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The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Charles Johnston
Produced by J. C. Byers and Dringbloom.
THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI "The Book of the Spiritual Man"
An Interpretation By
Charles Johnston
Bengal Civil Service, Retired; Indian Civil Service, Sanskrit Prizeman; Dublin University, Sanskrit Prizeman
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are in themselves exceedingly brief, less than ten pages of large type in the original. Yet they contain the essence of practical wisdom, set forth in admirable order and detail. The theme, if the present interpreter be right, is the great regeneration, the birth of the spiritual from the psychical man: the same theme which Paul so wisely and eloquently set forth in writing to his disciples in Corinth, the theme of all mystics in all lands.
We think of ourselves as living a purely physical life, in these material bodies of ours. In reality, we have gone far indeed from pure physical life; for ages, our life has been psychical, we have been centred and immersed in the psychic nature. Some of the schools of India say that the psychic nature is, as it were, a looking-glass, wherein are mirrored the things seen by the physical eyes, and heard by the physical ears. But this is a magic mirror; the images remain, and take a certain life of their own. Thus within the psychic realm of our life there grows up an imaged world wherein we dwell; a world of the images of things seen and heard, and therefore a world of memories; a world also of hopes and desires, of fears and regrets. Mental life grows up among these images, built on a measuring and comparing, on the massing of
The purpose of life. indeed. the glory and the power. whereby we enter our divine inheritance and come to inhabit Eternity. in all times. that though in manifestation psychical. This is. longing. speculation. self-will. The teaching of the East is. of that new birth. on the abstraction of new notions and images from these. and to indicate the fruit. therefore. curiosity. that the psychical man is the veil and prophecy of the spiritual man. ambition. Patanjali is concerned with the . they are in essence spiritual.NET images together into general ideas. Through the Sutras of the first book. the purpose of all true religion. Patanjali has in mind the spiritual man. envy. self-interest. His purpose is. till a new world is built up within. the birth of the spiritual from the psychical. salvation. is the realizing of that prophecy. that all these are true powers overlaid by false desires. to be born from the psychical. full of desires and hates.ASTROCCULT. to set in order the practical means for the unveiling and regeneration. the unveiling of the immortal man.
to me at least. it will be almost meaningless. The Sutras of Patanjali are as closely knit together. and will by no means be self-evident.ASTROCCULT. At this point may come a word of explanation. a piece of proverbial wisdom that may be quoted in a good many sets of circumstance. The reason is this: the name Aphorism suggests. But with a Sutra the case is different. but further. and a view of the realms in which these new spiritual powers are to be revealed. therefore. as the propositions of Euclid. suggesting. the emergence of the spiritual man from the veils and meshes of the psychic nature.NET first great problem. as dependent on each other. once he stands clear of the psychic veils and trammels. a close knit." and means. for these rules of Patanjali's system. and which will almost bear on its face the evidence of its truth. and can no more be taken . Later will come the consideration of the nature and powers of the spiritual man. consecutive chain of argument. indeed. the moods and vestures of the mental and emotional man. I have been asked why I use the word Sutras. a pithy sentence of very general application. Not only has each Sutra a definite place in the system. It comes from the same root as the word "sew. when the word Aphorism has been connected with them in our minds for a generation. taken out of this place. So I have thought best to adhere to the original word. a thread.
here as always in the Scriptures of India. We are led to the consideration of the barriers to his emergence.NET out of their proper setting. and of certain steps and stages in the ascent from the ordinary consciousness of practical life. deeper. . the problem of the emergence of the spiritual man is further dealt with. freedom from sin and the sorrow which comes from sin. OM: Here follows Instruction in Union. whereby the mortal becomes immortal.ASTROCCULT. and then a divine and eternal well-being. first. and enters the Eternal. Therefore. of the overcoming of the barriers. In the second part of the first book. BOOK I 1. to the finer. means union of the individual soul with the Oversoul. radiant consciousness of the spiritual man. Union. of the personal consciousness with the Divine Consciousness. the wisdom and glory of God. wherein the soul partakes of the being. salvation is.
spiritual consciousness. Ambition is the inversion of spiritual power. The goal is the full consciousness of the spiritual man. illumined by the Divine Light. to chasten. Passion is the distortion of love. is gained through control of the versatile psychic nature. when the clouds disperse. . Then the Seer comes to consciousness in his proper nature. to regain control of this perverted nature. drawn from their proper channel. Therefore our first task is. Nothing except the obdurate resistance of the psychic nature keeps us back from the goal.NET 2. perverted. Egotism is but the perversion of spiritual being. then the spiritual man stands forth luminous. purify and restore the misplaced powers. Union. as the sun. When these false images give place to true. The psychical powers are spiritual powers run wild.ASTROCCULT. 3. Heretofore the Seer has been enmeshed in the activities of the psychic nature. The mortal is the limitation of the immortal. 4.
NET The power and life which are the heritage of the spiritual man have been caught and enmeshed in psychical activities. Instead of the light of pure vision. Spiritual powers are to be drawn forth from the psychic meshes. the picture of past joy is framed in regrets or hopes. These are all real forces. Instead of spiritual joy. egotism. steadily. but distorted from their true nature and goal. busies itself ceaselessly with the mind-images. They must be extricated. Thus the mind-image of an indulgence suggests and invites to a new indulgence. 3). These pictures do not remain quiescent in the mind. too. 5. there have been restless senses nave been re and imaginings. to classify. the undivided joy of pure being. This.ASTROCCULT. like the pith from the reed. without destructive violence. The psychic nature is built up through the image-making power. they are kinetic. like gems from the matrix. the power which lies behind and dwells in mind-pictures. And there is the ceaseless play of the desire to know. combative. Instead of pure being in the Divine. there has been fretful. they are either subject or not subject to the five hindrances (Book II. its hand against every man. The psychic activities are five. stimulating to new acts. there has been self-indulgence of body and mind. restless. to penetrate to the essence of things. So that we may .
on the supreme truth that all life is of the One. Trustworthy testimony. Unsound intellection is false understanding. These activities are: Sound intellection. the sharing of one soul in the wisdom of another. But the power to know and feel is spiritual and immortal. of powers that picture and observe.ASTROCCULT. We have here a list of mental and emotional powers. unsound intellection. not resting on a . predication. and these.NET classify the activities of the psychic nature thus: 6. 8. Inductive reason rests on the great principles of continuity and correspondence. thinly veiled. 7. but to raise it from the psychical to the spiritual realm. not to destroy it. memory. inductive reason. The elements of sound intellection are: direct observation. and trustworthy testimony. sleep. Direct observation is the outermost form of the Soul's pure vision. and of powers that picture and feel. What is needed is. Each of these is a spiritual power. rests on the ultimate oneness of all souls.
induction and testimony always go back to an object. "is wise" is the predicate. In the sentence. Predication is carried on through words or thoughts not resting on an object perceived.NET perception of the true nature of things. to distinguish between the mental process of predication." "the man" is the subject. an outer current .ASTROCCULT. Predication is the attribution of a quality or action to a subject. 10. all material things being absent. 9. thought or reasoning based on that mistaken perception is of necessity false and unsound. while observation. The purpose of this Sutra is. "the man is wise. or the things thought of may be imaginary or unreal. and observation. by adding to it a predicate. we have two currents of perception. Sleep is the psychic condition which rests on mind states. When the object is not truly perceived. when the observation is inaccurate and faulty. This may be simply an interplay of thoughts. induction or testimony. without the presence of the object thought of. In waking life.
memory is but the psychical inversion of the spiritual. In this sense. and watching the mind-images float before the field of consciousness. which are the material of which the psychic world is built. Here. "I have slept well. even such evil things as . The outer current ceases in sleep. there is still a certain consciousness in sleep. which is indeed a world of mind-images. Memory is holding to mind-images of things perceived. If these psychical powers and energies.ASTROCCULT. without modifying them. one says. That which is ever before the spiritual eye of the Seer needs not to be remembered. on waking.NET of physical things seen and heard and perceived." or "I have slept badly. as before. the inner current continues. and through ceasing from self-indulgence. 12. the mental power is explained in terms of mind-images. is but the wraith or shadow of the real and everlasting world. Therefore the sages teach that the world of our perception. an inner current of mind-images and thoughts." 11. we "dream. The control of these psychic activities comes through the right use of the will." Even when there are no dreams. so that. ever-present vision.
as creatures moving upon this earth. effort to stand in spiritual being. This becomes a firm resting-place. Only through obedience to that shared Life. rather helpless. The steady effort to hold this thought will awaken dormant and unrealized powers. when followed long. gentle charity. at the mercy of storm and hunger and our enemies. through perpetual remembrance of our oneness with all Divine .ASTROCCULT. We have thought of ourselves. with earnestness. which will unveil to us the nearness of the Eternal. persistently. are but spiritual powers fallen and perverted. encompassed and sustained by spiritual powers. 13. which is an acknowledgment of the One Soul within us all. and the purification of mind and thought. with earnestness.NET passion and hate and fear. We must seek spiritual life in conformity with the laws of spiritual life. The right use of the will is the steady. We are to think of ourselves as immortals. dwelling in the Light. perhaps. humility. how are we to bring about their release and restoration? Two means are presented to us: the awakening of the spiritual will. 14.
and purification. Ceasing from self-indulgence is conscious mastery over the thirst for sensuous pleasure here or hereafter.ASTROCCULT. This sense of true life comes only with the coming of the soul. and the soul comes only in silence. The lust of sensual stimulus and excitation rests on the longing to feel one's life keenly.NET Being. our nothingness apart from Divine Being. 15. study must be supplemented by devoted practice. With this awakening of the spiritual will. In order to gain a true understanding of this teaching. 16. a real ceasing from self-indulgence. The consummation of this is freedom from thirst for any mode of psychical activity. through reverence before the coming soul. after self-indulgence has been courageously and loyally stilled. The reading of the words will not avail. Rightly understood. the distortion of the soul's eternal life. the desire for sensation is the desire of being. faith by works. to gain the sense of being really alive. can we enter our inheritance. will come at once the growth of the . through the establishment of the spiritual man. There must be a real effort to stand as the Soul.
To him that hath. and this. exterior examining. In virtue of continued practice and effort. the need of an external object on which to rest the meditation is outgrown. An interior state of spiritual consciousness is reached. or a part of a book of devotion. Meditation with an object follows these stages: first. 17. will help us notably in our contest. attained in even a small degree. then interior judicial action. After the exercise of the will has stilled the psychic activities. meditation rests only on the fruit of former meditations. a beginning may be made by fixing the attention upon some external object. The third stage is the inspiration. then joy. such as a sacred image or picture. 18. In the practice of meditation. as enkindled by this meditation. which is called "the cloud of . which results from this pondering. the heightening of the spiritual will.NET spiritual man and our awakening consciousness as the spiritual man. In the second stage. then realization of individual being. The fourth stage is the realization of one's spiritual being.ASTROCCULT. shall be given. one passes from the outer object to an inner pondering upon its lessons.
right mindfulness. Those who have died. from this. from valour. there is spiritual consciousness. Spiritual consciousness is nearest to those of keen. from right mindfulness. 19. and finally. the seeds of desire in them will spring up. 21. led up to by faith. full vision as the soul. It is well to keep in mind these steps on the path to illumination: faith. perception. 29). 20. all must be won. . right mindfulness. perception. First faith. For the others.NET things knowable" (Book IV.ASTROCCULT. perception. a one-pointed aspiration toward the soul. and then from faith. one-pointedness. and they will be born again into this world. valour. intense will. valour. Subjective consciousness arising from a natural cause is possessed by those who have laid aside their bodies and been absorbed into subjective nature. valour right mindfulness. one-pointedness. entered the paradise between births. Not one can be dispensed with. are in a condition resembling meditation without an external object. But in the fullness of time.
ASTROCCULT. If we think of our lives as tasks laid on us by the Master of Life. we are permitted to share the power of God. 23. we must live them.NET The image used is the swift impetus of the torrent. or of middle strength. but God's. Or spiritual consciousness may be gained by ardent service of the Master. if we . The will is not ours. As we enter into the spirit of God. For those of weak will. Firm will comes only through effort. effort is inspired by faith. Therefore there is a spiritual consciousness higher than this. and thus to strengthen the will to more perfect obedience. the end of the way. or intense. 22. and we come into it only through obedience. there is this counsel: to be faithful in obedience. the kingdom must be taken by force. we must act on them. The great secret is this: it is not enough to have intuitions. to live the life. Higher than the three stages of the way is the goal. The will may be weak.
we are in bondage through our former works. who is free from hindrances. the Lord. The Soul of the Master. we are under the dominance of sorrow. In the Master is the perfect seed of Omniscience. The Master is the spiritual man. He is the Teacher of all who have gone before. All spiritual attainment rests on this. and therefore partaker of the Oversoul's all-wisdom and all-power. loyally. since he is not limited by Time.ASTROCCULT. The Soul of the Master is in essence one with the Oversoul. but we still bear the burden of many evils. and is possible because the soul and the Oversoul are One. then. if we obey. bondage to works. . and the fruition and seed of works.NET look on all duties as parts of that Master's work. we shall enter by degrees into the Master's life and share the Master's power. sincerely. and forming our life-work. entrusted to us. 24. Thus we shall be initiated into the spiritual will. 25. is of the same nature as the soul in us. promptly. 26. The Soul of the Master is free from sin and servitude and sorrow.
the three worlds in the Soul. have inherited the kingdom of the Light. the Symbol. the three Divine Powers. 27. father of all else. which.ASTROCCULT. the three times. present. in ascending degrees. and Time. joy. This has many meanings. 28. There is. as of all words. future. as suggested above. Lastly. the Oversoul has been the Teacher of all souls. Preservation. the perfected Spiritual Man. first. in the one Being. by realizing their oneness with the Oversoul. OM: the symbol of the Three in One. Transformation. in the one Spirit. of the Master and Lord. Then there is the manifold significance of the symbol. His word is OM. by their entrance into the Oversoul. there is the spiritual realization of the high essences thus symbolized. Let there be soundless repetition of OM and meditation thereon. immortality. the three essences. the potency of the word itself. in Eternity. This is the Word. For the Oversoul is before Time. Thus we rise . past. omniscience. Creation.NET From the beginning. is one of His children.
and strong aspiration. as we dwell. not in past. and thus remove the barrier' in our path toward the Light. Thence come the awakening of interior consciousness. as we view all organization. that.NET step by step to the Eternal. 29. we become more at one with the Eternal.ASTROCCULT. that. however. the problem of the emergence of the spiritual man is further dealt with. mutation as the work of the Divine One. Here again faith must be supplemented by works. In the second part of the first book. We are led to the consideration . and the resolute conquest of each sin. preservation. we shall come more into harmony with the One. This. It can only be entered where the conditions are present: purity of heart. the life must be led as well as studied. but in the Eternal. before the full meaning can be understood. The awakening of spiritual consciousness can only be understood in measure as it is entered. and the removal of barriers. may easily be understood: that the recognition of the three worlds as resting in the Soul leads us to realize ourselves and all life as of the Soul. present or future.
We must remember that we are considering the spiritual man as enwrapped and enmeshed by the psychic nature. is no insuperable barrier to spiritual life. and as unable to come to clear consciousness. and may sometimes be a help. laziness. false notions. thinking of each as a psychic state.NET of the barriers to his emergence. inertia. and they go pretty thoroughly into the brute toughness of the psychic nature. lightmindedness. inability to reach a stage of meditation. unable to stand and see clearly. radiant consciousness of the spiritual man. such as blindness or deafness. deeper. Sickness is included rather for its effect on the emotions and mind. which drive the psychic nature this way and that. are these: sickness. as cutting off distractions. It will be well for us to ponder over each of these nine activities.ASTROCCULT. a barrier to the interior . and of certain steps and stages in the ascent from the ordinary consciousness of practical life. because of the psychic veils of the personality. the emotional and mental powers. of the overcoming of the barriers. or to hold it when reached. The barriers to interior consciousness. intemperance. Nine of these are enumerated. since bodily infirmity. to the finer. doubt. 30.
bodily restlessness. Steady application to a principle is the way to put a stop to these. the seeking of moods and sensations for sensation's sake. We can well see bow a sodden psychic condition. too.NET consciousness of the spiritual man. 32. mental restlessness will be half conquered. would be a barrier. is in a special way the fault of our day and generation. The will. has been steadily corrupted by self-indulgence. The surface meaning is harsh and irregular breathing. Grieving. was full of vigour. bodily restlessness. When it is conquered. 31. which. despondency. The first two moods are easily understood. Hence come all the morbid and sickly moods of the mind.ASTROCCULT. The next two terms. concerning the life breath. The next. flagrantly opposed to the pure and positive joy of spiritual life. The remedy is a return to the pristine state of the . in its pristine state. the deeper meaning is a life of harsh and irregular impulses. the drawing in and sending forth of the life-breath also contribute to drive the psychic nature to and fro. offer some difficulty.
shrouded with the cloak of our egotism. by steady application to a principle. 34. in others as in ourselves.ASTROCCULT. or. by vigorous. valorous work for the soul. thus doubling their joy. we are not willing to disturb or strain our own sickly mood by giving kindly sympathy to the happy. thus halving their sorrow. 33. We refuse to find delight in holy things. The principle to which we should thus steadily apply ourselves should be one arising from the reality of spiritual life. the psychic nature moves to gracious peace. as we are here told. compassion for the sorrowful. and let the mind brood in sad pessimism on unholy things.NET will. When we are wrapped up in ourselves. Or peace may be reached by the even sending forth and control of the life-breath. By sympathy with the happy. disregard of the unholy. This rending of the veils will reveal to us something of the grace and peace which are of the interior consciousness of the spiritual man. absorbed in our pains and bitter thoughts. All these evil psychic moods must be conquered by strong effort of will. or by showing compassion for the sad. delight in the holy. positive effort. .
But it must always be remembered that this is not for solace to the personal man. without harsh or dissonant impulses. will bind the mind to steadiness. 35. Faithful. We are still considering how to overcome the wavering and perturbation of the psychic nature. if completely attained. which make it quite unfit to transmit the inward consciousness and stillness. There is no such illusion as gloomy pessimism. are very amenable to the will.NET Here again we may look for a double meaning: first. and it has been truly said that a man's cheerfulness is the measure of his faith.ASTROCCULT. persistent application to any object. despondency. radiant spirit. 36. the pale cast of thought. Gloom. and to train it by steady and persistent work: by "sitting close" to our work. in the phrase of the original. As also will a joyful. that even and quiet breathing which is a part of the victory over bodily restlessness. We are once more told to use the will. which brings stillness to the heart. then the even and quiet tenor of life. Sturdy and courageous effort will bring a clear and valorous mind. a . but is rather an offering to the ideal of spiritual life.
objective on their own plane. perhaps.ASTROCCULT. 37. yet indispensable. Or the purging of self-indulgence from the psychic nature. and the knowledge that there is another world. and far more deleterious. reflections of what the eyes have seen and the ears heard. made up of images of waking life. as well as what is below. lightens the tyranny of material life. Much of poetry and art is such a solace from dreamland. We have quite other sins than the animals. We must recognize that the fall of man is a reality. As we climbed down hill for our pleasure. it is true. For the Eastern sages. with which our psychic natures are soaked through and through. for the images are in a sense real.NET contribution to the universal and universally shared treasure in heaven. But there is more in dream. not . Or a pondering on the perceptions gained in dreams and dreamless sleep. But dreams are something more. 38. The process is painful. for it may image what is above. even a dream-world. and they have all come through self-indulgence. so must we climb up again for our purification and restoration to our former high estate. exemplified in our own persons. dreams are.
only the children of men, but also the children by the shore of the immortal sea that brought us hither, may throw their images on this magic mirror: so, too, of the secrets of dreamless sleep with its pure vision, in even greater degree.
39. Or meditative brooding on what is dearest to the heart.
Here is a thought which our own day is beginning to grasp: that love is a form of knowledge; that we truly know any thing or any person, by becoming one therewith, in love. Thus love has a wisdom that the mind cannot claim, and by this hearty love, this becoming one with what is beyond our personal borders, we may take a long step toward freedom. Two directions for this may be suggested: the pure love of the artist for his work, and the earnest, compassionate search into the hearts of others.
40. Thus he masters all, from the atom to the Infinite.
Newton was asked how he made his discoveries. By intending my mind on them, he replied. This steady pressure, this becoming one with what we seek to understand, whether it be atom or soul, is the one means to know. When we become a thing, we really know it, not
otherwise. Therefore live the life, to know the doctrine; do the will of the Father, if you would know the Father.
41. When the perturbations of the psychic nature have all been stilled, then the consciousness, like a pure crystal, takes the colour of what it rests on, whether that be the perceiver, perceiving, or the thing perceived.
This is a fuller expression of the last Sutra, and is so lucid that comment can hardly add to it. Everything is either perceiver, perceiving, or the thing perceived; or, as we might say, consciousness, force, or matter. The sage tells us that the one key will unlock the secrets of all three, the secrets of consciousness, force and matter alike. The thought is, that the cordial sympathy of a gentle heart, intuitively understanding the hearts of others, is really a manifestation of the same power as that penetrating perception whereby one divines the secrets of planetary motions or atomic structure.
42. When the consciousness, poised in perceiving, blends together the name, the object dwelt on and the idea, this is perception with exterior consideration.
In the first stage of the consideration of an external object, the perceiving mind comes to it, preoccupied by the name and idea conventionally associated with that object. For example, in coming to the study of a book, we think of the author, his period, the school to which he belongs. The second stage, set forth in the next Sutra, goes directly to the spiritual meaning of the book, setting its traditional trappings aside and finding its application to our own experience and problems.
The commentator takes a very simple illustration: a cow, where one considers, in the first stage, the name of the cow, the animal itself and the idea of a cow in the mind. In the second stage, one pushes these trappings aside and, entering into the inmost being of the cow, shares its consciousness, as do some of the artists who paint cows. They get at the very life of what they study and paint.
43. When the object dwells in the mind, clear of memory-pictures, uncoloured by the mind, as a pure luminous idea, this is perception without exterior or consideration.
We are still considering external, visible objects. Such perception as is here described is of the nature of that penetrating vision whereby
This process of analysis and synthesis. The same two steps. whereby we select certain qualities in a group of mind-images. We now come to mental or psychical objects: to images in the mind. to that pure nature which has no distinguishing mark. judicial action of the mind. But when we exercise swift divination upon the mind images. is the judicial action of the mind spoken of. Subtle substance rises in ascending degrees. made his discoveries. when referring to things of finer substance. as does a poet or a man of genius.ASTROCCULT. These stages of perception are described in this way. 44. the immortal. . 45. It is precisely by comparing. intending his mind on things. and one nearer to the keen vision of the spiritual man. and makes that soul live on canvas. or without.NET Newton. or that whereby a really great portrait painter pierces to the soul of him whom he paints. to lead the mind up to an understanding of the piercing soul-vision of the spiritual man. then we use a power higher than the judicial. arranging and superposing these mind-images that we get our general notions or concepts. are said to be with. and then range together those of like quality.
and whose chief characteristic is to be separate. The above are the degrees of limited and conditioned spiritual consciousness. is broken down and we are all made perfect in the One. 46. in perpetual concussion and interchange. our spiritual selves attain true consciousness through unity.NET As we ascend from outer material things which are permeated by separateness. we finally come to purer essences. between us and others. Thus we rise from separation to true individuality in unity. first. the spiritual vision . external selves are quite distinct and separate. still containing the seed of separateness. of finer substance. and then to ideas and principles.ASTROCCULT. Our bodily. only when united. our mental selves. to mind-images. place. where the partition wall between us and the Highest. which overlap and coalesce in both space and time. The highest riches are possessed by all pure souls. as we ascend. drawing ever nearer and nearer to unity. meet and part again. substance. In the four stages of perception above described. in form. just as so many pebbles are separate from each other. Or we may illustrate this principle thus. meet and part. name.
In that peace. the inner genius is still expressed through the outer. and beauty in all things. and . likeness in things unlike.NET is still working through the mental and psychical. but on its realities. there follows the gracious peace of the inner self. the pure insight of the true philosopher. When pure perception without judicial action of the mind is reached. For we have come to the stage where we know things by being them. whereby he sees the spirit within the symbol. 47. the psychical veils laid aside. or the saint's firm perception of spiritual life and being. we know that we know. perception is unfailingly true. The spiritual man has yet to come completely to consciousness as himself. 48. they have drawn near to the secret dwelling of peace. The poet.ASTROCCULT. but they gain certain knowledge of substantial reality. in his own realm. the wise philosopher and the saint not only reach a wide and luminous consciousness. When we know. personal man. We have instanced certain types of this pure perception: the poet's divination. whose vision rests not on the appearances of life. All these are far advanced on the way.
He receives defined. is a psychical state. 50.NET nothing can be more true than being. The object of this perception is other than what is learned from the sacred books. so to speak. is a psychical state or field. precise knowledge. the . each field of knowledge. and inference from their teaching is not less general.ASTROCCULT. The distinction is a luminous and inspiring one. rooted in the very heart of the world. as of the poet. We rest on the rock. which is reached by mental and emotional energies. or by sound inference. 49. just as the mind picture of a stage with the actors on it. When the pure vision. whether these be for himself or others. But the spiritual perception of the awakened Seer brings particular truth concerning his own particular life and needs. The Scriptures teach general truths. The impress on the consciousness springing from this perception supersedes all previous impressions. and know it to be rock. exactly applying to what he has at heart. Each state or field of the mind. concerning universal spiritual life and broad laws. since this perception is particular.
Yet.ASTROCCULT.NET philosopher. in a certain sense. The second book. the saint. It is the last and highest psychic state. that which is viewed as part. a thin psychical veil. pure serene. And we must remember that soul growth here means the growth of the realization of the spiritual . INTRODUCTION TO BOOK II The first book of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras is called the Book of Spiritual Consciousness. 51. since all impressions have ceased. When this impression ceases. there arises pure spiritual consciousness. which we now begin. and the spiritual man stands with unveiled vision. This high consciousness displaces all lesser consciousness. all lesser views and visions are crowded out. however pure and luminous that veil may be. has still an element of illusion. fills the whole field. then. even by the vision of a sage. is the Book of the Means of Soul Growth. with no seed of separateness left. The last psychic veil is drawn aside.
on the foundation. so that he may stand forth above death. In reality. of intellectual curiosity or psychical selfishness. The second part of the second book is concerned with practical spiritual training. and he who reads may understand and practise. the disguises laid upon him by the mind and the psychical nature. and to detail the means in a way entirely practical and very lucid. The question arises: By what means may the spiritual man be freed from these psychical meshes and disguises. or. in his radiant eternalness and divine power? And the second book sets itself to answer this very question. The most striking thing in it is the emphasis laid on the Commandments. on this latter . the veils. together with obedience to the Master. with the earlier practical training of the spiritual man. the growth of the spiritual man. like a bird caught in a net. Our day and generation is far too prone to fancy that there can be mystical life and growth on some other foundation. for example. to put the matter more briefly. so that he who runs may read. and the disentangling of the spiritual man from the wrappings. that is.NET man. wherein he is enmeshed.ASTROCCULT. which are precisely those of the latter part of the Decalogue.
obedience. Only after the disciple can say. meets the question: What must I do to be saved? with the age-old answer: Keep the Commandments. can there be the further and finer teaching of the spiritual Rules. there is no salvation. nor. like every great spiritual teacher. The practices which make for union with the Soul are: fervent aspiration. is laying up treasure against the time to come. indeed. BOOK II 1. Therefore Patanjali. .NET foundation the life of the spiritual man can never be built. and complete obedience to the Master. spiritual reading. therefore. like every true system of spiritual teaching. These have I kept. vital for us to realize that the Yoga system. a dangerous delusion. cleanness.ASTROCCULT. truth. and he who practices these. rests on this broad and firm foundation of honesty. even though ignorant of spiritual things. anything but a psychic counterfeit. Without these. It is.
that we shall make the will of the Master our will. 2.NET The word which I have rendered "fervent aspiration" means primarily "fire". the steady practice of purification. which are but psychic distortions of the one Divine Will. the evidence of new growth of the Soul. therefore. Or. Spiritual reading is so universally accepted and understood. that fiery quality of the will which enkindles and illumines. will reveal new ways and new tasks. The very study of Patanjali's Sutras is an exercise in spiritual reading. at the same time. to use the . setting aside the wills of self. and at the same time the fire which purifies. And so with all other books of the Soul. as our first practice. Obedience to the Master means. We have. The constant effort to obey in all the ways we know and understand. that it needs no comment. spiritual reading and obedience to the Master.ASTROCCULT. Nothing will do more for the spiritual man in us than this. and a very effective one. it means the fire which gives life and light. to bring soulvision. for there is no such regenerating power as the awakening spiritual will. in the Eastern teaching. The aim of fervour. is. the burning away of all known impurities. as the first of the means of spiritual growth. and. to bring soul-vision. and. and shall confirm in all wave to the will of the Divine. Their aim is. and to wear away hindrances. and to wear away hindrances.
the enmeshing psychic nets which surround him. The darkness of unwisdom is. a steady up-hill fight. as all teachers testify. self-assertion. and upbuilding the spiritual man. as it were. so that he fails to see. is. lust hate. spiritual reading and obedience. two-fold: it illumines. tying his hands. that there is a spiritual man. or refuses to see. plans and purposes. And this. the self-absorption of the psychical man. So with the other means. primarily. Each. demanding fine courage and persistent toil. Fervour. attachment. This is the real darkness. the aim of these practices is. the fire of the spiritual will. in its action. sensations and desires. as we said. and bandaging his eyes. is a long and arduous task. wearing away the psychical. These are the hindrances: the darkness of unwisdom. is two-fold.NET phrase we have already adopted. 3. and it also burns up the nets and meshes which ensnare the spiritual man. and so helps the spiritual man to see. and so doggedly resists all efforts of the spiritual man to cast off his psychic tyrant and set himself free. his complete preoccupation with his own hopes and fears.ASTROCCULT. Let us try to translate this into terms of the psychical and spiritual man. and all those who deny the . to help him also to throw aside the veils and disguises. to help the spiritual man to open his eyes.
exclusive interests. and so to hate. makes against the spiritual man. since it hinders the revelation of the high harmony between the spiritual man and his other selves. this psychic self-absorption. a harmony to be revealed only through the practice of love. In like manner. personal man has separate. our inner desires brood over . And this craving for stimulus is the fruit of weakness. the din of which smothers the voice of the spiritual man. which he can follow for himself alone. and this conviction. the cackling geese would drown the song of the nightingale. not in outward things. leads to contest with other personalities. and so lay out their lives wholly for the psychical. our inner eyes are fixed on them. is the dogged conviction that the psychic. or deny the soul's existence. coming from the failure to find strength in the primal life of the spiritual man.ASTROCCULT. This hate. Attachment is but another name for psychic self-absorption. lust is the psychic man's craving for the stimulus of sensation. for we are absorbed. in Shakespeare's phrase. when put into practice in our life. are under this power of darkness. again. that perfect love which casts out fear. Born of this darkness. but rather in their images within our minds.NET immortality of the soul. mortal man and his ambitions. as.
the Soul. or the links of manacles.-as a veil might. Next. they must be worn thin. . we are told that these barriers may be either dormant. or. 4. or expanded. or expanded. 5 The darkness of ignorance is: holding that which is unenduring. as Patanjali quaintly says.NET them. The first has been explained already: in the darkness of unwisdom grow the parasites. pure. full of joy. or worn thin. or worn thin. attachment. or through the pressure of strong aspiration. and em we blind ourselves to the presence of the prisoner' the enmeshed and fettered spiritual man. not the Soul. These hindrances may be dormant. Here we have really two Sutras in one. The darkness of unwisdom is the field of the others. to be eternal. Thus expanded. impure. or suspended. Faults which are dormant will be brought out through the pressure of life. full of pain. hate. They are all outgrowths of the self-absorption of the psychical self. or suspended.ASTROCCULT. lust. they must be fought and conquered.
that the personal man is the real man. This is the fundamental idea of the Sankhya philosophy. to the exclusion of the spiritual man. the instrument of vision is the psychical man. for whom we should build.NET This we have really considered already. or. we think of the two as . as the text says. This is that psychical man of whom it is said: he that soweth to the flesh. and so. the man for whom we should toil. full of joy. a reality which really belongs to the spiritual man alone. impure. carried into action. of which the Yoga is avowedly the practical side. It is the belief. The spiritual man is enduring. Self-assertion comes from thinking of the Seer and the instrument of vision as forming one self. not the real Self. To translate this into our terms. 6. shall of the flesh reap corruption. full of pain. through which the spiritual man gains experience of the outer world. The darkness of unwisdom is. The psychic man is unenduring. we merge the spiritual man in the psychical. personal man. thinking of the quality of the spiritual man as belonging to the psychical. the real Self. therefore.ASTROCCULT. pure. We attribute to the psychical man. the personal self. for whom we should live. not the Soul. But we turn the servant into the master. we may say that the Seer is the spiritual man. the self-absorption of the psychical.
for the most part. and the avoidance of poisonous and hurtful things. the power of reproduction. 7. and live to eat. Hate is the resting in the sense of pain. the jarring discords between psychic selves. Lust is the resting in the sense of enjoyment. A dwelling on this pain breeds hate. and puts new enmity between them. that is. So with the other great organic power. 8. . and looking for pleasure from that. through resting in the sensation.ASTROCCULT. in the psychical side of taste. as. This has been explained again and again.NET forming one self. as a pleasure in itself. in this case. But if we rest in the sense of taste. which tears the warring selves yet further asunder. is meant to be the guide to action. the sense of taste. from the strife of personalities. the reconciliation through the Soul. we fall into gluttony. This lust comes into being. each of which deems itself supreme. thus hindering the harmony of the Real. instead of eating to live. Pain comes. rest. for example. the choice of wholesome food. Sensation.
so long as it falls short of the wisdom of complete renunciation. . This prevails even in those who have attained much wisdom. 10. and of the Master who guards and aids the spiritual man. Attachment is the desire toward life. spiritual reading of holy teachings and of life itself. death and rebirth. are to be removed by a countercurrent. complete obedience to each least behest of the spiritual man.ASTROCCULT. reproduces itself. The darkness of unwisdom is to be removed by the light of wisdom. even in the wise. instead of the liberation of the spiritual man. when they have become subtle. The desire of sensation. carried forward by its own energy. the desire of psychic life. the intensely vibrating life of the psychical self. carried on by its own energy and momentum. and hence comes the circle of death and rebirth. and by obedience to the Master. pursued through fervour.NET 9. These hindrances. The life here desired is the psychic life.
bringing true strength and stability. 12. lust and hate are to be stilled by meditation. Their active turnings are to be removed by meditation. they have been located and recognized in the psychic nature. The burden of bondage to sorrow has its root in these hindrances. Hate is to be overcome by love. The hindrances are said to have become subtle when. which. The fear that arises through the sense of separate. Here is. by lifting up the heart to the strong. silent life above. of selfishness. which rests in the stillness of eternal love. takes away the void of weakness which we try to fill by the stimulus of sensations. in truth. by letting heart and mind dwell in spiritual life. the one soul in all. and needs no harsh vibration to convince it of true being.ASTROCCULT. This realization is the perfect love that casts out fear. 11. the science of the soul. by initial efforts. the strident vibrations. The active turnings. warring selves is to be stilled by the realization of the One Self.NET Lust is to be removed by pure aspiration of spiritual life. the whole secret of Yoga. .
13. through a kind of spiritual gravitation. Fully to comment on this. the incarnating self is drawn to a home and life-circle which will give it scope and discipline. in selfishness. and this means sorrow. its content and duration. All these are. and this means jarring discord and inevitable death. From this root there grow and ripen the fruits of birth. and so new sorrows in a life not yet manifest. of all that is tasted in life. in the last analysis. whereby the place and time of the next birth. The burden of bondage to sorrow has its root in the darkness of unwisdom. because it means the sense of separateness. in hate. are determined. would be to write a treatise on Karma and its practical working in detail. or in a life not yet manifested. . But the psychical self will breed a new psychical self. of the life-span.NET It will be felt in this life.ASTROCCULT. in lust. in attachment to sensation. and its need of discipline is clearly conditioned by its character. its standing. and to do this the present commentator is in no wise fitted. in a new birth. But this much is clearly understood: that. its accomplishment. absorption in the psychical self.
fear. and obedience to harmony strengthens that harmony in the soul. as they are sprung from holy or unholy works. 15. or of affliction. therefore unholiness makes for pain.ASTROCCULT. These bear fruits of rejoicing. finds not satisfaction. which is the one true joy. because it ever waxes and wanes. is ever afflicted with restlessness. The life of the psychic self is misery. indeed. Since holiness is obedience to divine law. and because all its activities war with each other. whether the cause take effect in this. so that he who has much. but rather the whetted hunger for more. all personal life is misery. The fire is not quenched by pouring oil on it. And as unholiness is disobedience. therefore joy comes of holiness: comes. makes ever new dynamic impresses in the mind. because it ever waxes and wanes. and therefore discord. To him who possesses discernment. to the law of divine harmony. because there is no expectation without its shadow.NET 14. The whole life of the psychic self is misery. because birth brings inevitable death. in no other way. because it is afflicted with restlessness. so desire is not quenched . and this two-fold law is true. or in a yet unmanifested birth.
is the absorption of the Seer in things seen.ASTROCCULT. is the absorption of consciousness in the psychical man and the things which beguile the psychical man. We must cut the root. before it has come. torn with conflicting desires. and grows by what it feeds on. which must surely fall. is ever the house divided against itself. but to fix the heart upon the eternal. The appetite comes in eating. 16. as the proverb says. which is the intellectual counterpart of the Yoga system. In other words. there is no cure for the misery of longing. The cause of what is to be warded off. . Again. absorption in the psychical self. we cannot cure the pains of life by laying on them any balm. 17. the life of the psychic self is misery. Here again we have the fundamental idea of the Sankhya.NET by the satisfaction of desire. This pain is to be warded off. because a desire satisfied is but the seed from which springs the desire to find like satisfaction again. because it makes ever new dynamic impresses in the mind. the root of misery. The cause of what is to be warded off. And the psychic self. So it is said.
NET The cure is liberation. and is prepared for liberation. action. manifestation. as we might say. the undefined. the world of sense-impressions and mind-images. And through this totality of the phenomenal. and finds in this its true reason for being. that without distinctive mark. there are two strata of the physical. The form side of the physical is here called the . in their grosser form. the whole outer world exists for the purposes of the soul. They make for experience and for liberation. more subjective form. In other words. Things seen. inertia: the qualities of force and matter in combination. in their finer. make the material world. and two strata of the psychical realms. Or. 19. Here is a whole philosophy of life. These. they make the psychical world. In each. the soul gains experience. action. the total of the phenomena.ASTROCCULT. possess as their property. 18. and the side of force. They form the basis of the elements and the sense-powers. Things seen have as their property manifestation. there is the side of form. inertia. The grades or layers of the Three Potencies are the defined. that with distinctive mark.
that which has no boundaries. exist in very deed for the purposes of the Seer. without distinctive marks. to set this prisoner free.ASTROCCULT. as always. such as the characteristic features of mind-images. the spiritual man Disaster comes. but the psychic man also. that with distinctive marks. So in the psychical. such as the forces of desire or fear. looks out on the world through the eyes of the psychical man. the Soul. 20. The force side of the physical is the undefined. which may flow now to this mind-image. he looks out through the vesture of the mind. by whom he is enfolded and enmeshed. The Seer is pure vision. The things of outer life.NET defined. when the psychical man sets up. and there is the force side. that they exist for the Seer. The Seer. the pure life of the eternal. Though pure. not only material things. so to . to clear the dust of ages from this buried temple. The task is. is the spiritual man whose deepest consciousness is pure vision. But the spiritual man. as yet unseeing in his proper person. 21. there is the form side. The very essence of things seen is. now to that.
and will remain till they. conquer delusion. So with other delusions. and therefore the world thus coloured by it remains for them. But for others the coloured veil remains. trying to live for himself alone. When one of us conquers hate. 23. The association of the Seer with things seen is the cause of the realizing of the nature of things seen. 22. which hold us in bondage to material things. and through which we look at all material things. for now we see life as it is. in the white radiance of eternity. and also of the realizing of the nature of the Seer. and taking material things to solace his loneliness. the august laws that are written in the . the Soul learns the secrets of the world. Life is educative. too. Though fallen away from him who has reached the goal. for the development of the soul. hate does not thereby cease out of the world. All life's infinite variety is for discipline.NET speak. So passing through many lives. things seen have not alto fallen away. since others still hate and suffer hatred. since they still exist for others.ASTROCCULT. When the coloured veil of illusion is gone. on his own account. the world which we saw through it is also gone.
the time has come for him to put off the veil and disguise of the psychical and to stand revealed a King. 24. by bringing the darkness of unwisdom to an end. but projections outward. 25.ASTROCCULT. the day of redemption is at hand. in the house of the Father. and go no more out. this is the Seer's attainment of his own pure being. is the great liberation. A discerning which is carried on without wavering is the means of .NET form of the snow-crystal or the majestic order of the stars. The cause of this association is the darkness of unwisdom. learned all life's lessons. through the psychical. When they are learned. All life is but the mirror wherein the Soul learns to know its own face. When the spiritual man has. the soul learns to know itself. the learning of the lessons of life. therefore in learning these. of the laws of the soul. Yet all these laws are but reflections. through which comes experience. 26. The bringing of this association to an end. and in the things seen by the personal life. So shall he enter into his kingdom. This is the fall. The darkness of unwisdom is the absorption of consciousness in the personal life.
following after Philo and Plato. sacrifice and not indulgence. This true discernment. He has in view a constant discriminating in act as well as thought. lays down the same fundamental principle: the things seen are temporal. the things of another rather than one's own.NET liberation. Patanjali means something more than an intellectual assent. of the two ways which present themselves for every deed or choice. Patanjali's text does not tell us what the seven stages of this illumination are. rising In successive stages. makes for liberation. with its discernment between the eternal and the temporal. that which makes for the things eternal: honesty rather than roguery. though this too is vital. Here we come close to the pure Vedanta.ASTROCCULT. always to choose the higher way. courage and not cowardice. the danger to be escaped is recognized. it need not be . carried out constantly. Paul. St. the things unseen are eternal. The commentator thus describes them: First. 27. His illuminations is sevenfold.
This is the fourfold release belonging to insight. The essence of the matter lies in carrying them out. Here. From steadfastly following after the means of Yoga. Second. the way of escape is clearly perceived. 28. They are very familiar. as seventh. Third. they need not be worn away a second time. we may well be astonished at their simplicity.NET recognized a second time. there comes the illumination of thought up to full discernment.ASTROCCULT. Happy is the spiritual man who beholds this seven-fold illumination in its ascending stages. its potencies. Then. There is little in them that is mysterious. they do not grow again. freed from these potencies. once dissolved. with its sound and luminous good sense. has been developed. the spiritual man stands forth in his own nature as purity and light. And when we come to detail the means of Yoga. by the contemplation which checks psychic perturbation. clear discernment. the causes of the danger to be escaped are worn away. until impurity is worn away. we enter on the more detailed practical teaching of Patanjali. as sixth. The final release from the psychic is three-fold: As fifth of the seven degrees. fall of themselves. like rocks from a precipice. . Fourth. the means of escape. the dominance of its thinking is ended.
abstaining from stealing. from covetousness. in the sense which will immediately be made clear. Contemplation. not to drink intoxicants. it is futile to concern oneself with the second. And in the same spirit is the answer made to the young map having great possessions. . not to be guilty of incontinence.NET 29. Almost identical is St. the Rules. These five precepts are almost exactly the same as the Buddhist Commandments: not to kill. truthfulness. The eight means of Yoga are: the Commandments. These eight means are to be followed in their order. We can get a ready understanding of the first two by comparing them with the Commandments which must be obeyed by all good citizens. Withdrawal. right Poise. right Control of the life-force. from impurity. to speak the truth. They must be taken in their order. and the Rules which are laid on the members of religious orders. Until one has fulfilled the first.ASTROCCULT. And so with all the means of Yoga. thou shalt not steal. Attention. 30. thou shalt not kill. The Commandments are these: nom injury. thou shalt not covet. Meditation. not to steal. Paul's list: Thou shalt not commit adultery.
must be accomplished to a very considerable degree. the being of the Eternal Like the law of gravity. place. the need of air to breathe. What shall I do to be saved? and received the reply: Keep the Commandments. before there can be much hope of success in the further stages of spiritual life. time or occasion. when we violate one of the Commandments. the Eternal. First the psychical. Each one of them expresses an attribute or aspect of the Self.ASTROCCULT. these great . humane and wise foundation does the system of Patanjali rest. then the angel.NET who asked. and then the spiritual. So the first steps in spiritual life must be taken by bringing ourselves into voluntary obedience to these spiritual laws and thus making ourselves partakers of the spiritual powers. This broad. spiritual law. Each one of them rests on a universal. 31. general training. universal. thereby bringing ourselves to inevitable con fusion. not limited to any race. are the great obligation. The Commandments. First the man. The Commandments form the broad general training of humanity. which forms and develops human character. we set ourselves against the law and being of the Eternal. On this broad.
less fit to obey. Yet we can see that these Rules are the same in essence as the Commandments. serenity fervent aspiration. The Rules are these: purity. Let us take a simple case. for more advanced spiritual growth. for all mankind. more spiritual plane. and per feet obedience to the Master. one which humanity as a whole is less ready for. and they have finer degrees. We may imprison such a thief. throughout al times. a habitual criminal. or of using the divine gift of will.NET laws know no exceptions They are in force in all lands. who has drifted into stealing in childhood. spiritual reading. but on a higher. and deprive him of all possibility of further theft. The Commandments may be obeyed in outer acts and abstinences. Here we have a finer law.ASTROCCULT. 33. The Rules are the spiritual counterpart of the Commandments. before the moral consciousness has awakened. that of a thief. Or we . When transgressions hinder. a far more awakened and more positive consciousness. the weight of the imagination should be thrown' on the opposite side. the Rules demand obedience of the heart and spirit. 32.
rather than of opposition.NET may recognize his disadvantages. but on the contrary virtue. envy. whether faint. incontinence. constructively. let heart and mind rest.ASTROCCULT. In some such way does the great Law teach us. falsehood. in well-doing. Now as to the more direct application. and would cleave to honest dealings with firm conviction. Transgressions are injury. Our sorrows and losses teach us the pain of the sorrow and loss we inflict on others. bearing . To conquer a sin. 34. or excessive. or assented to. and his possessions have become dear to him. whether committed. wrath. In this way the whole nature will gradually be drawn up to the higher level. creatively. on which the sin does not even exist. he himself is robbed. Let the sin be forced out by positive growth in the true direction. and so we cease to inflict them. or caused. theft. after he has built well. not by direct opposition. or infatuation. If we imagine that. through greed. not on the sin. then we can see how he would come vividly to realize the essence of theft and of honesty. The conquest of a sin is a matter of growth and evolution. Turn away from the sin and go forward courageously. and draw forth his self-respect. and help him gradually to build up possessions which express his will. or middling.
35. nor can infatuation. which Self we are. either in act or thought or wish. infatuation. from the obedience to spiritual law which is the keeping of the Commandments. ignorance and pain. The causes are to be cured by better wisdom.NET endless. mind and heart. this full love creates an atmosphere of harmony. with their effects. the side. Where the heart is full of kindness which seeks no injury to another. by a truer understanding of the Self. nor can we hold wrath against one who is one with the Self. Therefore let thought and imagination. Where non-injury is perfected. but of the Self. and therefore with ourselves. of Life. survive the knowledge that we are heirs of the All. We come now to the spiritual powers which result from keeping the Commandments. which is the seeking for the happiness of the All in some limited part of it. throw their weight on the other side. whose benign power . fruit of ignorance and pain. wrath. Therefore must the weight be cast on the other side. For greed cannot endure before the realization that the whole world belongs to the Self. all enmity ceases in the presence of him who possesses it. Here are the causes of sin: greed.ASTROCCULT. not of the world.
Here is a sentence which may warn us that. beside the outer and apparent meaning. and whose soever sins ye retain. they are retained. Peace in the heart radiates peace to other hearts. all treasures present themselves to him who possesses it. 36. Become righteous! the man becomes righteous.NET touches with healing all who come within its influence. Gain heaven! the man gains heaven. all acts and their fruits depend on him. If he should say. His word is not in vain. 37. Exactly the same doctrine was taught by the Master who said to his disciples: Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them. The obvious meaning is. When he is perfected in truth. there is in many of these sentences a second and finer significance.ASTROCCULT. The commentator thus explains: If he who has attained should say to a man. that he who has wholly . even more surely than contention breeds contention. Where cessation from theft is perfected.
finds Life supporting him in all things. The deeper truth is. in act. the power to engender spiritual children instead of bodily progeny. a new epoch. that of the spiritual man. The creative power. For him who is perfect in continence. is opened. a new creative power. that of man the animal. 38. It upholds and endows the spiritual man. the spiritual universe. thought and wish.ASTROCCULT. is no longer dissipated. finds buried treasures in his path. The old creative power is superseded and transcended. An epoch of life. the reward is valour and virility. that he who in every least thing is wholly honest with the spirit of Life. carrying with it the power to work creatively in others for righteousness and eternal life. takes its place. but turned to spiritual uses. that of the spiritual man. and gains admittance to the treasure house of Life. strong and full of vigour. This is one of the powers of purity. has come to an end. One of the commentaries says that he who has attained is able to transfer to the minds of his disciples what he knows concerning divine union. .NET ceased from theft. and the means of gaining it. treasures of jewels and gold and pearls. conferring on him the creative will.
Through purity a withdrawal from one's own bodily life. before we can understand the laws of Karma. 40. secret .NET 39. The conquest of covetousness brings this rich fruit. the age-long lesson learned. As the spiritual light grows in the heart within. because the root of covetousness is the desire of the individual soul. the great secret is discerned. And where the desire of the individual soul is overcome by the superb. a ceasing from infatuation with the bodily life of others. So it is said that. the secret that the individual soul is not an isolated reality. which turns it this way and that until the great work is accomplished. he who has conquered it awakes to the how and why of life. Thus is the how and why of life disclosed by ceasing from covetousness. the consciousness opens toward the great. the will toward manifested life. as the taste for pure Life grows stronger. The Commentator says that this includes a knowledge of one's former births. still life of the universal Soul welling up in the heart within. the manifest instrument of the Life. we must free ourselves from Karma. Where there is firm conquest of covetousness.ASTROCCULT. but the ray.
who is the supreme Soul.ASTROCCULT. but rather that quiet communion with them in the inner chamber of the soul. and we seek rather the deep infinitudes. Thereafter. and spirit answers. one-pointed thought. the victory over sensuality. One consciousness now thrills through both.NET places within. from the torment of sensuous imaginings. for the psychic partition wall is broken down. Then shall the pure in heart see God. Blessed are the pure in heart. 41. and also a heart cleansed from all disquiet. where all life is one. we long for their inner and everlasting essence. manifested. . fugitive life. where sickness and sorrow and death cannot come. and fitness to behold the Soul. the ultimate Self of all beings. from all wandering and unbridled thought. Instead of the outer form and surroundings of our lives. whether of ourselves or of others. To the pure of heart come also a quiet spirit. In the deepest sense. where spirit speaks to spirit. the primal Life. We desire not so much outer converse and closeness to our friends. where all lives are one. because they become God. it becomes at one in essence with its source. loses something of its charm and glamour. and when the spirit is thus cleansed and pure. purity means fitness for this vision. the great Spirit. for they shall see God. this outer. where alienation and separation never enter.
and something finer. but of kindred essence. From acceptance. else would many nerveless ascetics of the cloisters rank as high saints. The perfection of the powers of the bodily vesture comes through the wearing away of impurities. a keen vital vigour for the physical powers. and of those which dwell in the higher vestures. . a positive fire of the will. further. the disciple gains happiness supreme. This is the true acceptance. accept yourself. bliss. and through fervent aspiration. happiness. since the own nature of the Soul is being. as the blood must be pure. the disciple comes into oneness of spirit with the overruling Soul. he comes thereby into happiness supreme. except their deficiencies. before one can attain to physical health. By the true acceptance. There is needed. This is true of the physical powers. for all these things are what they are through the will of the higher Self. and can be conquered only through compliance with that will. One of the wise has said: accept conditions. for the higher powers. accept others. stronger. and. which come through thwarting the will of the higher Self.ASTROCCULT. But absence of impurity is not in itself enough.NET 42. There must be. purer. purity. first. 43.
for there can be no genius without the celestial fire of the awakened spiritual will. Spiritual reading meant. for ancient India. It meant. so that through the true reading of true books we do indeed read ourselves into the spirit of the Masters. Through spiritual reading. and it meant a recital of texts which were divinely emanated. in their very sounds.NET The fire of genius is something more than a phrase. first. whereby we read ourselves into the Master's mind. . 44. For us. 45. the recital of sacred texts.ASTROCCULT. had mystical potencies. just as through his music one can enter into the mind and soul of the master musician. potent essence of the divine. It has been well said that all true art is contagion of feeling. and held in themselves the living. Soul-vision is perfected through perfect obedience to the Master. which. and come at last into their very presence. something more than it does with us. share in the atmosphere of their wisdom and power. spiritual reading means a communing with the recorded teachings of the Masters of wisdom. the disciple gains communion with the divine Power on which his heart is set.
It applies further to the poise of the soul. the position of the body must be steady and without strain. since it is always and everywhere true that our study demands a sound mind in a sound body. the life of the spiritual man. that fine balance and stability which nothing can shake. Soul-vision is perfected through obedience. In His will is our peace. Here we approach a section of the teaching which has manifestly a two-fold meaning. and concerns the bodily position of the student. the one great Life. The first is physical. and the regulation of breathing. to try and fail. where the consciousness rests on the . Right poise must be firm and without strain. without losing freedom. in order that the finer currents of life may run their course. The error of the personal will is inevitable. These things have their direct influence upon soul-life. since each will must be free to choose. The present sentence declares that.NET The sorrow and darkness of life come of the erring personal will which sets itself against the will of the Soul. and so to find the path. and the personal will made once more one with the greater Will. for work and for meditation. 46. And with that peace comes light. until the path be found. wherein it finds rest and power. And sorrow and darkness are inevitable.ASTROCCULT.
Neither is effective without the other. and by setting the heart on the Eternal. effort without aspiration brings a false strength. and relation with. always guided by wisdom.ASTROCCULT. the universal force of gravity. 47. This is indeed the house set upon a rock. The two together make for the right poise which sets the spiritual man firmly and steadfastly on his feet. Right poise is to be gained by steady and temperate effort. In like manner the firm and upright poise of the spiritual man is to be gained by steady and continued effort. filling the soul with the atmosphere of the spiritual world. by gradual and wise training. not resting on enduring things. 48 The fruit of right poise is the strength to resist the shocks of . and by setting the heart upon the everlasting. linked with a right understanding of. Aspiration without effort brings weakness.NET firm foundation of spiritual being. which the winds and waves beat upon in vain. there is the two-fold meaning. for physical poise is to be gained by steady effort of the muscles. Here again. Uprightness of body demands that both these conditions shall be fulfilled.
right oxygenation.ASTROCCULT. the control of the incoming and outgoing breath. must learn to withstand all shocks. to remain steadfast through the perturbations of external things and the storms and whirlwinds of the psychical world. 49. This is the power which is gained by wise. and by filling the spirit with the atmosphere of the Eternal. In the simpler physical sense.NET infatuation or sorrow. When this is gained. too. The spiritual man. this sentence means that wise effort establishes such bodily poise that the accidents of life cannot disturb it. there follows the right guidance of the life-currents. . which is also coveted by the wording of the original. though disaster overtake his ship. It is coming to be understood that right breathing. But the deeper sense is far more important. will do very much to keep the blood clean and pure. It is well understood to-day that most of our maladies come from impure conditions of the blood. as the captain remains steady. Therefore a right knowledge of breathing is a part of the science of life. continuous effort.
. that the spiritual man. and guide the currents of his life. Therefore the first step in purification is to keep the Commandments.. Exactly the same symbolism is used in the saying: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man. followed by the period of pause. time. can stand firm. or balanced. And the number of breaths is so important. so closely related to health. but that which cometh out of the mouth. both the incoming current of events. there should be right inbreathing. and the outgoing current of his acts. uncleanness. that every nurse's chart . blasphemies. when he has gained poise through right effort and aspiration. it is regulated according to place.NET But the deeper meaning is. thefts. this defileth a man. 50. number. physical side of this has its value... steady. In the breath. silent. false witness. The technical. when the air comes into contact with the blood. The life-current is either outward. Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart .ASTROCCULT. it is prolonged and subtle. and this again followed by right outbreathing. the lungs should be evenly filled. even. Further.. murders. or inward. many maladies may arise from the neglect and consequent weakening of some region of the lungs. out of the heart proceed evil thoughts.
with that which goeth into and cometh out of the heart. The fourth degree transcends external and internal objects. Thereby is worn away the veil which covers up the light. and over the condition of pause or quiesence. the web of emotions. that is. But the deeper meaning is concerned with the currents of life. there is a fourth degree of control. over the outgoing current. The veil is the psychic nature.NET records it. When hopes and fears are reckoned at their true worth. 51. which holds in complete mastery both the outer passage of events and the inner currents of thoughts and emotions. control. desires. in comparison with lasting possessions of the Soul. The inner meaning seems to be that. when the outer . over the incoming current of life. which cover up and obscure the truth by absorbing the entire attention and keeping the consciousness in the psychic realm. 52.ASTROCCULT. a condition of perfect poise and stability in the midst of the flux of things outward and inward. argumentative trains of thought. in addition to the three degrees of control already described.
from the temporal to the Eternal. 53.ASTROCCULT. Thence comes the mind's power to hold itself in the light. then is the veil worn away. that we need to disentangle our consciousness from the noisy and perturbed thraldom of the psychical. through the faculty of spiritual attention. that what we most need is the faculty of spiritual attention. and. . and to come to consciousness as the spiritual man. the certainty which springs from within. when argumentative-thought no longer entangles us. but yields its place to flashing intuition. and in the same direction of thought it has been eloquently declared that prayer does not consist in our catching God's attention. This we must do. the consciousness is drawn from the psychical to the spiritual. by purification. through the Commandments and the Rules. It has been well said. thus by degrees transferring the centre of consciousness from the psychical to the spiritual. second.NET reflections of things have ceased to distract us from inner realities. and by intending our consciousness thereto. Then is the light unveiled. first. The vital matter is. by steadily heeding endless fine intimations of the spiritual power within us. first. but rather in our allowing God to hold our attention. It is a question.
It is all a matter of love for the quality of spiritual consciousness. there will the treasure be also. so that the spiritual force. as the psychic nature has been withdrawn and stilled. taking on that unity which is the hall-mark of spiritual things. 54. For where the heart is. Now let us imagine this to be reversed. at the same time. The right Withdrawal is the disengaging of the powers from entanglement in outer things. the one will. and then of attention.ASTROCCULT. as against psychical consciousness. . is once more gathered together into the inner power of intuition and spiritual will. which has gone into the differentiated powers. To understand this. of love and attention.NET of love. gradually expanding and taking on the form of the different perceptive powers. as diversity is the seal of material things. where the consciousness is. and think of the one consciousness. differentiating itself into the varied powers of action. centred in the Soul. there will the vesture with its powers be developed. let us reverse the process.
to use St. INTRODUCTION TO BOOK III The third book of the Sutras is the Book of Spiritual Powers. just as. and illuminated vision. the athlete gains the mastery in the contest and the race through the sacrifice of his long and arduous training. Indeed. with its purity. poise. The first of these is this: These spiritual powers can only be gained when the development described in the first and second books has been measurably attained. Paul's simile. In considering these spiritual powers. when the Commandments have . through this very struggle and sacrifice the mastery has become possible. much of the struggle to keep the Commandments and the Rules has been paving the way for this mastery. When the spiritual condition which we have described is reached. and gaining complete mastery of his powers. Thus he gains the crown.ASTROCCULT. the spiritual man is coming into his inheritance.NET 55. two things must be understood and kept in memory. Thereupon follows perfect mastery over the powers.
For this is the secret of all spiritual powers: they are in no sense an abnormal or supernatural overgrowth upon the material man. his self seeking is the inversion of the Self-seeking which is the very being of the spiritual man: the ceaseless search after the divine and august Self of all beings. therefore. They can only be developed and used as the spiritual man grows . entirely natural to him. are the powers of the grown and liberated spiritual man. the spiritual man is extricated. as the spiritual man is disentangled and liberated from psychical bondage. but are rather the powers and faculties inherent in the spiritual man. and comes into possession and free exercise of his powers. As the personal man is the limitation and inversion of the spiritual man.NET been kept. all his faculties and powers are inversions of the powers of the spiritual man. The spiritual powers. and gradually. through keeping the Commandments and Rules already set forth. and the experiences which are described have been passed through. so far disentangled from the psychical bandages and veils which have confined and blinded him. In a single phrase. as the inversion is overcome. This inversion is corrected by keeping the Commandments and Rules. that he can use his proper powers and faculties. and coming naturally into activity. For only after this is the spiritual man so far grown.ASTROCCULT. the Rules faithfully followed.
to see. so finely correlated and continuous that whatever is perceived by any consciousness is.NET and attains liberation through obedience. so the ancient sages had discerned and taught that all consciousness is one. When the consciousness is cleared of psychic bonds and veils. just as they have discerned and taught that all force is one and eternal. within the reach of all consciousness. then this superb law comes into effect: whatever is within the knowledge of any consciousness. when the spiritual man is able to stand. definitely related throughout the whole wide universe. immortal. are fundamentally one with the Father. in all that is said of spiritual powers in the third and fourth books of the Sutras. The second thing to be understood and kept in mind is this: Just as our modern sages have discerned and taught that all matter is ultimately one and eternal. infinite. and all Sons of God. indivisible. that the Son of God. and this includes the whole infinite . so coordinated throughout the whole universe that whatever affects any atom measurably affects the whole boundless realm of matter and force. and therefore within the reach of any consciousness. to the most distant star or nebula on the dim confines of space. This is the first thing to be kept in mind. whether actually or potentially.ASTROCCULT. This has been well expressed by saying that all souls are fundamentally one with the Oversoul.
Only thus can the golden gates be reached and entered. Let no one imagine that the true life. through it he comes into possession of his splendid and immortal powers. of trial. and moves. must come often into the presence of the Father. This is the birthright of the spiritual man. be made a part of his consciousness. of the spiritual man depends on the purification and moral attainment already detailed. nothing unholy can ever cross that threshold. the very inception. must in no wise be detached from what has gone before. least of all impure motives or self seeking desires. of selfless self-conquest and genuine devotion to the weal of all others. The being. This he may attain through his fundamental unity with the Oversoul. and may. Only thus can we attain to that pure world wherein the spiritual man lives.NET universe. if he wills. and can in no wise dispense with these or curtail them. of renunciation. can be attained by any way except the hard way of sacrifice. The Son. by raising himself toward the consciousness above him. and his exalted powers. Nothing impure. . is within his reach. Let it be clearly kept in mind that what is here to be related of the spiritual man.ASTROCCULT. These must be burnt away before an entrance to that world can be gained. the true powers of the spiritual man. if he would work miracles. and has his being. whether of perception or of action. and drawing on its resources.
At the end of he page. and the lofty light of the soul casts upon the clouds of the mid-world the shadow of the spiritual man and of his powers. yet.NET But where there is light. The binding of the perceiving consciousness to a certain region is attention (dharana). I have no idea of what it is about. That is what is meant here.ASTROCCULT. there is shadow. they are a delusion. sacrifice. still thinking of something else. so . Therefore ponder well the earlier rules. Then I wake up. selflessness. I read the page of a book while inking of something else. the bastard vesture and the bastard powers of psychism are easily attained. the very essence of unreality. and read it again. Emerson quotes Sir Isaac Newton as saying that he made his great discoveries by intending his mind on them. even when attained. holiness. BOOK III 1. with the same result. and lay a firm foundation of courage.
It is the power to focus the consciousness on a given spot. and easily take in its meaning. 2. The other is the holding of the white beam of light steadily and persistently on the object. until what was in the dark slowly comes forth into the light. and yields up its immortal .ASTROCCULT. This will apply equally to outer and inner things. So for things within. in a single penetrating glance. Attention to spiritual things is the first step to spiritual knowledge. just as the eyes are focussed on each word and line. The first is the focussing of the searchlight of consciousness upon the object. one may fix the inner glance for a moment on spiritual things. The act of will. and hold it there Attention is the first and indispensable step in all knowledge. the effort of attention. or one may hold the consciousness steadily upon them. I may for a moment fix my attention on some visible object.NET to speak. A prolonged holding of the perceiving consciousness in that region is meditation (dhyana). the intending of the mind on each word and line of the page. fix my thought on what I am reading. until it yields up the secret of its details. make an effort of attention. is the power here contemplated. or I may hold the attention fixedly on it until it reveals far more of its nature than a single glance could perceive.
NET secret. First. Let us review the steps so far taken. this is contemplation (samadhi). through the effort of attention. The cares of this world. of all personality or sense of separateness. The personal limitation stands . Then this attending consciousness is held on its object. the thronging storms of psychical thoughts dissipate and distract the attention. after the Commandments and the Rules have been kept. When the perceiving consciousness in this meditative is wholly given to illuminating the essential meaning of the object contemplated. the deceitfulness of riches. Third. But this is possible only for the spiritual man. and is freed from the sense of separateness and personality. as it were. choke the word of the spiritual message. the beam of perceiving consciousness is focussed on a certain region or subject. and all desire for personal profit or gratification must be quite put away. so that it will not remain fixed on spiritual things. There must be a purely disinterested love of truth for its own sake. Fourth. 3.ASTROCCULT. for until this is done. to illumine it with comprehending thought. there is the ardent will to know its meaning. all personal bias--all desire merely to indorse a previous opinion and so prove oneself right. Thus is the perceiving consciousness made void.
aside and lets the All-consciousness come to bear upon the problem. The Oversoul bends its ray upon the object, and illumines it with pure light.
4. When these three, Attention, Meditation Contemplation, are exercised at once, this is perfectly concentrated Meditation (sanyama).
When the personal limitation of the perceiving consciousness stands aside, and allows the All-conscious to come to bear upon the problem, then arises that real knowledge which is called a flash of genius; that real knowledge which makes discoveries, and without which no discovery can be made, however painstaking the effort. For genius is the vision of the spiritual man, and that vision is a question of growth rather than present effort; though right effort, rightly continued, will in time infallibly lead to growth and vision. Through the power thus to set aside personal limitation, to push aside petty concerns and cares, and steady the whole nature and will in an ardent love of truth and desire to know it; through the power thus to make way for the All-consciousness, all great men make their discoveries. Newton, watching the apple fall to the earth, was able to look beyond, to see the subtle waves of force pulsating through apples and worlds and suns and galaxies, and thus to perceive universal gravitation. The
Oversoul, looking through his eyes, recognized the universal force, one of its own children. Darwin, watching the forms and motions of plants and animals, let the same august consciousness come to bear on them, and saw infinite growth perfected through ceaseless struggle. He perceived the superb process of evolution, the Oversoul once more recognizing its own. Fraunhofer, noting the dark lines in the band of sunlight in his spectroscope, divined their identity with the bright lines in the spectra of incandescent iron, sodium and the rest, and so saw the oneness of substance in the worlds and suns, the unity of the materials of the universe. Once again the Oversoul, looking with his eyes, recognized its own. So it is with all true knowledge. But the mind must transcend its limitations, its idiosyncrasies; there must be purity, for to the pure in heart is the promise, that they shall see God.
5. By mastering this perfectly concentrated Meditation, there comes the illumination of perception. The meaning of this is illustrated by what has been said before. When the spiritual man is able to throw aside the trammels of emotional and mental limitation, and to open his eyes, he sees clearly, he attains to illuminated perception. A poet once said that Occultism is the conscious cultivation of genius; and it is certain that the awakened spiritual man attains to the perceptions of genius. Genius is the vision, the power, of the spiritual man, whether
its possessor recognizes this or not. All true knowledge is of the spiritual man. The greatest in all ages have recognized this and put their testimony on record. The great in wisdom who have not consciously recognized it, have ever been full of the spirit of reverence, of selfless devotion to truth, of humility, as was Darwin; and reverence and humility are the unconscious recognition of the nearness of the Spirit, that Divinity which broods over us, a Master o'er a slave.
6. This power is distributed in ascending degrees.
It is to be attained step by step. It is a question, not of miracle, but of evolution, of growth. Newton had to master the multiplication table, then the four rules of arithmetic, then the rudiments of algebra, before he came to the binomial theorem. At each point, there was attention, concentration, insight; until these were attained, no progress to the next point was possible. So with Darwin. He had to learn the form and use of leaf and flower, of bone and muscle; the characteristics of genera and species; the distribution of plants and animals, before he had in mind that nexus of knowledge on which the light of his great idea was at last able to shine. So is it with all knowledge. So is it with spiritual knowledge. Take the matter this way: The first subject
By doing this. I try to live my day with aspiration and faith. its hindrances. with never more than one day to solve at a time. Meditation. That is the first step. 7. while this threefold power is to be exercised by the spiritual man thus extricated and standing on his feet. its duties. But this triad is still exterior to the soul vision which is unconditioned. I gather a harvest for the evening. in growing knowledge and power. In faith and aspiration. until all life becomes radiant and transparent. its opportunities. viewing life with open eyes. because the means of growth previously described were concerned with the extrication of the spiritual man from psychic bondages and veils. Contemplation.ASTROCCULT. So with all successive days. with its circumstances. to learn its lessons. 8. This threefold power. a certain spiritual advance and attainment. I gain a deeper insight into life. of Attention. is more interior than the means of growth previously described. I do what I can to solve it. free from the seed of mental analyses. to fulfil its duties. Very naturally so. we pass from day to day. in virtue of which I begin the next day with a certain advantage. .NET for the exercise of my spiritual insight is my day.
the triad of Attention. First there is the overcoming of the mind-impress of excitation. Meditation is. the All consciousness. Contemplation. and the individual consciousness enters into. Then the perceiving consciousness follows after the moment of Control. 9. and that of the Life. from whose Life comes eternal motion. not the laws of motion. a being in immortality. One of the ascending degrees is the development of Control. where the beam of consciousness is turned back upon itself. It is an activity of the soul. It is not an activity of the higher mind. There are. This is a being. Had Darwin risen to this. and knows. . rather than a knowing.NET The reason is this: The threefold power we have been considering. but that high Being. whose graduated thought and being all evolution expresses.ASTROCCULT. that of the Soul's works. even the mind of the spiritual man. it is free from mental analysis or mental forms. There is a higher stage. Then comes the manifestation of the mind-impress of Control. therefore. with a view of understanding it completely. the focussing of the beam of perceiving consciousness upon some form of manifesting being. he would have known. and that of the Soul itself. these two perceptions: that of living things. Had Newton risen to this higher stage. he would have seen the Soul. so far as we have yet considered it.
then the consciousness returns upon itself. The beholder is at first astonished. Take a trite example. controls his thoughts. in this case. But he exercises an effort of will. and recognizes that a certain thing must be done. and takes the perception firmly in hand. and at first violently excites the mind. The meaning seems to be this: Some object enters the field of observation. terror. wonder. perhaps terror-stricken. as it were. probably. The man is excited by astonishment. insight. steadying itself. This steadying effort of the will upon the perceiving consciousness is Control. views the apparition calmly. . Or a comet. and viewing the matter calmly from above. understanding. stirring up curiosity. but he takes himself in hand. A charging elephant suddenly appears. fear. and immediately upon it follows perception.ASTROCCULT. perceives the situation in its true bearings. that he must get out of the way as quickly as possible. and.NET This is the development of Control. and finally calculates its orbit and its relation to meteor showers. appears in the sky like a flaming sword. perhaps. Supposing one is walking in an Indian forest. unheralded.
or a fencer gains skill with a rapier. which. then the spirit perceives the lesson of the event. Innumerable small efforts of attention will make a result which seems well-nigh miraculous. upon which follows the perception of the nature of the object. like control of the muscles by the mind. Where the eyes of the spiritual man are open. but with all knowledge the order of perception is the same: first. with a shock of pain.ASTROCCULT. Through frequent repetition of this process. comes by practice. take the ceaseless practice by which a musician gains mastery over his instrument. first. for the novice.NET These are extreme illustrations. and constant voluntary repetition. As an example of control of the muscles by the mind. 10. is really miraculous. Then consider . then the control of the mind from within. the mind becomes habituated to it. and its bearing upon the progressive revelation of life. Control of the mind by the Soul. In some such way do our living experiences come to us. then the Soul steadies itself and controls the pain. this will be a true and penetrating spiritual perception. and there arises an equable flow of perceiving consciousness. the excitation of the mind by the new object impressed on it.
and a mastery worth winning. We are seeking the meaning of our task.--and then he comes back with a jerk. make the development of Contemplation. till we suddenly come back to consciousness after traversing leagues of space.ASTROCCULT. in the store down the street. the Master gives the crown of life. take the gradual conquest of each day. three ones are three-and then he thinks of three coins in his pocket. marbles and so on. take a small boy. the Soul. and flits off from one frivolous detail to another. played on by that fine musician. the perceiving mind. For a concrete example. Here again. To him that is faithful unto death. As an illustration of the mind's tendency to flit from one object to another. where are base-balls. innumerable small efforts of attention will accumulate into mastery. and the power of one-pointedness.NET that far more wonderful instrument. He begins: two ones are two. So with us also. learning arithmetic. next to the toy-shop. to four ones are four. The gradual conquest of the mind's tendency to flit from one object to another. but the mind takes advantage of a moment of slackened attention. the effort to live that day for the Soul. We must learn to conquer this. which will purchase so much candy. and to go back within ourselves into the beam of . 11.
This is the true onepointedness. following this. Then there is the perception of the object as a unity. the pole of matter and diversity. the perception of its essence. equally balanced. according to their development. Through this. the side of difference and the side of unity. the controlled manifold tendency and the aroused one-pointedness are equally balanced parts of the perceiving consciousness. then the essence must be comprehended. the inherent character. distinctive marks and conditions of being and powers. the details must be clearly perceived. the sum of all its characteristics and properties. first. 12.ASTROCCULT. the true onepointedness is attained.NET perceiving consciousness itself. there is the individual and there is the genus. There is. his the development of one-pointedness. the manifold aspect of any object. First. the bringing of our consciousness to a focus in the Soul. 13. which is a beam of the Oversoul. When the two processes are equally balanced. To see the object truly. This would seem to mean that the insight which is called one-pointedness has two sides. we must see both. Everything has these two sides. are . and the pole of oneness and spirit. as a whole. This is to be held firmly in the mind. When.
with its colour and scent. which once represented its foremost growth. Every object has characteristics belonging to its past. to all life. as defined. there are the branches with their needles spread out to the air. its peculiar fold of each petal.NET made clear. to Life itself. with its relation to all plants. which carry the still closely . for example. and those which are not yet definable. we see it in relation to itself. distinctive marks and conditions of beings and powers are made clear. we see events and circumstances. the inherent character. species and genus. we get a twofold view of each object. Every object has its characteristics which are already quiescent. In a fir tree. Thus we see a rose as that particular flower. 14.ASTROCCULT. For through this power. there are the buds at the end of each branch and twig. we also see in it the lesson set for the soul by the Eternal. there are the stumps or scars of dead branches. seeing at once all its individual characteristics and its essential character. those which are active. the family to which it belongs. So in any day. but we also see in it the species. and in relation to the Eternal. By the power defined in the preceding sutra. its present and its future.
ASTROCCULT. the butterfly.NET packed needles which are the promise of the future. The second stage is the growing tree. attained through a flash of genius. the caterpillar. In like manner. the butterfly. the chrysalis. 15. as its past. Through perfectly concentrated Meditation on the three stages of development comes a knowledge of past and future. So with all things. So it is among men. the animal. We have taken our illustrations from natural science. even though they are generally not so recognized. and among the races of men. Both are visible even now in his face. Difference in stage is the cause of difference in development. The first stage is the sapling. This but amplifies what has just been said. 16. for all things change and grow. the animal. The man has. the caterpillar. the angel. the man. the chrysalis has. as its future. the angel. acts of perception by the spiritual man. Difference of stage is the cause of difference of development. in his future. such discoveries really represent acts of spiritual perception. in his past. because. So . since every true discovery in natural science is a divination of a law in nature. The third is the splendid pine.
Perfectly concentrated Meditation. So in like manner he who really knows today. . He who knows the seed. Infinite shades of this power are expressed in the infinitely varied tones of sound. perfect insight into the chrysalis. The sound and the object and the thought called up by a word are confounded because they are all blurred together in the mind. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the distinction between them. It must be remembered that we are speaking of perception by the spiritual man. Sound.NET we may once more use the same illustration. the butterfly that it is destined to be. can divine the meanings of all sounds. reveals the caterpillar that it has been. and the plant that is to come from it. is the expression of a power of the Eternal. and the heart of to-day. knows the seed-pod or ear it has come from. knows its parent yesterday and its child tomorrow. there comes an understanding of the sounds uttered by all beings. like every force. Past. He who dwells in the Eternal knows all three.ASTROCCULT. He who. present and future are all in the Eternal. 17. having entry to the consciousness of the Eternal knows the essence of this power. from the voice of the insect to the music of the spheres.
In like manner, he who has attained to spiritual vision can perceive the mind-images in the thoughts of others, with the shade of feeling which goes with them, thus reading their thoughts as easily as he hears their words. Every one has the germ of this power, since difference of tone will give widely differing meanings to the same words, meanings which are intuitively perceived by everyone.
18. When the mind-impressions become visible, there comes an understanding of previous births.
This is simple enough if we grasp the truth of rebirth. The fine harvest of past experiences is drawn into the spiritual nature, forming, indeed, the basis of its development. When the consciousness has been raised to a point above these fine subjective impressions, and can look down upon them from above, this will in itself be a remembering of past births.
19. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on mind-images is gained the understanding of the thoughts of others.
Here, for those who can profit by it, is the secret of thought-reading.
Take the simplest case of intentional thought transference. It is the testimony of those who have done this, that the perceiving mind must be stilled, before the mind-image projected by the other mind can be seen. With it comes a sense of the feeling and temper of the other mind and so on, in higher degrees.
20. But since that on which the thought in the mind of another rests is not objective to the thought-reader's consciousness, he perceives the thought only, and not also that on which the thought rests.
The meaning appears to be simple: One may be able to perceive the thoughts of some one at a distance; one cannot, by that means alone, also perceive the external surroundings of that person, which arouse these thoughts.
21. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the form of the body, by arresting the body's perceptibility, and by inhibiting the eye's power of sight, there comes the power to make the body invisible.
There are many instances of the exercise of this power, by mesmerists, hypnotists and the like; and we may simply call it an instance of the power of suggestion. Shankara tells us that by this power the popular
magicians of the East perform their wonders, working on the mind-images of others, while remaining invisible themselves. It is all a question of being able to see and control the mind-images.
22. The works which fill out the life-span may be either immediately or gradually operative. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on these comes a knowledge of the time of the end, as also through signs.
A garment which is wet, says the commentator, may be hung up to dry, and so dry rapidly, or it may be rolled in a ball and dry slowly; so a fire may blaze or smoulder. Thus it is with Karma, the works that fill out the life-span. By an insight into the mental forms and forces which make up Karma, there comes a knowledge of the rapidity or slowness of their development, and of the time when the debt will be paid.
23. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on sympathy, compassion and kindness, is gained the power of interior union with others.
Unity is the reality; separateness the illusion. The nearer we come to reality, the nearer we come to unity of heart. Sympathy, compassion, kindness are modes of this unity of heart, whereby we rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. These things are
a child. or obscure. has a potential consciousness of all things. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on power. force and fineness and poise. through it. concrete and abstract alike.NET learned by desiring to learn them. but poise and fineness of control. the ability to handle with equal mastery things small and great. a tree with perfectly judged control and effort. As one of the wise has said. we have no conception of the power of Meditation. even such power as that of the elephant may be gained. So the simile is a good one. we can gain all these. whether subtle or concealed or obscure. or concealed. Elephants possess not only force. By detachment. They can lift a straw. This is a pretty image. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the sun comes a . 25. As was said at the outset. An understanding of this great truth will come with practice. By bending upon them the awakened inner light. each consciousness is related to all consciousness. there comes a knowledge of things subtle.ASTROCCULT. 26. by withdrawing into the soul's reservoir of power. and. 24.
and through knowledge of the Soul comes a knowledge of the realms of life. may be understood through perfectly concentrated Meditation. And it is said that there is a finer astronomy. By watching the moon. first. astronomers can understand the kindred nature of the stars.NET knowledge of the worlds. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the moon comes a knowledge of the lunar mansions. This has several meanings: First. and these. But the sun also means the Soul. 28. where the spiritual man is the astronomer. by a knowledge of the constitution of the sun. with their succession in the great time-dial of the sky. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the fixed pole-star comes a knowledge of the motions of the stars. But the moon also symbolizes the analytic mind. too. The moon is.ASTROCCULT. . 27. with its divided realms. which. the companion planet. each day. the boundaries of the mansion are learned. passes backward through one mansion of the stars. Here again are different meanings.
of the powers of the spiritual man. the projection. and in the process of gestation which precedes it. In this awakening. which are. Perfectly concentrated Meditation on the centre of force in the lower trunk brings an understanding of the order of the bodily powers. We are coming to a vitally important part of the teaching of Yoga: namely. and the veil of mystery is only to be raised by Meditation. So in this Sutra the fixed polestar is the eternal spirit about which all things move. Wordsworth finely said: Thou cost preserve the stars from wrong. the spiritual man's attainment of full self-consciousness. stern daughter of the Voice of God. 29. by open-eyed vision of the awakened spiritual man. This is . outward and downward.ASTROCCULT. Deep mysteries attend both. the awakening of the spiritual man as a self-conscious individual. as well as the star toward which points the axis of the earth.NET Addressing Duty. there is a close relation with the powers of the natural man. in a certain sense. And the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong-- thus suggesting a profound relation between the moral powers and the powers that rule the worlds. behind and above the natural man.
and purity takes the . which gives the one sure foothold for Meditation. Rising. Not only is this power the cause of the continuance of the bodily race of mankind. and become operative in building the body of the spiritual man. from that spiritual point of vantage. when embodied in the natural man. In due time. in its spiritual and physical aspects. but also a gradually attained control of this wonderful force. just as it has been operative in the building of physical bodies. so general and such a fruitful source of misery in our day. and then. and its gradual withdrawal from the body of the natural man. when the spiritual man has begun to take form. already described. in the individual. as it were. that rising of the consciousness into the spiritual world. but further.NET notably true of that creative power of the spiritual man which. is abated. the creative force will be drawn off. through the life-channels of the body. until the over-pressure. through generation in the natural world. and maintains and colours the illusion that the physical life is the dominant and all-important expression of life. first. it flushes the personality with physical force. becomes the power of generation. it is the key to the dominance of the personal life. not only an insight into the creative force. Perfectly concentrated Meditation on the nature of this force means.ASTROCCULT. which will mean its direction to the body of the spiritual man.
NET place of passion. sacrifice. This over pressure.ASTROCCULT. and ignorance even of his existence. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the centre of force in the well of the throat. spiritual aspiration. let us seek the light. but spiritual vision. were they open. let us follow after sacrifice and aspiration. 30. and. which is the cause of so many evils and so much of human shame. there building up an immortal vesture. Therefore. with its consequent over-pressure and attendant misery and shame. the creative force could flow into the body of the spiritual man. is an abnormal. There is no other way to lighten the burden. In this way only shall we gain that insight into the order of the bodily powers. the . to blindness regarding the spiritual man. We have already considered the dominant power of physical life. for by this blind ignorance are closed the channels through which. and that mastery of them. not a natural. condition. there comes the cessation of hunger and thirst. further. the new birth from above. to lift the misery and shame from human life. There is no cure for blindness. which this Sutra implies. the creative power which secures the continuance of physical life. We are continuing the study of the bodily powers and centres of force in their relation to the powers and forces of the spiritual man. It is primarily due to spiritual blindness.
where the dividing of the hair turns. its centre of activity in the physical body is said to be in the cavity of the throat.ASTROCCULT. we are told. the organ that hangs down like a nipple. in the palate. magical in its power to arouse and rule the emotions of his hearers. extending upward to the crown of the head. and in virtue of which the voice may carry so much of the personal magnetism. golden. formed through thought. We come now to the dominant psychic force. and which. the power which manifests itself in speech. in the palate." Indra is the name given to the creative power of which we have spoken. in the Taittiriya Upanishad it is written: "There is this shining ether in the inner being. or. The source of this psychical power. inward. Thus. Therein is the spiritual man." the psychical hunger and thirst for sensations.-this is the womb of Indra. is the cause of "hunger and thirst. endowing the orator with a tongue of fire. through aspiration and sacrifice. And there. its expectations and memories. which is the source of our two-sided life of emotionalism. with its hopes and fears. its desires and hates." .NET manner in which. immortal. perhaps we should say. This emotional power. resides in "the organ which hangs down like a nipple. it is gradually raised and set to the work of upbuilding the body of the spiritual man. Inward. this distinctively psychical force.
in which is felt the sensation of fear. fearless life. through the control of the psychic power which works through the nerve-centre in the throat. are turned to the building of the spiritual man." comes steadfastness. then this force is perfectly controlled. it must be remembered. through spiritual insight into the immortal. just as. or which produces that sense of terror through which the heart is said to stand still. the centre. in the chest. 32. Always. the disturbance of which sets the heart beating miserably with dread. there comes a cessation of "hunger and thirst. When the truth concerning fear is thoroughly mastered. these forces. Through perfectly concentrated Meditation on the light in the head . the victory is first a spiritual one." Thereafter. there is no more fear.NET 31. We are concerned now with the centre of nervous or psychical force below the cavity of the throat. only later does it bring control of the bodily powers. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the centre of force in the channel called the "tortoise-formed.ASTROCCULT. or their spiritual prototypes.
It is the seat of that better and wiser consciousness behind the outward looking consciousness in the forward part of the head. Perhaps it is to this divine sight that the Master alluded. all of which may sound very fantastical. it brings a vision of the great Companions of the spiritual man. It is the spiritual man seeking to guide the natural man.NET comes the vision of the Masters who have attained. until one comes to understand it.ASTROCCULT. who . a centre which is. crossing over to the further shore of the sea of death and rebirth. that better and wiser consciousness of "the back of the mind. This is suggested in the words of the Upanishad already quoted: "There. and seeks to impress the spiritual view on the outward looking consciousness in the forward part of the head. where the dividing of the hair turns. seeking to bring the natural man to concern himself with the things of his immortality. It is said that when this power is fully awakened. The tradition is. extending upward to the crown of the head". as it were. those who have already attained. the door way between the natural and the spiritual man." which some of our Western philosophers have supposed to be the dwelling of the soul. perhaps the "pineal gland." which views spiritual things. that there is a certain centre of force in the head.
When the eyes are fully opened. so. the spiritual man is gaining the power to see: learning to open the spiritual eyes. in the same measure. Or through the divining power of tuition he knows all things." This divining power of intuition is the power which lies above and .NET is reported to have said: "I counsel you to buy of me eye-salve." It is of this same vision of the great Companions.ASTROCCULT. Step by step. Can in a moment travel thither. he has begun to "know all things. the spiritual side. the children of light. the spiritual man beholds the great Companions standing about him. that you may see. the spiritual view. And see the Children sport upon the shore And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore. gains force in the back of the mind. This is really the supplement. of the Sutra just translated." 33. Our souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither. that a seer wrote: "Though inland far we be. as the better consciousness.
the interior being. But this higher power need not work in subordination to the so-called rational mind. it may act directly. . a perfect knowledge of consciousness will be attained. as it so often does in the Upanishads. yet always embodying a kernel of truth. and finding. spiritual nature. the interior. By steadily seeking after. the flashes of discovery and genius. the consciousness of the spiritual man. the rational mind formulates a question and lays it before the intuition. For the consciousness of the spiritual man has this divine quality: while being and remaining a truly individual consciousness. and blends with the Divine Consciousness above and about it. as it were." 34 By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the heart. and to the wisdom of the heart. as full illumination. It is by this process. through which the rational mind brings questions to the intuition for solution.NET behind the so-called rational mind. that the truths of science are reached. The heart here seems to mean. by coming to consciousness as the spiritual man. which gives a real answer. the consciousness of the spiritual man.ASTROCCULT. often immediately distorted by the rational mind. "the vision and the faculty divine. it at the same time flows over. comes the knowledge of consciousness. which is related to the heart.
it reveals the nature of all consciousness. The problem is. the spiritual man. the self-conscious individuality of the second." Of this new birth it is said: "that which .ASTROCCULT. and blending with it. transferring into it. the Higher Self. impersonal and abstract. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on experience for the sake of the Self. and forms a personality. through a failure to perceive the distinction between the personal self and the spiritual man. is hammered into a definite and concrete self-conscious individuality. and by showing itself to be one with the Divine Consciousness. to blend these two powers. The personal self seeks to feast on life. the spiritual man. who is heir to the immortality of his father. the secret that all consciousness is One and Divine. taking the eternal and spiritual being of the first. descends into life. and yet has the self-conscious. All personal experience really exists for the sake of another: namely. through the stress and storm of life. "conceived of the Holy Spirit.NET the consciousness of the great Companions. the personal self. which is eternal. the new birth from above. comes a knowledge of the spiritual man. concrete individuality of his other parent. which. The divine ray of the Higher Self. and thus bringing to life a third being. 35. This is the true immaculate conception.
setting his heart and thought on the Higher Self. offering both feasts and his very being on the altar. daily and hourly giving his life for his divine brother the spiritual man. the whole life of the personal man is for another. He exists only to render his very life and all his experience for the building up of the spiritual man. 36. seek to secure the feasts of life for himself. the taste and the power of smell of the spiritual man. Only through failure to see this. eternal . therefore. the touch. the vision.NET is born of the Spirit is spirit: ye must be born again. and the hearing. and lives for the Higher Self. not understanding that he must live for the other. and through the radiance ever pouring down from the Higher Self. does he seek enjoyment for himself. When. the spiritual man is built up. When he does understand this. live sacrificially. then his sacrifice bears divine fruit. Thereupon are born the divine power of intuition.ASTROCCULT. not for himself. and he comes fully into being as a divine and immortal individuality. consciousness awakes in him. giving himself as a contribution for the building of the spiritual man. in virtue of the perpetual sacrifice of the personal man." Rightly understood.
to touch. to taste. as we have seen. And. the power of direct and immediate knowledge. Thus the consciousness of the spiritual man. as the spiritual man supersedes the natural man. The divine man is destined to supersede the spiritual man. spiritual vision. the spiritual man comes to birth. 37. there awakes his mind. besides the senses of the spiritual man. divination. is knowable by any other consciousness. illumination. of divination. of consciousness.ASTROCCULT. whereby whatever is known to any consciousness. that divine counterpart of the mind of the physical man. The spiritual man begins to see. in contradistinction to the higher . stand. who lives above our narrow barriers of separateness.NET in the Heavens. owes its virtue to the unity. In manifestation they are called magical powers. This power. These powers stand in contradistinction to the highest spiritual vision. Thus arises within the spiritual man that certain knowledge which is called intuition. to hear. therefore. and touch. The opened powers of tile spiritual man.-there awake in him those powers whose physical counterparts we know in the personal man. the continuity. Then the disciple becomes a Master. and can draw on that vast reservoir for all real needs. the power of spiritual intuition. hearing. is in intimate touch with the consciousness of the great Companions.
in a sense. the sense of individuality. an instrument through whom the spiritual man works. from the standpoint of normal physical experience. Thereafter the physical man is felt to be a secondary. . they are powers truly magical. This is. the attainment to full salvation and immortal life. they are a hindrance. for the path has no end. but rises ever to higher and higher glories. and must in no wise be regarded as the end of the way. a barrier to the far higher powers of the divine man. and after the senses of the spiritual man have awaked. the consciousness is transferred to the other body. Through the weakening of the causes of bondage. if the spiritual powers we have been considering are regarded as in any sense final. So that. In due time. as the powers natural to a four-dimensional being will appear magical to a three-dimensional being. But viewed from below. a subordinate.NET divine power above them. 38. and by learning the method of sassing. there comes the transfer of the dominant consciousness. from the physical to the spiritual man. the soul's growth and splendour have no limit. after the spiritual man has been formed and grown stable through the forces and virtues already enumerated.ASTROCCULT. and the spiritual man is felt to be the real individuality.
Through mastery of the upward-life comes freedom from the . and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is.ASTROCCULT. than in the pleasures or occupations of the personality. where neither moth nor rust cloth corrupt. where moth and rust cloth corrupt. Therefore it is said: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. primarily. then becomes a matter of recollection. and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. of attention. When that delusion abates and is held in check. and comes from the conquest of the delusion that the personal self is the real man. a matter of taking a deeper interest in the life and doings of the spiritual man.NET yet it is not the final goal or resting place. but only the beginning of the greater way. there will your heart be also. The means for this transfer are described as the weakening of the causes of bondage. The first may also be described as detach meet. The transfer of the sense of individuality to this finer consciousness. the finer consciousness of the spiritual man begins to shine in the background of the mind. and thus to the spiritual man." 39. and an understanding of the method of passing from the one consciousness to the other.
and the power of ascension is gained. we use a symbol. which first builds. in which there is an obvious exterior meaning. so characteristic of this author. and finally transfers the conscious individuality to him.ASTROCCULT. It means the strong power of aspiration. or near-by physical objects. or to pass over thorny places without wounding the feet. called here the upward-life. The upward-life means something more than the power. of the Eastern spirit. often manifested in abnormal psychical experiences. and akin to levitation. of levitating the physical body. for it is he who passes safely over the waters of death and rebirth. of upward will. The surface meaning is. and. that by mastery of a certain power. and thorny places. and the same symbol is used here. . and is not pierced by the thorns in the path. and then awakes the spiritual man. Therefore it is said that he who would tread the path of power must look for a home in the air.NET dangers of water. But there is a deeper meaning. a clear interior meaning. indeed. not quite so obvious. there comes the ability to walk on water. Here is one of the sentences. and. within this. morass. When we speak of the disciple's path as a path of thorns. but far more vital.
that vesture which a disciple has thus described: "The Lord shall change our vile body. through the life-currents which bind them together. this is written in the Katha Upanishad: "A hundred and one are the heart's channels. a strong personal magnetism. In the Upanishads. such as is often an appanage of genius. The thought in the text seems to be." This is the power of ascension spoken of in the Sutra. one might call it. 40. perhaps "body of radiance" would better translate the . of these one passes to the crown.NET and afterwards in the ether.ASTROCCULT. that. But the text seems to mean more than this and to have in view the "vesture of the colour of the sun" attributed by the Upanishads to the spiritual man. it is said that this binding-life unites the upward-life to the downward-life. the personality is endowed with a new force. that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body". Of the upward-life. By mastery of the binding-life comes radiance. he comes to the immortal. when the personality is brought thoroughly under control of the spiritual man. and these lives have their analogies in the "vital breaths" in the body. Going up this.
in thought transference or telepathy. From perfectly concentrated Meditation on the correlation of hearing and the ether. The pull of gravitation travels. 41. is carried by the air. so it may well be that. it would seem "as quick as thought".ASTROCCULT. the teaching seems to be. or some medium on the same plane of substance. . carried by the same "thought-swift" medium. or by water. it may be. travelling from the sun to the earth. that the body of the full-grown spiritual man is radiant or luminous. it is mathematically certain that the pull of gravitation does not take as much as eight seconds. In both these passages. so that they see. the thoughts travel by the same way. or even the eighth of a second.NET Greek.-for those at least. perhaps no that ether which carries light. But then is a finer hearing. the far finer ether through which the power of gravity works. For. heat and magnetic waves. we are told. take eight minutes for the journey. iron. comes the power of spiritual hearing. Physical sound. who have anointed their eyes wit! eye-salve. but. while light or heat or magnetic waves. whose medium of transmission would seem to be the ether.
its gradual acclimatization. when he wakes up on the other side of dreamland. They may speak to him either in wordless thoughts. and as. and then an etheric body. By perfectly concentrated Meditation em the correlation of the body with the ether. will come the power to traverse the ether. is what our text seems to contemplate.NET The transfer of a word by telepathy is the simplest and earliest form of the "divine hearing" of the spiritual man. 42. as that power grows. who counsel and comfort him on his way. or in perfectly definite words and sentences. through perfectly concentrated Meditation. he grows able to hear and clearly distinguish the speech of the great Companions.ASTROCCULT. It has been said that he who would tread the path of power must look for a home in the air. the spiritual man comes into more complete mastery of it. the former being the body of dreams. the latter. The gradual accustoming of the consciousness to its new etheric vesture. This would seem to mean. besides the constant injunction to detachment. . in the etheric body of the spiritual man. that he must be prepared to inhabit first a psychic. and by thinking of it as light as thistle-down. the body of the spiritual man. so to speak. and afterwards in the ether.
And I knew such a man. When the piercing vision of the awakened spiritual man is directed to the forms of matter. These five forms are analogous to those recognized by modern physics: solid.) such a one caught up to the third heaven. gaseous. I cannot tell: God knoweth. the inherent. radiant and ionic.) how that he was caught up into paradise.ASTROCCULT. Mastery of the elements comes from perfectly concentrated Meditation on their five forms: the gross. (whether in the body. the subtle. I cannot tell: God knoweth. as it were.NET 43. liquid. Perhaps the best comment on this is afforded by the words of Paul: "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago. 44. from within." The condition is. briefly. which is outside the body and not conditioned by it. which it is not lawful for a man to utter. I cannot tell. the elemental. then the veil which conceals the light is worn away. that of the awakened spiritual man. (whether in the body. who sees and hears beyond the veil. or whether out of the body. or out of the body. and heard unspeakable [or. unspoken] words. When that condition of consciousness is reached. which is far-reaching and not confined to the body. from behind . the purposive.
The body in question is. involve the power to disintegrate material forms. He is said to possess eight powers: the atomic. the etheric body of the spiritual man. of course. the power to accomplish his will. the correlative of levitation. the power of boundless reach. of the secrets they hold for you. These are the endowments of the spiritual man.ASTROCCULT. the power of creative will. it is said. the power of limitless extension.NET the scenes. Thereupon will come the manifestation of the atomic and other powers. the air." 45. which will. water wets it not. the power of gravitation. The development of your inner senses will enable you to do this. the power of assimilating himself with the nature of the atom. together with its unassailable force. so that. as the commentator says. "he can touch the moon with the tip of his finger". the power of levitation. And. Further. which are the endowment of the body. the spiritual man can impart something of this quality and temper to his bodily vesture. the sword cleaves it not. dry winds parch it not. and the water. the spiritual body is unassailable. . then perfect mastery over the "beggarly elements" is attained. This is. Fire burns it not. equivalent to the injunction: "Inquire of the earth. perhaps. the power of command. perhaps.
namely. the thought: "I perceive". for example. firm as the diamond.NET 46. second. perceive. who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire. So with the . the element of self-consciousness in them. it has its distinctive form of perception. Shapeliness. to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. it is used for the purposes of the Seer.ASTROCCULT. even to the utmost star. fourth sight has the power of extension through the whole field of vision. beauty. their inherence. This possesses. the power to grasp. fifth. The spiritual man is shapely. Take. sight. visual perception. the temper of the diamond: these are the endowments of that body. third. and I will give him the morning star. first. Therefore it is written: "These things saith the Son of God. that is. apprehend. and his feet are like fine brass: He that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end." 47. it always carries with its operations self-consciousness. force. Mastery over the powers of perception and action comes through perfectly concentrated Meditation on their fivefold forms. their power to grasp their distinctive nature. and their purposiveness. beautiful strong.
and of the world on which they report collectively. then the spiritual man stands forth in his own . a viewing it from behind and within. Thought has now become his means of locomotion. passion. as is possible for the spiritual man.ASTROCCULT. 49. When the spiritual man is perfectly disentangled from the psychic body. Perfectly concentrated Meditation on each sense.NET other senses. He is. therefore. and the mastery over matter. The spiritual man is enmeshed in the web of the emotions. fear. ambition. brings a mastery of the scope and true character of each sense. and impeded by the mental forms of separateness and materialism. Thence comes the power swift as thought. wherever he wills. he attains to mastery over all things and to a knowledge of all. in that place he already is. so that whatever place the spiritual man thinks of. to that he goes. these obstacles completely overcome. independent of instruments. When these meshes are sundered. 48. We are further enumerating the endowments of the spiritual man. desire. independent of instruments. Among these is the power to traverse space with the swiftness of thought. and can bring his force to bear directly.
which permits no exclusive particular good." 50. thou hast seen thy soul in its bloom and recognized it. spiritual life.NET wide world. To such a one it is said: "Thou art now a disciple. strong. By absence of all self-indulgence at this point. lest attachment to things evil arise once more. He uses divine powers. able to speak. There should be complete overcoming of allurement or pride in the invitations of the different realms of life. wise. since. able to hear.ASTROCCULT. able to stand. with a divine scope and energy. sows the seed of future sorrow. its confining bondage to sorrow. . This twofold sin brings its reacting punishment. a sin against the cleanness of life. working together with divine Companions. But ceasing from self-indulgence brings purity. mighty. thou hast conquered desire and attained to self-knowledge. 51. pure spiritual being is attained. and a sin against the universal being. The seeking of indulgence for the personal self. in the real. able to see. liberation. when the seeds of bondage to sorrow are destroyed. and heard the voice of the silence. all spiritual possessions are held in common. whether through passion or ambition. For this self indulgence of the personality is a double sin against the real.
are of four degrees: first. those who are entering the path. he no longer sees life as projected into past. third. present and future. but beholds all things spread out in the quiet light of the Eternal. From perfectly concentrated Meditation on the divisions of time and their succession comes that wisdom which is born of discernment. as he breaks through into the unseen worlds. that wisdom born of the unveiling of Time's delusion. . Safety lies in passing on swiftly into the inner chamber. the caution in the text is addressed. and to point to that clear-eyed spiritual perception which is above time." 52. fourth. The Upanishads say of the liberated that "he has passed beyond the triad of time". those who stand firm in pure spiritual life. These are the dangers of the anteroom. "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God. since these are forms of the mind. More modern teachers would express the same truth by a warning against the delusions and fascinations of the psychic realm. seekers for union.NET The commentator tells us that disciples.ASTROCCULT. second. To the second. and he shall go no more out. those who are in the realm of allurements. which open around the disciple. especially. those who have won the victory over matter and the senses. This would seem to be the same thought.
in the . The wisdom which is born of discernment is starlike. divining power is starlike. because it shines with its own light. because it rises on high. or things to come. That wisdom. the object returns to its primal unity. says the commentator. so that all things are spread before it together. not distinguished by difference of kind. 54. Hence comes discernment between things which are of like nature. which is above the mind. and all conditions of things. When the prism is withdrawn. but in the Eternal. that intuitive. Nought is hid from it. for it is beyond the threefold form of time.NET Then shall the disciple live neither in the present nor the future. it discerns all things. and illumines all things. of illumination. character or position. as also in the preceding Sutra. no longer distinguishable by the mind.ASTROCCULT. whether things past. things present. Here. we are close to the doctrine that distinctions of order. time and space are creations of the mind. it discerns without succession: simultaneously. the threefold prism through which the real object appears to us distorted and refracted. yet clearly knowable by that high power of spiritual discernment. 53.
the inmost part of their mind being marvellously enlarged. must first be washed pure of all stains of passion and darkness. When the vesture and the spiritual man are alike pure. the spiritual man enters into perfect spiritual life. This power has been beautifully described by Columba: "Some there are. and the seeds of future sorrow must be burned up utterly. and the enumeration of his .NET single light of the divine. as though under one ray of the sun. The vesture. even the entire circuit of the whole world with its surroundings of ocean and sky. INTRODUCTION TO BOOK IV The third book of the Sutras has fairly completed the history of the birth and growth of the spiritual man. then perfect spiritual life is attained. to whom Divine grace has granted this: that they can clearly and most distinctly see." 55. Then. says the commentator. at one and the same moment.ASTROCCULT. both the vesture and the wearer of the vesture being alike pure. though very few.
In the fourth book. we are to consider what one might call the mechanism of salvation. and prepares him for the splendid. for example. a phrase or two indicates the sweep of some universal law. only a few words. toilsome further stages of his great journey home. the life of the natural man. and fulness of power." which is the wakeful enemy of all who seek to tread the path.ASTROCCULT. that psychical "mind.NET powers. and keep in our hands the clue to the mystery. the ideally simple working of cosmic law which brings the spiritual man to birth. at least so far as concerns that first epoch in his immortal life. are given to the great triune mystery and illusion of Time. by keeping our eyes fixed on the spiritual man. Even now. since it unmasks the nature of the personality. and that all that is written concerns him and his adventures. and supersedes. In a sense. The last part of the last book needs little introduction. remembering that he is the hero of the story. growth. which immediately succeeds. The Sutras are here brief to obscurity. we can hear it . it is the most important part of the whole treatise. we may be able to find our way through this thicket of tangled words. Yet it is hoped that.
whispering the doubt whether that can be a good path, which thus sets "mind" at defiance.
If this, then, be the most vital and fundamental part of the teaching, should it not stand at the very beginning? It may seem so at first; but had it stood there, we should not have comprehended it. For he who would know the doctrine must lead the life, doing the will of his Father which is in Heaven.
1. Psychic and spiritual powers may be inborn, or they may be gained by the use of drugs, or by incantations, or by fervour, or by Meditation.
Spiritual powers have been enumerated and described in the preceding sections. They are the normal powers of the spiritual man, the antetype, the divine edition, of the powers of the natural man. Through these powers, the spiritual man stands, sees, hears, speaks, in the spiritual world, as the physical man stands, sees, hears, speaks
in the natural world.
There is a counterfeit presentment of the spiritual man, in the world of dreams, a shadow lord of shadows, who has his own dreamy powers of vision, of hearing, of movement; he has left the natural without reaching the spiritual. He has set forth from the shore, but has not gained the further verge of the river. He is borne along by the stream, with no foothold on either shore. Leaving the actual, he has fallen short of the real, caught in the limbo of vanities and delusions. The cause of this aberrant phantasm is always the worship of a false, vain self, the lord of dreams, within one's own breast. This is the psychic man, lord of delusive and bewildering psychic powers.
Spiritual powers, like intellectual or artistic gifts, may be inborn: the fruit, that is, of seeds planted and reared with toil in a former birth. So also the powers of the psychic man may be inborn, a delusive harvest from seeds of delusion.
Psychical powers may be gained by drugs, as poverty, shame, debasement may be gained by the self-same drugs. In their action, they are baneful, cutting the man off from consciousness of the restraining power of his divine nature, so that his forces break forth exuberant,
like the laughter of drunkards, and he sees and hears things delusive. While sinking, he believes that he has risen; growing weaker, he thinks himself full of strength; beholding illusions, he takes them to be true. Such are the powers gained by drugs; they are wholly psychic, since the real powers, the spiritual, can never be so gained.
Incantations are affirmations of half-truths concerning spirit and matter, what is and what is not, which work upon the mind and slowly build up a wraith of powers and a delusive well-being. These, too, are of the psychic realm of dreams.
Lastly, there are the true powers of the spiritual man, built up and realized in Meditation, through reverent obedience to spiritual law, to the pure conditions of being, in the divine realm.
2. The transfer of powers from one venture to another comes through the flow of the natural creative forces.
Here, if we can perceive it, is the whole secret of spiritual birth, growth and life Spiritual being, like all being, is but an expression of the Self, of the inherent power and being of Atma. Inherent in the Self are consciousness and will, which have, as their lordly heritage, the
with its expression of his inherent powers. And the consciousness of the Self may make itself manifest as seeing. and raise his consciousness thereto. the spiritual vesture shall be built up for him there. since the divine is no strange . Nor will migration thither be difficult for the Self. tasting. Where the Self is.ASTROCCULT. there will the treasure be also. to speak. just as the white sunlight may divide into many-coloured rays. where the heart is. therefore a vesture of natural elements came into being. or in moving. and when the Self. to walk. with it. through which blossomed forth the Self's powers of perceiving and of will: the power to see. So may the will of the Self manifest itself in the uttering of words. or whatsoever perceptive powers there may be. shall set his desire on the divine and real world. hearing. wherein the Self sought to mirror himself that he might know himself. And wherever the consciousness and desire of the ever-creative Self are fixed. It is but a question of the vesture through which these powers shall shine forth. or in handling. and. there will its powers be. Since through ages the desire of the Self has been toward the natural world. to hear.NET wide sweep of the universe throughout eternity. there will a vesture be built up. thus come to self-consciousness. and whatever powers of action there are throughout the seven worlds. to a knowledge of his imprisonment. feeling. for the Self is one with the Eternal. to handle.
gathers hydrogen from the water and carbon from the gases in the air. And so the plants germinate and grow. The husbandman but removes the obstacles. but the house of his home. 3. turning the little rills from the irrigation tank now this way and that. for fear of birds and the wind. he sows his seed. like the husbandman in his field. finally. It is. he waters the seed-laden earth. which brings forth after its kind. He plants and . then the full corn in the ear. in presence of the green colouring matter of the leaves. the miraculous plasmic power in the grain of seed. The apparent. removing obstacles from the channels. it takes obstacles away.NET or foreign land for him. and mingles them in the hydro-carbons of plant growth. immediate cause is not the true cause of the creative nature-powers. first. the wholly occult vital powers of the plant itself.ASTROCCULT. until the even How of water vitalizes the whole field. carefully covering it. then the alchemy of sunlight which. where he dwells from everlasting. breaking up the clods of earth into fine mould. and. But it is not the husbandman who makes them grow. and flowing down from the primal sources of life. first the blade. The husbandman tills his field. then the ear. penetrable to air and rain. stored up through ages. but.
to find selfhood there. to speak exactly. built up about the physical self. So with the finer husbandman of diviner fields. . When the Self attributes itself to the physical body. but the growth of the spiritual man comes through the surge and flow of divine. Finally it stands forth radiant. but God gives the increase. He tills and sows. 4. in turn attaches itself to three vestures: first. there arise the states of bodily consciousness. God gives the increase. begins to see and feel itself in the finer body. creative forces and powers. The divine Self puts forth. to the physical body. for the manifestation of its powers. as the Self. luminous. The Self. again. joyous. then the states of consciousness of the finer body come into being. When the Self. Vestures of consciousness are built up in conformity with the Boston of the feeling of selfhood.NET waters. Here. and thirdly to the causal body. the body of the spiritual man. then to the finer body. a new and finer vesture. breaking through this first illusion. or. says a great Teacher.ASTROCCULT.
Nor must it dwell forever there. is the elective cause of many states of consciousness.ASTROCCULT. And so. all a question of raising the sense of selfhood. It is all a question of the states of consciousness. In the different fields of manifestation. . Whether it breaks through as the dull fire of physical life. or the full glory of the Divine. with its own splendour and everlastingness. Here is the splendid teaching of oneness that lies at the heart of the Eastern wisdom. or the radiance of the spiritual man. is the One Self of All Beings. the Consciousness. to build up the wide and luminous fields of consciousness that belong to that. until it dwells forever in the Eternal. everywhere and forever. The Eternal. Consciousness is One. it is ever the Light. But the Self must not dwell permanently there. It must learn to find itself in the causal body. though one. for there remains the fourth state. or the murky flame of the psychic and passional. Consciousness is ultimately One. the divine. the Father. 5. in each individual who is but a facet of that Self.NET the finer body and its states of consciousness arise and grow together.
Where the consciousness breaks forth in the physical body. on every plane. too. and where there is egotism there is ever the seed of future sorrow. But where the pure spiritual consciousness begins. its progression carries with it inevitable limitations. Desire carries bondage in its womb. So do the states of consciousness run along the circle of birth and death. free from self and . and the full play of bodily life begins. is the very essence of the psychic.NET naught but the Light. Meetings have their partings. With the psychic. Birth involves death. the alternation between prize and penalty is swifter. Pleasure passes through deadness into pain. Hunger alternates with satiety. In all psychic states there is egotism. Pain's surcease brings pleasure back again. indeed. Exclusive love is tortured by jealousy. that which is born of Contemplation is free from the seed of future sorrow. Among states of consciousness. Hope has its shadow of fear. or it is no hope. which. So here. The one Consciousness is the effective cause of all states of consciousness. 6.ASTROCCULT. the states of consciousness run their circle. Age follows on the heels of youth.
He fears no hell and desires no heaven. 7. like the passionate mood of the lover. his guerdon. and works cleanly and immediately. the penalty of sorrow lapses and is no more imposed. The soul now passes. The works of followers after Union make neither for bright pleasure nor for dark pain The works of others make for pleasure or pain. His heart dwells in the Eternal. conversely. Works done with self-seeking bear within them the seeds of future sorrow. all his desires are set . but from glory to glory. But. is part pleasure and part pain. best. or. He comes directly in line with the divine Will. as so often happens in life. for him who has gone beyond desire. or incurs the penalty of pain. neither pain to be avoided nor pleasure to be gained inspires his work.NET stain. no longer from sorrow to sorrow. to know the will of the Father and finish His work. the ancient law of retaliation ceases. His one desire is. The man of desire wins from his works the reward of pleasure. present pain is future gain. Its growth and splendour have no limit. The good passes to better. according to the proverb. without longing or fear. whose desire is set on the Eternal. or a mingling of these.ASTROCCULT.
Now let us take an imaginary case. is the concern of the personal man. reproducing themselves in one personality after another. Karma. to see how these forces may work out. So the man will be born . In other words he has made a deep wound in his own psychic body. We are now to consider the general mechanism of Karma. bodily tissue will be built up. upon which. with its wound still there. when he comes to be born again. in order that we may pass on to the consideration of him who is free from Karma. Let us think of a man. of his bondage or freedom.ASTROCCULT. that body will become his outermost vesture. at the same instant he paints. It is the succession of the forces which built up the personal man.NET on the Eternal. 8. From the force inherent in works comes the manifestation of those dynamic mind images which are conformable to the ripening out of each of these works. striking with a dagger at his enemy. and. indeed. in his own mind. He makes a red wound in his victim's breast. with murderous intent in his heart. a picture of that wound: a picture dynamic with all the fierce will-power he has put into his murderous blow.
which is a ray . bringing together into one day of life the seeds gathered from many days. revealing the hidden. The memory constantly exemplifies this power. Works separated by different nature.NET maimed. or with the predisposition to some mortal injury. Thus do the dynamic mind-images manifest themselves.ASTROCCULT. are brought together by the correspondence between memory and dynamic impression. and any trifling accidental blow will pierce the broken Joints of his psychic armour. somewhat as the light of the magic lantern projects the details of a picture on the screen. he is unguarded at that point. read at different times. In like manner. the same over-ruling selective power. or place. so does this divine ray exercise a selective power on the dynamic mind-images. or time. and making secret things palpable and visible. coming to the surface. 9. so that works done in the past may ripen and come to fruition. the effect is brought about by the ray of creative force sent down by the Self. So a prayer may call up many prayers. Just as. a passage of poetry will call up in the mind like passages of many poets. in the ripening out of mind-images into bodily conditions.
wherein the soul reaches toward the Eternal. from which the rest arose. visible bodily conditions or outward circumstances are brought about. to the end of self-expression.ASTROCCULT. Just as the dynamic mind-images of desire ripen out in bodily conditions and circumstances. Therefore the initial impulse behind these dynamic mind-images comes from the Self and is the descending ray of the Self. and may be grouped in the frame of a single life or a single event. is a part of the mechanism which the Self employs. so that it cannot be said that there is any first member of the series of images. 10. which make up the entire history of the personal man. building the vesture of the spiritual man. and by these the soul is taught and trained. to mirror itself in a reflection. selfrealization. self-knowledge. The impulse is . because Desire is everlasting. The series of dynamic mind-images is beginningless.NET of the Higher Self. so the far more dynamic powers of aspiration. gathers together from different births and times and places those mind-images which are conformable. have their fruition in a finer world. to embody its powers in an outward form. Through this grouping. The whole series of dynamic mind-images.
it is to turn to the Eternal. Desire is not to cease. 11. that the time of imprisonment may come to an end. the day of liberation dawn? The answer is given in the Sutra just translated. by the support of outer things desired. therefore.NET beginningless. and with the process whereby the forces which have upheld it are gradually transferred to the life of the spiritual man. and build up for him his finer vesture in a finer world. The driving-force is withdrawn and directed to the upbuilding of the spiritual body. . by the wish for personal reward. which is from everlasting.ASTROCCULT. We are still concerned with the personal life in its bodily vesture. by the substratum of mental habit. to be checked. How is the current to be changed? How is the flow of self-reproductive mind-images. Since the dynamic mind-images are held together by impulses of desire. the self reproduction of dynamic mind-images ceases. since it comes from the Self. when these cease. and so become aspiration. which have built the conditions of life after life in this world of bondage.
that one of the names of the Enlightened is: "he who has passed beyond the three times: past. I am". 12. present. and again. future. depends on the difference of phase of their properties.ASTROCCULT. present and future is.NET When the building impulses and forces are withdrawn. The difference between that which is past and that which is not yet come. an illusion. the tendency to manifest a new psychical body. the Master speaks of himself as "the alpha and the omega. which has always been held to be of great moment in the Eastern wisdom: the thought that the division of time into past. ceases with them. the beginning and the . in great measure. a new body of bondage. using the eternal present for past and future alike. according to their natures. future all dwell together in the eternal Now. The discernment of this truth has been held to be so necessarily a part of wisdom. unto the end of the world". "I am with you always. present. that past. Here we come to a high and difficult matter. With the same purpose." So the Western Master said: "Before Abraham was.
both past and future are consummated. and future. without past or future. it is a different form of existence. man is eternal in the divine sense. He lives undividedly." And a Master of our own days writes: "I feel even irritated at having to use these three clumsy words--past. without limitations." In the eternal Now. Conceived by God. Man as an entity for himself must have the natural limitations for the part. Bjorklund. but conceived.. The eternal is a constant present without beginning or end." 13. has well stated the same truth: "Neither past nor future can exist to God. These properties. by himself. Eternity then is not identical with unending time.ASTROCCULT.NET end. the Swedish philosopher. as man. the first and the last. and needs not. man's eternal life is clothed in the limitations we call time. to plot out his existence in a series of moments. related to time as the perfect to the imperfect . as an axe for fine carving. are of the nature of . they are about as ill adapted for the purpose.. Miserable concepts of the objective phases of the subjective whole. whether manifest or latent. present.
whether subjective or objective. Every material manifestation is a projection of substance into the empty space of darkness. or inert. all things that present themselves to the perceiving consciousness are compounded of these three. and the object remains . We should be inclined to express the same law by saying. The Three Potencies are the three manifested modifications of the one primal material. which stands opposite to perceiving consciousness. latent or manifest. The external manifestation of an object takes place when the transformations ore in the same phase. Darkness. that a sound is audible.ASTROCCULT. or viewed rather for their moral colouring. These Three Potencies are called Substance. Goodness. when it consists of vibrations within the compass of the auditory nerve. it sends forth luminiferous vibrations within the compass of the retina and the optic nerve. 14. when either directly or by reflection. So. This is a fundamental doctrine of the Sankhya system. Inertness. Passion. Vibrations below or above that compass make no impression at all. for example. that an object is visible.NET the Three Potencies. or passional. Force. Every mental state is either good.
ASTROCCULT. while Karma depends on perception and will. the sage recognizes the fact that from this may be drawn the false deduction that material things are in no wise different from states of mind. the external manifestation of the object takes place. though the kettle is sending forth heat vibrations closely akin to light. for example. a kettle of boiling water in a dark room. So. 15. The paths of material things and of states of consciousness are distinct." is likewise a question of phase. and things to come. so the perception of things past. may be easy from a higher point of view. Having shown that our bodily condition and circumstances depend on Karma." or its remaining hid in the "past. The . There seems to be a further suggestion that the appearance of an object in the "present. just as the range of vibrations perceived might be increased by the development of finer senses. when the vibrations of the object and those of the perceptive power are in the same phase. and.NET invisible. as is manifest from the fact that the same object may produce different impressions in different minds. as." or "future.
Nor do material objects depend upon a single mind. by various reasonings. and that aspiration which builds the vesture of the spiritual man. yet its material expression is ordered. not subject to the whims or affirmations of a single mind. with the moderns. through obedience. .NET same thought has occurred. for how could they remain objective to others. nor idealistic in the extreme sense. while the universe is spiritual. holding that matter is the manifestation of spirit as a whole. everywhere obedient to law. and not by denying their existence on their own plane. carrying on the thought that.ASTROCCULT. but rather intuitional and spiritual. 16. by rising to a realm above them. or Ether. like spirit. consistent. that the material world is not made by the mood of any human mind. Unwelcome material things may be escaped by spiritual growth. So that our system is neither materialistic. and still occurs. if that mind ceased to think of them? This is but a further development of the thought of the preceding Sutra. and. ruled by law. with the ancients. whether we call this Mahat. a reflection or externalization of spirit. they all come to the same wise conclusion. The path of liberation is not through denial of matter but through denial of the wills of self. to all philosophers. and. but is rather the manifestation of the totality of invisible Being.
used to the sound. the mind perceives only those which conform to the hue of its Karma. and does not once suspect their being.NET 17. or not perceived. The simplest manifestation of this is the matter of attention.ASTROCCULT. that out of the vast totality of objects ever present in the universe. suddenly he beholds it. for example. according as the mind is. or. An object is perceived. The rest remain unseen. Our minds apprehend what they wish to apprehend. do not notice it at all. but takes another way. This spiritual law has been well expressed by Emerson: "Through solidest eternal things the man finds his road as if they did not subsist. But the deeper meaning is. all else passes unnoticed. we perceive what we resent. that . As soon as he needs a new object. as. or is not. on the other hand. while others. and no longer attempts to pass through it. tinged with the colour of the object. the noise of a passing train. even though close at hand. When he has exhausted for the time the nourishment to be drawn from any one person or thing.
for the same multitude. Here is teaching of the utmost import. desire and hate: the things that make the multitude of men and women deem themselves happy or miserable. with its dark and narrow view . both for understanding and for practice. which. he does not suspect its presence. and endure mock funerals and mournful obituaries. nor Paul. the doubt and questioning. who is the lord of them. remains unchanging. since the Spiritual Man.NET object is withdrawn from his observation. Nothing is dead. and there they stand looking out of the window. nor Aristotle. nor Mahomet. all hoping and fearing." 18.ASTROCCULT. To it also belong the measuring and comparing. Men feign themselves dead. sound and well. Jesus is not dead. and could easily tell the names under which they go. So that there results the emotion-soaked personality. at times we believe we have seen them all. To the psychic nature belong all the ebb and flow of emotion. in some new and strange disguise. he is very well alive: nor John. make up mental life. and though still in his immediate neighbourhood. The movements of the psychic nature are perpetually objects of perception.
it seeks to impose on the whole being of man its narrow. but only a spectacle which the true man observes. One first masters the personality. outward. faithless view of life and the universe. This standing back is the first step. the "mind. materialistic. who. not the living soul at all. terror driven personality that is life itself for all but all of mankind. the personality. from within. 19. by steadily watching its ebb and flow. since it can be seen as an object. This psychic self. and therefore not the real Self. standing in the quiet light of the Eternal. as objective. This is a further step toward overthrowing the tyranny of the "mind": the psychic nature of emotion and mental measuring. The Mind is not self-luminous." by thus looking down on it from above. and draw ourselves up inwardly to the height of the Spiritual Man. Let us under stand this. Yet the personality is not the true man. detachment. to maintain the vantage-ground thus gained.ASTROCCULT. The second. is recollection. claims to be absolute. it would clip the . asserting that life is for it and through it.NET of life: the shivering. therefore. looks down serene upon this turmoil of the outer life.
or. . truly is. the ceaseless strife and contradiction of opinion among those who trust in the mind. nor any sense of real values. 20. The truth is that the "mind" knows neither external things nor itself. Much less can the "mind" know itself.NET wings of the soaring Soul. but only an object of observation. because it is pervaded by the illusion that it truly knows. it ever falls short of wisdom. Nor could the Mind at the same time know itself and things external to it." its secrets cannot be learned through the "mind. the vision of the Spiritual Man. which comes only through intuition. it never really attains to knowledge. Ceaselessly active. if we admit its knowledge. its hoping and fearing. Its measuring and analyzing. first. by perceiving and steadily affirming that the psychic self is no true self at all. when the Spiritual Man. never give it a true measure of life. not self-luminous. But the Soul dethrones the tyrant. the more so.ASTROCCULT. hating and desiring. watched by the serene eyes of the Spiritual Man. Life cannot be known by the "mind." The proof is. True knowledge of the "mind" comes.
and then begins the long battle of the "mind. but only a postponement of the solution. To this strategy the argument is opposed by our philosopher. . endlessly. then there would be an endless series of perceiving Minds. and thus leaving no need nor place for the Spiritual Man. stands detached. One of the expedients by which the "mind" seeks to deny and thwart the Soul. craftily. with quiet eyes. For we should have to find yet another part of the mind to view the first observing part. is to assert that this seeing is the work of a part of itself. for its supremacy. and a confusion of memories. 21. and then another to observe this. But the truth is divined long before it is clearly seen. when it feels that it is beginning to be circumvented and seen through. one part observing the other. If the Mind be thought of as seen by another more inward Mind." against the Real. the "mind" fighting doggedly. that this would be no true solution. regarding the "mind" from above. and seeing it for the tangled web of psychic forces that it truly is.ASTROCCULT. and so on.NET arising.
if we thought of one part of the "mind. by reflecting it. This is." which would be a hopeless. . when he views the psychic pictures gallery.ASTROCCULT." with its memories. the Spiritual Man. it reflected in its plastic substance the images of the earthy. as it were. giving the spiritual intelligence a visible form. this is "memory. We are considering a stage of spiritual life at which the psychical nature has been cleansed and purified. the purpose of the whole evolutionary process.NET The true solution is. that the Spiritual Man looks down upon the psychic nature. purified now. The Self. in which its spiritual intelligence has. taken palpable shape. with memories of its own. and thus becomes not only conscious. it reflects the image of the heavenly. inextricable confusion. from one point of view. 22. self-comprehension. then the Self becomes conscious of its own spiritual intelligence. The solution of the mystery lies not in the "mind" but beyond it. and observes it. The Self sees itself in this mirror. but self-conscious. When the psychical nature takes on the form of the spiritual intelligence. Formerly. in the luminous life of the risen Lord. thereby reaches self-recognition. viewing another part. beholding that visible form.
The suffering of regeneration springs from this indispensable purifying. In the unregenerate man. no longer stained. Then comes regeneration. and the washing away of sin. or heard. though they be as crimson. but suffused with golden light. they shall be white as snow. through the fiery. purifying it as gold is refined in the furnace. Thus the Spiritual Man puts on fair raiment. The psychic nature. The sensation of sweet things tasted clamours to be renewed. piling up sin's intolerable burden. so he adds image to image.ASTROCCULT. which burns out the stains of the psychic vesture. creative power of the Soul. the psychic nature is saturated with images of material things. Then the psychic vesture begins to take on the colour of the Soul. . or felt. and the man red generate gleams with the radiance of eternity. of things seen. and drives the man into effort to obtain its renewal. and this web of dynamic images forms the ordinary material and driving power of life.NET 23. or tasted. leads to the perception of all objects. each dynamic and importunate. for of this cleansing it is said: Though your sins be as scarlet. taking on the colour of the Seer and of things seen.
and pass out of the vision of mankind. finding kinship with angels. the hosts of the just made perfect. not to share. who now stands in the heavenly realm. and fitted and perfected by the very struggles he has waged against it." once the tyrant. he shall enter altogether there. he likewise finds his part in the toil of angels. he. The psychic nature. It is true that he dwells in heaven. but he has at the same time found a new kinship with the prone children of men. needs his instrument on earth. who stumble and sin in the dark. Finding sinlessness. not Self. a well-trained instrument of the Spiritual Man. recognized as outward. For this work.ASTROCCULT. but he also dwells on earth. He has angels and archangels. and this instrument he finds. The "mind. ready to his hand. which has been printed with mind-images of innumerable material things.NET they shall be as wool. exists now for the Spiritual Man. is now the slave. finding his high realm. For it is not ordained for the Spiritual Man that. 24. he finds also that the world's sin and shame are his. separate. for his familiar friends. building for him. the toil for the redemption of the world. . but to atone.
healing love? ." of the personal man. once the long. impossible dream. And then it will be seen that unfaith and despair were but weapons of the "mind." and the mind's worldview is won.ASTROCCULT. well-nigh hopeless. after consoling. bearing witness.NET in the personality. Have you aspired. in misery and pain. most impossible aspiration shall be realized. 25. This once tyrant is now his servant and perfect ambassador. How many times in the long struggle have the Soul's aspirations seemed but a hopeless. arduous fight against the "mind." to daunt the Soul. and put off the day when the neck of the "mind" shall be put under the foot of the Soul. a madman's counsel of perfection. after immortality? You shall be paid by entering the immortality of God. Yet every finest. and ten times more than realized. the "mind. For him who discerns between the Mind and the Spiritual Man. before men. Have you aspired. of heavenly things and even in this present world doing the will and working the works of the Father. there comes perfect fruition of the longing after the real being of the Self.
. 26. building up.ASTROCCULT. and all the immortal hosts of the Dawn. infinite. Therefore overcome. These are the fruits of victory. in your day of feebleness. Have you sought ardently. Thereafter. with God working the works of God. the whole personal being bends toward illumination. that salvation means. toward Eternal Life. after power? You shall wield power immortal. Therefore die to self. longed for companionship and consolation? You shall have angels and archangels for your friends. not merely that a soul shall be cleansed and raised to heaven. that you may rise again to God. in lonely darkness. Have you. These are the prizes of regeneration. but that the whole realm of the natural powers shall be redeemed.NET You shall be made a dispenser of the divine love of God Himself to weary souls. even in this present world. the kingly figure of the Spiritual Man. This is part of the secret of the Soul.
ere the foe. myths. 27. wholly conquered. unreserved surrender of the vanquished. demi-gods. Go not forth to this battle without counting the cost. majestic. fill the memories of all the nobler peoples. and unconditional. . no longer demi-god. when he shall be known. In the internals of the batik. it can be ended only by sweeping victory. But the time cometh. will come new foes. For once this conflict is begun. mind-born children springing up to fight for mind. Ages have gone to the strengthening of the foe. working amid men for the life and cleansing of all souls. nor myth. uncomprehended shadows.ASTROCCULT. The battle is long and arduous.NET The traditions of the ages are full of his footsteps. forgotten lives. in hours when the contest flags. And from these long past ages. reinforcements coming from forgotten years. through the impressions of the dynamic mind-images. the Soul's minister to mankind. but the ever-present Redeemer. nor shadow. becomes the servant. other thoughts will arise. Let there be no mistake as to that. Ages of conflict must be spent.
These are to be overcome as it was taught that hindrances should be overcome. immeasurable. whether in victory or defeat. undaunted. He who.NET 28. we must kill out ambition. knowing that the spiritual will. that ground gained can be held permanently. once awakened. These new enemies and fears are to be overcome by ceaselessly renewing the fight. This is the true spiritual consciousness. at the beginning of the way. for whom you fight. that great as is the dead-weight of the adversary.ASTROCCULT. while the Warrior who fights for you. after he has attained. invincible. is. For the Soul is older than all things. shall. through the effort of the contest. 29. it is of the very nature of the Soul to be unconquerable. is wholly free from self. it is yet measurable. come to its full strength. It has been said that. everlasting. dogged persistence. reaches the essence of all that can be known. the giant weed which grows as strongly in . Therefore fight on. by a steadfast. and invincible. gathered together like a cloud. the great curse. which shall put the stubbornness of the rocks to shame. in might.
31. which seeks to counteract the evil wrought by disobedience. that purity of heart which gives the vision of God. he comes into oneness of being with God. humility. from that debt to works which comes from works done in self-love and desire. Through obedience to the will of God. seeing all life as God sees it. When the conflict with the divine will ceases. he who has attained is wrapt about with the essence of all that can be known. thereby enters into joy. then sorrow ceases. 30.NET the heart of the devoted disciple as in the man of desire. Thereafter. and he who has grown into obedience. Free from self-will.ASTROCCULT. his knowledge becomes infinite. little remains for him to know. he is initiated into God's view of the universe. Thereon comes surcease from sorrow and the burden of toil. he is free from sorrow. . Such a one. all stains washed away. through the correcting stress of the divine will. is free from the bond of Karma. he has that perfect illumination which is the true spiritual consciousness. The remedy is sacrifice of self. When all veils are rent. obedience. too. as with a cloud. it is said. from the burden of toil. for sorrow comes from the fight of self-will against the divine will.
thou shalt discern thy oneness with everlasting Life. leading up to this. The second veil is the delusion of enduring separateness from thy other selves. Thereafter comes the completion of the series of transformations of the three nature potencies. the divine Eternal. thou shalt enter into knowledge of divine things and human things. designed for this end. It is a part of the beauty and wisdom of the great Indian teachings. The world's sin and shame are thy sin and shame: its joy also. the Vedanta and the Yoga alike. since their purpose is attained. . whereas in truth the soul that is in them is one with the soul that is in thee.NET The first veil is the delusion that thy soul is in some permanent way separate from the great Soul. They teach that all nature is an orderly process of evolution. existing only for this: to bring forth and perfect the Spiritual Man. the goal of all development is attained. 32. to hold that all life exists for the purposes of Soul. Little will remain unknown to thee. for the making of the spiritual man. When that veil is rent. These veils rent.ASTROCCULT. He is the crown of evolution: at his coming.
therefore. Sansara. which makes him heir of the Everlasting. the crowning transformation. . there is no longer eternal change. time gives place to duration. the inverse resolution of the potencies of Nature. It is change evermore. 34. but eternal Being. The series of transformations is divided into moments. a ceaseless series of transformations. While we are content to live in and for Nature. But the Spiritual Man enters a new order.ASTROCCULT. When the series is completed. and that which dies must be reborn. for him. or it is the return of the power of pure Consciousness to its essential form. Pure spiritual life is. we doom ourselves to perpetual change. and the eternity of change. says the commentary: the eternity of immortal life. That which is born must die. This spiritual birth.NET 33. There are two kinds of eternity. sets a term to change. it is the culmination. which belongs to the Spirit. He has entered into the joy of his Lord. which have emptied themselves of their value for the Spiritual man. in all that is not Spirit. in the Circle of Necessity. of the whole realm of change. which inheres in Nature.
radiant with infinite Light. These things are lifted from their path.ASTROCCULT. turns again home". have no excuse to linger over dialectic subtleties or disputes. . The birth and growth of the Spiritual Man. or it may be looked at. and his entry into his immortal heritage. may be regarded.NET Here we have a splendid generalization. lest they should be tempted to delay over them. either as the culmination of the whole process of natural evolution and involution. in which our wise philosopher finally reconciles the naturalists and the idealists. and they are left facing the path itself. stretching upward and onward from their feet to the everlasting hills. as the Vedantins look at it. which are but two accounts of the same thing. where "that which flowed from out the boundless deep. first in the terms of the naturalist. There is no discrepancy or conflict between these two views. be they naturalist or idealist. and then in the terms of the idealist. expressing the crown and end of his teaching. Therefore those who study the wise philosopher. says our philosopher. as the restoration of pure spiritual Consciousness to its pristine and essential form.
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