{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_55618/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_55618","id":"gutenberg_55618","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55618","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Theosophy"],"text":"Transcriber's Notes:\n\n Underscores \"_\" before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_\n in the original text.\n Equal signs \"=\" before and after a word or phrase indicate =bold=\n in the original text.\n Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals.\n Typographical errors have been silently corrected but other variations\n in spelling and punctuation remain unaltered.\n The heading on page 188 was changed from \u201cON SELF-RELIANCE\u201d to\n \u201cON SELF-SACRIFICE\u201d, to agree with the Table of Contents, and\n the subject of the section.\n\n\n\n\nThe Key to Theosophy\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY\n\n BEING\n _A CLEAR EXPOSITION, IN THE FORM OF QUESTION AND ANSWER_\n\n OF THE\n ETHICS, SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY\n\n FOR THE STUDY OF WHICH THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY HAS\n BEEN FOUNDED\n\n BY\n H. P. BLAVATSKY\n\n [Reprinted Verbatim from the Original Edition\n first published in 1889.]\n\n THE UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS\n LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA\n 1920\n\n _Dedicated_\n\n by\n \u201c_H. P. B._\u201d\n\n _To all her Pupils_\n\n _that_\n\n _They may Learn and Teach\n in their turn_\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS\n\n SECTION I.\n Page\n THEOSOPHY AND THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY:\n The Meaning of the Name 1\n The Policy of the Theosophical Society 3\n The Wisdom-Religion Esoteric in all Ages 5\n Theosophy is not Buddhism 10\n\n SECTION II.\n EXOTERIC AND ESOTERIC THEOSOPHY:\n What the Modern Theosophical Society is not 12\n Theosophists and Members of the \u201cT.S.\u201d 15\n The Difference between Theosophy and Occultism 19\n The Difference between Theosophy and Spiritualism 21\n Why is Theosophy accepted? 27\n\n SECTION III.\n THE WORKING SYSTEM OF THE T.S.:\n The Objects of the Society 30\n The Common Origin of Man 31\n Our other Objects 36\n On the Sacredness of the Pledge 37\n\n SECTION IV.\n THE RELATIONS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY TO THEOSOPHY:\n On Self-Improvement 40\n The Abstract and the Concrete 43\n\n SECTION V.\n THE FUNDAMENTAL TEACHINGS OF THEOSOPHY:\n On God and Prayer 47\n Is it Necessary to Pray? 50\n Prayer Kills Self-Reliance 55\n On the Source of the Human Soul 57\n The Buddhist Teachings on the above 59\n\n SECTION VI.\n THEOSOPHICAL TEACHINGS AS TO NATURE AND MAN:\n The Unity of All in All 64\n Evolution and Illusion 65\n The Septenary Constitution of our Planet 67\n The Septenary Nature of Man 69\n The Distinction between Soul and Spirit 72\n The Greek Teachings 75\n\n SECTION VII.\n ON THE VARIOUS POST-MORTEM STATES:\n The Physical and the Spiritual Man 79\n Our Eternal Reward and Punishment; and on Nirvana 85\n On the Various \u201cPrinciples\u201d in Man 91\n\n SECTION VIII.\n ON RE-INCARNATION OR REBIRTH:\n What is Memory according to Theosophical Teaching? 96\n Why do we not Remember our Past Lives? 99\n On Individuality and Personality 104\n On the Reward and Punishment of the Ego 107\n\n SECTION IX.\n ON THE KAMA-LOKA AND DEVACHAN:\n On the Fate of the Lower \u201cPrinciples\u201d 112\n Why Theosophists do not believe in the Return of Pure \u201cSpirits\u201d 114\n A few Words about the Skandhas 120\n On Post-mortem and Post-natal Consciousness 123\n What is really meant by Annihilation 127\n Definite Words for Definite Things 134\n\n SECTION X.\n ON THE NATURE OF OUR THINKING PRINCIPLE:\n The Mystery of the Ego 139\n The Complex Nature of Manas 143\n The Doctrine is Taught in St. John\u2019s Gospel 146\n\n SECTION XI.\n ON THE MYSTERIES OF RE-INCARNATION:\n Periodical Rebirths 155\n What is Karma? 158\n Who are Those who Know? 170\n The Difference between Faith and Knowledge; or,\n Blind and Reasoned Faith 172\n Has God the Right to Forgive? 176\n\n SECTION XII.\n WHAT IS PRACTICAL THEOSOPHY?\n Duty 180\n The Relations of the T.S. to Political Reforms 183\n On Self-Sacrifice 188\n On Charity 192\n Theosophy for the Masses 194\n How Members can Help the Society 196\n What a Theosophist ought not to do 197\n\n SECTION XIII.\n ON THE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY:\n Theosophy and Asceticism 204\n Theosophy and Marriage 207\n Theosophy and Education 208\n Why, then, is there so much Prejudice against the T.S? 214\n Is the Theosophical Society a Money-making Concern? 221\n The Working Staff of the T.S. 225\n\n SECTION XIV.\n THE \u201cTHEOSOPHICAL MAHATMAS\u201d:\n Are They \u201cSpirits of Light\u201d or \u201cGoblins Damn\u2019d\u201d? 228\n The Abuse of Sacred Names and Terms 237\n\n CONCLUSION.\n The Future of the Theosophical Society 241\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThe purpose of this book is exactly expressed in its title, \u201cTHE\nKEY TO THEOSOPHY,\u201d and needs but few words of explanation. It\nis not a complete or exhaustive text-book of Theosophy, but only a\nkey to unlock the door that leads to the deeper study. It traces the\nbroad outlines of the Wisdom Religion, and explains its fundamental\nprinciples; meeting, at the same time, the various objections raised by\nthe average Western enquirer, and endeavouring to present unfamiliar\nconcepts in a form as simple and in language as clear as possible.\nThat it should succeed in making Theosophy intelligible without mental\neffort on the part of the reader, would be too much to expect; but it\nis hoped that the obscurity still left is of the thought not of the\nlanguage, is due to depth not to confusion. To the mentally lazy or\nobtuse, Theosophy must remain a riddle; for in the world mental as in\nthe world spiritual each man must progress by his own efforts. The\nwriter cannot do the reader\u2019s thinking for him, nor would the latter\nbe any the better off if such vicarious thought were possible. The\nneed for such an exposition as the present has long been felt among\nthose interested in the Theosophical Society and its work, and it\nis hoped that it will supply information, as free as possible from\ntechnicalities, to many whose attention has been awakened, but who, as\nyet, are merely puzzled and not convinced.\n\nSome care has been taken in disentangling some part of what is true\nfrom what is false in Spiritualistic teachings as to the post-mortem\nlife, and to showing the true nature of Spiritualistic ph\u00e6nomena.\nPrevious explanations of a similar kind have drawn much wrath upon\nthe writer\u2019s devoted head; the Spiritualists, like too many others,\npreferring to believe what is pleasant rather than what is true, and\nbecoming very angry with anyone who destroys an agreeable delusion. For\nthe past year Theosophy has been the target for every poisoned arrow\nof Spiritualism, as though the possessors of a half truth felt more\nantagonism to the possessors of the whole truth than those who had no\nshare to boast of.\n\nVery hearty thanks are due from the author to many Theosophists who\nhave sent suggestions and questions, or have otherwise contributed help\nduring the writing of this book. The work will be the more useful for\ntheir aid, and that will be their best reward.\n\n H. P. B.\n\n\n\n\nTHE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.\n\n\nI. THEOSOPHY AND THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.\n\n\nTHE MEANING OF THE NAME.\n\n ENQUIRER. Theosophy and its doctrines are often referred to as a\n new-fangled religion. Is it a religion?\n\n THEOSOPHIST. It is not. Theosophy is Divine Knowledge or Science.\n\n ENQ. What is the real meaning of the term?\n\n THEO. \u201cDivine Wisdom,\u201d \u0398\u03b5\u03bf\u03c3\u03bf\u03c6\u03af\u03b1 (Theosophia) or Wisdom of the gods, as\n \u0398\u03b5\u03bf\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd\u03af\u03b1 (theogonia), genealogy of the gods. The word \u0398\u03b5\u1f78\u03c2 means\n a god in Greek, one of the divine beings, certainly not \u201cGod\u201d in\n the sense attached in our day to the term. Therefore, it is not\n \u201cWisdom of God,\u201d as translated by some, but _Divine Wisdom_ such\n as that possessed by the gods. The term is many thousand years old.\n\n ENQ. What is the origin of the name?\n\n THEO. It comes to us from the Alexandrian philosophers, called lovers\n of truth, Philatheians, from \u03c6\u03b9\u03bb (phil) \u201cloving,\u201d and \u1f00\u03bb\u03ae\u03b8\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1\n (aletheia) \u201ctruth.\u201d The name Theosophy dates from the third\n century of our era, and began with Ammonius Saccas and his\n disciples,[1] who started the Eclectic Theosophical system.\n\n ENQ. What was the object of this system?\n\n THEO. First of all to inculcate certain great moral truths upon its\n disciples, and all those who were \u201clovers of the truth.\u201d Hence the\n motto adopted by the Theosophical Society: \u201cThere is no religion\n higher than truth.\u201d[2] The chief aim of the Founders of the\n Eclectic Theosophical School was one of the three objects of its\n modern successor, the Theosophical Society, namely, to reconcile\n all religions, sects and nations under a common system of ethics,\n based on eternal verities.\n\n ENQ. What have you to show that this is not an impossible dream; and\n that all the world\u2019s religions _are_ based on the one and the same\n truth?\n\n THEO. Their comparative study and analysis. The \u201cWisdom-Religion\u201d was\n one in antiquity; and the sameness of primitive religious\n philosophy is proven to us by the identical doctrines taught\n to the Initiates during the MYSTERIES, an institution once\n universally diffused. \u201cAll the old worships indicate the existence\n of a single Theosophy anterior to them. The key that is to open\n one must open all; otherwise it cannot be the right key.\u201d (Eclect.\n Philo.)\n\n\nTHE POLICY OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.\n\n ENQ. In the days of Ammonius there were several ancient great\n religions, and numerous were the sects in Egypt and Palestine\n alone. How could he reconcile them?\n\n THEO. By doing that which we again try to do now. The Neo-Platonists\n were a large body, and belonged to various religious\n philosophies[3]; so do our Theosophists. In those days, the Jew\n Aristobulus affirmed that the ethics of Aristotle represented the\n _esoteric_ teachings of the Law of Moses; Philo Jud\u00e6us endeavoured\n to reconcile the _Pentateuch_ with the Pythagorean and Platonic\n philosophy; and Josephus proved that the Essenes of Carmel were\n simply the copyists and followers of the Egyptian Therapeut\u00e6 (the\n healers). So it is in our day. We can show the line of descent of\n every Christian religion, as of every, even the smallest, sect.\n The latter are the minor twigs or shoots grown on the larger\n branches; but shoots and branches spring from the same trunk\u2014the\n WISDOM-RELIGION. To prove this was the aim of Ammonius, who\n endeavoured to induce Gentiles and Christians, Jews and Idolators,\n to lay aside their contentions and strifes, remembering only\n that they were all in possession of the same truth under various\n vestments, and were all the children of a common mother.[4] This\n is the aim of Theosophy likewise.\n\n ENQ. What are your authorities for saying this of the ancient\n Theosophists of Alexandria?\n\n THEO. An almost countless number of well-known writers. Mosheim, one of\n them, says that:\u2014\n\n \u201cAmmonius taught that the religion of the multitude went\n hand-in-hand with philosophy, and with her had shared the fate\n of being by degrees corrupted and obscured with mere human\n conceits, superstitions, and lies; that it ought, therefore,\n to be brought back to its original purity by purging it of\n this dross and expounding it upon philosophical principles;\n and the whole Christ had in view was to reinstate and restore\n to its primitive integrity the wisdom of the ancients; to\n reduce within bounds the universally-prevailing dominion\n of superstition; and in part to correct, and in part to\n exterminate the various errors that had found their way into\n the different popular religions.\u201d\n\n This, again, is precisely what the modern Theosophists say. Only\n while the great Philaletheian was supported and helped in the\n policy he pursued by two Church Fathers, Clement and Athenagoras,\n by all the learned Rabbis of the Synagogue, the Academy and the\n Groves, and while he taught a common doctrine for all, we, his\n followers on the same line, receive no recognition, but, on the\n contrary, are abused and persecuted. People 1,500 years ago are\n thus shown to have been more tolerant than they are in this\n _enlightened_ century.\n\n ENQ. Was he encouraged and supported by the Church because,\n notwithstanding his heresies, Ammonius taught Christianity and was\n a Christian?\n\n THEO. Not at all. He was born a Christian, but never accepted Church\n Christianity. As said of him by the same writer:\n\n \u201cHe had but to propound his instructions according to the\n ancient pillars of Hermes, which Plato and Pythagoras knew\n before, and from them constituted their philosophy. Finding the\n same in the prologue of the Gospel according to St. John, he\n very properly supposed that the purpose of Jesus was to restore\n the great doctrine of wisdom in its primitive integrity.\n The narratives of the Bible and the stories of the gods he\n considered to be allegories illustrative of the truth, or\n else fables to be rejected.\u201d Moreover, as says the _Edinburgh\n Encyclopedia_, \u201che acknowledged that Jesus Christ was an\n excellent _man_ and the \u2018friend of God,\u2019 but alleged that it\n was not his design entirely to abolish the worship of demons\n (gods), and that his only intention was to purify the ancient\n religion.\u201d\n\n\nTHE WISDOM-RELIGION ESOTERIC IN ALL AGES.\n\n ENQ. Since Ammonius never committed anything to writing, how can one\n feel sure that such were his teachings?\n\n THEO. Neither did Buddha, Pythagoras, Confucius, Orpheus, Socrates, or\n even Jesus, leave behind them any writings. Yet most of these\n are historical personages, and their teachings have all survived.\n The disciples of Ammonius (among whom Origen and Herennius)\n wrote treatises and explained his ethics. Certainly the latter\n are as historical, if not more so, than the Apostolic writings.\n Moreover, his pupils\u2014Origen, Plotinus, and Longinus (counsellor\n of the famous Queen Zenobia)\u2014have all left voluminous records of\n the Philaletheian System\u2014so far, at all events, as their public\n profession of faith was known, for the school was divided into\n exoteric and _esoteric_ teachings.\n\n ENQ. How have the latter tenets reached our day, since you hold that\n what is properly called the WISDOM-RELIGION was esoteric?\n\n THEO. The WISDOM-RELIGION was ever one, and being the last word of\n possible human knowledge, was, therefore, carefully preserved. It\n preceded by long ages the Alexandrian Theosophists, reached the\n modern, and will survive every other religion and philosophy.\n\n ENQ. Where and by whom was it so preserved?\n\n THEO. Among Initiates of every country; among profound seekers after\n truth\u2014their disciples; and in those parts of the world where such\n topics have always been most valued and pursued: in India, Central\n Asia, and Persia.\n\n ENQ. Can you give me some proofs of its esotericism?\n\n THEO. The best proof you can have of the fact is that every ancient\n religious, or rather philosophical, cult consisted of an\n esoteric or secret teaching, and an exoteric (outward public)\n worship. Furthermore, it is a well-known fact that the MYSTERIES\n of the ancients comprised with every nation the \u201cgreater\u201d (secret)\n and \u201cLesser\u201d (public) MYSTERIES\u2014_e.g._, in the celebrated\n solemnities called the _Eleusinia_, in Greece. From the\n Hierophants of Samothrace, Egypt, and the initiated Brahmins of\n the India of old, down to the later Hebrew Rabbis, all preserved,\n for fear of profanation, their real _bona fide_ beliefs secret.\n The Jewish Rabbis called their secular religious series the\n _Mercavah_ (the exterior body), \u201cthe vehicle,\u201d or, _the covering\n which contains the hidden soul_\u2014_i.e._, their highest secret\n knowledge. Not one of the ancient nations ever imparted through\n its priests its real philosophical secrets to the masses, but\n allotted to the latter only the husks. Northern Buddhism has its\n \u201cgreater\u201d and its \u201clesser\u201d vehicle, known as the _Mahayana_, the\n esoteric, and the _Hinayana_, the exoteric, Schools. Nor can you\n blame them for such secrecy; for surely you would not think of\n feeding your flock of sheep on learned dissertations on botany\n instead of on grass? Pythagoras called his _Gnosis_ \u201cthe knowledge\n of things that are,\u201d or \u1f21 \u03b3\u03bd\u1ff6\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f44\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd, and preserved that\n knowledge for his pledged disciples only: for those who could\n digest such mental food and feel satisfied; and he pledged them\n to silence and secrecy. Occult alphabets and secret ciphers are\n the development of the old Egyptian _hieratic_ writings, the\n secret of which was, in the days of old, in the possession only\n of the Hierogrammatists, or initiated Egyptian priests. Ammonius\n Saccas, as his biographers tell us, bound his pupils by oath not\n to divulge _his higher doctrines_ except to those who had already\n been instructed in preliminary knowledge, and who were also bound\n by a pledge. Finally, do we not find the same even in early\n Christianity, among the Gnostics, and even in the teachings of\n Christ? Did he not speak to the multitudes in parables which had a\n two-fold meaning, and explain his reasons only to his disciples?\n \u201cTo you,\u201d he says, \u201cit is given to know the mysteries of the\n kingdom of heaven; but unto them that are without, all these\n things are done in parables\u201d (Mark iv. 11). \u201cThe Essenes of Judea\n and Carmel made similar distinctions, dividing their adherents\n into neophytes, brethren, and the _perfect_, or those initiated\u201d\n (Eclec. Phil.). Examples might be brought from every country to\n this effect.\n\n ENQ. Can you attain the \u201cSecret Wisdom\u201d simply by study? Encyclop\u00e6dias\n define _Theosophy_ pretty much as Webster\u2019s Dictionary does,\n _i.e._, as \u201c_supposed intercourse with God and superior spirits,\n and consequent attainment of superhuman knowledge by physical\n means and chemical processes_.\u201d Is this so?\n\n THEO. I think not. Nor is there any lexicographer capable of\n explaining, whether to himself or others, how _superhuman_\n knowledge can be attained by _physical_ or chemical processes.\n Had Webster said \u201cby _metaphysical_ and alchemical processes,\u201d\n the definition would be approximately correct: as it is, it is\n absurd. Ancient Theosophists claimed, and so do the modern, that\n the infinite cannot be known by the finite\u2014_i.e._, sensed by the\n finite Self\u2014but that the divine essence could be communicated to\n the higher Spiritual Self in a state of ecstacy. This condition\n can hardly be attained, like _hypnotism_, by \u201cphysical and\n chemical means.\u201d\n\n ENQ. What is your explanation of it?\n\n THEO. Real ecstacy was defined by Plotinus as \u201cthe liberation of the\n mind from its finite consciousness, becoming one and identified\n with the infinite.\u201d This is the highest condition, says Prof.\n Wilder, but not one of permanent duration, and it is reached only\n by the very _very_ few. It is, indeed, identical with that state\n which is known in India as _Samadhi_. The latter is practised by\n the Yogis, who facilitate it physically by the greatest abstinence\n in food and drink, and mentally by an incessant endeavour to\n purify and elevate the mind. Meditation is silent and _unuttered_\n prayer, or, as Plato expressed it, \u201cthe ardent turning of the\n soul toward the divine; not to ask any particular good (as in the\n common meaning of prayer), but for good itself\u2014for the universal\n Supreme Good\u201d of which we are a part on earth, and out of the\n essence of which we have all emerged. Therefore, adds Plato,\n \u201cremain silent in the presence of the _divine ones_, till they\n remove the clouds from thy eyes and enable thee to see by the\n light which issues from themselves, not what appears as good to\n thee, but what is intrinsically good.\u201d[5]\n\n ENQ. Theosophy, then, is not, as held by some, a newly devised scheme?\n\n THEO. Only ignorant people can thus refer to it. It is as old as the\n world, in its teachings and ethics, if not in name, as it is also\n the broadest and most catholic system among all.\n\n ENQ. How comes it, then, that Theosophy has remained so unknown to the\n nations of the Western Hemisphere? Why should it have been a\n sealed book to races confessedly the most cultured and advanced?\n\n THEO. We believe there were nations as cultured in days of old and\n certainly more spiritually \u201cadvanced\u201d than we are. But there are\n several reasons for this willing ignorance. One of them was given\n by St. Paul to the cultured Athenians\u2014a loss, for long centuries,\n of real spiritual insight, and even interest, owing to their too\n great devotion to things of sense and their long slavery to the\n dead letter of dogma and ritualism. But the strongest reason for\n its lies in the fact that real Theosophy has ever been kept secret.\n\n ENQ. You have brought forward proofs that such secrecy has existed; but\n what was the real cause for it?\n\n THEO. The causes for it were: _Firstly_, the perversity of average\n human nature and its selfishness, always tending to the\n gratification of _personal_ desires to the detriment of neighbours\n and next of kin. Such people could never be entrusted with\n _divine_ secrets. _Secondly_, their unreliability to keep the\n sacred and divine knowledge from desecration. It is the latter\n that led to the perversion of the most sublime truths and symbols,\n and to the gradual transformation of things spiritual into\n anthropomorphic, concrete, and gross imagery\u2014in other words, to\n the dwarfing of the god-idea and to idolatry.\n\n\nTHEOSOPHY IS NOT BUDDHISM.\n\n ENQ. You are often spoken of as \u201cEsoteric Buddhists.\u201d Are you then all\n followers of Gautama Buddha?\n\n THEO. No more than musicians are all followers of Wagner. Some of us\n are Buddhists by religion; yet there are far more Hindus and\n Brahmins than Buddhists among us, and more Christian-born\n Europeans and Americans than _converted_ Buddhists. The mistake\n has arisen from a misunderstanding of the real meaning of the\n title of Mr. Sinnett\u2019s excellent work, \u201cEsoteric Buddhism,\u201d which\n last word ought to have been spelt _with one, instead of two,\n d\u2019s_, as then _Budhism_ would have meant what it was intended for,\n merely \u201cWisdom_ism_\u201d (Bodha, bodhi, \u201cintelligence,\u201d \u201cwisdom\u201d)\n instead of _Buddhism_, Gautama\u2019s religious philosophy. Theosophy,\n as already said, is the WISDOM-RELIGION.\n\n ENQ. What is the difference between Buddhism, the religion founded by\n the Prince of Kapilavastu, and _Budhism_, the \u201cWisdomism\u201d which\n you say is synonymous with Theosophy?\n\n THEO. Just the same difference as there is between the secret teachings\n of Christ, which are called \u201cthe mysteries of the Kingdom of\n Heaven,\u201d and the later ritualism and dogmatic theology of the\n Churches and Sects. _Buddha_ means the \u201cEnlightened\u201d by _Bodha_,\n or understanding, Wisdom. This has passed root and branch into the\n _esoteric_ teachings that Gautama imparted to his chosen _Arhats_\n only.\n\n ENQ. But some Orientalists deny that Buddha ever taught any esoteric\n doctrine at all?\n\n THEO. They may as well deny that Nature has any hidden secrets for the\n men of science. Further on I will prove it by Buddha\u2019s\n conversation with his disciple Ananda. His esoteric teachings\n were simply the _Gupta Vidya_ (secret knowledge) of the ancient\n Brahmins, the key to which their modern successors have, with few\n exceptions, completely lost. And this _Vidya_ has passed into\n what is now known as the _inner_ teachings of the _Mahayana_\n school of Northern Buddhism. Those who deny it are simply\n ignorant pretenders to Orientalism. I advise you to read the Rev.\n Mr. Edkins\u2019 _Chinese Buddhism_\u2014especially the chapters on the\n Exoteric and _Esoteric_ schools and teachings\u2014and then compare the\n testimony of the whole ancient world upon the subject.\n\n ENQ. But are not the ethics of Theosophy identical with those taught\n by Buddha?\n\n THEO. Certainly, because these ethics are the soul of the\n Wisdom-Religion, and were once the common property of the\n initiates of all nations. But Buddha was the first to embody\n these lofty ethics in his public teachings, and to make them\n the foundation and the very essence of his public system. It is\n herein that lies the immense difference between exoteric Buddhism\n and every other religion. For while in other religions ritualism\n and dogma hold the first and most important place, in Buddhism\n it is the ethics which have always been the most insisted upon.\n This accounts for the resemblance, amounting almost to identity,\n between the ethics of Theosophy and those of the religion of\n Buddha.\n\n ENQ. Are there any great points of difference?\n\n THEO. One great distinction between Theosophy and _exoteric_ Buddhism\n is that the latter, represented by the Southern Church, entirely\n denies (a) the existence of any Deity, and (b) any conscious\n _post-mortem_ life, or even any self-conscious surviving\n individuality in man. Such at least is the teaching of the Siamese\n sect, now considered as the _purest_ form of exoteric Buddhism.\n And it is so, if we refer only to Buddha\u2019s public teachings; the\n reason for such reticence on his part I will give further on. But\n the schools of the Northern Buddhist Church, established in those\n countries to which his initiated Arhats retired after the Master\u2019s\n death, teach all that is now called Theosophical doctrines,\n because they form part of the knowledge of the initiates\u2014thus\n proving how the truth has been sacrificed to the dead-letter by\n the too-zealous orthodoxy of Southern Buddhism. But how much\n grander and more noble, philosophical and scientific, even in its\n dead-letter, is this teaching than that of any other Church or\n religion. Yet Theosophy is not Buddhism.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Also called Analogeticists. As explained by Prof. Alex. Wilder,\nF.T.S., in his \u201cEclectic Philosophy,\u201d they were called so because of\ntheir practice of interpreting all sacred legends and narratives, myths\nand mysteries, by a rule or principle of analogy and correspondence: so\nthat events which were related as having occurred in the external world\nwere regarded as expressing operations and experiences of the human\nsoul. They were also denominated Neo-Platonists. Though Theosophy,\nor the Eclectic Theosophical system, is generally attributed to the\nthird century, yet, if Diogenes Laertius is to be credited, its origin\nis much earlier, as he attributed the system to an Egyptian priest,\nPot-Amun, who lived in the early days of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The\nsame author tells us that the name is Coptic, and signifies one\nconsecrated to Amun, the God of Wisdom. Theosophy is the equivalent of\nBrahma-Vidya, divine knowledge.\n\n[2] Eclectic Theosophy was divided under three heads: (1) Belief\nin one absolute, incomprehensible and supreme Deity, or infinite\nessence, which is the root of all nature, and of all that is, visible\nand invisible. (2) Belief in man\u2019s eternal immortal nature, because,\nbeing a radiation of the Universal Soul, it is of an identical essence\nwith it. (3) _Theurgy_, or \u201cdivine work,\u201d or _producing a work of\ngods_; from _theoi_, \u201cgods,\u201d and _ergein_, \u201cto work.\u201d The term is\nvery old, but, as it belongs to the vocabulary of the MYSTERIES,\nwas not in popular use. It was a mystic belief\u2014practically proven\nby initiated adepts and priests\u2014that, by making oneself as pure\nas the incorporeal beings\u2014_i.e._, by returning to one\u2019s pristine\npurity of nature\u2014man could move the gods to impart to him Divine\nmysteries, and even cause them to become occasionally visible, either\nsubjectively or objectively. It was the transcendental aspect of what\nis now called Spiritualism; but having been abused and misconceived\nby the populace, it had come to be regarded by some as necromancy,\nand was generally forbidden. A travestied practice of the theurgy\nof Iamblichus lingers still in the ceremonial magic of some modern\nKabalists. Modern Theosophy avoids and rejects both these kinds of\nmagic and \u201cnecromancy\u201d as being very dangerous. Real _divine_ theurgy\nrequires an almost superhuman purity and holiness of life; otherwise\nit degenerates into mediumship or black magic. The immediate disciples\nof Ammonius Saccas, who was called _Theodidaktos_, \u201cgod-taught\u201d\u2014such\nas Plotinus and his follower Porphyry\u2014rejected theurgy at first, but\nwere finally reconciled to it through Iamblichus, who wrote a work\nto that effect entitled \u201cDe Mysteriis,\u201d under the name of his own\nmaster, a famous Egyptian priest called Abammon. Ammonius Saccas was\nthe son of Christian parents, and, having been repelled by dogmatic\nspiritualistic Christianity from his childhood, became a Neo-Platonist,\nand like J. Boehme and other great seers and mystics, is said to\nhave had divine wisdom revealed to him in dreams and visions. Hence\nhis name of _Theodidaktos_. He resolved to reconcile every system of\nreligion, and by demonstrating their identical origin to establish\none universal creed based on ethics. His life was so blameless\nand pure, his learning so profound and vast, that several Church\nFathers were his secret disciples. Clemens Alexandrinus speaks very\nhighly of him. Plotinus, the \u201cSt. John\u201d of Ammonius, was also a man\nuniversally respected and esteemed, and of the most profound learning\nand integrity. When thirty-nine years of age he accompanied the Roman\nEmperor Gordian and his army to the East, to be instructed by the\nsages of Bactria and India. He had a School of Philosophy in Rome.\nPorphyry, his disciple, whose real name was Malek (a Hellenized Jew),\ncollected all the writings of his master. Porphyry was himself a great\nauthor, and gave an allegorical interpretation to some parts of Homer\u2019s\nwritings. The system of meditation the Philaletheians resorted to was\necstacy, a system akin to Indian Yoga practice. What is known of the\nEclectic School is due to Origen, Longinus, and Plotinus, the immediate\ndisciples of Ammonius.\u2014(_Vide Eclectic Philos._, by A. Wilder).\n\n[3] It was under Philadelphus that Judaism established itself in\nAlexandria, and forthwith the Hellenic teachers became the dangerous\nrivals of the College of Rabbis of Babylon. As the author of \u201cEclectic\nPhilosophy\u201d very pertinently remarks: \u201cThe Buddhistic, Vedantic, and\nMagian systems were expounded along with the philosophies of Greece at\nthat period. It was not wonderful that thoughtful men supposed that\nthe strife of words ought to cease, and considered it possible to\nextract one harmonious system from these various teachings.... Pan\u00e6nus,\nAthenagoras, and Clement were thoroughly instructed in Platonic\nphilosophy, and comprehended its essential unity with the Oriental\nsystems.\u201d\n\n[4] Says Mosheim of Ammonius: \u201cConceiving that not only the\nphilosophers of Greece, but also all those of the different barbarian\nnations, were perfectly in unison with each other with regard to every\nessential point, he made it his business so to expound the thousand\ntenets of all these various sects as to show they had all originated\nfrom one and the same source, and tended all to one and the same end.\u201d\nIf the writer on Ammonius in the _Edinburgh Encyclop\u00e6dia_ knows what\nhe is talking about, then he describes the modern Theosophists, their\nbeliefs, and their work, for he says, speaking of the _Theodidaktos_:\n\u201cHe adopted the doctrines which were received in Egypt (the esoteric\nwere those of India) concerning the Universe and the Deity, considered\nas constituting one great whole; concerning the eternity of the world\n... and established a system of moral discipline which allowed the\npeople in general to live according to the laws of their country and\nthe dictates of nature, but required the wise to exalt their mind by\ncontemplation.\u201d\n\n[5] This is what the scholarly author of \u201cThe Eclectic Philosophy,\u201d\nProf. A. Wilder, F.T.S., describes as \u201c_spiritual photography_\u201d:\n\u201cThe soul is the camera in which facts and events, future, past, and\npresent, are alike fixed; and the mind becomes conscious of them.\nBeyond our every-day world of limits all is one day or state\u2014the past\nand future comprised in the present.\u201d ... \u201cDeath is the last _ecstasis_\non earth. Then the soul is freed from the constraint of the body, and\nits nobler part is united to higher nature and becomes partaker in the\nwisdom and foreknowledge of the higher beings.\u201d Real Theosophy is, for\nthe mystics, that state which Apollonius of Tyana was made to describe\nthus: \u201cI can see the present and the future as in a clear mirror. The\nsage need not wait for the vapours of the earth and the corruption of\nthe air to foresee events.... The _theoi_, or gods, see the future;\ncommon men the present; sages that which is about to take place.\u201d\n\u201cThe Theosophy of the Sages\u201d he speaks of is well expressed in the\nassertion, \u201cThe Kingdom of God is within us.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\nEXOTERIC AND ESOTERIC THEOSOPHY.\n\n\nWHAT THE MODERN THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IS NOT.\n\n ENQ. Your doctrines, then, are not a revival of Buddhism, nor are they\n entirely copied from the Neo-Platonic Theosophy?\n\n THEO. They are not. But to these questions I cannot give you a better\n answer than by quoting from a paper read on \u201cTheosophy\u201d by Dr.\n J. D. Buck, F.T.S., before the last Theosophical Convention, at\n Chicago, America (April, 1889). No living theosophist has better\n expressed and understood the real essence of Theosophy than our\n honoured friend Dr. Buck:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe Theosophical Society was organized for the purpose\n of promulgating the Theosophical doctrines, and for the\n promotion of the Theosophic life. The present Theosophical\n Society is not the first of its kind. I have a volume\n entitled: \u2018Theosophical Transactions of the Philadelphian\n Society,\u2019 published in London in 1697; and another with the\n following title: \u2018Introduction to Theosophy, or the Science\n of the Mystery of Christ; that is, of Deity, Nature, and\n Creature, embracing the philosophy of all the working powers\n of life, magical and spiritual, and forming a practical\n guide to the sublimest purity, sanctity, and evangelical\n perfection; also to the attainment of divine vision, and the\n holy angelic arts, potencies, and other prerogatives of the\n regeneration,\u2019 published in London in 1855. The following is\n the dedication of this volume:\n\n \u2018To the students of Universities, Colleges, and schools of\n Christendom: To Professors of Metaphysical, Mechanical,\n and Natural Science in all its forms: To men and women\n of Education generally, of fundamental orthodox faith:\n To Deists, Arians, Unitarians, Swedenborgians, and other\n defective and ungrounded creeds, rationalists, and sceptics\n of every kind: To just-minded and enlightened Mohammedans,\n Jews, and oriental Patriarch-religionists: but especially\n to the gospel minister and missionary, whether to the\n barbaric or intellectual peoples, this introduction to\n Theosophy, or the science of the ground and mystery of all\n things, is most humbly and affectionately dedicated.\u2019\n\n In the following year (1856) another volume was issued,\n royal octavo, of 600 pages, diamond type, of \u2018Theosophical\n Miscellanies.\u2019 Of the last-named work 500 copies only\n were issued, for gratuitous distribution to Libraries and\n Universities. These earlier movements, of which there were\n many, originated within the Church, with persons of great\n piety and earnestness, and of unblemished character; and all\n of these writings were in orthodox form, using the Christian\n expressions, and, like the writings of the eminent Churchman\n William Law, would only be distinguished by the ordinary\n reader for their great earnestness and piety. These were\n one and all but attempts to derive and explain the deeper\n meanings and original import of the Christian Scriptures, and\n to illustrate and unfold the Theosophic life. These works\n were soon forgotten, and are now generally unknown. They\n sought to reform the clergy and revive genuine piety, and\n were never welcomed. That one word, \u201cHeresy,\u201d was sufficient\n to bury them in the limbo of all such Utopias. At the time\n of the Reformation John Reuchlin made a similar attempt with\n the same result, though he was the intimate and trusted\n friend of Luther. Orthodoxy never desired to be informed\n and enlightened. These reformers were informed, as was Paul\n by Festus, that too much learning had made them mad, and\n that it would be dangerous to go farther. Passing by the\n verbiage, which was partly a matter of habit and education\n with these writers, and partly due to religious restraint\n through secular power, and coming to the core of the matter,\n these writings were Theosophical in the strictest sense,\n and pertain solely to man\u2019s knowledge of his own nature\n and the higher life of the soul. The present Theosophical\n movement has sometimes been declared to be an attempt to\n convert Christendom to Buddhism, which means simply that\n the word \u2018Heresy\u2019 has lost its terrors and relinquished its\n power. Individuals in every age have more or less clearly\n apprehended the Theosophical doctrines and wrought them into\n the fabric of their lives. These doctrines belong exclusively\n to no religion, and are confined to no society or time. They\n are the birthright of every human soul. Such a thing as\n orthodoxy must be wrought out by each individual according\n to his nature and his needs, and according to his varying\n experience. This may explain why those who have imagined\n Theosophy to be a new religion have hunted in vain for its\n creed and its ritual. Its creed is Loyalty to Truth, and its\n ritual \u2018To honour every truth by use.\u2019\n\n How little this principle of Universal Brotherhood is\n understood by the masses of mankind, how seldom its\n transcendent importance is recognised, may be seen in the\n diversity of opinion and fictitious interpretations regarding\n the Theosophical Society. This Society was organized on this\n one principle, the essential Brotherhood of Man, as herein\n briefly outlined and imperfectly set forth. It has been\n assailed as Buddhistic and anti-Christian, as though it could\n be both these together, when both Buddhism and Christianity,\n as set forth by their inspired founders, make brotherhood the\n one essential of doctrine and of life. Theosophy has been\n also regarded as something new under the sun, or at best as\n old mysticism masquerading under a new name. While it is true\n that many Societies founded upon, and united to support,\n the principles of altruism, or essential brotherhood, have\n borne various names, it is also true that many have also\n been called Theosophic, and with principles and aims as the\n present society bearing that name. With these societies, one\n and all, the essential doctrine has been the same, and all\n else has been incidental, though this does not obviate the\n fact that many persons are attracted to the incidentals who\n overlook or ignore the essentials.\u201d\n\n No better or more explicit answer\u2014by a man who is one of our most\n esteemed and earnest Theosophists\u2014could be given to your questions.\n\n ENQ. Which system do you prefer or follow, in that case, besides\n Buddhistic ethics?\n\n THEO. None, and all. We hold to no religion, as to no philosophy in\n particular: we cull the good we find in each. But here, again, it\n must be stated that, like all other ancient systems, Theosophy is\n divided into Exoteric and _Esoteric_ Sections.\n\n ENQ. What is the difference?\n\n THEO. The members of the Theosophical Society at large are free to\n profess whatever religion or philosophy they like, or none if\n they so prefer, provided they are in sympathy with, and ready to\n carry out one or more of the three objects of the Association.\n The Society is a philanthropic and scientific body for the\n propagation of the idea of brotherhood on _practical_ instead of\n _theoretical_ lines. The Fellows may be Christians or Mussulmen,\n Jews or Parsees, Buddhists or Brahmins, Spiritualists or\n Materialists, it does not matter; but every member must be either\n a philanthropist, or a scholar, a searcher into Aryan and other\n old literature, or a psychic student. In short, he has to help,\n if he can, in the carrying out of at least one of the objects\n of the programme. Otherwise he has no reason for becoming a\n \u201cFellow.\u201d Such are the majority of the exoteric Society, composed\n of \u201cattached\u201d and \u201cunattached\u201d members.[6] These may, or may not,\n become Theosophists _de facto_. Members they are, by virtue of\n their having joined the Society; but the latter cannot make a\n Theosophist of one who has no sense for the _divine_ fitness of\n things, or of him who understands Theosophy in his own\u2014if the\n expression may be used\u2014_sectarian_ and egotistic way. \u201cHandsome\n is, as handsome does\u201d could be paraphrased in this case and be\n made to run: \u201cTheosophist is, who Theosophy does.\u201d\n\n\nTHEOSOPHISTS AND MEMBERS OF THE \u201cT.S.\u201d\n\n ENQ. This applies to lay members, as I understand. And what of those\n who pursue the esoteric study of Theosophy; are they the real\n Theosophists?\n\n THEO. Not necessarily, until they have proven themselves to be such.\n They have entered the inner group and pledged themselves to\n carry out, as strictly as they can, the rules of the occult\n body. This is a difficult undertaking, as the foremost rule of\n all is the entire renunciation of one\u2019s personality\u2014_i.e._, a\n _pledged_ member has to become a thorough altruist, never to\n think of himself, and to forget his own vanity and pride in the\n thought of the good of his fellow-creatures, besides that of his\n fellow-brothers in the esoteric circle. He has to live, if the\n esoteric instructions shall profit him, a life of abstinence in\n everything, of self-denial and strict morality, doing his duty by\n all men. The few real Theosophists in the T.S. are among these\n members. This does not imply that outside of the T.S. and the\n inner circle, there are no Theosophists; for there are, and more\n than people know of; certainly far more than are found among the\n lay members of the T.S.\n\n ENQ. Then what is the good of joining the so-called Theosophical\n Society in that case? Where is the incentive?\n\n THEO. None, except the advantage of getting esoteric instructions, the\n genuine doctrines of the \u201cWisdom-Religion,\u201d and if the real\n programme is carried out, deriving much help from mutual aid\n and sympathy. Union is strength and harmony, and well-regulated\n simultaneous efforts produce wonders. This has been the secret of\n all associations and communities since mankind existed.\n\n ENQ. But why could not a man of well-balanced mind and singleness of\n purpose, one, say, of indomitable energy and perseverance, become\n an Occultist and even an Adept if he works alone?\n\n THEO. He may; but there are ten thousand chances against one that he\n will fail. For one reason out of many others, no books on\n Occultism or Theurgy exist in our day which give out the secrets\n of alchemy or medi\u00e6val Theosophy in plain language. All are\n symbolical or in parables; and as the key to these has been lost\n for ages in the West, how can a man learn the correct meaning\n of what he is reading and studying? Therein lies the greatest\n danger, one that leads to unconscious _black_ magic or the most\n helpless mediumship. He who has not an Initiate for a master\n had better leave the dangerous study alone. Look around you and\n observe. While two-thirds of _civilized_ society ridicule the\n mere notion that there is anything in Theosophy, Occultism,\n Spiritualism, or in the Kabala, the other third is composed of\n the most heterogeneous and opposite elements. Some believe in the\n mystical, and even in the _supernatural_ (!), but each believes\n in his own way. Others will rush single-handed into the study of\n the Kabala, Psychism, Mesmerism, Spiritualism, or some form or\n another of Mysticism. Result: no two men think alike, no two are\n agreed upon any fundamental occult principles, though many are\n those who claim for themselves the _ultima thule_ of knowledge,\n and would make outsiders believe that they are full-blown\n adepts. Not only is there no scientific and accurate knowledge\n of Occultism accessible in the West\u2014not even of true astrology,\n the only branch of Occultism which, in its _exoteric_ teachings,\n has definite laws and a definite system\u2014but no one has any idea\n of what real Occultism means. Some limit ancient wisdom to the\n _Kabala_ and the Jewish _Zohar_, which each interprets in his\n own way according to the dead-letter of the Rabbinical methods.\n Others regard Swedenborg or Boehme as the ultimate expressions of\n the highest wisdom; while others again see in mesmerism the great\n secret of ancient magic. One and all of those who put their theory\n into practice are rapidly drifting, through ignorance, into black\n magic. Happy are those who escape from it, as they have neither\n test nor criterion by which they can distinguish between the true\n and the false.\n\n ENQ. Are we to understand that the inner group of the T.S. claims to\n learn what it does from real initiates or masters of esoteric\n wisdom?\n\n THEO. Not directly. The personal presence of such masters is not\n required. Suffice it if they give instructions to some of those\n who have studied under their guidance for years, and devoted their\n whole lives to their service. Then, in turn, these can give out\n the knowledge so imparted to others, who had no such opportunity.\n A portion of the true sciences is better than a mass of undigested\n and misunderstood learning. An ounce of gold is worth a ton of\n dust.\n\n ENQ. But how is one to know whether the ounce is real gold or only a\n counterfeit?\n\n THEO. A tree is known by its fruit, a system by its results. When our\n opponents are able to prove to us that any solitary student\n of Occultism throughout the ages has become a saintly adept\n like Ammonius Saccas, or even a Plotinus, or a Theurgist like\n Iamblichus, or achieved feats such as are claimed to have been\n done by St. Germain, without any master to guide him, and all\n this without being a medium, a self-deluded psychic, or a\n charlatan\u2014then shall we confess ourselves mistaken. But till\n then, Theosophists prefer to follow the proven natural law of\n the tradition of the Sacred Science. There are mystics who have\n made great discoveries in chemistry and physical sciences, almost\n bordering on alchemy and Occultism; others who, by the sole aid of\n their genius, have rediscovered portions, if not the whole, of the\n lost alphabets of the \u201cMystery language,\u201d and are, therefore, able\n to read correctly Hebrew scrolls; others still, who, being seers,\n have caught wonderful _glimpses_ of the hidden secrets of Nature.\n But all these are _specialists_. One is a theoretical inventor,\n another a Hebrew, _i.e._, a Sectarian Kabalist, a third a\n Swedenborg of modern times, denying all and everything outside of\n his own particular science or religion. Not one of them can boast\n of having produced a universal or even a national benefit thereby,\n not even to himself. With the exception of a few healers\u2014of that\n class which the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons would\n call quacks\u2014none have helped with their science Humanity, nor even\n a number of men of the same community. Where are the Chaldees of\n old, those who wrought marvellous cures, \u201cnot by charms but by\n simples\u201d? Where is an Apollonius of Tyana, who healed the sick\n and raised the dead under any climate and circumstances? We know\n some _specialists_ of the former class in Europe, but none of the\n latter\u2014except in Asia, where the secret of the Yogi, \u201cto live in\n death,\u201d is still preserved.\n\n ENQ. Is the production of such healing adepts the aim of Theosophy?\n\n THEO. Its aims are several; but the most important of all are those\n which are likely to lead to the relief of human suffering under\n any or every form, moral as well as physical. And we believe the\n former to be far more important than the latter. Theosophy has to\n inculcate ethics; it has to purify the soul, if it would relieve\n the physical body, whose ailments, save cases of accidents, are\n all hereditary. It is not by studying Occultism for selfish ends,\n for the gratification of one\u2019s personal ambition, pride, or\n vanity, that one can ever reach the true goal: that of helping\n suffering mankind. Nor is it by studying one single branch of\n the esoteric philosophy that a man becomes an Occultist, but by\n studying, if not mastering, them all.\n\n ENQ. Is help, then, to reach this most important aim, given only to\n those who study the esoteric sciences?\n\n THEO. Not at all. Every _lay_ member is entitled to general instruction\n if he only wants it; but few are willing to become what is\n called \u201cworking members,\u201d and most prefer to remain the _drones_\n of Theosophy. Let it be understood that private research is\n encouraged in the T.S., provided it does not infringe the limit\n which separates the exoteric from the esoteric, the _blind_ from\n the _conscious_ magic.\n\n\nTHE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEOSOPHY AND SPIRITUALISM.\n\n ENQ. You speak of Theosophy and Occultism; are they identical?\n\n THEO. By no means. A man may be a very good Theosophist indeed, whether\n _in_ or _outside_ of the Society, without being in any way an\n Occultist. But no one can be a true Occultist without being a real\n Theosophist; otherwise he is simply a black magician, whether\n conscious or unconscious.\n\n ENQ. What do you mean?\n\n THEO. I have said already that a true Theosophist must put in practice\n the loftiest moral ideal, must strive to realize his unity with\n the whole of humanity, and work ceaselessly for others. Now, if\n an Occultist does not do all this, he must act selfishly for his\n own personal benefit; and if he has acquired more practical power\n than other ordinary men, he becomes forthwith a far more dangerous\n enemy to the world and those around him than the average mortal.\n This is clear.\n\n ENQ. Then is an Occultist simply a man who possesses more power than\n other people?\n\n THEO. Far more\u2014if he is a _practical_ and really learned Occultist, and\n not one only in name. Occult sciences are _not_, as described,\n in Encyclop\u00e6dias, \u201cthose _imaginary_ sciences of the Middle\n Ages which related to the _supposed_ action or influence of\n Occult qualities or supernatural powers, as alchemy, magic,\n necromancy, and astrology,\u201d for they are real, actual, and very\n dangerous sciences. They teach the secret potency of things in\n Nature, developing and cultivating the hidden powers \u201clatent in\n man,\u201d thus giving him tremendous advantages over more ignorant\n mortals. Hypnotism, now become so common and a subject of serious\n scientific inquiry, is a good instance in point. _Hypnotic_ power\n has been discovered almost by accident, the way to it having been\n prepared by mesmerism; and now an able hypnotizer can do almost\n anything with it, from forcing a man, unconsciously to himself,\n to play the fool, to making him commit a crime\u2014often by proxy for\n the hypnotizer, and _for the benefit of the latter_. Is not this a\n terrible power if left in the hands of unscrupulous persons? And\n please to remember that this is only one of the minor branches of\n Occultism.\n\n ENQ. But are not all these Occult sciences, magic, and sorcery,\n considered by the most cultured and learned people as relics of\n ancient ignorance and superstition?\n\n THEO. Let me remind you that this remark of yours cuts both ways. The\n \u201cmost cultured and learned\u201d among you regard also Christianity and\n every other religion as a relic of ignorance and superstition.\n People begin to believe now, at any rate, in _hypnotism_, and\n some\u2014even of the _most cultured_\u2014in Theosophy and phenomena. But\n who among them, except preachers and blind fanatics, will confess\n to a belief in _Biblical miracles_? And this is where the point\n of difference comes in. There are very good and pure Theosophists\n who may believe in the supernatural, divine _miracles_ included,\n but no Occultist will do so. For an Occultist practices\n _scientific_ Theosophy, based on accurate knowledge of Nature\u2019s\n secret workings; but a Theosophist, practising the powers called\n abnormal, _minus_ the light of Occultism, will simply tend toward\n a dangerous form of mediumship, because, although holding to\n Theosophy and its highest conceivable code of ethics, he practises\n it in the dark, on sincere but _blind_ faith. Anyone, Theosophist\n or Spiritualist, who attempts to cultivate one of the branches of\n Occult science\u2014_e.g._, Hypnotism, Mesmerism, or even the secrets\n of producing physical phenomena, etc.\u2014without the knowledge of the\n philosophic _rationale_ of those powers, is like a rudderless boat\n launched on a stormy ocean.\n\n\nTHE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEOSOPHY AND SPIRITUALISM.\n\n ENQ. But do you not believe in Spiritualism?\n\n THEO. If by \u201cSpiritualism\u201d you mean the explanation which Spiritualists\n give of some abnormal phenomena, then decidedly _we do not_.\n They maintain that these manifestations are all produced by the\n \u201cspirits\u201d of departed mortals, generally their relatives, who\n return to earth, they say, to communicate with those they have\n loved or to whom they are attached. We deny this point blank. We\n assert that the spirits of the dead cannot return to earth\u2014save\n in rare and exceptional cases, of which I may speak later; nor do\n they communicate with men except by _entirely subjective means_.\n That which does appear objectively, is only the phantom of the\n ex-physical man. But in _psychic_, and so to say, \u201cSpiritual\u201d\n Spiritualism, we do believe, most decidedly.\n\n ENQ. Do you reject the phenomena also?\n\n THEO. Assuredly not\u2014save cases of conscious fraud.\n\n ENQ. How do you account for them, then?\n\n THEO. In many ways. The causes of such manifestations are by no means\n so simple as the Spiritualists would like to believe. Foremost of\n all, the _deus ex machin\u00e2_ of the so-called \u201cmaterializations\u201d\n is usually the astral body or \u201cdouble\u201d of the medium or of some\n one present. This _astral_ body is also the producer or operating\n force in the manifestations of slate-writing, \u201cDavenport\u201d-like\n manifestations, and so on.\n\n ENQ. You say \u201cusually\u201d; then _what_ is it that produces the rest?\n\n THEO. That depends on the nature of the manifestations. Sometimes the\n astral remains, the Kamalokic \u201cshells\u201d of the vanished\n _personalities_ that were; at other times, Elementals. \u201cSpirit\u201d\n is a word of manifold and wide significance. I really do not\n know what Spiritualists mean by the term; but what we understand\n them to claim is that the physical phenomena are produced by the\n reincarnating _Ego_, the _Spiritual_ and immortal \u201cindividuality.\u201d\n And this hypothesis we entirely reject. The Conscious\n _Individuality_ of the disembodied _cannot materialize_, nor can\n it return from its own mental Devachanic sphere to the plane of\n terrestrial objectivity.\n\n ENQ. But many of the communications received from the \u201cspirits\u201d show\n not only intelligence, but a knowledge of facts not known to the\n medium, and sometimes even not consciously present to the mind of\n the investigator, or any of those who compose the audience.\n\n THEO. This does not necessarily prove that the intelligence and\n knowledge you speak of belong to _spirits_, or emanate from\n _disembodied_ souls. Somnambulists have been known to compose\n music and poetry and to solve mathematical problems while in their\n trance state, without having ever learnt music or mathematics.\n Others answered intelligently to questions put to them, and even,\n in several cases, spoke languages, such as Hebrew and Latin, of\n which they were entirely ignorant when awake\u2014all this in a state\n of profound sleep. Will you, then, maintain that this was caused\n by \u201cspirits\u201d?\n\n ENQ. But how would you explain it?\n\n THEO. We assert that the divine spark in man being one and identical in\n its essence with the Universal Spirit, our \u201cspiritual Self\u201d is\n practically omniscient, but that it cannot manifest its knowledge\n owing to the impediments of matter. Now the more these impediments\n are removed, in other words, the more the physical body is\n paralyzed, as to its own independent activity and consciousness,\n as in deep sleep or deep trance, or, again, in illness, the more\n fully can the _inner_ Self manifest on this plane. This is our\n explanation of those truly wonderful phenomena of a higher order,\n in which undeniable intelligence and knowledge are exhibited. As\n to the lower order of manifestations, such as physical phenomena\n and the platitudes and common talk of the general \u201cspirit,\u201d to\n explain even the most important of the teachings we hold upon the\n subject would take up more space and time than can be allotted\n to it at present. We have no desire to interfere with the belief\n of the Spiritualists any more than with any other belief. The\n _onus probandi_ must fall on the believers in \u201cspirits.\u201d And at\n the present moment, while still convinced that the higher sort of\n manifestations occur through the disembodied souls, their leaders\n and the most learned and intelligent among the Spiritualists are\n the first to confess that not _all_ the phenomena are produced by\n spirits. Gradually they will come to recognize the whole truth;\n but meanwhile we have no right nor desire to proselytize them to\n our views. The less so, as in the cases of purely _psychic and\n spiritual manifestations_ we believe in the intercommunication\n of the spirit of the living man with that of disembodied\n personalities.[7]\n\n ENQ. This means that you reject the philosophy of Spiritualism _in\n toto_?\n\n THEO. If by \u201cphilosophy\u201d you mean their crude theories, we do. But they\n have no philosophy, in truth. Their best, their most intellectual\n and earnest defenders say so. Their fundamental and only\n unimpeachable truth, namely, that phenomena occur through mediums\n controlled by invisible forces and intelligences\u2014no one, except a\n blind materialist of the \u201cHuxley big toe\u201d school, will or _can_\n deny. With regard to their philosophy, however, let me read to\n you what the able editor of _Light_, than whom the Spiritualists\n will find no wiser nor more devoted champion, says of them and\n their philosophy. This is what \u201cM.A. Oxon,\u201d one of the very few\n _philosophical_ Spiritualists, writes, with respect to their lack\n of organization and blind bigotry:\u2014\n\n It is worth while to look steadily at this point, for it is of\n vital moment. We have an experience and a knowledge beside which\n all other knowledge is comparatively insignificant. The ordinary\n Spiritualist waxes wroth if anyone ventures to impugn his assured\n knowledge of the future and his absolute certainty of the life to\n come. Where other men have stretched forth feeble hands groping\n into the dark future, he walks boldly as one who has a chart and\n knows his way. Where other men have stopped short at a pious\n aspiration or have been content with a hereditary faith, it is his\n boast that he knows what they only believe, and that out of his\n rich stores he can supplement the fading faiths built only upon\n hope. He is magnificent in his dealings with man\u2019s most cherished\n expectations. \u201cYou hope,\u201d he seems to say, \u201cfor that which I can\n demonstrate. You have accepted a traditional belief in what I can\n experimentally prove according to the strictest scientific method.\n The old beliefs are fading; come out from them and be separate.\n They contain as much falsehood as truth. Only by building on a\n sure foundation of demonstrated fact can your superstructure be\n stable. All round you old faiths are toppling. Avoid the crash and\n get you out.\u201d\n\n When one comes to deal with this magnificent person in a practical\n way, what is the result? Very curious and very disappointing. He\n is so sure of his ground that he takes no trouble to ascertain\n the interpretation which others put upon his facts. The wisdom\n of the ages has concerned itself with the explanation of what he\n rightly regards as proven; but he does not turn a passing glance\n on its researches. He does not even agree altogether with his\n brother Spiritualist. It is the story over again of the old Scotch\n body who, together with her husband, formed a \u201ckirk.\u201d They had\n exclusive keys to Heaven, or, rather, she had, for she was \u201cna\n certain aboot Jamie.\u201d So the infinitely divided and subdivided\n and resubdivided sects of Spiritualists shake their heads,\n and are \u201cna certain aboot\u201d one another. Again, the collective\n experience of mankind is solid and unvarying on this point that\n union is strength, and disunion a source of weakness and failure.\n Shoulder to shoulder, drilled and disciplined, a rabble becomes\n an army, each man a match for a hundred of the untrained men that\n may be brought against it. Organization in every department of\n man\u2019s work means success, saving of time and labour, profit and\n development. Want of method, want of plan, haphazard work, fitful\n energy, undisciplined effort\u2014these mean bungling failure. The\n voice of humanity attests the truth. Does the Spiritualist accept\n the verdict and act on the conclusion? Verily, no. He refuses to\n organize. He is a law unto himself, and a thorn in the side of his\n neighbours.\u2014_Light_, June 22, 1889.\n\n ENQ. I was told that the Theosophical Society was originally founded to\n crush Spiritualism and belief in the survival of the individuality\n in man?\n\n THEO. You are misinformed. Our beliefs are all founded on that immortal\n individuality. But then, like so many others, you confuse\n _personality_ with individuality. Your Western psychologists do\n not seem to have established any clear distinction between the\n two. Yet it is precisely that difference which gives the key-note\n to the understanding of Eastern philosophy, and which lies at the\n root of the divergence between the Theosophical and Spiritualistic\n teachings. And though it may draw upon us still more the hostility\n of some Spiritualists, yet I must state here that it is Theosophy\n which is the _true_ and unalloyed Spiritualism, while the modern\n scheme of that name is, as now practised by the masses, simply\n transcendental materialism.\n\n ENQ. Please explain your idea more clearly.\n\n THEO. What I mean is that though our teachings insist upon the identity\n of spirit and matter, and though we say that spirit is _potential_\n matter, and matter simply crystallized spirit (_e.g._, as ice is\n solidified steam), yet since the original and eternal condition\n of _all_ is not spirit but _meta_-spirit, so to speak, (visible\n and solid matter being simply its periodical manifestation,) we\n maintain that the term spirit can only be applied to the _true_\n individuality.\n\n ENQ. But what is the distinction between this \u201ctrue individuality\u201d and\n the \u201cI\u201d or \u201cEgo\u201d of which we are all conscious?\n\n THEO. Before I can answer you, we must argue upon what you mean by \u201cI\u201d\n or \u201cEgo.\u201d We distinguish between the simple fact of\n self-consciousness, the simple feeling that \u201cI am I,\u201d and\n the complex thought that \u201cI am Mr. Smith\u201d or \u201cMrs. Brown.\u201d\n Believing as we do in a series of births for the same Ego, or\n re-incarnation, this distinction is the fundamental pivot of\n the whole idea. You see \u201cMr. Smith\u201d really means a long series\n of daily experiences strung together by the thread of memory,\n and forming what Mr. Smith calls \u201chimself.\u201d But none of these\n \u201cexperiences\u201d are really the \u201cI\u201d or the Ego, nor do they give \u201cMr.\n Smith\u201d the feeling that he is himself, for he forgets the greater\n part of his daily experiences, and they produce the feeling of\n _Egoity_ in him only while they last. We Theosophists, therefore,\n distinguish between this bundle of \u201cexperiences,\u201d which we call\n the _false_ (because so finite and evanescent) _personality_, and\n that element in man to which the feeling of \u201cI am I\u201d is due. It\n is this \u201cI am I\u201d which we call the _true_ individuality; and we\n say that this \u201cEgo\u201d or individuality plays, like an actor, many\n parts on the stage of life.[8] Let us call every new life on earth\n of the same _Ego_ a _night_ on the stage of a theatre. One night\n the actor, or \u201cEgo,\u201d appears as \u201cMacbeth,\u201d the next as \u201cShylock,\u201d\n the third as \u201cRomeo,\u201d the fourth as \u201cHamlet\u201d or \u201cKing Lear,\u201d and\n so on, until he has run through the whole cycle of incarnations.\n The Ego begins his life-pilgrimage as a sprite, an \u201cAriel,\u201d or a\n \u201cPuck\u201d; he plays the part of a _super_, is a soldier, a servant,\n one of the chorus; rises then to \u201cspeaking parts,\u201d plays leading\n _r\u00f4les_, interspersed with insignificant parts, till he finally\n retires from the stage as \u201cProspero,\u201d the _magician_.\n\n ENQ. I understand. You say, then, that this true _Ego_ cannot return to\n earth after death. But surely the actor is at liberty, if he has\n preserved the sense of his individuality, to return if he likes to\n the scene of his former actions?\n\n THEO. We say not, simply because such a return to earth would be\n incompatible with any state of _unalloyed_ bliss after death, as\n I am prepared to prove. We say that man suffers so much unmerited\n misery during his life, through the fault of others with whom he\n is associated, or because of his environment, that he is surely\n entitled to perfect rest and quiet, if not bliss, before taking up\n again the burden of life. However, we can discuss this in detail\n later.\n\n\nWHY IS THEOSOPHY ACCEPTED?\n\n ENQ. I understand to a certain extent; but I see that your teachings\n are far more complicated and metaphysical than either Spiritualism\n or current religious thought. Can you tell me, then, what has\n caused this system of Theosophy which you support to arouse so\n much interest and so much animosity at the same time?\n\n THEO. There are several reasons for it, I believe; among other causes\n that may be mentioned is, _firstly_, the great reaction from the\n crassly materialistic theories now prevalent among scientific\n teachers. _Secondly_, general dissatisfaction with the artificial\n theology of the various Christian Churches, and the number of\n daily increasing and conflicting sects. _Thirdly_, an ever-growing\n perception of the fact that the creeds which are so obviously\n self\u2014and mutually\u2014contradictory _cannot be true_, and that claims\n which are unverified _cannot be real_. This natural distrust of\n conventional religions is only strengthened by their complete\n failure to preserve morals and to purify society and the masses.\n _Fourthly_, a conviction on the part of many, and _knowledge_ by\n a few, that there must be somewhere a philosophical and religious\n system which shall be scientific and not merely speculative.\n _Finally_, a belief, perhaps, that such a system must be sought\n for in teachings far antedating any modern faith.\n\n ENQ. But how did this system come to be put forward just now?\n\n THEO. Just because the time was found to be ripe, which fact is shown\n by the determined effort of so many earnest students to reach\n _the truth_, at whatever cost and wherever it may be concealed.\n Seeing this, its custodians permitted that some portions at\n least of that truth should be proclaimed. Had the formation of\n the Theosophical Society been postponed a few years longer, one\n half of the civilized nations would have become by this time\n rank materialists, and the other half anthropomorphists and\n phenomenalists.\n\n ENQ. Are we to regard Theosophy in any way as a revelation?\n\n THEO. In no way whatever\u2014not even in the sense of a new and direct\n disclosure from some higher, supernatural, or, at least,\n _superhuman beings_; but only in the sense of an \u201cunveiling\u201d of\n old, very old, truths to minds hitherto ignorant of them, ignorant\n even of the existence and preservation of any such archaic\n knowledge.[9]\n\n ENQ. You spoke of \u201cPersecution.\u201d If truth is as represented by\n Theosophy, why has it met with such opposition, and with no\n general acceptance?\n\n THEO. For many and various reasons again, one of which is the hatred\n felt by men for \u201cinnovations,\u201d as they call them. Selfishness is\n essentially conservative, and hates being disturbed. It prefers\n an easy-going, unexacting _lie_ to the greatest truth, if the\n latter requires the sacrifice of one\u2019s smallest comfort. The power\n of mental inertia is great in anything that does not promise\n immediate benefit and reward. Our age is pre-eminently unspiritual\n and matter of fact. Moreover, there is the unfamiliar character of\n Theosophic teachings; the highly abstruse nature of the doctrines,\n some of which contradict flatly many of the human vagaries\n cherished by sectarians, which have eaten into the very core of\n popular beliefs. If we add to this the personal efforts and great\n purity of life exacted of those who would become the disciples\n of the _inner_ circle, and the very limited class to which an\n entirely unselfish code appeals, it will be easy to perceive the\n reason why Theosophy is doomed to such slow, uphill work. It is\n essentially the philosophy of those who suffer, and have lost all\n hope of being helped out of the mire of life by any other means.\n Moreover, the history of any system of belief or morals, newly\n introduced into a foreign soil, shows that its beginnings were\n impeded by every obstacle that obscurantism and selfishness could\n suggest. \u201cThe crown of the innovator is a crown of thorns\u201d indeed!\n No pulling down of old, worm-eaten buildings can be accomplished\n without some danger.\n\n ENQ. All this refers rather to the ethics and philosophy of the T.S.\n Can you give me a general idea of the Society itself, its object\n and statutes?\n\n THEO. This was never made secret. Ask, and you shall receive accurate\n answers.\n\n ENQ. But I heard that you were bound by pledges?\n\n THEO. Only in the _Arcane_ or \u201cEsoteric\u201d Section.\n\n ENQ. And also, that some members after leaving did not regard\n themselves bound by them. Are they right?\n\n THEO. This shows that their idea of honour is an imperfect one. How can\n they be right? As well said in the _Path_, our theosophical organ\n at New York, treating of such a case: \u201cSuppose that a soldier is\n tried for infringement of oath and discipline, and is dismissed\n from the service. In his rage at the justice he has called down,\n and of whose penalties he was distinctly forewarned, the soldier\n turns to the enemy with false information,\u2014a spy and traitor\u2014as\n a revenge upon his former Chief, and claims that his punishment\n has released him from his oath of loyalty to a cause.\u201d Is he\n justified, think you? Don\u2019t you think he deserves being called a\n dishonourable man, a coward?\n\n ENQ. I believe so; but some think otherwise.\n\n THEO. So much the worse for them. But we will talk on this subject\n later, if you please.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[6] An \u201cattached member\u201d means one who has joined some particular\nbranch of the T.S. An \u201cunattached,\u201d one who belongs to the Society at\nlarge, has his diploma, from the Headquarters (Adyar, Madras), but is\nconnected with no branch or lodge.\n\n[7] We say that in such cases it is not the _spirits_ of the dead\nwho _descend_ on earth, but the spirits of the living that _ascend_\nto the pure Spiritual Souls. In truth there is neither _ascending_\nnor _descending_, but a change of _state_ or _condition_ for the\nmedium. The body of the latter becoming paralyzed, or \u201centranced,\u201d the\nspiritual Ego is free from its trammels, and finds itself on the same\nplane of consciousness with the disembodied spirits. Hence, if there\nis any spiritual attraction between the two _they can communicate_,\nas often occurs in dreams. The difference between a mediumistic and\na non-sensitive nature is this: the liberated spirit of a medium has\nthe opportunity and facility of influencing the passive organs of its\nentranced physical body, to make them act, speak, and write at its\nwill. The Ego can make it repeat, echo-like, and in the human language,\nthe thoughts and ideas of the disembodied entity, as well as its own.\nBut the _non-receptive_ or non-sensitive organism of one who is very\npositive cannot be so influenced. Hence, although there is hardly a\nhuman being whose Ego does not hold free intercourse, during the sleep\nof his body, with those whom it loved and lost, yet, on account of the\npositiveness and non-receptivity of its physical envelope and brain,\nno recollection, or a very dim, dream-like remembrance, lingers in the\nmemory of the person once awake.\n\n[8] _Vide infra_, \u201cOn Individuality and Personality.\u201d\n\n[9] It has become \u201cfashionable,\u201d especially of late, to deride the\nnotion that there ever was, in the _mysteries_ of great and civilized\npeoples, such as the Egyptians, Greeks, or Romans, anything but\npriestly imposture. Even the Rosicrucians were no better than half\nlunatics, half knaves. Numerous books have been written on them; and\ntyros, who had hardly heard the name a few years before, sallied\nout as profound critics and Gnostics on the subject of alchemy, the\nfire-philosophers, and mysticism in general. Yet a long series of the\nHierophants of Egypt, India, Chaldea, and Arabia are known, along\nwith the greatest philosophers and sages of Greece and the West, to\nhave included under the designation of wisdom and divine science all\nknowledge, for they considered the base and origin of every art and\nscience as _essentially_ divine. Plato regarded the _mysteries_ as\nmost sacred, and Clemens Alexandrinus, who had been himself initiated\ninto the Eleusinian mysteries, has declared \u201cthat the doctrines taught\ntherein contained in them the end of all human knowledge.\u201d Were Plato\nand Clemens two knaves or two fools, we wonder, or\u2014both?\n\n\n\n\nIII. THE WORKING SYSTEM OF THE T.S.[10]\n\n\nTHE OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY.\n\n ENQ. What are the objects of the \u201cTheosophical Society\u201d?\n\n THEO. They are three, and have been so from the beginning. (1). To form\n the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without\n distinction of race, colour, or creed. (2). To promote the\n study of Aryan and other Scriptures, of the World\u2019s religion\n and sciences, and to vindicate the importance of old Asiatic\n literature, namely, of the Brahmanical, Buddhist, and Zoroastrian\n philosophies. (3). To investigate the hidden mysteries of Nature\n under every aspect possible, and the psychic and spiritual powers\n latent in man especially. These are, broadly stated, the three\n chief objects of the Theosophical Society.\n\n ENQ. Can you give me some more detailed information upon these?\n\n THEO. We may divide each of the three objects into as many explanatory\n clauses as may be found necessary.\n\n ENQ. Then let us begin with the first. What means would you resort to,\n in order to promote such a feeling of brotherhood among races\n that are known to be of the most diversified religions, customs,\n beliefs, and modes of thought?\n\n THEO. Allow me to add that which you seem unwilling to express. Of\n course we know that with the exception of two remnants of\n races\u2014the Parsees and the Jews\u2014every nation is divided, not merely\n against all other nations, but even against itself. This is found\n most prominently among the so-called civilized Christian nations.\n Hence your wonder, and the reason why our first object appears to\n you a Utopia. Is it not so?\n\n ENQ. Well, yes; but what have you to say against it?\n\n THEO. Nothing against the fact; but much about the necessity of\n removing the causes which make Universal Brotherhood a Utopia at\n present.\n\n ENQ. What are, in your view, these causes?\n\n THEO. First and foremost, the natural selfishness of human nature. This\n selfishness, instead of being eradicated, is daily strengthened\n and stimulated into a ferocious and irresistible feeling by the\n present religious education, which tends not only to encourage,\n but positively to justify it. People\u2019s ideas about right and wrong\n have been entirely perverted by the literal acceptance of the\n Jewish Bible. All the unselfishness of the altruistic teachings\n of Jesus has become merely a theoretical subject for pulpit\n oratory; while the precepts of practical selfishness taught in\n the Mosaic Bible, against which Christ so vainly preached, have\n become ingrained into the innermost life of the Western nations.\n \u201cAn eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth\u201d has come to be the\n first maxim of your law. Now, I state openly and fearlessly, that\n the perversity of this doctrine and of so many others _Theosophy\n alone_ can eradicate.\n\n\nTHE COMMON ORIGIN OF MAN.\n\n ENQ. How?\n\n THEO. Simply by demonstrating on logical, philosophical, metaphysical,\n and even scientific grounds that:\u2014(a) All men have spiritually\n and physically the same origin, which is the fundamental teaching\n of Theosophy. (b) As mankind is essentially of one and the same\n essence, and that essence is one\u2014infinite, uncreate, and eternal,\n whether we call it God or Nature\u2014nothing, therefore, can affect\n one nation or one man without affecting all other nations and\n all other men. This is as certain and as obvious as that a stone\n thrown into a pond will, sooner or later, set in motion every\n single drop of water therein.\n\n ENQ. But this is not the teaching of Christ, but rather a pantheistic\n notion.\n\n THEO. That is where your mistake lies. It is purely _Christian_,\n although _not_ Judaic, and therefore, perhaps, your Biblical\n nations prefer to ignore it.\n\n ENQ. This is a wholesale and unjust accusation. Where are your proofs\n for such a statement?\n\n THEO. They are ready at hand. Christ is alleged to have said: \u201cLove\n each other\u201d and \u201cLove your enemies\u201d; for \u201cif ye love them (only)\n which love you, what reward (or merit) have ye? Do not even the\n _publicans_[11] the same? And if you salute your brethren only,\n what do ye more than others? Do not even publicans so?\u201d These\n are Christ\u2019s words. But Genesis ix. 25, says \u201cCursed be Canaan,\n a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.\u201d And,\n therefore, Christian but Biblical people prefer the law of Moses\n to Christ\u2019s law of love. They base upon the Old Testament, which\n panders to all their passions, their laws of conquest, annexation,\n and tyranny over races which they call _inferior_. What crimes\n have been committed on the strength of this infernal (if taken in\n its dead letter) passage in Genesis, history alone gives us an\n idea, however inadequate.[12]\n\n ENQ. I have heard you say that the identity of our physical origin is\n proved by science, that of our spiritual origin by the\n Wisdom-Religion. Yet we do not find Darwinists exhibiting great\n fraternal affection.\n\n THEO. Just so. This is what shows the deficiency of the materialistic\n systems, and proves that we Theosophists are in the right. The\n identity of our physical origin makes no appeal to our higher and\n deeper feelings. Matter, deprived of its soul and spirit, or its\n divine essence, cannot speak to the human heart. But the identity\n of the soul and spirit, of real, immortal man, as Theosophy\n teaches us, once proven and deep-rooted in our hearts, would lead\n us far on the road of real charity and brotherly goodwill.\n\n ENQ. But how does Theosophy explain the common origin of man?\n\n THEO. By teaching that the _root_ of all nature, objective and\n subjective, and everything else in the universe, visible and\n invisible, _is_, _was_, and _ever will be_ one absolute essence,\n from which all starts, and into which everything returns. This is\n Aryan philosophy, fully represented only by the Vedantins, and\n the Buddhist system. With this object in view, it is the duty of\n all Theosophists to promote in every practical way, and in all\n countries, the spread of _non-sectarian_ education.\n\n ENQ. What do the written statutes of your Society advise its members to\n do besides this? On the physical plane, I mean?\n\n THEO. In order to awaken brotherly feeling among nations we have to\n assist in the international exchange of useful arts and products,\n by advice, information, and co-operation with all worthy\n individuals and associations (provided, however, add the statutes,\n \u201cthat no benefit or percentage shall be taken by the Society or\n the \u2018Fellows\u2019 for its or their corporate services\u201d). For instance,\n to take a practical illustration. The organization of Society,\n depicted by Edward Bellamy, in his magnificent work \u201cLooking\n Backwards,\u201d admirably represents the Theosophical idea of what\n should be the first great step towards the full realization of\n universal brotherhood. The state of things he depicts falls short\n of perfection, because selfishness still exists and operates in\n the hearts of men. But in the main, selfishness and individualism\n have been overcome by the feeling of solidarity and mutual\n brotherhood; and the scheme of life there described reduces the\n causes tending to create and foster selfishness to a minimum.\n\n ENQ. Then as a Theosophist you will take part in an effort to realize\n such an ideal?\n\n THEO. Certainly; and we have proved it by action. Have not you heard of\n the Nationalist clubs and party which have sprung up in America\n since the publication of Bellamy\u2019s book? They are now coming\n prominently to the front, and will do so more and more as time\n goes on. Well, these clubs and this party were started in the\n first instance by Theosophists. One of the first, the Nationalist\n Club of Boston, Mass., has Theosophists for President and\n Secretary, and the majority of its executive belong to the T.S.\n In the constitution of all their clubs, and of the party they are\n forming, the influence of Theosophy and of the Society is plain,\n for they all take as their basis, their first and fundamental\n principle, the Brotherhood of Humanity as taught by Theosophy. In\n their declaration of Principles they state:\u2014\u201cThe principle of the\n Brotherhood of Humanity is one of the eternal truths that govern\n the world\u2019s progress on lines which distinguish human nature from\n brute nature.\u201d What can be more Theosophical than this? But it is\n not enough. What is also needed is to impress men with the idea\n that, if the root of mankind is _one_, then there must also be one\n truth which finds expression in all the various religions\u2014except\n in the Jewish, as you do not find it _expressed_ even in the\n Kabala.\n\n ENQ. This refers to the common origin of religions, and you may be\n right there. But how does it apply to practical brotherhood on the\n physical plane?\n\n THEO. First, because that which is true on the metaphysical plane must\n be also true on the physical. Secondly, because there is no more\n fertile source of hatred and strife than religious differences.\n When one party or another thinks himself the sole possessor of\n absolute truth, it becomes only natural that he should think his\n neighbour absolutely in the clutches of Error or the Devil. But\n once get a man to see that none of them has the _whole_ truth, but\n that they are mutually complementary, that the complete truth can\n be found only in the combined views of all, after that which is\n false in each of them has been sifted out\u2014then true brotherhood\n in religion will be established. The same applies in the physical\n world.\n\n ENQ. Please explain further.\n\n THEO. Take an instance. A plant consists of a root, a stem, and many\n shoots and leaves. As humanity, as a whole, is the stem which\n grows from the spiritual root, so is the stem the unity of the\n plant. Hurt the stem and it is obvious that every shoot and leaf\n will suffer. So it is with mankind.\n\n ENQ. Yes, but if you injure a leaf or a shoot, you do not injure the\n whole plant.\n\n THEO. And therefore you think that by injuring _one_ man you do not\n injure humanity? But how do _you_ know? Are you aware that even\n materialistic science teaches that any injury, however slight,\n to a plant will affect the whole course of its future growth and\n development? Therefore, you are mistaken, and the analogy is\n perfect. If, however, you overlook the fact that a cut in the\n finger may often make the whole body suffer, and react on the\n whole nervous system, I must all the more remind you that there\n may well be other spiritual laws, operating on plants and animals\n as well as on mankind, although, as you do not recognize their\n action on plants and animals, you may deny their existence.\n\n ENQ. What laws do you mean?\n\n THEO. We call them Karmic laws; but you will not understand the full\n meaning of the term unless you study Occultism. However, my\n argument did not rest on the assumption of these laws, but really\n on the analogy of the plant. Expand the idea, carry it out to\n a universal application, and you will soon find that in true\n philosophy every physical action has its moral and everlasting\n effect. Hurt a man by doing him bodily harm; you may think\n that his pain and suffering cannot spread by any means to his\n neighbours, least of all to men of other nations. We affirm _that\n it will, in good time_. Therefore, we say, that unless every man\n is brought to understand and accept _as an axiomatic truth_ that\n by wronging one man we wrong not only ourselves but the whole of\n humanity in the long run, no brotherly feelings such as preached\n by all the great Reformers, pre-eminently by Buddha and Jesus, are\n possible on earth.\n\n\nOUR OTHER OBJECTS.\n\n ENQ. Will you now explain the methods by which you propose to carry out\n the second object?\n\n THEO. To collect for the library at our headquarters of Adyar, Madras,\n (and by the Fellows of their Branches for their local libraries,)\n all the good works upon the world\u2019s religions that we can. To put\n into written form correct information upon the various ancient\n philosophies, traditions, and legends, and disseminate the same\n in such practicable ways as the translation and publication of\n original works of value, and extracts from and commentaries upon\n the same, or the oral instructions of persons learned in their\n respective departments.\n\n ENQ. And what about the third object, to develop in man his latent\n spiritual or psychic powers?\n\n THEO. This has to be achieved also by means of publications, in those\n places where no lectures and personal teachings are possible.\n Our duty is to keep alive in man his spiritual intuitions. To\n oppose and counteract\u2014after due investigation and proof of its\n irrational nature\u2014bigotry in every form, religious, scientific, or\n social, and _cant_ above all, whether as religious sectarianism\n or as belief in miracles or anything supernatural. What we have\n to do is to seek to obtain _knowledge_ of all the laws of nature,\n and to diffuse it. To encourage the study of those laws least\n understood by modern people, the so-called Occult Sciences, _based\n on the true knowledge of nature_, instead of, as at present,\n on _superstitious beliefs based on blind faith and authority_.\n Popular folk-lore and traditions, however fanciful at times, when\n sifted may lead to the discovery of long-lost, but important,\n secrets of nature. The Society, therefore, aims at pursuing this\n line of inquiry, in the hope of widening the field of scientific\n and philosophical observation.\n\n\nON THE SACREDNESS OF THE PLEDGE.\n\n ENQ. Have you any ethical system that you carry out in the Society?\n\n THEO. The ethics are there, ready and clear enough for whomsoever\n follow them. They are the essence and cream of the world\u2019s ethics,\n gathered from the teachings of all the world\u2019s great reformers.\n Therefore, you will find represented therein Confucius and\n Zoroaster, Lao-Tze and the Bhagavat-Gita, the precepts of Gautama\n Buddha and Jesus of Nazareth, of Hillel and his school, as of\n Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and their schools.\n\n ENQ. Do the members of your Society carry out these precepts? I have\n heard of great dissensions and quarrels among them.\n\n THEO. Very naturally, since although the reform (in its present shape)\n may be called new, the men and women to be reformed are the\n same human, sinning natures as of old. As already said, the\n earnest _working_ members are few; but many are the sincere and\n well-disposed persons, who try their best to live up to the\n Society\u2019s and their own ideals. Our duty is to encourage and\n assist individual fellows in self-improvement, intellectual,\n moral, and spiritual; not to blame or condemn those who fail.\n We have, strictly speaking, no right to refuse admission to\n anyone\u2014especially in the _Esoteric Section_ of the Society,\n wherein \u201che who enters is as one newly born.\u201d But if any member,\n his sacred pledges on his word of honour and immortal _Self_,\n notwithstanding, chooses to continue, after that \u201cnew birth,\u201d\n with the new man, the vices or defects of his old life, and to\n indulge in them still in the Society, then, of course, he is more\n than likely to be asked to resign and withdraw; or, in case of\n his refusal, to be expelled. We have the strictest rules for such\n emergencies.\n\n ENQ. Can some of them be mentioned?\n\n THEO. They can. To begin with, no Fellow in the Society, whether\n exoteric or esoteric, has a right to force his personal opinions\n upon another Fellow. \u201cIt is not lawful for _any officer of\n the Parent Society_ to express in public, by word or act, any\n hostility to, or preference for, any one section,[13] religious\n or philosophical, more than another. All have an equal right\n to have the essential features of their religious belief laid\n before the tribunal of an impartial world. And no officer of the\n Society, in his capacity as an officer, has the right to preach\n his own sectarian views and beliefs to members assembled, except\n when the meeting consists of his co-religionists. After due\n warning, violation of this rule shall be punished by suspension\n or expulsion.\u201d This is one of the offenses in the Society at\n large. As regards the inner section, now called the _Esoteric_,\n the following rules have been laid down and adopted, so far back\n as 1880. \u201cNo Fellow shall put to his selfish use any knowledge\n communicated to him by any member of the first section (now\n a higher \u2018degree\u2019); violation of the rule being punished by\n expulsion.\u201d Now, however, before any such knowledge can be\n imparted, the applicant has to bind himself by a solemn oath not\n to use it for selfish purposes, nor to reveal anything said except\n by permission.\n\n ENQ. But is a man expelled, or resigning, from the section free to\n reveal anything he may have learned, or to break any clause of the\n pledge he has taken?\n\n THEO. Certainly not. His expulsion or resignation only relieves him\n from the obligation of obedience to the teacher, and from that of\n taking an active part in the work of the Society, but surely not\n from the sacred pledge of secrecy.\n\n ENQ. But is this reasonable and just?\n\n THEO. Most assuredly. To any man or woman with the slightest honourable\n feeling a pledge of secrecy taken even on one\u2019s _word of honour_,\n much more to one\u2019s Higher Self\u2014the God within\u2014is binding till\n death. And though he may leave the Section and the Society, no man\n or woman of honour will think of attacking or injuring a body to\n which he or she has been so pledged.\n\n ENQ. But is not this going rather far?\n\n THEO. Perhaps so, according to the low standard of the present time and\n morality. But if it does not bind as far as this, what use is\n a _pledge_ at all? How can anyone expect to be taught secret\n knowledge, if he is to be at liberty to free himself from all the\n obligations he had taken, whenever he pleases? What security,\n confidence, or trust would ever exist among them, if pledges such\n as this were to have no really binding force at all? Believe\n me, the law of retribution (Karma) would very soon overtake one\n who so broke his pledge, and perhaps as soon as the contempt of\n every honourable man would, even on this physical plane. As well\n expressed in the N. Y. \u201cPath\u201d just cited on this subject, \u201c_A\n pledge once taken, is for ever binding in both the moral and the\n occult worlds._ If we break it once and are punished, that does\n not justify us in breaking it again, and so long as we do, so long\n will the mighty lever of the Law (of Karma) react upon us.\u201d (The\n _Path_, July, 1889.)\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[10] _Vide_ (at the end) the official rules of the T.S., Appendix A.\n_Nota bene_, \u201cT.S.\u201d is an abbreviation for \u201cTheosophical Society.\u201d\n\n[11] Publicans\u2014regarded as so many thieves and pickpockets in those\ndays. Among the Jews the name and profession of a publican was the\nmost odious thing in the world. They were not allowed to enter the\nTemple, and Matthew (xviii. 17) speaks of a heathen and a publican\nas identical. Yet they were only Roman tax-gatherers occupying the\nsame position as the British officials in India and other conquered\ncountries.\n\n[12] \u201cAt the close of the Middle Ages slavery, under the power of\nmoral forces, had mainly disappeared from Europe; but two momentous\nevents occurred which overbore the moral power working in European\nsociety and let loose a swarm of curses upon the earth such as mankind\nhad scarcely ever known. One of these events was the first voyaging\nto a populated and barbarous coast where human beings were a familiar\narticle of traffic; and the other the discovery of a new world, where\nmines of glittering wealth were open, provided labour could be imported\nto work them. For four hundred years men and women and children were\ntorn from all whom they knew and loved, and were sold on the coast of\nAfrica to foreign traders; they were chained below decks\u2014the dead often\nwith the living\u2014during the horrible \u2018middle passage,\u2019 and, according to\nBancroft, an impartial historian, two hundred and fifty thousand out\nof three and a quarter millions were thrown into the sea on that fatal\npassage, while the remainder were consigned to nameless misery in the\nmines, or under the lash in the cane and rice fields. The guilt of this\ngreat crime rests on the Christian Church. \u2018In the name of the most\nHoly Trinity\u2019 the Spanish Government (Roman Catholic) concluded more\nthan ten treaties authorising the sale of five hundred thousand human\nbeings; in 1562 Sir John Hawkins sailed on his diabolical errand of\nbuying slaves in Africa and selling them in the West Indies in a ship\nwhich bore the sacred name of Jesus; while Elizabeth, the Protestant\nQueen, rewarded him for his success in this first adventure of\nEnglishmen in that inhuman traffic by allowing him to wear as his crest\n\u2018a demi-Moor in his proper colour, bound with a cord, or, in other\nwords, a manacled negro slave.\u2019\u201d\u2014_Conquests of the Cross_ (quoted from\nthe _Agnostic Journal_).\n\n[13] A \u201cbranch,\u201d or lodge, composed solely of co-religionists, or a\nbranch _in partibus_, as they are now somewhat bombastically called.\n\n\n\n\nIV. THE RELATIONS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY TO THEOSOPHY.\n\n\nON SELF-IMPROVEMENT.\n\n ENQ. Is moral elevation, then, the principal thing insisted upon in\n your Society?\n\n THEO. Undoubtedly! He who would be a true Theosophist must bring\n himself to live as one.\n\n ENQ. If so, then, as I remarked before, the behaviour of some members\n strangely belies this fundamental rule.\n\n THEO. Indeed it does. But this cannot be helped among us, any more than\n amongst those who call themselves Christians and act like fiends.\n This is no fault of our statutes and rules, but that of human\n nature. Even in some exoteric public branches, the members pledge\n themselves on their \u201cHigher Self\u201d to live _the_ life prescribed by\n Theosophy. They have to bring their _Divine Self_ to guide their\n every thought and action, every day and at every moment of their\n lives. A true Theosophist ought \u201cto deal justly and walk humbly.\u201d\n\n ENQ. What do you mean by this?\n\n THEO. Simply this: the one self has to forget itself for the many\n selves. Let me answer you in the words of a true Philaletheian,\n an F.T.S., who has beautifully expressed it in the _Theosophist_:\n \u201cWhat every man needs first is to find himself, and then take\n an honest inventory of his subjective possessions, and, bad or\n bankrupt as it may be, it is not beyond redemption if we set about\n it in earnest.\u201d But how many do? All are willing to work for their\n own development and progress; very few for those of others. To\n quote the same writer again: \u201cMen have been deceived and deluded\n long enough; they must break their idols, put away their shams,\n and go to work for themselves\u2014nay, there is one little word too\n much or too many, for he who works for himself had better not work\n at all; rather let him work himself for others, for all. For every\n flower of love and charity he plants in his neighbour\u2019s garden,\n a loathsome weed will disappear from his own, and so this garden\n of the gods\u2014Humanity\u2014shall blossom as a rose. In all Bibles,\n all religions, this is plainly set forth\u2014but designing men have\n at first misinterpreted and finally emasculated, materialized,\n besotted them. It does not require a new revelation. Let every man\n be a revelation unto himself. Let once man\u2019s immortal spirit take\n possession of the temple of his body, drive out the money-changers\n and every unclean thing, and his own divine humanity will redeem\n him, for when he is thus at one with himself if he will know the\n \u2018builder of the Temple.\u2019\u201d\n\n ENQ. This is pure Altruism, I confess.\n\n THEO. It is. And if only one Fellow of the T.S. out of ten would\n practise it ours would be a body of elect indeed. But there are\n those among the outsiders who will always refuse to see the\n essential difference between Theosophy and the Theosophical\n Society, the idea and its imperfect embodiment. Such would visit\n every sin and shortcoming of the vehicle, the human body, on the\n pure spirit which sheds thereon its divine light. Is this just to\n either? They throw stones at an association that tries to work up\n to, and for the propagation of, its ideal with most tremendous\n odds against it. Some vilify the Theosophical Society only because\n it presumes to attempt to do that in which other systems\u2014Church\n and State Christianity pre-eminently\u2014have failed most egregiously;\n others because they would fain preserve the existing state\n of things: Pharisees and Sadducees in the seat of Moses, and\n publicans and sinners revelling in high places, as under the\n Roman Empire during its decadence. Fair-minded people, at any\n rate, ought to remember that the man who does all he can, does as\n much as he who has achieved the most, in this world of relative\n possibilities. This is a simple truism, an axiom supported for\n believers in the Gospels by the parable of the talents given by\n their Master; the servant who doubled his two talents was rewarded\n as much as that other fellow-servant who had received _five_. To\n every man it is given \u201caccording to his several ability.\u201d\n\n ENQ. Yet it is rather difficult to draw the line of demarcation between\n the abstract and the concrete in this case, as we have only the\n latter to our judgment by.\n\n THEO. Then why make an exception for the T.S.? Justice, like charity,\n ought to begin at home. Will you revile and scoff at the \u201cSermon\n on the Mount\u201d because your social, political and even religious\n laws have, so far, not only failed to carry out its precepts in\n their spirit, but even in their dead letter? Abolish the oath in\n Courts, Parliament, Army and everywhere, and do as the Quakers\n do, if you _will_ call yourselves Christians. Abolish the Courts\n themselves, for if you would follow the Commandments of Christ,\n you have to give away your coat to him who deprives you of your\n cloak, and turn your left cheek to the bully who smites you on\n the right. \u201cResist not evil, love your enemies, bless them that\n curse you, do good to them that hate you,\u201d for \u201cwhosoever shall\n break one of the least of these Commandments and shall teach men\n so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven,\u201d and\n \u201cwhosoever shall say \u2018Thou fool\u2019 shall be in danger of hell fire.\u201d\n And why should you judge, if you would not be judged in your turn?\n Insist that between Theosophy and the Theosophical Society there\n is no difference, and forthwith you lay the system of Christianity\n and its very essence open to the same charges, only in a more\n serious form.\n\n ENQ. Why _more_ serious?\n\n THEO. Because, while the leaders of the Theosophical movement,\n recognising fully their shortcomings, try all they can do to amend\n their ways and uproot the evil existing in the Society; and while\n their rules and by-laws are framed in the spirit of Theosophy, the\n Legislators and the Churches of nations and countries which call\n themselves Christian do the reverse. Our members, even the worst\n among them, are no worse than the average Christian. Moreover,\n if the Western Theosophists experience so much difficulty in\n leading the true Theosophical life, it is because they are all the\n children of their generation. Every one of them was a Christian,\n bred and brought up in the sophistry of his Church, his social\n customs, and even his paradoxical laws. He was this before he\n became a Theosophist, or rather, a member of the Society of that\n name, as it cannot be too often repeated that between the abstract\n ideal and its vehicle there is a most important difference.\n\n\nTHE ABSTRACT AND THE CONCRETE.\n\n ENQ. Please elucidate this difference a little more.\n\n THEO. The Society is a great body of men and women, composed of the\n most heterogeneous elements. Theosophy, in its abstract meaning,\n is Divine Wisdom, or the aggregate of the knowledge and wisdom\n that underlie the Universe\u2014the homogeneity of eternal GOOD; and in\n its concrete sense it is the sum total of the same as allotted to\n man by nature, on this earth, and no more. Some members earnestly\n endeavour to realize and, so to speak, to objectivize Theosophy in\n their lives; while others desire only to know of, not to practise\n it; and others still may have joined the Society merely out of\n curiosity, or a passing interest, or perhaps, again, because some\n of their friends belong to it. How, then, can the system be judged\n by the standard of those who would assume the name without any\n right to it? Is poetry or its muse to be measured only by those\n would-be poets who afflict our ears? The Society can be regarded\n as the embodiment of Theosophy only in its abstract motives; it\n can never presume to call itself its concrete vehicle so long as\n human imperfections and weaknesses are all represented in its\n body; otherwise the Society would be only repeating the great\n error and the outflowing sacrileges of the so-called Churches of\n Christ. If Eastern comparisons may be permitted, Theosophy is the\n shoreless ocean of universal truth, love, and wisdom, reflecting\n its radiance on the earth, while the Theosophical Society is\n only a visible bubble on that reflection. Theosophy is divine\n nature, visible and invisible, and its Society human nature\n trying to ascend to its divine parent. Theosophy, finally, is the\n fixed eternal sun, and its Society the evanescent comet trying\n to settle in an orbit to become a planet, ever revolving within\n the attraction of the sun of truth. It was formed to assist in\n showing to men that such a thing as Theosophy exists, and to help\n them to ascend towards it by studying and assimilating its eternal\n verities.\n\n ENQ. I thought you said you had no tenets or doctrines of your own?\n\n THEO. No more we have. The Society has no wisdom of its own to support\n or teach. It is simply the storehouse of all the truths uttered\n by the great seers, initiates, and prophets of historic and even\n pre-historic ages; at least, as many as it can get. Therefore, it\n is merely the channel through which more or less of truth, found\n in the accumulated utterances of humanity\u2019s great teachers, is\n poured out into the world.\n\n ENQ. But is such truth unreachable outside of the Society? Does not\n every Church claim the same?\n\n THEO. Not at all. The undeniable existence of great initiates\u2014true\n \u201cSons of God\u201d\u2014shows that such wisdom was often reached by isolated\n individuals, never, however, without the guidance of a master\n at first. But most of the followers of such, when they became\n masters in their turn, have dwarfed the catholicism of these\n teachings into the narrow groove of their own sectarian dogmas.\n The commandments of _a_ chosen master alone were then adopted and\n followed, to the exclusion of all others\u2014if followed at all, note\n well, as in the case of the Sermon on the Mount. Each religion is\n thus a bit of the divine truth, made to focus a vast panorama of\n human fancy which claimed to represent and replace that truth.\n\n ENQ. But Theosophy, you say, is not a religion?\n\n THEO. Most assuredly it is not, since it is the essence of all religion\n and of absolute truth, a drop of which only underlies every creed.\n To resort once more to metaphor. Theosophy, on earth, is like\n the white ray of the spectrum, and every religion only one of the\n seven prismatic colours. Ignoring all the others, and cursing them\n as false, every special coloured ray claims not only priority,\n but to be _that white ray_ itself, and anathematizes even its\n own tints from light to dark, as heresies. Yet, as the sun of\n truth rises higher and higher on the horizon of man\u2019s perception,\n and each coloured ray gradually fades out until it is finally\n reabsorbed in its turn, humanity will at last be cursed no longer\n with artificial polarizations, but will find itself bathing in\n the pure colourless sunlight of eternal truth. And this will be\n _Theosophia_.\n\n ENQ. Your claim is, then, that all the great religions are derived from\n Theosophy, and that it is by assimilating it that the world will\n be finally saved from the curse of its great illusions and errors?\n\n THEO. Precisely so. And we add that our Theosophical Society is the\n humble seed which, if watered and left to live, will finally\n produce the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil which is grafted on\n the Tree of Life Eternal. For it is only by studying the various\n great religions and philosophies of humanity, by comparing them\n dispassionately and with an unbiased mind, that men can hope to\n arrive at the truth. It is especially by finding out and noting\n their various points of agreement that we may achieve this result.\n For no sooner do we arrive\u2014either by study, or by being taught by\n someone who knows\u2014at their inner meaning, than we find, almost in\n every case, that it expresses some great truth in Nature.\n\n ENQ. We have heard of a Golden Age that was, and what you describe\n would be a Golden Age to be realised at some future day. When\n shall it be?\n\n THEO. Not before humanity, as a whole, feels the need of it. A maxim in\n the Persian \u201cJavidan Khirad\u201d says: \u201cTruth is of two kinds\u2014one\n manifest and self-evident; the other demanding incessantly new\n demonstrations and proofs.\u201d It is only when this latter kind\n of truth becomes as universally obvious as it is now dim, and\n therefore liable to be distorted by sophistry and casuistry; it is\n only when the two kinds will have become once more one, that all\n people will be brought to see alike.\n\n ENQ. But surely those few who have felt the need of such truths must\n have made up their minds to believe in something definite? You\n tell me that, the Society having no doctrines of its own, every\n member may believe as he chooses and accept what he pleases. This\n looks as if the Theosophical Society was bent upon reviving the\n confusion of languages and beliefs of the Tower of Babel of old.\n Have you no beliefs in common?\n\n THEO. What is meant by the Society having no tenets or doctrines of its\n own is, that no special doctrines or beliefs are _obligatory_ on\n its members; but, of course, this applies only to the body as a\n whole. The Society, as you were told, is divided into an outer and\n an inner body. Those who belong to the latter have, of course, a\n philosophy, or\u2014if you so prefer it\u2014 a religious system of their\n own.\n\n ENQ. May we be told what it is?\n\n THEO. We make no secret of it. It was outlined a few years ago in the\n _Theosophist_ and \u201cEsoteric Buddhism,\u201d and may be found still\n more elaborated in the \u201cSecret Doctrine.\u201d It is based on the\n oldest philosophy in the world, called the Wisdom-Religion or the\n Archaic Doctrine. If you like, you may ask questions and have them\n explained.\n\n\n\n\nV. THE FUNDAMENTAL TEACHINGS OF THEOSOPHY.\n\n\nON GOD AND PRAYER.\n\n ENQ. Do you believe in God?\n\n THEO. That depends what you mean by the term.\n\n ENQ. I mean the God of the Christians, the Father of Jesus, and the\n Creator: the Biblical God of Moses, in short.\n\n THEO. In such a God we do not believe. We reject the idea of a\n personal, or an extra-cosmic and anthropomorphic God, who is\n but the gigantic shadow of _man_, and not of man at his best,\n either. The God of theology, we say\u2014and prove it\u2014is a bundle of\n contradictions and a logical impossibility. Therefore, we will\n have nothing to do with him.\n\n ENQ. State your reasons, if you please.\n\n THEO. They are many, and cannot all receive attention. But here are a\n few. This God is called by his devotees infinite and absolute, is\n he not?\n\n ENQ. I believe he is.\n\n THEO. Then, if infinite\u2014_i.e._, limitless\u2014and especially if absolute,\n how can he have a form, and be a creator of anything? Form implies\n limitation, and a beginning as well as an end; and, in order\n to create, a Being must think and plan. How can the ABSOLUTE\n be supposed to think\u2014_i.e._, to have any relation whatever\n to that which is limited, finite, and conditioned? This is a\n philosophical and a logical absurdity. Even the Hebrew Kabala\n rejects such an idea, and therefore makes of the one and the\n Absolute Deific Principle an infinite Unity called Ain-Soph.[14]\n In order to create, the Creator has to become active; and as\n this is impossible for ABSOLUTENESS, the infinite principle had\n to be shown becoming the cause of evolution (not creation) in an\n indirect way\u2014_i.e._, through the emanation from itself (another\n absurdity, due this time to the translators of the Kabala)[15] of\n the Sephiroth.\n\n ENQ. How about those Kabalists, who, while being such, still believe in\n Jehovah, or the _Tetragrammaton_?\n\n THEO. They are at liberty to believe in what they please, as their\n belief or disbelief can hardly affect a self-evident fact.\n The Jesuits tell us that two and two are not always four to a\n certainty, since it depends on the will of God to make 2 x 2 = 5.\n Shall we accept their sophistry for all that?\n\n ENQ. Then you are Atheists?\n\n THEO. Not that we know of, and not unless the epithet of \u201cAtheist\u201d is\n to be applied to those who disbelieve in an anthropomorphic God.\n We believe in a Universal Divine Principle, the root of ALL, from\n which all proceeds, and within which all shall be absorbed at the\n end of the great cycle of Being.\n\n ENQ. This is the old, old claim of Pantheism. If you are Pantheists,\n you cannot be Deists; and if you are not Deists, then you have to\n answer to the name of Atheists.\n\n THEO. Not necessarily so. The term \u201cPantheism\u201d is again one of the many\n abused terms, whose real and primitive meaning has been distorted\n by blind prejudice and a one-sided view of it. If you accept the\n Christian etymology of this compound word, and form it of \u03c0\u03b1\u03bd,\n \u201call,\u201d and \u03b8\u03b5\u03bf\u03c2, \u201cgod,\u201d and then imagine and teach that this means\n that every stone and every tree in Nature is a God or the ONE\n God, then, of course, you will be right, and make of Pantheists\n fetish-worshippers, in addition to their legitimate name. But you\n will hardly be as successful if you etymologise the word Pantheism\n esoterically, and as we do.\n\n ENQ. What is, then your definition of it?\n\n THEO. Let me ask you a question in my turn. What do you understand by\n Pan or Nature?\n\n ENQ. Nature is, I suppose, the sum total of things existing around us;\n the aggregate of causes and effects in the world of matter, the\n creation or universe.\n\n THEO. Hence the personified sum and order of known causes and effects;\n the total of all finite agencies and forces, as utterly\n disconnected from an intelligent Creator or Creators, and\n perhaps \u201cconceived of as a single and separate force\u201d\u2014as in your\n cyclop\u00e6dias?\n\n ENQ. Yes, I believe so.\n\n THEO. Well, we neither take into consideration this objective and\n material nature, which we call an evanescent illusion, nor do\n we mean by \u03c0\u03b1\u03bd Nature, in the sense of its accepted derivation\n from the Latin _Natura_ (becoming, from _nasci_, to be born).\n When we speak of the Deity and make it identical, hence coeval,\n with Nature, the eternal and uncreate nature is meant, and not\n your aggregate of flitting shadows and finite unrealities. We\n leave it to the hymn-makers to call the visible sky or heaven,\n God\u2019s Throne, and our earth of mud His footstool. Our DEITY is\n neither in a paradise, nor in a particular tree, building, or\n mountain; it is everywhere, in every atom of the visible as of the\n invisible Cosmos, in, over, and around every invisible atom and\n divisible molecule; for IT is the mysterious power of evolution\n and involution, the omnipresent, omnipotent, and even omniscient\n creative potentiality.\n\n ENQ. Stop! Omniscience is the prerogative of something that thinks, and\n you deny to your Absoluteness the power of thought.\n\n THEO. We deny it to the ABSOLUTE, since thought is something limited\n and conditioned. But you evidently forget that in philosophy\n absolute unconsciousness is also absolute consciousness, as\n otherwise it would not be _absolute_.\n\n ENQ. Then your Absolute thinks?\n\n THEO. No, IT does not; for the simple reason that it is _Absolute\n Thought_ itself. Nor does it exist, for the same reason, as it\n is absolute existence, and _Be-ness_, not a Being. Read the\n superb Kabalistic poem by Solomon Ben Jehudah Gabirol, in the\n Kether-Malchut, and you will understand:\u2014\u201cThou art one, the root\n of all numbers, but not as an element of numeration; for unity\n admits not of multiplication, change, or form. Thou art one, and\n in the secret of Thy unity the wisest of men are lost, because\n they know it not. Thou art one, and Thy unity is never diminished,\n never extended, and cannot be changed. Thou art one, and no\n thought of mine can fix for Thee a limit, or define Thee. Thou\n ART, but not as one existent, for the understanding and vision of\n mortals cannot attain to Thy existence, nor determine for Thee the\n where, the how and the why,\u201d etc., etc. In short, our Deity is the\n eternal, incessantly _evolving_, not _creating_, builder of the\n universe; that _universe itself unfolding_ out of its own essence,\n not being _made_. It is a sphere, without circumference, in its\n symbolism, which has but one ever-acting attribute embracing all\n other existing or thinkable attributes\u2014ITSELF. It is the one law,\n giving the impulse to manifested, eternal, and immutable laws,\n within that never-manifesting, _because_ absolute LAW, which in\n its manifesting periods is _The ever-Becoming_.\n\n ENQ. I once heard one of your members remarking that Universal Deity,\n being everywhere, was in vessels of dishonour, as in those of\n honour, and, therefore, was present in every atom of my cigar ash!\n Is this not rank blasphemy?\n\n THEO. I do not think so, as simple logic can hardly be regarded as\n blasphemy. Were we to exclude the Omnipresent Principle from one\n single mathematical point of the universe, or from a particle of\n matter occupying any conceivable space, could we still regard it\n as infinite?\n\n\nIS IT NECESSARY TO PRAY?\n\n ENQ. Do you believe in prayer, and do you ever pray?\n\n THEO. We do not. We _act_, instead of _talking_.\n\n ENQ. You do not offer prayers even to the Absolute Principle?\n\n THEO. Why should we? Being well-occupied people, we can hardly afford\n to lose time in addressing verbal prayers to a pure abstraction.\n The Unknowable is capable of relations only in its parts to each\n other, but is non-existent as regards any finite relations. The\n visible universe depends for its existence and phenomena on its\n mutually acting forms and their laws, not on prayer or prayers.\n\n ENQ. Do you not believe at all in the efficacy of prayer?\n\n THEO. Not in prayer taught in so many words and repeated externally, if\n by prayer you mean the outward petition to an unknown God as the\n addressee, which was inaugurated by the Jews and popularised by\n the Pharisees.\n\n ENQ. Is there any other kind of prayer?\n\n THEO. Most decidedly; we call it WILL-PRAYER, and it is rather an\n internal command than a petition.\n\n ENQ. To whom, then, do you pray when you do so?\n\n THEO. To \u201cour Father in heaven\u201d\u2014in its esoteric meaning.\n\n ENQ. Is that different from the one given to it in theology?\n\n THEO. Entirely so. An Occultist or a Theosophist addresses his prayer\n to _his Father which is in secret_ (read, and try to understand,\n ch. vi. v. 6, Matthew), not to an extra-cosmic and therefore\n finite God; and that \u201cFather\u201d is in man himself.\n\n ENQ. Then you make of man a God?\n\n THEO. Please say \u201cGod\u201d and not _a_ God. In our sense, the inner man is\n the only God we can have cognizance of. And how can this be\n otherwise? Grant us our postulate that God is a universally\n diffused, infinite principle, and how can man alone escape from\n being soaked through _by_, and _in_, the Deity? We call our\n \u201cFather in heaven\u201d that deific essence of which we are cognizant\n within us, in our heart and spiritual consciousness, and which\n has nothing to do with the anthropomorphic conception we may form\n of it in our physical brain or its fancy: \u201cKnow ye not that ye\n are the temple of God, and that the great spirit of that the\n spirit of (the absolute) God dwelleth in you?\u201d[16] Yet, let no\n man anthropomorphise that essence in us. Let no Theosophist, if\n he would hold to divine, not human truth, say that this \u201cGod in\n secret\u201d listens to, or is distinct from, either finite man or the\n infinite essence\u2014for all are one. Nor, as just remarked, that a\n prayer is a petition. It is a mystery rather; an occult process\n by which finite and conditioned thoughts and desires, unable to\n be assimilated by the absolute spirit which is unconditioned, are\n translated into spiritual wills and the will; such process being\n called \u201cspiritual transmutation.\u201d The intensity of our ardent\n aspirations changes prayer into the \u201cphilosopher\u2019s stone,\u201d or\n that which transmutes lead into pure gold. The only homogeneous\n essence, our \u201cwill-power\u201d becomes the active or creative force,\n producing effects according to our desire.\n\n ENQ. Do you mean to say that prayer is an occult process bringing about\n physical results?\n\n THEO. I do. _Will-Power_ becomes a living power. But woe unto those\n Occultists and Theosophists, who, instead of crushing out the\n desires of the lower personal _ego_ or physical man, and saying,\n addressing their _Higher_ Spiritual Ego immersed in Atma-Buddhic\n light, \u201cThy will be done, not mine,\u201d etc., send up waves of\n will-power for selfish or unholy purposes! For this is black\n magic, abomination, and spiritual sorcery. Unfortunately, all\n this is the favorite occupation of our Christian statesmen and\n generals, especially when the latter are sending two armies to\n murder each other. Both indulge before action in a bit of such\n sorcery, by offering respectively prayers to the same God of\n Hosts, each entreating his help to cut its enemies\u2019 throats.\n\n ENQ. David prayed to the Lord of Hosts to help him smite the\n Philistines and slay the Syrians and the Moabites, and \u201cthe Lord\n preserved David whithersoever he went.\u201d In that we only follow\n what we find in the Bible.\n\n THEO. Of course you do. But since you delight in calling yourselves\n Christians, not Israelites or Jews, as far as we know, why do\n you not rather follow that which Christ says? And he distinctly\n commands you not to follow \u201cthem of old times,\u201d or the Mosaic law,\n but bids you do as he tells you, and warns those who would kill\n by the sword, that they, too, will perish by the sword. Christ\n has given you one prayer of which you have made a lip prayer and\n a boast, and which none but the _true_ Occultist understands. In\n it you say, in your dead-sense meaning: \u201cForgive us our debts, as\n we forgive our debtors,\u201d which you never do. Again, he told you\n to _love your enemies_ and do _good to them that hate you_. It is\n surely not the \u201cmeek prophet of Nazareth\u201d who taught you to pray\n to your \u201cFather\u201d to slay, and give you victory over your enemies!\n This is why we reject what you call \u201cprayers.\u201d\n\n ENQ. But how do you explain the universal fact that all nations and\n peoples have prayed to, and worshipped a God or Gods? Some have\n adored and propitiated _devils_ and harmful spirits, but this only\n proves the universality of the belief in the efficacy of prayer.\n\n THEO. It is explained by that other fact that prayer has several other\n meanings besides that given it by the Christians. It means not\n only a pleading or _petition_, but meant, in days of old, far more\n an invocation and incantation. The _mantra_, or the rhythmically\n chanted prayer of the Hindus, has precisely such a meaning, as the\n Brahmins hold themselves higher than the common _devas_ or \u201cGods.\u201d\n A prayer may be an appeal or an incantation for malediction, and\n a curse (as in the case of two armies praying simultaneously for\n mutual destruction) as much as for blessing. And as the great\n majority of people are intensely selfish, and pray only for\n themselves, asking to be _given_ their \u201cdaily bread\u201d instead of\n working for it, and begging God not to lead them \u201cinto temptation\u201d\n but to deliver them (the memoralists only) from evil, the result\n is, that prayer, as now understood, is doubly pernicious: (_a_)\n It kills in man self-reliance; (_b_) It develops in him a still\n more ferocious selfishness and egotism than he is already endowed\n with by nature. I repeat, that we believe in \u201ccommunion\u201d and\n simultaneous action in unison with our \u201cFather in secret\u201d; and\n in rare moments of ecstatic bliss, in the mingling of our higher\n soul with the universal essence, attracted as it is towards its\n origin and centre, a state, called during life _Samadhi_, and\n after death, _Nirvana_. We refuse to pray to _created_ finite\n beings\u2014_i.e._, gods, saints, angels, etc., because we regard it\n as idolatry. We cannot pray to the ABSOLUTE for reasons explained\n before; therefore, we try to replace fruitless and useless prayer\n by meritorious and good-producing actions.\n\n ENQ. Christians would call it pride and blasphemy. Are they wrong?\n\n THEO. Entirely so. It is they, on the contrary, who show Satanic pride\n in their belief that the Absolute or the Infinite, even if there\n was such a thing as the possibility of any relation between the\n unconditioned and the conditioned\u2014will stoop to listen to every\n foolish or egotistical prayer. And it is they again, who virtually\n blaspheme, in teaching that an Omniscient and Omnipotent God\n needs uttered prayers to know what he has to do! This\u2014understood\n esoterically\u2014is corroborated by both Buddha and Jesus. The one\n says \u201cseek nought from the helpless Gods\u2014pray not! _but rather\n act_; for darkness will not brighten. Ask nought from silence, for\n it can neither speak nor hear.\u201d And the other\u2014Jesus\u2014recommends:\n \u201cWhatsoever ye shall ask in my name (that of Christos) that will I\n do.\u201d Of course, this quotation, if taken in its _literal_ sense,\n goes against our argument. But if we accept it esoterically, with\n the full knowledge of the meaning of the term, \u201cChristos,\u201d which\n to us represents _Atma-Buddhi-Manas_, the \u201cSELF,\u201d it comes to\n this: the only God we must recognise and pray to, or rather act\n in unison with, is that spirit of God of which our body is the\n temple, and in which it dwelleth.\n\n\nPRAYER KILLS SELF RELIANCE.\n\n ENQ. But did not Christ himself pray and recommend prayer?\n\n THEO. It is so recorded, but those \u201cprayers\u201d are precisely of that kind\n of communion just mentioned with one\u2019s \u201cFather in secret.\u201d\n Otherwise, and if we identify Jesus with the universal deity,\n there would be something too absurdly illogical in the inevitable\n conclusion that he, the \u201cvery God himself\u201d _prayed to himself_,\n and separated the will of that God from his own!\n\n ENQ. One argument more; an argument, moreover, much used by some\n Christians. They say, \u201cI feel that I am not able to conquer any\n passions and weaknesses in my own strength. But when I pray to\n Jesus Christ I feel that he gives me strength and that in his\n power I am able to conquer.\u201d\n\n THEO. No wonder. If \u201cChrist Jesus\u201d is God, and one independent and\n separate from him who prays, of course everything is, and\n _must_ be possible to \u201ca mighty God.\u201d But, then, where\u2019s the\n merit, or justice either, of such a conquest? Why should the\n pseudo-conqueror be rewarded for something done which has cost\n him only prayers? Would you, even a simple mortal man, pay your\n labourer a full day\u2019s wage if you did most of his work for him, he\n sitting under an apple tree, and praying to you to do so, all the\n while? This idea of passing one\u2019s whole life in moral idleness,\n and having one\u2019s hardest work and duty done by another\u2014whether God\n or man\u2014is most revolting to us, as it is most degrading to human\n dignity.\n\n ENQ. Perhaps so, yet it is the idea of trusting in a personal Saviour\n to help and strengthen in the battle of life, which is the\n fundamental idea of modern Christianity. And there is no doubt\n that, subjectively, such belief is efficacious, _i.e._, that those\n who believe _do_ feel themselves helped and strengthened.\n\n THEO. Nor is there any more doubt, that some patients of \u201cChristian\u201d\n and \u201cMental Scientists\u201d\u2014the great \u201c_Deniers_\u201d[17]\u2014are also\n sometimes cured; nor that hypnotism, and suggestion, psychology,\n and even mediumship, will produce such results, as often, if not\n oftener. You take into consideration, and string on the thread of\n your argument, successes alone. And how about ten times the number\n of failures? Surely you will not presume to say that failure is\n unknown even with a sufficiency of blind faith, among fanatical\n Christians?\n\n ENQ. But how can you explain those cases which are followed by full\n success? Where does a Theosophist look to for power to subdue his\n passions and selfishness?\n\n THEO. To his Higher Self, the divine spirit, or the God in him, and to\n his _Karma_. How long shall we have to repeat over and over again\n that the tree is known by its fruit, the nature of the cause by\n its effects? You speak of subduing passions, and becoming good\n through and with the help of God or Christ. We ask, where do\n you find more virtuous, guiltless people, abstaining from sin\n and crime, in Christendom or Buddhism\u2014in Christian countries or\n in heathen lands? Statistics are there to give the answer and\n corroborate our claims. According to the last census in Ceylon and\n India, in the comparative table of crimes committed by Christians,\n Mussulmen, Hindoos, Eurasians, Buddhists, etc., etc., on two\n millions of population taken at random from each, and covering the\n misdemeanours of several years, the proportion of crimes committed\n by the Christian stands as 15 to 4 as against those committed\n by the Buddhist population. (Vide LUCIFER for April, 1888, p.\n 147, Art. Christian Lectures on Buddhism.) No Orientalist, no\n historian of any note, or traveller in Buddhist land, from Bishop\n Bigandet and Abb\u00e9 Huc, to Sir William Hunter and every fair-minded\n official, will fail to give the palm of virtue to Buddhists before\n Christians. Yet the former (not the true Buddhist Siamese sect,\n at all events) do not believe in either God or a future reward,\n outside of this earth. They do not pray, neither priests nor\n laymen. \u201cPray!\u201d they would exclaim in wonder, \u201cto whom, or what?\u201d\n\n ENQ. Then they are truly Atheists.\n\n THEO. Most undeniably, but they are also the most virtue-loving and\n virtue-keeping men in the whole world. Buddhism says: Respect the\n religions of other men and remain true to your own; but Church\n Christianity, denouncing all the gods of other nations as devils,\n would doom every _non_-Christian to eternal perdition.\n\n ENQ. Does not the Buddhist priesthood do the same?\n\n THEO. Never. They hold too much to the wise precept found in the\n DHAMMAPADA to do so, for they know that, \u201cIf any man, whether he\n be learned or not, consider himself so great as to despise other\n men, he is like a blind man holding a candle\u2014blind himself, he\n illumines others.\u201d\n\n\nON THE SOURCE OF THE HUMAN SOUL.\n\n ENQ. How, then, do you account for man being endowed with a Spirit and\n Soul? Whence these?\n\n THEO. From the Universal Soul. Certainly not bestowed by a _personal_\n God. Whence the moist element in the jelly-fish? From the Ocean\n which surrounds it, in which it lives and breathes and has its\n being, and whither it returns when dissolved.\n\n ENQ. So you reject the teaching that Soul is given, or breathed into\n man, by God?\n\n THEO. We are obliged to. The \u201cSoul\u201d spoken of in ch. ii. of Genesis\n (v. 7) is, as therein stated, the \u201cliving Soul\u201d or _Nephesh_\n (the _vital_, animal soul) with which God (we say \u201cnature\u201d and\n _immutable law_) endows man like every animal, is not at all the\n thinking Soul or mind; least of all is it the _immortal Spirit_.\n\n ENQ. Well, let us put it otherwise: is it God who endows man with a\n human _rational_ Soul and immortal Spirit?\n\n THEO. Again, in the way you put the question, we must object to it.\n Since we believe in no _personal_ God, how can we believe that he\n endows man with anything? But granting, for the sake of argument,\n a God who takes upon himself the risk of creating a new Soul for\n every new-born baby, all that can be said is that such a God\n can hardly be regarded as himself endowed with any wisdom or\n prevision. Certain other difficulties and the impossibility of\n reconciling this with the claims made for the mercy, justice,\n equity and omniscience of that God, are so many deadly reefs on\n which this theological dogma is daily and hourly broken.\n\n ENQ. What do you mean? What difficulties?\n\n THEO. I am thinking of an unanswerable argument offered once in my\n presence by a Cingalese Buddhist priest, a famous preacher, to\n a Christian missionary\u2014one in no way ignorant or unprepared for\n the public discussion during which it was advanced. It was near\n Colombo, and the Missionary had challenged the priest Megattivati\n to give his reasons why the Christian God should not be accepted\n by the \u201cheathen.\u201d Well, the Missionary came out of that for ever\n memorable discussion second best, as usual.\n\n ENQ. I should be glad to learn in what way.\n\n THEO. Simply this: the Buddhist priest premised by asking the _padri_\n whether his God had given commandments to Moses only for men to\n keep, but to be broken by God himself. The missionary denied\n the supposition indignantly. Well, said his opponent, \u201cyou tell\n us that God makes no exceptions to this rule, and that no Soul\n can be born without his will. Now God forbids adultery, among\n other things, and yet you say in the same breath that it is he\n who creates every baby born, and he who endows it with a Soul.\n Are we then to understand that the millions of children born in\n crime and adultery are your God\u2019s work? That your God forbids and\n punishes the breaking of his laws; and that, nevertheless, _he\n creates daily and hourly souls for just such children_? According\n to the simplest logic, your God is an accomplice in the crime;\n since, but for his help and interference, no such children of lust\n could be born. Where is the justice of punishing not only the\n guilty parents but even the innocent babe for that which is done\n by that very God, whom yet you exonerate from any guilt himself?\u201d\n The missionary looked at his watch and suddenly found it was\n getting too late for further discussion.\n\n ENQ. You forget that all such inexplicable cases are mysteries, and\n that we are forbidden by our religion to pry into the mysteries of\n God.\n\n THEO. No, we do not forget, but simply reject such impossibilities. Nor\n do we want you to believe as we do. We only answer the questions\n you ask. We have, however, another name for your \u201cmysteries.\u201d\n\n\nTHE BUDDHIST TEACHINGS ON THE ABOVE.\n\n ENQ. What does Buddhism teach with regard to the Soul?\n\n THEO. It depends whether you mean exoteric, popular Buddhism, or its\n esoteric teachings. The former explains itself in the _Buddhist\n Catechism_ in this wise: \u201cSoul it considers a word used by the\n ignorant to express a false idea. If everything is subject to\n change, then man is included, and every material part of him\n must change. That which is subject to change is not permanent,\n so there can be no immortal survival of a changeful thing.\u201d This\n seems plain and definite. But when we come to the question that\n the new personality in each succeeding re-birth is the aggregate\n of \u201c_Skandhas_,\u201d or the attributes, of the _old_ personality,\n and ask whether this new aggregation of _Skandhas_ is a _new_\n being likewise, in which nothing has remained of the last, we\n read that: \u201cIn one sense it is a new being, in another it is\n not. During this life the Skandhas are continually changing,\n while the man A. B. of forty is identical as regards personality\n with the youth A. B. of eighteen, yet by the continual waste and\n reparation of his body and change of mind and character, he is\n a different being. Nevertheless, the man in his old age justly\n reaps the reward or suffering consequent upon his thoughts and\n actions at every previous stage of his life. So the new being of\n the re-birth, being the _same individuality as before_ (but not\n the same personality), with but a changed form, or new aggregation\n of _Skandhas_, justly reaps the consequences of his actions and\n thoughts in the previous existence.\u201d This is abstruse metaphysics,\n and plainly does not express _disbelief_ in Soul by any means.\n\n ENQ. Is not something like this spoken of in _Esoteric Buddhism_?\n\n THEO. It is, for this teaching belongs both to Esoteric _Budhism_ or\n Secret Wisdom, and to the exoteric Buddhism, or the religious\n philosophy of Gautama Buddha.\n\n ENQ. But we are distinctly told that most of the Buddhists do not\n believe in the Soul\u2019s immortality?\n\n THEO. No more do we, if you mean by Soul the _personal Ego_, or\n life-Soul\u2014_Nephesh_. But every learned Buddhist believes in\n the individual or _divine Ego_. Those who do not, err in their\n judgment. They are as mistaken on this point, as those Christians\n who mistake the theological interpolations of the later editors\n of the Gospels about damnation and hell-fire, for _verbatim_\n utterances of Jesus. Neither Buddha nor \u201cChrist\u201d ever wrote\n anything themselves, but both spoke in allegories and used \u201cdark\n sayings,\u201d as all true Initiates did, and will do for a long time\n yet to come. Both Scriptures treat of all such metaphysical\n questions very cautiously, and both, Buddhist and Christian\n records, sin by that excess of exotericism; the dead letter\n meaning far overshooting the mark in both cases.\n\n ENQ. Do you mean to suggest that neither the teachings of Buddha nor\n those of Christ have been heretofore rightly understood?\n\n THEO. What I mean is just as you say. Both Gospels, the Buddhist and\n the Christian, were preached with the same object in view.\n Both reformers were ardent philanthropists and practical\n _altruists\u2014preaching most unmistakably Socialism_ of the noblest\n and highest type, self-sacrifice to the bitter end. \u201cLet the sins\n of the whole world fall upon me that I may relieve man\u2019s misery\n and suffering!\u201d cries Buddha; ... \u201cI would not let one cry whom I\n could save!\u201d exclaims the Prince-beggar, clad in the refuse rags\n of the burial-grounds. \u201cCome unto me all ye that labour and are\n heavy laden and I will give you rest,\u201d is the appeal to the poor\n and the disinherited made by the \u201cMan of Sorrows,\u201d who hath not\n where to lay his head. The teachings of both are boundless love\n for humanity, charity, forgiveness of injury, forgetfulness of\n self, and pity for the deluded masses; both show the same contempt\n for riches, and make no difference between _meum_ and _tuum_.\n Their desire was, without revealing to _all_ the sacred mysteries\n of initiation, to give the ignorant and the misled, whose burden\n in life was too heavy for them, hope enough and an inkling into\n the truth sufficient to support them in their heaviest hours. But\n the object of both Reformers was frustrated, owing to excess of\n zeal of their later followers. The words of the Masters having\n been misunderstood and misinterpreted, behold the consequences!\n\n ENQ. But surely Buddha must have repudiated the soul\u2019s immortality, if\n all the Orientalists and his own Priests say so!\n\n THEO. The Arhats began by following the policy of their Master and the\n majority of the subsequent priests were not initiated, just as in\n Christianity; and so, little by little, the great esoteric truths\n became almost lost. A proof in point is, that, out of the two\n existing sects in Ceylon, the Siamese believes death to be the\n absolute annihilation of individuality and personality, and the\n other explains Nirvana, as we theosophists do.\n\n ENQ. But why, in that case, do Buddhism and Christianity represent the\n two opposite poles of such belief?\n\n THEO. Because the conditions under which they were preached were not\n the same. In India the Brahmins, jealous of their superior\n knowledge, and excluding from it every caste save their own, had\n driven millions of men into idolatry and almost fetishism. Buddha\n had to give the death-blow to an exuberance of unhealthy fancy\n and fanatical superstition resulting from ignorance, such as has\n rarely been known before or after. Better a philosophical atheism\n than such ignorant worship for those\u2014\n\n \u201cWho cry upon their gods and are not heard,\n Or are not heeded\u2014\u201d\n\n and who live and die in mental despair. He had to arrest first of\n all this muddy torrent of superstition, to uproot _errors_ before\n he gave out the truth. And as he could not give out _all_, for\n the same good reason as Jesus, who reminds _his_ disciples that\n the Mysteries of Heaven are not for the unintelligent masses, but\n for the elect alone, and therefore \u201cspake he to them in parables\u201d\n (Matt. xiii. 11)\u2014so his caution led Buddha _to conceal too much_.\n He even refused to say to the monk Vacchagotta whether there was,\n or was not an Ego in man. When pressed to answer, \u201cthe Exalted one\n maintained silence.\u201d[18]\n\n ENQ. This refers to Gautama, but in what way does it touch the Gospels?\n\n THEO. Read history and think over it. At the time the events narrated\n in the Gospels are alleged to have happened, there was a similar\n intellectual fermentation taking place in the whole civilized\n world, only with opposite results in the East and the West. The\n old gods were dying out. While the civilized classes drifted\n in the train of the unbelieving Sadducees into materialistic\n negations and mere dead-letter Mosaic form in Palestine, and\n into moral dissolution in Rome, the lowest and poorer classes\n ran after sorcery and strange gods, or became hypocrites and\n pharisees. Once more the time for a spiritual reform had arrived.\n The cruel, anthropomorphic and jealous God of the Jews, with his\n sanguinary laws of \u201can eye for eye and tooth for tooth,\u201d of the\n shedding of blood and animal sacrifice, had to be relegated to a\n secondary place and replaced by the merciful \u201cFather in Secret.\u201d\n The latter had to be shown, not as an extra-Cosmic God, but as a\n divine Saviour of the man of flesh, enshrined in his own heart\n and soul, in the poor as in the rich. No more here than in India,\n could the secrets of initiation be divulged, lest by giving that\n which is holy to the dogs, and casting pearls before swine, both\n the _Revealer_ and the things revealed should be trodden under\n foot. Thus, the reticence of both Buddha and Jesus\u2014whether the\n latter lived out the historic period allotted to him or not, and\n who equally abstained from revealing plainly the Mysteries of Life\n and Death\u2014led in the one case to the blank negations of Southern\n Buddhism, and in the other, to the three clashing forms of the\n Christian Church and the 300 sects in Protestant England alone.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[14] Ain-Soph, \u05d0\u05d9\u05df \u05e1\u05d9\u05e3 = \u03c4\u1f78 \u03c0\u03ac\u03b3 = \u1f14\u03c0\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2 Nature, the non-existent\nwhich IS, but is not _a_ Being.\n\n[15] How can the non-active eternal principle emanate or emit? The\nParabrahm of the Vedantins does nothing of the kind; nor does the\nAin-Soph of the Chaldean Kabala. It is an eternal and periodical law\nwhich causes an active and creative force (the logos) to emanate from\nthe ever-concealed and incomprehensible one principle at the beginning\nof every maha-manvantara, or new cycle of life.\n\n[16] One often finds in Theosophical writings conflicting statements\nabout the Christos principle in man. Some call it the sixth principle\n(_Buddhi_), others the seventh (_Atman_). If Christian Theosophists\nwish to make use of such expressions, let them be made philosophically\ncorrect by following the analogy of the old Wisdom-Religion symbols.\nWe say that Christos is not only one of the three higher principles,\nbut all the three regarded as a Trinity. This Trinity represents\nthe Holy Ghost, the Father, and the Son, as it answers to abstract\nspirit, differentiated spirit, and embodied spirit. Krishna and Christ\nare philosophically the same principle under its triple aspect of\nmanifestation. In the _Bhagavatgita_ we find Krishna calling himself\nindifferently Atman, the abstract Spirit, Kshetragna, the Higher or\nreincarnating Ego, and the Universal SELF, all names which, when\ntransferred from the Universe to man, answer to _Atma_, _Buddhi_ and\n_Manas_. The _Anugita_ is full of the same doctrine.\n\n[17] The new sect of healers, who, by disavowing the existence of\nanything but spirit, which spirit can neither suffer nor be ill, claim\nto cure all and every disease, provided the patient has faith that what\nhe denies can have no existence. A new form of self-hypnotism.\n\n[18] Buddha gives to Ananda, his _initiated_ disciple, who enquires\nfor the reason of this silence, a plain and unequivocal answer in the\ndialogue translated by Oldenburg from the _Samyuttaka Nikaya_:\u2014\u201cIf\nI, Ananda, when the wandering monk Vacchagotta asked me: \u2018Is there\nthe Ego?\u2019 had answered \u2018The Ego is,\u2019 then that, Ananda, would have\nconfirmed the doctrine of the Samanas and Brahmanas, who believed in\npermanence. If I, Ananda, when the wandering monk Vacchagotta asked\nme, \u2018Is there not the Ego?\u2019 had answered, \u2018The Ego is not,\u2019 then\nthat, Ananda, would have confirmed the doctrine of those who believed\nin annihilation. If I, Ananda, when the wandering monk Vacchagotta\nasked me, \u2018Is there the Ego?\u2019 had answered, \u2018The Ego is,\u2019 would that\nhave served my end, Ananda, by producing in him the knowledge: all\nexistences (dhamma) are non-ego? But if I, Ananda, had answered, \u2018The\nEgo is not,\u2019 then that, Ananda, would only have caused the wandering\nmonk Vacchagotta to be thrown from one bewilderment to another:\n\u2018My Ego, did it not exist before? But now it exists no longer!\u2019\u201d\nThis shows, better than anything, that Gautama Buddha withheld such\ndifficult metaphysical doctrines from the masses in order not to\nperplex them more. What he meant was the difference between the\npersonal temporary Ego and the Higher Self, which sheds its light on\nthe imperishable Ego, the spiritual \u201cI\u201d of man.\n\n\n\n\nVI. THEOSOPHICAL TEACHINGS AS TO NATURE AND MAN.\n\n\nTHE UNITY OF ALL IN ALL.\n\n ENQ. Having told me what God, the Soul and Man are _not_, in your\n views, can you inform me what they _are_, according to your\n teachings?\n\n THEO. In their origin and in eternity the three, like the universe and\n all therein, are one with the absolute Unity, the unknowable\n deific essence I spoke about sometime back. We believe in no\n _creation_, but in the periodical and consecutive appearances of\n the universe from the subjective on to the objective plane of\n being, at regular intervals of time, covering periods of immense\n duration.\n\n ENQ. Can you elaborate the subject?\n\n THEO. Take as a first comparison and a help towards a more correct\n conception, the solar year, and as a second, the two halves\n of that year, producing each a day and a night of six months\u2019\n duration at the North Pole. Now imagine, if you can, instead of\n a Solar year of 365 days, ETERNITY. Let the sun represent the\n universe, and the polar days and nights of 6 months each\u2014_days\n and nights lasting each 182 trillions and quadrillions of years_,\n instead of 182 days each. As the sun arises every morning on our\n _objective_ horizon out of its (to us) _subjective_ and antipodal\n space, so does the Universe emerge periodically on the plane of\n objectivity, issuing from that of subjectivity\u2014the antipodes of\n the former. This is the \u201cCycle of Life.\u201d And as the sun disappears\n from our horizon, so does the Universe disappear at regular\n periods, when the \u201cUniversal night\u201d sets in. The Hindoos call\n such alternations the \u201cDays and Nights of Brahma,\u201d or the time of\n _Manvantara_ and that of _Pralaya_ (dissolution). The Westerns may\n call them Universal Days and Nights if they prefer. During the\n latter (the nights) _All is in All_; every atom is resolved into\n one Homogeneity.\n\n\nEVOLUTION AND ILLUSION.\n\n ENQ. But who is it that creates each time the Universe?\n\n THEO. No one creates it. Science would call the process evolution; the\n pre-Christian philosophers and the Orientalists called it\n emanation: we, Occultists and Theosophists, see in it the only\n universal and eternal _reality_ casting a periodical reflection of\n _itself_ on the infinite Spatial depths. This reflection, which\n you regard as the objective _material_ universe, we consider as a\n temporary _illusion_ and nothing else. That alone which is eternal\n is _real_.\n\n ENQ. At that rate, you and I are also illusions.\n\n THEO. As flitting personalities, to-day one person, to-morrow\n another\u2014we are. Would you call the sudden flashes of the _Aurora\n borealis_, the Northern lights, a \u201creality,\u201d though it is as real\n as can be while you look at it? Certainly not; it is the cause\n that produces it, if permanent and eternal, which is the only\n reality, while the other is but a passing illusion.\n\n ENQ. All this does not explain to me how this illusion called the\n universe originates; how the conscious _to be_, proceeds to\n manifest itself from the unconsciousness that _is_.\n\n THEO. It is _unconsciousness_ only to our finite consciousness. Verily\n may we paraphrase verse v, in the 1st chapter of St. John,\n and say \u201cand (Absolute) light (which is darkness) shineth in\n darkness (which is illusionary material light); and the darkness\n comprehendeth it not.\u201d This absolute light is also absolute and\n immutable law. Whether by radiation or emanation\u2014we need not\n quarrel over terms\u2014the universe passes out of its homogeneous\n subjectivity on to the first plane of manifestation, of which\n planes there are seven, we are taught. With each plane it becomes\n more dense and material until it reaches this, our plane, on which\n the only world approximately known and understood in its physical\n composition by Science, is the planetary or Solar system\u2014one _sui\n generis_, we are told.\n\n ENQ. What do you mean by _sui generis_?\n\n THEO. I mean that, though the fundamental law and the universal working\n of laws of Nature are uniform, still our Solar system (like every\n other such system in the millions of others in Cosmos) and even\n our Earth, has its own programme of manifestations differing\n from the respective programmes of all others. We speak of the\n inhabitants of other planets and imagine that if they are _men_,\n _i.e._, thinking entities, they must be as we are. The fancy of\n poets and painters and sculptors never fails to represent even\n the angels as a beautiful copy of man\u2014_plus_ wings. We say that\n all this is an error and a delusion; because, if on this little\n earth alone one finds such a diversity in its flora, fauna and\n mankind\u2014from the seaweed to the cedar of Lebanon, from the\n jelly-fish to the elephant, from the Bushman and negro to the\n Apollo Belvedere\u2014alter the conditions cosmic and planetary, and\n there must be as a result quite a different flora, fauna and\n mankind. The same laws will fashion quite a different set of\n things and beings even on this our plane, including in it all\n our planets. How much more different then must be _external_\n nature in other Solar systems, and how foolish is it to judge of\n other _stars_ and worlds and human beings by our own, as physical\n science does!\n\n ENQ. But what are your data for this assertion?\n\n THEO. What science in general will never accept as proof\u2014the cumulative\n testimony of an endless series of Seers who have testified to this\n fact. Their spiritual visions, real explorations by, and through,\n physical and spiritual senses untrammeled by blind flesh, were\n systematically checked and compared one with the other, and their\n nature sifted. All that was not corroborated by unanimous and\n collective experience was rejected, while that only was recorded\n as established truth which, in various ages, under different\n climes, and throughout an untold series of incessant observations,\n was found to agree and receive constantly further corroboration.\n The methods used by our scholars and students of the\n psycho-spiritual sciences do not differ from those of students of\n the natural and physical sciences, as you may see. Only our fields\n of research are on two different planes, and our instruments are\n made by no human hands, for which reason perchance they are only\n the more reliable. The retorts, accumulators, and microscopes of\n the chemist and naturalist may get out of order; the telescope\n and the astronomer\u2019s horological instruments may get spoiled; our\n recording instruments are beyond the influence of weather or the\n elements.\n\n ENQ. And therefore you have implicit faith in them?\n\n THEO. Faith is a word not to be found in theosophical dictionaries: we\n say _knowledge based on observation and experience_. There is this\n difference, however, that while the observation and experience of\n physical science lead the Scientists to about as many \u201cworking\u201d\n hypotheses as there are minds to evolve them, our _knowledge_\n consents to add to its lore only those facts which have become\n undeniable, and which are fully and absolutely demonstrated. We\n have no two beliefs or hypotheses on the same subject.\n\n ENQ. Is it on such data that you came to accept the strange theories we\n find in _Esoteric Buddhism_?\n\n THEO. Just so. These theories may be slightly incorrect in their minor\n details, and even faulty in their exposition by lay students; they\n are _facts_ in nature, nevertheless, and come nearer the truth\n than any scientific hypothesis.\n\n\nON THE SEPTENARY CONSTITUTION OF OUR PLANET.\n\n ENQ. I understand that you describe our earth as forming part of a\n chain of earths?\n\n THEO. We do. But the other six \u201cearths\u201d or globes, are not on the same\n plane of objectivity as our earth is; therefore we cannot see them.\n\n ENQ. Is that on account of the great distance?\n\n THEO. Not at all, for we see with our naked eye planets and even stars\n at immeasurably greater distances; but it is owing to those six\n globes being outside our physical means of perception, or plane\n of being. It is not only that their material density, weight, or\n fabric are entirely different from those of our earth and the\n other known planets; but they are (to us) on an entirely different\n _layer_ of space, so to speak; a layer not to be perceived or felt\n by our physical senses. And when I say \u201clayer,\u201d please do not\n allow your fancy to suggest to you layers like strata or beds laid\n one over the other, for this would only lead to another absurd\n misconception. What I mean by \u201clayer\u201d is that plane of infinite\n space which by its nature cannot fall under our ordinary waking\n perceptions, whether mental or physical; but which exists in\n nature outside of our normal mentality or consciousness, outside\n of our three dimensional space, and outside of our division of\n time. Each of the seven fundamental planes (or layers) in space\u2014of\n course as a whole, as the pure space of Locke\u2019s definition, not as\n our finite space\u2014has its own objectivity and subjectivity, its own\n space and time, its own consciousness and set of senses. But all\n this will be hardly comprehensible to one trained in the modern\n ways of thought.\n\n ENQ. What do you mean by a different set of senses? Is there anything\n on our human plane that you could bring as an illustration of what\n you say, just to give a clearer idea of what you may mean by this\n variety of senses, spaces, and respective perceptions?\n\n THEO. None; except, perhaps, that which for Science would be rather a\n handy peg on which to hang a counter-argument. We have a different\n set of senses in dream-life, have we not? We feel, talk, hear,\n see, taste and function in general on a different plane; the\n change of state of our consciousness being evidenced by the fact\n that a series of acts and events embracing years, as we think,\n pass ideally through our mind in one instant. Well, that extreme\n rapidity of our mental operations in dreams, and the perfect\n naturalness, for the time being, of all the other functions, show\n us that we are on quite another plane. Our philosophy teaches\n us that, as there are seven fundamental forces in nature, and\n seven planes of being, so there are seven states of consciousness\n in which man can live, think, remember and have his being. To\n enumerate these here is impossible, and for this one has to turn\n to the study of Eastern metaphysics. But in these two states\u2014the\n waking and the dreaming\u2014every ordinary mortal, from a learned\n philosopher down to a poor untutored savage, has a good proof that\n such states differ.\n\n ENQ. You do not accept, then, the well-known explanations of biology\n and physiology to account for the dream state?\n\n THEO. We do not. We reject even the hypotheses of your psychologists,\n preferring the teachings of Eastern Wisdom. Believing in seven\n planes of Kosmic being and states of Consciousness, with regard\n to the Universe or the Macrocosm, we stop at the fourth plane,\n finding it impossible to go with any degree of certainty beyond.\n But with respect to the Microcosm, or man, we speculate freely on\n his seven states and principles.\n\n ENQ. How do you explain these?\n\n THEO. We find, first of all, two distinct beings in man; the spiritual\n and the physical, the man who thinks, and the man who records as\n much of these thoughts as he is able to assimilate. Therefore we\n divide him into two distinct natures; the upper or the spiritual\n being, composed of three \u201cprinciples\u201d or _aspects_; and the lower\n or the physical quaternary, composed of _four_\u2014in all _seven_.\n\n\nTHE SEPTENARY NATURE OF MAN.\n\n ENQ. Is it what we call Spirit and Soul, and the man of flesh?\n\n THEO. It is not. That is the old Platonic division. Plato was an\n Initiate, and therefore could not go into forbidden details; but\n he who is acquainted with the archaic doctrine finds the seven\n in Plato\u2019s various combinations of Soul and Spirit. He regarded\n man as constituted of two parts\u2014one eternal, formed of the same\n essence as the Absoluteness, the other mortal and corruptible,\n deriving its constituent parts from the _minor_ \u201ccreated\u201d Gods.\n Man is composed, he shows, of (1) A mortal body, (2) An immortal\n principle, and (3) A \u201cseparate mortal kind of Soul.\u201d It is that\n which we respectively call the physical man, the Spiritual Soul\n or Spirit, and the animal Soul (the _Nous_ and _psuche_). This\n is the division adopted by Paul, another Initiate, who maintains\n that there is a psychical body which is sown in the corruptible\n (astral soul or body), and a _spiritual_ body that is raised in\n incorruptible substance. Even James (iii. 15) corroborates the\n same by saying that the \u201cwisdom\u201d (of our lower soul) descendeth\n not from the above, but is terrestrial (\u201cpsychical,\u201d \u201cdemoniacal,\u201d\n _vide_ Greek text); while the other is heavenly wisdom. Now so\n plain is it that Plato and even Pythagoras, while speaking but of\n three \u201cprinciples,\u201d give them seven separate functions, in their\n various combinations, that if we contrast our teachings this will\n become quite plain. Let us take a cursory view of these seven\n aspects by drawing two tables.\n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL DIVISION.\n\n ----------------------------------------------------------------------\n { SANSCRIT TERMS. | EXOTERIC MEANING.| EXPLANATORY.\n {------------------------------------------------------------------\n L { | |\n o {(_a_) Rupa, or |(_a_) Physical |(_a_) Is the vehicle of\n w { Sthula-Sarira. | body. | all the other\n e { | | \u201cprinciples\u201d during\n r { | | life.\n {(_b_) Pran\u00e2. |(_b_) Life, or |(_b_) Necessary only to\n { | Vital principle.| _a_, _c_, _d_, and\n Q { | | the functions of the\n u { | | lower _Manas_, which\n a { | | embrace all those\n t { | | limited to the\n e { | | (_physical_) brain.\n r {(_c_) Linga Sharira.|(_c_) Astral Body.|(_c_) The _Double_, the\n n { | | phantom body.\n a {(_d_) Kama rupa. |(_d_) The seat of |(_d_) This is the centre\n r { | animal desires| of the animal man,\n y { | and passions. | wherelies the line\n . { | | of demarcation which\n { | | separates the mortal\n { | | man from the\n { | | immortal entity.\n ----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n ----------------------------------------------------------------------\n { | |\n { SANSCRIT TERMS. | EXOTERIC MEANING. | EXPLANATORY.\n { | |\n T {-------------------------------------------------------------------\n H {(_e_) _Manas_\u2014a |(_e_) Mind, Intelligence:|(_e_) The future state\n E { dual principle| which is the higher | and the Karmic\n { in its | human mind, whose | destiny of man\n U { functions. | light, or radiation, | depend on whether\n P { | links the MONAD, for | Manas gravitates\n P { | the lifetime, to the | more downward to\n E { | mortal man. | Kama rupa, the\n R { | | seat of the animal\n { | | passions, or\n I { | | upwards to_Buddhi_,\n M { | | Spiritual _Ego_. In\n P { | | the latter case,\n E { | | the higher\n R { | | consciousness of\n I { | | the individual\n S { | | Spiritual\n H { | | aspirations of\n A { | | _mind_ (Manas),\n B { | | assimilating\n L { | | Buddhi, are\n E { | | absorbed by it\n { | | and form the _Ego_,\n T { | | which goes into\n R { | | Devachanic bliss.[19]\n I {(_f_) Buddhi. |(_f_) The Spiritual |(_f_) The vehicle of\n A { | Soul. | pure universal\n D { | | spirit.\n . {(_g_) Atma. |(_g_) Spirit. |(_g_) One with the\n { | | Absolute, as its\n { | | radiation.\n ---------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n Now what does Plato teach? He speaks of the _interior_ man as\n constituted of two parts\u2014one immutable and always the same,\n formed of the same _substance_ as Deity, and the other mortal and\n corruptible. These \u201ctwo parts\u201d are found in our upper _Triad_,\n and the lower _Quaternary_ (_vide_ Table). He explains that when\n the Soul, _psuche_, \u201callies herself to the Nous (divine spirit\n or substance[20]), she does everything aright and felicitously\u201d;\n but the case is otherwise when she attaches herself to _Anoia_,\n (folly, or the irrational animal Soul). Here, then, we have\n _Manas_ (or the Soul in general) in its two aspects: when\n attaching itself to _Anoia_ (our _Kama rupa_, or the \u201cAnimal Soul\u201d\n in \u201cEsoteric Buddhism,\u201d) it runs towards entire annihilation, as\n far as the personal Ego is concerned; when allying itself to the\n _Nous_ (Atma-Buddhi) it merges into the immortal, imperishable\n Ego, and then its spiritual consciousness of the personal that\n _was_, becomes immortal.\n\n\nTHE DISTINCTION BETWEEN SOUL AND SPIRIT.\n\n ENQ. Do you really teach, as you are accused of doing by some\n Spiritualists and French Spiritists, the annihilation of every\n personality?\n\n THEO. We do not. But as this question of the duality\u2014the\n _individuality_ of the Divine Ego, and the _personality_ of the\n human animal\u2014involves that of the possibility of the real immortal\n Ego appearing in _S\u00e9ance rooms_ as a \u201cmaterialised spirit,\u201d which\n we deny as already explained, our opponents have started the\n nonsensical charge.\n\n ENQ. You have just spoken of _psuche_ running towards its entire\n annihilation if it attaches itself to _Anoia_. What did Plato, and\n do you mean by this?\n\n THEO. The _entire_ annihilation of the _personal_ consciousness, as an\n exceptional and rare case, I think. The general and almost\n invariable rule is the merging of the personal into the individual\n or immortal consciousness of the Ego, a transformation or a divine\n transfiguration, and the entire annihilation only of the lower\n _quaternary_. Would you expect the man of flesh, or the _temporary\n personality_, his shadow, the \u201castral,\u201d his animal instincts\n and even physical life, to survive with the \u201cspiritual Ego\u201d and\n become sempiternal? Naturally all this ceases to exist, either\n at, or soon after corporeal death. It becomes in time entirely\n disintegrated and disappears from view, being annihilated as a\n whole.\n\n ENQ. Then you also reject _resurrection in the flesh_?\n\n THEO. Most decidedly we do! Why should we, who believe in the archaic\n esoteric philosophy of the Ancients, accept the unphilosophical\n speculations of the later Christian theology, borrowed from the\n Egyptian and Greek exoteric Systems of the Gnostics?\n\n ENQ. The Egyptians revered Nature-Spirits, and deified even onions:\n your Hindus are _idolaters_, to this day; the Zoroastrians\n worshipped, and do still worship, the Sun; and the best Greek\n philosophers were either dreamers or materialists\u2014witness Plato\n and Democritus. How can you compare?\n\n THEO. It may be so in your modern Christian and even Scientific\n catechism; it is not so for unbiased minds. The Egyptians\n revered the \u201cOne-Only-One,\u201d as _Nout_; and it is from this word\n that Anaxagoras got his denomination _Nous_, or as he calls it,\n \u039d\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2 \u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03c7\u03c1\u03b1\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2, \u201cthe Mind or Spirit Self-Potent,\u201d the \u03b1\u03c1\u03c7\u03b7\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2\n \u03c7\u03b9\u03bd\u03b7\u03b4\u03b5\u03c9\u03c2, the leading motor, or _primum-mobile_ of all. With\n him the _Nous_ was God, and the _logos_ was man, his emanation.\n The _Nous_ is the spirit (whether in Kosmos or in man), and the\n _logos_, whether Universe or astral body, the emanation of the\n former, the physical body being merely the animal. Our external\n powers perceive _phenomena_; our _Nous_ alone is able to recognise\n their _noumena_. It is the logos alone, or the _noumenon_, that\n survives, because it is immortal in its very nature and essence,\n and the _logos_ in man is the Eternal Ego, that which reincarnates\n and lasts for ever. But how can the evanescent or external shadow,\n the temporary clothing of that divine Emanation which returns\n to the source whence it proceeded, be that _which is raised in\n incorruptibility_?\n\n ENQ. Still you can hardly escape the charge of having invented a new\n division of man\u2019s spiritual and psychic constituents; for no\n philosopher speaks of them, though you believe that Plato does.\n\n THEO. And I support the view. Besides Plato, there is Pythagoras, who\n also followed the same idea.[21] He described the _Soul_ as a\n self-moving Unit (_monad_) composed of three elements, the _Nous_\n (Spirit), the _phren_ (mind), and the _thumos_ (life, breath or\n the _Nephesh_ of the Kabalists) which three correspond to our\n \u201cAtma-Buddhi,\u201d (higher Spirit-Soul), to _Manas_ (The EGO), and\n to _Kama-rupa_ in conjunction with the _lower_ reflection of\n Manas. That which the Ancient Greek philosophers termed _Soul_,\n in general, we call Spirit, or Spiritual _Soul_, _Buddhi_, as the\n vehicle of _Atma_ (the _Agathon_, or Plato\u2019s Supreme Deity). The\n fact that Pythagoras and others state that _phren_ and _thumos_\n are shared by us with the brutes, proves that in this case the\n _lower_ Manasic reflection (instinct) and _Kama-rupa_ (animal\n living passions) are meant. And as Socrates and Plato accepted\n the clue and followed it, if to these five, namely, _Agathon_\n (Deity or Atma), _Psuche_ (Soul in its collective sense), _Nous_\n (Spirit or Mind), _Phren_ (physical mind), and _Thumos_ (Kama-rupa\n or passions) we add the _eidolon_ of the Mysteries, the shadowy\n _form_ or the human double, and the _physical body_, it will be\n easy to demonstrate that the ideas of both Pythagoras and Plato\n were identical with ours. Even the Egyptians held to the Septenary\n division. In its exit, they taught, the Soul (EGO) had to pass\n through its seven chambers, or principles, those it left behind,\n and those it took along with itself. The only difference is that,\n ever bearing in mind the penalty of revealing Mystery-doctrines,\n which was _death_, they gave out the teaching in a broad outline,\n while we elaborate it and explain it in its details. But though\n we do give out to the world as much as is lawful, even in our\n doctrine more than one important detail is withheld, which those\n who study the esoteric philosophy and are pledged to silence, _are\n alone entitled to know_.\n\n\nTHE GREEK TEACHINGS.\n\n ENQ. We have magnificent Greek and Latin, Sanskrit and Hebrew scholars.\n How is it that we find nothing in their translations that would\n afford us a clue to what you say?\n\n THEO. Because your translators, their great learning notwithstanding,\n have made of the philosophers, the Greeks especially, _misty_\n instead of mystic writers. Take as an instance Plutarch, and read\n what he says of \u201cthe principles\u201d of man. That which he describes\n was accepted literally and attributed to metaphysical superstition\n and ignorance. Let me give you an illustration in point: \u201cMan,\u201d\n says Plutarch, \u201cis compound; and they are _mistaken who think him\n to be compounded of two parts only_. For they imagine that the\n understanding (brain intellect) is a part of the soul (the upper\n Triad), but they err in this no less than those who make the soul\n to be a part of the body, _i.e._, those who make of the _Triad_\n part of the corruptible mortal _quaternary_. For the understanding\n (nous) as far exceeds the soul, as the soul is better and diviner\n than the body. Now this composition of the soul (\u03c8\u03c5\u03c7\u03b7) with the\n understanding (\u03bd\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c2) makes reason; and with the body (or thumos,\n the animal soul) passion; of which the one is the beginning or\n principle of pleasure and pain, and the other of virtue and\n vice. Of these three parts conjoined and compacted together, the\n earth has given the body, the moon the soul, and the sun the\n understanding to the generation of man.\u201d\n\n This last sentence is purely allegorical, and will be comprehended\n only by those who are versed in the esoteric science of\n correspondences and know which planet is _related to every\n principle_. Plutarch divides the latter into three groups, and\n makes of the body a compound of physical frame, astral shadow,\n and breath, or the triple lower part, which \u201cfrom earth was\n taken and to earth returns\u201d; of the middle principle and the\n instinctual soul, the second part, derived _from_ and _through_\n and ever influenced by the moon[22]; and only of the higher part\n or the _Spiritual Soul_, with the Atmic and Manasic elements in\n it does he make a direct emanation of the Sun, who stands here\n for _Agathon_ the Supreme Deity. This is proven by what he says\n further as follows:\n\n \u201cNow of the deaths we die, the one makes man two of three and\n the other one of (out of) two. The former is in the region\n and jurisdiction of Demeter, whence the name given to the\n Mysteries, \u03c4\u03b5\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, resembled that given to death, \u03c4\u03b5\u03bb\u03b5\u03c5\u03c4\u03b1\u03bd.\n The Athenians also heretofore called the deceased sacred to\n Demeter. As for the other death, it is in the moon or region of\n Persephone.\u201d\n\n Here you have our doctrine, which shows man a _septenary_ during\n life; a _quintile_ just after death, in Kama-loka; and a threefold\n _Ego_, Spirit-Soul, and consciousness in _Devachan_. This\n separation, first in \u201cthe Meadows of Hades,\u201d as Plutarch calls\n the _Kama-loka_, then in Devachan, was part and parcel of the\n performances during the sacred Mysteries, when the candidates for\n initiation enacted the whole drama of death, and the resurrection\n as a glorified spirit, by which name we mean _Consciousness_. This\n is what Plutarch means when he says:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnd as with the one, the terrestrial, so with the other\n celestial Hermes doth dwell. This suddenly and with violence\n plucks the soul from the body; but Proserpina mildly and in a\n long time disjoins the understanding from the soul.[23] For\n this reason she is called _Monogenes, only begotten_, or rather\n _begetting one alone_; for _the better part of man becomes\n alone when it is separated by her_. Now both the one and the\n other happens thus according to nature. It is ordained by Fate\n (Fatum or Karma) that every soul, whether with or without\n understanding (mind), when gone out of the body, should wander\n for a time, though not all for the same, in the region lying\n between the earth and moon (_Kama-loka_).[24] For those that\n have been unjust and dissolute suffer then the punishment due\n to their offences; but the good and virtuous are there detained\n till they are purified, and have, by expiation, purged out of\n them all the infections they might have contracted from the\n contagion of the body, as if from foul health, living in the\n mildest part of the air, called the Meadows of Hades, where\n they must remain for a certain prefixed and appointed time. And\n then, as if they were returning from a wandering pilgrimage\n or long exile into their country, they have a taste of joy,\n such as they principally receive who are initiated into Sacred\n Mysteries, mixed with trouble, admiration, and each one\u2019s\n proper and peculiar hope.\u201d\n\n This is Nirvanic bliss, and no Theosophist could describe in\n plainer though esoteric language the mental joys of Devachan,\n where every man has his paradise around him, erected by his\n consciousness. But you must beware of the general error into\n which too many even of our Theosophists fall. Do not imagine that\n because man is called septenary, then _quintuple_ and a triad, he\n is a compound of seven, five, or three _entities_; or, as well\n expressed by a Theosophical writer, of skins to be peeled off like\n the skins of an onion. The \u201cprinciples,\u201d as already said, save the\n body, the life, and the astral _eidolon_, all of which disperse\n at death, are simply _aspects_ and _states of consciousness_.\n There is but one _real_ man, enduring through the cycle of life\n and immortal in essence, if not in form, and this is _Manas_, the\n Mind-man or embodied Consciousness. The objection made by the\n materialists, who deny the possibility of mind and consciousness\n acting without matter is worthless in our case. We do not deny\n the soundness of their argument; but we simply ask our opponents,\n \u201cAre you acquainted _with all the states of matter_, you who knew\n hitherto but of three? And how do you know whether that which we\n refer to as ABSOLUTE CONSCIOUSNESS or Deity for ever invisible\n and unknowable, be not that which, though it eludes for ever our\n human _finite_ conception, is still universal Spirit-matter or\n matter-Spirit _in its absolute infinitude_?\u201d It is then one of the\n lowest, and in its manvantaric manifestations _fractioned_-aspects\n of this Spirit-matter, which is the conscious _Ego_ that creates\n its own paradise, a fool\u2019s paradise, it may be, still a state of\n bliss.\n\n ENQ. But what is _Devachan_?\n\n THEO. The \u201cland of gods\u201d literally; a condition, a state of mental\n bliss. Philosophically a mental condition analogous to, but far\n more vivid and real than, the most vivid dream. It is the state\n after death of most mortals.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[19] In Mr. Sinnett\u2019s \u201cEsoteric Buddhism\u201d _d_, _e_, and _f_, are\nrespectively called the Animal, the Human, and the Spiritual Souls,\nwhich answers as well. Though the principles in _Esoteric Buddhism_ are\nnumbered, this is, strictly speaking, useless. The dual _Monad_ alone\n(_Atma-Buddhi_) is susceptible of being thought of as the two highest\nnumbers (the 6th and 7th). As to all others, since _that_ \u201cprinciple\u201d\nonly which is predominant in man has to be considered as the first and\nforemost, no numeration is possible as a general rule. In some men it\nis the higher Intelligence (Manas or the 5th) which dominates the rest;\nin others the Animal Soul (Kama-rupa) that reigns supreme, exhibiting\nthe most bestial instincts, etc.\n\n[20] Paul calls Plato\u2019s _Nous_ \u201cSpirit\u201d; but as this spirit is\n\u201csubstance,\u201d then, of course, _Buddhi_ and not _Atma_ is meant, as\nthe latter cannot philosophically be called \u201csubstance\u201d under any\ncircumstance. We include Atma among the human \u201cprinciples\u201d in order not\nto create additional confusion. In reality it is no \u201chuman\u201d but the\nuniversal _absolute_ principle of which Buddhi, the Soul-Spirit, is the\ncarrier.\n\n[21] \u201cPlato and Pythagoras,\u201d says Plutarch, \u201cdistribute the soul into\ntwo parts, the rational (noetic) and irrational (agnoia); that that\npart of the soul of man which is rational is eternal; for though it\nbe not God, yet it is the product of an eternal deity, but that part\nof the soul which is divested of reason (agnoia) dies.\u201d The modern\nterm _Agnostic_ comes from _Agnosis_, a cognate word. We wonder why\nMr. Huxley, the author of the word, should have connected his great\nintellect with \u201cthe soul divested of reason\u201d which dies? Is it the\nexaggerated humility of the modern materialist?\n\n[22] The Kabalists who know the relation of Jehovah, the life and\nchildren-giver, to the Moon, and the influence of the latter on\ngeneration, will again see the point as much as some astrologers will.\n\n[23] Proserpina, or Persephone, stands here for post mortem Karma,\nwhich is said to regulate the separation of the lower from the higher\n\u201cprinciples\u201d: the _Soul_, as _Nephesh_, the breath of animal life,\nwhich remains for a time in Kama-loka, from the higher compound _Ego_,\nwhich goes into the state of Devachan, or bliss.\n\n[24] Until the separation of the higher, spiritual \u201cprinciple\u201d takes\nplace from the lower ones, which remain in the Kama-loka until\ndisintegrated.\n\n\n\n\nVII. ON THE VARIOUS POST MORTEM STATES.\n\n\nTHE PHYSICAL AND THE SPIRITUAL MAN.\n\n ENQ. I am glad to hear you believe in the immortality of the Soul.\n\n THEO. Not of \u201cthe Soul,\u201d but of the divine Spirit; or rather in the\n immortality of the reincarnating Ego.\n\n ENQ. What is the difference?\n\n THEO. A very great one in our philosophy, but this is too abstruse and\n difficult a question to touch lightly upon. We shall have to\n analyse them separately, and then in conjunction. We may begin\n with Spirit.\n\n We say that the Spirit (the \u201cFather in secret\u201d of Jesus), or _Atman_,\n is no individual property of any man, but is the Divine essence\n which has no body, no form, which is imponderable, invisible and\n indivisible, that which does not _exist_ and yet _is_, as the\n Buddhists say of Nirvana. It only overshadows the mortal; that\n which enters into him and pervades the whole body being only\n its omnipresent rays, or light, radiated through _Buddhi_, its\n vehicle and direct emanation. This is the secret meaning of the\n assertions of almost all the ancient philosophers, when they said\n that \u201cthe _rational_ part of man\u2019s soul\u201d[25] never entered wholly\n into the man, but only overshadowed him more or less through the\n _irrational_ spiritual Soul or Buddhi.[26]\n\n ENQ. I laboured under the impression that the \u201cAnimal Soul\u201d alone was\n irrational, not the Divine.\n\n THEO. You have to learn the difference between that which is\n negatively, or _passively_ \u201cirrational,\u201d because undifferentiated,\n and that which is irrational because too _active_ and positive.\n Man is a correlation of spiritual powers, as well as a correlation\n of chemical and physical forces, brought into function by what we\n call \u201cprinciples.\u201d\n\n ENQ. I have read a good deal upon the subject, and it seems to me that\n the notions of the older philosophers differed a great deal from\n those of the medi\u00e6val Kabalists, though they do agree in some\n particulars.\n\n THEO. The most substantial difference between them and us is this.\n While we believe with the Neo-Platonists and the Eastern teachings\n that the spirit (Atma) never descends hypostatically into the\n living man, but only showers more or less its radiance on the\n _inner_ man (the psychic and spiritual compound of the _astral_\n principles), the Kabalists maintain that the human Spirit,\n detaching itself from the ocean of light and Universal Spirit,\n enters man\u2019s Soul, where it remains throughout life imprisoned\n in the astral capsule. All Christian Kabalists still maintain\n the same, as they are unable to break quite loose from their\n anthropomorphic and Biblical doctrines.\n\n ENQ. And what do you say?\n\n THEO. We say that we only allow the presence of the radiation of Spirit\n (or Atma) in the astral capsule, and so far only as that spiritual\n radiancy is concerned. We say that man and Soul have to conquer\n their immortality by ascending towards the unity with which, if\n successful, they will be finally linked and into which they are\n finally, so to speak, absorbed. The individualization of man after\n death depends on the spirit, not on his soul and body. Although\n the word \u201cpersonality,\u201d in the sense in which it is usually\n understood, is an absurdity if applied literally to our immortal\n essence, still the latter is, as our individual Ego, a distinct\n entity, immortal and eternal, _per se_. _It is only in the case\n of black magicians or of criminals beyond redemption, criminals\n who have been such during a long series of lives_\u2014that the shining\n thread, which links the spirit to the _personal_ soul from the\n moment of the birth of the child, is violently snapped, and the\n disembodied entity becomes divorced from the personal soul, the\n latter being annihilated without leaving the smallest impression\n of itself on the former. If that union between the lower, or\n personal Manas, and the individual reincarnating Ego, has not\n been effected during life, then the former is left to share the\n fate of the lower animals, to gradually dissolve into ether, and\n have its personality annihilated. But even then the Ego remains a\n distinct being. It (the spiritual Ego) only loses one Devachanic\n state\u2014after that special, and in that case indeed useless,\n life\u2014as that idealized _Personality_, and is reincarnated, after\n enjoying for a short time its freedom as a planetary spirit,\n almost immediately.\n\n ENQ. It is stated in _Isis Unveiled_ that such planetary Spirits or\n Angels, \u201cthe gods of the Pagans or the Archangels of the\n Christians,\u201d will never be men on our planet.\n\n THEO. Quite right. Not \u201c_such_,\u201d but _some_ classes of higher Planetary\n Spirits. They will never be men on this planet, because they are\n liberated Spirits from a previous, earlier world, and as such they\n cannot re-become men on this one. Yet all these will live again in\n the next and far higher Mahamanvantara, after this \u201cgreat Age,\u201d\n and \u201cBrahma _pralaya_,\u201d (a little period of 16 figures or so) is\n over. For you must have heard, of course, that Eastern philosophy\n teaches us that mankind consists of such \u201cSpirits\u201d imprisoned in\n human bodies? The difference between animals and men is this: the\n former are ensouled by the \u201cprinciples\u201d _potentially_, the latter\n _actually_.[27] Do you understand now the difference?\n\n ENQ. Yes; but this specialisation has been in all ages the\n stumbling-block of metaphysicians.\n\n THEO. It was. The whole esotericism of the Buddhistic philosophy is\n based on this mysterious teaching, understood by so few persons,\n and so totally misrepresented by many of the most learned modern\n scholars. Even metaphysicians are too inclined to confound the\n effect with the cause. An Ego who has won his immortal life as\n spirit will remain the same inner self throughout all his rebirths\n on earth; but this does not imply necessarily that he must either\n remain the Mr. Smith or Mr. Brown he was on earth, or lose his\n individuality. Therefore, the astral soul and the terrestrial\n body of man may, in the dark hereafter, be absorbed into the\n cosmical ocean of sublimated elements, and cease to feel his last\n _personal_ Ego (if it did not deserve to soar higher), and the\n _divine_ Ego still remain the same unchanged entity, though this\n terrestrial experience of his emanation may be totally obliterated\n at the instant of separation from the unworthy vehicle.\n\n ENQ. If the \u201cSpirit,\u201d or the divine portion of the soul, is\n pre-existent as a distinct being from all eternity, as Origen,\n Synesius, and other semi-Christians and semi-Platonic philosophers\n taught, and if it is the same, and nothing more than the\n metaphysically-objective soul, how can it be otherwise than\n eternal? And what matters it in such a case, whether man leads a\n pure life or an animal, if, do what he may, he can never lose his\n individuality?\n\n THEO. This doctrine, as you have stated it, is just as pernicious in\n its consequences as that of vicarious atonement. Had the latter\n dogma, in company with the false idea that we are all immortal,\n been demonstrated to the world in its true light, humanity would\n have been bettered by its propagation.\n\n Let me repeat to you again. Pythagoras, Plato, Timaeus of Locris, and\n the old Alexandrian School, derived the _Soul_ of man (or\n his higher \u201cprinciples\u201d and attributes) from the Universal\n World Soul, the latter being, according to their teachings,\n _Aether_ (Pater-Zeus). Therefore, neither of these \u201cprinciples\u201d\n can be _unalloyed_ essence of the Pythagorean Monas, or our\n _Atma-Buddhi_, because the _Anima Mundi_ is but the effect, the\n subjective emanation or rather radiation of the former. Both the\n _human_ Spirit (or the individuality), the reincarnating Spiritual\n Ego, and Buddhi, the Spiritual soul, are pre-existent. But, while\n the former exists as a distinct entity, an individualization,\n the soul exists as pre-existing breath, an unscient portion\n of an intelligent whole. Both were originally formed from the\n Eternal Ocean of light; but as the Fire-Philosophers, the\n medi\u00e6val Theosophists, expressed it, there is a visible as well\n as invisible spirit in fire. They made a difference between the\n _anima bruta_ and the _anima divina_. Empedocles firmly believed\n all men and animals to possess two souls; and in Aristotle we find\n that he calls one the reasoning soul, \u03bd\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2 and the other, the\n animal soul, \u03c8\u03c5\u03c7\u03b7. According to these philosophers, the reasoning\n soul comes from _within_ the universal soul, and the other from\n _without_.\n\n ENQ. Would you call the Soul, _i.e._, the human thinking Soul, or what\n you call the Ego\u2014matter?\n\n THEO. Not matter, but substance assuredly; nor would the word \u201cmatter,\u201d\n if prefixed with the adjective, _primordial_, be a word to\n avoid. That matter, we say, is co-eternal with Spirit, and is\n not our visible, tangible, and divisible matter, but its extreme\n sublimation. Pure Spirit is but one remove from the _no_-Spirit,\n or the absolute _all_. Unless you admit that man was evolved\n out of this primordial Spirit-matter, and represents a regular\n progressive scale of \u201cprinciples\u201d from _meta_-Spirit down to the\n grossest matter, how can we ever come to regard the _inner_ man as\n immortal, and at the same time as a spiritual Entity and a mortal\n man?\n\n ENQ. Then why should you not believe in God as such an Entity?\n\n THEO. Because that which is infinite and unconditioned can have no\n form, and cannot be a being, not in any Eastern philosophy worthy\n of the name, at any rate. An \u201centity\u201d is immortal, but is so only\n in its ultimate essence, not in its individual form. When at\n the last point of its cycle, it is absorbed into its primordial\n nature; and it becomes spirit, when it loses its name of Entity.\n\n Its immortality as a form is limited only to its life-cycle or\n the _Mahamanvantara_; after which it is one and identical with\n the Universal Spirit, and no longer a separate Entity. As to the\n _personal_ Soul\u2014by which we mean the spark of consciousness that\n preserves in the Spiritual Ego the idea of the personal \u201cI\u201d of the\n last incarnation\u2014this lasts, as a separate distinct recollection,\n only throughout the Devachanic period; after which time it is\n added to the series of other innumerable incarnations of the Ego,\n like the remembrance in our memory of one of a series of days,\n at the end of a year. Will you bind the infinitude you claim for\n your God to finite conditions? That alone which is indissolubly\n cemented by _Atma_ (_i.e._, Buddhi-Manas) is immortal. The Soul\n of man (_i.e._, of the personality) _per se_ is neither immortal,\n eternal nor divine. Says the _Zohar_ (vol. iii., p. 616), \u201cthe\n soul, when sent to this earth, puts on an earthly garment, to\n preserve herself here, so she receives above a shining garment,\n in order to be able to look without injury into the mirror, whose\n light proceeds from the Lord of Light.\u201d Moreover, the _Zohar_\n teaches that the soul cannot reach the abode of bliss, unless she\n has received the \u201choly kiss,\u201d or the reunion of the soul _with the\n substance from which she emanated_\u2014spirit. All souls are dual,\n and, while the latter is a feminine principle, the spirit is\n masculine. While imprisoned in body, man is a trinity, unless his\n pollution is such as to have caused his divorce from the spirit.\n \u201cWoe to the soul which prefers to her divine husband (spirit) the\n earthly wedlock with her terrestrial body,\u201d records a text of the\n _Book of the Keys_, a Hermetic work. Woe indeed, for nothing will\n remain of that personality to be recorded on the imperishable\n tablets of the Ego\u2019s memory.\n\n ENQ. How can that which, if not breathed by God into man, yet is on\n your own confession of an identical substance with the divine,\n fail to be immortal?\n\n THEO. Every atom and speck of matter, not of substance only, is\n _imperishable_ in its essence, but not in its _individual\n consciousness_. Immortality is but one\u2019s unbroken consciousness;\n and the _personal_ consciousness can hardly last longer than\n the personality itself, can it? And such consciousness, as I\n already told you, survives only throughout Devachan, after which\n it is reabsorbed, first, in the _individual_, and then in the\n _universal_ consciousness. Better enquire of your theologians how\n it is that they have so sorely jumbled up the Jewish Scriptures.\n Read the Bible, if you would have a good proof that the writers\n of the _Pentateuch_, and _Genesis_ especially, never regarded\n _nephesh_, that which God breathes into Adam (Gen. ch. ii.), as\n the _immortal_ soul. Here are some instances:\u2014\u201cAnd God created ...\n every _nephesh_ (life) that moveth\u201d (Gen i. 21), meaning animals;\n and (Gen. ii. 7) it is said: \u201cAnd man became a _nephesh_\u201d (living\n soul), which shows that the word _nephesh_ was indifferently\n applied to _immortal_ man and to _mortal_ beast. \u201cAnd surely\n your blood of your _nepheshim_ (lives) will I require; at the\n hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man\u201d\n (Gen. ix. 5), \u201cEscape for _nephesh_\u201d (escape for thy _life_, it\n is translated), (Gen. xix. 17). \u201cLet us not kill him,\u201d reads\n the English version (Gen. xxxvii. 21). \u201cLet us not kill his\n _nephesh_\u201d is the Hebrew text. \u201c_Nephesh_ for _nephesh_,\u201d says\n Leviticus (xvii. 8). \u201cHe that killeth any man shall surely be put\n to death,\u201d literally \u201cHe that smiteth the _nephesh_ of a man\u201d\n (Lev. xxiv. 17); and from verse 18 and following it reads: \u201cAnd he\n that killeth a beast (_nephesh_) shall make it good ... Beast for\n beast,\u201d whereas the original text has it \u201cnephesh for nephesh.\u201d\n How could man _kill_ that which is immortal? And this explains\n also why the Sadducees denied the immortality of the soul, as it\n also affords another proof that very probably the Mosaic Jews\u2014the\n uninitiated at any rate\u2014never believed in the soul\u2019s survival at\n all.\n\n\nON ETERNAL REWARD AND PUNISHMENT; AND ON NIRVANA.\n\n ENQ. It is hardly necessary, I suppose, to ask you whether you believe\n in the Christian dogmas of Paradise and Hell, or in future rewards\n and punishments as taught by the Orthodox churches?\n\n THEO. As described in your catechisms, we reject them absolutely; least\n of all would we accept their eternity. But we believe firmly in\n what we call the _Law of Retribution_, and in the absolute justice\n and wisdom guiding this Law, or Karma. Hence we positively refuse\n to accept the cruel and unphilosophical belief in eternal reward\n or eternal punishment. We say with Horace:\u2014\n\n \u201cLet rules be fixed that may our rage contain,\n And punish faults _with a proportion\u2019d pain_;\n But do not flay him who deserves alone\n A whipping for the fault that he has done.\u201d\n\n This is a rule for all men, and a just one. Have we to believe\n that God, of whom you make the embodiment of wisdom, love and\n mercy, is less entitled to these attributes than mortal man?\n\n ENQ. Have you any other reasons for rejecting this dogma?\n\n THEO. Our chief reason for it lies in the fact of re-incarnation. As\n already stated, we reject the idea of a new soul created for every\n newly-born babe. We believe that every human being is the bearer,\n or _Vehicle_, of an _Ego_ coeval with every other Ego; because\n all _Egos_ are _of the same essence_ and belong to the primeval\n emanation from one universal infinite _Ego_. Plato calls the\n latter the _logos_ (or the second manifested God); and we, the\n manifested divine principle, which is one with the universal mind\n or soul, not the anthropomorphic, extra-cosmic and _personal_ God\n in which so many Theists believe. Pray do not confuse.\n\n ENQ. But where is the difficulty, once you accept a manifested\n principle, in believing that the soul of every new mortal is\n _created_ by that Principle, as all the Souls before it have been\n so created?\n\n THEO. Because that which is _impersonal_ can hardly create, plan and\n think, at its own sweet will and pleasure. Being a universal\n _Law_, immutable in its periodical manifestations, those of\n radiating and manifesting its own essence at the beginning of\n every new cycle of life, IT is not supposed to create men, only\n to repent a few years later of having created them. If we have to\n believe in a divine principle at all, it must be in one which is\n as absolute harmony, logic, and justice, as it is absolute love,\n wisdom, and impartiality; and a God who would _create_ every\n soul for the space of _one brief span of life_, regardless of\n the fact whether it has to animate the body of a wealthy, happy\n man, or that of a poor suffering wretch, hapless from birth to\n death though he has done nothing to deserve his cruel fate\u2014would\n be rather a senseless _fiend_ than a God. (_Vide infra_, \u201cOn\n the Punishment of the Ego.\u201d) Why, even the Jewish philosophers,\n believers in the Mosaic Bible (esoterically, of course), have\n never entertained such an idea; and, moreover, they believed in\n re-incarnation, as we do.\n\n ENQ. Can you give me some instances as a proof of this?\n\n THEO. Most decidedly I can. Philo Jud\u00e6us says (in \u201cDe Somniis,\u201d p.\n 455): \u201cThe air is full of them (of souls); those which are nearest\n the earth, descending to be tied to mortal bodies, \u03c0\u03b1\u03bb\u03b9\u03bd\u03b4\u03c1\u03bf\u03bc\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd\n \u03b1\u1f56\u03b8\u03b9\u03c2 _return to other bodies, being desirous to live in them_.\u201d\n In the _Zohar_, the soul is made to plead her freedom before\n God: \u201cLord of the Universe! I am happy in this world, and do\n not wish to go into another world, where I shall be a handmaid,\n and be exposed to all kinds of pollutions.\u201d[28] The doctrine\n of fatal necessity, the everlasting immutable law, is asserted\n in the answer of the Deity: \u201cAgainst thy will thou becomest an\n embryo, and against thy will thou art born.\u201d[29] Light would be\n incomprehensible without darkness to make it manifest by contrast;\n good would be no longer good without evil to show the priceless\n nature of the boon; and so personal virtue could claim no merit,\n unless it had passed through the furnace of temptation. Nothing\n is eternal and unchangeable, save the concealed Deity. Nothing\n that is finite\u2014whether because it had a beginning, or must have an\n end\u2014can remain stationary. It must either progress or recede; and\n a soul which thirsts after a reunion with its spirit, which alone\n confers upon it immortality, must purify itself through cyclic\n transmigrations onward toward the only land of bliss and eternal\n rest, called in the _Zohar_, \u201cThe Palace of Love,\u201d \u05d4\u05d9\u05d1\u05dc \u05d0\u05d7\u05db\u05d4; in\n the Hindu religion, \u201cMoksha\u201d; among the Gnostics, \u201cThe Pleroma of\n Eternal Light\u201d; and by the Buddhists, \u201cNirvana.\u201d And all these\n states are temporary, not eternal.\n\n ENQ. Yet there is no re-incarnation spoken of in all this.\n\n THEO. A soul which pleads to be allowed to remain where she is, _must\n be pre-existent_, and not have been created for the occasion. In\n the _Zohar_ (vol. iii., p. 61), however, there is a still better\n proof. Speaking of the reincarnating _Egos_ (the _rational_\n souls), those whose last personality has to fade out _entirely_,\n it is said: \u201cAll souls which have alienated themselves in heaven\n from the Holy One\u2014blessed be His name\u2014have thrown themselves into\n an abyss at their very existence, and have anticipated the time\n when they are to descend once more on earth.\u201d \u201cThe Holy One\u201d means\n here, esoterically, the Atman, or _Atma-Buddhi_.\n\n ENQ. Moreover, it is very strange to find _Nirvana_ spoken of as\n something synonymous with the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Paradise,\n since according to every Orientalist of note Nirvana is a synonym\n of annihilation!\n\n THEO. Taken literally, with regard to the personality and\n differentiated matter, not otherwise. These ideas on\n re-incarnation and the trinity of man were held by many of the\n early Christian Fathers. It is the jumble made by the translators\n of the New Testament and ancient philosophical treatises between\n soul and spirit, that has occasioned the many misunderstandings.\n It is also one of the many reasons why Buddha, Plotinus, and so\n many other Initiates are now accused of having longed for the\n total extinction of their souls: \u201cabsorption unto the Deity,\u201d\n or \u201creunion with the universal soul,\u201d meaning, according to\n modern ideas, annihilation. The personal soul must, of course,\n be disintegrated into its particles, before it is able to link\n its purer essence for ever with the immortal spirit. But the\n translators of both the _Acts_ and the _Epistles_, who laid the\n foundation of the _Kingdom of Heaven_, and the modern commentators\n on the Buddhist _Sutra of the Foundation of the Kingdom of\n Righteousness_, have muddled the sense of the great apostle of\n Christianity as of the great reformer of India. The former have\n smothered the word \u03c8\u03c5\u03c7\u03b9\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2 so that no reader imagines it to have\n any relation with _soul_; and with this confusion of _soul_ and\n _spirit_ together, _Bible_ readers get only a perverted sense of\n anything on the subject. On the other hand, the interpreters of\n Buddha have failed to understand the meaning and object of the\n Buddhist four degrees of Dhy\u00e2na. Ask the Pythagoreans, \u201cCan that\n spirit, which gives life and motion and partakes of the nature of\n light, be reduced to nonentity?\u201d \u201cCan even that sensitive spirit\n in brutes which exercises memory, one of the rational faculties,\n die and become nothing?\u201d observe the Occultists. In Buddhistic\n philosophy _annihilation_ means only a dispersion of matter, in\n whatever form or _semblance_ of form it may be, for everything\n that has form is temporary, and is, therefore, really an illusion.\n For in eternity the longest periods of time are as a wink of the\n eye. So with form. Before we have time to realize that we have\n seen it, it is gone like an instantaneous flash of lightning, and\n passed for ever. When the Spiritual _entity_ breaks loose for ever\n from every particle of matter, substance, or form, and re-becomes\n a Spiritual breath: then only does it enter upon the eternal and\n unchangeable _Nirvana_, lasting as long as the cycle of life has\n lasted\u2014an eternity, truly. And then that Breath, existing _in\n Spirit_, is _nothing_ because it is _all_; as a form, a semblance,\n a shape, it is completely annihilated; as absolute Spirit it\n still is, for it has become _Be-ness_ itself. The very word used,\n \u201cabsorbed in the universal essence,\u201d when spoken of the \u201cSoul\u201d as\n Spirit, means \u201c_union with_.\u201d It can never mean annihilation, as\n that would mean eternal separation.\n\n ENQ. Do you not lay yourself open to the accusation of preaching\n annihilation by the language you yourself use? You have just\n spoken of the Soul of man returning to its primordial elements.\n\n THEO. But you forget that I have given you the differences between the\n various meanings of the word \u201cSoul,\u201d and shown the loose way in\n which the term \u201cSpirit\u201d has been hitherto translated. We speak of\n an _animal_, a _human_, and a _spiritual_, Soul, and distinguish\n between them. Plato, for instance, calls \u201crational SOUL\u201d that\n which we call _Buddhi_, adding to it the adjective of \u201cspiritual,\u201d\n however; but that which we call the reincarnating Ego, _Manas_, he\n calls Spirit, _Nous_, etc., whereas we apply the term _Spirit_,\n when standing alone and without any qualification, to Atma alone.\n Pythagoras repeats our archaic doctrine when stating that the\n _Ego_ (_Nous_) is eternal with Deity; that the soul only passed\n through various stages to arrive at divine excellence; while\n _thumos_ returned to the earth, and even the _phren_, the lower\n _Manas_, was eliminated. Again, Plato defines _Soul_ (Buddhi) as\n \u201cthe motion that is able to move itself.\u201d \u201cSoul,\u201d he adds (Laws\n X.), \u201cis the most ancient of all things, and the commencement of\n motion,\u201d thus calling Atma-Buddhi \u201cSoul,\u201d and _Manas_ \u201cSpirit,\u201d\n which we do not.\n\n \u201cSoul was generated prior to body, and body is posterior and\n secondary, as being according to nature, ruled over by the\n ruling soul.\u201d \u201cThe soul which administers all things that are\n moved in every way, administers likewise the heavens.\u201d\n\n \u201cSoul then leads everything in heaven, and on earth, and in\n the sea, by its movements\u2014the names of which are, to will,\n to consider, to take care of, to consult, to form opinions\n true and false, to be in a state of joy, sorrow, confidence,\n fear, hate, love, together with all such primary movements\n as are allied to these.... Being a goddess herself, she ever\n takes as an ally _Nous_, a god, and disciplines all things\n correctly and happily; but when with _Annoia_\u2014not _nous_\u2014it\n works out everything the contrary.\u201d\n\n In this language, as in the Buddhist texts, the negative is\n treated as essential existence. _Annihilation_ comes under a\n similar exegesis. The positive state is essential being, but no\n manifestation as such. When the spirit, in Buddhistic parlance,\n enters _Nirvana_, it loses objective existence, but retains\n subjective being. To objective minds this is becoming absolute\n \u201cnothing\u201d; to subjective, NO-THING, nothing to be displayed to\n sense. Thus, their Nirvana means the certitude of individual\n immortality _in Spirit_, not in Soul, which, though \u201cthe most\n ancient of all things,\u201d is still\u2014along with all the other _Gods_\u2014a\n finite emanation, in _forms_ and individuality, if not in\n substance.\n\n ENQ. I do not quite seize the idea yet, and would be thankful to have\n you explain this to me by some illustrations.\n\n THEO. No doubt it is very difficult to understand, especially to one\n brought up in the regular orthodox ideas of the Christian Church.\n Moreover, I must tell you one thing; and this is that unless you\n have studied thoroughly well the separate functions assigned to\n all the human \u201cprinciples\u201d and the state of all these _after\n death_, you will hardly realize our Eastern philosophy.\n\n\nON THE VARIOUS \u201cPRINCIPLES\u201d IN MAN.\n\n ENQ. I have heard a good deal about this constitution of the \u201cinner\n man\u201d as you call it, but could never make \u201chead or tail on\u2019t\u201d as\n Gabalis expresses it.\n\n THEO. Of course, it is most difficult, and, as you say, \u201cpuzzling\u201d to\n understand correctly and distinguish between the various\n _aspects_, called by us, the \u201cprinciples\u201d of the real EGO. It is\n the more so as there exists a notable difference in the numbering\n of those principles by various Eastern schools, though at the\n bottom there is the same identical substratum of teaching.\n\n ENQ. Do you mean the Vedantins, as an instance? Don\u2019t they divide your\n seven \u201cprinciples\u201d into five only?\n\n THEO. They do; but though I would not presume to dispute the point with\n a learned Vedantin, I may yet state as my private opinion that\n they have an obvious reason for it. With them it is only that\n compound spiritual aggregate which consists of various mental\n aspects that is called _Man_ at all, the physical body being in\n their view something beneath contempt, and merely an _illusion_.\n Nor is the Vedanta the only philosophy to reckon in this manner.\n Lao-Tze, in his _Tao-te-King_, mentions only five principles,\n because he, like the Vedantins, omits to include two principles,\n namely, the spirit (Atma) and the physical body, the latter of\n which, moreover, he calls \u201cthe cadaver.\u201d Then there is the\n _Taraka Raj\u00e0 Yog\u00e0_ School. Its teaching recognises only three\n \u201cprinciples\u201d in fact; but then, in reality, their _Sthulopadi_,\n or the physical body, in its waking conscious state, their\n _Sukshmopadhi_, the same body in _Svapna_, or the dreaming state,\n and their _Karanopadhi_ or \u201ccausal body,\u201d or that which passes\n from one incarnation to another, are all dual in their aspects,\n and thus make six. Add to this Atma, the impersonal divine\n principle or the immortal element in Man, undistinguished from the\n Universal Spirit, and you have the same seven again.[30] They are\n welcome to hold to their division; we hold to ours.\n\n ENQ. Then it seems almost the same as the division made by the mystic\n Christians: body, soul and spirit?\n\n THEO. Just the same. We could easily make of the body the vehicle of\n the \u201cvital Double\u201d; of the latter the vehicle of Life or _Pran\u00e2_;\n of _Kama-rupa_, or (animal) soul, the vehicle of the _higher_\n and the _lower_ mind, and make of this six principles, crowning\n the whole with the one immortal spirit. In Occultism every\n qualificative change in the state of our consciousness gives to\n man a new aspect, and if it prevails and becomes part of the\n living and acting Ego, it must be (and is) given a special name,\n to distinguish the man in that particular state from the man he is\n when he places himself in another state.\n\n ENQ. It is just that which it is so difficult to understand.\n\n THEO. It seems to me very easy, on the contrary, once that you have\n seized the main idea, _i.e._, that man acts on this or another\n plane of consciousness, in strict accordance with his mental and\n spiritual condition. But such is the materialism of the age that\n the more we explain the less people seem capable of understanding\n what we say. Divide the terrestrial being called man into\n three chief aspects, if you like, and unless you make of him a\n pure animal you cannot do less. Take his objective _body_; the\n thinking principle in him\u2014which is only a little higher than the\n _instinctual_ element in the animal\u2014or the vital conscious soul;\n and that which places him so immeasurably beyond and higher than\n the animal\u2014_i.e._, his _reasoning_ soul or \u201cspirit.\u201d Well, if we\n take these three groups or representative entities, and subdivide\n them, according to the occult teaching, what do we get?\n\n First of all, Spirit (in the sense of the Absolute, and therefore,\n indivisible ALL), or Atma. As this can neither be located nor\n limited in philosophy, being simply that which IS in Eternity,\n and which cannot be absent from even the tiniest geometrical or\n mathematical point of the universe of matter or substance, it\n ought not to be called, in truth, a \u201chuman\u201d principle at all.\n Rather, and at best, it is in Metaphysics, that point in space\n which the human Monad and its vehicle man occupy for the period\n of every life. Now that point is as imaginary as man himself,\n and in reality is an illusion, a _maya_; but then for ourselves,\n as for other personal Egos, we are a reality during that fit of\n illusion called life, and we have to take ourselves into account,\n in our own fancy at any rate, if no one else does. To make it\n more conceivable to the human intellect, when first attempting\n the study of Occultism, and to solve the A B C of the mystery\n of man, Occultism calls this _seventh_ principle the synthesis\n of the sixth, and gives it for vehicle the _Spiritual_ Soul,\n _Buddhi_. Now the latter conceals a mystery, which is never given\n to any one, with the exception of irrevocably pledged _chelas_,\n or those, at any rate, who can be safely trusted. Of course,\n there would be less confusion, could it only be told; but, as\n this is directly concerned with the power of projecting one\u2019s\n double consciously and at will, and as this gift, like the \u201cring\n of Gyges,\u201d would prove very fatal to man at large and to the\n possessor of that faculty in particular, it is carefully guarded.\n But let us proceed with the \u201cprinciples.\u201d This divine soul, or\n Buddhi, then, is the vehicle of the Spirit. In conjunction, these\n two are one, impersonal and without any attributes (on this\n plane, of course), and make two spiritual \u201cprinciples.\u201d If we\n pass on to the _Human_ Soul, _Manas_ or _mens_, every one will\n agree that the intelligence of man is _dual_ to say the least:\n _e.g._, the high-minded man can hardly become low-minded; the very\n intellectual and spiritual-minded man is separated by an abyss\n from the obtuse, dull, and material, if not animal-minded man.\n\n ENQ. But why should not man be represented by two \u201cprinciples\u201d or two\n aspects, rather?\n\n THEO. Every man has these two principles in him, one more active than\n the other, and in rare cases, one of these is entirely stunted\n in its growth, so to say, or paralysed by the strength and\n predominance of the other _aspect_, in whatever direction.\n These, then, are what we call the two principles or aspects of\n _Manas_, the higher and the lower; the former, the higher Manas,\n or the thinking, conscious EGO gravitating toward the spiritual\n Soul (Buddhi); and the latter, or its instinctual principle,\n attracted to _Kama_, the seat of animal desires and passions in\n man. Thus, we have _four_ \u201cprinciples\u201d justified; the last three\n being (1) the \u201cDouble,\u201d which we have agreed to call Protean, or\n Plastic Soul; the vehicle of (2) the life _principle_; and (3)\n the physical body. Of course no physiologist or biologist will\n accept these principles, nor can he make head or tail of them.\n And this is why, perhaps, none of them understand to this day\n either the functions of the spleen, the physical vehicle of the\n Protean Double, or those of a certain organ on the right side of\n man, the seat of the above-mentioned desires, nor yet does he know\n anything of the pineal gland, which he describes as a horny gland\n with a little sand in it, which gland is in truth the very seat\n of the highest and divinest consciousness in man, his omniscient,\n spiritual and all-embracing mind. And this shows to you still more\n plainly that we have neither invented these seven principles, nor\n are they new in the world of philosophy, as we can easily prove.\n\n ENQ. But what is it that reincarnates, in your belief?\n\n THEO. The Spiritual thinking Ego, the permanent principle in man, or\n that which is the seat of _Manas_. It is not Atma, or even\n Atma-Buddhi, regarded as the dual _Monad_, which is the\n _individual_, or _divine_ man, but Manas; for Atman is the\n Universal ALL, and becomes the HIGHER-SELF of man only in\n conjunction with _Buddhi_, its vehicle, which links IT to the\n individuality (or divine man). For it is the Buddhi-Manas which is\n called the _Causal body_, (the United 5th and 6th Principles) and\n which is _Consciousness_, that connects it with every personality\n it inhabits on earth. Therefore, Soul being a generic term, there\n are in men three _aspects_ of soul\u2014the terrestrial, or animal; the\n Human Soul; and the Spiritual Soul; these, strictly speaking, are\n one Soul in its three aspects. Now of the first aspect, nothing\n remains after death; of the second (_nous_ or Manas) only its\n divine essence _if left unsoiled_ survives, while the third in\n addition to being immortal becomes _consciously_ divine, by the\n assimilation of the higher Manas. But to make it clear, we have to\n say a few words first of all about Re-incarnation.\n\n ENQ. You will do well, as it is against this doctrine that your enemies\n fight the most ferociously.\n\n THEO. You mean the Spiritualists? I know; and many are the absurd\n objections laboriously spun by them over the pages of _Light_.\n So obtuse and malicious are some of them, that they will stop at\n nothing. One of them found recently a contradiction, which he\n gravely discusses in a letter to that journal, in two statements\n picked out of Mr. Sinnett\u2019s lectures. He discovers that grave\n contradiction in these two sentences: \u201cPremature returns to\n earth-life in the cases when they occur may be due to Karmic\n complication ...\u201d; and \u201cthere is no _accident_ in the supreme act\n of divine justice guiding evolution.\u201d So profound a thinker would\n surely see a contradiction of the law of gravitation if a man\n stretched out his hand to stop a falling stone from crushing the\n head of a child!\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[25] In its generic sense, the word \u201crational\u201d meaning something\nemanating from the Eternal Wisdom.\n\n[26] _Irrational_ in the sense that as a _pure_ emanation of the\nUniversal mind it can have no individual reason of its own on this\nplane of matter, but like the Moon, who borrows her light from the Sun\nand her life from the Earth, so _Buddhi_, receiving its light of Wisdom\nfrom Atma, gets its rational qualities from _Manas_. _Per se_, as\nsomething homogeneous, it is devoid of attributes.\n\n[27] _Vide_ \u201c_Secret Doctrine_,\u201d Vol. II., stanzas.\n\n[28] \u201c_Zohar_,\u201d Vol. II., p. 96.\n\n[29] \u201c_Mishna_,\u201d \u201cAboth,\u201d Vol. IV., p. 29.\n\n[30] See \u201cSecret Doctrine\u201d for a clearer explanation. Vol. I., p. 157.\n\n\n\n\nVIII. ON RE-INCARNATION OR REBIRTH.\n\n\nWHAT IS MEMORY ACCORDING TO THEOSOPHICAL TEACHING?\n\n ENQ. The most difficult thing for you to do, will be to explain and\n give reasonable grounds for such a belief. No Theosophist has\n ever yet succeeded in bringing forward a single valid proof to\n shake my scepticism. First of all, you have against this theory of\n re-incarnation, the fact that no single man has yet been found to\n remember that he has lived, least of all who he was, during his\n previous life.\n\n THEO. Your argument, I see, tends to the same old objection; the loss\n of memory in each of us of our previous incarnation. You think it\n invalidates our doctrine? My answer is that it does not, and that\n at any rate such an objection cannot be final.\n\n ENQ. I would like to hear your arguments.\n\n THEO. They are short and few. Yet when you take into consideration\n (_a_) the utter inability of the best modern psychologists to\n explain to the world the nature of _mind_; and (_b_) their\n complete ignorance of its potentialities, and higher states,\n you have to admit that this objection is based on an _a priori_\n conclusion drawn from _prim\u00e2 facie_ and circumstantial evidence\n more than anything else. Now what is \u201cmemory\u201d in your conception,\n pray?\n\n ENQ. That which is generally accepted: the faculty in our mind of\n remembering and of retaining the knowledge of previous thoughts,\n deeds and events.\n\n THEO. Please add to it that there is a great difference between the\n three accepted forms of memory. Besides memory in general you have\n _Remembrance_, _Recollection_ and _Reminiscence_, have you not?\n Have you ever thought over the difference? Memory, remember, is a\n generic name.\n\n ENQ. Yet, all these are only synonyms.\n\n THEO. Indeed, they are not\u2014not in philosophy, at all events. Memory is\n simply an innate power in thinking beings, and even in animals,\n of reproducing past impressions by an association of ideas\n principally suggested by objective things or by some action on our\n external sensory organs. Memory is a faculty depending entirely on\n the more or less healthy and normal functioning of our _physical_\n brain; and _remembrance_ and _recollection_ are the attributes\n and handmaidens of that memory. But _reminiscence_ is an entirely\n different thing. \u201cReminiscence\u201d is defined by the modern\n psychologist as something intermediate between _remembrance_\n and _recollection_, or \u201ca conscious process of recalling past\n occurrences, but _without that full and varied reference_ to\n particular things which characterises _recollection_.\u201d Locke,\n speaking of recollection and remembrance, says: \u201cWhen an _idea\n again_ recurs without the operation of the like object on the\n external sensory, it is _remembrance_; if it be sought after by\n the mind, and with pain and endeavour found and brought again into\n view, it is _recollection_.\u201d But even Locke leaves _reminiscence_\n without any clear definition, because it is no faculty or\n attribute of our _physical_ memory, but an intuitional perception\n apart from and outside our physical brain; a perception which,\n covering as it does (being called into action by the ever-present\n knowledge of our spiritual Ego) all those visions in man which\n are regarded as _abnormal_\u2014from the pictures suggested by genius\n to the _ravings_ of fever and even madness\u2014are classed by science\n as having no _existence_ outside of our fancy. Occultism and\n Theosophy, however, regard _reminiscence_ in an entirely different\n light. For us, while _memory_ is physical and evanescent and\n depends on the physiological conditions of the brain\u2014a fundamental\n proposition with all teachers of mnemonics, who have the\n researches of modern scientific psychologists to back them\u2014we call\n _reminiscence_ the _memory of the soul_. And it is _this_ memory\n which gives the assurance to almost every human being, whether he\n understands it or not, of his having lived before and having to\n live again. Indeed, as Wordsworth has it:\n\n \u201cOur birth is but a sleep and a forgetting,\n The soul that rises with us, our life\u2019s star,\n Hath elsewhere had its setting,\n And cometh from afar.\u201d\n\n ENQ. If it is on this kind of memory\u2014poetry and abnormal fancies, on\n your own confession\u2014that you base your doctrine, then you will\n convince very few, I am afraid.\n\n THEO. I did not \u201cconfess\u201d it was a fancy. I simply said that\n physiologists and scientists in general regard such reminiscences\n as hallucinations and fancy, to which _learned_ conclusion they\n are welcome. We do not deny that such visions of the past and\n glimpses far back into the corridors of time, are abnormal, as\n contrasted with our normal daily life experience and physical\n memory. But we do maintain with Professor W. Knight, that \u201cthe\n absence of memory of any action done in a previous state cannot\n be a conclusive argument against our having lived through it.\u201d\n And every fair-minded opponent must agree with what is said in\n Butler\u2019s _Lectures on Platonic Philosophy_\u2014\u201cthat the feeling of\n extravagance with which it (pre-existence) affects us has its\n secret source in materialistic or semi-materialistic prejudices.\u201d\n Besides which we maintain that memory, as Olympiodorus called it,\n is simply _phantasy_, and the most unreliable thing in us.[31]\n Ammonius Saccas asserted that the only faculty in man directly\n opposed to prognostication, or looking into futurity, is _memory_.\n Furthermore, remember that memory is one thing and mind or\n _thought_ is another; one is a recording machine, a register which\n very easily gets out of order; the other (thoughts) are eternal\n and imperishable. Would you refuse to believe in the existence of\n certain things or men only because your physical eyes have not\n seen them? Would not the collective testimony of past generations\n who have seen him be a sufficient guarantee that Julius C\u00e6sar once\n lived? Why should not the same testimony of the psychic senses of\n the masses be taken into consideration?\n\n ENQ. But don\u2019t you think that these are too fine distinctions to be\n accepted by the majority of mortals?\n\n THEO. Say rather by the majority of materialists. And to them we say,\n behold: even in the short span of ordinary existence, memory is\n too weak to register all the events of a lifetime. How frequently\n do even most important events lie dormant in our memory until\n awakened by some association of ideas, or aroused to function\n and activity by some other link. This is especially the case\n with people of advanced age, who are always found suffering from\n feebleness of recollection. When, therefore, we remember that\n which we know about the physical and the spiritual principles\n in man, it is not the fact that our memory has failed to record\n our precedent life and lives that ought to surprise us, but the\n contrary, were it to happen.\n\n\nWHY DO WE NOT REMEMBER OUR PAST LIVES?\n\n ENQ. You have given me a bird\u2019s eye view of the seven principles; now\n how do they account for our complete loss of any recollection of\n having lived before?\n\n THEO. Very easily. Since those \u201cprinciples\u201d which we call physical, and\n none of which is denied by science, though it calls them by other\n names,[32] are disintegrated after death with their constituent\n elements, _memory_ along with its brain, this vanished memory of\n a vanished personality, can neither remember nor record anything\n in the subsequent re-incarnation of the EGO. Re-incarnation means\n that this Ego will be furnished with a _new_ body, a _new_ brain,\n and a _new_ memory. Therefore it would be as absurd to expect this\n _memory_ to remember that which it has never recorded as it would\n be idle to examine under a microscope a shirt never worn by a\n murderer, and seek on it for the stains of blood which are to be\n found only on the clothes he wore. It is not the clean shirt that\n we have to question, but the clothes worn during the perpetration\n of the crime; and if these are burnt and destroyed, how can you\n get at them?\n\n ENQ. Aye! how can you get at the certainty that the crime was ever\n committed at all, or that the \u201cman in the clean shirt\u201d ever lived\n before?\n\n THEO. Not by physical processes, most assuredly; nor by relying on the\n testimony of that which exists no longer. But there is such a\n thing as circumstantial evidence, since our wise laws accept it,\n more, perhaps, even than they should. To get convinced of the\n fact of re-incarnation and past lives, one must put oneself in\n _rapport_ with one\u2019s real permanent Ego, not one\u2019s evanescent\n memory.\n\n ENQ. But how can people believe in that which they _do not know_, nor\n have ever seen, far less put themselves in _rapport_ with it?\n\n THEO. If people, and the most learned, will believe in the Gravity,\n Ether, Force, and what not of Science, abstractions \u201cand working\n hypotheses,\u201d which they have neither seen, touched, smelt,\n heard, nor tasted\u2014why should not other people believe, on the\n same principle, in one\u2019s permanent Ego, a far more logical and\n important \u201cworking hypothesis\u201d than any other?\n\n ENQ. What is, finally, this mysterious eternal principle? Can you\n explain its nature so as to make it comprehensible to all?\n\n THEO. The EGO which reincarnates, the _individual_ and\n immortal\u2014not personal\u2014\u201cI\u201d; the vehicle, in short, of the\n Atma-Buddhic MONAD, that which is rewarded in Devachan and\n punished on earth, and that, finally, to which the reflection only\n of the _Skandhas_, or attributes, of every incarnation attaches\n itself.[33]\n\n ENQ. What do you mean by _Skandhas_?\n\n THEO. Just what I said: \u201cattributes,\u201d among which is _memory_, all of\n which perish like a flower, leaving behind them only a feeble\n perfume. Here is another paragraph from H. S. Olcott\u2019s \u201cBuddhist\n Catechism\u201d[34] which bears directly upon the subject. It deals\n with the question as follows:\u2014\u201cThe aged man remembers the\n incidents of his youth, despite his being physically and mentally\n changed. Why, then, is not the recollection of past lives brought\n over by us from our last birth into the present birth? Because\n memory is included within the Skandhas, and the Skandhas having\n changed with the new existence, a memory, the record of that\n particular existence, develops. Yet the record or reflection\n of all the past lives must survive, for when Prince Siddhartha\n became Buddha, the full sequence of His previous births were seen\n by Him ... and any one who attains to the state of _Jhana_ can\n thus retrospectively trace the line of his lives.\u201d This proves to\n you that while the undying qualities of the personality\u2014such as\n love, goodness, charity, etc.\u2014attach themselves to the immortal\n Ego, photographing on it, so to speak, a permanent image of the\n divine aspect of the man who was, his material Skandhas (those\n which generate the most marked Karmic effects) are as evanescent\n as a flash of lightning, and cannot impress the new brain of the\n new personality; yet their failing to do so impairs in no way the\n identity of the reincarnating Ego.\n\n ENQ. Do you mean to infer that that which survives is only the\n Soul-memory, as you call it, that Soul or Ego being one and the\n same, while nothing of the personality remains?\n\n THEO. Not quite; something of each personality, unless the latter was\n an _absolute_ materialist with not even a chink in his nature for\n a spiritual ray to pass through, must survive, as it leaves its\n eternal impress on the incarnating permanent Self or Spiritual\n Ego.[35] (See On _post mortem_ and _post natal_ Consciousness.)\n The personality with its Skandhas is ever changing with every new\n birth. It is, as said before, only the part played by the actor\n (the true Ego) for one night. This is why we preserve no memory on\n the physical plane of our past lives, though the _real_ \u201cEgo\u201d has\n lived them over and knows them all.\n\n ENQ. Then how does it happen that the real or Spiritual man does not\n impress his new personal \u201cI\u201d with this knowledge?\n\n THEO. How is it that the servant-girls in a poor farm-house could speak\n Hebrew and play the violin in their trance or somnambulic state,\n and knew neither when in their normal condition? Because, as every\n genuine psychologist of the old, not your modern, school, will\n tell you, the Spiritual Ego can act only when the personal Ego is\n paralysed. The Spiritual \u201cI\u201d in man is omniscient and has every\n knowledge innate in it; while the personal self is the creature of\n its environment and the slave of the physical memory. Could the\n former manifest itself uninterruptedly, and without impediment,\n there would be no longer men on earth, but we should all be gods.\n\n ENQ. Still there ought to be exceptions, and some ought to remember.\n\n THEO. And so there are. But who believes in their report? Such\n sensitives are generally regarded as hallucinated hysteriacs, as\n crack-brained enthusiasts, or humbugs, by modern materialism.\n Let them read, however, works on this subject, pre-eminently\n \u201cRe-incarnation, a Study of Forgotten Truth\u201d by E. D. Walker,\n F.T.S., and see in it the mass of proofs which the able author\n brings to bear on this vexed question. One speaks to people of\n soul, and some ask \u201cWhat is Soul?\u201d \u201cHave you ever proved its\n existence?\u201d Of course it is useless to argue with those who are\n materialists. But even to them I would put the question: \u201cCan you\n remember what you were or did when a baby? Have you preserved\n the smallest recollection of your life, thoughts, or deeds, or\n that you lived at all during the first eighteen months or two\n years of your existence? Then why not deny that you have ever\n lived as a babe, on the same principle?\u201d When to all this we add\n that the reincarnating Ego, or _individuality_, retains during\n the Devachanic period merely the essence of the experience of its\n past earth-life or personality, the whole physical experience\n involving into a state of _in potentia_, or being, so to speak,\n translated into spiritual formul\u00e6; when we remember further that\n the term between two rebirths is said to extend from ten to\n fifteen centuries, during which time the physical consciousness is\n totally and absolutely inactive, having no organs to act through\n and therefore _no existence_, the reason for the absence of all\n remembrance in the purely physical memory is apparent.\n\n ENQ. You just said that the SPIRITUAL EGO was omniscient. Where, then,\n is that vaunted omniscience during his Devachanic life, as you call\n it?\n\n THEO. During that time it is latent and potential, because first of\n all, the Spiritual Ego (the compound of Buddhi-Manas) is _not_ the\n Higher SELF, which being one with the Universal Soul or Mind is\n alone omniscient; and, secondly, because Devachan is the idealized\n continuation of the terrestrial life just left behind, a period\n of retributive adjustment, and a reward for unmerited wrongs\n and sufferings undergone in that special life. It is omniscient\n only _potentially_ in Devachan, and _de facto_ exclusively in\n Nirvana, when the Ego is merged in the Universal Mind-Soul. Yet\n it re-becomes _quasi_ omniscient during those hours on earth when\n certain abnormal conditions and physiological changes in the body\n make the _Ego_ free from the trammels of matter. Thus the examples\n cited above of somnambulists, a poor servant speaking Hebrew, and\n another playing the violin, give you an illustration of the case\n in point. This does not mean that the explanations of these two\n facts offered us by medical science have no truth in them, for\n one girl had, years before, heard her master, a clergyman, read\n Hebrew works aloud, and the other had heard an artist playing a\n violin at their farm. But neither could have done so as perfectly\n as they did had they not been ensouled by THAT which, owing to the\n sameness of its nature with the Universal Mind, is omniscient.\n Here the higher principle acted on the Skandhas and moved them;\n in the other, the personality being paralysed, the individuality\n manifested itself. Pray do not confuse the two.\n\n\nON INDIVIDUALITY AND PERSONALITY.[36]\n\n ENQ. But what is the difference between the two? I confess that I am\n still in the dark. Indeed it is just that difference, then, that\n you cannot impress too much on our minds.\n\n THEO. I try to; but alas, it is harder with some than to make them feel\n a reverence for childish impossibilities, only because they\n are _orthodox_, and because orthodoxy is respectable. To\n understand the idea well, you have to first study the dual sets\n of \u201cprinciples\u201d; the _spiritual_, or those which belong to the\n imperishable Ego; and the _material_, or those principles which\n make up the ever-changing bodies or the series of personalities of\n that Ego. Let us fix permanent names to these, and say that:\u2014\n\n I. Atma, the \u201cHigher Self,\u201d is neither your Spirit nor mine, but\n like sunlight shines on all. It is the universally diffused\n \u201c_divine principle_,\u201d and is inseparable from its one and\n absolute _Meta_-Spirit, as the sunbeam is inseparable from\n sunlight.\n\n II. _Buddhi_ (the spiritual soul) is only its vehicle. Neither each\n separately, nor the two collectively, are of any more use\n to the body of man, then sunlight and its beams are for a\n mass of granite buried in the earth, _unless the divine Duad\n is assimilated by, and reflected in_, some _consciousness_.\n Neither Atma nor Buddhi are ever reached by Karma, because\n the former is the highest aspect of Karma, _its working\n agent_ of ITSELF in one aspect, and the other is unconscious\n _on this plane_. This consciousness or mind is,\n\n III. _Manas_,[37] the derivation or product in a reflected form of\n _Ahamkara_, \u201cthe conception of I,\u201d or EGO-SHIP. It is,\n therefore, when inseparably united to the first two, called\n the SPIRITUAL EGO, and _Taijasi_ (the radiant).\n\n This is the real Individuality, or the divine man. It is this Ego\n which\u2014having originally incarnated in the _senseless_ human form\n animated by, but unconscious (since it had no consciousness) of,\n the presence in itself of the dual monad\u2014made of that human-like\n form _a real man_. It is that Ego, that \u201cCausal Body,\u201d which\n overshadows every personality Karma forces it to incarnate into;\n and this Ego which is held responsible for all the sins committed\n through, and in, every new body or personality\u2014the evanescent\n masks which hide the true Individual through the long series of\n rebirths.\n\n ENQ. But is this just? Why should this EGO receive punishment as the\n result of deeds which it has forgotten?\n\n THEO. It has not forgotten them; it knows and remembers its misdeeds as\n well as you remember what you have done yesterday. Is it because\n the memory of that bundle of physical compounds called \u201cbody\u201d does\n not recollect what its predecessor (the personality _that was_)\n did, that you imagine that the real Ego has forgotten them? As\n well say it is unjust that the new boots on the feet of a boy, who\n is flogged for stealing apples, should be punished for that which\n they know nothing of.\n\n ENQ. But are there no modes of communication between the Spiritual and\n human consciousness or memory?\n\n THEO. Of course there are; but they have never been recognised by your\n scientific modern psychologists. To what do you attribute\n intuition, the \u201cvoice of the conscience,\u201d premonitions,\n vague undefined reminiscences, etc., etc., if not to such\n communications? Would that the majority of educated men, at least,\n had the fine spiritual perceptions of Coleridge, who shows how\n intuitional he is in some of his comments. Hear what he says with\n respect to the probability that \u201call thoughts are in themselves\n imperishable.\u201d \u201cIf the intelligent faculty (sudden \u2018revivals\u2019\n of memory) should be rendered more comprehensive, it would\n require only a different and appropriate organization, the _body\n celestial_ instead of the _body terrestrial_, to bring before\n every human soul _the collective experience of its whole past\n existence_ (_existences_, rather).\u201d And this _body celestial_ is\n our Manasic EGO.\n\n\nON THE REWARD AND PUNISHMENT OF THE EGO.\n\n ENQ. I have heard you say that the _Ego_, whatever the life of the\n person he incarnated in may have been on Earth, is never visited\n with _post-mortem_ punishment.\n\n THEO. Never, save in very exceptional and rare cases of which we will\n not speak here, as the nature of the \u201cpunishment\u201d in no way\n approaches any of your theological conceptions of damnation.\n\n ENQ. But if it is punished in this life for the misdeeds committed in a\n previous one, then it is this Ego that ought to be rewarded also,\n whether here, or when disincarnated.\n\n THEO. And so it is. If we do not admit of any punishment outside of\n this earth, it is because the only state the Spiritual Self knows\n of, hereafter, is that of unalloyed bliss.\n\n ENQ. What do you mean?\n\n THEO. Simply this: _crimes and sins committed on a plane of objectivity\n and in a world of matter, cannot receive punishment in a world\n of pure subjectivity_. We believe in no hell or paradise as\n localities; in no objective hell-fires and worms that never die,\n nor in any Jerusalems with streets paved with sapphires and\n diamonds. What we believe in is a _post-mortem state_ or mental\n condition, such as we are in during a vivid dream. We believe\n in an immutable law of absolute Love, Justice, and Mercy. And\n believing in it, we say: \u201cWhatever the sin and dire results of the\n original Karmic transgression of the now incarnated Egos[38] no\n man (or the outer material and periodical form of the Spiritual\n Entity) can be held, with any degree of justice, responsible for\n the consequences of his birth. He does not ask to be born, nor can\n he choose the parents that will give him life. In every respect he\n is a victim to his environment, the child of circumstances over\n which he has no control; and if each of his transgressions were\n impartially investigated, there would be found nine out of every\n ten cases when he was the one sinned against, rather than the\n sinner. Life is at best a heartless play, a stormy sea to cross,\n and a heavy burden often too difficult to bear. The greatest\n philosophers have tried in vain to fathom and find out its _raison\n d\u2019\u00eatre_, and have all failed except those who had the key to it,\n namely, the Eastern sages. Life is, as Shakespeare describes it:\u2014\n\n ... but a walking shadow\u2014a poor player, That struts and frets his\n hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told\n by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing....\u201d\n\n Nothing in its separate parts, yet of the greatest importance in\n its collectivity or series of lives. At any rate, almost every\n individual life is, in its full development, a sorrow. And are we\n to believe that poor, helpless men, after being tossed about like\n a piece of rotten timber on the angry billows of life, is, if he\n proves too weak to resist them, to be punished by a _sempiternity_\n of damnation, or even a temporary punishment? Never! Whether a\n great or an average sinner, good or bad, guilty or innocent, once\n delivered of the burden of physical life, the tired and worn-out\n _Manu_ (\u201cthinking Ego\u201d) has won the right to a period of absolute\n rest and bliss. The same unerringly wise and just rather than\n merciful Law, which inflicts upon the incarnated Ego the Karmic\n punishment for every sin committed during the preceding life on\n Earth, provided for the now disembodied Entity a long lease of\n mental rest, _i.e._, the entire oblivion of every sad event, aye,\n to the smallest painful thought, that took place in its last life\n as a personality, leaving in the soul-memory but the reminiscence\n of that which was bliss, or led to happiness. Plotinus, who said\n that our body was the true river of Lethe, for \u201csouls plunged into\n it forget all,\u201d meant more than he said. For, as our terrestrial\n body is like Lethe, so is our _celestial body_ in Devachan, and\n much more.\n\n ENQ. Then am I to understand that the murderer, the transgressor of law\n divine and human in every shape, is allowed to go unpunished?\n\n THEO. Who ever said that? Our philosophy has a doctrine of punishment\n as stern as that of the most rigid Calvinist, only far more\n philosophical and consistent with absolute justice. No deed,\n not even a sinful thought, will go unpunished; the latter more\n severely even than the former, as a thought is far more potential\n in creating evil results than even a deed.[39] We believe in an\n unerring law of Retribution, called KARMA, which asserts itself in\n a natural concatenation of causes and their unavoidable results.\n\n ENQ. And how, or where, does it act?\n\n THEO. Every labourer is worthy of his hire, saith Wisdom in the Gospel;\n every action, good or bad, is a prolific parent, saith the Wisdom\n of the Ages. Put the two together, and you will find the \u201cwhy.\u201d\n After allowing the Soul, escaped from the pangs of personal life,\n a sufficient, aye, a hundredfold compensation, Karma, with its\n army of Skandhas, waits at the threshold of Devachan, whence the\n _Ego_ re-emerges to assume a new incarnation. It is at this moment\n that the future destiny of the now-rested Ego trembles in the\n scales of just Retribution, as _it_ now falls once again under the\n sway of active Karmic law. It is in this re-birth which is ready\n for _it_, a re-birth selected and prepared by this mysterious,\n inexorable, but in the equity and wisdom of its decrees infallible\n LAW, that the sins of the previous life of the Ego are punished.\n Only it is into no imaginary Hell, with theatrical flames and\n ridiculous tailed and horned devils, that the Ego is cast, but\n verily on to this earth, the plane and region of his sins, where\n he will have to atone for every bad thought and deed. As he\n has sown, so will he reap. Re-incarnation will gather around\n him all those other Egos who have suffered, whether directly\n or indirectly, at the hands, or even through the unconscious\n instrumentality, of the past _personality_. They will be thrown\n by Nemesis in the way of the _new_ man, concealing the _old_, the\n eternal EGO, and ...\n\n ENQ. But where is the equity you speak of, since these _new_\n \u201cpersonalities\u201d are not aware of having sinned or been sinned\n against?\n\n THEO. Has the coat torn to shreds from the back of the man who stole\n it, by another man who was robbed of it and recognises his\n property, to be regarded as fairly dealt with? The new\n \u201cpersonality\u201d is no better than a fresh suit of clothes with its\n specific characteristics, colour, form and qualities; but the\n _real_ man who wears it is the same culprit as of old. It is the\n _individuality_ who suffers through his \u201cpersonality.\u201d And it is\n this, and this alone, that can account for the terrible, still\n only _apparent_, injustice in the distribution of lots in life\n to man. When your modern philosophers will have succeeded in\n showing to us a good reason, why so many apparently innocent and\n good men are born only to suffer during a whole lifetime; why so\n many are born poor unto starvation in the slums of great cities,\n abandoned by fate and men; why, while these are born in the\n gutter, others open their eyes to light in palaces; while a noble\n birth and fortune seem often given to the worst of men and only\n rarely to the worthy; while there are beggars whose _inner_ selves\n are peers to the highest and noblest of men; when this, and much\n more, is satisfactorily explained by either your philosophers or\n theologians, then only, but not till then, you will have the right\n to reject the theory of re-incarnation. The highest and grandest\n of poets have dimly perceived this truth of truths. Shelley\n believed in it, Shakespeare must have thought of it when writing\n on the worthlessness of Birth. Remember his words:\n\n \u201cWhy should my birth keep down my mounting spirit?\n Are not all creatures subject unto time?\n There\u2019s legions now of beggars on the earth,\n That their original did spring from Kings,\n And many monarchs now, whose fathers were\n The riff-raff of their age....\u201d\n\n Alter the word \u201cfathers\u201d into \u201cEgos\u201d\u2014and you will have the truth.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[31] \u201cThe phantasy,\u201d says Olympiodorus (in Platonis Ph\u00e6d.) \u201cis an\nimpediment to our intellectual conceptions; and hence, when we are\nagitated by the inspiring influence of the Divinity, if the phantasy\nintervenes, the enthusiastic energy ceases: for enthusiasm and the\necstasy are contrary to each other. Should it be asked whether the soul\nis able to energise without the phantasy, we reply, that its perception\nof universals proves that it is able. It has perceptions, therefore,\nindependent of the phantasy; at the same time, however, the phantasy\nattends in its energies, just as a storm pursues him who sails on the\nsea.\u201d\n\n[32] Namely, the body, life, passional and animal instincts, and the\nastral eidolon of every man (whether perceived in thought or our\nmind\u2019s eye, or objectively and separate from the physical body), which\nprinciples we call _Sthula sarira_, _Pran\u00e2_, _Kama rupa_, and _Linga\nsarira_ (_vide supra_).\n\n[33] There are five _Skandhas_ or attributes in the Buddhist teachings:\n\u201c_Rupa_ (form or body), material qualities; _Vedana_, sensation;\n_Sanna_, abstract ideas; _Samkhara_, tendencies of mind; _Vinnana_,\nmental powers. Of these we are formed; by them we are conscious of\nexistence; and through them communicate with the world about us.\u201d\n\n[34] By H. S. Olcott, President and Founder of the Theosophical\nSociety. The accuracy of the teaching is sanctioned by the Rev. H.\nSumangala, High Priest of the Sripada and Galle, and Principal of the\n_Widyodaya Parivena_ (College) at Colombo, as being in agreement with\nthe Canon of the Southern Buddhist Church.\n\n[35] Or the _Spiritual_, in contradistinction to the personal _Self_.\nThe student must not confuse this Spiritual Ego with the \u201cHIGHER SELF\u201d\nwhich is _Atma_, the God within us, and inseparable from the Universal\nSpirit.\n\n[36] Even in his _Buddhist Cathechism_, Col. Olcott, forced to it by\nthe logic of Esoteric philosophy, found himself obliged to correct\nthe mistakes of previous Orientalists who made no such distinction,\nand gives the reader his reason for it. Thus he says: \u201cThe successive\nappearances upon the earth, or \u2018descents into generation,\u2019 of the\n_tanhaically_ coherent parts (Skandhas) of a certain being are a\nsuccession of personalities. In each birth the PERSONALITY differs\nfrom that of a previous or next succeeding birth. Karma, the DEUS\nEX MACHINA, masks (or shall we say reflects?) itself now in the\npersonality of a sage, again as an artisan, and so on throughout the\nstring of births. But though personalities ever shift, the one line of\nlife along which they are strung, like beads, runs unbroken; it is ever\nthat _particular line_, never any other. It is therefore individual, an\nindividual vital undulation, which began in Nirvana, or the subjective\nside of nature, as the light or heat undulation through \u00e6ther began\nat its dynamic source; is careering through the objective side of\nnature under the impulse of Karma and the creative direction of _Tanha_\n(the unsatisfied desire for existence); and leads through many cyclic\nchanges back to Nirvana. Mr. Rhys-Davids calls that which passes from\npersonality to personality along the individual chain \u2018character,\u2019 or\n\u2018doing.\u2019 Since \u2018character\u2019 is not a mere metaphysical abstraction, but\nthe sum of one\u2019s mental qualities and moral propensities, would it not\nhelp to dispel what Mr. Rhys-Davids calls \u2018the desperate expedient of\na mystery\u2019 (_Buddhism_, p. 101) if we regarded the life-undulation as\nindividuality, and each of its series of natal manifestations as a\nseparate personality? The perfect individual, Buddhistically speaking,\nis a Buddha, I should say; for Buddha is but the rare flower of\nhumanity, without the least supernatural admixture. And as countless\ngenerations (\u2018four _asankheyyas_ and a hundred thousand cycles,\u2019\nFausboll and Rhys-Davids\u2019 BUDDHIST BIRTH STORIES, p. 13) are required\nto develop a _man_ into a Buddha, and _the iron will to become one_\nruns throughout all the successive births, what shall we call that\nwhich thus wills and perseveres? Character? One\u2019s individuality: an\nindividuality but partly manifested in any one birth, but built up of\nfragments from all the births?\u201d (_Bud. Cat., Appendix_ A. 137.)\n\n[37] MAHAT or the \u201cUniversal Mind\u201d is the source of Manas. The latter\nis Mahat, _i.e._, mind, in man. Manas is also called _Kshetrajna_,\n\u201cembodied Spirit,\u201d because it is, according to our philosophy, the\n_Manasa-putras_, or \u201cSons of the Universal Mind,\u201d who _created_, or\nrather produced, the _thinking_ man, \u201c_manu_,\u201d by incarnating in the\n_third Race_ mankind in our Round. It is Manas, therefore, which is the\nreal incarnating and permanent _Spiritual Ego_, the INDIVIDUALITY, and\nour various and numberless personalities only its external masks.\n\n[38] It is on this transgression that the cruel and illogical dogma of\nthe Fallen Angels has been built. It is explained in Vol. II. of the\n_Secret Doctrine_. All our \u201cEgos\u201d are thinking and rational entities\n(_Manasa-putras_) who had lived, whether under human or other forms,\nin the precedent _life-cycle_ (Manvantara), and whose Karma it was to\nincarnate in the _man_ of this one. It was taught in the MYSTERIES\nthat, having delayed to comply with this law (or having \u201crefused to\ncreate\u201d as Hinduism says of the _Kumaras_ and Christian legend of the\nArchangel Michael), _i.e._, having failed to incarnate in due time, the\nbodies predestined for them got defiled (Vide Stanzas VIII. and IX.\nin the \u201cSlokas of Dzyan,\u201d Vol. II. Secret Doctrine, pp. 19 and 20),\nhence the original sin of the senseless forms and the punishment of\nthe _Egos_. That which is meant by the rebellious angels being hurled\ndown into Hell is simply explained by these pure Spirits or Egos being\nimprisoned in bodies of unclean matter, flesh.\n\n[39] \u201cVerily, I say unto you, that whosoever looketh at a woman to lust\nafter her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.\u201d\n(Matt. v., 28.)\n\n\n\n\nIX. ON THE KAMA-LOKA AND DEVACHAN.\n\n\nON THE FATE OF THE LOWER \u201cPRINCIPLES.\u201d\n\n ENQ. You spoke of _Kama-loka_, what is it?\n\n THEO. When the man dies, his lower three principles leave him for ever;\n _i.e._, body, life, and the vehicle of the latter, the astral\n body or the double of the _living_ man. And then, his four\n principles\u2014the central or middle principle, the animal soul or\n _Kama-rupa_, with what it has assimilated from the lower Manas,\n and the higher triad find themselves in _Kama-loka_. The latter\n is an astral locality, the _limbus_ of scholastic theology, the\n _Hades_ of the ancients, and, strictly speaking, a _locality_\n only in a relative sense. It has neither a definite area nor\n boundary, but exists _within_ subjective space; _i.e._, is beyond\n our sensuous perceptions. Still it exists, and it is there\n that the astral _eidolons_ of all the beings that have lived,\n animals included, await their _second death_. For the animals\n it comes with the disintegration and the entire fading out of\n their _astral_ particles to the last. For the human _eidolon_ it\n begins when the Atma-Buddhi-Manasic triad is said to \u201cseparate\u201d\n itself from its lower principles, or the reflection of the\n _ex-personality_, by falling into the Devachanic state.\n\n ENQ. And what happens after this?\n\n THEO. Then the _Kama-rupic_ phantom, remaining bereft of its informing\n thinking principle, the higher _Manas_, and the lower aspect of\n the latter, the animal intelligence, no longer receiving light\n from the higher mind, and no longer having a physical brain to\n work through, collapses.\n\n ENQ. In what way?\n\n THEO. Well, it falls into the state of the frog when certain portions\n of its brain are taken out by the vivisector. It can think no\n more, even on the lowest animal plane. Henceforth it is no longer\n even the lower Manas, since this \u201clower\u201d is nothing without the\n \u201chigher.\u201d\n\n ENQ. And is it _this_ nonentity which we find materializing in S\u00e9ance\n rooms with Mediums?\n\n THEO. It is this nonentity. A true nonentity, however, only as to\n reasoning or cogitating powers, still an _Entity_, however\n astral and fluidic, as shown in certain cases when, having been\n magnetically and unconsciously drawn toward a medium, it is\n revived for a time and lives in him by _proxy_, so to speak. This\n \u201cspook,\u201d or the Kama-rupa, may be compared with the _jelly-fish_,\n which has an ethereal gelatinous appearance so long as it is in\n its own element, or water (the _medium\u2019s specific AURA_), but\n which, no sooner is it thrown out of it, than it dissolves in the\n hand or on the sand, especially in sunlight. In the medium\u2019s Aura,\n it lives a kind of vicarious life and reasons and speaks either\n through the medium\u2019s brain or those of other persons present.\n But this would lead us too far, and upon other people\u2019s grounds,\n whereon I have no desire to trespass. Let us keep to the subject\n of re-incarnation.\n\n ENQ. What of the latter? How long does the incarnating _Ego_ remain in\n the Devachanic state?\n\n THEO. This, we are taught, depends on the degree of spirituality and\n the merit or demerit of the last incarnation. The average time is\n from ten to fifteen centuries, as I already told you.\n\n ENQ. But why could not this Ego manifest and communicate with mortals\n as Spiritualists will have it? What is there to prevent a mother\n from communicating with the children she left on earth, a husband\n with his wife, and so on? It is a most consoling belief, I must\n confess; nor do I wonder that those who believe in it are so\n averse to give it up.\n\n THEO. Nor are they forced to, unless they happen to prefer truth to\n fiction, however \u201cconsoling.\u201d Uncongenial our doctrines may be to\n Spiritualists; yet, nothing of what we believe in and teach is\n half as selfish and cruel as what they preach.\n\n ENQ. I do not understand you. What is selfish?\n\n THEO. Their doctrine of the return of Spirits, the real \u201cpersonalities\u201d\n as they say; and I will tell you why. If _Devachan_\u2014call it\n \u201cparadise\u201d if you like, a \u201cplace of bliss and of supreme\n felicity,\u201d if it is anything\u2014is such a place (or say _state_),\n logic tells us that no sorrow or even a shade of pain can be\n experienced therein. \u201cGod shall wipe away all the tears from the\n eyes\u201d of those in paradise, we read in the book of many promises.\n And if the \u201cSpirits of the dead\u201d are enabled to return and see all\n that is going on on earth, and especially _in their homes_, what\n kind of bliss can be in store for them?\n\n\nWHY THEOSOPHISTS DO NOT BELIEVE IN THE RETURN OF PURE \u201cSPIRITS.\u201d\n\n ENQ. What do you mean? Why should this interfere with their bliss?\n\n THEO. Simply this; and here is an instance. A mother dies, leaving\n behind her little helpless children\u2014orphans whom she\n adores\u2014perhaps a beloved husband also. We say that her \u201c_Spirit_\u201d\n or _Ego_\u2014that individuality which is now all impregnated, for the\n entire Devachanic period, with the noblest feelings held by its\n late _personality_, _i.e._, love for her children, pity for those\n who suffer, and so on\u2014we say that it is now entirely separated\n from the \u201cvale of tears,\u201d that its future bliss consists in that\n blessed ignorance of all the woes it left behind. Spiritualists\n say, on the contrary, that it is as vividly aware of them, _and\n more so than before_, for \u201cSpirits see more than mortals in the\n flesh do.\u201d We say that the bliss of the _Devachanee_ consists in\n its complete conviction that it has never left the earth, and that\n there is no such thing as death at all; that the _post-mortem_\n spiritual _consciousness_ of the mother will represent to her that\n she lives surrounded by her children and all those whom she loved;\n that no gap, no link, will be missing to make her disembodied\n state the most perfect and absolute happiness. The Spiritualists\n deny this point blank. According to their doctrine, unfortunate\n man is not liberated even by death from the sorrows of this life.\n Not a drop from the life-cup of pain and suffering will miss his\n lips; and _nolens volens_, since he sees everything now, shall he\n drink it to the bitter dregs. Thus, the loving wife, who during\n her lifetime was ready to save her husband sorrow at the price of\n her heart\u2019s blood, is now doomed to see, in utter helplessness,\n his despair, and to register every hot tear he sheds for her\n loss. Worse than that, she may see the tears dry too soon, and\n another beloved face shine on him, the father of her children;\n find another woman replacing her in his affections; doomed to hear\n her orphans giving the holy name of \u201cmother\u201d to one indifferent\n to them, and to see those little children neglected, if not\n ill-treated. According to this doctrine the \u201cgentle wafting to\n immortal life\u201d becomes without any transition the way into a new\n path of mental suffering! And yet, the columns of the \u201cBanner of\n Light,\u201d the veteran journal of the American Spiritualists, are\n filled with messages from the dead, the \u201cdear departed ones,\u201d\n who all write to say how very _happy_ they are! Is such a state\n of knowledge consistent with bliss? Then \u201cbliss\u201d stands in such\n a case for the greatest curse, and orthodox damnation must be a\n relief in comparison to it!\n\n ENQ. But how does your theory avoid this? How can you reconcile the\n theory of Soul\u2019s omniscience with its blindness to that which is\n taking place on earth?\n\n THEO. Because such is the law of love and mercy. During every\n Devachanic period the Ego, omniscient as it is _per se_, clothes\n itself, so to say, with the _reflection_ of the \u201cpersonality\u201d\n that was. I have just told you that the _ideal_ efflorescence\n of all the abstract, therefore undying and eternal qualities\n or attributes, such as love and mercy, the love of the good,\n the true and the beautiful, that ever spoke in the heart of the\n living \u201cpersonality,\u201d clung after death to the Ego, and therefore\n followed it to Devachan. For the time being, then, the Ego becomes\n the ideal reflection of the human being it was when last on earth,\n and _that_ is not omniscient. Were it that, it would never be in\n the state we call Devachan at all.\n\n ENQ. What are your reasons for it?\n\n THEO. If you want an answer on the strict lines of our philosophy, then\n I will say that it is because everything is _illusion_ (_Maya_)\n outside of eternal truth, which has neither form, colour, nor\n limitation. He who has placed himself beyond the veil of maya\u2014and\n such are the highest Adepts and Initiates\u2014can have no Devachan.\n As to the ordinary mortal, his bliss in it is complete. It is\n an _absolute_ oblivion of all that gave it pain or sorrow in\n the past incarnation, and even oblivion of the fact that such\n things as pain or sorrow exist at all. The _Devachanee_ lives\n its intermediate cycle between two incarnations surrounded by\n everything it had aspired to in vain, and in the companionship of\n everyone it loved on earth. It has reached the fulfilment of all\n its soul-yearnings. And thus it lives throughout long centuries\n an existence of _unalloyed_ happiness, which is the reward for\n its sufferings in earth-life. In short, it bathes in a sea of\n uninterrupted felicity spanned only by events of still greater\n felicity in degree.\n\n ENQ. But this is more than simple delusion, it is an existence of\n insane hallucinations!\n\n THEO. From your standpoint it may be, not so from that of philosophy.\n Besides which, is not our whole terrestrial life filled with such\n delusions? Have you never met men and women living for years in a\n fool\u2019s paradise? And because you should happen to learn that the\n husband of a wife, whom she adores and believes herself as beloved\n by him, is untrue to her, would you go and break her heart and\n beautiful dream by rudely awakening her to the reality? I think\n not. I say it again, such oblivion and _hallucination_\u2014if you call\n it so\u2014are only a merciful law of nature and strict justice. At\n any rate, it is a far more fascinating prospect than the orthodox\n golden harp with a pair of wings. The assurance that \u201cthe soul\n that lives ascends frequently and runs familiarly through the\n streets of the heavenly Jerusalem, visiting the patriarchs and\n prophets, saluting the apostles, and admiring the army of martyrs\u201d\n may seem of a more pious character to some. Nevertheless, it is\n a hallucination of a far more delusive character, since mothers\n love their children with an immortal love, we all know, while the\n personages mentioned in the \u201cheavenly Jerusalem\u201d are still of a\n rather doubtful nature. But I would, still, rather accept the \u201cnew\n Jerusalem,\u201d with its streets paved like the show windows of a\n jeweller\u2019s shop, than find consolation in the heartless doctrine\n of the Spiritualists. The idea alone that the _intellectual\n conscious souls_ of one\u2019s father, mother, daughter or brother find\n their bliss in a \u201cSummer land\u201d\u2014only a little more natural, but\n just as ridiculous as the \u201cNew Jerusalem\u201d in its description\u2014would\n be enough to make one lose every respect for one\u2019s \u201cdeparted\n ones.\u201d To believe that a pure spirit can feel happy while doomed\n to witness the sins, mistakes, treachery, and, above all, the\n sufferings of those from whom it is severed by death and whom it\n loves best, without being able to help them, would be a maddening\n thought.\n\n ENQ. There is something in your argument. I confess to having never\n seen it in this light.\n\n THEO. Just so, and one must be selfish to the core and utterly devoid\n of the sense of retributive justice, to have ever imagined such a\n thing. We are with those whom we have lost in material form, and\n far, far nearer to them now, than when they were alive. And it is\n not only in the fancy of the _Devachanee_, as some may imagine,\n but in reality. For pure divine love is not merely the blossom\n of a human heart, but has its roots in eternity. Spiritual holy\n love is immortal, and Karma brings sooner or later all those who\n loved each other with such a spiritual affection to incarnate once\n more in the same family group. Again we say that love beyond the\n grave, illusion though you may call it, has a magic and divine\n potency which reacts on the living. A mother\u2019s _Ego_ filled with\n love for the imaginary children it sees near itself, living a life\n of happiness, as real to _it_ as when on earth\u2014that love will\n always be felt by the children in flesh. It will manifest in their\n dreams, and often in various events\u2014in _providential_ protections\n and escapes, for love is a strong shield, and is not limited by\n space or time. As with this Devachanic \u201cmother,\u201d so with the rest\n of human relationships and attachments, save the purely selfish or\n material. Analogy will suggest to you the rest.\n\n ENQ. In no case, then, do you admit the possibility of the\n communication of the living with the _disembodied_ spirit?\n\n THEO. Yes, there is a case, and even two exceptions to the rule. The\n first exception is during the few days that follow immediately the\n death of a person and before the _Ego_ passes into the Devachanic\n state. Whether any living mortal, save a few exceptional\n cases\u2014(when the intensity of the desire in the dying person to\n return for some purpose forced the higher consciousness _to\n remain awake_, and therefore it was really the _individuality_,\n the \u201cSpirit\u201d that communicated)\u2014has derived much benefit from\n the return of the spirit into the _objective_ plane is another\n question. The spirit is dazed after death and falls very soon\n into what we call \u201c_pre-devachanic_ unconsciousness.\u201d The second\n exception is found in the _Nirmanakayas_.\n\n ENQ. What about them? And what does the name mean for you?\n\n THEO. It is the name given to those who, though they have won the right\n to Nirvana and cyclic rest\u2014(_not_ \u201cDevachan,\u201d as the latter is\n an illusion of our consciousness, a happy dream, and as those\n who are fit for Nirvana must have lost entirely every desire or\n possibility of the world\u2019s illusions)\u2014have out of pity for mankind\n and those they left on earth renounced the Nirvanic state. Such\n an adept, or Saint, or whatever you may call him, believing it\n a selfish act to rest in bliss while mankind groans under the\n burden of misery produced by ignorance, renounces Nirvana, and\n determines to remain invisible _in spirit_ on this earth. They\n have no material body, as they have left it behind; but otherwise\n they remain with all their principles even _in astral life_ in our\n sphere. And such can and do communicate with a few elect ones,\n only surely not with _ordinary_ mediums.\n\n ENQ. I have put you the question about _Nirmanakayas_ because I read in\n some German and other works that it was the name given to the\n terrestrial appearances or bodies assumed by Buddhas in the\n Northern Buddhistic teachings.\n\n THEO. So they are, only the Orientalists have confused this terrestrial\n body by understanding it to be _objective_ and _physical_ instead\n of purely astral and subjective.\n\n ENQ. And what good can they do on earth?\n\n THEO. Not much, as regards individuals, as they have no right to\n interfere with Karma, and can only advise and inspire mortals for\n the general good. Yet they do more beneficent actions than you\n imagine.\n\n ENQ. To this Science would never subscribe, not even modern psychology.\n For them, no portion of intelligence can survive the physical\n brain. What would you answer them?\n\n THEO. I would not even go to the trouble of answering, but would simply\n say, in the words given to \u201cM.A. Oxon,\u201d \u201cIntelligence is\n perpetuated after the body is dead. Though it is not a question\n of the brain only.... It is reasonable to propound the\n indestructibility of the human spirit from what we know\u201d (_Spirit\n Identity_, p. 69).\n\n ENQ. But \u201cM.A. Oxon\u201d is a Spiritualist?\n\n THEO. Quite so, and the only _true_ Spiritualist I know of, though we\n may still disagree with him on many a minor question. Apart from\n this, no Spiritualist comes nearer to the occult truths than he\n does. Like any one of us he speaks incessantly \u201cof the surface\n dangers that beset the ill-equipped, feather-headed muddler\n with the occult, who crosses the threshold without counting the\n cost.\u201d[40] Our only disagreement rests in the question of \u201cSpirit\n Identity.\u201d Otherwise, I, for one, coincide almost entirely with\n him, and accept the three propositions he embodied in his address\n of July, 1884. It is this eminent Spiritualist, rather, who\n disagrees with us, not we with him.\n\n ENQ. What are these propositions?\n\n THEO.\n\n \u201c1. That there is a life coincident with, and independent of the\n physical life of the body.\u201d\n\n \u201c2. That, as a necessary corollary, this life extends beyond the\n life of the body\u201d (we say it extends throughout Devachan).\n\n \u201c3. That there is communication between the denizens of that state\n of existence and those of the world in which we now live.\u201d\n\n All depend, you see, on the minor and secondary aspects of these\n fundamental propositions. Everything depends on the views we\n take of Spirit and Soul, or _Individuality_ and _Personality_.\n Spiritualists confuse the two \u201cinto one\u201d; we separate them, and\n say that, with the exceptions above enumerated, no _Spirit_ will\n revisit the earth, though the animal Soul may. But let us return\n once more to our direct subject, the Skandhas.\n\n ENQ. I begin to understand better now. It is the Spirit, so to say, of\n those Skandhas which are the most ennobling, which, attaching\n themselves to the incarnating Ego, survive, and are added to\n the stock of its angelic experiences. And it is the attributes\n connected with the material Skandhas, with selfish and personal\n motives, which, disappearing from the field of action between two\n incarnations, reappear at the subsequent incarnation as Karmic\n results to be atoned for; and therefore the Spirit will not leave\n Devachan. Is it so?\n\n THEO. Very nearly so. If you add to this that the law of retribution,\n or Karma, rewarding the highest and most spiritual in Devachan,\n never fails to reward them again on earth by giving them a further\n development, and furnishing the Ego with a body fitted for it,\n then you will be quite correct.\n\n\nA FEW WORDS ABOUT THE SKANDHAS.\n\n ENQ. What becomes of the other, the lower Skandhas of the personality,\n after the death of the body? Are they quite destroyed?\n\n THEO. They are and yet they are not\u2014a fresh metaphysical and occult\n mystery for you. They are destroyed as the working stock in hand\n of the personality; they remain as _Karmic effects_, as germs,\n hanging in the atmosphere of the terrestrial plane, ready to come\n to life, as so many avenging fiends, to attach themselves to the\n new personality of the Ego when it reincarnates.\n\n ENQ. This really passes my comprehension, and is very difficult to\n understand.\n\n THEO. Not once that you have assimilated all the details. For then you\n will see that for logic, consistency, profound philosophy, divine\n mercy and equity, this doctrine of Re-incarnation has not its\n equal on earth. It is a belief in a perpetual progress for each\n incarnating Ego, or divine soul, in an evolution from the outward\n into the inward, from the material to the Spiritual, arriving at\n the end of each stage at absolute unity with the divine Principle.\n From strength to strength, from beauty and perfection of one plane\n to the greater beauty and perfection of another, with accessions\n of new glory, of fresh knowledge and power in each cycle, such is\n the destiny of every Ego, which thus becomes its own Saviour in\n each world and incarnation.\n\n ENQ. But Christianity teaches the same. It also preaches progression.\n\n THEO. Yes, only with the addition of something else. It tells us of the\n _impossibility_ of attaining Salvation without the aid of a\n miraculous Saviour, and therefore dooms to perdition all those who\n will not accept the dogma. This is just the difference between\n Christian theology and Theosophy. The former enforces belief in\n the Descent of the Spiritual Ego into the _Lower Self_ the latter\n inculcates the necessity of endeavouring to elevate oneself to the\n Christos, or Buddhi state.\n\n ENQ. By teaching the annihilation of consciousness in case of failure,\n however, don\u2019t you think that it amounts to the annihilation of\n _Self_, in the opinion of the non-metaphysical?\n\n THEO. From the standpoint of those who believe in the resurrection of\n the body _literally_, and insist that every bone, every artery and\n atom of flesh will be raised bodily on the Judgment Day\u2014of course\n it does. If you still insist that it is the perishable form and\n finite qualities that make up _immortal_ man, then we shall hardly\n understand each other. And if you do not understand that, by\n limiting the existence of every Ego to one life on earth, you make\n of Deity an ever-drunken Indra of the Puranic dead letter, a cruel\n Moloch, a god who makes an inextricable mess on Earth, and yet\n claims thanks for it, then the sooner we drop the conversation the\n better.\n\n ENQ. But let us return, now that the subject of the Skandhas is\n disposed of, to the question of the consciousness which survives\n death. This is the point which interests most people. Do we\n possess more knowledge in Devachan than we do in Earth life?\n\n THEO. In one sense, we can acquire more knowledge; that is, we can\n develop further any faculty which we loved and strove after during\n life, provided it is concerned with abstract and ideal things,\n such as music, painting, poetry, etc., since Devachan is merely an\n idealized and subjective continuation of earth-life.\n\n ENQ. But if in Devachan the Spirit is free from matter, why should it\n not possess all knowledge?\n\n THEO. Because, as I told you, the Ego is, so to say, wedded to the\n memory of its last incarnation. Thus, if you think over what I\n have said, and string all the facts together, you will realize\n that the Devachanic state is not one of omniscience, but a\n transcendental continuation of the personal life just terminated.\n It is the rest of the soul from the toils of life.\n\n ENQ. But the scientific materialists assert that after the death of man\n nothing remains; that the human body simply disintegrates into\n its component elements; and that what we call soul is merely a\n temporary self-consciousness produced as a bye-product of organic\n action, which will evaporate like steam. Is not theirs a strange\n state of mind?\n\n THEO. Not strange at all, that I see. If they say that\n self-consciousness ceases with the body, then in their case they\n simply utter an unconscious prophecy, for once they are firmly\n convinced of what they assert, no conscious after-life is possible\n for them. For there _are_ exceptions to every rule.\n\n\nON POST-MORTEM AND POST-NATAL CONSCIOUSNESS.[41]\n\n ENQ. But if human self-consciousness survives death as a rule, why\n should there be exceptions?\n\n THEO. In the fundamental principles of the spiritual world no exception\n is possible. But there are rules for those who see, and rules for\n those who prefer to remain blind.\n\n ENQ. Quite so, I understand. This is but an aberration of the blind\n man, who denies the existence of the sun because he does not see\n it. But after death his spiritual eyes will certainly compel him\n to see. Is this what you mean?\n\n THEO. He will not be compelled, nor will he see anything. Having\n persistently denied during life the continuance of existence after\n death, he will be unable to see it, because his spiritual capacity\n having been stunted in life, it cannot develop after death, and\n he will remain blind. By insisting that he _must_ see it, you\n evidently mean one thing and I another. You speak of the spirit\n from the spirit, or the flame from the flame\u2014of Atma, in short\u2014and\n you confuse it with the human soul\u2014Manas.... You do not understand\n me; let me try to make it clear. The whole gist of your question\n is to know whether, in the case of a downright materialist, the\n complete loss of self-consciousness and self-perception after\n death is possible? Isn\u2019t it so? I answer, It is possible. Because,\n believing firmly in our Esoteric Doctrine, which refers to the\n _post-mortem_ period, or the interval between two lives or births\n as merely a transitory state, I say, whether that interval between\n two acts of the illusionary drama of life lasts one year or a\n million, that _post-mortem_ state may, without any breach of the\n fundamental law, prove to be just the same state as that of a man\n who is in a dead faint.\n\n ENQ. But since you have just said that the fundamental laws of the\n after death state admit of no exceptions, how can this be?\n\n THEO. Nor do I say that it does admit of an exception. But the\n spiritual law of continuity applies only to things which are truly\n real. To one who has read and understood Mundakya Upanishad and\n Vedanta-Sara all this becomes very clear. I will say more: it is\n sufficient to understand what we mean by Buddhi and the duality\n of Manas to gain a clear perception why the materialist may fail\n to have a self-conscious survival after death. Since Manas, in\n its lower aspect, is the seat of the terrestrial mind, it can,\n therefore, give only that perception of the Universe which is\n based on the evidence of that mind; it cannot give spiritual\n vision. It is said in the Eastern school, that between Buddhi and\n Manas (the _Ego_), or Iswara and Pragna[42] there is in reality\n no more difference than _between a forest and its trees, a lake\n and its waters_, as the Mundakya teaches. One or hundreds of trees\n dead from loss of vitality, or uprooted, are yet incapable of\n preventing the forest from being still a forest.\n\n ENQ. But, as I understand it, Buddhi represents in this simile the\n forest, and Manas-taijasi[43] the trees. And if Buddhi is\n immortal, how can that which is similar to it, _i.e._,\n Manas-taijasi, entirely lose its consciousness till the day of its\n new incarnation? I cannot understand it.\n\n THEO. You cannot, because you will mix up an abstract representation of\n the whole with its casual changes of form. Remember that if it\n can be said of Buddhi-Manas that it is unconditionally immortal,\n the same cannot be said of the lower Manas, still less of\n Taijasi, which is merely an attribute. Neither of these, neither\n Manas nor Taijasi, can exist apart from Buddhi, the divine\n soul, because the first (_Manas_) is, in its lower aspect, a\n qualificative attribute of the terrestrial personality, and the\n second (_Taijasi_) is identical with the first, because it is the\n same Manas only with the light of Buddhi reflected on it. In its\n turn, Buddhi would remain only an impersonal spirit without this\n element which it borrows from the human soul, which conditions\n and makes of it, in this illusive Universe, _as it were something\n separate_ from the universal soul for the whole period of the\n cycle of incarnation. Say rather that _Buddhi-Manas_ can neither\n die nor lose its compound self-consciousness in Eternity, nor the\n recollection of its previous incarnations in which the two\u2014_i.e_,\n the spiritual and the human soul\u2014had been closely linked together.\n But it is not so in the case of a materialist, whose human soul\n not only receives nothing from the divine soul, but even refuses\n to recognise its existence. You can hardly apply this axiom to the\n attributes and qualifications of the human soul, for it would be\n like saying that because your divine soul is immortal, therefore\n the bloom on your cheek must also be immortal; whereas this bloom,\n like Taijasi, is simply a transitory phenomenon.\n\n ENQ. Do I understand you to say that we must not mix in our minds the\n noumenon with the phenomenon, the cause with its effect?\n\n THEO. I do say so, and repeat that, limited to Manas or the human soul\n alone, the radiance of Taijasi itself becomes a mere question\n of time; because both immortality and consciousness after death\n become, for the terrestrial personality of man, simply conditioned\n attributes, as they depend entirely on conditions and beliefs\n created by the human soul itself during the life of its body.\n Karma acts incessantly; we reap _in our after-life_ only the fruit\n of that which we have ourselves sown in this.\n\n ENQ. But if my Ego can, after the destruction of my body, become\n plunged in a state of entire unconsciousness, then where can be\n the punishment for the sins of my past life?\n\n THEO. Our philosophy teaches that Karmic punishment reaches Ego only in\n its next incarnation. After death it receives only the reward for\n the unmerited sufferings endured during its past incarnation.[44]\n The whole punishment after death, even for the materialist,\n consists, therefore, in the absence of any reward, and the utter\n loss of the consciousness of one\u2019s bliss and rest. Karma is the\n child of the terrestrial Ego, the fruit of the actions of the tree\n which is the objective personality visible to all, as much as\n the fruit of all the thoughts and even motives of the spiritual\n \u201cI\u201d; but Karma is also the tender mother, who heals the wounds\n inflicted by her during the preceding life, before she will begin\n to torture this Ego by inflicting upon him new ones. If it may\n be said that there is not a mental or physical suffering in the\n life of a mortal which is not the direct fruit and consequence of\n some sin in a preceding existence; on the other hand, since he\n does not preserve the slightest recollection of it in his actual\n life, and feels himself not deserving of such punishment, and\n therefore thinks he suffers for no guilt of his own, this alone is\n sufficient to entitle the human soul to the fullest consolation,\n rest, and bliss in his _post-mortem_ existence. Death comes to\n our spiritual selves ever as a deliverer and friend. For the\n materialist, who, notwithstanding his materialism, was not a bad\n man, the interval between the two lives will be like the unbroken\n and placid sleep of a child, either entirely dreamless, or filled\n with pictures of which he will have no definite perception; while\n for the average mortal it will be a dream as vivid as life, and\n full of realistic bliss and visions.\n\n ENQ. Then the personal man must always go on suffering _blindly_ the\n Karmic penalties which the Ego has incurred?\n\n THEO. Not quite so. At the solemn moment of death every man, even when\n death is sudden, sees the whole of his past life marshalled before\n him, in its minutest details. For one short instant the _personal_\n becomes one with the _individual_ and all-knowing _Ego_. But this\n instant is enough to show to him the whole claim of causes which\n have been at work during his life. He sees and now understands\n himself as he is, unadorned by flattery or self-deception. He\n reads his life, remaining as a spectator looking down into the\n arena he is quitting; he feels and knows the justice of all the\n suffering that has overtaken him.\n\n ENQ. Does this happen to everyone?\n\n THEO. Without any exception. Very good and holy men see, we are taught,\n not only the life they are leaving, but even several preceding\n lives in which were produced the causes that made them what they\n were in the life just closing. They recognise the law of Karma in\n all its majesty and justice.\n\n ENQ. Is there anything corresponding to this before re-birth?\n\n THEO. There is. As the man at the moment of death has a retrospective\n insight into the life he has led, so, at the moment he is reborn\n on to earth, the _Ego_, awaking from the state of Devachan, has\n a prospective vision of the life which awaits him, and realizes\n all the causes that have led to it. He realizes them and sees\n futurity, because it is between Devachan and re-birth that the\n _Ego_ regains his full _manasic_ consciousness, and re-becomes for\n a short time the god he was, before, in compliance with Karmic\n law, he first descended into matter and incarnated in the first\n man of flesh. The \u201cgolden thread\u201d sees all its \u201cpearls\u201d and misses\n not one of them.\n\n\nWHAT IS REALLY MEANT BY ANNIHILATION.\n\n ENQ. I have heard some Theosophists speak of a golden thread on which\n their lives were strung. What do they mean by this?\n\n THEO. In the Hindu Sacred books it is said that that which undergoes\n periodical incarnation is the _Sutratma_, which means literally\n the \u201cThread Soul.\u201d It is a synonym of the reincarnating Ego\u2014Manas\n conjoined with _Buddhi_\u2014which absorbs the Manasic recollections\n of all our preceding lives. It is so called, because, like the\n pearls on a thread, so is the long series of human lives strung\n together on that one thread. In some Upanishad these recurrent\n rebirths are likened to the life of a mortal which oscillates\n periodically between sleep and waking.\n\n ENQ. This, I must say, does not seem very clear, and I will tell you\n why. For the man who awakes, another day commences, but that man\n is the same in soul and body as he was the day before; whereas\n at every incarnation a full change takes place not only of the\n external envelope, sex, and personality, but even of the mental\n and psychic capacities. The simile does not seem to me quite\n correct. The man who arises from sleep remembers quite clearly\n what he has done yesterday, the day before, and even months and\n years ago. But none of us has the slightest recollection of a\n preceding life or of any fact or event concerning it.... I may\n forget in the morning what I have dreamt during the night, still I\n know that I have slept and have the certainty that I lived during\n sleep; but what recollection can I have of my past incarnation\n until the moment of death? How do you reconcile this?\n\n THEO. Some people do recollect their past incarnations during life; but\n these are Buddhas and Initiates. This is what the Yogis call\n Samma-Sambuddha, or the knowledge of the whole series of one\u2019s\n past incarnations.\n\n ENQ. But we ordinary mortals who have not reached Samma-Sambuddha, how\n are we to understand this simile?\n\n THEO. By studying it and trying to understand more correctly the\n characteristics and the three kinds of sleep. Sleep is a general\n and immutable law for man as for beast, but there are different\n kinds of sleep and still more different dreams and visions.\n\n ENQ. But this takes us to another subject. Let us return to the\n materialist who, while not denying dreams, which he could hardly\n do, yet denies immortality in general and the survival of his own\n individuality.\n\n THEO. And the materialist, without knowing it, is right. One who has no\n inner perception of, and faith in, the immortality of his soul,\n in that man the soul can never become Buddhi-taijasi, but will\n remain simply Manas, and for Manas alone there is no immortality\n possible. In order to live in the world to come a conscious\n life, one has to believe first of all in that life during the\n terrestrial existence. On these two aphorisms of the Secret\n Science all the philosophy about the _post-mortem_ consciousness\n and the immortality of the soul is built. The Ego receives always\n according to its deserts. After the dissolution of the body,\n there commences for it a period of full awakened consciousness,\n or a state of chaotic dreams, or an utterly dreamless sleep\n undistinguishable from annihilation, and these are the three\n kinds of sleep. If our physiologists find the cause of dreams and\n visions in an unconscious preparation for them during the waking\n hours, why cannot the same be admitted for the _post-mortem_\n dreams? I repeat it: _death is sleep_. After death, before the\n spiritual eyes of the soul, begins a performance according to\n a programme learnt and very often unconsciously composed by\n ourselves: the practical carrying out of _correct_ beliefs or of\n illusions which have been created by ourselves. The Methodist will\n be Methodist, the Mussulman a Mussulman, at least for some time\u2014in\n a perfect fool\u2019s paradise of each man\u2019s creation and making. These\n are the _post-mortem_ fruits of the tree of life. Naturally, our\n belief or unbelief in the fact of conscious immortality is unable\n to influence the unconditioned reality of the fact itself, once\n that it exists; but the belief or unbelief in that immortality\n as the property of independent or separate entities, cannot fail\n to give colour to that fact in its application to each of these\n entities. Now do you begin to understand it?\n\n ENQ. I think I do. The materialist, disbelieving in everything that\n cannot be proven to him by his five senses, or by scientific\n reasoning, based exclusively on the data furnished by these senses\n in spite of their inadequacy, and rejecting every spiritual\n manifestation, accepts life as the only conscious existence.\n Therefore according to their beliefs so will it be unto them. They\n will lose their personal Ego, and will plunge into a dreamless\n sleep until a new awakening. Is it so?\n\n THEO. Almost so. Remember the practically universal teaching of the two\n kinds of conscious existence: the terrestrial and the spiritual.\n The latter must be considered real from the very fact that it is\n inhabited by the eternal, changeless and immortal Monad; whereas\n the incarnating Ego dresses itself up in new garments entirely\n different from those of its previous incarnations, and in which\n all except its spiritual prototype is doomed to a change so\n radical as to leave no trace behind.\n\n ENQ. How so? Can my conscious terrestrial \u201cI\u201d perish not only for a\n time, like the consciousness of the materialist, but so entirely\n as to leave no trace behind?\n\n THEO. According to the teaching, it must so perish and in its fullness,\n all except the principle which, having united itself with the\n Monad, has thereby become a purely spiritual and indestructible\n essence, one with it in the Eternity. But in the case of an\n out-and-out materialist, in whose personal \u201cI\u201d no Buddhi has ever\n reflected itself, how can the latter carry away into the Eternity\n one particle of that terrestrial personality? Your spiritual \u201cI\u201d\n is immortal; but from your present self it can carry away into\n Eternity that only which has become worthy of immortality, namely,\n the aroma alone of the flower that has been mown by death.\n\n ENQ. Well, and the flower, the terrestrial \u201cI\u201d?\n\n THEO. The flower, as all past and future flowers which have blossomed\n and will have to blossom on the mother bough, the _Sutratma_,\n all children of one root or Buddhi\u2014will return to dust. Your\n present \u201cI,\u201d as you yourself know, is not the body now sitting\n before me, nor yet is it what I would call Manas-Sutratma, but\n Sutratma-Buddhi.\n\n ENQ. But this does not explain to me, at all, why you call life after\n death immortal, infinite and real, and the terrestrial life a\n simple phantom or illusion; since even that _post-mortem_ life has\n limits, however much wider they may be than those of terrestrial\n life.\n\n THEO. No doubt. The spiritual Ego of man moves in eternity like a\n pendulum between the hours of birth and death. But if these hours,\n marking the periods of life terrestrial and life spiritual, are\n limited in their duration, and if the very number of such stages\n in Eternity between sleep and awakening, illusion and reality,\n has its beginning and its end, on the other hand, the spiritual\n pilgrim is eternal. Therefore are the hours of his _post-mortem_\n life, when, disembodied, he stands face to face with truth and\n not the mirages of his transitory earthly existences, during\n the period of that pilgrimage which we call \u201cthe cycle of\n rebirths\u201d\u2014the only reality in our conception. Such intervals,\n their limitation notwithstanding, do not prevent the Ego, while\n ever perfecting itself, from following undeviatingly, though\n gradually and slowly, the path to its last transformation, when\n that Ego, having reached its goal, becomes a divine being. These\n intervals and stages help towards this final result instead of\n hindering it; and without such limited intervals the divine\n Ego could never reach its ultimate goal. I have given you once\n already a familiar illustration by comparing the _Ego_, or the\n _individuality_, to an actor, and its numerous and various\n incarnations to the parts it plays. Will you call these parts or\n their costumes the individuality of the actor himself? Like that\n actor, the Ego is forced to play during the cycle of necessity,\n up to the very threshold of _Paranirvana_, many parts such as\n may be unpleasant to it. But as the bee collects its honey from\n every flower, leaving the rest as food for the earthly worms, so\n does our spiritual individuality, whether we call it Sutratma or\n Ego. Collecting from every terrestrial personality, into which\n Karma forces it to incarnate, the nectar alone of the spiritual\n qualities and self-consciousness, it unites all these into one\n whole and emerges from its chrysalis as the glorified Dhyan\n Chohan. So much the worse for those terrestrial personalities\n from which it could collect nothing. Such personalities cannot\n assuredly outlive consciously their terrestrial existence.\n\n ENQ. Thus, then, it seems that, for the terrestrial personality,\n immortality is still conditional. Is, then, immortality itself\n _not_ unconditional?\n\n THEO. Not at all. But immortality cannot touch the _non-existent_: for\n all that which exists as SAT, or emanates from SAT, immortality\n and Eternity are absolute. Matter is the opposite pole of spirit,\n and yet the two are one. The essence of all this, _i.e._, Spirit,\n Force and Matter, or the three in one, is as endless as it is\n beginningless; but the form acquired by this triple unity during\n its incarnations, its externality, is certainly only the illusion\n of our personal conceptions. Therefore do we call Nirvana and the\n Universal life alone a reality, while relegating the terrestrial\n life, its terrestrial personality included, and even its\n Devachanic existence, to the phantom realm of illusion.\n\n ENQ. But why in such a case call sleep the reality, and waking the\n illusion?\n\n THEO. It is simply a comparison made to facilitate the grasping of the\n subject, and from the standpoint of terrestrial conceptions it is\n a very correct one.\n\n ENQ. And still I cannot understand, if the life to come is based on\n justice and the merited retribution for all our terrestrial\n suffering, how in the case of materialists, many of whom are\n really honest and charitable men, there should remain of their\n personality nothing but the refuse of a faded flower.\n\n THEO. No one ever said such a thing. No materialist, however\n unbelieving, can die for ever in the fulness of his spiritual\n individuality. What was said is that consciousness can disappear\n either fully or partially in the case of a materialist, so that no\n conscious remains of his personality survive.\n\n ENQ. But surely this is annihilation?\n\n THEO. Certainly not. One can sleep a dead sleep and miss several\n stations during a long railway journey, without the slightest\n recollection or consciousness, and awake at another station and\n continue the journey past innumerable other halting-places till\n the end of the journey or the goal is reached. Three kinds of\n sleep were mentioned to you: the dreamless, the chaotic, and\n the one which is so real, that to the sleeping man his dreams\n become full realities. If you believe in the latter why can\u2019t you\n believe in the former; according to the after life a man has\n believed in and expected, such is the life he will have. He who\n expected no life to come will have an absolute blank, amounting\n to annihilation, in the interval between the two rebirths.\n This is just the carrying out of the programme we spoke of, a\n programme created by the materialists themselves. But there are\n various kinds of materialists, as you say. A selfish, wicked\n Egoist, one who never shed a tear for anyone but himself, thus\n adding entire indifference to the whole world to his unbelief,\n must, at the threshold of death, drop his personality for ever.\n This personality having no tendrils of sympathy for the world\n around and hence nothing to hook on to Sutratma, it follows that\n with the last breath every connection between the two is broken.\n There being no Devachan for such a materialist, the Sutratma will\n reincarnate almost immediately. But those materialists who erred\n in nothing but their disbelief will oversleep but one station. And\n the time will come when that ex-materialist will perceive himself\n in the Eternity and perhaps repent that he lost even one day, one\n station, from the life eternal.\n\n ENQ. Still, would it not be more correct to say that death is birth\n into a new life, or a return once more into eternity?\n\n THEO. You may if you like. Only remember that births differ, and that\n there are births of \u201cstill-born\u201d beings, which are _failures_ of\n nature. Moreover, with your Western fixed ideas about material\n life, the words \u201cliving\u201d and \u201cbeing\u201d are quite inapplicable to\n the pure subjective state of _post-mortem_ existence. It is just\n because, save in a few philosophers who are not read by the many,\n and who themselves are too confused to present a distinct picture\n of it, it is just because your Western ideas of life and death\n have finally become so narrow, that on the one hand they have\n led to crass materialism, and on the other, to the still more\n material conception of the other life, which the spiritualists\n have formulated in their Summer-land. There the souls of men eat,\n drink, marry, and live in a paradise quite as sensual as that\n of Mohammed, but even less philosophical. Nor are the average\n conceptions of the uneducated Christians any better, being if\n possible still more material. What between truncated angels, brass\n trumpets, golden harps, and material hell-fires, the Christian\n heaven seems like a fairy scene at a Christmas pantomime.\n\n It is because of these narrow conceptions that you find such\n difficulty in understanding. It is just because the life of the\n disembodied soul, while possessing all the vividness of reality,\n as in certain dreams, is devoid of every grossly objective form of\n terrestrial life, that the Eastern philosophers have compared it\n with visions during sleep.\n\n\nDEFINITE WORDS FOR DEFINITE THINGS.\n\n ENQ. Don\u2019t you think it is because there are no definite and fixed\n terms to indicate each \u201cPrinciple\u201d in man, that such a confusion\n of ideas arises in our minds with respect to the respective\n functions of these \u201cPrinciples\u201d?\n\n THEO. I have thought of it myself. The whole trouble has arisen from\n this: we have started our expositions of, and discussion about,\n the \u201cPrinciples\u201d using their Sanskrit names instead of coining\n immediately, for the use of Theosophists, their equivalents in\n English. We must try and remedy this now.\n\n ENQ. You will do well, as it may avoid further confusion; no two\n theosophical writers, it seems to me, have hitherto agreed to call\n the same \u201cPrinciple\u201d by the same name.\n\n THEO. The confusion is more apparent than real, however. I have heard\n some of our Theosophists express surprise at, and criticize\n several essays speaking of these \u201cprinciples\u201d; but, when examined,\n there was no worse mistake in them than that of using the word\n \u201cSoul\u201d to cover the three principles without specifying the\n distinctions. The first, as positively the clearest of our\n Theosophical writers, Mr. A. P. Sinnett, has some comprehensive\n and admirably-written passages on the \u201cHigher Self.\u201d[45] His real\n idea has also been misconceived by some, owing to his using the\n word \u201cSoul\u201d in a general sense. Yet here are a few passages which\n will show to you how clear and comprehensive is all that he writes\n on the subject:\u2014\n\n ... \u201cThe human soul, once launched on the streams of evolution\n as a human individuality,[46] passes through alternate periods of\n physical and relatively spiritual existence. It passes from the\n one plane, or stratum, or condition of nature to the other under\n the guidance of its Karmic affinities; living in incarnations the\n life which its Karma has pre-ordained; modifying its progress\n within the limitations of circumstances, and,\u2014developing fresh\n Karma by its use or abuse of opportunities,\u2014it returns to\n spiritual existence (Devachan) after each physical life,\u2014through\n the intervening region of Kamaloca\u2014for rest and refreshment and\n for the gradual absorption into its essence, as so much cosmic\n progress, of the life\u2019s experience gained \u2018on earth\u2019 or during\n physical existence. This view of the matter will, moreover, have\n suggested many collateral inferences to anyone thinking over the\n subject; for instance, that the transfer of consciousness from\n the Kamaloca to the Devachanic stage of this progression would\n necessarily be gradual[47]; that in truth, no hard-and-fast line\n separates the varieties of spiritual conditions; that even the\n spiritual and physical planes, as psychic faculties in living\n people show, are not so hopelessly walled off from one another\n as materialistic theories would suggest; that all states of\n nature are all around us simultaneously, and appeal to different\n perceptive faculties; and so on.... It is clear that during\n physical existence people who possess psychic faculties remain in\n connection with the planes of superphysical consciousness; and\n although most people may not be endowed with such faculties, we\n all, as the phenomena of sleep, even, and especially ... those\n of somnambulism or mesmerism, show, are capable of entering into\n conditions of consciousness that the five physical senses have\n nothing to do with. We\u2014the souls within us\u2014are not as it were\n altogether adrift in the ocean of matter. We clearly retain some\n surviving interest or rights in the shore from which, for a time,\n we have floated off. The process of incarnation, therefore, is\n not fully described when we speak of an _alternate_ existence on\n the physical and spiritual planes, and thus picture the soul as a\n complete entity slipping entirely from the one state of existence\n to the other. The more correct definitions of the process would\n probably represent incarnation as taking place on this physical\n plane of nature by reason of an efflux emanating from the soul.\n The Spiritual realm would all the while be the proper habitat\n of the Soul, which would never entirely quit it; _and that\n non-materializable portion of the Soul which abides permanently\n on the spiritual plane may fitly_, perhaps, be spoken of as the\n HIGHER SELF.\u201d\n\n This \u201cHigher Self\u201d is ATMA, and of course it is\n \u201cnon-materializable,\u201d as Mr. Sinnett says. Even more, it can\n never be \u201cobjective\u201d under any circumstances, even to the\n highest spiritual perception. For _Atman_ or the \u201cHigher Self\u201d\n is really Brahma, the ABSOLUTE, and indistinguishable from it.\n In hours of _Samadhi_, the higher spiritual consciousness of the\n Initiate is entirely absorbed in the ONE essence, which is Atman,\n and therefore, being one with the whole, there can be nothing\n objective for it. Now some of our Theosophists have got into\n the habit of using the words \u201cSelf\u201d and \u201cEgo\u201d as synonymous, of\n associating the term \u201cSelf\u201d with only man\u2019s higher individual\n or even personal \u201cSelf\u201d or _Ego_, whereas this term ought never\n to be applied except _to the One universal Self_. Hence the\n confusion. Speaking of Manas, the \u201ccausal body,\u201d we may call\n it\u2014when connecting it with the Buddhic radiance\u2014the \u201cHIGHER EGO,\u201d\n never the \u201cHigher Self.\u201d For even Buddhi, the \u201cSpiritual Soul,\u201d\n is not the SELF, but the vehicle only of SELF. All the other\n \u201c_Selves_\u201d\u2014such as the \u201cIndividual\u201d self and \u201cpersonal\u201d self\u2014ought\n never to be spoken or written of without their qualifying and\n characteristic adjectives.\n\n Thus in this most excellent essay on the \u201cHigher Self,\u201d this term\n is applied to the _sixth principle_ or _Buddhi_ (of course in\n conjunction with Manas, as without such union there would be no\n _thinking_ principle or element in the spiritual soul); and has\n in consequence given rise to just such misunderstandings. The\n statement that \u201ca child does not acquire its _sixth_ principle\u2014or\n become a morally responsible being capable of generating\n Karma\u2014until seven years old,\u201d proves what is meant therein by\n the HIGHER SELF. Therefore, the able author is quite justified\n in explaining that after the \u201cHigher Self\u201d has passed into the\n human being and saturated the personality\u2014in some of the finer\n organizations only\u2014with its consciousness \u201cpeople with psychic\n faculties may indeed perceive this Higher Self through their finer\n senses from time to time.\u201d But so are those, who limit the term\n \u201cHigher Self\u201d to the Universal Divine Principle, \u201cjustified\u201d in\n misunderstanding him. For, when we read, without being prepared\n for this shifting of metaphysical terms,[48] that while \u201cfully\n manifesting on the physical plane ... the Higher Self still\n remains a conscious spiritual Ego on the corresponding plane of\n Nature\u201d\u2014we are apt to see in the \u201cHigher Self\u201d of this sentence,\n \u201cAtma,\u201d and in the spiritual Ego, \u201cManas,\u201d or rather Buddhi-Manas,\n and forthwith to criticise the whole thing as incorrect.\n\n To avoid henceforth such misrepresentations, I propose to\n translate literally from the Occult Eastern terms their\n equivalents in English, and offer these for future use.\n\n { Atma, the inseparable ray of the Universal\n THE HIGHER { and ONE SELF. It is the God _above_, more\n SELF is { than within, us. Happy the man who succeeds\n { in saturating his _inner Ego_ with it!\n\n THE SPIRITUAL { the Spiritual soul or _Buddhi_, in close union\n _divine_ { with _Manas_, the mind-principle, without\n EGO is { which it is no EGO at all, but only the Atmic\n { _Vehicle_.\n\n { _Manas_, the \u201cFifth\u201d Principle, so called,\n { independently of Buddhi. The Mind-Principle\n THE INNER, { is only the Spiritual Ego when merged\n or HIGHER { _into one_ with Buddhi,\u2014no materialist being\n \u201cEgo\u201d is { supposed to have in him _such_ an Ego, however\n { great his intellectual capacities. It is\n { the permanent _Individuality_ or the \u201cReincarnating\n { Ego.\u201d\n\n { the physical man in conjunction with his\n { _lower_ Self, _i.e._, animal instincts, passions,\n THE LOWER, { desires, etc. It is called the \u201cfalse personality,\u201d\n or PERSONAL { and consists of the _lower Manas_ combined\n \u201cEgo\u201d is { with Kama-rupa, and operating\n { through the Physical body and its phantom\n { or \u201cdouble.\u201d\n\n The remaining \u201cPrinciple\u201d \u201c_Pran\u00e2_,\u201d or \u201cLife,\u201d is, strictly\n speaking, the radiating force or Energy of Atma\u2014as the Universal\n Life and the ONE SELF,\u2014ITS lower or rather (in its effects) more\n physical, because manifesting, aspect. Pran\u00e2 or Life permeates the\n whole being of the objective Universe; and is called a \u201cprinciple\u201d\n only because it is an indispensable factor and the _deus ex\n machin\u00e2_ of the living man.\n\n ENQ. This division being so much simplified in its combinations will\n answer better, I believe. The other is much too metaphysical.\n\n THEO. If outsiders as well as Theosophists would agree to it, it would\n certainly make matters much more comprehensible.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[40] \u201cSome things that I _do_ know of Spiritualism and some that I do\n_not_.\u201d\n\n[41] A few portions of this chapter and of the preceding were\npublished in _Lucifer_ in the shape of a \u201cDialogue on the Mysteries of\nAfter Life,\u201d in the January number, 1889. The article was unsigned,\nas if it were written by the editor, but it came from the pen of the\nauthor of the present volume.\n\n[42] Iswara is the collective consciousness of the manifested deity,\nBrahma, _i.e._, the collective consciousness of the Host of Dhyan\nChohans (_vide_ SECRET DOCTRINE); and Pragna is their individual wisdom.\n\n[43] _Taijasi_ means the radiant in consequence of its union with\nBuddhi; _i.e._, Manas, the human soul, illuminated by the radiance\nof the divine soul. Therefore, Manas-taijasi may be described as\nradiant mind; the _human_ reason lit by the light of the spirit; and\nBuddhi-Manas is the revelation of the divine _plus_ human intellect and\nself-consciousness.\n\n[44] Some Theosophists have taken exception to this phrase, but the\nwords are those of Master, and the meaning attached to the word\n\u201cunmerited\u201d is that given above. In the T.P.S. pamphlet No. 6, a\nphrase, criticised subsequently in LUCIFER, was used which was intended\nto convey the same idea. In form, however, it was awkward and open to\nthe criticism directed against it; but the essential idea was that men\noften suffer from the effects of the actions done by others, effects\nwhich thus do not strictly belong to their own Karma\u2014and for these\nsufferings they of course deserve compensation.\n\n[45] _Vide_ Transactions of the LONDON LODGE _of the Theos. Soc._, No.\n7, Oct., 1885.\n\n[46] The \u201creincarnating Ego,\u201d or \u201cHuman Soul,\u201d as he called it, the\n_Causal Body_ with the Hindus.\n\n[47] The length of this \u201ctransfer\u201d depends, however, on the degree of\nspirituality in the ex-personality of the disembodied Ego. For those\nwhose lives were very spiritual this transfer, though gradual, is very\nrapid. The time becomes longer with the materialistically inclined.\n\n[48] \u201cShifting of _Metaphysical terms_\u201d applies here only to the\nshifting of their translated equivalents from the Eastern expressions;\nfor to this day there never existed any such terms in English, every\nTheosophist having to coin his own terms to render his thought. It is\nnigh time then to settle on some definite nomenclature.\n\n\n\n\nX. ON THE NATURE OF OUR THINKING PRINCIPLE.\n\n\nTHE MYSTERY OF THE EGO.\n\n ENQ. I perceive in the quotation you brought forward a little while ago\n from the _Buddhist Catechism_ a discrepancy that I would like\n to hear explained. It is there stated that the Skandhas\u2014memory\n included\u2014change with every new incarnation. And yet, it is\n asserted that the reflection of the past lives, which, we are\n told, are entirely made up of Skandhas, \u201cmust survive.\u201d At the\n present moment I am not quite clear in my mind as to what it is\n precisely that survives, and I would like to have it explained.\n What is it? Is it only that \u201creflection,\u201d or those Skandhas, or\n always that same Ego, the Manas?\n\n THEO. I have just explained that the reincarnating Principle, or that\n which we call the _divine_ man, is indestructible throughout\n the life cycle: indestructible as a thinking _Entity_, and\n even as an ethereal form. The \u201creflection\u201d is only the\n spiritualised _remembrance_, during the Devachanic period, of\n the _ex-personality_, Mr. A. or Mrs. B.\u2014with which the _Ego_\n identifies itself during that period. Since the latter is but\n the continuation of the earth-life, so to say, the very acme and\n pitch, in an unbroken series, of the few happy moments in that\n now past existence, the _Ego_ has to identify itself with the\n _personal_ consciousness of that life, if anything shall remain of\n it.\n\n ENQ. This means that the _Ego_, notwithstanding its divine nature,\n passes every such period between two incarnations in a state of\n mental obscuration, or temporary insanity.\n\n THEO. You may regard it as you like. Believing that, outside the ONE\n Reality, nothing is better than a passing illusion\u2014the whole\n Universe included\u2014we do not view it as insanity, but as a very\n natural sequence or development of the terrestrial life. What\n is life? A bundle of the most varied experiences, of daily\n changing ideas, emotions, and opinions. In our youth we are often\n enthusiastically devoted to an ideal, to some hero or heroine whom\n we try to follow and revive; a few years later, when the freshness\n of our youthful feelings has faded out and sobered down, we are\n the first to laugh at our fancies. And yet there was a day when\n we had so thoroughly identified our own personality with that\n of the ideal in our mind\u2014especially if it was that of a living\n being\u2014that the former was entirely merged and lost in the latter.\n Can it be said of a man of fifty that he is the same being that\n he was at twenty? The _inner_ man is the same; the outward living\n personality is completely transformed and changed. Would you also\n call these changes in the human mental states insanity?\n\n ENQ. How would _you_ name them, and especially how would you explain\n the permanence of one and the evanescence of the other?\n\n THEO. We have our own doctrine ready, and to us it offers no\n difficulty. The clue lies in the double consciousness of our mind,\n and also, in the dual nature of the mental \u201cprinciple.\u201d There is a\n spiritual consciousness, the Manasic mind illumined by the light\n of Buddhi, that which subjectively perceives abstractions; and the\n sentient consciousness (the lower _Manasic_ light), inseparable\n from our physical brain and senses. This latter consciousness is\n held in subjection by the brain and physical senses, and, being\n in its turn equally dependent on them, must of course fade out\n and finally die with the disappearance of the brain and physical\n senses. It is only the former kind of consciousness, whose root\n lies in eternity, which survives and lives for ever, and may,\n therefore, be regarded as immortal. Everything else belongs to\n passing illusions.\n\n ENQ. What do you really understand by illusion in this case?\n\n THEO. It is very well described in the just-mentioned essay on \u201cThe\n Higher Self.\u201d Says its author:\n\n \u201cThe theory we are considering (the interchange of ideas\n between the _Higher Ego_ and the lower self) harmonizes very\n well with the treatment of this world in which we live as a\n phenomenal world of illusion, the spiritual plans of nature\n being on the other hand the noumenal world or plane of reality.\n That region of nature in which, so to speak, the permanent\n soul is rooted is more real than that in which its transitory\n blossoms appear for a brief space to wither and fall to pieces,\n while the plant recovers energy for sending forth a fresh\n flower. Supposing flowers only were perceptible to ordinary\n senses, and their roots existed in a state of Nature intangible\n and invisible to us, philosophers in such a world who divined\n that there were such things as roots in another plane of\n existence would be apt to say of the flowers, These are not\n the real plants; they are of no relative importance, merely\n illusive phenomena of the moment.\u201d\n\n This is what I mean. The world in which blossom the transitory and\n evanescent flowers of personal lives is not the real permanent\n world; but that one in which we find the root of consciousness,\n that root which is beyond illusion and dwells in the eternity.\n\n ENQ. What do you mean by the root dwelling in eternity?\n\n THEO. I mean by this root the thinking entity, the Ego which\n incarnates, whether we regard it as an \u201cAngel,\u201d \u201cSpirit,\u201d or\n a Force. Of that which falls under our sensuous perceptions\n only what grows directly from, or is attached to this invisible\n root above, can partake of its immortal life. Hence every noble\n thought, idea and aspiration of the personality it informs,\n proceeding from and fed by this root, must become permanent. As\n to the physical consciousness, as it is a quality of the sentient\n but lower \u201cprinciple,\u201d (Kama-rupa or animal instinct, illuminated\n by the lower _manasic_ reflection), or the human Soul\u2014it must\n disappear. That which displays activity, while the body is\n asleep or paralysed, is the higher consciousness, our memory\n registering but feebly and inaccurately\u2014because automatically\u2014such\n experiences, and often failing to be even slightly impressed by\n them.\n\n ENQ. But how is it that MANAS, although you call it _Nous_, a \u201cGod,\u201d is\n so weak during its incarnations, as to be actually conquered and\n fettered by its body?\n\n THEO. I might retort with the same question and ask: \u201cHow is it that\n he, whom you regard as \u2018the God of Gods\u2019 and the One living God,\n _is so weak_ as to allow evil (or the Devil) to have the best of\n _him_ as much as of all his creatures, whether while he remains\n in Heaven, or during the time he was incarnated on this earth?\u201d\n You are sure to reply again: \u201cThis is a Mystery; and we are\n forbidden to pry into the mysteries of God.\u201d Not being forbidden\n to do so by our religious philosophy, I answer your question that,\n unless a God descends as an _Avatar_, no divine principle can be\n otherwise than cramped and paralysed by turbulent, animal matter.\n Heterogeneity will always have the upper hand over homogeneity,\n on this plane of illusions, and the nearer an essence is to its\n root-principle, Primordial Homogeneity, the more difficult it is\n for the latter to assert itself on earth. Spiritual and divine\n powers lie dormant in every human Being; and the wider the sweep\n of his spiritual vision the mightier will be the God within him.\n But as few men can feel that God, and since, as an average rule,\n deity is always bound and limited in our thought by earlier\n conceptions, those ideas that are inculcated in us from childhood,\n therefore, it is so difficult for you to understand our philosophy.\n\n ENQ. And is it this Ego of ours which is our God?\n\n THEO. Not at all; \u201c_A_ God\u201d is not the universal deity, but only a\n spark from the one ocean of Divine Fire. Our God _within_ us, or\n \u201cour Father in Secret\u201d is what we call the \u201cHIGHER SELF,\u201d _Atma_.\n Our incarnating Ego was a God in its origin, as were all the\n primeval emanations of the One Unknown Principle. But since its\n \u201cfall into Matter,\u201d having to incarnate throughout the cycle, in\n succession, from first to last, it is no longer a free and happy\n god, but a poor pilgrim on his way to regain that which he has\n lost. I can answer your more fully by repeating what is said of\n the INNER MAN in ISIS UNVEILED (Vol. II. 593):\u2014\n\n \u201cFrom the remotest antiquity _mankind_ as a whole _have\n always been convinced of the existence of a personal\n spiritual entity within the personal physical man_. This\n inner entity was more or less divine, according to its\n proximity to the _crown_. The closer the union the more\n serene man\u2019s destiny, the less dangerous the external\n conditions. This belief is neither bigotry nor superstition,\n only an ever-present, instinctive feeling of the proximity\n of another spiritual and invisible world, which, though it\n be subjective to the senses of the outward man, is perfectly\n objective to the inner ego. Furthermore, they believed that\n _there are external and internal conditions which affect the\n determination of our will upon our actions_. They rejected\n fatalism, for fatalism implies a blind course of some still\n blinder power. But they believed in _destiny_ or _Karma_,\n which from birth to death every man is weaving thread by\n thread around himself, as a spider does his cobweb; and\n this destiny is guided by that presence termed by some the\n guardian angel, or our more intimate astral inner man, who\n is but too often the evil genius of the man of flesh or\n the _personality_. Both these lead on MAN, but one of them\n must prevail; and from the very beginning of the invisible\n affray the stern and implacable _law of compensation and\n retribution_ steps in and takes its course, following\n faithfully the fluctuations of the conflict. When the last\n strand is woven, and man is seemingly enwrapped in the\n network of his own doing, then he finds himself completely\n under the empire of this _self-made_ destiny. It then either\n fixes him like the inert shell against the immovable rock, or\n like a feather carries him away in a whirlwind raised by his\n own actions.\u201d\n\n Such is the destiny of the MAN\u2014the true Ego, not the Automaton,\n the _shell_ that goes by that name. It is for him to become the\n conqueror over matter.\n\n\nTHE COMPLEX NATURE OF MANAS.\n\n ENQ. But you wanted to tell me something of the essential nature of\n Manas, and of the relation in which the Skandhas of physical man\n stand to it?\n\n THEO. It is this nature, mysterious, Protean, beyond any grasp, and\n almost shadowy in its correlations with the other principles, that\n is most difficult to realise, and still more so to explain. Manas\n is a \u201cprinciple,\u201d and yet it is an \u201cEntity\u201d and individuality or\n Ego. He is a \u201cGod,\u201d and yet he is doomed to an endless cycle of\n incarnations, for each of which he is made responsible, and for\n each of which he has to suffer. All this seems as contradictory as\n it is puzzling; nevertheless, there are hundreds of people, even\n in Europe, who realise all this perfectly, for they comprehend the\n Ego not only in its integrity but in its many aspects. Finally, if\n I would make myself comprehensible, I must begin by the beginning\n and give you the genealogy of this Ego in a few lines.\n\n ENQ. Say on.\n\n THEO. Try to imagine a \u201cSpirit,\u201d a celestial Being, whether we call it\n by one name or another, divine in its essential nature, yet\n not pure enough to be _one with the_ ALL, and having, in order\n to achieve this, to so purify its nature as to finally gain\n that goal. It can do so only by passing _individually_ and\n _personally_, _i.e._, spiritually and physically, through\n every experience and feeling that exists in the manifold or\n differentiated Universe. It has, therefore, after having gained\n such experience in the lower kingdoms, and having ascended higher\n and still higher with every rung on the ladder of being, to pass\n through every experience on the human planes. In its very essence\n it is THOUGHT, and is, therefore, called in its plurality _Manasa\n putra_, \u201cthe Sons of the (Universal) mind.\u201d This _individualised_\n \u201cThought\u201d is what we Theosophists call the _real_ human EGO, the\n thinking Entity imprisoned in a case of flesh and bones. This\n is surely a Spiritual Entity, not _Matter_, and such Entities\n are the incarnating EGOS that inform the bundle of animal matter\n called mankind, and whose names are _Manasa_ or \u201cMinds.\u201d But\n once imprisoned, or incarnate, their essence becomes dual: that\n is to say, the _rays_ of the eternal divine Mind, considered as\n individual entities, assume a two-fold attribute which is (_a_)\n their _essential_ inherent characteristic, heaven-aspiring mind\n (higher _Manas_) and (_b_) the human quality of thinking, or\n animal cogitation, rationalised owing to the superiority of the\n human brain, the Kama-tending or lower Manas. One gravitates\n toward Buddhi, the other, tending downward, to the seat of\n passions and animal desires. The latter have no room in Devachan,\n nor can they associate with the divine triad which ascends as ONE\n into mental bliss. Yet it is the Ego, the Manasic Entity, which is\n held responsible for all the sins of the lower attributes, just\n as a parent is answerable for the transgressions of his child, so\n long as the latter remains irresponsible.\n\n ENQ. Is this \u201cchild\u201d the \u201cpersonality\u201d?\n\n THEO. It is. When, therefore, it is stated that the \u201cpersonality\u201d dies\n with the body it does not state all. The body, which was only the\n objective symbol of Mr. A. or Mrs. B., fades away with all its\n material Skandhas, which are the visible expressions thereof. But\n all that which constituted during life the _spiritual_ bundle of\n experiences, the noblest aspirations, undying affections, and\n _unselfish_ nature of Mr. A. or Mrs. B. clings for the time of\n the Devachanic period to the EGO, which is identified with the\n spiritual portion of that terrestrial Entity, now passed away out\n of sight. The ACTOR is so imbued with the _r\u00f4le_ just played by\n him that he dreams of it during the whole Devachanic night, which\n _vision_ continues till the hour strikes for him to return to the\n stage of life to enact another part.\n\n ENQ. But how is it that this doctrine, which you say is as old as\n thinking men, has found no room, say, in Christian theology?\n\n THEO. You are mistaken, it has; only theology has disfigured it out of\n all recognition, as it has many other doctrines. Theology calls\n the EGO the Angel that God gives us at the moment of our birth,\n _to take care of our Soul_. Instead of holding that \u201cAngel\u201d\n responsible for the transgressions of the poor helpless \u201cSoul,\u201d it\n is the latter which, according to theological logic, is punished\n for all the sins of both flesh and mind! It is the Soul, the\n immaterial _breath_ of God and his _alleged creation_, which, by\n some most amazing intellectual jugglery, is doomed to burn in a\n material hell without ever being consumed,[49] while the \u201cAngel\u201d\n escapes scot free after folding his white pinions and wetting them\n with a few tears. Aye, these are our \u201cministering Spirits,\u201d the\n \u201cmessengers of mercy\u201d who are sent, Bishop Mant tells us\u2014\n\n \u201c.... to fulfil\n Good for Salvation\u2019s heirs, for us they still\n Grieve when we sin, rejoice when we repent;\u201d\n\n Yet it becomes evident that if all the Bishops the world over\n were asked to define once for all what they mean by _Soul_ and\n its functions, they would be as unable to do so as to show us any\n shadow of logic in the orthodox belief!\n\n\nTHE DOCTRINE IS TAUGHT IN ST. JOHN\u2019S GOSPEL.\n\n ENQ. To this the adherents to this belief might answer, that if even\n the orthodox dogma does promise the impenitent sinner and\n materialist a bad time of it in a rather too realistic Inferno, it\n gives them, on the other hand, a chance for repentance to the last\n minute. Nor do they teach annihilation, or loss of personality,\n which is all the same.\n\n THEO. If the Church teaches nothing of the kind, on the other hand,\n Jesus does; and that is something to those, at least, who place\n Christ higher than Christianity.\n\n ENQ. Does Christ teach anything of the sort?\n\n THEO. He does; and every well-informed Occultist and even Kabalist will\n tell you so. Christ, or the fourth Gospel at any rate, teaches\n re-incarnation as also the annihilation of the personality, if\n you but forget the dead letter and hold to the esoteric Spirit.\n Remember verses 1 and 2 in chapter xv. of St. John. What does the\n parable speak about if not of the _upper triad_ in man? _Atma_\n is the Husbandman\u2014the Spiritual Ego or _Buddhi_ (Christos) the\n Vine, while the animal and vital Soul, the _personality_, is the\n \u201cbranch.\u201d \u201cI am the _true_ vine, and my Father is the Husbandman.\n Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.... As\n the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the\n vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the Vine\u2014ye\n are the branches. If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a\n branch, and is _withered_ and cast into the fire and burned.\u201d\n\n Now we explain it in this way. Disbelieving in the hell-fires\n which theology discovers as underlying the threat to the\n _branches_, we say that the \u201cHusbandman\u201d means Atma, the Symbol\n for the infinite, impersonal Principle,[50] while the Vine stands\n for the Spiritual Soul, _Christos_, and each \u201cbranch\u201d represents a\n new incarnation.\n\n ENQ. But what proofs have you to support such an arbitrary\n interpretation?\n\n THEO. Universal symbology is a warrant for its correctness and that it\n is not arbitrary. Hermas says of \u201cGod\u201d that he \u201cplanted the\n Vineyard,\u201d _i.e._, he created mankind. In the _Kabala_, it is\n shown that the Aged of the Aged, or the \u201cLong Face,\u201d plants a\n vineyard, the latter typifying mankind; and a vine, meaning Life.\n The Spirit of \u201c_King_ Messiah\u201d is, therefore, shown as washing\n his garments in _the wine_ from above, from the creation of the\n world.[51] And King _Messiah_ is the EGO purified _by washing his\n garments_ (_i.e._, his personalities in re-birth), in the _wine\n from_ above, or BUDDHI. Adam, or A-Dam, is \u201cblood.\u201d The Life of\n the flesh is in the blood (nephesh\u2014soul), _Leviticus_ xvii. And\n Adam-Kadmon is the Only-Begotten. Noah also plants a vineyard\u2014the\n allegorical hot-bed of future humanity. As a consequence of the\n adoption of the same allegory, we find it reproduced in the\n Nazarene _Codex_. Seven vines are procreated\u2014which seven vines\n are our Seven Races with their seven Saviours or _Buddhas_\u2014which\n spring from Iukabar Zivo, and Ferho (or Parcha) Raba waters\n them.[52] When the blessed will ascend among the creatures of\n Light, they shall see Iavar-Xivo, _Lord of_ LIFE, and the FIRST\n VINE.[53] These kabalistic metaphors are thus naturally repeated\n in the _Gospel according to St. John_ (xv., 1).\n\n Let us not forget that in the human system\u2014even according to\n those philosophies which ignore our septenary division\u2014the EGO\n or _thinking man_ is called the _Logos_, or the Son of Soul\n and Spirit. \u201cManas is the adopted Son of King \u2014\u2014 and Queen \u2014\u2014\u201d\n (esoteric equivalents for Atma and Buddhi), says an occult work.\n He is the \u201cman-god\u201d of Plato, who crucifies himself in _Space_\n (or the duration of the life cycle) for the redemption of MATTER.\n This he does by incarnating over and over again, thus leading\n mankind onward to perfection, and making thereby room for lower\n forms to develop into higher. Not for one life does he cease\n progressing himself and helping all physical nature to progress;\n even the occasional, very rare event of his losing one of his\n personalities, in the case of the latter being entirely devoid of\n even a spark of spirituality, helps toward his individual progress.\n\n ENQ. But surely, if the _Ego_ is held responsible for the\n transgressions of its personalities, it has to answer also for the\n loss, or rather the complete annihilation, of one of such.\n\n THEO. Not at all, unless it has done nothing to avert this dire fate.\n But if, all its efforts notwithstanding, its voice, _that of our\n conscience_, was unable to penetrate through the wall of matter,\n then the obtuseness of the latter proceeding from the imperfect\n nature of the material is classed with other failures of nature.\n The Ego is sufficiently punished by the loss of Devachan, and\n especially by having to incarnate almost immediately.\n\n ENQ. This doctrine of the possibility of losing one\u2019s soul\u2014or\n personality, do you call it?\u2014militates against the ideal theories\n of both Christians and Spiritualists, though Swedenborg adopts it\n to a certain extent, in what he calls _Spiritual death_. They will\n never accept it.\n\n THEO. This can in no way alter a fact in nature, if it be a fact, or\n prevent such a thing occasionally taking place. The universe and\n everything in it, moral, mental, physical, psychic, or Spiritual,\n is built on a perfect law of equilibrium and harmony. As said\n before (_vide Isis Unveiled_), the centripetal force could not\n manifest itself without the centrifugal in the harmonious\n revolutions of the spheres, and all forms and their progress\n are the products of this dual force in nature. Now the Spirit\n (or _Buddhi_) is the centrifugal and the soul (_Manas_) the\n centripetal spiritual energy; and to produce one result they\n have to be in perfect union and harmony. Break or damage the\n centripetal motion of the earthly soul tending toward the centre\n which attracts it; arrest its progress by clogging it with a\n heavier weight of matter than it can bear, or than is fit for the\n Devachanic state, and the harmony of the whole will be destroyed.\n Personal life, or perhaps rather its ideal reflection, can only\n be continued if sustained by the two-fold force, that is by the\n close union of _Buddhi_ and _Manas_ in every re-birth or personal\n life. The least deviation from harmony damages it; and when it is\n destroyed beyond redemption the two forces separate at the moment\n of death. During a brief interval the _personal_ form (called\n indifferently _Kama rupa_ and _Mayavi rupa_), the spiritual\n efflorescence of which, attaching itself to the Ego, follows it\n into Devachan and gives to the permanent _individuality_ its\n _personal_ colouring (_pro tem._, so to speak), is carried off\n to remain in _Kama-loka_ and to be gradually annihilated. For\n it is after the death of the utterly depraved, the unspiritual\n and the wicked beyond redemption, that arrives the critical and\n supreme moment. If during life the ultimate and desperate effort\n of the INNER SELF (_Manas_), to unite something of the personality\n with itself and the high glimmering ray of the divine Buddhi is\n thwarted; if this ray is allowed to be more and more shut out\n from the ever-thickening crust of physical brain, the Spiritual\n EGO or Manas, once freed from the body, remains severed entirely\n from the ethereal relic of the personality; and the latter, or\n _Kama rupa_, following its earthly attractions, is drawn into\n and remains in Hades, which we call the _Kama-loka_. These are\n \u201cthe withered branches\u201d mentioned by Jesus as being cut off\n from the _Vine_. Annihilation, however, is never instantaneous,\n and may require centuries sometimes for its accomplishment.\n But there the personality remains along with the _remnants_\n of other more fortunate personal Egos, and becomes with them\n a _shell_ and an _Elementary_. As said in _Isis_, it is these\n two classes of \u201cSpirits,\u201d the _shells_ and the _Elementaries_,\n which are the leading \u201cStars\u201d on the great spiritual stage of\n \u201cmaterialisations.\u201d And you may be sure of it, it is not they\n who incarnate; and, therefore, so few of these \u201cdear departed\n ones\u201d know anything of re-incarnation, misleading thereby the\n Spiritualists.\n\n ENQ. But does not the author of \u201c_Isis Unveiled_\u201d stand accused of\n having preached against re-incarnation?\n\n THEO. By those who have misunderstood what was said, yes. At the\n time that work was written, re-incarnation was not believed in\n by any Spiritualists, either English or American, and what is\n said there of _re-incarnation_ was directed against the French\n Spiritists, whose theory is as unphilosophical and absurd as\n the Eastern teaching is logical and self-evident in its truth.\n The Re-incarnationists of the Allan Kardec School believe in an\n arbitrary and immediate re-incarnation. With them, the dead father\n can incarnate in his own unborn daughter, and so on. They have\n neither Devachan, Karma, nor any philosophy that would warrant\n or prove the necessity of consecutive rebirths. But how can the\n author of \u201cIsis\u201d argue against _Karmic_ re-incarnation, at long\n intervals varying between 1,000 and 1,500 years, when it is the\n fundamental belief of both Buddhists and Hindus?\n\n ENQ. Then you reject the theories of both the Spiritists and the\n Spiritualists, in their entirety?\n\n THEO. Not in their entirety, but only with regard to their respective\n fundamental beliefs. Both rely on what their \u201cSpirits\u201d tell them;\n and both disagree as much with each other as we Theosophists\n disagree with both. Truth is one; and when we hear the French\n spooks preaching re-incarnation, and the English spooks denying\n and denouncing the doctrine, we say that either the French or\n the English \u201cSpirits\u201d do not know what they are talking about.\n We believe with the Spiritualists and the Spiritists in the\n existence of \u201cSpirits,\u201d or invisible Beings endowed with more\n or less intelligence. But, while in our teachings their kinds\n and _genera_ are legion, our opponents admit of no other than\n human disembodied \u201cSpirits,\u201d which, to our knowledge, are mostly\n Kamalokic SHELLS.\n\n ENQ. You seem very bitter against Spirits. As you have given me your\n views and your reasons for disbelieving in the materialization\n of, and direct communication in _s\u00e9ances_, with the disembodied\n spirits\u2014or the \u201cspirits of the dead\u201d\u2014would you mind enlightening\n me as to one more fact? Why are some Theosophists never tired of\n saying how dangerous is intercourse with spirits, and mediumship?\n Have they any particular reason for this?\n\n THEO. We must suppose so. I know I have. Owing to my familiarity for\n over half a century with these invisible, yet but too tangible\n and undeniable \u201cinfluences,\u201d from the conscious Elementals,\n semi-conscious _shells_, down to the utterly senseless and\n nondescript spooks of all kinds, I claim a certain right to my\n views.\n\n ENQ. Can you give an instance or instances to show why these practices\n should be regarded as dangerous?\n\n THEO. This would require more time than I can give you. Every cause\n must be judged by the effects it produces. Go over the history of\n Spiritualism for the last fifty years, ever since its reappearance\n in this century in America\u2014and judge for yourself whether it has\n done its votaries more good or harm. Pray understand me. I do not\n speak against real Spiritualism, but against the modern movement\n which goes under that name, and the so-called philosophy invented\n to explain its phenomena.\n\n ENQ. Don\u2019t you believe in their phenomena at all?\n\n THEO. It is because I believe in them with too good reason, and (save\n some cases of deliberate fraud) know them to be as true as that\n you and I live, that all my being revolts against them. Once more\n I speak only of physical, not mental or even psychic phenomena.\n Like attracts like. There are several high-minded, pure, good\n men and women, known to me personally, who have passed years\n of their lives under the direct guidance and even protection of\n high \u201cSpirits,\u201d whether disembodied or planetary. But _these_\n Intelligences are not of the type of the John Kings and the\n Ernests who figure in _s\u00e9ance_ rooms. These Intelligences guide\n and control mortals only in rare and exceptional cases to which\n they are attracted and magnetically drawn by the Karmic past of\n the individual. It is not enough to sit \u201cfor development\u201d in order\n to attract them. That only opens the door to a swarm of \u201cspooks,\u201d\n good, bad and indifferent, to which the medium becomes a slave for\n life. It is against such promiscuous mediumship and intercourse\n with goblins that I raise my voice, not against spiritual\n mysticism. The latter is ennobling and holy; the former is of just\n the same nature as the phenomena of two centuries ago, for which\n so many witches and wizards have been made to suffer. Read Glanvil\n and other authors on the subject of witchcraft, and you will find\n recorded there the parallels of most, if not all, of the physical\n phenomena of nineteenth century \u201cSpiritualism.\u201d\n\n ENQ. Do you mean to suggest that it is all witchcraft and nothing more?\n\n THEO. What I mean is that, whether conscious or unconscious, all this\n dealing with the dead is _necromancy_, and a most dangerous\n practice. For ages before Moses such raising of the dead was\n regarded by all the intelligent nations as sinful and cruel,\n inasmuch as it disturbs the rest of the souls and interferes with\n their evolutionary development into higher states. The collective\n wisdom of all past centuries has ever been loud in denouncing such\n practices. Finally, I say, what I have never ceased repeating\n orally and in print for fifteen years: While some of the so-called\n \u201cspirits\u201d do not know what they are talking about, repeating\n merely\u2014like poll-parrots\u2014what they find in the mediums\u2019 and other\n people\u2019s brains, others are most dangerous, and can only lead one\n to evil. These are two self-evident facts. Go into spiritualistic\n circles of the Allan Kardec school, and you find \u201cspirits\u201d\n asserting re-incarnation and speaking like Roman Catholics born.\n Turn to the \u201cdear departed ones\u201d in England and America, and you\n will hear them denying re-incarnation through thick and thin,\n denouncing those who teach it, and holding to Protestant views.\n Your best, your most powerful mediums, have all suffered in health\n of body and mind. Think of the sad end of Charles Foster, who\n died in an asylum, a raving lunatic; of Slade, an epileptic; of\n Eglinton\u2014the best medium now in England\u2014subject to the same. Look\n back over the life of D. D. Home, a man whose mind was steeped in\n gall and bitterness, who never had a good word to say of anyone\n whom he suspected of possessing psychic powers, and who slandered\n every other medium to the bitter end. This Calvin of Spiritualism\n suffered for years from a terrible spinal disease, brought on by\n his intercourse with the \u201cspirits,\u201d and died a perfect wreck.\n Think again of the sad fate of poor Washington Irving Bishop. I\n knew him in New York, when he was fourteen, and he was undeniably\n a medium. It is true that the poor man stole a march on his\n \u201cspirits,\u201d and baptized them \u201cunconscious muscular action,\u201d to\n the great _gaudium_ of all the corporations of highly learned and\n scientific fools, and to the replenishment of his own pocket.\n But _de mortuis nil nisi bonum_; his end was a sad one. He had\n strenuously concealed his epileptic fits\u2014the first and strongest\n symptom of genuine mediumship\u2014and who knows whether he was dead or\n in a trance when the _post-mortem_ examination was performed? His\n relatives insist that he was alive, if we are to believe Reuter\u2019s\n telegrams. Finally, behold the veteran mediums, the founders and\n prime movers of modern spiritualism\u2014the Fox sisters. After more\n than forty years of intercourse with the \u201cAngels,\u201d the latter\n have led them to become incurable sots, who are now denouncing,\n in public lectures, their own life-long work and philosophy as a\n fraud. What kind of spirits must they be who prompted them, I ask\n you?\n\n ENQ. But is your inference a correct one?\n\n THEO. What would you infer if the best pupils of a particular school of\n singing broke down from overstrained sore throats? That the method\n followed was a bad one. So I think the inference is equally fair\n with regard to Spiritualism when we see their best mediums fall a\n prey to such a fate. We can only say:\u2014Let those who are interested\n in the question judge the tree of Spiritualism by its fruits,\n and ponder over the lesson. We Theosophists have always regarded\n the Spiritualists as brothers having the same mystic tendency\n as ourselves, but they have always regarded us as enemies. We,\n being in possession of an older philosophy, have tried to help\n and warn them; but they have repaid us by reviling and traducing\n us and our motives in every possible way. Nevertheless, the best\n English Spiritualists say just as we do, wherever they treat of\n their belief seriously. Hear \u201cM.A. Oxon.\u201d confessing this truth:\n \u201cSpiritualists are too much inclined to dwell exclusively on the\n intervention of external spirits in this world of ours, _and to\n ignore the powers of the incarnate_ Spirit.\u201d[54] Why vilify and\n abuse us, then, for saying precisely the same? Henceforward, we\n will have nothing more to do with Spiritualism. And now let us\n return to Re-incarnation.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[49] Being of \u201can _asbestos_-like nature,\u201d according to the eloquent\nand fiery expression of a modern English Tertullian.\n\n[50] During the _Mysteries_, it is the Hierophant, the \u201cFather,\u201d who\nplanted the Vine. Every symbol has Seven Keys to it. The discloser of\nthe _Pleroma_ was always called \u201cFather.\u201d\n\n[51] _Zohar_ XL., 10.\n\n[52] _Codex Nazar\u0153us_, Vol. III., pp. 60, 61.\n\n[53] Ibid., Vol. II., p. 281.\n\n[54] _Second Sight_, \u201cIntroduction.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nXI. ON THE MYSTERIES OF RE-INCARNATION.\n\n\nPERIODICAL REBIRTHS.\n\n ENQ. You mean, then, that we have all lived on earth before, in many\n past incarnations, and shall go on so living?\n\n THEO. I do. The life-cycle, or rather the cycle of conscious life,\n begins with the separation of the mortal animal-man into sexes,\n and will end with the close of the last generation of men, in the\n seventh round and seventh race of mankind. Considering we are only\n in the fourth round and fifth race, its duration is more easily\n imagined than expressed.\n\n ENQ. And we keep on incarnating in new _personalities_ all the time?\n\n THEO. Most assuredly so; because this life-cycle or period of\n incarnation may be best compared to human life. As each such life\n is composed of days of activity separated by nights of sleep or of\n inaction, so, in the incarnation-cycle, an active life is followed\n by a Devachanic rest.\n\n ENQ. And it is this succession of births that is generally defined as\n re-incarnation?\n\n THEO. Just so. It is only through these births that the perpetual\n progress of the countless millions of Egos toward final perfection\n and final rest (as long as was the period of activity) can be\n achieved.\n\n ENQ. And what is it that regulates the duration, or special qualities\n of these incarnations?\n\n THEO. Karma, the universal law of retributive justice.\n\n ENQ. Is it an intelligent law?\n\n THEO. For the Materialist, who calls the law of periodicity which\n regulates the marshalling of the several bodies, and all the\n other laws in nature, blind forces and mechanical laws, no doubt\n Karma would be a law of chance and no more. For us, no adjective\n or qualification could describe that which is impersonal and no\n entity, but a universal operative law. If you question me about\n the causative intelligence in it, I must answer you I do not know.\n But if you ask me to define its effects and tell you what these\n are in our belief, I may say that the experience of thousands of\n ages has shown us that they are absolute and unerring _equity_,\n _wisdom_, and _intelligence_. For Karma in its effects, is an\n unfailing redresser of human injustice, and of all the failures\n of nature; a stern adjuster of wrongs; a retributive law which\n rewards and punishes with equal impartiality. It is, in the\n strictest sense, \u201cno respecter of persons,\u201d though, on the other\n hand, it can neither be propitiated, nor turned aside by prayer.\n This is a belief common to Hindus and Buddhists, who both believe\n in Karma.\n\n ENQ. In this Christian dogmas contradict both, and I doubt whether any\n Christian will accept the teaching.\n\n THEO. No; and Inman gave the reason for it many years ago. As he puts\n it, while \u201cthe Christians will accept any nonsense, if promulgated\n by the Church as a matter of faith ... the Buddhists hold that\n nothing which is contradicted by sound reason can be a true\n doctrine of Buddha.\u201d They do not believe in any pardon for their\n sins, except after an adequate and just punishment for each evil\n deed or thought in a future incarnation, and a proportionate\n compensation to the parties injured.\n\n ENQ. Where is it so stated?\n\n THEO. In most of their sacred works. In the \u201c_Wheel of the Law_\u201d\n (p. 57) you may find the following Theosophical tenet:\u2014\u201cBuddhists\n believe that every act, word or thought has its consequence, which\n will appear sooner or later in the present or in the future state.\n Evil acts will produce evil consequences, good acts will produce\n good consequences: prosperity in this world, or birth in heaven\n (Devachan)... in the future state.\u201d\n\n ENQ. Christians believe the same thing, don\u2019t they?\n\n THEO. Oh, no; they believe in the pardon and the remission of all sins.\n They are promised that if they only believe in the blood of Christ\n (an _innocent_ victim!), in the blood offered by Him for the\n expiation of the sins of the whole of mankind, it will atone for\n every mortal sin. And we believe neither in vicarious atonement,\n nor in the possibility of the remission of the smallest sin by any\n god, not even by a \u201c_personal_ Absolute\u201d or \u201cInfinite,\u201d if such\n a thing could have any existence. What we believe in, is strict\n and impartial justice. Our idea of the unknown Universal Deity,\n represented by Karma, is that it is a Power which cannot fail,\n and can, therefore, have neither wrath nor mercy, only absolute\n Equity, which leaves every cause, great or small, to work out its\n inevitable effects. The saying of Jesus: \u201cWith what measure you\n mete it shall be measured to you again\u201d (Matth. vii., 2), neither\n by expression nor implication points to any hope of future mercy\n or salvation by proxy. This is why, recognising as we do in our\n philosophy the justice of this statement, we cannot recommend\n too strongly mercy, charity, and forgiveness of mutual offences.\n _Resist not evil_, and _render good for evil_, are Buddhist\n precepts, and were first preached in view of the implacability\n of Karmic law. For man to take the law into his own hands is\n anyhow a sacrilegious presumption. Human Law may use restrictive\n not punitive measures; but a man who, believing in Karma, still\n revenges himself and refuses to forgive every injury, thereby\n rendering good for evil, is a criminal and only hurts himself. As\n Karma is sure to punish the man who wronged him, by seeking to\n inflict an additional punishment on his enemy, he, who instead\n of leaving that punishment to the great Law adds to it his own\n mite, only begets thereby a cause for the future reward of his own\n enemy and a future punishment for himself. The unfailing Regulator\n affects in each incarnation the quality of its successor; and the\n sum of the merit or demerit in preceding ones determines it.\n\n ENQ. Are we then to infer a man\u2019s past from his present?\n\n THEO. Only so far as to believe that his present life is what it justly\n should be, to atone for the sins of the past life. Of course\u2014seers\n and great adepts excepted\u2014we cannot as average mortals know what\n those sins were. From our paucity of data, it is impossible for us\n even to determine what an old man\u2019s youth must have been; neither\n can we, for like reasons, draw final conclusions merely from what\n we see in the life of some man, as to what his past life may have\n been.\n\n\nWHAT IS KARMA?\n\n ENQ. But what is Karma?\n\n THEO. As I have said, we consider it as the _Ultimate Law_ of the\n Universe, the source, origin and fount of all other laws which\n exist throughout Nature. Karma is the unerring law which adjusts\n effect to cause, on the physical, mental and spiritual planes of\n being. As no cause remains without its due effect from greatest\n to least, from a cosmic disturbance down to the movement of your\n hand, and as like produces like, _Karma_ is that unseen and\n unknown law _which adjusts wisely, intelligently and equitably_\n each effect to its cause, tracing the latter back to its producer.\n Though itself _unknowable_, its action is perceivable.\n\n ENQ. Then it is the \u201cAbsolute,\u201d the \u201cUnknowable\u201d again, and is not of\n much value as an explanation of the problems of life?\n\n THEO. On the contrary. For, though we do not know what Karma is _per\n se_, and in its essence, we _do_ know _how_ it works, and we can\n define and describe its mode of action with accuracy. We only\n do _not_ know its ultimate _Cause_, just as modern philosophy\n universally admits that the _ultimate_ Cause of anything is\n \u201cunknowable.\u201d\n\n ENQ. And what has Theosophy to say in regard to the solution of the\n more practical needs of humanity? What is the explanation which\n it offers in reference to the awful suffering and dire necessity\n prevalent among the so-called \u201clower classes.\u201d\n\n THEO. To be pointed, according to our teaching all these great social\n evils, the distinction of classes in Society, and of the sexes in\n the affairs of life, the unequal distribution of capital and of\n labour\u2014all are due to what we tersely but truly denominate KARMA.\n\n ENQ. But, surely, all these evils which seem to fall upon the masses\n somewhat indiscriminately are not actual merited and INDIVIDUAL\n Karma?\n\n THEO. No, they cannot be so strictly defined in their effects as to\n show that each individual environment, and the particular\n conditions of life in which each person finds himself, are nothing\n more than the retributive Karma which the individual generated in\n a previous life. We must not lose sight of the fact that every\n atom is subject to the general law governing the whole body to\n which it belongs, and here we come upon the wider track of the\n Karmic law. Do you not perceive that the aggregate of individual\n Karma becomes that of the nation to which those individuals\n belong, and further, that the sum total of National Karma is that\n of the World! The evils that you speak of are not peculiar to the\n individual or even to the Nation, they are more or less universal;\n and it is upon this broad line of Human interdependence that the\n law of Karma finds its legitimate and equable issue.\n\n ENQ. Do I, then, understand that the law of Karma is not necessarily an\n individual law?\n\n THEO. That is just what I mean. It is impossible that Karma could\n readjust the balance of power in the world\u2019s life and progress,\n unless it had a broad and general line of action. It is held as\n a truth among Theosophists that the interdependence of Humanity\n is the cause of what is called Distributive Karma, and it is this\n law which affords the solution to the great question of collective\n suffering and its relief. It is an occult law, moreover, that no\n man can rise superior to his individual failings, without lifting,\n be it ever so little, the whole body of which he is an integral\n part. In the same way, no one can sin, nor suffer the effects of\n sin, alone. In reality, there is no such thing as \u201cSeparateness\u201d;\n and the nearest approach to that selfish state, which the laws of\n life permit, is in the intent or motive.\n\n ENQ. And are there no means by which the distributive or national Karma\n might be concentred or collected, so to speak, and brought to its\n natural and legitimate fulfilment without all this protracted\n suffering?\n\n THEO. As a general rule, and within certain limits which define the age\n to which we belong, the law of Karma cannot be hastened or\n retarded in its fulfilment. But of this I am certain, the point\n of possibility in either of these directions has never yet been\n touched. Listen to the following recital of one phase of national\n suffering, and then ask yourself whether, admitting the working\n power of individual, relative, and distributive Karma, these evils\n are not capable of extensive modification and general relief.\n What I am about to read to you is from the pen of a National\n Saviour, one who, having overcome Self, and being free to choose,\n has elected to serve Humanity, in bearing at least as much as a\n woman\u2019s shoulders can possibly bear of National Karma. This is\n what she says:\u2014\n\n \u201cYes, Nature always does speak, don\u2019t you think? only sometimes\n we make so much noise that we drown her voice. That is why it\n is so restful to go out of the town and nestle awhile in the\n Mother\u2019s arms. I am thinking of the evening on Hampstead Heath\n when we watched the sun go down; but oh! upon what suffering\n and misery that sun had set! A lady brought me yesterday a\n big hamper of wild flowers. I thought some of my East-end\n family had a better right to it than I, and so I took it down\n to a very poor school in Whitechapel this morning. You should\n have seen the pallid little faces brighten! Thence I went to\n pay for some dinners at a little cookshop for some children.\n It was in a back street, narrow, full of jostling people;\n stench indescribable, from fish, meat, and other comestibles,\n all reeking in a sun that, in Whitechapel, festers instead\n of purifying. The cookshop was the quintessence of all the\n smells. Indescribable meat-pies at 1d., loathsome lumps of\n \u2018food\u2019 and swarms of flies, a very altar of Beelzebub! All\n about, babies on the prowl for scraps, one, with the face of\n an angel, gathering up cherrystones as a light and nutritious\n form of diet. I came westward with every nerve shuddering and\n jarred, wondering whether anything can be done with some\n parts of London save swallowing them up in an earthquake and\n starting their inhabitants afresh, after a plunge into some\n purifying Lethe, out of which not a memory might emerge! And\n then I thought of Hampstead Heath, and\u2014pondered. If by any\n sacrifice one could win the power to save these people, the\n cost would not be worth counting; but, you see, THEY must be\n changed\u2014and how can that be wrought? In the condition they now\n are, they would not profit by any environment in which they\n might be placed; and yet, in their present surroundings they\n must continue to putrefy. It breaks my heart, this endless,\n hopeless misery, and the brutish degradation that is at once\n its outgrowth and its root. It is like the banyan tree; every\n branch roots itself and sends out new shoots. What a difference\n between these feelings and the peaceful scene at Hampstead!\n and yet we, who are the brothers and sisters of these poor\n creatures, have only a right to use Hampstead Heaths to\n gain strength to save Whitechapels.\u201d (_Signed by a name too\n respected and too well known to be given to scoffers._)\n\n ENQ. That is a sad but beautiful letter, and I think it presents with\n painful conspicuity the terrible workings of what you have called\n \u201cRelative and Distributive Karma.\u201d But alas! there seems no\n immediate hope of any relief short of an earthquake, or some such\n general ingulfment!\n\n THEO. What right have we to think so while one-half of humanity is in a\n position to effect an immediate relief of the privations which are\n suffered by their fellows? When every individual has contributed\n to the general good what he can of money, of labour, and of\n ennobling thought, then, and only then, will the balance of\n National Karma be struck, and until then we have no right nor\n any reasons for saying that there is more life on the earth than\n Nature can support. It is reserved for the heroic souls, the\n Saviours of our Race and Nation, to find out the cause of this\n unequal pressure of retributive Karma, and by a supreme effort to\n readjust the balance of power, and save the people from a moral\n ingulfment a thousand times more disastrous and more permanently\n evil than the like physical catastrophe, in which you seem to see\n the only possible outlet for this accumulated misery.\n\n ENQ. Well, then, tell me generally how you describe this law of Karma?\n\n THEO. We describe Karma as that Law of readjustment which ever tends to\n restore disturbed equilibrium in the physical, and broken harmony\n in the moral world. We say that Karma does not act in this or that\n particular way always; but that it always _does_ act so as to\n restore Harmony and preserve the balance of equilibrium, in virtue\n of which the Universe exists.\n\n ENQ. Give me an illustration.\n\n THEO. Later on I will give you a full illustration. Think now of a\n pond. A stone falls into the water and creates disturbing waves.\n These waves oscillate backwards and forwards till at last,\n owning to the operation of what physicists call the law of the\n dissipation of energy, they are brought to rest, and the water\n returns to its condition of calm tranquillity. Similarly _all_\n action, on every plane, produces disturbance in the balanced\n harmony of the Universe, and the vibrations so produced will\n continue to roll backwards and forwards, if its area is limited,\n till equilibrium is restored. But since each such disturbance\n starts from some particular point, it is clear that equilibrium\n and harmony can only be restored by the reconverging _to that\n same point_ of all the forces which were set in motion from it.\n And here you have proof that the consequences of a man\u2019s deeds,\n thoughts, etc., must all react upon _himself_ with the same force\n with which they were set in motion.\n\n ENQ. But I see nothing of a moral character about this law. It looks to\n me like the simple physical law that action and reaction are equal\n and opposite.\n\n THEO. I am not surprised to hear you say that. Europeans have got so\n much into the ingrained habit of considering right and wrong,\n good and evil, as matters of an arbitrary code of law laid\n down either by men, or imposed upon them by a Personal God. We\n Theosophists, however, say that \u201cGood\u201d and \u201cHarmony,\u201d and \u201cEvil\u201d\n and \u201cDis-harmony,\u201d are synonymous. Further we maintain that all\n pain and suffering are results of want of Harmony, and that the\n one terrible and only cause of the disturbance of Harmony is\n selfishness in some form or another. Hence Karma gives back to\n every man the _actual consequences_ of his own actions, without\n any regard to their moral character; but since he receives his due\n for _all_, it is obvious that he will be made to atone for all\n sufferings which he has caused, just as he will reap in joy and\n gladness the fruits of all the happiness and harmony he had helped\n to produce. I can do no better than quote for your benefit certain\n passages from books and articles written by our Theosophists\u2014those\n who have a correct idea of Karma.\n\n ENQ. I wish you would, as your literature seems to be very sparing on\n this subject?\n\n THEO. Because it is _the_ most difficult of all our tenets. Some short\n time ago there appeared the following objection from a Christian\n pen:\u2014\n\n \u201cGranting that the teaching in regard to Theosophy is correct,\n and that \u2018man must be his own saviour, must overcome self and\n conquer the evil that is in his dual nature, to obtain the\n emancipation of his soul,\u2019 what is man to do after he has\n been awakened and converted to a certain extent from evil or\n wickedness? How is he to get emancipation, or pardon, or the\n blotting out of the evil or wickedness he has already done?\u201d\n\n To this Mr. J. H. Connelly replies very pertinently that no one\n can hope to \u201cmake the theosophical engine run on the theological\n track.\u201d As he has it:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe possibility of shirking individual responsibility is not\n among the concepts of Theosophy. In this faith there is no such\n thing as pardoning, or \u2018blotting out of evil or wickedness\n already done,\u2019 otherwise than by the adequate punishment\n therefor of the wrong-doer and the restoration of the harmony\n in the universe that had been disturbed by his wrongful act.\n The evil has been his own, and while others must suffer its\n consequences, atonement can be made by nobody but himself.\n\n \u201cThe condition contemplated ... in which a man shall have\n been \u2018awakened and converted to a certain extent from evil\n or wickedness,\u2019 is that in which a man shall have realized\n that his deeds are evil and deserving of punishment. In that\n realization a sense of personal responsibility is inevitable,\n and just in proportion to the extent of his awakening or\n \u2018converting\u2019 must be the sense of that awful responsibility.\n While it is strong upon him is the time when he is urged to\n accept the doctrine of vicarious atonement.\n\n \u201cHe is told that he must also repent, but nothing is easier\n than that. It is an amiable weakness of human nature that\n we are quite prone to regret the evil we have done when our\n attention is called, and we have either suffered from it\n ourselves or enjoyed its fruits. Possibly, close analysis of\n the feeling would show us that that which we regret is rather\n the necessity that seemed to require the evil as a means of\n attainment of our selfish ends than the evil itself.\n\n \u201cAttractive as this prospect of casting our burden of sins\n \u2018at the foot of the cross\u2019 may be to the ordinary mind, it\n does not commend itself to the Theosophic student. He does not\n apprehend why the sinner by attaining knowledge of his evil\n can thereby merit any pardon for or the blotting out of his\n past wickedness; or why repentance and future right living\n entitle him to a suspension in his favour of the universal law\n of relation between cause and effect. The results of his evil\n deeds continue to exist; the suffering caused to others by his\n wickedness is not blotted out. The Theosophical student takes\n the result of wickedness upon the innocent into his problem. He\n considers not only the guilty person, but his victims.\n\n \u201cEvil is an infraction of the laws of harmony governing the\n universe, and the penalty thereof must fall upon the violator\n of that law himself. Christ uttered the warning, \u2018Sin no more,\n lest a worse thing come upon thee,\u2019 and St. Paul said, \u2018Work\n out your own salvation. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he\n also reap.\u2019 That, by the way, is a fine metaphoric rendering of\n the sentence of the Puranas far antedating him\u2014that \u2018every man\n reaps the consequences of his own acts.\u2019\n\n \u201cThis is the principle of the law of Karma which is taught by\n Theosophy. Sinnett, in his \u2018Esoteric Buddhism,\u2019 rendered Karma\n as \u2018the law of ethical causation.\u2019 \u2018The law of retribution,\u2019 as\n Mdme. Blavatsky translates its meaning, is better. It is the\n power which\n\n Just though mysterious, leads us on unerring\n Through ways unmarked from guilt to punishment.\n\n \u201cBut it is more. It rewards merit as unerringly and amply as it\n punishes demerit. It is the outcome of every act, of thought,\n word and deed, and by it men mould themselves, their lives and\n happenings. Eastern philosophy rejects the idea of a newly\n created soul for every baby born. It believes in a limited\n number of monads, evolving and growing more and more perfect\n through their assimilation of many successive personalities.\n Those personalities are the product of Karma and it is by Karma\n and re-incarnation that the human monad in time returns to its\n source\u2014absolute deity.\u201d\n\n E. D. Walker, in his \u201cRe-incarnation,\u201d offers the following\n explanation:\u2014\n\n \u201cBriefly, the doctrine of Karma is that we have made ourselves\n what we are by former actions, and are building our future\n eternity by present actions. There is no destiny but what we\n ourselves determine. There is no salvation or condemnation\n except what we ourselves bring about.... Because it offers\n no shelter for culpable actions and necessitates a sterling\n manliness, it is less welcome to weak natures than the easy\n religious tenets of vicarious atonement, intercession,\n forgiveness and death-bed conversions.... In the domain of\n eternal justice the offence and the punishment are inseparably\n connected as the same event, because there is no real\n distinction between the action and its outcome.... It is Karma,\n or our old acts, that draws us back into earthly life. The\n spirit\u2019s abode changes according to its Karma, and this Karma\n forbids any long continuance in one condition, because _it_ is\n always changing. So long as action is governed by material and\n selfish motives, just so long must the effect of that action be\n manifested in physical rebirths. Only the perfectly selfless\n man can elude the gravitation of material life. Few have\n attained this, but it is the goal of mankind.\u201d\n\n And then the writer quotes from the _Secret Doctrine_:\n\n \u201cThose who believe in Karma have to believe in destiny, which,\n from birth to death, every man is weaving, thread by thread,\n around himself, as a spider does his cobweb, and this destiny\n is guided either by the heavenly voice of the invisible\n prototype outside of us, or by our more intimate astral or\n inner man, who is but too often the evil genius of the embodied\n entity called man. Both these lead on the outward man, but\n one of them must prevail; and from the very beginning of the\n invisible affray the stern and implacable law of compensation\n steps in and takes its course, faithfully following the\n fluctuations. When the last strand is woven, and man is\n seemingly enwrapped in the network of his own doing, then he\n finds himself completely under the empire of this self-made\n destiny.... An Occultist or a philosopher will not speak of the\n goodness or cruelty of Providence; but, identifying it with\n Karma-Nemesis, he will teach that, nevertheless, it guards\n the good and watches over them in this as in future lives;\n and that it punishes the evil-doer\u2014aye, even to his seventh\n re-birth\u2014so long, in short, as the effect of his having thrown\n into perturbation even the smallest atom in the infinite world\n of harmony has not been finally readjusted. For the only decree\n of Karma\u2014an eternal and immutable decree\u2014is absolute harmony\n in the world of matter as it is in the world of spirit. It is\n not, therefore, Karma that rewards or punishes, but it is we\n who reward or punish ourselves according to whether we work\n with, through and along with nature, abiding by the laws on\n which that harmony depends, or\u2014break them. Nor would the ways\n of Karma be inscrutable were men to work in union and harmony,\n instead of disunion and strife. For our ignorance of those\n ways\u2014which one portion of mankind calls the ways of Providence,\n dark and intricate; while another sees in them the action of\n blind fatalism; and a third simple chance, with neither gods\n nor devils to guide them\u2014would surely disappear if we would\n but attribute all these to their correct cause.... We stand\n bewildered before the mystery of our own making and the riddles\n of life that we will not solve, and then accuse the great\n Sphinx of devouring us. But verily there is not an accident of\n our lives, not a misshapen day, or a misfortune, that could\n not be traced back to our own doings in this or in another\n life.... The law of Karma is inextricably interwoven with that\n of re-incarnation.... It is only this doctrine that can explain\n to us the mysterious problem of good and evil, and reconcile\n man to the terrible and apparent injustice of life. Nothing\n but such certainty can quiet our revolted sense of justice.\n For, when one unacquainted with the noble doctrine looks around\n him and observes the inequalities of birth and fortune, of\n intellect and capacities; when one sees honour paid to fools\n and profligates, on whom fortune has heaped her favours by\n mere privilege of birth, and their nearest neighbour, with\n all his intellect and noble virtues\u2014far more deserving in\n every way\u2014perishing for want and for lack of sympathy\u2014when one\n sees all this and has to turn away, helpless to relieve the\n undeserved suffering, one\u2019s ears ringing and heart aching\n with the cries of pain around him\u2014that blessed knowledge of\n Karma alone prevents him from cursing life and men as well\n as their supposed Creator.... This law, whether conscious or\n unconscious, predestines nothing and no one. It exists from\n and in eternity truly, for it is eternity itself; and as such,\n since no act can be coequal with eternity, it cannot be said\n to act, for it is action itself. It is not the wave which\n drowns the man, but the personal action of the wretch who goes\n deliberately and places himself under the impersonal action\n of the laws that govern the ocean\u2019s motion. Karma creates\n nothing, nor does it design. It is man who plants and creates\n causes, and Karmic law adjusts the effects, which adjustment is\n not an act but universal harmony, tending ever to resume its\n original position, like a bough, which, bent down too forcibly,\n rebounds with corresponding vigour. If it happen to dislocate\n the arm that tried to bend it out of its natural position,\n shall we say it is the bough which broke our arm or that our\n own folly has brought us to grief? Karma has never sought to\n destroy intellectual and individual liberty, like the god\n invented by the Monotheists. It has not involved its decrees\n in darkness purposely to perplex man, nor shall it punish him\n who dares to scrutinize its mysteries. On the contrary, he who\n unveils through study and meditation its intricate paths, and\n throws light on those dark ways, in the windings of which so\n many men perish owing to their ignorance of the labyrinth of\n life, is working for the good of his fellow-men. Karma is an\n absolute and eternal law in the world of manifestation; and as\n there can only be one Absolute, as one Eternal, ever-present\n Cause, believers in Karma cannot be regarded as atheists or\n materialists, still less as fatalists, for Karma is one with\n the Unknowable, of which it is an aspect, in its effects in the\n phenomenal world.\u201d\n\n Another able Theosophic writer says (_Purpose of Theosophy_, by\n Mrs. P. Sinnett):\u2014\n\n \u201cEvery individual is making Karma either good or bad in each\n action and thought of his daily round, and is at the same\n time working out in this life the Karma brought about by the\n acts and desires of the last. When we see people afflicted\n by congenital ailments it may be safely assumed that these\n ailments are the inevitable results of causes started by\n themselves in a previous birth. It may be argued that, as\n these afflictions are hereditary, they can have nothing to do\n with a past incarnation; but it must be remembered that the\n Ego, the real man, the individuality, has no spiritual origin\n in the parentage by which it is re-embodied, but it is drawn\n by the affinities which its previous mode of life attracted\n round it into the current that carries it, when the time comes\n for re-birth, to the home best fitted for the development of\n those tendencies.... This doctrine of Karma, when properly\n understood, is well calculated to guide and assist those\n who realize its truth to a higher and better mode of life,\n for it must not be forgotten that not only our actions but\n our thoughts also are most assuredly followed by a crowd of\n circumstances that will influence for good or for evil our own\n future, and, what is still more important, the future of many\n of our fellow-creatures. If sins of omission and commission\n could in any case be only self-regarding, the effect on the\n sinner\u2019s Karma would be a matter of minor consequence. The fact\n that every thought and act through life carries with it for\n good or evil a corresponding influence on other members of the\n human family renders a strict sense of justice, morality, and\n unselfishness so necessary to future happiness or progress. A\n crime once committed, an evil thought sent out from the mind,\n are past recall\u2014no amount of repentance can wipe out their\n results in the future. Repentance, if sincere, will deter a man\n from repeating errors; it cannot save him or others from the\n effects of those already produced, which will most unerringly\n overtake him either in this life or in the next re-birth.\u201d\n\n Mr. J. H. Connelly proceeds\u2014\n\n \u201cThe believers in a religion based upon such doctrine are\n willing it should be compared with one in which man\u2019s destiny\n for eternity is determined by the accidents of a single,\n brief earthly existence, during which he is cheered by the\n promise that \u2018as the tree falls so shall it lie\u2019; in which\n his brightest hope, when he wakes up to a knowledge of his\n wickedness, is the doctrine of vicarious atonement, and in\n which even that is handicapped, according to the Presbyterian\n Confession of Faith.\n\n \u201cBy the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some\n men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life and\n others foreordained to everlasting death.\n\n \u201cThese angels and men thus predestinated and foreordained are\n particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is\n so certain and definite that it cannot be either increased or\n diminished. ... As God hath appointed the elect unto glory....\n Neither are any other redeemed by Christ effectually called,\n justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.\n\n \u201cThe rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the\n unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth\n or withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of his\n sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by and to ordain\n them to dishonour and wrath for their sin to the praise of his\n glorious justice.\u201d\n\n This is what the able defender says. Nor can we do any better than\n wind up the subject as he does, by a quotation from a magnificent\n poem. As he says:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe exquisite beauty of Edwin Arnold\u2019s exposition of Karma in\n \u2018The Light of Asia\u2019 tempts to its reproduction here, but it is\n too long for quotation in full. Here is a portion of it:\u2014\n\n Karma\u2014all that total of a soul\n Which is the things it did, the thoughts it had,\n The \u201cself\u201d it wove with woof of viewless time\n Crossed on the warp invisible of acts.\n\n * * * * *\n\n Before beginning and without an end,\n As space eternal and as surety sure,\n Is fixed a Power divine which moves to good,\n Only its laws endure.\n\n It will not be contemned of anyone;\n Who thwarts it loses, and who serves it gains:\n The hidden good it pays with peace and bliss,\n The hidden ill with pains.\n\n It seeth everywhere and marketh all;\n Do right\u2014it recompenseth! Do one wrong\u2014\n The equal retribution must be made,\n Though Dharma tarry long.\n\n It knows not wrath nor pardon; utter-true,\n Its measures mete, its faultless balance weighs;\n Times are as naught, to-morrow it will judge\n Or after many days.\n\n * * * * *\n\n Such is the law which moves to righteousness,\n Which none at last can turn aside or stay;\n The heart of it is love, the end of it\n Is peace and consummation sweet. Obey.\n\n And now I advise you to compare our Theosophic views upon Karma,\n the law of Retribution, and say whether they are not both more\n philosophical and just than this cruel and idiotic dogma which\n makes of \u201cGod\u201d a senseless fiend; the tenet, namely, that the\n \u201celect only\u201d will be saved, and the rest doomed to eternal\n perdition!\n\n ENQ. Yes, I see what you mean generally; but I wish you could give some\n concrete example of the action of Karma?\n\n THEO. That I cannot do. We can only feel sure, as I said before, that\n our present lives and circumstances are the direct results of our\n own deeds and thoughts in lives that are past. But we, who are not\n Seers or Initiates, cannot know anything about the details of the\n working of the law of Karma.\n\n ENQ. Can anyone, even an Adept or Seer, follow out this Karmic process\n of readjustment in detail?\n\n THEO. Certainly: \u201cThose who _know_\u201d can do so by the exercise of powers\n which are latent even in all men.\n\n\nWHO ARE THOSE WHO KNOW?\n\n ENQ. Does this hold equally of ourselves as of others?\n\n THEO. Equally. As just said, the same limited vision exists for all,\n save those who have reached in the present incarnation the acme of\n spiritual vision and clairvoyance. We can only perceive that, if\n things with us ought to have been different, they would have been\n different; that we are what we have made ourselves, and have only\n what we have earned for ourselves.\n\n ENQ. I am afraid such a conception would only embitter us.\n\n THEO. I believe it is precisely the reverse. It is disbelief in the\n just law of retribution that is more likely to awaken every\n combative feeling in man. A child, as much as a man, resents a\n punishment, or even a reproof he believes to be unmerited, far\n more than he does a severer punishment, if he feels that it is\n merited. Belief in Karma is the highest reason for reconcilement\n to one\u2019s lot in this life, and the very strongest incentive\n towards effort to better the succeeding re-birth. Both of these,\n indeed, would be destroyed if we supposed that our lot was the\n result of anything but strict _Law_, or that destiny was in any\n other hands than our own.\n\n ENQ. You have just asserted that this system of Re-incarnation under\n Karmic law commended itself to reason, justice, and the moral\n sense. But, if so, is it not at some sacrifice of the gentler\n qualities of sympathy and pity, and thus a hardening of the finer\n instincts of human nature?\n\n THEO. Only apparently, not really. No man can receive more or less than\n his deserts without a corresponding injustice or partiality to\n others; and a law which could be averted through compassion would\n bring about more misery than it saved, more irritation and curses\n than thanks. Remember also, that we do not administer the law, if\n we do create causes for its effects; it administers itself; and\n again, that the most copious provision for the manifestation of\n _just_ compassion and mercy is shown in the state of Devachan.\n\n ENQ. You speak of Adepts as being an exception to the rule of our\n general ignorance. Do they really know more than we do of\n Re-incarnation and after states?\n\n THEO. They do, indeed. By the training of faculties we all possess, but\n which they alone have developed to perfection, they have entered\n in spirit these various planes and states we have been discussing.\n For long ages, one generation of Adepts after another has studied\n the mysteries of being, of life, death, and re-birth, and all have\n taught in their turn some of the facts so learned.\n\n ENQ. And is the production of Adepts the aim of Theosophy?\n\n THEO. Theosophy considers humanity as an emanation from divinity on its\n return path thereto. At an advanced point upon the path, Adeptship\n is reached by those who have devoted several incarnations to its\n achievement. For, remember well, no man has ever reached Adeptship\n in the Secret Sciences in one life; but many incarnations are\n necessary for it after the formation of a conscious purpose and\n the beginning of the needful training. Many may be the men\n and women in the very midst of our Society who have begun this\n uphill work toward illumination several incarnations ago, and\n who yet, owing to the personal illusions of the present life,\n are either ignorant of the fact, or on the road to losing every\n chance in this existence of progressing any farther. They feel an\n irresistible attraction toward occultism and the _Higher Life_,\n and yet are too personal and self-opinionated, too much in love\n with the deceptive allurements of mundane life and the world\u2019s\n ephemeral pleasures, to give them up; and so lose their chance\n in their present birth. But, for ordinary men, for the practical\n duties of daily life, such a far-off result is inappropriate as an\n aim and quite ineffective as a motive.\n\n ENQ. What, then, may be their object or distinct purpose in joining the\n Theosophical Society?\n\n THEO. Many are interested in our doctrines and feel instinctively that\n they are truer than those of any dogmatic religion. Others have\n formed a fixed resolve to attain the highest ideal of man\u2019s duty.\n\n\nTHE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE; OR, BLIND AND REASONED\nFAITH.\n\n ENQ. You say that they accept and believe in the doctrines of\n Theosophy. But, as they do not belong to those Adepts you have\n just mentioned, then they must accept your teachings on _blind\n faith_. In what does this differ from that of conventional\n religions?\n\n THEO. As it differs on almost all the other points, so it differs on\n this one. What you call \u201cfaith,\u201d and that which is _blind\n faith_, in reality, and with regard to the dogmas of the\n Christian religions, becomes with us \u201c_knowledge_,\u201d the logical\n sequence of things _we know_, about _facts_ in nature. Your\n Doctrines are based upon interpretation, therefore, upon the\n _second-hand_ testimony of Seers; ours upon the invariable and\n unvarying testimony of Seers. The ordinary Christian theology for\n instance, holds that man is a creature of God, of three component\n parts\u2014body, soul, and spirit\u2014all essential to his integrity, and\n all, either in the gross form of physical earthly existence or\n in the etherealized form of post-resurrection experience, needed\n to so constitute him for ever, each man having thus a permanent\n existence separate from other men, and from the Divine. Theosophy,\n on the other hand, holds that man, being an emanation from the\n Unknown, yet ever present and infinite Divine Essence, his body\n and everything else is impermanent, hence an illusion; Spirit\n alone in him being the one enduring substance, and even that\n losing its separated individuality at the moment of its complete\n reunion with the _Universal Spirit_.\n\n ENQ. If we lose even our individuality, then it becomes simply\n annihilation.\n\n THEO. I say it _does not_, since I speak of _separate_, not of\n universal individuality. The latter becomes as a part transformed\n into the whole; the _dewdrop_ is not evaporated, but becomes the\n sea. Is physical man _annihilated_, when from a f\u0153tus he becomes\n an old man? What kind of Satanic pride must be ours if we place\n our infinitesimally small consciousness and individuality higher\n than the universal and infinite consciousness!\n\n ENQ. It follows, then, that there is, _de facto_, no man, but all is\n Spirit?\n\n THEO. You are mistaken. It thus follows that the union of Spirit with\n matter is but temporary; or, to put it more clearly, since\n Spirit and matter are one, being the two opposite poles of the\n _universal_ manifested substance\u2014that Spirit loses its right\n to the name so long as the smallest particle and atom of its\n manifesting substance still clings to any form, the result of\n differentiation. To believe otherwise is _blind faith_.\n\n ENQ. Thus it is on _knowledge_, not on _faith_, that you assert that\n the permanent principle, the Spirit, simply makes a transit\n through matter?\n\n THEO. I would put it otherwise and say\u2014we assert that the appearance of\n the permanent and one principle, Spirit, _as matter_ is transient,\n and, therefore, no better than an illusion.\n\n ENQ. Very well; and this, given out on knowledge not faith?\n\n THEO. Just so. But as I see very well what you are driving at, I may\n just as well tell you that we hold _faith_, such as you advocate,\n to be a mental disease, and real faith, _i.e._, the _pistis_ of\n the Greeks, as \u201c_belief based on knowledge_,\u201d whether supplied by\n the evidence of physical or _spiritual_ senses.\n\n ENQ. What do you mean?\n\n THEO. I mean, if it is the difference between the two that you want to\n know, then I can tell you that between _faith on authority_ and\n _faith on one\u2019s spiritual intuition_, there is a very great\n difference.\n\n ENQ. What is it?\n\n THEO. One is human credulity and _superstition_, the other human belief\n and _intuition_. As Professor Alexander Wilder says in his\n \u201cIntroduction to the _Eleusinian Mysteries_,\u201d \u201cIt is ignorance\n which leads to profanation. Men ridicule what they do not properly\n understand.... The undercurrent of this world is set towards\n one goal; and inside of human credulity ... is a power almost\n infinite, a holy faith capable of apprehending the supremest\n truths of all existence.\u201d Those who limit that \u201ccredulity\u201d to\n human authoritative dogmas alone, will never fathom that power\n nor even perceive it in their natures. It is stuck fast to the\n external plane and is unable to bring forth into play the essence\n that rules it; for to do this they have to claim their right of\n private judgment, and this they never _dare_ to do.\n\n ENQ. And is it that \u201cintuition\u201d which forces you to reject God as a\n personal Father, Ruler and Governor of the Universe?\n\n THEO. Precisely. We believe in an ever unknowable Principle, because\n blind aberration alone can make one maintain that the Universe,\n thinking man, and all the marvels contained even in the world\n of matter, could have grown without some _intelligent powers_\n to bring about the extraordinarily wise arrangement of all its\n parts. Nature may err, and often does, in its details and the\n external manifestations of its materials, never in its inner\n causes and results. Ancient pagans held on this question far\n more philosophical views than modern philosophers, whether\n Agnostics, Materialists or Christians; and no pagan writer has\n ever yet advanced the proposition that cruelty and mercy are\n not finite feelings, and can therefore be made the attributes of\n an _infinite_ god. Their gods, therefore, were all finite. The\n Siamese author of the _Wheel of the Law_, expresses the same idea\n about your personal god as we do; he says (p. 25):\n\n \u201cA Buddhist might believe in the existence of a god; sublime\n above all human qualities and attributes\u2014a perfect god, above\n love, and hatred, and jealousy, calmly resting in a quietude\n that nothing could disturb, and of such a god he would speak\n no disparagement, not from a desire to please him or fear\n to offend him, but from natural veneration; but he cannot\n understand a god with the attributes and qualities of men, a\n god who loves and hates, and shows anger; a Deity who, whether\n described as by Christian Missionaries or by Mahometans or\n Brahmins,[55] or Jews, falls below his standard of even an\n ordinary good man.\u201d\n\n ENQ. Faith for faith, is not the faith of the Christian who believes,\n in his human helplessness and humility, that there is a merciful\n Father in Heaven who will protect him from temptation, help him in\n life, and forgive him his transgressions, better than the cold and\n proud, almost fatalistic faith of the Buddhists, Vedantins, and\n Theosophists?\n\n THEO. Persist in calling our belief \u201cfaith\u201d if you will. But once we\n are again on this ever-recurring question, I ask in my turn:\n faith for faith, is not the one based on strict logic and reason\n better than the one which is based simply on human authority\n or\u2014hero-worship? _Our_ \u201cfaith\u201d has all the logical force of the\n arithmetical truism that 2 and 2 will produce 4. Your faith is\n like the logic of some emotional woman, of whom Tourgenyeff said\n that for them 2 and 2 were generally 5, and a tallow candle into\n the bargain. Yours is a faith, moreover, which clashes not only\n with every conceivable view of justice and logic, but which, if\n analysed, leads man to his moral perdition, checks the progress of\n mankind, and positively making of might, right\u2014transforms every\n second man into a Cain to his brother Abel.\n\n ENQ. What do you allude to?\n\n\nHAS GOD THE RIGHT TO FORGIVE?\n\n THEO. To the Doctrine of Atonement; I allude to that dangerous dogma in\n which you believe, and which teaches us that no matter how\n enormous our crimes against the laws of God and of man, we have\n but to believe in the self-sacrifice of Jesus for the salvation\n of mankind, and his blood will wash out every stain. It is twenty\n years that I preach against it, and I may now draw your attention\n to a paragraph from _Isis Unveiled_, written in 1875. This is what\n Christianity teaches, and what we combat:\u2014\n\n \u201cGod\u2019s mercy is boundless and unfathomable. It is impossible\n to conceive of a human sin so damnable that the price paid\n in advance for the redemption of the sinner would not wipe\n it out if a thousandfold worse. And furthermore, it is never\n too late to repent. Though the offender wait until the last\n minute of the last hour of the last day of his mortal life,\n before his blanched lips utter the confession of faith, he may\n go to Paradise; the dying thief did it, and so may all others\n as vile. These are the assumptions of the Church, and of the\n Clergy; assumptions banged at the heads of your countrymen by\n England\u2019s favourite preachers, right in the \u2018light of the XIXth\n century,\u2019\u201d this most paradoxical age of all. Now to what does\n it lead?\n\n ENQ. Does it not make the Christian happier than the Buddhist or\n Brahmin?\n\n THEO. No; not the educated man, at any rate, since the majority of\n these have long since virtually lost all belief in this cruel\n dogma. But it leads those who still believe in it more _easily to\n the threshold of every conceivable crime_, than any other I know\n of. Let me quote to you from _Isis_ once more (_vide_ Vol. II.,\n pp. 542 and 543)\u2014\n\n \u201cIf we step outside the little circle of creed and consider\n the universe as a whole balanced by the exquisite adjustment\n of parts, how all sound logic, how the faintest glimmering\n sense of Justice, revolts against this Vicarious Atonement!\n If the criminal sinned only against himself, and wronged no\n one but himself; if by sincere repentance he could cause the\n obliteration of past events, not only from the memory of man,\n but also from that imperishable record, which no deity\u2014not\n even the Supremes, of the Supreme\u2014can cause to disappear, then\n this dogma might not be incomprehensible. But to maintain that\n one may wrong his fellow-man, kill, disturb the equilibrium\n of society and the natural order of things, and then\u2014through\n cowardice, hope, or compulsion, it matters not\u2014be forgiven by\n believing that the spilling of one blood washes out the other\n blood spilt\u2014this is preposterous! Can the _results_ of a crime\n be obliterated even though the crime itself should be pardoned?\n The effects of a cause are never limited to the boundaries of\n the cause, nor can the results of crime be confined to the\n offender and his victim. Every good as well as evil action has\n its effects, as palpably as the stone flung into calm water.\n The simile is trite, but it is the best ever conceived, so\n let us use it. The eddying circles are greater and swifter as\n the disturbing object is greater or smaller, but the smallest\n pebble, nay, the tiniest speck, makes its ripples. And this\n disturbance is not alone visible and on the surface. Below,\n unseen, in every direction\u2014outward and downward\u2014drop pushes\n drop until the sides and bottom are touched by the force. More,\n the air above the water is agitated, and this disturbance\n passes, as the physicists tell us, from stratum to stratum\n out into space forever and ever; an impulse has been given to\n matter, and that is never lost, can never be recalled!...\n\n \u201cSo with crime, and so with its opposite. The action may be\n instantaneous, the effects are eternal. When, after the stone\n is once flung into the pond, we can recall it to the hand,\n roll back the ripples, obliterate the force expended, restore\n the etheric waves to their previous state of non-being, and\n wipe out every trace of the act of throwing the missile, so\n that Time\u2019s record shall not show that it ever happened, then,\n _then_ we may patiently hear Christians argue for the efficacy\n of this Atonement,\u201d\n\n and\u2014cease to believe in Karmic Law. As it now stands, we call upon\n the whole world to decide, which of our two doctrines is the most\n appreciative of deific justice, and which is more reasonable, even\n on simple human evidence and logic.\n\n ENQ. Yet millions believe in the Christian dogma and are happy.\n\n THEO. Pure sentimentalism overpowering their thinking faculties, which\n no true philanthropist or Altruist will ever accept. It is\n not even a dream of selfishness, but a nightmare of the human\n intellect. Look where it leads to, and tell me the name of that\n pagan country where crimes are more easily committed or more\n numerous than in Christian lands. Look at the long and ghastly\n annual records of crimes committed in European countries; and\n behold Protestant and Biblical America. There, _conversions_\n effected in prisons are more numerous than those made by public\n _revivals_ and preaching. See how the ledger-balance of Christian\n justice (!) stands; Red-handed murderers, urged on by the demons\n of lust, revenge, cupidity, fanaticism, or mere brutal thirst for\n blood, who kill their victims, in most cases, without giving them\n time to repent or call on Jesus. These, perhaps, died sinful, and,\n of course\u2014consistently with theological logic\u2014met the reward of\n their greater or lesser offences. But the murderer, overtaken by\n human justice, is imprisoned, wept over by sentimentalists, prayed\n with and at, pronounces the charmed words of conversion, and goes\n to the scaffold a redeemed child of Jesus! Except for the murder,\n he would not have been prayed with, redeemed, pardoned. Clearly\n this man did well to murder, for thus he gained eternal happiness!\n And how about the victim and his, or her family, relatives,\n dependents, social relations; has justice no recompense for them?\n Must they suffer in this world and the next, while he who wronged\n them sits beside the \u201choly thief\u201d of Calvary, and is for ever\n blessed? On this question the clergy keep a prudent silence.\n (_Isis Unveiled._) And now you know why Theosophists\u2014whose\n fundamental belief and hope is justice for all, in Heaven as on\n earth, and in Karma\u2014reject this dogma.\n\n ENQ. The ultimate destiny of man, then, is not a Heaven presided over\n by God, but the gradual transformation of matter into its\n primordial element, Spirit?\n\n THEO. It is to that final goal to which all tends in nature.\n\n ENQ. Do not some of you regard this association or \u201cfall of spirit into\n matter\u201d as evil, and re-birth as a sorrow?\n\n THEO. Some do, and therefore strive to shorten their period of\n probation on earth. It is not an unmixed evil, however, since\n it ensures the experience upon which we mount to knowledge and\n wisdom. I mean that experience which _teaches_ that the needs of\n our spiritual nature can never be met by other than spiritual\n happiness. As long as we are in the body, we are subjected to\n pain, suffering and all the disappointing incidents occurring\n during life. Therefore, and to palliate this, we finally acquire\n knowledge which alone can afford us relief and hope of a better\n future.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[55] Sectarian Brahmins are here meant. The Parabrahm of the Vedantins\nis the Deity we accept and believe in.\n\n\n\n\nXII. WHAT IS PRACTICAL THEOSOPHY?\n\n\nDUTY.\n\n ENQ. Why, then, the need for rebirths, since all alike fail to secure a\n permanent peace?\n\n THEO. Because the final goal cannot be reached in any way but through\n life experiences and because the bulk of these consist in pain and\n suffering. It is only through the latter that we can learn. Joys\n and pleasures teach us nothing; they are evanescent, and can only\n bring in the long run satiety. Moreover, our constant failure to\n find any permanent satisfaction in life which would meet the wants\n of our higher nature, shows us plainly that those wants can be met\n only on their own plane, to-wit\u2014the spiritual.\n\n ENQ. Is the natural result of this a desire to quit life by one means\n or another?\n\n THEO. If you mean by such desire \u201csuicide,\u201d then I say, most decidedly\n not. Such a result can never be a \u201cnatural\u201d one, but is ever\n due to a morbid brain disease, or to most decided and strong\n materialistic views. It is the worst of crimes and dire in\n its results. But if by desire, you mean simply aspiration to\n reach spiritual existence, not a wish to quit the earth, then I\n would call it a very natural desire indeed. Otherwise voluntary\n death would be an abandonment of our present post and of the\n duties incumbent on us, as well as an attempt to shirk Karmic\n responsibilities, and thus involve the creation of new Karma.\n\n ENQ. But if actions on the material plane are unsatisfying, why should\n duties, which are such actions, be imperative?\n\n THEO. First of all, because our philosophy teaches us that the object\n of doing our duties to all men and to ourselves the last, is not\n the attainment of personal happiness, but of the happiness of\n others; the fulfilment of right for the sake of right, not for\n what it may bring us. Happiness, or rather contentment, may indeed\n follow the performance of duty, but is not and must not be the\n motive for it.\n\n ENQ. What do you understand precisely by \u201cduty\u201d in Theosophy? It cannot\n be the Christian duties preached by Jesus and his Apostles, since\n you recognize neither?\n\n THEO. You are once more mistaken. What you call \u201cChristian duties\u201d were\n inculcated by every great moral and religious Reformer ages before\n the Christian era. All that was great, generous, heroic, was, in\n days of old, not only talked about and preached from pulpits as\n in our own time, but _acted upon_ sometimes by whole nations.\n The history of the Buddhist reform is full of the most noble and\n most heroically unselfish acts. \u201cBe ye all of one mind, having\n compassion one of another; love as brethren, be pitiful, be\n courteous; not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing;\n but contrariwise, blessing\u201d was practically carried out by the\n followers of Buddha, several centuries before Peter. The Ethics of\n Christianity are grand, no doubt; but as undeniably they are not\n new, and have originated as \u201cPagan\u201d duties.\n\n ENQ. And how would you define these duties, or \u201cduty,\u201d in general, as\n you understand the term?\n\n THEO. Duty is that which is _due_ to Humanity, to our fellow-men,\n neighbours, family, and especially that which we owe to all those\n who are poorer and more helpless than we are ourselves. This is\n a debt which, if left unpaid during life, leaves us spiritually\n insolvent and moral bankrupts in our next incarnation. Theosophy\n is the quintessence of _duty_.\n\n ENQ. So is Christianity when rightly understood and carried out.\n\n THEO. No doubt it is; but then, were it not a _lip-religion_ in\n practice, Theosophy would have little to do amidst Christians.\n Unfortunately it is but such lip-ethics. Those who practise their\n duty towards all, and for duty\u2019s own sake, are few; and fewer\n still are those who perform that duty, remaining content with the\n satisfaction of their own secret consciousness. It is\u2014\n\n \u201c... the public voice\n Of praise that honours virtue and rewards it,\u201d\n\n which is ever uppermost in the minds of the \u201cworld renowned\u201d\n philanthropists. Modern ethics are beautiful to read about and\n hear discussed; but what are words unless converted into actions?\n Finally: if you ask me how we understand Theosophical duty\n practically and in view of Karma, I may answer you that our duty\n is to drink without a murmur to the last drop, whatever contents\n the cup of life may have in store for us, to pluck the roses of\n life only for the fragrance they may shed on _others_, and to be\n ourselves content but with the thorns, if that fragrance cannot be\n enjoyed without depriving some one else of it.\n\n ENQ. All this is very vague. What do you do more than Christians do?\n\n THEO. It is not what we members of the Theosophical Society do\u2014though\n some of us try our best\u2014but how much farther Theosophy leads to\n good than modern Christianity does. I say\u2014_action_, enforced\n action, instead of mere intention and talk. A man may be what he\n likes, the most worldly, selfish and hard-hearted of men, even a\n deep-dyed rascal, and it will not prevent him from calling himself\n a Christian, or others from so regarding him. But no Theosophist\n has the right to this name, unless he is thoroughly imbued with\n the correctness of Carlyle\u2019s truism: \u201cThe end of man is an\n _action_ and not a _thought_, though it were the noblest\u201d\u2014and\n unless he sets and models his daily life upon this truth. The\n profession of a truth is not yet the enactment of it; and the more\n beautiful and grand it sounds, the more loudly virtue or duty is\n talked about instead of being acted upon, the more forcibly it\n will always remind one of the Dead Sea fruit. _Cant_ is the most\n loathsome of all vices; and _cant_ is the most prominent feature\n of the greatest Protestant country of this century\u2014England.\n\n ENQ. What do you consider as due to humanity at large?\n\n\n THEO. Full recognition of equal rights and privileges for all, and\n without distinction of race, colour, social position, or birth.\n\n ENQ. When would you consider such due not given?\n\n THEO. When there is the slightest invasion of another\u2019s right\u2014be that\n other a man or a nation; when there is any failure to show him the\n same justice, kindness, consideration or mercy which we desire for\n ourselves. The whole present system of politics is built on the\n oblivion of such rights, and the most fierce assertion of national\n selfishness. The French say: \u201cLike master, like man\u201d; they ought\n to add, \u201cLike national policy, like citizen.\u201d\n\n ENQ. Do you take any part in politics?\n\n THEO. As a Society, we carefully avoid them, for the reasons given\n below. To seek to achieve political reforms before we have\n affected a reform in _human nature, is like putting new wine into\n old bottles_. Make men feel and recognise in their innermost\n hearts what is their real, true duty to all men, and every old\n abuse of power, every iniquitous law in the national policy, based\n on human, social or political selfishness, will disappear of\n itself. Foolish is the gardener who seeks to weed his flower-bed\n of poisonous plants by cutting them off from the surface of\n the soil, instead of tearing them out by the roots. No lasting\n political reform can be ever achieved with the same selfish men at\n the head of affairs as of old.\n\n\nTHE RELATIONS OF THE T.S. TO POLITICAL REFORMS.\n\n ENQ. The Theosophical Society is not, then, a political organization?\n\n THEO. Certainly not. It is international in the highest sense in that\n its members comprise men and women of all races, creeds, and forms\n of thought, who work together for one object, the improvement of\n humanity; but as a society it takes absolutely no part in any\n national or party politics.\n\n ENQ. Why is this?\n\n THEO. Just for the reasons I have mentioned. Moreover, political action\n must necessarily vary with the circumstances of the time and with\n the idiosyncracies of individuals. While from the very nature of\n their position as Theosophists the members of the T.S. are agreed\n on the principles of Theosophy, or they would not belong to the\n society at all, it does not thereby follow that they agree on\n every other subject. As a society they can only act together in\n matters which are common to all\u2014that is, in Theosophy itself; as\n individuals, each is left perfectly free to follow out his or\n her particular line of political thought and action, so long as\n this does not conflict with Theosophical principles, or hurt the\n Theosophical Society.\n\n ENQ. But surely the T.S. does not stand altogether aloof from the\n social questions which are now so fast coming to the front?\n\n THEO. The very principles of the T.S. are a proof that it does not\u2014or,\n rather, that most of its members do not\u2014so stand aloof. If\n humanity can only be developed mentally and spiritually by the\n enforcement, first of all, of the soundest and most scientific\n physiological laws, it is the bounden duty of all who strive\n for this development to do their utmost to see that those laws\n shall be generally carried out. All Theosophists are only too\n sadly aware that, in Occidental countries especially, the social\n condition of large masses of the people renders it impossible for\n either their bodies or their spirits to be properly trained, so\n that the development of both is thereby arrested. As this training\n and development is one of the express objects of Theosophy, the\n T.S. is in thorough sympathy and harmony with all true efforts in\n this direction.\n\n ENQ. But what do you mean by \u201ctrue efforts\u201d? Each social reformer has\n his own panacea, and each believes his to be the one and only\n thing which can improve and save humanity?\n\n THEO. Perfectly true, and this is the real reason why so little\n satisfactory social work is accomplished. In most of these\n panaceas there is no really guiding principle, and there is\n certainly no one principle which connects them all. Valuable time\n and energy are thus wasted; for men, instead of co-operating,\n strive one against the other, often, it is to be feared, for the\n sake of fame and reward rather than for the great cause which they\n profess to have at heart, and which should be supreme in their\n lives.\n\n ENQ. How, then, should Theosophical principles be applied so that\n social co-operation may be promoted and true efforts for social\n amelioration be carried on?\n\n THEO. Let me briefly remind you what these principles are\u2014universal\n Unity and Causation; Human Solidarity; the Law of Karma;\n Re-incarnation. These are the four links of the golden chain which\n should bind humanity into one family, one universal Brotherhood.\n\n ENQ. How?\n\n THEO. In the present state of society, especially in so-called\n civilized countries, we are continually brought face to face with\n the fact that large numbers of people are suffering from misery,\n poverty and disease. Their physical condition is wretched, and\n their mental and spiritual faculties are often almost dormant. On\n the other hand, many persons at the opposite end of the social\n scale are leading lives of careless indifference, material luxury,\n and selfish indulgence. Neither of these forms of existence\n is mere chance. Both are the effects of the conditions which\n surround those who are subject to them, and the neglect of social\n duty on the one side is most closely connected with the stunted\n and arrested development on the other. In sociology, as in all\n branches of true science, the law of universal causation holds\n good. But this causation necessarily implies, as its logical\n outcome, that human solidarity on which Theosophy so strongly\n insists. If the action of one reacts on the lives of all, and this\n is the true scientific idea, then it is only by all men becoming\n brothers and all women sisters, and by all practising in their\n daily lives true brotherhood and true sisterhood, that the real\n human solidarity, which lies at the root of the elevation of the\n race, can ever be attained. It is this action and interaction,\n this true brotherhood and sisterhood, in which each shall live for\n all and all for each, which is one of the fundamental Theosophical\n principles that every Theosophist should be bound, not only to\n teach, but to carry out in his or her individual life.\n\n ENQ. All this is very well as a general principle, but how would you\n apply it in a concrete way?\n\n THEO. Look for a moment at what you would call the concrete facts of\n human society. Contrast the lives not only of the masses of the\n people, but of many of those who are called the middle and upper\n classes, with what they might be under healthier and nobler\n conditions, where justice, kindness, and love were paramount,\n instead of the selfishness, indifference, and brutality which\n now too often seem to reign supreme. All good and evil things in\n humanity have their roots in human character, and this character\n is, and has been, conditioned by the endless chain of cause and\n effect. But this conditioning applies to the future as well as\n to the present and the past. Selfishness, indifference, and\n brutality can never be the normal state of the race\u2014to believe so\n would be to despair of humanity\u2014and that no Theosophist can do.\n Progress can be attained, and only attained, by the development\n of the nobler qualities. Now, true evolution teaches us that\n by altering the surroundings of the organism we can alter and\n improve the organism; and in the strictest sense this is true\n with regard to man. Every Theosophist, therefore, is bound to do\n his utmost to help on, by all the means in his power, every wise\n and well-considered social effort which has for its object the\n amelioration of the condition of the poor. Such efforts should be\n made with a view to their ultimate social emancipation, or the\n development of the sense of duty in those who now so often neglect\n it in nearly every relation of life.\n\n ENQ. Agreed. But who is to decide whether social efforts are wise or\n unwise?\n\n THEO. No one person and no society can lay down a hard-and-fast rule in\n this respect. Much must necessarily be left to the individual\n judgment. One general test may, however, be given. Will the\n proposed action tend to promote that true brotherhood which it is\n the aim of Theosophy to bring about? No real Theosophist will\n have much difficulty in applying such a test; once he is satisfied\n of this, his duty will lie in the direction of forming public\n opinion. And this can be attained only by inculcating those higher\n and nobler conceptions of public and private duties which lie\n at the root of all spiritual and material improvement. In every\n conceivable case he himself must be a center of spiritual action,\n and from him and his own daily individual life must radiate those\n higher spiritual forces which alone can regenerate his fellow-men.\n\n ENQ. But why should he do this? Are not he and all, as you teach,\n conditioned by their Karma, and must not Karma necessarily work\n itself out on certain lines?\n\n THEO. It is this very law of Karma which gives strength to all that I\n have said. The individual cannot separate himself from the race,\n nor the race from the individual. The law of Karma applies equally\n to all, although all are not equally developed. In helping on the\n development of others, the Theosophist believes that he is not\n only helping them to fulfil their Karma, but that he is also, in\n the strictest sense, fulfilling his own. It is the development of\n humanity, of which both he and they are integral parts, that he\n has always in view, and he knows that any failure on his part to\n respond to the highest within him retards not only himself but\n all, in their progressive march. By his actions, he can make it\n either more difficult or more easy for humanity to attain the next\n higher plane of being.\n\n ENQ. How does this bear on the fourth of the principles you mentioned,\n viz., Re-incarnation?\n\n THEO. The connection is most intimate. If our present lives depend upon\n the development of certain principles which are a growth from\n the germs left by a previous existence, the law holds good as\n regards the future. Once grasp the idea that universal causation\n is not merely present, but past, present and future, and every\n action on our present plane falls naturally and easily into its\n true place, and is seen in its true relation to ourselves and to\n others. Every mean and selfish action sends us backward and not\n forward, while every noble thought and every unselfish deed are\n stepping-stones to the higher and more glorious planes of being.\n If this life were all, then in many respects it would indeed be\n poor and mean; but regarded as a preparation for the next sphere\n of existence, it may be used as the golden gate through which\n we may pass, not selfishly and alone, but in company with our\n fellows, to the palaces which lie beyond.\n\n\nON SELF-SACRIFICE.\n\n ENQ. Is equal justice to all and love to every creature the highest\n standard of Theosophy?\n\n THEO. No; there is an even far higher one.\n\n ENQ. What can it be?\n\n THEO. The giving to others _more_ than to oneself\u2014_self-sacrifice_.\n Such was the standard and abounding measure which marked\n so pre-eminently the greatest Teachers and Masters of\n Humanity\u2014_e.g._, Gautama Buddha in History, and Jesus of Nazareth\n as in the Gospels. This trait alone was enough to secure to them\n the perpetual reverence and gratitude of the generations of men\n that come after them. We say, however, that self-sacrifice has to\n be performed with discrimination; and such a self-abandonment,\n if made without justice, or blindly, regardless of subsequent\n results, may often prove not only made in vain, but harmful.\n One of the fundamental rules of Theosophy is, justice to\n oneself\u2014viewed as a unit of collective humanity, not as a personal\n self-justice, not more but not less than to others; unless,\n indeed, by the sacrifice of the _one_ self we can benefit the many.\n\n ENQ. Could you make your idea clearer by giving an instance?\n\n THEO. There are many instances to illustrate it in history.\n Self-sacrifice for practical good to save many, or several people,\n Theosophy holds as far higher than self-abnegation for a sectarian\n idea, such as that of \u201csaving the heathen from _damnation_,\u201d\n for instance. In our opinion, Father Damien, the young man of\n thirty who offered his whole life in sacrifice for the benefit\n and alleviation of the sufferings of the lepers at Molokai, and\n who went to live for eighteen years alone with them, to finally\n catch the loathsome disease and die, _has not died in vain_. He\n has given relief and relative happiness to thousands of miserable\n wretches. He has brought to them consolation, mental and physical.\n He threw a streak of light into the black and dreary night of\n an existence, the hopelessness of which is unparalleled in the\n records of human suffering. He was a _true Theosophist_, and his\n memory will live for ever in our annals. In our sight this poor\n Belgian priest stands immeasurably higher than\u2014for instance\u2014all\n those sincere but vain-glorious fools, the Missionaries who have\n sacrificed their lives in the South Sea Islands or China. What\n good have they done? They went in one case to those who are not\n yet ripe for any truth; and in the other to a nation whose systems\n of religious philosophy are as grand as any, if only the men who\n have them would live up to the standard of Confucius and their\n other sages. And they died victims of irresponsible cannibals and\n savages, and of popular fanaticism and hatred. Whereas, by going\n to the slums of Whitechapel or some other such locality of those\n that stagnate right under the blazing sun of our civilization,\n full of Christian savages and mental leprosy, they might have done\n real good, and preserved their lives for a better and worthier\n cause.\n\n ENQ. But the Christians do not think so?\n\n THEO. Of course not, because they act on an erroneous belief. They\n think that by baptising the body of an irresponsible savage they\n save his soul from damnation. One church forgets her martyrs,\n the other beatifies and raises statues to such men as Labro, who\n sacrificed his body for forty years only to benefit the vermin\n which it bred. Had we the means to do so, we would raise a statue\n to Father Damien, the true, practical saint, and perpetuate his\n memory for ever as a living exemplar of Theosophical heroism and\n of Buddha- and Christ-like mercy and self-sacrifice.\n\n ENQ. Then you regard self-sacrifice as a duty?\n\n THEO. We do; and explain it by showing that altruism is an integral\n part of self-development. But we have to discriminate. A man has\n no right to starve himself _to death_ that another man may have\n food, unless the life of that man is obviously more useful to the\n many than is his own life. But it is his duty to sacrifice his own\n comfort, and to work for others if they are unable to work for\n themselves. It is his duty to give all that which is wholly his\n own and can benefit no one but himself if he selfishly keeps it\n from others. Theosophy teaches self-abnegation, but does not teach\n rash and useless self-sacrifice, nor does it justify fanaticism.\n\n ENQ. But how are we to reach such an elevated status?\n\n THEO. By the enlightened application of our precepts to practice. By\n the use of our higher reason, spiritual intuition and moral sense,\n and by following the dictates of what we call \u201cthe still small\n voice\u201d of our conscience, which is that of our EGO, and which\n speaks louder in us than the earthquakes and the thunders of\n Jehovah, wherein \u201cthe Lord is not.\u201d\n\n ENQ. If such are our duties to humanity at large, what do you\n understand by our duties to our immediate surroundings?\n\n THEO. Just the same, plus those that arise from special obligations\n with regard to family ties.\n\n ENQ. Then it is not true, as it is said, that no sooner does a man\n enter into the Theosophical Society than he begins to be gradually\n severed from his wife, children, and family duties?\n\n THEO. It is a groundless calumny, like so many others. The first of the\n Theosophical duties is to do one\u2019s duty by _all_ men, and\n especially by those to whom one\u2019s _specific_ responsibilities are\n due, because one has either voluntarily undertaken them, such as\n marriage ties, or because one\u2019s destiny has allied one to them; I\n mean those we owe to parents or next of kin.\n\n ENQ. And what may be the duty of a Theosophist to himself?\n\n THEO. To control and conquer, _through the Higher, the lower self_. To\n purify himself inwardly and morally; to fear no one, and nought,\n save the tribunal of his own conscience. Never to do a thing by\n halves; _i.e._, if he thinks it the right thing to do, let him do\n it openly and boldly, and if wrong, never touch it at all. It is\n the duty of a Theosophist to lighten his burden by thinking of the\n wise aphorism of Epictetus, who says: \u201cBe not diverted from your\n duty _by any idle reflection the silly world may make upon you_,\n for their censures are not in your power, and consequently should\n not be any part of your concern.\u201d\n\n ENQ. But suppose a member of your Society should plead inability to\n practice altruism by other people, on the ground that \u201ccharity\n begins at home\u201d; urging that he is too busy, or too poor, to\n benefit mankind or even any of its units\u2014what are your rules in\n such a case?\n\n THEO. No man has a right to say that he can do nothing for others, on\n any pretext whatever. \u201cBy doing the proper duty in the proper\n place, a man may make the world his debtor,\u201d says an English\n writer. A cup of cold water given in time to a thirsty wayfarer is\n a nobler duty and more worth, than a dozen of dinners given away,\n out of season, to men who can afford to pay for them. No man who\n has not got it in him will ever become a _Theosophist_; but he may\n remain a member of our Society all the same. We have no rules by\n which we could force any man to become a practical Theosophist, if\n he does not desire to be one.\n\n ENQ. Then why does he enter the Society at all?\n\n THEO. That is best known to him who does so. For, here again, we have\n no right to pre-judge a person, not even if the voice of a whole\n community should be against him, and I may tell you why. In our\n day, _vox populi_ (so far as regards the voice of the educated,\n at any rate) is no longer _vox dei_, but ever that of prejudice,\n of selfish motives, and often simply that of unpopularity. Our\n duty is to sow seeds broadcast for the future, and see they are\n good; not to stop to enquire _why_ we should do so, and how and\n wherefore we are obliged to lose our time, since those who will\n reap the harvest in days to come will never be ourselves.\n\n\nON CHARITY.\n\n ENQ. How do you Theosophists regard the Christian duty of charity?\n\n THEO. What charity do you mean? Charity of mind, or practical charity\n in the physical plane?\n\n ENQ. I mean practical charity, as your idea of Universal brotherhood\n would include, of course, charity of mind.\n\n THEO. Then you have in your mind the practical carrying out of the\n commandments given by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount?\n\n ENQ. Precisely so.\n\n THEO. Then why call them \u201cChristian\u201d? Because, although your Saviour\n preached and practised them, the last thing the Christians of\n to-day think of is to carry them out in their lives.\n\n ENQ. And yet many are those who pass their lives in dispensing charity?\n\n THEO. Yes, out of the surplus of their great fortunes. But point out to\n me that Christian, among the most philanthropic, who would give to\n the shivering and starving thief, who would steal his coat, his\n cloak also; or offer his right cheek to him who smote him on the\n left, and never think of resenting it!\n\n ENQ. Ah, but you must remember that these precepts have not to be taken\n literally. Times and circumstances have changed since Christ\u2019s\n day. Moreover, He spoke in Parables.\n\n THEO. Then why don\u2019t your Churches teach that the doctrine of damnation\n and hell-fire is to be understood as a _parable_ too? Why do\n some of your most popular preachers, while virtually allowing\n these \u201cparables\u201d to be understood as you take them, insist on the\n literal meaning of the fires of Hell and the _physical_ tortures\n of an \u201cAsbestos-like\u201d soul? If one is a \u201cparable,\u201d then the other\n is. If Hell-fire is a literal truth, then Christ\u2019s commandments\n in the Sermon on the Mount have to be obeyed to the very letter.\n And I tell you that many who do not believe in the Divinity of\n Christ\u2014like Count Leo Tolstoi and more than one Theosophist\u2014do\n carry out these noble, because universal, precepts literally; and\n many more good men and women would do so, were they not more than\n certain that such a walk in life would very probably land them in\n a lunatic asylum\u2014so _Christian are your laws_!\n\n ENQ. But surely every one knows that millions and millions are spent\n annually on private and public charities?\n\n THEO. Oh, yes; half of which sticks to the hands it passes through\n before getting to the needy; while a good portion or remainder\n gets into the hands of professional beggars, those who are too\n lazy to work, thus doing no good whatever to those who are really\n in misery and suffering. Haven\u2019t you heard that the first result\n of the great outflow of charity towards the East-end of London was\n to raise the rents in _Whitechapel_ by some 20 per cent.?\n\n ENQ. What would you do, then?\n\n THEO. Act individually and not collectively; follow the Northern\n Buddhist precepts: \u201cNever put food into the mouth of the hungry by\n the hand of another\u201d; \u201cNever let the shadow of thy neighbour (_a\n third person_) come between thyself and the object of thy bounty\u201d;\n \u201cNever give to the Sun time to dry a tear before thou hast wiped\n it.\u201d Again \u201cNever give money to the needy, or food to the priest,\n who begs at thy door, _through thy servants_, lest thy money\n should diminish gratitude, and thy food turn to gall.\u201d\n\n ENQ. But how can this be applied practically?\n\n THEO. The Theosophical ideas of charity mean _personal_ exertion for\n others; _personal_ mercy and kindness; _personal_ interest in the\n welfare of those who suffer; _personal_ sympathy, forethought\n and assistance in their troubles or needs. We Theosophists do\n not believe in giving money (N.B., if we had it) through other\n people\u2019s hands or organizations. We believe in giving to the\n money a thousandfold greater power and effectiveness by our\n personal contact and sympathy with those who need it. We believe\n in relieving the starvation of the soul, as much if not more than\n the emptiness of the stomach; for gratitude does more good to\n the man who feels it, than to him for whom it is felt. Where\u2019s\n the gratitude which your \u201cmillions of pounds\u201d should have called\n forth, or the good feelings provoked by them? Is it shown in\n the hatred of the East-End poor for the rich? in the growth of\n the party of anarchy and disorder? or by those thousands of\n unfortunate working girls, victims to the \u201csweating\u201d system,\n driven daily to eke out a living by going on the streets? Do\n your helpless old men and women thank you for the workhouses; or\n your poor for the poisonously unhealthy dwellings in which they\n are allowed to breed new generations of diseased, scrofulous\n and rickety children, only to put money into the pockets of the\n insatiable Shylocks who own houses? Therefore it is that every\n sovereign of all those \u201cmillions,\u201d contributed by good and\n would-be charitable people, falls like a burning curse instead\n of a blessing on the poor whom it should relieve. We call this\n _generating national Karma_, and terrible will be its results on\n the day of reckoning.\n\n\nTHEOSOPHY FOR THE MASSES.\n\n ENQ. And you think that Theosophy would, by stepping in, help to remove\n these evils, under the practical and adverse conditions of our\n modern life?\n\n THEO. Had we more money, and had not most of the Theosophists to work\n for their daily bread, I firmly believe we could.\n\n ENQ. How? Do you expect that your doctrines could ever take hold of the\n uneducated masses, when they are so abstruse and difficult that\n well-educated people can hardly understand them?\n\n THEO. You forget one thing, which is that your much-boasted modern\n education is precisely that which makes it difficult for you\n to understand Theosophy. Your mind is so full of intellectual\n subtleties and preconceptions that your natural intuition\n and perception of the truth cannot act. It does not require\n metaphysics or education to make a man understand the broad\n truths of Karma and Re-incarnation. Look at the millions of\n poor and uneducated Buddhists and Hindoos, to whom Karma and\n re-incarnation are solid realities, simply because their minds\n have never been cramped and distorted by being forced into an\n unnatural groove. They have never had the innate human sense of\n justice perverted in them by being told to believe that their\n sins would be forgiven because another man had been put to death\n for their sakes. And the Buddhists, note well, live up to their\n beliefs without a murmur against Karma, or what they regard as a\n just punishment, whereas, the Christian populace neither lives\n up it to its moral ideal, nor accepts its lot contentedly. Hence\n murmuring and dissatisfaction, and the intensity of the struggle\n for existence in Western lands.\n\n ENQ. But this contentedness, which you praise so much, would do away\n with all motive for exertion and bring progress to a stand-still.\n\n THEO. And we, Theosophists, say that your vaunted progress and\n civilization are no better than a host of will-o\u2019-the-wisps,\n flickering over a marsh which exhales a poisonous and deadly\n miasma. This, because we see selfishness, crime, immorality,\n and all the evils imaginable, pouncing upon unfortunate mankind\n from this Pandora\u2019s box which you call an age of progress,\n and increasing _pari passu_ with the growth of your material\n civilization. At such a price, better the inertia and inactivity\n of Buddhist countries, which have arisen only as a consequence of\n ages of political slavery.\n\n ENQ. Then is all this metaphysics and mysticism with which you occupy\n yourself so much, of no importance?\n\n THEO. To the masses, who need only practical guidance and support, they\n are not of much consequence; but for the educated, the natural\n leaders of the masses, those whose modes of thought and action\n will sooner or later be adopted by those masses, they are of the\n greatest importance. It is only by means of the philosophy that an\n intelligent and educated man can avoid the intellectual suicide\n of believing on blind faith; and it is only by assimilating the\n strict continuity and logical coherence of the Eastern, if not\n esoteric, doctrines, that he can realize their truth. Conviction\n breeds enthusiasm, and \u201cEnthusiasm,\u201d says Bulwer Lytton, \u201cis the\n genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories without\n it\u201d; while Emerson most truly remarks that \u201cevery great and\n commanding movement in the annals of the world is the triumph of\n enthusiasm.\u201d And what is more calculated to produce such a feeling\n than a philosophy so grand, so consistent, so logical, and so\n all-embracing as our Eastern Doctrines?\n\n ENQ. And yet its enemies are very numerous, and every day Theosophy\n acquires new opponents.\n\n THEO. And this is precisely that which proves its intrinsic excellence\n and value. People hate only the things they fear, and no one goes\n out of his way to overthrow that which neither threatens nor rises\n beyond mediocrity.\n\n ENQ. Do you hope to impart this enthusiasm, one day, to the masses?\n\n THEO. Why not? since history tells us that the masses adopted Buddhism\n with enthusiasm, while, as said before, the practical effect upon\n them of this philosophy of ethics is still shown by the smallness\n of the percentage of crime amongst Buddhist populations as\n compared with every other religion. The chief point is, to uproot\n that most fertile source of all crime and immorality\u2014the belief\n that it is possible for them to escape the consequences of their\n own actions. Once teach them that greatest of all laws, _Karma_\n and _Re-incarnation_, and besides feeling in themselves the true\n dignity of human nature, they will turn from evil and eschew it as\n they would a physical danger.\n\n\nHOW MEMBERS CAN HELP THE SOCIETY.\n\n ENQ. How do you expect the Fellows of your Society to help in the work?\n\n THEO. First by studying and comprehending the theosophical doctrines,\n so that they may teach others, especially the young people.\n Secondly, by taking every opportunity of talking to others and\n explaining to them what Theosophy is, and what it is not; by\n removing misconceptions and spreading an interest in the subject.\n Thirdly, by assisting in circulating our literature, by buying\n books when they have the means, by lending and giving them and\n by inducing their friends to do so. Fourthly, by defending\n the Society from the unjust aspersions cast upon it, by every\n legitimate device in their power. Fifth, and most important of\n all, by the example of their own lives.\n\n ENQ. But all this literature, to the spread of which you attach so much\n importance, does not seem to me of much practical use in helping\n mankind. This is not practical charity.\n\n THEO. We think otherwise. We hold that a good book which gives people\n food for thought, which strengthens and clears their minds, and\n enables them to grasp truths which they have dimly felt but could\n not formulate\u2014we hold that such a book does a real, substantial\n good. As to what you call practical deeds of charity, to benefit\n the bodies of our fellow-men, we do what little we can; but, as\n I have already told you, most of us are poor, whilst the Society\n itself has not even the money to pay a staff of workers. All of us\n who toil for it, give our labour gratis, and in most cases money\n as well. The few who have the means of doing what are usually\n called charitable actions, follow the Buddhist precepts and do\n their work themselves, not by proxy or by subscribing publicly to\n charitable funds. What the Theosophist has to do above all is to\n forget his personality.\n\n\nWHAT A THEOSOPHIST OUGHT NOT TO DO.\n\n ENQ. Have you any prohibitory laws or clauses for Theosophists in your\n Society?\n\n THEO. Many, but, alas! none of them are enforced. They express the\n ideal of our organization,\u2014but the practical application of such\n things we are compelled to leave to the discretion of the Fellows\n themselves. Unfortunately, the state of men\u2019s minds in the present\n century is such that, unless we allow these clauses to remain, so\n to speak, obsolete, no man or woman would dare to risk joining the\n Theosophical Society. This is precisely why I feel forced to lay\n such a stress on the difference between true Theosophy and its\n hard-struggling and well-intentioned, but still unworthy vehicle,\n the Theosophical Society.\n\n ENQ. May I be told what are these perilous reefs in the open sea of\n Theosophy?\n\n THEO. Well may you call them reefs, as more than one otherwise sincere\n and well-meaning F.T.S. has had his Theosophical canoe shattered\n into splinters on them! And yet to avoid certain things seems the\n easiest thing in the world to do. For instance, here is a series\n of such negatives, screening positive Theosophical duties:\u2014\n\n No Theosophist should be silent when he hears evil reports or slanders\n spread about the Society, or innocent persons, whether they be his\n colleagues or outsiders.\n\n ENQ. But suppose what one hears is the truth, or may be true without\n one knowing it?\n\n THEO. Then you must demand good proofs of the assertion, and hear both\n sides impartially before you permit the accusation to go\n uncontradicted. You have no right to believe in evil, until you\n get undeniable proof of the correctness of the statement.\n\n ENQ. And what should you do then?\n\n THEO. Pity and forbearance, charity and long-suffering, ought to be\n always there to prompt us to excuse our sinning brethren, and\n to pass the gentlest sentence possible upon those who err. A\n Theosophist ought never to forget what is due to the shortcomings\n and infirmities of human nature.\n\n ENQ. Ought he to forgive entirely in such cases?\n\n THEO. In every case, especially he who is sinned against.\n\n ENQ. But if by so doing, he risks to injure, or allow others to be\n injured? What ought he to do then?\n\n THEO. His duty; that which his conscience and higher nature suggests to\n him; but only after mature deliberation. Justice consists in doing\n no injury to any living being; but justice commands us also never\n to allow injury to be done to the many, or even to one innocent\n person, by allowing the guilty one to go unchecked.\n\n ENQ. What are the other negative clauses?\n\n THEO. No Theosophist ought to be contented with an idle or frivolous\n life, doing no real good to himself and still less to others. He\n should work for the benefit of the few who need his help if he is\n unable to toil for Humanity, and thus work for the advancement of\n the Theosophical cause.\n\n ENQ. This demands an exceptional nature, and would come rather hard\n upon some persons.\n\n THEO. Then they had better remain outside the T. S. instead of sailing\n under false colours. No one is asked to give more than he can\n afford, whether in devotion, time, work or money.\n\n ENQ. What comes next?\n\n THEO. No working member should set too great value on his personal\n progress or proficiency in Theosophic studies; but must be\n prepared rather to do as much altruistic work as lies in his\n power. He should not leave the whole of the heavy burden and\n responsibility of the Theosophical movement on the shoulders of\n the few devoted workers. Each member ought to feel it his duty to\n take what share he can in the common work, and help it by every\n means in his power.\n\n ENQ. This is but just. What comes next?\n\n THEO. No Theosophist should place his personal vanity, or feelings,\n above those of his Society as a body. He who sacrifices the\n latter, or other people\u2019s reputations on the altar of his personal\n vanity, worldly benefit, or pride, ought not to be allowed to\n remain a member. One cancerous limb diseases the whole body.\n\n ENQ. Is it the duty of every member to teach others and preach\n Theosophy?\n\n THEO. It is indeed. No fellow has a right to remain idle, on the excuse\n that he knows too little to teach. For he may always be sure that\n he will find others who know still less than himself. And also\n it is not until a man begins to try to teach others, that he\n discovers his own ignorance and tries to remove it. But this is a\n minor clause.\n\n ENQ. What do you consider, then, to be the chief of these negative\n Theosophical duties?\n\n THEO. To be ever prepared to recognize and confess one\u2019s faults. To\n rather sin through exaggerated praise than through too little\n appreciation of one\u2019s neighbour\u2019s efforts. Never to back-bite or\n slander another person. Always to say openly and direct to his\n face anything you have against him. Never to make yourself the\n echo of anything you may hear against another, nor harbour revenge\n against those who happen to injure you.\n\n ENQ. But it is often dangerous to tell people the truth to their faces.\n Don\u2019t you think so? I know of one of your members who was bitterly\n offended, left the Society, and became its greatest enemy, only\n because he was told some unpleasant truths to his face, and was\n blamed for them.\n\n THEO. Of such we have had many. No member, whether prominent or\n insignificant, has ever left us without becoming our bitter enemy.\n\n ENQ. How do you account for it?\n\n THEO. It is simply this. Having been, in most cases, intensely devoted\n to the Society at first, and having lavished upon it the most\n exaggerated praises, the only possible excuse such a backslider\n can make for his subsequent behaviour and past short-sightedness,\n is _to pose as an innocent and deceived victim_, thus casting\n the blame from his own shoulders on to those of the Society in\n general, and its leaders especially. Such persons remind one of\n the old fable about the man with a distorted face, who broke his\n looking-glass on the ground that it reflected his countenance\n crookedly.\n\n ENQ. But what makes these people turn against the Society?\n\n THEO. Wounded vanity in some form or other, almost in every case.\n Generally, because their dicta and advice are not taken as\n final and authoritative; or else, because they are of those who\n would rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. Because, in\n short, they cannot bear to stand second to anybody in anything.\n So, for instance, one member\u2014a true \u201cSir Oracle\u201d\u2014criticized,\n and almost defamed every member in the T.S. to outsiders as\n much as to Theosophists, under the pretext that they were _all\n untheosophical_, blaming them precisely for what he was himself\n doing all the time. Finally, he left the Society, giving as his\n reason a profound conviction that we were all (the Founders\n especially)\u2014FRAUDS! Another one, after intriguing in every\n possible way to be placed at the head of a large Section of the\n Society, finding that the members would not have him, turned\n against the Founders of the T. S., and became their bitterest\n enemy, denouncing one of them whenever he could, simply\n because the latter could not, and would not, _force him_ upon\n the Members. This was simply a case of an outrageous wounded\n vanity. Still another wanted to, and virtually did, practise\n _black-magic_\u2014_i.e._, undue personal psychological influence on\n certain Fellows, while pretending devotion and every Theosophical\n virtue. When this was put a stop to, the Member broke with\n Theosophy, and now slanders and lies against the same hapless\n leaders in the most virulent manner, endeavouring to break up the\n society by blackening the reputation of those whom that worthy\n \u201cFellow\u201d was unable to deceive.\n\n ENQ. What would you do with such characters?\n\n THEO. Leave them to their Karma. Because one person does evil that is\n no reason for others to do so.\n\n ENQ. But, to return to slander, where is the line of demarcation\n between backbiting and just criticism to be drawn? Is it not one\u2019s\n duty to warn one\u2019s friends and neighbors against those whom one\n knows to be dangerous associates?\n\n THEO. If by allowing them to go on unchecked other persons may be\n thereby injured, it is certainly our duty to obviate the danger by\n warning them privately. But true or false, no accusation against\n another person should ever be spread abroad. If true, and the\n fault hurts no one but the sinner, then leave him to his Karma.\n If false, then you will have avoided adding to the injustice of\n the world. Therefore, keep silent about such things with every\n one not directly concerned. But if your discretion and silence are\n likely to hurt or endanger others, then I add: _Speak the truth\n at all costs_, and say, with Annesly, \u201cConsult duty, not events.\u201d\n There are cases when one is forced to exclaim, \u201cPerish discretion,\n rather than allow it to interfere with duty.\u201d\n\n ENQ. Methinks, if you carry out these maxims, you are likely to reap a\n nice crop of troubles!\n\n THEO. And so we do. We have to admit that we are now open to the same\n taunt as the early Christians were. \u201cSee, how these Theosophists\n love one another!\u201d may now be said of us without a shadow of\n injustice.\n\n ENQ. Admitting yourself that there is at least as much, if not more,\n backbiting, slandering, and quarrelling in the T.S. as in the\n Christian Churches, let alone Scientific Societies\u2014What kind of\n Brotherhood is this? I may ask.\n\n THEO. A very poor specimen, indeed, as at present, and, until carefully\n sifted and reorganized, _no_ better than all others. Remember,\n however, that human nature is the same _in_ the Theosophical\n Society as _out_ of it. Its members are no saints: they are at\n best sinners trying to do better, and liable to fall back owing\n to personal weakness. Add to this that our \u201cBrotherhood\u201d is no\n \u201crecognised\u201d or established body, and stands, so to speak, outside\n of the pale of jurisdiction. Besides which, it is in a chaotic\n condition, and as unjustly _unpopular as is no other body_. What\n wonder, then, that those members who fail to carry out its ideal\n should turn, after leaving the Society, for sympathetic protection\n to our enemies, and pour all their gall and bitterness into their\n too willing ears! Knowing that they will find support, sympathy,\n and ready credence for every accusation, however absurd, that\n it may please them to launch against the Theosophical Society,\n they hasten to do so, and vent their wrath on the innocent\n looking-glass, which reflected too faithfully their faces. _People\n never forgive those whom they have wronged._ The sense of kindness\n received, and repaid by them with ingratitude, drives them into\n a madness of self-justification before the world and their own\n consciences. The former is but too ready to believe in anything\n said against a society it hates. The latter\u2014but I will say no\n more, fearing I have already said too much.\n\n ENQ. Your position does not seem to me a very enviable one.\n\n THEO. It is not. But don\u2019t you think that there must be something very\n noble, very exalted, very true, behind the Society and its\n philosophy, when the leaders and the founders of the movement\n still continue to work for it with all their strength? They\n sacrifice to it all comfort, all worldly prosperity, and success,\n even to their good name and reputation\u2014aye, even to their\n honour\u2014to receive in return incessant and ceaseless obloquy,\n relentless persecution, untiring slander, constant ingratitude,\n and misunderstanding of their best efforts, blows, and buffets\n from all sides\u2014when by simply dropping their work they would\n find themselves immediately released from every responsibility,\n shielded from every further attack.\n\n ENQ. I confess, such a perseverance seems to me very astounding, and I\n wondered why you did all this.\n\n THEO. Believe me for no self-gratification; only in the hope of\n training a few individuals to carry on our work for humanity by\n its original programme when the Founders are dead and gone. They\n have already found a few such noble and devoted souls to replace\n them. The coming generations, thanks to these few, will find the\n path to peace a little less thorny, and the way a little widened,\n and thus all this suffering will have produced good results, and\n their self-sacrifice will not have been in vain. At present, the\n main, fundamental object of the Society is to sow germs in the\n hearts of men, which may in time sprout, and under more propitious\n circumstances lead to a healthy reform, conducive of more\n happiness _to the masses_ than they have hitherto enjoyed.\n\n\n\n\nXIII. ON THE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.\n\n\nTHEOSOPHY AND ASCETICISM.\n\n ENQ. I have heard people say that your rules require all members to be\n vegetarians, celibates, and rigid ascetics; but you have not told\n me anything of the sort yet. Can you tell the truth once for all\n about this?\n\n THEO. The truth is that our rules require nothing of the kind. The\n Theosophical Society does not even expect, far less require of\n _any_ of its members that they should be ascetics in any way,\n except\u2014if you call _that_ asceticism\u2014that they should try and\n benefit other people and be unselfish in their own lives.\n\n ENQ. But still many of your members are strict vegetarians, and openly\n avow their intention of remaining unmarried. This, too, is most\n often the case with those who take a prominent part in connection\n with the work of your Society.\n\n THEO. That is only natural, because most of our really earnest workers\n are members of the Inner Section of the Society, which I told you\n about before.\n\n ENQ. Oh! then you do require ascetic practices in that Inner Section?\n\n THEO. No; we do not _require_ or _enjoin_ them even there; but I see\n that I had better give you an explanation of our views on the\n subject of asceticism in general, and then you will understand\n about vegetarianism and so on.\n\n ENQ. Please proceed.\n\n THEO. As I have already told you, most people who become really earnest\n students of Theosophy, and active workers in our Society, wish to\n do more than study theoretically the truths we teach. They wish\n to _know_ the truth by their own direct personal experience, and\n to study Occultism with the object of acquiring the wisdom and\n power, which they feel that they need in order to help others,\n effectually and judiciously, instead of blindly and at haphazard.\n Therefore, sooner or later, they join the Inner Section.\n\n ENQ. But you said that \u201cascetic practices\u201d are not obligatory even in\n that Inner Section?\n\n THEO. No more they are; but the first thing which the members learn\n there is a true conception of the relation of the body, or\n physical sheath, to the inner, the true man. The relation and\n mutual interaction between these two aspects of human nature are\n explained and demonstrated to them, so that they soon become\n imbued with the supreme importance of the inner man over the outer\n case or body. They are taught that blind unintelligent asceticism\n is mere folly; that such conduct as that of St. Labro which I\n spoke of before, or that of the Indian Fakirs and jungle ascetics,\n who cut, burn and macerate their bodies in the most cruel and\n horrible manner, is simply self-torture for selfish ends, _i.e._,\n to develop will-power, but is perfectly useless for the purpose of\n assisting true spiritual, or Theosophic, development.\n\n ENQ. I see, you regard only _moral_ asceticism as necessary. It is as a\n means to an end, that end being the perfect equilibrium of the\n _inner_ nature of man, and the attainment of complete mastery over\n the body with all its passions and desires?\n\n THEO. Just so. But these means must be used intelligently and wisely,\n not blindly and foolishly; like an athlete who is training and\n preparing for a great contest, not like the miser who starves\n himself into illness that he may gratify his passion for gold.\n\n ENQ. I understand now your general idea; but let us see how you apply\n it in practice. How about vegetarianism, for instance?\n\n THEO. One of the great German scientists has shown that every kind of\n animal tissue, however you may cook it, still retains certain\n marked characteristics of the animal which it belonged to,\n which characteristics can be recognised. And apart from that,\n every one knows by the taste what meat he is eating. We go\n a step farther, and prove that when the flesh of animals is\n assimilated by man as food, it imparts to him, physiologically,\n some of the characteristics of the animal it came from.\n Moreover, occult science teaches and proves this to its students\n by ocular demonstration, showing also that this \u201ccoarsening\u201d\n or \u201canimalizing\u201d effect on man is greatest from the flesh of\n the larger animals, less for birds, still less for fish and\n other cold-blooded animals, and least of all when he eats only\n vegetables.\n\n ENQ. Then he had better not eat at all?\n\n THEO. If he could live without eating, of course it would. But as the\n matter stands, he must eat to live, and so we advise really\n earnest students to eat such food as will least clog and weight\n their brains and bodies, and will have the smallest effect in\n hampering and retarding the development of their intuition, their\n inner faculties and powers.\n\n ENQ. Then you do not adopt all the arguments which vegetarians in\n general are in the habit of using?\n\n THEO. Certainly not. Some of their arguments are very weak, and often\n based on assumptions which are quite false. But, on the other\n hand, many of the things they say are quite true. For instance, we\n believe that much disease, and especially the great predisposition\n to disease which is becoming so marked a feature in our time, is\n very largely due to the eating of meat, and especially of tinned\n meats. But it would take too long to go thoroughly into this\n question of vegetarianism on its merits; so please pass on to\n something else.\n\n ENQ. One question more. What are your members of the Inner Section to\n do with regard to their food when they are ill?\n\n THEO. Follow the best practical advice they can get, of course. Don\u2019t\n you grasp yet that we never impose any hard-and-fast obligations\n in this respect? Remember once for all that in all such questions\n we take a rational, and never a fanatical, view of things. If\n from illness or long habit a man cannot go without meat, why, by\n all means let him eat it. It is no crime; it will only retard\n his progress a little; for after all is said and done, the purely\n bodily actions and functions are of far less importance than what\n a man _thinks_ and _feels_, what desires he encourages in his\n mind, and allows to take root and grow there.\n\n ENQ. Then with regard to the use of wine and spirits, I suppose you do\n not advise people to drink them?\n\n THEO. They are worse for his moral and spiritual growth than meat, for\n alcohol in all its forms has a direct, marked, and very\n deleterious influence on man\u2019s psychic condition. Wine and spirit\n drinking is only less destructive to the development of the inner\n powers, than the habitual use of hashish, opium, and similar drugs.\n\n\nTHEOSOPHY AND MARRIAGE.\n\n ENQ. Now to another question; must a man marry or remain a celibate?\n\n THEO. It depends on the kind of man you mean. If you refer to one who\n intends to live _in_ the world, one who, even though a good,\n earnest Theosophist, and an ardent worker for our cause, still has\n ties and wishes which bind him to the world, who, in short, does\n not feel that he has done for ever with what men call life, and\n that he desires one thing and one thing only\u2014to know the truth,\n and to be able to help others\u2014then for such a one I say there\n is no reason why he should not marry, if he likes to take the\n risks of that lottery where there are so many more blanks than\n prizes. Surely you cannot believe us so absurd and fanatical as\n to preach against marriage altogether? On the contrary, save in a\n few exceptional cases of practical Occultism, marriage is the only\n remedy against immorality.\n\n ENQ. But why cannot one acquire this knowledge and power when living a\n married life?\n\n THEO. My dear sir, I cannot go into physiological questions with you;\n but I can give you an obvious and, I think, a sufficient answer,\n which will explain to you the moral reasons we give for it. Can\n a man serve two masters? No! Then it is equally impossible for\n him to divide his attention between the pursuit of Occultism and\n a wife. If he tries to, he will assuredly fail in doing either\n properly; and, let me remind you, practical Occultism is far too\n serious and dangerous a study for a man to take up, unless he is\n in the most deadly earnest, and ready to sacrifice _all, himself\n first of all_, to gain his end. But this does not apply to the\n members of our Inner Section. I am only referring to those who\n are determined to tread that path of discipleship which leads to\n the highest goal. Most, if not all of those who join our Inner\n Section, are only beginners, preparing themselves in this life to\n enter in reality upon that path in lives to come.\n\n\nTHEOSOPHY AND EDUCATION.\n\n ENQ. One of your strongest arguments for the inadequacy of the existing\n forms of religion in the West, as also to some extent the\n materialistic philosophy which is now so popular, but which you\n seem to consider as an abomination of desolation, is the large\n amount of misery and wretchedness which undeniably exists,\n especially in our great cities. But surely you must recognize how\n much has been, and is being done to remedy this state of things by\n the spread of education and the diffusion of intelligence.\n\n THEO. The future generations will hardly thank you for such a\n \u201cdiffusion of intelligence,\u201d nor will your present education do\n much good to the poor starving masses.\n\n ENQ. Ah! but you must give us time. It is only a few years since we\n began to educate the people.\n\n THEO. And what, pray, has your Christian religion been doing ever since\n the fifteenth century, once you acknowledge that the education\n of the masses has not been attempted till now\u2014the very work,\n if ever there could be one, which a _Christian_, _i.e._, a\n Christ-following church and people, ought to perform?\n\n ENQ. Well, you may be right; but now\u2014\n\n THEO. Just let us consider this question of education from a broad\n standpoint, and I will prove to you that you are doing harm not\n good, with many of your boasted improvements. The schools for the\n poorer children, though far less useful than they ought to be,\n are good in contrast with the vile surroundings to which they\n are doomed by your modern Society. The _infusion_ of a little\n practical Theosophy would help a hundred times more in life\n the poor suffering masses than all this infusion of (useless)\n intelligence.\n\n ENQ. But, really\u2014\u2014\n\n THEO. Let me finish, please. You have opened a subject on which we\n Theosophists feel deeply, and I must have my say. I quite agree\n that there is a great advantage to a small child bred in the\n slums, having the gutter for playground, and living amid continued\n coarseness of gesture and word, in being placed daily in a bright,\n clean school-room hung with pictures, and often gay with flowers.\n There it is taught to be clean, gentle, orderly; there it learns\n to sing and to play; has toys that awaken its intelligence; learns\n to use its fingers deftly; is spoken to with a smile instead of\n a frown; is gently rebuked or coaxed instead of cursed. All this\n humanises the children, arouses their brains, and renders them\n susceptible to intellectual and moral influences. The schools are\n not all they might be and ought to be; but, compared with the\n homes, they are paradises; and they slowly are reacting on the\n homes. But while this is true of many of the Board schools, your\n system deserves the worst one can say of it.\n\n ENQ. So be it; go on.\n\n THEO. What is the _real_ object of modern education? Is it to cultivate\n and develop the mind in the right direction; to teach the\n disinherited and hapless people to carry with fortitude the burden\n of life (allotted them by Karma); to strengthen their will; to\n inculcate in them the love of one\u2019s neighbour and the feeling of\n mutual interdependence and brotherhood; and thus to train and form\n the character for practical life? Not a bit of it. And yet, these\n are undeniably the objects of all true education. No one denies\n it; all your educationalists admit it, and talk very big indeed\n on the subject. But what is the practical result of their action?\n Every young man and boy, nay, every one of the younger generation\n of schoolmasters will answer: \u201cThe object of modern education is\n to pass examinations,\u201d a system not to develop right emulation,\n but to generate and breed jealousy, envy, hatred almost, in\n young people for one another, and thus train them for a life of\n ferocious selfishness and struggle for honours and emoluments\n instead of kindly feeling.\n\n ENQ. I must admit you are right there.\n\n THEO. And what are these examinations\u2014the terror of modern boyhood and\n youth? They are simply a method of classification by which the\n results of your school teaching are tabulated. In other words,\n they form the practical application of the modern science methods\n to the _genus homo, qua_ intellection. Now \u201cscience\u201d teaches\n that intellect is a result of the mechanical interaction of the\n brain-stuff; therefore it is only logical that modern education\n should be almost entirely mechanical\u2014a sort of automatic machine\n for the fabrication of intellect by the ton. Very little\n experience of examinations is enough to show that the education\n they produce is simply a training of the physical memory, and,\n sooner or later, all your schools will sink to this level. As to\n any real, sound cultivation of the thinking and reasoning power,\n it is simply impossible while everything has to be judged by the\n results as tested by competitive examinations. Again, school\n training is of the very greatest importance in forming character,\n especially in its moral bearing. Now, from first to last, your\n modern system is based on the so-called scientific revelations:\n \u201cThe struggle for existence\u201d and the \u201csurvival of the fittest.\u201d\n All through his early life, every man has these driven into him by\n practical example and experience, as well as by direct teaching,\n till it is impossible to eradicate from his mind the idea that\n \u201cself,\u201d the lower, personal, animal self, is the end-all, and\n be-all, of life. Here you get the great source of all the\n after-misery, crime, and heartless selfishness, which you admit\n as much as I do. Selfishness, as said over and over again, is the\n curse of humanity, and the prolific parent of all the evils and\n crimes in this life; and it is your schools which are the hotbeds\n of such selfishness.\n\n ENQ. That is all very fine as generalities, but I should like a few\n facts, and to learn also how this can be remedied.\n\n THEO. Very well, I will try and satisfy you. There are three great\n divisions of scholastic establishments, board, middle-class\n and public schools, running up the scale from the most grossly\n commercial to the idealistic classical, with many permutations\n and combinations. The practical commercial begets the modern\n side, and the ancient and orthodox classical reflects its heavy\n respectability even as far as the School Board pupil teacher\u2019s\n establishments. Here we plainly see the scientific and material\n commercial supplanting the effete orthodox and classical. Neither\n is the reason very far to seek. The objects of this branch of\n education are, then, pounds, shillings, and pence, the _summum\n bonum_ of the XIXth century. Thus, the energies generated by the\n brain molecules of its adherents are all concentrated on one\n point, and are, therefore, to some extent, an organized army\n of _educated_ and speculative intellects of the minority of\n men, trained against the hosts of the ignorant, simple-minded\n masses doomed to be vampirised, lived and sat upon by their\n intellectually stronger brethren. Such training is not only\n _untheosophical_, it is simply UNCHRISTIAN. Result: The direct\n outcome of this branch of education is an overflooding of the\n market with money-making machines, with heartless selfish\n men\u2014animals\u2014who have been most carefully trained to prey on their\n fellows and take advantage of the ignorance of their weaker\n brethren!\n\n ENQ. Well, but you cannot assert that of our great public schools, at\n any rate?\n\n THEO. Not exactly, it is true. But though the _form_ is different, the\n animating spirit is the same: _untheosophical_ and _unchristian_,\n whether Eton and Harrow turn out scientists or divines and\n theologians.\n\n ENQ. Surely you don\u2019t mean to call Eton and Harrow \u201ccommercial\u201d?\n\n THEO. No. Of course the Classical system is above all things\n _respectable_, and in the present day is productive of some good.\n It does still remain the favourite at our great public schools,\n where not only an intellectual, but also a social education\n is obtainable. It is, therefore, of prime importance that the\n dull boys of aristocratic and wealthy parents should go to such\n schools to meet the rest of the young life of the \u201cblood\u201d and\n money classes. But unfortunately there is a huge competition even\n for entrance; for the moneyed classes are increasing, and poor\n but clever boys seek to enter the public schools by the rich\n scholarships, both at the schools themselves and from them to the\n Universities.\n\n ENQ. According to this view, the wealthier \u201cdullards\u201d have to work even\n harder than their poorer fellows?\n\n THEO. It is so. But, strange to say, the faithful of the cult of the\n \u201cSurvival of the fittest\u201d do not practice their creed; for their\n whole exertion is to make the naturally unfit supplant the\n fit. Thus, by bribes of large sums of money, they allure the\n best teachers from their natural pupils to mechanicalise their\n naturally unfit progeny into professions which they uselessly\n overcrowd.\n\n ENQ. And you attribute all this to what?\n\n THEO. All this is owing to the perniciousness of a system which turns\n out goods to order, irrespective of the natural proclivities\n and talents of the youth. The poor little candidate for this\n progressive paradise of learning, comes almost straight from the\n nursery to the treadmill of a preparatory school for sons of\n gentlemen. Here he is immediately seized upon by the workmen of\n the materio-intellectual factory, and crammed with Latin, French\n and Greek Accidence, Dates and Tables, so that if he have any\n natural genius it is rapidly squeezed out of him by the rollers of\n what Carlyle has so well-called \u201cdead vocables.\u201d\n\n ENQ. But surely he is taught something besides \u201cdead vocables,\u201d and\n much of that which may lead him direct to _Theosophy_, if not\n entirely into the Theosophical Society?\n\n THEO. Not much. For of history, he will attain only sufficient\n knowledge of his own particular nation to fit him with a\n steel armour of prejudice against all other peoples, and be\n steeped in the foul cess-pools of chronicled national hate and\n blood-thirstiness; and surely, you would not call that\u2014_Theosophy_?\n\n ENQ. What are your further objections?\n\n THEO. Added to this is a smattering of selected, so-called, Biblical\n facts, from the study of which all intellect is eliminated. It is\n simply a memory lesson, the \u201cWhy\u201d of the teacher being a \u201cWhy\u201d of\n circumstances and not of reason.\n\n ENQ. Yes; but I have heard you congratulate yourself at the\n ever-increasing number of the Agnostics and Atheists in our day,\n so that it appears that even people trained in the system you\n abuse so heartily _do_ learn to think and reason for themselves.\n\n THEO. Yes; but it is rather owing to a healthy reaction from that\n system than due to it. We prefer immeasurably more in our Society\n Agnostics, and even rank Atheists, to bigots of whatever religion.\n An Agnostic\u2019s mind is ever opened to the truth; whereas the latter\n blinds the bigot like the sun does an owl. The best\u2014_i.e._, the\n most truth-loving, philanthropic, and honest\u2014of our Fellows were,\n and are, Agnostics and Atheists (disbelievers in a _personal_\n God). But there are no _free_-thinking boys and girls, and\n generally early training will leave its mark behind in the shape\n of a cramped and distorted mind. A proper and sane system of\n education should produce the most vigorous and liberal mind,\n strictly trained in logical and accurate thought, and not in blind\n faith. How can you ever expect good results, while you pervert\n the reasoning faculty of your children by bidding them believe in\n the miracles of the Bible on Sunday, while for the six other days\n of the week you teach them that such things are scientifically\n impossible?\n\n ENQ. What would you have, then?\n\n THEO. If we had money, we would found schools which would turn out\n something else than reading and writing candidates for starvation.\n Children should above all be taught self-reliance, love for all\n men, altruism, mutual charity, and more than anything else, to\n think and reason for themselves. We would reduce the purely\n mechanical work of the memory to an absolute minimum, and devote\n the time to the development and training of the inner senses,\n faculties and latent capacities. We would endeavour to deal with\n each child as a unit, and to educate it so as to produce the most\n harmonious and equal unfoldment of its powers, in order that its\n special aptitudes should find their full natural development. We\n should aim at creating _free_ men and women, free intellectually,\n free morally, unprejudiced in all respects, and above all things,\n _unselfish_. And we believe that much if not all of this could be\n obtained by _proper and truly theosophical_ education.\n\n\nWHY, THEN, IS THERE SO MUCH PREJUDICE AGAINST THE T.S.?\n\n ENQ. If Theosophy is even half of what you say, why should there exist\n such a terrible ill-feeling against it? This is even more of a\n problem than anything else.\n\n THEO. It is; but you must bear in mind how many powerful adversaries we\n have aroused ever since the formation of our Society. As I just\n said, if the Theosophical movement were one of those numerous\n modern crazes, as harmless at the end as they are evanescent, it\n would be simply laughed at\u2014as it is now by those who still do not\n understand its real purport\u2014and left severely alone. But it is\n nothing of the kind. Intrinsically, Theosophy is the most serious\n movement of this age; and one, moreover, which threatens the very\n life of most of the time-honoured humbugs, prejudices, and social\n evils of the day\u2014those evils which fatten and make happy the upper\n ten and their imitators and sycophants, the wealthy dozens of the\n middle classes, while they positively crush and starve out of\n existence the millions of the poor. Think of this, and you will\n easily understand the reason of such a relentless persecution by\n those others who, more observant and perspicacious, do see the\n true nature of Theosophy, and therefore dread it.\n\n ENQ. Do you mean to tell me that it is because a few have understood\n what Theosophy leads to, that they try to crush the movement? But\n if Theosophy leads only to good, surely you cannot be prepared to\n utter such a terrible accusation of perfidious heartlessness and\n treachery even against those few?\n\n THEO. I am so prepared, on the contrary. I do not call the enemies we\n have had to battle with during the first nine or ten years of the\n Society\u2019s existence either powerful or \u201cdangerous\u201d; but only those\n who have arisen against us in the last three or four years. And\n these neither speak, write nor preach against Theosophy, but work\n in silence and behind the backs of the foolish puppets who act as\n their visible _marionnettes_. Yet if _invisible_ to most of the\n members of our Society, they are well known to the true \u201cFounders\u201d\n and the protectors of our Society. But they must remain for\n certain reasons unnamed at present.\n\n ENQ. And are they known to many of you, or to yourself alone?\n\n THEO. I never said _I_ knew them. I may or may not know them\u2014but I know\n _of them_, and this is sufficient; and _I defy them to do their\n worst_. They may achieve great mischief and throw confusion\n into our ranks, especially among the faint-hearted, and those\n who can judge only by appearances. _They will not crush the\n Society_, do what they may. Apart from these truly dangerous\n enemies\u2014\u201cdangerous,\u201d however, only to those Theosophists who\n are unworthy of the name, and whose place is rather _outside_\n than _within_ the T.S.\u2014the number of our opponents is more than\n considerable.\n\n ENQ. Can you name these, at least, if you will not speak of the others?\n\n THEO. Of course I can. We have to contend against (1) the hatred of the\n Spiritualists, American, English, and French; (2) the constant\n opposition of the clergy of all denominations; (3) especially\n the relentless hatred and persecution of the missionaries in\n India; (4) this led to the famous and infamous attack on our\n Theosophical Society by the Society for Psychical Research, an\n attack which was stirred up by a regular conspiracy organized by\n the missionaries in India. Lastly, we must count the defection\n of various prominent (?) members, for reasons I have already\n explained, all of whom have contributed their utmost to increase\n the prejudice against us.\n\n ENQ. Cannot you give me more details about these, so that I may know\n what to answer when asked\u2014a brief history of the Society, in\n short; and why the world believes all this?\n\n THEO. The reason is simple. Most outsiders knew absolutely nothing of\n the Society itself, its motives, objects or beliefs. From its very\n beginning the world has seen in Theosophy nothing but certain\n marvellous phenomena, in which two-thirds of the non-spiritualists\n do not believe. Very soon the Society came to be regarded as a\n body pretending to the possession of \u201cmiraculous\u201d powers. The\n world never realised that the Society taught absolute disbelief\n in _miracle_ or even the possibility of such; that in the Society\n there were only a few people who possessed such psychic powers\n and but few who cared for them. Nor did it understand that the\n phenomena were never produced publicly, but only privately for\n friends, and merely given as an accessory, to prove by direct\n demonstration that such things could be produced without dark\n rooms, spirits, mediums, or any of the usual paraphernalia.\n Unfortunately, this misconception was greatly strengthened and\n exaggerated by the first book on the subject which excited much\n attention in Europe\u2014Mr. Sinnett\u2019s \u201c_Occult World_.\u201d If this work\n did much to bring the Society into prominence, it attracted still\n more obloquy, derision and misrepresentation upon the hapless\n heroes and heroine thereof. Of this the author was more than\n warned in the _Occult World_, but did not pay attention to the\n _prophecy_\u2014for such it was, though half-veiled.\n\n ENQ. For what, and since when, do the Spiritualists hate you?\n\n THEO. From the first day of the Society\u2019s existence. No sooner the fact\n became known that, as a body, the T.S. did not believe in\n communications with the spirits of the dead, but regarded the\n so-called \u201cspirits\u201d as, for the most part, astral reflections of\n disembodied personalities, shells, etc., than the Spiritualists\n conceived a violent hatred to us and especially to the Founders.\n This hatred found expression in every kind of slander,\n uncharitable personal remarks, and absurd misrepresentations of\n the Theosophical teachings in all the American Spiritualistic\n organs. For years we were persecuted, denounced and abused. This\n began in 1875 and continues to the present day. In 1879, the\n headquarters of the T.S. were transferred from New York to Bombay,\n India, and then permanently to Madras. When the first branch of\n our Society, the British T.S., was founded in London, the English\n Spiritualists came out in arms against us, as the Americans had\n done; and the French Spiritists followed suit.\n\n ENQ. But why should the clergy be hostile to you, when, after all, the\n main tendency of the Theosophical doctrines is opposed to\n Materialism, the great enemy of all forms of religion in our day?\n THEO. The Clergy opposed us on the general principle that \u201cHe who\n is not with me is against me.\u201d Since Theosophy does not agree with\n any one Sect or Creed, it is considered the enemy of all alike,\n because it teaches that they are all, more or less, mistaken. The\n missionaries in India hated and tried to crush us because they saw\n the flower of the educated Indian youth and the Brahmins, who are\n almost inaccessible to them, joining the Society in large numbers.\n And yet, apart from this general class hatred, the T.S. counts in\n its ranks many clergymen, and even one or two bishops.\n\n ENQ. And what led the S.P.R. to take the field against you? You were\n both pursuing the same line of study, in some respects, and\n several of the Psychic Researchers belonged to your society.\n\n THEO. First of all we were very good friends with the leaders of the\n S.P.R.; but when the attack on the phenomena appeared in the\n _Christian College Magazine_, supported by the pretended\n revelations of a menial, the S.P.R. found that they had\n compromised themselves by publishing in their \u201cProceedings\u201d too\n many of the phenomena which had occurred in connection with the\n T.S. Their ambition is to pose as an _authoritative_ and _strictly\n scientific_ body; so that they had to choose between retaining\n that position by throwing overboard the T.S. and even trying to\n destroy it, and seeing themselves merged, in the opinion of the\n Sadducees of the _grand monde_, with the \u201ccredulous\u201d Theosophists\n and Spiritualists. There was no way for them out of it, no two\n choices, and they chose to throw us overboard. It was a matter of\n dire necessity for them. But so hard pressed were they to find\n any apparently reasonable motive for the life of devotion and\n ceaseless labour led by the two Founders, and for the complete\n absence of any pecuniary profit or other advantage to them, that\n our enemies were obliged to resort to the thrice-absurd, eminently\n ridiculous, and now famous \u201cRussian spy theory,\u201d to explain this\n devotion. But the old saying, \u201cThe blood of the martyr is the seed\n of the Church,\u201d proved once more correct. After the first shock of\n this attack, the T.S. doubled and tripled its numbers, but the bad\n impression produced still remains. A French author was right in\n saying, \u201c_Calomniez, calomniez toujours et encore, il en restera\n toujours quelque chose._\u201d Therefore it is, that unjust prejudices\n are current, and that everything connected with the T.S., and\n especially with its Founders, is so falsely distorted, because\n based on malicious hearsay alone.\n\n ENQ. Yet in the 14 years during which the Society has existed, you must\n have had ample time and opportunity to show yourselves and your\n work in their true light?\n\n THEO. How, or when, have we been given such an opportunity? Our most\n prominent members had an aversion to anything that looked like\n publicly justifying themselves. Their policy has ever been: \u201cWe\n must live it down\u201d; and \u201cWhat does it matter what the newspapers\n say, or people think?\u201d The Society was too poor to send out\n public lecturers, and therefore the expositions of our views\n and doctrines were confined to a few Theosophical works that\n met with success, but which people often misunderstood, or\n only knew of through hearsay. Our journals were, and still are,\n boycotted; our literary works ignored; and to this day no one\n seems even to feel quite certain whether the Theosophists are\n a kind of Serpent-and-Devil worshippers, or simply \u201cEsoteric\n Buddhists\u201d\u2014whatever that may mean. It was useless for us to go\n on denying, day after day and year after year, every kind of\n inconceivable cock-and-bull stories about us; for, no sooner was\n one disposed of, than another, a still more absurd and malicious\n one, was born out of the ashes of the first. Unfortunately,\n human nature is so constituted that any good said of a person\n is immediately forgotten and never repeated. But one has only\n to utter a calumny, or to start a story\u2014no matter how absurd,\n false or incredible it may be, if only it is connected with some\n unpopular character\u2014for it to be successful and forthwith accepted\n as a historical fact. Like _Don Basilio\u2019s_ \u201cCALUMNIA,\u201d the rumour\n springs up, at first, as a soft gentle breeze hardly stirring the\n grass under your feet, and arising no one knows whence; then, in\n the shortest space of time, it is transformed into a strong wind,\n begins to blow a gale, and forthwith becomes a roaring storm! A\n calumny among news, is what an octopus is among fishes; it sucks\n into one\u2019s mind, fastens upon our memory, which feeds upon it,\n leaving indelible marks even after the calumny has been bodily\n destroyed. A calumnious lie is the only master-key that will open\n any and every brain. It is sure to receive welcome and hospitality\n in every human mind, the highest as the lowest, if only a little\n prejudiced, and no matter from however base a quarter and motive\n it has started.\n\n ENQ. Don\u2019t you think your assertion altogether too sweeping? The\n Englishman has never been over-ready to believe in anything said,\n and our nation is proverbially known for its love of fair play. A\n lie has no legs to stand upon for long, and\u2014\n\n THEO. The Englishman is as ready to believe evil as a man of any other\n nation; for it is human nature, and not a national feature. As\n to lies, if they have no legs to stand upon, according to the\n proverb, they have exceedingly rapid wings; and they can and do\n fly farther and wider than any other kind of news, in England\n as elsewhere. Remember lies and calumny are the only kind of\n literature we can always get gratis, and without paying any\n subscription. We can make the experiment if you like. Will you,\n who are so interested in Theosophical matters, and have heard\n so much about us, will you put me questions on as many of these\n rumours and \u201chearsays\u201d as you can think of? I will answer you\n the truth, and nothing but the truth, subject to the strictest\n verification.\n\n ENQ. Before we change the subject, let us have the whole truth on this\n one. Now, some writers have called your teachings \u201cimmoral\n and pernicious\u201d; others, on the ground that many so-called\n \u201cauthorities\u201d and Orientalists find in the Indian religions\n nothing but sex-worship in its many forms, accuse you of teaching\n nothing better than Phallic worship. They say that since modern\n Theosophy is so closely allied with Eastern, and particularly\n Indian, thought, it cannot be free from this taint. Occasionally,\n even, they go so far as to accuse European Theosophists of\n reviving the practices connected with this cult. How about this?\n\n THEO. I have heard and read about this before, and I answer that no\n more utterly baseless and lying calumny has ever been invented\n and circulated. \u201cSilly people can see but silly dreams,\u201d says\n a Russian proverb. It makes one\u2019s blood boil to hear such vile\n accusations made without the slightest foundation, and on the\n strength of mere inferences. Ask the hundreds of honourable\n English men and women who have been members of the Theosophical\n Society for years whether an _immoral_ precept or a _pernicious_\n doctrine was ever taught to them. Open the _Secret Doctrine_,\n and you will find page after page denouncing the Jews and other\n nations precisely on account of this devotion to Phallic rites,\n due to the dead letter interpretation of nature symbolism, and\n the grossly materialistic conceptions of her dualism in all the\n _exoteric_ creeds. Such ceaseless and malicious misrepresentation\n of our teachings and beliefs is really disgraceful.\n\n ENQ. But you cannot deny that the Phallic element _does_ exist in the\n religions of the East?\n\n THEO. Nor do I deny it; only I maintain that this proves no more than\n does its presence in Christianity, the religion of the West. Read\n Hargrave Jenning\u2019s _Rosicrucians_, if you would assure yourself of\n it. In the East, the Phallic symbolism is, perhaps, more crude,\n because more true to nature, or I would rather say, more _na\u00efve_\n and sincere than in the West. But it is not more licentious,\n nor does it suggest to the Oriental mind the same gross and\n coarse ideas as to the Western, with, perhaps, one or two\n exceptions, such as the shameful sect known as the \u201cMaharajah,\u201d or\n _Vallabhach\u00e2rya_ sect.\n\n ENQ. A writer in the _Agnostic_ journal\u2014one of your accusers\u2014has just\n hinted that the followers of this disgraceful sect are\n Theosophists, and \u201cclaim true Theosophic insight.\u201d\n\n THEO. He wrote a falsehood, and that\u2019s all. There never was, nor is\n there at present, one single Vallabhach\u00e2rya in our Society. As to\n their having, or claiming Theosophic insight, that is another fib,\n based on crass ignorance about the Indian Sects. Their \u201cMaharajah\u201d\n only claims a right to the money, wives and daughters of his\n foolish followers and no more. This sect is despised by all the\n other Hindus.\n\n But you will find the whole subject dealt with at length in the _Secret\n Doctrine_, to which I must again refer you for detailed\n explanations. To conclude, the very soul of Theosophy is dead\n against Phallic worship; and its occult or esoteric section more\n so even than the exoteric teachings. There never was a more lying\n statement made than the above. And now ask me some other questions.\n\n\nIS THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY A MONEY-MAKING CONCERN?\n\n ENQ. Agreed. Well, have either of the Founders, Colonel H. S. Olcott or\n H. P. Blavatsky, ever made any money, profit, or derived any\n worldly benefit from the T.S., as some papers say?\n\n THEO. Not one penny. The papers lie. On the contrary, they have both\n given all they had, and literally beggared themselves. As for\n \u201cworldly benefits,\u201d think of the calumnies and vilification they\n have been subjected to, and then ask the question!\n\n ENQ. Yet I have read in a good many missionary organs that the entrance\n fees and subscriptions much more than covered all expenses; and\n one said that the Founders were making twenty thousand pounds a\n year!\n\n THEO. This is a fib, like many others. In the published accounts of\n January, 1889, you will find an exact statement of _all_ the money\n ever received from any source since 1879. The total received from\n all sources (entrance fees, donations, etc., etc.) during these\n ten years is under six thousand pounds, and of this a large part\n was contributed by the Founders themselves from the proceeds of\n their private resources and their literary work. All this has been\n openly and officially admitted, even by our enemies, the Psychic\n Research Society. And now both the Founders are penniless; one,\n too old and ill to work as she did before, unable to spare time\n for outside literary work to help the Society in money, can only\n write for the Theosophical cause; the other keeps labouring for it\n as before, and receives as little thanks for it.\n\n ENQ. But surely they need money to live?\n\n THEO. Not at all. So long as they have food and lodging, even though\n they owe it to the devotion of a few friends, they need little\n more.\n\n ENQ. But could not Madame Blavatsky, especially, make more than enough\n to live upon by her writings?\n\n THEO. When in India she received on the average some thousand rupees a\n year for articles contributed to Russian and other papers, but\n gave it all away to the Society.\n\n ENQ. Political articles?\n\n THEO. Never. Everything she has written throughout the seven years of\n her stay in India is all there in print. It deals only with\n the religions, ethnology, and customs of India, and with\n Theosophy\u2014never with politics, of which she knows nothing and\n cares less. Again, two years ago she refused several contracts\n amounting together to about 1,200 roubles in gold per month; for\n she could not accept them without abandoning her work for the\n Society, which needed all her time and strength. She has documents\n to prove it.\n\n ENQ. But why could not both she and Colonel Olcott do as others\u2014notably\n many Theosophists\u2014do; follow out their respective professions and\n devote the surplus of their time to the work of the Society?\n\n THEO. Because by serving two masters, either the professional or the\n philanthropic work would have had to suffer. Every true\n Theosophist is morally bound to sacrifice the personal to the\n impersonal, his own _present_ good to the _future_ benefit of\n other people. If the Founders do not set the example, who will?\n\n ENQ. And are there many who follow it?\n\n THEO. I am bound to answer you the truth. In Europe about half-a-dozen\n in all, out of more than that number of Branches.\n\n ENQ. Then it is not true that the Theosophical Society has a large\n capital or endowment of its own?\n\n THEO. It is false, for it has none at all. Now that the entrance fee of\n \u00a31 and the small annual due have been abolished, it is even a\n doubtful question whether the staff at the headquarters in India\n will not soon be starved to death.\n\n ENQ. Then why not raise subscriptions?\n\n THEO. We are not the Salvation Army; we _cannot_ and _have never_\n begged; nor have we ever followed the example of the Churches and\n sects and \u201ctaken up collections.\u201d That which is occasionally sent\n for the support of the Society, the small sums contributed by some\n devoted Fellows, are all voluntary donations.\n\n ENQ. But I have heard of large sums of money given to Mdme. Blavatsky.\n It was said four years ago that she got \u00a35,000 from one rich,\n young \u201cFellow,\u201d who went out to join them in India and \u00a310,000\n from another wealthy and well-known American gentleman, one of\n your members who died in Europe four years ago.\n\n THEO. Say to those who told you this, that they either themselves\n utter, or repeat, a gross falsehood. _Never has_ \u201cMadame\n Blavatsky\u201d _asked or received_ ONE PENNY from the two above-named\n gentlemen, nor anything like that from anyone else, since the\n Theosophical Society was founded. Let any man living try to\n substantiate this calumny, and it will be easier for him to\n prove that the Bank of England is a bankrupt than that the said\n \u201cFounder\u201d has ever made any money out of Theosophy. These two\n calumnies have been started by two high-born ladies, belonging\n to the London aristocracy, and have been immediately traced\n and disproved. They are the dead bodies, the carcases of two\n inventions, which, after having been buried in the sea of\n oblivion, are once more raised on the surface of the stagnant\n waters of slander.\n\n ENQ. Then I have been told of several large _legacies_ left to the T.S.\n One\u2014some \u00a38,000\u2014was left to it by some eccentric Englishman,\n who did not even belong to the Society. The other\u2014\u00a33,000 or\n \u00a34,000\u2014were testated by an Australian F.T.S. Is this true?\n\n THEO. I heard of the first; and I also know that, whether legally left\n or not, the T.S. has never profited by it, nor have the Founders\n ever been officially notified of it. For, as our Society was not\n then a chartered body, and thus had no legal existence, the Judge\n at the Court of Probate, as we were told, paid no attention to\n such legacy and turned over the sum to the heirs. So much for the\n first. As for the second, it is quite true. The testator was one\n of our devoted Fellows, and willed all he had to the T.S. But when\n the President, Colonel Olcott, came to look into the matter, he\n found that the testator had children whom he had disinherited for\n some family reasons. Therefore, he called a council, and it was\n decided that the legacy should be refused, and the moneys passed\n to the legal heirs. The Theosophical Society would be untrue to\n its name were it to profit by money to which others are entitled\n virtually, at any rate on Theosophical principles, if not legally.\n\n ENQ. Again, and I say this on the authority of your own Journal, the\n _Theosophist_, there\u2019s a Rajah of India who donated to the Society\n 25,000 rupees. Have you not thanked him for his great bounty in\n the January _Theosophist_ for 1888?\n\n THEO. We have, in these words, \u201cThat the thanks of the Convention be\n conveyed to H. H. the Maharajah ... for his _promised munificent\n gift_ of Rupees 25,000 to the Society\u2019s Fund.\u201d The thanks were\n duly conveyed, but the money is still a \u201cpromise,\u201d and has never\n reached the Headquarters.\n\n ENQ. But surely, if the Maharajah promised and received thanks for his\n gift publicly and in print, he will be as good as his promise?\n\n THEO. He may, though the promise is 18 months old. I speak of the\n present and not of the future.\n\n ENQ. Then how do you propose to go on?\n\n THEO. So long as the T.S. has a few devoted members willing to work for\n it without reward and thanks, so long as a few good Theosophists\n support it with occasional donations, so long will it exist, and\n nothing can crush it.\n\n ENQ. I have heard many Theosophists speak of a \u201cpower behind the\n Society\u201d and of certain \u201cMahatmas,\u201d mentioned also in Mr.\n Sinnett\u2019s works, that are said to have founded the Society, to\n watch over and protect it.\n\n THEO. You may laugh, but it is so.\n\n\nTHE WORKING STAFF OF THE T.S.\n\n ENQ. These men, I have heard, are great Adepts, Alchemists, and what\n not. If, then, they can change lead into gold and make as much\n money as they like, besides doing all kinds of miracles at will,\n as related in Mr. Sinnett\u2019s \u201cOccult World,\u201d why do not they find\n you money, and support the Founders and the Society in comfort?\n\n THEO. Because they did not found a \u201cmiracle club.\u201d Because the Society\n is intended to help men to develop the powers latent in them\n through their own exertions and merit. Because whatever they may\n or may not produce in the way of phenomena, they are not _false\n coiners_; nor would they throw an additional and very strong\n temptation on the path of members and candidates: _Theosophy is\n not to be bought_. Hitherto, for the past 14 years, not a single\n working member has ever received pay or salary from either the\n Masters or the Society.\n\n ENQ. Then are none of your workers paid at all?\n\n THEO. Till now, not one. But as every one has to eat, drink, and clothe\n himself, all those who are without any means of their own, and\n devote their whole time to the work of the society, are provided\n with the necessaries of life at the Headquarters at Madras, India,\n though these \u201cnecessaries\u201d are humble enough, in truth! (See\n Rules at the end.) But now that the Society\u2019s work has increased\n so greatly and still goes on in increasing (N.B., _owing to\n slanders_) in Europe, we need more working hands. We hope to have\n a few members who will henceforth be remunerated\u2014if the word _can_\n be used in the cases in question. For every one of these Fellows,\n who are preparing to give _all_ their time to the Society, are\n quitting good official situations with excellent prospects, to\n work for us at _less than half their former salary_.\n\n ENQ. And who will provide the funds for this?\n\n THEO. Some of our Fellows who are just a little richer than the rest.\n The man who would speculate or make money on Theosophy would be\n unworthy to remain in our ranks.\n\n ENQ. But you must surely make money by your books, magazines, and other\n publications?\n\n THEO. The _Theosophist_ of Madras, alone among the magazines, pays a\n profit, and this has regularly been turned over to the Society,\n year by year, as the published accounts show. _Lucifer_ is\n slowly but steadily ingulfing money, never yet having paid\n expenses\u2014thanks to its being boycotted by the pious booksellers\n and railway stalls. The _Lotus_, in France\u2014started on the private\n and not very large means of a Theosophist, who has devoted to it\n his whole time and labour\u2014has ceased to exist, owing to the same\n causes, alas! Nor does the New York _Path_ pay its way, while the\n _Revue Th\u00e9osophique_ of Paris has only just been started, also\n from the private means of a lady-member. Moreover, whenever any of\n the works issued by the Theosophical Publishing Company in London\n do pay, the proceeds will be devoted to the service of the Society.\n\n ENQ. And now please tell me all you can about the Mahatmas. So many\n absurd and contradictory things are said about them, that one does\n not know what to believe, and all sorts of ridiculous stories\n become current.\n\n THEO. Well may you call them \u201cridiculous!\u201d\n\n\n\n\nXIV. THE \u201cTHEOSOPHICAL MAHATMAS.\u201d\n\n\nARE THEY \u201cSPIRITS OF LIGHT\u201d OR \u201cGOBLINS DAMN\u2019D\u201d?\n\n ENQ. Who are they, finally, those whom you call your \u201cMasters\u201d? Some\n say they are \u201cSpirits,\u201d or some other kind of supernatural beings,\n while others call them \u201cmyths.\u201d\n\n THEO. They are neither. I once heard one outsider say to another that\n they were a sort of _male mermaids_, whatever such a creature may\n be. But if you listen to what people say, you will never have a\n true conception of them. In the first place they are _living men_,\n born as we are born, and doomed to die like every other mortal.\n\n ENQ. Yes, but it is rumoured that some of them are a thousand years\n old. Is this true?\n\n THEO. As true as the miraculous growth of hair on the head of\n Meredith\u2019s Shagpat. Truly, like the \u201cIdentical,\u201d no Theosophical\n shaving has hitherto been able to crop it. The more we deny them,\n the more we try to set people right, the more absurd do the\n inventions become. I have heard of Methuselah being 969 years\n old; but, not being forced to believe in it, have laughed at\n the statement, for which I was forthwith regarded by many as a\n blasphemous heretic.\n\n ENQ. Seriously, though, do they outlive the ordinary age of men?\n\n THEO. What do you call the ordinary age? I remember reading in the\n _Lancet_ of a Mexican who was almost 190 years old; but I have\n never heard of mortal man, layman, or Adept, who could live even\n half the years allotted to Methuselah. Some Adepts do exceed, by\n a good deal, what you would call the ordinary age; yet there is\n nothing miraculous in it, and very few of them care to live very\n long.\n\n ENQ. But what does the word \u201cMahatma\u201d really mean?\n\n THEO. Simply a \u201cgreat soul,\u201d great through moral elevation and\n intellectual attainment. If the title of great is given to a\n drunken soldier like Alexander, why should we not call those\n \u201cGreat\u201d who have achieved far greater conquests in Nature\u2019s\n secrets, than Alexander ever did on the field of battle? Besides,\n the term is an Indian and a very old word.\n\n ENQ. And why do you call them \u201cMasters\u201d?\n\n THEO. We call them \u201cMasters\u201d because they are our teachers; and because\n from them we have derived all the Theosophical truths, however\n inadequately some of us may have expressed, and others understood,\n them. They are men of great learning, whom we term Initiates,\n and still greater holiness of life. They are not ascetics in\n the ordinary sense, though they certainly remain apart from the\n turmoil and strife of your western world.\n\n ENQ. But is it not selfish thus to isolate themselves?\n\n THEO. Where is the selfishness? Does not the fate of the Theosophical\n Society sufficiently prove that the world is neither ready to\n recognise them nor to profit by their teaching? Of what use\n would Professor Clerk Maxwell have been to instruct a class of\n little boys in their multiplication-table? Besides, they isolate\n themselves only from the West. In their own country they go about\n as publicly as other people do.\n\n ENQ. Don\u2019t you ascribe to them supernatural powers?\n\n THEO. We believe in nothing supernatural, as I have told you already.\n Had Edison lived and invented his phonograph two hundred years\n ago, he would most probably have been burnt along with it, and the\n whole attributed to the devil. The powers which they exercise are\n simply the development of potencies lying latent in every man and\n woman, and the existence of which even official science begins to\n recognise.\n\n ENQ. Is it true that these men _inspire_ some of your writers, and that\n many, if not all, of your Theosophical works were written under\n their dictation?\n\n THEO. Some have. There are passages entirely dictated by them and\n _verbatim_, but in most cases they only inspire the ideas and\n leave the literary form to the writers.\n\n ENQ. But this in itself is miraculous; is, in fact, a _miracle_. How\n can they do it?\n\n THEO. My dear Sir, you are labouring under a great mistake, and it is\n science itself that will refute your arguments at no distant\n day. Why should it be a \u201cmiracle,\u201d as you call it? A miracle is\n supposed to mean some operation which is supernatural, whereas\n there is really nothing above or beyond NATURE and Nature\u2019s laws.\n Among the many forms of the \u201cmiracle\u201d which have come under modern\n scientific recognition, there is Hypnotism, and one phase of its\n power is known as \u201cSuggestion,\u201d a form of thought transference,\n which has been successfully used in combating particular physical\n diseases, etc. The time is not far distant when the World of\n Science will be forced to acknowledge that there exists as much\n interaction between one mind and another, no matter at what\n distance, as between one body and another in closest contact.\n When two minds are sympathetically related, and the instruments\n through which they function are tuned to respond magnetically and\n electrically to one another, there is nothing which will prevent\n the transmission of thoughts from one to the other, at will;\n for since the mind is not of a tangible nature, that distance\n can divide it from the subject of its contemplation, it follows\n that the only difference that can exist between two minds is a\n difference of STATE. So if this latter hindrance is overcome,\n where is the \u201cmiracle\u201d of _thought transference_, at whatever\n distance?\n\n ENQ. But you will admit that Hypnotism does nothing so miraculous or\n wonderful as that?\n\n THEO. On the contrary, it is a well-established fact that a Hypnotist\n can affect the brain of his subject so far as to produce an\n expression of his own thoughts, and even his words, through the\n organism of his subject; and although the phenomena attaching to\n this method of actual thought transference are as yet few in\n number, no one, I presume, will undertake to say how far their\n action may extend in the future, when the laws that govern their\n production are more scientifically established. And so, if such\n results can be produced by the knowledge of the mere rudiments of\n Hypnotism, what can prevent the Adept in Psychic and Spiritual\n powers from producing results which, with your present limited\n knowledge of their laws, you are inclined to call \u201cmiraculous\u201d?\n\n ENQ. Then why do not our physicians experiment and try if they could\n not do as much?[56]\n\n THEO. Because, first of all, they are not Adepts with a thorough\n understanding of the secrets and laws of psychic and spiritual\n realms, but materialists, afraid to step outside the narrow groove\n of matter; and, secondly, because they _must fail_ at present, and\n indeed until they are brought to acknowledge that such powers are\n attainable.\n\n ENQ. And could they be taught?\n\n THEO. Not unless they were first of all prepared, by having the\n materialistic dross they have accumulated in their brains swept\n away to the very last atom.\n\n ENQ. This is very interesting. Tell me, have the Adepts thus inspired\n or dictated to many of your Theosophists?\n\n THEO. No, on the contrary, to very few. Such operations require special\n conditions. An unscrupulous but skilled Adept of the Black\n Brotherhood (\u201cBrothers of the Shadow,\u201d and Dugpas, we call\n them) has far less difficulties to labour under. For, having no\n laws of the Spiritual kind to trammel his actions, such a Dugpa\n \u201csorcerer\u201d will most unceremoniously obtain control over any\n mind, and subject it entirely to his evil powers. But our Masters\n will never do that. They have no right, except by falling into\n Black Magic, to obtain full mastery over anyone\u2019s immortal Ego,\n and can therefore act only on the physical and psychic nature of\n the subject, leaving thereby the free will of the latter wholly\n undisturbed. Hence, unless a person has been brought into psychic\n relationship with the Masters, and is assisted by virtue of his\n full faith in, and devotion to, his Teachers, the latter, whenever\n transmitting their thoughts to one with whom these conditions\n are not fulfilled, experience great difficulties in penetrating\n into the cloudy chaos of that person\u2019s sphere. But this is no\n place to treat of a subject of this nature. Suffice it to say,\n that if the power exists, then there are Intelligences (embodied\n or disembodied) which guide this power, and living conscious\n instruments through whom it is transmitted and by whom it is\n received. We have only to beware of _black_ magic.\n\n ENQ. But what do you really mean by \u201cblack magic\u201d?\n\n THEO. Simply _abuse of psychic powers_, or of any _secret of nature_;\n the fact of applying to selfish and sinful ends the powers of\n Occultism. A hypnotiser, who, taking advantage of his powers of\n \u201csuggestion,\u201d forces a subject to steal or murder, would be called\n a _black magician_ by us. The famous \u201crejuvenating system\u201d of Dr.\n Brown-Sequard, of Paris, through a loathsome _animal injection_\n into human blood\u2014a discovery all the medical papers of Europe are\n now discussing\u2014if true, is _unconscious black magic_.\n\n ENQ. But this is medi\u00e6val belief in witchcraft and sorcery! Even Law\n itself has ceased to believe in such things?\n\n THEO. So much the worse for law, as it has been led, through such a\n lack of discrimination, into committing more than one judiciary\n mistake and crime. It is the term alone that frightens you with\n its \u201csuperstitious\u201d ring in it. Would not law punish an abuse of\n hypnotic powers, as I just mentioned? Nay, it has so punished it\n already in France and Germany; yet it would indignantly deny that\n it applied punishment to a crime of evident _sorcery_. You cannot\n believe in the efficacy and reality of the _powers of suggestion_\n by physicians and mesmerisers (or hypnotisers), and then refuse to\n believe in the same powers when used for evil motives. And if you\n do, then you believe in _Sorcery_. Yon cannot believe in good and\n disbelieve in evil, accept genuine money and refuse to credit such\n a thing as false coin. Nothing can exist without its contrast, and\n no day, no light, no good could have any representation as such\n in your consciousness, were there no night, darkness nor evil to\n offset and contrast them.\n\n ENQ. Indeed, I have known men, who, while thoroughly believing in that\n which you call great psychic, or magic powers, laughed at the very\n mention of Witchcraft and Sorcery.\n\n THEO. What does it prove? Simply that they are illogical. So much the\n worse for them, again. And we, knowing as we do of the existence\n of good and holy Adepts, believe as thoroughly in the existence of\n bad and unholy Adepts, or\u2014Dugpas.\n\n ENQ. But if the Masters exist, why don\u2019t they come out before all men\n and refute once for all the many charges which are made against\n Mdme. Blavatsky and the Society?\n\n THEO. What charges?\n\n ENQ. That _they_ do not exist, and that she has invented them. That\n they are men of straw, \u201cMahatmas of muslin and bladders.\u201d Does not\n all this injure her reputation?\n\n THEO. In what way can such an accusation injure her in reality? Did she\n ever make money on their presumed existence, or derive benefit,\n or fame, therefrom? I answer that she has gained only insults,\n abuse, and calumnies, which would have been very painful had she\n not learned long ago to remain perfectly indifferent to such\n false charges. For what does it amount to, after all? Why, to an\n _implied compliment_, which, if the fools, her accusers, were not\n carried away by their blind hatred, they would have thought twice\n before uttering. To say that she has invented the Masters comes\n to this: She must have invented every bit of philosophy that has\n ever been given out in Theosophical literature. She must be the\n author of the letters from which \u201cEsoteric Buddhism\u201d was written;\n the sole inventor of every tenet found in the \u201cSecret Doctrine,\u201d\n which, if the world were just, would be recognised as supplying\n many of the missing links of science, as will be discovered a\n hundred years hence. By saying what they do, they are also giving\n her the credit of being far cleverer than the hundreds of men,\n (many _very_ clever and not a few scientific men,) who believe in\n what she says\u2014inasmuch as she must have fooled them all! If they\n speak the truth, then she must be several Mahatmas rolled into one\n like a nest of Chinese boxes; since among the so-called \u201cMahatma\n letters\u201d are many in totally different and distinct styles, all of\n which her accusers declare that she has written.\n\n ENQ. It is just what they say. But is it not very painful to her to be\n publicly denounced as \u201cthe most accomplished impostor of the age,\n whose name deserves to pass to posterity,\u201d as is done in the\n Report of the \u201cSociety for Psychical Research\u201d?\n\n THEO. It might be painful if it were true, or came from people less\n rabidly materialistic and prejudiced. As it is, personally she\n treats the whole matter with contempt, while the Mahatmas simply\n laugh at it. In truth, it is the greatest compliment that could be\n paid to her. I say so, again.\n\n ENQ. But her enemies claim to have proved their case.\n\n THEO. Aye, it is easy enough to make such a claim when you have\n constituted yourself judge, jury, and prosecuting counsel at\n once, as they did. But who, except their direct followers and our\n enemies, believe in it?\n\n ENQ. But they sent a representative to India to investigate the matter,\n didn\u2019t they?\n\n THEO. They did, and their final conclusion rests entirely on the\n unchecked statements and unverified assertions of this young\n gentleman. A lawyer who read through his report told a friend\n of mine that in all his experience he had never seen \u201csuch a\n _ridiculous_ and self-condemnatory document.\u201d It was found to be\n full of suppositions and \u201c_working_ hypotheses\u201d which mutually\n destroy each other. Is this a serious charge?\n\n ENQ. Yet it has done the Society great harm. Why, then, did she not\n vindicate her own character, at least, before a Court of Law?\n\n THEO. Firstly, because as a Theosophist, it is her duty to leave\n unheeded all personal insults. Secondly, because neither the\n Society nor Mdme. Blavatsky had any money to waste over such a\n law-suit. And lastly, because it would have been ridiculous for\n both to be untrue to their principles, because of an attack made\n on them by a flock of stupid old British wethers, who had been led\n to butt at them by an over frolicksome lambkin from Australia.\n\n ENQ. This is complimentary. But do you not think that it would have\n done real good to the cause of Theosophy, if she had\n authoritatively disproved the whole thing once for all?\n\n THEO. Perhaps. But do you believe that any English jury or judge would\n have ever admitted the reality of psychic phenomena, even if\n entirely unprejudiced beforehand? And when you remember that\n they would have been set against us already by the \u201cRussian Spy\u201d\n scare, the charge of _Atheism and infidelity_, and all the other\n calumnies that have been circulated against us, you cannot fail to\n see that such an attempt to obtain justice in a Court of Law would\n have been worse than fruitless! All this the Psychic Researchers\n knew well, and they took a base and mean advantage of their\n position to raise themselves above our heads and save themselves\n at our expense.\n\n ENQ. The S.P.R. now denies completely the existence of the Mahatmas.\n They say that from beginning to end they were a romance which\n Madame Blavatsky has woven from her own brain?\n\n THEO. Well, she might have done many things less clever than this. At\n any rate, we have not the slightest objection to this theory. As\n she always says now, she almost prefers that people should not\n believe in the Masters. She declares openly that she would rather\n people should seriously think that the only Mahatmaland is the\n grey matter of her brain, and that, in short, she has evolved them\n out of the depths of her own inner consciousness, than that their\n names and grand ideal should be so infamously desecrated as they\n are at present. At first she used to protest indignantly against\n any doubts as to their existence. Now she never goes out of her\n way to prove or disprove it. Let people think what they like.\n\n ENQ. But, of course, these Masters _do_ exist?\n\n THEO. We affirm _they do_. Nevertheless, this does not help much. Many\n people, even some Theosophists and ex-Theosophists, say that\n they have never had any proof of their existence. Very well;\n then Mme. Blavatsky replies with this alternative:\u2014If she has\n invented them, then she has also invented their philosophy and\n the practical knowledge which some few have acquired; and if\n so, what does it matter whether they do exist or not, since she\n herself is here, and _her own existence_, at any rate, can hardly\n be denied? If the knowledge supposed to have been imparted by\n them is good intrinsically, and it is accepted as such by many\n persons of more than average intelligence, why should there be\n such a _hullabaloo_ made over that question? The fact of her\n being an impostor _has never been proved_, and will always remain\n _sub judice_; whereas it is a certain and undeniable fact that,\n by whomsoever invented, the philosophy preached by the \u201cMasters\u201d\n is one of the grandest and most beneficent philosophies once it\n is properly understood. Thus the slanderers, while moved by the\n lowest and meanest feelings\u2014those of hatred, revenge, malice,\n wounded vanity, or disappointed ambition,\u2014seem quite unaware\n that they are paying the greatest tribute to her intellectual\n powers. So be it, if the poor fools will have it so. Really, Mme.\n Blavatsky has not the slightest objection to being represented by\n her enemies as a _triple_ Adept, and a \u201cMahatma\u201d to boot. It is\n only her unwillingness to pose in her own sight as a crow parading\n in peacock\u2019s feathers that compels her to this day to insist upon\n the truth.\n\n ENQ. But if you have such wise and good men to guide the Society, how\n is it that so many mistakes have been made?\n\n THEO. The Masters do _not_ guide the Society, not even the Founders;\n and no one has ever asserted that they did: they only watch\n over and protect it. This is amply proved by the fact that no\n mistakes have been able to cripple it, and no scandals from\n within, nor the most damaging attacks from without, have been\n able to overthrow it. The Masters look at the future, not at the\n present, and every mistake is so much more accumulated wisdom for\n days to come. That other \u201cMaster\u201d who sent the man with the five\n talents did not tell him how to double them, nor did he prevent\n the foolish servant from burying his one talent in the earth.\n Each must acquire wisdom by his own experience and merits. The\n Christian Churches, who claim a far higher \u201cMaster,\u201d the very\n Holy Ghost itself, have ever been and are still guilty not only\n of \u201cmistakes,\u201d but of a series of bloody crimes throughout the\n ages. Yet, no Christian would deny, for all that, his belief in\n _that_ \u201cMaster,\u201d I suppose? although his existence is far more\n _hypothetical_ than that of the Mahatmas; as no one has ever seen\n the Holy Ghost, and _his_ guidance of the Church, moreover, their\n own ecclesiastical history distinctly contradicts. _Errare humanum\n est._ Let us return to our subject.\n\n\nTHE ABUSE OF SACRED NAMES AND TERMS.\n\n ENQ. Then, what I have heard, namely, that many of your Theosophical\n writers claim to have been inspired by these Masters, or to have\n seen and conversed with them, is not true?\n\n THEO. It may or it may not be true. How can I tell? The burden of proof\n rests with them. Some of them, a few\u2014very few, indeed\u2014have\n distinctly either _lied_ or were hallucinated when boasting of\n such inspiration; others were truly inspired by great Adepts.\n The tree is known by its fruits; and as all Theosophists have to\n be judged by their deeds and not by what they write or say, so\n _all_ Theosophical books must be accepted on their merits, and not\n according to any claim to authority which they may put forward.\n\n ENQ. But would Mdme. Blavatsky apply this to her own works\u2014the _Secret\n Doctrine_, for instance?\n\n THEO. Certainly; she says expressly in the PREFACE that she gives out\n the doctrines that she has learnt from the Masters, but claims no\n inspiration whatever for what she has lately written. As for our\n best Theosophists, they would also in this case far rather that\n the names of the Masters had never been mixed up with our books\n in any way. With few exceptions, most of such works are not only\n imperfect, but positively erroneous and misleading. Great are\n the desecrations to which the names of two of the Masters have\n been subjected. There is hardly a medium who has not claimed to\n have seen them. Every bogus swindling Society, for commercial\n purposes, now claims to be guided and directed by \u201cMasters,\u201d often\n supposed to be far higher than ours! Many and heavy are the sins\n of those who advanced these claims, prompted either by desire for\n lucre, vanity, or irresponsible mediumship. Many persons have been\n plundered of their money by such societies, which offer to sell\n the secrets of power, knowledge, and spiritual truth for worthless\n gold. Worst of all, the sacred names of Occultism and the holy\n keepers thereof have been dragged in this filthy mire, polluted\n by being associated with sordid motives and immoral practices,\n while thousands of men have been held back from the path of truth\n and light through the discredit and evil report which such shams,\n swindles, and frauds have brought upon the whole subject. I say\n again, every earnest Theosophist regrets to-day, from the bottom\n of his heart, that these sacred names and things have ever been\n mentioned before the public, and fervently wishes that they had\n been kept secret within a small circle of trusted and devoted\n friends.\n\n ENQ. The names certainly do occur very frequently now-a-days, and I\n never remember hearing of such persons as \u201cMasters\u201d till quite\n recently.\n\n THEO. It is so; and had we acted on the wise principle of silence,\n instead of rushing into notoriety and publishing all we knew and\n heard, such desecration would never have occurred. Behold, only\n fourteen years ago, before the Theosophical Society was founded,\n all the talk was of \u201cSpirits.\u201d They were everywhere, in everyone\u2019s\n mouth; and no one by any chance even dreamt of talking about\n living \u201cAdepts,\u201d \u201cMahatmas,\u201d or \u201cMasters.\u201d One hardly heard even\n the name of the Rosicrucians, while the existence of such a thing\n as \u201cOccultism\u201d was suspected even but by very few. Now all that\n is changed. We Theosophists were, unfortunately, the first to\n talk of these things, to make the fact of the existence in the\n East of \u201cAdepts\u201d and \u201cMasters\u201d and Occult knowledge known; and\n now the name has become common property. It is on us, now, that\n the Karma, the consequences of the resulting desecration of holy\n names and things, has fallen. All that you now find about such\n matters in current literature\u2014and there is not a little of it\u2014all\n is to be traced back to the impulse given in this direction by\n the Theosophical Society and its Founders. Our enemies profit to\n this day by our mistake. The most recent book directed against\n our teachings is alleged to have been written _by an Adept of\n twenty years\u2019 standing_. Now, it is a _palpable lie_. We know the\n amanuensis and his _inspirers_ (as he is himself too ignorant to\n have written anything of the sort). These \u201cinspirers\u201d are living\n persons, revengeful and unscrupulous in proportion to their\n intellectual powers; and these _bogus_ Adepts are not one, but\n several. The cycle of \u201cAdepts,\u201d used as sledge-hammers to break\n the theosophical heads with, began twelve years ago, with Mrs.\n Emma Hardinge Britten\u2019s \u201cLouis\u201d of _Art Magic_ and _Ghost-Land_,\n and now ends with the \u201cAdept\u201d and \u201cAuthor\u201d of _The Light of\n Egypt_, a work written by Spiritualists against Theosophy and its\n teachings. But it is useless to grieve over what is done, and we\n can only suffer in the hope that our indiscretions may have made\n it a little easier for others to find the way to these Masters,\n whose names are now everywhere taken in vain, and under cover of\n which so many iniquities have already been perpetrated.\n\n ENQ. Do you reject \u201cLouis\u201d as an Adept?\n\n THEO. We denounce no one, leaving this noble task to our enemies. The\n spiritualistic author of _Art Magic_, etc., may or may not have\n been acquainted with such an Adept\u2014and saying this, I say far\n less than what that lady has said and written about us and\n Theosophy for the last several years\u2014that is her own business.\n Only when, in a solemn scene of mystic vision, an alleged \u201cAdept\u201d\n sees \u201cspirits\u201d presumably at Greenwich, England, through Lord\n Rosse\u2019s telescope, which was built in, and never moved from,\n Parsonstown, Ireland,[57] I may well be permitted to wonder at the\n ignorance of that \u201cAdept\u201d in matters of science. This beats all\n the mistakes and blunders committed at times by the _chelas_ of\n our Teachers! And it is this \u201cAdept\u201d that is used now to break the\n teachings of our Masters!\n\n ENQ. I quite understand your feeling in this matter, and think it only\n natural. And now, in view of all that you have said and explained\n to me, there is one subject on which I should like to ask you a\n few questions.\n\n THEO. If I can answer them I will. What is that?\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[56] Such, for instance, as Prof. Bernheim and Dr. C. Lloyd Tuckey of\nEngland; Professors Beaunis and Li\u00e9geois, of Nancy; Delb\u0153uf of Li\u00e8ge;\nBurot and Bourru, of Rochefort; Fontain and Sigard, of Bordeaux; Forel,\nof Zurich; and Drs. Despine, of Marseilles; Van Renterghem and Van\nEeden, of Amsterdam; Wetterstrand, of Stockholm; Schrenck-Notzing, of\nLeipzig, and many other physicians and writers of eminence.\n\n[57] Vide \u201cGhost Land,\u201d Part I., p. 133, _et seq._\n\n\n\n\nCONCLUSION.\n\n\nTHE FUTURE OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.\n\n ENQ. Tell me, what do you expect for Theosophy in the future?\n\n THEO. If you speak of THEOSOPHY, I answer that, as it has existed\n eternally throughout the endless cycles upon cycles of the Past,\n so it will ever exist throughout the infinitudes of the Future,\n because Theosophy is synonymous with EVERLASTING TRUTH.\n\n ENQ. Pardon me; I meant to ask you rather about the prospects of the\n Theosophical Society.\n\n THEO. Its future will depend almost entirely upon the degree of\n selflessness, earnestness, devotion, and last, but not least, on\n the amount of knowledge and wisdom possessed by those members on\n whom it will fall to carry on the work, and to direct the Society\n after the death of the Founders.\n\n ENQ. I quite see the importance of their being selfless and devoted,\n but I do not quite grasp how their _knowledge_ can be as vital\n a factor in the question as these other qualities. Surely the\n literature which already exists, and to which constant additions\n are still being made, ought to be sufficient?\n\n THEO. I do not refer to technical knowledge of the esoteric doctrine,\n though that is most important; I spoke rather of the great\n need which our successors in the guidance of the Society will\n have of unbiased and clear judgment. Every such attempt as the\n Theosophical Society has hitherto ended in failure, because,\n sooner or later, it has degenerated into a sect, set up\n hard-and-fast dogmas of its own, and so lost by imperceptible\n degrees that vitality which living truth alone can impart. You\n must remember that all our members have been bred and born in some\n creed or religion, that all are more or less of their generation\n both physically and mentally, and consequently that their\n judgment is but too likely to be warped and unconsciously biased\n by some or all of these influences. If, then, they cannot be\n freed from such inherent bias, or at least taught to recognise it\n instantly and so avoid being led away by it, the result can only\n be that the Society will drift off on to some sandbank of thought\n or another, and there remain a stranded carcass to moulder and die.\n\n ENQ. But if this danger be averted?\n\n THEO. Then the Society will live on into and through the twentieth\n century. It will gradually leaven and permeate the great mass of\n thinking and intelligent people with its large-minded and noble\n ideas of Religion, Duty, and Philanthropy. Slowly but surely\n it will burst asunder the iron fetters of creeds and dogmas,\n of social and caste prejudices; it will break down racial and\n national antipathies and barriers, and will open the way to the\n practical realisation of the Brotherhood of all men. Through its\n teaching, through the philosophy which it has rendered accessible\n and intelligible to the modern mind, the West will learn to\n understand and appreciate the East at its true value. Further, the\n development of the psychic powers and faculties, the premonitory\n symptoms of which are already visible in America, will proceed\n healthily and normally. Mankind will be saved from the terrible\n dangers, both mental and bodily, which are inevitable when that\n unfolding takes place, as it threatens to do, in a hot-bed of\n selfishness and all evil passions. Man\u2019s mental and psychic\n growth will proceed in harmony with his moral improvement, while\n his material surroundings will reflect the peace and fraternal\n goodwill which will reign in his mind, instead of the discord and\n strife which is everywhere apparent around us to-day.\n\n ENQ. A truly delightful picture! But tell me, do you really expect all\n this to be accomplished in one short century?\n\n THEO. Scarcely. But I must tell you that during the last quarter of\n every hundred years an attempt is made by those \u201cMasters,\u201d of\n whom I have spoken, to help on the spiritual progress of Humanity\n in a marked and definite way. Towards the close of each century\n you will invariably find that an outpouring or upheaval of\n spirituality\u2014or call it mysticism if you prefer\u2014has taken place.\n Some one or more persons have appeared in the world as their\n agents, and a greater or less amount of occult knowledge and\n teaching has been given out. If you care to do so, you can trace\n these movements back, century by century, as far as our detailed\n historical records extend.\n\n ENQ. But how does this bear on the future of the Theosophical Society?\n\n THEO. If the present attempt, in the form of our Society, succeeds\n better than its predecessors have done, then it will be in\n existence as an organized, living and healthy body when the time\n comes for the effort of the XXth century. The general condition\n of men\u2019s minds and hearts will have been improved and purified\n by the spread of its teachings, and, as I have said, their\n prejudices and dogmatic illusions will have been, to some extent\n at least, removed. Not only so, but besides a large and accessible\n literature ready to men\u2019s hands, the next impulse will find a\n numerous and _united_ body of people ready to welcome the new\n torch-bearer of Truth. He will find the minds of men prepared for\n his message, a language ready for him in which to clothe the new\n truths he brings, an organization awaiting his arrival, which will\n remove the merely mechanical, material obstacles and difficulties\n from his path. Think how much one, to whom such an opportunity is\n given, could accomplish. Measure it by comparison with what the\n Theosophical Society actually _has_ achieved in the last fourteen\n years, without _any_ of these advantages and surrounded by hosts\n of hindrances which would not hamper the new leader. Consider\n all this, and then tell me whether I am too sanguine when I say\n that if the Theosophical Society survives and lives true to\n its mission, to its original impulses through the next hundred\n years\u2014tell me, I say, if I go too far in asserting that earth will\n be a heaven in the twenty-first century in comparison with what it\n is now!\n\n FINIS.\n\n\n\n\n The United Lodge of Theosophists\n\n DECLARATION\n\n The policy of this Lodge is independent devotion to the cause\n of Theosophy, without professing attachment to any Theosophical\n organization. It is loyal to the great Founders of the Theosophical\n Movement, but does not concern itself with dissensions or differences\n of individual opinion.\n\n The work it has on hand and the end it keeps in view are too absorbing\n and too lofty to leave it the time or inclination to take part in side\n issues. That work and that end is the dissemination of the Fundamental\n Principles of the philosophy of Theosophy, and the exemplification\n in practice of those principles, through a truer realization of the\n SELF; a profounder conviction of Universal Brotherhood.\n\n It holds that the unassailable _Basis for Union_ among Theosophists,\n wherever and however situated, is \u201c_similarity of aim, purpose and\n teaching_,\u201d and therefore has neither Constitution, By-laws nor\n Officers, the sole bond between its Associates being that _basis_. And\n it aims to disseminate this idea among Theosophists in the furtherance\n of Unity.\n\n It regards as Theosophists all who are engaged in the true service\n of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, condition or\n organization, and\n\n It welcomes to its association all those who are in accord with its\n declared purposes and who desire to fit themselves, by study and\n otherwise, to be the better able to help and teach others.\n\n \u201c_The true Theosophist belongs to no cult or sect, yet belongs to each\n and all._\u201d\n\n * * * * *\n\n Being in sympathy with the purposes of this Lodge, as set\n forth in its \u201cDeclaration,\u201d I hereby record my desire to\n be enrolled as an Associate; it being understood that such\n association calls for no obligation on my part other than\n that which I, myself, determine.\n\n The foregoing is the Form signed by Associates of the United Lodge of\n Theosophists.\n\n Inquiries are invited from all persons to whom this Movement may\n appeal. Cards for signature will be sent upon request, and every\n possible assistance furnished Associates in their studies and in\n efforts to form local Lodges. There are no dues of any kind, and no\n formalities to be complied with.\n\n _Correspondence should be addressed to_\n General Registrar, United Lodge of Theosophists\n LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA\n 504 Metropolitan Building, Broadway at Fifth Street\n\n\n\n\n \u201c_To Spread Broadcast the Teachings of Theosophy, as Recorded\n in the Writings of H. P. Blavatsky and Wm. Q. Judge._\u201d\n\n THEOSOPHY\n\n _A Magazine Devoted to the Theosophical Movement, the Brotherhood\n of Humanity, the Study of Occult Science and Philosophy, and Aryan\n Literature._\n\n THEOSOPHY is a Monthly Magazine devoted to the promulgation of\n Theosophy as it was given by those who brought it. Established in\n 1912 by the United Lodge of Theosophists, the magazine is now in the\n front rank of Theosophical publications and its circulation extends\n to every civilized country. The first eight volumes of the magazine\n contain reprints of the numerous original articles written by H. P.\n Blavatsky and William Q. Judge in explanation, exemplification and\n application of the philosophy recorded in their published books.\n These precious articles, replete with Occult instruction, were first\n published in _The Theosophist_, _Lucifer_, and _The Path_, now for\n many years out of print, so that their surpassing value was lost and\n inaccessible to Students of the present generation. THEOSOPHY has\n made them once more available. In addition to these reprints the\n magazine contains many original articles written by Robert Crosbie\n and other devoted Pupils and Students of the Messengers of the\n Theosophical Movement of the nineteenth century. Not the least of\n the contents of the magazine are the Studies of the Teachings, the\n historical articles relating to the Theosophical Movement, the Parent\n Theosophical Society, and the many allied and related organizations\n and societies of the present day. The entire contents of the magazine\n are universal in scope and application, unbiased in treatment, and\n free from sectarian or partisan influence. In order to preserve at\n all times the impersonality of its tone, and that readers may form\n their judgment from the inherent value perceived in the articles\n and not from the names signed to them, the Editors and Contributors\n remain anonymous, no living person\u2019s name being mentioned in\n connection with the authorship of any article published.\n\n BACK VOLUMES and Back Numbers can be supplied at $5.00 per\n Volume and 50 cents per Number.\n\n SUBSCRIPTIONS can begin with any desired Number of the current\n Volume. Subscription price, $2.00 per annum; single copies 25 cents\n each.\n\n Address all communications and remittances to\n\n =Theosophy, Metropolitan Bldg., Los Angeles, Cal.=\n\n\n\n\nStudents interested in obtaining a clear and correct understanding of\nthe actual Teachings of THEOSOPHY, as recorded in the writings\nof the Messengers of the Theosophical Movement of the nineteenth\ncentury or in writings recommended by Them, should have the following\nbooks.\n\n KEY TO THEOSOPHY, _By_ H. P. BLAVATSKY, $2.50\n An Exposition in the form of question and answer. The\n best Manual for daily study and reference. A _verbatim_\n reprint of the Original Edition. Large type, durably and\n artistically bound in Buckram.\n\n THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY, _By_ WILLIAM Q. JUDGE, $1.25\n A succinct presentation of the philosophy free from\n technical expressions; a perfect condensation of the\n Secret Doctrines of Man and Nature. Cloth.\n\n THE OCCULT WORLD\n ESOTERIC BUDDHISM _By_ A. P. SINNETT, _Each_, $2.00\n The two earliest popular presentations of Theosophical\n Teachings, containing extracts from Letters written by\n the _Mahatma_ K. H. From the Plates of the Original\n American Editions. Cloth.\n\n ISIS UNVEILED, Two Volumes, _By_ H. P. BLAVATSKY, $10.00\n Volume i, Science; Volume ii, Theology.\n A reprint of the Original Edition of 1877. This, the\n first great work of H. P. B., contains a vast wealth of\n information and instruction not to be had elsewhere.\n Cloth.\n\n THE SECRET DOCTRINE, Two Volumes, _By_ H. P. BLAVATSKY, $15.00\n Volume I, Cosmogenesis; Volume II, Anthropogenesis.\n The Original Edition, published in 1888, is now out of\n print. This Edition, published in London, contains some\n unwarrantable changes, but is in the main accurate and\n is the only one available. Written \u201c_for the instruction\n of students of Occultism_,\u201d it is _sui generis_ and\n absolutely invaluable to the true student of the\n mysteries of Life and Being. Cloth.\n\n ABRIDGMENT OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE, _By_ KATHERINE HILLARD, $3.00\n A very good condensation of the major teachings of Madame\n Blavatsky\u2019s \u201cSecret Doctrine\u201d in the language of the\n Author. Cloth.\n\n THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY, _By_ H. P. BLAVATSKY, $5.00\n A reprint of the Original Edition, containing an\n exhaustive and scholarly treatment of the Sanskrit\n and other technical terms employed in Theosophical\n literature. Cloth.\n\n\n\n\n THOSE who find the Teachings of Theosophy to be comprehensive,\n self-explanatory, and a complete solution of all the problems of\n Life from a philosophical, logical and scientific standpoint, and\n who may desire to follow the Path shown in order to realize in and\n for themselves the noble Ideal of Brotherhood exemplified by the\n MASTERS OF WISDOM, are urged to read, ponder and assimilate to the\n utmost extent possible to them, the following Treatises on the\n _Heart Doctrine_:\n\n THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE. Chosen Fragments\n from The Book of the Golden Precepts. Translated\n and annotated by H. P. Blavatsky. Leather, $1.50\n Cloth, 1.25\n\n THE BHAGAVAD-GITA, The Book of Devotion.\n Containing the Dialogue between _Krishna_, the Supreme\n Master of Devotion, and _Arjuna_, his Disciple.\n Rendered into exquisite parallel terms in the English\n tongue by William Q. Judge. Leather, 1.50\n Cloth, 1.25\n\n NOTES ON THE BHAGAVAD-GITA. Commentaries\n of the greatest service to sincere students of to-day.\n The first Seven Chapters by W. Q. Judge; the remainder\n by his friend and Colleague Robert Crosbie.\n Leather, 1.50\n\n YOGA APHORISMS OF PATANJALI. The _Thought_\n of this Ancient Master, whose Aphorisms have been\n the guide of Disciples in the East for untold thousands\n of years. Done into English terms with\n Notes, by William Q. Judge. Leather, 1.50\n Cloth, 1.25\n\n LIGHT ON THE PATH. A treatise for the personal\n use of those who are ignorant of the Eastern Wisdom,\n and who desire to enter within its Influence. An exact\n reprint of the Original Edition of 1885, together\n with the Comments originally published in _Lucifer_.\n Written down by M. C.\n Leather, 1.50\n Cloth, 1.25\n\n LETTERS THAT HAVE HELPED ME. Actual Letters,\n by William Q. Judge, embodying Lessons and Guidance of\n direct personal value to every Student and Disciple.\n Volume I, Cloth, 1.00\n Volume II, Cloth, 1.00\n The Two Volumes bound in One, Cloth, 1.50\n\n THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE, THE BHAGAVAD-GITA,\n And PATANJALI\u2019S YOGA APHORISMS,\n Bound in One Volume, Leather, 3.00\n\n\n\n\n PARENTS and others interested in the Spiritual and Moral welfare\n of Children and averse to the sectarian dogmas and false ideas\n prevalent under the name of religious teachings, have long\n felt the necessity for literature which should impart true\n fundamental conceptions of Nature, of Life and of Duty to the\n growing generation. As a portion of its Fraternal activities the\n United Lodge of Theosophists has long maintained a _Children\u2019s\n School of Theosophy_. To this School come children of all\n ages, Theosophists and Non-Theosophists as to Parentage. They\n are taught the primary truths common to all religions and\n philosophies, dealing with Birth, Life, Death, Law, Action,\n and Duty. The Eternal Verities thus inculcated make for clean,\n sturdy, wholesome physical, mental, as well as moral and\n spiritual happiness and well-being. The experience thus gained\n in actual practice has been embodied in two books, wherein the\n lessons and instructions found helpful and formative to the\n highest character are plainly and clearly outlined, with all\n necessary suggestions and directions to enable Parents, Teachers\n and others to fit themselves to be the better able to help and\n guide the plastic minds of the Children to true perceptions of\n Life and Action.\n\n BECAUSE\u2014FOR THE CHILDREN WHO ASK WHY.\n Interesting, comprehensible and assimilable, in clear\n and reverent fashion this Book presents to Children the\n answers to those questions of Self that Parents find it\n most difficult to meet, and affords a common basis of\n understanding to Parent and Child.\n Cloth, $1.25\n\n THE ETERNAL VERITIES. A Series of Lessons in basic\n truths and ideas, with complete chart and programme so\n that its full value may be availed of in the instruction\n of Children of all ages, whether in the School or the\n Home. Original Songs, Chants, Music, Allegories and\n Tales of Symbolism, in a manner not only to interest but\n to carry the Lessons into the Hearts and Minds of the\n Learners.\n Cloth, $1.50\n\n IN ORDER, further, to afford the maximum possible assistance\n to Parents and others interested in the proper education of\n Children, The United Lodge of Theosophists maintains a Bureau\n of Correspondence to which particular problems connected with\n the bringing-up of Children may be addressed. Replies to\n enquiries are in all cases by Women Associates of the Lodge who\n are themselves Mothers and Teachers and who voluntarily and\n gladly give their time and experience to benefit their perplexed\n Sisters. There are no fees or charges of any description in\n connection with this labor of love, and all Mothers and Teachers\n are invited to benefit by it. Address,\n\n =CHILDREN\u2019S SCHOOL OF THEOSOPHY=\n LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA\n 504 Metropolitan Building, Broadway at Fifth Street\n\n\n\n\n NO MORE important work exists for the Theosophical Student than\n to be in a position to direct inquirers to channels where they\n may inform themselves of the leading Principles of the teachings\n of THEOSOPHY in their philosophical, ethical and scientific\n bearings. The following are recommended for their exact\n accuracy, their simplicity and clarity in the presentation of\n the Wisdom-Religion.\n\n ECHOES FROM THE ORIENT, _By_ WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.\n A Series of Chapters written in the most admirable\n style, giving an outline of Theosophy and the\n Theosophical Movement, and treating of the great\n Subjects of Masters, Karma, Re-incarnation and\n Evolution. Cloth, $0.60\n Paper, .35\n\n CONVERSATIONS ON THEOSOPHY. A Pamphlet giving\n the fundamental teachings of the Secret Doctrine.\n From the writings of H. P. Blavatsky and William Q.\n Judge.\n Paper, envelope size, .10\n In quantities for propaganda purposes, 50 copies for 2.50\n\n KARMA AND RE-INCARNATION. A large and attractively\n bound pamphlet, envelope size, containing the famous\n _Aphorisms on Karma_, and a notably clear and\n comprehensive treatment of the subjects of Karma and\n Re-incarnation. .15\n In quantities for propaganda purposes, 50 copies for 4.00\n\n CULTURE OF CONCENTRATION, And OF OCCULT POWERS.\n Two related Essays by William Q. Judge on subjects\n of supreme importance. .10\n\n EXTRACTS FROM A LETTER THAT HAS HELPED ME.\n Being a statement of the _Gospel of Hope and\n Responsibility_. This Letter has brought consolation\n and the comfort of understanding to many regarding\n the Great Mystery. .10\n\n THOUGHTS FOR THINKERS. A Pamphlet designed for the\n \u201cman in the street,\u201d who is often an open-minded\n practical philosopher and thinker of the first rank.\n These THOUGHTS are undogmatic, non-argumentative and\n very suggestive. .10\n\n The foregoing and other Books advertised in the preceding\n pages may all be obtained on order through your local\n Bookseller, or orders may be sent direct to the undersigned.\n\n Inquiries are invited regarding any Theosophical Books\n and Publications not specifically mentioned herein.\n Correspondence and questions are also invited on\n Theosophical problems and subjects from all interested.\n\n _Address all orders and inquiries\n and make all remittances payable to_\n\n UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS\n\n LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA\n\n 504 Metropolitan Building, Broadway at Fifth Street","title":"The Key to Theosophy: Being a Clear Exposition, in the Form of Question and Answer, of the Ethics, Science and Philosophy for the Study of Which the Theosophical Society Has Been Founded","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":88466}