Karma [A Twelve Part Series by Franz Hartmann, M.D.]

Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl.^[1]

I.^[2]

“This is the curse of evil deeds,

That they keep giving birth to evil.”

— Schiller (part).

The word karma (Sanskrit) means “action” or “activity,” and when the “law of karma” is spoken of, it means nothing other than the general law of nature according to which every action is a cause which has certain consequences, and from these consequences arise new causes for corresponding activities or actions; and so on ad infinitum, until complete stillness returns, in which all activity ceases. Every individual thing, whether it be an atom, a man, a people, a world, or a solar system, therefore has its karma, or, in other words, its outer life history composed of natural causes and consequences, the events of which do not consist of a series of accidents, but where one arises from the other; and since nothing in the world is isolated, but each individual is connected with the whole, the karma of the individual is also connected with the karma of the whole, and the karma of the whole depends on the actions of the individual members; both are mutually dependent. Every organism, be it human, social, ecclesiastical, state, or the whole of humanity together, can be regarded as an “I” that wills, thinks and acts as such, and thereby creates causes which its willing, thinking and acting determine for the immediate future and thus also his “destiny”; only the unselfish does not act and therefore has no karma of its own; as it has no individuality of its own, it can do nothing which would endow that non-existent individuality with qualities, or bring it happiness or misfortune. The selfless, however, is “God,” i.e. the free will redeemed from self-delusion through true knowledge, in which there is no longer any concept of separation from the unity of the whole. An organism creates its karma while it is in action; and likewise the self which works through that organism. If, however, it is not one’s own will which works through this organism, but wisdom that is exalted above all selfhood, then there is no peculiarity that could incur good or evil; but the good itself, which is not linked to any self-delusion, works in him, and there can be no question of any reaction to this non-existent self.

The innermost essence of man is the will; he may be good or bad, or only unconscious, and accordingly his actions will spring either from knowledge, from passion, or from ignorance, and these will be responsible for them; he himself is subject to the consequences of his actions only in so far as those qualities are his own, or in other words, so long as he identifies with one of them. If his actions are the result of his ignorance, he is not responsible for them, even if his body, the instrument through which he acts, must pay the consequences of his actions; for ignorance is a negative concept, nothing, and has no responsibility. If his action is born of passion, he suffers the consequences, inasmuch as that passion is his own and he identifies with it. If it comes from his own knowledge of what is good, then the consequences of his good actions will benefit him. But if he acts in the power of knowledge in complete self-forgetfulness and selflessness, then it is the power of the divine spirit which fills his consciousness and acts and works through him, and not his own personality, and his personality then has no part in these actions; even if it is not excluded that for the personality, through which selfless deeds are done out of a pure sense of duty, joyful or painful consequences will result. Man can do nothing for the glory of God out of his self-will, which springs from self-conceit, which is a delusion and therefore a perversity; but if he lets his self-delusion drop and the divine consciousness awakened in him guides him and acts through him, then God glorifies himself in him, without his doing. It is not correct to say that such a man fulfills his duty, for he himself does nothing in it, he is only the instrument by which what should and must happen is fulfilled. That is why it says in the Bhagavad Gītā: “Do what is to be done, but selflessly and without personal consideration. Whoever acts completely unselfishly attains oneness.”^[3]

An example may explain the above: if we take a soldier on the battlefield, he can act from three different causes; namely out of ignorance, whereby he is merely a blind tool of compulsion, out of passion, or out of love for one’s country. But if he fights out of a pure selfless sense of duty, then his action does not spring from his own will, but he acts according to the law of duty.

The former is a fool who merely follows the law of necessity; he shoots blindly at it, claiming no disadvantage or moral merit in doing so; he does not act of his own accord, but as a blind instrument of the will of his superiors, and on them the responsibility falls according to the degree of their knowledge and their motives. The second is a tool of passion, either springing from his own national hatred or possessing it as a result of the mood surrounding him. He seeks not only to do his duty, but also to gratify his own ambition or lust for murder, and the more he gives himself over to his sorrows and identifies with them, the more he acts of his own will and makes the passion his own “I.” As the second seeks to do evil of his own volition, so the third seeks to do good of his own volition. He is driven by love of his country, and by identifying himself with it, he appropriates it and makes it his “I.” He acts of his own volition and creates his own karma, be it good or bad. But the soldier who, without thought of himself and without selfish desire, seeks only to do his duty, is acting unselfishly; the moral and spiritual consequences of his actions do not affect him personally; but this protects him neither from having to share in the karma of his nation resulting from the war, nor from personal suffering through wounds, imprisonment, etc. The unselfish may be wounded, captured, or killed just as easily as the stupid or the passionate; for the person of each is an external thing and is related to external circumstances. On the other hand, the reaction on the inner man, in relation to his morals and way of thinking, will be different, depending on the motive for the action; i.e., depending on the source from which his wanting, thinking and doing sprang. But what a person wants, thinks and does is precisely what distinguishes them from other people. This is his individuality and from this follows his individual action, hence his own karma. But that also means that every person is their own karma. He is the sum of the qualities that he has acquired through his willing, thinking and doing, and from this sum are born causes which determine his willing, thinking and doing; it consists of his talents and faculties, which, when the opportunity presents themselves, are outwardly expressed, but cannot be asserted in another who does not possess them; for man can do nothing that is beyond his powers; his actions are an expression of his spiritual power; he cannot express what he does not have within himself, he acts as he is.

Before proceeding to a consideration of the occult forces involved in the effects of karma, it will be well to realize that these effects are not caused by anything alien, but have their origin in man himself:

The moving force in man, in which his will, thinking and ability is summarized, and which determines his actions and omissions, is called his “character.” Regarding this, Emerson says: “There are people in whose presence one always has the feeling, when one hears them speaking, that there must be something finer, higher in them than anything they utter. There are men of great importance and few deeds. We can scarcely find the smallest part of Washington’s weight in the history of his achievements, and the authority which Schiller’s name possesses is greater than his writings. Most of the power in such persons is latent. This is what is called their character, a stored-up force working immediately and through their mere presence. The purest literary talent, for example, sometimes appears larger, sometimes smaller; but the character possesses a starry, unvarying magnitude; he achieves his victories by the mere demonstration of his superiority, not by crossing bayonets; he wins because his arrival changes the whole situation altogether. Representatives of the people who know how to assert their point of view need not first ask their voters what they should say, but are themselves the country they represent.

“The same moving force is evident in commerce. There are commercial geniuses, as well as warlike geniuses, statesmanlike geniuses, or scientific geniuses; and as to the reason why one is lucky and another is not, all that can be said is, “It is in him. Look at him and you will understand his success.” Trade seems authorized by nature itself, as soon as we see the natural merchant, who appears little more than a private businessman, but rather as her agent and minister of trade “no” were said on a day when others would have said a fatal “yes.” He is also convinced that nobody can place him harm, and that a person must have been born for the commercial profession or can never learn it.

“The greatest physical power is paralyzed by this spiritual power. Higher natures overwhelm lower ones by putting them into a certain sleep. The abilities are shut off, so to speak, and no longer offer any resistance. Character is a force of nature, like light and warmth, and all of nature works with it. The reason we feel one person’s presence and not another is as simple as gravity. Truth is the pinnacle of being; justice its application to the circumstances of life; all individual natures are on a scale according to the purity in which this element is found in them. The will of pure men pours down from them onto lesser ones, as water flows down from a higher vessel into a lower one. There is just as little resistance to this force of nature as to any other. It is the prerogative of truth to procure belief for itself. Character is that moral law seen through the medium of individual natures. Each individual is a vessel. Time, space, freedom, necessity, truth and ideas are no longer outdoors. The world becomes an enclosure, a pawn shop. The universe is in man, individually colored according to the peculiar nature of his soul. He includes the world as a patriot includes his fatherland, as the material basis of his character, as the arena of his doings. A sane soul unites with what is just and true, as the magnet orients itself to the pole, so that it stands like a transparent object to all beholders between them and the sun, and whosoever moves towards the sun also towards himself have to move him. Thus he becomes the medium of supreme influence for all who are not on the same level. Impure people cannot see an action until it is done, and yet the spiritual element of the action already existed in the doer, and the quality of it as right or wrong was easy to predict. Everything in nature is bipolar, everything has a positive and a negative pole. The spirit is the positive image, the event the negative image. Will represents the North Pole, action the South Pole. Character may be said to have its natural place in the North; it participates in the magnetic currents of the whole system. The weak souls are attracted to the southern, negative pole; they ask about the benefit or harm of an action. They cannot perceive a principle unless it is embodied in a person; they do not wish to be lovable but to be loved. But the hero recognizes that success is something servile and must follow it. The spirit of good can flee from every situation, no matter how happy; but fortune clings to some spirits, bringing power and victory as their natural fruits, whatever course things may take. No change of circumstances can make up for a defect in character. Character means centrality; the impossibility of being dislodged or overthrown. All our actions must be based on our being with mathematical precision. Active action is based only on reality. We shall always have to procrastinate our existence, not stepping onto the ground to which we are entitled, so long as it is thought that drives us and not the mind.”

Everything that is supposed to express itself through a human being must first be contained in himself, and nothing can come out of him that is not already in him. But there can also be nothing in him other than what came into him before and developed in him. The “spirits,” which have become flesh and blood in him, represent the sum total of his individual qualities; they are his character, his natural self. A mere thought is not yet a spirit, a mere play of the imagination is not yet an active will; good intentions alone are not enough. In order for thought to become spirit, it must be penetrated by will; Only then can the spirit dominate the body and thought become action. Through the influence of the spirit on “matter,” matter becomes force, and thus each individual person is not just a sum of passive properties, but of active physical, mental and spiritual forces, through which he is enabled to carry out certain actions, whether consciously or unconsciously, to accomplish which another, not so constituted man, is not able to carry out in the same way.

Thus we can think of the natural man as a whole kingdom of spirits. Each individual power in him represents an inhabitant of that kingdom having his own sphere of activity; the physical forces act upon and relate to the physical plane; the psychic have to do with the psychic, the spiritual with the spiritual world. Above all, however, stands the divine spirit, which, when it has attained self-awareness in man, can use all these powers for his own service without losing his own calm^[4]; just as the sun in the center of our solar system sets all life in our world in motion through its power, without itself taking part in the play of the shadows. It stands motionless in the sky and pursues its own course, and yet through its light it unfolds its glory on earth. Her beauty is revealed in each flower, and she rejoices in the splendor that unfolds through her.

In the same way, the man who is in truth self-aware and self-aware is master of his own powers; he sends them out to perform services for him, but himself takes no part in them and is not absorbed in them; but the man in whom this is above all karma, i.e., this state of self-confidence, which is elevated above all action, has not yet occurred, which is not yet in a state of eternal rest, but is moved by pleasure and pain, it takes part in the play of its powers and identifies with them. He thereby becomes identical with his nature and shares its fate, he himself becomes the victim of the powers and qualities he possesses, and has to bear with them the consequences of the causes which they have produced, whether they be more agreeable or disagreeable Nature. Man caught in the delusion of “ownness” is driven by the forces of nature at work in him; he is identified with his feelings and ideas and thinks he is acting of his own free will, while he is only the servant of the will forms incarnate in him; the divine man, raised above the forces of nature, does not act “himself”; in his self-confidence he stands above his nature as the sun stands above the earth; he realizes that he himself is the uninvolved spectator and says to himself: “These forces follow their law.”^[5]

He sees God in everything; i.e., he recognizes his own inmost being in himself and in all creatures, and therefore participates in the life, sorrows, and joys of all these phenomena, without therefore being affected by them; just as the sun is unaffected by whether its light sparkles in a diamond or shines in a pool of dirt. He remains eternally unmoved, and yet everything moves in his nature.^[6]

The Spirit of God in man, which is man’s very self, does not act on its own and is above all karma; but the earthly human being is bound to his apparent self; he lives with and in the “spirits” of which his nature is composed, and shares their destiny. Each of these powers, like everything in the world, eventually returns to the origin from which it was born, and so it is that the good done endows man with good qualities, and thereby brings him good, while the evil deeds done bring him good endowed with bad qualities, and bring evil to him. The good, as well as the bad, which man practices, when repeated frequently, becomes his “second” nature. What he did at first intentionally, later happens instinctively and without conscious will. He who is by nature generous need not make up his mind and pull himself together in every act of charity; he does the good without knowing it himself. Whoever practices evil ends up becoming a habit that he cannot leave; everyone is repelled by his presence, he finds obstacles and difficulties everywhere, where a noble character always succeeds begins; his talents and abilities, his luck or his misfortune. So it is that good rewards itself and bad punishes itself.

If we consider the inhabitants of the little world called “man,” we find them to be of three distinct categories, viz., the physical, the psychic, and the spiritual powers. When the human body dies, it disintegrates into the physical elements of which it was composed. But the psychic organism is not composed of the five elements^[7] and therefore does not disintegrate; however, sooner or later (kāma loka) the lower soul activities cease their activity, depending on the impulse they received during life, the spirit (consciousness) withdraws to the uppermost regions and enjoys the rest in the heavenly state (devachan). We can visualize the process symbolically if we imagine the soul as a ray of light enlivened by the spirit that goes from the sun to the earth. During life, owing to the stimulation given by the senses, the greatest activity in it takes place in the lowest part. If this stimulation stops after the death of the body, which is the clothing of the lowest part of this ray of light, then the vibrations in the middle part also gradually die out, decreasing more and more upwards, the spirit (spiritual life) withdraws back to the highest regions, and with that there is calm across the board. When the time of reincarnation determined by the law of its nature approaches, the spirit descends into earthly existence, the middle and lower soul forces awaken and seek a new field for their activity, a soil suitable for the development of the qualities of the soul concerned. Thus there arises a new human appearance endowed with the qualities of what has passed away; it is the old man in a new form; the house he used to live in has fallen into disrepair; he builds a new one for himself, and with him the spirits that he called into being in his earlier existence also move into the new dwelling.

From this it follows that the consequences of causes created in one existence may pass over or influence the next, and perhaps many successive reincarnations^[8]; for each of these consequences is a force which gives man a certain quality, and a man’s qualities determine his will, thoughts and actions. But there are many talents and qualities that a person brings into the world, from which his virtues and vices arise, and just as in chemistry an innumerable number of chemical bodies can arise from perhaps sixty chemical elements by combining them also through elective affinities and the interaction of psychic and spiritual forces, a multitude of combinations arise from which the most diverse actions arise. Through every new birth the delusion of personal selfhood is born anew, in which self-will and self-love are active, from the combination of which arise instincts, desires, and passions of various kinds, which finally crystallize into action. Thus every man is the son of who he himself was in the past and the father of his son who he himself will be in the future, and the son has not only to bear the consequences of his own personal actions, but also those of his “father’s” person. But whoever comes to the true knowledge of God, “his sins are forgiven”; he is neither the “Father” nor the “Son,” but the Eternal Spirit, looking down upon all birth and death in the world of forms without being touched by it, and therefore this knowledge is the “Savior of the World.” “Whoever abides in him does not sin.”^[9] “By awakening the self-knowledge that I am actually Brahma, my accumulated karma is destroyed.”^[10] By entering the eternal, the temporal disappears; through the knowledge of the truth, appearances disappear.

In the phenomenal world the formation of karma continues as long as causes are at work in it, for from every action springs an action, and from every action new causes arise which produce consequences on one or other of the three planes of existence, and there these three levels are intimately connected with each other, a chain of causes and consequences emerges, the individual threads of which cannot be unraveled and from which there is no end to be found. Physical ills can cause moral effects, mental states bring about bodily changes; leaving as well as doing has its consequences, and there is no other way out of the web of karma than salvation from the “self.”^[11]

He who puts his hand in the fire feels the pain according to the degree to which his consciousness participates in the sensations of his body, and it does not matter whether it is voluntary or involuntary, intentional or unintentional. If all his attention is on the feeling part, the pain will be intense, if it is occupied with something else, the pain will be less intense, and if consciousness is completely absent from the body, such as, for example, in the state of “rapture” (Samādhi), the body can be burned alive to ashes without the human being feeling anything. In the same way man takes part in the destinies of his personality, regardless of whether his reincarnation was voluntary or involuntary, and he shares its sufferings and joys to the degree that his consciousness is only personal or spiritual, resting in eternity. Who lives entirely in the ephemeral, his destiny is that of the ephemeral; he who has his sanctuary in the Eternal and abides therein cares little about the fate of his personality. “To whom time is like eternity and eternity like time, he is free from all strife.”^[12] Whoever lives in eternity also overlooks the causes which guide the destiny of his personality; he discerns the law of necessity, which governs blind matter, and the superseding law of providence, which springs from wisdom, of which necessity is the servant, and which in the end leads all to good.

Human vanity tends to blame all evil on something other than itself. One speaks of “luck” and “unhappiness” or of the law of karma as if these were things external to us playing games with us; yet our happiness and unhappiness depend only on our own fitness and skill, and this on the nature of the powers we have accumulated, although this is not easy for the casual observer to discern, for it is the nature of the powers that mankind possesses that one first learns form, before one can form a clear picture of their effects. A discussion of these would require a repeated going into the doctrines of the composition of the sevenfold nature of man and the four planes of existence, together with the relations which exist between the microcosm and macrocosm, as has already been done in other places.^[13]

Long before the Indian doctrine of karma was known in Europe, Theophrastus Paracelsus wrote down his views on the causes of fortune and misfortune,^[14] which are identical with those of the Indian sages, though the form in which he did it was due to the Babylonian conceptual confusions prevalent today does not appear as clear as that of the Bhagavad Gītā and Sankaracharya [Śaṅkarācārya] [Śaṅkarāchārya]. Translated into modern German, he says something like this:

“Happiness and unhappiness arise from the same reason, they are like the wind and the air, which are also invisible. He who walks on the right path will do better in his dealings than he who walks on the wrong path. Luck (outside him) is not to blame for this, it is a “preparation” (suitability). He who walks in thorns comes out scratched, and he who remains in the plain is not weary of mountain climbing; those who are careful where they step will not fall. What man calls “misfortune” he inflicts on himself. So in our life on earth, whether we are lucky or unlucky, we have to look for no other cause than that which lies within ourselves. As we arrange and fit it, so we have it. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit. This is not due to his misfortune but to his laziness; there is nothing in it that can bear good fruit. Every one after that he walks, after that he acts, after that he must wait and receive his reward.

“God made us all of one and the same stuff, we are all his and provided with the same life and endowment; therefore none is originally more or less than another; yet none appears the same as the other. (We are all one in essence but dissimilar in our qualities.) God loves us all equally and does not look at the person; but we do not all have the same love (knowledge of God) for him. God originally gave all his children the same thing, but they divided it unequally among themselves; one squanders his inheritance, another keeps it. Everyone gets his reward from the Lord he serves Happiness and unhappiness are only appearances. What is seen as bad luck often brings the greatest happiness, and what is seen as good luck can lead to bad luck. A man’s true happiness does not depend on the external circumstances in which his person finds himself, but on the degree of his knowledge. Christ (the Self-Knowing True Self) alone is our Protector. Whoever finds his wealth on earth (in the sensual) will be poor in heaven (in the self-awareness of the divine); those who are not attached to the sensual will find their treasures in the heavenly. What is on earth is a mere appearance, an inessential nothing, and therefore there is neither happiness nor unhappiness in it for the self-aware man. Whoever carries his cross and follows God, it exalts him and he is (thereby) rewarded and paid for everything.”

The man imbued with the self-awareness of truth, the true Christian or Theosophist, will therefore care nothing about his karma, nor how he is doing in this world or the next, and consider it a waste of time to seek out the causes that do him “good” or “evil,” for in his self-awareness he is above all apparent and temporary good and evil; he knows that these things belong only to the realm of appearances, and since he himself lives in true goodness, in reality, raised above appearances, he recognizes the play of the forces of karma, but does not become aware of it in his own being touched. Whoever does not know his own true existence, clings to his personality and does not surpass it, everything that concerns this semblance of existence will seem of the greatest importance to him, because his person is the highest thing for him, his God, and what is connected with it, is his whole world. The true mystic, however, who has found his eternal, immortal “I,” is himself the lord of the accidents to which the qualities (tattvas) of which the organism in which he inhabits is composed are exposed. He is outside and above his “own” nature, physical as well as psychic, inasmuch as the latter is changeable. The real man who has attained true self-knowledge is not subject to any law of karma; he is himself that law, and the question with earthly man is not that he be glorified, but that God be glorified in him. The forces that make up the make-believe of this world are subject to the laws of their nature; but where the idea of selfhood ends, there, all the illusions connected with it also come to an end.

(Sequel follows.)

II. Deceptions.^[15]

In the beginning was the deed.

“Faust.”

It is impossible to have a perfectly clear idea of the effects of karma, or of the laws of nature in general, while one is ignorant of the very nature of Nature itself. The ultimate purpose of science is to gain clarity about the essence of nature and the phenomena occurring in it; but the essence of nature is not known precisely because one judges it merely according to the phenomena that can be perceived through the senses, and this is because appearance is not essence. Apparent science judges appearances, true science is based on knowledge of reality. The half-learned, who draws his conclusions from deceptive sense-perceptions, judges wrongly and deceives himself; the mind that knows the truth is above all doubt.

In the oldest writings of the Indians and Egyptians, the assertion is often repeatedly made that the world we see is only an illusion (Māyā) or deception. This does not mean that the phenomena we think we see are not real, nor that the world was created to deceive us; but that we deceive and deceive ourselves by forming a false conception of the nature of things, and believing things to be something other than what they really are; and we are compelled to do this so long as we truly know the appearances, but not the essence which underlies all appearances.

The ground on which sham science is built is semblance; the foundation of the edifice of spiritual or “occult” science is the knowledge of the truth, therefore the true science of the spirit only begins where pseudo-knowledge ends. Only where true knowledge begins can we speak of real knowledge. The truth, however, does not teach us through appearances or illusions, but through its own nature; we know what is true as soon as we really see it through the mind. That which is probable does not necessarily have to be true; what only seems to be true is an illusion.

We are surrounded by delusions, few of which science has hitherto overcome through the knowledge of truth. When we awake from sleep in the morning, we discover anew that we are living beings; we do not recognize this through external observation of our actions, but through our consciousness. We look out the window and the deception begins. In front of us stretches the earth, whose outward appearance gives us no reason to think that it is anything but flat. In fact, it took thousands of years before, despite the resistance of scholars and theologians, it was recognized that our planet is a spherical body floating freely in space. We think we feel that nothing is so solid and still as the earth beneath our feet, and while we rejoice in this certainty, the planet and all its inhabitants are rushing through space at a speed of 29,450 meters per second. We see the day star rising on the eastern horizon; but it is not true; nothing rises; rather, it is the earth which, turning on its axis, turns the side we are on towards the sun.

Or when we look up at the clear starry sky at night, how everything shines and sparkles in quiet splendor. The calm that prevails up there communicates itself to the moved soul; the angel of the night lays his soothing hand on the wounds brought on by the day’s toils. But even this calm of the stars is an illusion; there is no standing still. The little lights up there are suns and solar systems so big and much bigger than our sun and our solar system. There are planets a million times larger than ours, and they move through space with a rapidity which man can calculate but cannot comprehend. There are some among them whose speed is estimated at seven million miles per hour, or 320,000 meters per second.^[16] How immeasurably great must be the spaces separating these celestial bodies from one another! In fact, the distance of our sun from this earth is already so great that it cannot be thought of, although it is only small in relation to the distance which separates it from other suns. And yet, fundamentally, this is not true either. There are no gaps in the universe; the separation concerns only the appearances, in essence everything is one. As far as the attraction of a sun reaches, so far extends the sphere of its existence. We think we are millions of miles away from the sun and we are in its embrace. Our evidence proves that the sun is the source of all life and heat on earth, and logic concludes that there must exist in the sun’s body a terrible, quite unimaginable heat, which is radiated through space; but this is also an illusion, because more recent, more in-depth scientific investigations make it clear that the story of the glowing or burning sun is an astronomical fable, and the heat is only generated in our terrestrial sphere through the magnetic influence of the sun.^[17] But who doesn’t know, or doesn’t think they know, that the moon is a satellite of our earth, a part shed from it during its formation? But this is not true either. Rather, the history of the evolution of our solar system proves that the earth is a son of the moon and that the moon as we now see it is the carcass of the dead mother of the earth.^[18] Most people certainly think they know that our earth has no inhabitants other than those which are perceptible to us, and yet the wise, to whom truth has been revealed through the eye of knowledge, know that part of our planet which is perceptible to us, is only the gross material shell of this planet, and that in this visible world there exist “invisible” worlds which are as visible to its inhabitants as the “visible” world is to us, and which are related to the “material” body of the earth, like soul, mind, spirit etc. to the “material” body of man.^[19]

But surely what is called “matter” is not a delusion. Our own body is solid and material; we see and feel it; nothing can be philosophized about it? Not even close! — What is usually understood by “matter” has no existence at all; it is made up of atoms and each atom is an immaterial thing, a substantial center of energy. One can rightly say, if one wishes, that our body consists of gas; for the organic compounds of which it is formed are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, which in their natural state are colorless gases, and the associated mineral constituents are only in a state of solidity under certain conditions. But the gases also consist of atoms, and thus our visible body, in the light of knowledge, finally resolves itself into a sum of immaterial forces, or rather, since a force that is not at the same time substantial is unthinkable, into a sum of states of being of eternal indestructible unity.

And what applies to our body applies to everything “material,” consequently also to the earth and the whole world; it is basically all substantial energy, all visible is nothing but a product of the action of the invisible, of which life and consciousness, in other words the soul, is the basis. We know nothing but what lies within the sphere of our consciousness. If our consciousness were different, the world in which we find ourselves would also appear completely different to us. The pictures which we see in dreams are just as real to us while we are dreaming as the external appearances are to us while we are awake. Our day consciousness is the result of the impressions we receive through the sense organs of our body. When this body falls away from us, another state of consciousness takes its place, depending on the development of our mental abilities.

In fact, only the spiritless animal man lives entirely in the world of appearances; the human being who is aware of his higher existence, or even just carries the feeling of immortality within him, lives in a higher state of consciousness, even while he walks on earth in a visible earthly shell. The inner essential man who is never born, never ages, never dies, is the real man; the personality which he inhabits, through which he feels and thinks, is a mask (persona), an appearance.

And as it is within man, so it is within the world. If there were no world soul, there would be no visible world either, since the visible world is nothing other than a bodily reflection in the appearance of the forces which are active in the soul of the world. If there were no love there would be no attraction and no gravitation; if there were no consciousness, albeit a consciousness quite different from ours, there would be no movement either, for there is no one to set the world in motion; the moving force is the “will” present everywhere; or more correctly, the “spirit,” the primal force that is the cause of all becoming in the universe.

Thus the world is not a dead, unconscious material thing from which life arises in some incomprehensible way, but is all life and all forms are manifestations or states of being. Matter in itself is nothing, force is everything; but the force is of a substantial nature; it is the inherent, moving energy of eternal existence.

The Indian sages recognized and taught all this thousands of years ago, it remained hidden from modern ignorance and the learned ones with self-conceit denied it; it was reserved for the darkest period of intellectual dumbing down in the nineteenth century, to invent the Kohler belief in materialism; but as everything in nature has its periodic changes, so also now a new dawn seems to be breaking, and in the higher regions of science a new ray of knowledge is breaking through, whereby the old, forgotten truth is coming to the fore again.

The atom is a center of force, consequently the atomic human body is a composite of forces of various kinds. Whether we think of them as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, etc., they are still vibrations of an essentially invisible and immaterial substance, which, having “condensed” or assumed a certain kind of movement, have become visible, corporeal and what is called “matter.” The organism does not create all these forces itself, they flow to it from the storeroom of great nature; they are constantly flowing in and out of him; a constant “metabolism” takes place in it and thus also a constant change of forces; To such an extent, indeed, that the body of man is completely renewed in a few months, not as was formerly believed, but in a few months, and can be likened more to a continually regenerating flame than to a permanent thing. The human organism is not a product of man, but a product of nature, a house built of natural forces, which man inhabits and which is appropriate to the nature of the planet on which it is located; but the real man, the inhabitant of the house, is not a product of the planet on which he dwells; he is a citizen of heaven who can “take up residence” today on this planet and tomorrow on that planet as conditions dictate.

But why can’t we remember our previous incarnations on this or another planet? — There are people whose mental consciousness is clear enough to remember it. This is not uncommon in children. But soon the sensory impressions overwhelm the mental memory; egoism awakens and with it material desire. School and education tend to paralyze or kill the spirit, to smother the spiritual consciousness in the whirl of material sensations. The organism cannot remember any previous incarnation, because it has no individual immortal existence, consequently did not exist as such before, but the elements which make it up formed the components of other organisms before its birth. The earthly, personal man can only remember what has happened to himself; only when the personal man succeeds in uniting his consciousness with that of the spirit man overshadowing him will he be able to participate in his memories, because then he has found his true self and is one with it.

But the spiritual man also has his organization, and just as the organism of the earthly man is a composition of material natural forces, so the spiritual organization of the spirit man is a product of spiritual forces which have come to revelation in him; i.e., a sum of virtues and qualities which in themselves are immortal and unchanging. Heat always remains what it is, be it latent or free; but whether a body is cold or warm depends on the amount of heat manifested in it. The light always remains what it is, even if no light phenomena take place with it; it can be absorbed by the plant world to become a deposit of hard coal, which has been stored in the depths of the earth for thousands of years. If it is brought to light again and the igniting spark comes from it, it becomes light again.

Likewise, spiritual powers and virtues are not man-made; but they are principles which communicate their properties to man, as they are received in him and made manifest through him. Air is the life of the body, lust is the life of the passionate man, selfless love is the life of the spirit man. Light is the nourishment of the body, it brings forth the plants which serve as nourishment for man; learning is the nourishment of the intellect; memory takes the place of the stomach; but wisdom is the nourishment of the soul. The heat that penetrates the body warms it, the goodness that penetrates the soul makes it good, faith uplifts it, justice strengthens it, knowledge of truth illuminates it, hope fills it, the will fills it and gives her strength, devotion gives her composure, thought guides her, etc.

The physical organism is the product of the evolution of “material” forms in nature. Through millions of years nature worked under the influence of the spirit until, ascending through the elemental, mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, it brought about a human animal which had the ability to think and was suitable as a dwelling place for the human soul to serve. Mind-stimulated, but mindless itself, she first spawned shapeless monstrosities, half-animal, half-human, antediluvian monsters, but not humans. If nature had gone on like this for endless millions of years, she could never have produced a real human being, because the human spirit is higher than nature, and a thing cannot produce or give birth to anything higher than it is itself.

The earthly man is the perishable soil in which the imperishable seed grows; the incorruptible seed, the soul, is just as little a product of earthly man as the seed of a tree is a product of treeless soil. The seed of a walnut tree does not think and feel in the human way and therefore does not need soil capable of thinking and feeling in order to develop. It is different with the man who is on a higher level. The inhabitant of heaven needs a thinking and feeling form in order to be able to develop his abilities in it; the personal mortal man is the “soil” in which the immortal “seed” evolves and struggles for self-knowledge. The inner spiritual man, who dwells in the earthly man, or rather “roots” in him, since the earthly man cannot comprehend him in his greatness, is a god compared to the earthly man. He is not the god of the universe, any more than a crystal illuminated by a sunbeam is the sun of the universe; but compared with the personal mortal man he is a divine being and the immortal God of mortal man, in whom alone the personal man can find immortality. If we refer to this “God” as real man, we are left with no other designation for personal mortal man than “beast-man” or “apparent man,” a designation which, rude as it sounds, is nevertheless true; for a man without a soul, no matter how learned, is no more than an animal; and a humanoid creature in which there is no sense of truth is a human appearance, but not a real man. Such “spiritually dead” are like the ground in which the good seed put into it has withered or rotted, and therefore nothing but weeds can grow from it.

In everyday life intellectual activity is commonly referred to as “spirit”; but in fact the spiritual knowledge of man is as different from intellectual thinking as intellectual thinking is from the thoughtless working of animal instincts and passions. One can be an extremely shrewd and acute lawyer, a much studied and well-read physician, a persuasively subtle theologian or moral preacher, without possessing a shred of spirit or spiritual consciousness; for the true spiritual consciousness is the twilight of the knowledge of God, which has nothing to do with all human-animal self-knowledge, delusional, self-conceit, self-will, is elevated above all human ingenuity and above all human morality, and is often to be found in a simple uneducated, but least of all in a self-conceited theorist; for where everything is only appearance, there is no reality; where there is no truth, there is no consciousness of truth.

Just as everything in nature is really quite different from what it seems to us, just as the sun does not revolve around the earth, the stars do not stand still, etc., so it is also among people wherever ignorance (tamas) reigns as kings who exist only to appear to rule, when in fact they are themselves ruled by those around them. There are so-called “God scholars” who not only know nothing about God, but worship some self-made idol as God. There are medical assassins to whom the world erects monuments for infecting entire nations with a far worse disease in the name of making them “immune” to this or that disease.^[20] There are acclaimed representatives of the people who by right should be hanged because, under the pretense of patriotism, they only care about their own advantage and trample on the real interests of the people instead of defending them. The stupid crowd kneels in adoration before a sham science that robs them of their most sacred possessions and substitutes a supposedly “scientific” superstition for their own sense of truth. Thus the list of follies in the world could go on. Our descendants will have as much reason to laugh at us as we laugh at the wisdom of the last century’s scholars, who dismissed as an “absurdity” a report of a meteorite falling, verified by three hundred persons, on the pretense that no stones can fall from the sky because there are no stones in the sky.

Against all these evils there is no remedy but knowledge. Against false knowledge there is no other remedy than true knowledge. Real enlightenment can be delayed by suppressing the truth, but not prevented; Nor is it promoted by the struggle for opinions, in which everyone is concerned only with preserving their apparent right, but not with opening their hearts and minds to the light of truth. Slowly and without noise, knowledge moves into the hearts of men; there are periods of spiritual enlightenment and spiritual darkness, just as there are day and night, summer and winter. Just as the astronomical laws determine the course of the stars, so the laws of spiritual astrology determine the periods of enlightenment and those of dumbing down among people. As the earth comes closest to the sun at any given time of the year, so there are periods when the spiritual world approaches the sun of wisdom and others when it moves away from it again.^[21] Blessed are those who take advantage of this approach!

It is not so much a matter of satisfying the thirst for knowledge, but rather of directing the will. Knowledge alone is not the highest and therefore not an end in itself, but only the means to an end, which consists in man finding himself in truth. Man in his innermost being is a sum of forces; he is himself the force with which he identifies himself, and he identifies himself with it by revealing it in himself.

The invisible has its analogy in the visible; the “material” is the symbol of the spiritual. Because the elements of the air combine to form organisms, a visible body is created. Spiritual individuality unfolds when the spiritual forces in an organism reveal themselves and communicate their properties to it. A healthy tree grows from a good soil; a man in whom wisdom and kindness become his nature becomes thereby wise and good. But this does not happen through mere knowledge, belief and delusion, not through raving and whimpering, also not through pious deceit, but solely through deeds.

But what distinguishes the personal mortal man from the spiritual, immortal man, is that the animal man in everything he undertakes is mindful of his apparent self and its advantage, be it in this life or in the dubious “hereafter,” while the god-man regardless of his person, acts according to the laws of the spirit and as its conscious tool. Thereby man rises above his nature and above his personality, lives exalted above time and space in infinity, free from all limitations in the self-consciousness of immortality; One with all and master of himself.

(Sequel follows.)

III. Being^[22]

“True existence starts there,

where true knowledge begins.”

(Fahrer im Geistigen.)

Existence itself is a state which can only be understood when it is related to something specific. Existence is consciousness; a thing that has no consciousness cannot know of existence, either of its own existence or of anything else. Existence in the Absolute is consciousness in the Absolute, a state of the Absolute, which we cannot otherwise call “the Absolute” because it is unrelated to us. Existence in itself is the self in the absolute sense; it rests on nothing but itself and is related to nothing but itself.

It is “being” versus “not being.” Nothing exists until it comes into existence; nothing exists for us until it enters our consciousness. What is real and essential is there in truth and reality; what appears to be there to us only appears to exist. We ourselves do not really exist for ourselves as long as we are not aware of our true nature. As long as we believe that we are in fact what we appear to be, and that the body we inhabit is our real selves, we do not know ourselves and are only there in appearance. Knowing our own true selves is the ultimate purpose of all theosophical teachings. True existence requires no scientific proof. It is not the result of scientific research, but an awakening of the spirit. For those who have recognized their own true nature, there is no doubt about it.

“You can doubt things, what and whether they are;

You cerainly have no doubts about who you are.

This is the starting point: just be sure of yourself!

You come to all knowledge without obstacles.”

Rückert. Lehrgedichte. P. 140.

Existence is the revelation of something which in its unmanifest state is nothing to us, though not nothing in the absolute sense, but rather the unmanifest essence of all apparent things. One cannot refer to this “something” as “space,” nor “matter,” nor “force,” since all of these terms are relative terms. Some refer to it as “God,” but it is not God; for divine qualities belong to the concept of a “god.” It is the Nameless One, the basis of all existence; the essence of everything, eternity, life itself. The Indians call it “Tat” (Sanskrit). Everything springs from action and everything returns to action. Dasein [existence] is a period, an event in fact, eternal absolute being; in other words, in Brahm, which includes both relative being and relative non-being.

Existence itself is the manifestation of an energy, the expression of a force made manifest, and all that exists is made up of states of this eternal world-energy, in other words states of being or “tattvas” (Sanskrit). All appearances originally come from the effect of this general world force, which can also be called “world substance”; since the concepts of “force” and “substance” do not denote two things that are essentially different from each other, but only two forms of perception of the eternally one nameless “deed.” There is, as everyone knows nowadays, no substance without energy, no energy without substance; but there is also a third thing, namely consciousness, which is contained in all things, even if it is not manifest in all. Were there no consciousness in the Absolute, none could be revealed in creatures either; for the unconscious cannot produce consciousness; but the development of consciousness depends on the organization of things and the circumstances surrounding them. No animal consciousness can unfold in a stone, no human consciousness in an animal; in man himself no divine consciousness could be manifested unless the spark of divinity were contained in his soul. The motives for his actions emerge from the different states of consciousness of the human being. According to the Indian doctrine, and as will also become clear to everyone upon reflection, all states of existence are based on three natural properties, and all action and deeds result from one or more of these properties. These qualities or states of consciousness called “Gunas” (Sanskrit) are

1. 1. Knowledge, clarity, truth; Called “sattva” or Wisdom.
  2. Desire, “Rajas,” passion or covetousness.
  3. Ignorance, “tamas,” the darkness or ignorance.

The Bhagavad Gītā says: “In whatever forms earthly bodies appear, Brahm is the mighty womb of all, and I (Spirit) the fertilizing Father. sattva, Rajas and tamas are the three states (gunas) which arise from nature (prakriti) and by which the eternal spirit is bound during its incarnation in the body.

“Of these, sattva, which is luminous and pure because its nature is undefiled, binds him by the bond of bliss and realization. Know that Rajas, which has in it the qualities of desire and is the source of urges and desires, binds the incorporated soul by works. Know also that tamas, born of the night of ignorance, binds the soul through ignorance, sloth and unconsciousness.”^[23]

Every thing, every state, every act presents a quite different picture according as it is based on one or other of these three qualities. All judgments are simplified by considering the motives from which a state, quality, or action arises . Let’s take e.g., morality:

The morality that springs from sattva, the knowledge of truth, is pure, free from self-conceit and selfishness, one of the highest virtues of man. How pathetic is the “morality” of one whose motive is Rajas. Such a man need not exactly be a willful hypocrite; yet his morality reeks of selfishness and self-conceit; he puts his personality above all else, fancies himself better than others, hopes for a reward for his morality, and kneels before the adored calf of self. The third kind of morality is that which springs from ignorance or stupidity (tamas). Such a man does not sin because he either does not have the opportunity or does not know how to use it. He is at the lowest level; for he has not even met the enemy he is to overcome.

Or let’s look at knowledge: The knowledge that comes from sattva, i.e., springing from true knowledge, forms that true science which enlightens, elevates, and edifies man. The knowledge which comes from Rajas is a mere satisfaction of scientific curiosity without true understanding; it is mere pseudo-knowledge, without knowledge of the truth, and as a rule serves nothing more than to feed scholarly arrogance and scientific megalomania. The knowledge that springs from tamas is wrong knowledge, i.e., a self-deception, created by erroneous opinions, belief in authority, combined with the inability to think for yourself. Much of the teaching generally accepted today is based on a total ignorance of the truth.

The poverty that comes from God (sattva) is easy to bear. A man who has come to the realization of his true divine nature has no extraordinary needs; he is glad of his poverty because then he has no wealth to burden him with cares and duties. He is the richest of all people, for since he desires nothing, even if he has nothing, he has everything he desires. The poverty, on the other hand, which arises from Rajas, e.g., from failed speculation, is difficult to bear. The richest is the poorest when the greed to increase his wealth consumes him. The poverty which comes from tamas, i.e., springing from indolence and inertia does not make one happy either. Such a person mourns because he has nothing and yet is too lazy to acquire anything. On the intellectual level, we recognize him as the one whose wisdom consists of reading books, from which he appropriates other people’s opinions because he is too lazy to think for himself; on the physical plane it is the vagabond who would rather beg than work.

The virtues that spring from pure knowledge are selfless and shine bright and clear. The virtues that spring from desire stink of self-conceit and are tainted with selfishness. The virtues which come from tamas are the result of that impotence which is too cowardly or incapable of either evil or good. There is nothing that cannot be considered under these three forms. Let’s take e.g., the fulfillment of duty or obligation:

He stands tall who, without regard to his own self, does what he recognizes must be done. A maid who sweeps the stairs, because the stairs must be swept, is in this respect more important than a minister who dutifully governs a country in order to earn a medal. Petty, if not pitiful, he looks who does his duty out of respect for his personality, whether in hope of some reward, or to make himself believe that he is something great. But the performance of duty which springs from tamas is either purely mechanical and thoughtless, or perverse; such as the unnecessary bullying of subordinates, etc.

The humility which springs from sattva elevates man to heaven and makes him infinitely great. Such a person recognizes the futility of the limited earthbound existence, he is no longer bound to his personality and therefore does not pride himself on it. Because he is above his own personality, he lives in God and thereby becomes a partaker of divine majesty. On the other hand, the sycophant and creeper appears ugly to us, whose humility lies in the fact that he wants to lie to God and deceive man through his hypocrisy. Muckers and hypocrites of various kinds and pious cowards belong in this category. The third class, those whose “Christian” humility springs from tamas, is to be pitied. It consists of those in whom all sense of human dignity has vanished or who have never had it. In addition, many old prayer sisters and the like are to be expected.

One of the greatest human mysteries troubling the world could be easily solved by observing the three basic qualities from which love springs.

The love that springs from true knowledge [sattva] is wise. Such a loving person loves that which he loves for no other reason than because he recognizes that the object of his love springs from his own innermost being. He recognizes himself in the object of his love and seeks to unite with this other part of himself. But for this it is necessary above all that man recognizes his own true nature (God) and does not take his animal nature for his real nature. In this love there is no desire for one’s own possessions, but the striving for union which flows from the knowledge of the law of necessity and results in a total surrender; there is no longer any mention of “mine” or “yours”; but the duality of appearance disappears in the cognition of the unity of essence. This is the love that springs from sattva.

The love that springs from rajas is greed, i.e., the desire for possessions. The desiring person does not love the object in question, but rather its possession. He tries to acquire this object because he likes it; the fate of the object in question interests him only insofar as his own comfort is taken into account. Such a marriage provides one with a “wife,” a housekeeper, a toy, a provider, etc. Such marriages may be made in the Church, but they are far from being in “heaven,” i.e., inscribed in the “knowledge of truth.”

The love that springs from tamas is folly and delusion. Such a person loves something that is incongruous or contrary to his nature, or something quite different from what he thinks he loves. This is the case, for example, when one falls in love with a woman only because of her pretty dress, or with a man only because of his shiny uniform with gilded buttons.

Vegetarianism, which springs from sattva and is worshiped because it is recognized that animal substances and alcoholic beverages fill the body with impurities and render it unfit for the development of finer mental perceptions, has a lofty motive. Such a man is not concerned with his body as a final end, but he wants to keep the instrument of his spirit in a condition suitable for his higher purposes; because he recognizes this as a necessity. Vegetarianism, which arose from rajas, is quite different; whether such a man imagines that by devouring vegetable food he can make himself an adept, or whether he worships the body itself as his divinity, the welfare of which is his supreme desire and aim of his highest aspiration. For the latter class, their carcass is the center around which all their thinking and striving revolves; her world the kitchen, her heaven the stomach, good digestion the pinnacle of all perfection, and she herself to everyone’s disgust. But the continence which springs from tamas is that which springs from ignorance or from external compulsion, from deprivation.

Life itself has its three such aspects; the true, the false and the mere illusion of life. Life based on sattva is real life. Such a person lives not only in this world, but in a higher sphere; i.e., he recognizes himself as a citizen of the supersensible and celestial worlds and partakes in their pleasures while enjoying life on earth through his physical body. Death and earthly life are indifferent to him; he knows that his existence on earth is just a visit to school, a small episode in his eternal existence. The man ruled by rajas knows only the external life and clings to it. The purpose of his existence is a chimera; whether it is the accumulation of external riches, or variable scholarly stuff, or the gratification of sensual desires, eating and drinking, etc. Such a man does not know the true purpose of his life; his life is a sickness. But he who is ruled by tamas does not live, but vegetates; he either lives on thoughtlessly or applies his life to foolish ends.

Indifference is often spoken of in occult writings. But this, too, is of three kinds and quite different, depending on the reason from which it springs. Wisdom-infused [sattva] indifference springs from the knowledge of the law of necessity. She sees the good that comes from apparent evil; it does not bewail the finite evil that leads man to the path of infinite good. The rajas-possessed man is indifferent to everything but his own person or what he desires. He is himself the center around which the whole world revolves; he wouldn’t care if everything went to ruin, if only that would satisfy his mood. He is perhaps a misanthrope who lives completely withdrawn in his egoism; perhaps a “pious one” who wishes to damn all mankind in order to smuggle his person into heaven. There are all possible variations of this character. The man who is indifferent from tamas is so from stupidity; half an idiot or a complete idiot, he takes no part in anything because he is incapable of taking part in anything.

In this way we could continue to examine all possible human characteristics and the resulting actions with their motives. However, this can be left to anyone who knows the doctrine of the three Gunas.

The Bhagavad Gītā says:

“When the bright light of knowledge shines through all the doors of the human mind, then sattva has reached maturity in it.

“Covetousness, obstinacy, thirst for action, restlessness and lust are generated in him when Rajas is mature.

“Mental darkness, inaction, carelessness, folly, doubt appear when tamas prevails.”^[24]

But human nature is composite. He may be of great knowledge in some respects, passionate in others, utterly ignorant of still others. The intellectual principle may be in him in the highest activity, and the spiritual principle wholly inactive, or he may be a spiritually enlightened man and yet scientifically uneducated; he can be stupid and passionate at the same time, possessing a certain degree of knowledge, and yet have many vices. Here the dominant quality in him will determine the nature of his being. “When rajas and tamas are defeated, only sattva reigns in man. When rajas and sattva perish, tamas remains, and when tamas and rajas disappear, rajas is active.”^[25]

It is from the combination of these three qualities in man’s nature that the ground of his character emerges. It determines not only his actions in this world, but also the state he will be in when his body dies. About this the Bhagavad Gītā teaches us as follows:

“When man’s mortal nature^[26] comes to dissolution, when sattva is ripe in him, he enters the pure regions of the good who aspired to the highest.

“If his body dies when rajas is predominant in his nature, he is reborn among men who are bound to their works.

“If he bids farewell to life when tamas reigns in his nature, he is born among fools.”^[27]

It goes without saying that there can be no question of arbitrary rewards or punishments, but everyone gravitates to where their inner being belongs. But this essence or character is formed by the actions which man performs. We know that the more times we commit the same type of action, the more it becomes a habit and becomes our “second nature.” Some things that are very difficult to do at first, or done with reluctance, are finally done instinctively, without premeditation, and with pleasure. Tightrope walkers, musicians, artists of all kinds are examples of this; but virtues as well as vices of all kinds eventually become habit; not only in the course of a single, but often only in the course of several incarnations. A malignantly trained person can come to the point that in his next reincarnation he acquires such poisoned spiritual power that even his gaze itself, without his wishing it, has a harmful influence on people, animals and plants, and the explanation for this is given by the occult philosophy. Likewise, goodness, benevolence, mercy, etc., can become so inherent in a person that their mere presence has a beneficial effect on everyone.

Everything in the world, and therefore also the character of man, is formed through deeds and not through brooding, fanaticism or theory. But the soul of the deed is the motive, and the motive differs according to the quality from which it springs. The wise act from knowledge, the greedy from lust, the fool from ignorance, and wise actions make man wise, selfish actions make him more and more selfish, foolish actions make him a greater and greater fool. Here, too, one produces the other.

(Sequel follows.)

V. Thought^[28]

“The mind, the spirit, the word, teach frankly and freely,

If you can grasp how God is triune.”

(Joh. Scheffler, died 1677.)

One who wishes to engage in Theosophy must be able to soar to a much higher standpoint than that held by modern science or speculative philosophy. This is not to say that all earthly knowledge is worthless from the worldly point of view; Rather, it is a very necessary and useful expedient where there is a lack of true knowledge of the Eternal, which, however, is not to be confused with pious fanaticism. Material science seeks, by the observation of natural phenomena, speculative science, by logical deduction, to form a picture of what the truth might actually be; but where the right perception and knowledge is available, these makeshifts are no longer necessary. Naturally, this cognition of spiritual things can only be spiritual, and it only occurs when the human spirit has been penetrated and enlightened by the divine spirit of self-knowledge. God is the supreme true essence in all, and Theosophy, or knowledge of God, the self-knowledge of God in all; it is the self-knowledge of that being in man from which the realm of his thoughts springs and enters into subjective or objective appearance; it cannot be acquired or exercised by anyone who is without God-consciousness; but the spark dormant in the human heart can awaken to self-confidence and attain that degree of knowledge in which the human being raised above selfhood recognizes himself as the image of God and in possession of divine powers. External science is based on knowledge of the multitude of external processes that occult science is based on the knowledge of the unity, omnipresence and majesty of God as a whole, and from this sublime standpoint it discerns the inner causes of phenomena in the kingdom of nature.

The whole world is full of analogies to test what has been recognized spiritually through the external understanding. The visible world is the product of invisible forces, and consequently the visible forms are symbols of invisible principles. If we recognize the law as a whole, we can also recognize it in its small-scale effects in external nature. If we have recognized the process of creation through spiritual perception or even only guessed it, then we are not surprised to find it symbolically represented in a hen’s egg.

Even in the oldest writings of the Indians it is said that the world came into being from an egg, and this is an understandable fact, only one must not imagine a hen’s egg by this “egg.” In order to illustrate the emergence of the universe from the cosmic egg, let us consider briefly what occult science says about it. Above all, it is a matter of making clear to us the difference between God and nature, and this requires something more than the keenness of the earthly mind digging in the dust, namely, a sense of spiritual grandeur is recognized which shows the greatness and presence of God in all. The “egg” from which the world arose is “space.”

No one denies the existence of space, which to us all seems infinite; but space is not God, but the eternal divinity is everywhere present in every thing, in the smallest atom as well as in infinite space. It is indeed the One Life in the universe, the One Reality, while all of nature with all its appearances, its powers, its consciousness and its intelligence is only a manifestation of this eternal reality. This eternal reality is imperceptible to our senses and human thought cannot grasp it either; but it is certainly approachable to spiritual perception and it can be revealed through spiritual cognition. Deity itself does not become space or material nature, but all things came into existence through the Spirit of God and eventually return to the bosom of Deity through that Spirit. True life and self-consciousness can only be found in the Spirit of God; living and thinking in matter is only an existence in appearance and in itself an illusion. “God” in a sense is everything, for outside of Him there is nothing; but in this one is to be distinguished spirit and nature, or essence itself and its manifestation in appearance. The Bhagavad Gītā says in relation to this difference: “These bodies are called vessels. That which has consciousness in them is called the spirit. — Know that I, the Spirit, am contained in all things. The knowledge of matter and spirit is true knowledge.”^[29]

Likewise in the Vedas of the Indians it is said: “That which is neither mind nor matter, neither light nor darkness, but is in truth the origin of both, and that which contains both, that is you (the Self). The root produces its shadow each morning and throws it back on itself, and you call that shadow light and life, poor dead form. The light of life streams down the seven-prong ladder of the seven worlds, each step denser and darker than the previous one. You must climb this seven-fold ladder, it is reflected in yourself, o little human being. You are this yourself and you do not recognize it.”

“We are thus dealing with two kinds of lives, which are indeed combined into a single life during earthly existence, namely with the earthly life and consciousness, and with the life and consciousness in the spiritual, and above these two stands the Self, which can live and become conscious on one level as well as on the other. One of these two lives is ephemeral, the other imperishable. Anyone who can actually distinguish these two states of existence from one another has become conscious of his immortal existence; for if he were not conscious of the higher existence, he could not distinguish the spiritual life from the ephemeral.

If we look at the composition of a hen’s egg, we find the following in it:

1. 1. The shell, which is composed of mineral components, etc.
  2. The membrane that encloses the interior.
  3. The protein, which provides the actual nutrition of the embryo.
  4. The yolk, the basis of the bird’s organization.
  5. The “germ” or embryo itself.

From a metaphysical point of view, however, we still find two things, even if they are imperceptible to the senses, namely:

The vital force which pervades the whole, and without which no chick could develop from the egg, and
the idea which represents the egg and later the hen, and which does not die even though the egg and hen are no longer there.

Similarly, occult science teaches us the nature of the world egg; for in this, too, as was said above, seven levels of existence can be distinguished, each of which has its seven subdivisions, one of which is always denser and darker than the previous one. We find there:

1. 1. The outer shell, i.e., the earthly corporeal world, which is the visible shell of invisible things, the world of appearances. This is the world composed of “four elements,” in which one distinguishes solid, liquid and gaseous states (earth, water, air) and forces (fire). To this belongs the world of the “fifth element,” i.e., of the ether, namely:
  2. The Etheric World (Linga sharira [Liṅga Śarīra]), which is invisible to most people but is nonetheless material in nature. Above this one stands
  3. The astral world or the astral light, which is related to the cosmic egg in a certain way like albumen is related to a hen’s egg.
  4. The Kāma-rūpa or seat of desire, the cause of growth.
  5. The world of ideas (Manas), the world of thought, the formative force.
  6. The purely spiritual or divine world, the world of knowledge (Buddhi).
  7. The Mind (Jīva) from which all life (Prāna) and consciousness springs, and which is at the same time the very invisible shell, the periphery as well as the center of everything.

Man is also such a sevenfold world, surrounded by an invisible spiritual sphere like an egg, even if this shell is only visible to the spiritually opened eye, since it is the sphere of his spiritual existence. This egg contains everything that belongs to its being, its life, its character, feelings and thinking; it is the sphere of his existence and at the same time the sphere of his limitations; for man cannot recognize anything that lies beyond the sphere of his consciousness. As the circle of his consciousness expands, so does the circle of his cognitions; only the spirit itself is not bound by any limit, but without consciousness it has no knowledge either. Therefore, the unlimited is reflected in limited forms and enters the “vessels” to pass from the state of ignorance to that of knowledge. Every form, from the atom up to the universe, is an egg in which the germ of knowledge of the Infinite Spirit is laid in the heart of the form, striving to develop through the forces of the form, finally to the consciousness of its true existence in infinity. Every form is an appearance expressing a thought, and at the bottom of every thought there is a meaning; every thing is, in other words, an originally abstract idea expressed by means of concrete thought, and as such a sevenfold composite being, an egg in which potentially everything that is necessary for its development is found, albeit its existence is only temporary, similar to that of an air bubble rising in boiling water.

It is accustomed to think that it is not of great importance what man thinks, but that it all depends only on what he does; but whoever has got to know his own nature also knows that the outer shell is not the most important thing and that one can also continue to exist without the visible body. The visible is but the symbol and outward embodiment of the invisible; a thought is already an embodied being as soon as it is, as the mystics say, “uttered,” i.e., has assumed a definite form in the mind animated by the will. The conscious will, in other words “the spirit” is the life of thought and the source of its movement; It enables the thought to continue to exist as a to a certain extent independent being for a shorter or longer time, depending on the energy imparted to it, and to produce effects which are independent of the will of the person who created this thought, but must have an effect on him himself. since every creature, and consequently every thought, remains in close communion with the Creator who produced it as long as it lives.

Here we recall the words of an Adept, quoted elsewhere:^[30]

“Every mature thought of a human being enters another world (the astral world) and becomes a self-acting creature, associating with or merging with an elemental being corresponding (with its nature), so to speak; i.e., with one of the semi-intelligent forces of nature inhabiting that world. There he lives on as a conscious being, a product of consciousness, for a longer or shorter time according to the intensity of the force that produced him. Thus a benevolent angel is created by a good thought, and a malicious devil by a malicious thought. In this way man continually populates his career with the products of his ideas, desires, instincts, and passions, and the forces which he thereby sets in motion act upon other men according to the degree of their susceptibility. The ordinary man does this unconsciously, the knower (i.e., the man truly conscious of himself) consciously.”

If we look at the evolution of a thought with the eye of the mind, we find the following:

1. 1. Desire, i.e., the initially vague and formless longing, an inner urge or desire that one is not even aware of when it first arises. Gradually or suddenly appears in it
  2. the idea. This gives desire objectivity. You now have a rough idea of what you want, but you haven’t figured it out yet. Gradually, the initially indefinite idea takes on a specific form and it is formed from it
  3. the thought, or imagination. But the idea alone is not enough; it has neither strength nor life as long as it lacks the will to carry it out. So now comes
  4. the will. It is the life of thought and at the same time its shell. Through it the thought is limited, and through it the thought acquires an individuality
  5. Consciousness which, when lust becomes passion through the fire of will, can itself dominate the whole consciousness of man. But the will is a spiritual force that belongs to a level that is higher than that of the astral plane, but which has an effect on the “matter” located there and causes it to vibrate. That is why the thought first expresses itself on this level.
  6. The astral substance, or image emerging in the astral light. But this consists of vibrations, which can propagate to the ether, and therefore is the densest part of such an elemental being
  7. The etheric body, which can finally, under certain circumstances, clothe itself even in gross sensible matter, as happens every day in the workshops of nature.

These are the inhabitants of the consciousness sphere of man and also the population of the “sou;” of the world. The thoughts that form in the human brain and are enlivened by his will are the “birds” that fly out of his birdcage into the world and settle here and there without him knowing it. The more man has spiritual power and knowledge, the more life and consciousness these emissaries have, and it is undoubtedly true that a spiritually enlightened thinker, even if he lives in solitude, can create more benefit in the world through his thinking, than a regiment of mindless theorists with their lectures and sermons.

Experiments with “hypnotism,” “suggestion,” etc., which have now become fashionable, have also begun to open the eyes of representatives of European science to the realization that thoughts are “real things,” capable of both benefit and harm. However, everyone already knows that the ideas which a human being has called into being continue to exist even after the death of his body.

The more a man is master of his thoughts, the more power he has over them and can send them where he wants by the power of his will. A human being can therefore also have an effect on another with consciousness from a great distance, and there is nothing “supernatural” involved, it is merely a matter of the ability to keep one’s thoughts in check. To superficial thinkers and dull semi-scholars this seems an impossibility, and in their conceit they scoff at it; but men are very like animals in this respect; they resist the unknown, but acquiesce easily as soon as they can be made to understand what it is all about.

A person’s thoughts, no matter how scattered and temporarily absent from him, still form part of his being and are linked to him by an invisible bond. Even after the death of his body, they belong to him and take part in the formation of his astral body for his next reincarnation, just as a chord that has come to rest lets the same note sound again when it is struck again. But in order to understand the law of nature according to which this happens, a knowledge of the psychic and spiritual constitution of the human being is necessary, a discussion of which we shall come back to later. And just as a mentally energetic person can send his thoughts into the distance, so that he can penetrate wherever he finds an open spot receptive to such an influence, so such a person can also create a covering for himself through the same spiritual will power which surrounds him like a magic circle in his sphere of consciousness and protects him against the influences of other people’s thoughts coming from outside. Such a person stands spiritually on his own two feet, and a strong castle is his spiritual will, his God.

Since most knowledge today is only pseudo-knowledge based on appearances and mostly stems from belief in authority, but not from personal observation, personal insight, personal knowledge, there are also some who do not understand the seven-part division of the composition of nature and human beings. want to accept” because it is not yet included in the orthodox articles of faith of modern science. But for the self-thinking person it is not at all a matter of blindly accepting such a dogma, and no such blind faith is required of him. Occult science teaches nothing but facts of which anyone can gain conviction through his own observation, as soon as he is able to recognize them. The truth is reality and therefore a matter of course for everyone who really recognizes it. No one can blindly believe that a hen’s egg contains the seven elements described above, but is free to convince himself of it, and if he can find an eighth essential ingredient, we wish him luck in his discovery. But it is exactly the same with the seven-part division of the principles of a thought, indeed the principles of man and also those of the whole universe with everything that is in it, because every thing in the whole of nature, from a hen’s egg to a solar system, is only the expression of a thought, and an external appearance cannot be constituted in its essence differently from the thought that creates it. Anyone who knows how to look at himself closely will find, quite apart from all theories, seven levels of existence in himself, no more and no less.

If, with the eye of spiritual knowledge, we follow all things to their very essence, we find, without ever having been informed, that their material existence springs from an immaterial entity, which is at once substance, energy, and consciousness, or rather, none of these is particular, but something nameless that reveals itself to us as this trinity. This Nameless One may be termed “spirit,” “world force,” “world soul,” “prima materia,” etc.; but all these designations are imperfect and leave a lot to be desired, since the analyzing mind, which itself seeks to dissect what is indivisible, cannot raise itself above the diversity of its forms of perception to self-knowledge of the eternal One. That eternal One which is all in all, and of which all that is is made, and without which nothing of all that is exists,^[31] has been called the “Word” because it is the energy through which Activity in the whole universe, and also in every single thing, the thought underlying the thing takes form and comes into existence, whether in the realm of the visible or the invisible.

But anyone who knows what the “Word” is also knows, without having to be told, that it is the principle from which both the sound vibrations and the light vibrations arise, nor could it reasonably be thought of as anything else be considered, for as everything springs from the Word, it is also the root cause of Sound and Light, neither of the one nor the other, but the cause of both in one. Everything, then, consists of light and sound, and since we know that there are seven types of sound vibrations in an octave, and a ray of light can be broken down into seven colors, representing seven types of light vibrations, it is easy to conclude that each thing consists of seven modifications of a single original principle and cannot be otherwise constituted.

But we also know that in an octave, a complete chord consists of three notes, namely the root, third and fifth, and that the seven colors of the rainbow contain three primary colors, red, green and blue. Likewise, instead of considering each thing as an octave of seven notes or colors, we can think of it as a triad of spirit, soul, and body, or of energy, substance, and form. In an egg, instead of looking at the individual parts, we can only make a distinction between the shell, the interior and the kernel, in man we can only look at the difference between his corporeal, his animal nature and his divine nature. All such views are not arbitrary, nor are the things involved fundamentally different from each other, but each of these views is correct according to the standpoint from which it is viewed. But the perception will be different according to whether we look at a thing from the spiritual, the intellectual or the material (sensual) point of view, and the point of view from which we look at a thing will depend above all on which point of view we ourselves have are able to take. But this again depends on our own level of development, and a person who can look at a thing spiritually will see it in a completely different light than someone who looks at it only intellectually or even only with his physical senses.

What we can sense of a thought is nothing but the form in which it has clothed itself through its embodiment. Intellectually we recognize it as an image or a concept, an idea. Considered spiritually, we find it to be the product of an idea whose moving force is the will, and whose soul and life is consciousness, and the more consciousness is manifest in it, the more vivid is the thought, and the more willpower fills it, the stronger and more enduring and effective it is. But will and consciousness together are what is called “spirit”; from the spirit arises the intention which directs the thought and the will which moves it.

Thus every single thought contains everything that is necessary for it to have an independent individual existence, whether this existence lasts a fraction of a second or a period of thousands of years.

The whole universe with all its appearances is a thought; every solar system with all its planets, its kingdoms and the invisible as well as visible inhabitants living in it is such a thought, which is based on a meaning, a will, a spirit, a consciousness. Every thing down to the smallest atom is a center of forces which has a sense, an aim, a purpose of its existence, and this sense contained therein, which is not to be found outside the thing but in the thing itself, is the reason of his essence, his God; the thought which represents that sense is its substance, and the “Word” clothes it with the outward form, being the force which expresses it. This power is the spiritual will, i.e., a confident and discerning willpower. A will without consciousness and without knowledge is without true life; a will imbued with divine wisdom is divine in nature and immortal. God himself is this will, the eternal word, and Jacob Boehme therefore calls “God” the will of eternal wisdom.

Like every other activity, volition can have its origin in one of the three basic qualities of nature. It may spring from wisdom (sattva), from desire (rajas) or from ignorance (tamas), and its effect will vary according to the quality from which it springs and which gives it its character. Wise thoughts and noble deeds will spring from a will that proceeds from knowledge, the consequences of which will be permanent and the reaction of which on their originator will be most favorable. From a volition that springs from desire, passion, or egoism, thoughts and deeds will spring up that bring about causes that can be extremely fatal to their originator. A volition that arises from blind ignorance gives birth to thoughts and actions which can have physical consequences but no repercussions on the moral or spiritual plane, because the intention animating the thoughts did not spring from the moral realm or from spiritual knowledge. An idiot, for example, who, without willing or desiring it, causes the death of a man is not morally responsible for it, while a butcher who kills an ox for profit is morally responsible for it, and a naturalist who, for the gratification of his scientific curiosity amused himself with the vivisection of a fly, identified with the devilish elements in his nature. Whoever acts with knowledge against the spirit of knowledge sins against the Holy Spirit.

The more the will is conscious and the thought permeated with knowledge, the more permanent are the conscious forces which are created by willing and thinking. They belong to the essence of the person who created them and have an effect on him. The “spirits,” once created, remain, even though they have vanished from our memory; nay, even the death of our body does not destroy them, and they come alive with it when man comes into being again.

The law of karma is not a law of mere mechanical effects, it is not a law of iron necessity. Such a view ignores the spiritual element in it, and because it does not work according to mere mechanical rules, but rather is the law of divine justice, which is providence as well as nemesis, it cannot be explained according to purely mechanical rules either. The law of karma is the will of God, which is not governed by whims and whims like human will, but is guided by divine wisdom according to its eternal and unchangeable laws. This law can only be known through divine wisdom itself, but we can learn the effects of this law if we rise to that worldview by which we see the universe not as an inanimate mechanical gear, but as a living organism, in in which living, intelligent and spiritual powers are at work, which are born of the spirit.

Providence, which is active in this, manifests itself in the fact that through it, by means of the law of karma, everything is finally directed to the best, the effect of this law destroying evil and bringing good back to its origin. It is the only means by which mistakes and misdeeds committed can be atoned for, and the great teacher who teaches wisdom to those who make proper use of his teachings. If good did not reward itself, and evil did not bear within itself the germ of destruction, good and evil would be alike; there would be no struggle between the two and consequently no victory of good over evil.

The motto of Theophrastus Paracelsus was: Omne donum perfectum a deo, imperfectum a diabolo; i.e., “Everything perfect comes from God, the imperfect belongs to the devil (of selfhood).” If the unfortunate knew the law of karma, they would not grumble about their fate, but rather strive to destroy the ignorance and folly in their own nature, and open their hearts to the light of knowledge. This would enable them to avoid anything that would create a new source of suffering for them after the exhaustion of suffering inflicted by past karma. The ignorance of one’s true and divine self is the cause of all errors, sins and suffering; the only redeemer from this is knowledge. This Redeemer still speaks today to everyone who wants to listen to the voice of truth, regardless of which religious system he belongs to: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened; I want to refresh you.”^[32] But the scientific justification for this saying lies in the fact that the one who unites with his divine ego, in which there is no longer any desire for “selfhood,” becomes rid of all suffering associated with this selfhood with his transient “self.”

That this annihilation is not a annihilation of self-consciousness, but rather an awakening to true self-consciousness, a triumph of spirit over matter, an entry into freedom and immortality, hardly needs mentioning for those who are caught between the eternal and the transitory knowing how to discern what is the first condition for understanding the divine mysteries.

(Sequel follows.)

V. The Kingdom of Appearances^[33]

Everything we see is a revelation of truth;

but the truth itself is not recognized by anyone.

By the “realms of appearances” is meant the “body world,” i.e., everything that is perceived with the sense organs; but just as the letters of a script, no matter how beautifully drawn, are not the thought expressed by them, but only symbols through which the meaning contained in the thought is represented externally, so are all phenomena in nature, and if no matter how visible and tangible and corporeal they are, they are nothing other than appearances through which inner forces are represented externally, symbols through which reality is represented, but not reality and essence itself. The truth cannot be revealed to us in any other way, than by external symbols, from which we can draw conclusions as to the nature of things themselves; it itself is not an external thing and therefore cannot be perceived externally unless it is known internally. Yes even more! The true essence of the universe is one and not piecemeal; it cannot therefore be known either piecemeal or from individual pieces. Anyone who thinks he is looking for truth in his deceptive self-delusion, which is a product of self-deception, will never find it; the lie or deception cannot comprehend the truth. Since truth is a unity, it can only be known by the unity itself. When the deception and error of self-delusion in man is overcome and he sees himself in the unity of the whole, i.e., in the truth, then the truth itself can reveal itself in him and the spirit of truth in him can recognize himself inside and outside.

All greedy desire and selfish seeking for the truth is therefore not only useless but the greatest obstacle to its knowledge. Many seek truth for the purpose of acquiring it for adornment and enrichment rather than letting the truth find them. They seek to shine by possessing the truth instead of letting the truth itself shine in them, and therefore they cannot attain it; for the one infinite cannot be possessed by the limited; the human spirit, not feeling its oneness with the spirit of truth in the universe, cannot comprehend the infinite; the great whole can only reflect its image in detail and detail, and then only when the mirror of the soul is not stirred by curiosity and greed, and clouded by a clinging to error; just as the image of the sun can only be reflected in its perfection in a clear and calm pond. God is big and man is small. The more man struggles and strives and exerts his own will to know God, the less he will attain this knowledge. But if man lets go of error and surrenders to divine wisdom instead of wanting to capture it, then God will attain self-knowledge in him.

All suffering, folly and sin in this world springs from ignorance of the truth; all the ignorance of the obscurants is due to the fact that appearances are taken for essence, symbols for what they are supposed to represent; nevertheless appearance is nothing without essence, and all theory based on appearance is mere pseudo-science and in reality ignorance. Many, especially the fantasists and fanatics cloaked in their self-conceit, do not even understand this fact, and perhaps believe that we want to deny the existence of natural phenomena, which of course would be nonsense. Since they take appearances for reality, reality itself does not exist at all for them and is an unthinkable thing. If you took away the bill from them, nothing would be left. No theosophist has yet claimed that phenomena are not really present in nature; what is claimed is that these appearances are nothing but appearances behind which the truth is hidden. Appearance without essence is nothing. Anyone who only recognizes the appearance, but not the essence, does not really recognize anything. God is the reality and essence of everything; man without God is a larva, an empty semblance, which also cannot recognize the essence which he does not have. But since God is the essence of all things, he is also the actual essence of man, and nothing prevents him from recognizing his own greatness in man other than man’s own megalomania, which conceals this true self-knowledge from man. In order to recognize that appearances are only appearances, one must recognize reality; for otherwise the appearance cannot be distinguished from it. To understand one’s own ignorance one must have wisdom. Anyone who really knows that he knows nothing has true knowledge, and all other knowledge comes from his own observation; for he has taken root in truth and can distinguish it from appearances. From this standpoint of reality one can see what the phenomenal world really is, and not just what it appears to be.

Anyone who does not recognize the unified essence underlying all existence cannot truly recognize the real essence of the individual phenomena either; he only sees an apparently patched whole, but not the unity which is revealed in a multiplicity of appearances. For him, the world is like distant music, from which he certainly hears individual tones that, reflected by the echo, ring out to him, but he lacks the knowledge of the whole and therefore the understanding of it. He searches in vain for the whole in the individual pieces; he cannot find it because he cannot find in himself the unity of the whole, i.e., recognizes the identity of its true nature with the true nature of all things in the universe. Therefore it is impossible to explain to anyone what the knowledge of God (Theosophy) is, if he does not already have it. One can only tell him what it is not, but not what it is. But if you already have it, you don’t have to explain it first. If one speaks at all of things beyond the comprehension of the human mind, it is not to satisfy scientific curiosity, but to encourage people to learn to feel and think for themselves, to learn from the relative worthlessness of all that is transitory, and to cause them to enter into that higher state of being in which alone they can find that true self-knowledge which no other can find for them.

In order to be able to distinguish truth from error, one must also have got to know error and have grown out of it. As long as one is oneself identified with a folly, one will not be able to recognize that it is a folly. Anyone caught up in a dream will not be able to see that he is only dreaming, only when he wakes up and comes to himself will he see that he has been dreaming. So too is human life a dream that one has to dream and wake up from to know that it was nothing but a dream. It doesn’t do much good to make yourself believe that life is a dream unless you wake up to it yourself. Nothing is served by despising the knowledge of this world until one has attained true knowledge of the Eternal. The deep has value for the one who dwells in the deep, the height for the high. The fish in the water can only know its surroundings, but it knows nothing of the size of the sea. The eagle hovers over the water and overlooks it in its infinity. The fish is in it, the eagle controls it. So it is with the dream of human life. He who has never dreamed it does not know it; whoever is caught up in this dream does not know that he is dreaming; anyone who has awakened from it recognizes it for what it is and can control it. Through suffering man attains awakening and knowledge; not by persisting and getting stuck in sin and error, but by growing and rising above them. Therefore heaven rejoices more over a sinner who has come to knowledge through experience than over ninety-nine ignorant righteous people, who have neither experienced nor learned anything, and therefore cannot have knowledge or the happiness that flows from it.^[34]

It is not a question of getting to know theories of how one could become happy, but of grasping the truth oneself, absorbing it and realizing it, and thereby entering into the state of spiritual self-knowledge, which brings the highest happiness with itself brings. The knowledge of the truth is its realization. The truth is the reality, the essence; everything that is not realized in ourselves does not belong to our being and is only an illusion for us. The essence exists, the appearance passes. What is insubstantial cannot last forever, for the phenomenon is subject to change, even if it seems unchanged for a shorter or longer time, even for thousands of years. All Christendom is chasing after immortality; everyone would like to be immortal in their person; yet the Bible teaches us that “none is immortal save God,”^[35] who is the one essence of all and the real in all. The supreme angel or adept, considered in itself, is but a transitory appearance, and in the gods themselves nothing is immortal but God. In this, the Christian doctrine agrees with the Buddhist and every other major religious system. If, as is daily the case, we take a man’s personal appearance for man himself, we cannot find an immortal among men; but the germ for cognition of the truth hidden in him is contained in every human being, and the more this immortal truth comes to his consciousness, the more he is immortal in it; for eternal being is then realized in him, and God conscious of his existence in him.

The word “immortal” is therefore usually only used in a relative sense, for example, to indicate that man possesses certain powers which survive the destruction of his physical body. When life and consciousness cease to be active in the physical body, it can appear all the more active in the astral body, and if it ceases to be active here too, it continues on the purely spiritual plane. Thus the material appearance of man on earth is a perishable thing, and the vision of personality survives its disappearance; but seen from the standpoint of the Eternal, even the luminous thought-form of spirit-born man is but an appearance reflecting and manifesting the sole eternal self of the whole universe. Where there is still an idea of “I-ness” as something different from the whole, there is still no completely true self-knowledge. Only in universal self-awareness does this deception stop. There, the single “I” disappears and the self-awareness of omnipresence takes its place; there, the delusion of individuality is no longer present, but the knowledge of God, which encompasses everything in the power of love without distinction of person. There is true freedom (nirvāna) and awareness of existence (sat chit ānandam); but where one’s own animal reason takes the place of divine wisdom, there is narrowness. Constraint, deception and empty appearance, and from this deception of self-delusion arises the individual phenomenon, the world of forms, in which each imagines itself to be something different from all others, not only in form but also in essence, while all are only represent a multiplicity of manifestations of a single being who is an indivisible unity and the essence of all. Anyone who enters into the self-awareness of this unity stops thinking of himself as something out of the ordinary; he is no longer “himself” and through this he attains true cognition.^[36 ^]

The realm of appearances therefore includes not only the physical world that is visible to us from the outside, but everything that exists on earth or the underworld, in heaven or in hell and is not identical to one’s own self-consciousness. Not only those “spirits” belong there which are born in bodily forms as human appearances on earth and leave them again in the disintegration of these forms, but also everything that lives in animals and plants and in the mineral kingdom; for every visible thing is an invisible “spirit,” manifested in a visible shell; revelation is the appearance, the core or “character” of being. But besides these phenomena visible to us there are an infinite number of creatures which are not visible to our external senses, and all of them are “spirits,” whether clothed in a material, ethereal, or celestial form, or such as light, heat, electricity, etc. are formless.

What is man but a visible and tangible thing composed of originally formless and invisible natural forces; or, in other words, a “spirit,” living in the natural process of procreation, birth, and. diet has taken physical form? In reality it is a thought and the whole world is a world of thoughts, of which we perceive with our external senses only that part which has “materialized” or visibly embodied itself. Also, in no man does his spiritual being present itself completely at once, neither in his external appearance nor in his own imagination; for appearance is always changing with age, moods, and external circumstances, and as for his own imagination, no man is capable of imagining all he knows at once, or all he is capable of contemplating in succession, to think at once. Everyone has knowledge of which he is not constantly aware, but which arises in his consciousness as needed. However, this means that the non-material human being uses the material body for feeling and thinking. The invisible human being, who is not imprisoned in the body, but who is rooted in the body and “overshadows” it, uses the brain of the personality it inhabits to reveal and utilize its knowledge and ability in this sensory world. He reveals now this, now that part of his being, but never the whole being at once. The personal man is the machine that does the work, but not the foreman himself; the machinist is not the machine, but the foreman who makes the machine work, even if it acts and works instinctively and independently to a certain extent.

But just as the essence of the actual human being is not imprisoned within the periphery of his physical body, so there are countless other spirits in the universe whose existence is independent of their appearance. On the physical plane we find bodily appearances composed of physical forces of nature On higher or even lower planes we find such phenomena, though not externally perceptible, composed of forces corresponding to the nature of the forces ruling on those planes. On the physical plane their appearances belong to the realm of physics; the phenomena located on the supersensible planes belong to the realm of metaphysics. One cannot measure human reason with a yardstick, and the existence of elementals cannot be proved by means of the telescope or microscope; but if one’s own consciousness (which is not to be confused with the imagination) is raised to a higher level of existence, a new field for the power of perception opens up. The physical man perceives external things, the astral man the inhabitants of the astral world, the thinking man ideas. In order to judge whether there is reason, one must have reason oneself; to know if there is a God in the universe, one must grow beyond oneself and into the divine, and feel the presence of God in the universe within oneself. Where metaphysical and spiritual matters are concerned, all the opinions of the experts in physics are of no particular value. When two persons, one a scholar and the other a drover [one who uses a cattle prod], know nothing about a certain matter, they both know equally.

Nowadays, when people talk about gnomes and mermaids, fairies and goblins, nymphs, sylphs and salamanders, most believe that they are children’s fairy tales that “every educated person has long since risen above.” Basically, however, there is nothing at all astonishing in believing that there are animated forces of nature on the astral plane [etheric] which can present themselves under the phenomena described by the above names. This is no more remarkable than that invisible water vapors can condense into visible clouds, even solid ice formations, or that natural forces such as light, warmth, etc., can make a tree grow if the seed and the soil are there. Also, in the end, it doesn’t matter whether someone believes or doubts the possibility of such things; But whoever, in his ignorance, denies the existence of supernatural levels of existence and directs his thoughts only to the physical level, has in fact a limited field of vision; he only knows the outer shell of the world.

The old gods of Greece have long since become a child’s mockery, Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo, etc. no longer exist; but the forces which were represented under these symbols have never ceased to be, they still exist to-day. Love will continue to rule the world, though no longer worshiped under the name “Venus,” and the force that animates the universe, formerly represented by the name “Jupiter Olympos,” is the same today, even if its symbol is only authenticated as “St Peter” in Rome today.

The truth is eternal and unborn, created by nothing and invented by no one. It is self-existent and free and has no other cause of its existence than itself. The world of appearances, on the other hand, has a cause which is not appearance itself; it is changeable, bound to and dependent on its cause; Forms arise and perish, are produced and born, and are not the essence of things themselves, but only the symbols by which essence is represented; Appearances can be objectively perceived externally or internally; the truth itself is not recognized by any human being unless it is revealed within himself and without his own searching and research. Many things appear as or true or probable; but truth itself is not a thing, but the one indivisible reality, the essence and life of all, “the most perfect virtue, the highest good,”^[37] independent of all appearances, and the knowledge of which is the divine wisdom or “Theosophy.” Truth is clarity and appearance is appearance; thus indeed the world of appearances is the night side of eternal nature, and that which is “occult” or hidden, the eternal day whose sun never sets Without clarity there is no true knowledge; without the realization of essence we shall neither understand nor know anything true. Appearances bear witness to the existence of the essence, and if the essence is known, the deception of appearances disappears. So you can, for example, from the external appearance of a person, from his facial features, gait, posture, etc., draw conclusions about his character with probability; but where soul speaks to soul and man is recognized spiritually, there the outside does not come into consideration. Then there is no talk of any objective consideration; one feels oneself with the object of knowledge and recognizes one’s own ideal in it, regardless of whether the appearance in which it is represented externally is young or old, beautiful or ugly, perfect or imperfect. But whoever only clings to the appearance does not know the essence; he loves appearances and thereby deceives himself.

Like the material things in our sensory world and the ethereal forms on the astral plane, the images we see in our world of thoughts are products that belong in the realm of appearances. They exist as truly on their level of existence as a tree or animal does on its own. “Being” is a relative term. In our world of thought there are no trees and rocks that can be grasped with the hands, and for a person who is completely absorbed in his thoughts, the outer world no longer exists at all; he knows about it just as little as a thoughtless material thing knows about the world of thoughts. Dreaming does not doubt the existence of the objects which he sees in the dream and does not know that he is dreaming; unless there is still a spark of that consciousness in him that enables him to distinguish between dream and waking. Just as little does the human being absorbed in the sensory spectacles of this world know that everything presented to him there is only an ephemeral dream image when viewed from the point of view of the Eternal. He takes this phenomenal world to be real unless there is in him a spark of that divine consciousness which enables him to distinguish the eternal from the transitory.

A thought does not arise of itself any more than a tree or a cloud arises of itself. The outside is a symbol of the inside; the laws which prevail in both regions are related. Invisible water vapors, which are produced by the heat of the sun, rise from the sea and rivers. Gradually the sky becomes veiled, fog forms and these condense into clouds of various shapes. An initially indefinite longing awakens in the human mind, then the idea that fulfills him follows, from which finally through the power of the spirit a corresponding idea develops, which, once it is firmly rooted, is much more difficult to eradicate than a tree rooted in the ground.

Thus, angels can be born as demons in the mind of man and are then actually present, even if not externally visible. Many believe that the products of fancy and imagination are nothing that have no meaning, but these products are real phantasms and forms formed into the mind, which when enlivened and strengthened by the will attain a much longer life can than any living creature in our sense world. A deep-rooted and grown-up fixed idea forms a phenomenon which, as every metaphysician knows, continues to exist even when the ashes of its creator have been blown away by the winds.

Thoughts are things, and each thing eventually returns to its origin, to the source from which it flowed. We must hold fast to these two principles if we wish to recognize the law of karma and its effects on the various stages of existence. The essential man is a spirit; the thoughts which he generates in himself are part of his nature; they arise from him, express themselves in his doings and omissions, and the consequences which arise from them have an effect on him, as is inconceivable otherwise if one understands the connection between existence, thinking and acting. A tree is not the earth, a ray of sunshine is not the sun, a thought is not man. But just as the tree that has risen from the earth returns to the earth and the ray of light coming from the sun belongs to the sun, so man, even when he has left his earthly shell, is most intimately connected with the products of his will, thoughts and actions; they never left him; they are the building blocks from which his character is built, and come into existence with him as soon as he himself reappears, i.e., when he reincarnates again.

Attracted by the delusions of self from which the personal “I” consciousness springs, they crystallize around this deceptive self just as in winter water freezes around a solid core, forming a rigid crust. The thoughts and actions that spring from self-conceit and selfishness are surrounded by a rigid crust which renders him incapable of free intellectual movement, and the more he immerses himself in this deceptive selfhood, the more petty and mentally short-sighted he becomes that finally he can do nothing at all than this delusional construct of “I” can behold. But just as the warmth of the sun loosens the rigid masses of ice in spring, so does the warmth of selfless love, which springs from the sun of eternal knowledge of God and rises above all self-delusion, loosens the warmth that surrounds the human heart through sadness, not scientific speculation about occult things , covetousness, greed, envy, anger, etc., and the human being who has become free through the power of knowledge, who has overcome these elements, begins to recognize his own true nature, that of his own personality and thus also of the kingdom of appearances, both objective and subjective, is sublime. This also frees him from all his own searches and finds redemption in that true self-awareness, where there is no longer talk of limited selfhood, but which is identical to the consciousness of the deity in the universe and above all “own” wishes, thoughts and actions and consequently also above all karma.

(Sequel follows.)

VI. Self-consciousness^[38]

“You can doubt things, what and whether they are; You certainly have no doubts about who you are. This is the starting point. Be sure of yourself!

You come to all knowledge in this way over an obstacle.”

Rückert: “Die Weisheit des Brahmanen.” [The Wisdom of the Brahman.]

There are many people who want to have everything “proved” precisely because they have no insight of their own; yet there will hardly be anyone who is so foolish as to fail to understand that he is conscious without having the chapter and verse quoted from some “recognized scientific authority.” He knows it quite positively and without a doubt, and for no other reason than because he is aware of it, i.e., he knows that there is a consciousness and that it is a power that he calls his own.

But is this power or condition in fact our personal property? What becomes of it and where does it flee to when our bodies are asleep? If it were not based on an unknown something that we call our “I” and if consciousness were only a phenomenon occurring in our organism while we are awake, then the human being would also in his innermost being only be a temporary product of natural forces working in him from time to time; he would cease to be the same man every time he fell asleep, and would be different each time he woke up; yes, he would be an essentially different person whenever the state of consciousness caused by his thoughts and feelings changed. This could possibly also be the case with a person who has no real self-consciousness. There are many who never have their own thoughts, no serious will, and never act on their own, but are, so to speak, only living mirrors in which the sensations, desires and thoughts of their environment are reflected. Such persons are also called “media.” They always have the opinion of those under whose influence they happen to be, they change their “beliefs” whenever they feel like it, always do as they please, so long as they are not prevented from doing so by fear of punishment, and live in a state of “chronic hypnotism,” yet dreaming of being independent.

On the other hand, there are also others who, I would like to say, “are aware that they are aware,” i.e., they recognize in themselves a spiritual power of consciousness which is higher than all personal consciousness, personal feeling and personal thinking; a living force which was formerly known by the name “belief,” and which stands high above all merely scientific “belief” or “keeping opinions true.” The belief referred to here is the self-awareness of “God” in man, in other words, the self-awareness of his true divine “I,” in which there is no delusion of separateness and separateness from other beings. It is, if not the clear knowledge, then at least the dark foreboding and feeling of the divine love, exalted above all selfhood.

Friedrich Rückert expresses this idea in the following words:

My changeable self, that is and will and was,

Take hold of yourself in yours, that is unchangeable.

Because you are who you were, and are and will be, you!

My being flows from your being to yours.

Every night I would have lost who I was

And would be born every day that wasn’t;

If I hadn’t realized that I’m the same

Because in you who is, I am eternally included.

You already are because I am; because that’s how I feel

That through me I am nothing and through you I am everything.

You who created me as living proof for you;

Proving you is what you call me to do.

To prove you through myself to me and the world

Who doesn’t know the proof of you that it contains.

This means, however, that man has no real and at the same time “own” and separate consciousness, but that personal self-consciousness is basically just an illusion, while true self-consciousness is the divine consciousness that is inherent in him, even if it is still dormant. There is no more tangible scientific proof of this for the foolish skeptic than a man can prove to a block of wood that he is conscious. In spiritual things it is not a matter of proof, but of understanding. Instead of arguing about whether or not there is a God of the universe, everyone should be anxious to make himself capable of developing divine qualities in his own being, and thereby becoming a living proof of the divine existence.

This divine self-awareness, but in which there is no idea or sense of “self,” in the ordinary sense of that word, underlies the apparent self-consciousness or “personal” consciousness and should penetrate, illuminate, and ultimately absorb it entirely, so that in man all worldly thoughts and feelings disappear from his mind and only the universal self-consciousness of God remains. This is the union of the human soul with God, the sacrifice at Calvary and the resurrection in the Transfiguration. At birth, every human being contains the germ of the revelation of this divine self-awareness. In many, as long as they live, it remains just an abstract idea, a mathematical point that has no extension and is therefore incomprehensible to the human mind. In others the latent power awakens and spreads, and in some it blossoms and bears the ripe fruit of the knowledge of truth.

And now the question arises here whether we are also spiritually perfect, namely three-dimensional beings, as we seem to be physically. We know that three is the number of form.^[39] A perfect being has a perfect form; to a spiritual perfection belongs the unity of the Trinity, the “Holy Trinity,” in which the knower (the spirit), the known (the truth), and the knowledge itself are united into an indivisible whole (the wisdom). Without this trinity there is no complete self-awareness, just as little as there is a conceivable form that does not have three spatial dimensions, no more and no less, namely height, width and depth.

A mathematical point is unthinkable; as soon as it is represented by a symbol, it ceases to be an indivisible entity. In the spiritual it corresponds to the unconscious, in which self-consciousness has not yet awakened and is not manifest. The first conceivable spatial dimension begins where the point becomes apparent, which, no matter how small, already represents a line or composition of infinitely small points. Spiritually considered, this first dimension of space represents the action of a force from a midpoint in two opposite directions, action and reaction, centripetal and centrifugal force, forming a trinity with the unmanifested mathematical midpoint. One likes, for example, to think of a magnet divided into pieces, no matter how small, each of which will have its two poles; Likewise, the human will, no matter how small, already has the impulse to move in two opposite directions, towards the light and towards the dark. The dim foreboding of a higher existence, the not-yet-knowing faith, is the mathematical point in man’s spiritual consciousness; it is manifested by the unfolding power that lifts the soul upwards.

In the second dimension of space we find the plane, which can be thought of as a series of parallel lines lying side by side, or as parallel rays emanating from a central point, which together form a plane. A being existing in the first dimension of space could have no cognition of anything but its own opposite, since anything outside of that line could not come within the realm of its consciousness. Likewise, a being of the second spatial dimension can only become aware of things that lie within this plane. A science might develop among the inhabitants of this plane which knows and describes precisely all the phenomena of this plane, and yet knows or comprehends absolutely nothing of anything higher than this plane.

Indeed, this is the point of view of human science so long as there is no knowledge of God in it, and how two-dimensional space is something unthinkable and insubstantial, since even the thinnest piece of paper meant to represent a plane still has a certain thickness and consequently belongs to the third spatial dimension, everything that material science claims to know is basically insubstantial and nothing but an empty appearance; for an intellectually comprehensible being has three concepts: length, breadth and height, and where one of these three is missing, the other two have no meaning either. A triangle with one side missing is not a triangle at all, but just an angle formed by two mathematical lines that cannot be represented physically in any way.

We know that we are physically three-dimensional beings because our bodies have length, width, and thickness; but spiritually, perhaps most earthlings are only two-dimensional beings, i.e., they are conscious only of those things which are in their own bodily plane of existence. In order to become aware of the three-dimensional world that unknowingly surrounds them, they must first evolve themselves into spiritual three-dimensional beings, growing out of the length and breadth of the plane to the height of the perfect triangle.

We can compare existence as a whole to a pyramid. She is the symbol of perfect form. Its apex is the point from which emanates the light which penetrates its interior from above downwards; her foot is the material, the dark. Mankind without knowledge of God is comparable to the worm that moves in the earth under the foot of the pyramid, of which the light from above knows nothing, and thinks it knows everything when it knows the forms of the creatures that crawl around with it. Both the world space surrounding him and the forces ruling in it, insofar as they do not appear objectively, are nothing to him and the omnipresence of God is a word without meaning.

From this inability to recognize the unmanifest and spiritual, precisely because it is non-objective and lies beyond the “threshold of consciousness” of material man, arises the confusion and innumerable misunderstandings which prevail in relation to words concerning spiritual and divine things. When “God” is spoken of, the human mind accustomed to earthly, objective ideas involuntarily imagines some objective being, a co-inhabitant of its own second spatial dimension, and from this arise the most wrong conceptions, which are directly opposed to the truth.

We cannot recognize anything other than what is contained within our own circle of consciousness, but this consciousness can either only present itself as a level in which only what lies in this level can be recognized, and what lies above as well nor can what is beneath it be revealed in it, or it may be thought of as a perfect triangle in which is contained all height and depth, length and breadth. He who is only conscious of the lower has no knowledge of the higher; Whoever only sees the appearances, but not the essence underlying them, does not see the true essence of things, and he is mistaken in taking the appearance for the essence. He sees the activity of life in the individual forms, but knows nothing of a life itself which permeates all forms and whose revelation in the forms is their being alive, and because he knows nothing of the cause of this vital activity, he thinks it is the same a product of form and constantly confusing the effect of a cause with the cause that produces the effect. Holiness, loftiness, justice, unselfishness, etc., are to such people either empty words, or artificial arrangements based on mutual agreement, social conditions arising from the law of necessity, etc.; for the inhabitants of the second spatial dimension do not see what is above them, but only what appears next to them; they have no eyes and no concept for principles.

We can think of existence itself as a triangle whose base is ignorance (tamas). The two sides represent desire (rajas); at the top is the seat of knowledge (sattva). That is why every thing can be understood or misunderstood in three ways. The ignorant sees it as his ignorance presents it to him, the greedy sees it as his desire pretends it to him, the discerning sees it in the light of truth as it really is. The ignorant sees the words of the fairy tale but does not understand them; the covetous understands the words but misunderstands their meaning; the discerning recognizes the meaning hidden in the fairy tale.

It would be downright ridiculous were it not too sad to contemplate the aberrations to which wrong interpretation of the teachings of wisdom has led those who have not been able to rise above their spiritual two-dimensional existence. The habit of considering everything as lying in the material plane and the inability to grasp spiritual things from the spiritual point of view have brought incomprehensible calamity to the world and cost millions of human lives. Crusades, Inquisition, torture, religious wars of all kinds, intolerance, dogmatism, and clergy all have their origin in the inability of the dust-born intellect to rise above its shallowness into the realm of spiritual knowledge, in consequence of which it measures divine things by human-animal standards.

We need not go among the Indians to look for such “flatheads,” the academies of learning and theological seminaries abound. Everywhere we find extremely well-read, instructed and learned people who have reached the pinnacle of today’s knowledge, but because they have no spiritual knowledge, they are also incapable of viewing and judging spiritual things from a higher point of view than the earthly one. They “believe in God,” but they represent under him a being on the same level as them, though more perfect in his qualities, who is objective and external, and with whom one can therefore enter into negotiations. They do not consider that by presumptuousness they want to put themselves on an equal footing with God. Nothing else is conceivable for them than what lies in their own level of consciousness.

This is how, for example, the short-sighted devout fanatic admits that in order to keep the law, which says, “You shall love God above all things,” he must despise men; he sees only himself and his imagined interests of his own; he does not stand high enough to look down on himself and all men and see them as vessels in which God reveals himself.

His “love” is a small thing that moves only in the plane and can be transferred from one object in that plane to another there. He knows nothing of that love that encompasses everything in this plane, but also stands high above it. Earthly love is taken from one object and given to another; but divine love fills all things in this world, and if it has filled them, it has not diminished for that reason, but still reaches far above all things to its origin.

There is no teaching of wisdom and no passage in the Bible that cannot be perverted by ignorance and interpreted and applied in direct opposition to the truth. The empty and unsubstantial apparent self belonging to the second dimension is only the empty shadow of the true and higher self, it cannot grasp the truth and since its entire existence is a self-deception, so is its entire knowledge and ability in relation to everything that lies beyond his realm of shadows, self-deception and deceit. Neither can this “self” understand that the material world is only a dream image or shadow play, because it is nothing but a shadow and a dream itself, but it believes it is something real because it does not know the truth. For this reason the scholars of the shadow realm have no understanding of the eternally real, and theosophical teachings are nonsense for all who have no trace of knowledge of God. Even the virtues of such people stink and are at best based on artificial imitation, but not on their own spiritual strength. They cannot spring from their own true nature, since such a nature either does not exist at all or has not yet come to their consciousness. The true self-awareness in such persons is the elusive mathematical point in the plane of illusion. As the supreme ideal of the selfish scholar of the shadow realm is the gratification of his scientific curiosity, so the ideal of the selfish moralist is the appreciation of his self-conceited morality.

The pseudo-consciousness and pseudo-self has its seat in the imagination, the true self-confidence has its seat in the soul. Soulless people have no spiritual sensation and therefore no true knowledge. The scientific dreamer and the moral enthusiast have no inner stability; they are iridescent bubbles in the realm of the imagination; they only think with their heads and do not feel with their hearts.

Therefore F. Rückert says:

“As long as you only think without feeling it in you,

One thought will only continue to flush the other.

What you think is not true, only what you feel is true;

By thinking, you only make clear what you feel.”

But how can man enable himself to feel the truth within himself and thereby attain a higher consciousness and spiritual knowledge? The answer to this is: He must live less in the head and more in the heart, and absorb the truth there; i.e., he must not exclusively cultivate his imagination, but rather cultivate his goodwill and have a pure mind in which the truth can penetrate and be revealed. The angel’s message, which resounds whenever true self-knowledge is born in man, is not “Peace to men whose heads are full of philosophical speculations,” but “Glory to God in the highest and peace to men on earth who are of good will.”

Every human being is given a certain amount of life force when he appears. It is the sum allotted to him to “carry on his business” on earth, and he is free to squander it or employ it in the acquisition of useful things; but he cannot spend the same sum twice, since he has it only once. Some squander these powers on the animal plane for the furtherance of their sensual desires and passions, others use them for the accumulation of all sorts of knowledge which are basically useless and of no value to them when they leave earthly life, still others, especially religious fanatics, wasting their energies in dreams about the hereafter and in baseless fanaticism. We know, however, that a tree will not thrive if the crown is cared for as much as possible and nourishment is withdrawn from the core or the roots. Man can be likened to a temple, the dome of which is the head, while within is the sanctuary. The modern philosopher and enthusiast sits all his life in the dome and looks out the skylight, curious to see what is going on in the world, and while he makes his scientific observations, it remains dark inside or perhaps harmful animals nest there sanctuary one. But whoever remains in the sanctuary will also receive his divine nourishment there; because there is the center on which the divine forces of the universe are concentrated, and the more the divine spark in this center strives towards these forces, the more they will enliven it until it becomes the light that reaches the interior of the temple up to the dome lit. This is the meaning of the Bible passage which says that whoever serves the altar should also live off the altar, and which is understood by the ignorant to mean that whoever catches a fat parish should also receive a substantial allowance from it.

The knowledge of God (Theosophy) is a sacred science and therefore an impenetrable mystery to all who have no disposition to holiness within themselves. The dog and the monkey can be trained in all sorts of arts and therefore remain what they are. The man whose consciousness does not rise above the self-awareness of his personality may be well-informed in all sorts of systems, sciences and arts, an astute philosopher and a subtle critic, but the highest development in the two-dimensional plane cannot yet produce a spark of true knowledge. Likewise the devout fanatic will strive in vain to persuade God to bestow eternal life upon his personality; for since his personality is just what must vanish in order to bring about the realization of immortality, all the gods of the universe cannot make this illusion a reality.

The power which overcomes this delusion of selfhood, this megalomania of a mirror image, is not theory, but the realization of the oneness of life throughout the universe; in other words, the divine love which recognizes the existence of God in all creatures. “Whoever knows the multiplicity of appearances knows an insubstantial nothingness; but he who recognizes the One in everything has true knowledge.”

This divine love, which is the basis of all spirituality or spiritual knowledge, can be manifested even in a non-scientific man, or even in a man whose personality is beset with moral weaknesses; nay, it will manifest itself in such a man far more readily than in a self-important moralist possessed of self-conceit, or filled with a sense of his own perfection. Whoever imagines that he is better than other people is clinging to himself; he separates himself from humanity and does not see the greatness of God in everything. The more he glorifies his imagined self, the greater the obstacle he creates in the knowledge of God; the less he thinks of himself and of himself, the easier it will be for him to become aware of his true self. That is why the Bible says that the last on earth will be the first in heaven, and the first on earth will be the last in heaven (in God consciousness).

The knowledge of God does not consist in looking for God above the clouds, or in imagining to see him there; not in a love of heaven and contempt for men, but like a tree which is rooted more strongly in the earth the higher its trunk grows toward heaven, so must the love of divinity be in the love of all things is of a divine nature in human beings. The true occultist must be able to see what is invisible to others; i.e. H. he must recognize the presence of God in all creatures, even in animals, plants and stones; then he will love all creatures and God above all things, and strive to promote the revelation of God for His glory, not only in his own person, but in all beings, by removing the obstacles which work against it.

This is not done by seeking to put aside the sufferings of mankind, leaving untouched the causes of those sufferings; one might just as well try to draw out a stream at its mouth, without taking its sources into account. Suffering itself is the greatest teacher and the best guide on the way to knowledge. Evil is the servant of good; it is not a question of eliminating it, but of overcoming it. Anyone who can lead a comfortable life of idleness has no reason to concern himself with a higher level of existence; rather, the addiction to sensual pleasures increases the more opportunity there is to satisfy it. The law of karma knows better the world than any humanitarian or socialist. Blessed are those who recognize this law.

What we need is not a new church system, but enlightenment, not new codes of morality to teach us how to be so much better than other people; but we need selfless love; no empty sermon, but the deed. A good example is worth a thousand folios of philosophical speculation. Hitherto the devil’s message of lust has been preached; Glorification of the personal self, favoritism in the hereafter, immortality in the delusion of megalomania, and all sorts of schemes were devised to make it possible to deceive God and sneak a good seat in heaven for mindless larvae. This age has come to an end, a new era is beginning. The gospel of divine love above all selfishness and self-delusion, which until now was a great mystery because only a few could understand it, is beginning to become comprehensible to people, and the more they absorb this power within themselves and in their lives realize, the more the consciousness of their true divine self will be revealed in them. To preach this gospel requires no sect or church authority. Everyone is called to this; but above all those in whom this love has gained self-consciousness.

(Sequel follows.)

VII. Realization^[40]

“Gray, dear friend, is all theory,

And green the golden tree of life.” (Goethe.)

Someone has said that the highest ideal is also the only actual real, and this is an obvious truth to anyone who sees it; but it cannot be fully known by anyone but through experience, the ideal being realized in man himself. The highest ideal is the highest perfect existence, and this cannot be known in any other way than through existence itself. All transitory things and conditions have a reason external to themselves; they depend on a cause that is not themselves; they are products of man or nature. The supreme, imperishable, infinite existence is uncreated, unchangeable, perfect; it is its own ground, or rather groundless and unfathomable. It’s because it is. The truth is truth, not because anyone made it so, but because it is the truth. No one will be so foolish as to demand that it be proved to him that the truth is truth; but the truth does not exist for anyone who is not able to recognize it. We may infer that a thing is true or untrue on one reason or another, and thereby arrive at the assumption of probability, which may even increase to definite conviction; but even the1 logical conviction is far from true knowledge. This is attained only through the revelation of the truth within ourselves. Anyone who does not understand this difference between the assumption of a probability and the actual knowledge of the truth has never really known the truth, because the former is to the latter as an uncertain twilight is to the clarity of the sun.

All mere knowledge in relation to spiritual things is therefore by no means spiritual knowledge; theory is never its own end, but only the means to arrive at the real end of knowledge, which is the knowledge of truth through experience. Goethe recognized this too, and he therefore allows his Faust, after he had studied “philosophy, law and medicine, and unfortunately also theology,” to come to the realization that everything in nature is just a spectacle, and that he is still far from true knowledge.

“I feel it, I have all my treasures in vain

The human spirit’s snatched upon me,

And when I finally sit down

Doesn’t spring up any new strength from within.

I’m not an inch taller

I’m no closer to infinity.”

True knowledge only occurs when the knower and the known have become one in knowledge. There is then no longer any separation of object and subject, and consequently also no personality caught in its self-delusion, which knows a lot or little about this or that object, but the wisdom of God, which recognizes everything in itself and finds itself in the soul of the reflects people. This is therefore not know-it-all, but a spiritual awakening to a higher and non-personal existence, or in other words, the “spiritual rebirth, about which much has already been written and spoken, and which nonetheless nobody understands unless he has it within himself himself experiences; just as little as a sleeper can understand what awakening is, as long as he does not wake up himself. Therefore this teaching is also “occult,” i.e., hidden because, despite all the explanations, it remains an inexplicable riddle for everyone who cannot distinguish the eternal from the ephemeral. It is the “stumbling block” that those who are nailed to their own “I” cannot get over. Whoever overcomes this “I” has overcome the dragon on the threshold of the temple, the door of initiation opens to him; for only when there is no longer any “self” that wants to be or know something can omni-being and omniscience be revealed. Only when there is no other ideal can the highest ideal be realized in man. That is why the Indian Vedas teach us that all that is real is Brahma and nothing else is, and the Christian mystics profess the same truth.

“God is eternal rest, because he neither seeks nor wants;

If you want nothing in the same way, you are just as much.

As soon as you love something, you love nothing;

God is neither this nor that, so leave that something alone.

Who desires nothing, has nothing, knows nothing, loves nothing, wants nothing,

He who knows, desires and loves still has a lot.” (Angelus Silesius.)

Such a person has grown beyond all personal being, having and loving; he has opened up in allness like a bud in sunshine, he does not love himself, but is one with the power of love, which includes everything and even the smallest things. This is the “entering into Christ” that most theologians want nothing to do with, because they value their own selves more than God.

It is therefore also self-evident that nobody can make the divine ideal subservient to himself and realize it in himself as he pleases; he cannot draw it down to himself and in no way appropriate it except by raising himself to it, stepping out of limitation into freedom and entering into that ideal. By sacrificing his own “I” and uniting it with the ideal, the “not-I,” the same is realized in him. Also, there can no longer be any talk of karma, because where there is no longer any “self” to act, no consequences of actions that have not taken place can occur for this non-existent self either.

God does not need man’s help, yet without man’s help he can accomplish nothing in man. As paradoxical as this statement may sound, it is nevertheless easy to understand. As a man can expose himself to the light of the sun, but cannot attract or increase the light radiating from the sun, so no man can attain divine wisdom by his own personal strength, or, as so many would like to do, settle into push the same in. But just as the light of the sun cannot shine where the entrance is closed to it, so the spirit of self-knowledge can only be revealed there where nothing is present to prevent this revelation. It is not a struggle of the personality against itself, no overcoming of matter by the material, but a struggle of the spirit against matter, whereby the spirit can only triumph if it awakens to consciousness in matter and the freedom of the Will in man consists in obeying the will of spirit and subjugating matter through spirit. Strong below and obedient to the above; this is also the law of this world. Whoever wants to be strong at the top and is weak at the bottom surrenders to what is below him. The symbol of obedience to the high and protection from the low is the heart.

“The heart is narrow below and wide above;

The fact that it is open to God blocks earthiness.

Enlarge your heart, so God enters;

You shall be his kingdom of heaven, he wants to be your king.”

(Angelus Silesius.)

Thus all of one’s own knowledge has only a negative value in relation to the higher and only a positive value in relation to the lower. One can thereby gain nothing for oneself, but only learn to obey the higher, so that it may overpower the lower and become manifest. By this means ignorance and folly are overcome, and true knowledge is attained through union with truth. The truth is always holy, and therefore there can be no true knowledge without holiness. A science which tramples on humanity and justice and all that is sacred can certainly wallow in the pool of dirt into which the sun of truth sends its rays, but it does not recognize the truth itself.

Knowledge is a preliminary stage to cognition, but not cognition itself, and there are other things that belong to true cognition in addition to mere knowledge, such as the “yoga philosophy,” i.e., describes the doctrine of the union of man with God, or in other words the becoming one of object and subject in the knowledge of the Supreme. This includes, above all, the power of knowledge itself, i.e., the ability to distinguish the true from the false, the eternal from the ephemeral. Spirit can only be known through the power of Spirit; whoever wants to know spiritually must have spirit himself. The brooding intellect alone cannot rise to the spiritual; he is earthly in nature and bound to the material and sensual; only the thought carried by the spirit enters the realm of the spiritual through spiritual power. By this power the ignorance and error which cause deception to be taken for truth is overcome. This is the victory of true faith over the scientific fantasies of the imagination.

The second stage is desirelessness, or rather, being above all delusional desires for attainment of anything for oneself, whether in this life or in the future, on earth or in heaven. Clarity only comes when you are calm. Where there is dissatisfaction, inner enlightenment cannot take place. The seeker after truth must hope to find nothing for himself, but enter into truth himself, that his self-delusion may rise and fall in it, and that he may be one with her in her knowledge. It is not enough to imagine or resolve that one does not ask for anything for oneself, but rather the “I concept” itself should be supplanted by the unlimited sense of truth, which is identical with divine love. When self-delusion is over, then all self-being, self-having, self-knowledge, self-will, all self-righteousness and self-aggrandizement is also over. There—not nothingness—but the wisdom of God takes the place of the deception of the “self,” and not “we,” but God wills, thinks, and acts in and through us; as our consciousness merges into his, his consciousness becomes ours.

The third stage is complete self-mastery, and for this it is not enough that one controls the outbursts of one’s passions from time to time, but rather it is a question of having complete mastery not only of one’s thoughts and feelings, even of all the organs of the body to become. Controlling your own thinking is a rare art. Anyone who tries to hold onto one thought for even a minute without letting another come into his consciousness will find it harder than one is led to believe. Since thinking is related to breathing, the philosophy of yoga teaches us certain ways in which we can use the breath to make it easier to hold onto a thought and thereby become master of our thinking. But where the spirit completely controls matter, it is also the lord of the etheric vibrations (Ākāśa) which underlie the structure of the visible body, and it controls it through them.

The fourth stage is inner enlightenment. In clarity, the truth can reveal itself. When man has ceased to be his own light, he can become a lamp in which the light of God is revealed. When he stops letting his own errors and desires speak, the word of truth can make itself heard in him.

Böhme says:

“When you stand still from your senses and will of your selfhood, eternal hearing, seeing and speaking will be revealed in you, and God will hear and see through you. Your own will, hearing and seeing prevent you from seeing or hearing God. If you remain silent, you are what God was before nature and creatures, out of which he made your nature and creatures. So you hear and sift with what God saw and heard in you before your own willing, seeing and hearing began.” (“Übersinnliches Leben.” [Supernatural Life] I, 3 & 4.)

The highest level is that of perfect knowledge and bliss, in which complete unification has taken place, whereby no object and subject, no “I and you,” no “mine and yours” are no longer present, but the individual consciousness of the human being in the all-consciousness has arisen from God and become one with it; or in other words, the individual consciousness has transcended all barriers of individuality and has become the All-Consciousness of God. Such a person would be a “Mahatma,” “Jīvan-Mukta,” or “Buddha,” but there are very few of them in our evolutionary period.

To attain even the lower grades of this enlightenment, there must be, as preliminary steps, all the virtues which Wisdom teaches, viz., purity of feeling, thought, and body, renunciation of the lower, and resignation to the higher, living faith and divine self-confidence, inward concentration and elevation, firmness and perseverance, strength of character and overcoming fickleness, justice and mercy, freedom of thought, conscientiousness, equanimity, performance of duty, faithfulness, modesty, chastity, diligence, etc., in short, everything that leads to the highest of all virtues, the power of divine love exalted above all selfishness. This love is the highest, and not to be compared with the pathetic, learned “morality” that springs from self-delusion and self-conceit. It is the supreme force because it dissolves the hard crust that separates the individual from humanity and from God, just as an iceberg floating in water is turned back into water by the heat of the sun and water.

All this is taught in all religious systems, including Christianity, and it can be seen that all our religious systems are nothing more and nothing less than preliminary schools for the practice of yoga; the end of all theory is the guidance to eventual union with God and the consequent release from karma. True religion, therefore, is a necessary condition for attaining true knowledge, which is knowledge of the truth, and the end of all science is religious knowledge, i.e., the true knowledge of man and his place in nature. Therefore true science is also a sublime and holy thing that should not be misused for mean and devilish purposes. Perverted knowledge digging in the dirt is not true knowledge and is based on appearances; true knowledge is not based on “apparent” evidence, but on knowledge of the truth. False knowledge is based on misuse of knowledge and is therefore contrary to wisdom. True science cannot contradict wisdom, but is true precisely in so far as it contains wisdom, i.e., contains knowledge of the truth. The theory is blind, looking for authority to lean on; wisdom knows itself; she needs no outside support; it stands firm in itself. Mere knowledge knows nothing of God; it is limited and has no concept of the infinite; wisdom recognizes itself as a divine force.

But the teaching of wisdom is and will always remain nonsense for anyone who cannot feel or understand its meaning, and that is why fools laugh at it. In our almost entirely pretend age, both the superficially learned and the unlearned see nothing but words in the writings of the wise. They argue about the letters and completely misunderstand the spirit. Man, seduced by the insanity of skepticism or blinded by scientific superstition, denies the existence of the only God who dwells in himself, and seeks to become godlike as an intellectual animal without God, the wise knowing that in himself he has nothing, but he does in God everything is. The saying of the wise men was “Eritis Deus,” [You will be God] i.e. become God (through surrender to God Consciousness); opposed to this is the saying of folly: “Eritis sicut deus,” [You will be like a god] become like God (without God). One is the dissolution of self-delusion and self-conceit through the power of love; the other, the inflation of self-conceit to the point of imaginary godlikeness. One is the key to white magic, the other the key to black magic. The one leads to the realization of the divine ideal in man, the other to the production of a caricature. One leads to the knowledge of immortality, the other to spiritual torpor and eternal death.

Since the limited cannot grasp the unlimited, the perishable cannot subjugate the imperishable, the captive cannot comprehend freedom within itself, so no man, no matter how learned, can draw the truth down to himself and make it his own ; the only way to come to true knowledge is by entering into the truth itself. Nor can anyone do this of his own volition. Nothing enters into God that does not come from God. The higher self-conceit rises, the deeper its fall. Man cannot serve God as man, for without God he is nothing. He cannot “do favors” for God; he can only give up deception and thereby enable himself to receive the truth. Man sacrifices a delusion, and in doing so he sacrifices nothing. God sacrifices himself in man, and only through this sacrifice can his divine nature be revealed in man. The “Bhagavad Gītā” says: “Brahma Himself is the sacrifice. He is the food of the sacrificial fire and the sacrificial fire itself. He sacrifices himself for himself.”^[41]

A plant would never develop from a germ if heat did not penetrate it and evoke vital activity in it. Thus the free ray of heat is bound in the germ; he thereby loses his freedom and sacrifices himself. But with that he has not become nothing; because through this entry he is now able to unfold his power in the organism that encloses him and to make a plant out of the germ. The earthly human being is the germ which, without a spirit, cannot reveal any spirit either. The spirit is the power of knowledge that no one can generate themselves. Through the effect of this power in the human being, the cognition becomes evident in the human being and thus he enters into the truth himself.

(Sequel follows.)

VIII. Completion^[42]

“It is finished.” (Job XIX, 30.)

Completion consists in the fact that man, who has left eternity and entered the temporal, returns to his origin, his true nature, and this happens by recognizing his true nature in all things and all things in himself. It is this highest level, which lies beyond the imagination of the human mind and can only be felt intuitively, no sinking of the human consciousness into nothingness, but a merging of the individual consciousness in the all-consciousness, whereby the all-consciousness becomes evident in the individual. The one eternal spirit, which had accepted the illusion of selfhood and kept its reflection for itself because it liked it so much that in looking at it it forgot its true nature, overcame this delusion of being separate and redeemed itself from its deceptive self. He has again entered the realm of truth from the realm of appearances, into God, into all existence; he has completed his work, completed his cycle.

In the Buddhist religion, this state of all-consciousness, of all-knowledge and perfection, in which there is no longer any knowing individual who is different from the object of his knowledge, but the knower and the known are one in knowledge, is called nirvana. Imagining this unimaginable state, or attempting to intellectually comprehend it, which is intellectually incomprehensible, is useless, because the spiritual can only be spiritually felt and spiritually known. It is a state of universal love, not love for any particular object, but love itself, which is absolute divine self-knowledge, divine wisdom. Were it confined to any particular subject, it would be imperfect and ignorant of others, and not divine in nature. Because the absolute is raised above all relative concepts, it cannot be explained either, but can only be known in and through itself.

“The bottomless cannot be fathomed.

He who asks is wrong, he who gives an answer is wrong.”

It is as incomprehensible as the infinite space, which cannot be imagined but is there nonetheless, and which is desolate and empty where love does not dwell in it.

In Christian symbolism, this doctrine of evolution and involution is represented by the incarnation and death on the cross. The Spirit of God overshadows the individualizing soul and thereby enters human existence. Through this entry of the spiritual into the material, the spirit is to a certain extent bound to the material, the divinity to humanity in man. Through this the divine spirit loses the consciousness of its omnipresence, the delusion of the senses causes in man the delusion of being special and a forgetting of his true, all-encompassing essence; “Christ dies in man,” but also for man; since only through this entry of the spirit into matter can the material be permeated by the spiritual and elevated to it. But by the fire of love the divine spark lurking in the heart is kindled into the flame that penetrates and destroys the delusion of “selfhood.” In the silent “Bethlehem,” i.e., in the depth of self-awareness, the God-consciousness is born, whose light enlightens man and disperses the clouds of ignorance as the light of the sun disperses the clouds. This is true spiritual knowledge, which is not the result of theoretical speculation but of inner awakening. All theoretical speculation concerning spiritual things cannot produce revelation, but only remove he errors which hinder that revelation; just as turbid water cannot be cleared by stirring, but by letting it stand still the dirt can sink to the bottom and become clear enough for the sun to shine through.

Nailed to the cross of self-conceit, man and God in him suffer until the deity is redeemed from man through the destruction of self-delusion. Through this man attains the knowledge of his true existence in God; not as a phenomenon bound to time and space, but as a conscious spiritual force whose realm is the universe and whose life is eternity. The apparent life of the personality is the apparent death of the divine and the death of egoism is the resurrection of the true human being in God. Seen in this way, life is death or the unconscious of reality, the body a coffin in which lies the apparently dead soul. By rolling away the rock of self-delusion from the opening of the burial vault, the soul awakens to the self-awareness of immortality and the liberated spirit expands and rises from the night of error to freedom and light.

This divine state is not attained by scientific theories, by belief in dogma, by fantasies and dreams, nor by attachment to any external thing, authority, etc., but only by the struggle of the spirit against the material. All knowledge, belief, delusion and belief is not an end in itself, but only a means to an end. The ultimate purpose is the overcoming of error by the spirit of knowledge of truth. Error does not conquer error, nor folly folly, but the spirit of truth conquers error and brings light to the night of ignorance as the sun dispels darkness. The more this spirit of knowledge awakens to consciousness in man, the more the spirit of man becomes one with it and the man becomes free from the illusions that surround him through his becoming one with the spirit of wisdom. This is the “occult practice,” which requires strength, patience, perseverance, and experience. There are sharp edges to round off, innate instincts, acquired tendencies and habits, ingrained prejudices and errors, passions, lusts, and follies to overcome and eradicate, the worthlessness of To know sin through experience, to understand one’s ignorance and to establish the good in oneself.

All this cannot be done by theory, but only by experience, and even the experiences, to make a lasting impression, must be more than merely superficial and transient; not ones that are soon forgotten, but the results of which imprint themselves on the soul and become part of the human being, which passes from one existence on earth to the next. The brain, the seat of human memory and intellectual activity, is renewed at every birth, and has no memory of what the soul has experienced in a previous existence; but the essential qualities and impressions of the soul remain and form the basis of the character of the personality which it is called upon to represent in the next life. A single or a hundred life phenomena on earth would also be far too little to enable the soul to have all those experiences that are necessary to lead it on the path of knowledge. Reincarnation for the purpose of perfecting karma is therefore not a hypothesis which “may possibly be true,” but, to anyone who grasps the law, a fact as precisely scientifically established as the belief that the sun will rise again tomorrow will rise after it sets today.

Many believe that one can gain knowledge of the truth by comparing theories and opinions without prejudice; but nothing else can emerge from appearances than appearances, probabilities produce nothing other than probability. The truth itself is based on nothing but itself. It is not produced by any comparisons and objective observations; it is a living force that is only recognized when it enters our self-awareness, a light that fills the soul with clarity only when it shines within it. There is an infinite amount of false sensations and erroneous opinions which prevent the awakening of this consciousness, an amount of filth which delays the awakening of the divine spark hidden beneath and which must first be cleared away.

According to the laws of mechanics, a ball set in motion would roll on indefinitely if it did not have to overcome the resistance of friction. The human body also follows habits that require a great deal of friction before they are discarded. Likewise, mind and spirit have their acquired tendencies; man bangs his head against the wall, so to speak, a hundred times before he realizes that the wall is tougher than his head and that it is wiser to give in. The relationships created between kindred souls in previous lives do not cease with the soul’s move from one house to another. The comedy, tragedy, and tragicomedy of life’s appearance on earth is repeated, the curtain rises and falls, and the same play, albeit with different settings, is acted out and repeated until the lesson is learned and the role is outgrown. So the wheel turns and we in it; only at the midpoint, where the spokes converge, is there stillness. That is why only he who, from the flight of appearances, strives towards the center where the sun of wisdom shines, attains true rest.

This center is within ourselves, in the depths of our self-awareness, where there is no more delusive “selfhood.” It is the seat of peace, which is neither ignorance (tamas), nor desire for peace (rajas), but arises from true knowledge (sattva). It is not a selfish state, but a peace that transcends all “selfness” and is known only to those who have found their true self in the whole, in God.

Rückert says:

“He who cowardly seeks peace for his own part only,

Becomes a traitor to the world of common salvation.

To promote human happiness with all my might here below,

No sacrifice is too great than peace of the soul.

“But let no power, no glory compel you,

Of no love itself to bring this sacrifice to her.

This is not selfishness, nor shying away from heavy duties,

It is the loyalty owed to your I, the eternal.”

The beginning and end of all occult science is the realization that all creatures are one in essence and differ from one another only in the phenomena in which that unity manifests itself. Among a thousand icy formations, each one is different from the others in its kind; one mixed with foreign substances, the other clear, one square, the other round. Yet they are all essentially water. So the true self-consciousness in every human being is only one; there is only one God, but many vessels in which his life is revealed. If this fact is not only to be recognized theoretically, but to become practical knowledge, then it must be put into practice. This is done through the works of love, compassion and mercy, which raise man above self-delusion. It is not enough that I fancy knowing that my real self is the self of the whole universe, but this truth only becomes recognized by the deed. In doing something good for another without thinking of myself, I act for my own self appearing in another appearance, and I act on my realization of the oneness with the other which strengthens this realization. This is the scientific basis of the doctrine of supremacy over one’s self.

Anyone who can see this understands that divine love and divine knowledge (wisdom) are one and the same. Both are just a single spiritual force that, like any other force, can only become strong through action and the resistance that has to be overcome in the process. This power is a “fire” that springs not from the brain but from the heart. True spiritual knowledge has nothing to do with theories, observations and ideas, but only with love that has become unselfish. That is why this fire was portrayed by the alchemists and Rosicrucians as the most important of all things. So it says e.g., in the “Secret Symbols” of the Rosicrucians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries:

“Desire for the fire and seek the fire and you will find it.

Light a fire and add fire to the fire.

Boil the fire in the fire, throw body, soul and spirit in the fire,

Thus, dead or alive, you will possess the fire.

Heaven and earth will disappear in this fire

And it will be just one more fourfold fire.”^[43]

This is quite different from earthly scholarship and theological speculation, and also quite different from the everyday self-delusional morality which starts with the idea, “I am better than you”; for in this knowledge there is no “I” and “you,” it is above all separateness; no “brotherhood,” just the one, all-encompassing self. Higher than all human knowledge and higher than all self-satisfied morality is the knowledge of God in man. God is neither moral nor immoral, neither learned nor ignorant; in him all human qualities cease, and whoever enters into divine self-knowledge is one with it in God. Intellectual ability is a very valuable thing, but spirituality (mental intelligence) goes far beyond that. The two should not be confused with one another. There are people who have much ingenuity and yet no spirit, just as there are bodily big boobs without a trace of genius. There are many views and opinions in science, but the spirit of truth is one and its knowledge only one; one should not confuse the one spirit with its manifold manifestations, the wine with the variously shaped vessels in which it is contained. Material science regards wine as a product of the vessel, life as a result of organic vital activity, spirit as a product of the understanding that understands it. Therefore, agreement between these perverted views and “occult science,” which is based on knowledge of the Eternal, is an impossibility.

The self-delusional moralist may resent not being as perfect as he would like to be. He, too, takes the house in which he lives for his own self and fails to recognize the use of error. Anyone who was so virtuous and moral that he would never again be in danger of sinning would have nothing more to gain or learn in the world and it would be better for him if he had stayed in heaven instead of on earth get. The sage is able to look at himself objectively. He knows that he is not the house but the proprietor of the house, not his personality but the educator of his personality and that it is his vessel and instrument. This personality requires experience. It must learn error in order to rise above it, just as a man cannot learn to swim until he is in the water himself, or as one needs hard ground to set his feet on when one is at the top want to climb a mountain. Then some find that what they thought to be solid ground is a loose rock, or what they thought to be green turf is the cover of a swamp, and to resist the temptations they find along the way, they must understand that they are nothing but delusions and enticements. When he fully recognizes them as such, he has also overcome them. The unknowing moralist owes his morality to ignorance, fear of punishment, or lust for reward. It is meaningless and not real. A person without spiritual knowledge can be scientifically educated and religiously educated; but his science is a figment of the imagination, and his morals nothing but training.

Training is good for animals, mental development for people. Spiritual enlightenment is not a result of the learning of theories, nor of training, but of the revelation of the mind through its own power. Spirit is nourished by spirit. A germ springs from the seed, and this grows up into the tree, not by changes made in the composition of the seed, but by the nourishment given to it and by the influence of the light which it does not create itself. If he eats unfit food, he perishes or becomes crippled; the hand of nature cannot fashion it into a perfect tree. Man is subject to the same law, but he has the advantage over the plant that, depending on the degree of his knowledge, he can create the conditions under which he cannot create wisdom, but can make its revelation accessible.

When the tree has grown out of the earth, its strength is conditioned by the struggle with its surroundings. A fir tree standing in the midst of a thicket, protected on all sides by its comrades, unfolds only the upper part, the trunk remains bare and weak, and if the gale wind hits it, it is easily uprooted; but the solitary tree rooted on firm ground has to struggle with the winds from its earliest youth, it digs its roots deep into the ground and its branches strive in all directions towards the light. The storm wind will not harm him as long as he is not rotten with age.

Ein solcher Same ist aber auch der Mensch, insofern seine Individualität in Betracht kommt, deren Umfang und Stärke von der Kraft und Ausbreitung seines wahren Selbstbewusstseins abhängig ist. Jahrtausende wandelt er durch wiederholte Erdenleben, bis endlich der schlummernde Funke der Gotteserkenntnis in ihm erwacht und durch das Feuer der Liebe zur Flamme wird, deren Licht seine Seele erleuchtet und seinen Verstand klar macht. Da erfüllt ihn dann nicht die Theorie, wohl aber die praktische Erkenntnis seiner Manneswürde. Das Licht von oben dringt in die Tiefe seines Bewusstseins ein und erhebt dasselbe. Nun erst beginnt der eigentliche Kampf mit den Mächten der Finsternis. Als ein Menschentier hat er den Kampf ums irdische und intellektuelle Dasein gekämpft; er musste seine Selbstheit unter anderen Selbstheiten zur Geltung bringen und seine Organisation zu einem tauglichen Gefässe für die Offenbarung des Geistes machen. Nun aber ist der Geist in ihm zum Bewusstsein gekommen, seine geistige Empfindung und Wahrnehmung erwacht und er erkennt die Natur der Kräfte, welche ihn umgeben, auf ihn einwirken und in ihm Begierden und Leidenschaften hervorrufen. Er lernt sie zu beherrschen und sie höheren Zwecken dienstbar zu machen. Da bricht die harte vom Selbstwahn gebildete Schale entzwei, der geistige Keim dringt aus dem Reiche des Materiellen empor, aus dem Reiche des Dünkens und Wähnens in das Licht der Wahrheit und aus der Verworrenheit in die Klarheit. Wäre kein “Selbst” vorhanden, so gäbe es auch keines zu überwinden und zu beherrschen; wäre das “Böse” nicht da, so gäbe es keine Erkenntnis des Guten, keine geistige Individualität. Nicht in der “Selbstlosigkeit,” sondern in der Überwindung des Selbstwahnes ist die Erlösung. Wäre der Mensch vom Anfänge an in seinem Urquell geblieben, so hätte er keine Selbsterkenntnis erlangt. Der Lichtstrahl, welcher aus dieser Urquelle strömte und ins Materielle herunterstieg, wo er in der Täuschung der Selbstheit und des Sonderseins durch Jahrtausende gefangen lag, ist wieder zum Bewusstsein seiner wahren Gottesnatur gekommen und kehrt als bewusster Geist in die Harmonie des Weltalls zurück.

But man is also such a seed in so far as his individuality is concerned, the scope and strength of which depends on the power and spread of his true self-confidence. He wanders through repeated earth lives for thousands of years, until finally the dormant spark of God-knowledge awakens in him and, through the fire of love, becomes a flame whose light enlightens his soul and clears his mind. Then it is not the theory that fills him, but the practical realization of his manhood. The light from above penetrates the depths of his consciousness and elevates it. Only now does the real battle with the powers of darkness begin. As a human animal he fought the battle for earthly and intellectual existence; he had to assert his selfhood among other selves, and make his organization a fit vessel for the manifestation of the spirit. But now the spirit in him has become conscious, his spiritual sensation and perception awakens and he recognizes the nature of the forces which surround him, which affect him and which arouse desires and passions in him. He learns to control them and to use them for higher purposes. Then the hard shell formed by self-delusion breaks in two, the spiritual germ pushes up out of the material realm, out of the realm of thought and delusion into the light of truth and out of confusion into clarity. If there were no “self” there would be none to overcome and conquer; if the “evil” were not there, there would be no knowledge of the good, no spiritual individuality. Redemption is not in “selflessness,” but in overcoming self-delusion. Had man remained in his original source from the beginning, he would not have attained self-knowledge. The ray of light that emanated from this primal source and descended into the material, where it had been imprisoned in the delusion of selfhood and separateness for thousands of years, has regained consciousness of its true divine nature and is returning as a conscious spirit in the harmony of the universe.

Numerous are the obstacles that gather around the deceptive self and become its substance. A clear crystal should be the soul, in which the image of Deity is reflected; but this crystal is tainted with ignorance, streaked with false prejudice, colored with self-conceit, and gnawed with passions. Self-love spreads its false light, megalomania stands in the way of knowledge, the desire for possessions destroys inner peace, the craving for knowledge brings confusion, imagination presents us with illusions, greed and envy pull together what has been released, sadness darkens the mind and man cannot give up his passions of his own power, because they are dear to him and a part of his assumed nature. He can’t because he doesn’t want to.

Then the power of the divine will comes to the aid of his will; for the Divine Will is the power of selfless love, whereby the knowledge of unity in all is born, and which destroys the delusion of selfhood. This power is all the stronger the more it is exercised and strengthened by action. The process of salvation thus has its exact scientific explanation as well as any other problem in natural science.

Every force increases in proportion to the resistance it overcomes. The flame is nourished by the fuel it consumes. Where there is no inclination to sin, there is nothing to conquer and nothing to rule. A person without energy is equally incapable of good or evil. Evil itself is a means of revealing good, just as the burning wood is a means of revealing light. The greater the resistance of matter, the greater the power of the spirit, which overcomes this resistance. This law applies in the spiritual as well as in mechanics. There are tender plants among human beings that are protected against every breath of wind all their lives and therefore always remain weak. Others, like the oak swept by the north wind, are subject to all the storms of fate. They can be shattered by lightning, but not uprooted by storms.

The ever-mind comes in innumerable forms and manifestations; he fills the most diverse vessels and uses many different tools. Each of these vessels has to go through its evolutionary history before the indwelling universal spirit is recognized. It took millions of years before the animal kingdom developed from the mineral and plant kingdoms, and animal-like human forms became able to absorb the divine spirit. Once the soul has risen to the level of humanity, many physical incarnations are still necessary before it can achieve full self-knowledge and complete its cycle.

The development of the individual phenomena determines the character of the whole. The world is not a jumbled heap of many self-contained pieces, but in essence all is one. It is like a river in which innumerable currents run side by side or intersect, and yet they are all just water. Each drop remains in the current to which it belongs until it is caught by another current; it thereby changes its direction, but not its essence. What binds the currents together is the nature of their movement and the equality of temperature. What binds human souls together is the way they think and the similarity of their feelings. The effect of karma, however, rests on the unity of essence in all creatures, as a result of which everything that man does, good or bad, falls back on himself.

(Sequel follows.)

IX. The I and the “Me.”^[44] ^[45]

“All worlds return to their origins.

But whoever asks for me will not be born again.”

(Bhagavad Gītā VIII, 6.)

The investigation of the divine mysteries hidden in it is based on the spiritual recognition of the unity of the being in the whole universe. Possessing the ability to feel this unity within oneself and finally to recognize oneself as the whole is the only key to a true understanding of the great science, which is called “occult” because it does not correspond to the earthly human mind limited by selfhood, and thus also to a real understanding of the doctrine of karma. To learn the truth is to find yourself in the truth. But in order to find one’s own true, infinite self, the many delusions that form our false “I” must be overcome; since they present themselves under all kinds of masks as our “self,” while they are only states of consciousness caused by the forces of nature acting on us. Without the awakening of the true Self-consciousness in man, by which he comes to the real knowledge of his Allness and his immortality, a true understanding of the divine mysteries in nature is an impossibility, and without it the most learned treatises on them do not go beyond the bounds of blind speculation. This is also taught in the Bible, which says, “First of all, seek to know the kingdom of God within yourselves, and everything else will be given you then.” For this reason, all truly religious and occult writings serve less to satisfy scientific curiosity in relation to spiritual things than to show people searching for truth the way to their own spiritual awakening, to their own spiritual observation and recognition. If the morning star of wisdom does not rise in your own heart,^[46] you will hardly find it in the books of scholars. But this is precisely what most people, especially those who would like to be mystics, do not like, for whom their own inner growth is much too slow and who therefore prefer to search for the truth in external things; although it is never found there unless already recognized within.

Now what is the real me that we are looking for? — Since the whole universe is but one, indivisible in essence, though highly varied in appearance, and everything springs from that one and returns to unity, so that one is also our true, divine self, and the purpose of that Existence is that we are to come to the consciousness of this true infinite I, which encompasses and permeates everything. This one eternal I, which is common to all mankind and is called “God,” is not bound by karma; it is exalted above all that is temporal and ephemeral; it does not dwell outside of nature, but in nature and in all things; it is indeed the one essence of all things; yet it is not a product of nature and is not touched by anything. It is the same with our innermost self-awareness; which also lives in us and not outside of us, and yet has nothing to do with anything that concerns our body. If we withdraw into our innermost self-confidence, or, what is the same thing, if we raise ourselves to the highest ideal, then neither our own personality nor anything external at all is left for us. Pleasure and pain, sensual sensations, objective thoughts and perceptions do not penetrate our innermost self-consciousness; the self-awareness itself is free of all that is outside of itself, and so long as we identify with it we are at liberty and at rest, whatever the circumstances of our body, the dwelling place of this self-awareness. The innermost spiritual self-confidence is not only raised above every physical sensation, but also above every soul pain. In it neither time nor space nor imagination exist, it knows nothing but itself; it is aware of itself. With that, all has been said.

The situation is different when we step out of the magic circle of this self-confidence and take part in the things that surround us. The more we identify with these things, the more they affect us, and the more they affect us, the more we become identified with them. Each thing represents a sphere of consciousness in itself; through our union with it, its consciousness becomes ours. A pain touching a nerve in our body becomes our own pain as soon as we participate in its sensation; we feel the happiness or unhappiness of another creature all the more, the more we are connected with this creature through love.

While the self-awareness of man who has no spiritual knowledge contains nothing but the empty, meaningless “I,” everything is contained in the knowledge of the true divine “I” in its perfection; because this I embraces the whole world with all its creatures. And what self-consciousness is in the body, that is deity (Brahma) in nature. In her own nature she is unaffected by anything that happens in the world, is above all influences, feelings and ideas, self-existing, self-sufficient, perfect, unapproachable, eternal and unchanging; but in calling a world into existence by its indwelling creative power, divinity creates a body for itself, and therein the god made creator participates in all that takes place in his creation, without thereby losing his divinity; just as man can participate in all the sensations of his body without completely losing his self-confidence.

In this all-consciousness of God in nature, which is to be distinguished from the all-self-consciousness of the deity, there can be no talk of “I” and “you” or “mine” and “yours.” It’s all just one infinite being, God. His imagination is the world, his soul is heaven, his body is the universe, his spirit is absolute wisdom, his strength is perfect love, his life is the life of the universe, which is reflected in all spheres; its form all forms that exist, its ruling free will, its temple the human heart. The man whose heart is so cleansed of all foreign influences, desires and deceptions that God (the real self) can work his powers therein, recognizes his real self—not as a separate part of the whole, but as the whole itself, and takes share in everything as a whole. But the more he participates in the whole, the more the circle of his feelings and thoughts expands; until at last it includes not only one’s self, not only one’s family, not only the nation to which he belongs, but all mankind, all creatures, the whole earth, even all worlds. It is not a question of fanaticism, of flying among the stars, but of the growth of the soul, of the expansion of consciousness, without therefore leaving the center of self-consciousness; not of a flickering of the light, but of an increase of it till it pierces far into eternity. Only then does the universe no longer appear to us as a composite mechanism, but we recognize it as a living being; we recognize the one life in the universe which pervades all nature and animates the forms it produces. There neither pleasure nor pain can be felt without this feeling vibrating through the universe; there every thought circles, like a stone thrown into water, causing ring-shaped undulations that propagate further and further until they are lost in infinity; every form is a center of forces from which vibrations emanate and flow back to them; there every single thing has an effect on the whole, and the whole back on the single thing. No man can commit a deed whose consequences do not fall back on himself; because everyone is essentially one with the whole, even if he does not yet recognize it. Everyone represents a small world in the big world, the small one is in every respect closely connected to the big one. Everything that creates such a small world or a sum of such has an effect on the big world and from it back on the small ones.

And not only the visible man, but also every thought that is born in his mind, attains life through his will, and comes into existence through his deed, represents such a small world in the larger one; each has its seven-fold organization as previously described; each forms an “egg,” from which new products naturally develop; each constitutes one of the false “Is” that make up man’s earthly nature. So everyone has their own karma; for “karma” means “action” and each thing acts according to its nature. Envy brings nothing else to light than envious things, anger makes angry, stinginess stingy, etc. The divine human being in his spiritual self-confidence does not act, he is above his own individuality, and thus also above all his own doings and omissions, but earthly nature of man, the “personality,” is made up of sheer states of karma, with which man remains connected as long as his will has not become free of his earthly nature and its desires, which can only be achieved through the power of knowledge that becomes apparent in him truth happens.

Thus, the microcosm of man has a multitude of inhabitants, each of which receives its life and consciousness from man as its creator, just as all creatures on our earth receive their light from the sun. Not all of these residents are human; there are also many animal ones among them, born of animal passions, and also some devilish ones, the offspring of hell raging within. In one the cunning of a fox predominates, in another the voracity of a wolf, in the third the love of monkeys, etc., while some surpass the tiger in cruelty and the goat in stubbornness. One can rightly call a human animal an ass when the mental qualities that characterize an ass have become second nature. But while deliberate malice is nowhere to be found in the animal kingdom, it is found among men; for it is the faculty of rational thought which not only elevates man above the beast, but also enables him to create an army of devils within himself.

On this subject Theophrastus Paracelsus says:

“The animal man is a child of all animals, and all the animal kingdom is his father. The animals are the mirror of the animal man, in which he can see himself. He is simple who marvels that the dog knows its master, that the birds sing, etc. Man should not marvel that his father (the animal kingdom) can do this; Rather, the beast should marvel at his son, that he has become so full of beasts and lives accordingly. Bootlickers and sycophants shouldn’t be surprised that the dog does as well as they do; rather they should be amazed at themselves for being so canine. When a parrot speaks, it is not human, but a man who uses his tongue no more usefully than a parrot is no more than a parrot. If you want to eat, it is not the angel in you that demands it, but your animal nature. The animal understanding is the same in man as well as in the animal, and all animal wisdom, prudence, cunning, prudence, reason, understanding are all brought together in man in one. Therefore man is the supreme animal and surpasses all animals. Among the animals, each species has its own nature, but in man all these natures are combined into one, and that animal nature which is most developed in him predominates in him. But what goes beyond the animal, that makes the real man and does not come from the beast; for man has yet another father, who is eternal, and he shall live for him.”

(“De Fundamente Sapientiae.” III).

Now this is the menagerie, which is more or less contained and expressed in every human being. These animal forms make up his animal “life.” Each of them has its karma, i.e., each works in him and through him, and the sum of these actions determines man’s karma. The more he yields to one or the other of these volitions, the more that becomes his second nature, and as a man’s actions flow from his character, these determine the manner of his action, and he himself must bear the determining consequences. The consequences of an evil course are always worse in the end for those who do them than for those against whom they are directed. who e.g., committing murder becomes a murderer, and stealing becomes a thief, and this is worse in the end than being murdered or robbed; for a person’s thoughts, wills and actions form his character, not only for this life but also for the subsequent incarnation, in which he gravitates towards that position in life to which his nature draws him. So it can happen that a murderous, greedy king in his next life among murderers and thieves, a disinterested, magnanimous, pauper is next born a nobleman. There are many thousands of threads in the weave of a person’s karma that cannot easily be unraveled or traced.

As a result of the misunderstanding of the doctrine of karma, some have formed the most adventurous views about it; such as, that if someone knocks out the eye of another human being, he must also have his eye knocked out in the next life. Such fables are of course only to be understood as fables. On the other hand, it is a fact that every thought, once realized through deed, tends to come into being again through deed. The deed is the life of the thought. Thoughts are things, and every thing aspires to form and realization, whether consciously or unconsciously. A deed once committed becomes the driving force that drives people to repeat it if it is not held down by the higher will within them.

It is also understandable that a person’s character itself determines the state of his physical organization in his next existence on earth; because the newborn human being is built on the basis of the already existing organization of his “astral soul.” His physical parents are not the progenitors of his soul, they only provide the material for the embodiment of the already existing incarnating soul, and that soul is the seat and mirror of his character while this is the result of his actions in the previous life.

The doctrine of karma is intimately connected with the doctrine of reincarnation; for if the soul were to appear only once on the stage of life, man would have no special inborn talents or faculties to take up the struggle with life, and it would not be worth the trouble of intellectual or spiritual training at all; since then what little perfection a man can attain in a single short life should suffice for all eternity. Everybody would be like a merchant who doesn’t have to start his business with anything and ends up with nothing. But neither the doctrine of karma nor the doctrine of reincarnation can be made clear without knowledge of the physical, mental, and spiritual constitution of man.

Nowhere is an explanation of this composition more clearly and easily set forth than in the writings of the Indian sage Sankaracharya [Śaṅkarācārya]. We know well that there are many who, partly out of national self-conceit, partly because they are too lazy to think to learn the meaning of some Sanskrit words for which there is no suitable translation in English, claim that they are derived from Indian philosophy “don’t want to know anything.” You don’t know the same one. But whoever has got to know her and has penetrated her spirit will find in it the greatest wisdom and enlightenment about many mysteries, the solution of which modern science is striving with all her might, and which is why she does not find it, because she finds the same thing on the outside instead of on the inside inner addiction.

European philosophy distinguishes in man body, soul and spirit, or in other words, the material, the sentient and the thinking principle, without the philosophers being clear about the real nature of these three principles; but especially in relation to the “soul” the most confused concepts still prevail. The spiritless and soulless materialism, which parades in recent times under the name “psychology” or “psychology,” knows nothing of spirit and nothing of soul (psyche), but is limited to certain physiological phenomena, which it regards as the result of organic phenomena activity of the body (of whose origin he also knows nothing). Besides, the term “soul” includes two things, viz., lower and higher psychic activities; in other words: a human-animal, unreasonable soul in which only base instincts, passions and material desires rule, and a human-divine soul or soul region in which reason and wisdom rule. Earthly philosophy, on the other hand, also distinguishes a semi-material principle in man, the “astral body,” which connects body and soul with one another, as well as the life force, the mind, and the intellect. This classification is not, like the philosophy of our modern speculators, a product of man’s imagination; those who have wisdom recognize its truth But those who have no knowledge and always crave tangible proof should heed the words of a German philosopher^[47] who says: “If you want to learn to understand the science of the spirit, let go of your self-conceit and gape not into the wisdom of the ungodly. See that you have in your spirit the Holy Spirit that proceeds from God; he will lead you into all truth and reveal himself in you. Then you will see in his light and in his power up to the Holy Trinity.”

According to Indian teaching, four states of existence or “levels” can be distinguished both in the universe as a whole (macrocosm) and in the human being as a unit (microcosm) within the greater unit, namely:

1. 1. The material world.
  2. The astral region.
  3. The spiritual level.
  4. The world of God.

That they are not spatially separated from one another hardly needs to be mentioned, since warmth, life, sensation, and spirit, which permeate the body, are also different but not spatially separate things. In fact, the world of God is the all-pervading spirit, the spiritual plane, the reflection of God far into the higher soul region; the astral far the reflection of the light of the soul in the region of “ether” (Ākāśa), and the sensible external world the embodiment and outward appearance in “matter,” of things which exist in the astral far. We all therefore not only have souls and astral bodies, but we are these souls and astral beings ourselves; our organization consists of vibrations, the higher octave of which belongs to our invisible, subtler body, and the lowest octave of which is the outwardly visible and tangible body.

Thus our material body is a transitory form of existence, a form, image or symbol of our being in which our character is more or less clearly expressed as the plasticity of matter permits. If the whole body were permeated by the divine spirit, our body would also be perfect. The coarse matter puts great obstacles in the way of this penetration. Overcoming them is the purpose of life and successive reincarnations. The physical body is therefore not at all the most important and essential part of the human constitution; it is in fact of no importance whatsoever in relation to eternal existence, since it is only the outer covering, or “vessel” in which the psychic man lives has its seat, it is the garment which man puts on at birth and takes off at death; but in relation to the spiritual advancement of psychic man it is of supreme importance, because in it are stored up and, so to speak, “crystallized” all the powers and virtues which psychic man needs for his advancement. The rational use of the psychic (occult) forces contained in the body is practical alchemy.

The physical body or “personality” appears to us as our “self” as long as we identify with it in our imagination. But Sankaracharya [Śaṅkarācārya] teaches us a whole series of “selves,” one of which is always higher than the other. But the proof of whether the teaching of Sankaracharya [Śaṅkarācārya’s] is correct is found by succeeding in raising ourselves in our consciousness to our higher Self. This is the real “evidence,” the experience before which all doubt vanishes, and without which our scholars, theologians, and psychologists will always grope in the dark, no matter how hard they try to find external evidence of what is in contained within themselves without them realizing it.

The true self of all human beings is the divine mind (Ātma), but there are five veils that veil this self from us, and each of them appears to us as one’s own self as long as we identify with it in our consciousness and do not recognize the next higher state . In the Taittiriya Upanishad [Taittirīya Upaniṣad] we find this explained in the following way:

1. 1. The first veil which surrounds us and veils our own true nature from our eyes is our etheric body (Annamaya-Kosha) [Annamaya-kośa], the outward visible expression of which is the material physical body. “On leaving the body, man first reunites with this inner, ethereal self.”
  2. The next sheath, or inner self, is the “life-formed self” or “life-soul” (Prānamaya-Kosha) [Prāṇamaya-kośa], the seat of life (Prāna) and also the seat of animal instincts and desires (Kāma), which were mentioned above. As in the physical body every cell, every blood-corpuscle represents a unit in the great unit, has its own vitality and sphere of activity, but is nevertheless animated and dependent on the whole, so also every state of consciousness present in this vital body (kāma-rūpa) is imaginary “I” for himself, who receives his life and consciousness from the whole, but also, where the necessary self-control is lacking, can spread out over the whole and take possession of it, as is the case, for example, with fools, the possessed, “mediums” and all who have lost their spiritual individuality. This “life soul” is embodied in the preceding etheric body. From her the material body derives its ability to live and its organic activity.
  3. Above and embodied in this Self we find the sentient Self, the “Mind’ (Manomaya Kosha) [Manomaya-kośa], from which the emotions and also the vital activities spring. While the preceding represents the animal soul in man, this is the seat of the actual human soul, in which the struggle between the higher and lower soul forces takes place; the field on which man must strive upwards and attain his immortality through the knowledge arising from the overcoming of the lower.
  4. In this Self is again another, higher, hidden, the knowing Self (Vijnananamaya Kosha) [Vijñānamaya-kośa], from which springs the activity of thought, and whose soul is knowledge. It is the seat of spiritual perception, wisdom, faith, justice, God-knowledge and enlightenment.
  5. Within and above this is the celestial Self (Anandamaya Kosha) [Ānandamaya-kośa], whose essence is absolute knowledge and bliss, in which all distinction of “I” and “thou” ceases, and whose very home is eternity.^[48]

Above all, however, stands the divine spirit (Ātma); it penetrates them all, animates them all, fills them all; but it does not shine in all in the same way, because the spirit is the light of knowledge and the coverings are the darkness, and the light has not yet overcome the darkness in all men. Also, no one will ever succeed in overcoming this darkness on their own; for man is not the light and has no power over it. Not the man of earth, nor the man of heaven, but the light in him overcomes the darkness, not the ignorant man, but the revelation of knowledge in him will conquer his ignorance, provided that he does not cling to his ignorance and thereby preventing the manifestation of light within him. This is the doctrine, so often misunderstood, of the futility of self-righteousness and self-will, according to which salvation is not based on an external belief in a historical God, nor on the whim of an external person, but on the effect of the power of the knowledge of God working within us is dependent.

But each of these “selves” has its home in the plane of existence corresponding to its nature, it is born from it, receives its nourishment from it and returns to it again. The earthly human body is born of the four elements, is nourished by them and dissolves again into these four elements after death. The divine, knowing human being is born of God, becomes strong through the power of divine wisdom (Theosophy) and finally returns to God. Man’s “astral soul” belongs to the astral plane, his animal forms of will to the world of elementals and his thoughts to the spiritual plane. His lower desires and instincts get their sustenance from the world of desires, his thinking is nourished from the world of ideas. Thus the microcosm of man is connected with the macrocosm of the world and is one with it, just as an organ in man is a unit in the unity of the whole. That “I” with which man is in consciousness (but not in identified with his imagination), he is himself so long as he is identical with it, and so he also participates in the karma of that part of himself which he himself is. But whoever succeeds in uniting with his highest self through the power of self-knowledge is no longer subject to any natural law and therefore no longer subject to karma, for he is, even if in nature, still above all nature; “he is no longer a creature, but one with the Creator.”

Further, the Upanishad teaches us that “whoever realizes this and leaves his body, he attains and becomes united in succession with his ethereal form, with the life body, the sentient (human) and knowing (divine) soul, then with the celestial Himself, of eternal bliss.” In the end everything returns to God; but whether a human soul returns to God in a state of self-awareness will necessarily depend on how far this soul has succeeded during its life in becoming capable of knowing God, i.e., to attain true divine self-awareness. When this true self-awareness has awakened in her, there can be no question of “extinction of individuality in Nirvāna,” as some think; for it is through this self-knowledge that the spirit attains its true individuality, which does not efface, but is so great as to embrace the whole of Deity, for the reason, easily understood, that it is one with Deity.

(Sequel follows.)

X. Reincarnation^[49]

“just as a man who has discarded his old clothes puts on a new robe, so too when the old forms are broken, the eternal essence reveals itself in other, newer forms.” (Bhagavad Gītā II, 22.)

Reincarnation, that is, the reincarnation of the human soul in a new body, after leaving the old one and having enjoyed eternal rest for a greater or lesser time, is a fact recognized and taught by the sages of all nations from the earliest times and still believed by today’s greatest thinkers. If it is not expressly stated as a dogma in the Bible, the reason for this is probably only that it was not considered necessary at the time to emphasize a matter that no one doubted anyway; but it is also referred to several times in the Bible; ask e.g. For example, in John IX the disciples ask whether it was the man’s fault (in his previous existence) that he was born blind in this life, and elsewhere they ask Jesus whether he (in his previous existence) was Moses or Elias, etc. In reality, the whole life story of Jesus is the dramatic presentation of the divine incarnation. But it is not of much use to merely take the doctrine of reincarnation to be true without knowing the law on which it is based. A blind belief is not yet knowledge; but knowledge of a truth cannot come about if one flatly rejects the doctrine pertaining to it at the outset.

The doctrine of reincarnation is not to be confused with the so-called “transmigration of souls,” after which, as some ignorant “scholars” consider it, a person reincarnates in his next life as an ox or ass; for a soul that has once risen to the consciousness of its true human dignity would not find in an animal body the suitable conditions for its progressive development and ennoblement. Nor is it the personal man, just as he was in the previous life, that reincarnates, but the Divine Spirit brings forth a new man, in whom is the sum of the talents and abilities acquired by the old man in his previous life has represented itself and is available for further use.

The reincarnation of man is ultimately nothing more than a miniature picture of the evolution and involution of the universe during a period of creation; for planets and worlds also die, and their souls embody again into new worlds, on which a new period of life begins.

We have considered in the previous chapter how man, after leaving his mortal body, enters into other successive states of consciousness, shedding one “robe” after another, until finally, when all that is not God is laid aside ( as Meister Eckhart says), only God remains. This is the involution or return to God of the divine ray of light that represented man. When the time has come for the re-embodiment of this ray of light in a new human appearance, the reverse takes place, the embodied soul puts on new robes, which become the more dense the closer it approaches the material. These are indeed new garments, but the material for them is old. The tendencies and talents acquired in the former existence reappear and are woven into the new garment, the astral elements revive, karma reasserts itself, and through the natural process of procreation and birth the soul attains the means of reincarnation.

There is nothing more astonishing about this than the fact that the same forces of nature that caused a cherry tree to grow make another cherry tree grow from the stone of a cherry of this tree. The “core” that remains after a person dies is his karma. When the spirit rejoins, the energy latent during the intermediate state resumes its activity. The law of evolution is only one, even if it appears under different conditions. The organizing power in the cherry pit slumbers until the light and warmth awakens life within. The human soul forces that have come to rest after death wake up again when the spirit revives them. So also in the universe as a whole. The Bible says: “The earth (i.e. the material soul of the world) was formless and empty, darkness was on the deep (space) and the Spirit of God moved over the waters.” In the oriental writings the same thing is explained even more clearly:

“The universe was shrouded in darkness, invisible, nameless, unthinkable, unrecognizable in dreamless sleep. Then selfhood, the unmanifest master, revealed this universe and its powers. The light appeared and broke through the darkness. He thought and strove to bring forth various things, and first brought forth the waters (symbol of ideas) and in these his power became active. This power became a golden egg, a thousandfold, harmoniously fashioned; in this was born the Maker himself, the great father of all worlds. And the Master dwelt in the egg for a period, and by himself, by thought, divided the egg in two. And from the two parts he formed heaven and earth (the upper and lower regions of the soul) and in the middle space, the permanent place of the waters.”^[50]

Those who have intuition and insight need no explanation. Even everyday awakening is an image of reincarnation. During sleep the mind withdraws into itself; the senses cease their activity. yes even thinking stops; but above “the waters” hovers the disembodied spirit, unmanifest, invisible, nameless, unthinkable and unknowable during sleep, but self-existent in itself, and independent of its manifestation in matter; because if the mind were a product of the body, our self-confidence would be different with every awakening, or as Friedrich Rückert says:

“I would have lost myself every night that I was, and would have been born every day that wasn’t.”^[51]

Our soul is the “golden egg,” the spirit within us, the creator; by his own power, by his thinking, he distinguishes between “heaven” (the truth) and “earth” (the ephemeral), and with each awakening a new day of creation of thoughts dawns in us. Through the power of the spirit we ourselves are made the creators of our thoughts and masters of our worlds. During sleep the spirit (consciousness) leaves its abode, the body, and returns upon awakening, but in death the house crumbles and the returning soul must build a new one.

The divine self is not subject to incarnation or embodiment; it is “the silent spectator” who is unaffected by whatever is going on in samsara [saṃsāra], the world of appearances.^[52] It is “the purest ideality, into which no change penetrates.”^[53] It is the true self from which all selves spring, the unity from which all numbers spring; the only immortal, never-born; the Will of Eternal Wisdom,^[54] which does not perish even though heaven and earth perish,^[55] and through which alone we can attain the self-awareness of immortality, if we succeed in merging our “I” into this divine self, like the spark rises in the flame and thereby becomes light. That which embodies itself again is the form of existence that has come into existence through the will to separate existence.

The greatest of all teachers, Gautama, called the Buddha, enlightened by the holy spirit of God-knowledge, describes the process of reincarnation and liberation as follows:

“Ignorance of reality is the source of all evils. The tendencies (the will to one’s own life) for embodiment, language and thinking arise from this ignorance. Self-conceit (false self-confidence) arises from these tendencies, from which comes name (property) and shape; from these arise the six senses, from these arises the desire for possessions, from the desire arises bondage (karma), from bondage (objective) existence, birth, old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, suffering, sadness and despair. Through the destruction of ignorance (through the knowledge of the truth), the tendencies (the will to be separate) and their above-mentioned consequences, self-conceit, quality, form, the six senses, touch, personal sensation, desire, bondage, (objective) existence , birth, old age, death, and the evils that follow, are overcome and avoided. From ignorance all evils spring; from knowledge comes the cessation of all suffering. The truly enlightened man, by the light of his knowledge, scatters the host of illusions that surround him, as the sun scatters the clouds in the sky.”

Anyone who recognizes the spirit of the true Christian religion and has penetrated into the mysteries of true Christianity will also find the doctrine of karma and reincarnation represented in the Christian Articles of Faith; for the “Day of Judgment” refers, among other things, to the closing of the balance sheet of the karma of the previous life, which decides whether man belongs to his eternal or his ephemeral self, and also determines his position in the future life on this earth. But the “resurrection of the flesh” is to be understood as nothing other than the reawakening of the astral soul, which emerges from the “flesh,” i.e., born of material inclinations and desires. There is no mystic who understands the word “meat,” when used in this connection, in the same way as a butcher does. The dead corpse does not rise again as an organic whole, but rather its elements pass into other forms; but that which is of carnal, i.e., born of sensual and selfish desires, thoughts and deeds, is “flesh” in the mystical sense, and clings like a shadow to the soul in its succeeding incarnation.

With the death of a man, or rather with the separation of man’s higher principles from his lower ones, which occurs after the death of the body, his karma also comes to an end; for the reason by which man decides his actions belongs to the divine part and after this separation he no longer acts, while the backward larva, which sometimes makes itself felt among the spiritualists, no longer has reason, and that is why is not capable of any action of its own, but at best still obeys the influences affecting it and, as in a dream, repeats actions which it has committed in life. But there are also cases in which the spirit of the deceased is forcibly drawn down to earthly life again by spiritualistic arts before the above-mentioned separation has taken place and is forced to take part in earthly things. This is the most reprehensible art of necromancy, by which the soul is prevented from entering into God and caused to plunge back into the filth of this world and create new karma for itself. But once the separation of the spiritual from the material has taken place, the soul is free and has nothing more to do with karma until it becomes effective again through its re-entry into life.

But in order to make all this more understandable to the non-occultist, it will be necessary to consider the wanderings of the soul after leaving the body: When the soul has cast off its visible material covering, it finds itself first clothed in its etheric body. Whether she stays there for a longer or only a shorter time will depend on whether she is still very attached to earthly life or is willing to leave it. Under normal circumstances, however, the soul also leaves this shell when leaving the body and is then with its “desire body” (Kāma rūpa) in Kāma-loka, the lower region of the astral plane, the “shadow realms” where the astral remnants of everything which has lived towards its dissolution. There it remains until the “second death” separates the higher principles from the lower ones. Interaction with the “deceased” is only possible during this state, which is of course extremely disadvantageous for the deceased, since all his efforts should be directed upwards, towards union with his higher principles. Here, too, a conscious or unconscious, a shorter or longer stay in this state depends on the degree of purity and the direction of the soul’s will; but then comes salvation from “purgatory” through the separation of the higher from the lower principles. The mind enters that state which is called “Heaven” in Sanskrit “Svarga,” and which, according to man’s merits, may last for a very long time, even thousands of years; the mindless, empty shell remains on the astral plane as an unconscious larva, which may at most serve to mock believing spiritualists if it is imparted with life force through a suitable “medium” and thereby “galvanized” into an illusory life and by an elemental spirit or possessed by demons.

In “Swarga” or “Devachan” the disembodied man exists as the ideal of the personality he represented on earth, free from the animal nature attached to him on earth; but his karma remains on its threshold, and when the hour of rebirth comes, he takes up again on his shoulders the cross which he made for himself in the previous life.

In the Chhandogya Upanishad [Chāndogya Upaṇiṣad] it says: “After the souls have dwelt in heaven until the merit of their good works is exhausted, the souls return by the same way by which they came, namely from the higher to the lower etheric region, where they appear as a “mist” gradually condensing into a cloud-like form, which contracts and brings them to the Gate of Reincarnation. And for those whose deeds have been noble, it is probable that they are destined for something noble, priests, warriors, or well-to-do people; while those whose works were mean and abominable are destined to an abominable birth, beastly, swinish, or servile.”

Furthermore it is said:

“Everyone becomes what they make themselves through their actions. If his actions were worthy he becomes dignified; if his actions were mean he becomes mean; he becomes holy by holy works, and unholy by unholy deeds; for it is said that the mind is formed of desire, and as the desire is, so is the will. According to the quality of his will, man acts, and he himself goes to what he has accomplished.”

Likewise, the Bhagavad Gītā says:

“The good but not yet fully knowing man, after attaining the heaven of the righteous and having dwelt there for untold years, is born again in the house of a good and noble man; or he is born in the family of wise and godly parents.”^[56]

“After many births he enters me. But the selfish and the ungodly I cast into the bosom of demons.”^[57]

God is love; therefore also a man’s God is that which man loves from the heart, and everyone eventually goes to that to which he is drawn by his love.

“He who consecrates himself to the gods goes to the gods; he who consecrates himself to the ancestors (Pitris) goes to them; whoever sacrifices himself to the demons goes to the demons; whoever loves me alone goes to me.^[58] When his body dies, when knowledge (sattva) has matured in him, he enters the pure regions of the good. If covetousness (rajas) was predominant in his nature, he is reborn among people bound to their works (karma). But if his nature was ruled by folly (tamas), he is born again among fools.^[59] But one who is free from every kind of selfishness and has calmness in his heart can become one with Brahma. In its union with Me, its spirit finds eternal rest. Through this entering into Me he attains my own knowledge, my nature, my truth, my being, my greatness, and if he really knows me completely, then he is also completely in Me.”^[60]

All this is based on easily understandable and natural laws and requires no supernatural or extra-natural interference for its explanation. Man’s personality is petty, limited, and earthly. All deeds, be they good or bad, belong to the earthly human being if they arise from self-confidence. The divine man, on the other hand, is great and devoid of “self.” The nobler and more magnanimous a person acts, the closer he approaches his divine Self. He who does good only for the sake of good and not out of self-interest does not act himself, but good (God) works through him. There is then no selfness in his actions and consequently no karma. This is why Christianity also teaches us that we do all good works not in our own name, but in the name, in the power of God. Thomas of Kempis says:

“Whoever has true and perfect love does not seek himself in anything, but only desires that God’s honor be promoted in everything. — You must give everything for everything, and be nothing more yourself. — Know that self-love does you more harm than anything in the world,” etc. But the Bible says that the smallest on earth (i.e., those whose self-delusion is the least) are the greatest in heaven (in the knowledge of good and the bliss that springs from it).”

An understanding of the doctrine of karma and reincarnation provides us with the key to our own salvation. There is no power in heaven or on earth which compels us to the humiliation which this earthly existence involves; we ourselves carve out our dungeons and forge the chains that bind us to this life, by not wanting to recognize the truth and letting ourselves be blinded by the illusions which the delusion of selfhood presents to us. Nor is there any outward redeemer to free us from the delusion we love and refuse to give up; but the redeemer dwells in us and redeems us through his power working within us; His name is the Holy Spirit of the Knowledge of God, in other words, the Divine Wisdom and Love that conquers all error. When we have found this, then we are free; then we can exult with the Buddha, the Enlightened One:

“I wandered around for a long time and many a house

held me prisoner I searched for a long time

After him who builds such dungeons for us

In many births I struggled

To the light of truth, always sought in vain

To discover the source of those evils

From which comes the burden of existence

But now

I recognize you! no longer shall you

Carpenter the house of suffering. Yes! melted

Is now the deception and are broken

The chains of error; even the roof truss lies

Shattered there; it was vain delusion of peculiarity.

but I am redeemed

And go to rest, to perfection.”

(Sequel follows.)

XI. The Mystical Powers^[61]

“Christ in us is the mystery of salvation.”

Colossians. I, 27.

Both the Buddhist and Christian religions teach us that the power by which we can come to self-knowledge and salvation is at work within ourselves. The same is true of all growth in nature. The life of a tree works from the inside out. However, the forces of nature that exist everywhere affect the growth of the tree; but the forces streaming in from outside only have an effect when they are absorbed by the organism of the tree and become the tree’s life. Life exists everywhere, but the life of a tree is within itself and not outside. There is no one whose special favor makes the tree grow big and strong unless it takes in itself the nourishment that is offered to it from without.

So it is with the growth of the soul of man. There is none by whose special favor a useless soul is found useful. However, the Spirit of God is present throughout the universe; but it can only then become the life of the soul when the soul absorbs it into itself and it becomes effective in it; for the soul also, like the tree, grows from within outwards by unfolding its powers, and not like a house by the addition of external parts. Christ must be born within ourselves if he is to be our Savior. But those who only believe in an external Redeemer and do not know the true Christ want to know nothing of this. Therefore the short-sighted pious, who always long for external help instead of trusting in the God-power dwelling within themselves, regard all mystical writings, which they do not understand, as the work of the devil. They are among those of which the apostle Paul says: “Do you not know that you are temples of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” and “Do you not recognize yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless you are unfit (ungodly)?”^[62]

Our task now is to get to know the mystical forces at work within ourselves; for although the power which redeems man is but one, namely, the power of self-knowledge, yet its effects vary according to the feelings it arouses in us. So are e.g., faith, love, knowledge basically one and the same, but we still associate different terms with these designations, because we do not know the original force itself, but only its effects. She is the “Holy Spirit” from which the “Son of God” is born in us. The mind is only one, but it works in the three qualities of nature, and its products are therefore three, according as they arise from ignorance (tamas), from desire (rajas), or from truth (sattva). Therefore there is foolish love, covetous love, and knowing love, foolish love that springs from desire for possessions, and true faith that springs from knowledge, etc., and only those powers that spring from truth open the door to truth for us itself. The forces arising from the truth are only recognized by those who have a sense of truth and therefore an understanding of the following will only be accessible to those who are capable of feeling the true, good and noble in themselves and it from the to discern what springs from base causes.

Every human being is a center of forces, comparable to an electric battery which is constantly giving birth to forces. Body, soul and spirit give birth to these forces, whose outward manifestation through action forms man’s karma. Each of these powers works on the level of existence that belongs to it and the power accumulated there works back on the human being. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that we know our own powers and learn to distinguish the higher from the lower, so that we can absorb the highest powers and use them to attain the highest. It is a peculiarity of human beings that they always desire good things, failing to recognize and heed the good which they already possess. Every human being is already God in his innermost being and does not have to become one. As long as there is a spark of divine power in him, this spark belongs to his divine being, and this being is the reason for his existence, he himself. Divine power flows from this innermost spark. It can only be known by feeling it. This power is love, and since this love is divine, it is not limited to any single object, but is limitless; it encompasses and pervades everything. For this reason, only the human being who is above self-delusion and self-love can recognize this divine power; for those who are not privy to it, it remains an eternal mystery.

What this love loves is the absolute good in all things. Since all things spring from God, the absolute good, this good is also contained in all things in their inmost essence, and he who has divine love sees the Spirit of God in all things; he sees himself surrounded by absolute good everywhere and has no reason to be dissatisfied or sad. He is never alone, because God is always with him, yes, he himself is everywhere when he recognizes himself in God. Seeing God in all things changes his whole view of life. In the forms by which he is surrounded he no longer sees essential things that exist in their own right, but recognizes them as phenomena and vessels in which the divine spirit strives for revelation, and the man who has become conscious in himself pours himself into it these forms. Therefore a real theosophist, i.e., a person who has attained God consciousness, like a light that shines in the distance. The power of good that emanates from him affects his whole environment. And he doesn’t pride himself on that, and in the end doesn’t notice it at all, because this love does not come from his personal consciousness, but from his knowledge of God, i.e., comes from the divine love which has become manifest in him. His “left,” i.e., his earthly nature knows not what his “right,” his divine nature, is doing.^[63]

No man can be good, just, wise or loving out of self-conceit, because everything that is good in man comes from the soul, from God. The Bible says, “Let us walk in the light of the Lord.” But even in the mouth of the most skilled preacher this is just a meaningless, empty phrase for one in whom this light does not shine and who does not know the “Lord.” So it is with all spiritual powers; in spite of all “explanations,” they will forever remain mysteries for anyone who does not feel them and does not recognize them spiritually. If you don’t have faith, you can’t know what faith is, and if you can’t act unselfishly, you can’t understand selflessness either. Without God all knowledge of divine things is nothing; only the person who has been born again in the spirit has true knowledge.

Spiritual rebirth, not to be confused with reincarnation, is the awakening of God consciousness in man. Kerning says: “With the first spark of an inner thought, which permeates our whole self and makes us feel the truth, even if only remotely, the generation of rebirth has also taken place, the seed of heaven has been planted.” It is the entry into a higher level of existence, of which the human being clinging to the earthly knows nothing. It is the entry into freedom, growing beyond the transitory self.

Spiritual freedom, however, springs from the purity of the soul, i.e., from the freedom from all self-delusion, superstition, false ideas, wrong feelings and willing together with the desires arising from them. It is freedom from all that springs from the three basic qualities of nature, self-action, whether it be from “self-knowledge,” “self-desire,” or ignorance. Only the pure knowledge of the truth that comes from selfless love, without any “I” behind it, makes one free. Not where the spirit of man (the “I”) is, but where the spirit of God is, there is freedom.^[64] Willing and thinking cannot be free so long as they are bound to the deceptive “I”; we are only free in what the divine spirit, which has become conscious in us, wants and thinks. Whoever understands this sees that man, according to his true spiritual nature, is not a creature limited in time and space, but selfless, omnipresent, infinite. However, this divine greatness cannot be grasped by the limited earthly common sense, but only by the divine spirit in man who recognizes himself, and that is why all scientific research and philosophical speculation lags far behind the knowledge of God in such things, which is not a result of one’s own brooding, but the manifestation of the light of God in man.

No man is perfectly pure unless he is free from selfhood. Nor can man free himself from it by ignoring his selfhood, but he must overcome it through the power of higher knowledge. Having overcome them, he is also no longer a “man” in the ordinary sense of that word, but a God in God, a “Mahatma,” i.e., a great soul (from mahā — great and Ātma = soul), and with the complete abandonment of selfhood, he enters nirvāna, selflessness in the consciousness of God. One need not die to enter this supreme state; there are people who, like Buddha, have already entered nirvāna during this life on earth. They are then inhabitants of the heavenly world, even if their physical appearance walks on earth. Their destiny, as history shows, is to be misjudged, misunderstood and persecuted; because only the spirit that is equal to the divine being can recognize this spirit in other people. It is also fulfilled here what the Bhagavad Gītā teaches: “Fools (i.e. those who cannot distinguish between the eternal and the transitory) despise Me when I appear in my human form. They do not recognize my supreme being, who am the lord of the universe.”^[65] “The wise see him who dwells within themselves, but fools do not see him, even though they strive to see him.”^[66]

Purity and freedom can be attained by nothing but the power of love for absolute good; for he who does not love what is good does not strive for it and it cannot be revealed in him. But the absolute good is divine love itself; this love is its own object and needs no other. Since it is divine, it is also infinite and includes everything in itself. Not the slightest creature escapes her; she sees herself in every thing and despises none of the forms she inhabits. Therefore, even the self-aware man is far from being a “misanthrope” or “pessimist” or conceited “world despiser,” but the more he sees God in every thing, the more clearly the beauty of God’s revelation in nature stands out to him. Divine love is just another name for the knowledge of God, Theosophy, or knowledge of the divine Self; for one cannot truly love what one does not know, and one cannot truly know what one does not love. An old saying goes: “Whoever does not love Christ (the deity in mankind) hates him.” He who only loves the ecclesiastical Christ loves only his external symbol. He does not want to know anything about the true Christ and therefore cannot recognize him in himself. The greatest enemies of true Christianity are the fanatical followers of false Christianity. Even within the churches, the angel of knowledge has to fight with the demons of darkness. “The gnat, attracted by the blinding light of the night lamp, perishes in the sticky oil. The unwary soul that does not wrestle with the mocking demons of deceit (but allows itself to be misled by a comfortable outward church belief) must return to earth, a slave to its lusts.”^[67] The more the power of love grows and spreads, the greater true knowledge becomes, and the greater knowledge becomes, the more love grows. The one requires the other, because basically both are one; but love for an external thing, even if it were a “historical” Christ, is not based on true knowledge, but only on one’s own imagination and imagination. Such symbols are useful for those who have not yet matured to true knowledge. But where the truth itself is revealed, all illusion disappears, even the symbol.

Every being needs a certain food according to its constitution. Milk is for babies and strong food for men. Therefore one should not reject the ecclesiastical faith; it is still a necessity for most, but one should strive not to get bogged down in it, but to rise above it, penetrating deeper than just the outer shell into the mysteries of religion through the power of true knowledge.

Spiritual knowledge is conditioned by the power of faith; for faith itself is the germ of knowledge; its source is wisdom and it has nothing in common with the opinions, thoughts and delusions that arise from the imagination. The depravity of an age can be seen precisely in this, that the correct terms for designations which mean spiritual powers are lost, and that desire is taken for love, delusion for belief; because one does not know true love, true faith, true knowledge. What ignorance means and holds to be true requires proof; what is known through the power of faith goes without saying. There is therefore nothing more tasteless than a dry, speculative philosophy that goes to the unnecessary trouble of wanting to prove in a roundabout way what one already knows directly through faith, and which, with all its evidence, cannot give any belief to anyone unless he already has it. True faith therefore needs no proof, because it springs from the feeling of truth and automatically leads to the knowledge of truth. But the mere intellectual man cannot have faith and also cannot grasp its concept, because the understanding is not the seat of feeling. For this reason the world will hope in vain for salvation through an unloving science. Knowledge without sensation is lifeless and hollow; it lacks love, which of all things is life, the soul.

F riedrich Rückert says:

“What do I allow myself to leave unread?

A little book that wants to prove to me what I believe.

How am I supposed to let what I believe be proven?

In the mantime I can deal with more useful things.

I don’t think such a book was written for me

It is for others who have remained unbelieving until now.

But even these will not be driven to believe;

Therefore without damage it can remain unwritten.”

Love is blind without mind, and mind insensate and dead without love; therefore the one requires the other. Divine love, however, cannot be enlightened by human intellect clinging to earthly deceptions and blind to spiritual truth; therefore love needs divine wisdom (Ātma Buddhi) for its enlightenment just as much as mind needs divine love for its growth. But wisdom is the light of divine self-knowledge, independent of all philosophical or metaphysical speculation. She is the light that shines eternally in the darkness, and which the darkness (the unenlightened mind) cannot comprehend. It is the spiritual power, the spiritual life of man, which is felt as “faith” and ultimately recognized as wisdom. Philosophical treatises can therefore only serve to dispel errors which are an obstacle to the knowledge of the truth. Inner enlightenment is not a man’s work, it cannot be made; it comes by itself from the power of God in man as soon as its light dispels the darkness.

Faith is basically nothing but the higher consciousness as opposed to the delusive self-consciousness that springs from sensual activity and imagination. It is therefore the higher spiritual life itself; for without consciousness there is no conscious vital activity. The soul of faith is divine love, and love is a form of will and the cause of all existence. The “will,” in the metaphysical sense, is everything. Through the movement of the will in the realm of the spirit all things were and continue to be brought into being and revealed. It is the life force inherent in all things, whether conscious of those things or emanating from the so-called “unconscious.”^[68]

Jakob Boehme, the great German mystic from whom our most distinguished philosophers drew their wisdom, says: “God is the will of eternal wisdom and created all things in his wisdom.”^[69] But this also means that everything has come about by itself; for God is all in all and the (true) self of every thing; not the separate self underlying singularity, but the absolute self of all.

Nowhere do we find all this said more clearly and distinctly than in Rückert’s didactic poems:

“To the unconditional that is not here in things

Wrestle, O conditioned mind, your unconditional struggle

In the unconditional, that in which it conditions itself,

Bring forth things and yourself, conditioned one.

The unconditional has produced itself,

Conditioned mind, in you by thinking it.”

More is said in these few words than is found in many folios of modern philosophical and theological treatises. We will get it right when we come to know ourselves as the unconditional, the absolute.

God is all in all and consequently also the absolute, the eternal rest. Anyone, even the most bigoted consistorial councilor, can confidently subscribe to this sentence. He is the absolute truth, in which there is no lie, deception or dissimulation, and consequently also no restlessness. Whoever wants to convince himself of this only has to immerse himself in his own inner self-consciousness, where all play of fantasy and every desire stops, and he will find no restlessness in it. But the divine rest of which we are speaking here is not the rest of the grave, which springs from ignorance and unconsciousness, but the rest which is proper to knowledge above all error, and not through ignoring the illusions of life but can only be achieved by overcoming them. Whoever finds this peace in himself, finds God and himself in him.

The individual human being is a miniature image of God and nature. The same forces that are contained in the great are at work in it. All that man knows is contained within himself, but he is not able to think all at once, nor to do all at once that he is able to do. His ability also depends on the quality of his means; he could fly if his body was fit for flight. Nor is the whole essence of Deity expressed in nature. Nature is not God and therefore not perfect; her qualities are natural and not spiritual, she is the body of Deity, as man’s nature is his body. If man’s whole nature were permeated by the divine spirit of self-knowledge, man would be a god. If the whole world were perfect, the earth would be heaven. But while nature is dependent on the slow path of evolution in its development because it does not know the forces at work in it, man is capable of becoming master of his own development by knowing the mystical forces contained within himself and learn to use them usefully.

The power that can accomplish anything is the will. The more the will is permeated by self-awareness, the more it becomes a living force and the more effective it becomes. The consciousness that enlivens the will can, however, be based on knowledge of God or egoism; in him either the striving for self-sacrifice for good, or selfishness may prevail. According to this, two directions can be distinguished in willing, one of which strives for the divine, the other for the devilish. One form of will is selfless love in accordance with world harmony; the other is self-love, which springs from self-conceit and ends in greed, megalomania, and hatred. One form of will operates with self-sacrifice according to the divine law of divine love; the other seeks to make the divine forces subservient to the material principle. One ultimately leads to white magic, the other to black magic; one to eternal life, the other to eternal death. Therefore it is also a wise law of nature that the mystical powers in man should remain a hidden mystery for those who have not yet come to recognize the true nature of God and are inclined to evil. The ignorance of the heartless and mindless modern scholar is their best protection; their persistence in error keeps them from coming into possession of powers, the wrong use of which would bring them ruin. Only that science is good which is based on the knowledge of the absolute good.^[70]

The origin of evil is separation from good, and the cause of this separation is delusion of one’s “self.” But love is the redeeming power. Through it man is drawn out of the narrow circle of his limitations, his circle of thinking is widened, and with the widening of his circle of thinking the circle of his existence is also widened. In his probationary years he learns to care not only for himself but also for his family, and the more his heart expands, the more the circle of those he counts as his family expands, until in the end it is not only his community or nation, but includes the whole world. If this love is realized through deeds, knowledge arises from it; the delusion of selfhood fades away and the consciousness of the oneness of essence of all awakens. Then man recognizes God when he recognizes his own divine nature, and with this recognition te kingdom of God and all divine powers open up to him. That is why love is the highest of all mystical powers, which the apostle also confirms when he says: “If I could prophesy and knew all mysteries and all knowledge, and had all the faith to move mountains, and had not love, I would be nothing.”^[71]

Love is the cause of salvation and also the cause of perdition. Out of love for earthly things man left his heavenly state and out of love for appearances he separated himself from the truth. Through the love of truth he overcomes the deception of appearances and returns to essence. But the love of truth is gained by turning away from delusion, and in order to do this he must know delusion for what it is. Thus, evil is the guide to good, and the devil becomes the means of salvation when one overcomes him within oneself.

This is the struggle between good and evil, allegorized in various ways in the various religions, both ancient and modern. It is still taking place in the universe as a whole, as well as in every nation, church, community and individual. Even in outer nature the sunshine struggles with the darkness, but the sun itself does not darken and remains unaffected by the shadows which the clouds cast on the earth. So also the divine light of knowledge in man struggles with the darkness of ignorance and the shadow of passion, and mortal man, so long as he struggles, moves in the never-ending cycles of the law of necessity; but the divine knowing man is exalted above all nature by the power of knowledge; the sorrows and joys of existence touch the shell he inhabits, but not himself, for he himself dwells in the consciousness of eternity and immortality; one with the true selves of all beings, one with God. He himself is the light he sought, and in that light he is assured of rest, victory and freedom.

(Sequel follows.)

XII. Harmony^[72]

(Ending.)

“In eternity there can be no sound so lovely,

As if man’s heart agrees with God.”

Scheffler.

The lesson of wisdom is harmony. The agreement of all parts determines the unity of the whole. This does not abolish the individuality of the individual, but completes it. The fact that a single note in a symphony is in harmony with all the other notes in it does not destroy its individuality. It is no longer perceived as a single note, but its individual existence does not depend on it being a single note perceived by others, but becomes greater the more it spreads out over the whole, absorbing and conforming to it.

The pettiest and most limited person is the egoist concerned only with his own well-being, even if in his self-conceit he thinks himself superior to all others. The misanthrope or eccentric who thinks he can despise the whole world, but does not recognize the futility of his own self-delusion, is like the snail that crawls into its own house. He cannot conquer the world as long as he shuts himself off from it. No one can leave the world unless he leaves his own imagined selfhood, which is part of the world, and finds his true self. To find the real me, it is not enough to ignore the imaginary “me”; for otherwise one could make oneself an adept in one’s sleep; rather it is a question of growing beyond the deceptive self, becoming greater than that “self”, and this is done through the power of love. The will is the ground of our being; it is the substance of love. The more our love extends to the whole, the more the whole enters into the realm of our being and existence, the more we participate in the karma of the whole.

The lover stands higher than the misanthrope and ascetic. Whoever loves his wife or his family as well as himself, his sphere of existence is much larger than that of the pious fanatic who imagines that through deprivation he would like to acquire a good seat in heaven. The heaven he imagines exists only in his own imagination; for there is no heaven without love, and where love is confined to one’s “self” that heaven too is very small and more like a prison than a temple. The “self” is hell, for craving and passion reign in it. Heaven is love; for in it is bliss.

The patriot stands higher than the father of a family. His love extends not only to his own family, but to his fatherland; provided that his patriotism is genuine and does not originate in the gratification of his ambition, vanity, or greed. The soldier who fights and dies, not passionately, but purposefully for his fatherland, is superior to the one who does not dare to fight because he thinks that doing so will harm his own soul; for the soul of the patriot is great enough to embrace the whole nation in its love, which is its nature; while the soul of the timid contains nothing but his own petty, timid self.

Greater even than the patriot is he whose love, regardless of nation, embraces all of mankind. But this love is not fanatic only when it relates not just to human creatures, but to humanity in people. Spirit is substance and essence; Forms are only appearances. Anyone who only loves forms loves nothing essential; his love is a delusion. Whoever recognizes and loves the one being in everything, loves and also recognizes the being itself. Whoever recognizes it, loves it too, and whoever can love it is on the way to its recognition; because love and knowledge are mutually dependent; they are basically just one. This love and knowledge is divine wisdom or “Theosophy.”

But once the essence of all things is recognized, we also recognize the world of appearances as the expression of this essence, and the secret of the law of harmony opens up clearly before us, according to which this expression of divine thought, which creates the forms widely, takes place. The world with everything we see in it is a revelation of the essence underlying all existence; it is the outward expression of this being, whose nature is law and harmony, and therefore the whole universe is built according to the law of harmony. Every thing has its own essence or individuality. This is called its “name,” for the thing itself is the expression of its underlying thought, hence the word signifying its essence or convention a specific meaning is ascribed; but the real names of things in their own natural language arise from their own being, because they are the symbols of the thoughts expressed in them. “To utter the true name of a thing” is, in the occult sense, to express the thought of the underlying being of that thing, not by empty words, but by the power inherent in that thought. Therein reside the wonders of magical creation. To utter the true name is to call the thing in question from the unmanifest into manifest existence. Therefore no one can utter the true name of God; for this is called creating God. But the “language of God” is the whole of nature and his word is the origin of everything.

But the “Word” in the occult sense is sound, and in fact Indian philosophy teaches us that all creation consists of “spiritual sound vibrations” (Akāsha) and their modifications. From the power of the creative word “Let there be!” “Fire” (the energy) arose, from the fire the “light,” from the light the “water” (the astral space), from the water the “earth,” the material principle. This is how the powers of hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting and smelling were born.^[73]

But each of these forces consists of vibrations of that primal substance which, for lack of another word, we can call the “universal will in nature,” and since the mode of operation of these forces, whether they be on the spiritual, the astral, or the physical plane Expressing itself on the type and number of these vibrations depends on it, so every thing in the world not only has its specific name, but also its specific number. It is on this correspondence between name and number that the science of Kabala rests.

From consciousness, name and number arise concept, idea and form. Therefore every thing, every idea, every thought has a form corresponding to its nature and qualities, and where there are no disturbing influences, there, name, number, and form are in perfect agreement; one is conditioned by the other. The basis of the whole is harmony. If man had remained conscious of his divine name, all the vibrations which fill his spirit, soul and body would be harmonious and blissful, his form would be godlike; yes, the whole of nature would then be an abundance of euphony, light and joy, because the whole of nature is the expression of the world soul (of the universal human being). All discord, all disharmony, sadness and suffering arise only from the fact that man has become unaware of his true nature, has forgotten his true name and thus also lost his divine powers; that he, who has fallen into error and sin, blinded by the outward appearance of the world he has created, thinks himself to be something other than what he really is. This changed its name and its number and form. The real unity became the apparent multiplicity; A multitude of ideas arose from the all-self-conscious, innumerable forms emerged from the formless, and when the feeling became alive in the forms, the forms forgot their true essence and from the multiplicity of forms and their special interests arose the struggle for existence and the Disharmony that will last until humanity as a whole truly recognizes the unity of its being.

Just as all numbers are contained in the One and spring from it without the unity diminishing or increasing, or dividing or changing, so are all things contained in the one essence of all, and the sole essence does not change and does not divide, no matter how many ideas and worlds arise in it; but the revelation of the sole essence presents itself to us in innumerable forms. Spirit is everywhere; apart from it there is neither space nor time; but the forms in which the spirit manifests itself are limited to space and time. Reality itself is eternal, without beginning and without end; but appearances come and go. Essence is one and zero is nothing. Through the one, the zero becomes something; the result is ten, the number of perfection. The one means the male, the zero the female principle in nature, intelligence and will. From the connection of the one with the zero the son, the revelation, is born. The One is the “Fire,” the Force; the zero the dark. Through the action of fire, light emerges from darkness.

The science of the occult meaning of numbers is a sacred and sublime science which, like all spiritual things, cannot be judged from the material point of view and cannot be grasped externally, but can only be intuitively, spiritually grasped. It is a living science in comparison with ordinary mathematics, inasmuch as in it the one, which is the life of all numbers, is not lost sight of. The one is the consciousness, and from it living forces emerge, which work on the different planes of existence and are revealed, in the heavenly world as god-like intelligences, on the astral plane as their inhabitants, on the physical plane as people, animals, plants and minerals with the forces at work in them. There is a lot of talk about “evolution”; but this development does not refer to the essence, but merely to its appearances; the One does not change, and in reality all is “God,” only the ways in which the All-Spirit manifests are different.

So also the light of the sun is a unity, but when it is reflected in the raindrop it appears in seven colors. Sound is a unit, but depending on the nature of its vibrations, it produces different octaves of seven tones each. In the rainbow the three primary colors are distinguished among the seven, in the harmony of tones the triad in the octave, and the same law is found in all nature, spiritual as well as material; for unity becomes trinity when revealed; the trinity included in unity forms the four or square; but the three and the four together the seven, and these with the supreme Trinity the ten. Thus the whole lower world is a scale of seven tones or harmonies, and above it is the supreme triad of the divine world.

This ladder to heaven is in the Kabala as the ten Sephiroth, or “Emanations of Deity,” the top three of which in one belong to Deity and the remaining seven to nature. Each of these Sephiroth represents a sum total of powers and attributes too lofty to be described in words where spiritual vision is wanting.^[74] They include the heavenly hosts, angels, demons and powers; the foot of this ladder to heaven rests in the earth, its top is lost in the nameless, eternal; it represents an octave of world harmonies, the lowest of which consists of gross vibrations representing matter; while the higher octaves consist of finer vibrations that only the spiritual man can feel, hear and see. It is the image of humanity itself, descending from the top step to the bottom, and then working its way back up to perfection; it is “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” from whose fruits (karma) man must eat in order to finally be able to enjoy his divine existence; it consists of the ten creative forces and beings whose symbol is the revealed universe.

Likewise, the individual human being represents such a scale of seven tones and colors, a sevenfold world, in which the upper divine Trinity is reflected. Its supreme three principles, Ātma-buddhi-manas, correspond to the divine trinity; its lower four principles of its material nature. In him, too, the one is revealed with the two as a trinity, which appears in the one as four, and the sum of the whole is ten, the number of perfection in which the sacred number seven is hidden. This is to say that the duality of will and imagination is revealed in consciousness (the unity) as a trinity. If these three enter into unity (in God), then they are in multiplicity, the symbol of truth. By connecting the lower square with the upper triangle, i.e., through the penetration of the earthly by the divine, the sacred number seven arises, which is hidden in ten, the number of the whole. But the number seven is sacred because it is the number of perfection. The trinity abides eternally in itself; from it arises the seven and from each of the seven again and again seven; from the one divine light of wisdom seven lights or intelligences, from each of these seven seven times seven states of consciousness or forms of existence.^[75]

The seven worlds, the seven sons of light, arose from the divine name through the secret powers of the number seven. Just as the light of the sun breaks into seven colors, so the divine sun of wisdom reveals itself in seven light-radiating spheres, filled with life, consciousness, sensation, intelligence, and from these arise the suns with their planets, the countless hosts of stars in the cosmos , which we can conceive of neither as finite nor as infinite, and in which every world is the manifestation of a creative thought of God.

It is not our purpose here to delve deeper into the mysterious and boundless realm of the mystical powers of the universe embodied in the occult meaning of numbers; what has already been said suffices to indicate the nature of the laws of harmony which govern the greatest as well as the least, and to show us the way in which we can bring our own nature into harmony with the great whole.

Each of the seven principles in the constitution of man represents a particular level of vibration of the one life element embodied in man. These vibrations correspond to particular colors which can be perceived by anyone possessed of the necessary clairvoyance as follows:

The material body, the house, in which man dwells, is surrounded by various emanations, including the heat rays, electric, magnetic, earthly, etc. rays, and the colors of these change according to the one or the other element (tattva) predominating in it.^[76]

1. 1. The Life Principle. Orange colored.
  2. The etheric body. Violet; colored more or less red depending on its mixture with Kāma.
  3. The astral body. Kāma rūpa. blood red.
  4. Kama Manas. Green.
  5. Buddhi Manas. Indigo blue.
  6. Buddhi. Yellow.
  7. Ātma. Blue.

These colored spheres of light surrounding the human body are comparable to the photosphere of the sun and extend far beyond its circumference. The more spiritual the vibrations are, the wider is the circle of light that they spread. Also, these spheres are not sharply separated from each other, but mix where they touch each other. That principle which is most active in the person in question makes itself most noticeable through its outstanding aura, so that, for example, a very passionate or angry person is surrounded mainly by a red circle of light, a person imbued with wisdom by a particularly strong yellow circle of light.

The aura by which a man is surrounded belongs to his own being; it is, so to speak, the sphere of his existence, the center of which is the material body. Without them, an “exterritorialization of sensation” observed in very sensitive individuals would be unthinkable. Where two or more people come together, one enters the aura of the other; one lives in the other, so to speak, and the mutual sympathies and antipathies are explained by the harmony or disharmony of these “earthly emanations.”

These colors and vibrations fully correspond to those of the planes of existence in the universe corresponding to these principles or states of consciousness, which, to avoid the use of Sanskrit words, we shall designate by the names of the seven planets symbolizing them.

1. 1. 0 sun. —The life-principle whose deity and center in our solar system is the sun. Orange.
  2. z moon. — The material (etheric) principle, the astral light. Violet.
  3. 0 Mars. — The astral plane, region of desires and passions, dwelling place of the elementals. Red.
  4. P Saturn. — The lower spiritual level, the earthly part of the world soul, the realm of changing thoughts. Green.
  5. Y Venus. — The realm of love, the higher (heavenly) part of the world soul, the dwelling place of the gods.
  6. O Mercury.—The realm of knowledge.
  7. t Jupiter. — The kingdom of bliss, the world of God, glory and perfection.

To this can be added the “shell” or “matter” which forms the body of things, the planets as well as the inhabitants of them, and which is not a principle at all, but only a product of the operation of the above principles, which in themselves itself is inanimate matter, the eighth sphere, the center and symbol of which is our earth, which is also “hell” as represented by its sign ♁, the reverse sign of love (Y) in a manner sufficiently understandable for the mystic. Her aura is inherently gray, but is altered by the principles at work within it. The principle most prominent in our globe at this point in time of evolution is P Saturn (Kāma Manas). Accordingly, green also corresponds to the color of the vegetation on our world.^[77]

A mere theoretical knowledge of these things has no practical value. But the matter is quite different when occult science is applied to our spiritual growth. It shows us that we can soar to a higher level of consciousness and existence by absorbing the vibrations of a higher level of being and staying in tune with our own, or in other words, by sustaining ourselves in a higher one Shifting intonation and remaining in it until that intonation has become our nature. The mind can be likened to a harp, which has low, middle and high notes. As long as we move only in the low chords, those chords or discords become ours own essence; if we rise to a higher level in our feeling and thinking, wanting and acting, then our own being will thereby become a higher one. But a distinction must be made between the flight of imagination and real growth. The hawkmoth leaves the safe ground on which it stands and flies to the higher regions, where it finds no lasting abode, but must soon return to earth; but the true tree of knowledge is firmly rooted in the earth, it does not leave the ground on which it stands, but its branches rise high in the air, and its summit dwells in the light of the immortal sun.

It is easy for anyone who is able to feel the beautiful, noble, true and good in himself to surrender to this feeling and to rise to the divine. But how the creation without the creative word “Let there be!” did not come about and only a beautiful dream remained, then all enthusiasm in the realm of the ideal is nothing more than a passing enthusiasm, as long as the ideal is not realized in ourselves.

This realization takes place through deeds. The word “karma” means “action.” Our thoughts and feelings determine our speech and actions. Not through feeling and thinking, wishing and wanting, but through our doing and not doing, we create our own being, and the nature of our being in turn determines our thinking and wanting, our letting and doing. Our karma is our own product, the result of our actions, and the product of our karma is our own selves. We ourselves are the children of our deeds that we have committed in the past, whether in this life or in an earlier one, and our present willing, thinking and acting determines the position that we will have according to our nature in the future, in this or will take in a future life on earth.

Just as there is a law of gravitation in external nature, according to which every body has its center of gravity where it belongs according to its nature, there is also a similar law of gravitation in the spiritual realm, according to which every human being ultimately finds the position that is due to him. The thief, even if he had been a pope or king in his previous life, is reborn among thieves, the good among the good, and even in this life each aspires to that position in society for which he is fitted; even if insurmountable obstacles often stand in the way of attaining them as a result of the social karma in which each individual participates.

But whoever wants to escape from the bonds of karma that keep him captive must renounce his own personal self with his own will and self-acting, and by being completely absorbed in selfless, divine love, only feel, think, want and do that what the divine wisdom wants in him and what her will moves him to do; i.e., his thoughts and wills and actions must spring from true knowledge of the truth, and this knowledge is not the work of man, but the product of divine grace, which fills every man as soon as he has overcome the obstacles which oppose its penetration. But these hindrances are the errors and delusions to which man clings, and the law of karma or necessity is there to lead him along the path of experience through the school of suffering on the path of knowledge. Thus, behind the law of iron necessity, which requires “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” stands the law of divine love, which redeems the whole world through the power of knowledge.

The purpose of our existence is therefore not selflessness in nothingness, but sublimity above one’s own self through the power of knowledge; not a disappearance of selfhood in the whole without realizing it, but an expansion of our sphere of existence over the whole, so that it embraces the whole. There is no loss of the individuality of the individual, but a growth of it, so that she takes the whole thing into her consciousness and includes it in her love. Only then will the earth be in harmony with heaven and become heaven itself, when everyone does not live for themselves but for everyone. Then everyone also lives in others and everything in everyone; only then can man enjoy his true existence when he recognizes the whole in himself.

Notes:

^[1] A Twelve-part series combined into one document: Karma. I. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 42 (March 1896), 160-188; Karma. II. Täuschungen. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 43 (April 1896), 219-241; Karma. III. Das Daseins. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 44 (May 1896), 333-352; Karma. IV. Der Gedanke. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 45 (June 1896), 402-430; Karma. V. Das Reich der Erscheinungen. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 46 (July 1896), 485-509; Karma. VI. Selbstbewusstein. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 47 (August 1896), 569-593; Karma. VII. Verwirklichung. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 48 (September 1896), 646-663; Karma. VIII. Vollendung. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 49 (October 1896), 744-766; Karma. IX. Das Ich und die “Iche.” Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 9, no. 54 (March 1897), 194-221; Karma. X. Die Wiederverkörperung. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 9, no. 55 (April 1897), 277-296; Karma. XI. Die mystischen Kräfte. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 9, no. 56 (May 1897), 333-358; Karma. XII. Harmonie. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 9, no. 57 (June 1897), 440-464 {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}

^[3] Bhagavad Gītā. III, vs. 19.

^[4] Bhagavad Gītā. III, vs. 15.

^[5] Bhagavad Gītā. XIV, 23.

^[6i] Ibid. XIII, 15.

^[7] Śaṅkarāchārya. “Tattva Bodha.” p. 16.

^[8] II. Moses. XX, 5 und 34, 6.

^[9] I. John III, 6.

^[10] Śaṅkarāchārya. “Tattva Bodha.” S. 53.

^[11] See Lotusblüten. “Die Entsagung.” Vol. VI., p. 845.

^[12] Jakob Böhme.

^[13] Lotusblüten, Vol. I, p. 411. “Alchemie.”

^[14] “De Mala et Bona Fortuna.” Vol. IX., pg. 11. (Husers Edition).

^[15] Karma. II. Täuschungen. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 43 (April 1896), 219-241. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025. The German book title is: Karma oder Wissen, Wirken, und Werden. Enthaltend praktische Anweisungen in Bezug auf die okkulte Wissenschaft für die jenigen, welche nicht bloss wissen, sondem auch werden wollen. Leipzig: Wilhelm Friedrich, n.d. but ca. 1903. [Approximate translation: Karma or knowing, working, and becoming. Containing practical instructions relating to occult science for those who not only know but wish to become] Second ed. as Karma oder Wissen, Wirken, und Werden. Mit praktische Anweisungen über okkulte Wissenschaft für alle, die nicht nur wissen, sondem auch werden wollen. Leipsig: Lotus Verlag, n.d.; Second ed. Leipzig: Theosophisches Verlaghaus, 1920; reprint with first subtitle: Calw. Schatzkammerverlag Hans Fändrich, n.d. but ca. 1975–1976. Referred to in: Theosophische Kultur 13 (1921), 382 [Based on the series from Lotusblüten articles in the present series translated by Robert Hütwohl.]}

^[16] C. Flammarion: “Uranie.”

^[17] “Isis Unveiled,” I, 271.

^[18] “Secret Doctrine,” I, 183.

^[19] Ibid., I, 190.

^[20] One reason for the widespread spread of pulmonary tuberculosis is due to the protection by smallpox vaccination, which is still compulsory in many countries. See: Wm. Tebb: “The recrudescence of Leprosy.” London 1893.

^[21] Such spiritual perihelion will occur on April 11, 1898, which period marks the end of the first 5,000 years of the Kali Yuga.

^[22] Karma. III. Das Daseins. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 44 (May 1896), 333-352 {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}

^[23] Bhagavad Gītā, Chap. XIV, 4–9.

^[24] Bhagavad Gītā, XIV, 11–13.

^[25] Ibid, verse 10.

^[26] The physical body and the body of desire (kāma rūpa).

^[27] Bhagavad Gītā, XIV, 14–15.

^[28] Karma. IV. Der Gedanke. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 45 (June 1896), 402-430 {Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl}

^[29] Bhagavad Gītā, XIII, 1 and 2.

^[30] Magic, page 119.

^[31] John I, 1–3.

^[32] Matthew XI, 28.

^[33] Karma. V. Das Reich der Erscheinungen. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 46 (July 1896), 485-509 {Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl}

^[34] Luke, XV, 7.

^[35] I. Timothy. I, 17.

^[36] For anyone who is ignorant of God and the knowledge of God, giving up one’s personal self is tantamount to annihilation. For this reason the false scholars imagine that Nirvāna is a sinking into nothingness instead of a merging into God.

^[37] Hermes Trismegistus, XVII, 12.

^[38] Karma. VI. Selbstbewusstein. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 47 (August 1896), 569-593 {Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl}

^[39] “Lotusblüten,” Volume IV, page 684.

^[40] Karma. VII. Verwirklichung. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 48 (September 1896), 646-663 {Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl}

^[41] Chapter IV, 24.

^[42] Karma. VIII. Vollendung. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 49 (October 1896), 744-766 {Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl}

^[43] “The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians.” Occult Publ. Co., Boston, Mass.

^[44] Karma. IX. Das Ich und die “Iche.” Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 9, no. 54 (March 1897), 194-221 {Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl}

^[45] This work was interrupted by other work on the part of the author, but will soon be published in the form of a book. {R.H.— The German book title is: Karma oder Wissen, Wirken, und Werden. Enthaltend praktische Anweisungen in Bezug auf die okkulte Wissenschaft für die jenigen, welche nicht bloss wissen, sondem auch werden wollen. Leipzig: Wilhelm Friedrich, n.d. but ca. 1903. [Approximate translation: Karma or knowing, working, and becoming. Containing practical instructions relating to occult science for those who not only know but wish to become] Second ed. as Karma oder Wissen, Wirken, und Werden. Mit praktische Anweisungen über okkulte Wissenschaft für alle, die nicht nur wissen, sondem auch werden wollen. Leipsig: Lotus Verlag, n.d.; Second ed. Leipzig: Theosophisches Verlaghaus, 1920; reprint with first subtitle: Calw. Schatzkammerverlag Hans Fändrich, n.d. but ca. 1975–1976. Referred to in: Theosophische Kultur 13 (1921), 382 [Based on the series from Lotusblüten articles in the present series translated by Robert Hütwohl.]

^[46] II. Peter, I, 19.

^[47] Jakob Boehme. “Aurora” III, 1.

^[48] See Śaṅkarāchārya, “Tattva Bodha.” Lotusblüthen, Vol. III.

^[49] Karma. X. Die Wiederverkörperung. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 9, no. 55 (April 1897), 277-296 {Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl}

^[50] Mānava Dharma Shāstra. I.

^[51] We must not confuse the Spirit with its manifestation within us. If we know nothing of the spirit while we are asleep, it does not follow that the spirit knows nothing of itself while we are asleep.

^[52] Bhagavad Gītā XIII, 22.

^[53] Eckhart.

^[54] Boehme.

^[55] St. John Revelation.

^[56] Chapter VI, 41.

^[57] Bhagavad Gītā, XVI, 19.

^[58] Ibid. IX, 25.

^[59] Ibid. XIV, 14.

^60] Ibid. XVIII, 54.

^[61] Karma. XI. Die mystischen Kräfte. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 9, no. 56 (May 1897), 333-358 {Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl}

^[62] II Corinthians XIII, 5.

^[63] Matthew VI, 3.

^[64] II Corinthians III, 17.

^[65] Chapter IX, verse 11.

^[66] Chapter XV, verse 11.

^[67] H. P. Blavatsky: “Die Stimme der Stille.” Lotusblüthen No. 1.

^[68] Since the whole of nature is a revelation of the All-Conscious, there can be nothing absolutely unconscious in it either; even if the “vessels” in which this consciousness works do not recognize the force working in them.

^[69] Mysterium magnum I.

^[70] The beginning of black magic and the dominion of the devil on earth is “hypnotism”; for even if various temporary evils can also be eliminated through it, the result is the much greater evil that it deprives man of control over his own will and brings him under the influence of another’s will. In doing so, however, he works directly against the law, which stipulates that man should become master of himself and that evil should not be ignored but overcome. The more often a person is hypnotized by a well-meaning person, the more his powers of resistance to foreign psychic influences are weakened; he eventually becomes a willless “medium” and the end of it is the loss of the highest thing a human being possesses, namely his spiritual individuality. Similarly, so-called “self-hypnotizing,” bringing oneself under the domination of a self-generated misconception, which takes possession of the person and then exposes him to other misconceptions. There is no other remedy for the sufferings of life than true knowledge. Whoever attains this is his own master and thus also controls his nature. Once science has come to the realization that thought and will are one spirit that also works at a distance, and that the evil thought of a person in a distant part of the world can influence the deed of another person in his part of the world, then it will they understand why self-knowledge and self-control are man’s greatest good, and that those who rob him of it do themselves the greatest harm; for the consequences of every action ultimately rebound upon its author, and nature has no excuse for ignorance of the laws of nature.

^[71] I Corinthians XIII, 2.

^[72] Karma. XII. Harmonie. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 9, no. 57 (June 1897), 440-464 {Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl}

^[73] Siehe: Śaṅkarāchārya. “Tattva Bodha.”

^[74] The names of the ten Sephiroth are:

Spirit 1. Kether — Crown. } deity. △

Spirit 2. Chokmah — wisdom. } deity. △

Spirit 3. Binah — mind.

Spirit 4. Chesed — mercy.

Soul 5. Geburah — power.

Soul 6. Tiphereth — Beauty.

Soul 7. Netzach — Victory.

Soul 8. Hod — Glory.

Body 9. Yesod — reason.

Body 10. Malkuth — Empire.

^[75] Compare, H. P. Blavatsky: “The Secret Doctrine” I, 63.

^[76] The material body of man and the material principle of the earth are not counted here. They do not belong to the seven principles, but to the “eighth sphere.”

^[77] All this will be difficult to understand for the limited intellectual mind that has no mystical talent. Mystical writings can only be understood if they are conceived in a mystical sense, which involves not just ingenuity but also spirit.

Karma [A Twelve Part Series by Franz Hartmann, M.D.]

Karma [A Twelve Part Series by Franz Hartmann, M.D.]

I.[2]

II. Deceptions.[15]

III. Being[22]

V. Thought[28]

V. The Kingdom of Appearances[33]

VI. Self-consciousness[38]

VII. Realization[40]

VIII. Completion[42]

IX. The I and the “Me.”[44] [45]

X. Reincarnation[49]

XI. The Mystical Powers[61]

XII. Harmony[72]

@ 2024 Franz Hartmann Project.

I.^[2]

II. Deceptions.^[15]

III. Being^[22]

V. Thought^[28]

V. The Kingdom of Appearances^[33]

VI. Self-consciousness^[38]

VII. Realization^[40]

VIII. Completion^[42]

IX. The I and the “Me.”^[44] ^[45]

X. Reincarnation^[49]

XI. The Mystical Powers^[61]

XII. Harmony^[72]