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T HE T H E O S O PH I C AL BOO K C O NCE R N
HOLLY W OOD LOS A NGE L E S CA L I FOR NIA ,
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f rom t ec hn i c a l te rms o f th e laws p ra c ti ces an d
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re sul ts o f p sych ic d evelo p ent The li ttle vo l um e
.

w as w ri tten w ith th e ho p e tha t it m i gh t d e ter its

r ea d ers f rom a ttem p ting to p ra c ti ce an y o f th e
u nw i se me tho d s o f aw ak en i ng p sy ch i sm wh i c h ar e ,
so p revalen t t oda y an d c au se them to regar d ore
,
ki n d l y and p erha p s even to f ollo w th e p a th o f

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ye t p o p ul ar des c ri p ti on o f th e f u n d amen t al l aws
o f heal th an d to gl ean th e ore i mp or tant f a c ts
,
f ro th e exi s ting mass o f c on fli c ting Opin i on s
a ttem p t h as also been made to w el d t oge ther th e
d i s c over i es o f p h y s ic a l an d o ccu lt s ci en tis t s and to ,
sho w h ow those o f one dove tail w i th those o f th e

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al l y tes te d b y th e a u thor an d th e i r val u e is kno wn

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Th e S e c r et of Happin ess Clot h , 5 0 c e n t s

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I t is d iffi cu l t b ut n ot i p os si ble to fi n d true

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h a p p iness w h ile l i ving a ong an d engage d

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an y p roble s diffi cul ti es and tr ials o f
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d a il y l if e Th i s book th e wr i ting o f wh i ch w as in
.
,

sp i red b y A t th e Fe e t of th e Maste r i s an e ff or t to
,

e xpl a in i n a c o monse nse p ra ctic al way h ow s u c h

, ,

h a pp iness ay b e f ound an d M p ar te d to o ther s .

T h e os ophy S i plifie d Pap er , 2 5 c en t s

For sa e l by

Th e Th e osop h ic a l Book C on c e rn

K rotona, Hollywood, Los Ange le s, California

THEOSOPHY

m
I R V I N G S C OOPE R .

Na t io al L e t u e o f the T he o o p h i a l S o i et y
n c r r s c cAuth o o f
. r W a y t o Pe fe c t
s r

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T h S e c et of Ha ppi ne ”
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T HE T HE O S O PH IC A L BOO K C O N C E R N
K R OT ON A ,
”
HOLL YW OOD L OS A NG E L E S CA L I FO R N IA
, ,

1 91 5
 COPYR IGHT ,
1 91 5

BY IR VIN G S .
 PR E F A CE

T h i s s i mple outl i ne of the teach ings of T heosop hy is

intended for those who are commenc ing the i r study of the
subject and to be of serv i ce to teachers of clas ses i n
,

elementary Theosophy I ts only recommendat i on i s its

.

simpl i c i ty and d i rec tness of statement to at tain which

,

no e fior t has been spared .

Chi cago March 1 91 5

, , . I S C
. . .
 CON T E N T S

CH APTE R

I T he S ource s and N ature o f Th eosop h y

II T h e Oth er Worlds
III T h e A ura and th e S oul
IV Wh at H ap p ens A f ter D eat h
V Growt h Throug h R e incarnat i on
VI
-
T h e P roblem o f D est i ny
VI I Th e S p lend i d Goal
A Course o f R ead ing in T h eosophy
I ndex .

The Theosoph i cal S oc i e ty .

 CH AP T ER I

THE S OUR CE S AN D NA T URE OF T HEOS OP H Y

When an unfamiliar system of thought is presente d
%
for cons i deration i t is always legit imate to ask : What
,
”
are th e sources of your information % Our willingness
to take the time and expend th e e n e r gy neces sary to
s tudy that sys tem naturally depends upon th e clearness
and reasonableness of the answer S o in presenting the.

teach ings of Theosophy it is right to expec t that a frank

statemen t will be made as to th e sources of theosoph i cal
knowledge .

These sources are of two kinds

( 1 ) Those wh i ch are access i ble at once to any
though tful man wi th his normal in tellectual cap acities ,

and
( ) Those wh i ch may be reached only afte r pre
2
l im inary training and development of th e charac ter ,

m ind and sub tle senses .

A n obj ec tion may be made to the second k i nd by one ,

commencing the s tudy of The osophy on the ground ,

that all informat i on obtained i n this way must be taken

— at least for a ti me— ou th e statemen ts of others This .

is of course true y e t we are accustome d constan tly to

,

adop t this attitude I n fact th e greater p a r t of curren t

.
,

knowledge canno t b e veri fie d by the ord inary untra ined .

man but i s accep ted solely on th e sta temen ts of experts

, .

F or example we read and believe many statements

,

about atoms yet none of us could duplicate th e e xp e r i

,

ments by which these statements are proved W ithou t

long sc i ent i fic training We accept the c onclus i ons of
.

[ 9 ]
 I HE OS OP HY
‘ ‘
S I MP L I F I E D

astronomers regard ing the movements o f the sun moon ,

and stars e v en though these conclus i ons contradi ct th e

,

ev i dence o f our senses because we have fa i th in those

,

who h ave made a spec i alty o f astronomy Musi c i ans .

te ll us o f the superb techn i cal mastery of Li s z t and we

beli eve them though i t would take us years of p a ins
,

taking study and pract i ce be f ore we could realiz e th i s

for ourse lves .

I t i s not unreasonable therefore in commenc ing the

, ,

stud y of T heosophy to accept as p ossib le the statements

,

made by expe rt s tra i ne d in theosop h i cal investi gati on .

L ater if i t i s th ought wort h wh ile an e ff ort may be

, ,

made to veri fy these statements and convi nce ourselves

o f the tru th o f th e deeper teach ings of T h eosophy Of

m
.

co urse i t i s un wi se to accept a statement as a truth

,

merely because i t i s made by another person but i t i s ,

also equally unwi se to deny i t until we actually k n ow

the f acts The best course i s to hold th e middle p ath
.

an d ne i ther to deny nor afii r but to empt y the m ind ,

of p rejud i ce and preconce ived no ti ons and to submi t

e v eryt h ing to the c r iteri on of the reason ing consc i ous
ness and o f th e intu it i on .

T he first o f these sources wh i ch are accessible at once

to a though t ful man i s th e teach ing of the gr e at r e ligion s
of th e world Wh en we begin the study o f comp arat ive
.

rel i gi on we seem lost i n a ma z e of contradi cti ons and

,

even o f absurd i t i es but w ith practi ce we become ab le

,

i n th ough t to strip away the ceremonials f orms an d ,

customs peculi ar to each reli gi on and get at th e f unda

mental i deas and teach ings common to all .

Th e di ff erences wh i c h ex i st between one reli gi on and

anoth er are due to the vari ous characteri st i cs o f th e
peop le wh o h old them and to th e de p os i t of ceremon i es
, ,

spec ulat i ons and fanc i es wh i ch duri ng the c enturi es h as , ,

gradually obscured or covered u p the bas i c truth s

taught by the i r F ounders F undamentally all reli g i ons
.
,

[ 10 ]
 TH EOSOP HY SI MP L I FIED

a r e li gion— s ince its teachings are unaccompan ie d by

ritual or ceremon i al an d are n ot i n the custody of a
pri esth oo d— nevertheless it is profoundly relig i ous as ,

it teaches th e esse n tial tru ths found in all religions .

A great many theosophical truths may be found i n

studying the fragmen ts which have come down to us
of th e ins tructi on given i n the an c ie n t My ste r ie s These
.

famous institu tions which flouri shed in P ersia E gyp t

, , ,

Greece and R ome were f ounded for the purp ose of g iv

,

ing to th e advanced people of th e time a philosophical

and ra tional interpretation of the myths and legends
which sati sfied th e common people and constitu ted th e
p opular religions Though only scattered p ortions of
.

th e once secre t teach i ngs now remain s till th e a tten tive

,

s tuden t is rewarded by finding occasionally a precious

truth half hidden in the obscure phrases of these old
-

instruc tions .

Ano ther more frui tful field of s tudy i s the teach ings
of several p h ilosop h ic sc h ools which rose to p ower and
fell to ob scur ity dur in g earlier cen turi es The wonder
'

ful P ythagorean D iscipline at Cr oton a ; the brilliant N eo

P la tonic S chools of Alexandria— p arti c ularly that which
cen tered round Hyp a ti a ; th e much misundersto od al

m
-

chemist s whose sym b ology tinged th e writings of th e

,

M i ddle A ges ; th e interes ting R osicrucian Orders the ,

undercurren t of whose teachings permea ted th e whole

of E uropean thought during the fifteen th six teenth and,

seventeen th cen turies ; th e Maso n ic ov e n le n t which

followed are all sources of th e os0 p h ic kn owledge The

,
.

s tatemen ts made in th e ancien t books and rare manu

scripts in which this i nforma tion may be found are
usually difi cult to underst and because expressed in
,

quaint symbols and obsole te phrase s b ut persisten t

,

study is ri chly rewarded .

Modern Theosophy i s grea tly i ndebte d to sc ie n c e for

its di scoveri es and for the exact terminology which has
 SO UR C E S A N D NA T URE OF T H EOSOP HY

resul ted from the careful manner in which th e sta te

men ts of sc i en tis ts have been formulated Modern .

Theosophy is equally careful in its me thods of re se arch

and its phraseology has gradually become more precise .

The osophists of ancient and medieval times were often

times vague and obscure when they attempte d to de
scribe wha t they saw or to f ormula te th e laws govern
,

ing human growt h and ex i stence Thi s was due not

.
,

to any e fi or t on the i r p art to describe things which did

n ot ex i st
,
b ut because of the i mmensi ty of their con
c e p tion s concerning God and th e u n iverse and becau se

m
,

there were no words then in use which could adequ ately

desc ribe these things That i s why symbolism was so
.

largely employed then but is to a great exten t un

,

nece ssary now The ri chly descrip ti ve language of sci

.

ence has t aken th e place o f the sy bol How co ul d .

early investigators describe elec tri ci ty an atom a vibra , ,

ti on the plane s of nature when th e te rms themselves

, ,

had not been coined and even th e most cultured people

,

knew no thing of such things % How could they explain

clearly th e evolution of th e human soul by means of
re p eated l ives on earth when even th e evolu ti on of
,

human bod i es had n ot yet been th ought of % Thus the

modern presentat i on of Theosophy which is decidedly ,

sc i enti fic i n t one and tre atment was made possi ble only
,

because of the developmen t of science ;

The teachings of Theosophy include those of science ,

and every p r ov e d result of sc i enti fic re search finds its

place in T he osophy I n cert ain ca ses theosophical in
.

v e stigator s using spec i al me thods of research h ave an

, ,

tic ip ate d science but la ter scient i s ts have veri fied in

, ,

their own way th e resul ts thus obta i ned I n s till other .

instances T heosophy has carried th e applicati on o f cer

tain laws govern ing matter beyond th e limi ts arbitrari ly
se t by scien tists b ut it was j usti fied in so do ing
, be ,

cause it has been found by observ ation that a p ri n cip le

[ 13 ]
o f re

peats in
pe
m
tition p re v a
T HEOSO P HY S IMP L IFIED

ils e v e r yw h ere and that nat

i n i a tur e in the p h y sic al world pro cesses
wh i c h are un iv ersal in t h e i r sc Op e .

Th e study of reli gi ons and anc i ent schools o f p h ilo

ure r e

s0 p h ic th oug h t comb ined w i th a knowledge o f s c i entific

d i s c ov eri es i s n ot suffic i ent h owever to exp la in sat i s

, ,

f ac tor ily all the condi t i ons and p h enomena o f th e world .

S eri ous gaps st ill rema in in our mental s cheme o f th ings ,

we seem unab le to re c onc ile ce r ta in ap p arently conflic t

ing v i ewp o ints an d above all we need a gui ding clew
,

to lead us through the maz e o f sp ec ul at i ons to truth

i tse lf .

As examples o f confl i cting v i ewp o ints we need only ,

compare th e state ments o f rel i g i on w i th those o f sc i ence .

T he relig i on i st sp ea ks o f God as th e so urce and creator

of all thi ngs the sc i entist declares that the un iv erse was
,

formed throug h the agency of v ar i ous forces obe ying

mech an i cal laws The re li g i on ist tells o f God s love f or
.
’

all H i s creatures the sc i ent ist p o ints to the undeserv ed

,

misery and suff e ri n g of men and babes and the mute

agon y o f thousands o f an i mals and b i rds T he rel i g i on .

ist turns h is th ou ght to the li fe beyond the grave the ,

m
sc i ent ist to a dead body and ask s for proof that there
is an yth ing oth er than that . The relig i onist acce p ts
an c i ent books as final authori ty th e sc i entist refuse s to
,

adm i t an yth ing to be true except that which can be

verified now Th ese antag onisms are doubtless due to
.

in c o p le te k n owledge but how can that knowledge be

,
'

gained wh i ch w ill show that religion science ph ilosophy

m
, ,

and art are but difi e r e n t asp ects of the same body of
truth % I s i t not obvi ous that i f th i s world is a un i ty
'

such a synthes i s must exi st %

T h i s leads us to the cons i derat i on of those sources of
th e os0 p h ic knowledge which requ ire preli in ary t ra in
ing and develop ment of the charac ter mind and subtle ,

senses be f ore they may be re ached .

m
SOUR C E S AN D NA T URE OF TH EO SOP H Y

Theosophy has never agreed wi th th e dogmat i c

declarat i on of materi ali sts that there w as noth ing s up er
p h ysi cal ; or of agnosti c s th at sup erp hy s i cal things
,

i ght ex i st but we could never know th em be c a u se o f

th e lim i tations o f the senses though i t h as alwa y s em
,

p h asiz e d t h at th e r e is n oth in g sup e r natur al, e v e ry th ing

taking p lace w i th in the doma i n of natural law .

T h eosop h y has affirmed upon the bas i s of actual e xp e ri

,

ence that there are inactive senses i n every h uman

,

be ing wh i ch when stimulated to activ i ty would make

, ,

poss ible th e in v est i gat i on of a normally unseen realm o f

non p hys i cal matter aroun d us
-
.

I nstead o f us ing p hysical instruments howe v er whi ch , ,

nat urally have se ri ous l imitat i ons e v en thoug h most

de li cately constructed theosoph i cal invest i gators in the i r
,

rese arches h ave made use o f the much more d iffic ult
meth od of de v elop ing w i th in themselves the p ower to
see thi s realm wi thout the med i ati on o f an y in strument .

Long and arduous tra in ing i s necessary be f ore th i s can

be done and i t i s made ex c e p t i onally d iffic ult because
,

a c h aracter qualificat i on i s essent i al .

A sc i ent i st ma y be sensual cru el and se lfish but h i s

, ,

sc i ent ific work w ill not be i mp a ire d i f h i s intellectu al

and obse rvational powers are keen The man h owe v er .
, ,

who w i shes to take u p the theosoph i cal method o f in

v e stigation , must first re fin e and ennob le h i s character
,

beca use i n so do ing h e not onl y h astens the awaken ing

of those subtle senses by means o f wh i c h h e comes in
touc h wi th the unseen world but he also e li m inates the
,

poss ib ili ty o f m i su se o f th ose p sy ch i c fa cult i es after he

t —
awak ens h em a seri ous th ing .

T here are a few people who h av e h ad th e c ourage to

c ommence and the patien c e to p ersevere w i th th i s severe
tra i n in g and h ave after years o f labor become expert
, ,

i n th i s anc i ent me th od o f i nvestigati on Modern .

Th eosop h y i s h eav ily i ndebte d to th em f or th e info r ma

[ 15 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M PLIFIED

tion they have thus ob tained for their published r e

,

searches have raised Theosophy from th e level of a

specula tive philosophy to th e position of a world p ower -

in th e domain of though t becau se of its ri chness of de

,

t ail and exac ti tude of s ta temen t A nd what they hav e

.

done o thers can do— provided they are will i ng to pay

,

th e price of cons tan t e fi or t unsel fish labor and the

,

capaci ty to learn through failur e .

The results of th e investigations of these experts are

priceless if we attemp t to es timate their value to h u
manity They have di scovere d many interes ting and
.

imp ort an t things regarding th e etheric p art of th e

h
p y sic al w or ld
'

and th e i nvisible sphere s— invisible tha t ,

is to th e norm al human eye— which surround and e n

,

v e IOp th e earth They have published a weal th of de

.

t ail concernin g th e con di tions which exist ou th e other

side of death th e nature and appearance of th e emo
,

tion al men tal and soul bodies

, th e laws of human ,

grow th and of destiny th e purp ose of existence and

,

th e swiftes t way to reach th e goal of human evolu tion .

Much of th e exac t de tail which distinguishes modern

Theosophy from all other schools of thinking along
similar lines i s due to th e labors of these experts who ,

have spen t years in obtaining the fac ts published and

in verifying by re peated experiments and observations
th e conclusions to which they have come .

There is still one greatest of

e senses ,

superb intellect and lofty spiritual i ty and have at their

command a vast knowledge of natu
,
’
re s laws which i s th e
frui t of an age long experi ence They place th i s knowl
-
.

[ 16 ]
 SO UR CE S AND N A T URE O F T H EO S O P HY

edge at the d isp osal of asp i rants under certain c ondi

tions generally that tho se who ask f or i t shall do so
,

not by mere words but by the noble unse lfis h lif e the y
, ,

lead ded i cated to th e serv i ce o f h uman i ty

,
.

The i n f ormat i on wh i c h the B rothers hav e g iv en to

those wh o h av e thus qualified themse lves to re c e iv e i t ,

has rounded out and comp lete d the th eosop h i cal system
of thought in a most wonder ful way and has filled in
many ga p s in our knowledge L ater as th e aspi rants .
,

themselves awakened and developed one subtle sense

after another the y have v erified the t r uth o f th i s in
,

format i on f act b y fact an d though some st ill rema i ns

,

wh i ch the y are as y e t unable to v e r ify st ill th e y are ,

naturally conv in c ed of the truth o f that wh i ch the y

have been told f or an error has ne v er been f ound i n
,

m
th e statement o f a Master

m
.

We are now in a p osi t i on to p rofit b y a te rse de fin i t i on

of Theosop h y T he word i tself is lum i nous and beaut i
.

f ul si gn ifyin g as i t does from i ts der i vat i on

,
W i sdom ,
%

”
concern ing God .I t was first used apparen tl y by

mm
A on ius S ac c as of Alexandri a i n t h e 3 r d century to ,

des i gnate an eclect i c system o f p h ilosop h y and oriental

myst i cism wh i c h later de v elop e d into Ne o P laton i sm
,
-
.

Theoso p h y h as been v ari ously de fined but none o f the

de fin i ti ons i s i deal th ough the y all agree that T heosop h y
,

aflir s the p oss i b ili ty o f d i rect kn owledge o f

%
th ings
”
div ine and eternal .

Mod e r n Th e osop h y ay b e d e fin e d as a sy n th e sis of

th e e sse n tial tr uth s of r e ligion sc ie n c e an d p h i losop h y
, .

I n presentation i t blends an adequate exp lanati on o f the

problems and p h enomena o f life and the un iv erse wi th
a pract i cal system of ethi cs an d c onduc t ari si ng natur ally
from such an explana ti on I ts statements we have seen
.
, ,

are base d upon a cri ti cal and comp arat iv e stud y of

earli er th eosop h i cal p hilosop h i cal an d reli g i ous s ystems
, ,

up on th e d i sco v eri es of phys i cal sc i ence up on data ob ,

[ 17 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI MPL IF I ED

tain e d by trained superphysical percept i on , u p on illu

m
mina tion resulting from awakened Sp i ri tual intuit i on ,

th e whole of this ma ss of informat i on being organ iz ed ,

bound toge ther an d supplemented by further i nforma

tion supplied by the Masters .

I t i s ev i den t there fore from a cons i derat i on of its

, ,

sources tha t od e r n Theosophy is not a revelati on in

, ,

th e accep ted meaning of that word and that while its , ,

fundamen tal truths are rock like because based up on -

,

reali ty nevertheless th e statements of i ts i nv estiga tors

,

as to de tails are n ot infallible I t i s a growing sy stem .

of though t the result of careful s tudy and research

, .

I ts i deal is to be a presentation of thi ngs as they are

and to el imina te speculation and theory M i stakes may .

be made and have been made by its i nvestiga tors b ut ,

they are corrected as soon as noticed S uch m i stakes .

,

as in scien tific research are due to incomplete obse rva

,

tion and incorrec t i nference from what h as been seen .

I t should be remembered tha t be cause of c ons tan t ,

practice and e ffort th e powers of an investigator are n u

,

folding all the time and that each year his capacity to
,

observe is grea ter and more reliable N aturally there .

,

fore th e published inves tiga tions should and do show

,

ever increasing detail and precision as th e years advance ,

and if one wi shes to gain an adequate idea of th e teach

ings of Theosophy th e latest books sho ul d be read as
,

well as th e earlier ones I t is reassuring to note how

.
,

ever that practically all th e information obta ined

,

through modern theosophical inves tigati on h as stood the

hard tests of time and that ne arly all the changes made
,

have been of th e nature of amplifications This speaks .

well for th e accuracy of those wh o stand at th e fore

front of the theosophical movemen t .

I f Theosophy is what its fri ends claim it to be then ,

it i s no thing le ss than the bedrock upon whi ch all pha ses

of the world s thought an d activ ity are founded N ow
’
.

[ 18 ]
 CH AP TE R II

THE OT HER W ORLD S

Th ough great riv ers a r e still be ing discov ered in

B ra zil the un exp lore d reg i ons of the earth are shrink
,

i ng year b y ye ar Th i s woul d be a matter only of con

.

gratulati on were i t not tha t our natural born trav %

-

”
e le r s w ill suff e r the p angs of unsati sfied des i re H ow .

may that fever o f discovery i nherent in the race be

coo led exce p t by off erin g new realms for exploration %
A nd where may th ose realm s be found now that the
vi s ible e arth h as been raked scraped dissec ted we i ghe d
, , ,

and analysed % Obv i ously we mus t turn our a ttention

towards tho se other worlds to whi ch seers have p ointe d
for so many centuri es wi thout awaken ing much i nter
est it would seem unt il now
, ,
.

A dvanced thinkers have already come to the conclu

m
s i on that we are livi ng not only on th e surface of a
phys i c al globe b ut also in the midst of a normally un
,

seen world While many are be gin ning to suspect that

.

this sub tle world may be scien ti fica lly studied a few ,

are causin g muc h shrugging of th e shoulders by affir

ing that i t has alr e ad y been carefully inves ti ga ted and
desc ribed i ts inhabitants classifie d and its phenomena
,

tabulated T h i s s ta temen t is a strong one we must ad

.
,

mit but it i s made by those who have done th e work

,

and denied by those who have not even taken th e trouble

to read the reports of the inves ti gat i ons N ow these .

reports are exceedingl y i n teresting and wh ile undoub t ,

e dly man y details are lack i ng — for the study of a new

world is a Herculean task— neverthele ss what has been
d i scovered i nstructs as well as fa sc inates .

[ 20 ]
 T H E O TH ER W O R LDS

Unfortunately our understan d ing of th i s i nv i s i ble

re alm i s ofte ntimes obscured beca use strangely enough , ,

we usually adopt one of two att itudes bo th of which ,

are illogi cal E ither we regard the whole matter as a

.

j umble o f freaki sh f anc i es and the result of unwhole

some spec ulat i on or we swi ng to the oth er extreme and
,

ve il everyth ing rela ted to th i s unse en realm i n un j usti

fie d mystery and reveren ce and sp eak of i ts phenomena
,

w ith bated bre ath Mystery i s the shadow cast on nature

.

by i gnorance .

There seems to be an ingra ined scept i c i sm i n most

peop le concern ing anyth ing non p hys i cal It is frs
-
.

quen tl y so pronounced that i t d i stort s the i r Op in i ons

and prevents an unb i ased j udgment Th i s i s certainly .

true when i t comes to th e consi derat i on of th e ev i dence for

the exis te n ce of a supe rph y s i cal world Many persons .

dogmati cally declare without any i nvesti gat i on wha tso

,

m
ever tha t such a world does not ex i st not re ali z ing that
, ,

opin i ons based on prej udi ces are valueless and tha t as ,

they are unacqua in te d w ith th e numerous d iscoveri es

wh i c h h ave been made the i r statements carry no we i gh t
,

whatever . I t i s s i gni ficant th at all th ose wh o have

stud i ed c ar e fully th e ava i lable e v i dence afiir th e i r con
v ic tion tha t a non phys i cal realm d oes ex i st
-
.

Theosoph i cal investi gat i on o f th i s unseen re alm h as

shown that i t i s c omposed o f several i n terp enetrat ing
regions or worlds o f wh i ch only two h owe v er are of
, , ,

m
practical i mportance in th i s preli m inary study These

m
.

two sub tle worlds are conta i ned one w i th in the other ,

th e soli d phys i c al earth be ing embedded i n th e very

heart of the tw o We may th i nk o f th em as two vas t
.

spheres surround ing th e earth not unl ike a giant at

osp h e r e yet at th e same t i me per eat ing everywh ere
,

the phys i cal matter of th e earth w i th th e same ease that

water vap or sp reads th rough th e a i r On e sphere i s .

larger th an th e oth er an d th ere fore extends muc h farth er

[ 21 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M P LI FIED

out i n to space b ut bo th of them su r round us all th e

,

time , although we are normally unconsc i ous of their

existence A s the earth s w ings through space following
.
,

its pa thway round the sun these spheres move wi th it

,

j us t as does th e phys i cal a tmosphere .

Thus strange as it may seem we are living in three

, ,

worlds at once and we shall fin d if w e e on tin ue our ,

s tudies that human evolut i on is in timately connec ted

,

wi th all three These sub tle worlds are as obj ec tive and
.

% ” %
real to those conscious of them as the earth i s real
to us and we should n ot think of them as shadowy n u
,

reali ties because un known to th e physical senses T he .

ma tter of which they are formed is n ot phys i cal in its

m
ch aracteristics and for wan t of be tter descrip tive terms
, ,

has been called emo tional and mental ma tter ; th e sig

n ific an c e of these names will be seen la ter .

The trend of recen t scien ti fic discoveri es has b e e n to

wards t e h in fin i —
ite s al th e dissec tion of the a tom F or .

merly it w as beli eved tha t a toms were th e ul tima te uni ts

or bricks out of which all physical forms were buil t .

N ow it is known that th e a toms themselves are complex

” %
s truc tures formed of di fferen tly grouped bundles of
,

par ti cles in d e n tic al in their n a ture S everal yea r s ag o .

,

in a remarkable paper read before one of th e E nglish

scient ific societies , S ir William Crookes advanced th e
theory of a pri m i tive subs t ance underlying all the dif
f oren t k in ds of physical ma tte r He called this the o .

r e tic al subs tance protyle and presen te d some illumina

tive d ata in support of h i s po in t of v i ew A t tha t t ime .
,

Crookes conclusions were n ot accep ted but n ow through

’
, ,

a series of brilliant i nvestiga tions made p ossible by the

re finemen t of elec tri cal experimentati on the exis tence ,

of elec trons or ultimate particles has been generally

acknowledged by sc i enti s ts .

E lectrons are cons i dered by many sc i enti sts to be n ot

”
things i n themselves but merely centres of force in

[ 22 ]
 THE O TH E R W ORLDS

th e invi si ble e ther wh i ch surroun ds and penetra tes all

th ings T heosophical i nvest i g ators through d i rect ob
.
,

servation made possible by certa i n awakened senses h ave ,

dete rm ined that every phys i cal obj ec t includin g the ,

human body i s bathed and dupl i cated in etheric matter

m
, ,

through which flow con tinually elec trical magnetic and ,

o ther forces closely ass oc iated w i th physical life I t w as .

no ticed that there were four dens ities or grades of this

e ther form ing w i th the solids l i quids and gases wi th
, , ,

which we are fam ili ar se v en dens i ti es of phys i cal at

,

te r ; for the e ther i tsel f is p hysical though invisible to

th e normal human eye .

This brings us to th e imp ortan t fact that there is no

gulf between th e physical and the next interpenetrating
world The matter of th e denser world is formed in
.

d i rec tly out of th e matter of the sub tler D ur i n g th e .

experimen ts o f theosoph i cal investigators in which they ,

s tudied the structure of matter it was found that b y a ,

s trong e ffort of the w ill— which se t certain forces in

action— it was p ossible to break up the p art i cles of th e
fin est ph y sical ether Wh en th i s w as done the character

m
.

istics of th e r e s ultan t part i cles entirely changed ; they

were no longer physical i n the i r nature They proved .

to be the molecules of the denses t mat ter of th e inter

penetrat ing subtle world .

T h e molecules of th i s world the e otional or astr al,

w or ld obey laws d ifi e r e n t f rom those govern i ng physical

,

matter They do not expand wi th heat nor contrac t

.

w i th cold as phys i cal molecules do They follow a law .

of gravi ty of their own T he vibrati ons wh i ch move

.

through them perm i t an i ncrease d power of vis i on out of

all proporti on gre ater than physical s i ght The mat ter .

i tself i s ex tremely mobile responding p art i cularl y i n a

,

most marvelous way to th e play of emot i ons— hence the

name emot i onal matter I ts response to emotion desire
, .
,

and p ass i on i s greater than that o f air to sound and

[ 23 ]
 TH EOSOP HY S IM P L I F IE D

ether to artific i al light for i t carri es the v ibrati ons a long

,

di stance from the person generat ing them an d ri pples ,

i nto qui ver ing m asses of color varying in hue accordi ng

to the type of emot i on A nother stri king characteri stic
.

of th i s matter i s that it i s read ily moulde d in to vari ous

forms by emotion wh i ch th ough e v an e sce n t usually per
'

, ,

sist for several hours or days v ibrat ing all the time at
,

th e same rate as the ori g inal oscillation wh i c h brought

them i nto exi stence .

T he densest matter of the emot i on al world dupl i cates

every ph ys i cal obj ect so that i t i s p ossible wh ile movi ng
,

in its lower levels to observe what i s taking place physic

ally N ot that the physical obj ects themselves are vi sible
.

when one is obse rvantly ac tive i n the emoti onal body but ,

th e counterp art s i n subtle matter of those obj ects are

readily seen I n fact those who are not very observan t
.
,

or for one rea son or another are not aware that they
, ,

are movin g about in th e astral world frequently do n ot

,

detect any di ff erence between obj ec ts f o r med o f phys i cal

ma tter and the sub tle dupl i ca tes of those obj ec ts F arther .

out in those regi ons of th e emoti onal world wh i ch are

some d i stance from th e surface of th e earth varied ,

scenes of great be au ty and interest are found— the

products o f the creati ve imaginat i on o f the peop le li vi ng
there .

The emoti onal world i s th i ckly p op ul ated wi th all

types of li vi ng th ings human and non h uman not on
,
-
,

its surface as i s the case wi th the earth but w i th in it , ,

even as fish live in the se a and b i rds i n th e a i r Li mbs .

are not neces sary for walki ng nor w ings for fly ing f or ,

des i re and will are the moti ve p owers wh i ch move us

fr om place to place in th i s unseen world but nevertheless,

we preserve th e same appearance th ere as h ere probably ,

from hab i t but also possibly from some dee p er law of

,

f orm wh i ch controls all creati on .

The non h uman creatures follow a line o f evolut i on

-

[ ]
24
 T H E O TH ER

range in in telligence from the level of our lowest animals

to lof ty t ypes far wiser than men —
W O R LDS

wh i c h h as li ttle to do di rectly w i th the hu an T hey

the angel i c p resences

m .

of relig i ous trad i tion They do not have phys i cal bo di es

.

resembl ing ours but appear in subtle bodies made of

,

radiant emotional matter .

A n i mals also are there who have lost the i r physical

bodies by death . T hey s p end a bri ef though happy
period i n the emot i onal world before being born ag ain
of an imals of the same sp ec i es .

I n th i s world are found mill i ons o f human be ings in ,

cluding not only the en tire populat i on tha t is l iv i ng on

—
earth at any one t ime for remember we p ossess emo
, ,

tion al bod i es in addition to th e physical— but also prae

tically all those who have lost the i r physical b odies by
death during the last th i rty years T hose who have been .

’
dead longer than this have usually passed into the still
more subtle w orld known as the mental or heaven world .

m
L astly t h ere
,
i s found a very smal l number contras ted
wi th the millions of souls rece ivi ng their educat i on on
th i s plane t—of the Masters T hey are the grea t T eachers
.

mentioned so frequently in theosoph i cal literature and ,

it is they who have charge of human evoluti on .

The e n tal or h e av e n w or ld referre d to i s a much

larger sphere englobing th e phys i cal earth and the emo

tion al world an d yet at the same ti me i n terpenetra ting
th e two .I t may be reached therefore n ot by mo v i ng in ,

space for i t i s all around us but by learn ing to focus

, ,

our consciousness i n the menta l body wh i ch is formed

o f its matter— a very di ffi cult feat .

T o real i ze agai n the close relat i onsh i p be tween th e

di fferent worlds it should be noted that the exceedingly
,

delica te mat ter of the mental world which may truly be ,

%
called m i nd s tuff may be obtained by break i ng up th e
,

fin est matter of the emot i onal world The mental world .

stands in the same rela tion to th e emoti onal world as the

[ 25 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M PLIFIED

latter does to th e phys i cal Mental matter d i splays a

.

se t of characteris tics all its own I t is marked c h iefly .

by its instan t response to the force of though t break ing ,

in to cascades of restless chang ing colors wi th

,

e very mental i mpulse The matter is mos t lum inous and

.

beau tiful as a resul t of its ceaseless vibrations T o quote .

the words of one investigat or

These vibra tions give ri se to th e most exquisite

and constan tly changing colors w aves of vary ing ,

shades like th e rai n bow hues in mother of —pearl -

,

e therealized and brightened to an indescribable ex

ten t sweeping over and through every form so that
, ,

each presents a harmony of rippling living lumi , ,

nous delicate colors including many not known to

, ,

earth Words can give no idea of th e exquisi te

.

beau ty and radiance shown in combinations of this

”1
sub tle matter ins tinc t wi th life and motion
, .

m
I n accordance eviden tly wi th some process intimately
connecte d with th e s truc tural formation of th e solar
system th e ma tter of th e men tal world in common with
, ,

tha t of th e emo tional and of the physical world i s d is ,

tin guish e d by seven grades or densi ties I n th e mental .

world however there is an imp ortan t division of these

, ,

d ifi e r e n t grades of ma tter in to two groups th e four ,

denser grades forming collec tively what is called the

lower men tal world th e three sub tler the higher e ntal
,

world .

This is n ot an arbitrary divi sion ; it is based on certa in

differences in th e matter i tself Tha t of the lower mental .

world resp onds to what we call concrete thoughts and

m
gives rise to mental images pictures and forms ; that of
,

th e higher mental world responds to our abstract

thoughts by Sending out waves of force in all directi ons .

e r
g ar -sr n g
Wisd o b y Ann i e B esan t p
%

1 Th e A n c ie nt , ,
. 1 46 .
 CH AP T E R III

TH E A URA A N D TH E S OUL

The ex i stence of an aura or colored mist of r ar ifie d

,

matter surr gundin g the human body has long been

n fi w ,

kn own I t was frequently dep i cte d i n pa intings at th e

.

time of the R ena i ssance not merely as a halo around th e

,

head but as an ovoi d in th e midst of wh i ch the human

,

form i s standi ng We have collected p ersonally over

.

s i xty p hotographs of famous paintings now i n I talian ar t

galleries i n which th e aura i s shown
, .

The aura is clearly v i s i ble to the tra ine d investi gator ,

m
and is frequen tly seen i n p art by many as a glow of li gh t
above the heads o f oth ers All human bein gs and to a
.
,

certain extent an imals p lants and even m inerals are

, ,

surroun de d and i nte r p enetrated by a cloud of de li cate

matte r drawn from the etheri c part of the physical world
and from the emot i onal and mental worlds This at .

ter i s so sens i t ive that i t resp onds instantly to though ts

and feelings and as i t does so its v ibrations g ive ri se to
,

var i ous colors .

I n a d eveloped human be ing th i s cloud o f matter has

been so spec i al i zed that i t i s to a large extent se p arated
from the rest o f the matter of the un seen worlds i n the

m
,

same way that our phys i cal bodies are d i st inct obj ects .

F urther it has been so moulded and organ i zed by the

,

constant play of though ts and feel ings that i t has been ,

fash i oned i nto subtle bodi es by mean s of wh i ch a man

comes into contac t and com un i cat i on wi th the i nvi s ible
worlds .

A naly s i s h as shown that the aura i s comp ose d o f f our

di sti nc t layers

[ 28 ]
 m
TH E A UR A AND THE S O U L

( )
1 A striate d etheri c m i st blui sh grey in color ,
-
,

which extends outwards f or several i nches on all s i des

from the surface of th e sk i n Th is is made up largel y of .

etheri c e an ation s from the e theri c double of the

p hys i cal body .

( )
2 A n o v a l sha p-
ed form wh i ch i s the seat of al
,
l
our emotions p assi ons feelings and sen sations T his i s
, ,
.

the emoti onal body formed of the matter of the emo

tion al world .

3
( ) A s i m il ar ly shaped f orm i n wh i ch all our con ,

crete every da y though ts and mental p i ctures are gen

,
-

e r ate d Th is i s the mental bod y forme d of the matter

.

of th e lower mental world .

( )
4 A n ovo i d f orm wh i ch i s the
,
se at of all our
abstract and ph ilosop h i cal thoughts an d sp i ri tual asp i ra
ti ons . Th i s is th e causal body or soul body f ormed o f ,

the matter o f the h ig h er mental world .

I t i s i mp ort ant to remember that these vari ous

bod i es i ncluding the physi cal are not separa ted like
, ,

p earls upon a stri ng but that th ey oc cu p y the same

,

spa c e the subtler interp enetrat ing the denser ones the
, ,

whole formi ng one comp act worki ng unit we call a

h uman be ing .

The e th e ri c d oub le wh i ch should not be confused w ith

,

the etheri c emanat i ons from it i s an exact c ounterp art ,

of the p h ys i cal body and as i t i s f a i ntl y luminous an d

,

blui sh grey i n color and extends out beyond the surface

-

of the body about one fourth o f an inch it i s somet imes ,

v i s i ble to or di na r y s i ght I t permeates the whole phys

.

i cal body and its funct i on i s to conduct the d ifi e r e n t

currents of electri c i ty ma gne ti sm and v i tal i ty which
, ,

circ ulate everywhere throughout the t i ssues .

Th e old i dea common a generat i on or so ago that

, ,
% ”
th ere was a v i tal force was really nearer the t r uth
,

th an many modern theori es f or wh en one h as de v elop ed ,

[ 29 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SIM PLIFIED

th e power to se e e th e r ic ally streams of rosy colored p ar

,
-

tic le s may be observed flowi ng down and around each

m
nerve from th e brain un til when they reach th e skin
, , ,

they are forced out in to th e surrounding air This out .

rush of vi tali ty p articles from th e nerve terminals in

th e skin gives a s tria ted appe arance t o th e e theric at
osp h e r e surrounding th e b od y and because the s traigh t
,

or drooped arrangemen t of th e s triations i ndica tes

whe ther a man is we ll or ill it has frequen tly been ,

called the health aura .

The rosy colored p articles are charged wi th a force

-

known as vitali ty ,
which is dis tinc t from elec tricity ,

b ut i s derived from th e sun for on brigh t days th e air

,

is filled w i th colorless molecules charged wi th this force ,

as if wi th myriads of dancing sparks of light T o be of .

use to th e physical body however these c olorless mole

m
, ,

cules mus t firs t be drawn int o the e theric double in th e

neighborhood o f th e spleen specialized in to rosy colored
,
-

p articles which are then se n t on their j ourney along th e ,

nerves and through th e tissues of th e body .

The e otion al b od y is larger than its physical com

panion and on an average extends some eigh teen inches
out on all sides from the la tter The emo tional body of a
.

primi tive man is a vaguely outlined inde fini te cloud of

-
,

ma tter glowing dully wi th muddy colors b ut tha t of an

, ,

advanced man i s a sharply de fin ed ovoid marked by ,

de fini te color areas an d bands each one of wh i ch indi ,

ca tes an h ab itual trend of passion feeling or emo tion , .

D espi te th e oval shape of th e emotional body it i s ,

in teresting to know that in th e emo tional world we ap

pear almost exac tly as we do physically and are there
fore easily recogn i zable This is due to th e fac t tha t
.

about 9 0 % of the denses t matter of the emo tional body

is condensed wi th i n th e limits of the physical form ap ,

p ar e n tly being held there by some force of attrac tion ,

so that the oval form is only fa i n tly indica ted the ,

[ 30 ]
 TH E AUR A AN D THE SO UL

denser counterp art of th e physic al body w ith in be ing

most p rominent and clearly vi sible in every deta il .

Whene v er a s trong emoti on or feeling sweeps over a

man th e emotion al body is stirre d to i n tense act iv i ty an d
,

from its v i brating matter there flash out those colors art
which are always associa ted wi th tha t emoti on or feel
ing T hus anger appears as scarle t selfishness as a hard
.
,

brown fear as a livid grey symp athy as a br i gh t a p ple

m
, ,

green love as a tin t of rose devotion as blue and so

, , ,

on T he s tudy of these colors and their corresp ondences

.

to the changes of consciousne ss is one of the mos t i nter

est ing of the many aspec ts of Theosophy .

T he e n tal b od y is usually of th e same size as the

m
emotional bo th of them growing in size as we advance
,

along the pa th of evolu tion With de fini te progress i n .

the p ower to think the men tal body becomes more h i ghly
organ i zed an d therefore more de fin ite in ou tl i ne I t is .

exceed ingly lu i nous and radian t with clear beau ti ful ,

colors especially in an advanced type of human be i ng

, ,

each color area indica ting an h ab itual thought attitude

m
.

The v i bra tions which accomp any inte llectual activi ty

emi t a yellow light whi ch varies in hue from a strong
,

orange yellow i n a commonplace sel fish typ e of m i nd , ,

to th e beauti ful primrose yellow of th e ph ilosoph i cal

i nd of an advanced man All our men tal activ i ty
.

which can b e expressed in images and pic tures ar i ses

here for the mental bo dy is th e conscious i ns trumen t
,

used in generating concrete thoughts .

Lastly we come to the t rue man the soul of whom it , ,

is sa i d i n an ancient scripture
%
He i s n ot born nor doth he die nor having been ,

ceaseth he any more to be Unborn p erpetual .

, ,

ete rn al and ancien t he i s n ot slain when the body

,
”
is slaughtered .

T h i s is th e indi viduali ty the soul the ego who sur

, , ,

[ 31 ]
v ives all experi ences and
remembers all even ts I t is our higher S elf the source
%
.
,
%”
of that sense of I wh i ch is always in th e background
of all our thinking .

The form of the causal body is ovo i d in fac t i t is

—
the mould upon which the me nt al and emotional bodies
—
are fash i oned and while i n the savag e it resembles an
emp ty bubble because undeveloped yet if the advanced ,
r

man i t i s marvellously beau tiful fla shing w ithJadian t

,

colors and glow i ng with a living light all its own Words .

are powerless to describe it ; it must be seen to be known .

The growth o f th e soul is of alm os t i nconce ivable

slowness during th e early stages of human evoluti on b e ,

cause the only experiences upon which th e soul can

thri ve are fin e emot i ons inspirin g thoughts and unselfish
,

asp i rations N aturall y these are almost un kno w n while

.

man i s still learning the crude lessons of physical ex i st

ence but they come later when he commences to turn
,

his atten tion to higher th ings This is th e enormous ad

.

vantage of liv ing a pure and noble life ded i cate d to un ,

selfish serv ice— it gives to th e soul th e real man that , ,

wh i ch stimulates his growth in a mos t wonderful man

ner an d hastens his j ourney to th e splendid goal of
human evoluti on .

Whenever we think or feel our in v i sible bodies vibrate

,

strongly and as they do so they produce two e ffects i n

,

the atmosphere o f the subtle worlds

(1 ) They set up waves wh i ch rad i ate out f rom us

i n all directions n ot unlike circular water waves on th e
,

surface of a pond after the fall of a pebble but i t should ,

be remembered that thought waves move out as rap idly

expan ding spheres of wh i ch we form th e centre n ot ,

merely as increasing circles The distance to which these

.

waves penetrate is p ro p ort i onate to the intensi ty of th e

though t or emoti on wh i ch create d them ; a strong thought

[ 32 ]
 TH E A UR A AND TH E SOUL

sends out a powerful wave a weak thought a feeble

,

wave which soon fl i ckers out .

These thought and emo tion waves a ffect more or less

th e though ts and feel ings of everyone they touch and ,

tend to st i r up similar but not exact reproduct i ons of

th e i mpulse wh i c h started them on their j ourney Thus .

a feeling o f depress i on over some p ersonal failure w ill

tend to reproduce s i milar fee lings of depre ss i on i n the
emo ti onal bod i es o f many p eop le wi th i n a certain rad ius ,

but each person so a ffected will asso ci ate the de p ression

with some trouble wh i ch h e has experi enced and n ot ,

w ith the trouble o f the sender I n the same way a

.

strong thought of j oy wi ll cause many i n the i mmediate

ne i ghborhood to f ee l j oyous though the y know not why
, ,

usu ally connecting the emoti on wh i ch surges into the i r

thoughts wi th some hap py e v ent wh i ch perha p s h as
happened not long be f ore .

m
( 2 ) A strong emot i on or th ought actually bu ilds a
l i ttle f orm in the subtle matter of the unseen worlds ,

and projects i t w i th the rapi di ty o f a r i fle bullet to the

obj ect or person w i th whom the thought w as connecte d .

This thought f orm may pers i st f or many hours or e v en

-

days de p end ing up on the intens i ty of th e ori g in al i

,

pulse and its one funct i on i n life is to i mpress up on the

,

subtle bo di es of the di stant p erson the e xac t thought

or emoti on wh i ch brought i t i nto ex i stence T his once .

accomp li sh ed and i ts force discharged i t melts away ,

aga i n i nto th e se a of surround ing matter as a cloud melts

into the blue sky but for the t i me be ing i t was almost a
,

l i ving th ing charged w i th thought energy

, .

If the thought or emoti on i s personal and not con

n e c te d w i th another t h e though t form generated lingers
,
-

around i ts creator and during some moment when the

,

consc i ousness of th e latter i s pass ive disc h arges its

,

energy upon h i m Th us many o f the th oughts wh i ch

.
 T HEOSOP H Y SI M PLIFIED

m
tempt us are those which we ourselves genera ted a few
hours or day s before

m
.

These fac ts ind i cate how we may be of much service

to o thers by th e ass i stance and encouragement we can
give them wi th our though ts F urther ore i t warns us .

t o be on our guard as to the k ind of though ts we per

mit our i nds to think and to the qual ity of emotions
we allow ourselves to feel F or our though ts an d feel
.

ings create a very real personal a tmosphere through the

influence of wh i ch we help or hinder those w i th whom
,

we come in contact .

Whenever we go to sleep we withdraw from our ,

physical bod ies and move abou t in th e unse en world

us ing our emot i onal bodies All people are not equally.

conscious however while their physical bod i es are

, ,

asleep and the extent to which we are aware of the fac t

,

tha t we are i n an unseen world depends primarily upon

th e stage of growth we have reached as souls and second
ar ily up on our physical knowledge of the exis tence of

that world .

The consc i ousness of th e densely i gn

man is so un developed that during , ,

when he is no longer experi encing th e sti r an d rush of

physical life he i s pract ically unconsc i ous as he floa ts
,

in his cloudy emoti onal b ody just above his slumbering

p hysica l body I n a l ittle more developed typ e the man
.
,

is actively consc i ous in his emotional body while his

m
physical body sleeps b ut h e kn ow s nothing of th e un
,

seen world as he is comple tely absorbed in th ink ing over

,

h is own pe tty plans and dreaming about th e obj ects

m
of hi s desires A t a still further stage of developmen t
.
,

gli pses of th e outside emotional world are caugh t

now and then and such a man may move some distance
,

away from his slumberi ng body i n search of these half

gl i psed adventures and scenes .

A thoughtful cultured man h owever especially one

, , ,
 ,
m
T H EOSOP HY S IMP L I F I E D

ari sing i n the grey a tter o f the bra in by sympatheti c

resp onse to the more p owerful vibrations of the emo
tion al and men t al bodies the seats respect i vely of our
,

emotional nature and m ind I n th e great maj ori ty of

.

cases because of general undevelopment lac k of training

, ,

and care in diet th e nervous tissue i s not v ery resp onsive,

and as a result of the very lim itations o f the brain as a

transm i tting instr umen t we are aware in our waking
,

consc i ousness of only a small p ort i on o f all our emotions

and th ough ts .
 CHAP T E R IV

W H A T H APPEN S AF TER T
DEA H

D eath is an ep i sode not a tra gedy ; i t i s liberati on from

th e p hys i cal body and not the annih ilat i on o f the con
sc iousn e ss. T h ough death may take from us our out
worn or outgrown b od i es it grants us the w i der freedom
,

of the unseen worlds and to those who know death

, ,

—
has no terrors not one I nstead of b e ing a dark robed
.
-

King o f T errors death i s a bri ght P resence bear ing the

,

blessed ke y wh i c h unlocks the pri son h ouse o f th e flesh ;

and i t wo ul d be well f or us to learn th e t r uth about wha t
happens after death ; and then to cast asi de f or e v er all
grie f and mourn ing— tw i n o ffsp ri ng of i gnorance .

T here i s a f oolish aph ori sm current among us that all

men are e qual in th e grav e — k in g and beggar sage and ,

£0 0 1
. Th i s i s perh ap s true of the i r phys i cal bod i es but ,

i t i s a m i stake so f ar as th e men themselves are con

cerned We are unchanged by death ; our p owers of
.

consc i ousness may indeed become somewhat greater and

the extent o f our v i s i on and perception larger but we are ,

th e same peop le a fter death as before —mentally mora lly ,

an d spiritually D eath cannot transform us i nto some

.

th ing difi e r e n t j ust because it strikes away the physical

instr ument the body we have use d on earth I t cannot
, ,
.

suddenly convert us into p rayer ful sa ints or all w i se -

sp i ri ts ; such chan ges can only come about duri ng the

long course of evolut i on After death we cl in g to the
.

same foll i es b el i e v e the same h alf truths d i splay the

,
-
,

same prej udi ces and assoc i ate w i th the same sort of
people as we d i d wh i le i n phys i cal incarnat i on .

[ 37 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M PLIFIED

True we kn ow a li ttle more beca use we are surrounded

, ,

b y the phenomena of a larger world and we are at le ast ,

con v i nced that death does not end all because we our ,

selves have su r v i ved i t but on the other hand f ew p eo p le

,

are careful observ ers and so the knowledge we obta in

,

after death is usually general and not detailed and ,

further it is often distorted by our beliefs and

,

prej udices .

The act of dying and of going to sleep are s im ilar

except i n a few partic ul ars I n both cases we w i thdraw
.

from the physical body b ut when w e go to Sleep the

,

e theric mat ter i n th e phys i cal body remains unchanged ,

and therefore wh ile we are ab sent th e currents of ,

vitality play through the body and keep i t alive B ut .

when we die the etheri c double goe s out with us the

, ,

currents of v i tali ty which flow in e ther cease and the

, , ,

phys i cal body bec omes cold and moti onless even though ,

all its organs may be un impaired A s soon as the etheric .

matter wi thdraws the slow d i sin tegrat i on of the cells

,

commences and decay sets in .

A s we wi thdraw from the phys i cal body at the t ime

o f death we are surrounde d by the ethe ri c matter wh ich
came out w ith us Th i s envelops us l ike a f og and p re
.

ven ts us from obta in ing even a glimpse of the astral

world which surrounds us with its multifari ous activ i ti es
and interests A s a result most of us during this pe ri od
.
, ,

which lasts several hours are enti rely unconscious of

,

our cond it i on and envi ronment .

A fter a t ime this e theri c matter slowly slip s away and

we become more and more aware of the emoti onal world
of which we are now a consc i ous inhabitant Since .

every physical obj ect is duplicated i n emotional matter ,

we are apt at first part icularly i f we are not very ob

,

servant to notice ve r y li ttle diff erence be tween th i s new

,

world and the phys i cal e arth I ndeed i t i s diffi cult at .

,

times to convince some people that they are really

[ 38 ]
 WH A T HAPPENS AF T ER DEA TH

dead for they are frequently p osses sed o f su ch f an

,

tastic ideas as to what ough t to h a pp en but wh i ch does

not happen after death that it takes several days to
,

persuade them that they have really lost their physical

bod i es .

A fter a few a ttempts however to eat and walk and

, ,

talk as they were accustomed to do on earth these ob ,

stin ate people begin to real i ze that something i s wrong .

They eat th e food of wh i ch they th ink and therefore

immediately see before them but for some reason i t
,

has n o taste and does not g ive them any sati sfaction .

They have s till to learn that the astral body does not
requ i re f ood They walk about among their old h aun ts
.

and homes but fin d them selves unable to mov e certa in

obj ects as before The y have still to fin d out that a
.

person living i n the unseen world cannot move p h ysic al

obj ects merely by tryi ng to lift the i r astral counterp arts .

T hey talk to others they meet and are very much

puzzled at first to notice that wh ile they can converse
w ith some peop le at any hour other p ersons w ill on ly
,

pay at tent i on to them about e i ght hours out of twenty

four D u ri ng the rest o f the time the se pecul i ar men
.

—
and women f or as such they are cons i dered by the
% ”
obst ina te dead people whose experi ences we are
—
study ing do not resp ond to anyth in g wh i ch i s sa i d .

Our friends i n the emotional world have still to d i sc over

that while they can mingle and speak at any time w i th
”%
o ther people who are also dead they cannot ga in the
,

at tenti on of those i n phys i cal i ncarnat i on duri ng the

hours when the la tter are awake tha t i s when the , ,

consc i ousness is focus se d i n the physi cal bra in Only .

when the p hysical bodies of peop le i n i ncarnation go to

sleep are they release d from the lim itat i ons of the
,

brain and therefore resp ons ive to astral surround ings .

A s we ga i n more experi ence i n th i s li fe we are lead ing

after death we learn many other i mportant lessons and
,

[ 39 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SIM PLIFIED

facts F or some time we are apt to bel i eve i t necessary

.

to walk about as we d i d on earth to regard a door as ,

someth ing to be o p ened be f ore we can pass through ,

and to think of walls as be ing i mp assable barriers A fter .

a t ime we fin d that we can pass through any of these

se em ingly soli d things without the slightes t difficulty ,

and that when we desire to go to a d istant p lace there

, ,

is not the slightest necess i ty for w alkin g there All we .

need do i s to w ill strongly to go to th at place there is ,

a sense of mo ti on and we fin d ourse lves there

,
.

On e of the most common dreams is tha t of fly in g

e ither of movi ng through th e air or skimming along the
ground taking only a running step now and then B y
, .

questioning aud i ences i n many c ities i t has been f ound,

that about 2 5 to 40 per cent of intelligent people have

dreams of this description S uch dreams of flying are
.

merely i ndicat i ons that we are learning how to move

about i n the way wh i ch i s normal i n the emotional world .

We also real i ze after death tha t every uncontrolled

passion and appetite of th e i gnoble sort wh i ch we al ,

lowed to fasten upon us duri ng our l i fe on earth is ,

some thing for which we must n ow p ay the pri ce The .

cravings wh i ch we were accustomed to gratify withou t

,

question can no longer be satisfied because our physical

,

bodies are gone All the passions and des i res are still
.

as strong as before and there i s noth ing to do now but

,

to li ve them down and let them die out for want of

grati ficat i on We bit terly regret that we d i d not k n ow
.

th i s before death because the bite of an unsatisfied de

,

sire i s now far stronger than it was when we were l iv

in g in a phys i cal body for this is th e world o f feel ing
,
.

Any hell that i s to be found after death is one wh i ch we

make for ourselves by wh at we do and feel and think
wh ile on earth— w e are not pun i shed by any external
power we pun i sh ourselves
,
.

We also se e how utterly wrong i t is to give way to

[ 40 ]
 WHA T H APPENS AF T ER D EA TH

uncon trolled gri ef for those who are dead for now ,

we who have lost our phys i cal bod i es by death are

, ,

cont inually surrounded by the almos t unbearable

thoughts of gri ef and passionate long in g created by our
loving but m i sgu ided fri ends wh o are mourn i ng our
death S trangely enough though these same f ri ends are
.
,

w i th us and talk wi th us wh i le the i r physical bod i es are

a sleep just as soon as they awak e i n the morn ing they
, ,

revert to the old delusion that they have lost us and ,

th ink thoughts of bitter sorrow all day long We stand .

beside them and c r y out tha t we are there but they do ,

not hear us or even feel our presence becaus e their ,

nervous systems are so insensit ive and the i r attent i on is

so f u ll y d i rected to worldly a ffairs T hey m ak e us the
.
,

dead v ery un happy and m i serable by the i r illogi cal and

,

foolish att itude and we can really only gain relie f f rom
,

th i s intolerable condi t i on when they beg in to for ge t us

and th ink o f other things B e under n o delus i on that
.

% ”
gri ef or mourn ing grat i fy the dead ; i t only makes
them miserable Wh y cannot peop le reali ze that all such
.

sorrow ing i s w r on g that uncontrolled gri ef makes li fe

,

a hell for us wh o are li ving i n the emoti onal world and ,

that there i s really no separat i on since those wh o lov e

us are w ith us every night while their phys i cal bodies
are asleep and resting God d i d not design th i s world
.

to be a torture chamber— the source of all sorrow is

i gnorance if we only knew i t
m
.
,

A s the years roll o n c oun tin g t i me as i s done on

—
earth w e fin d that more ra di ant and beaut iful reg i ons
of th i s emotional world un f old before our gaze and ,

we are startled to d i scover that we hav e been surrounded

by these glo ri ous reg i ons all the t ime but did not know
i t becau se o f a peculi ari ty of the emoti onal body I t
, .

seems that i t can only resp ond to the v ibrat i ons o f the
emotional world outs i de i t a c cord ing to the degree of
,

sens it iv eness of the matte r on i ts sur fac e If this sur face

.
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M PLIFIED

layer i s coarse we sense only slow vi brati ons such as are

,

characte ri st i c of th e lower levels o f the emot i onal world ;

i f fin e then the sw i fter vibrations of the h i gher levels
,

w ill bring the i r messages to our consc i ousness .

We are told that a curi ous rearr angement of the mat

te r of the emotional body took place immedia tely after
our dea th B y an instincti ve e fi or t of the emoti onal
.

body the matter comp osing it w as thrown i nto concentri c

,

layers the coarses t on th e outs i de the finest of all within

, , ,

the v ari ous other grades lying between the two Th i s .

arrangement was un n ecessary and we could have stopp ed

it had we known tha t it was taking p lace but we did ,

not know and so th e emotional body instinct i vely sort ed

,

out the matter in this way thereby p rolonging its ,

existence .

This rearrangemen t caused us to be consc i ous only on

that level of th e emotional world correspondi ng in
dens ity to the matter on the surface of the emotional
body H ence because our li fe on earth was not all that
.
,

it m i ght have been we did not have a very h i gh Op in i on

,

at first of th i s emotional world because we were lim ited ,

to a rather low level for a wh ile I n f act some of us .

,

had rather an uncomfortable t ime of it dur ing the first

few mon ths because we had bu il t a cons i derable amoun t
,

of coarse ma tter in to our emoti onal bodies by unwh ole

some hab its and impure diet Fi nally this wore away .

an d we became conscious of ve r y much more pleasant

regions .

This opening up of new vi stas of beauty and enjoy

ment is continually tak ing p lace w i th every p erson as
th e coarser part i cles are gradually elim i nated from the
emot i onal body An d after we have lived i n this world
.

several years our inte rest i n worl dl y affa i rs wanes b e

, ,

cause there are so many more i nteresting things t o at

tend to here Wh ile we st ill love the people who are y e t
.

in phys i cal incarn ation nevertheless we realize sensibly

,

[ 42 ]
 TH EOSOP HY S IM PLI FI E D

asp i rations which we sowe d dur ing the eart h life T he

, .

heaven li fe i s one o f i nte nse unalloyed hap p iness w i th

, ,

out even th e shadow of a sorrow .

A fter a pe ri od in the lower heaven world the length ,

of which i s determi ned by the stage of evolution we have

reached as souls and the amount of exp eri ence we ga ine d
,

during our li fe on earth the time comes when we have

,

thought over every f rag ment of exper i ence carri ed out ,

eve r y sp i ri tual aspiration l i ved through every j oy ao

, ,

complished everything p ossible i n th i s world of which ,

we can conceive A t that moment the now useless mental

.

body drops away and our consciousness suddenly ex

pands to that of the mature soul our true i nner S elf , .

Then we realize our div ine nature then we remember the

,

long pa th we have trodden to ga i n our present s tage of

evolution then we recall the p ast l ives we have lived on
,

earth for the causal body i s the storehouse of all mem

,

or ie s and i t never forgets though the bra i n and lower

m ind may be i gnorant of the p as t .

F or a vary ing length of time we li ve in thi s conditi on

m
of pure soul consc i ousne ss T he savage h as but a flash
.

of th i s lofty cond it i on ; an advanced ph ilosopher may

enj oy th i s state for years or even centuri es B ut w i th .

all the t ime inev i tably comes when there is awakened a

,

thi rst for more experi ence f or activity for i nc re ased

, ,

knowledge of details suc h as ay on ly b e gain e d on

e ar th and w i th that dawning desire the soul turns i ts
, ,

consc i ousness once more towards the lower worlds Fi rst .

i t draws round i tself a cloud of matter of the lower

mental world out of wh i ch dur ing the ch ildhood of its
,

future physical body it fash i ons a mind body ; then it

,

gathers to i tsel f a cloud of matter of the emot i onal worl d

wh i ch later i s moulded i nto an emoti onal body ; las tly
it becomes l inked to an i nfant body prov i ded by p arents
w i th whom the soul h as formed ti es in p re v i ous lives on
earth And thus it i s that a new incarnation commences
.

[ 44 ]
as the ch ild i s born a ch ild wi th its as yet un organ ized
,

emoti onal and mental bodi es through wh i ch as the

, ,

years advance the mature soul beh ind i s able e v er more

,

and to man i fest its

[ 45 ]
 CH AP T ER V

GR OW T H T H ROUGH REI N CARNA TION

On e of th e most illumin a tive and helpful of the te ach

ings of Theos ophy i s tha t this world wi th all its ac ,

tiv itie s and in teres ts is in real i ty a grea t educa tional

,

insti tution in which millions of souls and coun tless o ther

crea tures are receiv ing th e instruc tion which they need
for their growth We learn that there are many more
.

human beings connected with th e earth than ever ap

pear in incarna tion at any one time but tha t all are ,

enabled to gain the experiences they need by making

a short visi t peri odically to this world thereby coming ,

in con tact wi th th e les sons taught by civilization .

Thus each l i fe spent here is merely a day in th e

greater soul l i fe and each time we return we resume our
,

lessons abou t where we left Off before aided of course , , ,

—
by what we have gained by home study for heav en is
th e home of the soul The savage i s commencing his
.

educa tion in th e kindergar ten of life ; th e spiri tually

developed man is nearing th e time of graduation from
this world school ; th e rest of us are s t anding on some
step between these tw o extremes We have gleaned
.

much expe rience from hundre ds of lives in the pas t

that is why we are far more advanced than the sav age ;
and in th e future new lives will help us comple te and
,

round out our educa tion .

This view of human life and of th e grow th of the

soul is called reincarna ti on or reb i rth and i n a more or,

less pure form is the work i ng p h ilosophy of some 6 50

mill ions o f h uman beings today A S a ph ilosop hical con
.

c e p tion i t is h oary w i th age and has app arently held

,

[ 46 ]
 G RO WTH THR OU GH REIN C AR NA T IO N

th e at tention by its logic and inheren t reasonableness of ,

many of th e great leaders Of thought du ri ng all p eri ods

of history .

Ye t many p ersons when they first hear of re i ncarna

tion rej ec t th e idea w i thout any c onsideration and ex
,
’
claim : What a horr ible bel i ef % I am sure I don t want
%

”
to come back aga i n % A nd for some reason such peop le ,

who are o therw i se sensible enough seem to th i nk that ,

the i r dislike of re incarn ation proves it untrue and un

necessary .

B ut does di sl ik e of teach ing make i t unnecessary %

D oes the rebell i on of the small b oy who i s ke p t by h i s
p arents at sch ool make his education any less e ssenti al %
I n later years does not this same sm all boy look back
upon his rebelli ous feelings w ith a sm ile of amusement
at his shortsightedness % A nd may we not as sou ls look ,

back upon this time when we are seek ing to avo i d the
pri celess lessons of life and sm ile at our own i gnorance
,

and lack of understanding of th e purp ose of existence %

A re we actually Opp ose d to re incarnat i on as suc h %
L e t us supp ose that this earth were a glor i ous p aradise
in which sorrow sn fi e r in g and trouble were unkn own
,
.

Wh en death cla i med us would we not be overcome w i th

,

desp air at leaving th i s land of bl i ss % I f someone said

that rebirth was a p ossibility we woul d leap at the ,

chance and Offer premiums to get back to earth % If we

are perfectly frank w i th ourselves we mus t adm it tha t ,

we are n ot obj ecting to reincarna tion merely as a process

of being born aga i n b ut that what we w i sh to avoid are
,

th e many trials d ifficulti es and sorrows of phys i cal

,

existence We wan t to escape expe ri ence not reb i rth %

.
,

Ye t th ose very experi ences which we seek to escape ,

those very sorrows and di fficul ti es an d trials have taugh t ,

us some of th e grandest and deepest lessons o f li fe and ,

have forced us to awaken many a p ower of consc i ousness

an d will that otherw i se would never have been st i m
,

[ 47 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M P L IFIED

ulate d to activ i ty The hardsh ips of civi li zation have

.

made us what we are , while ease and lux ury only sap our
courage and deaden our i nit i a tive A person who has .

never sn fi e r e d or failed or fel t sorrow i s a person wi th ,

out much sympath y comp assi on or real underst anding

, ,

of life .

Obv i ously then our emotional obj ec tions to r e in c ar

, ,

nation are hopelessly illogical and childish and as ,

thoughtful people we shoul d not permit our dislike

of the teaching process to carry away our reason and
good sense .

The i de a of re i ncarnation is exceedingly logical ,

whether we adm i t i t to be a fact in nature or n ot I t .

ofi e r s to the growing soul not the pal try ga ins of a

,

s ingle life on earth b ut unlimi ted experi ence in many

,

sta tions of life and under all possible c i rcumstances .

N ot a single event can happen to us wh i ch does n ot

ofi e r something of value for growth even though the ,

drop of w i sdom which may be distilled from i t i s small .

B y varyin g the condi tions of birth and the occup ation

from li fe to life lopsided development can be preven ted
,

and an all round knowledge of th e world obtained Thus

-
.

if this l i fe whi ch we are now leading is but one of a

, ,

series each experience no ma tter how tr ivial is valuable ;

, , ,

but if th i s i s the only life we live on earth then we ,

must frankly admit that much of tha t which we e xp e r i

,

ence and learn here i s practically useless in the future ,

for the knowledge gained would be of value only on

earth and not in any heaven world I f we return we .

can make good use of that knowledge but i f we do n ot

m
, ,

then many of our e ff orts and lessons gained at great cos t

are just so much wasted time .

F urthermore what i s the value of physical existence

,

to a soul who i nhabits the body of an infant that lives b ut

a few hours or the body of a child cri i nal born and
,

reared i n the slums % I f we l ive but one life there i s no ,

[ 48 ]
 m
G RO WTH THROU GH REINCARNA T ION

sa tisfactory exp lanation ; b ut i f this l i fe is one of many

arranged in an ascending seri es then we se e in the two ,

cond itions j ust mentioned th e p ay ent of a debt in

,

one case and the first e fi or ts of an i gnorant un t aught

,

soul in the other .

On e of the curren t misconce p ti ons about re i ncarna

tion which prevents a considerat i on of the i dea by
,

though t ful people is tha t it teaches the return o f a

,

human be ing to the body of an animal— that next li fe

we may be born as a dog or a horse % T h i s p oint of view
is Ob v i ously so absurd tha t it seems fool i sh to mention i t ,

y e t p eople who ought to know better seri ously advance

i t as an argument against re i ncarnati on .

T hi s curiously d i stort ed m i sconception is only b e

lie v e d by th e ignorant peasants in those re li gions wh i ch
teac h re i ncarnat i on but doe s n ot represent at all the
,

belief of their more adv anced adh erents I t i s as sens ible .

to sp eak of transferr ing a college student to a kinder

m
garten class in order to recommence h is educati on as ,

i t i s to th i nk o f a human soul be ing born aga in in the

body of an an imal N ature i s never so unreasonable as
.

P rogress is forwards not backwards so as we advance

, ,

we alway s come back in h u an bo di es each one a l ittle ,

better than the pre v i ous one S ome times i t is tru e for
.
, ,

some gri evous fault we may dur ing one incarnati on

,

retrace our step s to a slight exten t an d take b i rth in a

less advanced typ e of body and under les s favorable
con di ti ons but this re trograde movement is only ap
,

parent and not real even as th e backward movement of

,

an eddy i n the flow ing water of a river does not change

th e f orward course of the stream
An other m i sconception is that we are reborn i mme
d iate ly
. Careful invest i gation has shown however tha t , ,

this rare ly happens and that the normal i nterval between

,

one li fe and another varies from a few score years in the

[ 49 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M PLIFIED

case of an undeveloped so ul to twenty centuries or even

more in the case o f a far advanced t ype The length .

of this interval depends p ri marily upon the amount of

experience gained du ri ng th e earth life and th i s in turn
,

depends upon three f actors :

(1 ) The length of th e physi cal life the longer th e —

life the more experience
, .

( )
2 T he quality of th e life S ome l ives are tranqu il
.

and placid while others are adventurous and crowded

—
wi th even ts naturally th e latter sup ply more e xp e r i
ence .

( 3 ) T he age o f the soul We did not commence our

.

evoluti on at the same time and may therefore be sorted

,

out theoretically i nto classes such as is done actually

wi th ch ildren in a school hence we ar e n ot of the same

,
'

e ducati onal age The older the soul the less i t engages
.
,

in purely phys i cal pursui ts and the more i t i s inter

oste d i n mental moral and sp i r i tual th ings
,
Naturally .
,

ac tivities of the latter type inasmuch as they are expres

,

sions o f our larger life in th e sub tler worlds g ive us ,

more to think over and as s imilate duri ng th e i nterval

between one l if e and th e next .

There are three poss ible theori es to account for the

soul be fore it commence d its life here at birth

( )
1 I t was newly created at b irth by God— a po int
of vi ew commonly held in Chri st i an countri es T his is .

th e theory of spec i al creat i on .

( 2 ) I t existed before birt h i n some sp i ritual state ,

but has never lived before on earth Th i s is the theory

.

of p re ex i stence
-
.

( 3 ) I t has l ived many times before on earth and i ts ,

ex ist ing cap ac i t i es and ab ilit i es are the results o f that

pas t experience Th i s i s the theory of re in c arnat i on
. .

[ 50 ]
 TH EOSOP HY SI MP LIF I ED

side of th e grave Have we any justification f or this

.

hope % I f God create d a world so i mp erfectl y conce iv ed

that rampant inj ustice i s found everywhere h ow do we ,

kn ow that th e same stat e of a ff a i rs does not prevail

after death %
B ut there i s a line of reason ing whi ch carries us out

m m
o f this intolerable si tuation and i lluminates all our
human p roblems We may reduce th i s reason in g to a
.

very s i mple statement

Lif e is un j ust if w e e xp e r ie n c e an y un d e se r v e d suf

m
f e r in g o r un e arn e d h a i
p p n e ss .

Muc h c o e s to us w h ic h w e h av e n e ith e r e ar n e d n or
d e se rv e d in th is lif e .

m
The r e for e if a j ust God e xists w e
, ust h av e liv e d on
,

e ar th b e for e an d d ur in g th at ti e star t e d th e c ause s

m
w h ic h n ow ar e c on tr ollin g c ir c u stan c e s .

We may exp and this line o f reason ing and approach

th e problem from a Slightly d i fferent angle
Th is lif e is a liv in g h e ll if w e ar e th e in n oc e n t v ic ti s

m mm
of a P ow e r w h ic h is e ith e r so e r c ile ss un j ust or w e ak
, ,

tha t it is un a b le to c on tr ol th e w or ld i t h as d c r e ate .

Un le ss th e c on dition s of b ir th , the e x te n t of our c c

m
m m
p ac it ie s a n d a b ilitie s an d of th e Opp o r tun iti e s w h ic h
c o e to us, ar e th e dir e c t r e sults of our ow n e ffor ts an d

th e r e for e d e se r v e d, w e ar e suc h v ic ti s .

B ut if w e ar e n ot v ic ti s an d th e se c on d ition s w e r e
c ause d b y our se lv e s, th e n w e ust ha v e liv e d on e ar th
b e for e , or in so e c on dition e xac tly r e se b lin g p h y sic al
e xiste n c e , in or de r to h av e sow n the se e d w e ar e n ow

r e ap in g as har v e sts .

I f we refuse to be fal se to our i ntu i t i on th at God i s

absol utely just , the conclusion is ine v i table that re in
carnati on is th e true theory regard ing the soul Th e oso .

phy i s unassailable when i t a ffirms that there i s no

inj usti ce anywhere in the un iverse and that every e v ent,

of life— when we can se e the whole of it— i s i n real i ty

 GRO WTH TH ROU GH R EI N C AR NA T ION

part of the working of a p erf ect law o f cause and e fi e c t

wh i ch is flawless in its just i ce We c all an e v ent unj ust
.

because we are look ing only at the result and have not
th e p ower to turn back the pages of history an d see the
cause .

B ut there are also other facts wh ich indicate th at

reincarnat i on i s a law o f na ture N ot i ce the enormous .

d ifference i n mental and moral f aculties between one

—
man and another between a Hottentot and a H uxley .

E duca tion and env i ronment cannot make all the d i ff er

ence A H ottentot may be taught i n our most a pp roved
.

way and amid advantageous surround ings but while ,

there would be a certa in amount of progre ss h i s advance ,

ment would not be great .

I t i s not a quest i on alone of physical heredity I n .

th e case o f twins born under exac tly the same p r e natal

,
-

influences the most strik ing d ifferences i n abil i ty and

,

characte r are frequently not i ced after a few years .

Th i s would not be the ca se of physi cal heredity were

the only f actor at work .

B ut i f we understand that the souls th emselves differ

in exp eri ence th at some are just commenc ing their
,

schooling wh ile others are near to graduation then ,

these d ifferences are e as ily and logically expla i ned .

P hys i cal h ere di ty no doubt plays an imp ortant p art so

far as th e qual ity and appearance of our phys i cal bodies
are concerne d but we brin g wi th us our emot i onal and
,

mental powers when we come i n the form of innate ,

”
f aculti es Whence c ome the faculti es o f th e born
.

teacher speaker and leader % Oftentimes th e p arents

,

and even th e ancestors do not di spla y th em H ow .

expla in th e appearance of a Nap ole on a S hak esp eare a , ,

Wagner % The most care ful trac i ng o f th e i r an c estry

leaves us more p uz zled than before i f physical hered i ty ,

is the sole factor .

What i s the source o f gen ius % Can water rise h i gher

[ 53 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M PLIFIED

than its source ; i f not why should o ff spri ng be greater

,

than the i r parents and ancestors % B ut i f a gen i us i s

an Old soul wh o has developed enormous capacity along
—
a certa in l ine music drama painting mathemat i cs , , ,

then we need not s tra in to breaking the theory o f ,

physical h eredity i n order to explain h i s appearance in

th e world R eincarnati on also shows why the sons and
.

daugh ters of a gen ius are never equal to the p arent— a

genius can only transm i t h i s phys i cal pecul i ari t i es to h i s
offspring never h i s insp i ring talents which are the
, ,

p owers of the soul .

An obj ect i on i s frequen tly made to th e idea of re in

carnation on the ground tha t if we have l ive d before
we would have memori es of th e past The argument .

wh i ch the obj ector h as in m i nd runs someth ing like th i s

We remember wha tever we have experi enced ; we h ave
no memories of past lives ; therefore we have not l ived
be f ore.

This reason ing i s exceedingly f aulty because i t leaves

out of account that phys i cally we forget exp eri ence more
than we remember i t How many of us can remember
.

exactly what we di d an d sa i d twelve years ago th i s day %

Not one How many of us can remember everyth ing we
.

did last week or even yesterday % Maj or events y e s

, , ,

but not details Wh y % B ecause the memories have been

.

los t forever % N o only because the phys i cal bra in cannot

,

mm
m
recall them I f we are thrown i nto a h ypnoti c tran c e
.

state by a p sycholog i s t we can easily be h elped to re c all

,

everyth ing we have done i n the p ast the extent to which ,

we are able to recover these Old memori es de p end ing

up on the de p th o f th e trance Th is is ab solute p r oof .

th at e v e r y on e of us p osse sse s illion s of e or i e s of

w h ic h th e p h y sic al b r ain h as n o r e c olle c tion w h atsoe v e r .

Obv i ously the argument advanced aga inst re i n c arnat i on

i s not sound for there may exi st a dee p layer of our
,

consciousness in which adhere the memor i es of other

[ 54 ]
 GRO WTH THROU G H R EI N CAR N A T IO N

lives on earth —
memori es entire ly unkn own to the wak
in g consciousne ss .

This at least i s the statement of theosop hical investi

gators and the i r conclus i ons are borne out by th e
,

experiments o f de R ochas wh o forced the con sc i ousness

,

of a hypnoti zed woman back step by ste p into what were

apparently the memori es not of one past life only b ut
, ,

of four F urther it should not be forgotten that some

.
,

people do remember their p ast lives at least in p art and , ,

in maki ng this statement we do not have in mind those

persons who imagi ne themse lves to have been i n the
past A nthony or Cleop atra or some other romant i c char
acter % Children frequen tly have glimpses o f other lives ,

an d str i ve to tell us of them but we laugh an d call them

,

fancies and the child soon forgets espec i ally as it grows

, ,

older and th e brain tissue becomes less plasti c to the

influence of the m ind .

R e incarnation i s not an endles s p roc ess any more th an ,

we go to school all our l i fe I t ceases when we h ave

.

learned all the maj or lessons th i s world can teach and

we have reached the stage of the p er fect man Then .

we are ready to assume the greater duti es and commence

the wi der work f or wh i ch our educat i on i n the world
school has fitte d us F or just as we go forth into the
.

world after our school days are over so do we v enture ,

into a larger field after our many lives on earth are

ended— th e analo gy i s exact .

[ 55 ]
 CH AP T E R V I

TH E PR OBLE M OF DE S TI N Y

We measure li fe by false standards by p leasure and ,

pa in and not by growth I f l i fe i s pleasant we bless .

dest iny if un ple asan t we curse it never cons i derin g in

, , ,

e i ther case whether we grow through the experi ences

wh i ch come D estiny is N ature s p lan of educa tion ; sh e
.
’

is not t ry ing to please us to kill time to furn i sh a con

, ,

tin ual roun d of pleasure ; sh e is endeavoring to teach us .

That is why we must work endure hardships struggle , ,

for what we ge t R ugged le ssons truly but wonderfully

.
,

e ff ective i n their results for such te aching as we rece ive

,

on earth produces strong men and brave women not ,

wea kl ings E ven though l ives are spent in learn ing the
.

lessons they are eventually mas tered for in th i s world

m
, ,

school there are no failures .

D estiny however offers many problems and the great

, , ,

est of them all i s to fin d the cause of the fate wh i ch

bri ngs us to our parents determines our Op p or tu

m
,

i tiss gauges our facultie s and moulds our lives To

,
.

a certain extent thi s problem was consi dered i n the last

chapter b ut we must go further for during the cen
, ,

turi e s three answers have been prop osed to expla i n

hu an dest iny Le t us cons i der these answers in turn
. .

The first answer i s that our li ves are moulded at the

dictates of some B e ing who i s the R uler of th e un iverse .

A t H i s command all th ings come or are w i thheld We .

are li ke pupp ets moved by an unseen han d across a

stage ; we act but the scenes the actors our very ch ar
, , ,

ac te rs and th e events wh i c h h ap p en are all pre scri bed ,

by H im I f He wills it we may be exal ted i n the eyes

.
,

[ 56 ]
 THE PROBLE M OF DE S T INY

of men ; i f i t i s His w i sh we may be di sgrace d and

,

shamed NO exertion can change our dest iny ; that rests

.

wi th Him We have neither e arned th e hap p iness n or

m
.

deserved the su ff ering which is our p ortion for our ,

destin ies are dec i ded on high .

T h i s may be consi dered to be an exaggerated state

ment o f a particular viewp oint yet th i s i s exactly what ,

i s i p lie d in the res i gned accep tance of one wh o mur

murs— as many of us have done after a blow h as fallen
T hy W ill be done Ye t h ow hard it i s to think that all
.

’
we see happening around us is due to God s Will We .

ask ourselves if it be true that he blinds ch i ldren breaks ,

th e h earts o f st rong men perm i ts pe ople to be se nt to

,

prison though innocent of crime creates a world in ,

wh i ch souls fresh from His han ds may be born in crip

pled or i d i otic bodies and babes may become diseased

m
for the S ins of the i r p ar e n ts I f we dare not go to the
.

extreme o f saying that He does all this then we are ,

merely av o i di ng th e inevi table outcome of a consi stent

appl i cat i on of th i s an swer to dest i ny .

B ut i f God deliberately causes such suff eri ng or e v e n

p e r its it to h ap p e n w i thout j us tificat i on to the souls
, ,

concerned how can we reverence H im % Wh at purp ose

,

is there i n i t all % We do not kn ow wh y we came here ,

we do not kn ow wh i th er we are to go and during our ,

stay on earth we are unj us tly treate d The future is .

uncerta in wi thout promise for i f H e allow dest in y to

, ,

crush our ne i ghb or may He not perm i t the same aw ful

,

fate to v i s i t us % We must submit to every cap ri ce f or ,

dest iny canno t be controlled by us but only by H im .

I s th i s a sati sfactory answer to th e p roblem % E m

p h ati cally i t i s not and surely i t i s onl y accepted blin dly
,

by so many be cause they refuse even to th ink about its

,

unreasonableness beli ev ing that n o oth er solut i on ex i sts

, ,

and fearing th at i f th ey trust themse lves to the stormy

sea of doubt they may be lost
, .

[ 57 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SIM PLIFIED

A ccording to the second answer to the problem of

dest in y life i s merely the product o f circumstances the
, ,

result of chance There may or may not be a God b ut

.
,

if He does ex i st He doe s not concern H imself very

,

close ly w i th the world He has create d and may there ,

fore be left out of account so f ar as destiny i s concerned .

We may be born in the hovel of a savage or i n the h ome ,

of re fined parents for there i s no cho i ce or law govern

,

in g birth and the soul must accep t what i t rece i ves

, .

Human bodies are born because the i r parents are swayed

by p as sion We have done noth ing to deserve our birth
.

condi tions or env i ronment ; i n fact from th e viewp o in t ,

of this answer to destiny it is absurd to speak of th e ,

events of life which happen to us as expressing any

purp ose ; they merely happen Luck rules chance is .
,

king .

A ssuredly we can never be certain of results We

,
.

may to i l for years only to fail in the end or we may ,

w i n by a lucky move Al l talk of rewards and pun i sh .

ments is i dle We are but gamblers spinning the wheel

.

o f fortune ; if we pick th e ri ght color we succeed i f we ,

make a mistake we lose All we can do is to stri ve to

,
.

wi n and then anx iously await th e next turn of the wheel ,

for there i s no law no certa i nty ,

.

T h i s i s surely a to ttering fo undat i on upon wh i c h to

build the structure of a l i fe an d y e t it i s the unreasoned ,

p h ilosophy of many S trange how illogical we are some .

t ime s for all the f acts wh i ch we h ave gleaned from

,

nature show us tha t changeless law rules everyth ing in

th e realm of science and tha t nature utterly re p ud i ates ,

c h ance S c i ence i s only p oss i ble because nature i s organ

.

iz e d law and chance a figment o f the h uman i mag in at i on .

Why then when it comes to h uman events and h uman

, ,

ex i stence should we put everyth ing i n a com p artment

,
”
and label i t Chance an d Di sorder
%
wh ile we are ,

obliged to put all other things in the universe i n another

[ 58 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M PLIFIED

to the sligh test detail is perfect in its working becau se

, ,

gu i ded by exqui sitely balanced natural and moral laws .

Wh en these laws are transgressed sufle r in g comes ; ,

when they are obeyed happiness is ours ; because of this

,

i t i s possible for us to learn ri ght from wrong .

S omet i mes people exclaim when they have only par

,

tially grasped this conception of destiny B ut why %

S houl d these merciless laws of destiny make us s uff er for

”
things we have forgo tten % A s this natural question
con tain s several misconceptions it will be necessar y to ,

analyze i t carefully i n order to gai n a clear under

,

stand ing Of what i s implied therein .

I n the first place wha t do we mean by a law of

,
”
nature % Certa inly not laws in an y se n se resembl ing
those tu r ne d out each year by hun dreds from our legis
lative bodies A law of nature is merely a con di tion
.
,

an i nevitable sequen c e . I f a certain thing is done such ,

will be the result and th e resul t never changes I n e vi ta

m
, .

b le n e ss i s th e chief charac teri stic of natural law Under .

th e same condit i ons Of atmospheric pressure heat alw ays ,

causes water to boil at a certain temperature I f it .

were n ot for th e inevi table charac ter of natural law ,

scie n ce would be i p ossible and because we could, ,

never kn ow what to expect th e wheels of i ndustry would

,

cease to move May not this same inevi tableness apply

.

likewi se to moral laws % I f so it is Obv i ous that if i n

, ,

a p ast life or l ives certai n cau ses are started they mus t ,

produce their inevitable e ff ects whether our p h ysic al ,

consciousness remembers th e causes or not .

We should not forge t that the soul always remembers ,

and when in our brain consciousness we are wr i th ing

un der a sense of i nj ustice because of some event wh i ch
,

h as happened the so ul itself i s comparing the present

,

resul t wi th its past cause and is learn ing a lesson

,

thereby . P hys i cal forgetfulness of th e p ast therefore , ,

should not logically be able to a ffec t th e worki ng of a

[ 60 ]
 TH E PROBLE M OF DES T I NY

moral law— if we have upset th e equilibrium of na ture ,

it must be readjusted .

m
I t i s always p oss i ble however to neutralize a force

m
, , ,

by d i rec ting agai nst i t another force equal i n p ower and ,

mov ing in an oppos i te direct i on Thus i f we h av e made .

mistakes in the p ast we can to a considerable exten t

,

m
m odify th e results by setting in Operati on neutral i z ing
,

forces I f we send out a strong thought Of love i

. e di

ately after we have made the mistake of thin ki ng a

thought of h ate we can o v ercome what otherw ise would
,

have been the inevitable eff ect o f the hate Th is gr e at .

p o ss i b ility f
o od if in
y g d e stin y sh ould n ot b e ov e r look e d .

I s i t right to speak o f any law Of nature as merc iless %

D o we call gravity merc iless because one d ay while , ,

walking along a ri ver ban k the soil gave way un der our ,

feet and gravi ty dragged us to the roc k s below % Of

,

course we do not becau se we reali ze that i f gravity

,

ce ased but for a s ingle instant there would be a terr ific , ,

explos i on and this ear th would dri ft Off through sp ace

,

m
as a mere c loud of i mp al pab le dust D O we call nature .

cruel because sh e produces a di sease d condit i on in our

,

phys i cal bod i es when we become d i ss ip ated and lax i n

,

our morals % Then why should we do so i f the result of ,

some s im ilar lack o f self control for one reason or an

-
,

other doe s n ot c o e at onc e b ut is p ostp on e d un til a

,

futur e li fe % A re we not the same souls and do we not ,

as souls reta in full memor ies o f all p ast li ves wh i ch , ,

after all are only days i n our greater soul li f e %

,

Nature i s most wi se in enabling us p h ysic ally to f or

get the p ast and start w i th a clean record H ow many .

a man h as w i she d and prayed f or th a t very boon i n th i s

li fe % Memori es are f requently a hand i cap and e v en a
torment wh en accom p an i ed b y remorse — it i s f or th i s
reason among others that we start afresh eac h li fe on
, ,

earth F urthermore full memori es Of all our past liv es

.
,

would mak e i t p oss i ble to a consi derable extent to

, ,
 T H EOSO P H Y S IM P L IFIE D

antic ipate th e future because we could p i ck out the

,

causes wh i ch would produce comi ng events N ow recall .

to m ind some month or year wh i c h was filled w ith much

sorrow and difficul ty Would we have had th e courage
.

to have faced that period had we known what was com

ing % Our very i gnorance Of th e future was an enor
mous advantage and because we did not see th e events
,

until they were actually up on us we were victori ous ,

over them i n the end Knowledge of th e future at our

.
,

present st age of evoluti on woul d be a curse and not a

,

help would be th e cause of coun tless failures where

, ,

ignorance Of what is to be brings success .

What we do bri ng w i th us when we come however i s

m
, ,

m
th e essence of our p ast experi ences in the form of i nn ate

m
facul ti es and th e voi ce Of consc i ence Whenever i n .

business an Old se t of account books i s closed and a new

se t Opened only the balances are brought forward
,
SO .

when we com ence a new i ncarnation we b ri ng th e

su ation of our past experiences i n a form mos t sui t ed

to the nee ds and emergenc i es of physical l i fe hence those ,

quali ties of character those p owers to ach i eve those

, ,

inborn faculties wh i ch make one child different from

,

another .

This answer to destiny Often men tioned i n theo

,

sophical literature as Karma is not fatalist i c in the

,

slightest F atalism always implies that we are bound

.

on an iron wheel of c i rcumstances from which no e fi or t

of our own can free us Karma on th e contrary says
.
, ,

that while i n truth we are bound by what we have done

in th e past yet each moment we l ive we are mould ing
,

and modify ing th e future by the dec i sions and cho i ces
we make F ree wi ll certa inly does not mean that we are
.
-

free to change th e conditi ons of nature in any way that

our whims may dictate b ut that we are free to choose
,

what we shall do w ith in those condit i ons I f each one .

of us had the p ower to mod i fy the world according to

[ 62 ]
 TH E P R OB L E M O F D E S T I N Y

our several fancies what an inconce i vable chaos would

,

result %
On e of the cond i tions of nature is that when we ,

choose we must abide by the result of our cho i ce I n

,
.

th i s wa y we learn w i sdom I f we dec i de to j ump Off a

.

w all it doe s not stop our fall for one inst an t to w i sh

, , ,

when we are halfway down that we were on top aga in ,

.

—
I f we j ump OE we must s trike bo ttom a cause is always
followed by i ts e ff ect I f we are wi se we th i nk before
.

we j ump .

This concepti on of dest i ny when Once un ders tood , ,

results in a p h ilosop hy of opt im i sm E very hardshi p .

we experi ence i s an Old debt pa i d and we are glad o f it ;

instead Of compla in i ng or repin ing we see k eagerly for
the lessons each event brings T he f ri ends who gather .

round us have been our fri ends before ; the ones we love
this life w ill be wi th us again many times i n the future ,

for love is a tie so strong that even death cannot bre ak it .

There i s no goal too h i gh for us to reach ; i f we p lace

our goal on the heigh ts i t may not be reache d for many
,

l ives b ut reach i t we shall for that wh i ch we w ill to do

, ,

m
we can do A ll that is necessary i s to turn every energy
.

in that directi on to th ink Of the goal to des i re it w i th

, ,

all our heart to se i ze every Opp ortunity to draw nearer

,

to i t If this i s done there i s no power O

. n earth or in

h eaven wh i c h can p revent us f rom reach i ng i t .

We may be hand i cap p ed i t i s tr ue by foolish is , ,

ta kes or contrary e ff orts we have made i n the past e i ther ,

in thi s l i fe or i n others but the effects of these mistakes

,

and e fi or ts must i n time become exha usted and equally ,

th e new f orces we are sett ing i n Operation now must

produce th e ir inev i table effects S o instead o f bew ailing .

our past m i stakes we resolutely se t to work under the

, ,

insp i rat i on o f th i s p h ilosophy to mould th e future into ,

the l ikeness of our h i ghest i deals confi dent that if we ,

se t go i ng each moment th e best we kn ow the future , ,

[ 63 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y S IM PLIFIED

immedia te and distan t will be radiant with ever in c r e as

,

I n g happiness and filled with ever grow in g Opportun i t i es .

The Good Law may be trusted to the end .

[ 64 ]
 CH AP T ER V I I

TH E S PLENDI D GOAL

W ha t is th ena ture of tha t wider life for which th e

long process of reincarn a tion is preparing us % A S
sur e dly not an inactive existence i n some S pi ri tual realm

where for all e ternity we remain in an ecstasy o f devo

tion al c on templation Th i s may appeal to th e mystic
.

and th e sain t who love seclusion and freedom f rom the

,

con tac ts of the world b ut to th e normal man and woman

,

of to d ay a fu ture exis tence of w ide and b e n e fic e n t

,

ac tivity would be more at trac tive and more in kee ping

,

wi th what i s apparen tly the purp ose of our phys i cal

existence .

D oes not the greatest happiness come to us now when

we have successfully accomplished some good work cre ,

a ted some thing u seful or beau tiful or have been of ,

service to o thers % There is of course a passing p leasur e

, ,

in winning a p ri ze receiving a pleasing gift and enj oy

, ,

ing an en tert ainment or trip but such pleasure can never

,

equal in quali ty or in tens i ty the happiness wh i ch comes

when we realize that we have contributed someth ing of
value to the world .

—
This happiness is ins tinc tive it is th e exp ressi on i n
us of th e universal j oy in crea tion We may see that .

j oy in th e very exuberance with which na ture fashions

whirling a tom and flashing star colored flower and ,

rugged crag creepin g l i chen and fores t giant flying

, ,

mo th and labo ri ng man pa inted coral and threa ten ing

,

cloud insec t wing and flaming nebula modeling whole

, ,

kingdoms of living things w ith inexhaustible invention ,

ligh tly touching all with charm and grace drap ing some ,

[ 65 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M P L I FIED

in sober hues o thers in maddest colors yet all w ith

, ,

beau ty designin g some in terms of pure geome try others

, ,

wi th wild f ancy some as o f lacework others w i th l im it

, ,
—
less streng h verily as we gaze our hearts qu i cken with
t
th e crea tive v i tali ty of it all and we feel the j oy of its

m
,

divine I nventor as He moulds i n plast i c ma tter form

after form i n i n fin ite vari ety to express life after life
in i n finite comp lex i ty .

We need not deprec i ate the love of activity the ad ,

ir ation for e fficiency th e worsh i p of achievemen t

, ,

which are marked characte ri stics Of the modern man .

They are the first expressions i n the race of a new sense

Of p ower which in the end will lead to mastery of the
,

physical world F rom our presen t e fi or ts misguided

.
,

and unbalanced as frequen tly they are will arise in time ,

true sk ill i n action which is one of th e ways of ga i n ing

,

knowledge of th e D ivine We ough t n ot regard such .

e fforts and i deals as merely a p assing phase— rather they

are the bursting through the c r ust of civilizati on of long
pent up forces th e result of the onward p ressure of
,

evoluti on .

We shall not be able to un derstand th e profound sig

n ific an c e of evolution so long as we th ink of God as sep

arate from the universe as exi sting apart somewhere ,

in space and as an e x te r n al Creator fashionin g the

, ,

worlds i n cosmic matter The evolution of a universe .

does not resemble the building of a house because the ,

human art i sans who w i eld saw and hammer are not p ar t
of th e house ; but we may compare an evolvi ng universe
to a liv ing body for the un iverse i s living an d as i s the
, ,

m
case w i th a body the gu i ding controlling I n telligence is
, ,

w ith in not w ithout

,
.

L ong ago we were told that in H i m we li ve and move

”
and have our be in g and this seems to be literally th e
,

tru th E very form moving or unmoving from th e tiny

.
, ,

atom bene ath our feet to th e farthest star is th e an i ,

[ 66 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M PLIFIE D

ever all our childish li ttle ideas of God as a magnified

human being and strive to think of Him as the Universal
,

L ife th e L imi tless Consciousness th e E t ernal L ove th e

, , ,

very source and heart of all tha t is E verything tha t is .

%
,
”
is God .

When we re turn to a con templa tion of th e earth ,

na ture has taken on new di gni ty a deeper signi ficance ,

.

N o longer can we look indi fferen tly at th e various king

doms of nature : m ineral vege table animal human and , , ,

superhuman for we se e tha t each one has sprung in to

,

being because of th e pressure of th e divine Life welling

up th r ough ma tter bearing wi th it coun tless cen ters of
,

consciousness which in th e human kingdom become indi

,

v idualize d as souls Wave after wave of this L ife pushes

.

its way up through ma tter modeling it in to ever more ,

complex forms un til out of th e mineral arises th e

,

vege table out of th e vege table th e animal out of the

, ,

animal the human out of the human th e divine ,

.

E very form in th e univers e is ceaselessly growing ,

pa ssing as th e cen turies speed on from immobili ty to ,

freedom from darkness to ligh t from i gnorance to wis

, ,

dom from a less perfect to a more perfec t s tage Ulti

,
.

ma te perfec tion is never reached for ul tima te perfec tion ,

is God but every living thing is con tin ually becoming

,

more perfect and does in time reach perfec tion in its

stag e of g r ow th Thus we may think of a perfect man
.
,

b ut when such perfec tion is reached a more gl ori ous ,

goal is seen ahead and when tha t is won s till another is

, ,

visible P rogres s is in fini te therefore happiness is in fi

.
,

nite Though we may gain much wisdom there i s ever

.
,

more wi sdom for th e winning Though we may gain .

true love there is ever grea ter love to embody arising

, ,

as love does from th e hear t of th e D ivine Though we .

may gain grea t skill in ac tion even grea ter skill is pos ,

sible for we are being taugh t in a world buil t by th e

,

Mas ter \Vor ke r .

68 ]
 THE SPLE NDID G OAL

J
oy becomes more i ntense as we advance along the

m
evolutionary p ath because there is never any end to the
,

glories unveile d to our awakening comprehens ion The .

universe may be compared to one of those Christmas

transforma tions so dear to th e heart of every child in
, ,

which scene el ts in to scene wi th ever increasing beauty

and color until th e childish eyes are aglow wi th deligh t
,

and expe cta tion S o also with us as we grow upwards

.
,

b ut in th e universe th e transformations are endless God ,

ever concealing Himself wi thin some lovelier crea tion .

T r uly it has been said that veil after veil shall lift but %
,
”
there shall be veil aft er veil behind This is the zest .

of life this th e inspira tion of progress this the eternal

, ,

mys tery of the Godhead .

E volution is th e name we have given to tha t limite d

po r tion of the never ceasing progress or transformation
-

wi thin th e universe which we are able to observe here

,

on earth Our understanding of evolution is often dis

.

tor te d however because th at tiny p ort ion of th e process

, ,

we are now wi tne ssing is th e hardes t and most trying

—
of all it may be compared to th e uninspiring scale
prac tice which is needed before one can become a skilful
mus i cian All grea t struc tures and achievements have
.

their sc afi old in g stage during which beauty is lack i ng

,

and th e surroundings are unple asan t but th e edi fice con ,

c e ale d at fi rst by th e rough t imbers i s later revealed i n

all its beau ty S o wi th human charac ter which i s now

.
,

be ing buil t up so laboriously block by block I t i s often .

times unlovely because incomple te b ut there is a beauty

, ,

and unlimi ted possib ilities in every man clearly visible ,

’
to a Master s eye .

There seems to be no limi t to th e powers we may evolve

when we make th e e ffort for our consc i ousness i s a R ay ,

of th e divine Light and to tha t R ay all ach i evements

,

are p ossible in time We may think of each soul b od y

.

as a lens through which th e R ay of universal Li ght i s

,

[ 69 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M PLIFIED

shining so that while we are true sp i ri tual i nd ivi duals

, ,

even as the image of the sun cast by a burn ing glass i s

separate from all o ther i mages nevertheless we are but ,

reflec tions of the one great Consc i ousness Has i t n ot .

been sa i d that we were created in th e image of God and ,

do we not recall th e admonishing words : Know ye n ot %

that ye are the Temple of God and the S p i ri t of God

”
dwelleth i n you %
Growth is not th e addition of qualities to our char
acter ; i t is th e s timulation to act ivity and to expression
of qualit i es which we possessed all the time but i n a
late n t condi tion D evelopment is therefore an unfolding
.

o f the powers which are hidden within even as the ,

beau ty Of the rose is concealed i n the bud The purp ose .

of evolut i on— the trials and hardsh ips th e diffi cul ties ,

and successes th e loves and hate s the pleasures and dis

, ,

appointmen ts th e luxuries and p ri vations— is to stir us

, ,

coax us an d if need be force us to awaken to act i vi ty

, , , ,

and power the hidden slumbering faculties of th e soul

, ,

and to Show us how we may master world af ter world if

only we make the e ffort .

T r uth is within ourselves ; i t takes no rise

F rom outward things whate er you may bel i eve
,
’
.

and to kn ow ,

R ather consists in opening out a way

Wh ence the impri soned sp lendor may escape ,

Than effecting entry for a l i ght

”
S uppose d to be without .

Most p eople do not learn e i ther will ingly or v olun

f ari ly b ut seek to spend the i r days i n amusement and
,

fleeting pleasures hence sooner or later Nature who is

. , ,

an aspect of God finds it necessary to resort to drast i c

,

measures i n order to teach them those th ings they must

learn Grow th i s sw i ft when we take our own evolut i on
.

[ 70 ]
 TH E SPLE NDID GOAL

in hand and str i ve to c o Op erate wi th the di v ine W ill

,
-

wh i ch makes for progress but advancement i s p ain fully

,

slow for millions of human beings because they merely

ex i st mechanically following a daily rout ine and never
, ,

think of seekin g out the purp ose of li fe .

Wh en we se e around us men and women who can do

wi th c ase that which we can not do and p ossess greater
p owers than w e — a strong character a superb i ntellect , ,

a soaring sp i ri tuali ty a p ower to achieve that i s in

,

spiring— there is no cause f or despa i r any more than a ,

child should become despondent because he is not yet a

s tudent in college . S uch men and women h ave out
stripped us i n certa in ways and are there f ore nearer to
th e splendid goal than we but as soon as we put f o r th
,

similar and equal e fforts we shall l i ft ourselves to their

,

level I t may take years or even liv es to accomplis h this

.

end depending upon our p resent stage o f development

, ,

but no thing can prevent us from reach i ng an y level of

ach i evement upon wh i ch we se t our w ill .

The sp lendid go al is not a changeless th ing ; i t v ari es

w i th the development of each asp i ri ng consc i ousness for ,

i t i s the next step forward in evoluti on f or that con

sc iousn e ss . F or an intell i gent an i mal the S plend i d go al
,

i s human i ty ; f or a human be ing i t i s I n i t i at i on ; for an

m
I n i ti ate i t i s Mastersh ip ; for a Master i t i s a st ill more
stupendous height far beyond our c omprehens i on but ,

for all it i s the gleam ing gateway ahead on the other ,

s i de of wh i ch Op en out th e illumined v i stas Of a larger

life.

I n it i at i on i s th e splendid and i ndescri bable We lc o in g

by the Masters th e E lder B roth ers o f the race o f those
, ,

men an d women who h ave ri sen to that level o f dev elop

ment through va ri ed experi ence ga i ned duri ng many
,

l ives on ea r th where they are nea ri ng the p o i nt of grad

,

nation from the world school I n i tiat i on i s th e goal f or

-
.

every human be ing and though f or m ill i ons i ts atta in

,

[ 71 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M PLIFIED

men t is s till remote because of their general undevelop

men t nevertheless many are coming i n to incarna tion
,

now for whom I ni tiation is comparatively near at hand .

A very few will gain it this life if they were so fortun a te

as to commence their training while s till young ; a number

will win their way to this superb height next life on earth
if they take their evolution in hand n ow ; many however , ,

will reach this glorious consumma tion of physical exis t

ence i n only a few i ncarna tions if they steadfas tly com ,

mence to p ractice th is life on earth those simple rules of ,

physical moral men tal and spiri tual educa tion so clearly
, ,

explained in Theosophy 1
.

T o reach I ni tia tion th e help of a Master is needed for ,

there are many lessons to be learn ed and much training

to undergo bo th in this and in th e invisible worlds .

Therefore it will be well for us to know some thing of the

Mas ters of their work for humanity and how their
, ,

a ttention may be a ttrac ted so tha t we may receive th e

necessary assis tance .

When a man through th e long course of evolution

, ,

reaches perfection as a human being and is therefore

under no obligation or necessi ty to reincarna te any
longer he does n ot wi thdraw in to th e u tter bliss of some
,

spiritual realm leaving us his younger brothers to

, , ,

str uggle unaided with our many sorrows trials and prob ,

lems Un se lfish n e ss and compassion are two of th e many

.

priceless lessons thoroughly t aught in this world school -

,

and all w h o gradua te from it are embodiments of these

two spiri tual qualities Therefore one who has com
.

p le te d his human evolution unle ss assigned to

,
other
work in th e solar system for which there i s need remains ,

in th e invisible w orl ds surrounding th e earth and in a

1 Tho se who are really i n earnes t canno t do be tter than to Ob ta in

a co p y o f A t th e F e e t of th e M aste r and s tr ive to mak e p ar t o f
the i r charac ter th e p rece p t s so s im p l y la i d down i n tha t won d er f ul
l ittle book o f th e h i gher li f e .

[ 72 ]
 TH E SPLENDID G O AL

m
m
mos t powerful way assists in th e evolution of humanity .

Those who have thus remained are ofte n spoken of

” %
as Mas ters ( tho ugh in a s tri c ter sense th e t itle M as ter
is res tri c ted to those of th e perfe c ted men wh o acce
‘

pupils ) and they for collec tively th e Grea t ite

L odge or Occul t Hierarchy t radi tions of which have
,

existed f or cen tu ri es in th e Orien t The evolution of the .

whole of humanity takes place under th e guiding care

of this i gh ty spiri tual Organiza tion and in countless ,

ways th e individual Mas te rs help n ot o nl y th e race as a

whole b ut also individual men and women when they
,

are found worthy .

Though many of the Masters are in incarnation they ,

live physically lives of seclusion and seldom mingle in

, ,

th e hu r ry an d rush of civiliza tion I t would be a usele ss

.

expen di ture of energy for them to take part i n our

m
physical ac tivi ties as their b e n e fic e n t work is done al
,

most wholly and to much better advantage in th e invisi

ble worlds There they can come more in timately in
.

contac t wi th th e many millions of souls who popula te

this plane t and are able t o help them more e ffectively
,

than would be possible if they moved a ong mankind

physically for here we are handicapped decidedly by th e
,

limitations of th e brain and accordingly are much less

responsive to spiritual forces .

The Masters from time to time when civiliza tion is ,

ready i ntroduce new ideals and asp i ra tions into the

,

minds of men by sending out in t o the mental curren ts

,

of the sub tler worlds p owerful waves of though t and

,

feeling These flood th e higher levels of the emotional

.

and mental worlds and are caught up and repea ted

,

physically by receptive people I t i s for this reason tha t

.

s timul ating ideals forceful ideas imp or tan t inventions

, ,

and higher moral s tandards so often a ri se spontane ously

in many part s of th e world about the same time The .

cause of these sudden en thusiasm s— as for example the , ,

[ 73 ]
 TH EOSOP HY SI MP L IFIED

intense des i re for un iversal p eace the rad i ant i deal o f

,

religious tolerance the insp iring dream Of a c o Op erat iv e

,
-

c i viliza tion the se nse of p ersonal responsib ili ty for the

,

welfare of others th e quickening feeling of the need f or

,

—
universal brotherhood will forever remain an en i gma ,

un til we learn o f this hidden labor of our d ivine T eachers .

R arely one of th e M as ters himself comes out Openly

into the world in order to g ive w i th the sk ill poss ible ,

only to a Mas ter some i mportant tru th or teaching or

, ,

hel p with his physical presence in the moulding of civ

ilization i n some new and urgen t way Thus it i s sa i d
.
,

by some o f the pupils who are in a p osition to know ,

tha t one of the greate st of th e Masters is coming this

century p ossibly w ithin the next few years if the world
,

can be made ready to start a new religious an d sp i ritual

,

impulse And from many i ndications the open ing quar

.
,

te r of th i s century does seem to be a turning p o i nt i n

civiliza tion and it may well be that there l i es ahe ad of
,

us i n the i mmediate future under the supervision and

,

th e i nspiration o f the presence of th i s great Te acher not ,

only new departures in sc i ence ph ilosophy art and so

, ,

c iology but also a wonderful renaissance of rel i g i on and

,

sp i ri tual i ty wh i ch will transform the world

,
.

More o ften the Mas ters send some pup il i nto the world
de finitely to influence civiliza tion i n some necessary di
rec tion either by his sk ill i n leadership his genius in
, ,

art h is wi sdom in wri ting or h is eloquence in speaking

,
.

The world i s led from i deal to i deal from height to ,

height largely by the influence of great personal i ti es

, ,

and i f we had the power to look beh ind the scenes we ,

should fin d that many of the great men and women of

history both immediate and re mote were the consc i ous
, ,

or unconscious messengers Of th e Masters .

S ome times th e Masters fin d i t necessary to establi sh a

movement or organiza tion through which they can more
adequately and wi dely convey to th e world certain ,

[ 74 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M PLIFI E D

ulate ,
b ut
they never compel I f they had ben t our wills .

to theirs this civiliza tion would be far more perfec t than

,

it is now b ut we would s till be only obedien t children

, ,

ins tead of developing as we have parti ally done th e

, ,

s treng th and ini tia tive of self relian t manhood L essons -

.

taugh t by precept alone are never so deep rooted as those

impressed up on us by ac tual experience and hence it ,

is th e Masters have allowed us to experimen t and thereby

m
tes t our imperfect ideas realizing that only in this slow

m
,

way— th e way of evolu tion— can wisdom mos t surely be

%
gained Mis takes failures and follies are more e ffec tive
.
,

c ounse l and advice .

1 of th e Masters is to evolve a civilization which

ay be relied upon t o do wha t is righ t at any c ost n ot ,

becau se of precep ts which men obedien tly follow b ut ,

because of clear sigh ted w isdom won in many a losing

-

battle agains t wrong oppression and inj us tice,

They .

desire tha t th e race shall be pure not because of th e un ,

tes ted vir tue of innocence b ut because it h as arisen from ,

th e foulness of vi ce clean sed and made wise by inevi table

suff ering They plan tha t humani ty shall be wholly
.

bro therly n ot because of ignorance of hate b ut because

, ,

men have learned through experiencing enmi ty se lfish ,

ness and compe ti tion tha t there is nothing so priceless

,

as love and tha t n ot one thing can be of lasting bene fit

,

to man or na tion if it h as been gained at th e expen se of

o thers .

We learn only by contrasts ; ri gh t is seen by contras t

wi th wrong pu ri ty by con trast wi th impurity strength
, ,

by con tras t with weakness This k n owledge i s th e gif t .

of physical experience where such con tras ts alone are ,

possible and it is worth everything through which we

,

must go i n our many incarn a tions to gain it E xp e r i .

ence is th e magic wand which awakens th e sp i ri tual seed

of consciousness after it has been plan ted in matter .

We may imagine some ideal civiliza tion springing

 THE SPLENDID G OAL

forth full formed from th e divine Mind which would be

-
,

wonderful glorious beyond all telling B ut it would be

,
.

a humani ty of beau tiful dolls obeying blindly th e Will of

m
,

their D es igner an d n ot a civiliza tion which though les s

, ,

beau tiful is in fini tely more inspiring because formed of

, ,

spiri tual in telligences who have won their way to their

presen t s tanding by sheer mastery of circums tances and , ,

as scarred ve terans command homage and ad ira tion

,
.

I n this though t may lie h i dden th e inner necessity n ot ,

only for physical exis tence but for th e manifesta tion of

m
,

th e universe .

‘
V e Should n ot shrink from experience even though
v ,

hard for experience alone can help us win th e splendid

,

goal K n ow le dge of th e w or ld is as n e c e ssar y to e v olv in g

.

h u an ity as sp ir itual un d e r stan din g and w e even tually ,

shall gain bo th F or most of us th e swi f tes t grow th

.
,

comes when we labor diligen tly in th e world striving to ,

solve th e problems overcome th e di ffic ult i es and manage

, ,

th e si tua tions of daily life wi th e fficiency and high mo

tive S ome think of th e world as spread wi th the snares
.

of a devil and counsel turning the though ts constan tly

to heaven ; Theosophy regards th e world as th e crucible
of God in th e whi te hea t of which charac ter i s re fin ed .

Others believe that spiri tual progress i s impossible in the

midst of civiliza tion and advise re tiremen t from th e
world ; Theosophy s ta tes tha t th e i ns truct i on we receive
in daily life is absolutely necessary here and here after ,

for wi thou t th e detailed knowledge and wide experience

m
which physical existence alone can give us we Shall not ,

be able to accomplish successfully or even commence th e

migh ty work in the unseen realms for which these many
incarna tions on earth have been fitting us .

There are certain ways of e e tin g experience which ,

are mos t e ff ective in their resul ts for n ot only do they

,

in tensify life to a remarkable extent g i ve richness and ,

meaning to every even t and make us a ttentive to Opp or

[ 77 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SIM P L IFIED

tun itie but they also h as ten our development and above
s, ,

all bring us forcibly to th e atten tion of one of th e Mas

ters These a tti tudes which we should seek to cultivate
.
,

as we go forth to mee t experience are as follows ,

Te ac h ab le n e ss : —S o many people go through life com

plaining of th e hardship s of their lot anti cipating trou ,

bles which never come blaming o thers for their own ,

failures fretful over small things and remarks fussing

m
, ,

wi th triviali ties tha t it is refreshing to mee t a man who

,

thoughtfully examines each experience pleasant or un ,

pleasant sees its lesson no tes where he has been at fault

, , ,

and quie tly de termines not to make the same mistake

again There is so much sub tle egotis in mos t of us
.
,

that rarely do we th i nk of ourselves as the cause of many

of our troubles P ractically everyone i s conv inced when
.
,

some thing un pleasan t has happened that some one else ,

is to blame b ut when anything p articularly fortunate

,

occurs we are usually wi lling to acknowledge— modestly

, ,

of course — our responsibil ity i n the matter Consider .

able development is shown when one i s will ing to ac

knowledge responsibility for failure .

E very teacher will recall the pleasure which w as felt

when a pupil eagerly c o—Opera ted in learning th e lessons
assigned but probably remembers also wi th equal vivid
,

ness th e discouragemen t fel t when it was necessary to ,

force a lesson on a s tubborn child who careless and in dif ,

f e r e n t pers i sted in idli n g away his time

,
I n this world .

school many of us resemble such foolish children and n o ,

doubt that i s one of th e reasons why mo ther Nature is

obl i ged to admin i ster a birching now and then i n th e ,

form of strenuous experience to make us learn F ar ,

.

greater happiness would be ours i f i nstead of though t ,

lessly letting the days slip by we sought f or th e priceless ,

lessons they bring N othing happens by chance ; there

.

i s a purpose and an excellent purpose i n all things and

, ,

events Our business is to fin d that purp ose and profit

.

[ 78 ]
 T H E SP L E N DID GOAL

by it ; i f we do not the expe ri ence i s repeate d aga i n and

,

ag a in w i th m inor v ari ations un til we do

, ,
.

We make ourselves m i serable oftentimes by cl ing i ng

too tenac i ously to our p ossessions and assoc i at i ons .

”
%
T ransplanting i s as g ood for us as for seedlings tersely ,

says Mr s B esant . The chief value of the attract ive

.

th ings o f th e world is that they call forth e ff orts in us

to gain them and e ffort s awaken the p ower to achieve
,
.

P ossess i ons are of abou t as much intrins i c value to us ,

who are dea thless souls as books and a Slate are to a

,

schoolbo y When they have accomplished the i r p urp ose

.

there i s no reason why they should not be discarded .

The soul cannot use p ossessions in its own world where

consciousness i s the one real i ty and so when on earth ,

those things which we have gathered together are taken

away f rom us it is wiser to turn bri ght eyed to whatever
,
-

else Nature has i n s tore than to compla i n and gri eve

,

and drum our heels u p on the floor like angry ch ildren

deprived of the i r toys Though we can real i ze phys i
.

cally but little of th e richer fuller l i fe of our soul con,

sc iousn e ss in the heaven world our duty is to be keenly ,

al ert to the mean i ng and purp ose of everyth in g which

happens in order that the s oul w i thin may gain clear

,

p i ctures of the world w i thou t and i n t i me master the ,

com p lex i t i es o f phys i cal ex i stence V eri ly the Masters .

rej oice to help those who are w ill ing to be taugh t .

E flic ie n c y :— The ab i lity to work withou t waste of

energy loss of movement or unnecessary fric ti on i s one
, , ,

of the great i deals of our modern day and i s valuable ,

equally to the aspirant for sp i ritual advancement as to

the man of a ffairs E ffic i ency i mpl i es concentration the
.
,

paying of clo se atten ti on to everyth ing we do and i s a ,

fac ulty o f much value as it st imulates a magni ficent

mental development If we are practi c ing e ffic i ency
.

nothing should be done carelessly or hastily but w i th full

atten tion each acti on p receded by thought and gu i ded
,

[ 79 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M PLI F IED

by j udgmen t E fficiency has no place for slip shod meth

.
-

od s or slovenly workmanship ; whatever is done ei ther ,

swee p ing a room or managing a fac tory inscribing a ,

le tter or wri ting a book should be done wi th all our

,

might and all our skill We should also be willing to

.

profit by th e experiences of o thers and therefore make a ,

p oint of reading carefully th e bes t which has been w ri t

te n upon a subj ec t before we ac t or j udge How many .

mis takes and false opinions would be eliminated if this

rule were followed % Those who seek th e Masters would
do well to prac tice e fficiency in all things .

Co ur a e —Those who t ake their evolu tion in hand

g :

need courage for destiny resp onds to their appeal for

,

progress and the curren t of life moves on more swif tly

, .

Many di fficulties w ill confront us a ri sing out of mistakes

,

and wrong j udgmen ts we h ave made in th e pas t and f r e ,

quen tly we shall falter and fail for we are but human
, .

F ailure in i tself means li ttle however if we have th e

, ,

courage to go on again and again af ter every se tback ,

thereby wr inging from each failure its drop of wisdom .

We must have high courage to play th e game of life well

and with spiri t as becomes strong souls and never to
, ,

fear the future n o matter wha t it may bring

,
.

When we realize tha t our des tiny is ac tually self

caused and that th e sequence or arrangemen t of th e
,

chief even ts which come into our life is in th e charge of

omniscien t I ntelligences we cast aside all apprehension
,

and go bravely forward wi th head erect knowing that ,

nothing can harm the inner S elf and tha t all our des ,

tiny can do is to deprive us of our li ttle pos sessio n s ,

cause us some temporary suffering or st ri ke away our ,

physical body ; through it all w e pass unscathed and if .

we have kn owledge un shaken for in us flames th e div ine

, ,

F ire
.

Our des tiny i s so wisely adju sted tha t no thing ever

comes which is too much to bear if w e ke e p up c our age
,
.
 T H E SPLENDID G OAL

Many a man h as been overwhelmed physically and gone

down to apparent defea t only to rise t ri umphant and
,

rej oicing on th e other side of death because of a deb t ,

well paid an d a vic tory won N o matter h ow hard th e .

ba ttle goes figh t on and above all never make th e mis

, ,

take of thinking tha t suicide will make things easier and

bring forge tfulness We may kill th e physical body b ut
.

we cannot annihilate memory or remorse and those wh o ,

have slain their bodies when courage failed found life

harder on th e o ther side N ever give up s truggle on
.
, ,

even against heavy odds for the S piri t wi thin is inde

,

str uc tib le and i mpe ri shable and knows n ot defeat ,

.

B r oth e r lin e ss :— Many people responding to the call ,

of bro therhood have s t arte d out bravely to be of service

,

to their fellow men but mee ting wi th i ngrat itude in d if

, ,

ference and m i sunders tanding have become discourage d , ,

disheartened and even bi tter Wh ereupon they le t th e .

world go on unaided decla ri ng th at brotherly service

,

was an imp ossible i deal S uch experience is almost

.

inev i table at this st age of evolution as all who serve ,

will testify because humanity is undeveloped in so many

,

ways b ut does not this very absence of respons i ve feel

,

ing on th e part of those we seek to help tell us more , ,

plainly than before that serv i ce is needed % I ngratitude

,

should only insp i re more earnes t e fi or ts on our part i f

our a tti tude were ri ght .

The di fficul ty is tha t while we bel i eve ourselves to be

,

wholly unsel fish in our desire to serve y e t a fa in t of ,

sel fishness has crept in for all unconsciously we crave

,

praise recognition gra ti tude and even applau se N ot

, , .

rece iving these we feel hurt and disappoin ted I f we

, .

were absolute ly un selfi sh we would not ask for thanks ,

but labor for th e sake of th e work and because we love ,

our fe llow men .

L ove is the essence of brotherliness and unless we feel ,

true affection for th ose about us w i th all th e i r faults ,

[ 81 ]
 TH EOSOP HY SI MP LIF I ED

and weaknesses our e fi or ts to serv e w i ll not long endure

, .

There are too many disapp ointments B ut when we love .

,

it i nspires in us that s teady enthus i asm emotional or ,

men tal according to our temperamen t which we call ,

devo tion and wi th devotion a man with even few tal

, ,

ents may be of great service to the world and may go

,

far toward the Masters T o him no service i s too small

.
,

no labor too arduous He thinks of all around h i m as

.

h is brothers and that is enough

,
I t i s not wi thout deep .

meaning that a Master prefers the name B rother above

all other ti tles and that one who has reached this lofty
,

he i ght never even think s of rece iving praise or r e c ogn i

t i on because his service of humanity is perfec t and
,

therefore u tterly selfless The Maste rs are j oyous b e

.

yond all telling because they never think of themselves

b ut ever of the hap pi ness o f others S hould we not go .

and do likewise %
I n this marvelous world school every one strong -
, ,

enough possibly to become a leader is tested even as an ,

importan t piece of machinery is tested in an e ngineering

labora tory I f the tests wh i ch are those of daily life
.
, ,

are passed successfully wi der Opport uni ties arise b ut

, ,

if they are not p assed the candida te for leadership is

,

placed among th e followers again for further in str uc

tion. E very day we se e men rise above the i r fellows only
—
to fall back once more in to Obscurity they were n ot
s trong enough nor big enough to wi eld p ower A s E lbert .

Hubbard says The man who is wor thy of be ing a

%

leader of men will never complain of the stupidi ty of his

helpe rs of th e ingratitude of mankind or of the i nap

m
, ,

prec i ation Of th e public These things are all a part of

m
.

the great game of life and to meet them and not go

,

down be f ore them in d i scouragement and defeat is the ,

fin al proof of p ower .

D isc r i in ation :— There i s a sense of values called

d i s c ri inat i on wh i ch when developed enables us to
, , ,

[ 82 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M PLIFIED

we bid him en ter and assume command A Master once .

%
said to his pupil When your body wishes something ,

s top and think whe ther y ou really wish it F or y ou are .

God and you will only wha t God w ills ; b ut you m ust
,

dig deep down in to yourself to fin d th e God wi thin you ,

”
and lis ten to His voice which is y our voice , .

I f we yearn to fin d th e Mas ters b ut hesi ta te to tr y

m
,

because of our many imperfec tions we should realize ,

tha t they never ask th e impossi b le b ut always allow ,

for our mis takes and failings for they have not forgot ,

te n tha t long ago they too were as frail as we Truly .

they have been called th e Mas ters of Wisdom and Co

passion and we may tr ust them u tterly for their grea t
, ,

love and guiding care is divine in its splendor and power .

Words alone do n ot a ttrac t their a tten tion ; they j udge

of our fitne ss for special a ssis tance by our deeds and ,

n ot by our appeals however eloquen t S ocial s tanding

,
.

doe s n ot help us blue blood is of no avail weal th and

, ,

possessions canno t assist for th e Mas ters do n ot j udge

,

by th e s tandards of th e world Our advancemen t .

depends en tirely upon our charac ter our self mas tery ,
-
,

th e use to which we have p ut our talen ts I f we have .

used our facul ties for selfish gain and pleasure if our ,

though ts are unregulate d and our emo tions impure ,

Obviously we are not y e t ready for th e Mas ter B ut if .

we have used our talen ts for th e bene fit of others and ,

have at le as t p art ially succeeded in con trolling our

though ts and re fining our emo tions then th e Mas ter ,

knows us in th e invisible worlds though we may not as

yet know him I f we are in earnest our nex t s tep is to
.

learn all we can abou t th e P a th as it is called in Theos ,

op h y and deliberately to commence and s teadily con

m
,

tin ue tha t training of m i nd emo tions and body S O , ,

necessary to success 1
.

1 S ee A C ourse o f R ead ing i n Theoso p h y ” at th e end o f th i s

vol u e .

[ 84 ]
 TH E SPLENDID G OAL

S ome times people believe tha t they can serve human

ity only by giving up all family ties business obliga tions ,

and dutie s and devo ting them selves en tirely to altruis tic
,

and o ther benevolen t w o r k I f we are fr e e to do such .

work we of course h a e cause for rej oic ing b ut if we

, , ,
v
,

have already taken upon ou rs e lves du ties and obliga

t ions these responsibili ties come firs t in th e eyes of th e
,
’
Mas ters T o Shirk one s re sponsibili ties is always a
.

blunder and if we do so in order to se r ve such servi ce

, ,

does n ot lead us to th e splendid goal Lis ten to th e .

words a Mas ter spoke to one wh o followed him Be

cause you tr y to take up higher work you must not ,

forge t your ord i nary du ties for un til they are done you ,

are n ot free for other service You should undertake .

no new worldly du ties ; b ut those which you have already

taken upon you you mus t perfec tly f ulfil— all clear,

an d re asonable du ties which you yo u rself recognize ,

that i s n ot imaginary du ties which o thers tr y to impose

,

up on you
. .

All good work becomes service when done for the sake
of o thers and it does not ma tter whe ther tha t work
,

lies i n a business office in a school in a fac tory or in a , ,

home I t is n ot wha t we do tha t cons ti tu tes servi ce

.
,

—
it is why we do it for self or for o thers Un se lfish n e ss .

and forge tfulness of self are priceless quali fications in

th e higher life .

I n exac t proport ion to our abili ty to help encourage ,

and in spire o thers will be the swif tness of our approach

to I ni tia tion and those wh o are wise train themselves
,

carefully along some special line of service— teach i ng ,

wri ting speaking art is tic power or skill in s ome useful

, , ,

way— so th at th e y may go to th e Mas ter when they ask

'

h is assis tance beari n g in their ha n ds as did th e wise

, ,

men of old some gift of value The Mas ter does n ot

,
.

need ince n se an d gold b ut he does prize our o ff eri ngs ,

if they are of se r vice to humani ty for he has dedicated ,

[ 85 ]
 TH EOSOP H Y SI M PLIFIED

the whole of his mighty powers to servi ce and i f we ,

would reach him and Share in his j oy we must follow ,

i n h is foo tsteps and as apprenti ces str i ve to become like

, ,

un to him Great shall be our happ iness i f we lay the

.

gif ts of a tra ined mind pure emotions and Skilled hands

,

upon th e altar of se r v ice and in the m i dst of da ily life

,

bring th e calm strength the sweet seren ity the rad i ant
, ,

j oyousness of spiritual c onsecration .

[ 86 ]
 m
A COURSE OF READIN G IN THE OS OP HY

There are abou t 4 5 0 ti tles i n th e ca talogue i ssued b y th e

Theoso p h ic al B ook C on c ern ; there f ore it i s obv i o usl y i p oss ible ,
f or one commenc i ng th e s tud y o f Theoso p h y to selec t th e book s
bes t adap te d to gi ve a com p rehens ive i dea o f th e sub j ec t I t i s .

f or th e p urp ose o f gu i d ing th e reader i n h i s cho i ce tha t th e f ollow

m
ing titles are men t i oned The y have been care f ull y selec ted and

mm
.
,

ma y be sa f el y ordered b y an y one des i r ing to be c ome a c qua in te d

wi th Theoso p h y A ll orders should be a dd ressed to th e Theoso p h i c al
.

B oo k C oncern K r oton a Hollyw ood L o s A ngeles Cal i f orn i a

, , , ,
.

Ge n e r al w o r ks, co v e r in g t h e e n tir e fie ld o f Th e o sop h y ,

r
a r an g e d
in g r ade d or d e r fr o e le e n tar y t o or e a d v an c e d:

P r i ce P os tage
TH E OSOP H Y FOR BE G INNERS B y C W . . .

Chr i s ti e . 60 . 06
Wr i tten f or ch i ldren b ut Of ten a pp re c i a te d b y
,

the ir elders .

AN OU T LINE OF TH EOSOP H Y B y C W L ead . . .

beater
A p o p ular summar y wr itten w ith th a t wonder f ul
clar i ty so p e c uli arl y th e g if t o f its au thor .

POPULAR L E CT URE S ON TH EOSOP H Y B y .

Ann i e B esan t P a p er . 25
Clo th . 50
Ch a p ter T i tles : Wha t I s Theoso p h y L a d der o f
L i ves ; R e in c arna ti on I ts N ecess ity ; R e in c arna
,
ti on I t s A nswers t o L if e s P roblems ; L aw o f
,
’

A c ti on and R ea cti on ; Man s L if e i n th e Three ’

Worlds .

SO M E G LI M PSES OF OCCUL T IS M B y C W . .

L eadbea ter
A large volume c on ta i n ing a ser i es o f le c tu res
del ivere d i n C h i cago A f e w o f th e cha p te r ti tl es
.

are : Theo so p h y and Chr i s ti an i ty A n c i en t My s ,

te r ie s B uddh i sm The U nseen World P sy ch i c
, , ,
P owers How to B u ild C hara c ter The F u tu re
, ,
o f Human ity e tc , .

[ 87 ]
 A CO UR SE OF READIN G IN T HEOSOP HY

P r i ce P ost age
T HEOSOP HY SI M PLIFIED B y I rv ing S .

C oop er P a p er . 25

A new ou tl ine o f theoso p h i cal teach in gs mark ed

b y its s im p l i c i ty and d i rec tness of s ta temen t -
.

R ecommended to beg inners and to teachers o f

elemen t ar y classes .

TH E RIDDLE OF LIF E By A nn i e B esan t P a p er. . 25

A no tewor th y exp os iti on o f th e tru ths o f Th e so

p h y charac te r i zed b y beau ty o f language and
,

de p th o f though t I llus tra ted b y f our colored

.

p la tes .

M AN AND HI S BODIE S B y A nn i e B esan t .

D escr ibes th e na ture a pp earance and f unc ti on

,

o f th e v i s i ble an d i nv i s ible bod i es o f man A .

standard textbook i n elemen tar y classes .

A T E % T BOO K OF TH EOSOP HY B y C W . . .

L eadbea ter
A c lear and adequate s ta temen t o f th e p os iti on
an d f undamen tal teach i ngs o f Theoso p h y .

TH E ANCIEN T W ISDO M B y A nn i e B esan t .

B e y ond doub t th e f ulles t and mos t i llum ina tiv e

p resen ta ti on o f Theoso p h y A s tandard tex t .

book in ad v anced classes .

W o r ks c o n tain in g th e r e sults f Th e
o o so p h i c al in v e stig ati on
P r i ce P o stage
M E T HODS OF P SYC H IC DEVELOP M EN T B y .

I r v i ng S C oo p er
. . . 50 . 04

A p la i n sta temen t o f th e f undamental laws ,

p rac ti ces and resul t s o f p s y ch i c de v elo p men t .

S p ec i al s tress i s la i d u p on th e danger o f sev

eral p o p ular me thods o f awak en ing p sy ch i sm .

TH EOSOP HY AND THE N E W PSYC HOLO G Y .

B y A nn i e B esan t
A hel p f ul exp lana tion o f th e d i ff erence be tween
th e subconsc i ousness wa k i ng consc i ou sness and
,
su p er consc i ousness
-
R ecommended to those
.

who have been s tu dyi ng N ew Though t .

 A COURSE OF READIN G IN TH EOSOP H Y

m
P r i ce P o sta ge
THE L IFE AF T ER DEA T H L ead . By o w . .

P a p er . 25

A fl e fin ite s ta te en t based u p on ac tual ob ,

serva ti on and i nvesti ga ti on o f wha t ha pp ens ,

a fter dea th I llustrated b y colored p la tes

. .

T O T HOSE W HO M OURN B y C W L eadbea ter . . . .

P am p hle t
S i x f or
Wr i tten to g ive com f or t to those who have
lost loved ones b y dea th .

THE O T HER SID E OF D E A T H B y C W L ead . . .

bea ter
A f ull ac c oun t o f th e l if e a f ter dea th w i th
man y i llus tra tive i nc i den ts t a k en f rom th e
au thor s own exp er i ences or drawn f rom well
’

au then ti ca ted sour c es .

DREA M S B y C W L eadbea ter

. . . .

Wha t the y are and how the y are caused I t .

i s n ot an i n ter p re ta t i on o f dreams b ut i s a
s ci en ti fi c s tud y o f the i r sources and mechan i sm .

CLAIR VOYANC E B y C W L eadbea ter . . . . .

C on ten ts : Wha t C la i rvoy ance I s ; S i m ple C la i r

v o y ance P ar ti al and F ull ; C la i rvo y ance in
,

S p ace I n ten ti onal and U n i n ten ti onal ; C la i r

,

vo y an c e i n T i me th e P as t and th e F u ture ;
,

Me thods o f D evelo p men t .

M AN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE B y C W . .

L eadbea ter
A f asc ina ti ng descr ip ti on o f th e or i g i n and
evolu t i on o f th e soul w ith 2 6 colored p la tes il
,

lustra ting th e d i ff eren t typ es o f auras .

T HOU G HT FOR M S B y Ann i e B esan t and C W

. .

L eadbea ter
A de ta iled descr i p ti on based on cla i rvo y an t ,

i n v es ti ga ti on o f th e f orms bu i l t b y emo ti ons

,

and though t s W i th 3 0 f ull p age color p la tes

.
-
.

THE AS T RAL PLANE B y C W L eadbea ter

. . . .

A sc i en ti fi c accoun t o f th e scener y i nhab i tan ts ,

and p henomena o f th e emo ti onal world .
 A COURSE OF READIN G IN T HEOSOP H Y
P r i ce P ostage
TH E D E V A CHA N I C PLANE . B y C W L ea d . .

bea ter
A de ta i led descr ip ti on o f th e men tal or heaven
w orld .

INVISIBLE H E LPERS B y C W L ea dbeater . . . .

A n absorb i ng ac c oun t o f th e work done in th e

astral world to hel p th e l iving and th e dead ” %

who are i n d i ffi cul ti es There i s a cha p ter on .

th e qual i fi ca ti ons requ i red o f those who des i re

to t ak e p ar t i n th i s work .

A S T UDY IN K AR M A B y A nn i e B esan t .

A clear analy s i s o f th e laws o f des tin y wh i ch ,

should n ot be overloo k ed b y th e studen t .

THE H IDDEN SIDE OF T HIN G S B y C W L ead . . .

bea ter
Two large volumes V ol I O ccul ti sm ; How We . . .

A re I n flue n c e d— b y P lane ts S un N a tural S ur , ,

round i ngs N a ture S pi r i ts C en ters o f Magne t

, ,

i sm C eremon i es S ounds P ubl ic O pi n i on O cc a

, , , ,

sion al E v en t s U nseen B e ings ; O ur A tti tude

,

Toward These I n fluences V ol II How We . . .

I n fluen c e O urselves— b y our Hab i ts Men tal ,

C ond iti ons A musemen ts How We I n fluence

, .

O thers— b y Wha t We A re Wha t We Th ink , ,

Wha t We D o C ollective Though t s ; O ur R elati on

,

t o C h i ldren O ur R ela t i on t o th e L ower K ing

,
doms ; The R esul t s o f Th i s K nowledge ( V ol .

umes n ot sold se p ara tel y ) .

THE INN E R LIFE V ol I B y C W L eadbea ter

,
. . . .

I n Fiv e
‘

S ec ti ons deali ng w i th th e M as ters R e ,

ligion s, th e Theoso p h i cal A ttitude H i gher ,

P lanes th e E go O f th e grea tes t value to th e

,
.

stu d en t .

THE INNER LIF E V ol II B y C W L eadbea ter

,
. . . .

In N ine S ec ti ons deal ing w ith th e A fter D ea th,

L if e A s tral Work A ngels and N a ture S p ir i ts

, , ,

th e Worlds and R aces o f Men th e Theoso p h i cal ,

S oc i e ty an d I ts F o u nders A n i nval u able work . .

M AN : W HENCE HOW AND W HI T HE R B y ,

.

A nn i e B esan t an d C W L eadbeater . .

A com p rehens iv e sur v e y o f th e p as t and f u ture

h i s tor y o f mank i nd ob ta ined b y cla irvo y an t in
v e stigation F or th e advan c ed s tuden t
. .

[ 90 ]
 A COURSE OF READIN G IN T HEOSOP H Y
P r i ce P ostage
INNER LIFE V ol I B y C W L eadbea ter
,
. . . . 10
The F i rs t S e c ti on o f th i s volume should be
stud i ed b y those des i r i ng clear i deas regard ing
th e Mas ters and the i r work .

IN HI S NA M E B y C J in ar aj ad asa
. . P a p er
C lo th
L ea ther
A n i nsp i r i ng trea ti se on th e h i gher l if e ap
p r oac h e d f rom th e s tand p o i n t o f a pp l i ed i deals .

A T THE FE E T O F T H E M A S T E R B y
J K r i shnamur ti
.

. P a p er
C lo th
L ea ther
M in i ature E d i ti on L ea ther ,

Wr i tten down b y a y oung d i scip le o f th e Mas

te r K H . O f th e grea te s t v alue to all who
.

seek to l ive th e H i gher L ife i n th e m i dst o f th e

world .

THE SECRE T OF H APPIN E SS B y I rv ing S . .

C oo p er
The p rac ti cal a pp l i ca ti on o f th e i deal o f servi ce .

LONDON LEC T URE S OF 1 9 0 7 B y Ann i e B esan t .

I n f our p ar ts deal i ng w i th P sy ch i sm and S p i r

,

i tuality th e F u ture o f th e Theoso p h i cal S oc i e ty

, ,

th e Theoso p h i cal S oc i e ty and th e Mas ters th e ,

F i eld o f Work o f th e Theoso p h i cal S oc i e ty .

THE C H AN G IN G W ORLD B y A nn i e B esan t. .

A ser i es o f fi f teen magn i fi cen t lec tures deal ing

w i th soc i al cond i ti ons and th e com i ng changes
i n th e es tabl i shed orde r The C om ing o f a .

Grea t Teacher i s announced .

Wor ks re latin g t o Th e o so p h y an d Ch r istian ity

P r i ce P os tage
IS TH EOSOP H Y AN T I C HRIS T IAN % B y G He r -
.

ber t Wh y te . . . 25 s 03
.

A n excellen t treatmen t o f th e Theoso p h i cal

a tti tude toward C hr i s ti an i ty .

E SO T E RIC C HRIS T IANI T Y B y A nn i e B esan t . .

O ne o f th e mos t beau tif ul and i nsp i r i ng o f all

Mrs B esan t s wr i tings O f th e grea tes t value
.
’
.

to C hr i s ti an as well as Theoso p h i s t .

[ 92 ]
A ge o f soul
A naly s i s o f aura
A n cie
A ngels
A n i mals
nt

or devas
Wisd o m,

A s tral body ( see E mo ti onal

quo ted
D u p l i ca ti on o f ob j ec ts
D u ties
E ffi c i enc y
E lec trons and a t oms
E mo ti onal bod y
body ) resp onse o f
A s tral world ( see E mo ti onal E mo ti onal worl
world ) consc i ousness i n
A t oms and elec trons p o p ula ti on o f
A ura The E ther
,
E ther i c D o u ble
B ro therl iness E volu ti on

m
B ro thers ( see Mas ters ) E xp er i ence
mee ting
Causal or soul bod y 2 9 3 1 . .
,
32
C hance and des tin y 1 3 0 11 1131 6 8
5
58
C olors i n sub tle bod i es 3 0
0

.
,
31
C om ing Teacher The ,
. . 74 Fly g dreams o
,
f
C ond iti ons a f ter dea th 39 F orms, though t
C onsc i ousness i n emo ti onal F reew i ll
world 34 35
C onsc i ousness wa ki ng 35 Gie n ius
C on tras t s
,

76
Go d and des tin y
C ourage 80
and un i verse
C rea ti on j oy i n 65
Jus ti ce o f
,

C rook es S i r W i ll i am 22
Gr i e f wrong o f
,
,
Growth o f soul
n ot add i t i on
D ea th 3 7 e t se q .

D e fin i ti on o f 17
Ha pp i ness 65
D ens iti es o f ma tter 26
Heaven world 25 43
D er iv a ti on o f 17
Hered i ty 53
de R ochas 55
Hubb ard E lber t quo te d 82
D es tin y 5 6 e t se q .

Human ity and Mas ters

, ,

and chance 58
and God I deals an d c iv i l iz ati on 73
and L aw 59 60 61 , , In i ti a ti on 7 1 72
D evas or angels 27 I nna te f acul ti es 62
D i scr i m i na ti on
O 0

82 I n terval be tween l ives 4 9 5 0

D i slik e f or re incarna ti on 4 7 . . .
I nv i s ible worlds 2 0 e t se q
,

D reams
.

35
D reams o f flying 40 Justi c e o f God 51, 52

[ 93 1
 PA GE PAGE
Law an d d estin y 5 9 e t se q . R ep e ti ti on p r in c ip le o f
,
L aws o f emo ti onal world 23 . R evela ti on Theoso p h y n ot
,
. 18
o f na ture 60
L ives in terval be tween 4 9 5 0
,
. .
S chools p h ilos0 ph ic
,

L og i c o f re incarna ti on 48 S c i en c e
S erv i c e
M aste rs 1 6 25 2 7 7 1 -
76
S lee p
,
a ttra c ti ng a tten ti on Of
, ,
84
S oul age
Ma tter dens i ti es o f 26
bo dy
c on sc 1 ousn e ss
.
,
Memor y o f o ther l ives 5 4 . .
,
55
grow th o f
o f soul 60
in h eaven
Men tal bod y 29 ,
30
memor y o f
worl d 25
or i gin o f
M i s c on c ep ti ons of r e in c ar S ources o f Theoso p h y
nati on S p heres
My ster i es anc i en t
,
S p len di d goal
O r i g in o f soul Symboli sm
Teachableness 78
P er f e c ti on Tea c her th e c om ing
,
74
P h iIOS Oph ic schools Telep a th y 32 33
P h y s i cal hered i ty Theoso p h ical S o ci e ty 75
P o p u lati o n o f emo ti onal Theoso p h y and rel i g i on 1 1 -1 2
world 24, 25 de fi n i ti on o f 17
P r inc ip le o f re p e titi on . . 1 3, 1 4 der iva ti on o f 17
22 n ot revelat i on 18
P rovi dence 51 source s o f 9
P s y ch i c i nves ti ga ti on 15 Though t f orms 33
wa v es 32
Trans f orma ti ons 69

ggfizi giig
or ld s
g n l
U n iverse an d Go d 66 67

argumen ts f or
di sl ik e o f
l og i c o f Waki ng consc i o u sness 35
m is c once p ti ons o f Waves tho u gh t
,
32
ne c ess ity f or W ill p ower o f
,
23
R ela ti onshi p be tween Work o f Mas ters 7 3 e t se q .

w orld s 23 , 2 5 Worlds i nvi s ible

,
2 0 e t se q .

R el i g i on and Theoso p h y . 1 0, 1 2 real i ty o f 22

Rena i ssance 28 rela ti onsh ip be tween 2 3 2 5
.
,

[ 94 ]