory of such conduct, one must have\nattained to spiritual consciousness. This was especially a new doctrine to\nthe people to whom he was preaching, because it was considered cowardice to\nfail to resent a blow. Pride of family and birth was the strongest trait in\nthe Arab nature.\n\nIn furtherance of this doing good to others, we find these words: \"If ye\nare greeted with a greeting, then greet ye with a better greeting, or at\nleast return it; verily. God taketh count of these things. If there be any\nunder a difficulty wait until it be easy; but if ye remit it as alms, it\nwill be better for you.\"\n\nMohammed here referred to debtors and creditors; as he was talking to\ntraders, merchants, men who were constantly buying and selling, this\nadmonition was in line with his teaching, which was to \"do unto others\nthat which you would that they do unto you.\"\n\nIn further compliance with his doctrine of doing good for good's sake\nMohammed said: \"If ye manifest alms, good will it be; but if ye conceal\nthem and give them to the poor, it will be better for you; and it will\nexpiate some of your sins.\"\n\nAlms-giving, as an ostentatious display among church members, was here\ngiven its rightful place. It is well and good to give openly to\norganizations, but it is better to give to individuals who need it,\nsecretly and quietly to give, without hope, or expectation, or desire for\nthanks, or for reward, to give for the love of giving, for the sole wish to\nmake others happy. This desire to bestow upon others the happiness which\nhas come to them, is a characteristic of the cosmic conscious man or woman.\n\nIt is comforting to know that Mohammed, like Buddha and The Man of Sorrows;\nand like Sri Ramakrishna, the saint of India, at length attained unto that\npeaceful calm that comes to one who has found the way of Illumination. It\nis doubtless impossible for the merely sense-conscious person to form any\nadequate idea of the inward urge; the agony of doubts and questionings; the\nimperative necessity such a one feels, to _KNOW_.\n\nThe sense-conscious person reads of the lives of these men and wonders why\nthey could not be happy with the things of the world. The temptation that\nwe are told came to Jesus in the garden, is typical of the state of\ntransition from sense-consciousness to cosmic consciousness. The\nsense-conscious person regards the _things of the senses_ as important. He\nis actuated by ambition or self-seeking or by love of physical comfort or\nby physical activity, to _obtain_ the possessions of sense. To such as\nthese, the agonies of mind; the physical hardships; the ever-ready\nforgiveness and the desire for peace and love of the Illuminate seem almost\nweaknesses. Therefore, they can not fully comprehend the satisfaction which\ncomes to the one who has come into a realization of illumination, through\nthe years of mental tribulation such as that endured by Mohammed and Jesus\nand Buddha.\n\nWe are told that the prophet repeatedly refuted the suggestion of his\nadoring followers that he was God himself come to earth.\n\n\"It is wonderful,\" says one of his commentators, \"with his temptations,\nhow great a humility was ever is, how little he assumed of all the godlike\nattributes men forced upon him. His whole life is one long argument for his\nloyalty to truth. He had but one answer for his worshippers, 'I am no more\nthan a man; I am only human.' * * * He was sublimely confident of this\nsingle attribute that he was the messenger of the Lord of the daybreak, and\nthat the words he spake came verily from him. He was fully persuaded that\nGod had sent him to do a great work among his people in Arabia. Nervous to\nthe verge of madness, subject to hysteria, given to wild dreaming in\nsolitary places, his was a temperament that easily lends itself to\nreligious enthusiasm.\"\n\nWhile it may be argued that Mohammed did not possess cosmic consciousness\nin the degree of fullness which we find in the life of St. Paul, for\nexample, we must take into consideration the temperament of the Arab, and\nthe conditions under which he labored. But that he had attained a high\ndegree of Illumination is beyond dispute. This fact is evidenced by the\nfollowing salient points characteristic of cosmic consciousness: A fine\nsensitive, highly-strung organization; a deep and serious thoughtfulness,\nespecially regarding the realities of life; an indifference to the call of\npersonal ambition; love of solitude and the mental urge that demands to\nknow the answer to life's riddle.\n\nFollowing the time of illumination on Mount Hara we find Mohammed\npossessing a conviction of the truth of immortality and the goodness of\nGod; we find him also with a wonderful power to draw people to him in\nloving service; and the irresistible desire to bring to his people the\nmessage of immortal life, and the necessity to look more to spiritual\nthings than to the things of the flesh. Added to this, we find Mohammed\nchanged from a shrinking, sensitive youth, given to much reflection and\nsilent meditation, into a man with perfect confidence in his own mission\nand in his ultimate victory.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nEMANUEL SWEDENBORG\n\n\nWhile the Swedenborgians, as a religious sect, are not numerically\nsufficient to be reckoned among the world's great religions, it is yet a\nfact that the followers of the great Swedish seer and scientist hold a\nprominent place among the innumerable sects which the beginning of this\ncentury finds flourishing.\n\nSwedenborg was born in Stockholm, in January, 1688, and lived to the\nadvanced age of eighty-four years.\n\nSwedenborg was well born; he was the son of a bishop of the Swedish church,\nand during his lifetime held many positions of honor. He was a friend and\nadviser of the king, and his expert knowledge of mining engineering gave\nhim a place among the scientists of his age.\n\nHe was a voluminous writer, his early work being confined to the phases of\nmaterialistic science, notably on mines and metals, and later upon man, in\nhis physiological aspect.\n\nHis \"De Cerebro and Psychologia Rationales,\" published in his fifty-seventh\nyear, showed a different Swedenborg from the one to whom his colleagues\nwere accustomed to refer with much respect.\n\nThis book dealt with man, not as a product of brute creation, but as an\nevolutionary creature, having at least a possibility of divine origin. It\nis, however, his \"Arcana Coelestia\" upon which \"The Church of the New\nJerusalem\" is founded; and it is this work which caused Swedenborg's\nfriends and colleagues to determine that he had become insane. It is, in\nfact, only within very recent years, that the so-called scientific world\nhas deigned to regard Swedenborg's revelations with any degree of serious\nand respectful attention.\n\nSwedenborg's Illumination was not, like that of so many others, who have\nfounded a new religion, a sudden influx of spiritual consciousness, but\nrather a gradual leading up to the inevitable goal, by virtue of serious\nthought, deep study, and a high order of mentality.\n\nBut that the Swedish seer received, in full measure, the blessing of cosmic\nconsciousness, is beyond doubt.\n\nSwedenborg's extremely simple habits of life; his freedom from any desire\nfor display, or for those social advantages into which he was born; his\ngentleness and unassuming manner, of which much is written by his\nfollowers, all point to him as one upon whom the blessing might readily\ndescend. Swedenborg was a vegetarian, but this seems not to be a necessary\ncharacteristic of those possessing illumination, although, when cosmic\nconsciousness shall have become almost general, vegetarianism must\ninevitably come with it, as animal life will disappear from the earth.\n\nSwedenborg, like many others who have perceived the cosmic light, evidently\nbelieved that he had been specially selected and consecrated for the work\nof the new church. That is, he took his illumination, not as an initiation\ninto the higher degrees of cosmic truth, but as a special and personal\nrevelation. This view characterizes those who founded a new, or a reformed\nreligious system, while as a matter of truth, the light that comes is a\npart of the cosmic plan, and not, as Swedenborg and others imagine, as a\npersonal revelation.\n\nHowever, Swedenborg considered himself a direct instrument in the hands of\nGod, and God is alluded to as a personality. He believed that his great\nmission was to disclose the true nature of the Bible, and to prove that it\nwas actually the inspired word of God, having an esoteric meaning, which\nhas wrongly been interpreted to apply to the creation of a material world,\nand to its history and its people, but that when understood, it explains\nclearly, the nature of God, and the nature of man, and their relation to\neach other. It should be remembered that at the time Swedenborg wrote his\ntheological works, the church had fallen into rank materialism and\nsuperstition. That Swedenborg should have received his illumination, or\nrevelation, direct from the Lord, only serves to prove that the mortal\nconsciousness clothes the revelation with whatever personality appeals to\nit, as having authority.\n\nThus, the angel Gabriel was the dictator in the case of Mohammed, and the\n\"Blessed Mother\" of the Hindu reveals to them the vision of _mukti_.\nSwedenborg says of his vision: \"God appeared to me and said, 'I am the Lord\nGod, the Creator and Redeemer of the world. I have chosen thee to unfold\nthe spiritual sense of the Holy Scriptures. I will myself dictate to thee\nwhat thou shalt write.'\"\n\nIn \"The True Christian Religion,\" published shortly before his death he\nsays: \"Since the Lord can not manifest Himself in person as has been shown,\nand yet He has foretold that He would come and establish a new church,\nwhich is the New Jerusalem, it follows that He is to do it, by means of a\nman, who is able not only to receive the doctrines of this church with his\nunderstanding, but also to publish them by the press. That the Lord has\nmanifested Himself before me, His servant, and sent me on this office, and\nthat, after this, He opened the sight of my spirit, and thus let me into\nthe spiritual world, and gave me to see the heavens and the hells and also\nto speak with spirits and angels, and this now continually for many years,\nI testify in truth; and also that, from the first day of that call, I have\nnot received anything that pertains to the doctrines of that church from my\nangel, but from the Lord alone, while I read the Word.\"\n\nIt is stated with great positiveness by Swedenborg's followers, and indeed,\napparently by the seer himself, if we may take as authoritative, the\ntranslations of his works, that the revelations accorded to him covered a\nperiod of many years, whereas, we find in most instances of cosmic\nconsciousness, the illumined ones have alluded to some specific time, as\nthe great event, even while claiming that the effect of this illumination\nremains indefinitely--in fact, forms a part of a wider area of\nconsciousness which is ever increasing.\n\nBut when we take the numerous instances of revelations, in which the devout\nones firmly believe that they and they alone have been accorded the vision,\nwe must realize that this phenomenon is impersonal, looked at as a favor to\nany one human being. By that we mean that Illumination comes to every soul\nwho has earned it, just as mathematically as the sun seems to set, after\nthe earth has made its hourly journey.\n\nPerhaps this comparison is not as clear as to say: when the normal child\nhas grown to manhood or womanhood, his consciousness has widened, beyond\nthat of the infant; not excluding that of the infant but inclusive of all\nhitherto acquired knowledge. Without in any degree lessening the\nimportance and the verity of Swedenborg's visions, it may be assumed that\nhis record of these visions and their meaning has partaken more or less of\nthe limitations of mortal mind.\n\nSpiritual consciousness can not be set down in terms of sense. The external\nworld symbolizes spiritual truths; each interpreter must of necessity weave\ninto his interpretation and attempt at finite expression of these truths,\nsomething of his own mortal consciousness; and this \"mortal mind\"\nconsciousness is bound to partake of the time and age, and conditions of\nenvironment of the person who has experienced the revelation.\n\nMaking due allowance, therefore, for the impossibility of exact expression\nof any spiritual illumination, we find in the revelation of Swedenborg\nexactly what we find in all who have attained to cosmic consciousness,\nnamely, the absolute, confidential assurance of immortal life: the\nconviction that creation is under divine love and wisdom, administered by\nCosmic Law and order, or Justice, and the final \"redemption\" (i.e.,\nevolution), of all men. In his \"Conjugal Love,\" Swedenborg touches upon the\npremise which we declare, as the foundation of all cosmic consciousness,\nnamely the attainment of spiritual union with the \"mate\" which we believe\nto be inseparable from all creation; the reunited principle which we see\nexpressed in the male and female, whether in plant, bird, animal, man, or\nangel; the \"twain made one\" which Jesus declared would be the sign manual\nof the coming of his kingdom; that is, the coming of cosmic\nconsciousness--the kingdom of pure and perfect love upon earth as it is in\nthe heavens.\n\nIn Corinthians (11: 12) we read:\n\n\"For as the woman is of the man so is the man also of the woman; for the\nwoman is not without the man, nor the man without the woman _in the Lord_.\"\n\nWhich is to say, that in the attainment of cosmic consciousness (_in the\nLord_), the \"twain are made one,\" and immortality (i.e., immunity from\nreincarnation) is gained, because of this union. God is a bi-sexual Being.\nThis fact is evidenced throughout all creation. To attain to immortality\nis to become as God. In this day and age of the world we have come into a\nrealization of the Father-Mother idea of godhood, clearly and literally\nsignifying the coming consciousness which is bi-sexual; male and female;\nperfect counterparts, or complements and through which alone, this earth\ncan be made a \"fit dwelling place for gods.\" This, too, is the message of\nthe great seer Swedenborg, as it relates to love, as it is, when rightly\nunderstood and interpreted, of all who have felt the blessing of\nperfection, as exemplified in Illumination.\n\nThe fundamental points of Swedenborg's doctrine agree with those of all\nother Illumined ones, who have founded a system of worship; a \"Way of\nIllumination\" it may be called; or in whose name such systems have been\nformed. That is, he testified to:\n\nA conviction of immortality;\n\nA realization of absolute justice, whereby all souls shall finally come\ninto cosmic consciousness.\n\nAn actual time when Christ (the cosmic illumination) shall come to earth.\n\nA great and abiding love for and patience with the frailties of his\nsense-conscious fellow-beings;\n\nA transcendent desire to bestow upon all men, the blessing of cosmic\nconsciousness.\n\nFew if any, have ever attained a full and complete realization of cosmic\nconsciousness and remained in the physical body.\n\nThose who have attained and retained the highest degree of this glimpse of\nthe Paradise of the gods, find it practically impossible to describe or\nexplain the sensations experienced, even though they are more convinced of\nthe truth and the reality of this realm than of anything in the merely\nsense-conscious life.\n\nLastly, let us not lose sight of the all-important fact that no one system,\ncreed, philosophy, or way of Illumination will answer for all types and\ndegrees of men. \"All things work together for good\" to those who have the\nkeenness of vision which precedes the full attainment of cosmic\nconsciousness, as well as to those who have grasped its full significance.\n\nThe characteristic evidence of the potentiality of the present era of the\nworld, is preeminently that of a desire for unity.\n\nThis desire is expressed in all the avenues of external life; its inner\nmeaning is obscured by commercialism and self-interest, as in trusts and\nlabor unions, but it is there nevertheless--the symbol of the inner urge\ntoward unity in consciousness.\n\nIt is found in efforts at Communism, and in allied reform movements. It is\nparticularly evident in the breaking down of church prejudices. In these\ndays a Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi find it not only expedient but\nmutually helpful, to unite in the work of municipal reform; in the\nabolition of child labor; in all things that will bring a better state of\nexistence into daily human life.\n\nThe business man uses the phrase \"let us get together on this\" without\nknowing that he is expressing in terms of sense-consciousness, the urge of\nhis own and his fellow beings' inner mind, which senses the fact of our\nunescapable Brotherhood.\n\nAll religious systems then, are good, as are all systems of philosophy.\nThey are good because they are an attempt at bringing into the perspective\nof the mortal mind the reality of the soul and the soul life; the rule of\nthe spiritually conscious ego over the physical body in order that we may\nnow, in our present incarnation, claim immortality.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nMODERN EXAMPLES OF INTELLECTUAL COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: EMERSON; TOLSTOI;\nBALZAC\n\n\nPassing over the ancient philosophers, Aristotle, Albertus Magnus,\nPlotinus, Marcus Aurelius, Pascal, Socrates, Plato, Aspasia, and others,\nall of whom had glimpsed, if not fully attained, cosmic consciousness, we\ncome to a consideration of those cases in our own day and age, in which\nthis superior consciousness has found expression through intellectual\nrather than through religious channels.\n\nOf these latter, no more illustrious example can be cited than that of\nRalph Waldo Emerson, the sage of Concord.\n\nEmerson's nature was essentially religious, but his religion was not of the\nemotional quality so often found among enthusiasts, and which is almost\nalways openly expressed when this religious enthusiasm is not balanced by\nintellectuality.\n\nAnalysis is frequently a foe to inspiration, but there are fare instances\nwhere the intellect is of such a penetrating and extraordinary quality that\nit carries the power of analysis into the unseen; in fact what we\nhabitually term the unseen is a part of the visible to this type of mind.\nTrue intellect is a natural inheritance, a karmic attribute. The spurious\nkind is the result of education, and it invariably has its limitations. It\nstops short of the finer vibrations of consciousness and denies the reality\nof the inner life of man--which inner life constitutes the _real_ to the\ncharacter of intellect that penetrates beyond _maya_.\n\nOf such a quality of intellect is that exemplified in Emerson. No mere\ntabulator of facts was he, but a dissector of the causes back of all the\nmanifestation which he observed and studied and classified with the mental\npower of a god.\n\nNor is there lacking ample proof that Emerson experienced the phenomenon of\nthe suddenness of cosmic consciousness--a degree of which he seems to have\npossessed from earliest youth.\n\nIn his essay on Nature, we find these words:\n\n\"Crossing a bare common in snow puddles at twilight, under a clouded sky,\nwithout having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I\nhave enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear.\"\n\nEmerson here alluded to a feeling of fear, which seems to have been\nexperienced during a certain stage by many of those who have entered into\ncosmic consciousness. This fear is doubtless due to the presence in the\nhuman organism of what we may term the \"animal instinct,\" which is an\ninheritance of the physical body. This same peculiar phenomenon oppresses\nalmost everyone when coming into contact with a new and hitherto untried\nforce.\n\nA certain lady, who relates her experience in entering into the cosmic\nconscious state, says: \"A certain part of me was unafraid, certain, secure\nand content, at the same time my mortal consciousness felt an almost\noverwhelming sense of fear.\"\n\nContinuing, Emerson says:\n\n\"All mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I\nsee all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am\npart or particle of God.\"\n\nEmerson's powerful intellect would naturally describe such an experience\nin intellectual terms rather than, as in the instances heretofore recorded,\nin religious phraseology, but it must not be inferred that Emerson was less\nreligious, in the true sense, than was Mohammed or St. Paul.\n\nEmerson lived in an age when orthodoxy flourished, and he and his\nassociates of the Transcendentalist cult, were regarded as non-religious,\nif not actually heretical. Therefore, it is that Emerson's keen intellect\nwas brought to bear upon everything he encountered, not only in his own\nintimate experience but also in all that he read and heard, lest he be\ntrapped into committing the error which he saw all about him, namely, of\nmistaking an accepted viewpoint as an article of actual faith. His way to\nthe Great Light lay through the jungle of the mind, but he found the path\nclear and plain and he left a torchlight along the way.\n\nEmerson fully recognized the illusory character of external life, and the\neternal verity of the soul, as witness:\n\n  \"If the red slayer thinks he slays,\n    Or if the slain thinks he is slain,\n  They know not well, the subtle ways,\n    I keep and pass and turn again.\"\n\nHorrible as is war, because of the spirit of hate and destruction it\nembodies and keeps alive, yet the fact remains that man in his soul knows\nthat he can neither slay nor be slain by the mere act of destroying the\nphysical shell called the body. It is inconceivable that human beings would\nlend themselves to warfare, if they did not know, as a part of that area of\nsupra-consciousness, that there is a _something_ over which bullets have no\npower.\n\nThis fact, regarded as a more or less vague _belief_ to the majority,\nbecomes incontrovertible fact to the person who has entered cosmic\nconsciousness. His view is reversed, and where he formerly looked from the\nsense-conscious plane forward into a _possible_ spiritual plane, he now\ngazes back over the path from the spiritual heights and sees the winding\nroad that led upward to the elevation, much as a traveller on the mountain\ntop looks back and for the first time sees all of the devious trail over\nwhich he has, climbed to his present vantage point. During the journey\nthere had been many times when he could only see the next step ahead, and\nnothing but his faith in the assurance of his fellow men who had attained\nthe summit of that mountain, could ever have sustained him through the\nperils of the climb, but once on the heights, his backward view takes in\nthe details of the journey and sees not \"through a glass darkly,\" but in\nthe clear light of achievement.\n\nSuch is the effect of cosmic consciousness to the one who has seen the\nlight.\n\n\"One of the benefits of a college education,\" says Emerson, \"is to show the\nboy its little avail.\"\n\nDoes this imply that an unlettered mind is desirable? Not necessarily, but\nthere is a phase of intellectual culture that is detrimental while it\nlasts.\n\nIt is as though one were to choke up a perfectly flowing stream which\nyielded the moisture to fertile lands, by filling the bed of the stream\nwith rocks and sticks.\n\nThe flow of the spiritual currents becomes clogged by the activities of the\nmind in its acquisition of mere knowledge, and before that knowledge has\nbeen turned into wisdom. The same truth is expressed in the aphorism \"a\nlittle knowledge is a dangerous thing.\" It is dangerous because it chains\nthe mind to the external things of life, whereas the totally unlettered (we\ndo not use the term ignorant here) person will, if he have his heart filled\nwith love, perceive the reality of spiritual things that transcend mere\nknowledge of the physical universe.\n\nBeyond this plane of mortal mind-consciousness, which is fitly described as\n\"dangerous,\" there is the wide open area of cosmic _perception_, which may\nlead ultimately to the limitless areas of cosmic consciousness. If,\ntherefore, an education, whether acquired in or out of college, so whets\nthe grain of the mind that it becomes keen and fine enough to realize that\nknowledge is valuable _ONLY_ as it leads to real wisdom, then indeed it is\na benefit; unless it does this, it is temporarily an obstruction.\n\nOut of the lower into the higher vibration; out of sense-consciousness into\ncosmic consciousness; out of organization and limitations into freedom--the\nfreedom of perfection, is the law and the purpose. This Emerson with his\nclearness of spiritual vision, saw, and this premise he subjected to the\nmicroscopic lens of his penetrating intellect. In his essay on Fate he\nsays:\n\n\"Fate involves amelioration. No statement of the Universe can have any\nsoundness which does not admit its ascending effort. The direction of the\nwhole and of the parts is toward benefit. Behind every individual closes\norganization; before him opens liberty. * * * The Better; the Best. The\nfirst and worse races are dead. The second and imperfect races are dying\nout, or remain for the maturing of higher. In the latest race, in man,\nevery generosity, every new perception, the love and praise he extorts from\nhis fellows, are certificates of advance _out of fate into freedom_.\"\n\nThis phrase, \"out of fate into freedom,\" may be read to mean, literally,\nout of the bondage of the sense-conscious life which entails rebirth and\ncontinued experience, into the light of Illumination which makes us free.\n\nFurther commenting, Emerson says:\n\n\"Liberation of the will from the sheaths and clogs of organization which he\nhas outgrown _is the end and aim of the world_ * * * The whole circle of\nanimal life--tooth against tooth, devouring war, war for food, a yelp of\npain and a grunt of triumph, until at last the whole menagerie, the whole\nchemical mass, is mellowed and refined _for higher use_ * * *\"\n\nThe sense of unity which is so inseparable from the cosmic conscious\nstate, was always uppermost in Emerson's mind. Neither did he ever\npresent as unity that state of consciousness that may be termed\norganization-consciousness--group-consciousness it is often called. He\nrealized that the person who stands for Individualism is much more than\napt to recognize his indissoluble relationship with the Cosmos. A\nperception of unity is a complement of Individualism.\n\nThat which, in modern metaphysical phraseology, is best termed \"The\nAbsolute,\" was expressed by Emerson as the Over-Soul, and this term meant\nsomething much greater, more unescapable than the anthropomorphic God of\nthe church-goers. His assurance of unity with this Divine Spiritual Essence\nwas perfect. It savors more of what is termed the religious view of life\nthan of the philosophic, but we contend that in the coming era of the\ncosmic conscious man, all life will be religious, in the true sense, and\nthat there will be no dividing line between philosophy and worship, because\nworship will consist of living the life of the spiritual man, and not in\nany set forms or rites. Bearing upon this we find Emerson saying:\n\n\"Not thanks, not prayer, seem quite the highest or truest name for our\ncommunion with the infinite--but glad and conspiring reception--reception\nthat becomes giving in its turn as the receiver is only the All-Giver in\npart and in infancy. I cannot--nor can any man--speak precisely of things\nso sublime, but it seems to me the wit of man, his strength, his grace, and\nhis tendency, his art, is the grace and the presence of God. It is beyond\nexplanation. When all is said and done, _the rapt saint is found the only\nlogician._ Not exhortation nor argument becomes our lips, but paeans of joy\nand praise. But not of adulation; we are too nearly related in the deep of\nthe mind to that we honor. It is God in us that checks the language of\npetition by a grander thought. In the bottom of the heart it is said, 'I am\nand by me, O child, this fair body and world of thine stands and grows; I\nam, all things are mine; and all mine are thine.'\"\n\nWe could quote passages from the essays ad infinitum, showing conclusively\nthat the cosmic conscious plane had been attained and retained by this\ngreat philosopher--one of the first of the early part of the century, which\nhas been prophesied as the beginning of the first faint lights of the Dawn,\nbut enough has been offered for our present purpose, that of establishing\nthe salient points of the cosmic conscious man or woman, which points are\nthe complete assurance of the eternal verity and indestructibility of the\nsoul; of its ultimate and inevitable victory over _maya_ or the \"wheel of\ncausation\"; and the joyousness and the sense of at-one-ness with the\nuniverse, which comes to the illumined one, bespeaking an unquenchable\noptimism and an utter destruction of the sense of sin--points which\ncharacterize all who have attained to this supra-conscious state of\nBeing.\n\nThese points are all expressed repeatedly in all Emerson's utterances and\nmark him as one of the most illumined philosophers, as he was one of the\ngreatest intellects of the last century, or of any other century.\n\n\nLEO TOLSTOI: RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHER\n\nA strange, lonely and wonderful figure was Tolstoi, novelist, philosopher,\nsocialist, artist and reformer.\n\nGreat souls are always lonely souls, estimated by sense-conscious humans.\nIn the midst of the so-called pleasures and luxuries of the senses, a wise\nsoul appears as barren of comfort as is a desert of foliage.\n\nWithout the divine optimism that comes from soul-consciousness, such a one\ncould not endure the life of the body: without the absolute assurance that\ncomes with cosmic consciousness, men like the late Count Tolstoi must needs\ndie of soul-loneliness.\n\nFrom early childhood up to the time of his Illumination Tolstoi indulged in\nseriousness of thought. Like Mohammed, great and overpowering desire to\nfathom the mystery of death took possession of him. He was ever haunted by\nan excessive dread of the \"darkness of the grave,\" and in his essay,\n\"Childhood,\" he describes with that wonderful realism, which characterizes\nall his works, the effect on a child's mind of seeing the face of his dead\nmother. This may be taken in a sense as biographical, although it is not\nprobable that Tolstoi here alludes to the death of his own mother as she\ndied when he was too young to have remembered. He describes the scene in\nthe words of Irteniev:\n\n\"I could not believe that this was her face. I began to look at it more\nclosely, and gradually discovered in it the familiar and beloved features.\nI shuddered with fear when I became sure that it was indeed she, but why\nwere the closed eyes so fallen in? Why was she so terribly pale, and why\nwas there a blackish mark under the clear skin on one cheek?\"\n\nA terror of death, and yet a haunting urge that compelled him to be forever\nthinking upon the mystery of it, is the dominant note in every line of\nTolstoi's writings up to the time which he describes as \"a change\" that\ncame over him.\n\nFor example, when Count Leo was in his 33d year, his brother Nicolai died.\nLeo was present at the bedside and described the scene with the utmost\nfrankness regarding its effect upon his mind; and again we note that awful\nfear and hopeless questioning which characterizes the sense-conscious man\nwhose intellect has been cultivated to the very edge of the line which\nseparates the self-conscious life from the cosmic conscious.\n\nThis questioning, with the fear and dread and terror of death and of the\n\"ceaseless round of births\" and the cares and sorrows of existence was\nwhat drove Prince Siddhartha from his father's court and Mohammed into the\nmountains to meditate and pray until the answer came in the light of\nillumination.\n\nIt came to Tolstoi through the very intensity of his powers of reason and\nanalysis; through the sword-like quality of mental urge--a much more\nsorrowful path than the one through the simple way of love and service and\nprayer.\n\nHis comments upon the death of his brother give us a vivid idea of the\nstate of mind of the Tolstoi of that age:\n\n\"Never in my life has anything had such an effect upon me. He was right\n(referring to his brother's words) when he said to me there is nothing\nworse than death, and if you remember that death is the inevitable goal of\nall that lives, then it must be confessed that there is nothing poorer than\nlife. Why should we be so careful when at the end of all things nothing\nremains of what was once Nicolai Tolstoi? Suddenly he started up and\nmurmured in alarm: 'What is this?' He saw that he was passing into\nnothingness.\"\n\nFrom the above it will be seen that the Tolstoi of those days was a\nmaterialist pure and simple. \"He saw that he was passing into nothingness,\"\nhe said of his brother, as though there could be no question as to the\nnothingness of the individual consciousness that he had known as Nicolai,\nhis brother.\n\nThis soul-harrowing materialism haunted Tolstoi during all the years of his\nyouth and early manhood, and threw him constantly into fits of melancholy\nand inner brooding. He could neither dismiss the subject from his mind, nor\ncould he bring into the area of his mortal consciousness that serene\ncontemplation and optimistic line of reasoning which marks all that Emerson\nwrote.\n\nTolstoi's morbid horror of decay and death was not in any sense due to a\nlack of physical courage. It was the inevitable repulsion of a strong and\nrobust animalism of the body, coupled with a powerful mentality--both of\nwhich are barriers to the \"still small voice\" of the soul, through which\nalone comes the conviction of the nothingness of death.\n\nA biographer says of Tolstoi:\n\n\"The fit of the fear of death which at the end of the seventies brought him\nto the verge of suicide, was not the first and apparently not the last and\nat any rate not the only one. He felt something like it fifteen years\nbefore when his brother Nicolai died. Then he fell ill and conjectured the\npresence of the complaint that killed his brother--consumption. He had\nconstant pain in his chest and side. He had to go and try to cure himself\nin the Steppe by a course of koumiss, and did actually cure himself.\nFormerly these recurrent attacks of spiritual or physical weakness were\ncured in him, not by any mental or moral upheavals, but simply by his\nvitality, its exuberance and intoxication.\"\n\nThe birth of the new consciousness which came to Tolstoi a few years later,\nwas born into existence through these terrible struggles and mental\nagonies, inevitable because of the very nature of his heredity and\neducation and environment. Although as we know, he came of gentle-folk,\nthere was much of the Russian peasant in Tolstoi's makeup. His organism,\nboth as to physical and mental elements, was like a piece of solid iron,\nuntempered by the refining processes of an inherent spirituality. His\nnever-ceasing struggle for attainment of the degree of cosmic consciousness\nwhich he finally reached was wholly an intellectual struggle. He possessed\nsuch a power of analysis, such a depth of intellectual perception, that he\nmust needs go on or go mad with the strain of the question unanswered.\n\nTo such a mind, the admonition to \"never mind about those questions; don't\nthink about them,\" fell upon dull ears. He could no more cease thinking\nupon the mysteries of life and death than he could cease respiration. Nor\ncould he blindly trust. He must _know_. Nothing is more unescapable than\nthe soul's urge toward freedom--and freedom can be won only by liberation\nfrom the bondage of illusion.\n\nTolstoi's friends and biographers agree that along about his forty-fifth\nyear, a great moral and religious change took place. The whole trend of his\nthoughts turned from the mortal consciousness to that inner self whence\nissues the higher qualities of mankind.\n\nFrom a man who, although he was a great writer and a Russian nobleman, was\nyet a man like others of his kind, influenced by traditionary ideas of\nclass and outward appearance; a man of conventional habits and ideas;\nTolstoi emerged a free soul. He shook off the illusion of historical life\nand culture, and stood upon free, moral ground, estimating himself and his\nfellows by means of an insight which ignores the world's conventions and\ndespises the world's standards of success. In short, Tolstoi had received\nIllumination and henceforth should he reckoned among those of the new\nbirth.\n\nIn his own words, written in 1879, this change is described:\n\n\"Five years ago a change took place in me. I began to experience at first\ntimes of mental vacuity, of cessation of life, as if I did not know why I\nwas to live or what I was to do. These suspensions of life always found\nexpression in the same problem, 'Why am I here?' and then 'What next?' I\nhad lived and lived and gone on and on till I had drawn near a precipice; I\nsaw clearly that before me there lay nothing but destruction. With all my\nmight I endeavored to escape from this life. And suddenly I, a happy man,\nbegan to hide my bootlaces that I might not hang myself between the\nwardrobes in my room when undressing at night; and ceased to take a gun\nwith me out shooting, so as to avoid temptation by these two means of\nfreeing myself from this life. * * *\n\n\"I lived in this way (that is to say, in communion with the people) for two\nyears; and a change took place in me. What befell me was that the life of\nour class--the wealthy and cultured--not only became repulsive to me, but\nlost all significance. All our actions, our judgments, science, and art\nitself, appeared to me in a new light. I realized that it was all\nself-indulgence, and that it was useless to look for any meaning in it. I\nhated myself and acknowledged the truth. Now it had all become clear to\nme.\"\n\nFrom this time on, Tolstoi's life was that of one who had entered into\ncosmic consciousness, as we note the effects in others. Desire for solitude\na taste for the simple, natural things of life, possessed him. The\nprimitive peasants and their coarse but wholesome food appealed to him. It\nwas not a penance that Tolstoi imposed upon himself, that caused him to\nabandon the life of a country gentleman for that of a hut in the woods.\nThe penance would come to such a one from enforced living in the glare of\nthe world's artificialities. Cosmic consciousness bestows above all things\na taste for simplicity; it restores the normal condition of mankind, the\nintimacy with nature and the feeling of kinship with nature-children.\n\nIt is not our purpose here to enter into any detailed biography of these\ninstances of cosmic consciousness. The point we wish to make is the fact\nthat the birth of this new consciousness frequently comes through much\nmental travail and agonies of doubt, speculation and questioning; but that\nit is worth the price paid, however seemingly great, there can be no\npossible distrust.\n\n\nHONORE DE BALZAC\n\nBalzac should head this chapter, if we were considering these philosophers\nin chronological order, as Balzac was born in 1799, preceding Emerson by a\nmatter of four years. But Balzac's peculiar temperament, might almost be\nclassed as a religious rather than strictly intellectual example of cosmic\nconsciousness. Of the latter phase or expression of this \"new\" sense, as\npresent-day writers frequently call it, Emerson is the most perfect\nexample, because he was the most balanced; the most literary, in the\nstrict interpretation of the word.\n\nBalzac's place in literature is due far more to his wonderful spiritual\ninsight, and his powerful imagination, than to his intellectuality, or to\nliterary style. But that he was an almost complete case of cosmic\nconsciousness is evident in all he wrote and in all he did. His life was\nabsolutely consistent with the cosmic conscious man, living in a world\nwhere the race consciousness has not yet risen to the heights of the\nspiritually conscious life.\n\nBucke comments upon his decision against the state of matrimony, because,\nas Balzac himself declared, it would be an obstacle to the perfectibility\nof his interior senses, and to his flight through the spiritual worlds, and\nsays: \"When we consider the antagonistic attitude of so many of the great\ncases toward this relation (Gautama, Jesus, Paul, Whitman, etc.), there\nseems little doubt that anything like general possession of cosmic\nconsciousness must abolish marriage as we know it to-day.\"\n\nBalzac explains this seeming aversion to the marriage state _as we know it\nto-day_, in his two books, written during his early thirties, namely, Louis\nLambert and Seraphita. \"Louis Lambert\" is regarded as in the nature of an\nautobiography, since Balzac, like his mouthpiece, Louis, viewed everything\nfrom an inner sense--from intuition, or the soul faculties, rather than\nfrom the standard of mere intellectual observation, analysis and synthesis.\nThis inner sense, so real and so thoroughly understandable to those\npossessing it, is almost, if not quite, impossible of description to the\ncomplete comprehension of those who have no intimate relationship with this\ninner vision. To the person who views life from the inner sense, the soul\nsense (which is the approach to, and is included in, cosmic consciousness),\nthe external or physical life is like a mirror reflecting, more or less\ninaccurately, the reality--the soul is the gazer, and the visible life is\nwhat he sees.\n\nBalzac expresses this view in all he says and does. \"All we are is in the\nsoul,\" he says, and the perfection or the imperfection of what we\nexternalize, depends upon the development of the soul.\n\nIt is this marvelously developed inner vision that makes marriage, on the\nsense-conscious plane, which is the plane upon which we know marriage as it\nis to-day, objectionable to Balzac.\n\nHis spirit had already united with its spiritual counterpart, and his soul\nsought the embodiment of that union in the flesh. This he did not find in\nthe perfection and completeness which from his inner view he knew to exist.\n\nBarriers of caste, or class; of time and space; of age; of race and color;\nof condition; may intervene between counterparts on the physical plane;\nnay, one may be manifesting in the physical body and the other have\nabandoned the body, but as there is neither time nor space nor condition to\nthe spirit, this union may have been sought and found, and _reflected to_\nthe mortal consciousness, in which case marriage with anything less than\nthe _one_ true counterpart would be unsatisfactory, if not altogether\nobjectionable.\n\nWith this view in mind, Seraphita becomes as lucid a bit of reading as\nanything to be found in literature.\n\nSeraphita is the perfected being--the god into which man is developing, or\nmore properly speaking, _unfolding_, since man must unfold into that from\nwhich he started, but with consciousness added.\n\nEverywhere, in ancient and modern mysticism, we find the assumption that\nGod is dual--male and female. The old Hebrew word for God is\nplural--Elohim.\n\nHumankind invariably and persistently, even though half-mockingly, alludes\nto man and wife as \"one\"; and men and women speak of each other, when\nmarried, as \"my other half.\"\n\nThat which persists has a basis in fact, and symbolizes the perfect type.\nWhat we know of marriage as it is to-day, proves to us beyond the shadow of\na doubt, that the man-made institution of marriage does not make man and\nwoman one, nor insure that two halves of the same whole are united. The\nhighest type of men and women to-day are at best but half-gods, but these\nare prophecies of the future race, \"the man-god whom we await\" as Emerson\nputs it. But that which we await is the man-woman-god, the Perfected Being,\nof whom Balzac writes in Seraphita.\n\nIt has been said that Madame Hanska, whom the author finally married only\nsix months previous to his death, was the original of Seraphita, but it\nwould seem that this great affection, tender and enduring as it was,\npartook far more of a beautiful friendship between two souls who knew and\nunderstood each other's needs, than it did of that blissful and ecstatic\nunion of counterparts, which everywhere is described by those who have\nexperienced it, as a sensation of _melting or merging into_ the other's\nbeing.\n\nSeraphita is the embodiment, in human form, of the _idea_ expressed in the\nworld-old belief in a perfected being; whose perfection was complete when\nthe two halves of the _one_ should have found each other.\n\nThe inference is very generally made that Balzac believed in and sought to\nexpress the idea of a bi-sexual individual--a _personality_ who is complete\nin himself or herself _as a person_; one in which the intuitive, feminine\nprinciple and the reasoning, masculine principle had become perfectly\nbalanced--in short, an androgynous human.\n\nThis idea is apparently further substantiated by the fact that Seraphita\nwas loved by Minna, a beautiful young girl to whom Seraphita was always\nSeraphitus, an ideal lover; and by Wilfrid, to whom Seraphita represented\nhis ideal of feminine loveliness, both in mind and body; a young girl\npossessing marvelous, almost miraculous, wisdom, but yet a woman with\nhuman passions and human virtues--his ideal of wifehood and motherhood.\n\nBut whatever the idea that Balzac intended to convey, whether, as is\ngenerally believed, Seraphita was an androgynous being, or whether she\nsymbolized the perfection of soul-union, our contention is that this union\nis not a creation of the imagination, but the accomplishment of the plan of\ncreation--the final goal of earthly pilgrimage; the raison d'etre of love\nitself.\n\nOne argument against the idea that Seraphita was intended to illustrate an\nandrogynous being, rather than a perfected human, who had her spiritual\nmate, is found in the words in which she refused to marry Wilfrid, although\nBalzac makes it plainly evident that she was attracted to Wilfrid with a\ndegree of sense-attraction, due to the fact that she was still living\nwithin the environment of the physical, and therefore subject to the\nillusions of the mortal, even while her spiritual consciousness was so\nfully developed as to enable her to perceive and realize the difference\nbetween an attraction that was based largely upon sense, and that which was\nof the soul.\n\nWilfrid says to her:\n\n\"Have you no soul that you are not seduced by the prospect of consoling a\ngreat man, who will sacrifice all to live with you in a little house by the\nborder of a lake?\"\n\n\"But,\" answers Seraphita, \"I am loved with a love without bounds.\"\n\nAnd when Wilfrid with insane anger and jealousy asked who it was whom\nSeraphita loved and who loved her, she answered \"God.\"\n\nAt another time, when Minna, to whom she had often spoken in veiled terms\nof a mysterious being who loved her and whom she loved, asked her who this\nperson was, she answered:\n\n\"I can love nothing here on earth.\"\n\n\"What dost thou love then?\" asked Minna.\n\n\"Heaven\" was the reply.\n\nThis obscurity and uncertainty as to what manner of love it was that\nabsorbed Seraphita, and who was the object of it, could not have been\npossible had it been the usual devotion of the _religeuse_.\n\nSeraphita, whose consciousness extended far beyond that of the people about\nher, could not have explained to her friends that the invisible realms were\nas real to her as the visible universe was to those with only\nsense-consciousness. It was impossible to explain to them that she had\nfound and knew her mate, even though she had not met him in the physical\nbody.\n\nTo Wilfrid she said she loved \"God.\" To Minna she used the term \"Heaven,\"\nand when Minna questioned: \"But art thou worthy of heaven when thou\ndespisest the creatures of God?\" Seraphita answered:\n\n\"Couldst thou love two beings at once? Would a lover be a lover if he did\nnot fill the heart? Should he not be the first, the last, the only one? She\nwho loves will she not quit the world for her lover? Her entire family\nbecomes a memory; she has no longer a relative. The lover! she has given\nhim her whole soul. If she has kept a fraction of it, she does not love. To\nlove feebly, is that to love? The word of the lover makes all her joy, and\nquivers in her veins like a purple deeper than blood; his glance is a light\nwhich penetrates her; she dissolves in him; there, where he is, all is\nbeautiful; he is warmth to the soul: he irradiates everything; near him\ncould one know cold or night? He is never absent; he is ever within us; we\nthink in him, to him, for him. Minna, that is the-way I love.\"\n\nAnd when Minna, like Wilfrid, \"seized by a devouring jealousy,\" demanded to\nknow \"whom?\" Seraphita answered, \"God.\" This she did because the one whom\nshe loved became her God. We are told that \"love makes gods of men.\"\nPerfect love, the love of those who are spiritual-mates--soul-mates--the\n\"man-woman-god whom we await,\" becomes an immortal: and immortals are gods.\n\nMoreover if Seraphita had intended to teach the love of the religious\ndevotee to The Absolute instead of a perfected sex-love, she would not have\npointed out to both Wilfrid and Minna that which she, in her superior\nvision, her supra-consciousness, perceived, namely, that Wilfrid and Minna\nwere really intended for spiritual mates, and that what they each saw in\nher was really a prophecy of their own perfected and spiritualized love.\n\nThe subject is one that is positively incomprehensible and unexplainable to\nthe average mind. All mystic literature, when read with the eyes of\nunderstanding, exalts and spiritualizes sex. The latter day degeneration of\nsex is the \"trail of the serpent,\" which Woman is to crush with her heel.\nAnd Woman is crushing it to-day, although to the superficial observer, who\nsees only surface conditions, it would appear as though Woman had fallen\nfrom her high estate, to take her place on a footing with man. This view is\nthe exoteric, and not the esoteric, one.\n\nThey who have ears hear the inner voice, and they who have eyes see with\nthe inner sight. The mystery of sex is the eternal mystery which each must\nsolve for himself before he can comprehend it, and when solved eliminates\nall sense of sin and shame; brings Illumination in which everything is made\nclear and makes man-woman immortal--_a_ god.\n\nSwedenborg's theory of Heaven as a never-ending honeymoon in which\nspiritually-mated humans dwell, has been denounced by many as \"shocking\" to\na refined and sensitive mind. But this idea is shocking only because even\nthe most advanced minds are seldom Illumined, their advancement being along\nthe lines of intellectual research and _acquired knowledge_, which, as we\nhave previously explained, is not synonymous with _interior wisdom_.\n\nThe illumined mind is bound to find in the eternal and ever-present fact of\nsex, the key to the mysteries--the password to immortal godhood.\n\nThe subject is one that cannot be set forth in printed words; this fact is,\nindeed, the very Plan of Illumination. It cannot be _taught_. It must be\n_found_. Only those who have glimpsed its truth can even imperfectly point\nthe way in which it _may_ be discovered. No teacher can guarantee it. It is\nthe most evanescent, the most delicate, the most indescribable thing in the\nCosmos. It is therefore the most readily misinterpreted and misunderstood.\n\nBalzac doubtless understood, not as a matter of perception of a truth but\nas an experience, and this fact, if no other, marks him as one having a\nvery high degree of cosmic consciousness.\n\nSeraphita called herself a \"Specialist.\" When Minna inquired how it was\nthat Seraphitus could read the souls of men, the answer was:\n\n\"I have the gift of Specialism. Specialism is an inward sight that can\npenetrate all things; you will understand its full meaning only through\ncomparison. In the great cities of Europe works are produced by which the\nhuman hand seeks to represent the effects of the moral nature as well as\nthose of the physical nature, as well as those of the ideas in marble. The\nsculptor acts on the stone; he fashions it; he puts a realm of ideas into\nit. There are statues which the hand of man has endowed with the faculty of\nrepresenting the whole noble side of humanity, or the evil side of it; most\nmen see in such marbles a human figure and nothing more; a few older men, a\nlittle higher in the scale of being, perceive a fraction of the thoughts\nexpressed in the statue; but the Initiates in the secrets of art are of the\nsame intellect as the sculptor; they see in his work the whole universe of\nthought. Such persons are in themselves the principles of art; they bear\nwithin them a mirror which reflects nature in her slightest manifestations.\nWell, so it is with me; I have within me a mirror before which the moral\nnature, with its causes and its effects, appears and is reflected. Entering\nthus into the consciousness of others I am able to divine both the future\nand the past * * * though what I have said does not define the gift of\nSpecialism, for to conceive the nature of that gift we must possess it.\"\n\nThis describes in terms similar to those employed by others who possess\ncosmic consciousness, the results of this inner light, which Seraphita\ncalls a \"mirror.\"\n\nAnd yet, with this seemingly exhaustive and lucid exposition of the effects\nof Illumination, Seraphita declares that \"to conceive the nature of this\ngift we must possess it.\"\n\nBalzac further comments upon what he terms this gift of Specialism, which\nis cosmic consciousness or illumination, thus:\n\n\"The specialist is necessarily the loftiest expression of man--the link\nwhich connects the visible to the superior worlds. He acts, he sees, he\nfeels through his _inner being_. The abstractive _thinks_. The instinctive\nsimply _acts_. Hence three degrees for man. As an instinctive he is below\nthe level; as an abstractive he attains it; as a specialist he rises above\nit. Specialism opens to man his true career; the Infinite dawns upon\nhim--he catches a glimpse of his destiny.\"\n\nThe merely sense-conscious man is the man-animal; the abstractive man is\nthe average man and woman in the world to-day--the human who is evolving\nout of the mental into the spiritual consciousness. The specialist is the\ncosmic conscious one, the one who \"catches a glimpse of his destiny.\"\n\nBalzac, in company with all who attain cosmic consciousness, had a great\ncapacity for suffering; and this soul-loneliness became crystalized into\nspiritual wisdom, which he expressed in the words and in the manner most\nlikely to be accepted by the world.\n\nHow else can that divine union to which we are heirs and for which we are\neither blindly, consciously, or supra-consciously, striving, be described\nand exploited without danger of defilement and degeneracy, save and except\nby the phrase \"unity with God\"?\n\nAll mystics have found it necessary to veil the \"secret of secrets,\" lest\nthe unworthy (because _unready_) defile it with his gaze, even as the\nsinful devotee prostrates himself hiding his face, while the priest raises\nthe chalice containing the holy eucharist in the ceremony of the mass.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nILLUMINATION AS EXPRESSED IN THE POETICAL TEMPERAMENT\n\n\nPoetry is the natural language of cosmic consciousness. \"The music of the\nspheres\" is a literal expression, as all who have ever _glimpsed_ the\nbeauties of the spiritual realms will testify.\n\n\"Poets are the trumpets which sing to battle. Poets are the unacknowledged\nlegislators of the world,\" said Shelley.\n\nNot that all poets are aware, in their mortal consciousness, of their\ndivine mission, or of their spiritual glimpses.\n\nThe outer mind, the mortal or carnal mind--that part of our organism whose\noffice it is to take care of the physical body, for its preservation and\nits well-being, may be so dominant as, to hold in bondage the _atman_, but\nit can not utterly silence its voice.\n\nThus the true poet is also a seer; a prophet; a spiritually-conscious\nbeing, for such time, or during such phases of inspiration, as he becomes\nimbued with the spirit of poetry.\n\nA person who writes rhymes is not necessarily a poet. So, too, there are\npoets who do not express their inspirations according to the rules of metre\nand syntax.\n\nBetween that which Balzac tabulated as the \"abstractive\" type of human\nevolvement and that which is fully cosmic in consciousness, there are many\nand diverse degrees of the higher faculties; but the poet always expresses\nsome one of these degrees of the higher consciousness; indeed some poets\nare of that versatile nature that they run the entire gamut of the\nemotional nature, now descending to the ordinary normal consciousness which\ntakes account only of the personal self; again ascending to the heights of\nthe impersonal fearlessness and unassailable confidence that is the\nheritage of those who have reached the full stature of the \"man-god whom we\nawait\"--the cosmic conscious race that is to be.\n\nAll commentators upon modern instances of Illumination unite in regarding\nWalt Whitman as one of the most, if not _the most_, perfect example of whom\nwe have any record of cosmic consciousness and its sublime effects upon the\ncharacter and personality of the illumined one.\n\nWhitman is a sublime type for reasons which are of first importance in\ntheir relation to character as viewed from the ideals of the cosmic\nconscious race-to-be.\n\nMoralists have criticized Whitman as immoral; religionists have deplored\nhis lack of a religious creed; literary critics have denied his claim to\nhigh rank in the world of literature; but Walt Whitman is unquestionably\nwithout a peer in the roundness of his genius; in the simplicity of his\nsoul; in the catholicity of his sympathy; in the perfect poise and\nself-control and imperturbability of his kindness. His biographers agree as\nto his never-failing good nature. He was without any of those fits of\nunrest and temperamental eccentricities which are supposed to be the \"sign\nmanual\" of the child of the poetic muse.\n\nIn Whitman it would seem that all those petty prejudices against any\nnationality or class of men, were entirely absent. He exalted the\ncommon-place, not as a pose, nor because he had given himself to that task,\nbut because to him there was no common-place. In the cosmic perception of\nthe universe, everything is exalted to the plane of _fitness_. As to the\npure all things are pure, so to the one who is steeped in the sublimity\nof Divine Illumination, there is no high or low, no good or bad, no white\nor black, or rich or poor; all--all is a part of the plan, and, in its\nplace in cosmic evolution, it _fits_.\n\nWhitman cries:\n\n\"All! all! Let others ignore what they may, I make the poem of evil also, I\ncommemorate that part also; I am myself just as much evil as good, and my\nnation is, and I say there, is in fact no evil.\"\n\nCompared to the religious aspect of cosmic consciousness in which, previous\nto the time of Illumination, the devotee had striven to rise to spiritual\nheights through disdaining the flesh, this note of Whitman's is a new\nnote--the nothingness of evil as such; the righteousness of the flesh and\nthe holiness of earthly, or human, love, bespeaks the prophet of the New\nDispensation; the time hinted of by Jesus, the Master, when he said, \"when\nthe twain shall be one and the outside as the inside,\" as a sign and symbol\nof the blessed time to come when the kingdom he spoke of (not his personal\nkingdom, but the kingdom which he represented, the kingdom of Love), should\ncome upon earth.\n\nWhitman's illumination is essentially poetic; not that it is not also\nintellectual and moral; but after his experience--at least an experience\nmore notable than any hitherto recorded by him, in or about his\nthirty-fifth year--we find his conversation invariably reflecting the\nbeauty and poetical imagery of his mind. He may be said to have lived and\nmoved and had his being in a state of blissful unconsciousness of anything\nunclean or impure, or unnatural.\n\nThis absence of _consciousness of evil_ is in no wise synonymous with a\ntype of person who _exalts_ his undeveloped animal tendencies under the\nguise of liberation from a sense of sin. Neither is this discrimination\neasy of attainment to any but those who _realize_ in their own hearts the\nvery distinct difference between the nothingness of sin and the pretended\nacceptance of perversions as purity.\n\nWhile we are on this point we must again emphasize the truth that cosmic\nconsciousness cannot be gained by prescription; there is no royal road to\n_mukti_. Liberation from the lower _manas_ can not be bought or sold, it\ncan not be explained or comprehended, save by those to whom the attainment\nof such a state is at least _possible_ if not _probable_.\n\nIllustrative of his sense of unity with all life (one of the most salient\ncharacteristics of the fully cosmic conscious man), are these lines of\nWhitman's:\n\n  \"Voyaging to every port, to dicker and adventure;\n  Hurrying with the modern crowd, as eager and fickle as any;\n  Hot toward one I hate, ready in my madness to knife him;\n  Solitary at midnight in my back yard, my thoughts gone from me a long\n      while;\n  Walking the hills of Judea, with the beautiful gentle God by my side;\n  Speeding through space--speeding through Heaven and the stars.\"\n\nOriental mysticism tells us that one of the attributes of the liberated one\nis the power to read the hearts and souls of all men; to feel what they\nfeel; and to so unite with them in consciousness that we _are_ for the time\nbeing the very person or thing we contemplate. If this be indeed the test\nof godhood, Whitman expresses it in every line:\n\n  \"The disdain and calmness of olden martyrs;\n  The mother condemned for a witch, burnt with dry wood, her children\n      gazing on;\n  The hounded slave that flags in the race, leans by the fence, blowing,\n      covered with sweat;\n  The twinges that sting like needles his legs and neck--the murderous\n      buckshot and the bullets;\n  All these I feel, or am.\"\n\nSeeking to express the sense of knowing and especially of _feeling_, and\nthe bigness and broadness of life, the scorn of petty aims and strife; in\nshort, that interior perception which Illumination brings, he says:\n\n  \"Have you reckoned a thousand acres much? have you reckoned the earth\n      much?\n  Have you practised so long to learn to read?\n  Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?\n  Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all\n      poems;\n  You shall possess the good of the earth and sun--there are millions of\n      suns left;\n  You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through\n      the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books;\n  You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me;\n  You shall listen to all sides, and filter them from yourself.\n  I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and\n      the end;\n  But I do not talk of the beginning nor the end.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  \"There was never any more inception than there is now;\n  Nor any more youth or age than there is now;\n  And will never be any more perfection than there is now,\n  Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.\"\n\nA perception of eternity as an ever-present reality is one of the\ncharacteristic signs of the inception of the new birth.\n\nBirth and death become nothing more nor yet less, than events in the\nprocedure of eternal life; age becomes merely a graduation garment; God\nand heaven are not separated from us by any reality; they become every-day\nfacts.\n\nWhitman tells of the annihilation of any sense of separateness from his\nsoul side, in the following words:\n\n  \"Clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my\n      soul.\"\n\nHe did not confound his mortal consciousness, the lower _manas_, with the\nhigher--the soul; neither did he recognize an impassable gulf between them.\n\nWhile admittedly ascending to the higher consciousness from the lower,\nWhitman refused to follow the example of the saints and sages of old, and\nmortify or despise the lower self--the manifestation. He had indeed _struck\nthe balance_; he recognized his dual nature, each in its rightful place and\nwith its rightful possessions, and refused to abase either \"I am\" to the\nother. He literally \"rendered unto C\u00e6sar the things that are C\u00e6sar's,\" by\nclaiming for the flesh the purity and the cleanliness of God's handiwork.\n\nIn Whitman, too, we find an almost perfect realization of immortality and\nof blissfulness of life and the complete harmony and unity of his soul with\n_all there is_. Following closely upon the experience that seems to have\nbeen the most vivid of the many instances of illumination which he enjoyed\nthroughout a long life, he wrote the following lines, indicative of the\nemotions immediately associated with the influx of illumination:\n\n  \"Swiftly arose and spread around me, the peace and joy and knowledge that\n      pass all the art and argument of earth;\n  And I know that the hand of God is the elder hand of my own,\n  And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own,\n  And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my\n      sisters and lovers,\n  And that a kelson of creation is love.\"\n\nIn lines written in 1860, about seven years after the first vivid instance\nof the experience of illumination which afterward became oft-recurrent,\nWhitman speaks of what he calls \"Perfections,\" and from what he writes we\nmay assume that he referred to those possessing cosmic consciousness, and\nthe practical impossibility of describing this peculiarity and accounting\nfor the alteration it makes in character and outlook.\n\nSays Whitman:\n\n  \"Only themselves understand themselves, and the like of themselves,\n  As souls only understand souls.\"\n\nIt has been pointed out that Whitman more perfectly illustrates the type of\nthe coming man--the cosmic conscious race, because Whitman's illumination\nseems to have come without the terrible agonies of doubt and prayer and\nmortification of the flesh, which characterize so many of those saints and\nsages of whom we read in sacred literature. But it must not be inferred\nfrom this that Whitman's life was devoid of suffering.\n\nA biographer says of him:\n\n\"He has loved the earth, sun, animals; despised riches, given alms to every\none that asked; stood up for the stupid and crazy; devoted his income and\nlabor to others; according to the command of the divine voice; and was\nimpelled by the divine impulse; and now for reward he is poor, despised,\nsick, paralyzed, neglected, dying. His message to men, to the delivery of\nwhich he devoted his life, which has been dearer in his eyes (for man's\nsake) than wife, children, life itself, is unread, or scoffed and jeered\nat. What shall he say to God? He says that God knows him through and\nthrough, and that he is willing to leave himself in God's hands.\"\n\nBut above and beyond all this, is the sense of oneness with all who suffer\nwhich is ever a heritage of the cosmic conscious one, even while he is, at\nthe same time, the recipient of states of bliss and certainty of\nimmortality, and melting soul-love, incomprehensible and indescribable to\nthe non-initiate. Whitman's calm and poise was not that of the\nice-encrusted egotist. It is the poise of the perfectly balanced man-god\nequally aware of his human and his divine attributes; and justly estimating\nboth; nor drawing too fine a line between.\n\n  \"I embody all presence outlawed or suffering;\n  See myself in prison, shaped like another man,\n  And feel the dull unintermitted pain.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  \"For me the keepers of convicts shoulder their carbines and keep watch;\n  It is I left out in the morning, and barr'd at night.\n  Not a mutineer walks handcuffed to jail, but I am handcuffed and walk by\n      his side;\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  \"Not a youngster is taken for larceny, but I go up too, and am tried and\n      sentenced.\n  Not a cholera patient lies at the last gasp but I also lie at the last\n      gasp;\n  My face is ash-colored--my sinews gnarl--away from me people retreat.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  \"Askers embody themselves in me, and I am embodied in them;\n  I project my hat, sit shame-faced and beg.\"\n\nIf any one imagines that Whitman was not a religious man, let him read the\nfollowing:\n\n  \"I say that no man has ever yet been half devout enough;\n  None has ever yet adored or worshipped half enough;\n  None has begun to think how divine he himself is, and how certain the\n      future is.\"\n\nThere is a sublime confidence and worship in these words which belittles\nthe churchman's hope and prayer that God may be good to him and bless him\nwith a future life. Whitman's philosophy, less specific as to method, is\nassuredly more certain, more faithful in effect. Whitman had the experience\nof being immersed in a sea of light and love, so frequently a phenomenon\nof Illumination; he retained throughout all his life a complete and perfect\nassurance of immortality.\n\nHis sense of union with and relationship to all living things was as much a\npart of him as the color of his eyes and hair; he did not have to remind\nhimself of it, as a religious duty.\n\nHe experienced a keen joy in nature and in the innocent, childlike\npleasures of everyday things, and at the same time possessed a splendid\nintellect.\n\nAll consciousness of sin or evil had been erased from his mind and actually\nhad no place in his life.\n\n\nALFRED, LORD TENNYSON\n\nIn the case of Lord Tennyson, we have a definite recognition of two\ndistinct states of consciousness, finally culminating in a clear experience\nof cosmic consciousness; this experience was so positive as to leave no\ndoubt or indecision in his mind regarding the reality of the spiritual, and\nthe illusory character of the external life.\n\nIn truth Tennyson had so fixed his consciousness in the spiritual rather\nthan in the external, that he looked out from that inner self, as through\nthe windows of a house; he was prepared, as he said, to believe that his\nbody was but an imaginary symbol of himself, but nothing and no one could\npersuade him that the real Tennyson, the _I am_ consciousness of being\nwhich was he, was other than spiritual, eternal, undying.\n\nLike so many others, notably Whitman, who have realized a more or less full\ndegree of cosmic consciousness, Tennyson was deeply and reverently\nreligious, although not partisanly connected with church work. Tennyson's\nearly boyhood was marked by experiences which usually befall persons of the\npsychic temperament. As he himself described these states of consciousness,\nthey were moments in which the ego transcended the limits of self\nconsciousness and entered the limitless realm of spirit.\n\nThey do not tabulate with the ordinary trance condition of the\nspiritualistic medium, who subjects his own self consciousness to a\n\"control,\" although Tennyson always believed that the best of his writings\nwere inspired by, and written under \"the direct influence of higher\nintelligences, of whose presence he was distinctly conscious. He felt them\nnear him and his mind was impressed by their ideas.\"\n\nThe point which we emphasize is that these peculiar states of consciousness\nare not synonymous with the western idea of trance as seen in mediumship,\nalthough Tennyson uses the term \"trance\" in describing them.\n\nHe says:\n\n\"A kind of walking trance I have frequently had, quite up from boyhood,\nwhen I have been all alone. This has often come upon me through repeating\nmy own name to myself silently until all at once, as it were, out of the\nintensity of the consciousness of individuality, the individuality itself\nseemed to dissolve and fade into boundless being.\"\n\nIt is a fact that children of a peculiarly sensitive or psychic temperament\nseem to have strange ideas regarding the name by which they are called, and\nnot infrequently become confused and filled with an inexplicable wonderment\nat the sound of their own name. This phenomenon is much less rare than is\ngenerally known.\n\nIn Tennyson's \"Ancient Sage\" this experience of entering into cosmic\nconsciousness is thus described:\n\n  \"More than once when I\n  Sat all alone, revolving in myself,\n  The word that is the symbol of myself,\n  The mortal limit of the Self was loosed,\n  And passed into the nameless, as a cloud\n  Melts into heaven. I touched my limbs; the limbs\n  Were strange, not mine; and yet no shade of doubt,\n  But utter clearness, and thro' loss of self\n  The gain of such large life as matched with ours\n  Were sun to spark--unshadowable in words.\n  Themselves but shadows of a shadow-world.\"\n\nTennyson's illumination is certain, clearly defined, distinct and\ncharacteristic, although his poems are much less cosmic than those of\nWhitman and of many others. There is, however, in the above, all that is\ndescriptive of that state of consciousness which accompanies liberation\nfrom the illusion--the _enchantment_ of the merely mortal existence.\n\nWords are, as Tennyson fitly says, but \"shadows of a shadow-world\"; how\nthen may we hope to define in terms comprehensible to sense-consciousness\nonly, emotions and experiences which involve loss of _self_, and at the\nsame time gain of the _Self_?\n\nTennyson's frequent excursions into the realm of spiritual consciousness\nwhile still a child, bears out our contention that many children not\ninfrequently have this experience, and either through reserve or from lack\nof ability to explain it, keep the matter to themselves; generally losing\nor \"outgrowing\" the tendency as they enter the activities of school life,\nand the mortal mind becomes dominant in them. This is especially true of\nthe rising generation, and we personally know several clearly defined\ninstances which have been reported to us, during conversations upon the\ntheme of cosmic consciousness.\n\n\nYONE NOGUCHI\n\nAny one who has ever had the good fortune to read a little book of verse\nentitled \"From the Eastern Seas,\" by Yone Noguchi, a young Japanese, will\nat once pronounce them a beautiful and perhaps perfect example of verse\nthat may be correctly labeled \"cosmic.\"\n\nNoguchi was under nineteen years of age when he penned these verses, but\nthey are thoughts and expressions possible only to one who lives the\ngreater part of his life within the illumination of the cosmic sense. They\nare so delicate as to have little, if any, of the mortal in them.\n\nIt is also significant that Noguchi in these later years (he is now only a\nlittle past thirty), does not reproduce this cosmic atmosphere in his\nwritings to such an extent, due no doubt to the fact that his daily\noccupation (that of Professor of Languages in the Imperial College of\nTokio), compels his outer attention, excluding the fullness of the inner\nvision.\n\nThe following lines, are perfect as an exposition of spiritual\nconsciousness in which the lesser self has become submerged:\n\n  \"Underneath the shade of the trees, myself passed into somewhere as a\n      cloud.\n  I see my soul floating upon the face of the deep, nay the faceless face\n      of the deepless deep--\n  Ah, the seas of loneliness.\n  The silence-waving waters, ever shoreless, bottomless, colorless, have no\n      shadow of my passing soul.\n  I, without wisdom, without foolishness, without goodness, without\n      badness--am like God, a negative god at least.\"\n\nThe almost perpetual state of spiritual consciousness in which the young\npoet lived at this time is apparent in the following lines:\n\n  \"When I am lost in the deep body of the mist on a hill,\n  The universe seems built with me as its pillar.\n  Am I the god upon the face of the deep, nay--\n  The deepless deepness in the beginning?\"\n\nAnd the following, possible of comprehension only to one who has glimpsed\nthe eternal verity of man's spiritual reality, and the shadow-like quality\nof the external; could have been written only by one freed from the bonds\nof illusion:\n\n  \"The mystic silence of the moon,\n  Gradually revived in me immortality;\n  The sorrow that gently stirred\n  Was melancholy-sweet; sorrow is higher\n  Far than joy, the sweetest sorrow is supreme\n  Amid all the passions. I had\n  No sorrow of mortal heart: my sorrow\n  Was one given before the human sorrows\n  Were given me. Mortal speech died\n  From me: my speech was one spoken before\n  God bestowed on me human speech.\n  There is nothing like the moon-night\n  When I, parted from the voice of the city,\n  Drink deep of Infinity with peace\n  From another, a stranger sphere. There is nothing\n  Like the moon-night when the rich, noble stars\n  And maiden roses interchange their long looks of love.\n  When I raise my face from the land of loss\n  Unto the golden air, and calmly learn\n  How perfect it is to grow still as a star.\n  There is nothing like the moon-night\n  When I walk upon the freshest dews,\n  And amid the warmest breezes,\n  With all the thought of God\n  And all the bliss of man, as Adam\n  Not yet driven from Eden, and to whom\n  Eve was not yet born. What a bird\n  Dreams in the moonlight is my dream:\n  What a rose sings is my song.\"\n\nThe true poet does not need individual experiences of either sorrow or of\njoy. His spirit is so attuned to the song of the universe; so sympathetic\nwith the moans of earthly trials, that every vibration from the heart of\nthe universe reaches him; stabs him with its sorrow, or irradiates his\nbeing with joy.\n\nJesus is fitly portrayed to us as \"The Man of Sorrows\"; even while we\nrecognize him as a self-conscious son of God--an immortal being fully aware\nof his escape from enchantment, and his heirship to Paradise.\n\nCosmic consciousness bestows a bliss that is past all words to describe and\nit also quickens the sympathies and attunes the soul to the vibrations of\nthe heart-cries of the struggling evolving ones who are still travailing in\nthe pains of the new birth. We must be willing to endure the suffering _in\norder that we may realize_ the joy; not because joy is the reward for\nsuffering, but because it is only by losing sight of the personal self that\nwe become aware of that inner Self which is immortal and blissful; and when\nwe become aware of the reality of that inner Self, we know that we are\nunited with _the all_, and must feel with all.\n\nIt would be impossible in one volume to enumerate all the poets who have\ngiven evidence of supra-consciousness. As has been previously pointed out,\nall true poets are at least temporarily aware of their dual nature--rather,\none should say, the dual phases of their consciousness. Many, perhaps, do\nnot function beyond the higher planes of the psychic vibrations, but even\nthese are aware of the reality of the soul, and the illusion of the\nsense-conscious, mortal life.\n\nDante; the Brownings; Shelley; Swinbourne; Goethe; Milton; Keats; Rosetti;\nShakespeare; Pope; Lowell--where should we stop, did we essay to draw a\nline?\n\n\nWORDSWORTH\n\nWordsworth, the poet of Nature has given us in his own words, so clearly\ncut an outline of his Illumination, that we can not resist recording here\nthe salient points which mark his experience as that of cosmic\nconsciousness, transcending the more frequent phenomenon of\nsoul-consciousness and its psychic functions.\n\nWordsworth's Ode to immortality epitomizes the lesson of the Yoga\nsutras--out of The Absolute we come, and return to immortal bliss with\nconsciousness added. Wordsworth also affords an excellent example of our\ncontention that cosmic consciousness does not come to us at any specific\nage or time. Wordsworth distinctly says that as a child he possessed this\nfaculty, as for example his oft-repeated words, both in conversation and in\nhis biography:\n\n\"Nothing was more difficult for me in childhood than to admit the notion of\ndeath, as a state applicable to my own being. It was not so much from\nfeelings of animal vivacity that my difficulty came, as from a sense of the\nindomitableness of the spirit within me. I used to brood over the stories\nof Enoch and Elijah, and almost to persuade myself that, whatever might\nbecome of others, I should be translated, in something of the same way, to\nheaven. With a feeling congenial to this, I was often unable to think of\nexternal things as having external existence, and I communed with all that\nI saw as something not apart from, but inherent in, my own immaterial\nnature. Many times while going to school have I grasped at a wall or tree,\nto recall myself from this abyss of idealism to the reality.\"\n\nIn later life, Wordsworth lost the realization of this supra-consciousness,\nin what a commentator calls a \"fever of rationalism\"; but the power of that\nwonderful spiritual vision, pronounced in his youth, could not be utterly\nlost and soon after he reached his thirtieth year, he again becomes the\nspiritual poet, fully conscious of his higher nature--the cosmic conscious\nself.\n\n\nWILLIAM SHARP--\"FIONA MACLEOD\"\n\nA pronounced instance of the two phases of consciousness, is that of the\nlate William Sharp, one of the best known writers of the modern English\nschool.\n\nIt was not until after the death of William Sharp, that the secret of this\ndual personality was given to the public, although a few of his most\nintimates had known it for several years. In the \"Memoirs\" compiled by\nElizabeth Sharp, wife of the writer, we find the following:\n\n\"The life of William Sharp divides itself naturally into two halves: the\nfirst ends with the publication by William Sharp of 'Vistas,' and the\nsecond begins with 'Pharais,' the first book signed _Fiona Macleod_.\"\n\nIn these memoirs, the point is made obvious that _Fiona Macleod_ is not\nmerely a _nom de plume_; neither is she an obsessing personality; a guide\nor \"control,\" as the Spiritualists know that phenomenon. _Fiona Macleod_,\nalways referred to by William Sharp as \"she,\" is his own higher Self--the\ncosmic consciousness of the spiritual man which was so nearly balanced in\nthe personality of William Sharp as to _appear_ to the casual observer as\nanother person.\n\nIt is said that the identity of _Fiona Macleod_, as expressed in the\nmanuscript put out under that name, was seldom suspected to be that of\nWilliam Sharp, so different was the style and the tone of the work of these\ntwo phases of the same personality.\n\nIn this connection it may be well to quote his wife's opinion regarding the\ntwo phases of personality, answering the belief of Yeats the Irish poet\nthat he believed William Sharp to be the most extraordinary psychic he\never encountered and saying that _Fiona Macleod_ was evidently a distinct\npersonality. In the Memoirs, Mrs. Sharp comments upon this and says:\n\n\"It is true, as I have said, that William Sharp seemed a different person\nwhen the Fiona mood was on him; but that he had no recollection of what he\nsaid in that mood was not the case--the psychic visionary power belonged\nexclusively to neither; it influenced both and was dictated by laws he did\nnot understand.\"\n\nMrs. Sharp refers to William Sharp and Fiona, as two persons, saying that\n\"it influenced both,\" but both sides of his personality rather than both\npersonalities, is what she claims. In further explanation she writes:\n\n\"I remember from early days how he would speak of the momentary curious\n'dazzle in the brain,' which preceded the falling away of all material\nthings and precluded some inner vision of great beauty, or great presences,\nor some symbolic import--that would pass as rapidly as it came. I have been\nbeside him when he has been in trance and I have felt the room throb with\nheightened vibration.\"\n\nOne of the \"dream-visions\" which William Sharp experienced shortly before\nhis last illness, is headed \"Elemental Symbolism,\" and was recorded by him\nin these beautiful words:\n\n\"I saw Self, or Life, symbolized all about me as a limitless, fathomless\nand lonely sea. I took a handful and threw it into the grey silence of\nocean air, and it returned at once as a swift and potent flame, a red fire\ncrested with brown sunrise, rushing from between the lips of sky and sea to\nthe sound as of innumerable trumpets.\"\n\n\"In another dream he visited a land where there was no more war, where all\nmen and women were equal; where humans, birds and beasts were no longer at\nenmity, or preyed on one another. And he was told that the young men of the\nland had to serve two years as missionaries to those who lived at the\nuttermost boundaries. 'To what end?' he asked. 'To cast out fear, our last\nenemy.' In the house of his host he was struck by the beauty of a framed\npainting that seemed to vibrate with rich colors. 'Who painted that?' he\nasked. His host smiled, 'We have long since ceased to use brushes and\npaints. That is a thought projected from the artist's brain, and its\nduration will be proportionate with its truth.'\"\n\nIn explanation of why he chose to put out so much of the creative work of\nhis brain under the signature of a woman, and how he happened to use the\nname _Fiona Macleod_, Sharp explained that when he began to realize how\nstrong was the feminine element in the book _Pharais_, he decided to issue\nthe book under a woman's name and _Fiona Macleod_ \"flashed ready-made\" into\nhis mind. \"My truest self, the self who is below all other selves must find\nexpression,\" he explained. The Self that is _above_ the other self is what\nhe should have said. The following extracts are from the _Fiona Macleod_\nphase of William Sharp and are characteristic of the Self, as evidenced in\nall instances of Illumination, particularly as these expressions refer to\nthe nothingness of death, and the beauty and power of Love. \"Do not speak\nof the spiritual life as 'another life'; there is no 'other life'; what we\nmean by that, is with us now. The great misconception of death is that it\nis the only door to another world.\" This testimony corroborates that of\nWhitman as well as of St. Paul, notwithstanding all the centuries that\nseparate the two. St. Paul did not say that man _will have_ a spiritual\nbody, but that he _has_ a spiritual body as well as a corporeal body.\n\nAfter the experience of his illumination, William Sharp, writing as _Fiona\nMacleod_ constantly testified to the ever-present reality of his spiritual\nlife; a life far more real to him than the sense-conscious life although he\nalluded to it as his dream. In one place he says:\n\n\"Now truly, is dreamland no longer a phantasy of sleep, but a loveliness so\ngreat that, like deep music, there could be no words wherewith to measure\nit, but only the breathless unspoken speech of the soul upon whom has\nfallen the secret dews.\"\n\nOf the impossibility of adequately explaining the mystery of Illumination\nand the sensations it inspires, he says, speaking through the Self of\n_Fiona Macleod_: \"I write, not because I know a mystery, and would reveal\nit, but because I have known a mystery and am to-day as a child before it,\nand can neither reveal nor interpret it.\"\n\nThis is comparable with Whitman's \"when I try to describe the best, I can\nnot. My tongue is ineffectual on its pivots.\"\n\nAnother sentence from _Fiona_:\n\n\"There is a great serenity in the thought of death, when it is known to be\nthe gate of Life.\"\n\nLike all who have gained the Great Blessing, the revelation to the mind of\nthat higher Self, that _we are_, William Sharp suffered keenly. The despair\nof the world was his, co-equal with the Joy of the Spirit. Indeed, his is\nat once the gift and the burden of the Illuminati.\n\nMrs. Mona Caird said of him: \"He was almost encumbered by the infinity of\nhis perceptions; by the thronging interests, intuitions, glimpses of\nwonders, beauties, and mysteries which made life for him a pageant and a\nsplendor such as is only disclosed to the soul that has to bear the torment\nand revelations of genius.\"\n\nThe burden of the world's sorrow; the longings and aspirations of the soul\nthat has glimpsed, or that has more fully cognized the realms of the Spirit\nwhich are its rightful home; are ever a part of the price of liberation.\nThe illumined mind sees and hears and feels the vibrations that emanate\nfrom all who are travailing in the meshes of the sense-conscious life; but\nthrough all the sympathetic sorrow, there runs the thread of a divine\nassurance and certainty of profound joy--a bliss that passes comprehension\nor description.\n\nMrs. Sharp, in the final conclusion of the _Memoirs_ says \"to quote my\nhusband's own words--ever below all the stress and failure, below all the\ntriumph of his toil, lay the _beauty of his dream_.\"\n\nIn accordance with an oft-repeated request, these lines are inscribed on\nthe Iona cross carved in lava, which marks the grave wherein is laid to\nrest the earthly form of William Sharp:\n\n  \"Farewell to the known and exhausted,\n  Welcome the unknown and illimitable.\"\n\nAnd this:\n\n\"Love is more great than we conceive, and death is the keeper of unknown\nredemptions.\"\n\nThey are from his higher Self; from the illumined \"Dominion of Dreams.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nMETHODS OF ATTAINMENT: THE WAY OF ILLUMINATION\n\n\nOriental philosophies recognize four important methods of yoga.\n\nYoga is the word which signifies \"uniting with God.\" From what has gone\nbefore in these pages, the reader will understand that unity with God means\nto us, the uncovering of the god-nature within or above, the human\npersonality; it means the attainment and retainment in _fullness_ of cosmic\nconsciousness. We do not believe that any one retains full and complete\nrealization of cosmic consciousness and remains in the physical body. The\nnumerous instances to which we allude in former chapters, are at best, but\ntemporary flights into that state, which is the goal of the soul's\npilgrimage, and the only means of escape from the \"ceaseless round of\nbirths and deaths\" which so weighed upon the heart of Gautama.\n\nThe paths of yoga then, are the methods by which the mind, in the personal\nself, is made to perceive the reality of the higher Self, and its relation\nto the Supreme Intelligence--The Absolute.\n\nThe various methods or paths are pointed out, but no one, nor all of these\npaths guarantees illumination as a _reward_ for diligence. That which is in\nthe _heart_ of the disciple is the key that unlocks the door.\n\nThese paths are called:\n\n_Karma Yoga; Raja Yoga; Gnani Yoga; Bhakti Yoga_.\n\n_Karma Yoga_ is the path of cheerful submission to the conditions in which\nthe disciple finds himself, believing that those conditions are his because\nof his needs, and in order that he may fulfill that which he has attracted\nto himself. The admonition \"whatever thy hand finds to do that doest thou\nwith all thy heart,\" sums up the lessons of the path of Karma Yoga. The\nurge to achieve: to do; to accomplish; to strive and attain, actuates those\nwho have, whether with conscious intent, or because of a vague \"inward\nurge,\" devoted their lives to taking an active part in the material or\nintellectual achievements of the race.\n\nThere are those who are blindly following (as far as their mental\noperations are concerned), the path of Karma Yoga; that is, they work\nwithout knowing why they work; they work because they are compelled to do\nso, as slaves of the law; these will work their way out of that necessity\nof fulfillment, in the course of time, even though they blindly follow the\nurge; but, if they could be made to work as masters of the conditions under\nwhich they labor, instead of as slaves to environment, they would find\nthemselves at the end of that path. Karma Yoga would have been\naccomplished.\n\n\"Work as those work who are ambitious\" but be not thou enslaved by the\ndelusion of personal ambition--this is the password to liberation from\nKarma Yoga.\n\n_Raja Yoga_ is the way of the strongly individualized _will_. \"_Knowledge\nis power_\" is the hope which encourages the disciple on the path of Raja\nYoga. He seeks to master the personal self by meditation, by concentration\nof will; by self discipline and sacrifice. When the ego gains complete\ncontrol over the mental faculties, so that the mind may be directed as the\nindividual will suggests, the student has mastered the path of Raja Yoga.\nIf his mastery is complete, he finds himself regarding his body as the\ninstrument of the Self, and the body and its functions are under the\nguidance of the ego; the mind is the lever with which this Self raises the\nconsciousness from the lower to the higher vibrations. The student who has\nmastered Raja Yoga can induce the trance state; control his dreams as well\nas his waking thoughts; he may learn to practice magic in its higher\naspects, but unless he is extremely careful this power will tempt him to\nuse his knowledge for selfish or unworthy purposes.\n\nLet the student of Raja Yoga bear in mind the one great and high purpose of\nhis efforts, which should be: the realization of his spiritual nature, and\nthe development of his individual self, so that it finally merges into the\nspiritual Self, thus gaining immortality \"in the flesh.\"\n\nDoes this \"flesh\" mean the physical body? Not necessarily, because this\nthat we see and name \"the physical body\" is not the real body, any more\nthan the clothing that covers it, is the person, although frequently we\nrecognize acquaintances _by their clothing_. Immortality in the flesh\nmeans cessation from further incarnations, the last and present personality\nincluding all others in consciousness, until we can say, \"I, manifesting in\nthe physical, as so-and-so, am now and forever immortal, remembering other\nmanifestations which were not sufficiently complete, but which added to the\nsum of my consciousness until now I _know myself a deathless being_.\"\n\nTo those who seek the path of Raja Yoga, we recommend meditation upon\nPatanjali's Yoga Sutras, of which there are several translations, differing\nslightly as to interpretation. We have selected some of the most important,\nfrom the translations by Johnston. They are designed to make clear the\ndifference between the self of personality, and the Self, or _atman_ which\nmanifests in personality:\n\n\"The personal self seeks to feast upon life, through a failure to perceive\nthe distinction between the personal self and the spiritual man. All\npersonal experience really exists for the sake of another: namely, the\nspiritual man. By perfectly concentrated meditation on experience for the\nsake of the Self, comes a knowledge of the spiritual man.\"\n\nThe wise person seeks experience in order that he may attain to the\nstandard of the spiritual man; doing all things for the lessons that they\nteach; working \"as those work who are ambitious,\" and yet having no\npersonal ambition. Looking on all life, and at the self of personality and\nknowing the illusion of the self he is raising the personal self to the\nspiritual plane; but always he has the handicap of the desires of the lower\nself, the personal, which \"seeks to feast on life,\" because it is born of\nthe external, and its inherent appetites are for the satisfaction and\npleasures of that physical self.\n\nWe do not say to look upon the body with its needs and its desires, as an\nenemy to be overcome; or that its allurements are dangerous although\npleasurable. No. We say to the student, \"control the desires of the body.\nMake them do the bidding of the Self, because it is only by so doing that\nyou can gain the immortal heights of god-hood, looking down upon the\nfleeting dream of personality, with its so-called pleasures, as a bad\nnightmare compared to the joys that await the immortals.\"\n\nTherefore, concentrate upon experience for the sake of the Self that you\nare, and learn the lesson of your experience, throwing aside the experience\nitself, as you would cast aside the skin of an orange from which the juice\nhad been extracted. Don't fill the areas of your mortal mind with\nrubbish--with memories of \"benefits forgot;\" or loves unrequited; or\nfriendships broken; or misspent hours; or unhallowed words and acts.\n\nCull from each day's experience all that helps to develop the spiritual\nman--all that will stand the test of immortality--kind words and deeds;\nprinciple maintained; a wrong forgiven; a service cheerfully extended; a\ntolerance and generosity for the mistakes of others as well as for your\nown. These seem small things to the personal self--the ambitious, the\ngloating, the sense-desiring self of the personality; we scarcely take them\ninto account, but to the Self that is seeking immortality, these are the\ngrains of wheat from the load of chaff; the diamond in the carbon; the\nwings upon which the spirit soars to realms of bliss.\n\n_Meditate upon this sutra._\n\n\"By perfectly concentrated meditation upon the heart, the interior being,\ncomes the knowledge of consciousness.\"\n\nThe heart is the guide of the inner nature, as the head is of the outer.\nLove, the Most High God, is not born in the head, but in the heart. The\nheart travails in pain through sorrow and loss and compassion and pity and\nloneliness and aspiration and sensitiveness; and lo! there is born from\nthis pain, the spiritual Self, which embraces the lesser consciousness,\nenfolding all your consciousness in the softness and bliss of pure,\nSeraphic Love--the heritage of your immortality.\n\n_Meditate long and wisely upon this sutra._\n\n\"Through perfectly concentrated meditation on the light in the head, come\nthe visions of the Masters who have attained; or through the divining power\nof intuition he knows all things.\"\n\nThere is a point in the head, anatomically named \"the pineal gland\"; this\nis frequently alluded to as the seat of the soul, but the soul is not\nconfined within the body, therefore, it is in the nature of a key between\nthe sense-conscious self and the spiritually conscious Self; it is like a\ncentral receiving station, and may be \"called up,\" and aroused to\nconsciousness by meditation. Realizing and focusing the light of the\nspiritual nature upon this part of the head, opens up those unexplored\nareas of consciousness in which the masters dwell, and the student knows by\nintuition, which is a higher aspect of reason, many things which were\nheretofore incomprehensible to the merely sense-conscious man.\n\nThe spiritual Self is not a being unlike and wholly foreign to our concept\nof the perfect mortal-man; all the powers of discernment which we find in\nmortal consciousness are accentuated, intensified, refined; all grossness,\nall imperfections and embarrassments removed; pleasure sensitized to\necstasy; love glorified to worship. \"Shapeliness, beauty, force, the temper\nof the diamond; these are the endowments of that body.\"\n\nThe spiritual body is shapely, strong, beautiful, imperishable, as the\ndiamond, with all its brilliancy. No vapory, uncertain, or _unreal being_,\nbut the Real, with the husk of sense-consciousness dropped off, and only\nthe kernels of truth buried in the chaff of Experience, retained from the\nexperiences of the personal self.\n\n\"When the spiritual man is perfectly disentangled from the psychic body,\nhe attains to mastery over all things and to a knowledge of all.\"\n\nThe spiritual Self, the cosmic conscious Self, must not be confounded with\nthe psychic body, which is formed from the emotions--passions; fears;\nhatreds; ambitions; resentments; envy; regrets. Know thyself as a being\nsuperior to all baser emotions, and the mastery over them is complete. They\nare not destroyed, but converted into love--the everlasting Source of Life.\n\n\"There should be complete overcoming of allurement or pride in the\ninvitations of the different regions of life, lest attachment to things\nevil arise once more.\"\n\nIt is said that the disciples, seeking the paths of Yoga, reach three\ndegrees or stages of development; first, those who are just entering the\npath; second, those who are in the realm of allurements, subject to\ntemptations; third, those who have won the victory over the senses and the\nexternal life--_maya_; fourth, those who are firmly entrenched behind the\nbulwark of certainty; the spiritual being realized: cosmic consciousness\nattained and retained.\n\n\"By absence of all self indulgence at this point, also, the seeds of\nbondage of sorrow are destroyed, and pure spiritual being is attained.\"\n\nSelf-abnegation and self-sacrifice have ever been the way of spiritual\ndevelopment; but we are prone to misunderstand and mistake the true\ninterpretation of this admonition; men shut themselves in monasteries and\nwomen become nuns and recluses _as a penance_, in order to purchase, as it\nwere, absolution (at-one-ness with The Absolute, which knows not sin); this\nis not the point intended here. Spiritual consciousness can not be bought;\nthe desires of the personal self may be _sublimated_ into divine force and\npower, through recognizing the desires of the self as baubles which attract\nand fill the eye, until we fail to see the glories of that which awaits us.\n\n\"Thereafter, the whole personal being bends toward illumination, full of\nthe spirit of Eternal Life.\"\n\nHere again, we have assurance that the spiritually-conscious man, the\n\"luminous body\" is not a being apart from the self that we know our inner\nnature to be, but rather it _is_ the inner Self even as we in our ignorance\nand our lack of initiation, know it, raised to a higher realm of\nconsciousness; our desires refined, spiritualized, made pure, and our\nfaculties strengthened and immortalized. We do not withdraw from experience\nbut we draw from Experience the _lesson_--the hidden wisdom of the\ninitiate.\n\n_Meditate upon these sutras._\n\n\"He who, after he has attained, is wholly free from self, is set in a cloud\nof holiness which is called Illumination. This is the true spiritual\nconsciousness.\"\n\nThis aphorism is self-explanatory. He who attains illumination, and\nafterward lives and acts from the inner consciousness--the _spiritual man_,\nis free from the desires of the sense-conscious life, with its consequent\ndisappointments; he sees everything from the spiritual, rather than the\nmental point of view, and understands the phrase \"and behold, all was\ngood.\"\n\n\"_Thereon comes surcease from sorrow and the burden of toil._\"\n\nThe one who has attained cosmic consciousness, acting always from the Self,\nand not from personal desires, is set free from karma; he has fulfilled the\ncycle; he makes no more bondage for himself; he is free and is already\nimmortal.\n\n\"When that condition of consciousness is reached, which is far-reaching,\nand not confined to the body, which is outside the body and not conditioned\nby it, then the veil which conceals the light is worn away.\"\n\nThe acquisition of spiritual consciousness, Illumination, endows the mortal\nmind also, with a degree of power sufficient to penetrate the veil of\nillusion--the _maya_; the disciple then sees for the first time, all things\nin their true light. The separation between the personal self, and the\nspiritual being that we are, is so fine as to be like a cob-web veil, and\nyet how few penetrate it. The suddenness with which this awakening (for it\nis like awakening from a dream of the senses), comes, startles and\nsurprises us, and then we become astonished at the transparency of the\nbonds that bound us to the limitations of the mortal, when we might have\nsoared to realms of light.\n\n\"By perfectly concentrated meditation on the correlation of the body with\nthe ether, and by thinking of it as light as thistle-down, will come the\npower to traverse the ether.\"\n\nThe Zens say that the way of the gods is through the air and afterwards in\nthe ether. This means that we must evolve from the physical to the psychic,\nand thence to the etheric or spiritual body. This is the way of the many.\nIt is only the few who attain to perfect spiritual consciousness while\nmanifesting in the physical, but these do not have to undergo \"the second\ndeath\" which is the dropping off of the psychic body, and assuming the\nspiritual body. They attain to immortality _in the flesh_, (i.e., in the\npresent personality).\n\n\"Thereupon will come the manifestation of the atomic and other powers,\nwhich are the endowment of the body, together with its unassailable force.\"\n\nThe body here referred to, it must be borne in mind, is the etheric or\nspiritual body, which possesses the power to disintegrate matter; the power\nto annihilate time and space; so that he may look backward into remote\nantiquity and forward into boundless futurity; or as the commentator says,\n\"he can touch the moon with the tip of his finger\"; the power of levitation\nand limitless extension; the power of command; the power of creative will.\n\nThese are the endowments of the spiritual body with which the disciple is\nseeking to establish his identity--that he may overcome the second death\nand become immortal _in consciousness_, here and now.\n\nOf this spiritual, or etheric body it is said, \"Fire burns it not; water\nwets it not; the sword cleaves it not; dry winds parch it not. It is\nunassailable.\"\n\n_Meditate upon this sutra._\n\n\"For him who discerns between the mind and the spiritual man (the Self)\nthere comes perfect fruition of the longing after the real being.\"\n\nWhen the disciple has once grasped the fact that he _is_ a soul, and\n_possesses_ a mind and a physical covering, he has entered on the way of\nIllumination, and must inevitably reach the goal; then shall he find\n\"perfect fruition of the longing\" after the perfect Self, and its\ncompletement in union with the love that he craves. \"Have you, in lonely\ndarkness longed for companionship and consolation? You shall have angels\nand archangels for your friends and all the immortal hosts of the Dawn.\"\n\nSuch are the Yoga sutras, or aphorisms, as enunciated by Patanjali.\n\nIf the aspiring one were to give up a whole lifetime to their practice,\ngaining at last the consciousness of immortal life and love, what a small\nprice to pay.\n\n_Raja Yoga_ with its methods and exercises, is the path of knowledge,\nthrough application; concentration; meditation.\n\nThe practice of Raja Yoga will lead the student to the path of Gnani Yoga;\nand to the realization that Bhakti Yoga, the way of love and service will\nbe included, not as an arduous task; not as a study, or as a means to an\nend, but because of the love of it.\n\n_Gnani Yoga_ comes as complementary to practice of the sutras because\nknowledge applied for the purpose of spiritual attainment brings _wisdom_.\n_Gnani Yoga_, then, is the path of wisdom. The follower of Gnani Yoga seeks\nthe occult or hidden wisdom, and always has before him the idea of whether\nthis or that be of the Self, the _atman_, or of the self, the personal,\ngradually eliminating from his desires all that does not answer the test of\nits reality in spiritual consciousness; he welcomes experiences of all\nkinds, as so many lessons from which he extracts the fine grain of truth,\nand throws aside the husks; he accepts nothing blindly or in faith, but\n\"proves all things holding fast to that which is good\"; not that he lacks\nfaith, but because the very nature of his inquiry is to discover the\ninterior nature and its relation to God.\n\nThere are many in the world of to-day who feel the urge toward the path of\nGnani Yoga, because of the conviction that is forcing itself upon every\ntruly enlightened mind, that civilization with all its wonderful\nachievements, does not promise happiness, or solve the question of the\nsoul's urge. In short, the educated, and the well conditioned, if he be a\nthinker, and not submerged in _maya_, lost in the personal self, inevitably\nfinds himself searching for the _real_ in all this labyrinth of mind\ncreations and sea of emotions, and then as a rule, he seeks the path of\nGnani Yoga, because his intellect must be satisfied, even though his heart\ncalls. The mystic, the teacher, and the philosopher are following the path\nof Gnani; so is the true occultist, but many who deal in so-called\noccultism are employing _knowledge_ only, entirely missing the higher\nquality--_wisdom_.\n\n_Bhakti Yoga_, the path of self-surrender; the thorny way through the\nemotions; the \"blood of the heart,\" is the short cut to Illumination, if\nsuch a thing could be. But there is no \"short cut\"; nor yet a long road.\n\nSome one has said there are as many ways to God as there are souls. And\nyet, all persons who are on the upward climb, are demonstrating some one of\nthese four paths, or a combination of the paths. It is, however, a\nsignificant fact that we do not hear anything of the great intellectual\nattainments of the three great masters--Krishna, Buddha and Jesus, but only\nof their great compassion; their wonderful love for mankind, and all living\nthings.\n\nSt. Paul, who was probably an educated man, as he held a position of\nprominence among those in authority, previous to his conversion, laid\nparticular stress upon the love-nature as the way of illumination.\n\nAnd Jesus repeatedly said \"Love is the fulfilling of the law.\" What is the\nlaw? The law of evolution and involution; of generation and regeneration;\nwhen the time should come, that Love was to reign on the planet earth as it\ndoes in the heavens above the earth, then should the kingdom of which he\nforetold \"be at hand,\" and in conclusion of this _to-be_, Jesus promised\nthat the law would be fulfilled when Love should come.\n\nSo Swami Vivekananda in his exposition of Vedanta declares:\n\n\"Love is higher than work, than yoga; than knowledge. Day and night think\nof God in the midst of all your activities. The daily necessary thoughts\ncan all be thought through God. Eat to Him, drink to Him, sleep to Him, see\nHim in all. Let us open ourselves to the one Divine Actor, and let Him act\nand do nothing ourselves. Complete self-surrender is the only way. Put out\nself, lose it; forget it.\"\n\nLet us substitute for the words \"God,\" and \"Him,\" the one word Love, and\nsee what it is that we are told to do.\n\nLove of doing good frees us from work, even though we labor from early dawn\nuntil the night falls; so, too, if we have some loved one for whom we\nstrive, we can endure every hardship with equanimity, as far as our own\ncomfort is concerned. Few human beings in the world to-day are so enmeshed\nin the personal self as to work merely for the gratification of selfish\ninstincts. The hard-working man, whether laborer or banker, must have some\none else for whom he struggles and strives; otherwise, he descends to a\nlevel below that of the brute.\n\nThis is the reason for the family; the lodge; the community; the nation;\nthere must be some motive other than the preservation of the personal self,\nin order to develop the higher quality of love which embraces the world,\nuntil the spirit of a Christ takes possession of the human and he would\ngladly offer himself a sacrifice to the world, if by so doing he could\neliminate all the pain from the world.\n\nHow natural it is to feel, when we see a loved one suffering, that we would\ngladly take upon ourselves that pain; the heart fills with love until it\naches with the burden of it; this love enlarged, expanded and impersonal in\nits application is the same love with which we are told to love God, and to\n\"do all for Him.\" Do all for love of all the other hearts in the Universe\nthat feel as we feel when their loved ones suffer--that is the way to love\nGod--it is the only way we know. We only know divine love through human\nlove: human love is divine when it is unselfish and eternal--not fed upon\ncarnality, but anchored in spiritual complement.\n\nThe story of Abou Ben Adhem (\"may his tribe increase\") tells us how we may\nknow who loves the Lord. The angel wrote the names of those who loved the\nLord most faithfully and fully, and coming to Abou Ben Adhem asked if he\nshould write his name, and received the reply that he could not say whether\nhe deeply loved the Lord, but he was quite certain that the angel could\n\"write me as one who loves his fellow-men.\" And, lo! when the list was made\nand the names of all who loved the Lord recorded, Abou Ben Adhem's name\nheaded the list.\n\nThe Vedanta philosophy teaches non-attachment and Vivekananda himself says:\n\"To love any one personally is bondage. Love all alike then all desires\nfall off.\"\n\nTo love only the personal self of any one binds us to the sorrow of loss\nand of separation and disappointment; but to love any one spiritually is to\nestablish a bond which can never be broken; which insures reunion, and\ndefies time and space.\n\nWe can not love all alike, though we can love all humanity impersonally.\nAll desires that have their root in the sense-conscious plane of\nexpression, will fall off when the heart is anchored in spiritual love; but\nlet it be understood that spiritual love is not opposed to human love; we\ndo not grow into spiritual love by denying the human, but by plussing the\nhuman.\n\nSpiritual consciousness is all that is good and pure and noble, and\nsatisfying in the mortal and infinitely more. It is the love of personal\nself _plus_ the _Self_--the _atman_.\n\nLove is never unrequited. It is never wasted; never foolish. Love is its\nown self-justification; if it be real love, and not vanity, or self\nadmiration, misnamed, give it freely, and don't ask for a return; don't ask\nwhither it leads; only ask if it is real--if the love you feel is for the\nobject of your love, or if it is for yourself--for you to possess and to\nminister to your pleasure; ask whether it is from the senses or from the\nheart.\n\nThe way of the _Bhakti yoga_, is the way of love and service, because\nservice to our fellow beings, is the inevitable complement of love. Where\nwe truly love, we gladly serve. It has been said: \"The chela treads a\nhair-line.\" That is to say, the initiate must be prepared to meet defeat at\nevery turn. Not defeat of his object of attainment, but the personal defeat\nthat so many seek in the delusion that the world's ideal of success is the\nreal success.\n\nIn conclusion we can only repeat what has been told and retold many times\nby all inspired ones, of whatever creed and race; namely, think and act\nalways from the _inner Self_, cheerfully taking the consequences of your\nchoice. Let not the opinions of the illusory world of the senses balk and\nthwart you. Let not the \"worldly-wise\" swerve you from your ideal and your\nfaith in the final goal of your earthly pilgrimage--the attainment of\nspiritual consciousness _in your present personality_; this is the meaning\nof immortality in the flesh Doubt not this.\n\nMake love your ideal; your guide; your final goal; look for the inner Self\nof all whom you meet. \"Learn to look into the _hearts_ of men,\" says the\ninjunction in Light on the Path; dismiss from your mind all the\naccumulation of traditional concepts and prejudices that are not grounded\nin love, and above all _falter not_, nor doubt--no matter what seeming\nhardships you encounter in your earthly pilgrimage; they are but the\nIndian-clubs of your soul's gymnasium--Experience. \"Meet with Triumph and\nDisaster, and treat these _two impostors_ just the same.\"\n\nTriumph and Disaster as seen with the eyes of sense-consciousness are both\nillusions; but don't for this reason cease your work. The phrase \"you must\nwork out your own salvation\" is true. So also, you must be willing to do\nyour part in working out the salvation of the world; salvation means simply\nthe realization of the spiritual Being that you are--the attainment of that\nstate of Illumination which guarantees immortality.\n\nExperience teaches one important lesson: Our sense-conscious life is filled\nwith symbolic language if we have the inner eye of discernment. An\nunescapable truth is symbolized in our daily life by the evidence that we\nget nothing for nothing. Everything has its price.\n\nImmortality godhood, will not be handed to you on a silver salver; neither\ncan any one withhold it from you, if you desire it above all things. And,\naltho' it has its price, yet _you can not buy it_. A seeming paradox, but\nthe Initiate will see it all clearly enough when the time comes.\n\n  \"He who would scale the Heights of Understanding\n  From whence the soul looks out forever free\n  Must falter not; nor fail; all truth demanding\n  Though he bear the cross and know Gethsemane.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe discouraged student says to himself: \"If Truth demands such sorrow and\nsacrifice as this, I will not serve her. It is a false god that would so\ntry his devotees.\"\n\nHave you not said it?\n\nThe toll you pay is not to the Divine Self within, but to the \"keepers of\nthe threshold,\" that guard the entrance to the dwelling place of the\nIlluminati.\n\nEarthly lodges and brotherhoods are symbols of the higher initiations.\n\nThere is a common mistake in the idea that the invisible states of\nconsciousness are chaotic, or radically different from the visible.\n\n\"As below, so above, and as above so below\" is an aphorism constantly held\nbefore the eyes of the would-be initiate. Each of whom, must interpret and\nknow it for himself.\n\nIf the student finds the Raja Yoga sutras difficult of comprehension or of\npractice let him meditate upon the following mantrams:\n\nI know myself to be above the false concepts which assail the personal self\nthat I _appear_ to be. I am united with the All-seeing All-knowing\nConsciousness.\n\nI abide in the consciousness of the Indestructibility and Omniscience of\nBeing. I rest secure and content in the integrity of Cosmic Law which shall\nlead my soul unto its own, guaranteeing immortal love.\n\nI unite myself with that Power that makes for righteousness. Therefore\nnothing shall dismay or defeat me, because I am at-one with the limitless\nareas of spiritual consciousness.\n\nMy mind is the dynamic center through which my soul manifests the Love\nwhich illumines the world. Only good can come to the world through me.\n\nMuch that is called Mental Science, New Thought and Christian Science has\nfor its aim and ideal, avoidance of all that does not make for personal\nwell-being, and worldly success. Avoid this ideal; distrust this motive. Be\never willing to sacrifice the personal self to the Real Self, _if need be_.\nIf the ideal is truly the desire for _illumination_, and not for\nself-gratification, the mind will soon learn to distinguish between the\nlesser and the greater. Have you longed for perfect, satisfying _human_\nlove?\n\nYou shall have it plussed a thousand fold in immortal spiritual union with\n_your_ god.\n\n\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n\nIn the foregoing chapters we have set forth only a few of the facts and\ninstances which the inquirer will find, if he but seek, of the reality of a\nsupra-conscious faculty, no less actual, than are the faculties of the\nsense-conscious human, which type forms the average of the race.\n\nThis faculty, or rather we should say _these faculties_--because they find\nexpression in many ways, through avenues correlative to the physical\nsenses--prove the existence of a realm of consciousness, far above the\nplanes of the mortal or sense-conscious man, and transcending the region\nknown as the astral and psychic areas of consciousness.\n\nAll who have reported their experiences in contacting this illimitable\nregion unite in the essential points of experience, namely:\n\nThe experience is indescribable.\n\nIt confers an unshakable conviction of immortality.\n\nIt discloses the fact that we are now living in this supra-conscious realm;\nthat it is not something which we acquire after death; it _is_ not _to be_.\n\nThis realm is characterized by a beautiful, wonderful radiant iridescent\nlight.\n\n\"_O green fire of life, pulse of the world, O love.\"_\n\nIt fills the heart with a great and all-embracing love, establishing a\nrealization of the silent Brotherhood of the Cosmos, demolishing all\nbarriers of race and color and class and condition.\n\nIllumination is inclusive. It knows no separation.\n\nIt announces the fact that every person is right from his point of view.\n\n\"That nothing walks with aimless feet; that no one life shall be destroyed;\nor cast as rubbish on the void; when God hath made the pile complete.\"\n\nThat Life and Love and Joy unutterable are the reward of the seeker; and\nthat there is no one and only path.\n\nAll systems; all creeds; all methods that are formulated and upheld by\naltruism are righteous, and that the Real is the spiritual--the external is\na dream from which the world is awakening to the consciousness of the\nspiritual man--the _atman_--the Self that is ageless; birthless;\ndeathless--divine. On all sides are evidences that the race is entering\nupon this new consciousness.\n\nSo many are weary with the strife and struggle and noise of the\nsense-conscious life.\n\nThe illusions of possessions which break in our hands as we grasp them; of\nempty titles of so-called \"honor,\" builded upon prowess in war; the\nfeverish race after wealth--cold as the marble palaces which it builds to\nshut in its worshippers--all these things are becoming skeleton-like and\nno longer deceive those who are even remotely discerning the new birth.\n\nThe new heraldry will have for its badge of royalty \"Love and Service to my\nFellow Beings,\" displacing the \"Dieu et mon Droit\" of the ancient ideal.\n\nThe Dawn is here. Are you awake?\n\n  \"--In the heart of To-day is the word of To-morrow.\n  The Builders of Joy are the Children of Sorrow.\"\n\n\n\n\nJesus The Last Great Initiate\n\nBy EDOUARD SCHURE\n\n\nMr. Schure in this volume, has done much to strengthen the belief that\nJesus was an Essene, in whom a Messianic consciousness was awakened by\nspecial initiation.\n\nA remarkable full account is given of his experiences among the Essenes and\nhow his early life, (about which the Bible is so reticent) was spent\nstudying with the advanced Occult masters.\n\nThe problem of how Jesus became the Messiah, he holds to be not capable of\nsolution without the aid of intuition and esoteric tradition.\n\nThe life of the great Teacher as pictured by the writer is one to be\ndreamed over and capable of imparting both knowledge and stimulus to that\ninner life which is in so many undeveloped and even unsuspected.\n\nBound Silk Cloth.\n\nPrice $0.80 Postpaid.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nKrishna and Orpheus\n\nThe Great Initiates of the East and West\n\nBy EDOUARD SCHURE\n\n\nThe lives and teachings of these two great Masters who preceeded Jesus are\nvery much like the latter's. You cannot help noting the remarkable\nresemblance they bear to each other.\n\nKrishna's Virgin Birth, His Youth, Initiation, The Doctrine of the\nInitiates, Triumph and Death, are all told in a fashion that shows that\nMr. Schure has devoted much time to thought and research work. The mighty\nreligious of India, Egypt and Greece are passed in rapid review and the\nauthor declares that while from the outside they present nothing but chaos,\nthe root idea of their founders and prophets presents a key to them all.\n\nBound in Silk Cloth.\n\nPrice $0.80 Postpaid.","title":"Cosmic Consciousness: The Man-God Whom We Await","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":65006}