Studies in theosophy

Preface

In presenting to the world a popular treatise on Theosophy, the author, who is in some respects merely an amanuensis and in others a compiler, desires to offer to the reading public, in portable form and at moderate price, a work which shall, in spite of many obvious limitations, possess the following advantages : —

1st. Lucidity of statement, conciseness of style, and freedom from all unnecessary use of technical or foreign terms.

2d. A systematic and orderly review of the Theosophic teachings of many of the world's greatest teachers of ancient and modern times, and notably an impartial presentation of the views of great bodies of religionists and philosophers whose theories have frequently been misstated or criticised in an unfriendly spirit.

3d. A practical digest of the teachings of Universal Theosophy and an application of these to the great industrial, social, and religious problems of the present day.

4th. Practical advice and direction to students seeking to translate theory into practice, and express in some measure, in their own lives, the truth so easily and frequently stated orally and on paper.

4 PREFACE.

5th. Reviews of current Theosophical and kindred literature in the form of short sketches or digests of the contents of such publications, designed for the twofold purpose of calling attention to increasing interest in such works, through extending a knowledge of them, and to help busy people who have little opportunity for extensive reading to get as much information as possible during their limited periods of leisure.

The following essays and reviews have been prepared amid a multiplicity of other engagements ; no claim is made for perfection of literary style nor for exhaustiveness in treatment. Such a book as the one now offered, many people have long felt to be in demand; and in response to numerous and urgent requests it has now been compiled and thrown upon the sea of public approval or criticism, to meet whatever fate may be its destiny. As an evidence of the interest taken in it prior to publication, it need only be stated that considerably more than 1000 copies were ordered and paid for before the manuscript was placed in the publishers' hands ; by this means the entire cost of production was defrayed in advance by the concerted action of confiding subscribers. All who thus secured its production and freedom from liability received their copies before the book was placed in the general market. A second edition from electroplates is now being prepared, which will be offered to the world at large, at $1.50 per copy, post free, or 6s. in England. As soon as the demand warrants the issue of a very large edition, thereby greatly reducing the cost per copy, the price will be permanently fixed at $1.00 in America, 4s. in England and

PREFACE. 5

the Colonies, thereby placing it at half the usual price for a book of similar size and style in the hands of all interested. Hoping it may do somebody some good, it is trustingly committed to the world by the compiler,

W. J. COLVILLE.

N. B. The twenty-four lectures which constitute a considerable portion of this book were originally delivered inspiration ally by W. J. Colville to classes in San Francisco and other cities. As a great desire was expressed by numerous persons who attended them, for their publication, reports were taken from time to time, which were subsequently revised and altered whenever necessary to adapt them for permanent reading.

CONTENTS,

LECTURE I. page

Theosopht: what it is, and what it is not 9

LECTURE II.

The Teachings of Theosopht, as promulgated by the Theosophical Society, considered in a Review of a widely circulating pamphlet 22

LECTURE m.

The Work and Possibilities of the Theosophical Society and its Branches , 40

LECTURE IV.

Miracles and Modern Thought 54

LECTURE V.

Egyptian Theosophy 68

LECTURE VI.

Egyptian Theosophy (continued). — The Great Pyramid . . 86

LECTURE VII.

Atlantis 102

LECTURE VIII.

Fragments of Forgotten History; or, Atlantis " reconstructed " 130

LECTURE IX.

Oriental Theosophy. — Brahmanism and Buddhism . . . 157

LECTURE X.

ady of the SouP Repeated Earthly Experiences 174

Through the Ages. A Study of the Soul's Progression through

8 CONTENTS.

LECTURE XI. page

A Further Study of Embodiment. — The Law op Karma

(Sequence), and how it operates in Daily Life . . . 198

LECTURE XII.

The Mystery of the Ages. — The Secret Doctrine contained in All Religions 230

LECTURE XIII.

Persian, Greek, and Roman Theosophy 254

LECTURE XIV.

Chinese Theosophy. — Confucianism 271

LECTURE XV.

Electrical Christian Theosophy ; Electricity the Basis

of Life ; an Electric Creed ; Electrical Therapeutics, 297

LECTURE XVI.

Theism, Spiritualism, and Theosophy : their Essential Agreement and Necessary Union 343

LECTURE XVII.

The Attitude of Theosophy toward Spiritualism and All the Great Religions of the World 366

LECTURE XVIII.

Theosophy, Spiritualism, and Christianity 388

LECTURE XIX.

Why are there Contradictory Teachings through Mediums ? — What is the True Standard of Authority?. 408

LECTURE XX.

Ingersollism and Theosophy. — Colonel Ingersoll's Creed, 431

LECTURE XXL " Robert Elsmere "j or, the Old Fetters and the New Faith, 455

LECTURE XXII.

Christ re-conceived; or, the Basis of the New Religion . 475

LECTURE I.

THEOSOPHY: WHAT IT IS, AND WHAT IT IS NOT.

At a time when Theosophy is being most absurdly identified in the public mind with a special idea of Hinduism, it seems the plain duty of those who know better, to speak out boldly and with no uncertainty of tone in explanatory defence of the great movement known as Theosophical, now inviting the world to a fuller understanding, than has heretofore been practical, of the various outward forms and systems in which the one essential truth of religion has manifested its spirit through the ages. To those of our readers who have not made etymology a study, we would particularly emphasize the right use of the word religion, which means union, righteousness, co-operation, and a great deal more which is thoroughly practical, and indeed essential to human welfare.

Free religion may be said to mean religion untrammelled by creeds and dogmas, which, in the very nature of things, are not susceptible of absolute, or indeed sufficient verification to commend them as certainties to an intelligent mind. Matthew Arnold, one of the greatest literary lights of the present century, was never tired of enforcing his favorite proposition, that religion really means righteousness ; and that, as this is so, it behooves all men who have an eye to the general welfare of humanity, to hold together as much as possible in support of all institutions which are on the side of the higher nature of man. Arnold, being an Englishman, and a patriotic Englishman, naturally felt a warm affection for English institutions, and thus worked diligently in the interests of the Established Church; though in many if not all his essays he has put a construction upon the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, and the object and meaning of church ordinances, entirely at variance with popular tradition.

We mention Arnold, as he is a well-known author, deservedly respected by reason of his general fairness, breadth, and liberality (though, unfortunately, he is neither fair, broad, nor liberal in his summary dismissal of Spiritualism), only as an example of the tone adopted toward religion by men of culture, who in a great general way are disposed to treat all matters without prejudice or undue bias. Those who oppose religion violently are almost invariably destitute of any approach to genuine culture ; or, if literary and scholarly, they are so violently led by passion or strong feeling as to become victims of emotion rather than calm deliberators in the open court of general appeal. For bigots and partisans we do not attempt to write, nor are we anxious to address them or converse with them at any time on subjects of moment to humanity, for the simple reason that they are determined to see only one side of any question. Such people may be fervidly religious or flagrantly irreligious, in the popular acceptation of those words ; but in either case prejudice blinds them ;

they are convinced that all truth is in some one narrow system of their own ; and while they prate of science, they are hopeless sophists or sciolists, undertaking most irrationally to force upon the world one system of thought only, and that system one so exclusive as to condemn probably ninety-nine per cent of the human family either to the hell of orthodoxy or the society of fools and knaves which constitutes the Tartarus of the heterodox.

Now for any one to come to the study of Theosophy pre-determined to prove one system of religion all right and other systems all wrong, is for him to so disqualify himself for the task before him as to make his study useless. We therefore appeal only to the fair-minded and liberal, and these we address with the certain conviction that they will not object to the motto, " There is no religion higher than truth." But what is Truth ? Pilate is not dead yet ; his modern representatives are still asking the same old question, and, unfortunately, those of Pilate's ilk (or perhaps fortunately) may go on asking it as long as they are of the mental fibre of Pilate, to the end of any number of ages or worlds, and still receive no answer from those who have the knowledge of truth within them.

This statement may seem confounding to many, but those whom it is likely to confound have not studied the Pilate nature, which is by no means an attractive or lovely one. Pilate is not even an honest curiosityseeker ; he is not simply inquisitive ; surely he is a traitor to conviction, a spurner of divine voices, an open disregarder of heavenly messages; in a word, a

12 STUDIES IN THE0S0PHY.

selfish, scheming, hypocritical demagogue, who puts his private interest before all justice, and willingly condemns the innocent to death, so that he may curry favor with the rulers of the earth. His own wife points out to him the danger and iniquity of his way. His conscience indorses all she says to him, but he seeks to evade conscience by washing his hands, and after deliberately grieving the Spirit, impertinently sneers forth the question, which from his lips is an audacious insult, "What is Truth?"

Those who would receive reply to this all-important query must not think that truth can be had for the asking, by those who if they got it would only trample on it, or at best pervert it to their selfish and ungodly ends. Truth is a prize to be won only by those who seek it with a view to use it wisely when they have procured it, and we therefore unhesitatingly conclude and announce that truth never will become public property or be anything like universally dispersed, till the great masses of mankind are desirous of laying aside selfishness, and ceasing from competition, learn to co-operate for each other's good in all things. Theosophy, which simply means divine wisdom, inculcates one dogma, and that is, The universal brotherhood or man. No one can be admitted into the Theosophical Society who does not profess this one great article of faith. All other points are secondary ; this alone is fundamental and essential. Now that Edward Bellamy's glorious book, " Looking Backward," is circulating by thousands and tens of thousands of copies, and clubs are forming everywhere for the dissemination of co-operative ideas and the practicalization of co-operative principles, the time is fully ripe for a clear, concise statement of Theosophical teachings.

In this series of lectures or articles we propose for the special assistance of busy people who have little time to read large and numerous works on the subject, to present as well as we can, in brief abstract, an epitome of the teachings of the world's renowned sages, ancient and modern ; and at the same time pay merited tribute to many lesser lights, less well-known names who have identified or are still identifying themselves with the onward march of progress. The constitution of the Theosophical Society recommends that truth shall be allowed to dawn gradually upon the race. It discourages all ambitious attempts at proselyting, and affirms, with regard to those who are satisfied with their present religious convictions, that they are probably partaking of the aliment best adapted to their immediate needs. But who can fail to meet with more or less of that increasingly vast army of eagerly inquiring souls who are not content with what they receive, either through the channel of popular religion or scientific agnosticism ? This multitude must be fed, or they will perish. They are the hungry and thirsty ones who cry loudly, incessantly, for living bread and water, and to disregard their cry or tell them to be content with what cannot satisfy their appetite for truth, is cruel and culpable.

It is stated in many quarters that there are mystic brotherhoods in the East and also in Europe, composed of men who have gained wondrous insight into the laws and forces of the universe, but that these Mahatmas, as they are often styled, are unwilling to reveal their knowledge to the multitude. We doubt very much if the latter portion of that statement is correct ; we would rather institute a parallel by way of explanation. A professor of mathematics, for example, knows exactly how to solve many very difficult problems pertaining to the higher mathematics. Some schoolboys not yet fully conversant with simple fractions urge him to tell them how to solve one of the most difficult problems known to mathematical science. What reply must he make to their request ? Two, and only two, courses are open to him. He can refuse to comply with it, and thereby enkindle their ire ; or he can waste time by working it all out on a blackboard under their very eyes, they, meanwhile, stolidly gazing with open-mouthed curiosity, but failing utterly to comprehend the demonstration. To refuse their request is economical; to grant it is wasteful of time and energy. If he choose the former and not the latter course, he should give them his reason for refusal, by informing them that they need to go through a course of preparatory training, which he has been through already, before they can comprehend the solution. Then, when they are ready to enter his class, he will gladly instruct them.

It is with the Mahatmas, as it is with the higher intelligences, familiar by name at least to all Spiritualists ; angels from celestial heights of attainment do not make a noise moving furniture from place to place, or alphabetically spelling out messages through a table or talking-board, nor do they respond to mercenary and trivial inquiries regarding business and the details of earthly affairs in general. Some answer we do get to all the questions we propound. Some force does manifest itself, no matter in what spirit or with what intent we singly inquire or gather together ; but is it rational to presume, is it not rather the height of folly to imagine, that trivial minds with trivial ends in view can summon the brightest intellects in the universe to chatter platitudes with them ; and is it not an impudent blasphemy to imagine that souls interested in the welfare of all humanity on the highest spiritual plane, will dance attendance on the would-be gambler in stocks or purchaser of a prize-winning lottery ticket ? Yet such are the stupid puerilities manifested by some people calling themselves Spiritualists from day to day, that we hardly wonder at the ill odor Spiritualism is in, in some communities where these abound or shove themselves to the front as organizers and dictators. Such men as the justly revered Prof. Henry Kiddle of New York and other estimable Spiritualists have happily been as severe as reason demands in denunciation of such idiocy.

Theosophy and Spiritualism are essentially one and inseparable, and as to Christian Science and all allied systems of thought and practice, they are but sectional extensions of one and the same root idea. Our object is to overcome the sectarian spirit in our students, and we know that whenever a university is in operation which can meet the real demands of the age for spiritual and moral enlightenments, no such hair-splitting as now prevails will be permissible or possible. But, say many of our questioners and correspondents, Spiritualists believe in many spirits, Christian Science acknowledges but one Spirit; Theosophy teaches final extinction of individuality, while Spiritualism insists upon its endless perpetuation : how can you in the face o£ these glaring contradictions declare that the three systems are essentially one ?

Our unequivocal and decidedly undismayed answer to all these queries and questioners is, that the questioners in the case take a painfully superficial view of the subjects on which they express views or seek enlightenment. Apparent contradictions may not be in the least contradictory, or even paradoxical, when looked at more closely and examined more searchingly ; and in the case before us we see no obstacle in the way of a perfect reconciliation of these at first sight diametrically opposite statements. The declaration, there is but one Spirit, does not at all imply that the individuality or, at least, the identity (a better and higher word) of each Spiritual entity is not eternal. One spirit, one life, one substance, one nature, and only one, means that there are not two or more essential constitutions of things, that all heterogeneity is reducible to homogeneity, and thus all human beings are brothers and sisters in the fullest meaning of those familiar words. Universal brotherhood, which is the basis of Theosophy and without which the very attempt to practise M Christian Science Mind Healing " is farcical, can be logically deduced and scientifically demonstrated, if we can prove that we are all of one spirit, essence, or nature ; a statement only tantamount to the declaration, " All men are born free and equal," or to such a saying as

" You are as good as I am, and I am as good as you are." A common base on which all nature rests declares all men brothers, all women sisters ; it denies away, i.e. effectually removes, vanquishes, overcomes, hostility between man and man, nation and nation ; it strips us of false pride and causes us to think of ourselves no more highly and no more lowly than we ought to think, by disposing us to an equal regard one for another.

Again we reiterate our primal conclusion : the base of Theosophy is brotherhood, and only brotherhood. It may use the three immortal watchwords of freedom, liberty, equality, fraternity, and give to them an extended meaning which politics can never grasp. In the next place we shall do well to consider that there is not a scrap of evidence that extinction of the lower selfhood ever signified loss of identity to any profound or penetrative mind. A belief in the ultimate suspension of individual consciousness is a vulgar conceit of the ignorant with no more justification in the Vedas than in the New Testament, both of which compilations or literatures have much to say of two selves, — one, the (lower) mortal, the other (higher), immortal. Both agree that we lose the lower in the higher, or we are warned there is at least a temporal if not an eternal danger of our losing the higher through an over-cultivation and exercise of the lower. Now Theosophy, or Divine Wisdom, whose ways are the only paths of pleasantness and peace in the true sense, says before all else that we should cultivate the divine principle of our humanity : to do this successfully many teachers have insisted we must wage strenuous and incessant warfare against the lower appetites. The most enlightened teachers in their most luminous moods have, however, always insisted upon the culture of the higher principle, saying and thinking but very little of the lower, and it is at this point that Theosophy introduces to us a true basis and right method of education. Dr. J. R. Buchanan, a renowned anthropologist, now resident in Boston, in his admirable work "The New Education," very wisely places the higher education, i.e. moral and spiritual culture, in the front rank, giving a secondary place to what is simply educational and mechanical. Herbert Spencer assigns to the higher faculties about equal prominence. Both these able and distinguished men therefore testify to the necessity for cultivating the interior or sublimer nature as the paramount duty of man.

Now it is quite possible to use such words or terms as self-sacrifice, abnegation, surrender, denial, mortification, etc., far too often. The painful insistance with which many people of the best, intentions dwell upon these gloomy terms, makes us long to give them Watts* exquisite and truthful couplet, —

44 Religion never was designed To make our pleasures less," —

as a formula for daily and thrice daily use ; and to those who incline too strongly to certain ritualistic observances of the ancient Yoga type, other equally well-known and valuable words of the same author may be aptly applied.

" For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do."

No tendency can be sadder, no sophistry more specious and dangerous, than such teaching as throws the mind in upon itself, to brood over its own weaknesses and taint. Children are far too frequently brought up in idleness, and thus led into temptation by their parents and teachers, instead of from evil, by reason of the dark and hateful pessimism which teaches so much concerning original sin and the innate wickedness of human nature, that the very effort to stifle error and resist the devil gives power to the lowest impulses. The history of religious fanaticism furnishes abundant illustration of this ever-recurring fact in human experience. Many and many have been the men and women who have sought refuge from the devil (their own lower nature and what it attracts and affiliates with) in some monastery or convent, and there they have had a far harder fight with the adversary than they would have had, had they remained outside the bars and done their work in the world. Some verses from Keble's "Christian Year," exactly apply to such erroneous judgments. That healthy, vigorous English churchman sings : —

" We need not bid for convent cell Our kindred and our homes farewell, Nor strive to wind ourselves too high For mortal man beneath the sky.

The common round, the trivial task, Will furnish all we need to ask, — Room to deny ourselves ; a road To bring us daily nearer God."

But it may be urged in reply to this summarizing, Keble was speaking for the rule, not for the exception, and we who seek special communion with the divine in sacred solitude are part of the exception to the general rule. If Keble marks out the way of the commandments for the many, is there not a way of counsels also for the few, of which he says nothing ? The reply to this kind of reasoning is, that the very people who are most unusually anxious to escape the ordinary path of duty are those who are afraid of its difficulties and temptations, and whose motive in seeking out a special road is that they may escape ordinary trials. These are least of all prepared to tread a higher, steeper, more difficult way. They are like the boys who want the higher mathematics before they have mastered simple fractions. There is a motive, but only one, which can make a career of extraordinary isolation safe for any one, and that motive is the highest conceivable one by which any human being can be actuated, viz., a supreme desire to be of the greatest possible service to others, quite regardless of any happiness or profit which may accrue to oneself by acting thus unselfishly. Persons engaged in spiritual healing, who are more than usually disinterested in the performance of their work, understand, no doubt, what we mean by going out of the world for the purpose of working most efficiently for it and in it. Such persons can safely trust themselves out of the beaten track where the throng travels, but for the bulk of mankind " Go home " is a more applicable gospel saying than " Forsake all and follow me," though the spirit of the two is identical.

Theosophy, as a practical guide of life, a universal religion, is utterly non-partisan and non-sectarian ; towering above Paine's immortal words, " The world is my country," it places the motto of the Home College of Spiritual Science in San Francisco, " The Universe is

our Home." In that sentence the idea of universal brotherhood is accurately stated.

LECTURE II.

THE TEACHINGS OF THEOSOPHY, AS PROMULGATED BY THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, CONSIDERED IN A REVIEW OF A WIDELY CIRCULATING PAMPHLET.

In our first article of this series we made no effort to do more than simply and briefly present, as tersely as possible, what we understand Theosophy to be and not to be ; and while no society is in the least responsible for anything we write or say, our utterances being entirely untrammelled and in no sense ex officio, we still desire to pay to the Theosophical Society a proper tribute of polite recognition. By such recognition we neither pledge ourselves or others to an indorsement of the theories entertained in the documents we refer to. All our aim is to let our readers know for themselves just what the Theosophical Society is publishing, so that when statements of an injurious and misleading character are made the answer may be at once forthcoming. No society is infallible, and to expect infallibility at the hands of the members of any organization is preposterous ; and, moreover, what is most important for all to realize is, that truth is its own exponent and defendant. Weak and bitter censuring of individuals is as ridiculous as profane, and only when the public mind is superior to being moved by base insinuations or open accusations against individuals, will ideas have a chance to present themselves and be fairly discussed in open court. Personalities will not enter into this work, — at all events no offensive personalities will be permitted ; and though in our journal, The Problem of Life, we may sometimes be compelled to answer attacks made by individuals upon individuals, our answering policy will be to present ideas and statements for what they are worth, without regarding the source whence they emanated, which frequently, in the case of the noblest things ever written, is historically ambiguous.

Our present effort is an attempt to review, and expound to some extent, a circular issued some time ago for the purpose of assimilating the popular mind with some of the most generally accepted conclusions of Theosophists. It is entitled, "An Epitome of Theosophy." As we cannot condense or abbreviate its statements without beclouding some of the ideas, we herewith present the distinctly doctrinal portion of it to our readers,, feeling certain it will instruct and interest all of them: —

Theosophy, the Wisdom-Religion, has existed from immemorial time. It offers us a theory of nature and of life which is founded upon knowledge acquired by the Sages of the past, more especially those of the East ; and its higher students claim that this knowledge is not something imagined or inferred, but that it is seen and known by those who are willing to comply with the conditions. Some of its fundamental propositions are : —

1. That the spirit in man is the only real and permanent part of his being; the rest of his nature being variously compounded, and decay being incident to all composite things, everything in man but his spirit is impermanent.

Further, that the universe being one thing and not diverse, and everything within it being connected with the whole and with every other, of which upon the upper plane above referred to there is a perfect knowledge, no act or thought occurs without each portion of the great whole perceiving and noting it. Hence all are inseparably bound together by the tie of Brotherhood.

2. That below the spirit and above the intellect is a plane of con-

sciousness in which experiences are noted, commonly called man's " spiritual nature " ; this is as susceptible of culture as his body or his intellect.

3. That this spiritual culture is only attainable as the grosser

interests, passions, and demands of the flesh are subordinated to the interests, aspirations, and needs of the higher nature ; and that this is a matter of both system and established law.

4. That men thus systematically trained attain to clear insight

into the immaterial, spiritual world, their interior faculties apprehending Truth as immediately and readily as physical faculties grasp the things of sense, or mental faculties those of reason ; and hence that their testimony to such Truth is as trustworthy as is that of scientists or philosophers to truth in their respective fields.

5. That in the course of this spiritual training such men acquire

perception of and control over various forces in Nature unknown to others, and thus are able to perform works usually called " miraculous," though really but the result of larger knowledge of natural law.

6. That their testimony as to super-sensuous truth, verified by

their possession of such powers, challenges candid examination from every religious mind.

Turning now to the system expounded by these Sages, we find as its main points : —

1. An account of cosmogony, the past and future of this earth and other planets, the evolution of life through mineral, vegetable, animal, and human forms.