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    "slug": "10-chapter-xl",
    "title": "CHAPTER XL",
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    "text": "## CHAPTER 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.",
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