THEOSOPHY WORLD --------------------------------------- July, 2007

An Internet Magazine Dedicated to the Theosophical Philosophy
And its Practical Application in the Modern World

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to theos-world@theosophy.com.

(Please note that the materials presented in THEOSOPHY WORLD are
the intellectual property of their respective authors and may not
be reposted or otherwise republished without prior permission.)

==================================================================
CONTENTS

"Imagination and Occult Phenomena," by W.Q. Judge
"ULT Day Letter," by the United Lodge of Theosophists
"To Those Who Mourn," by G. de Purucker
"Conference on 'Theosophy and New Frontiers of Science'"
"True and False Personality," by C.C. Massey
"Ways of Finding Theosophy and Theosophists Online,"
    by Eldon B. Tucker
"The Lama's Law," by Talbot Mundy
"The Panoramic Review," by G. de Purucker
"Expanding Consciousness," by James Sterling
"The Justice in Nature," by Alun Llewellyn
"The World We Live In," by R. Machell

==================================================================

> What a pity it is that members of our Society, pretending to
> familiarity with our literature, and accepting the theory of
> reincarnation, cannot apparently show the least proof of their
> sincerity! They cling to and try to exalt their pigmy
> personalities, and to the end of their days live within the
> impassable ring of their nationalities and social or caste
> prejudices. Orthodoxy they spell AUTODOXY.
>
> H.S. Olcott, OLD DIARY LEAVES, IV, page 333

------------------------------------------------------------------
IMAGINATION AND OCCULT PHENOMENA

By W.Q. Judge

From ECHOES OF THE ORIENT, I, pages 287-90, taken from THE PATH,
December 1892, pages 289-93.]

The faculty of imagination has been reduced to a very low level
by modern western theorists upon mental philosophy. It is "only
the making of pictures, day-dreaming, fancy, and the like:" thus
they have said about one of the noblest faculties in man. In
Occultism it is well known to be of the highest importance that
one should have the imagination under such control as to be able
to make a picture of anything at any time, and if this power has
not been so trained the possession of other sorts of knowledge
will not enable one to perform certain classes of occult
phenomena.

Those who have read Mr. Sinnett's THE OCCULT WORLD will have
noticed two or three classes of phenomena performed by H.P.
Blavatsky and her unseen friends, and those who have investigated
spiritualism will know that in the latter have been many cases of
similar phenomena done by so-called "controls." Others who made
no such investigation have, however, on their own account seen
many things done by forces not mechanical but of a nature that
must be called occult or psychical. In spiritualism, and by the
Adepts like H.P. Blavatsky and others, one thing has excited
great interest; it is the precipitating on to paper or other
substances of messages out of the air, as it were, and without
any visible contact between the sender of the message and the
precipitated letters themselves.

This has often occurred in seances with certain good mediums, and
the late Stainton Moses wrote in a letter that I saw many years
ago that there had come under his hand certain messages
precipitated out of the air. But in these cases, the medium
never knows what is to be precipitated, cannot control it at
will, and is in fact wholly ignorant of the whole matter and the
forces operating and how they operate. The elemental forces make
the pictures through which the messages are precipitated, and as
the inner nature of the medium is abnormally developed, acting
subconsciously to the outer man, the whole process is involved in
darkness so far as spiritualism is concerned. But not so with
trained minds or wills such as possessed by Madame Blavatsky and
all like her in the history of the past, including the still
living Adepts.

The Adepts who consciously send messages from a distance or who
impress thoughts or sentences on the mind of another at a
distance are able to do so because their imagination has been
fully trained.

The wonder-worker of the East who makes you see a snake where
there is none, or who causes you to see a number of things done
in your presence that were not done in fact, is able to so
impress you with his trained imagination, which, indeed, is also
often in his case an inheritance, and when inherited it is all
the stronger when trained and the easier to put into training.
In the same way but to a much smaller degree the modern western
hypnotizer influences his subject by the picture he makes with
his imagination in those cases where he causes the patient to see
or not to see at will, and if that power were stronger in the
West than it is, the experiments of the hypnotizing schools would
be more wonderful than they are.

Take the case of precipitation. In the first place, all the
minerals, metals, and colored substances anyone could wish for
use are in the air about us held in suspension. This has long
been proved so as to need no argument now. If there be any
chemical process known that will act on these substances, they
can be taken from the air and thrown down before us into
visibility. This visibility only results from the closer packing
together of the atoms of matter composing the mass. Modern
science has only a few processes for thus precipitating, but
while they do not go to the length of precipitating in letters or
figures, they do show that such precipitation is possible.
Occultism has knowledge of the secret chemistry of nature whereby
those carbons and other substances in the air may be drawn out at
will either separately or mixed. The next step is to find for
those substances so to be packed together a mold or matrix
through which they may be poured, as it were, and, being thus
closely packed, become visible. Is there such a mold or matrix?

The matrix is made by means of the trained imagination. It must
have been trained either now or in some other life before this,
or no picture can be precipitated nor message impressed on the
brain to which it is directed. The imagination makes a picture
of each word of each letter of every line and part of line in
every letter and word, and having made that picture, it is held
there by the will and the imagination acting together for such a
length of time as is needed to permit the carbons or other
substances to be strained down through this matrix and appear
upon the paper. This is exactly the way in which the Masters of
HPB sent those messages that they did not write with their hands,
for while they precipitated some, they wrote some others and sent
them by way of the ordinary mail.

The explanation is the same for the sending of a message by words
that the receiver is to hear. The image of the person who is to
be the recipient has to be made and held in place; that is, in
each of these cases, you have to become as it were a magic
lantern or a camera obscura, and if the image of the letters or
if the image of the person be let go or blurred, all the other
forces will shoot wide of the mark and naught be accomplished.
If a picture were made of the ineffectual thoughts of the
generality of people, it would show little lines of force flying
out from their brains and instead of reaching their destination
falling to the earth just a few feet away from the person who is
thus throwing them out.

But, of course, in the case of sending and precipitating onto
paper a message from a distance, a good many other matters have
to be well known to the operator. For instance, the inner as
well as the outer resistance of all substances have to be known,
for if not calculated, they will throw the aim out, just as the
billiard ball may be deflected if the resistance of the cushion
is variable and not known to be so by the player. And again, if
a living human being has to be used as the other battery at this
end of the line, all the resistances and also all the play of
that person's thought have to be known or a complete failure may
result. This will show those who inquire about phenomena, or who
at a jump wish to be adepts or to do as the adepts can do, what a
task it is they would undertake. But there is still another
consideration, and that is that inasmuch as all these phenomena
have to do with the very subtle and powerful planes of matter, it
must follow that each time a phenomenon is done, the forces of
those planes are roused to action, and reaction will be equal to
action in these things just as on the ordinary plane.

An illustration will go to make clear what has been said of the
imagination. One day, H.P. Blavatsky said she would show me
precipitation in the very act. She looked fixedly at a certain
smooth piece of wood and slowly on it came out letters that at
last made a long sentence. It formed before my eyes, and I could
see the matter condense and pack itself on the surface. All the
letters were like such as she would make with her hand, just
because she was making the image in her brain and of course
followed her own peculiarities. But in the middle, one of the
letters was blurred and as it were all split into a mass of mere
color as to part of the letter.

"Now here," she said, "I purposely wandered in the image, so that
you could see the effect. As I let my attention go, the falling
substance had no matrix and naturally fell on the wood in any way
and without shape."

A friend on whom I could rely told me that he once asked a
wonderworker in the East what he did when he made a snake come
and go before the audience, and he replied that he had been
taught from very early youth to see a snake before him and that
it was so strong an image everyone there had to see it.

"But," said my friend, "how do you tell it from a real snake?"
The man replied that he was able to see through it, so that for
him it looked like the shadow of a snake, but that if he had not
done it so often he might be frightened by it himself. The
process he would not give, as he claimed it was a secret in his
family. But anyone who has made the trial knows that it is
possible to train the imagination so as to at will bring up
before the mind the outlines of any object whatsoever, and that
after a time, the mind seems to construct the image as if it were
a tangible thing.

But there is a wide difference between this and the kind of
imagination that is solely connected with some desire or fancy.
In the latter case, the desire and the image and the mind with
all its powers are mixed together, and the result, instead of
being a training of the image-making power, is to bring on a
decay of that power and only a continual flying to the image of
the thing desired. This is the sort of use of the power of the
imagination that has lowered it in the eyes of the modern
scholar, but even that result would not have come about if the
scholars had knowledge of the real inner nature of man.

------------------------------------------------------------------
ULT DAY LETTER

By the United Lodge of Theosophists

[Following is a letter to friends and associates of the United
Lodge of Theosophists. This voluntary association of students of
Theosophy exists "to spread broadcast the Teachings of Theosophy
as recorded in the writings of H.P. Blavatsky and W.Q. Judge."
The ULT issued the letter June 21-25, 2007 under the letterhead
of the Los Angeles Lodge (245 West 33rd Street, Los Angeles CA
90007). The letter is signed, "In deep appreciation of all that
is being done to establish this extraordinary end, with fraternal
greetings, The United Lodge of Theosophists.]

The United Lodge of Theosophists exists to support all who sense
that "I have something to do with my own evolution, and that of
all beings." Its mission is based on the view that each human
can, and will, learn about the divine nature of the universe and
its units, including themselves. The process of spiritual,
mental, and physical evolution by which this wisdom is reached --
the heart of the writings of H.P. Blavatsky and William Q.
Judge -- is both revolutionary and profound. It introduces the
idea that we are complex beings who rise to self-consciousness
along with a mighty tide of other souls over vast cycles of time.
Having reached this point, individual action and choice creates
human destiny. Consistent study and application of the teachings
of Theosophy brings the conviction that we consciously can become
co-workers with Great Nature and fulfill the promise of human
wisdom and service.

In times of turmoil in the physical world, however, outer
conflicts bring inner confusion, fear, and doubt. Students
wonder about the meaning of great events and their impact on the
personal nature. These currents temporarily may deflect us from
our journey, yet they also encourage a closer look at the
fundamental ideas of Theosophy. Such effort -- if we dare to
approach these great teachings without fear -- opens our vision
to the truth that the laws that govern the world are moral and
spiritual. Seen through this mighty lens, personal, national,
and international strife become necessary steps in evolution, as
experience is gained and balance is restored:

> There is one eternal law in nature, one that always ends to
> adjust contraries and to produce final harmony. It is owing to
> this law of spiritual development superseding the physical and
> purely intellectual, that mankind will become freed of its false
> gods, and find itself finally -- SELF-REDEEMED.
>
> -- H.P. Blavatsky, THE SECRET DOCTRINE, II, page 420.

How does ULT "adjust contraries" and maintain its balance in the
face of these same external forces? To maintain the "original
impulses" noted by HPB in the closing pages of THE KEY TO
THEOSOPHY, Robert Crosbie considered clarity of text, tools, and
method, without imposing undue structure. Today, in a world-wide
effort, while each Lodge, Study Class, and unaffiliated student
reflects their own skhandic make-up, certain basic approaches are
of use:

> For the beginning, the middle, and the end, we should hold to the
> Three Fundamental Propositions of THE SECRET DOCTRINE in all our
> public work -- for upon these the whole philosophy hinges, and
> unless well grounded in them, no real progress can be had. ...
> It will be well at every study class to state what the purpose
> of the meeting is; to have volunteers state in their own words
> their understanding of the Three Fundamentals. Questions should
> be freely invited and asked, the object being that students, even
> beginners, should formulate for themselves. Only so can they
> make their understanding good, and get themselves in the position
> where they can best help others even as they have been helped.
>
> -- Robert Crosbie, THE FRIENDLY PHILOSOPHER, pages 391-92.

While the method of "No dogmatism, no personal followings, no
spiritual authority" is rarely popular, as all who would increase
interest in Theosophy know, the underlying reason for this
platform remains. Students who have experienced all that the
personal nature has to offer begin to search for ways of study
and work that encourage the impersonal and spiritual within. As
presented in the Declaration of ULT -- a statement in itself of
how the soul operates -- this method of work hints at the next
evolutionary stage for humanity. Regular study of the
Declaration provides an almost mantramic understanding of the
self-balancing nature of ULT.

Students continue to question how best to reach any and all who
search for these teachings and this unconventional approach.
Efforts of the past year include workshops, conferences,
correspondence courses, "conversations" and participation in
Internet activities, as well as new and on-going classes,
lectures, and study groups. As the evolutionary ebb and flow of
change seemingly brings many into, out of, and again into the
direct Theosophic current, it becomes clear that "The Path of
Brotherhood and the Path of Occultism are One Path." (FRIENDLY
PHILOSOPHER, page 375)

> In our age it is well to consider what the Great Ones have done
> and do. Age after age, year after year, They conserve the
> knowledge AND WAIT, doing what They can, and how They can, in
> accordance with cyclic law. Knowing this, and doing thus, there
> can be no room for doubt and discouragement. We are holding,
> waiting, and working for those few earnest souls who will grasp
> the plan and further the work.
>
> -- Robert Crosbie, THE FRIENDLY PHILOSOPHER, page 68.

------------------------------------------------------------------
TO THOSE WHO MOURN

By G. de Purucker

[From WIND OF THE SPIRIT, pages 72-74.]

The beautiful message that Theosophy has to give to those who
mourn, those who sorrow, applies not only to death and those left
behind by the passing ones, but just as much to those who are not
yet touched by death, to all those who have to live on this earth
where there is more of sorrow and trouble and weariness of spirit
than of happiness and real peace. For I wonder if any
tender-hearted man or woman can really be happy in a world like
ours, when we see surrounding us on all sides the most awful
proofs of man's inhumanity to his fellowmen. How can we retire
into our water-tight or spirit-tight or heart-tight compartments
of life when we know what is going on around us, not only among
men, but also among the helpless beasts: suffering and pain and
sorrow, and on every side the cry of these martyrs raised to
heaven?

We talk about those who mourn and restrict it, each one of us, to
our individual selves. How then? Do we not love the hand of
kindliness extended in sympathy and understanding to others, who
suffer lonely, who sorrow in loneliness? Death itself is nothing
to grieve at. We have been through death a thousand times and
more on this earth. We know it well. It is an old experience,
and here we are back again. But we feel for those who mourn
while they live: mourn for the loss of beloved ones; mourn for
the loss of fortune, so that they are in difficulties to give
even the physical bread to the bodies of those they love; mourn
over the difficulties to find work so that they may work like men
and women and feed the mouths of their hungry children; mourn
because they have lost friendship, lost love, lost hope, and
perhaps most awful of all, lost trust in their fellowmen.

Every son and daughter of man mourns, or he or she is heartless.
The man who cannot mourn and who does not mourn to my mind is
inhuman; and so great and wonderfully is nature built that it is
precisely this divine capacity for mourning that gives us
sympathy for others, and to the mourners the hearts of
understanding; and strange magic of the human spirit, mourning,
sorrow, suffering is our wisest friend. How these enrich our
hearts! What priceless treasury is the expansion of consciousness
that comes when mourning sets its often burning but always
healing hand on our hearts! We sacrifice; but in this sacrifice
is purification, is the awakening to the greater life. It is in
sorrow, it is in mourning, it is in the evocation by these of
pity, of compassion, that we learn truly to live. Even little
children know what sorrow is, and how blessed it is for them that
they may learn life's greatest thing: to learn and become
enlarged by it, made grander by it. How pitiful is the man who
cannot feel for others and is enwrapped solely in the small
prison of his minuscule self. Where in him is grandeur? You seek
for it and find it not. But the man who has suffered feels for
all the world. On his heart, each cry of mourning falls like a
scalding tear, and he is made grand by it. Nature here works a
magic, for in this process is born rosy hope, a star-lighted
inspiration that comes from the enlarged consciousness.

Blessed peace, the most exquisite joy and happiness that human
hearts and minds can bear, is the appanage or spiritual heritage
of those whose hearts have been softened by suffering. They who
never suffer are the hard-hearted ones, unripe in their own
restricted consciousness. The man who has never suffered knows
not what peace is. He has never entered into it. The man who
has never experienced sorrow knows not the surcease nor knows the
blessedness that comes when quiet comes.

It is to those who mourn -- which comprise really all the human
race -- that Theosophy brings its own, its ineffable doctrine of
hope and peace, and this because it teaches us to understand.
The French have a proverb: "Tout comprendre c'est tout
pardonner," the meaning of which is that if you FULLY understand,
you forgive all.

Isn't it clear to us that inner grandeur comes from enlargement,
and that enlargement of our consciousness as we say, of our
understanding and of our heart, comes from suffering? Joy too can
bring the smile to our lips and the light of happiness to our
eyes; but isn't it a mere truism that all of life's ordinary joys
turn to ashes in the mouth? Isn't it also true that the joys of
life all too often make us selfish? We grab the joys to us,
afraid lest we lose them. These commonplace joys often narrow
us. But fellow-feeling, sympathy brought about by suffering,
make the whole world akin.

The man who has known naught but joy in life perhaps does not
mind inflicting sorrow upon a fellow. He is not awakened. He
does not understand. He is misled. He is ignorant. But the man
who has suffered, the woman who has suffered, who has mourned,
these are they who are great in their gentleness, who are great
in their understanding because they comprehend, take in. They
are enlarged; they are magnified. And the extreme of this is
glorification in its true original sense. They become glorified,
the next thing to god-men on earth.

Such simple thoughts! I dare say that every child knows them and
understands.

So our blessed message to those who mourn is this: Fear not the
bright and holy flame. It will make you men and women, not mere
males and females. What is the great and outstanding
characteristic mark of the god-men who have come among us from
time to time? It has been the understanding heart: so that they
could speak to the woman in trouble and help; to the man in
ignorance and bring him succor and peace; to the little children
and bring understanding. For the great man's own simple heart
speaks to the simple direct heart of the child before it has been
sophisticated, spoiled by the falsities that it all too often
learns as it grows up and has to unlearn in order to be truly a
man, truly a woman.

To those who mourn comes the blessed Gospel: let the holy flame
enter into your hearts as a visiting god. Treat it very
friendly. Welcome it. Receive it as a guest; and that guest,
sorrow-clad, will cast off the habiliments of mourning, and you
will realize that you have been entertaining unawares a god. And
that god is you. Then you have entered into your own.

------------------------------------------------------------------
CONFERENCE ON "THEOSOPHY AND NEW FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE"

The thirteenth annual Southern California Theosophical Conference
will be held August 10 to 12 this year at the Institute of Noetic
Sciences Retreat Center in Petaluma, California.  The conference
has previously been held in various cities in California like
Brookings, Cambria, Long Beach, and San Diego.  Starting next
year, it will be held in different places worldwide, with the
2008 conference in Pennsylvania and the 2009 one possibly in
Europe.

Volunteer conference organizers are seeking to form an
independent organization to facilitate future conferences so that
no single individual need take financial and planning
responsibility for a conference in the future.  The organization
will:

> (a) Act as a non-profit entity to accept donations and make
> possible tax deductions for those paying for and attending
> conferences,
>
> (b) Provide scholarships to those needing funds in order to
> attend a conference,
>
> (c) Assist in the organization of each conference including
> accommodations, site selection, insurance, and other needs, and
>
> (d) Assist in conference themes and possibly lead to a wider base
> for dissemination of Theosophy.

Anyone interested in more information or wanting to help in some
way should write info@guptavidya.org.

This conference is entitled "Theosophy and New Frontiers of
Science." We read that it honors "the birth and genius of H.P.
Blavatsky, An experience that will forever change your vision of
reality.  Join us for an inspiring journey of enlightenment into
the practical wisdom of ancient theosophical masters, and new
frontiers of science and spirituality."

Held at the Institute of Noetic Sciences on their 200 acre campus
with fully equipped conference rooms, a dining facility, and a
retreat center.  It offers many outdoor activities for children
and adults.  More information on the conference can be found on
the Institute's website at www.ions.org.  The following program
information is taken from that website.  The website has further
information on details and pricing.

----

Christopher Holmes, PhD
Forensic Psychologist
Ontario, Canada

Divine Mysteries: H. P. Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine

Dr.  Holmes is a clinical and forensic psychologist, and mystic
scientist.  His work explores the enigmas of human consciousness,
the mysteries of the Heart, psychology as a science of the soul,
the physics and metaphysics of creation and Zero Point dynamics.
His presentation includes a wider focus on ancient wisdom and
modern science, which considers comparative analysis of science
with The Secret Doctrine.  Intelligent design versus chaos then
falls under a larger umbrella that include materials on new
physics, consciousness studies, modern parapsychology studies,
cosmology-investigating Blavatsky's predictions and teachings.

----

STEVEN LEVY, MD Psychiatry
Philadelphia, PA

Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century

Dr.  Levy reviews mainstream scientific opinion which holds that
all aspects of human mind and consciousness are generated by
physical processes occurring in the brain.  That new science
demonstrates with empirical evidence that this reductive
materialism is not only incomplete but false.  Dr.  Levy presents
the case for an enlarged scientific theosophy that addresses
psychology's great central problems; includes out of body
experiences, reincarnation, karma, man's sevenfold nature and the
Higher Self.

----

DAVID ROEF, PhD
Belgium, NE

The Struggle for the Soul of Science

Recently, in an unprecedented feat of quantum mechanics, Harvard
physicists were able to use a cloud of Bose-Einstein condensate
to stop a pulse of light and then resuscitate the light at a
different location.  Dr.  Roef reveals the Theosophical
implications and reviews the development and impact of Werner
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in the light of Blavatsky's
The Secret Doctrine and occult teachings.  He examines the
critical juncture at which classical scientific methods become
obsolete and theories of the occult enter the realm of proof.

----

HELENA E. KEREKHAZI, MS, ED, Phd Candidate in Neuropsychology
New York City

Neurofeedback and Brain Mapping: A New Paradigm of Consciousness
and Healing

The "Problem of Evil" often appearing in the media today has much
more to do with our lack of understanding and creativity in
addressing how we can all better connect to the healing energies
of the Spiritual Mind.  Breakthroughs in electrical and magnetic
imaging are opening new doorways into our understanding and
treatment of the brain which is much more plastic than previously
thought.  Unfortunately, mainstream neurology and psychology have
been far too slow in adapting and implementing this new paradigm.

----

DONNA BYCZKIEWICZ, BA
San Diego, CA

Director of Multimedia, Dept.  of Anthropology, Archaeology San
Diego State University

21st Century Theosophical Messengers and Society

How 21st-century humanity, social movements and ideologies can be
embraced by society to increase the awareness and influence of
Theosophical teachings.  New modalities and attitudes are
increasingly evident as we approach the end of the cycle that H.
P.  Blavatsky predicted would usher in a new age for humankind; a
topic of obvious import to all those who have determined assist
in the evolution of spiritual consciousness.

----

EVA MOBERG, MA
Healer/Practitioner
Malmo, Sweden

The Science and Art of Spiritual and Physical Healing

Demonstration of the Bach Flower Remedies, Homeopathy and other
Healing Specialties (watch for details to follow on this special
event)

----

JUDY SALTZMAN, PhD
Professor of Philosophy, California Polytechnic University and
    Fulbright Scholar, Germany
Santa Barbara, CA

God vs. Science: Struggle for The Soul of Truth

"God Vs.  Science" is today's leading topic of debate between
many of the world's leading atheists and the believers in God and
sacred scripture.  Dr.  Saltzman explores this powerful struggle
through the words of the "Mother of the New Age", Helena
Blavatsky:

----

REED CARSON
President-Founder of blavatsky.net

Theosophy and Atlantis: Recent Discoveries in Anthropology,
Geology and Biology.

Anthropology is mystified by the unknown origins of Cro-Magnon
Man.  The presentation explores how recent discoveries in
mitochondrial DNA analysis support Blavatsky's statements on
Cro-Magnon's Atlantis origins.  Many puzzles are explored,
including the strange alphabet on the Glozzel tablet.  The cause,
location and year of the sinking of Atlantis is revealed, and a
view of the floor of the Atlantic Ocean matches Plato's
description and supports the claims of Blavatsky.  Her Atlantis
is completely vindicated.  A drawing of a "cave woman" discovered
in a Cro-Magnon cave wall painting, has sewn clothes, shoes, and
fancy hat!

-------------

PETER BERNIN
Malmo, Sweden

H.P. Blavatsky's Influences on Art and Culture

By all accounts, Af Klint was a sober, well-balanced woman.  Her
art and beliefs, however, were extreme.  Regarded as a
clairvoyant from childhood, she was a medium and one of Sweden's
first followers of the theosophical teachings of Madame
Blavatsky.  Before she died, at the age of 81 in 1944, the
Swedish artist Hilma af Klint stipulated that her paintings were
not to be shown in public for 20 years after her death.  Perhaps
she felt that the world was not yet ready for them.

What is unnerving is that in 1932, Af Klint produced a number of
watercolors predicting the second world war.  One, titled A
Map/The Blitz, shows a fiery wind, coming from Europe, curling
from Southampton round the coast to Liverpool and London.
Another map depicts "the fights in the Mediterranean", with a
brown cloud spreading over North Africa, southern Italy,
Gibraltar and Bordeaux.

----

PROGRAM FEATURES:


OPENING CEREMONY - SPECIAL GUEST PERFORMERS

WORKSHOPS & BREAKOUT SESSIONS WITH PRESENTERS

SPECIAL FILM AND VIDEO PRESENTATIONS

BOOK & MAGAZINE TABLES

FREE SPRING WATER THE ENTIRE CONFERENCE

MEALS IN THE RETREAT DINING ROOM

Light California-style cuisine, with an emphasis on fresh
vegetables and the healthy tasty meals for which the San
Francisco area is known.  Special menus can be arranged in
advance.

------------------------------------------------------------------
TRUE AND FALSE PERSONALITY

By C.C. Massey

[From THE ARYAN PATH, July 1966, pages 293-97, taken from FIVE
YEARS OF THEOSOPHY.]

The title prefixed to the following observations may well have
suggested a more metaphysical treatment of the subject than can
be attempted on the present occasion. The doctrine of the
trinity, or trichotomy of man, which distinguishes soul from
spirit, comes to us with such weighty, venerable, and even sacred
authority that we may well be content, for the moment, with
confirmations that should be intelligible to all, putting aside
for now the more abstruse questions that have divided minds of
the highest philosophical capacity. We will not now inquire
whether the difference is one of states or of entities; whether
the phenomenal or mind consciousness is merely the external
condition of one indivisible Ego, or has its origin and nature in
an altogether different principle; the Spirit, or immortal part
of us, being of Divine birth, while the senses and understanding,
with the consciousness -- Ahankara -- thereto appertaining, are
from an Anima Mundi, or what in the Shankya philosophy is called
Prakriti. My utmost expectations will have been exceeded if it
should happen that any considerations here offered should throw
even a faint suggestive light upon the bearings of this great
problem.

It may be that the mere irreconcilability of all that is
characteristic of the temporal Ego with the conditions of the
superior life -- if that can be made apparent -- will incline you
to regard the latter rather as the Redeemer, that has indeed to
be born within us for our salvation and our immortality, than as
the inmost, central, and inseparable principle of our phenomenal
life. It may be that by the light of such reflections, the sense
of identity will present no insuperable difficulty to the
conception of its contingency, or to the recognition that the
mere consciousness that fails to attach itself to a higher
principle is no guarantee of an eternal individuality.

It is only by a survey of individuality, regarded as the source
of all our affections, thoughts, and actions that we can realize
its intrinsic worthlessness; and only when we have brought
ourselves to a real and felt acknowledgement of that fact can we
accept with full understanding those "hard sayings" of sacred
authority that bid us "die to ourselves" and that proclaim the
necessity of a veritable new birth. This mystic death and birth
is the keynote of all profound religious teaching; and that which
distinguishes the ordinary religious mind from spiritual insight
is just the tendency to interpret these expressions as merely
figurative, or to overlook them altogether.

To estimate the value of individuality, we cannot do better than
regard man in his several mundane relations, supposing that
either of these might become the central, actuating focus of his
being -- his "ruling love," as Swedenborg would call it --
displacing his mere egoism, or self-love, thrusting that more to
the circumference, and identifying him, so to speak, with that
circle of interests to which all his energies and affections
relate. Outside the substituted Ego, we are to suppose that he
has no conscience, no desire, and no will. Just as the entirely
selfish man views the whole of life, so far as it can really
interest him solely in relation to his individual well-being, so
our supposed man of a family, of a society, of a Church, or a
State has no eye for any truth or any interest more abstract or
more individual than that of which he may be rightly termed the
incarnation.

History shows approximations to this ideal man. Such a one, for
instance, I conceive to have been Loyola; such another, possibly,
is Bismarck. Now these men have ceased to be individuals in
their own eyes, so far as concerns any value attaching to their
own special individualities. They are devotees. A certain
"conversion" has been effected, by which from mere individuals
they have become "representative" men. And we -- the individuals
-- esteem them precisely in proportion to the remoteness from
individualism of the spirit that actuates them.

As the circle of interests to which they are "devoted" enlarges
-- that is to say, as the dross of individualism is purged away
-- we accord them indulgence, respect, admiration, and love.
From self to the family, from the family to the sect or society,
from the sect or society to the Church (in no denominational
sense) and State, there is the ascending scale and widening
circle, the successive transitions that make the worth of an
individual depend on the more or less complete subversion of his
individuality by a more comprehensive soul or spirit.

The very modesty that suppresses, as far as possible, the
personal pronoun in our addresses to others, testifies to our
sense that we are hiding away some utterly insignificant and
unworthy thing; a thing that has no business even to be, except
in that utter privacy that is rather a sleep and a rest than
living. Well, but in the above instances, even those most remote
from sordid individuality, we have fallen far short of that ideal
in which the very conception of the partial, the atomic, is lost
in the abstraction of universal being, transfigured in the glory
of a Divine personality.

You are familiar with Swedenborg's distinction between discrete
and continuous degrees. Hitherto we have seen how man -- the
individual -- may rise continuously by throwing himself heart and
soul into the living interests of the world, and lose his own
limitations by adoption of a larger mundane spirit. But still he
has but ascended nearer to his own mundane source, that soul of
the world, or Prakriti, to which, if I must not too literally
insist on it, I may still resort as a convenient figure.

To transcend it, he must advance by the discrete degree. No
simple "bettering" of the ordinary self, which leaves it alive,
as the focus -- the French word "foyer" is the more expressive --
of his thoughts and actions; not even that identification with
higher interests in the world's plane just spoken of, is or can
progressively become in the least adequate to the realization of
his Divine ideal. This "bettering" of our present nature, it
alone being recognized as essential, albeit capable of
"improvement," is a commonplace, and to use a now familiar term a
"Philistine" conception. It is the substitution of the
continuous for the discrete degree. It is a compromise with our
dear old familiar selves. "And Saul and the people spared Agag,
and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings,
and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly
destroy them; but everything that was vile and refuse, that they
destroyed utterly."

We know how little acceptable that compromise was to the God of
Israel; and no illustration can be more apt than this narrative,
which we may well as we would fain believe to be rather typical
than historical. This is typical of that indiscriminate and
radical sacrifice, or "vastation," of our lower nature, which is
insisted upon as the one thing needful by all or nearly all the
great religions of the world. No language could seem more
purposely chosen to indicate that it is the individual nature
itself -- and not merely its accidental evils -- that has to be
abandoned and annihilated.

It is not denied that what was spared was good; there is no
suggestion of a universal infection of physical or moral evil; it
is simply that what is good and useful relatively to a lower
state of being must perish with it if the latter is to make way
for something better. And the illustration is the more suitable
in that the purpose of this paper is not ethical, but points to a
metaphysical conclusion though without any attempt at
metaphysical exposition.

There is no question here of moral distinctions; they are neither
denied nor affirmed. According to the highest moral standard, A
may be a most virtuous and estimable person. According to the
lowest, B may be exactly the reverse. The moral interval between
the two is within what I have called, following Swedenborg, the
"continuous degree." And perhaps the distinction can be still
better expressed by another reference to that Book that we
theosophical students do not less regard, because we are disposed
to protest against all exclusive pretensions of religious
systems. The good man who has, however, not yet attained his
"sonship of God" is "under the law" -- that moral law that is
educational and preparatory, "the schoolmaster to bring us unto
Christ," our own Divine spirit, or higher personality.

To conceive the difference between these two states is to
apprehend exactly what is here meant by the false, temporal, and
the true, eternal personality, and the sense in which the word
"personality" is here intended to be understood. Now, being
"under the law" implies that we do not act directly from our own
will, but indirectly, that is, in willing obedience to another
will. The will from which we should naturally act -- our own
will -- is of course to be understood not as mere volition, but
rather as our nature -- our "ruling love," which makes such and
such things agreeable to us, and others the reverse.

As "under the law," this nature is kept in suspension, and
because it is suspended only as to its activity and
manifestation, and by no means abrogated, is the law -- the
substitution of a foreign will -- necessary for us. Our own will
or nature is still central; that which we obey by effort and
resistance to ourselves is more circumferential or hypostatic.
Constancy in this obedience and resistance tends to draw the
circumferential will more and more to the center, until there
ensues that "explosion," as St. Martin called it, by which our
natural will is forever dispersed and annihilated by contact with
the divine, and the latter henceforth becomes our very own.

Thus has "the schoolmaster" brought us unto "Christ," and if by
"Christ" we understand no historically divine individual, but the
logos, word, or manifestation of God IN US -- then we have, I
believe, the essential truth that was taught in the Vedanta, by
Kapila, by Buddha, by Confucius, by Plato, and by Jesus.

It is not a mere preference of nothingness or unconscious
absorption to limitation that inspires the intense yearning of
the Hindu mind for Nirvana. Even in the Upanishads, there are
many evidences of a contrary belief; while in the Sankhya, the
aphorisms of Kapila unmistakably vindicate the individuality of
soul (spirit). Individual consciousness is maintained, perhaps
infinitely intensified, but its "matter" is no longer personal.
Only try to realize what "freedom from desire," the favorite
phrase in which individualism is negated in these systems,
implies! Even in that form of devotion that consists in action,
the soul is warned in THE BHAGAVAD-GITA that it must be
indifferent to results.

And just as in true sympathy, the partial suppression of
individualism and of what is distinctive, we experience a
superior delight and intensity of being, so it may be that in
parting with all that shuts us up in the spiritual penthouse of
an Ego -- ALL, without exception or reserve -- we may for the
first time know what true life is, and what are its ineffable
privileges.

Only let us not talk of this ideal of impersonal, universal being
in individual consciousness as an unverified dream. Our sense
and impatience of limitations are the guarantees that they are
not final and insuperable. Whence is this power of standing
outside myself, of recognizing the worthlessness of the
pseudo-judgments, of the prejudices with their lurid coloring of
passion, of the temporal interests, of the ephemeral appetites,
of all the sensibilities of egoism to which I nevertheless
surrender myself so that they indeed seem myself?

Through and above this troubled atmosphere, I see a being, pure,
passionless, rightly measuring the proportions and relations of
things, for whom there is, properly speaking, no present, with
its phantasms, falsities, and half-truths: who has nothing
personal in the sense of being opposed to the whole of related
personalities: who sees the truth rather than struggles logically
towards it, and truth of which I can at present form no
conception; whose activities are unimpeded by intellectual doubt,
not perverted by moral depravity, and who is indifferent to
results because he has not to guide his conduct by calculation of
them or by any estimate of their value.

I look up to him with awe, because in being passionless, he
sometimes seems to me to be without love. Yet I know that this
is not so; only that his love is diffused by its range, and
elevated in abstraction beyond my gaze and comprehension. I see
in this being my ideal, my higher, my only true, in a word, my
immortal self.

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WAYS OF FINDING THEOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHISTS ONLINE

By Eldon B. Tucker

Over the years, major innovations on the Internet have provided
us with new ways to explore Theosophy and interact with each
other.

The first innovation was online documents that people could
access and download using tools such as "ftp". We were able to
scan theosophical texts and put articles and books online that
anyone worldwide could download, look at on their computer, or
print out for offline reading. This was later improved as word
processing, html, and PDF files could be used to make the
materials more readable and include pictures and graphics. Now
we can read books online on web pages or download them in PDF
format and print them out in their entirety. An additional
enhancement included audio files, generally in MP3 format and
video files; these became available as storage space, bandwidth
to the Internet, and more powerful home computers become
available.

The second innovation was online bulletin boards (BBS), which
allowed people to post messages for others to read. First there
were simple messages, then the ability to post replies to
messages that stayed with them, then more complex messaging sites
and the ability to post one's own thoughts in an online diary
(blogs). The first theosophical use was with posted discussion
threads on Peacenet.

The third innovation was the prevalent use of email. Personal
correspondence online expanded into email discussion lists and
online magazines sent via email or put up on websites. John Mead
hosted the first theosophical mailing list (theos-l) on vnet.net
(which later moved to yahoogroups.com) Within a few years, other
mailing lists arose including theos-talk@yhaoogroups.com
(associated with THEOSOPHY WORLD, this online magazine). The
mailing lists provided an excellent opportunity for people to
practice their writing skills and they put their ideas into words
and got immediate feedback from other students throughout the
world. That feedback, thought, often included misunderstanding,
disagreement, and hostility. There was a mix of responses that a
writer would get, so the mailing lists provided an opportunity to
practice both clarity of mind as one tried to be clearer in
expression and patience as one dealt with the sometimes extreme
reactions of others. Email's other innovation, the online
theosophical periodical, is illustrated by THEOSOPHY WORLD, now
is its 133rd monthly issue.

The fourth innovation was online communities. This first started
when websites started letting users create accounts and put
viewable profiles online. Blavatsky.net was one of the first to
do this in a big way, and for people signed up, it shows contact
information for thousands of people interested in the philosophy.
The list is not pruned enough, but it is a good place to look for
possible contacts. This was expanded with sites like myspace.com
and facebook.com, where anyone can set up a personal profile and
share their personal information and photos with others. These
sites let you stay in touch with friends since you have a link to
their personal information which they would keep up to date.

Before the Internet, recent theosophical work included building
archives of rare materials, like at Point Loma Publications in
San Diego, CA, computerizing older books (putting them into word
processor format), and seeing that some of the more important
out-of-print books became available. This work was supplemented
by companies like Kessinger Publications, which made inexpensive
photographic reprints of older literature. Other work included
communities supported by published directories that were sent
worldwide, like the one by the Theosophical Network, which was
put out for several years in the mid 1980's.

At this time, where does one go to explore Theosophy online? Many
books are available at amazon.com or directly from theosophical
publishers. There are many sites with large numbers of
computerized books including
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/tup-onl.htm. There are
online publications like THEOSOPHY WORLD. There are email
discussion lists including theos-talk@yahoogroups.com (see
theos-talk.com or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/).
There are online directories like at http://www.blavatsky.net.
And now there are online sites where theosophical students can
share personal information like at Facebook.com.

A group called "Theosophical Network" was created at
http://www.facebook.com. If you sign up at Facebook and create a
profile, you can join that group wherein you can browse the
profiles of other group members and make a "friend request" of
any. (When you request that someone be your friend on Facebook,
they see your profile and comment and approve or reject the
request. If the request is approved, your profiles are linked
and each of you can see future changes to the other's profile
including any pictures posted or other status notes.) Anyone
reading this is invited to join Facebook and join the
Theosophical Network group. (You find me there as group admin.)

The group is listed under "common interests" then "philosophy,"
and its description is:

> A place to connect with others interested in the ideas found in
> the many schools of Theosophy, with an emphasis on the original
> theosophical philosophy as presented by H.P. Blavatsky, W.Q.
> Judge, and those that followed them. (Some may be T.S. members,
> others subscribers of THEOSOPHY WORLD or other 'ezines, and yet
> others from mailing lists like theos-talk and theos-l.

Facebook is different than earlier sites since email addresses
must be validated and people can only join those groups that they
qualify to join. You can join a regional group for where you
live. You can join a group for where you work if you have a work
email address that can confirm the request to join the group.
You can also join a school or university group if you can confirm
using an email address for that school or university that you get
mail there. Finally, you can join any public group, like
"Theosophical Network," which is created to provide a way for the
millions of people on Facebook to meet, share information with,
and optionally link to others as friends. Consider joining
Facebook and meeting other readers of THEOSOPHY WORLD on a
personal level and as possible future contacts and friends.

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THE LAMA'S LAW

By Talbot Mundy

[From THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH, April 1924, page 357.]

O ye who look to enter in through Discipline to Bliss,
Ye shall not stray from out the way, if ye remember this:
Ye shall not waste a weary hour, nor hope for Hope in vain,
If ye persist with will until self-righteousness is slain.
If through the mist of mortal eyes, deluded, ye discern
That ye are holier than these, ye have the whole to learn!
If ye are tied with tangled pride because ye learn the Law,
Know then, your purest thoughts deny the Truth ye never saw!
If ye resent in discontent the searchlight of reproof,
In hooded pride ye stand aside, at sin's not Soul's behoof!
Each gain for self denies the Self that knows the self is vain.
Who crowns accomplishment with pride must build the whole again!
But if, at each ascending step, more clearly ye perceive
That he must kill the lower will who would the world relieve
And they are last who would be first, their effort thrown away;
Be patient then, and persevere. Ye tread the Middle Way!

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THE PANORAMIC REVIEW

By G. de Purucker

[From DEATH AND THE CIRCULATIONS OF THE COSMOS, I, pages 27-79.]

The panoramic review of the life last past usually begins when
all the bodily activities and functions have ceased, sometimes
indeed before the last heartbeat, sometimes when the last
heartbeat has taken place; but this panorama, as a rule,
continues even after the heart has stopped beating and the last
breath has been expired. It is impossible to state for all cases
how long this panorama takes in human time, because the length of
the panoramic vision varies so tremendously with the individual.
One could only make guesses at the average length of time taken
by the panoramic vision. In some cases, as with individuals of
high spirituality, the whole process is begun and completed
within a few hours, two or three perhaps; in other cases, it may
be seven or eight or even ten or twelve hours, possibly longer.
Probably six hours in the average case is required for this last
visioning of the Maya of the life just lived. But in all cases,
this panoramic vision occurs because the brain is suffused with
the fleeting coruscations and flashing scintillations still
reaching it from the feathery tendrils of the cord of life, which
cord, as above stated, grows progressively thinner and thinner as
the hours pass.

I have been asked how it is possible for such a panorama to take
place in those cases where a man dies suddenly as the result of
some terrible accident to the brain, as for instance when the
brain is blown to pieces or when the body is burned alive. In
such cases as these last, the panorama nevertheless takes place
and continues in normal course, and does so in and through the
higher parts of the astral brain of the Linga-Sharira, which
although it is seriously affected, especially in its more
material parts, by the accident that destroys the physical brain,
nevertheless in all cases endures somewhat longer as a cohering
organ than does the physical brain.

In cases of extreme old age, the panorama begins in a vague and,
as it were, tentative manner for some days or even possibly weeks
before physical death occurs, and this is really the cause of the
stupor that very old people frequently fall into shortly before
they die.

The Esotericist should always remember that every incident, fact,
event, thought, and emotion of a man's life are recorded in the
different parts of his constitution, the mental incidents in the
mental parts of his constitution, the emotional events of his
life in the kama-manasic part of his inner being, and the
spiritual parts in the buddhi-manasic, while the Linga-Sharira
and the physical body are themselves permanently marked and often
noticeably changed, even during life, by the experiences
undergone throughout the incarnation.

The panorama spoken of occurs in all its wondrous and wonderful
detail -- no thought or point of action omitted -- because it is
the result of instinctive or automatic action on the part of the
human monad, which almost unconsciously to itself, as it were,
dislodges from every secret recess of its inner records,
imprinted as these are on its own vital substance, all the
details of the life just past; and due to the spiritual forces at
work, which are strictly harmonic and rigidly karmic,
consciousness functions, again automatically, in opening up the
panorama by beginning with the first incident that memory has
recorded in the life last past, and thereafter proceeds in
stately pageantry of imagery until the last thought is reached,
the last emotion felt, the last intuition had -- and then comes
unconsciousness, complete, sudden, and infinitely merciful. This
is true death.

Now such a panorama cannot possibly take place in its fullness
during the normal lifetime of the man, because the man's
consciousness, or self-consciousness, during life is so
distracted and caught hither and yon by his attention being drawn
to the manifold events in which he is living, that there is no
opportunity for the sequence in regular series of the previous
events since birth; and what we call memory during lifetime is
merely the ability to read more or less accurately the
impressions stamped upon our Auric Egg, which impressions carried
by the auric flow to the physical body, as above described, enter
the texture of the physical brain and nervous system, and by
reaction often make themselves felt as mental or physiological
impressions that are thus truly recognized as 'memories of the
past.'

It is a most marvelous thing to ponder over, that the human
consciousness through its body and its various organs registers
with amazing accuracy, indeed infallibly, not only every mental
and emotional event that occurs from day to day during embodied
life, but even photographs on the registers of the inner being,
so to speak, a perfectly incomprehensibly immense number of
sense-impressions and brain-impressions and nervous impressions
that the day-to-day consciousness of the living man is scarcely
conscious of, or perhaps not conscious of at all. It is
extremely wonderful, indeed; and yet during the Vision or
Panorama of the dying man, every single one of these events,
every incident, whether previously recognized and registered in
memory or not, passes swiftly and with infallible accuracy before
the watching eye of the inner man, just preceding his passing
from this plane.

Thus it is that those around the dying so often hear them
whispering or muttering faintly of the events of early childhood.
Those who have not understood this have supposed that it is a
vision of so-called 'heaven,' or something of the kind. It is
merely the mouth repeating what the brain sees -- memories
passing in review; and back, behind, stands the seeing Self and
judges the past life for what it truly was. It is the judge, and
its judgment is infallibly true. It sees the record of things
done or undone, the thoughts had, the emotions followed, the
temptations conquered or succumbed to; and when the end of the
panorama is reached, it sees the justice of it all. In view of
its vision of past karma, it knows what is coming in the next
life, and it says: "It is just."

There is a similar panoramic visioning of the past life, but in
less vivid and in less complete degree, at what is called the
Second Death in the Kamaloka; but this is not all, for there is a
third recurrence of such a panorama, i.e., just before the human
monad or ego leaves its Devachanic dreaming and becomes again
unconscious -- i.e., un-self-conscious -- preceding reimbodiment
or reincarnation in the human womb. The completeness or fullness
and accuracy in detail in each case depend upon the type of the
respective egos. The student must remember that in all these
things, there is no hard and fast or iron-clad rule that never
varies for anybody, for the converse is the fact. There are
variations or differences of quality and intensity in all these
panoramic visions, these differences depending in all cases upon
the degree of evolution attained by the human ego.

I was once asked the question as to the influence that the habit
of reviewing before one falls asleep at night the events of the
day just closed, has, or might have, upon the death-panorama and
the after-death states in general. Such habit of reviewing the
incidents of the day just closed, when one is preparing oneself
for the night's sleep, is an exceedingly important and very, very
useful thing to do, and I recommend it most earnestly to every
Esotericist.

Its influence or rather effect is that of accustoming the mind to
consider one's life as a field of action involving responsibility
in conduct, giving us the opportunity to draw lessons there from
to do better in the future. It likewise has the very important
effect on the mind of inducing a habit of panoramic visioning,
thus making the panorama or vision at the moment of death far
easier, more quick, and more complete as regards self-conscious
realization of the events passing before the mind's eye. For the
reasons here mentioned, and especially because of the reason last
mentioned, this habit of reviewing the events of the day just
ended has likewise the highly beneficial result of shortening the
second panoramic vision preceding the Second Death, which is a
matter of no small importance indeed!

Such habit of reviewing the day's events is one of the best
possible aids in the building up in one's character of the habit
of ethical or moral examination, as above stated, thus inducing
wisdom in meeting life's problems, and bringing about through
reflection and meditation, even if more or less unconsciously
performed, a spirit of kindliness or love and unceasing sympathy
for others.

A great deal of unnecessary friction and trouble in the world
arises out of the mechanical way in which we live in our minds,
without adequate reflection, without adequate self-examination,
and with little or no analysis of our daily actions and of the
thoughts and emotions bringing these actions to be. Of course I
am not here referring to any unwholesome or morbid introspection;
to this I do not refer at all, for such morbidity should always
be avoided. I refer to the careful, honest, and regular habit of
examining one's thoughts and deeds impartially and critically as
an observer, before one falls asleep. It is a great help in
strengthening our moral intuitions.

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EXPANDING CONSCIOUSNESS

By James Sterling

There is a never-ending battle between the effort to expand and
grow and the effort of substance to resist expansion. We have
present in Nature a continual expansion from within, which is
offset by a continual pressure from without. Thus the physical
nature of every organism is adapted to the pressure of its
environment. The less material the environment is, the greater
the opportunity there is for the spiritual nature to expand.
When all external pressure has been removed, consciousness is now
freed from limitation. As the scope of consciousness is
enlarged, the power of expansion increases, and the walls of
substance are pushed farther back.

Spiritual growth is the struggle of life to control its
environment -- to include more and more of its environment within
the area of its own self-knowing. Perfect freedom of expression
is the goal of all life. All beings are evolving and striving
for that freedom which lies in perfect expression. There is but
one ultimate freedom -- perfection. Every individual is a slave
to his own material constitution; he is a prisoner held in by
walls of unresponsive substance. Thus, the natural expression of
the inner life is to refine and improve the qualities of its
outer vehicles that it may control them. The more refined the
substance, the more easily it is influenced by subtle forces
magnetically surrounding it.

By increasing the acuteness of his nervous organism, man gains
superior consciousness over a certain area of otherwise
unresponsive substance. But as a result of this increasing
sensitiveness, nervous disorders are increasing, because the more
refine the mechanism, the greater the possibility of derangement.

The nerves in the form of etheric streamers extend outward into
the aura as impulse carriers. These etheric nerve endings are
continually contacting forces and forms both visible and
invisible, and convey certain electrical impulses back to the
brain. Many of our "hunches and intuitions," and unaccountable
antipathies or affinities are the result of the reactions by
these etheric nerve threads, which bind every part of the lower
organism of man into one solid body. The phenomena of growth
represent the gradual effort of life, which is innately perfect,
to solidify its perfection and blend itself with the perfection
of all.

The foundation of life is triangular, a threefold creation; the
triangle of man consists of his spirit, his body, and the link
connecting them together.

Divine nature is essentially a part of the divine creation;
physical nature is a part of the material creation. The spirit
is an atom of divine substance, the body an atom of material
substance.

In alchemy, mercury or quicksilver is this blending element
between absolute consciousness and absolute unconsciousness;
mercury accepts into its own nature other metals. In mythology,
Mercury was the mediator serving as the messenger between the
Gods and mortals.

A pair of opposites: divine truth and human ignorance. Man can
only achieve salvation through the attainment of Reality. Truth
is that mysterious, infinite, boundless Reality; man a mere
mortal existing temporarily, spending most of his time foolishly.

As man attempts to elevate himself spiritually he gradually
separates himself from his material environment. To have a
stature great enough to raise his head to heaven and still keep
its feet upon the earth is the proof of true enlightenment.

He who has not knowledge of common things is a brute among men.
He who has an accurate knowledge of human concerns alone, is a
man among brutes. But he who knows all that can be known by
intellectual energy is a God among men.

The demigods can never become men or descend to the level of
mortality because they are of a different and higher order of
creation. In spite of its power and divine abundance of wisdom
and understanding, the demigod is unable to build a physical body
and, hence must borrow one. Such a body then becomes its oracle
or shrine, and through it the demigod reaches the dwellers in the
dark sphere of matter. Thus when a demigod or Deva desires to
communicate himself to this exalted state, and through the higher
vehicles of such a mortal communicates to humanity.

Demigods must not be considered as personalities, but
individualities, in they function in substances too rarefied
(free of gross, material, and physical elements) to permit the
existence of personal organisms.

Pythagoras was overshadowed always by the spirit of the Pythian
Apollo. Man's own spirit is a demigod hovering over his lower
organisms, which are as disciples receiving instruction for
proper and virtuous living from the god within.

Man painfully climbs the many steps leading to the summit of the
pyramid of material attainment, and upon reaching the apex, he
finds himself at the foot of an incalculable flight of steps
leading upward to the very source of Being.

Man has two souls, or rather two phases of one soul
consciousness. The first and superior is the rational soul,
which is that part of man which is of the divine spirit. The
irrational soul is that part, which, being incapable of retiring
into the mysteries of self, and assume the material, objective
man to be the real.

The qualities of the rational soul are apperception,
self-realization, comprehension, and the higher mental
capabilities. The qualities of the irrational soul are external
perception, ignorance, selfishness, lust, greed, and other
similar vices. Sin and death are the masters of the irrational
soul. Realizing the kinship of being one with the All, the
rational soul will eventually attain immortality. Socrates
defines man as a self-knowing being immersed in a not-knowing
body.

Man is two-fold: a rational nature rising out of an irrational
nature. The rational soul is the eternal martyr who is waiting
for his day of liberation, which can only be accomplished when
man elevates himself above his material impulses and lower
desires.

When our consciousness is perfected, we extend from the heights
of height to the depths of depth; we then can penetrate the whole
nature of existence; we are in everything -- we are the whole
nature of everything. In short, we become one with the All.

Consciousness is not the result of the mind convincing the Self;
consciousness is the result of the Self convincing the mind. If
man would grasp the Infinite, it is necessary for him to raise
himself to the level of the Infinite, and as he ascends the
mystery becomes clearer. The Universal Mind is the seven-rayed
Savior God through which man must ascend from darkened
mindlessness to the perfect state of all-knowing mindlessness.
Thus the mind is the Savior-God who leads the soul to the
comprehension of Self.

Good is symmetry or the harmonious coordination of parts. The
symmetry of parts is harmonious and the harmony of parts produces
a concord which is termed Beautiful.

Form has ever been regarded as the emblem of death. Form is the
confusing, resisting, limiting, inhibiting, and imprisoning part
of existence, the graveyard of consciousness. It is termed the
Eternal Adversary, the destroyer. Out of the ever-changing
substances of form all mortal creatures build their bodies, which
are destined to return to the elemental spheres from which they
were derived. Inertia is the characteristic attribute of form.
Life in the mortal sphere without a realization of the Divine
Plan is the true death. Resurrection from this state is the most
desired of attainments.

Beauty, declared the ancient philosophers, results from the
harmonious correlation of parts. To the ancients, the arts and
sciences were all sacred to the Gods, and upon being admitted to
apprenticeship of knowledge and wisdom, the disciple dedicated
himself to the expression of eternal truths. When aesthetics
die, the very structure of society deteriorates and begins its
march toward inevitable oblivion. The codes and morals by which
he lives, being the product of his own internal disquietude, thus
create national and international friction with their result in
crime, war, and disease. Competition is merely a bloodless war
in which the soul and not the body is slain.

The beauty and harmony of the inner nature greatly transcends the
beauty of the outer, for the spiritual essences constitute the
true inner being. The quest of the truly beautiful is therefore
identical with the quest of Self, for Self in its perfect and
universal sense is the all-pervading consciousness practiced by
the sage. As the pure internal nature dwells in perfect order,
it thus rejoices in order and symmetry and is repulsed from
disorder. The reason civilization must crumble is because it is
not beautiful; and lacking the order, harmony, and grace which
collectively constitute beauty; it will be disintegrated by the
friction of its own inharmonious individual parts. Materialism
and Wall Street are the most appropriate symbols of the path of
glory that leads to the grave.

Because of their belief in reincarnation, the ancient Greeks
taught that rational souls incarnated in harmonious environments,
whereas discordant areas were populated with irrational creatures
whose own internal discord attracted them to a discordant sphere.
A home in which dissension reigns attracts to itself a soul
equally discordant.

Time is the true test of nature, and only that which can survive
its ravages is worthy to be termed permanent. One by one, the
fallacies of life fall beneath the reaping scythe of Time. In
time all forms must die; in time all worlds must cease; in time
are contained all beginnings and all endings. In the midst of
this ever-changing scene is the all-pervading permanence -- the
divine Reality, the Self, the perfection of wholeness. Unborn
and undying, the Self is neither young nor old. Its condition
never changes; for as though all things pass away, it alone
endures.

The law of spirit is permanence, and the law of matter is change.
Extremes are basically irrational, and only the point of
equilibrium may be said to be established upon an enduring
foundation.

Man can only liberate himself from corporeal conditions by first
freeing his rational nature from mundane entanglements. The
rationalizing of the individual must take place in the causal
(spiritual) nature, which flowing downward into the corporeal
constitution of man, will mold the inferior into the image of the
superior.

Spiritual growth inspires the contemplation of wholeness, or
unities, and this contemplation of wholeness inspires growth.
Immortality is the merging of a mortal nature with an immortal
nature; the nature of the immortal is caused to extend and
include the nature of the mortal. By elevating themselves to the
perfection of wholeness, human beings are able to partake of the
immortality of their archetype.

The air is the ancient and secret symbol of rationality and
represents the illumined mind. The free air of the spirit comes
to relieve man when he is willing to renounce the oppressed
prison atmosphere of the body.

Divinity representing wholeness and unity forever mingles with
itself; humanity representing fragmentation and disunity may be
brought together, yet certain separateness remains as long as
human weakness remains. To the degree that he overcomes the
sense of separateness, man outgrows his humanity and rises to the
state of Godhood of immortality.

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THE JUSTICE IN NATURE

By Alun Llewellyn

[From THE ARYAN PATH, July 1966, pages 349-53.]

Law is an idea on which man's social, religious, and moral
principles converge. At one extreme, however, it may be
interpreted as nothing more than the effective decrees of a
government irresponsible to every principle except that of
maintaining itself in power. This is an aspect of thought with
which twentieth-century industrial society has become familiar in
practice. At another extreme, Law can be held to be so great a
thing that Deity itself owes its existence to it. This is the
principle of Dharma accepted by Hindu philosophy. It is not too
much of an exaggeration to say that all history is an account of
the human dilemma in making the choice between these
alternatives; for the philosophy of Anarchism, sometimes invoked
as a repudiation of both interpretations, appears in fact either
in the negative form of mere escapism from authoritative tyranny,
or where it operates as a positive principle, it becomes an
extension of the idea of Law as a supreme divinity that must
express itself through the individual.

Without Law, there can be no society, not even one of anarchist
philosophers; for they, by definition, must govern themselves by
a moral code implicit in the idea of self-control. And
anarchists, without philosophy, naturally destroy both society
and the individual anarchist. Recognition of this unfortunate
fact impressed men's minds sufficiently to make them attribute
Law to some authority greater than themselves, a god or what is
understood by a god, a principle of balance, of order, not only
in the material circumstances of the present but also one that
could design a past beyond man's memory towards a future beyond
his knowledge.

This definition, which is basic to the origin of the idea of Law
in all societies, does in fact assume a constant principle
superior not only to the accidents of Time but also to the
embodiments of social order that men have produced in the shape
of personalized local deities, and also to the distinctive
aspects of nature that they similarly symbolized. If Hellenic
political scientists thought of the ideal City as shaped by the
idea of Law, Hellenic religion was similarly aware that Justice
(Dike) was the highest expression of Olympus. But this in itself
enhances the problem of definitions that lies at the root of most
human disorders.

For Law and Justice are not necessarily the same things in every
social context. Law is often nothing more than what men submit
to because they have no choice; Justice is what they accept
because they prefer it. It is even more than that; probably the
best definition of Justice was given by Solon, the Athenian
legislator, who pointed out that Justice was never fully
established until each man felt that a wrong done to another was
a wrong done to himself. This in turn implies that there is a
system of ethics above both what it suits a government to impose
by way of decree and what it suits a citizen to think of as
self-interest, however enlightened. How such an ethical concept
could have arisen in the circumstances of ordinary human
association is a question that has perplexed inquiry through all
time.

Modern thought on the subject turns on the phrase first evolved
for the concept -- Natural Justice. But like much else in
current thought, it has become confused by eighteenth-century
interpretation.

Charles Louis de Secondat is better known by his title, Baron de
Montesquieu, and is famous for a work, THE SPIRIT OF LAWS, which
introduced, at least for his generation, a new way of thinking.
It was a way of thought affecting the deepest problem men face,
the relation of the individual to the society in which he lives,
the relation that Tom Paine summarized as the Rights of Man and
Mazzini as the Duties of Man. Each of them, Paine as expounder
of the doctrines of American independence and Mazzini as prophet
of Italian nationalism in particular and ideal socialism in
general, reacted in his own way to what Montesquieu introduced.
But it was Rousseau, who fathered the French Revolution by way of
THE SOCIAL CONTRACT, whom it is most instructive to compare with
Montesquieu (whose THE SPIRIT OF LAWS was published fourteen
years before THE SOCIAL CONTRACT).

When Montesquieu wrote, the idea of a principle of Justice
inherent in Creation had passed through several stages; notably,
in Roman practice, it had inclined to look strictly to the
customs of international commerce and communication (Jus
Gentium), with only a tenuous relationship to any moral
principle. It had then alternated between the scholastic
definitions of revelation through men's inherent reason or
through a divinely inspired ecclesiastical institution. What
distinguished Montesquieu's writing in the long succession of
philosophic discussion of the theory is that he rejected
altogether the idea of Law as containing any moral principle
governing all things in all times and places in favor of a more
relativist view. What men's institutions embodied, he argued,
was as much a product of variant local conditions of climate and
geography as were the beasts and crops on which they fed.

His view of Nature was, therefore, limited to the physical
character of Earth itself, the desert, jungle, or prairie, the
shores or snows, which men chose or were forced to live among but
that in any case imposed themselves on mankind. It departed
altogether from the original idea of Nature as something eternal
and universal and with a principle of Justice in it, of which
human laws were at best an imperfect expression and that must, if
they departed from it, override them with a moral force. He is
therefore accepted as the initiator of the scientific process of
factual analysis with which the twentieth century has so far
preferred to explain man in terms of economic or biological
processes, which are "natural" enough but leave no room for
mental or moral action to master them. The "Nature" he examined
was altogether different from the "Nature" assumed by the first
philosophy.

Rousseau's translation of the idea of Nature was in some ways
more in the traditional line of descent. In reaction against the
social conditions of his day, he imagined men, before society as
such existed at all, as living in a state of "nature" that was
wholly human, ideally free, generous, and upright, as represented
in later Romantic thinking by the ideal of the Noble Savage; a
condition from which men had departed only by means of a Social
Contract for their good government, which all governments had
thereafter betrayed. For him, the moral laws were something man
arrived at by natural instinct, the sense of community with his
fellows, THE COMMON SELF, so strongly argued by his theory that,
logically, no need for a Social Contract should ever have arisen.

It is the combination of these two particular adaptations of the
idea of Natural Justice that established the nineteenth-century
philosophy of Marx that similarly relied on the natural instinct
of the Noble Savage (Proletarian or Peasant) to evolve a communal
sense of what was right and wrong and derived it from the direct
inspiration of economic determinism. And what divides the world
at present can, to a great extent, be epitomized as a debate
between the successors of Rousseau (Economic Determinism) and
those of Montesquieu (Regional Pragmatism).

For the tendency of recent commentary on jurisprudence and
political theory is to dismiss the Law of Nature, in any sense
other than economic or biological, as something too remote to be
defined as Law at all. Even the form it took in matters of
religious speculation is now widely called in question. But as a
dominant factor in the moral maturity of mankind, the importance
of the Law of Nature is beyond question. Without the realization
of such a spiritual force exceeding the material power of
individual states or the self-interest of individuals, Grotius
could never have conceived the idea of international justice,
Equity in Britain could never have emerged to correct the
imperfections of legal administration, nor could Augustine of
Hippo have invoked the City of God as something preferable to the
imperial reign of the Roman world or Thucydides presented in the
greatest of all historical records the theme of retribution
visited upon Athens when it had denied Justice.

Historically, the Law of Nature was conceived by Stoic philosophy
and passed into Roman provincial government particularly through
the work of the Stoic lawyer Marcianus, whose concepts of
corporate personality and the equitable distinction between the
use and the ownership of property curiously anticipate British
practice. That Stoic philosophy based itself directly on the
idea of the ordered Universe, a system of thought that as we now
know preceded what we recognize as the Classic civilization of
the West and founded cultures in areas it never or only
tentatively reached. It was an order of Law of which the entire
Earth itself was only a minor and imperfectly adjusted part and
Man the last and most experimental unit in its work of creation.
He was the only piece in that construction that was conscious and
free to move, and he had, therefore, not a predestined path to
follow, subject to Montesquieu's geography or Rousseau's
infallible instinct, but rather a choice of ways for good or
evil.

The Law was the unimaginable purpose that conceived the immense
sphere of Outer Space, the Night, and from that established the
perfect mathematics of Time that controlled the yearly, monthly,
daily, hourly assonance of the shifting constellations and from
that again had freed the banded rhythm of the seven planets; and
from the sphere of Fire and Air so shaped, then fashioned the
frame of Earth, the waters of the ring of Ocean, and the shores
of Land within it. The progress was from Thought to Form, to
Soul, and then to Body, from an eternal Mind to the brief life of
Man. And since men, like all the work of Creation, were by the
deduction that the mathematics of the stars imposed required to
return into the eternal Mind, the Law of Nature was read as a
more than super-human principle, and Man, as a creature burdened
with knowledge, with the ultimate responsibility of choice; his
destiny was not pre-conditioned; neither good by mere instinct
nor evil by mere ignorance. His purpose was to complete the
purpose of the immortal Mind of the universe.

Unless the origin of the Law of Nature is fully realized,
discussion of its meaning is unprofitable. That origin was in
precise and factual observation of the mechanics of the Heavens
and in realization of the harmony existing in computation of
them. It was their balanced geometry that directly inspired the
technical discoveries that made architecture, the calendar,
navigation, and writing possible. The fact is confirmed by the
language of the early Accadians, whose word for performing an act
of religious ritual is the same as that for working out a sum.
The most tremendous intellectual effort of men was born from the
logic of astronomical research, the concept that Earth itself was
not limited to the visible horizon but rather that a lower
horizon or hemisphere, the "hinder part" of its structure, also
existed. Nothing more differentiates Man from the insect
communities or the intelligence of other animals than that effort
of imaginative deduction and its sequel concept that Earth hangs
suspended in a void by the balanced tensions of an ordered Law.

The Stoics and Pythagoreans, the schools of thought that take the
name of Brahma or Manu, sprang from that early and widely
diffused science from which the idea of deity -- unnameable,
unpersonifiable -- was received. The Law of Nature was the
discernible law that moved among the galaxies, not the incidental
accidents of climate or human appetite, and Natural Justice was
the purpose manifest in that law.

The twentieth century has to discover something more than what it
terms (very relatively) the reaches of Outer Space; it has to
re-discover what touched Man's mind into humanism when he first
looked at the stars to know how they moved.

------------------------------------------------------------------
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN

By R. Machell

[From THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH, April 1924, pages 358-62]

This surely is a topic of general interest. There are many
people who undertake to teach newcomers to this world how to make
the most of it, how to beat it at its own game, how to get a
larger share of its favors than falls to the lot of ordinary
mortals, how to make a good show in the world, or how to
accommodate themselves to its peculiarities. And this
preparation for the 'battle of life' is called education. These
'educators' take it for granted that life is a battle, and all
their teaching concerns the art of getting the best of every
bargain or of every opponent. Life is, to them, entirely
composed of transactions in which opponents try to beat one
another, either in business, play, or war. Thus, according to
their philosophy of life, all men being potential antagonists
must at all times be ready for a fight. And yet the world is
shocked when war breaks out and civilization crumbles.

In spite of the popularity of this 'struggle for existence'
theory, and the inevitability of war theory, for which all men
should prepare; and even in spite of the education that teaches
men to look upon their fellows as potential, if not certain,
enemies, yet there is a large body of people who want peace or
who would be glad to see war abolished, even while they would
still continue to carry on their business along lines of
cut-throat competition.

There are people who presume to think that life is not
necessarily a struggle for existence, even if man has made it
seem so. And therein we may see the recognition of another
theory of life: the theory that this world in which we live is
what we choose to make it, insofar as our own share in its life
is concerned. And there are some who think that man's share in
the life of the world is a big one, if not a determining factor
in its character. They think that most of the wars of the world
are heirlooms bequeathed to us by our ancestors, who, if not
actually fighting themselves, were busy preparing those
ambitions, rivalries, and hates from which wars spring
eventually. Also they looked ahead and saw the necessary harvest
that should come, and so to make it sure, they bound their nation
to some other by alliances for mutual defense or mutual
assistance in predatory enterprises, so making future war a
certainty.

Part of the education above alluded to attempts to root the
'struggle for existence' theory in the young minds that are being
prepared to carry on the old tradition of rights that are based
on power to gratify desire; so creating the necessary condition
from which wars spring. For after all, war is inevitable only
when those in power, be they few or many, are imbued with a
conviction that war is a necessary condition of the world we live
in.

Heredity is powerful no doubt; but hereditary tendencies may all
be modified, or even overcome, and the acceptance of a legacy is
not obligatory.

The legacy of national ambitions, national claims, national
alliances for mutual aid in war, national hates, or national
revenge, is bad enough; but it rests with the present generation
to ratify the obligations so imposed, or to dissolve them by
concession or by compromise. War is not necessary: "there is
always another way" of settling a difference. One way is with
understanding. To see the disputed question from your opponent's
point of view is a great help to understanding. To be tolerant
of other people's misunderstanding is to destroy one of the
causes of war. To love humanity is to paralyze the
fighting-instinct: it is to recognize a higher law than the
'struggle for existence.'

To make that higher law operative in this world is to change its
character. And this is what man exists for; to put right the
wrongs done and reestablish right ideals in the world so that
evolution may proceed and the 'struggle for existence' shall no
longer block the upward path of human progress. There should be
no struggle for existence.

It is not difficult to see that war means retrogression. Its
immediate aim is general destruction and repression. Even a war
of liberation, which seems so noble, is but the first step in the
establishment by force of a new power that shall conquer and
destroy some other power and acquire its territory or reduce it
to subservience. A conquered nation rises, conquers its
oppressor, reestablishes its lost power, and perhaps would like
to rest on its conquest and enjoy in peace the fruits of victory.
But that cannot be. War will breed war. "Hatred does not cease
by hatred, but by love."

It is for us to change the world we live in. That may seem a big
mouthful; but think of it in this way: ask yourself, what is the
world I live in? Is it so vast? What is it other than my own
thought-sphere, the sphere of my ideals and my aspirations, my
loves and hates, my sympathies and antipathies, my claims, my
rights, my passions and desires? The world I live in is made up
of these. How often do I step outside of it and breathe the open
air of the great world in which the million millions of
individual lives appear as living atoms in the body of a
universe, a godlike being suffering from all the discord raging
in his blood? Am I indeed a citizen of this greater world? Or am
I imprisoned in my little world, my personal self, concerned with
personal wants and personal desires, at war with others like
myself with similar desires and similar imaginary rights, rights
that we all hope to justify by wrongs, whose consequences we all
hope will somehow be miraculously transmuted into benedictions?

But the law of life is not miraculous. "That which ye sow that
also shall ye reap." The world we live in is just as we have made
it, we or our predecessors, who were perhaps ourselves, if the
truth were known. If the world has to be miraculously altered,
it is we ourselves that must work the miracle, we or our
successors, who also may be ourselves. And how can it be done?
Reformers have been busy in all ages and are so still,
endeavoring to persuade someone else to do their job, instead of
putting the reform immediately into practice. And this continual
attempt to induce others to change the world we live in springs
from a misunderstanding of the peculiar nature of that world and
our relation to it.

The world we live in is our own thought-sphere, which is not
separated from the thought-sphere of the world. All that we know
about the world is just our own ideas, impressions, and
experiences. In those we live. Our words and acts, yes even our
thoughts, are the expression of our moods, our aspirations, our
desires. They are the material with which we build or the seeds
that we plant; they are the soil; they are the creatures that
inhabit this world of which we are creators. And if our gardens
only produce a mass of poison-weeds, whose fault is it? And if
wild animals abound, may it not be that they are born from
thoughts of men?

And, if we would reform the world, where had we best begin?
Surely it is no use to preach reforms we have not learned to
practice, for preaching is not teaching. To teach effectively,
we must prepare an atmosphere in which the child may grow, and
the most effective teaching is example.

Reformers who try to get other people to adopt reforms that they
themselves have not yet made effective in their own lives are
setting an example of talking while not doing; and that is the
lesson that will be learned, 'how not to do it.' And this is not
a moral platitude, it is a distressing fact. It also has its
lesson, which is simply that the way to change the world is just
to change the only part of it within our reach, the world we live
in. This brings us back to where we started with the question of
education.

What are the fundamental teachings that best fit a child for
life? Obviously the first requisite must be a right philosophy of
life: a correct theory of life, a basis for a moral code, an
understanding of the purposes for which we live. Taking the last
problem first, I suppose it might be said that its solution is
the object of existence, entailing as it does the achievement of
self-knowledge.

Assuming that self-knowledge is attainable, and seeing as we must
that all nature is evolving towards that goal, and seeing that
the range of human intelligence and understanding extends in both
directions beyond the limits of our ordinary mentality, as from
the fact that the lowest specimens of humanity seem less than
human in their ignorance and degradation, while the highest pass
easily beyond the reach of even the most highly educated
intellects and have to be classified as geniuses whose inspired
utterances seem to place them in a category that is almost
superhuman; it does not seem more than reasonable to suppose that
there exist men as superior to our men of genius as they are to
the most degraded savages.

Assuming further that the universe is a manifestation of
universal consciousness, we must feel sure that from the lowest
form of matter to the highest breath of spirit is an unbroken
graduation of consciousness, appropriate to each of the
innumerable interpenetrating grades of spiritual intelligence, on
which is modeled the external universe with all its countless
lives, in one of which grades we find ourselves.

Observing what takes place in nature and in the history of human
civilization, we notice that the rudiments of science and
civilization come to man from above; that is to say from the men
of genius, whose 'prophetic vision' points the way that science
must follow, establishing a road for the masses who come after.
The theory of the caveman evolving for himself civilization and
science is not supported by observation. Nor is it reasonable.
Whereas the theory that knowledge is given to man by those who
know, insofar as we can speak of knowledge being given at all, is
eminently reasonable and is going on all the time. True, that
which is given by one to another is no more than a suggestion, an
indication, or a little push in the right direction, which must
be taken up and worked out and converted into knowledge by
experiment and experience before it can be applied to practical
problems.

So the Theosophist accepts the teachings of the ancient
Wisdom-Religion or Theosophy as indications, not as dogmas. One
of these teachings is the perfectibility of man; not an
unreasonable theory if the whole universe is in a state of
evolution.

On this assumption it would be reasonable to accept the
perfectibility of man as an indication of his path in life, to
seek self-knowledge, to attain. And the first need of the
newcomer to this world in which we live is right education, to
set him securely on the path of self-knowledge. This education
will warn him of the duality of his own nature, and enable him to
discriminate between the impulses that, coming from below, might
if unrecognized deceive him, and those spiritual impulses that
enlighten the mind with flashes of inspiration, that will reveal
to him the true path of evolution. He will be taught the power
of his will and of his creative imagination, which will enable
him to make of his life a beneficent influence changing the world
he lives in to a potential paradise in comparison with the hell
in which so many millions drag out their existence.

And the aim of this high living must be to realize a great and
greater sympathy with all that lives, expanding the world by
raising the idea of Self until it loses its earthly selfishness
and sees itself as a pure ray of spiritual consciousness flashed
from the central Spiritual Self.

Unless this impersonality is made a living power in the mind,
there will creep in the shadow of the lower self with all its
pride and its ambition. Then under such evil auspices, the
pursuit of self-development will merely isolate the soul and
raise it to a pinnacle of self-delusion, which must eventually
crumble and leave the pilgrim to begin anew.

The comparison of life to a pilgrimage is not a happy one,
because the general idea of pilgrimage includes the acceptance of
unnecessary hardships that are to be repaid a thousand fold with
spiritual bliss -- a most unreasonable transaction. The path of
true evolution should be one of joy, whatever the hardships of
the road may be. As indications of progress they may be
valuable, but as mere suffering, they are irrelevant, for pain
and pleasure are but the two poles of sensation and are peculiar
to the personality. One who is living for mankind will have but
little time to suffer on his own account.

When the personal point of view is abandoned, and a broader
sympathy expands the thought of Self, the world we live in will
become more beautiful and our lives richer in the true joy of
life.

Whether the world we live in shall be great or small, whether it
shall be miserable or full of joy, whether it shall include the
universe or close us in a prison of self-pity that is for each
one to decide. We make the world we live in; if it is not
satisfactory, we can remake it, if we will.

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