KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

—

LESSON 11

No sadder condition of modern life meets the eye of the true

Initiate today than that induced by the pseudo-occultist and his dupes

or pupils : sad because in many cases the teacher himself is deceived ;

sad, because hundreds of weak-willed, self-hypnotised men and

Women are sowing the seeds of insanity, idiocy, and disintegration for

themselves and their descendants ; saddest of all because the ideal and

hope of, and in, the Infinite Spirit of all life with its beauty, truth and

power is being dragged in the mud of sensuality, selfishness and final

degradation, to satisfy man's desire for power in various ways. If any

man or woman of average intelligence will faithfully examine his

heart and his life, he will find therein old or new tendencies, or full

grown evil habits, gross selfishness, or indications of a leaning toward

the dark side of life. Nine out of ten will find a diseased body or weak

organic centres ; or an inherited or induced tendency to some form of

physical or astral ailment. All true works on Occultism preface

instruction with the warning, that unless a student possesses a sound

mind in a sound body, the practice of Magic which includes the

command of the forces of Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Psychometry,

Psychology, and many other degrees of force and substance, is most

dangerous, if not fatal. [TT 27]

Thousands of human beings "rush in where angels fear to tread",

with no qualification, no power of mind or body to combat or control

the occult forces they have evoked, simply because they have what

they term an overwhelming desire for knowledge and power, or have

been disappointed in more material fields of labor, or because the

inner longing and craving of the soul calls for something to expend

that energy upon. In the latter instance the ranks are filled from

disappointed seekers after a personal God, who having placed all their

hope for this world and the hereafter on such a God, and having lived

to see their faith dispelled, their hope annihilated, turn to the first

philosophy that is capable of filling the aching void within. They

grasp with eagerness the promises held out in such an exposition of

philosophy, and entirely neglect the warnings, in many cases ignoring

directions given for preparing conditions of body and mind to receive

and profit by the promises. Understand me ; I am not discouraging

honest effort, I am not denying the truth and power of the Secret Laws

of life commonly termed Occultism ; I am not denying the fact that

there do exist teachers who are capable of imparting much preliminary

instruction ; neither do I deny that there lives a man or woman in the

world who is incapable of receiving such instruction, to some degree ;

what I do deny is, that a sensualist, or drunkard, a glutton, a hypocrite,

a selfish or diseased man or woman, is capable of evoking or

controlling the higher or finer forces of Nature, until such time as he

has eradicated vice and disease from mind and body. Some of you will

say, how can this be when there are Black Magicians who do evoke

and control such powers ? But . bear this in mind . such Magicians

are on the downward Arc of the Cycle of manifestation ; they have

gained such powers by the same methods you must use to gain them,

and have at some time passed far beyond your present condition in the

scale of life, and have fallen from a much greater height than you have

yet gained. You are so wedded to this idea of a single life on earth

even yet, that it is difficult for you to realize that a very good or a very

bad man has planted the seed of the good or evil now manifesting,

many Cycles ago . that he has been, and is now, cultivating his own

vineyard, the vines of which are his own lives on earth.

Far be it from me to advise you to think less, aspire less, strive

less, to reach the goal which we are all seeking, Master as well as

Pupil, but I cannot urge you too strongly to look at this subject from a

common . sense standpoint, to try to realize that the soil, the trunk,

and branches of a tree must be perfectly developed if you would have

a perfect blossom, perfect fruit. The fully developed Soul must have

[TT 28] a perfectly developed instrument through which to function,

and when your desires and thoughts tend towards the final

accomplishment practical Occultism, be thankful that you have

reached a point where you are able to see, first your needs, then the

possibility of supplying those needs ; and, wherein you are deficient,

set to work with a WILL to clear away all debris and build a firm

foundation for the superstructure you hope to build thereon.

You would not believe the man or woman who told you he cool

take you just as you are and place you in the ranks with Beethoven or

Michael Angelo by giving you lessons for a year or two in music or

sculpture. How much less can you gain the power of an Initiate from

the instruction of the average teacher of Occultism. Every hums being

has in him a spark of divinity . a seed . but he must himself supply

the soil, must water and tend the sprouted plant until it reaches

perfection ; he cannot saturate the soil with Nitric Acid without

killing, the seed.

The unity and interdependence of the astral and physical bodies is

frequently ignored. If the heart of the physical man is diseased, the

heart of the astral is also diseased, although the original cause of the

disease may be in either body. If in the astral, that is where they cure

must be finally accomplished ; if in the physical, corresponding : force

and substance must be brought to bear to counteract the conditions of

disease. Mental Scientists claim that all disease originates on the mind

plane. This is a mistake ; for a primary cause may originate ? on any

one of the four lower planes of manifestation, and the effect of the

cause is great or small according to the plane upon which the cause

was set up. A virulent, evil cause set up on the mind plane will' create

far more disastrous results than a like cause of the same strength

originating on the physical plane.

Owing to this intimate relation between the two bodies, the

would-be chela must learn to distinguish between astral and physical

characteristics or conditions, and to be absolute master over both

before he can reach planes interior to the Astral, for the gulf between

all planes must be bridged, and the forces or materials which bridge

the gulf are, so to speak, emanations from the substance of the bodies

on either side, and must be strong and enduring, or a great danger will

confront the Pilgrim making the pass, the danger of being lost in the

gulf, which means the loss of the weaker body of the two, whether it

be physical or astral. It is a well known fact that many soulless men

and women are now upon earth ; the gradual disintegration of an astral

organ or body is frequently responsible for the loss of an organ or the

death of a body on the physical plane. Frequent [TT 29] cases of

blindness from birth are due to the disintegration or loss of the astral

organ as a result of the misuse of that organ in a former incarnation ;

such misuse terminating in the creation of Skandas which persist from

one incarnation to another. Such a case was that of the man born blind

whom Jesus cured by forgiving his sin, said forgiveness meaning the

disintegration of the Skanda, thus permitting normal action . "the

works of God" . to manifest.

The one great difficulty in teaching the Way, the Truth, and the

Life to the average man, is his impatience, his unwillingness to grow

naturally and normally, and also his contempt for what he deems are

old or simple methods of preliminary instruction. I could very easily

show you how to evoke certain Occult powers, but if you had not in

yourself the power to command these forces, they would simply turn

and rend you, and I would be an accessory in your crime. I have made

you certain promises which I am willing and able to perform, but your

share in this work is no light one, and while I desire to give you all

possible encouragement, it is needful that you realize possible dangers

from without as well as within ; to be able to distinguish between what

is possible and what is impossible in your own development. All this

is quite within your present power if you will but be true to

yourselves ; will but face yourselves up courageously and

determinedly. A fault acknowledged is half conquered ; a virtue

recognized is capable of expansion and growth.

...

THE PHENOMENA OF SLEEP AND DEATH

—

LESSON 12

The welcome truth that Sleep and Death are Twin Sisters,

beneficent, healing and vivifying, is gradually making its way through

the scientific as well as the religious world, bearing on its winos faith

and trust in the fundamental lays of life which underlie all phenomena,

and casting down forever the great Moloch of fear which stands at the

gate of all men's minds, ready to devour each child of hope which has

been conceived and born in the joy of life.

Erroneous conceptions of the substance of the brain, and the

hitherto mysterious action of interior forces within that substance, are,

one by one, giving way to sane, sensible conclusions, and to a better

understanding of the phenomena which have so long puzzled Science

[TT 30] . though perfectly understood and explained by ancient

Sages ; unfortunately . these explanations are oftentimes given in

symbolical language not easily interpreted by the unenlightened.

The formation of the cells of the brain and spinal cord, in

contradistinction to the formation of the cells of all other organs

tissues, produces some very peculiar characteristics, which have pas

almost unobserved, or at least unexplained by the average

investigator.

The cells of the Spinal cord are classified as branched or stellate

cells ; these minute branches have a very important office, as they

serve to conduct energy from one cell to the other, as do also curious

little feelers or points of contact with which each brain bristles when

the blood is coursing naturally through the brain cell waking hours,

and which are a source of never ending curiosity the interested

observer. If the same observer has ever watched the little feelers on

the head of a snail as they disappear when brought in contact with an

extraneous substance, he will realize the similarity the action of the

brain cells under excitation ; for when the blood currents of the body

become sluggish as in sleep, the points of the brat, cells are indrawn.

The electric force or nervous energy generated by and in the

blood currents, operates through these points of contact by using them

conveyers of nervous energy from one cell to another ; and as each

cell is a miniature world in embryo, with all its powers dormant save

for the particular vibration manifesting in one Cycle, the receipt and

expenditure of the force by contact with the points of every

contiguous cell, awakens, or rather increases that particular vibration,

and permits the higher forms of electric energy known as mind, which

are conveyed by and in these nerve fluids, to pass through and leave

their impress within each cell. It is a mistake to think of the cells as

repositories of knowledge or power ; they are but reflectors and

conveyers of different, forms of energy. In hours of sleep when these

points of contact are indrawn, our consciousness functions on inner

planes where such material means of conveying force are not

operative, because no longer required, as the energy which required

their assistance to contact the physical plane then passes freely from

one interior cell to another in the same way as mundane electricity

passes from one pole to another as is manifested in the arc light, or by

the contact of such wires as are used to convey that form of energy.

Time and Space are annihilated in dream life because of the rapid

action of the energy of mind when freed from bonds of matter ; and

life in a state of dream is a foretaste of what life may be when the

coarser grades of matter which now hold the embryonic God-man in

[TT 31] bondage are refined ; and the energy which now must act

under all the difficulties man has ignorantly thrown up by unnatural,

unwise methods and practices, through countless incarnations, will

then be guided and controlled by the higher or Spiritual will of man,

for the perfecting of a body as much superior to the bodies of the

present races of mankind as the latter are superior to those of the

animal creation. There is no questioning the fact that ignorance is the

root of all evil. With the dispelling of ignorance and the acquiring of

knowledge concerning the laws governing critical states of energy, a

new era must dawn for humanity ; even now its signs are evident in

the interest shown in Mesmerism, Hypnotism and various other forms

of force ; for these are all differentiations of one great force or energy.

Some of you are frequently asked why mental healing is not openly

advocated by Temple members, as the power of mental energy is

freely acknowledged. As well might one ask a school boy why he

does not perform a difficult operation, or take upon himself the care of

a case of typhoid fever. Every human passion, every characteristic,

every organ of a body, is, in its ultimate state, a form of force subject

to Law. If a specific disease attacks some organ, and you try to

remedy the evil by mental healing, and you do not know just what

form of energy will counteract the force in, manifestation as disease,

and just how to apply it, and the necessary degrees to be applied . in

fact, know nothing about the subject save that you believe in mental

healing and imagine that you have the power to draw from an infinite

reservoir of healing force, and that the force itself will find out the

cause of disease and counteract it . can you not see that you are

abusing or ignoring the laws which govern all manifestation ?

Whether it be force as Matter, or simple force, all degrees of

manifestation are subject to the action of rigid law, and each degree

has its own specific form, which in turn has its peculiar

correspondences. If, for instance, you send a force of contraction into

an organ that requires the force of expansion in order to change some

condition resident within that organ or vice versa, you will inevitably

work harm ; you might hit upon the right form of force, but the

chances are you would not ; or if you did, you might supply a degree

of force that would injuriously affect some other organ. Even

admitting that you had so Perfected and purified your Will as to

enable you safely to direct such forces to a given end, you have a long

course of education to complete on interior lines, before it is safe to

attempt to tamper with these Powers that can kill as easily as create.

Countless examples of healing by mental or Christian Science are

pointed at as examples of the falsity of our position in this matter. If

physical health alone and that for a [TT 32] short period, be the sole

aim of the disciple, and if he is capable of the perfect diagnosis that

will determine how much or how little he has really been helped, our

position may be pronounced untenable by some ; but, knowing what

we do, we still insist on the truth of our statement.

...

THE COSMIC LABORATORY

—

LESSON 13

The scum which rises to the top of a stagnant pool is the result of

Nature's effort to purify the contents of the pool. The eruption which

appears on the skin of a human being is the result of Nature's effort to

purify the blood stream of that person. The flow of nonsense, the

uninterrupted volume of words that even sleep can hardly dam up in

individual cases, is due to a corresponding action induced by Nature in

order to clarify the mind by casting forth the froth of words minus

ideas.

In all such instances, an effort made to condense or conserve the

energy in operation before its work is completed, would result in

creating deplorable interior conditions. Though the scum, the eruption,

the tiresome tirade of words, may not be desirable from an exterior

standpoint, the ultimate effect of such action on the interior planes is

most decidedly helpful during some phases of evolution, or until the

power of right concentration is attained.

The phenomena of the whole physical plane are more easily

interpreted when the action of Nature's laws of purification in the

process of perfecting matter is understood ; for what is true in the

illustration given above, is true of every form and division . of

substance in manifestation on the physical plane. The latter is, so to

speak, the refuse of the higher planes . the workshop or. laboratory

where the Meta-Chemists of the Universe are at work, purifying,

distilling, and recombining the atoms cast forth from interior planes ;

and as soon as the work is completed in any given instance, it is

transferred to the next higher plane.

The laws of attraction, repulsion and gravitation will not permit a

single atom that vibrates to one key, to remain in the sphere of energy

governed by another key, until it vibrates perfectly to the universal

chord of Spirit, Soul and Matter. [TT 33]

The differences which seemingly exist between human beings, are

not so great as they are sometimes supposed to be. No person

absolutely incapable of living the life of any other person, however

good or bad, could exist for an hour on the physical plan . Many of

you would refuse to admit that by any possibility you could duplicate

the evil deeds of another person, or perform the great ones of others ;

but you would be wrong. You may never have had temptation or

motive power sufficiently strong to lead you into the first, no

opportunities have occurred for the performance of the last ; but under

exactly the same circumstances, and with the same amount of desire

and energy, the result would be the same in the case of all normal

human beings. As soon as an individual reaches a stage of evolution

on any particular plane where he has gassed, or has fallen behind his

race, Nature removes him temporarily. And this she continues to do in

the case of the former, until he has evolved to a state in which all

matter becomes subservient to him, though aeons of time be

consumed in the process ; and then it becomes a matter of choice with

him as to where he will remain ; for he has become one with the Law

. a Creator . a Universal Chemist. But even this state does not free

him from the possibility of failure and fall ; he can never be entirely

free from that possibility while in the bonds of matter or substance ;

and he is always in those bonds while in manifestation as a

personality. Only pure spirit is invulnerable, incorruptible. However

slight its incasement, or contact with matter, a condition comparable

to an alloy of gold and lead exists, from the union of matter and spirit.

In the former instance, the gold may be separated by means of fire ; in

the latter instance, Spirit may be separated from matter by means of

pain and suffering, which constitutes one aspect of experience.

Spirit and Matter are two poles of Universal Consciousness, and

all the intermediate stages between these poles are the battle . grounds

and laboratories where countless Souls . Sparks of the Infinite Fire-

win or lose the right to eternal individual conscious life ; and where

transmutation of gross matter into precious Spiritual Energy is carried

on through each great Cycle of Time.

...

DANGERS OF THE ASTRAL PLANE

—

LESSON 14

You would not expect to increase the growth of a normal child in

a normal environment by compelling or permitting it to frequent

[TT 34] exciting scenes either of amusement or travel. Whether such

scenes were in themselves good or evil in character, the fact remains

that the physical atoms which constitute the body of a child would

receive no impetus to growth by such experiences. Neither a view of

the "Passion Play" nor an attendance at a bull . fight would materially

change the physical atoms, whatever effect either or both might have

on the substance of the inner or astral body. Yet many of those who do

not as yet understand the gulf that separates each plane of matter or

substance from every other plane, believe that the soul can grow in

power by temporarily detaching the astral from the physical body, and

allowing the currents of the astral plane (the Uphadi or base of air) to

waft it . guideless and compassless though it be . wheresoever they

may.

Without the possession of that spiritual power and knowledge

which can only be gained by long continued battle with the spiritual

giants which control that particular plane . giants which for want of

better terms we symbolize by the terms Ambition, Pride, Avarice and

Self . indulgence, but which are, in reality, states of matter and

therefore Entities . the astral body would be at the mercy of its natural

antagonists, and may even be permanently separated from its physical

body, and the latter be obsessed by some earth . bound soul or demon.

By battling with and either overcoming, or winning equal power

to that already won by such entities or powers, through the stress and

strain of the struggle, the individual soul creates a state of at-one-

ment, by means of which it may enter at will the dominions hitherto

barred to it. Without such power the soul is as helpless as a little child

in the midst of a great city, where virtue and vice elbow each other

and where snares and pitfalls await the unwary at every turn ; for,

remember, the astral plane holds the counterpart of every creature and

thing that has ever existed or been created by gods, demons or men.

I do not desire to convey the impression that the above

mentioned, powers or entities are opposed to the progress of man ;

they but represent the positive pole of life, and are in natural

opposition to the negative pole as now manifest in the human race.

It is a simple process to detach the astral from the physical body.

It is done each time you close your eyes in sleep or pass into what you

term unconsciousness. It may be done by the use of stimulants or

narcotics. In the former case the soul and astral body are under the

protection of natural law, and generally pass scathless through all

ordeals. In those instances which may be covered by the latter

enumeration, the soul within its tenuous envelope is entirely

unprotected, [TT 35] because the condition induced is an abnormal,

unnatural condition, and is not guarded by natural law ; therefore

dangers innumerable threaten, and unspeakable horrors may be seen

on every side ; and the same conditions or dangers confront the soul

which violently or consciously projects its form . body either by

suicide or by concentrated effort of will, into the astral plane, while

powerless to control the denizens of that plane.

I am moved to make this simple statement because of the almost

incredible rashness with which many, even among Temple members,

are rushing into psychism . in many instances placing themselves

under the direction of conscienceless teachers whose specious

demeanor and forked tongues have awakened abnormal desires which

can only be gratified at the expense of the true growth of the soul.

My Children ! bring your common sense, if so be that you are

possessed of that most valuable as well as most rare quality, to bear

upon this question. Do not be led astray. Either the desire to eclipse

some other human being or the wish for the power to change present

conditions, is generally at the root of this almost insane rush into

psychism. Does the distorted, abnormal, unclean fakir of the Far East,

seated upon a post, or in some other unnatural position, and with eyes

fixed on vacancy, appeal to you ? . you, whose karma has brought

you into the thick of the fight of the nineteenth and twentieth

centuries, and has given you opportunities for advancement

spiritually, mentally and physically, far beyond those given to any

race since the apotheosis of the race which once lived on the now

sunken continent of Atlantis. Not a day passes over your heads which

does not bring to you tests and opportunities, which, if taken

advantage of, may place you far on the path leading to Adeptship .

that path which you have longed to enter without realizing that you are

already upon it, or that you are watched by anxious eyes, far more

interested in your successes and failures than you are, as yet,

yourselves. Your ignorance of the nature of particular tests placed

upon you, is in many respects your greatest safeguard, and is at the

same time essential to the perfect fulfillment of the duties which

generally constitute those tests.

Many of you grumble and grow impatient at what appears to be a

non-fulfillment of promises made by us, when you have not fulfilled,

and in many instances have not tried to fulfill, the obligations taken by

you.

Instead of taking advantage of every offering opportunity to teach

the philosophy which means so much to the world, you are oftentimes

ashamed of it, or afraid that by so doing you will be classed [TT 36]

among the despised theosophists, and so jeopardize some worldly

position.

With full knowledge, gained through esoteric instructions, of the

effect of mind on matter, some of you constantly pour into the aura of

those at the centre a stream of suspicion, criticism and unbelief which

must inevitably and eventually strike down some one or more of the

comrades living there, and bring them to the very gate of death or

severe mental disturbance, and then calmly say to some friend, "is it

not strange that the . Masters cannot prevent the illness or fall of such

and such a brother or sister ? It must be that there is something wrong

with them."

When you are able to behold with unveiled eyes the effects of

such ammunition, you will indeed, as have we who now watch and

wait, sweat drops of blood, from an agony of remorse.

If you cannot . will not . help us to roll back the tide of

ignorance ; if you will not draw into the current of comparative safety

those of your brethren who have long waited for your coming, you can

at least refrain from striking down those who are trying to do their

duty.

On the other hand, there are among you those who gladden our

hearts with unspeakable hope, those whose kindly encouraging words,

in addition to their helpful deeds to and for others, whose sacrifices

and efforts towards obedience are as dew to the parched soil to us who

only await the right time and opportunity to express our gratification

and extend a helping hand to "our little ones" on a lower step of the

ladder of life.

You may imagine the above interpolation has nothing to do with

our subject, but it has ; for words are living things, creations of man,

brought into form on the astral plane, either to torture or to bless their

creators, according to their character and the amount of force which

projects them into being. When you are capable of realizing the value

of silence, and the power of speech, as well as the effects of both, you

will have conquered man's greatest enemy.

...

KARMIC LAW

—

LESSON 15

While the Law of Karma is exact, there are operations of the law

which to human judgment would seem unjust. You are aware that the

laws governing all states of matter, while they are differentiations

[TT 37] of the one great Law, are unalterable. If you place a piece of

ice in contact with heat, it will melt ; if you put an inflammable article

in contact with fire, it will burn.

If the substance composing any state of matter, or any individual,

has become so refined or sensitive through the operation of the laws of

the inner planes as to render contact with a Universal force destructive

to its existence in form, that substance will be affected in proportion to

the degree of force put in operation against it. This does not militate

against the truth of Karmic action, but it does take isolated cases out

'of the sphere of personal Karma, into the sphere of the World or

Universal Karma.

One might think that the effects of a cause set up by a Dhyan-

Chohan 5 in the beginning of an age, should fall on the Dhyan-Chohan

alone ; but no human or heavenly being can suffer alone, for the very

5 A World-Builder.

races or individuals which have emanated from that Dhyan-Chohan

(you and I, for instance) must and will be affected by the act of what

we may term a progenitor. The Dhyan-Chohan must suffer the effects

of the cause he has set up, but his suffering would not be of the same

character as that of the lesser entities which compose his being,

because It, as an entity belongs to a different grade of matter from its

emanations.

A very mistaken idea has obtained credence among some students

of the Occult life, i. e., that the Initiates or Masters are beyond

suffering. So long as any Master elects to remain on the lower planes

of being, he is subject to the laws governing those planes ; he may

have gained great control over the forces at work on those planes, but

he is nevertheless under the Law of all laws . Karma ; if he were not,

it would not be possible for him to fall ; and, as I have told you, the

upward and downward paths of life run side by side. He may be able

to keep his objective form from being mutilated, or hold disease at

bay, but there are other forms of suffering proportionately great, to

which he must pay tribute, whether the law has been broken by

himself or those he loves ; for . never forget . no man, angel or God,

is higher than the Law of Love.

Another error to which students are subject, is forgetfulness of the

different degrees of Mastery. A Master of a high degree could not

suffer from any disease known to man ; but disease as a whole has its

correspondence on the higher planes, and to that potential

correspondence he is subject, if he has broken law which could bring

its action upon him, and just in accordance with the degree of Mastery

he has reached, is the power or degree of punishment, i. e., suffering,

to which he is subjected. [TT 38]

It has been said in former Instructions that the Masters are beyond

suffering ; it should rather have been said, the manner of suffering of

which man may take cognizance, or which he is able to endure.

...

UNSELFISH LOVE

—

LESSON 16

Unless the Temple can be made the refuge of the hunted, the

resting place of the weary, the home of the homeless, it must fail in its

mission as has every other institution originated and formed by

Masters or man. It must be the link between Man and the great

Hierarchies which rule the Universe, or it will be worse than useless.

The pursuit of scientific knowledge leads the irreligious seeker to a

point where material force ends, and then he faces an immeasurable

gulf. Such pursuit ends in nearly all such cases in the desire for

personal glory or material wealth.

The wave of pessimism now sweeping the earth, is desecrating

and destroying the high ideals by which alone man can raise his higher

nature to that point where he is capable of apprehending Spiritual

truth. The Soul of man daily feels more hungry for that food which

alone can sustain it ; and in his ignorance, his mad search for some

thing to satisfy that hunger, the individual 'man throws away the

Spiritual food which had formerly satisfied and kept him alive, instead

of holding to it and waiting for the flood . gates of Heaven to be one

more opened as they are at certain periods of time . and then adding

to himself such a supply as would forever make that hunger

impossible, a supply of unselfish love for the whole human race.

Love is the only medium through which our eyes may see clearly,

unmistakably. Hate distorts, magnifies, or belittles. Passion blinds.

True love throws open the portals of the Soul, and permits the lover to

behold all that is unlovely, as well as all that is pure and beautiful by

means of the power to examine and classify, to correctly distinguish)

between that which is transient and that which is eternal in the life of

the beloved, and to give to each its true value. But alas ! how little this

true love, disguised under the terms of various so . called attributes, is

understood. It may bring to some minds the image of a composite ;

picture, transcendent, glowing with heavenly beauty and truth, but in,

[TT 39] its last analysis it is sacrificial Service. One who has attained

to the power of love does not make that love an excuse for familiarity,

is incapable of thrusting himself intrusively into the presence or life of

the beloved ; it enjoins the humility of true Service whenever and

wherever an opening for such service occurs. It is long-suffering,

'truly great in patience and trust. However much it would rejoice in the

knowledge that its love was appreciated and returned, such

recognition is not requisite.

The process of evolving to this height of unselfish love, is past

power of analysis . past description. The agony of Soul which is an

integral part of those lonely heights which each Neophyte to the great

Mystery must experience ; the blind struggle with the Demons which

bar his way ; the annihilation of those piteous, pleading elemental

selves which cry out from the depths of their torture, give ! give !

give ! . these must not only be met and denied, but slain in cold

passionless deliberation to make room for the higher, the unselfish-

Self, for the Laws of Space are inexorable.

This day in which we live, however sublime, however full, has

dawned above the dead past of yesterday. The past years are but an

interminable line of corpses. The present moment is all we may know

of life, all that is truly our own.

The eternal struggle of the unmanifest to throw open the gates of

life and pass through by means of that which is in manifestation,

presses upon us in seeming mercilessness ; it will exhaust our vitality,

whiten our locks, and finally draw us down to the brink and over the

river of, death. We must die that life may have more perfect

expression ; but when all is told, that life in its totality, is our own. As

tomorrow and yesterday are but incidents in a cycle of time, so the I

Was of our passing Self, and the I Come of the newly manifesting

Self, are but expressions of the Eternal I Am.

...

THE MEETING OF EXTREMES

—

LESSON 17

The mission of H. P. B. to this country . America . was to teach

the ancient Wisdom Religion . the religion given to the root race of

the present humanity . not the religion of any particular sect which

has [TT 40] since arisen as a result of internal dissension or division

of interests or as the result of individual interpretation of teachings

found on ancient parchments.

No religion can be true that does not embrace and make provision

for the natural life and evolution of every creature and thing in

manifestation in that particular cycle.

Knowing that at the beginning of every great age, spiritual beings

have made connections with and imparted to the root race of that age a

system of religion which included the ethics of right living, right

thinking and right action, and that any division or sect which has

sprung from that primeval religious system must be limited and in

some sense untrue, the Masters of wisdom cannot class themselves as

Brahmans, Christians, Buddhists, or by any other special distinctive

religious title. To use the words of Paul, they must be "All things to all

men."

Men seek and find association together for the purpose of

working, to better advantage as well as for mutual help and protection,

but the closer they can keep to natural hierarchical lines, the purer will

be their religious principles.

Like many other half told truths, the somewhat prevalent idea of

individual growth and development is leading many bright minds

astray. If God, the heavenly man, is all in all, each atom of force,

substance and matter has its particular function and place in that one

great entity. The force and substance that naturally functions in the

heart cannot function in the stomach. Both organs are equally

necessary, yet neither 'could exist apart from the other, and no one

man . a single cell in the great body of humanity . can exist or attain

the highest possible development apart from his kind.

I refer to the idea expressed above, of individual development to

perfection, as a half truth, because it is true only on the higher spiritual

plane where perfect unity in diversity obtains, and where

consciousness functions unhindered by time and space.

Until man can learn to dwell with his brothers in peace and unity

upon earth, it is absolutely impossible for him to dwell with God in

that conscious at-one-ment which constitutes perfection.

Every Master of the right hand path has gained his mastery in the

midst of his brethren. True, he must go apart for a time, but only to

gain strength to endure the stress and strain of physical environment.

Enlightenment . assimilation of spiritual food . comes in loneliness

and quietude, because it pertains to the spiritual life ; but upon its

[TT 41] attainment follows a period when that enlightenment . that

force which has been generated in the silence, must be put to the

service of the rest of the body temporal, or its compression or selfish

use will be disastrous in the extreme to the individual. As steam

compressed beyond a certain degree will burst asunder the receptacle

which held it safely before it reached that degree, so the astral form of

man may be burst asunder by the irrepressible force or power

generated in that form by the attainment of conscious enlightenment,

if not put to universal use.

Man sometimes attains to a state of optimism that is infinitely

more dangerous than a corresponding degree of pessimism, owing to

the fact that any power belonging to the positive side of nature and

life, when prostituted to base ends, may accomplish greater and more

lasting effects than a corresponding power belonging to the opposite

or negative side of life, for the reason that its potential energy is of a

higher rate of vibration. The extreme optimist is utterly incapable of

recognizing and acting upon the intuitive perception or experience of

others, however worthy of belief those others may be. He will stand

by serenely while family, nation or religion is in the throes of

disruption . seeing nothing, believing nothing but the glamour thrown

over everything by his special trend of thought. The extreme pessimist

is not so comfortable a man to live with ; he can do a great amount of

harm in a negative . way ; he throws out a lethargic poison that leads

to decay and disintegration, but he does not possess the active energy

that binds, blinds and leads into captivity his adherents, as is only too

often the case with the former.

The pessimism of the present day is largely responsible for the

inability of the devotees of mammon to recognize and deal with the

conditions being rapidly brought about by the extreme optimism of

another rapidly growing class, who will tear down and destroy, instead

of waiting for the natural dissolution of things and peoples. Extremes

always precede disruption, whether of religious, sociological or civic

bodies.

Above all things, a calm, steady, moderate attitude should be

cultivated in regard to all religious, sociological and civic questions.

If a body of people sufficiently strong to cope with the situation

rapidly materializing upon the earth, can be organized upon such

principles, they will be able to lay the geometrical lines of righteous

religion and righteous government for a new age, and resist to a great

extent the disintegrating power of the extremists on either side.

[TT 42]

...

THE SUBSTANCE – FORCE OF LOVE

—

LESSON 18

It needs but a glance from the eyes of an awakened soul into the

strained faces of the men and women who are nearing or have passed

the middle mile . stone of life in this rapid, bustling, pushing age, to

realize the woe, the pathos, the emptiness of the hearts masked by

those drawn, seamed faces, out of which gaze restless, soul-starved

eyes, casting furtive glances of suspicion around and about them, or

heavy with unshed tears ; the tightly . closed lips, around which are

deeply graven lines of determination or despair, tell their own sad

story. The hearts now seemingly hard and calloused to common

observation, were not always thus, but are now smothered in the stress

of the daily struggle for life, forced upon them, either through their

own desires or ambitions, or from the fires of fierce competition

which have swallowed up the realization of the laws of justice and

equity ; or, still worse, from thirst for 'the power that gold alone seems

capable of imparting. They have lost the power of seeing that there is

but one answer to all the burning questions of the hour ; one solution

to the problems now concerning labor and capital, masses and classes

. and that is . love.

In observation of the apparent cruelty of natural law, many lose

sight of the love behind the seeming. In the study and application of

Nature's great forces and phenomena, analysis seems to yield but one

solution . pure, indiscriminate, invincible power, and the ability to use

it for personal ends. As a race, we have put or are putting away from

ourselves all that renders life worth living . faith and trust in the love

that surrounds us, and, what is even worse, in the possibility of

impersonal, unselfish love.

Is it necessary to believe in a single personal God, built on the

same plan, and therefore as limited in some ways as is man, in order to

gain a conception of the love of God . of the great ocean of spiritual

love, in which live, move, and have their being, countless thousands

of those who have become like unto God, the very forms of whom are

built of the substance of love ? The concept alone is enough to thrill

the coldest heart that has ever tasted the fruit of unselfish love.

In one of the commandments given by Jehovah to the Jews

appears the following sentence : "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God

with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy might." Are there

any so blind as to be unable to see that the secret of this demand lay

not in Jehovah's own craving for that love, but in the fact that [TT 43]

love is essential to the very life of the individualities of the race ?

Without it man is as a dead thing.

The secret of what is termed "mental healing" does not lie in the

mentality of the healer ; that is only the instrument which he uses. The

power of healing lies in the substance of love. Thousands of volumes

descriptive of love, its action and functions, have been written, but

few have ever considered it from the standpoint of a divine force or

substance, which could be conveyed from one to another, and which

could be awakened by the action of another force just as surely as

could the power of electricity be generated by bringing the right

substances into contact one with another. You can behold the process

by watching the action of the common arc light when the positive and

negative currents are brought near enough together by means of such a

conductor as carbon. The flame leaps from one to the other in an

infinitesimal fraction of time. When the negative energy of a human

soul is brought into juxtaposition with the positive energy of spiritual

love by means of the conductor of faith, a like phenomenon occurs.

We are not now considering the phenomenon commonly known

as love on the physical plane, though the same law is back of it, also.

This kind of love can only be adequately described as sex attraction,

for it is but the negative pole of the positive or spiritual love, which

alone is absolutely unselfish. The love of a mother for her child

induces a tenderness toward all other children, and is therefore a truer

correspondence.

When the flame leaps from the positive pole of Infinite Love to

the negative pole in the empty heart made receptive by suffering and

aspiration, that heart ever afterwards hears the cry and sees the sign of

suffering in every empty heart around it, and knows no rest or peace

until it has helped to awaken the necessary energy and eased the

suffering of those other hearts.

The scientist may postulate by a process of reasoning, to his own

satisfaction, that the fourth dimension of space is a necessity, and

therefore is ; but he knows nothing of that fourth dimension in reality,

until he has entered its confines. It is a hopeless task to endeavor to

prove to another who has never felt it, the existence and reality of

Infinite Love, to say nothing of its power to fill and round out the life

that has yielded to its power. It is all the more difficult because it is

one of the strange sweet secrets between God and Man that can never

be imparted to another by words, for no human language contains

terms by which it can be expressed. You may see a tithe of its

splendor through the windows of a glorious sunset. You may [TT 44]

catch the sound of a note, of its depths, of harmony, in the roll of a

great ocean, and a hint of its peace on the dead face of the friend you

have just laid away to await the resurrection ; and when your inner

senses have opened, and the wondrous reality bursts upon the vision

of your soul, the last great analysis will prove there is nothing else

left. For God is Love, and out of Love were all things created. As the

glorious song of the meadow . lark thrills the air cleaved by its wings

on its journey upward, awakening sound vibrations which act and re .

act upon the ether which is the foundation of that air, bringing into

form the waiting atoms of a higher grade of life then due in

manifestation as form . so the song of soul aspiration, cleaving that

infinite ocean of Love, creates conditions in which may manifest a,

higher order of its own substance . the spiritual form through which

the consciousness of a god or an angel may pour its radiance.

...

FAILURE

—

LESSON 19

The intimation that some individual "has failed" in the sense that

such a one has fallen into disgrace, or has been cut off from Lodge

influence or connection, falls very glibly from the lips of some of the

older students. The words are spoken in awesome undertone, and with

a shake of the head, designed to convey the impression that some

great calamity has occurred, while only too often the sharp observer

may detect a little triumphant or self . satisfied note in the voice of the

speaker which causes him to wonder why that particular, failure

should be a cause for such undisguised satisfaction.

True, the word was occasionally used by H. P. B. and W. Q. J. to

denote some signal lapse into unrighteousness by those who, having

been given great opportunities, failed to take advantage of the same ;

or who, unable to control the antagonistic forces evoked by them, fell

under their malign influence, and, as a result, took many steps on the

downward path. But both of the above mentioned persons were in a

position to know exactly what was meant by the word "failure" when

applied by the Master of the Lodge, and in what that failure consisted,

and such is not the case with the average member of any of the

divisions of the old body Theosophical. [TT 45]

I would advise that care should be exercised in the application of

that word when any defect of a fellow . member excites either

indignation or criticism.

Would that I could make you comprehend that one of two

grievous faults, alone, has power to turn an accepted Chela back from

the door of the great Initiation chamber . namely, treachery to a

comrade, or conscious disobedience to the directions of the Master,

and no human being other than the one who has issued the mandate

and determined the result has or can have the knowledge of such a

failure.

By repeated disobedience, unbrotherly conduct, vice and crime,

even an unconscious Chela may make entrance to the path which

leads to conscious Initiation impossible for ages. Such souls pass

through a whole round of incarnations without making any

appreciable advance. The world is peopled today by millions of

human beings who are in this condition ; people who seemingly have

no control over themselves or their circumstances. Conscience

occasionally whips them up to make an effort to start in the right

direction, but they go only a short distance, for their Will-power has

either become weakened, or it is yet undeveloped, and they drift along

life after life, making, of course, some slight advance in accordance

with natural evolutionary law, but unable to take the snake of self with

a firm grasp and tear out its poisonous fangs of selfishness and

indulgence, and by so doing claim the rightful heritage of man .

Power and Wisdom.

Where, in all the wide fields of space, may be found a single

human being who has not failed and failed repeatedly, in attempting to

reach some high ideal, before success finally crowned his efforts ?

The mother bird pushes its fledgeling from the nest to the ground,

from which it must learn to fly by its own efforts, or be destroyed by

its natural enemies. How many apparently fruitless efforts the helpless

little creature puts forth ere it is able to soar with outspread wings to

the height from which it was first cast down . yet no single effort was,

in reality, fruitless. You, like the fledgeling, may fall back to the level

where evolutionary law has now placed you, again and again, in your

efforts to reach the spiritual height from which you were impelled by

Karmic law, and be forced to reincarnate on the physical plane ; but,

so long as the great compassionate Soul of the Infinite feels a throb in

response to its own beating against your heart, you may lift up your

head, however low it has been laid, and say, "I have not yet failed."

But beware of that hour when your heart shall feel no throb of pity for

the travailing souls about you . when, unrebuked, your lips may utter

words that serve to destroy the peace, [TT 46] the hope, of your

struggling brother ; when, cold and careless, you pass by on the other

side, leaving your weaker sister to the wild beasts waiting to devour

her. O, my children ! of such are the great failures.

You can never clasp the hand of the Perfected One, while your

own hand reeks with the blood of your Brother. You can never pass,

unscathed, through the flame of "the Inner Chamber", trailing your

sister's peace and honor low in the dust of the path upon which you are

traveling. Failure will be written in fiery letters within your soul if you

have not learned your true relation to your fellow-man . and profited

by that knowledge.

...

THE CONTROL OF LIFE FORCES

—

LESSON 20

In its last analysis, all life is Vibration ; that is, all forms or

differentiations of life are generated and evolved by the different

vibratory rates of one homogeneous State of Substance which is of a

Spiritual nature.

While Scientific research has proved the above statement to some

extent, its votaries seek no farther than that state of matter postulated

by them as the Ether, for the substance which vibrates, or the power

which imparts those different rates of vibration. In reality, the Ether is

but the robe or 'veil which envelops and furnishes the media by and

through which the great creative force, which occultists designate the

Life Principle, may operate. This Life Principle in its highest aspect is

a trinity consisting of Desire, Will, and Mind.

Desire is the ruling force of the Universe, and in its highest aspect

is Love. Will is the motive power . the propelling energy . resident in

matter, and is also the basic principle of Sound. Mind . Light . is the

generating force and at the same time the Matrix in which Desire and

Will mould and bring to outward expression all those forms used by

Nature to embody the Monads, or individualized lives.

This brief outline indicates some of the vast processes by which

Spiritual life becomes material life, and is given here for the purpose

of assisting to demonstrate facts which are of infinite importance to

the human race.

To the "ear that can hear", the expression, "The Music of the

Spheres" conveys a far deeper significance than any expression used

[TT 47] in Modern Science, for such an ear can plainly distinguish the

music made by the motion of the stars in space, by the bursting of

seed, and by all growing things, as well as many other sounds

inaudible to the ears of the masses of humanity, and knows beyond

question that life is harmony.

Every molecule of matter has its own particular tone, and every

aggregation of molecules, commonly termed a body, has its key .

note. If the key-note of a body, which is in a normal condition, can be

obtained, the key-notes of all other bodies in accord or sympathy with

it, will be found to belong to the same Hierarchy or Octave. If the

body is diseased, its key-note is raised or lowered (according to the

nature of the ailment), and it is then out of harmony with all other

bodies governed by the hierarchy to which it belongs, and it suffers in

proportion to the discords which control it for the time being. Such

discords interpenetrate interior planes and awaken corresponding

forces or entities from a quiescent to an active state. These are drawn

to and absorbed by the Astral body of the sufferer, and manifest in

some form in or around the physical body, thus causing additional

suffering.

It is evident from what I have stated, that a satisfactory remedial

agent must be capable of restoring the normal key-note of an ailing

body, and, as will be seen later on, the possibility of determining that

key-note rests upon the ability of the operator to determine the

keynotes of two other (interior) bodies. The task is a difficult, though

not an impossible one ; difficult because the requisite power is of such

an important as well as dangerous character that the Lodge has hedged

its discovery about by almost insurmountable obstacles, which cannot

be removed save in individual cases where unselfishness and Love are

the ruling motives of a life during the present cycle.

Occasionally, some deep student has conceived a plan for

generating and manipulating the form of energy under discussion ; but

before he could mature the plan, a member of the Lodge was

delegated to obstruct his efforts or divert them into some safer

channel. A short time ago, such a student, believing he had discovered

a method for determining the key-note of a human body by means of

the tone, quality and timbre of the voice, attempted to heal disease by

awakening and applying vibrations of color corresponding to and

connected. with the energy of the key . note. Such success as he met

with was of very transitory character. His failure was not due to

incorrect primary conclusions but largely to the fact that he was

treating an effect instead of a cause, and employing but one of the

three forms of force, [TT 48] which must be combined and

intelligently directed, to produce satisfactory results.

A tendency is manifest in the present cycle to deride and dispense

with the use of medicines in the treatment of disease, which is but the

other extreme of that blind trust in the efficacy of all drugs, which

prevailed in a previous age.

All medicines, drugs, herbs, and minerals, are, of course, subject

to the same laws of vibration which produce and evolve all other

forms of matter ; each one has its own special rate of vibration and

key-note, and in order to produce satisfactory results in the treatment

of disease by medicines, there must exist a harmonious vibration

between patient and medicine . between the key-notes of the two

forms of life. Where cures have resulted from administration of

medicines by careless or ignorant physicians, it was as a rule due to

the so-called "chance" selection of medicines, the key-notes of which

were in sympathetic relation to the key-note of the physical body of

the patient. Conscientious physicians frequently admit that their

selection of medicines for any specific ailment is pure "guess-work."

From their standpoint this is true ; but the truth is, a conscientious

physician is an occultist in some degree, whether or not he be

conscious of the fact. The years of devotion and concentration he has

been compelled to feel and practice, in preparing for his chosen

profession, and the character and influence of that profession, have

awakened to some extent the life currents in his hitherto atrophied

pineal gland, and under such circumstances the power of Intuition

begins to manifest along the particular line of his profession, and it is

Intuition instead of mere "chance or guess-work" that guides his

selection of the right remedies ; and Intuition is soul knowledge. If he

were to depend entirely on his memory of certain formulae, learned,

perhaps, a quarter of a century before, when suddenly called upon to

prescribe for some acute disease, there would be many more mistakes

lying in wait for his final adjustment than there now are.

If a steel bar is struck by any hard substance, it gives forth a

certain tone, soft or hard, high or low, according to the number of

molecules which constitute its mass, and the quality of the substance

used in striking it. If a current of electricity is passed around the bar, it

becomes a magnet. It has neither gained nor lost anything in weight :

it is the same steel bar, but it is also something entirely different in

character. While it was seemingly inert matter before, it is now alive

with a force which can draw to it or repel from it other forms of

matter, and which it can impart to other forms of the same material. In

reality its key-note has been raised by the life force of [TT 49]

Electricity. It has passed the gulf that separates inert from active

matter. A human body is also a magnet, and has been made such by

the same force-Electricity ; but it is also the Envelope of a Spiritual

Entity and of another Entity entitled a Soul ; and as each of these

bodies has its own particular key-note, it is evident that the whole man

is governed by a chord instead of a single note.

Like the steel magnet, the Human Magnet is capable of sounding

its key-note, though the process is somewhat different. But to obtain

and utilize the Chord of the whole man, a higher form of the life force

Electricity must be generated and applied. An application of this force

is made when, as a child, the individual awakens to consciousness ;

and again, at the end of a life cycle ; and it is applied by the conscious

creative builders of the Universe, among whom is the Incarnating Ego

of the individual. This force is dual and kills as easily as it creates.

It has long been known to occultists that the principle of Life is

Electrical ; but to think of life merely as a form of Electricity would be

as misleading as to think of food as bread alone ; for there are forty-

nine different forms of Electricity. That form of force which operates

in plant or stone is not the form or degree of electricity which operates

in man. The forty-nine forms of electrical force are divided into seven

octaves, with seven forms to the octave, each octave supplying all the

life force existing on a corresponding plane of manifestation. The

octave of force operating on the plane of Mind is not the same octave

that operates on the physical plane : the former octave is higher in the

scale of energy. But whether the energy be of Spirit, Soul or Body ;

Mineral, Plant or Animal life, all forms of Electricity are generated by

means of the gases or their correspondents, known as hydrogen,

oxygen, nitrogen and carbon. Despite the claims of Medical Science to

the contrary, oxygen, as such, does not enter into the blood of the

animal creation. It is one of the great creative fires, and acts upon the

different organs of the body, which organs serve as generators for the

production of Electricity, and it is the latter force instead of oxygen

which passes into the blood and builds or destroys as nature demands.

To obtain the power over Life and Health, as well as Disease and

Death, one must be able to make each one of his three bodies or

envelopes a conscious generator of those forms of Electricity that

correspond to the key-notes of the octaves of life before mentioned, all

of which are primarily under the control of the energy of Desire, Will,

and Mind ; in other words, the energy of the powers of Mesmerism,

Sound and Light. By combining the material expressions of [TT 50]

the more powerful Spiritual forces, a lower form of Electrical energy

can be generated, which, if perfectly understood and rightly directed

will accomplish very much in the line of healing innumerable forms of

disease, and may often be advantageously combined with medicines,

in the treatment of poor ailing humanity. But when that humanity is

safely past the point in evolution when its key-note en masse has been

raised, it will require no exterior help, for when all is said, the

application of exterior forces or remedies are but temporary

expedients : for the culture-beds of disease lie within the mind, and

the disease must be driven out and the culture-beds be destroyed ; all

of which must be done by the exercise of Spiritual Power, ere

mankind can regain its lost birthright.