ESOTERIC BUDDHISM

By
A. P. SINNETT
PRESIDENT OF THE SIMLA ECLECTIC THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
AUTHOR OF “THE OCCULT WORLD"

NOTE TO SIXTH EDITION.

INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

PREFACE

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

ESOTERIC TEACHERS.

—Nature of the Present Exposition.
— Seclusion of Eastern Knowledge.
— The Arhats and their At. tributes.
— The Mahatmas.
— Occultists generally.
— Isolated Mystics.
— Inferior Yogis.
— Occult Training.
— The Great Purpose.
— Its Incidental Consequences.
— Present Concessions . . . . 41

CHAPTER II

THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN.

—Esoteric Cosmogony.
—Where to Begin.
— Working back from Man to Universe.
— Analysis of Man.
— The Seven Principles . . . 60

CHAPTER III

THE PLANETARY CHAIN.

—Esoteric Views of Evolution.
—The Chain of Globes.
—Progress of Man round them.
— The Spiral Advance.
— Original Evolution of the Globes.
— The Lower Kingdoms . . . .75

CHAPTER IV.

THE WORLD PERIODS.

—Uniformity of Nature.
— Rounds and Races.
— The Septenary Law.
— Objective and Subjective Lives.
— Total Incarnations.
— Former Races on Earth.
— Periodic Cataclysms.
— Atlantis.
— Lemuria.
— The Cyclic Law. . . . . 94

CHAPTER V.

DEVACHAN.

—Spiritual Destinies of the Ego.
— Karma.
— Division of the Principles at Death.
— Progress of the Higher Duad.
— Existence in Devachan.
— Subjective Progress.
— Avitchi.
— Earthly Connection with Devachan.
— Devachanic Periods . . . 121

CHAPTER VI.

KAMA LOCA.

—The Astral Shell.
—Its Habitat.
— Its Nature.
— Surviving Impulses.
— Elementals.
— Mediums and Shells.
— Accidents and Suicides.
— Lost Personalities . . . . 150

CHAPTER VII
 
THE HUMAN TIDE-WAVE.

—Progress of the Main Wave.
— Obscurations.
— Twilight and Dawn of Evolution.
— Our Neighboring Planets.
— Gradations of Spirituality.
—Prematurely Developed Egos.
— Intervals of Re-Incarnation . . . . 171

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY.

—The Choice of Good or Evil.
— The Second Half of Evolution.
— The Decisive Turning-Point.
— Spirituality and Intellect.
— The Survival of the Fittest.
— The Sixth Sense.
— Development of the Principles in their Order.
— The Subsidence of the Unfit.
— Provision for All.
— The Exceptional Cases.
— Their Scientific Explanation.
— Justice Satisfied.

— The Destiny of Failures.
— Human Evolution Reviewed. . . . 188

CHAPTER IX.

BUDDHA.

—The Esoteric Buddha.
— Re-Incarnations of Adepts.
— Buddha’s Incarnation.
— The Seven Buddhas of the Great Races.
— Avalokiteshwara.
— Addi Buddha.
— Adeptship in Buddha’s Time.
— Sankaracharya.
—Vedantin Doctrines.—Tsong-ka-pa.
— Occult Reforms in Tibet . . . . . .209

CHAPTER X.

NIRVANA.

—Its Remoteness.
— Preceding Gradations.
— Partial Nirvana.
— The Threshold of Nirvana.
—Nirvana.
— Para Nirvana.
— Buddha and Nirvana.
— Nirvana attained by Adepts.
— General Progress towards Nirvana.
— Conditions of its Attainment.
— Spirituality and Religion.
— The Pursuit of Truth . . . . . . .233

CHAPTER XI.

THE UNIVERSE.

—The Days and Nights of Brahma.
— The Various Manvantaras and Pralayas.
— The Solar System.
—The Universal Pralaya.
— Recommencement of Evolution.
— “Creation.”
— The Great First Cause.
— The Eternal Cyclic Process . . . . 246

CHAPTER XII.

THE DOCTRINE REVIEWED.

—Correspondences of the Esoteric Doctrine with Visible Nature.
— Free Will and Predestination.
— The Origin of Evil.
— Geology, Biology, and the Esoteric Teaching.
— Buddhism and Scholarship.
— The Origin of all Things.
— The Doctrine as Distorted.
— The Ultimate Dissolution of Consciousness.
— Transmigration.
— The Soul and the Spirit.
— Personality and Individuality.
— Karma . . . . . . . .265

APPENDIX

NOTE TO CHAPTER I.

NOTE TO CHAPTER II.

NOTE TO CHAPTER III.

NOTE TO CHAPTERS V., VI.

NOTE TO CHAPTER VII.

NOTE TO CHAPTER VIII.

NOTE TO SIXTH EDITION.

    The fifth English edition of Esoteric Buddhism consists of the text of the fourth American edition, together with the larger part of the preface specially furnished by Mr. Sinnett for the American edition. He took the opportunity afforded by a new edition, also, to append to some of the chapters annotations upon points calling for explication. These annotations are now added to the sixth American edition as an appendix. The present edition therefore corresponds with the latest English edition, and has besides matter in the author’s preface not incorporated in any English edition.

INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN
EDITION.

    THIS book was written in the early part of 1883, and now that I am venturing to recommend it to public notice afresh in the latter part of 1884, after three English editions have passed through the press, I find myself in possession of much additional information bearing on many of the problems dealt with. But I am glad to be able to say that such later teaching as I have yet received only reveals incompleteness in my original conceptions of the esoteric doctrine,—no material error so far. Indeed, I am happy enough to have received, from the great adept himself from whom I obtained my instruction in the first instance, the assurance that the book as it now stands is a sound and trustworthy statement of the scheme of Nature as understood by the initiates of occult science, which may have to be a good deal developed in future, if the interest it excites is keen enough to constitute an efficient demand

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for further teaching of this kind on the part of the world at large, but will never have to be remodeled or apologized for.

    Further than this, the reception of the book in India has shown that the doctrines thus for the first time set forth in a coherent and straightforward way are recognized, when thus stated, by various schools of Oriental philosophy as consonant with their fundamental views. A Brahman Hindoo, writing in the Indian magazine, “The Theosophist,” for June, 1884, criticises the present volume as departing unnecessarily from accepted Sanskrit nomenclature; but his objection merely is that I have given unfamiliar names in some cases to ideas which are already expressed in Hindoo sacred writings, and that I have done too much honor to the religious system commonly known as Buddhism, by representing that as more closely allied with the esoteric doctrine than any other. “The popular wisdom of the majority of the Hindoos to this day,” says my Brahman critic, “is more or less tinged with the esoteric doctrines taught in Mr. Sinnett’s book, misnamed ‘Esoteric Buddhism,’ while there is not a single hamlet or village in the whole of India in which people are not more or less acquainted with the sublime tenets of the Vedanta philosophy. . . . The effects of Karma in the next

INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.  7

birth, the enjoyment of its fruits, good or evil, in a subjective or spiritual state of existence prior to the reincarnation of the spiritual monad in this or any other world, the loitering of the unsatisfied souls or human shells in the earth (Kamaloca), the pralayic and manwantaric periods, . . . are not only intelligible but are even familiar to a great many Hindoos, under names different from those made use of by the author of ‘Esoteric Buddhism.’” So much the better from the point of view of Western readers, to whom it is a matter of indifference whether the exoteric Hindoo or Buddhist religion is nearest to absolutely true spiritual science, which should ‘certainly bear no name that appears to wed it to any one faith in the external world more than to another. All that we in the West can be anxious for is to arrive at a clear understanding as to the essential principles of that science, and if we find the principles defined in this book claimed by the cultured representatives of more than one great Oriental creed as equally the underlying truths of their different systems, we shall be all the better inclined to believe the present exposition of doctrine worth our attention.

    In regard to the complaint itself, that the teachings here, reduced to an intelligible shape are incorrectly described by the name this book

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bears, I cannot do better than quote the note by which the editor of “The Theosophist” replies to his Brahman contributor. He says “We print the above letter, as it expresses, in courteous language and in an able manner, the views of a large number of our Hindoo brothers. At the same time it must be stated that the name of ‘Esoteric Buddhism’ was given to Mr. Sinnett’s latest publication, not because the doctrine propounded therein is meant to be specially identified with any particular form of faith, but because Buddhism means the doctrine of the Buddhas, the Wise, i. e. the Wisdom Religion.” For my own part I need only add that I fully accept and adopt that explanation of the matter. It would, indeed, be a misconception of the design which this book is intended to subserve, to suppose it concerned with the recommendation, to a dilettante modern taste, of old world fashions in religious thought. The external forms and fancies of religion in one age may be a little purer, in another age a little more corrupt, but they inevitably adapt themselves to their period, and it would be extravagant to imagine them interchangeable. The present statement is not put forward in the hope of making Buddhists from among the adherents of any other system, but with the view of conveying to thoughtful readers, as well

INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. 9

in the East as in the West, a series of leading ideas, relating to the actual verities of Nature, and the real facts of Man’s progress through evolution, which have been communicated to the writer in their present shape by Eastern philosophers, and thus fall most readily into an Oriental mould. But the value of these teachings will perhaps be most fully realized when we clearly perceive that they are scientific in their character, rather than polemical. Spiritual truths, if they are truths, may evidently be dealt with in a no less scientific spirit than chemical reactions. And no religious feeling, of whatever color it may be, need be disturbed by the importation into the general stock of knowledge of new discoveries about the constitution and nature of Man on the plane of his higher activities. True religion will eventually find a way to assimilate such fresh knowledge in the same way that it finally acquiesces in a gradual enlargement of knowledge on the physical plane. This, in the first instance, may sometimes disconcert notions associated with religious belief,—as geological science at first embarrassed biblical chronology. But in time men came to see that the essence of the biblical statement does not reside in the literal sense of cosmological passages, and religious conceptions grew all the purer for the relief thus afforded.

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In just the same way, when positive scientific knowledge begins to embrace a comprehension of laws relating to the spiritual development of Man, some misconceptions of Nature long blended with religion may have to give way, but still it will be found that the central ideas of true religion have been cleared up and brightened all the better for the process. Especially, as such processes continue, will the internal dissensions of the religious world be inevitably subdued. The warfare of sects can only be due to a failure on the part of rival sectarians to grasp fundamental facts. Could a time come when the basic ideas on which religion rests should be comprehended with the same certainty with which we comprehend some primary physical laws, and disagreement about them be recognized by all educated people as ridiculous, then there would not be room for very acrimonious divergences of religious sentiment. Externals of religious thought would still differ in different climates and among different races,—as dress and dietaries differ, but such differences would not give rise to intellectual antagonism.

    Basic facts of the kind that must, when they come to be widely recognized as such, have a tendency in this way to blend together superficially divergent views, not to provoke a trial

INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.  11

of strength between them, are developed, it appears to me, in the exposition of spiritual science we have now obtained from our Eastern friends. It is quite unnecessary for religious thinkers to turn aside from them under the impression that they are arguments in favor of some Eastern, in preference to the more general Western, creed. If medical science were to discover a new fact about Man’s body, were to unveil some hitherto concealed principle on which the growth of skin and flesh and bone is carried on, that discovery would not be regarded as trenching at all on the domain of religion. Would the domain of religion be invaded by a discovery, for example, that should go one step behind the action of the nerves, and disclose a finer set of activities manipulating these as they manipulate the muscles? At all events, even if such a discovery might begin to reconcile science and religion, no man who allows any of his higher faculties to enter into his religious thinking would put aside a positive fact of Nature, clearly shown to be such, as hostile to religion. Being a fact, it is inevitable that it should fit in with all other facts, and with religious truth among the number. So with the great mass of information in reference to the evolution of Man embodied in the present statement. Our best plan evidently is,

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to ask, before we look into the report I bring forward, not whether it will square in all respects with preconceived views, but whether it really does introduce us to a series’ of natural facts connected with the growth and development of Man’s higher faculties. If it does this, we may wisely examine the facts first in the scientific spirit, and leave them to exercise whatever effect on collateral belief may be reasonable and legitimate, later on.

    Ramifying, as the explanation proceeds, into a great many side paths, it will be seen by the readers of this book that the central idea now presented to us completes and spiritualizes the great conception of physical anthropology, which accounts for the evolution of Man’s body by successive and very gradual improvements of animal forms from generation to generation. That is a very barren and miserable theory, regarded as an all embracing account of creation; but, properly understood, it paves the way for a comprehension of the higher concurrent process, which is all the while evolving the soul of Man in the higher spiritual realms of existence. The circumstances under which this is done reconcile the evolutionary method with the instinctive craving of every self-conscious entity for perpetuity of individual life. The disjointed series of improving form on this earth

INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.   13.

have no individuality, and the life of each in turn is a separate transaction which finds no compensation for suffering involved, no justice, no fruit of its efforts, in the life of its successor. It is possible to argue on the assumption of a new independent creation of a human soul, every time a new human form is produced by physiological growth, that in the after spiritual state of such soul justice may be awarded; but then this conception is itself at variance with the fundamental idea of evolution, which traces, or believes that it traces, the origin of each soul to the working of highly developed matter in each cased Nor is it less at variance with the analogies of Nature as these come under our observation; but without going into that, it is enough for the moment to perceive that the theory of spiritual evolution, as set forth in the teaching of esoteric’ science. is, at any rate, in harmony with these analogies, while at the same time it satisfactorily meets the requirements of justice and of the instinctive demand for continuity of individual life.

    This theory recognizes the evolution of the soul as a process that is quite continuous in itself, though carried out partly through. the intermediation of a great series of dissociated forms. Putting aside, for the moment, the profound metaphysics of the theory which trace

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the principle of life from the original first cause of the Cosmos, we find the soul as an entity emerging from the animal kingdom and passing into the earliest human forms, without being at that time ripe for the higher intellectual life with which the present state of humanity renders us familiar. But through successive incarnations in forms whose physical improvement, under the Darwinian law of evolution, is constantly fitting them to be its habitations at each return to objective life, it gradually gathers that enormous range of experience which is summed up in its higher development. In the intervals between its physical incarnations, it prolongs and works out, and finally exhausts or transmutes into so much abstract development, the personal experiences of each life. This is the clue to that apparent difficulty which besets the cruder form of the theory of re-incarnation, which independent speculation has sometimes thrown out. Each man is unconscious of having led previous lives, therefore he contends that subsequent lives can afford him no compensations for this one. He overlooks the enormous importance of the intervening spiritual condition, in which he by no means forgets the personal adventures and emotions he has just passed through, and in which he distills them into so much cosmic

INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.  15

progress. In the following pages the elucidation of this profoundly interesting mystery is attempted, and it will be seen that the view of events now afforded us is not only a solution of the problems of life and death, but of many very perplexing experiences on the border land between those conditions,—or rather between physical and spiritual life,—which have engaged attention and speculation so widely of recent years in most civilized countries.

    It was time, in fact, that the esoteric doctrine should be offered to modern thinkers to assist them in grappling with the enigmas which the spasmodic operation of very exalted spiritual faculties in some eases—the manifestation of some extra-physical laws and forces of Nature in others—have been latterly accumulating on our hands in great abundance. Rather, I imagine, because the conjectures put forward to account for them were unacceptable to the cultivated world at large, than because the occurrence of extra-physical manifestations of late years has been disbelieved altogether, have most people been unwilling to pay close attention to such occurrences. Nor is it necessary that they should do so now, in order to reach an intellectual standpoint from which the whole range of possibilities in regard to communications that may be established between

16.  INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.

the seen and the unseen worlds may be broadly comprehended. The higher culture of the East has been concerned with the investigation, in its own congenial retirement, of that side of Nature, while we in the West have been pushing forward our physical civilization to its present great height. Different races in the world advance in this way along different lines of progress; or, rather,— to state the idea more scientifically in the light of the occult doctrine,— all races have their cyclic progress to accomplish, at one period of which they are concerned with physical and at another with spiritual culture. We of the white race in Europe and America—embodying within the last few centuries one phase of the progress of our subsection of humanity—have been concerned almost entirely, during the historic period, with the development of our material civilization. Our religions, meanwhile, have had to do rather with the maintenance of spiritual aspirations in a potential state, than with the keen investigation of the facts of Nature in the spiritual region. We have keenly investigated these facts on the physical plane, for that was the proper function of our age; but all earnestness of effort on the part of Oriental races, in the meanwhile, has been turned in another direction. There, physical civilization has been stagnant,

INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.  17.

material progress quite unimportant, but spiritual aspirations have been not merely kept up as an underlying sentiment in people’s minds,—they have operated to produce the greatest manifestations of activity with which the race has been concerned. I do not mean that the Indian or any other Asiatic race has been as active in writing books and publishing discoveries in spiritual science as we in the West have been with the literature and research of physics. That kind of activity is itself a manifestation of material civilization. But the Asiatic races have fermented with capacities for great spiritual development, and the consequence has been that many Eastern people have devoted their lives to spiritual study and research, always, of course, pursuing the methods of research and the modes of life appropriate to a cycle of spiritual progress,—methods which lead the student of—and still more the adept in— such science into seclusion and secrecy.

    Probably it may be due in some way to an opposite fermentation of causes in the East and the West now that a certain interchange of methods begins to be possible. I do not mean that the West is turning away yet from material civilization, nor the East slackening it devotion to spirituality, but we here are cer-

18.  INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.

tainly readier now than we were a generation or two ago to recognize the possibility of acquiring real knowledge of spiritual science, and are more generally impressed with the necessity of such acquisitions. The East on the other hand has partially relaxed its hitherto inviolable reserve. The important movement of which this little book is one outcome constitutes a double illustration of the new tendency at last discernible. It is discernible in several different ways to acute observers who once possess themselves of the key to what is going on. But it is only of that particular effort in which my own willing services have been engaged that I need now speak. A book more or less, in this ocean of books which is constantly welling forth from active Western civilization, may seem a very small matter; but to the highly conservative devotees of occult science in the East; a book which sets forth in plain language, which all who run may read, the hitherto secret interpretations of Nature’s spiritual design that have hitherto been communicated only in the deadliest secrecy to students of long absorption in the pursuit of such teaching, constitutes a violation of the old occult usage which is quite bewildering and appalling. As my Brahman critic above referred to points out, now that the esoteric doctrine is once for all plainly

INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.  19.

stated, it is seen to be embodied, a bit here and a bit there, in the various sacred writings of India. But at the same time it was nowhere stated in such terms as to be comprehensible without prolonged and special study. And for the most part the doctrine, in so far as it was stated, was wrapped in allegory that Western readers have rarely had the patience to unravel. To all intents and purposes, though the knowledge here set forth is no new discovery for those by whom it is now revealed, it is a new revelation for the whole world,—Eastern and Western alike,—in its present explicit distinctness, and has only been prepared for in the West, but I trust prepared for sufficiently, by that widespread seething interest in spiritual things which has been working among us for some years past.

    This interest has been stimulated in various ways. The casual occurrence of phenomena linking our physical perceptions with the unseen world has kindled an ardent enthusiasm for inquiry along the path of investigation thus pointed out, but the laws of Nature affecting the vast realm of spiritual existence are far too complicated to be discovered from an observation of the phenomena of the relatively narrow subdivision of that realm brought within our cognizance almost exclusively by casual and

20.  INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.

irregular occurrences of the kind referred to. It is only with the help of esoteric science—the accumulated experience of a great school of inquirers, devoting faculties of the highest kind, for a long series of ages, to the exploration of spiritual mysteries—that a sufficiently wide view of Nature can be obtained to embrace the apparently disorderly phenomena of the astral world,—the first beyond the physical frontier,—in all-sufficing generalizations that cover the whole scheme of spiritual evolution. These far-reaching and magnificent conceptions of Nature should not only recommend themselves, when properly understood, to minds that have shrunk from crude conclusions based on the imperfect data of modern spiritual observation in the West, but should also be recognized by modern spiritualists themselves as calculated to purify and expand their own doctrines, and guard them from liability to underrate the grandeur of the region into which they have partly penetrated, by relying, for its interpretation, too confidently on experiences gathered at its threshold. For the theosophic teaching, which has been too hastily resented by some spiritualists who have conceived it hostile to their own acquired knowledge, will be discovered, on a closer examination, to include these experiences, and only to disconcert some of the con-

INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.  21.

clusions derived from them. It must be remembered that my statements concerning the phenomena of Kama loca,—the astral world, from which most of the phenomena of spiritualism emanate,—have been the fruit of my own questions and inquiries rather than a portion of a carefully adjusted series of lessons in occult science, dictated by professors applying themselves to the art of teaching. That, indeed, has been the way in which the whole body of exposition which this book contains has been worked out, and it naturally follows that some parts of it are less complete than others, and that none can be much better than general outlines. In esoteric science, as in microscopy, the application of higher and higher powers will always continue to reveal a growing wealth of detail; and the sketch of an organism that appeared satisfactory enough when its general proportions were first discerned, is betrayed to be almost worse than insufficient when a number of previously unsuspected minutiæ are brought to notice. In this way, while no mistake has been made as regards any statement actually put forward in the following pages on the subject of human evolution after death, there will be more, I apprehend, to add to that part of the explanation in later expansions of it, if these become practicable, than to

22.  INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.

any other. The points which, meanwhile, I will ask spiritualist readers to bear in mind are especially these:

    1st. It is already indicated that the dissolution of the human principles after death, though one cannot help speaking of the process as one of dispersion, is not actually a mechanical separation of parts, nor even a process analogous to the chemical dissolution of a compound body into elements on the same plane of matter. The discussion of the process as if it were a mechanical separation was represented from the first as “a rough way of dealing with the matter,” and was adopted for the sake of emphasizing the transition of consciousness from me principle to another which goes on in the astral world after death. This transition of consciousness is, in fact, the struggle between the higher and lower duad.

    2d. The struggle just referred to may be regarded as an oscillation of consciousness between the two duads; and when the return of consciousness to the lower principles, during this struggle, is stimulated and encouraged by converse with still living entities on the earth plane, with the help of mediumship, the proper spiritual growth of the entity in Kama loca is, to that extent,—perhaps to a very considerable extent,—retarded. It is this considera-

INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION.  23.

tion which may, in a greater degree than any other, account for the disapproval with which the adepts of occult science regard the active practice of spiritualistic intercourse with departed human beings. Such intercourse, though dictated from this side by the purest affection, may seriously retard and embarrass the spiritual development of those who have gone in advance of us.

    3d. It is recognized in the following pages that intercourse between living human beings gifted with a very elevated sort of mediumship, or spiritual clairvoyance, and departed friends with whom they have been closely united in sympathy during life, is possible on the higher spiritual plane, after such persons have passed through the struggle of Kama loca and have been completely spiritualized. That intercourse may be of a more subtle kind than can readily be realized by reference to examples of intercourse on the earth plane, but may evidently be none the less exhilarating to the higher perceptions.

    By dwelling on the points of contact between the theosophic teachings and the experience of the higher spiritualism, I think it will be found that the alleged incompatibility of theosophy and spiritualism is much less complete than is supposed. It is impossible, I venture to assert,

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that there can be any true psychic experience which the doctrines of theosophy or, to speak more accurately, of that esoteric science of which theosophy is the study—will fail to interpret and explain. And if this partial exposition of esoteric science may leave a good deal not yet explained in the vast region of mystery which separates death and re-birth, surely the revelations which are made here go far enough to establish a good claim on our respectful attention for the present, so that some embarrassments they may still leave to trouble our understanding may fairly be passed to a suspense account, while we await a further illumination, to be, perhaps, obtainable hereafter.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

    THE teachings embodied in the present volume let in a flood of light on questions connected with Buddhist doctrine which have deeply perplexed previous writers on that religion, and offer the world for the first time a practical clue to the meaning of almost all ancient religious symbolism. More than this, the esoteric doctrine, when properly understood, will be found to advance an overpowering claim on the attention of earnest thinkers. Its tenets are not presented to us an the invention of any founder or prophet; its testimony is based on no written scriptures; its views of Nature have been evolved by the researches of an immense succession of investigators, qualified for their task by the possession of spiritual faculties and perceptions of a higher order than those belonging to ordinary humanity. In the course of ages, the block of knowledge thus accumulated, concerning the origin of the world and of man, and the ultimate des-

26.  PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

tinies of our race,—concerning also the nature of other worlds and states of existence differing from those of our present life,—checked and examined at every point, verified in all directions, and constantly under examination throughout, has come to be looked on by its custodians as constituting the absolute truth concerning spiritual things, the actual state of the facts regarding vast regions of vital activity lying beyond this earthly existence.

    European philosophy, whether concerned with religion or pure metaphysics, has so long been used to a sense of insecurity in speculations outrunning the limits of physical experiment, that absolute truth about spiritual things is hardly recognized any longer by prudent thinkers as a reasonable object of pursuit; but different habits of thought have been acquired in Asia. The secret doctrine which, to a considerable extent, I am now enabled to expound, is regarded not only by all its adherents, but by vast numbers who have never expected to know more of it than that such a doctrine exists, as a mine of entirely trustworthy knowledge, from which all religions and philosophies have derived whatever they possess of truth, and with which every religion must coincide if it claims to be a mode of expression for truth.

    This is a bold claim indeed, but I venture to

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 27

announce the following exposition as one of immense importance to the world, because I believe that claim can be substantiated.
I do not say that within the compass of this volume the authenticity of the esoteric doctrine can be proved. Such proof cannot be given by any process of argument; only through the development in each inquirer for himself of the faculties required for the direct observation of Nature along the lines indicated. But his prima facie conclusion may be determined by the extent to which the views of Nature about to be unfolded may recommend themselves to his mind, and by the reasons which exist for trusting the powers of observation of those by whom they are communicated.

    Will it be supposed that the very magnitude of the claim now made on behalf of the esoteric doctrine, lifts the present statement out of the region of inquiry to which its title refers,—inquiry as to the real inner meaning of the definite and specific religion called Buddhism? The fact is, however, that esoteric Buddhism, though by no means divorced from the associations of exoteric Buddhism, must not be conceived to constitute a mere imperium in imperio,—a central school of culture in the vortex of the Buddhist world. In proportion as Buddhism retreats into the inner penetralia

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of its faith, these are found to merge into the inner penetralia of other faiths. The cosmic conceptions, and the knowledge of Nature on which Buddhism not merely rests, but which constitute esoteric Buddhism, equally constitute esoteric Brahmanism. And the esoteric doctrine is thus regarded by those of all creeds who are “enlightened” (in the Buddhist sense) as the absolute truth concerning Nature, Man, the origin of the Universe, and the destinies toward which its inhabitants are tending. At the same time, exoteric Buddhism has remained in closer union with the esoteric doctrine than any other popular religion. An exposition of the inner knowledge addressed to English readers in the present day, will thus associate itself irresistibly with familiar outlines of Buddhist teaching. It will certainly impart to these a living meaning they generally seem to be without, but all the more on this account may the esoteric doctrine be most conveniently studied in its Buddhist aspect; one, moreover, which has been so strongly impressed upon it since the time of Gautama Buddha, that though the essence of the doctrine dates back to a far more remote antiquity, the Buddhist coloring has now permeated its whole substance. That which I am about to put before the reader is esoteric Buddhism, and for European students

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 29

approaching it for the first time, any other designation would be a misnomer.

    The statement I have to make must be considered in its entirety before the reader will be able to comprehend why initiates in the esoteric doctrine regard the concession involved in the present disclosure of the general outlines of this doctrine as one of startling magnitude. One explanation of this feeling, however, may be readily seen to spring from the extreme sacredness that has always been attached by their ancient guardians to the inner vital truths of Nature. Hitherto this sacredness has always prescribed their absolute concealment from the profane herd. And so far as that policy of concealment—the tradition of countless ages—is now being given up, the new departure which the appearance of this volume signalizes will be contemplated with surprise and regret by a great many initiated disciples. The surrender to criticism, which may sometimes perhaps be clumsy and irreverent, of doctrines which have hitherto been regarded by such persons as too majestic in their import to be talked of at all except under circumstance of befitting solemnity, will seem to them a terrible profanation of the great mysteries. From the European point of view it would be unreasonable to expect that such a book as this

30.  PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

can be exempt from the usual rough-and-tumble treatment of new ideas; and special convictions or commonplace bigotry may sometimes render such treatment in the present case peculiarly inimical. But all that, though a matter of course to European exponents of the doctrine like myself, will seem very grievous and disgusting to its earlier and more regular representatives. They will appeal sadly to the wisdom of the time-honored rule which, in the old symbolical way, forbade the initiates from casting pearls before swine.

    Happily, as I think, the rule has not been allowed to operate any longer to the prejudice of those who, while still far from being initiated, in the occult sense of the term, will probably have become, by sheer force of modern culture, qualified to appreciate the concession.

    Part of the information contained in the following pages has been thrown out in a fragmentary form during the last eighteen months in “The Theosophist,” a monthly magazine, published hitherto at Bombay, but now at Madras, by the leaders of the Theosophical Society. As almost all the articles referred to have been my own writing, I have not hesitated to weld parts of them, when this course has been convenient, into the present volume. A certain advantage is gained by thus showing

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 31

how the separate pieces of the mosaic, as first presented to public notice, drop naturally into their places in the (comparatively) finished pavement.

    The doctrine or system now disclosed in its broad outlines has been so jealously guarded hitherto, that no mere literary researches, though they might have currycombed all India, could have brought to light any morsel of the information thus revealed. It is given out to the world at last by the free grace of those in whose keeping it has hitherto lain. Nothing could ever have extorted from them its very first letter. It is only after a perusal of the present explanations that their position generally, as regards their present disclosures or their previous reticence, can be criticised or even comprehended. The views of Nature now put forward are altogether unfamiliar to European thinkers; the policy of the graduates in esoteric knowledge, which has grown out of their long intimacy with these views, must be considered in connection with the peculiar bearings of the doctrine itself.

    As for the circumstances under which these revelations were first foreshadowed in “The Theosophist,” and are now rounded off and expanded as my readers will perceive, it is enough for the moment to say, that the Theosophical Society, through my connection with which the

32.  PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

materials dealt with in this volume have come into my hands, owes its establishment to certain persons who are among the custodians of esoteric science. The information poured out at last for the benefit of all who are ripe to receive it has been destined for communication to the world through the Theosophical Society since the foundation of that body, and later circumstances only have indicated myself as the agent through whom the communication could be conveniently made.

    Let me add, that I do not regard myself as the sole exponent for the outer world, at this crisis, of esoteric truth. These teachings are the final outcome, as regards philosophical knowledge, of the relations with the outer world which, have been established by the custodians of esoteric truth, through me. And it is only regarding the acts and intentions of those esoteric teachers who have chosen to work through me, that I can have any certain knowledge. But, in different ways, some other writers are engaged in expounding for the benefit of the world—and, as I believe, in accordance with a great plan, of which this volume is a part—the same truths, in different aspects, that I am commissioned to unfold. A remarkable book, published within the last year or two, “The Perfect Way,” may be specially mentioned, as

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 33

showing how more roads than one may lead to a mountain-top. The inner inspirations of “The Perfect Way” appear to me identical with the philosophy that I have learned. The symbols in which those inspirations are clothed, in my opinion, I am bound to add, are liable to mislead the student; but this is a natural consequence of the circumstances under which the inner inspiration has been received. Far more important and interesting to me than the discrepancies between the teachings of “The Perfect Way” and my own, are the identities that may be traced between the clear scientific explanations now conveyed to me on the plane of the physical intellect, and the ideas which manifestly underlie those communicated on an altogether different system to the authors of the book I mention. These identities are a great deal too close to be the result either of coincidence or parallel speculation.

    Probably the great activity at present of mere ordinary literary speculation on problems lying beyond the range of physical knowledge, may also be in some way provoked by that policy, on the part of the great custodians of esoteric truth, of which my own book is certainly one manifestation, and the volume I have just mentioned, probably another. I find, for example, in M. Adolphe d’Assier’s recently
 

34.  PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

published “Essai sur l’Humanite Posthume,” some conjectures respecting the destination of the higher human principles after death, which are infused with quite a startling flavor of true occult knowledge. Again, the ardor now shown in “Psychical Research,” by the very distinguished, highly gifted, and cultivated men who lead the society in London devoted to that object, is, to my inner convictions,—knowing, as I do, something of the way the spiritual aspirations of the world are silently influenced by those whose work lies in that department of Nature,—the obvious fruit of efforts parallel to those with which I am more immediately concerned.
It only remains for me to disclaim, on behalf of the treatise which ensues, any pretension to high finish as regards the language in which it is cast. Longer familiarity with the vast and complicated scheme of cosmogony disclosed, will no doubt suggest improvements in the phraseology employed to expound it. Two years ago, neither I nor any other European living knew the alphabet of the science here for the first time put into a scientific shape,—or subject, at all events, to an attempt in that direction,—the science of spiritual causes and their effects, of super-physical consciousness, of cosmical evolution. Though, as I have ex-

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 35

plained above, ideas had begun to offer themselves to the world in more or less embarrassing disguise of mystic symbology, no attempt had ever been made by any esoteric teacher, two years back, to put the doctrine forward in its plain abstract purity. As my own instruction progressed on those lines, I have had to coin phrases and suggest English words as equivalents for the ideas which were presented to my mind. I am by no means convinced that in all cases I have coined the best possible phrases and hit on the most neatly expressive words. For example, at the threshold of the subject we come upon the necessity of giving some name to the various elements or attributes of which the complete human creature is made up. “Element” would be an impossible word to use, on account of the confusion that would arise from its use in other significations; and the least objectionable, on the whole, seemed to me “principle,” though to an ear trained in the niceties of metaphysical expression this word will have a very unsatisfactory sound in some of its present applications. Quite possibly, therefore, in progress of time the Western nomenclature of the esoteric doctrine may be greatly developed in advance of that I have provisionally constructed. The Oriental nomenclature is far more elaborate, but metaphys-

36.  PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

ical Sanskrit seems to be painfully embarrassing to a translator,—the fault, my India friends assure me, not of Sanskrit, but of the language in which they are now required to express the Sanskrit idea. Eventually we may find that, with the help of a little borrowing from familiar Greek quarries, English may prove more receptive of the new doctrine—or, rather, of the primeval doctrine as newly disclosed—than has yet been supposed possible in the East.

ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.

CHAPTER I.
ESOTERIC TEACHERS.

    THE information contained in the following pages is no collection of inferences deduced from study. I am bringing to my readers knowledge which I have obtained by favor rather than by effort. It will not be found the less valuable on that account; I venture, on the contrary, to declare that it will be found of incalculably greater value, easily as I have obtained it, than any results in a similar direction which I could possibly have procured by ordinary methods of research, even had I possessed, in the highest degree, that which I make no claim to possess at all, Oriental scholarship.

    Every one who has been concerned with Indian literature, and still more, any one who in India has taken interest in talking with cultivated natives on philosophical subjects, will be

42   ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.

aware of a general conviction existing in the East that there are men living who know a great deal more about philosophy, in the highest acceptation of the word, — the science, the true knowledge of spiritual things, — than can be found recorded in any books. In Europe the notion of secrecy as applied to science is so repulsive to the prevailing instinct, that the first inclination of European thinkers is to deny the existence of that which they so much dislike. But circumstances have fully assured me during my residence in India that the conviction just referred to is perfectly well founded, and I have been privileged at last to receive a very considerable mass of instruction in the hitherto secret knowledge over which Oriental philosophers have brooded silently till now; instruction which has hitherto been only imparted to sympathetic students, prepared themselves to migrate into the camp of secrecy. Their teachers have been more than content that all other inquirers should be left in doubt as to whether there was anything of importance to learn at their hands.

    With quite as much antipathy at starting as any one could have entertained to the old Oriental policy in regard to knowledge, I came nevertheless to perceive that the old Oriental knowledge itself was a very real and important

ESOTERIC TEACHERS. 43

possession. It may be excusable to regard the high grapes as sour, so long as they are quite out of reach; but it would be foolish to persist in that opinion if a tall friend hands down a bunch, and one finds them sweet.

    For reasons that will appear, as the present explanations proceed, the very considerable block of hitherto secret teaching this volume contains, has been conveyed to me, not only without conditions of the usual kind, but to the express end that I might convey it in my turn to the world at large.

    Without the light of hitherto secret Oriental knowledge, it is impossible by any study of its published literature, English or Sanskrit, for students of even the most scholarly qualifications to reach a comprehension of the inner doctrines and real meaning of any Oriental religion. This assertion conveys no reproach to the sympathetic, learned, and industrious writers of great ability who have studied Oriental religions generally, and Buddhism especially, in their external aspects. Buddhism, above all, is a religion which has enjoyed a dual existence from the very beginning of its introduction to the world. The real inner meaning of its doctrines has been kept back from uninitiated students, while the outer teachings have merely presented the multitude

44   ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.

with a code of moral lessons, and a veiled, symbolical literature, hinting at the existence of knowledge in the background.

    This secret knowledge, in reality, long ante-dated the passage through earth-life of Gautama Buddha. Brahmanical philosophy, in ages before Buddha, embodied the identical doctrine which may now be described as Esoteric Buddhism. Its outlines had indeed been blurred, its scientific form partially confused, but the general body of knowledge was already in possession of a select few before Buddha came to deal with it. Buddha, however, undertook the task of revising and refreshing the esoteric science of the inner circle of initiates, as well as the morality of the outer world. The circumstances under which this work was done have been wholly misunderstood, nor would a straightforward explanation thereof be intelligible without explanations, which must first be furnished by a survey of the esoteric science itself.

    From Buddha’s time till now the esoteric science referred to has been jealously guarded as a precious heritage belonging exclusively to regularly initiated members of mysteriously organized associations. These, so far as Buddhism is concerned, are the Arahats, or, more properly, Arhats, referred to in Buddhist liter-

ESOTERIC TEACHERS. 45

ature. They are the initiates who tread the “fourth path of holiness,” spoken of in esoteric Buddhist writings. Mr. Rhys Davids, refer. ring to a multiplicity of original texts and Sanskrit authorities, says: “One might fill pages with the awe-struck and ecstatic praise which is lavished in Buddhist writings on this condition of mind, the fruit of the fourth path, the state of an Arahat, of a man made perfect according to the Buddhist faith.” And then making a series of running quotations from Sanskrit authorities, he says: “To him who has finished the path and passed beyond sorrow, who has freed himself on all sides, thrown away every fetter, there is no more fever or grief. . . . For such there are no more births, they are in the enjoyment of Nirvana. Their old karma is exhausted, no new karma is being produced; their hearts are free from the longing after future life, and no new yearnings springing up within them, they, the wise, are extinguished like a lamp.” These passages, and all like them, convey to European readers, at all events, an entirely false idea as to what sort of person an Arhat really is, as to the life he leads while on earth, and what he anticipates later on. But the elucidation of such points may be postponed for the moment some further passages from exoteric treatises

46   ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.

may first be selected to show what an Arhat is generally supposed to be.

    Mr. Rhys Davids, speaking of Jhana and Samadhi, — the belief that it was possible by intense self-absorption to attain supernatural faculties and powers, — goes on to say: “So far as I am aware, no instance is recorded of any one, not either a member of the order, or a Brahman ascetic, acquiring these powers. A Buddha always possessed them; whether Arahats, as such, could work the particular miracles in question, and whether of mendicants only, Arahats or only Asekhas could do so, is at present not clear.” Very little in the sources of information on the subject that have hitherto been explored will be found clear. But I am now merely endeavoring to show that Buddhist literature teems with allusions to the greatness and powers of the Arhats. For more intimate knowledge concerning them, special circumstances must furnish us with the required explanations.

    Mr. Arthur Lillie, in “Buddha and Early Buddhism,” tells us: “Six supernatural faculties were expected of the ascetic before he could claim the grade of Arhat. They are constantly alluded to in the Sutras as the six supernatural faculties, usually without further specification. . . . Man has a body composed

ESOTERIC TEACHERS. 47

of the four elements. . . . In this transitory body his intelligence is enchained. The ascetic finding himself thus confused, directs his mind to the creation of the Manas. He represents to himself, in thought, another body created from this material body, — a body with a form, members, and organs. This body, in relation to the material body, is like the sword and the scabbard, or a serpent issuing from a basket in which it is confined. The ascetic then, purified and perfected, begins to practice supernatural faculties. He finds himself able to pass through material obstacles, walls, ramparts, etc.; he is able to throw his phantasmal appearance into many places at once, . . . he can leave this world and even reach the heaven of Brahma himself. . . . He acquires the power of hearing the sounds of the unseen world as distinctly as those of the phenomenal world, — more distinctly, in point of fact. Also by the power of Manas he is able to read the most secret thoughts of others, and to tell their characters.” And so on with illustrations. Mr. Lillie has not quite accurately divined the nature of the truth lying behind this popular version of the facts; but it is hardly necessary to quote more to show that the powers of the Arhats and their insight into spiritual things are respected by the world of Buddhism most profoundly, even

48   ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.

though the Arhats themselves have been singularly indisposed to favor the world with autobiographies or scientific accounts of “the six supernatural powers.”

    A few sentences from Mr. Hoey’s recent translation of Dr. Oldenberg’s “Buddha: his Life, his Doctrine, his Order,” may fall conveniently into this place, and then we may pass on. We read: “Buddhist proverbial philosophy attributes in innumerable passages the possession of Nirvana to the saint who still treads the earth, The disciple who has put off lust and desire, rich in wisdom, has here on earth attained deliverance from death, the rest, the Nirvana, the eternal state. He who has escaped from the trackless hard mazes of the Sansara, who has crossed over and reached the shore, self-absorbed, without stumbling and without doubt, who has delivered himself from the earthly and attained Nirvana, him I call a true Brahman. If the saint will even now put an end to his state of being, he can do so, but the majority stand fast until Nature has reached her goal; of such may those words be said which are put in the mouth of the most prominent of Buddha’s disciples, ‘I long not for death; I long not for life; I wait till mine hour come, like a servant who awaiteth his reward.’”

    A multiplication of such quotations would

ESOTERIC TEACHERS. 49

merely involve the repetition in various forms of exoteric conceptions concerning the Arhats. Like every fact or thought in Buddhism, the Arhat has two aspects, that in which he is presented to the world at large, and that in which he lives, moves, and has his being. In the popular estimation he is a saint waiting for a spiritual reward of the kind the populace can understand, — a wonder-worker meanwhile by favor of supernatural agencies. In reality he is the long-tried and proved-worthy custodian of the deepest and innermost philosophy of the one fundamental religion which Buddha refreshed and restored, and a student of natural science standing in the very foremost front of human knowledge, in regard not merely to the mysteries of spirit, but to the material constitution of the world as well.
 

    Arhat is a Buddhist designation. That which is more familiar in India, where the attributes of Arhatship are not necessarily associated with professions of Buddhism, is Mahatma. With stories about the Mahatmas India is saturated. The older Mahatmas are generally spoken of as Rishis; but the terms are interchangeable, and I have heard the title Rishi applied to men now living. All the attributes of the Arhats mentioned in Buddhist writings are described, with no less reverence,

50   ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.

in Indian literature as those of the Mahatmas; and this volume might be readily filled with translations of vernacular books, giving accounts of miraculous achievements by such of them as are known to history and tradition by name.

    In reality, the Arhats and the Mahatmas are the same men. At that level of spiritual exaltation, supreme knowledge of the esoteric doctrine blends all original sectarian distinctions. By whatever name such illuminati may be called, they are the adepts of occult knowledge, sometimes spoken of in India now as the Brothers, and the custodians of the spiritual science which has been handed down to them by their predecessors.

    We may search both ancient and modern literature in vain, however, for any systematic explanation of their doctrine or science. A good deal of this is dimly set forth in occult writing; but very little of this is of the least use to readers who take up the subject without previous knowledge acquired independently of books. It is under favor of direct instruction from one of their numbers that I am now enabled to attempt an outline of the Mahatmas teaching, and it is in the same way that I have picked up what I know concerning the organization to which most of them, and the greatest, in the present day belong.

ESOTERIC TEACHERS. 51

    All over the world there are occultists of various degrees of eminence, and occult fraternities even, which have a great deal in common with the leading fraternity now established in Tibet. But all my inquiries into the subject have convinced me that the Tibetan Brotherhood is incomparably the highest of such associations, and regarded as such by all other associations, — worthy of being looked upon themselves as really “enlightened” in the occult sense of the term. There are, it is true, many isolated mystics in India who are altogether self-taught and unconnected with occult bodies. Many of these will explain that they themselves attain to higher pinnacles of spiritual enlightenment than the Brothers of Tibet, or any other people on earth. But the examination of such claims in all cases I have encountered would, I think, lead any impartial outsider, however little qualified himself by personal development to be a judge of occult enlightenment, to the conclusion that they are altogether unfounded. I know one native of India, for example, a man of European education, holding a high appointment under government, of good station in society, most elevated character, and enjoying unusual respect with such Europeans as are concerned with him in official life, who will only accord to the Brothers of Tibet a second

52   ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.

place in the world of spiritual enlightenment. The first place he regards as occupied by one person, now in this world no longer, — his own occult master in life, — whom he resolutely asserts to have been an incarnation of the Supreme Being. His own (my friend’s) inner senses were so far awakened by this Master, that the visions of his entranced state, into which he can still throw himself at will, are to him the only spiritual region in which he can feel interested. Convinced that the Supreme Being was his personal instructor from the beginning, and continues so still, in the subjective state, he is naturally inaccessible to suggestions that his impressions may be distorted by reason of his own misdirected psychological development. Again, the highly cultivated devotees, to be met with occasionally in India, who build up a conception of Nature, the universe, and God entirely on a metaphysical basis, and who have evolved their systems by sheer force of transcendental thinking, will take some established system of philosophy as its groundwork, and amplify on this to an extent which only an Oriental metaphysician could dream of. They win disciples who put implicit faith in them, and found their little school, which flourishes for a time within its own limits; but speculative philosophy of such

ESOTERIC TEACHERS. 53 

a kind is rather occupation for the mind than knowledge. Such “Masters,” by comparison with the organized adepts of the highest brotherhood, are like rowing boats compared with ocean steamships, — helpful conveyances on their own native lake or river, but not craft to whose protection you can trust yourself on a world-wide voyage of exploration over the sea.

    Descending lower again in the scale, we find India dotted all over with Yogis and Fakirs, in all stages of sell-development, from that of dirty savages, but little elevated above the gypsy fortune-tellers of an English race-course, to men ‘whose seclusion a stranger will find it very difficult to penetrate, and whose abnormal faculties and powers need only be seen or experienced to shatter the incredulity of the most contented representative of modern Western skepticism. Careless inquirers are very apt to confound such persons with the great adepts of whom they may vaguely hear.

    Concerning the real adepts, meanwhile, I cannot at present venture on any account of what the Tibetan organization is like, as regards its highest ruling authorities. Those Mahatmas themselves, of whom some more or less adequate conception may perhaps be formed by readers who will follow me patiently to the end, are subordinate by several

54   ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.

degrees to the chief of all. Let us deal rather with the earlier conditions of occult training, which can more easily be grasped.

    The level of elevation which constitutes a man — what the outer world calls a Mahatma or “Brother “— is only attained after prolonged and weary probation, and anxious ordeals of really terrible severity. One may find people who have spent twenty or thirty years or more in blameless and arduous devotion to the life-task on which they have entered, and are still in the earlier degrees of chelaship, still looking up to the heights of adeptship as far above their heads. And at whatever age a boy or man dedicates himself to the occult career, he dedicates himself to it, be it remembered, without any reservations and for life. The task he undertakes is the development in himself of a great many faculties and attributes which are so utterly dormant in ordinary mankind, that their very existence is unsuspected, the possibility of their development denied. And these faculties and attributes must be developed by the chela himself, with very little, if any, help, beyond guidance and direction from his master. “The adept,” says an occult aphorism, “becomes: he is not made.” ‘One may illustrate this point by reference to a very commonplace physical exercise. Every man living, having

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the ordinary use of his limbs, is qualified to swim. But put those who, as the common phrase goes, cannot swim, into deep water, and they will struggle and be drowned. The mere way to move the limbs is no mystery; but unless the swimmer, in moving them, has a full belief that such movement will produce the required result, the required result is not produced. In this case, we are dealing with mechanical forces merely, but the same principle runs up into dealings with subtler forces. Very much further than people generally imagine will mere “confidence” carry the occult neophyte. How many European readers, who would be quite incredulous if told of some results which occult chelas in the most incipient stages of their training have to accomplish by sheer force of confidence, hear constantly in church, nevertheless, the familiar biblical assurances of the power which resides in’ faith, and let the words pass by like the wind, leaving no impression.

    The great end and purpose of adeptship is the achievement of spiritual development, the nature of which is only veiled and disguised by the common phrases of exoteric language. That the adept seeks to unite his soul with God, that he may thereby pass into Nirvana, is a statement that conveys no definite meaning

56   ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.

to the ordinary reader; and the more he examines it with the help of ordinary books and methods, the less likely will he be to realize the nature of the process contemplated or of the condition desired. It will be necessary to deal first with the esoteric conception of Nature, and the origin and destinies of Man, which differ widely from theological conceptions, before an explanation of the aim which the adept pursues can become intelligible.

    Meanwhile, however, it is desirable, at the very outset, to disabuse the reader of one misconception in regard to the objects of adeptship that he may very likely have framed.

    The development of those spiritual faculties, whose culture has to do with the highest objects of the occult life, gives rise as it progresses to a great deal of incidental knowledge, having to do with physical laws of Nature not yet generally understood. This knowledge, and the practical art of manipulating certain obscure forces of Nature, which it brings in its train, invest an adept, and even an adept’s pupils, at a comparatively early stage of their education, with very extraordinary powers, the application of which to matters of daily life will sometimes produce results that seem altogether miraculous; and, from the ordinary point of view, the acquisition of apparently

ESOTERIC TEACHERS. 57

miraculous power is such a stupendous achievement, that people are sometimes apt to fancy the adept’s object in seeking the knowledge he attains has been to invest himself with these coveted powers. It would be as reasonable to say of any great patriot of military history that his object in becoming a soldier had been to wear a gay uniform and impress the imagination of the nurse-maids.

    The Oriental method of cultivating knowledge has always differed diametrically from that pursued in the West during the growth of modern science. Whilst Europe has investigated Nature as publicly as possible, every step being discussed with the utmost freedom, and every fresh fact acquired circulated at once for the benefit of all, Asiatic science has been studied secretly and its conquests jealously guarded. I need not as yet attempt either criticism or defense of its methods. But at all events these methods have been relaxed to some extent in my own case; and, as already stated, it is with the full consent of my teachers that I now follow the bent of my own inclinations as a European, and communicate what I have learned to all who may be willing to receive it. Later on it will be seen how the departure from the ordinary rules of occult study embodied in the concessions now made, falls naturally into its place in the whole scheme

58   ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.

of occult philosophy. The approaches to that philosophy have always been open, in one sense, to all. Vaguely throughout the world in various ways has been diffused the idea that some process of study which men here and there did actually follow, might lead to the acquisition of a higher kind of knowledge than that taught to mankind at large in books or by public religious preachers. The East, as pointed out, has always been more than vaguely impressed with this belief; but even in the West the whole block of symbolical literature relating to astrology, alchemy, and mysticism generally has fermented in European society, carrying to some few peculiarly receptive and qualified minds the conviction that behind all this superficially meaningless nonsense great truths lay concealed. For such persons eccentric study has sometimes revealed hidden passages leading to the grandest imaginable realms of enlightenment. But till now, in all such cases, in accordance with the law of those schools, the neophyte no sooner forced his way into the region of mystery, than he was bound over to the most inviolable secrecy as to everything connected with his entrance and further progress there. In Asia, in the same way, the chela, or pupil of occultism, no sooner became a chela. than he ceased to be a witness on behalf of the reality of occult knowledge. I have been astonished

ESOTERIC TEACHERS. 59

to find, since my own connection with the subject, how numerous such chelas are. But it is impossible to imagine any human act more improbable than the unauthorized revelation by any such chela, to persons in the outer world, that he is one; and so the great esoteric school of philosophy successfully guards its seclusion.

    In a former book, “The Occult World,” I have given a full and straightforward narrative of the circumstances under which I came in contact with the gifted and deeply instructed men from whom I have since obtained the teaching this volume contains. I need not repeat the story. I now come forward prepared to deal with the subject in a new way. The existence of occult adept, and the importance of their acquirements, may be established along two different lines of argument: firstly, by means of external evidence, — the testimony of qualified witnesses, the manifestation by or through persons connected with adepts of abnormal faculties, affording more than a presumption of abnormally enlarged knowledge; secondly, by the presentation of such a considerable portion of this knowledge as may convey intrinsic assurances of its own value. My first book proceeded by the former method; I now approach the more formidable task of working on the latter.

CHAPTER II.
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN.

    A SURVEY of cosmogony, as comprehended by occult science, must precede any attempt to explain the means by which a knowledge of that cosmogony itself has been acquired. The methods of esoteric research have grown out of natural facts, with which exoteric science is wholly unacquainted. These natural facts are concerned with the premature development in occult adepts of faculties which mankind at large has not yet evolved; and these faculties, in turn, enable their possessors to explore the mysteries of Nature, and verify the esoteric doctrines, setting forth its grand design. The practical student of occultism may develop the faculties first, and apply them to the observation of Nature afterwards; but the exhibition of the theory of Nature for Western readers merely seeking its intellectual comprehension, must precede consideration of the inner senses, which occult research employs. On the other hand, a survey of cosmogony, as comprehended

 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN.   61.

by occult science, could only be scientifically arranged at the expense of intelligibility for European readers. To begin at the beginning, we should endeavor to realize the state of the universe before evolution sets in. This subject is by no means shirked by esoteric students; and later on, in the course of this sketch, some hints will be given concerning the views occultism entertains of the earlier processes through which cosmic matter passes on its way to evolution. But an orderly statement of the earliest processes of Nature would embody references to man’s spiritual constitution, which would not be understood without some preliminary explanation.

    Seven distinct principles are recognized by esoteric science as entering into the constitution of man. The classification differs so widely from any with which European readers will be familiar, that I shall naturally be asked for the grounds on which occultism reaches so far-fetched a conclusion. But I must, on as-count of inherent peculiarities in the subject, which will be comprehended later on, beg for this Oriental knowledge I am bringing home a hearing (in the first instance, at all events) of the Oriental kind. The Oriental and the European systems of conveying knowledge are as unlike as any two methods can be. The West

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pricks and piques the learner’s controversial instinct at every step. He is encouraged to dispute and resist conviction. He is forbidden to take any scientific statement on authority. Pari passu, as he acquires knowledge, he must learn how that knowledge has been acquired, and he is made to feel that no fact is worth knowing, unless he knows, with it, the way to prove it a fact. The East manages its pupils on a wholly different plan. It no more disregard the necessity of proving its teaching than the West, but it provides proof of a wholly different sort. It enables the student to search Nature for himself, and verify its teachings, in those regions which Western philosophy can only invade by speculation and argument. It never takes the trouble to argue about any thing It says: “So and so is fact; here is the key of knowledge; now go and see for yourself.” In this way it comes to pass that teaching per se is never anything else but teaching on authority. Teaching and proof do not go hand in hand; they follow one an other in due order. A further consequence of this method is that Eastern philosophy employs  the method which we in the West have discarded for good reasons as incompatible with our own line of intellectual development, — the system of reasoning from generals to particu-

 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN.   63.

lars. The purposes which European science usually has in view would certainly not be answered by that plan, but I think that any one who goes far in the present inquiry will feel that the system of reasoning up from the details of knowledge to general inferences is inapplicable to the work in hand. One cannot understand details in this department of knowledge till we get a general understanding of the whole scheme of things. Even to convey this general comprehension by mere language is a large and by no means an easy task. To pause at every moment of the exposition in order to collect what separate evidence may be available for the proof of each separate statement, would be practically impossible. Such a method would break down the patience of the reader, and prevent him from deriving, as he may from a more condensed treatise, that definite conception as to what the esoteric doctrine means to teach, which it is my business to evoke.

    The reflection may suggest, in passing, a new view, having an intimate connection with our present subject, of the Platonic and Aristotelian systems of reasoning. Plato’s system, roughly described as reasoning from universals to particulars, is condemned by modern habits in favor of the later and exactly inverse system. But Plato was in fetters in attempting to defend his

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system. There is every reason to believe that his familiarity with esoteric science prompted his method, and that the usual restrictions under which he labored, as an initiated occultist, forbade him from saying as much as would really justify it. No one can study even as much occult science as this volume contains, and then turn to Plato, or even to any intelligent epitome of Plato’s system of thought, without finding correspondences cropping out at every turn.

    The higher principles of the series which go to constitute man are not fully developed in the mankind with which we are as yet familiar, but a complete or perfect man would be resolvable into the following elements. To facilitate the application of these explanations to ordinary exoteric Buddhist writings, the Sanskrit names of these principles are given, as well as suitable terms in English.¹

1 The nomenclature here adopted differs slightly from that hit upon when some of the present teachings were first given out in a fragmentary form in The Theosophist. Later on it will he seen that the names now preferred embody a fuller conception of the whole system, and avoid some difficulties to which the earlier names give rise. If the earlier presentations of esoteric science were thus imperfect, one can hardly be surprised at so natural a consequence of the difficulties under which its English exponents labored. But no substantial errors have to be confessed or deplored. The connotations of the present names are more accurate than those of the phrases first selected, but the explanations originally given, as as they went, were quite in harmony with those now developed.

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1. The Body . . . . . .. . .. . .. . .Rupa.
2. Vitality . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .Prana, or Jiva.
3. Astral Body . . . . . . . .. . . .Linga Sharira.
4. Animal Soul. . . . . .. . . . .  Kama Rupa.
5. Human Soul . . . . . .. . .  . Manas.
6. Spiritual Soul.. . . . . .. . . . Buddhi.
7. Spirit . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . Atma.

    Directly conceptions so transcendental as some of those included in this analysis are set forth in a tabular statement, they seem to incur certain degradation, against which, in endeavoring to realize clearly what is meant, we must be ever on our guard. Certainly it would be impossible for even the most skillful professor of occult science to exhibit each of these principles separate and distinct from the others, as the physical elements of a compound body can be separated by analysis and preserved independently of each other. The elements of a physical body are all on the same plane of materiality, but the elements of man are on very different planes. The finest gases of which the body may to some extent be chemically composed are still, on one scale at all events, on nearly the lowest level of materiality. The second principle which, by its union with gross matter, changes it from what we generally call inorganic, or what might more properly be called inert, into living matter, is at once a

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something different from the finest example of matter in its lower state. Is the second principIe, then, anything that we can truly call matter at all? The question lands us, thus, at the very outset of this inquiry, in the middle of the subtle metaphysical discussion as to whether force and matter are different or identical. Enough for the moment to state that occult science regards them as identical, and that it contemplates no principle in Nature as wholly immaterial. In this way, though no conceptions of the universe, of man’s destiny, or of Nature generally, are more spiritual than those of occult science, that science is wholly free from the logical error of attributing material results to immaterial causes. The esoteric doctrine is thus really the missing link between materialism and spirituality.

    The clue to the mystery involved lies of course in the fact, directly cognizable by occult experts, that matter exists in other states besides those which are cognizable by the five senses.

    The second principle of man, Vitality, thus consists of matter in its aspect as force; and its affinity for the grosser state of matter is so great that it cannot be separated from any given particle or mass of this, except by instantaneous translation to some other particle or

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mass. When a man’s body dies, by desertion of the higher principles which have rendered it a living reality, the second, or life principle, no longer a unity itself, is nevertheless inherent still in the particles of the body as this decomposes, attaching itself to other organisms to which that very process of decomposition gives rise. Bury the body in the earth, and its Jiva will attach itself to the vegetation which springs above, or the lower animal forms which evolve from its substance. Burn the body, and indestructible Jiva flies back none the less instantaneously to the body of the planet itself from which it was originally borrowed, entering into some new combination as its affinities may determine.

    The third principle, the Astral Body, or Linga Sharira, is an ethereal duplicate of the physical body, its original design. It guides Jiva, in its work on the physical particles, and causes it to build up the shape which these assume. Vitalized itself by the higher principles, its unity is only preserved by the union of the whole group. At death it is disembodied for a brief period, and, under some abnormal conditions, may even be temporarily visible to the external sight of still living persons. Under such conditions it is taken of course for the ghost of the departed person. Spectral appari-

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tions may sometimes be occasioned in other ways, but the third principle, when that results in a visible phenomenon, is a mere aggregation of molecules in a peculiar state, having no life or consciousness of any kind whatever. It is no more a being than any cloud-wreath in the sky which happens to settle into the semblance of some animal form. Broadly speaking, the Linga Sharira never leaves the body except at death, nor migrates far from the body even in that case. When seen at all, and this can but rarely occur, it can only be seen near where the physical body still lies. In some very peculiar cases of spiritualistic mediumship, it may for a short time exude from the physical body and be visible near it, but the medium in such cases stands the while in considerable danger of his life. Disturb unwillingly the conditions under which the Linga Sharira was set free, and its return might be impeded. The second principle would then soon cease to animate the physical body as a unity, and death would ensue.

    During the last year or two, while hints and scraps of occult science, have been finding their way out into the world, the expression “Astral Body” has been applied to a certain semblance of the human form, fully inhabited by its higher principles, which can migrate to any distance

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from the physical body, projected consciously and with exact intention by a living adept, or unintentionally, by the accidental application of certain mental forces to his loosened principles, by any person at the moment of death. For ordinary purposes there is no practical inconvenience in using the expression “Astral Body” for the appearance so projected; indeed, any more strictly accurate expression, as will be seen directly, would be cumbersome, and we must go on using the phrase in both meanings. No confusion need arise; but, strictly speaking, the Linga Sharira, or third principle, is the Astral Body, and that cannot be sent about as the vehicle of the higher principles.

    The three lower principles, it will be seen, are altogether of the earth, perishable in their nature as a single entity, though indestructible as regards their molecules, and absolutely done with by man at his death.

    The fourth principle is the first of those which belong to man’s higher nature. The Sanskrit designation, kama rupa, is often translated “Body of Desire,” which seems rather a clumsy and inaccurate form of words. A closer translation, having regard to meanings rather than words, would, perhaps, be “Vehicle of Will,” but the name already adopted above,

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Animal Soul, may be more accurately suggestive still.

    In “The Theosophist” for October, 1881, when the first hints about the septenary constitution of man were given out, the fifth principle was called the animal soul, as contra-distinguished from the sixth or “spiritual soul;” but though this nomenclature sufficed to mark the required distinction, it degraded the fifth principle, which is essentially the human principle. Though humanity is animal in its nature as compared with spirit, it is elevated above the correctly defined animal creation in every other aspect. By introducing a new name for the fifth principle, we are enabled to throw back the designation “animal soul” to its proper place. This arrangement need not interfere, meanwhile, with an appreciation of the way in which the fourth principle is the seat of that will or desire to which the Sanskrit name refers. And, withal, the Kama Rupa is the animal soul, the highest developed principle of the brute creation, susceptible of evolution into something far higher by its union with the growing fifth principle in man, but still the animal soul which man is by no means yet without, the seat of all animal desires, and a potent force in the human body as well, pressing upward, so to speak, as well as downward,

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and capable of influencing the fifth, for practical purposes, as well as of being influenced by the fifth for its own control and improvement.

    The fifth principle, human soul, or Manas (as described in Sanskrit in one of its aspects), is the seat of reason and memory. It is a portion of this principle, animated by the fourth, which is really projected to distant places by an adept, when he makes an appearance in what is commonly called his astral body.

    Now the fifth principle, or human soul, in the majority of mankind is not even yet fully developed. This fact about the imperfect development as yet of the higher principles is very important. We cannot get a correct conception of the present place of man in Nature if we make the mistake of regarding him as a fully perfected being already. And that mistake would be fatal to any reasonable anticipations concerning the future that awaits him, — fatal also to any appreciation of the appropriateness of the future which the esoteric doctrine explains to us as actually awaiting him.

    Since the fifth principle is not yet fully developed, it goes without saying that the sixth principle is still in embryo. This idea has been variously indicated in recent forecasts of the great doctrine. Sometimes, it has been said, we do, not truly possess any sixth principle, we

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merely have germs of a sixth principle. It has also been said, the sixth principle is not in us; it hovers over us; it is a something that the highest aspirations of our nature must work up toward. But it is also said: All things, not man alone, but every animal, plant, and mineral, have their seven principles, and the highest principle of all — the seventh itself — vitalizes that continuous thread of life which runs all through evolution, uniting into a definite succession the almost innumerable incarnations of that one life which constitute a complete series. We must imbibe all these various conceptions, and weld them together, or extract their essence, to learn the doctrine of the sixth principle. Following the order of ideas which just now suggested the application of the term animal soul to the fourth principle and human soul to the fifth, the sixth may be called the spiritual soul of man, and the seventh, therefore, spirit itself.

    In another aspect of the ideas the sixth principle may be called the vehicle of the seventh, and the fourth the vehicle of the fifth; but yet another mode of dealing with the problem teaches us to regard each of the higher principles, from the fourth upwards, as a vehicle of what, in Buddhist philosophy, is called the One Life or Spirit. According to this view of the

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matter the one life is that which perfects, by inhabiting the various vehicles. In the animal the one life is concentrated in the kama rupa. In man it begins to penetrate the fifth principle as well. In perfected man it penetrates the sixth, and when it penetrates the seventh, man ceases to be man, and attains a wholly superior condition of existence.

    This latter view of the position is especially valuable as guarding against the notion that the four higher principles are like a bundle of sticks tied together, but each having individualities of its own if untied. Neither the animal soul alone, nor the spiritual soul alone, has any individuality at all; but, on the other hand, the fifth principle would be incapable of separation from the others in such a way, that its individuality would be preserved while both the deserted principles would be left unconscious. It has been said that the finer principles themselves even are material and molecular in their constitution, though composed of a higher order of matter than the physical senses can take note of. So they are separable, and the sixth principle itself can be imagined as divorcing itself from its lower neighbor But in that state of separation, and at this stage of mankind’s development, it could simply re-incarnate itself in such an emergency, and grow

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a new fifth principle by contact with a human organism; in such a case, the fifth principle would lean upon and become one with the fourth, and be proportionately degraded. And yet this fifth principle, which cannot stand alone, is the personality of the man; and its cream, in union with the sixth, his continuous individuality through successive lives.

    The circumstances and attractions under the influence of which the principles do divide up, and the manner in which the consciousness of man is dealt with then, will be discussed later on. Meanwhile, a better understanding of the whole position than could ensue from a continued prosecution of the inquiry on these lines now will be obtained by turning first to the processes of evolution by means of which the principles of man have been developed.

CHAPTER III
THE PLANETARY CHAIN.

    ESOTERIC Science, though the most spiritual system imaginable, exhibits, as running throughout Nature, the most exhaustive system of evolution that the human mind can conceive. The Darwinian theory of evolution is simply an independent discovery of a portion—unhappily but a small portion—of the vast natural truth. But occultists know how to explain evolution without degrading the highest principles of man. The esoteric doctrine finds itself under no obligation to keep its science and religion in separate water-tight compartments. Its theory of physics and its theory of spirituality are not only reconcilable with each other, they are intimately blended together and interdependent. And the first great fact which occult science presents to our notice in reference to the origin of man on this globe will be seen to help the imagination over some serious embarrassments of the familiar scientific idea of evolution. The evolution of man is not a

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process carried out on this planet alone. It is a result to which many worlds in different conditions of material and spiritual development have contributed. If this statement were merely put forward as a conjecture, it would surely recommend itself forcibly to rational minds. For there is a manifest irrationality in the commonplace notion that man’s existence is divided into a material beginning, lasting sixty or seventy years, and a spiritual remainder lasting forever. The irrationality amounts to absurdity when it is alleged that the acts of the sixty or seventy years — the blundering, helpless acts of ignorant human life — are permitted by the perfect justice of an all-wise Providence to define the conditions of that later life of infinite duration. Nor is it less extravagant to imagine that, apart from the question of justice, the life beyond the grave should be exempt from the law of change, progress, and improvement, which every analogy of Nature points to as probably running through all the varied existences of the universe. But once abandon the idea of a uniform, unvarying, unprogressive life beyond the grave, once admit the conception of change and progress in that life, and we admit the idea of a variety hardly compatible with any other hypothesis than that of progress through successive worlds. As we

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have said before, this is not hypothesis at all for occult science, but a fact, ascertained and verified beyond the reach (for occultists) of doubt or contradiction.

    The life and evolutionary processes of this planet — in fact, all which constitutes it something more than a dead lump of chaotic matter — are linked with the life and evolutionary processes of several other planets. But let it not be supposed that there is no finality as regards the scheme of this planetary union to which we belong. The human imagination once set free is apt sometimes to bound too far. Once let this notion, that the earth is merely one link in a mighty chain of worlds, be fully accepted as probable, or true, and it may suggest the whole starry heavens as the heritage of the human family. That idea would involve a serious misconception. One globe does not afford Nature scope for the processes by which mankind has been evoked from chaos, but these processes do not require more than a limited and definite number of globes. Separated as these are, in regard to the gross mechanical matter of which they consist, they are closely and intimately bound together by subtle currents and forces, whose existence reason need not be much troubled to concede since the existence of some connection — of force or ethereal

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media — uniting all visible celestial bodies is proved by the mere fact that they are visible. It is along these subtle currents that the life- elements pass from world to world.

    The fact, however, will at once be liable to distortion to suit preconceived habits of mind. Some readers may imagine our meaning to be that after death the surviving soul will be drawn into the currents of that world with which its affinities connect it. The real process is more methodical. The system of worlds is a circuit round which all individual spiritual entities have alike to pass; and that passage constitutes the Evolution of Man. For it must be realized that the evolution of man is a process still going on, and by no means yet complete. Darwinian writings have taught the modern world to regard the ape as an ancestor, but the simple conceit of Western speculation has rarely permitted European evolutionists to look in the other direction and recognize the probability, that to our remote descendants we may be, as that unwelcome progenitor to us. Yet the two facts just declared hinge together. The higher evolution will be accomplished by our progress through the successive worlds of the system; and in higher forms we shall return to this earth again and again. But the avenues of thought through which we look for-

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ward to this prospect are of almost inconceivable length.

    It will readily be supposed that the chain of worlds to which this earth belongs are not all prepared for a material existence exactly, or even approximately resembling our own. There would be no meaning in an organized chain of worlds which were all alike, and might as well all have been amalgamated into one. In reality the worlds with which we are connected are very unlike each other, not merely in out-ward conditions, but in that supreme characteristic, the proportion in which spirit and matter are mingled in their constitution. Our own world presents us with conditions in which spirit and matter are, on the whole, evenly balanced in equilibrium. Let it not be supposed on that account that it is very highly elevated in the scale of perfection. On the contrary, it occupies a very low place in that scale. The worlds that are higher in the scale are those in which spirit largely predominates. There is another world attached to the chain, rather than forming a part of it, in which matter asserts itself even more decisively than on earth, but this may be spoken of later.

    That the superior worlds which man may come to inhabit in his onward progress should gradually become more and more spiritual in

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their constitution — life there being more and more successfully divorced from gross material needs — will seem reasonable enough at the first glance. But the first glance in imagination at those which might conversely be called the inferior, but may with less inaccuracy be spoken of as the preceding worlds, would perhaps suggest that they ought to be conversely less spiritual, more material, than this earth. The fact is quite the other way, and must be so, it will be seen on reflection, in a chain of worlds which is an endless chain — i.e., round and round which the evolutionary process travels. If that process had merely one journey to travel along a path which never returned into itself, one could think of it, at any rate, as working from almost absolute matter, up to almost absolute spirit; but Nature works always in complete cur