Chapter I.

THE WILL TO LIVE.
In the brief study of Origins which forms §§ I, 2, of the Introduction to this book, we saw that the Monad, coming forth from the First Logos, showed in his own nature the tri-unity of his Source, the aspects of Will, Wisdom, and Activity.
It is to the study of Will — showing itself as Will on the higher plane and as Desire on the lower — that we are now to turn our attention ; and the study of Desire leads us to the study of Emotion, indissolubly attached to it. We have already seen that we are here because we have willed to live in the lower worlds, that the Will determines our stay here.
n9
300 K STUDV IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
But the nature and power and work of the Will are for the most part but little realised, for "'- '^* — '' — stages of evolu- tion it is not the lower planes save as D" must be studied as Desire be understood as Will.
It is the of consciousness,
ever veiled wi ", hiding as it were
behind Wisdom and Activity, but prompt- ing both to manifestation. So hidden is its nature that many regard it as one with Activity, and refuse to it the dignity of an aspect of consciousness. Yet Activity is the action of the Self on the Not-Self, that which gives to the Not -Self its temporary Reality, that which creates ; but Will hides ever within, impelling to Activity, attracting, repelling, the core of the Heart of Being.
Will is the Power which stands behind Cognition, and stimulates Activity ; Thought is the creative activity, but Will the motive power. Our bodies are as they are, because the Self has for count- less agea set his Will that matter should be shaped into forms whereby he may
THE WILL TO UVE.
301
tand energise on all outside himself. Tt is written in an ancient
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" Of a truth this body is mortal, O Maghavan, it is subject to death. Yet is it a resting-place of the immortal and bodiless Atma. . . The eyes are intended as organs of observation for the Being who dwelleth within the eyes. He who willeth. ' I shall smell." is the Aima. wishing to experience fragrance. I le who willeth, ' I shall speak,' is the Atmd wishing to utter words. He who willeth, ' I shall hear,' is the AtmS, Wishing to listen to sounds. He who willeth. ' I shall think,' is the Alnoa. The mind is the celestial eye, observing all desirable objects. By means of the mental celestial eye, Atml enjoyeth all,"' This is the secret, the motive power, of evolution. True, the great Will traces the high road of evolution. True, spiritual Intelligences of many grades guide the evolving entities along that high road. But too little attention lias been paid to the countless experiments, failures, successes, the little bye-ways and
•CIMm4^vfa>afkai. Vllt. uL 1, 4, 5.
502 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
twists and curls, due to the gropings of the separate Wills, each Will to Live trying to find Self-expression. The contacts from the outer world arouse in each AtmS the Will to know what touches. He knows but little in the jelly-fish, but the Will to know shapes, in form after form, an ever-improving eye, that hinders less his power of perception. As we study evolution, we become more and more conscious of Wills which shape matter, but shape it by groping experi- ments, not by clear vision. The presence of these many Wills makes the constant branching of the evolutionary tree. There is a real truth in Professor Clifford's playful story to the children about the great Saurians of an early age: "Some chose to fly and became birds ; others chose to crawl, and became reptiles." Often we see an attempt foiled, and then the attempt is made in another direction. Often we sec the most clumsy contriv- ances side by side with the most exquisite adaptations. The latter are the results of Intelligences knowing their aims and constantly chiselling the matter into
tH6 WILL TO UVK.
303
forr
appropriate forms ; the others are the outcome of the strivings from within, still blind and groping, but steadfastly set to Self-expression. If there were only outside designers, seeing the end from the beginning. Nature would present us with insoluble puzzles in her building, ■SO many are the inade ineffettive designs. But when we realise the presence of the Will to Live In each form, seeking Self-expression, shaping his vehicles for his own purpases. then we can alike the creative plan which underlies -the plan of the Logos ; the admirable adaptations which work out Hts plan— the labour of the building intelligences; and the inapt contrivances and clumsy expe- dients—due to the efforts of the Selves that will, but have not yet the knowledge or the power to perform perfectly.
It is this groping, striving, struggling divine Self, which, as evolution goes on, becomes in ever- Increasing measure the true Ruler, the inner Ruler, the Immortal. Anyone who grasps that he is himself that Immortal Kuler. seated within his Self> created vehicles of expression, gains
304 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
sense of dignity and power which grows ever stronger, and more compelling on the lower nature. The knowledge of the truth make us inly free. The inner Ruler may still be hampered by the very forms he has shaped for self-expression, but knowing himself as the Ruler, he can work steadfastly to bring his realm into complete subjection. He knows that he has come into the world for a certain purpose, to make himself fit to be a co- worker with the Supreme Will, and he can do and suffer all which is necessary to that end. He knows himself divine, and that his Self-realisation is only a question of lime. Inwardly the divinity is felt, though outwardly it is not yet expressed, and there remains to become in manifesta- tion what he is in essence. He is king de Jure, not yet de facto.
As a Prince, born to a crown, patiently submits to the discipline which is fitting him to wear it, so the sovereign Will in us is evolving to the age when royal powers will pass into its grasp, and may patiently submit to the necessary discipline of life.
m
Si. The Nature of Desire
llF.N the Monad sends forth his rays
ito the matter of the third, fourth, and
planes, and appropriates tu himself
atom of each of these planes,' he
lies what is often called his " reflexion
matter," the human "Spirit," and the
ill-aspect of the Monad Is mirrored in
the human AtmS, whose home is on the
third or atmic plane. That first hypostasis
is indeed lessened in powers by the veils
matter thus endued, but it is in no
,y distorted ; as a well - made mirror
produces a perfect imajje of an object, so
is the human Spirit, AtmS-Buddhi-Manas,
a perfect image of the Monad, is. indeed,
S«e Port I. Chuptcr iv. fi S-
k
:o6
A STUDV IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
the Monad himself veiled in den! matter. But as a concave or conv mirror y ields a distorted image of an object placed before it. so do the further reflexions of the Spirit in, or involutions into, yet denser matter show but distorted images thereof.
Thus, when the Will, in its downward progress, veiling itself farther on each plane, reaches the world immediately above the physical, the astral world, it appears therein as Desire. Desire shows the energy, the concentration, the impelling' characteristics of Will, but matter has wrenched away its control, its direction, from the Spirit, and has usurped dominion over it. Desire is Will discrowned, the captive, the slave of matter. It is no longer Self-determined, but is determined by the attractions around it.
This is the distinction between Will and Desire. The innermost nature of both is the same, for they are verily but one determination, the Self-determination of the AtmS. the one motor-power of man, that which impels to Activity, to action on the external world, on the Not-
anc ^^B the
i
If. When the Self determines the
ilivity, uninfluenced by attractions or
ipulsions towards surrounding objects,
len Will is manifested. When outer
Mtractions and repulsions determine the
activity, and the man is drawn hither
and thither by these, deaf to the voice of
the Self, unconscious of the Inner Ruler,
len Desire is seen.
Desire is Will clothed in astral matter, the matter which by the second life- .ve was formed into combinations, the reaction between which and consciousness would cause sensations in the latter. Clothed in this matter, the vibrations of which are accompanied with sensations in consciousness, Will is modified into Desire. Its essential nature of giving motor - impulses, surrounded by matter which arouses sensations, answers by im- pelling energy, and this energy, aroused through and acting through astral matter, is Desire,
As in the higher nature Will is the impelling power, so in the lower nature Desire is the impelling power. When it is feeble the whole nature is feeble in its
3o8 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
reaction on the world. The effective force of a nature is measured by its Will-power or its Desire-power, according to the stage of evolution. There is a truth underlying the popular phrase. "The greater the sinner the greater the saint." The mediocre person can be neither greatly good nor greatly bad ; there is not enough of him for more than petty virtues or petty vices. The strength of the Desire-nature ^^^1 in a man is the measure of his capacity for
^^^1 progress, the measure of the motor-energy ^^H whereby that man can press onwards along ^^H the way. The strength in a man that
^^H impels to reaction on his environment is
^^^ the measure of his power to modify, to
M change, to conquer it. In the struggle
I with the Desire-nature which marks the
I higher evolution, the motor-energy is not
I to be destroyed but transferred ; lower
^^^ Desires are to be transmuted into higher,
^^^B energy is to be refined while losing nought ^^B of its power ; and finally the Desire-nature ^^^ is to vanish into Will, ail the energies
being gathered up and merged into the ^ Will-aspect of the Spirit, the Power of the
t
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No aspirant, therefore, should be dis- luraged by the storming and raging of isires in him, any more than a horse- raker is displeased with the rearings and iungings of the unbroken colt. The ildness of the young untrained creature, id his rebellion against all efforts to control and restrain, are the promise of his future usefulness when disciplined and trained. And even thus are the strainings «f Desire against the curb imposed by le Intelligence, the promise of the future :ngth of Will, of the Power-aspect of le Self.
Rather does difficulty arise where desires are feeble, ere yet the Will has freed itself from the trammels of astral matter ; for in such case the Will to Live is expressing itself but feebly, and there is little effective force available for evolution. There is some obstacle, some barrier, in the vehicles, checking the forthgoing energy of the Monad, and obstructing its free passage, and until that barrier is removed there is little progress to be hoped for. In the storm the ship drives iward, though there be peril of wreck.
3IO
A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
but in the dead calm she remains helpless and unmoving, answering neither to sail nor helm. And since, in this voyage, no final wreck is possible, but only temporary damage, and the storm works for progress rather than the calm, those who find them- selves storm-tossed may look forward with sure conviction to the day when the storm- gusts of Desire will be changed into the steady wind of Will.
§j. The Awakening of Desire,
To the astral world we refer all our sensations. The centres by which we feel lie in the astral body, and the reactions of these to contacts give rise to feelings of pleasure and pain in consciousness. The ordinary physiologist traces sensation of pleasure and pain from the point of con- tact to the brain-centre, recognising only nervous vibrations between periphery and centre, and in the centre the reaction of consciousness as sensation. We follow the vibrations further, finding only vibrations n the brain -centre and in the ether permeating it. and seeing in the astral
DESIRE. 311
the point at which the reaction of ""Consciousness takes place. When a dis- location between the physical and astral bodies occurs, whether by the action of chloroform, ether, laughing -j^as, or other drugs, the physical body, despite all its nervous apparatus, feels no more than if bereft of nerves. The links between the physical body and the body of sensation are thrown out of gear, and conscious- ness does not respond to any stimulus applied.
The awakening of Desire takes place In this body of sensation, and follows the first dim sensings of pleasure and pain. As before pointed out' pleasure " is a sense of ' moreness,' of increased, expanded life," while pain is a shutting in or lessening of liff. and these belong to the whole con- sciousness. " This primary sute of con- sciousness does not manifest the three well-known aspects of Will, Wisdom, and Activity, even in the most germinal stage ; * feeling ' precedes tliese, and belongs to consciousness as a whole, though in later
iges of evolution It shows itself so much ■See Pan I. Ovaptet ix. 1 1.
3T2 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
in connexion with the Will-Desire aspect as to become almost identified with it." " As the states of pleasure and pain become more definitely established in consciousness, they give rise to another ; with the fading away of pleasure there is a continuation of the attraction in con- sciousness, and this becomes a dim groping after It " — a groping, be it noted, not after any pleasure -giving object, but after a continuance of the feeling; of pleasure — "a vague following of the vanishing feeling, a movement— too indefinite to be called an effort — to hold it. to retain it ; similarly with the fading away of pain there is a continuation of the repulsion in conscious- ness, and this becomes an equally vague movement to push it away. These stages give birth to Desire."
This arising of Desire is a feeble reach- ing out of the life in search of pleasure, a movement of the life, undirected, vague, groping. Beyond this it cannot go, until Thought has developed to a certain extent, and has recognised an outer world, a Not- Self, and has learned to relate various objects in the Not-Self to the pleasure or
DESIRE.
3^
sun
in arising in consciousness on contacting lem.
But the resulu of these contacts, long ibefore the objects are recognised, have caused, as above indicated, a division in, a irking of. Desire. We may take as one if the simplest illustrations the craving for in a lowly organism ; as the physical ly wastes, becomes less, a sense of pain ises in the astral body, a want, a craving, 'ague and indeterminate ; the body, by its ^wasting, has become a less effective vehicle the life pouring down through the itral. and this check causes pain. A irrent in the water that bathes the ;anism brings food up against the body ; It is absorbed, the waste is repaired, the life flows on unobstructed ; there is plea- sure. At a little higher stage, when pain arises, there is the desire to escape from the sense of repulsion arises, the con- iry to the sense o( attraction, caused y pleasure. There results from this that »csirc is cloven in twain. From the Will Live arose the longing to experience, and in the lower vehicle this longing, appearing as Desire, becomes on the one
314 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
hand a longing for experiences that make the feeling of life more vivid, and on the other a shrinking from all that weakens and depresses. This attraction and repul- sion are equally of the nature of Desire. Just as a magnet attracts or repels certain metals, so does the embodied Self attract and repel. Both attraction and repulsion are Desire, and these are the two great motor-energies in life, into which all desires are ultimately resolvable. The Self comes under the bondage of Desire, of Attraction -Repulsion, and is attracted hither and thither, repelled from this or that, hurried about among pleasure- and pain-giving objects, as a helmlcss ship amid the currents of air and sea.
§ 3. The Relation of Desire to Thought.
We have now to consider the relation that Desire bears to Thought, and see how it first rules and then is ruled by the latter.
The Pure Reason is the reflexion of the Wisdom-aspect of the Monad, and appears in the human Spirit as Buddhi. But it is not the relation of Desire to the Pure Reason
DESIRE. 3 1 5
irith which we are concerned, for it cannot, fact, be said to be directly related to ftWisdom, but to Love, the manifestation of ■Wisdom on the astral (jlanti. We are to Jsrek rather its relation to the Activity- ispeci of the Monad, showinj^ itself on the istral plane as sensation and on the mental i thought. Nor are we even concerned rith the Higher Mind, which is creative Activity, Manas, in its purity ; but with the distorted reflexion of this, the lower mind. bit is this lower mind which is immediately related to Desire, and is inextricably inter- mingled with it in human evolution ; so loscly joined, indeed, are they, that we jften speak of Kima-Manas. Desire-Mind, of a single thing, so rare is it, in the fflower consciousness, to find a single thought which is uninfluenced by a desire. " Manas verily is declared lo be twofold, pure and Impure ; the impure is determined by desire, the pure is desire-free."'
This lower mind is "thought" on the mental plane ; its characteristic property is that it asserts and denies ; it knoMs by difference ; it perceives and remembers.
3l6 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
On the astral plane, as we have seen, the same aspect that on the mental plane is thought appears as sensation, and 1%, aroused by contact with the externailj world.
When a pleasure has been experienced, and has passed away, Desire arises tO' experience it again, as we have seen. And this fact implies memory, which is a function of the mind. Here, as ever, are we reminded that consciousness is ever acting in its threefold nature, though one or other aspect may predominate, for even the most germinal desire cannot arise without memory being present. The sensation caused by an external impact must have been many times aroused, before the mind will establish a relation between the sensation of which it is conscious, and the external object which has caused the sensation. At last the mind "perceives" the object. ;>., relates it to one of its own changes, recognises a modification in itself caused by the external object. Repetitions of this per- ception will establish a definite link in memory between the object and the
\ I
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^Krhoi
DESIRE, 317
.uiable or painful sensation, and when Desire presses for the repetition of pleasure, the mind recalls the object which supplied that pleasure. Thus the mingling of Thought with Desire gives birth to a particular desire, the desire to find and appropriate the pleasure-giving object.
This desire impels the mind to exert its iherent activity. Discomfort being caused by the unsatisfied craving, effort is made to escape the discomfort by supplying the object wanted. The mind plans, schemes, drives the body into action, in order to satisfy the cravings of Desire. And similarly, equally prompted by Desire, the mind plans, schemes, drives the body into action in order to avoid the recurrence of pain from an object recognised as pain- giving.
Such is the relation of Desire to
hought. It rouses, stimulates, urges on.
ntal efforts. The mind is, in its early ;es, the slave of Desire, and the rapidity of its growth is in proportion to the tierce urgings of Desire. We desire, and thus forced 10 think.
A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
§ 4. Desirk, Thought, Action.
The third stap-e of the contact of the Self '
I
mine leads to. Action is but Desire ment. or c Desire is propmsi
is Action. The le object of desire, hapes the action, arise from Desire, only arouse move- 1. The force of ii recti ve. Thought
it is that adds the element of direction, and shapes the action purposively.
This is the ever- recurring cycle in consciousness — Desire, Thought, Action. The propulsive power of Desire arouses Thought ; the directive power of Thought guides Action. This sequence is invariable, and the clear understanding thereof is of the profoundest importance, for the effec- tive control of conduct depends on this understanding, and on its application in practice. The shaping of karma can only be achieved when this sequence is under- stood, for evitable and inevitable action can only thus be discriminated.
It is by Thought that we can change Desire, and thereby change Action. When
319
the mind sees thai certain desires have impelled to thoughts that have directed actions which were productive of unhappi- ness. it can resist the future promptings of Desire in a similar direction, and refuse to guide actions to a result already known as disastrous. It can picture the painful results, and thus arouse the repellent energy of Desire, and can image the blissful outcome uf desires of the opjwsite kind. The creative activity of Thought can be exerted in the moulding of Desire, and its propulsive energy can be turned into a belter direction. In this way Thought can be used to master Desire, and it may become the ruler instead of the slave. And as it thus asserts control over its unruly companion, it begins the trans- mutation of Desire into Will, changing the governance of the oulf^oing energy from the outer to the inner, from the external objects that attract or repel to the Spirit, i inner Ruler.
S5. Thi; Bikolvc Nature of Desikr.
the Will to Live is the cause of ling, of the Hie seeking cmbodi-
320 A STUl
ment and appropriating" to itself that which is necessary for its manifestation and persisteiT-p in frii-m. Desire, being
Will on a character! tiraw into whereby it: and stre' object, we ;lves. part of trie
will show similar to appropriate, to part of itself that nay be maintained en we desire an ,e it part of our- " so that it may
form part of the embodiment of the " 1." Dtsire is the pLittin of attraction ; it draws the desired object to itself Whatever we desire, we attach to ourselves. By the desire to possess it, a bond is established between the object and the desirer. We tie to the Self this portion of the Not-Self, and the bond exists until the object is possessed, or until the Self has broken off the bond and repudiated the object. These are "the bonds of the heart,"' and tie the Self to the wheel of births and deaths.
These bonds between the desiror and the objects of desire are like ropes that draw the Self to the place where the ' Kathupaniihat. vi. 15.
DESIRE. 321
I objects of desire are found, and thus determine its birth into one or another rworld. " On this runs the verse : He also ■^who is attached ever obtains by action tthat on which his mind has set its mark. iHaving obtained the object of action Ibe here performs, he comes again there- llbre from that world to this world for Ithe sake of action. Thus is it with the lllesiring mind."' If a man desires the jiobjects of another world more than the 'objects of this, then into that world will he be born. There is a continuing tension in the bond of Desire until the
PkSelf and the object are united. r The one great determining energy, the Will to Live, which holds the planets in their path around ihe sun, which prevents the matter of the globes from scaitering, which holds our own bodies together, that is the energy of Desire. That which rules all is in us as Desire, and it must draw to us, or draw us to, everything into which it has fixed its hooks. The hook of Desire fixc-s itself in an object, as a harpoon in the whale at which it in Rung
322 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
by the harpooner. When Desire has fixed its harpoon in an object, the Self is attached to th?"- i^Ki*"-* has appropriated it in Will, and pi
in action. H -said : " If thj it out and a thy right hand cast it from t becomes part ot ii
UBt appropnate it real Teacher has offend thee, pluck thee ... if lee, cut it off and "he thing desired ody of the Self,
and, if it be evil, it should be torn out. at whatever cost of anguish. Otherwise it will only be worn away by the slow attrition of time and of weariness, "Only the slronjr can kill it out. The weak must wait for its iirowth, it5i fruition, its death."'
§6. Th
: Bonds.
For the breaking of the bonds of Desire, recourse must be had to the mind. Therein lies the power which shall first purify and then transmute Desire.
The mind records the results which follow the appropriation of each object of
•MaU. V. 2g, 3a. ' L(^/i/ on the Path. 4.
BE
sire, and marks whether happiness or ^jain has resuhed from the union of that object with the embodied Self. And when, after many appropriations of an attractive object, it has found the result to be jjain. it registers that object as one which should be avoided in the future. " The delights that are contact-born, they are verily wombs of pain."'
Then arises strife. When that attractive object again presents itself, Desire throws out Its harpoon and seizes it, and begins to draw it In. The mind, remembering the painful results of previous similar captures, endeavours to check Desire, to cut, with the sword of knowledge, the attaching bund. Fierce conflict rages within the man : he is dragged forward by Desire, held back by Thought ; many and many a time Desire will triumph and the >jecl will be appropriated ; but the iulting pain is ever repeated, and ich success of Desire arrays against it another enemy in the forces of the mind. inevitably, however slowly. Thought proves stronger, until, at last, victory
' Bkagmiad-Gltd. v. 21.
324
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inclines to its side, and a day comes wheal the desire is weaker than the mind, and | the attractive object is loosed, the attach-
ing cord is c is broken.
In this cor against Dt It selects relatively las utilise these a^ result in pain.
at object, the bond J
ght seeks to utilise J rength of Desire, | )esire that give a ness, and seeks to desires that swiftly Thus it will set artistic
against sensual pleasure ; it will use fame
and political or social power against enjoy- ments of the flesh ; it will stimulate the desire to please the good, to strengthen abstention from vicious delights ; it will finally make the desire for eternal peace conquer the desires for temporal joys. By the one great attraction the lower attrac- tions are slain, and cease to be any longer the objects of desire : " Even taste (for them) turneth away from him after the Supreme is seen."' The very energy of Desire can tear it away from that which brings pain, and fix it on that which brings bliss. The same force that bound is made ' Bhagavad-Gild. ii. 59.
to serve as an instrument of freedom. Wrenching itself away from objects, it will turn upwards and inwards, attaching the man to the Life whence he came forth, and in union with which consists his highest bliss.
Herein h'es the value of devotion as a liberator. Love, turning to the Supreme, sees Him as eminently desirable, as an Object for intense desire, and this burns up attachments to objects that keep the heart in bondage.
Only by the Self as Thought can be mastered the Self as Desire ; the Self, realising itself as the life, overcomes the Self embodied and thinking itself to be the form. The man must learn to separate himself from the vehicles in which he desires, thinks, and acts, to know them as part of the Not-Self, as material external to the life. Thus the energy that went out to objects in the lower desires becomes the higher desire guided by the mind, and is prepared to be transmuted into Will.
As the lower mind merges itself in the higher, and the higher into that which is Wisdom, the aspect of pure Will emerges
326 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
as the Power of the Spirit, Self-deter- mined, Self-ruled, in perfect harmony with
the Supreme Will, Then only are Spirit is uncc himself. Thi Will be said tc
and therefore free. i broken, and the by aught outside en only, can the