CHAPTER VI.

THE WIDER OUTLOOK.
A little thought will soon show us what a radical change is introduced into the life of the man who realizes that his physical life is nothing but a day at school, and that his physical body is merely a temporary vesture as- sumed for the purpose of learning through it. He sees at once that this purpose of "learning the lesson" is the only one of any importance, and that the man who allows himself to be di- verted from that purpose by any consid- eration is acting with inconceivable stupidity.
To him who knows the truth, the life of the ordinary person devoted ex- clusively to physical objects, to the pur- suit of wealth or fame, appears the merest child's play— a senseless sacri- fice of all that is really worth having for a few moments' gratification of the lower part of man's nature. The
54 An Outline of Theosopby.
student "sets his affection on things above, and not on things of the earth," not only because he sees this to be the right course of action, but because he realizes very clearly the valuelessness of these things of earth. He always tries to take the higher point of view, for he sees that the lower is utterly un- reliable— that the lower desires and feelings gather round him like a dense fog, and make it impossible for him to see anything clearly from that level.
Yet even when he is thoroughly convinced that the higher course is al- ways the right one, and when he is fully determined to follow it, he will nevertheless sometimes encounter very strong temptations to take the lower course, and will be sensible of a great struggle within him. He will discover that there is "a law in the members warring against the law of the mind," as St. Paul says, so that "the good that I would, I do not, and the evil which I would not, that I do/'
Now good religious people often
The Wider Outlook. 55
make the most serious mistakes about this interior struggle which we have all felt to a greater or less extent. They usually accept one of two theories on the subject. Either they suppose that the lower promptings come from ex- terior tempting demons, or else they mourn over the terrible wickedness and blackness of their hearts, in that such fathomless evil still exists within them. Indeed, many of the best of men and women go through a vast amount of totally unnecessary suffering on this account.
The first point to have clearly in mind if one wishes to understand this matter is that the lower desire is not in truth our desire at all. Nor is it the work of some demon trying to de- stroy our souls. It is true that there sometimes are evil entities which are attracted by the base thought in man, and intensify it by their action; but such entities are man-made, every one of them, and impermanent. They are merely the artificial forms called into
56 An Outline of Theosophy.
existence by the thought of other evil men, and they have a period of what seems almost like life, proportioned to the strength of the thought that cre- ated them.
But the undesirable prompting within us usually comes from quite another source. It has been mentioned how man draws round him vestures of mat- ter at different levels, in order that he may descend into incarnation. But this matter is not dead matter (indeed, oc- cult science teaches us that there is no such thing as dead matter anywhere), but is instinct with life; though it is life at a stage of evolution much earlier than our own — so much earlier that it is still moving on a downward course into lower matter, instead of rising again out of lower matter into higher. Consequently its tendency is always to press downwards toward the grosser material and the coarser vibrations which mean progress for it, but retro- gression for us ; and so it happens that the interest of the true man sometimes
The Wider Outlook. 57
comes into collision with that of the liv- ing matter in some of his vehicles.
That is a very rough outline of the explanation of the curious internal strife that we sometimes feel — a strife which has suggested to poetic minds the idea of good and evil angels in conflict over the soul of man. A more detailed ac- count will be found in The Astral Plane, p. 40, and also in The Other Side of Death. But in the meantime it is important that the man should realize that he is the higher force, al- ways moving towards and battling for good, while this lower force is not he at all, but only an uncontrolled frag- ment of one of his lower vehicles. He must leairn to control it, to dominate it absolutely, and to keep it in order ; but he should not, therefore, think of it as evil, .but as an outpouring of the Divine power, moving on its orderly course, though that course in this instance hap- pens to be. downwards into matter, in- stead of upwards and away from it, as ours is.