{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_20800/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_20800","id":"gutenberg_20800","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20800","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Religions","Theosophy"],"text":"Produced by Thierry Alberto, Sankar Viswanathan, and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                           London Lectures\n\n                               of 1907\n\n\n\n                                  By\n\n                             Annie Besant\n\n                President of the Theosophical Society\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                          London and Benares\n\n                 The Theosophical Publishing Society\n\n               City Agents: Lund, Humphries & Co., Ltd.\n\n               Adyar, Madras: The _Theosophist_ Office\n\n                         New York: John Lane\n\n                Chicago: The Theosophical Book Concern\n\n                                 1907\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nContents\n\n\nPART I\n\nPSYCHISM AND SPIRITUALITY\n\nTHE PLACE OF MASTERS IN RELIGIONS\n\nTHEOSOPHY AND THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY\n\n\nPART II\n\nTHE PLACE OF PHENOMENA IN THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY\n\nSPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL AUTHORITY\n\nTHE RELATION OF THE MASTERS TO THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY\n\nTHE FUTURE OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY\n\n\nPART III\n\nTHE VALUE OF THEOSOPHY IN THE WORLD OF THOUGHT\n\n\nPART IV\n\nTHE FIELD OF WORK OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nPart I\n\n\nPsychism and Spirituality\n\nThe Place of Masters in Religions\n\nTheosophy and the Theosophical Society\n\n\n_Three public Lectures delivered in the smaller Queen's Hall,\nLondon, on 16th, 23rd, and 30th June 1907._\n\n\n\n\nPsychism and Spirituality\n\n\nOur subject to-night consists of two words: psychism--spirituality. I\nam going to speak to you on the subjects denoted by these two words,\nbecause there is so much confusion about them in ordinary\nconversation, in ordinary literature, and out of that confusion much\nof harm arises. People think of one thing and use the name of the\nother, and so continually fall into blunders and mislead others with\nwhom they talk. I want to-night to draw a sharp and intelligible\ndivision between psychism and spirituality; if possible, to explain\nvery clearly what each of them means; so that, thoroughly\nunderstanding the meaning of the things, people may choose for\nthemselves which of the two they desire to evolve, or unfold, within\nthemselves. For if a person, desiring to unfold the spiritual nature,\nuses the means which are only adapted for developing the psychic\nnature, disappointment, possibly danger, will result; while, on the\nother hand, if a person desires to develop the psychic nature, and\nthinks that he will reach that development quickly by unfolding his\nspiritual powers, he also is equally doomed to disappointment; but in\nthe second case, only to disappointment for a time. For while it is\nnot true that the great psychic is necessarily a spiritual person, it\nis true that the great spiritual person is inevitably a psychic. All\nthe powers of Nature are subject to the Spirit, and hence, when a man\nhas truly unfolded his spiritual nature, there is nothing in the lower\nworld which is not open to him and obedient to his will. In that\nsense, then, the man who follows the spiritual path will not\nultimately be disappointed if he is seeking psychic development, but\nthe very seeking for it will, on the spiritual path, act as a certain\nbarrier. I shall return to the point again presently, and show you in\nwhat sense, and why, it is true that the development of the psychic\npowers may hinder the unfolding of the spiritual.\n\nNow, to distinguish clearly between the two, I will begin with two\nbrief definitions. They will be expanded naturally in the course of\nthe lecture, but I will define each of these two words in a single\nsentence so as to make the definition clear and brief. Spirituality is\nthe Self-realisation of the One; psychism is the manifestation of the\npowers of consciousness through organised matter. Each word of that\ndefinition has its own value. We are far too apt, in our ordinary\nthought and talking, to limit the words \"psychical,\" \"psychic,\" or\n\"psychism\" in a quite illegitimate way, and the popular use of the\nterm is illegitimate. It is generally used amongst us to mean unusual\nmanifestations of the powers of consciousness, whereas, properly\nspeaking, the word ought to cover every outer manifestation of\nconsciousness, whether on the physical, on the astral, on the mental,\nor on the buddhic plane. It does not matter in what world you\nare moving, in what matter your consciousness is acting; so long as\nit is utilising organised matter for its own expression so long are\nthose manifestations psychic, and are properly included under the term\npsychism. You may perhaps wonder why I lay stress on this. You will\nsee it at once if I remind you that unless we keep this definition in\nmind--accurate, legitimate as it is--we shall be making a division\nbetween the manifestation of the consciousness on the physical and on\nthe astral and mental planes, between its manifestation in the\nphysical and those in the astral and mental bodies; and if we do that\nthe whole of our thought will be on mistaken lines. You need\npractically to be pressed back to what you know of consciousness on\nthe physical plane, before you can thoroughly follow its\nmanifestations on the astral and on the mental. If you try to separate\noff manifestations which are the same in kind though differing in\ndegree, according to the fineness of the matter which is employed, if\nyou try to separate them off, you will always regard what you call\npsychism--that is, astral and mental manifestations in the subtler\nbodies--in an artificial and unwise manner. If, on the other hand, you\nrealise that consciousness is one, that its manifestation on any plane\nis conditioned by the matter of the plane, that it is one in essence,\nonly varying in degree according to the lessening or the increase of\nthe resistance of the matter of the planes, then you will not be\ninclined to take up exaggerated views with regard to what people are\nso fond of calling psychism. You will not denounce it in the foolish\nway of many people, because in denouncing it you will know that you\ndenounce all intellectual manifestations, an absurdity of which very\nfew people are likely to be guilty; if you take your intellectual\nmanifestations in the physical world as admirable things, to be always\nencouraged, strengthened, developed, then you will be compelled, by\nparity of reasoning, to understand that the manifestations of the same\nconsciousness in finer matter, astral or mental, are equally worthy,\nand no more worthy, of development, of consideration. You will not\nfind yourself in the absurdly illogical position of declaring it a\ngood thing to train the physical plane consciousness, while it is\ndangerous to cultivate the astral and mental plane consciousness. You\nwill understand that all psychism is of the same kind, that on each\nplane the development of psychism has its own laws; but that it is\nabsurd to admire the working of consciousness on the lower plane, and\nshrink from it as something dangerous, almost diabolical, when it\nappears on a plane higher than the physical.\n\nIt is this rational and common-sense view which I want to impress upon\nyou to-night, to get you out of the region of mystery, marvel, wonder,\nand fear, which to so many people surround what is called psychism; to\nmake you understand that you are unfolding consciousness, showing out\nyour powers on one plane after another according to the organisation\nand the fineness of the bodies in which your consciousness is working;\nand that if you will only keep your common sense and reason, if you\nwill only not allow yourself to be terrified by what at present is\nunusual, you may then walk along the psychic pathway in the astral or\nmental world, as resolutely, and with as great an absence of hysteria,\nas you walk along the psychic pathway in the physical world. That is\nthe general idea; and, of course, this is the meaning in which, after\nall, the word is often used down here. When you say \"psychology\" you\ndo not mean only the workings of consciousness in astral and mental\nbodies; you mean the whole consciousness of the man, the workings of\nthe mind, wherever the mind is active; the whole of that you include\nunder \"psychology.\" Why, then, when you change its form, should you\nnarrow it down, as though that which is mind on one plane is not also\nmind on all planes on which the mind is able to function?\n\nNow let us consider for a moment the workings of the mind on the\nphysical plane: they are familiar. There is, however, one important\npoint about them. In the materialistic science of the last century you\nhad very widely spread, amongst scientific men, the view that thought\nwas only the result of certain kinds of vibration in certain kinds of\nmatter. I need not dwell on that. But you are aware that both in\nEngland, and more especially in France and Germany, most elaborate\ndisquisitions were written to prove that thought was only the product\nof nervous matter. You rarely, I think never, now find a well-trained\nscientist prepared to commit himself to that position. Those who\nsurvive as representatives of that same school may do so, but they are\nliterally survivals. The mass of psychologists of to-day admit that\nthe manifestations of mind cannot any longer be regarded as the\nresults of vibrations in the physical brain, that at least we must go\nbeyond these limitations when dealing with the results of the study\nof consciousness, as it is now studied amongst scientific men. They\nwill no longer, then, regard thought as the product of matter. They\ncertainly will not be prepared to go as far as I now propose to go,\nand say that the thinking organism is the production of thought--the\nvery antithesis, you will agree, of the other position, but which is\nvital to the understanding of the unfolding of the powers of\nconsciousness through matter. It is recognised in ordinary biology\nthat the function appears before the organ. There I am on safe\nscientific ground. It is recognised that the exercise of the function\ngradually builds up the organ. All the researches into the simpler\nforms of organisms go to prove that. It is also recognised that when\nthe exercise of the function has built the organ in a very simple\nform, the exercise of the function continually improves the organ\nwhich originally it builded. So far we are hand in hand with ordinary\nscience. I think I shall not go too far in saying that a large number\nof the more scientific psychologists of to-day will at least agree\nthat the brain as you find it in the adult man is very largely the\nresult of the exercise of thinking through the earlier years of life.\nI do not think they would go so far as to say that thinking has\nliterally produced it. They would, however, judging by very many\nthings that have been said, be willing to admit that by hard thinking\nwe can improve our apparatus of thought. That is one reason for\nthinking hard--in order to think better. And the harder you think, the\nmore will your thinking instrument improve.\n\nIn my next step, however, I cannot by any stretching of ordinary\nscience persuade it to accompany me, or give me a foundation; for the\npoint is that your consciousness, working on the next plane above the\none on which the organ of consciousness is being built, is the shaper\nof that mechanism. To put it concretely: your physical brain is built\nup from the astral plane, and it is your consciousness working in\nmatter finer than the physical which builds up the brain in the\nforming child within the limits laid down by karma. Now, that is a\ngeneral law for healthy evolution. You will see the importance of this\nlaw a little further on. Every body which we possess--physical,\nastral, mental, buddhic--is always built up by consciousness\nworking in the plane next above it; the next plane, or world, is a\nworld very much more \"next\" than you are next each other sitting\nhere--not far away beyond the stars, removed by great spaces. It is\ninterpenetrating you in every portion of your being. It is only \"next\"\nin the sense that the solids, liquids, and gases of your bodies are\nnext each other in the body--not far away, but here. So that the\nworking is of the closest and most intimate kind. Some of you who are\nstudents of Theosophical literature will remember that H.P.B. has\nspoken of all of us as working in the astral consciousness. You will\nsee that you are not working with a physical consciousness in the\nliteral sense of the term, if you think for a moment. How much do you\nknow of the consciousness working in the various cells and tissues of\nyour physical body? Practically nothing, except when you are ill. Only\nwhen the body is disorganised do you become conscious of that working.\nNormally, the motion of your blood, the building up by assimilation\nof your muscles and nerves, the life of your cells, the protective\naction of some of the living cells in your body--the \"devourers,\" as\nthey are called--go on without your knowledge, without your thought,\nwithout your giving one moment's conscious attention to them. In the\nPerfect Man, the consciousness of all this is ever present, but in us,\nimperfect, it is not; we are not yet sufficiently vitalised and\nunfolded to carry on the whole of our consciousness, with full\nawareness of all its activities. We are only able to manage a very\nsmall part of it, and so have let go the consciousness that keeps at\nwork the physical body, to concentrate ourselves in a higher world,\nand utilise the nervous mechanism as the apparatus of our thinking.\nThat law obtains, then, all through. If you want to organise and build\nup your astral body, you can only do it from the mental plane. You\nmust raise your thought to a higher power by concentration, by regular\nmeditation, by deliberately working on the consciousness, before you\ncan raise it to that power from which it shall be able to organise\nyour astral body, as it has already organised your physical body. That\nis the reason why meditation is necessary in all these things; because\nwithout the creative power of thought we cannot organise the body in\nthe world which is nearest to the physical.\n\nNow, supposing that we recognise that our consciousness working in the\nphysical brain, the instrument over which we have complete control, is\ncontinually at work contacting the outer world, using the brain as an\ninstrument on which it can play, and continually bringing down from\nhigher worlds impressions which it transmits more or less perfectly\nto the physical plane, we need not dwell upon our ordinary thinking.\nLet us take thinking a little more unusual, where the finer part of\nthe brain, its etheric matter, is being more largely vitalised, more\ndefinitely used. The powers of the imagination--the creative\npower--the artistic powers, all creative in their nature, these\nutilise most the ethers of the brain, and, by working in those, bring\ninto activity the lower and coarser matter of the dense brain. Now,\nthe thought passes from the consciousness through vehicle after\nvehicle to find its clear expression here. But do you not have many\nmental impressions that are not clear, not well defined, and yet which\nimpress you deeply, and of which you feel sure? They are of many\nkinds, and reach you in many ways. What is important to you is simply\nthis for the moment: that being surrounded by the astral and mental\nworlds, contacts from these are continually touching you, continually\ncausing changes in your consciousness. If your astral body were\nthoroughly organised like your physical, the impressions made would be\nclear and sharp like the physical. If your mental body were well\norganised, the impressions of that plane, the heavenly plane, would be\nclear and sharp like the physical. But as the astral and mental bodies\nat this stage of evolution are not well organised, the impressions\nreceived by them, causing changes in the consciousness, are vague and\nindeterminate, and it is these which are generally called \"psychic.\"\nAnd when you have a Psychical Research Society, it is not dealing with\nthe ordinary processes of thought, but with those which are not\nordinary; and all those things to which it gives many strange names\nare all workings of the consciousness, in sheaths or bodies of which\nit has not yet gained the mastery, which it has not yet definitely\norganised for its purposes. Slowly and gradually they become\norganised, and strenuous thinking is the method for the astral body,\nand the working of the pure reason is the method for the mental body.\nLet us consider with regard to this, whether there is any other way of\nbringing the astral body and mental body into activity. For you may\nhave noticed that I used the word \"normal\" evolution, orderly\nevolution on the lines of natural evolution, always from above. But\nyou may stimulate it from below. It is possible to stimulate the\nastral body, at least, from the physical plane, but you do it at the\ncost of higher evolution a little later on, and the reason you can do\nit is simple enough. In the astral body are all the centres of your\nsenses. You know how after death a man's desires are the same as they\nwere during his physical life. You know how in dreams your desires\nresemble desires that you may have in your waking consciousness. The\ncentre of all your psychic powers, of your conscious powers, the\ncentres of these are in the astral, and if (especially with your\nsenses, each of which has its own centre in the astral body) you\noverstrain the physical senses down here, you will get an action on\nthe astral plane, but an unhealthy, because disorderly one, one not\ngoing along the line of evolution but trying to create from below\ninstead of from above. None the less, you may have some results, and\nin the two famous Indian systems for developing the powers of the\nconsciousness, and for unfolding the consciousness itself, you have\nthis recognised, and you read of R\u00e2ja Yoga and of Hatha Yoga, of the\nKingly Yoga and of the Yoga of Effort. The Yoga of Effort is Hatha\nYoga, and is practised by physical means and followed by physical\neffects. The eye is stimulated in certain ways, and the effect of\nstraining the physical eye is to bring about a certain limited kind of\nclairvoyance. You can gain it in that way by gazing into crystals, and\nso on. They do stimulate the centre of physical sight, but not the\nastral; and that is why they cannot go very far. You can get a certain\namount of clairvoyance by these means, but you are only expanding your\nphysical sight, and working on centres of the astral body connected\nwith the physical organ of vision, the eye. The true astral sight is\nan entirely different thing. That comes from a centre of its own in\nthe astral body. It has to be created from the mental body, as the\norgan of the physical was from the astral. The centre of that sight\nwill be in the mental body and not in the astral, and only the organ\nof it in the astral body. The method of the Kingly, the R\u00e2ja Yoga, is\nalways by thought--concentrate, meditate, contemplate, think: by that\nmeans, in a healthy, normal, natural way you will inevitably develop\nthe powers of sight on the astral, as in the course of Nature the\npowers of sight were developed on the physical plane. And if you\nrealise that your consciousness is one, building its bodies for its\nfuller and more complete expression, that you are here in order to\nbecome masters of matter instead of its slaves, to become lords of\nmatter, using every organ of matter for knowledge of the world to\nwhich that matter belongs, and not to be blinded by it, as we are for\nso long a time in our climb upwards, then you will see that this\nnatural development of astral powers is inevitable in the course of\nevolution, and all that you can do is to quicken it, following the\nline which Nature has traced. As Nature slowly will evolve in every\nhuman being the power of using the astral body as freely as you use\nthe physical body now, so can you quicken the coming of that day for\nyourselves by understanding the powers of thought and turning them to\nthe object you desire to obtain. There are many ways in which this may\nbe done, and many rules you may learn for your guidance. Those rules\nmay be summed up under two heads: clear and strenuous thinking,\ndiscipline for the bodies that you are trying to evolve; and also, I\nshould add, for the body below them in evolution. Those are the two\ngreat laws for the safe evolution of these so-called psychic powers,\nwhat I call the powers of the consciousness on the astral and mental\nplanes. There must be a discipline for the bodies, for you have to\nchoose the material which will serve you best in the work you are\ndoing out of the innumerable combinations of matter with which Nature\npresents you. You must choose the combinations that will serve your\npurpose, which you can utilise in the building of the organs of sense\non plane after plane. Just as really as the man who is a drunkard will\ninjure his nervous system by his excesses, and by supplying coarse and\nover-active compounds will injure the physical body, so making it a\nless useful instrument for the man--as any excess, not only\ndrunkenness, but gluttony, profligacy, and so on--as these injure the\nphysical body as an instrument of consciousness, and to have full and\nperfect consciousness here we must train, discipline, build up our\nbody with knowledge and with self-control, so also is that true on the\nhigher planes. A regimen is necessary when you are dealing with the\norganisation of the subtler matter of the astral and mental worlds,\nfor you cannot build up your physical body out of the coarser\ncombinations of matter on the physical, and have finer combinations on\nthe astral and mental. The bodies have to match each other. They have\nto correspond with each other; and as you find all sorts of\ncombinations related the one to the other on every plane, you must\nchoose your combinations on the physical if you desire to choose them\nalso on the astral and mental. You cannot make your physical body\ncoarse, and organise the astral and mental bodies for the finer\npurposes of the man; and you must settle that in your minds if you\nwish to try to develop these higher powers of consciousness. Not only\nbecause if you gather together the coarser materials of the astral\nworld, you will find yourself hampered by them in the higher\nexpression of consciousness, but also because the presence of these\ncombinations in you exposes you to a number of dangers on the astral\nplane. The purer the elements of your astral body, the safer you are\nin your earlier wanderings on that plane. It is important to mention\nthis, because in some of the schools of thought which are trying only\nto develop astral powers, you will find that they deliberately use\nother methods in order to make their astral body active. Many schools\nof the \"left hand path\" in India will use spirits, wines, meats of all\nsorts, in order to bring about a certain astral condition, and they\nsucceed, because by these means they attract to themselves, and for a\ntime govern, the elemental powers of those lower planes--the\nelementals of the lower astral worlds. So that you may find that an\nIndian, who knows a little of this and wants to use it for his own\npurposes, will deliberately use these things which are attractive to\nthe elementals of those lower worlds, and gather them around him and\nuse them. But he does it knowing what he does, and aiming at that\nwhich he desires to conquer. But amongst those who practise black\nmagic of the higher kinds--of the mental kinds--you have an asceticism\nas stern and rigid as has ever been used by those who are trying to\ndevelop their higher bodies for nobler ends. It is a mistake to think\nthat the brothers of the dark side are, as a rule, licentious and\nindifferent to what you call morality. On the contrary, they are\nexceedingly strict. Their faults are the faults of the mind, not the\nfaults of the lower desires, of the organs of the different bodies\nwhich may gratify them. Their faults are the more dangerous faults of\nmental powers misused for personal ends. But they realise very well\nthat if they want the mental powers and the higher ranges of those\npowers, they must be as rigid in the discipline of the lower bodies as\nany pupil of the White Lodge could be. Take it, then, that to develop\nin this way, a regimen for the bodies, as well as the strict working\nand training of the mind, is absolutely necessary. But with these the\nresult is sure. You cannot set a time for the result, for it depends\nwhere the worker is beginning in his present life. In all these\nmatters Nature's laws will not permit of what is called miraculous\ngrowth, and if you find persons developing psychic powers very\nrapidly, when perhaps they have been meditating only a few months, it\nis because in a previous life they have cultivated these powers and\nare taking up their lessons again in a more advanced class of\nevolution, and not in the infant class, as many do in the present\nlife. So that there are differences. Some now beginning are not likely\nto succeed in their present incarnation; but if that discourages them,\none can only say: \"If you do not do it now, you will have to begin\nagain next life, and so on and on and on. For Nature's laws cannot be\nviolated, and Nature knows no favoritism and no partiality. Some time\nor other you have to begin, and the sooner you begin the sooner will\nyou succeed.\"\n\nNow the whole of this, you will remark, is the training, the\norganising of _bodies_. And psychism implies that. You must train,\npurify, organise, in order that the powers of the consciousness may\nshow forth. You will see very fully now why at the beginning I urged\nyou to realise that the whole of these manifestations are similar in\nkind, so that when you find someone saying to you: \"Oh! So-and-so is a\npsychic,\" as though that were to condemn the person; \"Such-and-such a\nperson is a mere clairvoyant,\" and so on, as though the fact of\npossessing clairvoyance were a disadvantage rather than an advantage;\nthen the proper answer is: \"Are you prepared to go the whole way with\nthat?\" Many Indians do so (it is the point to which I said I would\nreturn); they say that the siddhis, the powers of consciousness\nmanifested on the lower planes, are hindrances to the spiritual life.\nAnd so they are in a sense. The spiritual life goes inwards: all\npsychic powers go outwards. It is the same Self in either case--the\nSelf turning inwards on Itself, or the Self going outwards to the\nworld of objects. But it does not make one scrap of difference whether\nit goes out to physical, astral, or mental objects: it is all the\nobjective consciousness, and therefore the very reverse of the\nspiritual. But the Indian does not shrink from that as ordinarily the\nman in the West does. He is perfectly honest. He says: \"Yes, the\npowers of the intellect applied to the objects of the world are a\nhindrance in the spiritual life. We do not want them, do not care to\nthink about it. We give up all the objects of the physical plane when\nseeking the Self.\" And if you are prepared to say that, then by all\nmeans turn aside from psychism, but do not at one and the same time\nencourage intellectuality on the physical plane and denounce what you\ncall psychism on the others, because that is mere folly. If it is\nbetter to be blind here than to see--and the Indian will tell you it\noften is, because it shuts out all the distracting objects of the\nphysical plane--if you are prepared to say that, and say: \"Yes, I\nwould rather be blind than see,\" then you may go on to denounce seeing\non the astral plane. But if you value your physical sight, why not\nvalue the astral sight--it is a stage higher--as well? and the mental\nsight--which is a stage higher yet--as well? Why denounce astral and\nmental, and praise up the physical? Why admire the power of sight of\nthe painter, who sees more shades than you can see, and denounce the\nsight of the clairvoyant, who sees very much more than the cleverest\npainter? They all belong to the object world; they all lead the Self\naway from the realisation of himself, and they are all exactly on the\nsame level. It seems strange when one sees the same person exalting\nthe psychic on the physical plane and denouncing it on the astral and\nmental.\n\nBut now let us turn to \"spirituality\" and see what that means. \"The\nSelf-realisation of the One\"; not the declaring that all men are one,\nthat all men are brothers: we can all do that. Anyone who has reached\na certain stage of intellectual knowledge will recognise the unity of\nmankind; will say, with the writer in the Christian book, that God has\nmade all men of one blood--quoted again from what is called a Pagan\nbook. That intellectual recognition of the unity is practically\nuniversal among educated people; but very few are prepared to carry\nout the intellectual recognition into practical life and practical\ntraining. Now for the development of what are called psychic faculties\nsome amount of retirement from the world is very useful. For the\ndevelopment of the spiritual consciousness no such retirement is\nnecessary. In fact, for the most part, except in the earlier stages\nperhaps, seclusion is a mistake; for the world is the best place for\nthe unfolding of the sense of unity, and best amongst men and women\nand children can we call out the powers of the spiritual life. And\nthat for a simple reason. In the lower world the Spirit shows itself\nout by love, by sympathy; and the more we can love, the more we can\nsympathise, the greater will be the unfolding of the consciousness of\nthe Self within. It was a true word of the early Christian Initiate,\nthat if a man loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how shall he\nlove God whom he hath not seen? And if the perfection of the\nspiritual consciousness be that vision of the Supreme, the\nconsciousness which knows itself to be one with God, then the way to\nthe realisation will be by the partial realisation of loving sympathy,\nfor which the world is the most fitting field, and our brethren around\nus the natural stimulus. Love, sacrifice, these are the manifestations\nof the Spirit on the physical plane, as is right knowledge also. For\nthe Spirit is not a one-sided thing, but a Trinity, and knowledge is\nas necessary as love. The special value of love lies in its unifying\npower, and in the fact that it makes what the world calls sacrifice\nnatural and delightful. You know it in your own experience. Just in\nproportion as you love another is it a joy and not a sorrow to give up\nthings in order that the happiness of the other may be increased. It\nis no sacrifice for a mother to give up personal enjoyment for the\nsake of giving it to her children. A deeper joy is felt in the\nhappiness of the child than could possibly have been felt in the\nenjoyment of the thing by herself; a sweeter, finer, profounder\nhappiness is the enjoyment of the happiness of the beloved. And that a\nlittle widens out the consciousness, and hence family life is one of\nthe best schools for spiritual unfolding; for in the continual\nsacrifices of the family life, springing from love and rendered joyful\nby affection, the Self feels itself a larger Self, and reaches the\nsense of unity with those immediately around. And after the family the\npublic life, the life of the community, the life of the nation: these\nalso are schools for the unfolding of the spiritual consciousness. For\nthe man who is a good citizen of the community feels the life of the\ncommunity as his own life, and so becomes conscious of a larger Self\nthan the narrow self of the family. And the man who loves his nation,\nhis Self widens out to the boundaries of the nation, and he is\nconscious of a larger Self than the self of the family, or the\ncommunity within the State. And just in proportion as the love\nwidening does not grow superficial and shallow (for if you have only a\ncertain amount of water and you make your dish wider and wider, the\nwater will become shallower and shallower) does it approach spiritual\nlove. Too often love becomes unreal with those who try to love the\nfar-off when they do not love the near. But if you avoid the\ntemptation, and remembering that the Spirit has no limitations, and\nthat you can draw and draw and draw on the love within you and never\nfind the bottom of the source of love; if you are strong enough to do\nthat, then the love of the family, of the community, of the State,\nwill widen out into the love of humanity, and you shall know yourself\nas one with all, and not only with your family, or your community, or\nyour nation. All these local loves are schoolmasters to bring us to\nthe wider love of man. But do not blunder in the idea that you can\nhave the wider unless you have gone through the narrower; for the bad\nhusband, the bad citizen, the bad patriot, will never make a real\nlover of humanity. He must learn his alphabet before he can read in\nthis book of love, and must spell out the letters before he may\npronounce the word. None the less, these successive stages are all\nstages towards the spiritual life, and prepare the man for the\nconsciously spiritual realisation. And if you would really train\nyourself for the unfolding of this life within you, practise it on\nthose who are nearest to you by meeting them with love and sympathy in\nthe daily paths of life. Not only those whom you like, but those you\ncare not for as well; not with those who love you only, but with those\nwho dislike you also. Remember that you have to break down\nbarriers--barriers of the bodies that bar you out from your fellow\nSelves in the worlds around you, and that breaking down of the\nbarriers is part of the training in the spiritual life. Only as\nbarrier after barrier is broken down, only as wall after wall is\nlevelled to the ground, will the freedom of the Spirit become possible\nin manifestation on every plane and in every world. The Spirit is ever\nfree in his own nature and his own life, but, confined within the\nbarriers of the body, he has to learn to transcend them, before, on\nthese planes of matter, he can realise the divine freedom which is his\neternal birthright. So long as you feel yourself separate from others,\nso long are you shut out from the realisation of the unity; so long as\nyou say \"my\" and \"mine,\" so long the realisation of the Spirit is not\nyet possible for you. Love of individual possessions, not only\nphysical but moral and mental, not the vulgar pride of physical wealth\nonly, but moral pride, intellectual pride, everything that says \"I\" as\nagainst \"you,\" and does not realise that I and you are one--all this\nis against the spiritual life. Hardest of all lessons when brought\ndown to practical life; most difficult of all attainments when effort\nis made to realise it, and not only to talk about it and imagine it.\nIt is best practised by continual renunciation of the individual\npossessions on every plane, and the constant thought of unity. When\nyou are trying to live the life of the Spirit, you will try to be\npure. You do well, but why? In order that you may be pure, and leave\nyour impure brethren in their impurity? Oh no! You must try to be\npure, in order that there may be more purity in the world to share\namongst all men, because you are pure. You are not wanting to be purer\nthan others, but only gathering purity that you may spread it in every\ndirection, and most joyous when your own purity lifts someone from the\nmire, who is trampled into it under the feet of the world. You want to\nbe wise. You do well; for wisdom is a splendid possession. But why? In\norder that you may look down on the ignorant and say: \"I am wiser than\nthou,\" as the pure man might say: \"I am holier than thou\"? Oh no! but\nin order that the wisdom that you gather may enlighten the ignorant,\nand become theirs and not only yours. Otherwise it is no spiritual\nthing; for spirituality does not know \"myself\" and \"others\"; it only\nknows the One Self, of whom all forms are manifestations.\n\nWe dare not call ourselves spiritual until we have reached that point\nwhich none of us as yet has reached, for to reach it means to become a\nChrist. When, looking at the lowest and basest and most ignorant and\nvilest, we can say: \"That is myself, in such-and-such a garb,\" and say\nit feeling it, rejoicing in it--because if there are two of you, and\none is pure and the other impure, and the two are one, then neither is\nperfect, but both are raised above the level of the lowest--that is\nthe true atonement, the real work of the Christ; and the birth of\nChrist within you means the willingness to throw down all walls of\nseparation, and the stature of Christ within you means that you have\naccomplished it.\n\nFor the most part we claim our unity above; we do not take pride in\nclaiming our unity below; we are glad to say, \"Yes, I also am Divine;\nI am a Christ in the making; I am one with Him.\" Harder to say: \"I am\none with the lowest of my brethren, sharing with them the same Divine\nlife.\" Yet our Divinity is only realised as we recognise that same\nDivinity in others. You may remember that exquisite story of Olive\nSchreiner, breathing the very essence first of the unspiritual, and\nthen of the spiritual life. In the first case a woman, pure and\nspotless, her garments shining with whiteness, and her feet shod as\nwith snow, went up to the Gates of Heaven and trod the golden streets.\nAnd as she trod them in her shining robes the angels shuddered back,\nand said: \"See, her garments are blood-spotted, and her sandals are\nstained with mire and blood.\" From the throne the Christ asked:\n\"Daughter, how is it that your garments are blood-spotted and your\nsandals stained?\" And she answered: \"Lord, I was walking in miry ways,\nand I saw a woman there down in the mire, and I stepped upon her that\nI might keep my sandals clean.\" The Christ and the angels vanished,\nand the woman fell from heaven, and wandered again in the miry ways of\nearth. Once again she came to the heavenly portal and trod the golden\nstreets, and this time she was not alone. Another woman was with her,\nand the garments of both were blood-flecked, and the sandals of both\nwere stained with the mire and blood of earth. But the angels seeing\nthem pass by, cried out: \"See how whitely their garments shine! And\nsee how white are their feet!\" And the Christ, when they came before\nthe throne, said: \"How come ye here in garments that are soiled?\" And\nthe answer came: \"I saw this my sister trampled upon, and I bent down\nto lift her up, and in the picking of her up my garments were soiled,\nbut I have brought her with me to Thy presence.\" And the Christ smiled\nand lifted them up beside Him, and the angels sang for joy. For it is\nnot the sin and the shame that are shared that soil the garments of\nthe Spirit, and leave upon it the mire of earth.\n\nIf, then, you would lead the spiritual life, go downwards as well as\nupwards. Feel your unity with the sinner as well as with the saint.\nFor the only thing that makes you divine is the Spirit that lives in\nevery human heart alike, in all equally dwelling, and there is no\ndifference in the divinity of the Spirit, but only in the stage of its\nmanifestation. And just as you and I climb upwards and show more of\nthe spiritual life in the lower worlds, should we raise our brethren\nwith us, and know the joy of the redeemer, and the power of the life\nthat saves. For Those whom we call Masters, Those who are the Christs\nof the world, Those are reverenced and beloved, because to Them there\nis no difference, but the sinner is as beloved as the saint--nay,\nsometimes more, because compassion flows out to the weaker more than\nto the strong.\n\nSuch is the spiritual life; such the goal that every man who would\nbecome spiritual must place before his eyes. Very different from the\npsychic, and not to be confused with it--the unfolding of the divinity\nin man, and not the purification and the organisation of the\nvehicles. Both are good, both necessary, and I finish with the words\nwith which I began, that while to be psychic is no proof of\nspirituality, to be spiritual is to possess every power in heaven and\non earth. Choose ye each your road. Tread whichever you will, but\nbeware that by the growth of your powers here, in separation, you do\nnot delay the growth of the spirituality which is the realisation of\nthe unity of the Self. For everything which divides becomes evil, by\nthe very fact of its dividing; every power which is shared is a wing\nto carry us upwards, but every power that is kept for the lower self\nis a clog that holds us down to earth.\n\n\n\n\nThe Place of Masters in Religions\n\n\nEveryone of us who belongs to any special religion can trace back along\nthe line of his religion further and further into the past, until he\ncomes to its beginning, its first Teacher. And round that Teacher is\nusually a group of men and women who to the Founder of the religion are\ndisciples, but to those who accept the religion later are teachers,\napostles. And this is invariably true. The Hebrew, if you ask him, will\ntrace back his religion to the time of the great legislator Moses, and\nbehind Him to a yet more heroic figure, Abraham, the \"friend of God.\"\nLook back to some yet older faith, the faith of Egypt, of Chaldea, of\nPersia, of China, of India, and you will find exactly the same thing is\ntrue. The Pars\u00ee, representative of a splendid tradition, but whose\nreligion, as it now, is, as has been well said, \"a religion of\nfragments\" only--he will trace back his religion to his own great\nProphet, the Prophet of the Fire, who led the exodus from the centre of\nAsia and guided His people into what we now call the land of Persia.\nEgypt, if you ask her story, will show you heroic figures of her past,\nand amongst them that great King and Priest, Osiris, who, slain, as the\nold legend tells us, rises again, as Lord and Judge of His people.\nBuddhism, spread in the far East, will trace back its story to the\nBuddha, and will declare in addition to that, that not only is the\nBuddha the Teacher of that particular faith, but that a living\nperson still exists on the earth as Teacher, as Protector, whom they\ncall the Bodhisattva, the wise and the pure. India will tell\nyou of a great group of teachers gathered round their Manu, the\ntradition of whose laws is still preserved, and is still used as the\nbasis of the social legislation administered now by the English rulers.\nAnd round that great Lawgiver of the past, wise men are gathered whose\nnames are known throughout the land, each of them standing at the head\nof some noble Indian family, that traces its ancestry backward and\nbackward till it ends in the Sage, the Teacher. And this is equally true\nof more modern religions. Take the Christian religion, and the Christian\ntraces his religion back until it finds its source in the personality of\nthe Prophet of Judea, of Jesus the Christ. And it is interesting, as one\nof those strange parallels which meet us often in the comparative study\nof religions, that just as the Buddhist has his Buddha and\nalso his Bodhisattva, so the Christian has the two names:\nChrist, representing the living Spirit, a stage in the spiritual\nunfolding, the name representing a stage, an office, rather than a\nspecial man, and joined to that the individual name of Jesus, in order\nto mark the intimate connection, as some would say the identity, between\nthe two. But just as among the Buddhists the distinction is drawn,\nso among the early Christians you will find a similar distinction was\nmade between the man Jesus and the spiritual Christ. So that in those\nearly days many of those who were called \"Gnostics\" divided the two in a\nsimilar fashion, although uniting them at a certain stage of the\nteaching, of the ministry. And if you take the latest born of the\nreligions, the Mussulm\u00e2n, the religion of Isl\u00e2m, that again is traced\nbackward to a Prophet, the Prophet Muhammad, the great Prophet of\nArabia. Universally this is true, that the religion traces itself back\nto a single mighty figure, whom some call a \"God-man,\" a man too divine\nto be regarded as wholly like those amongst whom he lived and moved and\ntaught; above them and yet of them, closely bound to them by a common\nhumanity, although raised above them by a manifestation of the God\nwithin, mightier, more complete, more compelling, than the manifestation\nin the ordinary men and women around Him. So with all religions, and in\nthat thought of the divine figure, the Founder of every faith, you have\nthe fullest, the truest, the most perfect conception of that which we\nTheosophists call the ideal of the Master. All such mighty beings by the\nTheosophist would be given the name of Master. And not by the\nTheosophist alone, for that word in other religions has been applied to\nthe Founder, the Chief of the faith. Nay, to the Christian it should\ncome with special force, with special significance, for it was the name\nthat Christ the Teacher chose as best expressing His own relationship to\nthose who believed on Him, to those who followed Him. \"Neither be ye\ncalled masters,\" He said; \"for one is your Master, even Christ.\" And so\nagain you may remember that, in speaking to His disciples, He said: \"Ye\ncall Me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am.\" So that to the\nChristian heart the name Master should be above all other names sacred\nand beloved, since it was the chosen name of their own Teacher, the name\nthat He claimed from His disciples, that name that He used as\nrepresenting His relation to them. So this idea of a Master in religion\ncertainly should be one which comes with no alien sound, no foreign\nsignificance, among those who look up to the Master Christ. And exactly\nthe same idea is that of a Master in any great religion; it is a common\nidea--it signifies the Founder, the Teacher, divine and yet human. To\nthat point I will return later.\n\nLet us study the central idea of these Masters a little more closely,\nand see what are the special characteristics which mark Them in the\nreligions of the past. If you go back very, very far, you will always\nfind that the Master wears a double character: ruler, law-giver, on the\none side; teacher upon the other. In all the old civilisations this is\ncharacteristic; for in those days the idea had not arisen of sacred and\nsecular, or sacred and profane, as we say in the modern world. To the\nold civilisations there was no such thing as sacred history and profane\nhistory; no division was made between sacred science and secular\nscience; all history was sacred, all science was divine. And so much was\nthat the case that, when you find an ancient pupil asking of an ancient\nteacher as to divine science, the answer was given: \"There are two forms\nof divine science, the higher and the lower.\" And the lower divine\nscience was made up of all the things that now you call literature,\nscience, and art; all those were run over by name, and summed up under\nthe heading of the lower divine science. The higher, supreme Science\nwas that knowledge of God, to which accurately the word Wisdom ought\nonly to be applied. So that to their thought Deity was everywhere, and\nthere was only variety in the manifestations of Deity. All Nature was\nsacred. God expressed Himself in every object, in every form. All that\ncould be said was that through one form more of His glory came than\nthrough another. The form might be more or less transparent, but the\ninner radiant light was the same in all. And it was natural, inevitable,\nwith such a conception of Nature and of God, that the Master, the\nFounder, of a religion should unite in His sole person the office alike\nof the Priest and of the King. And so you find it. The only likeness in\nmodern days is not now a very fortunate one in the eyes of many--the\nKing-Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. For so ill had the duties of\nthe King been performed in that high seat, that the people lost the\nsense of the divinity, and revolted against it, and cast it off, and\nleft that Pontiff shorn of his royal character. But far back in the old\ncivilisations, in the one person the two offices were united. The\nPharaoh of Egypt was truly the Lord of the triple diadem, but also the\nsupreme Priest in every temple of his land. So also in Chaldea, in\nIndia, and in many another land; and wherever that is the case you find\na certain outline given to the civilisation, differing in detail, but\nmarvellously similar in the broad touches of that sketch. You find that\nin those days the Priest-King, the Ruler of the land and the supreme\nTeacher of his people, shaped the polity of the nation as he shaped the\ndoctrines taught in the temples of the religion. Both the religion and\nthe polity have the keynote of duty. And always with increasing power\nthere came greater weight of responsibility, heavier burden of duty; and\nthe freest in those civilisations were the poorest. Those who were\nregarded as the children of the national household were ever cared for\nwith extremest care. The very fact that they were the lowest in\ndevelopment gave them the greatest claim on the divine Man who ruled, so\nthat all through the note of those civilisations is the note which\nto-day would be called socialistic--with one enormous difference, that\nthe most wise ruled. The result, in a sense, would be the result that\nthe Socialist dreams of, the absence of poverty, the universality of\nsome form of work done for the State as a whole, a duty of each man to\nbear a share of the burden; but the burden grew lighter and lighter as\nit came downwards to the younger members of the family, of the nation;\nthe duty the most burdensome was placed on the highest. And you will\nfind that, while still the tradition remained, it was very difficult\nsometimes to get rulers and governors of large States and small. It\ncomes out in the Chinese books. The Emperor sends down word that\nSo-and-so is to be governor of a State, and So-and-so, in those\ndegenerate days, generally tried to escape from it, because of the\ntremendous burden that the governorship imposed. For in the case of the\nold Rulers, in the days when the divine Kings were the Kings and Priests\nof the people, anything that was wrong in the nation was related to the\nRuler, and not to the people at large. Remember the words of one great\nTeacher of later days, Confucius, when a King turned to him and said:\n\"Master, why is there robbery, why is there murder in my land? How shall\nI stop it?\" His stern answer was: \"If you, O King, did not steal and\nmurder, there would be no robbery and no murder in your land.\" Always\nthe highest with the weight of responsibility; the younger with the\nright to enjoy, to be happy, to be cared for. Where food was short, they\nwere the last to starve, and the King the first; where anything went\nshort of material things, they were the first to be given their share,\nand the King the last. Such was the outline of the social organisation.\nSlight traces of it remain even to the present day. You can see traces\nof it in the civilisation that was destroyed in Peru by the conquerors,\nthe Spanish conquerors, of that land. Some traces of it still remain in\nIndia, although degraded and decayed. The note is always the same: the\nhigher, the more burdened; the higher, the harder the life; the higher,\nthe greater the duty. For that is the type of the Master, and the idea\nran through the whole of the civilisation. He, the Priest-King, mighty\nin knowledge and in power, must bear upon his broad shoulders the burden\nthat would crush a weaker man. And so downwards through all the degrees\nof ruler, in proportion to the power and its expansion, so in proportion\nthe weight and the responsibility.\n\nThey passed away from earth as humanity grew out of its infant stage.\nMy phrase is too strong--I should not have said: \"They passed away\nfrom earth.\" They passed away into silence, not from earth; thereon\nmany of Them still remain. But They drew back from the outer position,\nfrom outer power, and became the great company of Elder Brothers of\nhumanity, only some of whom remained in close touch with the race.\n\nAnd that is the next point in the idea of the Master. Those who\nfounded a religion were bound to remain wearing the body of man, fixed\nto the earth, bound to the outward semblance of humanity, so long as\nthe religion lived upon earth which They had given to it. That was the\nrule: no liberation for the Man who founded a religion until all who\nbelonged to that religion had themselves passed out of it, into\nliberation, or into another faith, and the religion was dead. The\ndeath of a religion is the liberation from all bondage of the Master\nwho gave it to the world. He in a very real sense is incarnate in the\nreligion that He bestows. While that religion lives and teaches, while\nmen still find in it the expression of their thought, so long that\ndivine Man must remain, and guide and protect and help the religion\nwhich He gave to earth. Such is the law. No Master may leave our\nhumanity while that which He started as a human school is still\nexisting upon earth. Some have passed away, and would no longer be\nspoken of as Masters--the name given to Them in the occult world is\ndifferent--but Those who have passed away have passed away because\nTheir religions are dead: the Masters of ancient Egypt, of ancient\nChaldea, have gone from this earth into the mighty company of Those\nwho no longer bear the burden of the flesh. But the Masters of every\nliving religion live on earth, and are the links, for the people of\nthat religion, between God and man; the Master is the divine Man, one\nwith his brothers, who look to him for help, one with the God around\nand above, and through Him the spiritual life is ever flowing. The\nword \"mediator,\" applied in the Christian scriptures to the Christ,\nsignifies a real and living relation. There are such mediators between\nGod and man, and they are all God-men, true Christs. Such links\nbetween the God without and the God within us are necessary for the\nhelping by the one, and for the manifestation of the other. The God\nwithin us, unfolding his powers, answers to the God without us, and\nthe link is the God-man who shares the manifested nature of divinity,\nand yet remains one with His brethren in the flesh. A bondage, yes.\nBut a voluntary bondage--a bondage assumed in the day in which the\nMessenger came forth from the great White Lodge to bring a new\nrevelation, to found a new divine kingdom upon earth. Heavy the\nresponsibility of a divine Man who takes upon Himself the tremendous\nburden of speaking out to the world a new Word in the divine\nrevelation. All that grows out of it makes the heavy burden of His\ndestiny. Everything which happens within that communion of which He is\nthe centre must react upon Him, and He is ultimately responsible; and\nas that divine Word is always spoken in a community of men and women\nimperfect, sinning, ignorant, that Word is bound to be distorted and\ntwisted, because of the medium in which it works. That is why every\nsuch Teacher is called a \"sacrifice\"--Himself at once the sacrificer\nand the sacrifice, the greatest sacrifice that man may make to man, a\nsacrifice so mighty that none in whom Deity is not unfolded to the\ngreatest height compatible with human limitation is strong enough to\nmake it, is strong enough to endure it. That is the true sacrifice of\nthe Christ; not a few hours' agony in dying, but century after century\nof crucifixion on the cross of matter, until salvation has been won\nfor the people who bear His name, or until they have passed under some\nother Lord. Hence is that road always called \"the Way of the Cross.\"\nLong before Christianity came to birth, the \"Way of the Cross\" was\nknown to every Initiate, and Those were said to tread it who\nvolunteered for the mighty service of proclaiming the old message\nagain in the ears of the world of the time. A sacrifice: for none may\ntell, who volunteers for the service, what lies before the religion\nthat He founds, what shall be the deeds of the community that He\nbegins on earth. And every sin and crime of that religion, or that\nChurch, falls into the scales of Karma stamped with the name of the\nFounder. He is responsible for it, and bearing that responsibility is\nthe mighty sacrifice He makes; and the result is inevitable; for in a\nworld imperfect no perfection can be perfectly mirrored. As the\nsun-ray falling upon water is twisted and distorted, so is it with the\nrays of a perfect truth falling in amongst a community of imperfect\nmen; and no action down here can be a perfect action, for \"action,\" it\nis written in an ancient book, \"is surrounded with evil as a fire is\nsurrounded with smoke.\" The imperfection of the medium makes the smoke\nround every Word of Fire, every Word of Truth. And the Founder must\nendure the pungency of the smoke, if He would speak the Word of Fire.\nThe realisation of that, however dimly, however imperfectly, makes the\npassion of gratitude in the human heart to those Men who bear their\ninfirmities and open up the way to God for man. It is that which in\nsome forms of popular Christianity has been distorted in speaking of\nthe sacrifice of the Christ, when it has been made a sacrifice, not\nfor man, sinful and foolish, but to the Father of all perfection, who\nneeds no sacrifice of suffering in order to reconcile Him to the\nchildren sprung from His life. That is one of the distortions of the\nignorance of man; that the falsification which has been spoken in the\nname of religion and has obscured the perfect love of God--for every\ndivine Man who comes out is a manifestation of the divine heart, and a\nrevelation of God to man. And how could it be that the Master of\nCompassion, who wins human hearts by the tenderness of His love, could\nbe a Revealer of God, if there were not in God a compassion mightier\nthan His own, and profounder than His humanity, as God is greater than\nman? But the splendor of the truth dazzled the eyes of those to whom\nit was presented, and their own ignorance, and fear, and limitation,\nimposed upon that perfect sacrifice the terrible aspect of a sacrifice\nto God--an aspect which it assumed, not only in Christianity, but in\nother faiths as well. For the most part, not always, in the elder\nreligions they understood that the story of the life and death was an\nallegory, a \"myth,\" as they called it, revealing a deeper truth. And\nso they avoided the pain and the sense of revulsion which has roused\nthe conscience of civilised man to revolt against the cruder\npresentments of the doctrine; the great truth of the sacrifice is\ntrue, but it is not a legal, a contract, sacrifice, made between man's\nrepresentative and God; but the effort of the divine to make itself\nunderstood, and the voluntary binding of the sacrifice to the cross\nof matter until His people are set free. And then, as I said, He\npasses on into other worlds, to other work, and is no longer called a\nMaster of the Wisdom.\n\nNow, looking at this idea, let us ask: \"What is the work of these\nMasters in the religions of the world, and why is it that this thought\nof the Masters has been so revived in the modern world, and made so\nmuch more living, in a sense, than it has been for many a long year?\"\nIn the early days of Christianity, as I said, you find the idea; but\nit has largely vanished from the Churches as a living truth, and they\nthink of Jesus, the Christian Master, as risen from the dead and\nascended into heaven. And the materialising spirit of ignorance has\nmade the ascent a going away, and the Man has gone, although the God\nremains. But that is only a materialisation of the older truth; for,\naccording to the truth, heaven is not a faraway place to which people\ngo. No one _goes_ there; they only open their eyes and see it on every\nside around them. For heaven is a state of the psychic life which is\nrealised in the higher bodies, the bodies of the mental plane, and it\ndoes not need to go hither and thither, North, South, East, or West,\nto find it; for, as the great Teacher said: \"Behold, the Kingdom of\nHeaven is within you\"--not far away, beyond the sun or moon or stars.\nAnd the ascension of Jesus to heaven, as the Church of England puts\nit--in words that sound very strange in modern ears, because they have\nlost their mystic meaning and are only taken in what S. Paul used to\ncall the \"carnal\" interpretation--in the fourth article of the Church\nof England, was that He ascended into heaven, taking with Him His\n\"flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of man's\nnature.\" Now when you take that in the literal and crude\nsignification, naturally the thoughtful man revolts against it. What\nis this about a physical body and physical bones going up through the\nair into the sky? And where has it gone to? The modern man cannot\nbelieve it in that sense, and so he loses the spiritual verity\nenshrined in words of symbolism and of allegory. For the fact that\nJesus the Master went away, but still dwells on earth in the flesh,\nthat is the truth which the article tries to indicate; and not that He\nis gone far away into a far-off heaven to sit at the right hand of\nGod, whence He shall come again to judge. He lives in the body, and\nalso lives in the midst of the Church, which is His true mystical\nbody; and so long as that Church exists, so long as that Church is\nfound on earth, so long its Master shall live within it, and shall\ndwell in a human body. He is not gone away, He has not ascended\nanywhere in the literal sense, but is permeating the whole of His\nCommunion, and living upon earth until the last Christian has passed\naway to liberation, or is born into some other faith. That is the\ninner meaning. He lives and may be reached. And if the teachings of\nthe Theosophical Society have any value for the Christian Church, it\nis because they are bringing back to live in Christian hearts this\nliving truth of the bodily ever-presence of the Christ amongst them.\nTheosophists who are Christians, and remain within the limits of the\nChristian Church, have gained a vivid view of this real humanity of\nJesus. They learn that He may be reached as truly now as when He\nwalked near the sea of Galilee, or taught in the streets of Jerusalem,\nthat they may know Him with as real a sense of His presence, may\nlearn from Him as truly as any apostle or disciple in the past, that\nit is a living and real presence--not only, as the Roman Catholic\nChurch says, in the Sacrament of the altar, but in the experience of\nthe Christian heart. And it has never been left without a witness.\nLook all through the history of the Christian Church, and see how one\nafter another has come into living touch with the Master Jesus. Every\ngreat saint has proclaimed his own experience as regards his contact\nwith his Lord. And only in comparatively modern days, and in parts\nonly of the Christian Church, has that great and vivifying truth been\nlost sight of. The Greek Church has never lost it; the Roman Catholic\nChurch has never lost it. The testimony of the saints in those ancient\ncommunions bears witness to the continuing connection between the\nChristian and the Christ. You find it in some of the extreme\nProtestant communities also, where they bear a living testimony to the\nreality of the personal communion. Not through books and churches\nonly, but within the living heart of man, visible sometimes even to\nphysical eyes, shining out in the vision of the saint, speaking in the\nrapture of the prophet--it has never quite passed away from\nChristianity. It is coming back more strongly year after year, coming\nback with increased vitality, with more reality and strength behind\nit; coming back because the Christ within the Church, finding that\nforgetfulness was coming over the modern mind, has, as in the olden\ndays, used a scourge of whipcord instead of only the voice of love.\nFor inasmuch as the voice of love was not listened to, and the reality\nof His presence was being forgotten, He has used the whip of what is\ncalled the Higher Criticism to drive men out of books back to the\nliving Master of the Christian faith. When you build the house of your\nfaith on books and manuscripts, on councils and traditions, you are\nbuilding on the sand, and the storm has come--the storm of criticism,\nof investigation, of scholarship, and the house of faith totters,\nbecause it is founded on the sand. But build the house of your faith\non the rock of human experience, on the one rock on which every true\nChurch is founded, the individual touch between the human Spirit and\nthe divine, the personal experience of the human man on earth with the\ndivine Man in the heaven, beside and around him, and you build the\nhouse of your faith on a rock that nothing can shake nor destroy, and\nit will shelter you, no matter what storms may rage outside. And so,\nas in the temple, the whip has been used in order that men may learn\nwhat they would not learn by the gentle instruction spoken only in the\nwords of the friend. The enemy has been used for it, the foe, the\nassailant, who has made sharp his weapons, and has cut many of the old\nmanuscripts in pieces; and the result of that is that the Christian\nChurch is thrown back upon the Christ Himself, no longer seen dimly\nthrough history, but in vivid reality before the eyes of the heart of\nthe Christian, and that He will give to Christianity a new life. The\nmystic belief will come back, and the literal interpretations will\nfall away. And when that is done, then Christianity shall have renewed\nits youth and its power, and shall know that the Master is living in\nHis Church, and is still the Master of life and death, as in the olden\ndays.\n\nAnd by a very real instinct you will find that the most earnest\nChristians cling to the humanity of Jesus, and that is the value of\nthe Master to us, when inside our hearts is written the truth of His\nexistence. If there were only such men as we, and God, the gulf would\nbe too vast, the difference too terrible--nothing to encourage us to\nbelieve that Divinity was within us. We seem so trivial, so foolish,\nso childish, that we hardly dare sometimes to believe that we are\ntruly God. It seems impossible for us in our modern life, with all the\nfollies in which we spend ourselves, with all the childish ambitions\nand terrors with which we amuse or frighten ourselves. This little\nmodern life seems so petty and so vulgar that we scarcely dare to\nbelieve ourselves divine. We speak of the old heroic days, and think\nthat if we had lived then, we too should have been heroic, as the\nheroes and martyrs and saints of earlier times. But in truth humanity\nis just as divine to-day, as it ever was in the past. And if the\ndivine were manifested in us as it was in the great ones of the past,\nwe should be heroic as they were; it is not circumstances that make\nthe difference, but only that the God within us is more in the stage\nof childhood than in those mighty ones of the past, in which He had\nrisen to the stature of divine manhood. And when we think of the\nMasters and realise that They are; still more, perhaps, when in some\nhappy moment we catch a glimpse of such divine Men, or feel Their\npresence closer than that of a human friend, ah! then it is that the\ninspiration which flows from Them, as from a ceaseless source,\nencourages and vivifies the life within. For we realise that it was\nnot so very, very long ago that They were as we are, plunged down in\nthe trivialities of earth; that They have climbed above them by the\nunfolding of the God within. And what They have done, you and I may\nalso do. They are a constant inspiration and encouragement for\nhumanity. They are men, and only God as we are God; the only\ndifference being that They have God more manifest in Them than He is\nin us. They also in Their day were weak and foolish; They also strove\nand struggled, as we strive and struggle now; They also failed, as we\nare failing now; They also blundered, as we are blundering now; and\nThey have risen above it all, strength after strength revealed in\nThem, wisdom and power and love growing ever more and more divine. And\nwhat They have done, you and I can do. For They are truly but the\nfirst fruits of humanity, the promise of the harvest, and not\nsomething strange, miraculous, and far away. The Christian clings to\nthe manhood of Jesus for the reason that as \"He hath suffered, being\ntempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.\" And it is a\ntrue instinct, a wise faith, for it is by coming into touch with such\nlinks between humanity and God, that you and I in time will become\ndivine. In Him that divine seed of Spirit has unfolded into flower and\nfruit. When you sow a seed in the soil of your garden, you sow it in\nthe full belief that it will grow, that it will become a plant with\nleaf and flower and fruit. And you believe it by all the promise of\nthe past, which has proved that out of such seeds grow such flowers;\nall that is behind you to make your faith a reasonable faith; and when\nyou plant that trivial thing, a little larger than a pin's head, and\nhide it in the darkness of the ground out of sight, you have a living\nfaith within you that out of that seed shall grow the perfect flower.\nHave the same faith for the seed of divinity that is planted within\nyou, though it be planted in the darkness of your heart. Even if at\npresent the first little shoot has not come up above the darkness of\nthe soil in which it is buried, none the less the seed is there; it\nwill grow and ripen into the perfect fruit. It must be so. There are\nno failures for the divine Husbandman, no seed which is not living,\nwhich falls from His hands into the ground. And near us the Masters\nstand ever, the living truth of what man can be--nay, what he shall be\nin the centuries to come. They are proofs of what you and I shall be,\nthe finished copies of the statues which lie as yet so rough, so\nunhewn, in the marble of our humanity. That is Their value for all\nmen, and part of Their work is to help us to become what They are, to\nfoster in us every shoot of the spiritual life, to strengthen in us\nevery effort and struggle towards the light. Theirs the glorious work,\nnot only of building up mighty faiths, but of living in them, and\npouring out spiritual life on the heart of each who enters within the\nportals of those faiths. That is Their splendid work; and if Theosophy\nis doing much in all the religions of the world to make them more real\nto their adherents, and give to them fresh vitality and strength and\nvigor, it is only because it is the latest impulse from the Masters of\nthe WISDOM, and so is the most convenient channel through which that\nlife may be poured into all the religions of the world. Only the\nlatest of the impulses. All religions have been born out of such an\nimpulse, and the only difference between this and the earlier impulses\nis that while they each founded a religion and round that religion a\nwall was built, so that there were believers inside the wall and\nunbelievers outside, round this spiritual forthstreaming no walls are\nto be built, but the waters are to spread everywhere without\nlimitation, without exception. That is the specialty in the message of\nTheosophy. It belongs to all alike. As much yours, though you do not\ncall it by that name, perhaps, as it is theirs who call it by that\nname. It is only living, because it lives in every religion; it is\nonly true, because it comes from the same Masters of the eternal\nWISDOM, belongs equally to all, to every religion that cares to take\nany of the truth that it has re-proclaimed. And all over the world the\nglad message is going. There is not one religion which is now living,\namongst whose adherents Theosophy is not spreading, and making them\nbetter members of their religions than they were before. For there is\nmany a man and woman, in East and West alike, who had gone away from\nthe religion into which they were born, because the mystic element had\nvanished and the literal sense of the doctrines was in truth the\nletter which killeth, while the spirit that was life seemed to have\nescaped. Many such men and women, in East and West, have come back\nwith joy to the religion in which they were born, in realising that it\nis only an expression of the one divine WISDOM, and that the Masters\nof the WISDOM live and move amongst us.\n\nAnd it may be that if the world grows more spiritual, it may be that\nif Spirit again becomes triumphant over matter, after passing through\nthe darkness which was necessary in order that the intellect might be\nthoroughly developed and might learn its powers and its limitations;\nit may be that, in days to come, when the world is more spiritualised\nthan to-day, climbing as it is again the upward arc, these living\nMasters of the world's religions will come amongst us again visibly as\nin the earlier days. It is not They who keep back in silence. It is we\nwho shut Them out, and make Their presence a danger rather than an\nencouragement and an inspiration. And every one of you--no matter what\nyour faith may be, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Theosophist,\nwhat matters it?--every one of you who makes the Master of your own\nfaith a living reality, part of your life, nearer than friend and\nbrother, every such believer and worker is hastening the day of joy\nwhen the world shall be ready for the open reception of the Masters,\nthat They may move visibly amongst humanity once more. That it may be\nso, open your heart to every breath of truth; that it may be so, open\nyour eyes to every ray from the one eternal Sun. In the past the world\nwould have none of the Masters. They slew the Christ; they made the\nprophets outcasts. And until in our heart the love of the Master\nawakens, until with passionate longing, with continual insistence, we\ncall to the divine Men the welcome, without which They may not come,\nThey must remain hidden. Only when there comes up from heart after\nheart one vast chant of devotion and appeal, only then will They come\nto the many as They have already come to the few, and show out the\nvisible splendor of Their manhood, as the glory of Their divinity has\never been upon the earth.\n\n\n\n\nTheosophy and the Theosophical Society\n\n\nI want to put before you clearly and plainly what Theosophy means, and\nwhat is the function of the Theosophical Society. For we notice very\noften, especially with regard to the Society, that there is a good\ndeal of misconception touching it, and that people do not realise the\nobject with which it exists, the work that it is intended to perform.\nIt is very often looked upon as the expression of some new religion,\nas though people in becoming Theosophists must leave the religious\ncommunity to which he or she may happen to belong. And so a profound\nmisconception arises, and many people imagine that in some way or\nother it is hostile to the religion which they profess. Now Theosophy,\nlooked at historically or practically, belongs to all the religions of\nthe world, and every religion has an equal claim to it, has an equal\nright to say that Theosophy exists within it. For Theosophy, as the\nname implies, the Divine WISDOM, the WISDOM of God, clearly cannot be\nappropriated by any body of people, by any Society, not even by the\ngreatest of the religions of the world. It is a common property, as\nfree to everyone as the sunlight and the air. No one can claim it as\nhis, save by virtue of his common humanity; no one can deny it to his\nbrother, save at the peril of destroying his own claim thereto. Now\nthe meaning of this word, both historically and practically, the\nWISDOM, the Divine WISDOM, is a very definite and clear meaning; it\nasserts the possibility of the knowledge of God. That is the point\nthat the student ought to grasp; this knowledge of God, not the belief\nin Him, not the faith in Him, not only vague idea concerning Him, but\nthe _knowledge_ of Him, is possible to man. That is the affirmation of\nTheosophy, that is its root-meaning and its essence.\n\nAnd we find, looking back historically, that this has been asserted in\nthe various great religions of the world. They all claim that man can\nknow, not only that man can believe. Only in some of the more modern\nfaiths, in their own modern days, the knowledge has slipped into the\nbackground, and the belief, the faith, looms very large in the mind of\nthe believer. Go back as far as you will in the history of the past,\nand you will find the most ancient of religions affirming this\npossibility of knowledge. In India, for instance, with its antique\ncivilisation, you find that the very central idea of Hinduism is\nthis supreme knowledge, the knowledge of God. As I pointed out to you\nthe other day with regard to this old Eastern religion, all knowledge\nis regarded in a higher or a lower degree as the knowledge of God; for\nthere is no division, as you know, in that ancient faith, between the\nsecular and the sacred. That division is a modern division, and was\nunknown in the ancient world. But they did make a division in\nknowledge between the higher and the lower; and the lower knowledge,\nor the lower science, called the \"lower divine science,\" was that\nwhich you will call \"science\" nowadays, the study of the external\nworld. But it also included all that here we speak of as Literature,\nas Art, as Craft--everything, in fact, which the human brain can study\nand the human fingers can accomplish--the whole of that, in one grand\ngeneralisation, was called \"Divine Wisdom,\" but it was the lower\ndivine Wisdom, the inferior knowledge of God. Then, beside, or rather\nabove that, came the Supreme Knowledge, the higher, the superior, that\nbeyond which there was no knowledge, which was the crown of all. Now,\nthat supreme knowledge is declared to be \"the knowledge of Him by Whom\nall things are known\"--a phrase indicating the Supreme Deity. It was\nthat which was called the supreme knowledge, or, _par excellence_, the\nDivine Knowledge, and that old Hindu thought is exactly the same as\nyou have indicated by the name Theosophy.\n\nSo, again, classical students may remember that among the Greeks and\nthe early Christians there was what was called the Gnosis, the\nknowledge, the definite article pointing to that which, above all\nelse, was to be regarded as knowledge or wisdom. And when you find\namong the Neo-Platonists this word Gnosis used, it always means, and\nis defined to mean, \"the knowledge of God,\" and the \"Gnostic\" is \"a\nman who knows God.\" So, again, among the early Christians. Take such a\nman as Origen. He uses the same word in exactly the same sense; for\nwhen Origen is declaring that the Church has medicine for the sinner,\nand that Christ is the Good Physician who heals the diseases of men,\nhe goes on to say that the Church has also the Gnosis for the wise,\nand that you cannot build the Church out of sinners; you must build it\nout of Gnostics. These are the men who know, who have the power to\nhelp and to teach; and there can be no medicine for the diseased, no\nupholder of the weak, unless, within the limits of the religion, the\nGnostic is to be found. And so Origen lays immense stress on the\nGnostic, and devotes page after page to a description of him: what he\nis, what he thinks, what he does; and to the mind of that great\nChristian teacher, the Gnostic was the strength of the Church, the\npillar, the buttress of the faith. And so, coming down through the\ncenturies, since the Christian time, you will find the word Gnostic\nused every now and again, but more often the term \"Theosophist\" and\n\"Theosophy\"; for this term came into use in the later school, the\nNeo-Platonists, and became the commonly accepted word for those who\nclaimed this possibility of knowledge, or even claimed to _know_. And\na phrase regarding this is to be found in the mystic Fourth Gospel,\nthat of S. John, where into the mouth of the Christ the words are put,\nthat the \"knowledge of God is eternal life\"--not the faith, nor the\nthought, but the knowledge--again declaring the possibility of this\nGnosis. And the same idea is found along the line of the Hermetic\nScience, or Hermetic Philosophy, partly derived from Greece and partly\nfrom Egypt. The Hermetic philosopher also claimed to know, and claimed\nthat in man was this divine faculty of knowledge, above the reason,\nhigher than the intellect. And whenever, among the thoughtful and the\nlearned, you find reference made to \"faith,\" as where, in the Epistle\nto the Hebrews, it is said to be \"the _evidence_ of things not seen,\"\nthe same idea comes out, and Faith, the real Faith, is only this\nintense conviction which grows out of the inner spiritual being of\nman, the Self, the Spirit, which justifies to the intellect, to the\nsenses, that there is God, that God truly exists. And this is so\nstrongly felt in the East that no one there wants to argue about the\nexistence of God; it is declared that that existence cannot be proved\nby argument. \"Not by argument,\" it is written, \"not by reasoning, not\nby thinking, can the Supreme Self be known.\" The only proof of Him is\n\"the conviction in the Spirit, in the Self.\" And thus Theosophy, then,\nhistorically, as you see, always makes the affirmation that man can\nknow; and after that supreme affirmation that God may be known, then\nthere comes the secondary affirmation, implied really in that, and in\nthe fact of man's identity of nature with the Supreme, that all things\nin the universe can be known--things visible and invisible, subtle and\ngross. That is, so to speak, a secondary affirmation, drawn out of the\nfirst; for clearly if in man resides the faculty to know God as God,\nthen every manifestation of God may be known by the faculty which\nrecognises the identity of the human Spirit with the Supreme Spirit\nthat permeates the universe at large. So in dictionaries and in\nencyclopedias you will sometimes find Theosophy defined as the idea\nthat God, and angels, and spirits, may hold direct communication with\nmen; or sometimes, in the reverse form, that men can hold\ncommunication with spirits, and angels, and even with God Himself;\nand although that definition be not the best that can be given, it has\nits own truth, for that is the result of the knowledge of God, the\ninevitable outcome of it, the manifestation of it. The man who knows\nGod, and knows all things in Him, is evidently able to communicate\nwith any form of living being, to come into relation with anything in\nthe universe of which the One Life is God.\n\nIn modern days, and among scientific people, the affirmation which is\nthe reverse of this became at one time popular, widely accepted--not\nGnostic but \"Agnostic,\" \"without the Gnosis\"; that was the position\ntaken up by Huxley and by many men of his own time of the same school\nof thought. He chose the name because of its precise signification; he\nwas far too scientific a man to crudely deny, far too scientific to be\nwilling to speak positively of that of which he knew nothing; and so,\ninstead of taking up the position that there is nothing beyond man,\nand man's reason, and man's senses, he took up the position that man\nwas without possibility of knowledge of what there might be, that his\nonly means of knowledge were the senses for the material universe, the\nreason for the world of thought. Man, by his reason, could conquer\neverything in the realm of thought, might become mighty in intellect,\nand hold as his own domain everything that the intellect could grasp\nat its highest point of growth, its highest possibility of attainment.\nThat splendid avenue of progress Huxley, and men like Huxley, placed\nbefore humanity as the road along which it might hope to walk, full of\nthe certainty of ultimate achievement. But outside that, beyond the\nreason in the world of thought and the senses in the material world,\nHuxley, and those who thought like him, declared that man was unable\nto pierce--hence \"Agnostic,\" \"without the Gnosis,\" without the\npossibility of plunging deeply into the ocean of Being, for there the\nintellect had no plummet. Such, according to science at one time, was\nman; and whatever man might hope for, whatever man might strive for,\non, as it were, the portal of the spiritual universe was written the\nlegend \"without knowledge.\" Thither man might not hope to penetrate,\nthither man's faculties might never hope to soar; for when you have\ndefined man as a reasoning being, you have given the highest\ndefinition that science was able to accept, and across the spiritual\nnature was written: \"imagination, dream, and phantasy.\"\n\nAnd yet there is much in ordinary human history which shows that man\nis something more than intellect, as clearly as it shows that the\nintellect is greater than the senses; for every statesman knows that\nhe has to reckon with what is sometimes called \"the religious\ninstinct\" in man, and that however coldly philosophers may reason,\nhowever sternly science may speak, there is in man some upwelling\npower which refuses to take the agnosticism of the intellect, as it\nrefuses to accept the positivism of the senses; and with that every\nruler of men has to deal, with that every statesman has to reckon.\nThere is something in man which from time to time wells up with\nirresistible power, sweeping away every limit which intellect or\nsenses may strive to put in its path--the religious instinct. And even\nto take that term, that name, even that is to join on this part of\nman's nature to a part of nature universal, which bears testimony in\nevery time, and in every place, that to every instinct in the living\ncreature there is some answer in the nature outside itself. There is\nno instinct known in plant, in animal, in man, to which nature does\nnot answer; nature, which has woven the demand into the texture of the\nliving creature, has always the supply ready to meet the demand; and\nstrange indeed it would be, well-nigh incredible, if the profoundest\ninstinct of all in nature's highest product on the physical plane, if\nthat ineradicable instinct, that seeking after God and that thirst for\nthe Supreme, were the one and only instinct in nature for which there\nis no answer in the depths and the heights around us. And it is not\nso. That argument is strengthened and buttressed by an appeal to\nexperience; for you cannot, in dealing with human experience and the\ntestimony of the human consciousness, leave entirely out of court,\nsilenced, as though it were not relevant, the continual testimony of\nall religions to the existence of the spiritual nature in man. The\nspiritual consciousness proves itself quite as definitely as the\nintellectual or the sensuous consciousness proves itself--by the\nexperience of the individual, alike in every religion as in every\ncentury in which humanity has lived, has thought, has suffered, has\nrejoiced. The religious, the spiritual nature, is that which is the\nstrongest in man, not the weakest; that which breaks down the barriers\nof the intellect, and crushes into silence the imperious demands of\nthe senses; which changes the whole life as by a miracle, and turns\nthe face of the man in a direction contrary to that in which he has\nbeen going all his life. Whether you take the facts of conversion, or\nwhether you take the testimony of the saint, the prophet, the seer,\nthey all speak with that voice of authority to which humanity\ninstinctively bows down; and it was the mark of the spiritual man when\nit was said of Jesus, the Prophet: \"He taught them as one having\nauthority, and not as the scribes.\" For where the spiritual man\nspeaks, his appeal is made to the highest and the deepest part in\nevery hearer that he addresses, and the answer that comes is an answer\nthat brooks no denial and permits no questioning. It shows its own\nimperial nature, the highest and the dominant nature in the man, and\nwhere the Spirit once has spoken the intellect becomes obedient, and\nthe senses begin to serve.\n\nNow Theosophy, in declaring that this nature of man can know God,\nbases that statement on identity of nature. We can know--it is our\ncontinual experience--we can know that which we share, and nothing\nelse. Only when you have appropriated for yourself something from the\noutside world can you know the similar things in the outside world.\nYou can see because your eye has within it the ether of which the\nwaves are light; you can hear because your ear has in it the ether and\nthe air whose vibrations are sound; and so with everything else.\nMyriads of things exist outside you, and you are unconscious of them,\nbecause you have not yet appropriated to your own service that which\nis like unto them in outer nature. And you can know God for exactly\nthe same reason that you can know by sight or hearing--because you are\npart of God; you can know Him because you share His nature. \"We are\npartakers of the Divine Nature,\" says the Christian teacher. \"Thou art\nThat,\" declares the Hindu. The Sufi cries out that by love man and\nGod are one, and know each other. And all the religions of the world\nin varied phrase announce the same splendid truth of man's Divinity.\nIt is on that that Theosophy founds its affirmation that the knowledge\nof God is possible to man; that the foundation, then, of Theosophy,\nthat the essence of its message.\n\nAnd the value of it at the time when it was re-proclaimed to the world\nwas that it was an affirmation in the face of a denial. Where Science\nbegan to cry \"agnosticism,\" Theosophy came to cry out \"gnosticism.\" At\nthe very same time the two schools were born into the modern world,\nand the re-proclamation of Theosophy, the supreme knowledge, was the\nanswer from the invisible worlds to the nescience of Science. It came\nat the right time, it came in the right form, as in a few moments we\nshall see; but the most important thing of all is that it came at the\nvery moment when Science thought itself triumphant in its nescience.\nThis re-proclamation, then, of the most ancient of all truths, was the\nmessage of Theosophy to the modern world. And see how the world has\nchanged since that was proclaimed! It is hardly necessary now to make\nthat affirmation, so universal has become the acceptance of it. It is\nalmost difficult to look back to the year 1875, and realise how men\nwere thinking and feeling then. I can remember it, because I was in\nit. The elder amongst you can remember it, for the same reason. But\nfor the younger of you, who have begun to think and feel in the later\ntimes, when this thought was becoming common, you can scarcely realise\nthe change in the intellectual atmosphere which has come about during\nthese last two-and-thirty years. Hardly worth while is it to proclaim\nit now, it is so commonplace. If now you say: \"Man can know God,\" the\nanswer is: \"Of course he can.\" Thirty-two years ago it was: \"Indeed he\ncannot.\" And that is to be seen everywhere, all over the world, and\nnot only among those people who were clinging blindly to a blind\nfaith, desperately sticking to it as the only raft which remained for\nthem to save them from being submerged in materialism. It is\nrecognised now on all hands; literature is full of it; and it is not\nwithout significance that some months ago _The Hibbert Journal_--which\nhas in it so much of the advanced thought of the day, for which\nbishops and archbishops and learned clerics write--it is not without\nsignificance that that journal drew its readers' attention to \"the\nvalue of the God-idea in Hinduism.\" And the only value of it was\nthis, for man: that man is God, and therefore can know God; and the\nwriter pointed out that that was the only foundation on which, in\nmodern days, an edifice that could not be shaken could be reared up\nfor the Spirit in man. That is the religion of the future, the\nreligion of the Divine Self; that the common religion, the universal\nreligion, of which all the religions that are living in the world will\nbe recognised as branches, as sects of one mighty religion, universal\nand supreme. For just as now in Christianity you have many a sect and\nmany a church, just as in Hinduism we find many sects and many\nschools, and as in every other great religion of the world at the\npresent time there are divisions between the believers in the same\nreligion, so shall it be--very likely by the end of this century--with\nall the religions of the world; there will be only one religion--the\nknowledge of God--and all religious sects under that one mighty and\nuniversal name.\n\nAnd then, naturally, out of this knowledge there must spring a large\nnumber of other knowledges subservient to it, that which you hear so\nmuch about in Theosophical literature, of other worlds, the worlds\nbeyond the physical, worlds that are still material, although the\nmatter be of a finer, subtler kind; all that you read about the\nastral, and mental, and buddhic planes, and so on--all these\nlower knowledges find their places naturally, as growing out of the\none supreme knowledge. And at once you will ask: \"Why?\" If you are\nreally divine, if your Self is the same Self of which the worlds are a\npartial expression, then it is not difficult to see that that Self in\nyou, as it unfolds its divine powers, and shapes the matter which it\nappropriates in order to come in contact with all the different parts\nof the universe, that that Self, creating for itself bodies, will be\nable to know every material thing in the universe, just as you know\nthe things of the physical plane through the physical body. For it is\nall on the same lines: that which enables you to know is not only\nbody--that is the medium between you and the physical world--but the\nKnower in you is that which enables you to know, the power of\nperception which is of consciousness, and not of body. When\nconsciousness vanishes, all the organs of consciousness are there, as\nperfect as ever, but the Knower has left them, and knowledge\ndisappears with him; and so, whether it be in a swoon, in a fainting\nfit, in sleep, or in death, the perfect instrument of the physical\nbody becomes useless when the hand of the master workman drops it. The\nbody is only his tool, whereby he contacts the things in a universe\nwhich is not himself; and the moment he leaves it, it is a mere heap\nof matter, doomed to decay, to destruction. But just as he has that\nbody for knowledge here, so he has other bodies for knowledge\notherwhere, and in every world he can know, he who is the Knower, and\nevery world is made up of objects of knowledge, which he can perceive,\nexamine, and understand.\n\nAnd the world into which you shall pass when you go through the portal\nof death, that is around you at every moment of your life here, and\nyou only do not know it because your instrument of knowledge there is\nnot yet perfected, and ready there to your hand; and the heavenly\nworld into which you will pass out of the intermediate world next to\nthis, that is around you now, and you only do not know it because your\ninstrument of knowledge there has not yet been fashioned. And so with\nworlds yet higher, knowledge of them is possible, because the Knower\nis yourself and is God, and you can create your instruments of\nknowledge according to your wisdom and your will.\n\nHence Theosophy includes the whole of this vast scheme or field of\nknowledge; and the whole of it is yours, yours to possess at your\nwill. Hence Theosophy should be to you a proclamation of your own\nDivinity, with everything that flows therefrom; and all the knowledge\nthat may be gathered, all the investigations that may be made, they\nare all part of this great scheme. And the reason why all the\nreligions of the world teach the same, when you come to disentangle\nthe essence of their teaching from the shape in which they put it, the\nreason that they all teach the same is that they are all giving you\nfragments of knowledge of the other worlds, and these worlds are all\nmore real than the world in which you are; and they all teach the same\nfundamental truths, the same fundamental moral principles, the same\nreligious doctrines, and use the same methods in order that men may\ncome into touch with the other worlds. The sacraments do not belong to\nChristianity alone, as sometimes Christians think; every religion has\nits sacraments, some more numerous than others, but all have some. For\nwhat is a sacrament? It is the earthly, the physical representative of\na real correspondence in nature; as the catechism of the Church of\nEngland phrases it: \"An outward and visible sign of an inward and\nspiritual grace.\" It is a true definition. A sacrament is made up of\nthe outer and inner, and you cannot do without either. The outer thing\nis correlated to the inner, and is a real means of coming into touch\nwith the higher, and is not only a symbol, as some imagine. The great\nchurches and religions of the past always cling to that reality of the\nsacrament, and they do well. It is only in very modern times, and\namong a comparatively small number of Christian people, that the\nsacrament has become only a symbol, instead of a channel of living and\ndivine power. And much is lost to the man who loses out of his\nreligion the essential idea of the sacrament; for it is the link\nbetween the spiritual and the physical, the channel whereby the\nspiritual pours down into the physical vehicle. Hence the value that\nall religions put upon sacraments, and their recognition of their\nreality, and their priceless service to mankind. And so with many\nother things in ceremonies and rites, common to all the different\nfaiths--the use of musical sounds, a use which tunes the bodies so\nthat the spiritual power may be able to manifest through them and by\nthem. For just as in your orchestra you must tune the instruments to a\nsingle note, so must you tune your various bodies in order that\nharmoniously they may allow the spiritual force to come through from\nthe higher to the lower plane. It is a real tuning, a real making of\nharmonious vibrations; and the difference between the vibrations that\nare harmonious and the vibrations that are discordant, from this point\nof view, is this: when all the bodies vibrate together, all the\nparticles and their spaces correspond, so that you get solid\nparticles, then spaces, and then solid particles, and spaces again,\ncorresponding through all the bodies; whereas in the normal condition\nthe bodies do not match in that way, and the spaces of one come\nagainst the solid parts of the other, and so you get a block. When\nsounds are used, the mystical sounds called mantras in Hinduism,\nthe effect of those is to change the bodies from this condition to\nthat, and so the forces from without can come into the man, and the\nforces in him may flow out to others. That is the value of it. You are\nable to produce mechanically a result which otherwise has to be\nproduced by a tremendous exertion of the will; and the man of\nknowledge never uses more force than is necessary in order to bring\nabout what he desires, and the Occultist--who is the wise man on many\nplanes--he uses the easiest way always to gain his object. Hence the\nuse of music, or mantras, in every faith. Pythagoras used music in\norder to prepare his disciples to receive his teachings. The Greek and\nthe Roman Catholic Churches use special forms of music to produce a\ndefinite effect upon the worshippers who hear them. All of you must be\naware that there are some kinds of music which have the remarkable\neffect upon you, of lifting you higher than you can rise by your own\nunassisted effort. Even the songs of illiterate Christian bodies do\nhave some effect upon them, in raising them to a higher level,\nalthough they possess little of the true quality of the mantra. In\nTheosophy you find all these things dealt with scientifically--a mass\nof knowledge, but all growing out of the original statement that man\ncan know God.\n\nNow it is clear that in all that, there is nothing which a man of any\nfaith cannot accept, cannot study. I do not mean that he will accept\neverything that a Theosophist would say; but I mean that the knowledge\nis knowledge of a kind which he will be wise to study, and to\nappropriate so far as it recommends itself to his reason and his\nintuition. And that is all the man need do--study. All this knowledge\nis spread out for you freely: you can take it, if you will. The\nTheosophical Society, which spreads it broadcast everywhere, claims in\nit no property, no proprietary rights, but gives it out freely\neverywhere. The books in which much of it is written are as free to\nthe non-Theosophist as to the Theosophist. The results of Theosophical\ninvestigation are published freely that all who choose may read.\nEverything is done that can be done by the Society to make the whole\nthing common property; and nothing gives the true Theosophist more\ndelight than when he sees the Theosophical teachings coming out in\nsome other garb which gives them a different name, but hands them on\nto those who might be frightened perhaps by the name \"Theosophy.\" And\nso, when we find a clergyman scattering broadcast to his congregation\nTheosophical teaching as Christian, we say: \"See, our work is bearing\nfruit\"; and when we find the man who does not label himself\n\"Theosophist\" giving any of these truths to the world, we rejoice,\nbecause we see that our work is being done. We have no desire to take\nthe credit of it, nor to claim it as ours at all; it belongs to every\nman who is able to see it, quite as much as it does to anyone who may\ncall himself \"Theosophist.\" For the possession of truth comes of right\nto the man who can see the truth, and there is no partiality in the\nworld of intellect or of Spirit. The only test for a man's fitness to\nreceive is the ability to perceive; and the only claim he has to see\nby the light is the power of seeing.\n\nAnd that, perhaps, may explain to you what some think strange in our\nSociety--we have no dogmas. We do not shut out any man because he does\nnot believe Theosophical teachings. A man may deny every one of them,\nsave that of human brotherhood, and claim his place and his right\nwithin our ranks. But his place and his right within our ranks are\nfounded on the very truths that he denies; for if man could not know\nGod, if there were no identity of nature in every man with God, then\nthere would be no foundation for our reception of him, nor any reason\nfor welcoming him as a brother. Because there is only one life, and\none nature, therefore the man who denies is God, as is he who affirms.\nTherefore each has a right to come; only the one who affirms knows why\nhe welcomes his brother, and the one who denies is ignorant, and knows\nnot why he has a right within our ranks. But those of us who try to be\nTheosophists in reality, as well as in name, we understand why it is\nthat we make him welcome, and it is based on this sane idea, that a\nman can see the truth best by studying it, and not by repeating\nformul\u00e6 that he does not understand. What is the use of putting a\ndogma before a man and saying: \"You must repeat that before you can\ncome into my Church\"? If the man repeats it not understanding it, he\nis outside, no matter how much you bring him in; and if he sees it,\nthere is no need to make that as a portal to your fellowship. And we\nbelieve, we of the Theosophical Society, that just because the\nintellect can only do its best work in its own atmosphere of freedom,\ntruth has the best chance of being seen when you do not make any\nconditions as to the right of investigation, as to the claim to seek.\nTo us, truth is so supreme a thing that we do not desire to bind any\nman with conditions as to how, or where, or why, he shall seek it.\nThese things, we say, we know are true; and because we know they are\ntrue, come amongst us, even though you do not believe them, and find\nout for yourself whether they be true or not. And the man is better\nworth having when he comes in an unbeliever, and wins to the knowledge\nof the truth, than is the facile believer who acknowledges everything\nand never gets a real grip upon truth at all. We believe that truth is\nonly found by seeking, and that the true bond is the love of truth,\nand the effort to find it; that that is a far more real bond than the\nrepetition of a common creed. For the creed can be repeated by the\nlips, but the seeing of truth as true can only come from the intellect\nand the spirit, and to build on the intellect and the spirit is a\nfirmer foundation than to build on the breath of the lips. Hence our\nSociety has no dogmas. Not that it does not stand for any truths, as\nsome people imagine. Its name marks out the truth for which it stands:\nit is the Theosophical Society; and that shows its function and its\nplace in the world--a Society that asserts the possibility of the\nknowledge of God; that is its proclamation, as we have seen, and all\nthe other truths that grow out of that are amongst our teachings. The\nSociety exists to spread the knowledge of those truths, and to\npopularise those teachings amongst mankind. \"But,\" you may say, \"if it\nbe the fact that you throw out broadcast all your teachings, that you\nwrite them in books that every man can buy, what is, then, the good of\nbeing a member of the Theosophical Society? We should not have any\nmore as members than we have as non-members.\" That is not quite true,\nbut it may stand as true for the moment. Why should you come in? For\nno reason at all, unless to you it is the greatest privilege to come\nin, and you desire to be among those who are the pioneers of the\nthought of the coming days. No reason at all: it is a privilege. We do\nnot beg you to come in; we only say: \"Come if you like to come, and\nshare the glorious privilege that we possess; but if you would rather\nnot, stay outside, and we will give you everything which we believe\nwill be serviceable and useful to you.\" The feeling that brings people\ninto our Society is the feeling that makes the soldier spring forward\nto be amongst the pioneers when the army is going forth. There are\nsome people so built that they like to go in front and face\ndifficulties, so that other people may have an easier time, and walk\nalong a path that has already been hewn out for them by hands stronger\nthan their own. That is the only reason why you should come in: no\nother. Do not come to \"get\"; you will be disappointed if you do. You\ncan \"get\" it outside. Come in to give, to work, to be enrolled amongst\nthe servants of humanity who are working for the dawn of the day of a\nnobler knowledge, for the coming of the recognition of a spiritual\nbrotherhood amongst men. Come in if you have the spirit of the pioneer\nwithin you, the spirit of the volunteer; if to you it is a delight to\ncut the way through the jungle that others may follow, to tread the\npath with bruised feet in order that others may have a smooth road to\nlead them to the heights of knowledge. That is the only advantage of\ncoming in: to know in your own heart that you realise what is coming,\nand are helping to make it come more quickly for the benefit of your\nfellow-men; that you are working for humanity; that you are co-workers\nwith God, in making the knowledge of Him spread abroad on every side;\nthat you are amongst those to whom future centuries will look back,\nthanking you that you saw the light when all men thought it was dark,\nand that you recognised the coming dawn when others believed the\nearth was sunk in midnight. I know of no inspiration more inspiring,\nof no ideal that lifts men to greater heights, of no hope that is so\nfull of splendor, no thought that is so full of energy, as the\ninspiration, and the ideal, and the hope, and the thought, that you\nare working for the future, for the day that has not yet come. There\nwill be so many in the days to come who will see the truth, so many in\nthe unborn generations who will live from the hour of their birth in\nthe light of the Divine WISDOM. And what is it not to know that one is\nbringing that nearer? to feel that this great treasure is placed in\nyour hands for the enriching of humanity, and that the bankruptcy of\nhumanity is over and the wealth is being spread broadcast on every\nside? What a privilege to know that those generations in the future,\nrejoicing in the light, will feel some touch of thanks and gratitude\nto those who brought it when the days were dark, to those whose faith\nin the Self was so strong that they could believe when all other\nthings were against it, to those whose surety of the divine knowledge\nwas so mighty that they could proclaim its possibility to an agnostic\nworld. That is the only reason why you should come into the vanguard,\nthat the only reason why you should join the ranks of the pioneers.\nHard work and little reward, hard words and little praise, but the\nknowledge that you work for the future, and that with the co-operation\nof Deity the final result is sure.\n\n\n\n\nPart II\n\n\nThe Place of Phenomena in the Theosophical Society\n\nSpiritual and Temporal Authority\n\nThe Relation of Masters to the Theosophical Society\n\nThe Future of the Theosophical Society\n\n\n_Four Lectures delivered to the Blavatsky Lodge, London, on 13th and\n27th June, 4th and 11th July 1907._\n\n\n\n\nThe Place of Phenomena in the Theosophical Society\n\n\nI have taken for these four lectures, confined to members of the\nTheosophical Society, four subjects of great interest to ourselves,\nand in dealing with them I propose to ask you to look at them from a\nwide standpoint rather than a narrow one, and to consider the\nTheosophical Movement and the Theosophical Society, not as an isolated\nmovement or Society, not as a separate thing, but rather as one of a\nseries of spiritual impulses, like to its predecessors in its nature,\ninterested in the same questions, and subject to the same conditions\nas those that preceded it in time.\n\nWe find, looking back over the history of the past, that great\nspiritual impulses occur from time to time, and each of these in the\npast has founded a new religion, or stamped some marked change in a\nreligion already existing. The spiritual impulse that brought to birth\nthe Theosophical Society is to be thought of as of the same nature as\nthose which founded one religion in the world after another. And if we\nregard it in this way we can sometimes, looking at the whole\nsuccession of such movements, recognise certain definite principles\nworking in all of them, and then apply those principles to the\nmovement of our own time. And this seems to me to be a wiser and saner\nway of regarding the Theosophical Society than looking upon it as\nunique and isolated. Certainly it is more easy to see our way in the\nsolution of difficult problems of our own time, if we regard these\nproblems as similar in nature to the problems that have been presented\nto our predecessors. Because always, in dealing with the problems of\nour own time, we are apt to be confused and bewildered by secondary\nissues that rise up around them, complicating them, perhaps largely\nclouding them, when we try to understand; whereas if we can catch\nsight of the underlying principle and study it apart from any\ndifficulties of our own time, we are then able to apply that same\nprinciple, as discovered apart from the circumstances of the moment,\nand in that way there is a hope of applying it more justly amid the\nmore exciting incidents of our own day. And it is that which I want to\ndo in these lectures--to take our movement as a part of a world\nseries, to study the principles that underlie the whole of that\nseries, to trace out the working of these principles amongst the\nsocieties that have preceded us in the spiritual world, and then,\nhaving grasped them, to apply them to the solution of the problems of\nour own time. For there is a tendency in the Theosophical Society to\nnarrow itself down to its time, instead of trying to widen out the\nthought of its time. It is a tendency which we see affecting every\nreligion, every church, every great society, and it is useless to\nrecognise this fact in the history of others unless we apply the fact\nfor instruction in our own.\n\nNow in all the religions of the past, so far as we have any knowledge\nof them in history or from what are called the \"occult records,\" there\nis one thing we see in their early days--the presence of happenings\nregarded as abnormal. I have used the word \"phenomena,\" but it is a\nvery stupid word. One uses it because it is generally used; there is\nno justification in using that particular word in relation to some\nouter manifestations rather than to all. Properly speaking,\n\"phenomena,\" of course, will cover the whole of the objects in the\nworld, in the Not-Self, everything outside the Self; but the word has\nbeen narrowed down, especially in our own time, to those occurrences\nin the world around us, in the Not-Self, which are unusual, which seem\nto be abnormal, which are the results of laws which are not familiar,\nand therefore which are regarded by some people as supernatural, by\nothers, speaking more carefully, simply as superphysical. And we lose\nmuch by separating off what we call \"abnormal\" happenings, the\nso-called \"phenomena,\" from the normal every-day happenings of life.\nFor there is no fundamental difference between them. All planes are\nequally within the realm of law; all worlds, denser or grosser in\nmaterial organisation, are equally worlds moving by order and law.\nThere is nothing really abnormal in Nature. Some things happen more\nseldom than others--are unusual; but the very idea of abnormal seems\nto me in many respects mischievous and harmful. It is better to look\non the whole world-system--universe, call it what you will--as a part\nof a definite order in which all the things that happen happen by law,\nin which there no gaps, no abnormalities, but only limitations of our\nown knowledge at a certain time. All the gaps in Nature are gaps in\nthe knowledge of the observers of Nature. There is nothing miraculous\nor supernatural, but everything is the orderly product of Nature\nworking along definite lines and guided by definite intelligence.\n\nAnd one reason why it is so important to recognise this is in order to\nclear away the atmosphere of wonder, of marvel, of awe, of reverence,\nthat is apt, very much to the detriment of the observers, to enshroud\neverything unusual, every manifestation of a force with which we are\nnot familiar, everything that in the old days was called \"miraculous.\"\nAnd one thing I want strongly to impress upon you is, that in\neverything that can be called a \"phenomenon,\" you ought to deal with\nit according to the same laws, according to the same canons of\nobservation, as you deal with the phenomena with which you are most\nfamiliar on the physical plane. You should not regard an unusual\nphenomenon as one which is necessarily to be regarded with reverence\nin any way. You should not necessarily talk in whispers, when speaking\nabout what we call \"phenomena.\" It is better to talk in your natural\nvoice, and apply your ordinary common sense and the laws of sane\njudgment in every case. If you do that instead of getting alarmed or\nastonished, if you will stand on your feet instead of falling on your\nknees, your study of the other worlds will be more profitable, and the\ndangers you are likely to meet will be very much diminished.\n\nTo come back to the point of the beginnings of all religious\nmovements, we find that all begin in the atmosphere of \"phenomena.\"\nThe divine Man who founds the religion, and those who immediately\nsurround Him, are always people who have a knowledge of more worlds\nthan one. And because they are possessors of that first-hand\nknowledge, they are able to speak with authority. Now, the authority\nthat should be recognised in all these matters is simply the authority\nof knowledge.\n\nAnother of the difficulties we want to clear away in studying\nphenomena is the idea that the happening of a certain thing by a law\nthat we do not understand in the realm of matter gives any sort of\nauthority on questions of spiritual knowledge, or gives a person a\nright to speak with authority on things not concerned with the\nparticular laws under which that phenomena takes place. The mischief\nof the old idea of miracle was that it was supposed to be a proof, not\nof knowledge of another world or other forces, but of the title of the\nmiracle-worker to speak with authority on religious and moral\nquestions; while, as a matter of fact, the knowledge of what occurs on\nthe astral plane, the knowledge of what occurs on the mental plane, or\nthe power to utilise the forces of these planes in the production of\ncertain happenings here which are not usual, these things by no means\ngive a man any authority to speak on moral problems or to decide on\nspiritual questions. That is a matter of the utmost importance, for\nknowledge of the astral and mental worlds is the same in kind as\nknowledge of the physical world; and it no more follows that a\nclairvoyant or clairaudient, or a man who can use any of the powers of\nsubtler planes down here, has more authority on religious and moral\nquestions than a good mathematician, a good electrician, or a good\nchemist. You are not likely, on the physical plane, to fall into the\nblunder of thinking that because a man is a good chemist he has\nauthority on moral problems: you will at once see the absurdity. But\nmany of you do not see that the same is true when you deal with good\nchemists or electricians belonging to the astral or mental planes.\nThey have no more authority _qu\u00e2_ their knowledge of these planes than\nthe chemist. I often wish that in the Theosophical Society the old\nfable of the Jewish Rabbis was better remembered and applied. Two\nRabbis were arguing, and one of them, to support his side of the\nargument, made a wall fall down; whereupon the other Rabbi sensibly\nremarked: \"Since when have walls had a voice in our discussions?\" That\nspirit is of enormous importance, and does not in any sense touch the\nfact that you find the great Founders of religions and the illuminated\nmen who surrounded them were men who had power to produce phenomena of\nvarious kinds, to heal the sick, to make the lame to walk, and so on,\nand that phenomena always accompanied the great religious Teacher in\nthe past. These things did not give Him His religious authority: they\nwere simply the outcome of His knowledge of natural laws; for a man\nwho is thoroughly spiritual has matter subject to him on every plane\nin Nature. But it by no means follows that the man who can manipulate\nmatter on the lower planes is therefore able to speak with authority\non the higher. The fact that the spiritual man is always a great\npsychic, always has power to utilise higher forces for controlling\nphysical matter, that fact, while true, does not prove the truth of\nthe opposite idea, that the man who has power over matter is\nnecessarily highly unfolded as regards the spirit. It is true, of\ncourse, that the founders of religion were men surrounded with clouds\nof phenomena, and the reason for that is the one I have just stated:\nthat to the truly spiritual man matter is an obedient servant; to use\na quotation from an Indian book: \"The truly spiritual man all the\nsiddhis stand ready to serve.\"\n\nNow it was necessary for the founding of religions and for the\nteaching of many of the doctrines of religions which had to do with\nworlds invisible to the physical eye, that the man who first\npromulgated these doctrines should be a man who had a first-hand\nacquaintance with the conditions they described. For you must remember\nthat in every religion there are two sides to its teaching: the side\nof the spiritual truths known only to the unfolded divine\nconsciousness; the side of the existence of other worlds than this,\nand of the conditions existing in those worlds--important to men, as\nthey have to pass into those worlds after death, important to men\nalso, as much of the symbolism, the rites and ceremonies, are\nconnected with what we may roughly call occult science. As the\nBuddha said when speaking of worlds beyond the physical: \"If you\nwant to know your way to a village and particulars about the village,\nyou ask a man who lives there and who has gone along the roads leading\nto it: and so you do right to come to me when you want to know about\nthe Devas and about the invisible worlds, for I know those worlds\nand I know the way thereto.\" So that looking back to these great\nspiritual Teachers and Revealers of the unseen, we find they are\nalways men of first-hand knowledge. That first-hand knowledge was\nshared by Their immediate followers, who carried on the teaching of\nthe system after the Teacher had withdrawn. And it matters not what\nreligion you take, living or dead, you will find it equally true, that\nphenomena were common in the earlier days of the teaching of that\nreligion.\n\nNow let me take two typical religions, one Eastern and one Western,\nwith regard to the continuance of the phenomena of the earlier\ndays--the Hindu religion in the East for the Eastern example, and\nthe Roman Catholic Church in the West for the Western example. In both\nthese great religious movements we find a continuance of phenomena;\nneither Hinduism as typical of Eastern teaching, nor Roman\nCatholicism as the most widespread form of Christianity in the West,\nhas ever taken up the position that the life which showed itself\nthrough the earlier teachers was cut off and no longer irrigated the\nfields of the religion. On the contrary, you find both these typical\nreligions claiming continuity of life and of knowledge. Amongst the\nHindus it is a commonplace to assert the possibilities of yoga,\nthat a man can now, as much as in the days of the Manu or of the great\nRishis, do what They did, can free himself from the physical\nbody, can travel into other worlds of the systems, can acquaint\nhimself with the forces and objects of those worlds, and carry on as\ndefinite a study of the Not-Self in those worlds, as anyone who wishes\nto do so may carry on a definite study of the Not-Self in the physical\nworld. The claim has never been given up; the practice never wholly\ndisappeared. So also with the Roman Catholic communion. There has\nbeen there a succession of saints and of seers who have always claimed\nto be in direct touch with other worlds, and who have claimed and\nexercised the powers of those worlds manifestly on the physical plane.\nTo-day in the Roman Catholic Church similar phenomena are said to\noccur, and certainly the evidence offered for these phenomena is far\nmore easily verifiable than the evidence offered for such phenomena in\nthe earlier centuries of the Christian story. So also among the\nHindus it is more easy to prove nowadays the powers possessed by a\nyog\u00ee, than it is to prove the possession of those powers thousands of\nyears ago in the obscurity of the earlier days of Hinduism.\nConsequently you find amongst Roman Catholics and Hindus a definite\nbelief that these things are still possible; and the only thing that\neither will say with regard to their happening is that the greater\ndescent of the people as a whole into materiality has made the\npossession of these powers a far rarer qualification of a believer in\none or other of the religions, than was the case in the early days of\nenthusiasm, and of a greater outpouring of spiritual life. There is no\ndoubt, so far as Christianity is concerned, that the sacred books of\nthe Christians entirely support the Roman Catholic contention. I am\nnot going into the question of the authenticity of particular phrases;\nI simply take the New Testament, as it is admitted to be a sacred\nbook. There you have placed in the mouth of Jesus the distinct\ndeclaration that those who believe on Him should do greater works than\nHe did; and in one passage--rejected, I know, as not in the original\nmanuscripts by many scholars, but still coming down from a great\nChristian antiquity--you have the distinct statement that they shall\nbe able to drink poison, and so on. So it is clearly a part of the\ndefinite Christian teaching and tradition, that these so-called\nabnormal powers are within the reach of believers in Christianity. And\nso also with regard to Hinduism.\n\nNow another thing is to be observed in this connection: that as the\nreligion has gone on generation after generation, century after\ncentury, there has been a diminution of the powers, and a much less\nfrequent happening of these so-called miracles. Side by side with the\nweakening of these powers and the lessening in number of the phenomena\nhas been also the gradual lessening of the power of the religion over\nthe minds and lives of men. The inroads of other forms of thought, the\nslackening of the grasp of the believer on the realities of the unseen\nworlds, have diminished religious authority, and the power of those\nunseen realities has weakened as time has gone on. So if we take the\ncase of Hinduism or Christianity we find them giving back before\nthe inroads of a more materialistic philosophy, before the inroads of\na self-assertive science. We find among cultured and thoughtful people\nin the East and West there has been a great slackening of hold on the\nteachings of religion, and that the power exercised over the lives of\nbelievers has become much less real than in earlier days. That is\ninevitable, the result of the efflux of time, and the need for the\nrecurrence of spiritual impulses lies in that fact, which is ever\nrepeating itself. Just in the same way in which we read in the\n_Bhagavad-G\u00eet\u00e2_ that by the efflux of time this yoga\ndisappears, and then some teacher comes in order to restore vividness\nto the life, so it is over and over again in the case of every great\nspiritual movement.\n\nNow when we apply these manifest principles and facts to the latest\nspiritual movement, that which gave birth to the Theosophical Society,\nwe find that we are running through, in a very short time, the same\nseries of facts as characterised the religions of the past. Here also,\nas with them, a great outburst of phenomena in the earlier days;\nH.P.B. living in a cloud of phenomena and those who came in touch with\nher bathed in phenomena of all kinds. You can see the result of that\nearly training in our late President, Colonel Olcott, to whom\nphenomena in connection with the Theosophical Society were the most\nnatural things in the world. He had no hesitation in talking of them,\nwas always bubbling over with his experiences of them in the past. You\nmust remember, when he was over here, how much he thought about them,\nthe pleasure he took in recalling his earlier experiences, and of\nshowing the material articles produced phenomenally in those earlier\ndays; and you cannot take up _Old Diary Leaves_ without finding\nyourself face to face with every-day happenings of phenomena. Life\nthen seemed to be made up of the abnormal, in the sense in which that\nword is used. The normal for the time being had disappeared. If a\nduster had to be hemmed, an elemental did it. If pencils were needed,\na hand was put forward, twisted the pencils about, and there were\ntwelve in place of the one, and so on. Much greater people than H.P.B.\nwere concerned in producing these phenomena. Colonel Olcott tells us\nhow H.P.B. on one occasion drank some lukewarm water which a Master\ndrew from a water-skin on a camel, and magnetised, and made her\nbelieve it to be coffee. On his removing the magnetism before she had\nfinished drinking, she found to her disgust that she had been drinking\nthis lukewarm water. The present-day Theosophist would probably have\nobjected to such playfulness, but such things were continually\nhappening in the early days. When Colonel Olcott came into the Society\nhe came straight from the investigation of spiritualistic phenomena--a\nthoroughly well-trained observer, beginning with a good deal of\nscepticism, and beaten out of it by his own observations in\ninnumerable spiritualistic s\u00e9ances. So that when he came in touch with\nH.P.B. he was no credulous, unobservant person, overborne by a number\nof wonderful happenings, but a thoroughly equipped and cold-blooded\nand well-trained observer of the super-physical, and he naturally\nbrought his powers of observation to bear on these wonderful\nhappenings. He has left on record the full stories of these earlier\ndays. You may find similar stories, not to the same extent indeed, in\nMr. Sinnett's book, _The Occult World_. There we find similar\ninstances, similar marvels worked by H.P.B. in order to arouse his\nattention, and to prove to him the existence of certain laws; which\notherwise would have remained, so to speak, in the air. So there were\nalso there a large number of unusual happenings--letters in\npillow-cases, letters on branches of trees, and so on. You would all\ndo well to re-read the _Old Diary Leaves_ or _The Occult World_. Each\none of you should deliberately ask himself: \"Why do I believe these\nthings to be true?\" Because it seems to me that most members of the\nTheosophical Society are rather slipping into the position of the\nmodern Christian, that in order that a miracle may be true it must be\nold, and if it happens nowadays it must immediately be discredited.\nThat is not rational. But it is a perfectly rational position to take\nup with all phenomena to say: \"I shall not accept one of them unless\nthoroughly satisfied with the evidence on which it rests\"; that is a\nperfectly reasonable attitude; but what seems to me a little less\nreasonable is to swallow wholesale the phenomena of the early days,\nand to look very much askance at anything that happens now; to glance\nback proudly to the past, and to regard anything which might happen\nnow as wrong, as undesirable. Because if that is the right position,\nthen it ought to be applied all round; it ought to be applied to the\nearly phenomena of the Society as much as to anything that may occur\nnow; and the same rigid demand for evidence should be made as is made\nat the present time. But, on the other hand, if the evidence be as\nfull and as satisfactory now as that which supported the earlier\nphenomena, then it does not seem quite reasonable to accept the\nearlier and deny the later.\n\nLet us for a moment see how far the Society has been going along the\nsame line as that along which the other religions have gone--the\ngradual disappearance of phenomena and the substitution for them of\nteaching appealing to the reason only, and not to the senses, claiming\nits authority on grounds which appeal to the consciousness in man, as\nfar as is practicable divorced from matter, or to that consciousness\nworking through comparatively thick and gross veils of matter. After\nthe Coulomb difficulty there was a cessation almost entirely of these\nphenomena in the Theosophical Society. Two reasons led up to that:\nfirst, the utter disinclination of H.P.B. herself to continue to\nexpose herself to the attacks of people with regard to her good faith.\nShe was so maligned and slandered, so many friends turned against her\nand spoke of the powers she possessed as fraudulent and as tricks,\nthat when her Master raised her from the bed that might have been her\ndeath-bed, and would have been, save for His coming to her at\nAdyar, she made the condition that she should not be forced to\nproduce phenomena in the way she had been forced before; that she\nshould be allowed to put that aside. The consent was given.\nLion-hearted as she was, she shrank from the storm of slander that\nbroke on her. The other reason was that people belonging to the\nSociety took fright. The pressure of public reprobation was so strong,\nthe force of unbelief so crushing, that the members of the Society\nitself shrank back and were afraid to face public opinion, ignorant\nand persecuting as it was; and it is pathetic and interesting to read\nthe letters she wrote in the years immediately succeeding the Coulomb\ndifficulty, in which she pointed out that those to whom she had\nbrought the light were ashamed to stand beside her under the\nconditions to which she was then exposed. She complained that the\nwritings in the Society were changing their character; that they were\nno longer occult and full of teaching of the unseen, but had become\npurely philosophical and metaphysical; that her own journal had\nturned aside from its earlier occultism, and confined itself to\narticles addressed only to the intellect; and she says in one of these\nletters: \"Say what you may, it was my phenomena on which the\nTheosophical Society was founded. It is my phenomena by which that\nSociety has been built up.\" It was a natural feeling of half\nresentment against the policy of the time, that had left her in the\nlurch, and put the Society upon a different footing. It was in\nconnection with that terrible time, in the turmoil and whirl of\nconflicting opinions, that those words recorded of her Master, spoken\nto herself, in one of the records left to the Society, occurred, in\nwhich He said: \"The Society has liberated itself from our grasp and\ninfluence ... it is no longer ... a body over the face of which broods\nthe Spirit from beyond the Great Range.\" Along those newer lines the\nSociety went, and there are many who will say: \"They are better lines.\nIt is better that these abnormal happenings should fall into the\nbackground, that they should not be presented to a scornful and\nsceptical world, that we should rely on the literature that we have,\nwithout desiring to increase it by new knowledge, in which much can\nonly be gained by abnormal means. Better to rest on what we have, and\nnot try to add to it.\" Very many of our members take that view, and it\nis a perfectly reasonable view to take, a view which ought to have its\nplace in the Theosophical Society, a view which is useful as\ncorrecting the tendency to undue credulity, which otherwise might hold\non its way unchecked. For the life of the Society depends on the fact\nthat it should include a vast variety of opinions on all the\nquestions on which difference of opinion is possible; and it is not\ndesirable that there should be only one school of thought in the\nSociety. There should be many schools of thought, as many schools as\nthere are different thinkers who can formulate their thought, and each\nstanding with an equal right to speak and of claiming a respectful\nhearing. None of them has a right to say: \"There is no place for you\nin the Theosophical Society.\" Neither must the person who is strong on\nthe subject of phenomena try to silence those who meet phenomena with\ndisbelief, or who think them dangerous; nor should a person who stands\nonly on philosophy and metaphysics say to the Theosophical acceptor of\nthe phenomena: \"Your views are wrong and dangerous.\" Perfect freedom\nof thought is the law and life of the Society; and if we are not fit\nfor that, if we have not reached the position where we can understand\nthat the more we can enrich the Society with differences of opinion\nand different standpoints, the more likely is it to do its work and\nlive for centuries to come, when other new avenues of knowledge unfold\nbefore it, we are not ready to be members of the Theosophical Society\nat all.\n\nNow the Society has gone along those lines, along which every religion\nhas gone, from the time of the Coulomb trial. What has been the effect\nof that on religions? A weakening power. We have to beware that the\nsame thing does not take place with us that has taken place with the\ndifferent religions of the past; we should take care--especially in an\nera wherein ordinary science on the physical plane is pressing onwards\ninto the higher realms of the physical plane, and on to the very\nthreshold of the astral plane, and bids fair to cross that threshold\nand demonstrate its teaching there--lest we, who claim to be in the\nforefront of this great movement, do not fall into the background, and\nbecome unworthy of carrying on the standard of knowledge. Therefore I\nwould claim for the Society its place as a seeker after new knowledge,\ninvestigation by what we call clairvoyance, the definite and regular\ncarrying out of the third object, which has been far too much\nneglected of late years; practically, where many years ago the Society\nwas leading the way in the investigation of the hidden laws in Nature\nand the hidden powers in man, it now has to take a back seat with\nregard to the contributions it is making under that particular object\nfor which amongst others it was founded. For more work has been done\nof late years by the Psychical Research and similar Societies than by\nthe Theosophical Society, and that is neither right or wise--not\nright, because as long as we keep such research as one of our objects\nwe ought to live up to it; not wise, because the lessons we have\nlearnt, the various theories we have studied, are better guides to\ninvestigation than anything which the other Societies have, who have\nnot yet been able to formulate theories but are simply in the state of\ncollecting phenomena. For that reason it seems to me that the Society\ncan do work here which the others cannot. They collect and verify with\npatient care masses of most interesting and valuable phenomena. The\nwork done by the late Mr. Gurney and Mr. Myers, and a large number of\ntheir co-workers, is invaluable work from the standpoint of the\nTheosophical student. But there is no order in it; there is no reason\nin it. It is a mere chaos of facts, and they cannot explain or\ncorrelate them. They cannot classify or place them in order. They have\nno world-embracing knowledge which enables them to place each fact in\nits own place, and to show the relation of one set of facts to the\nother. There are splendid observations, but no co-ordination and\nbuilding of them into a science; and it seems to me that it is a duty\nof the Theosophical Society, not only to deal with the facts that\nothers have verified, but to carry on researches by properly qualified\npersons among its own members; to utilise its magnificent theories,\nits knowledge--for they are more than theories--for the explanation of\nnew phenomena, for the gradual evolution of new powers among greater\nnumbers of its members; and I do not believe that in that there is so\nmuch danger as some people fear. I do not believe that the study of\nthe hidden side of Nature is so perilous a study as some think. All\nresearches at first hand in the early days of a science have some\ndanger: chemistry, electricity, had dangers for their pioneers, but\nnot dangers from which wise people and brave should shrink; and I fear\nfor the future of the Theosophical Society if it follows the track of\nmany of the religions and lets go its hold of knowledge of the other\nworlds, and comes to depend on hearsay, tradition, belief in the\nexperience of others, and the avoidance of the reverification of\nexperience. For it must be remembered that in giving a vast mass of\nknowledge to the world, H.P.B. distinctly stated that these are facts\nwhich can be reverified by every generation of observers; she did not\ngive a body of teaching to be swallowed, to be taken on authority, to\nbe accepted by what is called faith; but a body of verifiable\nteachings, facts to be examined over again, facts to be experimented\non, to be carefully studied, as the scientific man studies the part of\nthe world he knows. Unless we can do that, I fear we shall tend only\nto become another religion among the religions of the world; that we\nalso shall lose our power over the thought of our generation, and to\nthat which has been done so splendidly in past years--the spreading of\nthese ideas so that they are becoming commonplace now among cultured\nand intellectual people--pause will be given, and the spreading\ninfluence will be checked, because we have left part of our work\nundone, part of our message unsaid. And I would urge on you in\nrelation to this that which I said in a sentence at the beginning of\nmy address, that there is one condition of research into these matters\ncommon to ordinary science and to the science of the higher worlds,\nand that is a balanced judgment, acute and accurate observation, and a\nconstant readiness to reverify and recast earlier observations in the\nlight of the later ones that are made. All science grows by\nmodification as more and more facts are collected by the scientific\nobservers, and no scientific man would make any progress in his\nscience, if he were always in the reverential attitude of the devotee\nbefore a spiritual truth when he is working out experiments in his\nlaboratory. You may show reverence to great beings like the Masters,\nthere the posture of reverence is the right one; but when you are\ndealing with the phenomena of the astral plane there is no more need\nto show reverence than with phenomena of the physical plane. It is out\nof place, and if you make that atmosphere round it, you will always\nbe at the mercy of misconception and error of all kinds. You must try,\nin all psychical research, in all weighing of observation of\nphenomena, to cultivate the purely scientific spirit, indifferent save\nto the truth and the accuracy of the results, looking on every matter\nwith a clear eye, without bias and without prejudice; not seeking for\nfacts to verify a doctrine already believed in, but seeking for facts\nin order to draw conclusions from them as to the laws and truths of\nthe unseen world. There is no other safe way of investigation, no\nother reasonable condition of mind in face of the objective world; and\nif it be possible amongst us to break down this wall between the\nphysical, astral and mental, to see all objects in all worlds as\nsimply part of the Not-Self which we are studying, dealing with them\nin the same way, interpreting them in the same spirit, then we are\nlikely to add largely to our knowledge without risking the loss of our\njudgment or becoming mere enthusiasts, carried away by marvels and\nunable either to observe accurately or judge correctly. The place of\nphenomena in the Theosophical Society seems to me to be a constant\nplace. They must be recognised as fit objects for the study of the\nTheosophist. We must recognise frankly that our future literature\ndepends on the development of these powers which can be utilised in\nthe worlds beyond the physical; that we are not satisfied to be only\nreceivers, but also desire to be investigators and students; that\nwhile we will check the observations of to-day by the observations of\nthe past, and hold our conclusions lightly until they have been\nrepeatedly verified, we will not be frightened back from\ninvestigation by the idea that psychism is a thing to be disliked, to\nbe shrunk from, to be afraid of. Some of you think that I have laid\ntoo much stress, when speaking of observations in the other worlds, on\nthe probability of mistake. Some have blamed me from time to time\nbecause I have guarded myself so much by saying: \"It is likely that\nmistakes have come into these observations.\" But it is only by keeping\nthat frame of mind, that reiterated observation can correct the\nblunders which we inevitably fall into in our earlier investigations.\nThere is no scientific man in the world who, when making experiments\nin a new branch of science, is not well aware that he may blunder, is\nlikely to make mistakes, likely to have to correct himself, to find\nout that wider knowledge alters the proportion between his facts. And\nI have tried to lay stress on the fact that these things are true as\nregards the astral plane as much as they are true of the physical;\nthat it is not a question of revelation by some highly evolved being,\nbut a question of observation by gradually developing beings--a very,\nvery different thing. And unless you are prepared to take up that\nreasonable position, unless you will allow the investigator to make\nmistakes and to correct them, without calling out too loudly against\nthem, or abusing them for not being perfect and invariable, you will\nbuild a wall against the gaining of further knowledge, and cramp the\nSociety, and give it only tradition instead of ever fresh knowledge,\never widening information.\n\nSo that I declare thus the place of phenomena in the Theosophical\nSociety: I declare that it was founded with them, built up by them,\nnourished by them, and that they ought to continue to be a department\nof our work, a proper subject for our investigation. Only, do not get\nconfused by bringing faith into the region of phenomena. There is only\none thing to which the word faith ought really to be applied: and that\nis the conviction of Deity within us. That is the real faith, the\nfaith in the Self within, an unconquerable, imperial conviction of the\nDivinity which is the root of our nature. That faith is truly above\nreason; that conviction transcends all proofs and all intellect; but\nnothing in the object world is an object of faith; all are objects of\nknowledge. If you can keep that distinction clear in your mind; if you\ncan remember that the only warranted conviction above reason is that\nconviction of your eternity, then you may go safely into the region of\nphenomena, into the manifestations and happenings of the objective\nworld, with clear judgment, clear sight, unbiased mind; and knowledge\nshall reward you in your researches into Nature, for Nature always has\na reward for the seeker into her secrets.\n\n\n\n\nSpiritual and Temporal Authority\n\n\nI am to speak to-night, as you know, on \"Spiritual and Temporal\nAuthority,\" and I have chosen this, with the other subjects, as\nbearing on questions of immediate interest to the Theosophical\nSociety. But in dealing with each of these, as on the first occasion,\nI want, if I can, to lift you above any controversy of the moment, and\nto put before you broad outlines rather than mere details, and to lead\nyou to look at all these questions from the wider standpoint of the\nexperience of the past, trying to apply that experience as far as you\ncan to the questions, the difficulties, of the present. And this\nquestion that I have chosen for the subject of our thought to-night is\none which carries us back into the very beginnings of human history on\nour globe, which we may trace downwards through civilisation after\ncivilisation, and we can then study, as it were by contrast, many of\nour modern civilisations. And out of all this it may be that we shall\nlearn some lesson for our own small affairs of the moment. For local\naffairs are only really interesting as we see them as manifestations\nof the great principles which work out in the history of humanity; and\nwe can only rightly, I think, understand the power of the\nTheosophical Movement, if we see it in its proper place in history,\nand not as a mere bubble on the water of the present.\n\nNow, far, far back--I suppose some people will say \"not in history,\" for\nthe time I am speaking of is what would be called \"prehistoric\"--when\nthe great Lords from the planet Venus came to our globe to guide and\ntrain the humanity which just then had come to the birth, we find a\ngroup of Teachers and Rulers, not belonging to our humanity at all, but,\nas I said, coming from the planet Venus, from the far more highly\nevolved humanity living in that world. They came for the specific\npurpose of making the evolution of the new humanity more rapid than\notherwise it would be. For, as you know, at that time humanity was\nfacing a very terrible danger. The bodies had evolved up to a certain\npoint, the brooding Spirit was over each body, but the intellectual\nevolution had scarcely begun to dawn; mind, as we know it now, had\nscarcely asserted itself; only mind, as we see it in the animals, had\nbeen slowly unfolding its powers in the upward-climbing towards the\nlight. And as it is always true that any force which is poured down into\na body must necessarily flow along the channels which that body has\nprepared for it, in these animal men, as we may call them, when they\nreceived a new influx of spiritual life--or, if we prefer the phrase,\n\"as the influx grew stronger and stronger\"--that new life, that\nadditional force, inevitably ran into animal channels, lacking the\nguiding and directing force of the intelligence. Hence the immediate\nresult of any increased down-pouring from the spiritual plane was an\nincrease in animality in the growing man; and his body, growing up out\nof the animal kingdom, influenced by that--although, as you remember,\nhuman from the beginning, yet retracing its ancestry in those early\ndays--was driven by the incoming life into various lines of activity,\nharmless to the brute, but that would have been destructive to the\nupward-climbing human being. Hence the need for a swift intervention on\nthe part of the Guardians of all humanities; and our planetary Logos\ncalled to His help humanity from a chain older than His own, so that He\nmight have for His infant children guides that would protect them\nagainst danger, and would lead them upwards more swiftly than they\nthemselves could have climbed alone. Hence the coming of those Mighty\nOnes, and it was They who were the first Adepts, Masters, for our\nhumanity. There is no other term for the moment to apply to them,\nalthough the term \"Master\" is really inappropriate: They were far higher\nin the Occult Hierarchy than Those we speak of as the Masters of Wisdom\nand Compassion. They became the first Teachers and Kings of our child\nhumanity, and They were of many grades. \"Divine Kings\" They are called\nin the old records; Teachers and Kings in one. They established the\npolities of the infant nations; They gave to those same nations their\nreligions; and in those early days, as in the days that will close our\nhuman history, there was no distinction recognised between \"sacred\" and\n\"profane.\" It was seen that Spirit, clothing itself in matter, should be\nregarded in each of its tabernacles as a single individual. Spirit and\nmatter were not regarded, so to speak, as distinguished from each\nother, save in quality. The two combined into the making of the man. And\nthe man's life was a human life, and the body guided by human\nconsciousness; but the body was not thought of as separate from the\nSpirit, nor the Spirit from the body; both were combined into a single\nbeing. And in all true organisations that is the point which is to be\naimed at: that the informing life shall shape and mould the organism\nwhich is thus expressing the life on planes of matter; that that\norganism shall ever be an organism spirit-inspired, life-shaped, so as\nto become more and more perfectly the expression of the life which it\nenfolds. We shall see presently that for a time, when Spirit became\nutterly blinded by matter, that matter, as it were, took the upper hand\nand claimed to be monarch. But in those far-off days it was still\nrecognised that Spirit was the master of matter, and the Gods walked\namongst men and were recognised by men as their Teachers and Kings. And\nhumanity in its infancy clung to These, who were as fathers and mothers\nof the race, and looked to Them for everything necessary to nourish and\ndevelop the young life. So that looking back to those earlier days, the\ngreat lawgivers like the Manus were at once Kings and Priests. They gave\neverything to the humanity that They guarded: literature, science, art,\narchitecture, everything which was necessary to the national life. And\nunder that mighty protection grew up the vast civilisations of the past.\nYou find traces of them, of course, in Egypt; traces of them, in fact,\neverywhere in the older, the now dying, or dead peoples. And these\nKing-Priests, these King-Prophets, summed up in Their own divine persons\nall the ruling powers of Spirit and matter alike. The State was a\nChurch, or the Church was a State.\n\nGradually, as these Great Ones withdrew, as Those who only lived for\nservice saw that humanity had begun to take its first steps, and\nneeded less physical guidance and visible helping, others still great,\nbut not as superhuman as the earlier ones, took up the royal and\npriestly rank. Still the two ran together: the temporal and spiritual\npower in one pair of hands; and so on and on, from Atlantis downwards.\nSome traces of it still survive, as in the Indian civilisation, where\nthe ideal of the monarch is always that of the Divine representative\nupon earth. But in India, after the earliest days, you see the\nbeginning division, and the offices of the King and of the Teacher\ngradually diverged the one from the other. And as time went on, and\nman grew a little older in his childhood, those who ruled over the\nState gave away out of their hands the teaching of the religion.\nRightly and well; for it was necessary that humanity should learn to\nguide itself. It was on the downward arc still, not yet beginning its\nupward climbing, and it had to plunge deeper and deeper into matter.\nThe eyes of the Spirit had to be blinded in order that the eyes of the\nintellect might open, and so gradually prepare humanity for a loftier\nmanifestation of the spiritual life.\n\nAnd then we find that with the dividing of the two offices, the Kings\ngrew less and less fathers of their peoples, and became more and more\ntyrants over the nations. In the elder days the principle that was\ntaught was clear and simple: the greater the power, the greater the\nsacrifice; the greater the power, the greater the duty. And on that\nprinciple of the Law of Sacrifice the old civilisations were built up;\nto that they owed their splendor; to that the long ages through which\nthey lived and flourished; to sacrifice, as the very basis of the\nnational and religious polity, they owed the vigor, the young vigor,\nof humanity. Their literature was grandiose; their architecture\nmagnificent; their art sublime. The traces of divinity ran through the\nwhole of it. But, beautiful as it was, it would not have been well\nthat it should have lasted, for had it been so, mankind would have\ngrown to depend too much upon the manifested Divine life walking\nincarnate side by side with it. And it was necessary that the growing\nchild should prove his own limbs, and the growing intelligence should\nlearn to depend upon itself. Then we come to a long period when the\ntyranny of the King brought out more and more strongly the usefulness\nof the Teacher, and when the Teacher was continually standing between\nthe power of the tyrant and the helplessness of the people; when\nreligion became a shield for the weak, a strong check for the violence\nof power. And we pass thus through all that long period of human\nhistory where the oppressed found their only refuge in the priests of\nthe religions, and found them a sure protection against the sword of\nthe secular power. So went on for hundreds, nay, for thousands of\nyears, the growth of humanity; and the two powers went further and\nfurther apart, coming more and more the one into opposition with the\nother. And the people, the nations, gradually grew in power, grew in\nintelligence, to a considerable extent. The priest was still the\nteacher, and still the schools and the temples were united.\nUnfortunately, after a while the religions became corrupted as well as\nthe royalties, and priests began to share the worldliness that had\nalready degraded the Kings; and then, with the failure of the\npriesthood, practically ceased the education of the people for many\nand many a long century, and intelligence was not developed, and the\npower of the mind was not assisted to manifest itself.\n\nAnd so onward and onward till we come to Middle Age Europe, and we\nfind a down-trodden proletariat, an indifferent and luxurious kingship\nand priesthood, allied now to oppress, not to raise. Therefore,\ncontest between the Church and the State, until the Pontiff of Rome\nremained the only representative of the union of the spiritual and\ntemporal authority--his spiritual authority enormous, his temporal\nauthority growing smaller, and badly used, so that in the States of\nthe Church in Italy there was almost the acme of bad temporal\ngovernment; and there was little to choose, really, between the States\nof the Church and the odious tyranny of Naples. In the States of the\nChurch the old ideal of the Priest-King was degraded to its lowest\npoint, and neither on the side of Pontiff, nor on the side of King,\nwas the ruler of Rome the father, the shepherd of his people, but\noften only a devouring wolf. Hence the last degradation of a once\nmagnificent office.\n\nMeanwhile the Democracy was growing, and numbers were beginning to\nclaim their power, until the people, having seen how badly Kings and\npriests could rule, thought that they could not, after all, do very\nmuch worse themselves, if they seized authority by the power of\nnumbers, and took the helm of the States, of the Nations, into their\nown rough and untrained grip. And so has risen in the modern life of\nEurope the power, as it is called, of the Democracy. Practically, at\nthe present time, Democracy may be said to be on its trial. It cannot\nclaim so far to be a very splendid success, but its trial is not yet\nover, and many a year may yet lie before it, in order that the world\nmay have an object-lesson to show that the only true authority is the\nauthority of Wisdom, and not the authority of numbers; and that it is\nnot possible for humanity to take its next step onwards until it has\nmanaged to draw out of the lessons of the past and of the present some\nway of blending, some way of uniting, the different experiences\nthrough which it has passed. For all who study the world's unfolding\nand believe that this world is not alone, but is a part linked with\nother worlds, and that other beings above humanity take their share in\nhumanity's evolution--all who thus look at history and see the powers\nthat lie behind the veil and that pull the strings of those whom we\ncall kings, and statesmen, and generals, and the mighty ones of earth,\nthey know that no great human experiment can be void of its value, and\nno great human experiment but has some fruit of wisdom to be gathered\nfrom it. So that no wise man, no thoughtful Theosophist, should look\nwith a feeling of repulsion and anger on the experiments that are\nbeing made all over the world to-day in the effort of the nations to\nrule themselves by numbers rather than by wisdom. For it is a\nnecessary experience. Only in this fashion can the lower mind complete\nits evolution and be ready to give up its sceptre to that Pure Reason\nwhich is to be the mark of the Sixth Race, which is to find its\nexpression in the polity of that coming Race. Out of all these\nexperiments we are to learn, out of all successes and all failures we\nare to spell out, the lesson whereon the next civilisation will be\nbuilt, whereby its foundation will gradually be laid. For if one sees\nthe Theosophical Society aright, it is as one of the builders of that\ncoming time, one of the builders of the civilisation that has not yet\nreally dawned on earth, the civilisation of the Sixth Root Race, with\nthe experiments that will go before it in the Sixth and Seventh\nsub-races of the Fifth. For these experiments take long in the making,\nand, as a great teacher once said: \"Time is no object with us.\" There\nis plenty of time for all the experiments, and all the blunders, and\nall the failures; and all the successes of the future will grow out of\nthese, because every failure rightly seen is the seed of a coming\nsuccess, and only by the failures that we make in our ignorance may\nthe plant of wisdom be sown, and presently flower and bear fruit for\nthe feeding of the nations. So that there is time enough, and no need\nfor impatience, when we see the blunders of our various democratic\ngovernments. But there is much need that thoughtful people should take\ncare so to see the signs of the time, and so to understand the forces\nat work, that the same blunder be not made in the days of the present\nas was made at the close of the eighteenth century in France; for\nthere also was a time when an effort was made for a great step\nforward, a step too big, apparently, to be possible of being then\ntaken, a step which only caused the drowning of the forward movement\nin blood, and has thrown France backward, and not forward as some\npeople suppose; for ever since that time she has had a cancer at the\nheart of her, and no effort that has been made has borne due fruit.\nNay, it is even possible that that was her opportunity in which she\nfailed, and that the opportunity will have to pass to other peoples,\nto be worked out by other hands.\n\nLooking at the democracies of to-day, we see that both the great\npowers are rejected, King and priest alike, royalty reduced to a mere\npuppet, priesthood looked on with suspicion and with hatred; and in\nboth cases one is bound to admit that there is much justification, for\nthey are the result of the harm that unbridled power in Church and in\nState alike have wrought to the people, who are now revolting against\nboth. But the revolt is only a passing thing. Humanity does not really\nchange; only passing manifestations of it change; and though the\npassing manifestations be counted by centuries, what is that in the\nlength of a day counted by myriads of years, and to peoples who are\nspiritual intelligences unfolding their powers in humanity? Kingship\nand priesthood are mighty powers, and the need for them deep-rooted in\nthe nature of humanity. Only on the upward path they are different\nfrom what they were on the path of descent, and the way in which those\nare to be shaped and moulded and again made mighty, that will be the\nanswer of human experience after it has proved the rule of ignorance\nto be a mistake and a failure. Gradually, in some way that as yet we\ndo not see, a way will be found of discovering the wise, who alone\nhave the right to rule. For there is no authority for the\nintelligence, there is no authority for the free intellect of man,\nsave the authority of Wisdom, to which the intellect bows because it\nis itself in flower. And those who develop the intelligence of men, as\nhumanity is beginning to evolve its intelligence, they will only find\ntheir Kings and Priests where they see a wisdom greater than their\nown, a knowledge which transcends theirs, but is the promise of what\nthey themselves in the future should become. And out of all the\nbirth-throes of the present, and the ugly shapes which humanity takes\non, will come the fairer birth of Wisdom, when again it shall sit on\nthe combined throne of King and Priest. For it is necessary that human\nlife should regain its unity, and that again the Spirit shall be known\nto be master, and the body its instrument, its tool, its expression.\nAnd on the upward-climbing arc we have again to come to the same\nlevels that we passed in our downward-going arc of the ages of the\npast. In the half circle we had first the Priest-King; and then the\ntwo side by side, co-operators; and then the separation and the\nrivalry; and, finally, an evil junction to oppress the ignorant and\nthe poor. And slowly we shall have to climb on the path where Spirit\nis manifesting more and more, and matter is becoming more and more\nobedient, until each of those stages is again seen in the history of\nhumanity, and until, at the end, Spirit shall be lord unchallenged,\nand matter obedient servant, carrying out his will. And in the\nhumanity of the great Sixth Race in which Buddhi, or Pure\nReason, is to be the mark, in which Wisdom will be the shaper of\nhumanity's plans, and the strength of matter will be used in order to\ncarry them out, in those days there will be the building-up of the\ndual authority once more, and the shaping of it to diviner ends than\neven in those early days of the infant humanity. And in those days,\nagain, ruler and priest shall be one, until at last the unity shall be\nrealised in the life of those who are to accomplish their human\nevolution upon earth; until finally in each spiritual individual these\ntwo characteristics are unfolded, and each man is King and Priest,\nuniting the two phases in his own individuality, and learning, in that\ndual power, to become the servant of those who are less evolved than\nhimself. You see a touch of that when the Christian religion was sent\nout into the world, a glimpse of the splendid ideal when the Apostle,\nwriting to his infant Church, spoke of them as \"Kings and priests unto\nGod\"; in each individual this identity is to be at last achieved, so\nthat no outer rule is any longer necessary, the inner rule being\nenough. That unity will mark the closing scenes of life on earth in\neach of those whose human evolution will be finished, who will have to\npass on into other worlds when they shall have united again each of\nthese in their own persons, and shall use that twofold power for the\ntraining of the humanity below them, ascending towards the point which\nthey shall have gained and shall occupy.\n\nSuch the vast sweep of humanity's evolution: from Spirit, through\ndensest matter, upward-climbing again to Spirit, bearing with it all\nthe powers that by the experience in matter it has gained. Such the\ngreat sweep, and the great history. What relation has that to our\nlittle Society and our little movement? Some would be inclined to say:\n\"None; no relation at all. You cannot bring down into so small a\nmicrocosm those great principles shown out in their working in a\nmacrocosm.\" And yet if you and I, in our tiny personalities, repeat in\nminiature the life of the Logos in the vast sweep of His creative\nactivity, who shall say that in a movement such as ours there is not\nsimilarly a retracing of the lines along which humanity at large has\nto grow? And who shall say whether we may not understand our movement\nbetter, and guide it more wisely, if we recognise these\ncorrespondences of the great growth of the world to the small growth\nof our Movement--a world-reflection in a tiny mirror? For it is no\ntrue humility to lessen too much the varied operations of the Great\nWhite Lodge in the world of men, any more than it is a true humility\nfor the individual to be ashamed to claim his divine inheritance, and\nlook upon himself as a \"mere worm of earth.\" The men or women who only\nfeel themselves to be of the earth, and not of Deity, their lives\nbecome more vulgar and common than they ought to be; for it is a great\nthing to realise possibilities and to see correspondences, and to take\nout of them their inspiring value, their invigorating force. And just\nas you and I have the right to say that we are Gods in the making, and\nthat there is nothing in the great power of the LOGOS that does not\nlie hidden in germ within ourselves, just as we have the right to say\nthat, as man best understands himself when he knows himself divine and\nrealises the possibilities within him, and sees the road to Deity\nwhich he is to tread, so is every spiritual movement great in\nproportion to the realisation of its one-ness with the great\nworld-movement, and small and petty when the men and women who\ncompose it can only keep their eyes on the muck of the earth instead\nof looking up to the crown of stars that the angel holds over their\nhead. So that I do not fear to provoke a false pride, but rather to\nget rid of a false humility, when I ask you to see in this Movement,\nwhich belongs to the Great Lodge and is its child, to see in it the\nsame forces at work that you see working in the world-history, and to\nrealise that here also correspondences exist, and that we may guide\nour Movement most worthily by seeing those correspondences and\nutilising them for the common good.\n\nSo let us pause now, after these high flights, in the little valley in\nwhich we live, and see whether in the Theosophical Society any such\nprocess of events may be seen as has been played on the great world\ntheatre, in the drama of evolving humanity. For mind! we have no meaning\nunless we are related to that, and our Movement has no sense unless it\nretraces the steps of the great world drama, as every great spiritual\nmovement does, from the time of its birth to the time of its passing\naway, and its incarnation in some other form. I do not claim it for our\nSociety only, but for all great spiritual movements--churches,\nreligions, call them what you will.\n\nNow, we began our Movement as humanity began its education. There was\nno difference between spiritual and temporal. The whole Society was\nregarded as a spiritual movement; and if you go back to those early\ndays, and read the earliest statements, you will find it said that\nthis Society existed in what then were called three Sections: First,\nSecond, and Third. The First Section was the Brotherhood, the Elder\nBrothers of Humanity; the Second, those who were striving to lead the\nhigher, the more spiritual life, and were in training for the purpose;\nand the Third Section made up the bulk of the Society. Those three\nSections were the Theosophical Society. So that it began on a very\nlofty level; and its First Section, the Elder Brothers, Those whom we\nspeak of as Masters, They were regarded as forming the First Section\nof the Society, and as part of it; and the Society has linked closely\nthe Second and Third Sections under the First, as in the days when the\nGods walked with men, in the early story of humanity. And They came\nand went far more freely then than later, and mingled more with the\nSociety, taking a more active part in this work; and it is wonderful\nto read some of the old letters of the time, and the close and\nintimate knowledge shown by those great Teachers of the details of the\nwork of the Society, even of what was written about it in an Indian\nnewspaper, and what ought to be answered, and so on. And the Society\ngrew, became more numerous, and spread in many lands; and naturally as\nit spread, many of these ties somewhat weakened so far as the Society,\nas a whole, was concerned--not weakened with individuals, but somewhat\nweakened with the Body at large. And so things went on and on, until\nthe Society passed through the same stage through which humanity had\npassed when the Priest-Kings entirely disappeared, and when those\nwords were spoken by one of the Great Ones: \"The Society has liberated\nitself from our grasp and influence, and we have let it go; we make no\nunwilling slaves.... Out of the three Objects the second alone is\nattended to; it is no longer either a Brotherhood, nor a body over\nthe face of which broods the Spirit from beyond the Great Range.\" And\nwhen that time was well established a change was made in the\norganisation of the Society. It was no longer, so to speak, one and\nindivisible, but two parts were made--Exoteric and Esoteric; and, as\nyou know, for some time the Colonel fought against that, thinking it\nmeant an unwise and dangerous division of authority in the Society,\nuntil, as he was coming over here with his mind in opposition to the\nproposal that H.P.B. should form the Esoteric Section, he received, on\nboard the steamer on which he travelled, a letter from his Master\ntelling him to carry out what H.P.B. wished; and, ever obedient as he\nwas, for when his Master spoke he knew no hesitation, when he arrived\nhere in England he did what he had been told, and authorised the\nformation of what was then called the Esoteric Section of the\nTheosophical Society. You can read all this for yourselves; it is all\nin print. Then came that distinct cleavage of Exoteric and\nEsoteric--the two heads, H. S. Olcott and H.P.B., one wielding the\ntemporal and the other the spiritual authority in the Society. It\nmeant that the Society had ceased to be the spiritual vehicle it was\nin the earlier days. It meant, as was printed at that time, that some\nof the members wished to carry on the Society on its original lines,\nand so they formed themselves into this Section under her, on the\noriginal lines. So it went on, like that time in the history of\nhumanity, in order that certain faculties might grow and become\nstrong, and that the spiritual side for a time might seem apart, and\nthe other might go its own way unruled. Many difficulties grew out of\nit, but still they were not insuperable--a certain clashing of\nauthorities from time to time, and certain jealousy between the one\nand the other. These things were the inevitable concomitants of the\nseparation, of the differences between the spiritual and temporal\nsides, the Spirit and the body, as it were. So things went on until\nthe President passed away. When H.P.B. left us, she left me in charge\nof her work, as her colleague did in Adyar lately, thus uniting\nagain the two powers, the two authorities, in a single person.\n\nNow, what does it mean to the Society? That is the question for us.\nWhat is it to bring forth in our Movement? Ill or well? It is only\npossible, at this beginning of the road, to point out the two things\nthat _may_ happen. For the Society and its President together will\nhave to settle which of the two shall come. It may be that They, who\nfrom behind look on, may foresee what is coming; or it may be, as it\noften is, that They also are not able completely to say what shall\ncome out of the clashing wills of men, differing views, possible\nantagonisms. Two possibilities there clearly are before us, either of\nwhich, I suggest, may come. For you and for me it is to decide which\nshall come. And I can only tell you how it seems to me, and you must\njudge and act as you think right. For at last our Society, like\nhumanity, has reached the point when the individual must do his duty,\nand must no longer be a child guided entirely from without, but a man\nwith the God within co-operating with the God without. Hence it is not\na question for any to decide for us: we have to decide it for\nourselves. And as I say, I can only put to you what seem to me the two\npossibilities. Let me take the bad possibility first. It may be that\nI, in whose hands these two powers now are placed, shall prove too\nweak to bear that burden, too blind to walk along that difficult path.\nIt may be that I shall err on the one side or on the other, either\nmaking the Society too exoteric and empty, a material thing, or, on\nthe other hand, pressing too far the spiritual side, with all that\nthat means. It may be that the task is too great, and that the time\nhas not come. I recognise that as possible; for in all questions of\npeoples, persons, and times, experiments may be made which it is known\nwill fail, in order that out of the failure fresh wisdom may be\ngathered, and it may be that this shall be a failure. And if so it\nmatters not, for out of that failure some higher good will spring.\nThat is the conviction of those who know that the Self is ever in us,\nand that the Self can never perish; so that it matters not what\ncatastrophe may come, provided faith in the Self remains secure with\nHis endless possibilities of recovery, and greater powers of\nmanifestation. And it may quite well be that, in hands as weak and\nknowledge as limited as mine, failure will meet this great experiment\nwhich the Masters are making, and that we shall find that neither\nPresident nor Society is fit to take that step forward, are both still\ntoo childish, not sufficiently mature, and therefore not able to tread\nthe path which is the path upwards to the spiritual life, when the\norganisation shall again become but the mere outside veiling of the\nspiritual life, carrying the message of regeneration to the world, and\nthe birth of a new civilisation. That is one possibility that should\nbe faced. And the other?\n\nThe other is that we may permit the Great Ones to be sufficiently in\ntouch with our little selves to send Their forces through us, and that\nTheir life shall become the life of the Society; that out of this\nrejoining of spiritual and temporal a greater spirituality shall\ncirculate in every vein and vessel of the Society, and it shall become\nagain truly a vehicle of the Masters of the Wisdom. It may be that it\nis preparing for a greater and a nobler life, making the place ready\nfor some greater one to come, who shall worthily and strongly wield\nthe power that I am bound to wield too weakly, but yet, perhaps,\nstrongly enough to make that preparation possible. Perhaps you and I\ntogether are strong enough and wise enough to till the field, where\nanother shall sow the seed that shall grow up into a greater\ncivilisation and mark a step forward in the history of humanity. That\nis our great opportunity, that the possibility that I see opening\nbefore us in this policy now changed for the second time. It may be\nthat we have learned enough in the last eighteen years to tread this\npath rightly, to tread it sufficiently to prepare a field for a\ngreater one to come; and that is the hope in which I live at the\npresent time. I believe that it is possible, if only we can rise to\nthe height of our great opportunity, that someone will come from the\nfar-off land where greater than we are living, and take this\ninstrument and make it fit to be a tool in a Master's hand--some\nDisciple greater and mightier than I, someone belonging to the same\ncompany, but far wiser and far stronger than I. And that such a one\nwill take this Movement and make it a little more what the heart of\nthe Masters desires--more truly a Brotherhood, more full of knowledge,\nmore really linked to the higher worlds by a centre of wise\nOccultism--that seems to me the great possibility which is opening\nbefore us. But, as I said, I know not if we are great enough to take\nit, or are still too small; but it is to that great work that I would\ninvite your co-operation; it is to that mighty task that I would ask\nyou to address yourselves. At least believe in the possibility of it;\nat least raise your eyes to that great stature to which it may be our\nSociety shall attain. For if we can rise to it, then it means that we\nshall be builders of the next civilisation, that our hands shall take\npart in the making of the foundation of the humanity that is still to\nbe born; it means that we shall be its forerunners, its heralds, that\nwe shall be the messengers whose feet shall be fair upon the\nmountains, telling of the coming of a greater man, of the birth of a\nmore spiritual humanity. And even supposing that, accepting that\nideal, we fail, supposing that we are not strong enough, and wise\nenough, and unselfish enough, to do it, then, then--if I may quote the\nwords of Giordano Bruno--\"It is better to see the Great and fail in\ntrying to achieve it, than never to see it, nor try to achieve it at\nall.\"\n\n\n\n\nThe Relation of the Masters to the Theosophical Society\n\n\nThose of you who have been present in the Queen's Hall on Sunday\nevenings will remember that I spoke there a fortnight ago on \"The\nRelation of Masters to Religions.\" There, of course, I dealt with the\nsubject in the most general possible way, while here I propose to deal\nwith it more closely; but I must ask all of you, as I asked you last\nThursday and the preceding Thursday, to remember that in dealing with\nthe Theosophical Society we are only dealing with one part of a\nworld-wide and, as I might say, century or millennium-wide story--the\nstory, practically, of the relation of the spiritual world to the\nphysical. Although I am now going to deal specially with the relation\nof the Masters to our own Society, I would ask you all to bear in mind\nthe more general relation of which I have spoken elsewhere. I do not\nwant to repeat what there I said, but I want to recall to your minds\nthe leading principle that the Theosophical Society cannot claim an\nexclusive right to any special spiritual privilege, that the spiritual\nprivileges that it enjoys are part of the general spiritual heritage\nof the world, and that you have to consider any special case in\nrelation to those general principles. So that in thinking of the\nMasters in relation to our own Society, we must bear in mind how very\nwide are their relations to all great spiritual movements, to all\nreligions, and that all who are spoken of in the different faiths as\nFounder or Founders of a particular religion would fall under the\nname, Master.\n\nNow I was hesitating a moment in completing that sentence, because one\nalmost has to explain that in thus using the word one is including in it\na little more than is included under the term in the special\nsignificance with which we are going to use it now; for in the case of\nthe religions of the Hindus, the religion of the Buddhists, and\nthe religion of the Christians, when we speak of the Founder of each of\nthese religions, we are speaking of great personages who, in the Occult\nHierarchy, are higher than those whom we call Masters: in the case of\nHinduism, the Manu, who is the Lord really of the whole of the Fifth\nRoot Race; in the case of Buddhism, the Buddha, who is a\nteacher of all gods and men before He takes up His place as the\nilluminated, the supreme Buddha. And in the case of the Christian\nReligion also, there is something peculiar in the life of the Founder.\nYou have there, in the first place, a being whom we call by the name\nJesus, in himself a disciple, but living in the world at that time under\nexceedingly strange and peculiar conditions. Some of you may have read\nwith some amount of care that section of the third volume of _The Secret\nDoctrine_ which is called \"The Mystery of the Buddha.\" I am bound\nto confess that as it stands there it is very confused, partly\nintentionally, I think, on the part of the writer, but also partly in\nconsequence of the fact mentioned in that volume, that you have there\nput together a large number of fragments, and they were put together by\nmyself at a time when I knew very much less of the arrangement, so to\nspeak, of those relationships between the higher and lower worlds than I\ndo now. Hence there is some darkness there that belongs to the subject,\nand some that belongs to the incompetence of the compiler. The result of\nthe two together is a good deal of confusion to any student who has not\nthe key to it. I am only concerned for the moment with one of these\nstatements, with what are called \"the remains of the Buddha\"--not\na very comfortable name, because it gives one the idea of a corpse--that\nis, empty bodies of the Buddha on the various planes. Those have\nbeen preserved on the higher planes for special purposes, and are\noccasionally used under very peculiar conditions, when subtle bodies of\na very pure and very lofty character are needed for some particular\npurpose. Now in the case of Him who was known as Jesus, the subtle\nbodies were these particular bodies that are kept on the higher planes,\nand He was allowed to use these for a number of years, holding them, as\nit were, as tenant for the great personage who was to take possession of\nthem later. Then came the lofty being known as the Bodhisattva,\nwho took possession of these vehicles which had thus been kept ready for\nHim, and He who was the disciple and now is the Master Jesus took birth\nlater as Apollonius of Tyana, and so passed onwards step by step until\nhe became one of the Masters of the Wisdom.\n\nI made that slight digression because otherwise I should have conveyed\na slightly false impression by the phrase \"all Founders of religions.\"\nWe mean amongst ourselves by the word \"Master,\" when used accurately,\na very distinctly marked rank in the Occult Hierarchy; He is a being\nwho has attained what is called \"liberation\" in the East, what is\ncalled \"salvation\" in the West; a being whose soul and Spirit have\nbecome unified, who lives consciously on the highest plane of our own\nuniverse--the fivefold universe--and whose centre of consciousness is\non the \u00e2tmic, sometimes called the nirv\u00e2nic, plane. Living in\nfull consciousness on that plane, He has no sense of bondage in any\nform with which He may ally Himself. He has passed during His\nArhatship beyond all desire for life in form, or life out of form.\nHe has thrown away those fetters; together with the limiting\n\"I-making\" faculty, the limit of individuality, that also has gone.\nHis consciousness, then, working on this \u00e2tmic plane, works\nindifferently up and down through all the five planes, and the whole\nof these together form to Him but a single plane, the plane of His\nwaking consciousness. That is an important point to remember, for\nthere is often a certain confusion of thought with regard to this term\n\"waking consciousness.\" It ought not to mean simply the consciousness\nthat you and I may have as waking consciousness, confined to the\nphysical world; but the consciousness which--enlarging stage by stage\nas the active centre of consciousness rises through the planes\ninwards--is aware of all which is below that centre; and is aware\nthereof without it being necessary for the person to leave the\nphysical body, in order that that consciousness may be in an active\nand working condition. The waking consciousness is the normal, daily\nconsciousness, and may include the physical plane; or physical and\nastral; or physical, astral, mental; one more when you take in the\nbuddhic; one more when you take in the \u00e2tmic; and provided\nthat the person whose consciousness is spoken of does not need to\nleave his active body, his body of action, in using his consciousness\non any of these planes, does not have to throw the body into trance in\norder to be conscious on any or on all of them, we speak always, then,\nof that consciousness as being \"his waking consciousness.\" Some\ndisciples, for instance, will often include in the waking\nconsciousness the astral, mental, and even buddhic planes; but\nit is characteristic of the Master alone that He unites in His waking\nconsciousness the whole of the five planes on which our universe is\ngradually unfolding. So that we may define the position of the Master,\nfor the moment, as that of a Person who has reached liberation; the\nmeaning of that being that he is living in the Spirit consciously;\nthat he is in conscious relation to the Monad, above the \u00e2tmic\nplane; his centre of consciousness is there, and as the result of the\ncentre of consciousness being in the Monad, the whole of the five\nplanes become part of his waking consciousness. As regards the bodies\nthere is also a difference: the whole of the five bodies of these\nplanes act for Him as a single body, His body of action. That does not\nmean, of course, that He cannot separate off the parts if He needs to\ndo so; but it means that in His ordinary, normal condition, the whole\nof His bodies are only layers of a single body, just as much as solid,\nliquid, gases, and ethers, for you and me, form our physical body, and\nwe need not trouble to distinguish the matter belonging to one\nsub-plane or another. So to the Master, the matter of the whole of\nthese planes forms His body of action, and although He is able to\nseparate one part from another if he desires, normally He will be\nworking with the whole of them together, and the whole will constitute\nthe instrument of His physical or waking consciousness.\n\nIt is hardly necessary to add to that definition that He is one who is\nalways in possession of a physical body; it is implied in the very\ndescription I have been giving. That part of it is important only, or\nchiefly, when you are considering the question of liberation in\nrelation to a number of different classes, as we may say, in this\ngreat Occult Hierarchy, the names in the West are not familiar, and\nthere is no particular need to trouble you with them for the moment in\nthe Samskrit form. Speaking generally, you have a class I have\njust alluded to, the Masters who possess the physical body, and\nanother who are without that body, and are therefore not called\nJ\u00eevanmuktas (the name you so often find in our books in relation to\nthe Masters) but Muktas, with a prefix which means \"without a\nbody.\" Then again you may have other classes, Beings who perform\nvarious functions in the universe; some, for instance, animate the\nwhole of the physical universe, and are distinguished as being what is\ncalled blended with matter, the class that gives the sense of life,\nof consciousness, to all those things in Nature which so much impress\nthe mind occasionally when we are face to face in solitude with some\nsplendid landscape--some great forest, perhaps, in the silence. We\nneed not go into these various classes; I only mention them in order\nto separate from the rest that particular class of freed, liberated,\nor, if you like the Christian term, \"saved,\" persons, who no more need\ncome involuntarily into incarnation, but who are free both as regards\nconsciousness and as regards matter.\n\nNow these great Beings that I have just defined ought to be separated\nin your thought for a very practical reason that we shall see in a\nmoment; they ought to be separated in your thought from those still\nmightier Beings in the grades of the Occult Hierarchy that stretch\nfurther and further upwards into the invisible worlds. For you lose a\ngreat deal practically when you mass the whole of them together, and\nfail to recognise the particular function of a Master, as regards the\nworld in which He voluntarily takes incarnation. It is the kind of\ndistinction that we have sometimes put to students as regards the use\nof the words Jesus and Christ; Jesus denotes specifically the man, the\nliving man, the Master, who is still in possession of a physical body,\nand in close relation to the physical earth; the Christ, in a higher\nsense, is an indwelling spiritual being, who can be reached by the\nSpirit, but not seen as such by the eyes in any phenomenal world. So\nagain there is the yet loftier Being to whom the name of Christ is\napplied amongst the Christians, when they are speaking of One we call\nthe Second LOGOS; these are Beings of different grades, and in\ndifferent relations to mankind; but the Master, as Master, is a man,\nand the manhood must never be forgotten. It was on that point that\nH.P.B. laid so much stress in speaking of those Beings with whom she\nhad come into physical contact, whom she knew in their physical\nbodies; and one thing, as you know, which she protested against in\nrelation to this type of Being was the putting Them too far away from\nhuman love and sympathy, making Them belong to a class of beings to\nwhom at present They do not belong, and hence making a gulf between\nThem and humanity which ought not to be made, because the making of it\ndestroys Their value to the people who make it. A phrase she once\nused, that I have quoted to you before, is the complaint that \"they\nhave turned our Masters into cold far-off stars, instead of living\nmen,\" and on the fact that They are living men she continually\ninsisted; for it is by virtue of that living manhood that They are\nable to play the part that They play in the evolution of the race.\nOthers have other work to do as regards humanity, as regards the\ndestinies of the nations, and so on, but these particular people are\nstill in close touch with the humanity to which They belong, and They\ndeliberately refuse to go on away from it, remaining with it until\nhumanity, at least with regard to very, very large numbers of its\nmembers, has reached the position in which They stand to-day, as the\npromise of what humanity shall be, the first-fruits of humanity as it\nis. They are specially concerned with the direct teaching, training,\nand helping of man, in the quickening of his evolution; and the reason\nthe body is retained is in order that this close personal touch may\nbe kept, primarily with Their disciples, and then through Their\ndisciples with comparatively large numbers of people. And it is a\nmarked and significant fact, that just in proportion as a religion has\nlost touch with this aspect of the Divine Life which we call the Life\nof the Master, so has it tended to become more formal, less highly\nvitalised, less spiritual, with less of the mystic element in it, and\nmore of the literal; so that it becomes necessary in the efflux of\ntime that every now and again a Master should come forth from the\nGreat White Lodge, and testify again upon earth to the reality of the\ntie between the Elder Brothers of the race and the younger brothers\nwho are living constantly in the physical world.\n\nNow one distinguishing mark of a Master, His chief function, we may\nsay, is to perform the greatest act of sacrifice which is known in the\nOccult Hierarchy, save the act of the One who is called The Great\nSacrifice, the Silent Watcher, whose sacrificial act is still greater\nthan the sacrificial acts performed by Those who are spoken of as\nMasters. This particular act of sacrifice, occurring from time to time\nat the beginning of a new epoch in religion and civilisation, is\nperformed by one of the Body, who volunteers to start a further\nspiritual impulse in the world, and to bear the karma of the impulse\nthat He generates. That may not appear to you at first glance, unless\nyou have gone into the subject carefully, to be such a transcendent\nact of sacrifice as it really is. It may seem a comparatively small\nthing to start such an impulse, and very vague probably are the ideas\nof many of you as to what is implied in the statement \"bearing the\nkarma,\" which the generation of the impulse implies. The great act of\nsacrifice lies not only in the truth that He is wearing a physical\nbody of coarse matter, which hampers Him from time to time, but that\nHe cannot lay that body aside, once He has used it for giving this\ngreat spiritual impulse, until that impulse is entirely exhausted, and\nthe religion, or the association, to which it has given birth has\nvanished out of the physical world. Take, for instance, the case of\nthe Master, Jesus: He--by His own voluntary act of course, in the\nbeginning, for it is always a volunteer who comes forward; such a\nsacrifice cannot be imposed--He, voluntarily, giving up His body, and\nlater taking from the Bodhisattva the guarding of the infant\nplant of which the Bodhisattva had sown the seed which was to\ngrow into the great tree of Christianity, taking that from Him, He\nbound Himself by the acceptance of that work to remain in the bonds of\nthe physical body until the Christian Church had completed its work,\nand until the last Christian had passed away, either into liberation,\nor re-birth into some other faith. It is the same with the other great\nreligions, so many of which are now dead--the religion of Egypt, of\nChaldea, and many another. The Masters who had to do with those have\nlong since cast away Their physical bodies, and thereby ceased to be\nwhat we call Masters, because the religion that each gave to the world\nhad done its work, and no souls remained who could be further helped\nby passing through the teaching and the training of that particular\nreligion. This is the central idea of the act of sacrifice, and it\nbecomes the more a sacrificial act because the One who undertakes this\ntremendous task cannot tell how the impulse will flow in all its\ndetails, cannot even estimate the amount of difficulty, of delay, nay,\nof mischief, that may grow out of the impulse that He has given. In\nthe first place, He Himself is limited by these bodies that He has\nassumed. He cannot use the whole of His vast consciousness within the\nlimitations of a physical brain and a physical body. Thus, although He\nhas unified His bodies and is able, so to speak, to run up and down\nthe ladder of the planes as He will, He is still largely limited in\nHis activities where He is working in the unplastic matter of the\nphysical plane; and so, when He undertakes a work like this, He\ngenerates causes whose effects He cannot thoroughly calculate, He\ntakes the risk which surrounds every great undertaking, He submits\nHimself to the conditions of this task upon which He enters, and He is\nobliged, having once taken it, to bear it until success or failure has\ncrowned the effort that He makes.\n\nThose of you who have carefully thought on these subjects will realise\nthat while the knowledge of a Master is, as regards you or me,\npractical omniscience, it is by no means omniscience on His own plane,\nrelative to the problems with which He has to deal and which He has to\nsolve. A Master amongst Masters, a Master within the Great White\nLodge, He is amongst His peers, in the presence of His Superiors, and\nthe problems with which that Lodge has to deal, the questions on which\nthat Lodge has to decide, are, if I may use the phrase, as difficult\nand as puzzling on that plane of being as the problems that we have to\ndecide down here are on our plane. Hence the possibility of\nmiscalculation, the possibility of error, the possibility of mistake;\nand you can well understand that these beings are subject to such\nlimitations when you remember the startling assertion that even the\nLord Buddha Himself, high above the Masters, that even He\ncommitted an error in His work on the physical plane. When, then, a\nMaster volunteers to serve as what may literally be called the\nscapegoat of a new spiritual movement, He takes up a karma whose whole\ncourse He is unable to see. And it need not, therefore, be a matter of\nsurprise that when the time was approaching when another great\nspiritual impulse might again be given, according to cyclic law, when\nthe two who volunteered to undertake the task, to make the sacrifice,\noffered Themselves in the Great White Lodge, differences of opinion\narose as to whether it was desirable or not that what we now call the\nTheosophical Society should be founded.\n\nThe time came, as most of you know, I suppose, for an effort of some\nsort to be made. It had been so since the fourteenth century, for it\nwas in the thirteenth century that in Tibet a mighty personage then\nliving in that land, promulgated His order to the Lodge that at the\nclose of every century an effort should be made to enlighten the\n\"white barbarians of the West.\" That order having gone forth, it\nbecame necessary, of course, to obey it; for in those regions\ndisobedience is unknown. Hence at the close of each century--as you\nmay verify for yourselves if you choose to go through history\ncarefully, beginning from the time when Christian Rosenkreuz founded\nthe Rosicrucian Society late in the fourteenth century--you will find\non every occasion, towards the close of the century, a new ray of\nlight is shed forth. Towards the close of the last century--I do not\nmean the one to which we belong, but the century before, the\neighteenth--a mighty effort was made, of which the burden fell upon\ntwo great personages closely connected with the Lodge, though neither\nof them, I believe, at that time was a Master--he who was then known\nas the Comte de St. Germain, who is now one of the Masters, and his\ncolleague in that great task, closely allied to him, of a noble\nAustrian family, known to us in later days as H.P.B. When those made\ntheir attempt to change the face of Europe, they failed, the time not\nbeing ripe; the misery and the wretchedness of the epoch, the\ndegradation of the masses of the population, the horrible poverty, the\nshameful starvation, all these were the rocks on which split, and was\nbroken up into foam, the spiritual wave of which those two personages\nwere the crest. The karma of that, for the one whom we know of as\nH.P.B., was the trying and suffering incarnation that she spent\namongst us, when she founded, under the order of her Master, the\nTheosophical Society, and gave her life to it that it might live. And\nit was that fact, that the last great spiritual effort had been\ndrowned in bloodshed, it was that which gave her her marked horror of\nmixing up the spiritual movement with a political effort, which made\nher realise that before a spiritual movement could be successful in\nthe outer world it must shape, raise, remodel the conscience of those\nwho were affected by it, that it must not dare to put its hand as a\nwhole to any great political or social movement before it was strong\nenough to control the forces which it evoked. Hence her shrinking\nfrom all idea of this Society plunging, as a Society, into political\nwork or social reform. Not that individuals of the Society might not\ndo it, not that members of it might not use their best thought and\nenergy in order to bring forward and strengthen any movement which was\nreally for the benefit of mankind; but that the Society as a Society,\nas the vehicle of this great torrent of life, must not pour that\ntorrent into any physical and earthly vessel, lest again it should\nbreak the vessel into pieces, lest again it should put the hands of\nthe clock back, instead of forward, as was done in France. So for this\ntime it was to be a spiritual movement, and the work was to be\nspiritual, intellectual, and ethical. Those were to be its special\nmarks, this its special work; and when the two great Teachers who were\nidentified with the movement--her own Master and His closest co-worker\nin the Great White Lodge, the two who over and over again in centuries\ngone by had stood side by side as fellow-workers in the civilisations\nof the past--when They volunteered for this great emprise, doubt, as I\nsaid, arose among Their peers. The lesson of the eighteenth century\nwas not forgotten; the question inevitably arose: \"Is the West ready\nfor a movement of this sort again? Can it be carried on in such an\nenvironment without doing, perhaps, more harm than the good which it\nis capable of accomplishing?\" And so, much discussion arose--strange\nas that may sound to some, in connection with a body of workers so\nsublime--and most were against it, and declared the time was not ripe;\nbut these two offered to take the risk and bear the burden, offered to\nbear the karma of the effort, and to throw their lives into the\nshaping, guiding, and uplifting. And as the question of time is always\none of the most complicated and difficult questions for Those who have\nto deal with the great law of cycles and the evolution of man, it was\nfelt that it was possible that the effort might succeed, even although\nthe time was not quite ripe, the clock had not quite struck the hour.\nAnd so permission was given, and the two assumed the responsibility.\nHow the earlier stages were made is familiar to you all; how they\nchose that noble worker Their disciple, known to us as H.P.B., and\nprepared her for the work she had to do; how in due course They sent\nher to America to search there for a comrade who would supply what was\nlacking in herself--the power of organisation, the power of speaking\nto men and gathering them around him, and shaping them into a movement\nin the outer world. And you all know the story of how they met; you\nall know how they joined hands together. One of them has put the whole\nthing on record, for the instruction of the younger members of the\nSociety now and in centuries to come. The movement began, as you know,\nclosely watched over, constantly protected by those two who had taken\nthis burden of responsibility upon Themselves. And you may read in\nmany of H.P.B.'s letters, how continual in those days was the touch,\nhow constant the directions; and it went on thus year after year--for\nthe first seven years at least of the Society's life, and a little\nmore; you may read in the issue of the _Theosophist_ (June) a letter\nfrom one of these same Teachers, showing how close was the interest\ntaken, how close the scrutiny which was kept up in all the details of\nthe Society's work. In publishing that letter I thought it only right\nto strike out the names which occur in the original. It would not be\nright or fair to print those publicly yet, as you can perfectly well\nsee when you are able to supply the blanks which are left for names.\nYou may read in that letter how the Master who wrote it had been\nwatching the action of a particular branch, how He had marked in\nconnection with another branch some of the members of the branch who\nwere working ill or not well; how He pointed out that such-and-such\nmembers would be better out of the branch than in it, were hinderers\nrather than helpers--all going to show how close was the watch which\nThey then kept upon the branches of Their infant Society. And so again\nyou may read in other letters than that, suggestions of writing\nletters to newspapers, and so on, which would strike you as very\ntrivial if they came from the Masters at the present time; how a\nletter might be written here, an article answered there; how a leading\narticle ought not to be allowed to remain with its false suggestions\nto the injury of the Society, and so on. But there came a time, with\nthe increase of the numbers in the Society, when many came in who had\nnot the strong belief of the outer founders in the reality of the life\nof the Masters and Their connection with the Theosophical Society, and\ndisputes and arguments arose. And if you turn back to the\n_Theosophist_ of those days you will see a great deal of discussion\ngoing on as to who were the Brothers, and what They did, and what\nrelation they bore to the Society, and so on; until at last They grew\na little weary of this continual challenging of Their life, and work,\nand interest, and gave the warning which still exists amongst the\npapers of the Society, that unless before a very short time these\nquestions were set at rest, and the fact of Their relation to the\nSociety was generally recognised, They would withdraw again for a time\ninto the silence in which They had remained so long, and would wait\nuntil conditions were more favorable before they again took Their\nactive part in the guiding of the Society's work. Unfortunately the\nwarning was not taken, and so the withdrawal into the comparative\nsilence took place, and the Society entered on that other cycle of its\nwork on which, as you know, the judgment of the Master was passed in\nthe quotation I made the other day, that \"the Society has liberated\nitself from our grasp and influence, and we have let it go; we make no\nunwilling slaves. It is now a soulless corpse, a machine run so far\nwell enough, but which will fall to pieces when.... Out of the three\nobjects, the second alone is attended to; it is no longer either a\nBrotherhood, nor a body over the face of which broods the Spirit from\nbeyond the great Range.\" Thus Their relations to the Society of the\ntime altered, became less direct, less continual. Their direct\ninfluence was confined to individuals and withdrawn for the Society at\nlarge, save as to general strengthening, not because They desired it\nshould be so, but because so the Society desired, and the Society is\nmaster of its own destiny, and may shape its own fate according to the\nwill of its majority. Still They watched over it, though not permitted\nto \"interfere\" with its outer working so much as They had done in the\nearlier days, and H.P.B. was obliged to declare that They did not\ndirect it. The relation remained, but was largely in abeyance, latent\nto some extent, as we may say, and They were waiting for the time when\nagain the possibility might open before Them of more active work\nwithin the movement which They had started, whose heavy karma They\nwere compelled to bear.\n\nThe fact that They bear the karma of the Society as a whole, seems to\nme one which members of the Society ought never to forget; for, coming\ninto this movement as we have done, finding through the Society the\nteachings which have changed our lives, having received from it the\nlight which has made all our thought different, which has rendered\nlife intelligible, and life on other planes familiar, at least in\ntheory, and to some in practice, it would seem that the very commonest\ngratitude, such as men or women of the world might feel for some small\nbenefactions shown by friend to friend, that even that feeling, small\nand poor as it is, might live in the heart of every member towards\nThose who have made the existence of the Theosophical Society\npossible. I do not mean, of course, in those who do not believe in the\nfact of Their existence; and there are, quite rightly and properly,\nmany such amongst us; for it is the foundation of the Theosophical\nSociety that men of all opinions may come within its ranks and benefit\nby the splendor of its teachings, whether or not they accept them one\nby one. Their non-belief does not alter the fact that the teachings\ncome to them through the Society, and from Those who made the Society\na living organism upon earth. Nor do I mean in saying that this\nfeeling of gratitude should exist in the heart of each, that anyone\nneed take the particular view of the Masters which I myself take,\nfounding that view, it may be, on more knowledge than very many of\nthose who reject it personally can be said to possess. In all these\nmatters every member is free, and I am only urging upon you your\nresponsibility at least to try to understand, where you touch matters\nof such far-reaching importance; and at least to consider that you\nshould not add to the burden on those mighty shoulders more than you\ncan avoid adding. Now none of us, whatever we may happen to know--the\ndifferences of knowledge between us are trivial as compared with the\ndifference between all of us and Them--can surely escape the duty of\nconsidering whether by his own ignorance, and carelessness, and folly,\nand indifference, he is adding to that burden which They bear. For\nThey cannot avoid taking the karma that you and I largely generate, by\nvirtue of Their unity with this Society, and the fact that Their life\ncirculates through it, and that They have sacrificed Themselves in\norder that it may live. By that sacrifice they cannot avoid sharing\nthe karma that you and I are making by every careless thought, by\nevery foolish action, by every wilful or even not wilful ignorance,\nthe burden that They have taken out of love for man and for his\nhelping. And I have often thought, when I have been trying dimly to\nunderstand the mysteries of this divine compassion, and the greatness\nof the love and of the pity which moves those mighty Ones to mix\nthemselves up with our small, petty selves, I have often thought how\nstrange must seem to Them, from Their position, the indifference with\nwhich we take such priceless blessings, the indifference with which we\naccept such mighty sacrifice. For the love that These deserve at our\nhands is surely beyond all claim of kindred, of blood, of touch\nbetween man and man; the claim that They have upon us, these Men who\nare Masters and Teachers, for what They have given and made possible\nfor you and me, seems to me a claim beyond all measuring, a debt\nbeyond all counting. And when one looks at the Society as a whole, and\nrealises how little as a whole it takes account of those deep occult\ntruths into touch with which it has come, how little it realises how\nmighty the possibility that these supreme acts of sacrifice have\nopened before every one of us, it seems almost too sad to be credible,\ntoo pathetic to be expressed; one realises how sometimes Their hearts\nmust be wrung, as the heart of the Christ was wrung when He stood and\nlooked over Jerusalem, and knew that the people to whose race He\nbelonged were driving further and further away their possibilities,\nand were despising that which He had brought for their redemption. How\noften His cry: \"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets\nand stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have\ngathered thee together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her\nwings, and ye would not\"--how often must that same cry go out from the\nheart of the Masters, when They look at the movement for which They\nare responsible, and realise how little its greatness is understood by\nthose who are its members, and are reckoned within its pale.[1] For if\neven for one brief hour you could realise the heart of the Master,\nand what He feels and knows with regard to this movement which is His,\nit seems to me that in the light of even that brief meditation there\nwould be a throwing away of personalities, there would be a trampling\ndown of silly pride, a casting aside of careless obstinacy, a yearning\nto have some share in the sacrifice, and to give ourselves, however\npetty we may be, side by side with that sublime sacrifice which They\nare making year after year for us, unworthy of Their compassion. And\nyet nothing less than that is the movement which lives by Their life;\nnothing less than that is the relation of the Masters to the\nTheosophical Society. They bear it in Their heart, They bear it on\nTheir shoulders, They offer daily sacrifice that this spiritual effort\nmay succeed in the helping and the uplifting of the world. And They,\nso great, speak to us, so small; and none will surely refuse to listen\nwho catches one glimpse of the possibility of Their speech; none will\nreject Their pleading, who can hear one whisper of that Voice; and the\none thing that one hopes for, that one longs for, with regard to\noneself and to all who are members of the Society, is that amongst us\nthere may be some ears found to hear the voice of the Masters, and\nsome hearts mirroring enough of their compassion to at least sacrifice\nthemselves for the helping of the world.\n\n[Footnote 1: This was spoken some weeks before the issue of Mr.\nSinnett's extraordinary manifesto, denying \"the things most surely\nbelieved among us.\"]\n\n\n\n\nThe Future of the Theosophical Society\n\n\nThere are two futures of the Theosophical Society to which we may\naddress our attention: the immediate future, and a future further off.\nAnd I am going to begin with the future further off, because it is\nonly by recognising the nature of that future that we can properly\ndevise the means whereby we may bring it about. For in all human\naffairs it is necessary to choose an end to which effort should be\ndirected, and the nature of the end will govern the nature of the\nmeans. One of the great faults, I think, of our modern life is to live\nin what is called a hand-to-mouth way, to snatch at any momentary\nadvantage, to try to bring about something which serves as an\nimprovement for the moment without trying to understand, without\ncaring to consider, whether in very many cases the temporary\nimprovement may not bring with it a more fatal mischief than that\nwhich it is intended to remedy. And at least in the Theosophical\nSociety, where we try to study tendencies, and to understand something\nof the forces which are working around us in life, we ought to avoid\nthis popular blunder of the time, we ought to try to see the goal\ntowards which we are moving, and to choose our immediate methods with\nreference to that goal. Of course, when I speak of a goal and an end,\nI am using the terms in a relative, not in an absolute sense--the\ngoal, the end which is within a measurable distance, and so may be\ntaken as a point towards which the roads on which we travel should\ntend. Let us, then, look first on that goal, and see its nature and\nthe kind of methods which will help to realise it upon earth.\n\nYou are all familiar in the Theosophical Society with the theory of\ncycles, so that you are accustomed to look upon events as tending to\nrepeat themselves on higher and higher levels of what has been called\nthe \"spiral of evolution.\" For while it is true that history does not\nrepeat itself upon the same level, it is also true that it does repeat\nitself upon successively higher levels, and that anyone who is\nstudying Theosophical teaching as to the evolution of man, the\nevolution of globes, the evolution of systems, the evolution of\nuniverses, may very much facilitate his study by grasping the main\ntruths which underlie each of these in turn. We are continually\nrepeating on a higher plane that which we have done upon a lower. Our\nterms are a constant series of repetitions, so that if we understand\ntheir meaning in one series we are able to argue to their meaning in\nanother. And I have often pointed out to you with respect to these\nrecurring cycles of events, and recurring terms, that especially among\nHindus, and in the Samskrit language, you find whole series\nof terms, the meaning of each of which varies with the term from\nwhich the series starts; so that if you know them once, you know them\nfor all occasions. Take a very familiar case. Let me remind you of the\nword \"sam\u00e2dhi.\" That is a relative term, and is the last of a\nseries, which has regard to the waking consciousness of the individual\nand the plane on which the centre of the waking consciousness is\nfound. So that before you can say what the word \"sam\u00e2dhi\" means for\nany individual, you must ascertain on what plane of consciousness his\nnormal centre is at work; and when you know that, then you can pass up\nstep by step until you come to the term in the series which is\nrepresented by that word \"sam\u00e2dhi.\" It is the same over and over\nagain in our Theosophical studies, and especially do we find this to\nbe true in the characteristics--important in this particular\nrelation--the characteristics of the great Races, the Root-Races, as\nrepresented in miniature in the sub-races of each Root-Race. If we can\nfind out those characteristics, trace them and see how they are\nbrought about in the course of evolution in the small cycle which is\nnearer to us, the cycle of the sub-race, then it is comparatively easy\nfor us, as regards the future, to foresee the appearance of those\ncharacteristics in the Root-Race that corresponds to the sub-race. And\nI shall want to use that method in dealing with the future of the\nSociety; it is for that reason that I draw your attention to these\ncontinually recurring cycles of times and events. Now if we look back\nto the Fourth Root-Race, we can study in the history of that Race the\nevolution of the Fifth. We can see the methods used to bring about\nthat evolution. We can trace the means which were employed in order\nthat that evolution might be made secure; and we can see, by studying\nthat which lies behind us, that the fourth sub-race of that Root-Race\nshowed out the characteristics of the Fourth Race as a whole; that the\nfifth sub-race of that Fourth showed out some of the characteristics\nof the Fifth Root-Race that was to follow in the course of evolution.\nAnd in this way, applying the analogy, if we can trace out to some\nextent for ourselves the characteristics of the sixth sub-race which\nis to succeed our own fifth sub-race, then we shall be on the track of\nthe line of evolution which will bring about the Sixth Root-Race when\nthe time for its coming strikes. Let us glance back for a moment to\nsee the main points of the evolution of a sub-race and a Race.\n\nWhen our own Fifth Root-Race was to be evolved, certain types were\nchosen out of the fifth sub-race of the Fourth Root-Race, and they\nwere chosen by the Manu who was to guide the evolution of the Fifth\nRoot-Race. Those types showed out in a comparatively germinal fashion\nthe mental characteristics which were to grow out of the selected\ngroups. And you may learn, if you care to do it, how those choices\nwere made, and how the first choice was a failure. Chosen as it was by\nthe wisdom of the highly exalted being whom we speak of as the Manu,\nnone the less the material in which He tried to work proved too\nstubborn, too little plastic, to adapt itself to His influence\nstriving to shape and to mould it. And in consequence, after prolonged\nefforts, He threw aside the families that thus He had selected, and\nbegan making a new choice, a fresh selection, in order to see if the\nsecond choice would prove more fortunate than the first. And the way\nHe chose them was a simple and effective one: He selected a certain\nnumber of His own disciples and sent them out as messengers to the\nvarious nations of the world, that constituted that part of the great\nFourth Race which He had chosen for His second experiment. He sent\nthem into nation after nation, with the mission to gather out of that\nnation those who appeared to be the most promising for the work which\nHe had to carry out. They tried in various fashions, sometimes by\ndirect invitation, where the characteristic that was being sought was\nclearly developed, namely, the lower mind. It was the development of\nthe lower manas that was the keynote of the selection; for the Fifth\nRoot-Race was to show out that development of the lower manas. I say\n\"lower manas\" rather than \"manas\"; because the full development of the\nm\u00e2nasic principle in man is reserved for the Fifth Round, and not for\nthe Fourth, and we, of course, are still in the Fourth Round. That\nFourth Round, pre-eminently k\u00e2mic, must necessarily color every\nevolution which goes on during its existence, and high as we may\nstrive to raise m\u00e2nasic powers amongst us, we cannot escape from the\nfundamental vice of our birth, from the m\u00e2nasic standpoint, that we\nare plunged in k\u00e2mic matter, and that the matter in which we work is\nmatter of the Fourth Round, adapted to the k\u00e2mic principle, and not\nmatter of the Fifth, adapted to the m\u00e2nasic. Hence the best thing that\nwe can do is to evolve the lower manas, manas deeply tinged with k\u00e2ma.\nOut of that Fourth Race, then, were selected the people who showed\nmost plainly the budding of this intelligence which was needed, the\nmessengers of the Manu striking a note which attracted those in whom\nthis lower m\u00e2nasic principle was more highly developed than among\ntheir comrades and peers. Gradually from different nations groups of\nmen and women gathered round the messengers of the Manu, who then\nbegan to lead them away from their own people, from their own nation,\nfrom all their surroundings, in order to seek the appointed place\nwhere the Manu was grouping those on whom the great experiment was to\nbe made for the second time. Slowly and gradually they were thus\ngathered together out of the nations into which the fifth sub-race of\nthe Fourth Race had spread. And the flower of those nations, attracted\nby the key-note struck by the messengers, gradually gathered round the\nManu, and became the material, the nucleus, of the new Root Race. As\nyou know, He took them far away to the Sacred Land, shutting them away\nfrom the masses of the Fourth and Third Race peoples, and dividing\nthem by physical barriers from all that might contaminate and stain.\nVery, very different were those people from the generations which\nthousands upon thousands of years later were to spring from them in\nphysical succession; rather, to the people about them were they folk\nwho were developed in an uncongenial fashion, people who were by no\nmeans looked up to and admired in the nations amongst whom they dwelt,\namongst whom they had grown up. For the building of a new type is not\nmade out of those in whom the type of the old Race, that which is\nbefore those who are selected for a changed line of evolution, has\nflowered. The triumphs of evolution in the Fourth Race, as the Fourth\nRace judged them, were by no means the best material for the building\nof the Fifth. Those who were most admired in the Fourth, those who\nwere regarded as the flowers of their own nations, were those in whom\nthe k\u00e2mic faculty, with its allied psychic powers, was most developed,\nwas most triumphant. For you must remember that in the very different\ncivilisation of those days, psychic powers were playing an enormous\npart in all the most highly developed people of the time. Where the\ndawning principle of manas began somewhat to triumph over the k\u00e2mic,\nthere the psychic faculties inevitably diminished in their power, and\nshowed themselves very much more feebly than in the leaders of the\ntime, those who were the pioneers of the civilisation of the day. The\nfaculties most valued at that time were least to be recognised in\nthose who were the chosen of the Manu; for what He was seeking was the\ndawn of the intellectual principle, and where that dawns, the psychic\nfor a time is submerged. I cannot dwell now on the reason for that;\nthe psychism of the time was the psychism of the whole of the astral\nbody, and not the psychism which succeeds the intellectual\ndevelopment, which is the result of a higher organisation of that body\ninto special organs of astral senses--the well-known chakras. The\nreason is well known among all students of the different stages of\nevolution, and the only reason I allude to it now is because I want\nyou to recognise a very significant fact: that those who were chosen\nout of that civilisation by the Manu, in order that he might make a\nnew Race out of them, were not the people who were the leading\nexamples of the highest civilisation of the time. Those were left\nbehind in their own environment. Those were left behind to carry on\ntheir evolution along the lines already becoming the lines of the\npast, and not the lines of the future. And these people in whom the\npsychic powers were less shown, and in whom the less valued\nintellectual power was germinating, on lines more fitted for the\ndevelopment in future, they were chosen out for the building of the\nFifth Race, and carried away from their Fourth Race surroundings into\nthe far-off land of their education. There of course they remained\nuntil the time came when the Manu incarnated amongst them--and so on.\nThat is old history on which I need not dwell.\n\nLet us apply those same principles to the choosing out of another\nRoot-Race, and we shall see that just as then, for the fifth Root-Race,\nthe m\u00e2nasic principle was selected, so in the choosing out for a Sixth\nRoot-Race, the buddhic principle must be the one which must be\nsought for in order that the material may be shaped in which it will be\npossible for it in its turn to develop. There again I must remind you\nthat the buddhi of the Sixth Root-Race in this Round will be\nsomething very different from the evolution of the pure buddhic\nprinciple in its own Round, the Round that belongs to it in the future\nevolution of humanity: it will be buddhic contaminated with k\u00e2ma,\nshowing out much of the k\u00e2mic characteristics--inevitably, inasmuch as\nit must work in k\u00e2mic matter. Hence you must not take quite your ideal\nbuddhi, such as you may fancy it in its perfection--the\nmagnificent principle of Pure Reason, in its higher intuitive power--but\na shadow, a reflexion of it, such a shadow and reflexion as is able to\ntake its veils, its garments, from the matter of our own Round. None the\nless, that will be the distinguishing, the dominant principle of the\nSixth Root-Race, and therefore I ask you to fix your mind on that as the\ngoal towards which all roads in the present should tend. Far-off indeed\nit is, counting as we count time; but tendencies show themselves long,\nlong before they appear upon the surface, recognisable to the eye of the\nflesh. In each sub-race appears a principle which manifests itself more\nfully, more thoroughly, in the corresponding Root-Race; and therefore,\nthough it will only be possible for us at the present time to work\ntowards the next sub-race of our own Fifth Race, which is already\nbeginning to appear upon the surface of our globe, none the less is it\ntrue that in quickening the evolution of that sub-race it is the next\nRoot-Race to which we must look for our guiding principle; that is the\nfar-off Pole-star by which we must guide our ships at the present time,\nthat the point towards which we must steer, however far off we must\nsorrowfully admit that it is.\n\nLet us then, recognising that fact, that the Sixth Root-Race will be\nthe embodiment of the next principle in us, the buddhic\nprinciple, that of Pure Reason--as distinguished from Intellect, which\nis Reason reflected in Activity--when you realise that, and remember\nthat the note of buddhi is union--not yet unity but union--you\nwill find that as much as you require for your guiding principle in\nthe evolution of the corresponding sub-race, whose foot is now on the\nthreshold. So that in this fashion, though seeming to go so far abroad\ninto the past and the future, I bring you to the practical question\nof the next step forward in human evolution.\n\nThe next thing you must remember is that the flowering of the Fifth\nRoot-Race will go on long, long after the beginning of the sixth\nsub-race is seen. For these Races and sub-races overlap each other;\nand just as at the present time the majority of mankind belongs to the\nFourth Root-Race and not to the Fifth, but the Fifth Root-Race\ndominates the evolution of the world, although still in a minority, so\nis it of sub-races also. The sixth sub-race will be at first in an\nalmost inappreciable minority, but coloring the whole; then\nmultiplying more and more, until it becomes an appreciable minority.\nThen, as it grows more and more numerous, and nations are born of it,\nit will begin to dominate and lead the civilisation of the then world.\nBut even then the Fifth Race will be in an enormous majority for ages\nand ages yet to come. The fifth sub-race has not yet touched its\nhighest point, has not yet asserted itself to the point to which its\nevolution will reach in the centuries that lie immediately before us.\nIt is nearing its highest point; it is climbing rapidly now to its\nzenith; but still many years of mortal time intervene between the\npresent day and the day when it will rule in the height of its power.\nIt is climbing fast in these days; but still, compare it with the\ncorresponding point in the Atlantean civilisation, and you will\nrealise that it has not yet climbed to its highest point. For every\nRace must overtop the Race that has gone before it, and we have not\nyet reached even the level of the old Atlantis in knowledge, and\ntherefore in power over the lower nature, although, as I said, the\nclimbing now is rapid, and will become more and more rapid with every\nten years that pass over our heads. For there is that speciality in\nevolution, that it ever goes forward at an increasing rate. The more\nit develops its powers, the more swiftly do those powers multiply\nthemselves; so that, to quote a well-known phrase of a great Teacher,\n\"it grows not by additions but by powers.\" And this civilisation of\nours will rush forward more and more rapidly with every decade that\npasses. Still, the very fact that it has not reached the highest\nlevels of the Fourth tells you that time lies before us in the\nbuilding of the sixth sub-race, and that is our immediate work. We\nneed not trouble now any further about the Sixth Root-Race; for\nwhatever builds the sixth sub-race amongst us is contributing to the\nbuilding of that Root-Race of the future. The same faculties are\ndemanded, although then at a higher level, and we can come down to our\nhumbler level and consider what the sixth sub-race is to be. And in\nthat we shall realise the work and the future of the Theosophical\nSociety.\n\nThe great characteristic of that Race is to be union, and all that\ntends to union is a force which is working for the coming of that\nsub-race, no matter whether very often the force looked at from\nwithout is often repellent. It is not the outer manifestation of the\nmoment, but the tendency, the direction of the force which is\nimportant. There may be many things, more beautiful on the surface,\nwhich have accomplished their aim, and are on the downward path\ntowards decay, whilst the things that are rising, still below the\nhorizon, have, as all germinal things have, much about them that is\nrepellent and that will be used up in the growth of the coming\ncreature, before it really manifests upon earth. It has been said by a\nMaster that if we could see with the eye of the Spirit the generation\nof the human being, his ante-natal life, we should understand the\ngeneration of worlds, the generation of universes. And that, again, is\na general principle. Let us see one or two lessons that we may draw\nfrom it at the moment.\n\nTake the evolution of a seed into a plant, and what do you find? A\ntiny germ surrounded by a mass of nutrient matter; and before that\ntiny germ will show itself in root, and stem, and leaf above the\nground and become visible to the eye of the observer on the earth,\nthat nutrient material must be absorbed by the growing germ, and\nchanged into the exquisite tissues of the plant that is to be. And so,\nif you take the growing germ, animal or human, how unlike is that\nbudding creature from the animal or the man that shall be! How lacking\nin beauty in many of the methods of its growth, of its nutrition, of\nits gradual shaping! And by what marvellous alchemy of inspiring life\ndoes the living germ gather into itself all the nutrient matter that\nsurrounds it, and shapes it into organ after organ, until the perfect\ncreature is ready to be born into the world. And as in these cases, so\nwith the growth of a sub-race, of which the germ is planted now. How\nmuch has to be done before it is ready for the birth-hour, that yet is\nat a measurable distance from the moment that the germ is planted in\nthe womb of time. Try to realise the analogy by means of the image\nthat I have suggested, and it will not then seem so unlikely to you,\nthat which is true, that in our own times again many messengers have\ncome out from the Manu of the future, in order that those messengers\nmay strike certain keynotes, which mark the chief characteristic of\nthe child that is to be. That note is well known at the present time:\nwe call it Brotherhood.\n\nNow notice at the present time how many such messengers are found\nscattered throughout the world, and how the varied organisations of\nmen of every kind are tending in that direction, and are more and more\nrecognising that as the keynote of their progress and their evolution.\nThere are, so far as I know, only two great organisations at the\npresent time that have deliberately taken Universal Brotherhood as\ntheir motto, their cry, in the world: the one is Masonry, the other is\nthe Theosophical Society. Those are the only two which proclaim\nUniversal Brotherhood. For although many religions declare\nBrotherhood, they do not make it universal; it is a Brotherhood within\nthe limits of their own creed, and a man to become a brother must come\nwithin the limits of the religion. See how clearly that is declared in\nthe great and universal baptismal ceremony which marks the entrance of\nthe child into the Christian Church. In that sacrament he is \"_made_ a\nchild of God.\" He was not a child of God before, from the Church\nstandpoint. He was born under the wrath of God, in the kingdom of\nSatan. In the ceremony of baptism he is made a child of God, an heir\nof the kingdom of heaven; and that is the keynote of the Churches\neverywhere: those outside are not children of God. And you must\nremember that it is that Fatherhood of God which connotes the\nBrotherhood of man. Only by the rooting in the Father-Life is the\nBrother-Life intelligible. And because the Theosophical Society knows\nno limit of creed, no limit of religion, and declares that every human\nbeing is, in his own essential nature, one with the Supreme Life and\nthe Supreme God, because of that its Brotherhood is universal, and\nknows none as outside its pale. Every man, no matter what he is, is\nrecognised as brother. He comes not into the Brotherhood, nor can he\nbe cast out from it. His Spirit, his Life, places him in it: it is a\nfact beyond us, above us. We have no power either to create it or to\ndestroy. We recognise the great fact, and we do not call ourselves the\nUniversal Brotherhood, but only a nucleus in it--a very different\nthing; the Brotherhood is as universal as humanity, that is our\nfundamental doctrine, and it implies that Brotherhood is as universal\nas Life. So also with Masonry, where it is rightly seen and\nunderstood--no barriers of creed, all men equally welcome within the\nMasonic Lodge. I say \"where rightly understood,\" for there are lands\nwhere Masonry has spread, where the Lodge has become exclusive as the\ncreed has become exclusive; and among American Masons, I believe, the\nnegro, as negro, is not admitted into the Masonic Lodge. But that is\nthe denial of Masonry, a disgrace to it, and not a triumph. And\nalthough it be true that Masonry has lost widely its knowledge, it\nstill for the most part remains a Brotherhood, and in that it has in\nit the link of a life that will not die, and that has every\npossibility of revival throughout the earth.\n\nQuite outside these two, limited brotherhoods are proclaimed in every\ndirection now. The Church asserts it within its own limits. All\nreligions assert it within their respective limitations. Outside\nreligions and churches the same cry is heard. Socialism declares it,\nand tries to build its policy upon it. Everywhere this cry of\nBrotherhood is heard, although it has not yet been lived, and that is\none of the signs of the coming birth of the sub-race, in which\nBrotherhood shall be the dominant note of its every civilisation, and\nin which a civilisation that is not brotherly, in which there are\nignorant people, and poor people, and starving people, and diseased\npeople, will be looked at as barbarous, and not really as civilisation\nat all. Its note is Brotherhood, the dominant note of the coming day.\nAnd because we have taken that as our first object, we have a right to\ncall ourselves a nucleus thereof; and because we definitely recognise\nit, we can consciously co-operate with nature. That is the real\nstrength of our Movement--not our numbers, they are comparatively\nsmall, but our conscious working with the forces that make for the\nfuture. The Theosophical Society is a fragment of the vast\nTheosophical Movement which is surging upon every side around us; but\nthis we have that enables us to be on the crest of that great wave,\nthat we know for what we are working, we understand the tendencies\nwhich make for the future. Hence in our Theosophical Society we must\nabove all else hold up this word, and work for it in every phase of\nhuman activity. That word marks out for your Theosophical Lodges what\nmovements you should help, and what movements you should not help. It\nis no use to pour water into a broken vessel, and every vessel that\nhas not on it the name or the principle of Brotherhood is a broken\nvessel that will not hold water for the coming time. But every\nmovement, however mingled with ignorance, with folly, with temporary\nmischief, which seeks after Brotherhood and strives to realise it, is\na living vessel, into which the Water of Life may be poured; and with\nthose movements you should work, trying to inspire and to purify, to\nget rid of that which comes from ignorance, and to replace it with the\nwisdom which it is your sacred duty to spread abroad among the\nchildren of men. So that in your public work you have this great\nkeynote.\n\nAnd that leads me to pause for a moment on that spreading Socialist\nMovement that you see around you on every side. Now, it is making one\ntremendous blunder that I need not dwell on here, but that I shall\ndwell on to-morrow night in addressing a Socialist Society. They are\nforgetting the very root of progress, they are forgetting the building\nof brothers, out of which to build a Brotherhood hereafter. They think\nthat the future depends on economic conditions, on who holds land, and\nwho holds capital. These conditions are conditions to be discussed\ncarefully, to be worked out intellectually. But whatever ownership you\nhave of any of the means of life, if the life is poisoned, it cannot\nbe healthy in the midst even of a well-arranged society. For society\ngrows out of men, and not men out of society, and until that is\nrealised all schemes must fail, for they are founded on sand, and not\non rock. You who have studied and understand, to some small extent at\nleast, the powers which are working in the world of the present, you\nought to be able to help to eliminate the evil and to strengthen the\ngood. And the Theosophical Society, among these movements of the day,\nmust hold up firmly a true ideal. It is the function of the prophet,\nof the spiritual teacher, to hold up the ideal, and point ever towards\nit, so that individuals may have it ever before their eyes and choose\nthe roads which lead in the right direction.\n\nAnd again, the principles that I have put to you may explain to you\nwhy this Theosophical Society, so weak, is yet so strong--weak in its\nnumbers, weak in the qualifications of its members, not numbering\namongst its adherents the most learned and the most mighty of the\nearth, made up of very mediocre, average people, not the great leaders\nof the civilisation of the day; but in them all, else would they not\nbe members of the Theosophical Society, is the dawning aspiration\nafter a nobler condition, and some willingness to sacrifice themselves\nin order that the coming of that condition may be quickened upon\nearth. That is the justification of our Society now. We are like the\nnutrient material that surrounds the germ, and the germ grows out of\nthe love, and the aspiration, and the spirit of self-sacrifice, which\nare found in our movement, however little developed to-day. And the\nfact that we recognise it as duty, as ideal, is the promise for the\nfuture. We are what our past has made us; we shall be what our present\nis creating; and if within your heart and mine the longing for the\nnobler state is found, that marks our place in the future, and our\nright to be among the earlier members of the sub-race that is now\npreparing to be born. For our thoughts now are what we shall be in our\nnext life; our aspirations now mark our capacities then. You know how\nthe intermediate life is spent, between the death that will close your\npresent lives and the birth that will open the portal of your next\nlives. You know that in the heavenly places you will be weaving into\nfaculty, into capacity, every thought and every aspiration towards the\nhigher life which in these days of your weakness you are generating,\nand are trying to cherish and cultivate. It is not you as you are who\nwill make the future, but you as you shall be, self-created from your\naspirations now. And just in proportion as each of you nourishes those\naspirations, and cherishes those ideals, and tries, however feebly, to\nwork them out amid the limitations of your past which cramps your\npresent life, just so far will you, in the interval between death and\nbirth, make the nobler faculties which shall qualify you to be born in\nthe sixth sub-race upon earth. That should be your keynote in your\nlives now, that the inspiring motive, the controlling power. And if\nyou want to assure yourselves that that sub-race is on the threshold,\nas I said, then look at the world around you, and measure the change\nwhich is coming over it. I said we were weak in numbers, that we are\nonly average and mediocre people; but what about the spread of our\nideas? What about the way in which, during the last thirty years,\nthese Theosophical ideas have spread through this Fifth Race\ncivilisation, have permeated its literature, are beginning to guide\nits science, are beginning to inspire its art? That is the proof of\nthe strength of the force, despite the feebleness of the vehicles in\nwhich that force is playing. Very clearly not to you nor to me is the\nspread of these ideas due, but to the Mighty Ones behind the Society,\nwho give the forces in which we are lacking. For the whole Movement is\nTheirs; They are working outside as well as within. And Their outside\nworking shows itself in the innumerable movements which are all\ntending in the same direction. It is not we who have spread the ideas.\nThe ideas are scattered in the mental atmosphere around us, and our\nonly merit is that we caught them up a little more quickly than other\npeople, and realise that they are a part of the Eternal Wisdom. That\nis our only claim, our only prerogative--consciously, deliberately we\nchoose these ideas, and however weakly we carry them out, none the\nless the choice has been made and registered in the books of Destiny.\nFor whether you will or not, you must grow in the direction of your\nthought; and you cannot be part of this Movement without your thought\nbeing more or less colored by the Theosophical ideal.\n\nPeople often say: \"Why should I come into the Theosophical Society?\nYou give us your books. You spread your knowledge broadcast\neverywhere. I can buy it in the book-shops. I can hear it in the\nlectures. Why should I come in?\" And I always say: \"There is no reason\nwhy you should come in, if you do not wish to come. Take everything we\ncan give, and take it freely. You are more than welcome to it. We are\nonly trustees for you. And if you do not care to be among the\npioneers, by all means stay outside, and walk along the smoother paths\nwhich others have carved out for you.\" But there is one reason that I\nmay say to you--I do not say it to those outside--there is a reason\nwhy you should be within it. You are more in touch with the forces\nthat make the future. You are surrounded, bathed, in the atmosphere in\nwhich the future shall grow. All that is good in you is nourished by\nthose forces. All that is harmonious with them is strengthened by\ntheir overmastering might. You cannot be amongst us without sharing\nthat inspiration; you cannot be a member without sharing the life\nwhich is poured out unstinted through all the vessels of the\nTheosophical Society. Outside it is not worth while to say this, for\nthat is not a reason for inducing people to come in; but you may\nrejoice that good karma in the past has brought you into the Society\nin the present. It has given you the right to have this opportunity of\na nobler birth in the coming time, has given you the opportunity of\ntaking part in that great work which is beginning to be wrought among\nhumanity. It gives you, from your life in the heavenly places, touch\nwith powers and opportunities that belong to these ideals in the world\nof men, and it gives you the possibility there of touch with the\nMighty Ones whom here, however unworthily, we strive to follow. So\nthat it is a great thing to be within it, and it means much for the\nfuture of you, if you can keep in it. For the immediate future of the\nTheosophical Society is the work of building that next sub-race which\nis to come. That is the work for which consciously it ought to be\nworking now. In proportion as you realise it, so will be the strength\nof your labor; in proportion as you understand it, so should be your\nshare in the gladder work of that happier time. For the future of the\nTheosophical Society is to be the mother, and even the educator, of\nthe child sixth sub-race which already is going through its ante-natal\nlife. That is its future, secure, inevitable; yours the choice if you\nwill share that future or not.\n\n\n\n\nPart III\n\n\nThe Value of Theosophy in the World of Thought\n\n\n_An Address on taking office as President of the Theosophical Society.\nDelivered at the Queen's Hall, Langham Place, London, W., on 10th July\n1907._\n\n\n\n\nThe Value of Theosophy in the World of Thought\n\n\nYou will have seen on the handbill announcing the lecture, that we are\nholding this meeting in connection with my taking office as President\nof the Theosophical Society, and it is my purpose, in addressing you\nto-night, to try to show you, at least to some small extent, what is\nthe value which the Society represents, as regarded from the\nstandpoint of human activities, manifested in the world of thought. I\nwant to try to show you that when we say THEOSOPHY we are speaking of\nsomething of real value which can serve humanity in the various\ndepartments of intellectual life. I propose, in order to do this, to\nbegin with a very brief statement of the fundamental idea of\nTheosophy; and then, turning to the world of religious thought, to the\nworld of artistic thought, to the world of scientific thought, and\nlastly to the world of political thought, to point out to you how that\nwhich is called Theosophy may bring contributions of value to each of\nthese in turn.\n\nNow Theosophy, as the name implies, is a Wisdom, a Divine Wisdom; and\nthe name historically, as many of you know, is identical with that\nwhich in Eastern lands has been known by various names--as Tao, in\nChina; as the Brahmavidy\u00e2, in India; as the Gnosis, among the\nGreeks and the early Christians; and as Theosophy through the Middle\nAges and in modern times. It implies always a knowledge, a Wisdom that\ntranscends the ordinary knowledge, the ordinary science of the earth;\nit implies a wisdom as regards life, a wisdom as regards the essential\nnature of things, a wisdom which is summed up in two words when we say\n\"God-Wisdom.\" For it has been held in elder days--although in modern\ntimes it has become largely forgotten--that man can really never know\nanything at all unless he knows himself, and knows himself Divine;\nthat knowledge of God, the Supreme, the Universal Life, is the root of\nall true knowledge of matter as well as of Spirit, of this world as\nwell as of worlds other than our own; that in that one supreme\nknowledge all other knowledges find their root; that in that supreme\nlight all other lights have their origin; and that if man can know\nanything, it is because he is Divine in nature, and, sharing the Life\nthat expresses itself in a universe, he can know at once the Life that\noriginates and the Matter that obeys.\n\nStarting from such a standpoint, you will at once realise that\nTheosophy is a spiritual theory of the world as against a\nmaterialistic. It sees Spirit as the moulder, the shaper, the arranger\nof matter, and matter only as the obedient expression and servant of\nthe Spirit; it sees in man a spiritual being, seeking to unfold his\npowers by experience in a universe of forms; and it declares that man\nmisunderstands himself, and will fail of his true end, if he\nidentifies himself with the form that perishes instead of with the\nlife which is deathless. Hence, opposed to materialism alike in\nscience and philosophy, it builds up a spiritual conception of the\nuniverse, and necessarily it is idealistic in its thought, and holds\nup the importance of the ideal as a guide to all human activity. The\nideal, which is thought applied to conduct, that is the keynote of\nTheosophy and its value in the varied worlds of thought; and the power\nof thought, the might of thought, the ability that it has to clothe\nitself in forms whose life only depends on the continuance of the\nthought that gave them birth, that is its central note, or keynote, in\nall the remedies that it applies to human ills. Idealist everywhere,\nidealist in religion, idealist in art, idealist in science, idealist\nin the practical life that men call politics, idealist everywhere; but\navoiding the blunder into which some idealists have fallen, when they\nhave not recognised that human thought is only a portion of the whole,\nand not the whole. The Theosophist recognises that the Divine Thought,\nof which the universe is an expression, puts limitations on his own\npower of thought, on his own creative activity. He realises that the\nwhole compels the part, and that his own thought can only move within\nthe vast circle of the Divine Thought, which he only partially\nexpresses; so that while he will maintain that, on the ideal depends\nall that is called \"real\" in the lower worlds, he will realise that\nhis creative power can only slowly mould matter to his will, and\nthough every result will depend on a creative thought, the results\nwill often move slowly, adapting themselves to the thought that gives\nthem birth. Hence, while idealist, he is not impracticable; while he\nsees the power of thought, he recognises its limitations in space and\ntime; and while asserting the vital importance of right thought and\nright belief, he realises that only slowly does the flower of thought\nripen into the fruit of action.\n\nBut on the importance of thought he lays a stress unusual in modern\nlife. It is the cant of the day, in judging the value of a man, that\n\"it does not matter what he believes but only what he does.\" That is\nnot true. It matters infinitely what a man believes; for as a man's\nbelief so he is; as a man's thought, so inevitably is his action.\nThere was a time in the world of thought when it was said with equal\nerror: \"It does not matter what a man does, provided his faith is\nright.\" If that word \"faith\" had meant the man's thought in its\nintegrity, then there would have been but little error; for the right\nthought would inevitably have brought right action; but in those days\nright thought meant only orthodox thought, according to a narrow canon\nof interpretation, the obedient repetition of creeds, the blind\nacceptance of beliefs imposed by authority. In those days what was\ncalled Orthodoxy in religion was made the measure of the man, and\njudgment depended upon orthodox acquiescence. Against that mistake the\ngreat movement that closed the Middle Ages was the protest of the\nintellect of man, and it was declared that no external authority must\nbind the intellect, and none had right to impose from outside the\nthought which is the very essence of the man--that great assertion of\nthe right of private judgment, of the supreme principle of the free\nintelligence, so necessary for the progress of humanity. But like all\nthings it has been followed by a reaction, and men have run to the\nother extreme: that nothing matters except conduct, and action alone\nis to be considered. But your action is the result of your thought of\nyesterday, and follows your yesterday as its expression in the outer\nworld; your thought of to-day is your action of to-morrow, and your\nfuture depends on its accuracy and its truth, on its consonance with\nreality. Hence it is all-important in the modern world to give back to\nthought its right place as above action, as its inspirer and its\nguide. For the human spirit by its expression as intellect judges,\ndecides, directs, controls. Its activity is the outcome of its\nthinking; and if without caring for thought you plunge into action,\nyou have the constant experiments, feeble and fruitless, which so\nlargely characterise our modern life.\n\nPass, then, from that first assertion of the importance of right\nthinking, to see what message Theosophy has for the world of religious\nthought. What is religion? Religion is the quenchless thirst of the\nhuman spirit for the Divine. It is the Eternal, plunged into a world\nof transitory phenomena, striving to realise its own eternity. It is\nthe Immortal, flung into a world of death, trying to realise its own\ndeathlessness. It is the white Eagle of Heaven, born in the\nillimitable spaces, beating its wings against the bars of matter, and\nstriving to break them and rise into the immensities where are its\nbirthplace and its real home. That is religion: the striving of man\nfor God. And that thirst of man for God many have tried to quench with\nwhat is called Theology, or with books that are called sacred,\ntraditions that are deemed holy, ceremonies and rites which are but\nlocal expressions of a universal truth. You can no more quench that\nthirst of the human Spirit by anything but individual experience of\nthe Divine, than you can quench the thirst of the traveller parched\nand dying in the desert by letting him hear water go down the throat\nof another. Human experience, and that alone, is the rock on which all\nreligion is founded, that is the rock that can never be shaken, on\nwhich every true Church must be built. Books, it is true, are often\nsacred; but you may tear up every sacred book in the world, and as\nlong as man remains, and God to inspire man, new books can be written,\nnew pages of inspiration can be penned. You may break in pieces every\nceremony, however beautiful and elevating, and the Spirit that made\nthem to express himself has not lost his artistic power, and can make\nnew rites and new ceremonies to replace every one that is broken and\ncast aside. The Spirit is deathless as God is deathless, and in that\ndeathlessness of the Spirit lies the certainty, the immortality of\nreligion. And Theosophy, in appealing to that immortal experience,\npoints the world of religions--confused by many an attack, bewildered\nby many an assault, half timid before the new truth discovered every\nday, half scared at the undermining of old foundations, and the\ntearing by criticism of many documents--points it back to its own\ninexhaustible source, and bids it fear neither time nor truth, since\nSpirit is truth and eternity. All that criticism can take from you is\nthe outer form, never the living reality; and well indeed is it for\nthe churches and for the religions of the world that the outworks of\ndocuments should be levelled with the ground, in order to show the\nimpregnability of the citadel, which is knowledge and experience.\n\nBut in the world of religious thought there are many services, less\nimportant, in truth, than the one I have spoken of, but still\nimportant and valuable to the faiths of the world; for Theosophy\nbrings back to men, living in tradition, testimony to the reality of\nknowledge transcending the knowledge of the senses and the reasoning\npowers of the lower mind. It comes with its hands full of proof,\nmodern proof, proof of to-day, living witnesses, of unseen worlds, of\nsubtler worlds than the physical. It comes, as the Founders and the\nearly Teachers of every religion have come, to testify again by\npersonal experience to the reality of the unseen worlds of which the\nreligions are the continual witnesses in the physical world. Have you\never noticed in the histories of the great religions how they grow\nfeebler in their power over men as faith takes the place of knowledge,\nand tradition the place of the living testimony of living men? That is\none of the values of Theosophy in the religious world, that it teaches\nmen to travel to worlds unseen, and to bring back the evidence of what\nthey have met and studied; that it so teaches men their own nature\nthat it enables them to separate soul and body, and travel without the\nphysical body in worlds long thought unattainable, save through the\ngateway of death. I say \"Long thought unattainable\"; but the\nscriptures of every religion bear witness that they are not\nunattainable. The Hindu tells us that man should separate himself from\nhis body as you strip the sheath from the stem of the grass. The\nBuddhist tells us that by deep thought and contemplation mind\nmay know itself as mind apart from the physical brain. Christianity\ntells us many a story of the personal knowledge of its earlier\nteachers, of a ministry of angels that remained in the Church, and of\nangelic teachers training the neophytes in knowledge. Islam tells us\nthat its own great prophet himself passed into higher worlds, and\nbrought back the truths which civilised Arabia, and gave knowledge\nwhich lit again the torch of learning in Europe when the Moors came to\nSpain. And so religion after religion bears testimony to the\npossibility of human knowledge outside the physical world; we only\nre-proclaim the ancient truth--with this addition, which some\nreligions now shrink from making: that what man did in the past man\nmay do to-day; that the powers of the Spirit are not shackled, that\nthe knowledge of the other worlds is still attainable to man. And\noutside that practical knowledge of other worlds it brings by that\nsame method the distinct assertion of the survival of the human Spirit\nafter death. It is only in very modern times that that has been\ndoubted by any large numbers of people. Here and there in the ancient\nworld, like a Lucretius in Rome, perhaps; like a Democritus in Greece;\ncertainly like a Ch\u00e2rv\u00e2ka in India, you find one here and there who\ndoubts the deathlessness of the Spirit in man; but in modern days that\ndisbelief, or the hopeless cynicism which thinks knowledge impossible,\nhas penetrated far and wide among the cultured, the educated classes,\nand from them to the masses of the uneducated. That is the phenomenon\nof modern days alone, that man by hundreds and by thousands despairs\nof his own immortality. And yet the deepest conviction of humanity,\nthe deepest thought in man, is the persistence of himself, the \"I\"\nthat cannot die. And with one great generalisation, and one method,\nTheosophy asserts at once the deathlessness of man and the existence\nof God; for it says to man, as it was ever said in the ancient days:\n\"The proof of God is not without you but within you.\" All the greatest\nteachers have reiterated that message, so full of hope and comfort;\nfor it shuts none out from knowledge. What is the method? Strip away\nyour senses, and you find the mind; strip away the mind, and you find\nthe pure reason; strip away the pure reason, and you find the\nwill-to-live; strip away the will-to-live, and you find Spirit as a\nunit; strike away the limitations of the Spirit, and you find God.\nThose are the steps: told in ancient days, repeated now. \"Lose your\nlife,\" said the Christ, \"and you shall find it to life eternal.\" That\nis true: let go everything that you can let go; you cannot let go\nyourself, and in the impossibility of losing yourself you find the\ncertainty of the Self Universal, the Universal Life.\n\nPass again from that to another religious point. I mentioned\nceremonies, rites of every faith. Those Theosophy looks at and\nunderstands. So many have cast away ceremonies, even if they have\nfound them helpful, because they do not understand them, and fear\nsuperstition in their use. Knowledge has two great enemies:\nSuperstition and Scepticism. Knowledge destroys blind superstition by\nasserting and explaining natural truths of which the superstition has\nexaggerated the unessentials; and it destroys scepticism by proving\nthe reality of the facts of the unseen world. The ceremony, the rite,\nis a shadow in the world of sense of the truths in the world of\nSpirit; and every religion, every creed, has its ceremonies as the\noutward physical expression of some eternal spiritual truth. Theosophy\ndefends them, justifies them, by explaining them; and when they are\nunderstood they cease to be superstitions that blind, and become\ncrutches that help the halting mind to climb to the spiritual life.\n\nLet us pass from the world of religious thought, and pause for a\nmoment on the world of artistic thought. Now to Art, perhaps more than\nin any other department of the human intelligence, the ideal is\nnecessary for life. All men have wondered from time to time why the\narchitecture--to take one case only--why the architecture of the past\nis so much more wonderful, so much more beautiful, than the\narchitecture of the present. When you want to build some great\nnational building to-day you have to go back to Greece, or Rome, or\nthe Middle Ages for your model. Why is it that you have no new\narchitecture, expressive of your own time, as that was expressive of\nthe past? The severe order of Egypt found its expression in the mighty\ntemples of Karnak; the beauty and lucidity of Grecian thought bodied\nitself out in the chaste and simple splendor of Grecian buildings; the\nsternness of Roman law found its ideal expression in those wondrous\nbuildings whose ruins still survive in Rome; the faith of the Middle\nAges found its expression in the upward-springing arch of Gothic\narchitecture, and the exquisite tracery of the ornamented building.\nBut if you go into the Gothic cathedral, what do you find there? That\nnot alone in wondrous arch and splendid pillar, upspringing in its\ndelicate and slender strength from pavement to roof, not there only\ndid the art of the builder find its expression. Go round to any\nout-of-the-way corner, or climb the roof of those great buildings, and\nyou will find in unnoticed places, in hidden corners, the love of the\nartist bodying itself forth in delicate tracery, in stone that lives.\nMen carved for love, not only for fame; men carved for beauty's sake,\nnot only for money; and they built perfectly because they had love and\nfaith, the two divine builders, and embodied both in deathless stone.\nBefore you can be more than copyists you must find your modern ideal,\nand when you have found it you can build buildings that will defy\ntime. But you have not found it yet; the artist amongst us is too much\nof a copyist, and too little of an inspirer and a prophet. We do not\nwant the painter only to paint for us the things our own eyes can see.\nWe want the artist eye to see more than the common eye, and to embody\nwhat he sees in beauty for the instruction of our blinded sight. We do\nnot want accurate pictures of cabbages and turnips and objects of that\nsort. However cleverly done, they remain cabbages and turnips still.\nThe man who could paint for us the thought that makes the cabbage, he\nwould be the artist, the man who knows the Life. And so for our new\nArt we must have a splendid ideal. Do you want to know how low Art may\nsink when materialism triumphs and vulgarises and degrades? Then see\nthat exhibition of French pictures that was placed in Bond Street some\nyears ago, which attracted those who loved indecency more than those\nwho loved the beautiful, and then you will understand how Art\nperishes where the breath of the ideal does not inspire and keep\nalive. And Theosophy to the artist would bring back that ancient\nreverence which regards the artist of the Beautiful as one of the\nchief God-revealers to the race of which he is a portion; which sees\nin the great musical artist, or the sculptor, or the painter, a\nGod-inspired man, bringing down the grace of heaven to illuminate the\ndull grey planes of earth. The artists should be the prophets of our\ntime, the revealers of the Divine smothered under the material; and\nwere they this, they would be regarded with love and with reverence;\nfor true art needs reverence for its growing, and the artist, of all\nmen--subtle, responsive, sensitive to everything that touches\nhim--needs an atmosphere of love and reverence that he may flower into\nhis highest power, and show the world some glimpse of the Beauty which\nis God.\n\nAnd the world of science--perhaps there, after the world of religion,\nTheosophy has most of value to offer. Take Psychology. What a\nconfusion; what a mass of facts want arrangement; what a chaos of\nfacts out of which no cosmos is built! Theosophy, by its clear and\naccurate definition of man, of the relation of consciousness to its\nbodies, of Spirit to its vehicles, arranges into order that vast mass\nof facts with which psychology is struggling now. It takes into that\nwonderful \"unconscious\" or \"sub-conscious\"--which is now, as it were,\nthe answer to every riddle; but it is not understood--it takes into\nthat the light of direct investigation; divides the \"unconscious\"\nwhich comes from the past from that which is the presage of the\nfuture, separates out the inheritance of our long past ancestry which\nremains as the \"sub-conscious\" in us; points to the higher\n\"super-conscious,\" not \"sub-conscious,\" of which the genius is the\ntestimony at the present time; shows that human consciousness\ntranscends the brain; proves that human consciousness is in touch with\nworlds beyond the physical; and makes sure and certain the hope\nexpressed by science, that it is possible that that which is now\nunconscious shall become conscious, and that man shall find himself in\ntouch with a universe and not only in touch with one limited world.\nThat which Myers sometimes spoke of as the \"cosmic consciousness,\" as\nagainst our own limited consciousness, is a profound truth, and\ncarries with it the prophecy of man's future greatness. Just as the\nfish is limited to the water, as the bird is limited to the air, so\nman has been limited to the physical body, and has dreamed he had no\ntouch with other spaces, to which he really belongs. But your\nconsciousness is living in three worlds, and not in one, is touching\nmightier possibilities, is beginning to contact subtler phenomena; and\nall the traces of that are found in your newest psychology, and are\nsimply proofs of those many theories about man which Theosophy has\nbeen teaching in the world for many a century, nay, for many a\nmillennium.\n\nAnd physics and chemistry is there anything of value along\nTheosophical lines of thought and investigation, which might aid our\nphysicists and our chemists, puzzled at the subtlety of the forces\nwith which they have to deal? Has it never struck some of the more\nintuitive physicists and materialists that there may be subtler\nsenses which may be used for investigation of the subtler forces? That\nman may have in himself senses by the evolution of which he will able\nto pierce the secrets that now he is striving vainly to unveil? Has it\nnever even struck a physicist or a chemist that, if he does not\nbelieve in the possibility of himself developing those subtler forces,\nhe might utilise them in others in order to prosecute further his own\ninvestigations? They are beginning to to do that in France. They are\nbeginning to now try to use those whom they call \"lucid\"; that is,\npeople who see with eyes keener than the physical; they are beginning\nto use those in medicine, are using them for the diagnosis of disease,\nare using them for the testing of the sensitiveness of man, are\nbeginning to use them to try to discover if man has any body subtler\nthan the physical. And while I would not say to the scientific man:\n\"Accept our theories,\" I would say to him: \"Take them as hypotheses by\nwhich you may direct your further experiments, and you may go on and\nmake discoveries more rapidly than you can at the present time.\" For\nthere is many a clairvoyant who, put before a piece of some elemental\nsubstance, could describe it very much better than is done by your\nfractional analysis. And along other lines--chemical and\nelectrical--surely there is something a little unsatisfactory, when a\nfew years ago men told us that the atom was composed literally of\nmyriads of particles, and during the last year it has been suggested\nthat perhaps one particle is all of which an atom is composed. Might\nit not be wise to try to get hold of your atoms by sight keener than\nthe physical, as it is possible to do, whether by the ordinary\nclairvoyant who is sometimes developed up to that point, or by an\nuntrained sensitive whose senses are set free from the limitations of\nthe physical brain, and from that sensitive try to gather something of\nthe composition of matter which may guide you in your more scientific\nsearch? I realise that what one, or two, or twenty people see, is no\nproof for the scientific man; but it may give a hint whereby\nmathematical deductions may be made, and calculations which otherwise\nwould not be thought of. So that I only suggest the utilising by\nscience of certain powers that are now available, keener than those of\nthe ordinary senses--a new sort of human microscope or human\ntelescope--whereby you may pierce to the larger or the smaller, beyond\nthe reach of your physical microscopes and telescopes, made of metal\nand not of intelligence showing itself in matter.\n\nIs there anything of value in Theosophical ideas, shall I say to the\nscience of medicine? Some say it is not yet a science, but works\nempirically only. There is some truth in that; but are there not here\nagain lines of investigation which the physician might well study? For\ninstance, the power of thought over the human body, all that mass of\nfacts on which partly is built up such a science as Mental Healing, or\nwhat is called Faith Cure, and so on. Do you think that these things\nhave been going on for hundreds of years, and that there is no truth\nlying behind them? \"The effects of imagination,\" you say. But what is\nimagination? It does not matter of what it is the effect, if it brings\ncure where before there was disease. If you put into a man's body a\ndrug that you do not understand, and find that it cures a disease and\nrelieves a pain, will you throw the drug aside because you do not\nunderstand it? And why do you throw the power of imagination aside\nbecause you cannot weigh it in your balance, nor find that it\ndepresses one scale more than the other? Imagination is one of the\nsubtlest powers of thought: imagination is one of the strongest powers\nthat the doctor might utilise when his drugs fail him and his old\nmethods no longer serve his purpose. Suggestion, the power of thought.\nWhy, there are records of cases where suggestion has killed! That\nwhich has killed can also cure, and man's body being only a product of\nthought, built up through the ages, answers more rapidly to its\ncreator than it does to clumsier products from the mineral and\nvegetable kingdoms. Here again I only ask experiment. You know that\nyou can produce wounds upon the body of the hypnotised patient, in a\nstate of trance. By suggestion lesions are made, burns are caused,\ninflammation and pain appear by the mere suggestion of a wound. A\nblister is placed on a patient and forbidden to act; the skin is\nuntouched when the blister is removed: a bit of wet paper is given by\nthought the qualities of the blister, and it will raise the skin, with\nall the accompaniments of the chemical blister. Now these things are\nknown. You can see the pictures of wounds thus produced, if you will,\nin some of the Paris hospitals, for along this line the Frenchman is\ninvestigating further than the Englishman has done. And along that\nline also lies much of useful experiment to be brought to the relief\nof the diseases of humanity.\n\nBut as I have touched upon medicine, let me say--for I ought here to\nsay it--that there are some methods of modern medicine which Theosophy\nemphatically condemns. It declares that no knowledge which is gained\nfrom a tortured, a vivisected creature, is legitimate, even if it were\nas useful as it has been proved to be useless. It declares that all\ninoculations of disease into the healthy body are illegitimate, and it\ncondemns all such. It declares that all those foul injections of modern\nmedicine which use animal fluids to restore the exhausted vitality of\nman are ruinous to the body into which they are put. Here again France,\nby the very excess of its methods, is beginning to recoil before the\nresults which have come about. Only two years ago I was told by a\nleading physician of Paris that many of the doctors had met together to\nlook at the results which had grown out of the methods that for years\nthey had been following without hesitation and without scruple, and that\nthey feared that they had caused more diseases than they cured. Why are\nthese things condemned as illegitimate? Because the building up of the\nhuman body is the building by a living Spirit of a temple for himself,\nand it is moulded by that Spirit for his own purposes. The higher powers\nof intelligence have made the human body what it is, different from the\nanimal bodies out of which, physically, in ages long gone by, it has\ngrown. Your delicacy of touch, the exquisite beauty and delicacy of your\nnervous system, these things are the outcome of the higher powers of the\nSpirit expressing themselves in the human body, where they cannot\nexpress themselves in the animal form. And if you ignore this, if you\nforget it, if you forget that this splendid human temple built up by\nthe Spirit of man through ages of toil and of suffering, to express his\nown higher qualities--compassion, tenderness, love, pity for the weak\nand the helpless, protection of the helpless against the strong--if you\nforget the whole of that, and act as a brute even would not act, in\ncruelty and wickedness to men and animals alike, you will degrade the\nbody you are trying to preserve, you will paralyse the body you are\ntrying to save from disease, and you will go back into the savagery\nwhich is the nemesis of cruelty, and ruin these nobler bodies, the\ninheritance of the civilised races.\n\nI pass from that to my last world, the world of political thought. Now\nTheosophy takes no part in party politics. It lays down the great\nprinciple of human Brotherhood, and bids its followers go out into the\nworld and work on it--using their intelligence, their power of\nthought, to judge the value of every method which is proposed. And our\ngeneral criticism on the politics of the moment would be that they are\nremedies, not preventions, and leave untouched the root out of which\nall the miseries grow. Looking sometimes at your party politics, it\nseems to me as though you were as children plucking flowers and\nsticking them into the sand and saying: \"See what a beautiful garden I\nhave made.\" And when you wake the next morning the flowers are dead,\nfor there were no roots, but only rootless flowers. I know you must\nmake remedies, but you should not stop at that. When you send out your\nRed Cross doctors and nurses to pick up the mutilated bodies that your\nscience of war has maimed, they are doing noble work, and deserve our\nlove and gratitude, for the wounded must be nursed; but the man who\nworks for peace does more for the good of humanity than the Red Cross\ndoctors and nurses. And so also in the political world. You cannot\nsafely live \"hand-to-mouth\" in politics any more than in any other\ndepartment of human life. But how many are there in the political\nparties who care for causes and not only for effects? That is the\ncriticism we should make. We see everywhere Democracy spreading; but\nDemocracy is on its trial, and unless it can evolve some method by\nwhich the wise shall rule, and not merely the weight of ignorant\nnumbers, it will dig its own grave. So long as you leave your people\nignorant they are not fit to rule. The schools should come before the\nvote, and knowledge before power. You are proud of your liberty; you\nboast of a practically universal suffrage--leaving out, of course, one\nhalf of humanity!--but taking your male suffrage as you have it, how\nmany of the voters who go to the poll know the principles of political\nhistory, know anything of economics, know anything of all the\nknowledge which is wanted for the guiding of the ship of the State\nthrough troubled waters? You do not choose your captains out of people\nwho know nothing of navigation; but you choose the makers of your\nrulers out of those who have not studied and do not know. That is not\nwise. I do not deny it is a necessary stage in the evolution of man. I\nknow that the Spirit acts wisely, and guides the nations along roads\nin which lessons are to be learned; and I hope that out of the\nblunders, and the errors, and the crudities of present politics there\nwill evolve a saner method, in which the wise of the nation will have\npower and guide its councils, and wisdom, not numbers, shall speak\nthe decisive word.\n\nNow there is one criticism of politics that we often hear in these\ndays. It is said that behind politics lie economics. That is true. You\nmay go on playing at politics for ever and ever; but if your economic\nfoundation is rotten, no political remedies can build a happy and\nprosperous nation. But while I agree that behind politics lie\neconomics, there is something that lies also behind economics, and of\nthat I hear little said. Behind economics lies character, and without\ncharacter you cannot build a free and a happy nation. A nation\nenormous in power, what do you know of the way in which your power is\nwielded in many a far-off land? How much do you know about your vast\nIndian Empire? How many of your voters going to the poll can give an\nintelligent answer to any question affecting that 300,000,000 of human\nbeings whom you hold in your hand, and deal with as you will? There\nare responsibilities of Empire as well as pride in it, and pride of\nEmpire is apt to founder when the responsibilities of Empire are\nignored. And so the Theosophist is content to go to the root of the\nmatter, and try to build up for you the citizens out of whom your\nfuture State is to be made. Education, real education, secular\neducation, is now your cry. They tried secular education in France;\nthey destroyed religious teaching; they tried to give morality without\nreligion. But the moral lessons had no effect: they were too cold and\ndull, and dead. Is it not a scandal that in a country like this, where\nthe vast majority are religious, you are quarrelling so much about the\ntrifles that separate you, that the only way to peace seems to be to\ntake religion out of the schools altogether, and train the children\nonly in morality, allowing an insignificant minority to have its way?\nWhy! we have done better than that in India, we Theosophists. Hindu\nTheosophists have founded there a College in which, despite all their\nsects and all their religious quarrels, they have found a common\nminimum of Hinduism on which their children can be trained in\nreligion and morality alike. I grant it was a Theosophical inspiration\nthat began the movement; but the whole mass of Hindus have fallen\nin with it, and are accepting the books as the basis of education.\nGovernment has recognised them, and has begun to introduce them for\nthe use of Hindus in its own schools. That is the way in which we\nTheosophists work at politics. We go to the root to build character,\nand we know that noble characters will make a noble and also a\nprosperous nation. But you can no more make a nation of free men out\nof children untrained in duty and in righteousness, than you can build\na house that will stand if you use ill-baked bricks and rotten timber.\nOur keynote in politics is Brotherhood. That worked out into life will\ngive you the nation that you want.\n\nAnd what does Brotherhood mean? It means that everyone of us, you and\nI, every man and woman throughout the land, looks on all others as\nthey look on their own brothers, and acts on the same principle which\nin the family rules. You keep religion out of politics? You cannot,\nwithout peril to your State; for unless you teach your people that\nthey are a Brotherhood, whether or not they choose to recognise it,\nyou are building on the sand and not on the rock. And what does\nBrotherhood mean? It means that the man who gains learning, uses it to\nteach the ignorant, until none are ignorant. It means that the man who\nis pure takes his purity to the foul, until all have become clean. It\nmeans that the man who is wealthy uses his wealth for the benefit of\nthe poor, until all have become prosperous. It means that everything\nyou gain, you share; everything you achieve, you give its fruit to\nall. That is the law of Brotherhood, and it is the law of national as\nwell as of individual life. You cannot rise alone. You are bound too\nstrongly each to each. If you use your strength to raise yourself by\ntrampling on your fellows, inevitably you will fail by the weakness\nthat you have wronged.\n\nDo you know who are the greatest enemies of a State? The weak, injured\nby the strong. For, above all States, rules an Eternal Justice; and\nthe tears of miserable women, and the curses of angry, starving men,\nsap the foundations of a State that denies Brotherhood, and reach the\nears of that Eternal Justice by which alone States live, and Nations\ncontinue. It is written in an ancient scripture that a Master of Duty\nsaid to a King: \"Beware the tears of the weak, for they sap the\nthrones of Kings.\" Strength may threaten: weakness undermines.\nStrength may stand up to fight: weakness cuts away the ground on which\nthe fighters are standing. And the message of Theosophy to the modern\npolitical world is: Think less about your outer laws, and more about\nthe lives of the people who have to live under those laws. Remember\nthat government can only live when the people are happy; that States\ncan only flourish where the masses of the population are contented;\nthat all that makes life enjoyable is the right of the lowest and the\npoorest; that they can do without external happiness far less than\nyou, who have so many means of inner satisfaction, of enjoyment, by\nthe culture that you possess and that they lack. If there is not money\nenough for everything, spend your money in making happier, healthier,\npurer, more educated, the lives of the poor; then a happy nation will\nbe an imperial nation; for Brotherhood is the strongest force on\nearth.\n\n\n\n\nPart IV\n\n\nThe Field of Work of the Theosophical Society\n\n\n_The Presidential Address delivered to the Convention of the British\nSection of the Theosophical Society, held in Essex Hall, London, 7th\nJuly 1907._\n\n\n\n\nThe Field of Work of the Theosophical Society.\n\n\nIt is my duty now to bring to a close this Convention, and to bid you\nall farewell, to scatter to your various places and to do, let us\nhope, with fresh courage and deeper knowledge, the varied works which\nyou are called upon to perform. And let me, before I take up the\nsubject upon which I am to speak--\"The Field of Work of the\nTheosophical Society\"--let me, ere beginning that subject, say one\nword of gratitude to her without whom the Theosophical Society could\nnot till any field, nor sow any seed--to H.P.B., our Teacher and our\nHelper, let us offer our heart's gratitude; for without her we could\nnot have met together, without her we could not have learned the\nTheosophical teaching. It may be that many of us have learned much\nsince she first taught us, but she was the first Teacher, and the\nBringer of the Light. It may be that some, since they met her, have\nknown their Master face to face; but it was she who led them to His\npresence, she to whom the possibility in this life was due. It may\nwell be that had she not come some other might have come to do the\nwork, but that matters not to us; that she did it is her claim to our\nhomage, and we, who live in the light she brought, may well pay\ntribute of gratitude to her.\n\nWhat is the Field of our Society's work? It is sketched in our Three\nObjects; and those of you who have looked upon the Objects with care,\nin the various recensions through which they have passed, may have\nnoticed that each one of them covers one of the aspects of human\nconsciousness. In the first, that which declares the truth of the\nUniversal Brotherhood, we have the field of work of the Activity\naspect, the active principle of the consciousness, of the Spirit,\nwhich seeks expression in service to the race. In the second, the\nstudy of the religions and the philosophies of the world, we have the\nfield of work for the Cognition aspect of consciousness, that which\ngathers together the fruit of knowledge; it is the Knower gathering\nthe food by which he unfolds his powers. And in the third we have the\nfield of work of the Will, the Power aspect of the consciousness, the\ndeepest root of our being, that by which the worlds exist, as they are\nsupported by the Wisdom, as they are created by the Activity. So that\nwhen we thus look at the objects of the Society and realise the\nrelation that they bear to our conscious selves, we see that the field\nof the work of the Theosophical Society is wide as the world, and\nknows no limit where Will and Knowledge and Activity can make their\nway. And it is true, now and always, that everything which helps and\nbenefits man is Theosophical work, and that nothing can be excluded\nfrom the sphere of our work which includes every aspect of\nconsciousness. So let us take this natural, this scientific division\nof our work, and see what we may do in each field which offers itself\nto the appropriate power in our nature.\n\nThe first will naturally cover all active working for humanity, all\nservice which one can offer to another; and it will be well, in the\ndays that lie before us, if we realise that there is no scheme for\nhuman helping, no possible effort for human uplifting, which is\noutside the field of work of the First Object of our Society. Every\nLodge of the Society should make it one of its activities to serve\nhumanity in the place where the Lodge is founded; and the value of the\nLodge should be in the knowledge that is there gathered with the\nobject of spreading it. For Theosophy should be your touch-stone as to\nthe value of every scheme, as to the tendency of every proposition. In\nall the countless schemes around us in these active times, some work\nonly for the moment; others, based on sound principle, are preparing\nthe world for a better and happier future. By your Theosophical\nknowledge you can judge the value of every such scheme, and throw\nyourselves into those alone which work on lines beneficial to the\nfuture, which are laying the foundations of a civilisation greater\nthan our own. For among the many schemes and many methods there are\nways in which each man inspired by the Spirit of Brotherhood may find\nwork that satisfies his reason and is justified by his conscience. And\nthere is no one particular method, no one special road, along which\nthe Society, as Society, can go. It lays down the principle of\nBrotherhood as an active working spirit in the life of every member,\nand then it leaves the member free to use his own judgment and his own\nconscience as to which among the many methods recommends itself most\nto him as an individual. So that in speaking of that field of work, it\nis not for me to say: \"This plan, that method, the other means, that\nis what you ought to follow\"; but only that you are not carrying out\nthe First Object of the Society, unless you are engaging your activity\nin some task which in your intelligence and conscience is working for\nthe benefit of your fellow-men. That is a point I want to put to your\nLodges; for when I see questions discussed as to giving new life to\nLodges, vivifying Lodges, and so on, I know well that the only cause\nfor the need of such discussion is because men allow the life to\nstagnate within the Lodge, instead of sending it forth a living stream\nto fertilise the place in which the Lodge is built. There would be no\nlack of life were it not that you keep it bottled up for your own\nadvantage, for your own needs. The source of life is inexhaustible,\nand it only ceases to flow where there is stagnation, because it is\nnot allowed to run out to the people who have need of it, but is kept\nwithin the narrow limits of a Lodge. If you worked as well as talked,\nif you labored as well as discussed, if you served as well as praised\nservice, there would be no time and no need to discuss how the Lodges\nof the Theosophical Society shall be vivified.\n\nYour Lodge should be your place of inspiration, the place where you\nlearn how you are to serve, the place where you find the bread of\nlife. But the bread of life is meant to feed the hungry, and not to\nsurfeit those already filled, to feed the hungry crowds around you\nstarving for knowledge, that life may be made intelligible and thus\ntolerable to them; and it is yours to feed the flock of the Great\nShepherd, and to help those who, without this Wisdom, are helpless.\nAnd all need it; not the poor alone, nor the rich alone, but every\nchild of man. For the one thing that presses upon all alike, the\nbitterness of life, is the sense of wrong, the want of intelligibility\nin life, and therefore a feeling of the lack of justice upon earth;\nthat is the sting which pierces every heart; whether the heart belong\nto the rich or the poor, it matters not. When you understand life,\nlife becomes bearable; and never till you understand it will it cease\nto be a burden grievous to be borne; but when you understand it,\neverything changes. When you realise its meaning, its value, you can\nput up with the difficulties. And our work with regard to those around\nus is to bring that knowledge, and by that knowledge to lift them to a\nplace of peace. That is the work which demands to be done, and which\nyour Lodges have the duty of doing. For there ought not to be one\nscheme for human helping, in any place where a Lodge of the\nTheosophical Society is established, where in that Lodge workers may\nnot be found ready and eager to give labor to the helping of their\nbrothers amongst whom they live. What is the use of prattling about\nUniversal Brotherhood, if you do not live it? Sometimes, in\ndiscussions on Brotherhood, it is spoken of as though it only meant\nsoft words and well-turned phrases, sentimentality and not reality. It\nmeans work, constant, steadfast, unwearied work, for those who require\nservice at our hands; not soft words to each other, but work for the\nworld, that is the true meaning of Brotherhood.\n\nPass from that to our next field of work, sketched out by our Second\nObject. Without that you cannot rightly work for Brotherhood, for you\nwill not understand the knowledge already garnered. You must learn in\norder to teach, you must study in order to understand, and this Object\nis not carried on in our Lodges as effectively as it ought to be; for\nit is translated into one man studying, and pouring out the fruits of\nhis study into the open mouths round him on every side. That is all\nvery well in the beginning when the young bird comes out of the egg.\nIt is necessary that the father and mother bird should pour food into\nthe wide open beak; but some of you ought to have gone beyond that in\nthe thirty-two years of life of the Society: you ought to be ready to\nhelp, and not only to be helped. And the life of the Society will not\nbe healthy while so few are students, and therefore so few are fit to\nteach. Every Lodge should have its classes for study under this\nobject. There are other ways in which you must learn as well as by the\nteaching of brother Theosophists, and there is a plan they are just\nadopting in the Paris Lodge for the work of the coming winter, which\nis a very good one; instead of Theosophists studying the books of\nscholars, and then giving out what they have learned, the French Lodge\nis inviting leading representatives of the various branches of\nthought, those specially interesting to us, in order that they may put\ntheir knowledge from their own standpoint, and that the Theosophist\nmay have the advantage of listening to them at first hand. That seems\nto me a very admirable plan, and I know not why in some of the London\nLodges you should not try to take a leaf out of our French neighbor's\nbook, and why one Lodge at least should not try, if only for one six\nmonths, to bring to that Lodge some leader in the world of thought,\nwho shall tell it what he believes, and explain the lines of his work.\nIf you could persuade specialists along the many lines of study,\nreligious and philosophical, to give you the fruits of their work, you\nwould learn more rapidly, you would learn the spirit of a school in a\nmore satisfactory manner, than when you are only studying books, and\nthen giving out the books you have read. You value, and rightly value,\nthe knowledge that Mr. Mead brings you along his special lines of\nstudy, but why should you not have that same advantage similarly from\nothers who follow other lines of thought, and would speak similarly\nfrom first-hand knowledge? There is a life in it that there never is\nin second-hand knowledge, a vigor and strength in it that you can\nnever get when it has only been learned second-hand, and then poured\nforth. Men who study deeply are glad to find audiences who are willing\nto listen to the results of their study, and who will give them glad\nhearing when they come out into the world from the study to tell what\nby labor and toil they have learned. And so I suggest that some of you\nshould see whether you might not make your Lodges more valuable if,\ninstead of always going round the same wheel of a few local lecturers,\nyou tried to win to each locality now and again a really learned and\nwell-trained man, and then, with your own Lodge as a nucleus of\nhearers, gather round them others also who would be only too glad of\nthe opportunity that your Lodge would give in the place where it\nhappens to be. You have Lodges in the suburbs, Lodges in the towns\noutside the area of London, and how glad many of these would be, if\nyou made yourselves the channels for knowledge of that sort to be\npoured out amongst them. There is one line of work you might well take\nup, and the country Lodges might do the same, winning down from London\nnow and again some thinker who would come and give the benefit of his\nstudy; and if you were known all over England as the places where such\nknowledge might be gained, and the bringers of such within the reach\nof your fellow-townsmen, the Society would profit by your labor as\nwell as those who immediately benefit by the effort. And wherever you\ndeal with the study of a religion, learn it from the lips of one who\nbelieves it rather than by the exposition of one who does not; for\nonly so will you catch the spirit of the different religions. If you\nwould learn about Roman Catholicism, win a Roman Catholic student or\npriest to come and tell you how his Church appeals to him; or if you\nwant to learn about the Church of England, win some clergyman who will\ncome and tell you what that Church means to him; or about\nBuddhism, win a Buddhist to come and tell you what his own\nreligion is to him; and so with the Hindu, and on and on, all round\nthe different religions. For none can really tell what a religion is\nto its followers who does not believe in it, and no one can give you\nits spirit who does not feel it. And it is in that way that your\nTheosophy should lead you into sympathy with every form of religious\nthought, learning it as it comes from the mouth of a believer, and not\nin the sort of warmed-up fashion in which one who does not believe it\nre-cooks it for his fellow Theosophists. There, it seems to me, is\nyour field of work under the Second Object; and out of this study\nwould grow literature, illuminating these various religions and\nphilosophies, and from your classes should be evolved teachers, to\ncarry to the different communities the results of their study on\ndifferent lines, thus bringing the Second Object to the helping of the\nFirst.\n\nI had a letter the other day from a good member of the Theosophical\nSociety, and the writer said, being a Christian, that Christian lines\nof work attracted her, and she thought she ought to leave the Society\nin order to help people along those lines. But what sort of Theosophy\nis that? You who are Christians, or believers in any other faith, you\nshould become Theosophists to help your own religions, and to bring\nthem the life, not by leaving the Society, but by learning in the\nSociety to help them; that is the duty of every believer in whatever\nreligion you may happen to believe. For you should be messengers to\nthe various religions, helping them to understand more deeply than\nmany of them do to-day; and if you would understand that that is part\nof your duty, to help your own faiths, to enlighten those who will not\ncome to the Theosophical Lodge but yet will listen to the fellow\nbeliever offering them the knowledge that in the Lodge he has gained,\nthen the spread of our doctrines, rapid as it is, would be far more\nrapid and along healthy lines. For we do not exist as a Society simply\nto study, but to spread the light, and every religion should be the\nricher and the fuller in proportion to the number of Theosophists that\nit enrolls amongst its followers.\n\nPass to the Third Object. There also we have work to do, and we cannot\nwork for Brotherhood effectively without understanding the nature of\nman. And I feel that one or two who criticised the Society this\nafternoon on that point had the right to make the criticism that they\ndid; for, while in the earlier days that Third Object was so carried\nout in the Society that it was the leader in the fields of all such\nresearch, it certainly now has fallen into the background, and is only\na gleaner in the fields where others are reaping, and that is not\nright. The knowledge that you have in theory as to the constitution of\nman and nature, should be a guide to you in researches, and not simply\nremain theoretical knowledge. That which was said this afternoon about\nthe Psychical Research Society is true. It goes into everything\nunusual with a prejudice against it, rather than with a feeling that\nthere is something to be learned; but on the other hand, one is bound\nto say that during the last ten or twelve years that Society has done\nmore to familiarise the public with these facts of the hidden powers\nof man than our own has done in practice, though we have done much\nmore in theory. Now I am not in favor of much experiment preceding a\nstudy of theory; I believe that we need the theory in order to\nexperiment wisely; but I also believe that having a true theory we\nshould use it to guide our investigations, and thus to add to the\nknowledge of the world. A part of our work, it seems to me, that lies\nbefore us in the coming time, is to help the world to walk wisely\nalong those roads of research on which it has entered now. You cannot\nprevent it going forward along them, knowledge is already too widely\nspread for that; but what you can do is to help men to walk wisely,\nand to avoid many a pitfall into which otherwise they would be very\nlikely to fall. And along those lines there is very much to be done:\nplans to be worked out, methods of research to be planned and tested;\nand I hope before very long to see some groups in our Society that\nwill take up this special line of work as part of their activities,\nand, headed by someone who knows practically something of that with\nwhich he is dealing, will then help the younger students to learn\nwisely and to experiment carefully. And in these matters it is well,\nso far as you can, to bring the more scientific members of the Society\ninto touch with this work; for one of the reasons that Spiritualism\nfell into discredit for a time was because the scientific and the\nthoughtful abstained from it, and left it in the hands of the\ncredulous and the unwise. The leaders of the scientific world who\nought to have joined in the work which Sir William Crookes, Alfred\nWallace, and others began, instead of following them and strengthening\ntheir hands, turned their backs on it all, leaving it to be carried on\nby those who knew far less than they, and who were not accustomed to\naccurate observation and careful recording of phenomena. Now leading\nscientific men are beginning to work at it. Along all lines of\npsychical research work should be done by us, if we do not mean to\ncancel the Third Object in our Society.\n\nThus, then, a great field of work opens out before us, so wide a\nfield, so great, that you would have no need to ask for work if you\nwould only begin to labor along these lines. And take that other line\nabout which Mrs. Cooper Oakley spoke--the line of Historical Research\ninto Mysticism. Has it ever struck you how much of the work of our\nforerunners remains unknown, because their work is not scanned by\nsympathetic eyes? How many of the pioneers in the past centuries lie\nunder a heap of calumny, because none has tried to understand, none\nhas tried to realise, the nature of their work? Men like Paracelsus,\nCagliostro, and many another whose name I might mention, who are\ncrying out, as it were, for research, and thought, and labor on\nmystical and occult lines. There again I have good hope that some\nreally efficient work will be going on; for to my mind one of the\npurposes for which our Presidency should exist is to act as a centre\nround which every country may gather together, and thus communicate\nwith each other, and form bodies scattered all over the world for\nmutual aid. The strength of our Society is in that unity of thought,\nwhich can only be brought about as one part of the Society realises\nthat other parts are linked with it, as it ought to be, by the\nPresident of the whole. For the Presidency would be an idle show, if\nit is not to be a centre for inspiration and labor. The great work\ndone by the late President is, as I have said elsewhere, practically\ncomplete; he has given the Theosophical Society an organisation by\nwhich it can work and live; ours to use the organisation that he made,\nours to employ this splendid instrument which is now in our hands for\nworld-wide labor and for world-wide helping. That is the work to which\nI would summon you now, and pray your help. Let us not stand apart one\nfrom the other, and work always along isolated lines; in addition to\nthe isolated work, we should have the combined work; for many often\ncan bring about a result which one cannot do. Take, for instance, the\ngreat libraries of Europe, far, far apart. It is very laborious for a\nperson to travel all over Europe and labor alone in them all; but if\nwe had students working in every great library, we should have feeders\nwho would send in to a common centre the result of their work, which\ncould then be shed over the world.\n\nAlong those lines the Society will become respected, when it is known\nfor honest and useful work in all departments of human activity. There\nis no good in glorifying it by words and saying what a splendid thing\nit is, unless we justify ourselves to the world by the work which we\ncontribute for the world's helping.\n\nIn this way, then, I would ask you to look at our great field of work.\nLaborers are wanted. There is more than work enough for all, and in\nthis work the principle that must guide us is, as we have so often\nsaid, freedom of thought, freedom of expression. But let it be\nunderstood in the Society, for there is danger of this being\nforgotten, that there is freedom for those who assert as well as for\nthose who deny; that all alike are free. Those who know have a right\nto speak, and there should be no outcry against them; those who do not\nbelieve have a right to say they do not believe, and there should be\nno outcry against them because they believe not But there is a danger\nlest those who believe not should think that they have the only right\nof speech, and that those who experience have no right to say out that\nwhich they know to be true. It is the danger which dogs the steps of\nFreethought everywhere. You can see it in France at the present time,\nwhere the Freethinker, smarting against the oppression of the Church,\ntries to silence the Church, as he has been silenced in the past; but\nit is a bad reaction, and we cannot have that within the\nSociety--there must be liberty for all. I do not wish to impose my own\nbeliefs on any man or woman in the Society, but I claim the right\namongst you to speak the truth I know, and to bear witness to the\nreality of my Master whom for eighteen years I have served, without\nbeing attacked vehemently by those who deny my experience. I know\nwhereof I speak. I ask you not to believe; that is your own choice. I\nask you not to accept; that is for you to decide. But you have no\nright to try to stop my lips, nor to say that the assertion of my\nbelief is outside the liberty allowed in the Theosophical Society. I,\nas President, will defend to the utmost the right of each to speak his\nthought--believers and non-believers of every type; but I will not\nrecognise the right of any to impose upon the Society a dogma of\nunbelief, any more than a dogma of belief. Only by that liberty of all\ncan we live and grow; only by the perfect freedom, and the recognition\nof every man's right to speak, no matter what he says, can the health\nof the Society be secured. For in the years that lie before us there\nis much new knowledge to be gained, many new facts to be discovered,\nmany new experiences to go through, and we must not discourage the\nseekers and investigators by making it difficult for them to speak\namongst us. We need every fact that any human being can bring to us.\nWe have the right to challenge the fact and investigate it, and either\nto say: \"It is fact\"; or: \"To me it is not fact\"; but we have no right\nto say to any human being: \"You shall not search nor speak,\" for that\nwould be the death-knell of our liberty, that the denial of the\nfoundation on which we stand.\n\nAnd so let us go forward to a future, I hope, fairer than anything we\nhave in our past. Let us welcome all thought, all refusal of thought,\nall investigation, all speech, however different it may be from our\nown speech and thought, and doing this with full respect of each for\neach, full recognition that minds are different, and that each mind\nhas its own sphere in which it can do useful work for all, let us\nencourage in our Society every school of thought, every form of\nopinion, every expression of thought which is in a man's mind. And out\nof all that clash of opinion, out of all that discussion, Truth should\ncome out stronger, richer, larger than ever. And never mind if\nsometimes falsehoods are spoken; never mind if sometimes mistakes are\nmade. An old scripture says: \"Truth conquers, not falsehood\"; for God\nis Truth, and nothing that is not drawn from His Life can live,\nnothing that is drawn from His life can die; and realising that, we\ncan go forward fearlessly into the unknown future, sure that to brave\nhearts and true lives every experience, every failure, every mistake,\nis only another rung of the ladder by which we climb from ignorance\ninto knowledge, from the bondage of matter into the liberty of\nSpirit.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *","title":"London Lectures of 1907","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":55390}