Section 5

^ The Authorised Version adds " through his blood," but this is not in the original.
^ Archai, " Beginnings," a Hierarchy of ^Eons, the same term used in the opening words of the Gospel according to John, ' In the Beginning was the Word."
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unite (lit., stand together). And He is the Head of the Body of the Assembly/ Who is the Beginning,^ the First-born from the Dead,^ that He might be in all things Himself supreme. For it seemed good that all the Fullness^ should dwell in Him."
The spirit and terminology of the whole passage is entirely Gnostic, and can only be understood by a student of Gnosticism. The identity of every Soul with the Over-Soul has been, is, and will be a fundamental doctrine of the Gnosis. The glorified initiate, the Christ, is the man, who, perfected by the sufferings and consequent experience of many births, finally becomes at one with the Father, the World-Soul, from which he came forth, and at last arises from the Dead ; he, indeed, is the first-born, the perfected, self-conscious Mind, or Man, containing in himself the whole divine creation or Pleroma, for he is one with the hierarchies of spiritual Beings who gave him
1 Ecclesia, one of the iEons.
^ Arche, the Primaeval JEon.
^ The uninitiated.
* Pleroma, the totality of the /Eons, the synthesis of their Hierarchies. Cf. Epiphanius, Adv. Har., I. iii. 4, who shows the Valentinians quoting this text.
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birth, and instead of being the Microcosm, as when among the Dead, has become the Macrocosm or the World-Soul itself. Through the power of this spiritual union do we win our Redemption from the bonds of matter and thus attain the Remission of Sins, which, according to the wise among the Gnostics, was in the hand of the last and supreme Mystery alone, our own Higher Self, that which is at the same time our Judge and Saviour, sending forth the Sons of its Love, all Rays of the great Ocean of Compassion, into the Darkness of Matter, that Matter may become self-conscious and so perfected. In plainer words, these Rays are each the Higher Ego in every child of the Man (Anthropos), proceeding from their Divine Source (Buddhi) — itself that Ocean of Love and Compassion which is the Veil of the Innomin- able and Incognizable Self (Atman).
It must not, however, be supposed that such ideas were foreign to the greater minds of Greece and Rome. As has already been said, all that can be attempted in this essay is to select a few passages here and there. Pytha- goras and Plato, and the Neoplatonic and Neo- pythagorean writers, can supply us with innu-
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merable quotations, but as alread}' much has been given from their works in theosophical writings, it will be sufficient to acknowlqdge the deep debt of gratitude humanity owes these great thinkers, and to show that there are other less known philosophers in this connection who can yield us evidence. For instance, Xeno- phanes, the principal leader of the Eleatic sect,^ described God as a Great Being, incompre- hensible—
" Incorporeal in substance, and figure globular ; and in no respect similar to man. That He is all sight and hearing, but does not breathe. That He is all things ; the Mind and Wisdom ; not generate but eternal, impassible and immutable." (Oliver, Tlie Pythagorean Triangle, 49.)
Lucian also makes Cato say :
" God makes Himself known to all the world ; He fills up the whole circle of the Universe, but makes His particular abode in the centre, which is the Soul of the Just," {Ibid., 51.)
Nor were these philosophical concepts
^atpco-is — lit., a school, a heresy ; e.g., atpccrts 'EA./\7;vtK>), a study of Greek literature (Polyb., xl. 6, 3).
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evolved by "civilization," for we find the same ideas again and again reiterated in the "Orphic Fragments," which must be given an original antiquity at least contemporaneous with the Trojan War period. Let me here attempt a translation of one of these hymns.
" Zeus is the first. Zeus that rules the thunder is the last. Zeus is the beginning (lit., head). Zeus the middle. From Zeus were all things made. Zeus is male. Zeus, the im- perishable, is a maid. Zeus is the foundation of the Earth and starry Heaven. Zeus is the Breath (Air) of all. Zeus the whirl of un- wearied Fire. Zeus is the root of the Sea (Water). Zeus is Sun and Moon. Zeus is King. Zeus Himself the Supreme Parent of all. There is but one Power, One Daimon, One Great Chief of all. One royal frame in which all things circle. Fire, and Water, and Earth, and yEther, Night and Day, and Metis (Wisdom) the first Parent, and all-pleasing Eros (Love). For all these are in the great body of Zeus. Would'st thou see his head and fair faces ? The radiant heaven, round which his golden locks of gleaming stars wave in the space above in all their beauty. On either side
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two golden taurine horns, the rising and the setting of the Gods, the paths of the celestials. His e3'es the Sun and the opposing Moon ; His Mind that never lies the imperishable kingly ^Ether." (From the text of Cory, as found in Eusebius, PrcBp. Evan., HI, Proclus, Tim., and Aristotle, De Miind.)
Let us now turn to the lore of our Scandina- vian forefathers, to the prose Edda, which simply repeats a still more hoary tradition lost in the night of time. Thus it speaks of the World-Soul, of the Supreme Deity and the Primordial State of the Universe :
" Gangler thus began his discourse : ' Who is the first or eldest of the Gods ? '
" ' In our language,' replied Har, ' He is called Alfadir (All-Father, or the Father of All) ; but in the old Asgard He had twelve names.'
" ' Where is this God ? ' said Gangler ; 'what is His power? and what hath He done to display His glory ? '
"'He liveth,' replied Har, 'from all ages, He governeth all realms, and swayeth all things great and small.'
"'He hath formed,' added Jafnhar, 'heaven
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and earth, and the air, and all things thereto belonging.'
" ' And what is more,' continued Thridi, ' He hath made man, and given him a soul which shall live and never perish, though the body shall have mouldered away or have been burned to ashes.'
" ' But with what did He begin, or what was the beginning of things ? ' demanded Gangler. "' Hear,' replied Har, 'what is said in the Voluspa^ :
" 'Twas time's first dawn, When naught yet was, Nor sand nor sea, Nor cooling wave ; Earth was not there, Nor heaven above. Naught save a void And yawning gulf." (From L A. Blackwell's translation, appended to Bishop Percy's translation of M. Mallet's Northern Antiquities, Bohn's Edition, pp. 400, 401.)
1 The Volu or Volo-spa, meaning " The Song of the Pro- phetess," is a kind of sibylline song containing the whole system of Scandinavian mythology.
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And now we have almost done with our serried ranks of witnesses ; multitudes have not been called into court, but are waiting if need be to convince the present age that man is of a divine nature and not a congeries of molecules. Let us, therefore, conclude our case by citing from mystical Mohammedan Sutiism, which will tell us why Allah is supreme in the hearts of so many millions of our fellow-men.
The passionate longing for union with the World-Soul, with the Source of our Being, is magnificently portrayed b}' the mystical Persian poets. Thus Jami, in his Yihnfn Zuleykhd, sings :
" Dismiss every vain fancy, and abandon every
doubt ; Blend into One every spirit, and form and place; See One — know One — speak of One — Desire One — chant of One — and seek One."
{Religious Systems of the World, Art., " Sikhism," p. 306.)
And again :
" In solitude where Being signless dwelt And all the universe still dormant lay. Concealed in selflessness, One Being was, Exempt from ' I ' or ' Thou '-ness, and apart
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From all duality ; Beauty Supreme, Unmanifest, except unto Itself By Its own light, yet fraught with power to charm The souls of all ; concealed in the Unseen, An Essence pure, unstained by aught of ill."
{Ibid, p. 328.)
Perhaps some may be surprised that I have omitted from the numerous citations already adduced any reference to Buddhism. I have done so, not because the idea of the World-Soul is absent from that system, but because, for the most part, it is difficult to find therein anything in the nature of prayers or adoration to a Supreme Principle. The protest of Gautama against the externalization of the Divine was so strong, that his followers, as it seems to me, have in course of time leaned to extremes, and preferred to express their aspira- tions rather in terms of denial of material qualities than in positive terms of definition of spiritual attributes. But what after all is Nirvana but a synonym of the World- Soul ? And this is well shown by the more transcendent term Parinirvana, which provides for infinite extension of the concept.
The word nir-vdna means literally " blown
E
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out," " extinguished," as of a fire ; but it also means "tamed," as, for instance, a-nirvdna, used of an elephant, not tamed, or one just caught or wild. There is no doubt whatever that the term describes a state in which the lower nature is entirely tamed, though it is to be regretted that a more positive teaching does not obtain in the so-called Southern Church of Buddhism. Its greatest metaphysicians, how- ever, declare that the state of Nirvana is of such a nature that no words can even hint at its reality, much less describe it, and that it is not wise to inculcate material ideas, however lofty, in the minds of the people. Therefore it is that in popular Buddhism we are met with such apparently self-contradictory statements as :
"They who, by steadfast mind, have become exempt from evil desire, and well-trained in the teachings of Gautama ; they, having obtained the fruit of the fourth Path, and immersed themselves in that ambrosia, have received without price, and are in the enjoyment of Nirvana. Their old Karma is exhausted, no new Karma is being produced ; their hearts are free from the longing after future life ; the cause of their existence being destroyed, and no new
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yearnings springing up within them, they, the wise, are extinguished hke this lamp." (Ratana Stitia, 7, 14. J
One naturally asks : If they are extinguished, how can they enjoy Nirvana ? But such con- tradictions are the lot of all popular presenta- tions of rehgion, and in fact, it seems to be in the nature of things that Truth can only be stated in a paradox. Nothing but a study of esotericism will reconcile the exoteric systems with each other and with themselves ; nor will anything else persuade an orthodox Buddhist that there is salvation without the " teachings of Gautama," or a Brahman without the Vedas, or a Christian without the Bible. How differ- ent is the spirit that animates some among the Lamas, who consider it a sin, not only to say, but even to think, that their religion is superior to that of any other man !
Let me then venture on a positive exposition among all this over-cautious negation, and sug- gest that the Nirvanic state is the plane of con- sciousness of the World-Soul. Of course this is not orthodox Buddhism, either of the Nor- thern or Southern Church, as known to us, but it enables us to reconcile Buddhism with the
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other world systems, and also to see how the esoteric interpretation is the connecting link be- tween all of them, and how it completes their insufficient statements.
The "great heresy" of the "pilgrim soul" is the feeling of " separateness." With men, the senses, and especially the brain-mind, is that which keeps us from the rest, for they produce the illusion of an external universe, whereas it is the heart that binds us to our fellows, and which alone can make us one with all men and with all nature. And though I do not wish to fall into the error of transferring our present conditions to that of the World-Soul, and thus becoming guilty of materializing and anthropo- morphizing that which transcends our present consciousness, still I think that the suggestion of an analogy may not be harmful. As in man the head externalizes and separates, and the heart binds and looks within, so, I would imagine, there is an external state of conscious- ness of the World-Soul, and also an internal consciousness. Thus we find a " head-doctrine " and a " heart-doctrine " in every religion, and a goal that can be reached by pursuing either. Nirvana can be reached by two Paths. By one
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an external state of consciousness can be arrived at, by the other a union with " all that lives and breathes." Of course, the external state mentioned is one internal and subjective to our present senses, but it differs from that full reality of the heart that beats in compassion with all hearts, just as the gratification of the senses and intellect differs from the calm of a noble soul conscious of striving for truth and purity in the midst of the most unfavourable surroundings.
Nor is the intuition of the heart doctrine absent from any of the best religionists of to- day. The most advanced thinkers of Christen- dom utterly reject the idea of an eternal joy in Heaven, spent in vain adoration and inactive bliss. With true intuition they conceive that the joy of Heaven would be incomplete so long as others suffer. The grim Calvinism of a Tertullian who counted it one of the joys of his Heaven to look down upon the tortures of the damned in Hell, finds approbation only among the ignorant. The larger minds of the Church will have none of it, just as some Buddhists count the Pratyeka Buddha, he who obtains the Nirvana of the " eye," a symbol of spiritual
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selfishness. For like as the "spooks" in a sea)ice-TOom rejoice to masquerade as ^reat characters, and call themselves Homer, and Dante, and Jesus, so do countless religionists love to call themselves Christians and Budd- hists, whereas they have as little claim to the title as the irresponsible " spooks."
To me, then, the attainment of Nirvana, or the " Peace of God," or Moksha (Liberation), or whatever name you choose to call it by, is the attainment of the degree of consciousness of the World-Soul. For although I have referred it to Heaven as an illustration, I would rather connote this with Svarga or Devachan, or whatever name is given to the state of bliss between two earth-lives. But this is not becoming the World-Soul, or a World-Soul, any more than the possession of a human body con- stitutes an entity a man. To become the World-Soul, the Nirvana of the " eye " must be renounced, just as the world of external sen- sation must be renounced to become one with the Higher Ego, who commands : " Leave all that thou hast, and follow Mc," in that "ye brought nothing into the world, neither shall ye take anything out."
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Nirvana must be renounced ; for until every Soul of man has attained Nirvana, the World- Soul has no rest, and he who would be one with it must take up the burden of a like responsi- bility ; and just as the adept purifies the atoms of his body from the taint of passion in order to reach the knowledge of the Self, so must the Nirmanakaya aid in purifying the souls, whose purification will enable that World-Soul to ascend to a more glorious state of activity. And though we make these distinctions in order to give some faint idea of the mystery, still all is the Self sacrificing Itself to Itself, and selfishness and selflessness are words that lose their meanings in an intuition that escapes all words.
But to return to popular Buddhism. Though there is little evidence of any cult of a Supreme Principle, in the ordinary sense of the word, in the Southern Church, in the Northern Church it is different. The cult of one or other of the Bodhisattvas is extensively practised, if we are to depend upon the authorities : and we find prayers addressed to Manjushri, the per- sonification of Wisdom, and to Avalokite- shvara, the " merciful protector and preserver
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of the world and of men," who are invoked and prayed to as, for example, by Fa Hian {Buddhism, by T. W. Rhys Davids, p. 203) just as Shiva or Vishnu is worshipped by orthodox Hindus.
How the esoteric interpretation throws light on the misunderstanding of the exoteric rituals, students of the Esoteric Philosophy know from the works of H. P. Blavatsky ; and the World- Soul, Adi-Buddha, which emanates the five (according to the Esoteric Philosophy, seven) Dhyani-Buddhas, shows the identity of con- ception with the other great religions.
Perhaps it may also have caused surprise that the Upanishads have not been cited ; but that has not been for lack of passages, for the whole object of these mystical scriptures is to inculcate the identity of man with the All.