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    "num": 9,
    "slug": "08-chapter-viil",
    "title": "CHAPTER VIIl",
    "of": 12,
    "words": 18307,
    "text": "## CHAPTER VIIl\n\nReincarnation {Continued),\n\nThe ascending stages of consciousness through\nwhich the Thinker passes as he reincarnates during\nhis long cycle of lives in the three lower worlds are\nclearly marked out, and the obvious necessity for\nmany lives in which to experience them, if he is to\nevolve at all, may carry to the more thoughtful\nminds the clearest conviction of the truth of reincar-\nnation.\n\nThe first of the stages is that in which all the ex-\nperiences are sensational, the only contribution made\nby the mind consisting of the recognition that con-\ntact with some objects is followed by a sensation of\npleasure, while contact with others is followed by a\nsensation of pain. These objects form mental pic-\ntures, and the pictures soon begin to act as a stimu-\nlus to seek the objects associated with pleasure,\nwhen those objects are not present, the germs of\nmemory and of mental initiative thus making their\nappearance. This first rough division of the exter-\nnal world is followed by the more complex idea of\nthe bearing of quantity on pleasure and pain, already\nreferred to.\n\nAt this stage of evolution memory is very short-\n\nTHE NECESSITY FOR MANY LIVES. 209\n\nlived, or, in other words, mental images are very\ntransitory. The idea of forecasting the future from\nthe past, even to the most rudimentary extent, has\nnot dawned on the infant Thinker, and his actions\nare guided from outside, by the impacts that reach\nhim from the external world, or at furthest by the\npromptings of his appetites and passions, craving\ngratification. He will throw away anything for an\nimmediate satisfaction, however necessary the thing\nmay be for his future well-being; the need of the\nmoment overpowers every other consideration. Of\nhuman souls in this embryonic condition, numerous\nexamples can be found in books of travel, and the\nnecessity for many lives will be impressed on the\nmind of any one who studies the mental condition of\nthe least evolved savages, and compares it with the\nmental condition of even average humanity among\nourselves.\n\nNeedless to say that the moral capacity is no more\nevolved than the mental ; the idea of good and evil\nhas hot yet been conceived. Nor is it possible to\nconvey to the quite undeveloped mind even an ele-\nmentary notion of either good or bad. Good and\npleasant are to it interchangeable terms, as in the\nwell-known case of the Australian savage mentioned\nby Charles Darwin. Pressed by hunger, the man\nspeared the nearest living creature that could serve\nas food, and this happened to be his wife ; a Euro-\npean remonstrated with him on the wickedness of\nhis deed, but failed to make any impression; for\n\nfrom the reproach that to eat his wife was very bad\n\n2IO THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nhe only deduced the inference that the stranger\nthought she had proved nasty or indigestible, and\nhe put him right by smiling peacefully as he patted\nhimself after his meal, and declaring in a satisfied\nway, ** She is very good.\" Measure in thought the\nmoral distance between that man and S. Francis. of\nAssisi, and it will be seen that there must either be\nevolution of souls as there is evolution of bodies, or\nelse in the realm of the soul there must be constant\nmiracle, dislocated creations.\n\nThere are two paths along either of which man\nmay gradually emerge from this embryonic mental\ncondition. He may be directly ruled and controlled\nby men far more evolved than himself, or he may\nbe left slowly to grow unaided. The latter case\nwould imply the passage of uncounted millennia, for,\nwithout example and without discipline, left to the\nchanging impacts of external objects, and to friction\nwith other men as undeveloped as himself, the inner\nenergies could be but very slowly aroused. As a\nmatter of fact, man has evolved by the road of direct\nprecept and example and of enforced discipline.\nWe have already seen that when the bulk of average\nhumanity received the spark which brought the\nThinker into being, there were some of the greater\nSons of Mind who incarnated as Teachers, and that\nthere was also a long succession of lesser Sons of\nMind, at various stages of evolution, who came into\nincarnation as the crest- wave of the advancing tide\nof humanity. These ruled the less evolved, under\nthe beneficent sway of the great Teachers, and the\n\nSENSATION AS RULER. 211\n\ncompelled obedience to elementary rules of right\nliving — ^very elementary at first, in truth — much\nhastened the development of mental and moral facul-\nties in the embryonic souls. Apart from all other\nrecords the gigantic remains of civilizations that\nhave long since disappeared — evidencing great engi-\nneering skill, and intellectual conceptions far beyond\nanything possible by the mass of the then infant hu-\nmanity — suffice to prove that there were present on\nearth men with minds that were capable of greatly\nplanning and greatly executing.\n\nLet us continue the early stage of the evolution\nof consciousness. Sensation was wholly lord of the\nmind, and the earliest mental efforts were stimulated\nby desire. This led the man, slowly and clumsily,\nto forecast, to plan. He began to recognize a defi-\nnite association of certain mental images, and, when\none appeared, to expect the appearance of the other\nthat had invariably followed in its wake. He began\nto draw inferences, and even to initiate action on the\nfaith of these inferences — a great advance. And he\nbegan also to hesitate now and again to follow the\nvehement promptings of desire, when he found,\nover and over again, that the gratification demanded\nwas associated in hi3 mind with the subsequent hap-\npening of suflEering. This action was much quick-\nened by the pressure upon him of verbally expressed\nlaws; he was forbidden to seize certain gratifica-\ntions, and was told that suflEering would follow dis-\nobedience. When he had seized the delight-giving\nobject and found the suffering follow upon the pleas-\n\n212 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nnre, the fulfilled declaration made a far stronger im-\npression on his mind than would have been made by\nthe unexpected^and therefore to him fortuitous —\nhappening of the same thing unforetold. Thus con-\nflict continually arose between memory and desire,\nand the mind grew more active by the conflict, and\nwas stirred into livelici functioning. The conflict,\nin fact, marked the transition to the second great\nstage.\n\nHere began to show itself the germ of will. De-\nsire and will guide a man's actions, and will has even\nbeen defined as the desire which emerges triumphant\nfrom the contest of desires. But this is a crude and\nsuperficial view, explaining nothing. Desire is the\noutgoing energy of the Thinker, determined in its\ndirection by the attraction of external objects. Will\nis the outgoing energy of the Thinker, determined\nin its direction by the condusions drawn by the rea-\nson from past experiences, or by the direct intuition\nof the Thinker himself. Otherwise put: desire is\nguided from without, will from within. At the be-\nginning of man's evolution, desire has complete sov-\nereignty, and hurries him hither and thither; in the\nmiddle of his evolution, desire and will are in con-\ntinual conflict, and victory lies sometimes with the\none, sometimes with the other; at the end of bis\nevolution desire has died, and will rules with unop-\nposed, unchallenged sway. Until the Thinker is\nsufficiently developed to see directly, will is guided\nby him through the reason; and as the reason can\ndraw its conclusions only from its stock of mental\n\nCONFLICT THE RULE. 213\n\nimages— its experience — and that stock is limited,\nthe will constantly commands mistaken actions.\nThe suffering which flows from these mistaken ac-\ntions increases the stock of mental images, and thus\ngives the reason an increased store from which to\ndraw its conclusions. Thus progress is made and\nwisdom is bom.\n\nDesire often mixes itself up with will, so that what\nappears to be determined from within is really\nlargely prompted by the cravings of the lower na-\nture for objects which afford it 'gratification. In-\nstead of an open conflict between the two, the lower\nsubtly insinuates itself into the current of the higher\nand turns its course aside. Defeated in the open\nfield, the desires of the personality thus conspire\nagainst their conqueror, and often win by guile what\nthey failed to win by force. During the whole of\nthis second great stage, in which the faculties of the\nlower mind are in full course of evolution, conflict is\nthe normal condition, conflict between the rule of\nsensatLons and the rule of reason.\n\nThe problem to be solved in humanity is the put-\nting an end to conflict while preserving the freedom\nof the will ; to determine the will inevitably to the\nbest, while yet leaving that best as a matter of\nchoice. The best is to be chosen, but by a self-ini-\ntiated volition, that shall come with all the certainty\nof a foreordained necessity. The certainty of a com-\npelling law is to be obtained from countless wills,\neach one left free to determine its own course. The\nsolution of that problem is simple when it is known,\n\nTHE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nthough the contradiction looks irreconcilable when\nfirst presented. Let man be left frea to choose his\nown actions, b\\it let every action bring about an in-\nevitable result ; let him run loose amid all objects of\ndesire and seize whatever he will, but let him have\nall the results of his choice, be they delightful or\ngrievous. Presently he will freely leject the ob-\njects whose possession ultimately causes him pain;\nhe will no longer desire them when he has experi-\nenced to the full that their possession ends in\nsorrow. Let him struggle to hold the pleasure and\navoid the pain, he will none the less be ground be-\ntween the stones of law, and the lesson will be re-\npeated any number of times found necessary; rein-\ncarnation offers as many lives as are needed by the\nmost sluggish learner. Slowly desire for an object\nthat brings sufEering in its train will die, and whea\nthe thing offers itself in all its attractive glamour it\nwill be rejected, not by compulsion but by free\nchoice. It is no longer desirable, it has lost its\npower. Thus with thing after thing; choice more\nand more runs in harmony with law. \" There are\nmany roads of error; the road of truth is one;\"\nwhen all the paths of error have been trodden,\nwhen all have been found to end in suffering, the\nchoice to walk in the way of truth is unswerving,\nbecause based on knowledge. The lower kingdoms\nwork harmoniously, compelled bylaw; man's king-\ndom is a chaos of conflicting wills, fighting against,\nrebelling against law; presently there evolves from\nit a nobler unity, a harmonious choice of voluntary\n\nKNOWING GOOD AND EViL.\n\n2tS\n\nobedience, an obedience that, being voluntary, based\non knowledge and on memory of the results of dis-\nobedience, is stable and can be drawn aside by no\ntemptation. Ignorant, inexperienced, man would\nalways have been in danger of falling; as a God,\nknowing good and evil by experience, his choice\nof the good is raised forever beyond possibility of\nchange.\n\nWill in the domain of morality is generally entitled\nconscience, and it is subject to the same difficulties\nin this domain as in its other activities. So long as\nactions are in question which have been done over\nand over again, of which the consequences are famil-\niar either to the reason or to the Thinker himself, the\nconscience speaks quickly and firmly. But when un-\nfamiliar problems arise, as to the working out of\nwhich experience is silent, conscience cannot speak\nwith certainty ; it has but a hesitating answer from\nthe reason, which can draw only a doubtful inference,\nand the Thinker cannot speak if his experience does\nnot include the circumstances that have now arisen.\nHence conscience often decides wrongly; that is,\nthe will, failing clear direction from either the rea-\nson or the intuition, guides action amiss. Nor can\nwe leave out of consideration the influences which\nplay upon the mind from without, from the thought-\nforms of others, of friends, of the family, of the\ncommunity, of the nation.* These all surround\nand penetrate the mind with their own atmosphere,\ndistorting the appearance of everything, and throw*\n♦Chapter II., on \"The Astral Plane.\"\n\n2l6\n\nTHE ANCtEMT WlSllOM-\n\nIng all things out of proportion. Thus iiifluRii(;i,d\nthe reason often does not even judge calmly from\nits own experience, but draws false conclusions oa it\nstudies its materials through a distorting medium.\n\nThe evolution of moral faculties is very largely\n•stimulated by the affections, animal and selfish as\nthese are during tho infancy of the Thinker. The\nlaws of morality are laid down by the enlightened\nreason, discerning the laws by which Nature moves,\nand bringing human conduct into ccnsonance ivith\nthe divine Will. B-Jt the impulse to obey these laws,\nwhen no outisr force compels, has its root in love, in\nthat hidden divinity in man which seeks to pour\nitself out to give itself to others. Morality begins\nin the infant Thinker when he is first moved by love\nto wife, to child, to friend, to do some action that\nserves the loved one without any thought of gain to\nhimself thereby. It is the first conquest over the\nlower nature, the complete subjugation of which is\nthe achievement of mora, perfection, Henoe the im-\nportance of never kiliiag' out or striving to weaken,\nthe affections, as i>. done h many of the lower kinds\nof occultism. However impure and gross the affec-\ntions may be, they offer possibilities of moral evo-\nlution from whicl. the cold-hearted and self-isolated\nhave shut themselves out. It is an easier task to\npurify than to create love, and this is why \"the\nsinners\" tiave been said by great Teachers to be\nnearer the kingdom o£ heaven than the Pharisees\nand scribes.\n\nThe third great stage of consciousness sees ihe\n\nABSTRACt IDEAS. 2lf\n\ndevelopment of the higher intellectual powers; the\nmind no longer dwells entirely on mental images ob-\ntained from sensations, no longer reasons on purely\nconcrete objects, nor is concerned with the attributes\nwhich differentiate one from another. The Thinker,\nhaving learned clearly to discriminate between ob*\njects by dwelling upon their unlikenesses, now be-\ngins to group them together by some attribute\nwhich appears in a number of objects otherwise dis-\nsimilar and makes a link between them. He draws\n6ut, abstracts, his common attribute, and sets all\nobjects that possess it apart from the rest which are\nwithout it; and in this way he evolves the power of\nrecognizing identity amid diversity, a step toward\nthe much later recognition of the One underlying\nthe many. He thus classifies all that is around him,\ndeveloping the synthetic faculty, and learning to\nconstruct as well as to analyze. Presently he takes\nanother step, and conceives of the common property\nas an idea, apart from all the objects in which it ap-\npears, and thus constructs a higher kind of mental\nimage than the image of a concrete object — the\nimage of an idea that has no phenomenal exis-\ntence in the worlds of form, but which exists on\nthe higher levels of the mental plane, and affords\nmaterial on which the Thinker himself can work.\nThe lower mind reaches the abstract idea by rea-\nson, and in thus doing accomplishes its loftiest\nflight, touching the threshold of the formless world,\nand dimly seeing that which lies beyond. The\nThinker sees these ideas, and lives among them\n\n2i8\n\nTHE ANCJENT wisdom.\n\nhabitually, and when the power of abstract reasoning\nis developed and exer'^ised th Thinker is becoming\neffective in hi\" own world, and i; beginning his life\nof active functioning ii hi . own sphere. Such men\ncare littl for the life of th senses, care little for\nexternal observation, or for ment .1 application to\nimages of externd objects; their powers are in-\ndrawn, and n longer rush outwards in the search\nfor satisfaction. Ther dwell calmly within them-\nselves, engrossed with th problems of philosophy,\nwith th deeper .spects o- life an thought, seeking\"\nto understand auscs rather than troubling them-\nselves with eff ^ts, and approaching nearer and\nnearer to th r ognition oi the One that underlies\nall '.he diversitie e\".t«ma Nature.\n\nIn the fourth stag o. consciousness that One is\nseen, and with tht, transcending of th barriers set\nup by the intellect the consci usness spreads out to\nembrace the world, seeing all things ii: itself and as\nparts of itself, and seeing itsei as i.ray of the Logos,\nand therefore as on with Him Where is then the\nThinker? H has becom Consciousness, and, while\nthe spiritual Soul can at will use any of his lower\nvehicl-BS, he is no longer limited to their use, nor\nneeds them for this full and conscious life. Then is\ncompulsory reincarnation over and the man has de-\nstroyed death ; he has verily achieved immortality.\nThen has he become \" a pillar in the temple of my\nGod and shall go out no more.\"\n\nTo complete this part of our study, we need to\nunderstand the successive quickenings of the vehicles\n\nQUICKENING THE VEHICLES. 219\n\nof consciousness, the bringing them one by one into\nactivity as the harmonious instruments of the human\nSoul.\n\nWe have seen that from the very beginning of\nhis separate life the Thinker has possessed coatings\nof mental, astral, -theric, and dense physical matter.\nThese form the media by which his life vibrates out-\nwards, the bridge of consciousness, as we may call it,\nalong which all impulses from the Thinker may reach\nthe dense physical body, all impacts from the outer\nworld may reach him. But this general use of the\nsuccessive bodies as parts of connected whole is\na very different thing from the quickening of each\nin turn to serve as a distinct vehicle of conscious-\nness, independently of those below it, and it is this\nquickening of the vehicles that we have now to con-\nsider.\n\nThe lowest vehicle, the dense physical body, is the\nfirst one to be brought into harmonious working\norder; the brain and the nervous system have to be\nelaborated and to be rendered delicately responsive\nto every thrill which is within their gamut of vibra-\ntory power. In the arly stages, while the physi-\ncal dense body is composed of the grosser kinds of\nmatter, this gamut is extremely limited, and the\nphysical organ of mind can respond only to the\nslowest vibrations sent down. It answers far more\npromptly, as is natural, to the impacts from the ex-\nternal world caused by objects similar in materials^\nto itself. Its quickening as a vehicle of conscious-\nness consists in its being made responsive to the\n\n220 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nvibrations that are initiated within, and the rapidity\nof this quickening depends on the co-operation of\nthe lower nature with the higher, its loyal subordi-\nnation of itself in the service of its inner ruler.\nWhen, after many, many life-periods, it dawns upon\nthe lower nature that it exists for the sake of the\nsoul, that ali its value depends on the help it can\nbring to the soul, that it can win immortality only\nby merging itself in the soul, then its evolution pro-\nceeds with giant strides. Before this, the evolution\nhas been unconscious ; at first, the gratification of the\nlower nature was the object of life, and, while this\nwas a necessary preliminary for calling out the ener-\ngies of the Thinker, it did nothing directly to render\nthe body a vehicle of consciousness; the direct work-\ning upon it begins when the life of the man establishes\nits centre in the mental body, and when thought\ncommences to dominate sensation. The exercise of\nthe mental powers works on the brain and the ner-\nvous system, and the coarser materials are gradually\nexpelled to make room for the finer, which can vi-\nbrate in unison with the thought- vibrations sent to\nthem. The brain becomes finer in constitution, and\nincreases by ever more complicated convolutions the\namount of surface available for ^he coating of nervous\nmatter adapted to respond to thought -vibration 5.\nThe nervous system becomes more delicately bal-\nanced, more sensitive, more alive to every thrill of\nmental activity. And when the recognition of its\nfunction as an instrument of the Soul, spoken of\nabove, has come, then active co-operation in per-\n\nPERSONALITY AS SERVANT. 221\n\nforming this function sets in. The personality be-\ngins deliberately to discipline itself, and to set the\npermanent interests of the immortal individual above\nits own transient gratifications. It pelds up the\ntime that might be spent in the pursuit of lower\npleasures to the evolution of mental powers; day by\nday time is set apart for serious study; the brain is\ngladly surrendered to receive impacts from within\ninstead of from without, is trained to answer to con-\nsecutive thinking, and is taught to refrain from\nthrowing up its own useless disjointed images, made\nby past impressions. It is taught to remain at rest\nwhen it is not wanted by its master; to answer, not\nto initiate vibrations.* Further, some discretion\nand discrimination will be used as to the food-stuffs\nwhich supply physical materials to the brain. The\nuse of the coarser kinds will be discontinued, such\nas animal flesh and blood and alcohol, and pure food\nwill build up a pure body. Gradually the lower\nvibrations will find no materials capable of respond-\ning to them, and the physical body thus becomes\nmore and more entirely a vehicle of consciousness,\ndelicately responsive to all the thrills of thought and\nkeenly sensitive to the vibrations sent outwards by\nthe Thinker. The etheric double so closely follows\nthe constitution of the dense body that it is not neces-\n\n* One of the signs that it is being accomplished is the cessa*\ntion of the confused jumble of fragmentary images which are\nset up during sleep by the independent activity of the physioal\nbrains. When the brain is coming under control this kini o(\ndr^^m is very seldom ezperience4i\n\n::\\2?. THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nsaiy to study separately its purification and quicken-\ning; it does not normally serve as a separate vehicle\nof consciousness, but works synchronously with its\ndense partner, and when separated from it either by\naccident or by death, it responds very feebly to the\nvibrations initiated within. Its function in truth is\nnot to serve as a vehicle of mental consciousness,\nbut as a vehicle of Prana, of specialized life-force,\nand its dislocation from the denser particles to which\nit conveys the life-currents is therefore disturbing\nand mischievous.\n\nThe astral body is the second vehicle of conscious-\nness to be vivified, and we have already seen the\nchanges through which it passes as it becomes or-\nganized for its work. * When it is thoroughly organ-\nized, the consciousness which has hitherto worked\nwithin it, imprisoned by it, when in sleep it has left\nthe physical body and is drifting about in the astral\nworld, begins not only to receive the impressions\nthrough it of astral objects that form the so-called\ndream-consciousness, but also to perceive astral ob-\njects by its senses — that is, it begins to relate the\nimpressions received to the objects which give rise\nto those impressions. These perceptions are at first\nconfused, just as are the perceptions at first made\nby the mind through a new physical babj'-body, and\nthey have to be corrected by experience in the one\ncase as in the other. The Thinker has gradually to\ndiscover the new powers which he can use through\nthis subtler vehicle, and by which he can control the\n•See Chapter 11., on \"Tlje Astrsl Plane.\"\n\nTHE M2NTAI. VEHICLE. 223\n\nastral elements and defend himself against astral\ndangers. He is not left alone to face this new world\nimaidedy but is taught and helped and — until he can\nguard himself — ^protected by those who are more ex-\nperienced than himself in the ways of the astral\nworld. Gradually the new vehicle of consciousness\ncomes completely under his control, and life on the\nastral plane is as natural and as familiar as life on\nthe physical\n\nThe third vehicle of consciousness, the mental\nbody, is rarely, if ever, vivified for independent ac-\ntion without the direct instruction of a teacher, and\nits functioning belongs to the life of the disciple at\nthe present stage of human evolution. * As we have\nalready seen, it is rearranged for separate function-\ning f on the mental plane, and here again experience\nand training are needed ere it comes fully under its\nowner's control. A fact — common to all these three\nvehicles of consciousness, but more apt to mislead\nperhaps in the subtler than in the denser, because it\nis generally forgotten in their case, while it is so ob-\nvious that it is remembered in the denser — is that\nthey are subject to evolution, and that with their\nhigher evolution their powers to receive and to re-\nspond to vibrations increase. How many more\nshades of a color are seen by a trained eye than by\nan untrained. How many overtones are heard by a\ntrained ear, where the untrained hears only the sin-\ngle fundamental note. As the physical senses grow\n\n*See Chapter XI., on \"Man's Ascent.\"\ntSee Chapter IV., on \"The Mental Plane.\"\n\n324 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nmore keen, the world becomes fuller and fuller, and\nwhere the peasant 13 conscious only of his furrow\nand his plough, the cultured mind is conscious of\nhedgerow flower and quivering aspen, of rapturous\nmelody down-droppiug from the skylark and the\nwhirring of tiny wings through -he adjoining wood,\nof the scudding of rabbits under the curled fronds\nof the bracken, and the squirrels playing with each\nother through the branches of the beeches, of all the\ngracious movements of wild thingr,, of all the fra-\ngrant odors of field and woodland, of all the chang-\ning glories of the cloud-flecked sky, and of all the\nchasing lights and shadows on the hills. Both the\npeasant and the cultured have eyes, both have brains,\nbut of what differing powers of observation, of what\ndiffering powers to receive impressions. Thus also\nin other worlds. As the astral and mental bodies\nbegin to function as separate vehicles of conscious-\nness, they are in, as it were, the peasant stage of re-\nceptivity, and only fragments of the astral and\nmental worlds, with theii' strange and elusive phe-\nnomena, make their way into consciousness; but\nthey evolve rapidly, embracing more and more, and\nconveying to consciousness a more and more accurate\nreflection of its environment. Here, as everywhere\nelse, we have to remember that our knowledge is not\nthe limit of Nature's powers, and that in the astral\nand mental worlds, as in the physical, we are still\nchildren, picking up a few shells cast up by the\nwaves, while the treasures hJd in Ste cceon are stiK\nnnexnlored\n\nTHE CAUSAL VEHICLE, 225\n\nThe quickening of the causal body as a vehicle of\nconsciousness follows in due course the quickening\nof the mental body, and opens up to man a yet more\nmarvellous state )f consciousness, stretching back-\nwards into an illimitable past, onwards into the\nreaches of the future. Then the Thinker not only\npossesses the memory of his own past and can trace\nhis growth through the long succession of his incar-\nnate and excarnate lives, but he can also roAm at will\nthrough the storied past of the earth, and learn the\nweighty lessons of world-experience, studying the\nhidden laws which guide evolution and the deep\nsecrets of life hidden in the bosom of Nature. In\nthat lofty vehicle of consciousness he can reach the\nveiled Isis, and lift a comer of her down-dropped\nveil ; for there he can face her eyes without being\nblinded by her lightning glances, and he can see in\nthe radiance that flows from her the causes of the\nworld's sorrow and its ending, with heart pitiful and\ncompassionate, but no longer wrung with helpless\npain. Strength and calm and wisdom come to those\nwho are using the causal body as a vehicle of con-\nsciousness, and who behold with opened eyes the\nglory of the Good Law.\n\nWhen the buddhic body is quickened as a vehicle\nof consciousness the man enters into the bliss of\nnon-separateness, and knows in full and vivid reali-\nzation his unity with all that is. As the predominant\nelement of consciousness in \"rhe causal body is know-\nledge, and ultimately wisdom, so the predominant\n\nelement of consciousness in the buddhic body is bliss\nIS\n\nTHE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\niiud love. The serenity of wisdom chiefly marks\none, while tenderest compassion streams forth inex-\nhaustibly from the other; when to these is added the\ngodlike and unruffled strength that marks the func-\ntioning; of Atma, then humanity is crowned with\ndivinity, and the God-man is manifest in all the\nplenitude of his power, of his wisdom, of his love.\n\nThe handing down to the lower vehicles of such\npart of the consciousness belonging; to the higher as\nthey are able to receive does not immediately follow\non the successive quickening of the vehicles. In\nthis matter individuals differ very widely, according\nto their circumstances and their work, for this quick-\nening of the vehicles above the physical rarely occur*\ntill probationary discipleship * i„ reached, and then\nthe duties to be discharged depend on the needs of\nthe time. The disciple, and even the aspirant for\ndiscipleship, is taught to hold all his powers entirely\nfor the service of the world, and the sharing of the\nlower consciousness in the knowledge of the higher\nis for the most part determined by the needs of the\nwork in which the disciple is engaged. It is neces-\nsary that the disciple should have the full use of his\nvehicles of consciousness on the higher planes, as\nmuch of his work can be accomplished only in them ;\nbut the conveying of a knowledge of that work to\nthe physical vehicle, which is no way concerned in\nit, is a matter of no importance and the conveyance\nor no n -conveyance is generally determined by the\neffect that the one course or the other would have\n•See Chapter XI., ou \"Man's Ascent.\"\n\nSHARING KNOWLEDGE. 22/\n\non the efficiency of his work on the physical plane.\nThe strain on the physical body when the higher con-\nsciousness compels it to vibrate responsively is very\ngreat, at the present stage of evolution, and unless\nthe external circumstances are very favorable this\nstrain is apt to cause nervous disturbance, hyper-\nsensitiveness with its attendant evils. Hence most\nof those who are in full possession of the quickened\nhigher vehicles of consciousness, and whose most\nimportant work is done out of the body, remain\napart from the busy haunts of men, if they desire to\nthrow down into the physical consciousness the\nknowledge they use on the higher planes, thus pre-\nserving the sensitive physical vehicle from the rough\nusage and clamor of ordinary life.\n\nThe main preparations to be made for receiving in\nthe physical vehicle the vibrations of the higher con-\nsciousness are: its purification from grosser mate-\nrials by pure food and pure life ; the entire subjuga-\ntion of the passions, and the cultivation of an\neven, balanced temper and mind, unaffected by the\nturmoil and vicissitudes of external life; the habit of\nquiet meditation on lofty topics, turning the mind\naway from the objects of the senses, and from the\nmental images arising from them, and fixing it on\nhigher things ; the cessation of hurry, especially of\nthat restless, excitable hurry of the mind, which\nkeeps the brain continually at work and flying from\none subject to another; the genuine love for the\nthings of the higher world, that makes them more\nattractive than the objects of the lower, so that the\n\n228 THE ANCIENT WISDOM. ■\n\nmind rests contentedly in their companionship as tr\nthat of a well-loved friend. In fact, the preparations\nare much the same as those necessary for the con-\nscions separation of \" soul\" from \"body,\" and those\nware elsewhere stated by me as follows: The student\n\n\"Must begin by practising extreme temperance in all things^\ncultivating an equable and serene state of mind : his life must\nbe clean and his thoughts pure, his body held in strict subjec-\ntion to the soul, and hismicd trained to occupy itself witb Qobla\nand lofty themes ; he must habitually practise compassion,\nsympathy, helpfulness to others, with indifference to troubles\nand pleasures affecting himself, and be must cultivate courage,\nsteadfastness, and devotion. In fact, he must live the religioa\nand ethics that other people for the most part only talk. Hav-\ning by persevering practice learned to control his mind to soma\nextent, so that he is able to keep it Used on one line of thought\nfor some little time, he must begin its more rigid training by\na daily practice of concentration on some difficult or abstrorct\nsubject, or on some lofty object of devotion ; this concentration\nmeans the firm fixing of the mind on one single point. wiLbont\nwandering, and without yielding to any dlstractiotis caused by\nexternal objects, by the activity of the senses, or by that rf\nthe mind itself. It must be braced up to an unswerving stead-\niness and fixity, until gradually it will learn so to withdraw\nits attention from the outer world and from the body that th»\nsenses will remain quiet and still, while the mind is intensely\nalive with all its energies drawn inwards to be launched at a\nsingle point of thought, the highest to which it can attain.\nWhen it is able to hold itself thus with comparative ease it !■\nready for a further step, and by a strong but calm effort of the\nwill it can throw itself beyond the highest thought it can readl\nwhile -working in the physical brain, and in that effort wiO\nrise to and unite itself with the higher consciousness and find\nitself free of the body. When this is done there is no sense of\nsleep or dream nor any loss of consciousness; the man find*\n\nlUEINCARNATlON OR CREATION. j29\n\nOimself outside his body, but as though he had merely slipped\noff a weighty encumbrance, not as though he had lost any part\nof himself ; he is not really 'disembodied. ' but has risen out of\nhis gross body * in a body of light, ' which obeys his slightest\nthought and serves as a beautiful and perfect instrument for\ncarrying out his will. In this he is free of the subtle worlds,\nbut will need to train his faculties long and carefully for relia-\nble work under the new conditions.\n\n\" Freedom from the body may be obtained in other ways : by\nthe rapt intensity of devotion or by special methods that may\nbe imparted by a great teacher to his disciple. Whatever the\nway, the end is the same — the setting free of the soul in full\nconsciousness, able to examine its new surroundings in regions\nbeyond the treading of the man of flesh. At will it can return\nto the body and re-enter it, and under these circumstances it\ncan impress on the brain-mind, and thus retain while in the\nbody, the memory of the experiences it has undergone. ***\n\nThose who have grasped the main ideas sketched\nin the foregoing pages will feel that these ideas are\nin themselves the strongest proof that reincarnation\nis a fact in nature. It is necessary, in order that the\nvast evolution implied in the phrase, \" the evolution\nof the soul,\" may be accomplished. The only alter-\nnative — ^putting aside for the moment the material-\nistic idea that the soul is only the aggregate of the\nvibrations of a particular kind of physical matter — is\nthat each soul is a new creation, made when a babe\nis bom, and stamped with virtuous or with vicious\ntendencies, endowed with ability or with stupidity,\nby the arbitrary whim of the creative power. As the\nMahommedan would say, his fate is hung round his\n\n♦\"Conditions of Life after Death,\" Nineteenth Century\nNovember, 1896.\n\n230 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nneck at birth, for a man's fate depends on his char-\nacter and his surroundings, and a newly created sou.t\nflung into the world must be doomed to happiness\nor misery according to the circumstances environing'\nhim and the character stamped upon hira. Predes-\ntination in its most offensive form is the alternative\nof reincarnation. Instead of looking on men as\nslowly evolving, so that the brutal savage of to-day\nwill in time evolve the noblest qualities of saint and\nhero, and thus seeing in the world a wisely planned\nand wisely directed process of growth, we shall be\nobliged to see in it a chaos of most unjustly treated\nsentient beings, awarded happiness or misery,\nknowledge or ignorance, virtue or vice, wealth or\npoverty, genius or idiocy, by an arbitrary external\nwill, ungiiided by either justice or mercy — a veritable\npandemonium, irrational and unmeaning. And this\nchaos is supposed to be the higher part of a cosmos,\nin the lower regions of which are manifested all the\norderly and beautiful workings of a law that ever\nevolves higher and more complex forms from the\nlower and the simpler, that obviously \" makes for\nrighteousness,\" for harmony, and for beauty.\n\nIf it be admitted that the soul of the savage is des-\ntined to live and to evolve, and that he is not doomed\nfor eternity to his present infant state, but that his\nevolution will take place after death and in other\nworlds, then the principle of soul-evolution is con-\nceded, and the question of the place of evolution\nalone remains. Were all souls on earth at the same\nstage of evolution, much might be said for the con\n\nMANY WORLDS IK TURN. 2^1\n\ntention that further worlds are needed for the evolu-\ntion of souls beyond the infant stage. But we have\naround us souls that are far advanced, and that were\nbom with noble mental and moral qualities. By\nparity of reasoning, we must suppose them to have\nbeen evolved in other worlds ere their one birth in\nthis, and we cannot but wonder why an earth that\noflfers varied conditions, fit for little-developed and\nalso for advanced souls, should be paid only one\nflying visit by souls at every stage of development,\nall the rest of their evolution being carried on in\nworlds similar to this, equally able to afford all the\nconditions needed to evolve the souls at different\nstages of evolution, as we find them to be when they\nare bom here. The Ancient Wisdom teaches, in-\ndeed, that the soul progresses through many worlds,\nbut it also teaches that he is bom in each of these\nworlds over and over again, until he has completed\nthe evolution possible in that world. The worlds\nthemselves, according to its teaching, form an evolu-\ntionary chain, and each plays its own part as a field\nfor certain stages of evolution. Our own world\noffers a field suitable for the evolution of the min-\neral, vegetable, animal and human kingdoms, and\ntherefore collective -or individual reincarnation goes\non upon it in all these kingdoms. Truly, further\nevolution lies before us in other worlds, but in the\ndivine order they are not open to us until we have\n^earned and mastered the lessons our own world has\nto teach.\nThere are many lines of thought that lead us to\n\nTHE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nthe same goal of reincarnation, as we study the\nworld around us. The immense differences that\nseparate man from man have been already noticed\nas implying an evolutionary past behind each soul;\nand attention has been drawn to these as different\ntiating the individual reincarnation of men— all of\nwhom belong to a single species — from the reincar-\nnation of monadic group-souls in the lower king-\ndoms. The comparatively small differences that\nseparate the physical bodies of men, all being ex-\nternally recognizable as men, should be contrasted\nwith the immense differences that separate the low-\nest savage and the noblest hiiman type in mental and\nmoral capacities. Savages are often splendid in\nphysical development and with large cranial con-\ntents, but how different their minds from that of a\nphilosopher or of a saint !\n\nIf high mental and m.oral qualities are regarded as\nthe accumiilated results of civiliaed living, then we\nare confronted by the fact that the ablest men of\nthe present are overtopped by the intellectual giants\nof the past, and that none of our own day reaches\nthe moral attitude of some historical saints.\nFurther, we have to consider that genius has neithei\nparent nor child; that it appears suddenly and not\nas the apex of a gradually improving family, and is\nitself generally sterile, or, I' a child be bom to it, it\nis a child of the body, not o.' the mind. Still more\nsignificantly, a musical genius is for the most part\nbom in a musical family, because that form of gen-\nius needs for its manifestation a nervous organiza-\n\nINFANT PRODIGIES. 233\n\ntion of a peculiar kind, and nervous organization\nfalls under the law of heredity. But how often in\nsuch a family its object seems over when it has pro-\nvided a body for a genius, and it then flickers out\nand vanishes in a few generations into the obscurity\nof average humanity. Where are the descendants of\nBach, of Beethoven, of Mozart, of Mendelssohn,\nequal to their sires? Truly genius does not descend\nfrom father to son, like the family physical types of\nthe Stuart and the Bourbon.\n\nOn what ground, save that of reincarnation, can\nthe \" infant prodigy\" be accounted for? Take as an\ninstance the case of the child who became Dr,\nYoung, the discoverer of the undulatory theory of\nlight, a man whose greatness is scarcely yet suffi'\nciently widely recognized. As a child of two he\ncould read \"with considerable fluency/' and before\nhe was four he had read through the Bible twice ; at\nseven he began arithmetic, and mastered Walking'\nham's Tutor* s Assistant before he had reached the\nmiddle of it imder his tutor, and a few year« later\nwe find him mastering, while at school, Latin, f jreek,\nHebrew, mathematics, book-keeping, French, Ital*\nian, turning and telescope-making, and delighting\nin Oriental literature. At fcmrteen he wa« to b&\nplaced under private tuition with a b^ a ye^f Aii4\na half yonnger, bnt, ^^ tutor first engiifftd f^iVwfi ^>\narrive, Yoimg tasigjit the other bojr** tHr Willfem\nRowan Hanuttoa tsbowtd fCfwerev&fi m^iff^ pr^t^i^\ncaonsu He heg^am to Hearts Wehrew vh^m h^ ^m\n\nTHE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nbarely three, and \" at the age of seven he was pro-\nnounced by one of the Fellows of Trinity College,\nDublin, to have shown, a greater knowledge of the\nlanguage than many candidates for a fellowship.\nAt the age of thirteen he had acquired considerable\nknowledge of at least thirteen languages. Among\nthese, bf;sides the classical and the modem European\nlanguages, were included Persian, Arabic, Sanscrit,\nHindustani, and even Malay. ... He wrote, at the\nage of fourteen, a complimentary letter to the Per-\nsian Ambassador, who happened to visit Dublin;\nand the latter said he had not thought there was a\nman in Britain who could have written such a docu-\nment in the Persian language.\" A relative of his\nsays: \" I remember him a little boy of six, when he\nwould answer a difficult mathematical question, and\nrun off gaily to his little cart. At twelve he engaged\nColbum, the American 'calculating boy,' who was\nthen being exhibited as a curiosity in Dublin, and\nhe had not always the worst of the encounter.\"\nWhen he was eighteen. Dr. Brinkley (Royal Astron-\nomer of Ireland) said of hini in 1823: \"This young\nman, I do net say -will be, but is, the first mathe-\nmatician of his age.\" \"At college his career was\nperhaps unexampled. Among a number of com-\npetitors of more than ordinary merit, he was first in\nevery subject, and at every examination.\" *\n\nLet the thoughtful student compare these boys\nwith a semi-idiot, or even with an average lad, note\nhow, starting with these advantages, they become\n' North Biilish Re-vie-ui. September, 1S66.\n\nLIKENBSS AND UNLIK£N£SS. 235\n\nleaders of thought, and then ask himself whethc:\nsuch souls have no past behind them.\n\nFamily likenesses are generally explained as beinr\ndue to the \"law of heredity,\" but difiEerences in men-\ntal and in moral character are continually found\nwithin a family circle, and these are left unexplained.\nReincarnation explains the likenesses by the fact\nthat a soul in taking birth is directed to a family\nwhich provides by its physical heredity a body suit-\nable to express his characteristics; and it explains\nthe unlikenesses by attaching the mental and moral\ncharacter to the individual himself, while showing\nthat ties set up in the past have led him to take birth\nin connection with some other individual of that\nfamily.* A \"matter of significance in connection\nwith twins is that during infancy they will often be\nindistinguishable from each other, even to the keen\neye of mother and of nurse ; whereas, later in life,\nwhen Manas has been working on his physical en-\ncasement, he will have so modified it that the physi-\ncal likeness lessens, and the differences of character\nstamp themselves on the mobile features. \" f Phy-\nsical likeness with mental and moral unlikeness\nseems to imply the meeting of two different lines of\ncausation.\n\nThe striking dissimilarity found to exist between\npeople of about equal intellectual power in assimi-\nlating particular kinds of knowledge is another\n\"pointer\" to reincarnation. A truth is recognize '\n\n♦See Chapter IX., on \"Karma.\"\n\n\\ Retncarnation, by Annie Besant, p. 64.\n\n236 THE ANCIENT WISDOU.\n\nat once by one, while the other fails to grasp it even\nafter long and careful observation. Yet the very\nopposite may be the case when another truth is pre-\nsented to them, and it may be seen by the second\nand missed by the first. \" Two students are at-\ntracted to Theosophy and begin to study it; at a\nyear's end one is familiar with itr. main conceptions\nand can apply them, while the other is struggling in ,\na maze. To the one each principle seemed familiar\non presentation: to the other new, unintelligible,\nstrange. The believer in reincarnation understands\nthat the teaching is old to the one and new to the\nother; one learns quickly because he remembers, he\nis but recovering past knowledge ; the other learns\nslowly because his experience has not included these\ntruths of nature, and he is acquiring them totlfully\nfor the first time,\"* So also ordinary intuition is\n\"merely recognition of a fact familiar in a past life,\nthough met with for the first time in the preseni,\" j-\nanother sign o£ the road along which the individual\nhas travelled in the past.\n\nThe main difEculty with many people in the re-\nception of the doctrine of reincarnation is their own\nabsence of memory of their past. Yet they are\nevery day familiar with the fact that they have for-\ngotten very much even of their lives in their present\nbodies, and that the early years of childhood are\nblurred and those of infancy a blank. They must\nalso know that events of the past which have entirely\nslipped out of their normal consciousness are yet\n* Ibid. p. C7. \\Ibid. p. 67.\n\nMEMORY OF PAST LIVES. 237\n\nhidden away in dark caves of memory, and can be\nbrought out again vividly in some forms of disease\nor under the influence of mesmerism. A dying man\nhas been known to speak a language heard only\nin infancy, and unknown to him during a long life ;\nin delirium, events long forgotten have presented\nthemselves vividly to the consciousness. Nothing\nis really forgotten ; but much is hidden out of sight\nof the limited vision of our waking consciousness,\nthe most limited form of our consciousness, although\nthe only consciousness recognized by the vast ma-\njority. Just as the memory of some of the present\nlife is indrawn beyond the reach of this waking con-\nsciousness, and makes itself known again only wjhen\nthe brain is hypersensitive and thus able to respond\nto vibrations that usually beat against it unheeded,\nso is the memory of the past lives stored up out of\nreach of the physical consciousness. It is all with\nthe Thinker, who alone persists from life to life;\nhe has the whole book of memory within his reach,\nfor he is the only \" I\" that has passed through all\nthe experiences recorded therein. Moreover, he\ncan impress his own memories of the past on his\nphysical vehicle, as soon as it has been sufficiently\npurified to answer to his swift and subtle vibrations,\nand then the man of flesh can share his knowledge\nof the storied past. The difficulty of memory does\nnot lie in forgetfulness, for the lower vehicle, the\nphysical body, has never passed through the previ-\nous lives of its owner; it lies in the absorption of\nthe present body in its present environment, in tt«\n\nJji' THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\n,oarse irresponsiveness to the delicate thrills in whicit\nalone the soul can speak. Those who wouli^ re-\nmember the past must not have their interests cen\ntred in the present, and they must purify and re-\nfine the body till it is able to receive impressions\nfrom the subtler spheres.\n\nMemory of their own past lives, however, is\npossessed by a considerable number of people who\nhave achieved the necessary sensitiveness of the\nphysical organism, and to these, of course, reincar-\nnation is no longer a theory, but has become a\nmatter of personal knowledge. They have learned\nhow much richer life becomes when memories of\npast lives pour into it, when the friends of this brief\nday are found to be the friends of the long-ago, and\nold remembrances strengthen the ties of the fleeting\npresent. Life gains security and dignity when it is\nseen with a long vista behind it, and when the loves\nof old reappear in the loves of to-day. Death fades\ninto its proper place as a mere incident in life, a\nchange from one scene to another, like a journey\nthat separates bodies but cannot siinder friend from\nfriend. The links of the present are found to be\npart of a golden chain that stretches backwards, and\nthe future can be faced with a glad security in the\nthought that these links will endure through days to\ncome, and form part of that unbroken chain.\n\nNow and then we find children who have brought\nover a memory of their immediate past, for the\nmost part when they have died in childhood and are\nreborn almost immediatel)-. In the West such cases\n\nMEMORY AND FACULTY. 2$^\n\nare rarer than in the East, because in the West the\nfirst words of such a child would be met with dis-\nbelief, and he would quickly lose faith in his own\nmemories. In the East, where belief in reincarna-\ntion is almost universal, the child's remembrances\nare listened to, and where the opportunity serves\nthey have been verified.\n\nThere is another important point with respect to\nmemory that will repay consideration. The memory\nof past events remains, as we have seen, with the\nThinker only, but the results of those events em-\nbodied in faculties are at the service of the lower\nman. If the whole of these past events were thrown\ndown into the physical brain, a vast mass of experi-\nences in no classified order, without arrangement,\nthe man could not be guided by the outcome of the\npast, nor utilize it for present help. Compelled to\nmake a choice between two lines of action, he would\nhave to pick, out of the unarranged facts of his past,\nevents similar in character, trace out their results,\nand after long and weary study arrive at some con-\nclusion — a conclusion very likely to be vitiated by\nthe overlooking of some important factor, and\nreached long after the need for decision had passed.\nAll the events, trivial and important, of some hun-\ndreds of lives would form a rather unwieldy and\nchaotic mass for reference in an emergency that de-\nmanded a swift decision. The far more effective\nplan of Nature leaves to the Thinker the memory\nof the events, provides a long period of excarnate\nexistence for the mental body, during which all the\n\nTHE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nevents are tabulated and compared and their results\nare classified; then these results are embodied as\nfaculties, and these faculties form the next mental\nbody of the Thinker. In this way, the enlarged and\nimproved faculties are available for immediate use,\nand, the results of the past being in them, a decision\ncan be come to in accordance with those results and\nwithout any delay. The clear quick insight and\nprompt judgment are nothing else than the outcome\nof past experiences, moulded into an effective form\nfor use; they are surely more useful instruments\nthan would be a mass of uuaasimilated experiences,\nout of which the relevant ones would have to be\nselected and compared, and from which inferences\nwould have to be drawn, on each separate occasion\non which a choice arises.\n\nProm all these lines of thought, however, the\nmind turns back to rest on the fundamental neces-\nsity for reincarnation if life is to be made intelligi-\nble, and if injustice and cruelty are not to mock the\nhelplessness of man. With reincarnation man is a\ndigniiied, immortal being, evolving towards a di-\nvinely glorious end ; without it, he is a tossing straw\non the stream of chance circumstances, irresponsible\nfor his character, for his actions, for his destiny.\nWith it, he may look forward with fearless hope,\nhowever low in the scale of evolution he may be to-\nday, for he is on the ladder to divinity, and the\nclimbing to its summit is only a question of time;\nwithout it, he has no reasonable ground of assurance\nas to progress in the future, nor indeed any reason-\n\nLAW OR CHANCE. 24 1\n\nable ground of assurance in a future at all. Why\nshould a creature without a past look forward to a\nfuture? He may be a mere bubble on the ocean of\ntime. Flung into the world from nonentity, with\nqualities, good or evil, attached to him without\nreason or desert, why should he strive to make the\nbest of them? Will not his future, if he have one,\nbe as isolated, as uncaused, as unrelated as his pres-\nent? In dropping reincarnation from its beliefs,\nthe modem world has deprived God of His justice\nand has bereft man of his security; he may be\n\"lucky\" or \"unlucky,\" but the strength and dignity\nconferred by reliance on a changeless law are rent\naway from him, and he is left tossing helplesslj' on\nan unnavigable ocean of life.\n\n. v..-*;,\n\nCHAPTER rX.\n\nKarma.\n\nHaving traced the evolution of the sottl by the\nway of reincarnation, we are now in a position to\n\nstudy the great law of causation under which re-\nbirths are carried on, the law which is named Karma.\nKarma is a Sanskrit word, literally meaning \" action ;\"\nas all actions are effects flowing from preceding\ncauses, and as each effect becomes a cause of future\neffects, this idea of cause and effect is an essential\npart of the idea of action, and the word action, or\nkarma, is therefore used for causation, or for the\nunbroken linked series of causes and efFects that\nmake up all human activity. Hence the phrase is\nsometimes used of an event, \"This is my karma,\"\ni.e., \"This event is the effect of a cause set going by\nme in the past. \" No one life is isolated ; it is the\nchild of all the lives before it, the parent of all the\nlives that follow it, in the total aggregate of the lives\nthat make up the continuing existence of the indi-\nvidual. There is no such thing as \" chance\" or as\n\"accident;\" every event is linked to a preceding\ncause, to a following effect; all thoughts, deeds,\ncircumstances are causally related to the past and\nwill causally influence the future; as our ignorance\n\n' J^XVr AND LIBERTY. 243\n\nshrouds from our vision alike the past and the\nfuture, events often appear to us to come suddenly\nfrom the void, to be \"accidental,\" but this appear-\nance is illusory and is due entirely to our lack of\nknowledge. Just as the savage, ignorant of the\nlaws of the physical universe, regards physical\nevents as uncaused, and the results of unknown\nphysical laws as \"miracles;\" so do many, ignorant\nof moral and mental laws, regard moral and mental\nevents as uncaused, and the results of unknown\nmoral and mental laws as good and bad \" luck. \"\n\nWhen at first this idea of inviolable, immutable\nlaw in a realm hitherto vaguely ascribed to chance\ndawns upon the mind, it is apt to result in a sense\nof helplessness, almost of moral and mental paralysis.\nMan seems to be held in the grip of an iron destiny,\nand the resigned \" kismet\" of the Moslem appears to\nbe the only philosophical utterance. Just so might\nthe savage feel when the idea of physical law first\ndawns on his startled intelligence, and he learns\nthat every movement of his body, every movement\nin external nature, is carried on under inimutable\nlaws. Gradually he learns that natural laws only\nlay down conditions under which all workings must\nbe carried on, but do not prescribe the workings;\nso that man remains ever free at the centre, while\nlimited in his external activities by the conditions of\nthe plane on which those activities are carried on.\nHe learns further that while the conditions master\nhim, constantly frustrating his strenuous efforts, so\nlong as he is ignorant of them, or, knowing them.\n\n244 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nfights against them, he masters them and they be-\ncome his servants and helpers when he understands\nthem, knows their directions, and calculates their\nforces.\n\nIn truth science is possible only on the physical\nplane because its laws are inviolable, immutable.\nWere there no such things as natural laws, there\ncould be no sciences. An investigator makes a\nnumber of experiments, and from the results of\nthese he learns how Nature works; knowingthis, he\ncan calculate how to bring about a certain desired\nresult, and if he fail in achieving that result he\nknows that he has omitted some necessary condition\n— either his knowledge is imperfect, or he has made\na miscalculation. He reviews his knowledge, re-,\nvises his methods, recasts his calculations, with a\nserene and complete certainty that if he ask his\nquestion rightly Nature will answer him with un-\nvarying precision. Hydrogen and oxygen will not\ngive him water to-day and prussic acid to-morrow;\nfire will not bum him to-day and freeze him to-;\nmorrow. If water be a fluid to-day and a solid to-\nmorrow, it is because the conditions surrounding it'\nhave been altered, and the reinstatement of the\noriginal conditions will bring about the original re-,\nsuit. Every new piece of information about the-\nlaws of Nature is not a fresh restriction but a freshi\npower, for all these energies of Nature become\nforces which he can use in proportion as he under-\nstands them. Hence the saying that \"knowledge is\npower,\" for exactly in proportion to his knowledge;\n\nMASTER BY KNOWLEDGE. ^4^\n\ncan he utilize these forces; by selecting those with\nwhich he will work, by balancing one against an-\nother, by neutralizing opposing energies that would\ninterfere with his object, he can calculate before-\nhand the result, and bring about what he prede-\ntermines. Understanding and manipulating causes,\nhe can predict ejffects, and thus the very rigidity of\nnature which seemed at first to paralyze human\naction can be used to produce an infinite variety of\nrestilts. Perfect rigidity in each separate force\nmakes possible perfect flexibility in their combina-\ntions. For the forces being of every kind, moving\nin every direction, and each being calculable, a\nselection can be made and the selected forces so\ncombined as to yield any desired result. The object\nto be gained being determined, it can be infallibly\nobtained by a careful balancing of forces in the com-\nbination put together as a cause. But, be it remem-\nbered, knowledge is requisite thus to guide events,\nto bring about desired results. The ignorant man\nstumbles helplessly along, striking himself against\nthe immutable laws and seeing his efforts fail, while\nthe man of knowledge walks steadily forward, fore-\nseeing, causing, preventing, adjusting, and bringing\nabout that at which he aims, not because he is\nlucky but because he understands. The one is\nthe toy, the slave of Nature, whirled along by her\nforces; the other is her master, using her energies\nto carry him onwards in the direction chosen by his\nwill.\n\nThat which is; true of the physical realm of law is\n\n24^ THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\ntrue also of the moral and mental worlds, equally\nrealms of law. Here also the ignorant is a slave,\nthe sage is a monarch; here also the inviolability,\nthe immutability, that were regarded as paralyzing,\nare found to be the necessary conditions of sure\nprogress and of clear-sighted direction of the future,\nMan can become the master of his destiny only be-\ncause that destiny lies in c. realm of law, where\nknowledge can build up the science of the soul and\nplace in the hands of man the power of controlling\nhis future — of choosing alike his future character\nand his future circumstances. The knowledge of\nkarma, that threatened to paralyze, becomes an in-\nspiring, a supporting, an uplifting force.\n\nKarma is, then, the law of causation, the law of\ncause and effect. It was put pointedly by the\nChristian Initiate, S. Paul: \"Be not deceived; God\nis not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth that\nshall he also reap.\"* Man is continually sending\nout forces on all the planes on which he functions;\nthese forces — themselves in quantity and quality\nthe effects of his past activities — are causes which\nhe sets going in each world he inhabits; they bring\nabout certain definite effects DOth on himself and on\nothers, and as these causes radiate forth from him-\nself as centre over the whole field of his activity, he\nis responsible for the results they bring about. As\na magnet has its \"magnetic field,\" an area within\nwhich all its forces play, larger or smaller accordingr\nto its strength, so has every man a field of influence\n• Galaiians, vi. 7.\n\nFORCfiS IN THREE WORLDS. 247\n\nwithin which play the forces he emits, and these\nforces work in curves that return to their forth-\nsender, that re-enter the centre whence they\nemerged.\n\nAs the subject is a very complicated one, we will\nsubdivide it, and then study the subdivisions one by\none.\n\nThree classes of energies are sent forth by man\nin his ordinary life, belonging respectively to the\nthree worlds that he inhabits: mental energies on\nthe mental plane, giving rise to the causes we call\nthoughts; desire energies on the astral plane, giving\nrise to those we call desires; physical energies\naroused by these, and working on the physical\nplane, giving rise to the causes we call actions.\nWe have to study each of these in its workings, and\nto understand the class of effects to which each gives\nrise, if we wish to trace intelligently the part that\neach plays in the perplexed and complicated com-\nbinations we set up, called in their totality \"our\nkarma.'' When a man, advancing more swiftly than\nhis fellows, gains the ability to function on higher\nplanes, he then becomes the centre of higher forces,\nbut for the present we may leave these out of ac-\ncount and confine ourselves to ordinary humanity,\ntreading the cycle of reincarnation in the three\nworlds.\n\nIn studjring these three classes of energies we\nshall have to distinguish between their effect on the\nman who generates them and their effect on others\nwho come within the field of his influence; for a lack\n\nTHE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nof understanding on this point often leaves the\nstudent in a slough of hopeless bewilderment.\n\nThen we must remember that every force works\non its own plane and reacts on the planes below it\nin proportion to its intensity; 'he plane on which it\nis generated gives it its special characteristics, and\nin its reaction on lower planes it sets up vibrations\nin their finer or coarser materials according to its\nown original nature. The motive which generates\nthe activity determines the plane to which the force\nbelongs.\n\nNext, it will be necessary tiJ distinguish between\nthe ripe karma, ready to show itself as inevitable\nevents in the present life ; the karma of character,\nshowing itself in tendencies that are the outcome of\naccumulated experiences, and that are capable of\nbeing modified in the present life by the same power\n(the Ego) that created them in the past; the karma\nthat is now making, and will give rise to future\nevents and future character.*\n\nFuther, we have to realize that while a man makes\nhis own individual karma he also connects himself\nthereby with others, thus becoming a member of\nvarious groups — family, national, racial — and as a\nmember he shares in the collective karma of each of\nthese groups.\n\nIt will he seen that the study of karma is one o£\n\n* These divisions are familiar to the student as Pr&rabdha\n(commenced, to be worked out in the life) : Sanchita (accumu-\niBted], a part of which h se«n in the tendencies ; Kriyan&na,\nin course of makiug.\n\nMAN S£LF-CR£AtEt). 24^\n\nmuch complexity; however, by grasping the main\nprinciples of its working as set out above, a coherent\nidea of its general bearing may be obtained without\nmuch difficulty, and its details can be studied at\nleisure as opportunity offers. Above all, let it\nnever be forgotten, whether details are understood\nor not, that each man makes his own karma, creat-\ning alike his own capacities and his own limitations;\nand that working at any time with these self -created\ncapacities, and within these self -created limitations,\nhe is still himself, the living soul, and can strengthen\nor weaken his capacities, enlarge or contract his\nlimitations.\n\nThe chains that bind him are of his own forging,\nand he can file them away or rivet them more\nstrongly ; the house he lives in is of his own build-\ning, and he can improve it, let it deteriorate, or\nrebuild it, as he will. We are ever working in\nplastic clay and can shape it to our fancy, but the\nclay hardens and becomes as iron, retaining the\nshape we gave it. A proverb from the Hitopadesha\nruns, as translated by Sir Edwin Arnold :\n\n\" Look ! the clay dries into iron, but the potter moulds the clay ;\nDestiny to-day is master — Man was master yesterday.\"\n\nThus we are all masters of our to-morrows, how-\never much we are hampered to-day by the results of\nour yesterdays.\n\nLet us now take in order the divisions already set\nout under which karma may be studied.\n\nThree cJAi^es of causes^ with their effects on their\n\nThE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\ncreator and on those he influences. The first of these\nclasses is composed of our thoughts. Thought is\nthe most potent factor in the creation of human\nkarma, for in thought the energies of the Self are\nworking in mental matter, the matter which, in its\nfiner kinds, forms the individual vehicle, and even\nin its coarser kinds responds swiftly to every vibra-\ntion of self -consciousness. The vibrations which\nwe call thought, the immediate activity of the\nThinker, give rise to forms of mind-stuff, or mental\nimages, which shape and mould his mental body, as\nwe have already seen ; every thought modifies this\nmental body, and the mental faculties in each suc-\ncessive life are made by the thinkings of the previ-\nous lives. A man can have no thought- power, no\nmental ability, that he has not himself created by\npatiently repeated thinkings; on the other hand, no\nmental image that he has thus created is lost, but re-\nmains as material for faculty, and the aggregate of\nany group of mental images is built into a faculty\nwhich grows stronger with every additional think-\ning, or creation of a me ntal image, of the same kind.\nKnowing this law, the man can gradually make for\nhimself the mental character he desires to possess,\nand he can do it as definitely and as certainly as a\nbricklayer can build a wall. Death does not stop\nhis work, but by setting him free from the encum-\nbrance of the body facilitates the process of working\nup his mental images into the definite organ we call\na faculty, and he brings this back with him to his\nnext birth on the physical plane, part of the brain\n\n£F?ECtS ON OtHERS. 25!\n\nof the new body being moulded so as to serve as the\norgan of this faculty, in a way to be explained pres-\nently. All these faculties together form the mental\nbody for his opening life on earth, and his brain and\nnervous system are shaped to give this mental body\nexpression on the physical plane. Thus the mental\nimages created in one life appear as mental char-\nacteristics and tendencies in another, and for this\nreason it is written in one of the Upanishads: \" Man\nis a creature of reflection ; that which he reflects on\nin this life he becomes the same hereafter. \" * Such\nis the law, and it places the building of our mental\ncharacter entirely in our own hands; if we build\nwell, ours the advantage and the credit ; if we build\nbadly, ours the loss and the blame. Mental char-\nacter, then, is a case of individual karma in its\naction on the individual who generates it.\n\nThis same man that we are considering, however,\naffects others by his thoughts. For these mental\nimages that form his own mental body set up vibra-\ntions, thus reproducing themselves in secondary\nforms. These generally, being mingled with desire,\ntake up some astral matter, and I have therefore\nelsewhere f called these secondary thought-forms\nastro-mental images. Such forms leave their\ncreator and lead a quasi-independent life — still\nkeeping up a magnetic tie with their progenitor.\nThey come into contact with and affect others, in\nthis way setting up karmic imks between these\n\n* Chhdndogyoj^anishad, IV.. xiv. i.\n\n\\Karma^ p. 25. (Theosophical Manual, No. IV.)\n\n252 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nothers and himself; thus they largely influence hia\nfuture environment. In such fashion are made\nthe ties which draw people together for good or evil\nin later lives; which surround us with relatives,\nfriends, and enemies; which bring across our path\nhelpers and hinderers, people who benefit and who\ninjure us, people who love us without our winning\nin this life, and who hate us though in this life we\nhave done nothing to deserve their hatred. Study-\ning these results, we grasp a great principle — that\nwhile our thoughts produce our mental and moral\ncharacter in their action on ourselves, they help to\n' determine our human associates in the future by\ntheir effects on others.\n\nThe second great class of energies is composed of\nour desires — our outgoings after objects that attract\nus in the external world ; as a mental element always\nenters into these in man, we may extend the terra\n\"mental images\" to include them, although they ex-\npress themselves chiefly in astral matter. These in\ntheir action on their progenitor mould and form his\nbody of desire, or astral body, shape his fate when\nhe passes into Kamaloka after death, and determine\nthe nature of his astral body in his next rebirth.\nWhen the desires are bestial, drunken, cruel, un-\nclean, they are the fruitful causes of congenital dis-\neases, of weak and diseased brains, giving rise to\nepilepsy, catalepsy, and nervous diseases of all\nkinds, of physical malformations and deformities,\nand, in extreme cases, of monstrosities. Bestial ap-\npetites of an abnormal kind or intensity may set up\n\nEFFECTS OF DESIRES. 253\n\nlinks in the astral world which for a time chain the\nEgos, clothed in astral bodies shaped by these ap-\npetites, to the astral bodies of animals to which these\nappetites properly belong, thus delaying their rein-\ncarnation ; where this fate is escaped, the bestially\nshaped astral body will sometimes impress its char-\nacteristics on the forming physical body of the babe\nduring antenatal life, and produce the semihuman\nhorrors that are occasionally bom.\n\nDesires, — because they are outgoing energies that\nattach themselves to objects, — always attract the\nman towards an environment in which they may be\ngratified. Desires for earthly things, linking the\nsoul to the outer world, draw him towards the place\nwhere the objects of desire are most readily obtain-\nable, and therefore it is said that a man is bom\naccording to his desires.* They are one of the\ncauses that determine the place of rebirth.\n\nThe astro-mental images caused by desires aflfect\nothers as do those generated by thoughts. They,\ntherefore, also link us with other souls, and often by\nthe strongest ties of love and hatred, for at the pres-\nent stage of human evolution an ordinary man's de-\nsires are generally sf-^onger and more sustained\nthan his thoughts. They thus play a great part in\ndetermining his human surroundings in future lives,\nand may bring into those lives persons and influences\nof whose connection with himself he is totally un-\nconscious. Suppose a man by sending out a thought\nof bitter hatred and revenge has helped to form in\n•Seo BrihadAranyakopanishad^ JV., iv. 5-7, and contes^t*\n\nTHE ANXIENT WISDOM.\n\nanother the impulse which results in a murder; the\ncreator of that thought is United by his karma to the\ncommitter of the crime, although they have never\nmet on the physical plane, and the wrong he has\ndone to him, by helping to impel him to a crime,\nwill come back as an injury in the infliction of which\nthe whilom criminal will play his part. Many a\n\"bolt from the blue\" that is felt as utterly unde-\nserved is the effect of such a cause, and the soul\nthereby leams and registers a lesson while the lower\nconsciousness is writhing under a sense of injustice.\nNothing can strike a man that he has not deserved,\nbut his absence of memory does not cause a failure\nin the working of the law. We thus learn that our\ndesires in their action on ourselves produce our de-\nsire-nature, and through it largely affect our physical\nbodies in our next birth ; that they play a great part\nin determining the place of rebirth; and by theii\neffect on others they help to draw around us our hu-\nman associates in future lives.\n\nThe third great class of energies, appearing on\nthe physical plane as actions, generate much karma\nby their effects on others, but only slightly affect\ndirectly the Inner Man. They are effects of his\npast thinkings and desires, and the karma they\nrepresent is for the most part exhausted in their hap-\npening. Indirectly they affect him in proportion as\nhe is moved by them to fresh thoughts and desires\nor emotions, but the generating force lies in these\nand not in the actions themselves. Again, if actions\nare often repeated, they set up a habit of the body\n\nEFFECTS OF ACTIONS. 255\n\nwhich acts as a limitation to the expression of the\nEgo in the outer world; this, however, perishes with\nthe body, thus limiting the karma of the action to a\nsingle life so far as its effect on the soul is con-\ncerned. But it is far otherwise when we come to\nstudy the effects of actions on others, the happiness\nor unhappiness caused by these, and the influence\nexercised by these as examples. They link us to\nothers by this influence and are thus a third factor\nin determining our future human associates, while\nthey are the chief factor in determining what may\nbe called our non-human environment. Broadly\nspeaking, the favorable or unfavorable nature of\nthe physical surroundings into which we are bom\ndepends on the effect of our previous actions in\nspreading happiness or unhappiness among other\npeople. The physical results on others of actions\non the physical plane work out karmically in repay-\ning to the actor physical good or bad surroundings\nin a future life. If he has made people physically\nhappy by sacrificing wealth or time or trouble, this\naction karmically brings him favorable physical\ncircumstances conducive to physical happiness. If\nhe has caused people widespread physical misery, !\nhe will reap karmically from his action wretched\nphysical circumstances conducive to physical suffer-\ning. And this is so, whatever may have been bis\nmotive in either case — a fact which leads us to con-\nsider the law that:\n\nEvery farce works on its own plane. If a man\nsows happiness for others on the physical plane, he\n\n256 THE AWCIENT WISDOM.\n\nwill reap conditions favorable to happiness for him-\nself on that plane, and his motive in sowing it does\nnot affect the result. A man might sow wheat with\nthe object of speculating with it to ruin his neigh-\nbor, but his bad motiv-e would not make the wheat-\ngrains grow up as dandelions. Motive is a mental\nor astral force, according as it arises from will or\ndesire, and it reacts on moral and mental character\nor on the desire-natnre severally. The causing of\nphysical happiness by an action is a physical force\nand works on the physical plane. \" By his actions\nman affects his neighbors on the physical plane; he\nspreads happiness around him or he causes distress,\nincreasing or diminishing the sum of human welfare.\nThis increase or diminution of happiness may be due\nto very different motives— good, bad, or mixed. A\nman may do an act that gives widespread en jo jrraent\nfrom sheer benevolence, from a longing to give\nhappiness to his fellow-creatures. Let us say that\nfrom such a motive he presents a park to a town for\nthe free use of its inhabitants ; another may do a\nsimilar act from mere ostentation, from desire to\nattract attention from those who can bestow social\nhonors {say, he might give it as purchase- money for\na title) ; a third may give a park from mixed mo-\ntives, partly unselfish, partly selfish. The motives\nwill severally affect these three men's characters\nin their future incarnations, for improvement, for\ndegradation, for small results. But the effect of the\naction in causing happiness to large numbers of\npeople does not depend on the motive of the giver;\n\nKARMA IS JUST. 257\n\nthe people enjoy the park equally, no matter what\nmay have prompted its gift, and this enjoyment,\ndue to the action of the giver, establishes for him a\nkarmic claim on Nature, a debt due to him that will\nbe scrupulously paid. He will receive a physically\ncomfortable or luxurious environment, as he has\ngiven widespread physical enjoyment, and his sacri-\nfice of physical wealth will bring him his due reward,\nthe karmic fruit of his action. This is his right.\nBut the use he makes of his position, the happiness\nhe derives from his wealth and his surroundings,\nwill depend chiefly on his character, and here again\nthe just reward accrues to him, each seed bearing its\nappropriate harvest. \" * Truly, the ways of karma\nare equal. It does not withhold from the bad man\nthe result which justly follows from an action which\nspreads happiness, and it also deals out to him the\ndeteriorated character earned by his bad motive, so\nthat in the midst of wealth he will remain discon-\ntented and unhappy. Nor can the good man escape\nphysical suffering if he causes physical misery by\nmistaken actions done from a good motive; the\nmisery he caused will bring him misery in his\nphysical surroundings, but his good motive, improv-\ning his character, will give him a source of perennial\nhappiness within himself, and he will be patient an^\ncontented amid his troubles. Many a puzzle ma>\nbe answered by applying these principles to the\nfacts we see around us.\n\nThese respective effects of motive and of the re-\n\n* Kartna, pp. 50, $1.\n\n2So THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nsuits (or fruits) of actions are due to the fact that\n\neach force has the characteristics of the plane on\nwhich it was generated, and the higher the plane\nthe more potent and the more persistent the force.\nHence motive is far more important than action,\nand a mistaken action done with a good motive is\nproductive of more good to the doer than a well-\nchosen action done with a bad motive. The motive,\nreacting on the character, gives rise to a long series\nof effects, for the future actions guided by that char-\nacter will a!l be influenced by its improvement or\nits deterioration; whereas the action, bringing on\nits doer physical happiness or unhappiness, accord-\ning to its results on others, has in it no generating\nforce, but is exhausted in its results. If bewildered\nas to the path of right action by a conflict of appar-\nent duties, the knower of karma diligently tries to\nchoose the best path, using his reason and his judg-\nment to the utmost ; he is scrupulously careful about\nhis motive, eliminating selfish considerations and\npurifying his heart; then he acts fearlessly, and if\nhis action turn out to be a blunder he willingly ac-\ncepts the suffering which results from his mistake\nas a lesson which will be useful in the future.\nMeanwhile, his high motive has ennobled his char-\nacter for all time to come.\n\nThis general principle that the force belongs to\nthe plane on which it is generated is one of far-\nreaching import. If it be liberated with the motive\nof gaining physical objects, it works on the physical\nplane and attaches the actor to that plane. If it\n\nTHREE KINDS OF KARMA. 259\n\naim at devachanic objects, it works on the deva-\nchanic plane and attaches the actor thereto. If it\nhave no motive save the divine service, it is set free\non the spiritual plane, and therefore cannot attach\nthe individual, since the individual is asking* for\nnothing.\n\nThe three kinds of karma. Ripe karma is that\nwhich is ready for reaping and which is therefore\ninevitable. Out of all the karma of the past there\nis a certain amount which can be exhausted within\nthe limits of a single life ; there are some kinds of\nkarma that are so incongruous that they could not\nbe worked out in a single physical body, but would\nrequire very different types of body for their expres-\nsion ; there are liabilities contracted towards other\nsouls, and all these souls will not be in incarnation\nat the same time; there is karma that must be\nworked out in some particular nation or particular\nsocial position, while the same man has other karma\nthat needs an entirely different environment. Part\nonly, therefore, of his total karma can be worked\nout in a given life, and this part is selected by the\ngreat Lords of Karma — of whom something will\npresently be said — and the soul is guided to incarnate\nin a family, a nation, a place, a body, suitable for the\nexhaustion of that aggregate of causes which can be\nworked out together. This aggregate of causes fixes\nthe length of that particular life ; gives to the body\nits characteristics, its powers, and its limitations;\nbrings into contact with the man the souls incarnated\nwithin that life-period to whom he has contracted\n\n^\n\na60 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nobligations, surroundingf him with relatives, friends,\nand enemies; marks out the social conditions into\nwhich he is born, with their accompanying advan-\ntages and disadvantages ; selects the mental energies\nhe can show forth by moulding the organization of\n. the brain and nervous system with which he has\nto work; puts together the causes that result in\ntroubles and joys in his outer career and that can be\nbrought into a single life. All this is the \"ripe kar-\nma,\" and this can be sketched out in a horoscope\ncast by a competent astrologer. In all this the man\nhas no power of choice ; all is fixed by the choices he\nhas made in the past, and he must discharge to the\nuttermost farthing the liabilities he has contracted.\n\nThe physical, astral, and mental bodies which the\nsoul takes on for a new life-period are, as we have\nseen, the direct result of his past, and they form a\nmost important part of this ripe karma. They limit\nthe soul on every side, and his past rises up in judg-\nment against him, marking out the limitations which\nhe has made for himself. Cheerfully to accept these,\nand diligently to work st their improvement, is the\npart of the wise man, for he cannot escape from\nthem.\n\nThere is another kind of ripe karma that is of\nvery serious importance — that of inevitable actions.\nEvery action is the final expression of a series of\nthoughts; to bonow an illustration from chemistry,\nwe obtain a saturated solution of thought by adding\nthought after thought of the same kind, until another\nthought — or even an impulse, a vibration, from witli-\n\nDETERMINED ACTIONS. 26l\n\nOnt-^will produce the solidification of the whole, the\naction which expresses the thoughts. If we persis-\ntently reiterate thoughts of the same kind, say of re-\nvenge, we at last reach the point of saturation, and\nany impulse will solidify these into action and a\ncrime results. Or we may have persistently rerfcer-\nated thoughts of help to another to the point of\nsaturation, and when the stimulus of opportunity\ntouches us they crystallize out as an act of heroism.\nA man may bring over with him some ripe karma\nof this kind, and the first vibration that touches sucih\na mass of thoughts ready to solidify into action will\nhurry him without his renewed volition, unconscious-\nly, into the commission of the act. He cannot stop\nto think ; he is in the condition in which the first\nvibration of the mind causes action: poised on the\nvery point of balancing, the slightest impulse sends\nhim over. Under these circumstances a man will\nmarvel at his own commission of some crime, or at\nhis own performance of some sublime act of self-\ndevotion. He says: \"I did it without thinking,\"\nunknowing that he had thought so often that he had\nmade that action inevitable. When a man has willed\nto do an act many times, he at last fixes his will irre-\nvocably, and it is only a question of opportunity\nwhen he will act. So long as he can think, his free-\ndom of choice remains, for he can set the new\nthought against the old and gradually wear it out\nby the reiteration of opposing thoughts; but when\nthe next thrill of the soul in response to a stimulus\nmeans action, the power of choice is exhausted.\n\n262 THE ANCIENT WISDOlL\n\nHerein lies the solution of the old problem of ne-\ncessity and free will ; man by the exercise of free will\ngradually creates necessities for himself, and between\nth two extremes lie all the combinations of free will\nand necessity which make the struggles within our-\nselves of which we are conscious. We are continu-\nally making habits by the repetitions of purposive\nactions guided by the will; then the habit becomes\na limitation, and we perform the action automati-\ncally. Perhaps we are ther_ driven to the conclusion\nthat the h:.bit is a bad one, and we begin laboriously\nto immake it by thoughts of the opposite kind, and,\nafter many an inevitable lapse into it, the new\nthought -current turns the stream, and we regain\nour fi:ll freedom, often again gradually to make\nanother fetter. So old thought-forms persist and\nlimit our thinking capacity, showing as individual\nand as national prejudices. The majority do not\nknow that they are thus limited, and go on serenely\nin their chains, ignorant of their bondage; those\nwho learn the truth about their own nature become\nfree. The constitution of our brain and nervous\nsystem is one of the most marked necessities in life ;\nthese we have made inevitable by our past thinkings,\nand they now limit us and we often chafe against\nthem. They can be improved slowly and gradually ;\nthe limits can be expanded, but they cannot be sud-\ndenly transcended.\n\nAnother form of this ripe karma is where some\npast evil-thinking has made a crust of evil habits\naround a man which imprisons liim and makes an\n\nSUDbfiK CONVEkSIOK^. ^6^\n\nevil life ; the actions are the inevitable outcome of\nhis pasty as just explained, and they have been held\nover, even through several lives, in consequence of\nthose lives not offering opportunities for their mani-\nfestation. Meanwhile the soul has been growing\nand has been developing noble qualities. In one\nlife this crust of past evil is thrown out by oppor-\ntunity, and because of this the soul cannot show his\nlater developments; like a chicken, ready to be\nhatched, he is hidden within the imprisoning shell,\nand only the shell is visible to the external eye.\nAfter a time that karma is exhausted, and some\napparently fortuitous event — a word from a great\nTeacher, a book, a lecture — ^breaks the shell and the\nsoul comes forth free. These are the rare, sudden,\nbut permanent \"conversions,\" the \"miracles of di-\nvine grace,\" of which we hear; all perfectly intelli-\ngible to the knower of karma, and falling within\nthe realm of law.\n\nThe accumulated karma that shows itself as charac-\nter is, tmlike the ripe, always subject to modifica-\ntions. It may be said to consist of tendencies,\nstrong or weak, according to the thought-force that\nhas gone to their making, and these can be further\nstrengthened or weakened by fresh streams of\nthought-force sent to work with or against them. If\nwe find in ourselves tendencies of which we disap-\nprove, we can set ourselves to work to eliminate\nthem ; often we fail to withstand a temptation, over-\nborne by the strong outrushing stream of desire,\nbut the longer we can hold out against it, even\n\n264 THB ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nthough we fail in the end, the nearer are we to over-\ncoming it. Every such failure is a step towards suc-\ncess, for the resistance wears away part of the\nenergy, and there is less of it available for the\nfuture.\n\nThe karma which is in the course of making has\nbeen already studied.\n\nCollective karma. When a group of people is con-\nsidered karmically, the play of karmic forces upon\neach as a member of the group introduces a new\nfactor into the karma of the individual. We know\nthat when a number of forces play on a point, the\nmotion of the point is not in the direction of any one\nof these forces, but in the direction which is the re-\nsult of their combination. So the karma of a group\nis the resultant of the interacting forces of the indi-\nviduals composing it, and all the individuals are car-\nried along in the direction of that resultant. An\nEgo is drawn by his individual karma into a family,\nhaving set up in previous lives ties which closely\nconnect him with some of the other Egos composing\nit ; the family has inherited property from a grand-\nfather and is wealthy; an heir turns up, descended\nfrom the grandfather's elder brother, who had been\nsupposed to have died childless, and the wealth\npasses to him and leaves the father of the family\nheavily indebted ; it is quite possible that our Ego\nhad had no connection in the past with this heir, to\nwhom in past lives the father had contracted some\nobligation which has resulted in this catastrophe,\nand yet he is threatened with suff^rinpr ty his action,\n\n\"accidents.** 265\n\nbeing involved in the family karma. It,, m his own\nindividual past, there was a wrong-doing which can\nbe exhausted by suffering caused by the family kar-\nma, he is left involved in it ; if not, he is by some\n\"unforeseen circumstances\" lifted out of it, per-\nchance by some benevolent stranger who feels an\nimpulse to adopt and educate him, the stranger be-\ning one who in the past was his debtor.\n\nYet more clearly does this come out in the working\nof such things as railway accidents, shipwrecks,\nfloods, cyclones, etc. A train is wrecked, the catas-\ntrophe being immediately due to the action of the\ndrivers, the guards, the railway directors, the mak-\ners or employees of that line, who, thinking them-\nselves wronged, send clustering thoughts of discon-\ntent and anger against it as a whole. Those who\nhave in their accumulated karma — but not necessa-\nrily in their ripe karma — the debt of a life suddenly\ncut short, may be allowed to drift into this accident\nand pay their debt ; another, intending to go by the\ntrain, but with no such debt in his past, is \" provi-\ndentially\" saved by being late for it.\n\nCollective karma may throw a man into the\ntroubles consequent on his nation going to war, and\nhere again he may discharge debts of his past not\nnecessarily within the ripe karma of his then life.\nIn no case can a man suffer that which he has not\ndeserved, but, if an unforeseen opportunity should\narise to discharge a past obligation, it is well to pa)''\nit and be rid of it for evermore.\n\nThe \"Lords of Karma\" are the great spiritual\n\n; ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nIntelligences who keep the karmic Records and\nadjust the complicated workings of karmic law.\nThey are described by H. P. Blavatsky in Tlie Secret\nDoctrine as the Lipika, the Recorders of Karma, and\nthe Maharajas * and Their hosts, who are \" the agents\nof Karma upon earth. \" \\ The Lipika are They who\nknow the karmic record of every man, and who with\nomniscient wisdom select and combine portions of\nthat record to form the plan of a single life ; They\ngive the \"idea\" of the physical body which is to be\nthe garment of the reincarnating soul, expressing\nhis capacities and his limitations; this is taken by\nthe Maharajas and worked into a detailed model,\nwhich is committed to one of Their inferior agents\nto be copied; this copy is the etherio double, the\nmatrix of the dense body, the materials for these\nbeing drawn from the mother and subject to physi-\ncal heredity. The race, the country, the parents, are\nchosen for their capacity to provide suitable mate-\nrials for the physical body of the incoming Ego, and\nsuitable surroundings for his early life. The physi-\ncal heredity of the family affords certain types and\nhas evolved certain peculiarities of material combi-\nnations ; hereditary diseases, hereditary finenesses of\nnervous organization, imply definite combinations\nof physical matter, capable of transmission. An\nEgo who has evolved peculiarities in his mental and\nastral bodies, needing special physical peculiarities\nfor their expression, is guided to parents whoss\n\n• The Mahadevas, or Chaturdevaa of the Hindus.\n\n\\0p. cit.. pp. 153 01^157.\n\nTHE GUIDANCE OF THE LORDS. 26^\n\nphysical heredity enables them to meet thes« re-\nquirements. Thus an Ego with high artistic facul-\nties devoted to music would be guided to take his\nphysical body in a musical family, in which the\nmaterials supplied fo^ building the etheric double\nand the dense body would have been made ready to\nadapt themselves to his needs, and the hereditary\ntype of nervous system would furnish the delicate\napparatus necessary for the expression of his facul-\nties. An Ego of very evil type would be guided to\na coarse and vicious family, whose bodies were built\nof the coarsest combinations, such as would make a\nbody able to respond to the impulses from his mental\nand astral bodies. An Ego who had allowed his as-\ntral body and lower mind to lead him into excesses,\nand had yielded to drunkenness, for instance, would\nbe led to incarnate in a family whose nervous sys-\ntems were weakened by excess, and would be bom\nfrom drunken parents, who would supply diseased\nmaterials for his physical envelope. The guidance\nof the Lords of Karma thus adjusts means to ends,\nand insures the doing of justice; the Ego brings\nwith him his karmic possessions of faculties and de-\nsires, and he receives a physical body suited to be\ntheir vehicle.\n\nAs the soul must return to earth until he has dis-\ncharged all his liabilities, thus exhausting all his\nindividual karma, and as in each life thoughts and\ndesires generate fresh karma, the question may arise\nin the mind: \"How can this constantly renewing\nbond be put an end to? How can the soul attain his\n\nTHE ANCIENT WISDOM,\n\nliberiition?\" Thus we come to the \"ending of kar-\nma,\" and have to investigate how this may be.\n\nThe binding element in karma is the first thing to\nbe clearly grasped. The outward-going energy of\nthe soul attaches itself to some object, and the soal\nis drawn back by this tie to the place where that\nattachment may be realized by union with the object\nof desire ; so long as the soul attaches himself to any.\nobject, he must be draivn to the place where that ob^\nject can be enjoyed. Good kanna binds the soul as\nmuch as does bad, for any desire, whether for objects\nhere or in Devachan, must draw the soul to the place\nof its gratification.\n\nAction is prompted by desire; an act is done not!\nfor the sake of doing the act, but for the sake of ob-'\ntaining by the act something that is desired, of ac\nquiring its results, or, as it is technically called, of\nenjoying its fruit. Men work, not because they\nwant to dig, or build, or weave, but because they\nwant the fruits of digging, building, and weaving, in\nthe shape of money or of goods, A barrister pleads,\nnot because he wants to set forth the dry details of\na case, but because he wants wealth, fame, and rank.\nMen around us on every side are laboring for some-\nthing, and the spur to their activity lies in the fruit\nit brings them and not in the labor. Desire for\nthe fruit of action moves them to activity, and en-\njoyment of that fruit rewards their exertions.\n\nDesire is, then, the binding eieraeut in karma, and\nwhen the soul no longer desires any object in earth\nor in heaven, his tie to the wheel of reincarnation\n\nDESIRES ARE BONDS. 269\n\nthat turns in the three worlds is broken. Action\nitself has no power to hold the soul, for with the\ncompletion of the action it slips into the past. But\nthe ever-renewed desire for fruit constantly spurs\nthe soul into fresh activities, and thus new chains\nare continually being forged.\n\nNor should we feel any regret when we see men\nconstantly driven to action by the whip of desire,\nfor desire overcomes sloth, laziness, inertia,* and\nprompts men to the activity that yields them experi-\nence. Note the savage, idly dozing on the grass; he\nis moved to activity by hunger, the desire for food,\nand is driven to exert patience, skill, and endurance\nto gratify his desire. Thus he develops mental\nqualities, but when his hunger is satisfied he sinks\nagain into a dozing animal. How entirely have\nmental qualities been evolved by the promptings\nof desire, and how useful have proved desires for\nfame, for posthumous renown. Until man is ap-\nproaching divinity he needs the urgings of desires,\nand the desires simply grow purer and less selfish as\nhe climbs upwards. But none the less desires bind\nhim to rebirth, and if he would be free he must de-\nstroy them.\n\nWhen a man begins to long for liberation, he is\ntaught to practise \" renunciation of the fruits of ac-\ntion;\" that is, he gradually eradicates in himself the\nwish to possess any object ; he at first voluntarily and\n\n* The student will remember that these show the dominance\non the t&masic guna, and while it is dominant men do not\nemerge from the lowest of the three stage** -^f their evolution.\n\nTHE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\ndeliberately denies himself the object, and thus ha-\nbituates himself to do contentedly without it; aftor\na time he no longer misses it, and he finds the desire\nfor it is disappearing from his mind. At this stage\nhe is very careful not to neglect any work which\nis duty because he has become indifferent to the\nresults it brings to him, and he trains himself iii'\ndischarging every duty with earnest attention,,\nwhile remaining entirely indifferent to the fruits it,\nbrings forth. When he attains perfection in this, .\nand neither desires nor dislikes any object, he\nceases to generate karma; ceasing to ask anything,\nfrom the earth or from Devachan, he is not drawn\nto either; he wants nothing that either can give\nhim, and all links between himself and them are\nbroken off. This is the ceasing of individud-\nkarma, so far as the generation of new karma i\nconcerned.\n\nBut the soul has to get rid of old chains as well asi\nto cease from the forging of new, and these old\nchains must either be allowed to wear out gradually.\nor must be broken deliberately. For this breaking\nknowledge is necessary, a knowledge which can look\nback into the past, and see the causes there set go-\ning, causes which are working out their effects in\nthe present. Let us suppose that a person, thus look--\ning backward over his past lives, sees certain causes J\nwhich will bring about an event which is still in the I\nfuture; let us suppose further that these causes ara.'J\nthoughts of hatred for an injury inflicted on himself, 1\nand that they will cause suffering a year hence ta>\n\nBREAKING OLD CHAINS. 2/1\n\nthe wrong-doer; such a person can introduce a new\ncause to intermingle with the causes working from\nthe past, and he may counteract them with strong\nthoughts of love and good-will that will exhaust\nthem, and will thus prevent their bringing about\nthe otherwise inevitable event, which would, in its\nturn, have generated new karmic trouble. Thus he\nmay neutralize forces coming out of the past by\nsending against them forces equal and opposite, and\nmay in this way \" bum up his karma by knowledge. \"\nIn similar fashion he may bring to an end karma\ngenerated in his present life that would normally\nwork out in future lives.\n\nAgain, he may be hampered by liabilities con-\ntracted to other souls in the past, wrongs he has\ndone to them, duties he owes to them. By the use\nof his knowledge he can find those souls, whether in\nthis world or in either of the other two, and seek\nopportunities of serving them. There may be a\nsoul incarnated during his own life-period to whom\nhe owes some karmic debt ; he may seek out that\nsoul and pay his debt, thus setting himself free from\na tie which, left to the course of events, would have\nnecessitated his own reincarnation, or would have\nhampered him in a future life. Strange and puz-\nzling lines of action adopted by occultists have some-\ntimes this explanation — the man of knowledge en-\nters into close relations with some person who is\nconsidered by the ignorant bystanders and critics to\nbe quite outside the companionships that are fitting\nfor him ; but that occultist is quietly working out a\n\n2/2 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nkarmic obligation which would otherwise hamper\nand retard his progress.\n\nThose who do not possess knowledge enough to\nreview their past lives may yet exhaust many causes\nthat they have set going in the present life ; they\ncan carefully go over all that they can remember,\nand note where they have wronged any or where\nany has wronged them, exhausting the first cases by\npouring out thoughts of love and service, and per-\nforming acts of service to the injured person, where\npossible on the physical plane also; and in the\nsecond cases sending forth thoughts of pardon and\ngood- will. Thus they diminish their karmic liabili-\nties and bring nearer the day of liberation.\n\nUnconsciously, pious people who obey the precept\nof all great Teachers of religion to return good for evil\nare exhausting karma generated in the present that\nwould otherwise work out in the future. No one\ncan weave with them a bond of hatred if they refuse\nto contribute any strands of hatred to the weaving,\nand persistently neutralize every force of hatred with\none of love. Let a soul radiate in every direction\nlove and compassion, and thoughts of hatred can\nfind nothing to which they can attach themselves.\n\" The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing\nin me. \" All great Teachers knew the law and based\non it Their precepts, and those who through rever-\nence and devotion to Them obey Their directions\nprofit under the law, although they know nothing of\nthe details of its working. An ignorant man who\ncarries out faithfully the instructions given him by\n\nVALUE OF BELIEF. 2/3\n\na scientist can obtain results by his working with\nthe laws of Nature, despite his ignorance of them,\nand the same principle holds good in worlds beyond\nthe physical. Many who have not time to study,\nand who perforce accept on the authority ot experts\nrules which guide their daily conduct in life, may\nthus unconsciously be discharging their karmic lia-\nbilities.\n\nIn countries where reincarnation and karma are\ntaken for granted by every peasant and laborer,\nthe belief spreads a certain quiet acceptance of in-\nevitable troubles that conduces much to the calm\nand contentment of ordinary life. A man over-\nwhelmed by misfortunes rails neither against God\nnor against his neighbors, but regards his troubles\nas the results of his own past mistakes and ill-do-\nings. He accepts them resignedly and makes the\nbest of them, and thus escapes much of the worry\nand anxiety with which those who know not the law\naggravate troubles already sufficiently heavy. He\nrealizes that his future lives depend on his own ex-\nertions, and that the law which brings him pain will\nbring him joy just as inevitably ii he sows the seed\nof good. Hence a certain large patience and a phil-\nosophic view of life, tending directly to social stabil-\nity and to general contentment. The poor and\nignorant do not study profound and detailed meta-\nphysics, but they grasp thoroughly these simple\nprinciples — that every man is reborn on earth time\nafter time, and that each successive life is moulded\n\nby those that precede it. To them rebirth is as sure\ni8\n\n274 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nand as inevitable as the rising and setting of the\nsun; it is part of the course of nature, against which\nit is idle to repine or to rebel. When Theosophy\nhas restored these ancient truths to their rightful\nplace in western thought, they will gradually work\ntheir way among all classes of society in Christendom,\nspreading understanding of the nature of life and\nacceptance of the results of the past. Then too will\nvanish the restless discontent which arises chiefly\nfrom the impatient and hopeless feeling that life is\nunintelligible, unjust, and unmanageable, and it will\nbe replaced by the quiet strength and patience which\ncome from an illumined intellect and a knowledge of\nthe law, and which characterize the reasoned and\nbalanced activity of those who feel that they are\nbuilding for eternity.",
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