Chapter III.

DESIRE (continued). % 1. The Vehicle of Desire.
We shall have to return to the struggle in the Desire-nature, in order to add some useful details to that which has been already said ; but it is first necessary to study the Vehicle of Desire, the Desire- Body or Astnil Body, as this study will enable us to understand the precise method in which we may work to subdue and get rid of the lower desires.
The Vehicle of Desire is made up of what is called astral matter, the matter of the plane above the physical. This matter, like the physical, exists in seven modifications, which relatively to each other are like the solid. li(|uid. gaseous, etc., sub-states of matter on the physical plane. ;\s ihr physic il bcnly contains
32S \ STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
within itself these various sub-states of physical matter, so does the astral body contain wirhin itself the various sub-states of astral ma f these sub-states
has in it ( ler aggregations,
and the wu , as of physical
purificatic c le substitution of
the finer ir
Moreover, ib-states of astral
matter serve chiv...j ihe manifestation
of the lower desires, while the higher sub- states vibrate in answer to the desires which have changed, by the intermixture of mind, into emotions. The lower desires, grasping after objects of pleasure, find that the lower sub-states serve as medium for their attractive force, and the coarser and baser the desires, the coarser are the aggregations of matter that fitly express them. As the desire causes the corre- sponding material in the astral body to vibrate, that matter becomes strongly vitalised and attracts fresh similar matter from outside to itself, and thus increases the amount of such matter in the constitu- tion of the astral body. When the desires arc gradually refined into emotions, intel-
DESIRE. 339
^leclual elements entering into them, and selfishness diminishing", the amount of finer matter similarly increases in the astral body, while the coarser matter, left un- vitalised, loses ener^ and decreases in amount
These facts, applied to practice, help us I to weaken the civeniy which is enthroned ' within us, for we can deprive him of his instruments. A traitor within the jjatcs is more dangerous than a foe outside, and the desire-body acts as such a traitor, so Llong as it ts composed of elements that ■answer to the temptations from without Desire, as it builds in the coarser materials, must lie checked by the mind, the mind refusing to picture the passing pleasure which the possession of the object would entail, and picturing to itself the more lasting .sorrow it would cause. As we get rid of the coarser matter which vibrates in answer to the baser attractions, those attractions lose all power to dis- turb us.
This vehicle of desire, then, must be taken in hand ; according to its building will be the attractions that reach us from
330
. STUDV IN COKSCIOUSNESS.
without. We can work upon the form, change the elements of which the form is composed, and thu a defender.
When an "g •" character,
he is, howev( with a difficulty
which often depresses him.
He finds h: by desires from
which he shu ti he is ashamed,
and despite his sin-n, efforts to shake them offl they none the less cling to and torment him. They are discordant with his efforts, his hopes, his aspirations, and yet, in some way, they seem to be his. This painful experience is due to the fact that the consciousness evolves more rapidly than the form can chantje, and the two are to some extent in conllict with each other. There is a considerable amount of the coarser aggregations still present in the astral body ; but as the desires have become more refined, they no longer vivify these materials. Some of the old vitality none the less persists therein, and although these aggregations are decaying they are not wholly gone.
Now although the man's Desire-nature
DBSfRB. 33 1
lo longer using these maierials for setf-
expression, they may yet be thrown into
temporary activity from outside, and thus
take on a semblance of vitaHty as a
galvanised corpse mij^hl do. The desires
of other people — desire-elemenlals of an
evil kind— may attach themselves to these
disused elements in his astral body, and
they may thus be stimulated and revivified,
and cause him to feel as his own the
* promptings of desires he abhors. Where
r such exiieriences are undergone, let the
r bewildered combatant take courage ; even
^ in the innish of these desires, let him
i repudiate them as none of his. and know
f thai the elements in him they utilise arc
f of the past, and are dying, and that the
kday of their death and of his freedom is
fBt hand.
We may take an example from dream, I to show this working of effete matter in y the astral body. A man. in a former life, was a drunkard, and his after-death experiences had im[)rcsscd deeply on him a repulsion for drink ; on rebirth, the Ego in the new physical and astral bodies impressed on Uiem this repulsion, but
332 STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
there i s none the less in the astral body 1 some latter drawn thereinto by the cpfl in the- permanent atom
vibrat
by th( n
is not vii
craving for
drink
wakii
dream, thi
stimulated into a
This matter ;sent. life by any ' r yielding to the ontrary, in the [ sober. But 2 astral body is I om without, and
the control of the E^o being weak over the astral body," this matter responds to the drink-craving vibrations that reach it, and the man dreams that he drinks. Moreover, if there still be in the man a latent desire for drink, too weak to assert itself durinir waking consciousness, it may come up in the dream-state. For physical matter being comparatively heavy and hard to move, a weak desire has not energy enough to cause vibrations therein ; but that same desire may move the much lighter astral matter, and so a man may be carried away in a dream by a desire
' The Ego turns his .ittention inward during sleep, until he is able to use his astral body indL-[>end(^ntly ; hence his control over it is weak.
DESIRE. 333
which has no power over him In his waking consciousness. Such dreams cause much distress, because not understood. The man should understand that the dream shows that the temptation is con- quered so far as he is concerned, and that he is only troubled by the corpse of past desires, vivified from outside on the astral plane, or if from within, then by a dying desire too weak to move him in his waking moments. The dream is a sign of a victory well-nigh complete. At the same time it is a warning ; for it tells the man that there is still in his astral body some matter apt to be vivified by vibra- tions of the drink-craving, and that there- fore he should not place himself during waking life under conditions where such vibrations may abound. Until such dreams have entirely ceased, the astral body is not free from matter that is a source of
i 3. Thb CowrucT or DciiRit and Thouoht-
We must now return to the struggle I in the Desire-nature, to which reference
334
A STUDV IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
has : iO/dy been made, in order to add some necessary details.
This conflict belonffs to what may be called the )( evolution, that
long stage ;nes between the
state of th
grasping aii unchecked by
conscience, ! by remorse,
and the i highly evolved
spiritual man, n Will, Wisdom
and Activity work in co-ordinated har- mony. The conflict arises between Desire and Thought — Thought beginning to understand the relation of itself to the Not-Self and to other separated selves, and Desire, influenced by the objects around it, moving by attractions and repulsions, drawn hither and thither by objects that allure.
We must study the stage of evolution ill which the accumulated memories of past experiences, stored in the mind, set themselves against the gratification of desires which have been proved to lead to pain ; or, to speak more accurately, in which the conclusion drawn by the Thinker from these accumulated expe-
k
DESIRE, 335
^riences asserts itself in face of a demand from the Desire-nature for the object which has been stamped as dangerous.
The habit of gasping and enjoying has been established for hundreds of lives, and is strong, while the habit of resisting a present pleasure in order to avoid a future pain is only in course of establish- ment, and is consequently very weak. Hence the conflicts between the Thinker and the Desire-nature end for a long time in a series of defeats. The young Mind struggling with the mature Desire-body 5nds itself constantly vanquished. But every victory of the De-sirc-nature, being followed by a brief pleiisure and a long pain, gives btrlh to a new force hostile to itself, that recruits the strength of its opponent. Each defeat of the Thinker thus sows the seeds of his future victory, and his strength daily grows while the strength of the Desire-nature diminishes. When this is clearly understood, we grieve no longer over our own falls and the falls of those we love ; for we know that these falls are making sure the secure footing of the future, and that in
I
33^ A STUDY IM CONSCIOUSMBSS.
the ?mb of pain is maturing^ the future conqueror.
I ■ knnw\f'Aoe of right and wrong fijrov ce, and is elabor-
ated c he sense of right
and wi e in the civilised
man, has ed b\' innumerable
exf: arly days of the
separate riences were useful
in his evolutiuii, brought him the
Ir-ssons needful for his growth. Gradually Ik; learned that the yielding to desires which, in the course of their gratification injured others, brought him jjain out of proportion to the temporary pleasure derived from their satisfaction. He began to attach the word ■' wrong " to the desires the yielding to which brought a predominance of pain, and this the more quickly because the Teachers who guided his early growth placed on the objects which attracted such desires the ban of Their disapproval. When he had disobeyed Them and suffering followed, the impression made on the Thinker was the more powerful for the previous fore- telling, and conscience — the Will to do
337
the right and abstain from the wrong — was pro|K>nionately streiijjthened.
In this connexion we can readily see the value of admonition, reproof, and good counsel. All these are stored up in the mind, and are forces added to the accumulating memories which oppose the gratification of wrong desire. Granted that the person warned may again yield when the temptation assails him ; that only means thai the balance of strength is still ill the wrong desire ; when the foretold suffering arrives, the mind will recall all the memories of warnings and admonitions, and will engrave the more deeply in its substance the decision: " This desire is wrong." The doing of the wrong act merely means that the memory uf past pain is not yet sufficiently strong to over- bear the attraction of eagerly anticijKtted and immediate pleasure. The lesson needs to be repeated yet a few times more, to strengthen the memory of the past, and when that is done, victory is sure. The suffering is a necessary element in the growth of the soul, and has the promise of thai growth within it. Everywhere
A STUDY Dl
m
sh IS habit J overo^l
with 9
aroub I us. if we sec aright, is growing' ^ood ; nowhere is there hopeless evil.
This strue^le is exoressed in the sad cry : " hat 1 do not ; what
I vrouU at " When I would
do good, f It with me." The
wrong thai vhen the wish is
against the done by the habit
of the [ »k Will
powered b> desire.
Now the Thinker in his conflict ihc Desire-nature calls to his aid th; very nature, and strives to awaken in it a desire which shall be opposed to the desires acjaiiist which he is waginjr war. As the attraction of a weak magnet may be overpowered by that of a stronger one, so may one desire be strengthened for the overcoming of another, a right desire may be aroused to combat a wrong one. Hence the value of an ideal.
g 3. Thk Value or an Idkai,.
An ideal is a fixed mental concept of an inspiring character, framed for the guidance of conduct, and the formation of an ideal
DESIRE. 339
is one of the most effective means of influencing desire. The ideal may, or may not, find embodiment in an individual, according; to the temperament of the man who frames it, and it must ever be remem- bered that the value of an ideal depends l.irgely on its attractiveness, and that that which attracts one temperament by no means necessarily attracts another. An abstract ideal and a personal one are equally good, regarded from a general standfjoint, and that should be selected which has. on the individual choosing it. the most attractive influence. A person of the intellectual temperament will usually find an abstract itieal the more satis- factory ; whereas one of the emotional temperament will demand a concrete embodiment of his thoughL The dis- advantage of the abstract ideal is that it is apt to fail in compelling inspiration : the disadvantage of the concrete embodiment is that the embodiment is apt to fall below the ideal.
The mind, of course, creates the ideal, and either retains it as an abstraction, or embodies it in a person. The time chosen
340 A STUDY IN COKSCIOUSNESS.
for the creation of an ideal should be a time when the mind is calm and steady and luminou': whpn rh^ Desire-nature is asleep. ; nker should con-
sider the pi » life, the goal at
which he ai i this to guide his
choice, he ect the qualities
necessary u m to reach that
^foal. Thes le should combine
into a single concept, igininjij as stronijly ;ls he can this integration of the qualities he needs. Daily he should repeat this integrating process, until his ideal stands out clearly in the mind, dowered with all beauty of high thought and noble character, a figure of compelling attractive- ness. The man of intellect will keep this ideal as a pure concept. The man of emotional nature will embody it in a person, such as the Buddha, the Christ, Shri Krishna, or some other divine Teacher. In this latter case he will, If possible, study His life. His teachings. His actions, and the ideal will thus become more and more strongly vivified, more and more real to the Thinker. Intense love will spring up in the heart
341
for this embodied ideal, and Desire will slretch nut longing arms to embrace it. And when temptation assails, and the lower desires clamour for satisfaction, then the attractive power of the ideal asserts itself, the loftier desire combats the baser, and the Thinker linds himself reinforced by riKht desire, ihc negative strength nf memory which says : " Abstain from the b;ise." being fortified by the positive strength of the ideal which says : "Achieve the heroic"
The man who lives habitually in the presence of a great ideal is armed against wrong desires by love of his ideal, by shame of being base in its presence, by the longing to resemble that which he adores, and also by the general set and trend of his mind along lines of noble thinking. Wrong desires become more and more incongruous. They perish naturally, unable to breathe in that pure dear air.
It may be worth while to remark here, in view of the destructive results of historidal criticism, in the minds of many, that ihi: value of the ide^il Christ, the ideal Buddha, the ideal Krishna, is in no way
342 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
injured by any lack of historical data, by any defects in the proofs of the authenticity of a manuscript. Many of the stories related may not be historically true, but they are ethically and vitally true. Whether this incident happened in the physical life of this Teacher or not is a matter of small import ; the re-action of such an ideal character on his environ- ment is ever profoundly true. The world- Scriptures represent spiritual facts, whether the physical incidents be or be not histori- cally true.
Thus Thought may shape and direct Desire, and turn it from an enemy into an ally. By chanjjing the direction of Desire, it becomes a lifting and quickening instead of a retarding force, and where desires for objects held us fast in the mire of earth, desire for the ideal lifts us on strong wings to heaven.
§ 4. The Purification or Desire.
We have already seen how much maybe done in the purification of the vehicle of Desire, and the contemplation and worship
DRSIKE. 343
f the ideal, which has just been described.
I a mosl potent means for the purification
Desire. Evil desires die away, as good
tsirrs arc encouraged and fostered^-die
fcway merely from want of nourishment.
The effort to reject all wrong desires is
iccomijanied by the firm refusal of thought
> allow them to pass on into actions. Will
ll)cgins to restrain action, even when Uesire
damours for gratification. And this refusal
mto iiermit the action instigated by wrong
lesire gradually deprives of all attractive
owcr the objects which erstwhile aroused
"The objects of sense .... turn
fcway from an abstemious dweller in the
dy."' The desires fade away, starved
lack of satisfaction. Abstention from
"atification ts a potent means of pari-
lication.
There is another means of purification in which the repulsive force of Desire is utilised, as in the contemplation of the ideal the attractive force was evok is useful in extreme cases, in which the lowest desires are tumultuous and in- surgent, sudi desires as lead to the vices ' SiagavaJ-UUJ, ti. $9.
j44 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
of } ittony, drunkenness and profligacy. Sometimes a man finds it impossible to get rid of ■' ' ■ - j^j despite all his efforts his s to their strong
impulse, ar nations riot in his
brain. He juer by apparent
yielding, c; ; evil imaginations
to their ults. He pictures
himself y t temptations that
assail him, and sinKni^ more and more into the grip of the evil that masters him. llu loliows liimscif, as he falls deeper and deepi^r, becoming the lielpless slave of his passions. He traces with vivid imagina- tion the stages of his descent, sees his body beconiinij coarser and coarser, then bloated and diseased. He contemplates the shattered nerves, the loathsome sores, the hideous decay and ruin of the once strong and healthy frame. He fixes his eyes on the dishonoured death, the sad legacy of shanietu! memory left to relatives and friends. He faces in thought the other side of death, and sees the soil and distortion of his vices pictured in the siifliTing astral bot.ly. and the agony of the craving of liesires that may no longer be
llfilled. Resolutely he forces his shrink- * ing thoughts to dwell on this miserable parioriima of the triumph of wrong desires, until there rises within him a strong rt-pulsiun against them, an intolerable fear and loathing of the result of present yielding.
Such a method of purification is like the surgeon's knife, cutting out a cancer which menaces the life, and, like iill surgical operations, is to he avoided unless no other means of cure remain. It is better lo conquer wrong desire by the attractive force of an ideal, than by the repulsive force of a spectacle of ruin. But where attraction fails to conquer, repulsion may perhaps prevail.
There is also a danger in this latter method, since the coarser matter in the vehicle of Desire is increased by this [welling in thought on evil, and the iggic is thereby rendered longer than when it is possible to throw the life into good desires and high aspirations. There- fore it is the worse method of the two, only ID be accepted when the other b unattainable.
veni ^Mlwe!
346 A STUnV IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
By higher attraction, by repulsion, or by the slow teaching of suffering, Desire must be purified. The "must " is not so much a necessity imposed by an out- side Deity, as the imperial command of the Deity within, who will not be denied. With this true Will of the Divinity, who is our Self, all divine forces in nature work, and that divine Self who wills the highest must inevitably in the end sub- due all things to himself.
With this triumph comes the ceasing of Desire. For then external objects no longer either attract or repel the outgoing energies of AtmS, and these energies are entirely directed by Self- determined Wisdom ; that is, Will has taken the place of Desire. Good and evil are seen as the divine forces that work for evolution, the one as necessary as the other, the one the complement of the other. The good is the force that is to be worked with ; the evil is the force that is to be worked against ; by the right using of both the powers of the Self are evolved into manifestion.
When the Self lias developed the aspect
DESIRE. 347
of Wisdom, he looks on the righteous and the wicked, the saint and the sinner, with equal eyes, and is therefore equally ready to help both, to reach out strong hand to either. Desire, which regarded them with attraction and repulsion, as pleasure-giving and pain-giving, has ceased, and Will, which is energy directed by Wisdom, brings fitting aid to both. Thus man rises above the tyranny of the pairs of opposites. and dwells in the Eternal Peace.
Emotion is not a simple or primary state of consciousness, but is a compound made up by the interaction of two of the aspects of the Self — Desire and Intellect. The play of Intellect on Desire gives birth to Emotion ; it is the child of both, and shows some of the characteristics of its father, Intellect, as well as of its mother. Desire,
In the developed condition Emotion seems so different from Desire that their fundamental identity is somewhat veiled ; but we can see this identity either by tracing the development of a desire into an emotion, or by studying both side by side, and finding that both have the same characteristics, tlie same divisions, that the
EMOTION. 349
I one is, in fact, an elaborated form of the
' other, the elaboration being due to the
presence in the later of a number of
intellectual elements absent from, or less
markedly prominent in, the earlier.
Let us trace the development of a
I desire into an emotion in one of the
I commonest of human relations, the relation
I of sex. Here is desire in one of its
simplest forms ; desire for food, desire for
sexual union, are the two fundamental
I desires of all living things — desire for food
to maintain life, desire for sexual union to
increase life. In both the sense of
"moreness" is experienced, or, otherwise
I Mated, pleasure is felt. The desire for
f food remains a desire ; the food is appro-
I priated. assimilated, loses its separate
identity, becomes part of the " Mc."
I There is no continued relation between
I the cater and the food which gives scope
for the elaboration of an emotion. It is
otherwise in the sex-relation, which tends
to become more and more permanent with
the evolution of the individuality.
Two savages arc drawn towards each other by the attniction of sex : a jtassion
350 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
to pc ess the other arises in each ; each desires the other. The desire is as simple as the desire for food. But it cannot be
satisfied to l itent, for neither
can wholly aj nd assimilate the
other ; each ent maintains his
or her sepai ', and each only
partially becoi le " of the other.
There is im iion of the "Me,"
but it is by ision and not by
way of self-identification. The presence of this persisting" barrier is necessary for the transformation of a desire into an emotion. This makes possible the attach- ment of Tncniory and anticipation to the same object, and not to another object similar in kind — as in the case of food, A continuintj desire for union with the .same object becomes an emotion, thoughts thus minghng with the primary desire to possess. The barrier which keeps the mutually attracted objects as two not one, which prevents their fusion, while it seems to frustrate really immortalises ; were it swept away, desire and emotion aHke woukl vanish, and the Twain-become- One must then seek another external
bject for the further self-expansion of
To return to our savages, desire-united. The woman falls sick, and ceases, for ihe time, tn Ik: an object of sex -gratification. Hut the man remembers past, and antici- [»ates future, delight, and a feeling of sympathy with her suffering, of com- [ussion for her weakness, arise?! within him. The persisting attraction towards her, due to memory and anticipation, changes desire into emotion, passion into love, and sympathy and compassion are its earliest manifestations. These, in turn.
. wiil lead to his Kacriiicing himself to her, aking to nurse her when he would sleep, xerting himself for her when he would
' rest. These s[)onianeous moods of the love-emotion in him will later solidify into virtues, i.e.. will become permanent moods
■ in his character, showing themselves in
[response to the calls of human need to all persons with whom he comes into contact, whether they attract him or not. Wc shall see later that virtues arc simply permanent moods of right emotion. Before, however, tlealing with the
352 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
rela i of ethics and emotion, we must further realise the fundamental identity of Desire and Emotion by noting their characteristii iions. As this is
done, we sh emotions do not
form a mer it that ail spring
from one n y into two main
stems, ea' igain subdividing
into bram grow the leaves
of virtues and This fruitful idea.
making possible a science of the emotions, and hence an intcJligibie and rational system of ethics, is due to an I ndian author, Rhagiwan l>as. who has for the first time introduced order into this hitherto confused region of consciousness. Students of psychology will find in his Science of the Eiitoiions a lucid treatise, setting forth this scheme, which reduces the chaos of the emotions into a cosmos, and shapes therein an ordered morality. The broad lines of exposition followed here are drawn from that work, to which readers arc referred for fuller details.
We have seen that Desire has two main expressions : desire to attract, in order to possess, iir aj^ain to cnnic liiln co[it:icL
353
liwith, any object which has previously ■afforded pleasure ; desire to repel, in order I to drive far away, or to avoid contact Iwith. any object which has previously "inflicted pain. We have seen that i Attraction and Repulsion are the two ■Jbrms of Desire, swaying the Self.
Emotion, being Desire infused with
llntellect, inevitably shows the same
Idivision into two. The Emotion which
Kb of the nature of Attraction, attracting
■objects to each other by pleasure, the
integrating energy in the universe, is
ailed Love. The Emotion which is of
nature of Repulsion, driving objects
from each other by pain, (he dis-
iniegniting energy in the universe, is
(called Hate. These are the two stems
xtm the root of Desire, and all the
(branches of the emotions may be traced
fbaclc to one of these twain.
Hence the identity of the characteristics
'Dnire and Emotion: Love .seeks to
^lo itself the attractive object, or to
F'iidfter it. in order to unite with it. to
. or be possessed by, iL It binds
I'by pleasure, by happincs.s, as L)t:sire binds.
354
V STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
its ties are indeed more lasting, more com- plicated, are composed of more numerous and more delicate threads interwoven into greater comple the essence of
Desire-Attrac binding of two
objects logt he essence of
Emotion-Attrj Love. And so
also does H; drive away from
itself the n . or to flee from
it, in order to oe am it, to repulse,
or be repulsed by. it. It separates by pain, by unhappiness. And thus the essence of Desire-Repulsion, the driving apart of two objects, is the essence of Emotion- Repulsion, of Hate. Love and Hate are the elaborated and thought- infused forms of the simple Desires to possess and to shun.
The Pi.AV OF Emotion in the Family.
Man has been described as "a social animal —the biological way of saying that he develops best in contact with, not in i.solation from, his fellows. His dis- tinctively intellectual characteristics need, for tlu'ir cvolulion, a s{)cial mediutn, and
355
I his kctcnest plcHsures— and hence ncces- [ larily his keenest pains — arise in his I relations with others of his own species. I They alone can evoke from him the l-responses on which his further growth Idcpcnds. All evolution, all the calling out iof latent powers, is in response to stimuli 1 from wiihout. and. when the human stage las reached, the most poignant and effective Isttmuli call only come from contacts with I human beings.
Sex-attraction is the Rrst social bond,
Land the children bom to the husband and
twife form, with them, the first social unit,
§i^e family. The prolonged helplessness
tend dependence of the human infant give
time for the physical passion of parentage
tto ri{>en into the emotion of maternal and
i^paiernal love, and thus give stability to
■^e family, while the family itself forms a
leld in which the various emotions tnevit-
i«bly play. Herein ,-irc first established
definite and permanent relations between
human beings, and on the harmony of
these relations, on the benefits bestowed
...fay these relations on each member of the
l-lbntly, docs the happiness of each depcncL
^2^ A STVDV M CCHtSCIOOSMBSS.
We can advantageou^ study the play of Emotion in the family, since here we have a comparativelv simple sociaJ unit. which yet afii ure in miniature
of society at i can Bnd here the
origin and e -inues and vices,
and see the and object of
morality.
We have how sex-passion
evolves, under su^ Ircumstances. into
ihe emotion of love, and how this love shows itself as tenderness and compassion when the wife, instead of bein;j the equal mate, becomes helpless and dependent, in the temporary physical inferiority caused, say. by child-bearing. Similarly, should sickness or accident reduce the husband to the temporary physical inferiority, tender- ness and compassion will tlow out to him from the wife. But these manifestations of love cannot be shown by the stronger without evoking from the weaker answer- ing love-manifestations ; these in the condition of weakness will have as their natural characteristics trust, confi- dence, gratitude, all equally love-emotions coloured by weakness and dependence.
I In the relation of parents to children and I of children to parents, where physical I superiority and inferiority are far more I strongly marked and persist for a con- I liderable period of time, these love- I emotions will be continually manifested I on both sides. Tenderness, compassion. ] protection, will be constantly shown by I the parents to the children, and trust, I confidence, jjratitudc, will be the constant L answer of the children. Variations in the I expression of the love-emotion will be I Caused by variety of circumstances, which rill call out generosity, forgiveness, I patience, etc, on the part of the piircnts, land obedience, dutifulness, servlceableness. letc. on the part of the children. Taking f these two classes of love-cmotions, we see I that the common essence in the one class I is benevolence, and in the other reverence ; I tiie first is love looking downwards on I those weaker, inferior to itself ; the other F love looking upwards on those stronger, t superior to itself. And we can then ' generalise and say : Love looking down- wards is Benevolence ; Love looking tipwards is Reverence ; and these arc the
358 A STUPY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
several common characteristics of Love from superiors to Enferiors, and Love from inferiors to superiors universally.
The normal relations between husband and wife, and those between brothers and sisters, afford us the field for studying the manifestations of love between equals. We see love showing itself as mutual tenderness and mutual trustfulness, as con- sideration, respect, and desire to please, as quick insight into and endeavour to fulfil the wishes of the other, as magnanimity, forbearance. The elements present in the love-emotions of superior to inferior are found here, but mutuality is impressed on all of them. So we may say that the common characteristic of Love between equals is Desire for Mutual Help.
Thus we have Benevolence, Desire for Mutual Help, and Reverence as the three main divisions of the Love-Emotion, and under these all love emotions may be classified. For all human relations are summed up under the three classes : the relations of superiors to inferiors, of equals to equals, of inferiors to superiors.
A similar study of the Hate-Emotion in
EMOTION. 359
family will yield us similar fruits. I Where ihere is hate between husband and L wife, the temporary superior will show [harshness, cruelty, oppression to the ^temporary inferior, and these will be nswered by the inferior with hate- Knanirestations characteristic of weakness, ich as vindictivencss, fear, and treachery. ■These will be even more apparent in the iRlations between parents and children, Ivhen both are dominated by the Mate- Emotion, since the disparity is here reater, and tyranny breeds a whole of evil emotions — deceit, servility, lowardice, while (he child is helpless, and ■idisobedience, revolt and revenge as it ■grows older. Here again we seek a ■ common characteristic, and find that Hate K looking downwards is Scorn, and looking r upwards is Fear.
Similarly, Hate between equals will ' show itself in anger, combat iveness, dis- respect, violence, aggressiveness, jealousy, insolence, etc — all the emotions which repel man from man when they stand as rivals, face to face, not hand in hand. Tlie common characteristic of Hate between
360 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
equals will thus be Mutual Injury, the three main characteristics of the Ha Emotion are Scorn, Desire for Mutt Injury, and Fear.
Love is characterised in all its : festations by sympathy, self-sacrifice, the desire to give ; these are its essential factors, whether as Benevolence, as Desire for Mutual Help, as Reverence. For all these directly serve Attraction, bring about union, are of the very nature of Love. Hence Love is of the Spirit ; for sympathy is the feeling for another as one would feel for oneself: self-sacrifice is the recognition of the claim of the other, as oneself; giving is the condition of spiritual life. Thus Love is .seen to belong to the Spirit, to the life-side of the universe.
Hate, on the other hand, is characterised in all its manifestations by antipathy, self- aggrandisement, the desire to take ; these are its essential factors, whether as Scorn, Desire for Mutual Injury, or Fear. AH these directly serve Repulsion, driving one apart from another. Hence, Hate is of Matter, emphasises manlfoldness and differences, is essentially separateness.
belongs to the form-stde of the universe.
We have thus far dealt with the play
[ of Emotion in the ramily. because the
family serves as a miniature of society. r Society is only the integration of numerous I family units, but the absence of the blood- I tie between these units, the absence of I recojjnised common interests and common I objects, makes it necessary to 6nd some I bond which will supply the place of the I natural bonds in the family. The family 1 units in a Society appear on the surface as I rivals, rather than as brothers and sisters ; I hence the Hatc-Kmotion is more likely to : than the Love- Emotion, and it is I necessary to fmd some way of maintaining I harmony ; this is done by the transmuta- I lion of Lovc-Emotions into virtues.
S S. Thk Birth of Vibti;**.
We have seen that when members of
a family pass beyond the small circle of relatives, and meet p«-ople whose interests are either indifferent or opposed to them. there is not between them and the others the mutual interplay of Love. Rather does
362 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
Hate show itself, ranging from the watch- ful attitude of suspicion to the destroying fury of war. How then is a society to be composed of the separate family units ?
It can only be done by making per- manent all the emotional moods which spring from Love, and by eradicating those which spring from Hate. A per- manent mood of a love-emotion directed towards a living being is a Virtue ; a permanent mood of a hate-emotion directed against a living being is a Vice. This change is wrought by the Intellect, which bestows on the emotion a permanent character, seeking harmony in all relations in order that happiness may result. That which conduces to harmony and therefore to happiness in the family, springing spontaneously from Love, is Virtue when practised towards all in every relation of life. Virtue springs from Love and its result is happiness. So also that which conduces to disharmony and therefore to misery in the family, springing spon- taneously from Hate, is Vice when practised towards all in all relations of life.
w
363
An objection is raised to this theory, that ihc permanent mood of a love- emotion is a virtue, by pointing out that adultery, theft, and other vices may spring from the love-emotion. Here analysis of the elements entering into the mental attitude is necessary. It is complex, not nmple. The act of adultery is motived by love, but not by love alone. There enter into it also contempt of the honour of another, indifference to the happiness of another, the selfish grasping at personal
leasure at the cost of social stability,
laocial honour, social decency. All these
■ing from hate-emotions. The love is
le one redeeming feature in the whole isaction. the one virtue in the bundle sordid vices. Siitiilar analysis will always show that when the exercise of a love-emotion is wrong, the wrongness lies in the vices bound up with its exercise, and not in the love-emotion itself.
9 i. RlCffT AND Wkokg.
Let us now turn, for a moment, to the question of Right and Wrong, and see the
364 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
relation they bear to bliss and misery. For there is an idea widely current that there is sop"**'^'"" '"'" and materialistic in the view is the means to
bliss. Many his idea degrades
virtue, giving nd place where it
should hold .nd making it a
means inst d. Let us then
see why vir the path to bliss,
and how this inner 11 the nature of things.
When the' Intellect studies the world. and sees the inimnierabic relations estab- lished therein, and observes that har- monious relations brinsr about ha[)piness, and that jarring relations Ijriii^i;' about misery, it sets to work to find out the way of establishing universal harmony and hence universal bliss. Further, it dis- covers that the- world is moving along a path which it is compelled to tread— the path of evolution, and it tinds out tlie law of evolution. For a part, a unit, to set itself with the law of the whole to which it belongs means peace, harmony, and there- fore happiness, while for it to set itself against that law means friction, dis-
365
Ttony, and therefore misery. Hence
he Right is thiit which, being in harmony
irith the great law, brings bliss, and the
■Wrong is that which, being in conflict
rith the great law, brings misery. When
[he intellect, illuminated by the Spirit, sees
Uure as an expression of divine Thought,
he law of evolution as an expression of
fae divine Will, the goal as an expression
Bf divine Bliss, then for harmony with
he law of evolution we may substitute
armony with the divine Will, and the
|1 Right becomes that which is in harmony
twith the Will of God. and morality
nmes permeated with religion.
k
g S. ViRTUi AND Bliss.
Perfection, harmony with the divine Will, cannot be separated from bliss. Virtue is the road to bliss, and if anything does not lead there it is not virtue. The perfection of the divine nature expresses itself in harmony, and when the scattered "divine fragments" come into harmony they taste bliss.
This fact is sometimes veiled by
366 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
another, i.e., that the practice of a virt under certain circumstances brings aboil misery. Thai is true, but the misery is temporary and superficial, and the balance between that outer misery and the Inner bliss arising from the virtuous conduct, is in favour of the latter ; and further, the misery is not due to the virtue but to the circumstances which oppose its practice, to the friction between the good organism and the evil environment. So when you strike a harmonious chord amid a mass of discords, for a moment it increases the discord. Tlie virtuous man is thrown into conflict with evil, but this should not blind us to the fact that bliss is ever wedded indissolubly to Right and misery to Wrong. Even though the righteous may suffer temporarily, nothing but righteous- ness can lead to bliss. And if we examine the consciousness of the righteous, we find that he is happier in doing the right though superficial pain may result, than in doing the wrong which would ruffle the inner peace. The commission of a wrong act would cause him inner anguish out- weighing the external pleasure. Even in
moK. 367
Ethc case where righteousness leads to fextemal suffering, the suffering is less I than would be caused by unrighteousness. [Miss Helen Taylor has well said that for l.the man who dies for the sake of truth. I^ieaih is easier than life with falsehood lit is easier and pleasanter for the righteous Ittian to die as a martyr, than to live as a hypocrite.
Since the nature of the Self is bliss, and lat bliss is only hindered in manifestation resisting circumstances, that which moves the friction between itself and iicsc circumstances and opens its onward 'ay must lead to its Self-realisation, i.e.. to realisation of bliss. Virtue does this, "and therefore virtue is a means to bliss. Where the inner nature of things is peace and joy. the harmony which permits thai nature to unveil itself must bring peace and joy, and to bring about this harmony is the work of virtue.
I
11
Thk Tramsmutation or Emotions into
ViKTUKS ANP ViCKS.
We have now to sec more fully the truth of what was said above, that virtue
368
A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
; of .
emotion, and how far it I's true that a virtue or a vice is merely a permanent mood of an emotion. Our definition is that virtue Is a permanent mood of the love-eniotlon, and vice a permanent mood of the hate-emotion.
The emotions belonging to love are the constructive energies which, drawing people together, build up the family, the tribe, the nation. Love is a manifestation of attraction, and hence holds objects together. This process of integration begins with the family, and the relations established between its members in the common life of the family entail, if there is to be happiness, the acting towards each other in a helpful and kindly way. The obligations necessary for the estab- lishment of happiness in these relations are called duties, that which is due from one to the other. If these duties are not discharged the family relations become a source of misery, since the close contacts of the family make the happiness of each dependent on the treatment of him by the others. No relation can be entered into between human beings which does not
RMOTION. 369
establish an obligation between them, a duty of each towards the other. The husband loves the wife, the wife the husband, and nothin;^ more is needed to lead each to seek the other's happiness than the intense spontaneous wish to make the beloved happy. This leads the line who can give to supply what the other needs. In the fullest sense, "love is the fulliiling of the law " ; ' there is no need for the feelinj; of an obligation, for love seeks ever to help and to bless, and there is no need for " ihou shall," or " thou shall not."
Hut when a person, moved by love to discharge all the duties of his relation with another, comes into relation with those he does not love, how is a harmonious relation with them to be csublished ? By recognising the obliga- tions of the relation into which he has entered, and discharging them. The doings which grew out of love in the one case present themselves as obliga- tions, as duties, in the other, where love is not present. Right reason works the ' Xcm, mi. to.
370 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
spontaneous actions of love into per-l manent obligations, or duties, and thei love-emotion, m^flp a "ermanent element | of conduct, i virtue. This i
the justificati statement that
virtue is th' mood of a love^J
emotion. state of emotion.!
is establi I show itself when
;i relation ; man discharges
the duties of that r^i> i ; he is a virtuous num. He is moved by emotions made per- manent by the intellect, which recognises that happiness depends on the establish- ment of harmony in all relations. Love. rationalised and fixed by the intellect, is virtue.
In this way may be built up a science of ethics, of which the laws are as much an inevitable sequence as those on which any other science is built.
So also between the hate-emotion and vices there is a similar relation. The permanent mood of a hate-emotion is a vice. One person injures another, and the second returns the injury ; the relation between these two is inharmonious, pro- ductive of misery. And as each expects
EMOTIOK. 371
otn the other, each tries to weaken r"s [xjwer to inflict injury, and this is the spontaneous action of hate. When this inood becomes permanent, and a man shows it in any relation into which he enters wherein the opportunity for its manifestation arises, then it is called a vice. A man of uncontrolled passions and undeveloped nature strikes a blow, a spontaneous expression of hate. He repeats this often, and it becomes habitual when he is anj^ry. He inllicts pain and takes pleasure in the infliction. The vice of cruelty is developed, and if he meets a child or a person weaker than himself, he will show cruelty merely because he comes into relation with them. As the love-emolion. guided and fixed by right reason, is virtue, so the hale-emotion. guided and fixed by distorted and blinded reason, is vice.
I 7. Ai-rucATioi* or the Throvy to Comddct.
When the nature of virtue and vice is thus seen, it is clear that the shortest way of strengthening the virtues and
elimir
A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
the
to work directly
1 mating on the emotional side of the character. We can strive to develop the love- emotion, thus affording the material which the reason will elaborate into its charac- teristic virtues. The development of the love-emotion is the most effective way of evolving the moral character, virtues being but the blossoms and the fruits which spring from the root of love.
The value of this clear view of the transmutation of emotions into virtues and vices lies in the fact that it gives us a definite theory on which we can work ; it is as though we were seeking a distant place, and a map were placed before our eyes ; we trace thereon the road which leads from our present position to our goal. So many really good and earnest people spend years in vague aspirations after goodness, and yet make but little progress ; they are good in purpose but weak in attainment ; this is chiefly because they do not understand the nature in which they are working, and the best methods for its culture. They are like a child in a garden, a
EMOTION. 373
child eager to see his garden brilliant with flowers, but without the knowledge to plant and cultivate them, and to exterminate the weeds which overgrow his plot Like the child, they long for the sweetness of the virtue-flowers, and Bnd their garden overrun with the rank growth of the weeds of vice.
>!t 8. The Uses or EiioTiON. The uses of the love-emotion are so obvious that it seems scarcely necessary to dwell upon them, and yet too much stress cannot be laid on the fact that love is the constructive force in the universe. Having drawn together the family units, it welds these into larger tribal and national units, and these it will build in the future into the Brotherhood of Man. Nor must we omit to note the fact that the smaller units draw out the love-power and prepare it for fuller expression. Their use is to call into manifestation the hidden divine power of love within the Spirit, by giving to it objects close at hand that attract it The love is not to be confined
374
A STUDY IN- CONSCIOUSNESS.
within these narrow limits, but, as it gains strength by practice, it is to Spread out- wards until it embraces all sentient beings. We may formulate the law of love: Regard every aged person as your father or mother ; regard every person of similar age as your brother or sister; regard every younger person as your child. This sums up human relations. The fulfilment of this law would render earth a paradise, and it is in order that the earth may become such a paradise that the family exists.
A man who would widen his love-rela- tions should begin to regard the welfare of his community as he regards the welfare of his own family. He should try to work for the public good of his community with the energy and interest with which he works for his family. Later, he will extend his loving interest and labour to his nation. Then appears the great virtue of public spirit, the sure precursor of national prosperity. Later still, he will love and labour for humanity, and finally he will embrace within his loving care all sentient beings, and will become " the friend of every creature."
EMOTION. 375
Few. at the present stage of evolution, ' are really able to love humanity, and too many speak of loving humanity who are not ready to make any sacrifice to help a suffering brother or sister close at hand. The servant of humanity must not over- look the human beings at his door, nor in imagination water with sentimental sym- pathy the distant garden, while the plants round his doorway are dying from drought.
The uses of hate are not at first so obvious, but arc none the less important ^t first, when we study hate and see that B essence is dmntegration, destruction, it "may seem all evil ; ■■ He who hateth his brother is a murderer." saith a great Teacher.' bcciiusc murder is but an expression of hate ; and even when hate does not go so far as murder, it is still a destroying force ; it breaks up the family, the nation, and wherever it goes it tears people apart Of what use. then, is hate ?
First, it drives apart incongruous elements, unfit to combine together, and thus prevents continuing friction. Where
ongruous undeveloped people arc con- * S/oim. I. ii. I J.
376 A STUDV IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
cerned, it is better for them to be driven far apart to pursue their several paths in evolution, than to be kept within reach of one another, stimulating each other to increased bad emotions. Secondly, the repulsion felt by the average soul for an evil person is beneficial, so long as that evil person has the power of leading him astray ; for that repulsion, although it be hate, guards him from an influence under which he might otherwise succumb. Contempt for the Har, the hypocrite, the worker of cruelty on the weak, is an emotion useful to the one who feels it, and also to the one against whom it is directed ; for it tends to preserve the one from falling into similar vices, and it tends to arouse in the despised person a feeling of shame that may lift him from the mire in which he is plunged. So long as a person has any tendency to a sin. so long is hatred against those who practise the sin protective and useful. Presently, as he evolves, he will distinguish between the evil- doer and the evil, and will pity the evil-doer and confine his hatred to the evil. Later still, secure in virtue, he will hate neither the
BHOTION. 377
ril-doer nor his evil, but will see tranquilly alow stage of evolution, out of which he will strive to lift his younger brother by fitting means. " Righteous indignation." "noble scorn." "just wrath." all are phrases which recognise the usefulness of these emotions, while seeking to veil the fact that they are essentially forms of hate — a veiling which is due to the feeling that hate is an evil thing. None the less are they essentially forms of hate, whatever they may be called, though ihey play a useful part in evolution, and their storms purify the social atmosphere. Intolerance of evil is far better than indifference to it, and until a man is beyond the reach of temptation t of those who practise it is for him a necessary safeguard.
Let us take the case of a man little evolved ; he desires to avoid gross sins, but yet feels tempted to them. The desire to avoid them will show itself as hatred of those in whom he sees them ; to check this hatred would be to plunge him Into temptations he is not yet strong enm^ to resist As he evolves further and huther
378 A sTunv in consciousness.
from the danger of yielding to temptation, he will hate the sins, but will pityingly sympathise with the sinner. Not till he has become a saint can he afford not to hate the evil.
When ill ourselves we feel repulsion from a person we may be sure that we have in us some lingering traces of that which we dis- like in him. The Ego, seeing a danger, drags his vehicles away. A man, perfectly temperate, feels less repulsion towards the drunkard than a temperate man who occa- sionally exceeds. A woman, utterly pure, feels no repulsion from a fallen sister, from whose contact the less pure would withdraw their skirts. When we reach perfection, we shall love the sinner as well as the saint, and perchance may show the love more to the sinner, since the saint can stand alone, but the sinner will fall if he be not loved.
When the man has risen to the point where he hates neither sinner nor sin, then the disintegrating force^which is hate among human beings— becomes simply aa energy to be used for destroying the obstacles which embarrass the path of evolution. When perfected wisdom guides
MOTION. 379
the constructive and destructive energies, and perfected love is the motive power, then only can the destructive force be used without incurring the root-sin of the feeling of separateness. To feel ourselves different from others is the " great heresy," for separateness, when the whole Is evolving towards unity, is opposition to the Law. The feeling of separateness is definitely wrong, whether it leads to one's thinking oneself more righteous or more sinful. The perfect saint identifies himself with the criminal as much as with another saint, for the criminal and the saint are alike divine, although in different stages of evolution. When a man can feel thus, he touches the life of the Christ in man. He does not think of himself as .separate, but as one with all. To him his own holiness is the holiness of humanity, and the sin of any Is his sin. He builds no barrier between himself and the sinner, but pulls down any barrier made by the sinner, and shares the -sinner's evil while sharing with him his good.
Those who can feel the truth of this " counsel of perfection " should, in their
3S0 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
daily lives, seek to practise it, however imperfectly. In dealing with the less advanced, they ';hnn1H ever seek to level or the sense of d endures till we t by this effort we and to strive to the lowest is to /e energy which T, and to become
the dividing
separateness is
achieve ChristI
may gradually
identify ourse
exercise the
holds the worlds togt
channels for the divine love.