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    "title": "Esoteric Buddhism (5th ed., 1893)",
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    "text": "## Esoteric Buddhism (5th ed., 1893)\n\n\n'\n\n^ v*x\n\n0 0'\n\n■\n\ns '\n\nl'* *%. ^\n\nV *\n\nK •\n\n^\n\nr %■-\n\n'. *<<■\n\n\"o\n\n»/. s*\n\n*«\n\n,v '*k\n\ncP\n\n:^ ■•\n\n#' %\n\n& %.\n\n*' c^\n\n.\n\nESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nBooks bp #♦ P* £mtmtt«\n\nTHE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM.\n\ni6mo, $1.25.\n\nESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nNew American Edition. With Introduction pre-\npared expressly for it by the Author. i6mo,\n$1.25.\n\nTHE OCCULT WORLD.\n\nNew American from the Fourth English Edi-\ntion. With an Introduction written for the\nAmerican Edition by the Author, and Appen-\ndix. i6mo? $1.25.\n\nHOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.,\nBoston and New York.\n\nESOTERIC BUDDHISM\n\nBY\n\nA. P. SINNETT\n\nPRESIDENT OF THE SIMLA ECLECTIC THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY\nAUTHOR OF \"THE OCCULT WORLD \"\n\nBOSTON AND NEW YORK\nHOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY\n\ni8Q3\n\nb*\n\nCopyright, 1884,\nBy HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.\n\nAll rights reserved.\n\nTo Replace lost copy\n\nNOV 2 0.1946\n\nHie Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., IT. S. A.\nElectrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Company\n\nPUBLISHER'S NOTE.\n\nThe fifth English edition of Esoteric Bud-\ndhism consists of the text of the fourth Amer-\nican edition, together with the larger part of the\npreface specially furnished by Mr. Sinnett for\nthe American edition. He took the opportunity\nafforded by a new edition, also, to append to\nsome of the chapters annotations upon points\ncalling for explication. These annotations are\nnow added to the sixth American edition as an\nappendix. The present edition therefore cor-\nresponds with the latest English edition, and\nhas besides matter in the author's preface not\nincorporated in any English edition.\n\nINTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN\nEDITION.\n\nThis book was written in the early part of\n1883, and now that I am venturing to recom-\nmend it to public notice afresh in the latter\npart of 1884, after three English editions have\npassed through the press, I find myself in pos-\nsession of much additional information bearing\non many of the problems dealt with. But I\nam glad to be able to say that such later teach-\ning as I have yet received only reveals incom-\npleteness in my original conceptions of the eso-\nteric doctrine, — no material error so far. In-\ndeed, I am happy enough to have received, from\nthe great adept himself from whom I obtained\nmy instruction in the first instance, the assur-\nance that the book as it now stands is a sound\nand trustworthy statement of the scheme of\nNature as understood by the initiates of occult\nscience, which may have to be a good deal de-\nveloped in future, if the interest it excites is\nkeen enough to constitute an efficient demand\n\n6 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.\n\nfor further teaching of this kind on the part of\nthe world at large, but will never have to be\nremodeled or apologized for.\n\nFurther than this, the reception of the book\nin India has shown that the doctrines thus\nfor the first time set forth in a coherent and\nstraightforward way are recognized, when thus\nstated, by various schools of Oriental philoso-\nphy as consonant with their fundamental views.\nA Brahman Hindoo, writing in the Indian\nmagazine, \"The Theosophist,\" for June, 1884,\ncriticises the present volume as departing un-\nnecessarily from accepted Sanskrit nomencla-\nture ; but his objection merely is that I have\ngiven unfamiliar names in some cases to ideas\nwhich are already expressed in Hindoo sacred\nwritings, and that I have done too much honor\nto the religious system commonly known as\nBuddhism, by representing that as more closely\nallied with the esoteric doctrine than any other.\n\" The popular wisdom of the majority of the\nHindoos to this day,\" says my Brahman critic,\n\" is more or less tinged with the esoteric doc-\ntrines taught in Mr. Sinnett's book, misnamed\n'Esoteric Buddhism,' while there is not a sin-\ngle hamlet or village in the whole of India in\nwhich people are not more or less acquainted\nwith the sublime tenets of the Vedanta philoso-\nphy. . . . The effects of Karma in the next\n\nINTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. 7\n\nbirth, the enjoyment of its fruits, good or evil, in\na subjective or spiritual state of existence prior\nto the re-incarnation of the spiritual monad in\nthis or any other world, the loitering of the\nunsatisfied souls or human shells in the earth\n(Kamaloca), the pralayic and manwantaric pe-\nriods, . . . are not only intelligible but are even\nfamiliar to a great many Hindoos, under names\ndifferent from those made use of by the author\nof ' Esoteric Buddhism.' \" So much the better\nfrom the point of view of Western readers, to\nwhom it is a matter of indifference whether the\nexoteric Hindoo or Buddhist religion is nearest\nto absolutely true spiritual science, which should\ncertainly bear no name that appears to wed it\nto any one faith in the external world more\nthan to another. All that we in the West can\nbe anxious for is to arrive at a clear understand-\ning as to the essential principles of that science,\nand if we find the principles defined in this\nbook claimed by the cultured representatives of\nmore than one great Oriental creed as equally\nthe underlying truths of their different systems,\nwe shall be all the better inclined to believe the\npresent exposition of doctrine worth our atten-\ntion.\n\nIn regard to the complaint itself, that the\nteachings here reduced to an intelligible shape\nare incorrectly described by the name this book\n\n8 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.\n\nbears, I cannot do better than quote the note\nby which the editor of \" The Theosophist \" re-\nplies to his Brahman contributor. He says:\n\" We print the above letter, as it expresses, in\ncourteous language and in an able manner, the\nviews of a large number of our Hindoo broth-\ners. At the same time it must be stated that\nthe name of ' Esoteric Buddhism ' was given to\nMr. Sinnett's latest publication, not because\nthe doctrine propounded therein is meant to be\nspecially identified with any particular form of\nfaith, but because Buddhism means the doc-\ntrine of the Buddhas, the Wise, i. e. the Wis-\ndom Religion.\" For my own part I need only\nadd that I fully accept and adopt that explana-\ntion of the matter. It would, indeed, be a mis-\nconception of the design which this book is in-\ntended to subserve, to suppose it concerned with\nthe recommendation, to a dilettante modern\ntaste, of old world fashions in religious thought.\nThe external forms and fancies of religion in\none age may be a little purer, in another age a\nlittle more corrupt, but they inevitably adapt\nthemselves to their period, and it would be\nextravagant to imagine them interchangeable.\nThe present statement is not put forward in\nthe hope of making Buddhists from among the\nadherents of any other system, but with the\nview of conveying to thoughtful readers, as well\n\nINTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. 9\n\nin the East as in the West, a series of leading\nideas, relating to the actual verities of Nature,\nand the real facts of Man's progress through\nevolution, which have been communicated to the\nwriter in their present shape by Eastern phi-\nlosophers, and thus fall most readily into an\nOriental mould. But the value of these teach-\nings will perhaps be most fully realized when\nwe clearly perceive that they are scientific in\ntheir character, rather than polemical. Spirit-\nual truths, if they are truths, may evidently be\ndealt with in a no less scientific spirit than\nchemical reactions. And no religious feeling,\nof whatever color it may be, need be disturbed\nby the importation into the general stock of\nknowledge of new discoveries about the consti-\ntution and nature of Man on the plane of his\nhigher activities. True religion will eventually\nfind a way to assimilate such fresh knowledge\nin the same way that it finally acquiesces in a\ngradual enlargement of knowledge on the phys-\nical plane. This, in the first instance, may\nsometimes disconcert notions associated with\nreligious belief, — as geological science at first\nembarrassed biblical chronology. But in time\nmen came to see that the essence of the biblical\nstatement does not reside in the literal sense of\ncosmological passages, and religious conceptions\ngrew all the purer for the relief thus afforded\n\n10 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.\n\nIn just the same way, when positive scientific\nknowledge begins to embrace a comprehension\nof laws relating to the spiritual development\nof Man, some misconceptions of Nature long\nblended with religion may have to give way,\nbut still it will be found that the central ideas\nof true religion have been cleared up and bright-\nened all the better for the process. Especially,\nas such processes continue, will the internal dis-\nsensions of the religious world be inevitably\nsubdued. The warfare of sects can only be due\nto a failure on the part of rival sectarians to\ngrasp fundamental facts. Could a time come\nwhen the basic ideas on which religion rests\nshould be comprehended with the same cer-\ntainty with which we comprehend some pri-\nmary physical laws, and disagreement about\nthem be recognized by all educated people as\nridiculous, then there would not be room for\nvery acrimonious divergences of religious senti-\nment. Externals of religious thought would\nstill differ in different climates and among dif-\nferent races, — as dress and dietaries differ, ■ —\nbut such differences would not give rise to in-\ntellectual antagonism.\n\nBasic facts of the kind that must, when they\ncome to be widely recognized as such, have a\ntendency in this way to blend together super-\nficially divergent views, not to provoke a trial\n\n.\n\nINTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. 11\n\nof strength between them, are developed, it\nappears to me, in the exposition of spiritual\nscience we have now obtained from our Eastern\nfriends. It is quite unnecessary for religious\nthinkers to turn aside from them under the\nimpression that they are arguments in favor of\nsome Eastern, in preference to the more gen-\neral Western, creed. If medical science were to\ndiscover a new fact about Man's body, were to\nunveil some hitherto concealed principle on\nwhich the growth of skin and flesh and bone\nis carried on, that discovery would not be re-\ngarded as trenching at all on the domain of\nreligion. Would the domain of religion be in-\nvaded by a discovery, for example, that should\ngo one step behind the action of the nerves,\nand disclose a finer set of activities manipulat-\ning these as they manipulate the muscles? At\nall events, even if such a discovery might begin\nto reconcile science and religion, no man who\nallows any of his higher faculties to enter into\nhis religious thinking would put aside a posi-\ntive fact of Nature, clearly shown to be such,\nas hostile to religion. Being a fact, it is inevi-\ntable that it should fit in with all other facts,\nand with religious truth among the number.\nSo with the great mass of information in refer-\nence to the evolution of Man embodied in the\npresent statement. Our best plan evidently is,\n\n12 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.\n\nto ask, before we look into the report I bring\nforward, not whether it will square in all re-\nspects with preconceived views, but whether it\nreally does introduce us to a series of natural\nfacts connected with the growth and develop-\nment of Man's higher faculties. If it does this,\nwe may wisely examine the facts first in the\nscientific spirit, and leave them to exercise\nwhatever effect on collateral beliefs may be\nreasonable and legitimate, later on.\n\nRamifying, as the explanation proceeds, into\na great many side paths, it will be seen by\nthe readers of this book that the central idea\nnow presented to us completes and spiritualizes\nthe great conception of physical anthropology,\nwhich accounts for the evolution of Man's body\nby successive and very gradual improvements\nof animal forms from generation to generation.\nThat is a very barren and miserable theory, re-\ngarded as an all-embracing account of creation ;\nbut, properly understood, it paves the way for\na comprehension of the higher concurrent pro-\ncess, which is all the while evolving the soul of\nMan in the higher spiritual realms of existence.\nThe circumstances under which this is done\nreconcile the evolutionary method with the in-\nstinctive craving of every self-conscious entity\nfor perpetuity of individual life. The dis-\njointed series of improving forms on this earth\n\nINTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. 13\n\nhave no individuality, and the life of each in\nturn is a separate transaction which finds no\ncompensation for suffering involved, no justice,\nno fruit of its efforts, in the life of its successor.\nIt is possible to argue on the assumption of a\nnew independent creation of a human soul,\nevery time a new human form is produced by\nphysiological growth, that in the after spiritual\nstate of such soul justice may be awarded ; but\nthen this conception is itself at variance with\nthe fundamental idea of evolution, which traces,\nor believes that it traces, the origin of each soul\nto the working of highly developed matter in\neach case. Nor is it less at variance with the\nanalogies of Nature, as these come under our\nobservation ; but without going into that, it is\nenough for the moment to perceive that the\ntheory of spiritual evolution, as set forth in the\nteaching of esoteric science, is, at any rate, in\nharmony with these analogies, while at the\nsame time it satisfactorily meets the require-\nments of justice and of the instinctive demand\nfor continuity of individual life.\n\nThis theory recognizes the evolution of the\nsoul as a process that is quite continuous in\nitself, though carried out partly through the\nintermediation of a great series of dissociated\nforms. Putting aside, for the moment, the\nprofound metaphysics of the theory which trace\n\n14 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.\n\nthe principle of life from the original first\ncause of the Cosmos, we find the soul as an\nentity emerging from the animal kingdom and\npassing into the earliest human forms, without\nbeing at that time ripe for the higher intellec-\ntual life with which the present state of hu-\nmanity renders us familiar. But through suc-\ncessive incarnations in forms whose physical\nimprovement, under the Darwinian law of\nevolution, is constantly fitting them to be its\nhabitations at each return to objective life, it\ngradually gathers that enormous range of ex-\nperience which is summed up in its higher de-\nvelopment. In the intervals between its physi-\ncal incarnations, it prolongs and works out, and\nfinally exhausts or transmutes into so much ab-\nstract development, the personal experiences of\neach life. This is the clue to that apparent\ndifficulty which besets the cruder form of the\ntheory of re-incarnation, which independent\nspeculation has sometimes thrown out. Each\nman is unconscious of having led previous lives,\ntherefore he contends that subsequent lives can\nafford him no compensations for this one. He\noverlooks the enormous importance of the in-\ntervening spiritual condition, in which he by\nno means forgets the personal adventures and\nemotions he has just passed through, and in\nwhich he distills them into so much cosmic\n\nINTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. 15\n\nprogress. In the following pages the elucida-\ntion of this profoundly interesting mystery is\nattempted, ancf it will be seen that the view of\nevents now afforded us is not only a solution\nof the problems of life and death, but of many\nvery perplexing experiences on the border land\nbetween those conditions, — or rather between\nphysical and spiritual life, — which have en-\ngaged attention and speculation so widely of\nrecent years in most civilized countries.\n\nIt was time, in fact, that the esoteric doc-\ntrine should be offered to modern thinkers\nto assist them in grappling with the enigmas\n-which the spasmodic operation of very exalted\nspiritual faculties in some cases — the manifes-\ntation of some extra-physical laws and forces\nof Nature in others — have been latterly ac-\ncumulating on our hands in great abundance.\nRather, I imagine, because the conjectures put\nforward to account for them were unacceptable\nto the cultivated world at large, than because\nthe occurrence of extra-physical manifestations\nof late years has been disbelieved altogether,\nhave most people been unwilling to pay close\nattention to such occurrences. Nor is it neces-\nsary that they should do so now, in order to\nreach an intellectual standpoint from which the\nwhole range of possibilities in regard to com-\nmunications that may be established between\n\n16 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.\n\nthe seen and the unseen worlds may be broadly\ncomprehended. The higher culture of the East\nhas been concerned with the investigation, in\nits own congenial retirement, of that side of Na-\nture, while we in the West have been pushing\nforward our physical civilization to its present\ngreat height. Different races in the world ad-\nvance in this way along different lines of prog-\nress ; or, rather, — to state the idea more sci-\nentifically in the light of the occult doctrine,\n— all races have their cyclic progress to accom-\nplish, at one period of whkh they are concerned\nwith physical and at another with spiritual cul-\nture. We of the white race in Europe and\nAmerica — embodying within the last few cen-\nturies one phase of the progress of our sub-\nsection of humanity — have been concerned al-\nmost entirely, during the historic period, with\nthe development of our material civilization.\nOur religions, meanwhile, have had to do rather\nwith the maintenance of spiritual aspirations in\na potential state, than with the keen investiga-\ntion of the facts of Nature in the spiritual re-\ngion. We have keenly investigated these facts\non the physical plane, for that was the proper\nfunction of our age ; but all earnestness of ef-\nfort on the part of Oriental races, in the mean-\nwhile, has been turned in another direction.\nThere, physical civilization has been stagnant,\n\nINTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. 17\n\nmaterial progress quite unimportant, but spirit'\nual aspirations have been not merely kept up\nas an underlying sentiment in people's minds,\n— they have operated to produce the greatest\nmanifestations of activity with which the race\nhas been concerned. I do not mean that the\nIndian or any other Asiatic race has been as\nactive in writing books and publishing discov-\neries in spiritual science as we in the West\nhave been with the literature and research of\nphysics. That kind of activity is itself a mani-\nfestation of material civilization. But the Asi-\natic races have fermented with capacities for\ngreat spiritual development, and the conse-\nquence has been that many Eastern people\nhave devoted their lives to spiritual study and\nresearch, always, of course, pursuing the meth-\nods of research and the modes of life appro-\npriate to a cycle of spiritual progress, — meth-\nods which lead the student of — and still more\nthe adept in — such science into seclusion and\nsecrecy.\n\nProbably it may be due in some way to an\nopposite fermentation of causes in the East and\nthe West now that a certain interchange of\nmethods begins to be possible. I do not mean\nthat the West is turning away yet from ma-\nterial civilization, nor the East slackening its\ndevotion to spirituality, but we here are cer-\n\n18 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION,\n\nthinly readier now than we were a generation\nor two ago to recognize the possibility of ac-\nquiring real knowledge of spiritual science, and\nare more generally impressed with the neces-\nsity of such acquisitions. The East on the other\nhand has partially relaxed its hitherto inviola-\nble reserve. The important movement of which\nthis little book is one outcome constitutes a\ndouble illustration of the new tendency at last\ndiscernible. It is discernible in several differ-\nent ways to acute observers who once possess\nthemselves of the key to what is going on. But\nit is only of that particular effort in which my\nown willing services have been engaged that I\nneed now speak. A book more or less, in this\nocean of books which is constantly welling forth\nfrom active Western civilization, may seem a\nvery small matter ; but to the highly conserva-\ntive devotees of occult science in the East, a\nbook which sets forth in plain language, which\nall who run may read, the hitherto secret in-\nterpretations of Nature's spiritual design that\nhave hitherto been communicated only in the\ndeadliest secrecy to students of long absorption\nin the pursuit of such teaching, constitutes a\nviolation of the old occult usage which is quite\nbewildering and appalling. As my Brahman\ncritic above referred to points out, now that\nthe esoteric doctrine is once for all plainly\n\nINTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. 19\n\nstated, it is seen to be embodied, a bit here\nand a bit there, in the various sacred writings\nof India. But at the same time it was nowhere\nstated in such terms as to be comprehensible\nwithout prolonged and special study. And for\nthe most part the doctrine, in so far as it was\nstated, was wrapped in allegory that Western\nreaders have rarely had the patience to unravel.\nTo all intents and purposes, though the knowl-\nedge here set forth is no new discovery for those\nby whom it is now revealed, it is a new revela-\ntion for the whole world, — Eastern and West-\nern alike, — in its present explicit distinctness,\nand has only been prepared for in the West,\nbut I trust prepared for sufficiently, by that\nwidespread seething interest in spiritual things\nwhich has been working among us for some\nyears past.\n\nThis interest has been stimulated in various\nways. The casual occurrence of phenomena\nlinking our physical perceptions with the un-\nseen world has kindled an ardent enthusiasm\nfor inquiry along the path of investigation thus\npointed out, but the laws of Nature affecting\nthe vast realm of spiritual existence are far too\ncomplicated to be discovered from an observa-\ntion of the phenomena of the relatively nar-\nrow subdivision of that realm brought within\nour cognizance almost exclusively by casual and\n\n20 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.\n\nirregular occurrences of the kind referred to.\nIt is only with the help of esoteric science —\nthe accumulated experience of a great school of\ninquirers, devoting faculties of the highest kind,\nfor a long series of ages, to the exploration\nof spiritual mysteries — that a sufficiently wide\nview of Nature can be obtained to embrace the\napparently disorderly phenomena of the astral\nworld, — the first beyond the physical frontier,\n— in all-sufficing generalizations that cover the\nwhole scheme of spiritual evolution. These far-\nreaching and magnificent conceptions of Nature\nshould not only recommend themselves, when\nproperly understood, to minds that have shrunk\nfrom crude conclusions based on the imperfect\ndata of modern spiritual observation in the\nWest, but should also be recognized by modern\nspiritualists themselves as calculated to purify\nand expand their own doctrines, and guard\nthem from liability to underrate the grandeur\nof the region into which they have partly\npenetrated, by relying, for its interpretation,\ntoo confidently on experiences gathered at its\nthreshold. For the theosophic teaching, which\nhas been too hastily resented by some spiritual-\nists who have conceived it hostile to their own\nacquired knowledge, will be discovered, on a\ncloser examination, to include these experi-\nences, and only to disconcert some of the con-\n\nINTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. 21\n\nelusions derived from them. It must be re-\nmembered that my statements concerning the\nphenomena of Kama loca, — the astral world,\nfrom which most of the phenomena of spirit-\nualism emanate, — have been the fruit of my\nown questions and inquiries rather than a por-\ntion of a carefully adjusted series of lessons in\noccult science, dictated by professors applying\nthemselves to the art of teaching. That, in-\ndeed, has been the way in which the whole\nbody of exposition which this book contains\nhas been worked out, and it naturally follows\nthat some parts of it are less complete than\nothers, and that none can be much better than\ngeneral outlines. In esoteric science, as in mi-\ncroscopy, the application of higher and higher\npowers will always continue to reveal a grow-\ning wealth of detail ; and the sketch of an or-\nganism that appeared satisfactory enough when\nits general proportions were first discerned, is\nbetrayed to be almost worse than insufficient\nwhen a number of previously unsuspected minu-\ntiae are brought to notice. In this way, while\nno mistake has been made as regards any state-\nment actually put forward in the following\npages on the subject of human evolution after\ndeath, there will be more, I apprehend, to add\nto that part of the explanation in later expan-\nsions of it, if these become practicable, than to\n\n22 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.\n\nany other. The points which, meanwhile, I\nwill ask spiritualist readers to bear in mind\nare especially these :\n\n1st. It is already indicated that the dissolu-\ntion of the human principles after death, though\none cannot help speaking of the process as one\nof dispersion, is not actually a mechanical sepa-\nration of parts, nor even a process analogous to\nthe chemical dissolution of a compound body\ninto elements on the same plane of matter.\nThe discussion of the process as if it were a\nmechanical separation was represented from\nthe first as \" a rough way of dealing with the\nmatter,\" and was adopted for the sake of em-\nphasizing the transition of consciousness from\none principle to another which goes on in the\nastral world after death. This transition of\nconsciousness is, in fact, the struggle between\nthe higher and lower duad.\n\n2d. The struggle just referred to may be\nregarded as an oscillation of consciousness be-\ntween the two duads ; and when the return of\nconsciousness to the lower principles, during\nthis struggle, is stimulated and encouraged by\nconverse with still living entities on the earth\nplane, with the help of medium ship, the proper\nspiritual growth of the entity in Kama loca is,\nto that extent, — perhaps to a very consider-\nable extent, — retarded. It is this considers\n\nINTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. 23\n\ntion which may, in a greater degree than any\nother, account for the disapproval with which\nthe adepts of occult science regard the active\npractice of spiritualistic intercourse with de-\nparted human beings. Such intercourse, though\ndictated from this side by the purest affection,\nmay seriously retard and embarrass the spirit-\nual development of those who have gone in\nadvance of us.\n\n3d. It is recognized in the following pages\n-that intercourse between living human beings\ngifted with a very elevated sort of mecliumship,\nor spiritual clairvoyance, and departed friends\nwith whom they have been closely united in\nsympathy during life, is possible on the higher\nspiritual plane, after such persons have passed\nthrough the struggle of Kama loca and have\nbeen completely spiritualized. That intercourse\nmay be of a more subtle kind than can readily\nbe realized by reference to examples of inter-\ncourse on the earth plane, but may evidently\nbe none the less exhilarating to the higher per-\nceptions.\n\nBy dwelling on the points of contact between\nthe theosophic teachings and the experience of\nthe higher spiritualism, I think it will be found\nthat the alleged incompatibility of theosophy\nand spiritualism is much less complete than is\nsupposed. It is impossible, I venture to assert,\n\n24 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.\n\nthat there can be any true psychic experience\nwhich the doctrines of theosophy — or, to speak\nmore accurately, of that esoteric science of which\ntheosophy is the study — will fail to interpret\nand explain. And if this partial exposition of\nesoteric science may leave a good deal not yet\nexplained in the vast region of mystery which\nseparates death and re-birth, surely the revela-\ntions which are made here go far enough to es-\ntablish a good claim on our respectful attention\nfor the present, so that some embarrassments\nthey may still leave to trouble our understand-\ning may fairly be passed to a suspense account,\nwhile we await a further illumination, to be,\nperhaps, obtainable hereafter.\n\nPREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.\n\nThe teachings embodied in the present vol-\nume let in a flood of light on questions con-\nnected with Buddhist doctrine which have\ndeeply perplexed previous writers on that re-\nligion, and offer the world for the first time a\npractical clue to the meaning of almost all\nancient religious symbolism. More than this,\nthe esoteric doctrine, when properly under-\nstood, will be found to advance an overpower-\ning claim on the attention of earnest thinkers.\nIts tenets are not presented to us as the in-\nvention of any founder or prophet ; its testi-\nmony is based on no written scriptures; its\nviews of Nature have been evolved by the re-\nsearches of an immense succession of investiga-\ntors, qualified for their task by the possession\nof spiritual faculties and perceptions of a higher\norder than those belonging to ordinary human-\nity. In the course of ages, the block of knowl-\nedge thus accumulated, concerning the origin\nof the world and of man, and the ultimate des-\n\n26 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.\n\ntinies of our race, — concerning also the na-\nture of other worlds and states of existence dif-\nfering from those of our present life, — checked\nand examined at every point, verified in all\ndirections, and constantly under examination\nthroughout, has come to be looked on by its\ncustodians as constituting the absolute truth\nconcerning spiritual things, the actual state of\nthe facts regarding vast regions of vital activ-\nity lying beyond this earthly existence.\n\nEuropean philosophy, whether concerned\nwith religion or pure metaphysics, has so long\nbeen used to a sense of insecurity in specula-\ntions outrunning the limits of physical experi-\nment, that absolute truth about spiritual things\nis hardly recognized any longer by prudent\nthinkers as a reasonable object of pursuit ; but\ndifferent habits of thought have been acquired\nin Asia. The secret doctrine which, to a con-\nsiderable extent, I am now enabled to expound,\nis regarded not only by all its adherents, but\nby vast numbers who have never expected to\nknow more of it than that such a doctrine ex-\nists, as a mine of entirely trustworthy knowl-\nedge, from which all religions and philosophies\nhave derived whatever they possess of truth,\nand with which every religion must coincide if\nit claims to be a mode of expression for truth.\n\nThis is a bold claim indeed, but I venture to\n\nPREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 27\n\nannounce the following exposition as one of\nimmense importance to the world, because I\nbelieve that claim can be substantiated.\n\nI do not say that within the compass of\nthis volume the authenticity of the esoteric\ndoctrine can be proved. Such proof cannot\nbe given by any process of argument ; only\nthrough the development in each inquirer for\nhimself of the faculties required for the direct\nobservation of Nature along the lines indicated.\nBut his primd facie conclusion may be deter-\nmined by the extent to which the views of\nNature about to be unfolded may recommend\nthemselves to his mind, and by the reasons\nwhich exist for trusting the powers of observa-\ntion of those by whom they are communicated.\n\nWill it be supposed that the very magnitude\nof the claim now made on behalf of the eso-\nteric doctrine, lifts the present statement out\nof the region of inquiry to which its title re-\nfers, — inquiry as to the real inner meaning of\nthe definite and specific religion called Bud-\ndhism ? The fact is, however, that esoteric\nBuddhism, though by no means divorced from\nthe associations of exoteric Buddhism, must not\nbe conceived to constitute a mere imperium in\nimperio, — a central school of culture in the\nvortex of the Buddhist world. In proportion\nas Buddhism retreats into the inner penetralia\n\n28 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.\n\nof its faith, these are found to merge into the\ninner penetralia of other faiths. The cosmic\nconceptions, and the knowledge of Nature on\nwhich Buddhism not merely rests, but which\nconstitute esoteric Buddhism, equally consti-\ntute esoteric Brahmanism. And the esoteric\ndoctrine is thus regarded by those of all creeds\nwho are \" enlightened \" (in the Buddhist sense)\nas the absolute truth concerning Nature, Man,\nthe origin of the Universe, and the destinies\ntoward which its inhabitants are tending. At\nthe same time, exoteric Buddhism has remained\nin closer union with the esoteric doctrine than\nany other popular religion. An exposition of\nthe inner knowledge addressed to English read-\ners in the present day, will thus associate itself\nirresistibly with familiar outlines of Buddhist\nteaching. It will certainly impart to these a\nliving meaning they generally seem to be with-\nout, but all the more on this account may the\nesoteric doctrine be most conveniently studied\nin its Buddhist aspect ; one, moreover, which\nhas been so strongly impressed upon it since\nthe time of Gautama Buddha, that though the\nessence of the doctrine dates back to a far more\nremote antiquity, the Buddhist coloring has\nnow permeated its whole substance. That\nwhich I am about to put before the reader is\nesoteric Buddhism, and for European students\n\nPREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 29\n\napproaching it for the first time, any other des-\nignation would be a misnomer.\n\nThe statement I have to make must be con-\nsidered in its entirety before the reader will be\nable to comprehend why initiates in the eso-\nteric doctrine regard the concession involved in\nthe present disclosure of the general outlines\nof this doctrine as one of startling magnitude.\nOne explanation of this feeling, however, may\nbe readily seen to spring from the extreme\nsacredness that has always been attached by\ntheir ancient guardians to the inner vital truths\nof Nature. Hitherto this sacredness has al-\nways prescribed their absolute concealment\nfrom the profane herd. And so far as that\npolicy of concealment — the tradition of count-\nless ages — is now being given up, the new de-\nparture which the appearance of this volume\nsignalizes will be contemplated with surprise\nand regret by a great many initiated disciples.\nThe surrender to criticism, which may some-\ntimes perhaps be clumsy and irreverent, of doc-\ntrines which have hitherto been regarded by\nsuch persons as too majestic in their import to\nbe talked of at all except under circumstances\nof befitting solemnity, will seem to them a ter«\nrible profanation of the great mysteries. From\nthe European point of view it would be un-\nreasonable to expect that such a book as this\n\n30 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.\n\ncan be exempt from the usual rough-and-tumble\ntreatment of new ideas ; and special convictions\nor commonplace bigotry may sometimes ren-\nder such treatment in the present case pecul-\niarly inimical. But all that, though a matter\nof course to European exponents of the doc-\ntrine like myself, will seem very grievous and\ndisgusting to its earlier and more regular repre-\nsentatives. They will appeal sadly to the wis-\ndom of the time-honored rule which, in the old\nsymbolical way, forbade the initiates from cast-\ning pearls before swine.\n\nHappily, as I think, the rule has not been\nallowed to operate any longer to the prejudice,\nof those who, while still far from being initi-\nated, in the occult sense of the term, will prob-\nably have become, by sheer force of modern\nculture, qualified to appreciate the concession.\n\nPart of the information contained in the fol-\nlowing pages has been thrown out in a frag-\nmentary form during the last eighteen months\nin \" The Theosophist,\" a monthly magazine,\npublished hitherto at Bombay, but now at\nMadras, by the leaders of the Theosophical So-\nciety. As almost all the articles referred to\nhave been my own writing, I have not hesi-\ntated to weld parts of them, when this course\nhas been convenient, into the present volume.\nA certain advantage is gained by thus showing\n\nPREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 31\n\nhow the separate pieces of the mosaic, as first\npresented to public notice, drop naturally into\ntheir places in the (comparatively) finished\npavement.\n\nThe doctrine or system now disclosed in its\nbroad outlines has been so jealously guarded\nhitherto, that no mere literary researches, though\nthey might have currycombed all India, could\nhave brought to light any morsel of the infor-\nmation thus revealed. It is given out to the\nworld at last by the free grace of those in whose\nkeeping it has hitherto lain. Nothing could ever\nhave extorted from them its very first letter. It\nis only after a perusal of the present explanations\nthat their position generally, as regards their\npresent disclosures or their previous reticence,\ncan be criticised or even comprehended. The\nviews of Nature now put forward are altogether\nunfamiliar to European thinkers ; the policy of\nthe graduates in esoteric knowledge, which has\ngrown out of their long intimacy with these\nviews, must be considered in connection with\nthe peculiar bearings of the doctrine itself.\n\nAs for the circumstances under which these\nrevelations were first foreshadowed in \" The\nTheosophist,\" and are now rounded off and ex-\npanded as my readers will perceive, it is enough\nfor the moment to say, that the Theosophical\nSociety, through my connection with which the\n\n32 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.\n\nmaterials dealt with in this volume have come\ninto my hands, owes its establishment to certain\npersons who are among the custodians of eso-\nteric science. The information poured out at\nlast for the benefit of all who are ripe to receive\nit has been destined for communication to the\nworld through the Theosophical Society since\nthe foundation of that body, and later circum-\nstances only have indicated myself as the agent\nthrough whom the communication could be con-\nveniently made.\n\nLet me add, that I do not regard myself as\nthe sole exponent for the outer world, at this\ncrisis, of esoteric truth. These teachings are the\nfinal outcome, as regards philosophical knowl-\nedge, of the relations with the outer world\nwhich have been established by the custodians\nof esoteric truth, through me. And it is only\nregarding the acts and intentions of those eso-\nteric teachers who have chosen to work through\nme, that I can have any certain knowledge.\nBut, in different ways, some other writers are\nengaged in expounding for the benefit of the\nworld — and, as I believe, in accordance with a\ngreat plan, of which this volume is a part —\nthe same truths, in different aspects, that I am\ncommissioned to unfold. A remarkable book,\npublished within the hist year or two, \"The\nPerfect Way,\" may be specially mentioned, as\n\nPREFACE TO TEE FIRST EDITION. 33\n\nshowing bow more roads than one may lead\nto a mountain-top. The inner inspirations of\n\" The Perfect Way\" appear to me identical with\nthe philosophy that I have learned. The sym-\nbols in which those inspirations are clothed, in\nmy opinion, I am bound to add, are liable to\nmislead the student ; but this is a natural con-\nsequence of the circumstances under which\nthe inner inspiration has been received. Far\nmore important and interesting to me than the\ndiscrepancies between the teachings of \" The\nPerfect Way \" and my own, are the identities\nthat may be traced between the clear scientific\nexplanations now conveyed to me on the plane\nof the physical intellect, and the ideas which\nmanifestly underlie those communicated on an\naltogether different system to the authors of\nthe book I mention. These identities are a\ngreat deal too close to be the result either of\ncoincidence or parallel speculation.\n\nProbably the great activity at present of\nmere ordinary literary speculation on problems\nlying beyond the range of physical knowledge,\nmay also be in some way provoked by that\npolicy, on the part of the great custodians of\nesoteric truth, of which my own book is cer-\ntainly one manifestation, and the volume I\nhave just mentioned, probably another. I find,\nfor example, in M. Adolphe d'Assier's recently\n\n84 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.\n\npublished \" Essai sur PHurnanite* Posthume,\"\nsome conjectures respecting the destination of\nthe higher human principles after death, which\nare infused with quite a startling flavor of\ntrue occult knowledge. Again, the ardor now\nshown in \" Psychical Research,\" by the very\ndistinguished, highly gifted, and cultivated men\nwho lead the society in London devoted to that\nobject, is, to my inner convictions, — knowing,\nas I do, something of the way the spiritual\naspirations of the world are silently influenced\nby those whose work lies in that department of\nNature, — the obvious fruit of efforts parallel to\nthose with which I am more immediately con-\ncerned.\n\nIt only remains for me to disclaim, on behalf\nof the treatise which ensues, any pretension to\nhigh finish as regards the language in which it\nis cast. Longer familiarity with the vast and\ncomplicated scheme of cosmogony disclosed,\nwill no doubt suggest improvements in the\nphraseology employed to expound it. Two\nyears ago, neither I nor any other European\nliving knew the alphabet of the science here\nfor the first time put into a scientific shape, —\nor subject, at all events, to an attempt in that\ndirection, — the science of spiritual causes and\ntheir effects, of super-physical consciousness,\nof cosmical evolution. Though, as I have ex«\n\nPREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 35\n\nplained above, ideas had begun to offer them-\nselves to the world in more or less embarrassing\ndisguise of mystic symbology, no attempt had\never been made by any esoteric teacher, two\nyears back, to put the doctrine forward in its\nplain abstract purity. As my own instruction\nprogressed on those lines, I have had to coin\nphrases and suggest English words as equiv-\nalents for the ideas which were presented to\nmy mind. I am by no means convinced that\nin all cases I have coined the best possible\nphrases and hit on the most neatly expressive\nwords. For example, at the threshold of the\nsubject we come upon the necessity of giving\nsome name to the various elements or attributes\nof which the complete human creature is made\nup. \" Element \" would be an impossible word\nto use, on account of the confusion that would\narise from its use in other significations ; and\nthe least objectionable, on the whole, seemed to\nme \" principle,\" though to an ear trained in the\nniceties of metaphysical expression this word\nwill have a very unsatisfactory sound in some\nof its present applications. Quite possibly,\ntherefore, in progress of time the Western\nnomenclature of the esoteric doctrine may be\ngreatly developed in advance of that I have\nprovisionally constructed. The Oriental no-\nmenclature is far more elaborate, but metaphys-\n\n36 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.\n\nical Sanskrit seems to be painfully embarrassing\nto a translator, — the fault, my India friends\nassure me, not of Sanskrit, but of the language\nin which they are now required to express the\nSanskrit idea. Eventually we may find that,\nwith the help of a little borrowing from familiar\nGreek quarries, English may prove more re-\nceptive of the new doctrine — or, rather, of the\nprimeval doctrine as newly disclosed — than\nhas yet been supposed possible in the East.\n\nCONTENTS.\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS.\n\nPAGE\n\nNature of the Present Exposition. — Seclusion of\nEastern Knowledge. — The Arhats and their At-\ntributes. — The Mahatmas. — Occultists generally.\n\n— Isolated Mystics. — Inferior Yogis. — Occult\nTraining. — The Great Purpose. — Its Incidental\nConsequences. — Present Concessions .... 41\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE CONSTITUTION OF MAN.\n\nEsoteric Cosmogony. — Where to Begin. — Working\nback from Man to Universe. — Analysis of Man.\n\n— The Seven Principles 60\n\nCHAPTER m.\n\nTHE PLANETARY CHAIN.\n\nEsoteric Views of Evolution. — The Chain of Globes.\n\n— Progress of Man round them. — The Spiral\nAdvance. — Original Evolution of the Globes. —\nThe Lower Kingdoms 75\n\n38 CONTENTS.\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nTHE WORLD PERIODS.\n\nPAGE\n\nUniformity of Nature. — Rounds and Races. — The\nSeptenary Law. — Objective and Subjective Lives.\n\n— Total Incarnations. — Former Races on Earth.\n\n— Periodic Cataclysms. — Atlantis. — Lemuria. ,\n\n— The Cyclic Law 94\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nDEVACHAN.\n\nSpiritual Destinies of the Ego. — Karma. — Divis-\nion of the Principles at Death. — Progress of the\nHigher Duad. — Existence in Devachan. — Sub-\njective Progress. — Avitchi. — Earthly Connection\nwith Devachan. — Devachanic Periods . . . .121\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nKAMA LOCA.\n\nThe Astral Shell. — Its Habitat. — Its Nature. —\nSurviving Impulses. — Elementals. — Mediums\nand Shells. — Accidents and Suicides. — Lost Per-\nsonalities 150\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nTHE HUMAN TIDE-WAVE.\n\nProgress of the Main Wave. — Obscurations. — Twi-\nlight and Dawn of Evolution. — Our Neighboring\n\nCONTENTS. 39\n\nPAGE\n\nPlanets.— Gradations of Spirituality.— Prematurely\nDeveloped Egos. — Intervals of Re-Incarnation . 171\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nTHE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY.\n\nThe Choice of Good or Evil. — The Second Half\nof Evolution. — The Decisive Turning-Point. —\nSpirituality and Intellect. — The Survival of the\nFittest. — The Sixth Sense. — Development of\nthe Principles in their Order. — The Subsidence\nof the Unfit. — Provision for All. — The Excep-\ntional Cases. — Their Scientific Explanation. —\nJustice Satisfied. — The Destiny of Failures. —\nHuman Evolution Reviewed 188\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nBUDDHA.\n\nThe Esoteric Buddha. — Re-Incarnations of Adepts.\n\n— Buddha's Incarnation. — The Seven Buddhas\nof the Great Races. — Avalokiteshwara. — Addi\nBuddha. — Adeptship in Buddha's Time. — San-\nkaracharya. — Vedantin Doctrines. — Tsong-ka-pa.\n\n— Occult Reforms in Tibet 209\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nNIRVANA.\n\nIts Remoteness. — Preceding Gradations. — Par-\ntial Nirvana. — The Threshold of Nirvana. — Nir-\n\n40 CONTENTS.\n\nPAGE\n\nvana.— Para Nirvana. — Buddha and Nirvana. —\nNirvana attained by Adepts. — General Progress\ntowards Nirvana. — Conditions of its Attainment.\n— Spirituality and Religion. — The Pursuit of\nTruth 233\n\nCHAPTER XL\n\nTHE UNIVERSE.\n\nThe Days and Nights of Brahma. — The Various\nManvantaras and Pralayas. — The Solar System.\nThe Universal Pralaya. — Recommencement of\nEvolution. — \" Creation.\" — The Great First\nCause. _ The Eternal Cyclic Process .... 246\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED.\n\nCorrespondences of the Esoteric Doctrine with Visi-\nble Nature. — Free Will and Predestination.—\nThe Origin of Evil. — Geology, Biology, and the\nEsoteric°Teaching.— Buddhism and Scholarship.\n_ The Origin of all Things. — The Doctrine as\nDistorted. — The Ultimate Dissolution of Con-\nsciousness.-Transmigration.- The Soul and the\nSpirit. — Personality and Individuality. — Karma 265\n\nESOTEEIC BUDDHISM.\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nESOTERIC TEACHEES.\n\nThe information contained in the following\npages is no collection of inferences deduced\nfrom study. I am bringing to my readers\nknowledge which I have obtained by favor\nrather than by effort. It will not be found\nthe less valuable on that account ; I venture,\non the contrary, to declare that it will be found\nof incalculably greater value, easily as I have\nobtained it, than any results in a similar direc-\ntion which I could possibly have procured by\nordinary methods of research, even had I pos-\nsessed, in the highest degree, that which I\nmake no claim to possess at all, Oriental schol-\narship.\n\nEvery one who has been concerned with In-\ndian literature, and still more, any one who in\nIndia has taken interest in talking with culti-\nvated natives on philosophical subjects, will be\n\n42 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\naware of a general conviction existing in the\nEast that there are men living who know a\ngreat deal more about philosophy, in the high-\nest acceptation of the word, — the science, the\ntrue knowledge of spiritual things, — than can\nbe found recorded in any books. In Europe\nthe notion of secrecy as applied to science is so\nrepulsive to the prevailing instinct, that the\nfirst inclination of European thinkers is to deny\nthe existence of that which they so much dis-\nlike. Bat circumstances have fully assured me\nduring my residence in India that the convic-\ntion just referred to is perfectly well founded,\nand I have been privileged at last to receive a\nvery considerable mass of instruction in the\nhitherto secret knowledge over which Oriental\nphilosophers have brooded silently till now;\ninstruction which has hitherto been only im-\nparted to sympathetic students, prepared them-\nselves to migrate into the camp of secrecy.\nTheir teachers have been more than content\nthat all other inquirers should be left in doubt\nas to whether there was anything of importance\nto learn at their hands.\n\nWith quite as much antipathy at starting\nas any one could have entertained to the old\nOriental policy in regard to knowledge, I came\nnevertheless to perceive that the old Oriental\nknowledge itself was a very real and important\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 43\n\npossession. It may be excusable to regard the\nhigh grapes as sour, so long as they are quite\nout of reach ; but it would be foolish to persist\nin that opinion if a tall friend hands down a\nbunch, and one finds them sweet.\n\nFor reasons that will appear, as the present\nexplanations proceed, the very considerable\nblock of hitherto secret teaching this volume\ncontains, has been conveyed to me, not only\nwithout conditions of the usual kind, but to\nthe express end that I might convey it in my\nturn to the world at large.\n\nWithout the light of hitherto secret Oriental\nknowledge, it is impossible by any study of its\npublished literature, English or Sanskrit, for\nstudents of even the most scholarly qualifica-\ntions to reach a comprehension of the inner\ndoctrines and real meaning of any Oriental\nreligion. This assertion conveys no reproach\nto the sympathetic, learned, and industrious\nwriters of great ability who have studied Ori-\nental religions generally, and Buddhism espe-\ncially, in their external aspects. Buddhism,\nabove all, is a religion which has enjoyed a\ndual existence from the very beginning of its\nintroduction to the world. The real inner\nmeaning of its doctrines has been kept back\nfrom uninitiated students, while the outer\nteachings have merely presented the multitude\n\n44 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nwith a code of moral lessons, and a veiled,\nsymbolical literature, hinting at the existence\nof knowledge in the background.\n\nThis secret knowledge, in reality, long ante-\ndated the passage through earth-life of Gau-\ntama Buddha. Brahmanical philosophy, in\nages before Buddha, embodied the identical\ndoctrine which may now be described as Eso-\nteric Buddhism. Its outlines had indeed been\nblurred, its scientific form partially confused,\nbut the general body of knowledge was already\nin possession of a select few before Buddha\ncame to deal with it. Buddha, however, un-\ndertook the task of revising and refreshing the\nesoteric science of the inner circle of initiates,\nas well as the morality of the outer world. The\ncircumstances under which this work was done\nhave been wholly misunderstood, nor would a\nstraightforward explanation thereof be intelli-\ngible without explanations, which must first be\nfurnished by a survey of the esoteric science\nitself.\n\nFrom Buddha's time till now the esoteric sci-\nence referred to has been jealously guarded as\na precious heritage belonging exclusively to\nregularly initiated members of mysteriously or-\nganized associations. These, so 'far as Bud-\ndhism is concerned, are the Arahats, or, more\nproperly, Arhats, referred to in Buddhist liter-\n\n.\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 45\n\nature. They are the initiates who tread the\n\" fourth path of holiness,\" spoken of in esoteric\nBuddhist writings. Mr. Rhys Davids, refer-\nring to a multiplicity of original texts and\nSanskrit authorities, says : \" One might fill\npages with the awe-struck and ecstatic praise\nwhich is lavished in Buddhist writings on this\ncondition of mind, the fruit of the fourth path,\nthe state of an Arahat, of a man made perfect\naccording to the Buddhist faith.\" And then\nmaking a series of running quotations from\nSanskrit authorities, he says : \" To him who\nhas finished the path and passed beyond sor-\nrow, who has freed himself on all sides, thrown\naway every fetter, there is no more fever or\ngrief. . . . For such there are no more births,\n. . . they are in the enjoyment of Nirvana.\nTheir old karma is exhausted, no new karma\nis being produced ; their hearts are free from\nthe longing after future life, and no new yearn-\nings springing up within them, they, the wise,\nare extinguished like a lamp.\" These passages,\nand all like them, convey to European readers,\nat all events, an entirely false idea as to what\nsort of person an Arhat really is, as to the life\nhe leads while on earth, and what he antici-\npates later on. But the elucidation of such\npoints may be postponed for the moment.\nSome further passages from exoteric treatises\n\n46 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nmay first be selected to show what an Arhat is\ngenerally supposed to be.\n\nMr. Rhys Davids, speaking of Jliana and\nSamadhi, — the belief that it was possible by\nintense self-absorption to attain supernatural\nfaculties and powers, — goes on to say : \" So\nfar as I am aware, no instance is recorded of\nany one, not either a member of the order,\nor a Brahman ascetic, acquiring these powers.\nA Buddha always possessed them ; whether\nArahats, as such, could work the particular\nmiracles in question, and whether of mendicants\nonly, Arahats or only Asekhas could do so, is at\npresent not clear.\" Very little in the sources\nof information on the subject that have hitherto\nbeen explored will be found clear. But I am\nnow merely endeavoring to show that Bud-\ndhist literature teems with allusions to the\ngreatness and powers of the Arhats. For more\nintimate knowledge concerning them, special\ncircumstances must furnish us with the required\nexplanations.\n\nMr. Arthur Lillie, in \"Buddha and Early\nBuddhism,\" tells us : \" Six supernatural fac-\nulties were expected of the ascetic before he\ncould claim the grade of Arhat. They are\nconstantly alluded to in the Sutras as the six\nsupernatural faculties, usually without further\nspecification. . . . Man has a body composed\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 47\n\nof the four elements. ... In this transitory body\nhis intelligence is enchained. The ascetic find-\ning himself thus confused, directs his mind to\nthe creation of the Manas. He represents to\nhimself, in thought, another body created from\nthis material body, — a body with a form,\nmembers, and organs. This body, in relation\nto the material body, is like the sword and the\nscabbard, or a serpent issuing from a basket in\nwhich it is confined. The ascetic then, purified\nand perfected, begins to practice supernatural\nfaculties. He finds himself able to pass through\nmaterial obstacles, walls, ramparts, etc. ; he is\nable to throw his phantasmal appearance into\nmany places at once, ... he can leave this\nworld and even reach the heaven of Brahma\nhimself. . . . He acquires the power of hearing\nthe sounds of the unseen world as distinctly as\nthose of the phenomenal world, — more dis-\ntinctly, in point of fact. Also by the power of\nManas he is able to read the most secret\nthoughts of others, and to tell their characters.\"\nAnd so on with illustrations. Mr. Lillie has\nnot quite accurately divined the nature of the\ntruth lying behind this popular version of the\nfacts ; but it is hardly necessary to quote more\nto show that the powers of the Arhats and their\ninsight into spiritual things are respected by\nthe world of Buddhism most profoundly, even\n\n48 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nthough the Arhats themselves have been singu-\nlarly indisposed to favor the world with auto-\nbiographies or scientific accounts of \"the six\nsupernatural powers.\"\n\nA few sentences from Mr. Hoey's recent\ntranslation of Dr. Oldenberg's \"Buddha: his\nLife, his Doctrine, bis Order,\" may fall con-\nveniently into this place, and then we may pass\non. We read : \" Buddhist proverbial philos-\nophy attributes in innumerable passages the\npossession of Nirvana to the saint who still\ntreads the earth, ' The disciple who has put off\nlust and desire, rich in wisdom, has here on\nearth attained deliverance from death, the rest,\nthe Nirvana, the eternal state. He who has\nescaped from the trackless hard mazes of the\nSansara, who has crossed over and reached the\nshore, self - absorbed, without stumbling and\nwithout doubt, who has delivered himself from\nthe earthly and attained Nirvana, him I call a\ntrue Brahman.' If the saint will even now put\nan end to his state of being, he can do so, but\nthe majority stand fast until Nature has reached\nher goal ; of such may those words be said which\nare put in the mouth of the most prominent of\nBuddha's disciples, ' I long not for death ;\nI long not for life ; I wait till mine hour come,\nlike a servant who awaiteth his reward..' *\n\nA multiplication of such quotations would\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 49\n\nmerely involve the repetition in various forms\nof exoteric conceptions concerning the Arhats.\nLike every fact or thought in Buddhism, the\nArhat has two aspects, that in which he is pre-\nsented to the world at large, and that in which\nhe lives, moves, and has his being. In the\npopular estimation he is a saint waiting for a\nspiritual reward of the kind the populace can\nunderstand, — a wonder-worker meanwhile by\nfavor of supernatural agencies. In reality he\nis the long-tried and proved-worthy custodian\nof the deepest and innermost philosophy of\nthe one fundamental religion which Buddha re-\nfreshed and restored, and a student of natural\nscience standing in the very foremost front of\nhuman knowledge, in regard not merely to the\nmysteries of spirit, but to the material constitu-\ntion of the world as well.\n\nArhat is a Buddhist designation. That\nwhich is more familiar in India, where the\nattributes of Arhatship are not necessarily\nassociated with professions of Buddhism, is\nMahatma. With stories about the Mahatmas\nIndia is saturated. > The older Mahatmas are\ngenerally spoken of as Rishis ; but the terms\nare interchangeable, and I have heard the title\nRishi applied to men now living. All the at-\ntributes of the Arhats mentioned in Buddhist\nwritings are described, with no less reverence,\n\n50 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nin Indian literature as those of the Mahatmas ;\nand this volume might be readily filled with\ntranslations of vernacular books, giving accounts\nof miraculous achievements by such of them as\nare known to history and tradition by name.\n\nIn reality, the Arhats and the Mahatmas are\nthe same men. At that level of spiritual .ex-\naltation, supreme knowledge of the esoteric\ndoctrine blends all original sectarian distinc-\ntions. By whatever name such illuminati may\nbe called, they are the adepts of occult knowl-\nedge, sometimes spoken of in India now as the\nBrothers, and the custodians of the spiritual\nscience which has been handed down to them\nby their predecessors.\n\nWe may search both ancient and modern lit-\nerature in vain, however, for any systematic\nexplanation of their doctrine or science. A\ngood deal of this is dimly set forth in occult\nwriting ; but very little of this is of the least\nuse to readers who take up the subject without\nprevious knowledge acquired independently of\nbooks. It is under favor of direct instruction\nfrom one of their numbers that I am now en'\nabled to attempt an outline of the Mahatmas'\nteaching, and it is in the same way that I have\npicked up what I know concerning the organ-\nization to which most of them, and the great*\nest, in the present day belong.\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 51\n\nAll over the world there are occultists of vari- |\ndus degrees of eminence, and occult fraternities\neven, which have a great deal in common with\nthe leading fraternity now established in Tibet.\nBut all my inquiries into the subject have con-\nvinced me that the Tibetan Brotherhood is (\nincomparably the highest of such associations,\nand regarded as such by all other associations,\n- — worthy of being looked upon themselves as\nreally \" enlightened \" in the occult sense of\nthe term. There are, it is true, many isolated\nmystics in India who are altogether self-taught\nand unconnected with occult bodies. Many of\nthese will explain that they themselves attain\nto higher pinnacles of spiritual enlightenment\nthan the Brothers of Tibet, or any other peo-\nple on earth. But the examination of such\nclaims in all cases I have encountered would,\nI think, lead any impartial outsider, however\nlittle qualified himself by personal development\nto be a judge of occult enlightenment, to the\nconclusion that they are altogether unfounded.\nI know one native of India, for example, a man\nof European education, holding a high appoint-\nment under government, of good station in\nsociety, most elevated character, and enjoying\nunusual respect with such Europeans as are\nconcerned with him in official life, who will\nonly accord to the Brothers of Tibet a second\n\n52 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nplace in the world of spiritual enlightenment. /\nThe first place he regards as occupied by one v\nperson, now in this world no longer, — his own\noccult master in life, — whom he resolutely /\nasserts to have been an incarnation of the\nSupreme Being. His own (my friend's) inner\nsenses were so far awakened by this Master,\nthat the visions of his entranced state, into\nwhich he can still throw himself at will, are to\nhim the only spiritual region in which he can\nfeel interested. Convinced that the Supreme /\nBeing was his personal instructor from the be-\nginning, and continues so still in the subjective\nstate, he is naturally inaccessible to suggestions\nthat his impressions may be distorted by rea-\nson of his own misdirected psychological de-\nvelopment. Again, the highly cultivated dev-\notees, to be met with occasionally in India,\nwho build up a conception of Nature, the uni-\nverse, and God entirely on a metaphysical\nbasis, and who have evolved their systems by\nsheer force of transcendental thinking, will\ntake some established system of philosophy as\nits groundwork, and amplify on this to an\nextent which only an Oriental metaphysician\ncould dream of. They win disciples who put\nimplicit faith in them, and found their little\nschool, which flourishes for a time within its\nown limits ; but speculative philosophy of such\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 53\n\na kind is rather occupation for the mind than\nknowledge. Such \"Masters,\" by comparison\nwith the organized adepts of the highest\nbrotherhood, are like rowing boats compared\nwith ocean steamships, — helpful conveyances\non their own native lake or river, but not craft\nto whose protection you can trust yourself on a\nworld-wide voyage of exploration over the sea.\n\nDescending lower again in the scale, we find\nIndia dotted all over with Yogis and Fakirs, in\nall stages of self-development, from that of dirty\nsavages, but little elevated above the gypsy for-\ntune-tellers of an English race-course, to men\nwhose seclusion a stranger will find it very dif-\nficult to penetrate, and whose abnormal facul-\nties and powers need only be seen or experi-\nenced to shatter the incredulity of the most\ncontented representative of modern Western\nskepticism. Careless inquirers are very apt to\nconfound such persons with the great adepts of\nwhom they may vaguely hear.\n\nConcerning the real adepts, meanwhile, I\ncannot at present venture on any account of\nwhat the Tibetan organization is like, as re-\ngards its highest ruling authorities. Those\nMahatmas themselves, of whom some more\nor less adequate conception may perhaps be\nformed by readers who will follow me pa-\ntiently to the end, are subordinate by several\n\n54 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ndegrees to the chief of all. Let us deal rather\nwith the earlier conditions of occult training,\nwhich can more easily be grasped.\n\nThe level of elevation which constitutes a\nman — what the outer world calls a Mahatma\nor \" Brother \" — is only attained after pro-\nlonged and weary probation, and anxious or-\ndeals of really terrible severity. One may find\npeople who have spent twenty or thirty years\nor more in blameless and arduous devotion to\nthe life-task on which they have entered, and\nare still in the earlier degrees of chelaship, still\nlooking up to the heights of adeptship as far\nabove their heads. And at whatever age a boy\nor man dedicates himself to the occult career,\nhe dedicates himself to it, be it remembered,\nwithout any reservations and for life. The task\nhe undertakes is the development in himself of\na great many faculties and attributes which are\nso utterly dormant in ordinary mankind, that\ntheir very existence is unsuspected, the possi-\nbility of their development denied. And these\nfaculties and attributes must be developed by\nthe chela himself, with very little, if any, help,\nbeyond guidance and direction from his master.\n\" The adept,\" says an occult aphorism, \" be-\ncomes : he is not made.\" One may illustrate\nthis point by reference to a very commonplace\nphysical exercise. Every man living, having\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 55\n\nthe ordinary use of his limbs, is qualified to\nswim. But put those who, as the common\nphrase goes, cannot swim, into deep water, and\nthey will struggle and be drowned. The mere\nway to move the limbs is no mystery ; but un-\nless the swimmer, in moving them, has a full\nbelief that such movement will produce the\nrequired result, the required result is not pro-\nduced. In this case, we are dealing with me-\nchanical forces merely, but the same principle\nruns up into dealings with subtler forces. Very\nmuch further than people generally imagine\nwill mere \"confidence\" carry the occult neo-\nphyte. How many European readers, who\nwould be quite incredulous if told of some re-\nsults which occult chelas in the most incipient\nstages of their training have to accomplish by\nsheer force of confidence, hear constantly in\nchurch, nevertheless, the familiar biblical as-\nsurances of the power which resides in faith,\nand let the words pass by like the wind, leav-\ning no impression.\n\nThe great end and purpose of adeptship is\nthe achievement of spiritual development, the\nnature of which is only veiled and disguised\nby the common phrases of exoteric language.\nThat the adept seeks to unite his soul with\nGod, that he may thereby pass into Nirvana, is\na statement that conveys no definite meaning\n\n56 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nto the ordinary reader ; and the more he ex-\namines it with the help of ordinary books and\nmethods, the less likely will he be to realize\nthe nature of the process contemplated or of\nthe condition desired. It will be necessary to\ndeal first with the esoteric conception of Na-\nture, and the origin and destinies of Man,\nwhich -differ widely from theological concep-\ntions, before an explanation of the aim which\nthe adept pursues can become intelligible.\nMeanwhile, however, it is desirable, at the very\noutset, to disabuse the reader of one misconcep-\ntion in regard to the objects of adeptship that\nhe may very likely have framed.\n\nThe development of those spiritual faculties,\nwhose culture has to do with the highest ob-\njects of the occult life, gives rise as it pro-\ngresses to a great deal of incidental knowledge,\nhaving to do with physical laws of Nature not\nyet generally understood. This knowledge, and\nthe practical art of manipulating certain ob-\nscure forces of Nature, which it brings in its\ntrain, invest an adept, and even an adept's\npupils, at a comparatively early stage of their\neducation, with very extraordinary powers, the\napplication of which to matters of daily life\nwill sometimes produce results that seem alto-\ngether miraculous ; and, from the ordinary\npoint of view, the acquisition of apparently\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 57\n\nmiraculous power is such a stupendous achieve-\nment, that people are sometimes apt to fancy\nthe adept's object in seeking the knowledge he\nattains has been to invest himself with these\ncoveted powers. It would be as reasonable to\nsay of any great patriot of military history that\nhis object in becoming a soldier had been to\nwear a gay uniform and impress the imagina-\ntion of the nurse-maids.\n\nThe Oriental method of cultivating knowl-\nedge has always differed diametrically from\nthat pursued in the West during the growth\nof modern science. Whilst Europe has investi-\ngated Nature as publicly as possible, every step\nbeing discussed with the utmost freedom, and\nevery fresh fact acquired circulated at once\nfor the benefit of all, Asiatic science has been\nstudied secretly and its conquests jealously\nguarded. I need not as yet attempt either\ncriticism or defense of its methods. But at\nall events these methods have been relaxed to\nsome extent in my own case ; and, as already\nstated, it is with the full consent of my teach-\ners that I now follow the bent of my own in-\nclinations as a European, and communicate\nwhat I have learned to all who may be will-\ning to receive it. Later on it will be seen how\nthe departure from the ordinary rules of occult\nstudy embodied in the concessions now made,\nfalls naturally into its place in the whole scheme\n\n58 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nof occult philosophy. The approaches to that\nphilosophy have always been open, in one sense,\nto all. Vaguely throughout the world in vari-\nous ways has been diffused the idea that some\nprocess of study which men here and there did\nactually follow, might lead to the acquisition of\na higher kind of knowledge than that taught\nto mankind at large in books or by public relig-\nious preachers. The East, as pointed out, has\nalways been more than vaguely impressed with\nthis belief; but even in the West the whole\nblock of symbolical literature relating to astrol-\nogy, alchemy, and mysticism generally has fer-\nmented in European society, carrying to some\nfew peculiarly receptive and qualified minds\nthe conviction that behind all this superficially\nmeaningless nonsense great truths lay con-\ncealed. For such persons eccentric study has\nsometimes revealed hidden passages leading to\nthe grandest imaginable realms of enlighten-\nment. But till now, in all such cases, in ac-\ncordance with the law of those schools, the neo-\nphyte no sooner forced his way into the region\nof mystery, than he was bound over to the most\ninviolable secrecy as to everything connected\nwith his entrance and further progress there.\nIn Asia, in the same way, the chela, or pupil\nof occultism, no sooner became a chela than he\nceased to be a witness on behalf of the reality\nof occult knowledge. I have been astonished\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 59\n\nto find, since my own connection with the sub-\nject, how numerous such chelas are. But it is\nimpossible to imagine any human act more im-\nprobable than the unauthorized revelation by\nany such chela, to persons in the outer world,\nthat he is one ; and so the great esoteric school\nof philosophy successfully guards its seclusion.\n\nIn a former book, \" The Occult World,\" I\nhave given a full and straightforward narrative\nof the circumstances under which I came in con-\ntact with the gifted and deeply instructed men\nfrom whom I have since obtained the teaching\nthis volume contains. I need not repeat the\nstory. I now come forward prepared to deal\nwith the subject in a new way. The existence\nof occult adepts, and the importance of their\nacquirements, may be established along two dif-\nferent lines of argument: firstly, by means of\nexternal evidence, — the testimony of qualified\nwitnesses, the manifestation by or through per-\nsons connected with adepts of abnormal facul-\nties, affording more than a presumption of ab-\nnormally enlarged knowledge ; secondly, by the\npresentation of such a considerable portion of\nthis knowledge as may convey intrinsic assur-\nances of its own value. My first book pro-\nceeded by the former method ; I now approach\nthe more formidable task of working on the\nlatter.\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE CONSTITUTION OF MAN.\n\nA SUEVEY of cosmogony, as comprehended\nby occult science, must precede any attempt to\nexplain the means by which a knowledge of\nthat cosmogony itself has been acquired. The\nmethods of esoteric research have grown out\nof natural facts, with which exoteric science is\nwholly unacquainted. These natural facts are\nconcerned with the premature development in\noccult adepts of faculties which mankind at\nlarge has not yet evolved ; and these faculties,\nin turn, enable their possessors to explore the\nmysteries of Nature, and verify the esoteric\ndoctrines, setting forth its grand design. The\npractical student of occultism may develop the\nfaculties first, and apply them to the observa-\ntion of Nature afterwards; but the exhibition\nof the theory of Nature for Western readers\nmerely seeking its intellectual comprehension,\nmust precede consideration of the inner senses,\nwhich occult research employs. On the other\nhand, a survey of cosmogony, as comprehended\n\nTHE CONSTITUTION OF MAN, 61\n\nby occult science, could only be scientifically\narranged at the expense of intelligibility for\nEuropean readers. To begin at the beginning,\nwe should endeavor to realize the state of the\nuniverse before evolution sets in. This subject\nis by no means shirked by esoteric students;\nand later on, in the course of this sketch, some\nhints will be given concerning the views occult-\nism entertains of the earlier processes through\nwhich cosmic matter passes on its way to evolu-\ntion. But an orderly statement of the earliest\nprocesses of Nature would embody references\nto man's spiritual constitution, which would\nnot be understood without some preliminary\nexplanation.\n\nSeven distinct principles are recognized by\nesoteric science as entering into the consti-\ntution of man. The classification differs so\nwidely from any with which European readers\nwill be familiar, that I shall naturally be asked\nfor the grounds on which occultism reaches so\nfar-fetched a conclusion. But I must, on ac-\ncount of inherent peculiarities in the subject,\nwhich will be comprehended later on, beg for\nthis Oriental knowledge I am bringing home a\nhearing (in the first instance, at all events) of\nthe Oriental kind The Oriental and the Eu-\nropean systems of conveying knowledge are as\nunlike as any two methods can be. The West\n\n62 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\npricks and piques the learner's controversial\ninstinct at every step. He is encouraged to\ndispute and resist conviction. He is forbidden\nto take any scientific statement on authority.\nPari passu, as he acquires knowledge, he must\nlearn how that knowledge has been acquired,\nand he is made to feel that no fact is worth\nknowing, unless he knows, with it, the way to\nprove it a fact. The East manages its pupils\non a wholly different plan. It no more disre-\ngards the necessity of proving its teaching than\nthe West, but it provides proof of a wholly dif-\nferent sort. It enables the student to search\nNature for himself, and verify its teachings, in\nthose regions which Western philosophy can\nonly invade by speculation and argument. It\nnever takes the trouble to argue about any-\nthing. It says : \" So and so is fact ; here is\nthe key of knowledge ; now go and see for\nyourself.\" In this way it comes to pass that\nteaching per se is never anything else but\nteaching on authority. Teaching and proof\ndo not go hand in hand ; they follow one an-\nother in due order. A further consequence of\nthis method is that Eastern philosophy employs\nthe method which we in the West have dis-\ncarded for good reasons as incompatible with\nour own line of intellectual development, — the\nsystem of reasoning from generals to particu-\n\nTHE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 63\n\nlars. The purposes which European science\nusually has in view would certainly not be an-\nswered by that plan, but I think that any one\nwho goes far in the present inquiry will feel\nthat the system of reasoning up from the de-\ntails of knowledge to general inferences is in-\napplicable to the work in hand. One cannot\nunderstand details in this department of knowl-\nedge till we get a general understanding of the\nwhole scheme of things. Even to convey this\ngeneral comprehension by mere language is a\nlarge and by no means an easy task. To pause\nat every moment of the exposition in order to\ncollect what separate evidence may be avail-\nable for the proof of each separate statement,\nwould be practically impossible. Such a method\nwould break down the patience of the reader,\nand prevent him from deriving, as he may from\na more condensed treatise, that definite concep-\ntion as to what the esoteric doctrine means to\nteach, which it is my business to evoke.\n\nThe reflection may suggest, in passing, a new\nview, having an intimate connection with our\npresent subject, of the Platonic and Aristotelian\nsystems of reasoning. Plato's system, roughly\ndescribed as reasoning from universals to partic-\nulars, is condemned by modern habits in favor\nof the later and exactly inverse system. But\nPlato was in fetters in attempting to defend his\n\n64 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nsystem. There is every reason to believe that\nhis familiarity with esoteric science prompted\nhis method, and that the usual restrictions un-\nder which he labored, as an initiated occultist,\nforbade him from saying as much as would\nreally justify it. No one can study even as\nmuch occult science as this volume contains,\nand then turn to Plato, or even to any intelli-\ngent epitome of Plato's system of thought, with-\nout finding correspondences cropping out at\nevery turn.\n\nThe higher principles of the series which go\nto constitute man are not fully developed in the\nmankind with which we are as yet familiar,\nbut a complete or perfect man would be resolv-\nable into the following elements. To facilitate\nthe application of these explanations to ordi-\nnary exoteric Buddhist writings, the Sanskrit\nnames of these principles are given, as well as\nsuitable terms in English.1\n\ni The nomenclature here adopted differs slightly from that hit\nupon when some of the present teachings were first given out in a\nfragmentary form in The Theosoph/st. Later on it will be seen that\nthe names now preferred embod}' a fuller conception of the whole\nsystem, and avoid some difficulties to which the earlier names give\nrise. If the earlier presentations of esoteric science were thus im-\nperfect, one can hardly be surprised at so natural a consequence\nof the difficulties under which its English exponents labored. But\nno substantial errors have to be confessed or deplored. The con-\nnotations of the present names are more accurate than those of the\nphrases first selected, but the explanations originally given, as far\nas they went, were quite in harmony with those now developed.\n\nTEE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 65\n\n1. The Body Rupa.\n\n2. Vitality Prana, or Jiva.\n\n3. Astral Body Linga Sharira.\n\n4. Animal Soul Kama Rupa.\n\n5. Human Soul Manas.\n\n6. Spiritual Soul Buddhi.\n\n7. Spirit Atma.\n\nDirectly conceptions so transcendental as\nsome of those included in this analysis are set\nforth in a tabular statement, they seem to incur\ncertain degradation, against which, in endeav-\noring to realize clearly what is meant, we must\nbe ever on our guard. Certainly it would be\nimpossible for even the most skillful professor\nof occult science to exhibit each of these princi-\nples separate and distinct from the others, as\nthe physical elements of a compound body can\nbe separated oy analysis and preserved inde-\npendently of each other. The elements of a\nphysical body are all on the same plane of ma-\nteriality, but the elements of man are on very\ndifferent planes. The finest gases of which\nthe body may to some extent be chemically\ncomposed are still, on one scale at all Bvents,\non nearly the lowest level of materiality. The\nsecond principle which, by its union with gross\nmatter, changes it from what we generally call\ninorganic, or what might more properly be\ncalled inert, into living matter, is at once a\n\n66 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nsomething different from the finest example of\nmatter in its lower state. Is the second princi-\nple, then, anything that we can truly call mat-\nter at all? The question lands us, thus, at the\nvery outset of this inquiry, in the middle of the\nsubtle metaphysical discussion as to whether\nforce and matter are different or identical.\nEnough for the moment to state that occult\nscience regards them as identical, and that it\ncontemplates no principle in Nature as wholly\nimmaterial. In this way, though no concep-\ntions of the universe, of man's destiny, or of\nNature generally, are more spiritual than those\nof occult science, that science is wholly free\nfrom the logical error of attributing material\nresults to immaterial causes. The esoteric doc-\ntrine is thus really the missing link between\nmaterialism and spirituality.\n\nThe clue to the mystery involved lies of\ncourse in the fact, directly cognizable by occult\nexperts, that matter exists in other states be-\nsides those which are cognizable by the five\nsenses.\n\nThe second principle of man, Vitality, thus\nconsists of matter in its aspect as force ; and\nits affinity for the grosser state of matter is so\ngreat that it cannot be separated from any\ngiven particle or mass of this, except by instan-\ntaneous translation to some other particle or\n\nTEE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 67\n\nmass. When a man's body dies, by desertion\nof the higher principles which have rendered it\na Hying reality, the second, or life principle, no\nlonger a unity itself, is nevertheless inherent\nstill in the particles of the body as this decom-\nposes, attaching itself to other organisms to\nwhich that very process of decomposition gives\nrise. Bury the body in the earth, and its Jiva\nwill attach itself to the vegetation which springs\nabove, or the lower animal forms which evolve\nfrom its substance. Burn the body, and inde-\nstructible Jiva flies back none the less instan-\ntaneously to the body of the planet itself from\nwhich it was originally borrowed, entering into\nsome new combination as its affinities may de-\ntermine.\n\nThe third principle, the Astral Body, or\nLinga Sharira, is an ethereal duplicate of the\nphysical body, its original design. It guides\nJiva in its work on the physical particles, and\ncauses it to build up the shape which these\nassume. Vitalized itself by the higher princi-\nples, its unity is only preserved by the union of\nthe whole group. At death it is disembodied\nfor a brief period, and, under some abnormal\nconditions, may even be temporarily visible to\nthe external sight of still living persons. Under\nsuch conditions it is taken of course for the\nghost of the departed person. Spectral appari-\n\n68 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ntions may sometimes be occasion ed in other\nways, but the third principle, when that results\nin a visible phenomenon, is a mere aggregation\nof molecules in a peculiar state, having no life\nor consciousness of any kind whatever. It is\nno more a being than any cloud-wreath in the\nsky which happens to settle into the semblance\nof some animal form. Broadly speaking, the\nLinga Sharira never leaves the body except at\ndeath, nor migrates far from the body even in\nthat case. When seen at all, and this can but\nrarely occur, it can only be seen near where the\nphysical body still lies. In some very peculiar\ncases of spiritualistic mediumship, it may for a\nshort time exude from the physical body and be\nvisible near it, but the medium in such cases\nstands the while in considerable danger of his\nlife. Disturb unwillingly the conditions under\nwhich the Linga Sharira was set free, and its\nreturn might be impeded. The second prin-\nciple would then soon cease to animate the\nphysical body as a unity, and death would\nensue.\n\nDuring the last year or two, while hints and\nscraps of occult science have been finding their\nway out into the world, the expression \"Astral\nBody \" has been applied to a certain semblance\nof the human form, fully inhabited by its higher\nprinciples, which can migrate to any distance\n\nTHE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 69\n\nfrom the physical body, projected consciously\nand with exact intention by a living adept, or\nunintentionally, by the accidental application\nof certain mental forces to his loosened princi-\nples, by any person at the moment of death.\nFor ordinary purposes there is no practical in-\nconvenience in using the expression \" Astral\nBody\" for the appearance so projected; in-\ndeed, any more strictly accurate expression, as\nwill be seen directly, would be cumbersome,\nand we must go on using the phrase in both\nmeanings. No confusion need arise; but,\nstrictly speaking, the Linga Sharira, or third\nprinciple, is the Astral Body, and that cannot\nbe sent about as the vehicle of the higher prin-\nciples.\n\nThe three lower principles, it will be seen,\nare altogether of the earth, perishable in their\nnature as a single entity, though indestructible\nas regards their molecules, and absolutely done\nwith by man at his death.\n\nThe fourth principle is the first of those\nwhich belong to man's higher nature. The\nSanskrit designation, Jcama rupa, is often trans-\nlated \" Body of Desire,\" which seems rather a\nclumsy and inaccurate form of words. A closer\ntranslation, having regard to meanings rather\nthan words, would, perhaps, be \" Vehicle of\nWill,\" but the name already adopted above,\n\n70 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nAnimal Soul, may be more accurately sugges-\ntive still.\n\nIn \"The Theosophist \" for October, 1881,\nwhen the first hints about the septenary con-\nstitution of man were given out, the fifth prin-\nciple was called the animal soul, as contra-dis-\ntinguished from the sixth or \" spiritual soul ;.\"\nbut though this nomenclature sufficed to mark\nthe required distinction, it degraded the fifth\nprinciple, which is essentially the human prin-\nciple. Though humanity is animal in its na-\nture as compared with spirit, it is elevated\nabove the correctly defined animal creation in\nevery other aspect. By introducing a new\nname for the fifth principle, we are enabled to\nthrow back the designation \" animal soul \" to\nits proper place. This arrangement need not\ninterfere, meanwhile, with an appreciation of\nthe way in which the fourth principle is the\nseat of that will or desire to which the Sanskrit\nname refers. And, withal, the Kama Rupa is\nthe animal soul, the highest developed principle\nof the brute creation, susceptible of evolution\ninto something far higher by its union with\nthe growing fifth principle in man, but still\nthe animal soul which man is by no means yet\nwithout, the seat of all animal desires, and a\npotent force in the human body as well, press^\ning upward, so to speak, as well as downward,\n\nTHE CONSTITUTION Oh MAN. 71\n\nand capable of influencing the fifth, for practi-\ncal purposes, as well as of being influenced by\nthe fifth for its own control and improvement.\n\nThe fifth principle, human soul, or Manas\n(as described in Sanskrit in one of its aspects),\nis the seat of reason and memory. It is a por-\ntion of this principle, animated by the fourth,\nwhich is really projected to distant places by\nan adept, when he makes an appearance in\nwhat is commonly called his astral body.\n\nNow the fifth principle, or human soul, in\nthe majority of mankind is not even yet fully\ndeveloped. This fact about the imperfect de-\nvelopment as yet of the higher principles is\nvery important. We cannot get a correct con-\nception of the present place of man in Nature\nif we make the mistake of regarding him as a\nfully perfected being already. And that mis-\ntake would be fatal to any reasonable anticipa-\ntions concerning the future that awaits him, —\nfatal also to any appreciation of the appropri-\nateness of the future which the esoteric doctrine\nexplains to us as actually awaiting him.\n\nSince the fifth principle is not yet fully de-\nveloped, it goes without saying that the sixth\nprinciple is still in embryo. This idea has been\nvariously indicated in recent forecasts of the\ngreat doctrine. Sometimes, it has been said,\nwe do not truly possess any sixth principle, we\n\n72 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nmerely have germs of a sixth principle. It has\nalso been said, the sixth principle is not in us ;\nit hovers over us ; it is a something that the\nhighest aspirations of our nature must work up\ntoward. But it is also said: All things, not\nman alone, but every animal, plant, and min-\neral, have their seven principles, and the high-\nest principle of all — the seventh itself — vital-\nizes that continuous thread of life which runs\nall through evolution, uniting into a definite\nsuccession the almost innumerable incarnations\nof that one life which constitute a complete se-\nries. We must imbibe all these various con-\nceptions, and weld them together, or extract\ntheir essence, to learn the doctrine of the sixth\nprinciple. Following the order of ideas which\njust now suggested the application of the term\nanimal soul to the fourth principle and human\nsoul to the fifth, the sixth may be called the\nspiritual soul of man, and the seventh, there-\nfore, spirit itself.\n\nIn another aspect of the idea, the sixth prin-\nciple may be called the vehicle of the seventh,\nand the fourth the vehicle of the fifth ; but yet\nanother mode of dealing with the problem\nteaches us to regard each of the higher princi-\nples, from the fourth upwards, as a vehicle of\nwhat, in Buddhist philosophy, is called the One\nLife or Spirit. According to this view of the\n\nTHE CONSTITUTION OF M AN. 73\n\nmatter the one life is that which perfects, by\ninhabiting the various vehicles. In the animal\nthe one life is concentrated in the kama rupa.\nIn man it begins to penetrate the fifth princi-\nple as well. In perfected man it penetrates the\nsixth, and when it penetrates the seventh, man\nceases to be man, and attains a wholly superior\ncondition of existence. %\n\nThis latter view of the position is especially\nvaluable as guarding against the notion that\nthe four higher principles are like a bundle of\nsticks tied together, but each having individu-\nalities of its own if untied. Neither the ani-\nmal soul alone, nor the spiritual soul alone, has\nany individuality at all ; but, on the other\nhand, the fifth principle would be incapable of\nseparation from the others in such a way, that\nits individuality would be preserved while both\nthe deserted principles would be left uncon-\nscious. It has been said that the finer princi-\nples themselves even are material and molecu-\nlar in their constitution, though composed of a\nhigher order of matter than the physical senses\ncan take note of. So they are separable, and\nthe sixth principle itself can be imagined as di-\nvorcing itself from its lower neighbor. But in\nthat state of separation, and at this stage of\nmankind's development, it could simply re-in-\ncarnate itself in such an emergency 5 and grow\n\n74 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\na new fifth principle by contact with a human\norganism ; in such a case, the fifth principle\nwould lean upon and become one with the\nfourth, and be proportionately degraded. And\nyet this fifth principle, which cannot stand\nalone, is the personality of the man ; and its\ncream, in union with the sixth, his continuous\nindividuality through successive lives.\n\nThe circumstances and attractions under the\ninfluence of which the principles do divide up,\nand the manner in which the consciousness of\nman is dealt with then, will be discussed later\non. Meanwhile, a better understanding of the\nwhole position than could ensue from a contin-\nued prosecution of the inquiry on these lines\nnow will be obtained by turning first to the\nprocesses of evolution by means of which the\nprinciples of man have been developed.\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE PLANETARY CHAIN.\n\nEsoteric Science, though the most spirit-\nual system imaginable, exhibits, as running\nthroughout Nature, the most exhaustive system\nof evolution that the human mind can conceive.\nThe Darwinian theory of evolution is simply\nan independent discovery of a portion — unhap-\npily but a small portion — of the vast natural\ntruth. But occultists know how to explain\nevolution without degrading the highest prin-\nciples of man. The esoteric doctrine finds it-\nself under no obligation to keep its science and\nreligion in separate water-tight compartments.\nIts theory of physics and its theory of spirit-\nuality are not only reconcilable with each\nother, they are intimately blended together and\ninterdependent. And the first great fact which\noccult science presents to our notice in refer-\nence to the origin of man on this globe will be\nseen to help the imagination over some serious\nembarrassments of the familiar scientific idea\nof evolution. The evolution of man is not a\n\n76 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nprocess carried out on this planet alone. It is\na result to which many worlds in different con-\nditions of material and spiritual development\nhave contributed. If this statement were\nmerely put forward as a conjecture, it would\nsurely recommend itself forcibly to rational\nminds. For there is a manifest irrationality in\nthe commonplace notion that man's existence\nis divided into a material beginning, lasting\nsixty or seventy years, and a spiritual remain-\nder lasting forever. The irrationality amounts\nto absurdity when it is alleged that the acts of\nthe sixty or seventy years — the blundering,\nhelpless acts of ignorant human life — are per-\nmitted by the. perfect justice of an all-wise\nProvidence to define the conditions of that\nlater life of infinite duration. Nor is it less ex-\ntravagant to imagine that, apart from the ques-\ntion of justice, the life beyond the grave should\nbe exempt from the law of change, progress,\nand improvement, which every analogy of Na-\nture points to as probably running through all\nthe varied existences of the universe. But once\nabandon the idea of a uniform, unvarying, un-\nprogressive life beyond the grave, once admit\nthe conception of change and progress in that\nlife, and we admit the idea of a variety hardly\ncompatible with any other hypothesis than that\nof progress through successive worlds. As we\n\nTHE PLANETARY CHAIN. 77\n\nhave said before, this is not hypothesis at all\nfor occult science, but a fact, ascertained and\nverified beyond the reach (for occultists) of\ndoubt or contradiction.\n\nThe life and evolutionary processes of this\nplanet — in fact, all which constitutes it some-\nthing more than a dead lump of chaotic matter\n— are linked with the life and evolutionary\nprocesses of several other planets. But let it\nnot be supposed that there is no finality as re-\ngards the scheme of this planetary union to\nwhich we belong. The human imagination\nonce set free is apt sometimes to bound too far.\nOnce let this notion, that the earth is merely\none link in a mighty chain of worlds, be fully\naccepted as probable, or true, and it may sug-\ngest the whole starry heavens as the heritage\nof the human family. That idea would involve\na serious misconception. One globe does not\nafford Nature scope for the processes by which\nmankind has been evoked from chaos, but these\nprocesses do not require more than a limited\nand definite number of globes. Separated as\nthese are, in regard to the gross mechanical\nmatter of which they consist, they are closely\nand intimately bound together by subtle cur-\nrents and forces, whose existence reason need\nnot be much troubled to concede since the ex-\nistence of some connection — of force or ethereal\n\nT8 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nmedia — -uniting all visible celestial bodies is\nproved by the mere fact that they are visible.\nIt is along these subtle currents that the life-\nelements pass from world to world.\n\nThe fact, however, will at once be liable to\ndistortion to suit preconceived habits of mind.\nSome readers may imagine our meaning to.be\nthat after death the surviving soul will be\ndrawn into the currents of that world with\nwhich its affinities connect it. The real process\nis more methodical. The system of worlds is\na circuit round which all individual spiritual\nentities have alike to pass ; and that passage\nconstitutes the Evolution of Man. For it must\nbe realized that the evolution of man is a proc-\ness still going on, and by no means yet com-\nplete. Darwinian writings have taught the\nmodern world to regard the ape as an ancestor,\nbut the simple conceit of Western speculation\nhas rarely permitted European evolutionists to\nlook in the other direction and recognize the\nprobability, that to our remote descendants we\nmay be, as that unwelcome progenitor to us.\nYet the two facts just declared hinge together.\nThe higher evolution will be accomplished by\nour progress through the successive worlds of\nthe system ; and in higher forms we shall re-\nturn to this earth again and again. But the\navenues of thought through which we look for-\n\nTEE PLANETARY CHAIN. 79\n\nward to this prospect are of almost inconceiv-\nable length.\n\nIt will readily be supposed that the chain of\nworlds to which this earth belongs are not all\nprepared for a material existence exactly, or\neven approximately resembling our own. There\nwould be no meaning in an organized chain of\nworlds which were all alike, and might as well\nall have been amalgamated into one. In real-\nity the worlds with which we are connected\nare very unlike each other, not merely in out-\nward conditions, but in that supreme character-\nistic, the proportion in which spirit and matter\nare mingled in their constitution. Our own\nworld presents us with conditions in which spirit\nand matter are, on the whole, evenly balanced\nin equilibrium. Let it not be supposed on that\naccount that it is very highly elevated in the\nscale of perfection. On the contrary, it occu-\npies a very low place in that scale. The worlds\nthat are higher in the scale are those in which\nspirit largely predominates. There is another\nworld attached to the chain, rather than form-\ning a part of it, in which matter asserts itself\neven more decisively than on earth, but this\nmay be spoken of later.\n\nThat the superior worlds which man may\ncome to inhabit in his onward progress should\ngradually become more and more spiritual in\n\n80 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ntheir constitution — life there being more and\nmore successfully divorced from gross material\nneeds — will seem reasonable enough at the first\nglance. But the first glance in imagination at\nthose which might conversely be called the infe-\nrior, but may with less inaccuracy be spoken of\nas the preceding worlds, would perhaps suggest\nthat they ought to be conversely less spiritual,\nmore material, than this earth. The fact is quite\nthe other way, and must be so, it will be seen on\nreflection, in a chain of worlds which is an end-\nless chain — i.e., round and round which the\nevolutionary process travels. If that process\nhad merely one journey to travel along a path\nwhich never returned into itself, one could\nthink of it, at any rate, as working from almost\nabsolute matter, up to almost absolute spirit ;\nbut Nature works always in complete curves,\nand travels always in paths which return into\nthemselves. The earliest, as also the latest,\ndeveloped worlds — for the chain itself has\ngrown by degrees — the furthest back, as also\nthe furthest forward, are the most immaterial,\nthe most ethereal of the whole series ; and that\nthis is in all ways in accordance with the fitness\nof things will appear from the reflection that\nthe furthest forward of the worlds is not a re-\ngion of finality, but the stepping-stone to the\nfurthest back, as the month of December leads\n\nTHE PLANETARY CHAIN. 81\n\nus back again to January. But it is not a cli-\nmax of development from which the individual\nmonad falls, as by a catastrophe, into the state\nfrom which he slowly began to ascend millions\nof years previously. From that which, for rea-\nsons which will soon appear, must be consid-\nered the highest world on the ascending arc of\n.the circle to that which must be regarded as\nthe first on the descending arc, in one sense the\nlowest — i. <?., in the order of development —\nthere is no descent at all, but still ascent and\nprogress. For the spiritual monad or entity,\nwhich has worked its way all round the cycle\nof evolution, at any one of the many stages of\ndevelopment into which the various existences\naround us may be grouped, begins its next cycle\nat the next higher stage, and is thus still ac-\ncomplishing progress as it passes from world\nZ back again to world A. Many times does it\ncircle, in this way, right round the system, but\nits passage round must not be thought of merely\nas a circular revolution in an orbit. In the\nscale of spiritual perfection it is constantly as-\ncending. Thus, if we compare the system of\nworlds to a system of towers standing on a\nplain — towers each of many stories and sym-\nbolizing the scale of perfection — the spiritual\nmonad performs a spiral progress round and\nround the series, passing through each tower,\n\n82 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nevery time it comes round to it, at a higher\nlevel than before.\n\nIt is for want of realizing this idea that spec-\nulation, concerned with physical evolution, is\nso constantly finding itself stopped by dead\nwalls. It is searching for its missing links in a\nworld where it can never find them now, for\nthey were but required for a temporary pur-\npose, and have passed awa}'. Man, says the\nDarwinian, was once an ape. Quite true ; but\nthe ape known to the Darwinian will never be-\ncome a man — i. e., the form will not change\nfrom generation to generation till the tail dis-\nappears and the hands turn into feet, and so on.\nOrdinary science avows that, though changes of\nform can be detected in progress within the lim-\nits of species, the changes from species to species\ncan only be inferred ; and to account for these,\nit is content to assume great intervals of time\nand the extinction of the intermediate forms.\nThere has been no doubt an extinction of the\nintermediate or earlier forms of all species (in\nthe larger acceptation of the word) — i. e., of all\nkingdoms, mineral, vegetable, animal, man, etc.\n— but ordinary science can merely guess that\nto have been the fact without realizing the con-\nditions which rendered it inevitable, and which\nforbid the renewed generation of the interme«\ndiate forms.\n\nTHE PLANETARY CHAIN. 83\n\nIt is the spiral character of the progress ac-\ncomplished by the life impulses that develop the\nvarious kingdoms of Nature, which accounts\nfor the gaps now observed in the animated\nforms which people the earth. The thread of a\nscrew, which is a uniform inclined plane in real-\nity, looks like a succession of steps when ex-\namined only along one line parallel to its axis.\nThe spiritual monads, which are coming round\nthe system on the animal level, pass on to other\nworlds when they have performed their turn\nof animal incarnation here. By the time they\ncome again, they are ready for human incarna-\ntion, and there is no necessity now for the up-\nward development of animal forms into human\nforms — these are already waiting for their spir-\nitual tenants. But, if we go back far enough,\nwe come to a period at which there were no\nhuman forms ready developed on the earth.\nWhen spiritual monads, traveling on the ear-\nliest or lowest human level, were thus begin-\nning to come round, their onward pressure in a\nworld at that time containing none but animal\nforms provoked the improvement of the high-\nest of these into the required form — the much-\ntalked-of missing link.\n\nIn one way of looking at the matter, it may\nbe contended that this explanation is identical\nwith the inference of the Darwinian evolution-\n\n84 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nist in regard to the development and extinction\nof missing links. After all, it may be argued\nby a materialist, \" we are not concerned to ex-\npress an opinion as to the origin of the tendency\nin species to develop higher forms. We say\nthat they do develop these higher forms by\nintermediate links, and that the intermediate\nlinks die out ; and you say just the same thing.\"\nBut there is a distinction between the two ideas\nfor any one who can follow subtle distinctions.\nThe natural process of evolution, from the influ-\nence of local circumstances and sexual selection,\nmust not be credited with producing intermedi-\nate forms, and this is why it is inevitable that\nthe intermediate forms should be of a tempo-\nrary nature and should die out. Otherwise,\nwe should rind the world stocked with missing\nlinks of all kinds, animal life creeping by\nplainly apparent degrees up to manhood, human\nforms mingling in indistinguishable confusion\nwith those of animals. The impulse to the\nnew evolution of higher forms is really given, as\nwe have shown, by rushes of spiritual monads\ncoming round the cycle in a state fit for the\ninhabitation of new forms. These superior life\nimpulses burst the chrysalis of the older form\non the planet they invade, and throw off an ef-\nflorescence of something higher. The forms\nwhich have gone on merely repeating them-\n\nTHE PLANETARY CHAIN. 85\n\nselves for millenniums start afresh into growth ;\nwith relative rapidi+y they rise through the\nintermediate into the higher forms, and then,\nas these in turn are multiplied with the vigor\nand rapidity of all new growths, they supply\ntenements of flesh for the spiritual entities com-\ning round on that stage or plane of existence,\nand for the intermediate forms there are no\nlonger any tenants offering. Inevitably they\nbecome extinct.\n\nThus is evolution accomplished, as regards its\nessential impulse, by a spiral progress through\nthe worlds. In the course of explaining this\nidea we have partly anticipated the declaration\nof another fact of first-rate importance as an aid\nto correct views of the world-system to which\nwe belong. That is, that the tide of life — the\nwave of existence, the spiritual impulse, call\nit by what name we please — passes on from\nplanet to planet by rushes, or gushes, not by an\neven continuous flow. For the momentary pur-\npose of illustrating the idea in hand, the process\nmay be compared to the filling of a series of\nholes or tubs sunk in the ground, such as may\nsometimes be seen at the mouths of feeble\nsprings, and connected with each other by little\nsurface channels. The stream from the spring,\nas it flows, is gathered up entirely in the begin-\nning by the first hole, or tub A, and it is only\n\n86 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nwhen this is quite full that the continued in-\npouring of water from the spring causes that\nwhich it already contains to overflow into tub\nB. This in turn fills and overflows along the\nchannel which leads to tub C, and so on. Now,\nthough, of course, a clumsy analogy of this kind\nwill not carry us very far, it precisely illustrates\nthe evolution of life on a chain of worlds like\nthat we are attached to, and, indeed, the evolu-\ntion of the worlds themselves. For the process\nwhich goes on does not involve the preexistence\nof a chain of globes which Nature proceeds to\nstock with life ; but it is one in which the evo-\nlution of each globe is the result of previous ev-\nolutions, and the consequence of certain im-\npulses thrown off from its predecessor in the\nsuperabundance of their development. Now, it\nis necessary to deal with this characteristic of\nthe process to be described, but directly we be-\ngin to deal with it we have to go back in imag-\nination to a period in the development of our\nsystem very far antecedent to that which is spec-\nially our subject at present — the evolution of\nman. And manifestly, as soon as we begin\ntalking of the beginnings of worlds, we are\ndealing with phenomena which can have had\nvery little to do with life, as we understand the\nmatter, and, therefore, it may be supposed, noth-\ning to do with life impulses. But let us go\n\nTHE PLANETARY CHAIN. 81\n\nback by degrees. Behind the human harvest\nof the life impulse there lay the harvest of\nmere animal forms, as every one realizes; be-\nhind that, the harvest or growths of mere vege-\ntable forms — for some of these undoubtedly\npreceded the appearance of the earliest animal\nlife on the planet. Then, before the vegetable\norganizations, there were mineral organizations,\n— for even a mineral is a product of Nature, an\nevolution from something behind it, as every\nimaginable manifestation of Nature must be,\nuntil in the vast series of manifestations the\nmind travels back to the unmanifested begin-\nning of all things. On pure metaphysics of\nthat sort we are not now engaged. It is enough\nto show that we may as reasonably — and that\nwe must if we would talk about these matters\nat all — conceive a life impulse giving birth to\nmineral forms as of the same sort of impulse\nconcerned to raise a race of apes into a race of\nrudimentary men. Indeed, occult science trav-\nels back even further in its exhaustive analysis\nof evolution than the period at which minerals\nbegan to assume existence. In the process of\ndeveloping worlds from fiery nebulse, Nature\nbegins with something earlier than minerals —\nwith the elemental forces that underlie the phe-\nnomena of Nature as visible now and perceptible\nto the senses of man. But that branch of the\n\n88 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nsubject may be left alone for the present. Let\nus take up the process at the period when the\nfirst world of the series, globe A let us call itf\nis merely a congeries of mineral forms. Now\nit must be remembered that globe A has already\nbeen described as very much more ethereal,\nmore predominated by spirit, as distinguished\nfrom matter, than the globe of which we at\npresent are having personal experience, so that\na large allowance must be made for that state\nof things when we ask the reader to think of it,\nat starting, as a mere congeries of mineral forms.\nMineral forms may be mineral in the sense of\nnot belonging to the higher forms of vegetable\norganism, and may yet be very immaterial as\nwe think of matter, very ethereal, consisting of\na very fine or subtle quality of matter, in which\nthe other pole or characteristic of Nature, spirit,\nlargely predominates. The minerals we are\ntrying to portray are, as it were, the ghosts of\nminerals ; by no means the highly-finished and\nbeautiful, hard crystals which the mineralogical\ncabinets of this world supply. In these lower\nspirals of evolution with which we are now\ndealing, as with the higher ones, there is prog-\nress from world to world, and that is the great\npoint at which we have been aiming. There is\nprogress downwards, so to speak, in finish and\nmateriality and consistency ; and then, again,\n\nTHE PLANETARY CHAIN. 89\n\nprogress upward in spirituality as coupled with\nthe finish which matter or materiality rendered\npossible in the first instance. It will be found\nthat the process of evolution in its higher stages\nas regards man is carried on in exactly the same\nway. All through these studies, indeed, it will\nbe found that one process of Nature typifies\nanother, that the big is the repetition of the lit-\ntle on a larger scale.\n\nIt is manifest from what we have already\nsaid, and in order that the progress of organ-\nisms on globe A shall be accounted for, that\nthe mineral kingdom will no more develop the\nvegetable kingdom on globe A until it receives\nan impulse from without, than the earth was\nable to develop man from the ape till it re-\nceived an impulse from without. But it will\nbe inconvenient at present to go back to a con-\nsideration of the impulses which operate on\nglobe A in the beginning of the system's con-\nstruction.\n\nWe have already, in order to be able to ad-\nvance more comfortably from a far later period\nthan that to which we have now receded, gone\nback so far that further recession would change\nthe whole character of this explanation. We\nmust stop somewhere, and for the present it\nwill be best to take the life impulses behind\nglobe A for granted. And having stopped\n\n90 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nthere we may now treat the enormous period\nintervening between the mineral epoch on globe\nA and the man epoch in a very cursory way,\nand so get back to the main problem before us.\nWhat has been already said facilitates a cursory\ntreatment of the intervening evolution. The\nfull development of the mineral epoch on globe\nA prepares the way for the vegetable develop-\nment, and as soon as this begins the mineral\nlife impulse overflows into globe B. Then\nwhen the vegetable development on globe A is\ncomplete, and the animal development begins,\nthe vegetable life impulse overflows to globe B,\nand the mineral impulse passes on to globe C.\nThen, finally, comes the human life impulse on\nglobe A.\n\nNow it is necessary at this point to guard\nagainst one misconception that might arise.\nAs just roughly described, the process might\nconvey the idea that by the time the human\nimpulse began on globe A the mineral impulse\nwas then beginning on globe D, and that be-\nyond lay chaos. This is very far from being\nthe case, for two reasons. First, as already\nstated, there are processes of evolution which\nprecede the mineral evolution, and thus a wave\nof evolution, indeed several waves of evolution\nprecede the mineral wave in its progress round\nthe spheres. But over and above this there is\n\nTHE PLANETARY CHAIN. 91\n\na fact to be stated which has such an influence\non the course of events, that, when it is real-\nized, it will be seen that the life impulse has\npassed several times completely round the\nwhole chain of worlds before the commence-\nment of the human impulse on globe A. This\nfact is as follows : Each kingdom of evolution,\nvegetable, animal, and so on, is divided into\nseveral spiral laj^ers. The spiritual monads\n— the individual atoms of that immense life\nimpulse of which so much has been said — do\nnot fully complete their mineral existence on\nglobe A, then complete it on globe B, and so\non. They pass several times round the whole\ncircle as minerals, and then again several times\nround as vegetables, and several times as ani-\nmals. We purposely refrain for the present\nfrom going into figures, because it is more con-\nvenient to state the outline of the scheme in\ngeneral terms first ; but figures in reference to\nthese processes of Nature have now been given\nto the world by the occult adepts (for the first\ntime we believe in its history), and they shall\nbe brought out in the course of this explana-\ntion, very shortly, but as we say the outline is\nenough for any one to think of at first.\n\nAnd now we have rudimentary man begin-\nning his existence on globe A, in that world\nwhere all things are as the ghosts of the corre-\n\n92 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nsponding things in this world. He is beginning\nhis long descent into matter. And the life im-\npulse of each \" round \" overflows, and the races\nof man are established in different degrees of\nperfection on all the planets, on each in turn.\nBut the rounds are more complicated in their\ndesign than this explanation would show, if it\nstopped short here. The process for each spir-\nitual monad is not merely a passage from planet\nto planet. Within the limits of each planet,\neach time it arrives there, it has a complicated\nprocess of evolution to perform. It is many\ntimes incarnated in successive races of men be-\nfore it passes onward, and it even has many in-\ncarnations in each great race. It will be found\nwhen we get on further that this fact throws a\nflood of light upon the actual condition of man-\nkind as we know it, accounting for those im-\nmense differences of intellect and morality, and\neven of welfare in its highest sense, which gen-\nerally appear so painfully mysterious.\n\nThat which has a definite beginning gener-\nally has an end also. As we have shown that\nthe evolutionary process under description be-\ngan when certain impulses first commenced\ntheir operation, so it may be inferred that they\nare tending towards a final consummation, to*\nwards a goal and a conclusion. That is so,\nthough the goal is still far off. Man, as we\n\nTHE PLANETARY CHAIN. 93\n\nknow him on this earth, is but half-way through\nthe evolutionary process to which he owes his\npresent development. He will be as much\ngreater before the destiny of our system is ac-\ncomplished than he is now as he is now greater\nthan the missing link. And that improvement\nwill even be accomplished on this earth, while,\nin the other worlds of the ascending series,\nthere are still loftier peaks of perfection to be\nscaled. It is utterly beyond the range of facul-\nties, untutored in the discernment of occult\nmysteries, to imagine the kind of life which\nman will thus ultimately lead before the zenith\nof the great cycle is attained. But there is\nenough to be done in filling up the details of\nthe outline now presented to the reader, with-\nout attempting to forecast those which have to\ndo with existences towards which evolution is\nreaching across the enormous abysses of the\nfuture.\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nTHE WORLD PERIODS.\n\nA STRIKING illustration of the uniformities\nof Nature is brought out by the first glance at\nthe occult doctrine in reference to the develop-\nment of man on the earth. The outline of the\ndesign is the same as the outline of the more\ncomprehensive design covering the whole chain\nof worlds. The inner details of this world, as\nregards its units of construction, are the same\nas the inner details of the larger organism of\nwhich this world itself is a unit. That is to\nsay, the development of humanity on this earth\nis accomplished by means of successive waves\nof development which correspond to the succes-\nsive worlds in the great planetary chain. The\ngreat tide of human life, be it remembered —\nfor that has been already set forth — sweeps\nround the whole circle of worlds in successive\nwaves. These primary growths of humanity\nmay be conveniently spoken of as rounds. We\nmust not forget that the individual units, con-\nstituting each round in turn, are identically the\n\nTHE WORLD PERIODS. 95\n\nsame as regards their higher principles, that is,\nthat the individualities on the earth during\nround one come back again after completing\ntheir travels round the whole series of worlds\nand constitute round two, and so on. But\nthe point to which special attention should be\ndrawn here is that the individual unit having\narrived at any given planet of the series, in the\ncourse of any given round, does not merely\ntouch th?tt planet and pass on to the next. Be-\nfore passing on, he has to live through a series\nof races on that planet. And this fact suggests\nthe outline of the fabric which will presently\ndevelop itself in the reader's mind and exhibit\nthat similarity of design on the part of the one\nworld as compared with the whole series to\nwhich attention has already been drawn. As\nthe complete scheme of Nature that we belong\nto is worked out by means of a series of rounds\nsweeping through all the worlds, so the devel-\nopment of humanity on each world is worked\nout by a series of races developed within the\nlimits of each world in turn.\n\nIt is time now to make the working of this\nlaw clearer by coming to the actual figures\nwhich have to do with the evolution of our doc-\ntrine. It would have been premature to begin\nwith them, but as soon as the idea of a system\nof worlds in a chain, and of life evolution on\n\n96 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\neach through a series of re-births, is satisfac-\ntorily grasped, the further examination of the\nlaws at work will be greatly facilitated by pre-\ncise reference to the actual number of worlds\nand the actual number of rounds and races re-\nquired to accomplish the whole purpose of the\nsystem. For the whole duration of the system\nis as certainly limited in time, be it remem-\nbered, as the life of a single man. Probably\nnot limited to any definite number of years set\nirrevocably from the commencement, but that\nwhich has a beginning progresses onward to-\nwards an end. The life of a man, leaving ac-\ncidents quite out of the account, is a termina-\nble period, and the life of a world system leads\nup to a final consummation. The vast periods\nof time, concerned in the life of a world sys-\ntem, dazzle the imagination as a rule, but still\nthey are measurable ; they are divisible into\nsub-periods of various kinds, and these have a\ndefinite number.\n\nBy what prophetic instinct Shakespeare\npitched upon seven hs the number which suited\nhis fantastic classification of the ages of man\nis a question with which we need not be much\nconcerned, but certain it is that lie could not\nhave made a more felicitous choice. In periods\nof sevens the evolution of the races of man may\nbe traced, and the actual number of the objec\n\nTEE WORLD PERIODS. 97\n\ntive worlds which constitute our system, and of\nwhich the earth is one, is seven also. Remem-\nber the occult scientists know this as a fact,\njust as the physical scientists know for a fact\nthat the spectrum consists of seven colors, and\nthe musical scale of seven tones. There are\nseven kingdoms of Nature, not three, as modern\nscience has imperfectly classified them. Man\nbelongs to a kingdom distinctly separate from\nthat of the animals, including beings in a\nhigher state of organization than that which\nmanhood has familiarized us with as yet ; and\nbelow the mineral kingdom there are three\nothers which science in the West knows noth-\ning about ; but this branch of the subject may\nbe set aside for the present. It is mentioned\nmerely to show the regular operation of the\nseptenary law in Nature.\n\nMan, returning to the kingdom we are most\ninterested in, is evolved in a series of rounds\n(progressions round the series of worlds), and\nseven of these rounds have to be accomplished\nbefore the destinies of our system are worked\nout. The round which is at present going on\nis the fourth. There are considerations of the\nutmost possible interest connected with precise\nknowledge on these points, because each round\nis, as it were, specially allotted to the predomi-\nnance of one of the seven principles in man,\n\n98 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nand in the regular order of their upward grada-\ntion.\n\nAn individual unit, arriving on a planet for\nthe first time in the course of a round, has tq\nwork through seven races on that planet before\nhe passes on to the next, and each of those races\noccupies the earth for a long time. Our old-\nfashioned speculations about time and eternity,\nsuggested by the misty religious systems of the\nWest, have brought on a curious habit of mind\nin connection with problems bearing on the\nactual duration of sucli periods. We can talk\nglibly of eternity, and, going to the other end\nof the scale, we are not shocked by a few thou-\nsand years ; but directly years are numbered\nwith precision in groups which lie in interven-\ning regions of thought, illogical Western theo-\nlogians are apt to regard such numbering as\nnonsense. Now, we at present living on this\nearth — the great bulk of humanity, that is to\nsay, for there are exceptional cases to be con-\nsidered later — are now going through the fifth\nrace of our present fourth round. And yet the\nevolution of that fifth race began about a mill-\nion of years ago. Will the reader, in consid-\neration of the fact that the present cosmogony\ndoes not profess to work with eternity, nerve\nhimself to deal with estimates that do concern\nthemselves with millions of years, and evei)\ncount such millions by considerable numbers?\n\nTHE WORLD PERIODS. 99\n\nEach race of the seven which go to make\nup a round — i. e. which are evolved on the\nearth in succession during its occupation by\nthe great wave of humanity passing round the\nplanetary chain — is itself subject to subdivis-\nion. Were this not the case, the active exist-\nences of each human unit would be indeed few\nand far between. Within the limits of each\nrace there are seven subdivisional races, and\nagain within the limits of each subdivision\nthere are seven branch races. Through all\nthese races, roughly speaking, each individual\nhuman unit must pass during his stay on earth\neach time he arrives there on a round of prog-\nress through the planetary system. On reflec-\ntion, this necessity should not appall the mind\nso much as a hypothesis which would provide\nfor fewer incarnations. For, however many\nlives each individual unit may pass through\nwhile on earth during a round, be their num-\nbers few or many, he cannot pass on until the\ntime comes for the round wave to sweep for-\nward. Even by the calculation already fore-\nshadowed, it will be seen that the time spent\nby each individual unit in physical life, can\nonly be a small fraction of the whole time he\nhas to get through between his arrival on earth\nand his departure for the next planet. The\nlarger part of the time — as we reckon dura-\n\n100 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ntion of time — is obviousty, therefore, spent in\nthose subjective conditions of existence which\nbelong to the \" World of Effects,\" or spiritual\nearth attached to the physical earth on which\nour objective existence is passed.\n\nThe nature of existence on the spiritual earth\nmust be considered pari passu with the nature\nof that passed on the physical earth and dealt\nwith in the above enumeration of race incarna-\ntions. We must never forget that between\neach physical existence the individual unit\npasses through a period of existence in the cor-\nresponding spiritual world. And it is because\nthe conditions of that existence are defined by\nthe use that has been made of the opportunities\nin the next preceding physical existence that\nthe spiritual earth is often spoken of in occult\nwriting as the world of effects. The earth it-\nself is its corresponding world of causes.\n\nThat which passes naturally into the world\nof effects after an incarnation in the world of\ncauses is the individual unit or spiritual monad ;\nbut the personality just dissolved passes there\nwith it, to an extent dependent on the qualifi-\ncations of such personality, — on the use, that is\nto say, which the person in question has made\nof his opportunities in life. The period to be\nspent in the world of effects — enormously\nlonger in each case than the life which has\n\nTHE WORLD PERIODS. 101\n\npaved the way for existence there — corre-\nsponds to the \" hereafter \" or heaven of ordi-\nnary theology. The narrow purview of ordi-\nnary religious conceptions deals merely with\none spiritual life and its consequences in the\nlife to come. Theology conceives that the en-\ntity concerned had its beginning in this physi-\ncal life, and that the ensuing spiritual life will\nnever stop. And this pair of existences, which\nis shown, by the elements of occult science that\nwe are now unfolding, to constitute a part only\nof the entity's experience during its connection\nwith a branch race, which is one of seven be-\nlonging to a subdivisional race, itself one of\nseven belonging to a main race, itself one of\nseven belonging to the occupation of earth by\none of the seven round waves of humanity\nwhich have each to occupy it in turn before its\nfunctions in Nature are concluded, — this mi-\ncroscopic molecule of the whole structure is\nwhat common theology treats as more than the\nwhole, for it is supposed to cover eternity.\n\nThe reader must here be warned against one\nconclusion to which the above explanations —\nperfectly accurate as far as they go, but not yet\ncovering the whole ground — might lead him.\nHe will not get at the exact number of lives an\nindividual entity has to lead on the earth in the\ncourse of its occupation by one round, if he\n\n102 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nmerely raises seven to its third power. If one\nexistence only were passed in each branch race,\nthe total number would obviously be 343, but\neach life descends at least twice into objectivity\nin the same branch, — each monad, in other\nwords, incarnates twice in each branch race.\nAgain, there is a curious cyclic law which op-\nerates to augment the total number of incarna-\ntions beyond 686. Each subdivisional race has\na certain extra vitality at its climax, which\nleads it to throw off an additional offshoot race\nat that point in its progress, and again another\noffshoot race is developed at the end of the sub-\ndivisional race by its dying momentum, so to\nspeak. Through these races the whole tide of\nhuman life passes, and the result is that the\nactual normal number of incarnations for each\nmonad is not far short of 800. Within rela-\ntively narrow limits it is a variable number,\nbut the bearings of that fact may be considered\nlater on.\n\nThe methodical law which carries each and\nevery individual human entity through the vast\nevolutionary process thus sketched out, is in no\nway incompatible with that liability to fall\naway into abnormal destinies or ultimate anni-\nhilation which menaces the personal entities of\npeople who cultivate very ignoble affinities.\nThe distribution of the seven principles at\n\nTHE WORLD PERIODS. 103\n\ndeath shows that clearly enough, but viewed in\nthe light of these further explanations about\nevolution, the situation may be better realized.\nThe permanent entity is that which lives\nthrough the whole series of lives, not only\nthrough the races belonging to the present\nround wave on earth, but also through those of\nother round waves and other worlds. Broadly\nspeaking, it may in due time, though at some\ninconceivably distant future as measured in\nyears, recover a recollection of ail those lives,\nwhich will seem as days in the past to us. But\nthe astral dross, cast off at each passage into\nthe world of effects, has a more or less depen-\ndent existence of its own, quite separate from\nthat of the spiritual entity from which it has\njust been disunited.\n\nThe natural history of this astral remnant is\na problem of much interest and importance, but\na methodical continuation of the whole subject\nwill require us in the first instance to endeavor\nto realize the destiny of the higher and more du-\nrable spiritual Ego ; and before going into that\ninquiry, there is a good deal more to be said\nabout the development of the objective races.\n\nEsoteric science, though interesting itself\nmainly with matters generally regarded as ap-\npertaining to religion, would not be the com-\nplete comprehensive and trustworthy system\n\n104 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nthat it is, if it failed to bring all the facts of\nearth life into harmony with its doctrines. It\nwould have been little able to search out and\nascertain the manner in which the human race\nhas evolved through seons of time and series of\nplanets, if it had not been in a position to ascer-\ntain also, as the smaller inquiry is included in\nthe greater, the manner in which the wave of\nhumanity with which we are now concerned has\nbeen developed on this earth. The faculties, in\nshort, which enable adepts to read the mys-\nteries of other worlds, and of other states of ex-\nistence, are in no way unequal to the task of\ntraveling back along the life-current of this\nglobe. It follows that while the brief record\nof a few thousand years is all that our so-called\nuniversal history can deal with, the earth his-\ntory, which forms a department of esoteric\nknowledge, goes back to the incidents of the\nfourth race which preceded ours, and to those\nof the third race which preceded that. It goes\nback still further indeed, but the second and\nfirst races did not develop anything that could\nbe called civilization, and of them, therefore,\nthere is less to be said than of their successors.\nThe third and fourth did — strange as it may\nseem to some modern readers to contemplate\nthe notion of civilization on the earth several\nmillions of years ago.\n\nTHE WORLD PERIODS. 105\n\nWhere are its traces ? they will ask. How\ncould the civilization with which Europe has\nnow endowed mankind pass away so completely\nthat any future inhabitants of the earth could\never be ignorant that it once existed ? How\nthen can we conceive the idea that any similar\ncivilization can have vanished, leaving no rec-\nords for us ?\n\nThe answer lies in the regular routine of\nplanetary life, which goes on pari passu with\nthe life of its inhabitants. The periods of the\ngreat root races are divided from each other by\ngreat convulsions of Nature and by great geo-\nlogical changes. Europe was not in existence\nas a continent at the time the fourth race flour-\nished. The continent on which the fourth race\nlived was not in existence at the time the third\nrace flourished, and neither of the continents\nwhich were the great vortices of the civilizations\nof those two races are in existence now. Seven\ngreat continental cataclysms occur during the\noccupation of the earth by the human life- wave\nfor one round period. Each race is cut off in\nthis way at its appointed time, some survivors\nremaining in parts of the world, not the proper\nhome of their race ; but these, invariably in\nsuch cases, exhibiting a tendency to decay, and\nrelapsing into barbarism with more or less\nrapidity.\n\n106 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nThe proper home of the fourth race, which\ndirectly preceded our own, was that continent\nof which some memory has been preserved even\nin exoteric literature — the lost Atlantis. But\nthe great island, the destruction of which is\nspoken of by Plato, was really but the last rem-\nnant of the continent. \" In the Eocene age,\"\nI am told, \" even in its very first part, the great\ncycle of the fourth race men, the Atlanteans,\nhad already reached its highest point, and the\ngreat continent, the father of nearly all the\npresent continents, showed the first symptoms\nof sinking, — a process that occupied it down\nto 11,446 years ago, when its last island, that,\ntranslating its vernacular name, we may call\nwith propriety Poseidonis, went down with a\ncrash.\n\n\"Lemuria\" (a former continent stretching\nsouthward from India across what is now the\nIndian Ocean, but connected with Atlantis, for\nAfrica was not then in existence) \" should no\nmore be confounded with the Atlantis conti-\nnent than Europe with America. Both sank\nand were drowned, with their high civilizations\nand ' gods,' yet between the two catastrophes a\nperiod of about 700,000 years elapsed, Lemuria\nflourishing and ending her career just about\nthat lapse of time before the early part of the\nEocene age, since its race was the third. Be-\n\nTHE WORLD PERIODS. 107\n\nhold the relics of that once great nation in some\nof the flat-headed aborigines of your Australia.\"\n\nIt is a mistake on the part of a recent writer\non Atlantis to people India and Egypt with\nthe colonies of that continent, but of that more\nanon.\n\n\" Why should not your geologists,\" asks my\nrevered Mahatma teacher, \" bear in mind that\nunder the continents explored and fathomed\nby them, in the bowels of which they have\nfound the Eocene age, and forced it to de-\nliver to them its secrets, there may be hidden\ndeep in the fathomless, or rather unfathomed\nocean beds, other and far older continents\nwhose strata have never been geologically ex-\nplored ; and that they may some day upset en-\ntirely their present theories. Why not admit\nthat our present continents have, like Lemuria\nand Atlantis, been several times already sub-\nmerged, and had the time to reappear again,\nand bear their new groups of mankind and civ-\nilization ; and that at the first great geological\nupheaval at the next cataclysm, in the series of\nperiodical cataclysms that occur from the be-\nginning to the end of every round, our already\nautopsized continents will go down, and the\nLemurias and Atlantises come up again.\n\n\" Of course the fourth race had its periods of\nthe highest civilization.\" (The letter from\n\n108 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nwhich I am now quoting was written in answer\nto a series of questions I put.) \" Greek, and\nRoman, and even Egyptian civilizations are\nnothing compared to the civilizations that be-\ngan with the third race. Those of the second\nrace were not savages, but they could not be\ncalled civilized.\n\n\" Greeks and Romans were small sub-races,\nand Egyptians part and parcel of our own Cau-\ncasian stock. Look at the latter, and at India.\nHaving reached the highest civilization, and\nwhat is more, learning, both went down; Egypt,\nas a distinct sub-race, disappearing entirely (her\nCopts are but a hybrid remnant); India, as one\nof the first and most powerful offshoots of the\nmother race, and composed of a number of sub-\nraces, lasting to these times, and struggling to\ntake once more her place in history some day.\nThat history catches but a few stray, hazy\nglimpses of Egypt some 12,000 years back,\nwhen, having already reached the apex of its\ncycle thousands of years before, the latter had\nbegun to go down.\n\n\"The Chaldees were at the apex of their\noccult fame before what you term the Bronze\nAge. We hold — but then what warrant can\nyou give the world that we are right? — that\nfar greater civilizations than our own have\nrisen and decayed. It is not enough to say, as\n\nTHE WORLD PERIODS. 109\n\nsome of your modern writers do, that an extinct\ncivilization existed before Rome and Athens\nwere founded. We affirm that a series of civ-\nilizations existed before as well as after the\nglacial period, that they existed upon various\npoints of the globe, reached the apex of glory,\nand died. Every trace and memory had been\nlost of the Assyrian and Phoenician civiliza-\ntions, until discoveries began to be made a few\nyears ago. And now they open a new though\nnot by far one of the earliest pages in the his-\ntory of mankind. And yet how far back do\nthose civilizations go in comparison with the\noldest, and even them histor}7 is slow to accept.\nArchaeology has sufficiently demonstrated that\nthe memory of man runs back vastly further\nthan history has been willing to accept, and\nthe sacred records of once mighty nations pre-\nserved by their heirs are still more worthy of\ntrust. We speak of civilizations of the ante-\nglacial period, and not only in the minds of\nthe vulgar and the profane, but even in the\nopinion of the highly-learned geologist, the\nclaim sounds preposterous. What would you\nsay, then, to our affirmation that the Chinese, —\nI now speak of the inland, the true Chinaman,\nnot of the hybrid mixture between the fourth\nand fifth races now occupying the throne, —\nthe aborigines who belong in their unallied na-\n\n110 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ntionality wholly to the highest and last branch\nof the fourth race, reached their highest civili-\nzation when the fifth had hardly appeared in\nAsia? When was it? Calculate. The group\nof islands discovered by Nordenskiold, of the\nVega was found strewn with fossils of horses,\nsheep, oxen, etc., among gigantic bones of ele-\nphants, mammoths, rhinoceroses, and other\nmonsters belonging to periods when man, says\nyour science, had not yet made his appearance\non earth. How came horses and sheep to be\nfound in company with the huge antediluvians?\n\" The region now locked in the fetters of\neternal winter, uninhabited by man, that most\nfragile of animals, will very soon be proved\nto have had not only a tropical climate, some-\nthing your science knows and does not dispute,\nbut having been likewise the seat of one of the\nmost ancient civilizations of the fourth race,\nwhose highest relics we now find in the degener-\nate Chinaman, and whose lowest are hopelessly\n(for the profane scientist) intermixed with the\nremnants of the third. I told you before that the\nhighest people now on earth (spiritually) belong\nto the first sub-race of the fifth root race, and\nthose are the Aryan Asiatics ; the highest race\n(physical intellectuality) is the last sub-race of\nthe fifth, — yourselves, the white conquerors.\nThe majority of mankind belongs to the seventh\n\nTHE WORLD PERIODS. Ill\n\nsub-race of the fourth root race, — the above-\nmentioned Chinamen and their offshoots and\nbranchlets (Malayans, Mongolians, Tibetens,\nJavanese, etc., etc.), — with remnants of other\nsub-races of the fourth and the seventh sub-race\nof the third race. All these fallen, degraded\nsemblances of humanity are the direct lineal\ndescendants of highly civilized nations, neither\nthe names nor memory of which have survived,\nexcept in such books as 'Populvuh,' the sacred\nbook of the Guatemalans, and a few others\nunknown to science. \"\n\nI had inquired was there any way of ac-\ncounting for what seems the curious rush of\nhuman progress within the last two thousand\nyears, as compared with the relatively stagnant\ncondition of the fourth round people up to the\nbeginning of modern progress. This ques-\ntion it was that elicited the explanations quoted\nabove, and also the following remarks in regard\nto the recent \"rush of human progress.\"\n\n\" The latter end of a very important cycle.\nEach round, each race, as every sub-race, has\nits great and its smaller cycles on every planet\nthat mankind passes through. Our fourth\nround humanity has its one great cycle, and so\nhave its races and sub-races. ' The curious\nrush ' is due to the double effect of the former\n^- the beginning of its downward course — and\n\n112 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nof the latter (the small cycle of your sub-race)\nrunning on to its apex. Remember you belong\nto the fifth race, yet you are but a Western\nsub-race. Notwithstanding your efforts, what\nyou call civilization is confined only to the lat-\nter and its offshoots in America. Radiating\naround, its deceptive light may seem to throw\nits rays on a greater distance than it does- in\nreality. There is no rush in China, and of\nJapan you make but a caricature.\n\n\" A student of occultism ought not to speak\nof the stagnant condition of the fourth -round\npeople, since history knows next to nothing of\nthat condition, ' up to the beginning of modern\nprogress,' of other nations but the Western.\nWhat do you know of America, for instance,\nbefore the invasion of that country by the\nSpaniards ? Less than two centuries prior to\nthe arrival of Cortez there was as great a rush\ntoward progress among the sub-races of Peru\nand Mexico as there is now in Europe and the\nUnited States. Their sub-race ended in nearly\ntotal annihilation through causes generated by\nitself. We may speak only of the ' stagnant '\ncondition into which, following the law of de-\nvelopment, growth, maturity, and decline, every\nrace and sub-race falls during the transition\nperiods. It is that latter condition your uni-\nversal history is acquainted with, while it re*\n\nTHE WORLD PERIODS. 113\n\nmains superbly ignorant of the condition even\nIndia was in some ten centuries back. Your\nsub-races are now running toward the apex of\ntheir respective cycles, and that history goes no\nfurther back than the periods of decline of a\nfew other sub-races belonging most of them to\nthe preceding fourth race.\"\n\nI had asked to what epoch Atlantis belonged,\nand whether the cataclysm by which it was\ndestroyed came in an appointed place in the\nprogress of evolution, corresponding for the de-\nvelopment of races to the obscuration of plan-\nets. The answer was : —\n\n\" To the Miocene times. Everything comes\nin its appointed time and place in the evolution\nof rounds, otherwise it would be impossible for\nthe best seer to calculate the exact hour and\nyear when such cataclysms great and small\nhave to occur. All an adept could do would\nbe to predict an approximate time, whereas\nnow events that result in great geological\nchanges may be predicted with as mathemat-\nical a certainty as eclipses and other revolu-\ntions in space. The sinking of Atlantis (the\ngroup of continents and isles) began during the\nMiocene period, — as certain of your continents\nare now observed to be gradually sinking, —\nand it culminated first in the final disappear-\nance of the largest continent, an event coinci-\n\n114 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ndent with the elevation of the Alps ; and second,\nwith that of the last of the fair islands men-\ntioned by Plato. The Egyptian priests of Sais\ntold his ancestor Solon, that Atlantis (i. e., the\nonly remaining large island) had perished nine\nthousand years before their time. This was not\na fancy date, since they had for millenniums\npreserved most carefully their records. But\nthen, as I say, they spoke but of the Poseidonis,\nand would not reveal even to the great Greek\nlegislator their secret chronology. As there\nare no geological reasons for doubting, but, on\nthe contrary, a mass of evidence for accepting\nthe tradition, science has finally accepted the\nexistence of the great continent and archipel-\nago, and thus vindicated the truth of one more\n< fable.'\n\n\" The approach of every new obscuration is\nalways signaled by cataclysms of either fire or\nwater. But apart from this, every root race\nhas to be cut in two, so to say, by either one\nor the other. Thus having reached the apex\nof its development and glory, the fourth race\n— the Atlanteans — were destroyed by water ;\nyou find now but their degenerate fallen rem-\nnants, whose sub-races nevertheless, each of\nthem, had its palmy days of glory and relative\ngreatness. What they are now, you will be\nsome day, the law of cycles being one and im-\n\nTHE WORLD PERIODS. 115\n\nmutable. When your race, the fifth, will have\nreached its zenith of physical intellectuality,\nand developed its highest civilization (remem-\nber the difference we make between material\nand spiritual civilizations), unable to go any\nhigher in its own cycle, its progress toward\nabsolute evil will be arrested (as its predeces-\nsors, the Lemurians and the Atlanteans, the\nmen of the third and fourth races, were arrested\nin their progress toward the same) by one of\nsuch cataclysmic changes, its great civilization\ndestroyed, and all the sub-races of that race\nwill be found going down their respective\ncycles, after a short period of glory and learn-\ning. See the remnants of the Atlanteans, the\nold Greeks and Romans (the modern belong to\nthe fifth race). See how great and how short,\nhow evanescent were their days of fame and\nglory. For they were but sub-races of the seven\noffshoots of the root race.1 No mother race,\nany more than her sub-races and offshoots, is\nallowed by the one reigning law to trespass\nupon the prerogatives of the race, or sub-race\nthat will follow it ; least of all to encroach\nupon the knowledge and powers in store for its\nsuccessor.\"\nThe \"progress toward absolute evil,\" arrested\n\n1 Branches of the subdivisions, according to vhe nomenclature I\nbave adopted previously,\n\n116 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nby the cataclysms of each race in turn, sets\nin with the acquisition, by means of ordinary\nintellectual research and scientific advance-\nment, of those powers over Nature which ac-\ncrue even now in adeptship from the premature\ndevelopment of higher faculties than those we\nordinarily employ. I have spoken slightly of\nthese powers in a preceding chapter, when en-\ndeavoring to describe our esoteric teachers ; to\ndescribe them minutely would lead me into a\nlong digression on occult phenomena. It is\nenough to say that they are such as cannot but\nbe dangerous to society generally, and provo-\ncative of all manner of crimes which would\nutterly defy detection, if possessed by persons\ncapable of regarding them as anything else but\na profoundly sacred trust. Now some of these\npowers are simply the practical application of\nobscure forces of Nature, susceptible of dis-\ncovery in the course of ordinary scientific prog-\nress. Such progress had been accomplished\nby the Atlanteans. The worldly men of sci-\nence in that race had learned the secrets of\nthe disintegration and reintegration of matter,\nwhich few but practical spiritualists as yet\nknow to be possible, and of control over the\nelementals, by means of which that and other\neven more portentous phenomena can be pro-\nduced. Such powers in the hands of persons\n\nTEE WORLD PERIODS. 117\n\nwilling to use them for merely selfish and un-\nscrupulous ends, must not only be productive of\nsocial disaster, but also for the persons who hold\nthem, of progress in the direction of that evilly-\nspiritual exaltation, which is a far more terri-\nble result than suffering and inconvenience in\nthis world. Thus it is, when physical intellect,\nunguarded by elevated morality, runs over into\nthe proper region of spiritual advancement, that\nthe natural law provides for its violent repres-\nsion. The contingency will be better under-\nstood when we come to deal with the general\ndestinies toward which humanity is tending.\n\nThe principle under which the various races\nof man as they develop are controlled collec-\ntively by the cyclic law, however they may in-\ndividually exercise the free will they unques-\ntionably possess, is thus very plainly asserted.\nFor people who have never regarded human\naffairs as covering more than the very short\nperiod with which history deals, the course of\nevents will perhaps, as a rule, exhibit no cyclic\ncharacter, but rather a checkered progress, has-\ntened sometimes by great men and fortunate\ncircumstances, sometimes retarded by war, big-\notry, or intervals of intellectual sterility, but\nmoving continually onward in the long ac-\ncount at one rate of speed or another. As the\nesoteric view of the matter, fortified by the\n\n118 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nwide range of observation which occult science\nis enabled to take, has an altogether opposite\ntendency, it seems worth while to conclude\nthese explanations with an extract from a dis-\ntinguished author, quite unconnected with the\noccult world, who nevertheless, from a close\nobservation of the mere historical record, pro-\nnounces himself decisively in favor of the theory\nof cycles. In his u History of the Intellectual\nDevelopment of Europe,\" Dr. J. W. Draper\nwrites as follows : —\n\n\" We are, as we often say, the creatures of\ncircumstances. In that expression there is a\nhigher philosophy than might at first sight ap-\npear. . . . From this more accurate point of\nview we should therefore consider the course\nof these events, recognizing the principle that\nthe affairs of men pass forward in a determi-\nnate way, expanding and unfolding themselves.\nAnd hence we see that the things of which we\nhave spoken as though they were matters of\nchoice, were in reality forced upon their appar-\nent authors by the necessity of the times. But\nin truth they should be considered as the pres-\nentation of a certain phase of life which nations\nin their onward course sooner or later assume.\nTo the individual, how well we know that a\nsober moderation of action, an appropriate grav.\nity of demeanor, belong to the mature period\n\nTHE WORLD PERIODS. 119\n\nof life, change from the wanton willfulness of\nyouth, which may be ushered in, or its begin-\nning marked by many accidental incidents ; in\none perhaps by domestic bereavements, in an-\nother by the loss of fortune, in a third by ill\nhealth. We are correct enough in imputing to\nsuch trials the change of chnracter ; but we\nnever deceive ourselves by supposing that it\nwould have failed to take place had those in-\ncidents not occurred. There runs an irresisti-\nble destiny in the midst of all these vicissitudes.\n. . . There are analogies between the life of a\nnation and that of an individual, who, though\nhe may be in one respect the maker of his own\nfortunes, for happiness or for misery, for good\nor for evil, though he remains here or goes\nthere as his inclinations prompt, though he\ndoes this or abstains from that as he chooses, is\nnevertheless held fast by an inexorable fate, —\na fate which brought him into the world in-\nvoluntarily, as far as he was concerned, which\npresses him forward through a definite career,\nthe stages of which are absolutely invariable,—\ninfancy, childhood, youth, maturity, old age,\nwith all their characteristic actions and pas-\nsions,— and which removes him from the scene\nat the appointed time, in most cases against his\nwill. So also it is with nations ; the voluntary\nis only the outward semblance, covering but\n\n120 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nhardly hiding the predetermined. Over the\nevents of life we may have control, but none\nwhatever over the law of its progress. There\nis a geometry that applies to nations an equa-\ntion of their curve of advance. That no mortal\nman can touch.\"\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nDEVACHAN.\n\nIt was not possible to approach a considera-\ntion of the states into which the higher human\nprinciples pass at death, without first indicat-\ning the general framework of the whole design\nworked out in the course of the evolution of\nman. That much of my task, however, having\nnow been accomplished, we may pass on to con-\nsider the natural destinies of each human Ego,\nin the interval which elapses between the close\nof one objective life and the commencement of\nanother. At the commencement of another,\nthe Karma of the previous objective life deter-\nmines the state of life into which the individ-\nual shall be born. This doctrine of Karma is\none of the most interesting features of Buddhist\nphilosophy. There has been no secret about it\nat any time, though for want of a proper com-\nprehension of elements in the philosophy which\nhave been strictly esoteric, it may sometimes\nhave been misunderstood.\n\nKarma is a collective expression applied to\n\n122 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nthat complicated group of affinities for good and\nevil generated by a human being during life,\nand the character of which inheres in the mole-\ncules of his fifth principle all through the inter-\nval which elapses between his death from one\nobjective life and his birth into the next. As\nstated sometimes, the doctrine seems to be one\nwhich exacts the notion of a superior spiritual\nauthority summing up the acts of a man's life\nat its close, taking into consideration his good\ndeeds and his bad, and giving judgment about\nhim on the whole aspect of the case. But a\ncomprehension of the way in which the human\nprinciples divide up at death, will afford a\nclue to the comprehension of the way in which\nKarma operates, and also of the great subject\nwe may better take up first, the immediate\nspiritual condition of man after death.\n\nAt death, the three lower principles — the\nbody, its mere physical vitality, and its astral\ncounterpart — are finally abandoned by that\nwhich really is the Man himself, and the four\nhigher principles escape into that world imme-\ndiately above our own ; above our own, that is,\nin the order of spirituality; not above it at all,\nbut in it and of it, as regards real locality, — the\nastral plane, or Karma Loca, according to a very\nfamiliar Sanskrit expression. Here a division\ntakes plaoe between the two duads, which the\n\nDEVACHAN. 123\n\nfour higher principles include. The explana-\ntions already given concerning the imperfect\nextent to which the upper principles of man are\nas yet developed, will show that this estimation\nof the process, as in the nature of a mechanical\nseparation of the principles, is a rough way of\ndealing with the matter. It must be modified\nin the reader's mind by the light of what has\nbeen already said. It may be otherwise de-\nscribed as a trial of the extent to which the\nfifth principle has been developed. Regarded\nin the light of the former idea, however, we\nmust conceive the sixth and seventh principles,\non the one hand, drawing the fifth, the human\nsoul, in one direction, while the fourth draws it\nback earthward in the other. Now, the fifth\nprinciple is a very complex entity, separable\nitself into superior and inferior elements. In\nthe struggle which takes place between its late\ncompanion principles, its best, purest, most ele-\nvated, and spiritual portions cling to the sixth,\nits lower instincts, impulses, and recollections\nadhere to the fourth, and it is in a measure torn\nasunder. The lower remnant, associating itself\nwith the fourth, floats off in the earth's atmos-\nphere, while the best elements, those, be it un-\nderstood, which really constitute the Ego of the\nlate earthly personality, the individuality, the\nconsciousness thereof, follows the sixth and sev-\n\n124 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nenth into a spiritual condition, the nature of\nwhich we are about to examine.\n\nRejecting the popular English name for this\nspiritual condition, as incrusted with too many\nmisconceptions to be convenient, let us keep to\nthe Oriental designation of that region or state\ninto which the higher principles of human crea-\ntures pass at death. This is additionally desir-\nable because, although the Devachan of Bud-\ndhist philosophy corresponds in some respects\nto the modern European idea of heaven, it dif-\nfers from heaven in others which are even more\nimportant.\n\nFirstly, however, in Devachan, that which\nsurvives is not merely the individual monad,\nwhich survives through all the changes of the\nwhole evolutionary scheme, and flits from body\nto body, from planet to planet, and so forth, —\nthat which survives in Devachan is the man's\nown self-conscious personality, under some re-\nstrictions indeed, which we will come to direct-\nly, but still it is the same personality as regards\nits higher feelings, aspirations, affections, and\neven tastes, as it was on earth. Perhaps it\nwould be better to say the essence of the late\nself-conscious personality.\n\nIt may be worth the reader's while to learn\nwhat Colonel H. S. Olcott has to say in his\n\" Buddhist Catechism \" (14th thousand) of the\n\nDEVACHAN. 125\n\nintrinsic difference between \" individuality \"\nand \" personality.\" Since he wrote not only\nunder the approval of the High Priest of the\nSripada and Galle, Sumangala, but also under\nthe direct instruction of his adept Guru, his\nwords will have weight for the student of Oc-\ncultism. This is what he says in his Appen-\ndix : —\n\n\" Upon reflection, I have substituted ' person-\nality ' for 4 individuality ' as written in the first\nedition. The successive appearances upon one\nor many earths, or ' descents into generation '\nof the tanhaically-coherent parts (Skandhas) of\na certain being, are a succession of personali-\nties. In each birth the personality differs from\nthat of the previous or next succeeding birth.\nKarma, the deus ex mdchina, masks (or shall\nwe say, reflects ?) itself now in the personality\nof a sage, again as an artisan, and so on\nthroughout the string of births. But though\npersonalities ever shift, the one line of life\nalong which they are strung like beads, runs\nunbroken.\n\n\" It is ever that particular line, never any\nother. It is therefore individual, an individual\nvital undulation which began in Nirvana or the\nsubjective side of Nature, as the light or heat\nundulation through ether began at its dynamic\nsource ; is careering through the objective side\n\n126 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nof Nature, under the impulse of Karma and the\ncreative direction of Tanha ; and tends through\nmany cyclic changes back to Nirvana. Mr.\nRhys Davids calls that which passes from per-\nsonality to personality along the individual\nchain, ' character ' or 4 doing.' Since ' charac-\nter' is not a mere metaphysical abstraction, JDut\nthe sum of one's mental qualities and moral\npropensities, would it not help to dispel what\nMr. Rhys Davids calls ' the desperate expe-\ndient of a mystery,' if we regarded the life un-\ndulation as individuality, and each of its series\nof natal manifestations as a separate person-\nality ?\n\n\" The denial of 4 soul ' by Buddha (see 4 San-\nyutto Nikaya,' the Sutta Pitaka) points to the\nprevalent delusive belief in an independent\ntransmissible personality ; an entity that could\nmove from birth to birth unchanged, or go to a\nplace or state where, as such perfect entity, it\ncould eternally enjoy or suffer. And what he\nshows is that the ' I am I ' consciousness is, as\nregards permanency, logically impossible, since\nits elementary constituents constantly change,\nand the ' I ' of one birth differs from the 4 1 ' of\nevery other birth. But everything that I have\nfound in Buddhism accords with the theory of\na gradual evolution of the perfect man, viz., a\nBuddha through numberless natal experiences.\n\nDEVACHAN. 127\n\nAnd in the consciousness of that person who at\nthe end of a given chain of beings attains\nBuddhahood, or who succeeds in attaining the\nfourth stage of Dhyana, or mystic self-develop-\nment, in any one of his births anterior to the\nfinal one, the scenes of all these serial births\nare perceptible. In the ' Jatakattahavannana,'\nso well translated by Mr. Rhys Davids, an ex-\npression continually recurs which I think rather\nsupports such an* idea, viz., ' Then the blessed\none made manifest an occurrence hidden by\nchange of birth? or 'that which had been hid-\nden by, etc' Early Buddhism, then, clearly\nheld to a permanency of records in the Akasa,\nand the potential capacity of man to read the\nsame when he has evoluted to the stage of true\nindividual enlightenment.\"\n\nThe purely sensual feelings and tastes of the\nlate personality will drop off from it in Deva-\nchan, but it does not follow that nothing is\npreservable in that state, except feelings and\nthoughts having a direct reference to religion\nor spiritual philosophy. On the contrary, all\nthe superior phases, even of sensuous emotion,\nfind their appropriate sphere of development in\nDevachan. To suggest a whole range of ideas\nby means of one illustration, a soul in Deva-\nchan, if the soul of a man who was passionately\ndevoted to music, would be continuously en-\n\n128 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nraptured by the sensations music produces.\nThe person whose happiness of the higher sort\non earth had been entirely centred in the ex-\nercise of the affections will miss none in Deva-\nchan of those whom he or she loved. But, at\nonce it will be asked, if some of these are not\nthemselves fit for Devachan, how then ? The\nanswer is, that does not matter. For the per-\nson who loved them they will be there. It is\nnot necessary to say much more to give a clue\nto the position. Devachan is a subjective state.\nIt will seem as real as tbe chairs and tables\nround us ; and remember that, above all things,\nto the profound philosophy of Occultism, are\nthe chairs and tables, and the whole objective\nscenery of the world, unreal and merely transi-\ntory delusions of sense. As real as the realities\nof this world to us, and even more so, will be\nthe realities of Devachan to those who go into\nthat state.\n\nFrom this it ensues that the subjective isola-\ntion of Devachan, as it will perhaps be con-\nceived at first, is not real isolation at all, as the\nword is understood on the physical plane of ex-\nistence ; it is companionship with all that the\ntrue soul craves for, whether persons, things, or\nknowledge. And a patient consideration of\nthe place in Nature which Devachan occupies\nwill show that this subjective isolation of each\n\nDEVACHAN. 129\n\nhuman unit is the only condition which renders\npossible anything which can be described as a\nfelicitous spiritual existence after death for\nmankind at large, and Devachan is as much a\npurely and absolutely felicitous condition for\nall who attain it, as Avitchi is the reverse of it.\nThere is no inequality or injustice in the sys-\ntem ; Devachan is by no means the same thing\nfor the good and the indifferent alike, but it is\nnot a life of responsibility, and therefore there\nis no logical place in it for suffering any more\nthan in Avitchi there is any room for enjoy-\nment or repentance. It is a life of effects, not\nof causes ; a life of being paid your earnings,\nnot of laboring for them. Therefore it is im-\npossible to be during that life cognizant of\nwhat is going on on earth. Under the opera-\ntion of such cognition there would be no true\nhappiness possible in the state after death. A\nheaven which constituted a watch-tower from\nwhich the occupants could still survey the mis-\neries of the earth, would really be a place of\nacute mental suffering for its most sympathetic,\nunselfish, and meritorious inhabitants. If we\ninvest them in imagination with such a very\nlimited range of sympathy that they could be\nimagined as not caring about the spectacle of\nsuffering after the few persons to whom they\nwere immediately attached had died and joined\n\n130 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nthem, still they would have a very unhappy pe-\nriod of waiting to go through before survivors\nreached the end of an often long and toilsome\nexistence below. And even this hypothesis\nwould be further vitiated by making heaven\nmost painful for occupants who were most un-\nselfish and sympathetic, whose reflected distress\nwould thus continue on behalf of the afflicted\nrace of mankind generally, even after their per-\nsonal kindred had been rescued by the lapse of\ntime. The only escape from this dilemma lies\nin the supposition that heaven is not yet opened\nfor business, so to speak, and that all people\nwho have ever lived, from Adam downward,\nare still lying in a death-like trance, waiting for\nthe resurrection at the end of the world. This\nhypothesis also has its embarrassments, but we\nare concerned at present„with the scientific har-\nmony of esoteric Buddhism, not with the theo-\nries of other creeds.\n\nReaders, however, who may grant that a pur-\nview of earthly life from heaven would render\nhappiness in heaven impossible, may still doubt\nwhether true happiness is possible in the state,\nas it may be objected, of monotonous isolation\nnow described. The objection is merely raised\nfrom the point of view of an imagination that\ncannot escape from its present surroundings.\nTo begin with, about monotony. No one will\n\nDEVACHAN. 131\n\ncomplain of having experienced monotony dur-\ning the minute, or moment, or half hour, as it\nmay have been, of the greatest happiness he\nmay have enjoyed in life. Most people have\nhad some happy moments, at all events, to look\nback to for the purpose of this comparison ; and\nlet us take even one such minute or moment,\ntoo short to be open to the least suspicion of\nmonotony, and imagine its sensations immensely\nprolonged without any external events in prog-\nress to mark the lapse of time. There is no\nroom, in such a condition of things, for the con-\nception of weariness. The unalloyed, unchange-\nable sensation of intense happiness goes on and\non, not forever, because the causes which have\nproduced it are not infinite themselves, but for\nvery long periods of time, until the efficient im-\npulse has exhausted itself.\n\nNor must it be supposed that there is, so to\nspeak, no change of occupation for souls in De-\nvachan, — that any one moment of earthly sen-\nsation is selected for exclusive perpetuation.\nAs a teacher of the highest authority on this\nsubject writes : —\n\n\"There are two fields of causal manifesta-\ntions, the objective and subjective. The grosser\nenergies — those which operate in the denser\ncondition of matter — manifest objectively in\nthe next physical life, their outcome being the\n\n132 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nnew personality of each birth marshaling within\nthe grand cycle of the e vol u ting individuality.\nIt is but the moral and spiritual activities that\nfind their sphere of effects in Devachan. And,\nthought and fancy being limitless, how can it\nbe argued for one moment that there is an 3*-\nthing like monotony in the state of Devachan ?\nFew are the men whose lives were so utterly\ndestitute of feeling, love, or of a more or less\nintense predilection for some one line of\nthought as to be made unfit for a proportionate\nperiod of Devachanic experience beyond their\nearthly life. So, for instance, while the vices,\nphysical and sensual attractions, say, of a great\nphilosopher, but a bad friend and a selfish man,\nmay result in the birth of a new and still\ngreater intellect, but at the same time a most\nmiserable man, reaping the Karmic effects of\nall the causes produced Ivy the ' old' being, and\nwhose make-up was inevitable from the pre-\nponderating proclivities of that being in the\npreceding birth, the intermedial period between\nthe two physical births cannot be, in Nature's\nexquisitely well-adjusted laws, but a hiatus of\nunconsciousness. There can be no such dreary\nblank as kindly promised, or rather implied, by\nChristian Protestant theology, to the ' departed\nsouls,' which, between death and 'resurrection,'\nhave to hang on in space, in mental catalepsy\n\nDEVACRAN. 133\n\nawaiting the 4 Day of Judgment.' Causes pro-\nduced by mental and spiritual energy being far\ngreater and more important than those that\nare created by physical impulses, their effects\nhave to be, for weal or woe, proportionately as\ngreat. Lives on this earth, or other earths,\naffording no proper field for such effects, and\nevery laborer being entitled to his own harvest,\nthey have to expand in either Devachan or\nAvitchi.1 Bacon, for instance, whom a poet\ncalled\n\n4 The brightest, wisest, meanest of mankind,1\n\nmight reappear in his next incarnation as a\ngreedy money-getter, with extraordinary intel-\nlectual capacities. But, however great the lat-\nter, they would find no proper field in which\nthat particular line of thought, pursued during\nhis previous lifetime by the founder of modern\nphilosophy, could reap all its dues. It would\nbe but the astute lawyer, the corrupt Attorney-\nGeneral, the ungrateful friend, and the dishon-\nest Lord Chancellor, who might find, led on by\nhis Karma, a congenial new soil in the body of\nthe money-lender, and reappear as a new Shy-\nlock. But where would Bacon, the incompar-\nable thinker, with whom philosophical inquiry\nupon the most profound problems of Nature\nwas his ' first and last and only love,' where\n\n1 The lowest states of Devachan interchain with those of Avitchi\n\n134 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nwould this ' intellectual giant of his race once\ndisrobed of his lower nature, go to ? Have all\nthe effects of that magnificent intellect to vanish\nand disappear? Certainly not. Thus his moral\nand spiritual qualities would also have to find a\nfield in which their energies could expand them-\nselves. Devachan is such a field. Hence, all\nthe great plans of moral reform, of intellectual\nresearch into abstract principles of Nature —\nall the divine, spiritual aspirations that had so\nfilled the brightest part of his life would, in\nDevachan, come to fruition ; and the abstract\nentity, known in the preceding birth as Francis\nBacon, and that may be known in its subse-\nquent re-incarnation as a despised usurer — that\nBacon's own creation, his Frankenstein, the son\nof his Karma — shall in the meanwhile occupy\nitself in this inner world, also of its own prepa-\nration, in enjoying the effects of the grand\nbeneficial spiritual causes sown in life. It\nwould live a purely and spiritually conscious ex-\nistence — a dream of realistic vividness — until\nKarma, being satisfied in that direction, and the\nripple of force reaching the edge of its sub-cy-\nclic basin, the being should move into its next\narea of causes, either in this same world or an-\nother, according to his stage of progression.\n. . . Therefore, there is ' a change of occupation,'\na continual change, in Devachan. For that\n\nDE VAC HAN. 135\n\ndream-life is but the fruition, the harvest-time,\nof those psychic seed-germs dropped from the\ntree of physical existence in our moments of\ndream and. hope — fancy-glimpses of bliss and\nhappiness, stifled in an ungrateful social soil,\nblooming in the rosy dawn of Devachan, and\nripening under its ever -fructifying sky. If\nman had but one single moment of ideal expe-\nrience, not even then could it be, as errone-\nously supposed, the indefinite prolongation of\nthat 'single moment.' That one note, struck\nfrom the lyre of life, would form the key-note\nof the being's subjective state, and work out\ninto numberless harmonic tones and semitones\nof psychic phantasmagoria. There, all unreal-\nized hopes, aspirations, dreams, become fully\nrealized, and the dreams of the objective be-\ncome the realities of the subjective existence.\nAnd there, behind the curtain of Maya, its va-\nporous and deceptive appearances are perceived\nby the Initiate, who has learned the great secret\nhow to penetrate thus deep into the Arcana of\nBeing.\" . . .\n\nAs physical existence has its cumulative in-\ntensity from infancy to prime, and its dimin-\nishing energy thenceforward to dotage and\ndeath, so the dream-life of Devachan is lived\ncorrespondentially. There is the first flutter of\npsychic life, the attainment of prime, the grad-\n\n136 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nual exhaustion of force passing into conscious\nlethargy, semi-unconsciousness, oblivion and —\nnot death but birth ! birth into another person-\nality and the resumption of action which daily\nbegets new congeries of causes that must be\nworked out in another term of Devachan.\n\n\" It is not a reality then, it is a mere dream,\"\nobjectors will urge ; \" the soul so bathed in a\ndelusive sensation of enjoyment which has no\nreality all the while is being cheated by Na-\nture, and must encounter a terrible shock when\nit wakes to its mistake.\" But, in the nature of\nthings, it never does or can wake. The waking\nfrom Devachan is its next birth into objective\nlife, and the draught of Lethe has then been\ntaken. Nor as regards the isolation of each soul\nis there any consciousness of isolation whatever;\nnor is there ever possibly a parting from its\nchosen associates. Those associates are not in\nthe nature of companions who may wish to go\naway, of friends who may tire of the friend that\nloves them, even if he or she does not tire of\nthem. Love, the creating force, has placed\ntheir living image before the personal soul\nwhich craves for their presence, and that image\nwill never fly away.\n\nOn this aspect of the subject I may again\navail myself of the language of my teacher : —\n\n\" Objectors of that kind will be simply postu\n\nDEVACHAN. 137\n\nlating an incongruity, an intercourse of entities\nin Devachan, which applies only to the mutual\nrelationship of physical existence ! Two sym-\npathetic souls, both disembodied, will each\nwork out its own Devachanic sensations, mak-\ning the other a sharer in its subjective bliss.\nThis will be as real to them, naturally, as\nthough both were yet on this earth. Neverthe-\nless, each is dissociated from the other as re-\ngardo personal or corporeal association. While\nthe latter is the only one of its kind that is\nrecognized by our earth experience as an actual\nintercourse, for the Devachanee it would be not\nonly something unreal, but could have no exist-\nence for it in any sense, not even as a delusion :\na physical body or even a Mayavi-rnpa remain-\ning to its spiritual senses as invisible as it is it-\nself to the physical senses of those who loved it\nbest on earth. Thus even though one of the\n'sharers ' were alive and utterly unconscious of\nthat intercourse in his waking state, still every\ndealing with him would be to the Devachanee\nan absolute reality. And what actual compan-\nionship could there ever be other than the purely\nidealistic one as above described, between two\nsubjective entities which are not even as mate-\nrial as that ethereal body-shadow — the Mayavi-\nrupa? To object to this on the ground that\none is thus i cheated by Nature ' and to call it\n\n138 ESOTERfC BUDDHISM.\n\n* a delusive sensation of enjoyment which has\nno reality,' is to show one's self utterly unfit\nto comprehend the conditions of life and being\noutside of our material existence. For how can\nthe same distinction be made in Devachan —\ni. e., outside of the conditions of earth-life — be-\ntween what we call a reality, and a factitious\nor an artificial counterfeit of the same, in this,\nour world? The same principle cannot apply\nto the two sets of conditions. Is it conceivable\nthat what we call a reality in our embodied phys-\nical state will exist under the same conditions\nas an actuality^ for a disembodied entity? On\nearth, man is dual — in the sense of being a\nthing of matter and a thing of spirit ; hence the\nnatural distinction made by his mind — the an-\nalyst of his physical sensations and spiritual\nperceptions — between an actuality and a fic-\ntion ; though, even in this life, the two groups\nof faculties are constantly equilibrating each\nother, each group when dominant seeing as fic-\ntion or delusion what the other believes to be\nmost real. But in Devachan our Ego has\nceased to be dualistic, in the above sense, and\nbecomes a spiritual, mental entity. That which\nwas a fiction, a dream in life, and which had\nfts being but in the region of ' fancy,' becomes,\nunder the new conditions of existence, the only\npossible reality. Thus, for us, to postulate the\n\nDEVACHAN. 139\n\npossibility of any other reality for a Devacbanee\nis to maintain an absurdity, a monstrous fallacy,\nan idea unpbilosophical to the last degree.\nThe actual is that which is acted or performed\nde facto : 'the reality of a thing is proved by\nits actuality.' And the supposititious and artifi-\ncial having no possible existence in that De-\nvachanic state, the logical sequence is that\neverything in it is actual and real. For, again,\nwhether overshadowing the five principles dur-\ning the life of the personality, or entirely sepa-\nrated from the grosser principles by the dissolu-\ntion of the body — the sixth principle, or our\n'Spiritual Soul,' has no substance — it is ever\nArupa ; nor is it confined to one place with a\nlimited horizon of perceptions around it. There-\nfore, whether in or out of its mortal body, it is\never distinct, and free from its limitations ; and\nif we call its Devachanic experiences ' a cheat-\ning of Nature,' then we should never be allowed\nto call ' reality ' any of those purely abstract feel-\nings that belong entirely to, and are reflected\nand assimilated by, our higher soul — such, for\ninstance, as an ideal perception of the beautiful,\nprofound philanthropy, love, etc., as well as\never)7 other purely spiritual sensation that dur-\ning life fills our inner being with either im-\nmense joy or pain.\"\n\nWe must remember that by the very nature\n\n140 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nof the system described there are infinite va-\nrieties of well-being in Devachan, suited to the\ninfinite varieties of merit in mankind. If \" the\nnext world \" really were the objective heaven\nwhich ordinary theology preaches, there would\nbe endless injustice and inaccuracy in its oper-\nation. People, to begin with, would be either\nadmitted or excluded, and the differences of\nfavor shown to different guests within the all-\nfavored region would not sufficiently provide\nfor differences of merit in this life. But the\nreal heaven of our earth adjusts itself to the\nneeds and merits of each new arrival with un-\nfailing certainty. Not merely as regards the\nduration of the blissful state, which is deter-\nmined by the causes engendered during objec-\ntive life, but as regards the intensity and\namplitude of the emotions which constitute\nthat blissful state, the heaven of each person\nwho attains the really existent heaven is pre-\ncisely fitted to his capacity for enjoying it. It\nis the creation of his own aspirations and facul-\nties. More than this it may be impossible for\nthe uninitiated comprehension to realize. But\nthis indication of its character is enough to\nshow how perfectly it falls into its appointed\nplace in the whole scheme of evolution.\n\n\" Devachan,\" to resume my direct quota-\ntions, \" is, of course, a state, not a locality, as\n\nDEVACHAN. 141\n\nmuch as Avitchi, its antithesis (which please\nnot to confound with hell). Esoteric Buddhist\nphilosophy has three principal lokas so-called\n— namely, 1, Kama loka ; 2, Rupa loka ; and\n3, Arupa loka ; or in their literal translation\nand meaning — 1, world of desires or passions,\nof unsatisfied earthly cravings — the abode of\n4 Shells ' and Victims, of Elementaries and\nSuicides ; 2, the world of Forms — i. e., of\nshadows more spiritual, having form and objec-\ntivity, but no substance ; and 3, the formless\nworld, or rather the world of no form, the in-\ncorporeal, since its denizens can have neither\nbody, shape, nor color for us mortals, and in the\nsense that we give to these terms. These are\nthe three spheres of ascending spirituality, in\nwhich the several groups of subjective and semi-\nsubjective entities find their attractions. All\nbut the suicides and the victims of premature\nviolent deaths go, according to their attractions\nand powers, either into the Devachanic or the\nAvitchi state, which two states form the num-\nberless subdivisions of Rupa and Arupa lokas\n• — that is to say, that such states not only vary\nin degree, or in their presentation to the sub-\nject entity as regards form, color, etc., but that\nthere is an infinite scale of such states, in their\nprogressive spirituality and intensity of feeling;\nfrom the lowest in the Rupa, up to the highest\n\n142 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nand the most exalted in the Arupa-loka. The\nstudent must bear in mind that personality is\nthe synonym for limitation ; and that the more\nselfish, the more contracted the person's ideas,\nthe closer will he cling to the lower spheres of\nbeing, the longer loiter on the plane of selfish\nsocial intercourse.\"\n\nDevachan being a condition of mere subjec-\ntive enjoyment, the duration and intensity of\nwhich is determined by the merit and spiritual-\nity of the earth-life last past, there is no oppor-\ntunity, while the soul inhabits it, for the punc-\ntual requital of evil deeds. But Nature does\nnot content herself with either forgiving sins in\na free and easy way, or damning sinners out-\nright, like a lazy master too indolent, rather\nthan too good-natured, to govern his household\njustly. The Karma of evil, be it great or\nsmall, is as certainty operative at the appointed\ntime as the Karma of good. But the place of\nits operation is not Devachan, but either a new\nre-birth or Avitchi — a state to be reached only\nin exceptional cases and by exceptional natures.\nIn other words, while the commonplace sinner\nwill reap the fruits of his evil deeds in a follow-\ning re-incarnation, the exceptional criminal, the\naristocrat of sin, has Avitchi in prospect — that\nis to say, the condition of subjective spiritual\nmisery which is the reverse side of Devachan.\n\nDEVACHAN. 143\n\n\" Avitchi is a state of the most ideal spirit-\nual wickedness, something akin to the state of\nLucifer, so superbly described by Milton. Not\nmany, though, are there who can reach it, as\nthe thoughtful reader will perceive. And if it\nis urged that since there is Devachan for nearly\nall, for the good, the bad, and the indiffer-\nent, the ends of harmony and equilibrium are\nfrustrated and the law of retribution and of\nimpartial, implacable justice, hardly met and\nsatisfied by such a comparative scarcity if not\nabsence of its antithesis, then the answer will\nshow that it is not so. 4 Evil is the dark\nson of Earth (matter) and Good — the fair\ndaughter of Heaven ' (or Spirit) says the\nChinese philosopher ; hence the place of pun-\nishment for most of our sins is the earth — its\nbirth-place and play-ground. There is more\napparent and relative than actual evil even on\nearth, and it is not given to the hoi polloi to\nreach the fatal grandeur and eminence of a\n4 Satan ' every day.\"\n\nGenerally, the re-birth into objective exist-\nence is the event for which the Karma of evil\npatiently waits, and then it irresistibly asserts\nitself ; not that the Karma of good exhausts\nitself in Devachan, leaving the unhappy monad\nto develop a new consciousness with no mate-\nrial beyond the evil deeds of its last personality,\n\n144 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nThe re-birth will be qualified by the merit as\nwell as the demerit of the previous life, but the\nDevachan existence is a rosy sleep — a peace-\nful night with dreams more vivid than day, and\nimperishable for many centuries.\n\nIt will be seen that the Devachan state , is\nonly one of the conditions of existence which go\nto make up the whole spiritual or relatively spir-\nitual complement of our earth life. Observers of\nspiritualistic phenomena would never have been\nperplexed as they have been if there were no\nother but the Devachan state to be dealt with.\nFor once in Devachan there is very little op-\nportunity for communication between a spirit,\nthen wholly absorbed in its own sensations and\npractically oblivious of the earth left behind,\nand its former friends still living. Whether\ngone before or yet remaining on earth, those\nfriends, if the bond of affection has been suffi-\nciently strong, will be with the happy spirit\nstill to all intents and purposes for him, and as\nhappy, blissful, innocent, as the disembodied\ndreamer himself. It is possible, however, for\nyet living persons to have visions of Devachan,\nthough such visions are rare, and only one-\nsided, the entities in Devachan, sighted by the\nearthly clairvoyant, being quite unconscious\nthemselves of undergoing such observation.\nThe spirit of the clairvoyant ascends into the\n\nLEV ACE AN. 145\n\ncondition of Devachan in such rare visions, and\nthus becomes subject to the vivid delusions of\nthat existence. It is under the impression that\nthe spirits, with which it is in Devachanic\nbonds of sympathy, have come down to visit\nearth and itself, while the converse operation\nhas really taken place. The clairvoyant's spirit\nhas been raised towards those in Devachan.\nThus many of the subjective spiritual commu-\nnications— most of them when the sensitives\nare pure-minded — are real, though it is most\ndifficult for the uninitiated medium to fix in\nhis mind the true and correct pictures of what\nhe sees and hears. In the same way some of\nthe phenomena called psychography (though\nmore rarely) are also real. The spirit of the\nsensitive getting odylized, so to say, by the\naura of the spirit in the Devachan becomes for\na few minutes that departed personality, and\nwrites in the handwriting of the latter, in his\nlanguage and in his thoughts as the}^ were\nduring his lifetime. The two spirits become\nblended in one, and the preponderance of one\nover the other during such phenomena deter-\nmines the preponderance of personality in the\ncharacteristics exhibited. Thus, it may inci-\ndentally be observed, what is called rapport,\nis, in plain fact, an identity of molecular vibra-\ntion between the astral part of the incarnate\n\n146 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nmedium and the astral part of the disincarnate\npersonality.\n\nAs already indicated, and as the common\nsense of the matter would show, there are great\nvarieties of states in Devachan, and each per-\nsonality drops into its befitting place there.\nThence, consequently, he emerges in his befit-\nting place in the world of causes, this earth or\nanother, as the case may be, when his time for\nre-birth comes. Coupled with survival of the\naffinities, comprehensively described as Karma,\nthe affinities both for good and evil engendered\nby the previous life, this process will be seen to\naccomplish nothing less than an explanation of\nthe problem which has always been regarded\nas so incomprehensible — the inequalities of\nlife. The conditions on which we enter life are\nthe consequences of the use we have made of\nour last set of conditions. They do not impede\nthe development of fresh Karma, whatever they\nmay be, for this will be generated by the use\nwe make of them in turn. Nor is it to be sup-\nposed that every event of a current life which\nbestows joy or sorrow is old Karma bearing\nfruit. Many may be the immediate conse-\nquences of acts in the life to which they belong\n■ — ready-money transactions with Nature, so to\nspeak, of which it may be hardly necessary to\nmake any entry in her books. But the great\n\nDEVACHAN. 147\n\ninequality of life, as regards the start in it\nwhich different human beings make, is a mani-\nfest consequence of old Karma, the infinite va-\nrieties of which always keep up a constant sup-\nply of recruits for all the manifold varieties of\nhuman condition.\n\nIt must not be supposed that the real Ego\nslips instantaneously at death from the earth-\nlife and its entanglements into the Devachanic\ncondition. When the division or purification\nof the fifth principle has been accomplished\nin Kama loca by the contending attractions of\nthe fourth and sixth principles, the real Ego\npasses into a period of unconscious gestation.\nI have spoken already of the way in which the\nDevachanic life is itself a process of growth,\nmaturity, and decline ; but the analogies of\nearth are even more closely preserved. There\nis a spiritual ante-natal state at the entrance to\nspiritual life, as there is a similar and equally\nunconscious physical state at the entrance to\nobjective life. And this period, in different\ncases, may be of very different duration — from\na few moments to immense periods of years.\nWhen a man dies, his soul or fifth principle be-\ncomes unconscious and loses all remembrance\nof things internal as well as external. Whether\nhis stay in Kama loca has to last but a few mo-\nments, hours, days, weeks, months or years;\n\n148 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nwhether he dies a natural or a violent death ;\nwhether this occurs in youth or age, and\nwhether the Ego has been good, bad, or indif-\nferent, his consciousness leaves him as suddenly\nas the flame leaves the wick when it is blown\nout. When life has retired from the last par-\nticle of the brain matter, his perceptive facul-\nties become extinct forever, and his spiritual\npowers of cognition and volition become for the\ntime being as extinct as the others. His Ma-\nyavi-rupa may be thrown into objectivity as in\nthe case of apparitions after death, but unless\nit is projected by a conscious or intense desire\nto see or appear to some one shooting through\nthe dying brain, the apparition will be simply\nautomatic. The revival of consciousness in\nKama loca is obviously, from what has been al-\nready said, a phenomenon that depends on the\ncharacteristic of the principles passing, uncon-\nsciously at the moment, out of the dying body.\nIt may become tolerably complete under cir-\ncumstances by no means to be desired, or it\nmay be obliterated by a rapid passage into the\ngestation state leading to Devachan. This ges-\ntation state may be of very long duration in\nproportion to the Ego's spiritual stamina, and\nDevachan accounts for the remainder of the\nperiod between death and the next physical re-\nbirth. The whole period is, of course, of very\n\nDEVACHAN. 149\n\nvarying length in the case of different persons,\nbut re-birth in less than fifteen hundred years\nis spoken of as almost impossible, while the\nstay in Devachan which rewards a very rich\nKarma is sometimes said to extend to enormous\nperiods.\n\nCHAPTER Vh\nKAMA LOCA.\n\nThe statements already made in reference to\nthe destiny of the higher human principles at\ndeath will pave the way for a comprehension of\nthe circumstances in which the inferior remnant\nof these principles finds itself, after the real\nEgo has passed either into the Devachanic\nstate or that unconscious intervening period of\npreparation therefor which corresponds to phys-\nical gestation. The sphere in which such rem-\nnants remain for a time is known to occult\nscience as Kama loca, the region of desire, not\nthe region in which desire is developed to any\nabnormal degree of intensity as compared with\ndesire as it attaches to earth-life, but the sphere\nin which that sensation of desire, which is a\npart of the earth-life, is capable of surviving.\n\nIt will be obvious, from what has been said\nabout Devachan, that a large part of the recol-\nlections which accumulate round the human\nEgo during life are incompatible in their nature\nwith the pure subjective existence to which the\n\nKAMA LOCA. 151\n\nreal, durable, spiritual Ego passes ; but they\nare not necessarily on that account extinguished\nor annihilated out of existence. They inhere\nin certain molecules of those finer ( but not fin-\nest) principles, which escape from the body at\ndeath ; and just as dissolution separates what\nis loosely called the soul from the body, so also\nit provokes a further separation between the\nconstituent elements of the soul. So much of\nthe fifth principle, or human soul, which is in\nits nature assimilable with, or has gravitated\nupwards toward, the sixth principle, the spirit-\nual soul, passes with the germ of that divine\nsoul into the superior region, or state of Deva-\nchan, in which it separates itself almost com-\npletely from the attractions of the earth ; quite\ncompletely, as far as its own spiritual course is\nconcerned, though it still has certain affinities\nwith the spiritual aspirations emanating from\nthe earth, and may sometimes draw these to-\nwards itself. But the animal soul, or fourth\nprinciple (the element of will and desire as as-\nsociated with objective existence), has no up-\nward attraction, and no more passes away from\nthe earth than the particles of the body con-\nsigned to the grave. It is not in the grave, how-\never, that this fourth principle can be put away.\nIt is not spiritual in its nature or affinities, but\nit is not physical in its nature. In its affinities\n\n152 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nit is physical, and hence the result. It remains\nwithin the actual physical local attraction of the\nearth — in the earth's atmosphere — or, since it\nis not the gases of the atmosphere that are spe-\ncially to be considered in connection with the\nproblem in hand, let us say, in Kama loca.\n\nAnd with the fourth principle a large part\n(as regards most of mankind unfortunately,\nthough a part very variable in its relative mag-\nnitude) inevitably remains. There are plenty\nof attributes which the ordinary composite hu-\nman being exhibits, many ardent feelings, de-\nsires, and acts, floods of recollections, which\neven if not concerned with a life as ardent per-\nhaps as those which have to do with the higher\naspirations, are nevertheless essentially belong-\ning to the physical life, which take time to die.\nThey remain behind in association with the\nfourth principle, which is altogether of the\nearthly perishable nature, and disperse or fade\nout, or are absorbed into the respective univer-\nsal principles to which they belong, just as the\nbody is absorbed into the earth, in progress of\ntime, and rapidly or slowly in proportion to the\ntenacity of their substance. And where, mean-\nwhile, is the consciousness of the individual\nwho has died or dissolved ? Assuredly in Deva-\nchan ; but a difficulty presents itself to the\nmind untrained in occult science, from the fact\n\nKAMA LOCA. 153\n\nthat a semblance of consciousness inheres in the\nastral portion — the fourth principle with a\nportion of the fifth — which remains behind in\nKama loca. The individual consciousness, it\nis argued, cannot be in two places at once. But\nfirst of all, to a certain extent, it can. As may\nbe perceived presently, it is a mistake to speak\nof consciousness, as we understand the feeling\nin life, attaching to the astral shell or remnant ;\nbut nevertheless a certain spurious semblance\nmay be reawakened in that shell, without hav-\ning any connection with the real consciousness\nall the while growing in strength and vitality\nin the spiritual sphere. There is no power on\nthe part of the shell of taking in and assimilat-\ning new ideas and initiating courses of action\non the basis of those new ideas. But there is\nin the shell a survival of volitional impulses im-\nparted to it during life. The fourth principle\nis the instrument of volition though not voli-\ntion itself, and impulses imparted to it during\nlife by the higher principles may run their\ncourse and produce results almost indistinguish-\nable for careless observers from those which\nwould ensue were the four higher principles\nreally all united as in life.\n\nIt, the fourth principle, is the receptacle or\nvehicle during life of that essentially moral con-\nsciousness which cannot suit itself to conditions\n\n154 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nof permanent existence ; but the consciousness\neven of the lower principles during life is a very\ndifferent thing from the vaporous fleeting and\nuncertain consciousness, which continues to\ninhere in them when that which really is the\nlife, the overshadowing of them, or vitalizatioh\nof them by the infusion of the spirit, has ceased\nas far as they are concerned. Language cannot\nrender all the facets of a many-sided idea in-\ntelligible at once any more than a plain draw-\ning can show all sides of a solid object at once.\nAnd at the first glance different drawings of\nthe same object from different points of view\nmay seem so unlike as to be unrecognizable as\nthe same ; but none the less, by the time they\nare put together in the mind, will their diver-\nsities be seen to harmonize. So with these\nsubtle attributes of the invisible principles of\nman — no treatise can do more than discuss\ntheir different aspects separately. The vari-\nous views suggested must mingle in the read-\ner's mind before the complete conception corre-\nsponds to the realities of Nature.\n\nIn life the fourth principle is the seat of will\nand desire, but it is not will itself. It must be\nalive, in union with the overshadowing spirit,\nor \" one life,\" to be thus the agent of that very\nelevated function of life — will, in its sublime\npotency. As already mentioned, the Sanskrit\n\nKAMA LOCA. 155\n\nnames of the higher principles connote the idea\nthat they are vehicles of the one life. Not\nthat the one life is a separable molecular\nprinciple itself, it is the union of all — the\ninfluences of the spirit ; but in truth the idea\nis too subtle for language, perhaps for intellect\nitself. Its manifestation in the present case,\nhowever, is apparent enough. Whatever the\nwilling fourth principle may be when alive, it\nis no longer capable of active will when dead.\nBut then, under certain abnormal conditions, it\nmay partially recover life for a time ; and this\nfact it is which explains many, though by no\nmeans all, of the phenomena of spiritualistic\nmediumship. The \" elementary,\" be it remem-\nbered — as the astral shell has generally been\ncalled in former occult writings — is liable to\nbe galvanized for a time in the mediumistic\ncurrent into a state of consciousness and life\nwhich may be suggested by the first condition\nof a person who, carried into a strange room in\na state of insensibility during illness, wakes up\nfeeble, confused in mind, gazing about with a\nblank feeling of bewilderment, taking in im-\npressions, hearing words addressed to him and\nanswering vaguely. Such a state of conscious-\nness is unassociated with the notions of past or\nfuture. It is an automatic consciousness, de-\nrived from the medium. A medium, be it\n\n156 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nremembered, is a person whose principles are\nloosely united and susceptible of being bor-\nrowed by other beings, or floating principles,\nhaving an attraction for some of them or some\npart of them. Now what happens in the case\nof a shell drawn into the neighborhood of\na person so constituted ? Suppose the person\nfrom whom the shell has been cast died with\nsome strong unsatisfied desire, not necessarily\nof an unholy sort, but connected entirely with\nthe earth-life, a desire, for example, to com-\nmunicate some fact to a still living person.\nCertainly the shell does not go about in Kama\nloca with a persistent intelligent conscious pur-\npose of communicating that fact ; but, amongst\nothers, the volitional impulse to do this has\nbeen infused into the fourth principle, and\nwhile the molecules of that principle remain in\nassociation, and that may be for many years,\nthey only need a partial galvanization into life\nagain to become operative in the direction of\nthe original impulse. Such a shell comes into\ncontact with a medium (not so dissimilar in\nnature from the person who has died as to\nrender a rapport impossible), and something\nfrom the fifth principle of the medium associates\nitself with the wandering fourth principle and\nsets the original impulse to work. So much\nconsciousness and so much intelligence as may\n\nKAMA LOCA. 157\n\nbe required to guide the fourth principle in the\nuse of the immediate means of communication\nat hand — a slate and pencil, or a table to rap\nupon — are borrowed from the medium, and\nthen the message given may be the message\nwhich the dead person originally ordered his\nfourth principle to give, so to speak, but which\nthe shell has never till then had an opportunity\nof giving. It may be argued that the produc-\ntion of writing on a closed slate, or of raps on a\ntable without the use of a knuckle or a stick,\nis itself a feat of a marvelous nature, bespeak-\ning a knowledge on the part of the communi-\ncating intelligence of powers of Nature we in\nphysical life know nothing about. But the\nshell is itself in the astral world ; in the realm\nof such powers. A phenomenal manifestation\nis its natural mode of dealing. It is no more\nconscious of producing a wonderful result by\nthe use of new powers acquired in a higher\nsphere of existence than we are conscious of\nthe forces by which in life the volitional im-\npulse is communicable to nerves and muscles.\n\nBut, it may be objected, the \" communicating\nintelligence \" at a spiritual seance will constant-\nly perform remarkable feats for no other than\ntheir own sake, to exhibit the power over\nnatural forces which it possesses. The reader\nwill please remember, however, that occult\n\n158 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nscience is very far from saying that all the\nphenomena of spiritualism are traceable to one\nclass of agents. Hitherto in this treatise little\nhas been said of the \" elementals,\" those semi-\nintelligent creatures of the astral light who\nbelong to a wholly different kingdom of Nature\nfrom ourselves. Nor is it possible at present\nto enlarge upon their attributes for the simple\nand obvious reason, that knowledge concerning\nthe elementals, detailed knowledge on that sub-\nject, and in regard to the way they work, is\nscrupulously withheld by the adepts of occult-\nism. To possess such knowledge is to wield\npower, and the whole motive of the great se-\ncrecy in which occult science is shrouded turns\nupon the danger of conferring powers upon peo-\nple who have not, first of all, by undergoing\nthe training of initiates, given moral guarantees\nof their trustworthiness. It is by command\nover the elementals that some of the greatest\nphysical feats of adeptship are accomplished ;\nand it is by the spontaneous playful acts of the\nelementals that the greatest physical phenom-\nena of the seance room are brought about.\nSo also with almost all Indian Fakirs and\nYogis of the lower class who have power of\nproducing phenomenal results. By some means,\nby a scrap of inherited occult teaching, most\nlikely, they have come into possession of a mor«\n\nKAMA LOCA. 159\n\nsel of occult science. Not necessarily that they\nunderstand the action of the forces they employ\nany more than an Indian servant in a telegraph\noffice, taught how to mix the ingredients of the\nliquid used in a galvanic battery, understands\nthe theory of electric science. He can perform\nthe one trick he has been taught ; and so with\nthe inferior Yogi. He has got influence over\ncertain elementals, and can work certain won-\nders.\n\nReturning to a consideration of the ex-human\nshells in Kama loca, it may be argued that\ntheir behavior in spiritual seances is not cov-\nered by the theory that they have had some\nmessage to deliver from their late master, and\nhave availed themselves of the mediumship\npresent to deliver it. Apart altogether from\nphenomena that may be put aside as elemental\npranks, we sometimes encounter a continuity of\nintelligence on the part of the elementary or\nshell that bespeaks much more than the sur-\nvival of impulses from the former life. Quite\nso; but with portions of the medium's fifth\nprinciple conveyed into it the fourth principle\nis once more an instrument in the hands of a\nmaster. With a medium entranced so that the\nenergies of his fifth principle are conveyed into\nthe wandering shell to a very large extent, the\nresult is that there is a very tolerable revival of\n\n160 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nconsciousness in the shell for the time being, as\nregards the given moment. But what is the\nnature of such consciousness, after all ? Noth-\ning more, really, than a reflected light. Mem-\nory is one thing, and perceptive faculties quite\nanother. A madman may remember very\nclearly some portions of his past life; yet he\nis unable to perceive anything in its true light,\nfor the higher portion of his Manas (fifth) and\nBuddhi (sixth) principles are paralyzed in him\nand have left him. Could an animal — a dog,\nfor instance — explain himself, he could prove\nthat his memory, in direct relation to his ca-\nnine personality, is as fresh as his master's ;\nnevertheless, his memory and instinct cannot\nbe called perceptive faculties.\n\nOnce that a shell is in the aura of a medium,\nhe will perceive, clearly enough, whatever he\ncan perceive through the borrowed principles\nof the medium, and through organs in mag-\nnetic sympath}^ therewith ; but this will not\ncarry him be}^ond the range of the perceptive\nfaculties of the medium, or of some one else\npresent in the circle. Hence the often rational\nand sometimes highly intelligent answers he\nmay give, and hence, also, his invariably com-\nplete oblivion of all things unknown to that\nmedium or circle, or not found in the lower\nrecollections of his late personality, galvanized\n\nKAMA LOCA. 161\n\nafresh by the influences under which he is\nplaced. The shell of a highly intelligent,\nlearned, but utterly unspiritual man, who died\na natural death, will last longer than those of\nweaker temperament, and (the shadow of his\nown memory helping) he may deliver, through\ntrance-speakers, orations of no contemptible\nkind. But these will never be found to relate\nto anything beyond the subjects he thought\nmuch and earnestly of during life, nor will any\nword ever fall from him indicating a real ad-\nvance of knowledge.\n\nIt will easily be seen that a shell, drawn into\nthe mediumistic current, and getting into rap-\nport with the medium's fifth principle, is not\nby any means sure to be animated with a con-\nsciousness (even for what such consciousnesses\nare worth) identical with the personality of the\ndead person from whose higher principles it\nwas shed. It is just as likely to reflect some\nquite different personality, caught from the\nsuggestions of the medium's mind. In this\npersonality it will perhaps remain and answer\nfor a time ; then some new current of thought,\nthrown into the minds of the people present,\nwill find its echo in the fleeting impressions of\nthe elementary, and his sense of identity will\nbegin to waver ; for a little while it flickers\nover two or three conjectures, and. ends by go-\n\n162 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ning out altogether for a time. The shell is\nonce more sleeping in the astral light, and may-\nbe unconsciously wafted in a few moments to\nthe other ends of the earth.\n\nBesides the ordinary elementary or shell of\nthe kind just described, Kama loca is the abode\nof another class of astral entities, which must\nbe taken into account if we desire to compre-\nhend the various conditions under which hu^\nman creatures may pass from this life to others.\nSo far we have been examining the normal\ncourse of events, when people die in a natural\nmanner. But an abnormal death will lead to\nabnormal consequences. Thus, in the case of\npersons committing suicide, and in that of per-\nsons killed by sudden accident, results ensue\nwhich differ widely from those following nat-\nural deaths. A thoughtful consideration of\nsuch cases must show, indeed, that in a world\ngoverned by rule and law, by affinities work-\ning out their regular effects in that deliberate\nway which Nature favors, the case of a person\ndying a sudden death at a time when all his\nprinciples are firmly united, and ready to hold\ntogether for twenty, forty, or sixty years, what-\never the natural remainder of his life would be,\nmust surely be something different from that\nof a person who, by natural processes of decay,\nfinds himself, when the vital machine stops,\n\nKAMA LOCA. 165\n\nreadily separable into his various principles,\neach prepared to travel its separate way. Na-\nture, always fertile in analogies, at once illus-\ntrates the idea by showing us a ripe and an\nunripe fruit. From out of the first the inner\nstone will come away as cleanly and easily as a\nhand from a glove, while from the unripe fruit\nthe stone can only be torn with difficulty, half\nthe pulp clinging to its surface. Now, in the\ncase of the sudden accidental death or of the\nsuicide, the stone has to be torn from the un-\nripe fruit. There is no question here about the\nmoral blame which may attach to the act of\nsuicide. Probably, in the majority of cases,\nsuch moral blame does attach to it, but that is\na question of Karma which will follow the per-\nson concerned into the next re-birth, like any\nother Karma, and has nothing to do with the\nimmediate difficulty such person may find in\ngetting himself thoroughly and wholesomely\ndead. This difficulty is manifestly just the\nsame whether a person kills himself, or is killed\nin the heroic discharge of duty, or dies the vic-\ntim of an accident over which he has no con-\ntrol whatever.\n\nAs an ordinary rule, when a person dies, the\nlong account of Karma naturally closes itself ;\nthat is to say, the complicated set of affinities\nwhich have been set up during life in the first\n\n164 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ndurable principle, the fifth is no longer suscep-\ntible of extension. The balance-sheet, so to\nspeak, is made out afterwards, when the time\ncomes for the next objective birth ; or, in other\nwords, the affinities long dormant in Devachan,\nby reason of the absence there of any scope for\ntheir action, assert themselves as soon as they\ncome in contact once more with physical exis-\ntence. But the fifth principle, in which these\naffinities are grown, cannot be separated in the\ncase of the person dying prematurely from the\nearthly principle — the fourth. The elemen-\ntary, therefore, which finds itself in Kama loca,\non its violent expulsion from the body, is not a\nmere shell — it is the person himself who was\nlately alive minus nothing but the body. In\nthe true sense of the word he is not dead at\nall.\n\nCertainly elementaries of this kind may com-\nmunicate very effectually at spiritual seances at\ntheir own heavy cost; for they are unfortu-\nnately able, by reason of the completeness of\ntheir astral constitution, to go on generating\nKarma, to assuage their thirst for life at the\nunwholesome spring of mediumship. If they\nwere of a very material sensual type in life, the\nenjoyments they will seek will be of a kind the\nindulgence of which in their disembodied state\nmay readily be conceived even more prejudicial\n\nKAMA LOCA. 165\n\nto their Karma than similar indulgences would\nhave been in life. In such cases facilis est de-\nscensus. Cut off in the full flush of earthly-\npassions which bind them to familiar scenes,\nthey are enticed by the opportunity which me-\ndiums afford for the gratification of these vica-\nriously. They become the incubi and succubi\nof mediaeval writing, demons of thirst and glut-\ntony, provoking their victims to crime. A brief\nessay on this subject, which I wrote last year,\nand from which I have reproduced some of the\nsentences just given, appeared in \"The Theoso-\nphist,\" with a note, the authenticity of which I\nhave reason to trust, and the tenor of which\nwas as follows : —\n\n\" The variety of states after death is greater\nif possible than the variety of human lives upon\nthis earth. The victims of accident do not\ngenerally become earth walkers, only those fall-\ning into the current of attraction who die full\nof some engrossing earthly passion, the selfish\nwho have never given a thought to the welfare\nof others. Overtaken by death in the consum-\nmation, whether real or imaginary, of some\nmaster passion of their lives, the desire remain-\ning unsatisfied even after a full realization, and\nthey still craving for more, such personalities\ncan never pass beyond the earth attraction to\nwait for the hour of deliverance in happy igno-\n\n166 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nranee and full oblivion. Among the suicides,\nthose to whom the above statement about pro-\nvoking their victims to crime, etc., applies, are\nthat class who commit the act in consequence of\na crime to escape the penalty of human law or\ntheir own remorse. Natural law cannot be\nbroken with impunity ; the inexorable causal\nrelation between action and result has its full\nsway only in the world of effects, the Kama\nloca, and every case is met there by an ade-\nquate punishment, and in a thousand ways,\nthat would require volumes even to describe\nthem superficially.\"\n\nThose who \" wait for the hour of deliverance\nin happy ignorance and full oblivion \" are of\ncourse such victims of accident as have already\non earth engendered pure and elevated affinities,\nand after death are as much beyond the reach\nof temptation in the shape of mediumistic cur-\nrents as they would have been inaccessible in\nlife to common incitements to crime.\n\nEntities of another kind occasionally to be\nfound in Kama loca have yet to be considered.\nWe have followed the higher principles of per-\nsons recently dead, observing the separation of\nthe astral dross from the spiritually durable\nportion, that spiritually durable portion being\neither holy or Satanic in its nature, and pro-\nvided for in Devachan or Avitchi accordingly\n\nKAMA LOCA. 167\n\nWe have examined the nature of the elemen-\ntary shell cast off and preserving for a time a\ndeceptive resemblance to a true entity ; we\nhave paid attention also to the exceptional cases\nof real four principled beings in Kama loca who\nare the victims of accident or suicide. But\nwhat happens to a personality which has abso-\nlutely no atom of spirituality, no trace of spir-\nitual affinity in its fifth principle, either of the\ngood or bad sort ? Clearly in such a case there\nis nothing for the sixth principle to attract to\nitself. Or, in other words, such a personality\nhas already lost its sixth principle by the time\ndeath comes. But Kama loca is no more a\nsphere of existence for such a personality than\nthe subjective world; Kama loca maybe per-\nmanently inhabited by astral beings, by ele-\nmentals, but can only be an antechamber to\nsome other state for human beings. In the case\nimagined, the surviving personality is promptly\ndrawn into the current of its future destinies,\nand these have nothing to do with this earth's\natmosphere or with Devachan, but with that\n\" eighth sphere \" of which occasional mention\nwill be found in older occult writings. It will\nhave been unintelligible to ordinary readers\nhitherto why it was called the \" eighth \" sphere,\nbut since the explanation, now given out for the\nfirst time, of the sevenfold constitution of our\n\n168 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nplanetary system, the meaning will be clear\nenough. The spheres of the cyclic process of\nevolution are seven in number, but there is an\neighth in connection with our earth, our earth\nbeing, it will be remembered, the turning-point\nin the cyclic chain, and this eighth sphere is\nout of circuit, a cul de sac, and the bourne from\nwhich it may be truly said no traveler returns.\n\nIt will readily be guessed that the only sphere\nconnected with our planetary chain, which is\nlower than our own in the scale, having spirit\nat the top and matter at the bottom, must it-\nself be no less visible to the eye and to optical\ninstruments than the earth itself, and as the\nduties which this sphere has to perform in our\nplanetary system are immediately associated\nwith this earth, there is not much mystery left\nnow in the riddle of the eighth sphere, nor as\nto the place in the sky where it may be sought.\nThe conditions of existence there, however, are\ntopics on which the adepts are very reserved in\ntheir communications to uninitiated pupils, and\nconcerning these I have for the present no fur-\nther information to give.\n\nOne statement though is definitely made,\nviz., that such a total degradation of a person-\nality as may suffice to draw it, after death,\ninto the attraction of the eighth sphere, is of\nvery rare occurrence. From the vast majority\n\nKAMA LOCA. 169\n\nof lives there is something which the higher\nprinciples may draw to themselves, something\nto redeem the page of existence just passed\nfrom total destruction : and here it must be\nremembered that the recollections of life in\nDevachan, very vivid as they are, as far as they\ngo, touch only those episodes in life which are\nproductive of the elevated sort of happiness of\nwhich alone Devachan is qualified to take cog-\nnizance ; whereas the life from which for the\ntime being the cream is thus skimmed may\ncome to be remembered eventually in all its\ndetails quite fully. That complete remem-\nbrance is only achieved by the individual at\nthe threshold of a far more exalted spiritual\nstate than that which we are now concerned\nwith, and which is attained far later on in the\nprogress of the vast cycles of evolution. Each\none of the long series of lives that will have\nbeen passed through will then be, as it were, a\npage in a book to which the possessor can turn\nback at pleasure, even though many such pages\nwill then seem to him, most likely, very dull\nreading, and will not be frequently referred to.\nIt is this revival eventually of recollection con-\ncerning all the long-forgotten personalities that\nis really meant by the doctrine of the Resurrec-\ntion. But we have no time at present to stop\nand unravel the enigmas of symbolism as bear-\n\n170 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ning upon the teachings at present under con-\nveyance to the reader. It may be worth while\nto do this as a separate undertaking at a later\nperiod ; but meanwhile, to revert to the narra-\ntive of how the facts stand, it may be explained\nthat in the whole book of pages, when at last\nthe \"resurrection\" has been accomplished,\nthere will be no entirely infamous pages ; for\neven if any given spiritual individuality has\noccasionally, during its passage through this\nworld, been linked with personalities so deplor-\nably and desperately degraded that they have\npassed completely into the attraction of the\nlower vortex, that spiritual individuality in\nsuch cases will have retained in its own affini-\nties no trace or taint of them. Those pages\nwill, as it were, have been cleanly torn out from\nthe book. And, as at the end of the struggle,\nafter crossing the Kama loca, the spiritual indi-\nviduality will have passed into the unconscious\ngestation state from which, skipping the Deva-\nchan state, it will be directly (though not\nimmediately in time) re-born into its next life\nof objective activity, all the self-consciousness\nconnected with that existence will have passed\ninto the lower world, there eventually to \" per-\nish everlastingly ; \" an expression of which, as\nof so many more, modern theology has proved\na faithless custodian, making pure nonsense\nout of psycho-scientific facts.\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nTHE HUMAN TIDE- WAVE.\n\nA general account has already been given\nof the way in which the great evolutionary\nlife-wave sweeps round and round the seven\nworlds which compose the planetary chain of\nwhich our earth is a part. Further assistance\nmay now be offered, with the view of expanding\nthis general idea into a fuller comprehension of\nthe processes to which it relates. And no one\nadditional chapter of the great story will do\nmore towards rendering its character intelligi-\nble than an explanation of certain phenomena\nconnected with the progress of worlds, that\nmay be conveniently called obscurations.\n\nStudents of occult philosophy who enter on\nthat pursuit with minds already abundantly\nfurnished in other ways are very liable to mis-\ninterpret its earlier statements. Everything\ncannot be said at once, and the first broad\nexplanations are apt to suggest conceptions in\nregard to details which are most likely to be\nerroneous with the most active-minded and\n\n172 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nintelligent thinkers. Such readers are not con-\ntent with shadowy outlines even for a moment.\nImagination fills in the picture, and if its work\nis undisturbed for any length of time, the au-\nthor of it will be surprised afterwards to find\nthat later information is incompatible with that\nwhich he had come to regard as having been\ndistinctly taught in the beginning. Now in\nthis treatise the writer's effort is to convey\nthe information in such a way that hasty weed-\ngrowths of the mind may be prevented as far\nas possible ; but in this very effort it is neces-\nsary sometimes to run on quickly in advance,\nleaving some details, even very important de-\ntails, to be picked up during a second journey\nover the old ground. So now the reader must\nbe good enough to go back to the explanation\ngiven in Chapter III. of the evolutionary prog-\nress through the whole planetary chain.\n\nSome few words were said then concerning\nthe manner in which the life impulse passed on\nfrom planet to planet in \" rushes or gushes ;\nnot by an even continuous flow.\" Now the\ncourse of evolution in its earlier stages is so\nfar continuous that the preparation of several\nplanets for the final tidal-wave of humanity\nmay be going on simultaneously. Indeed, the\npreparation of all the seven planets may, at one\nstage of the proceedings, be going on simulta*\n\nTHE HUMAN TIDE-WAVE. 173\n\nneously, but the important point to remember\nis that the main wave of evolution — the fore-\nmost growing wave — cannot be in more than\none place at a time. The process goes on in\nthe way which may now be described, and\nwhich the reader may be the better able to fol-\nlow, if he constructs either on paper or in his\nown mind a diagram consisting of seven circles\n(representing the worlds) arranged in a ring.\nCalling them A, B, C, etc., it will be observed\nfrom what has been already stated that circle\n(or globe) D standi for our earth. Now the\nkingdoms of Nature as known .to occultists, be\nit remembered, are seven in number ; three hav-\ning to do with astral and elementary forces,\npreceding the grosser material kingdoms in the\norder of their development. Kingdom 1 evolves\non globe A, and passes on to B, as kingdom 2\nbegins to evolve on A. Carry out this system\nand of course it will be seen that kingdom 1 is\nevolving on globe G, while kingdom 7, the hu-\nman kingdom, is evolving on globe A. But\nnow what happens as kingdom 7 passes on to\nglobe B ? There is no eighth kingdom to en-\ngage the activities of globe A. The great pro-\ncesses of evolution have culminated in the final\ntidal-wave of humanity, which, as it sweeps on,\nleaves a temporary lethargy of Nature behind.\nWhen the life-wave goes on to B, in fact, globe\n\n174 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nA passes for the time into a state of obscura-\ntion. This state is not one of decay, dissolu-\ntion, or anything that can be properly called\ndeath. Decay itself, though its aspect is apt\nto mislead the mind, is a condition of activity\nin a certain direction, this consideration afford-\ning a clue to the meaning of a great deal which\nis otherwise meaningless in that part of Hindu\nmythology which relates to the deities presid-\ning over destruction. The obscuration of a\nworld is a total suspension of its activity ; this\ndoes not mean that the moment the last human\nmonad passes on from any given world that\nworld is paralyzed by any convulsion, or sub-\nsides into the enchanted trance of a sleeping\npalace. The animal and vegetable life goes on\nas before, for a time, but its character begins to\nrecede instead of advancing. The great life-\nwave has left it, and the animal and vegetable\nkingdoms gradually return to the condition in\nwhich they were found when the great life-\nwave first reached them. Enormous periods of\ntime are available for this slow process by\nwhich the obscured world settles into sleep, for\nit will be seen that obscuration in each case\nlasts six times l as long as the period of each.\n\n1 Or we may say five times, allowing for the half period of\nmorning which precedes and the half period of evening which fol-\nlows the dav of full activity.\n\nTHE HUMAN TIDE-WAVE. 175\n\nworld's occupation by the human life-wave.\nThat is to say, the process which is accom-\nplished as above described in connection with\nthe passage of the life-wave from globe A to\nglobe B is repeated all along the chain. When\nthe wave passes to C, B is left in obscuration\nas well as A. Then D receives the life-wave,\nand A, B, C are in obscuration. When the\nwave reaches G, all the preceding six worlds\nare in obscuration. Meanwhile the life-wave\npasses on in a certain regular progression, the\nsymmetrical character of which is very satis-\nfactory to scientific instincts. The reader will\nbe prepared to pick up the idea at once, in\nview of the explanations already given of the\nway in which humanity evolves through seven\ngreat races, during each round period on a\nplanet ; that is to say, during the occupation\nof such planet by the tidal wave of life. The\nfourth race is obviously the middle race of the\nseries. As soon as this middle point is turned,\nand the evolution of the fifth race on any given\nplanet begins, the preparation for humanity be-\ngins on the next. The evolution of the fifth\nrace on E, for example, is commensurate with\nthe evolution, or rather with the revival, of the\nmineral kingdom on D, and so on. That is to\nsay, the evolution of the sixth race on D coin-\ncides with the revival of the vegetable kingdom\n\n176 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\non E ; the seventh race on D with the revival\nof the animal kingdom on E ; and then when\nthe last monads of the seventh race on D have\npassed into the subjective state or world of ef-\nfects, the human period on E begins, and the\nfirst race begins its development there. Mean-\nwhile the twilight period on the world preced-\ning D has been deepening into the night of ob-\nscuration in the same progressive wa}^ and\nobscuration there definitely sets in when the\nhuman period on D passes its half-way point.\nBut just as the heart of a man beats and respi-\nration continues, no matter how profound his\nsleep, there are processes of vital action which\ngo on in the resting world even during the most\nprofound depths of its repose. And these pre-\nserve, in view of the next return of the human\nwave, the results of the evolution that preceded\nits first arrival. Recovery for the re-awaking\nplanet is a larger process than its subsidence\ninto rest, for it has to attain a higher degree of\nperfection against the return of the human life-\nwave than that at which it was left when the\nwave last went onward from its shore. But\nwith every new beginning, Nature is infused\nwith a vigor of its own, — the freshness of a\nmorning, — and the later obscuration period,\nwhich is a time of preparation and hopefulness\nas it were, invests evolution itself with a new\n\nTHE HUMAN TIDE-WAVE. 177\n\nmomentum. By the time the great life-wave\nreturns, all is ready for its reception.\n\nIn the first essay on this subject it was\nroughly indicated that the various worlds mak-\ning up our planetary chain were not all of the\nsame materiality. Putting the conception of\nspirit at the north pole of the circle and that of\nmatter at the south pole, the worlds of the de-\nscending arc vary in materiality and spiritual-\nity, like those of the ascending arc. This varia-\ntion must now be considered more attentively\nif the reader wishes to realize the whole pro-\ncesses of evolution more fully than heretofore.\n\nBesides the earth, which is at the lowest ma-\nterial point, there are only two other worlds of\nour chain which are visible to physical eyes, —\nthe one behind and the one in advance of it.\nThese two worlds, as a matter of fact, are Mars\nand Mercury, — Mars being behind and Mer-\ncury in advance of us : Mars in a state of en-\ntire obscuration now as regards the human life-\nwave, Mercury just beginning to prepare for its\nnext human period.1\n\n1 It may be worth while here to remark for the benefit of people\nwho ma}* be disposed, from physical science reading, to object\nthat Mercury is too near the Sun, and consequently too hot to be a\nsuitable place of habitation for man, that in the official report of\nthe Astronomical Department of the United States on the recent\n■'Mount Whitney observations \" statements will be found that\nmay check too confident criticisms of occult science along that line.\n\n178 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nThe two planets of our chain that are behind\nMars, and the two that are in advance of Mer-\ncury, are not composed of an order of matter\nwhich telescopes can take cognizance of. Four\nout of the seven are thus of an ethereal nature,\nwhich people who can only conceive matter in\nits earthly form will be inclined to call immate-\nrial. But they are not really immaterial at all.\nThey are simply in a finer state of materiality\nthan the earth, but their finer state does not in\nany way defeat the uniformity of Nature's de-\nsign in regard to the methods and stages of their\n\nThe results of the Mount Whitney observations on selective absorp-\ntion of solar rays showed, according to the official reporter, that it\nwould no longer be impossible to suggest the conditions of an at-\nmosphere which should render Mercury habitable at\" the one ex-\ntreme of the scale, and Saturn at the other. We have no concern\nwith Saturn at present, nor, if it were necessary to explain on oc-\ncult principles the habitability of Mercury, should the task be at-\ntempted with calculations about selective absorption. The fact is\nthat ordinary science makes at once too much and too little of the\nSun, as the storehouse of force for the solar system, — too much in\nso far as the heat of planets has a great deal to do with another in-\nfluence quite distinct from the Sun, an influence which will not be\nthoroughly understood till more is known than at present about the\ncorrelations of heat and magnetism, and of the magnetic, meteoric\ndust, with which inter-planetary space is pervaded. However, it\nis enough — to rebut any objection that might be raised against\n1he explanations now in progress, from the point of view of Jpyal\ndevotees of last year's science — to point out that such objections\nwould be already out of date. Modern science is very progressive,\n— this is one of its greatest merits, — but it is not a meritorious\nhabit with modern scientists to think, at each stage of its progress,\n)hat all conceptions incompatible with that stage must necessarily\nbe absurd.\n\nTHE HUMAN TIDE- WAVE. 179\n\nevolution. Within the scale of their subtle\n\"invisibility,\" the successive rounds and races\nof mankind pass through their stages of greater\nand less materiality just as on this earth ; but\nwhoever would comprehend them must compre-\nhend this earth first, and work out their deli-\ncate phenomena by correspondential inferences.\nLet us return, therefore, to the consideration of\nthe great life-wave in its aspects on this planet.\nJust as the chain of worlds treated as a unity\nhas its north and south, its spiritual and ma-\nterial, pole, working from spirituality down\nthrough materiality up to spirituality again, so\nthe rounds of mankind constitute a similar se-\nries which the chain of globes itself might be\ntaken to symbolize. In the evolution of man\nin fact, on any one plane as on all, there is a\ndescending and an ascending arc ; spirit, so to\nspeak, involving itself into matter, and matter\nevolving itself into spirit. The lowest or most\nmaterial point in the cycle thus becomes the\ninverted apex of physical intelligence, which is\nthe masked manifestation of spiritual intelli-\ngence. Each round of mankind evolved on the\ndownward arc (as each race of each round if\nwe descend to the smaller mirror of the cosmos)\nmust thus be more physically intelligent than\nits predecessor, and each in the upward arc\nmust be invested with a more refined form of\n\n180 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nmentality commingled with greater spiritual in-\ntuitiveness. In the first round, therefore, we\nfind man a relatively ethereal being compared\neven on earth with the state he has now at-\ntained here, not intellectual, but super-spiritual.\nLike the animal and vegetable shapes around\nhim, he inhabits an immense but loosely organ-\nized body. In the second round he is still gi-\ngantic and ethereal, but growing firmer and\nmore condensed in body, — a more physical\nman, but still less intelligent than spiritual.\nIn the third round he has developed a perfectly\nconcrete and compacted body, at first the form\nrather of a giant ape than of a true man, but\nwith intelligence coming more and more into\nthe ascendant. In the last half of the third\nround his gigantic stature decreases, his body\nimproves in texture, and he begins to be a ra-\ntional man. In the fourth round intellect, now\nfully developed, achieves enormous progress.\nThe direct races with which the round begins\nacquire human speech as we understand it.\nThe world teems with the results of intellectual\nactivity and spiritual decline. At the half-way\npoint of the fourth round here the polar point\nof the whole seven-world period is passed.\nFrom this point outwards the spiritual Ego\nbegins its real struggle with body and mind\nto manifest its transcendental powers. Iu\n\nTHE HUMAN TIDE-WAVE. 181\n\nthe fifth round the struggle continues, but the\ntranscendental faculties are largely developed,\nthough the struggle between these on the one\nhand with physical intellect and propensity is\nfiercer than ever, for the intellect of the fifth\nround as well as its spirituality is an advance\non that of the fourth. In the sixth round\nhumanity attains a degree of perfection both\nof body and soul, of intellect and spirituality,\nwhich ordinary mortals of the present epoch\nwill not readily realize in their imaginations.\nThe most supreme combinations of wisdom,\ngoodness, and transcendental enlightenment\nivhich the world has ever seen or thought of\nwill represent the ordinary type of manhood.\nThose faculties which now, in the rare efflores-\ncence of a generation, enable some extraordi-\nnarily gifted persons to explore the mysteries\nof Nature and gather the knowledge of which\nsome crumbs are now being offered (through\nthese writings and in other ways) to the ordi-\nnary world, will then be the common appanage\nof all. As to what the seventh round will be\nlike, the most communicative occult teachers\nare solemnly silent. Mankind in the seventh\nround will be something altogether too God-\nlike for mankind in the fourth round to fore-\ncast its attributes.\n\nDuring the occupation of any planet by the\n\n182 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nhuman life- wave, each individual monad is\ninevitably incarnated many times. This has\nbeen partly explained. If one existence only\nbe passed by the monad in each of the branch\nraces through which it must pass at least once,\nthe total number accomplished during a round\nperiod on one planet would be 343, — the third\npower of seven. But as a matter of fact each\nmonad is incarnated twice in each of the\nbranch. races, and also comes in, necessarily, for\nsome few extra incarnations as well. For rea-\nsons which are not easy for the outsider to di-\nvine, the possessors of occult knowledge are\nespecially reluctant to give out numerical facts\nrelating to cosmogony, though it is hard for the\nuninitiated to understand why these should be\nwithheld. At present, for example, we shall\nnot be able to state what is the actual duration\nin years of the round period. But a concession,\nwhich only those who have long been students\nof occultism by the old method will fully appre-\nciate, has been made about the numbers with\nwhich we are immediately concerned ; and this\nconcession is valuable at all events, as it helps\nto elucidate an interesting fact connected with\nevolution, on the threshold of which we have\nnow arrived. This fact is that while the earth,\nfor example, is inhabited, as at present, by\nfourth-round humanity, by the wave of human\n\nTHE HUMAN TIDE-WAVE. 183\n\nlife, that is to say, on its fourth journey round\nthe circle of the worlds, there may be present\namong us some few persons, few in relation to\nthe total number, who, properly speaking, be-\nlong to the fifth round. Now, in the sense of\nthe term at present employed, it must not be\nsupposed that by any miraculous process any\nindividual unit has actually traveled round the\nwhole chain of worlds once more often than his\ncompeers. Under the explanations just given\nas to the way the tide- wave of humanity pro-\ngresses, it will be seen that this is impossible.\nHumanity has not yet paid its fifth visit even\nto the planet next in advance of our own. But\nindividual monads may outstrip their compan-\nions as regards their individual development,\nand so become exactly as mankind generally will\nbe when the fifth round has been fully evolved.\nAnd this may be accomplished in two ways :\nA man born as an ordinary fourth-round man\nmay, by processes of occult training, convert\nhimself into a man having all the attributes of\na fifth-round man, and so become what we may\ncall an artificial fifth rounder. But indepen-\ndently of all exertions made by man in his pres-\nent incarnation, a man may also be born a fifth\nrounder, though in the midst of fourth-round\nhumanity by virtue of the total number of his\nprevious incarnations.\n\n184 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nIf x stands for the normal number of incarna-\ntions which in the course of Nature a monad\nmust go through during a round period on one\nplanet, and y for the margin of extra incarna-\ntions into which by a strong desire for phys-\nical life he may force himself during such a\nperiod, then, as a matter of fact, 24^ (x -\\- y)\nmay exceed 28 x ; that is to say, in 3^ rounds\na monad may have accomplished as many in-\ncarnations as an ordinary monad would have\naccomplished in four complete rounds. In less\nthan 3| rounds the result could not have been\nattained, so that it is only now that we have\npassed the half-way point of evolution on this\nhalf-way planet that the fifth rounders are be-\nginning to drop in.\n\nIt is not possible in the nature of things that\na monad can do more than outstrip his com-\npanions by more than one round. This consid-\neration, notwithstanding Buddha was a sixth-\nround man ; but this fact has to do with a great\nmystery outside the limits of the present calcu-\nlation. Enough for the moment to say that\nthe evolution of a Buddha has to do with some-\nthing more than mere incarnations within the\nlimits of one planetary chain.\n\nSince large numbers of lives have been recog\nnized in the above calculations as following one\nanother in the successive incarnations of an\n\nTHE HUMAN TIDE-WAVE. 185\n\nindividual monad, it is important here, with\nthe view of averting misconceptions, to point\nout that the periods of time over which these\nincarnations range are so great chat vast inter-\nvals separate them, numerous as they are. As\nstated above, we cannot just now give the act-\nual duration of the round periods. Nor, indeed,\ncould any figures be quoted as indicating the\nduration of all round periods equally, for these\nvary in length within very wide limits. But\nhere is a simple fact which has been definitely\nstated on the highest occult authority we are\nconcerned with. The present race of human-\nity, the present fifth race of the fourth-round\nperiod, began to evolve about one million of\nyears ago. Now it is not yet finished ; but\nsupposing that a million years had constituted\nthe complete life of the race,1 how would it\nhave been divided up for each individual\nmonad ? In a race there must be rather more\nthan 100, and there can hardly be 120, incarna-\ntions for an individual monad. But say even\nthere have been already 120 incarnations for\n\n1 The complete life of a race is certainly much longer than\nthis ; but when we get to figures of this kind we are on very deli-\ncate ground, for precise periods are very profound secrets, for rea-\nsons uninitiated students (\"lay chelas,\" as the adepts now say,\ncoining a new designation to meet a new condition of things) can\nonly imperfectly divine. Calculations like those given above may\nbe trusted literally as far as they go, but must not rashly be made\nthe basis of others.\n\n186 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nmonads in the present race already, and say\nthat the average life of each incarnation was a\ncentury ; even then we should only have 12,000\nyears out of the million spent in physical ex-\nistence against 988,000 years spent in the sub-\njective sphere, or there would be an average of\nmore than 8,000 years between each incarna-\ntion. Certainly these intervening periods are\nof very variable length, but they can hardly\neven contract to anything less than 1,500 years,\n— leaving out of account, of course, the case of\nadepts who have, placed themselves quite out-\nside the operation of the ordinary law, — and\n1,500 years, if not an impossibly short, would\nbe a very brief, interval between two rebirths.\n\nThese calculations must be qualified by one\nor two considerations, however. The cases of\nchildren dying in infancy are quite unlike those\nof persons who attain full maturity, and for\nobvious reasons, that the explanations now al-\nready given will suggest. A child dying be-\nfore it has lived long enough to begin to be\nresponsible for its actions has generated no\nfresh Karma. The spiritual monad leaves that\nchild's body in just the same state in which it\nentered it after its last death in Devachan. It\nhas had no opportunity of playing on its new\ninstrument, which has been broken before even\nit was tuned. A re-incarnation of the monad,\n\nTHE HUMAN TIDE-WAVE. 187\n\ntherefore, may take place immediately, on the\nline of its old attraction. But the monad so\nre-incarnated is not to be spiritually identified\nin any way with the dead child. So, in the\nsame way, with a monad getting into the body\nof a born idiot. The instrument cannot be\ntuned, so it cannot play on that any more than\non the child's body in the first few years of\nchildhood. But both these cases are manifest\nexceptions that do not alter the broad rule\nabove laid down for all persons attaining ma-\nturity, and living their earth lives for good or\nevil.\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nTHE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY.\n\nThe course of Nature provides, as the reader\nwill now have seen, for the indefinite prog-\nress towards higher phases of existence of all\nhuman entities. But no less will it have been\nseen that by endowing these entities, as they\nadvance, with ever-increasing faculties and by\nconstantly enlarging the scope of their activity,\nNature also furnishes each human entity with\nmore and more decisive opportunities of choos-\ning between good and evil. In the earlier\nrounds of humanity this privilege of selection\nis not fully developed, and responsibility of ac-\ntion is correspondingly incomplete. The ear-\nlier rounds of humanity, in fact, do not invest\nthe Ego with spiritual responsibility at all, in\nthe larger sense of the term which we are now\napproaching. The Devachanic periods which\nfollow each objective existence in turn dispose\nfully of its merits and demerits, and the most\ndeplorable personality which the Ego during the\nfirst half of its evolution can possibly develop\n\nTHE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY. 189\n\nis merely dropped out of the account as regards\nthe larger undertaking, while the erring per-\nsonality itself pays its relatively brief penalt}-,\nand troubles Nature no more. But the second\nhalf of the great evolutionary period is carried\non on different principles. The phases of exist-\nence which are now coming into view cannot\nbe entered upon by the Ego without positive\nmerits of its own appropriate to the new devel-\nopments in prospect ; it is not enough that the\nnow fully responsible and highly gifted being\nwhich man becomes at the great turning-point\nin his career should float idly on the stream of\nprogress ; he must begin to swim, if he wishes\nto push his way forward.\n\nDebarred by the complexity of the subject\nfrom dealing with all its features simultane-\nously, our survey of Nature has so far contem-\nplated the seven rounds of human development,\nwhich constitute the whole planetary undertak-\ning with which we are concerned, as a continu-\nous series throughout which it is the natural\ndestiny of humanity in general to pass. But it\nwill be remembered that humanity in the sixth\nround has been spoken of so highly developed\nthat the sublime attributes and faculties of the\nhighest adept-ship are the common appanage of\nall ; while in the seventh round the race has\nalmost emerged from humanity into divinity.\n\n190 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nNow every human being in this stage of devel-\nopment will still be identified by an uninter-\nrupted connection with all the personalities\nwhich have been strung upon that thread of\nlife from the beginning of the great evolution-\nary process. Is it conceivable that the charac-\nter of such personalities is of no consequence in\nthe long run, and that two God-like beings\nmight stand side by side in the seventh round,\ndeveloped, the one from a long series of blame-\nless and serviceable existences, the other from\nan equally long series of evil and groveling\nlives? That surely could not come to pass,\nand we have to ask now, How do we find the\ncongruities of Nature preserved compatibly\nwith the appointed evolution of humanity to\nthe higher forms of existence which crown the\nedifice ?\n\nJust as childhood is irresponsible for its acts,\nthe earlier races of humanity are irresponsible\nfor theirs ; but there comes the period of full\ngrowth, when the complete development of the\nfaculties which enable the individual man to\nchoose between good and evil, in the single life\nwith which he is for the moment concerned, en-\nables the continuous Ego also to make its final\nselection. That period — that enormous period,\nfor Nature is in no hurry to catch its creatures\nin a trap in such a matter as this — is barely\n\nTHE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY. 191\n\nyet beginning, and a complete round period\naround the seven worlds will have to be gone\nthrough before it is over. Until the middle of\nthe fifth period is passed on this earth, the great\nquestion — to be or not to be for the future —\nis not irrevocably settled. We are coming\nnow into the possession of the faculties which\nrender man a fully responsible being, but we\nhave yet to employ those faculties during the\nmaturity of our Ego-hood in the manner which\nshall determine the vast consequences hereafter.\n\nIt is during the first half of the fifth round\nthat the struggle principally takes place. Till\nthen, the ordinary course of life may be a good\nor a bad preparation for the struggle, but can-\nnot fairly be described as the struggle itself.\nAnd now we have to examine the nature of the\nstruggle, so far merely spoken of as the selec-\ntion between good and evil. That is in no\nway an inaccurate, but it is an incomplete, defi-\nnition.\n\nThe ever-recurring and ever-threatened con-\nflict between intellect and spirituality is the\nphenomenon to be now examined. The com-\nmonplace conceptions which these two words\ndenote must of course be expanded to some\nextent before the occult conception is realized ;\nfor European habits of thinking are rather apt\nto set up in the mind an ignoble image of spir-\n\n192 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nituality, as an attribute rather of the character\nthan the mind itself, — a pale goody-goodiness,\nborn of an attachment to religious ceremonial\nand of devout aspirations, no matter to what\nwhimsical notions of Heaven and Divinity in\nwhich the \" spiritually -minded \" person may\nhave been brought up. Spirituality, in the\noccult sense, has little or nothing to do with\nfeeling devout ; it has to do with the capacity\nof the mind for assimilating knowledge at the\nfountain-head of knowledge itself — of absolute\nknowledge — instead of by the circuitous and\nlaborious process of ratiocination.\n\nThe development of pure intellect, the rati-\nocinative faculty, has been the business of Eu-\nropean nations for so long, and in this depart-\nment of human progress they have achieved\nsuch magnificent triumphs, that nothing in oc-\ncult philosophy will be less acceptable to Euro-\npeans themselves at first, and while the ideas at\nstake are imperfectly grasped, than the first\naspect of the occult theory concerning intellect\nand spirituality ; but this does not arise so\nmuch from the undue tendency of occult science\nto depreciate intellect as from the undue ten-\ndency of modern Western speculation to depre-\nciate spirituality. Broadly speaking, so far\nWestern philosophy has had no opportunity of\nappreciating spirituality ; it has not been made\n\nTHE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY. 193\n\nacquainted with the range of the inner faculties\nof man ; it has merely groped blindly in the\ndirection of a belief that such inner faculties\nexisted ; and Kant himself, the greatest modern\nexponent of that idea, does little more than\ncontend that there is such a faculty as intuition,\n— if we only knew how to work with it.\n\nThe process of working with it is occult sci-\nence in its highest aspect, the cultivation of\nspirituality. The cultivation of mere power\nover the forces of Nature, the investigation of\nsome of her subtler secrets as regards the inner\nprinciples controlling physical results, is occult\nscience in its lowest aspect, and into that lower\nregion of its activity mere physical science may,\nor even must, gradually run up. But the ac-\nquisition by mere intellect — physical science\nin excelsis — of privileges which are the proper\nappanage of spirituality is one of the dangers\nof that struggle which decides the ultimate\ndestiny of the human Ego. For there is one\nthing which intellectual processes do not help\nmankind to realize, and that is the nature and\nsupreme excellence of spiritual existence. On\nthe contrary, intellect arises out of physical\ncauses, the perfection of the physical brain,\nand tends only to physical results, the perfec-\ntion of material welfare. Although, as a con-\ncession to \" weak brethren ' and lt religion,\"\n\n194 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\non which it looks with good-humored contempt,\nmodern intellect does not condemn spirituality,\nit certainly treats the physical human life as the\nonly serious business with which grave men, or\neven earnest philanthropists, can concern them-\nselves. But obviously, if spiritual existence,\nvivid subjective consciousness, really does go on\nfor periods greater than the periods of intellec-\ntual physical existence in the ratio, as we have\nseen in discussing the Devachanic condition, of\n80 to 1 at least, then surely man's subjective\nexistence is more important than his physical\nexistence, and intellect in error, when all its\nefforts are bent on the amelioration of the phys-\nical existence.\n\nThese considerations show how the choice be-\ntween good and evil — which has been made\nby the human Ego in the course of the great\nstruggle between intellect and spirituality — is\nnot a mere choice between ideas so plainly con-\ntrasted as wickedness and virtue. It is not so\nrough a question as that, — whether man be\nwicked or virtuous, — which must really at the\nfinal critical turning-point decide whether he\nshall continue to live and develop into higher\nphases of existence, or cease to live altogether.\nThe truth of the matter is (if it is not impru-\ndent at this stage of our progress to brush the\nsurface of a new mystery) that the question, to\n\nTHE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY. 195\n\nbe or not to be, is not settled by reference to\nthe question whether a man be wicked or vir-\ntuous at all. It will plainly be seen eventually\nthat there must be evil spirituality as well as\ngood spirituality. So that the great question\nof continued existence turns altogether and of\nnecessity on the question of spirituality, as com-\npared with physicality. The point is not so\nmuch \" shall a man live ; is he good enough to be\npermitted to live any longer? \" as \" can the man\nlive any longer in the higher levels of existence\ninto which humanity must at last evolve?\"\nHas he qualified himself to live by the cultiva-\ntion of the durable portion of his nature ? If\nnot, he has got to the end of his tether. The\ndestiny which must befall him is annihilation, —\nnot necessarily suffering in a conscious exist-\nence, but that dissolution that must befall the\nsoul which has wholly assimilated itself to\nmatter. Into the eighth sphere of pure matter\nthat Ego must descend which is finally con-\nvicted of unfitness to go any further in the up-\nward spiral path around the planetary chain.\n\nIt need not be hurriedly supposed that occult\nphilosophy considers vice and virtue of no con-\nsequence to human spiritual destinies, because\nit does not discover in Nature that these char-\nacteristics determine ultimate progress in evo-\nlution. No system is so pitilessly inflexible in\n\n196 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nits morality as the system which occult philos-\nophy explores and expounds. But that which\nvice and virtue of themselves determine ,is\nhappiness and misery, not the final problem of\ncontinued existence, beyond that immeasurably\ndistant period, when in the progress of evolu-\ntion man has got to begin being something more\nthan man, and cannot go on along the path of\nprogress with the help only of the relatively\nlower human attributes. It is true again that\none can hardly imagine virtue in any decided\ndegree to fail in engendering, in due time, the\nrequired higher attributes ; but we should not\nbe scientifically accurate in speaking of it as the\ncause of progress, in ultimate stages of eleva-\ntion, though it may provoke the development\nof that which is the cause of progress.\n\nThis consideration — that ultimate progress\nis determined by spirituality irrespective of its\nmoral coloring — is the great meaning of the oc-\ncult doctrine that \"to be immortal in good one\nmust identify one's self with God ; to be immor-\ntal in evil, with Satan. These are the two poles\nof the world of souls ; between these two poles\nvegetate and die without remembrance the use-\nless portion of mankind.\" l The enigma, like all\noccult formulas, has a lesser application (fitting\nthe microcosm as well as the macrocosm), and\n\n1 Eliphas Levi.\n\nTHE PRG9RESS OF HUMANITY. 197\n\nin its lesser significance refers to Devachan\nor Avitchi, and the blank destiny of colorless\npersonalities ; but in its more important bear-\ning it relates to the final sorting out of human-\nity at the middle of the great fifth round, the\nannihilation of the utterly unspiritual Egos and\nthe passage onward of the others to be immor-\ntal in good or immortal in evil. Precisely the\nsame meaning attaches to the passage in Reve-\nlation (iii. 15, 16) : \" I would thou wert cold\nor hot. So then because thou art lukewarm,\nand neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out\nof m}7 mouth.\"\n\nSpirituality, then, is not devout aspiration;\nit is the highest kind of intellection, that which\ntakes cognizance of the workings of Nature by\ndirect assimilation of the mind with her higher\nprinciples. The objection which physical intel-\nligence will bring against this view is that the\nmind can cognize nothing except by observation\nof phenomena and reasoning thereon. That is\nthe mistake, — it can ; and the existence of oc-\ncult science is the highest proof thereof. But\nthere are hints pointing in the direction of such\nproof all around us if we have but the patience\nto examine their true bearings. It is idle to\nsay, in face, merely for one thing, of the phe-\nnomena of clairvoyance — crude and imperfect\nas those have been which have pushed them-\n\n198 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nselves on the attention of the world — that\nthere are no other avenues to consciousness but\nthose of the five senses. Certainly in the ordi-\nnary world the clairvoyant faculty is an exceed-\ningly rare one, but it indicates the existence in\nmar: of a potential faculty, the nature of which,\nas inferred from its slightest manifestations,\nmust obviously be capable in its highest devel-\nopment of leading to a direct assimilation of\nknowledge independently of observation.\n\nOne of the most embarrassing difficulties that\nbeset the present attempt to translate the es-\noteric doctrine into plain language is due really\nto the fact that spiritual perceptiveness, apart\nfrom all ordinary processes by which knowledge\nis acquired, is a great and grand possibility of\nhuman nature. It is by that method in the\nregular course of occult training that adepts im-\npart instruction to their pupils. They awaken\nthe dormant sense in the pupil, and through\nthis they imbue his mind with a knowledge\nthat such and such a doctrine is the real truth.\nThe whole scheme of evolution, which the fore-\ngoing chapters have portrayed, infiltrates into\nthe regular chela's mind by reason of the fact\nthat he is made to see the process taking place\nby clairvoyant vision. There are no words\nused in his instruction at all. And adepts\nthemselves, to whom the facts and processes of\n\nTHE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY. 199\n\nNature are familiar as our five fingers to us,\nfind it difficult to explain in a treatise which\nthey cannot illustrate for us, by producing men-\ntal pictures in our dormant sixth sense, the com-\nplex anatomy of the planetary system.\n\nCertainly it is not to be expected that man-\nkind as yet should be generally conscious of\npossessing the sixth sense, for the day of its ac-\ntivity has not yet come. It has been already\nstated that each round in turn is devoted to the\nperfection in man of the corresponding princi-\nple in its numerical order, and to its prepara-\ntion for assimilation with the next. The earlier\nrounds have been described as concerned with\nman in a shadowy, loosely organized, unintelli-\ngent form. The first principle of all, the body,\nwas developed, but it was merely growing used\nto vitality, and was unlike anything we can\nnow picture to ourselves. The fourth round,\nin which we are now engaged, is the round in\nwhich the fourth principle, will, desire, is fully\ndeveloped, and in which it is engaged in assim-\nilating itself with the fifth principle, reason, in-\ntelligence. In the fifth round, the completely\ndeveloped reason, intellect, or soul, in which\nthe Ego then resides, must assimilate itself to\nthe sixth principle, spirituality, or give up the\nbusiness of existence altogether.\n\nAll readers of Buddhist literature are famil-\n\n200 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\niar with the constant references made there to\nthe Arhat's union of his soul with God. This,\nin other words, is the premature development\nof his sixth principle. He forces himself right\nup through all the obstacles which impede such\nan operation in the case of a fourth-round man,\ninto that stage of evolution which awaits the\nrest of humanity — or rather so much of hu-\nmanity as may reach it in the ordinary course\nof Nature — in the latter part of the fifth round.\nAnd in doing this, it will be observed, he tides\nhimself right over the great period of danger, —\nthe middle of the fifth round. That is the stu-\npendous achievement of the adept as regards\nhis own personal interests. He has reached the\nfurther shore of the sea in which so many of\nmankind will perish. He waits there in a con-\ntentment which people cannot even realize\nwithout some glimmerings of spirituality — of\nthe sixth sense — themselves for the arrival\nthere of his future companions. He does not\nwait in his physical body, let me hasten to add,\nto avoid misconstruction, but when at last priv-\nileged to resign this, in a spiritual condition,\nwhich it would be foolish to attempt to describe,\nwhile even the Devachanic states of ordinary\nhumanity are themselves almost beyond the\nreach of imaginations untrained in spiritual\nscience.\n\nTHE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY. 201\n\nBut, returning to the ordinary course of hu-\nmanity and the growth into sixth-round people\nof men and women, who do not become adepts\nat any premature stage of their career, it will\nbe observed that this is the ordinary course of\nNature in one sense of the expression ; but so\nalso is it the ordinary course of Nature for\nevery grain of corn that is developed to fall\ninto appropriate soil, and grow up into an ear\nof corn itself. All the same a great many\ngrains do nothing of the sort, and a great many\nhuman Egos will never pass through the trials\nof the fifth round. The final effort of Nature\nin evolving man is to evolve from him a being\nunmeasurably higher to be a conscious agent,\nand what is ordinarily meant by a creative\nprinciple in Nature herself ultimately. The\nfirst achievement is to evolve free-will, and the\nnext to perpetuate that free-will by inducing\nit to unite itself with the final purpose of Na-\nture, which is good. In the course of such\nan operation it is inevitable that a great deal\nof the free-will evolved should turn to evil,\nand after producing temporary suffering be dis-\npersed and annihilated. More than this, the\nfinal purpose can only be achieved by a profuse\nexpenditure of material ; and just as this goes\non in the lower stages of evolution, where a\nthousand seeds are thrown off by a vegetable\n\n202 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nfor every one that ultimately fructifies into a\nnew plant, so are trie god-like germs of Will,\nsown one in each man's breast, in abundance\nlike the seeds blown about in the wind. Is the\njustice of Nature to be impugned by reason of\nthe fact that many of these germs will perish ?\nSuch an idea could only rise in a mind that\nwill not realize the room there is in Nature for\nthe growth of every germ which chooses to\ngrow, and to the extent it chooses to grow, be\nthat extent great or small. If it seems to any\none horrible that an \"immortal soul\" should\nperish, under any circumstances, that impres-\nsion can only be due to the pernicious habit of\nregarding everything as eternity, which is not\nthis microscopic life. There is room in the\nsubjective spheres and time in the catenary\nmanvantara, before we even approach the\nDhyan Chohan, or god-like period, for more\nthan the ordinary brain has ever yet conceived\nof immortality. Every good deed and elevated\nimpulse that every man or woman ever did or\nfelt must reverberate through aeons of spirit-\nual existence, whether the human entity con-\ncerned proves able or not to expand into the\nsublime and stupendous development of the\nseventh round. And it is out of the causes\ngenerated in one of our brief lives on earth\nthat exoteric speculation conceives itself capa*\n\nTHE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY. 203\n\nble of constructing eternal results ! Out of\nsuch a seven or eight hundredth part of our\nobjective life on earth during the present stay\nhere of the evolutionary life-wave, we are to\nexpect Nature to discern sufficient reason for\ndeciding upon our whole subsequent career. In\ntruth, Nature will make such a large return for\na comparatively small expenditure of human\nwill-power in the right direction that, extrav-\nagant as the expectation just stated may ap-\npear, and extravagant as it is applied to or-\ndinary lives, one brief existence may sometimes\nsuffice to anticipate the growth of milliards of\nyears. The adept may, in the one earth-life,1\nachieve so much advancement that his sub-\nsequent growth is certain, and merely a matter\nof time ; but then the seed germ which pro-\nduces an adept in our life, must be very per-\nfect to begin with, and the early conditions of\nits growth favorable, and withal the effort on\nthe part of the man himself, life-long and far\nmore concentrated, more intense, more arduous,\nthan it is possible for the uninitiated outsider\nto realize. In ordinary cases, the life which is\ndivided between material enjoyment and spir-\nitual aspiration — however sincere and beau-\ntiful the latter — can only be productive of\n\n1 In practice, my impression is that this is rarely achieved in\none earth-life ; approached rather in two or three artificial incarna-\ntions.\n\n204 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\na correspondingly duplex result, of a spiritual\nreward in Devachan, of a new birth on eartji.\nThe manner in which the adept gets above\nthe necessity of such a new birth is perfectly\nscientific and simple, be it observed, though\nit sounds like a theological mystery when ex-\npounded in exoteric writings by reference to\nKarma and Skandhas, Trishna, and Tanha,\nand so forth. The next earth-life is as much\na consequence of affinities engendered by the\nfifth principle, the continuous human soul, as\nthe Devachan ic experiences which come first\nare the growth of the thoughts and aspirations\nof an elevated character, which the person con-\ncerned has created during life. That is to sa}r,\nthe affinities engendered in ordinary cases are\npartly material, partly spiritual. Therefore\nthey start the soul on its entrance into the\nworld of effects with a double set of attractions\ninhering in it ; one set producing the subjective\nconsequences of its Devachanic life, the other\nset asserting themselves at the close of that\nJife, and carrying the soul back again into re-\nincarnation. But if the person during his ob-\njective life absolutely develops no affinities for\nmaterial existence, starts his soul at death with\nall its attractions tending one way in the direc-\ntion of spirituality, and none at all drawing it\nback to objective life, it does not come back;\n\nTHE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY. 205\n\nit mounts into a condition of spirituality, cor-\nresponding to the intensity of the attractions\nor affinities in that direction, and the other\nthread of connection is cut off.\n\nNow this explanation does not entirely cover\nthe whole position, because the adept himself,\nno matter how high, does return to incarna-\ntion eventually, after the rest of mankind have\npassed across the great dividing period in the\nmiddle of the fifth round. Until the exaltation\nof Planetary Spirithood is reached, the highest\nhuman soul must have a certain affinity for\nearth still, though not the earth-life of phys-\nical enjoyments and passions that we are go-\ning through. But the important point to re-\nalize in regard to the spiritual consequences of\nearthly life is that, in so large a majority of\ncases that the abnormal few need not be talked\nabout, the sense of justice in regard to the\ndestiny of good men is amply satisfied by the\ncourse of Nature step by step as time advances.\nThe spirit-life is ever at hand to receive, re-\nfresh, and restore the soul after the struggles,\nachievements, or sufferings of incarnation. And\nmore than this, reserving the question about\neternity, Nature, in the intercyclic periods at\nthe apex of each round, provides for all man-\nkind, except those unfortunate failures who\nhave persistently adhered to the path of evil,\n\n206 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ngreat intervals of spiritual blessedness, far\nlonger and more exalted in their character\nthan the Devachanic periods of each separate\nlife. Nature, in fact, is inconceivably liberal\nand patient to each and all her candidates for\nthe final examination during their long prep-\naration for this. Nor is one failure to pass\neven this final examination absolutely fatal.\nThe failures may try again, if they are not\nutterly disgraceful failures, but they must wait\nfor the next opportunity.\n\nA complete explanation of the circumstances\nunder which such waiting is accomplished\nwould not come into the scheme of this trea-\ntise ; but it must not be supposed that candi-\ndates for progress, self-convicted of unfitness to\nproceed at the critical period of the fifth round,\nfall necessarily into the sphere of annihilation.\nFor that attraction to assert itself, the Ego must\nhave developed a positive attraction for matter,\na positive repulsion for spirituality, which is\noverwhelming in its force. In the absence of\nsuch affinities, and in the absence also of such\naffinities as would suffice to tide the Ego over\nthe great gulf, the destiny which meets the\nmere failures of Nature is, as regards the pres-\nent planetary manwantara, to die, as Eliphas\nLevi puts it, without remembrance. They\nhav? lived their life, and had their share of\n\nTHE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY. 207\n\nHeaven, but they are not capable of ascending\nthe tremendous altitudes of spiritual progress\nthen confronting them. But they are qualified\nfor further incarnation and life on the planes of\nexistence to which they are accustomed. They\nwill wait, therefore, in the negative spiritual\nstate they have attained till those planes of ex-\nistence are again in activity in the next plan-\netary manivantara. The duration of such wait-\ning is, of course, beyond the reach of imagina-\ntion altogether, and the precise nature of the\nexistence which is now contemplated is no less\nunrealizable ; but the broad pathway through\nthat strange region of dreamy semi-animation\nmust be taken note of in order that the sym-\nmetry and completeness of the whole evolution-\nary scheme may be perceived.\n\nAnd with this last contingency provided for,\nthe whole scheme does lie before the reader in\nits main outlines with tolerable completeness.\nWe have seen the one life, the spirit, animat-\ning matter in it lowest forms first, and evoking\ngrowth by slow degrees into higher forms. In-\ndividualizing itself at last in man, it works up\nthrough inferior and irresponsible incarnations\nuntil it has penetrated the higher principles,\nand evolved a true human soul, which is thence-\nforth the master of its own fate, though guarded\nin the beginning by natural provisions which\n\n208 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ndebar it from premature shipwreck, which stim-\nulate and refresh it on its course. But the ulti-\nmate destiny offered to that soul is to develop\nnot only into a being capable of taking care of\nitself, but into a being capable of taking care\nalso of others, of presiding over and directing,\nwithin what may be called constitutional limits,\nthe operations of Nature herself. Clearly be-\nfore the soul can have earned the right to that\npromotion, it must have been tried by having\nconceded to it full control over its own affairs.\nThat full control necessarily conveys the power\nto shipwreck itself. The safeguards put round\nthe Ego in its youth — its inability to get into\nhigher or lower states than those of interm lin-\ndane Devachan and Avitchi — fall from it in\nits maturity. It is potent, then, over its own\ndestinies, not only in regard to the development\nof transitory joy and suffering, but in regard to\nthe stupendous opportunities in both directions\nwhich existence opens out before it. It may\nseize on the higher opportunities in two ways ;\nit may throw up the struggle in two ways ; it\nmay attain sublime spirituality for good or sub-\nlime spirituality for evil ; it may ally itself to\nphysically for (not evil but for) utter annihila-\ntion ; or, on the other hand, for (not good but\nfor) the negative result of beginning the educa*\ntional processes of incarnation all over again.\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nBUDDHA.\n\nThe historical Buddha, as known to the cus-\ntodians of the Esoteric Doctrine, is a personage\nwhose birth is not invested with the quaint\nmarvels popular story has crowded round it.\nNor was his progress to adeptship traced by the\nliteral occurrence of the supernatural struggles\ndepicted in symbolic legend. On the other\nhand, the incarnation, which may outwardly be\ndescribed as the birth of Buddha, is certainly\nnot regarded by occult science as an event like\nany other birth, nor the spiritual development\nthrough which Buddha passed during his earth-\nlife a mere process of intellectual evolution,\nlike the mental history of any other philoso-\npher. The mistake which ordinary European\nwriters make in dealing with a problem of this\nsort lies in their inclination to treat exoteric\nlegend either as a record of a miracle about\nwhich no more need be said, or as pure myth,\nputting merely a fantastic decoration on a re-\nmarkable life. This, it is assumed, however\n\n210 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nremarkable, must have been lived according to\nthe theories of Nature at present accepted by\nthe nineteenth century. The account which\nhas now been given in the foregoing pages may\nprepare the way for a statement as to what the\nEsoteric Doctrine teaches concerning the real\nBuddha, who was born, as modern investigation\nhas quite correctly ascertained, 643 years be-\nfore the Christian era, at Kapila-Vastu near\nBenares.\n\nExoteric conceptions, knowing nothing of the\nlaws which govern the operations of Nature in\nher higher departments, can only explain an\nabnormal dignity attaching to some particular\nbirth by supposing that the physical body of\nthe person concerned was generated in a mirac-\nulous manner. Hence the popular notion about\nBuddha, that his incarnation in this world was\ndue to an immaculate conception. Occult sci-\nence knows nothing of any process for the pro-\nduction of a physical human child other than\nthat appointed by physical laws ; but it does\nknow a good deal concerning the limits within\nwhich the progressive \" one life,\" or \"spiritual\nmonad,\" or continuous thread of a series of in-\ncarnations, may select definite child-bodies as\ntheir human tenements. By the operation of\nKarma, in the case of ordinary mankind, this\nselection is made, unconsciously as far as the\n\nBUDDHA. 211\n\nantecedent, spiritual Ego emerging from De-\nvachan is concerned. But in those abnormal\ncases where the one life has already forced it-\nself into the sixth principle — that is to say,\nwhere a man has become an adept, and has the\npower of guiding his own spiritual Ego, in full\nconsciousness as to what he is about, after he\nhas quitted the body in which he won adept-\nship, either temporarily or permanently — it is\nquite within his power to select his own next\nincarnation. During life, even, he gets above\nthe Devachanic attraction. He becomes one of\nthe conscious directing powers of the planetary\nsystem to which he belongs ; and great as this\nmystery of selected re-incarnation may be, it is\nnot by any means restricted in its application\nto such extraordinary events as the birth of a\nBuddha. It is a phenomenon frequently repro-\nduced by the higher adepts to this day, and\nwhile a great deal recounted in popular Ori-\nental mythology is either purely fictitious or\nentirely symbolical, the re-incarnation of the\nDalai and Teshu Lamas in Tibet, at which\ntravelers only laugh for want of the knowledge\nthat might enable them to sift fact from fancy,\nis a sober scientific achievement. In such cases\nthe adept states beforehand in what child, when\nand where to be born, he is going to re-incar-\nnate, and he very rarely fails. We say very\n\n212 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nrarely, because there are some accidents of phys-\nical nature which cannot be entirely guarded\nagainst ; and it is not absolutely certain that,\nwith all the foresight even an adept may bring\nto bear upon the matter, the child he may choose\nto become, in his re-incarnated state, may attain\nphysical maturity successfully. And, mean-\nwhile, in the body, the adept is relatively help-\nless. Out of the body he is just what he has\nbeen ever since he became an adept ; but as\nregards the new body he has chosen to inhabit,\nhe must let it grow up in the ordinary course of\nNature, and educate it by ordinary processes,\nand initiate it by the regular occult method\ninto adeptship, before he has got a body fully\nready again for occult work on the physical\nplane. All these processes are immensely sim-\nplified, it is true, by the peculiar spiritual force\nworking within ; but at first, in the child's body,\nthe adept soul is certainly cramped and embar-\nrassed, and, as ordinary imagination might sug-\ngest, very uncomfortable and ill at ease. The\nsituation would be very much misunderstood if\nthe reader were to imagine that re-incarnation\nof the kind described is a privilege which adepts\navail themselves of with pleasure.\n\nBuddha's birth was a mystery of the kind\ndescribed, and by the light of what has been\nsaid it will be easy to go over the popular story\n\nBUDDHA. 213\n\nof his miraculous origin, and trace the symbolic\nreferences to the facts of the situation in some\neven of the most grotesque fables. None, for\nexample, can look less promising as an allu-\nsion to anything like a scientific fact than the\nstatement that Buddha entered the side of his\nmother as a young white elephant. But the\nwhite elephant is simply the symbol of adept-\nship, — something considered to be a rare and\nbeautiful specimen of its kind. So with other\nante-natal legends pointing to the fact that the\nfuture child's body had been chosen as the hab-\nitation of a great spirit already endowed with\nsuperlative wisdom and goodness. Indra and\nBrahma came to do homage to the child at his\nbirth ; that is to say, the powers of Nature\nwere already in submission to the Spirit within\nhim. The thirty-two signs of a Buddha, which\nlegends describe by means of a ludicrous phys-\nical symbolism, are merely the various powers\nof adeptship.\n\nThe selection of the body known as Siddhar-\ntha, and afterwards as Gautama, son of Sud-\ndhodana, of Kapila-Vastu, as the human tene-\nment of the enlightened human spirit, who had\nsubmitted to incarnation for the sake of teach-\ning mankind, was not one of those rare failures\nspoken of above ; on the contrar}7, it was a\nsignally successful choice in all respects, and\n\n214 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nnothing interfered with the accomplishment\nof adeptship by the Buddha in his new body.\nThe popular narrative of his ascetic struggles\nand temptations, and of his final attainment\nof Buddhahood under the Bo-tree, is nothing\nmore, of course, than the exoteric version of his\ninitiation.\n\nFrom that period onward, his work was of a\ndual nature ; he had to reform and revive the\nmorals of the populace and the science of the\nadepts, — for adeptship itself is subject to cyclic\nchanges, and in need of periodical impulses.\nThe explanation of this branch of the subject,\nin plain terms, will not alone be important for\nits own sake, but will be interesting to all stu-\ndents of exoteric Buddhism, as elucidating some\nof the puzzling complications of the more ab-\nstruse \" Northern doctrine.\"\n\nA Buddha visits the earth for each of the\nseven races of the great planetary period. The\nBuddha with whom we are occupied was the\nfourth of the series, and that is why he stands\nfourth in the list quoted by Mr. Rhys Davids,\nfrom Burnouf, — quoted as an illustration of\nthe way the Northern doctrine has been, as Mr.\nDavids supposes, inflated by metaphysical sub-\ntleties and absurdities crowded round the sim-\nple morality which sums up Buddhism as pre-\nsented to the populace. The fifth, or Maitreya\n\nBUDDHA. 215\n\nBuddha, will come after the final disappear-\nance of the fifth race, and when the sixth race\nwill already have been established on earth\nfor some hundreds of thousands of years. The\nsixth will come at the beginning of the seventh\nrace, and the seventh towards the close of that\nrace.\n\nThis arrangement will seem, at the first\nglance, out of harmony with the general design\nof human evolution. Here we are in the mid-\ndle of the fifth race, and yet it is the fourth\nBuddha who has been identified with this race,\nand the fifth will not come till the fifth race is\npractically extinct. The explanation is to be\nfound, however, in the great outlines of the\nesoteric cosmogony. At the beginning of each\ngreat planetary period, when obscuration comes\nto an end, and the human tide-wave in its prog-\nress round the chain of worlds arrives at the\nshore of a globe where no humanity has existed\nfor milliards of years, a teacher is required from\nthe first for the new crop of mankind about to\nspring up. Remember that the preliminary\nevolution of the mineral, vegetable, and animal\nkingdoms has been accomplished in preparation\nfor the new round period. With the first infu-\nsion of the life-current into the \" missing link \"\nspecies the first race of the new series will begin\nto evolve. It is then that the Being, who may\n\n216 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nbe considered the Buddha of the first race, ap-\npears. The planetary spirit, or Dhyan Cho-\nhan, who is — or, to avoid the suggestion of an\nerroneous idea by the use of a singular verb,\nlet us defy grammar and say, who are — Bud-\ndha in all his or their developments, incarnates\namong the young, innocent, teachable forerun-\nners of the new humanity, and impresses the\nfirst broad principles of right and wrong and\nthe first truths of the esoteric doctrine on a suf-\nficient number of receptive minds to insure the\ncontinued reverberation of the ideas so im-\nplanted through successive generations of men\nin the millions of years to come, before the first\nrace shall have completed its course. It is this\nadvent in the beginning of the round period of\na Divine Being in human form that starts the\nineradicable conception of the anthropomorphic\nGod in all exoteric religions.\n\nThe first Buddha of the series in which Gau-\ntama Buddha stands fourth is thus the second\nincarnation of Avaloketiswara, — the mystic\nname of the hosts of the Dhyan Chohans, or\nplanetary spirits, belonging to our planetary\nchain ; and though Gautama is thus the fourth\nincarnation of enlightenment by exoteric reck-\noning, he is really the fifth of the true series,\nand thus properly belonging to our fifth race.\n\nAvaloketiswara, as just stated, is the mystin\n\nBUDDHA. 217\n\nname of the hosts of the Dhyan Chohans ; the\nproper meaning of the word is manifested wis-\ndom, just as Addi-Buddha and Amitabha both\nmean abstract wisdom.\n\nThe doctrine, as quoted by Mr. Davids, that\n\" every earthly mortal Buddha has his pure and\nglorious counterpart in the mystic world, free\nfrom the debasing conditions of this material\nlife, or rather that the Buddha under material\nconditions is only an appearance, the reflection,\nor emanation, or type of a Dhyani Buddha,\" is\nperfectly correct. The number of Dhyani Bud-\ndhas, or Dhyan Chohans, or planetary spirits,\nperfected human spirits of former world periods,\nis infinite, but only five are practically identified\nin exoteric and seven in esoteric teaching ; and\nthis identification, be it remembered, is a man-\nner of speaking which must not be interpreted\ntoo literally, for there is a unity in the sublime\nspirit-life in question that leaves no room for\nthe isolation of individuality. All this will be\nseen to harmonize perfectly with the revelations\nconcerning Nature embodied in previous chap-\nters, and need not in any way be attributed to\nmystic imaginings. The Dhyani Buddhas, or\nDhyan Chohans, are the perfected humanity of\nprevious Manwantaric epochs, and their collec-\ntive intelligence is described by the name \" Addi-\nBuddha,\" which Mr. Rhys Davids is mistaken\n\n218 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nin treating as a comparatively recent invention\nof the Northern Buddhish. Addi-Buddha means\nprimordial wisdom, and is mentioned in the\noldest Sanskrit books. For example, in the phil-\nosophical dissertation on the \" Mandnkya Upan-\nishad,\" by Gowdapatha, a Sanskrit author con-\ntemporary with Buddha himself, the expression\nis freely used and expounded in exact accord-\nance with the present statement. A friend of\nmine in India, a Brahmin pundit of first-rate\nattainments as a Sanskrit scholar, has shown\nme a copy of this book, which has never yet,\nthat he knows of, been translated into English,\nand has pointed out a sentence bearing on the\npresent question, giving me the following trans-\nlation : \" Prakriti itself, in fact, is Addi-Buddha,\nand all the Dharmas have been existing from\neternity.\" Gowdapatha is a philosophical wri-\nter respected by all Hindu and Buddhist sects\nalike, and widely known. He was the guru, or\nspiritual teacher of the first Sankaracharya, of\nwhom I shall have to speak more at length\nvery shortly.\n\nAdeptship, when Buddha incarnated, was not\nthe condensed, compact hierarchy that it has\nsince become under his influence. There has\nnever been an age of the world without its\nadepts ; but they have sometimes been scat-\ntered throughout the world ; they have some*\n\nBUDDHA. 219\n\ntimes been isolated in separate seclusions ; they\nhave gravitated now to this country, now to\nthat ; and finally, be it remembered, their\nknowledge and power has not always been\ninspired with the elevated and severe morality\nwhich Buddha infused into its latest and high-\nest organization. The reform of the occult\nworld by his instrumentality was, in fact, the\nresult of his great sacrifice ; of the self-denial\nwhich induced him to reject the blessed condi-\ntion of Nirvana to which, after his earth-life as\nBuddha, he was fully entitled, and undertake\nthe burden of renewed incarnations in order to\ncarry out more thoroughly the task he had\ntaken in hand, and confer a correspondingly\nincreased benefit on mankind. Buddha re-in-\ncarnated himself, next after his existence as\nGautama Buddha, in the person of the great\nteacher of whom but little is said in exoteric\nworks on Buddhism, but without a considera-\ntion of whose life it would be impossible to\nget a correct conception of the position in the\nEastern world of esoteric science, — namely,\nSankaracharya. The latter part of this name,\nit may be explained — acharya — merely means\nteacher. The whole name as a title is perpet-\nuated to this day under curious circumstances,\nbut the modern bearers of it are not in the\ndirect line of Buddhist spiritual incarnations.\n\n220 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nSankaracharya appeared in India — no atten-\ntion being paid to his birth, which appears to\nhave taken place on the Malabar coast — about\nsixty years after Gautama Buddha's death.\nEsoteric teaching is to the effect that Sankara-\ncharya simply was Buddha in all respects, in a\nnew body. This view will not be acceptable to\nuninitiated Hindu authorities, who attribute a\nlater date to Sankaracharya's appearance, and\nregard him as a wholly independent teacher,\neven inimical to Buddhism, but none the less\nis the statement just made the real opinion of\ninitiates in esoteric science, whether these call\nthemselves Buddhists or Hindus. I have re-\nceived the information I am now giving from a\nBrahmin Adwaiti, of Southern India, — not\ndirectly from my Tibetan instructor, — and all\ninitiated Brahmins, he assures me, would say\nthe same. Some of the later incarnations of\nBuddha are described differently as overshad-\nowings by the spirit of Buddha, but in the per-\nson of Sankaracharya he reappeared on earth.\nThe object he had in view was to fill up some\ngaps and repair certain errors in his own pre-\nvious teaching ; for there is no contention in\nesotoric Buddhism that even a Buddha can be\nabsolutely infallible at every moment of his\ncareer.\n\nThe position was as follows : Up to the time\n\nBUDDHA. 221\n\nof Buddha, the Brahmins of India had jeal-\nously reserved occult knowledge as the appan-\nage of their own caste. Exceptions were oc-\ncasionally made in favor of Tshatryas, but the\nrule was exclusive in a very high degree. This\nrule Buddha broke down, admitting all castes\nequally to the path of adeptship. The change\nmay have been perfectly right in principle, but\nit paved the way for a great deal of trouble,\nand as the Brahmins conceived for the degrada-\ntion of occult knowledge itself ; that is to say,\nits transfer to unworthy hands, — not unworthy\nmerely because of caste inferiority, but because\nof the moral inferiority which they conceived\nto be introduced into the occult fraternity, to-\ngether with brothers of low birth. The Brah-\nmin contention would not by any means be\nthat because a man should be a Brahmin it fol-\nlowed that he was necessarily virtuous and\ntrustworthy ; but the argument would be : It is\nsupremely necessary to keep out all but the vir-\ntuous and trustworthy from the secrets and\npowers of initiation. To that end it is neces-\nsary not only to set up all the ordeals, proba-\ntions, and tests we can think of, but also to\ntake no candidates except from the class which,\non the whole, by reason of its hereditary advan-\ntages, is likely to be the best nursery of fit can-\ndidates.\n\n222 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nLater experience is held on all hands now to\nhave gone far towards vindicating the Brah-\nmin apprehension, and the next incarnation of\nBuddha, after that in the person of Sankara-\ncharya, was a practical admission of this ; but\nmeanwhile, in the person of Sankaracharya,\nBuddha was engaged in smoothing over, before-\nhand, the sectarian strife in India which be saw\nimpending. The active opposition of the Brah-\nmins against Buddhism began in Asoka's time,\nwhen the great efforts made by that ruler to\nspread Buddhism provoked an apprehension on\ntheir part in reference to their social and polit-\nical ascendency. It must be remembered that\ninitiates are not wholly free in all cases from\nthe prejudices of their own individualities.\nThey possess some such god-like attributes that\noutsiders, when they first begin to understand\nsomething of these, are apt to divest them, in\nimagination, even too completely of human\nfrailties. Initiation and occult knowledge held\nin common is certainly a bond of union among\nadepts of all nationalities, which is far stronger\nthan any other bond. But it has been found\non more occasions than one to fail in obliterat-\ning all other distinctions. Thus the Buddhist\nand Brahmin initiates of the period referred to\nwere by no means of one mind on all questions,\nand the Brahmins very decidedly disapproved\n\nBUDDHA. 223\n\no^ the Buddhist reformation in its exoteric as-\npects. Chandragupta, Asoka's grandfather, was\nan upstart, and the family were Sudras. This\nwas enough to render his Buddhist policy unat-\ntractive to the representatives of the orthodox\nBrahmin faith. The struggle assumed a very\nembittered form, though ordinary history gives\nus few or no particulars. The party of primi-\ntive Buddhism was entirely worsted, and the\nBrahmin ascendency completely reestablished\nin the time of Vikramaditya, about 80 B. c.\nBut Sankaracharya had traveled all over India\nin advance of the great struggle, and had estab-\nlished various mathams, or schools of philoso-\nphy, in several important centres. He was\nonly engaged in this task for a few years, but\nthe influence of his teaching has been so stu-\npendous that its very magnitude disguises the\nchange wrought. He brought exoteric Hindu-\nism into practical harmony with the esoteric\n\" wisdom religion,\" and left the people amus-\ning themselves still with their ancient mytholo-\ngies, but leaning on philosophical guides who\nwere esoteric Buddhists to all intents and pur-\nposes, though in reconciliation .with all that\nwas ineradicable in Brahmanism. The great\nfault of previous exoteric Hinduism lay in its\nattachment to vain ceremonial and its adhesion\nto idolatrous conceptions of the divinities of the\n\n224 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nHindu pantheon. Sankaracharya emphasized,\nby his commentaries on the Upanishads, and by\nhis original writings, the necessity of pursuing\ngnyanam in order to obtain mohsha ; that is\nto say, the importance of the secret knowledge\nto spiritual progress, and the consummation\nthereof. He was the founder of the Vedantin\nsystem, — the proper meaning of Vedanta being\nthe final end or crown of knowledge, — though\nthe sanctions of that system are derived by\nhim from the writings of Vyasa, the author of\nthe \" Mahabharata,\" the \" Puranas,\" and the\n\" Brahmasntras.\" I make these statements,\nthe reader will understand, not on the basis of\nany researches of my own, — which I am not\nOriental scholar enough to attempt, — but on the\nauthority of a Brahmin initiate who is himself a\nfirst-rate Sanskrit scholar as well as an occultist.\nThe Vedantin school at present is almost co-\nextensive with Hinduism, making allowance, of\ncourse, for the existence of some special sects\nlike the Sikhs, the Vallabacharyas, or Mahara-\njah sect, of very unfair fame, and may be di-\nvided into three great divisions, — the Adwai-\ntees, the Vishishta Adwaitees, and the Dwaitees.\nThe outline of the Adwaitee doctrine is that\nbrakmum or purush, the universal spirit, acts\nonly through prakriti, matter ; that everything\ntakes place in this way through the inherent\n\nBUDDHA. 225\n\nenergy of matter. Brahinum, or Parabrahm, is\nthus a passive, incomprehensible, unconscious\nprinciple, but the essence, one life, or energy\nof the universe. In this way the doctrine is\nidentical with the transcendental materialism of\nthe adept esoteric Buddhist philosophy. The\nname Adwaitee signifies not dual, and has\nreference partly to the non-dualit}^ or unity\nof universal spirit, or Buddhist one life, as\ndistinguished from the notion of its operation\nthrough anthropomorphic emanations ; partly\nto the unity of the universal and the human\nspirit. As a natural consequence of this doc-\ntrine, the Adwaitees infer the Buddhist doctrine\nof Karma, regarding the future destin}7 of man\nas altogether depending on the causes he him-\nself engenders.\n\nThe Vishishta Adwaitees modify these views\nby the interpolation of Vishnu as a conscious\ndeity, the primary emanation of Parabrahm,\nVishnu being regarded as a personal god, capa-\nble of intervening in the course of human des-\ntiny. They do not regard yog, or spiritual\ntraining, as the proper avenue to spiritual\nachievement, but conceive this to be possible\nchiefly by means of Bhakti, or devoutness.\nRoughly stated in the phraseology of European\ntheology, the Adwaitee may thus be said to be-\nlieve only in salvation by works, the Vishishta\n\n226 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nAdwaitee in salvation by grace. The Dwaitee\ndiffers but little from the Vishishta Adwaitee,\nmerely affirming, by the designation he as-\nsumes, with increased emphasis, the duality of\nthe human spirit and the highest principle of\nthe universe, and including many ceremonial\nobservances as an essential part of Bhakti.\n\nBut all these differences of view, it must be\nborne in mind, have to do merely with the ex-\noteric variations on the fundamental idea, intro-\nduced by different teachers with varying im-\npressions as to the capacity of the populace for\nassimilating transcendental ideas. All lead-\ners of Vedantin thought look up to Sankara-\ncharya and the Mathams he established with\nthe greatest possible reverence, and their inner\nfaith runs up in all cases into the one esoteric\ndoctrine. In fact, the initiates of all schools in\nIndia interlace with one another. Except as\nregards nomenclature, the whole system of cos-\nmogony as held by the Buddhist-Arhats, and as\nset forth in this volume, is equally held by in-\nitiated Brahmins, and has been equally held\nby them since before Buddha's birth. Whence\ndid they obtain it? the reader may ask. Their\nanswer would be, From the Planetary Spirit, or\nDhyan Chohan, who first visited this planet at\nthe dawn of the human race in the present\nround period, — more millions of years ago than\n\nBUDDHA. 227\n\nI like to mention on the basis of conjecture,\nwhile the real exact number is withheld.\n\nSankaracharya founded four principal Math-\nams : one at Sringari, in Southern India, which\nhas always remained the most important ; one\nat Juggernath, in Orissa ; one at Dwaraka, in\nKathiawar ; and one at Gungotri, on the slopes\nof the Himalayas in the North. The chief of\nthe Sringari temple has always borne the desig-\nnation Sankaracharya, in addition to some in-\ndividual name. From these four centres others\nhave been established, and Mathams now exist\nall over India, exercising the utmost possible\ninfluence on Hinduism.\n\nI have said that Buddha, by his third in-\ncarnation, recognized the fact that he had, in\nthe excessive confidence of his loving trust in\nthe perfectibility of humanity, opened the doors\nof the occult sanctuary too widely. His third\nappearance was in the person of Tsong-ka-pa,\nthe great Tibetan adept reformer of the four-\nteenth centuty. In this personality he was\nexclusively concerned with the affairs of the\nadept fraternity, by that time collecting chiefly\nin Tibet.\n\nFrom time immemorial there had been a cer-\ntain secret region in Tibet, which to this day\nis quite unknown to and unapproachable by\nany but initiated persons, and inaccessible to\n\n228 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nthe ordinary people of the country as to any\nothers, in which adepts have always congre-\ngated. But the country generally was not in\nBuddha's time, as it has since become, the\nchosen habitation of the great brotherhood.\nMuch more than they are at present were the\nMahatraas in former times distributed about\nthe world. The progress of civilization, en-\ngendering the magnetism they find so trying,\nhad, however, by the date with which we are\nnow dealing — the fourteenth century — al-\nready given rise to a very general movement\ntowards Tibet on the part of the previously\ndissociated occultists. Far more widely than\nwas held to be consistent with the. safety of\nmankind was occult knowledge and power then\nfound to be disseminated. To the task of put-\nting it under the control of a rigid system of\nrule and law did Tsong-ka-pa address himself.\n\nWithout reestablishing the system on the\nprevious unreasonable basis of caste exclusive-\nness, he elaborated a code of rules for the guid-\nance of the adepts, the effect of which was to\nweed out of the occult body all but those who\nsought occult knowledge in a spirit of the most\nsublime devotion to the highest moral prin-\nciples.\n\nAn article in the \" Theosophist \" for March,\n1882, on \" Re-incarnations in Tibet,\" for the com-\n\nBUDDHA. 229\n\nplete trustworthiness of which in all its mystic\nbearings I have the highest assurance, gives a\ngreat deal of important information about the\nbranch of the subject with which we are now\nengaged, and the relations between esoteric Bud-\ndhism and Tibet, which cannot be examined too\nclosely by any one who desires an exhaustive\ncomprehension of Buddhism in its real signifi-\ncation.\n\n\" The regular system ,\" we read, \" of the\nLamaic incarnations of ' Sangyas ' (or Buddha)\nbegan with Tsong-kha-pa. This reformer is\nnot the incarnation of one of the five celestial\nDhyans, or heavenly Buddhas, as is generally\nsupposed, said to have been created by Sakya\nMuni after he had risen to Nirvana, but that of\nAmita, one of the Chinese names for Buddha.\nThe records preserved in the Gon-pa (lamasery)\nof Tda-shi Hlum-po (spelt by the English Teshu\nLumbo) show that Sangyas incarnated himself\nin Tsong-kha-pa, in consequence of the great\ndegradation his doctrines had fallen into. Until\nthen there had been no other incarnations than\nthose of the five celestial Buddhas and of their\nBuddhisatvas, each of the former having cre-\nated (read overshadowed with his spiritual wis-\ndom) five of the last named. ... It was be-\ncause, among many other reforms, Tsong-kha-pa\nforbade necromancy (which is practiced to this\n\n230 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nday, with the most disgusting rites, by fbe\nBhons, — the aborigines of Tibet, with whom\nthe Red Caps, or Shammars, had always fra-\nternized) that the latter resisted his authority.\nThis act was followed by a split between the\ntwo sects. Separating entirely from the Gya-\nlukpas, the Dugpas (Red Caps), from the first\nin a great minority, settled in various parts of\nTibet, chiefly its borderlands, and principally\nin Nepaul and Bhootan. But, while they re-\ntained a sort of independence at the monastery\nof Sakia-Djong, the Tibetan residence of their\nspiritual (?) chief, Gong-sso Rimbo-chay, the\nBhootanese have been from their beginning the\ntributaries and vassals of the Dalai Lamas.\n\n\" The Tda - shi Lamas were always more\npowerful and more highly considered than the\nDalai Lamas. The latter are the creation of\nthe Tda-shi Lama, Nabang-lob-sang, the sixth\nincarnation of Tsong-kha-pa, himself an incar-\nnation of Amitabha, or Buddha.\"\n\nSeveral writers on Buddhism have enter-\ntained a theory, which Mr. Clements Mark-\nham formulates very fully in his \" Narrative of\nthe Mission of George Bogle to Tibet,\" that\nwhereas the original scriptures of Buddhism\nwere taken to Ceylon by the son of Asoka, the\nBuddhism, which found its way into Tibet\nfrom India and China, was gradually overlaid\n\nBUDDHA. 231\n\nwith a mass of dogma and metaphysical spec-\nulation. And Professor Max Miiller says :\n\" The most important element in the Buddhist\nreform has always been its social and moral\ncode, not its metaphysical theories. That moral\ncode, taken by itself, is one of the most perfect\nwhich the world has ever known ; and it was\nthis blessing that the introduction of Buddhism\nbrought into Tibet.\"\n\n\" The blessing,\" says the authoritative article\nin the \" Theosophist,\" from which I have just\nbeen quoting, \" has remained and spread all\nover the country, there being no kinder, purer-\nminded, more simple or sin-fearing nation than\nthe Tibetans. But for all that, the popular la-\nmaism, when compared with the real esoteric\nor Arahat Buddhism of Tibet, offers a contrast\nas great as the snow trodden along a road in\nthe valley, to the pure and undefiled mass\nwhich glitters on the top of a high mountain\npeak.\"\n\nThe fact is that Ceylon is saturated with\nexoteric, and Tibet with esoteric, Buddhism.\nCeylon concerns itself merely or mainly with\nthe morals, Tibet, or rather the adepts of Tibet,\nwith the science, of Buddhism.\n\nThese explanations constitute but a sketch of\nthe whole position. I do not possess the argu-\nments nor the literary leisure which would be\n\n232 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nrequired for its amplification into a finished pic-\nture of the relations which really subsist between\nthe inner principles of Hinduism and those of\nBuddhism. And I am quite alive to the pos-\nsibility that many learned and painstaking stu-\ndents of the subject will have formed, as the\nconsequences of prolonged and erudite research,\nconclusions with which the explanations I am\nnow enabled to give may seem at first sight to\nconflict. But none the less are these expla-\nnations directly gathered from authorities to\nwhom the subject is no less familiar in its schol-\narly than in its esoteric aspect. And their\ninner knowledge throws a light upon the whole\nposition which wholly exempts them from the\ndanger of misconstruing texts and mistaking\nthe bearings of obscure symbology. To know\nwhen Gautama Buddha was born, what is re-\ncorded of his teaching, and what popular leg-\nends have gathered round his biography is to\nknow next to nothing of the real Buddha, so\nmuch greater than either the historical moral\nteacher or the fantastic demi-god of tradition.\nAnd it is only when we have comprehended the\nlink between Buddhism and Brahmanism that\nthe greatness of the esoteric doctrine rises into\nits true proportions.\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nNIRVANA.\n\nA COMPLETE assimilation of esoteric teach-\ning up to the point we have now reached will\nenable us to approach the consideration of the\nsubject which exoteric writers on Buddhism\nhave generally treated as the doctrinal starting-\npoint of that religion.\n\nHitherto, for want of any better method of\nseeking out the true meaning of Nirvana, Bud-\ndhist scholars have generally picked the word\nto pieces, and examined its roots and fragments.\nOne might as hopefully seek to ascertain the\nsmell of a flower by dissecting the paper on\nwhich its picture was painted. It is difficult\nfor minds schooled in the intellectual processes\nof physical research — as all our Western nine-\nteenth-century minds are, directly or indirectly\n— to comprehend the first spiritual state above\nthis life, that of Devachan. Such conditions of\nexistence are but partly for the understanding ;\na higher faculty must be employed to realize\nthem ; and all the more is it impossible to force\n\n234 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ntheir meaning upon another mind bywords. It\nis by first awakening that higher faculty in his\npupil, and then putting the pupil in a position\nto observe for himself, that the regular occult\nteacher proceeds in such a matter.\n\nNow there are the usual seven states of Dev-\nachan, suited to the different degrees of spirit-\nual enlightenment which the various candidates\nfor that condition may obtain ; there are rupa\nand arupa locas in Devachan, — that is to say,\nstates which take (subjective) consciousness of\nform, and states which transcend these again.\nAnd yet the highest Devachanic state in arupa\nloca is not to be compared to that wonderful\ncondition of pure spirituality which is spoken of\nas Nirvana.\n\nIn the ordinary course of Nature during a\nround, when the spiritual monad has accom-\nplished the tremendous journey from the first\nplanet to the seventh, and has finished for the\ntime being its existence there, — finished all its\nmultifarious existences 'there, with their respec-\ntive periods of Devachan between each, — the\nEgo passes into a spiritual condition different\nfrom the Devachanic state, in which, for pe-\nriods of inconceivable duration, it rests before\nresuming its circuit of the worlds. That condi-\ntion may be regarded as the Devachan of its\nDevachanic states, — a sort of review thereof,—\n\nNIRVANA. 235\n\na superior state to those reviewed, just as the\nDevachanic state belonging to any one exist-\nence on earth is a superior state to that of the\nhalf-developed spiritual aspirations or impulses\nof affection of the earth-life. That period —\nthat intercyclic period of extraordinary exalta-\ntion, as compared to any that have gone before,\nas compared even with the subjective conditions\nof the planets in the ascending arc, so greatly\nsuperior to our own as these are — is spoken\nof in esoteric science as a state of partial Nir-\nvana. Carrying on imagination through im-\nmeasurable vistas of the future, we must next\nconceive ourselves approaching the period which\nwould correspond to the intercyclic period of\nthe seventh round of humanity, in which men\nhave become as gods. The very last most ele-\nvated and glorious of the objective lives having\nbeen completed, the perfected spiritual being\nreaches a condition in which a complete recol-\nlection of all lives lived at any time in the past\nreturns to him. He can look back over the\ncurious masquerade of objective existences, as\nit will seem to him then, over the minutest de-\ntails of any of these earth-lives among the\nnumber through which he has passed, and can\ntake cognizance of them and of all things with\nwhich they were in any way associated ; for in\nregard to this planetary chain he has reached\n\n236 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nomniscience. This supreme development of\nindividuality is the great reward which Nature\nreserves not only for those who secure it pre-\nmaturely, so to speak, by the relatively brief\nbut desperate and terrible struggles which lead\nto adeptship, but also for all who by the dis-\ntinct preponderance of good over evil in the\ncharacter of the whole series of their incar-\nnations have passed through the valley of the\nshadow of death in the middle of the fifth\nround, and have worked their way up to it in\nthe sixth and seventh rounds.\n\nThis sublimely blessed state is spoken of in\nesoteric science as the threshold of Nirvana.\n\nIs it worth while to go any further in specu-\nlation as to what follows ? One may be told\nthat no state of individual consciousness, even\nthough but a phase of feeling already identified\nin a large measure with the general conscious-\nness on that level of existence, can be equal in\nspiritual elevation to absolute consciousness in\nwhich all sense of individuality is merged in the\nwhole. We may use such phrases as intellect-\nual counters, but for no ordinary mind — dom-\ninated by its physical brain and brain-born in-\ntellect — can they have a living signification.\n\nAll that words can convey is that Nirvana is\na sublime state of conscious rest in omniscience.\nIt would be ludicrous, alter all that has gone\n\nNIRVANA. 237\n\nbefore, to turn to the various discussions which\nhave been carried on by students of exoteric\nBuddhism as to whether Nirvana does or does\nnot mean annihilation. Worldly similes fall\nshort of indicating the feeling with which the\ngraduates of esoteric science regard such a ques-\ntion. Does the last penalty of the law mean\nthe highest honor of the peerage ? Is a wooden\nspoon the emblem of the most illustrious pre-\neminence in learning ? Such questions as these\nbut faintly symbolize the extravagance of the\nquestion whether Nirvana is held by Buddhism\nto be equivalent to annihilation. And in some,\nto us inconceivable, way the state of para-Nir-\nvana is spoken of as immeasurably higher than\nthat of Nirvana. I do not pretend myself to\nattach any meaning to the statement, but it\nmay serve to show to what a very transcenden-\ntal realm of thought the subject belongs.\n\nA great deal of confusion of mind respecting\nNirvana has arisen from statements made con-\ncerning Buddha. He is said to have attained\nNirvana while on earth ; he is also said to have\nforegone Nirvana in order to submit to renewed\nincarnations for the good of humanity. The\ntwo statements are quite reconcilable. As a\ngreat adept, Buddha naturally attained to that\nwhich is the great achievement of adeptship on\nearth, - — the passing of his own Ego-spirit into\n\n238 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nthe ineffable condition of Nirvana. Let it not\nbe supposed that for any adept such a passage\nis one that can be lightly undertaken. Only\nstray hints about the nature of this great mys-\ntery have reached me, but putting these to-\ngether I believe I am right in saying that the\nachievement in question is one which only some\nof the high initiates are qualified to attempt,\nwhich exacts a total suspension of animation in\nthe body for periods of time compared to which\nthe longest cataleptic trances known to ordinary\nscience are insignificant, the protection of the\nphysical frame from natural decay during this\nperiod by means which the resources of occult\nscience are strained to accomplish ; and withal\nit is a process involving a double risk to the\ncontinued earthly life of the person who un-\ndertakes it. One of these risks is the doubt\nwhether, when once Nirvana is attained, the\nEgo will be willing to return. That the return\nwill be a terrible effort and sacrifice is certain,\nand will only be prompted by the most devoted\nattachment on the part of the spiritual traveler\nto the idea of duty in its purest abstraction.\nThe second great risk is that, allowing the sense\nof duty to predominate over the temptation to\nstay, — a temptation, be it remembered, that is\nnot weakened by the notion that any conceivable\npenalty can attach to it, — even then it is al-\n\nNIRVANA. 239\n\nways doubtful whether the traveler will be able\nto return. In spite of all this, however, there\nhave been many other adepts besides Buddha\nwho have made the great passage, and for\nwhom, those about them at such times have\nsaid, the return to their prison of ignoble flesh\n— though so noble ex hypothesi compared to\nmost such tenements — has left them paralyzed\nwith depression for weeks. To begin the weary\nround of physical life again, to stoop to earth\nafter having been in Nirvana, is too dreadful\na collapse.\n\nBuddha's renunciation was in some inexpli-\ncable manner greater, again, because he not\nmerely returned from Nirvana for duty's sake,\nto finish the earth-life in which he was engaged\nas Gautama Buddha, but when all the claims\nof duty had been- fully satisfied, and his right\nof passage into Nirvana, for incalculable aeons\nentirely earned under the most enlarged view\nof his earthly mission, he gave up that reward,\nor rather postponed it for an indefinite period,\nto undertake a supererogatory series of incarna-\ntions, for the sake of humanity at large. How\nis humanity being benefited by this renuncia-\ntion ? it may be asked. But the question can\nonly be suggested in reality by that deep-seated\nhabit, we have most of us acquired, of estimat-\ning benefit by a physical standard, and even\n\n240 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nin regard to this standard of taking very short\nviews of human affairs. No one will have fol-\nlowed me through the foregoing chapter on the\nProgress of Humanity without perceiving what\nkind of benefit it would be that Buddha would\nwish to confer on men. That which is neces-\nsarily for him the great question in regard to\nhumanity is how to help as many people as pos-\nsible across the great critical period of the fifth\nround.\n\nUntil that time everything is a mere prepa-\nration for the supreme struggle, in the estima-\ntion of an adept, all the more of a Buddha.\nThe material welfare of the existing generation\nis not even as dust in the balance in such a cal-\nculation ; the only thing of importance at pres-\nent is to cultivate those tendencies in mankind\nwhich may launch as many Egos as possible\nupon such a Karmic path that the growth of\ntheir spirituality in future births will be pro-\nmoted. Certainly it is the fixed conviction of\nesoteric teachers — of the adept co-workers with\nBuddha — that the veiy process of cultivating\nsuch spirituality will immensely reduce the sum\nof even transitory human sorrow. And the\nhappiness of mankind, even in any one gener-\nation only, is by no means a matter on which\nesoteric science looks with indifference. So the\nesoteric policy is not to be considered as some-\n\nNIRVANA. 241\n\nthing so hopelessly up in the air that it will\nnever concern any of us who are living now.\nBut there are seasons of good and bad harvest\nfor wheat and barley, and so also for the de-\nsired growth of spirituality amongst men ; and\nin Europe, at all events, going by the experi-\nence of former great races, at periods of devel-\nopment corresponding to that of our own now,\nthe great present uprush of intelligence in the\ndirection of physical and material progress is\nnot likely to bring on a season of good harvests\nfor progress of the other kind. For the mo-\nment the best chance of doing good in coun-\ntries where the uprush referred to is most\nmarked is held to lie in the possibility that\nthe importance of spirituality may come to be\nperceived by intellect, even in advance of be-\ning felt, if the attention of that keen though\nunsympathetic tribunal can but be secured.\nAny success in that direction to which these\nexplanations may conduce will justify the views\nof those — but a minority™ among the esoteric\nguardians of humanity who have conceived that\nit is worth while to have them made.\n\nSo Nirvana is truly the keynote of esoteric\nBuddhism, as of the hitherto rather misdirected\nstudies of external scholars. The great end of\nthe whole stupendous evolution of humanity is\nto cultivate human souls so that they shall be\n\n242 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nultimately fit for that as yet inconceivable Con-\ndition. The great triumph of the present race\nof planetary spirits who have reached that con-\ndition themselves will be to draw thither as\nmany more Egos as possible. We are far as\nyet from the era at which we may be in serious\ndanger of disqualifying ourselves definitively\nfor such progress, but it is not too soon even\nnow to begin the great process of qualification ;\nall the more as the Karma, which will prop-\nagate itself through successive lives in that\ndirection, will carry its own reward with it, so\nthat an enlightened pursuit of our highest in-\nterests in the very remote future will coincide\nwith the pursuit of our immediate welfare in\nthe next Devachanic period, and the next re-\nbirth.\n\nWill it be argued that if the cultivation of\nspirituality is the great purpose to be followed,\nit matters little whether men pursue it along\none religious pathway or another ? This is the\nmistake which, as explained in a former chap-\nter, Buddha as Sankaracharya set himself es-\npecially to combat, — namely, the early Hindu\nbelief that moksha can be attained by bhakti\nirrespective of gnyanam ; that is, that salva-\ntion is obtainable by devout practices irrespec-\ntive of knowledge of eternal truth. The sort\nof salvation we are talking about now is not\n\nNIRVANA. 243\n\nescape from a penalty, to be achieved by cajol-\ning a celestial potentate ; it is a positive and\nnot a negative achievement, — the ascent into\nregions of spiritual elevation so exalted that\nthe candidate aiming at them is claiming that\nwhich we ordinarily describe as omniscience.\nSorely it is plain, from the way Nature habit-\nually works, that under no circumstances will\na time ever come when a person, merely by\nreason of having been good, will suddenly be-\ncome wise. The supreme goodness and ivisdom\nof the sixth-round man, who, once becoming\nthat, will assimilate by degrees the attributes\nof divinity itself, can only be grown by degrees\nthemselves ; and goodness alone, associated as\nwe so often find it with the most grotesque re-\nligious beliefs, cannot conduct a man to more\nthan Devachanic periods of devout but unin-\ntelligent rapture, and in the end, if similar con-\nditions are reproduced through many existences,\nto some painless extinction of individuality at\nthe great crisis.\n\nIt is by a steady pursuit of and desire for\nreal spiritual truth, not by an idle, however\nwell-meaning acquiescence in the fashionable\ndogmas of the nearest church, that men launch\ntheir souls into the subjective state, prepared\nto imbibe real knowledge from the latent om-\nniscience of their own sixth principles, and to\n\n244 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nre-incarnate in due time with impulses in the\nsame direction. Nothing can produce more\ndisastrous effects on human progress as regards\nthe destiny of individuals than the very preva-\nlent notion that one religion, followed out in a\npious spirit, is as good as another, and that if\nsuch and such doctrines are perhaps absurd\nwhen you look into them, the great majority of\ngood people will never think of their absurdity,\nbut will* recite them in a blamelessly devoted\nattitude of mind. One religion is by no means\nas good as another, even if all were productive\nof equally blameless lives. But I prefer to\navoid all criticism of specific faiths, leaving this\nvolume a simple and inoffensive statement of\nthe real inner doctrines of the one great re-\nligion of the world which — presenting as it\ndoes in its external aspects a bloodless and in-\nnocent record — has thus been really produc-\ntive of blameless lives throughout its whole\nexistence. Moreover, it would not be by a ser-\nvile acceptance even of its doctrines that the\ndevelopment of true spirituality is to be culti-\nvated. It is by the disposition to seek truth, to\ntest and examine all which presents itself as\nclaiming belief, that the great result is to be\nbrought about. In the East, such a resolution\nin the highest degree leads to chelaship, to the\npursuit of truth, knowledge, by the develop.\n\nNIRVANA. 245\n\nment of inner faculties by means of which it\nmay be cognized with certainty. In the West,\nthe realm of intellect, as the world is mapped\nout at present, truth unfortunately can only be\npursued and hunted out with the help of many\nwords and much wrangling and disputation.\nBut at all events it may be hunted, and, if it is\nnot finally captured, the chase on the part of\nthe hunters will have engendered instincts that\nwill propagate themselves and lead to results\nhereafter.\n\nCHAPTER XL\n\nTHE UNIVEBSE.\n\nIn all Oriental literature bearing on the con-\nstitution of all the cosmos, frequent reference\nis made to the days and the nights of Brahma ;\nthe inbreathings and the outbreathings of the\ncreative principle, the periods of manvantara1\nand the periods of pralaya. This idea runs\ninto various Eastern mythologies, but in its\nsymbolical aspects we need not follow it here.\nThe process in Nature to which it refers is of\ncourse the alternate succession of activity and\nrepose that is observable at every step of the\ngreat ascent from the infinitely small to the in-\nfinitely great. Man has a manvantara and pra-\nlaya every four-and-twenty hours, his periods\nof waking and sleeping ; vegetation follows the\nsame rule from year to year as it subsides and\nrevives with the seasons. The world too has its\n\n1 As transliterated into English, this word may be written either\nmanwantara or manvantara ; and the proper pronunciation is\nsomething between the two, with the accent on the second sylla-\nble.\n\nTHE UNIVERSE. 24JI\n\nmanvantaras and pralayas, when the tide-wave\nof humanity approaches its shore, runs through\nthe evolution of its seven races, and ebbs away\nagain ; and such a manvantara has been treated\nby most exoteric religions as the whole cycle of\neternity.\n\nThe major manvantara of our planetary\nchain is that which comes to an end when the\nlast Dhyan Chohan of the seventh round of\nperfected humanity passes into Nirvana. And\nthe expression has thus to be regarded as one\nof considerable elasticity. It may be said in-\ndeed to have infinite elasticity, and that is one\nexplanation of the confusion which has reigned\nin all treatises on Eastern religions in their pop-\nular aspects. All the root-words transferred to\npopular literature from the secret doctrine have\na seven-fold significance, at least for the initiate,\nwhile the uninitiated reader, naturally suppos-\ning that one word means one thing, and trying\nalways to clear up its meaning by collating its\nvarious applications, and striking an average,\ngets into the most hopeless embarrassment.\n\nThe planetary chain with which we are con-\ncerned is not the only one which has our sun\nas its centre. As there are other planets be-\nsides the Earth in our chain, so there are other\nchains besides this in our solar system. There\nare seven such, and there comes a time when\n\n248 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nall these go into pralaya together. This is\nspoken of as a solar pralaya, and within the\ninterval between two such pralayas the vast\nsolar manvantara covers seven pralayas and\nmanvantaras of our — and each other — plan-\netary chain. Thought is baffled, say even the\nadepts, in speculating as to how many of our\nsolar pralayas must come before the great cos-\nmic night in which the whole universe, in its\ncollective enormity, obeys what is manifestly\nthe universal law of activity and repose, and\nwith all its myriad systems passes itself into\npralaya. But even that tremendous result,\nsays esoteric science, must surely come.\n\nAfter the pralaya of a single planetary chain\nthere is no necessity for a recommencement of\nevolutionary activity absolutely de novo. There\nis only a resumption of arrested activity. The\nvegetable and animal kingdoms, which at the\nend of the last corresponding manvantara had\nreached only a partial development, are not\ndestroyed. Their life or vital energy passes\nthrough a night or period of rest ; they also\nhave, so to speak, a Nirvana of their own, as\nwhy should they not, these foetal and infant en-\ntities ? They are all like ourselves, begotten of\nthe one element. As we have our Dhyan Cho-\nhans, so have they, in their several kingdoms,\nelemental guardians, and are as well taken care\n\nTHE UNIVERSE. 249\n\nof in the mass as humanity is in the mass. The\none element not only fills space and is space,\nbut interpenetrates every atom of cosmic mat-\nter.\n\nWhen, however, the hour of the solar pralaya\nstrikes, though the process of man's advance on\nhis last seventh round is precisely the same as\nusual, each planet, instead of merely passing\nout of the visible into the invisible, as he quits\nit in turn, is annihilated. With the beginning\nof the seventh round of the seventh planetary\nchain manvantara, every kingdom having now\nreached its last cycle, there remains on each\nplanet, after the exit of man, merely the maya\nof once living and existing forms. With everv\nstep he takes on the descending and ascending\narcs, as he moves on from globe to globe the\nplanet left behind becomes an empty chrysa-\nloidal case. At his departure there is an out-\nflow from every kingdom of its entities. Wait-\ning to pass into higher forms in due time, they\nare nevertheless liberated, and to the day of the\nnext evolution they will rest in their lethargic\nsleep in space, until brought into life again at\nthe new solar manvantara. The old elementals\nwill rest till they are called on to become in\ntheir turn the bodies of mineral, vegetable, and\nanimal entities on another and a higher chain of\nglobes on their way to become human entities,\n\n250 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nwhile the germinal entities of the lowest forms\n— and at that time there will remain but few\nof such — will hang in space, like drops of\nwater suddenly turned into icicles. They will\nthaw at the first hot breath of the new solar\nmanvantara, and form the soul of the future\nglobes. The slow development of the vegeta-\nble kingdom, up to the period we are now deal-\ning with, will have been provided for by the\nlonger interplanetary rest of man. When the\nsolar pralaya comes, the whole purified human-\nity merges into Nirvana, and from that inter-\nsolar Nirvana will be reborn in the higher sys-\ntems. The strings of worlds are destroyed,\nand vanish like a shadow from the wall when\nthe light is extinguished. \" We have every\nindication,\" say the adepts, \" that at this very\nmoment such a solar pralaya is taking place,\nwhile there are two minor ones ending some-\nwhere.\"\n\nAt the beginning of the solar manvantara\nthe hitherto subjective elements of the material\nworlds, now scattered in cosmic dust, receiving\ntheir impulse from the new Dhyan Chohans of\nthe new solar system (the highest of the old\nones having gone higher) will form into pri-\nmordial ripples of life, and, separating into dif-\nferentiating centres of activity, combine in a\ngraduated scale of seven stages of evolution.\n\nTHE UNIVERSE. 251\n\nLike every other orb of space, our earth has, be-\nfore obtaining its ultimate materiality, to pass\nthrough a gamut of seven stages of density.\nNothing in this world now can give us an idea\nof what an ultimate stage of materiality is like.\nThe French astronomer Flammarion, in a book\ncalled \" La Resurrection et la Fin des Mondes,\"\nhas approached a conception of this ultimate\nmateriality. The facts are, I am informed,\nwith slight modifications, much as he surmises.\nIn consequence of what he treats as secular re-\nfrigeration, but which more truly is old age\nand loss of vital power, the solidification and\ndesiccation of the earth at last reaches a point\nwhen the whole globe becomes a relaxed con-\nglomerate. Its period of child-bearing has gone\nby ; its progeny are all nurtured ; its term of\nlife is finished. Hence its constituent masses\ncease to obey those laws of cohesion and aggre-\ngation which held them together. And becom-\ning like a corpse, which, abandoned to the work\nof destruction, leaves each molecule composing\nit free to separate itself from the body, and\nobey in future the sway of new influences, \" the\nattraction of the moon,\" suggests M. Flamma-\nrion, \" would itself undertake the task of demo-\nlition by producing a tidal wave of earth parti-\ncles instead of an aqueous tide.\" This last idea\nmust not be regarded as countenanced by oc-\n\n252 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ncult science except so far as it may serve' to\nillustrate the loss of molecular cohesion in the\nmaterial of the earth.\n\nOccult physics pass fairly into the region of\nmetaphysics, if we seek to obtain some indica-\ntion of the way in which evolution recommences\nafter a universal pralaya.\n\nThe one eternal, imperishable thing in the\nuniverse, which universal pralayas themselves\npass over without destroying, is that which\nmay be regarded indifferently as space, dura-\ntion, matter, or motion ; not as something hav-\ning these four attributes, but as something\nwhich is these four things at once, and always.\nAnd evolution takes its rise in the atomic po-\nlarity which motion engenders. In cosmogony\nthe positive and the negative, or the active and\npassive, forces correspond to the male and fe-\nmale principles. The spiritual efflux enters\ninto the veil of cosmic matter ; the active is\nattracted by the passive principle, and if we\nmay here assist imagination by having recourse\nto old occult symbology, the great Nag, the\nserpent emblem of eternity, attracts its tail to\nits mouth, forming thereby the circle of eter-\nnity, or rather cycles in eternity. The one\nand chief attribute of the universal spiritual\nprinciple, the unconscious but ever active life-\ngiver, is to expand and shed ; that of the uni-\n\nTHE UNIVERSE. 253\n\nversal material principle is to gather in and\nfecundate. Unconscious and non-existing when\nseparate, they become consciousness and life\nwhen brought together. The word Brahma\ncomes from the Sanskrit root brih, to expand,\ngrow, or fructify, esoteric cosmogony being but\nthe vivifying expansive force of Nature in its\neternal revolution. No one expression can have\ncontributed more to mislead the human mind\nin basic speculation concerning the origin of\nthings than the word \"creation.\" Talk of cre-\nation and we are continually butting against the\nfacts. But once realize that our planet and our-\nselves are no more creations than an iceberg, but\nstates of being for a given time, — that their\npresent appearance, geological and anthropolog-\nical, are transitory and but a condition concom-\nitant of that stage of evolution at which they\nhave arrived, — and the way has been prepared\nfor correct thinking. Then we are enabled to\nsee what is meant by the one and only princi-\nple or element in the universe, and by the treat-\nment of that element as androgynous ; also by\nthe proclamation of Hindu philosophy that all\nthings are but maya, transitory states, except\nthe one element which rests during the maha-\npralayas only, — the nights of Brahma.\n\nPerhaps we have now plunged deeply enough\ninto the fathomless mystery of the great First\n\n254 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nCause. It is no paradox to say that simply\nby reason of ignorance do ordinanr theologians\nthink they know so much about God. And it\nis no exaggeration to say that the wondrously\nendowed representatives of occult science, whose\nmortal nature has been so far elevated and\npurified that their perceptions range over other\nworlds and other states of existence, and com-\nmune directly with beings as much greater\nthan ordinary mankind as man is greater than\nthe insects of the field, — it is the mere truth,\nthat they never occupy themselves at all with\nany conception remotely resembling the God of\nchurches and creeds. Within the limits of the\nsolar system, the mortal adept knows, of his\nown knowledge, that all things are accounted\nfor by law, working on matter in its diverse\nforms, plus the guiding and modifying influence\nof the highest intelligences associated with the\nsolar system, the Dhyan Chohans, the perfected\nhumanity of the last preceding manvantara.\nThese Dhyan Chohans, or planetary spirits, on\nwhose nature it is almost fruitless to ponder\nuntil one can at least realize the nature of dis-\nembodied existence in one's own case, impart\nto the reawakening worlds at the end of a\nplanetary chain pralaya such impulses that ev-\nolution feels them throughout its whole prog-\nress. The limits of Nature's great law restrain\n\nTHE UNIVERSE. 255\n\ntheir action. They cannot say, Let there be\nparadise throughout space, let all men be born\nsupremely wise and good ; they can only work\nthrough the principle of evolution, and they\ncannot deny to any man who is to be invested\nwith the potentiality of development himself\ninto a Dhyan Chohan the right to do evil if\nhe prefers that to good. Nor can they prevent\nevil, if done, from producing suffering. Ob-\njective life is the soil in which the life-germs\nare planted ; spiritual existence (the expression\nbeing used, remember, in contrast merely to\ngrossly material existence) is the flower to be\nultimately obtained. But the human germ is\nsomething more than a flower-seed ; it has lib-\nerty of choice in regard to growing up or grow-\ning down, and it could not be developed with-\nout such liberty being exercised by the plant.\nThis is the necessity of evil. But within the\nlimits that logical necessity prescribes, the\nDhyan Chohan impresses his conceptions upon\nthe evolutionary tide, and comprehends the ori-\ngin of all that he beholds.\n\nSurely as we ponder in this way over the\nmagnitude of the cyclic evolution with which\nesoteric science is in this way engaged, it seems\nreasonable to postpone considerations as to the\norigin of the whole cosmos. The ordinary man\nin this earth-life, with certainly some hundred\n\n256 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nmany earth-lives to come, and then very much\nmany important inter-incarnation periods (more\nimportant, that is, as regards duration and the\nprospect of happiness or sorrow) also in pros-\npect, may surely be most wisely occupied with\nthe inquiries whose issue will affect practical\nresults than witli speculation in which he is\npractically quite uninterested. Of course from\nthe point of view of religious speculation rest-\ning on no positive knowledge of anything be-\nyond this life, nothing can be more important\nor more highly practical than conjectures as to\nthe attributes and probable intentions of the\npersonal, terrible Jehovah, pictured as an om-\nnipotent tribunal into whose presence the soul\nat its death is to be introdaced for judgment.\nBut scientific knowledge of spiritual things\nthrows back the day of judgment into a very\ndim perspective, the intervening period being\nfilled with activity of all kinds. Moreover, it\nshows mankind that certainly, for millions and\nmillions of centuries to come, it will not be con-\nfronted with any judge at all, other than that\nall-pervading judge, that seventh principle, or\nuniversal spirit, which exists everywhere, and,\noperating on matter, provokes the existence of\nman himself, and the world in which he lives,\nand the future conditions towards which he is\npressing. The seventh principle, undefinable,\n\nTEE UNIVERSE. 257\n\nincomprehensible for us at our present stages\nof enlightenment, is of course the only God\nrecognized by esoteric knowledge, and no per-\nsonification of this can be otherwise than sym-\nbolical.\n\nAnd yet in truth esoteric knowledge, giving\nlife and reality to ancient symbolism in one\ndirection as often as it conflicts with modern\ndogma in the other, shows us how far from\nabsolutely fabulous are even the most anthro-\npomorphic notions of Deity associated by ex-\noteric tradition with the beginning of the world.\nThe planetary spirit, actually incarnated among\nmen in the first round, was the prototype of\npersonal Deity in all subsequent developments\nof the idea. The mistake made by uninstructed\nmen in dealing with the idea is merely one of\ndegree. The personal God of an insignificant\nminor manvantara has been taken for the Cre-\nator of the whole cosmos, — a most natural mis-\ntake for people forced, by knowing no more of\nhuman destiny than was included in one ob-\njective incarnation, to suppose that all beyond\nwas a homogeneous spiritual future. The God\nof this life, of course, for them, was the God of\nall lives and worlds and periods.\n\nThe reader will not misunderstand me, I\ntrust, to mean that esoteric science regards the\nplanetary spirit of the first round as a god.\n\n258 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nAs I say, it is concerned with the working of\nNature in an immeasurable space, from an im-\nmeasurable past, and all through immeasurable\nfuture. The enormous areas of time and space\nin which our solar system operates is explor-\nable by the mortal adepts of esoteric science.\nWithin those limits they know all that takes\nplace and how it takes place, and they know\nthat everything is accounted for by the con-\nstructive will of the collective host of the\nplanetary spirits, operating under the law of ev-\nolution that pervades all Nature. They com-\nmune with these planetary spirits, and learn\nfrom them that the law of this is the law of\nother solar systems as well, into the regions of\nwhich the perceptive faculties of the planetary\nspirits can plunge, as the perceptive faculties\nof the adepts themselves can plunge into the\nlife of other planets of this chain. The law\nof alternating activity and repose is operating\nuniversally ; for the whole cosmos, even though\nat unthinkable intervals, pralaya must succeed\nmanvantara, and manvantara pralaya.\n\nWill any one ask, To what end does this\neternal succession work? It is better to con-\nfine the question to a single system, and ask, To\nwhat end does the original nebula arrange itself\nin planetary vortices of evolution, and develop\nworlds in which the universal spirit, reverber-\n\nTHE UNIVERSE. 259\n\nating through matter, produces form and life\nand those higher states of matter in which that\nwhich we call subjective or spiritual existence\nis provided for ? Surely it is end enough to sat-\nisfy any reasonable mind that such sublimely\nperfected beings as the planetary spirits them-\nselves come thus into existence, and live a con-\nscious life of supreme knowledge and felicity\nthrough vistas of time which are equivalent to\nall we can imagine of eternity. Into this un-\nutterable greatness every living thing has the\nopportunity of passing ultimately. The spirit\nwhich is in every animated form, and which\nhas even worked up into these from forms\nwe are generally in the habit of calling inan-\nimate, will slowly but certainly progress on-\nwards until the working of its untiring influence\nin matter has evolved a human soul. It does\nnot follow that the plants and animals around\nus have any principle evolved in them as yet\nwhich will assume a human form in the course\nof the present manvantara; but though the\ncourse of an incomplete revolution may be sus-\npended by a period of natural repose, it is not\nrendered abortive. Eventually every spiritual\nmonad, itself a sinless unconscious principle,\nwill work through conscious forms on lower\nlevels, until these, throwing off one after an-\nother higher and higher forms, will produce that\n\n260 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nin which the God-like consciousness may be\nfully evoked. Certainly it is not by reason of\nthe grandeur of any human conceptions as to\nwhat would be an adequate reason for the ex-\nistence of the universe that such a consumma-\ntion can appear an insufficient purpose, not even\nif the final destiny of the planetary spirit him-\nself, after periods to which his development\nfrom the mineral forms of primeval worlds is but\na childhood in the recollection of the man, is to\nmerge his glorified individuality into that sum\ntotal of all consciousness, which esoteric meta-\nphysics treat as absolute consciousness, which\nis non-consciousness. These paradoxical expres-\nsions are simply counters representing ideas that\nthe human mind is not qualified to apprehend,\nand it is waste of time to haggle over them.\n\nThese considerations supply the key to eso-\nteric Buddhism, a more direct outcome of the\nuniversal esoteric doctrine than any other pop-\nular religion ; for the effort in its construction\nhas been to make men love virtue for its own\nsake and for its good effect on their future\nincarnations, not to keep them in subjection\nto any priestly system or dogma by terrifying\ntheir fancy with the doctrine of a personal\njudge waiting to try them for more than their\nlives at their death. Mr. Lillie is mistaken,\nadmirable as his intention has been, and sym«\n\nTHE UNIVERSE. 261\n\npathetic as his mind evidently is with the beau-\ntiful morality and aspiration of Buddhism, in\ndeducing from its temple ritual the notion of a\npersonal God. No such conception enters into\nthe great esoteric doctrine of Nature, of which\nthis volume has furnished an imperfect sketch.\nNor even in reference to the farthest regions of\nthe immensity beyond our own planetary sys-\ntem does the adept exponent of the esoteric\ndoctrine tolerate the adoption of an agnostic\nattitude. It will not suffice for him to say,\n\"As far as the elevated senses of planetary\nspirits, whose cognition extends to the outer-\nmost limits of the starry heavens, — as far as\ntheir vision can extend Nature is self-sufficing ;\nas to what may lie beyond we offer no hypoth-\nesis.\" What the adept really says on this head\nis, \" The universe is boundless, and it is a stul-\ntification of thought to talk of any hypothesis\nsetting in beyond the boundless, — on the other\nside of the limits of the limitless.\"\n\nThat which antedates every manifestation of\nthe universe, and would lie beyond the limit of\nmanifestation, if such limit could ever be found,\nis that which underlies the manifested universe\nwithin our own purview, — matter animated\nby motion, its parabrahm, or spirit. Matter,\nspace, motion, and duration constitute one and\nthe same eternal substance of the universe.\n\n262 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nThere is nothing else eternal absolutely. That\nis the first state of matter, itself perfectly un-\ncognizable by physical senses, which deal witlji\nmanifested matter, another state altogether.\nBut though thus, in one sense of the word, ma-\nterialistic, the esoteric doctrine, as any reader\nof the foregoing explanations will have seen, is\nas far from resembling the gross narrow-minded\nconception of Nature, which ordinarily goes by\nthe name of materialism, as the north pole\nlooks away from the south. It stoops to ma-\nterialism, as it were, to link its methods with\nthe logic of that system, and ascends to the\nhighest realms of idealism to embrace and ex-\npound the most exalted aspirations of spirit.\nAs it cannot be too frequently or earnestly re-\npeated, it is the union of science with Religion,\n— the bridge by which the most acute and cau-\ntious pursuers of experimental knowledge may\ncross over to the most enthusiastic devotee, by\nmeans of which the most enthusiastic devotee\nmay return to earth and yet keep heaven still\naround him.\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED.\n\nLong familiarity with the esoteric doctrine\nwill alone give rise to a full perception of the\nmanner in which it harmonizes with facts of\nNature such as we are all in a position to ob-\nserve. But something may be done to indi-\ncate the correspondences that may be traced\nbetween the whole body of teaching now set\nforth and the phenomena of the world around\nus.\n\nBeginning with the two great perplexities of\nordinary philosophy, — the conflict between free-\nwill and predestination and the origin of evil, —\nit will surely be recognized that the system\nof Nature now explained enables us to deal\nwith those problems more boldly than they have\never yet been handled. Till now the most pru-\ndent thinkers have been least disposed to pro-\nfess that either by the aid of metaphysics or\nreligion could the mystery of free-will and\npredestination be unraveled. The tendency of\nthought has been to relegate the whole enigma\n\n264 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nto the region of the unknowable. And strange\nto say this has been done contentedly by peo-\nple who have been none the less contented to\naccept as more than a provisional hypothesis\nthe religious doctrines which thus remained in-\ncapable of reconciliation with some of their\nown most obvious consequences. The omnis-\ncience of a personal Creator, ranging over the\nfuture as well as the past, left man no room to\nexercise the independent authority over his\nown destinies, which nevertheless it was ab-\nsolutely necessary to allow him to exercise in\norder that the policy of punishing or rewarding\nhim for his acts in life could be recognized as\nanything but the most grotesque injustice. One\ngreat English philosopher, frankly facing the\nembarrassment, declared in a famous posthu-\nmous essay that by reason of these considera-\ntions it was impossible that God could be all-\ngood and all-potent. People were free to in-\nvest him logically with one or other of these\nattributes, but not with both. The argument\nwas treated with the respect due to the great\nreputation of its author, and put aside with the\ndiscretion due to respect for orthodox tenets.\n\nBut the esoteric doctrine comes to our rescue\nin this emergency. First of all it honestly takes\ninto account the insignificant size of this world\ncompared to the universe. This is a fact of\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 265\n\nNature, which the early Christian church feared\nwith a true instinct, and treated with the\ncruelty of terror. The truth was denied, and\nits authors were tortured for many centuries.\nEstablished at last beyond even the authority\nof papal negations, the church resorted to the\n\"desperate expedient,\" to quote Mr. Rhys\nDavids' phrase, of pretending that it did not\nmatter.\n\nThe pretense till now has been more success-\nful than its authors could have hoped. When\nthey dreaded astronomical discovery, they were\ncrediting the world at large with more remorse-\nless logic than it ultimately showed any in-\nclination to employ. People have been found\nwilling, as a rule, to do that which I have de-\nscribed esoteric Buddhism as not requiring us\nto do, — to keep their science and their relig-\nion in separate water-tight compartments. So\nlong and so thoroughly has this principle been\nworked upon that it has finally ceased to be\nan argument against the credibility of a relig-\nious dogma to point out that it is impossible.\nBut when we establish a connection between\nour hitherto divided reservoirs and require\nthem to stand at the same level, we cannot\nfail to see how the insignificance of the earth's\nmagnitude diminishes in a corresponding pro-\nportion the plausibility of theories that require\n\n266 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nus to regard the details of our own lives' as\npart of the general stock of a universal Crea-\ntor's omniscience. On the contrary, it is un-\nreasonable to suppose that the creatures inhab-\niting one of the smaller planets of one of the\nsmaller suns in the ocean of the universe, where\nsuns are but water-drops in the sea, are exempt\nin any way from the general principle of gov-\nernment by law. But that principle cannot co-\nexist with government by caprice, which is an\nessential condition of such predestination as\nconventional discussions of the problems before\nus associate with the use of the word. For,\nbe it observed that the predestination which\nconflicts with free-will is not the predestina-\ntion of races, but individual predestination,\nassociated with the ideas of divine grace or\nwrath. The predestination of races, under laws\nanalogous to those which control the general\ntendency of any multitude of independent\nchances, is perfectly compatible with individual\nfree-will, and thus it is that the esoteric doc-\ntrine reconciles the long-standing contradiction\nof Nature. Man has control over his own des-\ntiny within constitutional limits, so to speak ;\nhe is perfectly free to make use of his natural\nrights as far as they go, and they go practically\nto infinity as far as he, the individual unit, is\nconcerned. But the average human action,\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 267\n\nunder given conditions, taking a vast multiplic-\nity of units into account, provides for the un-\nfailing evolution of the cycles which constitute\ntheir collective destiny.\n\nIndividual predestination, it is true, may be\nasserted, not as a religious dogma having to do\nwith divine grace or wrath, but on purely met-\naphysical grounds ; that is to say, it may be\nargued that each human creature is fundamen-\ntally, in infancy, subject to the same influence\nby similar circumstances, and that an adult life\nis thus merely the product or impression of all\nthe circumstances which have influenced such a\nlife from the beginning, so that if those circum-\nstances were known the moral and intellectual\nresult would be known. By this train of reason-\ning it can be made to appear that the circum-\nstances of each man's life may be theoretically\nknowable by a sufficiently searching intelli-\ngence ; that hereditary tendencies, for example,\nare but products of antecedent circumstances\nentering into any given calculation as a pertur-\nbation, but not the less calculable on that ac-\ncount. This contention, however, is no less in\ndirect conflict with the consciousness of human-\nity than the religious dogma of individual pre-\ndestination. The sense of free-will is a factor\nin the process which cannot be ignored, and the\nfree-will of which we are thus sensible is not a\n\n268 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nmere automatic impulse, like the twitching of a\ndead frog's leg. The ordinary religious dogma\nand the ordinary metaphysical argument both\nrequire us to regard it in that light ; but the\nesoteric doctrine restores it to its true dignity,\nand shows us the scope of its activity, the lim-\nits of its sovereignty. It is sovereign over the\nindividual career, but impotent in presence of\nthe cyclic law, which even so positive a philos-\nopher as Draper detects in human history, —\nbrief as the period is which he is enabled to ob-\nserve. And none the less does that collateral\nquicksand of thought which J. S. Mill discerned\nalongside the contradictions of theology — the\ngreat question whether speculation must work\nwith the all-good or all-potent hypothesis —\nfind its explanation in the system now dis-\nclosed. Those great beings, the perfected efflo-\nrescence of former humanity, who, though far\nfrom constituting a supreme God, reign never-\ntheless in a divine way over the destinies of our\nworld, are not only not omnipotent, but, great\nas they are, are restricted as regards their ac-\ntion by comparatively narrow limits. It would\nseem as if, when the stage is, so to speak, pre-\npared afresh for a new drama of life, they are\nable to introduce some improvements into the\naction, derived from their own experience in\nthe drama with which they were concerned.\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 269\n\nbut are only capable, as regards the main con-\nstruction of the piece, of repeating that which\nhas been represented before. They can do on\na large scale what a gardener can do with dah-\nlias on a small one ; he can evolve considerable\nimprovements in form and color, but his flow-\ners, however carefully tended, will be dahlias\nstill.\n\nIs it nothing, one may ask in passing, in sup-\nport of the acceptability of the esoteric doctrine,\nthat natural analogies support it at every turn ?\nAs it is below, so it is above, wrote the early\noccult philosophers ; the microcosm is a mirror\nof the macrocosm. All Nature lying within\nthe sphere of our physical observation verifies\nthe rule, so far as that limited area can exhibit\nany principles. The structure of lower animals\nis reproduced with modifications in higher ani-\nmals, and in man ; the fine fibres of the leaf\nramify like the branches of the tree, and the\nmicroscope follows such ramifications, repeated\nbeyond the range of the naked eye. The dust-\nladen currents of rain-water by the roadside\ndeposit therein \" sedimentary rocks \" in the\npuddles they develop, just as the rivers do in\nthe lakes and the great waters of the world over\nthe sea-bed. The geological work of a pond\nand that of an ocean differ merely in their\nscale, and it is only in scale that the esoteric\n\n270 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ndoctrine shows the sublimest laws of Nature\ndiffering, in their jurisdiction over the man\nand their jurisdiction over the planetary family.\nAs the children of each human generation are\ntended in infancy by their parents, and grow\nup to tend another generation in their turn, so\nin the whole humanity of the great manvantaric\nperiods the men of one generation grow to be\nthe Dhyan Chohans of the next, and then yield\ntheir places in the ultimate progress of time to\ntheir descendants, and pass themselves to higher\nconditions of existence.\n\nNot less decisively than it answers the ques-\ntion about free-will does the esoteric doctrine\ndeal with the existence of evil. This subject\nhas been discussed in its place in the preceding\nchapter on the Progress of Humanity, but the\nesoteric doctrine, it will be seen, grapples with\nthe great problem more closely than by the\nmere enunciation of the way human free-will,\nwhich it is the purpose of Nature to grow, and\ncultivate into Dhyan Chohanship, must by the\nhypothesis be free to develop evil itself if it\nlikes. So much for the broad principle in oper-\nation ; but the way it works is traceable in the\npresent teaching as clearly as the principle it-\nself. It works through physical Karma, and\ncould not but work that way except by a sus-\npension of the invariable law that causes can.\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 271\n\nnot but produce effects. The objective man\nborn into the physical world is just as much\nthe creation of the person he last animated as\nthe subjective man who has in the interim been\nliving the Devachanic existence. The evil that\nmen do lives after them, in a more literal sense\neven than Shakespeare intended by those words.\nIt may be asked, How can the moral guilt of a\nman in one life cause him to be born blind or\ncrippled at a different period of the world's his-\ntory several thousand years later, of parents\nwith whom he has had, through his former life,\nno lack of physical connection whatever? But\nthe difficulty is met b}^ considering the opera-\ntion of affinities more easily than may be im-\nagined at the first glance. The blind or crip-\npled child, as regards his physical frame, may\nhave been the potentiality rather than the prod-\nuct of local circumstances. But he would not\nhave come into existence unless there had been\na spiritual monad pressing forward for incarna-\ntion, and bearing with it a fifth principle (so\nmuch of a fifth principle as is persistent, of\ncourse) precisely adapted by its Karma to in-\nhabit that potential body. Given these circum-\nstances, and the imperfectly organized child is\nconceived and brought into the world, to be a\ncause of trouble to himself and others — an\neffect becoming a cause in its turn — and a liv-\n\n272 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ning enigma for philosophers endeavoring to ex-\nplain the origin of evil.\n\nThe same explanation applies, with modifica-\ntions, to a vast range of cases that might be\ncited to illustrate the problem of evil in the\nworld. Incidentally, moreover, it covers a ques-\ntion connected with the operation of the Karmic\nlaw that can hardly be called a difficulty, as\nthe answer would probably be suggested by the\nbearings of the doctrine itself, but is none the\nless entitled to notice. The selective assimi-\nlation of Karma-laden spirits with parentage\nwhich corresponds to their necessities or deserts\nis the obvious explanation which reconciles\nrebirth with atavism and heredity. The child\nborn may seem to reproduce the moral and\nmental peculiarities of parents or ancestors as\nwell as their physical likeness, and the fact\nsuggests the notion that his soul is as much an\noffshoot of the family tree as his physical frame.\nIt is unnecessary to enlarge here on the multi-\nfarious embarrassments by which that theory\nwould be surrounded, on the extravagance of\nsupposing that a soul thus thrown off, like a\nspark from an anvil, without any spiritual past\nbehind it, can have a spiritual future before it.\nThe soul, which was thus merely a function of\nthe body, would certainly come to an end with\nthe dissolution of that out of which it arose\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 273\n\nThe esoteric doctrine, however, as regards trans-\nmitted characteristics, will afford a complete\nexplanation of that phenomenon, as well as all\nothers connected with human life. The family\ninto which he is born is to the re-incarnating\nspirit what a new planet is to the whole tide\nof humanity on a round along the manvantaric\nchain. It has been built up by a process of\nevolution working on a line transverse to that\nof humanity's approach ; but it is fit for human-\nity to inhabit when the time comes. So with\nthe re -incarnating spirit: it presses forward\ninto the objective world, the influences which\nhave retained it in the Devachanic state having\nbeen exhausted, and it touches the spring of\nNature, so to speak, provoking the development\nof a child which without such an impulse would\nmerely have been a potentiality, not an actual\ndevelopment, but in whose parentage it finds\n— of course unconsciously by the blind opera-\ntion of its affinities — the exact conditions of\nrenewed life for which it has prepared itself\nduring its last existence. Certainly we must\nnever forget the presence of exceptions in all\nbroad rules of Nature. In the present case\nit may sometimes happen that mere accident\ncauses an injury to a child at birth. Thus a\ncrippled frame may come to be bestowed on a\nspirit whose Karma has by no means earned\n\n274 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nthat penalty, and so with a great variety of ac-\ncidents. But of these all that need be said is\nthat Nature is not at all embarrassed by her\naccidents ; she has ample time to repair them.\nThe undeserved suffering of one life is amply\nredressed under the operation of the Karmic\nlaw in the next or the next. There is plenty\nof time for making the account even, and the\nadepts declare, I believe, that, as a matter of\nfact, in the long run undeserved suffering oper-\nates as good luck rather than otherwise, thereby\nderiving from a purely scientific observation\nof facts a doctrine which religion has benevo-\nlently invented sometimes for the consolation of\nthe afflicted.\n\nWhile the esoteric doctrine affords in this\nway an unexpected solution of the most per-\nplexing phenomena of life, it does this at no\nsacrifice in any direction of the attributes we\nmay fairly expect of a true religious science.\nForemost among the claims we may make on\nsuch a system is that it shall contemplate\nno injustice, either in the direction of wrong\ndone to the deserving, or of benefits bestowed\non the undeserving ; and the justice of its oper-\nation must be discernible in great things and\nsmall alike. The legal maxim, de minimis non\ncurat lex, is means of escape for human fallibil.\nity from the consequences of its own imperfec-\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 275\n\ntions. -There is no such thing as indifference\nto small things in chemistry or mechanics.\nNature in physical operations responds with ex-\nactitude to small causes as certainly as to great,\nand we may feel instinctively sure that in her\nspiritual operations also she has no clumsy habit\nof treating trifles as of no consequence, of ig-\nnoring small debts in consideration of paying\nbig ones, like a trader of doubtful integrity con-\ntent to respect obligations which are serious\nenough to be enforced by law. Now the minor\nacts of life, good and bad alike, are of necessity\nignored under any system which makes the final\nquestion at stake, admission to or exclusion\nfrom a uniform or approximately uniform con-\ndition of blessedness. Even as regards that\nmerit and demerit which is solely concerned\nwith spiritual consequences, no accurate re-\nsponse could be made by Nature except by\nmeans of that infinitely graduated condition\nof spiritual existence described by the esoteric\ndoctrine as the Devachanic state. But the\ncomplexity to be dealt with is more serious than\neven the various conditions of Devachanic ex-\nistence can meet. No system of consequences\nensuing to mankind after the life now under\nobservation can be recognized as adapted sci-\nentifically to the emergency, unless it responds\nto the sense of justice, in regard to the multi-\n\n276 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nfarious acts and habits of life generall}T, includ-\ning those which merely relate to physical ex-\nistence, and are not deeply colored by right or\nwrong.\n\nNow, it is only by a return to physical exist-\nence that people can possibly be conceived to\nreap with precise accuracy the harvest of the\nminor causes they may have generated, when\nlast in objective life. Thus, on a careful exam-\nination of the matter, the Karmic law, so unat-\ntractive to Buddhist students, hitherto, in its\nexoteric shape, — and no wonder, — will be seen\nnot only to reconcile itself to the sense of justice,\nbut to constitute the only imaginable method\nof natural action that would do this. The con-\ntinued individuality running through successive\nKarmic re-births once realized, and the corre-\nsponding chain of personal existences interca-\nlated between each borne in mind, the exquisite\ns}7mmetry of the whole system is in no way\nimpaired by that feature which seems obnoxious\nto criticism at the first glance, — the successive\nbaths of oblivion, through which the re-incar-\nnating spirit has to pass. On the contrary,\nthat oblivion itself is in truth the only condition\nDn which objective life could fairly be started\nafresh. Few earth-lives are entirely free from\nshadows, the recollection of which would darken\na renewed lease of life for the former personal\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 211\n\nity. And if it is alleged that the forgetfulness\nin each life of the last involves waste of experi-\nence and effort and intellectual acquirements,\npainfully or laboriously obtained, that objection\ncan only be raised in forgetfulness of the Deva\nchanic life, in which, far from being wasted,\nsuch efforts and acquirements are the seeds\nfrom which the whole magnificent harvest of\nspiritual results will be raised. In the same\nway, the longer the esoteric doctrine occupies\nthe mind the more clearly it is seen that every\nobjection brought against it meets with a ready\nreply, and only seems an objection from the\npoint of view of imperfect knowledge.\n\nPassing from abstract considerations to oth-\ners partty interwoven with practical matters,\nwe may compare the esoteric doctrine with the\nobservable facts of Nature in several ways with\nthe view of directly checking its teachings. A\nspiritual science which has successfully divined\nthe absolute truth must accurately fit the facts\nof earth whenever it impinges on earth. A\nreligious dogma in flagrant opposition to that\nwhich is manifestly truth in respect of geology\nand astronomy may find churches and congre-\ngations content to nurse it, but is not worth\nserious philosophical consideration. How then\ndoes the esoteric doctrine square with geology\nand astronomy ?\n\n278 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nIt is not too much to say that it constitutes\nthe only religious system that blends itself ea-\nsily with the physical truths discovered by mod-\nern research in those branches of science. It\nnot only blends itself with, in the sense of tol-\nerating, the nebula hypothesis and the stratifi-\ncation of rocks ; it rushes into the arms of these\nfacts, so to speak, and could not get on without\nthem. It could not get on without the great\ndiscoveries of modern biology ; as a system rec-\nommending itself to notice in a scientific age it\ncould ill afford to dispense with the latest ac-\nquisitions of physical geography, and it may\noffer a word of thanks even to Professor Tyndall\nfor some of his experiments on light, for he\nseems on one occasion, as he describes the phe-\nnomenon without knowing what he is describ-\ning, in \" Fragments of Science,\" to have pro-\nvoked conditions within a glass tube which en-\nabled him for a short time to see the elementals.\n\nThe stratification of the earth's crust is, of\ncourse, a plain and visible record of the inter-\nracial cataclysms. Physical science is emerging\nfrom the habits of timidity, which its insolent\noppression by religious bigotry for fifteen cen-\nturies engendered, but it is still a little shy in\nits relations with dogma, from the mere force\nof habit. In that way, geology has been con«\ntent to say, such and such continents, as then\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 279\n\nshell-beds testify, must have been more than\nonce submerged below and elevated above the\nsurface of the ocean. It has not yet grown used\nto the free application of its own materials to\nspeculation, which trenches upon religious ter-\nritory. But surely if geology were required to\ninterpret all its facts into a consistent history\nof the earth, throwing in the most plausible\nhypotheses it could invent to rill up gaps in its\nknowledge, it would already construct a history\nfor mankind which in its broad outlines would\nnot be unlike that sketched out in the chap-\nter on the Great World Periods ; and the fur-\nther geological discovery progresses, our esoteric\nteachers assure us, the more closely will the\ncorrespondence of the doctrine and the bony\ntraces of the past be recognized. Already we\nfind experts from the Challenger vouching for\nthe existence of Atlantis, though the subject be-\nlongs to a class of problems unattractive to the\nscientific world generally, so that the considera-\ntions in favor of the lost continent are not yet\ngenerally appreciated. Already thoughtful ge-\nologists are quite ready to recognize that in\nregard to the forces which have fashioned the\nearth this, the period within the range of his-\ntoric traces, may be a period of comparative\ninertia and slow change ; that cataclysmal met-\namorphoses may have been added formerly to\n\n280 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nthose of gradual subsidence, upheaval, and de-\nnudation. It is only a step or two to the rec-\nognition as a fact of what no one could any\nlonger find fault with as a hypothesis : that\ngreat continental upheavals and submergences\ntake place alternately ; that the whole map of\nthe world is not only thrown occasionally into\nnew shapes, like the pictures of a kaleidoscope\nas its colored fragments fall into new arrange-\nments, but subject to systematically recurrent\nchanges, which restore former arrangements at\nenormous intervals of time.\n\nPending further discoveries, however, it will,\nperhaps, be admitted that we have a sufficient\nblock of geological knowledge already in our\npossession to fortify the cosmogony of the eso-\nteric doctrine. That the doctrine should have\nbeen withheld from the world generally as long\nas no such knowledge had paved the way for\nits reception can hardly be considered indis-\ncreet for the part of its custodians. Whether\nthe present generation will attach sufficient im-\nportance to its correspondence with what has\nbeen ascertained of Nature in other ways re-\nmains to be seen.\n\nThese correspondences may, of course, be\ntraced in biology as decisively as in geology.\nThe broad Darwinian theory of the Descent of\nMan from the animal kingdom is not the only\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 281\n\nsupport afforded by this branch of science to\nthe esoteric doctrine. The detailed observa-\ntions now carried out in embryology are espe-\ncially interesting for the light they throw on\nmore than one department of this doctrine.\nThus the now familiar truth that the succes-\nsive stages of ante-natal human development\ncorrespond to the progress of human evolution\nthrough different forms of animal life is noth-\ning less than a revelation, in its analogical bear-\nings. It does not merely fortify the evolution-\nary hypothesis itself ; it affords a remarkable\nillustration of the way Nature works in the\nevolution of new races of men at the beginning\nof the great round periods. When a child has\nto be developed from a germ which is so simple\nin its constitution that it is typical less of the\nanimal — less even of the vegetable — than of\nthe mineral kingdom, the familiar scale of evo-\nlution is run over, so to speak, with a rapid\ntouch. The ideas of progress which may have\ntaken countless ages to work out in a connected\nchain for the first time are once for all firmly\nlodged in Nature's memory, and thenceforth\nthey can be quickly recalled in order, in a few\nmonths. So with the new evolution of human-\nity on each planet as the human tide-wave of\nlife advances. In the first round the process is\nexceedingly slow, and does not advance far.\n\n282 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nThe ideas of Nature are themselves under' ev-\nolution. But when the process has been ac-\ncomplished once it can be quickly repeated.\nIn the later rounds, the life impulse runs up\nthe gamut of evolution with a facility only\nconceivable by help of the illustration which\nembryology affords. This is the explanation\nof the way the character of each round differs\nfrom its predecessor. The evolutionary work\nwhich has been once accomplished is soon re-\npeated ; then the round performs its own evo-\nlution at a very different rate, as the child, once\nperfected up to the human type, performs its\nown individual growth but slowly, in proportion\nto the earlier stages of its initial development.\n\nNo elaborate comparison of exoteric Bud-\ndhism with the views of Nature which have now\nbeen set forth — briefly, indeed, considering\ntheir scope and importance, but comprehensive-\nly enough to furnish the reader with a general\nidea of the system in its whole enormous range\n— will be required from me. With the help of\nthe information now communicated, more ex-\nperienced students of Buddhist literature will be\nbetter able to apply to the enigmas that it may\ncontain the keys which will unlock their mean-\ning. The gaps in the public records of Bud-\ndha's teaching will be filled up readily enough\nnow, and it will be plain why they were left.\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 283\n\nFor example, in Mr. Rhys Davids' book I find\nthis : \" Buddhism does not attempt to solve the\nproblem of the primary origin of all things ; \"\nand quoting from Hardy's \"Manual of Bud-\ndhism,\" he goes on, \" When Malunka asked the\nBuddha whether the existence of the world is\neternal or not eternal, he made him no reply ;\nbut the reason of this was that it was considered\nby the teacher as an inquiry that tended to no\nprofit.\" In reality the subject was manifestly\npassed over because it could not be dealt with\nby a plain yes or no, without putting the in-\nquirer upon a false scent ; while to put him on\nthe true scent would have required a complete\nexposition of the whole doctrine about the ev-\nolution of the planetary chain, an explanation\nof that for which the community Buddha was\ndealing with was not intellectually ripe. To\ninfer from his silence that he regarded the in-\nquiry itself as tending to no profit is a mistake\nwhich may naturally enough have been made\nin the absence of any collateral knowledge, but\nnone can be more complete in reality. No re-\nligious system that ever publicly employed it-\nself on the problem of the origin of all things\nhas, as will now be seen, done more than scratch\nthe surface of that speculation, in comparison\nwith the exhaustive researches of the esoteric\nscience of which Buddha was no less prominent\n\nESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nan exponent than he was a prominent teacher\nof morals for the populace.\n\nThe positive conclusions as to what Bud-\ndhism does teach — carefully as he has worked\nthem out — are no less inaccurately set forth\nby Mr. Rhys Davids than the negative conclu-\nsion just quoted. It was inevitable that all\nsuch conclusions should hitherto be inaccurate.\nI quote an example, not to disparage the careful\nstudy of which it is the fruit, but to show how\nthe light now shed over the whole subject pen-\netrates every cranny and puts an entirely new\ncomplexion on all its features : —\n\n\" Buddhism takes as its ultimate fact the ex-\nistence of the material world, and of conscious\nbeings living within it ; and it holds that every-\nthing is subject to the law of cause and ef-\nfect, and that everything is constantly, though\nimperceptibly, changing. There is no place\nwhere this law does not operate ; no heaven\nor hell, therefore, in the ordinary sense. There\nare worlds where angels live, whose existence\nis more or less material according as their pre-\nvious lives were more or less holy ; but the\nangels die, and the worlds they inhabit pass\naway. There are places of torment, where the\nevil actions of men or angels produce unhappy\nbeings ; but when the active power of the evil\nthat produced them is exhausted, they will\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 285\n\nvanish, and the worlds they inhabit are not\neternal. The whole Kosmos — earth and heav-\nens and hells — is always tending to renova-\ntion or destruction, is always in a course of\nchange, a series of revolutions or of cycles, of\nwhich the beginning and the end alike are\nunknowable and unknown. To this universal\nlaw of composition and dissolution men and\ngods form no exception ; the unity of forces\nwhich constitutes a sentient being must sooner\nor later be dissolved, and it is only through\nignorance and delusion that such a being in-\ndulges in the dream that it is a separable and\nself-existent entity.\"\n\nNow certainly this passage might be taken to\nshow how the popular notions of Buddhist phi-\nlosophy are manifestly thrown off from the real\nesoteric philosophy. Most assuredly that phi-\nlosophy no more finds in the universe than in\nthe belief of any truly enlightened thinker, Asi-\natic or European, the unchangeable and eter-\nnal heaven and hell of monkish legend ; and\n\"the worlds where angels live,\" and so on, —\nthe vividly real though subjective strata of the\nDevachanic state, — are found in Nature truly\nenough. So with all the rest of the popular\nBuddhist conceptions just passed in review.\nBut in their popular form they are the nearest\ncaricatures of the corresponding items of eso-\n\n286 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nteric knowledge. Thus the notion about indi-\nviduality being a delusion, and the ultimate\ndissolution as such of the sentient being, is\nperfectly unintelligible without fuller explana-\ntions concerning the multitudinous aeons of in-\ndividual life, in as yet, to us, inconceivable but\never-progressive conditions of spiritual exalta-\ntion, which come before that unutterably remote\nmergence into the non-individualized condition.\nThat condition certainly must be somewhere in\nfuturity, but its nature is something which no\nuninitiated philosopher, at any rate, has ever\nyet comprehended by so much as the faintest\nglimmering guess. As with the idea of Nir-\nvana, so with this about the delusion of indi-\nviduality, writers on Buddhist doctrine derived\nfrom exoteric sources have most unfortunately\nfound themselves entangled with some of the\nremote elements of the great doctrine, under\nthe impression that they were dealing with\nBuddhist views of conditions immediately suc-\nceeding this life. The statement, which is al-\nmost absurd, thus put out of its proper place in\nthe whole doctrine, may be felt not only as no\nlonger an outrage on the understanding, but\nas a sublime truth when restored to its proper\nplace in relation to other truths. The ultimate\nmergence of the perfected man-god, or Dhyan\nChohan, in the absolute consciousness of para\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 287\n\nnirvana has nothing to do, let me add, with\nthe \" heresy of individuality,\" which relates to\nphysical personalities. To this subject I recur\na little later on.\n\nJustly enough, Mr. Rhys Davids says, in ref-\nerence to the epitome of Buddhist doctrine\nquoted above : \" Such teachings are by no\nmeans peculiar to Buddhism, and similar ideas\nlie at the foundation of earlier Indian philoso-\nphies.\" (Certainly by reason of the fact that\nBuddhism as concerned with doctrine was ear-\nlier Indian philosophy itself.) \" They are to\nbe found, indeed, in other systems widely sepa-\nrated from them in time and place ; and Bud-\ndhism, in dealing with the truth which they\ncontain, might have given a more decisive and\nmore lasting utterance if it had not also bor-\nrowed a belief in the curious doctrine of trans-\nmigration,— a doctrine which seems to have\narisen independently, if not simultaneously, in\nthe valley of the Ganges and the valley of the\nNile. The word transmigration has been used,\nhowever, in different times and at different\nplaces for theories similar, indeed, but very dif-\nferent ; and Buddhism, in adopting the general\nidea from post-Vedic Brahmanism, so modified\nit as to originate, in fact, a new hypothesis.\nThe new hypothesis, like the old one, related to\nlife in past and future bii'ths, and contributed\n\n288 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nnothing to the removal here, in this life, of the\nevil it was supposed to explain.\"\n\nThe present volume should have dissipated\nthe misapprehensions on which these remarks\nrest. Buddhism does not believe in anything\nresembling the passage backwards and forwards\nbetween animal and human forms, which most\npeople conceive to be meant by the principle of\ntransmigration. The transmigration of Bud-\ndhism is the transmigration of Darwinian evo-\nlution scientifically developed, or rather exhaust-\nively explored, in both directions. Buddhist\nwritings certainly contain allusions to former\nbirths, in which even the Buddha himself was\nnow one and now another kind of animal. But\nthese had reference to the remote course of pre-\nhuman evolution, of which his fully opened\nvision gave him a retrospect. Never in any\nauthentic Buddhist writings will any support\nbe found for the notion that any human crea-\nture, once having attained manhood, falls back\ninto the animal kingdom. Again, while noth-\ning, indeed, could be more ineffectual as an ex-\nplanation of the origin of evil than such a cari-\ncature of transmigration as would contemplate\nsuch a return, the progressive re-births of human\nEgos into objective existence, coupled with the\noperation of physical Karma and the inevitable\nplay of free-will within the limits of its privi\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 289\n\nlege, do explain the origin of evil, finally and\ncompletely. The effort of Nature being to grow\na new harvest of Dhyan Chohans whenever a\nplanetary system is evolved, the incidental de-\nvelopment of transitory evil is an unavoidable\nconsequence under the operation of the forces\nor processes just mentioned, themselves una-\nvoidable stages in the stupendous enterprise\nset on foot.\n\nAt the same time the reader who will now\ntake up Mr. Rhys Davids' book and examine\nthe long passage on this subject, and on the\nskandhas, will realize how utterly hopeless a\ntask it was to attempt the deduction of any ra-\ntional theory of the origin of evil from the exo-\nteric materials there made use of. Nor was it\npossible for these materials to suggest the true\nexplanation of the passage immediately after-\nwards, quoted from the Brahmajala Sutra : —\n\n\" After showing how the unfounded belief\nin the eternal existence of God or gods arose,\nGautama goes on to discuss the question of the\nsoul, and points out thirty-two beliefs concern-\ning it, which he declares to be wrong. These\nare shortly as follows : ' Upon what principle,\nor on what ground, do these mendicants and\nBrahmans hold the doctrine^of future existence?\nThey teach that the soul is material, or is im-\nmaterial, or is both or neither ; that it will\n\n290 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nhave one or many modes of consciousness ; that\nits perceptions will be few or boundless ; that\nit will be in a state of joy or of misery, or of\nneither. These are the sixteen heresies, teach-\ning a conscious existence after death. Then\nthere are eight heresies teaching that the soul,\nmaterial or immaterial, or both or neither, finite\nor infinite, or both or neither, has one uncon-\nscious existence after death. And, finally, eight\nothers which teach that the soul, in the same\neight ways, exists after death in a state of be-\ning neither conscious nor unconscious.' ' Men-\ndicants,' concludes the sermon, 4 that which\nbinds the teacher to existence (viz., tanha,\nthirst), is cut off, but his body still remains.\nWhile his body shall remain, he will be seen\nby gods and men, but after the termination of\nlife, upon the dissolution of the body, neither\ngods nor men will see him.' Would it be pos-\nsible in a more complete and categorical man-\nner to deny that there is any soul, — anything\nof any kind which continues to exist in any\nmanner after death ? \"\n\nCertainly, for exoteric students, such a pas-\nsage as this could not but seem in flagrant con-\ntradiction with those teachings of Buddhism\nwhich deal with the successive passages of the\nsame individuality through several incarnations,\nand which thus along another line of thought\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 291\n\nmay see in to assume the existence of a trans-\nmissible soul as plainly as the passage quoted\ndenies it. Without a comprehension of the\nseven principles of man, no separate utterances\non the various aspects of this question of im-\nmortality could possibly be reconciled. But\nthe key now given leaves the apparent contra-\ndiction devoid of all embarrassment. In the\npassage last quoted Buddha is speaking of the\nastral personality, while the immortality recog-\nnized by the esoteric doctrine is that of the\nspiritual individuality. The explanation has\nbeen fully given in the chapter on Devachan,\nand in the passages quoted there from Colonel\nOlcott's \" Buddhist Catechism.\" It is only\nsince fragments of the great revelation this vol-\nume contains have been given out during the\nlast two years in the \" Theosophist \" that the\nimportant distinction between personality and\nindividuality, as applied to the question of hu-\nman immortality, has settled into an intelligible\nshape, but there are plentiful allusions in former\noccult writing, which may now be appealed to\nin proof of the fact that former writers were\nfully alive to the doctrine itself. Turning to the\nmost recent of the occult books, in which the\nveil of obscurity was still left to wrap the doc-\ntrine from careless observation, though it was\nstrained in many places almost to transparency,\n\n292 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nwe might take any one of a dozen passages to\nillustrate the point before us. Here is one : —\n\n\" The philosophers who explained the fall\ninto generation their own way viewed spirit as\nsomething wholly distinct from the soul. They\nallowed its presence in the astral capsule only\nso far as the spiritual emanations or rays of the\n4 shining one ' were concerned. Man and soul\nhad to conquer their immortality by ascending\ntoward the unity, with which, if successful,\nthey were finally linked, and into which they\nwere absorbed, so to say. The individualiza-\ntion of man after death depended on the spirit,\nnot on his body and soul. Although the word\n' personality,' in the sense in which it is usually\nunderstood, is an absurdity if applied literally\nto our immortal essence, still the latter is a dis-\ntinct entity, immortal and eternal per se; and\nas in the case of criminals beyond redemption,\nwhen the shining thread which links the spirit\nto the soul from the moment of the birth of a\nchild is violently snapped, and the disembodied\nentity is left to share the fate of the lower ani-\nmals, to dissolve into ether and have its indi-\nviduality annihilated, — even then the spirit\nremains a distinct being.\" 2\n\nNo one can read this — scarcely any part, in-\ndeed, of the chapter from which it is taken — ■\n\n1 Isis Unveiled, vol. i. p. 315.\n\nTEE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 293\n\nwithout perceiving, by the light of the expla-\nnations given in the present volume, that the\nesoteric doctrine now fully given out was per-\nfectly familiar to the writer, though I have been\nprivileged to put it for the first time into plain\nand unmistakable language.\n\nIt takes some mental effort to realize the\ndifference between personality and individual-\nity, but the craving for the continuity of per-\nsonal existence, for the full recollection always\nof those transitory circumstances of our present\nphysical life which make up the personality,\nis manifestly no more than a passing weakness\nof the flesh. For many people it will perhaps\nremain irrational to say that any person now\nliving, with his recollections bounded by the\nyears of his childhood, is the same individual as\nsome one of quite a different nationality and\nepoch who lived thousands of years ago, or the\nsame that will reappear after a similar lapse of\ntime under some entirely new conditions in the\nfuture. But the feeling \" I am I\" is the same\nthrough the three lives and through all the\nhundreds; for that feeling is more deeply seated\nthan the feeling \" I am John Smith, so high, so\nheavy, with such and such property and rela-\ntions,\" Is it inconceivable, as a notion in the\nmind, that John Smith, inheriting the gift of\nTithonus, changing his name from time to time,\n\n294 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nmarrying afresh every other generation or so,\nlosing property here, coming into possession of\nproperty there, and getting interested as time\nwent on in a great variety of different pursuits,\n— is it inconceivable that such a person in a\nfew thousand years should forget all circum-\nstances connected with the present life of John\nSmith, just as if the incidents of that life for\nhim had never taken place ? And yet the Ego\nwould be the same. If this is conceivable in\nthe imagination, what can be inconceivable in\nthe individual continuity of an intermittent life,\ninterrupted and renewed at regular intervals,\nand varied with passages through a purer con-\ndition of existence.\n\nNo less than it clears up the apparent con-\nflict between the identity of successive individ-\nualities and the ''heresy \" of individuality will\nthe esoteric doctrine be seen to put the \" in-\ncomprehensible mystery of Karma, which Mr.\nRhys Davids disposes of so summarily, on a\nperfectly intelligible and scientific basis. Of\nthis he says that because Buddhism \" does not\nacknowledge a soul \" it has to resort to the des-\nperate expedient of a mystery to bridge over\nthe gulf between one life and another some-\nwhere else, — the doctrine, namely, of Karma.\nAnd he condemns the idea as \" a non-exist-\nent fiction of the brain.\" Irritated as he feels\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 295\n\nwith what he regards as the absurdity of the\ndoctrine, he yet applies patience and great men-\ntal ingenuity in the effort to evolve something\nthat shall feel like a rational metaphysical con-\nception out of the tangled utterances concern-\ning Karma of the Buddhist scriptures. He\nwrites : —\n\n\"Karma, from a Buddhist point of view,\navoids the superstitious extreme, on the one\nhand, of those who believe in the separate ex-\nistence of some, entity called the soul ; and the\nirreligious extreme, on the other, of those who\ndo not believe in moral justice and retribu-\ntion. Buddhism claims to have looked through\nthe word soul for the fact it purports to cover,\nand to have found no fact at all, but only one\nor other of twenty different delusions which\nblind the eyes of men. Nevertheless, Buddhism\nis convinced that if a man reaps sorrow, dis-\nappointment, pain, he himself, and no other,\nmust at some time have sown folly, error, sin;\nand if not in this life, then in some former\nbirth. Where, then, in the latter case, is the\nidentity between him who sows and him who\nreaps ? In that which alone remains when a\nman dies, and the constituent parts of the sen-\ntient being are dissolved, in the result, namely,\nof his action, speech, and thought, in his good\nor evil Karma (literally his doing), which doe*\n\n296 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nnot die. We are familiar with the doctrine,\n4 Whatever a man soweth that shall he also\nreap,' and can therefore enter into the Bud-\ndhist feeling that whatever a man reaps that he\nmust also have sown ; we are familiar with the\ndoctrine of the indestructibility of force, and\ncan therefore understand the Buddhist dogma\n(however it may contravene our Christian no-\ntions) that no exterior power can destroy the\nfruit of a man's deeds, that they must work out\ntheir full effect to the pleasant or the bitter end.\nBut the peculiarity of Buddhism lies in this :\nthat the result of what a man is or does is held\nnot to be dissipated, as it were, into many sepa-\nrate streams, but to be concentrated together in\nthe formation of one new sentient being, — new,\nthat is, in its constituent parts and powers, but\nthe same in its essence, its being, its doing, its\nKarma.\"\n\nNothing could be more ingenious as an at-\ntempt to invent for Buddhism an explanation\nof its \" mystery \" on the assumption that the\nauthors of the mystery threw it up originally\nas a \" desperate expedient \" to cover their re-\ntreat from an untenable position. But in re-\nality the doctrine of Karma has a far simpler\nhistory and does not need so subtle an interpret\ntation. Like many other phenomena of Nature\nhaving to do with futurity, it was declared by\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 297\n\nBuddha an incomprehensible mystery, and ques-\ntions concerning it were thus put aside ; but\nhe did not mean that because it was incompre-\nhensible for the populace it was incomprehen-\nsible, or any mystery at all, for the initiates\nin the esoteric doctrine. It was impossible to\nexplain it without reference to the esoteric\ndoctrine ; but the outlines of that science once\ngrasped, Karma, like so much else, becomes a\ncomparatively simple matter, — a mystery only\nin the sense in which also the affinity of sul-\nphuric acid for copper and its superior affinity\nfor iron are also mysteries. Certainly esoteric\nscience for its \" lay chelas \" at all events, like\nchemical science for its lay chelas, — all stu-\ndents, that is to say, of its mere physical phe-\nnomena,— leaves some mysteries unfathomed in\nthe background. I am not prepared to explain\nby what precise molecular changes the higher\naffinities which constitute Karma are stored up\nin the permanent elements of the fifth principle.\nBut no more is ordinary science qualified to say\nwhat it is in a molecule of oxygen which in-\nduces it to desert the molecule of hydrogen\nwith which it was in alliance in the raindrop,\nand attach itself to a molecule of the iron of a\nrailing on which it falls. But the speck of\nrust is engendered, and a scientific explanation\nof that occurrence is held to have been given\n\n298 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nwhen its affinities are ascertained and appealed\nto.\n\nSo with Karma, the fifth principle takes up\nthe affinities of its good and evil deeds in its\npassage through life, passes with them into\nDevachan, where those which are suitable to\nthe atmosphere, so to speak, of that state, fruc-\ntify and blossom in prodigious abundance, and\nthen passes on, with such as have not yet ex-\nhausted their energy, into the objective world\nonce more. And as certainly as the molecule\nof oxygen brought into the presence of a\nhundred other molecules will fly to that with\nwhich it has the most affinity, so will the\nKarma-laden spiritual monad fly to that incar-\nnation with which its mysterious attractions\nlink it. Nor is there in that process an}^ crea-\ntion of a new sentient being, except in the\nsense that the new bodily structure evolved is\na new instrument of sensation. That which in-\nhabits it, that which feels joy or sorrow, is the\nold Ego, — walled off by forgetf ulness from its\nlast set of adventures on earth, it is true, but\nreaping their fruit nevertheless, — the same \"I\nam I \" as before.\n\n\" Strange it is,\" Mr. Rhys Davids thinks,\nthat \" all this \" — the explanation of Buddhist\nphilosophy which esoteric materials have ena-\nbled him to give — \" should have seemed not\n\nTHE DOCTRINE REVIEWED. 299\n\nunattractive, these 2,300 years and more, to\nmany despairing and earnest hearts ; that they\nshould have trusted themselves to the so seem-\ning stately bridge which Buddhism has tried to\nbuild over the river of the mysteries and sor-\nrows of life. . . . They have failed to see that\nthe very keystone itself, the link between one\nlife and another, is a mere word, — this won-\nderful hypothesis, this airy nothing, this im-\naginary cause beyond the reach of reason, — -\nthe individualized and individualizing grace\nof Karma.\"\n\nIt would have been strange indeed if Bud-\ndhism had been built on such a frail foundation;\nbut its apparent frailty has been simply due to\nthe fact that its mighty fabric of knowledge\nhas hitherto been veiled from view. Now that\nthe inner doctrine has been unveiled it will be\nseen how little it depends for any item of its\nbelief on shadowy subtleties of metaphysics.\nSo far as these have clustered round Buddhism\nthey have merely been constructed by external\ninterpreters of stray doctrinal hints that could\nnot be entirely left out of the simple system of\nmorals prescribed for the populace.\n\nIn that which really constitutes Buddhism\nwe find a sublime simplicity, like that of Na-\nture herself, — one law running into infinite\nramifications ; complexities of detail, it is true,\n\nESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nas Nature herself is infinitely complex in her\nmanifestations, however unchangeably uniform\nin her purposes, but always the immutable doc-\ntrine of causes and their effects, which in turn\nbecome causes again in an endless cyclic pro-\ngression.\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\nNOTE TO CHAPTER I.\n\nThe further we advance in occult study, the more ex-\nalted in many ways become our conceptions of the Ma-\nhatmas. The complete comprehension of the manner in\nwhich these persons become differentiated from human-\nkind at large, is not to be achieved by the help of mere\nintellectual effort. There are aspects of the adept nature\nwhich have to do with the extraordinary development of\nthe higher principles in man, which cannot be realized by\nthe application of the lower. But while crude concep-\ntions in the beginning thus fall very short of reaching the\nreal level of the facts, a curious complication of the prob-\nlem arises in this way. Our first idea of an adept who\nhas achieved the power of penetrating the tremendous\nsecrets of spiritual nature, is modelled on our conception\nof a very highly gifted man of science on our own plane.\nWe are apt to think of him as once an adept always an\nadept, — as a very exalted human being, who must neces-\nsarily bring into play in all the relations of his life the\nattributes that attach to him as a Mahatma. In this way,\nwhile — as above pointed out — we shall certainly fail, do\nall we can, to do justice in our thoughts to his attributes\nas a Mahatma, we may very easily run to the opposite\nextreme in our thinking about him in his ordinary human\n\n302 APPENDIX.\n\naspect, and thus land ourselves in many perplexities, as\nwe acquire a partial familiarity with the characteristics of\nthe occult world. It is just because the highest attributes\nof adeptship have to do with principles in human nature\nwhich quite transcend the limits of physical existence,\nthat the adept of Mahatma can only be such in the high-\nest acceptation of the word, when he is, as the phrase\ngoes, \"out of the body,\" or at all events thrown by spe-\ncial efforts of his will into an abnormal condition. When\nhe is not called upon to make such efforts or to pass en-\ntirely beyond the limitations of this fleshly prison, he is\nmuch more like an ordinary man than experience of\nhim in some of his aspects would lead his disciples to\nbelieve.\n\nA correct appreciation of this state of things explains\nthe apparent contradiction involved in the position of the\noccult pupil towards his masters, as compared with some\nof the declarations that the master himself will frequently\nput forward. For example, the Mahatmas are persistent\nin asserting that they are not infallible, that they are\nmen, like the rest of us, perhaps with a somewhat more\nenlarged comprehension of nature than the generality of\nmankind, but still liable to err both in the direction of\npractical business with which they may be concerned, and\nin their estimate of the characters of other men, or the\ncapacity of candidates for occult development. But how\nare we to reconcile statements of this nature with the\nfundamental principle at the bottom of all occult research\nwhich enjoins the neophyte to put his trust in the teaching\nand guidance of his master absolutely and without re-\nserve ? The solution of the difficulty is found in the state\nof things above referred to. While the adept may be a\nman quite surprisingly liable to err sometimes in the ma-\nnipulation of worldly business, just as with ourselves some\n\n* APPENDIX. 303\n\nof the greatest men of genius are liable to make mis-\ntakes in their daily life that matter-of-fact people could\nnever commit, on the other hand, directly a Mahatma\ncomes to deal with the higher mysteries of spiritual sci-\nence, he does so by virtue of the exercise of his Mahatma-\nattributes, and in dealing with these can hardly be recog-\nnized as liable to err.\n\nThis consideration enables us to feel that the trust-\nworthiness of the teachings derived from such a source\nas those which have inspired the present volume, is alto-\ngether above the reach of small incidents which in the\nprogress of our experience may seem to claim a revision\nof that enthusiastic confidence in the supreme wisdom of\nthe adepts which the first approaches to occult study will\ngenerally evoke.\n\nNot that such enthusiasm or reverence will really be\ndiminished on the part of any occult chela as his compre-\nhension of the world he is entering expands. The man\nwho in one of his aspects is a Mahatma, may rather be\nbrought within the limits of affectionate human regard,\nthan deprived of his claims to reverence, by the consid-\neration that in his ordinary life he is not so utterly lifted\nabove the commonplace run of human feeling as some\nof his Nirvanic experiences might lead us to believe that\nhe would be.\n\nIf we keep constantly in mind that an adept is only\ntruly an adept when exercising adept functions, but that\nwhen exercising these he may soar into spiritual rapport\nwith that which is, in regard at all events to the limita-\ntions of our solar system, all that we practically mean\nby omniscience, we shall then be guarded from many of\nthe mistakes that the embarrassments of the subject\nmight create.\n\nIntricacies concerning the nature of the adept may be\n\n304 APPENDIX.\n\nnoticed here, which will hardly be quite intelligible with-\nout reference to some later chapters of this book, but\nwhich have so important a bearing on all attempts to un-\nderstand what adeptship is really like that it may be con-\nvenient to deal with them at once. The dual nature of\nthe Mahatma is so complete that some of his influence or\nwisdom on the higher planes of nature may actually be\ndrawn upon by those in peculiar psychic relations with\nhim, without the Manhatma-man being at the moment\neven conscious that such an appeal has been made to him.\nIn this way it becomes open to us to speculate on the\npossibility that the relation between the spiritual Ma-\nhatma and the Mahatma-man may sometimes be rather\nin the nature of what is sometimes spoken of in esoteric\nwriting as an overshadowing than as an incarnation in the\ncomplete sense of the word.\n\nFurthermore as another independent complication of\nthe matter we reach this fact, that each Mahatma is not\nmerely a human Ego in a very exalted state, but belongs,\nso to speak, to some specific department in the great econ-\nomy of nature. Every adept must belong to one or other\nof seven great types of adeptship ; but although we may\nalmost certainly infer that correspondences might be\ntraced between these various types and the seven princi-\nples of man, I should shrink myself from attempting a\ncomplete elucidation of this hypothesis. It will be enough\nto apply the idea to what we know vaguely of the occult\norganization in its higher regions. For some time past it\nhas been affirmed in esoteric writing that there are five\ngreat Chohans or superior Mahatmas presiding over the\nwhole body of the adept fraternity. When the foregoing\nchapter of this book was written, I was under the impres-\nsion that one supreme chief on a different level again\n.zeroised authority over these five Chohans, but it now\n\nAPPENDIX. 305\n\nappears to me that this personage may rather be regarded\nas a sixth Chohan, himself the head of the sixth type of\nMahatmas, and this conjecture leads at once to the fur-\nther inference that there must be a seventh Chohan to\ncomplete the correspondences which we thus discern. But\njust as the seventh principle in nature or in man is a con-\nception of the most intangible order, eluding the grasp of\nany intellectual thinking, and only describable in shadowy\nphrases of metaphysical non-significance, so we may be\nquite sure that the seventh Chohan is very unapproach-\nable by untrained imaginations. But even he no doubt\nplays a part in what may be called the higher economy\nof spiritual nature, and that there is such a personage vis-\nible occasionally to some of the other Mahatmas I take to\nbe the case. But speculation concerning him is valuable\nchiefly as helping to give consistency to the idea above\nthrown out, according to which the Mahatmas may be\ncomprehended in their true aspect as necessary phe-\nnomena of nature without whom the evolution of hu-\nmanity could hardly be imagined as advancing, not as\nmerely exceptional men who have attained great spiritual\nexaltation.\n\nNOTE TO CHAPTER II.\n\nSome objection has been raised to the method in which\nthe Esoteric Doctrine is presented to the reader in this\nbook, on the ground that it is materialistic. I doubt if in\nany other way the ideas to be dealt with could so well be\nbrought within the grasp of the mind, but it is easy, when\nthey once are grasped, to translate them into terms of\nidealism. The higher principles will be the better suscep-\n\n306 APPENDIX.\n\ntible of treatment as so many different states of the Ego,,\nwhen the attributes of these states have been separately-\nconsidered as principles undergoing evolution. But it\nmay be useful to dwell for a while on the view of the hu-\nman constitution according to which the consciousness of\nthe entity migrates successively through the stages of de-\nvelopment, which the different principles represent.\n\nIn the highest evolution we need concern ourselves with\nat present — that of the perfected Mahatma — it is some-\ntimes asserted in occult teaching that the consciousness of\nthe Ego has acquired the power of residing altogether in\nthe sixth principle. But it would be a gross view of the\nsubject, and erroneous, to suppose that the Mahatma has\non that account shaken off altogether, like a discarded\nsheath or sheaths, the fourth and fifth principles, in which\nhis consciousness may have been seated during an ear-\nlier stage of his evolution. The entity which was the\nfourth or fifth principle before, has come now to be dif-\nferent in its attributes, and to be entirely divorced from\ncertain tendencies or dispositions, and is therefore a sixth\nprinciple. The change can be spoken of in more general\nterms as an emancipation of the adept's nature from the\nenthralments of his lower self, from desires of the ordi-\nnary earth-life — even from the limitations of the affec-\ntions ; for the Ego, which is entirely conscious in his sixth\nprinciple, has realized the unity of the true Egos of all\nmankind on the higher plane, and can no longer be drawn\nby bonds of sympathy to any one more than to any other.\nHe has attained that love of humanity as a whole which\ntranscends the love of the Maya or illusion which consti-\ntutes the separate human creature for the limited being\non the lower levels . of evolution. He has not lost his\nfourth and fifth principles, — these have themselves at-\ntained Mahatmaship ; just as the animal soul of the lowei\n\nAPPENDIX. 307\n\nkingdom, in reaching humanity, has blossomed into the\nfifth state. That consideration helps us to realize more\naccurately the passage of ordinary human beings through\nthe long series of incarnations of the human plane. Once\nfairly on that plane of existence, the consciousness of the\nprimitive man gradually envelops the attributes of the\nfifth principle. But the Ego at first remains a centre of\nthought-activity working chiefly with impulses and desires\nof the fourth stage of evolution. Flashes of the higher\nhuman reason illumine it fitfully at first, but by degrees\nthe more intellectual man grows into the fuller possession\nof this. The impulses of human reason assert themselves\nmore and more strongly. The invigorated mind becomes\nthe predominant force in the life. . Consciousness is trans-\nferred to the fifth principle, oscillating, however, between\nthe tendencies of the lower and higher nature for a long\nwhile, — that is to say, over vast periods of evolution and\nmany hundred lives, — and thus gradually purifying and\nexalting the Ego. All this while the Ego is thus a unity\nin one aspect of the matter, and its sixth principle but a\npotentiality of ultimate development. As regards the\nseventh principle, that is the true Unknowable, the su-\npreme controlling cause of all things, which is the same\nfor one man as for every man, the same for humanity as\nfor the animal kingdom, the same for the physical as for\nthe astral or devachanic or nirvanic planes of existence :\nno one man has got a seventh principle, in the higher\nconception of the subject ; we a^e all in the same un-\nfathomable way overshadowed by the seventh principle of\nthe cosmos.\n\nHow does this view of the subject harmonize with the\nstatement in the foregoing chapter, that in a certain sense\nthe principles are separable, and that the sixth even can\nbe imagined as divorcing itself from its next lower neigh-\n\n308 APPENDIX.\n\nbor, and, by reincarnation, as growing a new fifth prin-\nciple by contact with a human organism ? There is no\nincompatibility in the spirit of the two views. The sev-\nenth principle is one and indivisible in all Nature, but\nthere is a mysterious persistence through it of certain life-\nimpulses, which thus constitute threads on which succes-\nsive existences may be strung. Such a life-impulse does\nnot expire even in the extraordinary case supposed, in\nwhich an Ego, projected upon it and developed along it\nup to a certain point, falls away from it altogether and as\na complete whole. I am not in a position to dogmatize\nwith precision as to what happens in such a case, but the\nsubsequent incarnations of the spirit along that line of\nimpulse are clearly of the original sequence ; and thus, in\nthe materialistic treatment of the idea, it may be said,\nwith as much approach to accuracy as language will allow\nin either mode, that the sixth principle of the fallen entity\nin such a case separates itself from the original fifth, and\nreincarnates on its own account.\n\nBut with these abnormal processes it is unnecessary to\noccupy ourselves to any great extent. The normal evo-\nlution is the problem we have first to solve ; and while\nthe consideration of the seven principles as such is, to my\nown mind, the most instructive method by which the prob-\nlem can be dealt with, it is well to remember always that\nthe Ego is a unity progressing through various spheres or\nstates of being, undergoing change and growth and purifi-\ncation all through the course of its evolution, — that it is\na consciousness seated in this, or that, or the other, of the\npotential attributes of a human entity.\n\nAPPENDIX. 309\n\nNOTE TO CHAPTER III.\n\nAn expression occurs in this chapter which does not\nrecommend itself to the somewhat fuller conceptions I\nhave been able to form of the subject since this book was\nwritten. It is stated that \" the spiritual monads — the\nindividual atoms of that immense life-impulse of which\nso much has been said — do not fully complete their min-\neral existence on globe A, then complete it on globe B,\nand so on. They pass several times round the whole cir-\ncle as minerals, and then again several times round as\nvegetables, &c.\" Now it is intelligible to me that I was\npermitted to use this form of expression in the first in-\nstance because the main purpose in view was to elucidate\nthe way in which the human entity was gradually evolved\nfrom processes of Nature going on in the first instance\nin lower kingdoms. But in truth at a later stage of the\ninquiry it becomes manifest that the vast process of which\nthe evolution of humanity and all which that leads up to\nis the crowning act, the descent of spirit into matter, does\nnot bring about a differentiation of individualities until a\nmuch later stage than is contemplated in the passage just\nquoted. In the mineral worlds on which the higher forms\nof plant and animal life have not yet been established,\nthere is no such thing, as yet, as an individual spiritual\nmonad, unless indeed by virtue of some inconceivable\nunity — inconceivable, but subject to treatment as a the-\nory none the less — in the life-impulses which are destined\nto give rise to the later chains of highly organized exist-\nence. Just as in a preceding note we assumed the unity\nof such a life-impulse in the case of a perverted human\nEgo falling away as a whole from the current of evolu-\ntion on which it was launched, so we may assume the same\n\n310 APPENDIX.\n\nunity backwards to the earliest beginnings of the plane-\ntary chain. But this can be no more than a protective\nhypothesis, reserving us the right to investigate some mys-\nteries later on that we need not go into at present. For\na general appreciation of the subject it is better to regard\nthe first infusion, as it were, of spirit into matter as pro-\nvoking a homogeneous manifestation. The specific forms\nof the mineral kingdom, the crystals and differentiated\nrocks, are but bubbles in the seething mass assuming par-\ntially individualized forms for a time, and rushing again\ninto the general substance of the growing cosmos, not yet\ntrue individualities. Nor even in the vegetable kingdom\ndoes individuality set in. The vegetable establishes or-\nganic matter in physical manifestation, and prepares the\nway for the higher evolution of the animal kingdom. In\nthis, for the first time, but only in the higher regions of\nthis, is true individuality evoked. Therefore it is not till\nwe begin in imagination to contemplate the passage of the\ngreat life-impulse round the planetary chain on the level\nof animal incarnation, that it would be strictly justifiable\nto speak of the spiritual monads as travelling round the\ncircle as a plurality, to which the word \" they \" would\nproperly apply.\n\nIt is evidently not with the intention of encouraging\nany close study of evolution on the very grand scale with\nwhich we are dealing here, that the adept authors of the\ndoctrine set forth in this volume have opened the subject\nof the planetary chain. As far as humanity is concerned,\nthe period during which this earth will be occupied by our\nrace is more than long enough to absorb all our specula-\ntive energy. The magnitude of the evolutionary process\nto be accomplished during that period is more than enough\nto tax to the utmost the capacities of an ordinary imagi-\nnation. But it is extremely advantageous for students of\n\nAPPENDIX. 311\n\nthe occult doctrine to realize the plurality of worlds in\nour system once for all — their intimate relations with,\ntheir interdependence on each other — before concentrat-\ning attention on the evolution of this single planet. For\nin many respects the evolution of a single planet follows\na routine, as it will be found directly, that bears an ana-\nlogical resemblance to the routine affecting the entire se-\nries of planets to which it belongs. The older writings\non occult science, of the obscurely worded order, some-\ntimes refer to successive states of one world, as if suc-\ncessive worlds were meant, and vice versa. Confusion\nthus arises in the reader's mind, and according to the bent\nof his own inclination he clings to various interpretations\nof the misty language. The obscurity disappears when\nwe realize that in the actual facts of Nature we have to\nrecognize both courses of change. Each planet, while in-\nhabited by humanity, goes through metamorphoses of a\nhighly important and impressive character, the effect of\nwhich may in each case be almost regarded as equivalent\nto the reconstitution of the world. But none the less, if\nthe whole group of such changes is treated as a unity,\ndoes it form one of a higher series of changes. The sev-\neral worlds of the chain are objective realities, and not\nsymbols of change in one single, variable world. Further\nremarks on this head will fall into their place more nat-\nurally at the close of a later chapter.\n\nNOTE TO CHAPTERS V., VI.\n\nThere is no part of the present volume which I now\nregard as in so much urgent need of amplification as chap-\n\n812 APPENDIX.\n\nters V. and VI. The Kama loca stage of existence, and\nthat higher region or state of Devachan, to which it is but\nthe antechamber, were, designedly I take it, left by our\nteachers in the first instance in partial obscurity, in order\nthat the whole scheme of evolution might be the better\nunderstood. The spiritual state which immediately fol-\nlows our present physical life is a department of Nature,\nthe study of which is almost unhealthily attractive for\nevery one who once realizes that some contact with it —\nsome processes of experiment with its conditions — are pos-\nsible even during this life. Already we can to a certain ex-\ntent discern the phenomena of that state of existence into\nwhich a human creature passes at the death of the body.\nThe experience of spiritualism has supplied us with facts\nconcerning it in very great abundance. These facts are\nbut too highly suggestive of theories and inferences which\nseem to reach the ultimate limits of speculation, and noth-\ning but the bracing mental discipline of esoteric study in\nits broadest aspect will protect any mind addressed to the\nconsideration of these facts from conclusions which that\nstudy shows to be necessarily erroneous. For this reason,\ntheosophical inquirers have nothing to regret as far as\ntheir own progress in spiritual science is at stake, in the\ncircumstances which have hitherto induced them to be\nrather neglectful of the problems that have to do with\nthe state of existence next following our own. It is im-\npossible to exaggerate the intellectual advantages to be\nderived from studying the broad design of Nature through-\nout those vast realms of the future which only the perfect\nclairvoyance of the adepts can penetrate, before going\ninto details regarding that spiritual foreground, which is\npartially accessible to less powerful vision, but liable, on\na first acquaintance, to be mistaken for the whole expanse\nof the future.\n\nAPPENDIX. 313\n\nThe earlier processes, however, through which the soul\npasses at death, may be described at this date somewhat\nmore fully than they are denned in the foregoing chapter.\nThe nature of the struggle that takes place in Kama loca\nbetween the upper and lower duads may now, I believe,\nbe apprehended more clearly than at first. That struggle\nappears to be a very protracted and variegated process,\nand to constitute, — not, as some of us may have conjec-\ntured at first, an automatic or unconscious assertion of\naffinities or forces quite ready to determine the future of\nthe spiritual monad at the period of death, — but a phase\nof existence which may be, and in the vast majority of\ncases is more than likely to be, continued over a consider-\nable series of years. And during this phase of existence\nit is quite possible for departed human entities to mani-\nfest themselves to still living persons through the agency\nof spiritual mediumship, in a way which may go far to-\nwards accounting for, if it does not altogether vindicate,\nthe impressions that spiritualists derive from such com-\nmunications.\n\nBut we must not conclude too hastily that the human\nsoul going through the struggle or evolution of Kama loca\nis in all respects what the first glance at the position, as\nthus defined, may seem to suggest. First of all, we must\nbeware of too grossly materializing our conception of the\nstruggle, by thinking of it as a mechanical separation of\nprinciples. There is a mechanical separation involved in\nthe discard of lower principles when the consciousness of\nthe Ego is firmly seated in the higher. Thus at death\nthe body is mechanically discarded by the soul, which in\nunion, perhaps (with intermediate principles), may act-\nually be seen by some clairvoyants of a high order to\nquit the tenement it no longer needs. And a very sim-\nilar process may ultimately take place in Kama loca it-\n\n314 APPENDIX.\n\nself, in regard to the matter of the astral principles. But\npostponing this consideration for a few moments, it is im-\nportant to avoid supposing that the struggle of Kama loca\ndoes itself constitute this ultimate division of principles,\nor second death upon the astral plane.\n\nThe struggle of Kama loca is in fact the life of the en-\ntity in that phase of existence. As quite correctly stated\nin the text of the foregoing chapter, the evolution taking\nplace during that phase of existence is not concerned with\nthe responsible choice between good and evil which goes\non during physical life. Kama loca is a portion of the\ngreat world of effects, — not a sphere in which causes are\ngenerated (except under peculiar circumstances). The\nKama loca entity, therefore, is not truly master of his\nown acts ; he is rather the sport of his own already estab-\nlished affinities. But these are all the while asserting\nthemselves, or exhausting themselves, by degrees, and the\nKama loca entity has an existence of vivid consciousness\nof one sort or another the whole time. Now a moment's\nreflection will show that those affinities, which are gath-\nering strength. and asserting themselves, have to do with\nthe spiritual aspirations of the life last experienced, while\nthose which are exhausting themselves have to do with\nits material tastes, emotions, and proclivities. The Kama\nloca entity, be it remembered, is on his way to Devachan,\nor, in other words, is growing into that state which is the\nDevachanic state, and the process of growth is accom-\nplished by action and reaction, by ebb and flow, like al-\nmost every other in Nature, — by a species of oscillation\nbetween the conflicting attractions of matter and spirit.\nThus the Ego advances towards Heaven, so to speak, or\nrecedes towards earth, during his Kama loca existence,\nand it is just this tendency to oscillate between the two\npoles of thought or condition that brings him back occa-\nsionally within the sphere of the life he has just quitted.\n\nAPPENDIX. gig\n\nthiet tf £\\wa,nJ meaDS \"* °n°e that his «*»* »jmpa-\ntine. with that Me are dissipated. His sympathies^\nthe higher aspects of that life, be it remembered, are not\neven on their way to dissipation. For instance, in what i\n\nexerc.se of affection, which is a function of Devachanic\nessence in a preeminent degree. Bnt perhaps even\"\nregard to h affecti(ms there be ^ J ™ m\n\naspects of these, and the contemplation of [hem, w h he\n_ tances and surroundings of the earth-life, may\nof en have to do wtth the recession towards earth-life of\nthe Kama loca entity referred to above\n\nOf conrseit will be apparent at once that the inter-\n\nZrZTl PraCtiCe °f SpiritUaKsm SetS «P ^twcen\nsnch Kama-loca entities as are here in view, and the\n\nperiods of the soul's existence in which earth memories\nengage its attention ; and there are two consider\"\nof ^ry important natnre which arise out JZZ\n\n1st. While its attention is thus directed, it is turned\naway from the spiritual progress on which t is enZli\nduring its oscillations in the other direction. It Ly f afr 1\nwell remember, and in conversation refer to th I , .\naspirations of the life m earth, ^^ J?. «\n\niZTC'T t0 be °f \" °rfer te eannot b a!\nlatcdbact into terms of the ordinarv phvsical iutellec\n\nwtii:1 th- T' io be not •**» fc«\n\nfaculties which are in operation in the soul during its oe\nupatiou Wlth old.earth memor;es The ZJ oc\n\nw & f ed> but °niy to a ^ im^« -*-t\n\nby the case of a poor emigrant, whom we may imagine\nprospering in his new country, getting educated there\nconcerning himself with its publics and fa^\n\n316 APPENDIX.\n\nphilanthropy, and so on. He may keep up an interchange\nof letters with his relations at home, but he will find it\ndifficult to keep them au courant with all that has come to\nbe occupying his thoughts. The illustration will only fully\napply to our present purpose, however, if we think of the\nemigrant as subject to a psychological law which draws a\nveil over his understanding when he sits down to write to\nhis former friends, and restores him during that time to\nhis former mental condition. He would then be less and\nless able to write about the old topics as time went on, for\nthey would not only be below the level of those to the con-\nsideration of which his real mental activities had risen,\nbut would to a great extent have faded from his memory.\nHis letters would be a source of surprise to their recip-\nients, who would say to themselves that it was certainly\nso-and-so who was writing, but that he had grown very\ndull and stupid compared to what he used to be before he\nwent abroad.\n\n2dly. It must be borne in mind that a very well-known\nlaw of physiology, according to which faculties are invig-\norated by use and atrophied by neglect, applies on the as-\ntral as well as on the physical plane. The soul in Kama-\nloca, which acquires the habit of fixing its attention on\nthe memories of the life it has quitted, will strengthen\nand harden those tendencies which are at war with its\nhigher impulses. The more frequently it is appealed to\nby the affection of friends still in the body to avail itself\nof the opportunities furnished by mediumship for mani-\nfesting its existence on the physical plane, the more vehe-\nment will be the impulses which draw it back to physical\nlife, and the more serious the retardation of its spiritual\nprogress. This consideration appears to involve the most\ninfluential motive which leads the representatives of The-\nosophical teaching to discountenance and disapprove of\n\nAPPENDIX. 317\n\nall attempts to hold communication with departed souls\nby means of the spiritual seance. The more such com-\nmunications are genuine the more detrimental they are to\nthe inhabitants of Kama loca concerned with them. In\nthe present state of our knowledge it is difficult to deter-\nmine with confidence the extent to which the Kama loca\nentities are thus injured. And we may be tempted to be-\nlieve that in some cases the great satisfaction derived by\nthe living persons who communicate, may outweigh the\ninjury so inflicted on the departed soul. This satisfac-\ntion, however, will only be keen in proportion to the fail-\nure of the still living friend to realize the circumstances\nunder which the communication takes place. At first, it\nis true, very shortly after death, the still vivid and com-\nplete memories of earth-life may enable the Kama loca\nentity to manifest himself as a personage very fairly like\nhis deceased self, but from the moment of death the\nchange in the direction of his evolution sets in. He will,\nas manifesting on the physical plane, betray no fresh fer-\nmentation of thought in his mind. He will never, in that\nmanifestation, be any wiser, or higher in the scale of Na-\nture, than he was when he died ; on the contrary, he must\nbecome less and less intelligent, and apparently less in-\nstructed than formerly, as time goes on. He will never\ndo himself justice in communication with the friends left\nbehind, and his failure in this respect will grow more and\nmore painful by degrees.\n\nYet another consideration operates to throw a very\ndoubtful light on the wisdom or propriety of gratifying a\ndesire for intercourse with deceased friends. We may\nsay, never mind the gradually fading interest of the friend\nwho has gone before, in the earth left behind ; while there\nis anything of his or her old self left to manifest itself to\nus, it will be a delight to communicate even with that*\n\n318 APPENDIX.\n\nAnd we may argue that if the beloved person is delayed\na little on his way to Heaven by talking with us, he or she\nwould be willing to make that sacrifice for our sake. The\npoint overlooked here is, that on the astral, just as on the\nphysical plane, it is a very easy thing to set up a bad\nhabit. The soul in Kama loca once slaking a thirst for\nearthly intercourse at the wells of mediumship will have\na strong impulse to fall back again and again on that in-\ndulgence. We may be doing a great deal more than di-\nverting the soul's attention from its own proper business\nby holding spiritualistic relations with it. We may be\ndoing it serious and almost permanent injury. I am not\naffirming that this would invariably or generally be the\ncase, but a severe view of the ethics of the subject must\nrecognize the dangerous possibilities involved in the course\nof action under review. On the other hand, however, it\nis plain that cases may arise in which the desire for com-\nmunication chiefly asserts itself from the other side : that\nis to say, in which the departed soul is laden with some\nunsatisfied desire — pointing possibly towards the fulfil-\nment of some neglected duty on earth — the attention to\nwhich, on the part of still living friends, may have an ef-\nfect quite the reverse of that attending the mere encour-\nagement of the Kama loca entity in the resumption of its\nold earthly interests. In such cases the living friends\nmay, by falling in with its desire to communicate, be the\nmeans, indirectly, of smoothing the path of the spiritual\nprogress. Here again, however, we must be on our guard\nagainst the delusive aspect of appearances. A wish man-\nifested by an inhabitant of Kama loca may not always be\nthe expression of an idea then operative in his mind. It\nmay be the echo of an old, perhaps of a very old, desire,\nthen for the first time finding a channel for its outward\nexpression. In this way, although it would be reasonable\n\nAPPENDIX. 319\n\nto treat as important an intelligible wish conveyed to us\nfrom Kama loca by a person only lately deceased, it would\nbe prudent to regard with great suspicion such a wish ema-\nnating from the shade of a person who had been dead a\nlong time, and whose general demeanor as a shade did not\nseem to convey the notion that he retained any vivid con-\nsciousness of his old personality.\n\nThe recognition of all these facts and possibilities of\nKama loca will, I think, afford theosophists a satisfactory\nexplanation of a good many experiences connected with\nspiritualism which the first exposition of the Esoteric Doc-\ntrine, as bearing on this matter, left in much obscurity.\n\nIt will be readily perceived that as the soul slowly\nclears itself in Kama loca of the affinities which retard\nits Devachanic development, the aspect it turns towards\nthe earth is more and more enfeebled, and it is inevitable\nthat there must always be in Kama loca an enormous\nnumber of entities nearly ripe for a complete mergence in\nDevachan, who ou that very account appear to an earthly\nobserver in a state of advanced decrepitude. These will\nhave sunk, as regards the activity of their lower astral\nprinciples, into the condition of the altogether vague and\nunintelligible entities, which, following the example of\nolder occult writers, I have referred to as \" shells \" in the\ntext of this chapter. The designation, however, is not\naltogether a happy one. It might have been better to\nhave followed another precedent, and to have called them\n\"shades,\" but either way their condition would be the\nsame. All the vivid consciousness inhering, as they left\nthe earth, in the principles appropriately related to the\nactivities of physical life, has been transferred to the\nhigher principles which do not manifest at stances. Their\nmemory of earth-life has almost become extinct. Their\nlower principles are in such cases only reawakened by the\n\n320 APPENDIX.\n\ninfluences of the mediumistic current into which they may\nbe drawn, and they become then little more than astral\nlooking-glasses, in which the thoughts of the medium or\nsitters at the stance are reflected. If we can imagine the\ncolors on a painted canvas sinking by degrees into the\nsubstance of the material, and at last re emerging in their\npristine brilliancy on the other side, we shall be conceiv-\ning a process which might not have destroyed the picture,\nbut which would leave a gallery in which it took place a\ndreary scene of brown and meaningless backs, and that is\nvery much what the Kama loca entities become before\nthey ultimately shed the very material on which their first\nastral consciousness operated, and pass into the wholly\npurified Devachanic condition.\n\nBut this is not the whole of the story which teaches us\nto regard manifestations coming from Kama loca with dis-\ntrust. Our present comprehension of the subject enables\nus to realize that when the time arrives for that second\ndeath on the astral plane, which releases the purified Ego\nfrom Kama loca altogether and sends it onward to the\nDevachanic state — something is left behind in Kama\nloca which corresponds to the dead body bequeathed to\nthe earth when the soul takes its first flight from physical\nexistence. A dead astral body is in fact left behind in\nKama loca, and there is certainly no impropriety in ap-\nplying the epithet \" shell \" to that residuum. The true\nshell in that state disintegrates in Kama loca before very\nlong, just as the true body left to the legitimate processes\nof Nature on earth would soon decay and blend its ele-\nments with the general reservoirs of matter of the order\nto which they belong. But until that disintegration is ac-\ncomplished, the shell which the real Ego has altogether\nabandoned may even in that state be mistaken sometimes\nat spiritual seances for a living entity. It remains for a\n\nAPPENDIX. 321\n\ntime an astral looking-glass, in which mediums may see\ntheir own thoughts reflected, and take these back, fully\nbelieving them to come from an external source These\nphenomena in the truest sense of the term are galvanized\n• astral corpses ; none the less so, because until they are\nactually disintegrated a certain subtle connection will sub-\nsist between them and the true Devachanic spirit ; just\nas such a subtle communication subsists in the first in-\nstance between the Kama loca entity and the dead body\nleft on earth. That last - mentioned communication is\nkept up by the finally-diffused material of the original\nthird principle, or linga sharira, and a study of this branch\nof the subject will, I believe, lead us up to a better com-\nprehension than we possess at present of the circum-\nstances under which materializations are sometimes ac-\ncomplished at spiritual seances. But without going into\nthat digression now, it is enough to recognize that the\nanalogy may help to show how, between the Devachanic\nentity and the discarded shell in Kama loca a similar con-\nnection may continue for a while, acting, while it lasts, as\na drag on the higher spirit, but perhaps as an after-glow\nof sunset on the shell. It would surely be distressing,\nhowever, m the highest degree, to any living friend of rhe\nperson concerned, to get, through clairvoyance, or in any\nother way, sight or cognition of such a shell, and to be led\nmto mistaking it for the true entity.\n\nThe comparatively clear view of Kama loca which we\nare now enabled to take, may help us to employ terms re-\na mg to its phenomena with more precision than we have\nhitherto been able to attain. I think if we adopt one new\nexpression, \"astral soul,\" as applying to the entities in\nKama loca who have recently quitted earth-life, or who\nfor other reasons still retain, in the aspect they turn back\ntowards earth, a large share of the intellectual attributes\n\n322 APPENDIX.\n\nthat distinguished them on earth, we shall then find the\nother terms in use already, adequate to meet our remain-\ning emergencies. Indeed, we may then get rid entirely\nof the inconvenient term \" elementary,\" liable to be con-\nfused with elemental, and singularly inappropriate to the\nbeings it describes. I would suggest that the astral soul\nas it sinks (regarded from our point of view) into intel-\nlectual decrepitude, should be spoken of in its faded con-\ndition as a shade, and that the term shell should be re-\nserved for the true shells or astral dead bodies which the\nDevachanic spirit has finally quitted.\n\nWe are naturally led in studying the law of spiritual\ngrowth in Kama loca to inquire how long a time may\nprobably elapse before the transfer of consciousness from\nthe lower to the higher principles of the astral soul may\nbe regarded as complete ; and as usual, when we come to\nfigures relating to the higher processes of Nature, the an-\nswer is very elastic. But I believe the esoteric teachers\nof the East declare that as regards the average run of\nhumanity — for what may be called, in a spiritual sense,\nthe great middle classes of humanity — it is unusual that\na Kama loca entity will be in a position to manifest as such\nfor more than twenty-five to thirty years. But on each\nside of this average the figures may run up very consid-\nerably. That is to say, a very ignoble and besotted hu-\nman creature may hang about in Kama loca for a much\nlonger time for want of any higher principles sufficiently\ndeveloped to take up his consciousness at all, and at the\nother end of the scale the very intellectual and mentally-\nactive soul may remain for very long periods in Kama loca\n(in the absence of spiritual affinities in corresponding\nforce), by reason of the great persistence of forces and\ncauses generated on the higher plane of effects, though\nmental activity could hardly be divorced in this way from\n\nAPPENDIX. 323\n\nspirituality except in cases where it was exclusively asso-\nciated with worldly ambition. Again, while Kama loca\nperiods may thus be prolonged beyond the average from\nvarious causes, they may sink to almost infinitesimal brev-\nity when the spirituality of a person dying at a ripe old\nage, and at the close of a life which has legitimately ful-\nfilled its purpose, is already far advanced.\n\nThere is one other important possibility connected with\nmanifestations reaching us by the usual channels of com-\nmunication with Kama loca, which it is desirable to notice\nhere, although from its nature the realization of such a\npossibility cannot be frequent. No recent students of\ntheosophy can expect to know as yet very much about the\nconditions of existence which await adepts who relinquish\nthe use of physical bodies on earth. The higher possi-\nbilities open to them appear to me quite beyond the\nreach of intellectual appreciation. No man is clever\nenough, by virtue of the mere cleverness seated in a liv-\ning brain, to understand Nirvana ; but it would appear\nthat adepts in some cases elect to pursue a course lying\nmidway between re-incarnation and the passage into Nir-\nvana, and in the higher regions of Devachan ; that is to\nsay, in the arupa state of Devachan may await the slow\nadvance of human evolution towards the exalted condi-\ntion they have thus attained. Now an adept who had\nthus become a Devachanic spirit of the most elevated type\nwould not be cut off by the conditions of his Devachanic\nstate — as would be the case with a natural Devachanic\nspirit passing through that state on his way to re-incarna-\ntion — from manifesting his influence on earth. His\nwould certainly not be an influence which would make\nitself felt by the instrumentality of any physical signs to\nmixed audiences, but it is not impossible that a medium\nof the highest type — who would more properly be called\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\na seer — might be thus influenced. By such an Adept\nspirit, some great men in the world's history may from\ntime to time have been overshadowed and inspired, con-\nsciously or unconsciously as the case may have been:\n\nThe disintegration of shells in Kama loca will inevi-\ntably suggest to any one who endeavors to comprehend\nthe process at all, that there must be in Nature some\ngeneral reservoirs of the matter appropriate to that sphere\nof existence, corresponding to the physical earth and its\nsurrounding elements, into which our own bodies are\nresigned at death. The grand mysteries on which this\nconsideration impinges will claim a far more exhaustive\ninvestigation than we have yet been enabled to under-\ntake ; but one broad idea connected with them may use-\nfully be put forward without further delay. The state\nof Kama loca is one which has its corresponding orders\nof matter in manifestation round it. I will not here at-\ntempt to go into the metaphysics of the problem, which\nmight even lead us to discard the notion that astral mat-\nter need be any less real and tangible than that which\nappeals to our physical senses. It is enough for the\npresent to explain that the propinquity of Kama loca to\nthe earth, which is so readily made apparent by spirit-\nualistic experience, is explained by Oriental teaching to\narise from this fact, — that Kama loca is just as much\nin and of the earth as, during our lives, our astral soul is\nin and of the living man. The stage of Kama loca, in\nfact, the great realm of matter in the appropriate state\nwhich constitutes Kama loca and is perceptible to the\nsenses of astral entities, as also to those of many clair-\nvoyants, is the fourth principle of the earth, just as the\nKama-rupa is the fourth principle of man. For the earth\nhas its seven principles like the human creatures who in-\nhabit it. Thus, the Devachanic state corresponds to the\n\nAPPENDIX. 325\n\nfifth principle of the earth, and Nirvana to the sixth\nprinciple.\n\nNOTE TO CHAPTER VII.\n\nLater information and study — the comparison, that is\nto say, of the various branches of the doctrine, and the col,\nlocation of other statements with those in Chapter VII —\nshow the difficulty of applying figures to the Esoteric Doc-\ntrines m a very striking light. Figures may be quite trust-\nworthy as representing broad averages, and yet very\nmisleading when applied to special cases. Devachanic\nperiods vary for different people within such very wide\nlimits that any rule laid down in the matter must be sub-\nject to a bewildering cloud of exceptions. To begin with\nthe average mentioned above has no doubt been computed\nwith reference to fully matured adults. Between the quite\nyoung child who has no Devachanic period at all and the\nadult who accomplishes an average period we have to take\nnote of persons dying in youth, who have accumulated\nKarma, and who must therefore pass through the usual\nstages of spiritual development, but for whom the brief\nlives they have spent have not produced causes which take\nvery long to work themselves out. Such persons would\nreturn to incarnation after a sojourn in the world of effects\nof corresponding brevity. Again there are such things as\nartificial incarnations accomplished by the direct interven-\ntion of the Mahatmas when a chela who may not yet have\nacquired anything resembling the power of controlling the\n-matter himself, is brought back into incarnation almost\nimmediately after his previous physical death, without\nhaving been suffered to float into the current of natural\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\ncauses at all. Of course in such cases it may be said that\nthe claims the person concerned has established on the\nMahatmas are themselves natural causes of a kind, the\nintervention of the Mahatmas, who are quite beyond the\nliability of acting capriciously in such a matter, being so\nmuch fruit of effort in the preceding life, so much Karma.\nBut still either way such cases would be equally with-\ndrawn from the operation of the general average rule.\n\nClearly it is impossible when the complicated facts of an\nentirely unfamiliar science are being presented to untrained\nmind for the first time, to put them forward with all\ntheir appropriate qualifications, compensations and abnor-\nmal developments visible from the beginning. We must\nbe content to take the broad rules first and deal with the\nexceptions afterwards, and especially is this the case with\noccult study, in connection with which the traditional\nmethods of teaching, generally followed, aim at impress-\ning every fresh idea on the memory, by provoking the\nperplexity it at last relieves. In relation to another mat-\nter dealt with in the preceding pages, an important ex-\nception in Nature has thus, it seems to me now, been left\nout of account. The description I have given of the prog-\nress of the human tide-wave is quite coherent as it stands,\nbut since the publication of the original edition of this\nbook some criticism was directed, in India, to a compari-\nson between my version of the story and certain passages\nin other writings, known to emanate from a Mahatma.\nA discrepancy between the two statements was pointed out,\nthe other version assuming the possibility that a monad\nactually might have travelled round the seven planets once\nmore often than the compeers among whom he might\nultimately find himself on this earth. My account of the\nobscurations appears to render this contingency impossi-\nble. The clue to the mystery appears to lie outside the\n\nAPPENDIX. 327\n\ndomain of those facts concerning which the adepts are\nwilling to speak freely; and the reader must clearly un-\nderstand that the explanation I am about to offer is the\nfruit of my own speculation and comparison of different\nparts of the doctrine — not authentic information received\nfrom the author of my general teaching.\n\nThe fact appears to be that the obscurations are so far\ncomplete as to present all the phenomena above described\nin regard to each planet they affect as a whole. But ex-\nceptional phenomena, for which we must be ever on the\nalert, come into play even in this matter. The great\nbulk of humanity is driven on from one planet to the next\nby the great cyclic impulse when its time comes for such a\ntransition, but the planet it quits is not utterly denuded of\nhumanity, nor is it, in every region of its surface rendered,\nby the physical and climatic changes that come on, unfit\nto be the habitation of human beings. Even during ob-\nscuration a small colony of humanity clings to each planet,\nand the monads associated with these small colonies fol-\nlowing different laws of evolution, and beyond the reach\nof those attractions which govern the main vortex of hu-\nmanity in the planet occupied by the great tide-wave,\npass on from world to world along what may be called\nthe inner round of evolution, far ahead of the race at\nlarge. What may be the circumstances which occasion-\nally project a soul even from the midst of the great human\nvortex, right out of the attraction of the planet occupied\nby the tide-wave, and into the attraction of the Inner\nRound — is a question that can only be a subject for us\nat present of very uncertain conjecture.\n\nIt may be worth while to draw attention, in connection\nwith the solution I have ventured to offer as applicable\nto the problem of the Inner Rounds, to the way in which\nthe fact of Nature I assume to exist, would harmonize\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\nwith the widely diffused doctrines of the Deluge. That\nportion of a planet which remained habitable during an\nobscuration would be equivalent to the Noah's Ark of the\nbiblical narrative taken in its largest symbolical meaning.\nOf course the narrative of the Deluge has minor sym-\nbolical meanings also, but it does not appear improbable\nthat the Kabalists should also have associated with it the\nlarger significance now suggested. In due time when the\nobscured planet grew ready once more to receive a full\npopulation of humanity, the colonists of the ark would\nbe ready to commence the process of populating it afresh.\n\nNOTE TO CHAPTER VIII.\n\nThe condition into which the monads failing to pass the\nmiddle of the fifth round must fall as the tide of evo-\nlution sweeps on, leaving them stranded, so to speak,\nupon the shores of time, is not described very fully in this\nchapter. By a few words only is it indicated that the\nfailures of each manwantara are not absolutely annihilated\nwhen they reach \" the end of their tether,\" but are destined\nafter some enormous period of waiting to pass once more\ninto the current of evolution. Many inferences may be\ndeduced from this condition of things. The period of\nwaiting which the failures have thus to undergo, is, to\nbegin with, a duration so stupendous as to baffle the im-\nagination. The latter half of the fifth round, the whole of\nthe sixth and seventh have to be performed by the suc-\ncessful graduates in spirituality, and the latter rounds\nare of immensely longer duration than those of the middle\nperiod. Then follows the vast interval of Nirvanic rest,\nwhich closes the manwantara, the immeasurable Night\n\nAPPENDIX. 329\n\nof Brahma, the Pralaya of the whole planetary chain.\nOnly when the next manwantara begins do the failures\nbegin to wake from their awful trance — awful to the\nimagination of beings in the full activity of life, though\nsuch a trance, being necessarily all but destitute of con-\nsciousness, is possibly no more tedious than a dreamless\nnight in the memory of a profound sleeper. The fate\nof the failures may be grievous first of all, rather on\naccount of what they miss, than on account of what they\nincur. Secondly, however, it is grievous on account of\nthat to which it leads, for all the trouble of physical life\nand almost endless incarnations must be gone through\nafresh, when the failures wake up; whereas the perfected\nbeings, who outstripped them in evolution during that\nfifth round in which they became failures, will have\ngrown into the god-like perfection of Dhyan Chohanhood\nduring their trance, and will be the presiding geniuses of\nthe next manwantara, not its helpless subjects.\n\nApart altogether, meanwhile, from what may be regard-\ned as the personal interest of the entities concerned, the\nexistence of the failures in Nature at the beginning of\neach manwantara is a fact which contributes in a very\nimportant degree to a comprehension of the evolutionary\nsystem. When the planetary chain is first of all evolved\nout of chaos — if we may use such an expression as \" first\nof all\" in a qualified sense, having regard to the reflec-\ntion that \"in the beginning\" is a mere fa^on de parler\napplied to any period in eternity — there are no failures\nto deal with. Then the descent of spirit into matter,\nthrough the elemental, mineral, and other kingdoms, goes\non in the way already described in earlier chapters of\nthis book. But from the second manwantara of a planet-\nary chain, during the activity of the solar system, which\nprovides for many such manwantaras, the course of events\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\nis somewhat different — easier, if I may again be allowed\nto use an expression that is applicable rather in a con-\nversational than a severely scientific sense. At any rate\nit is quicker, for human entities are already in Existence,\nready to enter into incarnation as the world, also already\nin existence, can be got ready for them. The truth thus\nappears to be, that after the first manwantara of a series — ■\nenormously longer in duration than its successors — no\nentities, then first evolved from quite the lower kingdoms,\ndo more than attain the threshold of humanity. The late\nfailures pass first into incarnation, and then eventually\nthe surviving animal entities already differentiated. But,\ncompared with the passages in the Esoteric Doctrine\nwhich affect the current evolution of our own race, these\nconsiderations, relating to the very early periods of world-\nevolution, have little more than an intellectual interest,\nand cannot as yet by any contributions of mine be very\ngreatly amplified.\n\n%4\n\nvO\n\n* 8 M\n\nv> ^\n\nS Xi\n\nf\\s\n\n\\. V\n\n. ■\n\n*V~' i ^°-<- ',\n\n^\n\n<p\n\nr \"\n\nJ*\n\n'\n\n\\°°.\n\n.^^\n\n\" -_ A L\n\n6 * ^\n\n■i ■?->\n\no Cf\nv >\n\n* *^A -V\n\n'/-•\n\n,Oo,\n\n^ '\"r.\\\n\nV . s\n\n&\n\n^ VL\n\n% 8 ' A *\n\n&\n\nv>V\n\n;? V» o\n\n, ^\n\nvV1 V.\n\n•■\n\n- / «\n\n....\n\n^. ^ ;\n\n°a\n\nV*\n\n'^WA ro *</?„ ^",
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