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    "title": "The Ancient Wisdom: An Outline of Theosophical Teachings",
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    "text": "# The Ancient Wisdom: An Outline of Theosophical Teachings\n\n\n*by Annie Besant (London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1897)*\n\n\n## The Ancient Wisdom: An Outline of Theosophical Teachings\n\n\nGoogle\n\nThis is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project\n\nto make the world's books discoverable online.\n\nIt has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject\n\nto copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. 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Please do not remove it.\n\n+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just\nbecause we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other\ncountries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of\nany specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner\nanywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liabili^ can be quite severe.\n\nAbout Google Book Search\n\nGoogle's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers\ndiscover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web\n\nat |http: //books .google .com/I\n\ni - s = s\n= s\n\nI E Si i\n— t « >■ -.\"\n\niflP\n\nJ ikL\n\nI\"-\n\nyJt»'\n\nTHE\n\nANCIENT WISDOM\n\nHu ®utUne of Ubeosopbical XTeacbiugd\n\nBY\n\nANNIE BESANT\n\nLONDON\nTHEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE\n\nReprinted 1922\n\nr\n\nCopyrighted\n\nBY\n\nTHE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY\n\n364S55\n\n> ... • . -\n- * 1 • •\n\n• • t • • • ■ '\n\nBeMcateO\n\n•VTTH GRATITUDE, REVERENCE, AND LOVF.\n\nTO\n\nH. P. BLAVATSKY,\n\n«HU SHOWED MR THE LIGHT.\n\nNewnham Cowbll & Grippbr, Ltd.,\n\nPrinters,\n\n75, Chiswell Street,\n\nLondon, E.C. z.\n\nPREFACE.\n\nThis book is intended to place in the hands ot\nthe general reader an epitome of theosophical teach-\nings, sufficiently plain to serve the elementary stu-\ndent, and sufficiently full to lay a sound foundation\nfor further knowledge. It Is hoped that it may\nserve as an introduction to the profounder works of\nH. P. Blavatsky, and be a convenient stepping-\nstone to their study.\n\nThose who have learned a little of the Ancient\n\nWisdom know the illumination, the peace, the joy,\n\nthe strengtii, its lessons have brought into their\n\nlives. That this book may win some to con its\n\nteachings, and to prove for themselves their value,\n\nis the prayer with which it is sent forth into the\n\nworld.\n\nAnnie Besant.\nAugust. 1897.\n\n«^.i.\n\nCONTENTS\n\nPrafaoe, •\n\n• «\n\ni*4aa\n'. Vli\n\nIntroduotioii*\n\n-• * •\n\nf\n\nI. Th© Physical Plai»\n11. The Astral I *ane,\n\n• 4C\n\n. 57\n\nIII. K&maloka.\n\n. 83\n\nIV. The Mental Plane, .\nV. Devachan.\n\n* •\n\n• • •\n\n• 107\n\n• 137\n\nVi. The Buddhic and Nirv^ic Planes. .\n\n. 263\n\nVli. Reincarnation. .\n\n• • •\n\n. 179\n\nVIll. Reincarnation (continued).\n\n• . 2io8\n\nIX. Karma,\n\n• ■\n\n.242\n\nX. The Law oi Sacrifice.\n\n> i\n\n• «75\n\nXI. Man 8 Ascent. .\n\n• »\n\n« . d^i\n\nXII. Bmiding a Kosmoa. «\n\n« • •\n\n< 3<l\n\nTHE ANCIENT WISDOM,\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\nTHE UNITY UNDERLYING ALL RELIGIONS.\n\nRight thought is necessary to right conduct, right\nunderstanding to right living, and the Divine Wis-\ndom — whether called by its ancient Sanskrit name\nof Brahma Vidya, or its modem Greek name of\nTheosophia, Theosophy — comes to the world as at\nonce an adequate philosophy and an all-embracing\nreligion and ethic. It was once said of the Christian\nScriptures by a devotee that they contained shallows\nin which a child could wade and depths in which a\ngiant must swim. A similar statement might be\nmade of Theosophy, for some of its teachings are so\nsimple and so practical that any person of average\nintelligence can understand and follow them, while\nothers are so lofty, so profound, that the ablest\nstrains his intellect to contain them and sinks ex-\nhausted in the effort.\n\nIn the present volume an attempt will be made to\nplace Theosophy before the reader simply and\nclearly, in a way which shall convey its general prin-\n\n2 THE ANCIENT WISDOlsi.\n\nciples and truths as forming a coherent conception\nof the universe, and shall give such detail as is\nnecessary for the understanding of their relations to\neach other. An elementary text-book cannot pre-\ntend to give the fulness of knowledge that may be\nobtained from abstruser works, but it should leave\nthe student with clear fundamental ideas on his sub-\nject, with much indeed to add by future study but\nwith little to unlearn. Into the outline given by\nsuch a book the student should be able to paint the\ndetails of further research.\n\nIt is admitted on all hands that a survey of the\ngreat religions of the world shows that they hold in\ncommon many religious, ethical, and philosophical\nideas. But while the fact is universally granted,\nthe explanation of the fact is a matter of dispute.\nSome allege that religions have grown up on the\nsoil of human ignorance tilled by imagination, and\nhave been gradually elaborated from crude forms of\nanimism and f etichism ; their likenesses are referred\nto universal natural phenomena imperfectly observed\nand fancifully explained, solar and star worship be-\ning the universal key for one school, phallic worship\nthe equally universal key for another; fear, desire,\nignorance, and wonder led the savage to personify\nthe powers of nature, and priests played upon his\nterrors and his hopes, his misty fancies, and his be-\nwildered questionings; myths became scriptures and\nsymbols facts, and as their basis was universal the\nlikeness of the products was inevitable. Thus speak\n\nINTRODUCTION. 3\n\nthe doctors of *' Comparative Mythology,\" and plain\npeople are silenced but not convinced under the rain\nof proofs ; they cannot deny the likenesses, but they\ndimly feel: Are all man's dearest hopes and loftiest\nimaginings really nothing more than the outcome of\nsavage fancies and of groping ignorance? Have the\ngreat leaders of the race, the martyrs and heroes of\nhumanity, lived, wrought, suffered, and died de-\nluded, for the mere personifications of astronomi-\ncal facts and for the draped obscenities of bar-\nbarians?\n\nThe second explanation of the common property\nin the religions of the world asserts the existence of\nan original teaching in the custody of a Brotherhood\nof great spiritual Teachers, who — Themselves the\noutcome of past cycles of evolution — acted as the\ninstructors and guides of the child-humanity of our\nplanet, imparting to its races and nations in turn the\nfundamental truths of religion in the form most\nadapted to the idiosyncrasies of the recipients. Ac-\ncording to this view, the Founders of the great relig-\nions are members of the one Brotherhood, and were\naided in Their mission by many other members,\nlower in degree than Themselves, Initiates and dis-\nciples of various grades, eminent in spiritual insight,\nin philosophic knowledge, or in purity of ethical\nwisdom. These guided the infant nations, gave\nthem their polity, enacted their laws, ruled them as\nkiugs, taught them as philosophers, guided them as\npriests; all the nations of antiquity looked back to\nsuch mighty men, demigods and heroes, and they\n\n. THE ANCIENT WI.SDOM.\n\nleft their traces in literature, in architecture, in\nlegislation.\n\nThat such men lived it seems difficult to deny in\nthe face of universal tradition, of still existing Scrip-\ntures, and of prehistoric remains for the most part\nnow in ruins, to say nothing of other testimony\nwhich the ignorant would reject. The sacred books\nof the East are the best evidence for the greatness\nof their authors, for who in later days or in modem\ntimes can even approach the spiritual sublimity of\ntheir religious thought, the intellectual splendor of\ntheir philosophy, the breadth and purity of their\nethic? And when we find that these books contain\nteachings about God, man, and the universe identical\nin substance under much variety of outer appear-\nance, it does not seem unreasonable to refer them to\na central primary body of doctrine. To that body\nwp give the name of the Divine Wisdom, in its Greek\nform: Theosophv.\n\nAs the origin and basis of all religions, it cannot\nbe the antagonist of any; it is indeed their purifier,\nrevealing the valuable inner meaning of much that\nhas become mischievous in its exterr 'l presentation\nby the perverseness of ignorance and the accretions\nof superstition : but it recognizes and defends itself\nin each, and seeks in each to unveil its hidden wis-\ndom. No man in becoming a Theosophist need\ncease to be a Christian, a Buddhist, a Hindu; be\nwill but acquire a deeper insight into his own faith,\na firmer hold on its spiritual truths, a broader un-\nderstanding of its sacred teachings. As Theosophy\n\nINTRODUCTION. 5\n\nof old gave birth to religions, so in modern times\ndoes it justify and defend them. It is the rock\nwhence all of them were hewn, the hole of the pit\nwhence all were digged. It justifies at the bar of\nintellectual criticism the deepest longings and emo-\ntions of the human heart; it verifies our hopes for\nman ; it gives us back ennobled our faith in God.\n\nThe truth of this statement beeomes more and\nmore apparent as we study the various world-Scrip-\ntures, and but a few selections from the wealth of\nmaterial available will be sufficient to establish the\nfact, and to guide the student in his search for\nfurther verification. The main spiritual verities of\nreligion may be summarized thus:\n\ni. One eternal infinite incognizable real Existence.\n\nii. From That the manifested God, unfolding\nfrom unity to duality, from duality to trinity.\n\niii. From the manifested Trinity many spiritual\nIntelligences, guiding the kosmic order.\n\niv. Man a reflection of the manifested God and\ntherefore a trinity fundamentally, his inner and real\nSelf being eternal, one with the Self of the universe.\n\nV. His evolution by repeated incarnations, ij^tp\nwhich he is drawn by desire, and from which he is\nset free by knowledge and sacrifice, becoming divine\nin potency as he had ever been divine in latency.\n\nChina, with its now fossilized civilization, was\npeopled in old days by the Turanians, the fourth\nsubdivision of the great Fourth Race, the race\nwhich inhabited the lost continent of Atlantis, and\n\n6 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nspread its offshoots over the world. The Mon-\ngolians, the last subdivision of that same race, later\nreinforced its population, so that in China we have\ntraditions from ancient days, preceding £he settle-\nment of the Fifth, or Aryan race in India. In the\nChing Chang Ching^ or Classic of Purity^ wfe have a\nfragment of an ancient Scripture of singular beauty,\nbreathing out th^ spirit of restfulness and peace\nso characteristic of the \"original teaching.\" Mr.\nLegge says in the introductory note to his transla-\ntion * that the treatise —\n\nIs attributed to Ko Yiian (or Hsiian). a Tftoist of the W&\ndynasty (a.d. 222-227), who is fabled to have attained to the\nstate of an Immortal, and is generally so denominated. He is\nrepresented as a worker of miracles ; as addicted to intemper-\nance, and very eccentric in his ways. When shipwrecked on\none occasion, he emerged from beneath the water with his\nclothes unwet, and walked freely on its surface. Finally he\nascended to the sky in bright da3^ All these accounts may\nsafely be put down as the figments of a later time.\n\nSuch stories are repeatedly told of Initiates of\nvarious degrees, and are by no means necessarily\n\" figments,** but we are more interested in Ko Yiian's\nown account of the book:\n\nWhen I obtained the true T&o, I had recited this Ching\n[book] ten thousand times. It is what the Spirits of Heaven\npractise and had not been communicated to scholars of this\nlower world. I got it from the Divine Ruler of the Eastern\nHwa; he received it from the Divine Ruler of the Golden\nGate ; he received it from the Royal-mother of the West.\n\nNow the \" Divine Ruler of the Golden Gate\" was\n\n* The Sacred Books of the East, vol. xl.\n\nINTRODUCTION. 7\n\nthe title held by the Initiate who ruled the Toltec\nempire in Atlantis, and its use suggests that the\nClassic of Purity was brought thence to China when\nthe Turanians separated off from the Toltecs, The\nidea is strengthened by the contents of the brief\ntreatise, which deals with TaO::7-literally \" the Way\"\n— ^the name by which the One Reality is indicated in\nthe ancient Turanian and Mongolian religion. We\nread:\n\nThe Great T&o has no bodily form, but It produced and\nnourishes heaven and earth. The Great T&o has no passions,\nbut It causes the sun and moon to revolve as they do. The\nGreat Tio has no name, but It effects the growth and main-\ntenance of all things (i. i).\n\nThis is the manifested God as unity, but duality\nsupervenes:\n\nNow the T&o (shows itself in two forms), the Pure and the\nTurbid, and has (the two conditions of) Motion and Rest.\nHeaven is pure and earth is turbid ; heayen gioves and the\nearth is at rest. The masculine is pure and the feminine is\nturbid; the masculine moves and the feminine is still. The\nradical (Purity) descended, and the (turbid) issue flowed\nabroad, and thus all things were produced (i. 2).\n\nThis passage is particularly interesting from the\nallusion to the active and receptive sides of Nature,\nthe distinction between Spirit, the generator, and\nMatter, the nourisher, so familiar in later writings.\n\nIn the Tdo Teh Ching the teaching as to the Un-\nmanifested and the Manifested comes out very\nplainly:\n\nThe T^o that can be trodden is not the enduring and uu'\n\n; ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nle that can be nametl Is not the endur-\nHaviiig no name, it is the Origi-\n\nchanging T&o. The n\n\nIng and unchanging n\n\nnator of heaven and earth ; liaviiig a name, it is the Slother of\n\nall things. . . . Under these two aspects it is really the same;\n\nbut as development takes place it receives thedifferent names.\n\nTogether vra call Iheni the Mysterj- (i. i, a, 4).\n\nStudents of the Kabalah will be reminded of one\nof the Divine Names, \"the Concealed Mystery.\"\nAgain :\n\nThere was something undefined aad complete, coming into\nexistence before heaven and earth. How still it was and\nformless, standing alona and undergoing no change, reaching\neverywhere and in no danger (of being exhausted) . It may\nbe regarded as the Mother of all things, I do not know its\nname, and I give it the designation of the Tfio. Making an\neffort to give it a name, I call it the Great. Great, it passes on\n(in constant flow). Passing, on, it becomes remote. Having\nbecome remote, it returns (xxv. 1-3).\n\nVery interesting it is to see here the idea of the\n\nforthgoing ;\nfamiliar to i\nseems the ve\nAll things u\nnamed) ; that\n\nid the returning of the One Life, so\nHindu literature. Familiar also\n\nnder heaven sprang from It\nsprang from It as n\n\nThat a universe might become, the Unmanifest\nmust give forth the One from whom duality and\ntrinity proceed :\n\nThe T&o produced One; One produced Two ; Two produced\nThree ; Three produced all things. All things leave behind\nthem the Obscurity (out of which they have corae), and go\nforward to embrace the Brightness (into which Uiey havo\n\nINTRODUCTION. 9\n\nemerged), while they are harmonized by the Breath of Va-\ncancy (xlii. i).\n\n** Breath of Space\" would be a happier translation.\nSince all is produced from It, It exists in all :\n\nAll-pervading is the g^eat T&o. It may be found on the left\nhand and on the right. ... It clothes all things as with a\ngarment, and makes no assumption of being their lord;— It\nmay be named in the smallest things. All things return (to\ntheir root and disappear) , and do not know that it is It which\npresides over their doing so • — It may be named in the great-\nest things (zxxiv. I. 2).\n\nChwang-ze (fourth century b.c.) in his presenta-\ntion of the ancient teachings, refers to the spiritual\nIntelligences coming from the Tao:\n\nIt has Its root and ground (of existence) in Itself. Before\nthere were heaven and earth, from of old, there It was securely\nexisting. From It came the mysterious existence of spirits,\nfrom It the mysterious existence of God (Bk. vi. , Pt. i. , Sec.\nvi. 7).\n\nA number of the names of these Intelligences fol-\nlow, but such beings are so well known to play a\ngreat part in the Chinese religion that we need not\nmultiply quotations about them.\n\nMan is regarded as a trinity, Taoism, says Mr.\n\nLegge, recognizing in him the spirit, the mind, and\n\nthe body. This division comes out clearly in the\n\nClassic of Purity^ in the teaching that man must get\n\nrid of desire to reach union with the One :\n\nNow the spirit of man loves purity, but his mind disturbs it.\nThe mind of man loves stillness, but his desires draw it away.\nIf he could always send his desires away^ his mind would of\nitself become still. Let his mind be made clean, and his spirit\nof itself becomes pure. • . . The reason why men are not able\n\n10 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nto attain to this is because their minds have not been cleansed,\nand their desires have not been sent away. If one is able to\nsend the desires away, when he then looks in at his mind it is\nno longer his ; when he looks out at his body it is no longer\nhis ; and when he looks farther off at external things, they are\nthings which he has nothing to do with (i. 3, 4).\n\nThen, after giving the stages of indrawing to\n\"the condition of perfect stillness,\" it is asked:\n\nIn that condition of rest independently of place, how can\nany desire arise ? And when no desire any longer arises there\nis the true stillness and rest. That true (stillness) becomes\n(a) constant quality, and responds to external things (without\nerror; ; yea, that true and constant quality holds possession of\nthe nature. In such constant response and constant stillness\nthere is the constant purity and rest. He who has this abso-\nlute purity enters gradually into the (inspiration of the) True\nTfto (i. 5).\n\nThe supplied words \" inspiration of\" rather cloud\nthan elucidate the meaning, for entering into the\nTao is congruous with the whole idea and with other\nScriptures.\n\nOn putting away of desire is laid much stress in\nTaoism; a commentator on the Classic of Purity tq-\nmarks that understanding the T^o depends on abso-\nlute purity, and\n\nThe acquiring this Absolute Purity depends .entirely on the\nPutting away of Desire, which is the urgent practical lesson\nof the Treatise.\n\nThe Tdo Teh Ching says:\n\nAlways without desire we must be found,\nIf its deep mystery we would sound ;\nBut if desire always within us be.\nIts outer fringe is all that we shall see (i. 3).\n\nINtRODUCTfON. 1 1\n\nRemcaftiation does not seem to be so distinctly\ntaught as might have been expected, although pas-\nsages are found which imply that the main idea was\ntaken for granted and that the entity was considered\nas ranging through animal as well as human births.\nThus we have from Chwang-ze the quaint and wise\nstory of a dying man, to whom his friend said:\n\n\" Great indeed is the Creator ! What will He now make you\nto become? Where will He take you to? Will He make you\nthe liver of a rat or the arm of an Insect?\" Szelai replied,\n** Wherever a parent tells a son to go. east, west, south, or\nnorth, he simply follows the command. . . • Here now is a\ngreat founder, casting his metal. If the metal were to leap\nup (in the pot) and say, * I must be made into a (sword like\nthe) Moysh, ' the great founder would be sure to regard it as\nuncanny. So, again, when a form is being fashioned in the\nmould of the womb, if it were to say. *I must become a man,\nI must become a man. ' the Creator would be sure to regard it\nas uncanny. When we once understand that heaven and earth\nare a great melting-pot and the Creator a great founder, where\ncan we have to go to that shall not be right for us? We are\nbom as from a quiet sleep and we die to a calm awaking\" (Bk.\nvi., Pt. i.. Sec. vi.).\n\nTurning to the Fifth, the Aryan Race, we have\nthe same teachings embodied in the oldest and\ngreatest Aryan religion — the Brahmanical. The\neternal Existence is proclaimed in the Chhdndogyo-\npanistiad as ** Oneonly, with out a second,\" and it is\nwritten:\n\nIt willed, I shall multiply for the sake of the universe (vi. ii.\nI. 3).\n\nThe Supreme Locos, Brahman, is threefold —\nBeing, Consciousness, Bliss, and it is said:\n\n12 THE ASCIEKT WISDOM.\n\nFrom Tbis arise life, mind, and all Ihe senses, ether. air, fi\nwater, earth tbe support of all {^MundakopaHiskad, ii. 3).\n\nNo grander descriptions of Deity can be found \\\nanywhere than in the Hindu Scriptures, but they\nare becoming so familiar that brief quotation will\nsuffice. Let the following serve as specimens of\ntheir wealth of gems:\n\nManifest, near, moving in the secret place, the great abode,\nhsrein rests all that moves, breathes, and shuts the eyes.\nKnow That as to be wor.'ihipped. being and non-faeing, the\nbest, beyond the knowledg-e of all creatures. Luminous, snb-\ntler than the subtle, in which the worlds and their denizens are\ninfijted. That this imperishable Brahman : That also lite and\nvoice and mind. . . , In tliegolden highest sheath isspotless, ]\npartleas Brahman; That the pure Light of lights, known by I\nthe knowers of the Self. . . . That deathless Brahman is be-\nfore. Brahman behind, Brahman to the right and to the left,\nbelow, above, pervading ; this Brahman truly is the all. This\nthe best (MuKdakopanishad. II. ii. i, 2, g, 11).\n\nBeyond the universe. Brahman, the supreme, the great, hid-\nden in all beings according to their bodies, the one Breath of\nthe whole universe, the Lord, whom knowing (men) become\nimmortal. I know that mighty Spirit, the shining sun beyond\nthe darkness. . . . I kno\\v Him the unfading, the ancient, the\nSoul of all. omnipresent by His nature, whom the Brahman-\nknowers call unborn, whom they call eternal (Shveldskva-\ntaropanishad. iii. 7, B. 2i).\n\nWhen there is no darkness, no day nor night, no being nor\nnon-being (there is) Shiva even alone; That the indestructible.\nThat is to be worshipped by Savitri. from That came forth the\nancient wisdom. Not above nor below, cor in the midst, can\nHe be comprehended. Nor is there any similituc5e for Him\nwhose name i^ infinite glory. Not with the sight is established\nHis form, none may by tl»e eye behold Him ; they who know\n\nINTRODUCTION. 1 3\n\nHim by the heart and by the mind, dwelling in the heart, be-\ncome immortal {ibid., iv. 18-20).\n\nThat man in his inner Self is one with the Self of\nthe universe — \" I am That\" — is an idea that so thor-\noughly pervades all Hindu thought that man is\noften referred to as the \" divine town of Brahman,\"*\nthe \" town of nine gates, \"f God dwelling in the cav-\nity of his heart. J\n\nla one manner is to be seen (the Being) which cannot be\nproved, which is eternal, without spot, higher than the ether,\nunborn, the great eternal Soul. . . . This great unborn Soul\nis the same which abides as the intelligent (soul) in all living\ncreatures, the same which abides as ether in the heart ; § in\nhim it sleeps; it is the Subduerof all. the Bulerof all, the sov-\nereign Lord of all ; it does not become greater by good works\nnor less by evil work. It is the Ruler of all, the sovereign\nLord of all beings, the Preserver of all beings, the Bridge, the\nUpholder of the worlds, so that they fall not to ruin {Brihad-\ndranyakopanishad, IV. iv. 20, 22, Trs. by Dr. E. Roer) .\n\nWhen God is regarded as the evolver of the uni-\nverse, the three-fold character comes out very clear-\nly as Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma, or again as Vishnu\nsleeping under the waters, the Lotus springing from\nHim, and in the Lotus Brahma. Man is likewise\nthreefold, and in the Mdndi^kyopanishad the Self is\ndescribed as conditioned by the physical body, the\nsubtle body, and the mental body, and then rising\n\n* Mundakopanishad, II. ii. 7.\nf Skvetdshvataropanishad, iii. 14.\n% Ibid,, ii.\n\n§ The ** ether in the heart** is a mystical phrase used to indi-\ncate the One. who is said to dwell therein.\n\n14 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nout of all into the One \"without duality.\" From\nthe Trimurti (Trinity) come many Gods, connected\nwith the administration of the universe, as to whom\nit is said in the Brihaddranyakopanishad :\n\nAdore Him, ye Gods, after whom the year by rolling days\nis completed, the Light of lights, as the immortal Life (IV.\niv. i6).\n\nIt is hardly necessary to even mention the pres-\nence in Brahmanism of the teaching of reincarna-\ntion, since its whole philosophy of life turns on this\npilgrimage of the Soul through many births and\ndeaths, and not a book could be taken up in which\nthis truth is not taken for granted. By desires man\nis bound to this wheel of change, and therefore by\nknowledge, devotion, and the destruction of desires,\nman must set himself free. When the Soul knows\nGod it is liberated.* The intellect purified by\nknowledge beholds Him.f Knowledge joined to\ndevotion finds the abode of Brahman. J Whoever\nknows Brahman becomes Brahman. § When desires\ncease the mortal becomes immortal and obtains\nBrahman. ]\n\nBuddhism, as it exists in its northern form, is\nquite at one with the more ancient faiths, but in\nthe southern form it seems to have let slip the idea\nof the Logic Trinity as of the One Existence from\nwhich They come forth. The Locos in His triple\nmanifestation is: the First Logos, Amitabha, the\n\n* Shvetdsh, i. 8. \\ Mund, III. i. 8. % Ibid., III. ii. 4.\ng Ibid. III. ii. 9. I Kathop, vi. 14.\n\nINTRODUCTION. 1 5\n\nBoundless Light; the Second, Avalokiteshvara, or\nPadmapani (Chenresi) ; the Third, Mandjusri — \" the\nrepresentative of creative wisdom, corresponding to\nBrahma.\" * Chinese Buddhism apparently does not\ncontain the idea of a primordial Existence, beyond\nthe Logos, but Nepaulese Buddhism postulates Adi-\nBuddha, from Whom Amitabha arises. Padmapani\nis said by Eitel to be the representative of compas-\nsionate Providence and to correspond partly with\nShiva, but as the aspect of the Buddhist Trinity\nthat sends forth incarnations He appears rather to\nrepresent the same idea as Vishnu, to whom He is\nallied by bearing the Lotus (fire and water, or Spirit\nand Matter as the primary constituents of the uni-\nverse). Reincarnation and Karma are so much the\nfundamentals of Buddhism that it is hardly worth\nwhile to insist on them save to note the way of lib-\neration, and to remark that as the Lord Buddha was\na Hindu preaching to Hindus, Brahmanical doc-\ntrines are taken for granted constantly in His teach-\ning, as matters of course. He was a purifier and a\nreformer, not an iconoclast, and struck at the accre-\ntions due to ignorance, not at fundamental truths\nbelonging to the Ancient Wisdom :\n\nThose beings who walk in the way of the law that has been\nwell taught, reach the other shore of the great sea of birth and\ndeath, that is difficult to cross {Uddnavarga, xxix. 37).\n\nDesire binds man, and must be gotten rid of :\n\nIt is hard for one who is held by the fetters of desire to free\n\n• Eitel's Sanskrit Chinese Dictionary, sub voce.\n\n1 6 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nhimself of them, says the Blessed One. The steadfast, who\ncare not for the happiness of desires, cast them off and do soon\ndepart (to Nirv&na). . . . Mankind has no lasting desires:\nthey are impermanent in them who experience them; free\nyourselves then from what cannot last, and abide not in the\nsojourn of death {ibid, , ii. 6. 8) .\n\nHe who has destroyed desires for (worldly) goods, sinful-\nness, the bonds of the eye of the flesh, who has torn up desire\nby the very root, he, I declare, is a Br&hmana (ibid, . xxxiii.\n68).\n\nAnd a Brahmana is a man \" having his last body,\" *\nand is defined as one\n\nWho, knowing his former abodes (existences), perceives\nheaven and hell, the Muni, who has found the way to put an\nend to birth {Ibid., xxxiii. 55).\n\nIn the exoteric Hebrew Scriptures, the idea of a\nTrinity does not come out strongly, though duality\nis apparent, and the God spoken of is obviously the\nLogos, not the One Unmanifest:\n\nI am the Lord and there is none else. I form the light and\ncreate darkness ; I make peace and create evil ; I am the Lord\nthat doeth all these things (/x., xlvii. 7).\n\nPhilo, however, has the doctrine of the Logos very\nclearly, and it is found in the Fourth Gospel :\n\nIn the beginning was the Word [Logos] and the Word was\nwith God and the Word was God. . . . All things were made\nby Him, and without Him was not anything made that was\nmade {S. John i. i, 3).\n\nIn the Kabalah the doctritie of the One, the\nThree, the Seven, and then the many, is plainly\ntaught :\n\n* Uddnavarga, xxxiii. 41.\n\nINTRODUCTION. I /\n\nThe Ancient of the Ancients, the Unknown of the Unknown,\nhas a form, yet also has not any form. It has a form through\nwhich the universe is maintained. It also has not any form,\nas It cannot be comprehended. When It first took this form\n[Kether, the Crown, the First Logos] It permitted to proceed\nfrom It nine brilliant Lights [Wisdom and the Voice, forming\nwith Kether the Triad, and then the seven lower Sephiroth] .\n... It is the Ancient of the Ancients, the Mystery of the\nMysteries, the Unknown of the Unknown. It has a form\nwhich appertains to It. since It appears (through it) to us, as\nthe Ancient Man above all, as the Ancient of the Ancients,\nand as that which there is the Most Unknown among the Un-\nknown. But under that form by which It makes Itself known.\nIt however still remains the Unknown (Isaac Myer's Qabba'\nI ah, from the Zohar, pp. 274, 275) .\n\nMyer points out that the \"form\" is \"not *the An*\ncient of all the Ancients,' who is the Ain Soph.\"\nAgain :\n\nThree Lights are in the Holy Upper which Unite as One ;\nand they are the basis of the Thorah, and this opens thc< door\nto all. . . . Come, see ! the mystery of the word. These are\nthree degrees and each exists by itself, and yet all are One\nand are knotted in One, nor are they separated one from an-\nother. . . . Three come out from One, One exists in Three,\nit is the force between Two, Two nourish One. One nourishes\nmany sides, thus All is One {z'dt'd., 373,375,376).\n\nNeedless to say that the Hebrews held the doc-\ntrine of many Gods — \"Who is like unto Thee, O\nLord, among the Gods?*'* — and of multitudes of sub-\nordinate ministrant;^, the \"Sons of God,\" the \"An-\ngels of the Lord,\" the \"Ten Angelic Hosts/'\n\nOf the commencement of the universe the Zohar\nteaches:\n\n* fix. XY. ii.\n\n1 8 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nIn tho begiiining was the Will of the Kiug, prior to any ex-\nistence which came into being through emanation from this\nWill. It sketched and engraved the forms of all things that\nwere to be manifested from concealment into view, in the\nsupreme and dazzling light of the Quadrant [the sacred Te-\nttactys] (Myer^ Qabbalah, pp. 194. 195).\n\nNothing can exist in which the Deity is not im-\nmanent, and with regard to Reincarnation it is\ntaught that the Soul is present in the divine Idea\nere coming to earth; if the Soul remained quite\npure during its trial it escaped rebirth, but this\nseems to have been only a theoretical possibility, as\nit is said ;\n\nAll souls are subject to revolution (metempsychosis a*leen\no'gilgoolah). but men do not know the ways of the Holy One :\nblessed be It ! they are ignorant of the way they have been\njudged in all time, and before they came into this world and\nwhen they have quitted it {tbui., p. 198).\n\nTraces of this belief occur both in the Hebrew and\nChristian exoteric Scriptures, as in the belief that\nElijah would return, and later that he had returned\nin John the Baptist.\n\nTurning to glance at Egypt, we find there from\nhoariest antiquity its famous Trinity, Ra, Osiris- Isis\nas the dual Second Logos, and Horus. The great\nhymn to Amun-Ra will be remembered\n\nThe Gods bow before Thy Majesty by exalting the Souls of\nThat which produceth them . . . and say to Thee : Peace to\nall emanations from the unconscious Father of the conscious\nFathers of the Gods. . . . Thou Producer of beings, we adore\nthe Souls which emanate from thee. Thou begettest us, O\nThou Unknown, and we greet Thee in worshipping each God-\n\nINTRODUCTION. 1 9\n\nSottl which descendeth from Thee and liveth in us (quoted in\nSecret Doctrine^ iii. p. 486).\n\nThe \"conscious Fathers of the Gods\" are the\nLoGOi, the \"unconscious Father\" is the One Exist-\nence, unconscious not as being less but as being\ninfinitely more than what we call consciousness,\na limited thing.\n\nIn the fragments of the Book of the Dead we can\nstudy the conceptions of the reincarnating of the\nhuman Soul, of its pilgrimage towards and its ulti-\nmate union with the Logos. The famous papyrus\nof \"the scribe Ani, triumphant in peace,\" is full o£\ntouches that remind the reader of the Scriptures of\nother faiths ; his journey through the under- world,\nhis expectation of re-entering his body (the form\ntaken by reincarnation among the Egyptians), his\nidentification with the Logos:\n\nSaith Osiris Ani : I am the great One, son of the great One ;\nI am Fire, the son of Fire. ... I have knit together my\nbones, 1 have made myself whole and sound ; I have become\nyoung once more; I am Osiris, the Lord of eternity (xliii. i,\n\n4)-\n\nIn Pierret's recension of the Book of the Dead we\nfind the striking passage:\n\nI am the being of mysterious names who prepares for him-\nself dwellings for millions of years (p. 22) . Heart, that comest\nto me from my mother, my heart necessary to my existence on\nearth. . . . Heart, that comest to me from my mother, heart\nthat is necessary to me for my transformation (pp. 113. 114).\n\nIn Zoroastrianism we find the conception of the\nOne Existence, imaged as Boundless Space, whence\narises the Logos, the creator Auh^rma^s^:\n\n20 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nSupreme in omniscience and goodness, and unrivalled ia\nsplendor ; the region of light is the place of Auharmazd ( The\nBundahts, Sacred Books of the East, v. 3, 4, v. 2.)\n\nTo him in the Yasna, the chief liturgy of the Za-\nrathustrians, homage is first paid :\n\nI announce and I (will) complete (my Yasna [worship]) to\nAhura Mazda, the Creator, the radiant and glorious, the great-\nest and the best, the most beautiful ( ?) (to our conceptions) ,\nthe most firm, the wisest, and the one of all whose body is\nmost perfect, who attains his ends the most infallibly, because\nof His righteous order, to Him who disposes our minds aright,\nwho sends His joy-creating grace afar ; who made us and has\nfashioned us. and who has nourished and protected us, who is\nthe most bounteous Spirit {Sacred Books of the East, xxxi.\npp. 195, 196).\n\nThe worshipper then pays homage to the Ame-\nshaspends and other Gods, but the supreme mani-\nfested God, the Logos, is not here presented as tri-\nune. As with the Hebrews, there was a tendency in\nthe exoteric faith to lose sight of this fundamental\ntruth. Fortunately we can trace the primitive\nteaching, though it disappeared in later times from\nthe popular belief. Dr. Haug, in his Essays on the\nParsis (translated by Dr. West and forming vol. v.\nof Triibner's Oriental Series), states that Ahura-\nmazda — Auharmazd or Hormazd — is the Supreme\nBeing, and that from him were produced\n\nTwo primeval causes, which, though different, were united\nand produced the world of material things as well as that o\\\nthe spirit (p. 303).\n\nThese were called twins and are everywhere pres-\nent, in Ahuramazda as well as in man. One pro-\n\nINTROUUCTION. 2 1\n\nduces reality, the other non-reality, and it is hese\nwho in later Zoroastrianism became the opposing\nSpirits of good and evil. In the earlier teachings\nthey evidently formed the Second Logos, duality\nbeing his characteristic mark.\n\nThe \" good\" and \" bad*' are merely Light and Dark-\nness, Spirit and Matter, the fundamental \" twins\" of\nthe Universe, the Two from the One.\n\nCriticising the later idea. Dr. Haug says:\n\nSuch is the original Zoroastrian notion of the two creative\nSpirits, who form only two parts of the Divine Being. But\nin the course of time this doctrine of the great founder was\nchanged and corrupted, in consequence of misunderstandings\nand false interpretations. Spentdmainyush [the \"good spirit*']\nwas taken as a name of Ahuramazda Himself, and then of\ncourse Angrdmainyush [the \" evil spirit\"] , by becoming entirely\nseparated from Ahuramazda, was regarded as the constant\nadversary of Ahuramazda ; thus the Dualism of God and Devil\narose (p. 205).\n\nDr. Haug's view seems to be supported by the\nGdtha Ahunavaiti^ given with the other Gathas by\n\"the archangels*' to Zoroaster or Zarathustra:\n\nIn the beginning there was a pair of twins, two spirits, each\nof a peculiar activity ; these are the good and the base. . . .\nAnd these two spirits united created the first (the material\nthings) ; one the reality, the other the non-reality. . . . And\nto succor this life (to increase it) Armaiti came with wealth,\nthe good and true mind ; she, the everlasting one, created the\nmaterial world. . . . All perfect things are garnered up in the\nsplendid residence of the Good Mind, the Wise and the Right-\neous, who are known as the best beingf {Yas. xxx. 3. 4, 7, 10 :\nDr. Haug's Trans., pp. 149-151).\n\n22 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nHere tlic three Loc.oi are seen, Ahuramaxda the\nfirst, the supreme Life; in and from him the\n\"twins,\" the Second Logos; then Armaiti the Mind,\nthe Creator of the Universe, the Third Logos.*\nLater Mithra appears, and in the exoteric faith\nclouds the primitive truth to some extent ; of him it\nis said:\n\nWhom Abura Mazda has established to maintain and look\nover all this moving world : who, never sleeping, wakefully\nguards the creation of Maida (Mihir Yast., xxvii. 103; Sacred\nBooks of the East, xviii.).\n\nHe was a subordinate God, the Light of Heaven,\nas Varuna was the Heaven itself, one of the great\nruling Intelligences. The highest of these ruling\nIntelligences were the six Ameshaspends, headed\nby the Good Thought of Ahuramazda, Vohfiman —\n\nWho have charge of the whole material creation {Sacred\nBooks oj the East. v. p. 10. note).\n\nReincarnation does not seem to be taught in the\nbooks which, so far, have been translated, and the\nbelief is not current among modern Parsis. But we\ndo find the idea of the Spirit in man as a spark that\nis to become a flame and to be reunited to the Su-\npreme Fire, and this must imply a. development for\nwhich rebirth is a necessity. Nor will Zoroastrian-\nism ever he understood until we recover the Chal-\ndean Oracles and allied writings, for there is its real\nroot.\n\n♦Armaiti was at first Wisdom and the Goddess of Wisdom,\nLater, as the Creator, She became identified with the earth.\nand was wor shipped as the God Jess of Earth.\n\niNtRODUCTlON. l^\n\nTravelling westward to Greece, we meet with the\nOrphic system, described with such abundant learn-\ning by Mr. G. R. S. Mead in his work Orpheus. The\nIneffable Thrice-unknown Darkness waa the name\ngiven to the One Existence.\n\nAccording to the theology of Orpheus, all things originate\nfrom an immense principle, to which through the imbecility\nand poverty of human conception we give a name, though it is\nperfectly ineffable, and in the reverential language of the\nEgyptians is a thrice unknown darkness^ in contemplation of\nwhich all knowledge is refunded into ignorance (Thomas\nTaylor, quoted in Orfheus, p. 93).\n\nFrom this the \"Primordial Triad,\" Universal\nGrood, Universal Soul, Universal Mind, again the\nLogic Trinity. Of this Mr. Mead writes:\n\nThe first Triad, which is manifestable to intellect, is but a\nreflection of. or substitute for the Unmanifestable. and its\nhypostases are : {a) the Good, which is super-essential ; {b)\nSoul (the World Soul), which is a gelf -motive essence; and\n(c) Intellect (or the Mind), which is an impartible, immovable\nessence (tbid,, p* 94)*\n\nAfter this, a series of ever- descending Triads,\nshowing the characteristics of the first in diminish-\ning splendor, until man is reached, who\n\nHas in him potentially the sum and substance of the uni-\nverse. . . . \"The race of men and gods is one** (Pindar, who\nwas a Pythagorean, quoted by Clemens, Strom, v. 709). . . .\nThus man was called the microcosm or little world, to distin-\nguish him from the universe or great world {ibid,, p. 271).\n\nHe has the Nous, or real mind, the Logos or ration-\nal part, the Alogos or irrational part, the two latter\nagain forming a Triad, and thus presenting the more\n\n!4 THE ANCIENT VVlSDON\n\nelaborate septenary division. The man was also re-\ngarded as having three vehicles, the physical and\nsubtle bodies and the lucifonn body or augoei'des,\nthat\n\nIs the \"causal body,\" or karmic vesture of tlie soul, in which\nits destiny, or rather all the seeds of past causiitioD are stored.\nThis is the \"lhread-sonl.\"as it is sometimes called, the \"body\"\nthat passes over from one incarnation toanother (ibid., p. 284).\nAs to reincarnation :\n\nTogether with all the adherents of the Mysteries in every\nland the Orphics believed in reincarnation {ibiti.. p. 292).\n\nTo this Mr. Mead brings abundant testimony, and\nhe shows that it was taught by Plato, Empedocles,\nPythagoras, and others. Only by virtue could men\nescape from the life-wheel.\n\nTaylor, in his notes to the Select Works of Plotinus,\nquotes from Damascins as to the teachings of Plato\non the One beyond the One, the unmanifest Exist-\nence:\n\nPerhaps, indeed, Plato leads us ineffably through tht one as\na medium to the ineffable beyond the one which is now the\nsubject of discussion ; and this by an ablation of the one in the\n\nie mannci' as he leads to ike one by an ablation of other\ntniugs. . . . That which is beyond the one is to be honored in\nthe most perfect silence. . . , The one indeed wills to be by\nitself, but with no other; but the uaknown beyond the one is\nperfectly ineffable, which we acknowledge we neither know.\n\nr are ignorant of, but which has about itself s\\iper-igno-\n\nnee. Hence by proximity to this the one itself is darkened;\ntor being near to the immense principle, if it be lawful so to\nspeak, it remains a.4 it were in the adytum of .the truly mystic\nsilence. . . . The first is above the vne and all things, being\nmore simple than either of these (pp. 341-343] .\n\nINTRODUCTION. 2$\n\nThe Pythagorean, Platonic, and Neo - Platonic\nschools have so many points of contact with Hindu\nand Buddhist thought that their issue from one\nfountain is obvious. R. Garbe in his work, Die\nSdtnkhya Philosophie (iii. pp. 85 to 105) presents\nmany of these points, and his statement may be\nsummarized as follows:\n\nThe most striking is the resemblance — or more\ncorrectly the identity — of the doctrine of the One\nand Only in the Upanishads and the Eleatic school.\nXenophanes' teaching of the unity of God and\nthe Kosmos and of the changelessness of the\nOne, and even more that of Parmenides, who held\nthat reality is ascribable only to the One unborn,\nindestructible and omnipresent, while all that is\nmanifold and subject to change is but an appear-\nance, and further that Being and Thinking are the\nsame — ^these doctrines are completely identical with\nthe essential contents of the Upanishads and of the\nVedantic philosophy which springs from them. But\neven earlier still the view of Thales, that all that\nexists has sprung from Water, is curiously like the\nVaidik doctrine that the Universe arose from the\nwaters. Later on Anaximander assumed as the\nbasis {^px^) of all things an eternal, infinite, and in-\ndefinite Substance, from which all definite sub-\nstances proceed and into which they return — an as-\nsumption identical with that which lies at the root\nof the S&nkhya, viz.^ the Prakriti from which the\nwhole material side of the universe evolved. And\nhis famous saying iraVra ()Ci expresses the character-\n\nTHE ANCIENT WISDOII.\n\nistic view of the SSnkhya tliat all things are ever\nchanging under the ceaseless activity o£ the three\ngiinas. Empedocles again taught theories of trans-\nmigration and evolution practically the same as those\nof the Sankhyaa, while his theory that nothing can\ncome into being which does not already exist is even\nmore closely identical with a characteristically San-\nkhyan doctrine.\n\nBoth Anaxagoras and Democritus also present\nseveral points of close agreement, especially the lat-\nter's view as to the nature and position of the Gods,\nand the same applies, notably in some curious mat-\nters of detail, to Epicurus, But it is, however, in\nthe teachings of Pythagoras that we find the closest\nand most frequent identities of teachings and argu-\nmentation, explained as due to Pythagoras himself\nhaving visited India and learnt his philosphy there,\nas tradition asserts. In later centuries we find some\npeculiarly Sankhyan and Buddhist ideas playing a\nprominent part in Gnostic thought. The following\nquotation from Lassen, cited by Garbe on p. 97,\nshows this veiy clearly:\n\nBuddhism In geneial distinguishes clearly t«tween Spirit\nand Light, and does not regard the latter as immaterial ; but\na view of Light is found among them which is closely related\nto that of the Gnostics. According to this, Light is the mani-\nfestation of Spirit in matter ; the intelligence thus clothed in\nLight cornea into relation ivith matter, in which the Light can\nbo lessened and at last quite obscured, in which case the Intel-\nligeace fulls finally into complete unconsciousness. Of the\nhighest Intelligence it is maintained that it is neither Light\n>ar Not-Light, neither Darkness nor Not-Darkneas. since «U\n\nmTRODUCTtOM. ij\n\nthese expressions denote relations of the Intelligence to the\nLight, which indeed in the beginning was free from these con-\nnections, bnt later on encloses the Intelligence and mediates\nits conn<M^tion with matter. It follows from this that the\nBuddhist view ascribes to the highest Intelligence the power\nto produce light from itself, and that in this respect also there\nis an agreement between Buddhism and Gnosticism.\n\nGarbe here points out that, as regards the features\nalluded tc , the agreement between Gnosticism and\nthe Saixkhya is very much closer than that with\nBuddhism ; for while these views as to the relations\nbetween Light and Spirit pertain to the later phases\nof Buddhism, and are not at all fundamental to, or\ncharacteristic of it as such, the Sankhya teaches\nclearly and precisely that Spirit is Light. Later\nstill the influence of the Sankhya thought is very\nplainly evident in the Neo-Platonic writers; while\nthe doctrine of the Locos or Word, though not of\nSinkhyan origin, shows even in its details that it\nhas been derived from India, where the conception\nof Vach, the Divine Word, plays so prominent a\npart in the Brahmanical system.\n\nComing to the Christian religion, contempora-\nneous with the Gn stic and Neo-Platonic systems,\nwe shall find no difficulty in tracing most of the\nsame fundamental teachings with which we have\nnow become so familiar. The threefold Locos ap-\npears as the Trinity ; the First Locos, the fount of\nall life being the Father; the dual-natured Second\nLocos the Son, God-man; the Third, the creative\nMind, the Holy Ghost, whose brooding over the\nwaters of chaos brought forth the worlds. Then\n\n2S IHl'; ANCIKNT WISDOM.\n\ncome \"tlie seven Spirits of God\"* and the hosts of\narchangels and angeis. Of the One Existence from\nwhich alt comes and into which all retnrns, but little\nis hinted, the Nature that by searching cannot be\nfound out; but the great doctors of the Church\nCatholic always posit the unfathomable Deity, in-\ncomprehensible, infinite, and therefore necessarily\nbut One and partless. Man is made in the \" image\nof God, \"I and is consequently triple in his nature —\nSpirit and Soul and body ; J he is a \" habitation of\nGod,\"g the \"temple of God,\"|| the \"temple of the\nHoly Ghost,\"!\" — phrases that •exactly echo the Hindu\nteaching. The doctrine of reincarnati n is rather\ntaken for granted in the iVcif Testament than dis-\ntinctly taught; hv.s Jesus, -peaking of John thr\nBaptist, declares that he is Elias \" which was for to\ncome,\"** referring to ,h . words of Malachi, \" I will\nsend yon Elijah the pr phet' ; ft ^^^ again, when\nasked as to Elijah troming; before the Messiah, He an-\nswered that \" Elias is come already and they knew\nhim not.\" J J So again we find the disciples taking re-\nincarnation foi granted in asking whether blindness\nfrom birth was a punishment for a man's sin, and\nJesus in answer not -ejecting the possibility of ante-\nnatal sin, but only ex- '' ding it as causing the blind-\nness in the special in tance. §g The remarkable\nphrase applied '■o \"him that overcometh\" in Rei:\n\n% Eph. ii. 21.\n\n\" Matt, xi,\n\ng^ /ohn- is.\n\n\\ Ccn i. 36, 27. t 1 Thess. v. 23,\n\n1 I Cor. iji. 16. 1 1 Cor. vt. 19.\n\ntt Mat. iv. 5- M Matt rvii, la\n\nINTRODUCTION. 29\n\niii. 12, that he shall be \"a pillar in the temple of\nmy God, and he shall go no more out,'* has been\ntaken as signifying escape from rebirth. From the\nwritings of some of the Christian Fathers a good\ncase may be made out for a current belief in reincar-\nnation ; some argue that only the pre-existence of\nthe Soul is taught, but this view does not seem to\nme supported by the evidence.\n\nThe unity of moral teaching is not less striking\nthan the unity of the conceptions of the universe\nand of the experiences of those who rose out of the\nprison of the bod)' into the freedom of the higher\nspheres. It is clear that this body of primeval\nteaching was in the hands of definite custodians,\nwho had schools in which they taught, disciples who\nstudied their doctrines. The identity of these\nschools and of their discipline stands out plainly\nwhen we study the moral teaching, the demands\nmade on the pupils, and the mental and spiritual\nstates to which they were raised. A caustic division\nis made in the T&o Teh Ching of the types of schol-\nars:\n\nScholars of the highest class, when they hear about the T&o,\nearnestly carry it into practice. Scholars of the middle class,\nwhen they have heard about it, seem now to keep it and now\nto lose it. Scholars of the lowest class, when they have heard\nabout it, laugh greatly at it {^Sacred Books of the East, xxxix. ,\nop, ctt, xli. i).\n\nIn the same book we read :\n\nThe sage puts his own person last, and yet it is found in the\ntoremost place ; he treats his person as if it were foreign to\nIjim, and yet that person is preserved. Is it not becfiuse b«\n\n30 THE AXCIENT WISDOM,\n\nhas tin personal and private ends that therefore such ends are\nrealiiod? (vii, 2.) He is free from self-display, and therefore\nhe shines; from self-assertion, and therefore he is distin-\nguished; from self -boasting , and therefore his merit is ac-\nknowledged; from self-complacency, and therefc*- he ac-\nquires superiority. It is because he is thus free irom striving\nthat therefore no one in the world is able to strive with him\n(xxii. a). There is noguilt greater than to sanction ambition;\nno calamity greater than to be discontented with one's lot ; no\nfault greater than the wish to be getting (xlvi. 2). To those\nwho are good (to me) I am good ; and to those who are not\ngood (to me) I am also good ; and thus (all) get to be good.\nTo those who are sincere (with ma) I am sincere ; and to those\nwho are not sincere (with me) I am also sincere : and thus\n(all) get to be sincere (xlix. 1) . He who has in himself abun-\ndantly the attributes (of the Tflo) is like an infant. Poisonous\ninsects will not sting him ; fierce beasts will not seize him ;\nbirdsof prey will not strike him (Iv. i}. I have three precious\nthings which I prize and hold fast. The first is gentleness ;\nthe second is economy; the third is shrinking from taking\npreceaence of others. . . , Gentleness is sure to be victorious,\neven in battle, and Hrmly to maintain its ground. Heaven\nn'ill save its possessor, by bis (vr-ry) gentleness protecting him\n(kvii. s. 4).\n\nAmong the Hindus there were selected scholars\ndeemed worthy of special instruction to whom the\nGuru imparted the secret teachings, while the gen-\neral rules of right living may be gathered from\nMann's Ordinances, the U/>ams/iads, the Mahdbkdrata\nand many other treatises:\n\nLet him say what is true, let him say what is pleasing, let\nbim utter no disagreeable truth, and let him ulter no agreea-\nble falsehood ; that is the eternal law (Mann. iv. 138) . Giv-\ning no pain to any creature, let him slowly accumulate spirit-\nual merit (iv. 238). For that twite-born man, by whom not\n\nINTROi:)UCTION. 3 1\n\nthe smallest danger even is caused to created beings, there\nwill be no danger from any (quarter) after he is freed from\nhis body (vi. 40) . Let him patiently bear hard words, let him\nnot insult anybody, and let him not become anybody's enemy\nfor the sake of this (perishable) body. Against an angry man\nlet him not in return show anger, let him bless when he is\ncursed (vi. 47. 48). Freed from passion, fear and anger,\nthinking on Me, taking refuge in Me, purified in the fire of\nwisdom, many have entered into My Being (Bhagavad GUd^\niv. 10). Supreme joy is for this Yogi whose Manas is peace-\nful, whose passion-nature is calmed, who is sinless and of the\nnature of Brahman (vi. 27). He who beaieth no ill-will to any\nbeing, friendly and compassionate, without attachment and\negoism, balanced in pleasure and pain, and forgiving, ever\ncontent, harmonious, with the self controlled, resolute, with\nManas and Buddhi dedicated to Me, he. My devotee, is dear\nto Me (xii. 13, 14).\n\nIf we turn to the Buddha, we find Him with His\nArhats, to whom His secret teachings were given;\nwhile published we have :\n\nThe wise man through earnestness, virtue, and purity makes\nhimself an island which no flood can submerge ( Ud^navarga,\niv. 5) . The wise man in this world holds fast to faith and\nwisdom, these are his greatest treasures ; he casts aside all\nother riches (z. 9) . He who bears ill-will to those who bear\nill-will can never become pure ; but he who feels no ill-will\npacifies those who hate ; as hatred brings misery to mankind,\nthe sage knows no hatred (xiii. 12). Overcome anger by not\nbeing angered ; overcome evil by good ; overcome avarice by\nliberality; overcome falsehoods by truth (xx. 18).\n\nThe Zoroastrian is taught to praise Ahuramazda,\nand then:\n\nWhat is fairest, what pure, what immortal, what brilliant,\nall that is good. The good spirit we honor, the good kingdom\nwe honor, and the good law, and the good wisdom ( Vasn^,\n\n32 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nxxxvii.)* May there come to this dwelling contentment,\nblessing, guilelessness, and wisdom of the pure {Yasna, lix.)-\nPurity is the best good. Happiness, happiness is to him :\nnamely, to the best pure in purity {Ashetn-vohu), All good\nthoughts, words, and works are done with knowle^e. All\nevil thoughts, words, and works are not done with knowledge\n{Mispa Kumata), (Selected from the A vest a in Ancient\nIranian and Zaroastrian Morals^ by Dhunjibhoy Jamsetji\nMedhora) .\n\nThe Hebrew had his ** schools of the prophets\"\nand his Kabbalah, and in the exoteric books we\nfind the accepted moral teachings:\n\nWho shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who stand in\nHis hoiy place ? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart ;\nwho hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceit-\nfully {^Ps. xxiv. 3, 4). What doth the Lord require of thee\nbut to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with\nthy God? {Micah, vi. 8). The lip of truth shall be estab-\nlished for ever ; but a lying tongue is but for a moment {Prov,\nxii. 19). Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the\nbands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let\nthe oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it\nnot to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the\npoor that are cast out to thy house ? when thou seest the naked\nthat thou cover him. and that thou hide not thyself from thine\nown flesh? {Is, Iviii. 6. 7.)\n\nThe Christian Teacher had His secret instructions\nfor His disciples,* and He bade them:\n\nGive not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye\nyour pearls before swine {Matt, vii. 6).\n\nFor public teachingf we may refer to the beati-\ntudes in the Sermon on the Mount, and to such doc-\ntrines as :\n\n* Mcttt. xiii. 10-17.\n\nINTRODUCTION. 33\n\nI say unto you. love your enemies, bless them that curse you.\ndo good to them that hate you. and pray for them which de-\nspiteiFully use you and persecute you. ... Be ye therefore\nperfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect\n(Matt, V. 44. 48) . He that findeth his life shall lose it ; and\nhe that loseth his life for my sake shall find it (x. 39) . Who'\nsoever shall hiunble himself as this little child, the same is\ngreatest in the kingdom of heaven (xviii. 4) . The fruit of the\nSpirit is love, joy. peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,\nfaith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law\n{Gal. V. 22. 23) . Let us love one another ; for love is of God ;\nand everyone that loveth is bom of God and knoweth God (i\nJohn iv. 7) .\n\nThe school of Pythagoras and those of the Neo-\nPlatonists kept up the tradition for Greece, and wc\nknow that Pythagoras gained some of his learning\nin India, while Plato studied and was initiated in the\nschools of Egypt. More precise information har\nbeen published of the Grecian schools than of others;\nthe Pythagorean had pledged disciples as well as an\nouter discipline, the inner circle passing through\nthree degrees during five years of probation. (For\ndetails see G. R. S. Mead's Orpheus^ pp. 263 et seq.)\nThe outer discipline he describes as follows:\n\nWe must first give ourselves up entirely to God. When a\nman prays he should never ask for any particular benefit, fully\nconvinced that that will be given which is right and proper,\nand according to the wisdom of God and not the subject of our\nown selfish desires (Diod. Sic. ix. 41). By virtue alone does\nman arrive at blessedness, and this is the exclusive privilege\nof a rational being (Hippodamus. De Felicitate^ ii.. Orelli.\nOpusc. Gracor, Sent, et Moral. . ii. 284) . In himself, of his\nown nature, man is neither good nor happy, but he may be-\ncome so by the teaching of the true doctrine (jiadiaio^ koI irpovoiac\n\n54 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\narKJetroi) — (Hippo, ibid.). The most sacred duty is liiial\npiety, \"God showers his blessings ou him who honors and\nreveres the author of his days,\" says Pampehis {De Paren-\ncibus. Oreili, op. cit., ii. 345). Ingratitude towards one's\nparents is the blackest of all crimes, writes Perictione (ibid.,\nP- 35<>). who is supposed to have been the mother of Plato.\nThe cleanliness and delicacy of all Pythagorean writings were\nremarkable (CEIian. Hist. Var.. xiv. ig). In all that con-\ncerns chastity and marriage their principles are of the utmost\npurity. Everywhere the great teacher recommends chastity\nnnd temperance: but at the same time he directs that the\nmarried should first become parents before living a life of ab-\nEoluto celibacy, in order that children might be born under\nfavorable conditions for continuing the holy life and\nsioa of the Sacred Science {Jamblichus, Vit. Pythag., and\nHierocl., ap. Stob. Serm., xlv. 14). This is exceedingly\nteresting. for it: is precisely the same regulation that is laid\ndown in the Mdnai/a DAarina SkiUtra. the great Indian\nCode. . . . Adultery was most sternly condemned (Jamb.,\nibid.). Moreover, the most gentle treatment of the wife by\nthe husband was enjoined, for had he not taken her\ncompanion \"before the Gods\"? {See Lascaulx, Ztir GescAicktt\ndcr Ehe bei den Griechen, in the Mdm. de I' Acad, de Eaviire,\nvii. 107, sq.).\n\nMarriage was not an animal union, but a spiritual tis.\nTherefore, in her turn, the wife should love ber husband even\n\nnore than herself, and in all things be devoted and obedient.\nIt is farther interesting to remark that the finest characters\namong women with which ancient Greece presents us were\nformed in the school of Pythagoras, and the same is true of the\nmen. The authors r\"_ antiquity are agreed that this discipline\nhad succeeded in producing the highest examples not only of\nthe purest chastity and sentiment, but also a simplicity of\nmanners, a delicacy, and a taste for serious pursuits which\nwas unparalleled. This is admitted even by Christian writers\n(see Justin, xx, 4). . . . Among the members of the school\nthe *(le3 of justice directed all their acts, while they obsorved\n\nINTRODUCTION. 35\n\nthe strictest tolerance and compassion in their mutual relation-\nships. For justice is the principle of all virtue, as Polus (ap.\nStob., Serm., viii., ed. Schow. p. 232) teaches; 'tis justice\nwhich maintains peace and balance in the soul; she is the\nmother of good order in all communities, makes concord be-\ntween husband and wife, love between master and servant.\n\nThe word of a Pythagorean was also his bond. And finally\na man should live so as to be ever ready for death (Hippolytus,\nP kilos. ^ vi.). {Ibid,, pp. 263-267.)\n\nThe treatment of the virtues in the Neo- Platonic\nschools is interesting, and the distinction is clearly\nmade between morality and spiritual development,\nor, as Plotinus put it, ** The endeavor is not to be\nwithout sin, but to be a God.*** The lowest stage\nwas the becoming without sin by acquiring the\n\"political virtues\" which made a man perfect in\nconduct (the physical and ethical being below these),\nthe reason controlling and adorning the irrational\nnature. Above these were the cathartic, pertaining\nto reason alone, and which liberated the Soul from\nthe bonds of generation; the theoretic, lifting the\nSoul into touch with natures superior to itself; and\nthe paradigmatic, giving it a knowledge of true\nbeing:\n\nHence he who energizes according to the practical virtues is\na worthy man ; but he who energizes according to the cathar-\ntic virtues is a ^ demoniacal man, or is also a or cod demon. \\\nHe who energizes according to the intellectual virtues alone is\na God. But he who energizes according lo the paradigmatic\n\n♦ Select Works of Plotinus, trans, by Thomas Taylor, ed.\n1895. p. II.\nf A good spiritual intelligence, as the daimon of Socrates.\n\n36 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nvirtues is the Father of the Gods, (Note on Intellectual\nPrudence, pp. 325-332.)\n\nBy various practices the disciples were taught to\nescape from the body, and to rise into higher re-\ngions. As grass is drawn from a sheath, the inner\nman was to draw himself from his bodily casing. *\nThe \"body of light\" or \"radiant body\" of the Hin-\ndus is the \" luciform body\" of the Neo-Platonists,\nand in this the man rises to find the Self:\n\nNot grasped by the eye, nor by speech, nor by the other\nsenses (///. , Gods) , nor by austerity, nor by religious rites ; by\nserene wisdom, by the pure essence only, doth one see the\npartless One in meditation. This subtle Self is to be known\nby the mind in which the fivefold life is sleeping. The mind\nof aU creatures is instinct with [these] lives ; in this, purified,\nmanifests the Self {Mundakopamshad, III. ii. 8, 9).\n\nThen alone can man enter the region where sepa-\nration is not, where \"the spheres have ceased.\" In\nG. R. S. Mead's Introduction to Taylor's Plotinus\nhe quotes from Plotinus a description of a sphere\nwhich is evidently the Turiya of the Hindus :\n\nThey likewise see all things, not those with which genera-\ntion, but those with which essence is present. And they per-\nceive themselves in others. For all things there are diapha-\nnous; and nothing is dark and resisting, but everything is\napparent to every one internally and throughout. For light\neverywhere meets with light; since everything contains all\nthings in itself and again sees all things in another. So that\nall things are everywhere and all is all. Each thing likewise\nis everything. And the splendor there is infinite. For every-\nthing there is great, since even that which is small is great\n\n♦ Kdthopanishad^ vi. 17.\n\nINTRODUCTION. 37\n\nThe sun too which is there is all the stars ; and again each star\nis the sun and all the stars. In each, however, a different\nproperty predominates, but at the same time all things are\nvisible in each. Motion likewise there is pure ; for the motion\nis not confounded by a mover different from it (p. Ixxiii.).\n\nA description which is a failure, because the re-\ngion is one above describing by mortal language,\nbut a description that could only have been written\nby one whose eyes had been opened.\n\nA whole volume might easily be filled with the\nsimilaritiiSs between the religions of the world, but\nthe above imperfect statement must suffice as a pref-\nace to the study of Theosophy, to that which is a\nfresh and fuller presentment to the world of the an-\ncient truths on which it has ever been fed. All these\nsimilarities point to a single source, and that is the\nBrotherhood of the White Lodge, the Hierarchy of\nAdepts who watch over and guide the evolution of\nhumanity, and who have preserved these truths un-\nimpaired ; from time to time, as necessity arose, re-\nasserting them in the ears of men. From other\nworlds, from earlier humanities, They came to help\nour globe, evolved by a process comparable to that\nnow going on with ourselves, and that will be more\nintelligible when we have completed our present\nstudy than it may now appear; and They have\nafforded this help, reinforced by the flower of our\nown humanity, from the earliest times until to-day.\nStill They teach eager pupils, showing the path and\nguiding the disciple's steps; still They may be\nre^iched by all who seek Them, bearing in tiien\n\n38 THE ANCIENT WlSDO&t\n\nhands the sacrificial fuel of love, of devotion, of un-\nselfish longing to know in order to serve ; still They\ncarry out the ancient discipline, still unveil the an-\ncient Mysteries. The two pillars of Their Lodge\ngateway are Love and Wisdom, and through its\nstrait portal can only pass those from whose shoul-\nders has fallen the burden of desire and selfishness.\nA heavy task lies before us, and beginning on the\nphysical plane we shall climb slowly upwards; but a\nbird's-eye view of the great sweep of evolution and\nof its purpose may help us, ere we begin our detailed\nstudy in the world that surrounds us. A Locos, ere\na system has begun to be, has in His mind the whole,\nexisting as idea — all forces, all forms, all that in due\nprocess shall emerge into objective life. He draws\nthe circle of manifestation within which He wills to\nenergize, and circumscribes Himself to be the life of\nHis universe. As we watch we see strata appearing\nof successive densities, till seven vast regions are\napparent, and in these centres of energy appear\nwhirlpools of matter that separate from each other,\nuntil when the processes of separation and of con-\ndensation are over — so far as we are here concerned\n— we see a central sun, the physical symbol of the\nLogos, and seven great planetary chains, each chain\nconsisting of seven globes. Narrowing down our\nview to the chain of which our globe is one, we see\nlife-waves sweep round it. forming the kingdoms of\nnature, the three elemental, the mineral, vegetable^\nanimal, human. Narrowing down our view still\nfurther to our own globe and its surroundings, we\n\nINTRODUCTION. 39\n\nwatch human evolution, and see man developing\nself -consciousness by a series of many life-periods ;\nthen centring on a single man we trace his growth\nand see that each life-period has a threefold division,\nthat each is linked to all life-periods behind it reap-\ning their results, and to all life-periods before it\nsowing their harvests, by a law that cannot be bro-\nken; that thus man may climb upwards with each\nlife-period adding to his experience, each life-period\nlifting him higher in purity, in devotion, in intellect,\nin power of usefulness, until at last he stands where\nThey stand who are now the Teachers, fit to pay to\nhis younger brothers the debt he owes to Them.\n\nCHAPTER r\n\nTHE PHYSICAL PLANE.\n\nWe have just seen that the source from which a\nuniverse proceeds is a manifested Divine Being, to\nwhom in the modern form of the Ancient Wisdom\nthe name Logos, or Word, has been given. The\nname is drawn from Greek philosophy, but perfectly\nexpresses the ancient idea, the Word which emerges\nfrom the Silence, the Voice, the Sound, by which\nthe worlds come into being. We must now trace the\nevolution of spirit-matter, in order that we may un-\nderstand something of the nature of the materials\nwith which we have to deal on the physical plane,\nor physical world. For it is in the potentialities\nwrapped up, involved, in the spirit-matter of the\nphysical world that lies the possibility of evolution.\nThe whole process is an unfolding, self-moved from\nwithin and aided by intelligent beings without, who\ncan retard or quicken evolution, but cannot trans-\ncend the capacities inherent in the materials. Some\nidea of these earliest stages of the world's \" becom-\ning\" is therefore necessary, although any attempt to\ngo into minute details would carry us far beyond the\nlimits of such an elementary treatise as the present.\nA very cursory sketch must suffice.\n\n1 ^\n\nTHE World's \"becoming. 41\n\n• ■> ►\n\nComing forth from the depths ot the One Exist-\nence, from the One beyond all thoij^ht and all\nspeech, a Logos, by imposing on Himself a limit,\ncircumscribing voluntarily the range of liis own\nBeing, becomes the manifested God, and tracing, the\nlimiting sphere of His activity thus outlines the^rfiieSL\nof His universe. Within that sphere the universe is-\nbom, is evolved, and dies; it lives, it moves, it has\nits being in Him ; its matter is His emanation ; its\nforces and energies are currents of His life ; He is\nimmanent in every atom, all-pervading, all-sustain-\ning, all-evolving; He is its source audits end, its\ncause and its object, its centre and circumference ;\nit is built on Him as its sure foundation, it breathes\nin Him as its encircling space ; He is in everything\nand everything in Him. Thus have the Sages of the\nAncient Wisdom taught us of the beginning of the\nmanifested worlds.\n\nProm the same source we learn of the Self-un-\nfolding of the Logos into a threefold form ; the First\nLogos, the Root of all Being; from Him the Sec-\nond, manifesting the two aspects of Life and Form,\nthe primal duality, making the two poles of nature\nbetween which the web of the universe is to be\nwoven — Life-Form, Spirit-Matter, Positive-Nega-\ntive, Active-Receptive, Father-Mother of the worlds.\nThen the Third Logos, the Universal Mind, that in\nwhich all archetypically exists, the source of beings,\nthe fount of fashioning energies, the treasure-house\nin which are stored up all the archet3rpal forms\nwhich are to be brought forth and elaborated in\n\n4^ THE ANC'mNT WISDOM.\n\nlower kinds of -raatter during the evolution of the\nuniverse. These are the fruits of past universes,\nbrought ovef , as seeds for the present.\n\nThe phenbmenal spirit and matter of any universe\nare finite in their extent and transitory in their Ju-\nrafioti^'but the roots of spirit and matter are eter-\nTiBJ:: The root of matter * has been said by a pro-\nfound writer to be visible to the Locos as a veil\nthrown over the One Existence, the supreme Brah-\nmanf — to use the ancient name.\n\nIt is this \" veil\" which the Locos assumes for the\npurpose of manifestation, using it for the self-im-\nposed limit which makes activity possible. From\nthis He elaborates the matter of His universe, being\nHimself its informing, guiding, and controlling life. J\n\nOf what occurs on the two higher planes of the\nuniverse, the seventh and the sixth, we can form but\nthe haziest conception. The energy of the Locos as\nwhirling motion of inconceivable rapidity \"digs\nholes in space\" in this root of matter, and this vor-\ntex of life encased in a film of the root of matter is\nthe primary atom; these and their aggregations,\nspread throughout the universe, form all the subdi-\nvisions of spirit-matter of the highest or seventh\nplane. The sixth plane is formed by some of the\n\n* Mi^laprakriti. f Parabrahman.\n\nt Hence He is called \"The Lord of l/ityk,** in some Eastern\nScriptures, M&y&, or illusion, being the principle of form;\nform is regarded as illusory, from its transitory nature and\nperpetual transformations, the life which expresses itself under\nthe veil of form being the reality\n\nMAKING OP TMfe UNlVERSfe. 43\n\ncountless myriads of these primary atoms setting up\na vortex in the coarsest aggregations of their own\nplane, and this primary atom enwalled with spiral\nstrand? of the coarsest combinations of the seventh\nplane becomes the finef:t unit of spirit-matter, or\natom, of the sixth plane. These sixth-plane-atoms\nand their endless combinations form the subdivi-\nsions of the spirit-matter of the sixth plane. The\nsixth-plane-atom, in its turn, sets up a vortex in the\ncoarsest aggregations of its own plane, and, with\nthese coarsest aggregations as a limiting wall, be\ncomes the finest unit of spirit-matter, or atom, of the\nfifth plane. Again, these fifth-plane-atoms and\ntheir combinations form the subdivisions of the\nspirit-matter of the fifth plane. The process is re-\npeated to form successively the spirit-matter of the\nfourth, the third, the second, and the first planes.\nThese are the seven great regions of the universe,\nso far as their material constituents are concerned.\nA clearer idea of them will be gained by analogy\nwhen we come to master the modifications of the\nspirit-matter of our own physical world.*\n\nThe word \"spirit-natter\" is used designedly. It\n\n*The student may find the conception clearer if he think\nof the fifth-plane-atoms as Atm& ; those of the fourth plane as\nAtm& enveloped in Buddhi-matter ; those of the third plane\nas Atm& enveloped in Buddhi- and Manas-matter ; those of\nthe second as Atm& enveloped in Buddhi-. Manas- and K&ma-\nmatter; those of the lowest as AtmS, enveloped in Buddhi-,\nManas-, Kdma- and Sth^la-matter. Only the outermost 12\nactive in each case, but the inner are there, though latent,\nready to come into activity on the upward arc of evolution.\n\nTHE ANXIENT WrSDOM,\n\nimplies the fact that there is no such thing as \"dead\"\n\nmatter; all matter is livdng, the tiniest particles are\nlives. Science speaks truly in affirming: \" No force\nwithout matter, no matter without force. \" They are\nwedded together in an indissoluble marriage\nthroughout the ages of the life of a universe, and\nnone can wrench them apart. Matter is form, and\nthere is no form which does not express a life;\nspirit is life, and there is no life that is not limited\nby a form. Even the Logos, the supreme Lord, has\nduring manifestation the universe as His form, and\nso down to the atom.\n\nThis involution of the life of the Logos as the en-\nsouling force in every particle, and its sticcessive en.\nwrapping in the spirit-matter of every plane, so that\nthe materials of each plane have within them in a\nbidden, or latent condition, all the form- and force-\npossibilities of all the planes above them as well as\nthose of their own — these two facts make evolution\ncertain and give to the very lowest particle the hid-\nden potentialities which will render it fit — as they\nbecome active powers — to enter into the forms of the\nhighest beings. In fact, evolution may be summed\nup in a phrase: it is latent potentialities becoming\nactive powers\n\nThe second great wave of evolution, the evolution\nof form, and the third great wave, the evolution\nof self-consciousness, will be dealt with later on.\nThese three currents of evolution are distinguishable\non our earth in connection with humanity; the mak-\ning of the materials, the building of the house, and\n\nTHREE CONDITIOXS OF MATTER. 45\n\nthe growing of the tenant of the house, or, as said\nabove, the evolution of spirit-matter, the evolution\nof form, the evolution of self-consciousness. If the\nreader can grasp and retain this idea, he will find it\na helpful clue to guide him through the labyrinth of\nfacts.\n\nWe can now turn to the detailed examination of\nthe physical plane, that on which our world exists\nand to which our bodies belong.\n\nExamining the materials belonging to this plane,\nwe are struck by their immense variety, the innu-\nmerable differences of constitution in the objects\naround us, minerals, vegetables, animals, all differ^\ning in their constituents: matter hard and soft,\ntransparent and opaque, brittle and ductile, bitter\nand sweet, pleasant and nauseous, colored and col-\norless. Out of this confusion three subdivisions of\nmatter emerge as a fundamental classification : mat-\nter is solid, liquid, and gaseous. Further examina-\ntion shows that these solids, liquids, and gases are\nmade up by combinations of much simpler bodies,\ncalled by chemists \" elements, \" and that these ele-\nments may exist in a solid, liquid, or gaseous condi-\ntion without changing their respective natures.\nThus the chemical element oxygen is a constituent\nof wood, and in combination with other elements\nforms the solid wood fibres; it exists in the sap with\nanother element, yielding a liquid combination as\nwater; and it exists also in it by itself as gas. Un-\nder these three conditions it is oxygen. Further,\npure oxygen can be reduced from a gas to a liquid,\n\n46 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nand from a liquid to a solid, remaining pure oxygen\nall the time, and so with other elements. We thus\nobtain as three subdivisions, or conditions, of mat-\nter on the physical plane, solid, liquid, gas. Search-\ning further, we find a fourth condition, ether, and\nminuter search reveals that this ether exists in four\nconditions as well defined as those of solid, liquid,\nand gas; to take oxygen again as an example: as it\nmay be reduced from the gaseous condition to the\nliquid and the solid, so it may be raised from the\ngaseous through four etheric stages, the last of\nwhich consists of the ultimate physical atom, the\ndisintegration of the atom taking the matter out of\nthe physical plane altogether, and into the next\nplane above. In the annexed plate three gases are\nshown in the gaseous and four etheric states ; it will\nbe observed that the structure of the ultimate physi-\ncal atom is the same for all, and that the variety of\nthe \"elements\" is due to the variety of ways in\nwhich these ultimate physical atoms combine. Thus\nthe seventh subdivision of physical spirit-matter is\ncomposed of homogeneous atoms ; the sixth is com\nposed of fairly simple heterogenous combinations ot\nthese, each combination behaving as a unit ; the fifth\nis composed of more complex combinations, and the\nfourth of still more complex ones, but in all cases\nthese combinations act as units; the third •subdivi-\nsion consists of yet mere complicated combina-\ntions, regarded by the chemist as gaseous atoms a\n'* elements,\" and on this subdivision many of the\ncombinations have received special names, oxygen.\n\nMFANING OF PLANE. 47\n\nhydrogen, nitrogen, chlorine, etc., and each newly-\ndiscovered combination now receives its name ; the\nsecond subdivision consists of combinations in the\nliquid condition, whether regarded as elements such\nas bromine, or as combinations such as water or al-\ncohol; the first subdivision is composed of all solids,\nagain whether regarded as elements, such as iodine,\ngold, lead, etc., or as compounds, such as wood,\nstone, ^''halk, and so on.\n\nThe physical plane may serve the student as a\nmodel from which by analogy he may gain an idea\nof the subdivisions of the spirit-matter of other\nplanes. When a Theosophist speaks of a plane, he\nmeans a region throughout which spirit-matter ex-\nists, all whose combinations are derived from a par-\nticular set of atoms; these atoms, in turn,' are units\npossessing similar organizations, whose life is the\nlife of the Locos veiled in fewer or more coverings\naccording to the plane, and whose form consists of\nthe solid, or lowest subdivision of matter, of the\nplane immediately ab' ve. A plane is thus a division\nin nature, as well as a metaphysical idea.\n\nThus far we have been studying the results in our\nown physical world of the evolution of spirit-matter\nin our division of the first or lowest plane of our\nsystem. For countless ages the fashioning of\nmaterials has been going on, the current of the\nevolution of spirit-matter, and in the materials\nof our globe we see the outcome at the present\ntime. But when we begin to study the inhabitants\nof the physical plane, we come to the evolution\n\n/C8 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nof form, the building of organisms out of these\nmaterials.\n\nWhen the evolution of materials had reached a\nsufficiently advanced state, the second great life-\nwave from the Logos gave the impulse to the evolu-\ntion of form, and He became the organizing force*\nof His universe, countless hosts of entities, entitled\nBuilders, f taking part in the building up of forms out\nof combinations of spirit-matter. The life of the\nLogos abiding in each form is its central, control-\nling, and directing energy. This building of forms\non the higher planes cannot here be conveniently\nstudied in detail ; it may suffice to say that all forms\nexist as Ideas in the mind of the Logos, and that in\nthis second life-wave these were thrown outwards as\nmodels to guide the Builders. On the third and\nsecond planes the early spirit-matter combinations\nare designed to give it facility in assuming shapes\norganized to act as units, and gradually to increase\nits stability when shaped into an organism. This\nprocess went on upon the third and second planes,\nin what are termed the three elemental kingdoms,\nthe combinations of matter formed therein being\ncalled generally \"elemental essence,\" and this es-\nsence being moulded into forms by aggregation, the\n\n*As AtmH-Buddhi, indivisible in action, and therefore\nspoken of as the Monad. K\\\\ forms have Atm&-Buddhi as\ncontrolling life.\n\nf Some are lofty spiritual Intelligences, but the name covers\neven the building Nature-spirits. The subject is dealt with in",
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