This much at
least I can say, that up to the highest level of consciousness which
any of our students have yet attained — up
...
even to what is commonly
called Nirvana itself, there is no loss of individuality, of the
power to think, to plan and to act. Long before that there is an
entire loss of the sense of separateness , but that is a
very different thing. Sir Edwin Arnold wrote of that beatific
condition “the dewdrop slips into the shinning sea.”
Those who have passed through that most marvelous of experiences know
that, paradoxical as it may seem, the sensation is exactly the
reverse, and that a far closer description would be that the ocean
had somehow been poured into the drop!
That consciousness, wide
as the sea, with “its center everywhere and its circumference
nowhere,” is a great and glorious fact; but when a
man attains it, it seems to him that his consciousness has widened to
take in all that, not that he is merged into something else. And he
is right, for that which he had ignorantly supposed to be
his consciousness was never his at all, but only the shining of
the divine power and wisdom and love through him, and he is now at
last beginning to realize that stupendous fact. The truth is that
what is commonly understood by individuality is a delusion and has
never existed, but all that is best and noblest in that conception is
maintained up to adeptship and far beyond, even into the realm of the
great Planetary Spirits, for They are assuredly individuals, though
mighty beyond our feeble powers of conception.
Even though the
attempt be foredoomed to failure, let me endeavor to give some
slight idea of an experience which some of us once had in connection
with this lofty plane. Before we ourselves by our own efforts were
able to touch it, a Master, for certain purposes of his own, enfolded
us in his higher aura, and enabled us through him to know something
of glories of Nirvana.
Try to imagine the whole universe filled
with and consisting of an immense torrent of living light, and in it
a vividness of life and an intensity of bliss altogether beyond all
description, a hundred thousand times beyond the greatest bliss of
heaven. At first we feel nothing but the bliss; we see nothing but
the intensity of the light; but gradually we begin to realize that
even in this dazzling brightness there are brighter spots — nuclei,
as it were — which are built of the light because there is nothing
but the light, and yet through them somehow the light gleams out more
brightly, and obtains a new quality which enables it to be
perceptible upon other and lower planes, which without this would be
altogether beneath the possibility of sensing its effulgence. And by
degrees we begin to realize that these subsidiary suns are the great
Ones, that these are
...
- 148 -
Planetary Spirits, Great Angels, Karmic Deities,
Buddhas, Christs and Masters, and that through Them the light and the
life are flowing down to the lower planes. Gradually, little by
little, as we become more accustomed to the stupendous reality, we
begin to see that, in a far lower sense, even we ourselves are a
focus in that cosmic scheme, and that through us also, at our much
lower level, the light and the life are flowing to those who are
still further away — not from it, for we are all part of it and there
is nothing else anywhere — but further from the realization of it,
the comprehension of it, the experience of it.
If we can see
and grasp even a little of the glory, we can to some extent reflect
it to others who are less fortunate. That light shines for every one,
and it is the only reality; yet men by their ignorance and by their
foolish actions may so shut themselves away that they cannot see it,
just as the sun floods the whole world with light and life, and yet
men may hide themselves in caves and cellars where that light cannot
be seen. Just as a mirror properly placed at the mouth of such a cave
or cellar may enable those within to participate, at least to some
extent, in the benefits of the light, so may we, when we see the
light, reflect it to others who have so placed themselves that they
cannot perceive it directly.
No words that we can use can
really give even least idea of such an experience as that, for all
with which our minds are acquainted has long ago disappeared before
that level is attained. There is of course at that level a sheath of
some sort for the spirit, but it is impossible to describe it in any
words. In one sense it seems as though it were an atom, and yet in
another it seems to be the whole plane. Each man is a center of
consciousness and therefore must have some position; that focus in
the stream of the life of the Logos must, one would say, be in one
place or another. Yet he feels as if he were the whole plane and
could focus anywhere, and wherever for the moment the outpouring of
this force stops, that is for him a sheath. The man still feels
absolutely himself, even though he is so much more; and he is able to
distinguish others. He is able to recognize with perfect certainty
the Great Ones whom he knows, yet it is rather by instinctive feeling
than by any resemblance to anything that he has seen before; but if
he focusses his consciousness upon one of These he gets the effect of
the form of the man he knows it in the Augoeides, two planes below.
- 149 -
The Triple Spirit
The Monads are clearly all centers of force in the Logos,
and yet each possesses a very distinct individuality of his own. In
the average man the monad is but little in touch with the ego and the
lower personality, which are yet somehow expressions of him. He knows
from the first what is his object in evolution and he grasps the
general trend of it, but until that portion of him which expresses
itself in the ego has reached a fairly high stage, he is scarcely
conscious of the details of life down here, or at any rate takes
little interest in them. He seems at that stage not to know other
monads, but rests in indescribable bliss without any active
consciousness of surroundings. As evolution progresses, however, he
grasps matters on the lower lane much more fully, and finally takes
them entirely into his own hands, and at that stage he knows both
himself and others, and his voice within us becomes for us the Voice
of the Silence. That voice differs for us at different stages. For us
now in this lower consciousness it is the voice of the ego; when we
identify ourselves with the ego it is the voice of the spirit; when
we reach the spirit it is the voice of the monad, and when in the
far-away future we identify ourselves wholly with the monad it will be
the voice of the Logos; but in every case we have to subject the
lower and rise above it, before the voice of the higher can be
heard.
This monad resides permanently upon the second of our
planes — the monadic —
and when he descends upon the third — the plane of nirvana — he
manifests himself as the triple spirit, and this triple spirit is a
reflection or (even more truly) an expression of the Logos as He
manifests Himself in our set of planes. His first manifestation on
our highest plane is also triple. In the first of these three aspects
He does not manifest Himself on any plane below the highest, but in
the second He descends to the second plane and draws round Himself a
garment of its matter, thus making a quite separate expression of
Him. In the third aspect He descends to the upper portion of the
third plane, and draws round Himself matter of that level, thus
making a third manifestation. These three are the “three
persons in one God,” of which Christianity teaches, telling us
in its Athanasian creed that we should worship “One God in
Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the persons nor
dividing the substance” — that is to say, never confusing in
our minds the work and function
...
- 150 -
of the three separate manifestations,
each on its own plane, yet never for a moment forgetting the eternal
unity of the “substance,” that which lives behind all
alike on the highest plane, at the level where these three are one.
Now an exact repetition of this process takes place in the case
of man, who is in very truth made in the image of God. The spirit is
triple upon the third plane, and the first of its three
manifestations does not descend below that level. The second
manifestation descends one stage, on to the fourth plane, and clothes
itself with its matter, and then we call it buddhi. Just as before,
the third aspect descends two planes, and shrines itself in matter of
the highest level of the mental plane, and we call that manas, and
this trinity of atma-buddhi-manas, manifesting in the causal body, is
what we call the ego.
Never forget that the ego is not the
manas only, but the spiritual triad; at our present stage of
evolution he rests in his causal body on the higher levels of the
mental plane, but as he passes onwards his consciousness will be
centered on the buddhic plane, and afterwards, when he attains
adeptship, on the nirvanic. But it must not be supposed that when
this further development takes place the manas is in any way lost.
When the ego draws himself up into the buddhic plane, he draws up
manas with him into that expression of manas which has all the time
existed on the buddhic plane, but has not been fully vivified until
now. In the same way when he draws himself up into the nirvanic
plane, manas and buddhi exist within him just as fully as ever, so
that now the triple spirit is in full manifestation on its own plane
in all its three aspects. Therefore the spirit is truly seven-fold,
for he is triple on his own plane, dual on the buddhic, and single on
the mental, and the unity which is his synthesis makes seven. Though
he draws back into the higher he retains the definiteness of the
lower.
This is probably what Madame Blavatsky meant when she
spoke of the auric egg, but she surrounded this idea with great
mystery, and it seems likely that she was under some pledge not to
write freely about it. She never clearly explained the triple spirit,
but evidently endeavored to suggest the idea without clearly
expressing it, for she laid great stress upon the fact that, just as
the astral plane may be said to be a reflection of the buddhic, so
may the physical be said to be a reflection of the nirvanic, and then
she furthermore emphasized the fact that there are three bodies or
vehicles of man on the physical plane — apparently going out of
...
- 151 -
her
way to make this agree, and for that purpose dividing the physical
body of man into two parts, the dense and the etheric, and adding as
a third principle the vitality which flows through them. Now as this
vitality exists on all the planes, and might just as well be made
into additional principles on the astral and mental planes as on the
physical, it would seem that some reason is required for her rather
peculiar arrangement, and perhaps this reason may be found in her
desire to indicate the triple spirit without actually mentioning it.
I think the President [Annie Besant] has said that when Blavatsky spoke about the
sacred auric egg she meant the four permanent atoms within an
envelope of matter of the nirvanic plane.
Buddhic Consciousness
A
selfish man could not function on the buddhic plane, for the very
essence of that plane is sympathy and perfect comprehension, which
excludes selfishness. A man cannot make a buddhic body until he has
conquered the lower planes. There is a close connection between the
astral and the buddhic, the former being in some ways a reflection of
the latter; but it must not therefore be supposed that a man can leap
from the astral consciousness to the buddhic without developing the
intervening vehicles.
Certainly on the highest levels of the
buddhic plane a man becomes one with all others, but we must not
therefore assume that he feels alike towards all. There is no reason
to suppose that we shall ever feel absolutely alike towards
everybody; why should we? Even the Lord Buddha had His favorite
disciple Ananda; even the Christ regarded Saint John the Beloved in a
different way from the rest. What is true is that presently
we shall come to love every one as much as we now love our nearest
and dearest, but by that time we shall have developed for those
nearest and dearest a type of love of which we have no conception
now. The buddhic consciousness includes that of many others, so that
you may put yourself down into another man and feel exactly as he
does, looking upon him from within instead of from without. In that
relation you will feel no shrinking even from an evil man, because
you will recognize him as a part of yourself — a weak part. You will
desire to help him by pouring strength in that weak
...
- 152 -
beneath
us, and also that millions of tons of water are raised above the
surface of the earth in the form of clouds. Still, the great bulk of
the liquid matter of the earth lies on the top of its solid matter in
the form of the ocean, lakes and rivers. Then the gaseous matter of
our earth (chiefly the atmosphere) lies upon the surface of the water
and of the solid earth, and extends much further away into space than
either the liquid or the solid.
All three conditions of matter
exist here at the surface of the earth where we live, but the water
in the form of clouds extents further above that surface than does
ordinary dust, and again the air, though interpenetrating both the
others, extends much further away still. This is by no means a bad
analogy to explain the arrangement of the matter of the higher
planes.
What we call our astral plane may also be considered as
the astral body of the earth. It certainly exists all around us, and
interpenetrates the solid earth beneath our feet, but it also extends
far away above our heads, so that we may think of it as a huge ball
of astral matter with the physical earth in the middle of it, much as
the physical body of a man exists within the ovoid form which is
filled with astral matter, except that in case of the earth the
proportionate size of its astral body outside the physical is
enormously greater than in the case of man. But just as in the case
of the man densest aggregation of astral matter is that which is
within the periphery of the physical body, so in the case of the
earth by far the greater part of its astral matter is gathered
together within the limit of the physical sphere.
Nevertheless,
the portion of the astral sphere which is exterior to the physical,
extends nearly to the mean distance of the moon' s orbit, so that the
astral planes of the two worlds touch one another when the moon is in
perigee, but do not touch when the moon is in apogee. Incidentally,
it follows that at certain times of the month astral communication
with the moon is possible, and at certain other times it is not.
I knew of a case in which a dead man reached the moon, but could not
then return. That was because the continuity of astral travel had
failed him. — the tide of space had flowed in between, as it
were, and he had to wait until communication was re-established
by the approach of the satellite to its boundary.
The mental plane of our earth bears about the same proportion to
the astral as the latter does to the physical. It also is a huge
globe, concentric with the other two, interpenetrating them both,
...
- 154 -
but
extending much further from the center than does the astral globe. It
will be seen that the effect of this is that, while matter of all the
planes exists together down here, there is a certain amount of truth
in the illustration of the shelves, for beyond the limit of the
physical atmosphere there is a considerable shell which consists only
of astral and mental matter, and outside of that again another
similar shell which consists of mental matter only.
When we
reach the buddhic plane the extension becomes so great that what we
might call the buddhic bodies of the different planets of our chain
meet one another, and so there is but one buddhic body for the whole
chain, which means that in the buddhic vehicle it is possible to pass
from one of these planets to another. I presume that when
investigations in a similar way are extended to the nirvanic plane it
will be found that that matter extends so much further that other
chains are included in it as well — perhaps the entire solar system.
All this is true as far as it goes, and yet it does not convey a
really accurate idea of the true position of affairs, because of the
fact that our minds can grasp only three dimensions, whereas in
reality there are many more, and as we raise our consciousness from
plane to plane, each step opens before us the possibility of
comprehending one more of these dimensions. This makes it difficult
to describe exactly the position of those who have passed away from
the physical life to other planes. Some of such people tend to hover
round their earthly homes, in order to keep in touch with their
friends of the physical life and the places which they know;
others, on the other hand, have a tendency to float away and to find for
themselves, as if by specific gravity, a level much further removed
from the surface of the earth. The great majority of the denizens of
the astral world spend most of their lives comparatively near to the surface
of the physical earth; but as they withdraw into themselves, and
their consciousness touches the higher types of matter, they find
it easier and more natural than before to soar away from that surface
into regions where there are fewer disturbing currents. I was once
brought into touch with the case of a dead man who informed a friend of
mine, during a series of spiritualistic seances, that he frequently
found himself about five hundred miles above the surface of the
earth. In this case the questioner was one who was well versed in
occultism, and who would therefore know well know to conduct his enquiries
and the investigation of his friend on the other side intelligently and his friend's
assertions.
- 155 -
The average person passing into
the heaven-life, for example, tends to float at a considerable
distance above the surface of the earth, although on the other hand
some of such men are drawn to our level. Still, broadly speaking, the
inhabitants of the heaven-world may be thought of as living in a
sphere or ring or zone round the earth. What Spiritualists call the
summer-land extends many miles above our heads, and as people of the
same race and the same religion tend to keep together after death
just as they do during life, we have what may be described as a kind
of network of summer-lands over the countries to which belong the
people who have created them.
People find their own level on
the astral plane, much in the same way as objects floating in the
ocean do. This does not mean that they cannot rise and fall at will,
but that if no special effort is made they come to their level and
remain there. Astral matter gravitates towards the center of the
earth just as physical matter does; both obey the same general laws.
We may take it that the sixth sub-plane of the astral is partially
coincident with the surface of the earth, while the lowest, or
seventh, penetrates some distance into the interior.
The
conditions of the interior of our earth are not easy to describe.
Vast cavities exist in it, and there are races inhabiting these
cavities, but they are not of the same evolution as ourselves. One of
these evolutions, which is at a level distinctly lower than any race
now existing upon the surface of the earth, is to some extent
described in the seventeenth life of Alcyone, in
The Lives of Alcyone;
the other is more nearly at our level,
yet utterly different from anything that we know.
As the center
of the earth is approached, matter is found to exist in a state not
readily comprehensible to those who have not seen it; a state in
which it is far denser than the densest metal known to us, and yet
flows as readily as water. But yet there is something else within
even that. Such matter is far too dense for any forms of life that we
know, but nevertheless, it has connected with it an evolution of its
own.
The tremendous pressures which exist here are utilized by
the Third Logos for the manufacture of new elements; in fact, the
central portions of the earth may with great truth be regarded as His
laboratory for temperatures and pressures are obtainable there of
which we on the surface have no conception. It is there that, under
His direction, troops of devas and nature-spirits of a
...
- 156 -
particular
type combine and separate, arrange and rearrange the ultimate
physical atoms, working along the wonderful double spiral which is
symbolized in Sir William Crookes' lemniscates. From this point also,
incredible as it seems to us, there is a direct connection with the
heart of the sun, so that elements made there appear in the center of
the earth without passing through what we call the surface; but it is
useless to speak of this until the higher dimensions of space are
more generally understood. As in the case of the physical, the
densest astral matter is far too dense for the ordinary forms of
astral life; but that also has other forms of its own which are quite
unknown to students of the surface.
In investigating the
interior of the earth we did not find a central shaft running from
pole to pole, such as has been described by some mediums, nor did we
find a number of concentric spheres resting upon cushions of steam.
At the same time there are certain forces which do play through
concentric layers, and it is not difficult to see what were the
natural phenomena which deceived those who, in perfect good faith,
made that statement.
There is unquestionably a force of
etheric pressure just as there is of atmospheric pressure, and it can
be utilized by man as soon as he can discover some material which is
ether-proof. The same pressure exists in the astral world. The most
ordinary example of this is what happens when a man leaves his body
in sleep or in death.
When the astral body is withdrawn from
the physical, we must not suppose that that physical body is left
without an astral counterpart. The pressure of the surrounding astral
matter — and that really means the action of the force of gravitation
on the astral plane — immediately forces other astral matter into
that astrally empty space, just as, if we create a vortex and draw
out the air from a room, other air flows instantly from the
surrounding atmosphere. But that astral matter will correspond with
curious accuracy to physical matter which it interpenetrates. Every
variety of physical matter attracts astral matter of corresponding
density, so that solid physical matter is interpenetrated by what we
may call solid astral matter — matter of the lowest astral
sub-plane; whereas physical liquid is interpenetrated by matter of
the next astral sub-plane — liquid; while physical gas in turn
attracts its particular correspondence — matter of the third astral
sub-plane from the bottom, which might be called astral gas.
Take the case of a glass of water; the tumbler (being solid
matter) is interpenetrated by astral matter of the lowest sub-plane;
the water in the tumbler (being liquid matter ) is interpenetrated by
astral matter of the second sub-plane, counting from the bottom
upwards; while the air which surrounds both
...
- 157 -
(being gaseous matter) is
interpenetrated by astral matter of the third sub-plane, counting
from the bottom upwards.
We must also realize that just as all
these things, the tumbler, the water, and the air, are
interpenetrated by physical ether, so are their astral
correspondences further interpenetrated by the variety of astral
matter which corresponds to the different types of ether. So when a
man withdraws is astral body from the physical there is an inrush of
all three varieties of astral matter, because man' s physical body is
composed of solid, liquid and gaseous constituents. Of course there
is ether in the physical body as well, so there must also be astral
matter of the higher sub-planes to correspond to that.
That
temporary astral counterpart formed during the absence of the real
astral body is thus an exact copy of it so far as arrangement is
concerned, but it has no real connection with the physical body, and
could never be used as a vehicle. It is constructed of any astral
matter of the required kind that happens to be handy; it is merely a
fortuitous concourse of atoms, and when the true astral body returns
it pushes out this other astral matter without the slightest
opposition. This is one reason for the extreme care which ought to be
exercised as to the surroundings in which we sleep, for if those
surroundings are evil, astral matter of the most objectionable type
may fill our physical bodies while we are away from them, leaving
behind it an influence which cannot but react horribly upon the real
man when he returns. But the instant inrush when the body is
abandoned shows the existence of astral pressure.
In the same
way, when the man has finally left his physical body at death, what
he leaves is no longer a vehicle, but a corpse — not in any true
sense a body at all, but simply a collection of disintegrating
material in the shape of a body. Just as we can no longer call that
truly a body, so we cannot call the astral matter which
interpenetrates it truly a counterpart in the ordinary sense of the
word. Take an imperfect yet perhaps helpful analogy. When the
cylinder of an engine is full of steam, we may regard the steam as
the living force within the cylinder, which makes the engine move.
But when the engine is cold and at rest, the cylinder is not
necessarily empty; it may be filled with air; yet that air is not its
appropriate living force, though it occupies the same position as did
the steam.
Astral matter is never really solid at
all — only relatively solid.
- 158 -
You know that the mediaeval alchemists
always symbolized astral matter by water, and one of the reasons for
that was its fluidity and penetrability. It is true that the
counterpart of any solid physical object is always matter of the
lowest astral sub-plane, which for convenience we often call astral
solid matter; but we must not therefore endow it with the qualities
with which we are familiar in solids on this plane. The particles in
that densest kind of astral matter are further apart relatively to
their size than even gaseous particles; so that it would be easier
for two of the densest astral bodies to pass through each other than
it would be for the lightest physical gas to diffuse itself in the
air.
On the astral plane one has not the sense of jumping over
a precipice, but simply of floating over it. If you are standing upon
the ground, part of your astral body interpenetrates the ground under
your feet; but through your astral body you would not be conscious of
this fact by anything corresponding to a sense of hardness, or by any
difference in your power of motion. Remember that upon the astral
plane there is no sense of touch that corresponds to ours upon the
physical. One never touches the surface of anything, so as to feel it
hard or soft, rough or smooth, hot or cold; but on coming into
contact with the interpenetrating substance one would be conscious of
a different rate of vibration, which might of course be pleasant or
unpleasant, stimulating or depressing. When on awakening in the
morning we remember anything corresponding to our ordinary sense of
touch, it is only that in bringing the remembrance through, the
physical brain adopted the means of expression to which we are
accustomed.
Though the light of all planes comes from the sun,
yet the effect which it produces on the astral plane is entirely
different from that on the physical. In astral life there is a
diffused luminosity, not obviously coming from any special direction.
All astral matter is in itself luminous, and an astral body is not
like a painted sphere, but rather a sphere of living fire. It is also
transparent, and there are no shadows. It is never dark in the astral
world. The passing of a physical cloud between us and the sun makes
no difference whatever to the astral plane, nor of course does the
shadow of the earth which we call night.
The invisible helper
would not pass through a mountain, if he thought of it as an
obstacle; to learn that it is not an obstacle is precisely the object
of one part of what is called “the test of earth.” There
cannot be an accident on the astral plane in our sense of the
...
- 159 -
word,
because the astral body, being fluidic, cannot be destroyed or
permanently injured, as the physical body can. An explosion on the
astral plane might be temporarily as disastrous as an explosion of
gunpowder on the physical, but the astral fragments would quickly
collect themselves again.
People on the astral plane can and do
pass through one another constantly, and through fixed astral
objects. Remember that on the astral plane matter is so much more
fluidic and so much less densely aggregated. There never can be
anything like what we mean by a collision, and under ordinary
circumstances two bodies which interpenetrate are not even
appreciably affected. If, however, the interpenetration lasts for
some time, as it does, for example, when two person sit side by side
through a service in a church or a performance in a theater, a
considerable effect may be produced.
There are many currents
which tend to carry about persons who are lacking in will, and even
those who have will but do not know how to use it. During physical
life the matter of our astral bodies is constantly in motion, while
after death, unless the will is exercised for the purpose of
preventing it, it is arranged in concentric shells with a crust of
the coarsest matter on the outside. If a man wishes to be of service
on the astral, this shelling must be prevented, for those whose
astral bodies have been thus re-arranged are confined to one level.
If the re-arrangement has already occurred, the first thing that is
done when a person is taken in hand is to break up that condition and
set him free on the whole of the astral plane. For those who are
acting as invisible helpers on the astral plane there are no separate
levels; it is all one.
Atmospheric and climatic
conditions make practically no difference to work on the astral and
mental planes. But being in a big city does make a great difference,
on account of the masses of thought-forms. Some psychics require a
temperature of about eighty degrees in order to do their best work,
while others do not work well except at a lower temperature.
If
necessary, occult work can be done anywhere, but some places afford
greater facilities than others. For example, California has a very
dry climate with much electricity in the air, which is favorable for
the development of clairvoyance Here in Adyar there is no resistance
to our thought-forms on account of the environment, because we are
all thinking more or less along the same lines. But we must remember
that there may always be
...
- 160 -
