Índice Geral das Seções Índice da Seção Atual Νndice da Obra Atual Anterior: Lesson l Seguinte: Lesson lll
(p. 15)
LESSON II
THE HUMAN MIND;
ITS ORIGIN AND DESTINY – AT WHAT PERIOD DID IT BEGIN IN TIME? – WHAT ROOM DOES
IT OCCUPY IN SPACE? – IS IT SUBSTANCE OR FORCE? – IS IT A CAUSE OR AN EFFECT? –
WHAT SPECIFICALLY IS
ITS SHAPE, SIZE AND SUBSTANCE? – UPON WHAT PRINCIPLES OR BY WHAT PROPERTIES CAN
IT RESIST DESTRUCTION?
(A SUBJECT GIVEN TO MRS. CORA L.V.
SUCH a subject as this can only be
satisfactorily dealt with in a series of discourses, there is so much included
in these questions concerning the mind of man. The question in such a form as it
here assumes would never be asked by enlightened Theosophists acquainted with
the spiritual side of man’s nature, but is constantly propounded by realistic
philosophers, who maintain that everything must be material in order to be real;
must have size and shape, gravity and ponderability
evident to external sense in order to be in the realm of real existence.
Now the human mind must be conceived of as distinct from the human soul.
Therefore, as our present subject is the human mind we shall deal only with mind
as we understand it, leaving the question of the divine soul – which is beyond
the mind – which is considered
(p. 16)
in our first lesson, or only touching upon it when
necessary to explain the nature of mind as derived from the soul.
Now Mind Cure is a popular term, but spiritual healing is a far more appropriate
one and covers a great deal more ground than mental healing, because the spirit
is superior to the mind, even as intuition or moral perception is superior to
the intellectual. We may be intellectual, rational, very learned; we may be
paragons of perfection in an intellectual sense, through acquaintance with arts,
physical sciences and philosophy, and yet be miserably devoid of soul culture,
and if devoid of soul culture, if the divine breath is not made manifest in us,
if we are not unfolded on the spiritual side of our nature, all our intellectual
development will not avail to save us from sickness and suffering.
The mind of man must be subordinate to the divine soul. Intellectual progress
must be made subordinate to spiritual culture. Reason must be subordinated to
conscience or the moral sense. If nothing higher than the mind of man be
recognized, if nothing beyond intellect or reason be cultivated, a man, though a
prodigy of valor, or an encyclopedia of information, concerning worldly
knowledge, will lack the only wisdom that can guide him safely over the
tempestuous waters of earthly discipline.
The human mind, its origin and destiny, must signify the origin and destiny of a
servant of the soul. There is a power within you beyond the mind, which causes
you to often build wiser than you know. You declare that your mind changes, and it does. Your
(p. 17)
mind is only the accumulated mass of your thoughts.
All your thoughts together constitute your mental state; but the thinking
principle, the power that gives you your mind (the mind being only an organ or
perhaps only a function of the spirit) is the spirit (atma).
The individual mind of man originates in the soul of man. We will express our
idea in this wise: The soul of man we regard as the ultimate spiritual atom, the
essential primary. Those of you who are familiar with scientific analyses and
with the terms used by the schools, know well that a distinction is made in the
scientific world, and that a very broad one, between the atom or primal, the
monad and the molecule. The atom or primal it is inferred is self existent, and
being’ self existent it was of course never created and can, therefore, never be
destroyed. The molecule or monad is only an expression of life, a manifestation;
therefore scientific inference, granting that substance is eternal (as science
invariably declares), concludes that an atom always has existed and al ways
will.
There may have been periods when the molecule or monad was not. Molecules or
monads having; come into existence during time and being results of the
movements of atoms, may pass away in time, but the atoms themselves, whose
movements have made the existence of molecules or monads possible, can never
pass away.
It strikes us as extremely singular that learned bodies of men, such as the
Presbyterian assembly, for example, should ever have fallen into the error of
supposing that, according to a true rendering of Genesis, the human body must Cave been created by a direct
(p. 18)
act of God’s sovereignty out of nothing. Such a
ridiculous hypothesis is equivalent to saying God is nothing; because, according
to Genesis, everything is the result
of God’s activity. The spirit of God is sail to have
moved upon the waters, moved through the vast expanse filled by what is called –
for want of a better term – chaos, without form and void, and this directing
intelligence organized the original cosmic fluid into organic forms. Such a
definition of creation is certainly not to the effect that anything was made out
of nothing, but that everything was made from and by the action of the spirit of
God.
The spirit of God is not “nothing,” but according to
the Rosicrucian definition, it may be spoken of as No Thing, which signifies the
Eternal and Infinite cause of everything. The spirit of God, the divine life, is
the one Eternal, Primordial Being which defies all analysis and cannot be
discovered by any mortal method of research, because it is altogether
impalpable, immaterial and wholly spiritual, and if apprehended at all, must be
apprehended by the soul which is in the image and likeness of Eternal Spirit.
Now this theory gives you a logical basis for existence. Out of nothing, nothing
comes, but every manifested thing proceeds from something greater than itself.
Every effect proceeds necessarily from a cause adequate to produce it. The cause
may be greater than the effect, but cannot possibly be less than the effect. As
a cause must be equal to or greater than the effect which it produces, and as
“nothing” is an unmeaning term, for you can have no idea of “nothing” in your
mind (an idea being
(p. 19)
something), it is absurd to infer that anything
was ever made out of nothing, it is also a reductio ad absurdum of sciolistic
ignorance that mind is a creature of matter, because mind is demonstrably the
rightful lord over matter.
If every thing proceeds from what is infinitely greater than itself – every
manifestation of life being only an expression of the intelligence of All
Pervading Deity – if the life of the entire universe, primordially and
elementally is God’s life, then we can understand that there is no creation
other than organization, and no destruction other than disintegration. There can
be no annihilation, for annihilation means the destruction of being, but there
can be disorganization. Spiritualists affirm that in materializing circles forms
are built up, apparently, out of invisible atmosphere; that they stand palpably
in the presence of the sitters for a while and then vanish from sight. The New
Testament declares that Jesus after His crucifixion appeared to His disciples,
manifesting to them in palpable form, and then vanished out of their sight.
Chemistry declares that all substances can be volatilized, i.e., converted into impalpable ether;
solids and fluids change into gases; the hardest substances float away into
invisible and intangible realms.
The researches and knowledge of the scientific world abundantly prove that the
realm of potentiality is a realm of invisibility. Electricity, that wondrous
motor power now coming into universal use, is strictly invisible; the wind which
as it blows manifests such terrible and mighty force in tornado or hurricane is
invisible; the
(p. 20)
steam that propels gigantic vessels across the ocean
is invisible, and so with all the forces of which man knows anything. According
to scientific statements there are many millions of sounds and colors that are
neither heard nor seen, because the vibrations which cause them and which
indeed, they are, make no impression upon your optic or
auditory nerves. Now as the great and mysterious realm of causation, which
materialists admit is superior to gross matter, is absolutely unknown to
external sense; when we declare life to be invisible, the immortal soul to be
real though invisible we simply conclude that everything logically that
everything destined to outlive the mortal body is invisible and spiritual we
accord with science. The fleshly body is only an aggregation of molecules, which
are ever being displaced to make room for others. Attraction and repulsion
change outward forms incessantly. While consciousness abides, we can reasonably
declare that the immortality of the soul, yea, and the pre-existence of the soul
also is an inference of science.
Epes Sargent, one of the most
eloquent and scientific writers upon modern spiritualism, in his work entitled,
The
Scientific Basis of Spiritualism, proves conclusively by the soundest argument
and clearest logic that immortality is inferred by physical as well as mental
science.
Rev. M.J. Savage, a popular Unitarian minister of
(p. 21)
creeds and denominations take a similar
position. The question of questions to-day is, “Are we matter or spirit?”
Now, the primal source of being must be unitary. There can not be two Eternals,
two Infinites, two Almighties, and we maintain that the fact of the human mind
being totally invisible to sense, and the fact of the soul being entirely beyond
the reach of the scalpel or dissecting knife (neither vivisection nor any other
cruel practice invented by the barbarism of materialism to account for the
origin of life having discovered its source in anywise), the fact that soul and
mind can not be materially discovered furnishes abundant proof that all that is
real abides forever in the realm of the All Powerful, which is Spirit. Our
senses never apprehend one hundredth part of what our souls recognize, this
experience alone sufficiently demonstrates to the unprejudiced thinker that the
invisible realm of intelligence is the seat of causation.
In art everything is conceived by the painter mentally before there can be any
outward expression. The inventor has his model and machine in working order in
his mind before he can take the first step toward preparing a model for public
exhibition or setting any one at work to construct the external body of his
invention.
You may pronounce transcendentalism folly, you may demand something practical,
but you could never have any practical object or external knowledge unless some
one had first beheld a design in mind. Even in the matter of dress the fashion
plate is the result of some new thought in some one’s mind; before there can be
any outward garment made it must be planned in
(p. 22)
mind. So with every material comfort, with every
external thing you enjoy, mind first operates and matter proves its servant.
As mind first produces plans and models and sets hands to work afterward
constructing apparatus to apply motor power externally, it is invariably the
case that the nearer you approach the realm of absolute mentality, the more
wonderful are discoveries, the mightier and more matchless the exhibitions of
man’s consummate skill. This is instanced by the fact of no outward effort,
however superb, fully satisfying the designer.
The mind of man is the handiwork of the soul, which is an embodiment of the
divine creative energy displayed in universal nature. Materialists or Atheists
looking no further than man, often declare that while they find no God in the
universe to worship, they are willing to worship great men. So great, so
marvelous are the achievements of the human mind guided by the soul that
infidelity may almost be excused for putting man upon the throne of the universe
and worshiping man, who is in the image of God, as God. In every school that
disallows the existence of an Infinite Divine Spirit as the cause of the
universe we behold, man is made to take the place of God (vide the
(p. 23)
was under the ban of popular anathema, and
reason was set up publicly as a goddess, men were shot down and stabbed in the
streets of Paris and elsewhere, and this was because reason alone, intellect,
apart from spirituality, is not capable of saving or redeeming a nation. No one
is capable of governing wisely and well unless his reason is married to
intuition. Conscience, the moral sense, the divine affection of the spirit, must
be the dominating force, or an age of reason is an age without heart.
Do not think for a moment that we underrate the power of reason, or that we
decry the glorious human intellect, or that we undervalue the advantages of
mental training in colleges and seminaries. But history certainly proves that
Mind of man, thou art no ruler save of the physical body. Reason of man, thou
art not the supreme interpreter of Deity, still thou
hast a mission appointed thee to govern the senses. Mind of man, wonderful
intellect, glorious reason, thou art a captain appointed over all
(p. 24)
the bodily functions and carnal appetites and
thou must reign supreme over these; but thou hast a Commander, a General, a
higher Officer of the army in which thou art stationed, whom thou must
acknowledge as thy Ruler, for with all thy vaunted strength and boasted
superiority, thou art the servant of a loftier power, even the power of the soul
divine which is the source even of thy existence.
It is the power of soul, of religion pure and undefiled, of genuine
spirituality, of the divine life in man that can alone save and uplift a nation
or an individual.
We care not how distinguished may be halls of learning, how great the dignity of
professors of art and literature, or how profound the teachings of the schools,
if there be lacking the power of the living spirit, beyond the finite reason,
man will not and cannot be perfected, neither can the earth complete the cycle
of its changes and arrive at the golden age so long foretold when sickness, sin
and sorrow will be utterly unknown.
The mind of man is not the supreme or primal cause; it is a secondary cause,
beyond which we trace the divine soul which is the primal or ultimate atom of
life, related to eternity, the one absolute individuality which is your real
self and with which you can never part, no matter what lies before you in the
way of experience, either in this or any other world. The soul of man has made
itself known to the intellect in some measure, but is quite beyond the
perception of bodily sense. Scientists are ever searching for the atom which
their microscopes have ever failed to find. Intellect, however, is already
somewhat conscious of spiritual existence. It dimly apprehends spiritual
entities which
(p. 25)
are immortal, even souls which can never cease to
be, for they never began to be.
The question is often asked, “Were souls always individual? Did man always know
himself as an individual spark of divine life?” This question is unanswerable
unless we deal with it problematically; as one of the profoundest questions ever
submitted to the intelligence of man, philosophy has often answered it in this
manner, i.e. through processes of deduction.
According to the Greek philosophers the soul is eternal. Bat though the soul has
always existed, it may not always have reflected upon its existence as we now
reflect. It may have existed as a seed exists before it is sown. It contains,
within itself, unexpressed, all the potentialities of manifested life. What is
earthly discipline but the evolution of the mind’s reasoning, intellectual and
reflective powers? The soul produces a material form in the act of unfolding the
attributes always within it.
Agriculturists know that it is impossible to really create anything, still by
planting a certain kind of seed, a certain unfoldment
will follow. The germ of a rose will never produce a geranium. Every
potentiality or possibility of fruition must inhere in the planted seed, for
what is not within, can not be produced by any outward effort.
So with our earthly discipline. We see what growth can do for the seed
and how that can be made manifest which is already contained in the primal germ.
Here we take decided issue with materialists, and challenge all who declare that
mind is the product of matter, and human intelligence the result of physical
(p. 26)
organization. But another view of the statement
shows us that if mind is the result of physical organization the declaration is
proved true that all is mind and there is no matter. If materialism is logical
it is only logical on the basis of the most extreme metaphysics, which declare
that everything is mind and therefore there is no matter; if so called matter
evidences mind, it is not matter but mind in another phase of existence.
Now we all know that we can not apprehend anything except by the use of our
mental faculties. You talk about seeing with the eye; but let an eye be taken
out of your head, will the eye see anything? After the spirit has left the body,
what can eyes behold? They see nothing, for they are only mediums of
communication between two objects both of which exist in mind. If there were no
intelligence behind the eye looking through it, or no intelligence beyond the
brain, or no connection between that intelligence and the brain, or no
connection between the brain and the retina of the eye, or between the retina of
the eye and something external to the eye, could there be any perception through
an organ of vision? But, you argue, “we cannot see without eyes.” We beg to
differ from you, for we have known many persons physically blind who have seen
clearly without bodily eyes; such we appropriately call clairaudients, meaning
persons who see with unusual clearness. If you refer to the experiments of Mesmer and others upon the subject of clairvoyance and
clairaudience, and also pay heed to what is constantly transpiring at the
present time, you will find there are many people who see without a bodily eye,
and clairvoyance does not enable persons to come in contact with ideas
(p. 27)
exclusively, but it also enables them to
describe distinctly the color, form and texture of material objects; and
clairaudients when physically deaf or with their ears completely stopped up, can
hear sounds both near at hand and far away when there can be no action upon the
physical ear, they will often describe sounds perfectly which are occurring in
very distant places and that with perfect accuracy.
Psychometric experiments prove conclusively that an object placed in time hand,
or for that matter upon the back of the neck of a blindfolded person, can be
accurately described as to its texture, color, form, dimensions and everything
else you term material. There is evidence in the scientific world, among many
who have not investigated spiritualism, but who have investigated clairvoyance
and clairaudience, and have encountered persons gifted with psychometric power,
that people constantly hear independently of bodily ears, taste without material
palates, smell independent of nostrils, and detect a difference between velvet
and stone, without coming into any physical contact with either the velvet or
the stone. If you investigate psychometry
you can abundantly prove that there is in man a (power that works independently)
“soul-measuring” of his material body, a power that far transcends it and proves
that the spiritual or psychic body is not an unreality, a mere phantasm, but far
more real than the fleshly body of man. We declare that the real body of man is
spiritual,
man’s whole nature is spiritual. But when we endeavor to apply the principle of
metaphysics to healing mental and bodily infirmities we do not adopt the
phraseology of those teachers who say you
(p. 28)
can see as well without an eye as with one. We
prefer to say you can see perfectly with your spiritual eye if you have no
bodily eye, you can hear perfectly with your spiritual ear if you have no
physical ear; therefore if you lose your physical sight or your whole material
body, remember you have a spiritual body, or you may call it, if you chose, an
astral body, which is a body that has form, size and dimensions, and which
exists in the realm of mind, and is the cause of your material body, and Being
its predecessor, outlasts it.
If size appears in outward expression, there is prior size in invisible realms.
If there are external dimensions there are dimensions in the realm of their
causation, which is the realm of mind. If there are colors in outward expression
there are colors in spirit. Shut your eyes and you can think of colors and
sounds. Anything you can think about has an existence in the realm of thought.
If it did not exist in the realm of thought you could not think about it. As
everything produced in the material world is the result of thought, mind must
necessarily be the power that produces it. That which you term matter is only a
result of vibrations in lower octaves of the vibrations which cause what
Swedenborg terms spiritual substance.
If the soul of man had not an eternal past, it cannot have an eternal future.
But if, as we affirm, the soul has always existed in the bosom of the Infinite, if the soul has always been an individual atom in
the eternal life, your immortal individuality is secure. Your reflection upon
your individuality may have been brought about in time; in time you may have
made discoveries, through your intellect, of something you always perceived
(p. 29)
in your soul. When the figurative books shall be
opened and the soul fully testifies of itself, then will the great mystery of
dual consciousness be explained; then will you understand how you are fully
conscious in spirit when quite unconscious of outward things; then will your
dream life no longer remain to you a mystery; then will all spiritual
experiences glow with the light of complete interpretation, and you will be all
aflame with a knowledge of your relation to the Eternal. You will then no more
bow down before idols of material belief than you would pray to the images of
wood and stone worshiped by poor Pagans who know not of life in spirit.
Materialism says life springs from protoplasm. If everything comes from
protoplasm, if it be primal, then it is spiritual, but if protoplasm is only
another word for spirit, it is improper to employ it because it is misleading.
Is it not affirmed in the scientific world that the discovery has been made by
Darwin, Spencer and others of a primordial cell from which all life arises, and
that this cell is the same for the monad as for man, the same for the jelly fish
or the tadpole as for the philosopher? If this be true, we simply exclaim that
this primordial cell, representing the absolute primary in the material world,
is the primal manifestation of intelligence in the realm of effect. All that
Darwin or any evolutionist can accomplish is to trace effects to their seeming
cause, from the circumference inward toward the center. Involution starts at the
center. The soul is the center. Protoplasm is toward the circumference.
Materialism starts near the circumference anti endeavors to find the soul in
dust. When you have found the soul
(p. 30)
you will comprehend protoplasm, which is a product,
a creation by the soul. When you only know protoplasm you can know nothing of
the soul, and thus you endeavor to argue that unconscious dust has evolved
spirit, that material atoms have evolved intelligence, and that consequently, on
the breaking up of the physical organism, the intelligence vanishes, as
brightness from a polished shield when dampness approaches it. It goes nowhere,
you say, whereas, from the standpoint of spirit, there is found an adequate and
satisfactory solution for every material phenomena,
while from the standpoint of materialism consciousness is an utterly miraculous
phenomenon.
In the realm of spirit the soul is the acknowledged creator of its expressions.
The source and center of all is the divine life. In the divine life there is
perfect rest, for it is absolute being. Divine life is the only center of the
wheel of life. All revolutions are around that center, and no matter how rapidly
the wheel may rotate, the center is always calm. From the inmost center, which
is the divine cause, to the outermost effect, or circumference of the wheel,
life is made manifest through the descent of spirit (involution) and the ascent
of matter (evolution).
We believe in the gradual development of species, in the ascent of the body of
man; but this is a result of the descent of spirit. When spiritual descent and
material ascent are understood by being studied together; when spiritually
minded professors of involution enlighten professors of evolution, light from
the realm of causation – which is spiritual – will make comprehensible the realm
of effect, which is termed material.
(p. 31)
Then instead of supposing that you are mere
creatures of dust, or that a handful of dust has evolved an immortal soul;
instead of dreaming that matter has been refining itself age after age until
from unconscious dust a conscious soul has been at length produced; instead of
imagining that everlasting life may be the result of an evolution from
unconscious molecules, you will understand that from eternal life, wherein ever
exists the soul, has every outward expression proceeded. Man, then, instead of
claiming relationship to dust will claim relationship to Deity.
It is manifestly absurd to argue that effects are greater than causes, and works
greater than their maker. If you are superior to every other form of life on the
planet then your soul may have been a world builder, as in ages gone by the
triumphant souls called in the Hebrew Scriptures “Elohim” the angels who shouted for joy at
the completion of the external world, may have lived on earths long since
depopulated and outgrown. Those angels must have been souls who had for ages
been ascending the ladder of progress, who, from their glorious homes in spirit,
may have caused their thoughts to have assumed form upon earth, creation may
have therefore been – as one of the Hebrew accounts declares – the work of the “Elohim.”
The soul is the creator of all material things. In spiritual life you may change
your spiritual bodies as you change your material forms on earth; you will
graduate to higher and ever higher forms of expression; you will accrete to you
thought essences from the spiritual atmosphere, and finally, expression in all
its outward forms having been fulfilled, the soul will know itself as conqueror
over all.
(p. 32)
A period will arrive when you will be able to produce any form you please; when
upon the wings of thought you will pass from planet to planet as easily as birds
navigate the air or fish swim in water. As rapidly as your thought can move from
one country to another, and from one star to another,
does your soul pass from point to point in the boundless universe.
When your eyes are opened to the sublimities of eternity there will appear to
you no longer any vacuum or void, no interstellar
spaces in the universe. Where now you imagine there is no life, you will find
orders upon orders of intelligences, homes and habitations of spirit, all the
universe being filled with thought and its expressions. Then when you have
attained to the glorious states which hold sway over all planetary bodies, you
will know the material center of gravity on any earth is but the outermost
expression of angelic thought, what you now term most real is only the fleeting
shadow – the world of outward sense being phantasmagoric, while the world of
soul is alone real and eternal.
Spencer says the origin of life is unknowable, and therefore he would not dare
to call it material. Matthew Arnold speaks of an eternal energy; the greatest
astronomers, geologists and chemists that have ever lived have bowed reverently
before the Divine Over soul and. have acknowledged matter as only an expression
of infinite intelligence.
Behind all phenomena is God. Man can never be educated out of his intuitive
belief in spirit. When you are prepared for the teachings angels are ready to
give, when minds on earth are prepared to receive such instructions,
(p. 33)
you will listen to glowing words of truth vibration
from celestial homes through this earth’s atmosphere, filing your minds with
truth eternal, giving your perfect knowledge of spirit. Spiritual involution
will completely account for earthly evolution.
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