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                                LETTERS
                                 THAT
                            HAVE HELPED ME

                              COMPILED BY
                           _JASPER NIEMAND_

                       Reprinted from "The Path"

                            SEVENTH EDITION

                                  THE
                     UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS
                        Los Angeles, California
                                 1920




                                  To
                               Z. L. Z.
                            the Greatest of
                        the Exiles, and Friend
                      of all Creatures, from his
                    Younger Brother, the Compiler.
                            JASPER NIEMAND
                                 1891




PREFACE

    "_Seeking for freedom I go to that God who is the light of his own
    thoughts. A man who knows him truly passes over death; there is no
    other path to go_"

  --UPANISHADS.


In the _Path_ for May, 1887, we find these words: "We need a
literature, not solely for highly intellectual persons, but of a more
simple character, which attempts to appeal to ordinary common-sense
minds who are really fainting for such moral and mental assistance as
is not reached by the more pretentious works."

The experience of one student is, on the whole, the experience of all.
Details differ, however. Some are made more instantly rich than others:
they are those who put forth more vigorous and generous effort; or they
have a Karmic store which brings aid. What Theosophists know as Karma,
or the law of spiritual action and reaction, decides this, as it works
on all the planes, physical, moral, mental, psychical, and spiritual
alike. Our Karma may be worked out on any one of these planes when our
life is chiefly concentrated upon it, no matter upon what other plane
any special initiative impulse or branch of it originated.

The writer, when first he became a Theosophical student, had the aid
of an advanced occultist in his studies. This friend sent him, among
others, the letters which, in the hope that they may assist others as
they have the original recipient, are here published. They are not
exhaustive treatises; they are hints given by one who knew that the
first need of a student is to learn _how to think_. The true direction
is pointed out, and the student is left to clarify his own perceptions,
to draw upon and enlarge his own intuitions, and to develop, as every
created thing must at last develop, by his own inward exertions. Such
students have passed the point where their external environment can
affect their growth favorably. They may learn from it, but the time has
also come to resist it and turn to the internal adjustment to higher
relations only.

The brevity of these letters should not mislead the reader. Every
statement in them is a statement of law. They point to causes of which
life is an effect; that life arising from the action of Spirit in
Nature, and which we must understand as it is manifested within us
before we can advance on the Path. There is a scientific meaning within
all these devotional or ethical injunctions, for the Wisdom-Religion
never relaxes her hold upon Science or attempts to dissever an effect
from its cause. Most of these admonitions have their base in the
constitution of the Archæus, or World-Soul, and the correlation of its
energies; others, still, adhere in the Eternal.

No less should the reader guard himself against a slight estimate
arising from the exquisite modesty of Z. An occultist is never so truly
a man of power as when he has wholly learned and exhibits this truth:

"And the power the disciple shall desire is that which shall make him
appear as nothing _in the eyes of men_."

The inner eye, the _power of seeing_, looks deeper into the source
of a man's knowledge and takes it at its true value. Those men who
are sharers in the Divine, whose first office is to give, are often
protected from the demands and curiosity of the careless by a simple
exterior which deceives the worldly sense. Some men are great because
of the Power which stands behind them, the divine energies which flow
through them; they are great through having learned how to receive this
celestial influx from higher spheres of Being; they are the appointed
ministrants, the true servitors of the Law and pupils of Masters whose
office is humanitarian and universal.

Such aid is never volunteered; it follows the Karmic behest, and, when
given, leaves the student free to follow it or not, as his intuitions
may direct. There is not a shadow or vestige of _authority_ in the
matter, as the world understands the word _authority_. Those who travel
the unknown way send messages back, and he who can receives them. Only
a few of the first steps are here recorded and the first impediments
surmounted. No hints of magic lore are to be found; no formulas
of creed or occult powers; the questions of an awakening soul are
answered, and the pilgrim is shown where lies the entrance to the Path.
The world at large seeks the facts of occult science, but the student
who has resolved to attain desires to find the true road. What may seem
to others as mere ethics is to him practical instruction, for as he
follows it he soon perceives its relation to facts and laws which he
is enabled to verify, and what seemed to him the language of devotion
merely, is found to be that of science; but the science is spiritual,
for the Great Cause is pure Spirit.

Many students must at some time stand where the writer then stood, at
the beginning of the way. For all these this correspondence is made
public, and they are urged to look within the printed words for their
imperishable meaning. They may be cheered to find the footprints of
a comrade upon the rugged Path, above which the light of Truth ever
shines. Yet even this light is not always a clear splendor. It may
seem "in the daytime a cloud, and by night a pillar of fire." We must
question every external aspect, even that of Faith itself, for the
secret and germ of things lies at their core. Let us purify even our
Faith; let us seek Truth herself, and not our preconceptions of Truth.
In her mirror we shall never see our own familiar face: that which we
see is still ourselves, because our real self is truth.

As the Theosophical movement gathers new momentum, fresh recruits may
be aided by those letters which so greatly sustained me, or encouraged
by some copartnership of thought, and that, too, in the real issue
confronting them. We first take this issue to be the acquirement of
occult knowledge. Soon we find that the meaning of all really informed
occult writers eludes us. We find that books only serve to remind us of
what we knew in the long past, perhaps when "journeying with Deity",
and the echoes awakened within us are so faint that they are rarely to
be caught. Whether we study philosophies, metaphysics, physics, ethics,
harmony, astrology, natural sciences, astralism, magnetism or what not,
we meet with endless contradiction and differentiation; we forever
require to strike the balance of our own intuition. We discover that
the final word has not yet been _written down_ upon any of the higher
subjects (unless it be on mathematics, and scarcely on that), and that
all our learning is but a finger-post to that supreme knowledge of
Truth which is only found and closely guarded within the human heart.
Thrown back upon our inner perceptions for continual readjustment, on
every side of experience this warning confronts us: _Stand ready to
abandon all thou hast learned!_ Not knowing the one center, we cannot
thoroughly know any sub-center. The cause unknown, effects mislead us.
Then we turn to that mysterious center whereby the One is manifest in
man, and we begin the study of the heart, both in itself and in the
life it has instituted about us.

To be put into more direct communication with the world of cause
is now the student's most pressing need. One thing alone prevents
this,--himself. He is of such gross fibre that he cannot be "porous
to thought, bibulous of the sea of light". To the refinement and
dispersal of this lower self--of the man he now takes himself to be--he
then directs his will. Each man has a different mode of doing this, but
each who advances at all finds that with every new period of his inner
life a new self rises before him. Looking back over a group of weeks or
months, he is amazed to see what manner of man he was then, and smiles
that pitying smile which we bestow upon the faded letters of our youth.

Yet some there be who ossify there in their rut; let them struggle
mightily to break up the mass which has resisted all environment, all
change, all the conditions of progressive life. They have done for
themselves what the enemy strives to do for others; they are the rock
in their own path.

What our Eastern brothers call "the sheaths of the heart" fall away
one by one; when the last bursts open there is a silence, the silence
of the mystic death. But "the dead shall arise," and from that death
springs up the first tender growth of eternal life.

Up to this point we shall not travel in the ensuing pages. Yet having
realized the real issue so forcibly that his whole strength was at the
start directed towards self-knowledge and the right use of Thought, the
writer offers a part of his first instructions to those of his comrades
who, single-hearted and of royal Faith, hold Truth to be dearer than
all material life and seek it on the hidden way. There is no tie in
the universe equal to that which binds such comrades together. It has
been forged in the fires of unspeakable anguish; it has been rivetted
by a dauntless purpose and a unique, because Divine, Love. The fierce
hatred of seen and unseen worlds cannot tamper with it so long as a
man remains true to himself, for this larger life is himself, and as
he grows towards it his self-imposed fetters fall away and he stands,
at last, a free soul, in the celestial Light which is Freedom itself,
obedient only to the Law of its own divine Being. To reach it, let us
obey the law of our own Being, for, truly, _Being is One_.

My comrades, wherever you are, I salute you.

  JASPER NIEMAND, F. T. S.




LETTERS THAT HAVE HELPED ME




I.


  MY DEAR JASPER:

Now let me elevate a signal. Do not think much of me, please. Think
kindly of me; but oh, my friend, direct your thoughts to the Eternal
Truth. I am, like you, struggling on the road. Perhaps a veil might
in an instant fall down from your spirit, and you would be long ahead
of us all. The reason you have had help is that in other lives you
gave it to others. In every effort you made to lighten another mind
and open it to Truth, you were helped yourself. Those pearls you found
for another and gave to him, you really retained for yourself in the
act of benevolence. For when one lives thus to help others, he is
thereby putting in practice the rule to try and "kill out all sense of
separateness," and thus gets little by little in possession of the true
light.

Never lose, then, that attitude of mind. Hold fast in silence to all
that is your own, for you will need it in the fight; but never, _never_
desire to get knowledge or power for any other purpose than to give it
on the altar, for thus alone can it be saved to you.

So many are there around me who are ardent desirers and seekers,
devotees; but they are doing it because the possession seems valuable.
Perhaps I see in you--I hope I mistake not--a pure desire to seek
Knowledge for its own sake, and that all others may be benefitted. So
I would point out to you the only royal road, the one vehicle. Do all
those acts, physical, mental, moral, for the reason that they must be
done, instantly resigning all interest in them, offering them up upon
the altar. What altar? Why, the great spiritual altar, which is, if
one desires it, in the heart. Yet still use earthly discrimination,
prudence, and wisdom.

It is not that you must rush madly or boldly out _to do_, _to do_. Do
what you find to do. Desire ardently to do it, and even when you shall
not have succeeded in carrying anything out but some small duties,
some words of warning, your strong desire will strike like Vulcan upon
other hearts in the world, and suddenly you will find that done which
you had longed to be the doer of. Then rejoice that another had been so
fortunate as to make such a meritorious Karma. Thus, like the rivers
running into the unswelling, passive ocean, will your desires enter
into your heart.

I find all your remarks just; and besides, there seems to be a real
spirit behind them. Do not fear nor fail because you feel dark and
heavy. The very rage you feel will break the shrine that covers the
mystery after a while. No one can really help you. No one can open your
doors. You locked them up, and only you can open them. When you open
any door, beyond it you find others standing there who had passed you
long ago, but now, unable to proceed, they are there waiting; others
are there waiting for you. Then you come, and, opening a door, those
waiting disciples perhaps may pass on; thus on and on. What a privilege
this, to reflect that we may perhaps be able to help those who seemed
greater than ourselves!

O, what a groan Nature gives to see the heavy Karma which man has piled
upon himself and all the creatures of the three worlds! That deep sigh
pierces through my heart. How can the load be lifted? Am I to stand for
myself, while the few strong hands of Blessed Masters and Their friends
hold back the awful cloud? Such a vow I registered ages ago to help
them, and I must. Would to great Karma I could do more! And you! do
what you can.

Place your only faith, reliance, and trust on Karma.

  Z.




II.


  MY DEAR BROTHER:

Your last long letter came duly to hand and has been read with much
pleasure. It is quite rare to find one willing to enter this movement
on the basis you have laid down for yourself, and my previous letter
was written in order to see what your attitude really was, and also
because I then felt from your writing that you were really in earnest.
And before yours of to-day, I fell to thinking about you and wondering
whether a future of power, a brilliancy of knowledge, was not your
aspiration, and what effect certain occurrences would have upon that.

Judge, then, my pleasure in reading your words exactly answering my
mental inquiries of yesterday and placing you in the right position.

It is true, we must aspire ardently, and blessed is the one who, after
the first aspiration, is wise enough to see the Truth.

Three qualities forever encompass us: _Satwa_ (truth and stability),
_Rajas_ (action, war, aspiration, ambition), _Tamas_ (indifference,
ignorance, darkness).

None may be ignored. So the path lies from Tamas, up through war,
ambition, and aspiration, to Satwa, or truth and stability. We are now
in Rajasika regions, sometimes lifting our fingers up to the hem of the
garment of Satwa, ever aspiring, ever trying to purify our thoughts
and free ourselves from the attachment to actions and objects. So, of
course, the ardent student naturally aspires for power. This is wise.
But he must soon begin to see what he must do for real progress. For
continual aspiration for power merely is sure to sow for us the giant
weed of self, which is the giant spoken of in _Light on the Path_.

As to the Theosophical Society, all should be admitted, for we can
refuse _no one_. If this is a Universal Brotherhood, we can make no
distinctions; but we can put ourselves right in the beginning by seeing
that people do not enter with mistaken notions of what we have. And
yet with all our precautions, how often we find persons who are not
really sincere themselves judging us by their standard, unbelieving in
our sincerity. They enter; they find that each must study for himself
and that no guides are told off to each one; then they are disgusted.
They forget that "the kingdom of heaven must be taken by violence." We
have also had to suffer from our friends. People who have joined us in
secret like Nicodemus; they have stood idly by, waiting for the Cause
to get strong or to get fashionable, and leaving all the hard fighting
to be done by a few earnest men who defied the hosts of Materialism
and of Conventionality. Had they spoken for their Cause, more earnest
people would long ago have heard of the movement, instead of being kept
away until now, like yourself, for want of knowledge that it existed.

You will find that other members care for nothing but Theosophy, and
are yet forced by circumstances to work in other fields as well. What
moments they have left are devoted to the Cause, and in consequence
they have no unoccupied hours; each moment, day and evening, is filled
up, and therefore they are happy. Yet they are unhappy that they
cannot give their entire working time to the Cause in which some have
been from the beginning. They feel, like Claude St. Martin, a burning
desire within them to get these truths to the ears of all men. They
are truths, and you are in the right path. In America it is as easy
to find the Light of Lights as in India, but all around you are those
who do not know these things, who never heard of them, and yet many
of our fellow members are only anxious to study for their own benefit.
Sometimes, if it were not for my reliance on those Great Beings
who beckon me ever on, I would faint, and, leaving these people to
themselves, rush off into the forest. So many people like Theosophy,
and yet they at once wish to make it select and of high tone. It is for
all men. It is for the common people, who are ever with us. Others,
again, come in and wait like young birds for food to be put into them:
they _will not think_, and ages must pass before they will progress.

You misunderstood a little the words "Do not think much of me."
Underline "much," but not "think." You will please think all the
thoughts you will of me, but do not place me on any pinnacle: that's
all I meant.

A constant endeavor towards perfecting the mere mortal machine is folly.
Thereby we sometimes fail to live up to our own intuitions. This habit
goes on for some time, but will get weaker as other senses (inner ones)
begin to appear. Yet know the new fully before being off with the old.

Inasmuch as we learn almost solely from each other--as we are all here
for each other--the question of the effect of affinities upon our acts
and thoughts is enormous and wide. It anon saves us, and anon damns.
For we may meet in our lives a person who has a remarkable effect,
either for good or ill, because of the affinities engendered in past
lives. And now our eyes are open, we act to-day for the future.

That you may pass beyond the sea of darkness, I offer you my life and
help.

  Z.




III.


Say, Brother Jasper, are you tired? I am. Not tired of fate or of the
great "Leaders of the World," but with all these people who gape and
gape and are (excuse me) so Americanly "independent," as if men were
ever independent of each other.

You ask about the "moment of choice." It is made up of all moments.
It is not in space or time, but is the aggregation of those moments
flying by us each instant. It is referred to in _Esoteric Buddhism_
as a period not yet arrived for the race, when it will as a whole be
compelled to make choice for good or evil. But any single individual
can bring on the period for himself. When it will or has come, the
uninstructed cannot tell. For the student of occultism it may come in
the next instant, or it may come one hundred lives after. But it cannot
come this instant unless all the previous lives have led up to it. Yet
as regards the student, even if it be presented to him and he refuse,
he will be brought to the choice in future existences, with the whole
body of his race. Race influences are insidious and powerful. For
instance, my race has its peculiarities deeply seated and inherited
from an extraordinary past. I must be under their influence in this
body as a necessary part of my experience. In another life I might
have been a prosaic Hottentot, or an Englishman, and in a succeeding
one I might be under the influence of other race peculiarities. Those
influences are, then, guiding me every moment, and each thought I have
adds to them now, for either my own future use or for some other person
who will come under the power of part of the force generated now by me.

As to the sub-conscious mind. It is difficult to explain. I find
constantly that I have ideas that internally I thoroughly understand,
and yet can find no language for them. Call it sub-conscious if you
like. It is there and can be affected; indeed, it is affected every
moment. It is a nearness to the universal mind. So if I desire to
influence--say your mind--I do not formulate your sub-conscious plane,
but firmly and kindly think of you and think of the subject I wish you
to think of. This must reach you. If I am selfish, then it has more
difficulty to get there; but if it be brotherly, then it gets there
more easily, being in harmony with the universal mind and the Law. The
Psychical Society speaks of it, and says that the influence "emerges
into the lower mind" by one or more of the channels. But they do not
know what those "channels" are, or even if they do exist. In fact, the
whole subject of mind is only faintly understood in the West. They say
"mind," meaning the vast range and departments of that which they call
mind, whereas there must be a need for the names of those departments.
When the true ideas are grasped, the names will follow. Meanwhile we
must be satisfied with "mind" as including the whole thing. But it does
not. Certainly it is not ordinary mental motion--ratiocination--to
grasp in an instant a whole subject, premises and conclusions, without
stopping to reason. It cannot be called a _picture_, for with some
it comes as an idea, and not as a picture. Memory. What is that? Is
it brain-impression; or similarity of vibration, recognized upon
being repeated and then producing a picture? If so, then the power to
recognize the vibration as the same as before is separate from the
matter which vibrates. And if the power inhere in the brain cells,
how is it possible, when we know they are constantly being changed?
Yet memory is perfect, no matter what happens. That it is above brain
is clear, because a man may be killed by having his brain blown to
atoms, and yet his "shell" can give all the incidents of his life, and
they are not taken from the brain, for that is dead. Where, then, is
the sub-conscious mind? And where are the channels, and how are they
connected? I think through the heart, and that the heart is the key to
it all, and that the brain is only the servant of the heart,[A] for
remember that there is in it the "small dwarf who sits at the centre."
Think it out on that line now for yourself--or any other line that you
may choose, but _think_.

  As ever,
  Z.

[Footnote A: Not the physical heart, but the real centre of life in
man.--J. N.]




IV.


  DEAR SIR AND BROTHER:

In cogitating lately I thought of you in respect to some of my own
thoughts. I was reading a book and looking around within myself to see
how I could enlarge my idea of brotherhood. Practice in benevolence
will not give it its full growth. I had to find some means of reaching
further, and struck on this, which is as old as old age.

I am not separate from anything. "I am that which is." That is, I am
Brahma, and Brahma is everything. But being in an illusionary world,
I am surrounded by certain appearances that seem to make me separate.
So I will proceed to mentally state and accept that I am all these
illusions. I am my friends,--and then I went to them in general and in
particular. I am my enemies; then I felt them all. I am the poor and
the wicked; I am the ignorant. Those moments of intellectual gloom are
the moments when I am influenced by those ignorant ones who are myself.
All this in my nation. But there are many nations, and to those I go in
mind; I feel and I am them all, with what they hold of superstition or
of wisdom or evil. All, all is myself. Unwisely, I was then about to
stop, but the whole is Brahma, so I went to the Devas and Asuras;[B]
the elemental world, that too is myself. After pursuing this course
awhile I found it easier to return to a contemplation of all men as
myself. It is a good method and ought to be pursued, for it is a step
toward getting into contemplation of the All. I tried last night to
reach up to Brahma, but darkness is about his pavilion.

Now what does all this insanity sound like? I'll tell you what: if it
were not for this insanity I would go insane. But shall I not take
heart, even when a dear friend deserts me and stabs me deep, when I
know that he is myself?

  NAMASTAE!

  Z.

       *       *       *       *       *

I found the above letter still more valuable when I remembered that
Brahma is "the universal expansive force of Nature"--from _Brih_, to
expand; and so stated in an article by H. P. Blavatsky in _Five Years
of Theosophy_. In the _Dhammapada_ we are told to think ourselves to be
the sun and stars, the wet and dry, heat and cold; in short, to feel
all experience, for we can live all out in the mind.

  J. N.

[Footnote B: Gods and demons.--J. N.]




V.


  DEAR JASPER:

I wish I could answer your letter as you ought to have it done. But I
feel my inability. However, our duty is to never consider our ability,
but to do what comes to be done in whatever way we can, no matter how
inadequate the work appears to others. When we stop to consider our
weakness, we think, by comparison, of how another would do it. Our
_only right is in the act itself_. The consequences are in the great
Brahm. So I will just say what comes.

I feel the sadness in your letter, but know that you will rebound from
that. Do not let the sadness of knowledge create despair; that sadness
is less than the joy of Truth. Abstract Truth, even, has necessarily
in it all the mercy there is in the whole. Its sternness is only a
reflection from our own imperfections, which make us recognize the
stern aspect alone. We are not the only ones to suffer upon the Path.
Like ourselves, Masters have wept, though They do not now weep. One of
them wrote some years ago: "Do you suppose we have not passed through
many times worse trials than you now think you are in?" The Master
often seems to reject and to hide his (spiritual) face, in order that
the disciple may try. On the doors and walls of the temple the word
"TRY" is written. ("The Brothers" is a better designation than Mahâtmas
or Masters.)

Along the path of the true student is sadness, but also there is
great joy and hope. Sadness comes from a more just appreciation of
the difficulties in one's way, and of the great wickedness of the
individual and collective heart of man. But look at the great fountain
of hope and of joy in the consideration that the Brothers exist,
that They were men too; They had to fight the fight; They triumphed,
and They work for those left after Them. Then beyond Them are "the
Fathers," that is, the spirits of "just men made perfect," those Who
lived and worked for humanity ages ago and Who are now out of our
sphere, but Who nevertheless still influence us in that Their spiritual
forces flow down upon this earth for all pure souls. Their immediate
influence is felt by Masters, and by us through the latter.

Now, as you say, it is all Faith; but what is Faith? It is the
intuitional feeling--"_that is true_." So formulate to yourself certain
things as true that you feel to be true, and then increase your faith
in them.

Don't be anxious. Don't get "maddened." Because in the fact that you
are "maddened" (of course in the metaphorical sense) is found the
proof that you are anxious. In a worldly sense it is perhaps well to
be anxious about a highly important matter, but in occultism it is
different, for the Law takes no account of our projects and objects,
or our desire to be ahead or behind. So, if we are anxious, we raise a
barrier against progress, by perturbation and straining harshly. You
wrote to B. that what is his, is his. Then the converse is true; what
is not, is not. Why don't you take your own medicine?

  Yours,
  Z.




VI.


  DEAR JASPER:

It is a great advance that you hear the bells, which few hear, and
evidence that you are where you can hear them; that is a great deal
indeed. Do not look for the voice of the bells, but regard the _ideas_
which thereupon come into the head, and apply to them the touchstone of
your own Soul, just as you advised B. The fact that you feel "dead" is
something you should not worry about. It is likely that you are under
the operation of a law which prevails in nature, that you will find
referred to in an article in _Path_ Magazine for April, '86, page 14.
It is that the soul goes to a new place or new surroundings and becomes
silent there awhile--what you call "dead"--and draws strength there,
begins to get accustomed to its new surroundings, after which it begins
to move about. This is seen in ordinary life in the bashfulness of a
boy. That is, the bashfulness is the shyness felt in new surroundings,
and is just what happens when the soul goes to a new place or into new
surroundings. There can be no loss or detriment to our efforts. Every
aspiration higher brightens up the road connecting the higher and lower
self. No doubt of that. It is not _what_ is done, but the spirit in
which the least thing is done that is counted. Hear the word of the
Master.

"He who does the best he knows how and that he can do, does enough for
us."

The mere fact that a man appreciates these truths and feels these
aspirations is proof that he is on the right road. It is well to tread
it _now_. We will not always live. Death must come. How much better,
then, to embrace death while thus at work than to swerve off only to
be brought up with suddenness in after lives. Immediate rebirth is for
those who are always working with their hearts on Master's work and
free from self interest.

The one Spirit is in all, is the property of each, therefore It is
always there, always with us, and, by reflecting on that, little room
is left for sorrow or delusion. If we believe that the soul of all is
measured by the whole of Time and not by a part, then we care not for
these moments which relate alone to our body. If we live in our hearts
we soon prove that space and time exist not. Nothing foreign to Master
enters there; our faults are not there. The heart reaches Him always,
and no doubt He replies. He does I know. He helps us while He leaves us
to ourselves. He needs not to stoop to see our devotion, for that is of
a supernal quality and reaches anywhere.

No, I do not say nor have I said that you ought to do something other
than you do. We each do what we can. None of us can be the judge of
any creature existing; so I do not judge you in the least respect.
Your life may in the great sum total be greater than any life I ever
led or that any one has led. Whether you are in America, Europe, or
India makes no difference. This is seeking conditions. I have come
to understand that Masters themselves must have worked themselves up
out of much worse conditions than we are in. No matter where we are,
the same spirit pervades all and is accessible. What need, then, to
change places? We do not change ourselves by moving the body to another
_locus_. We only put it under a different influence. And in order to
change we must have got to dislike the place we moved from. That is
_attachment by opposites_, and that will produce detriment, as does all
that disturbs the equilibrium of the soul. You know the same result is
produced by two exact opposites, and thus extremes meet.

That hot flame you speak of is one of the experiences, as are also the
sounds. There are so many, many of these things. Often they result
from extreme tension or vibration in the aura of an aspirant of pure
devotion. They are himself, and he should be on his guard against
taking them for wonders. Often they are "apparitions in Brahm." They
are like new lights and sights to a mariner on an unfamiliar coast.
They will go on, or alter, or stop. You are only to carefully note
them, and "do not exhibit wonder nor form association."

I cannot say more. All help you extend to any other soul is help to
yourself. It is our duty to help all, and we must begin on those
nearest to us, for to run abroad to souls we might possibly help we
again forsake our present duty. It is better to die in our own duty,
however mean, than to try another one. So lift your head and look
around upon the hulks of past imagined faults. They were means and
teachers. Cast all doubt, all fear, all regret aside, and freely take
of truth what you may contain right on every step. It will thus be
well. Eternal Truth is one and indivisible, and we may get from the
Fathers (Pitris) flashes now and then of what is true.

Words are things. With me and in fact. Upon the lower plane of social
intercourse they are things, but soulless and dead because that
convention in which they have their birth has made abortions of them.
But when we step away from that conventionality they become alive in
proportion to the reality of the thought--and its purity--that is
behind them. So in communication between two students they are things,
and those students must be careful that the ground of intercourse is
fully understood. Let us use with care those living messengers called
words.

Where I see you mistaken I will speak, to warn my Brother who
temporarily knows not. For did I not call on the bugle, perhaps other
things might switch him off to where perhaps for the time he would be
pleased, but would again be sorry, and then when his mistake was plain
he would justly sigh to me across dark centuries of separation that I
had been false to my duty of warning.

  As ever,
  Z.

       *       *       *       *       *

The new plane to which the soul may go, referred to in this letter,
is the astral plane. It is the plane next above the material one,
and consists of a subtile order of matter. When a student turns his
attention to the higher life and desires intensely to find the way,
his soul has begun to awaken and to speak. It has heard the voice of
the spirit. Then the inner senses begin to unfold, at first ever so
gently, so tenderly, we scarce hear their report. But the soul has
then turned its attention to the astral plane, that being the next one
to be learned on the way upward; its energy is transferred from the
material plane to this one, and we have an influx of many confused
dreams and strange experiences, awake and asleep. These may or may not
continue; all depends upon the individual soul and upon Karma. It is a
most confusing plane, and, generally speaking, we may say that those
students are more fortunate who make a marked degree of progress in
spiritual things without having any conscious experience of the astral
plane. For then they can later on learn it _from above_, instead of
from below, and with far less danger to themselves. The whole must
be known, but we may progress in various ways, even by discontinuous
degrees, only then we must go back later on, to what we passed by.
Such a going back does not imply detriment or loss of degree, for such
cannot be lost when once gained in reality.

With regard to the astral plane being a more subtile order of matter,
this truth is often denied by clairvoyants and untrained seers. They do
not distinguish between the psychic senses and the spiritual. They can
see through gross matter, such as a wall, the human body, and so forth,
as if it were glass, but they cannot see through astral substance, and
hence they believe its forms and all the pictures and shapes in the
astral light to be real. Only the adept sees through these illusions,
which are far more powerful because composed of a subtile order of
matter: subtile energies, fine forces have a highly increased rate
of power over grosser ones. The adept has at his command the rate of
vibration which dispels them or drives them asunder. In speaking of
the astral plane, I mean the lower soul plane, and not that higher and
purified quality which the author of _Light on the Path_ calls the
"divine astral."

By anxiety we exert the constrictive power of egoism, which densifies
and perturbs our magnetic sphere, rendering us less permeable to the
efflux from above.

  J. N.




VII.


  DEAR JASPER:

I have your letter, Comrade, in which you say how much you wish there
were some Adepts sent to the United States to help all true students.
Yet you know well They do not need to come here in person, in order
to help. By going carefully over your letter there appears to be the
possibility of the seed of doubt in your heart as to the wise ordering
of all things, for all are under the Law, and Masters first of all.
Mind, I only say the "_possibility of the seed of doubt_." For I judge
from my own experience. Well do I remember when I thought as you say,
how much better 'twould be if some one were there.

If that is allowed to remain it will metamorphose itself into a seed
and afterward a plant of doubt. Cast it right out! It does not now
show as seed of doubt, but it will be a case of metamorphosis, and the
change would be so great as to deceive you into thinking it were never
from the same root. The best stand to take is that it is all right
as it is now, and when the time comes for it to be better it will be
so. Meanwhile we have a duty to see that we do all we can _in our own
place_ as we see best, undisturbed and undismayed by aught.

How much I have in years gone away said and thought those very words of
yours and to no profit! Why do you care what becomes of a million human
beings? Are not millions going to death daily with no one to tell them
of all this? But did you suppose that all this was not provided for?
"And heavenly death itself is also well provided for." Now, then, you
and I must learn to look on the deaths or the famishing of millions of
beings with unfaltering heart. Else we had better give it all up now.
Consider that at this moment are so many persons in various far distant
places who cannot ever hear these truths. Do you grieve for them? Do
you realize their state? No; you realize only partially the same thing
among those with whom it was your present lot to be born--I mean the
nation. Do you want to do more than your best? Do you covet the work of
another? No; you do not. You will sit calmly where you are, then, and,
with an unaffected heart, picture to yourself the moral and physical
deaths and famines which are now without the possibility of prevention
or amelioration. Your faith will know that _all_ is provided for.

I do not say that you must attain to that calm _now_ or give up seeking
the Way; but I do say that you must admit that such an attainment must
be absolutely tried for. For of such is the trial, and why should we
care? _We must some day be able to stand any shock_, and to get ready
for that time we must be now triumphant over some smaller things. Among
others is the very position you and I are now in; that is, standing
our ground and feeling ourselves so much and so awfully alone. But
we know that They have left us a commandment. That we keep, although
now and then objects, senses, men, and time conspire to show us that
Masters laugh at us. It is all a delusion. It is only one consequence
of our past Karma now burning itself out before our eyes. The whole
phantasmagoria is only a picture thrown up against the Screen of Time
by the mighty magic of Prakriti (Nature). But you and I are superior
to Nature. Why, then, mind these pictures? Part of that very screen,
however, being our own mortal bodies, we can't help the _sensation_
derived therefrom through our connection with the body. It is only
another form of cold or heat; and what are they? They are vibrations;
they are _felt_; they do not really exist in themselves. So we can
calmly look on the picture as it passes fragmentarily through those
few square feet contained within the superficial boundaries of our
elementary frame. We _must_ do so, for it is a copy of the greater, of
the universal form. For we otherwise will never be able to understand
the greater picture. Now, then, is there not many a cubic inch of your
own body which is entitled to know and to be the Truth in greater
measure than now? And yet you grieve for the ignorance of so many other
human beings! Grieve on; and I grieve too. Do not imagine that I _am_
what is there written. Not so. I am grieving just the same outwardly,
but inwardly trying what I have just told you. And what a dream all
this is. Here I am writing you so seriously, and now I see that you
know it all quite well and much better than I do.

Yet, my dear Jasper, now and then I feel--not Doubt of Masters who
hear any heartbeat in the right direction, but--a terrible Despair of
these people. Oh, my God! The age is black as hell, hard as iron. It
is iron, it is Kali Yuga. Kali is always painted black. Yet Kali Yuga
by its very nature, and terrible, swift momentum, permits one to do
more with his energies in a shorter time than in any other Yuga. But
heavens, what a combat! Demons from all the spheres; waving clouds of
smoky Karma; dreadful shapes; stupefying exhalations from every side.
Exposed at each turn to new dangers. Imagine a friend walking with you
who you see is in the same road, but all at once he is permeated by
these things of death and shows a disposition to obstruct your path,
the path of himself. Yes; the gods are asleep for awhile. But noble
hearts still walk here, fighting over again the ancient fight. They
seek each other, so as to be of mutual help. We will not fail them. To
fail would be nothing, but to stop working for Humanity and Brotherhood
would be awful. We cannot: we will not. Yet we have not a clear road.
No, it is not clear. I am content if I can see the next step in advance
only. You seek _The Warrior_. He is here, somewhere. No one can find
him for you. You must do that. Still He fights on. No doubt He sees you
and tries to make you see Him. Still He fights on and on.

How plainly the lines are drawn, how easily the bands are seen. Some
want a certificate, or an uttered pledge, or a secret meeting, or
a declaration, but without any of that I see those who--up to this
hour--I find are my "companions." They need no such folly. They are
there; they hear and understand the battle-cry, they recognize the
sign. Now where are the rest? Many have I halted, and spoken the exact
words to them, have exposed to them my real heart, and they heard
nothing: they thought that heart was something else. I sigh to think
how many. Perhaps I overlooked some; perhaps some did not belong to me.
There are some who partly understood the words and the sign, but they
are not sure of themselves; they know that they partake of the nature,
but are still held back.

Do you not see, Jasper, that your place in the ranks is well known? You
need no assurances because they are _within_ you. Now what a dreadful
letter; but it is all true.

A student of occultism after a while gets into what we may call a
psychic whirl, or a vortex of occultism. At first he is affected by the
feelings and influences of those about him. That begins to be pushed
off and he passes into the whirl caused by the mighty effort of his
Higher Self to make him remember his past lives. Then those past lives
affect him. They become like clouds throwing shadows on his path. Now
they seem tangible and then fade away, only a cloud. Then they begin to
affect his impulse to action in many various ways. To-day he has vague
calling longings to do something, and, critically regarding himself,
he cannot see in this life any cause. It is the bugle note of a past
life blown almost in his face. It startles him; it may throw him down.
Then it starts before him, a phantom, or, like a person behind you
as you look at a mirror, it looks over his shoulder. Although dead
and past they yet have a power. He gets too a power and a choice. If
all his previous past lives were full of good, then irresistible is
the force for his benefit. But all alike marshal up in front, and he
hastens their coming by his effort. Into this vortex about him others
are drawn, and their germs for good or ill ripen with activity. This is
a phase of the operation of Karmic stamina. The choice is this. These
events arrive one after the other and, as it were, offer themselves.
If he chooses wrong, then hard is the fight. The one chosen attracts
old ones like itself perhaps, for all have a life of their own. Do you
wonder that sometimes in the case of those who rush unprepared into the
"circle of ascetics" and before the ripe moment, insanity sometimes
results? But then that insanity is their safety for the next life, or
for their return to sanity.

Receive my brotherly assurances, my constant desire to help you.

       *       *       *       *       *

In respect to Karmic action it is well to recall the statement of
Patanjali that "works exist only in the shape of mental deposits."
(Book 2, Aph. 12, A.) By "works" is here meant Karma, the stock of
works, or Action. Its results remain as mental deposits or potential
energies in the higher part of the fifth principle, and when it
reïncarnates those seeds are there to "ripen on the tablets of the
mind" whenever they are exposed to favoring circumstances. Sometimes
they remain dormant for want of something to arouse them, as in the
case of children. "The mental deposits of works, collected from time
without beginning in the ground of the mind, as they by degrees arrive
at maturation, so do they, existing in lesser or greater measure (the
sum of merit being less than that of demerit, or conversely) lead
to their effects in the shape of rank, raised or lowered, ... or
experience of good or ill." (Book 2, Aph. 13, B.) The mind energizes
and impels us to fresh action. The impulse lies within, in germ, and
may be ripened by interior or exterior suggestion. Can we, then, be
too careful to guard the ground of the mind, to keep close watch over
our thoughts? These thoughts are dynamic. Each one as it leaves the
mind has a _vis viva_ of its own, proportionate to the intensity with
which it was propelled. As the force or work done, of a moving body, is
proportionate to the square of its velocity, so we may say that the
force of thoughts is to be measured by the square or quadrupled power
of their spirituality, so greatly do these finer forces increase by
activity. The spiritual force, being impersonal, fluidic, not bound to
any constricting center, acts with unimaginable swiftness. A thought,
on its departure from the mind, is said to associate itself with an
elemental; it is attracted wherever there is a similar vibration, or,
let us say, a suitable soil, just as the winged thistle-seed floats
off and sows itself in this spot and not in that, in the soil of its
natural selection. Thus the man of virtue, by admitting a material or
sensual thought into his mind, even though he expel it, sends it forth
to swell the evil impulses of the man of vice from whom he imagines
himself separated by a wide gulf, and to whom he may have just given a
fresh impulse to sin. Many men are like sponges, porous and bibulous,
ready to suck up every element of the order preferred by their nature.
We all have more or less of this quality: we attract what we love, and
we may derive a greater strength from the vitality of thoughts infused
from without than from those self-reproduced within us at a time when
our nervous vitality is exhausted. It is a solemn thought, this, of our
responsibility for the impulse of another. We live in one another, and
our widely different deeds have often a common source. The occultist
cannot go far upon his way without realizing to what a great extent he
is "his brother's keeper." Our affinities are ourselves, in whatever
ground they may live and ripen.

  J. N.




VIII.


  DEAR JASPER:

I seize a few moments to acknowledge your letter. This is a period of
waiting, of silence. Nothing seems alive. All oracles are silent. But
the great clock of the Universe still goes on, unheeding. On Sunday I
engaged in Meditation and received some benefit. I wished I could see
you to speak of it. Yet these things are too high for words, and when
we approach the subjects we are not able to give expression to our
thoughts. We do not live up to our highest soul possibilities. All that
prevents our reaching up to the high thoughts of the far past is our
own weakness, and not the work of any other. How petty seem the cares
of this earth when we indulge in deep reflection; they are then seen
for what they are, and later on they are obliterated. It is true that
the road to the gods is dark and difficult, and, as you say, we get
nothing from them at first call; we have to call often. But we can on
the way stop to look ahead, for no matter how sombre or howsoever weak
ourselves, the Spectator sees it all and beckons to us, and whispers,
"Be of good courage, for I have prepared a place for you where you will
be with me forever." He is the Great Self; He is ourselves.

The Leaders of the world are always trying to aid us. May we pass the
clouds and see them ever. All our obstructions are of our own making.
All our power is the storage of the past. That store we all must have;
who in this life feels it near is he who has in this life directed his
thoughts to the proper channel. That others do not feel it is because
they have lived but blindly. That you do not feel it and see it more is
because you have not yet directed all your mental energies to it. This
great root of Karmic energy can be drawn upon by directing the fire
of our minds in that direction. Towards Love of course is the right
way; the Love of the Divine and of all beings. If we feel that after
all we are not yet "Great Souls" who participate in the totality of
those "Souls who wait upon the gods," it need not cast us down: we are
waiting our hour in hope. Let us wait patiently, in the silence which
follows all effort, knowing that thus Nature works, for in her periods
of obscuration she does naught where that obscuration lies, while
doubtless she and we too are then at work on other spheres.

That described by you is not the soul; it is only a partial experience.
Did you know the Soul, then could you yourself reply to all those
questions, for all knowledge is there. In the soul is every creature
and every thought alike. That sinking down of your thoughts to the
center is practice. It can be done and we cannot explain it; we can
only say "do it." Still do not hunger to do these things. The first
step in _becoming_ is Resignation. Resignation is the sure, true, and
royal road. Our subtle motives, ever changing, elude us when we seek
it. You are near to it; it needs a great care. But while the body may
be requiring time to feel its full results, we can instantly change the
attitude of the mind. After Resignation, follow (in their own order)
Satisfaction, Contentment, Knowledge. Anxiety to do these things is
an obscurant and deterrent. So try to acquire patient Resignation.
The lesson intended by the Karma of your present life is _the higher
patience_. I can tell you nothing on this head; it is a matter for self
and practice. Throw away every wish to get the power, and seek only for
understanding of thyself. Insist on carelessness. Assert to yourself
that it is not of the slightest consequence what you were yesterday,
but in every moment strive for that moment; the results will follow of
themselves.

The Past! What is it? Nothing. Gone! Dismiss it. You are the past of
yourself. Therefore it concerns you not as such. It only concerns you
as you now are. In you, as now you exist, lies _all_ the past. So
follow the Hindu maxim: "Regret nothing; never be sorry; and cut all
doubts with the sword of spiritual knowledge." Regret is productive
only of error. I care not what I _was_, or what any one _was_. I only
look for what I am each moment. For as each moment is and at once is
not, it must follow that if we think of the past we forget the present,
and while we forget, the moments fly by us, making more past. Then
regret nothing, not even the greatest follies of your life, for they
are gone, and you are to work in the present which is both past and
future at once. So then, with that absolute knowledge that all your
limitations are due to Karma, past or in this life, and with a firm
reliance ever now upon Karma as the only judge, who will be good or
bad as you make it yourself, you can stand anything that may happen
and feel serene despite the occasional despondencies which all feel,
but which the light of Truth always dispels. This verse always settles
everything:

"In him who knows that all spiritual beings are the same in kind with
the Supreme Being, what room can there be for delusion and what room
for sorrow when he reflects upon the unity of spirit?"

In all these inner experiences there are tides as well as in the ocean.
We rise and fall. Anon the gods descend, and then they return to
heaven. Do not _think_ of getting them to descend, but strive to raise
_yourself_ higher on the road down which they periodically return,
and thus get nearer to them, so that you shall in fact receive their
influences sooner than before.

Adios. May you ever feel the surge of the vast deeps that lie beyond
the heart's small ebb. Perhaps our comrades are coming nearer. Who
knows? But even if not, then we will wait; the sun must burst some day
from the clouds. This will keep us strong while, in the company of the
Dweller of the Threshold, we have perforce to stare and sham awhile.

  Z.

       *       *       *       *       *

The "higher patience" alluded to also requires a care. It is the fine
line between pride and humility. Both are extremes and mistakes;
oscillations from one to the other are only a trifle better. How shall
we be proud when we are so small? How dare we be humble when we are so
great? In both we blaspheme. But there is that firm spot between the
two which is the place "neither too high nor too low" on which Krishna
told Arjuna to sit; a spot _of his own_. It is the firm place which our
faith has won from the world. On it we are always to stand calmly, not
overshadowed by any man however great, because each of us contains the
potentialities of every other. "Not overshadowed" does not mean that
we are not to show reverence to those through whom the soul speaks.
It is the great soul we reverence, and not the mortal clay. We are to
examine thoughtfully all that comes to us from such persons, and all
that comes to us from any source wearing the aspect of truth, and try
faithfully to see wherein it may be true, laying it aside, if we fail,
as fruit not ripe for us yet. We are not to yield up our intuitions to
any being, while we may largely doubt our judgment at all times. We
are not to act without the inner asseveration, but we must not remain
ignorant of the serious difficulty of separating this intuitive voice
from the babble and prattle of fancy, desire, or pride. If we are just
to ourselves we shall hold the balance evenly. How can we be just to
any other who are not just to ourselves? In the Law a man suffers as
much from injustice to himself as to another; it matters not in whose
interests he has opposed the universal currents; the Law only knows
that he has tried to deflect them by an injustice. It takes no account
of persons nor even of ignorance of the Law. It is an impartial,
impersonal force, only to be understood by the aid of the higher
patience, which at once dares all and endures all.

"Never regret anything." Regret is a thought, hence an energy. If we
turn its tide upon the past, it plays upon the seeds of that past and
vivifies them; it causes them to sprout and grow in the ground of the
mind: from thence to expression in action is but a step. A child once
said to me when I used the word "Ghosts," "Hush! Don't think of them.
What we think of always happens." There are no impartial observers like
children when they think away from themselves.

  J. N.




IX.


  DEAR SIR AND BROTHER:

Tell your friend and inquirer this: No one was ever converted into
Theosophy. Each one who _really_ comes into it does so because it is
only "an extension of previous beliefs." This will show you that Karma
is a true thing. For no idea we get is any more than an extension
of previous ones. That is, they are cause and effect in endless
succession. Each one is the producer of the next and inheres in that
successor. Thus we are all different and some similar. My ideas of
to-day and yours are tinged with those of youth, and we will thus
forever proceed on the inevitable line we have marked out in the
beginning. We of course alter a little always, but never until our old
ideas are extended. Those _false_ ideas now and then discarded are
not to be counted; yet they give a shadow here and there. But through
Brotherhood we receive the knowledge of others, which we consider
until (if it fits us) it is ours. As far as your private conclusions
are concerned, use your discrimination always. Do not adopt any
conclusions merely because they are uttered by one in whom you have
confidence, but adopt them when they coincide with your intuition. To
be even unconsciously deluded by the influence of another is to have a
counterfeit faith.

Spiritual knowledge includes every action. Inquirers ought to read the
_Bhagavad-Gîtâ_. It will give them food for centuries if they read with
spiritual eyes at all. Underneath its shell is the living spirit that
will light us all. I read it ten times before I saw things that I did
not see at first. In the night the ideas contained in it are digested
and returned partly next day to the mind. It is the study of adepts.

Let no man be unaware that while there is a great joy in this belief
there is also a great sorrow. Being true, being _the Law_, all the
great forces are set in motion by the student. He now thinks he has
given up ambition and comfort. The ambition and comfort he has given
up are those of the lower plane, the mere reflections of the great
ambitions and comforts of a larger life. The rays of truth burn up the
covers time has placed upon those seeds, and then the seeds begin to
sprout and cause new struggles. Do not leave any earnest inquirer in
ignorance of this. It has cost others many years and tears of blood to
self-learn it.

How difficult the path of action is! I see the future dimly, and
unconsciously in such case one makes efforts either for or against it.
Then Karma results. I could almost wish I did not hear these whispers.
But he who conquers himself is greater than the conquerors of worlds.

Perhaps you see more clearly now how Karma operates. If one directs
himself to eliminating all old Karma, the struggle very often becomes
tremendous, for the whole load of ancient sin rushes to the front on a
man and the events succeed each other rapidly; the strain is terrific,
and the whole life fabric groans and rocks. As is said in the East, you
may go through the appointed course in 700 births, in seven years, or
in seven minutes.

The sentence in _Light on the Path_ referred to by so many students is
not so difficult as some others. One answer will do for all. The book
is written on the basis of Reïncarnation, and when it says the soiled
garment will fall again on you, it means that this will happen in some
other life, not necessarily in this, though that may be too. To "turn
away in horror" is _not_ detachment. Before we can hope to prevent any
particular state of mind or events reaching us in this or in another
life, _we_ must in fact be detached from these things. Now _we_ are
not our bodies or mere minds, but the _real_ part of us in which
Karma inheres. Karma brings everything about. It attaches to our real
inner selves by attachment and repulsion. That is, if we love vice or
anything, it seizes on us by attachment thereto; if we hate anything,
it seizes on our inner selves by reason of the strong horror we feel
for it. In order to prevent a thing we must understand it; we cannot
understand while we fear or hate it. We are not to love vice, but are
to recognize that it is a part of the whole, and, trying to understand
it, we thus get above it. This is the "doctrine of opposites" spoken
of in _Bhagavad-Gîtâ_. So if we turn in horror now (we may feel sad
and charitable, though) from the bad, the future life will feel that
horror and develop it by reaction into a reïncarnation in a body and
place where we must in material life go through the very thing we hate
now. As we are striving to reach God, we must learn to be as near like
Him as possible. He loves and hates not; so we must strive to regard
the greatest vice as being something we must not hate while we will not
engage in it, and then we may approach that state where we will know
the greater love that takes in good and evil men and things alike.

Good and Evil are only the two poles of the one thing. In the Absolute,
Evil is the same thing in this way. One with absolute knowledge can
_see_ both Good and Evil, but he does not _feel_ Evil to be a thing to
flee from, and thus he has to call it merely the other pole. We say
Good or Evil as certain events seem pleasant or unpleasant to us or
our present civilization. And so we have coined those two words. They
are bad words to use. For in the Absolute one is just as necessary
as the other, and often what seem evil and "pain" are not absolutely
so, but only necessary adjustments in the progress of the soul. Read
_Bhagavad-Gîtâ_ as to how the self seems to suffer pain. What is Evil
now? Loss of friends? No; if you are self-centered. Slander? Not if
you rely on Karma. There is only evil when you rebel against immutable
decrees that must be worked out. You know that there must be these
balancings which we call Good and Evil. Just imagine one man who really
was a high soul, now living as a miser and enjoying it. You call it an
evil; he a good. Who is right? You say "Evil" because you are speaking
out of the True; but the True did know that he could never have passed
some one certain point unless he had that experience, and so we see
him now in an evil state. Experience we must have, and if we accept it
at our own hands we are wise. That is, while striving to do our whole
duty to the world and ourselves, we will not live the past over again
by vain and hurtful regrets, nor condemn any man, whatever his deeds,
since we cannot know their true cause. We are not Karma, we are not the
Law, and it is a species of that hypocrisy so deeply condemned by It
for us to condemn any man. That the Law lets a man live is proof that
he is not yet judged by that higher power. Still we must and will keep
our discriminating power at all times.

As to rising above Good and Evil, that does not mean to do evil, of
course. But, in fact, there can be no _real_ Evil or Good; if our aim
is right our acts cannot be evil. Now all acts are dead when done; it
is in the heart that they are conceived and are already there done; the
mere bodily carrying out of them is a dead thing in itself. So we may
do a supposed good act and that shall outwardly appear good, and yet as
our motive perhaps is wrong the act is naught, but the motive counts.

The great God did all, good and bad alike. Among the rest are what
appear Evil things, yet he must be unaffected. So if we follow
_Bhagavad-Gîtâ_, second chapter, we must do only those acts we believe
right for the sake of God and not for ourselves, and if we are
regardless of the consequences we are not concerned if they _appear_ to
be Good or Evil. As the heart and mind are the real planes of error,
it follows that we must look to it that we do all acts merely because
they are there to be done. It then becomes difficult only to separate
ourselves from the act.

We can never as human beings rise above being the instruments through
which that which is called Good and Evil comes to pass, but as that
Good and Evil are the result of comparison and are not in themselves
absolute, it must follow that we (the real "_we_") must learn to rise
internally to a place where these occurrences appear to us merely as
changes in a life of change. Even in the worldly man this sometimes
happens.

As, say Bismarck, used to moving large bodies of men and perhaps for
a good end, can easily rise above the transient Evil, looking to a
greater result. Or the physician is able to rise above pain to a
patient, and only consider the good, or rather the result, that is to
follow from a painful operation. The patient himself does the same.

So the student comes to see that he is not to do either "Good" or
"Evil," but to do any certain number of acts set before him, and
meanwhile not ever to regard much his line of conduct, but rather his
line of motive, for his conduct follows necessarily from his motive.
Take the soldier. For him there is nothing better than lawful war.
Query. Does he do wrong in warring or not, even if war is unlawful? He
does not unless he mixes his motive. They who go into war for gain or
revenge do wrong, but not he who goes at his superior's order, because
it is his present duty.

Let us, then, extend help to all who come our way. This will be true
progress; the veils that come over our souls fall away when we work for
others. Let that be the real motive, and the _quality_ of work done
makes no difference.

  Z.

       *       *       *       *       *

It would seem that Good and Evil are not inherent in things themselves,
but in the uses to which those things are put by us. They are
conditions of manifestation. Many things commonly called immoral
are consequences of the unjust laws of man, of egotistic social
institutions: such things are not immoral _per se_, but relatively so.
They are only immoral in point of time. There are others whose evil
consists in the base use to which higher forces are put, or to which
Life--which is sacred--is put, so that here also evil does not inhere
in them, but in ourselves; in our misuse of noble instruments in lower
work. Nor does evil inhere in us, but in our ignorance; it is one of
the great illusions of Nature. All these illusions cause the soul to
experience in matter until it has consciously learned every part: then
it must learn to know the whole and all at once, which it can only do
by and through reunion with Spirit; or with the Supreme, with the Deity.

If we take, with all due reverence, so much of the standpoint of the
Supreme as our finite minds or our dawning intuition may permit, we
feel that he stands above unmoved by either Good or Evil. Our good
is relative, and evil is only the limitation of the soul by matter.
From the material essence of the Deity all the myriad differentiations
of Nature (Prakriti, cosmic substance), all the worlds and their
correlations are evolved. They assist the cyclic experience of the
soul as it passes from state to state. How, then, shall we say
that any state is evil in an absolute sense? Take murder. It seems
an evil. True, we cannot _really_ take life, but we can destroy a
vehicle of the divine Principle of Life and impede the course of a
soul using that vehicle. But we are more injured by the deed than any
other. It is the fruit of a certain unhealthy state of the soul. The
deed sends us to hell, as it were, for one or more incarnations; to
a condition of misery. The shock, the natural retribution, our own
resultant Karma, both the penalties imposed by man and that exacted by
occult law, chasten and soften the soul. It is passed through a most
solemn experience which had become necessary to its growth and which
in the end is the cause of its additional purification. In view of
this result, was the deed evil? It was a necessary consequence of the
limitations of matter; for had the soul remained celestial and in free
Being, it could not have committed murder. Nor has the immortal soul,
the spectator, any share in the wrong; it is only the personality, the
elementary part of the soul, which has sinned. All that keeps the soul
confined to material existence is evil, and so we cannot discriminate
either. The only ultimate good is Unity, and in reality nothing but
that exists. Hence our judgments are in time only. Nor have we the
right to exact a life for a life. "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord
(Law); I will repay." We become abetters of murder in making such human
laws. I do not say that every experience must be gone through bodily,
because some are lived out in the mind. Nor do I seek to justify any.
The only justification is in the Law.

The innocent man unjustly murdered is rewarded by Karma in a future
life. Indeed, any man murdered is reimbursed, so to say; for while that
misfortune sprang from his Karma, occult law does not admit of the
taking of life. Some men are the weapons of Karma in their wrong-doing,
but they themselves have appointed this place to themselves in their
past.

The Great Soul needed just that body, whatever the errors of its
nature, or its physical environment, and to disappoint the soul is
a fearful deed for a man. For it is only man, only the lower nature
under the influence of Tamas (the quality of darkness), which feels
the impulse to take life, whether in human justice, for revenge, for
protection, or so on. "The soul neither kills nor is killed." What we
know as ourselves is only the natural man, the lower principles and
mind, presided over by the false consciousness. Of the soul we have but
brief and partial glimpses--in conscience or intuition--in our ordinary
state. There are, of course, psychic and spiritual states in which
more is known. Thus nature wars against nature, always for the purpose
of bringing about the purification and evolution of the soul. Nature
exists only for the purpose of the soul. If we think out the subject
upon these lines, we can at least see how rash we should be to conclude
that any deed was unmixed evil, or that these distinctions exist in the
Absolute. It alone is; all else is phenomenal and transitory; these
differences disappear as we proceed upward. Meanwhile we are to avoid
all these immoral things and many others not so regarded by the crowd
at all, but which are just as much so because we know to what increased
ignorance and darkness they give rise through the ferment which they
cause in the nature, and that this impedes the entrance of the clear
rays of Truth.

I doubt that the soul knows the moral or immoral. For just consider for
a moment the case of a disembodied soul. What is sin to it when freed
from that shell--the body? What does it know then of human laws or
moralities, or the rules and forms of matter? Does it even see them?
What lewdness can it commit? So I say that these moralities are of this
plane only, to be heeded and obeyed there, but not to be postulated
as final or used as a balance to weigh the soul which has other laws.
The free soul has to do with essences and powers all impersonal; the
strife of matter is left behind. Still higher and above as within all,
the passionless, deathless spirit looks down, knowing well that, when
the natural has once again subsided into its spiritual source, all
this struggle and play of force and will, this waxing and waning of
forms, this progression of consciousness which throw up coming clouds
and fumes of illusion before the eye of the soul, will have come to an
end. Even now, while we cannot master these high themes, we can have a
patient trust in the processes of evolution and the Law, blaming and
judging no man, but living up to our highest intuitions ourselves. _The
real test of a man is his motive_, which we do not see, nor do his acts
always represent it.




X.


  DEAR JASPER:

You ask me about the "three qualities sprung from Nature," mentioned
in the _Bhagavad-Gîtâ_. They exist potentially (latent) in _Purush_
(Spirit), and during that time spoken of in the _Bhagavad-Gîtâ_ as the
time when He produces all things after having devoured them (which is
the same thing as Saturn devouring his children), they come forth into
activity, and therefore are found _implicating_ all beings, who are
said not to be free from their influence.

"Being" here must refer to formed beings in all worlds. Therefore
in these forms the qualities _exist_ [for _form_ is derived from
Nature=Prakriti=Cosmic Substance.--J. N.], and at the same time
_implicate_ the spectator (soul) who is in the form. The Devas are
gods--that is, a sort of spiritual power who are lower than the Ishwara
in man. They are influenced by the quality of Satwa, or Truth. They
enjoy a period of immense felicity of enormous duration, but which
having _duration_ is not an eternity.

It is written: "Goodness, badness, and indifference--the qualities thus
called--sprung from Nature, influence the imperishable soul within the
body."

This imperishable soul is thus separated from the body in which the
qualities influence it, and also from the qualities which are not it.
It is Ishwara. The Ishwara is thus implicated by the qualities.

The first or highest quality is Satwa, which is in its nature pure and
pleasant, and implicates Ishwara by connection with pleasant things and
with knowledge. Thus even by dwelling in Satwa the soul is implicated.

The second quality is Raja and causes action; it implicates the soul
because it partakes of avidity and propensity, and causing actions thus
implicates the soul.

The third, Tamo quality, is of the nature of indifference and is the
deluder of all mortals. It is fed by ignorance.

Here, then, are two great opposers to the soul, _ignorance_ and
_action_. For action proceeding from Raja assisted by Satwa does not
lead to the highest place; while ignorance causes destruction. Yet when
one knows that he is ignorant, he has to perform actions in order to
destroy that ignorance. How to do that without always revolving in the
whirl of action [Karma, causing rebirths.--J. N.] is the question.

He must first get rid of the idea that he himself really does anything,
knowing that the actions all take place in these three natural
qualities, and not in the soul at all. The word "qualities" must be
considered in a larger sense than that word is generally given.

Then he must place all his actions on devotion. That is, sacrifice all
his actions to the Supreme and not to himself. He must either (leaving
out indifference) set himself up as the God to whom he sacrifices, or
the other real God--Krishna, and all his acts and aspirations are done
either for himself or for the All. Here comes in the importance of
motive. For if he performs great deeds of valor, or of benefit to man,
or acquires knowledge so as to assist man, and is moved to that merely
because he thinks _he_ will attain salvation, he is only acting for his
own benefit and is therefore sacrificing to himself. Therefore he must
be devoted inwardly to the All; that is, he places all his actions on
the Supreme, knowing that he is not the doer of the actions, but is the
mere witness of them.

As he is in a mortal body, he is affected by doubts which will spring
up. When they do arise, it is because he is ignorant about something.
He should therefore be able to disperse doubt "by the sword of
knowledge." For if he has a ready answer to some doubt, he disperses
that much. All doubts come from the lower nature, and _never_ in any
case from higher nature. Therefore as he becomes more and more devoted
he is able to know more and more clearly the knowledge residing in his
Satwa part. For it says:

"A man who, perfected in devotion (or who persists in its cultivation)
finds spiritual knowledge spontaneously in himself in progress of
time." Also: "The man of doubtful mind enjoys neither this world nor
the other (the Deva world), nor final beatitude."

The last sentence is to destroy the idea that if there is in us this
higher self it will, even if we are indolent and doubtful, triumph over
the necessity for knowledge, and lead us to final beatitude in common
with the whole stream of man.

The three qualities are lower than a state called Turya, which is a
high state capable of being enjoyed even while in this body. Therefore
in that state, there exists none of the three qualities, but there the
soul sees the three qualities moving in the ocean of Being beneath.
This experience is not only met with after death, but, as I said, it
may be enjoyed in the present life, though of course consciously very
seldom. But even consciously there are those high Yogees who can and
do rise up to Nirvana, or Spirit, while on the earth. This state is
the fourth state, called Turya. There is no word in English which will
express it. In that state the body is alive though in deep catalepsy.
[Self-induced by the Adept.--J. N.] When the Adept returns from it
he brings back _whatever he can_ of the vast experiences of that
Turya state. Of course they are far beyond any expression, and their
possibilities can be only dimly perceived by us. I cannot give any
description thereof because I have not known it, but I perceive the
possibilities, and you probably can do the same.

It is well to pursue some kind of practice, and pursue it either in a
fixed place, or in a mental place which cannot be seen, or at night.
The fact that what is called Dharana, Dhyana, and Samádhi may be
performed should be known. (See Patanjali's yoga system.)

Dharana is selecting a thing, a spot, or an idea, to fix the mind on.

Dhyana is contemplation of it.

Samâdhi is meditating on it.

When attempted, they of course are all one act.

Now, then, take what is called the well of the throat or pit of the
throat.

1st. Select it.--Dharana.

2d. Hold the mind on it.--Dhyana.

3d. Meditate on it.--Samádhi.

This gives firmness of mind.

Then select the spot in the head where the Shushumna nerve goes. Never
mind the location; call it the top of the head. Then pursue the same
course. This will give some insight into spiritual minds. At first it
is difficult, but it will grow easy by practice. If done at all, the
same hour of each day should be selected, as creating a habit, not
only in the body, but also in the mind. Always keep the direction of
Krishna in mind: namely, that it is done for the whole body corporate
of humanity, and not for one's self.

As regards the passions: Anger seems to be the _force_ of Nature; there
is more in it, though.

Lust (so-called) is the gross symbol of love and desire to create. It
is the perversion of the True in love and desire.

Vanity, I think, represents in one aspect the illusion--power of
Nature; Maya, that which we mistake for the reality. It is nearest
always to us and most insidious, just as Nature's illusion is ever
present and difficult to overcome.

Anger and Lust have some of the Rajasika quality; but it seems to me
that Vanity is almost wholly of the Tamogunam.

May you cross over to the fearless shore.

  Z.

       *       *       *       *       *

As regards the practices of concentration suggested in this letter,
they are only stages in a life-long contemplation; they are means to
an end, means of a certain order among means of other orders, all
necessary, the highest path being that of constant devotion and entire
resignation to the Law. The above means have a physiological value
because the spots suggested for contemplation are, like others, vital
centers. Excitation of these centers, and of the magnetic residue of
breath always found in them, strengthens and arouses the faculties of
the inner man, the magnetic vehicle of the soul and the link between
matter and spirit. This is a form of words necessary for clearness,
because in reality matter and spirit are one. We may better imagine an
infinite series of force correlations which extend from pure Spirit to
its grossest vehicle, and we may say that the magnetic inner vehicle,
or astral man, stands at the halfway point of the scale. The secret
of the circulation of the nervous fluid is hidden in these vital
centers, and he who discovers it can use the body at will. Moreover,
this practice trains the mind to remain in its own principle, without
energizing, and without exercising its tangential force, which is so
hard to overcome. Thought has a self-reproductive power, and when the
mind is held steadily to one idea it becomes colored by it, and, as
we may say, all the correlates of that thought arise within the mind.
Hence the mystic obtains knowledge about any object of which he thinks
constantly in fixed contemplation. Here is the rationale of Krishna's
words: "Think constantly of me; depend on me alone; and thou shalt
surely come unto me."

The pure instincts of children often reveal occult truths. I heard a
girl of fifteen say recently: "When I was a small child I was always
supposin'. I used to sit on the window seat and stare, stare, at the
moon, and I was supposin' that, if I only stared long enough, I'd get
there and know all about it."

Spiritual culture is attained through concentration. It must be
continued daily and every moment to be of use. The "Elixir of Life"
(_Five Years of Theosophy_) gives us some of the reasons for this
truth. Meditation has been defined as "the cessation of active,
external thought." Concentration is the entire life-tendency to a given
end. For example, a devoted mother is one who consults the interests
of her children and all branches of their interests in and before
all things; not one who sits down to think fixedly about one branch
of their interests all the day. Life is the great teacher; it is the
great manifestation of Soul, and Soul manifests the Supreme. Hence all
methods are good, and all are but parts of the great aim, which is
Devotion. "Devotion is success in actions," says the _Bhagavad-Gîtâ_.
We must use higher and lower faculties alike, and beyond those of mind
are those of the Spirit, unknown but discoverable. The psychic powers,
as they come, must also be used, for they reveal laws. But their value
must not be exaggerated, nor must their danger be ignored. They are
more subtle intoxicants than the gross physical energies. He who relies
upon them is like a man who gives way to pride and triumph because he
has reached the first wayside station on the peaks he has set out to
climb. Like despondency, like doubt, like fear, like vanity, pride,
and self-satisfaction, these powers too are used by Nature as traps to
detain us. Every occurrence, every object, every energy may be used for
or against the great end: in each Nature strives to contain Spirit, and
Spirit strives to be free. Shall the substance paralyze the motion, or
shall the motion control the substance? The interrelation of these two
is manifestation. The ratio of activity governs spiritual development;
when the great Force has gained its full momentum, It carries us to the
borders of the Unknown. It is a Force intelligent, self-conscious, and
spiritual: its lower forms, or vehicles, or correlates may be evoked by
us, but Itself comes only of Its own volition. We can only prepare a
vehicle for It, in which, as Behmen says, "the Holy Ghost may ride in
Its own chariot."

"The Self cannot be known by the _Vedas_, nor by the understanding,
nor by much learning. He whom the Self chooses, by him alone the Self
can be gained."

"The Self chooses him as his own. But the man who has not first turned
aside from his wickedness, who is not calm and subdued, _or whose mind
is not at rest_, he can never obtain the Self, even by knowledge."

The italics are mine; they indicate the value of that stage of
contemplation hitherto referred to as that in which the mind has ceased
to energize, and when the pure energies of Nature go to swell the
fountain of Spirit.

In regard to the phrase in the above letter that the Adept "brings back
_what he can_" from Turya, it is to be understood as referring to the
fact that all depends upon the coördination of the various principles
in man. He who has attained perfection or Mahâtmaship has assumed
complete control of the body and informs it at will. But, of course,
while in the body he is still, to some extent, as a soul of power,
limited by that body or vehicle. That is to say, there are experiences
not to be shared by that organ of the soul called by us "the body," and
beyond a certain point its brain cannot reflect or recall them. This
point varies according to the degree of attainment of individual souls,
and while in some it may be a high point of great knowledge and power,
still it must be considered as limited compared with those spiritual
experiences of the freed soul.

The work upon which all disciples are employed is that of rendering
the body more porous, more fluidic, more responsive to all spiritual
influences which arise in the inner center, in the soul which is an
undivided part of the great Soul of all, and less receptive of the
outside material influences which are generated by the unthinking world
and by those qualities which are in nature. Abstract thought is said
to be "the power of thinking of a thing apart from its qualities;" but
these qualities are the phenomenal, the evident, and they make the most
impression upon our senses. They bewilder us, and they form a part of
that trap which Nature sets for us lest we discover her inmost secret
and rule her. More than this: our detention as individual components
of a race provides time for that and other races to go through
evolutionary experience slowly, provides long and repeated chances for
every soul to amend, to return, to round the curve of evolution. In
this Nature is most merciful, and even in the darkness of the eighth
sphere to which souls of _spiritual_ wickedness descend, her impulses
provide opportunities of return if a single responsive energy is left
in the self-condemned soul.

Many persons insist upon a perfect moral code tempered by social
amenities, forgetting that these vary with climate, nationalities, and
dates. Virtue is a noble offering to the Lord. But insomuch as it is
mere bodily uprightness and mere mental uprightness, it is insufficient
and stands apart from uprightness of the psychic nature or the virtue
of soul. The virtue of the soul is true Being; its virtue is, to be
free. The body and the mind are not sharers in such experiences,
though they may afterward reflect them, and this reflection may inform
them with light and power of their own kind. Spirituality is not
virtue. It is impersonality, in one aspect. It is as possible to be
spiritually "wicked" as to be spiritually "good." These attributes are
only conferred upon spirituality by reason of its use for or against
the great evolutionary Law, which must finally prevail because it is
the Law of the Deity, an expression of the nature and Being of the
Unknown, which nature is towards manifestation, self-realization, and
reäbsorption. All that clashes with this Law by striving for separate
existence must in the long run fail, and any differentiation which
is in itself incapable of reäbsorption is reduced to its original
elements, in which shape, so to say, it can be reabsorbed.

Spirituality is, then, a condition of Being which is beyond expression
in language. Call it a rate of vibration, far beyond our cognizance.
Its language is the language of motion, in its incipiency, and its
perfection is beyond words and even thought.

"The knowledge of the Supreme Principle is a divine silence, and the
quiescence of all the senses."--(_Clavis of Hermes._)

"Likes and dislikes, good and evil, do not in the least affect the
knower of Brahm, who is bodiless and always existing."--(_Crest Jewel
of Wisdom._)

"Of that nature which is beyond intellect many things are asserted
according to intellection, but it is contemplated by a cessation of
intellectual energy better than with it."--(_Porphyrios._)

Thought is bounded, and we seek to enter the boundless. The intellect
is the first production of Nature which energizes for the experience
of the soul, as I said. When we recognize this truth we make use of
that natural energy called Thought for comparison, instruction, and the
removal of doubt, and so reach a point where we restrain the outward
tendencies of Nature, for, when these are resolved into their cause and
Nature is wholly conquered and restrained, that cause manifests itself
both in and beyond Nature.

"The incorporeal substances in descending are divided and multiplied
about individuals with a diminution of power; but when they ascend by
their energies beyond bodies, they become united and exist as a whole
by and through exuberance of power."--(_Porphyrios._)

These hints may suffice for such minds as are already upon the way.
Others will be closed to them. Language only expresses the experiences
of a race, and since ours has not reached the upper levels of Being
we have as yet no words for these things. The East has ever been the
home of spiritual research; she has given all the great religions
to the world. The Sanscrit has thus terms for some of these states
and conditions, but even in the East it is well understood that the
formless cannot be expressed by form, or the Illimitable by the limits
of words or signs. The only way to know these states is to _be_ them:
we never can _really_ know anything which we are not.

  J. N.




XI.


It has been with regret that I hear of your serious illness, Jasper.
While life hangs in the balance, as it would seem yours does and for
some time will, you will feel much depression.

Now it is not usual to thus calmly talk to a person of his death, but
you do not mind, so I talk. I do not agree with you that death is well.
Yours is not a case like that of ---- who _was_ to die and decided to
accept life from Great Powers and work on for Humanity amid all the
throes and anguish of that body. Why should you not live now as long as
you can in the present body, so that in it you may make all the advance
possible and by your life do as much good as you can to the Cause and
man? For you have not yet as Jasper Niemand had a chance to entitle
you to _extraordinary_ help after death in getting back again soon, so
that you would die and run the chance of a long Devachan and miss much
that you might do for _Them_. Such are my views. Life is better than
death, for death again disappoints the Self. Death is _not_ the great
informer or producer of knowledge. It is only the great curtain on the
stage to be rung up next instant. Complete knowledge must be attained
in the triune man: body, soul, and spirit. When that is obtained, then
he passes on to other spheres, which to us are unknown and are endless.
By living as long as one can, one gives the Self that longer chance.

"Atmanam atmana pashya" (Raise the Self by the self--_Gîtâ_) does not
seem to be effective after the threshold of death is passed. The union
of the trinity is only to be accomplished on earth in a body, and
_then_ release is desirable.

It is not for myself that I speak, Brother, but for thee, because in
death I can lose no one. The living have a greater part in the dead
than the dead have in the living.

The doubt which you now feel as to success is morbid. Please destroy
it. Better a false hope with no doubt, than much knowledge with doubts
of your own chances. "He that doubteth is like the waves of the sea,
driven by the wind and tossed." Doubt is not to be solely guarded
against when applied to Masters (whom I know you doubt not). It is most
to be guarded and repelled in relation to oneself. Any idea that one
cannot succeed, or had better die than live because an injured body
seems to make success unattainable, is _doubt_.

We dare not hope, but we _dare_ try to live on and on that we may serve
Them as They serve the Law. We are not to try to be chelas or to do any
one thing in this incarnation, but only to know and to be just as much
as we can, and the possibility is not measured. Reflect, then, that it
is only a question of being overcome--by what? By something outside.
But if you accuse or doubt yourself, you then give the enemy a rest; he
has nothing to do, for you do it all yourself for him, and, leaving you
to your fate, he seeks other victims. Rise, then, from this despondency
and seize the sword of knowledge. With it, and with Love, the universe
is conquerable. Not that I see thee too despondent, Jasper, but I fain
would give thee my ideas, even did something kill thee against our will
next day.

Am glad that although the body is painful, you yourself are all right.
We have in various ways to suffer, and I do not doubt it is a great
advance if we can in the midst of physical suffering grasp and hold
ourselves calm and away from it. Yet also the body must be rested.
Rest, and let the anxieties to do lie still and dormant. By that they
are not killed, and when the body gets stronger more is known.

You have been in storms enough. A few moments' reflection will show you
that we make our own storms. The power of any and all circumstances is
a fixed, unvarying quality, but as _we_ vary in our reception of these,
it appears to us that our difficulties vary in intensity. They do not
at all. We are the variants.

If we admit that we are in the stream of evolution, then each
circumstance must be to us quite right. And in our failures to perform
set acts should be our greatest helps, for we can in no other way learn
that calmness which Krishna insists upon. If all our plans succeeded,
then no contrasts would appear to us. Also those plans we make may
all be made ignorantly and thus wrongly, and kind Nature will not
permit us to carry them out. We get no blame for the plan, but we may
acquire Karmic demerit by not accepting the impossibility of achieving.
Ignorance of the law cannot be pleaded among men, but ignorance of fact
may. In occultism, even if you are ignorant of some facts of importance
you are not passed over by _The Law_, for It has regard for no man, and
pursues Its adjustments without regard to what we know or are ignorant
of.

If you are at all cast down, or if any of us is, then by just that
much are our thoughts lessened in power. One could be confined in a
prison and yet be a worker for the Cause. So I pray you to remove from
your mind any distaste for present circumstances. If you can succeed in
looking at it all as _just what you in fact desired_, then it will act
not only as a strengthener of your good thoughts, but will reflexly act
on your body and make it stronger.

All this reminds me of H., of whose failure you now know. And in this
be not disappointed. It could hardly be otherwise. Unwisely he made
his demands upon the Law before being quite ready. That is, unwisely
in certain senses, for in the greater view naught can be unwise. His
apparent defeat, at the very beginning of the battle, is for him quite
of course. He went where the fire is hottest and made it hotter by
his aspirations. All others have and all will suffer the same. For it
makes no difference that his is a bodily affection; as all these things
proceed from mental disturbances, we can easily see the same cause
under a physical ailment as under a mental divagation. Strangely, too,
I wrote you of the few who really do stay, and soon after this news
came and threw a light--a red one, so to say--upon the information of
H's retreat. See how thought interlinks with thought on all planes when
the True is the aim.

We ourselves are not wholly exempt, inasmuch as we daily and hourly
feel the strain. Accept the words of a fellow traveller; these: Keep
up the aspiration and the search, but do not maintain the attitude
of despair or the slightest repining. Not that you do. I cannot find
the right words; but surely you would know all, were it not that some
defects hold you back.

The darkness and the desolation are sure to be ours, but it is only
illusionary. Is not the Self pure, bright, bodiless, and free,--and art
thou not that? The daily waking life is but a penance and the trial of
the body, so that _it_ too may thereby acquire the right condition. In
dreams we see the truth and taste the joys of heaven. In waking life it
is ours to gradually distill that dew into our normal consciousness.

Then, too, remember that the influences of this present age are
powerful for producing these feelings. What despair and agony of doubt
exist to-day in all places. In this time of upturning, the wise man
_waits_. He bends himself, like the reed, to the blast, so that it
may blow over his head. Rising, as you do, into the plane where these
currents are rushing while you try to travel higher still, you feel
these inimical influences, although unknown to you. It is an age of
iron. A forest of iron trees, black and forbidding, with branches of
iron and brilliant leaves of steel. The winds blow through its arches
and we hear a dreadful grinding and crashing sound that silences the
still small voice of Love. And its inhabitants mistake this for the
voice of God; they imitate it and add to its terrors. Faint not, be not
self-condemned. We both are that soundless OM; we rest together upon
the bosom of Master. You are not tired; it is that body, now weak, and
not only weak but shaken by the force of your own powers, physical and
psychical. But the wise man learns to assume in the body an attitude of
carelessness that is more careful really than any other. Let that be
yours. You are judge. Who accepts you, who dares judge but yourself?
Let us wait, then, for natural changes, knowing that if the eye is
fixed where the light shines, we shall presently know what to do. This
hour is not ripe. But unripe fruit gets ripe, and falls or is plucked.
The day must surely strike when you will pluck it down. You are no
longer troubled by vain fears or compromises. When the great thought
comes near enough, you will go. We must all be servants before we can
hope to be masters in the least.

I have been re-reading the life of Buddha, and it fills me with
a longing desire to give myself for humanity, to devote myself to
a fierce, determined effort to plant myself nearer the altar of
sacrifice. As I do not always know just what ought to be done, I must
stand on what Master says: "Do what you _can_, if you ever expect to
see Them." This being true, and another Adept saying, "Follow the Path
They and I show, but do not follow _my_ path," why then, all we can do,
whether great or small, is to do just what we can, each in his proper
place. It is sure that if we have an immense devotion and do our best,
the result will be right for Them and us, even though we would have
done otherwise had we known more when we were standing on a course of
action. A devoted Chela once said: "I do not mind all these efforts at
explanation and all this trouble, for I always have found that that
which was done in Master's name was right and came out right." What is
done in those names is done without thought of self, and motive is the
essential test.

So I am sad and not sad. Not sad when I reflect on the great Ishwar,
the Lord, permitting all these antics and shows before our eyes. Sad
when I see our weakness and disabilities. We must be serene and do what
we can. Ramaswamier rushed off into Sikkhim to try and find Master, and
met someone who told him to go back _and do his duty_. That is all any
of us can do; often we do not know our duty, but that too is our own
fault; it is a Karmic disability.

You ask me how you shall advise your fellow student. The best advice is
found in your own letter to me in which you say that the true monitor
is within. That is so. Ten thousand Adepts can do one no great good
unless we ourselves are ready, and They only act as suggestors to us
of what possibilities there are in every human heart. If we dwell
within ourselves, and must live and die by ourselves, it must follow
that running here and there to see any thing or person does not in
itself give progress. Mind, I do not oppose consorting with those
who read holy books and are engaged in dwelling on high themes. I am
only trying to illustrate my idea that this should not be dwelt on
as an end; it is only a means and one of many. There is no help like
association with those who think as we do, or like the reading of good
books. The best advice I ever saw was to read holy books or whatever
books tend to elevate yourself, as you have found by experience.
There must be some. Once I found some abstruse theological writings
of Plotinus to have that effect on me--very ennobling, and also an
explanation of the wanderings of Ulysses. Then there is the _Gîtâ_.
All these _are instinct with a life of their own_ which changes the
vibrations. Vibration is the key to it all. The different states are
only differences of vibration, and we do not recognize the astral or
other planes because we are out of tune with their vibrations. This is
why we now and then dimly feel that others are peering at us, or as if
a host of people rushed by us with great things on hand, not seeing us
and we not seeing them. It was an instant of synchronous vibration. But
the important thing is to develop the Self in the self, and then the
possessions of wisdom belonging to all wise men at once belong to us.

Each one would see the Self differently and would yet never see it,
for to see it is to _be_ it. But for making words we say, "See it." It
might be a flash, a blazing wheel, or what not. Then there is the lower
self, great in its way, and which must first be known. When first we
see it, it is like looking into a glove, and for how many incarnations
may it not be so? We look inside the glove and there is darkness; then
we have to _go inside_ and see that, and so on and on.

The mystery of the ages is man; each one of us. Patience is needed in
order that the passage of time required for the bodily instrument to
be altered or controlled is complete. Violent control is not as good as
gentle control continuous and firmly unrelaxed. The Seeress of Prevorst
found that a gentle current did her more good than a violent one would.
Gentleness is better because an opposition current is always provoked,
and of course if that which produces it is gentle, it will also be the
same. This gives the unaccustomed student more time and gradual strength.

I think your fellow-student will be a good instrument, but we must not
break the silence of the future lest we raise up unknown and difficult
tribes who will not be easy to deal with.

Every situation ought to be used as a means. This is better than
philosophy, for it enables us to know philosophy. You do not progress
by studying other people's philosophies, for then you do but get their
crude ideas. Do not crowd yourself, nor ache to puzzle your brains with
another's notions. You have the key to self and that is all; take it
and drag out the lurker inside. You are great in generosity and love,
strong in faith, and straight in perception. Generosity and love are
the abandonment of self. That is your staff. Increase your confidence,
not in your abilities, but in the great All being thyself.

I would to God you and all the rest might find peace.

  Z.




XII.


  DEAR JASPER:

There are so many questioners who ask about Chelaship[C] that your
letter comes quite apropos to experiences of my own. You say that
these applicants must have some answer, and in that I agree with you.
And whether they are ready or unready, we must be able to tell them
something. But generally they are not ready, nor, indeed, are they
willing to take the first simple step which is demanded. I will talk
the matter over with you for your future guidance in replying to such
questions; perhaps also to clear up my own mind.

The first question a man should ask himself (and by "man" we mean
postulants of either sex) is: "When and how did I get a desire to know
about chelaship and to become a chela?"; and secondly, "What is a
chela, and what chelaship?"

There are many sorts of chelas. There are lay chelas and probationary
ones; accepted chelas and those who are trying to fit themselves to be
even lay chelas. Any person can constitute himself a lay chela, feeling
sure that he may never in this life consciously hear from his guide.
Then as to probationary chelas, there is an _invariable_ rule that
they go upon seven years' trial. These "trials" do not refer to fixed
and stated tests, but to all the events of life and the bearing of the
probationer in them. There is no _place_ to which applicants can be
referred where their request could be made, because these matters do
not relate to places and to officials: this is an affair of the inner
nature. We _become_ chelas; we obtain that position in reality because
our inner nature is to that extent opened that it can and will take
knowledge: we receive the guerdon at the hands of the Law.

In a certain sense every sincere member of the Theosophical Society is
in the way of becoming a chela, because the Masters do some of Their
work with and for humanity through this Society, selected by Them as
Their agent. And as _all_ Their work and aspiration are to the end of
helping the race, no one of Their chelas can hope to remain (or become)
such, if any selfish desire for personal possessions of spiritual
wealth constitutes the motive for trying to be a chela. Such a motive,
in the case of one already a chela, acts instantly to throw him out of
the ranks, whether he be aware of his loss or not, and in the case of
one trying to become a chela it acts as _a bar_. Nor does a real chela
spread the fact that he is such. For this Lodge is not like exoteric
societies which depend upon favor or mere outward appearances. It is
a real thing with living Spirit-men at its head, governed by laws
that contain within themselves their own executioners, and that do
not require a tribunal, nor accusations, nor verdicts, nor any notice
whatever.

As a general thing a person of European or American birth has extreme
difficulty to contend with. He has no heredity of psychical development
to call upon; no known assembly of Masters or Their chelas within
reach. His racial difficulties prevent him from easily seeing within
himself; he is not introspective by nature. But even he can do much if
he purifies his motive, and either naturally possesses or cultivates
an ardent and unshakeable faith and devotion. A faith that keeps him
a firm believer in the existence of Masters even through years of
non-intercourse. They are generous and honest debtors and always repay.
How They repay, and when, is not for us to ask. Men may say that this
requires as blind devotion as was ever asked by any Church. _It does_,
but it is a blind devotion to Masters who are Truth itself; to Humanity
and to yourself, to your own intuitions and ideals. This devotion to
an ideal is also founded upon another thing, and that is that a man
is hardly ready to be a chela unless he is able to stand _alone_ and
uninfluenced by other men or events, _for he must stand alone_, and he
might as well know this at the beginning as at the end.

There are also certain qualifications which he must possess. These are
to be found in _Man, a Fragment of Forgotten History_ towards the
close of the book, so we will not dwell upon them here.

The question of the general fitness of applicants being disposed of,
we come to the still more serious point of the relations of Guru and
Chela, or Master and Disciple. We want to know what it really is to be
a pupil of such a Teacher.

The relation of Guru and Chela is nothing if it is not a spiritual one.
Whatever is merely outward, or formal, as the relation established by
mere asking and acceptance, is not spiritual, but formal, and is that
which arises between _teacher_ and _pupil_. Yet even this latter is
not in any way despicable, because the teacher stands to his pupil,
in so far forth as the relation permits, in the same way as the Guru
to his Chela. It is a difference of degree; but this difference of
degree is what constitutes the distinction between the spiritual and
the material, for, passing along the different shadings from the
grossest materiality to as far as we can go, we find at last that
matter merges into spirit. (We are now speaking, of course, about what
is commonly called _matter_, while we well know that in truth the thing
thus designated is not really matter, but an enormous illusion which
in itself has no existence. The real matter, called _mulaprakriti_ by
the Hindus, is an invisible thing or substance of which our matter
is a representation. The real matter is what the Hermetists called
_primordial earth_; a, for us, intangible phase of matter. We can
easily come to believe that what is really called _matter_ is not
really such, inasmuch as we find clairvoyants and nervous people seeing
through thick walls and closed doors. Were this _matter_, then they
could not see through it. But when an ordinary clairvoyant comes face
to face with _primordial matter_, he or she cannot see beyond, but is
met by a dead wall more dense than any wall ever built by human hands.)

So from earliest times, among all but the modern western people, the
teacher was given great reverence by the pupil, and the latter was
taught from youth to look upon his preceptor as only second to his
father and mother in dignity. It was among these people a great sin, a
thing that did one actual harm in his moral being, to be disrespectful
to his teacher even in thought. The reason for this lay then, and no
less to-day does also lie, in the fact that a long chain of influence
extends from the highest spiritual guide who may belong to any man,
down through vast numbers of spiritual chiefs, ending at last even in
the mere teacher of our youth. Or, to restate it in modern reversion
of thought, a chain extends up from our teacher or preceptors to the
highest spiritual chief in whose ray or descending line one may happen
to be. And it makes no difference whatever, in this occult relation,
that neither pupil nor final guide may be aware, or admit, that this is
the case.

Thus it happens that the child who holds his teacher in reverence and
diligently applies himself accordingly with faith, does no violence
to this intangible but mighty chain, and is benefited accordingly,
whether he knows it or not. Nor again does it matter that a child has
a teacher who evidently gives him a bad system. This is his Karma, and
by his reverent and diligent attitude he works it out, and transcends
erstwhile that teacher.

This chain of influence is called the _Guruparampara chain_.

The Guru is the _guide or readjuster_, and may not always combine the
function of teacher with it.

  Z.

[Footnote C: Chela means disciple. It is a Sanscrit word.--J. N.]




XIII.


  DEAR JASPER:

We now have passed from the mere usual and worldly relations of teacher
and pupil to that which we will call the _Lodge_ for the nonce.

This Lodge is not to be taken up in the pincers of criticism and
analyzed or fixed. It is at once everywhere and nowhere. It contains
within its boundaries all real Masters, students, guides, and Gurus, of
whatever race or creed or no creed. Of it has been said:

"Beyond the Hall of Learning is the Lodge. It is the whole body of
Sages in all the world. It cannot be described even by those who are in
it, but the student is not prohibited from imagining what it is like."

So therefore at any time any one of its real teachers or disciples will
gladly help any other teacher or disciple. But we are not to conclude
that, because all are trying to spread truth and to teach the world,
we, who call ourselves chela-aspirants or known chelas of any certain
person whom we call Guru, can place ourselves at the same moment under
the _direct_ tutelage of more than one Guru.

Each man who determines in himself that he will enter the Path, has a
Guru. But the time between that determination and the hour when he will
really know The Master may be long indeed; in some cases it is very
short.

We must now occupy a moment in some consideration of divisions.

Just as the merest private in the army has a general who guides the
whole but whom he cannot reach except through the others who are
officers, so in this order we find divisions of Gurus as well as
divisions of disciples.

There is the Great Guru, who is such to many who never know Him or see
Him. Then there are others who know Him, and who are Gurus to a number
of chelas, and so on until we may imagine a chela who may be a known
Guru to another chela below him.

Then, again, there may be chelas who are acting as
Guru--unacknowledged, because _pro tempore_ in function--to one or more
other chelas.

Now he who makes the resolution above-mentioned, does thereby make a
bond that rests in the highest Law. It is not a thing to be lightly
done, because its consequences are of a serious nature. Not serious in
the way of disasters or awful torments or such, but serious in respect
to the clearness and brilliancy of those rays of Truth which we wish to
reach us.

We have thereby in a sense--its degree determined by the sincerity and
power of our motive--taken ourselves out of the common, vast, moving
herd of men who are living--as to this--like dumb animals, and have
knocked at a door. If we have reverenced our teacher we will now revere
our unknown Guru. We must stand interiorly in a faithful attitude. We
must have an abiding, settled faith that nothing may shake. For it is
to mighty Karma we have appealed, and as the Guru _is Karma_ in the
sense that He never acts against Karma, we must not lose faith for an
instant. For it is this faith that clears up the air there, and that
enables us to get help from all quarters.

Then perhaps this determinant or postulant or neophyte decides for
himself that he will for the time take as teacher or guide some other
chela whose teachings commend themselves. It is not necessary that any
out-spoken words should pass between these two.

But having done this, even in thought, he should then apply himself
diligently _to the doctrine of that teacher_, not changing until he
really finds he has another teacher or has gone to another class. For
if he takes up one merely to dispute and disagree--whether outwardly or
mentally, he is thereby in danger of totally obscuring his own mind.

If he finds himself not clearly understanding, then he should with
faith try to understand, for if he by love and faith vibrates into the
higher meaning of his teacher, his mind is thereby raised, and thus
greater progress is gained.

We now come to the possible case of an aspirant of that royal and
kingly faith who in some way has really found a person who has advanced
far upon _the Path_. To this person he has applied and said: "May I be
accepted, and may I be a chela of either thee or some other?"

That person applied to then perhaps says: "Not to me; but I refer you
to some other of the same class as yourself, and give you to him to
be his chela: serve him." With this the aspirant goes, say to the one
designated, and deliberately both agree to it.

Here is a case where the real Master has recommended the aspirant to
a co-worker who perchance is some grade higher than our neophyte, and
the latter is now in a different position from the many others who are
silently striving and working, and learning from any and all teachers,
but having no specialized Guru for themselves. This neophyte and his
"little guru" are connected by a clear and sacred bond, or else both
are mere lying children, playing and unworthy of attention. If the
"little guru" is true to his trust, he occupies his mind and heart with
it, and is to consider that the chela represents Humanity to him for
the time.

We postulated that this "little guru" was in advance of the chela. It
must then happen that he says that which is sometimes not clear to
his chela. This will all the more be so if his chela is new to the
matter. But the chela has deliberately taken that guru, and must try to
understand _the doctrine of that teacher_.

The proper function of the Guru is to readjust, and not to pour in vast
masses of knowledge expressed in clear and easily comprehended terms.
The latter would be a piece of nonsense, however agreeable, and not any
whit above what any well-written book would do for its reader.

The faith and love which exist between them act as a stimulus to both,
and as a purifier to the mind of the chela.

But if the chela, after a while, meets another person who seems to know
as much as his "little guru," and to express it in very easy terms, and
the chela determines to take him as a teacher, he commits an error.
He may listen to his teaching and admire and profit by it, but the
moment he mentally determines and then in words asks the other to be
his teacher, he begins to rupture the bond that was just established,
and possibly may lose altogether the benefit of both. Not necessarily,
however; but certainly, if he acquaints not his "little guru" with the
fact of the new adoption of teacher, there will be much confusion in
that realm of being wherein both do their real "work"; and when he does
acquaint his "little guru" with the fact of the newly-acquired teacher,
that older guru will retire.

None of this is meant for those minds which do not regard these matters
as sacred. A Guru is a sacred being in that sense. Not, of course, in a
general sense--yet even if so regarded _when worthy_ it is better for
the chela,--but in all that pertains to the spiritual and real life. To
the high-strung soul this is a matter of _adoption_; a most sacred and
valuable thing, not lightly taken up or lightly dropped. For the Guru
becomes for the time the spiritual _Father_ of the chela; that one who is
destined to bring him into life or to pass him on to Him who will do so.

So as the Guru is the _adjuster_ in reality, the chela does not--except
where the Guru is known to be a great Sage or where the chela does it
by nature--give slavish attention to every word. He hears the word
and endeavors to assimilate the meaning underneath; and if he cannot
understand he lays it aside for a better time, while he presently
endeavors to understand what he can. And if even--as is often so in
India--he cannot understand at all, he is satisfied to be near the
Guru and do what may properly be done for him; for even then his
abiding faith will eventually clear his mind, of which there are many
examples, and regarding which how appropriate is the line:

"They also serve who only stand and wait."

  Z.




XIV.


  DEAR JASPER:

What I wrote in my last is what may be properly said to earnest
inquirers who show by their perseverance that they are not mere idle
curiosity-seekers, desirous of beguiling the tedium of life with new
experiments and sensations. It is not _what_ is done, but the spirit in
which the least thing is done for Them who are all, that is counted.

You ask the names of the seven rays or lodges. The names could not be
given if known to me. In these matters names are always realities, and
consequently to give the name would be to reveal the thing itself.
Besides, if the names were given, the ordinary person hearing them
would not understand them. Just as if I should say that the name of
the first is X, which expresses nothing at all to the mind of the
hearing person. All that can be said is that there exist those seven
rays, districts, or divisions, just as we say that in a town there are
legislators, merchants, teachers, and servants. The difference is that
in this case we know all about the town, and know just what those names
mean. The name only directs the mind to the idea or essential quality.

Again I must go. But Brothers are never parted while they live for the
True alone.

  Z.

       *       *       *       *       *

The foregoing letters point clearly to one conclusion concerning
that great Theosophist, Madame Blavatsky, though she is unnamed and
perhaps unthought of there. Since she sacrificed--not so calling it
herself--all that mankind holds dear to bring the glad tidings of
Theosophy to the West, that West, and especially the Theosophical
Society, thereby stands to her as a chela to his Guru, in so far as it
accepts Theosophy. Her relation to these Theosophists has its being
in the highest Law, and cannot be expunged or ignored. So those who
regard her personality, and, finding it discordant from theirs, try to
reach The Masters by other means _while disregarding or underrating
scornfully her high services_, violate a rule which, because it is
not made of man, cannot be broken with impunity. Gratitude and the
common sentiment of man for man should have taught them this, without
occult teaching at all. Such persons have not reached that stage of
evolution where they can learn the higher truths. She who accepts the
pains of the rack in the torments of a body sapped of its life force
by superb torrents of energy lavished on her high Cause; she who has
braved the laughter and anger of two continents, and all the hosts of
darkness seen and unseen; she who now lives on, only that she may take
to herself the Karma of the Society and so ensure its well being, has
no need of any man's praise; but even she has need of justice, because,
without that impulse in our hearts and souls toward her, she knows
that we must fail for this incarnation. As the babe to the mother, as
harvest to the earth, so are all those bound to her who enjoy the fruit
of her life. May we try, then, to understand these occult connections
brought about by the workings of Karma, and bring them to bear upon our
diurnal, as well as our theosophical, life. Madame Blavatsky is for
us the next higher link in that great chain, of which no link can be
passed over or missed.

In further illustration of this letter, I might cite the case of a
friend of mine who was at once fired with Theosophy on first hearing
of it and ardently desired to become a chela. Certainly he had
known these truths in other lives, for all seemed familiar to him,
and, though he was what is called "a man of the world," he accepted
the philosophy, measured some of its possibilities intuitively, and
while careful to do his duty and cause no jars, he ranged his life,
especially his inner life, to suit these views. The question of
chelaship assumed great prominence in his mind. He knew of no chelas;
knew not where to knock or whom to ask. Reflection convinced him that
real chelaship consisted in the inner attitude of the postulant; he
remembered magnetic and energetic laws, and he said to himself that he
could at will constitute himself a chela to the Law, at least so far as
his own attitude went, and if this did not satisfy him, it was a proof
that he desired some personal reward, satisfaction, or powers in the
matter, and that his motive was not pure. He was slow to formulate his
desires, even to his own mind, for he would not lightly make demands
upon the Law; but he at last determined to put his own motives to the
test; to try himself and see if he could stand in the attitude of a
faithful chela, unrecognized and apparently unheard. He then recorded
in his own mind an obligation to serve Truth and the Law as a chela
should, always seeking for light and for further aid if possible,
recognizing meanwhile that the obligation was on his side only, and
that he had no claims on Masters, and only such as he himself could by
the strength of his own purpose institute upon the Law. Wherever he
could hear of chelas and their duties he listened or read; he tried to
imagine himself in the position of an accepted chela, and to fill, so
far as in him lay, the duties of that place, living up to all the light
he had. For he held that a disciple should always think and act towards
the highest possibilities, whether or not he had yet attained these,
and not merely confine himself to that course of action which might be
considered suited to his lower class or spiritual estate. He believed
that the heart is the creator of all real ties, and it alone. To raise
himself by himself was then his task. This attitude he resolved to
maintain life after life, if needs were, until at last his birthright
should be assured, his claim recognized by the Law.

He met with trials, with coldness from those who felt rather than saw
his changed attitude; he met with all the nameless shocks that others
meet when they turn against the whirlpool of existence and try to
find their way back into the true currents of life. Great sorrows and
loneliness were not slow to challenge his indomitable will. But he
found work to do; and in this he was most fortunate, for to work for
others is the disciple's joy, his share in the Divine life, his first
accolade by which he may know that his service is accepted. This man
had called upon the Law in faith supreme, and he was answered. Karma
sent him a friend, and soon he began to get new knowledge, and after a
time information reached him of a place or person where he might apply
to become a chela on probation. It was not given him as information
usually is; nothing of the sort was told him; but with his extending
knowledge and opening faculties a conviction dawned upon him that he
might pursue such and such a course. He did so, and his prayer was
heard. He said to me afterwards that he never knew whether he would not
have shown greater strength of mind by relying wholly upon the reality
of his unseen, unacknowledged claim, until the moment should come when
Masters should accept and call him. For of course he held the ideal of
Masters clearly before his mind all this while. Perhaps his application
showed him to be weaker than he supposed, in so far as it might
evidence a need on his part for tangible proof of a fact in which his
higher nature prompted him to believe without such proof. Perhaps it
was but natural and right, on the other hand, that after silent service
for some time he should put himself on record at the first opportunity
granted him by Karma.

He applied, then. I am permitted to give a portion of the answer he
received, and which made clear to him the fact that he was already
accepted in some measure before his application, as his intuition had
told him. The answer may be of untold value to others, both as clearly
setting forth the dangers of forcing one's way ahead of one's race, and
also by its advice, admonitions, and evidence that the Great Beings
of the Orient deal most frankly and gently with applicants. Also it
may mark out a course for those who take the wise plan of testing
themselves in silence before pushing their demands upon the Law. For
this at once heightens their magnetic vibrations, their evolutionary
ratio; their flame burns more brilliantly and attracts all kinds of
shapes and influences within its radius, so that the fire is hot
about him. And not for him alone: other lives coming in contact with
his feel this fierce energy; they develop more rapidly, and, if they
have a false or weak place in their nature, it is soon discovered and
overthrows them for a time. This is the danger of coming into "the
circle of ascetics"; a man must be strong indeed who thus thrusts
himself in; it is better as a rule to place oneself in the attitude of
a disciple and impose the tests oneself: less opposition is provoked.
For forces that are foiled by the Adept may hurl themselves on the
neophyte who cannot be protected unless his Karma permits it, and there
are always those opposing forces of darkness waiting to thin the ranks
of the servitors of the Good Law.

Up to this point, then, we may follow this student, and then we lose
sight of him; not knowing whether he progressed or failed, or still
serves and waits, because such things are not made known. To tell so
much as this is rare, and, since it is permitted, it must be because
there are many earnest students in this country who need some such
support and information. To these I can say that, if they constitute
themselves faithful, unselfish disciples, they are such in the
knowledge of the Great Law, so long as they are true, in inmost thought
and smallest deed, to the pledges of their heart.

ANSWER TO Y. Says Master:

    "_Is Y. fully prepared for the uphill work? The way to the goal
    he strives to reach is full of thorns and leads through miry
    quagmires. Many are the sufferings the chela has to encounter;
    still more numerous the dangers to face and conquer._

    "_May he think over it and choose only after due reflection. No
    Master appealed to by a sincere soul who thirsts for light and
    knowledge, has ever turned his face away from the supplicant. But
    it is the duty of those who call for laborers and need them in
    their fields, to point out to those who offer themselves in truth
    and trust for the arduous work, the pitfalls in the soil as the
    hardship of the task._

    "_If undaunted by this warning Y. persists in his determination,
    he may regard himself as accepted as----. Let him place himself
    in such case under the guidance of an older chela. By helping him
    sincerely and devotedly to carry on his heavy burden, he shall
    prepare the way for being helped in his turn._"

(Here follow private instructions.)

    "_Verily if the candidate relies upon the Law, if he has patience,
    trust, and intuition, he will not have to wait too long. Through
    the great shadow of bitterness and sorrow that the opposing powers
    delight in throwing over the pilgrim on his way to the Gates of
    Light, the candidate perceives that shining Light very soon in his
    own soul, and he has but to follow it. Let him beware, however,
    lest he mistake the occasional will-o'-the-wisp of the psychic
    senses for the reflex of the great spiritual Light; that Light
    which dieth not, yet never lives, nor can it shine elsewhere than
    on the pure mirror of Spirit...._

    "_But Y. has to use his own intuitions. One has to dissipate
    and conquer the inner darkness before attempting to see into
    the darkness without; to know one's self before knowing things
    extraneous to one's senses._"

And now, may the Powers to which my friend Y. has appealed _be
permitted by still greater and much higher Powers_ to help him. This is
the sincere and earnest wish of his truly and fraternally,

  [Symbol: Triangle]

       *       *       *       *       *

This letter also shows incidentally how one Adept may serve another
still higher by reporting or conveying His reply.


TO ASPIRANTS FOR CHELASHIP

Sincere interest in Theosophic truth is often followed by sincere
aspiration after Theosophic life, and the question continually recurs,
What are the conditions and the steps to chelaship; to whom should
applications be made; how is the aspirant to know that it has been
granted?

As to the conditions and the discipline of chelaship, not a little
has been disclosed in _The Theosophist_, _Man_, _Esoteric Buddhism_,
and other works upon Theosophy; and some of the qualifications,
difficulties, and dangers have been very explicitly set forth by Madame
Blavatsky in her article upon "Theosophical Mahatmas" in the _Path_ of
December, 1886. To everyone cherishing even a vague desire for closer
relations to the system of development through which Masters are
produced, the thoughtful study of this article is earnestly commended.
It will clear the ground of several misconceptions, deepen the sense of
the seriousness of such an effort, and excite a healthy self-distrust
which is better before than after the gate has been passed.

It is entirely possible, however, that the searching of desire and
strength incited by that article may only convince more strongly
of sincerity, and that not a few readers may emerge from it with
a richer purpose and a deeper resolve. Even where there is not a
distinct intention to reach chelaship, there may be an eager yearning
for greater nearness to the Masters, for some definite assurance of
guidance and of help. In either of these cases the question at once
arises before the aspirant, Who is to receive the application, and how
is its acceptance to be signified?

The very natural, indeed the instinctive, step of such an aspirant
is to write to an officer of a Theosophical Society. None the less
is this a mistake. For a Theosophical Society is an _exoteric_ body,
the Lodge of Masters wholly _esoteric_. The former is a voluntary
group of inquirers and philanthropists, with avowed aims, a printed
Constitution, and published officers, and, moreover, expressly
disavowing any power, as a Society, to communicate with Masters; the
latter is an Occult Lodge, of whose address, members, processes,
functions, nothing is known. It follows, therefore, that there is no
person, no place, no address to which an aspirant may appeal.

Let it be supposed, however, that such an inquiry is preferred to a
person advanced in Occult study, versed in its methods and tests and
qualifications. Assuredly his reply would be directly to this effect:--

"If you were now fitted to be an accepted chela, you would of yourself
know how, where, and to whom to apply. For the becoming a chela _in
reality_ consists in the evolution or development of certain spiritual
principles latent in every man, and in great measure unknown to your
present consciousness. Until these principles are to some degree
consciously evolved by you, you are not in practical possession of the
means of acquiring the first rudiments of that knowledge which now
seems to you so desirable. Whether it is desired by your mind or by
your heart is still another important question, not to be solved by any
one who has not yet the clew to Self.

"It is true that these qualities can be developed (or forced) by the
aid of an Adept. And most applicants for chelaship are actuated by a
desire to receive instructions directly from the Masters. They do not
ask themselves what they have done to merit a privilege so rare. Nor
do they consider that, all Adepts being servants of the Law of Karma,
it must follow that, did the applicant now merit Their visible aid,
he would already possess it and could not be in search of it. The
indications of the fulfilment of the Law are, in fact, the partial
unfolding of those faculties above referred to.

"You must, then, reach a point other than that where you now stand,
before you can even ask to be taken as a chela on probation. All
candidates enter the unseen Lodge in this manner, and it is governed
by Laws containing within themselves their own fulfilment and not
requiring any officers whatever. Nor must you imagine that such a
probationer is one who works under constant and known direction of
either an Adept or another chela. On the contrary, he is tried and
tested for at least seven years, and perhaps many more, before the
point is reached when he is either accepted (and prepared for the first
of a series of initiations often covering several incarnations), or
rejected. And this rejection is not by any body of men just as they
incline, but is the natural rejection by Nature. The probationer
may or may not hear from his Teacher during this preliminary period;
more often he does not hear. He may be finally rejected and not know
it, just as some men have been on probation and have not known it
until they suddenly found themselves accepted. Such men are those
self-developed persons who have reached that point in the natural order
after many incarnations, where their expanded faculties have entitled
them to an entrance into the Hall of Learning or the spiritual Lodge
beyond. And all I say of men applies equally to women.

"When anyone is regularly accepted as a chela on probation, the first
and only order he receives (for the present) is to work unselfishly
for humanity--sometimes aiding and aided by some older chela--_while
striving to get rid of the strength of the personal idea_. The ways
of doing this are left to his own intuition entirely, inasmuch
as the object is to develop that _intuition_ and to bring him to
_self-knowledge_. It is his having these powers in some degree that
leads to his acceptance as a probationer, so that it is more than
probable that you have them not yet save as latent possibilities. In
order to have in his turn any title to help, he must work for others,
but that must not be his motive for working. He who does not feel
irresistibly impelled to serve the Race, whether he himself fails or
not, is bound fast by his own personality and cannot progress until he
has learned that _the race is himself_ and not that body which he now
occupies. The ground of this necessity for a pure motive was recently
stated in _Lucifer_ to be that 'unless the intention is entirely
unalloyed, the spiritual will transform itself into the psychic, act
on the astral plane, and dire results may be produced by it. The
powers and forces of animal nature can be equally used by the selfish
and revengeful as by the unselfish and all-forgiving; forgiving; the
powers and forces of spirit lend themselves only to the perfectly pure
in heart.'

"It may be stated, however, that even those natural forces cannot be
discovered by any man who has not obtained the power of getting rid of
his personality in some degree. That an emotional desire to help others
does not imply this freedom from personality may be seen by the fact
that, if you were now perfected in unselfishness in the _real_ sense,
you would have a conscious existence separate from that of the body
and would be able to quit the body at will: in other words, to be free
from all sense of self is to be an Adept, for the limitations of self
inhibit progress.

"Hear also the words of the Master, taken from Sinnett's _The Occult
World_. 'Perhaps you will better appreciate our meaning when told that
in our view the highest aspirations for the welfare of humanity become
tainted with selfishness if, in the mind of the philanthropist, there
lurks the shadow of a desire for self-benefit or a tendency to do
injustice, even when these exist unconsciously to himself.'

"While setting forth these facts, as well as the dangers and
difficulties--both those set ones appointed by the laws of the Lodge
and the more innumerable ones adjudged by Karma and hastened by the
efforts of the neophyte, it should also be stated that the Masters
desire to deter no man from entering the path. They are well aware,
however, from the repeated trials and records of centuries, and from
their knowledge of our racial difficulties, how few are the persons who
have any clew to their own real nature, which is the foe they attempt
to conquer the moment they become pupils of the occult. Hence They
endeavor, so far as Karma permits, to hold unfit individuals back from
rash ventures, the results of which would recoil upon their unbalanced
lives and drive them to despair. The powers of evil, inadequately
defied by the ignorant man, revenge themselves upon him as well as upon
his friends, and not upon those who are above their reach. Although
these powers are not hideous objective shapes coming in tangible ways,
they are none the less real and dangerous. Their descent in such
instances cannot be prevented; _it is Karma_.

"To lose all sense of self, then, implies the loss of all that ordinary
men must value in themselves. It therefore behooves you to seriously
consider these points:

"1st. What is your motive in desiring to be a chela? You think that
motive is well known to you, whereas it is hidden deep within you,
and by that hidden motive you will be judged. It has flared up from
unseen regions upon men sure of themselves, has belched out in some
lurid thought or deed of which they esteemed themselves incapable, and
has overthrown their life or reason. Therefore test yourself ere Karma
tests you.

"2d. What the place and duties of a true neophyte are.

"When you have seriously considered both for twenty-one days, you may,
if your desire remains firm, take a certain course open to you. It is
this.

"Although you do not now know where you can offer yourself to Masters
themselves as a chela on probation, yet, in forming that desire in
your heart and in re-affirming it (if you do) after due consideration
of these points, you have then to some extent called upon the Law,
and it is within your power to constitute yourself a disciple, so far
as in you lies, through the purity of your motive and effort _if both
are sufficiently sustained_. No one can fix a period when this effort
will bear fruit, and, if your patience and faith are not strong enough
to bear you through an _unlimited_ (so far as you know) period of
unselfish work for humanity, you had better resign your present fancy,
for it is then no more than that. But if otherwise, you are to work for
the spiritual enlightenment of Humanity in and through the Theosophical
Society (which much needs such laborers), and in all other modes and
planes as you best can, remembering the word of Masters: 'He who does
what he can and all that he can, and all that he knows how to do, does
enough for us.' This task includes that of divesting yourself of all
personality through interior effort, because that work, if done in the
right spirit, is even more important to the race than any outward work
we can do. Living as you now are, on the outward plane chiefly, your
work is due there and is to be done there until your growth shall fit
you to pass away from it altogether.

"In following this course you work towards a fixed point under
observation,--as is, indeed, the whole Theosophic body, which is now,
_as a body_, a chela of Masters, but specialized from other members in
the sense that your definite aim and trust are understood and taken
into consideration by the unseen Founders and the Law. The Theosophical
Society then stands to you, for the time being, as any older chela
might who was appointed for you to aid and to work under. _You are
not_, understand, a chela on probation, since no one without authority
can confer or announce such a privilege. But if you succeed in lifting
yourself and others spiritually, it will be known, _no matter what the
external silence may seem to be_, and you will receive your full dues
from Those who are honest debtors and ministers of the Just and Perfect
Law. You must be ready to work, to wait, and to aspire in _silence_,
just as all do who have fixed their eyes on this goal. Remember that
your truest adviser is to be found, and constantly sought, _within
yourself_. Only by experience can you learn to know its voice from
that of natural instinct or mere logic, and strengthen this power, by
virtue of which the Masters have become what They are.

"Your choice or rejection of this course is the first test of yourself.
Others will follow, whether you are aware of them or not, for the first
and only right of the neophyte is--_to be tried_. Hence silence and
sorrow follow his acceptance instead of the offer of prompt aid for
which he looks. Yet even that shall not be wanting; those trials and
reverses will come only from the Law to which you have appealed."

  J. N.




XV.


  DEAR JASPER:

I gave your letter to a distressed soul: she returned thanks, saying it
was a cooling draught to one athirst. The thanks of course are yours.
Now this lady says it was refreshment to the weary, that letter. True,
or she would not say it. But it was not so to me nor to you.

We needed it not. But she illustrates a certain state of progress.
She is not yet where we are; but which is happier? She is happier,
but poorer in hope. We are not all too happy, but are rich in hope,
knowing the prize at the end of time, and not deterred by the clouds,
the storms, the miasms and dreadful beasts of prey that line the road.
Let us, then, at the very outset wash out of our souls all desire for
reward, all hope that we may attain. For so long as we thus hope and
desire, we shall be separated from the Self. If in the Self all things
_are_, then we cannot wish to be something which we can only compass by
excluding something else.

So being beyond this lady so grateful, we find that everything we
meet on this illusory plane of existence is a lure that in one way or
another has power to draw us out of our path. That is the point we are
at, and we may call it the point where lures of Maya have omnipresent
power. Therefore we must beware of the illusions of matter.

Before we got to this stage we knew well the fateful lure, the dazzling
mirror of the elemental Self, here and there in well-defined places,
and intrenched as it was, so to say, in strongly-marked defenses. Those
we assaulted; and that was what it desired, for it did think that it
then had no need to exercise the enchantment which is hard because so
subtle, and so distributed here and there that we find no citadels
to take, no battalions in array. But now our dearest friends are
unconsciously in league with the deceptive in nature. How strongly do
I realize the dejection of Arjuna as he let his bow drop from his hand
and sat down on his chariot in despair. But he had a sure spot to rest
upon. He used his own. He had Krishna near, and he might fight on.

So in passing along those stages where the grateful lady and others
are, we may perhaps have found one spot we may call our own and possess
no other qualification for the task. That spot is enough. It is our
belief in the Self, in Masters: it is the little flame of intuition we
have allowed to burn, that we have fostered with care.

Then come these dreadful lures. They are, in fact, but mere carcasses,
shells of monsters from past existences, offering themselves that we
may give them life to terrify us as soon as we have entered them either
by fear or love. No matter which way we enter, whether by attachment or
by repugnant horror, it is all one: they are in one case vivified by a
lover; in the other by a slave who would be free but cannot.

Here it is the lure of enjoyment of natural pleasures, growing out of
life's physical basis; there it is self-praise, anger, vanity, what
not? Even these beautiful hills and river, they mock one, for they live
on untrammelled. Perhaps they do not speak to us because they know the
superiority of silence. They laugh with each other at us in the night,
amused at the wild struggle of this petty man who would pull the sky
down. Ach! God of Heaven! And all the sucklings of Theosophy wish that
some great, well-diplomæd Adept would come and open the secret box;
but they do not imagine that other students have stepped on the spikes
that defend the entrance to the way that leads to the gate of the Path.
But we will not blame them, nor yet wish for the things--the special
lots--that some of them have abstracted, because now that we know the
dreadful power that despair and doubt and violated conscience have,
we prefer to prepare wisely and carefully, and not rush in like fools
where angels do not pass uninvited.

But, Companion, I remind you of the power of the lure. This Path passes
along under a sky and in a clime where every weed grows a yard in the
night. It has no discrimination. Thus even after weeks or months of
devotion, or years of work, we are surprised at small seeds of vanity
or any other thing which would be easily conquered in other years of
inattentive life, but which seem now to arise as if helped by some
damnable intelligence. This great power of self-illusion is strong
enough to create a roaring torrent or a mountain of ice between us and
our Masters.

In respect to the question of sex. It is, as you know, given much
prominence by both women and men to the detriment of the one sex or the
other, or of any supposed sex. There are those who say that the female
sex is not to be thought of in the spirit; that all is male. Others say
the same for the female. Now both are wrong. In the True there is no
sex, and when I said "There all men are women and all women are men,"
I was only using rhetoric to accentuate the idea that neither one nor
the other was predominant, but that the two were coalesced, so to say,
into _one_. In the same way you might say, "men are animals there and
_vice versa_." Mind, this is in regard to Spirit, and not in regard
to the psychical states. For in the psychical states there are still
distinctions, as the psychical, though higher than the material, is not
as high as Spirit, for it still partakes of matter. For in the Spirit
or Atma _all_ experiences of _all_ forms of life and death are found
at once, and he who is one with the Atma knows the whole manifested
Universe at once. I have spoken of this condition before as the Turya
or fourth state.

When I say that the female _principle_ represents matter, I do not mean
_women_, for they in any one or more cases may be full of the masculine
principle, and _vice versa_.

Matter is illusionary and vain, and so the female element is
illusionary and vain, as well as tending to the _established order_.[D]
So in the _Kaballa_ it is said that the woman is a wall about the man.
A balance is necessary, and that balance is found in women, or the
woman element. You can easily see that the general tendency of women
is to keep things as they are and not to have change. Woman--not here
and there women--has never been the pioneer in great reforms. Of course
many single individual women have been, but the tendency of the great
mass of the women has always been to keep things as they are until
the men have brought about the great change. This is why women always
support any established religion, no matter what,--Christian, Jewish,
Buddhist, or Brahmin. The Buddhist women are as much believers in their
religion and averse from changing it as are their Christian sisters
opposed in the mass to changing theirs.

Now as to telling which element predominates in any single person,
it is hard to give a general test rule. But perhaps it might be
found in whether a person is given to abstract or concrete thought,
and similarly whether given to mere superficial things or to deep
fundamental matters. But you must work that out, I think, for yourself.

Of course in the spiritual life no organ _disappears_, but we must find
out what would be the mode of operation of any organ in its spiritual
counterpart. As I understand, the spiritual counterparts of the organs
are _powers_, and not organs, as the eye is the power to see, the ear
the power to hear, and so on. The generative organs would then become
the creative power and perhaps the Will. You must not suppose that in
the spirit life the organs are reproduced as we see them.

One instance will suffice. One may see pictures in the astral light
through the back of the head or the stomach. In neither place is there
any eye, yet we see. It must be by the power of seeing, which in the
material body needs the specialized place or specializing organ known
as the eye. We hear often through the head without the aid of the
auricular apparatus, which shows us that there is the power of hearing
and of transmitting and receiving sounds without the aid of an external
ear or its inside cerebral apparatus. So of course all these things
survive in that way. Any other view is grossly material, leading to a
deification of this unreal body, which is only an image of the reality,
and a poor one at that.

In thinking over these matters you ought always to keep in mind the
three plain distinctions of _physical, psychical, and spiritual, always
remembering that the last includes the other two_. All the astral
things are of the psychical nature, which is partly material and
therefore very deceptive. But all are necessary, for they are, they
exist.

The Deity is subject to this law, or rather it is the law of the Deity.
The Deity desires experience or self-knowledge, which is only to be
attained by stepping, so to say, aside from self. So the Deity produces
the manifested universes consisting of matter, psychical nature, and
spirit. In the Spirit alone resides the great consciousness of the
whole; and so it goes on ever producing and drawing into Itself,
accumulating such vast and enormous experiences that the pen falls down
at the thought. How can that be put into language? It is impossible,
for we at once are met with the thought that the Deity must know all
at all times. Yet there is a vastness and an awe-inspiring influence
in this thought of the Day and Night of Brahman. It is a thing to
be thought over in the secret recesses of the heart, and not for
discussion. _It is the All._

And now, my Brother, for the present I leave you. May your restored
health enable you to do more work for the world.

I salute you, my Brother, and wish you to reach the terrace of
enlightenment.

  Z.

[Footnote D: Through its negative or passive quality.--J. N.]




  _Letters That Have Helped Me_

  Volume II




                                LETTERS
                                 THAT
                            HAVE HELPED ME

                                VOL. II

                              COMPILED BY
                   _THOMAS GREEN and JASPER NIEMAND_

                             THIRD EDITION

                                  THE
                     UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS
                        Los Angeles, California
                                 1920




                              In Devotion
                           TO THE IMMORTALS
                                and in
                        The Service of Humanity
                           This little book
                                is laid
                            Upon the Altar

                                           _June, 1905_




    THE MASTER'S LOVE IS BOUNTIFUL; ITS LIGHT SHINES UPON THY FACE AND
    SHALL MAKE ALL THE CROOKED WAYS STRAIGHT FOR THEE.

  _Farewell Book._




    HITHERTO I HAVE BEEN AN EXILE FROM MY TRUE COUNTRY; NOW I RETURN
    THITHER. DO NOT WEEP FOR ME; I RETURN TO THAT CELESTIAL LAND WHERE
    EACH GOES IN HIS TURN.

  _Hermes Trismegistos._




CONTENTS.


                             PAGE

  FOREWORD                      7

  LETTERS                      11

  EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS        59

  AN OCCULT NOVEL              89

  WILLIAM Q. JUDGE            105




FOREWORD


One marked difference will be noticed between this, the second volume
of LETTERS THAT HAVE HELPED ME, and the earlier volume. That first
volume had a unity of purpose and development, setting forth, as it
did, in due sequence, the salient points of the eastern teaching. This
unity palpably arose from the fact that the series of letters was
written to one individual, and thus followed along a line suited to the
unfolding needs and the studies of that individual, as to those of all
fellow students pursuing an identical line of thought.

The present volume, on the contrary, consists of letters, and extracts
from letters, written to a number of people in different parts of the
world. In many instances, an extract only was sent to the compilers
by individuals appealed to, that of their store something might be
given to their fellow-men. In other instances, the entire letter
was sent, but contained personal or other matter, which could not
be published. In still other instances, the entire letter is given.
It has been thought best to omit all headings and endings to these
letters, in order that no discrimination shall be made in respect of
the recipients, thus leaving the truths which the letters embody to
stand out in their own relief, unmarred by a label and a name. Many
of the extracts were published in _The Irish Theosophist_, and others
still in the "Tea-Table" of _The Path_, where "Quickly" stood for Mr.
Judge. It was the wish of Mr. Judge, expressed in writing to one of the
compilers, that the series should be republished (with the addition of
other matter) as a second volume of the earlier work. The compilers
are thus carrying out the direct wishes of Mr. Judge.

During the lifetime of Mr. Judge, it was possible to rearrange, to
suggest excision or amplification, or the grouping of various extracts
as one letter; and it was possible as well to annotate, since Mr. Judge
read all proof, and was always ready to consider any suggestions,
while he was also pleased to see that his annotator had grasped his
meaning, or to correct errors in this respect. It is evident that such
rearrangement, adding as it would to the completeness and the unity
of a series, is much to be desired. It was hoped to continue this
method with the present volume; but the death of the writer has made it
impossible. We can only publish some letters completely, as they stand,
and group together such extracts as remain.

One point more. A great number of letters have thus come up. One
compiler alone has many score, all written since the publication of
the first volume, and ranging over that period of years in which the
trials of Mr. Judge became increasingly heavy, a period to which his
unexpected death set a term. How great were these trials, none well
knew except the Master Whom he so devotedly served. The last letter of
all was written but a very short while before his death. In no single
letter out of all these numbers--in no letter that the compilers have
seen--is there a harsh or condemnatory word said of the authors of his
trials. He accepts the bitter, the profound injustice done him without
one word which could impugn the faith he held, the teachings he gave
out. Surprise there is; annoyance once or twice at the waste of time,
the irrational deeds and words. And then he turns him to that wise
compassion which knows that it is not he who is wronged who is in truth
the sufferer, but he who inflicts a wrong.

Mr. Judge always taught the truest Occultism, the highest path. When
his hour of trial struck, step by step he followed along that path. In
the destiny of the crucified, whether Christs, or Christ-disciples, it
is always seen that the loudest denial comes from those most helped,
most served. It is he who sits "at meat" with them who betrays them.
And of all the long time of martyrs, never one has been exonerated to
his era, justified to his age. This fact alone should make thinking men
pause, remembering further that the crowd always prefers that Barabbas
should be released unto them.

The great drama ever follows the same lines. The initiate, be he
disciple or be he adept, cannot defend himself; this is the inexorable
law. But he has all the tenderest support that his great predecessors
along the path of thorns can bestow; all the joy of a battle nobly
fought; all the gratitude of those among his fellows whose intuition
can follow him behind the veil which screens the initiate from our
sight.

So it comes about that these letters breathe the compassion, the
patience, the brotherliness their author lived to inculcate. Sorrow,
indeed, he felt; but he put it bravely by. His great and kind heart
remained sound to the core. He sweetened the hours of bitterness by
profound resignation to The Law. He was one of those of whom it is
written: "He that loseth his life for My sake shall find it."

For the helping of mankind we publish these letters. To the judgment of
posterity we commit them, knowing well that in the eternal spaces the
Truth alone prevails. He who is here seen sustaining and consoling his
fellows during the saddest hours of his life and down to the doors of
the tomb, was in his turn upheld--not alone by a great faith and by an
All-Compassionate Hand--but also by the Love enshrined in his own quiet
heart. To The Master he left the rest.

  THE COMPILERS.




LETTERS


I.

  DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS:

I do not think that you will take it amiss that I again intrude myself
before you. I am so far off, and the place where my old friend and
teacher--the one who pointed out to me the way that must bring us, if
followed, to the light and peace and power of truth--is so dear to me,
I would fain speak with those, my fellow-workers, who now live where
she worked, and where her mighty soul left the body she used for our
advantage. This is surely sufficient reason.

Refer to the Master's letter in _The Occult World_ and you will find
him saying that the Masters are philanthropists and care only for
that. Hence, the very oldest F.T.S. who has been selfish, and not
philanthropic, has never come under the notice of the Masters, has
never done anything, in fact, toward the development of the soul in his
possession, nothing for the race of man. It is not membership in the
T.S., or any other mystical body, that brings us near the Masters, but
just such philanthropic work with just the pure motive.

Then I know, and say plainly--for as so close to each other we should
plainly speak--that some of us, maybe all, have waited and wondered,
and wished and hoped, for what? Variously expressed thus: one wants to
go to the Master, not knowing even if it be fitting; another wants to
know what is the vague longing inside; another says that if the inner
senses were but developed and hopes the Master would develop them, and
so on; all, however, expressed by what the Master has himself written,
"You want to find out about us, of our methods of work, and for that
you seek along the line of occultism." Well, it is right for us to seek
and to try and to want to reach to Them, for otherwise we never will in
any age get where such Beings are. But as wise thinkers we should act
and think wisely. I know many of you and what I am saying should help
some as it does me also.

You are all on the road to Masters, but as we are now, with the weak
and hereditarily diseased bodies we have, we could not live an hour
with Masters did we jump suddenly past space to Them. Some too have
doubt and darkness, the doubt mostly as to themselves. This should not
be harboured, for it is a wile of the lower man striving to keep you
back among the mediocre of the race. When you have lifted yourself up
over that level of the race, the enemy of man strikes and strives at
all times to bring clouds of doubt and despair. You should know that
all, everyone, down to the most obscure, who are working steadily,
are as steadily creeping on to a change, and yet on and on to other
changes, and all steps to the Master. Do not allow discouragement
to come in. Time is needed for all growth, and all change, and all
development. Let time have her perfect work and do not stop it.

How may it be stopped? How many have thought of this I do not know, but
here is a fact. As a sincere student works on, his work makes him come
every day nearer to a step, and if it be an advance then it is certain
there is a sort of silence or loneliness all around in the forest of
his nature. Then he may stop all by allowing despair to come in with
various reasons and pretexts; he may thus throw himself to where he
began. This is not arbitrary law but Nature's. It is a law of mind, and
the enemies of man take advantage of it for the undoing of the unwary
disciple. I would never let the least fear or despair come before me,
but if I cannot see the road, nor the goal for the fog, I would simply
sit down and wait; I would not allow the fog to make me think no road
was there, and that I was not to pass it. The fogs must lift.

What then is the panacea finally, the royal talisman? It is DUTY,
Selflessness. Duty persistently followed is the highest yoga, and is
better than mantrams or any posture, or any other thing. If you can do
no more than duty it will bring you to the goal. And, my dear friends,
I can swear it, the Masters are watching us all, and that without fail
when we come to the right point and really deserve They manifest to us.
At all times I know They help and try to aid us as far as we will let
Them.

Why, the Masters are anxious (to use a word of our own) that as many
as possible may reach to the state of power and love They are in. Why,
then, suppose they help not? As they are Atman and therefore the very
law of Karma itself, They are in everything in life, and every phase of
our changing days and years. If you will arouse your faith on this line
you come nearer to help from Them than you will recognise.

I send you my love and hope, and best thoughts that you may all find
the great light shining around you every day. It is there.

  Your brother,
  WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.


II.

Once more in the absence of ---- I send you a word of brotherly
greeting. I would ask you to read it impersonally in every part, as I
have no reserved thoughts and no ulterior aim in it, and have not had
any letters or news from anyone to lead me to write. We are so far away
from each other that now and then such a greeting is well, and should
be taken in the spirit it is sent. It is not possible to send to any
other household as none other exists in the Society, you being unique
in this, that you are the only one. Here we have no such thing, all
nearly living at other places, and this being merely a centre for work.

Many times have co-operative households been tried and failed. One was
tried here and is famous. It was called the Brook Farm, but it had
no such high aim and philosophy behind it as you have, and thus the
personal frictions developed at any place of close intimacy broke it
up. That should be a guide to you to enable you to watch and avoid.
Yours may alter in number and in _personnel_, but can never really
be broken up if the aim is high and the self-judgment is strict and
not self-righteous. I am not accusing you of this, but only stating
a common human danger, from which the Theosophist is not at any time
exempt. Indeed, he is in danger in your centre from the fact that
strong force revolves around it. Hence all must be ever careful, for
the personal element is one that ever has a tendency to delude us as it
hides behind various walls and clothes itself in the faults, real or
imaginary, of _others_.

Your centre being the only one as yet of such size, it is useful to
think how you may best all act as to make it truly international. Each
one has a right to his or her particular "crank," of course, but no one
ought to think that anyone else is to be judged from not being of the
same stripe of "crank." One eats meat, another does not. Neither is
universally right, for the kingdom of heaven does not come from meat,
or from its absence. Another smokes and another does not; these are
neither universally right nor wrong, as smoke for one is good and for
another is bad; the true cosmopolitan allows each to do in such matters
as he likes. Essentials are the only things on which true occultism
and Theosophy require an agreement, and such temporary matters as food
and other habitual daily things are not essentials. One may make
a mistake, too, of parading too much his or her particular line of
life or act. When this is done the whole world is bored, and nothing
effective or lasting is gained except a cranky impression.

In a place like yours, where so many of all sorts of nature are
together, there is a unique opportunity for gain and good in the
chance it gives one for self-discipline. There friction of personality
is inevitable, and if each one learns the great "give and take," and
looks not for the faults of the others but for the faults he sees in
himself, because of the friction, then great progress can be made. The
Masters have said that the great step is to learn how to get out of
the rut each one has by nature and by training, and to fill up the old
grooves. This has been misconstrued by some who have applied it to mere
outer habits of life, and forgotten that its real application is to the
mental grooves and the astral ones also. Each mind has a groove, and
is not naturally willing to run in the natural groove of another mind.
Hence comes often friction and wrangle. Illustrate it by the flanged
wheel of the steam-engine running on a track. It cannot run off nor
on a track of broader or narrower gauge, and so is confined to one.
Take off the flange and make the face of the wheel broader, and then
it can run on any road that is at all possible. General human nature
is like the engine, it is flanged and run for a certain size of track,
but the occultist or the would-be one should take off the flange and
have a broad-faced wheel that will accommodate itself to the other
mind and nature. Thus in one life even we might have the benefit of
many, for the lives of other men are lived beside us unnoticed and
unused because we are too broad and flanged in wheel, or too narrow and
flanged also. This is not easy, it is true, to change, but there is no
better opportunity than is hourly presented to you in the whole world,
to make the alteration. I would gladly have such a chance, which Karma
has denied me, and I see the loss I incur each day by not having it
there or here. You have it, and from there should go out to all the
earth soon or late, men and women who are broad and free and strong for
the work of helping the world. My reminding you of all this is not a
criticism, but is due to my own want of such an opportunity, and being
at a distance I can get a clearer view of the case, and what you have
for your own benefit and also for all others.

It is natural for one to ask: "What of the future, and what of the
defined object, if any, for our work?" That can be answered in many ways.

There is, first, our own work, in and on ourselves, each one. That has
for its object the enlightenment of oneself for the good of others.
If that is pursued selfishly some enlightenment comes, but not the
amount needed for the whole work. We have to watch ourselves so as to
make of each a centre from which, in our measure, may flow out the
potentialities for good that from the adept come in large and affluent
streams. The future then, for each, will come from each present moment.
As we use the moment so we shift the future up or down for good or ill;
for the future being only a word for the present--not yet come--we have
to see to the present more than all. If the present is full of doubt or
vacillation, so will be the future; if full of confidence, calmness,
hope, courage and intelligence, thus also will be the future.

As to the broader scope of the work, that comes from united effort of
the whole mass of units. It embraces the race, and as we cannot escape
from the destiny of the race we have to dismiss doubt and continue at
work. The race is, as a whole, in a transition state, and many of its
units are kept back by the condition of the whole. We find the path
difficult because, being of the race, the general race tendencies very
strongly affect us. This we cannot do away with in a moment. It is
useless to groan over it; it is also selfish, since we, in the distant
past, had a hand in making it what it now is. The only way we can alter
it is by such action now as makes of each one a centre for good, a
force that makes "for righteousness," and that is guided by wisdom.
From the great power of the general badness we each one have a greater
fight to wage the moment we force our inner nature up beyond the dead
level of the world. So before we attempt that forcing we should, on the
lower plane, accumulate all that we can of merit by unselfish acts,
by kind thoughts, by detaching our minds from the allurements of the
world. This will not throw us out of the world, but will make us free
from the great force which is called by Bœhme the "Turba," by which he
meant the immense power of the unconscious and material basis of our
nature. That material base being devoid of soul is more inclined on
this plane to the lower things of life than to the higher.

Hence, until we have in some degree conquered that, it is useless for
us to be wishing, as so many of us do, to see the Masters and to be
with Them. They could not help us unless we furnish the conditions, and
a mere desire is not the needed condition. The new condition calls for
a change in thought and nature.

So the Masters have said this is a transition age, and he who has ears
to hear will hear what has thus been said. We are working for the new
cycles and centuries. What we do now in this transition age will be
like what the great Dhyan Chohans did in the transition point--the
midway point--in evolution at the time when all matter and all types
were in a transition and fluid state. They then gave the new impulse
for the new types, which resulted later in the vast varieties of
nature. In the mental development we are now at the same point and what
we now do in faith and hope for others and for ourselves will result
similarly on the plane to which it is all directed. Thus in other
centuries we will come out again and go on with it. If we neglect it
now, so much the worse for us then. Hence we are not working for some
definite organisation of the new years to come, but for a change in the
Manas and Buddhi of the Race. That is why it may seem indefinite, but
it is, nevertheless, very defined and very great in scope. Let me refer
you to that part of _The Secret Doctrine_, penned by Master Himself,
where the midway point of evolution is explained in reference to the
ungulate mammals. It should give you a glimpse of what we have to do,
and remove all vain longings for a present sojourn with our unseen
guides and brothers. The world is not free from superstition, and
we, a part of it, must have some traces left of the same thing. They
have said that a great shadow follows all innovations in the life of
humanity; the wise one will not bring on that shadow too soon and not
until some light is ready to fall at the same time for breaking up the
darkness.

Masters could give now all the light and knowledge needed, but there
is too much darkness that would swallow up all the light, except for a
few bright souls, and then a greater darkness would come on. Many of us
could not grasp nor understand all that might be given, and to us would
result a danger and new difficulty for other lives, to be worked out in
pain and sorrow. It is from kindness and love that Masters do not blind
us with the electric flash of truth complete.

But concretely there is a certain object for our general work. It is
to start up a new force, a new current in the world, whereby great and
long-gone Gnanis, or wise ones, will be attracted back to incarnate
among men here and there, and thus bring back the true life and the
true practices. Just now a pall of darkness is over all that no Gnani
will be attracted by. Here and there a few beams strike through this.
Even in India it is dark, for there, where the truth is hid, the thick
veil of theological dogma hides all; and though there is a great hope
in it the Masters cannot pierce through to minds below. We have to
educate the West so that it may appreciate the possibilities of the
East, and thus on the waiting structure in the East may be built up a
new order of things for the benefit of the whole. We have, each one of
us, to make ourselves a centre of light; a picture gallery from which
shall be projected on the astral light such scenes, such influences,
such thoughts, as may influence many for good, shall thus arouse a new
current, and then finally result in drawing back the great and the good
from other spheres from beyond the earth. This is not spiritualism at
all, for it has no reference to the denizens of spook-land in any way.

Let us then have great faith and confidence. See how many have gone
out from time to time from your centre to many and distant parts of
the world, and how many will continue to go for the good and the gain
of man of all places. They have gone to all parts, and it must be that
even if the centre should be disrupted from causes outside of you, its
power and reality will not be destroyed at all, but will ever remain,
even after all of it may have gone as far as bricks and mortar are
concerned.

I give you my best wishes and brotherly greeting for the new year and
for every year that is to come.

  Affectionately yours,
  WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.


III.

I send you this, and you will keep it, using it later on when I give
the word. It is to be headed by me later.

The Theosophical movement was begun as a work of the Brotherhood of
which H. P. B. is a member, and in which the great Initiate, who was by
her called Master, is one of the Chiefs.

It was started among Western people by Western people, the two chief
agents being H. P. B., a Russian, and H. S. Olcott, an American. The
place where it was started was also Western--the City of New York.

But notwithstanding that the Brotherhood thus had it begun, it must, as
a Society, be kept with a free platform, while, at the same time, its
members are individually free to take and hold what belief they find
approved by conscience, provided that belief does not militate against
Universal Brotherhood. Hence they are at perfect liberty to believe in
the Lodge of that Brotherhood and in its messengers, and also to accept
their doctrines as to man, his nature, powers and destiny as given out
by the messengers on behalf of the Lodge.

The fact is significant that the Theosophical movement was thus, as
said, begun in the Western world, in the country where the preparations
for the new root race are going on, and where that new root is to
appear. This was not to give precedence to any one race or country over
another, or to reduce any race or country, but was and is according to
the law of cycles, which is a part of evolution. In the eye of that
great Law no country is first or last, new or old, high or low, but
each at the right time is appropriate for whatever the work is that
must be performed. Each country is bound up with all the others and
must assist them.

This movement has, among others, an object which should be borne in
mind. It is the union of the West with the East, the revival in the
East of those greatnesses which once were hers, the development in the
West of that Occultism which is appropriate for it, so that it may, in
its turn, hold out a helping hand to those of older blood who may have
become fixed in one idea, or degraded in spirituality.

For many centuries this union has been worked towards and workers have
been sent out through the West to lay the foundations. But not until
1875 could a wide public effort be made, and then the Theosophical
Society came into existence because the times were ripe and the workers
ready.

Organisations, like men, may fall into ruts or grooves of mental and
psychic action, which, once established, are difficult to obliterate.
To prevent those ruts or grooves in the Theosophical movement, its
guardians provided that necessary shocks should now and then interpose
so as to conduce to solidarity, to give strength such as the oak
obtains from buffetting the storm, and in order that all grooves of
mind, act, or thought, might be filled up.

It is not the desire of the Brotherhood that those members of the
Theosophical movement who have, under their rights, taken up a belief
in the messengers and the message should become pilgrims to India. To
arouse that thought was not the work nor the wish of H. P. B. Nor is
it the desire of the Lodge to have members think that Eastern methods
are to be followed, Eastern habits adopted, or the present East made
the model or the goal. The West has its own work and its duty, its own
life and development. Those it should perform, aspire to and follow,
and not try to run to other fields where the duties of other men are
to be performed. If the task of raising the spirituality of India, now
degraded and almost suffocated, were easy, and if thus easily raised
could it shine into and enlighten the whole world of the West, then,
indeed, were the time wasted in beginning in the West, when a shorter
and quicker way existed in the older land. But in fact it is more
difficult to make an entry into the hearts and minds of people who,
through much lapse of time in fixed metaphysical dogmatism, have built,
in the psychic and psycho-mental planes, a hard impervious shell around
themselves, than it is to make that entry with Westerners who, although
they may be meat eaters, yet have no fixed opinions deep laid in a
foundation of mysticism and buttressed with a pride inherited from the
past.

The new era of Western Occultism definitely began in 1875 with the
efforts of that noble woman who abandoned the body of that day not long
ago. This does not mean that the Western Occultism is to be something
wholly different from and opposed to what so many know, or think they
know, as Eastern Occultism. It is to be the Western side of the one
great whole of which the true Eastern is the other half. It has, as its
mission, largely entrusted to the hands of the Theosophical Society, to
furnish to the West that which it can never get from the East; to push
forward and raise high on the circular path of evolution now rolling
West, the light that lighteth every man who cometh into the world--the
light of the true self, who is the one true Master for every human
being; all other Masters are but servants of that true One; in it all
real Lodges have their union.

Woe is set apart--not by Masters but by Nature's laws--for those who,
having started in the path with the aid of H. P. B. shall in any way
try to belittle her and her work, still, as yet not understood and
by many misunderstood. This does not mean that a mere person is to
be slavishly followed. But to explain her away, to belittle her, to
imagine vain explanations with which to do away with what is not liked
in that which she said, is to violate the ideal, is to spit back in
the face of the teacher through whom the knowledge and the opportunity
came, to befoul the river which brought you sweet waters. She was and
is one of those servants of the universal Lodge sent to the West to
take up the work, well knowing of the pain and obloquy and the insult
to the very soul--worst of all insults--which were certain from the
first to be hers. "Those who cannot understand her had best not try to
explain her: those who do not find themselves strong enough for the
task she plainly outlined from the beginning had best not attempt it."
She knew, and you have been told before, that high and wise servants
of the Lodge have remained with the West since many centuries for the
purpose of helping it on to its mission and destiny. That work it
would be well for the members of the Theosophical movement to continue
without deviating, without excitement, without running to extremes,
without imagining that Truth is a matter of either longitude or
latitude: the truth of the soul's life is in no special quarter of the
compass, it is everywhere round the whole circle, and those who look in
one quarter will not find it.

(This letter is marked in red pencil, by the hand of Mr. Judge,
"unfinished." In fact, it ends with the word "will," as above, but in
publishing earlier some extracts from this letter, the owner had the
permission of the writer to supply the last three words, which he had
intended to place there when called away, and in his haste for the
post, in returning, had omitted to add.)


IV.

TO THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY:

It is with great regret that I learn from recent London advices that
the Managers of the Society there think that the Tract, "Epitome of
Theosophy," which appeared in _The Path_, is "too advanced to be
reprinted now, and that what is needed is 'a stepping-stone from
fiction to philosophy.'"

Permit me to say that I cannot agree with this opinion, nor with the
policy which is outlined by it. The opinion is erroneous, and the
policy is weak as well as being out of accord with that of the Masters.
Those Masters have approved the project of the new Society and are
watching the unfolding of its policy.

If I had made up that Epitome wholly myself I might have some
hesitation in speaking in this way, but I did not. The general idea of
such a series of tracts was given to me some two years ago, and this
one was prepared by several students who know what the people need.
It is at once comprehensive and fundamental. It covers most of the
ground, and if any sincere reader grasps it he will have food for his
reflection of the sort needed.

If, however, we are to proceed by a mollified passage from folly (which
is fiction) to philosophy, then we at once diverge from the path
marked out for us by the Masters; and for this statement I can refer
to letters from Them in my hands. I need only draw your attention to
the fact that when those Masters began to cause Their servants to give
out matter in India, They did not begin with fiction, but with stern
facts such as are to be found in the _Fragments of Occult Truth_, which
afterwards became Mr. Sinnett's _Esoteric Buddhism_. We are not seeking
to cater to a lot of fiction readers and curiosity hunters, but to the
pressing needs of earnest minds. Fiction readers never influenced a
nation's progress. And these earnest minds do not desire, and ought not
to be treated to a gruel which the sentence just quoted would seem to
indicate as their fate.

Then again, I beg to remind my English brothers in this enterprise that
they should remember that the United States contain more theosophists
and possible subscribers and readers than the whole of Europe. They
do not want fiction. They want no padding in their search for truth.
They are perfectly able to grasp that which you call "too advanced."
The Master some years ago said that the U. S. needed the help of the
English body of theosophists. That they did not get, and now do not
require it so much, and their ideas and needs must be considered by us.
We have twenty-one Branches to your three in Great Britain, and each
month, nearly, sees a new Branch. Several have written me that they
understand the T.P.S. is to give them _good_ and _valuable_ reprints
and not weak matters of fiction.

I therefore respectfully urge upon you that the weak and erroneous
policy to which I have referred shall not be followed, but that strong
lines of action be taken, and that we leave fiction to the writers who
profit by it or who think that thus people's minds can be turned to the
Truth. If a contrary line be adopted then we will not only disappoint
the Master (if that be possible) but we will in a very large sense be
guilty of making false representations to a growing body of subscribers
here as well as elsewhere.

  I am, Fraternally Yours,
  WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.


V.

It is a relief to turn from these eternal legal quibbles (of my
business) to say a word or two on eternal matters.

Now and then there are underlined sentences occurring in _The Path_.
These ought to be studied. One about one yogee not doing anything not
seen in another yogee's mind will open up a subject. Reticence does not
always mean ignorance: if we dig out the knowledge we drag down at the
same time rocks and debris of other sorts, whereas, if a miner hands us
the nugget, that is all we get at the time. So a slight reticence often
results in our going at the digging ourselves.

In September _Path_ is another. Getting back the memory of other lives
is really the whole of the process, and if some people don't understand
certain things it is either because they have not got to that point in
their other lives or because no glimmer of memory has yet come.

The communion of saints is a reality, and it often happens that those
brought up in the same school speak the same language. While not
being one, such are very like co-scholars no matter when or where.
Furthermore, there are some peculiar natures in this world who, while
they are like mirrors or sponges that reflect and absorb from others
certain information, still retain a very strong individuality of their
own. So it is with this gentleman whose letter you enclose. There is
scarcely any doubt that he, if he tells true tales, sees in the astral
light. The description of things "moving about like fishes in the sea"
is a real description of one of the manners in which many of these
elemental forms are seen. So it may, as premised above, be settled that
he sees in the astral light.

He should know that that astral light exists in all places and
interpenetrates everything, and is not simply in the free air alone.
Further should he know that to be able to see as he sees in the light
is not _all_ of the seeing thus. That is, there are many sorts of
such sight, _e.g._, he may see now certain airy shapes and yet not
see many others which at the same time are as really present there
as those he now sees. So it would seem that there are "layers" or
differences of states in the astral light. Another way to state it is
that elementals are constantly moving in the astral light--that is,
everywhere. They, so to say, show pictures to him who looks, and the
pictures they show will depend in great part upon the seer's thoughts,
motives and development. These differences are very numerous. It
therefore follows that in this study _pride_ must be eliminated. That
pride has disappeared from ordinary life does not prove that it has
done any more than retreat a little further within. So one must be
careful of becoming even inwardly vain of being able to see any such
things; for if that happens it will follow that the one limited plane
in which one may be a seer will be accepted as the whole. That, then,
will be falsity. But if recognized as delusive because partial, then
it remains true--so far as it goes. All true things must be total,
and all totalities exist at once, each in all, while these partial
forms exist partially in those that are total. So it follows that only
those that are total reveal entire truth, and those that partake of
lower nature--or are partial--receive but a limited view of truth. The
elementals are partial forms, while the man's individual soul is total,
and according to the power and purity of that form which it inhabits
"waits upon the Gods."

Now our bodies, and all "false I" powers up to the individual soul, are
"partial forms" in common with the energic centres in astral light. So
that it must follow that no matter how much we and they participate
in each other the resulting view of the one Truth is partial in its
nature because the two partial forms mingling together do not produce
totality. But it intoxicates. And herein lies the danger of the
teaching of such men as P. B. Randolph, who advocates participation
with these partial beings by means of sensual excesses glorified with a
name and gilded with the pretence of a high purpose--_viz._, knowledge:
KNOWLEDGE MUST BE CAREFULLY OBTAINED WITH A PURE MOTIVE.

This motive is the point for this gentleman to study. He says that he
"will know," and that he "desires to escape from present limitations of
this personality, which is all loneliness."

As he did go forward on the path of knowledge, he would find that this
imaginary loneliness of which he speaks is by comparison with the utter
loneliness of that path, a howling mob, a tramping regiment.

As he is fighting alone his own fight let him carefully note his
motive in seeking to know more, and in seeking to escape from his
present "loneliness." Must it not be true that loneliness cannot be
escaped from by abhorrence of it or even by its acceptance, but by its
recognition? What next? Well, this; and perhaps it is too simple. He
ought to assure himself that his motive in knowing and being is that he
may help all creatures. I do not say that this is not now his motive,
but for fear it should not be I refer to it. For as he appears to be on
the borderland of fearful sights and sounds he ought to know the magic
amulet which alone can protect him while he is ignorant. It is that
boundless charity of love which led Buddha to say: "Let the sins of
this dark age fall on me that the world may be saved," and not a desire
for escape or for knowledge. It is expressed in the words: "THE FIRST
STEP IN TRUE MAGIC IS DEVOTION TO THE INTERESTS OF OTHERS." It was
expressed by Krishna when he said: "Near to Renunciation is salvation"
(or the state of a Jivanmukta).

But he naturally will ask if he should cultivate his powers. Well,
of course he should at some time or other; but he ought to begin at
motives and purification of thought. He may, if he chooses, abandon
the ideas of this large-hearted charity and yet make great progress in
"powers," but surely then death and ashes will be the result. That does
not concern me.

Why did he have a "horror" when he merely succeeded in going away from
his body; in being for a moment free? That is an important question.
Its solution may be found in many ways. I will mention one. If the
place, or person he wished to go to was one to which he then ought
not to have gone--or if his motive in desiring to go there was not
pure--then a horror might result that drove him back. But if even with
a bad motive he had attempted to go to a place where a similar motive
existed, then no horror would have come. If he will tell himself, or
me, just where he was wanting to go, I may say why he had a horror. But
I do not want to know.

For it is not necessarily a horror-producing thing to leave the body.
Only lately I know of a friend of mine who went out of his body a
distance of 10,000 miles and had no horror. In that case he desired to
see a friend on a common purpose which had in view the amelioration
of this dark age; and again, who left his body in the country and saw
the surrounding sweeps of wood and vale and had no horror whatever in
either case.

If one is sure of motive, and that is pure, then going out of the body
is not detrimental.

An illustration will show the dangers. Take the case of one who is able
to leave the body and who determines to go to one who is sympathetic.
The second one, however, is protected by high motive and great purity:
the first is mixed in motive in waking life, which, as soon as the
other disengaged state comes on, changes into a mere curiosity to
see the second, and perhaps with more or less sensuality, _e.g._, a
desire to see a woman much admired and to pour into her unwilling ear
pretended or real human love. The elementals (and so on) of the second
protect that soul and hurl vague horrors at the first who, if he is not
a skilled black magician is:

1. Either merely pushed back into the body: Or

2. Is assailed with fears that prevent him finding his body, and that
may be occupied by an elementary, good, bad or indifferent--and his
friends may say that he waked up insane!

Well; enough!


VI.

The letters proposed by your friend are a device of the enemy, as you
may have supposed, and which you were warned to expect in unexpected
quarters and ways. Therefore they should not be written. It is the
small rift in the lute that destroys it; in human history small and
unexpected events alter the destiny of nations.

On this plane the dark powers rely upon their ability to create a
maya. They have seen that you are not to be trapped in the prominent
lines of work and so try their hands where your currents exist in a
prominent place but with a very small matter. Let me point out.

If you issue these letters they would be an endorsement of all that
your friend might think to do, and neither you nor Y. are free from
mistakes yet. They would amount to a declaration, to the perception of
others, that you were guiding Y. in everything and were at all times
conscious of it. Do you or Y. know where this would end? Do you see
the possibilities flowing from the acceptance in full of those letters
by the others? And what would their action be? Are they free from the
curse of superstition; are they clear in the co-ordination of psychic
with brain thought? No. The result would not only be different from
what you and Y. can see, but worse. Now further.

It is true--and humanly natural--that the others (like you and _your_
friends) indulged in some slight critiques on your friend, but they
were small and coupled with sincere and kind thoughts up to their
lights, no matter how large and bitter all this was made by maya to
appear. The dark powers seized on them, enlarged them, dressed them
up, assumed the images of the thinkers, enlivened the thoughts with
elementals, all with an object, _viz._, to make your friend think it
all came from the others. Why, if that were so then those others (poor
weak mortals) are friends. But are they? No. It was wished by the dark
ones to irritate your friend, and you, so as, by the irritation, to
split a breach forever unhealable. In Y.'s very weak state they found
it easy, and hoped by distance to make you blind.

Tell your friend to remember what was long ago said; that the Master
would manage results. You must not manage, precipitate, nor force.
Beware. Let Y. assume that the others do not think harshly nor
critically, but put it all against the dark powers, and the results
will be managed by Master. As chelâs and students conceal rather than
give out your inner psychic life, for by telling of it your proper
progress is hindered. There must be silence in heaven for a time or
the dark ones rejoice to so easily get good, malleable images for
annoying you. It will be tried again either that way or some other. By
gentleness, detachment, strict attention to duty, and retiring now and
then to the quiet place bring up good currents and keep back all evil
ones. Remember it is the little things the work is done through, for they
are not noticed, while the larger ones draw the eyes and minds of all.

I think of you always as the brave soldier, made not of mud and soft
things, but made of long pieces of steel and strips of diamond and
flashes of long light that has no harshness, and a big, big spring
all the way through. That is you. And your eyes laugh now and then,
even if you do have a pain in your head. Inside you are all right, as
you know very well, don't you? Then if you are that soldier, it means
that he will spring back as soon as the body has had time to get some
better. The body is like the heart; it has to have time to get to some
other condition. But you will get there. A steady mind and heart stands
still and quiet until the muddy stream rolls clear. Now sleep, I say;
I command you to sleep. I have tried to help you to sleep, and I wish
you to sleep, for sleep will do you good as nothing else can. I hope to
see you drop all when ---- comes, and go to sleep for awhile, and far
enough from the row to be quiet. It is sleep your tired nature on the
outside wants, for sleep knits up the ravelled thread of life and makes
us young again. You have been so awake, that the power of equilibrium
between life and the body is disturbed and needs a chance. This is
fact. One can get wrought up, and then Prana is too strong; so little
children sleep much. _Be a child once._

Well, I'm near home, or rather the centre spot, for pilgrims like you
and I have no real house and don't want it; it's too dull and usual for
such to want a home. And perhaps the little brother is good and well?
He shall be ever present, as he always has been, in those little songs
and tales told to oneself in the dark, and is, too, the lone warrior
seen on the plain of stupid infantry, and he rides a horse whose blood
is electricity. Au revoir. Tell ---- I can stand alone; it is the best
way to stand, and what I always was and shall be. Let the ripples and
the foam go on coming and going; the old river and the bed of the river
do not move for all that is on the top. Is it not so? Well, good-bye,
and good luck, and may the devas help you and also karma. Love to all,
as usual.

  As forevermore,


VII.

I was very glad indeed to get your letter, but sorry to read of your
troubles. Strangely, too, a similar trouble with a very dear friend of
mine is now uppermost in my mind, and I would like to crave the favour
from you that you would tell me what kind of place the asylum is you
speak of. The only accessible one here is a mere prison, where men do
nothing, and where I do not think the influence would be other than
depressing. Do you think at the one you have in mind a man of active
mind, who merely wishes to get rid of his present trouble, would be
able to occupy himself?

I am indeed sorry that you have to tell me such matters, but they
will rest in my confidence; and I thank you and ---- for your renewed
invitation.

It is best not to inquire into some of the mysteries of life, but
surely a full reliance upon the Spirit within and upon the law that
the hands that smite us are our own, will relieve the pressure of
some events that seem mysteries. I find the greatest consolation in
these reflections, and then I see that each moment is mine, and that
when gone it is passed and merged into the sum of my being: and so I
must strive to Be. Thus I may hope to become in time the conscious
possessor of the whole of Being. So I do not strive after mystery. The
great struggle must be to open up my outer self, that my higher being
may shine through, for I know that in my heart the God sits patient,
and that his pure rays are merely veiled from me by the many strivings
and illusions that I bring on outwardly. This being so, I can only look
at the Society and its work (under my lights) as the best available
channel for my actions in the effort to help others. Its methods, then,
as far as I am concerned, will be only mine, and thus I cannot attach
to it the methods of any other person.

  Believe me sincerely yours.


VIII.

As for me, all that is the matter is my health, not yet full and good.
If that were all right, I would have nothing. What do I care for all
the row? It will soon be over; some will be dead; the sooner the
better, and then we shall have other fun. I look at it all as so much
fun and variety, sure; I am not joking. It is variety, and without
that what would life be? As all these asses bray we learn new notes of
the scale not known before. A heap of letters I got; but I am O.K.,
fragile, perhaps, but not brittle. I would like to be with you both and
have some sweet fun without tears or spite, but we have to be apart,
to meet now and then. Poor ----! Don't be hard on him. He had to be
silent, you know. A small matter, but more important than he knew for
him. Let up on him, and don't jeer. He has a hard time enough with
himself, to have any added by massage from others.

C----'s illusion to "suffering" opens up a vein of thought which I have
had. I have examined myself for the "uses" of this rumpus, to see if I
am properly "suffering." Well, I can't find it. Down in the deeps I may
be; but I find myself cheerful, happy, and anything but morose or sad.
Ergo: can I be suffering? Do you know? Positively, I do not know. Ought
I? Am I a wretch because I do not suffer, or because, being in actual
suffering, I am insensate and do not perceive it? But, on the other
hand, I feel no anger and no resentment. Really, it puzzleth me. Many
nights I do not sleep, and have used the hours (as I now do), when all
is still, in looking over all, and yet I feel all right--everywhere.
Of course, I have committed my human faults and sins, but I mean, on
the Grand Round-Up, I find nothing to "suffer me"; nothing that I shall
rush out to amend by taking the ridiculous and nasty world to my bosom
in confidence upon.

As for myself. Well. What? Nothing. I know not and care not. I am
joyful and glorious that the work thus goes. My desires are not here,
and all the racket sounds to me far off, as if miles from my ear. I am
acting as a pump-engine, and trying to force a lot on. This is not for
myself. I must find myself alone, as we all are, and then the Law will
say: "Next!" But what next I do not care and don't want to know, for
when "Next" is said I will see what it is to do. Just now the best and
biggest work by us poor children is on this plane with the great aid
of Master, Whose simple single will keeps the whole organisation, and
acts as its support and shield. We are not big enough yet to handle the
Akasa, but we may help Them to, and that is all I want to do. I have
used the present affairs to be as a lesson to me, for it may be used
as a test to me as to pride and ambition; and I find that, no matter
how I turn it, the same result comes. I am seeking other things while
working in this. Try as I may to raise an ambition for power, and to
raise a desire to change a supposed case (non-existent in fact), I
can't do it. So you see, my dear Comrade, I am all right.

These questions you ask me:

When the Self is first seen it is like looking into a glove; and for
how many incarnations may it not be so? The material envelope throws up
before the eye of the Soul waving fumes and clouds of illusion.

The brain is only the focus through which the forces and thoughts are
centralised that are continually coming in through the solar plexus of
the heart. Many such thoughts, therefore, are lost, just as millions of
seeds in nature are lost. It behoves to study them and to guard them
when there; but can we call them our own? Or weep over them? Let us
be as wide as great Nature concerning them, and let each go on to its
own place without colouring them with our own colour and acceptance or
adhesion.

The spiral movement is the double movement of the astral light, one
spiral inside the other. The diastole and systole of the heart are
caused by that double movement of the Akasa. But do not presumptuously
grasp the movement too soon, for often even the heart moving too
rapidly destroys the life.

The brutes unconsciously are aware of the general human opposition,
which in each human being they see focalised.

It is easier to sink back into the Eternal than to dive. The diver
must needs have the power to retain breath against the rush caused by
diving, while to sink gives time to get and keep the breath.

Nothing else greatly new. Am waiting to hear of your completer health.
Sustained on the wave you will come in with the tide in time. Best love
to ---- and to ---- and to thee. May you all be well sustained. I
think I have now given you all there is. Salute most noble, brave, and
diamond-hearted! May we meet after the dust settles, and we will meet
forever in the long, long manvantaras before us all. Peace! Peace! the
path of peace and not of war: such are the words.

  As forevermore.


IX.

I do not know what to write, for I've been so occupied with people.
I am anxious about my lectures; still unprepared. I cannot naturally
reply to many of your points, because I have a retiring feeling, and
so shall not reply. Indeed, I often think how nice it would be not to
speak or write. I am no hand at those nice phrases that people like. Of
course, that does not alter my real feelings, but chickens are chickens
and often think nonsense. I want to forget and forgive all those
children and childish acts. Let us do it, and try as much as possible
to be real brothers, and thus get nearer the truth. And by work we will
defeat the enemy of Master: by still silently working.

I hope still you will emerge sooner or later all the better and the
stronger. I know you will and I do not see you dead by any means. You
are less hopeful for yourself than for others. But you have the will
and the fire to fight on to the last bone and the last moment. I only
wish I could see you all to hearten you up a little more: that is, to
talk with you, for you do not need much of the grit....

I often hear from Him now. That terrible racket cleared me up. He says
that much haste must be avoided. And that I must not let the flood
carry me off. He asks me to say to you that you have a natural rapidity
that must be guided by yourself and the best way is to wait after a
letter and to sleep on a plan. He also says that ... (I am not aware of
this, but He must be right), that you have a subtle desire to be the
first to make or propose a good plan or act. Do not let this carry
you off, but be slower as to that. It is good advice, I think, for the
additional reason that one can now and then take a plan from the head
of another.

I see the clans have been gathering. Keep it up and see to it as far as
possible that partisanship is at a low ebb and that only good, steady
loyalty and work are the main motive. _And cast no one out of your
heart._

I must ask for a calmer motion at this time. It is absolutely necessary.

A word of love to ----? I sent it. I sent many. I not only sent it
visible but also the other way. What could I say? I do not know. In
what I sent my whole heart was put. Does not ---- forever stand for
me and with me? How can I use words when the fibres of my heart are
involved? And what good is my philosophy if, when the actual taking of
---- off seemed so near, I indulged in mere words? I cannot do it. If
I try, then the words are mere rubbish, lies and unreal, as I am not
able to do this, no matter how much others can. Our real life is not in
words of love or hate or coldness but in the fiery depths of the heart.
And in those depths ---- is and was. Could I say more? No; impossible.
And even that is small and badly said.

It is true that day by day the effect of my philosophy is more apparent
on me, as yours is and will be on you, and so with us all. I see it
myself, let alone all I hear of it from others. What a world and what
a life! Yet we are born alone and must die alone, except that in the
Eternal Space all are one, and the One Reality never dies.

If ambition creeps up slowly higher and higher it will destroy all
things, for the foundations will be weak. In the end, the Master will
win, so let us breathe deep and hold fast there, as we are. And let us
hurry nothing. Eternity is here all the time. I cannot tell you how my
heart turns to you all. You know this, but a single word will do it.
_Trust!_ That was what H. P. B. said. Did she not know? Who is greater
than our old and valiant "old Lady"? Ah, were she here, what a carnage!
Wonder, anyhow, how she, or he, or it, looks at the matter? Smiling, I
suppose, at all our struggles.

Again, in storm and shine, in heat and cold, near or afar, among
friends or foes, the same in One Work.


X.

  MY DEAR COMPANION (CAMPANERO),

Your long letter and message received. All I can say is that it is
gigantically splendid, marvelously accurate. And let me then return
to you this message ... that this must prove to you that you are not
standing still.... It's all well enough to be out in the rapids as you
say I am, but what of it when I don't hear such a message as yours
myself? Thank you. It is a bugle blast from the past. Perhaps in some
other age I taught you that and now you give it to me again. When I
said in mine that in Kali Yuga more could be done than in any other
age in the same period, I stated all you say but I didn't know it. Now
your clear light falls upon it and I see it well. But fear not. You
got so familiar to me that I permitted myself to let out some of the
things that I now and then feel. But I swear to you that I do not let
them always so rush before me. Truly you have proved that your place is
"where the long roll finds you standing."

Now don't you begin to see more and more things? Don't you feel things
that you know without anyone to tell you?

My friend Urban has shown me a letter from ---- in which the latter,
feeling dark in consequence of various causes, sees no light. This is
merely the slough of despond, I tell him. We know the light is ahead,
and the experience of others shows that the darkest hour is just before
the dawn. I tell him also that strong souls are thus tried inevitably
because they rush ahead along the road to the light. In the _Finnish
Epic_ it is said that guarding a certain place are hideous serpents and
glittering spears. And so it really is.

But although such is the truth, I have also to tell him that he ought,
as far as possible, to try to ameliorate the circumstances. I will make
my meaning clear. He is living now, as you know, among people of an
opposite faith. Around them are elementals who would, if they could,
implant suspicion and distrust about those whom he reveres, or, if they
fail there, will try to cause physical ills or aggravate present ones.
In his case these have succeeded in part in causing darkness.... Now
----, while not just in that case, is surrounded, while not strong, by
those who inwardly deplore his beliefs ... and hence the elementals
are there and they quarrel with those of ---- and bring on despair,
reduce strength, and so on. I tell ---- those circumstances ought to be
ameliorated every now and then: for I know he would at once, if changed
to a better place, get better. And so I have written to him to make a
change as soon as he can.

It is highly important that no replies should be made to attacks. Get
the people to devote themselves to work and to ignoring attacks. The
opposing forces strain every nerve to irritate some or all of us so
that we may reply in irritation and precipitate more follies. Consider
solely how to improve old work, get up new work and infuse energy into
work. Otherwise the beneficent influences intended for all F.T.S. will
be nullified.

Cheer up ----, and from your standpoint tell him how to know the
distinction between the intellect and spiritual mind. Tell him how to
find out his spirit-will and to ignore a little the mental attitude
he takes. Do not point to particular instances of his own failure but
detail your own inner experience. It will do him good.

Upanishads. "Subsisting" here means, not that the self _exists_ by
reason of food, but that as a manifestation, as one causing the body to
be visible and to act, the self subsists in that state by means of the
food which is used. It is really a reversed translation, and ought to
read--as I think--"The self exists in close proximity to the heart and
causes the body to exist by reason of the food which it takes in for
its subsistence." That is, continual reference is had to the doctrine
that if the self were not there the body would not exist. Yes: it also
means that the self procures vital airs from the food which the one
life causes to be digested. For note that which you know, that did
we not take food the material unit of the trinity would die and the
self be disappointed, and then would get another body to try in again.
For is it not permitted to each one to try and set up a habit in that
material unit whereby we may as incarnated beings know the self? Then
when that is done we do not live as others; but all the same, even
then, the self must subsist, so to say, while in manifestation, by
means of food, no matter if that food be of a different character,
corresponding to the new state. Even the Devas subsist by food.
You know "they enter into that colour, or sound, or savour, at the
sacrifice, they rise in that colour, etc., and by it they live." Watch
words, ---- dear; they are traps. Catch ideas and I will understand you
by the context that you are not confined to the ordinary meanings.

I am swamped in work, but my courage is up, and I feel the help sent
from the right place.

Let us go on from place to place and from year to year; no matter who
or what claims us outwardly, we are each the property of the self.

  As forevermore and after.


XI.

  To ----.

There is a sentence in your letter not explained by J. Niemand, which,
however, needs explaining, for it is the outgrowth of an erroneous idea
in you. You say: "Can I help these ignorant elementals with mental
instruction? I tried it, but not successfully."

In all those cases where it is caused by the elementals you _cannot_.
Elementals are not ignorant. They know just as little and just as
much as you do. Most generally more. Do you not know that they are
reflectors? They merely mirror to you either your own mind, or that
mental strata caused by the age, the race, and the nation you may be
in. Their action is invariably automatic and unconscious. They care not
for what is called by you "mental instruction." They hear you not.

Do you know how they hear, or what language they understand? Not human
speech; nor ordinary human thought clothed in mental speech. That is a
dead letter to them altogether.

They can only be communicated with through correlations of colours and
sounds. But while you address yourself to them, those thoughts assume
life from elementals rushing in and attaching themselves to those
thoughts.

Do not, then, try to speak to them too much, because did you make
them know they might demand of you some boon or privilege, or become
attached to you, since in order to make them understand they must
_know_ you, and a photographic plate forgets not.

Fear them not, nor recoil in horror nor repulsion. The time of trial
must be fulfilled. Job had to wait his period until all his troubles
and diseases passed away. _Before_ that time he could do naught.

But we are not to idly sit and repine; we are to bear these trials,
meanwhile drawing new and good elementals so as to have--in western
phrase--a capital on which to draw when the time of trial has fully
passed away.

On all other points Niemand has well explained. Read both together.

Lastly; know this law, written on the walls of the temple of learning.

"Having received, freely give; having once devoted your life in
thought, to the great stream of energy in which elementals and souls
alike are carried--and which causes the pulse beat of our hearts--you
can never claim it back again. Seek, then, that mental devotion which
strains to give. For in the law it is written that we must give away
all or we lose it: as you need mental help, so do others who are
wandering in darkness seeking for light."


XII.

To-day I got your wire, "---- very low." This is a shock to me. I
hardly believe it is the end at all. I cannot believe it, there is so
much fire there. But I wired you to ask if I was to tell ----. Also
to read 2nd ch. _Bhag. Gîtâ_. That, my dear fellow, solves all these
troubles for me though it don't kill out immediate pain. Besides, it is
Karma just and wise. Defects are in us all, and if this is the taking
off why it means that a lot of obstructive Karma is thus at once and
forever worked off, and has left ---- free for greater work in better
places. I would I were there with you. Tell him how much I love him
and that in this era of Kali Yuga no sincere one, such as he, remains
long away from the work there is to do. Words are of no use. I have
sent thoughts, and those are useful, whether we are in the body or out
of it. I sent every night lately all the help I could and continued
through the day, not only to ----, but also you. It reached there, I
know, but I can't overcome Karma if it is too strong.

Tell ---- if it should come to the worst, that no regrets about
the work are needed. What has already been accomplished there will
last, and seethe and do its work for several years to come. So in
that direction there could be nothing to regret. I cannot write ----
directly: but if able to hear this--or maybe when it arrives--then head
it as if it were to him, and not to you.

So, dear ----, in the presence of your wire this is all I can write.
You know my feelings, and I need not say any more

  As Ever.


XIII.

You did right to send me that letter. Of course, I am sorry to hear
from you in that way, but am glad that you wrote. Let me tell you
something--will you believe it? You are not in nearly such a bad way
as you think, and your letter, which you sent me unreservedly, shews
it. Can you not, from the ordinary standpoint of worldly wisdom, see
it so? For your letter shews this; a mind and lower nature in a whirl,
not in the ordinary sense, but as though, figuratively speaking, it
were whirling in a narrow circle, seemingly dead, kept alive by its own
motion. And above it a human soul, not in any hurry, but waiting for
its hour to strike. And I tell you that I know it will strike.

If so far as your personal consciousness goes you have lost all desire
for progress, for service, for the inner life--what has that to do
with it? Do you not think that others have had to go through with
all of that and worse; a positive aversion, may be, with everything
connected with Theosophy? Do you not know that it takes a nature with
some strength in it to sink very low, and that the mere fact of having
the power to sink low may mean that the same person in time may rise to
a proportionately greater height? That is not the highest path to go
but it is one that many have to tread. The highest is that which goes
with little variation, but few are strong enough to keep up the never
ceasing strain. Time alone can give them that strength and many ages of
service. But meanwhile there is that other to be travelled. Travel it
bravely.

You have got the ----, which of the hells do you think you are in? Try
to find out and look at the corresponding heaven. It is very near. And
I do not say this to bolster you up artificially, for that would be of
no use and would not last, even if I were to succeed in doing it. I
write of facts and I think that somewhere in your nature you are quite
well aware that I do so.

Now what is to be done: * * * * In my opinion you should deliberately
give yourself a year's trial. Write and tell me at the end of that year
(and meantime as often as you feel called upon to do so, which will
not be very often) how you then feel, and if you do not feel inclined
to go on and stick to it I will help you all I can. But you must do it
yourself, in spite of not wanting to do it. You can.

Make up your mind that in some part of your nature somewhere there is
that which desires to be of use to the world. Intellectually realise
that that world is not too well off and probably wants a helping hand.
Recognise mentally that you should try to work for it sooner or later.
Admit to yourself that another part of your nature--and if possible see
that it is the lower part--does not care in the least about the world
or its future, but that such care and interest should be cultivated.
This cultivation will of course take time: all cultivation does. Begin
by degrees. Assert constantly to yourself that you intend to work and
that you will do so. Keep that up all the time. Do not put any time
limit to it, but take up the attitude that you are working towards that
end. Begin by doing ten minutes' work every day of any sort, study,
or the addressing of envelopes, or anything, so long as it be done
deliberately and with that object in view. If a day comes when this is
too irksome, knock it off for that day. Give yourself three or four
days' rest and do it deliberately. Then go back to your ten minutes'
work. At the end of six or seven weeks you will know what to add to
that practice: but go slowly, do nothing in a hurry, be deliberate.

Don't try to feel more friendly to this or that person--more actively
friendly I should have said. Such things must spring up of their own
accord and will do so in time. But do not feel surprised that you
feel _all_ compassion die out of you in some ways. That too is an old
story. It is all right because it does not last. Do not be too anxious
to get results from the practice I have outlined above. Do not look
for any: you have no concern with them if you do all that as a duty.
And finally, do not forget, my dear fellow, that the dead do come to
life and that the coldest thing in the world may be made hot by gentle
friction. So I wish you luck, and wish I could do more for you. But I
will do what I can.


XIV.

Now this is, as I said, an era. I called it that of Western Occultism,
but you may give it any name you like. But it is western. The symbol
is the well-intended American Republic, which was seen by Tom Paine
beforehand "as a new era in the affairs of the world." It was meant as
near as possible to be a brotherhood of nations, and that is the drift
of its declaration and constitution. The T.S. is meant to be the same,
but has for many years been in a state of friction. It has now, if
possible, to come out of that. It cannot be a brotherhood unless each,
or some, of its units becomes a brother in truth. And _brother_ was the
noble name given in 1875 to the Masters. Hence you and I and all of us
must cultivate that. We must forgive our enemies and those who assail
us, for only thus can the great brothers properly help by working
through us. There seems to be a good deal to forgive, but it is easily
done inasmuch as in fifty years we'll all be gone and forgot.

Cut off, then, thoughts about those "foolish children" until harmonious
vibrations ensue to some extent. That absurdity ... let go. I have
deliberately refrained from jumping at such a grand chance. So you see
forgive, forgive and largely forget. Come along, then, and with me get
up as fast as possible the feeling of brotherhood.

Now then, you want more light, and this is what you must do. You will
have to "give up" something. To wit: have yourself called half an
hour earlier than is usual and devote it _before_ breakfast to silent
meditation, in which brood upon all great and high ideas. Half an hour!
Surely that you can spare. And don't eat first. If you can take another
half _before_ you go to bed and without any preliminaries of undressing
and making things agreeable or more comfortable, meditate again.
Now don't fail me in this. This is much to give up, but give it up,
recollecting that you are not to make all those preparations indulged
in by people.... "The best and most important teacher is one's seventh
principle centered in the sixth. The more you divest yourself of the
illusionary sense of personal isolation, and the more you are devoted
to the service of others, the more Maya disappears and the nearer you
approach to Divinity." Good-bye, then, and may you find that peace that
comes from the self.


XV.

In answer to your questions:

(1) Clothes and astral form.

Answer.--You are incorrect in assuming that clothes have no astral
form. Everything in nature has its double on other planes, the facts
being that nothing visible in matter or space could be produced without
such a basis. The clothes are seen as well as the person because they
exist on the astral plane as well as he. Besides this, the reason why
people are seen on the astral plane with clothes of various cut and
colour, is because of the thought and desire of the person, which
clothes him thus. Hence a person may be seen in the astral light
wearing there a suit of clothes utterly unlike what he has on, because
his thought and desire were on another suit, more comfortable, more
appropriate, or what not.

(2) What can true and earnest Theosophists do against the Black Age or
Kali Yuga?

Answer.--Nothing _against_ it but a great deal _in_ it; for it is to
be remembered that the very fact of its being the iron or foundation
age gives opportunities obtained in no other. It is only a quarter as
long as the longest of the other ages, and it is therefore crammed
four times as full of life and activity. Hence the rapidity with which
all things come to pass in it. A very slight cause produces gigantic
effects. To aspire ever so little now will bring about greater and more
lasting effects for good than at any other time. And similarly evil
intent has greater powers for evil. These great forces are visibly
increased at the close of certain cycles in the Kali Yuga. The present
cycle, which closes Nov. 17th, 1897-Feb. 18th, 1898, is one of the most
important of any that have been. Opportunities for producing permanent
effects for good in themselves and in the world as a whole, are given
to Theosophists at the present time, which they may never have again if
these are scattered.


XVI.

The Masters have written that we are all bound together in one living
whole. Hence the thoughts and acts of one react upon all.

Experience has shewn that it is true, as said by Masters, that any
sincere member in any town can help the T.S. and benefit his fellow
townsmen. It is not high learning that is needed, but solely devotion
to humanity, faith in Masters, in the Higher Self, a comprehension
of the fundamental truths of Theosophy and a little, only a little,
sincere attempt to present those fundamental truths to a people who are
in desperate need of them. That attempt should be continuous. No vain
striving to preach or prove phenomena will be of any value, for, as
again Masters have written, one phenomenon demands another and another.

What the people want is a practical solution of the troubles besetting
us, and that solution you have in Theosophy. Will you not try to give
it to them more and more and save ---- from the slough it is in?

I would distinctly draw your attention to Brother ----. There is not
that complete sympathy and toleration between him and you there ought
to be, and for the sake of the work it should be otherwise. You may say
that it is his fault. It is not wholly, for you must also be somewhat
to blame, if not in this life then from another past one. Can you deny
that for a long period he has held up the Branch there? for if he had
not it would have died out, even though you also were necessary agents.

Have any of you had unkind or revengeful feelings to him? If so, ought
you not to at once drive them out of your hearts. For I swear to you
on my life that if you have been troubled or unfortunate it is by the
reaction from such or similar thoughts about him or others. Drive them
all out of your hearts, and present such kindliness and brotherliness
to him that he shall, by the force of your living kindness, be drawn
into full unity and co-operation with you.

Discussion or proofs to shew that you are all right and he wrong avail
nothing. We are none of us ever in the right, there is always that in
us that causes another to offend. The only discussion should be to the
end that you may find out how to present to the world in your district,
one simple, solid, united front.

As to the expression "seeing sounds," this you understand, of course,
so far as the statement goes. It records the fact that at one time
the vibrations which cause a sound now were then capable of making a
picture, and this they do yet on the astral plane.


XVII.

  In reply to your question:

Neither the general law nor the Lodge interferes to neutralise the
effect of strain upon the disciple's physical energies when caused by
undue exertion or want of regularity, except in certain cases. Hence
the Theosophist is bound to see that his arrangement of hours for
sleep, work and recreation are properly arranged and adjusted, as he
has no right to so live as to break himself down, and thus deprive the
cause he works for of a useful and necessary instrument.

Your friend's energies have been disarranged and somewhat exhausted by
irregularities as to rest and recreation, since work has been hard and
required rest--whether asleep or awake--has not been had. This causes
excitement, which will (or has) react in many different ways in the
system and upon the organs. It causes mental excitement which again
raises other disturbance. He, like anyone else, should take measures
so as to insure regularity as to rest, so that what work he does shall
be better and the present excitement subside in the system. It is not
wise to remain up late unless for good purposes, and it is not that to
merely remain with others to late hours when nothing good or necessary
can be accomplished. Besides other reasons, that is a good one.

Excitement is heat; if heat be applied to heat, more is produced.
Coolness must be applied so as to create an equilibrium. This applies
in that case, and the establishment of regularity in the matter of
rest is the application of coolness. Second, the various exciting and
"wrongful" acts or thoughts of others are heat; coolness is to be
produced by discharging the mind of those and ceasing to refer to them
in words, otherwise the engendered heat will continue. It is needless
to refer to reasons resting on the points of conduct and example, for
those anyone is capable of finding and applying.

As there is no hurry, it is easy to divest the mind of anxiety and the
irritation arising from hurry. Again, comparison of one's own work or
ways of doing things better than others is wrong and also productive of
the heat above spoken of.


XVIII.

You are right in thinking that the essential principles of Theosophy
are often stated without the use of that name, for it is the only
universal fundamental system which underlies the religions of every
age. The New Testament, rightly understood, teaches Theosophy, and
we know that both Jesus and St. Paul were initiates. Of course, in
Theosophy, as in any other Science, one understands more as one reads
more, and I recommend you to read and digest such of our books as you
can conveniently procure.

Now in respect to the questions you ask, let me say that Theosophy
requires no man to abandon a mode of life which is not in itself wrong.
The use of meat diet is not a sin; it is not even an offence; it is
a habit which the race has now largely conformed to, and is not a
question of morals or right. At a certain stage of advance as a chela
or disciple, the use of meat food has to be abandoned because of its
psychical and physiological effects. But you have not reached that
stage, nor is it likely that you will for a long time. As the use of
meat is not an offence, so neither can be the supply of it to others,
so that your assisting in killing hogs for market is in no way opposed
to your duty as a man or as a Theosophist. That being your duty in
present circumstances, I should recommend you to perform it without
hesitation.

Men and women are complementary in character, and therefore adapted
to each other. It is natural that each sex should enjoy the company
of the other, and what is natural cannot be wrong. Moreover, it is
perfectly proper that when a suitable mate is found a man should marry
and settle down as a householder, bringing up a family with right views
and high purposes. He contributes a service to humanity, who puts
to take his place after his death, children who reproduce his true
and altruistic life. Consequently, if you find a suitable match and
desire matrimony, there can be no possible reason why you should not
carry out such a purpose. Like the abstention from meat, celibacy is
essential to advance after a certain stage, but that stage has not yet
been reached by you, and you cannot, therefore, be subjected to its
conditions. There can be no one rule laid down for all human beings,
inasmuch as the temperaments and desires are so different. Each must
work out the problem of life in his own way. If your aspirations are so
set on higher things that you find the lower a hindrance, it is evident
that you should not indulge in the latter; but if you are not so
hindered, then no less a duty is yours. You are right in thinking that
the essential to all true progress is a wish to conform utterly to the
Divine Will, we being certain that we shall be helped in proportion, as
is our need.


XIX.

Yes, you are right. I am in danger, but that danger is not on the
outside, although it is on the outside that attempts are brought
forward. And in some sense all those with me are in danger too. It is a
danger from ---- which ever tries to forestall the steps of those who
travel forward. So too, my Dear, you are in the same sort of danger.
But while the danger is there, yet there is encouragement in the fact
itself. For we would not be so placed if we had not been so fortunate
as to have progressed through work and patience to the point where ----
sees enough in us to try and stop progress and hinder our work. Hence,
if they see they cannot stop us, they try all plans to get up strife,
so as to nullify our work. But we will win, for knowing the danger we
take measures against it. I am determined not to fail. Others may; but
---- and I will not. Let us then await all suffering with confidence
and hope. The very fact that you suffer so much is objective evidence
of progress, even though so painful, not only to you but to those who
love you. So while I do not say "suffer on," I am comforted by the
knowledge that it will be for great good in the future. So I am writing
this, instead of machining it, in order that you may feel the force of
my love and comradeship.

Let us all draw closer together in mind and heart, soul and act,
and try thus to make that true brotherhood through which alone our
universal and particular progress can come.

To thee, oh holder of the flame, my love I send. Well, I go again, but
never do I forget. My best love and blessing to thee. I cannot speak of
these things, but thou knowest.

And now, as formerly, and as now, and as forever and forevermore.


XX.

Doubts and questions have arisen as to some things since the present
cloud gathered. Among others it has been said that it were better that
---- had left the chair: it would be well for him to go, and so on.
These views should not be held. If held, they should be dismissed.
There are two forces at work in the T.S., as well as in the world and
in man. These are the good and the bad. We cannot help this: it is
the Law. But we have rules, and we have preached of love and truth
and kindness; and above all, we have spoken of gratitude, not only
of Masters, but among us. Now this applies to this question of ----.
Again, he may be incompetent ... and yet be competent for the little he
has to do.... Now let me tell you: the work must not fail because here
and there personalities fall, and sin, and are unwise. TRUTH remains,
and IT IS, whoever falls: but the multitude look to the visible leader.
If he falls apart like an unjointed puzzle, at once they say, "there
is no truth there, nothing which is": and the work of a century is
ruined and must be rebuilt again from its foundations, and years of
backward tendency must come between the wreck of one undertaking and
the beginning of another. Let me say one thing I KNOW: only the feeling
of true brotherhood, of true love towards humanity aroused in the soul
of someone strong enough to stem this tide, can carry us through.
For LOVE and TRUST are the only weapons that can overcome the REAL
enemies against which the true theosophist must fight. If I, or you,
go into this battle from pride, from self-will, from desire to hold
our position in the face of the world, from anything but the purest
motives, we shall fail. Let us search ourselves well and look at it
as we never looked before: see if there is in us the reality of the
brotherhood which we preach and which we are supposed to represent.

Let us remember those famous words: "Be ye wise as serpents and harmless
as doves." Let us remember the teaching of the Sages that death in the
performance of our duty is preferable to the doing by us of the duty of
another, however well we may do the latter: the duty of another is full
of danger. Let us be of and for peace, and not for war alone.


XXI.

It is true ---- suffered through my cold and hard feelings. But it was
her fault, for I say now as then to ---- that she, absorbed in ----,
neglected my members, who are my children, and for whom I wanted her
best and got her worst. That made me cold, of course, and I had to
fight it, and didn't care if ---- did not like it: I have no time to
care. I am glad she has gone to ----. It is her trial and her chance
and when she sets back she can see for herself if she is able to
prevent the "big head" from coming on as has happened with others. If
she does, then she will have stood the reaction and I have faith she
will stand; but still it has to be met. Time comes on sure, and with it
trial. H. P. B. was her preparer and comfort, but men are not made into
steel by comfort, and note that H. P. B. then died off.

My trip all over this country shows me that it is of more consequence
that I should now work up the U. S., where the Masters first worked in
this century. It needs all I can do.... So when I have fulfilled my
engagement on the English stage I shall skip back here quickly and do
this work. The field is even greater than I thought, although I had a
big idea of it. From the United States we can affect the world and they
will come to us from all places either for solid work or for help in
their need....

Well now, of you: I feel it all. It is up, and down. It is well you
are courageous, and to endure you are able. Indeed endure is the best
word, for that is what the oak does when the storms rage, for it is
better to endure when we can do nothing than to faint and fall. The
facts are to be faced. I hope they may turn out otherwise, but if not,
it is Karma. Aside from pain, it is the same as anything else. If it
comes, it will not last long. Still, I hope it cometh not. I think much
of it, but know the bravery of you and the high soul that dwells there.
All the time of pain and dogged fighting I know your real self sits up
above it all unaffected, and so does mine, and from that let us take
comfort. All things in this age move like lightning and so with all
our Karma, though mine has so often seemed slow, so far as concerns
me. Well, I cannot go on with this: I feel as you do: I stand by you
in heart and have often of late sent you messages of hope and power to
help you.

I advised ---- to do her part to lessening the constant bringing
forward of the name of H. P. B., instead of independent thought on
Theosophy. We have too much of it and it is no proof of loyalty, and
it gives rise to much of the foolish talk of our dogmatism. You will
understand, and may be able to influence some to a more moderate though
firm attitude that will not lessen their loyalty and devotion. One good
point is that the true chêla does not talk much of his Master and often
does not refer to that Master's existence. It has almost become the
same as unnecessarily waving the red flag to a bull. Those of us who
have experience do not do it; but the younger ones do. X ---- does it
here in his speeches and I am going to speak to him of it. If it be not
avoided the first thing we know there will be a split between the H. P.
B.'ers and the theosophists _pur sang_, the latter claiming to be the
real thing because devoid of any personal element. You and I and ----
do not find it necessary all the time to be flinging her (H. P. B.) in
the faces of others, and it is well now to take the warning offered
from the outside. Besides, I have had a very strong inside warning on
it. My best love now that we are near Christmas and New Year, and may
there be some sunshine to light the path. I send you my love unsullied
by a mere gift.

I hope ---- will be firm and proceed as indicated, but she, like us
all, must meet her own old enemies in herself.

Again I go, as for evermore.


XXII.

Great excitement last night. It was the regular night of ---- T.S. and
---- was to speak. We got there at 8:15, and it was full. He began and
had just been fifteen minutes when it was discovered that the building
was on fire. We stopped and let 1,000 people in the various halls get
out, then quietly went and none were hurt, only two, ---- and ----,
getting a few quarts of water from a burst hose.

It was a queer exit, for we went downstairs beside the elevator, and
glass, bricks and water were falling down the light well, while the
fire on the top stories of it roared and made a fine light, and streams
of fire ran down the oily elevator pipes on the other side; and firemen
pulled up hose neck or nothing as we got away. It was ----'s own
meeting, and it ended in fire! None of the great psychics present had
had the remotest premonition, but one invented afterwards an _ex post
facto_ sense of terror.

Tell ---- the time has passed for him to vacillate; he knows his guru:
she was and is H. P. B.; let him reflect ere he does that which, in
wrecking her life and fame, will wreck his own life by leaving him
where nothing that is true may be seen.... Silence is useful now and
then, but silence sometimes is a thing that speaks too loud. I am his
friend and will help. No one can hurt him but himself; his work and
sacrifice were noble and none can point at him.

See what I said in the opening vol. of _The Path_: that the study of
what is now called "practical occultism" was not the object of that
journal. "We regard it as incidental to the journey along the path.
The traveller, in going from one city to another, has perhaps to cross
several rivers; maybe his conveyance fails him and he is obliged to
swim, or he must, in order to pass a great mountain, know engineering
in order to tunnel through it, or is compelled to exercise the art of
locating his exact position by observation of the sun: but all that
is only incidental to his main object of reaching his destination. We
admit the existence of hidden, powerful forces in nature, and believe
that every day greater progress is made towards an understanding of
them. Astral body formation, clairvoyance, looking into the astral
light, and controlling elementals is all possible, but not all
profitable. The electrical current, which when resisted in the carbon
produces intense light, may be brought into existence by any ignoramus
who has the key to the engine-room and can turn the crank that starts
the dynamo, but is unable to prevent his fellow man or himself from
being instantly killed, should that current accidentally be diverted
through his body. The control of these hidden forces is not easily
obtained, nor can phenomena be produced without danger, and in our view
the attainment of true wisdom is not by means of phenomena, but through
the development which begins within. True occultism is clearly set
forth in the _Bhagavat Gita_ and _Light on the Path_, where sufficient
stress is laid upon practical occultism, but after all, Krishna says,
the kingly science and the kingly mystery is devotion to and study
of the light which comes from within. The very first step in true
mysticism and true occultism is to try and apprehend the meaning of
Universal Brotherhood, without which the very highest progress in the
practise of magic turns to ashes in the mouth.

"We appeal, therefore, to all who wish to raise themselves and their
fellow creatures--man and beast--out of the thoughtless jog-trot of
selfish everyday life. It is not thought that Utopia can be established
in a day: but through the spreading of the idea of Universal
Brotherhood, the truth in all things may be discovered. What is wanted
is true knowledge of the spiritual condition of man, his aim and
destiny. Such a study leads us to accept the utterance of Prajapati to
his sons: 'Be restrained, be liberal, be merciful,' it is the death of
selfishness."

This is the line for us to take and to persevere in, that all may in
time obtain the true light.

       *       *       *       *       *

    THE LIGHT OF THE EYE FADETH, THE HEARING LEAVETH THE EAR, BUT THE
    POWER TO SEE AND TO HEAR NEVER DESERTETH THE IMMORTAL BEING, WHICH
    LIVETH FOREVER UNTOUCHED AND UNDIMINISHED.--

  _Book of Items._




EXTRACTS


XXIII.

ON THEOSOPHY AND THE T.S.

All the work that any of us do anywhere redounds to the interest and
benefit of the whole T.S., and for that reason we know that we are
united.

The Self is one and all-powerful, but it must happen to the seeker
from time to time that he or she shall feel the strangeness of new
conditions; this is not a cause for fear. If the mind is kept intent
on the Self and not diverted from it, and comes to see the Self in all
things, no matter what, then fear should pass away in time. I would
therefore advise you to study and meditate over the _Bhagavat Gita_,
which is a book that has done me more good than all others in the whole
range of books, and is the one that can be studied all the time.

This will do more good than anything, if the great teachings are
silently assimilated and put into action, for it goes to the very root
of things and gives the true philosophy of life.

If you try to put into practice what in your inner life you hold to be
right, you will be more ready to receive helpful thoughts and the inner
life will grow more real. I hope with you that your home may become a
strong centre of work for Theosophy.

       *       *       *       *       *

You want to know the inner situation of the T.S., well, it is just
this: we have all worked along for eighteen years, and the T.S. as a
body has its karma as well as each one in it. Those in it who have
worked hard, of course, have their own karma, and have brought
themselves to a point ahead of the T.S. Now, if the branches are
weak in their knowledge of Theosophy, and in their practise of its
precepts and their understanding of the whole thing, the body is in the
situation of the child who has been growing too fast for its strength,
and if that be the case it is bound to have a check. For my part I do
not want any great rush, since I too well know how weak even those
long in it are. As to individuals, say you, ... and so on. By reason
of hard and independent work you have got yourselves in the inner
realm just where you may soon begin to get the attention of the Black
Magicians, who then begin to try to knock you out, so beware. Attempts
will be silently made to arouse irritation, and to increase it where
it now exists. So the only thing to do is to live as much as possible
in the higher nature, and each one to crush out the small and trifling
ebullitions of the lower nature which ordinarily are overlooked, and
thus strength is gained in the whole nature, and the efforts of the
enemy made nil. This is of the highest importance, and if not attended
to it will be sad. This is what I had in view in all the letters I have
sent to you and others. I hope you will be able to catch hold of men,
here and there, who will take the right, true, solid view, and be left
thus behind you as good men and good agents.

       *       *       *       *       *

When I was in ---- I broached to you and others the plan of getting
Theosophy to the working people. Has anything been done? It must be
simply put. It can be understood. It is important. Let us see if this
thing cannot be done; you all promised to go to work at it. Why not
turn, like the Bible man, to the byways and hedges from all these
people who will not come? Then I feel sure that, if managed right, a
lot of people who believe in Theosophy but don't want to come out for
it, would help such a movement, seeing that it would involve talking
to the poor and giving them sensible stuff. If need be, I'd hold a
meeting every night, and not give them abstractions. Add music, if
possible, etc. Now let me hear your ideas. Time rolls on and many queer
social changes are on the way.

       *       *       *       *       *

I have your long letter from ---- and you are right as to conduct of
Branches. No Branch should depend on one person, for, if so, it will
slump, sure; nor on two or three either. Here they depended on me for
a long time, and my bad health in voice for a year was a good thing as
it made the others come forward. ---- is right enough in his way, but
certainly he ought to be fitting himself for something in addition to
speaking, as the T.S. has to have a head as well as a tongue; and if a
man knows he is bad at business, he should mortify himself by making
himself learn it, and thus get good discipline. We sadly need at all
places some true enthusiasts. But all that will come in time. The main
thing is for the members to study and know Theosophy, for if they do
not know it how can they give any of it to others? Of course, at all
times most of the work falls upon the few, as is always the case, but
effort should be made, as you say, to bring out other material.

       *       *       *       *       *

... I am abundantly sure that you are quite correct in saying that it
is the Branches which work that flourish, and that those addicted to
"Parlour Talks" soon squabble and dwindle. You have gone right to the
root of the matter. So, also, I agree with you, heart and soul, in
what you say as to the policy of a timid holding and setting forth of
Theosophy. Nothing can be gained by such a policy, and all experience
points to energy and decision as essential to any real advance.

       *       *       *       *       *

You are, I think, quite right to attempt to get all members to work
for their individual advance, by working for their Branches. By
doing things in this way, they provide an additional safeguard for
themselves, while forming a centre from which Theosophical thought can
radiate out to help and encourage others who are only beginning their
upward way.

       *       *       *       *       *

I find that you state my view exactly. That view is that the A B C of
Theosophy should be taught all the time, and this not only for the
sake of outsiders, but also for the sake of the members who are, I
very well know, not so far along as to need the elaborate work all the
time. And it is just because the members are not well grounded that
they are not able themselves to get in more inquirers. Just as you say,
if the simple truths practically applied as found in Theosophy are
presented, you will catch at last some of the best people, real workers
and valuable members. And Theosophy can best be presented in a simple
form by one who has mastered the elements as well as "the nature of
the Absolute." It is just this floating in the clouds which sometimes
prevents a Branch from getting on. And I fully agree, also, that if
the policy I have referred to should result temporarily in throwing
off some few persons it would be a benefit, for you would find others
coming to take their places. And I can agree with you, furthermore, out
of actual experience.

       *       *       *       *       *

You by no means need to apologise for asking my attention to the matter
of your joining the Theosophical Society. It is my great desire and
privilege to give to all sincere enquirers whatever information I may
possess, and certainly there can be no greater pleasure than to further
the internal progress of any real student and aspirant. I think you
quite right in wishing to identify yourself with the Theosophical
Society, not only because that is the natural and obvious step for
anyone sincerely interested; but also because each additional member
with right spirit strengthens the body for its career and work.

       *       *       *       *       *

In taking advantage of an opportunity to introduce Theosophy into the
secular press you are doing exactly the work which is so invaluable to
the Society, and which I so constantly urge upon our members. It is
in this way that so very many persons are reached who would otherwise
be quite inaccessible, and the amount of good which seed thus sown
can accomplish is beyond our comprehension. You have my very hearty
approval of and encouragement in your work and I am very sure that that
work will not be without fruit.

       *       *       *       *       *

NEW YORK, _October 11th, 1892_.--This is the era of _Western
Occultism_. We are now to stand shoulder to shoulder in the U.S. to
present it and enlarge it in view of coming cussedness, attacks which
will be in the line of trying to impose solely Eastern disciples on us.
The Masters are not Eastern or Western, but universal.

       *       *       *       *       *

I shall be glad to give you any information possible respecting
Theosophy and the Theosophical Society, but I think you err in
supposing that the purpose of either is to encourage the study of
what is known as the Occult Arts. Knowledge concerning, and control
of, the finer forces of nature are not things which should be sought
after at our elementary stage of progress, nor would such attainment
be appropriate, even if possible, to anyone who had not thoroughly
mastered the principles of Theosophy itself.

Mere desire for powers is a form of selfishness, and receives no
encouragement from our Teachers. Mme. Blavatsky stated this matter
very clearly indeed in an article published in _Lucifer_, entitled
"Occultism _versus_ the Occult Arts." When persons without a large
preliminary training in the real Wisdom-Religion seek knowledge on
the Occult plane they are very apt, from inexperience and inadequate
culture, to drift into black magic. I have no power to put you into
communication with any adept to guide you in a course of Occult study,
nor would it be of service to you if the thing was possible. The
Theosophical Society was not established for any such purpose, nor
could anyone receive instructions from an adept until he was ripe for
it. In other words, he must undergo a long preliminary training in
knowledge, self-control, and the subjugation of the lower nature before
he would be in any way fit for instruction on the higher planes. What I
recommend you to do is to study the elementary principles of Theosophy
and gain some idea of your own nature as a human being and as an
individual, but drop entirely all ambition for knowledge or power which
would be inappropriate to your present stage, and to correct your whole
conception of Theosophy and Occultism.


XXIV.

ON MASTERS.

I think the way for all western theosophists is through H. P. B. I
mean that as she is the T.S. incarnate, its mother and guardian, its
creator, the Karmic laws would naturally provide that all who drew this
life through her belonged to her, and if they denied her, they need not
hope to reach ...: for how can they deny her who gave this doctrine
to the western world? They share her Karma to little purpose, if they
think they can get round this identification and benefit, and ... want
no better proof that a man does not comprehend their philosophy. This
would, of course, bar him from ... by natural laws (of growth). I do
not mean that in the ordinary business sense she must forward their
applications or their merits; I mean that they who do not understand
the basic mutual relation, who under value _her_ gift and _her_
creation, have not imbibed the teaching and cannot assimilate its
benefits.

She must be understood as being what she is to the T.S., or Karma (the
law of compensation, or of cause and effect) is not understood, or the
first laws of occultism. People ought to _think_ of this: we are too
much given to supposing that events are chances, or have no connection
with ourselves: each event is an effect of the Law.

       *       *       *       *       *

What should be done is to realise that "the Master-Soul is one" with
all that that implies; to know the meaning of the old teaching,
"Thou art That." When this is done we may with impunity identify our
consciousness with that of anything in nature; not before. But to do
this is a lifetime's work, and beforehand we have to exhaust all Karma,
which means duty; we must live for others and then we will find out all
we _should_ know, not what we would _like_ to know.

Devotion and aspiration will, and do, help to bring about a proper
attitude of mind, and to raise the student to a higher plane, and
also they secure for the student help which is unseen by him, for
devotion and aspiration put the student into a condition in which aid
can be given to him, though he may, as yet, be unconscious of it. But
conscious communication with one's Master can only be accomplished
after _long_ training and study. What a student has to do, and is able
to do, is to fit himself to receive this training.

       *       *       *       *       *

The recognition from a Guru will come when you are ready, and my advice
to you is that, if possible, you put away from yourself the desire for
such recognition; for such desire will hinder you. If you will read
the _Bhagavat Gîtâ_, especially chapters ii. and iii., I think you
will find much to help you. There it says: "Let, then, the motive for
action be in the action itself, not in the event. Do not be incited
to actions by the hope of their reward ... perform thy duty ... and
laying aside all desire for any benefit to thyself from action, make
the event equal to thee, whether it be success or failure." It is but
natural that a student should hope for recognition from a Master, but
this desire is to be put aside, and that work is to be done which lies
before each. At the same time each one knows that the effect follows
the cause, hence whatever our due, we shall receive it at the right
time.

       *       *       *       *       *

Every Chêla (and we are all that once we determine to be) has these
same difficulties. Patience and fortitude! For an easy birth is not
always a good one. The kingdom of heaven is only taken by violence,
and not by weakness of attack. Your constant aspiration persevered in
secret has led you to that point where just these troubles come to all.
Console yourself with the thought that others have been in the same
place and have lived through it by patience and fortitude.... Fix your
thoughts again on Those Elder Brothers, work for Them, serve Them, and
They will help through the right appropriate means and no other. To
meditate on the Higher Self is difficult. Seek then, the bridge, the
Masters. "Seek the truth by strong search," by doing service, and by
enquiry, and Those who know the Truth will teach it. Give up doubt, and
arise in your place with patience and fortitude. Let the warrior fight,
the gentle yet fierce Krishna, who, when he finds thee as his disciple
and his friend, will tell thee the truth and lighten up the darkness
with the lamp of spiritual knowledge.

       *       *       *       *       *

Attacks cannot hurt, they must needs come, but all we have to do is to
keep right on, working steadily, and Masters will see after the rest.
For, that which is done in Their name will come right; and this whole
thing has arisen because I have chosen to proclaim my personal belief
in the existence of these beings of grandeur. So, let us shake again
with the confidence born from the knowledge of the wisdom of the Unseen
Leaders, and we go forth separately once more, again to the work, if
even not to meet until another incarnation is ours. But meeting then,
we shall be all the stronger for having kept faith now.

       *       *       *       *       *

I am glad that you have such a faith in the Great Workers who are
behind us. They _are_ behind us, to my personal knowledge, and not
behind me only, but behind all sincere workers. I know that their
desire is that each should listen to the voice of his inner self and
not depend too much on outside people, whether they be Masters, Eastern
disciples or what not. By a dependence of that kind you become at last
thoroughly independent, and then the unseen helpers are able to help
all the more.

       *       *       *       *       *

We are all human and thus weak and sinful. In that respect in which
we are better than others, they are better than we are in some other
way. We would be self-righteous to judge others by our own standard....
Are we so wise as never to act foolishly? Not at all.... Indeed I have
come to the conclusion that in this nineteenth century a pledge is no
good, because everyone reserves to himself the right to break it if he
finds after a while that it is galling, or that it puts him in some
inconsistent attitude with something he may have said or done at some
other time.... In ----'s case, ... everyone should never think but the
very best, no matter what the evidences are. Why, if the Masters were
to judge us exactly as They must know we are, then good-bye at once.
We would all be sent packing. But Masters deal kindly with us in the
face of greater knowledge of our thoughts and evil thoughts from which
none are yet exempt. This is my view, and you will please me much if
you will be able to turn into the same, and to spread it among those
on the inside who have it not. It is easy to do well by those we like,
it is our duty to make ourselves do and think well by those we do not
like. Masters say we think in grooves, and but few have the courage to
fill those up and go on other lines. Let us who are willing to make the
attempt try to fill up these grooves, and make new and better ones.

... Keep up your courage, faith and charity. _Those who can to
any extent assimilate the Master, to that extent they are the
representatives of the Master, and have the help of the Lodge in its
work...._ Bear up, firm heart, be strong, be bold and kind, and spread
your strength and boldness.

       *       *       *       *       *

H. P. B. then said that it is by falling and by failing that we learn,
and we cannot hope at once to be great and wise and wholly strong.
She and the Masters behind expected this from all of us; she and They
never desired any of us to work blindly, but only desired that we work
unitedly.

       *       *       *       *       *

H. P. B. wrote me in 1890: "Be more charitable for others than for
yourself, and more severe on yourself than on others." This is good
advice. A strain always weakens the fibres and produces friction. I
hope all misunderstandings will fly away.


XXV.

ON OCCULT PHILOSOPHY.

Begin by trying to conquer the habit, almost universal, of pushing
yourself forward. This arises from personality. Do not monopolise the
conversation. Keep in the background. If someone begins to tell you
about himself and his doings, do not take first chance to tell him
about yourself, but listen to him and talk solely to bring him out.
And when he has finished suppress in yourself the desire to tell about
yourself, your opinions and experiences. Do not ask a question unless
you intend to listen to the answer and inquire into its value. Try
to recollect that you are a very small affair in the world, and that
the people around do not value you at all and grieve not when you are
absent. Your only true greatness lies in your inner true self and it is
not desirous of obtaining the applause of others. If you will follow
these directions for one week you will find they will take considerable
effort, and you will begin to discover a part of the meaning of the
saying, "Man, know thyself."

It is not necessary to be conscious of the progress one has made.
Nor is the date in any sense an extinguisher, as some have styled
it. In these days we are too prone to wish to know everything all at
once, especially in relation to ourselves. It may be desirable and
encouraging to be thus conscious, but it is not necessary. We make a
good deal of progress in our inner, hidden life of which we are not at
all conscious. We do not know of it until some later life. So in this
case many may be quite beyond the obstacles and not be conscious of
it. It is best to go on with duty, and to refrain from this trying to
take stock and measuring of progress. All of our progress is in the
inner nature, and not in the physical where lives the brain, and from
which the present question comes. The apparent physical progress is
evanescent. It is ended when the body dies, at which time, if the inner
man has not been allowed to guide us, the natural record against us
will be a cipher, or "failure." Now, as the great Adepts live in the
plane of our inner nature, it must follow that they might be actively
helping every one of us after the date referred to, and we, as physical
brain men, not be conscious of it on this plane.

... I strongly advise you to give up all yoga practices, which in
almost all cases have disastrous results unless guided by a competent
teacher. The concussions and explosions in your head are evidences that
you are in no fit condition to try yoga practices, for they result
from lesions of the brain, _i.e._, from the bursting of the very
minute brain cells. I am glad you have written to me upon this matter,
that I may have an opportunity of warning you. Also I advise you to
discontinue concentration on the vital centres, which again may prove
dangerous unless under the guidance of a teacher. You have learnt, to a
certain degree, the power of concentration, and the greatest help will
now come to you from concentration upon the Higher Self, and aspiration
toward the Higher Self. Also if you will take some subject or sentence
from the _Bhagavat Gîtâ_, and concentrate your mind upon that and
meditate upon it, you will find much good result from it, and there is
no danger in such concentration.

       *       *       *       *       *

As to the question about the disintegration of the astral body and
the length of time beforehand when it could be seen. My answer was
not meant to be definite as to years, except that I gave a period
of two years as a long one before the death of the physical body.
There are cases--perhaps rare--in which five years before the death
of the physical, a clairvoyant has seen the disintegration of the
astral beginning. The idea intended to be conveyed is, that regardless
of periods of time, if the man is going to die naturally (and that
includes by disease), the corruption, disintegrating or breaking up of
the astral body may be perceived by those who can see that way. Hence
the question of years is not involved. Violent deaths are not included
in this, because the astral in such cases does not disintegrate
beforehand. And the way of seeing such a death in advance is by another
method altogether. Death from old age--which is the natural close of a
cycle--is included in the answer as to death by disease, which might be
called the disease of inability to fight off the ordinary breaking up
of the cohesive forces.

       *       *       *       *       *

You cannot develop the third eye. It is too difficult, and until you
have cleared up a good deal more on philosophy it would be useless, and
a useless sacrifice is a crime of folly. But here is advice given by
many Adepts: every day and as often as you can, and on going to sleep
and as you wake, think, think, think, on the truth that you are not
body, brain, or astral man, but that you are THAT, and "THAT" is the
Supreme Soul. For by this practice you will gradually kill the false
notion which lurks inside that the false is the true, and the true is
the false. By persistence in this, by submitting your daily thoughts
each night to the judgment of your Higher Self, you will at last gain
light.

       *       *       *       *       *

Now as to _The Voice of the Silence_ and the cycles of woe (undergone
by the Arhan who remains to help mankind) it is easy to understand. You
must always remember when reading such things, that terms must be used
that the reader will understand. Hence speaking thus, it must be said
that there are such cycles of woe--from our standpoint--just as the
fact that I have no amusements but nothing but work in the T.S. seems
a great penance to those who like their pleasures. I, on the contrary,
take pleasure and peace in the "self-denial" as they call it. Therefore
it must follow that he who enters the secret Path finds his peace and
pleasure in endless work for ages for Humanity. But, of course, with
his added sight and knowledge, he must always be seeing the miseries
of men self-inflicted. The mistake you make is to give the person thus
"sacrificed" the same small qualities and longings as we now have,
whereas the wider sweep and power of soul make what we call sacrifice
and woe seem something different. Is not this clear, then? If it were
stated otherwise than as the _Voice_ has it, you would find many making
the vow and then breaking it; but he who makes the vow with the full
idea of its misery will keep it.

       *       *       *       *       *

... If we can all accumulate a fund of good for all the others we will
thus dissipate many clouds. The follies and the so-called sins of
people are really things that are sure to come to nothing if we treat
them right. We must not be so prone as the people of the day are, of
whom we are some, to criticise others and forget the beam in our own
eye. The _Bhagavad Gîtâ_ and Jesus are right in that they both shew
us how to do our own duty and not go into that of others. Every time
we think that someone else has done wrong we should ask ourselves two
questions:

(1) Am I the judge in this matter who is entitled to try this person?

(2) Am I any better in my way, do I or do I not offend in some other
way just as much as they do in this?

This will settle the matter I think. And in ... there ought to be no
judgments and no criticism. If some offend then let us ask what is
to be done, but only when the offence is against the whole. When an
offence is against _us_, then let it go. This is thought by some to be
"goody-goody," but I tell you the heart, the soul, and the bowels of
compassion are of more consequence than intellectuality. The latter
will take us all sure to hell if we let it govern only. Be sure of this
and try as much as you can to spread the true spirit in all directions,
or else not only will there be individual failure, but also the circle
H. P. B. made as a nucleus for possible growth will die, rot, fail, and
come to nothing.

It is not possible to evade the law of evolution, but that law need
not always be carried out in _one_ way. If the same result is produced
it is enough. Hence in any one hour or minute the being attaining
adeptship could pass through countless experiences _in effect_. But,
as a fact, no one becomes an adept until he has in some previous time
gone through the exact steps needed. If you and I, for instance, miss
adeptship in this _Manvantara_, we will emerge again to take up the
work at a corresponding point in the much higher development of the
next, although then we may seem low down in the scale, viewing us from
the standard then to prevail.

       *       *       *       *       *

The law is this. No man can rush on and fail to escape the counter
current, and in proportion as he rushes so will be the force of the
current. All members who work hard come at last to the notice of the
Lodge, and the moment they do so, the Black Lodge also takes notice,
and hence questions arise, and we are tried in subtle ways that surpass
sight, but are strong for the undoing of him who is not prepared by
right thought and sacrifice to the higher nature for the fight. I tell
you this. It may sound mysterious, but it is the truth, and at this
time we are all bound to feel the forces at work, for as we grow, so
the other side gets ready to oppose.

       *       *       *       *       *

... Be sure that you understand me right about the Black side. I
mean this: that when men work along a good while, and really raise
themselves up by that, they get the attention of the Black if they are
of sufficient importance for it. I have their attention, and it makes
a trouble now and then. What we all want to have, then, is the best
armour for such a fight, and that is patience. Patience is a great
thing, and will work in more ways than one, not only in personal life,
but in wider concerns.

The difficulty of remembering the things you read, and the like, may
be due to one or many causes. First, it indicates the need of mental
discipline in the way of compelling yourself to serious reading and
thinking, even though for a short time each day. If persisted in,
this will gradually change the mental action, just as one can alter
the taste for different sorts of food taken into the body. Again, if
you have been dealing in what is known as Mind Cure or Metaphysical
Healing, you should avoid it, because it will increase the difficulty
you mention. It is different from good, ordinary, mental discipline.
And also if you have been in any way following Spiritualism or
indulging in psychic thoughts or visions or experiences, these would be
a cause for the trouble, and should be abandoned.

       *       *       *       *       *

There is no need for you to be a despairer. Reflect on that old verse,
"What room is there for sorrow and what room for doubt in him who knows
that the Self is one, and that all things are the Self, only differing
in degree." This is a free rendering but is what it means. Now, it is
true that a man cannot force himself at once into a new will and into
a new belief but by thinking much on the same thing--such as this--he
soon gets a new will and a new belief, and from it will come strength
and also light. Try this plan. It is purely occult, simple, and
powerful. I hope all will be well, and that as we are shaken up from
time to time we shall grow strong.

       *       *       *       *       *

----'s article strove to show that H. P. B. did not teach the doctrine
of reincarnation in '77 as she did later, which is quite true so far as
the public was then concerned, but she did to me and others teach it
then as now, and further it seems clear what she meant, to wit, that
there is no reincarnation for the astral monad, which is the astral
man; and it being a theosophical doctrine that the astral man does not
reincarnate save in exceptional cases, she taught then the same thing
as she did later. Personally H. P. B. told me many times of the real
doctrine of reincarnation, enforced by the case of the death of my own
child, so I know what she thought and believed.

       *       *       *       *       *

I am not able to give you the definition which you ask for, as it seems
to me spirit cannot be defined except in this way, that the whole
universe is made of spirit and matter, both constituting together the
Absolute. What is not in matter is spirit, and what is not in spirit
is matter; but there is no particle of matter without spirit, and no
particle of spirit without matter. If this attempted definition is
correct, you will see that it is impossible to define the things of the
spirit, and that has always been said by the great teachers of the past.

       *       *       *       *       *

What a petty lot of matter we spend time on, when so much is
transitory. After a hundred years what will be the use of all this?
Better that a hundred years hence a principle of freedom and an impulse
of work should have been established. The small errors of a life are
nothing, but the general sum of thought is much.... I care everything
for the unsectarianism that H. P. B. died to start, and now threatened
in its own house. Is it not true that Masters have forbidden Their
chelâs to tell under what orders they act for fear of the black shadow
that follows innovations? Yes....

       *       *       *       *       *

Am very sorry to hear that your health is not good. In reply to your
question: A sound body is not expected, because our race is unsound
everywhere. It is Karma. Of course a correct mental and moral position
will at last bring a sound body, but the process may, and often does,
involve sickness. Hence sickness may be a blessing on two planes: (1)
the mental and moral by opening the nature, and (2) on the physical as
being the discharge into this plane of an inner sickness of the inner
being.

       *       *       *       *       *

The question of sex is not the most difficult. The personal one is
still harder. I mean the purely personal, that relating to "me." The
sexual relates really only to a low plane gratification. If Nature can
beat you there, then she need not try the other, and _vice versa_; if
she fails on the personal she may attempt the other, but then with
small chance of success.

       *       *       *       *       *

We all differ and must agree to disagree, for it is only by balancing
contrary things that equilibrium (harmony) is obtained. Harmony does
not come through likeness. If people will only let each other alone and
go about their own business quietly all will be well.... It is one's
duty to try and find one's own duty and not to get into the duty of
another. And in this it is of the highest importance that we should
detach our _minds_ (as well as our tongues) from the duties and acts of
others whenever those are outside of our own. If you can find this fine
line of action and inaction you will have made great progress.

       *       *       *       *       *

Do not stop to consider your progress at all, because that is the way
to stop it; but take your mind off the question of your progress and do
the best you can. I hope you will be able to acquire in no long time
that frame of mind which you so much desire. I think you will acquire
that if you will take your mind off yourself as much as possible, and
throw it into something for someone else, which would, in course of
time, destroy the self impression.

       *       *       *       *       *

I regret exceedingly all your troubles and difficulties. They are all,
it goes without saying, matters of Karma, and must right themselves
in process of time. Meantime, your work and duty lie in continuing
patient and persevering throughout. The troubles of your friends and
relatives are not your Karma, though intimately associated with it by
reason of the very friendship and relation. In the lives of all who
aspire to higher things there is a more or less rapid precipitation
of old Karma, and it is this which is affecting you. It will go off
shortly, and you will have gained greatly in having gotten rid of a
troublesome piece of business.

       *       *       *       *       *

As it will take many a life for one to overcome the personal nature,
there is no good in imagining what things and thoughts would then
be like. It is certain that, in that long journey, the whole nature
changing, it is adjusted to all conditions. Many of those matters which
we call the woes of others are really nothing at all, and only "skin
deep"; the real woe of the race is not that.

       *       *       *       *       *

By setting apart a _particular_ time for meditation a habit is formed,
and as the time comes round the mind will, after a while, become
trained, so that meditation at the particular time will become natural.
Hence, as far as possible, it will be well for you to keep to the same
hour.

       *       *       *       *       *

You ask if I was at ---- where you saw me. Let me tell you something
in confidence. I am around at all places, but, of course, most at such
as where you ... and others like that are, but it is not necessary for
me to remember it at all, as it is done without that since this brain
has enough to do here. To remember I should have to retire and devote
myself to that, and it would make things no better.

       *       *       *       *       *

A college course is not necessary for occultism. One of the best
occultists I know was never in college. But if a man adds good learning
to intuition and high aspiration he is naturally better off than
another. I am constantly in the habit of consulting the dictionary
and of thinking out the meanings and the correlations of words. Do the
same. It is good.

       *       *       *       *       *

The old mission of the Rosicrucians, though dead on the outside, is not
dead, for the Masters were in that as They are in this, and it may be
possible to usher in a new era of western occultism devoid of folly. We
should all be ready for that if it be possible.

       *       *       *       *       *

In regard to the pictures which you see, observe them with
indifference, relying always on the Higher Self, and looking to it for
knowledge and light, pictures or no pictures.


XXVI.

ON WORK.

Yes, that business is already a "back number," stale and unprofitable.
I have found that work tells. While others fume and fret and sleep, and
now and then start up to criticise, if you go right on and work, and
let time, the great devourer, do the other work, you will see that in
a little while that others will wake up once more to find themselves
"left," as they say in the land of slang. Do, then, that way. Your own
duty is hard enough to find out, and by attending to that you gain,
no matter how small the duty may be. The duty of another is full of
danger. May you have the light to see and to do! Tell ---- to work to
the end to make himself an instrument for good work. Times change, men
go here and there, and places need to be filled by those who can do the
best sort of work and who are full of the fire of devotion and who have
the right basis and a sure and solid one for themselves. My love to all.

       *       *       *       *       *

I am very sorry that so many efforts on your part to influence the
public press have been unsuccessful, but I feel sure that you will
ultimately be successful. I am inclined to think that you will almost
certainly find that articles written by Theosophists on the spot will
obtain more ready admission than if you send them articles which have
already been printed.

They have a more local colouring, and therefore a greater local
interest.... I feel sure that by persistent and steady work, such
as you are doing, you will win your way, and that even the most
conservative papers will find it to their interest to insert articles.

       *       *       *       *       *

Both ---- and ---- are two weak, half-corroded spots. It is due to
(_a_) gossip about others, including me and others in the three lands;
(_b_) to the personal element; (_c_) most of all to the absence of real
faith in the Masters, for wherever that is not strong the work goes
down; (_d_) to a sort of fear of public opinion; (_e_) to incomplete
grasp of the elementary truths; and so on.

Stick to it that the way is to do all you can and let the results go.
You have nothing to do with results; the other side will look out
for that. This is really the culmination of the work of ages, and it
would be a poor thing, indeed, if the Lodge had to depend alone on our
puny efforts. Hence, go on and keep the spirit that you have only to
proceed, and leave the rest to time and the Lodge. If all the other
members had the same idea, it would be better for the old T.S. But let
us hope on, for we have some any way, and that is more than none.

You are right, too, about _The Secret Doctrine_, it is a mine, and is
the magazine for the warrior Theosophists, which is the description of
you and me and some others.

       *       *       *       *       *

Let us all be as silent as we may be, and work, work; for as the enemy
rages, they waste time, while work shines forth after all is over, and
we will see that as they fought we were building. Let that be our
watchword.... I hope no weak souls will be shaken off their base. If
they get on their _own_ base they will not be shaken off.


XXVII.

ON WISDOM IN ACTION.

This is the right conclusion, to let all talk and other people's
concerns slip by and not meddle. No one should be taking information to
another, for it fans a flame, and now we have to ignore everything and
just work on, be good and kind and, like St. Paul's charity, overlook
all things. Retire into your own silence and let all others be in the
hands of Karma, as we all are. "Karma takes care of its own." It is
better to have no side, for it is all for the Master and He will look
out for all if each does just right, even if, to their view, another
seems not to do so. By our not looking at their errors too closely the
Master will be able to clear it all off and make it work well. The plan
of quiet passive resistance, or rather, laying under the wind, is good
and ought to work in all attacks. Retreat within your own heart and
there keep firmly still. Resist without resisting. It is possible and
should be attained. Once more, _au revoir_ only, no matter what may
happen, even irresistible Death itself. Earthquakes here yesterday:
these signify some souls of use have come into the world somewhere;
but where?

       *       *       *       *       *

Well, now, just at this minute I do not know exactly what to say. Why
not take up an easy and fluidic position in the matter? An occultist
is never fixed to any particular mortal plan. Wait. All things come to
him who waits in the right way. Make yourself in every way as good an
instrument for any sort of work as you can. Every little thing I ever
learned I have now found out to be of use to me in this work of ours.
Ease of manner and of speech are of the best to have. Ease of mind
and confidence are better than all in this work of dealing with other
men--that is, with the human heart. The more wise one is the better
he can help his fellows, and the more cosmopolitan he is the better,
too.... When the hour strikes it will then find you ready; no man knows
when the hour will strike. But he has to be ready. You see Jesus was
in fact an occultist, and in the parable of the foolish virgins gave a
real occult ordinance. It is a good one to follow. Nothing is gained,
but a good deal is lost by impatience--not only strength, but also
sight and intuition. So decide nothing hastily. Wait; make no set plan.
Wait for the hour to make the decision, for if you decide in advance
of the time you tend to raise a confusion. So have courage, patience,
hope, faith, and cheerfulness.

The very first step towards being positive and self-centered is in the
cheerful performance of duty. Try to take pleasure in doing what is
your duty, and especially in the _little_ duties of life. When doing
any duty put your whole heart into it. There is much in this life that
is bright if we would open our eyes to it. If we recognize this then we
can bear the troubles that come to us calmly and patiently, for we know
that they will pass away.

... You can solidify your character by attending to small things. By
attacking small faults, and on every small occasion, one by one. This
will arouse the inner attitude of attention and caution. The small
faults and small occasions being conquered, the character grows strong.
Feelings and desires are not wholly of the body. If the _mind_ is
deliberately taken off such subjects and placed on other and better
ones, then the whole body will follow the mind and grow tractable. This
struggle must be kept up, and after awhile it will be easier. Old age
only makes this difference--the machine of body is less strong; for in
old age the thoughts are the same if we let them grow without pruning.

       *       *       *       *       *

There is never any need to worry. The good law looks out for all
things, and all we have to do is our duty as it comes along from day
to day. Nothing is gained by worrying about matters and about the way
people do not respond. In the first place you do not alter people,
and in the second, by being anxious as to things, you put an occult
obstacle in the way of what you want done. It is better to acquire a
lot of what is called carelessness by the world, but is in reality a
calm reliance on the law, and a doing of one's own duty, satisfied
that the results must be right, no matter what they may be. Think that
over, and try to make it a part of your inner mind that it is no use to
worry; that things will be all right, no matter what comes, and that
you are resolved to do what you see before you, and trust to Karma for
all the rest.

       *       *       *       *       *

I am sorry to hear that you are passing through what you mention. Yet
you knew it would have to come, and one learns, and the purpose of life
is to learn. It is all made up of learning. So though it is hard it is
well to accept it as you say.

Do you know what it is to resist without resistance?

That means, among other things, that too great an expenditure of
strength, of "fortitude," is not wise. If one fights one is drawn into
the swirl of events and thoughts instead of leaning back on the great
ocean of the Self which is never moved. Now you see that, so lean
back and look on at the ebb and flow of life that washes to our feet
and away again many things that are not easy to lose or pleasant to
welcome. Yet they all belong to Life, to the Self. The wise man has no
personal possessions.

Anyway you are right that struggling is wrong. Do it quietly, that is
the way the Masters do it. The reaction the other way is just as you
say, but the Master has so much wisdom He is seldom if ever, the prey
of reactions. That is why He goes slowly. But it is sure.... I know how
the cloud comes and goes. That is all right; just wait, as the song
says, till they roll by.

Arouse, arouse in you the meaning of "Thou art That." Thou art the
Self. This is the thing to think of in meditation, and if you believe
it then tell others the same. You have read it before, but now try
to realise it more and more each day and you will have the light you
want.... If you will look for wisdom you will get it sure, and that is
all you want or need. Am glad all looks well. It would always look well
if each and all minded their own things and kept the mind free from all
else.

Patience is really the best and most important thing, for it includes
many. You cannot have it if you are not calm and ready for the
emergency, and as calmness is the one thing necessary for the spirit to
be heard, it is evident how important patience is. It also prevents one
from precipitating a thing, for by precipitation we may smash a good
egg or a good plan, and throw the Karma, for the time, off and prevent
certain good effects flowing. So, keep right on and try for patience in
all the very smallest things of life every day, and you will find it
growing very soon, and with it will come greater strength and influence
on and for others, as well as greater and clearer help from the inner
side of things.

       *       *       *       *       *

For the love of heaven do not take any tales or informations from any
person to any other. The man who brought news to the king was sometimes
killed. The surest way to make trouble out of nothing is to tell about
it from one to another. Construe the words of the _Gîtâ_ about one's
own duty to mean that you have nothing to do in the smallest particular
with other people's fancies, tales, facts, or other matters, as you
will have enough to do to look out for your own duty.... Too much,
too much, trying to force harmony. Harmony comes from a balancing of
diversities, and discord from any effort to make harmony by force....
In all such things I never meddle, but say to myself it is none of my
affair at all, and wait till it _comes to me_--and thank God if it
never arrives! And that is a good rule for you.

       *       *       *       *       *

Think of these points:

(_a_) Criticism should be abandoned. It is no good. Co-operation is
better than criticism. The duty of another is dangerous for one whose
duty it is not. The insidious coming of unbrotherly criticism should be
warned against, prevented, stopped. By example you can do much, as also
by word in due season.

(_b_) Calmness is now a thing to be had, to be preserved. No irritation
should be let dwell inside. It is a deadly foe. Sit on all the small
occasions that evoke it and the greater ones will never arise to
trouble you.

(_c_) Solidarity.

(_d_) Acceptation of others.

       *       *       *       *       *

It is not wise to be always analysing our faults and failures; to
regret is waste of energy: if we endeavour to use all our energy in the
service of the Cause, we shall find ourselves rising above our faults
and failures, and though these must perhaps occur, they will lose their
power to drag us down. Of course we do have to face our faults and
fight them, but our strength for such a struggle will increase with
our devotion and unselfishness. This does not mean that vigilance over
one's thoughts and acts is ever to be relaxed.

If you will rely upon the truth that your inner self is a part of the
great Spirit, you will be able to conquer these things that annoy, and
if you will add to that a proper care of your bodily health, you will
get strength in every department. Do not look at things as failures,
but regard every apparent failure after real effort as a success, for
the real test is in the effort and motive, and not in the result. If
you will think over this idea on the lines of _The Bhagavat Gîtâ_ you
will gain strength from it.

       *       *       *       *       *

As before so now I will do all I can for you, which is not much, as
each must do for himself. Just stay loyal and true, and look for the
indications of your own duty from day to day, not meddling with others,
and you will find the road easier. It is better to die in one's own
duty than to do that of another, no matter how well you do it. Look for
peace that comes from a realisation of the true unity of all and the
littleness of oneself. Give up in mind and heart all to the Self and
you will find peace.

       *       *       *       *       *

The deadening dullness you speak of is one of the trials of the age,
but we have some good and earnest people, and they may act as the
righteous men in the cities of old, for our ideas are more mighty
than all the materialism of the age, which is sure to die out and be
replaced by the truth. You will have to take care that the spirit of
the time, and the wickedness and apathy of the people, do not engender
in you a bitter spirit. This is always to be found in the beginning,
but now, being forewarned, you are forearmed.

       *       *       *       *       *

Do not allow bitterness to come up; keep off all personalities all
the time; let the fight be for a cause and not against anyone. Let no
stones be thrown. Be charitable. Do not let people be asked to step
out, no matter what they do; when they want to go they may go, but
don't have threats nor discipline, it does no good but a lot of harm.

       *       *       *       *       *

Say, look here, never growl at anything you have to do. If you have
to go, just take it as a good thing you have to do, and then it will
redound to the good of them and yourself, but if it is a constant cross
then it does no good and you get nothing. Apply your theories thus....
It is a contest of smiles if we really know our business.... Never be
afraid, never be sorry, and cut all doubts with the sword of knowledge.

       *       *       *       *       *

I think that you will be helped if you will try to aid some poor,
distressed person by merely talking and expressing your sympathy if
you are not able to help in money, though the very fact of giving five
cents to someone who needs it is an act which, if done in the right
spirit, that of true brotherliness, will help the one who gives. I
suggest this because you will, by doing so, set up fresh bonds of
sympathy between you and others, and by trying to alleviate the sorrows
or sufferings of others, you will find strength come to you when you
most need it.

       *       *       *       *       *

Let them croak, and if we keep silent it will have no effect and as
there has been trouble enough it is better not to make it any worse by
referring to it. The only strength it has is when we take notice. It is
better policy for all of us who are in earnest and united to keep still
in any matter that has any personal bearing.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Silentio_, my dear, is almost as good as patience. He laughs best who
does it last, and time is a devil for grinding things.... Use the time
in getting calmness and solid strength, for a deep river is not so
because it has a deep bed, but because it has _volume_.

Rely within yourself on your Higher Self always, and that gives
strength, as the Self uses whom it will. Persevere, and little by
little _new ideals_ and thought-forms will drive out of you the old
ones. This is the eternal process.

       *       *       *       *       *

Troubles are ahead, of course, but I rather think that the old
war-horse of the past will not be easily frightened or prevented from
the road. Do your best to make and keep good thought and feeling of
solidarity.... Our old lion of the Punjab is not so far off, but all
the same is not in the place some think, or in the condition either.

       *       *       *       *       *

The way gets clearer as we go on, but as we get clearer we get less
anxious as to the way ahead.

       *       *       *       *       *

There is service objective and its counterpart within, which being
stronger will at last manifest without.

       *       *       *       *       *

Do not judge in anger, for though the anger passes the judgment remains.

       *       *       *       *       *

The promises I made to myself are just as binding as any others.

       *       *       *       *       *

Be true lovers, but of God, and not of each other. Love each the other
in that to one another ye mirror God, for that God is in you each.

       *       *       *       *       *

We all are; I too. We never _were_ anything, but only continually are.
What we are now determines what we will be.

       *       *       *       *       *

In order to off-set the terribly cold effect of perceiving the
littleness of human affairs, one must inculcate in oneself a great
compassion which will include oneself also. If this is not done,
contempt comes on, and the result is dry, cold, hard, repellent and
obstructive to all good work.

I know that his absence is a loss to you, but I think if you will
regard all things and events as being in the Self and It in them,
making yourself a part of the whole, you will see there is no real
cause for sorrow or fear. Try to realise this and thus go in confidence
and even joy.

       *       *       *       *       *

There are valleys in which the greatest shadows are due to old lives in
other bodies, and yet the intensity of universal love and of aspiration
will dissipate those in an instant of time.




AN OCCULT NOVEL


A tireless worker, Mr. Judge, was always proposing new modes of
activity. One never knew what fresh idea would not emanate from his
indefatigable mind. One idea with which he occupied some of his lighter
moments, was that of an occult novel. It was his idea that a friend
of his should write this, from incidents and material to be furnished
by himself, and to this idea he adhered, even having the title
copyrighted, with the name of his author, despite the laughing protests
of this friend, to whose outcries and statements that she never could,
and never should, write a novel, Mr. Judge would smilingly reply: "Oh,
yes! You will do it when the time comes." From time to time he sent to
this friend suggestions, incidents and other material for this novel,
the same being on odds and ends of paper, often rough wrapping paper,
and being jotted down under a lamp-post at night while he waited for
his tram, or in court while he waited for the case in which he was
engaged to come up. On these scraps are also marginal notes, as he
accepted or rejected the ideas of his own prolific mind. These notes
are given here as such. It has been suggested that the recipient of
these materials should still write the novel as proposed, but setting
aside the fact that she could not be sure of properly rendering the
real ideas of Mr. Judge, it is also thought that readers will much
prefer to have the notes precisely as Mr. Judge set them down.

The printed title-page runs as follows:

       IN A BORROWED BODY.
     _The Journey of a Soul._
               BY
  J. CAMPBELL VER-PLANCK, F.T.S.
              1891.

The name is filled in in the writing of Mr. Judge, and there is this
marginal note. "Copyright gone to Washngn."

(All "Notes" are to be understood as being marginal ones made by Mr.
Judge unless otherwise stated.)


MEMO. ABOUT _Borrowed Body_.

The point on which it should all turn is not so much reincarnation as
the use of a borrowed body, which is a different kind of reincarnation
from that of Arnold's _Phra the Phœnician_.

This will also give chance to show the other two sorts of
reincarnation, _e.g._:--

(_a_) Ordinary reincarnation in which there is no memory of the old
personality, as the astral body is new; and:

(_b_) Exception as to astral body; but similarity of conception to that
of ordinary cases, where the child retains the old astral body and
hence memory of old personality and acquaintance with old knowledge and
dexterity.


A CHAPTER.

_The Assembling of the Skandhas._

On the death of body the Kama principle collects the Skandhas in space,
or at the rebirth of the Ego the Skandhas rush together and assemble
about it to go with it in the new life.


ANOTHER.

_The Unveiling of the Sun._

There is the real and unreal sun. The real one is hidden by a golden
vase, and the devotee prays:

"Unveil, O Pushan, the true Sun's face," etc. A voice (or other) says
"thou art that vase" and then he knows that he alone hides the true Sun
from himself.

Pushan is the guide and watches on the path to the Sun.

The eulogy of the Sun and the Soul are enshrined in a golden rose or
lotus in the heart which is impregnable.

The theme of the book is not always teacher and pupil.

He first strives for some lives ordinarily and then in one he grows old
and wise, and sitting before a temple one day in Madura he dies slowly,
and like a dissolving view he sees the adepts round him aiding him;
also a small child which seems to be himself, and then thick darkness.
He is born then in the usual way.

Twice this is repeated, each time going through the womb but with the
same astral body.

Then he lives the third life to forty-nine, and comes again to die and
with same aid he selects a foreign child who is dying.

Child dying. Skandhas collecting, child's Ego going--left, spark of
life low: relatives about bed.

He enters by the way the mind went out and revivifies the body.
Recovery, youth, etc., etc.

This is his borrowed body.


MEMO. NO. 2

_A couple of Incidents for the Book._

A round tower used by the fire worshippers in Ireland and other isles
in early ages. A temple is attached to it; quaint structure--one priest
and one neophyte.

People below the tower coming into the temple grounds as the religion
is in its decadence.

On the top of the tower is the neophyte, who in the face of the
prevailing scepticism clings to the dead faith and to the great priest.
His duty is to keep a fire on the tower burning with aromatic woods.
He leans over the fire; it burns badly; the wood seems green; he blows
it up; it burns slightly; he hears the voices of the disputers and
sellers below; goes to the tower and gazes over while the fire goes
slowly out. He is a young man of singular expression, not beautiful
but powerful face; intense eyes, long dark hair, and far gazing eyes
of a greyish colour unusual for such hair. Skin clear with a shifting
light flowing from it. Sensitive face; blushes easily but now and then
stern. As he still gazes the fire goes out. Just then a tall old man
comes up the stairs and stands upon the tower top at opposite side,
looking at the fire and then at the young man and withdraws not his
gaze for an instant. It is a sternly powerful drawing look. He is very
tall, dark brown eyes, grey hair, long beard. The young man feels his
look and turns about and sees the fire out completely, while its last
small cloud of smoke is floating off beyond the tower. They look at
each other. In the young man's face you see the desperate first impulse
to excuse, and then the sudden thought that excuses are useless because
childish, for he knew his duty--to keep the small spiral of smoke ever
connecting heaven with earth, in the hope, however vain, that thus the
old age might be charmed to return. The old man raises his hand, points
away from the tower and says "go." Young man descends.

_II. A battle._--In the hottest a young soldier armed to the teeth,
fighting as if it made no matter whether he win or lose, die or live.
Strange weapons, sounds and clouds.

Wounded, blood flowing. It is the young man of the tower. He sinks
down taken prisoner. In a cell condemned, for they fear his spiritual
power. Conflict between the last remnant of the old religion and the
new, selfish faith.

Taken to his execution. Two executioners. They bind him standing and
stand behind and at side; each holds a long straight weapon with a
curved blunt blade, curved to (fit?) about the neck. They stand at
opposite sides, place those curved blunt blades holding his neck like
two crooks. They pull--a sickening sound: his head violently pulled out
close to the shoulder leaves a jagged edge. The body sways and falls.
It was the way they made such a violent exit for a noble soul as they
thought would keep it bound in the astral earth sphere for ages.

III. That young man again. He approaches an old man (of the tower).
Young one holds parchments and flowers in his hand, points to
parchments and asks explanation. Old one says, "Not now; when I come
again I will tell you."

_Note._--Keep this, Julius.

  W. Q. J.
  Z. L. Z.

The next batch of notes is headed by the single word: "_Book_." Then
follow four lines of shorthand. After these the words:

"Incidents showing by picture his life in other ages; the towers; the
battle; the death; the search for knowledge and the sentiment expressed
in the flowers."

Eusebio Rodigues de Undiano was a notary in Spain who found among
the effects of his father many old parchments written in a language
which was unknown to him. He discovered it was Arabic, and in order to
decipher them learned that tongue. They contained the story.

_Note._--No initiates; Lytton only.

Eusebio de Undiano is only one of the old comrades reborn in Spain who
searches like Nicodemus for the light.

_Note._--Yes.

Eusebio de Undiano finds in his father's parchments confirmation of
what the possession of the body has often told him.

_Note._--Yes.

This person in the body never gave his name to anyone and has no name.

An autobiographical story? No? _Yes!_ Related by one who was struck;
by an admirer who suspected something? No; because that is hearsay
evidence; the proof is incomplete, whereas he relating it himself is
either true, or a mere insane fancy. It is better to be insane than be
another's tool.

Stick to the tower and the head-chopping business. Let him be that
young man and after the head loss he wanders in Kama Loca and there he
sees the old man who was killed on the tower soon after the fire went
out. The old man tells him that he will tell all when they return to
earth.

He wanders about the tower vicinity seeking a birth, until one day he
sees vague shapes suddenly appearing and disappearing. They are not
dressed like his countrymen down below on the earth. This goes on. They
seem friendly and familiar, the one requesting him to go with them,
he refuses. They are more powerful than he is yet they do not compel
him but show him their power. One day one was talking to him; he again
refuses unless something might show him that he ought to go. Just then
he hears a bell sound, such as he never heard before. It vibrates
through him and seems to open up vistas of a strange past and in a
moment he consents to go.

They reach Southern India and there he sees the old man of the tower,
whom he addresses, and again asks the burning question about the
parchment. The old man says again the same as before and adds that he
had better come again into the world in that place.

The darkness and silence. The clear, hot day. The absence of rain.
After listening to the old man he consents inwardly to assume life
there and soon a heavy storm arises, the rain beats, he feels himself
carried to the earth and in deep darkness. A resounding noise about
him. It is the noise of the growing plants. This is a rice field with
some sesamum in it. The moisture descends and causes the expanding;
sees around, all is motion and life. Inclosed in the sphere of some
rice, he bemoans his fate. He is born in a Brahmin's house.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Note._--Shall the question of reincarnation through cloud and rain and
seed and thus from the seed of the man, be gone into?

He is the young man. He knows much. He dies at nineteen. Strange forms
around his bed who hold him. They carry him back to the land of the
towers. He recognizes it again and sees that ages have passed since
the fire went out, and in the air he perceives strange shapes and sees
incessantly a hand as of Fate, pointing to that Island. The towers are
gone, the temples and the monuments. All is altered. They take him to
a populous city and as he approaches he sees over one house a great
commotion in the air. Shapes moving. Bright flashes, and puffs as of
smoke. They enter the room, and on the bed is the form of a young boy
given up to die, with relatives weeping. His guides ask him if he will
borrow that body about to be deserted and use it for the good of their
Lodge. He consents. They warn him of the risks and dangers.

The boy's breathing ceases and his eyes close, and a bright flash is
seen to go off from it (the body). He sees the blood slowing down. THEY
push him, and he feels dark again. Boy revives. Physician takes hope.
"Yes; he will recover, with care." He recovers easily. Change in his
character. Feels strange in his surroundings, etc.

The place in India where he went after death which was again sudden
(how?). A large white building. Gleaming marble. Steps. Pillars. A hole
that has yellowish glow that looks like water. Instruction as to the
work to be done, and the journey to the land of the tower, in search
of a body to borrow. As to bodies being deserted by the tenant that
might live if well understood and well connected with a new soul. The
difference between such a birth and an ordinary birth where the soul
really owns the body, and between those bodies of insane people which
are not deserted, but where the owner really lives outside. Bodies of
insane are not used because the machine itself is out of order, and
would be useless to the soul of a sane person.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Note._--Julius; keep these. I will send them now and then. But before
you go away, return to me so I can keep the run of it. May change the
scheme. The motive is in the title I gave you.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Note._--No one who has not consciously lived the double life of a man
who is in the use and possession of a body not his own can know the
agony that so often falls to one in such a case. I am not the original
owner of this body that I now use. It was made for another, and for
some little time used by him, but in the storm of sickness he left it
here to be buried, and it would have been laid away in the earth if
I had not taken it up, vivified its failing energies and carried it
through some years of trial by sickness and accident. But the first
owner had not been in it long enough to sow any troublesome seeds
of disease; he left a heritage of good family blood and wonderful
endurance. That he should have left this form so well adapted for
living, at least seems inconceivable, unless it was that he could not
use it, sick or well, for any of his own purposes. At any rate it is
mine now, but while at first I thought it quite an acquisition there
are often times when I wish I had not thus taken another man's frame,
but had come into life in the ordinary way.


A COUPLE OF INCIDENTS FOR THE BOOK.

Incident of the letter and picture.

There was a very curious old man (sufficient description to add).

Sent a small cardboard in which was a picture, a head, and over it
appeared to be placed a thin sheet of paper, gummed over the sides
to the back. He asked if I could tell him anything of the picture
which was visible through the thin paper. Having great curiosity, I
lifted up the thin paper, and at once there seemed to be printed off
from its underside a red circle surrounding the head on the board. In
one instance this circle turned black and so did the entire inside
space including the head which was then obliterated. In the other the
red circle seemed to get on fire inward, and then the whole included
portion burned up. On examining the thin paper on underside there were
traces of a circle, as if with paste.

He laughed and said that curiosity was not always rewarded.

Took it to several chemists in Paris, who said that they knew of no
substance that would do this. The old chemist in Ireland said a very
destructive thing called Flourine might be liberated thus and do it,
but that it was only a thing with chemists and analysts.

(_Note by the compiler._--In his travels Mr. Judge met many strange
people and saw some extraordinary sights. Now and again he would tell
one of these to be included in the novel, but just in this unfinished
and vague way. When asked to tell more, he would smile and shake his
head, saying: "No, No; little brothers must finish it.")

_Another Incident._

The temple on the site of the present city of Conjeveram was about to
be consecrated and the regular priests were all ready for the ceremony.
Minor ceremonies had taken place at the laying of the cornerstone,
but this was to exceed that occasion in importance. A large body of
worshippers were gathered not for the gratification of curiosity, but
in order to receive the spiritual benefits of the occasion and they
filled the edifice so that I could not get inside. I was thus compelled
to stand just at the edge of the door, and that was, as I afterwards
found out, the best place I could have selected if I had known in
advance what was to take place. A few days before a large number of
wandering ascetics had arrived and camped on a spot near the temple,
but no one thought much of it because used to seeing such people.
There was nothing unnatural about these men, and all that could be
said was that a sort of mysterious air hung about them, and one or two
children declared that on one evening none of the visitors could be
found at their camp nor any evidence that men had been there, but they
were not believed, because the ascetics were there as usual the next
morning. Two old men in the city said that the visitors were Devas in
their "illusionary form," but there was too much excitement about the
dedication to allow of much thought on the subject. The event, however,
proved the old men right.

At the moment when the people in the temple were expecting the priests
to arrive, the entire body of ascetics appeared at the door with
a wonderful looking sage-like man at their head, and they entered
the edifice in the usual formal way of the priests and the latter
on arriving made no disturbance, but took what places they could,
simply saying: "they are the Devas." The strangers went on with the
ceremonies, and all the while a light filled the building and music
from the air floated over the awestruck worshippers.

When the time came for them to go they all followed the leader in
silence to the door. I could see inside, and as I was at the door
could also see outside. All the ascetics came to the entrance but not
one was seen to go beyond it, and none were ever perceived by any man
in the city again. They melted away at the threshold. It was their
last appearance, for the shadow of the dark age was upon the people,
preventing such sights for the future. The occurrence was the topic of
conversation for years, and it was all recorded in the archives of the
city.


IN A BORROWED BODY.

I MUST tell you first what happened to me in this present life since it
is in this one that I am relating to you about many other lives of mine.

I was a simple student of our high Philosophy for many lives on earth
in various countries, and then at last developed in myself a desire for
action. So I died once more as so often before and was again reborn in
the family of a Rajah, and in time came to sit on his throne after his
death.

Two years after that sad event one day an old wandering Brahmin came to
me and asked if I was ready to follow my vows of long lives before, and
go to do some work for my old master in a foreign land. Thinking this
meant a journey only I said I was.

"Yes," said he, "but it is not only a journey. It will cause you to be
here and there all days and years. To-day here, to-night there."

"Well," I replied, "I will do even that, for my vows had no conditions
and master orders."

I knew of the order, for the old Brahmin gave me the sign marked on my
forehead. He had taken my hand, and covering it with his waist-cloth,
traced the sign in my palm under the cloth so that it stood out in
lines of light before my eyes.

He went away with no other word, as you know they so often do, leaving
me in my palace. I fell asleep in the heat, with only faithful Gopal
beside me. I dreamed and thought I was at the bedside of a mere child,
a boy, in a foreign land unfamiliar to me only that the people looked
like what I knew of the Europeans. The boy was lying as if dying, and
relatives were all about the bed.

A strange and irresistible feeling drew me nearer to the child, and for
a moment I felt in this dream as if I were about to lose consciousness.
With a start I awoke in my own palace--on the mat where I had fallen
asleep, with no one but Gopal near and no noise but the howling of
jackals near the edge of the compound.

"Gopal," I said, "how long have I slept?'

"Five hours, master, since an Old Brahmin went away, and the night is
nearly gone, master."

I was about to ask him something else when again sleepiness fell upon
my senses, and once more I dreamed of the small dying foreign child.

The scene had changed a little, other people had come in, there was
a doctor there, and the boy looked to me, dreaming so vividly, as if
dead. The people were weeping, and his mother knelt by the bedside. The
doctor laid his head on the child's breast a moment. As for myself I
was drawn again nearer to the body and thought surely the people were
strange not to notice me at all. They acted as if no stranger were
there, and I looked at my clothes and saw they were eastern and bizarre
to them. A magnetic line seemed to pull me to the form of the child.

And now beside me I saw the old Brahmin standing. He smiled.

"This is the child," he said, "and here must you fulfil a part of your
vows. Quick now! There is no time to lose, the child is almost dead.
These people think him already a corpse. You see the doctor has told
them the fatal words, 'he is dead!'"

Yes, they were weeping. But the old Brahmin put his hands on my head,
and submitting to his touch, I felt myself in my dream falling asleep.
A dream in a dream. But I woke in my dream, but not on my mat with
Gopal near me. I was that boy I thought. I looked out through his eyes,
and near me I heard, as if his soul had slipped off to the ether with a
sigh of relief. The doctor turned once more and I opened my eyes--his
eyes--on him.

The physician started and turned pale. To another I heard him whisper
"automatic nerve action." He drew near, and the intelligence in that
eye startled him to paleness. He did not see the old Brahmin making
passes over this body I was in and from which I felt great waves of
heat and life rolling over me--or the boy.

And yet this all now seemed real as if my identity was merged in the boy.

I was that boy and still confused, vague dreams seemed to flit through
my brain of some other plane where I thought I was again, and had a
faithful servant named Gopal; but that must be dream, this the reality.
For did I not see my mother and father, the old doctor and the nurse so
long in our house with the children. Yes; of course this is the reality.

And then I feebly smiled, whereon the doctor said:

"Most marvellous. He has revived. He may live."

He was feeling the slow moving pulse and noting that breathing began
and that vitality seemed once more to return to the child, but he did
not see the old Brahmin in his illusionary body sending air currents of
life over the body of this boy, who dreamed he had been a Rajah with a
faithful servant named Gopal. Then in the dream sleep seemed to fall
upon me. A sensation of falling; falling came to my brain, and with a
start I awoke in my palace on my own mat. Turning to see if my servant
was there I saw him standing as if full of sorrow or fear for me.

"Gopal, how long have I slept again?"

"It is just morning, master, and I feared you had gone to Yamâ's
dominions and left your own Gopal behind."

No, I was not sleeping. This was reality, these my own dominions. So
this day passed as all days had except that the dream of the small boy
in a foreign land came to my mind all day until the night when I felt
more drowsy than usual. Once more I slept and dreamed.

The same place and the same house, only now it was morning there. What
a strange dream I thought I had had; as the doctor came in with my
mother and bent over me, I heard him say softly:

"Yes, he will recover. The night sleep has done good. Take him, when he
can go, to the country, where he may see and walk on the grass."

As he spoke behind him I saw the form of a foreign looking man with a
turban on. He looked like the pictures of Brahmins I saw in the books
before I fell sick. Then I grew very vague and told my mother: "I had
had two dreams for two nights, the same in each. I dreamed I was a king
and had one faithful servant for whom I was sorry as I liked him very
much, and it was only a dream, and both were gone."

My mother soothed me, and said: "Yes, yes, my dear."

And so that day went as days go with sick boys, and early in the
evening I fell fast asleep as a boy in a foreign land, in my dream,
but did no more dream of being a king, and as before I seemed to fall
until I woke again on my mat in my own palace with Gopal sitting near.
Before I could rise the old Brahmin, who had gone away, came in and I
sent Gopal off.

"Rama," said he, "as boy you will not dream of being Rajah but now
you must know that every night as sleeping king you are waking boy in
foreign land. Do well your duty and fail not. It will be some years,
but Time's never-stopping car rolls on. Remember my words," and then he
passed through the open door.

So I knew those dreams about a sick foreign boy were not mere dreams
but that they were recollections, and I condemned each night to animate
that small child just risen from the grave, as his relations thought,
but I knew that his mind for many years would not know itself, but
would ever feel strange in its surroundings, for, indeed, that boy
would be myself inside and him without, his friends not seeing that he
had fled away and another taken his place. Each night I, as sleeping
Rajah who had listened to the words of sages, would be an ignorant
foreign boy, until through lapse of years and effort unremittingly
continued I learned how to live two lives at once. Yet horrible at
first seemed the thought that although my life in that foreign land as
a growing youth would be undisturbed by vague dreams of independent
power as Rajah, I would always, when I woke on my mat, have a clear
remembrance of what at first seemed only dreams of being a king, with
vivid knowledge that while my faithful servant watched my sleeping form
I would be masquerading in a borrowed body, unruly as the wind. Thus as
a boy I might be happy, but as a king miserable maybe. And then after I
should become accustomed to this double life, perhaps my foreign mind
and habits would so dominate the body of the boy that existence there
would grow full of pain from the struggle with an environment wholly at
war with the thinker within.

But a vow once made is to be fulfilled, and Father Time eats up all
things and ever the centuries.




WILLIAM QUAN JUDGE


William Quan Judge, son of Alice Mary Quan and Frederick H. Judge,
was born at Dublin, Ireland, on April 13th, 1851. His mother died in
early life at the birth of her seventh child. The lad was brought up
in Dublin until his thirteenth year, when the father removed to the
United States with his motherless children, taking passage on the
Inman Liner, "City of Limerick," which arrived in New York harbour
on July 14th, 1864. Of the years of his childhood there is little to
be said, though we hear of a memorable illness of his seventh year;
an illness supposed to be mortal. The physician declared the small
sufferer to be dying, then dead; but in the outburst of grief which
followed the announcement, it was discovered that the child had
revived, and that all was well with him. During convalescence the
boy shewed aptitudes and knowledge never before displayed, exciting
wonderment and questioning among his elders as to when and how he had
learned all these new things. He seemed the same, and yet not the
same; had to be studied anew by his family, and while no one knew that
he had ever learned to read, from his recovery in his eighth year we
find him devouring the contents of all the books he could obtain,
relating to Mesmerism, Phrenology, Character-Reading, Religion, Magic,
Rosicrucianism, and deeply absorbed in the Book of Revelation, trying
to discover its real meaning. The elder Judge, with his children, lived
for a brief period at the old Merchants' Hotel, in Cortland Street,
New York: then in Tenth Street, and afterward settled in Brooklyn.
William began work in New York as a clerk, afterwards entering the
Law Office of George P. Andrews, who afterwards became Judge of the
Supreme Court of New York. There the lad studied law, living with his
father, who died soon after. On coming of age, William Q. Judge was
naturalised a citizen of the United States, in April, 1872. In May
of that year he was admitted to the Bar of New York. His conspicuous
traits as a lawyer, in the practice of Commercial Law, which became his
specialty, were his thoroughness, his inflexible persistence, and his
industry, which won the respect of employers and clients alike. As was
said of him, then and later: "Judge would walk over hot ploughshares
from here to India to do his duty." In 1874 he married Ella M. Smith,
of Brooklyn, by whom he had one child, a daughter, whose death in early
childhood was long a source of deep, though quiet, sorrow to both.
Mr. Judge in especial was a great lover of children, and had the gift
of attracting them around him, whether in public--as on the steamer
deck--or in private, and this without any apparent notice or effort on
his part. Wherever he went, one would see the children begin to sidle
up to him, soon absorbed in the new friend.

Living in Brooklyn until 1893, Mr. and Mrs. Judge then removed to New
York in order to be nearer to the Theosophical Headquarters, Mr. Judge
at that date, and for the first time, giving up his arduous labours at
the law, in order to devote himself wholly to Theosophical work.

Soon after his marriage Mr. Judge heard of Madame Blavatsky in this
wise. He came across a book which greatly interested him. This was
_People from the Other World_, by H. S. Olcott. Mr. Judge wrote to
Colonel Olcott, asking for the address of a good medium, for at this
time the tide of occult inquiry and speculation had just set in,
and the experiences of numbers of people, including those of Madame
Blavatsky, at the "Eddy Homestead," were the talk of all the world.
Mr. Judge was invited to call upon H. P. B. while no medium was
forthcoming, and thus the conjunction was formed, in this incarnation,
which H. P. B. later on declared to have existed "for æons past."
Henceforward, Mr. Judge spent much of his time with H. P. B. at Irving
Place, New York: he was one of a number of people present at her rooms
one evening when she turned to him, saying: "Ask Col. Olcott to form
a Society." This was done at once. Mr. Judge was called to the Chair,
nominating Col. Olcott as permanent Chairman, and was himself nominated
as Secretary. This was the beginning of the Theosophical Society, on
the date of 7th September, 1875.

When Madame Blavatsky went to India, Mr. Judge was left to carry on
the T.S. in New York as best he could; a difficult task indeed when
she who was then the one great exponent had left the field, and the
curiosity and interest excited by her original and striking mission
had died down. The T.S. was henceforth to subsist on its philosophical
basis, and this, after long years of toil and unyielding persistence,
was the point attained by Mr. Judge. From his twenty-third year until
his death, his best efforts and all the fiery energies of his undaunted
soul were given to this Work. We have a word picture of him, opening
meetings, reading a chapter of the _Bhagavat Gîtâ_, entering the
Minutes, and carrying on all the details of the same, as if he were not
the only person present; and this he did time after time, determined
to have a Society. Little by little he gathered about him a number of
earnest seekers, some of whom still work in the New York and other
Branches, and through his unremitting labour he built up the T.S. in
America, aiding the Movement as well in all parts of the world, and
winning from The Master the name of "Resuscitator of Theosophy in
America." His motto in those days was, "Promulgation, not Speculation."
"Theosophy," said he, "is a cry of the Soul."

The Work went slowly at first, and the eager disciple passed through
even more than the usual suffering, sense of loneliness and desolation,
as we see H. P. B. pointing out in regard to him that "he of all
chelas, suffers most, and asks, or even expects, the least." But the
shadow lifted, and in 1888 we find H. P. B. writing of him as being
then "a chela of thirteen years' standing," with "trust reposed in
him"; and as "the chief and sole Agent of The Dzyan in America." (This
is the Thibetan name of what we call The Lodge.)

Mr. Judge also went to South America, where he saw many strange things,
and contracted Chagres fever, that terrible scourge whose effects dog
the victim through a lifetime. To India as well, where he was for some
time with H. P. B. Later on he was with her in France and in England,
always intent on the Work of the T.S. He lectured in both countries;
instituted _The Path_ magazine, meeting all its deficits and carrying
on its various activities, as well as those of the T.S. He wrote
incessantly; opened the doors of the Press at length to a serious
consideration of Theosophy; he lectured all over the States and did
the work of several men. His health was frail; a day free from pain
was a very rare thing with him. He had his sorrows too, of which the
death of his only child was the deepest. But the cheerfulness of his
aspect, his undaunted energy, never failed him, and he was the cause
of activity among all his fellow members. To those who would ask his
advice in the crises which were wont to shake the tree of the T.S. he
would make answer: "Work! Work! Work for Theosophy!" And when at last
the Great Betrayal came to him, and some of those whom he had lifted
and served and taught _how_ to work, strove to cast him down and out of
the Society, in their ignorance of their own limitations, he kept the
due silence of the Initiate; he bowed his defenceless head to The Will
and The Law, and passing with sweet and serene heart through the waters
of bitterness, consoled by the respect and trust of the Community in
which his life had been spent, and by the thousands of students who
knew and loved him: he exhorted all to forgiveness and renewed effort:
he reminded us that there were many committed by the unbrotherliness of
his opponents who would in time come themselves to see and comprehend
the wrong done to the Work by action taken which they did not at the
time understand in all its bearings; he begged us to be ready to meet
that day and to take the extended hands which would then be held out to
us by those who ignorantly shared the wrong done to him, and through
him, to us all. In this trust he passed behind the veil. On the 21st of
March, 1896, he encountered "Eloquent, Just and Mighty Death."

       *       *       *       *       *

So much for the open and material facts of his life. There is much more
that must be left unsaid. His claim upon us was that of The Work. The
Work was his Ideal. He valued men and women only by their theosophical
Work, and the right spirit in which that Work was done. He held Right
Thought to be of the best Work. He worked with anyone who was willing
to do Work in the real sense, careless whether such were personal
friends, strangers, or active or secret foes. Many a time he was known
to be energetically working with those who were attacking him, or
planning attack in supposed concealment, and his smile, as this was
commented upon, was a thing to be always remembered; that whimsical and
quaint smile, followed by some Irish drollery. But in order to leave
behind us some adequate idea of the broadness and the catholicity of
his nature, it seems best to append to this brief and unworthy sketch,
some few of the thoughts of his life-long friends, nearly all published
soon after he had left us.

       *       *       *       *       *

On page 75 of the first volume of _Letters_ is a letter from an Adept,
from which a certain portion ("private instruction") is omitted. That
omitted portion runs as follows:

    "_Is the choice made? Then Y. will do well to see W. Q. J. and to
    acquaint him with this letter. For the first year or two no better
    guide can be had._ For when the 'PRESENCE' _is upon him, he knows
    well that which others only suspect and 'divine.' ... is useful to
    'Path,' but greater services may be rendered to him, who, of all
    chêlas, suffers most and demands, or even expects the least._"

(If this extract be fitted into the original letter its immense
importance in respect to Mr. Judge may be realised by the intuitive
student.)

"In answer to your letter I can only say as follows: If W. Q. Judge,
the man who has done most for Theosophy in America, who has worked most
unselfishly in your country, and has ever done the biddings of Master,
the best he knew how, is left alone in ... and if the ... Society in
general and its Esotericists especially leave him alone, without their
unanimous _moral support_, which is much more than their money--then I
say--let them go! They are no theosophists;--and if such a thing should
happen, and Judge be left to fight his battles alone, then shall I
bid all of them an eternal good-bye. I swear on MASTER'S holy name to
shake off the dust of my feet from everyone of them.... I am unable to
realise that at the hour of trouble and supreme fight ... any _true_
theosophist should hesitate for one moment to back W. Q. J. _publicly_
and lodge in his or her protest. Let them read Master's letter in the
preliminary----. All that which I said about W. Q. J. was from HIS
words in HIS letter to me.... Do with this letter what you like. Show
it to anyone you please as my firm determination...."--H. P. B.

"It is necessary that just those souls in whom we have felt most of
reality should disappear from us into the darkness, in order that we
may learn that not seeing, but inwardly touching, is the true proof
that our friend is there; in order that we may learn that the vanishing
and dissipation of the outward, visible part, is no impairing or
detriment to the real part, which is invisible. This knowledge, and the
realising of it in our wills, are gained with the utmost difficulty,
at a cost not less than the loss of the best of our friends; yet if
the cost be great, the gain is great and beyond estimating, for it is
nothing less than a first victory over the whole universe, wherein
we come to know that there is that in us which can face and conquer
and outlast anything in the universe, and come forth radiant and
triumphant from the contest. Yet neither the universe nor death are
real antagonists, for they are but only Life everywhere, and we are
Life."--C. J.

"He was never narrow, never selfish, never conceited. He would drop
his own plan in a moment if a better were suggested, and was delighted
if someone would carry on the work he had devised, and immediately
inaugurate other lines of work. To get on with the work and forward
the movement seemed to be his only aim in life.... For myself, knowing
Mr. Judge as I did, and associating with him day after day, at home,
in the rush of work, in long days of travel over desert wastes or over
the trackless ocean, having travelled with him a distance equal to
twice around the globe, ... there is not the slightest doubt of his
connection with and service of the Great Lodge. He did the Master's
work to the best of his ability, and thus carried out the injunction of
H. P. B. to "keep the link unbroken."--J. D. BUCK.

"There is not one act in the life of William Q. Judge that has come
under my observation, that savours of selfishness or of a desire to
further any personal end.... Perhaps I am not qualified to pass on the
merits as an occultist, of the man whose memory I hold in such grateful
esteem; but I can, at least, speak of what passed before my eyes in the
ordinary affairs of life, and in these affairs I have invariably found
him to be the soul of unselfishness, honour, generosity, and all the
other virtues that men hold so dear in other men."--E. B. PAGE.

"In the summer of 1894 we were privileged to have him stay at our
house for several weeks, and since then he spent at least one evening
a week with us until his illness forced him to leave New York.... Day
after day he would come back from the office utterly exhausted in
mind and body, and night after night he would lie awake fighting the
arrows of suspicion and doubt that would come at him from all over the
world. He said they were like shafts of fire piercing him, and in the
morning he would come down stairs wan and pale and unrested, and one
step nearer the limit of his strength, but still with the same gentle
and forgiving spirit.... Perhaps the most striking evidence of his
greatness was the wisdom with which he treated different people, and
the infinite knowledge of character shown by him in his guidance of his
pupils. I do not believe he was the same to any two people.... His most
lovable trait was his exquisite sympathy and gentleness. It has been
said of him that no one ever touched a sore spot with such infinite
tenderness, and I know many that would rather have been scolded and
corrected by Mr. Judge than praised by anyone else. It was the good
fortune of a few of us to know something of the real Ego who used
the body known as Wm. Q. Judge. He once spent some hours describing
to my wife and me the experience the Ego had in assuming control of
the instrument it was to use for so many years. The process was not a
quick nor an easy one and indeed was never absolutely perfected, for
to Mr. Judge's dying day, the physical tendencies and heredity of the
body he used would crop up and interfere with the full expression of
the inner man's thoughts and feelings. An occasional abruptness and
coldness of manner was attributable to this lack of co-ordination. Of
course Mr. Judge was perfectly aware of this and it would trouble him
for fear his real friends would be deceived as to his real feeling. He
was always in absolute control of his thoughts and actions, but his
body would sometimes slightly modify their expression.... Mr. Judge
told me in December, 1894, that the Judge body was due by its Karma to
die the next year and that it would have to be tided over this period
by extraordinary means. He then expected this process to be entirely
successful, and that he would be able to use that body for many years,
but he did not count upon the assaults from without, and the strain and
exhaustion.... This, and the body's heredity, proved too much for even
his will and power. Two months before his death he knew he was to die,
but even then the indomitable will was hard to conquer and the poor
exhausted, pain-racked body was dragged through a miserable two months
in one final and supreme effort to stay with his friends. And when he
did decide to go, those who loved him most were the most willing for
the parting. I thank the Gods that I was privileged to know him. It was
a benediction to call him friend."--G. HIJO.

"To a greater extent than I have ever realised I know he entered into
my life and I am equally sure into the lives of thousands, and this
fact I see we are to acknowledge as time passes more and more.... He
swore no one to allegiance, he asked for no one's love or loyalty; but
his disciples came to him of their own free will and accord, and then
he never deserted them, but gave more freely than they asked and often
in greater measure than they could or would use. He was always a little
ahead of the occasion, and so was truly a leader."--E. B. RAMBO.

"Judge was the best and truest friend a man ever had. H. P. B. told
me I should find this to be so, and so it was of him whom she, too,
trusted and loved as she did no other. And as I think of what those
missed who persecuted him, of the loss in their lives, of the great
jewel so near to them which they passed by, I turn sick with a sense
of their loss: the immense mystery that Life is, presses home to me.
In him his foes lost their truest friend out of this life of ours in
the body, and though it was their limitations which hid him from them,
as our limitations do hide from us so much Spiritual Good, yet we must
remember, too, that these limitations have afforded to us and to the
world this wonderful example of unselfishness and forgiveness. Judge
made the life portrayed by Jesus realisable to me."--A. KEIGHTLEY.

"William Q. Judge was the nearest approach to my ideal of a MAN that
I have known. He was what I want to be. H. P. B. was something more
than human: She was a cosmic power. W. Q. J. was splendidly human:
and he manifested in a way delightfully refreshing and all his own
that most rare of human characteristics--genuineness. His influence is
continuingly present and powerful, an influence tending steadily, as
ever, in one direction--work for the Masters' Cause."--THOS. GREEN.

"His last message to us was this 'There should be calmness. Hold fast.
Go slow.' And if you take down those words and remember them, you
will find that they contain an epitome of his whole life struggle. He
believed in Theosophy and lived it. He believed because he knew that
the great Self of which he so often spoke was the eternal Self, was
himself. Therefore he was always calm. He held fast with unwavering
tenacity to his purpose and to his ideal. He went slow, and never
allowed himself to act hastily. He made time his own, and he was
justice itself on that account. And he had the power to act with the
rapidity of lightning when the time for action came. We can now afford
to console ourselves because of the life he lived, and should also
remember that this man, William Quan Judge, had more devoted friends,
I believe, than any other living man; more friends who would literally
have died for him at a moment's notice; would have gone to any part of
the world on the strength of a hint from him. And never once did he use
that power and influence for his own personal ends;--never once did he
use that power, great as it was, not only in America, but in Europe,
Australasia and elsewhere as well, for anything but the good of the
Theosophical movement.

"Poor Judge. It was not the charges that stung him, they were too
untrue to hurt. It was the fact that those who had once most loudly
proclaimed themselves his debtors and his friends were among the
first to turn against him. He had the heart of a little child and
his tenderness was only equalled by his strength.... He never cared
what people thought of him or his work so long as they would work for
brotherhood.... His wife has said that she never knew him to tell a
lie, and those most closely connected with him theosophically agree
that he was the most truthful man they ever knew."--E. T. H.

"I knew him with some degree of intimacy for the past eight years,
meeting him often and under varied conditions, and never for one moment
did he fail to command my respect and affection, and that I should have
had the privilege of his acquaintance I hold a debt to Karma. A good
homely face and unpretentious manner, a loving disposition, full of
kindliness and honest friendship, went with such strong common sense
and knowledge of affairs that his coming was always a pleasure and his
stay a delight. The children hung about him fondly as he would sit
after dinner and draw them pictures."--A. H. SPENCER.

"His life was an example of the possibility of presenting new ideas
with emphasis, persistence and effect, without becoming eccentric or
one-sided, without losing touch with our fellows, in short, without
becoming a 'crank.'... The quality of 'common sense' was Mr. Judge's.
Those who have heard him speak, know the singular directness with which
his mind went to the marrow of a subject, the unaffected selflessness
that radiated from the man. The quality of 'common sense' was Mr.
Judge's pre-eminent characteristic."--WILLIAM MAIN.

"For to the mystical element in the personality of Mr. Judge was united
the shrewdness of the practised lawyer, the organising faculty of a
great leader, and that admirable common sense, which is so uncommon
a thing with enthusiasts.... In his teaching was embodied most
emphatically that received by the prophet Ezekiel when the Voice said
to him: 'Stand upon thy feet and I will speak to thee.' He was the
best of friends, for he held you firmly, yet apart. He realised the
beautiful description Emerson gives of the ideal friend, in whom meet
the two most essential elements of friendship, tenderness and truth.
'I am arrived at last,' says Emerson, 'in the presence of a man so
real and equal ... that I may deal with him with the simplicity and
wholeness with which one chemical atom meets another.... To a great
heart he will still be a stranger in a thousand particulars, that he
may come near in the holiest ground.' And upon that 'holiest ground' of
devotion to the highest aim, of desire alone for the welfare of others,
the Chief was always to be approached. And blended with the undaunted
courage, the keen insight, the swift judgment, the endless patience,
that made his personality so powerful, were the warm affections, the
ready wit, the almost boyish gaiety that made it so lovable.... One
of the Chief's last messages to us said: 'They must aim to develop
themselves in daily life in small duties.'... There was a beautiful
story of Rhoecus, who could not recognise in the bee that buzzed about
his head the messenger of the Dryad, and so lost her love."

  KATHERINE HILLARD.

"If my memory serves me rightly, we met first upon an occasion when H.
P. Blavatsky was induced to try, in the presence of some reporters,
if she could open up communication with the diaphanous remainder of
a night watchman who had been drowned in an East River dock. Olcott
was present, in command, prominent and authoritative, and Judge, in
attendance, reserved and quiet. The spook was shy and the reporters
sarcastic. The only one apparently annoyed by their humour was the
Colonel. Mr. Judge's placidity and good nature commended him to the
liking of the reporters, and made a particularly favourable impression
upon me, which was deepened by the experiences of an acquaintance that
continued while he lived. In all that time, though I have seen him
upon a good many occasions when he would have had excellent excuse for
wrath, his demeanour was uniformly the same--kindly, considerate and
self-restrained, not merely in such measure of self-control as might
be expected of a gentleman, but as if inspired by much higher regards
than mere respect for the convenances of good society. He always seemed
to look for mitigating circumstances in even the pure cussedness of
others, seeking to credit them with, at least, honesty of purpose and
good intentions, however treacherous and malicious their acts toward
him might have been. He did not appear willing to believe that people
did evil through preference for it, but only because they were ignorant
of the good, and its superior advantages; consequently he was very
tolerant."--J. H. CONNELLY.

"What he was to one of his pupils, I believe he was to all, ... so wide
reaching was his sympathy, so deep his understanding of each heart; ...
and I but voice the feeling of hundreds all over the world when I say
that we mourn the tenderest of friends, the wisest of counsellors, the
bravest and noblest of leaders. What a man was this, to have been such,
to people of so widely varying nationalities, opinions and beliefs
... to have drawn them all to him by the power of his love, ... and
in so doing, to have brought them closer to each other. There was no
difficulty he would not take infinite pains to unravel, no sore spot in
the heart he did not sense and strive to heal."--G. L. G.

In truth, we might pile up these evidences from the hearts of those
who knew him best and longest, and who were well fitted to judge of
the solidity and the truth of any character. But of this there is no
need. It is for those to say who were influenced by their bugbear of
"authority" whether they have not exchanged the substance for the
shadow; have not retained the dogmatism and lost the free and noble
spirit which W. Q. Judge ever exercised, and which he strove to retain
in the T.S. Summing up his life, one must still say what was written
soon after his departure: "In thinking of this helper and teacher of
ours, I find myself thinking almost wholly of the future. He was
one who never looked back; he looked forward always.... We think of
him not as of a man departed from our midst, but as a soul set free
to work its mighty mission, rejoicing in that freedom, resplendent
in compassion and power. His was a nature that knew no trammels, but
acknowledged the divine laws in all things. He was, as he himself said,
'rich in hope.'... That future as he saw and sees it is majestic in
its harmonious proportions. It presaged the liberation of the race.
It struck the shackles from the self-imprisoned and bade the souls of
men be free. It evokes now, to-day, the powers of the inner man....
Death, the magician, opened a door to show us these things. If we are
faithful, that door shall never close. If we are faithful; only that
proviso. Close up the ranks, and let Fidelity be the agent of heavenly
powers. To see America, the cradle of the new race, fit herself to help
and uplift that race and to prepare here a haven and a home for Egos
yet to appear ... for this he worked; for this will work those who came
after him. And he works with them."

  JULIA W. L. KEIGHTLEY.

    "A STRONG LIGHT SURROUNDED BY DARKNESS; THOUGH REACHING FAR AND
    MAKING CLEAR THE NIGHT, WILL ATTRACT THE THINGS THAT DWELL IN
    DARKNESS. A PURE SOUL BROUGHT TO THE NOTICE OF MEN WILL ILLUMINE
    THE HEARTS OF THOUSANDS; BUT WILL ALSO CALL FORTH FROM THE CORNERS
    OF THE EARTH THE HOSTILITY OF THOSE WHO LOVE EVIL." (_Book of
    Items._)




The United Lodge of Theosophists


DECLARATION

The policy of this Lodge is independent devotion to the cause
of Theosophy, without professing attachment to any Theosophical
organization. It is loyal to the great Founders of the Theosophical
Movement, but does not concern itself with dissensions or differences
of individual opinion.

The work it has on hand and the end it keeps in view are too absorbing
and too lofty to leave it the time or inclination to take part in side
issues. That work and that end is the dissemination of the Fundamental
Principles of the philosophy of Theosophy, and the exemplification in
practice of those principles, through a truer realization of the SELF;
a profounder conviction of Universal Brotherhood.

It holds that the unassailable _Basis for Union_ among Theosophists,
wherever and however situated, is "_similarity of aim, purpose and
teaching_," and therefore has neither Constitution, By-laws nor
Officers, the sole bond between its Associates being that _basis_. And
it aims to disseminate this idea among Theosophists in the furtherance
of Unity.

It regards as Theosophists all who are engaged in the true service
of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, condition or
organization, and

It welcomes to its association all those who are in accord with its
declared purposes and who desire to fit themselves, by study and
otherwise, to be the better able to help and teach others.

"_The true Theosophist belongs to no cult or sect, yet belongs to each
and all._"

    Being in sympathy with the purposes of this Lodge, as set forth in
    its "Declaration," I hereby record my desire to be enrolled as an
    Associate; it being understood that such association calls for no
    obligation on my part other than that which I, myself, determine.

The foregoing is the Form signed by Associates of the United Lodge of
Theosophists.

Inquiries are Invited from all persons to whom this Movement may
appeal. Cards for signature will be sent upon request, and every
possible assistance furnished Associates in their studies and In
efforts to form local Lodges. There are no dues of any kind, and no
formalities to be complied with.

  _Correspondence should be addressed to_
  General Registrar, United Lodge of Theosophists
  LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
  504 Metropolitan Building, Broadway at Fifth Street


    "_To Spread Broadcast the Teachings of Theosophy, as Recorded in
    the Writings of H. P. Blavatsky and Wm. Q. Judge._"

THEOSOPHY

    _A Magazine Devoted to the Theosophical Movement, the Brotherhood
    of Humanity, the Study of Occult Science and Philosophy, and Aryan
    Literature._

    THEOSOPHY is a Monthly Magazine devoted to the promulgation of
    Theosophy as it was given by those who brought it. Established in
    1912 by the United Lodge of Theosophists, the magazine is now in
    the front rank of Theosophical publications and its circulation
    extends to every civilized country. The first eight volumes of
    the magazine contain reprints of the numerous original articles
    written by H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge in explanation,
    exemplification and application of the philosophy recorded in their
    published books. These precious articles, replete with Occult
    instruction, were first published in _The Theosophist_, _Lucifer_,
    and _The Path_, now for many years out of print, so that their
    surpassing value was lost and inaccessible to Students of the
    present generation. THEOSOPHY has made them once more available.
    In addition to these reprints the magazine contains many original
    articles written by Robert Crosbie and other devoted Pupils and
    Students of the Messengers of the Theosophical Movement of the
    nineteenth century. Not the least of the contents of the magazine
    are the Studies of the Teachings, the historical articles relating
    to the Theosophical Movement, the Parent Theosophical Society, and
    the many allied and related organizations and societies of the
    present day. The entire contents of the magazine are universal
    in scope and application, unbiased in treatment, and free from
    sectarian or partisan influence. In order to preserve at all times
    the impersonality of its tone, and that readers may form their
    judgment from the inherent value perceived in the articles and not
    from the names signed to them, the Editors and Contributors remain
    anonymous, no living person's name being mentioned in connection
    with the authorship of any article published.

    Back Volumes and Back Numbers can be supplied at $5.00 per Volume
    and 50 cents per Number.

    Subscriptions can begin with any desired Number of the current
    Volume. Subscription price, $2.00 per annum; single copies 25 cents
    each.

    _Address all communications and remittances to_

  METROPOLITAN      THEOSOPHY      LOS ANGELES,
  BUILDING                         CALIFORNIA


Students interested in obtaining a clear and correct understanding of
the actual Teachings of THEOSOPHY, as recorded in the writings of the
Messengers of the Theosophical Movement of the nineteenth century or in
writings recommended by Them, should have the following books:

  KEY TO THEOSOPHY, _By_ H. P. BLAVATSKY,                          $2.50
      An Exposition in the form of question and answer. The
      best Manual for daily study and reference. A _verbatim_
      reprint  of the Original Edition. Large type, durably and
      artistically bound in Buckram.

  THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY, _By_ WILLIAM Q. JUDGE, $1.25
      A succinct presentation of the philosophy free from
      technical expressions; a perfect condensation of the
      Secret Doctrines of Man and Nature. Cloth.

  THE OCCULT WORLD ESOTERIC BUDDHISM _By_ A. P. SINNETT, _Each_    $2.00
      The two earliest popular presentations of Theosophical
      Teachings, containing extracts from Letters written by
      the _Mahatma_ K. H. From the Plates of the Original
      American Editions. Cloth.

  ISIS UNVEILED, Two Volumes, _By_ H. P. BLAVATSKY,               $10.00
      Volume I, Science; Volume II. Theology. A reprint of the
      Original Edition of 1877. This, the first great work of
      H. P. B., contains a vast wealth of information and
      instruction not to be had elsewhere. Cloth.

  THE SECRET DOCTRINE, Two Volumes, _By_ H. P. BLAVATSKY,         $15.00
      Volume I, Cosmogenesis; Volume II, Anthropogenesis. The
      Original Edition, published in 1888, is now out of
      print. This Edition, published in London, contains some
      unwarrantable changes, but is in the main accurate and
      is the only one available. Written "_for the instruction
      of students of Occultism_," it is _sui generis_ and
      absolutely invaluable to the true student of the
      mysteries of Life and Being. Cloth.

  ABRIDGMENT OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE, _By_ KATHERINE HILLARD,       $3.00
      A very good condensation of the major teachings of
      Madame Blavatsky's "Secret Doctrine" in the language of
      the Author. Cloth.

  THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY, _By_ H. P. BLAVATSKY,                     $5.00
      A reprint of the Original Edition, containing an
      exhaustive and scholarly treatment of the Sanskrit
      and other technical terms employed in Theosophical
      literature. Cloth.


Those who find the Teachings of Theosophy to be comprehensive,
self-explanatory, and a complete solution of all the problems of Life
from a philosophical, logical and scientific standpoint, and who
may desire to follow the Path shown in order to realize in and for
themselves the noble Ideal of Brotherhood exemplified by the MASTERS OF
WISDOM, are urged to read, ponder and assimilate to the utmost extent
possible to them, the following Treatises on the _Heart Doctrine_:

  THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE. Chosen Fragments from The
      Book of the Golden Precepts. Translated and
      annotated by H. P. Blavatsky.

                                                         Leather,  $1.50
                                                           Cloth,   1.25

  THE BHAGAVAD-GITA, The Book of Devotion. Containing
      the Dialogue between _Krishna_, the Supreme
      Master of Devotion, and _Arjuna_, his Disciple.
      Rendered into exquisite parallel terms  in the
      English tongue by William Q. Judge.

                                                         Leather,   1.50
                                                           Cloth,   1.25

  NOTES ON THE BHAGAVAD-GITA. Commentaries
      of the greatest service to sincere students
      of to-day. The first Seven Chapters by
      W. Q. Judge; the remainder by his friend and
      colleague Robert Crosbie.

                                                         Leather,   1.50

  YOGA APHORISMS OF PATAJALI. The _Thought_ of this
      Ancient Master, whose Aphorisms have been the
      guide of Disciples in the East for untold
      thousands of years. Done into English terms
      with Notes, by William Q. Judge.

                                                         Leather,   1.50
                                                           Cloth,   1.25

  LIGHT ON THE PATH. A treatise for the personal use
      of those who are ignorant of the Eastern Wisdom,
      and who desire to enter within its influence. An
      exact reprint of the Original Edition of 1885,
      together with the Comments originally published
      in _Lucifer_. Written down by M. C.

                                                         Leather,   1.50
                                                           Cloth,   1.25

  LETTERS THAT HAVE HELPED ME. Actual Letters,
      by  William Q. Judge, embodying Lessons
      and  Guidance of direct personal value to
      every  Student and  Disciple.

                                                 Volume I, Cloth,   1.00
                                                 Volume II, Cloth,  1.00

      The Two Volumes bound in One,                        Cloth,   1.50

  THE VOICE of the SILENCE, THE BHAGAVAD-GITA,
      And PATAJALI'S YOGA APHORISMS, Bound in
      One  Volume.

                                                         Leather,   3.00


Parents and others interested in the Spiritual and Moral welfare of
Children and averse to the sectarian dogmas and false ideas prevalent
under the name of religious teachings, have long felt the necessity
for literature which should impart true fundamental conceptions of
Nature, of Life and of Duty to the growing generation. As a portion
of its Fraternal activities the United Lodge of Theosophists has
long maintained a _Children's School of Theosophy_. To this School
come children of all ages, Theosophists and Non-Theosophists as to
Parentage. There are taught the primary truths common to all religions
and philosophies, dealing with Birth, Life, Death, Law, Action and
Duty. The Eternal Verities thus inculcated make for clean, sturdy,
wholesome physical, mental, as well as moral and spiritual happiness
and well-being. The experience thus gained in actual practice has been
embodied in two books, wherein the lessons and instructions found
helpful and formative to the highest character are plainly and clearly
outlined, with all necessary suggestions and directions to enable
Parents, Teachers and others to fit themselves to be the better able to
help and guide the plastic minds of the Children to true perceptions of
Life and Action.

  BECAUSE--FOR THE CHILDREN WHO ASK WHY. Interesting,
      comprehensible and assimilable, in clear and
      reverent fashion this Book presents to Children
      the answers to those questions of Self that
      Parents  find it most difficult to meet, and
      affords a common basis of understanding to
      Parent and Child.

                                                           Cloth,  $1.25

  THE ETERNAL VERITIES. A Series of Lessons in basic
      truths and ideas, with complete chart and
      programme so that its full value may be availed
      of in the instruction of Children of all ages,
      whether in the School or the Home. Original
      Songs, Chants, Music, Allegories and Tales of
      Symbolism, in a manner not only to interest but
      to carry the Lessons into the Hearts and Minds
      of the Learners.

                                                           Cloth,  $1.50

In order, further, to afford the maximum possible assistance to Parents
and others interested in the proper education of Children, The United
Lodge of Theosophists maintains a Bureau of Correspondence to which
particular problems connected with the bringing-up of Children may be
addressed. Replies to enquiries are in all cases by Women Associates
of the Lodge who are themselves Mothers and Teachers and gladly give
their time and experience to benefit their perplexed Sisters. There are
no fees or charges of any description in connection with this labor
of love, and all Mothers and Teachers are invited to benefit by it.
Address,

  CHILDREN'S SCHOOL OF THEOSOPHY
  LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
  504 Metropolitan Building, Broadway at Fifth Street


No more important work exists for the Theosophical Student than to be
in a position to direct inquirers to channels where they may inform
themselves of the leading Principles of the teachings of THEOSOPHY in
their philosophical, ethical and scientific bearings. The following are
recommended for their exact accuracy, their simplicity and clarity in
the presentation of the Wisdom-Religion.

  ECHOES FROM THE ORIENT, _By_ WILLIAM Q. JUDGE. A Series
      of Chapters written in the most admirable style,
      giving an outline of Theosophy and the Theosophical
      Movement, and treating of the great Subject of
      Masters, Karma, Reincarnation and Evolution.

                                                           Cloth,  $0.60
                                                           Paper,    .35

  CONVERSATIONS ON THEOSOPHY. A Pamphlet
      giving the fundamental teachings of the Secret
      Doctrine. From the writings of H. P. Blavatsky
      and William Q. Judge.

      Paper, envelope size,                                          .10

      In quantities for propaganda purposes, 50 copies
      for                                                           2.50

  KARMA AND REINCARNATION. A large and attractively
      bound pamphlet, envelope size, containing the
      famous _Aphorisms on Karma_, and a notably
      clear and comprehensive treatment of the
      subjects of Karma and Reincarnation.                           .15

      In quantities for propaganda purposes, 50 copies
      for                                                           4.00

  CULTURE OF CONCENTRATION, And OF OCCULT POWERS. Two
      related Essays by William Q. Judge on subjects
      of supreme importance.                                         .10

  EXTRACTS FROM A LETTER THAT HAS
      HELPED ME. Being a statement of the _Gospel of
      Hope and Responsibility_. This Letter has brought
      consolation and the comfort of understanding to
      many regarding the Great Mystery.                              .10

  THOUGHTS FOR THINKERS. A Pamphlet designed for the
      "man in the street," who is often an open-minded
      practical philosopher and thinker of the first
      rank. These THOUGHTS are undogmatic,
      non-argumentative and very suggestive.                         .10

The foregoing and other Books advertised in the preceding pages may all
be obtained on order through your local Bookseller, or orders may be
sent direct to the undersigned.

Inquiries are invited regarding any Theosophical Books and Publications
not specifically mentioned herein. Correspondence and questions are
also invited on Theosophical problems and subjects from all interested.

  _Address all orders and inquiries and make all remittances
  payable to_

  UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS
  LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
  504 Metropolitan Building, Broadway at Fifth Street




Transcriber's Note

  This is a "2-volume-in-1" ebook. Each volume has been paginated
  separately.

  Footnotes have been placed at end of their respective chapter.

  Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been repaired.

  Pg. 76: Removed extraneous word "relates" from "The sexual relates
  relates really only...."