(As received through H. P. Blavatsky.)

By Franz Hartmann, M.D.^[1]

A Ten-part series of articles

with annotations by Dr. Franz Hartmann.

Translation from the German, Sanskrit and Tibetan with comments by Robert Hutwohl^[2]

[A note to the reader. The pdf form of this document accommodates “live notes capability.” If you click on the superscripted note number in the text body, it will jump to the end note. Then, when clicking on the superscripted endnote number, you will be taken back to the original text location as before.]

[Begin: [1] Confidential Communications from the Province of the Tibetan Master. [Vertrauliche Mitteilungen aus den Kreisen der tibetanischen Meister. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 2, no. 9-10 (September-October 1909), 278-279.]

Preliminary endnote by the German-to-English translator, Robert Hutwohl^[3]

Preliminary notes by the English-to-German translator [Franz Hartmann].

          [Dr. Franz Hartmann:] The following original letters from among the circles of Tibetan adepts known as the Masters and Teachers of H. P. Blavatsky were received “occultly” during my stay in Adyar in 1883 and 1884 and for obvious reasons were kept secret for a long time; for Blavatsky said, “You have no right to throw the mysteries of occult science at the head of the ignorant crowd; for not knowing their laws would only sink them deeper into superstition.”^[4]

          The great number of superstitious sects which arose as a result of the spread of occult teachings and their misunderstanding and abuse shows how right Blavatsky was with this statement. There is only one wisdom and its application is “magic”; but accordingly just as magic is used for higher, noble, or for selfish and base purposes, it is divided into “white” or divine and “black” or devil-art magic, the latter of which leads to eternal ruin for the one who practices it.^[5] It was therefore a commandment of philanthropy to keep the sacred secrets, which were carefully guarded by the wise at all times, also further under the seal of secrecy, and to protect the multitude, who were still immature for such things, from falling heedlessly towards their own destruction.

          Nowadays circumstances have changed. Such letters as mentioned above formed the basis from which grew Mr. Sinnett’s Esoteric Buddhism and a host of other works which are built on the teachings handed down to us, and consequently contain both profound truths and fantastic admixtures on the part of their authors. There is therefore no reason to withhold these original letters from the readers of the Neue Lotusblüten, who are presumably already familiar with the literature of occultism, and this would probably have happened earlier; but they were misplaced  by me shortly after my arrival from India in 1885 and only recently by chance (?) they have come into my hands again. The accompanying notes are intended to explain the text in more detail.

1. The Quest for Initiation.

          Don’t force yourself into our circle. Prepare yourself, but do not long to become a disciple (chela) of the Masters, but wait patiently for discipleship to descend on you. Do not desire that which involves hardships and dangers which you do not know. Many have offered themselves as students this year, and of all those who have been tested, not a single one has passed the test; for the spiritual light which is received at initiation reveals the inner man and brings forth the still dormant seeds of vice as well as those of virtue.^[6] Latent propensities to depravity lead to corresponding actions, and the result of this is often insanity and suicide. Out of the five “chela’s” who forced themselves upon us, three became criminals and two became insane. One of the latter was saved from the even more terrible fate of falling into black magic by committing suicide.

          Seek purity and virtue and live a holy life. What you will never attain through your own desire and will, will come to you of its own accord, when you are ready to receive it, through the grace of your immortal Self, which is the light of true knowledge. — M.

2. About spiritual progress.

          Man is built of ideas and guided by ideas. Even in his physical existence, the subjective world is the only reality for him; for he can know nothing of the whole external world that surrounds him, except what reaches his consciousness. This subjective world becomes more and more a reality for the occultist, the more he determines the external, objective world as an illusion and finally recognizes Parabrahm as the only true and essence of everything. Therefore, everyone who wishes to know the secret (living) forces in nature should direct all his energies toward the realization of the highest ideal through self-sacrifice, philanthropy, divine benevolence toward all creatures, as the highest virtues attainable in this world, and work unceasingly for their activity. The more he strives to raise himself to this ideal standpoint, the stronger his will, will become, and when he has become a master of self-control in this way and has learned to stand on his own two feet, the inclination will also arise in his material body to instinctively only do what is highest, to correspond to ideals, whereby his actions on the other hand strengthen his will-power twice as much, according to the law of effect and reaction that governs all kingdoms of nature.

          Occult science is not about empty theories, but about practical successes. The great mass of mankind is still at a low level of development and is advancing on the path to perfection. It will come nearer to this goal when it acquires finer faculties of perception and comes into closer relationships with nature. Man will become perfect when the energy that animates him works in harmony with the One Life in the cosmos. The purpose of evolution is the transformation of the human spirit and its eventual union with the Eternal. An intellectual fraternity should be formed which has this goal in mind and in which each individual upholds that ideal which constitutes the true essence of man. Good example is mightier than teaching to guide people along the path of wisdom. By working together as one, the best results can be achieved on the spiritual level, which then find expression on the outside.^[7] The first step on the way to perfection is internal purification. It is not the work of a moment, nor of a day, nor of a year, but a series of successive incarnations may be required to remove the effects of many antecedent causes which produced results contrary to spiritualization. But when the student’s yearning for a higher life is not merely a sentimental upsurge or an urge to satisfy scientific curiosity, but he makes a firm determination to control his nature, the necessary energy will emanate from one of his bodies transferred to the other during his reincarnations until he finally reaches his goal. — K.H.

3. Concept of time in the material and in the spiritual.

          From our earthly point of view, the length of time which the human Monad spends during its sojourn in Devachan (heaven), before she enters earthly existence again, is much longer than her existence on earth during her incarnation. From the point of view of the disembodied soul things are different. When a yogi is in the state of samadhi, years can pass and yet they seem to him only like days, or perhaps like a moment; for in the eternal there is no concept of time.^[8] Energy applied on the astral plane produces effects there which are of longer duration than on the physical plane, because in the astral the friction which the vibrations set in motion have to overcome is much less, and therefore the same don’t exhaust it soon. So, for example, the sound of a chime in its after-vibrations can be heard by the human ear for only a few minutes; but the same sound can be heard astrally for perhaps hours with the opened inner sense, and spiritual vibrations last for much longer.^[9]

          The length of time a human soul spends in “Devachan” or the “world of the gods” (paradise) depends on the degree of its development, on the impulses it has generated on the physical plane and on its aspirations. There is a very big difference between existence in the astral world and spiritual life. When the element of spirituality appears in the Monad (when God-consciousness dawns or comes into being in the soul), the length of its stay in Paradise will be much longer. But it is a great error to think that a noble thought directed to useful work is worth less than meditating on transcendental things. True wisdom is found in self-awareness. Passions are like soap bubbles; there is no spiritual power in them.^[10] — S. R. [Subba Row]

4. What is meant by the term “human Monad”?

          This question embraces the whole field of occult science; but I can say in brief: The human Monad is not identical with the seventh principle (Atma [ātma] or Logos). Let us take the sun as an example: Occult science teaches that what radiates from it as visible light and heat spreads uniformly in endless space. The body of the sun is, as it were, a focal point in which this light and heat-giving substance is accumulated and emitted from it. Likewise, Parabrahm is the one universal Element, and whenever a center of activity, a luminous spiritual Sun, emanates from it as an active force, that force is the one Element in an active state; essentially identical to Parabrahm, but distinct from it in nature.^[11] It is the One Life in all that may be called the will in nature, which generates life and consciousness throughout the manifest universe. It operates in all forms in all the kingdoms of nature, and when the forms produced by nature have attained a certain degree of development, it appears in them differently and acquires a certain degree of individuality. This is called the “Monad” (heavenly soul). Were it not connected with the universal Logos, it could not be immortal; but through its connection with the divine Logos the human soul attains its immortality. The Monad is the energy of the seventh principle working through the sixth.^[12]

5. State of the soul after death.^[13]

          The soul does not always enter heaven (devachan) immediately after leaving the body. The vast majority have yet to shed what keeps them bound to earthly existence. Good and pure souls do not feel this transitional state (kama loca) [kāma loka] and it may only last a few hours. A child whose Monad has exhausted the effects of its karma created in the previous life and dies from some physical cause which has occurred may reincarnate either immediately or after a long period of time, according to the circumstances. In the latter case his soul is in a dreamless sleep. Avitchi [avīci]^[14] (hell) is the opposite of devachan, but the conditions are the same in both cases. In both the departed spirit is surrounded by the thought-forms generated by itself through its thinking, willing and acting, be they angels or devils, and what they attract.

         When a being reincarnates, the larva left behind by it dissolves.

          Vivid impressions received shortly before death are often retained afterwards and are dreamily repeated. The suicide kills himself again and again; the hanged man is hanged again and again, etc.; until the impression dissipates.

(Sequel follows.)

[Begin: [2] Confidential Communications from the Province of the Tibetan Master. [Vertrauliche Mitteilungen aus den Kreisen der tibetanischen Meister. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 2, no. 11-12 (November-December 1909), 323-348.]

Confidential Communications from the Province of the Tibetan Masters.^[15] (With annotations by Dr. Hartmann.)

Franz Hartmann, M.D.

Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl

Continuation.

6. The advantage of good works for spiritual progress.

          A man who is constantly engaged in useful things will not easily fall into bad habits. Besides, good works exert their effects on the higher planes of existence. Every thought is realized through action and attracts corresponding influences from the astral region. A good thought puts people in contact with good influences and attracts them. Bad actions give him corresponding bad elemental powers. Good thoughts and good deeds lift him up; bad ones pull him down. A good thought can drive away a bad one and with it the evil influences associated with it. Therefore, the wise should always be the master of his will, thoughts and actions.

7. The “I.”

          A human being can be viewed as a different being each morning because his characteristics, his memories, his thoughts and physical states are constantly changing; but there is something in him that is permanent and to which all his experiences attach and thereby acquire a certain coherence. This “something,” the Monad or the “I” can be likened to a string of pearls on which are strung all the experiences which the I has acquired in its various forms of existence or incarnations, each of which is a pearl.^[16]

          The Logos is the basis of countless Monads. These never die, but always re-enter from a non-revealed to a revealed existence. All human beings whose spiritual experiences are offered to the Logos by the wandering Monad thereby attain immortality in him^[17]; but there are also cases where, as a result of a man’s continued, very depraved way of life, his Monad has acquired a polarity opposite to the attraction of the Logos, and then such an “I” can never attain immortality. Such a Monad can continue to exist for millions of years, even until the next end of the world (Pralaya); but in the end it falls prey to cosmic matter. Its existence is nothing compared to the life of the Logos.^[18]

          Man, personality can be killed; but not the Monad. One gives the Monad a special name so long as it retains the subjective experiences of its owner; but when it is cleansed of everything, it is as it were all over; the Monad is then only a center of energy.^[19]

8. Nirvana.

          Nirvana is entering into the Logos; becoming one with it and consequently no other “annihilation” than the annihilation of self-delusion, which is a deception, but an apparent reality for the earthly personality still caught up in its dream life. It is the awakening of the cosmic all-consciousness in place of the limited special consciousness; the life of man becomes part of the life of the Logos.

          It has been asked whether a Monad entered into the Logos after the end of the great Manvantara can depart and be reborn; but from the point of view of the Logos there is no reincarnation, and the Monad entered into it is now the Logos itself. He does not immerse himself in matter, but sends a ray of himself into it, just as I can send a thought into your brain, and that thought is not myself but part of my aura.^[20] Through the incarnation of a ray of light from the sun of the Logos, the sun itself does not suffer, but the ray suffers. The Logos has an objective existence and can therefore be regarded as a “personal God.” After the Logos comes the unrevealed Parabrahm. Vishnu is the Logos; Brahma the eternal spirit (the world soul).^[21] Each Logos has its own life and consciousness.

9. Yoga and superstition.

What is “Yoga” and what are “Occult Exercises”?

          “Yoga” (from Sanskrit yôg [yog] = to bind) means the union of man with God; i.e., in other words, the realization of the highest, divine-human ideal in man, or what is called in Christianity the entering into Christ, divine humanity. In order to bring about this union, Indian philosophy sets up certain rules as aids, but all of them are completely useless if the main thing is missing, namely the true feeling of the omnipresence of the divine spirit and its influence on the soul of the seeker; for union with the Divine cannot be attained by empty ceremonies, litanies, or empty outward appearances, but only by inward devotion and elevation of the soul to the Divine.

          “Yoga” basically means the same as “religion” (from religere = to tie back) and what binds man back to his divine origins are not externalities, nor the upholding of dogmas, articles of faith or other theories and opinions, but the innate consciousness, resting in the depths of the soul, of the one supernatural origin and of the celestial essence indwelling us, from which spring all higher religious feelings and ideal concepts.

          Since all superficially thinking people only ever see the unessential and consider the secondary to be the main thing, but do not pay any attention to the essential, the disclosure of the “yoga exercises” customary in India also created a new source of error and opened up superstition for the people Westerners. Someone imagines that he can get a view of heavenly paradise by practicing sitting cross-legged on his heels and staring thoughtlessly at a spot on the wall for hours; another thinks that he can attain divine powers by struggling to breathe now through one nostril and now the other; still another seeks to become a mighty superman by grimacing in front of his mirror in order to “practice magnetic sight”; still another has learned certain magic formulas (mantrams) which he is constantly babbles on, and is surly at anyone who disturbs him.

          But why should we cite the numerous follies that spring forth from such wrong conceptions of religious doctrine? Yoga, or union with the Divine, is a supremely simple thing, so little understood because of its great simplicity. Above all, this includes love for the divine with which one would like to unite. One does not associate with something one does not love or is not attracted to. Nor can mortal man, caught up in self-delusion, become one with God. The mortal and the immortal do not mix. The unification takes place only through the fact that the human being is absorbed in the consciousness of God; for thereby he is filled with this.

          Let us take the example of an artist inspired by his love of art: He prepares for his work not in order to create something that he can sell at a high price or to be admired by the crowd, but rather motivated by the urge to present the ideal that he has in mind in an externally visible way. Day and night he thinks about it and more and more the thought of the way of execution takes shape in his mind until he is completely filled with it. The thought of his personality and its advantages or disadvantages no longer affects him; he feels himself more as a tool of the ideal born in him, which demands to be represented by him externally. Now he needs nothing more than the means of execution and the necessary practice and skill. Thinking alone would do him little good, and without the ability to represent correctly, only a caricature would come about.

          It is very similar with the royal art of yoga. Whoever enters fully into the Spirit of God, by surrendering fully to it, is completely filled with it and has nothing else to do but remain still so that his soul may absorb that spirit (consciousness). But once the spirit of God has entered his consciousness and the soul is filled with it, then the human being no longer thinks of his own uniqueness and personality; no longer thinks of his mortal “I” and one could say of him: “He lives, but not he, but God lives in him and works through him.^[22]

          All “occult” or “yoga practices,” therefore, have only the purpose of promoting this stillness, opening the door to the influx of the Holy Spirit, eliminating self-will, purifying the soul of personal lusts and desires and leading it to the Divine. Man cannot unite with the divine man. Where the god-man reveals himself, there the animal-man must disappear. Light does not unite with darkness, knowledge with ignorance; where the light enters, the darkness disappears; by the light of truth the errors born of the night of ignorance are scattered like mist in the light of the sun.

          As the work of the artist consists in bringing the ideal that he has before him into expression through the work of his hands, so the work of the “yogi” consists in creating within himself the conditions for the divine ideal existing in him to take shape in his person and can be realized; Because “the new, inner man is,” as Jakob Böhme says, “not a mere spirit, but he lives in flesh and blood, like the gold in the rock, which is not only spiritual but has a body; not such a body as the rough rock, but a body that stands the test of fire.”^[23] This is the “incorruptible body of the resurrection,” born in the corruptible body, as St. Paul^[24] teaches; and the “indestructible body” mentioned in Patañjali’s “Yoga Philosophy.” After death there is no such transformation, or rebirth and resurrection in the spirit, because the heavenly power-body needs the physical body for its development, just as the plant needs the earth for its growth. Therefore the material body also needs proper preparation and purification; because it should be the vessel, the “holy grail,” worthy and suitable to receive the “blood of the Redeemer,” the spiritual-divine life, the holy spirit.^[25]

          All so-called “occult exercises” are therefore of value only insofar as they serve to enable the body to receive the spirit of wisdom, which is the spiritual-divine life in man. But whoever undertakes such things for selfish purposes closes the door to the spirit of knowledge; for he wraps himself in his self-delusion, which surrounds him like a cloud through which the light of truth cannot penetrate. Every true yoga practice is a “prayer,” but that prayer has nothing to do with personal desires and greedy pleading and begging. Anyone who asks something of God for himself or for others seeks to make God his servant; he puts his own wisdom above God and “worships the creature and not the Creator.”^[26]

          “Prayer” is related to “give.” Anyone who surrenders to the highest, sacrifices his self-delusion. He who renounces his self-delusion no longer has any personal desires; who has nothing to wish for, all his wishes are fulfilled. True prayer is “surrender” to the highest, elevating the soul to where all desires perish. “Selfhood only serves the temporal essence; but serenity rules everything that is beneath it.” (Jakob Böhme.)

          “The robe does not make the monk, and the black coat does not make the cleric.” What use is knowledge without strength, form without spirit? All externals only result in externals. The enlightened one seeks nothing from external gods; he does not present his wishes to any foreign god. His practice consists in the sacrifice of his self-conceit and in his devotion to the divine Master who manifests himself within him, and in merging with that Master he recognizes in himself his own all-encompassing, immortal Self.

10. The Astral Light and the Aura.

Telepathy.

          The Astral light is not to be confused with Akâsha [ākāśa].^[27] Akasa is a much more refined grade of cosmic ether which interconnects the solar systems in cosmic space; it is as limitless as the original cosmic matter. Astral light is a denser kind of cosmic ether; it is what corresponds in a solar system to what we have called the fourth principle in man (astral soul). It is a substance of a far more ethereal nature than any known in physics. Perhaps the consideration of “radiant matter” (radium) could give us an idea of it.

          Although it is present everywhere in space, yet it is of greater density around certain objects, owing to their molecular action, especially around the brain and spinal cord of humans. This aura, which surrounds the nerve cells and channels, enables man to receive and absorb impressions from the cosmic astral light. If there were no binding agent in space that is suitable for serving as a (spiritual) conduit between different people, no transmission of thoughts between them would be possible. In addition, an Adept can perceive the astral light directly.

          In children whose aura is inactive because they are not yet working independently spiritually, this aura is milky-white in color; but in adult persons other colors, green, red, blue, and the like, are always present in addition to this basic tone; according to the constitution of the intellectual, moral and spiritual constitution of the organism.^[28] When there are colors in the aura of one which do not harmonize with those of the other, there is a repulsion of telepathy, but when there is mutual harmony and the mind is passive, such a mental association between persons can be of any kind distance take place.^[29]

          Also, with every thought there is an accompanying phenomenon of a physical process which can be described as a change in the nerve fluid, and there is also an intimate connection between the actual nerve fluid and the aura surrounding it. The aura surrounding it has its own molecular constitution, just as the aura of every other object in nature has its peculiar constitution. This aura is called the “odic radiation” of man. All auras have their basis in the magnetic fluid of the cosmos and are therefore related to it. Every thought produces an effect on the nerve currents of the brain and nerves. This stimulates vibrations which are communicated to the astral fluid with which they are in contact. These vibrations act on the odic aura surrounding the thinker’s brain and are transmitted to the brain of the recipient. The vibration creates a certain kind of movement in its aura and nerve fluid and is thereby transmitted to the brain. If the will is not strong enough to direct the vibration in the astral fluid in a certain direction, physical contact is sometimes necessary. If then there is a certain magnetic sympathy between the two persons, or at least if there are no disturbing repulsive forces, the thought of one is transmitted to the other through the similarity of the movement produced; for when the same movement takes place in both brains, it has the same effect in both. If a certain movement of the nervous fluid represents a certain idea in the mind of one, the same movement represents the same picture in the mind of the other.^[30]

11. Mental influences.

          Akâsha [ākāśa] (as noted above) is uniformly present throughout space, but the astral light is confined to certain objects to which it is attached. One can think of Akâsha as “free,” the astral light as “bound ether.” Wherever there is sensitive organic activity, the astral light accumulates and is condensed and concentrated there. (Therefore also every thing, from a planet to an atom, every country, every city, every being has its particular aura which is perceived by sensitive people.) The odic aura is more closely related to mental impressions than the physical brain. If, I for example, if you imagine a circle, the image of a circle can arise through transference in the odic aura of a sensitive person. All mental conceptions or ideas have their prototypes in the astral light and these bear a great resemblance to the images that then arise in the brain; but the intervening and mediating nerve current does not itself contain this picture. Let’s take, for example, that a distant friend is dying and is thinking of us vividly, telepathy gives us a more or less clear picture of that person. Sometimes, however, the nerve current produced produces only an expression of feeling without a clear picture; then in this case we would only have the vague feeling (intuition) that everything is not in the usual order with our friend.

          It also happens that some particular event is preparing and presenting itself in the astral before it takes its effect on the physical plane, and that one has premonitions or visions of such future events. In such cases, as a rule, an elemental is involved; while in ordinary telepathy there is no need of such mediations.^[31]

          Allegorical visions, dreams, and apparitions often arise through the context of related ideas, such as, for example, the idea of death can bring to mind a skeleton or a coffin. Any idea can conjure up another related idea and create a dramatic display.^[32]

          It can happen that when a person is in danger of death or dying, his feelings and thoughts work far away and produce there, as it were, photographic representations in the aura of others, while his thought brings with it his own odic aura and its impressions. In such cases it is not the astral body of the subject that appears, but the energy produced in thought-transmission that carries with it a portion of the odic aura and the images it contains.

A Mr. Erwell was one day visiting a Mr. and Mrs. White, who lived in an old farmhouse. Mr. Erwell’s visit was drawing to a close, for the next day the man was leaving his good old friends.

The evening before his departure, Mr. Erwell was sitting alone with Mr. White’s old mother in front of the hearth, where a bright fire was burning.

Suddenly the fire went quite dark, as if smothered by smoky smoke. “For God’s sake!” cried old Mrs. White, pointing in horror to the hearth, where suddenly the figure of a young man appeared like a shadow, carrying a hammer in his right hand and a light in the other. “It’s Tom,” whispered the old woman, who recognized in the apparition the figure of her younger son, who was serving on the engine of a warship. The figure walked around the hearth as if in a closed room, shining its light everywhere, along the imaginary walls, and suddenly began to hammer. Mr. Erwell heard quite distinctly a metallic sound, as if someone was banging on the side of a kettle. Suddenly Tom stood up and went to the back of the stove as if he were looking for the exit; but — the wall was locked! With an expression of the greatest terror, Tom hammered on the wall! In vain! Suddenly his face twisted in the greatest despair. The flame of the candle grew smaller and smaller and paler, and Tom gasped for breath. At the same time, however, water was rising higher and higher from below. Once more Tom rushed towards the exit, then sank down, and at the same moment the flame flickered as brightly as before.

“What can this mean?” cried Mr. Erwell, turning to old Fran. But she sat there pale and rigid, with glazed eyes. She was dead.

But the really wonderful thing is only now. A month later, Mr. George White received news that his younger brother, serving on Her Majesty’s warship “K.”, had been ordered to clear scale from one of the ship’s boilers. As the first engineer passed by shortly afterwards, he closed the hatch and—Tom’s fate was sealed. He met his death, which Mr. Erwell and Mrs. White had witnessed that evening in the apparition.

          When the thought is transmitted, the image is also transmitted. From a merely spiritual (mental) subjective conception to an objective appearance, there are a multitude of degrees or gradations of vibrations which produce such images, which propagate in the ether with the rapidity of thought.^[33] An Adept or psychic could see this.

          It is common for elemental beings to be involved in the generation or transmission of thought images.

Such a case is, for example, the following:

When the Reverend Mr. Carter heard that the parish to which he had been transferred was bewitched, he and his wife laughed not a little. But one day, months after he entered the parish, while he was busy preparing his sermon, he was disturbed by the rustling of a silk dress. Astonished, he looked up and saw a lady in a strangely old-fashioned suit of blue silk. At the same moment she raised her head and he saw that the lady’s throat had been severed.

Of course, Mr. Carter said nothing of his experience, for why should he disturb his wife’s rest unnecessarily? Before he got up and left the room, however, he made as precise a drawing as possible of the apparition.

A few days later, however, Mrs. Μ. Carter saw the picture, and explained that she had seen this lady enter his study on the day in question. “Who is this?”

“That’s our ghost,” he said, smiling, and since Mrs. Μ. Carter was a brave little woman, so she smiled along.

But both of them stopped laughing very much when one evening their children rushed into the room screaming and shrieking: “A lady killed her young lady; upstairs the young lady is dead now!”

Luckily things weren’t like that. The nursemaid had only fainted when the lady with the severed throat appeared. When she regained consciousness, she and the children immediately recognized the terrible blue lady in the father’s drawing.

          As a rule, the larva (astral corpse) of a deceased is led here and there, depending on the currents into which it falls, but in individual cases it is instinctively drawn to where the dying man’s thoughts were directed. Then, if the person on whom it seeks to act is not sufficiently sensitive or mediumistic, the larva may act on another, more sensitive person in the audience who receives the impression in their odic aura. Such an impression can also last for a long time and therefore the apparition can take place repeatedly.

In an old house in Scotland the owner of the house died, whose spirit haunted the house long afterwards. Many members of the family had already seen him, only the daughter of the house had never seen him. One day, as she was climbing the stairs, accompanied by two shepherd dogs, she saw him going into his former library room. She was in no way frightened by the apparition, but the dogs ran away howling and no shouting could bring them closer. Now the girl went alone into the room into which her father’s spirit had entered, but there was nothing to be seen. The ghost was gone. From that day on, however, the dogs could not be persuaded with beatings to ever go into the library again.

*

One of our most famous actors recounts the following incident from his youth:

*

It was the first night in a new school. He had a little room all to himself. An attic room with a transom. He had fallen asleep. Firmly. Suddenly he awoke from his sleep and was horrified to see the figure of a boy hanging from the roof beam. At first he was paralyzed by the shock. Then it occurred to him that this might be a nasty joke from his new schoolmates, and to prove his courage he took his pillow and threw it at the figure. It spun around from the impact of the rope, and the future actor saw a deathly pale face with bulging eyes and a lolling tongue. He screamed loudly. And in the same instant the ghost disappeared.

The next morning our pupil lay with a violent fever and fantasized about nothing but the hanging boy.

Cornered, the head of the institute had to admit that eight months ago a student had hanged himself in the attic room, an incident which he had happily hushed up until then.

      A ship’s doctor, who now occupies one of the highest positions in our army, suddenly received telegraphic orders to take the post of port doctor. He immediately packed his and his wife’s belongings, traveled to his destination and moved into the natural apartment formerly occupied by his predecessor.

While he hurried to his supervisor’s introduction, the woman unpacked her suitcase.

Suddenly she saw a man in the next room standing in shirt sleeves in front of the mirror and trying to cut his own throat. Before he was able to complete his deed, she cried out loudly in terror, and at the same moment the man disappeared without a trace from the room, from which there was no exit of his own.

You can imagine her shock when she was assured that it must have been the former port doctor who committed suicide four days ago in the manner described.

          Also, a living man may unknowingly appear to another or produce spooky phenomena while his material body is asleep. The inner (astral) man has his own states of consciousness, of which the outer (physical) man knows nothing, and he can act independently, even if perhaps dreamily and unreasonably. Yes, it can happen that the physical man dreams things that the astral man actually carries out.^[34]

          On the other hand, a persons’ will can give the spirit a direction before falling asleep, whereby an odic current is directed to a certain place, or the astral body is caused to move there while the outer human being is asleep. This happens by stimulating a certain flow of nerve ether in the brain. The impulse given during wakefulness continues to have a mechanical effect after falling asleep. If for example, a person before going to sleep decides to appear to another and falls asleep with this thought, the will leads him there and it is possible that he will appear to the other, whether in a dream or while awake, if he himself even when he wakes up, he may not know anything about it, because his physical brain is not yet refined enough to absorb or retain the impressions which the astral man has experienced.^[35]

          The fact that the will and thought can give the astral currents a certain direction before falling asleep and that this current is then all the more effective during sleep as the disturbances that otherwise occur while awake through other thinking are now excluded, can also be used for one’s own good as one can use it to influence oneself and break bad habits. If for example, a smoker makes a firm resolution before going to sleep not to smoke any more, this decision, which continues to have an effect during sleep, will make it much easier for him to give up this habit, since he thereby “suggests” to himself, so to speak.

(Sequel follows.)

[Begin: [3] Confidential Communications from the Province of the Tibetan Master [Vertrauliche Mitteilungen aus den Kreisen der tibetanischen Meister. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 3, no. 1-2 (January-February 1910), 5-27]

12. Answer to Questions:^[36]

What is the name of the head of the spiritual hierarchy on this earth, and where is their seat?

          The actual name of this chief is kept secret. Call him the Maha-Chohan [Mahā Chohan]. The seat of the spiritual Hierarchy on this globe is in Shambala [Śambhala, Sambhala], in the middle of the Gobi Desert, which stretches from Irkutzk Governorate^[37] to where the Altai Mountains intersect the Kuen Lun^[38] and Himalayas. It covers approximately 600,000 square miles. In the middle are the “heavenly mountains.” The place was anciently an island in the sea where the Gobian desert is now, and is very beautiful.^[39] He and the whole area are guarded by elementals and is therefore inaccessible.^[40] The sands of the desert are often moved by the winds like sea waves; it is salty, and it is very cold there. Formerly there was the seat of the supreme civilization of the first sub-race of the [Aryan] fifth race.^[41] Gold and silver objects and jewelry are still often found there today; but the border-dwellers have a superstitious fear of these finds, and dare not touch them.

          The Maha-Chohan appears once a year, on February 11th, in Shigadze [Tibet, the former seat of the Tashi-lama], the place where [some of] our Masters reside and the Adepts associated with him . . . He has a physical body; but it is made of finer stuff; it can penetrate gross things and take any form.

Annotation [by Dr. Hartmann]. It is doubtful, whether the time is ripe for talking about such things, and everyone must be free to believe what he wants or can. In Blavatsky’s “Secret Doctrine” Vol. I, page 228 [Third Edition] more is said about this mysterious being, the head of the spiritual hierarchy of this earth. “He varies in appearance; but remains consistently the same. He has spiritual power over the initiated adepts of the whole world.” He is the “nameless” one who has many names, and whose names and beings are unknown. . . He sacrificed himself for humanity and becomes “the great called sacrifice.” The “Secret Doctrine” also speaks of the “sacred island” Shambalah [Śambhala] (Vol. II. 333 and 418); but it must be left to the explorers to discover whether Shambala exists on the physical plane or perhaps in the higher world. (The Secret Doctrine. Vol. II., page 388 [First Edition] and Vol. III., page 405 [Third Edition])

The Essence of the Sun.

          The substance of the sun is Fohat and it is supplied with Fohat by the Dhyan Chohans [dhyān chohans^[42]]. These rest during Solar Pralaya. Fohat works through the Astral Light.

Annotation [by Dr. Hartmann]. There is no name for “Fohat” in German. Maybe you could call it “life-electricity.” The sun is the gathering point and also the source of light and life force; the generating principle in nature. The “Dhyan Chohans” are the “Lords of Light”; Called “Archangel” by the Catholic Church. They are the divine intelligences which oversee what is happening in the cosmos. Everything in nature is a revelation of spirit and life and so also is the sun. The sun is visible to us as the visible body, the luminous robe of its invisible essence; it is, as it were, the seat of the deity that governs our planetary [solar] system; like other beings, it has its physical, astral and spiritual regions. The mystics of the Middle Ages also knew that every sun, every planet has its “angel”; it is therefore basically a spiritual being from which spiritual vibrations and astral influences emanate, the knowledge of which is based on the science of astrology. The spirit sun of the universe is Deity; the visible sun is its symbol and its tabernacle. (Psalm XIX. 5 [4])

Satan.

          There is no personal evil or sixth principle personified, rather the word “Satan” designates the spiritual hierarchy of the Dhyan Chohans of evil (“black magic”). These do not go after [into] the eighth sphere. The purpose of their existence is that they suffer. They keep generating evil thoughts. The spiritual power that sustains them eventually exhausts itself and they perish before the beginning of pralaya. (Compare “Revelation” XX, 10.)

Annotation [by Dr. Hartmann]. Certainly there are enough devilish beings in this world and in the supernatural world which one could call personified devils and of whom, for example, the history of the Roman emperors (Tiberius, Caligula, Nero etc.) provides examples; but no personal supreme regent corresponding to the ideas of medieval theology. “Diabolus est Deus inversus” [The devil is divinity inverted]; the devil, evil is the opposite of God, the source of evil. This finds its expression in black magic; i.e., by the misuse of spiritual (magical) powers for devilish ends. A “devil” is described as one who does evil out of love for evil, because it identifies with the principle of evil. “Good” is what elevates man; “evil” is what demeans him. The power of evil strives downward; i.e. for sensuality and existence in the material; the power of good leads through spiritualization to spirit. God is selfless love, egoism is its opposite and hatred is its product. These three principles find their embodiments or personifications in spirit and material beings; and as there are hierarchies of forces of good, so to are there hierarchies of evil or “black magic.”

A man can become immortal in good; but also, so to speak, in evil. In a devilish, wicked man, as it were, a ray of the divine spirit is caught in the lower principles and chained to the material (like Prometheus), and keeps them alive. Therefore there are Dhyan Chohans or “angels of evil” whose forms cannot decay until the end of the world. (Pralaya). They are not souls doomed to “eternal damnation” by some immortal god, but the cause of their torment lies in the nature they have created for themselves. (Matthew IX, verse 45).

The “Eighth Sphere.”

          A globe outside of this earth. It is a material globe or planet that moves around the earth. It doesn’t reflect light, so we can’t see it. The eighth sphere relates to the cabalistic “dark fire.” In the eighth sphere the decomposition or dissolution (of the individual) takes place in the cosmos (chaos). Then the spiritual Monad must begin its ascent again at the lowest stage (of evolution).

Annotation [by Dr. Hartmann]. The adepts are very reluctant to talk about the “eighth sphere,” evidently because the horrors of that state, which is somewhat equivalent to the concept of “hell,” do not lend themselves to the consideration of superficial people; inasmuch as harmful thought-forms would arise therefrom and would attract similar influences from that sphere. The “eighth sphere” is the state of passive badness or ungodliness; while in “black magic” there is active malice. The eighth sphere is the abode of those “rejected” souls who have broken away from their divine-spiritual principle (Ātma Buddhi) and in which only the lower intellect and animal desires rule. These are not immortal and tend to decay. It is therefore said to be the abode of monsters of the most varied kind, since every vice finds its expression in a form corresponding to it in the astral. Also, the inhabitants and objects of the eighth sphere will appear to them as material as our world does to us. “Material” is a relative term, and what is invisible to the denizens of our world may be highly visible, tangible, and material to those of another world.

Since every world has its ruling center, for example, if the realm of light is the visible sun, it is also to be assumed that the “eighth” dark sphere, the realm of the godless and lightless, has its center or gathering point from which its influences radiate. The Egyptians imagined the seat of the infernal regions to be on the dark side of the moon, never illuminated by the sun. (Secret Doctrine Vol. I, p. 248). She is the symbol of the human mind abandoned by the light of divine wisdom, which is subjected to the desires of egoism. Certain indications in the writings of the Christian mystics (figures in Jakob Böhme’s works and the like) seem to confirm this view. The moon is, as the “Secret Doctrine” says, a dead planet, the astral corpse of the mother of our earth, from whose decaying components our earth receives harmful influences (which can excite the imagination and produce madness).

But as for the spiritual Monad, having been stripped of all human qualities, it must return to its origin in order to begin anew the path of evolution and incarnation.

Spiritualization in Evil.

          This state occurs only after a series of incarnations that have served a bad way of life. Evil deeds loosen the connection between the human and the divine (between the 6th and 7th principles). The personality of an ungodly man is attracted to the eighth sphere, but not the spiritual Monad.

Annotation [by Dr. Hartmann]. No human being will become perfect in either good or evil without previous experiences in a single lifetime on earth. Also, becoming a total devil takes practice; this involves the soul being permeated by the spirit of wickedness and vice. An ordinary bad man does not act of his own free will; he is a passive victim of his desires, but the “black magician” acts freely and with full awareness. He commits the “sin against the Holy Spirit” of the self-knowledge of good, which cannot be forgiven (i.e., cast off) in this or any subsequent incarnation. (Mark III verse 29).^[43] The forces of evil that have become dominant parts of his being are reborn with him and he comes into the world as a born magician.

Devachan or the Heavenly World.

          The location of the same is far from the earth’s atmosphere. Some of these skies are near the Pleiades where there are no disturbing magnetic currents.

Annotation [by Dr. Hartmann]. “Devachan” is a heavenly state of the soul, into which every human being can already enter during life on earth (Luke XVII, verse 21), but that does not mean that there is not also a special place in the universe where the souls of good people, after they have left the earthly body, enjoying a blissful and luminous rest; until they have strengthened themselves sufficiently to be able to enter earthly life again. Animal souls have no devachan.

Duration of the Transitional State from Kāma Loka to Devachan.

          The duration of this depends on the intensity of thinking and feeling. The stronger the (heavenly) thought is, the sooner it becomes effective.

Annotation [by Dr. Hartmann]. The soul, not yet liberated from all earthly attractions, soon after leaving the physical body, enters a state of purification and shedding of earthly desires, bad memories and ideas which bind it to earth life; i.e., she is in her desire body (Kāma rūpa) in Kama loca [kāma loka], the sphere of desires. Then follows a dreamlike state (the “second death”), in which she has forgotten the earthly, but has not yet awakened to heavenly life (Devachan). This awakening occurs sooner or later, depending on how powerful the longing for this higher existence is in the soul. A perfect Saint does not need this transition.

Sleep.

          As a rule, during ordinary sleep there is no separation of principles. The astral body [The etheric] leaves the material body only when it is attracted to another place.

Annotation [by Dr. Hartmann]. In a normal, healthy human being, all principles are intimately combined into one organism; in “mediums,” hysterical or nervous persons, a partial separation of the etheric body from the physical often takes place. That the “astral body” or “dream body” [etheric body] is sometimes withdrawn from the material and attracted to other places is attested by numerous instances in the history of Spiritism. For while man is asleep the spirit withdraws within himself, and consequently the dream body as a rule has no reasoning ability, his actions are also often very unreasonable, but a more highly developed man controls his astral body by reason even during sleep. Appearances of living persons at a distance are usually only thought-forms produced by the distant effect of thought.^[44]

          To get an idea of the difference between the various coverings which clothe the human soul, we can compare man to a harp: the physical body consists of denser vibrations of substance, comparable to the lower notes of the lower octave; then follows the higher octave of the finer vibrations of the etheric body; then the thought body and finally the mind. The desires and instincts are tied to the material; thought can wander into the distance; the spirit is everywhere. Thought clings to objects, love embraces everything in one. Through the power of love, the soul moves where it wants and is connected to other souls through it.

Hallucinations.

          In the visions produced by the consumption of hashish, drunkenness, etc., the objects seen are not really, objectively present, but are in a trance state; for then such things can be perceived in the astral light.

Annotation [by Dr. Hartmann]. How phantasmagoria arise is still a yet to be researched matter, but we know that, according to the well-known law of induction, certain vibrations in one body can produce vibrations in other similar bodies. Also, every thing is the expression of a thought and as such has its own character. A poison brought into the human organism produces certain vibrations similar to the properties of the introduced substance, which reach consciousness as certain emotional states and result in certain ideas. A man in a state of drunken insanity finds himself surrounded by worms, insects, and the like; another, bitten by a mad dog, barks and bites like a dog; every kind of poison produces certain stimuli on the nervous system and corresponding states of consciousness and sensations in the body, which, however, can vary according to the nature of the person concerned, e.g., when intoxicated with chloroform, one person laughs and another cries, one person becomes angry, another sentimental, talkative, and the like. If the external sensory impressions are suppressed as a result of anesthesia, then an activity of the inner senses can occur, whereby things which exist in the astral light can be perceived, but such a dreamlike perception is not to be confused with self-conscious clairvoyance.

Sexual intercourse between humans and spirits.

          Such intercourse is possible, but no reproduction [of children] takes place.

Annotation [by Dr. Hartmann]. A discussion of this question would lead us into the dark territory of vampyrism, the incubi and succubi. (See J. W. von Goethe “The Bride of Corinth”).^[45] Anyone who has become acquainted with the so-called “materializations of spirits” will not be in doubt about such possibilities. There are such incarnations of astral beings, elemental beings and ghosts that are tangible but not visible, others that are visible but not tangible, and others again, which are both visible and tangible, and during their incarnation just like living human beings. Sexual intercourse with such mindless “spirits” produces monstrous thought-forms, of which one can read about in the writings of Theophrastus Paracelsus.

Question. What are the different types of knowledge?^[46]

Answer. There are two types. Real knowledge (Dgyii)^[47] arises from true self-knowledge and relates to eternal truths and true causes; it does not depend on belief, conceit, opinion, delusion or inference. When it comes into effect, it becomes Fohat.^[48] The non-real knowledge (Dgyii-mi)^[49] refers to the illusions of the external world or is based on belief in authority.

Annotation [by Dr. Hartmann]. True knowledge (Tibetan.: Dgyii)^[50] is the revelation of the light of truth, the inward enlightenment by the Holy Spirit of Self-knowledge of the Eternal and the root cause of all things. Fohat (the active energy of the will) is a spiritual and magical force that arises from this enlightenment; the generating principle in nature, the essence of cosmic “electricity” or life force. (Certain Tibetan terms are untranslatable.)

Question. Who possesses true self-knowledge?

          Answer. The Lha or Adept, because his mind is in accord with the Infinite Mind in its fullness, and during his meditation he is in the realm of perfect knowledge of the laws of mind in nature. The unenlightened cannot be a Dang-ma^[51] (enlightened soul); for he lacks the power of perceiving the origin (Chagy)^[52] of things. By knowing the reason from a beginning, the effect also becomes evident. The occult (spiritual) world comprises all first beginnings, and everything in it comes into being through the cooperation of two causes or principles, viz., cosmic energy (fohat) and cosmic idea (Thyan-Kam),^[53] the intelligence which fohat appropriately employs. Everything that finally appears on earth or in space is contained in the astral light as a principle (Ens-beginning) and has its origin in it.^[54]

Question. What is the one permanent element?

          Answer. Space, and in it, duration, “substance” and movement (life). Motion is the imperishable life of matter (whether conscious or unconscious) even during the “Night of Creation” (Pralaya).^[55] Though chyang^[56] (omniscience) and Chyang-mi^[57]-shi-khan (ignorance) are dormant, this life-principle keeps the stuff it fills in constant motion. Bar-Nang^[58] (Akâsha [ākāśa] cosmic ether),^[59] surrounds and permeates matter and is the means by which the cosmic energy acts upon it. The World Spirit is the aggregate of all the intelligences of the Dhyan Chohans (Planetary Angels).

Annotation [by Dr. Hartmann]. “God is space.”—That which physicists find as only the world of visible causes and effects is just an abyss of nothing (a bottomless depth), is for the wise, infinite space as the fullness of divinity.” (“The Secret Doctrine.” VI, p. 172.) Gott is eternal, but the worlds have a beginning and an end. (Cf. Ephesians. IV. 6.) — “Matter” in the Metaphysical sense is not to be understood as “gross matter,” “heaven (the kingdom of truth) is the throne of God, the earth (the universe) is his body.” There is no place in space that is not full of God’s omnipresence, although we do not recognize it as long as we are spiritually blind and callous. “In him and through him we live, move, and have our existence.” (Acts XVII. 28.)

13. The seven principles of the constitution of man^[60]:

          The following are the names of the seven “principles” or constituents of which man is formed in physical, mental, and spiritual relationships:

          I.^[61] A-ku [R.H.—Correct word: sKu] (Tibetan.)^[62] — or Rupa^[63] (Sanskrit). — Man’s visible form, his material body is composed of the four “elements” “earth” (matter), water, air (gases), and “fire” (energy), decays again and therefore becomes the corruptible elemental body.^[64] The external sense organs belong to it.

II. Ter [R.H.—Correct Tibetan word: Zer] (Tibetan.)^[65] or Prana [R.H.—prāṇa] (Sanskrit). Life energy. As the earth receives it. If it receives heat from the sun, it also receives its life force from the life energy present throughout space, the source of which is the sun.

III. Chhu-lung (Tibetan.)^[66]— Linga sharira. (Sanskrit). [R.H.—liṅga śarīra]. The etheric or “astral body” made up of the “fifth element,” etheric matter. It is the etheric image of the material body and the “model” on which it [the physical] is built. Man can separate himself from the material body under certain circumstances and is known as the “double” of the material body.

IV. Nga-Thi [Sinnett has Nga-Zhi] (Tibetan)^[67] — Kama [kāma] (Sanskrit). — The Element of Will. Kama-rupa [kāma-rūpa], the form arising from [lower] will or desire, the seat of instincts and passions.

V. Ngi (Tibetan) — Manas (Sanskrit). — The human soul, the seat of the mind and intellect and logical thinking.^[68]  

VI. Lana [Lana. Sem-Nyed] [Dr. Hartmann did not finish all the words. see my endnote for the Tibetan words.^[69] — Buddhi (Sanskrit), the heavenly soul, the seat of spiritual vision and true knowledge, and the source of intuition. It belongs to the immortal part of man.^[70]

          VII. Illiin-dhiib^[71]—Atma^[72] (Sanskrit). Spirit. — The universal spirit that can attain revelation in man.

14. The seven principles in the constitution of the universe.^[73]

 I. Sam-chan [Sem-Chan^[74]] (Tibetan.) — Prakriti [prakṛti^[75]] (Sanskrit). Nature. Organized matter; the living universe.

II. Thima [Zhihna^[76]] (Tibetan.) — Purush^[77] (Sanskrit). Spirit. The all-enlivening world soul.

III. Yor-wa (Tibetan) [Illusion]^[78] — [Māyā] Akâsa (Sanskrit).^[79] “Astral Ether” or cosmic “ether”. A spiritual essence that spreads through the cosmos and is not to be confused with the material ether, which mediates the light vibrations, but is the soul of it, so to speak.

IV. Od (Tibetan.)^[80] — Vach (Sanskrit).^[81] The cosmic will, which is the formative element in every period of creation (Manvantara).

V. Nam-kha (Tibetan.)^[82] — Maja [māyā ^[83]] (Sanskrit). The cosmic “illusion” (imagination). The types of all things that will come into being exist as ideas in the eternal spirit.

VI. Kan-Chagg [Kon Chhog]^[84] (Tibetan) — Naragam (Sanskrit).^[85] The eternal world spirit. The spirit of God, who “floated over the waters” and is reflected in the universe.

VII. Nyng (Tibetan.)^[86] — Swayambhuva^[87] (Sanskrit). Eternity or space.

15. Life-force (Thima^[88]) and growth.

          The life force works in cosmic matter just as it does in man. Thima^[89] is positive and Sam Cham [sems chan]^[90] (astral light) or Thi-gya [Zhi-gyu] (gya = matter on this earth) is negative. When these two come into contact, or the former acts on the latter, living, self-acting bodies are created. We believe in direct generation (spontaneous generation). The invisible (the spirit of the thing) is positive; the visible (matter) becomes negative when it comes into contact with it. The non-manifest is the real, the manifest is appearance (māyā). The temporal is the product of energy, the effect becomes cause again. What descended rises again. During Pralaya, the ascending and descending streams of life stand still; polarity disappears, equilibrium sets in and in endless space everything rests in the night of the spirit, in non-existence.^[91]

16. “Matter.”

          Cosmic matter cannot be less molecular than organized matter. The seventh principle (Nyng) [R.H.— See endnote for སྙུགས་ snyugs] is just as molecular as the other principles, but it differs from them in that its molecules not only become more and more distant from each other and finer, but also lose their polarity. Seek to grasp this (intuitively), and the understanding of the rest will not be difficult. The panspermic and theospermic theories of the schools (omnium vivum ex ove)^[92] are in the way of your understanding. You will not find them foolish unless you understand the continuous interaction of spirit and matter. Thima [Zhi-ma] [R.H.—See endnote on this term] (vital force) cannot be pumped out of a glass like air, and where Purush (world spirit) is, there is no degree of heat that can prevent the formation of organic life. Motion, cosmic matter, duration and space are inseparable and present everywhere, and therefore new forms can arise anywhere even without pre-existing germs.^[93]

17. Eternal and temporal.

          The Absolute, Unconditioned, Infinite consists in the Conditioned and Finite. The endless accumulation and totality of the one produces the other. Causes are limited in their mode of action and in their properties and individual character, but as a total they are unconditioned and eternal.

          Passive, bound intelligence, or that principle which is spread throughout the entire universe and which in its pure immateriality is ignorance and unconsciousness, becomes intelligence and consciousness by combining with matter and thus active. The sum of all intelligences in our solar system is the intelligence of our world. The highest intelligences know nothing of an extra-worldly God. As far as they can still see, the apparent universe is limitless, infinite.

                   Our philosophy deals only with what is already known and what can still be known. Even the highest planetary gods (Dhyan Chohans) cannot find anything extraordinary. They have explored the universe for millions of years and have found no limits to it. Nothing in the world is governed by an extra-worldly impulse; every thing has the power of its life in itself, and it is useless to look for an extra-worldly ruler who, even if there were one, plays no conceivable role in our world. The philosophy of knowledge is influenced by monarchical ideas; ours is democratic. You need a king to rule the world; for us it is a republic in which the wisdom accumulated in it reigns.^[94]

18. The Builders of the Universe.

Gyn-thog [Gyu-thog] is the phenomenal world, the rhetorical term is Aja-Sakti.^[95] Viswam-Zigten-jas (from Zigten = living world and jas = to make) means “world origin doctrine”.^[96] Chh-Zab^[97] the creation. The builders of our world are the Dhyan Chohan or planetary spirits (the Elohim of the Bible). We can imagine the original universe as a limitless space filled with an infinite, uniform mass of molecules in which movement, the latent, unconscious life, is contained. Viewed in this way it appears as chaos. It is a unified whole; and in its various aspects it presents itself as space (Chog and Thog) in relation to its infinite extension and as eternity (Nyng)^[98] in relation to its endless duration; as cosmic matter (Thi-gyn) in relation to its molecules and as cosmic energy (Khorwa)^[99] in relation to its all-pervading movement. These four aspects must not be regarded as four elements which together form a whole, but as four properties of a single whole, just as, for example, on our earth a thing can be warm, luminous, heavy and in motion at the same time. This chaos does not exist for you, but throughout the whole there are distributed life centers capable of development (from which the sun, planets, etc. arise), and when life begins to act at any such point, these parts of the whole appear as individual bodies and the general uniformity is at an end. This differentiation is based on molecular attraction and change of polarity.

(Sequel follows.)

[Begin: [4] Confidential Communications from the Province of the Tibetan Master [Vertrauliche Mitteilungen aus den Kreisen der tibetanischen Meister. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 3, no. 3-4 (March-April 1910), 83-96]

Confidential communications from the circles of the Tibetan masters.

With notes.

(Continued.)

20. Activity and Stillness in the Universe.^[100]

          Periodic alternation of activity and passivity is a general law of nature. Man as a microcosm has his alternation of waking and sleeping, and the same is true of the life of the earth, the solar system and finally of the whole universe, which also has its “days” and “nights” of inconceivably long duration. Details of this are known even to the highest intelligences in our world only by analogy; for if the whole universe is asleep (Pralaya), who would know anything?

          When the night of our solar system (Pralaya of the Indians and Mahā-Bardo of the Tibetans) begins, all forms of appearance dissolve and everything returns to the original, unrevealed state of space filled with atoms in motion. But the substance that these atoms represent, whether organized or not organized, subjective or objective, is eternal and indestructible and the motion is the imperishable life, whether conscious or unconscious. This life keeps the molecules in which it resides in constant motion even during the “night of creation,” when everything else is at rest, when all other forces are no longer active, when Chijang (omniscience) and Chijang-mi-shi (ignorance) are asleep; but the solar system itself remains invisible to the perception of the highest intelligences of other worlds during the Pralaya and prepares itself for a new manifestation, similar to how nature lies asleep in winter and gathers fresh strength in order to awaken with renewed beauty in spring.^[101]

21. “Immortality.”

          The essence of everything is eternal. Nothing is created and nothing is destroyed. Forms and organisms are (in themselves) only phenomena, they come and go. They develop according to the natural law inherent in them; every thing has within itself, as it were, a part of the omnipresent Deity (which is life and consciousness in everything), and nowhere is there a sign of a creator of the world existing outside the world. There is no arbitrariness, only the law inherent in everything that exists.

          When the period of rest [pralaya] in the Unmanifest is over and the solar system awakens to a new existence and becomes manifest, everything is again as it was when it ceased to be; the centre of evolution (the Logos) again becomes active and the stream of life begins to flow. The builders of the world (Dhyan Chohans), who at the onset of night stopped their work and went to rest, find on awakening everything as they left it. In the Unmanifest is contained the Manifest and comes to light again. Call it motion, cosmic matter, duration or space, for it is all these and yet only one; it is both the manifest and the unmanifest universe and there is nothing foreign in it. But as soon as it passes from the passive state (non-existence) into the active state (existence), the wheel of life turns again; polarisation and differentiation take place; the evolution of forms begins anew at the level they reached in their previous existence, in order to bring them to a still higher development, and what has been achieved today becomes the basis for building tomorrow. But we must not forget that the unmanifest (non-being) is the eternal and real, the manifest (being) the transitory; for even if the manifest exists for a long time (depending on the impulse it has received), it returns to the unmanifest, and being to non-being.^[102]

22. Nirvana and the seven principles.

          The highest state of Nirvana is the highest state of non-existence. There comes a time when the whole infinite universe rests and everything disappears again into the whole uncreated Eternity, which is the sum of all the forces then bound. The differentiation of the original element is, as we have said, the basis of the manifest universe, and we must now consider the seven principles which form and govern the universe; that is, the seven different states in which this one element exists in it.

          There is no original and limited plan of the world, but Kyan,^[103] i.e. a cause that has arisen from a first cause. This first cause is eternally not revealed in the one indivisible “atom” or center that is everywhere and yet nowhere, and whose name is the highest secret that cannot be communicated. I can therefore only give you the six names of the six principles of our solar system.

          Describe the seventh as nameless. — A Danze (Brahmin) would not even reveal the name of the crown of Akāsa [Ākāśa], but at most speak of the six primal forces in nature, which the astral light represents. —

22. Avaloketiswara. [Avalokiteśvara^[104]]

          “Avaloketiswara” [Avalokiteśvara]^[105] means “the Lord who looks down”, the divine, spiritually perceptible self; “Iswar” [īśvara] is the divine spirit (Jesus) manifested in man; “Avaloki,” the “spectator,” the self-existent, the deity; while “Padmapani” [padmapāṇi] means the higher self, the higher manas, the ego. The formula “Om mani padme hum”^[106] is an invocation of the higher self.

          Iswara [īśvara] is thus the Deity, the divine Self, which is perceived by the personal ego when the attention of contemplation is concentrated towards Buddhi, the sixth principle, which, however, only happens in the highest state of Samadhi (inner contemplation).

          In another aspect, Avaloketiswara [Avalokiteśvara] means the seventh, universal principle (Atma) [ātmā] as the object of perception of the general sixth principle (Buddhi or intelligence), which is the sum of all intelligences in the universe. Avaloketiswara is thus on the one hand (in the macrocosm) the general spirit of God in the temple of nature and on the other hand (in the microcosm) the seventh principle, the Atman [ātmān] in the sanctuary in the heart of man. (“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? He ye are.”) St. Paul. I, Corinthians, ΙII, 16.)

          It is the Father manifested in the Son, and the Son manifested, one with the Father and proceeding from Him; namely, Parabrahman and Jivatma [jīvātmā], the universal and individualized seventh principle, the passive principle (the Godhead), and the same as the active principle, the Word (Logos or Swara [svara]), the real Christ or mystic Voice; while the “historical Yeshu” (Yehoshua) was in his personality a mortal man, who, like many others, had attained adeptship more by virtue of his inherent purity than by the learning bestowed upon him by the initiated Rabbis.

          For the Chinese, Kwan-shai-gin [kwan-shai-yin] is the universally revealed word, the active, generative, male force, and Kwan-gin [kwan-yin] is the feminine, birthing principle, Buddhi, the spiritual soul, the sixth principle and “vessel of the Lord,” venerated in Christian symbology as “Mary” (Maya) [māyā], the “Mother of God.” Kwan-gin (Mary) is the passive, receptive part, the individual soul, through which people can attain knowledge and be redeemed from their sins. Kwan-shai-gin is the universally active “Holy Spirit” who can only produce the “Son of God” in man through the soul. Herein lies the key to explaining the mysteries of the Trinity, transubstantiation, immaculate conception, etc.^[107]

23. The meaning of the “Seal of Solomon.”

          The sun is the symbol of wisdom and its nature, like everything in the world, is threefold. One distinguishes between the spiritual sun, its astral body and the external luminous shell, the visible sun of our planetary system.^[108] The word “Solomon” is therefore composed of three names for the sun: Sol (Latin), Om [oṃ or aum] (Sanskrit) and Οn (Chaldean) and the so-called “Seal of Solomon” consists of two intertwined triangles surrounded by a circle.

          The triangle △ is the symbol of self-consciousness or self-knowledge because in it the three sides are united into a whole; i.e., perfect knowledge requires the unity of the three factors, namely the knower with the known and the knowledge itself. Object and subject merge in the knowledge of truth; the known is no longer an object, the knower recognizes himself through his knowledge as the known; the trinity has become a unity; there are no longer any opinions, no longer any beliefs and no need for proof. I am because I am and am conscious of my being.

          The triangle △ is the symbol of self-consciousness or self-knowledge because in it the three sides are united into a whole; i.e., perfect knowledge requires the unity of the three factors, namely the knower with the known and the knowledge itself. Object and subject merge in the knowledge of truth; the known is no longer an object, the knower recognizes himself through his knowledge as the known; the trinity has become a unity; there are no longer any opinions, no longer any beliefs and no need for proof. I am because I am and am conscious of my being. Six points are manifest; but the seventh (the unity from which the six spring) is hidden in the centre. The circle signifies Maha-kasha, [mahā-ākāśa]^[109] infinite space, or the seventh universal principle. The “circle” is infinite, its periphery being nowhere and its centre everywhere. The upward-pointing triangle signifies hidden wisdom; that with the point downward, revealed wisdom in the realm of phenomena, the sense world. The circle represents the all-embracing quality of consciousness, which extends from any given point until it encompasses the whole, and each point potentially contains all the forces acting in the whole.^[110]

          The circle and the centre are one; but from the standpoint of delusion (Maya) [māyā] and Avidya [avidyā] (ignorance) they appear separate. The centre is Jivatma [jīvātmā], the seventh principle, the revealed word. The two triangles represent the male principle, spirit (Purusha) [puruṣa] and nature (Prakriti) [prakṛti]; the one with the point upwards represents the union of Gijanam [jñānam] (knowledge), Gijata [jñānī] (knower) and Ginayam [jñātaḥ] (known); the other triangle the generative, preservative and destructive powers of nature.

          Unity is contained in the Trinity. When the unmanifested Unity reveals itself, it presents itself not as a duality but as a Trinity. The unmanifested Unity in its aspect as a duality remains passive and hidden; but from the union of the male and female principles comes the revelation of Unity as a Trinity (the “Son”). The “depth” is endless “space” which is both male and female. When Brahma (the spirit or life) moves to the periphery, i.e. “breathes out”, the phenomenal world comes into existence; when he breathes in, it disappears. The only reality is the eternal, self-existent, the Unity from which the multiplicity of forms arises.

24. Squaring the circle.

          The apparently senseless problem of squaring the circle contains an ineffable mystery. It would also be difficult to explain to the mathematician or geometer that the unrevealable, the “Father” or absolute consciousness (the circle) does not exist outside the triangle and the perfect square and is only revealed in the “Son” (as individual self-consciousness). When the centrifugal direction then asserts itself on the centripetal effect (of the inflowing spiritual life), the two intertwined triangles form the perfect “square” (the symbol of truth) and this becomes the “circle” again; i.e. “the son returns to the bosom of the father”; the illusion of duality disappears and in its place comes the knowledge of the original unity of the universe.^[111]

          The great secret of spiritual evolution cannot be taught to anyone unless he himself grasps it intuitively. Many insightful and profound philosophers have come quite close to solving the world’s riddle; but even the best of them are still very much in error, because the shadow of Manas extends over the field of Buddhi. It is an immutable law of nature that only the human spirit that has become free (from all self-delusion) can see what belongs to the realm of the spirit unveiled.

(Sequel follows.)

[Begin: [5] Confidential Communications from the Province of the Tibetan Master [Vertrauliche Mitteilungen aus den Kreisen der tibetanischen Meister. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 3, no. 5-6 (May-June 1910), 146-161]

Confidential communications from the circles

of the Tibetan masters.

With notes.

(Continued.)

25. Sun and planets.

          Light, heat and actinism are not independently existing forces, but only effects of various movements of Akāsa [Ākāśa]. The speed of propagation of light has only been measured within the atmosphere. Beyond the “meteoric dust” there is no light and the speed of propagation of vibrations would be different because the resistance is different.

Note [By Dr. Hartmann]: According to the teachings of the ancient Rosicrucians, light and darkness are essentially one. Light arises from darkness and without darkness no light would be apparent. Light is “matter” and darkness is spirit. (“[The] Secret Doctrine” I, p. 99).

          Jupiter is still hot. If our earth were suddenly to become very cold, the water would solidify to rocks and the air would become a liquid. The reverse is the case on Jupiter. Hidden behind Jupiter is another powerful star, a thousand times larger than Jupiter,^[112] and the cause of the perturbations seen on Jupiter. The metallic substances of which this planet is largely composed, owing to the heat prevailing there, assume an aeriform character, and form part of its atmosphere. This was also the condition of our earth long ago before the first round began.^[113]

          Note [By Dr. Hartmann]: This does not agree with C. Flammarion’s descriptions, according to which there is an eternal spring on Jupiter. (Pluralité des Mondes, p. 69.) However, it is conceivable that the inhabitants of Jupiter are made up of the temperature prevailing there. The inhabitants of our earth in the first round are said to have been ethereal beings, who were not affected by the elements. The inhabitants of Mars are also said to have bodies that are more ethereal than ours. On the other hand, it is taught that the inhabitants of Venus far surpass us in intelligence, but that their bodies are made of much coarser matter.

          Not all the planets that exist within the orbit of Mercury have yet been discovered, nor all those within the orbit of Neptune. There are also a number of invisible planets that are in a state of obscuration, burnt out, so to speak, and therefore do not shine. Perhaps future science will find a way to detect the radiations of these non-luminous planets. Perhaps we will be able to hear their vibrations before we see them.

          Note [By Dr. Hartmann]: Each of the planets known to us has its own light. Only the moon, as a “burnt-out volcano,” does not seem to have its own light, since the part not illuminated by the sun is invisible to us.

          Our sun is a large magnet that produces heat, light, and magnetic currents. It is only a reflection (of the spiritual sun). It is an inexhaustible source of radiant energy which neither increases nor decreases and it will continue to generate this energy until the end of its Manvantara. The earth absorbs an amazing amount of the sun’s forces, but only about 25 per cent of the chemical radiation effect, since incidentally 75 per cent is absorbed by the earth’s atmosphere, and of these again about 20 per cent is converted into rays of light and heat. Call this ever self-generating solar power “radiant energy” if you will. We call it life, the omnipresent, all-pervasive life, constantly at work in its great laboratory, the sun.

          Annotation [by Dr. Hartmann]. It may be noted here that these communications were received in 1883, thus over 20 years before Madame Curie’s discovery of helium and radium.

          Two strong magnetic poles exist above the Earth, and one of them moves around the North Pole in a periodic cycle lasting several hundred years.

          All existence is relative. What is called “space” is only a product of our imagination. The higher and lower worlds are not separate from one another. As incomprehensible as this may seem, they nevertheless exist in and through one another, without one knowing anything about the other. Millions of things and beings are in us and around us, and we in them. When we speak of “other worlds,” we do not mean that they are spatially distant from us, or that they exist outside the earth. Whether they are “higher” or “lower,” more “spiritual” or even more “material” than our earth, they have nothing to do with our concepts of location; they are, as it were, mixed with our world and permeated by it. Each world has its own peculiar conditions and natural laws. The inhabitants of other spheres can move through us and around us, as if through the air; even their homes and lands are mixed with ours without us seeing them, because our ability to perceive is not adapted to this, but is limited to another area. Adepts and seers, however, can perceive them. The inhabitants of the spiritually higher worlds only associate with those mortals on our earth who rise to their spheres through their own spiritual power. — K. H.

Note [By Dr. Hartmann]: The mixture of different worlds mentioned here, each of which is “material” in its own way and the only real one for its inhabitants and yet almost non-existent for the others, can only be explained when we understand that our “material” world, which is so tangible to us, is nothing more and nothing less than an appearance (idea). We live in a world of appearances and are ourselves only appearances, which may be considered phantoms by inhabitants of other spheres, assuming that they know of our existence, just as the inhabitants of the dream world appear to us as phantoms or insubstantial ghosts. Nothing in the world is real, it is all just appearance. The real in man is self-existent and imperishable; what we see in him is a mortal form, a passing illusion, and even if it seems so real to us, it is still nothing but an appearance.

26. Devachan and Avitchi [avīci]

(heaven and hell).

          It is a widespread belief among the Indians that the future state of a man before his reincarnation and birth corresponds to the wish which was most dear to his heart at the time of his death; but this wish is not a spontaneous thought or a sudden whim, but is the result of the affections of the heart which filled the man during his life, and of the desires and passions which dominated him

          The Bhagavad Gita teaches: “He who departs from the world thinking only of Me, when he has left his body, enters into My essence. There is no doubt about that. But if, when he leaves his body, his whole mind is directed towards another being, he enters into that being’s essence, whatever it may be, for his nature becomes like that being’s nature.” (Ch. VIII. Verse. 5.)

          But in order to direct our whole thoughts towards a higher ideal at the hour of death and to cling to it with all our heart, the love for this ideal must have already become ingrained in us and come to our consciousness; otherwise it cannot become our property at the hour of death. It is therefore important that we learn during our lifetime to love the higher and to renounce the lower; for what fills our soul when we die can be of great importance for our progress or regression. A hypocritical “conversion” ultimately prompted by fear of death is of no use. The purpose of certain church ceremonies performed on a dying person is to give his will and thoughts the necessary direction if possible and to strengthen his faith so that he can persevere in it. The ceremonies and prayers held for the deceased also have the purpose of sending him uplifting spiritual influences and warding off harmful ones.

          The last thoughts and ideas of a dying person come involuntarily. We have no more control over them than we have over the retina of our eyes, if we wanted to prevent it from perceiving the color that most strongly influences it. In the last moment, the whole of life in all its details is reflected in the memory of the dying person like a passing panorama. One image or event after another emerges from the most hidden corners of the soul, and the memory of every event that made an impression on the brain during its activity returns vividly. The impression or thought that was the strongest during life will also be the most vivid now and will, as it were, outlive the others; for these disappear and, depending on their nature, only awaken again in Devachan. No one dies in a state of insanity or unconsciousness, even if outward appearances suggest otherwise. Even a madman or a man dying in drunken delirium has a moment of clear consciousness when the soul leaves the body, although he cannot tell this to those around him. A man may seem dead; but from the last pulse to the moment when the animal warmth leaves the body, the brain can think, and the ego lives its whole life over again in those few seconds.

          Anyone who is near the dying person at the solemn hour of death should remain quiet and not shout. He should speak only softly so as not to disturb the peaceful course of the process and not to hinder the work of the past, which casts its image on the veil of the future.^{[114] [115]}

          The complete recollection of the totality of our existences and lives in all reincarnations will only occur for us at the end of all seven rounds, when we stand on the threshold of Nirvana. At the end of each round we will only possess the sum total of the impressions we received during this period and which accompanied us into Devachan. These lives are, as it were, only tests in which there is great leniency, and each life gives us a new opportunity to test our strength; but at the end of the smaller cycle, after all seven rounds have been completed, we can only hope that in the scales of justice and retribution the scale containing our good works will outweigh the scale containing our evil deeds.^[116]

Note [By Dr. Hartmann]: The church doctrine of the “Day of Judgement” and the “resurrection of the flesh” can only make sense if it refers to this reawakening of personal memories at the end of the seventh round. The “flesh” is to be understood as

“Manas.” But there can also be exceptional cases in which highly enlightened people have already regained the memory of their previous forms of existence in this round. The only confirmed case of this kind is that of Gautama Buddha. (See K. E. Neumann, “The Speeches of Gotamo Buddho.”) Those who enter Paranirvana on the “Day of Judgement” will enjoy the peace and bliss of union with the Deity during the “night” of Malā-pralaya, which is light for all of them, for a period of time corresponding to 311,040,000,000,000 of our years. (H. P. B. “Secret Doctrine”, V. I. p. 159.)

          Bad, irredeemably bad and thoroughly corrupt must be that ego which (in this round) does not contain even the slightest immortal part and must therefore perish in the eighth sphere of annihilation. If even a small part of the higher is alive in it, this is enough to save it from this sad fate. But the situation is different after the completion of the great cycle. There is then either a long Nirvana of bliss and after this an existence as Dhyan Chohan (“Lord of Light”, or “Archangel”) during a Manvantara; or an “Avitchi [avīci] Nirvana” (i.e., an endless “hell” according to human concepts), and then a Manvantara of indescribable horrors, as a . . . . . I must not utter or write the word, and you shall not hear it.^[117]

          But this has nothing to do with those mortals who ascend through the seven spheres. The total karma of a future planetary angel is as tempting as the total karma of a . . . is terrible. But enough for today. I have already said too much. — K. H.^[118]

27. Answers to questions regarding the afterlife.

          Even the remains (larvae) of good men, whose names will not be missing from the Book of Life, only acquire a certain memory and apparent self-consciousness when the sixth and seventh principles, with the essence of the fifth, have entered the so-called “germinal period.” As long as the struggle between the higher and the lower parts of the Manas is not over, these remains have no self-consciousness. Only when the sixth and seventh principles have completely separated themselves from the lower parts and have absorbed the finer, spiritual parts of what was the personal consciousness of the fifth principle, only then does a kind of hazy, dim self-consciousness of what remains of the shadow of the personality develop in the larva.

          Exceptions to this are those who commit suicide; they are not actually dead; they have only shed their physical components and can still be connected to the ego.

Note [By Dr. Hartmann]: These statements have given rise to much debate between “theosophists” and spiritualists, but these have mostly been fruitless, because the alleged messages from the dead have very different sources, and if they really come from the dead, they are usually uncertain, doubtful, fantastic, or like those of a person who is dreaming or not in clear consciousness. Death is a sleep and the soul is more or less in a state of dreaming until it awakens to a higher spiritual life in Devachan. But then it has nothing more to do with the things that belong to this earthly life. (See H. P. Blavatsky “Key to Theosophy”).

          Everything that belongs to the material-psychological characteristics, memories and sensations of the lower skandhas (qualities) of the fifth principle (Manas) is left behind as worthless rejects by the ego newly born in Devachan, since it is not sufficiently related to the purely spiritual perceptions and feelings of the sixth principle (Buddhi), which is connected with and strengthened by a part of the fifth principle, namely that part which is necessary for the soul in Devachan to retain a spiritualized, divine idea of ​​selfhood; for without this self-consciousness the monad would not be able to become conscious of any relationship between object and subject (“mine” and “yours”). Everything that belongs to the lower region of the soul therefore no longer exists for the soul that has entered its higher regions, but is left behind on the threshold of Devachan when it enters this heavenly state. But it will fully emerge in memory again at the end of the smaller cycle, after the completion of the seven rounds, when the sum total of all previous lives, with guilt in one scale and merit in the other, is weighed on the scales of eternal justice.

          The larva of a dead person has no light of its own; its self-consciousness is only like the reflection of another light. Memory and insight are two different things. A madman may remember certain events in his life quite well, and yet is unable to see anything in its true light, because the higher part of Manas and Buddhi in him is paralyzed or absent. A dog remembers a beating he has received as soon as he sees his master take the whip; but if he does not see the whip, he has forgotten it again. The same is true of the larvae of the dead. If such a larva has penetrated the aura of a medium, it can perceive, by means of the organs borrowed from the medium and also the organs of others who are connected with the medium in magnetic sympathy, what it finds in the perceptions and memories of the medium and his environment; but nothing else. Therefore, one often receives very reasonable answers from the “spirits” and, on the other hand, one encounters complete ignorance or forgetfulness regarding events in the life of the deceased which one knows very well but which are unknown to the medium and his circle.

          When a person dies, his personal self-consciousness leaves him and only awakens again when he enters Devachan. The larva decays without being aware of it. It may perhaps have a dim feeling of its physical death. A rare exception to this are certain half-mature followers of “black magic”, very malicious and self-absorbed people. Such vampires can become a danger to the living. These very material larvae of people who clung to earthly life and whose last thought when they died was only their own personality filled with a thirst for life, often have the instinctive feeling of their vegetative or semi-animal existence. This is sometimes, but not always, the case with suicides. Then something terrible can happen. The larva clings so tightly to its illusory life that it seeks refuge and prolongation of its existence in another organism, and if it finds no human body into which it can penetrate, it takes possession of the body of an animal, a dog, a pig, a hyena, or the like, and takes possession of it.

(Sequel follows.)

[Begin: [6] Confidential Communications from the Province of the Tibetan Master [Vertrauliche Mitteilungen aus den Kreisen der tibetanischen Meister. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 3, no. 7-8 (July-August 1910), 210-223]

28. Heaven, Hell and Reincarnation.

          There are two “fields” in which the causes arising in the soul manifest their effects, namely, objective and subjective existence. The coarser energies, i.e. those which act in the heavier or denser states of matter, manifest their effects objectively in physical life, and their product, whenever reincarnation takes place, is the creation of a new personality within the great cycle of the developing spiritual individuality. The moral and spiritual forces, on the other hand, which man has awakened in himself during his earthly life, find the sphere for their effects in the “world of the gods” (Devachan).

          For example, if the earthly inclinations and sensual attractions of a person who was a philosopher will, in the next reincarnation, create a personality who has an intuitive gift for studying philosophy, but also the same inclinations for sensual attractions, passions, etc. If the philosopher was a miser, the personality that follows will be greedy and avaricious in addition to being philosophical in spirit. The character of the newly born personality is such as the other person acquired in the previous existence and can only change or develop further in this life. But the moral and spiritual energies of the person, after his departure from this world, find a field for their development in the heavenly state of Devachan. Here all great plans for moral reform, intellectual and spiritual aspirations, come to fruition; here the yearning for the Divine finds its fulfillment; and the celestial entity lives there in the inner world of its own creation, in a state which, if we cannot call it full self-consciousness, is at least a dream life of such vividness of conception that nothing of the so-called realities of this world can compare with it. This “dream” lasts until the karma relating to it is exhausted and the cycle of life begins anew. Then the entity re-enters the sphere of causes, either in this world or in another, according to the degree of its progress along the path of the rings and rounds of human evolution.

          A single feeling can set the tone for the entire duration of the state in Devachan. It is then the “key” to the whole harmony; a keynote, as it were, around which, in a progressive change of melodies and themes, all the various aspirations, wishes, hopes and dreams that arose in the brain of the enthusiast during his earthly life but were not fulfilled on earth are gathered. The inhabitant of heaven finds all of these realized, without ever suspecting that all this glory is only the creation of his own soul activity, the effect of mental causes created by himself. The thought that is the most intense and predominant in the brain of the departing person at the moment of death will now be decisive for all subsequent heavenly impressions; but ideas that arise from less intense thoughts or feelings will also find their place in the great magic-play, even if less vividly. There is no one in the world who does not have some special hobby, ideal or passion. Even the poorest people, and these the most, because they live in privation, indulge in wishes and hopes that are not fulfilled during their lifetime, find satisfaction there, and there can be no talk of “boredom.” If you do not understand this, then either you have not understood me correctly, or I must confess that I am unable to describe the incomprehensible. It is difficult to make such things clear to anyone unless one’s own intuition comes to the rescue. Even the most detailed descriptions are not sufficient to make clear to someone the difference between the state of mind of a man on earth and another outside the sphere of influence of the earth; nor do European languages ​​have suitable words for it. Not only ordinary readers, but even ideally-minded and highly intelligent people cannot grasp the whole truth about such states and fathom their depth. When a person begins to understand something of the higher secrets of nature, he thereby enters into a higher existence here on earth. Then follows the life which nature has prepared for him as a reward for his good deeds, and the more merits he has acquired, the longer his heavenly state in Devachan lasts.

          You say: “What is the use of the longer duration when in Devachan the concept of time is absent and a period of a thousand years seems like a minute?” — Such an objection could also be made with regard to Nirvana, Pralaya and all eternity. There are, of course, no clocks in heaven to measure time, although the whole cosmos is, as it were, a gigantic chronometer; but even mortals, when they feel perfectly happy, do not care about time. Hours of bliss fly by like moments, but this does not prevent them from being enjoyed. Imagine that the inhabitant of heaven is filled with such ineffable bliss that he no longer has any consciousness of “time”. The concept of time is created by ourselves. A short period of intense pain seems endless; for the happy person, years pass like moments.

          Even in hell (Avitchi) [avīchi] time is not measured by earthly standards. Of all sentient creatures, man is the only being who knows the concept of time, and this does not make him happier or wiser.

          But how can this be made clear to a man who cannot feel and comprehend it? Limited similes cannot represent the infinite, and subjective states cannot be described objectively. If the critics of the West wish to understand the bliss of Devachan or the agony of Avitchi [avīci], they must first learn to place themselves mentally in such states and understand the difference between the real existence of supersensible things and the shadowy existence of ideas about them. We must learn to distinguish between things as they are and the ideas we form about them. Time and space may, as Kant asserts, be not the products but the regulators of our sensations; but only in so far as it concerns our sensations on earth and not the heavenly feelings. There it is not the a priori ideas of time and space which regulate the perceptions of the inhabitant of Devachan, but there he himself creates and destroys his ideas of time and space.

          The conditions in the so-called “beyond” can never be properly grasped by the external intellect, because its realm is only within the sphere of temporal causes and effects and does not comprehend the eternal. This includes the spiritual knowledge of “pure reason”, the highest spiritual power of man, whose sphere is the will.^[119]

          A physical existence has its energy, which increases from childhood to manhood, then it declines, and then there are again childhood and death. The existence in Devachan has its similar periods; the accumulated celestial powers are exhausted, and rebirth follows to gather and use new powers. Nature deceives no one, neither in heaven nor on earth. She prepares for man much more bliss in the “beyond” than in the “here.” Here on earth he is exposed to all kinds of evils and accidents; he is like a straw helplessly blown about by the wind, and this circumstance makes true happiness impossible for him. Even if he is happy today, he does not know what “tomorrow” will bring him, and one is not wrong in considering this life a nightmare. Anyone who considers life in Devachan to be a mere dream, in the ordinary meaning of the word, is still far behind in the knowledge of spiritual states, which the “Secret Doctrine” deals with.

          I will try to describe to you some of the many states in Devachan and Avitchi [avīci]. As in earthly life, so in Devachan there is an initial stirring of psychic life, then gradual maturity, and then gradually an exhaustion of powers. Then follows a slumber-like state, oblivion, and finally, not death, but birth in a new personality, and the resumption of activity which daily creates new mixtures of causes, the effects of which are expressed in the next Devachan, after which yet another physical birth follows as a new personality. What will be the nature of life on earth and in Devachan is determined by the law of Karma (the law of cause and effect), and this cycle will continue until man has reached the end of the seventh round, or attains the wisdom of an Arhat or a Buddha, and, having learned to break the circle which binds him to existence, enters Paranirvana [parinirvāṇa] (i.e., becomes one with the Deity).

          Now suppose the person in question is not a Bacon, a Goethe, a Shelley, or a Howard, but a common herdsman, a colourless, insignificant personality, who has done nothing to distinguish himself. His life in Devachan will be equally colourless, because every effect corresponds to the cause that produces it, and where nothing is sown there is no fruit. On the other hand, suppose we consider a person who is a monster of wickedness, malice, sensuality, tyranny, vanity, cruelty, deceit, hypocrisy, etc., but who has within him a germ or germs of something better, flashes of something divine. What will happen to such a person? The divine spark which glows beneath this heap of filth will be an obstacle to the attraction of the eighth sphere; for this eighth sphere is the place where the spiritless shadows, the monstrosities of nature, fall, whose divine monad has already separated from the fifth principle (Manas) during life, or even in previous incarnations, and who have lived as soulless beings in human form. Such persons whose sixth principle (Buddhi) has abandoned them (who have become “godless”) are no longer suitable as temples for the seventh (Atma) [ātmā]; their animal soul sinks into the bottomless abyss (chaos) to be transformed into other (lower) forms. The other person described above, on the other hand, in whom a divine spark still lives, cannot, despite all his wickedness, perish in the eighth sphere, since his nature is too spiritually refined for this due to the presence of this divine spark. Such a person is not a soulless creature, but a human monster (a devil). His fate is not annihilation, but an existence full of torment (hell). He represents a sum of strong, malevolent energies which have been nourished and developed by external circumstances, circumstances which may not have been dependent on his free will at all.^[120] For such beings, a state corresponding to Devachan must exist, and this is Avitchi [avīci], a state of torment, the opposite of Devachan.^[121]

          Atvitchi [avīci] is not confined to any particular place, but is a state. This state accompanies the soul everywhere, in the human body or outside it in the earth sphere; when it exists as a semi-conscious ghost in Kama loca [kāma loka] (the region of desire) and also when it is reborn on earth to find hell there too. Reincarnations take place from both Devachan and Avitchi [avīci]; children are born from both “heaven” and “hell” and there are many soulless (godless) creatures among men today who may be very intelligent, learned, keen and deep thinkers, but who have turned away from their higher self and thus have become forsaken (godless). When the human soul (Kama Manas) [kāma manas] is entirely devoted to sensual things, as a result of a continued vicious life, it loses the consciousness of its higher destiny and the ability to hear the voice of its God (conscience). It then strives only for the fulfillment of its earthly desires; the brain is nourished at the expense of the heavenly part of the soul and the personal soul finally loses its immortal part. Such people may be able to penetrate deeply into the secrets of external (material) nature, but are (in the higher sense) spiritual idiots or spiritually dead.^[122] Such a soulless (godless) being, whose nature is an animal one, is either immediately reborn on earth after leaving the body or, if it is capable of living in the power of evil, it remains as a devilish being in the active state of Avitchi [avīci] in the (spiritual) aura of the earth. Such beings are devils in whom the love of good has disappeared and who are completely permeated by the spirit of evil, having consciously walked the paths of evil during previous incarnations and in spite of their higher, spiritual knowledge.^[123]

[Begin: [7] Confidential Communications from the Province of the Tibetan Master [Vertrauliche Mitteilungen aus den Kreisen der tibetanischen Meister. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 3, no. 9-10 (September-October 1910), 273-290]

Confidential communications from the circles

of the Tibetan masters.^[124]

With notes.

(Continued.)

29. Recollections of past existences and nirvana [nirvāṇa].

          At a certain time in the evolution of mankind, man attains the ability to remember his experiences in the state of Devachan, that is, what he experienced in his (heavenly) life between two incarnations; but a complete recall of all his personal experiences in his earthly bodies, as well as in Devachan, occurs only at the end of the seven rounds, on the threshold of Nirvana, unless a person becomes a Bodhisattva or Arhat beforehand.

          But what does Nirvana have to do with it? Nirvana is a much higher state in which all objective things are forgotten, a state of perfect rest in union with Parabrahm, which even the greatest of the philosophers of the West cannot comprehend.

Note [By Dr. Hartmann]: In the recollection of all past reincarnations there is the so-called “third resurrection of the flesh.” Nirvana can only be called annihilation to the extent that it destroys all illusions, including the illusion of individuality, which is also only a dream or shadow. When all shadows disappear, the sun of truth appears in all clarity.

30. Elemental beings.

          The microcosm of man is a thing composed of many elements. It may be compared to the animal kingdom, and, like the animal kingdom, is subject to change. Calves grow and become oxen, and the bigger they get, the more resilient they become; the little pet snake grows, develops its poisonous fangs, and finally kills the one who has cared for it. The bird eats the worm, the snake the bird, the vulture the snake, and the vulture may be killed by a hunter. In a similar way, organized forces exist in the soul of man, the representatives of his desires. They are born, grow and become strong, they fight one another, and one devours the other; but reason can control them all. They are the semi-intelligent forces of the soul, from which the higher and intelligent forces can grow.

Note [By Dr. Hartmann]: Every spiritual power that has grown strong in a person, be it a virtue or a vice, is, as it were, a “false self” that he has raised himself, a force that is animated and organized by his will, an “elemental being” or thought-form that ultimately dominates him if he does not know how to control it. Here too, one passion often devours another. The desire for gain can overcome avarice, vanity can overcome fear, the desire for fame can overcome cowardice, greed can overcome pride, and the like. The weak person is like an inactive spectator in this war and his organism is the battlefield; (compare, Bhagavad Gita Ch. I) but if the “Lord” (reason) has become strong in him, he can defeat his enemies with his power, because then the power of the Lord is his own.

21^[125] [31.]. Lokas. (Earthly, heavenly and hellish regions.)

          Rupa loca [rūpa loka] (the world of forms), Kama loca [kāma loka] (the world of desires) and Arupa loca [arūpa loka] (the world without form) are the three states of existence of ascending spirituality where the various groups of subjective entities find their attractions. In Kama loca, a semi-physical region, are the spiritless remains (larvae) of deceased men and animals, suicides, etc. This sphere has its numerous different divisions and subdivisions, according to the state of mind in which its inhabitants found themselves at the hour of death. This is the so-called “summer land” of the spiritualists,^[126] whose best clairvoyants cannot see beyond it because their astral vision is defective and deceptive and not illuminated by Alaya Duyana [ālaya vijñāna],^[127] the hidden wisdom. Besides the three regions mentioned, there are many other mysterious states which cannot be described.

          When the soul in Kama loca [kāma loka] awakens from its stupor,^[128] it passes into Devachan or Avitchi [avīci], according to its attraction, and each of these two states shows many imperceptible differences, according to the degree of its increasing spirituality. Thus, for example, the sensations, perceptions and ideas of a soul in Devachan in the realm of forms (Rupa loca) [rūpa loka] are less subjective than those of such a soul in Arupa loca [arūpa loka]; and consequently its experiences and faculties are also different. But even the most exalted state of a monad in the highest, the seventh stage of Devachan cannot be compared with the entirely subjective state of pure spirituality which the monad possesses before it descends into material existence, and to which it returns at the end of the great cycle, nor can Nirvana [nirvāṇa] be compared with Paranirvana [parīnirvāṇa].

          The duration of Devachan (or Avitchi [avīci]) depends on the unexhausted psychic vibrations excited during earthly life. Souls whose attractions have been mainly of a material nature will be attracted to reincarnation sooner by the force of Tanha [Pāli: taṇhā] (instinct) than those who have been less absorbed in earthly life. But all these things are not easily understood by everyone; they require a higher, intuitive knowledge, which springs from the higher, spiritual life. One must learn to see with the eye of the spirit, to hear with the spiritual ear, and to feel with the sensibility of the spiritual self (Astita Vijuyam) [Astitā vijñānam?] before one can fully grasp these teachings.

          The reward for those who have done good in general, without being attached to any particular person or thing, is that they rise more rapidly through the Kama locas [kāma lokas] and Rupa locas [rūpa lokas] to higher regions. It is the same as if man were occupied with abstract ideas or with general principles; they do not bind him; but the word personality means narrowness, and the more narrow a man’s range of thought is, the more he will cling to the lower spheres of existence.

          The social position of a person is a product of the karma he has created. Like connects with like. Sympathies and antipathies that have formed also exert their effect in the “beyond” and in the next life. A beggar may perhaps be born in his next life as a prince in a royal house, and a deceased king may be born again as the son of a gypsy. When you understand that the skandhas (qualities) are the elements of a limited existence, you have grasped one of the states of devachan. Social prestige, luxury, enjoyment of life, etc. are often the cause of a new burden of karma; poverty and a life of renunciation are, as a rule, less a source of suffering than wealth and noble birth.

32. Devachan. (The “heavenly world”.

          “Devachan”, or the “Land of Bliss” (Suklevati) [Sukhāvatī] is allegorically described by the Buddha in the book Shan-aun-gi-tung as follows: The Thatagata [Sanskrit: tathāgata (the Buddha] said: “Many thousands of myriad worlds away from our own is the land of the blessed. This region is surrounded by seven hedges, seven great mountain ranges and seven rows of waving trees. This holy place of the Arhats is ruled by the Dhyan Chohans (archangels) and the Bodhisattvas (sages) dwell in it. There are seven beautiful lakes with crystal-clear waters, which have seven special qualities. This is Sarymbia [?] or “Devachan” (the land of the gods). Its heavenly flowers (Udambara) [Pāli, Sanskrit, udumbara] take root in the shadow of every globe and bloom to the joy of everyone who can attain them. Whoever is born in this blessed region is truly happy; there is no more sorrow and no more worry. Myriads of souls return there to rest and then return to their own kingdoms; but, O Sarymbia, there are also many in this land of the blessed who are born there as Adivartyas [Sanskrit, ādivartyas]. These return no more.^[129]

          Apart from the fact that the heavenly state of Devachan lasts only for a certain time and not forever, it has much in common with the heaven of the ordinary religious systems. The ego, newly born in this heaven, retains for a certain time, which is in a certain proportion to the duration of its past earthly life, the complete memory of that past life, but it cannot return to earth from Devachan. The personal, purified and blessed “I” of the human being enters Devachan; it is a combination of the fifth and sixth principles (Manas-Buddhi), which is born into Devachan after a period of unconsciousness (germinal or gestational period) and, since everything impure and base remains in Kama loca [kāma loka], is now naturally as pure and guiltless as a newborn child. The fact that the soul could be “born” into Devachan proves that the good will of this person was stronger than the evil will during his existence on earth. The bad karma created by his sins rests during his stay in Devachan, but then comes into effect again in the next reincarnation. The blessed soul brings into Devachan only the karma (the memory) of its good deeds, thoughts and words.

          “Bad” or “evil” is a relative term. The law of justice or retribution never errs. Every man, as a rule, has some good in him, and therefore every man who is not irretrievably sunk in the mire of vice and bestiality (perversity) has his better part passed into Devachan. For the payment of debts incurred voluntarily or involuntarily, a later time comes. In the meantime, there is the reward of the merits and the effects of the causes created by them. Then the Self receives its reward for the selflessness shown on earth and reaps the fruits of its good deeds. No pain, no sorrow, not even the shadow of sorrow appears in the clear sky of its pure bliss; for it is a state of perpetual, unimagined illusion (Maya) [māyā]. Our present earthly life, with its external perceptions, is also an illusion, a passing dream, and in this sense the life in Devachan can also be called an illusion, but a hundred times stronger; so delightful that the blissful ego cannot see through the veil that hides the sufferings of those it loved on earth.

          In this sweet dream, which is full reality for it, the happy soul lives with all those it loves, whether they are dead or still living on earth in an incarnated form. It has all its loved ones with it, and they are just as blissful and happy as it is, although the earthly inhabitants concerned feel nothing of it, except in rare moments of vision. In such visions, mortal man believes that his loved ones have descended from heaven and appeared to him, while in reality he has risen to them in spirit and shared in their bliss. Many of the subjective spiritual communications which one receives internally are true and have their origin in heaven, through the recipient’s ascension to heaven; but even in this respect it is difficult for the uninitiated to distinguish between reality and illusion. Just as in music two notes can sound together and yet each of them can be heard, so too can a harmonious state arise between a person and another soul, be it that of a deceased or a living one, when their astral vibrations are in harmony.

          There are as many different states in Devachan as there are sensations of bliss on earth. Devachan is an ideal paradise created by man himself, the scenery of which he himself determines, which he peoples with the persons he desires, and where the events correspond to his desires. These experiences in Devachan lead the personal ego into a current which leads it to reincarnation, either on a higher or lower level, according to the determinations which it has created for itself through its karma. Everything in nature, especially in the subjective world, is so harmoniously arranged that no error can be committed by the Dhyan-Chohans or Thatagatas [Tathāgatas] who set the relevant forces in motion.

          Devachan can only be called a spiritual state in comparison with our gross material constitution. The different stages of existence in Devachan are distinguished by the different degrees of such “spiritualized corporeality.” The wife of a savage feels no less happy than a queen with her child in her arms, and she finds her child in Devachan, even if the child died prematurely in childhood, before its sevenfold organization was complete, and consequently could not have had Devachan; for there all the heart’s desires are fulfilled. Call this existence a dream, if you like. Objective life too is nothing but a panorama of passing living images. The bliss of an Indian in his heaven, where he sees himself transported to his hunting grounds, is as great as that of an ecstatic who spends eons of rapturous ecstasy listening to the symphonies of angelic choirs that exist in his imagination. It is not the fault of the Indian that he was born as an Indian with the characteristics of such an Indian, with a love of hunting and killing; he may therefore still have had higher ideals, may have been a loving father, a caring son, and a tender husband. Why should he not also find the realization of his ideals? It is a different matter when a civilized and educated person indulges in murder and commits cruelty against animals; such a person finds his place in Avitchi [avīci].^[130] The Indian acts immorally, but not against morality, of which he has not yet a proper concept. In his reincarnation he takes the position which is properly due to him according to the law of evolution. It is different with the educated person who knows morality and acts against it. Through his deliberate cruelties he bestializes and degrades himself. Every ego is destined to enter into that relatively spiritual existence which corresponds to his previous way of life and way of thinking; excepted from this are those who, through their gross “magnetism”, fall into the current which leads them to the “planet of death”, which is both the physical and mental satellite of our earth.^[131]

33. The animal and the heavenly soul.

          The sixth principle (Buddhi) is purely mental, and therefore cannot have an individual, self-conscious existence unless it unites with the purified, purely mental qualities of the fifth, mind and memory (Manas). When a man has died, his body disintegrates into its elements; his second principle (the physical life force [prāṇa]) and the third (the etheric body [liṅga-śarīra]) evaporate; the lower triad disappears, and the upper principles, the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh, form the higher quaternity [quaternary]. In this separation, the great struggle takes place between the upper and lower regions of the soul, between Kama-Manas [kāma-manas] and Buddhi-Manas, or, in other words, between the animal-human and the human-celestial parts of the soul. When the celestial conquers, the sixth (Buddhi) drawing to itself the quintessence of the good from the fifth (Manas), namely its noble feelings, holy aspirations (even if these still have to do with earthly things) and spiritualized thoughts, these higher elements follow their divine predecessor, the seventh (Atma) [ātma], into the above-mentioned germinal state; the soul falls into a peaceful sleep and the lower principles, the fourth and fifth (Kama and Kama-Manas) [kāma and kāms-manas] remain as a “shadow body” (larva), a being whose higher personal feelings and memories have disappeared and only the brutal instincts and lower urges remain. Such a being can no longer properly be called a human being; it is an animal (perhaps still very intellectual) in human form, an “elemental being” (ghost), and wanders in the earth’s atmosphere as an earth-bound “spirit.” Such spiritless “spirits” often make themselves known in spiritualistic sessions, “materializations” and the like, and often play a leading role, appearing in a variety of masks. These include the “soul brides” and “heavenly lovers” of certain mediums.^[132]

          But if the lower (Kama-Manas) [kāma-manas] wins, then it absorbs into itself everything that may still belong to the sixth (Buddhi) of personal memories and perceptions. With all this burden and unable to rise higher, such a being cannot remain in Kama loca [kāma loka], the world of desires, or our earth’s atmosphere. In a short time it is seized, like a straw in the wind, by another current and drawn down into the great vortex (the eighth sphere). Its former sixth and seventh principles, which it has abandoned, then represent a purely spiritual individual monad, in which nothing of the now vanished personality is contained. It cannot enter the germinal period because there is no purified personal self to make this spiritual rebirth possible, and after a more or less long period of unconsciousness and rest in endless space it is born again in another personality on another planet. The former personality, however, remains deleted from the book of life; the pure monad knows nothing of it and does not remember it; it is as if such a person had never existed. The light of Samma Sambuddha [sammā sam-buddha, one as a Perfected in Enlightenment], inaccessible to the eyes of mortals, the life of all life in all worlds, throws no ray upon that personal existence in the series of past existences. Now, fortunately, such utter annihilation does not occur very frequently; as with born idiots, it is an exception and not the rule.

          The sixth and seventh principles, separated from the other principles, form the only immortal but also unconscious Monad. To awaken it to life and especially to individual self-consciousness, the highest qualities of the fifth principle are also required. This is the personal immortality of the blissful ego in Devachan.^[133] The divine spirit, the unity which forms the highest triad with its two emanations, the seventh and sixth principles, can only absorb what is good, pure and holy; consequently, no sensual, material or unholy memories can accompany the purified memory of the ego into the realm of peace. The karma which arises from such memories of evil deeds and bad thoughts will reach the ego in one of the next incarnations when it returns to the world of causes. The Monad or spiritual divine individuality remains untouched in all cases. The Djuna Prasthana Shastra^[134] teaches: “Through personal purity and serious meditation one transcends the boundaries of the world of desire (kamaloca) [kāmaloka] and enters rupa loca [rūpa loka], the world of the gods.

[Begin: [8] Confidential Communications from the Province of the Tibetan Master [Vertrauliche Mitteilungen aus den Kreisen der tibetanischen Meister. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 3, no. 11-12 (November-December 1910), 340-354]

Confidential communications from the circles of

Tibetan masters.

With notes.

(Continued.)

34. The Resurrection in Devachan.

          “Bardo”^[135] (Tibetan) is the period between death and rebirth. Three phases can be distinguished in it:

3. The soul (the ego), freed from its mortal shell, enters the world of desire, Kama loca [kāma loka], or Tuli-Kai^[136] (Tibetan). This is the realm of “shadows” and ghosts (elementals). This state can last from a few minutes to a great number of years.^[137]
4. The “germinal period” or “pregnancy”. This is often of long duration; sometimes much longer than one is inclined to believe. Its duration depends on the degree of strength of the higher (spiritual) energy accumulated.^[138]
5. The ego enters the Rupa loca [rūpa lokas] (the world of forms) of Devachan (heaven). The duration of the stay there depends on the good karma acquired by the person. Then the rebirth of the monad takes place.^[139]

          The Agema Sutra [āgama sūtra] says: “In all these Rupa locas [rūpa lokas] (form worlds) the inhabitants are subject to the law of birth, development, maturity, decay and death. The ego in heaven loses its powers and finally falls into a state of unconsciousness which precedes rebirth. “The celestials leave the regions of bliss and re-enter lower worlds,” i.e. they come from the world where they have enjoyed the fruits of their merits and are reborn into a world of causes (where they can acquire new merits).

          Devachanic bliss can last for thousands of years, depending on the duration of the karma acquired. An oil lamp gives a small light, a large fire a large one. The ego is the lamp wick, karma the oil. Every effect stands in a certain relation to the cause that produced it. The earthly lives of man in his reincarnations are of very short duration in relation to the duration of his subjective existence in the great cycle of a Manvantara. The good thoughts, words and deeds during the periods of life on earth are causes that produce effects that last much longer than the time necessary to produce these causes. A good action may take only a moment, but its effect may last for centuries. From a small seed grows a great tree, from a small thought the Amradhapura,^[140] the tree of wisdom, the “sacred fig tree whose roots are in heaven and whose branches spread over all the worlds.”^[141]

          In the Buddhist scriptures (the Yats) a place is described between Kama loca [kāma loka] and Rupa loca [rūpa loka], the abode of Mara [māra] (death). This region is filled with passions and desires that destroy all good aspirations. It is allegorically depicted as the sphere called “the planet of death”. It is the vortex in which lives doomed to destruction are drawn down. Between Kama- [kāma-] and Loca Rupa [loca rūpa] is the battleground between the good and the evil, the light and the darkness. This is where the decision is made. The Mara rupas [māra rūpas] fall victim to destruction.

35. The inhabitants of the astral plane.^[142]

          The main ones are divided into the following classes^[143]:

1. Arupa [Sanskrit: arūpa] Devas (Dhyan Chohans). “Gods” or “Archangels”. The highest intelligences without physical forms (planetary spirits).
2. Rupa [Sanskrit: rūpa] Devas. Gods or “angels” who appear in heavenly bodies.
3. Pisachas. [Sanskrit: piśāca] Ghosts and larvae; remnants of deceased people who have been abandoned by the spiritual component.
4. Mara Rupas. [Sanskrit: māra rūpas] Souls in their “desire bodies” (Kama Rupas) [kāma rūpas], in which the passionate has triumphed over the higher and who are doomed to destruction.
5. Asuras. [Sanskrit: asūras] Elementals (demons) who have human bodies.
6. Monstra. Elementals (demons) with animal or half-animal-half-human bodies.
7. Rakshasas. [Sanskrit: rākṣasa] Devils. Souls or astral forms of people who have surrendered to “black magic”. They can exist in the astral world for thousands of years, but eventually perish.

          These seven classes form the principal ones in the classification of the inhabitants of the subjective world around us. The Dhyan Chohans are the spiritual powers governing our material world; but in spite of their own intelligence they blindly obey the one law. They are the active executive powers of a passive principle.^[144] The planetary spirits of our earth are not yet the highest. Every world has its Satsiāgata [satyāgraha = truth force ?] or Dhyan Chohan, who guards and protects it, but cannot interfere with the effects of its karma.

36. Earthbound souls and spiritualism.

          In addition to a certain class of remains of the dead, the “larvae” (which often play a role in spiritistic seances), there are also the “spirits” of people who committed suicide and those who died prematurely through violent death or accident, while still in full possession of their vitality and worldly desires. These can communicate with the living through spiritistic mediums, but this is very expensive. They are the so-called “earth-bound spirits” (les esprits souffrantes) [French, suffering spirits] and are an exception to the rule because they must remain within the earth’s gravitational pull and in its atmosphere (kama loca) [Sanskrit: kāma loka] until the sum of the vital energy given to them at birth is exhausted, i.e. for as long as their life in the body would have lasted had they died a natural death. Such souls can communicate with mediums; But it is a sin and a cruelty to recall their earthly memories and to aggravate their suffering by artificially reviving them and giving them the opportunity to increase the burden of their karma still further by opening the door to intercourse with the living and tempting them.^[145]

          Suicides who, in the foolish belief that they are escaping life, have robbed their physical organism of its vitality and killed it, have enough suffering to expect just because of their vital energy. As a natural consequence of their act (if it was committed intentionally and with full understanding), they have lost their sixth and seventh principles, although these are not irretrievably lost forever and can be reunited with them provided they accept their fate and strive for the higher. But if they long for the worldly and are tempted to take part in it again, they are thereby further degraded and bound to the material. Filled with passions or sensual desires, they enter the region of intense desires (Kama loca) [kāma loka]. There, however, they lack the means and physical organs to satisfy their desires and for this purpose they seek to take possession of the organism of a living person in order to obtain sensual pleasures through it. But because of this, when their time is up and the hour of their natural death has come, they run the risk of losing their immortal part (the Monad) forever.^[146]

          The same applies to people who have died through accidents. If they are good and pure, they immediately fall into a state of “rosy” slumber in which they do not remember their death, but wander in their dreams among their friends and familiar surroundings until the time allotted to them is over, and then they enter Devachan. The situation is different with those who take their passions with them into the “beyond”. Filled with worldly desires and sensual thoughts, they wander about as unfortunate shadows with consciousness. They are not “larvae”, because their connection with the higher principles has not yet been completely broken. They thirst for earthly existence and, through the spiritualistic mediums or sensitive persons at their disposal, force their way back into the ranks of the living in order to satisfy their desires in a vicarious manner. These are the pisachas [Sanskrit: piśāca], the incubi,^[147] succubi^[148] and “vampires” of medieval literature, “elemental beings” often of extraordinary cunning, malice and cruelty, who lead those possessed by them to murder and other crimes. They are the ruin of those who fall victim to them. When their allotted lifespan comes to an end, they are expelled from the aura of the earth to other regions, where they endure long torments that ultimately end in their destruction.^[149]

          But even if the victim of a misfortune is not a person possessed by passions but a moderately good personality, his spirit may still be attracted to a medium, which has very bad consequences for him, if through a new combination of skandhas new desires arise in him and a new bad karma is created. The departed soul, whose task is to become free from all worldly things and to rise to the Divine, should not be induced to take part in earthly things again and thereby degrade himself.^[150]

37. Karma.

          As soon as a sentient and conscious being, whether a human, a Deva or an animal, dies, a new creature arises from it and then reappears in a new form on this or another planet under the conditions which it has created for itself. In other words, Karma is the guiding force and Trishna [Sanskrit: tṛṣṇā] (Tanha) [Pāli: taṇhā] is the instinct or desire for sentient existence. They are the guiding forces and the result of previous human or animal activity, which form the new group from the previously acquired Skandhas, which produces the new creature and determines the manner of its birth. Thus, one can also say: The new creature is rewarded or punished for the deeds of the past old one. Karma represents, as it were, the register in which all the actions of man, whether good or bad, are entered, or rather enter themselves; but the new creature (the son) is essentially identical with the old one, who is his father, mother and creator, and in a much higher degree than his natural father. The mind is not recreated, but only a new form is created, formed from the group of skandhas which represent the physical, astral and mental individuality called man.

These skandhas are:

1. Rupa [—[In brackets by R.H.] Sanskrit, Pāli: rūpa; Tibetan: གཟུགས། (gzugs)]. [Rūpa]—The material attributes and qualities.
2. Vedana [Sanskrit, Pāli: vedanā; Tibetan: ཚོར་བ། (tshor ba)]. [Vedanā]—Sentience [Sensation].
3. Sanna [Sanskrit: saṃjñā; Pāli: saññā; Tibetan: འདུ་ཤེས། (‘du shes)].—Abstract ideas [Perception].
4. Sankhara [(Sanskrit: संस्कार (saṃskāra); Pāli: सङ्खार (saṅkhāra); Tibetan: འདུ་བྱེད། (‘du-byed)].—Innate talents and tendencies [mental formations].
5. Vinnam [Sanskrit: विज्ञान (vijñāna); Pāli: विञ्ञाण (viññāṇa); Tibetan: རྣམ་ཤེས། (rnam shes)].—Physical, mental and moral dispositions [consciousness].

          To these we add two more, namely:

6. Sakkāya Diṭṭhi. [Pāli: sakkāya diṭṭhi—The illusion of selfhood [Getting Rid of Deeper Wrong Views]
7. Athavada, self-delusion.

          A man of forty is in some way a different man from what he was at twenty, and yet the former is the creator of the qualities of the latter, and the “son” suffers the effects of the causes which this “father” created for him.

          Anyone who dies a natural death usually remains in the earth’s sphere of attraction (Kama loca) [kāma loka] for a period of a few hours to a few years. Suicides and victims of accidents are an exception. A person who, for example, had eighty years to live but was killed at twenty will be bound to the earth for sixty years. If a medium puts him in contact with the living and his thirst for earthly existence is thereby reawakened or strengthened, new types of skandhas are developed; he thereby creates new karma and is thus reborn under even more deplorable conditions. This is especially true of “materializations” of the dead; they increase the causes of future suffering for the person, prevent his spiritual rebirth or bring him a material reincarnation in which he is worse off than before.^[151]

(Sequel follows.)

[Begin: [9] Confidential Communications from the Province of the Tibetan Master [Vertrauliche Mitteilungen aus den Kreisen der tibetanischen Meister. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 4, no. 1-2 (January-February 1911), 17-32]

Confidential communications from the circles of

Tibetan masters.

With notes.

(Continued.)

 38. States of the soul after the death of the body.

          The bliss of the soul in the heavenly world (Devachan) does not consist in pleasant memories of past joys, but in the actual experience of the fulfillment of its desires. When the soul enters its new existence through spiritual rebirth, and thereby casts off its lower principles and everything that connects it with its past life, it lives in its own world, enjoying its heavenly achievements. Love and hate are the only immortal feelings. There can be no question of monotony or boredom when the soul is completely filled with what it loves. Imagine that you are in Devachan with all those you have embraced with holy, immortal love on earth, with the experiences you have shared with them forming the background, and everything else that was part of your external life having completely disappeared. Have you ever felt monotony in moments of such supreme bliss? Nor will you feel it in eternity, where a million years are no longer than a moment. Where there is no consciousness of the existence of an external world, there is no variety of impressions, there is only the immortal feeling of love and sympathetic attraction, the seeds of which are planted in the fifth principle (Buddhi Manas), which flourish abundantly in and around the fourth; but whose roots must penetrate deep into the sixth (Buddhi) if they are to outlast the group of lower principles.^[152]

          We create our own Devachan or Avitchi [avīci] during our life on earth, and especially during the last periods of it, by our feelings and thoughts. When, in the last solemn hour of our departure, the experiences of our past life pass before us in the greatest order as in a panorama, while our body has already lost all signs of life and we consider it dead because life has disappeared from all the organs of the body except the brain, then the feeling that predominates in our mind determines, according to its nature, for good or for evil, the nature of our future existence. The other impressions fade away like a dream. A true and full recollection of our past lives only occurs at the end of the small cycle.^[153] Those who have such memories in the Kama loca [kāma loka] will not enjoy them on that day. The departed who know that they have died (in the physical body) are exceptions to the rule; they are either adepts or representatives of black magic.^[154]

          Immortality in the true sense of the word involves an unlimited, self-conscious existence, without interruption of self-consciousness.^[155] Even the larvae of good men, whose names will be found in the Book of Life at the threshold of Nirvana, do not attain full personal self-consciousness and the memories associated with it until the sixth and seventh principles have entered the germinal period with the fifth. Even in the case of suicides and those who have died a sudden death, the consciousness requires a certain time to form a new center of gravity. When a man dies, his fifth principle loses consciousness and all memory of external or internal things.^[156]

          By “immortality,” in the true sense of the word, is meant an uninterrupted continuation of consciousness. Immortal in the widest (PanAeonic) sense is he whose own consciousness and perception of his own being is not interrupted under any circumstances and in any form (neither in the physical body nor in any of the other bodies which he inhabits after leaving the material body) even for a moment during the period of his individual existence. There are various such periods and their names are mentioned in the esoteric writings of the Chaldeans, Egyptians, Aryans and Greeks.

          An ego, such as yours or mine,^[157] may be immortal from one round to the next (but will not continue to exist as a personality for all eternity). Suppose, for example, that I, as Kut Humi, attain my personal immortality in this fourth round of ours, i.e. after I have become a perfect adept (which is not yet the case^[158]), then I can stay the hand of death by the power of my will, and if I must finally submit to it, my knowledge of the laws of nature enables me to hold onto my consciousness and the perception of my individual existence as an object of my knowledge, and thus avoid the fragmentation of the principles which usually takes place after physical death. I then remain as Kut Humi in my ego through the whole series of births and lives in the seven worlds and arupa-locas [arūpa lokas] until I then reappear on earth among the men of the fifth race in the fifth round.^[159]

          In this case I would be “immortal” for a period of time that is incomprehensible to you, covering many billions of years; but would I also be immortal forever? — If I do not then make another effort of will to obtain another vacation from nature (to retain my personality as K. H.), then “Kut Humi” will disappear and become someone else instead.

          However, there are people who attain (personal) immortality for all subsequent rounds and then take their place among the highest Dhyan Chohans, the planetary angels. Of course, the Monad never perishes.^[160]

          By “destruction” we do not mean the destruction of the divine monad, but rather the final loss of all the characteristics it has acquired on its path of evolution. The monad, robbed of everything, would no longer be a human being, but would have to start its journey again through the lowest kingdoms of nature, through the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms, in order to work its way back up to human existence on some planet after billions of years. The monad does not die, but the human being it has abandoned does.

          Not all the “co-workers in evil” (people who have become devilish) are immediately destroyed in the eighth sphere. (There is also an “immortality” or rather longevity in the evil spirit, as in the good). Certain personalities continue in this world of (spiritless) matter in various material forms for an unthinkably long time before they return to the state of primordial matter; but an immediate destruction would be far preferable to such a terrible existence and its torments.

         “When, as a result of a continued vicious life, abominable crimes, and animal passions, a disembodied soul has sunk to the eighth sphere—the allegorical Hades or “Gehenna” of the Bible—which is nearest to our earth, it may, by virtue of a trace of reason and conscience left in it, “repent,” that is, such a spirit may, by means of the willpower it still has, strive upwards and, like a drowning man, rise once more to the surface. A strong desire to remove its misery, an explicit wish, may draw it once more into the atmosphere of the earth, and, in accordance with its instincts, it will eagerly seek to come into contact with living persons. . . Such “spirits” are the invisible but all too sensible magnetic vampires and subjective demons, well known to certain sensitives, clairvoyants, and mediums, and which are the causes of possession.”^[161]

          The fate of those who died prematurely as victims of accident is different from that of those who committed suicide, who, while in full possession of their mental faculties, sought death in order to escape punishment for a crime. The person who has suffered an accident, for example, a man killed in war or drowned in a shipwreck, is not responsible for his death. Even if his misfortune was the result of some act he committed in his previous life (a result of the karma he created), his present personality is not to blame for it and had he lived longer, he could have atoned for the sins of the previous incarnation in a different way. The Dhyan Chohans take such a helpless victim under their protection after he has been forcibly pushed out of his element and forced into a new one before he has attained the necessary maturity for it. We tell you this because we know it; for we have learned it through our own personal experience.

          Such sacrifices, whether good or bad, sleep and do not awaken until the “Day of Judgement,” i.e., in the hour when the great struggle between the higher and lower principles takes place at the entrance to the germinal period.^[162] Even then it can still happen that when the seventh and sixth principles have entered their Akasa [ākāśa] Samadhi [samādhi] with a part of the fifth, the discarded spiritual part of the fifth is too weak to be born in Devachan and then immediately clothes itself with a new body in order to begin a new earthly career on this or another planet.

          Among men who have bad habits, there are few who are convinced that they are shortening their lives by doing so. Their vices will bring punishment, but it is not the effect but the cause that is punished. (The intention determines the moral worth or worthlessness of the act.) A man who dies in a storm at sea is no more a suicide than a scholar who contracts a brain disease through too much study. No one should take a bath for fear of fainting and suffocating, and no one should sacrifice his life for the good of mankind. The intention is everything. Punishment is always in direct proportion to responsibility. In the victim of an accident, the natural life span has been inadvertently shortened by sudden death; the rational suicide ends his life intentionally, although he knows the immediate consequences. On the other hand, someone who takes his own life in a fit of madness is not responsible for it; he will not be a prey to the temptations of Kama loca [kāma loka], but will sleep like the other victims. A Gulteau,^[163] for example, will not remain in the earth’s atmosphere with his higher principles inactive and paralyzed. He has entered into a state during which he repeatedly shoots the President, thereby confusing the destinies of millions of people. Also, in this dream life he will be repeatedly condemned and executed, and will be surrounded by the reflections of his deeds and thoughts; especially of his last feelings and ideas on the scaffold.

          As for the victims of cholera, plague, yellow fever, etc., they would not have died of such diseases had they not been born with the seeds of their development (the ability to be infected).

          From the above it is clear that the great majority of the physical phenomena of spiritualists cannot be attributed to the spirits of deceased people, and that even the spiritualistic messages, insofar as they do not come from suicides and black magicians, have completely different causes than the spirits (manes) of the deceased.^[164]

          The spirits of reasonably good people who have died a natural death remain in the earth’s atmosphere for a period of time ranging from a few days to a few years, until they are ready for their next destiny. We can spiritually ascend to them, but they do not usually descend to us.

          The fact that at a spiritualist meeting the alleged spirit of a deceased person can make information about things known only to those present is no proof of its identity with the deceased personality; for certain spirits have the power to read the souls of those present, to recognize their thoughts and to convey them in a mediumistic way. Nor is the unctuous speech of a spirit proof of the loftiness of its character; for any trained comedian can make unctuous speeches. One can preach morality and at the same time be very immoral oneself. I know of a Dugpa^[165] Shaman in my neighborhood who moves people to tears in the morning with his sermons on conversion, but in the evening gets drunk and hypnotizes and steals from the villagers.^[166]

          Unless you have a particularly strong desire for the continuation of your personality, you need not worry about Devachan or Avitchi [avīci]. If one does not love or hate strongly, one will not enter Devachan or Avitchi [avīci]. Nature “spits out the lukewarm ones from her mouth.”^[167] This means that she causes their personal “ego” (not the larvae and not the sixth principle) to disappear in Kama loca [kāma loka] and Devachan. But this will not prevent them from being reborn immediately, and if the life of such a personality was a very bad one, there is no reason why the eternal monad should not find the page in the book of life corresponding to it empty.^[168]

 K. H.

(Sequel follows.)

[Begin: [10] Confidential Communications from the Province of the Tibetan Master [Vertrauliche Mitteilungen aus den Kreisen der tibetanischen Meister. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 4, no. 3-4 (March-April 1911), 87-98]

Confidential communications from the circles of

Tibetan masters.

With notes.

(Continued.)

(End.)

“The Evolution of Humanity on the Planets.”

          Humanity as a whole evolves into seven major or “root” races, each of which in turn has seven minor or subdivisions. Besides these forty-nine races there are offshoots of the smaller ones. In all the kingdoms of nature the development of forms proceeds according to a definite rule, which is based on the number seven.^[169] In the development of humanity as a whole, as with each individual, there is a final (spiritual) peak and a lowest (material) state, a descending and an ascending arc of evolution.^[170]

          The spirit is transformed into “matter,” that is, it enters the state called “matter” when it descends into material existence. Matter does not ascend to spirit, but on the ascending arc of spiritualization it becomes spirit again. People who have reached a higher stage are naturally more ethereal than those who belong to the next lower stage, just as such a progression in development takes place in each round. In our present fourth round, the physical, material nature of man is most developed, and since the earthly intellect is a veiled manifestation of the spiritual intelligence (the ego), the intellect of our material generation is also greater than that of those people whose nature was still more ethereal. On the other hand, our descendants on the ascending arc of evolution will have a higher type of intelligence combined with spiritual intuition.^[171]

          The people of the first race of the first round were thus ethereal beings, not intellectual but “super-spiritual,” and in each of the subsequent races and their subdivisions they are more and more embodied or densified. Their ethereal bodies take on the forms that correspond to their environment.

          In the second round, their appearances are still gigantic and ethereal; but more condensed. They are more spiritual than intelligent because the mind develops more slowly than the physical organism and its development has more obstacles to overcome.

          In the third round, the organism has a completely condensed and solid form. At first it resembles a giant ape, and it is more “intellectual,” or more properly “cunning,” than spiritual; for in his descent into matter he has reached a point where his original spirituality is overpowered and obscured by the emerging newborn intellect.

          During the last half of this round, his giant body decreases in size; his organism is more developed; he is beginning to become a rational being, but is still more of an ape-like creature than a god-like human.

          The fourth round (our current one) is particularly devoted to the development of the mind, which reaches its climax in the middle of this round. By that time the world will be filled with the results of intellectual activity and spirituality (religious consciousness) will decline. This is when humanity is at its lowest stage in our smaller manvantaric cycle on its descent into matter and the ascension begins. In the first half of this round, science, art, literature, and philosophy flourish; Inventions are made, civilization advances among different peoples; in some the development increases, in others it decreases^[172]; but in the second half of the fourth round the serious struggle of the higher self with the lower (with sensuality and reason) will take place to reveal its higher powers. Blessed is the one who stands on the side of the higher in this fight and helps him to victory.

          In the fifth round there is a continuation of this development and this struggle.^[173]

          We don’t need to discuss the fifth and sixth rounds for the time being.^[174]

          There is no Dhyan Chohan who has not previously been a material man walking in his physical body, and no one needs to wait for the end of the seventh round to become an angel. When Buddha, the highest of all adepts, attained Nirvana while still living on earth, he became a planetary angel; that is, his soul could roam the regions of the starry heaven with full consciousness, and yet retain its abode in the physical body; for the divine Self had completely freed itself from the bonds of materialism, and could create in its body, as it were, a representative for itself; so that if the divine soul was absent from the body for days, weeks, and even years, it produced no change in that body, nor in its vital principle, nor in the intelligence of the personality. This is the highest kind of adeptship that we can attain on this earth; but it is as rare as the Buddhas. The last to attain it was Tsong-Ka-Pa [Tib. Tsong-kha-pa], the reformer of Lamaism. There are many who break through the shell of the egg (which imprisons them); but few who can fully use their occult powers when outside the physical body. Living in full consciousness in the realm of spirit is as difficult for some as swimming is for many, although the ability to do so exists in everyone.

          A planetary spirit of this kind can enter and take possession of other more or less material bodies in other regions of the universe (our solar system) at will; but no adept is entitled to completely submit himself to the will of a weaker but nevertheless free-born human being. This is, however, a favorite occupation of the “Brothers of the Shadow,” the sorcerers, ghosts and demons.^[175] However, the highest planetary angels do exert their influence at certain times. For when, at the beginning of the emergence of a new race or a new cycle, their intervention in the life of humanity has become necessary in order to teach it anew eternal truths, such a one appears on the earth or the planet in question in order to make an impression on the plastic minds of the new race and to prevent the forgetting of the high teachings in subsequent generations.^[176] Such a planetary angel cannot err. (Such a one is a “savior of the world.”)

          The mission of a planetary spirit is to sound the keynote. When he has given the necessary direction to its vibrations so that they can continue until the end of the cycle of the new race, the messenger of the Supreme withdraws and disappears from the earth. The spiritual vibrations left behind are called by philosophers “innate ideas.”

          Every precious stone, every plant, every planet or star, every thing from the lowest, material, to the world as a whole, has its individual soul (its life and consciousness).^[177] The cycles (or rather “spiral courses”) of all forms of existence begin with the highest, spiritually perfect worlds or planets; they are formed from cosmic world substance (Akāsa [Ākāśa]). The evolution of man begins from this highly sublimated ether. There he appears as a completely ethereal (not spiritual) being; only somewhat less “ethereal” than the general spiritual world substance, the Anima Mundi. In this state he is not yet a man (in the usual sense of the word) but rather an active power, an inconceivable principle.^[178] On his descent into the material he is subject to various changes and the more he “materializes”, the more he becomes self-active.

          We may compare the starry world with its intellectual inhabitants to a circle or a chain of continuous rings. The journey of the human monad from beginning to end is called a Maha Yug [mahā yuga] or the great cycle, and as each planetary system has its own special circuit within its allotted sphere, these form the minor cycles or circuits. In consequence of the impulse implanted in it, the “planetary spirit” must descend before it can again begin to ascend, and at each stage of the descent the planet becomes more and more shadowy, denser and finally “material.” Each of these stages is, as it were, a stopping point, a rung on the ladder of evolution.

          On this descent the human soul takes on an ever-increasing material quality, and when it reaches our earth, spirit and matter are more or less in balance within the human being. When the lowest point is reached, the ascent begins. The material, insofar as it has separated itself from the spiritual, is taken up by the still lower worlds and finds its use in the mineral, plant or lowest animal kingdom, while the purified spiritual ego begins its journey to the higher worlds, from star to star, until it again becomes the planetary spirit, pure in the beginning, and then still higher to its destiny, the secret of which no human being can fathom.

K. H.

End of Confidential Communications

Notes

^[1] Confidential Communications from the Province of the Tibetan Master. [Vertrauliche Mitteilungen aus den Kreisen der tibetanischen Meister. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 2, no. 9-10 (September-October 1909), 278-279 [Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025]

^[2] [Robert Hutwohl—My comments usually are preceded by “R.H.” I have, for the most part, inserted in square brackets, the more scholarly form of Sanskrit and Tibetan terms after Dr. Hartmann’s insertions. For many people, this form may be more widely recognizable today, whereas back during Dr. Hartmann’s day, the transliteration style was only in the process of being fully solidified as an international style. When I insert a scholarly form of Sanskrit, it is always or should be typed as all lower case letters, as there is no capital letter in the Sanskrit language. Same for Tibetan. The international transliteration form does use capital letters, which is of course, a modern conventionalization. The Tibetan language contains a lot of silent and spoken letters, whereas Japanese is a very phonetic language, meaning all letters are pronounced.]

^[3] [R.H.—Any notes by me are within square brackets and may be preceded by: “R.H.”.

            The endnotes by Dr. Franz Hartmann are not within any brackets. He frequently used Christian terminology and references from the Christian Bible, Jakob Böhme, Schopenhauer and the Bhagavad Gītā. For a person who knows that the Bible is highly esoteric and has a hidden meaning throughout, this will not be a problem at all. All Christians should be reading the Bible esoterically. Dr. Hartmann wrote his journals for the highly Christian German nation but from an esoteric standpoint. Hartmann had a specific reason in that he wanted to make comparisons in order to show the Ancient Wisdom was apparent everywhere, in all the ancient religious cultures and the broad-minded Theosophist will know this. For newcomers, it may take some time to see this. For fundamentalists, whether Buddhist or Christian, they are probably not reading this serious study, yet, as they have not overcome their bias and have not recognized Theosophy or the Ancient Wisdom teachings are universal. A case in point: The Being known today as the World Bodhisattva, is known as Maitreya, the coming Buddha-to-be for the next Root Race. That same being incarnated during the past as the Egyptian Hermes, as the Hindu Krishna, and as the Christian Christ and forthcoming as the Buddha; for the Buddha is a representative as an office for all human beings, regardless of their religious affiliation. Every root-race and sub-race has been associated with such a World Bodhisattva and World Buddha. As the reader will see here in these teachings, they are universal even though they are given out by Tibetan and Hindu teachers, since their world-view is Humanity and not a specific racial or religio-philosophical type.]

            Because Hartmann’s publication into German of the English letters from H.P.B. took place about 3 years prior to his demise in August 1912 and even more years before the first English versions made their appearance, it is probable his notes will be even more insightful for the reader after many years of life experiences. Those students who have read and studied the Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, particularly the content from “Philosophical & Theoretical Teachings” of which Hartmann’s letters are the same content and order (for the most part, as some from the Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, are not included by Dr. Hartmann there will surely be variances in the process of translating from English to German and back to English again, by me. It would have been too time-consuming for me to go back to the original English letters which first appeared in magazine form (Lucifer), partially in A. P. Sinnett’s The Occult World in 1881 and more fully in 1923. Nevertheless, Dr. Hartmann and a few others were privileged to be the first to read the original letters before they came before the English-reading public in the Lucifer magazine by H. P. B. And as Dr. Hartmann says early on in this ten-part series, if it were not for the fact that his copies were misplaced, he probably would have published them much earlier. But at least the German readership got to read some of the letters in more complete form before the English readers. I have decided to translate this ten-part series mainly because Dr. Hartmann may have added insights never given in the Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, as I think it is worth the effort, since this material was published by Dr. Hartmann about 3 years before his death.

            Also, translated herewith are questions given to T. Subba Rao, of which the answers are given by him, indicated by the initials S.R.

            Further, Dr. Hartmann did not indicate quoted text, by other writers from his own. Usually this would be indicated by text point size differences. I believe I have caught all the quoted material and indicated it in smaller size, whereas Dr. Hartmann’s was in larger size. So, please forgive me if I overlooked some, as he did not place K.H. or Morya’s comments in quotation marks.

^[4] See: F. Hartmann. “Among the Adepts.” Page 1.

^[5] See: F. Hartmann. “White and Black Magic.”

^[6] When the sun shines on a field and is only moistened by rain, all the germs contained in it, useful plants as well as poisonous plants, grow upwards. It is similar with the human soul when the light of the spirit penetrates into its inner being. Then appearances and hypocrisy disappear; there the hidden is revealed. A devil as well as a god can appear there; therefore the attainment of occult powers is a dangerous thing for anyone who cannot control himself, and the higher one rises the lower one often falls.

^[7] This is the purpose of every “theosophical association.” Everything else only offers the means to do so.

^[8] It is well known that in a dream one can experience things in a moment that would take a lifetime to carry out in a waking state.

^[9] That is why the bad memories in kama loca [kāma loka] (“purgatory”) can also be extinguished earlier if they are not refreshed again in a spiritistic way, and the soul freed from this goes into the higher sphere, accompanied by its nobler feelings and ideas from which it creates its own heaven.

^[10] The imagination which springs from the brain is soulless; living power lies only in what the human being feels in the heart.

^[11] Thus the Logos (Chrestos) the “only begotten Son of God” is himself God and one with the “Father,” yet not “God” in his aspect as “Father.” In spirit-born man he is that in him as personality revealed God; his true, divine Self. See John I. 1–14. — Colossians I. 27. — I. Corinthians XV. 53–55. etc.

^[12] In order to avoid misunderstandings, we must learn to distinguish between the heavenly part of the soul (Budhi Manas [buddhi manas]) and the earthly part of the same (Kama Manas) [kāma manas]; likewise between the divine mind (Atma) [ātmā] and the terrestrial intellect, which is a product of the earth mind, which arose through a reflection of the divine mind and consequently an illusion as it were.

^[13] Answers to specific questions.

^[14] [R.H.—A considerable amount of descriptions about avīci can be found in my translation from the French, a doctoral dissertation about the oldest Buddhist cosmological treatise, to be published on my spiritofthesunpublications.com website:

            Denis, Eugéne, La Lokapaññatti et les idées cosmologiques du bouddhisme ancien. Tome I, II, III. Lille, Université de Lille; Paris, H. Champion, 1977 [The Lokapaññatti and the Cosmological Ideas of Ancient Buddhism.] ]

^[15] Confidential Communications from the Province of the Tibetan Master. [Vertrauliche Mitteilungen aus den Kreisen der tibetanischen Meister. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 2, no. 11-12 (November-December 1909), 323-348.] [Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025]

^[16] Without the consciousness of “I am I,” man would be different every day.

^[17] The celestial soul receives from each personality what is appropriate to its celestial nature. Every thing ultimately returns to its origin, the divine to God, the animal to the animal kingdom, earth to earth. Immortality is attained by man becoming conscious of his divine nature.

^[18] The end of the disciple of “black magic” is annihilation. Since the soul, after leaving the body, enters that with which it is spiritually connected, such a corrupt soul unites with a devilish inhabitant of the astral plane corresponding to its nature and ultimately perishes with him. See Bhagavad Gita. Chapter 8, verse 6.

^[19] The soul, liberated from the delusion of self-delusion and its related illusions, is a divine center of wisdom (light, life and love, intelligence, and bliss).

^[20] Reincarnation is not to be confused with transmigration of souls. It is as if a light were kindled from another flame, a fire caused by another, a thought born of another thought. For more details, see, e.g. as found in the “Buddhistischen Evangelium” [“Buddhist Gospel”] (Karl Seidenstücker, Leipzig).

^[21] Just as a wave in the sea as a wave is different from the sea and yet essentially one with it, so the Logos is also different from Parabrahm and yet one with him. Compare, John X. 3. — IX. 5. — XII. 44. — XX. 17. etc.

^[22] Galatians II, 20.

^[23] J. Böhme. “Menschwerdung” [Incarnation].

^[24] I. Corinthians XV, 39 and following.

^[25] Compare I. Corinthians XIII, 28.

^[26] Angelus Silesius. “Der cherubimische Wandersmann.” [The Cherubic Wanderer]

^[27] [R.H.—ākāśa is the intermediate medium responsible for the communication between the planets and the stars. This is how the star Sirius, for example, can affect our own humanity in remarkable ways but is not recognized by western thought. This is why astrology, at least the western variety, is not fully understood. Constellational astrology, from Hindu studies, is more correct. Until western studies accept the existence of ākāśa, as taught by the Buddhist, Jain and Hindu systems, their calculations will never be “right on.”]

^[28] See Leadbeater. “The Human Aura.”

^[29] In my “Denkwürdigen Erinnerungen” [Memorable Memoirs] I have described some of the always successful attempts at telepathy, which for a time were carried out weekly between Hallein in Austria and Philadelphia in America.

^[30] Every thinking reader will find that from these hints a number of practically applicable conclusions can be drawn with regard to the phenomena of hypnotism, suggestion, communication with the living and the dead, mediumship, magic, etc., as well as with regard to the influence of psychological states and the power of the mind over the body.

^[31] So it can happen that a sensitive person anticipates a future event, e.g., anticipates an earthquake without having attained a particularly higher level of spiritual development. The external appearances in nature are the visible effects of invisible causes that have come about in the astral soul of the world and can be felt spiritually. Animals are often much more receptive to such impressions than humans. It is well known that even before the great volcanic eruption of Monte Pelée, the domestic animals were striving to leave the area, while the scholars publicly announced on the day before the event that cost the lives of many thousands that there was no danger.

^[32] The vibrations thus generated in the nerve ether of the brain through the association of ideas can propagate to the odic aura which surrounds man and produce objective images there. This explains some otherwise puzzling ghostly apparitions (but not all), e.g. Perhaps the following: Mr. Hempson was walking near the monastery of Rochampton; Suddenly, without his having seen her before, a nun came up to him and asked him: “Are you Mr. Alfred Hempson?” — “No, Alfred Hempson is my brother,” answered the person. Then the nun nodded her head three times like a pagoda, and at that moment Mr. Hempson saw to his horror that the nun’s face was a death’s head. A cold shiver ran over him; but then he laughed at his “imagination” that fooled him into such stupid things. The nun had disappeared. When he got home he found a telegram. It notified to him that his brother had just died.

^[33] Before the invention of wireless telegraphy, it would have been very daring to say so publicly.

^[34] Such a case is described in the “Neuen [Neue] Lotusblüten” Volume I, page 55.

^[35] Countless instances of such living appearances could be given; however, we lack the space for this, and we refer to the literature of Spiritism and the Society for Psychical Research.

^[36] [Begin notes to Neue Lotusblüten 3, no. 1-2 (January-February 1910), 5-27.

            The following are notes taken from questions answered orally by T. Subba Row Garu, a Brahmin and skilled occultist who was H. P. Blavatsky’s adviser.]

^[37] [R.H.—Located at southernmost Russia.]

^[38] [R.H.—The Kuen-Lun or Kun-lun mountain ranges, one of the longest in Asia, run 2,000 miles along the northern edge of the great Tibetan plateau, south of the Tarim Basin in Central Asia, at the Takla Makan desert and the Gobi Desert. An older description included the area of central China.]

^[39] [R.H.—Chinese mythology describes this area as the birthplace and ancestral home of the Chinese nation.]

^[40] [R.H.—As it is asserted, this is the location of the Lord of the World, Who goes by many names but the most noted is Sanat Kumāra, or identified as The Ancient of Days in the Christian Bible, or the Great Initiator, who was the Chief Kumāra sent to earth from Venus. He has assistant Kumāras. For this reason, the location of the Personages there, are protected by special elementals, from being discovered. In other words, the elementals prevent any accidental discovery by making the Personages invisible, although They do not have physical bodies, the outermost being made of etheric matter only which is matter just beyond the gaseous physical.]

^[41] [R.H.—C. W. Leadbeater has written much about this, as well as has The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky and the Alice A. Bailey books. The peoples of this first sub-race of the 5th Root-race were “incubated” by Vaivasvata Manu for tens of thousands of years before the occupants emigrated outward through various waves. To develop a new sub-race or root race, many generations are required for recombination from previous genetic material. So-called alien intervention is not required or necessary. This process involved the genetic recombination from the genetic material of the 5th sub-race of the Atlantean race. The Atlantean root-raced was developed from the human genetic material of the 4th sub-race of the Lemurian race. Leadbeater, Besant, Bailey and Blavatsky have provided much food for thought on this topic.]

^[42] [R.H.—Dhyan Chohans are the protectors of humanity.

They are, according to the New and Revised Second Edition, 1930, 463, the opposite of the Māmo Chohans, the latter whose “Law is darkness, ignorance, destruction etc. as that of the former is Light, knowledge and creation. The Dhyan Chohans answer to Buddh, Divine Wisdom and Life in blissful knowledge, and the Ma-mos are the personification in nature of Shiva [worshiped in norther India], Jehovah [worshiped by Christians and Jews] and other invented monsters with Ignorance at their tail).”

I have yet to determine the source for this Sanskrit-Tibetan compound word. We know dhyān is a Sanskrit word, not a Tibetan word. But the word “Chohan” is yet to be sourced.]

^[43] [R.H.—“But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.”]

^[44] [R.H.—All of the bodies or vehicles of consciousness of a human being are strung together, even during sleep, by the sūtra-ātma, Sanskrit for the thread-Self or silver chord. It is during post-mortem life, the silver chord begins to sever, beginning with the physical and transcending to the subtle regions of the etheric, desire or kāma rūpa and mental body. The thread-self is tripartite, being connected to the brain (the consciousness-thread), heart (the life-thread) and the creative-thread situated at the throat]

^[45] [R.H.—Faustus. A Dramatic Mystery; The Bride of Corinth; The First Walpurgis Night. Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Translated by John Anster. London, 1835.]

^[46] [R.H.—Dr. Franz Hartmann, early on, had access to the A. O. Hume and A. P. Sinnett “Cosmological Notes.” as well as the earliest “Mahatma Letters.” As the Dr. says at the beginning of this collection of articles, he misplaced them for many years but was able to finally compile the information and translated from English to German. It is fortunate for us that he did because after his death, his belongings such as his library and collection of original writings, were scattered to the four winds. I am retranslating from German back to English the said work. In this series of documents which I have done, the German by Dr. Hartmann has been deleted so that it will be shorter and less tedious for the English reader who may not know the German language.

The following are from original notes by A. P. Sinnett, in September 1881. See: https://theosophy.wiki/en/Cosmological_Notes

In addition, in print: “Cosmological Notes from A. P. Sinnett’s MS., book, see: Appendix II, pages 376-386 in The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett and Other Miscellaneous Letters. Transcribed, Compiled, and with an Introduction by A. T. Barker. Pasadena, California: Theosophical University Press, 1973.

As an additional resource, see the very thorough book by David Reigle and Nancy Reigle, Blavatsky’s Secret Books, in particular, Notes on Cosmological Notes, p. 57 and the tabulations on pp. 62-etc.]

^[47] [R.H.—Tibetan, pronounced gyu, written rgyud = རྒྱུད་. (The r and d are silent, but the d modifies the previous “u” by restricting the vowel sound, like the u in the word surprise.). Sanskrit, saṃtāna = tantra (to warp), or continuum, mental continuum. The sanskrit word tantra, consists some of the most occult works available, as well as withdrawn, being the Buddha’s original teachings on highly occult subjects, i.e., metaphysics, medicine, etc. and so rgyud is a likely candidate. Das, Sarat Chandra, A Tibetan-English dictionary, with special reference to the prevailing dialects., p. 318; Jäschke (1866), p. 45, “to warp; Jäschke (1881), p. 112; Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary. The Uma Institute, p. 121. The “mi” is, if used as a negation should precede the word it negates, therefore its position puzzles me. The compound does not appear in the Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary. The Uma Institute, which is the most comprehensive dictionary I have. However the negative, if it is a negative, does help define “non-real knowledge as given in the text. The Reigle’s Blavatsky’s Secret Books, believes the word which Blavatsky uses, it “Dgyu. See page 66 of that book.]

^[48] [R.H.—This word’s source has yet to be found. Even if it was a word brought down from Atlantean vocabulary, we would think there would be found some cognates in European, Asiatic or middle eastern components. As a separate paper, I have been working on the problem but it is not finished at the time of this writing for me to enter into its discussion.

^[49] [R.H.—Tibetan, “mi” functions here, as a negative particle, which is used with present tense stem words. There are three other negative particles, not relevant here. The Tibetan “mi” is equivalent to the Sanskrit negative particle, “na.” But the position of the negative particle, “mi” in a sentence, always precedes or the word being negated and is called a negative prefix syllable. Therefore the use of a negative in the compound dGyu-mi is not clear.

^[50] [R.H.—See previous second note.]

^[51] [R.H.—Tibetan, dwaṅs-ma, དྭངས་མ་, pronounced “tang ma.” The ད་ (da) by itself is pronounced “ta” and with the subscribed ྭ (wa) as a subscribed sound, there is no substantial sound changed to the basic letter, known as a radical or root letter. Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary (2016), p. 338, has as the definition, dwangs-ma as: “main, clear.” However this compound has an esoteric meaning, which this dictionary does not recognize. Note, the Tibetan guttural ṅ, ང་, has two ways to write in Tibetan in dictionaries: “ng” or “ṅ.” dwaṅs-ma, is found in the older 1886 first edition, A Tibetan-English dictionary, with special reference to the prevailing dialects. To which is added an English-Tibetan vocabulary. Jäschke (1881) on p. 18. He defines it as “the purified soul (seldom [used]).” This appears to me to be the dictionary H. P. Blavatsky used to define this word as she uses the exact expression. The words also appear in the later, more complete Jäschke (1881), A Tibetan-English dictionary, with special reference to the prevailing dialects, p. 249, as dwaṅs-pa (དྭངས་པ་) with the definition: “the spirit, the soul.” The A Tibetan-English Dictionary with Sanskrit Synonyms. Sarat Chandra Das, 1902 has dwaṅs on p. 616 as the more common definition as an adjective, sparkling, pure, clean, clear.

^[52] [R.H.—Tibetan, ཆགས་, chags, pronounced chak (long “a”), meaning to become, to form, to desire. See, Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary (2016), p. 184; With the compound chags-pa, “to originate, spring into existence.” See, Jäschke (1866), p. 11. ཆགས་, chags ▪ rāga; āsaṅga; lobha; sajjate, to desire; to become; to form; formed; having; desire; attachment. Jäschke (1881), p. 153, gives: produced, as the fetus is; to rise, arise, spring up, originate, to come forth, to appear.]

^[53] [R.H.—There are frequent phonetic particulars when speaking the Tibetan language if you are a non-native speaker. Here, the compound “Thyan-kam” is not found in any Tibetan dictionary I have of about thirty. The syllable or word, “Thyan” does not appear in the Tibetan language, because the subscript “y” applies to set rules, which is only subscribed to seven letters: kya [ཀྱ་], khya  [ཁྱ་], gya [གྱ་], pya [པྱ་], phya [ཕྱ་], bya [བྱ] and mya [མྱ], with the addition of the letter “n” to the word. There are special grammatical rules which apply to these combinations when using the “y” as a subscript, here in particular because there is no prefix. Therefore, these seven would be, based on these special grammatical rules, pronounced as in red (appearing after the = symbol):

gyā [ཀྱ་] = gyā (the line or macron over the vowel indicates an upward pitch),

khyā [ཁྱ་] = khyā;

kya [གྱ་] = kya; (the line indicates a downward sound to the “a”);

pya [ཅ་] = ja;

phya [ཕྱ་] = ཆ་, chā;

bya [བྱ་] = ཇ་ [ca];

mya [མྱ] = ཉ་ [nya].

            Thus, we can see a subscribed “y” would not appear with a “th”. Until the original word can be resolved, but because of phonetic confusion when German is trying to pronounce a Tibetan word, another possibility is the compounded word is Dhyan-kam, however, the word Dhyan is not found in Tibetan, only in Sanskrit. Furthermore, these rules even differently if there happens to be a prefix and/or surmount which is also present to the base letter + y of this condition. Without seeing the full Tibetan word, one will not know. The Secret Doctrine has used the Sanskrit word Dhyan on many occasions. Kam however is not a common Sanskrit word other than its use from the root, kam, to make. Thus, getting back to the use of Thyan,  “Thyan-kam” “is the power or knowledge of guiding the impulses of cosmic energy in the right direction.” See The Secret Doctrine I, p. 635 could apply.]

^[54] Compare Schopenhauer. “Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung.” [“The World as Will and Representation.”]

^[55] [R.H.—Pralaya is the Sanskrit word for the withdrawal or rest of the cycle of manifestation. Every cycle of manifestation has its cycle of rest, whether that cycle be great or small.]

^[56] [R.H.—Tibetan, བྱང་ bodhi, bodha [purified-realized]; enlightenment.]

^[57] [R.H.—Tibetan, བྱང་མི་, byang mi, prounounced cang-mi. Byang by itself can mean purify, cleanse, north, later. Meaning, with the negative particle “mi = not”: bodhi, bodha [purified-realized]; enlightenment.]

^[58] [R.H.— Jäschke (1866), p. 4: བར་སྣང་ bar snang. Pronounced: par-nang. Meaning: The airy space above the surface of the earth, the space of the atmosphere. (See: Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary (2016), p. 508: Intermediate space; intermediate realm; air firmament.

^[59] [R.H.—Sanskrit, ākāśa ; The standard and most used Tibetan word correlating to the Sanskrit is nam mkha’ (ནམ་མཁའ་). The Tibetan compound, bar snaṅ (བར་སྣང་), means “the airy space above the surface of the earth, the space of the atmosphere.” So, obviously written bar snaṅ and pronounced par nang, has an esoteric meaning more in the sense of an etheric or subtle region to the three lower subplanes of the physical plane, as well as an exoteric or standard use. This word, compounded, appears in the very early Tibetan dictionary, Romanized Tibetan and English Dictionary. 1866, page 4. (My copy of this very old Tibetan dictionary is a high resolution digital scan which I made from an original printed book on loan to me from the University of California Southern Regional Library.) Also see, A Tibetan-English Dictionary with Sanskrit Synonyms. Sarat Chandra Das. Revised and Edited under the orders of the Government of Bengal by Graham Sandberg and A. William Heyde. Calcutta, Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, 1902, page 866, which has the definition: “intermediate space, that which lies or comes between, that which intervenes.” Further useful dictionaries for checking terms were Mahāvyutpatti. Sanskrit-Tibetan-English Vocabulary. Text in three parts. By Alexander Csoma de Kőrös, Part I–III. Calcutta 1910, 1916,1944; Sanskrit-Tibetan-English Vocabulary. Being an edition and translation of Mahāvyutpatti. (Collected works of Alexander Csoma De Körös) Alexander Csoma De Körös. Akademiai Kiado (1984); Essay Towards a Dictionary, Tibetan and English. Csoma de Körös Calcutta, Baptist Mission Press, 1834 pdf [Organized by first Tibetan letter (not root letter). Created in Ladakh (and possibly also Sikkim).]; Denison Ross, E. (1910) (eds with Vidyābhusana, Satis Chandra); Tibetan-Sanskrit dictionary. J. S. Negi. Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies. 1993; Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary. Lokesh Chandra. Kyoto, Rinsen Book Company, 1976; A Tibetan-English Dictionary with Sanskrit Synonyms. Das 1902; Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary. The Uma Institute for Tibetan Studies, May 2016 online edition.

            As with later entries to the above references, I will use these shortened abbreviations:

Csoma de Körös (1834)

Jäschke (1866)

Jäschke (1881)

Desgodins (1899)

Das (1902)

            I have about 30 Tibetan and Sanskrit dictionaries but have tried to consult the older, Blavatsky-era ones.

The three oldest Tibetan dictionaries in the west listed bibliographically are:

Csoma de Körös, Alexander (1834). Essay towards a dictionary, Tibetan and English. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press. [Alexander began work on the dictionary 1827-1830 while staying “at Kanam, in the Himalaya Mountains.) Organized by the first Tibetan letter (not by the root letter in a word, as most dictionaries do.). Created in Ladakh (and possibly also Sikkim.

Jaeschke [Jäschke], H. A. (1866) (1881). Romanized Tibetan and English Dictionary. Mor Missionary. Kyelang in British Lahoul, Tibetan. [Handwritten entries, with errors. For instance, I found he entered a “pa” when it should have been a “ba” for a prefix. This was an important dictionary source.

Desgodins, Auguste (1899). Dictionnaire thibétain-latin-français par les missionnaires catholiques du Thibet. Hongkong, [He began work in 1852 in Kham (near Batang) but it was published in 1899. (Typesetting was started in Hong Kong in 1894.) [Handwritten entries, with errors. For instance, I found he entered a “pa” when it should have been a “ba” for a prefix.]

^[60] [R.H.—See: The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett and Other Miscellaneous Letters, “Appendix II, Cosmological Notes from A. P. Sinnett’s MS. Book,” which lists in columnar form, Man as microcosm and the universe as macrocosm, for the Tibetan, Sanskrit and English terms, on page 378. The fact that Dr. Hartmann did not call this in question indicates he did not know Tibetan.]

^[61] [R.H.—German and English phonetics can be quite different, hence the spellings for the German and the English are noted to be different. To correct this, I am referring to Sinnett’s original MS. notes: See “Cosmological Notes” sources above and thus, I am overriding the German spelling which is at times very inaccurate, mainly because of the phonetics issues between the two languages, which is understandable.]

^[62] [R.H.—sku (སྐུ་), pronounced “gu” with a progressive up-pitch, with the s being silent. Physical or bodily basis. Thus, Sinnett misunderstood. See page 57 right column, Romanized Tibetan and English Dictionary]

^[63] [R.H.—rūpa]

^[64] It can be said that the human body consists largely of (bound) air, because it is mainly composed of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon compounds.

^[65] [R.H.—Romanized Tibetan and English Dictionary gives on page 150, version I: zer, written as ཟེར་, which Jaeschke defines as “ray, beam.” But in Tibetan there are also the definitions, although not applicable here, rlung (རླུང་), or srog (pronounced, sok. Sinnett’s table gives the definition as “vital ray.” Here, we can see the German usage of Ter is quite different from Zer, which is a problem.]

^[66] [R.H.—In Tibetan, ཆ་རླུང་. The “wind body,” in Tibetan, rlung–lus. In Tibetan, the compound Chhu-lung would be water-air. Jaeschke gives, on page 15, “chhu” as water: ཆུ་. Thus, one needs to consider Sinnett’s Chhu-lung as a compound word. Jaeschke gives, on page 76, lung as wind or air. He actually gives the full compound expression, Chhu-lung on the same page 76 as “air of the body, such as one of the 3 [Indic] humors. Thus, he writes in Tibetan, chhu-lúng, as ཆ་ཀླུང་. And, on p. 786 Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary. The Uma Institute for Tibetan Studies: ཀླུང་, rlung, as wind element, Sanskrit, vāyu.]

^[67] [R.H.—In Tibetan, ng is “I”. Nga-Zhi is a compound Tibetan word. Jaeschke gives on page 86, “nga” (Tibetan, written as ང་) as “I” and Zhi (Tibetan written as གཞི་ on page 155 as either, 1. ground; 3. origin, cause). Sinnett, p. 378 has Nga-Zhi defined as “essence of Action”. In man as Kama-rupa (kāma-rūpa), English as Will-form.”]

^[68] Manas (the mind) is part to both lower and higher influences, and man can surrender to and be absorbed in one or the other. That is why one speaks of “two souls”; but the soul is like a magnet that has two poles. The earthly attracts them, the divine lifts them up. [R.H.—There is no “ngi” in any Tibetan dictionary which I have of significance other than ngi = the number 34 found on p. 352 of A Tibetan-English Dictionary with Sanskrit Synonyms. Sarat Chandra Das. Rev. and Ed. by Graham Sandberg and A. William Heyde. Calcutta, Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, 1902.]

^[69] [R.H.—Sinnett’s: “Lana. Sem-Nyed,” two Tibetan words (one compounded). Thus, བླ་ན་, bLa-na, see Romanized Tibetan and English Dictionary (1866) gives on page 70, “above.” For སེམས་, sems is “soul, mind”. See Romanized Tibetan and English Dictionary, (1866) p. 106. For “sem-nyíd, see Romanized Tibetan and English Dictionary (1866) gives on page 106, སེམས་ཉིད་, sems nyid as “the very soul, the spirit. See Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary (2016), p. 847: “intrinsic mind; basic mind. Thus, placing all words together, we have: “higher soul or higher mind.” just as Dr. Hartmann defines it.]

^[70] Not every human being is sufficiently developed to be conscious of his immortal part, and personal immortality is unthinkable without the awakening of this higher consciousness. Because a possession that one is not aware of has no value for the owner.

^[71] [R.H.—Dr. Hartmann used “ii” for ü; the correct Tibetan word is lhun grub, written ལྷུན་གྲུབ་, lhun grub (h is the base or root letter with a surmounted “l,”) pronounced, lhun = lhun and for grub = a semi-aspirated, low ṭup meaning, one of the skandhas or aggregates, mass, heap; entire compound meaning “spontaneity, there is nothing they can be directed to; does not turn towards; not turning towards an (external) object; impassive, miraculously produced; self-produced; produced; existing. Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary (2016), p. 886; In, Das (1902), p. 602. Sinnett, Appendix II has: Hlün Dhub, meaning “Self existing,  Mahatma,  Spirit.]

^[72] [R.H.—Sanskrit, Ātma]

^[73] [R.H.—See: Cosmological Notes, previous note.]

^[74] [R.H.—Tibetan, སེམས་ཅན་ sems can, pronounced sem can. Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary (2016), p. 842, gives the meaning as: sentient being; animals; Jäschke (1866), p. 106, gives the meaning “living being, animated creature”. Sinnett also has on page 378: Animated Universe, S. Sa [Tibetan]—earth, as an element. In the middle column: Brahm [Brahman]. The Universe; Prakrit [Prakṛti] = Matter. Iyam [Sanskrit word: Iyaṃ = This] = Earth. In the third column, he has: Organised Matter]

^[75] [R.H.—Prakṛti is the Sanskrit word for Matter, form worlds. See below word, Puruṣa]

^[76] [R.H.—Tibetan, གཞི་མ་ gzhi-ma, meaning, basis. See, Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary (2016), p. 672. Jäschke (1866), p. 155, which has the meaning  Sinnett adds to Zhihna, “Vital Soul” and the Sanskrit equivalent, “Purush” [Puruṣa] and for the English: “Vivifying, Universal Spirit.” Hartmann has incorrectly, due to the German pronunciation: Thima.]

^[77] [R.H.—Purush is the Sanskrit, Puruṣa, the consciousness side of nature. It is one of the two components in the Sāṃkhyan Indian philosophy. The other is the above form side of nature, prakṛti]

^[78] [R.H.—Tibetan, གཡོར་བ་, gyor-ba, pronounced Yor-wa,  See Romanized Tibetan and English Dictionary (1866) gives on p. 147, and p. 520 in the 1881 edition: “to lend, stoop, but if preceded by “mig,” meaning eye in Tibetan which Jäschke adds, it then means: “an optical delusion, as mirage,” which gives more credence to the esoteric meaning of “illusion” as Sinnett has.]

^[79] [R.H.—Sanskrit, ākāśa. Equivalent to the Tibetan, ནམ་མཁའ་ nam mkha’, pronounced: nam kha (the “a” in the second syllable has a downward pitch. Sinnett has added, as a definition: (“Ether passive”)]

^[80] [R.H.—Tibetan, འོད་, ‘Od. Pronounced with a long “o.” The presence of the suffix “d” causes a modification of the root letter, “o” to narrow the pronunciation as with the “u” in the word, push. Also see: Cosmological Notes, Sinnett has the esoteric definition of light, the shining active Astral Light. The Romanized Tibetan and English Dictionary (1866) gives on page 93: the exoteric (physical plane) “light, shine, lustre; Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary (2016), p. 695: “light; shine; brightness. This is equivalent to the Sanskrit: prabhā.]

^[81] [R.H.—Vach (the Kamakasa [kāmākāśa? = probably the compounded: kāma-ākāśa] Cosmic Will.]

^[82] [R.H.—Tibetan, see previous third note for nam mkha’. Cosmological Notes has under the middle column (Man): “Yajna (latent form in Brahma = Purush determined by activity of No. 4 (Vach)”) Under third column, English, has “Viradji (?) Universal Illusion”]

^[83] [R.H.—Sanskrit, illusion but active through the planes of human manifestation.

            See the footnote, Alice Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, page 1095: “Maya of Illusion. The word Maya is one which has to be properly understood by you in order that you may catch the spirit of the ancient philosophy. The derivation that is given for the word is Ma + Ya or not that [from the Sanskrit]. Maya is therefore a power that makes a thing appear as what it is not, or a power of illusion that arises out of limitation in the ancient concept of a true unity periodically appearing as multiplicity by the power of Maya that coexists with that unity.”]

^[84] [R.H.— Tibetan དཀོན་མཆོག་ dkon mchog, pronounced: kon-chok.

            In Jäschke (1866), p. 56: Having either of two meanings: “1. originally, and in the old classic writings always: the most precious thing or things. 2. in the minds of the people, in spite of all mythological superstitions: an otherwise unknown omniscient being, the Most High, God.” In Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary (2016), p. 18: jewel; supreme rarity. Sanskrit equivalents: precious jewel; precious substance; treasure.

            Hartmann gives Kan-Chagg (Tibetan) but Sinnett, Cosmological Notes, gives Kon Chhog (Uncreated Principle), which is more correct. We could conclude this is due to differences between the two languages.

^[85] [R.H.—Dr. Hartmann gives Naragam (Sanskrit). The corrected word as Sinnett gives: Narayan [Nārāyanam]—Spirit brooding over the waters.]

^[86] R.H.—Tibetan, སྙུགས་ snyugs or: sNyugs, pronounced: nyuk. (Das (1902), p. 505); Jäschke (1866), p. 92; Jäschke (1881), p. 199]

^[87] [R.H.— Svayambhuva, स्वयम्भुव, Sanskrit, meaning: Name of the first Manu. Name of Brahman. Name of Ādi Buddha. Sinnett spells it, Swayambuva and defines it: “Svayamb[h]uva in space”. The third column has: Latent Spirit, Ensoph” Ainsoph]

^[88] [R.H.—See above note for: Tibetan, གཞི་མ་ gzhi-ma]

^[89] [R.H.—See above note for: Tibetan, གཞི་མ་ gzhi-ma]

^[90] [R.H.—See, above Tibetan, སེམས་ཅན་ sems can]

^[91] All existence is relative and conditioned by the presence of object and subject, or the knower and the known. In absolute consciousness, which is unconsciousness for us, the knower, the known and the knowledge are completely united. There is no longer any thought, no activity of the mind, but everything is the Nameless (God).

^[92] [R.H.—Latin, All live from the sheep.]

^[93] Experience teaches us that even in the most remote islands in the ocean plants grow that have not been sown there, and each type of soil produces only certain plants; mosses grow on rocks, grass on meadows, etc. Everything is contained in the universe. That which is a principle in the world spirit (Dyan-Kan) acquires polarity through its contact with the realm of the material and develops through the effect of Thima [Zhi-ma] (vital force) into germs, from which, through the mediation of Akasa [ākāśa] and Fohat, the forms arise that correspond to the ideal models contained in the Eternal; comparable to the image of an object that appears in a mirror.

^[94] If the universe is infinite, there can be no “outside” the infinite. — Compare Bhagavad Gita. Ch. X. V. 8.

^[95] [R.H.—Aja-Sakti = aja-śakti is a Sanskrit compound. Aja means unborn. Śakti (शक्ति) has many meanings but means generally, power, energy.]

^[96] [R.H.—This is a mixed Sanskrit and Tibetan compound: Viswam-Zigten-jas = Viswam is a Sanskrit word, (विश्व), víśvam, meaning “to pervade;” Zigten, possibly from གཟིགས་, Tibetan, gzigs meaning to see, corresponding to the Sanskrit, paśyanti. Zigten = living world and jas = to born, produced or descended from) means, as given by Dr. Hartmann: “world origin doctrine”]

^[97] [R.H.—Chh-Zab, Tibetan, Chh means part of portion; ཟབ་, zab = deep, profound. See, Jäschke (1866)]

^[98] [R.H.—The correct Tibetan, སྙིང་ Nying, meaning: heart, mind. Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary (2016), p. 257. Jäschke (1866), p. 91, meaning: the heart.]

^[99] [R.H.—Tibetan, ཁོར་བ་ khor ba, to turn, spin around. Also, possibly, འཁོར་བ་ ‘khor ba, cyclic existence. (Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary (2016), 66]

^[100] [Begin notes to Neue Lotusblüten 3, no. 3-4 (March-April 1910), 83-96.]

            [R.H.—The numbering for the subhead sequence is off by one (There is no 19.) I will keep it as with the original German article.]

^[101] Since there is only one unchanging and universal law of nature (only one God, who is himself the Law) that creates analogous effects on the various planes of existence, certain logical conclusions can be drawn by analogy. Every “night of creation” (Pralaya) is followed by an equally long “day of creation” (Manvantara) of 308,488,000 of our years. (Compare “Lotusblüten” Year 1893, Vol. II.) The “seven days of creation” in the Bible evidently refer to the “seven rounds” of the evolution of our solar system.

^[102] Note: Christian mysticism teaches: “No one is immortal but God.” God is the true essence of everything and consequently every thing is immortal in its essence. A stone, a tree, etc. is no more and no less immortal than a man; but man has the ability to become conscious of his true essence and consequently of his immortality, and only then does immortality begin for him. Forms disappear; but the idea remains and reveals itself again in new forms in which it develops further and produces still higher forms. This, as everyone knows, is the progress of the world.

^[103] [R.H.— The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett, 38, K. H. says “My Cho-Khan . . .” indicates this is a Tibetan compounded word, but not found in any Tibetan dictionary. In Jäschke (1881), 63: མཁན་, mkhan is “a termination denoting the performer of an action,” and མཁན་པ་, mkhan pa, means “guide.” Knowing pretty certain that cho = chos, from the compounded chos-han seen in theosophical literature, we can somewhat establish: Chos-mkhan-pa or just Chos-mkhan would be a religious preceptor. Its pronunciation would be somewhat as “Chew-khan.” As elsewhere, such as Jäschke (1881), 15: Chhos is given by him “1. moral law, doctrine, religion; esp. the Buddhist religion.” Jäschke also gives on the same page, the compounded Tibetan: Chhos (ཆོས་) -ḍang-po]

^[104] [R.H.—The numbering is off again. I will keep to the original. In Sanskrit, a “v” is often pronounced as a “w,” plus it looks like the e and i in the German rendering were transposed.]

^[105] [R.H.—The name Avalokiteśvara is a Sanskrit compound made up of: the verbal prefix ava “down,” plus lokita, which is a past participle derived from the verb lok “to look, observe,” here used in an active sense, and “eśvara, “lord,” “ruler,” and “sovereign”. Therefore, abiding by Sanskrit rules of sound combination, a + īśvara > eśvara. Combined, the various parts together mean “the lord who gazed down (at the world).” The word loka (“world”) is absent from the name, but the phrase is inherent.]

^[106] [R.H.—oṃ maṇi [jewel = Monad] padme [lotus of the soul] hūṃ]

^[107] The highest mysteries of religion will, despite all “explanations,” remain an eternal mystery for anyone who does not spiritually grasp them within himself; for “the natural man does not receive anything from the Spirit of God; it is foolishness to him.” (I Corinthians, Ch. II, v. 14.) The earthly human mind, limited by the illusion of individuality, cannot grasp the infinite, and only God in man can know it. When the inquisitive researcher or speculating philosopher tries to view the truth objectively, he steps outside of its circle and builds the self-deception of his personality between himself and it like a wall. Only when self-delusion and the desire for knowledge end can the light of truth be revealed; for then man is one with the infinite in his consciousness.

^[108] [R.H.—This tripartite sun [savitṛ] is: electric fire (the central spiritual sun) = Monad, heart of the sun or Solar Fire = soul, and the visible sun as fire-by-friction = objective sun, personality. These three parts are given in the Gāyatrī mantra which is found in the Rig [ṛk]-veda 3, 62, 10. The mantra, translated: May we reflect [on] That excellent, radiance of the divine savitṛ, which impels our understanding. These correspond to the three vedas: Ṛg-veda, Yajur-veda, and the Sāma-veda.]

^[109] [R.H.—[mahākāśa = mahā-ākāśa, infinite space, great space, parabrahman.]

^[110] In every atom there is everything in the germ that is necessary for an entire universe to develop through external influence. In the human heart there is also a spark of God that can become a flame through the influence of divine love, whose light illuminates the human spirit so that his soul fills the entire universe. Every force needs a fixed center to develop and spreads out from this center, so it is the life task of every human being to achieve true self-awareness. Where man finds himself in his center, his divinity begins.

^[111] When man attains true self-knowledge, the △ becomes the ▢ and this expands to the infinite ◯. In other words, individual self-consciousness becomes cosmic consciousness; from self-knowledge arises the knowledge of God, the knowledge of the eternal. Squaring the circle is a spiritual process; it takes place in the consciousness of man and not on paper.

^[112] [R.H.—I give here the K.H. relevant quote “Philosophical & Theoretical Teachings”, answer to question 11, Letter No. XXIIIb (K.H.’s Replies to the Queries in Letter XXXIIIa II.—Ed. in The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, New and Revised Second Edition, 1930, 167. Note, the bolding is my emphasis.—R.H.

The questioner, A. P. Sinnett’s question is: “(11) Is Jupiter a hot and still partially luminous body and to what cause, as solar energy has probably nothing to do with the matter, are the violent disturbances of Jupiter’s atmosphere due?”

“(11) . . . The whole of our system is imperceptibly shifting its position in space. The relative distance between planets remaining ever the same, and being in no wise affected by the displacement of the whole system; and the distance between the latter and the stars and other suns being so incommensurable as to produce but little if any perceptible change for centuries and milleniums to come ;—no astronomer will perceive it telescopically, until Jupiter and some other planets, whose little luminous points hide now from our sight millions upon millions of stars (all but some 5000 or 6000)—will suddenly let us have a peep at a few of the Raja-Suns they are now hiding. There is such a king-star right behind Jupiter, that no mortal physical eye has ever seen during  this, our Round. Could it be so perceived it would appear, through the best telescope with a power of multiplying its diameter ten thousand times,—still a small dimensionless point, thrown into the shadow by the brightness of any planet ; nevertheless—this world is thousands of times larger than Jupiter. The violent disturbance of its atmosphere and even its red spot that so intrigues science lately are due—(1) to that shifting and (2) to the influence of that Raja-Star. In its present position in space in imperceptibly small though it be—the metallic substances of which it is mainly composed are expanding and gradually transforming themselves into aeriform fluids—the state of our own earth and it’s six sister globes before the first Round—and becoming part of its atmosphere. Draw, your inferences and deductions from this, my dear “lay” chela, but beware lest in doing so you sacrifice your humble instructor and the occult doctrine itself, on the altar of your wrathful Goddess—modern science.”

^[113] We omit in these excerpts from K.H.’s letters what is said about the evolution of the monad, about “rings” and “rounds,” etc., since these things have already been explained in Sinnet’s “Occult Buddhism.” [Also published as: Esoteric Budhism and as Esoteric Buddhism.]

^[114] Since these letters have already been used by various writers, the reader will perhaps find in these extracts some things already familiar to him.

^[115] [R.H.—This paragraph is at p. 171, The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett.]

^[116] [R.H.—This paragraph is at p. 171, The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett.]

^[117] For the insightful theologian, these explanations contain the key to explaining many previously incomprehensible dogmas.

^[118] There are not a few “enlightened” people who pride themselves on believing that hell has been abolished; but even if there is perhaps no such hell as is described by Dante Alghieri or as theologians preach, the above information indicates that there are conditions just as bad. There is “spirituality” and immortality in evil as in good, “black” as well as “white” magic, and a large part of humanity is forcibly moving towards the former by abusing spiritual powers for selfish ends.

^[119] Therefore, true “meditation” or “devotion” does not consist in intellectual pondering, imagination or intellectual activity, but in immersion in the Eternal.

^[120] Such devilish beings are the product of the practice of “black magic”, i.e. the misuse of magical (divine) powers for selfish purposes, an abuse that is practiced quite widely today, whether intentionally or out of ignorance. The invocation of the deity in order to make it serve personal purposes is already the beginning of black magic.

^[121] There is no talk of “eternal torment” in the popular orthodox sense, i.e. of a period of time that has no end, but rather of a painful existence “in eternity”, where the concept of time disappears. Everything that has a beginning, even if it lasts for millions of years, eventually has an end.

            “The last becomes the first, the future comes,

            now good, now bad, — from the past.

            The blessed angels only reap the fruit

            Of past holiness”.

            “Devils suffer in the underworld

            For misdeeds whose time has faded;

            Nothing lasts; virtue becomes tarnished with time

            And sin is purified.”

                        (Edwin Arnold: “The Light of Asia,” translated by K. Wernicke [to German but translated. back to

                        English—R.H.]. Published by Reclam jun.)

^[122] “Heaven” (Devachan) and “hell” (Avitchi) [avīci] are states of the soul that are by no means limited to an existence in the “beyond”; anyone can experience them in this life too; but when the external sensory impressions that obscure heaven in the soul or numb the bad conscience disappear after death and the spirit (reason) that withdraws into its inner self loses the power of self-control over the soul and body (as happens even in sleep), then these states become all the more pronounced and the soul is at the mercy of the forces at work within it; the duration of which depends on their intensity.

            From this, scientifically speaking, it follows that during his life in the material body, man should constantly strive to strengthen his higher consciousness (Atma-Buddhi-Manas) through good thoughts and good deeds and to achieve victory over the forces of the lower region of the soul. Spiritual progress does not consist in musings or intellectual speculations about supernatural things; not in mindless enthusiasm, nor in a devotion to a morbid mysticism, but in holding fast to the true belief in the higher self, which is the spiritual life in man and the power of his consciousness which raises him above the animal state.

^[123] This is the “sin against the Holy Spirit (of self-knowledge)” which the person who commits it “cannot be forgiven in this or in the future existence” (Matthew XII, 32); for if a person has attained inner enlightenment and knowledge of God, and thereby has gained freedom of will, and if he then, despite having eaten of the “tree of life” (Genesis II, 9), has fallen away from God again, has become spiritually perverted and has lost the divine spark, then no forgiveness can replace this, and he comes into the world as a godless creature at his next birth. An ordinary person who has not yet come to the knowledge of his God does not act of complete free will. Follies. Sins and crimes committed out of ignorance, passion or weakness are not spiritual perversions and man is not entirely responsible for them. The situation is different with “black magic”. It is a wise law of nature that access to the “tree of life” was closed to sinful man because by taking in spiritual food he would have acquired a spiritual power that would have made him a devil. (Genesis III, 22). Anyone who associates himself with evil by abusing divine powers will ultimately fall prey to it, and as man leaves the earth, he returns to it in the same state. Evil is the material without the spirit. The spiritual elevates the soul, the material drags it down; as everyone can experience for themselves.

^[124] [Begin notes to Neue Lotusblüten 3, no. 9-10 (September-October 1910), 273-290.]

^[125] [R.H.—Typo, miscount.]

^[126] It is incorrect to imagine Kama loca [kāma loka] as an orthodox purgatory in which only painful conditions prevail; it is rather the region in which the soul is still bound to the lower regions by its earthly desires, be they good or bad.

^[127] [R.H.—Sanskrit, ālaya vijñāna.

            According to Gareth Sparham:

            The ālaya-vijñāna doctrine arose on the Indian subcontinent about one thousand years before Tsong kha pa. It gained its place in a distinctly Yogācāra system over a period of some three hundred years stretching from 100 to 400 C.E., culminating in the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, a short text by Asaṅga (circa 350), setting out a systematic presentation of the ālaya-vijñāna doctrine developed over the previous centuries. It is the doctrine found in this text in particular that Tsong kha pa, in his Ocean of Eloquence, treats as having been revealed in toto by the Buddha and transmitted to suffering humanity through the Yogācāra founding saints (Tib. shing rta srol byed): Maitreya[-nātha], Asaṅga, and Vasubandhu.—Gareth Sparham, translator; Shotaro Iida; Tsoṅ-kha-pa Blo-bzaṅ-grags-pa 1357–1419 (1993). “Introduction” (alk. paper). Yid daṅ kun gźi’i dka’ ba’i gnas rgya cher ‘grel pa legs par bśad pa’i legs par bśad pa’i rgya mdzo: Ocean of Eloquence: Tsong kha pa’s Commentary on the Yogācāra Doctrine of Mind (in English and Tibetan) (1st ed.). Albany, NY, United States: State University of New York Press (SUNY).]

^[128] The soul in Kama loca [kāma loka] enters a dreamlike state called the germinal period, and from this awakens to consciousness on its entry into Devachan or Avitchi [avīci].

^[129] Humans of the seventh round.

^[130] The “uninitiated” have no idea of ​​the horrors of vivisection and the crimes committed in the desecrated name of “science.” In Paris alone, over five thousand people are tortured to death every year.

^[131] The grossest material vibrations are those which excite the sexual instinct. The role played by the influence of the moon in this is well known.

^[132] [R.H.—Distinct from the succubus (female demon who seduces human males) and the incubus (male demon who seduces females).]

^[133] [R.H.—Dewachan [devacan is a Sanskrit-Tibetan compound word: ‘deva,’ Sanskrit =  a god, and the Tibetan word ‘can’ means = possessing, having, thus meaning, the dwelling of the gods.]

^[134] [R.H.—Jñāna-prasthāna-śāstra]

^[135] [R.H.—The Tibetan word, written as bar do, བར་དོ་ representing the Sanskrit word, antarābhava, meaning “being in the middle, or intermediate state of existence, after physical death. Most people pronounce it incorrectly as bardo. This Tibetan compound is pronounced, par-to.]

^[136] [Begin notes to, Neue Lotusblüten 3, no. 11-12 (November-December 1910), 340-354.]

[R.H.—I am not able to determine the meaning of this compound or its source.]

^[137] Note: The “mortal shell” refers to both the visible body made up of the four elements and the etheric “astral body” (Linga-sharira) [liṅga-śarīra] consisting of only one element, the ether. [R.H.—This ether he speaks of consists of the four higher sub-planes of the physical plane—thus, four levels.] The world of desire or “astral plane” has its lower and higher regions or states [R.H.—Thus consists of seven sub-planes in the world of desire or kāma], and in the former it corresponds in a way to the idea of ​​“purgatory” of the Catholics, because the purpose of staying there is to strip away the passions and to become free from earthly desires and attractions. Everything that hinders the soul from this purification or draws it back down to earth, such as grief for the dead, the search for spiritualistic communications [R.H.—Via the intermediary of a medium], etc., is very detrimental to it and sometimes destructive.

            All this, as well as the preceding, was described in great detail, if less clearly, by Jacob Böhme in his mystical language three hundred years ago: e.g. “The soul is not in hell, nor in heaven, but in the gate in the midst of the torment (movement) of the principle, where fire and water separate, and is held by its turba. . . and even though some souls are held for a considerable time, anger (passion) cannot devour the little faith and must finally let it go.” (“Forty Questions.” 24. 7.)

^[138] Note: This state is called the “pregnancy period” because it is here that the birth of the soul into the heavens is prepared. The perishable organism of man, both before and after the death of the physical body, is, as it were, the soil, and the heavenly man is the plant that grows out of this soil. Jacob Boehme says: “The whole revelation of eternity is nothing but hunger and birth. As the hunger (desire) is, so is its fulfillment. Death is the only means by which the spirit can enter into another consciousness and another form.” (“De Signatura Rerum” C. XV. 51.)

^[139] Note: This birth can rightly be called a resurrection to heavenly life. After the intermediate states were more comparable to a dream life, clear consciousness now sets in, undisturbed by unpleasant earthly relationships. The nature of the (heavenly) “plant” depends on the type of “germ”. In relation to this heavenly body, Jacob Böhme says: “Blessed are those who have the spirit of Christ; they have their image in the Verbo Fiat [R.H.—Lat., Let the word be], which must give them back to the soul in the Adamic body.” The situation is similar with the wicked in Avitchi: “The life of the godless will also fall away, and their larval image will be seen in the spirit, like all kinds of horrible animals, like the devils.” (“Forty Questions.” XXX. 64 and 83.

^[140] [R.H.—A north-central city in Śrī Laṅkā, Aruvi Aru River, but used here metaphorically or allegorically.]

^[141] Bhagavad Gita. XV. 1.

^[142] The “nature spirits” are not mentioned here; they form a realm of their own, which belongs to the ether.

^[143] The “nature spirits” are not mentioned here; they form a realm of their own, which belongs to the ether.

^[144] Note. God in his inmost essence as Parabrahm or the Absolute (the “Father”) is eternal rest and consequently passive, infinite and impersonal, like the sun which does not fall from heaven but from which emanate all the powers acting on earth. God in his aspect as Brahmā or the Creator (the Son) is the organizing power acting in the universe and is therefore in a sense personal. The Dhyan Chohans represent the spiritual powers emanating from the spiritual sun of each world. There are both good and evil powers which give beings their qualities, and we must distinguish between these powers and their manifestations in men and animals. Thus, for example, wisdom is a power or light emanating from the Deity which makes the man enlightened by it wise; the spirit of love fills him with love, the spirit of malice with malice, the spirit of envy arouses envy in him, etc. Space prohibits a detailed discussion of the seven classes of spirits and demons mentioned above. One such discussion can be found in detail in the work of the famous mystic Dr. [John] Pordage, “Divine and True Metaphysics” [Göttliche und wahre Metaphysica, oder, Wunderbare, durch eigene Erfahrung erlangte Wissenschaft der unsichtbaren und ewigen Dinge] (Frankfurt and Leipzig 1715). [R.H.—See, “John Pordage.” Franz Hartmann, M.D. The Word 4, no. 6 (March 1907), 372-377]

^[145] Note: It would be a mistake to assume that all the information received in spiritist circles comes from people who have committed suicide or have had accidents. There are many other sources from which spiritist phenomena can originate; a list and description of them would fill entire volumes.

^[146] Note: The suicide who is responsible for his act falls “from the frying pan into the fire” because in Kama loca [kāma loka] the power of desire is much greater than in this life, where the inertia of the matter of the physical body sets limits to its activity and other circumstances contribute to its suppression. A suicide seeks to escape a small evil and takes on a greater one. He could be compared to a person who, in order to get rid of a corn that prevents him from walking, cuts off his whole leg. After the death of the body, the suicide is still the same person as before, only that he lacks that. If people were to see the truth of this teaching, no one would be so foolish as to commit suicide.

^[147] [R.H.—plural for a male demon in human form in folklore that seeks to have sexual intercourse with sleeping women.]

^[148] [R.H.—plural for a female demon or supernatural entity in folklore that appears in dreams to seduce men, usually through sexual activity.]

^[149] Note: If our legislators were familiar with these natural laws, they would know the causes which drive weak-willed people to commit crimes. Our justice system would then be different and, above all, the “death penalty” would be abolished because of its utter uselessness.

^[150] Note: We know very well that the above statements are not viewed with favor by a class of spiritualists who find their happiness in their intercourse with the “dearly departed.” This has also led to bitter fights. But these communications are extracts from the original letters of the Tibetan masters and were received about 25 years ago through the mediation of H. P. Blavatsky. Later writers have drawn their wisdom from them and have worked them out and used them in their own way. They are undoubtedly worth thinking about.

^[151] This reincarnation is a new personality and, as it were, the house into which the immortal self must again move and in which it must share the sufferings and joys of this newly created personality. What the predecessor has sown, the successor must reap. (John IV. 37.)

^[152] Even earthly love usually has heavenly love as its background. Love is a spiritual force that works on different levels. It is sown in the mind, creates passion on the lower level and is immortal on the highest.

^[153] In the ascent of humanity to its destiny, certain periods are distinguished and larger and smaller “circles” or cycles take place. The great cycle includes the progress of humanity from the first appearance of the original human being in his ethereal state to his existence in the physical-material body and his re-ascent to the spiritual-divine state. This great cycle contains seven smaller ones. More details about this can be found in H. P. Blavatsky’s “Secret Doctrine”. See Vol. I. p. 704.

^[154] It certainly cannot be claimed that all the inhabitants of the astral plane who come into contact with people are the spirits of adepts or sorcerers; but despite all the learned research in the field of spiritualism and despite all the supposedly infallible proofs of the identity of this or that deceased personality, it will still be difficult to find a completely unequivocal proof, especially since it is well known that the nature spirits like to play with the remains and shadow bodies of deceased people by taking possession of such larvae and parading around in them.

^[155] Bhagavad Gita Ch. II. verse 69.

^[156] The messages from the “beyond” available from the deceased seem to contradict this. However, we must distinguish between the self-consciousness and personal memories of the ego and the ideas attached to the astral remains of the deceased person (Kama-rupa) [kāma-rūpa] in a dream life; it must be remembered that the personality is composed of many different “sham selves”, each of which has its own independent existence, its own desires and memories; a fact through the recognition of which many mysterious phenomena in spiritualism and ghost stories find their explanation. The higher self has nothing to do with ghostly apparitions and their wishes.

^[157] These messages from the adept, often known as “Kut Humi,” were intended specifically for A. P. Sinnett, who used them in writing his well-known work “Esoteric Buddhism.” [R.H.—First edition, 1883 in London.]

^[158] [R.H.—The Mahatma Letters refers, by El Morya, to K.H.’s meditation in the tower, undergoing a high initiation.]

^[159] More information about “rounds” and “races,” Manvantaras, etc. can be found in H. P. Blavatsky’s “Secret Doctrine” and in A. P. Sinnett’s “Esoteric Buddhism.”

^[160] The monad is the immortal divine “spark” which incarnates in the lower kingdoms of nature and gradually rises through them to human existence, the final goal of which is Nirvana. In a certain sense, everything that is essential is ultimately “immortal”; nothing is lost in the universe; only the forms and appearances change. Man is also immortal in his true nature; but this does him no good as long as he does not become aware of his immortal existence. The personal appearance and with it also its personal “I-ness” disappears; the spiritual ego outlasts the disappearance of the form.

^[161] See, Isis Unveiled. V. I. pg. 352.

^[162] [R.H.—This is another instance, among many, by which the Christian churches inoculate their errors to the masses, the latter who absorb them like a sponge, because the Church refuses to pass on the Ancient Wisdom in order to direct them on the right path, but instead, retain their power over the truth, due to their long-held greed and selfishness. Dr. Hartmann found this out early during his 20s, even before having made contact with the Theosophical Society.]

^[163] Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield, was hanged.

^[164] Facts have proven that the astral body of living people, while the physical body is asleep, can appear in distant places, materialize completely or partially, move tables, cause ghostly apparitions and do all kinds of mischief, of which the sleeping person knows nothing even after waking.

^[165] [R.H.—See Theosophical Glossary, pp. 105-6. My extraction is from a copy owned by Boris de Zirkoff, which has his marginal notes. Since “the author only saw the first thirty-two pages in proof.” the definition of “Dugpas” would not have been seen by Blavatsky before her death.

                “Dugpas (Tib.). Lit., “Red Caps,” a sect in Tibet. Before the advent of Tsong-ka-pa in the fourteenth century, the Tibetans, whose Buddhism had deteriorated and been dreadfully adulterated with the tenets of the old Bhon religion,—were all Dugpas. From that century, however, and after the rigid laws imposed upon the Gelukpas (yellow caps) and the general reform and purification of Buddhism (or Lamaism), the Dugpas have given themselves over more than ever to sorcery, immorality, and drunkenness. Since then the word Dugpa has become a synonym of “sorcerer”, “adept of black magic” and everything vile. There are few, if any, Dugpas in Eastern Tibet, but they congregate in Bhutan, Sikkim, and the borderlands generally. Europeans not being permitted to penetrate further than those borders, the Orientalists never having studied Buddho-Lamaism in Tibet proper, but judging of it on hearsay and from what Cosmo di Köros, Schlagintweit, and a few others have learnt of it from Dugpas, confuse both religions and bring them under one head. They thus give out to the public pure Dugpaism instead of Buddho-Lamaism. In short Northern Buddhism in its purified, metaphysical form is almost entirely unknown.”

Also, see The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, see index.

Also, see H.P.B. Collected Writings, pages from: IV, 9 fn. 10, (separated from Gelukpas, 12; VI, 7-8, 198;  VII, 221; IX, 64, 253, (voice of, mistaken for Master, 259; X, 225; XII, 191 fn., 204; XIV, 30-31, 105.

Also, see David Reigle’s “Who Are the Dugpas in Theosophical Writings?” at: https://www.katinkahesselink.net/his/dugpas-drugpas-blavatsky.pdf#

From “Reincarnations in Tibet,” H. P. Blavatsky. The Theosophist 3, no. 6 (March 1882), 146-147:

                [146] The “Dug-pa* or Red Caps” belong to the old Nyang-na-pa sect, who resisted the religious reform introduced by Tsong-kha-pa between the latter part of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries. It was only after a lama coming to them from Tibet in the tenth century had converted them from the old Buddhist faith so strongly mixed up with the Bhon practices of the aborigines—into the Shammar sect, that, in opposition to the reformed “Gyelukpas,” the Bhootanese set up a regular system of reincarnations. It is not Buddha though, or “Sang-gyas”—as he is called by the Tibetans. who incarnates himself in the Dharma Raja, but quite another personage; one of whom we will speak about later on.

                [fn. *The term “Dug-pa” in Tibet is deprecatory. They themselves pronounce it “Dög-pa” from the root to “bind” (religious binders to the old faith); while the paramount sect -the Gyeluk-pa (yellow caps) – and the people, use the word in the sense of “Dug-pa” mischief-makers, sorcerers. The Bhootanese are generally called Dug-pa throughout Tibet and even in some parts of Northern ED.]  or Red Caps” belong to the old Nyang-na-pa sect, who resisted the religious reform introduced by Tsong-kha-pa between the latter part of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries. It was only after a lama coming to them from Tibet in the tenth century had converted them from the old Buddhist faith so strongly mixed up with the Bhon practices of the aborigines–into the Shammar sect, that, in opposition to the reformed “Gyelukpas,” the Bhootanese set up a regular system of reincarnations. It is not Buddha though, or “Sang-gyas”–as he is called by the Tibetans. who incarnates himself in the Dharma Raja, but quite another personage; one of whom we will speak about later on. (Footnote: The term “Dug-pa” in Tibet is deprecatory. They themselves pronounce it “Dög-pa” from the root to “bind” {religious binders to the old faith}; while the paramount sect—the Gyeluk-pa (yellow caps)—and the people, use the word in the sense of “Dug-pa” mischief-makers, sorcerers. The Bhootanese are generally called Dug-pa throughout Tibet and even in some parts of Northern India. ED.]

                [147] . . . among many other reforms, Tsong- kha-pa forbade necromancy (which is practiced to this day with the most disgusting rites, by the Bhöns—the aborigines of Tibet–with whom the Red Caps, or Shammars, had always fraternized), that the latter resisted his authority. This act was followed by a split between the two sects. Separating entirely from the Gyelukpas, the Dugpas (Red Caps)–from the first in a great minority—settled in various parts of Tibet, chiefly its borderlands, and principally in Nepaul and Bhootan.

                From Charles Webster Leadbeater, “Talks on the Path of Occultism v. 2, (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1980), 546-547, 575:

                [546] “All through her writings Madame Blavatsky applies the name Dugpa to the brothers of the shadow – black magicians, as we often call them. Perhaps it is rather an unfortunate name to have chosen, because the dugpas do not quite deserve all the hard things she has said about them.

                [547] In Tibet, before Buddhism penetrated that land, there was much worship of elementals and nature-spirits, and offerings of a propitiatory character were regularly made to them. The religion was on a low level, as all religions of a propitiatory nature must be. “The Bhons and Dugpas,” says Madame Blavatsky, “and the various sects of the ‘Redcaps’, are regarded as the most versed in sorcery. They inhabit Western and Little Tibet and Bhutan.” The old religion thus still lives.”

                The Bhon-pa are the followers of the aboriginal religion. The descendants of the converts made by the first mission are called Ninma-pa [Niṅ-ma-pa]. That first incursion of Buddhism rapidly became corrupted by the old faith. The Kargyu sect represents the converts of the second mission, which was sent to Tibet some centuries later than the first. The Dug-pa, or Red-caps, belong to this sect, and so are two removes from the Bhon-pa. It also became impure, and allowed the old beliefs to creep in. . . . The Dug-pa clan, then, is not quite so bad as it has been painted. They are Buddhists, with nature-worship super-imposed. This old worship, its enemies say, included animal sacrifices, and even human sacrifices at one time.

                [575] The Bhons and Dugpas, however, having appropriated the symbol, misuse it for purposes of black magic. With the yellow-caps, or Gelugpas, it is a symbol of power, as the cross is with the Christians, while it is in no way more superstitious. With the Bhons, it is, like the double triangle reversed, the sign of sorcery.”

^[166] A spiritualist who has not yet come to his own understanding of such matters, and who imagines that he is in sensuous intercourse with his “dear predecessors,” and that they are concerned with his worldly affairs, will hardly be converted from his erroneous views, or give up the theory with which he is in love. The key to the explanation of the phenomena of spiritualism lies not in the collection of apparent proofs of the identity of the “spirits,” but in the knowledge of the complex nature of man and the powers hidden in it.

^[167] Compare “Revelation of John” lll. 16.

^[168] To understand these teachings, it is necessary to distinguish between the true self, the presence of which the great majority of people are not yet aware of, and the sum of natural forces which constitutes the personality of man (the assumed individuality). The true self, the monad, together with the characteristics which it has gathered in the various reincarnations, is compared to a hidden string of pearls; the pearls strung on it represent the individual incarnations, or rather the spiritual essences which the divine monad has gained from the respective personalities during their incarnations, for the personality or the earthly man with his self-madness is, as it were, a plant of which only the aroma is immortal and can be strung on the string of pearls as a precious pearl, i.e. united with the divine monad. The person who has awakened to the true self-consciousness of his divine existence does not need to stay in heaven or Devachan; for this too is only a dream life of the fifth principle, and the Divine in man is above life and death, heaven and hell. But not every personality produces such a pearl. Every existence on earth represents a page in the great book of life of the divine Monad, and if there is nothing on such a page worth inscribing, then (from the standpoint of the Monad) it is as if that personality had never existed. But the sum of natural forces which represented the lost personality is not therefore lost from the universe, but each principle returns to its source, and the related forces reassemble and are reborn in new forms. The Monad is the tree of life; the personalities which it produces are the leaves by means of which the tree breathes and receives light and life; but the withered leaves fall off and are scattered by the winds. The whole of visible nature is a book full of parables from which one can recognize the laws that operate in the invisible, and whoever knows how to read it needs no further explanation. The proof of this lies in the recognition of the harmony that governs the whole.

^[169] This is a fact already recognized by official science and requires no further discussion. (Seven colors, seven tones, etc.) The number seven is often mentioned in the Bible. (Seven “days of creation” [rounds], seven “candlesticks” [states of consciousness] on the altar, seven “heavens” [stages of existence], etc.) But since we are still far from reaching the peak of development, the seven periods are not yet recognizable in all things and the higher powers are still latent. For example, our alphabet has only five simple vowels, but the occultist knows two more that have not yet found external expression.

^[170] When speaking of an evolution of humanity, we must not think of man as the materialized being as we see it today, but rather as a “planet spirit” that evolved over millions of years and various rounds his wanderings through our solar system gradually formed human individual forms, first ethereal, which then became more and more material, until finally man in his material appearance, as we see him now, came into being on the stage of this earth. The real “I” of man is not his body, neither his physical nor etheric, nor the astral or mental body. H. P. Blavatsky says: “The higher ego is, as it were, a sphere of pure divine light (intelligence), a unity from a higher level, on which there is no diversity (division)” (“Secret Doctrine” Vol. III. pg. 580). The individual human spirit is a ray of this light embodied in man, and the human intellect a product of the activity of this divine ray of light, as it were a reflection of it in the mood of the personality.

^[171] When “men” (if we may call them that) were more ethereal, they lacked the experience necessary for the development of the intellect. Man had to descend into material existence and dwell in a material body himself in order to learn to know and use the laws of material nature and to become master of the “earth” (the material). As his organism becomes more and more spiritualized on the ascending arc of evolution, his mind is enabled to intuitively receive the divine light of the higher self and to be enlightened by it.

^[172] Like every product of nature, every civilization has its birth, growth and decay. Selfishness is the mainspring of their progress and also the cause of their downfall. The true progress of mankind consists not only in the increase of his knowledge; for this comprises only a part of their development, but in the growth of the soul by means of the knowledge of the unity of the essence of all creatures and the brotherhood and practical exercise of divine (selfless) love arising from it. People come together not in differences of opinion, but in the knowledge of God. Redemption is not in the blind acceptance of a dogma, but in the self-knowledge (revelation) of the truth.

^[173] Since scientific progress and the growth of the soul are connected with a development of man’s occult powers, it can be assumed that the struggle between the higher and lower self will lead to a struggle between the brothers of light and those of darkness, i.e. will lead to a battle between white and black magic using magical powers. Such a condition is said to have existed in the times of the ancient Atlanteans and led to the collapse of their continent. With the introduction of hypnotism and the unfortunate generalization of certain hitherto carefully kept secret tenets of occult science, modern civilization has already entered the road to black magic. The “unfair competition” by means of false pretenses and fraud, which is increasing every day among all social circles, is also the beginning of this.

According to the presentation of the “Secret Doctrine” a “Day of Judgment” will take place in the middle of the fifth round; i.e., it will then be decided which of the human egos are capable of ascending to a higher level and which must remain behind. (“The Theosophist”. June 1909.)

^[174] Judging from what has been said so far, it is easy to see that in the sixth and seventh rounds wisdom will rule instead of the human-animal intellect. At the end of the seventh round, however, the perfect human being returns to his original source, not as the ignorant spirit that he emerged from, but as a soul that attains knowledge through its individualization and experiences and is a Dhyan-Chohan (planetary angel) became a spiritual force in the primal force, the deity that animates, pervades and governs the universe; a god in the godhead in the universe.

^[175] These include hypnotic games and possession.

^[176] See Bhagavad Gita, Ch. IV, verse 7.

^[177] One of the recent achievements of modern science is the discovery (long known to occultists) that even metals and stones have a consciousness (soul) of their own. However, this cannot be confused with human intelligence.

^[178] “Human” means “thinker.” A being only enters human existence when the principle of thought (Manas) is sufficiently developed within him.