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    "num": 8,
    "slug": "07-chapter-viii",
    "title": "CHAPTER VIII.",
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    "words": 4913,
    "text": "## CHAPTER 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.",
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