Theosophical
Society President
Practical Theosophy
By
C Jinarajadasa
First Published 1918
Based on lectures delivered in
and subsequently at the Annual Convention
of the
Contents
I Introductory
II Theosophy
in the Home
III Theosophy
in School and College
IV Theosophy in Business
V Theosophy in Science
VI Theosophy
in Art
VII Theosophy in the State
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
THE value of Theosophy as a philosophy of conduct lies
in the fact that Theosophy
approaches us every hour of the day and in every occupation that is ours. While
it contains universal truths relating to the profoundest problems of existence,
at the same time it tells us luminous truths about the little things of our
daily lives. Once a man has grasped Theosophical principles, even if only
intellectually, they will never leave him. They are as inseparably woven into
the fabric of all life as the truths of evolution are woven into the fabric of
Nature. A man may refuse to live up to them, but he cannot separate himself
from them; they dog his footsteps in the home, in his business, in his
amusements; they make a running commentary on all that he sees and hears.
There are
three fundamental Theosophical truths which transform a man's attitude to life
when he begins to apply them. They are :
1. Man is an
immortal soul who grows through the ages into an ideal of perfection.
2. The growth
of the soul is by learning to cooperate with God's Plan which is Evolution.
3. Man learns
to co-operate with God's Plan by learning first how to help his fellow men.
The first
truth tells us that man is a soul and not the body; that the body is merely an
instrument used by the soul, and discarded, as at death, when no longer fit for
the soul's purposes. It also tells us of Reincarnation or the process of
repeated births on earth, by which method a soul grows by experiences life
after life, slowly growing thereby into wisdom and strength and beauty.
The second
truth tells us that the purpose of life is not contemplation but action, and
that each action of a man's life should be so guided by understanding that it
fits in harmoniously with the Divine Plan of Evolution.
The more a
soul co-operates with the Divine Plan, the happier, wiser and more glorious he
becomes.
The third:
truth tells us that each man is bound by invisible bonds to all his fellow men;
that they rise and fall with him and he with them; that only as he helps the
whole of which he is a part, does he really help himself. Love of one's fellow
men and altruism in the highest form are therefore the essentials
of growth.
These
fundamental truths are applicable to every occasion of life, and the
Theosophist is he who applies them. Let us see how they can be applied in
various departments of human activity.
CHAPTER II
THEOSOPHY IN THE HOME
WHAT is the
family, in the light of these Theosophical truths ? It is a meeting-place of
souls to help each other towards perfection, No individual in a family comes
there by mere chance.
The elders and
the youngers, the masters and the servants, the guests, even the domestic
animals, are in a family because each is to help and to be helped. There is no
such thing as chance in the Divine Plan; each individual in the family comes
and goes, is a member of it for a long or a short time, because he can
co-operate to further the welfare of all the other members of the family. He
has a definite role in the family, and his growth as a soul is by playing that
role to the fullness of his capacity. The home is a place for growth, and the
ideal home is where the conditions are such as enable each individual member of
it to grow swiftest towards his perfection.
There are
several aspects of life in the home, and each is affected by the principles of Theosophy, What has Theosophy to say
concerning the relation ]of parent and child, husband and wife, master and
servant, host and guest ?
First let us
take the relation of parent and child. The child has a dual nature, first as a
soul and second as a body. It is only the body which the parents provide; the
soul of the child lives his life independently, and takes charge of the body
provided for him because he hopes to evolve through it. It is only as regards
the body of the child that the parents are the elders; but the child, as
a soul, is the
equal of the parents, and sometimes is wiser, more capable, and more evolved
than they.
Therefore the
child does not belong to the parents; they are only guardians of his body, so
long as the soul cannot fully direct the body during its infancy and youth. The
phrase "my child" gives no right over the destiny of the child; it
gives only the privilege of helping in the evolution of a brother soul. As the
parents evolve by learning to help their fellow men, one such is sent to them
as their child.
During the
years of infancy, the parent's duty is to help the soul of the child to take
control of his body so as to do his work. That soul comes with many experiences
of past lives; he is preparing himself for a vast work in the distant future.
He takes birth in a particular family because its environment is both what he
deserves and that ]from which he can get the experiences he
needs for his
growth. The duty of the parents is to help the child to those experiences.
This is to be
done first by surrounding the child with all that makes for a healthy life; it
is the duty of parents to know the rules of hygiene and sanitation, so that the
physical conditions for the child may be as perfect as possible. Next the
parents must provide an emotional and mental atmosphere that helps the child.
The soul of the child is not perfect; he comes from his past
lives where he
has been both good and evil; tendencies of both are in him as he takes his new
birth. But the parents can help the child's growth by recalling to his memory
in his early years only the good and helpful experiences and not the evil and
vicious. It is true that the soul must eradicate the evil in himself only by
his own action; but others can make it easier for him, especially when he
begins a new life as a child, by throwing their weight on the side of his good
rather than of his evil.
Therefore the
parents must understand the invisible power of thought and feeling, how a
thought of anger, whether expressed or not expressed, waters the hidden seeds
of anger which the child has brought from his past lives, and how equally
thoughts of love and affection starve out the germs of evil while they
feed the germs
of good. A soul ] with both good and evil in him can start his new experiment
with life as a good child rather than as a bad one, if the parents will foster
in themselves their good thoughts and feelings rather than the evil.
While the duty
of parents is to surround children with all that tends to goodness and beauty,
the failure of a child to be good under those circumstances is not necessarily
due to the parents. The soul of the child may find the seeds of evil in himself
too strong for control; the parents can but attempt to guide him, but if he
will not be guided he must go his own way. The soul will learn through his
mistakes, and through the suffering resulting to him and to others from them.
If the parents do their duty, they have done all the Divine Plan expects of
them; they cannot make or unmake the nature of a soul, for the soul himself
must work out his salvation. A mistake is not the calamity that it appears to
be when we know that the soul has not one life only within which to set right
his error, but several lives. The Divine Plan gives the soul as many
opportunities as he needs, till he finally grows into strength and virtue.
Therefore no
parent need blame himself, if he has done his duty, because his child does not
respond to ideals of virtue. The opportunities that the child refuses to take
will come to him again, though only after he has been taught by pain to grasp
them. What the ]parents must always do under these
circumstances
is not to think of the soul by his failures, and so increase his weaknesses,
but to think of the soul by his virtues, and so strengthen them.
In the
training of children, one important question is how to make a child do the
right thing and not the wrong. Unfortunately, civilization hitherto has
believed that some kind of corporal punishment is inevitable as a part of the
method. While parents have the duty of training a child, they have no right
whatsoever to force him ; the excuse that punishment is good for a child is not
really borne out in the light of the fullest facts. It is true that in early
years the child body is very largely an animal intelligence overshadowed by the
soul nature, and that many of a child's activities have little or no direct
association with the soul; it is not the soul that eats and drinks, is pettish
or obstinate,
or is made happy with toys, or laughs when tickled.
This animal
side of the child does indeed often require curbing; but any kind of outward
pressure by corporal punishment, while it may achieve the intended result, brings
about also a certain coarsening of the child's vehicles which makes them more
obstructive to the spiritualising influences of the Ego.
The higher
nature of the child, represented by his latent emotions and thoughts, has in
childhood ]great sensitiveness; if proper care is taken, a fine and happy
emotional nature and an open and intuitive mentality can result for the child
as he grows up. Harsh treatment of any kind coarsens his finer vehicles,
however much it may temporarily check the crudities of the physical; and
repeated shocks of this kind finally coarsen and deaden that higher
sensitiveness which should be prominent in all men and women as a normal
characteristic of human beings.
The man who is
thankful that he was made to be good by punishment does not realize how much
better he might have become, had a more rational system of training been
understood by those who had his young vehicles in their charge.
When parents
and educationists realize that all the experiences of life have not to be condensed
into one brief lifetime; that the soul has an eternity of growth before him ;
that he has the right to make his own experiments in life, so long as he does
not hinder the growth of others; that each individual alone is
responsible
for the good or evil that he may do; that others are responsible for him only
as they are his brothers and fellow men ; then we shall have a saner outlook
upon this matter of child welfare and training, and there will be little
difficulty in arranging methods of child discipline which will curb the child's
animal nature
in ways that ]are not derogatory to his higher nature as a soul.
When we come
to the relation in the family as between husband and wife, Theosophy tells us that they are both
equal in the responsibilities and privileges which they have in life. What has
brought them together in this family relationship is a series of duties and
privileges which is called the Law of Karma, or the Law of Action and Reaction.
They do not meet for the first time in their age long existence, they have met
many times before and have "made Karma" between themselves; they have
also " made Karma " with certain other souls who may come to them as
their children and dependants. It is this karma, which they owe to each other
and to those that shall surround them in the home, that brings two souls
together as husband and wife.
Often this
karma brings with it the blossoming of affections and sympathies; in such a
case we have the ideal marriage. But it may well happen that, after two people
have been brought together, the karma between them produces phases of
unhappiness.
In both conditions, it is the Divine Purpose that they shall get to know each
other in their Divine natures, and discover their common work, which is indeed
a part of the great Divine work. For while souls can discover each other
through love, yet if they will not through love, life forces them
to discover
through hate; for hate that repels in the beginning attracts in the end. Men
and women discover these mysteries of life outside the marital relationship;
but nevertheless that relationship has been planned as one mode of discovery.
No relation
gives such great opportunities for the discovery of
another's self
and also of one's own self as this; and the man or woman who uses these
opportunities, when karma gives them, thereby grows in spirituality and comes
nearer the discovery of the great Self of God and all humanity.
When this high
spiritual purpose is recognized as underlying family life, family
responsibilities and privileges appear in a new light; the trivial duties of
the home have shining through them the light of Eternity. The birth of children
or their loss, the anxieties and cares of tending them and training them, the
joys
and the
sorrows which they give, are all so many experiences leading to the great
Discovery.
The family is
not a meeting-place of simple travellers who meet
for a few
brief years, and then go their separate ways in eternity; it is far more a
theatre or concert hall where a drama or a composition is being rehearsed, so
that all the individuals may learn to perform their parts with beauty and
dignity for the delight of man and of God.
Not dissimilar
too is the relation in the home between master and servant. Usually where this
relation exists, the servant is less evolved than the master; he therefore
appears in the family in order that he may be helped to grow by an elder soul.
We may engage a servant, but his coming to us is not a matter of
chance; we may
pay him wages, but our " karmic link" does not cease with the money
which we give him. The servant is the master’s brother soul; he is usually the
younger brother, but the monetary contract between them should never be allowed
to make less real the great fact they are brothers.
Servants come
to us to be shown a higher ideal in life than they would normally be aware of,
were they not brought into association with their masters. Neatness, method,
conscientiousness, generosity, courtesy, fine behaviour and
culture are
examples of conduct which the master has to place before the consciousness of
his younger brother, the servant; but while we present to him our example, we must
not ask of him, since he is our younger brother, our standard of achievement.
It is our duty as masters to be patient and understanding while we call out the
best from our servants through a spirit of willing co-operation. Many a virtue
can be learned as a servant which, in a
later life of
larger opportunities, will lead to great actions; and those of us who are
1]masters, but who have not yet learned such virtues, will need to return to
life as servants to learn them.
Who toiled a slave may come anew a prince,
For gentle worthiness and merit won ;
Who ruled a king may wander earth in rags,
For things done and undone.
The domestic
animals who form a part of the family are not such unimportant members of it as
people usually imagine. The Divine Life that is in man is in the animal too;
but it is at an earlier stage and therefore less evolved. But it is to evolve
to a higher through contact with man. Man's duty to his domestic
animals is to
soften their savage nature and implant in them manlike attributes of thought
and affection and devotion.
Therefore,
while the animal gives us its strength in service, we must use it purposely to
train it towards humanity, for
the animal
will some day grow to man. If we bring out a dog's intelligence by our
training, it should not be used to strengthen his animal attributes, as when we
train our dogs to hunt. A domestic cat may be "a good mouser," but it
is not for that reason that God has guided him into the family.
If we train
horses, it certainly should not be to develop speed for racing or hunting ; the
service they give us should be rewarded by bringing out of them qualities that
more contribute to their evolution towards humanity than speed.
(1)The general
principle with regard to our relation to our domestic animals is that they are
definitely sent to us to have their animal attributes of savagery as far as
possible weaned out of them and human attributes implanted in their stead, for
what is animal
today will some day be man, as man today will some day be a God ; and he serves
evolution best who helps the Divine Life to move swiftly on its upward way.
CHAPTER III
THEOSOPHY IN SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
THERE are just
now in the educational world many attempts at reforms; all who have the
practical duty of teaching and helping in the building of the character of
children are aware how unsatisfactory are the existing theories and methods.
The drift of these various reforms is clearly evident when we approach
the problem of
education from the standpoint of Theosophy.
The existing theories start with the supposition that the child is an
intelligence which began at birth, and that, when he comes to school, his mind
is a tabula rasa; necessarily, therefore, the aim of education is to give the
child a knowledge which he does not possess and to mould a character which is
yet unformed.
These theories
are still accepted as true, in spite of the fact that every one who has had to
teach boys and girls, and every parent who has had to bring them up, knows by
practical experience that children have definite characters, as well as
definite aptitudes, from their earliest infancy.
From the
Theosophical standpoint, the first fact that, has always to be kept in mind
with regard to a child is that he is an immortal soul, and that his appearance
as a boy or girl is in order that the qualities latent in that soul may unfold
themselves through experience.
The second
fact is that the visible world is only one part of a larger world in which the
child lives, and that all the time the child is being affected for good or evil
not only by what he sees
and hears, but
also by the invisible atmosphere of the thoughts and feelings of others. As an
immortal soul, the child has already had many experiences of life, and his
present appearance as a child is only one of many similar appearances in past
ages. He has, therefore, known much about life, and has already gained a
certain amount
of experience of what to do and what not to do. This knowledge, however, is
largely dormant, so far as the child's brain is concerned.
The true aim,
therefore, of education is twofold: first, to call out this latent knowledge in
the child; he must be made quickly to rediscover such principles of conduct as,
in his past lives, he has tested and found were valid for him; and that form of
education is the best which enables the soul, working through the
child's brain,
to come swiftest to a remembrance of his past successes and failures. The
second aim in education is to bring the child 1 as quickly as possible to a
synthetic view of life; for no man or woman begins to be educated until he or
she sees life from some central standpoint.
In the general
activities of life, we are apt to miss the mark, because we permit divisions
between our mental and emotional and moral worlds; and when we thus exist in
compartments, the resultant of our energies is always less forceful than it
might be if we lived as a whole. Therefore education must, from the beginning,
instill into the child the sense of a whole in life and since he has already
come to some degree of synthesis through his experiences in past lives, the
educationist should aim at bringing the recollection of this synthesis swiftly,
and at developing it to embrace a yet larger horizon.
This work of
enabling a soul, through his child body, to come to his old synthesis, has to
be done in three stages, those of the Kindergarten, the School, and the
College; we shall now see what Theosophy
has to say concerning education in each of these stages.
The child is
not merely the little physical body which we see; he is also an astral body of
emotions and a mental body of ideas. All the three vehicles, mental, astral and
physical, make up the child; and all three are sensitive and require training
and co-ordination. Each vehicle has a certain vitality of its
own, quite
apart from the commanding general 1vitality of the soul of the child; and each
has a rudimentary consciousness with likes and dislikes which are not
necessarily those of the soul of the child.
These
subconscious streams of consciousness are pronounced during child life, and
they have to be kept within their proper bounds while the soul uses the
vehicles which give rise to them. Sometimes some of these subconscious elements
may be quite contrary to the nature of the child; the. physical body of the
child may be extremely boisterous or lethargic, because of the physical
heredity of the parents, but this need not mean, necessarily, that the soul
lacks either serenity or strength. Exactly similarly, each child's astral and
mind body have energies of their own to start with, quite apart from the energy
of the soul of the child
who uses the
vehicles. Therefore, the principal aim in the Kindergarten stage of education
is to enable the child to get control of his vehicles; the brain needs to be
developed by muscular movements, the emotional nature by feelings, and the
mental by thoughts.
The work in
the Kindergarten, as we all know, trains the child's body in method and order
and rhythm, and trains his brain centres to recognise the concepts of colour,
shape, weight, temperature, and so on. The deftness of hand taught in
Kindergarten
work reacts on the emotional and, 1mental nature of the child, and such
training is very necessary, so as to enable the soul to come more swiftly to
his synthesis. But we have to recognise that the child's character is influenced
not only by the objects he handles and by the shapes he sees, but also by
innumerably invisible influences; the lines and angles and
curves of the
room in which he works, the colour of walls, and the shapes of the physical
objects surrounding him in his Kindergarten room, all invisibly help or hinder
him; every line in the objects around him, every shade of colour, every
tone he hears
has its influence on his mental and emotional natures; we can help children or
hinder them by the objects which surround them in their Kindergarten life.
Modern Kindergarten methods have recognised the value of the handling of
various objects by the child; but they have yet to recognise that the objects
themselves are continually, though invisibly, handling the child, and that they
are moulding him in the right way or warping him in the wrong.
The influence
of the teacher upon the child, when viewed theosophically, is far more than
educationists now realise; for the child is influenced not only by the visible
teacher but also by that part of the teacher's nature which is invisible. A
sharp word or a bright smile from a teacher has, we know, visible
effects;
exactly similar, but far more powerful, is 1the effect of the thought of the
teacher. The true teacher must be equipped in educational methods not only
intellectually but also emotionally; and in the Kindergarten specially is this
essential, since the child's delicate astral and mental vehicles are extremely
sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of the teacher.
Without love
for children and a keen interest in their ways no one has a right to be a
teacher; and this general principle is most important in the Kindergarten,
where children are given over to the teacher almost body and soul.
Many improvements
have yet to be made in the Kindergarten, but the general principle underlying
them all is that, while the child's three vehicles are plastic, it is the duty
of the teacher to bring to bear upon them not only the visible but also the
invisible influences, so as to bring down into the child's
brain as
quickly as possible the fuller nature of the soul.
After the
child gains a certain amount of control of his vehicles in the Kindergarten, in
the next stage at school he has to gain the sense of Law. His emotions are
therefore now, to be more fully worked upon. Now the child is born with an
emotional nature which he has developed through many lives; the teacher has not
therefore an altogether plastic or inchoate emotional nature to work upon. He can
only modify it, eradicating any twists or warps which exist in it, and
strengthening what is beautiful. What has to be given to the child — or
usually, as a matter of fact, reawakened in him — is a deep capacity for
feeling, with,
at the same time, a serenity while he feels, .
This can
largely be achieved by working with the child's physical body; Herein lies the
value of gymnastics, especially all gymnastics, which have in them some sense
of rhythm. Wherever a rhythm can be developed in physical action, as in the
dance or in eurhythmies, there is a clear emotional reaction and the child's
invisible emotional body is steadied and gains a sense of law and order; and
this reacts on the mental nature so as to attune it to the thought of law. This
effect is specially heightened where the rhythmic movements are performed by
many children in common; it is as if while they all work together they become
units of an
invisible rhythmic movement, which imposes upon them a great law of beauty and
order in action.
The sense of
law and beauty is also greatly developed by training the child in poetry and
music; this training does not mean that the child must be made to write poetry
or to compose music — unless indeed he has a special aptitude for either within
him — but that he shall be given both music and poetry as his
emotional
food. Every child from earliest years should know some poetry and some music
suited to his capacity; but we must take the greatest care that the
word-phrases or musical phrases are really suitable. For just as physical dirt
may infect the sensitive body of the child, so too can the emotional land
mental natures
be infected by harmful poetry and crude music. Nursery rhymes, with their usual
jumble of thoughts and images which have little relation to life, are in this
respect distinctly harmful; perhaps presently our poets will give us great
poems for little children to take the place of the nursery rhymes
which are
taught them now.
If we could,
in our modern civilisation, abolish the ugly noises of the streets, and the
ugly pictures on hoardings, as well as the
use of phrases
in language distorted from their true meaning, we should not need to complain
of unruly children; unruliness is a malady of the emotional nature, but the
germs of it are not so much in the children as in the outer world which
surrounds them in our modern civilizations.
The mental
nature of the child has to be trained by making it strictly true to fact; and
this is exceedingly difficult in these days, because so many of the words we
use do not signify what they are meant to signify. Words having definite,
accepted meanings are often used for purposes of exaggeration or as slang, and
these things confuse the sensitive mental nature of the child.
Therefore the
greatest care has to be taken that children only hear words which are true,
that is, words which have some clear and precise relation to the thing
signified. The mental nature of the child is extremely active and difficult to
hold along definite lines; therefore clear descriptions of things must be given
to him and also expected from him. This mental accuracy in his
education will
enable his dormant mentality to express itself more fully as the years pass;
accuracy of thought and description is necessary for the highest of reasons,
which is to bring down to the child's brain his consciousness as a soul who has
already thought accurately about such experiences as have been his in
his past
lives.
Needless to
say the child's mind has to be trained by stories. The mind is one of the
finest architectural implements that we have; the mind's nature is to build. We
must, therefore, give it suitable material at the varying stages of its growth,
and in early years show the mind what makes for beauty in building.
Here comes in
the use of fairy stories, and especially of myths; myths have in them an
intrinsic beauty of structure, and the child's mind is trained to high
imaginative faculty by teaching him the great romances of the visible and
invisible worlds.
A necessary element
in education is to give the child, even in his earliest years, some definite
synthesis upon which to found his imagination; and for this religion is
fundamentally necessary. A religion need not mean definite dogmas of a
theological kind; what the child needs to start with is some great universal
thought embodying in it a universal feeling.
Every religion
has many such suitable thoughts, even for a child's mind, and it is perfectly
possible to surround children with a beautiful religious atmosphere. Each child
should be taught morning and evening to recollect himself as a soul by some
simple prayer of dedication ; one such, greatly in use among the children of
Theosophists, is this simple prayer of the "Golden Chain " :
I am a link
in the Golden Chain of Love that stretches around the world, and must keep my
link bright and strong.
So I will
try to be kind and gentle to every living thing I meet,
and to
protect and help all who are weaker than myself.
And I will
try to think pure and beautiful thoughts, to speak pure and beautiful words,
and to do pure and beautiful actions.
May every
link in the Golden Chain become bright and strong.
In this
beautiful prayer the child's imagination can easily grasp its symbolism, while
the prayer has within it the great thought of a larger unit of life than the
child himself. A work yet waiting to be done for education is to write
textbooks and story-books for children which present to them the universal life
of humanity, while fascinating their imagination at the same time; we could
make of children great philosophers, if only we realised that
philosophy is
not a matter of definite systems or schools, but of thoughts and feelings and
aims which the best of humanity have all in common.
One further
important element in the child's education should be the teaching given to him
through tending plants and animals; these lower orders of creation should be
near the child's life constantly, so that he may remember himself as one linked
in a great chain of life, and realise that his nobility grows as he
serves not
only those above him but also those below. And apart from this, each flower or
tree or animal radiates its own influence, and we can utilise these invisible
aids to hasten the child's growth in thought and feeling.
When the time
comes for a boy or girl to go to College, we may take for granted that the
vehicles — physical, astral and mental — have been disciplined to some extent
and are fairly under control. Therefore now begins a period when the soul
can definitely
impress on the brain his inner attitude to life, in order to train his vehicles
for the work in life which he plans to do. Unfortunately, in present-day
Universities, the training given is deficient, because the teaching is so
exceedingly academical and has little relation to the practical problems of
life as seen by the soul. The most useful part in many ways, of University life
is not the instruction received from the professors, but that
received from
the students, in games and in social intercourse. The usual result of College
education as it exists now is very well described in these lines :
A young Apollo, golden-haired,
Stands dreaming on the verge of strife,
Magnificently unprepared
For the long littleness of life.
When Theosophical
ideas prevail in Universities, it will be recognised that the teaching given
must definitely aim at making clear to the student his own problems as a soul.
He has come to life to do a work, and the preliminary years of child and youth
have been spent in building his vehicle; now he is free to
survey his
past and look into the future, in order to make clear to himself what he is and
what is his work. The help to be given to him is by presenting such aspects of
culture as awaken within him his ancient synthesis.
All through
his education in Kindergarten and School this has been one of its aims; but
while the synthesis there was mainly felt emotionally, during College it should
be recognised intellectually.
The synthesis
is to be brought before him by arranging the experiences of the geniuses of the
past and of the present in such a manner
that their general impression is to strengthen in him his innate enthusiasm for
his own special work as a soul. If any man or woman finishes College without having
found within himself or herself a deep enthusiasm for a work, the University
has failed in its aim so far as he or she is concerned. It is the function of a
University to show us what are the objects worth pursuing in life, not, as now,
merely to equip us for a profession.
This was
indeed the aim of University life in Athens, but in modern days there is so
little of clear understanding of what
life is, that
in the University the professors themselves are confused as to the great
problems of existence, and hence their enthusiasms run primarily on
intellectual and academic lines. It is well known that Oxford and Cambridge
have a strong atmosphere of their own, but that atmosphere is more of a
crystallised past than of a living present or an absorbing future.
A true
University should so train a man that through all his work in life, after he
leaves the University, there shines a serene radiance as of an immortal doing a
work in time; and this is the real basis of any culture worth the name. It has
been said that the function of a University is to turn out gentlemen and
scholars; the
work of the University, from the Theosophical standpoint, should be to make of
men immortals and servers. It is in the University that the highest ideals of
life should be reflected with beauty and serenity; and the greatest ideal of
life to be taught to men in such a place in modern days should
be the joy of
fellowship in working together with all men and nations in one definite work
for the welfare of humanity. Of the many perfections which a University can
give to a man or woman, that which is most needed today is to make him or her a
Knight of Service, just as of old with King Arthur's band, one
of that
Goodliest fellowship of famous knights
Whereof this world holds record.
Those of us
who have gained what modern Universities have to give, know how much we owe to
them; but we cannot help confessing that while they equipped us in some fashion
mentally, they did not equip us to understand the problem of life which
confronted us when we left College. We have had to unlearn, slowly and
painfully, many of the lessons of the past, and learn many strange and
difficult lessons of whose existence our professors told us nothing. If all
this could be radically changed, and the University be made definitely a place
where to us, as souls, our soul's work is pointed out, and also how, as we do
that work, there is all round us the background of Eternity, what could not
University life be as an essential part in the life of every man and woman !
As things are
now, many a man and woman who has had no College education is a nobler Soul and
a greater Server than those who have had their years in a University. All this
will surely change when the fundamental principles of Theosophy permeate education, and our
professors profess above all things the great truths which reveal to men their
Divine nature, and how that nature is developed through human service.
CHAPTER IV
THEOSOPHY IN BUSINESS
THERE is an
idea largely prevalent in the world among religious people that business
activities are incompatible with a truly religious life. This has been due to the
peculiar conception of life which certain exponents of religion have given to
their followers. We know how today people think of " religious "
interest and " secular " interests, and there is a tacit recognition
that they
must be
opposed, or, if not actually in opposition, at least mutually exclusive.
This
conception arises from an exaggeration in religions of the thought of the
Transcendence of God; the Creator, having once created His world, is thought of
as living in some sphere removed in space from that world, and as merely
supervising it.
In this
religious conception, man, as the creature of God, has only the duty of
pleasing his Maker so as to make secure his own salvation. I well remember a
sermon which I heard once in a Christian Church on the duty of man to God; this
duty was described as composed of the three virtues of humility, gratitude and
obedience. The preacher insisted upon the subservience of the soul of man to
God as a pre-requisite to a religious life.
It was evident
that according to him the ordinary activities of life in the home, in business,
and in amusements, counted for very little with God, and that man was judged
according to certain theological virtues which he had or had not acquired. This
extreme Christian conception of the old problems of man's
everyday life
is very vividly summed up, in the verse of a hymn which was sung by the
congregation on this particular day of the sermon; the verse is this :
I am going home in the good old way,
I have served the world with its worthless
pay,
For its hopes are vain and its gains are
loss,
And I glory now in the blood-stained Cross.
Here we have
very clearly the thought that the multifarious activities of the world have no
special use in the spiritual growth of man, and that what we gain of capacity
and growth outside the strictly religious sphere is but "worthless
pay". Wherever in a religion we have the idea of renunciation and
asceticism,
there usually
develops this idea of the uselessness of life in the world.
The natural
consequence of the division of life into secular and religious is the creation
of two moralities which have often little relation to each other; the religious
man will consider that it is perfectly legitimate to be selfish, savage and
unspiritual in his business dealings with a fellow man, whom he will try to
love as a "neighbour” in his religious relation towards him; a deeply
religious man, both tender-hearted and kind in one part of his nature, yet will
possess another part of savagery and resentment, and will see no reason why
this latter phase of himself should be modified at the cost of business gain. A
fraudulent but pious milkman, who will water his milk on weekdays with perfect
nonchalance, will do it on Sunday too, with his pious Sunday face, and then go
to church and revel in his religion !
Now Theosophy
abolishes these two moralities in the world of business, by showing that the
business world is as much a part of God's world as temples and churches. It is
One Life which is manifesting through all the activities of men, and all the
activities which have been developed in civilisation are necessary in the
Divine Plan.
God's plan for
the salvation of humanity works not only through individual men, but also
through men as groups. Men's natures must be grown emotionally, mentally and
spiritually, and one cause of this growth is their collective activity in
various organisations. In the collective life of humanity, various types of
divine agents are required to carry out His purpose; the ruler and the
lawgiver, the fighter, the teacher, the priest, the healer, the artist, are all
required to play their roles as actors in the Divine Drama of life; but not
less of a divine actor is the business man.
Now the man to
whom business is one of his principal obligations comes as a soul into life
with as much a spiritual purpose as the man who is the priest; that purpose is
to equip himself as a soul for activities everywhere and in all time.
He does not
come to gain wealth or ease, but capacity; his Soul is put into a business
life, rather than into one of religion or art, because he can learn such soul
qualities as he next requires for his growth more swiftly in the business world
than any other sphere. The sterling virtues which are learned in business are
fundamentally spiritual; no man can be a successful business man unless he is
one-pointed unless he is quick to respond to opportunities, unless he grows in
imagination. These are not " secular" virtues because they are
developed in what we hold to be secular activities; they are capacities which
are built into the life of the soul.
Certainly we
find that a large number of business men, highly endowed with these qualities,
are selfish, cruel and hard,
but this does not
mean that the virtues are useless, because the possessors of them lack other
virtues. When we remember that a man lives many lives, and that once he
acquires a capacity he never loses it, we shall then understand how, after a
business man has developed these virtues in one life (even though it has meant
the development at the same time of selfishness), in a future life, when his
vision is cleared and he begins to be altruistic, he will still have this
marked ability when he turns to his work in altruism.
In the
evolution of humanity, the faculties of all men, good and bad, are used;
"blindly the wicked work the righteous will of heaven". The world's
lands are, habitable today only because a few pioneers originally went out into
the deserts and forests and made them habitable; they may have gone out purely
for selfish
purposes, but
nevertheless they were used as the agents of a Divine Plan. Men may go out as
pioneers into new lands to gain wealth for themselves; but we know that such a
life requires heroism, sacrifice, doggedness, strength, and these virtues
become permanent acquisitions of the soul. In the same way, today, in the
"trust magnates" and "beef barons" of America and
elsewhere, we have manifestly great capacity together with much selfishness and
lust for power; but they are building up more efficient ideas of business, and
so are helping in the Divine Plan. As for their selfishness, that will be
purified out of them through suffering in future lives; and when after that
purification they gain a true perspective of life, they will have with them the
strong virtues which they developed through their greed and selfishness, and
they will then be far more efficient on the side of good than many another who
may have been good and pious but had acquired little capacity.
The practical
message of Theosophy to the business
man is that he should identify himself with the higher possibilities and
motives in business, and not with the lower. What the former are, we can see if
we look at the various stages of development in business capacity which men
show. In the earliest stage of
commercial
life, we have mere greed, and the man is all the time thinking of his private
interests and gloating over them as his particular possessions. In the second
stage, the element of greed is mastered by the mental element of business
routine, and the individual becomes practically the slave of business, busying
himself continually with all kinds of activities in business, not always
because of the profits involved, but largely because these activities give him
the sense of vitality and reality.
In the third
stage of growth, the business man is conscious of himself as the great master
of capacity, and is far more conscious of this power as he exercises it than of
the gain it brings; he is often most unselfish about individuals and most
ascetic in his private life, though of course he will manifest the acme of
selfishness in his utter one-pointedness in the exercise of this power. But
then will inevitably come the last stage, when, in the exercise of his
master-capacity, he sees what are the honourable lines of activity for him as a
guardian of divine energies.
The
Theosophical business man should always aim at idealism in his profession; and
this is quite compatible, even today, in spite of all the obstacles in his way.
The first characteristic of this idealism should be the holding of a high
conception of his business as a noble contribution to human welfare, and with
this a keen
desire to bring it to a high state of perfection. He will,
therefore, be
thoroughly efficient not only in his own line, but he will try to join with
others in associations, so as to uphold the ideal. Much has yet to be done in
bringing business men together into organizations, not merely for private
interests, as in Trusts, but to discuss the fundamentally efficient principles
involved in business. Into the hands of business men the Divine Plan
entrusts the
development of one aspect of the world's work, and it is their duty to see that
their work is done with as little waste of time and energy as possible.
Something has
been done so far in standardising tools and machinery; much more needs to be
done along this line, so that there may be throughout the world facilities for
the mutual development of inventions and processes. It is from the business men of the world today that we
expect the practical carrying out of the great ideals of Internationalism;
while religious teachers
may expound
Universal Brotherhood, the practical foundations for it must be laid by the
business men of the world.
The
Theosophical business man must always remember that the world's development is
part of a great Plan, and "big men" in all departments of life are
employed to carry out the Divine work. For instance, just now there are great
changes taking place in the business world in bringing about great
combinations; we know how ruthless such Trusts are and how they push to the
wall the small merchant.
Yet we see at
the same time the slow transformation of material development from the work of
a few for their own gain to the work of a great national department for the
welfare of all. It is because of the plans of business development laid down by
such combinations that one day, where spirituality and not greed controls such
Trusts, we shall be able utterly to abolish poverty. Every invention that has
made life easier for men is a realization of the thought of God, and an
inventor is not less a God's priest than is a priest of religion.
All men are
channels of one great Divine Force, and as it runs through them they retain it
for themselves, some more and some less; and most do not understand the duty
they have of transmuting that Force into the least little activity of life. If
the business man were to recognize this principle, he would
then realize
how much of a builder he is in the divine edifice of human life.
Did not Christ
say : "I must be about my Father's business ? " The great Father
lives mysteriously in our world — as ruler and lawgiver, healer and priest; but
He lives, too, strange as it may seen, as the "business man". This is
the high aspect of business which Theosophy
shows, and the man or woman, whose Dharma or Duty is business, can bring a high
spirituality to all work in shop and in office, in factory and in
counting-house, doing all as a part of “my Father's business ",
CHAPTER V
THEOSOPHY IN SCIENCE
THEOSOPHY stands foremost among the
religious philosophies of the world today in the wholehearted acceptance of the
facts of modern science. More than this, Theosophy so continually appeals to
observation and reason that an inquirer into Theosophy, who has had any
preliminary scientific training, finds himself thoroughly at home in the
Theosophical method. This is not necessarily because the conclusions of science
and Theosophy are the same, but because both are the result of a certain method
of inquiry. We owe the modern scientific method largely to the work of Francis
Bacon; it was he who laid such emphasis on the need of careful obervation, of
methodical grouping of facts, and of rising from particular ideas about them to
general concepts of natural law.
This method of
induction has enabled the modern scientist to discover great fundamental
natural laws, and the practical application of the discoveries of science has
been to revolutionise civilization.
The facts
which have so far been considered by the modern scientist tell us of a vast
mechanical process in Nature, and, within her an inexplicable tendency to
transformation which is called Evolution; and this tendency, ever at work,
brings into being the myriads of forms in the mineral, vegetable and animal
kingdoms. The
facts observed show us a great ladder of life, which stretches without a break
from the speck of dust to the greatest human genius.
Of course it
is recognized that this process, which has created the human intelligence, must
not be judged in its sole relation to man, for man is only one species out of
myriads. Now, if we consider what science says about man, then, so far as the
generally accepted facts of modern science tell us, man, as
an individual
of his type, is merely a material form and the forces playing through that
form. When that material form disintegrates, nothing remains of him except what
slight change he has caused, in the trend of the evolutionary process, by any
attempts he may have made to modify his environment away from savagery and
towards civilization.
Theosophy has
no doubts to cast upon scientific facts, nor as to their complete authority to
solve the problems of life. There are, however, certain weaknesses inherent in
modern science which make the present scientific conclusions only of partial
value.The first of these is the over-hasty generalization which characterises
the inductive method in practice; theoretically, the conclusions drawn from a
group of facts should be recognized as warranted only so long as no
contradictory facts present themselves; in practice, however, the tendency is
for the scientist, when his hypothesis seems to explain his facts, to take for
granted that there are not other facts which might question his deductions.
There is hence
an authoritative conclusion in scientific theories which is really
unscientific. A striking instance of his weakness in scientific method is
illustrated by the geological theories as to the age of the world, which was
stated conclusively not so many decades ago to be only a few hundred thousand
years. But one sole fact, in itself of no greater consequence in evolution than
any other fact, the nature of Radium, has largely modified all these geological
theories; and scientists now feel warranted in assuming that the earth's age
should be counted by millions of years instead of by hundreds of thousands.
A second
example is the way that theories of heredity were accepted for decades as
absolutely conclusive, in the light of the assumption that acquired
characteristics were transmitted; this assumption was accepted as a truth
mainly because the facts so far gathered did not contradict such a hypothesis.
But a few facts discovered in the crossing of peas, considered sotrivial as not
to deserve notice for several years, have imposed on the old theories an
entirely new adjustment to facts, and Darwin's theories are profoundly modified
today by the facts of Mendelism. "When modern science began, it was
Bacon's intention that the first hypotheses, however absolute they seemed to be
in their agreement with facts, should be nothing more than what he called
"First Vintages"; but it is the tendency of the scientist to come to
finalties when he observes his facts, and to presume that because finalities
are useful for the practical purposes of experiment and life, therefore they
must be accepted as the fundamental verities.
A second
weakness in science is due more to the individual scientist and less to the
method, and this is exemplified in the general tendency, still shown by
scientists, to ignore those facts which tend to prove a psychic or spiritual
nature in man. Scientists, owing to an unscientific bias, have erected barriers
to truth in
this matter as cramping to human progress as any that theologies have ever
made. Even today, the small band of scientists who have scientifically examined
such facts about man's spiritual nature as are within the range of modern
science, meet with an unscientific hostility when they announce the
results of
their investigations, largely because those results condemn the dogmatism of
past scientific conclusion.
A third and a
more fundamental weakness of science, so far as practical life is concerned, is
that science cannot give, by her very nature, a real philosophy of life. Every
day that passes adds to the old stock of facts, and so many specialised
branches of science now appear, that today we cannot "see the wood for the
trees". There are so many facts being discovered, that every scientific
"law" must be held merely tentatively, if we are to be strictly
scientific; one new fact — as Radium — may mean a profound modification of the
"law". Science can legitimately only describe a process, and not a
direction; not having all the facts, she cannot scientifically presume any kind
of a resultant diagonal. Science can, therefore, never give a philosophy, but
she can give the indispensable facts for one.
Theosophy,
dealing as it does continually with the facts of the Universe, is but a
continuation of science; the difference, however, is that Theosophy has a
larger group of facts to go upon, and also shows in what way an individual can
discover for himself that final diagonal of life which is the true philosophy
of conduct. The facts of Theosophy have been gathered in precisely the same way
as the geologist or physicist gathers his facts, that is, by a carefully
trained faculty of observation, leading to induction and deduction, and tested
repeatedly by every new fact.
In Theosophy there
is the tradition of an Ancient Wisdom, carefully built up by this method by
mighty scientific
Intelligences,
who are called the Masters of the Wisdom; it is their scientific knowledge
which is stated in modern Theosophy.
The principal
point in which this ancient science differs from the modern is in the
conclusion, in the light of facts discovered by the ancient scientists, that
the evolutionary process consists in a dual development of life and of form.
Every object consists of the form it appears to be, and a life which holds the
matter in that form, but is capable of independent existence at the dissolution
of the form. This life may seem scarcely to have the characteristics of life,
as in a piece of mineral, or it may show the first germs of what we call life,
as in the fungus. Just as science shows a magnificent ladder of the evolution
of form, so Theosophy shows a similar ladder of the evolution of life and
consciousness, from that of the atom to that of the Creator of the Universe.
The Masters of the Wisdom have also brought within the range of scientific
observation the invisible worlds, upon the fringes of which some modern
scientists are now beginning to come in some of their experiments.
Moreover
Theosophy can give that which modern science cannot give legitimately, and that
is a proof of the final consummation of evolution, which isthe transformation
of the human individual consciousness, by a process of rebirth and growth, into
a consciousness showing the attributes of Divinity. The
immortality of
the soul and its steady growth into greater life need not always be mere
speculations, because Theosophy points out how an individual can know these
things for himself.
The method of
discovery of these "final causes" follows logically from the highest
ideals of modern science, which inculcate a pure, impersonal observation and
thinking. Theosophy carries this high scientific thought concerning nature into
a vaster realm, presenting to the intelligence the greater ranges of facts
of the
invisible worlds. The high training of the imagination which Theosophy gives,
guided as it is by a perfect altruism, evokes then within the individual's
consciousness a new faculty greater than mind, and this new faculty can know
the final causes. When the perfect scientist, or the true Theosophist,
has "
cast out the self" in his observation of life, his mind develops a
luminous quality which makes it the mirror which reflects a greater faculty
than the mind itself. This new faculty, which is nearest described, though only
partly, by the word Intuition, is acquired by no external means, but is born
within a man's
own inner nature; it gives him then the sole criterion of Truth, for beyond any
doubt of the most criticalmind, he is able to know Truth at first hand for
himself. In thus continuing the scientific training of the mind till the mind
itself is transcended, Theosophy fills up the inevitable gaps in the scientific
method, since it gives that final criterion directly to
each
individual, for the lack of which science is unable to give a valid philosophy
of life and conduct.
The great
value of science in human evolution is due not only to the practical changes
that the discovery of natural law effects in civilization, but also to the
spiritual training that each individual gains by being taught to be scientific
in his observation of the world around him. There is no one who can do without
the scientific method, till at least he gains sufficient serenity and
purity of mind
to discover the higher process of intuition within him; the more are the facts
of nature, to be observed by him impersonally and purely, which are brought
into the consciousness of man, the more is he helped to realize the
higher nature
within him. This is why the scientific method is a necessary part of the
highest human training and of spiritual growth.
Theosophy
applied to science means that scientific facts are considered not mainly for
their utilitarian value to add to man's comforts, but primarily because their
understanding shows man the true harmony of the larger whole of which he is but
a part.
There is no
greater strength or dignity possible to man than from his realization of a
Divine Mind at work in all the manifestations of nature; for when that Divine
Mind is seen, then it is seen as
the Good, the
True and the Beautiful; and when that Divine Mind is reverenced, then man
himself grows in wisdom, strength and beauty. Only slight changes are needed,
in the present groupings of scientific facts, to show to man's intelligence the
wonderful design that is woven in nature to make a perfection
and harmony
cognisable alike by the eye and the brain. The study of nature's forms, under
the guidance of Theosophical scientists, can be worked out, even for little
children, so as to train the mind to reverence all manifestations of life,
whether in stone or plant or animal. Specially would emphasis be laid on
the geometry
of nature, according to which electrons are built into atoms, and atoms into
elements, and elements into the forms of the mineral, vegetable and animal
kingdoms; not chemical forces alone would be studied, but chemical shapes too.
The Platonic
solids, with their development from the tetrahedron into the icosahedron, would
be studied as the " axes of growth " of all forms. Science would then
give the alphabet of rhythm and beauty, learning which, men would know how to
find beauty everywhere in every object of all the worlds, visible and
invisible. A pure intellect is the glory of science, and the pure
in mind take
conscious delight in the Good, the True and the Beautiful, which mirrors itself
in their minds.
Every child
should be taught to observe the life of nature around him; he should be guided
to take a keen interest in such facts of nature as are within the range of his
experiences, and his elders should carefully lead him on stage by stage in his
discoveries and in his thinking till, even with his child's limitations, he
develops something of the faculty of impersonal observation. He
will then develop,
if not a keen interest in nature, at least a deep respect for her ways. This
faculty, which he develops through a scientific training, will affect his whole
mentality, enabling him to come more quickly than without such training to
truth in all the departments of life in which he will engage.
His moral
nature will manifest greater justice because he will be less passionate in his
judgment; he will be less affected by hearsay and opinion and popular prejudice
because of the growing instinct in him to be on guard against the mere
presentations
of facts, when such presentations are not real but illusory. There would be
less of malice and hatred, gossip and prejudice in the world, if men in their
childhood were to be trained in the rudiments of scientific thinking; these
moral failings become impossible when the cause of them, which
is false
thought, is removed.
The message of
Theosophy to science is to bring out her real strength as an aid to the
discovery of truth. For that which science deals with, the facts of nature, are
expressions of a great Divine Life; and he who can come in the true scientific
spirit before a fact comes indeed before God Himself. For a fact,
when clearly
conceived, is a fragment of the great Reality in which is all that men need for
their growth and happiness. The truer the Theosophist, the more scientific he
is, just as the truer the scientist is to his ideal method, the more of a
Theosophist he is, in fact though not in name.
CHAPTER VI
THEOSOPHY IN
ART
THE place of Art
in life grows in significance each day as men develop greater faculties of
thought and feeling. The higher the civilisation the more powerful is the
influence of art in it; and the capacity for artistic conception and expression
in a man becomes in many ways the standard of his evolutionary
achievement.
Why this is so we shall see, when we examine what art is from the standpoint of
Theosophy.
Now all our
living leads to action; even in deep meditation a man is acting, and acting in
reality far more vigorously than when he disturbs merely the equilibrium of
physical nature. Each action is the final issue of a series of forces either
mental or emotional.
When an action
originates in thought, that action is wise and just where thought has dealt
with realities and not falsities; where the thought has been grounded in truth,
and is four-square to
the facts of
nature, the action is right and productive of good to the individual and to the
whole. It is the function of science to produce right action by purifying the
mind and by training it to be true to reality.
The function
of art, on the other hand, is to induce right action through right feeling; and
since art has shown itself to be in many ways a synthesis of man's highest
self-expression, it is obvious that in our human feelings there are ranges of
emotion by means of which we can come to truth swifter than by any
exercise of
even the most discriminating mind. Man in his emotional nature is near to the
brute in some of his desires; yet there are within him certain emotions which
unbar hidden reservoirs of power which makes him absolute master of
circumstance. It is with these finer emotions that art is concerned.
The keen
sensibility to the beauty of a sunset synthesises in a moment our past
experiences of life and states them to our emotions in vast, sweeping
generalisations; a phrase of music in a particular mood may give us the glimpse
of a heaven hoped for or lost; the beauty of a human face may lead us whither
all the
philosophies lead as they seek eternal verities. And these finalities, which
are stated to us by the highest developments of the intellect, are given to us
equally, and sometimes more profoundly and more truly, by our feelings.
An
understanding of Theosophy explains the process of that right feeling which is
necessary for art. Feeling, looked at from within the man, is a mood; but
looked at from without, is the setting in movement of a finer vehicle, called
the astral body. Upon the purity of material, delicacy of structure, and
pliability of
the astral body, depend the nature of a man's feelings, and therefore his
capacity for art. Theosophy applied to art deals primarily with the
purification and the training of the feelings.
Since the
astral body is dependent for its sensations so largely upon impacts which reach
it through the physical body, the purification of the physical body becomes the
first essential. According to the kind of food eaten is the kind of body; if
the diet contains flesh of any animal, the body acquires a gross
texture which
reacts on the texture of the astral body, the vehicle of feeling; when the food
is pure and refined, the finer texture of the physical body induces purity and
delicacy in the astral. It is true that hitherto some of the greatest artists have
had, from the Theosophical standpoint, gross bodies, and yet they have been
creators of art; but this only means that they would have
achieved still
more, had not something of their creative force been lost in its transmission
through a coarsened physical vehicle. In spite of the over-riding by will of
nature's laws, the general law remains that the purer is the physical body the
greater is the sensibility to feeling, and hence the greater the capacity for
art.
Next, the
feelings must be trained to be pure, that is, they must be irresponsive to what
conduces to impurity and keenly sensitive to what harbours, purity. Here at
once the question arises : What is, purity ? Leaving aside the question of what
purity is as a moral virtue, purity in the domain of art means a correct
appreciation of Beauty. What the Ideal Beauty is, which is the unchanging
standard, we need not for the moment consider; for there is already in the
world some knowledge of that Ideal Beauty, and for the practical purposes of
life there is no difficulty in distinguishing the beautiful front the
commonplace or
the ugly. What is important to realise is that, for artistic development, there
must be a continuous communion with Beauty and a definite avoidance of what is
the not-beautiful.. We little realise how the lines in the objects that
surround us in the home and in the streets affect our astral bodies and so our
emotional nature; discords of colour and sound, impurities of line and form:
give a warp to our natures which adds to our moral weaknesses and debilitates
our mental strength.
Men find it
difficult to be virtuous largely because so much ugliness surrounds them; just
as bacteria in the dust and the air, and parasites of various kinds, induce
many a disease and diminish the physical vitality of men, so invisibly, but not
the less harmfully, hosts of emotional bacteria, the ugly lines and forms and
colours and sounds, infect our feelings and induce in them a chronic moral
ill-health which saps the vitality of the soul.
Civilisation
has not yet awakened to the gravity of this hidden contagion; it is taking
place all the time, though we are little; aware of it because we are
"used" to it. But it is never the soul's nature to be " used
" to ugliness and evil; the inner constraint shows itself in outer
fractiousness; and, just as a baby's peevishness is to be traced to some hurt
produced in his little body by improper feeding or by some annoyance like a pin
sticking into him, so it is with men's tendencies to evil; the visible and invisible
uglinesses in life are responsible for the crimes of men sometimes far more
than their own criminal propensities.
Since every
object around us affects invisibly our capacity for feeling, either by
hardening and coarsening or by making it more sensitive and profound, a
practical understanding of the place of art in life means a thorough
reconstruction of the environment of each man. Specially is that reconstruction
necessary in the case of children, whose astral bodies during their childhood
and youth are
sensitive to outer influences far more than are the astral bodies of grown-up
people. Every object that surrounds children from the moment of birth should
have some touch of beauty; the lines and curves and colours of walls and
ceilings and furniture should definitely be aimed to influence the child's
feelings; ungainly street hoardings and palings, ugly plots of ground and
discordant sounds should all be banished from our towns for the sake of the
children, if not for our own sakes. We insist on sanitation to preserve the
health of the physical body; why should we not equally insist on a moral
sanitation to safeguard the health and sensitiveness of our finer vehicles ?
Purity of
feeling is thus one element of right feeling; a second element is sympathy. No
feeling is right feeling unless in it there is reflected the larger world of
men's griefs and joys; each feeling, if it is to develop the higher
sensitiveness which produces art, must enshrine in ,it in miniature the similar
feelings of all humanity. There is no such thing as "art for art's
sake", if by
that phrase is
meant that there exists a world of art and beauty irrespective of its relation
to the world of men. The highest art, consciously or unconsciously, had its
roots in men's hearts, though its boughs may lift up their flowers to heaven;
the most abstractly musical phrase of a symphony of Beethoven has yet
its reflex in
our human feelings. The more the artist's feelings widen out in their sympathy
withmen's sufferings and hopes and dreams, the vaster is his art horizon, and
the more universally understood his artistic creation.
Hence it
follows that the artist must train his sympathies by observation, by
meditation, by travel, by practical service; while he purposely uses his
purified feelings as the tools of his art, yet must those feelings be supported
by a broad and purified intellect. There could be no greater boon to an artist
than Theosophy, which teaches him what are the universal feelings of men, and
what is that "God's Plan for men", the contemplation of which is a
perennial source of wisdom and purification.
While the
purely artistic development is possible by temperament to only a few, there is
no man or woman or child born who has not some distinct capacity for artistic
feeling and expression. Every effort should be made to rouse in the
child the
dormant tendency to appreciate beauty; not only should he be surrounded by
beautiful objects, he should also be taught how to produce beautiful things.
The energies of his physical body should be taught the meaning of rhythm
through the dance; his eye and brain should be trained by drawing.
He should be
taught what are pure tones of sound in speech and in singing, and his
imagination should be trained through poetry and through abstract music. Just
as it is the duty of parents to see that
children have healthy bodies, not less is it their duty to see that their
children have refined tastes too. By placing before the sensitive feelings and
unspoiled natures of children none but
what is in the
best of taste, and only what is best artistically, an immense impetus is given
to the unfolding of the Divine Spirit in man. For art is less a faculty of the
soul than an element of its inmost structure. Just as, in the evolutionary
process, the senselessness of the stone gives way to the sensitiveness of the
plant, and the vague feeling of the plant gives way to the
surging
passions of the animal, and the animal's inchoate thoughts give way in the next
grade to man's coherent thinking, so too man's power of understanding through
the mind is to be made subordinate to knowledge by the Intuition.
In most men
this intuition is dormant, or only dimly sensed; the next stage in human evolution
is to understand life in the full light of the intuition. Therefore it is that
artistic development becomes supremely necessary for all men; it enables them
to do their life's work by a swifter and completer process - that of the
intuition - than thought can provide them.
It is true
that the loftiest thought, by its utter impersonality and when suffused by a
desire for service, touches the realm of the intuition; the great philosophers
especially reveal the same insight into life's problems which the pure
intuition reveals when reflected in art. But it is far easier to make men pure
and sympathetic in feeling than impersonal in thought; therefore, while science
and philosophy are essential for human culture, that culture is more swiftly
developed by appealing to the artistic instincts of men.
When, by
surrounding men with beauty, and by training them to respond to it, their
intuitions are aroused, they discover a higher and a more lasting truth than
science can reveal to them. The great advantage of the vision of truth by the
intuition is that it is always synthetic; each truth of life discovered by the
intuition is linked to the totality of truth, and man can proceed in his
further
discoveries along a road that has no break nor divergence. The drift of things
is seen clearer, and from a more central point, by the intuition than by the
highest purely mental process.
There is
scarce any such humanitarian influence in life as art, if its inner force is
understood and consciously used. Each feeling which art gives rise to is like
the segment of a circle of universal feeling in which the feelings of all the
rest of humanity too are like segments. Each artistic creation — not the mere
imaginative fancy or tour de force, but the real creation which is as a
window into a
Divine World of Ideas — links the creator to all men; it at-ones him with
humanity.
A soul capable
during life of only one work of art, either in the thought world or in the
emotional realm, has yet linked all humanity with him to that measure of the
artistic capacity in him; while a great poet or painter or sculptor or musician
becomes like an eternal priest of humanity, linking man ever to God.
This
at-one-ing quality of art is a force which is as yet but dimly understood by
man; when civilisation everywhere is instinctively artistic, then
un-charitableness and enmity must utterly vanish, since to love art is to love
that Totality of which each of us is but an infinitesimal fraction.
Lastly, there
is through artistic development a discovery that utterly revolutionises the
life of the discoverer. True art, as already explained, is born where there is
purity of feeling and sympathy; and when art becomes creative there results a
lofty impersonality. The result achieved of "casting out the self" by
scientific thought is also achieved by the artist while he
creates; all
great artists concur that at the supreme moments of inspiration all thought and
sense of their little selves are swept away. When the little self of the artist
is thus swept away, there steps into his life for the moment a larger Self, an
indescribable Personality. It is the discovery of this Personality, who is
master of his craft and infallible in his wisdom, which is the great
event in the
artist's life.
It is the artist's
"salvation", that realisation of man's eternal safety and of his
imperishable nature which religions try to give through ecstatic contemplation.
Perhaps it is only at a few moments of his creative life that the artist makes
the great discovery; but each moment of discovery is as a milestone in his
unending artistic career, and to have even for once known that Personality is
thenceforth to see all life with "larger, other eyes" than are
possessed by men.
The artists
who have this vision are "not of an age but for all time," and an
Ideal World hovers round them, shedding its many-hued gleams on the drab events
of this mortal world. That world is always around us, though only the great
artists can tell us what it is in its grandeur and totality. Yet each man can
gain a glimpse
of it, in so far as he trains his feelings to be pure and radiating with
understanding and sympathy. A child with his integrity of heart and innocency
of hands, may gain a glimpse of that world, becoming for the time truly an
artist; gleams of it are seen in the colour of the clouds, in the blue of the
sea and in the roar of the waves. The mountain ranges mirror it, and in
every lake and
pool, and in the fields at eventide, and in forest, and in thicket, that world
looks into our hearts and minds. The face of friend and beloved is a mirror of
it; the harmonies of music tell us ofit with an almost maddening insistence.
The great Reality, in which our immortal natures are rooted, is not far away,
to be realised perhaps - who knows ? — only after death; it is here, and now,
the source of every solace as it is too the cause of all pining and death. And
Art has the key to open the door to it, to all who seek that door.
CHAPTER VII
THEOSOPHY IN
THE STATE
EVERY great body
of ethical teaching has stood or fallen according to its effect on men as they
form organised states. Since a man is a unit of a social organisation, the
value which any ethical teaching may have for the individual is inseparable
from its application to the community of which he is a part. Just as an
understanding of certain simple truths of Theosophy modifies a man's conception
of himself, so too the conception of what constitutes the true state, when
viewed in the light of Theosophy, profoundly modifies a man's attitude to his
life among his fellow men.
For what is
the modern state today ? In the main it is very little different from the pack
which we find among the higher vertebrates, like jackals and wolves. As the aim
of the pack is to protect itself against a common enemy, and to get more easily
food for itself, so the chief aim of the modern state is to protect itself
against aggression and to increase its means of
sustenance.
The morality
of the pack rules the state today; any individual who diminishes the power of
the state's resistance or of its aggression, or who lessens the quantity of
food, is regarded as the enemy of the state. Hence our attitude to the
law-breaker and to the poor; the criminal is looked upon as one who has lost
his right of citizenship, and he is punished more to deter others from crime
than with the intention of redeeming him; we do not inquire into what made him
commit the crime and who is responsible for the environment which made his
criminality possible.
The poor man
is considered a failure in life, a part of the refuse of civilisation, and we
do not inquire how far the state itself is responsible for the causes of his
poverty. Armies and navies are part and parcel of modern civilisation, and woe
indeed to that state which should refuse to imitate all the other states and
not equip itself to be efficient in destruction. In our ordinary conceptions of
the state, in most peoples minds, the individual is largely regarded as an
animal to be curbed for the good of the state, and the neighbouring states are
regarded as rivals against whose enmity the state must ever be on the watch.
How radically different is the Theosophist's conception of the state will be
seen when we apply Theosophical truths to the problems of the state.
There are two
fundamental facts about the true state, and they are: first, that the State is
a Brotherhood of Souls, and secondly that the State is an expression of the
Divine Life of God. Let us see how the state appears in the light of these two
truths.
The State is a
Brotherhood of Souls. The individuals who compose the state are Souls, immortal
egos in earthly bodies; they are the members of the state in order to evolve to
an ideal of perfection. As souls, and as all partaking of one Divine Nature,
all within the state are brothers; whether rich or poor, cultured
or ignorant,
law-abiding or law-breaking, all are brothers, and nothing one soul does can
modify that fact of nature. The educated or the proud may refuse to see an
identity of nature with the ignorant and the lowly; the weak and the criminally
minded may show more the attributes of the brute than of the God. Yet is there
in high and low alike the one nature of the Divine Life, and nothing a man does
can weaken the bond of brotherhood between him and all the others.
But this
Brotherhood of all souls is like the relation of brotherhood within a family;
brothers are not all of the same age, though they are of the same parents. So
too, among the souls who compose a state, there are elder souls and younger
souls; it is just this difference of spiritual age and capacity which makes
possible the functions of the real state. The age of the soul is seen in the
response to ideals of altruism and co-operation; he is the
elder soul who
springs forward to help in the welfare of others, and that soul is the younger
who thinks of self-interest first and follows its needs in preference to
self-sacrifice on behalf of others.
The divisions
which we now have in a state's life of rank and of wealth are no true
distinctions which divide the elder souls from the younger souls; one man born
into a high class or caste may yet be a very young soul, while another whose
birth is ignoble, according to the world's conventions, may be far advanced as
a soul.
There being in
each state elder souls and younger souls, the Law of Brotherhood requires that
the elder shall be more self-sacrificing, on behalf of the younger, than the
younger should be towards the elder. Since life through long ages has given
more to the elder souls than to the younger, more is required from the elder,
both of self-sacrifice and of responsibility.
By the natural
order of events, the direction of a state's affairs will fall inevitably on the
elder souls. It does not matter whether the power in a state is administered by
a monarchy, oligarchy or democracy, because when the state begins to perform
its true functions, the direction of its affairs is by an aristocracy, by the
best souls, that is, the elder and the more capable souls. These best souls may
call themselves democrats or republicans, and may hold their power in trust
from the masses, but the fact remains the same that the guidance of the state
is entrusted by the younger souls into the hands of the elder souls. Till the
day comes in the far-off future when each soul will himself, as the Divine
Lawgiver, be a law unto himself, the direction of the
state must
come into the hands of a few, whom we call the rulers or administrators.
The great
principle to guide them in their administration is that in all the state's
affairs the principle of Brotherhood shall dominate in all things. This will
mean the clear recognition that any preventible suffering or ignorance or
backwardness of even one citizen is to the detriment of the welfare of all the
citizens; that since the destiny of each is inseparable from the destiny of
all, as rises one so rise all, and as falls one so fall all; that there must be
no shadow of exploitation of one man by another, of one class or caste by
another.
Since, too, all
men are souls and, even the least developed, Gods in the making, becomes the
duty of the administrator in all laws and institutions continually to appeal to
the hidden Divinity in man. In existent states, the attempt is first and
foremost to curb the remnant of the brute in man, utterly forgetting the power
in him of co-operation on the side of good, if only the God in him were to be
appealed to.
When there
comes in the state the recognition of this hidden God in a man, a complete
revolution will take place in our attitude to and in our treatment of the
criminal. First and foremost, whatever he does, he is our brother. He is a
younger brother truly to those of us who are the elders and give implicit and
willing obedience
to the laws of the state; but though he fall a thousand times, he is our
brother even after the thousandth time.
The problem of
crime then turns first upon the understanding of the causes which contribute to
crime, and secondly of the means of the proper building of the character of the
law-breaker
which will
make failure impossible again for him.
The
contributory causes to crime are physical and mental. Of the physical, want of
health is the great cause; it may be due to malnutrition or to bad housing
conditions or to disease, but where an individual lacks health of body, due to
any one of these causes, part of the responsibility of the crime rests upon the
state's
administrators and upon all who have appointed them by their suffrages.
The mental
contributory causes are both of the individual and of the community. The
individual has in him a weakness of character brought from his past lives, a
weakness strengthened by an unfavourable environment, instead of, as it should
be, atrophied by a favourable one; to the strength of his own failing,
the individual
is responsible for his crime. But the strength of his own innate failing may
not necessarily be the full strength evidenced in the crime; sometimes much of
the strength required for committing the crime was given to the criminal by
others.
Thus, for
instance, when a weak-willed, undeveloped man in a fit of drunkenness commits a
murder, we should see, were we to analyse fully all the hidden causes, that
there was added to his fury and anger an additional power of hatred from
outside. Some outwardly law-abiding citizen may have willed with hate to kill
an opponent but have refrained, because of the consequences to him of the
crime; but though he refrained from the act, he did not refrain from the
powerful thought of murder. His thought, launched into the atmosphere, flies to
the weak-willed, drunken man, whose will alone would not be sufficient to impel
him to murder, and fastens upon him at the time of anger, and discharges its
full force through him, and so commits vicariously a murder through him. In
each criminal act of every criminal all of us have a share; it is the thoughts
of malice and hatred of the seemingly law-abiding citizens that as much
contribute to crime as the innate weakness of the criminals themselves. Crime
committed by a few is caused by all, and the final doer of the act is not alone
responsible for the act, but also each and every one who impelled him to that
act.
Next follows
the consideration of the cure of the criminal. Since the criminal is
fundamentally diseased, and since all have contributed, some more and some
less, to his disease, the cure must not have the slightest thought of
punishment about it. On the contrary, it must be guided by the thought of
atonement. It was the state's function as guardian of every citizen to see that
in his environment everything which could foster the seed of evil in the
weak-willed man or woman had been removed; if he or she commits a crime, it is
a proof that the state had betrayed the trust imposed upon it by the Divine
Law. We, as citizens of the
state, must
cure the disease of the law-breaker, not by our hatred, as now when we imprison
and punish him, but by our Brotherhood. We do not punish the consumptive, but
try to cure him with the best treatment we can give, sparing him none of the
state's resources to save his life. Similar must be our attitude
to the
law-breaker, who is our brother.
If only we
could realise our Brotherhood with each citizen in the state, we should discover
dozens of new modes of curing crime. Already our growing sense of humanity has
discovered alternatives to banishment in goal in the system of Probation
adopted in many countries for first-offenders, and in the
Juvenile
Courts and Junior Commonwealths and Reformatories which are proving their
efficiency in the case of juvenile offenders. We are beginning to treat the
criminal as if he were indeed still a man; only a little further development
is needed on
our part, and we shall know him as ever our brother. Then a full tide of wisdom
will be ours to solve many of the problems which baffle us today as we try to
improve the lives of our fellow men.
If all our
laws could be so framed as to reveal that the sacrosanct ideas of the state are
not of rights to property but of preserving Brotherhood; that men are not
regarded as brutes, whose animality is taken for granted, but rather as the
sons of God, whose divine nature is continually expected to reveal itself in
response to
ideals of integrity and virtue and Brotherhood; that he who refuses to
co-operate with the state is not regarded by the state as less a citizen and a
brother but the more to be tended and cherished because of his weakness; if
this conception of the state could be taught to every child and reverenced by
every man and
woman; then indeed would crime diminish generation after generation and the
joys of co-operation replace the bitternesses of competition, and for the first
time would appear on earth a true state. Some day there will be everywhere on
earth these true states, for it is the Divine Plan that men shall come to
realise that a state is a Brotherhood of Souls.
The State is
an expression of the Divine Life of God. Stage by stage in an ascending ladder
of life, the Nature of God as the Immanence reveals itself in stone and plant,
in invertebrate and vertebrate; each stage reveals more of His life by greater
complexity of the organism, bringing about on the side of the
Form many
units built up into a whole, and on the side of the Life, a new expression of
life higher than the separate lives of its component parts. So too is there
taking place with men, and through men, a fashioning of new vehicles for the
life of God. At one stage it is God the Man; at a later stage it is God
the Family,
and dimly we see in the family more of the possibilities of life for each
member of it, and by realising these possibilities we feel a new call to
sacrifice and idealism - for the Family. The man, as the unit of a family,
finds that his Divine Life is surrounded by a larger, more mystically beautiful
radiance,
which envelops him as the nutrient matter surrounds the nucleus in the cell.
Then comes the
later stage still, when another and a more glorious wave of Divine Life descends
on men, and out of families builds a State, fashioning out of units a new and a
larger whole. Thence appear new possibilities of life for each within the
state. A new sphere of Divine Life surrounds the souls
who make the
state, feeding them with new hopes and dreams with which to live, even as the
mother nourishes within her womb the child and feeds its young life with her
own blood.
Could but
citizens know of this brooding Life which is the essence of the state, then
would they joyfully build for it the perfect vehicle out of themselves and
their homes and their cities. Ugliness would vanish, to be replaced by
beautiful dwellings and stately cities; disease and misery would be as an evil
dream, and
poverty and
bitterness and strife could nevermore mar the serene and joyous life of the
state. In each citizen's face would then be seen something of the glory of the
state; the artisan who toils as for the state would have a beauty of bearing
all his own; the artist and dreamer would reveal a beauty all his own,
other than the
beauty he discovers and proclaims. For, as man seeks God, so God seeks man; as
man through slow passage of time rises from the savage to be the civilised man,
from the solitary, self-seeking man to be the unit of a family, and then of a
state, so God descends to man first as the man's conscience and his hopes and
dreams of immortality, then as the family, and then as the state.
For the true
state is a revelation of God, and it is because that revelation is yet to come
that man strives to change his environment from good to better, from better to
best. Through barbarities and savageries, through selfish greeds, through
fratricidal wars, the world's states are changing age by age, and men rise from
the brute to the God; they change because God the State calls for His
habitation. It is this knowledge of God the State which Theosophy reveals to
all who desire to understand, what is the future that awaits men.
When men
understand what makes the true state, then will come a fuller revelation still
of God as the World State. Through all the states in the world then will
manifest a larger purpose than men have ever dreamed of before; each state will
grow into new, beauteous achievements because over all the states broods the
mighty power of God's Plan fulfilled at last. None will ask which is the better
state, for where God's hands have touched, there is perfection. Shall a man,
seeing that miracle of God, a sunset, ask whether the rose is lovelier than the
blue or the gold, or ask that the sunset be of one colour alone ? So shall the
world be some day, when the Wisdom of God "mightily and sweetly ordereth
all things". To this Day of all humanity the world's states are
tending, and
they will reach their goal at last because it is God's Plan that they shall.
Wisdom in
planning, confidence in endeavour, and a joyous outlook night and day to all
things in life are his who thus sees God's world and man's world illumined by
Theosophy.
History of the Theosophical Society
Cardiff, Wales, UK,
CF24 – 1DL
For more info on Theosophy
Try these
Cardiff Theosophical Society meetings
are informal
and there’s always a cup of tea afterwards
The
Cardiff Theosophical Society Website
The
National Wales Theosophy Wesbsite
Dave’s
Streetwise Theosophy Boards
If you
run a Theosophy Study Group then please
Feel
free to use any material on this Website
This is for
everybody not just people in Wales
Theosophy Cardiff’s Instant Guide to Theosophy
One Liners & Quick Explanations
The main criteria
for the inclusion of
links on this
site is that they have some
relationship
(however tenuous) to Theosophy
and are
lightweight, amusing or entertaining.
Topics include
Quantum Theory and Socks,
Dick Dastardly and Legendary Blues Singers.
No
Aardvarks were harmed in the
History of the Theosophical Society
General pages
about Wales, Welsh History
and The History
of Theosophy in Wales
Her Teachers Morya &
Koot Hoomi
The Most Basic Theosophy Website in the Universe
If you run a
Theosophy Study Group you can use
this as an
introductory handout
Lentil burgers, a
thousand press ups before breakfast and
the daily 25 mile
run may put it off for a while but death
seems to get most
of us in the end. We are pleased to
present for your
consideration, a definitive work on the
subject by a
Student of Katherine Tingley entitled
Theosophy and the Number Seven
A selection of articles
relating to the esoteric
significance of the Number
7 in Theosophy
The Spiritual Home of Urban Theosophy
The Earth Base for Evolutionary Theosophy
What Theosophy Is From the Absolute to Man
The Formation of a Solar System The Evolution of Life
The Constitution of Man After Death Reincarnation
The Purpose of Life The Planetary Chains
The Result of Theosophical Study
An Outstanding
Introduction to Theosophy
By a student of
Katherine Tingley
Elementary Theosophy Who is the Man? Body and Soul
Body, Soul and Spirit Reincarnation Karma
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831 – 1891)
The Founder of Modern Theosophy
Is the Desire to Live Selfish?
Ancient Magic in Modern Science
Babel Of Modern Thought
Precepts Compiled by H P Blavatsky
Obras Por H P Blavatsky
En Espanol
Articles about the Life of H P Blavatsky
H P Blavatsky
the Light-Bringer
by
Geoffrey A Barborka
The Blavatsky Lecture of 1970
Try these if you are looking
for a
local Theosophy Group or Centre
UK Listing of Theosophical Groups
Worldwide Directory of Theosophical Links
General pages
about Wales, Welsh History
and The History
of Theosophy in Wales
Wales is a
Principality within the United Kingdom
and has an eastern
border with England.
The land area is
just over 8,000 square miles.
Snowdon in North
Wales is the highest mountain at 3,650 feet.
The coastline is almost
750 miles long.
The population of Wales as at the 2001 census is 2,946,200.