Section 10

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man, he does not hate him, he simply realizes that the bad man by being bad and as mean as he can be is doing the very best he can under the circumstances, and that such bad people are absolutely necessary for the work in the world, for the material progress of the world. That is another thing that we must bear in mind. The principal function of man at the present stage of evolution is the cultivation and exploitation of the earth; the development of na- ture; this is his principal function. But if he had any sense he would not do it, he would not waste his valuable time on such things. Consequently it is very fortunate that the vast majority of the human family is evil; because they are here to subdue the earth, to harness the physical powers of the earth ; yet such work will only be performed by one who does not see into the substantial realm; consequently all this bad serves a wonderfully good purpose; it serves to transform all matter. So the Gnostic deliberately refers them all unto the Gnosis. That is to say, he looks at these processes of bad, and these bad people from the standpoint of the light, which the Gnosis throws upon the sub- ject. He realizes that the man is a workman who fs doing some particular work, and from the stand- point of the Gnosis we are able to see the relation which that particular work will bear to the fin- ished product. The most marvelous thing of all is that it is the Gnostic alone who makes all things good. Here we have the subtle alchemy of the Gnostic life, that mental alchemy which causes the Gnostic to see the bad as good by seeing that it is but the crude form of a good condition that is going to be brought about by and by; by seeing that it is a stage in the transaction and looking at it as though it had accomplished that, seeing the end from the beginning, as it were; looking at everything not as a thing in itself, but as a part of
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the sequence, a stage in the course of development. Therefore all things are good to him because they are steps in the process which is bound to turn out good in the end. Therefore to the Gnostic all is good. And here we are able to see where the Gnostic rises superior to all other men. He knows that the end justifies the means, because the means is always for the sake of the realization of the end, that is all that things exist for. Consequently he may do things which to others would be very bad but to him they are perfectly good. Things that would be criminal and sinful in the cheap organ- ism, are quite virtuous and proper in a Gnostic, because the Gnostic does all he does as a means of realizing the good; therefore through the appli- cation of his wisdom and understanding which he has due to his superior unfoldment, he is able to take all evil conditions and transmute them into good influences, by using them as a means of realiz- ing the good. Hence the Gnostic is above good and evil, the categories of right and wrong have no existence for him, seeing that he is the soldier of truth and right in the absolute. Consequently whatever he does is right. The Gnostic can do no wrong. Therefore the world hates the Gnostic, who is above their moral code. The one who stands so high that nothing that he can do can fail to be better than the best that is done by anyone else is a menace to the liberty of the host of cheap organisms because he stands above them in every sense of the word. His alchemy is one of mind, one of thought, of intelligent direction. He is able through the power of his will to cause influences which otherwise would work for evil, to attain to the realization of the highest good. Thus the Gnostic is the great alchemist of the mind and at the same time is he the projectile that explodes and disintegrates the shams of society, scattering
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to the four winds the crystallized forms. Thus by disrupting them he forces them to again find adjustment. This is the true function of the Gnos- tic, the alchemist of the mind.
LESSON VIII
The Kosmic Course
5. But I return once more to the Dis- course {Logos) on Sense. That sense doth share with thought in man, doth constitute him man. But 'tis not [every] man, as I have said, who benefits by thought; for this man is material, that other one substantial.
For the material man, as I have said, [con- sorting] with the bad, doth have his seed of thought from daimons; while the substan- tial men [consorting] with the Good, are saved by God.
Now God is Maker of all things, and in His making, He maketh all [at last] like to Himself; but they, while they're becoming good by exercise of their activity, are unpro- ductive things.
It is the working of the Cosmic Course that maketh their becomings what they are, befouling some of them with bad and others of them making clean with good.
For Cosmos, too, Asclepius, possesseth sense-and-thought peculiar to itself, not like to that of man ; 'tis not so manifold, but as it were a better and a simpler one.
But I return once more to the Discourse (Logos) on Sense. That sense doth share Wixh thought in man, doth constitute him man. But 'tis not [every] man, as I have
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said, who benefits by thought; for this man is material, that other one substantial.
The sharing of sense and thought, that is the mutual interrelation of sense and thought in the conception of consciousness, is what constitutes the human nature. Without this combination, man would not be man, but merely one of the animal creation. The distinction between the two is in this, in the animals, sense causes the universe or nature to impress itself directly upon the animal. This direct impression of nature upon the animal through sense, constitutes what we call instinct, hence the actions of the animal are instinctive and impulsive. In man, sense acts through the medium of thought, awakening corresponding thoughts, and these enter the consciousness, and hence, in- stead of man having an instinctive sense of nature, he forms an intelligent concept of nature. It is this intelligent rather than instinctive action which distinguishes man as man and not as animal. At the same time we must bear in mind that all men are not benefitted by thought. There are two dis- tinct classes of men, material men and substantial men. As thought is related to substance, it will follow that the material man is unable to do any real thinking. To grasp this, we must understand the nature of the thinking process. While it is true that it is the action of sense upon the mind that causes the conception of thought, but at the same time it will never do to assume that a thought is merely a picture of an object photographed upon the mind by sense. The thought is conceived in the mind, and is therefore composed of the substance of the mind itself. The thought is therefore, in the order of a substantial correspondent of the thing sensed, and hence it is related to the substantial operation back of the
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thing sensed, it is hence much more accurate than is sense. The function of sense then, is to get at the forms of things, while the function of thought is to get at their essences. Now, if man is sub- stantial, his most active part is the soul, which being substantial and not material, will give ample opportunity for the conception of thought, while if one is material, his body being the most im- portant and active portion of his being, there will be little opportunity for the conception of thought, and this being the case, in the material man thought does little more than to perpetuate the images presented through sense. Thus the material man has not the benefit of the mental quintessence of sense, which constitutes true thought, and which is the principle characteristic of the substantial man. Even when thought is in a measure present in the material man, it does not elevate him as it does the substantial man, for his thought being material and not substantial, he has no conception of the substance of things.
For the material man, as I have said, [con- sorting] with the bad, doth have his seed of thought from daimons; while the substan- tial men [consorting] with the Good, are saved by God.
The material man can have no thought of any- thing other than the earth life and experience. To him the material is the all. To him, facts are all that there are, hence his consciousness is filled up with material facts. As these relate to the bad alone, he has no concept of the substantial or the good, and thus, thinking only of the bad, that is, of the material, the mind is polarized entirely with the daimons. A mind which recognizes only the m.aterial, soon leads to a character that is com-
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pletely material even in its aspirations. Such an one, failing to realize that there is any thing other than the material, naturally comes to the point where he seeks for the material as the one thing needful. This causes such an one to choose the material realm, which is under the control of the daimons, and of course subjects him to them. This being the case, all the seed of his thought is from the daimons, and thus, his thought is purely daimonial in as much as the seed which conceives all his thoughts are of daimonial origin. On the other hand, the substantial man, functioning in the soul, sees the substantial rather than the material. This leads him to a metaphysical view of nature, which causes him to live in a world of ideas rather than in one of facts. This enables him to function in the higher regions of Kosmos, leading a life in which the consciousness is largely substantial. As a result, he becomes largely indifferent to material things, iand in proportion the substantial becomes more and more important. In the course of time, he comes to see in the ideal the one thing needful. Having become indifferent to the material, the bad, he of course becomes the more attached to the substantial and hence to the Good. This leads him into a state of polarity with the Good, with the result that his mind being closed to the seed of the daimons, it is now open to the seed of God, hence all his seed of thought is derived from God. This causes him to think in the divine manner, and hence he is saved by God, that is, the seed of God, conceives in the mind, kindred thoughts, so that his mind is completely closed to the seed of the daimons. He is thus saved from the influence of the daimons, by having his mind under the con- trol of God.
Now God is Maker of all things, and in
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His making, He maketh all [at last] like to Himself; but they, while they're becoming good by exercise of their activity, are unpro- ductive things.
God is the maker of everything. Nothing comes into being, save that which He has made. As all things are the result of the Ideas of God, it follows that their real being is in the divine idea that origi- nated them. They subsist in the divine mind at a time anterior to that during which they exist out of it. Living in the Divine Idea at first they are divine, and, while they are degraded through their course of mutation in Kosmos, they are never- theless destined in the end to attain that Ideal Divinity which was theirs in the beginning. Be- fore they can reach that state, they must pass through a period of evolution in Kosmos, during which time they will purge out the bad from their composition, and ultimately attain the status of the good. It is through the exercise of their activity that all bad things become good. Good- ness is therefore, merely the result of growth in the bad things. During this time, however, they can produce nothing. The production of any- thing will mean their ceasing to become good for the time being at least. They are merely evolving themselves into the good state.
It is the working of the Cosmic Course that maketh their becomings what they are, befouling some of them with bad and others of them making clean with good.
The working of the Kosmic Course has for its purpose the perfecting and evolution of the Kosmos as a whole. It is not concerned with the effect of its evolutions upon any thing in particu-
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lar, save as they effect the evolution of the Kosmos as a whole. To this end, some things relatively good, that is, substantial, are degraded into ma- terial forms, and in that v^ay befouled with bad, in a word, manifesting the bad quality of matter. At the same time, other things which are bad, owing to the fact that they are in material form, are purged of their materiality, and hence of their badness, and are made clean and good. In this way, we are able to see the process of transmuta- tion which is ever going on, the bad being trans- muted into good, and in like manner the good being ever transmuted into bad. It must be borne in mind that the purpose of the Kosmic Course is the perfection of all things as an unit, and hence the fate of a particular thing is of no moment, except as its fate effects the work of the Kosmic Course. As the bad, that is the material, is trans- muted into the good, that is the substantial, it tends to effect the status of matter in general, causing it to be gradually transformed until it approaches nearer and nearer to the substantial state. In like manner, when the good, or substantial is driven into the bad or material state, it carries with it a considerable measure of the energy of the sub- stantial condition, which being imprisoned in mat- ter, seeks to return to the substantial condition. This energy, in its efforts to escape from the bond of matter, acts upon the matter holding it, in such a manner as to gradually transform it, and thus matter is in process of transmutation in the direc- tion of the substantial condition. The result is, the working of the Kosmic Course, while it is det- rimental to the well being of the things themselves as they are befouled with bad, nevertheless, it tends to the substantialization of matter and the trans- mutation of the bad into the condition of the good. The Kosmic Course is therefore, nothing other
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than the course of the Alchemicalization of mat- ter, and all things, have their place in that process of transmutation. Kosmos is the great Alchemist, and the status of every thing is but the temporary condition resulting from the process of Kosmic Transmutation. Thus, while all things are good in the beginning, and will be good in the end, each thing passes through a process of becoming bad, abides in a state of badness, and passes through a process of becoming good again, as a result of the effect which the Kosmic Course has upon it. Bad- ness is therefore a state of development which every thing must go through. The purpose of which is the spiritualization of matter and the final elimination of bad from existence. All things, no matter how bad are therefore, doing their part in the deliverance of the universe from the rule of bad. We may draw from this a practical lesson, man should above all things avoid being too good. That is to say, one should avoid becoming so good that he is good for nothing. Remember, your function is to spiritualize the material world, not to be a pure spirit. This being the case, avoid becoming so spiritual that you can have no pos- sible influence upon matter. If you do this, you w^ll be of no earthly use, and the sooner you die and go to heaven, where you belong, the better. We have no use for Saints in this world, what we require is real live, red blooded men and women. Men and women who are not too spiritual to fight, to struggle and to do their part in the spiritualiza- tion of matter and hence in the regeneration of the universe. The saints all belong in heaven, what we want on earth is men. In other words, every one must be a Alchemist in his own proper field, small as it may be. This is the true function of all life, Alchemicalization, and above all, is it the work of man to transmute matter, and bring it a little closer to the spiritual status. In other words,
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the type of men that are most needed in the world are Hermetic Artists. Your work is not to pre- pare for heaven but to stay on the earth, and trans- mute it into the heavenly state, and stay on the job until it is done.
For Cosmos, too, Asclepius, possesseth sense-and-thought peculiar to itself, not like to that of man, 'tis not so manifold, but as it were a better and a simpler one.