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The Ancient Wisdom: An Outline of Theosophical Teachings

by Annie Besant (London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1897)

The Ancient Wisdom: An Outline of Theosophical Teachings

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THE

ANCIENT WISDOM

Hu ®utUne of Ubeosopbical XTeacbiugd

BY

ANNIE BESANT

LONDON THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE

Reprinted 1922

r

Copyrighted

BY

THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY

364S55

... • . - - * 1 • •

• • t • • • ■ '

BeMcateO

•VTTH GRATITUDE, REVERENCE, AND LOVF.

TO

H. P. BLAVATSKY,

«HU SHOWED MR THE LIGHT.

Newnham Cowbll & Grippbr, Ltd.,

Printers,

75, Chiswell Street,

London, E.C. z.

PREFACE.

This book is intended to place in the hands ot the general reader an epitome of theosophical teach- ings, sufficiently plain to serve the elementary stu- dent, and sufficiently full to lay a sound foundation for further knowledge. It Is hoped that it may serve as an introduction to the profounder works of H. P. Blavatsky, and be a convenient stepping- stone to their study.

Those who have learned a little of the Ancient

Wisdom know the illumination, the peace, the joy,

the strengtii, its lessons have brought into their

lives. That this book may win some to con its

teachings, and to prove for themselves their value,

is the prayer with which it is sent forth into the

world.

Annie Besant. August. 1897.

«^.i.

CONTENTS

Prafaoe, •

• «

i*4aa '. Vli

Introduotioii*

-• * •

f

I. Th© Physical Plai»

11The Astral I *ane,
• 4C . 57 III. K&maloka. . 83 IV. The Mental Plane, . V. Devachan. * • • • • • 107 • 137 Vi. The Buddhic and Nirv^ic Planes. . . 263 Vli. Reincarnation. . • • • . 179 VIll. Reincarnation (continued). • . 2io8 IX. Karma, • ■ .242 X. The Law oi Sacrifice. > i • «75 XI. Man 8 Ascent. . • » « . d^i XII. Bmiding a Kosmoa. « « • • < 3<l THE ANCIENT WISDOM, INTRODUCTION. THE UNITY UNDERLYING ALL RELIGIONS. Right thought is necessary to right conduct, right understanding to right living, and the Divine Wis- dom — whether called by its ancient Sanskrit name of Brahma Vidya, or its modem Greek name of Theosophia, Theosophy — comes to the world as at once an adequate philosophy and an all-embracing religion and ethic. It was once said of the Christian Scriptures by a devotee that they contained shallows in which a child could wade and depths in which a giant must swim. A similar statement might be made of Theosophy, for some of its teachings are so simple and so practical that any person of average intelligence can understand and follow them, while others are so lofty, so profound, that the ablest strains his intellect to contain them and sinks ex- hausted in the effort. In the present volume an attempt will be made to place Theosophy before the reader simply and clearly, in a way which shall convey its general prin-

2THE ANCIENT WISDOlsi.
ciples and truths as forming a coherent conception of the universe, and shall give such detail as is necessary for the understanding of their relations to each other. An elementary text-book cannot pre- tend to give the fulness of knowledge that may be obtained from abstruser works, but it should leave the student with clear fundamental ideas on his sub- ject, with much indeed to add by future study but with little to unlearn. Into the outline given by such a book the student should be able to paint the details of further research. It is admitted on all hands that a survey of the great religions of the world shows that they hold in common many religious, ethical, and philosophical ideas. But while the fact is universally granted, the explanation of the fact is a matter of dispute. Some allege that religions have grown up on the soil of human ignorance tilled by imagination, and have been gradually elaborated from crude forms of animism and f etichism ; their likenesses are referred to universal natural phenomena imperfectly observed and fancifully explained, solar and star worship be- ing the universal key for one school, phallic worship the equally universal key for another; fear, desire, ignorance, and wonder led the savage to personify the powers of nature, and priests played upon his terrors and his hopes, his misty fancies, and his be- wildered questionings; myths became scriptures and symbols facts, and as their basis was universal the likeness of the products was inevitable. Thus speak INTRODUCTION. 3 the doctors of *' Comparative Mythology," and plain people are silenced but not convinced under the rain of proofs ; they cannot deny the likenesses, but they dimly feel: Are all man's dearest hopes and loftiest imaginings really nothing more than the outcome of savage fancies and of groping ignorance? Have the great leaders of the race, the martyrs and heroes of humanity, lived, wrought, suffered, and died de- luded, for the mere personifications of astronomi- cal facts and for the draped obscenities of bar- barians? The second explanation of the common property in the religions of the world asserts the existence of an original teaching in the custody of a Brotherhood of great spiritual Teachers, who — Themselves the outcome of past cycles of evolution — acted as the instructors and guides of the child-humanity of our planet, imparting to its races and nations in turn the fundamental truths of religion in the form most adapted to the idiosyncrasies of the recipients. Ac- cording to this view, the Founders of the great relig- ions are members of the one Brotherhood, and were aided in Their mission by many other members, lower in degree than Themselves, Initiates and dis- ciples of various grades, eminent in spiritual insight, in philosophic knowledge, or in purity of ethical wisdom. These guided the infant nations, gave them their polity, enacted their laws, ruled them as kiugs, taught them as philosophers, guided them as priests; all the nations of antiquity looked back to such mighty men, demigods and heroes, and they . THE ANCIENT WI.SDOM. left their traces in literature, in architecture, in legislation. That such men lived it seems difficult to deny in the face of universal tradition, of still existing Scrip- tures, and of prehistoric remains for the most part now in ruins, to say nothing of other testimony which the ignorant would reject. The sacred books of the East are the best evidence for the greatness of their authors, for who in later days or in modem times can even approach the spiritual sublimity of their religious thought, the intellectual splendor of their philosophy, the breadth and purity of their ethic? And when we find that these books contain teachings about God, man, and the universe identical in substance under much variety of outer appear- ance, it does not seem unreasonable to refer them to a central primary body of doctrine. To that body wp give the name of the Divine Wisdom, in its Greek form: Theosophv. As the origin and basis of all religions, it cannot be the antagonist of any; it is indeed their purifier, revealing the valuable inner meaning of much that has become mischievous in its exterr 'l presentation by the perverseness of ignorance and the accretions of superstition : but it recognizes and defends itself in each, and seeks in each to unveil its hidden wis- dom. No man in becoming a Theosophist need cease to be a Christian, a Buddhist, a Hindu; be will but acquire a deeper insight into his own faith, a firmer hold on its spiritual truths, a broader un- derstanding of its sacred teachings. As Theosophy INTRODUCTION. 5 of old gave birth to religions, so in modern times does it justify and defend them. It is the rock whence all of them were hewn, the hole of the pit whence all were digged. It justifies at the bar of intellectual criticism the deepest longings and emo- tions of the human heart; it verifies our hopes for man ; it gives us back ennobled our faith in God. The truth of this statement beeomes more and more apparent as we study the various world-Scrip- tures, and but a few selections from the wealth of material available will be sufficient to establish the fact, and to guide the student in his search for further verification. The main spiritual verities of religion may be summarized thus: i. One eternal infinite incognizable real Existence. ii. From That the manifested God, unfolding from unity to duality, from duality to trinity. iii. From the manifested Trinity many spiritual Intelligences, guiding the kosmic order. iv. Man a reflection of the manifested God and therefore a trinity fundamentally, his inner and real Self being eternal, one with the Self of the universe. V. His evolution by repeated incarnations, ij^tp which he is drawn by desire, and from which he is set free by knowledge and sacrifice, becoming divine in potency as he had ever been divine in latency. China, with its now fossilized civilization, was peopled in old days by the Turanians, the fourth subdivision of the great Fourth Race, the race which inhabited the lost continent of Atlantis, and

6THE ANCIENT WISDOM.
spread its offshoots over the world. The Mon- golians, the last subdivision of that same race, later reinforced its population, so that in China we have traditions from ancient days, preceding £he settle- ment of the Fifth, or Aryan race in India. In the Ching Chang Ching^ or Classic of Purity^ wfe have a fragment of an ancient Scripture of singular beauty, breathing out th^ spirit of restfulness and peace so characteristic of the "original teaching." Mr. Legge says in the introductory note to his transla- tion * that the treatise — Is attributed to Ko Yiian (or Hsiian). a Tftoist of the W& dynasty (a.d. 222-227), who is fabled to have attained to the state of an Immortal, and is generally so denominated. He is represented as a worker of miracles ; as addicted to intemper- ance, and very eccentric in his ways. When shipwrecked on one occasion, he emerged from beneath the water with his clothes unwet, and walked freely on its surface. Finally he ascended to the sky in bright da3^ All these accounts may safely be put down as the figments of a later time. Such stories are repeatedly told of Initiates of various degrees, and are by no means necessarily " figments,** but we are more interested in Ko Yiian's own account of the book: When I obtained the true T&o, I had recited this Ching [book] ten thousand times. It is what the Spirits of Heaven practise and had not been communicated to scholars of this lower world. I got it from the Divine Ruler of the Eastern Hwa; he received it from the Divine Ruler of the Golden Gate ; he received it from the Royal-mother of the West. Now the " Divine Ruler of the Golden Gate" was * The Sacred Books of the East, vol. xl. INTRODUCTION. 7 the title held by the Initiate who ruled the Toltec empire in Atlantis, and its use suggests that the Classic of Purity was brought thence to China when the Turanians separated off from the Toltecs, The idea is strengthened by the contents of the brief treatise, which deals with TaO::7-literally " the Way" — ^the name by which the One Reality is indicated in the ancient Turanian and Mongolian religion. We read: The Great T&o has no bodily form, but It produced and nourishes heaven and earth. The Great T&o has no passions, but It causes the sun and moon to revolve as they do. The Great Tio has no name, but It effects the growth and main- tenance of all things (i. i). This is the manifested God as unity, but duality supervenes: Now the T&o (shows itself in two forms), the Pure and the Turbid, and has (the two conditions of) Motion and Rest. Heaven is pure and earth is turbid ; heayen gioves and the earth is at rest. The masculine is pure and the feminine is turbid; the masculine moves and the feminine is still. The radical (Purity) descended, and the (turbid) issue flowed abroad, and thus all things were produced (i. 2). This passage is particularly interesting from the allusion to the active and receptive sides of Nature, the distinction between Spirit, the generator, and Matter, the nourisher, so familiar in later writings. In the Tdo Teh Ching the teaching as to the Un- manifested and the Manifested comes out very plainly: The T^o that can be trodden is not the enduring and uu' ; ANCIENT WISDOM. le that can be nametl Is not the endur- Haviiig no name, it is the Origi- changing T&o. The n Ing and unchanging n nator of heaven and earth ; liaviiig a name, it is the Slother of all things. . . . Under these two aspects it is really the same; but as development takes place it receives thedifferent names. Together vra call Iheni the Mysterj- (i. i, a, 4). Students of the Kabalah will be reminded of one of the Divine Names, "the Concealed Mystery." Again : There was something undefined aad complete, coming into existence before heaven and earth. How still it was and formless, standing alona and undergoing no change, reaching everywhere and in no danger (of being exhausted) . It may be regarded as the Mother of all things, I do not know its name, and I give it the designation of the Tfio. Making an effort to give it a name, I call it the Great. Great, it passes on (in constant flow). Passing, on, it becomes remote. Having become remote, it returns (xxv. 1-3). Very interesting it is to see here the idea of the forthgoing ; familiar to i seems the ve All things u named) ; that id the returning of the One Life, so Hindu literature. Familiar also nder heaven sprang from It sprang from It as n That a universe might become, the Unmanifest must give forth the One from whom duality and trinity proceed : The T&o produced One; One produced Two ; Two produced Three ; Three produced all things. All things leave behind them the Obscurity (out of which they have corae), and go forward to embrace the Brightness (into which Uiey havo INTRODUCTION. 9 emerged), while they are harmonized by the Breath of Va- cancy (xlii. i). ** Breath of Space" would be a happier translation. Since all is produced from It, It exists in all : All-pervading is the g^eat T&o. It may be found on the left hand and on the right. ... It clothes all things as with a garment, and makes no assumption of being their lord;— It may be named in the smallest things. All things return (to their root and disappear) , and do not know that it is It which presides over their doing so • — It may be named in the great- est things (zxxiv. I. 2). Chwang-ze (fourth century b.c.) in his presenta- tion of the ancient teachings, refers to the spiritual Intelligences coming from the Tao: It has Its root and ground (of existence) in Itself. Before there were heaven and earth, from of old, there It was securely existing. From It came the mysterious existence of spirits, from It the mysterious existence of God (Bk. vi. , Pt. i. , Sec. vi. 7). A number of the names of these Intelligences fol- low, but such beings are so well known to play a great part in the Chinese religion that we need not multiply quotations about them. Man is regarded as a trinity, Taoism, says Mr. Legge, recognizing in him the spirit, the mind, and the body. This division comes out clearly in the Classic of Purity^ in the teaching that man must get rid of desire to reach union with the One : Now the spirit of man loves purity, but his mind disturbs it. The mind of man loves stillness, but his desires draw it away. If he could always send his desires away^ his mind would of itself become still. Let his mind be made clean, and his spirit of itself becomes pure. • . . The reason why men are not able

10THE ANCIENT WISDOM.
to attain to this is because their minds have not been cleansed, and their desires have not been sent away. If one is able to send the desires away, when he then looks in at his mind it is no longer his ; when he looks out at his body it is no longer his ; and when he looks farther off at external things, they are things which he has nothing to do with (i. 3, 4). Then, after giving the stages of indrawing to "the condition of perfect stillness," it is asked: In that condition of rest independently of place, how can any desire arise ? And when no desire any longer arises there is the true stillness and rest. That true (stillness) becomes (a) constant quality, and responds to external things (without error; ; yea, that true and constant quality holds possession of the nature. In such constant response and constant stillness there is the constant purity and rest. He who has this abso- lute purity enters gradually into the (inspiration of the) True Tfto (i. 5). The supplied words " inspiration of" rather cloud than elucidate the meaning, for entering into the Tao is congruous with the whole idea and with other Scriptures. On putting away of desire is laid much stress in Taoism; a commentator on the Classic of Purity tq- marks that understanding the T^o depends on abso- lute purity, and The acquiring this Absolute Purity depends .entirely on the Putting away of Desire, which is the urgent practical lesson of the Treatise. The Tdo Teh Ching says: Always without desire we must be found, If its deep mystery we would sound ; But if desire always within us be. Its outer fringe is all that we shall see (i. 3). INtRODUCTfON. 1 1 Remcaftiation does not seem to be so distinctly taught as might have been expected, although pas- sages are found which imply that the main idea was taken for granted and that the entity was considered as ranging through animal as well as human births. Thus we have from Chwang-ze the quaint and wise story of a dying man, to whom his friend said: " Great indeed is the Creator ! What will He now make you to become? Where will He take you to? Will He make you the liver of a rat or the arm of an Insect?" Szelai replied, ** Wherever a parent tells a son to go. east, west, south, or north, he simply follows the command. . . • Here now is a great founder, casting his metal. If the metal were to leap up (in the pot) and say, * I must be made into a (sword like the) Moysh, ' the great founder would be sure to regard it as uncanny. So, again, when a form is being fashioned in the mould of the womb, if it were to say. *I must become a man, I must become a man. ' the Creator would be sure to regard it as uncanny. When we once understand that heaven and earth are a great melting-pot and the Creator a great founder, where can we have to go to that shall not be right for us? We are bom as from a quiet sleep and we die to a calm awaking" (Bk. vi., Pt. i.. Sec. vi.). Turning to the Fifth, the Aryan Race, we have the same teachings embodied in the oldest and greatest Aryan religion — the Brahmanical. The eternal Existence is proclaimed in the Chhdndogyo- panistiad as ** Oneonly, with out a second," and it is written: It willed, I shall multiply for the sake of the universe (vi. ii. I. 3). The Supreme Locos, Brahman, is threefold — Being, Consciousness, Bliss, and it is said:

12THE ASCIEKT WISDOM.
From Tbis arise life, mind, and all Ihe senses, ether. air, fi water, earth tbe support of all {^MundakopaHiskad, ii. 3). No grander descriptions of Deity can be found \ anywhere than in the Hindu Scriptures, but they are becoming so familiar that brief quotation will suffice. Let the following serve as specimens of their wealth of gems: Manifest, near, moving in the secret place, the great abode, hsrein rests all that moves, breathes, and shuts the eyes. Know That as to be wor.'ihipped. being and non-faeing, the best, beyond the knowledg-e of all creatures. Luminous, snb- tler than the subtle, in which the worlds and their denizens are infijted. That this imperishable Brahman : That also lite and voice and mind. . . , In tliegolden highest sheath isspotless, ] partleas Brahman; That the pure Light of lights, known by I the knowers of the Self. . . . That deathless Brahman is be- fore. Brahman behind, Brahman to the right and to the left, below, above, pervading ; this Brahman truly is the all. This the best (MuKdakopanishad. II. ii. i, 2, g, 11). Beyond the universe. Brahman, the supreme, the great, hid- den in all beings according to their bodies, the one Breath of the whole universe, the Lord, whom knowing (men) become immortal. I know that mighty Spirit, the shining sun beyond the darkness. . . . I kno\v Him the unfading, the ancient, the Soul of all. omnipresent by His nature, whom the Brahman- knowers call unborn, whom they call eternal (Shveldskva- taropanishad. iii. 7, B. 2i). When there is no darkness, no day nor night, no being nor non-being (there is) Shiva even alone; That the indestructible. That is to be worshipped by Savitri. from That came forth the ancient wisdom. Not above nor below, cor in the midst, can He be comprehended. Nor is there any similituc5e for Him whose name i^ infinite glory. Not with the sight is established His form, none may by tl»e eye behold Him ; they who know INTRODUCTION. 1 3 Him by the heart and by the mind, dwelling in the heart, be- come immortal {ibid., iv. 18-20). That man in his inner Self is one with the Self of the universe — " I am That" — is an idea that so thor- oughly pervades all Hindu thought that man is often referred to as the " divine town of Brahman,"* the " town of nine gates, "f God dwelling in the cav- ity of his heart. J la one manner is to be seen (the Being) which cannot be proved, which is eternal, without spot, higher than the ether, unborn, the great eternal Soul. . . . This great unborn Soul is the same which abides as the intelligent (soul) in all living creatures, the same which abides as ether in the heart ; § in him it sleeps; it is the Subduerof all. the Bulerof all, the sov- ereign Lord of all ; it does not become greater by good works nor less by evil work. It is the Ruler of all, the sovereign Lord of all beings, the Preserver of all beings, the Bridge, the Upholder of the worlds, so that they fall not to ruin {Brihad- dranyakopanishad, IV. iv. 20, 22, Trs. by Dr. E. Roer) . When God is regarded as the evolver of the uni- verse, the three-fold character comes out very clear- ly as Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma, or again as Vishnu sleeping under the waters, the Lotus springing from Him, and in the Lotus Brahma. Man is likewise threefold, and in the Mdndi^kyopanishad the Self is described as conditioned by the physical body, the subtle body, and the mental body, and then rising * Mundakopanishad, II. ii. 7. f Skvetdshvataropanishad, iii. 14. % Ibid,, ii. § The ** ether in the heart** is a mystical phrase used to indi- cate the One. who is said to dwell therein.

14THE ANCIENT WISDOM.
out of all into the One "without duality." From the Trimurti (Trinity) come many Gods, connected with the administration of the universe, as to whom it is said in the Brihaddranyakopanishad : Adore Him, ye Gods, after whom the year by rolling days is completed, the Light of lights, as the immortal Life (IV. iv. i6). It is hardly necessary to even mention the pres- ence in Brahmanism of the teaching of reincarna- tion, since its whole philosophy of life turns on this pilgrimage of the Soul through many births and deaths, and not a book could be taken up in which this truth is not taken for granted. By desires man is bound to this wheel of change, and therefore by knowledge, devotion, and the destruction of desires, man must set himself free. When the Soul knows God it is liberated.* The intellect purified by knowledge beholds Him.f Knowledge joined to devotion finds the abode of Brahman. J Whoever knows Brahman becomes Brahman. § When desires cease the mortal becomes immortal and obtains Brahman. ] Buddhism, as it exists in its northern form, is quite at one with the more ancient faiths, but in the southern form it seems to have let slip the idea of the Logic Trinity as of the One Existence from which They come forth. The Locos in His triple manifestation is: the First Logos, Amitabha, the * Shvetdsh, i. 8. \ Mund, III. i. 8. % Ibid., III. ii. 4. g Ibid. III. ii. 9. I Kathop, vi. 14. INTRODUCTION. 1 5 Boundless Light; the Second, Avalokiteshvara, or Padmapani (Chenresi) ; the Third, Mandjusri — " the representative of creative wisdom, corresponding to Brahma." * Chinese Buddhism apparently does not contain the idea of a primordial Existence, beyond the Logos, but Nepaulese Buddhism postulates Adi- Buddha, from Whom Amitabha arises. Padmapani is said by Eitel to be the representative of compas- sionate Providence and to correspond partly with Shiva, but as the aspect of the Buddhist Trinity that sends forth incarnations He appears rather to represent the same idea as Vishnu, to whom He is allied by bearing the Lotus (fire and water, or Spirit and Matter as the primary constituents of the uni- verse). Reincarnation and Karma are so much the fundamentals of Buddhism that it is hardly worth while to insist on them save to note the way of lib- eration, and to remark that as the Lord Buddha was a Hindu preaching to Hindus, Brahmanical doc- trines are taken for granted constantly in His teach- ing, as matters of course. He was a purifier and a reformer, not an iconoclast, and struck at the accre- tions due to ignorance, not at fundamental truths belonging to the Ancient Wisdom : Those beings who walk in the way of the law that has been well taught, reach the other shore of the great sea of birth and death, that is difficult to cross {Uddnavarga, xxix. 37). Desire binds man, and must be gotten rid of : It is hard for one who is held by the fetters of desire to free • Eitel's Sanskrit Chinese Dictionary, sub voce.

16 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.
himself of them, says the Blessed One. The steadfast, who care not for the happiness of desires, cast them off and do soon depart (to Nirv&na). . . . Mankind has no lasting desires: they are impermanent in them who experience them; free yourselves then from what cannot last, and abide not in the sojourn of death {ibid, , ii. 6. 8) . He who has destroyed desires for (worldly) goods, sinful- ness, the bonds of the eye of the flesh, who has torn up desire by the very root, he, I declare, is a Br&hmana (ibid, . xxxiii. 68). And a Brahmana is a man " having his last body," * and is defined as one Who, knowing his former abodes (existences), perceives heaven and hell, the Muni, who has found the way to put an end to birth {Ibid., xxxiii. 55). In the exoteric Hebrew Scriptures, the idea of a Trinity does not come out strongly, though duality is apparent, and the God spoken of is obviously the Logos, not the One Unmanifest: I am the Lord and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness ; I make peace and create evil ; I am the Lord that doeth all these things (/x., xlvii. 7). Philo, however, has the doctrine of the Logos very clearly, and it is found in the Fourth Gospel : In the beginning was the Word [Logos] and the Word was with God and the Word was God. . . . All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made {S. John i. i, 3). In the Kabalah the doctritie of the One, the Three, the Seven, and then the many, is plainly taught : * Uddnavarga, xxxiii. 41. INTRODUCTION. I / The Ancient of the Ancients, the Unknown of the Unknown, has a form, yet also has not any form. It has a form through which the universe is maintained. It also has not any form, as It cannot be comprehended. When It first took this form [Kether, the Crown, the First Logos] It permitted to proceed from It nine brilliant Lights [Wisdom and the Voice, forming with Kether the Triad, and then the seven lower Sephiroth] . ... It is the Ancient of the Ancients, the Mystery of the Mysteries, the Unknown of the Unknown. It has a form which appertains to It. since It appears (through it) to us, as the Ancient Man above all, as the Ancient of the Ancients, and as that which there is the Most Unknown among the Un- known. But under that form by which It makes Itself known. It however still remains the Unknown (Isaac Myer's Qabba' I ah, from the Zohar, pp. 274, 275) . Myer points out that the "form" is "not *the An* cient of all the Ancients,' who is the Ain Soph." Again : Three Lights are in the Holy Upper which Unite as One ; and they are the basis of the Thorah, and this opens thc< door to all. . . . Come, see ! the mystery of the word. These are three degrees and each exists by itself, and yet all are One and are knotted in One, nor are they separated one from an- other. . . . Three come out from One, One exists in Three, it is the force between Two, Two nourish One. One nourishes many sides, thus All is One {z'dt'd., 373,375,376). Needless to say that the Hebrews held the doc- trine of many Gods — "Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the Gods?*'* — and of multitudes of sub- ordinate ministrant;^, the "Sons of God," the "An- gels of the Lord," the "Ten Angelic Hosts/' Of the commencement of the universe the Zohar teaches: * fix. XY. ii.

18 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.
In tho begiiining was the Will of the Kiug, prior to any ex- istence which came into being through emanation from this Will. It sketched and engraved the forms of all things that were to be manifested from concealment into view, in the supreme and dazzling light of the Quadrant [the sacred Te- ttactys] (Myer^ Qabbalah, pp. 194. 195). Nothing can exist in which the Deity is not im- manent, and with regard to Reincarnation it is taught that the Soul is present in the divine Idea ere coming to earth; if the Soul remained quite pure during its trial it escaped rebirth, but this seems to have been only a theoretical possibility, as it is said ; All souls are subject to revolution (metempsychosis a*leen o'gilgoolah). but men do not know the ways of the Holy One : blessed be It ! they are ignorant of the way they have been judged in all time, and before they came into this world and when they have quitted it {tbui., p. 198). Traces of this belief occur both in the Hebrew and Christian exoteric Scriptures, as in the belief that Elijah would return, and later that he had returned in John the Baptist. Turning to glance at Egypt, we find there from hoariest antiquity its famous Trinity, Ra, Osiris- Isis as the dual Second Logos, and Horus. The great hymn to Amun-Ra will be remembered The Gods bow before Thy Majesty by exalting the Souls of That which produceth them . . . and say to Thee : Peace to all emanations from the unconscious Father of the conscious Fathers of the Gods. . . . Thou Producer of beings, we adore the Souls which emanate from thee. Thou begettest us, O Thou Unknown, and we greet Thee in worshipping each God- INTRODUCTION. 1 9 Sottl which descendeth from Thee and liveth in us (quoted in Secret Doctrine^ iii. p. 486). The "conscious Fathers of the Gods" are the LoGOi, the "unconscious Father" is the One Exist- ence, unconscious not as being less but as being infinitely more than what we call consciousness, a limited thing. In the fragments of the Book of the Dead we can study the conceptions of the reincarnating of the human Soul, of its pilgrimage towards and its ulti- mate union with the Logos. The famous papyrus of "the scribe Ani, triumphant in peace," is full o£ touches that remind the reader of the Scriptures of other faiths ; his journey through the under- world, his expectation of re-entering his body (the form taken by reincarnation among the Egyptians), his identification with the Logos: Saith Osiris Ani : I am the great One, son of the great One ; I am Fire, the son of Fire. ... I have knit together my bones, 1 have made myself whole and sound ; I have become young once more; I am Osiris, the Lord of eternity (xliii. i, 4)- In Pierret's recension of the Book of the Dead we find the striking passage: I am the being of mysterious names who prepares for him- self dwellings for millions of years (p. 22) . Heart, that comest to me from my mother, my heart necessary to my existence on earth. . . . Heart, that comest to me from my mother, heart that is necessary to me for my transformation (pp. 113. 114). In Zoroastrianism we find the conception of the One Existence, imaged as Boundless Space, whence arises the Logos, the creator Auh^rma^s^:

20THE ANCIENT WISDOM.
Supreme in omniscience and goodness, and unrivalled ia splendor ; the region of light is the place of Auharmazd ( The Bundahts, Sacred Books of the East, v. 3, 4, v. 2.) To him in the Yasna, the chief liturgy of the Za- rathustrians, homage is first paid : I announce and I (will) complete (my Yasna [worship]) to Ahura Mazda, the Creator, the radiant and glorious, the great- est and the best, the most beautiful ( ?) (to our conceptions) , the most firm, the wisest, and the one of all whose body is most perfect, who attains his ends the most infallibly, because of His righteous order, to Him who disposes our minds aright, who sends His joy-creating grace afar ; who made us and has fashioned us. and who has nourished and protected us, who is the most bounteous Spirit {Sacred Books of the East, xxxi. pp. 195, 196). The worshipper then pays homage to the Ame- shaspends and other Gods, but the supreme mani- fested God, the Logos, is not here presented as tri- une. As with the Hebrews, there was a tendency in the exoteric faith to lose sight of this fundamental truth. Fortunately we can trace the primitive teaching, though it disappeared in later times from the popular belief. Dr. Haug, in his Essays on the Parsis (translated by Dr. West and forming vol. v. of Triibner's Oriental Series), states that Ahura- mazda — Auharmazd or Hormazd — is the Supreme Being, and that from him were produced Two primeval causes, which, though different, were united and produced the world of material things as well as that o\ the spirit (p. 303). These were called twins and are everywhere pres- ent, in Ahuramazda as well as in man. One pro- INTROUUCTION. 2 1 duces reality, the other non-reality, and it is hese who in later Zoroastrianism became the opposing Spirits of good and evil. In the earlier teachings they evidently formed the Second Logos, duality being his characteristic mark. The " good" and " bad*' are merely Light and Dark- ness, Spirit and Matter, the fundamental " twins" of the Universe, the Two from the One. Criticising the later idea. Dr. Haug says: Such is the original Zoroastrian notion of the two creative Spirits, who form only two parts of the Divine Being. But in the course of time this doctrine of the great founder was changed and corrupted, in consequence of misunderstandings and false interpretations. Spentdmainyush [the "good spirit*'] was taken as a name of Ahuramazda Himself, and then of course Angrdmainyush [the " evil spirit"] , by becoming entirely separated from Ahuramazda, was regarded as the constant adversary of Ahuramazda ; thus the Dualism of God and Devil arose (p. 205). Dr. Haug's view seems to be supported by the Gdtha Ahunavaiti^ given with the other Gathas by "the archangels*' to Zoroaster or Zarathustra: In the beginning there was a pair of twins, two spirits, each of a peculiar activity ; these are the good and the base. . . . And these two spirits united created the first (the material things) ; one the reality, the other the non-reality. . . . And to succor this life (to increase it) Armaiti came with wealth, the good and true mind ; she, the everlasting one, created the material world. . . . All perfect things are garnered up in the splendid residence of the Good Mind, the Wise and the Right- eous, who are known as the best beingf {Yas. xxx. 3. 4, 7, 10 : Dr. Haug's Trans., pp. 149-151).

22THE ANCIENT WISDOM.
Here tlic three Loc.oi are seen, Ahuramaxda the first, the supreme Life; in and from him the "twins," the Second Logos; then Armaiti the Mind, the Creator of the Universe, the Third Logos.* Later Mithra appears, and in the exoteric faith clouds the primitive truth to some extent ; of him it is said: Whom Abura Mazda has established to maintain and look over all this moving world : who, never sleeping, wakefully guards the creation of Maida (Mihir Yast., xxvii. 103; Sacred Books of the East, xviii.). He was a subordinate God, the Light of Heaven, as Varuna was the Heaven itself, one of the great ruling Intelligences. The highest of these ruling Intelligences were the six Ameshaspends, headed by the Good Thought of Ahuramazda, Vohfiman — Who have charge of the whole material creation {Sacred Books oj the East. v. p. 10. note). Reincarnation does not seem to be taught in the books which, so far, have been translated, and the belief is not current among modern Parsis. But we do find the idea of the Spirit in man as a spark that is to become a flame and to be reunited to the Su- preme Fire, and this must imply a. development for which rebirth is a necessity. Nor will Zoroastrian- ism ever he understood until we recover the Chal- dean Oracles and allied writings, for there is its real root. ♦Armaiti was at first Wisdom and the Goddess of Wisdom, Later, as the Creator, She became identified with the earth. and was wor shipped as the God Jess of Earth. iNtRODUCTlON. l^ Travelling westward to Greece, we meet with the Orphic system, described with such abundant learn- ing by Mr. G. R. S. Mead in his work Orpheus. The Ineffable Thrice-unknown Darkness waa the name given to the One Existence. According to the theology of Orpheus, all things originate from an immense principle, to which through the imbecility and poverty of human conception we give a name, though it is perfectly ineffable, and in the reverential language of the Egyptians is a thrice unknown darkness^ in contemplation of which all knowledge is refunded into ignorance (Thomas Taylor, quoted in Orfheus, p. 93). From this the "Primordial Triad," Universal Grood, Universal Soul, Universal Mind, again the Logic Trinity. Of this Mr. Mead writes: The first Triad, which is manifestable to intellect, is but a reflection of. or substitute for the Unmanifestable. and its hypostases are : {a) the Good, which is super-essential ; {b) Soul (the World Soul), which is a gelf -motive essence; and (c) Intellect (or the Mind), which is an impartible, immovable essence (tbid,, p* 94)* After this, a series of ever- descending Triads, showing the characteristics of the first in diminish- ing splendor, until man is reached, who Has in him potentially the sum and substance of the uni- verse. . . . "The race of men and gods is one** (Pindar, who was a Pythagorean, quoted by Clemens, Strom, v. 709). . . . Thus man was called the microcosm or little world, to distin- guish him from the universe or great world {ibid,, p. 271). He has the Nous, or real mind, the Logos or ration- al part, the Alogos or irrational part, the two latter again forming a Triad, and thus presenting the more !4 THE ANCIENT VVlSDON elaborate septenary division. The man was also re- garded as having three vehicles, the physical and subtle bodies and the lucifonn body or augoei'des, that Is the "causal body," or karmic vesture of tlie soul, in which its destiny, or rather all the seeds of past causiitioD are stored. This is the "lhread-sonl."as it is sometimes called, the "body" that passes over from one incarnation toanother (ibid., p. 284). As to reincarnation : Together with all the adherents of the Mysteries in every land the Orphics believed in reincarnation {ibiti.. p. 292). To this Mr. Mead brings abundant testimony, and he shows that it was taught by Plato, Empedocles, Pythagoras, and others. Only by virtue could men escape from the life-wheel. Taylor, in his notes to the Select Works of Plotinus, quotes from Damascins as to the teachings of Plato on the One beyond the One, the unmanifest Exist- ence: Perhaps, indeed, Plato leads us ineffably through tht one as a medium to the ineffable beyond the one which is now the subject of discussion ; and this by an ablation of the one in the ie mannci' as he leads to ike one by an ablation of other tniugs. . . . That which is beyond the one is to be honored in the most perfect silence. . . , The one indeed wills to be by itself, but with no other; but the uaknown beyond the one is perfectly ineffable, which we acknowledge we neither know. r are ignorant of, but which has about itself s\iper-igno- nee. Hence by proximity to this the one itself is darkened; tor being near to the immense principle, if it be lawful so to speak, it remains a.4 it were in the adytum of .the truly mystic silence. . . . The first is above the vne and all things, being more simple than either of these (pp. 341-343] . INTRODUCTION. 2$ The Pythagorean, Platonic, and Neo - Platonic schools have so many points of contact with Hindu and Buddhist thought that their issue from one fountain is obvious. R. Garbe in his work, Die Sdtnkhya Philosophie (iii. pp. 85 to 105) presents many of these points, and his statement may be summarized as follows: The most striking is the resemblance — or more correctly the identity — of the doctrine of the One and Only in the Upanishads and the Eleatic school. Xenophanes' teaching of the unity of God and the Kosmos and of the changelessness of the One, and even more that of Parmenides, who held that reality is ascribable only to the One unborn, indestructible and omnipresent, while all that is manifold and subject to change is but an appear- ance, and further that Being and Thinking are the same — ^these doctrines are completely identical with the essential contents of the Upanishads and of the Vedantic philosophy which springs from them. But even earlier still the view of Thales, that all that exists has sprung from Water, is curiously like the Vaidik doctrine that the Universe arose from the waters. Later on Anaximander assumed as the basis {^px^) of all things an eternal, infinite, and in- definite Substance, from which all definite sub- stances proceed and into which they return — an as- sumption identical with that which lies at the root of the S&nkhya, viz.^ the Prakriti from which the whole material side of the universe evolved. And his famous saying iraVra ()Ci expresses the character- THE ANCIENT WISDOII. istic view of the SSnkhya tliat all things are ever changing under the ceaseless activity o£ the three giinas. Empedocles again taught theories of trans- migration and evolution practically the same as those of the Sankhyaa, while his theory that nothing can come into being which does not already exist is even more closely identical with a characteristically San- khyan doctrine. Both Anaxagoras and Democritus also present several points of close agreement, especially the lat- ter's view as to the nature and position of the Gods, and the same applies, notably in some curious mat- ters of detail, to Epicurus, But it is, however, in the teachings of Pythagoras that we find the closest and most frequent identities of teachings and argu- mentation, explained as due to Pythagoras himself having visited India and learnt his philosphy there, as tradition asserts. In later centuries we find some peculiarly Sankhyan and Buddhist ideas playing a prominent part in Gnostic thought. The following quotation from Lassen, cited by Garbe on p. 97, shows this veiy clearly: Buddhism In geneial distinguishes clearly t«tween Spirit and Light, and does not regard the latter as immaterial ; but a view of Light is found among them which is closely related to that of the Gnostics. According to this, Light is the mani- festation of Spirit in matter ; the intelligence thus clothed in Light cornea into relation ivith matter, in which the Light can bo lessened and at last quite obscured, in which case the Intel- ligeace fulls finally into complete unconsciousness. Of the highest Intelligence it is maintained that it is neither Light >ar Not-Light, neither Darkness nor Not-Darkneas. since «U mTRODUCTtOM. ij these expressions denote relations of the Intelligence to the Light, which indeed in the beginning was free from these con- nections, bnt later on encloses the Intelligence and mediates its conn<M^tion with matter. It follows from this that the Buddhist view ascribes to the highest Intelligence the power to produce light from itself, and that in this respect also there is an agreement between Buddhism and Gnosticism. Garbe here points out that, as regards the features alluded tc , the agreement between Gnosticism and the Saixkhya is very much closer than that with Buddhism ; for while these views as to the relations between Light and Spirit pertain to the later phases of Buddhism, and are not at all fundamental to, or characteristic of it as such, the Sankhya teaches clearly and precisely that Spirit is Light. Later still the influence of the Sankhya thought is very plainly evident in the Neo-Platonic writers; while the doctrine of the Locos or Word, though not of Sinkhyan origin, shows even in its details that it has been derived from India, where the conception of Vach, the Divine Word, plays so prominent a part in the Brahmanical system. Coming to the Christian religion, contempora- neous with the Gn stic and Neo-Platonic systems, we shall find no difficulty in tracing most of the same fundamental teachings with which we have now become so familiar. The threefold Locos ap- pears as the Trinity ; the First Locos, the fount of all life being the Father; the dual-natured Second Locos the Son, God-man; the Third, the creative Mind, the Holy Ghost, whose brooding over the waters of chaos brought forth the worlds. Then 2S IHl'; ANCIKNT WISDOM. come "tlie seven Spirits of God"* and the hosts of archangels and angeis. Of the One Existence from which alt comes and into which all retnrns, but little is hinted, the Nature that by searching cannot be found out; but the great doctors of the Church Catholic always posit the unfathomable Deity, in- comprehensible, infinite, and therefore necessarily but One and partless. Man is made in the " image of God, "I and is consequently triple in his nature — Spirit and Soul and body ; J he is a " habitation of God,"g the "temple of God,"|| the "temple of the Holy Ghost,"!" — phrases that •exactly echo the Hindu teaching. The doctrine of reincarnati n is rather taken for granted in the iVcif Testament than dis- tinctly taught; hv.s Jesus, -peaking of John thr Baptist, declares that he is Elias " which was for to come,"** referring to ,h . words of Malachi, " I will send yon Elijah the pr phet' ; ft ^^^ again, when asked as to Elijah troming; before the Messiah, He an- swered that " Elias is come already and they knew him not." J J So again we find the disciples taking re- incarnation foi granted in asking whether blindness from birth was a punishment for a man's sin, and Jesus in answer not -ejecting the possibility of ante- natal sin, but only ex- '' ding it as causing the blind- ness in the special in tance. §g The remarkable phrase applied '■o "him that overcometh" in Rei: % Eph. ii. 21. " Matt, xi, g^ /ohn- is. \ Ccn i. 36, 27. t 1 Thess. v. 23,

1I Cor. iji. 16. 1 1 Cor. vt. 19.
tt Mat. iv. 5- M Matt rvii, la INTRODUCTION. 29 iii. 12, that he shall be "a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out,'* has been taken as signifying escape from rebirth. From the writings of some of the Christian Fathers a good case may be made out for a current belief in reincar- nation ; some argue that only the pre-existence of the Soul is taught, but this view does not seem to me supported by the evidence. The unity of moral teaching is not less striking than the unity of the conceptions of the universe and of the experiences of those who rose out of the prison of the bod)' into the freedom of the higher spheres. It is clear that this body of primeval teaching was in the hands of definite custodians, who had schools in which they taught, disciples who studied their doctrines. The identity of these schools and of their discipline stands out plainly when we study the moral teaching, the demands made on the pupils, and the mental and spiritual states to which they were raised. A caustic division is made in the T&o Teh Ching of the types of schol- ars: Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the T&o, earnestly carry it into practice. Scholars of the middle class, when they have heard about it, seem now to keep it and now to lose it. Scholars of the lowest class, when they have heard about it, laugh greatly at it {^Sacred Books of the East, xxxix. , op, ctt, xli. i). In the same book we read : The sage puts his own person last, and yet it is found in the toremost place ; he treats his person as if it were foreign to Ijim, and yet that person is preserved. Is it not becfiuse b«

30THE AXCIENT WISDOM,
has tin personal and private ends that therefore such ends are realiiod? (vii, 2.) He is free from self-display, and therefore he shines; from self-assertion, and therefore he is distin- guished; from self -boasting , and therefore his merit is ac- knowledged; from self-complacency, and therefc*- he ac- quires superiority. It is because he is thus free irom striving that therefore no one in the world is able to strive with him (xxii. a). There is noguilt greater than to sanction ambition; no calamity greater than to be discontented with one's lot ; no fault greater than the wish to be getting (xlvi. 2). To those who are good (to me) I am good ; and to those who are not good (to me) I am also good ; and thus (all) get to be good. To those who are sincere (with ma) I am sincere ; and to those who are not sincere (with me) I am also sincere : and thus (all) get to be sincere (xlix. 1) . He who has in himself abun- dantly the attributes (of the Tflo) is like an infant. Poisonous insects will not sting him ; fierce beasts will not seize him ; birdsof prey will not strike him (Iv. i}. I have three precious things which I prize and hold fast. The first is gentleness ; the second is economy; the third is shrinking from taking preceaence of others. . . , Gentleness is sure to be victorious, even in battle, and Hrmly to maintain its ground. Heaven n'ill save its possessor, by bis (vr-ry) gentleness protecting him (kvii. s. 4). Among the Hindus there were selected scholars deemed worthy of special instruction to whom the Guru imparted the secret teachings, while the gen- eral rules of right living may be gathered from Mann's Ordinances, the U/>ams/iads, the Mahdbkdrata and many other treatises: Let him say what is true, let him say what is pleasing, let bim utter no disagreeable truth, and let him ulter no agreea- ble falsehood ; that is the eternal law (Mann. iv. 138) . Giv- ing no pain to any creature, let him slowly accumulate spirit- ual merit (iv. 238). For that twite-born man, by whom not INTROi:)UCTION. 3 1 the smallest danger even is caused to created beings, there will be no danger from any (quarter) after he is freed from his body (vi. 40) . Let him patiently bear hard words, let him not insult anybody, and let him not become anybody's enemy for the sake of this (perishable) body. Against an angry man let him not in return show anger, let him bless when he is cursed (vi. 47. 48). Freed from passion, fear and anger, thinking on Me, taking refuge in Me, purified in the fire of wisdom, many have entered into My Being (Bhagavad GUd^ iv. 10). Supreme joy is for this Yogi whose Manas is peace- ful, whose passion-nature is calmed, who is sinless and of the nature of Brahman (vi. 27). He who beaieth no ill-will to any being, friendly and compassionate, without attachment and egoism, balanced in pleasure and pain, and forgiving, ever content, harmonious, with the self controlled, resolute, with Manas and Buddhi dedicated to Me, he. My devotee, is dear to Me (xii. 13, 14). If we turn to the Buddha, we find Him with His Arhats, to whom His secret teachings were given; while published we have : The wise man through earnestness, virtue, and purity makes himself an island which no flood can submerge ( Ud^navarga, iv. 5) . The wise man in this world holds fast to faith and wisdom, these are his greatest treasures ; he casts aside all other riches (z. 9) . He who bears ill-will to those who bear ill-will can never become pure ; but he who feels no ill-will pacifies those who hate ; as hatred brings misery to mankind, the sage knows no hatred (xiii. 12). Overcome anger by not being angered ; overcome evil by good ; overcome avarice by liberality; overcome falsehoods by truth (xx. 18). The Zoroastrian is taught to praise Ahuramazda, and then: What is fairest, what pure, what immortal, what brilliant, all that is good. The good spirit we honor, the good kingdom we honor, and the good law, and the good wisdom ( Vasn^,

32THE ANCIENT WISDOM.
xxxvii.)* May there come to this dwelling contentment, blessing, guilelessness, and wisdom of the pure {Yasna, lix.)- Purity is the best good. Happiness, happiness is to him : namely, to the best pure in purity {Ashetn-vohu), All good thoughts, words, and works are done with knowle^e. All evil thoughts, words, and works are not done with knowledge {Mispa Kumata), (Selected from the A vest a in Ancient Iranian and Zaroastrian Morals^ by Dhunjibhoy Jamsetji Medhora) . The Hebrew had his ** schools of the prophets" and his Kabbalah, and in the exoteric books we find the accepted moral teachings: Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who stand in His hoiy place ? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart ; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceit- fully {^Ps. xxiv. 3, 4). What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? {Micah, vi. 8). The lip of truth shall be estab- lished for ever ; but a lying tongue is but for a moment {Prov, xii. 19). Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house ? when thou seest the naked that thou cover him. and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? {Is, Iviii. 6. 7.) The Christian Teacher had His secret instructions for His disciples,* and He bade them: Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine {Matt, vii. 6). For public teachingf we may refer to the beati- tudes in the Sermon on the Mount, and to such doc- trines as : * Mcttt. xiii. 10-17. INTRODUCTION. 33 I say unto you. love your enemies, bless them that curse you. do good to them that hate you. and pray for them which de- spiteiFully use you and persecute you. ... Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matt, V. 44. 48) . He that findeth his life shall lose it ; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it (x. 39) . Who' soever shall hiunble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven (xviii. 4) . The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy. peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law {Gal. V. 22. 23) . Let us love one another ; for love is of God ; and everyone that loveth is bom of God and knoweth God (i John iv. 7) . The school of Pythagoras and those of the Neo- Platonists kept up the tradition for Greece, and wc know that Pythagoras gained some of his learning in India, while Plato studied and was initiated in the schools of Egypt. More precise information har been published of the Grecian schools than of others; the Pythagorean had pledged disciples as well as an outer discipline, the inner circle passing through three degrees during five years of probation. (For details see G. R. S. Mead's Orpheus^ pp. 263 et seq.) The outer discipline he describes as follows: We must first give ourselves up entirely to God. When a man prays he should never ask for any particular benefit, fully convinced that that will be given which is right and proper, and according to the wisdom of God and not the subject of our own selfish desires (Diod. Sic. ix. 41). By virtue alone does man arrive at blessedness, and this is the exclusive privilege of a rational being (Hippodamus. De Felicitate^ ii.. Orelli. Opusc. Gracor, Sent, et Moral. . ii. 284) . In himself, of his own nature, man is neither good nor happy, but he may be- come so by the teaching of the true doctrine (jiadiaio^ koI irpovoiac

54THE ANCIENT WISDOM.
arKJetroi) — (Hippo, ibid.). The most sacred duty is liiial piety, "God showers his blessings ou him who honors and reveres the author of his days," says Pampehis {De Paren- cibus. Oreili, op. cit., ii. 345). Ingratitude towards one's parents is the blackest of all crimes, writes Perictione (ibid., P- 35<>). who is supposed to have been the mother of Plato. The cleanliness and delicacy of all Pythagorean writings were remarkable (CEIian. Hist. Var.. xiv. ig). In all that con- cerns chastity and marriage their principles are of the utmost purity. Everywhere the great teacher recommends chastity nnd temperance: but at the same time he directs that the married should first become parents before living a life of ab- Eoluto celibacy, in order that children might be born under favorable conditions for continuing the holy life and sioa of the Sacred Science {Jamblichus, Vit. Pythag., and Hierocl., ap. Stob. Serm., xlv. 14). This is exceedingly teresting. for it: is precisely the same regulation that is laid down in the Mdnai/a DAarina SkiUtra. the great Indian Code. . . . Adultery was most sternly condemned (Jamb., ibid.). Moreover, the most gentle treatment of the wife by the husband was enjoined, for had he not taken her companion "before the Gods"? {See Lascaulx, Ztir GescAicktt dcr Ehe bei den Griechen, in the Mdm. de I' Acad, de Eaviire, vii. 107, sq.). Marriage was not an animal union, but a spiritual tis. Therefore, in her turn, the wife should love ber husband even nore than herself, and in all things be devoted and obedient. It is farther interesting to remark that the finest characters among women with which ancient Greece presents us were formed in the school of Pythagoras, and the same is true of the men. The authors r"_ antiquity are agreed that this discipline had succeeded in producing the highest examples not only of the purest chastity and sentiment, but also a simplicity of manners, a delicacy, and a taste for serious pursuits which was unparalleled. This is admitted even by Christian writers (see Justin, xx, 4). . . . Among the members of the school the *(le3 of justice directed all their acts, while they obsorved INTRODUCTION. 35 the strictest tolerance and compassion in their mutual relation- ships. For justice is the principle of all virtue, as Polus (ap. Stob., Serm., viii., ed. Schow. p. 232) teaches; 'tis justice which maintains peace and balance in the soul; she is the mother of good order in all communities, makes concord be- tween husband and wife, love between master and servant. The word of a Pythagorean was also his bond. And finally a man should live so as to be ever ready for death (Hippolytus, P kilos. ^ vi.). {Ibid,, pp. 263-267.) The treatment of the virtues in the Neo- Platonic schools is interesting, and the distinction is clearly made between morality and spiritual development, or, as Plotinus put it, ** The endeavor is not to be without sin, but to be a God.*** The lowest stage was the becoming without sin by acquiring the "political virtues" which made a man perfect in conduct (the physical and ethical being below these), the reason controlling and adorning the irrational nature. Above these were the cathartic, pertaining to reason alone, and which liberated the Soul from the bonds of generation; the theoretic, lifting the Soul into touch with natures superior to itself; and the paradigmatic, giving it a knowledge of true being: Hence he who energizes according to the practical virtues is a worthy man ; but he who energizes according to the cathar- tic virtues is a ^ demoniacal man, or is also a or cod demon. \ He who energizes according to the intellectual virtues alone is a God. But he who energizes according lo the paradigmatic ♦ Select Works of Plotinus, trans, by Thomas Taylor, ed.

1895p. II.
f A good spiritual intelligence, as the daimon of Socrates.

36THE ANCIENT WISDOM.
virtues is the Father of the Gods, (Note on Intellectual Prudence, pp. 325-332.) By various practices the disciples were taught to escape from the body, and to rise into higher re- gions. As grass is drawn from a sheath, the inner man was to draw himself from his bodily casing. * The "body of light" or "radiant body" of the Hin- dus is the " luciform body" of the Neo-Platonists, and in this the man rises to find the Self: Not grasped by the eye, nor by speech, nor by the other senses (///. , Gods) , nor by austerity, nor by religious rites ; by serene wisdom, by the pure essence only, doth one see the partless One in meditation. This subtle Self is to be known by the mind in which the fivefold life is sleeping. The mind of aU creatures is instinct with [these] lives ; in this, purified, manifests the Self {Mundakopamshad, III. ii. 8, 9). Then alone can man enter the region where sepa- ration is not, where "the spheres have ceased." In G. R. S. Mead's Introduction to Taylor's Plotinus he quotes from Plotinus a description of a sphere which is evidently the Turiya of the Hindus : They likewise see all things, not those with which genera- tion, but those with which essence is present. And they per- ceive themselves in others. For all things there are diapha- nous; and nothing is dark and resisting, but everything is apparent to every one internally and throughout. For light everywhere meets with light; since everything contains all things in itself and again sees all things in another. So that all things are everywhere and all is all. Each thing likewise is everything. And the splendor there is infinite. For every- thing there is great, since even that which is small is great ♦ Kdthopanishad^ vi. 17. INTRODUCTION. 37 The sun too which is there is all the stars ; and again each star is the sun and all the stars. In each, however, a different property predominates, but at the same time all things are visible in each. Motion likewise there is pure ; for the motion is not confounded by a mover different from it (p. Ixxiii.). A description which is a failure, because the re- gion is one above describing by mortal language, but a description that could only have been written by one whose eyes had been opened. A whole volume might easily be filled with the similaritiiSs between the religions of the world, but the above imperfect statement must suffice as a pref- ace to the study of Theosophy, to that which is a fresh and fuller presentment to the world of the an- cient truths on which it has ever been fed. All these similarities point to a single source, and that is the Brotherhood of the White Lodge, the Hierarchy of Adepts who watch over and guide the evolution of humanity, and who have preserved these truths un- impaired ; from time to time, as necessity arose, re- asserting them in the ears of men. From other worlds, from earlier humanities, They came to help our globe, evolved by a process comparable to that now going on with ourselves, and that will be more intelligible when we have completed our present study than it may now appear; and They have afforded this help, reinforced by the flower of our own humanity, from the earliest times until to-day. Still They teach eager pupils, showing the path and guiding the disciple's steps; still They may be re^iched by all who seek Them, bearing in tiien

38THE ANCIENT WlSDO&t
hands the sacrificial fuel of love, of devotion, of un- selfish longing to know in order to serve ; still They carry out the ancient discipline, still unveil the an- cient Mysteries. The two pillars of Their Lodge gateway are Love and Wisdom, and through its strait portal can only pass those from whose shoul- ders has fallen the burden of desire and selfishness. A heavy task lies before us, and beginning on the physical plane we shall climb slowly upwards; but a bird's-eye view of the great sweep of evolution and of its purpose may help us, ere we begin our detailed study in the world that surrounds us. A Locos, ere a system has begun to be, has in His mind the whole, existing as idea — all forces, all forms, all that in due process shall emerge into objective life. He draws the circle of manifestation within which He wills to energize, and circumscribes Himself to be the life of His universe. As we watch we see strata appearing of successive densities, till seven vast regions are apparent, and in these centres of energy appear whirlpools of matter that separate from each other, until when the processes of separation and of con- densation are over — so far as we are here concerned — we see a central sun, the physical symbol of the Logos, and seven great planetary chains, each chain consisting of seven globes. Narrowing down our view to the chain of which our globe is one, we see life-waves sweep round it. forming the kingdoms of nature, the three elemental, the mineral, vegetable^ animal, human. Narrowing down our view still further to our own globe and its surroundings, we INTRODUCTION. 39 watch human evolution, and see man developing self -consciousness by a series of many life-periods ; then centring on a single man we trace his growth and see that each life-period has a threefold division, that each is linked to all life-periods behind it reap- ing their results, and to all life-periods before it sowing their harvests, by a law that cannot be bro- ken; that thus man may climb upwards with each life-period adding to his experience, each life-period lifting him higher in purity, in devotion, in intellect, in power of usefulness, until at last he stands where They stand who are now the Teachers, fit to pay to his younger brothers the debt he owes to Them. CHAPTER r THE PHYSICAL PLANE. We have just seen that the source from which a universe proceeds is a manifested Divine Being, to whom in the modern form of the Ancient Wisdom the name Logos, or Word, has been given. The name is drawn from Greek philosophy, but perfectly expresses the ancient idea, the Word which emerges from the Silence, the Voice, the Sound, by which the worlds come into being. We must now trace the evolution of spirit-matter, in order that we may un- derstand something of the nature of the materials with which we have to deal on the physical plane, or physical world. For it is in the potentialities wrapped up, involved, in the spirit-matter of the physical world that lies the possibility of evolution. The whole process is an unfolding, self-moved from within and aided by intelligent beings without, who can retard or quicken evolution, but cannot trans- cend the capacities inherent in the materials. Some idea of these earliest stages of the world's " becom- ing" is therefore necessary, although any attempt to go into minute details would carry us far beyond the limits of such an elementary treatise as the present. A very cursory sketch must suffice.

1^
THE World's "becoming. 41 • ■> ► Coming forth from the depths ot the One Exist- ence, from the One beyond all thoij^ht and all speech, a Logos, by imposing on Himself a limit, circumscribing voluntarily the range of liis own Being, becomes the manifested God, and tracing, the limiting sphere of His activity thus outlines the^rfiieSL of His universe. Within that sphere the universe is- bom, is evolved, and dies; it lives, it moves, it has its being in Him ; its matter is His emanation ; its forces and energies are currents of His life ; He is immanent in every atom, all-pervading, all-sustain- ing, all-evolving; He is its source audits end, its cause and its object, its centre and circumference ; it is built on Him as its sure foundation, it breathes in Him as its encircling space ; He is in everything and everything in Him. Thus have the Sages of the Ancient Wisdom taught us of the beginning of the manifested worlds. Prom the same source we learn of the Self-un- folding of the Logos into a threefold form ; the First Logos, the Root of all Being; from Him the Sec- ond, manifesting the two aspects of Life and Form, the primal duality, making the two poles of nature between which the web of the universe is to be woven — Life-Form, Spirit-Matter, Positive-Nega- tive, Active-Receptive, Father-Mother of the worlds. Then the Third Logos, the Universal Mind, that in which all archetypically exists, the source of beings, the fount of fashioning energies, the treasure-house in which are stored up all the archet3rpal forms which are to be brought forth and elaborated in 4^ THE ANC'mNT WISDOM. lower kinds of -raatter during the evolution of the universe. These are the fruits of past universes, brought ovef , as seeds for the present. The phenbmenal spirit and matter of any universe are finite in their extent and transitory in their Ju- rafioti^'but the roots of spirit and matter are eter- TiBJ:: The root of matter * has been said by a pro- found writer to be visible to the Locos as a veil thrown over the One Existence, the supreme Brah- manf — to use the ancient name. It is this " veil" which the Locos assumes for the purpose of manifestation, using it for the self-im- posed limit which makes activity possible. From this He elaborates the matter of His universe, being Himself its informing, guiding, and controlling life. J Of what occurs on the two higher planes of the universe, the seventh and the sixth, we can form but the haziest conception. The energy of the Locos as whirling motion of inconceivable rapidity "digs holes in space" in this root of matter, and this vor- tex of life encased in a film of the root of matter is the primary atom; these and their aggregations, spread throughout the universe, form all the subdi- visions of spirit-matter of the highest or seventh plane. The sixth plane is formed by some of the * Mi^laprakriti. f Parabrahman. t Hence He is called "The Lord of l/ityk,** in some Eastern Scriptures, M&y&, or illusion, being the principle of form; form is regarded as illusory, from its transitory nature and perpetual transformations, the life which expresses itself under the veil of form being the reality MAKING OP TMfe UNlVERSfe. 43 countless myriads of these primary atoms setting up a vortex in the coarsest aggregations of their own plane, and this primary atom enwalled with spiral strand? of the coarsest combinations of the seventh plane becomes the finef:t unit of spirit-matter, or atom, of the sixth plane. These sixth-plane-atoms and their endless combinations form the subdivi- sions of the spirit-matter of the sixth plane. The sixth-plane-atom, in its turn, sets up a vortex in the coarsest aggregations of its own plane, and, with these coarsest aggregations as a limiting wall, be comes the finest unit of spirit-matter, or atom, of the fifth plane. Again, these fifth-plane-atoms and their combinations form the subdivisions of the spirit-matter of the fifth plane. The process is re- peated to form successively the spirit-matter of the fourth, the third, the second, and the first planes. These are the seven great regions of the universe, so far as their material constituents are concerned. A clearer idea of them will be gained by analogy when we come to master the modifications of the spirit-matter of our own physical world.* The word "spirit-natter" is used designedly. It *The student may find the conception clearer if he think of the fifth-plane-atoms as Atm& ; those of the fourth plane as Atm& enveloped in Buddhi-matter ; those of the third plane as Atm& enveloped in Buddhi- and Manas-matter ; those of the second as Atm& enveloped in Buddhi-. Manas- and K&ma- matter; those of the lowest as AtmS, enveloped in Buddhi-, Manas-, Kdma- and Sth^la-matter. Only the outermost 12 active in each case, but the inner are there, though latent, ready to come into activity on the upward arc of evolution. THE ANXIENT WrSDOM, implies the fact that there is no such thing as "dead" matter; all matter is livdng, the tiniest particles are lives. Science speaks truly in affirming: " No force without matter, no matter without force. " They are wedded together in an indissoluble marriage throughout the ages of the life of a universe, and none can wrench them apart. Matter is form, and there is no form which does not express a life; spirit is life, and there is no life that is not limited by a form. Even the Logos, the supreme Lord, has during manifestation the universe as His form, and so down to the atom. This involution of the life of the Logos as the en- souling force in every particle, and its sticcessive en. wrapping in the spirit-matter of every plane, so that the materials of each plane have within them in a bidden, or latent condition, all the form- and force- possibilities of all the planes above them as well as those of their own — these two facts make evolution certain and give to the very lowest particle the hid- den potentialities which will render it fit — as they become active powers — to enter into the forms of the highest beings. In fact, evolution may be summed up in a phrase: it is latent potentialities becoming active powers The second great wave of evolution, the evolution of form, and the third great wave, the evolution of self-consciousness, will be dealt with later on. These three currents of evolution are distinguishable on our earth in connection with humanity; the mak- ing of the materials, the building of the house, and THREE CONDITIOXS OF MATTER. 45 the growing of the tenant of the house, or, as said above, the evolution of spirit-matter, the evolution of form, the evolution of self-consciousness. If the reader can grasp and retain this idea, he will find it a helpful clue to guide him through the labyrinth of facts. We can now turn to the detailed examination of the physical plane, that on which our world exists and to which our bodies belong. Examining the materials belonging to this plane, we are struck by their immense variety, the innu- merable differences of constitution in the objects around us, minerals, vegetables, animals, all differ^ ing in their constituents: matter hard and soft, transparent and opaque, brittle and ductile, bitter and sweet, pleasant and nauseous, colored and col- orless. Out of this confusion three subdivisions of matter emerge as a fundamental classification : mat- ter is solid, liquid, and gaseous. Further examina- tion shows that these solids, liquids, and gases are made up by combinations of much simpler bodies, called by chemists " elements, " and that these ele- ments may exist in a solid, liquid, or gaseous condi- tion without changing their respective natures. Thus the chemical element oxygen is a constituent of wood, and in combination with other elements forms the solid wood fibres; it exists in the sap with another element, yielding a liquid combination as water; and it exists also in it by itself as gas. Un- der these three conditions it is oxygen. Further, pure oxygen can be reduced from a gas to a liquid,

46THE ANCIENT WISDOM.
and from a liquid to a solid, remaining pure oxygen all the time, and so with other elements. We thus obtain as three subdivisions, or conditions, of mat- ter on the physical plane, solid, liquid, gas. Search- ing further, we find a fourth condition, ether, and minuter search reveals that this ether exists in four conditions as well defined as those of solid, liquid, and gas; to take oxygen again as an example: as it may be reduced from the gaseous condition to the liquid and the solid, so it may be raised from the gaseous through four etheric stages, the last of which consists of the ultimate physical atom, the disintegration of the atom taking the matter out of the physical plane altogether, and into the next plane above. In the annexed plate three gases are shown in the gaseous and four etheric states ; it will be observed that the structure of the ultimate physi- cal atom is the same for all, and that the variety of the "elements" is due to the variety of ways in which these ultimate physical atoms combine. Thus the seventh subdivision of physical spirit-matter is composed of homogeneous atoms ; the sixth is com posed of fairly simple heterogenous combinations ot these, each combination behaving as a unit ; the fifth is composed of more complex combinations, and the fourth of still more complex ones, but in all cases these combinations act as units; the third •subdivi- sion consists of yet mere complicated combina- tions, regarded by the chemist as gaseous atoms a '* elements," and on this subdivision many of the combinations have received special names, oxygen. MFANING OF PLANE. 47 hydrogen, nitrogen, chlorine, etc., and each newly- discovered combination now receives its name ; the second subdivision consists of combinations in the liquid condition, whether regarded as elements such as bromine, or as combinations such as water or al- cohol; the first subdivision is composed of all solids, again whether regarded as elements, such as iodine, gold, lead, etc., or as compounds, such as wood, stone, ^''halk, and so on. The physical plane may serve the student as a model from which by analogy he may gain an idea of the subdivisions of the spirit-matter of other planes. When a Theosophist speaks of a plane, he means a region throughout which spirit-matter ex- ists, all whose combinations are derived from a par- ticular set of atoms; these atoms, in turn,' are units possessing similar organizations, whose life is the life of the Locos veiled in fewer or more coverings according to the plane, and whose form consists of the solid, or lowest subdivision of matter, of the plane immediately ab' ve. A plane is thus a division in nature, as well as a metaphysical idea. Thus far we have been studying the results in our own physical world of the evolution of spirit-matter in our division of the first or lowest plane of our system. For countless ages the fashioning of materials has been going on, the current of the evolution of spirit-matter, and in the materials of our globe we see the outcome at the present time. But when we begin to study the inhabitants of the physical plane, we come to the evolution /C8 THE ANCIENT WISDOM. of form, the building of organisms out of these materials. When the evolution of materials had reached a sufficiently advanced state, the second great life- wave from the Logos gave the impulse to the evolu- tion of form, and He became the organizing force* of His universe, countless hosts of entities, entitled Builders, f taking part in the building up of forms out of combinations of spirit-matter. The life of the Logos abiding in each form is its central, control- ling, and directing energy. This building of forms on the higher planes cannot here be conveniently studied in detail ; it may suffice to say that all forms exist as Ideas in the mind of the Logos, and that in this second life-wave these were thrown outwards as models to guide the Builders. On the third and second planes the early spirit-matter combinations are designed to give it facility in assuming shapes organized to act as units, and gradually to increase its stability when shaped into an organism. This process went on upon the third and second planes, in what are termed the three elemental kingdoms, the combinations of matter formed therein being called generally "elemental essence," and this es- sence being moulded into forms by aggregation, the *As AtmH-Buddhi, indivisible in action, and therefore spoken of as the Monad. K\\ forms have Atm&-Buddhi as controlling life. f Some are lofty spiritual Intelligences, but the name covers even the building Nature-spirits. The subject is dealt with in

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