THEOSOPHY
Theosophical Society,
Annie Besant
Study in Consciousness
By
Annie Besant
A Contribution to the Science of Psychology
First Published 1915
Return to Annie Besant
Selection
FOREWORD.
THIS book is intended as an aid to student in their study of the
growth and development of consciousness, offering hints and suggestions which
may prove serviceable to them. It does not pretend to be a complete exposition,
but rather, as its sub-title states, a contribution to the science of
Psychology. Far ampler materials than are within my reach are necessary for
any complete exposition of the far-reaching science which deals with the
unfolding of consciousness. These materials are slowly accumulating in the
hands of earnest and painstaking students, but no effort has yet been made to
arrange and systematise them into a co-ordinated whole. In this little volume I
have only arranged a small part of this material, in the hope that it may be
useful now to some of the toilers in the great field of the Evolution of
Consciousness, and may serve, in the future, as a stone in the complete
building. It will need a great architect to plan that temple of knowledge, and
skilful master masons to direct the building; enough, for the moment, to do the
apprentice task, and prepare the rough stones for the use of the more expert
workmen.
ANNIE BESANT
PART I
CONSCIOUSNESS
Introduction
Origins
Origination of Monads
CHAPTER I.
THE PREPARATION OF THE
FIELD.
1. The Formation of the
Atom
2. Spirit-Matter
3. The Sub-Planes
4. The Five Planes
CHAPTER II.
CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. The Meaning of the
Word
2. The Monads
CHAPTER III.
THE PEOPLING OF THE
FIELD.
1. The Coming
2. The Weaving
3. The Seven Streams
4. The Shining Ones
CHAPTER IV.
THE PERMANENT ATOM.
1. The Attaching of the
Atoms
2. The Web of Life
3. The Choosing of the
Permanent Atoms
4. The Use of the
Permanent Atom
5. Monadic Action on the
Permanent Atoms
CHAPTER V.
GROUP-SOULS.
1. The Meaning of the
Term
2. The Division of the
Group-Soul
CHAPTER VI.
UNITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. Consciousness a Unit
2. The Unity of Physical
Consciousness
3. The Meaning of
Physical Consciousness
CHAPTER VII.
THE MECHANISM OF
CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. The Development of
the Mechanism
2. The Astral or Desire
Body
3. Correspondence in
Root-Races
CHAPTER VIII.
FIRST HUMAN STEPS.
1. The Third Life-Wave
2. Human Development
3. Incongruous Souls and
Bodies
4. Dawn of Consciousness
on the Astral Plane
CHAPTER IX.
CONSCIOUSNESS AND
SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. Consciousness
2. Self-Consciousness
3. Real and Unreal
CHAPTER X.
HUMAN STATES OF
CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. The Sub-Consciousness
2. The Waking
Consciousness
3. The Super-Physical
Consciousness
CHAPTER XI.
THE MONAD AT WORK.
1. Building his Vehicles
2. An Evolving Man
3. The Pituitary Body
and Pineal Gland
4. The Paths of
Consciousness
CHAPTER XII.
THE NATURE OF MEMORY.
1. The Great Self and
the Little Selves
2. Changes in the
Vehicles and in Consciousness
3. Memories
4. What is Memory
5. Remembering and
Forgetting
6. Attention
7. The One Consciousness
PART II
WILL, DESIRE AND
EMOTION
CHAPTER I.
THE WILL TO LIVE
CHAPTER II.
DESIRE
1. The Nature of Desire
2. The Awakening of
Desire
3. The Relation of
Desire to Thought
4. Desire, Thought,
Action
5. The Binding Nature of
Desire
6. The Breaking of the
Bonds
CHAPTER III.
DESIRE (Continued)
1. The Vehicle of Desire
2. The Conflict of
Desire and Thought
3. The Value of an Ideal
4. The Purification of
Desire
CHAPTER IV.
EMOTION
1. The Birth of Emotion
2. The Play of Emotion
in the Family
3. The Birth of Virtues
4. Right and Wrong
5. Virtue and Bliss
6. The Transmutation of
the Emotions into Virtues and Vices
7. Application of the
Theory to Conduct
8. The Uses of Emotion
CHAPTER V.
EMOTION (Continued)
1. The Training of
Emotion
2. The Distorting Force
of Emotion
3. Methods of Ruling the
Emotions
4. The Using of Emotion
5. The Value of Emotion
in Evolution
CHAPTER VI.
THE WILL
1. The Will winning its
Freedom
2. Why so much Struggle
3. The Power of the Will
4. White and Black Magic
5. Entering into Peace
INTRODUCTION.
THE subject of the unfolding of consciousness in the beings whose
field of evolution is a solar system is one of considerable difficulty; none of
us may at present hope to do more than master a small portion of its
complexity, but it may be possible to study it in such fashion as may fill up
some of the gaps in our thinking, and as may yield us a fairly clear outline to
guide our future work.
We cannot, however, trace this outline in any way satisfactory to
the intelligence, without considering first our solar system as a whole, and
endeavouring to grasp some idea, however vague that idea may be, of "the
beginnings" in such a system.
1. ORIGINS.
We have learned that the matter in a solar system exists in seven
great modifications, [1] or planes; on three of these, the physical, emotional
(astral), and mental - often spoken of as "the three worlds", the
well-known Triloki, or Tribhuvanam, of
the Hindu cosmogony - is proceeding the normal evolution of humanity. On
the next two planes, the spiritual - those of wisdom and power, the buddhic and
the atmic - goes on the specific evolution of the Initiate, after the first of
the Great Initiations. These five planes form the field of the evolution of
consciousness, until the human merges in the divine. The two planes beyond the
five represent the sphere of divine activity, encircling and enveloping all,
out of which pour forth all the divine energies which vivify and sustain the
whole system. They are at present entirely beyond our knowledge, and the few
hints that have been given regarding them probably convey as much information
as our limited capacity is able to grasp. We are taught that they are the
planes of divine Consciousness, wherein the LOGOS, or the divine Trinity of
Logoi, is manifested, and wherefrom He shines forth as the Creator, the
Preserver, the [2] Dissolver, evolving a universe, maintaining it during its
life-period, withdrawing it into Himself at its ending. We have been given the
names of these two planes: the lower is the Anupadaka, that wherein "no
vehicle has yet been formed";[1] the higher is the Adi, "the
first", the foundation of a universe, its support and the fount of its life.
We have thus the seven planes of a universe, a solar system, which, as we see
by this brief description, may be regarded as making up three groups:
[3]
The two highest planes may be conceived of as existing before the
solar system is formed, and we may imagine the highest, the Adi, as consisting of
so much of the matter of space - symbolised by points - as the LOGOS has marked
out to form the material basis of the system. He is about to produce. As a
workman chooses out the material he is going to shape into his product, so does
the LOGOS choose the material and the place for His universe. Similarly we may
imagine the Anupadaka - symbolised by lines - as consisting of this same
matter, modified by His individual life, coloured, to use a significant
metaphor, by His all-ensouling Consciousness, and thus differing in some way
from the corresponding plane in another solar system. We are told that the
supreme facts of this preparatory work may be further imaged forth in symbols;
of these we are given two [4] sets, one of which images the triple manifestation
of the Logic Consciousness, the other the triple change in matter
corresponding to the triple Life - the life and form aspects of the three
Logoi. We may place them side by side, as simultaneous happenings:
We have here, under Life, the primeval Point in the centre of the
Circle, the LOGOS as One within the self-imposed encircling sphere of subtlest
matter, in which He has enclosed Himself for the purpose of manifestation, of
shining forth from the Darkness. At once the question arises: Why three Logoi?
Though we touch here on the deepest question of metaphysics, to expound which
even inadequately requires a volume, we must indicate the answer, to be wrought
out by close thinking. In the analysis of all that exists, we come to the great
generalisation:
"All is separable into 'I' and 'Not I', the 'SELF' and the
'Not-Self'. Every separate thing is summed up under one or other of the
headings, SELF or Not-Self. There is nothing which cannot be placed under one
of them. SELF is Life, Consciousness; Not-Self is Matter, Form." Here,
then, we have a duality. But the Twain are not two separate things isolated and
unrelated; there is a continual Relation between them, a continual approach
and withdrawal; an identification and a repudiation; this inter-play shows
itself as the ever-changing universe. Thus we have a Trinity, not a Duality -
the SELF, the Not-Self, and the Relation between them. All is here summed up,
all things and all relations, actual and possible, and hence Three, neither
more nor less, is the foundation of all universes in their totality, and of
each universe in particular.[2] This fundamental fact imposes on a Locos a
triplicity of manifestation in [6] a solar system, and hence the One, the
Point, going forth in three directions to the circumference of the Circle of
Matter and returning on Itself, manifests a different aspect at each place of
contact with the Circle-the three fundamental expressions of Consciousness: or
Will, Wisdom, and Activity - the divine Triad or Trinity.[3] For the Universal
SELF, the Pratyag-atma, the "Inner-Self", thinking of the Not-Self, identifies Himself with it,
thereby sharing with it His Being; this is the divine Activity, Sat, Existence
lent to the Non-existent, the Universal Mind. The SELF, realising Himself, is
Wisdom, Chit, the principle of preservation. The SELF, withdrawing Himself from
the Not-Self, in His own pure nature, is Bliss, Ananda, free from form. Every
LOGOS of a universe repeats this universal SELF-Consciousness: in His
Activity, He is the creative Mind, Kriya - corresponding to the universal Sat -
the Brahma of the Hindu, the Holy Spirit of the Christian, the Chochmah of the
Kabbalist. In His Wisdom, He is the preserving ordering Reason, Jnana -
corresponding to the universal Chit - the Vishnu of the Hindu, the Son of the
Christian, the Binah of the Kabbalist. In His Bliss, He is the Dissolver of
forms, the Will, Ichchha - corresponding to the universal Ananda - the Shiva
of the Hindu, the Father of the Christian, the Kepher of the Kabbalist. Thus
appear in every universe the three Logoi, the three Beings who create, preserve,
and destroy Their universe, each showing forth predominantly in His function in the universe one ruling Aspect,
to which the other two are subordinate, though of course ever-present. Hence
every manifested GOD is spoken of as a Trinity. The joining of these three
Aspects, or phases of manifestation, at their outer points of contact with the
[8] circle, gives the basic Triangle of contact with Matter, which, with the
three Triangles made with the lines traced by the Point, thus yields the divine
Tetractys, sometimes called the Kosmic Quaternary, the three divine Aspects in
contact with Matter, ready to create. These, in their totality, are the
Oversoul[4] of the kosmos that is to be.
Under Form we may first glance at the effects of these Aspects as
responded to from the side of Matter. These are not, of course, due to the
LOGOS of a system, but are the correspondences in universal Matter with the
Aspects of the universal SELF. The Aspect of Bliss, or Will, imposes on Matter
the quality of Inertia - Tamas, the power of resistance, stability, quietude.
The Aspect of Activity gives to Matter its responsiveness to action - Rajas,
mobility. The Aspect of Wisdom gives it Rhythm - Satva, vibration, harmony. It
is by the aid of Matter thus prepared that the Aspects of Logic Consciousness
manifest themselves as Beings. [9]
The LOGOS - not yet a first, since there is yet no second - is seen
as a Point irradiating a sphere of
Matter, drawn round Him as the field of the future universe, flashing with
unimaginable splendour, a true Mountain of Light, as Manu has it, but Light
invisible save on the spiritual planes. This great sphere has been spoken of as
primary Substance: it is the SELF-conditioned LOGOS, inseparate at every point
with the Matter He has appropriated for His universe, ere He draws Himself a
little apart from it in the second manifestation; it is the sphere of
SELF-conditioning Will, which is to lead to the creative Activity: "I am
This," when the "This," the Not-Self, is cognised. The Point,
speaking symbolically - in order to make the suggestion of Form as seen from
the side of appearances vibrates between centre and circumference, thus making
the Line which marks the drawing apart of Spirit and Matter[5], [10] rendering
cognition possible, and thus generating the Form for the second Aspect, the
Being we call the Second Logos, symbolically the Line, or Diameter of the
Circle. It is said of this in mystic phrase: "Thou art My Son; this day
have I begotten Thee"[6]; this relation of Father and Son within the unity
of the Divine Existence, of the first and Second Logoi, belongs, of course, to
the Day of Manifestation, the life-period of a universe. It is this begetting
of the Son, this appearance of the Second Logos, the Wisdom, which is marked in
the world of Form by the differentiation, the drawing apart, of Spirit and
Matter, the two poles between which is spun the web of a universe; the
separation, as it were, of the neutral inactive Electricity - which may
symbolise the First Logos - into the dual form of positive and negative - symbolising
the Second - thus making the unmanifest manifest. This separation [11] within
the First Logos is vividly imaged for us in the preparation for cell-multiplication
that we may study on the physical plane, wherein we see the processes that
lead up to the appearance of a dividing wall, whereby the one cell becomes two.
For all that happens down here is but the reflexion in gross matter of the
happenings on higher planes, and we may often find a crutch for our halting
imagination in our studies of physical development. "As above, so
below." The physical is the reflexion of the spiritual.
Then the Point, with Line revolving with it, vibrates at right
angles to the former vibration, and thus is formed the Cross, still within the
Circle, the Cross which thus "proceedeth from the Father and the
Son," the symbol of the Third Logos, the Creative Mind, the divine
Activity now ready to manifest as Creator. Then He manifests Himself as the
Active Cross, or Svastika, the first of the Logoi to manifest outside the two
highest planes, though the third stage of the divine Unfolding. [12]
But before considering the creative Activity of the Third Logos, we
must note the origination of the Monads, or Units of Consciousness, for whose
evolution in matter the field of a universe is to be prepared. We shall return
to their fuller consideration in Chapter II. The myriads of such Units who are to
be developed in that coming universe are generated within the divine Life, as
germ-cells in organisms, before the field for their evolution is formed. Of
this forthgiving it is written: "THAT willed: I shall multiply and be
born"[7]; and the Many arise in the One by that act of Will. [13] Will has
its two aspects of attraction and repulsion, of in-breathing and out-breathing,
and when the repulsion-aspect energises there is separation, driving apart.
This multiplication within the One by the action of Will marks the
place of origin - the first Logos, the undivided Lord, the Eternal Father.
These are the sparks of the Supreme Fire, the "divine Fragments"[8],
named generally "Monads". A Monad is a fragment of the divine Life,
separated off as an individual entity by rarest film of matter, matter so rare
that, while it gives a separate form to each, it offers no obstacle to the free
inter-communication of a life thus incased with the surrounding similar lives.
The life of the Monads is thus of the First Logos, and is therefore of triple
aspect, Consciousness existing as Will, Wisdom, and Activity; this life takes
form on the plane of divine Manifestation, the second, or Anupadaka, Sons of the Father even as is the Second
Logos, but younger Sons, with [14] none of their divine powers capable of
acting in matter denser than that of their own planes; while He, with ages of evolution behind Him, stands ready to
exercise His divine powers, "the First-born among many brethren"[9].
Fitly they dwell on the Anupadaka plane, the roots of their life in the Adi, as
yet without vehicles in which they can express themselves, awaiting the day of
"manifestation of the Sons of God"[10]. There they remain while the
Third Logos begins the external work of manifestation, the shaping of the
objective universe. He is going to put forth His life into matter, to fashion
it into the materials fitted for the building of the vehicles which the Monads
need for their evolution. But he will not be merged in His work; for, vast as that
work seems to us, to Him it is but a little thing: "Having pervaded this
whole universe with a portion of Myself, I remain"[11]." That
marvellous Individuality is not lost, and only a portion [15] thereof suffices
for the life of a kosmos. The LOGOS, the Oversoul, remains, the God of His
universe. [16]
STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
CHAPTER I.
THE PREPARATION OF THE FIELD.
1. THE FORMATION OF THE ATOM.
THE Third Logos, the Universal Mind, begins His creative Activity by
working on the matter drawn in from the infinite space on every side for the
building of our solar system. This matter exists in space in forms incognisable
by us, but is apparently already shaped to the needs of vaster systems. For we
have been told by H. P. Blavatsky that
the atomic sub-planes of our planes make up the first, or lowest, kosmic plane.
If we think of the atoms of that kosmic plane as symbolised by [17] a musical
note. Our atoms, as formed by the Third Logos, may perhaps be symbolised by
the overtones in such a note. What seems clear is that they are in close
relation to the "atoms of space", correspond with them, but are not,
in their present form, identical with them. But the seven types of matter, that
become our "atoms", are indicated in the matter drawn from space to
form the solar system, and are ultimately reducible again to them. H. P.
Blavatsky hints at the repeated seven-fold division into atoms of lower and
lower grade, when she writes: "The One Kosmic Atom becomes seven atoms on
the plane of matter, and each is transformed into a centre of energy. That same
atom becomes seven rays on the plane of spirit ... separate till the end of the
kalpa and yet in close embrace".[12]
Outside the limits of a universe this matter is in a very peculiar
state; the three qualities of matter, inertia, mobility, and rhythm[13], are
balanced against each [18] other, and are in a state of equilibrium. They might
be thought of as existing as a closed circle, quiescent. In fact, in some
ancient books, matter in its totality is described in this state as inertia. It
is also spoken of as virgin; it is the celestial Virgin Mary, the ocean of
virgin matter, that is to become the Mother by the action of the Third Logos.
The beginning of creative Activity is the breaking of that closed circle,
throwing the qualities out of stable into unstable equilibrium. Life is motion,
and the life of the Solar LOGOS - His Breath, as it is poetically called -
touching this quiescent matter, threw the qualities into a condition of
unstable equilibrium, and therefore of continual motion in relation to each
other. During the life-period of a universe matter is ever in a condition of
incessant internal motion. H. P. Blavatsky says: "Fohat hardens and
scatters the seven Brothers . electrifies into life and separates primordial
stuff, or pregenetic matter, into atoms"[14].
The formation of the atom has three [19] stages. First, the fixing
of the limit within which the ensouling life - the Life of the Logos in the
atom - shall vibrate; this limiting and fixing of the wave-length of the
vibration is technically called "the divine measure"[15]; this gives
to the atoms of a plane their distinctive peculiarity. Secondly, the Logos
marks out, according to this divine measure, the lines which determine the
shape of the atom, the fundamental axes of growth, the angular relation of
these, which determines the form, being that of the corresponding kosmic
atom[16]; the nearest analogy to these are the axes of crystals. Thirdly, by
the measure of the vibration and the angular relation of the axes of growth
with each other, the size and form of the surface, which we may call the
surface or wall of the atom, is determined. Thus in every atom we have the
measure of its ensouling life, its axes of growth, and its enclosing surface or
wall. [20]
Of such atoms the Third Logos creates five different kinds, the
five different "measures" implying five different vibrations, and each
kind forms the basic material of a plane; each plane, however various the
objects in it, has its own fundamental type of atom, into which any of its
objects may ultimately be reduced.
2. SPIRIT-MATTER.
The epithet, spirit-matter, will perhaps be better appreciated if
we pause for a moment on the method of the formation of the atoms of the successive
planes. For each system the matter of space around it is its Root of Matter,
Mulaprakriti, as the Hindus graphically call it. The matter of each system has
that surrounding matter for its root, or base, and its own special matter grows
out of, is developed from, that. The LOGOS, the Oversoul, of the system,
drawing round Himself the necessary matter from space, ensouls it with His own
life, and this life within this [21] subtle matter, this Mulaprakriti, is the
Atma, the SELF, the Spirit, in every particle. Fohat, the energy of the Locos,
says H. P. B., "digs holes in space", and no description could be
finer and truer. That whirling energy forms innumerable vortices, each shaped
by the divine energy and the axes of growth, and each shelled with the matter
of space, Atma in a shell of Mulaprakriti, spirit in a shell of matter, the
"atoms" of the Adi, or highest plane, the first. Some of these remain
as "atoms"; others join together and form "molecules";
"molecules" join together and make more complex molecular combinations;
and so on till six sub-planes below the atomic are formed. [This by analogy
with what may be observed below, since these highest planes are incognisable.]
Now comes the forming of the atoms of the second plane. Their measure and axes
of growth being fixed as above described by the Third Logos, some of the atoms
of the adi, or first, pane draw round themselves a shell of the combinations of
their own lowest sub-plane; the Spirit plus its original shell of [22] kosmic
matter (Mulaprakriti), or the atom of the first plane, is the spirit of the
second plane, and permeates the new shell, formed out of the lowest-grade
combinations of itself. These shells, thus ensouled, are the atoms of the
anupadaka, or second, plane. By the ever more complicated aggregations of these
the remaining six sub-planes are brought into being. Some of the atoms of the
anupadaka plane, in like manner, become clothed with the aggregations of their
own lowest sub-plane, and thus become the atmic atoms, the Spirit now being
clothed with two shells, inside its atomic wall of aggregations of the lowest
sub-plane of the anupadaka, and the original Spirit, or Life, plus its two
shells, being called the spirit of the atmic plane, while the wall of its atom
is regarded as the matter. This atom, ensheathed once more in the aggregations
of the lowest atmic sub-plane, becomes the atom of the buddhic plane, Spirit on
the buddhic plane having thus three enclosing films within its atomic shell of
lowest atmic aggregations. On the mental plane the Spirit has a fourfold sheath
within the [23] atomic wall, on the astral plane a fivefold, and on the
physical a sixfold, with the atomic wall in each case in addition. But the
Spirit plus all its sheaths save the outermost is ever regarded as Spirit, and
the outermost sheath only as form or body. It is this involution of Spirit
which makes evolution possible, and complicated as the description may sound,
the principle is simple and can be easily grasped. Truly, then, may we speak of
"spirit-matter" everywhere.
3. THE SUB-PLANES.
Now the ultimate atoms of the physical plane are not the
"atoms" of the modern chemist;
the ultimate atoms are aggregated into successive typical groups, forming
"states of matter", and the chemical atom may be in the fifth, sixth,
or seventh of these states, a gas, a liquid, or a solid. Familiar are the gaseous, the liquid, and the
solid states of matter, or, as they are often called, the gaseous, liquid, and
solid sub-planes; [24] and above the gaseous are four less familiar conditions,
the three etheric states of matter, or sub-planes, and the true atomic. These
true atoms are aggregated into groups, which then act as units, and these
groups are called molecules; the atoms in a molecule are held together by
magnetic attraction, and the molecules on each sub-plane are arranged
geometrically in relation to each other on axes identical with the axes of growth
of the atom of the corresponding plane. By these successive aggregations of
atoms into molecules, and of simpler into more complex molecules, the sub-planes of each plane are
formed under the directive Activity of the Third Logos, until the field of evolution,
consisting of five planes, each showing seven sub-planes - the first and second
planes being beyond this field - is completed. But it must not be supposed that
these seven sub-planes, as formed by the Third Logos, are at all identical with
those which are now existing. Taking the physical plane as an illustration,
they bear something of the same [25] relation to the present sub-planes as that
which the chemist calls proto-hydrogen bears to the chemical element said to be
built up out of it. The present conditions were not brought about by the work
of the Third Logos only, in whom Activity predominates; the more strongly
attractive or cohesive energies of the Second Logos, who is Wisdom and
therefore Love, were needed for the further integrations.
It is important to remember that the planes are interpenetrating,
and that corresponding sub-planes are
directly related to each other, and are not really separated from each other by
intervening layers of denser matter. Thus we must not think of the atomic
sub-planes as being separated from each other by six sub-planes of generally
increasing density, but as being in immediate connexion with each other. We may
figure this in a diagram as follows: [26]
It must be understood that this is a diagram, not a picture i.e., it represents relations, not material
facts-the relations existing between the planes by virtue of their
intermingling, and not forty-nine separate bricks placed in seven rows, one an
the top of another.
Now this relation is a most important one, for it implies that life
can pass from [27] plane to plane by the short road of the communicating atomic
sub-planes, and need not necessarily circle round through the six molecular
sub-planes before it can reach the next atomic sub-plane to continue its
descent. As a matter of fact we shall find presently that life-streams from the
Monad do follow this atomic road in their descent to the physical plane. If we
now consider a physical atom, looking at it as a whole, we see a vortex of
life, the life of the Third Logos, whirling with inconceivable rapidity. By
the attraction between these whirling vortices, molecules are built up, and the
plane with its sub-planes formed. But at the limiting surface of this whirling
vortex are the spirillae, whirling currents, each at right angles to the one
within it and the one without it. These whirling currents are made by the life
of the Monad, not by the life of the Third Logos, and are not present at the
early stage we are considering; they develop one after another into full
activity in the course of evolution, normally one in each Round; their rudiments
are indeed completed by the Fourth [28] Round by the action of the Second
Logos, but the life-stream of the Monad circulates in only four of them, the
other three being but faintly indicated. The atoms of the higher planes are
formed on the same general plan, as regards the Logic central vortex and its
enclosing currents, but all details are at present lacking to us. Many of the
practices of yoga are directed to bring about the more rapid evolution of the
atoms by quickening this spirillae vivifying work of the Monad upon it. As
these currents of the monadic life are added to the Logic vortex, the note of
life grows richer and richer in its quality. We may compare the central vortex
to the fundamental note, the whirling encircling currents to the overtones; the
addition of each overtone means an added richness to the note. New forces, new
beauties, are thus ever added to the seven-fold chord of life.
4. THE FIVE PLANES.
The different responses which the matter of the planes will later
give under [29] the impulse of consciousness depend on the work of the Third
Logos, on the "measure" by which He limits the atom. The atom of each
plane has its own measure, as we have seen, and this limits its power of
response, its vibratory action, and gives it its specific character. As the eye
is so constituted that it is able to respond to vibrations of ether within a
certain range, so is each type of atom, by its constitution, able to respond to
vibrations within a certain range. One plane is called the plane made of
"mind-stuff", because the "measure" of its atoms makes
their dominant response that which answers to a certain range of the vibrations
of the Knowledge Aspect of the LOGOS, as modified by the Creative Activity.[17]
Another is called the plane of "desire-stuff", because the
"measure" of its atoms makes their dominant response that which
answers to a certain range of the vibrations of the Will[18] Aspect of the
LOGOS. Each type of atom has thus its own peculiar [30] power of response,
determined by its own measure of vibration. In each atom lie involved
numberless possibilities of response to the three aspects of consciousness,
and these possibilities within the atom will be brought out of the atom as
powers in the course of evolution. But the capacity of the matter to respond,
and the nature of the response, these are determined by the original action of
the triple Self on it, and by the measure imposed on the atoms by the Third
Logos; He, out of the infinite capacity of His own multitude of vibratory
powers, gives a certain portion to the matter of a particular system in a
particular cycle of evolution. This capacity is stamped on matter by the Third
Logos, and is ever maintained in matter by His life infolded in the atom. Thus
is formed the fivefold field of evolution in which consciousness is to develop.
This work of the Third Logos is usually spoken of as the First Life
Wave. [31]
CHAPTER II.
CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. THE MEANING OF THE WORD.
LET us now consider what we mean by consciousness, and see if this
consideration will build for us the much longed -for "bridge", which
is the despair of modern thought, between consciousness and matter, will span
for us the "gulf" alleged to exist for ever between them.
To begin with a definition of terms consciousness and life are
identical, two names for one thing as regarded from within and from without. There
is no life without consciousness; there is no consciousness without life. When
we vaguely separate them in thought and analyse what we have done, we find that
we have called consciousness turned inward by the name of life, and life [32]
turned outwards by the name of consciousness. When our attention is fixed on
unity we say life; when it is fixed upon multiplicity we say consciousness; and
we forget that the multiplicity is due to, is the essence of, matter, the
reflecting surface in which the One becomes the Many. When it is said that life
is "more or less conscious", it is not the abstraction life that is
thought of, but "a living thing" more or less aware of its
surroundings. The more or less awareness depends on the thickness, the density,
of the enwrapping veil which makes it a living thing, separate from its
fellows. Annihilate in thought that veil and you annihilate in thought also
life, and are in THAT into which all opposites are resolved, the ALL.
This leads us to our next point: the existence of consciousness
implies a separation into two aspects of the fundamental all-underlying UNITY.
The modern name of consciousness, "awareness", equally implies this.
For you cannot hang up awareness in the void; awareness [33] implies something
of which it is aware, a duality at the least. Otherwise it exists not. In the
highest abstraction of consciousness, of awareness, this duality is implied;
consciousness ceases if the sense of limitation be withdrawn, is dependent on
limitation for existence. Awareness is essentially awareness of limitation, and
only secondarily awareness of others. Awareness of others comes into being with
what we call Self-consciousness, Self-awareness. This abstract Twain-in-One,
consciousness - limitation, spirit - matter, life - form, are ever
inseparable, they appear and disappear together; they exist only in relation
to each other; they resolve into a necessarily unmanifest Unity, the supreme
synthesis.
"As above, so below." Again let the "below"
help us; let us look at consciousness as it appears when considered from the
side of form, as we see it in a universe of conscious things. Electricity
manifests only as positive and negative; when these neutralise each other,
electricity vanishes. In all things electricity [34] exists, neutral,
unmanifest; from all things it can appear, but not as positive only, or as
negative only; always as balancing amounts of both, over against each other,
and these ever tending to re-enter together into apparent nothingness, which is
not nothingness but the source equally of
both.
But if this be so, what becomes of the "gulf "? what need
of the "bridge"? Consciousness and matter affect each other because
they are the two constituents of one whole, both appearing as they draw apart,
both disappearing as they unite, and as they draw apart a relation exists ever
between them.[19] There is no such thing as a conscious unit which does not
consist of this inseparate duality, a magnet with two poles ever in relation to
each other. We think of a separate something we call consciousness, and ask
how it works on another [35] separate something we call matter. There are no
such two separate somethings, but only two drawn-apart but inseparate aspects
of THAT which, without both, is unmanifest, which cannot manifest in the one or
the other alone, and is equally in both. There are no fronts without backs, no
aboves without belows, no outsides without insides, no spirit without matter.
They affect each other because inseparable parts of a unity, manifesting as a
duality in space and time. The "gulf" appears when we think of a
"spirit" wholly immaterial, and a "body" wholly material -
i.e., of two things neither of which exists. There is no spirit which is not
matter-enveloped: there is no matter which is not spirit-ensouled. The highest
separated Self has its film of matter, and though such a Self is called "a
spirit" because the consciousness aspect is so predominant, none the less
is it true that it has its vibrating sheath
of matter, and that from this sheath all impulses come forth, which
affect all other denser material sheaths in succession. To say this is not to
materialise consciousness, [36] but only to recognise the fact that the two
primary opposites, consciousness and matter, are straitly bound together, are
never apart, not even in the highest Being. Matter is limitation, and without
limitation consciousness is not. So far from materialising consciousness, it
puts it as a concept in sharp antithesis to matter, but it recognises the fact
that in an entity the one is not found without the other. The densest matter,
the physical, has its core of consciousness; the gas, the stone, the metal, is
living, conscious, aware. Thus oxygen becomes aware of hydrogen at a certain
temperature, and rushes into combination with it.
Let us now look out of consciousness from within, and see the
meaning of the phrase: "Matter is limitation". Consciousness is the
one Reality, in the fullest sense of that much-used phrase; it follows from
this that any reality found anywhere is drawn from consciousness. Hence,
everything which is thought, is. That consciousness in which everything is,
everything literally, "possible" as well as "actual" -
actual being that which is [37] thought of as existent by a separated consciousness
in time and space, and possible all that which is not so being thought of at
any period in time and any point in space - we call Absolute Consciousness. It
is the ALL, the ETERNAL, the INFINITE, the CHANGELESS. Consciousness, thinking
time and space, and of all forms as existing in them in succession and in
places, is the Universal Consciousness, the ONE, called by the Hindu the
Saguna BRAHMAN - the ETERNAL with
attributes - the PRATYAG-ATMA - the INNER SELF; - by the Christian, God; by the Parsi, HORMUZD; by the Mussulman, ALLAH.
Consciousness dealing with a definite time, however long or short, with a
definite space, however vast or restricted, is individual, that of a concrete
Being, a Lord of many universes, or some universes, or a universe, or of any
so-called portion of a universe, his portion and to him therefore a universe -
these terms varying as to extent with
the power of the consciousness; so much of the universal thought as a separate
consciousness can completely think, i.e., on which he can [38] impose his own
reality, can think of as existing like himself, is his universe. To each
universe, the Being who is its Lord gives a share of his own indefeasible
Reality; but is ever himself limited and controlled by the thought of his superior,
the Lord of the universe in which he exists as a form. Thus we, who are human
beings, existing in a solar system, are surrounded by innumerable forms which
are the thought-forms of the LORD of our system, our ISHVARA, or RULER; the
"divine measure" and the "axes of growth", thought by the
Third Logos, govern the forms of our atoms, and the surface thought of by Him
as the limit of the atom and resistant, offers resistance to all similar atoms.
Thus we receive our matter, and cannot alter it, save by the employment of methods also made by His
thought; only so long as His thought continues can the atoms, with all composed
of them, continue to exist, since they have no Reality save that given by His
thought. So long as He retains them as His body by declaring: "I am this;
these atoms are My body; they share My life"; so [39] long they will
impose themselves as real on all the beings in this solar system, whose
consciousnesses are clothed in similar garments. When at the end of the Day of
Manifestation He declares: "I am not this; these atoms are no longer My
body; they no longer share My life"; then shall they vanish as the dream
they are, and only that shall remain which is the thought-form of the Monarch
of a vaster system.
Thus, as Spirits, we are inherently, indefensibly divine, with all
the splendour and freedom implied in that word. But we are clothed in matter
which is not ours, which is the thought-forms of the RULER of our system -
controlled again by the RULERS of vaster systems in which ours is included -
and we are only slowly learning to master and use it. When we realise our
oneness with our RULER, then the matter shall have no longer power over us, and
we shall see it as the unreality it is, dependent on His will, which then we
shall know as also ours. Then we can "play" with it, as we cannot
while it blinds us with its borrowed Reality. [40]
Looking thus out of consciousness from within, we see even more
plainly than we saw looking at it from
the world of forms, that there is no "gulf", and no need for a
"bridge". Consciousness changes, and each change appears in the
matter surrounding it as a vibration, because the LOGOS has thought vibrations
of matter as the invariable concomitant of changes in consciousness; and as the
matter is but the resultant of consciousness and its attributes are imposed upon it by active thought, any change in the Logic Consciousness
would change the attributes of the
matter of the system, and any change in a consciousness derived from Him shows
itself in that matter as a change; this change in matter is a vibration, a rhythmical movement within the limits set by
Him for the mobility of masses of matter in that relation. "Change in consciousness
and vibration of the matter limiting it" is a "pair", imposed by
the thought of the Locos on all embodied consciousnesses in His universe.
That such a constant relation exists is
shown by the fact that a vibration in a material [41] sheath accompanying a
change in the ensouling consciousness, and causing a similar vibration in the
sheath ensouled by another consciousness, is found to be accompanied by a
change in that second consciousness similar to the change in the first.
In matter far subtler than the physical - as mind-stuff - the
creative power of consciousness is more readily seen than in the dense material
of the physical plane. Matter becomes dense or rare, and changes its
combinations and forms, according to the thoughts of a consciousness active
therein. While the fundamental atoms - due to the Logic thought - remain unchanged,
they can be combined or dissociated at will. Such experiences open the mind to
the metaphysical conception of matter, and enable it to realise at once the
borrowed reality and the nonentity of matter.
A word of warning may be useful with regard to the often repeated
phrases of "Consciousness in a body", "Consciousness ensouling
a body", and the like. The student is a little apt to figure consciousness
[42] as a kind of rarefied gas enclosed in a material receptacle, a kind of
bottle. If he will think carefully he will realise that the resistant surface
of the body is but a Logic thought-form, and it is there because thought there.
Consciousness appears as conscious entities, because the LOGOS thinks such
separations, thinks the enclosing walls, makes such thought limitations. And
these thoughts of the LOGOS are due to His unity with the Universal SELF, and
are but a repetition within the area of a particular universe of the Will to
multiply.
A careful dwelling in mind on the distinctions above traced between
Absolute Consciousness, Universal Consciousness, and Individual Consciousness,
will prevent the student from asking the question so often heard: Why is there
any universe? Why does All-Consciousness limit itself? Why should the Perfect
become the imperfect, All-Power become the powerless, God become the mineral,
the brute, the man? In this form the question is unanswerable, for it is
founded on false premises. The Perfect is the All, the Totality, the Sum of
Being. Within [43] its infinity, as above said, is everything contained, every
potentiality, as well as actuality, of existence. All that has been, is, will
be, can be, ever is in that Fulness, that ETERNAL. Only Itself knows Itself in
its infinite unimaginable wealth of Being. Because it contains all pairs of
opposites, and each pair, in affirming itself, to the eye of reason annihilates
itself and vanishes, It seems a Void. But endless universes arising in It
proclaim It a Plenum. This Perfect never becomes the imperfect; it becomes
nothing; It as all Spirit and Matter, Strength and Weakness, Knowledge and
Ignorance, Peace and Strife, Bliss and Pain, Power and Impotence; the
innumerable opposites of manifestation merge into each other and vanish in
non-manifestation. The All includes manifestation and non-manifestation, the
diastole and systole of the Heart which is Being. The one no more requires
explanation than the other; the one cannot be without the other. The puzzle
arises because men assert separately one of the inseparate pair of opposites -
Spirit, Strength, Knowledge, [44] Peace, Bliss, Power - and then ask: "Why
should these become their opposites?" They do not. No attribute exists
without its opposite; a pair only can manifest; every front has a back, spirit
and matter arise together; it is not that spirit exists, and then miraculously
produces matter to limit and blind itself, but that spirit and matter arise in
the ETERNAL simultaneously as a mode of Its Being, a form of Self-expression of
the All, Pratyagatma and Mulaprakriti, expressing in time and space the
Timeless and Spaceless.
2. THE MONADS.
We have seen that by the action of the Third Logos a five-fold
field has been provided for the development of Units of Consciousness, and that
a Unit of Consciousness is a fragment, a portion of the Universal
Consciousness, thought into separation as an individual entity veiled in
matter, a Unit of the substance of the First Logos, to be sent forth on the
second plane as a separate Being. [45] Such Units are called technically
Monads. These are the Sons, abiding from everlasting, from the beginning of a
creative age, in the Bosom of the Father, who have not yet been "made
perfect through sufferings";[20]
each of them is truly "equal to the Father as touching his Godhead, but
inferior to the Father as touching his manhood"[21], and each of them is
to go forth into matter in order to render all things subject to himself[22];
he is to be "sown in weakness" that he may be "raised in
power"[23]; from a static Logos enfolding all divine potentialities, he is
to become a dynamic Logos unfolding all divine powers; omniscient, omnipresent,
on his own second plane, but unconscious, "senseless", on all the
others,[24] he is to veil his glory in matter that blinds him, in order that he
may become omniscient, omnipresent, on all planes, able to answer to all
divine vibrations in the universe instead of to those on the highest only. [46]
The meaning of this feeble description of a great truth may be glimpsed by the student by a consideration of the facts of embryonic life and birth. When an Ego is re-incarnating, he broods over the human mother in whom his future body is a building, the vehicle he will one day inhabit. That body is slowly built up of the substance of the mother, and the Ego can do little as to its shaping: it is an embryo, unconscious of its future, dimly conscious only of the flow of the maternal life, impressed by maternal hopes and fears, thoughts and desires; nothing from the Ego affects it, save a feeble influence coming through the permanent physical atom, and it does not share, because it cannot answer to, the wide-reaching thoughts, the aspiring emotions of the Ego, as expressed by him in his causal body. That embryo must develop, must gradually assume a human form, must enter on an independent life, separate from that of his mother, must pass through seven years - as men count time - of such independent life, ere the Ego can fully ensoul it. But during that slow evolution, with [47] its infanti