part is always coincident. The etheric vortex is always

on the surface of the etheric body, but the astral centre is frequently quite in the interior of that vehicle.
The function of each of these etheric centres when fully aroused is to bring down into physical conscious- ness whatever may be the quality inherent in the astral centre which corresponds to it; so, before cataloguing the results to be obtained by arousing the etheric cen- tres into activity, it may be well to consider what is done by each of the astral centres, although these lat- ter are already in full activity in all cultured people of the later races. What effect, then, has the quickening of each of these astral centres produced in the astral body?
The first of these centres, that at the base of the spine, is the home of that mysterious force called the serpent-fire or, in The Voice of the Silence, the World's Mother. I will say more about this force later ; for the moment let us consider its effects on the astral centres. This force exists on all planes, and by its activity the rest of the centres are aroused. We must think of the astral body as having been originally an almost inert mass, with nothing but the vaguest consciousness, with no definite power of doing anything, and no clear knowl- edge of the world which surrounded it. The first thing that happened, then, was the awakening of that force in the man at the astral level. When awakened it moved on to the second centre, corresponding to the navel, and vivified it, thereby awakening in the astral body the power of feeling — a sensitiveness to all sorts of influences, though without as yet anything like the
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definite comprehension that comes from seeing or hear- ing.
Then it moved on to the third, that corresponding to the physical spleen, and through it vitalized the whole astral body, enabling the person to travel consciously, though with only a vague conception as yet of what he encountered on his journeys.
The fourth centre, when awakened, endowed the man with the power to comprehend and sympathize with the vibrations of other astral entities, so that he could in- stinctively understand their feelings.
The awakening of the fifth, that corresponding to the throat, gave him the power of hearing on the astral plane — that is to say, it caused the development of that sense which in the astral world produces on our con- sciousness the effect which on the physical plane we call hearing.
The development of the sixth, that corresponding to the centre between the eyebrows, in a similar manner produced astral sight — the power to perceive definitely the shape and nature of astral objects, instead of vaguely sensing their presence.
The arousing of the seventh, that corresponding to the top of the head, rounded off and completed for him the astral life, and endowed him with the perfection of its faculties.
With regard to this centre a certain difference seems to exist according to the type to which men belong. For many of us the astral vortices corresponding to the sixth and seventh of these centres both converge upon the pituitary body, and for those people the pitu- itary body is practically the only direct link between the physical and the higher planes. Another type of peo- ple, however, while still attaching the sixth centre to the pituitary body, bend or slant the seventh until its
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vortex coincides with the atrophied organ called the pineal gland, which is by people of that type vivified and made into a line of communication directly passing through the intermediate astral plane in the ordinary way. It was for this type that Madame Blavatsky was writing when she laid such emphasis upon the awak- ening of that organ.
Thus these centres to some extent take the place of sense-organs for the astral body, and yet without proper qualification that expression would be decidedly a misleading one, for it must never be forgotten that though, in order to make ourselves intelligible, we con- stantly have to speak of astral seeing or astral hearing, all that we really mean by those expressions is the faculty of responding to such vibrations as convey to the man's consciousness, when he is functioning in his astral body, information of the same character as that conveyed to him by his eyes and ears while he is in the physical body.
But in the entirely different astral conditions spe- cialized organs are not necessary for the attainment of this result. There is matter in every part of the astral body which is capable of such response, and conse- quently the man functioning in that vehicle sees equal- ly well the objects behind him, above him, and beneath him, without needing to turn his head. The centres, therefore, cannot be described as organs in the ordi- nary sense of the word, since it is not through them that the man sees or hears, as he does here through the eyes and ears. Yet it is upon their vjvification that the power of exercising these astral senses depends, each of them as it is developed giving to the whole astral body the power of response to a new set of vibrations.
As all the particles of the astral body are constantly flowing and swirling about like those of boiling water,
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all of them in turn pass through each of the centres or vortices, so that each centre in its turn evokes in all the particles of the body the power of receptivity to a certain set of vibrations, and so all the astral senses are equally active in all parts of the body. But even when these astral senses are fully awakened it by no means follows that the man will be able to bring through his physical body any consciousness of their action.
While all this astral awakening was taking place, then, the man in his physical consciousness knew noth- ing whatever of it. The only way in which the dense body can be brought to share all these advantages is by repeating that process of awakening with the etheric centres. That is to be achieved precisely in the same way as it was done upon the astral plane — that is to say, by the arousing of the serpent-fire, which exists clothed in etheric matter on the physical plane, and sleeps in the corresponding etheric centre, that at the base of the spine.
In this case the arousing is done by a determined and long-continued effort of the will, and to bring that first centre into full activity is precisely to awaken the ser- pent-fire. When once that is aroused, it is by its tre- mendous force that the other centres are vivified. Its effect on the other etheric centres is to bring into the physical consciousness the powers which were aroused by the development of their corresponding astral cen- tres.
When the second of the etheric centres, that at the navel, comes into activity the man begins in the physical body to be conscious of all kinds of astral influences, vaguely feeling that some of them are friendly and others hostile, or that some places are pleasant and others unpleasant, without in the least knowing why.
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When the third centre, that at the spleen, is awak- ened, the man is enabled to remember his vague astral journeys, though sometimes only very partially. The effect of a slight and accidental stimulation of this cen- tre is often to produce half-remembrance of a blissful sensation of flying through the air.
Stimulation of the fourth, that at the heart, makes the man instinctively aware of the joys and sorrows of others, and sometimes even causes him to reproduce in himself by sympathy their physical aches and pains.
The arousing of the fifth, that at the throat, enables him to hear voices, which sometimes make all kinds of suggestions to him. Also sometimes he hears music, or other less pleasant sounds. When it is fully working it makes the man clair-audient as far as the etheric and astral planes are concerned.
When the sixth, between the eye-brows, becomes vivified, the man begins to see things, to have various sorts of waking visions, sometimes of places, some- times of people. In its earlier development, when it is only just beginning to be awakened, it often means nothing more than half-seeing landscapes and clouds of color. The full arousing of this brings about clair- voyance.
The centre between the eye-brows is connected with sight in yet another way. It is through it that the pow- er of magnification of minute physical objects is exer- cised. A tiny flexible tube of etheric matter is pro- jected from the centre of it, resembling a miscroscopic snake with an eye at the end of it. This is the special organ used in that form of clairvoyance, and the eye at the end of it can be expanded or contracted, the ef- fect being to change the power of magnification accord- ing to the size of the object which is being examined. This is what is meant in ancient books when mention is
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made of the capacity to make oneself large or small at will. To examine an atom one developes an organ of vision commensurate in size with the atom. This little snake projecting from the centre of the forehead was symbolized upon the head-dress of the Pharaoh of Egypt, who as the chief priest of his country was sup- posed to possess this among many other occult powers.
When the seventh centre is awakened the man is able by passing through it to leave his body in full conscious- ness, and also to return to it without the usual break, so that his consciousness will be continuous through night and day. When the fire has been passed through all these centres in a certain order (which varies for different types of people) the consciousness becomes continuous up to the entry into the heaven-world at the end of the life on the astral plane, no difference be- ing made by either the temporary separation from the physical body during sleep or the permanent division at death.
Before this is done, however, the man may have many glimpses of the astral world, for especially strong vibrations may at any time galvanize one or other of the centres into temporary activity, without arousing the serpent-fire at all; or it may happen that the fire may be partially roused, and in this way also partial clairvoyance may be produced for the time. For this fire exists in seven layers or seven degrees of force, and it often happens that a man who exerts his will in the effort to arouse it may succeed in affecting one layer only, and so when he thinks that he has done the work he may find it ineffective, and may have to do it all over again many times, digging gradually deeper and deeper, until not only the surface is stirred but the very heart of the fire is in full activity.
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The Serpent-Fire
As we know it, this serpent-fire (called in Sanskrit kundalini) is the manifestation on the physical plane of one of the great world-forces — one of the powers of the LOGOS. You know that what we call electricity is a manifestation of one of His forces, and that that force may take various forms, such as heat, light and motion. Another of His forces is vitality — what is sometimes called prana, but this is not interchangeable with any of those other forms which we have just men- tioned. We may say then that vitality and electricity are as it were the lower ends of two of His streams of force.
This serpent-fire may be taken as the lower end of another of His streams, the physical-plane manifesta- tion of another of the manifold aspects of His power. Like vitality, it exists on all planes of which we know anything; but it is the expression of it in etheric mat- ter with which we have to do. It is not convertible into either vitality or electricity, and does not seem to be affected in any way by either. I have seen as much as a million and a quarter volts of electricity put into a human body, so that when the man held out his arm towards the wall huge flames rushed out from his fin- gers, yet he felt nothing unusual, nor was he in the least burnt unless he accidentally touched some ex- ternal object ; but even this enormous display of power had no effect whatever upon the serpent-fire.
In The Voice of the Silence this force is called "the Fiery Power" and "the World's Mother." There is much reason for all these strange names, for it is in very truth like liquid fire as it rushes through the body, and the course through which it ought to move is a spiral one like the coils of a serpent. It is called the
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World's Mother because through it our various vehicles may be vivified, so that the higher worlds may open before us in succession.
In the body of man its home, as we have said, is at the base of the spine, and for the ordinary person it lies there unawakened, and its very presence unsus- pected, during the whole of his life ; and it is indeed far better to allow it thus to remain dormant until the man has made definite moral development, until his will is strong enough to control it and his thoughts pure enough to enable him to face its awakening without injury. No one should experiment with it without def- inite instruction from a teacher who thoroughly under- stands the subject, for the dangers connected with it are very real and terribly serious. Some of them are purely physical. Its uncontrolled movement often pro- duces intense physical pain, and it may readily tear tis- sues and even destroy physical life. This, however, is the least of the evils of which it is capable, for it may do permanent injury to vehicles higher than the physical.
One very common effect of rousing it prematurely is that it rushes downwards in the body instead of up- wards, and thus excites the most undesirable passions — excites them and intensifies their effects to such a degree that it becomes absolutely impossible for the man to resist them, because a force has been brought into play in whose presence he is as helpless as a swim- mer before the jaws of a shark. Such men become satyrs, monsters of depravity, because they are in the grasp of a force which is out of all proportion to the ordinary human power of resistance. They may prob- ably gain certain supernormal powers, but these will be such as will bring them into touch with a lower order of evolution with which humanity is intended to
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hold no commerce, and to escape from its awful thral- dom may take them more than one incarnation. I am not in any way exaggerating the horror of this thing, as a person to whom it was all a matter of hearsay might unwittingly do. I have myself been consulted by people upon whom this awful fate has already come, and I have seen with my own eyes what happened to them. There is a school of black magic which pur- posely uses this power in this way, in order that through it may be vivified those lower force-centres which are never used by the followers of the Good Law.
Even apart from this greatest of its dangers, its premature unfoldment has many other unpleasant pos- sibilities. It intensifies everything in man's nature, and it reaches the lower and evil qualities more readily than the good. In the mental body, for example, ambi- tion is very readily aroused, and soon swells to an in- credibly inordinate degree. It would be likely to bring with it a great intensification of the power of intellect, but at the same time it would produce abnormal and satanic pride, such as is quite inconceivable to the ordi- nary man. It is not wise for a man to think that he is prepared to cope with any force that may arise within his body ; this is no ordinary force, but something re- sistless. Assuredly no uninstructed man should ever try to awaken it, and if such a one finds that it has been aroused by accident he should at once consult some one who fully understands these matters.
It may be noticed that I have specially and inten- tionally refrained from explaining how this arousing is to be done, or mentioning the order in which the force (when aroused) should be passed through these various centres, for that should by no means be at- tempted except at the express suggestion of a Master,
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who will watch over His pupil during the various stages of the experiment.
I most solemnly warn all students against making any effort whatever in the direction of awakening these tremendous forces, except under such qualified tuition, for I have myself seen many cases of the terri- ble effects which follow from ignorant and ill-advised meddling with these very serious matters. The force is a tremendous reality, one of the great basic facts of nature, and most emphatically it is not a thing to be played with, or to be lightly taken in hand, for to ex- periment with it without understanding it is far more dangerous than it would be for a child to play with nitroglycerine. As is very truly said in the Hathayo- gapradipika : "It gives liberation to yogis and bondage to fools." (iii. 107.)
In matters such as these, students so often seem to think that some special exception to the laws of nature will be made in their case, that some special interven- tion of providence will save them from the conse- quences of their folly. Assuredly nothing of that sort will happen, and the man who wantonly provokes an explosion is quite likely to become its first victim. It would save much trouble and disappointment if stu- dents could be induced to understand that in all mat- ters connected with occultism we mean just exactly and literally what we say, and that it is applicable in every case without exception. For there is no such thing as favoritism in the working of the great laws of the universe.
Everybody wants to try all possible experiments; everybody is convinced that he is quite ready for the highest possible teaching and for any sort of develop- ment, and no one is willing to work patiently along at the improvement of character, and to devote his time
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and his energies to doing something useful for the work of the Society, waiting for all these other things until a Master shall announce that he is ready for them. The old aphorism still remains true : "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."
There are some cases in which the fire wakes spon- taneously, so that a dull glow is felt ; it may even begin to move of itself, though this is rare. In this latter case it would be likely to cause great pain, as, since the pas- sages are not prepared for it, it would have to clear its way by actually burning up a great deal of etheric dross — a process that cannot but engender suffering. When it thus awakes of itself or is accidentally aroused, it usually tries to rush up the interior of the spine, instead of following the spiral course into which the occultist is trained to guide it. If it be possible, the will should be set in motion to arrest its onward rush, but if that proves to be impossible (as is most likely) no alarm need be felt. It will probably rush out through the head and escape into the surrounding at- mosphere, and it is likely that no harm will result be- yond a slight weakening. Nothing worse than a tem- porary loss of consciousness need be apprehended. The really appalling dangers are connected not with its upward rush, but with the possibility of its turning downwards and inwards.
Its principal function in connection with occult de- velopment is that by being sent through the force- centres in the etheric body, as above described, it vivi- fies these centres and makes them available as gates of connection between the physical and astral bodies. It is said in The Voice of the Silence that when the ser- pent-fire reaches the centre between the eye-brows and
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fully vivifies it, it confers the power of hearing the voice of the Master — which means in this case the voice of the ego or higher self. The reason for this statement is that when the pituitary body is brought into working order it forms a perfect link with the astral vehicle, so that through it all communications from within can be received.
It is not only this one; all the higher force-centres have presently to be awakened, and each must be made responsive to all kinds of astral influences from the various astral sub-planes. This development will come to all in due course, but most people cannot gain it dur- ing the present incarnation, if it is the first in which they have begun to take these matters seriously in hand. Some Indians might succeed in doing so, as their bodies are by heredity more adaptable than most others; but it is really for the majority the work of a later round altogether. The conquest of the serpent- fire has to be repeated in each incarnation, since the vehicles are new each time, but after it has been once thoroughly achieved these repetitions will be an easy matter. It must be remembered that its action varies with different types of people; some, for example, would see the higher self rather than hear its voice. Again, this connection with the higher has many stages ; for the personality it means the influence of the ego, but for the ego himself it means the power of the monad, and for the monad in turn it means to become a conscious expression of the Logos.
It may be of use if I mention my own experience in this matter. In the earlier part of my residence in India twenty-five years ago I made no effort to rouse the fire — not indeed knowing very much about it, and having the opinion that, in order to do anything with it, it was necessary to be born with a specially psychic
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body, which I did not possess. But one day one of the Masters made a suggestion to me with regard to a cer- tain kind of meditation which would evoke this force. Naturally I at once put the suggestion into practice, and in course of time was successful. I have no doubt, however, that He watched the experiment, and would have checked me if it had become dangerous. I am told that there are Indian ascetics who teach this to their pupils, of course keeping them under careful supervi- sion during the process. But I do not myself know of any such, nor should I have confidence in them unless they were specially recommended by some one whom I knew to be possessed of real knowledge.
People often ask me what I advise them to do with regard to the arousing of this force. I advise them to do exactly what I myself did. I recommend them to throw themselves into Theosophical work and wait until they receive a definite command from some Mas- ter who will undertake to superintend their psychic development, continuing in the meantime all the ordi- nary exercises of meditation that are known to them. They should not care in the least whether such develop- ment comes in this incarnation or in the next, but should regard the matter from the point of view of the ego and not of the personality, feeling absolutely cer- tain that the Masters are always watching for those whom They can help, that it is entirely impossible for any one to be overlooked, and that They will unques- tionably give Their directions when They think that the right time has come.
I have never heard that there is any sort of age limit with regard to the development, and I do not see that age should make any difference, so long as one has per- fect health; but the health is a necessity, for only a strong body can endure the strain, which is much more
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serious than any one who has not made the attempt can possibly imagine.
The force when aroused must be very strictly con- trolled, and it must be moved through the centres in an order which differs for people of different types. The movement also, to be effective, must be made in a par- ticular way, which the Master will explain when the time comes.
I have said that the astral and etheric centres are in very close correspondence; but between them, and in- terpenetrating them in a manner not readily describ- able, is a sheath composed of a single layer of physical atoms much compressed and permeated by a special form of vital force. The divine life which normally descends from the astral body to the physical is so attuned as to pass through this with perfect ease, but it is an absolute barrier to all other forces — all which cannot use the atomic matter of both the planes. This web is the natural protection provided by nature to prevent a premature opening up of communication be- tween the planes — a development which could lead to nothing but injury.
It is this which under normal conditions prevents clear recollection of what has happened during sleep, and it is this also which causes the momentary uncon- sciousness which always occurs at death. But for this merciful provision the ordinary man, who knows noth- ing about all these things and is entirely unprepared to meet them, could at any moment be brought by any astral entity under the influences of forces to cope with which would be entirely beyond his strength. He would be liable to constant obsession by any being on the astral plane who desired to seize upon his vehicles.
It will therefore be readily understood that any in- jury to this web is a serious disaster. There are sev-
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eral ways in which injury may come, and it behooves us to use our best endeavors to guard against it. It may come either by accident or by continued malpractice. Any great shock to the astral body, such for example as a sudden terrible fright, may rend apart this deli- cate organism and, as it is commonly expressed, drive the man mad. (Of course there are other ways in which fear may cause insanity, but this is one.) A tremendous outburst of anger may also produce the same effect. Indeed it may follow upon any exceed- ingly strong emotion of an evil character which pro- duces a kind of explosion in the astral body.
The malpractices which may more gradually injure this protective web are of two classes — the use of alco- hol or narcotic drugs and the deliberate endeavor to throw open the doors which nature has kept closed, by means of such a process as is described in spiritualistic parlance as sitting for development. Certain drugs and drinks — notably alcohol and all the narcotics, in- cluding tobacco — contain matter which on breaking up volatilizes, and some of it passes from the physical plane to the astral. (Even tea and coffee contain this matter, but in quantities so infinitesimal that it is usually only after long-continued abuse of them that the effect manifests itself.)
When this takes place in the body of man these con- stituents rush out through the force-centres in the op- posite direction to that for which they are intended, and in doing this repeatedly they seriously injure and finally destroy the delicate web. This deterioration or destruction may be brought about in two different ways, according to the type of the person concerned and to the proportion of the constituents in his etheric and astral bodies. First, the rush of volatilizing matter actually burns away the web, and therefore leaves the
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door open to all sorts of irregular forces and evil in- fluences.
The second result is that these volatile constituents, in flowing through, somehow harden the atom so that its pulsation is to a large extent checked and crippled, and it is no longer capable of being vitalized by the particular type of force which welds it into a web. The result of this is a kind of ossification of the web, so that instead of having too much coming through from one plane to the other, we have very little of any kind coming through.
We may see the effects of both these types of dete- rioration in the case of men who yield themselves to drunkenness. Some of those who are affected in the former way fall into delirium tremens, obsession or insanity; but those are after all comparatively rare. Far more common is the second type of deterioration — the case in which we have a kind of general deaden- ing down of the man's qualities, resulting in gross ma- terialism, brutality and animalism, in the loss of all finer feelings and of the power to control himself. He no longer feels any sense of responsibility; he may love his wife and children when sober, but when the fit of drunkenness comes upon him he will use the money which should have bought bread for them to satisfy his own bestial cravings, the affection and the responsibility having apparently entirely dis- appeared.
The second type of effect is very commonly to be seen among those who are slaves of the tobacco habit ; again and again we find that they persist in their self- indulgence even when they know perfectly well that it causes nausea and misery to their neighbors. We shall recognize the deterioration at once when we think that this is the only practice in which a gentleman will
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persist when he is aware that it causes acute annoy- ance to others. Clearly in this case the finer feelings have already been seriously blunted.
All impressions which pass from one plane to the other are intended to come only through the atomic sub-planes, as I have said ; but when this deadening process sets in, it presently infects not only other atomic matter, but matter of even the second and third sub-planes, so that the only communication between the astral and the etheric is when some force acting on the lower sub-planes (upon which only unpleasant and evil influences are to be found) happens to be strong enough to compel a response by the violence of its vi- bration.
Nevertheless, though nature takes such precautions to guard these centres, she by no means intends that they shall always be kept rigidly closed. There is a proper way in which they may be opened. Perhaps it would be more correct to say that the intention is not that the doors should be opened any wider than their present position, but that the man should so de- velop himself as that he can bring a great deal more through the recognized channel.
The consciousness of the ordinary man cannot yet use pure atomic matter either in the physical body or in the astral, and therefore there is normally no possi- bility for him of conscious communication at will be- tween the two planes. The proper way to obtain that is to purify both the vehicles until the atomic matter in both is fully vivified, so that all communications be- tween the two may be able to pass by that road. In that case the web retains to the fullest degree its posi- tion and activity, and yet is no longer a barrier to the perfect communication, while it still continues to ful- fill its purpose of preventing the close contact between
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lower sub-planes which would permit all sorts of unde- sirable influences to pass through.
That is why we are always adjured to wait for the unfolding of psychic powers until they come in the natural course of events as a consequence of the devel- opment of character, as we see from the study of these force-centres that they surely will. That is the natural evolution ; that is the only really safe way, for by it the student obtains all the benefits and avoids all the dan- gers. That is the Path which our Masters have trod- den in the past ; that therefore is the Path for us to-day.
Obsession and Insanity
We must distinguish carefully between obsession and insanity. The latter is a break in the connection between the ego and his vehicles, while the former is the ousting of the ego by some other entity. Only a weak ego would permit obsession — an ego, I mean, who had not much hold upon his vehicles. It is not as a rule true that children are more easily obsessed than adults, because though it is true that the hold of the ego upon its bodies is less strong in childhood, it is also true that the adult is far more likely to have in him qualities which attract undesirable entities and make obsession easy. In the case of a little child, any entity trying to obsess the body would have first to face the elemental who is in charge of the building of it, and he is not at all likely to succeed in ousting that. After the age of seven, when the elemental has been withdrawn, obsession might take place if the ego was very weak; but it is fortunately rare.
Obsession may be permanent or temporary, and it
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is undertaken for various reasons. Often some dead person is filled with burning anxiety to come again into touch with the physical plane, generally for the satis- faction of the lowest and grossest desires, and in his desperate yearning he seizes upon any vehicle which he can steal. Sometimes, on the other hand, obsession is a definite and calculated act of revenge — not always upon the person obsessed. I knew a case in which a man who hated another deliberately went to work to obtain control of and obsess his enemy's favorite daughter ; I know also of another instance even worse than that. Sometimes the obsessing entity is not hu- man at all, but only a nature-spirit who desires expe- rience of human life. In any and all cases obsession should be determinedly resisted by the victim.
Insanity is an entirely different matter. Let us try to look at it from the occult point of view. Every cell in the physical Drain and every particle of its matter has its corresponding and interpenetrating astral mat- ter; and behind (or rather within) that, it has also the still finer mental matter. Of course the brain is a cubical mass, bat for the purposes of our examination let us suppose that it could be spread out upon a surface so that it should be only one particle thick. Then fur- ther suppose that the astral and mental matter belong- ing to it could also be laid out in layers in a similar manner, the astral layer a little above the physical, and the mental a little above the astral.
Then we should have three layers of matter of dif- ferent degrees of density, all corresponding one to the other. Now suppose that each physical particle is joined to the corresponding astral particle by a little tube, and each astral particle is joined to its corre- sponding mental particle in the same way, and even (higher up still) each mental particle to something
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which corresponds to it in the causal body. So long as all these tubes were perfectly in alignment there would be clear communication between the ego and his brain ; but if any one of the sets of tubes were bent, closed, or knocked partially aside, it is obvious that the com- munication might be wholly or partially interrupted.
From the occult standpoint, therefore, we divide the insane into four great classes, each of course having many sub-divisions.
1. Those who are insane merely from a defect of the dense physical brain — from its insufficient size, perhaps, or from some accident like a heavy blow, or some growth which causes pressure upon it or from gradual softening of the tissue.
2. Those whose defect is in the etheric part of the brain, so that its particles no longer correspond per- fectly with the denser physical particles, and so cannot properly bring through the vibrations from the higher vehicles.
3. Those in whom the astral body is defective in- stead of the etheric — in whom its tubes are bent, as it were, so that there is a want of accurate adjustment between its particles and those of the vehicles either above or below it.
4. Those in whom the mind-body itself is in some way out of order, and consequently is unable to bring through the instructions or wishes of the ego.
It makes a very great difference to which of these classes an insane person belongs. Those of the first and second types are quite sensible when out of the body during sleep, and of course also after death, so that the ego loses only the expression of himself during waking life. Those of the third type do not recover until they reach the heaven-world, and the fourth class not until they return into the causal body; so that for
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this last class the incarnation is a failure. But for- tunately more than ninety per cent of the insane belong to the first and second classes.
Three questions are asked upon the unsavory subject of obsession ; I will proceed to answer them. The first is: "What is the best way to get rid of an excarnate human being who persists in occupying one's body?"
I should simply and absolutely decline to be so ob- sessed. The best and kindest plan would be to have an explanation with the dead person, to enquire what he wants and why he makes such persistent attempts. Quite probably, he may be some ignorant soul who does not at all comprehend his new surroundings, and is striving madly to get into touch again with the only kind of life that he understands. In that case if mat- ters are explained to him, he may be brought to a hap- pier frame of mind and induced to cease his ill-directed efforts. Or the poor creature may have something on his mind — some duty unfulfilled or some wrong un- righted ; if this be so, and the matter can be arranged to his satisfaction, he may then be at peace.
If, however, he proves not to be amenable to reason, if in spite of all argument and explanation he refuses to abandon his reprehensible line of action, it will be necessary gently but firmly to resist him. Every man has an inalienable right to the use of his own vehicle, and encroachments of this nature should not be per- mitted. If the lawful possessor of the body will con- fidently assert himself and use his own will-power no obsession can take place.
When such things occur, it is almost always because the victim has in the first place yielded himself to the invading influence, and his first step therefore is to reverse that act of submission, to determine strongly to take matters into his own hands again and to resume
OBSESSION AND INSANITY 313
control over his property. It is this reassertion of him- self that is the fundamental requirement, and though much help may be given by wise friends, nothing which they can do will take the place of the development of will-power on the part of the victim, or obviate the necessity for it. The exact method of procedure will naturally vary according to the details of the case.
The second question runs thus: "I have long been troubled by entities who constantly suggest evil ideas and make use of coarse and violent language. They are always urging me to take strong drink, and goading me on to the consumption of large quantities of meat. I have prayed earnestly, but with little avail, and am driven to my wits' end. What can I do?"
You have indeed suffered greatly ; but now you must make up your mind to suffer no more. You must take courage and make a firm stand. The power of these dead people over you is only in your fear of them. Your own will is stronger than all theirs combined if you will only know that it is ; if you turn upon them with vigor and determination they must yield before you. You have an inalienable right to the undisturbed use of your own vehicles, and you should insist on being left in peace. You would not tolerate an intrusion of filthy and disgusting beings into your house on the physical plane ; why should you submit to it because the entities happen to be astral? If an indolent tramp forces himself into a man's house, the owner does not kneel down and pray — he kicks the tramp out; and that is precisely what you must do with these astral tramps.
You will no doubt say to yourself that when I give you this advice I do not know the terrible power of the particular demons who are afflicting you. That is exactly what they would like you to believe — what they
314 THE INNER LIFE
will try to make you believe ; but do not be so foolish as to listen to them. I know the type perfectly, and mean, despicable, bullying villains they are ; they will torment a weak woman for months together, but will fly in cowardly terror the moment you turn upon them in righteous anger! I should just laugh at them, but I would drive them out, and hold not a moment's parley with them. Of course they will bluster and show fight, because you have let them have their own way for so long that they will not tamely submit to expulsion ; but face them with iron determination, set your will against them like an immovable rock, and down they will go. Say to them : "I am a spark of the divine fire, and by the power of the God within me I order you to depart !" Never let yourself think for an instant of the possi- bility of failure or of yielding; God is within you, and God cannot fail.
The fact of their demanding meat shows what low and coarse entities they are ; you should avoid all flesh- food and alcohol, because these things minister to such evil beings and make it more difficult for you to resist them.
The third question is : "If it is possible for a man to become obsessed while he has temporarily lost control of his body during a fit of anger, is it not also possible for obsession to take place when one is out of the body during sleep?"
I would submit that the circumstances are entirely different. Sleep is a natural condition, and though the ego leaves the body, he always maintains a close con- nection with it, so that under ordinary circumstances he would quickly be recalled to it by any attempt that might be made upon it. There are individual cases in which the ego is not so easily recalled, and a sort of temporary obsession is possible which may cause som-
SLEEP 315
nambulism, but these cases are abnormal and compara- tively rare. A fit of anger on the other hand is unnat- ural— an infraction of the natural laws under which we live. In this case it is the astral which has escaped from control ; the desire-elemental has rebelled against his master and has broken away from the hold of the ego exercised through the mental body, which alone keeps him safe as part of an astral mechanism. The rightful owner being dispossessed, the astral body is in the condition of a vessel whose helm has been aban- doned ; anyone who happens to be at hand can seize the wheel, and it may be a difficult matter to recover it.
Sleep
I am asked what is the real cause of sleep.
I have not the detailed physiological knowledge which is needed to answer this question fully. But I have always understood that the necessity of sleep is due to the fact that the bodies grow tired of one an- other. The astral vehicle, which so far as we know is practically incapable of fatigue upon its own plane, since it can work incessantly for twenty years without showing signs of it, very soon becomes tired of the heavy labour of moving the particles of the physical brain, and needs a considerable period of separation from it to enable it to gather strength to resume the irksome task.
The physical body, on its side, also becomes worn out, because while it is in a waking condition it is al- ways spending force a little faster than it can draw it in. With every thought or feeling, and with every muscular exertion, certain slight chemical changes
316 THE INNER LIFE
appear to take place. The ordinary machinery of a healthy body is all the while working to counteract this change and to restore the condition previously existing, but in this it never quite succeeds. So that with every thought or action there is a slight, almost imperceptible loss, and the cumulative effect eventually leaves the physical body too exhausted to be capable of further thought or work. In some cases even a few moments of sleep will give the recuperative powers an oppor- tunity to reassert themselves and regain the ground that they have lost, thus restoring the balance suffi- ciently to enable the machine to go on working.
Students often ask what is the best time for sleep. Unquestionably the rule of nature is that the day is for work and the night is for rest, and no infringement of nature's laws can ever be a good thing. One of the serious evils of our modern unnatural life is that noon is no longer, as it should be, the centre of the day. If a man lived by himself and could regulate his own affairs he could, no doubt, return at once to that obviously natural condition ; but, surrounded as we are by a mighty so-called civilization which is in many ways distorted and unnatural, we are unable to follow our individual predilections in this matter, and must to some extent adapt ourselves to the general custom, evil though it be.
It is impossible to lay down rules as to the amount of sleep which is necessary for man, because there is so much difference in constitutions ; but when it is possi- ble that sleep should be taken between 8 P. M. and 5 A. M. Some men need the whole of that time, while others may find themselves perfectly healthy on a smaller allowance. Such details of life each man must decide for himself according to his circumstances.
People often ask whether there is any way in which
SLEEP 31?
they can control their dreams. The dreamer cannot usually change the course of his dream while it is go- ing on ; but the dream-life can indirectly be controlled to a very considerable extent. If a man's thought be pure and high while waking, his dreams will be pure and good also, and a specially important point is that his last thought as he sinks to sleep should be a noble and elevating one, since that strikes the keynote which largely determines the nature of the dreams which follow. An evil or impure thought draws round the thinker evil and impure influences, attracts to him all the gross and loathsome creatures who come near him. These will, in turn, react upon his mind and his astral body, and disturb his rest by awakening all kinds of low and earthly desires. If, on the other hand, a man enters the portals of sleep with his mind fixed upon high and holy things, he thereby draws round him the elementals created by like efforts in others ; his rest is peaceful, his mind open to impressions from above and closed to those from below, for he has set it working in the right direction.
The dreaming of ordinary events does not interfere with astral work, because that dreaming is all taking place in the physical brain, while the real man is away attending to other business. Of course if the man, when out in his astral body, devotes himself to thinking over the events of his physical life, he will be unable during the time of such thought to do any other work, but that is a totally different thing from a mere ordi- nary dream of the physical brain, though when the man wakes in the morning it is frequently difficult for him to distinguish between the two sets of recollections. It really does not matter what the physical brain does so long as it keeps itself free from impure thoughts, but it is undesirable that the man himself should waste his
318 THE INNER LIFE
time in introspection when he might be working on the astral plane.
Somnambulism
You ask what is the cause of sleep-walking. I have never had the opportunity of observing a case of som- nambulism, so I am unable to speak from direct knowl- edge ; but from reading accounts of such cases I should imagine that the phenomena may be produced by sev- eral widely different causes. There are instances in which it appears that the ego is able to act more di- rectly upon his physical body during the absence of the intermediate mental and astral vehicles — instances in which a man during his sleep is able to write poetry or to paint pictures which would be far beyond his powers when awake.
There are other cases in which it is obvious that the dim consciousness inherent in the physical body is working uncontrolled by the man himself, so that it performs quite meaningless acts, or carries out to some extent the idea which was dominant in the mind before falling asleep. To this class belong the stories of serv- ants who have risen in the middle of the night to light the fire, of ostlers who have harnessed horses in their sleep, and so on.
Again, there are cases in which some outside intelli- gence, whether incarnate or discarnate, has seized upon the, body of a sleeping man and used it for his own ends. This would be most likely to happen with a per- son who is what is called mediumistic — that is to say, whose principles are more loosely joined together than usual, and therefore more readily separable ; but oddly enough there seems to be a type of somnambulism which is due to a directly opposite condition, when the
THE PHYSICAL BODY 319
principles fit more tightly than usual, so that when the man would naturally visit some neighboring spot in his astral body, he takes the physical body along with him as well, because he is not wholly dissociated from it. Somnambulism is probably also connected with the whole complex problem of the various layers of con- sciousness in man, which under perfectly normal cir- cumstances are unable to manifest themselves.
The Physical Body
Physical immortality is not a possibility, for that which has a beginning must also have an end, and birth, growth, decay and death are the rules of the physical universe. No reasonable being could desire to retain the same body continuously ; it is precisely as though a small child should wish to wear the same suit of clothes during the whole of his life. As man evolves, his successive vehicles will become purer and nobler, and better fitted to meet the needs of his in- creasing capacity, so that even if a man could keep the same body he would check his growth by doing so, just as the child's growth would be checked by always wear- ing something of iron rigidity which was much too tight for him.
At the same time it is our duty to take the best pos- sible care of our bodies and to improve them as much as we can. Never ill-treat the physical body. Take care of it as you would of a valuable horse, giving it enough rest and food, and keeping it scrupulously clean. It can do only a certain amount of work ; for example, a very strong body might walk a hundred miles without rest- ing, but it could not walk a thousand. In meditation
320 THE INNER LIFE
put it into a comfortable position and then forget about it. You cannot forget it if it is uncomfortable, as it would constantly call you back.
What should you eat? Well, so long as you avoid alcohol and corpse-eating it probably does not matter very much. Certain vegetables are coarser than others, and therefore when there is a choice it is as well to abstain from them. Among those I should class onions, mushrooms and cabbages. Rice is very pure food, but wheat, barley and oats give more nutriment in the same amount. I consider eggs undesirable, though I should unhesitatingly take them if no other food was to be had.
There is no sort of question that vegetarianism is better in every way than the devouring of flesh. It furnishes more real nutriment, diminishes the liability to disease, gives greater strength, and does not stimu- late the lower nature. The vegetarian diet makes it far easier for a man to develop his higher qualities. It is known that our Masters make a single physical body last much longer than an ordinary man can do, by living always in accordance with hygienic laws and by absolute freedom from worry. In that respect we should all try to copy them as nearly as we can, but to endeavour to retain the same body indefinitely has always been a mark of those who follow the selfish path.
There are various undesirable means by which such men have prolonged physical life — sometimes by vam- pirism, merely depleting the vitality of others, and sometimes by the complete transference to themselves of a succession of other human lives. But it is hardly necessary to warn Theosophists against proceedings of this nature. It is obvious that a person adopting such a plan would be one who is not evolving; and
TOBACCO AND ALCOHOL 321
even if he succeeded he would only be as it were patch- ing and enlarging an old coat, but with all his efforts it would remain an old coat still.
Tobacco and Alcohol
The evil effect of the tobacco habit is obvious in the physical, the astral and the mental bodies. It permeates the man physically with exceedingly impure particles, causing emanations so material that they are fre- quently perceptible to the sense of smell. Astrally, it not only introduces impurity, but it also tends to deaden many of the vibrations, and it is for this reason that it is frequently found to "soothe the nerves," as it is called. But, of course, for occult progress we do not want the vibrations deadened nor the astral body weighed down with foul and poisonous particles. We need the capacity of answering instantly to all possi- ble vibrations, and yet at the same time we must have perfect control, so that these desires shall be as horses guided by the intelligent mind to draw us where we will, not to run away with us wildly, and carry us into situations where our higher nature knows that it ought never to be found. Therefore, for any person who is really anxious to develop his vehicles, tobacco is un- doubtedly a bad thing.
Also it has a singularly deteriorating influence upon the man on the physical plane. It is absolutely the only thing, so far as I know, that a gentleman will deliber- ately do when he knows it to be offensive to others. But the hold which this noxious habit gains upon its slaves appears to be so great that they are utterly in- capable of resisting it, and all their gentlemanly in-
322 THE INNER LIFE
stincts are forgotten in this mad and horrible selfish- ness. The effect on the astral body after death is also very bad ; the man is shut up for a long time as though in prison, and higher vibrations cannot reach him.
The chief objection which is always brought by the more self-indulgent Theosophist against remarks such as these is that our great founder Madame Blavatsky herself smoked. I know this to be true, but it does not in the least alter the facts which I have stated above, which I know just as surely from long-continued per- sonal observation. Madame Blavatsky was in every way so entirely sui generis, so emphatically a case apart, that I do not think it reasonable for us to pre- sume that we can safely do what she did. I have often heard her say: "No one but my Master understands my case ; do what I tell you, not what I do." Also she once told me that she smoked incessantly "to quiet the vibrations of this old body, and prevent it from shak- ing itself to pieces." The effects on the physical plane during life and on the astral after death are precisely as I have described them, and it does not seem worth while incurring them for the sake of a petty indul- gence.
I think that Mrs. Besant's remarks about alcohol in Man and His Bodies are fully justified. There is no doubt whatever that from the point of view of the as- tral and mental bodies its use is always an evil; and there is also no doubt at all that very undesirable enti- ties are attracted by it. Of course many people who are estimable in other respects have certain most unpleas- ant habits, such as the drinking of alcohol, the eating of meat or the smoking of tobacco ; but the fact that they are otherwise good people does not make these things good and sensible. It is, of course, untrue that any of these things are physical necessities, but a man may
TOBACCO AND ALCOHOL 323
accustom his system to the use of almost any kind of drug, until that system, being habituated to it, expects it and misses it if it does not get it. We know that exactly the same habit may be set up with opium and arsenic, but that does not make opium and arsenic good things to take. It is, however, generally quite useless to attempt to argue with any man as to his personal habits ; he is usually determined to cling to such habits because he likes them, and he cares very little whether they are good in themselves, or even good for him.
You ask my opinion about the regulation of the sale of liquor. In all civilized countries some control is exercised over the sale of poisons, and they are allowed to be supplied only upon a doctor's certificate. The poison of alcohol does many thousands of times more harm than all other poisons put together, so surely the regulations governing its sale ought to be no less strict.
It is perfectly true that every man will have to de- velop self-control for himself, but I really do not see how that affects our attitude with regard to the making of laws. You surely would not suggest that in order to teach people not to steal, we should continually at every street corner throw in their way special tempta- tions to induce them to steal, and then stand by without any interference to see whether they would develop sufficient strength of mind to resist our temptations.
Yet that is exactly what is now being done with re- gard to the consumption of alcohol. We allow, en- courage and specially license a number of men to make a tempting display in our streets with the avowed ob- ject of trying to induce as many people as possible to degrade themselves by the habitual use of this poison. If at last mankind is so far evolving as to de- velop some sort of conscience with regard to the weaker brethren, it would seem well for us to encourage their
324 THE INNER LIFE
advancement rather than to range ourselves against it. If we feel it right to care for and to help the insane, even to the extent of restraining them for their own good and for that of the public, it is surely well for us also to treat the victim of that terrible form of in- sanity known as drunkenness along exactly the same lines. But it must not be forgotten that the Theo- sophical Society takes no part whatever in any political movement, although of course its members as private individuals are perfectly free to take any side that they like in political questions.
INDEX
Accident, effect of, on astral plane, 286.
Achievement, without helping others, 70.
Adept, definition of, 19; not ambitious, 190; removing suffering, 237; use of term, 19; future, 203.
Adeptship and rebirth, 71; at- tainment of, 59.
Adi-Buddha, 109.
Advanced people, simple in habits, 177.
Advantages of travel, 164.
Advice, astral, 42.
Adyar, no resistance to thought forms in, 237.
Affection, double result of, 55.
Agni, invocation to, 133.
Agrae, mysteries of, 79.
Akoustikoi, or hearers, 86.
Alcohol, drinking, 179; effect of, on atomic web, 306; evil of, 322; regulation of, 323; use of, and obsession, 314.
Alcyone, seventeenth life of, 231.
Alone in space, 280.
Ambition, intensification of, 300.
Ambitious, adept cannot be, 190; man, condition of, 82.
Ananda, disciple of Buddha, 112.
Anger, obsession during fit of, 314.
Animals, attaining individual- ity, 70; carnivorous, 198; cruelty, 197; destruction to be avoided, 199; domestic, to be trained, 196; entering hu- man kingdom, 267; fear of, for man, 199; ill-treatment
of, 197; in Atlantean days, 198; individualizing, 197; in Lemuria, 198; not to develop ferocity in, 197; our duty to, 196; slaughter of, for food, 199; work of Atlanteans for, 199.
Annihilation, Nirvana not, 107.
Apollonius of Tyana, 13, 21.
Apophthegms of the mysteries, 77.
Apostles, the twelve, 119.
Apotheosis of humanity, 95.
Arhat, 59.
Arhatship, 60.
Ariadne, myth of, 79.
Aryans, 134.
Aryasangha, 163.
Asceticism, 176; meaning of word, 176; of black magician, 282.
Asekha, achievement of, 4; consciousness of the, 19.
Aspiration, 173.
Association, with Masters, 29, 32; with teachers, 32.
Astral advice, 42.
Astral Bodies, effect of inter- penetration of, 236; pass through each other, 235.
Astral Body, after death, 263; and evil qualities, 170; and good qualities, 170; appear- ance of, with clairvoyant vision, 258; colours in, 182; during life, 263; effect of irri- tation on, 184; effect of to- bacco on, 322; has no sense of touch, 234; has no sense organs, 254, 294; incapable of fatigue, 314; in concentric shells, 237; influence of thought upon, 255; need not eat, 257; result of shock to, 306; retains its form, 254;
325
326
INDEX
seen clairvoyantly, 182; sense organs in, 263; shelling of, 2:57; symbolized by fawn skin, 79; vibrations in, L82; what it ought to be. 182; working of senses in, 294.
Astral Centres, 292.
Astral Consciousness, 21
Astral Counterpart, 233, 234; of physical body, 254, 256.
Astral Disturbance, causing nervous troubles, L83.
Astral Effect of cry, 286.
Astral Inflammation, 184.
Astral Matter, attraction of physical, 2.">:>; corresponds to physical, 233; drawn round himself by descending ego, 253; luminosity of, 236; never solid, 235, 254.
Astral Objects, moving of, 256.
Astral Palsy, 183.
Astral Plane, 67; accident on, 236; currents on, 237; effect of action seen on, 265; ex- tends to Moon's orbit, 229; gravitation on, 231, 6; inter- penetration of matter on, 236; its extent, 228; liability to error on, 67; light from Sun on, 236; penetrability of, 235; reflection of the budd- hic, 225; service on, 237; sixth and seventh sub- planes of, 231; tests applied on, 67; the astral body of the earth, 228; the world of illu- sion, 67; twenty-five years on, 257.
Astral Pressure, 233.
Astral Revelations, 40, 41.
Astral Sight, development of, 214.
Astral Teachers, 39.
Astral Tramps, 313.
Astral Vibrations, communi- cated, 183.
Astral Work, effect of atmos- pheric and climatic condi- tions on, 237.
Astral World, never dark, 236.
Athanasian creed, 224.
Athlete, disciple analogous to, 62.
Atlanteans, knowledge of, 139.
Atlantis, animals in, L98.
Atomic sub-planes, impressions between,
Atomic web, 305; effect of cof- fee on, 306; effect of tea on, 306; injury to, 305, 300.
Atoms, permanent, 59; perma- nent astral, mental, 170; the four permanent, 226.
Attainment of perfection, 69.
Attitude toward children, our, 201.
Augoeides, of Masters, 222.
Aura, colours of, 133.
Auric egg, 225.
Austerity, of the mind, 181; unintelligent, 176.
Avalokiteshwara, 110.
Avitchi, 281.
B
Bacchus, toys of, 85; worship
of, 76. Balance, 212. Baptism, 270. Belief in ceremonial one of the
fetters, 123; real, depends on
knowledge, 51, 121. Besant, Mrs., Masters speaking
through, 33; on alcohol, 322;
quoted, 64, 195; saving her
present Teacher's life, 39. Betrayal of secrets, 72. Bhagavad Gita, quoted, 65, 94,
177, 180. Bhur, Bhuvar, Svar, ceremony
described, 131. Bible, Christian, 114, 118. Bigotry, in Christian Church
utilised, 153. Black magician, 127, 129, 280,
222. Blavatsky, Madame, 9, 18, 52;
and smoking, 322; quoted,
65; on auric egg, 225; on
force centres, 286; on pineal
gland 294; on Spiritualism,
135. Blind faith, 117.
INDEX
327
Bodhisattva, work of the 8, 109.
Bodies, fourth round, 64; inner, of the Buddha, 103.
Body, astral, colours in 259; not susceptible to fatigue, 258; permanent colours in, means persistent vibration, 259.
Body, casual, 260; shows man's stage, 260; thought or feel- ing that can produce an effect in, 260; used by adept, 260.
Body, pituitary, 293.
Body, physical, 319; care of, 319.
Bodhi tree, 133.
Book, oldest in the world, 138.
Bocks, not perfect, 157.
Brahmajala Sutta, 106.
Brahmans, 98.
Brain, cells, and corresponding astral and mental matter, 311; in sleep, 317.
Brotherhood, 147, 267; Hima- layan or Thibetan, 3; of the T. S., 14; the, 72; Great White, 3, 6, 14, 36, 54, 61, 84, 128, 153, 138, 214, 283.
Brothers not equal, 148.
Brutality, casual, 265.
Buddha, a, 8, 97.
Buddha and Ananda, 226.
Buddha, initiation of the, 8.
Buddha, the Lord Gautama, 8, 97; aura of, 103; affirms the ego, 106; advice of, about Absolute, 129; inner bodies of, 103; numerous arhats of, 102; of the fourth race, 102; personality of, 101; preach- ing of, 101; teachers contem- poraneous with, 114; teach- ing of, 98, 129, 190.
Buddhas, 221; before Gautama, 8; future, 203.
Buddhi, on nirvanic plane, 224.
Buddhic consciousness, 226, 227; emotions reflected in as- tral, 212.
Buddhic plane, 229; body being formed on, 149; functioning
on, 226; gaining experience of others on, 227; its extent, 239; reflected in astral, 226.
Buddhic vehicle, 60.
Buddhism, 97; a living influ- ence, 103; common sense of, 100; effect of, on Hinduism, 101; mnemonics of, 101; Northern and Southern, 104; not a new religion, 97; the best books on, 104.
Building up individuality, 49.
C
California, developing of clair- voyance in, 237.
Carelessness of ego, 280.
Carnivorous mammalia, 198.
Castes, 98, 133; why colours attributed to, 133.
Casual brutality, 265.
Cataclysms, 128.
Casual Body, 23, 55, 60; build- ing qualities into, 170; con- stitution of, 270; hardening of, 284; has three parts, 271; loss of, 284.
Centre of my circle, 191.
Centres, astral, 292; of force, 286; of force, effect of arous- ing, 292, 294.
Ceremonial, 123; reliance on, one of the fetters, 123.
Ceremonies, effective and in- effective, 130.
Certainty of ultimate good, 48.
Chain, one buddhic body for, 230.
Chakrams, the seven, 286.
Change, fear of, 63.
Changing World, The, 20.
Character, formation of, 57.
Charity, 159.
Children not easily obsessed, 309; old souls in new bodies, 201; of the fire-mist, 7; our attitude towards, 201.
Christ, advent of the, 20, 22, 103, 151; and St. John, 226; explaining parables to dis- ciples, 74; inner bodies of,
328
INDEX
103; on seonian condemna- tion, 270; teaching of, 269; the Lord Maitreya, 10; work of the, 19.
Christian Church and Gnostic writers, 74; divisions, 115; mysteries in, 74; philosophy of, 115.
Christian Creed, the, 88.
Christian, monks destroying manuscripts, 75; scriptures, contradictions in, 114.
Christianity, choice of a sect, 115; magic in, 123; The- osophy explains, 117; The- osophy not opposed to, 114; variants of, 115.
Christs, 221.
Church, Fathers, 75; Roman Catholic, 122.
Circle, centre of mv, 191.
City of the Golden Gate, 139.
Clairvoyant magnification, 296.
Coffee, effect of, on atomic web, 306.
Colours, in the astral body, 259.
Colour prejudice, 164.
Common Sense, 147; of Budd- hism, 100.
Confucius, 114.
Consciousness, astral and men- tal, 285; buddhic, includes that of others, 226, 227; de- velopment of, 48, 245; focus of, 285; each a centre of, 221; identification with animals, 210; identifying the, with plant and animal life, 210; layers of, in somnambulism, 319; of ego, centre of, passes to higher planes, 223; one only, 241 ; raising the, to ego, 59; rending veil between stages of, 245; three possi- bilities of moving, 96.
Consecration of the host, 123.
Consummation, final, 223.
Continuity of purpose in future lives, 59.
Control, of body, 176; of mind, 211; of passions, 265; of thought, 214.
Co-operation, 203.
Corpse eating, 320.
Cosmic influences, 140.
Counterpart, astral, 233; men- tal plane, connection with, 96.
Counterparts, 253.
Co-workers with the Masters, 15.
Creed, Athanasian, 224.
Creeds, rational interpretation of, 115.
Critical points in evolution, 54.
Criticism, 159; of self, 160; real meaning of, 161; the higher, 117; when useless, 161.
Cromwell, Oliver, 160.
Crookes, lemniscates of, 232.
Cross, the Greek, 137; the Latin, 138; the Maltese, 137; symbolism of the, 138, 289.
Crucibles, disciples are, 64.
Cruelty, effect of, 265; to ani- mals, 197.
Crustaceans, mental, 62.
Cry, astral, effect of, 286.
Curiosity, a disease, 167.
Currents, astral, 237
D
Damnation, seonian, 270.
Danger, of experiment, 301; of indiscriminate psychic devel- opment, 44.
Day of life, a, 204.
Dead, the, in heaven life, 230; on astral, 231.
Death, a temporary absence, 202; fear of, 201; loss of matter after, 263; not a loss, 202.
Decad, perfect man, a, 69.
Deities, images of Indian, 130.
Deity, all prayers reach, 126.
Demons, cowardly, 314.
Depression, 181; cause of, 250; effect of, on meditation, 45; to be disregarded, 173.
Descent into matter, the, 47.
Desertion, result of, 154.
INDEX
329
Desire, killing: out, 189, 206; on astral plane, 257; purifica- tion of, 189.
Desire, elemental, 260; action of, on astral body after death, 259; action of, on higher bodies, 264; afraid of dissolution, 263; exact copy of astral body of last life, 263; not yourself, 263.
Desires, transmutation of, 189.
Destruction, not evil, 128.
Deterioration of character due to hardening of atomic web, 307.
Devas, 143; illumination from, 213.
Development, certain for all, 54; doctrine of, 122; of astral sight, 214; of consciousness, 47, 244; of faculty, 53; of will, 211; psychic, 44; sitting for, 306; unequal, 260.
Devil, the, 126; pacts with, 127; personations of, 127.
Devotion, double result of, 5.
Diamond, jubilee, the, 152.
Difficulties, of discipleship, 64, 10.
Dimension, the fourth, 141.
Dimensions, many, 230.
Disciple, full of joy, 63.
Disciples, crucibles of nature, 64; persecution of, 65.
Discipleship, difficulties of, 64, 65; three stages of, 35.
Discomfort, no merit in, 179. 180; when may have use, 179.
Discrimination, 160.
Diseases, nervous, 184.
Dislike, trifling causes of, 165.
Distrust, born of ignorance, 164.
Doctrine, of development, 122.
Door, shutting of the, into hu- manity, 268.
Dreaming and astral work, 317.
Dreams, control of, 317.
Drones, useless, 269.
Drunkard, condition of, 81.
Drunkenness, effects of, 307; is
insanity, 324. Dryness, spiritual, 207. Duties, not rights, 160. Duty, of happiness, 181; of
silence, 168; to animals, 196. Dzyan, Eook of, 138. Dzyan, Stanzas of, 120.
E
Earth, centre of, and the sun, 232; conditions in interior of, 231; evolution in interior of 231; forces through concen- tric layers of, 232 ; no central shaft through, 232.
Eat, what we should, 320.
Effort, never lost, 206.
Egg, the auris, 225.
Ego, action of Master on, 247; activities of, on own plane, 246; advanced, inconsider- ate of his body, 249; affirmed by the Buddha, 105; and his vehicles, 240; and monad, 222; and personality, 213, 241; and personality, channel between, 250; appeal to, by repentance, 274; attention of, drawn in meditation, 248; building theosophical ideas into, 205; calling attention of the, 252; carelessness of, 280; consciousness of, as a conscious entity, 242; consti- tution of, 224; control of, over fraction in personality, 272; co-operation of, with personality, 250; descending into lower matter, 272; does not absolutely exist, 106; effect on, by meditation and study, 247; entanglement in lower matter, 273 et se.; gaining experience from per- sonality, 278; glimpse gained by, of past and future incar- nations, 243, 251; grasp by, of personality, 247; growth of, under influence of Mas- ter, 246; his control, 272;
330
INDEX
hope of, 260; how to bring down, 251; in brutality sel- fish men, 274; in cases of in- sanity, 309; inconsiderate of body, 249; in early stages, 23; in materialistic men, 274; in meditation, 213; in sleep, 314; in somnambulism, 318; knowledge of Master by, 252; loss by, of causal body, 284; loss of personality by, 279; Masters' influence upon, 23; no lower qualities in, 170; not to be judged by personal- ity, 249; on his own plane, 242, 245, 250; only partially expressed in physical, 242; ousted in obsession, 309; out of current of evolution, 280; putting forth in personality described, 272; raising the consciousness to the, 59; reaching up of, 248; shut out from personality, 271; spe- cial interest of, in personal- ity, 248; stages of response to consciousness by, 244; the baby, 55; the spiritual triad 224; the yoga of an, 213 throws himself back, 281 wants essence of experience, 252; watchfulness of, during physical life, 251; when gains memory of past lives, 244; will come down to help, 252; withdrawal of, from astral after death, 264; with- drawal of, into higher planes, 224; work during heaven- life, 252; work of, on own plane, 250.
Egos, proportion of successful, 69.
Eight-fold, Path, the noble, 101.
Eighth sphere, 281.
Electricity, a force of the Lo- gos, 298.
Elemental, physical, in chil- dren, 309; the desire, 260.
Elemental Essence, see Desire,
Elemental; does not know man, 261; instinct of, 261.
Elementals, drawn round body in sleep, 317.
Elements, new, manufacture of, 231.
Emanation, by the Logos, rea- son for, 47; from the divine, 46.
Emotion, effect of, 183.
Enlarging, the self, 56.
Entities, astral, accepting teaching from, 42; astral, ready to give teaching, 41; pacts with, 127.
Epoptai, 83.
Esoteric section, 89.
Eternal justice, 100.
Etheric pressure, 232.
Evil, balanced with good, 275; destruction not, 128; effect of, on higher matter, 275; in- evitably transient, 48, 50; matter not, 128; meaning of, 128; motives, attribution of, 162; no hierarchy of, 127; persistence in, 211; readiness to believe, 161; makes vibra- tions in coarse matter, 275.
Evolution, delay in, 269; from the Divine, 47; of the world, 154; slow, 275; three critical points in, 55; what it is, 49.
Evolutionary period, middle of, 70.
Evolutions, in earth's interior, 231.
Evolved and unevolved man, difference in appearance be- tween, on astral plane, 258.
Experience, 227; not necessary for ego to go through every, 227; of personality, given to ego, 278; of another gained on buddhic level, 227.
Experiment, dangers of, 301.
Extremes, irrational, 99.
Faculty, development of, 53. Failure, impossibility of, 59o
INDEX
331
Failures, of the fifth round, 267, 268; of the moonchain, 69.
Falling in love, 191.
Faith, blind, 117.
Fates, possible of soul, 284.
Fathers, Church, 75.
Fatigue, astral and mental, 257; no astral, 315.
Fawn, skin of a, dress in mys- teries, 79.
Fear, of change, 63; of death, 201; permits obsession, 313.
Feelings, do not matter, 207; personal, 187.
Fetters, the ten great, 60.
Fiery power, 298.
Fifth race quality, 160.
Fifth round, failures of, 267, 268.
Fire, 142; the sacred, 143.
Fire-mist, children of the, 7.
Flame, Lords of the, 7, 24.
Fleece, the Golden, symbol of mind body, 83.
Foci in the Logos, 141.
Focus of consciousness, 285.
Force, effect of good, 170.
Force Centres, correspondence of, to astral centres, 292; cor- respondence of, to colour and music, 287; effect of force in, 287 et seq.; not moral qual- ities, 291; position of, 287; resemblance to flowers of, 289.
Forces of the Logos, 287, 298.
Forebodings of evil, 185.
Formation of character, 57.
Founding of the sixth root race, 149.
Four, Gospels, the, 119; noble Truths, 100.
Fourth dimension, 141.
Free will, use by man of, 267.
Freedom of will, 48.
Friendship, special, 112. Fussing over trifles, 186.
Future lives, continuity of pur- pose in, 59.
G
Gautama, the Lord, 8, 9, 97; affirms the ego, 105; inner bodies of, 103; numerous arhats of, 102; the aura of, 102; the preaching of, 102; the teaching of, 100, 129.
Geometry, 85.
Gnosis, the, 117.
Gnostic doctors or teachers, 117; quoted, 46.
God, 93, 94; immanence of, 93; personal, 93; three persons in one, 224.
Gods in Hinduism, 129.
Golden, fleece, the, 83; Gate, city of the, 139.
Good, all things working for, 48; always used, 20; more fertile than evil, 170.
Gospel, quoted, 270.
Gospels, the four, 119.
Gossip, evil effect of, 167, 185.
Government, duty of the, 189.
Gravitation on the astral plane, 231, 232.
Great Angels, 221.
Great Bird, symbolism of, 139.
Great Ones, 221; all round de- velopment of, 15; as chan- nels of light and life, 221; in nirvana, 221.
Great Soul, merging into, 219.
Great White Brotherhood, 3, 6, 15, 35, 54, 61, 89, 128, 153, 283.
Greater Mysteries, 76.
Greece, mysteries of, 75, 76.
Greek, cross, 80, 137.
Group meetings, 215; souls, Masters' influence upon, 23.
II
Hall, of ignorance, 66; of learning, 68; of wisdom, 68.
Happiness, a duty, 181; men- tal, 181; perpetual, 173, 174.
Hathayogapradipika, 301.
Hatha yogi, 181.
Hearers, 86.
332
INDEX
Heart, symbolism of, 139.
Heaven-life, position in, 230; renouncing, 60.
Hell, ideas of, superstitions, 202.
Help, to living and dead, 214; to the sick, 214.
Helpers, invisible, 25, 236; mistaken for saints, 120.
Helpfulness, the keynote of, 158.
Helping the world, 71, 158.
Hermes, 8; Lord Buddha as, 97.
Hermit, life of the, 31.
Hierarchy, Head of the, 7, 35, 138; of evil, no, 127; plans of, 69; in the, 7; the Great, 195; the occult, 6, 14, 97.
Higher, criticism, the, 117; life for the man of the world, 99; planes, 95, 218; self, activity of, 173, 241; self, and lower, 241.
Hinayana and Mahayana, 108.
Hinduism, 129; effect of Budd- hism on, 101; Lord Buddha as reformer of, 98; rigidity of, 98; rites and ceremonies of, 130.
Holy places, 22.
Host, consecration of the, 123.
Householder, every, a priest, 130.
Humanity, the Logos as apo- theosis of, 95; the great or- phan, 204.
Humour, necessity of, 18.
Hunger, physical craving of, on astral plane, 257.
Hymn, Christian, quoted, 71.
Iamblichus, 75. Idyll of the White Lotus, 14. Ignorance breeds distrust, 164. Illumination, from higher self,
212; three kinds of, 212. Illusion of astral world, 67. "Image, The Living," 29. Images, magnetized, 130. Immanence of God, 93.
Immortality, physical, not a
possibility, 319. Impermanence of personality,
107. Impossibility of failure, 59. Impure thought, effect of, 317. Incarnation a failure, in one
type of insanity, 312. Incarnations, seven hundred
and seventy-seven, 57. Incubus of war, 151. Individualization of animals,
70. Individuality, 55; a delusion,
220; and the monad, 49;
building of, 49; no loss of, in
nirvana, 219; of monad, 222. Inflammation, astral, 184. Influences, cosmic, 140; plane- tary, 209. Initiates, 19; inequality, 73;
recognition by each other,
72. Initiation, 35; secrets of, im- possible to reveal, 72; the
first, 54. Initiations, key to the true, 89;
steps on the Path, 34. Insane, the, out of the body,
311. Insanity, break between ego
and his vehicles in, 309;
forms of, 311; one cause of,
306. Inspiration, moments of, 174. Interior of the earth, 231. Introspection, during astral
life, 318; morbid, 169, 172. Intrusion upon Masters, 124. Invisible helpers, 25, 236; mis- taken for saints, 126. Invisible Helpers, 88, 236. Invocation to Agni, 132. Irritability, cure of, 58. Italy, old religions in, 101.
Jason, golden fleece of, 83.
Jesus, 10, 119; not illegitimate, 119; later Apollonius of Ty- ana, 13; later Ramanuja- charya, 13.
INDEX
333
Joy of discipleship, 63. Jubilee, the Diamond, 152. Jungle, purposes of retirement
to, 31. Justice, eternal, 99.
K
Kama, to be killed out, 189.
Karma, balancing, 61, 71; effects of, seen on astral, 265; of sending evil thoughts, 167; preparing, for future life, 205; the law of, 202.
Karmic, deities, 221; links with Masters, 38.
K. H., the Master, previous in- carnations of, 13, 37; quoted, 36.
Killing out desire, 189.
King, The, 7.
Know thyself, 169.
Knowledge of the Atlanteans, 139; underlies belief, 122.
Kundalini, 84, 298.
Laboratory of Third Logos, 232.
Ladder of life, endless, 53.
Lao-Tse. 118.
Latin cross, the, 138.
Lemuria, animals in, 198.
Lemurians, 134.
Lesser mysteries, 76.
Liberation, 72; roads to, 109; selfish, 61.
Life, A Day of, 204; a wasted, 275; destruction of, 199; lad- der of 53 ; thirst for, 272.
Light of Asia, The, 104.
Light on The Path, 14, 206, 253.
Link with Master, 45.
"Living Image, The," 29.
Lodge, Great White, 43.
Logoi, Planetary, centres in Logos, 140.
Logos, The, 93, 129, 137, 138, 140,171; as Avalokiteshwara, 109; aspects of, 94, 138; emanation of the, 46; forces
of the, 287; form of, 95; His reason for creating, 46; laboratory of Third, 231; of our solar system, 94; our union with, 96; plan of, 47; reached along line of fire, 140; response of the, 6; sac- rifice of the, 64; scheme of the, 53; sending forth mo- nads, 49; Third, and new ele- ments, 231; three aspects of, 223, 224; three outpourings of, 96; tormenting the, 177; will of the, 266.
Loneliness, illusory, 210.
Lords of the Flame, help given by, 7, 24.
Loss, by the ego, 277; serious, difficulty of, 274.
Lost, personalties, 279, 283; personalities, three classes of, I. 267, II. 271, III. 279, souls, 265; soul, term a mis- nomer, 266.
Lotus, symbolism of, 140, 141; throne, 94.
Love, casting out self by, 191; falling in, 192; selfish and unselfish, 66; the higher, 226.
Lower, force centres, 300; self, 174, 241.
Lunar form, slaying the, 190.
M
Madura, 130.
Magic, in Christian Church, 123.
Magicians, black, 127, 280, 282.
Magnification, power of, 296.
Mahayana and Hinayana, 108.
Maitreya, The Lord, 9, 19, 39, 151.
Maltese cross, 137.
Mammalia, carnivorous, 198.
Man, a divine emanation, 46; an image of God, 224; devel- oped unequally, 260; evolved and unevolved, 258; helping an evil, 226; in the world, higher life for, 99; triple spirit in, 223.
334
INDEX
Man and His Bodies, 322.
Man, Visible and Invisible, 182, 254.
Manas, drawn up into buddhi, 224; on nirvanic plane, 225.
Manifestation, reason for, 46.
Manifestations of deity, 129.
Manu, the, 10 ; of a root race, 7 ; of the sixth root race, 59; regulations of the, 130.
Manus, future, 203.
Mara, personification of past karma, 128.
Master, a, quoted, 204; action by, on ego, 248; assuming the form of a, by black ma- gician, 42; attracting the attention of a, 35, 37, 39; aware of pupil's thoughts, 30, 32; channel of the Logos, 29; confidence in the, 210; effect produced by the, on pupil's vehicles, 30; enfold- ing pupil in high aura, 220; enthroning the, 193; force at the command of, 26; influ- ence of, on ego, 246; influ- ence of, on personality, 248; karmic debt paid by a, 39; meditation on the, 45; method used by a, in speak- ing through a pupil, 32; rec- ognizing a, 16; relation of, to accepted pupil, 26; "son" of the, 34; use by a, of pupil's body, 33; use of force by a, 25.
Masters, The, 3, 11, 18, 25; ac- tivities of some, 14; age of, 17; and foreign languages, 16; appearance of the, 16; association with, 27, 29; bod- ies. They wear, 6; character- istics of, 11; coming into touch with, in illumination, 212; defined, 3; effect of the presence of, 12; failures of moon chain, 69; full of joy, 177; ill-wishers of the, 39; imitating the, 166; imperfect instruments of, 25 ; interrupt- ing the, 25; in evolutionary
ladder, 53; intrusion upon, 124; karmic ties of the, with individuals, 38, 39; knowl- edge possessed by the, 16; link with, 45; living in ac- cordance with hygienic laws, 320; living men, 12; nation- ality of, 6; on many Rays, 43; none overlooked by, 37, 304; number of, 18; outlook of, on the world, 37; personal requests to, 24; personation of, 32; plans of the, 21; phys- ical bodies of the, 19; pour- ing out of force by, 23; re- pudiating the, 155; silence of, 19; the two, 4, 10; Their won- derful knowledge, 16; why They will not train you, 27, 30; work of the, 14, 21; work of the, with egos, 23.
Materialists often religious people, 50.
Mathematics, in the mysteries, 85.
Mathematikoi, 87.
Matter, density of, in earth's centre, 231; descent into, 47; not evil, 127, 176; physical, attracting astral, 233.
Matthaeus the monk, 119.
Meat, liked by low entities, 314; eating, 180,320.
Meditation, 206, 248; attitude of ego towards personality in, 213; drawing attention of ego in, 248; in group, 214; objects of, 208; on the Mas- ter, 45; on the Supreme, 209; opens channel between ego and personality, 250; preju- dices during, 213; reasons for dulness in, 208; regular- ity in, 45; special room for, 215; spiritual dryness in, 207; stages in, 211.
Memory of past lives, 105.
Men, living in their minds, 271; living in their passions, 271; not feeling alike toward all, 226; of two classes, 204.
INDEX
335
Mental, body, warts on, 163; consciousness, 285; crusta- ceans, 62; fatigue non-exist- ent, 139; plane, extent of, 229; plane, forces of, 243.
Messiah, advent of, 151.
Middle way, the, 99.
Mind, austerity of the, 181; control of, 211; slayer of the real, 163, 165, 211; your own business, 159, 166, 167.
Minister of religions, work of, 7.
Minotaur, myth of, 79.
Monad, and ego, 222; and indi- viduality, 49; as triple spirit, 223; centre in Logos, 168; descent of, into planes, 223; from the Logos, 49; home of, 223; individuality of, 223; life of, 223; voice of, 223.
Moods, caused by illusion, 177; several causes for, 173.
Moon-chain, failures of, 69.
Morbid introspection, 168, 169.
Morphine habit, 179.
Museum, the occult, of the Brotherhood, 138.
Music, relation of, to platonic solids, 87.
Mystae, 79.
Mysteries, accusations against the, 75; all nations have had, 74; an inner school in, 83; books on, 75; clairvoyantly examined, 76; in Christian Church, 74; lesser and greater, 77; life of disciples in, 88; mathematics in, 87; of ancient Greece, 73; of Eleusis, 76; symbols used in, 86 et seq.; teaching of the, 79, 80; the ancient, 75; the real secret, 78; the third de- gree of the, 77.
Myth, of Ariadne, 79; of Nar- cissus, 78; of Proserpina, 78; of Sisyphus, 82; of Tantalus, 81; of the Minotaur, 79; of Theseus, 79; of Tityus, 82.
N
Nagarjuna, 13.
Narcissus, myth of, 79.
Narcotics, evil of, 308.
Nations, union of, 150.
Nature, opposition to, 279.
Nature-Spirits, 200; sometimes obsess, 310.
Nervous diseases, 183.
New truth, how the world treats, 66.
Nidanas, the twelve, 100.
Nirmanakayas, 4, 5.
Nirvana, 219; definitions of, 107; description of, 221; not annihilation, 107; recogni- tion in, 222.
Nirvanic plane, extent of, 230.
Noble eight-fold path, 101.
Non-interference, 167.
Northern Buddhism, 104, 108.
O
Objects of meditation, 208.
Obsession, 127, 307; and som- nambulism, 314; by astral beings, 305; during fit of an- ger, 314; during sleep, 314; during somnambulism, 318; forms of, 310; how to resist, 310, 312; ousting of the ego in, 309; permitted by fear, 313.
Occult Chemistry, 86.
Occult Hierarchy, 6, 14, 97; de- partments of, 7, Head of, 7.
Occult, musemum, the, 138.
Occultism, how it changes life, 158.
Occultist, has no personal feel- ings, 187.
Offence, taking, 186.
Olcott, Colonel, and his Mas- ter, 39.
Om, sacred word of Aryan race, 139.
One-Pointedness, 157.
Opportunities, 15, 89; for good never refused, 166; lost, 154; neglecting minor, 156.
336
INDEX
Opportunity, result of failure
to use, 277. Optimism, 173. Orphan, the great, 204. Orpheus, 8; Lord Buddha as,
97. Other Side of Death, The, 214. Ourselves, as channels of light
and life, 221. Outpourings, the three, 96.
Palsy, astral, 183.
Pantheism, 94.
Paritta or Pirit, 111.
Passions, control of, 265.
Past lives, memory of, 105.
Path, becoming the, 68; diffi- culties of the, 65; of holiness, 4, 43; of holiness, incarna- tions during, 61, 62; of prog- ress, 46; of woe, 62, 65; stages of the, 19; the, and the law, 68.
Path of Discipleship, The, 88.
Patriotism, 66.
Peace, universal, 151.
Perfect man a decad, 69.
Perfection, attainment of, 69; of self, how to begin, 57; relativity of, 69.
Perfections, six great, 101.
Persecution of disciples, 65.
Personal, feelings, occultist has no, 187, 188; God, 93; matters unimportant, 185.
Personality, and ego, 213, 241; and individuality, 105; break- ing away from ego, 279; ex- periences of, and ego, 245; impermanence of, 106; influ- ence upon, by Master, 246; in new incarnation, 278; lost, 283; part of ego, 279; ram- pant, 155; sinking the, 28; the amputated, 281; why characteristic of, intensified, 248.
Personalties, getting rid of our, 155.
Personation, in spiritualism, 135; of the Masters, 42.
Pharaoh, head-dress of, 297.
Physical, body, astral counter- part of, 254, 255; care of, 319; immortality, 319.
Physikoi, 88.
Pilgrims, 24.
Pilgrimages, occult reasons for, 132.
Pineal gland, 294.
Pituary body, 293; body, link with astral, 303.
Plan of the Logos, 48.
Plane, astral, 226; buddhic, 227.
Planes, not shelves, 227; the higher, 218.
Planetary, influences on medi- tation, 209; Logoi, 140; spir- its, 209.
Planets, movements of, 140; not isolated, 141.
Platonic solids, in the mys- teries, 85, 86.
Poltergeist phenomena, 265.
"Poor Men," the, 116.
Pope, the, 121.
Power of magnification, 296.
Prana or vitality, 298.
Prayer, 124; always reaches Deity, 126; how it operates, 126; to saints, 125.
Preceptors, self-appointed, 42.
Prejudice, 136, 152, 163, 213; racial, 163; colour, 163; reli- gious, 163, 165; what it is, 164.
Prejudices, getting rid of, 163; of personality, 247.
Pressure, etheric, 231.
Probation, average time of, 28.
Progress, certain, 203; effect of rapid on organism, 68; path of, 46; the law of, 54.
Proselytism, futility of, 10.
Psychic, development, dangers of indiscriminate, 44; pow- ers, according to Buddhism, 112; powers, to come as re- sult of character develop- ment, 308.
INDEX
337
Pupil, and accepted, 29, 32; as channel, 28; conditions for acceptance of, 26, 27; first task of, 28; how to qualify to become a, 37; influence of Master upon, 32, 45; joy of the, 63; life of the, full of joy, 53; Master speaking through, 33; not a medium, 33; probationary period of, 29; psychic development of, 44; relation of, to Great Brotherhood, 35; what it means to be a, 26, 27; when acceptable, 26, 29; work of the, at night, 43; work to be performed by, 25.
Purification, of astral and physical, 308; of desire, 189.
Purpose, continuity of, in fu- ture lives, 58.
Pythagoras, 114; school of, 86, 87; the Master K. H., 13.
Q
Queen Victoria, 152.
R
Ramanujacharya, 13.
Readiness to believe evil, 162.
Reality, the only, 222.
Realization, of self, 57; of truth, 52.
Rebirth and adeptship, 69.
Records of the past, 53.
Regularity in meditation, 45.
Reincarnation, and spiritual- ists, 135; taught in the mys- teries, 78.
Relation, between colour and sound, 87; between harmonic chord and platonic solid, 87.
Relics, 132.
Religion, Greek, 80.
Religions, critics are friends of, 117; minister of, 7.
Renunciation, 172; of heaven- world, 59; path of, 61.
Repentance, a mistake, 175; ef- fect of, on ego, 274.
Reservoir, the, 4, 5. Retrogression, 276. Revelations, astral, 40. Root race, Buddha of, 152; the
sixth, beginning of, 10; the
sixth, spiritual leader of, 10;
the sixth, temporal leader of,
10. Rosicrucians, 88. Round, the seventh, 69, 70. Ruysbroek, quoted, 65.
Sacrifice of the Logos, 64.
Sacrifices, 127.
"Safe" or "saved," 54, 270.
Saints, invisible helpers mis- taken for, 126.
Salvation, 98.
Samannaphalasutta, 105.
Sarthon, 12.
Satyrs, 299.
Saving our souls, 203.
Schoolmaster, wickedness of average, 265.
Secret Doctrine, The, 20, 66, 84, 138, 269, 274.
Secrets, betrayal of, 72; of in- itiation, 72.
Seeing, and hearing, astral, 254; truly, how to begin, 163.
Self, dethronement of, 192; en- larging the, 56; escape from, 191; higher and lower, 174, 241; in everything, 209; never any pain to the, 62; realization of, 57.
Self-centredness, 191, 195, 276; in theosophical work, 194.
Self-control, 188.
Self-examination, 168, 171.
Self-gratulation, 194.
Self-knowledge, necessity of, 168.
Self-perfection, how to begin, 57.
Selfishness, a scaffolding, 55; an anachronism, 55; in love, 66; in work, 193; necessary at one stage, 55; shells of, 238; utilised, 153.
338
INDEX
Separateness, sense of, 220; striving for, 279.
Serpent-Fire, 84, 292, 295, 298; action of, in etheric centres, 295; action of, varies with types of people, 303; advice about arousing, 304; author's experience with, 303; con- quest of, repeated in each in- carnation, 303; dangers of awakening, 300, 301; experi- menting with, 301; its con- nection with occult develop- ment, 302; no limit of age for, 304; on all planes, 298; rousing of, 295; seven layers of, 298; unpleasant possibili- ties of premature unfoldment of, 300; works spontaneously, 302, 303.
Severed limb, astral counter- part of, 255.
Shade, after death, 261, 278.
Shamballa, 138.
Shankaracharya, inner bodies of, 103; not the Buddha, 8, 103.
Shells of selfishness, 238.
Shiva, the destroyer, 128.
Shutting the door, 268.
Silence, duty of, 167.
Sin, 120.
Single-mindedness, 157.
Sinners, miserable, 175.
Sisyphus, myth of, 82.
Sixth root race, founding, 152.
Slander, 285.
Sleep, best time for, 316; cause of, 315; ego in, 314; ele- mentals attracted during, 317; obsession during, 314; recollection during, 305; re- cuperative power during, 316; surroundings in, 234.
Sleeping and waking, state be- tween, 242.
Small worries, 181.
Sliding back, not possible, 170, 171.
Society, Theosophical, 4, 22; not political, 324; purpose of, 11.
Solar, Logos, system physical body of, 93; system, viewed from fourth dimension, 141.
Somnambulism, causes of, 318; sometimes caused by obses- sion, 314.
Son of the Master, 34.
Sotapatti or Srotapanna, 54.
Soul of a People, The, 104.
Soul, Great, merging into, 219; selling the, 127.
Souls, difference between, 266; dropping out in fifth round, 267; losing, 266; lost, 263; possible fates of, 284; saving our, 203; three classes of lost, I. 267, II. 271, III. 279.
Southern Buddhism, 104, 110; ceremonies of, 110; psychic powers in, 111; teaching of, 105.
Space, alone in, 280.
Specialization, danger of, 204.
Spheres, the, 227.
Spirillae, seven, 61.
Spirit, seven-fold, 225; sheath for the, in nirvana, 222; sheath of, at planetary lev- els, 222; triple, 224, 225.
Spirits, Planetary, individual- ity of, 220
Spiritual, dryness, 207.
Spiritualism, agreement with theosophy, 134; personations in, 135; the higher, 136.
Spiritualists and reincarnation, 135.
Spleen, 287.
Srotapanna, 54.
Stages, three, of relation of Master to pupil, 35.
Stanzas of Dzyan, The, 120.
Stream, entering, upon the, 59.
Sub-race, Teutonic, 150.
Successes, proportion of, 69.
Suffering, relieving, a cruelty to sufferer, 227.
Summer-land, extent of, 231.
Sun, as heart of Solar Logos, 93; every fixed star a, 97.
Supererogation, 6.
Superstition, about hell, 202.
INDEX
339
Supreme, no change in, 209. Surroundings, always helpful,
171; in sleep, 234. Suspicion, beginnings of, 162;
distorting effect of, 162. Svastika, 138 Symbol, of the cross, 137, 289;
of the great bird, 139; of the
heart, 139; of the lotus, 140. Symbology, 137. Symbols, in book of Dzyan,
137; in the mysteries, 84 et
seq. Sympathy, 199; with nature,
lost in modern science, 199.
T
Tantalus, myth of, 81.
Tau, sacred word of the Atlan- tean race, 139.
Tea, effect of, on atomic web, 306.
Teachers, association with, 31; astral, 40.
Teaching, how to verify, 52, 53; Lord Buddha's, 98, 100, 129, 190; of children, 200; priv- ilege of, 156; the higher, un- reality of, 50.
Test of earth, 236.
Teutons, unification of, 150, 151.
Thalaba, quoted, 153.
Theosophic truth, duty of spreading, 157.
Theosophical conferences, ef- fects of, 164.
Theosophical Society, 4, 22; as gateway to the Masters, 87; one object in founding, 11; not political, 324.
Theosophy, agreement with spiritualism, 134; and true primitive Christianity, 114; checking truths of, by direct observation, 53; explains Christianity, 118; giving cer- tainty of value of higher things, 50; how verified by earlier students, 51; what it does for us, 50.
Theseus, myth of, 79.
Third Logos, laboratory of, 232.
Thirst for life, 272.
Thought, control, 214; evil, im- possible to ego, 252; shells of, 62; last, before falling asleep, 317.
Thought-form, as a barrier, 165; entered into by low be- ings, 265; resistance to, 238.
Three outpourings of Logos, 96.
Thyrsus, the, 84.
Tityus, myth of, 82.
Tobacco, effect of, on astral after death, 321; effect of, on atomic web, 306; evil effect of, 321; smoking, 179.
Tolerance of race peculiarities, 152.
Toltecs, 134.
Torture foolish, 177.
Toys of Bacchus, 85.
Tramps, astral, 313.
Travel, advantages of, 164.
Trinity, 93.
Triple spirit, 222.
Trishna, 272.
Truth, how the world treats new, 66; realization of, 52.
Truths, four noble, 100.
Twelve apostles, the, 119.
U
Ultimate good certain, 48. Unconsciousness, after death,
305. Union of nations, 150. Unity, trinity in, 224. Universal peace, 151. Unselfish, how to make oneself,
56.
V
Vampirism, 320; by lost per- sonality, 281. Vegetables, coarse, 320. Vegetarianism, 320. Vehicles of the ego, 240. Venus, Lords from, 7, 203.
340
INDEX
Verification of teaching, 52, 53. Vibrations, evil, in coarser
matter, 275; of one on the
Path, 31. Victoria, death of Queen, 152. Vitality, exists on all planes,
225; force of the Logos, 298. Voice of the silence, 223. Voice of the Silence, The, 42,
66, 101, 163, 211, 292, 298,
302. Vyasa, Lord Buddha as, 97.
W
Waking and sleeping, state be- tween, 242.
War, incubus of, 151.
Way, the middle, 99.
Ways, the seven, 4.
Web, atomic, 305.
Wickedness of gossip, 167.
Will, developing, 180, 211; how to train, 180; power, easy and difficult exercise of, 211.
Woe, candidate for, 4; path of,
61, 65. Words do not injure, 186. Work, how to do, 193; of the
Master, 155; selfishness in,
193; right to do a, 203. Worker, dangers in way of
theosophical, 193, 194. World, helping of the, 71, 157. World's Mother, 292, 298. Worries, small, 181. Worry, 215; absence of, 172;
conquering, 185; learning
not to, 172; thought form of,
215.
Y
Yoga, the, of an ego, 213. Young souls, 269.
Zoroaster, 142; Lord Buddha as, 97; the first, 8.
THE INNER LIFE
VOLUME II
THEOSOPHICAL TALKS AT ADTAR
(second series)
THE INNER LIFE
BY