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Cosmic Consciousness: The Man-God Whom We Await

by Alexander J. McIvor-Tyndall · English · Gutenberg #14002 · 403,295 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: Cosmic Consciousness: The Man-God Whom We Await

Author: Alexander J. McIvor-Tyndall


        
Release date: November 10, 2004 [eBook #14002]
                Most recently updated: October 28, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: THE MAN-GOD WHOM WE AWAIT ***

COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS

The Man-God Whom We Await

by

ALI NOMAD

1915







CONTENTS


CHAPTER I

THE NEW BIRTH; WHAT IT IS; INSTANCES DESCRIBED


The religions and philosophies of the Orient and the Occident compared;
their chief difference; The mistaken idea of death. Cosmic Consciousness
not common in the Orient. Why? What the earnest disciple strives for. The
Real and the unreal. Buddha's agonized yearnings; why he was moved by them
with such irresistible power; the ultimate victory. The identity of The
Absolute; The Oriental teachings; "The Spiritual Maxims of Brother
Lawrence;" The seemingly miraculous power of the Oriental initiate; does
he really "talk" to birds and animals? How they learn to know and read "the
heart of the world." The inner temples throughout Japan. The strange
experience of a Zen (a Holy Order of Japan), student-priest in attaining
_mukti_. The key to Realization. An address by Manikyavasayar, one of the
great Tamil saints of Southern India. The Hindu conception of Cosmic
Consciousness. The Japanese idea of the state. The Buddhist "Life-saving"
monasteries; how the priests extend their consciousness to immeasurable
distances at will. The last incarnation of God in India. His marvelous
insight. The urge of the spiritual yearning for the "Voice of the Mother."
His twelve years of struggle. His final illumination. The unutterable bliss
pictured in his own words. What the Persian mystics allusion to "union with
the Beloved" signifies; its exoteric and its esoteric meaning. The "Way of
the Gods." The chief difference between the message of Jesus and that of
other holy men. The famous "Song of Solomon" and the different
interpretations; a new version. A French writer's evident glimpses of the
new birth. Man's relation to the universe.




CHAPTER II.

MAN'S RELATION TO GOD AND TO HIS FELLOW-MEN


The great riddle and a new solution. The persistence of the ideal of
Perfected Man; Has it any basis in history? The superlative faculty of
spiritual sight as depicted by artists, painters and sculptors. Symbols of
consciousness. The way in which the higher consciousness expresses itself.
Certain peculiar traits which distinguish those destined to the influx. The
abode of the gods; The conditioned promise of godhood in Man. What is
Nirvana? The Vedantan idea. The Christian idea. Did Jesus teach the kingdom
of God on earth? Is there a basis for belief in physical immortality? A
new explanation. The perilous paths. Those who "will see God." Evolution
of consciousness from prehistoric man to the highest developed beings.




CHAPTER III

AREAS OF CONSCIOUSNESS


The Divine spark. Consciousness the essence of everything. Axioms of
universal Occultism. The great central light. The teachings of Oriental
seers regarding the ultimate goal. Different stages of mankind. Births in
consciousness. Physical consciousness: its limitations. Mental
consciousness: the jungles of the mind. Soul consciousness; whither it
leads. The irresistible urge. Why we obey it. Sayings of ancient
manuscripts. Perfecting Light. The disciple's test. Awakening of the divine
man. Is he now on earth? What is meant by the awakening of the inner Self.
Is the _atman_ asleep? The doctrine of illusion; its relation to Cosmic
Consciousness.




CHAPTER IV

SELF-NESS AND SELFLESSNESS


The Dark Ages. The esoteric meaning of religious practices. The penetrating
power of spiritual insight. The mystery of conversion. The paradox of
Self-attainment and the necessity for selflessness. The Oriental teachings
regarding the Self. The wisdom of the Illumined Master. The test of fitness
for Nirvana. What caused Buddha the greatest anxiety? Experiences of
Oriental sages and their testimony. What correlation exists between
Buddha's desire and the attainment of Cosmic Consciousness among
Occidental disciples.




CHAPTER V

INSTANCES OF ILLUMINATION AND ITS AFTER EFFECTS


The wonderful brilliancy of Illumination. Dr. Bucke's description of the
Cosmic Light; his opinion regarding the possibility of becoming more
general. Peculiar methods of producing spiritual ecstacy, as described by
Lord Tennyson and others. The Power and Presence of God, as a reality. The
dissolution of race barriers. The effacement of the sense of sin among the
Illuminati. What is meant by the phrase "naked and unashamed." Will such a
state ever exist on the earth? Efforts of those who have experienced Cosmic
Consciousness to express the experience; the strange similarity found in
all attempts. Is there any evidence that Cosmic Consciousness is possible
to all?




CHAPTER VI

EXAMPLES OF COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, WHO HAVE FOUNDED NEW SYSTEMS OF RELIGION


The simple religion of early Japan. The inner or secret shrine: its
esoteric and its exoteric office. The Mystic Brotherhoods. Why the esoteric
meanings have always been veiled. The great teachers and the uniformity of
their instructions. Philosophy as taught by Vivekananda. The fundamental
doctrine of Buddhism. Have the present-day Buddhists lost the key? Is
religion necessary to Illumination? The fruits of Cosmic Consciousness.




CHAPTER VII

MOSES, THE LAW-GIVER


The salient features of the Law as given by Moses to his people. Had the
ancient Hebrews any knowledge of Illumination and its results? The symbol
of liberation. Its esoteric meaning.




CHAPTER VIII

GAUTAMA--THE COMPASSIONATE


Prenatal conditions influencing Buddha. His strange temperament. His
peculiar trances and their effect upon him. Why Buddha endured such
terrible struggles; is suffering necessary to Cosmic Consciousness? From
what was Buddha finally liberated? The simplicity of Buddha's commandments
in the light of Cosmic Consciousness. The fundamental truths taught by
Buddha and all other sages. Buddha's own words regarding death and Nirvana.
Last words to his disciples. How the teachings of Buddha compare with the
vision of Cosmic Consciousness. His method of development of spiritual
consciousness.




CHAPTER IX

JESUS OF NAZARETH


The astonishing similarity found in all religious precepts; the
distinguishing feature of the teachings as delivered by Jesus. His repeated
allusion to "the light within." The great commandment he gave to his
disciples. Love the basis of the teachings of all Illumined minds. The
"Second Coming of Christ." The signs of the times.




CHAPTER X

PAUL OF TARSUS


His undoubted experience of illumination and its effects. Was Paul changed
by "conversion," or what was the wonderful power that altered his whole
life? Why Paul sought seclusion after his illumination. Characteristics of
all Illumined ones. The desire for simplicity. Paul's incomparable
description of "the Love that never faileth." The safe guide to
illumination. The "first fruits of the spirit," as prophesied by Paul.




CHAPTER XI

MOHAMMED


Mohammed a predestined Leader. Condition of Arabia at his birth. Prophecies
of a Messiah. His peculiar psychic temperament; his frequent attacks of
catalepsy; his sufferings because of doubt; his never-ceasing urge toward a
final revelation. His changed state after the revelation on Mt. Hara. His
unswerving belief in his mission; his devotion to Truth; His simplicity and
humility. His claim to Cosmic Consciousness.




CHAPTER XII

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG


Swedenborg's early life. His sudden change from materialism. The difficulty
of clear enunciation. His unfailing belief in the divinity of his
revelations. How they compare with experiences of others. The frequent
reception of the Light. The blessing of Cosmic Consciousness.




CHAPTER XIII

MODERN EXAMPLES OF INTELLECTUAL COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: EMERSON; TOLSTOI;
BALZAC


The way to Illumination through intellectual cultivation; Emerson a notable
example; The Cosmic note in his essays and conversations. Emerson's
religious nature. His familiarity with Oriental philosophy; his remarkable
discrimination; the peculiar penetrating quality of his intellect. His
never failing assurance of unity with the Divine. His belief in a spiritual
life. Did Emerson predict a Millenium? His writings as they reflect light
upon his attainment of Cosmic Consciousness.




LEO TOLSTOI--RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHER


Tolstoi the strangest and most unusual figure of the Nineteenth Century;
His almost unbearable sufferings; his avowed materialism; his horror of
death; The prevailing gloom of his writings and to what due. Incidents in
his life previous to his illumination. The remarkable and radical change
made by his experience. To what was due Tolstoi's great struggle and
suffering? Why the great philosopher sought to die in a hut. His idea not
one of penance. The signal change in his life after illumination. What he
says of this.




HONORE DE BALZAC


Balzac's classification as of the psychic temperament. His amazing power of
magnetic attraction. His feminine refinement in dress. His power of
inspiration gave him his place in French literature. The dominant motive of
all his writings. His unshakable conviction of immortality. His power to
function on both planes of consciousness. The lesson to be drawn from
Seraphita. Balzac's evident intention, and why veiled. The inevitable
conclusion to be drawn from the Symbolical character.




CHAPTER XIV

ILLUMINATION AS EXPRESSED IN THE POETICAL TEMPERAMENT


Poetry the language of Cosmic Consciousness. Unconscious instruments of the
Cosmic law. The true poet and the maker of rhymes. The mission and scope of
the poetical temperament. How "temperament" affects expression. No royal
road to Illumination. Teaching of Oriental mysticism. Whitman's
extraordinary experience. His idea of "Perfections." Lord Tennyson's two
distinct states of consciousness; his early boyhood and strange
experiences. Facts about his illumination. The after effects. Tennyson's
vision of the future. Wordsworth, the poet of Nature. How he attained and
lost spiritual illumination. How he again received the great Light. The
evidences of two states of consciousness. Outline of his illumination.
Noguchi--a most remarkable instance of Illumination in early youth; Lines
expressive of an exalted state of consciousness; how it resulted in later
life. The strange case of William Sharp and "Fiona Macleod:" a perfect
example of dual consciousness; the distinguishing features of the self and
the Self; the fine line of demarcation. How the writer succeeded in living
two distinct lives and the result. Remarkable contribution to literature. A
puzzling instance of phases of consciousness.




CHAPTER XV

METHODS OF ATTAINMENT: THE WAY OF ILLUMINATION


The four Oriental methods of liberation. The goal of the soul's pilgrimage.
Strange theory advanced. Revolutionary results that follow. How to perceive
the actuality of the higher Self. Gaining immortality "In the flesh;" What
Revelation has promised and its substantiation in modern Science. The prize
and the price. Some valuable Yoga exercises to induce spiritual ecstacy.
What "union with God" really means. The "Brahmic Bliss" of the Upanashads.
The new race; its powers and privileges. "The man-god whom we await" as
described by Emerson.




THE SELF AND SYMBOL


  Thou most Divine! above all women
  Above all men in consciousness.

  Thou in thy nearness to me
  Hast shown me paths of love.
  Yea; walks that lead from hell
  To the great light; where life and love
    Do ever reign.

  Thou hast taught to me a patience
  To behold whatever state;
  However beautiful and joyful; however ugly and sorrowful.

  To know that these are--all!--but
  The glimmerings of the greater life--
  Expressions of the infinite.

  According to the finality of that moment
  Now to come; in the eternal now, which thou
  Sweet Presence, hast awakened me to--
  I see the light--the way.

  An everlasting illumination
  That takes me to the gate; the open door
  To the house of God.
  There I find most priceless jewels;
  The key to all the ways,
  That lead from _Om_ to thee.

  A mistake--an off-turn from the apparent road of right
  Is but the bruising of thy temple,
  Calling thy Self--thy soul--
  The God within; showing thee,
  The _nita_ of it all; which is but the half of me.

  And as thy consciousness of the two
  The _nita_ and the _ita_, comes to thee
  A three is formed--the trinity is found.

  Through thee the Deity hast spoken
  Uniting the two in the one;

  Revealing the illusion of mortality
  The message of _Om_ to the Illumined.

--Ali Nomad.




ARGUMENT




Man is essentially a spiritual being.

The source of this spiritual Omniscience we may not, in our finite
intelligence, fully cognize, because full cognition would preclude the
possibility of finite expression.

The destiny of man is perfection.

Man perfected becomes a god.

"Only the gods are immortal," we are told.

Let us consider what this means, supposing it to be an axiom of truth.

Mortality is subject to change and death. Mortality is the manifest--the
stage upon which "man in his life plays many parts."

Immortality, is what the word says it is--godhood re-cognized in the
mortal. "Im" or, "Om"--the more general term--stands for the Changeless.
Birthless. Deathless. Unnamable Power that holds the worlds in space, and
puts intelligence into man.

Biologists, even though they were to succeed in reproducing life by
chemical processes from so-called "lifeless" (sterilized) _matter_, making
so high a form of manifestation as man himself, yet could never name _the
power by which they accomplished it_.

Always there must remain the Unknownable--the Absolute.

"Om," therefore, is the word we use to express this Omniscient, Omnipotent
and Omnipresent power.

The term "mortal" we have already defined. The compound immortal, applied
to individual man, stands for one who has made his "at-one-ment" with Om,
and who has, while still in the mortal body, re-cognized himself as one
with Om.

This is what it means to escape the "second death," to which the merely
mortal consciousness is subject.

This is the goal of every human life; this is the essence, the _substance_
of all religious systems and all philosophies.

The only chance for disputation among theologians and philosophers, lies in
the way of accomplishing this at-one-ment. There is not the slightest
opportunity for a difference of opinion as what they wish to accomplish.

Admitting then, that the goal of every soul is the same--immortality--(the
mortal consciousness cognizing itself as Om), we come to a consideration of
the evidence we may find in support of this axiom. This evidence we do
_not_ find satisfactory, in spirit communication; in psychic experiences;
in hypnotic phenomena; and astral trips; important, and reliable as these
many psychic research phenomena are.

These are not satisfactory or convincing evidences of our at-one-ment with
Om, because they do not preclude the probability of the "second death;" but
on the contrary, they verify it.

However, aside from all these psychic phenomena, there is a phase of human
experience, much more rare but becoming somewhat general, that transcends
phenomena of every kind.

The western world has given to these experiences the term "cosmic
consciousness," which term is self explanatory.

The Orientals have long known of this goal of the soul, and they have terms
to express this, varying with the many types of the Oriental mind, but all
meaning the same thing. This meaning, from our Occidental viewpoint, is
best translated in the term liberation, signifying to be set free from the
limitations of sense, and of self-consciousness, and to have glimpsed the
larger area of consciousness, that takes in the very cosmos.

This experience is accompanied by a great light, whether this light is
manifested as spiritual, or as intellectual power, determines its
expression.

The object of this book is to call attention to some of the more pronounced
instances of this Illumination, and to classify them, according as they
have been expressed through religions enthusiasm; poetical fervor; or great
intellectual power.

But we have also one other argument to make, and this we present with a
conviction of its _truth_, while conceding that it must remain a _theory_,
until proven, each individual, man or woman, for himself and herself. The
postulate is this: immortality (i.e. godhood) is bi-sexual. No male person
can by any possibility become an immortal god, in, of and by himself; no
female person can be complete without the "other half" that makes the ONE.

Each and every SOUL, therefore, has its spiritual counterpart--its "other
half," with which it unites on the spiritual plane, when the time comes for
attainment of immortality.

Sex is an eternal verity. The entire Cosmos is bi-sexual. Everything in the
visible universe; in the manifest, is the result of this universal
principle. "As above so below," is a safe rule, as far as the IDEA goes.
This hypothesis does not preclude _perfection_ above, of that which we find
below, but any radical reversion or repudiation of nature is inconceivable.

"Male and female created he them." This being true, male and female must
they return to the source from which they sprung, completing the circle,
and gaining what?

_Consciousness of godhood; of completeness in counterpartal union. Not
absorption_ of consciousness, but _union_, which is quite a different
idea.

Out of this counterpartal union a race of gods will be born, and these
_supermen_, shall "inherit the earth" making it a "fit dwelling place for
the gods."

This earth is now being made fit. This fact may seem a far distant hope if
we do not judge with the eyes of the seer, but its proof lies in the
emancipation of woman. Its evidences are many and varied, but the awakening
of woman is the _cause_.

This awakening of woman constitutes the first rays of the dawn--that
long-looked for Millenium, which many of us have regarded as a mere figure
of speech, instead of as a literal truth.

The argument is not that there has been no individual awakening until the
present time; but that never before in the finite history of the world has
there been such a general awakening, and as it is self evident that
conditions will reflect the idea of the majority, the fact that woman is
being given her rightful place in the sense-conscious life, proves that the
earth will be a fit dwelling place for a higher order of beings than have
hitherto constituted the majority.

The numerous instances of Illumination, or cosmic consciousness which are
forcing attention at the present time, prove that there is a
_race-awakening_ to a realization of our unity with Om.

Another point which we trust these pages will make clear is this: So-called
"revelation" is neither a personal "discovery," nor any special act of a
divine power. "God spake thus and so to me," is a phrase which the
self-conscious initiate employs, _because he has lost sight of the_ cosmic
light, or because he finds it expedient to use that phraseology in
delivering the message of cosmic consciousness.

If we will substitute the term "_initiation_," for the term "_revelation_,"
we will have a clearer idea of the truth.

Perhaps some of our readers will feel that the terms mean the same, but for
the most part, those who have employed the word "revelation," have used it
as implying that the plan of the cosmos was unfinished, and that the
Creator, having found some person suitable to convey the latest decision
to mankind, natural laws had been suspended and the revelation made.

It is to correct this view, that we emphasize the distinction between the
two words.

The cosmos is complete. "As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever
shall be, worlds without end."

A circle is without beginning or end. We, in our individual consciousness
may traverse this circle, but our failure to realize its completeness does
not change the fact that it is finished.

We can not add to the universal consciousness; nor take away therefrom.

But we can extend our own area of consciousness from the narrow limits of
the personal self, into the heights and depths of the atman and who shall
set limitations to the power of the atman, the higher Self, when it has
attained at-one-ment with Om?

It is not the purpose of this book to trace the spiritual ascent of man
further than to point out the wide gulf between the degrees of
consciousness manifested in the lower animals and that of human
consciousness; again tracing in the human, the ever-widening area of his
cognition of the personal self, and its needs, to the awakening of the soul
and its needs; which needs include the welfare of all living things as an
absolute necessity to individual happiness.

Altruism, therefore, is not a virtue. It is a means of
self-preservation--without this degree of initiation into the boundless
area of universal, or cosmic consciousness, we may not escape the karmic
law.

The revelations, therefore, upon which are founded the numerous religious
systems, are comparable with the many and various degrees of initiation
into THAT WHICH IS.

They represent the degree which the initiate has taken in the lodge.

It may be argued that this fact of individual initiation into the
ever-present truth of Being, as into a lodge, offers no proof that this
earth is to ultimately become a heaven. It may be that this planet is the
outer-most lodge room and that there will never be a sufficient number of
initiates to make the earth a fit dwelling place for a higher order of
beings than now inhabit it. This may, indeed, be true. But all evidence
tends toward the hope that even the planet itself will come under the
regenerating power of Illumination.

All prophecies embody this promise; all that we know of what materialists
call "evolution" and occultists might well name "uncovering of
consciousness," points to a time when "God's will," "shall be done on earth
as it is in heaven."

All who have attained to cosmic consciousness in whatever degree, have
prophecied a _time_, when this blessing would descend upon every one; but
the difficulty in adequately explaining this great gift seems also to have
been the burden of their cry.

Jesus sought repeatedly to describe to his hearers the wonders of the
cosmic sense, but realized that he was too far in advance of the cyclic
end; but even as at that time, a number of disciples were capable of
receiving the Illumination, so to-day, a larger number are capable of
attainment. If this number is great enough to bring about the
regeneration--the perfecting--of the earth conditions, then it _must be
accomplished_.

We believe that it is. We make the claim that the Millenium _has dawned_;
and although it may be many years before the light of the morning breaks
into the full light of the day, yet the rays of the dawn are dispelling the
world's long night.

In his powerful and prophetic story "In the Days of the Comet," H.G. Wells,
tells of a _great change_ that comes over the world following an
atmospheric phenomenon in which a "green vapor" is generated in the clouds
and falls upon the earth with instantaneous effect.

As this peculiar vapor descends, it has the effect of putting every one to
sleep; this sleep continues for three days and when people finally awake,
their interior nature has undergone a complete change.

Where before they "saw dimly," they now see clearly; the petty differences
and quarrels are perceived in their true perspective. Instead of place, and
power, and influence, and wealth, being all-important goals of ambition as
before the change, every one now strives to be of service to the world.
Love and kindness become greater factors than commercial expediency and
business success.

In many respects, Wells' description of the great change and its effect
upon people, corresponds with the effect of Illumination.

The sense of entering into the very heart of things; of growing plants; the
birds and the little wood animals; the intense sympathy and understanding
of life described by him, sounds like the effect of cosmic consciousness,
as related by nearly all who have attained it.

How the world's activities are resumed after the change, and under what
vastly different incentives people work, form a part of the story, which is
written as fiction, but which contains the seed of a great truth.

This truth is expressed in science, as human achievement, and in religion
as fulfilled prophecy, but the truth is the same.

Both religion and science point to a _time_ when this earth will know
freedom from strife and suffering. Even the elements which have hitherto
been regarded as beyond the boundaries of man's will, may be completely
controlled; not _may be_, but _will be_. Manual labor will cease. National
Eugenic societies will put a stop to war, when they come to the inevitable
conclusion, that no race can by any possibility be improved, while the most
perfect physical species are reserved for armies.

Awakening woman will refuse--indeed they are now refusing--to bear children
to be shot down in warfare, and crushed under the juggernaut of commercial
competition.

Those who realize the signs of the times, look for the birth of cosmic
consciousness as a race-consciousness, foreshadowing the new day; the
"second coming of Christ," not as a personal, vicarious sacrifice, but as a
factor in human attainment.

"For I am persuaded," said St. Paul, "that neither death nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to
separate us from the love of God."

If we interpret this in the light of cosmic consciousness, we realize that
we shall know, and _experience_ that boundless, deathless, perfect,
satisfying, complete and all-embracing love which is the goal of
immortality; which is an attribute (we may say the _one_ attribute) of
God.

We are not looking for the birth of _a_ Christ-child, but of _the_
Christ-child; we are not looking for a second coming of _a_ man who shall
be as Jesus was, but we are anticipating the coming of _the_ man (homo),
who shall be cosmically conscious, even as was Jesus of Nazareth; as was
Guatama, the Buddha.

That there may be one man and one woman who shall first achieve this
consciousness and realization is barely possible, but the preponderance of
evidence is for a more general awakening to the light of Illumination.

"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the twinkling of an
eye," said St. Paul.

The prophecy of "the woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under
her feet," is not of _a_ woman, but of Woman, in the light of a race of men
who have attained cosmic consciousness.

Nothing more is needed to make a heaven of earth, than that the great light
and love that comes of Illumination, shall become dominant.

It will solve all problems, because problems arise only because we are
groping in the dark. The elimination of selfishness; of condemnation; of
fear and anger, and doubt, must have far greater power for universal
happiness and well-being than all the systems which theology or science or
politics could devise. Indeed, all these systems are sporadic and empirical
attempts to express the vague dawning of Illumination.

In the fullness of its light, the need for systems will have passed away.




CHAPTER I

THE NEW BIRTH: WHAT IT IS: INSTANCES DESCRIBED


The chief difference between the religions and the philosophies of the
Orient and those of the Occident, lies in the fact that the Oriental
systems, methods, and practices, emphasize the assumption that the goal of
these efforts, is attainable at any moment, as it were.

That is, Oriental religion--speaking in the broad sense--teaches that the
disciple need not wait for the experience called death to liberate the
Self, the _atman_, from the enchantment or delusion, the _maya_, of the
external world. Indeed, the Oriental devotee well knows that physical
death, _mrityu_, is not a guarantee of liberation; does not necessarily
bring with it immortality.

He well recognizes that physical death is but a procedure in existence.
Death does not of itself, change the condition of _maya_, in which the
disciple is bound until such a time, as he has earned liberation--_mukti_,
which condition may be defined as immunity from further incarnation.

Immortality is our rightful heritage but it must be claimed,--yea, it must
be _earned_.

It is a mistake to imagine that death makes man immortal. Immortality is
an attribute of the gods. But since all souls possess a spark of the divine
essence of Brahman (The Absolute), _mukti_ may be attained by earnest
seeking, and thus immortality be _realized_.

This condition of awakening, is variously named among Oriental sages and
chelas, such for instance as glimpsing the _Brahmic splendor; mutki;
samadhi; moksha; entering Nirvana_; becoming "_twice-born_."

In recent years there have come to light in the Occident a number of
instances of the attainment of this state, and these have been described
as "cosmic consciousness;" "illumination;" "liberation;" the "baptism of
the Holy Ghost;" and becoming "immersed in the great white light."

Baptism, which is a ceremony very generally incorporated into religious
systems, is a symbol of this esoteric truth, namely the necessity for
Illumination in order that the soul may be "saved" from further
incarnations--from further experience.

The term cosmic consciousness as well describes this condition of the
disciple, as any words can, perhaps, although the term liberation is more
literal, since the influx of this state of being, is actually the
liberation of the _atman_, the eternal Self, from the illusion of the
external, or _maya_.

Contrary to the general belief, instances of cosmic consciousness are not
extremely rare, although they are not at all general. Particularly is this
true in the Orient, where the chief concern as it were, of the people has
for centuries been the realization of this state of liberation.

The Oriental initiate in the study of religious practices, realizes that
these devotions are for the sole purpose of attaining _mukti_, whereas in
the Occident, the very general idea held by the religious devotee, is one
of penance; of propitiation of Deity. This truth applies essentially to the
initiate, the aspirant for priesthood, or guru-ship. No qualified priest or
guru of the Orient harbors any doubt regarding the _object_, or purpose of
religious practices. The attainment of the spiritual experience described
in occidental language as "cosmic consciousness" is the goal.

The goal is not a peaceful death; nor yet an humble entrance into heaven as
a place of abode; nor is it the ultimate satisfying of a God of extreme
justice; the "eye for an eye" God of the fear-stricken theologian.

One purpose only, actuates the earnest disciple, like a glorious star
lighting the path of the mariner on life's troublous sea. That goal is the
attainment of that beatific state in which is revealed to the soul and the
mind, the real and the unreal; the eternal substance of truth, and the
shifting kaleidoscope of _maya_.

Nor can there be any purpose in the pursuit of either religion or
philosophy other than this attainment; nor does the unceasing practice of
rites and ceremonies; of contemplation; renunciation; prayers; fasting;
penance; devotion; service; adoration; absteminousness; or isolation,
insure the attainment of this state of bliss. There is no bartering; no
assurance of reward for good conduct. It is not as though one would say,
"Ah, my child, if thou wouldst purchase liberation thou shalt follow
this recipe."

No golden promises of speedy entrance into Paradise may be given the
disciple. Nor any exact rules, or laws of equation by virtue of which the
goal shall be reached. Nor yet may any specific time be correctly estimated
in which to serve a novitiate, before final initiation.

Many indeed, attain a high degree of spirituality, and yet not have found
the key of perfect liberation, although the goal may be not far off.

Many, very many, on earth to-day, are living so close to the borderland of
the new birth that they catch fleeting glimpses of the longed-for freedom,
but the full import of its meaning does not dawn. There is yet another
veil, however thin, between them and the Light.

The Buddha spent seven years in an intense longing and desire to attain
that liberation which brought him consciousness of godhood--deliverance
from the sense of sin and sorrow that had oppressed him; immunity from the
necessity for reincarnation.

Jesus became a _Christ_ only after passing through the agonies of
Gethsemane. A Christ is one who has found liberation; who has been born
again in his individual consciousness into the inner areas of consciousness
which are of the _atman_, and this attainment establishes his identity with
The Absolute.

All oriental religions and philosophies teach that this state of
consciousness, is possible to all men; therefore all men are gods in
embryo.

But no philosophy or religion may promise the devotee the realization of
this grace, nor yet can they deny its possible attainment to any.

Strangely enough, if we estimate men by externalities, we discover that
there is no measure by which the supra-conscious man may be measured. The
obscure and unlearned have been known to possess this wonderful power which
dissolves the seeming, and leaves only the contemplation of the Real.

So also, men of great learning have experienced this rebirth; but it would
seem that much cultivation of the intellectual qualities, unless
accompanied by an humble and reverent spirit, frequently acts as a barrier
to the realization of supra-consciousness.

In "Texts of Taoism," Kwang-Tse, one of the Illuminati, writes:

"He whose mind is thus grandly fixed, emits a heavenly light. In him who
emits this heavenly light, men see the true man (i.e., the _atman_; the
Self). When a man has cultivated himself to this point, thenceforth he
remains constant in himself. When he is thus constant in himself, what is
merely the human element will leave him, but Heaven will help him. Those
whom Heaven helps, we call the sons of Heaven. Those who would, by
learning, attain to this, seek for what they _can not learn_."

Thus it will be seen, that according to the reports offered us by this wise
man, that which men call learning guarantees no power regarding that area
of consciousness which brings Illumination--liberation from enchantment, of
the senses--_mukti_.

Again, in the case of Jacob Boehme, the German mystic, although he left
tomes of manuscript, it is asserted authoritatively, that he "possessed no
learning" as that word is understood to mean accumulated knowledge.

In "The Spiritual Maxims" of Brother Lawrence, the Carmelite monk, we find
this:

"You must realize that you reach God through the heart, and not through the
mind."

"Stupidity is closer to deliverance than intellect which innovates," is a
phrase ascribed to a Mohammedan saint, and do not modern theologians report
with enthusiasm, the unlettered condition of Jesus?

In the Orient, the would-be initiate shuts out the voice of the world, that
he may know the heart of the world. Many, very many, are the years of
isolation and preparation which such an earnest one accepts in order that
he may attain to that state of supra-consciousness in which "nothing is
hidden that shall not be revealed" to his clarified vision.

In the inner temples throughout Japan, for example, there are persons who
have not only attained this state of consciousness, but who have also
retained it, to such a degree and to such an extent, that no event of
cosmic import may occur in any part of the world, without these illumined
ones instantly becoming aware of its happening, and indeed, this knowledge
is possessed by them _before_ the event has taken place in the external
world, since their consciousness is not limited to time, space, or place
(relative terms only), but is cosmic, or universal.

This power is not comparable with what Occidental Psychism knows as
"clairvoyance," or "spirit communication."

The state of consciousness is wholly unlike anything which modern
spiritualism reports in its phenomena. Far from being in any degree a
suspension of consciousness as is what is known as mediumship, this power
partakes of the quality of omniscience. It harmonizes with and blends into
all the various degrees and qualities of consciousness in the cosmos, and
becomes "at-one" with the universal heart-throb.

A Zen student priest was once discovered lying face downward on the grass
of the hill outside the temple; his limbs were rigid, and not a pulse
throbbed in his tense and immovable form. He was allowed to remain
undisturbed as long as he wished. When at length he stood up, his face wore
an expression of terrible anguish. It seemed to have grown old. His _guru_
stood beside him and gently asked: "What did you, my son?"

"O, my Master," cried out the youth, "I have heard and felt all the burdens
of the world. I know how the mother feels when she looks upon her starving
babe. I have heard the cry of the hunted things in the woods; I have felt
the horror of fear; I have borne the lashes and the stripes of the convict;
I have entered the heart of the outcast and the shame-stricken; I have been
old and unloved and I have sought refuge in self-destruction; I have lived
a thousand lives of sorrow and strife and of fear, and O, my Master, I
would that I could efface this anguish from the heart of the world."

The _guru_ looked in wonder upon the young priest and he said, "It is well,
my son. Soon thou shalt know that the burden is lifted."

Great compassion, the attribute of the Lord Buddha, was the key which
opened to this young student priest, the door of _mukti_, and although his
compassion was not less, after he had entered into that blissful
realization, yet so filled did he become with a sense of bliss and
inexpressible realization of eternal love, that all consciousness of sorrow
was soon wiped out.

This condition of effacement of all identity, as it were, with sorrow, sin,
and death, seems inseparable from the attainment of liberation, and has
been testified to by all who have recorded their emotions in reaching this
state of consciousness. In other respects, the acquisition of this
supra-consciousness varies greatly with the initiate.

In all instances, there is also an overwhelming conviction of the
transitory character of the external world, and the emptiness of all
man-bestowed honors and riches.

A story is told of the Mohammedan saint Fudail Ibn Tyad, which well
illustrates this. The Caliph Harun-al-Rashid, learning of the extreme
simplicity and asceticism of his life exclaimed, "O, Saint, how great is
thy self-abnegation."

To which the saint made answer: "Thine is greater." "Thou dost but jest,"
said the Caliph in wonderment. "Nay, not so, great Caliph," replied the
saint. "I do but make abnegation of this world which is transitory, and
thou makest abnegation of the next which will last forever."

However, the phrase, "self-abnegation," predicates the concept of
sacrifice; the giving up of something much to be desired, while, as a
matter of truth, there arises in the consciousness of the Illumined One, a
natural contempt for the "baubles" of externality; therefore there is no
sacrifice. Nothing is given up. On the contrary, the gain is infinitely
great.

Manikyavasayar, one of the great Tamil saints of Southern India, addressed
a gathering of disciples thus:

"Why go about sucking from each flower, the droplet of honey, when the
heavy mass of pure and sweet honey is available?" By which he questioned
why they sought with such eagerness the paltry pleasures of this world,
when the state of cosmic consciousness might be attained.

The thought of India, is however, one of ceaseless repudiation of all that
is external, and the Hindu conception of _mukti_, or cosmic consciousness,
differs in many respects from that reported by the Illumined in other
countries, even while all reports have many emotions in common.

Again we find that reports of the cosmic influx, differ with the century in
which the Illumined one lived. This may be accounted for in the fact that
an experience so essentially spiritual can not be accurately expressed in
terms of sense consciousness.

Far different from the Hindu idea, for example, is the report of a woman
who lived in Japan in the early part of the nineteenth century. This woman
was very poor and obscure, making her frugal living by braiding mats. So
intense was her consciousness of unity with all that is, that on seeing a
flower growing by the wayside, she would "enter into its spirit," as she
said, with an ecstacy of enjoyment, that would cause her to become
momentarily entranced.

She was known to the country people around her as _Sho-Nin_, meaning
literally "above man in consciousness."

It is said that the wild animals of the wood, were wont to come to her
door, and she talked to them, as though they were humans. An injured hare
came limping to her door in the early morning hours and "spoke" to her.

Upon which, she arose and dressed, and opened the door of her dwelling with
words of greeting, as she would use to a neighbor.

She washed the soil from the injured foot, and "loved" it back to
wholeness, so that when the hare departed there was no trace of injury.

She declared that she spoke to and was answered by, the birds and the
flowers, and the animals, just as she was by persons.

Indeed, among the high priests of the Jains, and the Zens (sects which may
be classed as highly developed Occultists), entering into animal
consciousness, is a power possessed by all initiates.

Passing along a highway near a Zen temple, the driver of a cart was stopped
by a priest, who gently said: "My good man, with some of the money you have
in your purse please buy your faithful horse a bucket of oats. He tells me
he has been so long fed on rice straw that he is despondent."

To the Occidental mind this will doubtless appear to be the result of keen
observation, the priest being able to see from the appearance of the animal
that he was fed on straw. They will believe, perhaps, that the priest
expressed his observations in the manner described to more fully impress
the driver, but this conclusion will be erroneous. The priest, possessing
the enlarged or all-inclusive consciousness which in the west is termed
"cosmic," actually did speak to the horse.

Nor is this fact one which the western mind should be unable to follow.
Science proves the fact of consciousness existing in the atoms composing
even what has been termed _inanimate_ objects. How much more comprehensible
to our understanding is the consciousness of an animate organism, even
though this organism be not more complex than the horse.

There is a Buddhist monastery built high on the cliff overlooking the Japan
Inland sea, which is called a "life-saving" monastery.

The priests who preside over this temple, possess the power of extending
their consciousness over many miles of sea, and on a vibration attuned to a
pitch above the sound of wind and wave, so that they can hear a call of
distress from fishermen who need their help.

This fact being admitted, might be accounted for by the uninitiated, as a
wonderfully "trained ear," which by cultivation and long practice detects
sounds at a seemingly miraculous distance.

But the priests know how many are in a wrecked boat, and can describe them,
and "converse" with them, although the fishermen are not aware that they
have "talked" to the priest.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the latest incarnation of God in India, and
the master to whom the late Swami Vivekananda gives such high praise and
devotion, lived almost wholly in that exalted state of consciousness which
would appear to be more essentially _spiritual_, than _cosmic_ in the
strict sense of the latter word, since _cosmic_ should certainly imply
all-inclusiveness, rather than wholly _spiritual_ (spiritual being here
used as an extremely high vibration of the cosmos).

We learn that Sri Ramakrishna was a man comparatively unlettered, and yet
his insight was so marvelous, his consciousness so exalted that the most
learned pundits honored and respected him as one who had attained unto the
goal of all effort--liberation, _mukti_, while to many persons throughout
India to-day, and indeed throughout the whole world, he is looked upon as
an incarnation of Krishna.

It is related of Sri Ramakrishna that his yearning for Truth (his mother,
he called it), was so great that he finally became unfit to conduct
services in the temple, and retired to a little wood near by. Here he
seemed to be lost in concentration upon the one thought, to such an extent
that had it not been for devoted attendants, who actually put food into his
mouth, the sage would have starved to death. He had so completely lost all
thought of himself and his surroundings that he could not tell when the day
dawned or when the night fell. So terrible was his yearning for the voice
of Truth that when day after day passed and the light he longed for had not
come to him he would weep in agony.

Nor could any words or argument dissuade him from his purpose.

He once said to Swami Vivekananda:

"My son, suppose there is a bag of gold in yonder room, and a robber is in
the next room. Do you think that robber can sleep? He cannot. His mind will
be always thinking how he can enter that room and obtain possession of
that gold. Do you think, then, that a man firmly persuaded that there is a
reality behind all these appearances, that there is a God, that there is
One who never dies, One who is Infinite Bliss, a bliss compared with which
these pleasures of the senses are simply playthings,--can rest contented
without struggling to attain it? No, he will become mad with longing."

At length, after almost twelve years unceasing effort, and undivided
purpose Sri Ramakrishna was rewarded with what has been described as "a
torrent of spiritual light, deluging his mind and giving him peace."

This wonderful insight he displayed in all the after years of his earthly
mission, and he not only attained glimpses of the cosmic conscious state,
but he also retained the Illumination, and the power to impart to a great
degree, the realization of that state of being which he himself possessed.

Like the Lord Buddha, this Indian sage also describes his experience as
accompanied by "unbounded light." Speaking of this strange and overpowering
sense of being immersed in light, Sri Ramakrishna described it thus: "The
living light to which the earnest devotee is drawn doth not burn. It is
like the light coming from a gem, shining yet soft, cool and soothing. It
burneth not. It giveth peace and joy."

This effect of great light, is an almost invariable accompaniment of
supra-consciousness, although there are instances of undoubted cosmic
consciousness in which the realization has been a more gradual growth,
rather than a sudden influx, in which the phenomenon of _light_ is not
greatly marked.

Mohammed is said to have swooned with the "intolerable splendor" of the
flood of white light which broke upon him, after many days of constant
prayer and meditation, in the solitude of the cavern outside the gates of
Mecca.

Similar is the description of the attainment of cosmic consciousness, given
by the Persian mystics, although it is evident that the Sufis regarded the
result as reunion with "the other half" of the soul in exile.

The burden of their cry is love, and "union with the beloved" is the
longed-for goal of all earthly strife and experience.

Whether this reunion be considered from the standpoint of finding the other
half of the perfect one, as exemplified in the present-day search for the
soul mate, or whether it be considered in the light of a spiritual merging
into the One Eternal Absolute is the question of questions.

Certainly the terms used to express this state of spiritual ecstacy are
words which might readily be applied to lovers united in marriage.

One thing is certain, the Sufis did not personify the Deity, except
symbolically, and the "beloved one" is impartially referred to as masculine
or feminine, even as modern thought has come to realize God as
Father-Mother.

In all mystical writings, we find the conclusion that there is no _one way_
in which the seeker may find reunion with The Beloved.

"The ways of God are as the number of the souls of men," declare the
followers of Islam, and "for the love that thou wouldst find demands the
sacrifice of self to the end that the heart may be filled with the passion
to stand within the Holy of Holies, in which alone the mysteries of the
True Beloved can be revealed unto thee," is also a Sufi sentiment, although
it might also be Christian or Mohammedan, or Vedantan.

Indeed, if the student of Esotericism, searches deeply enough, he will find
a surprising unity of sentiment, and even of expression, in all the variety
of religions and philosophies, including Christianity.

It has been said that the chief difference between the message of Jesus
and those of the holy men of other races, and times, lies in the fact that
Jesus, more than his predecessors, emphasized the importance of love. But
consider the following lines from Jami, the Persian mystic:

  "Gaze, till gazing out of gazing
  Grew to BEING HER I gazed on,
  She and I no more, but in one
  Undivided Being blended.
  All that is not One must ever
  Suffer with the wound of absence;
  And whoever in Love's city
  Enters, finds but room for one
  And but in Oneness, union."

These lines express that religious ecstacy which results from spiritual
aspiration, or they express the union of the individual soul with its mate
according to the viewpoint. In any event, they are an excellent description
of the realization of that much-to-be-desired consciousness which is
fittingly described in Occidental phraseology as "cosmic consciousness."
Whether this realization is the result of union with the soul's "other
half," or whether it is an impersonal reunion with the Causeless Cause, The
Absolute, from which we are earth wanderers, is not the direct purpose of
this volume to answer, although the question will be answered, and that
soon.

From whence and by whom we are not prepared to say, but the "signs and
portents" which precede the solution of this problem have already made
their appearance.

Christian students of the Persian mystics, take exception to statements
like the above, and regard them as "erotic," rather than spiritual.

Mahmud Shabistari employs the following symbolism, but unquestionably seeks
to express the same emotion:

  "Go, sweep out the chamber of your heart,
  Make it ready to be the dwelling-place of the Beloved.
  When you depart out, he will enter in,
  In you, void of your_self_, will he display his beauty."

The "Song of Solomon" is in a similar key, and whether the wise king
referred to that state of _samadhi_ which accompanies certain experiences
of cosmic consciousness, or whether he was reciting love-lyrics, must be a
moot question.

The personal note in the famous "song" has been accounted for by many
commentators, on the grounds that Solomon had only partial glimpses of the
supra-conscious state, and that, in other words, he frequently "backslid"
from divine contemplation, and allowed his yearning for the state of
liberation, to express itself in love of woman.

An attribute of the possession of cosmic consciousness is wisdom, and this
Solomon is said to have possessed far beyond his contemporaries, and to a
degree incompatible with his years. It is said that he built and
consecrated a "temple for the Lord," and that, as a result of his extreme
piety and devotion to God, he was vouchsafed a vision of God.

As these reports have come to us through many stages of church history and
as Solomon lived many centuries before the birth of Jesus, it seems hardly
fitting to ascribe the raptures of Solomon as typifying the love of the
Church (the bride) for Christ (the bridegroom).

Rather, it is easier to believe, the wisdom of the king argues a degree of
consciousness far beyond that of the self-conscious man, and he rose to the
quality of spiritual realization, expressing itself in a love and longing
for that soul communion which may be construed as quite personal, referring
to a personal, though doubtless non-corporeal union with his spiritual
complement.

Although the pronoun "he" is used, signifying that Solomon's longing was
what theology terms "spiritual" and consequently impersonal, meaning God
The Absolute, yet we suggest that the use of the masculine pronoun may be
due entirely to the translators and commentators (of whom there have been
many), and that, in their zeal to reconcile the song with the
ecclesiastical ideas of spirituality, the gender of the pronoun has been
changed. We submit that the idea is more than possible, and indeed in view
of the avowed predilections of the ancient king and sage, it is highly
probable.

He sings:

  "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth
  For his love is better than wine."

Again he cries:

"Behold thou art fair my love, behold thou art fair, thou _hast dove's
eyes_."

The realization of _mukti_, i.e., the power of the _atman_ to transcend the
physical, is thus expressed by Solomon, clearly indicating that he had
found liberation:

"My beloved spoke and said unto me, 'Rise up my love my fair one, and come
away. For lo, the winter is passed, the rain is over and gone.

"'The flowers appear upon the earth; the time of singing of birds has come,
and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land.

"'The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vine with the tender
grapes gives a goodly smell. Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.'"

It is assumed that these lines do not refer to a personal hegira, but
rather to the act of withdrawing the Self from the things of the outer
life, and fixing it in contemplation upon the larger life, the
supra-conscious life, but there is no reason to doubt that they may refer
to a longing to commune with the beautiful and tender things of nature.

Another point to be noted is that in the spring and early summer it is with
difficulty that the mind can be made to remain fixed upon the petty details
of everyday business life. The awakening of the earth from the long cold
sleep of winter is typical of the awakening of the mind from its hypnotisms
of external consciousness.

Instinctively, there arises a realization of the divinity of creative
activity, and the mind soars up to the higher vibrations and awakes to the
real purpose of life, more or less fully, according to individual
development.

This has given rise to the assumption, predicated by some writers on cosmic
consciousness, that this state of consciousness is attained in the early
summer months, and the instances cited would seem to corroborate this
assumption.

But, as a poet has sung, "it is always summer in the soul," so there is no
specific time, nor age, in which individual cosmic consciousness may be
attained.

A point which we suggest, and which is verified by the apparent connection
between the spring months, and the full realization of cosmic
consciousness, is the point that this phenomenon comes through
contemplation and desire for love. Whether this love be expressed as the
awakening of creative life, as in nature's springtime, or whether it be
expressed as love of the lover for his bride; the dove for his mate; the
mother for her child, or as the religious devotee for the Lord, the key
that unlocks the door to illumination of body, soul and spirit, is Love,
"the maker, the monarch and savior of all," but whether this love in its
fullness of perfection may be found in that perfect spiritual mating, which
we see exemplified in the tender, but ardent mating of the dove (the symbol
of Purity and Peace), or whether it means spiritual union with the Absolute
is not conclusive.

The mystery of Seraphita, Balzac's wonderful creation, is an evidence that
Balzac had glimpses of that perfect union, which gives rise to the
experience called cosmic consciousness.

It is well to remember that in every instance of cosmic consciousness, the
person experiencing this state, finds it practically impossible to fully
describe the state, or its exact significance.

Therefore, when these efforts have been made, we must expect to find the
description colored very materially by the habit of _thought_, of the
person having the experience.

Balzac was essentially religious, but he was also extremely suggestible,
and, until very recently, Theology and Religion were supposed to be
synonymous, or at least to walk hand in hand. Balzac's early training and
his environment, as well as the thought of the times in which he lived,
were calculated to inspire in him the fallacious belief that God would have
us renounce the love of our fellow beings, for love of Him.

Balzac makes "Louis Lambert" renounce his great passion for Pauline, and
seems to suggest that this renunciation led to the subsequent realization
of cosmic consciousness, which he unquestionably experienced.

Nor is it possible to say that it did not, since renunciation of the lower
must inevitably lead to the higher, and we give up the lesser only that we
may enjoy the greater.

In "Seraphita" Balzac expressed what may be termed spiritual love and that
spiritual union with the Beloved, which the Sufis believed to be the result
of a perfect and complete "mating," between the sexes, on the spiritual
plane, regardless of physical proximity or recognition, but which is also
elsewhere described as the soul's glimpse of its union with the Absolute or
God.

The former view is individual, while the latter is impersonal, and may, or
may not, involve absorption of individual consciousness.

In subsequent chapters we shall again refer to Balzac's Illumination as
expressed in his writings, and will now take up the question of man's
relation to the universe, as it appears in the light of cosmic
consciousness, or liberation.




CHAPTER II

MAN'S RELATION TO GOD AND TO HIS FELLOW-MEN


The riddle of the Sphinx is no riddle at all. The strange figure, the lower
part animal; the upper part human; and the sprouting wings epitomize the
growth and development of man from the animal, or physical (carnal),
consciousness to the soul consciousness, represented by woman's head and
breast, to the supra-conscious, winged god.

No higher conception of life has ever emanated from any source, than the
concept of man developed to a state of perfection represented by wings (a
symbol of freedom). These winged humans are sometimes called angels and
sometimes gods, although the words may not be synonymous.

The point is, that no theory of life and its purposes seems more general or
more unescapable than that of man's growth from sin (limitations) to
god-hood--freedom.

Whether this consummation is brought about through an unbroken chain of
upward tendencies from the lowest forms of life to the highest; or whether
it is symbolized by the old theologic idea of man's fall from godhood to
sin, the fact remains that we know no other ideal than that represented by
perfected man; and we know no lower idea than that of man still in the
animal stage of consciousness.

Artists, painters, sculptors, wishing to depict the beauty of spiritual
things, must still use the human idea for a model--refined, spiritualized,
supra-human, but still man.

It is a truism that man epitomizes the universe. Therefore, the law of
growth, which science names evolution, may be studied and applied with
equal precision and accuracy to the individual; to a body of individuals
called a nation; and to worlds, or planets.

The evolution of an individual is accomplished when he has learned through
the various avenues of experience, the fact of his own godhood; and when he
has established his union with that indescribable spiritual essence which
is called Om; God; Nirvana; Samadhi; Brahm; Kami; Allah; and the Absolute.

A Japanese term is _Dai Zikaku_. The Zen sect of Japanese Buddhists say
_Daigo Tettei_, and one who has attained to this superior phase of
consciousness is called Sho-Nin, meaning literally "above man."

Emerson, the great American seer, expressed this Nameless One, as The
Oversoul, and Herbert Spencer, the intellectual giant of England, used the
term Universal Energy.

Emerson was a seer; Spencer was a scientist, which word, until recently,
was a synonym for materialist.

But what are words?

Mere symbols of consciousness, and subject to change and evolvement, as
man's consciousness evolves. The student of truth will recognize in these
different words, exactly the same meaning. The "eternal energy from which
all things proceed" is a phrase identical with "The Oversoul," or "The
Absolute," from which all manifestation comes.

Man's evolution, then, is an evolution in consciousness, from the
subjective _awareness_ of the monad to a realization of the entire cosmos.

Each phase of life is a specific degree of consciousness and each
successive degree brings the individual nearer to the realization of the
_sum_ of all degrees of consciousness, into godhood--the highest degree
which we can conceive.

Such, briefly, is a statement of that phenomenon which is attracting the
attention of occidental students of psychology, and which has been
fittingly termed "the attainment of cosmic consciousness."

The phrase expresses a degree of consciousness which includes the entire
cosmos--not only this planet called earth, and everything thereon, but also
the spheres of the Constellation.

Not that this degree of consciousness carries with it the power to express
in words, that which it is. In fact, the one who has had this marvelous
awakening, cannot adequately describe, or even _retain_, a full
comprehension of what it signifies.

All-inclusive knowledge would indeed, preclude the possibility of
expression. Therefore, even if it were possible to retain in the finite
mind, the full realization of cosmic consciousness, words could not be
found in which to express it to others.

Thought is the creator of words, but thought is but the material which the
mind employs, and cosmic consciousness transcends the mind, engulfs the
soul, and reaches to the trackless areas of Spirit.

It may be doubted if any one may retain a full realization of cosmic
consciousness, and remain in the physical body.

Great and wonderful as have been the experiences of those who have sought
to relate their sensations, it is probable that these flashes of insight
have been in the nature of cosmic _perception_, and have lacked full
realization.

Of those who have had glimpses of that larger area of consciousness which
includes an awareness of eternal unity with the cosmos, there are, we
believe, many more than students of the subject have any idea of.

This century marks a distinct epoch in what is called evolution.

The end of a _kalpa_, or cycle of manifestation, is symbolized by the
presence on a planet of many avatars, masters, and angels.

By their very presence these enlightened ones arouse in all who are ready
for the experience a glimpse of that state of being to which all souls are
destined, and to which all shall ultimately attain.

A time when "gods shall walk the earth" is a prophecy which all nations
have heard and looked forward to.

That time is now. We see the effect of their presence in Peace Conferences;
in abolition of child labor; in prison reform; in the amalgamation of the
races; in attempts at social equality; in National Eugenic Societies, and
above all, as we have before stated, in the Emancipation of Woman. In fact,
it is seen in all the various ways in which the higher consciousness finds
expression.

One of the characteristic signs of this awakening, the Millenium Dawn, as
it has been named, lies in a very general optimism shining through the
mists of doubt and unrest and inexpressible desire, which accompany the
new birth in consciousness.

Amid the seeming chaos of present day conditions is it not easy to discern
the coming of that dawn of which all great ones of earth have foretold--a
time when "the earth shall be made a fit habitation for the gods"?

"The heavens" is a term employed to specify the Constellation which is
composed of planets and stars, but we use the term "Heaven" also to mean a
state of happiness and bliss attainable through certain methods, a
consideration of which we will take up later.

The immediate point is that this planet is being prepared for a position in
the solar system consistent with that which is the abode of the
gods--Heaven.

This proposition is made in its literal meaning. Corroborative of this
statement, which is consistent with all prophecies, is the information
recently given to the world, by Camille Flammarion, and other great
astronomers, that "the earth is changing its position in the heavens at an
astonishing rate." The idea that "there shall be no night there," is
foreshadowed by the estimate that this change will give to the earth a
perpetual and uniform light, and heat.

The New Thought preachment of physical immortality is but a faint and
imperfect perception of this time, when "there shall be no death," because
the animal man, subject to change, shall give place to the changeless,
deathless, spiritual man; not through cataclysms, and destruction, but
through the natural birth into a higher consciousness.

The Occidental mind is easily affrighted by a name. Perhaps we should not
specify the Occidental mind, but rather the mind of man among all races is
easily put to sleep by the hypnotism of a word.

The word Pantheism is a bugaboo to the Occidentalist. He fears the
destruction of the Monistic faith, if he admits that man is in essence a
god, and that therefore there are many gods in the one God, even as there
are many members to the one physical organism.

Nevertheless all literature, whether sacred or profane, teaches the
attainment of godhood by Man. This can not mean other than the attainment
of _realization_ of godhood, by the individual and the _retention_ of this
realization to the end that reincarnation shall cease and identity with the
cosmic, principle, be established, beyond further loss, or doubt, or
strife, or death.

This is what it means to attain to cosmic consciousness. It is inclusive
consciousness. It is not absorption into the vast unknown, in the sense of
annihilation of identity. It is consciousness _plus_, not minus.

An ancient writing says:

"And thou shalt awake as from a long dream. Thou shalt be like the perfume
arising from the flower in which it has been so long enclosed. And thou
wilt float above the opened flower. And thou wilt say 'There is time before
me in eternity.'"

There is nothing in the testimony of those who have described, as best they
could, their emotions upon attainment of this consciousness, which would
argue the absorption of the individual soul into The Absolute.

There is no testimony to argue that the attainment of cosmic consciousness,
carries with it anything approaching annihilation of _sentiency_.

Rather it would seem to testify to an acceleration of all the higher
faculties.

That this would be a more apt interpretation may be seen by comparing the
different reports of those experiencing the phenomenon of Illumination.

Nevertheless there has been much controversy regarding the meaning of the
terms nirvana; samadhi; dai zikaku, etc.--words expressing the condition
which we are considering under the phrase cosmic consciousness.


WHAT IS NIRVANA?

Let us consider briefly, what is meant by Nirvana, and see if it is not
highly probable that the word describes the state of consciousness which
we are considering, referring later on to the question, and its
interpretation by the various schools of religion and philosophy.

It is apparent that the most learned sages of the Orient fail to agree as
to the exact meaning of Nirvana. Occidental writers and leaders of the
Theosophical philosophy, differ somewhat as to its import, but at the same
time we find enough unity on this point to make it evident that the state
of Nirvana is a desirable attainment--the goal of the religious enthusiast.

Going back for a moment, to a consideration of the earliest recorded
religion of Japan, we find that Sintoism means literally "the way of the
gods," meaning the way in which men who have become god-like, found the
path that led thereunto, but as to exactly what conditions are represented
by godhood, how indeed, is it possible for man to _know_, much less to
express?

Since we are conscious of a divine and irresistible urge toward the
attainment of this state of being, it is hardly consistent with what we
know of merely _human_ nature, that the way lies in the direction of loss
of identity, or in other words, in what is popularly comprehended as
_absorption_. That this idea prevails in many Oriental sects of Buddhism
and Vedanta we are aware, but we are confident that this idea is erroneous,
and comes from the fact that it is impossible to describe the condition of
consciousness enjoyed by the initiate into Nirvana, which term we believe,
is identical, or at least comparable with cosmic consciousness.

The very fact that external life represents so universal a struggle for
attainment of this state of being, or higher consciousness, indicates at
least, even if it does not actually _guarantee_ a fuller, deeper, more
complete state of consciousness than hitherto enjoyed, rather than an
absorption or annihilation of any of that dearly bought consciousness which
distinguishes the self from its environment, and which says with conviction
"I am."

It is admitted that those who have experienced liberation, illumination,
_mukti_, have reported their sensations with such relative vagueness and
with such apparent variance of conclusion as regards the _meaning_ of the
experience that the reader is left to his own interpretation of the
character of that state of being, other than a general uniformity of
description.

Referring to the pleasure which the lower nature feels under certain
conditions, the late Swami Vivekananda says:

"The whole idea of this nature is to make the soul know that it is entirely
separate from nature and when the soul knows this, nature has no more
attraction for it. But the whole of nature vanishes only for that man who
has become free. There will always remain an infinite number of others for
whom nature will go on working."

But did Vivekananda employ the phrase "nature has no more attraction for
him," to describe the sensation of unappreciativeness of the wonders of the
natural world? We think not. Rather the gentle-hearted sage meant to report
the fact that the soul is no longer _held in bondage_ to the external
world, when it has once attained supra-consciousness.

If this expression referred to the pleasure the true lover of nature feels
in the out-of-doors, he might well say "I trust that I shall never attain
to that state of consciousness. Or if attainment be compulsory, then shall
I prolong the time of accomplishment as long as possible."

And who would blame him? Why should we strive for the attainment of a state
of being described so unattractively as to give us the impression of entire
_loss_ of so enjoyable and unselfish a sensation as love of nature?

The Vedantic idea, according to interpreted translations is that out of The
Absolute, the All (Om), we _come_, and therefore back to it we go, being
now in our present state of consciousness, en route, as it were to return.

But returning to _what_? That is the unanswerable problem of all religions;
all philosophies; all science. If we _return_ to a void, such as some
interpreters of the Vedas declare, then surely this urge within mankind
toward this annihilatory state would hardly be expected. It would be
inconsistent with that instinct of self-preservation which we are told is
the first law of nature.

Compared to this Vedantic concept of the Absolute, the Christian's simple,
and very empirical ideal of eternal happiness is preferable.

To walk streets paved with gold and play a harp incessantly while chanting
doleful praises to a Deity who ought to become wearied of the never-ceasing
adulation, would still be a more desirable goal of our strife, than that so
inaccurately and unattractively described by many students of Oriental
religions and philosophies as the state _nirvana_, or _samadhi_.

Again quoting from Vivekananda's Raja Yoga:

"There are not wanting persons who think that this manifest state (our
present existence) is the highest state of man. Thinkers of great caliber
are of the opinion that we are manifested specimens of undifferentiated
Being, and this differentiated state is _higher than the Absolute_."

Although as Vivekananda says there are thinkers who make this claim, the
idea does not find ready acceptance among theologians, either Eastern, or
Western. Neither do philosophers, as a general thing incline to adopt this
view. The reason for this general disinclination is not difficult of
discovery. It is due to the present state of man on this planet.

If man, as we see and know mankind, is the highest state of Being (not
merely of manifestation, but of Being) "then," they say, "we have nothing
to hope for."

But have we not? May we not hope that man will _manifest_, on this planet a
fuller realization, of that which he _is_ in _Being_, and that, far from
dissolving what consciousness he has, he will but _plus_ this consciousness
by a larger--an all-embracing consciousness that shall make earth a fit
habitation for god-like men?

In Vivekananda's Raja Yoga we find the following:

"There was an old solution that man, after death, remained the same; that
all his good sides, minus his evil sides, remained forever. Logically
stated, this means that man's goal is the world; this world meaning earth
carried to a state higher and with elimination of its evils is the state
they call heaven. This theory, on the face of it, is absurd and puerile
because it cannot be. There cannot be good without evil, or evil without
good. To live in a world where there is all good and no evil, is what
Sanskrit logicians call a 'dream in the air.'"

It is not necessary to argue here that there is no such thing as positive
evil.

St. Paul said: "I know and am persuaded that nothing is unclean of itself;
save that to him who accounteth anything to be unclean, to him it is
unclean."

And again we are assured that "there is nothing good or bad, but thinking
makes it so;" which means that evil has no more foundation in reality than
has thought, and thought is ever-changing; transitory. Evil therefore may
be entirely eliminated by thought, since it is created by thought.

That there is a condition of mankind which has been alluded to as "evil" is
self-evident. The term has been employed to describe a condition of either
an individual, or a society, or a nation or a race, wherein there is in
harmony; disease; unhappiness. Anything that makes for suffering on any
plane of consciousness, may be termed "evil" as here used.

Let us consider for a moment if it be illogical to imagine a world in which
this in harmony has been eliminated. Imagine a family in which all the
members radiate love and unselfish consideration. Add to this, or we may
say complementary to this, we have perfect health and prosperity; and over
and above all we have a conviction of immortality, eliminating doubt and
fear and worry as to future sorrows or partings, with no knowledge that
there are others in the world suffering.

Do we not find it quite possible, to say the least, and even desirable, to
live in such a family, particularly if we had previously acquired a
knowledge of that which is evil and that which is good--merely terms used
to describe limited, or enlarged consciousness.

If we admit the desirability of living in such a family, why not in such a
world? "Logically stated," says the Hindu swami, "this means that man's
goal is this world (earth planet); carried to a state higher and with the
elimination of its evils, this world is the state (place) they call
heaven."

Again we must question. Why not?

This planet we call earth, is a great and marvelous work, whether it be the
work of an abstract God, or whether it be the work of the god in Man.

And whether this earth be the gift of an abstract God, or whether it be
the generating bed of the life now upon it, the fact remains that we have
no business to despise the gift, or the work of self-generation. Our
business is to enhance its beauties and eliminate its ugliness. Why have we
prayed that the will of God which is Love, "be done on earth as it is in
the heavens," if we despise the planet and hope to leave it?

Although the general impression given in all religious systems is that
the perfected soul leaves this earth, yet there is nothing in any of them
to prove that it does so, or if it has hitherto, that it shall continue so
to do. We have no right to assume that the outer life--the external,
manifested life which we perceive with our physical senses, is all there is
to this earth and that when we leave this outer life, we go to some other
_place_. The _invisible_ life on this planet is unquestionably far greater
than the _visible_ but both visible and invisible doubtless belong to the
planet earth.

The Absolute, presumably occupies all space, and therefore it may as
reasonably be postulated that this state of Nirvana or Samadhi, may be
entered within the area of this planet's vibrations, as in that of the
other planets. The finite mind cannot conceive of a state of being apart
from motion, space or time, even though these concepts are crude in their
relation to the state of consciousness to which the sum of all
consciousness is tending, whether the individual would, or not.

We speak of "the heavens" when we refer to the immeasurable, and little
known region of the solar system, and we use the same term when we refer to
a state of being in which the perfected soul of man will finally enter. And
this term implies that when we are thus in heaven, we are _with_ God, if
not _absorbed into_ God.

Jesus, the master, taught the coming of the kingdom of God _on earth_ and
urged mankind to _pray_ for its coming, asking that the will of God
(or gods) be done on earth as it is in the heavens, from which it is not
illogical to infer that the earth itself, as a planet, is not outside the
pale of that blissful state which we ascribe to God, and which, at the same
time, we expect to enter without being swallowed up in the sense that we
lose that consciousness which cognizes itself as an eternal verity.

If then, the "heavens" as applied to the planets revolving above the earth
in the solar system, and "Heaven" as a term used to describe a state of
happiness, bliss, samadhi, nirvana, or "life with God," be synonymous it
may reasonably be inferred that in the solar system are planets upon which
live sentient beings, in a state to which we on earth, are seeking to
attain; a state wherein so-called evil has been eliminated and the good
retained.

In fact, we may see with none too prophetic eyes the elimination of evil
right here in the visible. All who have attained a glimpse of Illumination
have reported the loss of the "sense of sin and death," and have retained
this feeling of security and "all-is-well-ness" as long as they have lived
thereafter.

From the old conception of "evil" as a positive, opposing and independent
force, modern thought, in all its branches, namely science; religion;
social evolution, and philosophy, has arrived at the conclusion that evil
is not a power or force in and of itself, but that it is evidence of a
limited degree of consciousness which sees only one side of a subject--only
a limited area of an infinitely wide and varied manifestation of the one
supreme consciousness. Therefore, it is, that evil per se, does not exist
as power, but that it is the effect of a misapplication of power.

The cure then, for this state of Relativity, is found logically enough, in
an extension of individual consciousness.

That this idea is logical may be deduced from the fact that as the mind
expands, through the various channels of learning; observation; contact
with each other, and by the many roads of Experience, altruism becomes more
general. Almost every one readily admits that the world is "growing
better," as they express it.

This means that the individual consciousness is becoming broadened,
deepened, enlarged; and this enlargement makes it possible to show that
the happiness of each one, means the happiness of all, and that no one
human life can reach the goal of freedom and eternal life (_mukti_, which
can mean nothing less than godhood) unless he does so by some one of the
many paths of selflessness.

Up through the perilous paths and the devious ways of brute consciousness
toward a more or less perfect perception of that blissful state which the
Illumined have sought to describe, each individual has come to his present
state; and it is only by virtue of the ability to look back over the path,
and to look onward a little into relative futurity, that each may record
the fact of his gain in consciousness, and what this gain means to the
future of this earth.

But who is there who cannot see that each step in attainment of
consciousness brings with it a corresponding freedom from suffering?

The planet itself does not make us suffer. The latest discoveries of
astronomers indicate that as the standard of morality (using the term
"morality" in its true sense), becomes higher, the position of the earth
itself becomes changed, in its relation to the solar system.

In this way, it is expected that a uniform temperature will prevail all
over the earth's surface; and with the cessation of war, and of
competition (which is mental warfare) cataclysms, storms, and earthquakes
will cease. When we come, as we will, in succeeding chapters of this book,
to a review of the experiences of those who have attained cosmic
consciousness (mukti) we will find that, in each instance, there has come
a realization of the _nothingness_ of sin and consequent suffering.

The trouble then, is not with the earth as a planet, but with the lack of
consciousness of earth's inhabitants, which lack makes possible all the
suffering which afflicts human life.

Those who have attained to the state of cosmic consciousness in both
Occidental and Oriental instances of this perception, have reported an
abiding sense of rest and peace and satisfaction--a condition which we
associate with accepted ideals of heaven as taught in Occidental creeds
and among some schools of Oriental philosophers, and sects of religious
worship.

There is a far greater unity of idea between the Oriental and the
Occidental methods and systems, as to the _goal_ of ultimate attainment
than is generally believed, or understood.

The highest expression of Japanese Buddhism differs from Hindu Buddhism and
from Vedanta, and the many other forms of Hindu philosophy and religion, in
the same way that the Japanese, as a nation, differ from their Hindu
brothers.

The Japanese emphasize, more than do the Hindus, the preservation of the
nation, and to this end, they are called more "practical" minded, but with
the Japanese, as with all the Orientals, we find an intense contempt for
any one who would seek to preserve his physical existence, or hesitate at
any personal sacrifice.

This unwritten code has its origin, as have all Oriental traditions and
concepts, in the teachings of religious systems. According to Oriental
ethics, the person is very low in the scale of consciousness, when he
considers his physical body as of comparative consequence, when the
question of expediency, or of the welfare of his country, is in the
balance.

Nevertheless, Japan has offered, far more than has India, a fertile field
for the growth of materialism, owing to the fact that underlying the
apparent observance of and loyalty to, religious practices, the Japanese
temperament inclines to a practical application of the wisdom attained
through religious instruction.

Therefore we find among the Illumined Ones of Japanese history, sages who
taught the attainment of liberation through paths which are not generally
accepted by interpreters of Hinduism.

For example, among the orthodox Sintoists, (the original religion of the
Japanese, before the advent of Buddhism), we find that cleanliness of mind
and body, was taught as the prime essential to attainment of unity with
_Kami_, rather than contemplation, meditation and isolation, as with the
Hindus.

And in the Christian world we have a corresponding admonition in the phrase
"cleanliness is next to godliness."

Simple as this rule of conduct is, it nevertheless embodies the key to the
situation, inasmuch as we are assured that "blessed are the pure in heart
for they shall see God."

Again Jesus told his hearers that they "must become as little children,"
evidently meaning that they must possess the clean, pure, guileless mind
of a little child, if they would reach the goal of liberation, from strife;
death (repeated incarnation); and all so-called "evil."

To this end man is striving, whether by rites and ceremonies of religion;
by worship; by contemplation; by effort and struggle; by invention; by
aspiration; by sacrifice; or by whatever path, or device, or system.

What, then is the goal, and how may it be attained?

Before taking up this question, let us go back a little over the history of
human life and attainment, and trace, briefly, the evolution of
consciousness, from pre-historic man, to the highest examples of human
devotion and wisdom, of which, happily, the world affords not a few
instances.




CHAPTER III

AREAS OF CONSCIOUSNESS


Consciousness may be termed, simply, "the divine spark," which enters into
every form and phase of manifested life emanating from that one Eternal
Power which materialists designate as "energy" and which Occultists, both
Oriental and Occidental, best define as "Aum," God! The Absolute--The
Divine Mind, and many other terms.

Consciousness, therefore, enters into everything--is the life essence of
everything.

The materialistic hypothesis formerly predicated the axiom that there were
two distinct phases of manifestation, namely organic and inorganic.

Organic life was sentient, or conscious, while inorganic life was
insensate--a structure acted upon from forces outside itself, and dependent
upon an exterior force for its action.

Other names for this differentiation, would be "matter" and "spirit." The
point is, that the old materialistic philosophy failed to recognize the
fact that consciousness, in varying degrees, characterizes all manifested
life.

This fact every phase of Oriental philosophy recognized, and always has
recognized. The assumption of the Christian Science devotee, that there is
anything new in the postulate that "all is spirit," is possible only
because of his ignorance of Oriental philosophy, as will be seen later on
in these pages, when we take up the relative comparison between the
Oriental and the Occidental systems of "salvation."

To resume therefore, we postulate the following recognized axioms of
Universal Occultism.

All life is sentient or conscious.

All life is from the one source, and therefore contains this "divine
spark."

All manifestation expresses degrees or phases of consciousness.

The degree of this consciousness fixes the status of the organism, and
determines its classification, whether it is organic or inorganic; simple,
or complex.

Every cell, each separate cell, in fact, has its own consciousness--that is
each cell is a center of this power that we term consciousness; a group of
cells with this power focalized to a given point, or center, makes an organ
of consciousness, and so on up the scale through many many degrees of
complexity of organism, until we come to man.

Webster defines consciousness as "the ability to know ones mental
operations." But, we do not take this definition in Occultism, for the
obvious reason, that it is not possible to state arbitrarily whether or
not, the cell "knows its operations," and since all operations are
necessarily mental in the final analysis, we assume that there is a phase
of consciousness below that of cognition of "self," which may be termed
"the unconscious consciousness," which again is synonymous with the phrase
"automatic cerebration."

Coming up through the various myriad degrees of sub-conscious life (sub
being here used as below self consciousness) we arrive at the stage of
simple consciousness which characterizes the animal kingdom, remembering
that consciousness in the abstract is not a _condition_, or state of
environment. It is one of the eternal verities. It _is_ just as Aum _is_.

The attainment of a wider and wider area of consciousness, is but the
_uncovering_, or the attracting to a central point or to an individual
organism of _this that is_. Thus consciousness, in the abstract, may say
of itself "before creation was, I am."

That is what is meant when it is said that God is omnipotent, and
omniscient.

The difference between mere power, or energy, and consciousness, whether
considered from the standpoint of the organic or the inorganic kingdom, may
be likened to the difference between a blind force, and a power that knows
itself.

Consciousness is practically the great central light that "lighteth every
man that cometh into the world." Without consciousness, manifestation would
be darkness. Thus it is said, "the light shineth in darkness and the
darkness comprehendeth it not." This applies to that tiny spark of divinity
in which consciousness exists but where there is not realization of its
divinity.

This fact is not applicable to the inorganic, or the animal kingdoms alone.
Many men are not conscious of the light that shineth within them, save as
there is an aggregate of cell consciousness which recognizes its focalized
power as an organism.

Manifestation then, is the vehicle (carrying character) of universal
consciousness, and we may logically assume that manifestation is due to
the necessity of developing individualized entities, who may, through
successive phases of conscious unfoldment, or uncovering of areas of
Being, become gods.

The western writers, and indeed, many Oriental seers prefer to put it thus:
"become fit to dwell with God, in eternal bliss and power."

To dwell with God, must be to become gods. Once more, we must remember that
only gods are immortal. Souls continue to exist after the physical body has
been discarded, for the reason that no body in these days, lives as long as
its psychic counterpart or dweller. But, although the soul continues to
exist on another plane of note of the _scale of vibration_, it does not
argue that the identity shall continue eternally, except in such instances,
as when the soul through numbers of incarnations shall have finally
accomplished the purpose of its pilgrimage and attained to _mukti_
(liberation from the law of change and death).

Returning to a consideration of what may be said to constitute certain
specific phases of consciousness, we will take into consideration the
phase of consciousness, which we see expressed in the mineral kingdom.
That there is a distinct and separate character of consciousness thus
expressed is evident from the fact that there is a law of chemical
affinity, i.e. attraction and repulsion, which causes different minerals
to respond, or to refuse to respond, as the case may be, to certain
conditions or chemical processes, more or less crude in character.

From this to the vegetable kingdom we assume a step in advance, as
vegetable life measured by complexity and refinement, responds with a
greater degree of sensitiveness to the laws of evolution, as expressed in
cultivation, selection and environment.

Even in this phase of manifestation, we find the law of Being, is measured
by the perfection of species. Evolution of inorganic life, is as real, and
as much a part of the plan, (or whatever name we choose), as is organic,
and self-conscious life.

That which is less perfect, measured by the law of beauty and usefulness,
we find gradually being exterminated. That the earth, as a planet, is
obeying this cosmic law of evolution from grossness to refinement; from
crudity to perfection; from the limited to the all-inclusive, is
indisputable. As the motor power of electricity has become general, we find
that beasts of burden are fast disappearing from the earth, according to
the law of the "survival of the fittest," this law, always being subject to
change. The "fittest" means that which is best fitted to the conditions of
the time.

Brute force survives among brutes, in the degree that it is strong or weak;
coming out of that expression of law into the mental areas of
consciousness, we find that the _mentally_ fit survive among those who live
only in the areas of the mind; so on, into the spiritual, we will find the
"survival of the fittest" will be those who are best fitted for spiritual
eternity--for godhood.

Coming again, to our consideration of the term consciousness, we will take
a brief survey of that phase of consciousness which we see manifested in
the forms of life that have the power to move from their immediate
environment; such for instance would include the fish in the sea; insect
life; reptiles; the birds in the air; and all forms of animal life.

While expressing a very limited degree of consciousness, yet there is
evident a certain degree or aggregate of cell consciousness, which
transcends that of the mineral and vegetable life. This apparently
_advanced_ degree of consciousness, does not, as we have stated, presuppose
a nearer approach to immortality, however, for the reason that we apply
the law of the survival of the fittest to all manifestation, and that
which is best fitted for certain stages of the planet's life during the
process of evolvement, may be most unfitted for succeeding stages, and
will, by the inexorable law of survival, be discontinued--discarded, even
as the properties and stage-settings of a drama are thrown aside, when the
play has been "taken off the boards."

It is admitted, therefore, that those forms of life having the power of
locomotion, involve a more complex degree of consciousness, than does that
of the mineral or vegetable.

In that phase of life that we see possessing the power to move, to change
its immediate environment, even though not capable of changing its
_habitat_ we may perceive the beginning of that consciousness expressed as
"free-will." Here, we assume, the organism recognizes its self as distinct
from its environment, and from its counterparts, etc., but this recognition
has not sufficient consciousness to _assert_ that recognition, and so we
say that there is no _self_-consciousness. There is what occultists have
agreed to call simple consciousness, but this does not include a
realization of identity, as apart from environment. This may be better
understood if we separate these degrees or phases of consciousness into
groups, applicable to the human organism, leaving, for a time the
consideration of whether or not some human specimens are higher in the
scales than are some animals.

Physical, or sense consciousness, is shared alike by man and the animals.

Beyond this phase of consciousness we may classify the human species in the
following terms:

Physical self-consciousness.

Mental self-consciousness.

Soul (individual) "I" consciousness.

Spiritual self-consciousness.

Physical self-consciousness is that phase of self-recognition which knows
itself as a body distinct from its neighbors; from its natural environment.
This awareness of the self it is that actuated pre-historic man when he
manifested the blind force that is sometimes called "self-preservation,"
which force has erroneously been termed "the first law of nature."

Preservation of this physical self is the most "primitive" law of nature,
but not "first" in the sense that it is the most important, or the
strongest.

The world's long list of heroes refutes this idea. The pre-historic species
of human, then, in common with his brother, the animal, sought to preserve
this physical self, because he felt that this physical self, his body, was
all there was of him, and he wished to preserve it, even as the _wise_ man
of to-day, sacrifices everything to the preservation of the moral and
spiritual Self which he realizes is the _real_ of him.

To this end, he cultivated physical force, sufficient to overcome his
environment; and as he developed a little of that consciousness which we
term mental (using the term merely as a part of the physical organism
called the brain), he realized that co-operation would greatly enhance his
chances for self-preservation, and therefore, this mental consciousness
impelled him to annex to his forces other physical organisms so that their
united strength might preserve each other.

This side of the story of man's evolution in consciousness is not however a
part of our present work, and we will therefore leave it, for a brief
consideration of the successive steps in attainment of consciousness,
leading through devious paths, and through millions of relative time called
years, into the present state of man's consciousness which in so many
instances presages the oncoming of that state, called liberation, or
illumination--mukti.

Through mental self-consciousness the way has been long and arduous. There
are many, many degrees of this phase of consciousness, and to this phase we
owe what is called our present civilization.

The true occultist, whether viewing manifestation from the standpoint of
Oriental or of Occidental ideals, realizes that everything is right which
makes for human betterment, and that _dharma_ (right-action) consists in
acting in accordance with the highest motive of which one's consciousness
is capable.

That our present civilization is most _uncivilized_ in many respects, will
be admitted by all whose range of consciousness has touched in any degree,
the infinite areas of wisdom expressed in altruistic action.

But, though the path be long, and thorny, the cycle is closing, and many
have reached the goal through its zigzag course.

But, underlying, as it were, and upholding and uplifting the expression of
sense consciousness in which so many persons seem lost to-day, there are
evidences of a consciousness which _observes the effects_, of this
tremendous mental activity, and knows itself as something apart from, and
superior to this manifestation.

This, we define as soul--individualized expression of the spiritual
consciousness--the central light, which as we previously quoted, "lighteth
every man that cometh into the world."

Many there are who merely _perceive_ this. To them there is a vague and
indefinable _something_ which seems to realize that the operations of the
mind are something phenomenal and apart from the _real_ Self. Psychology,
even so empirical a psychology as is possible of demonstration in western
schools and colleges, evidences the fact that there is a far greater field
of mental operation than is covered by the outer, or _mental_
consciousness.

The outer, or objective action of the mind, considers but one subject, one
question, one problem at a time. Many varied _phases_ of this problem may
present themselves, but the mental forces are focalized upon one subject at
a time. And yet to state that but one idea, thought-concept, or desire, can
enter the mind at a time, is not a safe assumption.

After many centuries of material strife, with the object of satisfying the
demands of human life, the conviction is forcing itself upon people in all
walks of life, that wealth, ambition, power and possessions, do not give us
the answer to the eternal unescapable and insistent question of the way to
happiness.

This means that there is awakening in the human race more generally than at
any other time in recorded history, a realization that the human organism
is not merely a physical aggregate of cells, nor yet that it is mind
individualized and in operation for the purpose of exercising new powers.
The fact is becoming apparent that all discovery is but an uncovering of
those vast areas of consciousness which are limitless; and which include
not only all life on this planet, but all life in the Cosmos. In short,
cosmic consciousness is becoming _perceived_, by a vast majority, and is
being _realized_ by not a few.

But in the immediate future of the race, we find the next step, for the
majority to be that of soul-consciousness.

Back of thought, like a guardian angel stands the desire of the soul,
stimulating and directing; back of action stands thought, as the master
directs the servant, or as the captain decides the course of the ship.

Spiritual evolution may be understood, or at least _perceived_, from a
study of physical and mental evolution. From the crude to the perfect is
the law; if this perfection of species, or of phases, could be attained
without pain, it were well. Pain comes from lack of wisdom to realize that
out of the lower the higher inevitably springs, as the butterfly springs
from the cocoon; as the flower springs from the seed; "as above so below"
is a translation of an old Sinto saying, which also bids us "trust in Kami
and keep clean."

Again it is said "to him who overcometh, will I give the inheritance."
_Overcoming_ may be variously interpreted. In the past, it has been
presented to the initiate, as sacrifice. If so it be, then is it because of
lack of that wisdom which knows that there is no sacrifice in exchanging
the physical for the spiritual--the ephemeral for the abiding.

Says the ancient manuscripts:

"The body is purified by water, the mind by truth, the soul by knowledge
and austerity, the reason by wisdom."

But as the groping, undeveloped soul struggles for consciousness, it
reaches out for the gratification of mental desires. The soul is moved by
desire for perfect happiness. The mind seeks to satisfy this craving for
happiness in increased activities; in accumulation; in so-called pleasure,
i.e. always looking outside--thinking outside, living in the outside--the
_maya_. But the soul has but one answer to this quest for happiness. It is
love, because only love and wisdom give immortality--which is
self-preservation in the true sense.

It is written in the Shruti: "Brahman is wisdom and bliss."

No higher text can be given the disciple.

Wisdom comes from reflection upon the results of Experience, in the search
for happiness.

When the mind has sounded the depths of its resources, and the urge forward
can not be appeased, when the voice of the inner self--the soul, cannot be
silenced; the disciple pauses to ask _the way_. He wants to know what it is
all about, and why it is that all he has so striven and struggled for fails
to satisfy. He wants to know how to avoid pain; and how to find the most
direct road to that satisfaction which endures; and which is not synonymous
with the so-called "pleasures" of the senses.

When this stage of development has been reached, the disciple is ready for
another phase of Experience which shall extend his consciousness into
those areas of knowledge, in which the Real is distinguishable from the
Illusory.

Experience will then teach him that only Love is real.

That which is for the permanent good of all, as opposed to that which is
transitory and only seemingly satisfying to the few, may be said to
constitute the perception of the Real, and the avoidance of Illusion.

To exchange a present seeming advantage to the physical environment, for a
future and permanent satisfaction of the soul is the prerogative of the
wise--the soul that has discovered itself and its mission.

In all organisms below the scale of the human, there is a constant growth
in complexity of organism, with specialization of functions.

When we come to this last-mentioned stage of human development, we find
that there is no more specialization in the way of development of the
physical functions. Instead, there is a determined effort at perfecting
the higher functions, through the gradations of consciousness, until the
spiritual consciousness of the individual entity has been awakened.

Then, indeed, has been awakened the "divine man" and the path to
immortality is henceforth comparatively short, although by no means strewn
with roses, judged from the limited standard of Relativity.

A man's karma simply and mathematically, proves the direction of his former
desires. Karma does not punish or reward, as is frequently imagined.

The general impression that one is reaping "good or bad karma" according as
his life is one of pleasure or of pain, is not the solution of the problem
of karma, and has no relation to the law of karmic action.

If a soul has in a previous life outgrown or outworn that evolutionary
phase of development, in which the mind seeks temporary pleasures, and has
come to the place where he wants to distinguish the Real from the Illusory,
his karma, in compliance with the law of desire, will bring him in relation
to those conditions which will teach him to know the Real from the
Illusory, and in those conditions he will experience pain because he will,
if he remain in the activities of the world, be acting contrary to the
ideas of the _average_.

Thus, to the onlooker, and in accordance with the general misinterpretation
of the law of karma, he will be thought to have reaped a "bad" karma, while
as a matter of reality, he will be making very rapid strides on the path to
godhood. Said a famous Japanese high priest:

"Desire is the bird that carries the soul to the object in which his mind
is immersed, and thus his future actions are the result."

This means that by the law of desire, acting in accordance with the
evolutionary pilgrimage of the soul, the karma is produced. The American
poet, Lowell, says: "No man is born into the world whose work is not born
with him." However, whether or not this applies to man in the first stages
of his upward climb to the goal of attainment of conscious godhood, it most
assuredly applies to those souls who have become aware of their purpose,
and who have made a _conscious_ choice of their karma. And of this class of
souls, the world to-day has a goodly number.

The end of a kalpa finds many avatars, and angels on earth, and however
obscured the mind of these may become in the fog of Illusion, the inner
light guides them through its mists to the safe accomplishment of their
mission.

There is a story of a Buddhist priest, who when dying, was comforted by his
loving disciples with the reminder that he was at last entering upon a
state of bliss and rest. To which the earnest one replied:

"Never so long as there is misery to be assuaged, shall I enter Nirvana. I
shall be reborn where the need is greatest. I shall wish to be reborn in
the nethermost depths of hell, because that is the place that most needs
enlightenment; that is the place to point out the path to deliverance; that
is the place where the light will shine most brightly."

Thus it will be seen we may not readily determine what is "good" and what
is "bad" karma, by judging from external conditions.

As we are told that we may entertain "angels unawares," so we may pass the
world's avatars upon the street, and judging from the external, the
physical environment, we may not know them from the vampire souls that
contact them.

The point of our present consideration is that this "year of grace,"
meaning not the mere twelve months of the calendar year, but the century,
is the end of the present _kalpa_ (cycle), and demonstrates that period of
evolution has terminated, and the era is at hand when spiritual alchemy
shall transform the old into the new, and that the desire, which has so
long ministered to the wants of the physical body, shall be turned
(converted) into the channels that lead to spiritual consciousness.

The undefined, instinctive urge that has actuated so many intrepid souls,
is becoming recognized for what it is--the awakening of the inner Self; the
blind groping in the dark will cease and there shall arise a race of human
beings liberated; free; aware of their spiritual origin and their inherent
divinity.

All who have conformed their life activities to the divine law of action,
which may be tersely stated as "Not mine, but thine, dear brother," will
have achieved the goal of the soul's purpose--will have found Nirvana.




CHAPTER IV

SELF-NESS AND SELFLESSNESS


During what is historically known as the Dark Ages, the esoteric meaning of
religious practices became obscured. This is true no less, and no more, of
Oriental countries, than of European. The long night through which the
earth passed during that time and since, but foreshadowed a coming dawn. In
the still very imperfect light of the dawning day, truth is seen but dimly,
and its rays appear distorted, whereas, when seen with the "pure and
spotless eye" they are straight and clear and simple.

Indeed, the very simplicity of Truth causes her to pass unnoticed.

While to the superficial observer; the student who is mentally eager but
who lacks the wonderful penetrating power of spiritual insight, there seems
to be a great complexity in Oriental philosophy, the fact is, that the
entire aggregation of systems is simple enough when we have the key.

One of the stumbling blocks; the inexplicable enigma to many Occidental
students, is the problem of the preservation, of the Self, and the constant
admonition to become selfless. The two appear paradoxical.

How may the Self acquire consciousness and yet become selfless?

Throughout the Oriental teachings, no matter which of the many systems we
study, we find the oft-repeated declaration that liberation can never be
accomplished and Nirvana reached, by him "who holds to the idea of self."

It is this universally recognized aphorism which has given rise to the
erroneous conception of Nirvana as absorption of all identity.

Hakuin Daisi, the St. Paul of Japanese Buddhism, cautioned his disciples
that they must "absorb the self into the whole, the cosmos, if they would
never die," and Jesus assured his hearers that "he who loses his life for
my sake shall find it."

Christians have taken this simple statement to mean that he who endured
persecution and death because of his espousal of Christianity, would be
rewarded in the way that a king bestows lands and titles, for defense of
his person and throne.

This is the limited viewpoint of the personal self; it is far from being
consistent with the wisdom of the Illumined Master.

He who has sufficient spiritual consciousness to desire the welfare of
_all_, even though his own life and his own possessions were the price
therefore, can not lose his life. Such a one is fit for immortality and
his godhood is claimed by the very act of renunciation--not as a reward
bestowed for such renunciation.

By the very act of willingness to lose the self we find the Self. Not the
self of externality. Not the self that says "I am a white man; or a black
man; or a yellow man; or a red man." That says "I am John Smith"--or any
other name. The awareness of this kind of selfhood, this personal self, is
like looking at one's reflection in the mirror and saying, "Ah, I have on a
becoming attire," or "my face looks sickly to-day." It is the same "I" that
looked yesterday and found the face looking excellently well, so that there
must have been consciousness behind the observation, that could take
cognizance of the difference in appearance of yesterday's reflection and
that which met that cognizing eye to-day.

Eagerness to retain consciousness of the personal self blocks the way of
Illumination which uncovers the real, the greater, the higher Self--the
_atman_.

This constant adjuration to sink the self into The Absolute, is what has
given rise to so much difference of interpretation as to the meaning of
_mukti_, liberation. It sounds paradoxical to state that it is only by
giving up all consciousness of self, that immortal Self-hood is gained.

Thus has arisen all the confusion as to the meaning of "absorption into a
state of bliss." How may the Self realize a state of selflessness and yet
not be lost in a sea of _un_ consciousness?

Only one who is capable of self-sacrifice were he called upon, can
correctly answer this question, and by what may be termed the very _law of
equation_, the sacrifice becomes impossible.

Should any one seek to bargain with himself to pay the price of loss of
self, so that he might gain the higher, fuller life, his sacrifice would be
in vain because it would not be selflessness, but selfishness--there could
be no _sacrifice_, were it a bargain.

Let no one think that this unchanging law of the Cosmos is in the nature of
either reward or punishment, or that it was devised by the gods, as a
method of initiation--a test of fitness for Nirvana. Even though the test
be applied by the gods, it is not of their planning.

It _is_, just as the absolute _is_, and analysis of the way and wherefrom
is not possible of contemplation.

If it sometimes appears that Illumined Ones have seemed to infer a loss of
identity of the Self, it should be remembered that not only have these
reported instances of liberation (cosmic consciousness attained), been
vague, but they have necessarily suffered from the impossibility of
describing that which is indescribable. We should also remember that
translators employ the words in the English language which most nearly
express their interpretation of the original meaning.

Words are at best but clumsy symbols.

Perfect bliss is voiceless--inexpressible.

This does not, however, mean that perfect bliss is nothingness. Rather is
it _everything-ness_, in that it is all-embracing in its realization. In
complete realization of the Cosmos nothing is excluded. Exclusiveness is a
concomitant of the state of consciousness pertinent to the personal self,
which state is not excluded from the consciousness described as cosmic,
_nirvana_ or _mukti_, but on the contrary, is included in it, even as the
simple vibrations of the musical scale are included in the great harmonies
of Wagner's compositions.

"He who has realized Brahman becomes silent," says Ramakrishna.
"Discussions and argumentations exist so long as the realization of The
Absolute does not come. If you melt butter in a pan over a fire, how long
does it make a noise? So long as there is water in it. When the water is
evaporated it ceases to make further noise. The soul of the seeker after
Brahman may be compared to fresh butter. Discussions and argumentations of
a seeker are like the noise caused during the process of purification by
the fire of knowledge. As the water of egotism and worldliness is
evaporated and the soul becomes purer, all noise of debates and discussions
ceases and absolute silence reigns in the state of _samadhi_."

A better translation of the word "noise" would be "sputtering."

Sound is not necessarily _noise_. The idea conveyed is not intended to be a
condition in which the soul becomes anæsthetized as it were, but a state of
_knowing_, and the effort and the sputtering of _questioning_ and
_searching_ is passed.

The same gospel better expresses the meaning thus:

"The bee buzzes so long as it is outside the lotus, and does not settle
down in its heart to drink of the honey. As soon as it tastes of the honey
all buzzing is at an end. Similarly all noise of discussion ceases when the
soul of the neophyte begins to drink the nectar of Divine Love, at the
lotus feet of the Blissful One."

Who will not say that the bee is more satisfied when he has found and drank
of the honey than when he is buzzingly seeking it?

Surely it is not necessary to be of one mind, in order that we may be of
one heart. Even though we were as "like as two peas in a pod," it is well
to note that the two peas are _two_ spheres--nature has made them separate
and distinct despite their close resemblance.

To unite with the absolute should correspond to this unity of all hearts in
the desire for a common effort to establish harmony, while we permit to
each individual the freedom of mind; of taste; of choice of pursuits; of
choice of pleasure; of discrimination; and preservation of identity.

Our contention is that _mukti_, or liberation (which we believe to be
identical with attainment of cosmic consciousness) does not mean an
absorption into the Universal, the Absolute, Brahm, to the extent of
annihilation of identity. And we claim that this view finds corroboration
in the best interpretation of Oriental philosophies and religions, as well
as in the Christian doctrine.

Says Nagasena, the Buddhist sage:

"He who is not free from passion experiences both the taste of food, and
also the passion due to that taste; while he who is free from passion
experiences the taste of food but no passion."

Hence we discover that the state of Illumination, _samadhi_, or _mukti_,
according to the most enlightened and logical interpretation, means a calm
and peaceful consciousness, undisturbed by passion. But we should not
interpret the word "passion" as here used, to mean absence of all
sensation, feeling or knowledge.

There is absolutely no arbitrary interpretation or translation of the words
of Buddha, nor can there be. The same is true of Confucius; of Mohammed; of
Krishna; of Laotze; of Jesus; of all the teachers and philosophers of the
world.

Who of you who read these words has not listened to debates and endless
discussions as to what even so modern a writer as Emerson or Whitman, or
Nietzche or Kobo Daisi, or some other, may have meant by certain
statements?

In the Samyutta Nikaya we read:

"Let a man who holds the Self clear, keep that Self free from wickedness."

This does not imply annihilation of identity, _absorption_ of
consciousness, although it has been so interpreted by many students. On the
contrary, instead of losing consciousness of the Self (which is not merely
the personality), we _find_ the Real Self.

As an adult we realize more consciousness than we do as infants. Not that
we possess more consciousness. We cannot acquire consciousness as we
accumulate _things_. We can not add one iota to the sum of consciousness,
but we can and do uncover portion upon portion of the vast area of
consciousness which _is_.

Says the Dhammapada:

"As kinsmen, friends and lovers salute a man who has been long away and
returns safe from afar; in like manner his good deeds receive him who has
done good, and who has gone from this world to the other, as kinsmen
receive a friend on his return."

If this state of _mukti_ were annihilation of individual consciousness it
would hardly be an incentive to do good deeds, except that good deeds in
themselves bring happiness, but if the bringing of happiness did not also
bring with it a larger consciousness, it would not be true happiness, but
merely a _condition_, and conditions are always subject to change.

"It is not separateness you should hope and long for; it is _union_--the
sense of oneness with all that is, that has ever been and that can ever
be--the sense that shall _enlarge the horizon of your being_, to the limits
of the universe; to the boundaries of time and space; that shall lift you
up into a new plane far beyond, outside all mean and miserable care for
self. Why stand shrinking there? Give up the fool's paradise of 'This is
I'; 'This is mine.' It is the great reality you are asked to grasp. Leap
forward without fear. You shall find yourself in the ambrosial waters of
Nirvana and sport with the Arhats who have conquered birth and death."

This admonition to give up the struggle and strife for separateness is
interpreted by many to declare for annihilation of consciousness of
identity, but we contend that _union_ is in no wise akin to annihilation,
and since this assurance of union is further described as an enlargement of
the horizon of _your being_, it is evident that your being can not be
enlarged by becoming annihilated, or even _absorbed into_ The Absolute, as
in that event it would cease to be _your being_. Moreover, you are told
that you will "sport with the Arhats who have conquered birth and death."
Arhats are alluded to in the plural, and not as One Being.

To be sure there may be a final state of absorption of consciousness far
beyond this state of being which is described as Nirvana.

Theosophy lays much stress upon the assumption that the attainment of
godhood is possible to every human soul, but that this godhood must
inevitably have an ultimate conclusion. That is, there is a _place_ or
heaven, which is called the Devachanic plane, and this plane, or place,
is inhabited by "gods," for a definite period, approximating thousands of
years, but that the final conclusion must be, absorption of identity into
the universal reservoir of mind, or consciousness. But we may readily see
that beyond the Devachanic plane, we may not penetrate with the limited
consciousness which takes cognizance of external conditions. Any attempt,
therefore, at a description of what occurs to the individual consciousness
beyond the areas of Devachan, must be futile.

The argument that most logically postulates the assumption that all
identity, or differentiation of consciousness, becomes absorbed into The
Absolute, is based upon the fact that we remember nothing of previous
states of consciousness. That is, the devious pathway by which the
advanced and progressive individual has reached his present state or
realization of consciousness, is shrouded in oblivion. From this it is
not unnatural to assume that since we have come OUT OF THE VOID, having
apparently no memory or realization of what preceded this coming, we will
return to the same state, when we shall have completed the round of
evolution.

This postulate, is, however, merely the result of our limited power of
comprehension, and may or may not be true. The answer is as yet
inexplicable to the finite mind, considered from the standpoint of relative
proof.

If it were a fact, that all Oriental sages experiencing the phenomenon of
liberation, _mukti_, had reported what would seem to be annihilation of
identity of consciousness, we still maintain that this fact would not be
proof sufficient upon which to postulate this conclusion, for the very
obvious reason that the present era promises what Occidental theology,
science, and philosophy unite in designating as a "new dispensation,"
wherein the "old shall pass away," and a "new order" shall be established.

"Look how the fine and valuable gold-dust shifts through the screen,
leaving only the useless stones and debris in the catches; even so that
which is infinitely fine substance becomes lost when sifted through the
screen of the limited mind of man," said a wise Japanese high priest.

However, it is our contention that Buddhism, far indeed from postulating
the assumption that individual consciousness is swallowed up in The
Absolute, as is frequently understood by Occidental translators of
Buddhistic writings, announces a calm and unquestioning conviction in the
power of man to attain to immortality, and consequent godhood, through
contemplation of faith in his own identity with the _Supreme One_.

When we consider that there are in the religion of Buddhism, as many as
sixty different expositions of the teachings of the Lord Buddha, and that
these vary, even as the Christian sects vary in their interpretations and
presentments of the instructions of the Master, Jesus of Nazareth, we begin
to have some idea of the difficulties of correct interpretation of the
obscure and mystical language in which _mukti_ is ever described.

One of the most quoted of the translations of the Life of Buddha, reaches
the English readers through devious ways, namely, from the Sanskrit into
Chinese, and from the Chinese into English, and again edited by an English
scientist who is also an Oriental scholar.

We must also consider the poverty of the English language when used to
describe supra-conscious experiences, or what modern thought terms
Metaphysics. Only within very recent times, approximating twenty-five
years, there have been coined innumerable words in the English language.

The advances made in mechanical, scientific, ethical and philosophical
thought, have made this a necessity, while, when it comes to an attempt at
clarifying the meaning of mystical terms, a very wide range of
interpretation is imperative.

Buddha, addressing his servant, says:

"Kandaka, take this gem and going back to where my father is, lay it
reverently before him, to signify my heart's relation to him."

It is related that the gem mentioned was a beryl, which in the language of
gems signifies purity and peace. It must be remembered that all Oriental
languages give power to gems, perfumes and talismanic symbols. This fact
makes direct translation of Oriental writings a difficult task for the
Occidental scholar, who, until recently at least, gave no power to
so-called "inanimate" things.

"And then for me request the king to stifle every fickle feeling of
affection, and say that I, to escape from birth and age and death, have
entered the forest of painful discipline.

"Not that I may get a heavenly birth, much less because I have no
tenderness of heart, or that I cherish any cause of bitterness, but Only
that I may escape this weight of sorrow; the accumulated long-night weight
of covetous desire. I now desire to ease the load, so that it may be
overthrown forever; therefore I seek the way of ultimate escape.

"If I should gain the way of emancipation, then shall I never need to put
away my kindred, to leave my home, to sever ties of love. O grieve not for
your son. The five desires of sense beget the sorrow; those held by lust
themselves induce sorrow; my very ancestors, victorious kings, have handed
down to me their kingly wealth; I, thinking only on eternal bliss, put it
all away."

The meaning here conveyed is simple enough to understand. From a long line
of ancestors who had ruled with the unquestioned authority of Oriental
monarchs, the young prince felt that he had inherited much that would
retard his soul's freedom. The examples of kings and emperors who have
abandoned their possessions have been too few to cause us to believe that
they have held these possessions as naught.

Through rivers of blood; through ages of despotism, and self-seeking, kings
and emperors have maintained their vested rights bequeathing to their
progeny the same desires; the same covetousness of worldly power; the same
consideration for the lesser self; the same hypnotism that takes account of
caste.

To escape from these fetters of the soul, into a realization of the Eternal
Oneness of life, was no easy task for the inheritor of such desires and
beliefs and appetites as an ancestry of rulers imposes.

And Prince Siddhartha was anxious to escape reincarnation--a theory or
conviction inseparable from Oriental religion.

His reference to "fickle affection" means literally that selfish affection
of the parent, which would retain the fleeting joy of a few short earthly
years of companionship, while the larger and more perfect love would bid
the child seek its birthright of godhood. The word "fickle" here would more
properly be translated transitory.

Buddha's desire to escape from a continuous round of deaths and
"leave-takings from kindred," does not necessarily imply an absorption into
The Absolute; it may as logically be interpreted to mean, that liberation
from the hypnotisms of externality _(mukti)_ insures the possession and
power of the gods--power over physical life and death, and this power need
not mean a cessation from individual consciousness, but rather, a full
realization of individual _unity_ with the sum of all consciousness.

There is another mistaken interpretation of the means of attainment of that
state of liberation, which has been alluded to in so many varied terms. The
fact that Buddha, like many of the Oriental Masters, sought the seclusion
of the forest; the isolation, and simplicity of the hermit,--has given rise
to the belief, almost universally held among Oriental disciples, that
liberation from _maya_, the delusions of the world, can not be attained
save by these methods.

Monasteries are the result of this idea, and this Buddhistic practice was
adopted by the first Christian church, since which time the real purpose
and intention of the monastery and the nunnery have become lost in the
concept of sacrifice or punishment. The Christian monk almost invariably
retires to a monastery, not for the purpose of consciously attaining to
that enlarged area of consciousness which insures liberation, _mukti_, but
as an "outward and visible sign" that he is willing to undergo the
sacrifice of worldly pleasures at the behest of the Lord Jesus. Thus, the
real object of retirement is lost, and the sacrifice again becomes in the
nature of a "bargain."

In the Bhagavad-Gita, we find these words:

"Renunciation and yoga by action both lead to the highest bliss; of the
two, yoga by action is verily better than renunciation of action. He who is
harmonized by yoga, the self-purified, self-ruled, the senses subdued,
whose self is the self of all beings, although _acting_, yet is such an one
not _affected_.

"He who acteth, placing all action in the _eternal_, abandoning attachment,
is unaffected by sin as a lotus leaf by the waters."

This is interpreted according to the viewpoint of the translator, even as,
among an audience of ten thousand persons, we may find almost as many
interpretations, and shades of meaning of a musical composition.

True, the Oriental meaning _seems_ to be the one that we shall cease to
love friends, relatives, and lovers, abandoning them as one would abandon
the furniture of one's household when outworn, and no longer of service.

We do not accept this interpretation.

To abandon one's friends, one's loved ones, yea, even one's would-be
enemies is equivalent to leaving one's companions on a sinking raft and,
without sentiment or remorse, save one's physical self from destruction.

No higher sentiment is known to struggling humanity than love of each
other. "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for a
friend."

Oriental or Occidental philosophy, whichever may be presented to the mind,
as an unfailing guide, should be distrusted, if that philosophy prescribes
the abandonment of lover, friend, relative, neighbor, brother, companion.
That is, if we accept the dictionary meaning of the word "abandoned" as
translated into English.

A western avatar has said:

"I will not have what my brother can not," and in this we heartily concur,
not hesitating to say that until all human life shall accept and realize
the fullness of this message, we shall not, as a race, have attained to the
inheritance that is ours.

But shall we then believe, that the Oriental doctrine is erroneous? Not
necessarily.

Errors of interpretation are not only natural but inevitable, and this
interpretation of abandonment is in line with the idea of sacrifice (using
the word in its old sense of paying a debt), which prevailed throughout all
the centuries just passed--centuries in which the idea of God was estimated
by the conduct of the kings and monarchs of earth.

A later revelation or dispensation has given what the Illumined One said
was a "new commandment," and it is one more in accord with our ideals of
godhood.

"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye _love_ one another."

But love, like everything which _is_, means much or little, according as
the soul is advanced in knowledge, or is undeveloped.

Perfect and complete love is not selfish; it desires not possession, but
union. There is a world of difference between the two words.

"The soul enchained is man, and free from chain is God," said Sri
Ramakrishna.

And the soul is enchained by illusion--by mistaking the effect for the
cause, and by regarding the effect as the real, instead of realizing the
incompleteness; the limitedness; the unsatisfying character of the
changing--the external.

Not that the pursuit of the external is sinful, but it is unsatisfying,
while the soul that has caught a glimpse of that wonderful ecstasy of
Illumination, has found that which satisfies.

Upon this point of attainment of complete satisfaction, and certainty, all
who have experienced the consciousness we are considering seem to agree,
according to the testimony here submitted.




CHAPTER V

INSTANCES OF ILLUMINATION AND ITS EFFECTS


The term Illumination seems a fitting description of the state of
consciousness which is frequently alluded to as cosmic consciousness.
Without the light of understanding, which is a spiritual quality, words
themselves are meaningless. When the mind becomes Illumined the spirit of
the word is clear and where before the meaning was clouded, or perhaps
altogether obscured, there comes to the Illumined One a depth of
comprehension undreamed of by the merely sense-conscious person.

If we consider the recorded instances of Illumination found among
Occidentals, we will find that such extreme intensity of effort as that
which is reported of Sri Ramakrishna, and other Oriental sages, does not
appear.

It would seem that the late Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke of Toronto, Canada,
was the first in this country to present a specific classification of what
he termed the "new" consciousness, and to describe in some detail, he
experience of himself and others, notably Walt Whitman.

Dr. Bucke's first public exposition of these experiences was made at a
congress of the British Medical Association in Montreal, Canada, in
September of the year 1897. Dr. Bucke described this state of
consciousness--a subject that seemed to him at that time to be a new
one--in the following words:

"But of infinitely more importance than telepathy, and so-called
spiritualism--no matter what explanation we give of these, or what their
future is destined to be--is the final act here touched upon. This is, that
superimposed upon self-consciousness as is that faculty upon simple
consciousness, a third and higher form of consciousness is at present
making its appearance in our race. This higher form of consciousness, when
it appears, occurs as it must, at the full maturity of the individual, at
or about the age of thirty-five, but almost always between the ages of
thirty and forty. There have been occasional cases of it for the last two
thousand years, and it is becoming more and more common. In fact, in all
appearances, as far as observed, it obeys the laws to which every nascent
faculty is subject. Many more or less perfect examples of this new faculty
exist in the world to-day, and it has been my privilege to know personally
and to have had the opportunity of studying, several men and women who have
possessed it. In the course of a few more milleniums there should be born
from the present human race, a higher type of man, possessing this higher
type of consciousness. This new race, as it may well be called, would
occupy toward us, a position such as that occupied by us toward the simple
conscious 'alulus homo.' The advent of this higher, better and happier
race, would simply justify the long agony of its birth through countless
ages of our past. And it is the first article of my belief, some of the
grounds for which I have endeavored to lay before you, that a new race is
in course of evolution."

At a subsequent date, having given the subject further consideration and
having collected data corroborative of his former observations, Dr. Bucke
said:

"I have, in the last three years, collected twenty-three cases of this
so-called cosmic consciousness. In each case the onset or incoming of the
new faculty is always sudden, instantaneous. Among the unusual feelings the
mind experiences, is a sudden sense of being immersed in flame or in a
brilliant light. This occurs entirely without worrying or outward cause,
and may happen at noonday or in the middle of the night, and the person at
first feels that he is becoming insane.

"Along with these feelings comes a sense of immortality; not merely a
feeling of certainty that there is a future life,--that would be a small
matter--but a pronounced _consciousness_ that the life now being lived is
eternal, death being seen as a trivial incident which does not affect its
continuity.

"Further, there is annihilation of the sense of sin, and an intellectual
competency, not simply surpassing the old plane, but on an entirely new and
higher plane. * * * The cosmic conscious race will not be the race that
exists to-day, any more than the present is the same race that existed
prior to the evolution of self-consciousness. A new race is being born from
us, and this new race will in the near future, possess the earth."

Dr. Bucke later published an article in a current magazine, illustrating
the illumination of his friend Walt Whitman, and supplemented with an
account of his own experience. We quote briefly from Dr. Bucke's account of
his own experience:

"I had spent the evening in a great city with some friends reading and
discussing poetry and philosophy. We had occupied ourselves with
Wordsworth, Shelley, Browning, and especially Whitman. We parted at
midnight. I had a long drive in a hansom to my lodgings. My mind, deeply
under the influence of the ideas, images and emotions called up by the
reading and talk, was calm and peaceful. I was in a state of quiet, almost
passive enjoyment, not actually thinking, but letting ideas, images and
emotions flow of themselves, as it were, through my mind. All at once,
without warning of any kind, I found myself wrapped in a flame-colored
cloud. For an instant I thought of fire, an immense conflagration somewhere
close by in that great city. The next moment I knew that the fire was
within myself."

While Dr. Bucke is unquestionably right in his estimate of the fact that "a
new race is being born," as he expresses it, there can scarcely be any
question of individual age, in which the new consciousness may be expected.
Physical maturity can have nothing whatever to do with the matter, since
the acquisition of supra-consciousness is a matter of the maturity of the
soul. This completement of the cycle of the soul's pilgrimage and service,
may come at any age, as far as the physical body is concerned. Indeed,
science records no definite age at which even physical maturity is
invariably reached, although there is an approximate age.

A case recently widely commented upon was that of a child of six years who
showed every symptom of senility or old age, which could hardly be possible
without having passed what we call "maturity."

Again, we find that some persons retain every indication of youth, both of
mind and body, long after their contemporaries have reached and passed
middle age. It is coming more and more to be admitted that age is relative,
and that what we know as the relative is the effect of mental operations.
Mental operations are subject to change--to enlargement.

The advent of cosmic consciousness is, therefore, not subject to what we
know as time, as applied to physical development.

Nor should we speak of cosmic consciousness as an acquisition, but rather
as a _realization_, since the consciousness _is_, at all times. It always
has been, it will always be. Our relation to it changes, as we develop from
the sense conscious to the self-conscious state and finally to what we term
the "cosmic" conscious state. This latter must of necessity have been as
yet only imperfectly realized, even by those of the Illuminati, who are
known to the world as avatars and saviours.

Several instances of the possession of cosmic consciousness by children,
are personally known to the writer. A well-known woman writer in America
thus describes a succession of experiences in what were evidently
conditions of cosmic consciousness, although as she said, she did not
until many years later realize what had taken place.

Like Lord Alfred Tennyson, who tells of inducing in himself a state of
spiritual ecstasy or liberation, by repeatedly intoning his own name, this
lady acquired the habit of repeating in wonder and awe the name by which
she was called in the household, which was an abbreviation of her baptismal
name. The effect is best described in her own words:

"It seems to me that I never could quite become accustomed to hear myself
addressed by name. When some member of the household would call me from
study or play--even at the early age of five or six years--I would
instantly be seized with a feeling of great and almost overwhelming awe and
amazement, at the sound, which I knew was in some way associated with me.

"I found it extremely difficult to identity myself with that name, and
often when alone would repeat the name over and over, trying to find a
solution of the 'why and wherefore.'

"At length this wonderment grew upon me to such an extent that I felt I
must see this self of me that was called by a name.

"I acquired the habit of standing on a chair to gaze into the mirror above
the chest of drawers in my mother's bed-room, and putting my face close to
the mirror, I would gaze and gaze into the eyes I saw there, and repeat
over and over the name which seemed to me not to belong to that 'other
self' hidden behind those eyes. On one occasion I became quite entranced
and fell from the chair, after which I refrained from looking into the
mirror, although I did not for many years get over the feeling of
wonderment at the sound of my own name, and many times, on repeating the
name aloud, I would feel myself being lifted up into what seemed to me the
clouds above my head, until I felt myself being 'melted,' as I termed it,
into the moving cloud of soft transparent light.

"At this time I was between seven and eight years of age, and although I
was far beyond children of my age, in my school studies, I was frequently
admonished for being 'stupid,' owing to the fact that I could not remember
the names of objects, nor could I be trusted on an errand.

"While walking from our house to the grocer's, scarcely a block away, I
would feel that sudden wonderment and awe of my name steal over me, and
again I would be transported to some unknown, yet immanent region, utterly
losing consciousness of my surroundings. I would sometimes awake to find
myself standing before the counter of the grocery store, struggling to
remember who and where I was, and what it was that I had been sent to that
strange place for."

This lady relates that she never dared to tell of her strange experiences,
although she did not "outgrow" them until early womanhood, when she dropped
the abbreviation of her name, and assumed her full baptismal name. Whether
this latter fact had anything to do with the cessation of the experience is
doubtful. At the same time, she declares that she can even now induce the
same sensations, and transport herself into childhood again by repeating
her childhood name.

The following extract from a paper published in London, England, in 1890,
gives a description of an experience of a young man who had fallen into a
condition which the physicians pronounced "catalepsy." This young man was
at the time a medical student, and had always exhibited a tendency to
entrancement, or catalepsy. On recovering from one of these cataleptic
attacks, and being asked to give a description of his sensations or
experiences, the young man said:

"I felt a kind of soothing slumber stealing over me. I became aware that I
was floating in a vast ocean of light and joy. I was here, there, and
everywhere. I was everybody and everybody was I. I knew I was I, and yet I
knew that I was much more than myself. Indeed, it seemed to me that there
was no division. That all the universe was in me and I in it, and yet
nothing was lost or swallowed up. Everything was alive with a joy that
would never diminish."

Such, in substance, was the attempt of this young man to describe what all
who have experienced cosmic consciousness unite in saying is indescribable,
for the very obvious reason that there are no words in which to express
what is wordless, and inexpressible. This authentic account of a young man
under twenty years of age, however, serves to prove that there is no
special age of physical maturity in which the attainment of this state of
consciousness may be expected.

This account was published seven years previous to Dr. Bucke's statement,
and yet, since it is not quoted in Dr. Bucke's account, it is most unlikely
that he had seen the article. Certainly the young man had never heard of
the experience which Dr. Bucke later records, as "cosmic consciousness,"
and yet the similarity of the experience, with the many which have been
recorded is almost startling.

The salient point in this account, as in most of the others which have
found their way into public print, is the feeling of being in perfect
harmony and union with everything in the universe. "I was everything and
everything was I," said this young man, and again "I was here, there and
everywhere at once," he says in an effort to describe something which in
the very nature of it, must be indescribable in terms of sense
consciousness.

Illustrative of the connection between religious ecstasy and cosmic
consciousness, we find the experience of an illiterate negro woman, a
celebrated religious and anti-slavery worker of the early part of the last
century.

This woman was known as "Sojourner Truth" and was at least forty years of
age in 1817, when she was given her freedom under a law which freed all
slaves in New York state, who had attained the age of forty years.

Sojourner Truth never learned to read or write, and her education consisted
almost entirely of that presentation of religious truth which finds its
most successful converts in revivalism.

With this fact in mind, nothing less than the attainment of a wonderful
degree of spiritual consciousness could account for her marvelous power of
description, and her ready flow of language, when "exhorting."

Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote of her, in an article published in the
Atlantic Monthly, as early as 1863:

"I do not recollect ever to have been conversant with any one who had more
of that silent and subtle power which we call personal presence, than this
woman. In the modern spiritualistic phraseology, she would be described as
having a 'strong sphere.'"

The wonderful mental endowment which seems to follow as a complement to the
experience of Illumination, when not already present, as in the case of
Whitman, for example, is characteristic of "Sojourner Truth," or Isabella,
as she was baptized.

Naturally, this mental power, seemingly inconsistent with her humble
origin, and her unlettered condition, is evidenced along those lines which
made up the sum and substance of her life. Judging her from the broader
concept of philosophy, Isabella appears somewhat fanatical, but the
influence of her life and work was so great, that Wendell Phillips wrote of
her:

"I once heard her describe the captain of a slave ship going up to
judgment, followed by his victims as they gathered from the depths of the
sea, in a strain that reminded me of Clarence's dream in Shakespeare, and
equalled it. The anecdotes of her ready wit and quick striking replies are
numberless. But the whole together give little idea of the rich, quaint,
poetic and often profound speech of a most remarkable person, who used to
say to us: 'You read books; God Himself talks to me.'"

Isabella's conviction that she had "talked to God," was unshakable, and
was, indeed, the dynamic force which moved her. She was accustomed to tell
of the strange and startling experience in which she met God face to face,
and in which she said to Him: "Oh, God, I didn't know as you was so big."
In the New England Magazine for March, 1901, there was given a full account
of the work of this noted negro woman. Commenting on her sense of awe of
the immensity of God "when she met him," the writer says:

"The consciousness of God's presence was like a fire around her and she was
afraid, till she began to feel that somebody stood between her and this
brilliant presence; and after a while she knew that this somebody loved
her. At first, she thought it must be Cato, a preacher whom she knew or
Deencia or Sally--people who had been her friends.

"We are not told whether these persons were living or dead, or whether she
thought they had come in the flesh, or in the spirit to her relief. However
this may be, she soon perceived that their images looked vile and black and
could not be the beautiful presence that shielded her from the fires of
God. She began to experiment with her inner vision, and found that when she
said to the presence 'I know you, I know you,' she perceived a light; but
when she said 'I don't know you,' the light went out.

"At last, she became aware that it was Jesus who was shielding her and
loving her, and the world grew bright, her troubled thoughts were banished,
and her heart was filled with praise and with love for all creatures.
'Lord, Lord,' she cried, 'I can love even de white folks.'"

The question will legitimately arise here, as to the authenticity of an
experience in which Jesus is said to be personally guiding and shielding
her, but it must be remembered that the mind is the medium through which
the spiritual realization must be _expressed_ and, as has been stated
previously, the description of the phenomenon of Illumination, particularly
when experienced in a sudden influx must partake of the character of the
mind of the illumined one.

William James, late professor of Psychology of Harvard University, in his
exhaustive book _The Varieties of Religious Experiences_, in the chapter on
"The Value of Saintliness," says:

"Now in the matter of intellectual standards, we must bear in mind that it
is unfair, where we find narrowness of mind, always to impute it as a vice
to the individual for in religious and theological matters, he probably
absorbs his narrowness from his generation. Moreover, we must not confound
the essentials of saintliness with its accidents, which are the special
determination of these passions at any historical moment. In these
determinations the saints will usually be loyal to the temporary idols of
their tribe."

Applying this explanation to the case of "Sojourner Truth," we may realize
that the literal conception of Jesus as her guide and shield, was a mental
image, inevitable with her, as Jesus was the motive power of her every
thought and act. And although at the moment of her Illumination, she
realized the "bigness" of God, later, in arranging and recording the
phenomenon, in her mental note-book, she tabulated it with all she knew of
God--the religious enthusiasm of her work of conversion to the religion of
Jesus.

Says James, commenting upon the question of conversion in human experience:
and this tendency to what seems a narrow and limited viewpoint:

"If you open the chapter on 'Association,' of any treatise on Psychology,
you will read that a man's ideas, aims and objects form diverse internal
groups, and systems, relatively independent of one another. Each 'aim'
which he follows awakens a certain specific kind of interested excitement,
and gathers a certain group of ideas together in subordination to it as
its associates."

It is perhaps natural to assume that most instances of the attainment of
Illumination, have been inseparable from religious devotion, or at least
contemplative mysticism. This view is held almost exclusively by
Orientals, and seems to have been shared to a great extent by western
commentators upon the subject.

A notable example among Occidentals, bearing the religious aspect, and one
which is important from the fact that the person detailing his experience,
was a man of mental training, is the case of Rev. Charles G. Finney,
formerly president of Oberlin College.

In his "Memoirs," Dr. Finney describes what Orthodox Christians generally
call the "baptism of the Holy Spirit":

"I had retired to a back room for prayer," writes Dr. Finney, "and there
was no fire or light in the room; nevertheless it appeared to me as if it
were perfectly light. As I went in and shut the door after me, it seemed as
if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It did not occur to me then
nor did it for some time afterwards, that it was wholly a mental state.

"On the contrary, it seemed to me a reality, that he stood before me and I
fell down at his feet and poured out my soul to him. I wept aloud like a
child and made such confessions as I could with choked utterance.

"It seemed to me that I bathed his feet with my tears, and yet I had no
distinct impression that I touched him, that I recollect. As I turned and
was about to take my seat, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost.

"Without any expectation, without even having the thought in my mind, that
there was any such thing for me, without any recollection that I had ever
heard the thing mentioned, by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit
descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me body and soul.

"I could feel the impression like the waves of electricity going through me
and through me. Indeed, it seemed to come in _waves of liquid love_. For I
could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of
God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me like immense
wings. No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my
heart.

"I wept aloud with joy and love. These waves came over me, and over me,
one after the other, until I recollect that I cried out, 'I shall die if
these waves continue to pass over me.' I said 'Lord, I cannot bear any
more.'"

We will note, that although Dr. Finney says that he could not remember ever
having heard the thing mentioned by any person, yet he felt "the baptism of
the Holy Spirit." It is practically impossible that Dr. Finney could have
lived in an age and a community which was essentially strict in its
Orthodoxy, without having heard of the phrase "baptism of the Holy Spirit,"
even though the words had escaped his immediate recollection. However, the
point that characterizes Dr. Finney's experience, in common with all
others, is that of seeing an intense light, and of the realization of the
overwhelming force of love.

The relation of this experience to a creed or system of religion, is
something which, we believe, may be accounted for, as Professor James has
said, on the fact of "historical determination."

Until very recently, the idea that spirituality was impossible save in
connection with religious systems, and rigid discipline, has been quite
general.

In the case of Dr. Finney, we find that all his life previous to this
experience he had been noted for his simplicity and child-like trust.
Following his Illumination we learn that he became a man of great
influence, and power, because of "the wonderful humanity which he
radiated."

Similar in experience, in its effects, is a case related by Theodore F.
Seward, the well-known American philanthropist, Mr. Seward relates the
following story:

"The strange experience which I here relate came to a friend whom I knew
intimately, and from whose lips I received the account. It is a lady in
middle life, who has for years been an earnest seeker for truth and
spiritual light. She was alone in her room sewing.

"Thinking, as was her wont, of spiritual things and feeling a strong sense
of the presence and power of God, she suddenly had a consciousness of being
surrounded by a brilliant white light, which seemed to radiate from her
person. The light continued for some minutes, and at the same time, she
felt a great spiritual uplifting and an enlargement of her mental powers,
as if the limitations of the body were transcended, and her soul's
capacities were in a measure set free for the moment. The experience was
unique, above and beyond the ordinary current of human life, and while the
vision or impression passed away, a permanent effect was produced upon her
mind. She had never heard the term 'cosmic consciousness,' and did not know
that the subject it covers is beginning to be discussed."

It must be noted that in these experiences, the idea most strongly felt was
the one of the "power and presence of God," and we are impressed with the
fact that, no matter how varied may be the _creeds_ of the world, as
founded by "saviours" and incarnations of God, there is a unity among all
races, as to the fact of a one supreme universal power, which is Aum, the
Absolute, and which must represent perfect love and perfect peace, since
all who have glimpsed their unity with this power, testify to a feeling of
happiness, peace and satisfaction, rare and exalted.

By comparing the experience of those who have attained this state of
liberation from illusion, through religious rites and ceremonies, or
"sacrifice to God," as it is not infrequently called, with the experience
of those who have recorded the phenomenon, apparently arriving at the goal
through intellectual and moral aspiration, we will find that the results
are almost identical, and the after-effects similar.

It has been said that those who attain liberation have invariably sought to
found a new system of worship, and this fact has given rise to the many
paths or methods of attainment which have been taught by various Illumined
Ones, both in the Orient and in the western world, supplementary as it were
to the main great religious systems.

We will take a short survey of a few of these systems in Japan and India in
comparatively modern times, or at least during the last two thousand years,
which is modern compared to the history of the Orient.




CHAPTER VI

EXAMPLES OF COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, WHO HAVE FOUNDED NEW SYSTEMS OF RELIGION


The early religion of Japan, before the advent of Buddhism, was extremely
simple.

It consists of the postulate that there was but one God, _Kami_, from him
all things came, and to him all things shall return. As has been stated
previously, the chief injunction of Shintoism is: "Keep your body and your
mind clean, and trust _Kami_."

Shintoism literally translated, means "the way to God," and includes the
belief that all persons ultimately reach the place where God dwells, and
become "one with Him."

In present day interpretations and descriptions of Shintoism, we read of
the "heathen" belief that _Kami_ himself dwells in person, in the "inner
temple" or sacred place of Shinto temples.

This idea doubtless exists as a reality among the very ignorant
superstitious devotees, much as among the ignorant Catholics we find the
unquestioned belief that the actual body and blood of Jesus the Christ is
contained in the Eucharist.

The Shinto temple always contains an "inner or sacred shrine," which is
equivalent to the "holy of holies," of the Mystic Brotherhoods, and
typifies the fact that _within_ and not _without_, will be found the God in
man, by finding which, man reaches liberation, or cessation from the cycle
of births and deaths.

A Shinto funeral is an occasion for rejoicing, because the departed one may
be a step farther on the way to God, and since his ancestors were directly
responsible, as a favor, for his occasion to become reborn, thus fulfilling
the law of _karma_, the Shintoist pays much respect to his ancestors.

The advent of Buddhism into Japan was made possible by the simple fact that
the people were becoming somewhat disgruntled with Shintoism, because of
its emphasis upon the never-to-be questioned postulate that the Mikado and
his progeny was the direct gift of _Kami_ to his people, to be obeyed
without demur, and to be adored as divine.

Several generations of Mikados who did not fulfil the ideal of Deity--an
ideal to which even savages attach the qualities of justice and mercy--left
the masses ready and eager to grasp at a religion that gave them some other
personified god, than the Mikado, much as a drowning man clutches at a
straw.

The Lord Buddha was a prince, therefore worship of him would not be an
absolutely impossible step--an unforgivable breach of contract with the
Mikado, and as he exhibited the qualities of humility and mercy and
tolerance, he was welcomed. The religion of Japan is to-day regarded as
Buddhistic, although the Imperial family, and consequently the army and the
navy are to all outward appearance, Shintoists.

Coming, then, to a consideration of the varying sects of Buddhism in Japan,
and the corresponding sects in India, we find that there have been nine
different incarnations of God, and that another, and, it is believed the
final one, is expected.

The intelligent and open minded seeker after truth of whatever race or
color, will find in the instructions given man by each and every great
teacher, whether we believe in them as especially "divine" or as mere
humans who have attained to the realization of their godhood (_avatars,_) a
complete unity of _purpose_, and if these teachers differ in _method of
attainment_, it is only because of the immutable fact that there can be no
_one and only_ way of attainment.

Methods and systems are established consistently with the age and character
of those whom they are designed to assist in finding the way.

And again we must emphasize the fact that by the phrase "the way," we mean
the way to a realization of the godhood within the inner temple of man's
threefold nature.

Thus, the intelligent, unprejudiced student of the religions and
philosophies of all times and all races, will find that, while there are
many and diverse paths to the goal of "salvation," the goal itself means
unity with the Causeless Cause, wherein exists perfection.

Perhaps it has been left for the expected Incarnate God, which Christians
speak of as "the second coming of Christ," to make clear the problem as to
whether this attainment or completement means an absorption of individual
consciousness, or whether it will be an adding to the present incarnation,
of the memory of past lives, in such a manner that no consciousness shall
be lost, but all shall be found.

In considering instances of cosmic consciousness, _mukti_, which have been
recorded as distinctly religious experiences, and the effect of this
attainment, the system best known to the Occident, is contained in the
philosophy of Vedanta, expounded and interpreted to western understanding
by the late Swami Vivekananda.

But it should be understood that the philosophy taught by Vivekananda is
not strictly orthodox Hinduism. It bears the same relation to the old
religious systems of India that Unitarianism bears to orthodox Christianity
such as we find in Catholicism, and its off-shoots.

Vivekananda honored and revered and followed, according to his
interpretation of the message, Sri Ramakrishna, whom an increasing number
of Hindus regard as the latest incarnation of Aum--the Absolute. Not that
the reader is to understand, that Sri Ramakrishna's message contradicted
the essential character of the basic principles of orthodox Hinduism, as
set down in the Vedas and the Upanashads.

The same difference of _emphasis_ upon certain points, or interpretations
of meaning exists in the Orient, as in the western world, in regard to the
possible meaning of the Scriptures.

Sri Ramakrishna, who passed from this earth life at Cossipore, in 1886, was
a disciple of the Vedanta system, as founded by Vyasa, or by Badarayana,
authorities failing to agree as to which of these traditional sages of
India founded the Vedantic system of religion or philosophy.

Vedanta, particularly as interpreted by Sri Ramakrishna and his successors,
offers a wider field of effort, and a more intellectual consideration of
Hindu religion than that of the Yoga system as interpreted from the
original Sankhya system by Patanjali, about 300 B.C.

Patanjali's sutras are considered the most complete system of Yoga
practice, for the purpose of mental control, and psychic development.
Patanjali's sutras are almost identical with those employed in the Zen sect
of Buddhist monasteries, throughout Japan.

These sutras, together with Buddhist mantrams will be considered in a
subsequent chapter, devoted to the development of spiritual consciousness
as taught by the Oriental sages and philosophers.

One other great teacher of modern times who has left a large following, was
Lord Gauranga, who was born in India in the early part of the fifteenth
century. Gauranga was worshipped as the Lord God, whether with his consent,
or without, it is not exactly clear, even though his biographers are united
on the fact of his divine origin.

Those who have espoused the message of Gauranga claim that he brought to
the world "a beautiful religion, such as had never before been known." But,
as this claim is made for all teachers and founders of religions and
philosophies, we suggest that the reader compare the message of Lord
Gauranga with those of other avatars and teachers.

Lord Gauranga's message is known as Vaishnavitism, and we will here
consider only those passages of his doctrine which shed light upon his
attainment of cosmic consciousness. Certainly his breadth of mind, and his
standards of tolerance, justice and consideration for all other systems of
worship, would indicate his claim to cosmic consciousness.

One of the contentions of the Vaishnavas is that they alone of all
religious faiths, admit the divine birth and mission of the founders of all
religions.

Thus the Christians have declared that Jesus was the only Son of God; the
Buddhists have claimed Buddha; the Hebrews have clung tenaciously to their
prophets as the only true messengers from heaven, and the Mohammedans have
refused, until the present century, to even sit at the table with the
"infidels" who would not acknowledge Mohammed as the only true incarnation
of Allah.

It is well to remember that these claims have been made by the blind
followers of these great teachers, and that it is almost certain that not
any one of them made such claim for himself. Certainly he did not, if he
had attained to spiritual consciousness.

One passage from the doctrines of Gauranga is almost identical with many
others who have sought to express the feeling of security, of
_deathlessness_ which comes to the soul which has realized cosmic
consciousness. He says:

"My Beloved, whether you clasp me unto your heart, or you crush me by that
embrace, it is all the same to me. For you are no other than my own, the
sole partner of my soul."

The gospel of Gauranga and his followers is, indeed, much more a gospel of
love, than of methods of worship, or of intellectual research.

The realization of our union with God, in deathless love, is the key-note
of the message, and this great joy or bliss comes to the soul as soon as it
has attained Illumination through love.

God is alluded to in Vaishnavism most frequently as _Anandamaya_--meaning
all joy. Vaishnavism more nearly resembles the gospel of Jesus, as taught
by orthodoxy, than it does the Vedantic systems, since it does, not claim
that God is _within each_ human organism, as the seed is within the fruit,
but that, by love, we may gain heaven or the state or place where God
dwells.

"If you would worship God, as the Giver of Bounties, then shall the prayer
be answered, and further connection cut off, God having answered the
demand. So if you would worship God in simple love, He will send love. The
real devotee seeks to establish a relationship with God which will endure.
He will ask only to worship and love God, and pray that his soul may cling
to God in divine reverence and love." Thus, say the Vaishnavas, "God serves
as he is served, in absolute justice."

Another salient point which the followers of Lord Gauranga emphasize, is
the "All-Sweetness" of God. This idea is impressed, doubtless that the
devotee may not feel an impossible barrier between himself and so great and
all-powerful a being, as God, when His Omnipotence is considered. The idea
is similar to that of the Roman church, which bids its untutored children
to select some patron saint, or to say prayers to the Virgin Mary, because
these characters were once human and seem to be nearer, and more
approachable than the Great God whose Majesty and All-Mightiness have been
exploited.

Be that as it may, the fact remains, that Lord Gauranga is said to have
earned the devotion and love of some of the most learned pundits of India
and, according to a recent biographer, "he had all the frailties of a man;
he ate and slept like a man. In short, he behaved generally like an
ordinary human being, but yet he succeeded in extorting from the foremost
sages of India, the worship and reverence due a God."

The fact that Lord Gauranga "behaved like a man," is comforting, to say the
least, and presages the coming of a day when "behaving like a man" will not
be considered ungodly. When that time shall have arrived, surely there will
be less mysticism of the hysterical variety and probably fewer hypocrites.

Very unlike Lord Gauranga, is the report of a writer of India, who tells of
the effects of cosmic consciousness upon Tukaram, considered to be one of
the greatest saints and poets of Ancient India. Tukaram lived early in the
sixteenth century, some years later than Lord Gauranga.

This Maharashtra saint is chiefly remembered for his beautiful description
of the effects of Illumination, in which he likens the human soul to the
bride, and the bridegroom is God. This poem is called "Love's Lament," and
might have been written by an impassioned lover to his promised bride.

The life of Tukaram, like that of the late Sri Ramakrishna Paramanansa, was
one long agony of yearning and struggle for that peace of soul which he
craved. One of his chroniclers thus describes, in brief, the final struggle
and the subsequent attainment of Illumination of this good man:

"Selfless, he sought to gather no crowds of idle admiring disciples about
him, but followed what his conscience dictated. He listened not to the
counsel of his relatives and friends, who thought he had gone mad; and he
bore in patience the well-meant but harsh rebukes of his second wife. After
a long mental struggle, the agonies of which he has recorded in
heart-rending words, now entreating God in the tenderest of terms, now
resigning himself to despair, now appealing with the petulance of a pet
child for what he deemed his birthright, now apologizing in all humility
for thus taking liberties with his Mother-God, he succeeded at last in
gaining a restful place of beatitude--a state in which he merged his soul
in the universal soul,"--that is, Illumination, or cosmic consciousness.

Sadasiva Brahman, one of the great Siddhas, and a comparatively modern sage
of India, left a Sanskrit poem called _Atmavidyavilasa_, which gives a
comprehensive description of the experience and the effects of
Illumination, as for example:

"The sage whose mind by the grace of his blessed Guru is merged in his own
true nature (Existence, Intelligence, and Bliss Absolute), that great
Illumined one, wise, with all egotism suppressed, and extremely delighted
_within himself_, sports in joy."

"He who is himself alone, who has known the secret of bliss, who has firmly
embraced peace, who is magnanimous and whose feelings other than those of
the _atman_, have been allayed, that person sports on his pleasant couch of
self-bliss."

"The pure moon of the prince of recluses, who is fit to be worshipped by
gods and whose moonlight of intelligence that dispels the darkness of
ignorance causes the lily of the earth to blossom, shines forth in the
abode of the all-pervading Essence of Light."

The above stanzas represent a more impersonal idea of the bliss of
attainment than those of many others who have experienced Illumination, but
they emphasize the same point that we find throughout all writings of the
Illuminati, namely, the realization of the kingdom _within_, rather than
without, and the necessity of selflessness--meaning the subjugation of the
lesser self, the mental, to the soul.

We come now to a consideration of the life and character of the Lord
Buddha, whose influence is still stronger in all parts of the world than
that of any other person who has ever taught the precepts of attainment.

In Japan, for example, Buddhism, in its various branches, or
interpretations, is the religion of the vast majority and even where
Shintoism is the method of worship, the influence of Buddhism may be seen.
So too, we find in Japan, a form of Buddhism, which shows evidences of the
influence of Shintoism, but I think it may be admitted that Japan, above
all other countries, represents to-day, the religion of Buddhism.

Buddhism has been called the "religion of enlightenment," but the term
"illumination" as it is used to describe the attainment of cosmic
consciousness, is what is meant, rather than the purely intellectual
quality which we are accustomed to think of as enlightenment.

Sakyamuni, another name for Buddhism, means also illumination, or
realization of the saving character of the light within.

The lamp is the most important symbol in, Buddhism, as it typifies the
divine flame or illumination (which is cosmic consciousness), as the goal
of the disciple.

Another interpretation of the symbol of the lamp, is that of the power of
the lamp to shed its rays to light the way of those who are traveling "in
the gloom," and by so doing, it lights the flame of illumination in others,
without diminishing its own power. An article of faith reads:

"As one holds out a lamp in the darkness that those who have eyes may see
the objects, even so has the doctrine been made clear by the Lord in
manifold exposition."

Again, in the _Book of the Great Decease_, we learn that Buddha admonished
his disciples to "dwell as lamps unto yourselves." Another symbol used
throughout Japan as a means of teaching the masses the essential doctrines
of "The Compassionate One," has become familiar to occidental people as a
sort of "curio." It is that of the three monkeys carved in wood or ivory.

One monkey is covering his eyes with both paws; another has stopped his
ears; and the third has his paw pressed tightly over his mouth. The lesson
briefly told is to "see no evil; hear no evil; speak no evil," and the
reason that the monkey is employed as the symbol, is because the monkey,
more than any other animal, resembles primitive man. If, then, we would
rise from the monkey, or animal condition (the physical or animal part of
the human organism), we must avoid a karma of consciousness of evil.

Buddhism is full of symbolism, and these symbols must be interpreted
according to the age, or of the individual consciousness of the
interpreter, or the translator. But the fundamental doctrine of Buddha is
essentially one of renunciation as applied to the things of the world.
Nevertheless this quality of renunciation has been greatly exaggerated
during the centuries, because of the fact that the Lord Buddha had so much
to give up, viewed from the standpoint of worldly ethics.

In the following "sayings of Buddha," we find that the quest of the noble
sage was for that supraconsciousness wherein change and decay were _not_,
rather than that he regarded the things of the senses, as sinful. For
example:

"It is not that I am careless about beauty, or am ignorant of human joys;
but only that I see on all the impress of change; therefore, my heart is
sad and heavy." Or this:

"A hollow compliance and a protesting heart, such method is not for me to
follow: I now will seek a noble law, unlike the worldly methods known to
men. I will oppose disease, and change and death, and strive against the
mischief wrought by these, on men."

According to the _Samyutta Nikaya_, the twelve _Nidanas_ (or chain of
consequences) are:

"On ignorance depends karma;

"On karma depends consciousness;

"On consciousness depends name and form;

"On name and form depends the six organs of sense."

"On contact depends sensation;

"On sensation depends desire;

"On desire depends attachment;

"On attachment depends existence;

"On existence depends birth;

"On birth depend old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief, and
despair.

"Thus does this entire aggregation of misery arise."

Having arrived at this conclusion, the problem may be solved by learning
how to avoid existence. But, let us consider what the term "existence"
means. The common acceptance of the word, as used in the English, seems to
include _being_; but if we will consider the word in its literal meaning,
when analyzed, we find that it comes from "est" (to be), and the prefix
"ex," meaning actually "_not-being_."

The word _Being_, is a synonym for eternal life--for Deity. It does not
savor of anything that has been created, or that will terminate. _Being
is_, therefore, to cease to _ex_-ist, is to cease to live under the spell
of the illusory and changing quality of _maya_, or externality.

Far from meaning to be "wiped out," or absorbed into The Absolute, in the
sense of complete loss of consciousness, it means the eternal retention of
consciousness, unhampered by the delusion of sense as a reality.

To escape from this chain of illusory ideas,
and their consequences, the obvious necessity is
to claim the soul's right to _Being_. This is done
by dispelling ignorance (_A-vidya_) by vidya
(knowledge). Thus karma ceases:

"On the cessation of karma ceases consciousness of self;

"On the cessation of this consciousness of self, cease name and form;

"On the cessation of name and form, cease the organs of sense;

"On the cessation of sense, ceases contact;

"On the cessation of contact, ceases sensation;

"On the cessation of sensation, ceases desire;

"On the cessation of desire ceases attachment;

"On the cessation of attachment ceases existence;

"On the cessation of existence, ceases birth.

"On the cessation of birth cease old age, and death; sorrow; lamentation;
misery; grief and despair. Thus does the entire aggregation of misery
cease."

But, as to the exact interpretation of all these, Buddha himself says:

"Ye must rely upon the truth; this is your highest, strongest vantage
ground; the foolish masters practicing superficial wisdom, grasp not the
meaning of the truth; but to receive the law, not skillfully to handle
words and sentences, the meaning then is hard to know, as in the
night-time, if traveling and seeking for a house, if all be dark within,
how difficult to find."

But let it be understood, that Buddhism as now taught and practiced is
necessarily colored by the effect of the centuries which have elapsed since
the Lord Buddha lived and taught the precepts of his Illumination. Modern
Buddhism, as a religious system of worship bears the same relation to
Prince Siddhartha, as does modern Christianity to Jesus of Nazareth.

A short review of the life and character of the personalities around whom
the great religious systems of the world have been formed will aid us in
perceiving the unity of thought and character of the Illumined, and the
similarity of reports as to the effect of this realization of cosmic
consciousness will be apparent.




CHAPTER VII

MOSES, THE LAW-GIVER


The salient feature of the law as given by Moses unto his people, the Jews,
is that of strict cleanliness of mind and body. In this we find a
similarity to the oft-repeated behest of Gautama, the Buddha, who
constantly admonished his followers to keep their hearts pure and their
minds and bodies clean.

This spirit of cleanliness finds also a counterpart in the saying ascribed
to Jesus, "blessed are the pure in heart."

The cleanliness here referred to is doubtless not so much physical neatness
as mental purity of thought--thought free from doubt and calumny and petty
deceits and hypocrisy and selfishness and debasing perversions of the life
forces; but during various stages of history we find that all teachings
have their esoteric and their exoteric application.

The law, as enunciated by Moses, according to the Jewish reports, laid much
stress upon physical cleanliness, as an attribute of godhood.

But Moses, if we may credit reports, was something far more inspired and
illumined than a mere physical culturist--commendable as is personal
cleanliness--and his admonitions were the result of that fine sense of
discrimination and enlightenment which comes from cosmic perception even if
he had not experienced the deeper, fuller realization of liberation, of
which Buddha is a shining example.

It is evident that the laws laid down by Moses were taught and practised by
the Egyptians many many years prior to the time in which Moses lived, which
from the most reliable authorities, must have been about four to five
hundred years before the Exodus.

This does not detract from the evidence that the great Egyptian-Hebrew, was
a man of wonderful intellectual attainments, and from what we know of
modern examples of Illumination, he also possessed a degree of cosmic
consciousness.

The story of the seemingly miraculous birth of Moses, and the mystery with
which his ancestry is surrounded, is also typical of one who has attained
to cosmic consciousness.

The Illumined one realizes his birthlessness and his deathlessness, and
expresses it in symbolism, meaning of course, the realization that as the
spirit is never born and can never die, the idea of age is an
unreality--and should find no place in the consciousness of one who regards
himself as an indestructible atom of the Cosmos.

But the evidences regarding the probable Illumination of Moses are to be
found in the reports of his ascension of Mt. Sinai, and what occurred
there.

The phenomenon of the great light which is inseparable from instances of
cosmic consciousness, and which gives to the phenomenon its name
"Illumination," was apparently marked in the case of Moses.

The "burning bush," which he describes is the experience of the mind when
the illusion of sense has ceased, even temporarily, to obscure the mental
vision.

"And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, and out of
the midst of a bush; and he looked and behold, the bush burned with fire
and the bush was not consumed."

There is a subtler interpretation to this report than that usually given,
even by those who realize that this expression is an evidence of the sudden
influx of supra consciousness which attends the soul's liberation from the
limits of sense consciousness.

The "burning bush" is synonymous with the "tree of life" which is ever
alive with the "fires of creation."

All who realize liberation are endowed with the power to understand this
symbol. For those who have not attained to this degree of consciousness,
the esoteric meaning is necessarily hidden.

The phenomenon of the strange mystical light which seems to enfold and
bathe the Illumined one, is concisely expressed in the case of Moses.

"And it came to pass, that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the
tablets of the testimony in hand, that Moses wist not that the skin of his
face shone, or sent forth beams by reason of his speaking with Him.

"And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses behold! the skin
of his face shone and they were afraid to come nigh him."

Again we find in the case of Moses, a momentary fear of the phenomenon
which he was experiencing, in the influx of light and the sound of the
voice which seems to accompany the light.

The interpretation given the words spoken, and the identity of the voice is
ever dependent upon the time and character of the mind experiencing the
Illumination.

Thus Moses claims to have heard the voice of the God of the Hebrews, but
the probabilities are, that the "voice" is the mental operations of the
person experiencing the phenomenon of supra-consciousness, and this
interpretation will vary with what Professor James calls the "historical
determination," i.e. it is dependent upon the age in which the illumined
one lived, and upon the character of the impressions previously absorbed.

This apparent difference of report, as to the identity of the "voice," is
of small import.

The salient point is that each person relating his experience has heard a
_voice_ giving more or less explicit instructions and promises.

In each instance it has been characterized as the voice of the God of their
desire, _and adoration_.

Certainly, whatever may be our opinions as to whether God, as we understand
the term, talked to Moses, giving him such explicit commands as the great
leader afterwards laid down to his people accompanied by the insurmountable
barrier to dissent or discussion, "thus saith the Lord," we can but admit
that the prophet was possessed of intellectual power far in advance of his
time, and his laws did indeed, save his people from self destruction,
through uncleanliness and strife, and dense ignorance.

The ten commandments have been the "word of God" to all men for lo! these
many ages, and even Jesus could but add one other commandment to those
already in use: "Another commandment give I unto you--_that ye love one
another_."

To sum up the evidences of cosmic consciousness, or Illumination, as
reported in the case of Moses, we find:

The experience of great light as seen on Horeb.

The "voice" which he calls the voice of "The Lord."

The sudden and momentary fear, and humility.

The shining of his face and form, as though bathed in light.

The subsequent intellectual superiority over those of his time.

The perfect assurance and confidence of authority and "salvation."

The desire for solitude, which caused him to die alone in the vale of Moab.

The intense desire to uplift his people to a higher consciousness.




CHAPTER VIII

GAUTAMA--THE COMPASSIONATE


Gautama, prince of the house of Siddhartha, of the Sakya class, was born in
northern India in the township of Kapilavastu, in the year 556 B.C.,
according to the best authorities, as interpreted and reported by Max
Muller.

The Japanese tradition agrees with this, practically, stating that O Shaka
Sama (signifying one born of wisdom and love) was born as a Kotai Si, crown
prince of the Maghada country.

We have the assurance that as a youth, Gautama, like Jesus, exhibited a
serious mindedness and an insight into matters spiritual, which astonished
and dumbfounded his hearers, and the sages who gave him respectful
attention.

Some accounts even go so far as to state that at the very moment of his
birth the young prince was able to speak, and that his words ascended "even
to the gods of the uppermost Brahma-world."

Divesting the traditions that surround the birth and early life of the
world's great masters, of much that has been interpolated by a designing
priesthood, we may yet conclude that a certain seriousness, and a deep
sympathy with the sorrows of their fellowmen, would naturally characterize
these inspired ones, even while they were still in their early youth.

It is evident that the young Prince Siddhartha was subject to meditation
and that these meditations led at times to complete trance.

It is reported that one day while out riding in all the pomp and
accoutrements of the son of a ruling king, he was visited by an angel (a
messenger from the gods of Devachan), and told that if he would lessen
the sorrows of the world that he must renounce his right to his father's
kingdom and go into the jungle, becoming a hermit, and devoting his life to
fasting, prayer and meditation, in order to fit himself for the work of
preaching the "way of liberation," which consisted of, first of all, to
take no life; be pure in mind; be as the humblest, which latter admonition
found little favor with the world of his personal environment where caste
was and still is, a seemingly ineradicable race-thought.

The sorrows of humanity weighed heavily upon his heart, and the
superficialities of the wealthy and ostentatious court in which he lived,
irked his outspoken and truth-loving spirit.

Surrounded, as he was, by wealth and ease, with time for contemplation and
a mind given to philosophic speculation, the young prince found no sense of
comfort or permanent satisfaction in his own immunity from want and sorrow.
He pondered long upon the way to become freed from the "successive round of
births and deaths," and thus pondering, he sought solitude in which to find
his questions answered.

Fasting and penance have ever been the gist of the instruction given to
those who would "find the way to God," and so to this end Gautama fasted
and prayed, and practised self-sacrifice.

But the attainment of liberation was not easy, and Siddhartha suffered long
and practiced self-mortification assiduously, at length being rewarded; and
"there arose within him the eye to perceive the great and noble truths
which had been handed down; the knowledge of their nature; the
understanding of their cause; the wisdom that lights the true path; the
light that expels darkness."

The terrible struggle which characterized the attainment of cosmic
consciousness, by so many of the sages and saviours of history, is, we
believe, clue to the fact that no one individual may hope to rise so
immeasurably above the plane of the race-consciousness of his day and age,
except through intense and overwhelming desire.

Gautama abandoned his heritage, his relatives, his wife to whom he was
devoted, and his infant son, as we have previously stated, not because
Illumination is purchasable at so terrible a price, but because his desire
to _know_ transcended all other desires, and in order to be free from the
demands made upon him, he must of necessity, seek solitude.

Few examples of the attainment of cosmic consciousness are as complete and
of such fullness, as that attained by Buddha, and no instance which history
affords has left so great an effect upon the world.

It is estimated that at least one-third of the human race are Buddhists.
This is not saying that any such number of persons are like unto Buddha,
nor do we contend that this is any evidence that his message is greater or
more fraught with truth than that of other illumined ones.

The intelligent student of occultism in all its phases will arrive, sooner
or later, at the inevitable conclusion that all illumined souls have seen
and have taught the same fundamental truth.

Buddha was convinced that in The Absolute, or First Cause, there could be
no sin and consequently no sorrow, and he persistently sought to inaugurate
such systems of conduct and such a standard of morals as would lead the
disciple back to godhood, or liberation from the "wheel of causation."

To keep the mind pure and clean was the burden of his cry, well knowing
that the mind is the fertile field wherein illusions of sense consciousness
thrive. He says:

"Mind is the root (of evil); actions proceed from the mind. If anyone speak
or act from a corrupt mind, suffering will follow, as the dust follows the
rolling wheel."

That we can not expect to escape the result of our thoughts and acts was
ever a doctrine of Buddha, albeit, he seems also to have sought to make
clear to his disciples, the UNREALITY of sin as a part of the
indestructible "First Cause."

Many Buddhist sects interpret the doctrines of Buddha to deny a belief in
a future existence, in at least as far as identity is concerned, but this
conception is not consistent with the most reliable reports, neither is it
in keeping with the extreme peace and satisfaction which all illumined ones
experience.

If extinction of identity were the goal of Illumination, it is
inconceivable that the illumined ones should report the attainment of
perfect satisfaction and bliss.

Besides, it is clearly stated that Gautama told his disciples that he had
already entered Nirvana, while yet in the body.

"My mind is free from passions; is released from the follies of the world.
I have gained the victory," said Lord Buddha to his disciple Ananda.

It is also asserted that Buddha appeared in his own "glorified body" to
his disciples after his physical dissolution, plainly indicating that far
from being swallowed up in The Absolute, he had acquired godhood in his
present body.

Detailing the advantages of a pure life, Buddha said to his disciples:

"The virtuous man rejoices in this world, and he will rejoice in the next;
in both worlds has he joy. He rejoices, he exults, seeing the purity of his
deed."

Again, alluding to a sage (rahan), Buddha is reported to have said:

"He is indeed blest, having conquered all his passions, and attained the
state of Nirvana."

This alluded to the acquisition of _Nirvana_ while still in the physical
body. In other words, as we of this century understand the teaching, he
had experienced cosmic consciousness.

The modern version of the commandments of Buddha are almost identical with
those of the Christian creed, and these commandments are, as we have
previously observed, the same that Moses laid down for the guidance of his
people. That they were old before Moses was born, is also more than
problematical.

It is also more than probable that Buddha did not personally write the
ethical code which we now find submitted as the "Commandments of Buddha,"
but that Buddha merely emphasized them.

These commandments are not, however, understood, by the intelligent
Buddhist as "sacred," in the sense that "God spoke unto Buddha."

Moses doubtless assumed to have been divinely instructed in the law,
although that supposition may be erroneous. He may have had in mind the
same fundamental idea which all those expressing cosmic consciousness have
had, that of being a mouthpiece of a higher power, rather than to attract
to themselves any adulation or worship, as being specially divine.

The "Commandments," therefore, as translated and ascribed to modern
Buddhism, are an ethical and moral code for the _MORTAL_ consciousness,
rather than a _formula_ for developing cosmic consciousness. These
commandments are:

1--Thou shalt kill no animal whatever, from the meanest insect up to man.

2--Thou shalt not steal.

3--Thou shalt not violate the wife of another.

4--Thou shalt speak no word that is false.

5--Thou shalt not drink wine, nor anything that may intoxicate.

6--Thou shalt avoid all anger, hatred and bitter
language.

7--Thou shalt not indulge in idle and vain talk, but shall do all for
others.

8--Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.

9--Thou shalt not harbor envy, nor pride, nor revenge, nor malice, nor the
desire of thy neighbor's death or misfortune.

10--Thou shalt not follow the doctrines of false gods.

And the devotee is assured, even as in the Christian creed, that "he who
keeps these commandments, shall enter Nirvana--the rest of Buddha." But let
it be understood that Gautama, the Lord Buddha, did not formulate these
commandments. Neither are they considered as infallible formulæ, by the
enlightened Buddhist.

They constitute the ethical and moral code of the undeveloped man in all
ages of the world, and among all peoples. They had become traditional long
before Buddha came to interpret "the way of the gods." But Gautama, like
Jesus, was an evolutionist, and not a revolutionist. He came "not to
destroy, but to fulfill," and so Buddha paid no attention to the code of
morals as it stood, but merely contented himself with emphasizing the
importance of unselfishness--purity of heart and mind, because he realized
that the mental world is the trap of the soul, even as "the elephant is
held tethered by a galucchi creeper."

Buddha taught the way of emancipation of the soul held in bondage by means
of the illusions of _maya_, even as the elephant is held in captivity by so
weak a thing as a galucchi creeper, which could be broken by a single
effort.

That many who keep the commandments are yet a long way from cosmic
consciousness must be apparent to all. Therefore we are justified in
assuming that the mere keeping of the commandments will not bring about
_mukti_. Many a man follows the letter of the law, and escapes prison, but
if he does this through fear of punishment, and not because of a desire to
maintain peace that his neighbors may be benefited, then he is not keeping
the spirit of the law at all, and his reward is a negative one.

According to the most reliable authorities, Buddha died in his eightieth
year, having spent about fifty years in preaching, in healing the sick, in
conversing with exalted beings in the heavenly worlds, and in leaving at
will his physical body and visiting other worlds.

Buddha prophesied his coming dissolution, and expressed to his disciples, a
hope that they would realize that he still lived, even when his physical
body should have become ashes.

As his last hour approached, Buddha summoned his disciples, and after a
moment's silent meditation, he addressed himself to Ananda, his relative;
as well as his favorite disciple, thus:

"When I shall have disappeared from this state of existence, and be no
longer with you, do not believe that the Buddha has left you, and ceased to
dwell among you. Do not think therefore, nor believe, that the Buddha has
disappeared, and is no more with you."

From these words, it is evident that the state of Nirvana which Buddha
assured his followers that he had already attained, did not argue loss of
identity, nor translation to another planet.

Nor is there anywhere in the sayings of Buddha, rightly interpreted, any
suggestion of expecting or desiring personal worship. This, the great sage
particularly avoided, as indeed have all illumined ones.

It is evident that Gautama the Buddha had experienced that divine influx of
light and wisdom in which he sought for others the happiness he had gained
for himself, and to this end he was eager to leave to his friends and
disciples such rules of conduct of life as should aid them in attaining the
divine peace that comes from illumination.

But that he founded a religious system of worship of himself, is wholly
unbelievable in the light of a study of comparative religions and the
wisdom which illumination confers.

To realize that one has attained to immortality, and claimed his
birthright of godhood, is not synonymous with the claim to worship as the
one eternal source of life.

It is a part of human weakness to insist upon idealizing the personality of
a teacher, and this tendency becomes in time merged into actual worship,
whereas the teacher, if he or she be truly illumined, seeks only to
inculcate the philosophy which will bring his faithful followers into a
realization of cosmic consciousness.

The points which characterize the person who has ex

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