part 1 shall be conscious, small and slow

as it is, while of the vast swift whirling that carries all parts eastwards and on- wards ever, 1 shall be utterly unconscious, and shall say in my ignorance : '" Behold, 1 have moved westwards." And the high Gods might laugh contemptuously at the ignorance of the fragment that speaks of the direction of its motion, were it not that They, being wise, know of the movements within the motion, and of the truth which is false and yet true.
And yet again may we see how the great Will works onwards undeviatingly along the path of evolution, and compels all to travel along that path, and still leaves
to each to choose his method of going, and
the fashion of his unconscious working.
' For the carrying,' out of that Will needs
L every fashion of working and every method
I of going, and takes up and utilises all.
I A man shapes himself to a noble character.
I and nourishes lofty aspirations, and seeks
lever to do loyal and faithful service to his
Ifelluws; then shall he be brought to birth
I where great opportunities cry aloud for
I workers, and the Will shall be wrought out
iby him in a nation that needs such helping,
land he shall fill a hero's part. The part is
■Written by the great Author : the ability to
■fill it is of the man's own making. Or a
ftnan yields to every temptation and
■becomes apt to evil, and he uses ill such
ower as he has, and disregards mercy,
ce and truth in petty ways and in
lily life ; then shall he be brought to
where oppression is needed, and
tielty. and 111 ways, and the Will shall be
Wrought out by him also in a nation that is
working out the results of an evil past, and
II be of the weaklings that tyrannise
and meanly and shame the nation
at bears them. Again is the part written ,
^>^^^iiig, men, ini by motive, conditic matter that enveils by the Self whereo Will is part — wh. freedom of the Wi that freedom is tc within, bondage is without ; the Will i willing to act, dra\^ volition from source: self, and has not th him from sources out
And truly this
greater Self in whi(
with him : ** I am T
Self in which move:
one with that vaster,
That " ; and so oi
and huger sweeps, i univer
THE WILL. 421
Pratyagitmi, the One, and therefore truly free. Looking outwards he is ever bound, though the limits of his bondage recede endlessly, unlimitedly ; looking inwards he b ever free, for he is Brahman, the Etkknau
When a man is Self-determined, then, we may say that the man is free, in every sense in which the word freedom is ' valuable, and his Self-determination is I not bondage, in any harassing sense of 1 that word. That which in my innermost [ Self I will to do, that to which none other I forces me, that bears the mark which [ distinguishes between the free and the r bound. How far in us, in this sense of [ the word freedom, can we say that our I Will is free ? For the most part, but few [ of us can claim this freedom in any more L than a small portion. Apart from the [previously-mentioned bondage to atirac- l.tions and repulsions, we are bound within Ithe channels made by our past thinkings. Thy our habits — most of all by our habits lof thought — by the qualities and the labsence of qualities brought over f" Ipast lives, by the strengths and the 1
422
A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
that
born with
by
were
education and our surroundings, by the imperious compulsions of our stage in evolution, our physical heredity, and our national and racial traditions. Hence only a narrow path is left to us in which our Will can run ; it strikes itself ever against the past, which appears as walls in the present.
To all intents and purposes the Will of us is not free. It is only in process of becoming free, and it will only be free when the Self has utterly mastered his vehicles and uses them for his own pur- poses, when every vehicle is only a vehicle, completely responsive to his every impulse, and not a struggling animal, ill-broken, with desires of its own.' When the Self has transcended ignorance, van- quishing the habits that are the marks of past ignorance, then is the Self free, and then will be realised the meaning of the
' This is only accomplished when the life of the Self informs the matter of his vehicles, instead of the down ward -striving elemental essence, i.e., when the law of the Spirit of Life replaces ihe law of sin and death.
THE wnx. 433
paradox, " in whose service Is perfect freedom." For ihen will ic be realised that separation is not, that the separated Will is not, that, by virtue of our inherent Divinity, our Will is part of the Divine Will, and that it is which has given us throughout our long evolution the strength to carry on that evolution, and that the realisation of the unity of Will is the realisation of freedom.
Along these lines of thought it is that some have found the ending of the age- long controversy between the " freedom " of the Will and determinism, and, while recognising the truth battled for fay determinism, have also preserved and justified the inherent feeling : '■ 1 am free, 1 am not bound." That idea of spon- taneous energy, of forth-going power from the inner recesses of our being, is based on the very essence of consciousness, on the " I " which is the Self, thai Self which,
:atue divine, is free.
I 1 WUY so MUCH StHUCCLI t
IS we survey the long course of cvolu- , the slow process of the development
424 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
of the Will, the question inevitably rises in the mind : " Why should there be all this struggle and difficulty ? Why should there be so many mistakes and so many falls ? Why this long bondage before freedom can be attained ? " Before replying to this, a general position murt be laid down. In answering any question, the limits of that question must be borne in mind, and the answer must not be judged to be inadequate, because it does not answer another question that is all the time present in the background. An answer to a question may be adequate, without being a final answer to all questions : and its adequacy is not rightly gauged if it be thrown aside as not answering a further question which may be propounded. Half the dissatisfaction oJ many students arises from a restless impatience that will not deal in any kind of order with the questions thai come thronging to the mind, but demands that they should all be answered at once, and that the answer to one ques- tion should cover all the others. The adequacy of means must be judged in relation to the end which those means are
TUB WILL. 435
designed to bring about. I n alt cases the answer must be judged by its relevancy 10 the question asked, and not by its not replying to some other allied question lying at the back of the mind. Thus, the rele- vancy of any means found to exist in a universe must be decided by an end found to be aimed at in that universe, and they must not be judged as though offered as an answer to the further question : " Why should there be any universe at all ? " That question may indeed be asked and answered, but the proof of the adequacy of a means in a universe to an end, seen K9D be aimed at in that universe, will not be ; '■nswer. And it is no evidence that ! iuuwcr to the original question is ' Inadequate, if the questioner replies: "Ves, but why should there be a universe ? " In I replying to the question : " Why should ' there be all these mistakes and falls in ' treading the path of evolution ? " we must take the universe as existing, as a fact to start with, and must study it in order to discover the end. or. at least, one of ends, towards which it is tending, it should tend thitherward is, as said.
426 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
further question, ;ind one of profoundest interest ; but it Is by the discovered end that we must judge the means employed to reach it.
Even a cursory study of the part of the universe in which we find ourselves shows us that one at least of its ends — if not its end^is to produce living beings of high intelligence and strong will, capable of taking an active pari in carrying on and guiding the activities of nature and of co-operating in the general scheme of evolution. Further study, carried on by the unfolding of the inner qualities and endorsed by ancient writings, shows us that this world is not alone, but forms one of a series, that it has been aided in the evolution of its humanity by men of elder growth, and is to yield men of its own growing for the aiding of younger worlds in ages yet unborn. Moreover, it shows also a vast hierarchy of superhuman beings, directing and guiding evolution, and as the centre of the universe the threefold Locos, Ruler and Lord of His system ; and it tells that the fruitage of a system is not only a great hierarchy of mighty IntelH-
genccs, with ranks of ever- lessening
splendour stretching below them, but also
this supremo perfection of a Locos, as the
crown of all. And it unveils vista after
vista of increasing splendour, universes
where each system is but as a world, and
on and on, in ever-widening range of
I illimitable glorious fulness of life unending.
' And then the question rises : " By what
means shall be evolved these mighty Ones.
who climb irom the dust to the stars, and
from those stars that are the dust of va.ster
I systems to the stars chat are to them as
[ our mire to our sun ?"
Thus studied, imagination fails to Bnd path by which these self-poised, self- L-determined Beings can reach that perfect I equilibrium and steadfast inerrancy of Iwisdom that fits them to be the " nature " I of a system, save just chat path of struggle \ and of experience along which we strive L to-day. For could there be an extra-kosmic God. with nature other than that of the Self wc sec unfolding around us in harmonious certainty fif linked scc|uence. , with nature irregular and fitful, changing J and arbitrary, incalculable, then it might [
428 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
be that out of thai chaos might be flung up a being called " perfect," but truly most imperfect, since most limited, who, having no experience behind him, and therefore without reason and without judgment, might, as a machine, act " rightly " in, i.e., in accordance with, any given scheme of things, and grind out, as does a machine, the sequence of movements arranged for it. But such a being would only fit his scheme, and outside it would be useless, incompetent. Nor would there here be life, which is the changing self-adaptation to changing conditions, without the loss, the disintegration of its centre. By the troublous path along which we are climbing, we are being prepared for all emergencies in the universes in the future with which we may have to do, and that is a result well worth the trials to which we are exposed,
Nor must we forget thai we are here because we have willed to unfold our powers through the experiences of life on the lower planes ; that our lot is self- chosen, not imposed ; that we are in the world as the result of our own "Will to
4*9
Live" ; that if that Will changed — though
I truly it is not so changeful — we should
I cease to live here and return to the Peace,
without gathering the harvest for which
we came. " None else compels."
§3. The Powek of the Will.
This power — which has ever been
irecogniscd in Occultism as the spiritual
t«nergy in man, one in kind with that
■ which sends forth, supports and calls in
be worlds — is now being groped after in
outer world, and is being almost
lunconsciously used by many as a means
bringing about results otherwise un-
ViKtainable. The schools of Christian
^Science, Mental Science, Mind-Cure, etc,
: all dependent for their results on the
outflowing power of the Will. Diseases
yield to that How of energy, and not
only nervous disorders, as some imagine.
Nervous disorders yield the most readily.
because the nervous system has been
shaped for the expression of spiritual
powers on the physical plane. The results
are the most rapid where the syrppathctic
430 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
system is first worked upon, for that is the more directly related to the aspect of Will, in the form of Desire, as the cerebro-spinal is more directly related to the aspects of Cognition and of pure Will. The dispersion of tumours, cancers, etc, and the destruction of their causes, the curing of lesions and bone-fractures, imply for the most part considerable knowledge on the part of the healer. I say " for the most part," because it is possible that the Will may be guided from the higher plane even where physical plane knowledge is lacking, in the case of an operator at an advanced stage of evolution. The method of cure, where knowledge is present, would be as follows : the operator would form a mentaJ picture of the affected organ in a state of perfect health, creating that part in mental stuff by the imagination : he would then build into it astral matter, thus densifying the image, and would then use the force of magnetism to densify it further by etheric matter, building the denser materials of gases, liquids and solids into this mould, utilising the materials available in the body and supplying from outside any deficiencies.
w
In all this the Will is the guiding energy, and such manipulation of matter is merely a question of knowledge, whether on this Or on the higher planes. There is not the danger in cures wrou}i;ht by this method, that .-iccompanies those wrought by an easier, and therefore commoner, system, by the working on the sympathetic system alluded to above.
People are advised, in some of the methods now popularised, to concentrate their thoughts on [he solar plexus, and lo "live under its control." The sympathetic system governs the vital processes — the functioning of the heart. Iung.s, digestive apparatus — and the solar plexus forms its most important centre. Now the carrj'ing on of these vital processes has, as before explained." passed under the control of the sympathetic system in the course of evolution, as the cerebro- spinal system has become more and more dominant And the reviving of the control of this system b)' the Will, by a process of concentration of thought, is a retrograde and not a forward step, even though it often b
> See Put I. Ch^ter X. J I.
432
A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
about a. certain degree of clairvoyance. This method, as already said, is much followed in India in the system called H&(ha Yoga, and the student learns to control the action of the heart, lungs, and digestive apparatus ; he can thus inhibit the beating of the heart, can stop the lungs, can reverse peristaltic action, and so on. And when it is done, the question arises : What have you gained by your success? You have brought again under the control of the Will a system which, in course of evolution, had been rendered automatic, to the great convenience of the owner of these lower functions, and have thus taken a step backward in evolution. To do this means failure in the long run, even though there may be, for the moment, a palpable result to show.
Moreover, the concentration of thought on a centre of the sympathetic system, and. most of all, on the solar plexus, means a serious physical danger, unless the learner be under the physical observation of his teacher, or be able to receive and bring through to the physical brain the instruc- tions that may be given to him on a higher
THE WIU. 433
i]danc. Concentration on the solar plexus
'l apt to bring on disease of a peculiarly
I intractable kind, (t issues in a profound
J melancholy, almost impossible to remove,
I in lits of terrible depression, and sometimes
form of paralysis. Not along these
[lines should travel the serious student,
I intent on the knowledge of the Self.
I When that knowled};e is obtained, the body
I becomes the instrument on which the Self
I can play, and all that is needed meanwhile
1 is to purify and refine it. so that it may
I come into harmony with the higher bodies.
I and be prc[iare
■fith them. The lir.iin will thus be ren-
I dered more responsive, and by industrious
f thinking and the action of meditation — not
on the brain, but on lofty ideas — it will be
gradually improved. The brain becomes a
better organ as it is exercised, and this is
Lon the road of evolution. But to work
Itlirectly on the symi^athetic plexuses is on
|,dic road of retrogression. Many a one
l.comes. asking for deliverance from the
f results of these practices, and one can only
ladly answer : " To undo the mischief will
take years." Results may be gained
434 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
by going backwards, but it is better to face the upward climbing, and then utilise the physical instrument from above, not from below.
There is another matter to be considered in healing diseases by Will — the danger of driving the disease into a higher vehicle, in driving it out of the physical body. Disease is often the final working out of evil that existed previously on the higher planes, and it is then far better to let it thus work out than to forcibly check it, and throw it back into the subtler vehicle. It is the last working out of an evil desire or an evil thought, and in such a case the use of physical means of cure is safer than the use of mental means, for the former cannot cast it back into the higher planes, whereas the latter may do so. Curative mesmerism does not run this danger, belonging as it does to the physical plane ; that may be used by any one whose life, thoughts and desires are pure. But the moment Will forces are poured down into the physical, there is a danger of reaction, and of the driving of the disease back into the subtler vehicles from which it came forth.
THE WILL. 435
If mental curing is done by the purifica- tion of thought and desire, and the natural quiet working of the purified thoughts and desires on the physical body, no harm can ' result ; to restore pliysical harmony by I making harmonious the mental and astral vehicles is a true method of mental healing, but it is not as rapid as the Will-cure and I is far harder. Purity of mind means health I of body ; and it is this idea — that where I the mind is pure the body should be I healthy — that has led many to adopt these I mental methods of healing.
A person whose mind is perfectly pure I and balanced will not generate fresh bodily , disease, though he may have some un- exhausted karma to work off. or he may take on himself some of the disharmonies caused by others. Purity and health truly go together. When, as is and has been the case, some saint is found to be suffer- ing physically, then such a one is either working out the effect of bad thinking in the past, or is bearing in himself some- thing of the world's disharmony, turning on to himself the forces of disharmony, harmonising them within his own vehicles
436 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
and sending them forth again as currents of peace and goodwill. Many have been puzzled by seeing that the greatest and the purest suffer, both mentally and physically. They suffer for others, not for themselves, and they are truly White Magicians, transmuting by spiritual alchemy, in the crucible of their own suffering bodies, the base metals of human passions into the pure gold of love and peace.
Apart from the question of the ways of working on the body by the Will, another question arises in the thoughtful mind : Is it well to use the Will in this fashion for our own helping ? Is there not a certain degradation in using the highest power of the Divine within us in the service of our body, to bring about merely a good con- dition of physical health? Is it well that the Divine should thus turn stones into bread, and so fall under the very temptation resisted by the Christ ? The story may be taken historically or mythically, it matters not ; it contains a profound spiritual truth, and an instance of obedience to an occult law. Still remains true the answer of the
THE WILL. 437
I tempted : " Man does not live by bread I ■lone, but by every word that proceedeth [ out of the mouth of God." This ethic I seems to be on a higher plane than that I which yokes the Divine to the service of I rile physical body. One of the dangers of I rfie present is the worship of the body, the I putting of the body on too high a pinnacle — reaction from exaggerated asceticism. I By using the Will to serve the body, we I make the Will iu> slave, and the practice I of continually removing little aches and I pains by willing them to go saps the higher f quality of endurance. A person thus acting is apt to be irritable under small physical discomforts which the Will cannot remove, and the higher power of the Will, which can control the body and support it in its work, even though it be suffering, is undermined. Hesitancy to use the power of the Will for relief of one's body need not arise from any doubt as to the sound* ncss of the thought, the reality of the law, on which such action is based : but from a fear that men may fall under the tempta- tion of u.sing that which should lift them to realms spiritual as the minister of the
43t> A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
physical, and may thus became slaves of the body, and be helpless when the body fails them in the hour of need.
It is an occult law, binding on every Initiate, that he may not use an occult power for his own helping ; if he do, he loses the power to help others, and it is not worth while to forfeit the great for the small. That already referred-to story of the temptation of the Christ has a further- reaching significance than most under- stand. Had He used His occult power to turn stones into bread for the relief of His hunger, instead of waiting in patient strength for the food brought by the Shining Ones, He would not later have been able to endure the mystic sacrifice of the Cross. The taunt then flung at Him contained an occult truth : " He saved others; Himself He cannot save." He could not use, to spare Himself one pang, the powers that had opened the eyes of the blind and made the leper clean. Those who would save themselves must give up the divine mission of being Saviours of the world. They must choose between the one and the other as they evolve. If in their
THE WILL. 439
|)«voIu[ion they choose the lower, and use
■ the great powers they have won for the \ service of themselves and of the body, then kmust they give up the higher mission of I using them for the redemption of the race. ■There is such an immense activity of mind
■ at the present time that the need is all the Vgreater for the employment of its powers to I'lfae highest ends.
94. Wkitx AMD Black Magic.
Ma^c is the use of the Will to guide I the powers of external nature, and is truly, as its name implias. the great science. The human Will, being the power of the Divine in man. can subjugate and control the inferior energies, and thus bring about the results desired. The difference between White and Black Magic lies in the motive which determines the Will ; when that Will is set to benefit others, to help and bless all who come within its scope, then is the man a White Magician, and the results which he brings about by the exercise of his trained Will are beneficiaJ. and aid the course of human evolution.
440
A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
He ever expanding by such exercise, becoming less and less separate from his kind, and is a centre of far-reaching help. But when exercised for the
advantage self, when it is
employed ds and aims, then
is the m; jician. a danger to
the rai obstruct and delay
human c 5 ever contracting
by such exti ig more and more
separate from his kinu, shutting himself within a shell which isolates him, and which grows ever thicker and denser witli the exercise of his trained powers. The Will of the Magician is ever strong, but the Will of the White Magician is strong with the strength of life, flexible at need, rigid at need, e\'cr assimilating to the great Will, the Law of the universe. The \\'i!l of the Black Magician has the strength of iron, pointing ever to the personal end, and it strikes against the great Will, and sooner or later must shiver itself into pieces against it. It is the peril of Black Magic against wliich the student of occultism is guarded by the law which forbids him to use his occult powers for
I^msclf; for though no man is a Black Magician who docs not deliberately erect his personal Will against the great Law, it is well to recognise the essence of Black Magic, and tn check the very beginnings of evil. J ust as it was said above that the saint harmonising the forces of disharmony rithin himself is truly the White Magician, Pao is he the Black Magician who uses for his own gain all the forces he has acquired by knowledge, turns them to the service of his own separaieness. and increases the disharmony of the world by his selfish graspings, while seeking to preserve
IJiarmony in his own vehicles. I W ^er "whcr
3 &. Entuinc ihto Pbacs.
When the Self has grown so indifferent ' [he vehicles in which he dwells that icir vibrations can no longer affect him ; fien he can use them for any purpose ; "when his vision has become perfectly clear ; when the vehicles offer no opposi- tion, since the elemental life h;Ls left them. and only the life (lowing from himself animates them ; then the Peace enfolds
44-
A STUDY IN COHSaOUSHESS.
him id the object of the long struggle is attj id. Such a one. Self-centred, no longer confuses himself with his vehicles. They are ,o work with, tools
to mani rill. He has then
realised t le Master, the one
who is u f his vehicles, and
thei ind death. Capable
of rea the tumult of the
world ana oi j it to harmony ;
capable of feeling through them the suffer- ings of others, but not sutTerinL^s of his own ; lit -Stands apart from, lieyond. all stornLs. \'et is he able ever t(j beiul down into the storm to Hft another above it. without losino' his own foothold on the rock of the Divine, consciously recot^nised as himself Such are truly Masters, and Their peace may now and then be felt, for a time at least, by those who are striving to tread the same path, but who have not yet reached that same rock of the Self- conscious Uivine.
That union of the separate Will with the one Will for the helping of the world is the goal which seems to be more worthy of reaching after than aught the world can
THE WILL. 443
offer. Not to be separate from men, but one with them ; not to win peace and bliss alone, but to say with the Chinese Blessed One : ** Never will I enter into final peace alone, but always and everywhere will I suffer and strive until all enter with me *' — that is the crown of humanity. In pro- portion as we can realise that the suffering and the striving are the more efficacious as we suffer only in the sufferings of others and feci not suffering for ourselves, we shall rise into the Divine, shall tread the ** razor path " that the Great Ones have trodden, and shall find that the Will, which has guided us along that path, and which has realised itself in the treading of that path, is strong enough still to suffer and to strive, until the suffering and the strife for iUl are over, and all together enter into Peace.
Pl-IACK TO ALL HkINOS.
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