Copyright © 1997 by Theosophical University Press. All rights Reserved.
G. de P. — Well, Companions, we seem to be increasing in numbers all the time. Are there any questions this evening?
Student — Can anything be explained about the functions or the meaning of the five life-winds: prana, apana, samana, vyana, udana?
G. de P. — Five are the number of the vital currents working in the human body as spoken of in the exoteric Hindu literature. There are actually seven different vital currents, or if you like — it comes to the same thing — one general vital activity manifesting in seven different forms. It is customary in theosophical literature to give them the general name of prana or the pranas, but this is, technically speaking, an inaccuracy.
Concerning the two which are not mentioned in the exoteric works I may merely say they are the two highest, and are the links by which the other five hang from the central entity of the inner constitution. The two highest are connected actually with the individuality. The general significations of the five vital currents with their Sanskrit names are as follows:
I cannot go into more definite descriptions, but the short explanations which I have just given will enable you to get some idea of how these five life-winds or vital activities work in the human body. Please remember that vitality is something that manifests in seven different operations or waves, and to five of these these Sanskrit names have been given.
The next question, please.
Student — Can dorje be explained in the verse from The Voice of the Silence: "Close not thine eyes, nor lose thy sight of Dorje."
G. de P. — Dorje is a Tibetan word for the thunderbolt, and is a translation of the Sanskrit word vajra, likewise meaning a thunderbolt. It is a technical term both in Hindu Brahmanical literature and in Tibetan Buddhism. While it has a certain specific reference to the diamond-heart of the initiate — clear, transparent, insensible to its own suffering and pain but reflecting the pains and sufferings of the world in compassion and pity — the term dorje, or the thunderbolt, likewise has more general reference to the spiritual nature of man.
In Tibet, in the land of Bodyul, the dorje is engraven and drawn as a curious instrument shown as held in the hands of certain divinities, and looking like a short double-headed battlemace. It really refers to the tremendous spiritual powers that flow from the spiritual being of man, which are more especially under the control of the highest class of the initiate-chelas and Masters. He who wields the dorje, the thunderbolt, or the diamond-heart, is the one who has completely subdued the lower personal selfhood and has become a channel through which streams from the god within the spiritual electricity, manifesting as a thunderbolt in material existence, much as the electricity from the clouds often manifests in what humans call thunderbolts in physical nature. It is an entirely mystical term, and consequently the chela is advised not to lose sight of the dorje, but to keep hold of it and to put himself under the influence continuously of his spiritual higher powers and being.
The next question, please.
Student — Does the disciple develop in himself the mayavi-rupa in the same sense as The Voice of the Silence states that the nirmanakaya body "is woven by himself"?
G. de P. — A curious question. I am not sure that the questioner understands just what the mayavi-rupa is. In a sense, yes. In a sense the chela, the initiate, does develop the mayavi-rupa in himself; but more accurately it should be said that the high chela or the initiate acquires the power or faculty of projecting the mayavi-rupa.
Mayavi-rupa is a compound Sanskrit term which means the "illusory body," called illusory because it is not the actual physical body of the initiate or mahatma or chela. There is in Tibetan Buddhism a teaching regarding what is called the hpho-wa, to which I have referred before, the essential meaning of which is the power or faculty of projecting to a distance your will combined with your full consciousness. When you can do this, and collect around this projection of your self (because you yourself are fundamentally will and consciousness) the ether of space, of the place where you are, of the atmosphere there, collect around this projected will and consciousness the atoms existing there at the place where your will and consciousness are projected, this forms the mayavi-rupa, and it is an exact duplicate of the physical body in all essential particulars.
In other words, the hpho-wa signifies the faculty or power, or rather the description of the faculty and power, which enables the initiate to project himself at almost any distance from the physical body. A faint adumbration of this power is known in the Occident under the common term thought transference, but telepathy gives a very feeble idea of what actually can take place when this power is fully exercised.
Now the mayavi-rupa actually contains a complete human being minus the three lowest principles, the lower triad, that is, the physical body, the merely physical vitality, and the linga-sarira or model-body around which the physical is built. All the rest of the man is actually in the mayavi-rupa, and the physical body left behind remains in a trance as it were.
If you were to see this physical body left behind, from which the will and consciousness have been projected, you would say: "what a curiously intense brown study that man is in." For instance, if you knew how to do this, you could sit in your chair at your desk, or lie in your bed, or sit on the grass — it does not matter where you are: in prison or on the top of a house, or in a railway tunnel — simply compose yourself, touch a certain psychical spring, as it were, which you know how to touch, and in a few instants you are off and gone wherever you want to go. This is the projection of the mayavi-rupa.
So when the questioner says: "is the mayavi-rupa builded up in the same way by which the nirmanakaya-body is builded up," it is a curiously inaccurate way of expressing the matter. The mayavi-rupa is not existent until it is projected. You understand that, do you not?
Many Voices — Yes.
Student — Is the mayavi-rupa the vahana for atman?
G. de P. — Yes, certainly. Atman means self, and as the true mayavi-rupa — not a merely aberrant projection during sleep by the average man of the linga-sarira which can go only a few feet from the sleeping body — is actually the ether condensed around the whole man who has gone, it obviously includes atman, or the root of selfhood. Please understand that the mayavi-rupa is the whole being that is worth anything. All the will, all the self-consciousness, all the highest part of the superior four principles are in and above and around the mayavi-rupa.
To one who is highly skilled in hpho-wa, or the power of projecting the mayavi-rupa, this mayavi-rupa can be sent to incredible distances. In the case of the very highest initiates it can probably be projected even to the other planets, and they can appear on these other planets with what I may call the spiritual mayavi-rupa, and thus learn, as it were, and be seen, and not merely go there in pure thought, but be there, have the whole consciousness there.
So that when you have heard in our theosophical literature of mahatmas or Masters appearing in the mayavi-rupa, it simply means that they have projected themselves to a certain place and there have covered around this projected consciousness-will or will-consciousness the atoms of the atmosphere — I am speaking very simple English indeed now — so that their mayavi-rupa-personality shall become apparent to those to whom they wish to appear "physically." And the whole man is there. The body left behind is for the time being a shell, an empty carcass, apparently plunged in a deep brown study or trance, oblivious to everything around it, and is kept alive merely by the golden vital chain which connects the mayavi-rupa with the physical body. I hope that this is clear.
The mayavi-rupa does not belong to the physical body. The mayavi-rupa with its inner consciousness and will represents the whole man. It is an exact copy physically speaking of the physical body. I hope that this is clear.
The next question, please.
Student — Great stress is laid on the fact that Colonel Olcott received a fehtah. Does that necessarily prove the presence in the physical body of the Master?
G. de P. — Certainly not. Certainly not. I suppose the reference is here to an incident that Colonel Olcott has described in his Old Diary Leaves. He was a very inaccurate writer, but I see no reason to doubt that this incident took place — of one of the teachers visiting him in his study or bedroom in New York, and appearing to him out of invisibility, I forget just how he expressed it, and I believe leaving him a scarf which the Master was using as a turban. After all a turban is a form of scarf wound around the head.
No, it by no means signifies that the teacher was there in the physical body. It does not mean that the teacher could not come to someone in the physical body. But as the question relates to Colonel Olcott, and I take it that it refers to the incident that Colonel Olcott relates, it was not the physical body of the Master which appeared, but the mayavi-rupa.
Student — Could the fehtah have been left by means of the mayavi-rupa in the same way that letters are left?
G. de P. — Yes, certainly, but letters are not always brought to their recipients by means of a mayavi-rupa of a high chela or a Master. Strange as it may sound to you, there is a way by which even physical things can be disintegrated into their component atoms, and carried along the astral lines of communication to another part of the world, and there reintegrated; and this has taken place frequently. Letters have apparently been dropped out of space. I could tell you some strange things about the formation of rain, for instance, that would astonish you, but that is another story as they say.
Student — In Theosophy: The Path of the Mystic, Katherine Tingley says: "Harmony is the key to all occult advance, and it is a knowledge of its laws and the relation of sound, number, and color as applied and directed by the pupils that enables the teacher to strike the higher tones and awake the spiritual vision."
Is a full knowledge of these deep and recondite matters essential to the spiritual vision?
G. de P. — It certainly is not. I am going to tell you very frankly that the less you bother your minds about number and sound and color, and instead turn to the spiritual light within you, the more progress you will make. These things spoken of are for the teachers to attain to. The duty of the disciple is to raise the lower by the higher self, to make the link with the higher self, to receive illumination from the god within; and all this other knowledge then will be added unto you.
But do you know that when HPB came, she could not make people see these things. What they wanted was "magic." They wanted to know the mysteries of number, the mysteries of color, the mysteries of sound. And they thought that they were getting very deep knowledge when they were told truths indeed, but nevertheless truths that were simply over their heads. They beat their brows and wasted their vitality in thinking about things that did not help them at all, except in the one respect, that it all helped HPB in gathering around herself a band of students whom she held until she could train them to nobler things.
Indeed, it is perfectly true that the universe is founded on number; that every entity, every thing, every human being, has its or his own number. It is perfectly true that every entity and thing has its own individual color; and its own individual musical tone or note. But when that is said, and when I further tell you that if you want to practise magic you must know the note of the thing that you wish to work upon, or the being that you wish to work upon; that you must know his or its color, and that you must know his or its vibrational rate or number — when I tell you all this, what good does it do to you, and what good have you really learned? You learn that these things exist, but that is all.
I tell you, on the contrary, to look to the god within you, to that immortal bright intelligence which is the source of all inspiration, of all aspiration, of all advancement. Then your progress will be a hundredfold more rapid than if you wasted your time in studying these things that at present are entirely beyond you. There is no harm in knowing this; as mere knowledge it is all right, but you are not getting spiritual help from it, and you won't advance as quickly by studying this as you would by following the path that I have pointed out. Do you understand what I mean?
Many Voices — Yes.
G. de P. — Now, in the case of a teacher, it is a different thing. He must know the vibrational rate, or what is popularly called the number of his pupil. He must know that pupil's color; he must know that pupil's musical tone or note; because the teacher is working white magic with his pupil, with his disciple. The teacher studies these things, and studies their interrelations and combinations; but he does this because he is wise enough to do so; he has advanced far enough to do so; he has the interior illumination, and therefore he can do so.
But for the disciple to try to take the Master's place is simply a waste of time. Therefore I tell you, and I repeat it, and put emphasis upon it: turn to the source within each one of you of all inspiration, of all wisdom, of all true knowledge, the source of illumination, the source of light, and then all these things will be added unto you, and much more normally than if you turned your back on the light within and passed an incarnation or two or three as a small brain-mind student of merely natural phenomena which you do not understand.
The next question, please.
Student — Each one of us has a golden chain of higher selves, linking us to the very heart of things. Is it right to picture all the human beings on this earth and all their higher selves as forming one vast and glorious entity?
G. de P. — I hardly know how to answer this question. It is very intuitive, but it is likewise very much involved. I do not like the phrasing: each one of us has a golden chain of higher selves. It is misleading, and therefore in that sense it is wrong. You have but one higher self, and that is the god within you, and the heart of that god is its own spiritual divinity, and the heart of that spiritual divinity is something still more divine. To say that you have a string of golden higher selves gives the impression that there are many different higher selves. It is a bad way to express it.
Each one of you has within himself or herself boundless infinitude, and this fact is expressed in the Brahmanical philosophy, and truly expressed, under the name of the paramatman, the supreme atman. It is a brief and terse way of expressing the truth that if you follow this pathway leading withinwards you will have a constantly increasing consciousness of your own essential divinity. In other words, your own higher self will become to your consciousness ever grander and more glorious, but it is always the higher self.
It is misleading to say that you have a golden chain of higher selves. I know just what you have in mind. You are referring to teachings that I have given to you before. I am now talking of the phrasing of the question. I do not like it because it is misleading. To say that all human beings with their collective higher selves — what was the exact wording, "forming a supreme higher self," is that it?
Student — Is it right to picture all the human beings on this earth and all their higher selves as forming one vast and glorious entity?
G. de P. — Yes, in the sense that we are all spiritual atoms of some glorious divine entity, just as the atoms of our physical body compose our one physical body. That statement is true, but you must not think of this glorious entity, of which we are all spiritual atoms, as being limited to us human beings. We human beings are merely one host out of the multitude of hierarchies forming the structure or fabric of this cosmic entity.
In similar fashion, all human beings do not together form one big man. But we are very inferior spiritual atoms so to say — monads is our technical term — of other hierarchies forming the fabric or structure of some divine entity. Even our physical body is builded up of innumerable hosts, countless numbers of them, of monads passing through that particular phase of their long pilgrimage through eternity. Is that clear to you?
Many Voices — Yes.
G. de P. — It is a very intuitive question, but an unfortunately involved one and unfortunately badly phrased.
The next question, please.
Student — Then we are but life-atoms of that entity, but with the capacity eventually to share in the full consciousness of that great being?
G. de P. — Very well put. The answer is yes. We share in that consciousness even at present, and that consciousness is the feeling of "I am." It is the same in you as it is in me. It is the same in all of us. There is no difference at all. We all have the same feeling of "I am." You must not confuse this with the feeling of "I am I" which is different in each one of us.
This latter is the mere ego, a learning thing, an inferior thing; and as the aeons pass, this "I am I" also will expand and grow by bringing out what is within it, in other words, by more fully developing the "I am" feeling; and finally the "I am I" will vanish away into the single feeling of "I am." The personality will first fade out into individuality, and then the individuality in its turn will finally fade out into universality. Then we shall enjoy full consciousness of this divinity, of which each one of us is a spiritual life-atom.
And yet understand clearly that this spiritual divinity will be forever beyond us. We shall be forever growing towards it, because we shall be forever expanding. But it likewise, in its turn, on its own spiritual-divine planes, is evolving and expanding. What a sublime prospect!
These are the teachings — which I am now more definitely trying to explain to you tonight, Companions — which on every Sunday afternoon in our Temple I refer to and repeat, to try to bring home to my listeners the essential thought, because not only is this very helpful, but it is illuminating and inspiring.
The next question, please.
Student — I understand that the lunar pitris oozed out their chhayas, around which was concreted the more physical form, and became in that way the lower entities; and then they became the vehicles, became the bodies, of the future men; and then that other monads from the moon, still lower than these lunar pitris, behind them in evolution, incarnated in the forms which the lunar pitris had created. Is that correct?
G. de P. — It is not wholly so. The lunar pitris actually are what we now call the human personalities. These oozed forth from themselves — and you have correctly chosen the term — the chhayas, which is a Sanskrit word meaning "shadows," in other words bodies, a body being the shadow of the inner light. And in these chhayas the lunar pitris themselves were; and these lunar pitris, when the evolutionary time came on this earth, became the vehicles of the higher class of pitris called the solar pitris or the agnishwatas, which are the lower part of our present monadic essences.
On many occasions I have pointed out the matter of the sheaths or the vehicles which ooze forth from the immediately superior element in man. I have tried to show you that the ego oozes forth from itself a vehicle or chhaya or shadow of itself, which is the soul. This in turn oozes forth from itself, or concretes around itself from its own substance, something still more material or less ethereal, and this is the vital-astral body, or the model-body. And this in its turn oozes forth from itself its chhaya or shadow of itself which is the physical body. Do you understand that?
Student — Yes, thank you. But I would like to ask what is the meaning of the expression that these lunar pitris then created beings who became superior to themselves? Surely it could not be the agnishwattas, because they did not create them; but what did they create that became superior to themselves?
G. de P. — Evolution is the key to your problem, and you have asked a very natural question. We of the fifth are superior to the third root-race. The fourth root-race was more evolved than the third. We are more evolved than the fourth. Yet each is an emanation of the preceding race. There is the key.
The lunar pitris brought forth their chhayas, which means the bodies they had then and in which they lived. They sent forth, oozed forth, from themselves, evolved forth from themselves, their bodies, which as time went on projected their kind, begot their kind, and under the working of evolution these were superior to their originals. The lunar pitris themselves were evolving and advancing.
Please remember that all the stanzas of The Secret Doctrine are Oriental in form with Oriental imagery, Oriental metaphors, Oriental figures of speech. Do you understand now the idea?
Student — I think so. But I would like to ask some more questions. The lunar pitris did become, did raise themselves, to the plane of the manasaputras?
G. de P. — We have not so done yet.
Student — But they are the ones to do it? They are the lunar pitris?
G. de P. — The lunar pitris will themselves evolve into becoming agnishwattas — solar pitris — in the future. Yes, that is correct.
Student — And then at that time will these agnishwattas have accomplished their work and be free to go Home? I mean the higher ones.
G. de P. — I don't think I quite understand your question.
Student — The manasaputras which incarnated in the third root-race, in those lower forms: will the manasaputras who incarnated then have accomplished their task and be free to go Home when the lunar pitris shall have become manasaputras in their turn?
G. de P. — They will have accomplished their task at that future period of evolution, and then they will "go Home" for their rest. Nevertheless they will be forever bound to the inferior beings trailing behind them whom they have been working with.
Let me try to explain this matter by turning to lunar history. The present human race, in great bulk now fully human, had at the time the moon went into its planetary pralaya barely reached the stage of humanity. Really they were what now on earth would be called the higher beasts; and I am referring to what is now the average humanity at present on this earth. But every entity is a sevenfold entity, with its highest part, its intermediate part, and its lowest part or body. Even the beasts have latent within them all the fires, to use a technical term, that the human being has, but in the beasts these fires are not yet manifest.
Now when these higher fires manifested in earliest mankind in this round the Oriental expression has it that then the solar lhas incarnated in the new humanity, which means when the fires within began to express themselves, began to manifest themselves, the evolving entities then began to show the solar powers: self-consciousness, intellect, and all the rest of it. The lunar pitris were those entities just spoken of, the lunar fathers, who were destined to become human beings on this earth, that is to say on the new chain of globes, on the earth-chain. But linked with these lunar fathers, with these lunar pitris, were their own higher principles which had not yet manifested themselves on the moon, but would begin to manifest, to show their transcendent powers, in the humanity-to-be of the new earth-chain — and this was the incarnation of the agnishwattas, the solar pitris, the solar lhas. Do you now understand?
As the human ego evolves, throws forth from itself, unfolds, unwraps its inner powers, and thus develops into a manasaputra, the manasaputra which had been overshadowing it in its turn goes still higher towards becoming a pure monadic essence, the god within. Thus, if you can understand this series of thoughts just explained, you have an outline of what took place. Now do you understand better?
Student — Thank you. But I would like to ask just one more question. What is it then that guides or keeps the body, for instance, through the sympathetic nervous system? I have always thought that it was the lunar pitri; but the lunar pitri, as you tell me now, is the human ego.
G. de P. — It is. The lunar pitris have now become the human egos.
Student — And there is another one behind doing what the lunar pitris did in the beginning?
G. de P. — What do you mean?
Student — Something must be running the bodies.
G. de P. — That is what is called the animal soul; and these will be the earth-pitris of the next great planetary manvantara — our present animal souls. The animal souls which were on the moon are called lunar pitris, that is to say we now call them lunar pitris. When the planet earth goes into its pralaya, what are now the animal souls here will, in the next planetary chain — the reimbodiment of our earth — become the humanity of that planet, and we shall have become manasaputras. Now is that clear?
Student Yes, thank you very much.
G. de P. — There is a constant chain, as you have very neatly drawn attention to, of highest, less high, lower, and lowest monads, and they are all connected together in any one human being, and their various powers and faculties are what we call the seven principles. There are actually ten of them, however. The very god within, say the inner god of each one of you, in aeons upon aeons upon aeons upon aeons in the past, in other planetary manvantaras, was then an animal monad — that is to say, a monad passing through that phase of its long evolutionary journey. Through evolution it developed into a human monad. Through evolution the human monad developed into a manasaputra or solar monad; and then later became through evolution a divinity, a pure monadic essence, a divine energy, a divine flame, a divine fire.
And marvelously enough, this strange mystery of consciousness lies in the fact that all this chain of entities form one consciousness, and yet individually are all different consciousness-centers. It may perhaps be exemplified by thinking of the droplets of water which compose a stream.
Thus do we see that man is a microcosm, a little world, his very stream of consciousness being composite of droplets. Marvelous mystery! It is the most difficult to understand in the whole esoteric philosophy, and yet it is the most sublime and the most fascinating study of all. Man is a stream of consciousness fundamentally. I do hope that you understand this — at least that you have some inkling of what I am trying to explain.
The superdivine entity, about which a question was asked in the earlier part of the evening, is an instance in point of exactly the same thing. That superdivine entity, in aeons upon aeons upon aeons upon aeons upon aeons in the past, was a human being or some being equivalent to us human beings — that is a being possessing self-consciousness and will power. It had its various vehicles, its various centers of consciousness; and as the aeons of evolution passed, while itself was evolving, all the lower train of the droplets of the stream of consciousness which was it — all these lower entities composing that stream — were likewise evolving, until it has now become a superdivinity. It is a perfect macrocosm.
So we, each one of you, in future times will become a sun, a center of a solar consciousness-stream; and all the atoms now composing your body will then be the monads of the satellites of that sun, connected with that sun and belonging to it, for they are all its emanations, the products of its own consciousness-stream. This may be illustrated by the following: the atoms of my physical body belong to me. They have sprung forth from me, flowed forth from the fountain of consciousness which is I. And as I am evolving, so are they evolving but trailing after me. I am their inspiring, and inspiriting, and invigorating god, just as my own inner god is I — and yet different. I am going to evolve into becoming a similar god. The ego of me will become a pure monadic flame in time, and after it will be trailing all these hosts of entities which flowed forth from its own consciousness, and each one of such entities is in its turn an evolving entity: learning, growing, becoming, unwrapping its inner latent powers. Every mathematical point of space, every mathematical point in human consciousness, is a monad.
The next question, please.
Student — I think The Secret Doctrine states that the higher ego incarnated or came from the planet Venus, does it not? Now did we evolve that higher ego when we were on the planet Venus?
G. de P. — You are asking a question which I deeply regret that I cannot answer fully; but as it is my duty to give some kind of responsive answer to every question I will say this, that the highest egos of men today are native to what we humans call the planet Venus. That is all I can say. You who have ears to hear may perhaps understand.
Every planet of our solar system has done its own individual part in building a man, likewise in building our Earth. We are all interlinked, all interlocked, with vital bonds and with bonds of consciousness. We are most wonderfully and mysteriously made. There is no separateness anywhere in the universe. It is the great heresy to have that idea. We are at one with the Buddhists in this teaching.
Student — I have two questions that I would like to ask. First: can you tell us what the attitude of the Masters is to the publication of the book called The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett? We read in the Introduction that the Masters said that they would never consent to these letters being given to the world.
G. de P. — That is true, and doubtless if they could have been consulted, they would have said no. But at the present time, when the Society has advanced so far beyond what the Society was when those Letters were first written to Mr. Alan Hume and to Mr. A. P. Sinnett, I cannot feel that much harm will now accrue to our Cause. This is because the understanding of theosophists has grown, has broadened. Theosophists today have a much livelier intuition, a much deeper understanding, of what theosophy means than had the brain-minded Mr. Hume, and the brain-minded Mr. Sinnett of those days, and of course obviously than had the brain-minded men of the world of those days.
I personally feel that The Mahatma Letters, making due allowance for any possible misprints, is a valuable contribution to our literature today.
Times change. I am positive that the teachers would never have consented to the publication of those Letters at the time when they were written. Let me see, when were they written? — I think it was forty or fifty years ago.
Many Voices — 1881, or 1882. 1884.
G. de P. — Between forty or fifty years ago, you see. But times have changed. Science has made enormous strides towards a more mystical understanding of the universe. Our theosophists have broadened and deepened in understanding.
You have one more question to ask, I believe.
Student — Yes, Professor. We are told that everything is illusion on this plane. Is it on this plane, or is it on this earth?
G. de P. — Both.
Student — And is it so on all other planes of existence? I mean, on other planets?
G. de P. — Quite true. It is but illusion, however, in the technical sense, or maya. Illusion does not mean that things do not exist. It means that the perceiving and percipient consciousness does not rightly understand the truth about and in things. Everywhere in the universe there is illusion or maya. Even on spiritual planes there is illusion or maya belonging to those planes, although to us imperfect humans it is brilliant and perfect truth. Nevertheless there is spiritual illusion to beings living on spiritual planes, because there are always higher states of understanding than those possessed at any time on any plane. Consequently as progress is endless, as evolution is endless, as advancement in understanding and growth in consciousness are endless, it immediately becomes obvious that no matter how high we go, there is always a higher truth to learn, a more sublime sweep of consciousness to comprehend, and naturally every entity that is inferior to these high states of consciousness sees things in an imperfect way.
Do you understand what I am trying to say?
Student — After a fashion; but is there then anything that is real? Do any of the things that we do, or that we learn, or that we work on, matter? Is there nothing but spiritual knowledge and development?
G. de P. — Yes indeed, and that is reality. And it is that reality which is the treasury in the heart of the god within you. You see how important this primally basic truth is. There is reality in the heart of things, and it is our duty to broaden our consciousness and thus get an ever-enlarged view of this reality. The universe is divided into hierarchies, with a sublime divine summit, and a material base. The more nearly you approach the divine summit, the more nearly you approach reality — truth. When you have reached what is for you truth, then you enter a higher hierarchy, and advance towards a still more sublime conception of infinite reality.
Can you therefore see that infinite reality can never be comprehended, that infinite perfection can never be understood? If you could ever reach reality in fullness, there would then be nothing more to learn. There would be no grander and more sublime stages of evolution to reach and pass through. Don't you see this? Therefore evolution is endless, there is always a higher truth to gain, always a higher expansion of consciousness to attain, always sublimer heights to climb; and thus there is endless growth, endless expansion.
I hope that my meaning is clear. Is it? [Silence.] Please do not all answer at once, but do you understand, Companions, what I am trying to tell you?
Many Voices — Yes, yes, Professor.
G. de P. — I want to add this. Beware of one thing: if you let discouragement enter into your hearts, you are in a very dangerous and precarious state of mind. It shows that you are then more than ever under the sway of maya. The very foundation-stone of the esoteric wisdom is that reality manifests as a constant expansion in consciousness lasting for ever.
Student — Professor, is it right to say that at the time when we were in nirvana, before the present manvantara, and when we were coming out of it, we threw off from ourselves the atoms in much the same way as the sun throws out the forces which make up the planets for its next solar manvantara?
G. de P. — I think I have your idea, and the answer is yes. Coming out of the intermanvantaric nirvana means entering upon the beginning of a new cycle of manifestation. This entering upon it is done by throwing out from yourself, by oozing out from yourself, various vehicles, in which you will thereafter live and work throughout that manvantaric cycle of manifestation. Time and time again on all the different planes you will be doing this, just as you have done it in your present incarnation as a man. Do you understand?
Student — Yes, but may I ask something else? These atoms which we have thrown off and which we have used to build our vehicles, have they a separate line of evolution of their own? Have the monads behind these atoms to pass up through the various stages of evolution: mineral, vegetable, and animal, finally becoming men such as we are?
G. de P. — Yes; but if I say yes, then I fear that you will misunderstand me. The idea is right, but your phrasing is awkward, and I do not dare say merely yes, because then I fear you will get a wrong idea; and yet I cannot say no, because that would be untrue. It is not the monad which becomes a man. It is the monadic projection or offspring which becomes the man. The monad is really a god. It has achieved monadic godhood. Nevertheless each monad was a man in a former manvantara, do you understand?
Student — Not altogether.
G. de P. — I don't blame you.
Student — Well, I will think it over.
G. de P. — No. I am not satisfied with that. Ask your question again, and perhaps I can answer it according to the way in which you ask it.
Student — Well, what puzzled me was your statement that when we shall have become suns, our atoms will have become the satellites.
G. de P. — And other things, yes.
Student — Well, before they can have reached their high state of being planets and other things, they must have passed through all the stages that we are passing through now.
G. de P. — Why certainly, they will follow the long evolutionary road, just as we humans have, who will in time become suns. Every mathematical point in infinite space is really a monad, at its core a superdivinity, and surrounding it there is its body or vehicle. That body or vehicle or series of sheaths is composed of atoms, at the heart of each one of which is a monad again. Different hosts of monads are passing through different phases of their experience contemporaneously. But don't think that a monad goes, drops down, into matter. It clothes itself with matter at one time, then clothes itself at a later evolutionary stage with more ethereal matter, and then at a still later stage, with matter still more spiritual; and then at a still later stage, with monadic matter.
Meanwhile the monad itself has evolved and gone ahead. Everything is evolving. There is no cessation at any time nor anywhere. You do not become a monad and stay forever in that condition. You yourself go on evolving while you become a monad; but while you have been becoming a Monad you have been constantly throwing forth from yourself what I may perhaps for convenience call children-monads, flowing out from your consciousness, and each one of these children-monads when it first flows out has to clothe itself in the lowest part of the substance of that hierarchy and evolve upwards. It itself is a spiritual essence, but temporarily joined to these lower planes until it works out of them and self-consciously becomes a god.
You people this evening are touching on some of the most deep and profound questions of consciousness, and I have already told you that these questions form a most difficult subject to explain.
But try again. Go to it. Hang on like grim death until your ideas are so clear that you can phrase them clearly; and then I can give you a clear answer.
Student — Yes, thank you, Professor.
G. de P. — Well, you are not yet satisfied?
Student — I will think it over, until I can phrase it better. I will ask the question later on.
Student — Then a monad is simply a conscious energy-point?
G. de P. — That is it exactly. And that conscious energy-center, or energy-point, at the core of its being is divine, for it is of the very substance of divinity, of the cosmic divinity, of the cosmic ocean of life. It is a droplet, as it were, of the cosmic consciousness-life.
Even matter itself is such. Matter is not something different from spirit. Matter and spirit are fundamentally the same thing, each in its own phase of evolution. The great difficulty that you Occidentals have in understanding these things is because you are all psychologized by the scientific teaching of lifeless matter which you think is something different from energy or from consciousness; or by the old Christian teaching that spirit is one thing and matter is something absolutely different, created to house spirit. Now that is not true. Spirit and substance, force and matter, are fundamentally one thing: two phases of the same underlying reality.
I keep saying these things again and again, and again and again. I try to drive them home by repetition, and keep repeating them, because you must see the necessity of understanding these fundamental postulates.
The next question, please.
Student — I would like to ask a different kind of question. How soon after cremation are the life ties of the individual broken?
G. de P. — What do you mean by the "individual"?
Student — Of the human being that has passed on.
G. de P. — The life ties are broken —
Student — With the earth, and with the surroundings that he left.
G. de P. — The life ties are broken at the instant of death. Cremation merely dissipates the atoms of the physical shell left behind. All the higher and inner part of the man is already separated from the physical shell.
Student — Well, I was perhaps under the wrong impression that the higher part, the spiritual part, of a being stayed on earth a certain time after death; but I didn't know whether the actual fact of cremation helped to break all those connections, so that it could go into the repose that it had earned.
G. de P. — No, that is not quite right. As I have said before, at the instant of death the disintegration of the inner constitution begins. At the very instant of death, your highest part returns to its parent-star. The higher of the intermediate part, the higher ego, the reincarnating ego, is withdrawn into the bosom of the monad and pursues its peregrinations into invisible realms. The lower part of the intermediate nature, or the lower human soul, hovers for a time in the fabric of the kama-rupa, or desire-body, the shade as the ancients called it, until its release therefrom, and then it is snatched up, as it were, to rejoin the reincarnating ego in the bosom of the monad; leaving then only what you might call crushed rose leaves, a mass of putrefaction and decay of the material part of the human ego that was. This is the kama-rupa abandoned by the last spark of divinity, and it slowly disintegrates.
Now cremation has the advantage that the kama-rupa is no longer so heavily attracted to the physical body or physical world. There is no longer so strong a magnetic pull, for the body is dissipated. Do you understand?
Student — Yes, thank you.
Student — May I ask a question? In fact I have two; they are somewhat connected together.
G. de P. — You are going to ask them one at a time, are you not?
Student — Yes, indeed. It is of course evident that some people die at an hour and a place when and where the earth is under the full influence of the sun; and others die during the night. Now is there any difference in the post-mortem states of man, according to whether he die during the daytime or at night? Is there such a thing as what I may call solar death and lunar death? I have an intuitive feeling that there is something behind it, but that is as far as I can go.
G. de P. — There is practically no difference for the average human being at what hour of day or night physical death takes place. What is your other question? I may say that you have an intuition of something which, as usual in such cases, I am obliged to tell you I cannot speak of. But answering your question as best I may, the answer is as I have already told you: there is practically no difference for the average human being at what hour merely physical death takes place. What is your other question?
Student — My mind dwelt quite a good deal on the teachings which you gave out with regard to eclipses. Now if it happens that a man dies at the particular time and place when a total solar eclipse is seen — of course I am not talking about an initiate, but the average man — does this in any way affect his post-mortem states?
G. de P. — Very greatly, but may I ask you to what teachings you are referring when you speak of the teachings that I have given out with regard to eclipses? What are you referring to?
Student — Well, the action, the influence, or rather the role, played by total solar eclipses and initiations. But I am referring to the death of the average man, a thing that may occur at any time; and I am referring to the particular place and time when and where a solar eclipse occurs, and the man then dies.
G. de P. — My answer is, a very great difference indeed. Have you any other question?
Student — I am wondering whether you can explain in what that difference consists?
G. de P. — Yes, I can explain it, but it would take quite a long time; and I don't know that without a rather long preparatory study, or at least a rather long preparatory lecture, I could make my meaning clear.
You are entitled to ask another question if you like. I will tell you just what I mean. When an intuitive question is asked, even if I am not permitted to give an answer, there is a call made which it is my duty to respond to: to foster the light, the touch, of the buddhic splendor from which the intuition came. That is what I mean. You have made a call, and it is my duty to answer you as far as I can do so. Now try again.
Student — Well, if I made a call, and if you can say more, why don't you say it?
G. de P. — I cannot say more.
Student — Then, if I may refer to the first question: it seems to me that you referred some time ago to the fact that at death man passes through the moon, or rather is attracted by the moon. Can anything further be said on this subject? It is directly connected with my question. Now suppose a man dies at night at full moon, what happens to him?
G. de P. — He dies. The normal processes of rupture of the vital cord take place. Death is death, no matter when it does take place, although certain times and certain conditions modify the process enormously.
I will tell you that you are skirting very, very esoteric truths, and I deeply regret that I cannot say more. I have no right to. Try again. If I can give you light, that is what I am here for, as far as I can do so. Would you like to try once more, and ask some other question along the same line?
Student — Why, no. Why should I? I don't want to ask a question that does not interest me. I am putting a question. If you cannot answer it, I have no right to force your hand.
G. de P. — You could not do that. Has anyone else a question?
Student — May I ask two questions about death? I was reading in Letters That Have Helped Me today, and Mr. Judge says that death is a disappointment to the self. Will you please explain what that means?
G. de P. — Yes. The ideal condition for the higher part of a human being is continuous learning, a continuously learning existence; and in the devachan there is an interruption in the schoolwork of life, a very necessary interruption indeed, because the assimilation of what has been learned there and then takes place. The experiences of the past life are molded or burned into the character. Nevertheless this interruption of the schooling in life is a disappointment to the reincarnating ego. It is a rather curious way of phrasing the fact that Mr. Judge is speaking of there, but it is true enough. I think that this is the answer to your question.
Student — The word disappointment I was interested in, because I wondered why anything that was so natural could be a disappointment.
G. de P. — Yes. The word is unfortunately chosen, but it does not mean disappointment as we ordinarily understand it.
Student — Then the book says a little lower down the page that the living have much more to do for the dead than the dead for the living.
G. de P. — That is true.
Student — I wonder whether it means that those whom we love we do feel very, very close to. We cannot disturb them; we would not want to. I wonder if it is the fact that our love does go to them, and in doing our very best, we rise to their plane without disturbing them and in that way we do really help them?
G. de P. — We do. A pure and impersonal, clean love reaches even into devachan, and silently, quietly, enhances the peace and bliss of the resting soul.
Student — And then does not their love really flow to us too?
G. de P. — It does, it does indeed!
Student — May I ask something in connection with what has just been asked? Then something of the person who has gone can reach one who is living?
G. de P. — Yes.
Student — May I ask you: one day I was sitting in the woods by a brook reading The Ocean of Theosophy, and as I rose to go back to the hotel — I was all alone — like a flash of lightning, I said: "Why, Kate, are you here?" Well, now, could she — it was my sister Kate — have been there, Professor? It was just like that — why I never felt such a joy in my life! And it lasted with me, stayed with me for perhaps five or ten minutes. Well now, what was that? And I felt the same way once again: I think it was just at the time when the Leader [KT] died, I waked up and felt that same feeling about my brother. Can you tell me what it all was?
G. de P. — I think from your description, dear Companion, that it was a case which, to speak scientifically, we might call a synchronous vibration of two souls. In other words, your love reached both your sister and brother at the different times, and caused an instantaneous reaction of a similar flow of love towards you, making the sense of imminent personal contact very acute. Do you understand me? The love of you two joined, in each case.
Student — But it reached my personality. It had to go through my personality to reach me.
G. de P. — Certainly. The brain became conscious of the actual fact of joining in the currents of love of the two souls which were so closely united. You understand me, do you not?
Student — Then the other soul, of either my brother or sister, was also conscious then?
G. de P. — Not conscious. Your sister was dead, you say? Then, not conscious as you were, because for her there was a perfect, blissful, deep sleep. It would be a terrible thing if human beings could disturb, annoy, no matter how much our own human hearts may crave communication with them. It would be a terrible thing if the love flowing from our human hearts could reach and disturb in their time of rest and peace those who have passed on. Nature is too kindly for that.
Student — Yes, I had that feeling. It was more my own joy I felt. I didn't have the feeling that the other person — I mean that it was all my own joy.
G. de P. — I think what took place was that your love felt both for your sister and your brother at the times, due to the devotion of your heart and mind, reading this book, reached even into the devachan — into the condition in which were the individuals whom you loved — and established a contact of love, if you understand what I mean.
Student — Thank you very much.
G. de P. — And love, remember, is the very cement of the universe. It keeps all things together. It is a manifestation of cosmic harmony, and is the vital essence of the universe.
Student — You say that it makes no difference at what hour of day or night one dies? Does it make any difference when one is born — the hour when the soul enters?
G. de P. — Well, every moment of the day and night has its own different solar and planetary influences, so of course it does make a difference in that sense of the word. But I don't think that in any other way it could rightly be said that a child born in the morning, or at noon, or in the evening, or at midnight, is under either an advantageous or a disadvantageous set of circumstances, merely by the fact of being born at a certain hour.
Student — Thank you.
Student — May I ask a question? The same question that was bothering Mr. L----- bothered me. I do not know whether he would rather rise and continue this question, or if I can ask what I think he is still thinking about.
G. de P. — Certainly.
Student — You know when you said that a man becomes a sun, it was implied also that every part of him becomes some part of the sun in some form. I think the thing that bothered me was that surely all the different energies that belong to oneself must have been made as we have been, and gone through all that we have gone through, before they can become a sun. I don't know if I am clear. Yet what business have all the little parts that go to make up your physical being, before they are a man?
G. de P. — I don't think I quite understand you. No.
Student — Unfortunately I had the same difficulty seeing it, but it occurred to me that they are all progressing simultaneously: the entity and the atoms that it throws off with which it makes its vehicle; and that these atoms are not essentially any lower than the entity itself. Therefore they have the right to make the vehicle of the sun, just as they have now the right to make the body.
G. de P. — Yes, that is quite true, but the atoms which compose even your body are of different grades and degrees of evolution. Furthermore please remember that when I spoke of the atoms of the human being I did not refer to the atoms of the physical body only, but to the atoms of the several states or grades of his entire inner constitution, reaching from the spiritual downwards to the physical.
Student — Yes, thank you.
G. de P. — The sun is a wonderful conglomerate — I am going to tell you very plainly — is a wonderful conglomerate of entities, vital entities, under the control and held in the grip of the dominating supreme entity, the god of the sun. It is a host, a vast host, an enormous multitude, of spiritual beings. Remember please that there are seven suns and we see only the physical sun, the body of it, so to speak.
Student — Well, what about the three higher planes above the seven? Are there what correspond to the seven suns on those planes?
G. de P. — Yes.
Student — In connection with one of the earlier questions, is it correct to say that the earth at one time is under the influence of the sun and at another time under the influence of the moon, because both moon and sun are influencing the earth at the same time? While we are under the influence of the sun at one place at some other place it is night, so one cannot conceive of the whole earth being under the influence of the solar rays at any time.
G. de P. — You are quite right. I think the meaning of the questioner was that at certain times the influences emanating from the sun are more strongly felt on the earth than those emanating from the moon, although the lunar influences are emanating concurrently all the time. If he meant that the influences from the sun at one time control the earth entirely, and the influences of the moon were not felt at all those times, then he is wrong, but I did not so understand him. You are quite right in your statement.
The next question, please.
Student — Is there one great sun? Or are they all equal?
G. de P. — One chief sun, do you mean?
Student — Yes.
G. de P. — In every universe there is one sun which is the dominator in that universe. But there are armies of suns, multitudes of them; and our modern scientists are beginning to have an adumbration of this truth when they talk about island-universes. Our own home-universe, for instance, is pretty closely all that is comprised within the encircling zone of the Milky Way of which our sun is a part. And there is one dominant solar center in the Milky Way — but I do not say that this solar dominant is on the physical plane.
We have in our philosophy what we call raja-suns, king-suns; and I may add in passing that there are also emperor-suns, so to speak, maharaja-suns. But there is no need talking about these, because the idea is entirely strange to you, I suppose, and very few of those raja-suns or maharaja-suns are on the physical plane.
Student — We heard at one of these gatherings that the atoms of the body come to us on reincarnation from the moon, in transit, as you expressed it. Is it possible, or is it permissible, to ask if the higher principles of man come in transit from different quarters of the universe, in transit from the sun?
G. de P. — I would not say that the atoms of the physical body alone come in transit from the moon, because that statement would not be correct. It would not be true as a matter of fact. But all our principles are in transit all the time, and pass from sun to moon, and from moon to sun, and from planet to planet, but under different conditions for each set of principles.
Now that may sound very vague indeed, and I recognize that it is, but it is just about as far as I can speak.
I don't see why you dear people don't make up your minds to take a great step forward: assume the duties of chelaship, take the oath and get the knowledge which you will then be entitled to.
Student — May I ask a question? Is it not most important that we use our thoughts, and guide them in an understandable area, in an area that to us has a meaning and has the power to affect our lives so that our lives will be beneficial both to ourselves and to the world? For instance, we may ask questions innumerable, but are we more qualified in relation to real living as it should be lived? And can we not get much light in other directions by evolving the light within, and clarifying our own thoughts so that we will not ask questions which even if answered we don't understand?
G. de P. — Well, in a general way your statement is perfectly right. The main thing to do is to follow the inner light. That is the prime requisite. It is a royal road, it is a great key. It is the first and last password, the most important open sesame to achievement.
But, and this I think you should remember: the asking of questions may seem unimportant to one or to a few, but may be very important to others and to the one who asks the question. If the mind, if the intellect, if the heart, are troubled and disturbed about a problem, and are not satisfied, evolution is entangled, because the intellectual part of man should be fed properly, just as much as any other part of the constitution. Now that could all be done, just as you point out, and as I myself have pointed out before this evening, by turning to the inner light; but a help in turning to the inner light is in having clear, defined teachings about the problems which the mind is faced with. Do you understand me?
Student — Yes, I understand. But the only reason why I spoke of it is the following: we had quite a number of questions about death. Now in proportion as we go into states that do not affect us, so to speak, we are not in the relation with ourselves in which our own light can shine upon our own problems. If we guide our thoughts in wrong directions, we cannot have the benefit of that inner light which we really have when we deserve it.
G. de P. — That last remark is true, very true. But let me give to you a practical instance of how esoteric teaching will help you. If you understand what happens to you after death, and when the time of passing comes, that knowledge will remain latent in your consciousness, and will be an instinctive guide to quicker release, and a more happy joining to the god within. It will act automatically.
Furthermore, such teaching will change your life while you live. It will change your thought currents, it will give a new direction to your thinking, a new and better impetus to your brain-mind. It will abate your violent passions, and it will help you in many ways.
All these will affect your post-mortem state; and therefore the Masters not only endorse the giving of esoteric teaching to those who hunger for it, but themselves constantly use it.
Nevertheless in a certain sense you are right. The real key to all is the inner light. Cultivate that, hunt for that, search for that. Try to enlighten yourself with and by your higher nature, with and by the god within, and all other things of good will be added unto you. Knowledge will then come to you instinctively, intuitively. You will then have everything. Remember that the supreme Master is your own inner god.
The next question, please.
Student — May I ask a question? Is it not a fact that after we pass from this physical state through the vale of death, our highest soul or self travels into the various other planets, as to schoolrooms, so that we may gain information to lead to what I may call a better preparation for the next reincarnation?
G. de P. — Yes, that is so. But not all of your constitution does it.
This reminds me, Companions: I have been wondering a little lately, taking very seriously to heart the thought whether we have not been advancing in instruction a little too rapidly. I have been asking myself if I have given you adequate time to digest, mentally and spiritually, our studies here together. I have in consequence also wondered whether it might be better to omit our meetings for a few weeks, or months even. Has anyone any opinion about this? I am asking this question myself because it is so near our closing time for tonight. I would like to get the opinion of a few of you.
Student — If I may say something: so far as I am concerned myself, I do find it difficult to keep in mind all the teachings which you give to us. For many years I have been in the habit of striving after constant meditation, that undercurrent which Mr. Judge so strongly recommends, and I have found snatches of what you have said at these meetings and also in the Temple coming into my mind. I have had duties, as we all have, which imperatively demand fulfillment and which we want to do, and the meditation and consequent deeper understanding of the teachings is perforce held over, and, as it were pushed back.
For one, I think that it might be advisable to have these meetings a little less often. I don't know whether it would really be of much advantage merely to postpone the meetings for a month or six weeks, but if we could have a longer period of time, say a month, between the meetings, in other words a double length of time between these esoteric meetings, it might be a good thing.
G. de P. — Well, there is a good deal of truth in that. I have not brought this matter to your attention, Companions, merely because I want it so. On the contrary: I have a message to deliver. I am eager to deliver this message to you and to the world. When that message is delivered, my duty will have been done, and I will then leave you. But, on the other hand, I know from my own experience, from having myself been taught, that there is such a thing as too rapid progress — no, that is badly phrased. There is such a thing as forcing the teachings a little, and in such forcing the mind becomes weary perhaps.
If anyone has any other idea, will he speak, please.
Student — I don't feel at all in that way. I find that these meetings enliven me. There is more inspiration to do every duty that I have, and in every week things become clearer and clearer to me. The weeks when we have these esoteric meetings are looked forward to by me and with my whole heart, and I would feel deeply regretful if they were broken off. I do not know if the others feel in that way.
Student — I agree with this.
Student — I feel, dear Teacher, that these opportunities will never come again; and if you are to be considered — that is our first consideration, because we do know from what you have said that it is a tax on your strength. But these meetings give us an opportunity to broaden our minds, to let our hearts express themselves, to move away from our personal lives and our personalities into the greater world that you have shown us glimpses of, and therefore I say, let them continue. We are more favored than any one of us realizes.
Student — Of course I feel just as the last speaker has expressed herself as feeling. But I have also this thought. I think that the view here gained of the greater spaces, of the things that may be beyond our grasp just at this time, has nevertheless shown us human life in its true proportions in the whole scheme of evolution, as nothing has ever shown us before. I feel that these revelations have placed life on earth, and life in a physical body, in their true relation to the Whole as none of the teachings that we have had before has done. How can we see the life that we live in one incarnation in its true proportion unless we have these great glimpses?
I cannot imagine anything more helpful to an aspiring human being, even though he cannot grasp it all and hold it and formulate it, or repeat it, than these glimpses of the whole. I would beg that at least we have periodical glimpses of this kind, in order that we may rectify ourselves, as you might say, in our relations to the great spaces and never forget, never be without these glimpses long enough to forget, that sense of the greater whole that these teachings have given to us.
To my mind those are unfortunate who have not had glimpses of this kind. What do they know of life that is past, or of life to come? What do they know of death? How can they do otherwise than suffer and grope in the way they follow? I would sit on hot plowshares to receive teachings of this kind, so that they could be voiced, and that the atmosphere might vibrate with them, and that they might reach some who crave for them, who long for them.
G. de P. — That is the true chela spirit. I didn't bring up this matter, I didn't ask this question, please understand, Companions, because of a diminution of my own strength, nor because I am vampirized. That is not the idea at all. But I have been earnestly desirous for the last month or six weeks to find out what your own mental reaction is. Does anyone here feel that he or she is receiving too much, that he or she is becoming bewildered, or puzzled?
Many Voices — No! No!
Student — Yes, sometimes I do feel in that way. Could you tell us some of the dangers that might result from receiving the teachings too rapidly?
G. de P. — Weariness, bewilderment, and in weak characters — in some weak characters — a falling into a feeling of satiety. This arises out of the weakness of our lower human nature. Now I am not saying that this is your case. On the contrary, it is your honesty that has made you speak thus. Nevertheless there is that danger, and I have to take it into consideration.
It is my duty to deliver my message to you, and I am eager, anxious, to do it. But I cannot rightly do it if it causes any one of you to incur the danger of falling back. If anyone here has a weak strain in the character, there is that danger present, and it is my duty to tell you about it — that simply from bewilderment, from weariness, you may fall.
Student — May I say that these meetings are always very exhilarating to me. I always feel myself full of enthusiasm, happiness, and inspiration, and it seems to me also that the advantages of being able to read what is given out at the meetings helps very much to assimilate it all mentally.
G. de P. — That is true. It does help very much indeed.
Student — I always find that some new light is thrown upon some of the teachings that have been given in previous meetings, and with this new light additional help comes. My feeling in regard to the continuance of the giving out of the teachings is something that I think rests with the teacher. I think that he knows how far we are really responding and are able to respond; but I do think that our hearts are eager to receive all that we are able to receive, and I think that he surely knows this.
Student — I was going to say that it had not entered my feelings at all, the idea of making any conditions as to receiving these teachings. It seems to me the greatest possible privilege, for which we cannot be too thankful; and the idea of making any conditions is altogether opposed to my feelings in the matter. I think that we should seize the opportunity while it is here. We do not know how long it will last. It may stop tomorrow forevermore, for anything we know, and if we want time to sit still and meditate, we may get a good deal more of it than we want, later on. My conception of the chela spirit is to take thankfully what you are fortunate enough to get while you can get it.
G. de P. — That is true, quite true.
Student — I was going to beg you to continue, but of course you will decide. However, I am new in these meetings, and I cannot express what is happening to me — the feeling of expansion and expanding. And I for one should be extremely sorry if the meetings were discontinued or even the time interval lengthened into a month. I feel that I cannot get enough at present.
G. de P. — Well, I will tell you, Companions, the situation is just this. If you make the call earnest enough, the meetings will continue; and I beg any one of you who may feel that he or she is becoming bewildered or weary — and this feeling is not a crime, it is just a natural reaction — kindly to let me know the truth.
Student — It seems to me that in the very atmosphere that is created at these times, when the questions are asked and the answers to them are given, something in my own nature is stirred and wakened up, and that I had known these things before. I think that there is a tendency on the part of some of us to go along too calmly, because we need all the stirring up that we can get.
G. de P. — That is quite true.
Student — Dear Teacher: I cannot put at all into words what I want to say. Life to me consists very largely of the ES meetings. I mean to say that the one thing I am dwelling on in thought is the longing for the next meeting to come. These meetings have been simply marvelous to me, in the way of opening inner doors and calling forth spiritual understanding that before was absolutely asleep, although I can grasp but a small part of it; and I guess that this is true of all of us. But we each take something with us which helps us to grow; and things that we cannot carry in our minds come to us quite unexpectedly when we need them.
These meetings are absolutely priceless. I am always afraid they may cease, and we want them all so much.
Student — A few moments ago you said: "Your questions amaze me. Why don't you make a step forward and take the oath of chelaship, and —" I don't remember the rest of the sentence. You have come here to give, and while we would gladly relinquish every prospect of receiving if it would save you, at the same time you have come to give your message. If we are not ready to receive it, I think we should look to ourselves to see if there is anything to do to make ourselves ready while you are here. If it means a daring step forwards, then we should take it. If it means something else, we should do it. Our business is to do our part. You can only give, but you must have the channels to receive.
G. de P. — Thank you.
Student — As one who is continually in the outside world, away from this perfect atmosphere, these esoteric meetings carry inspiration which enables me in a very humble way to pass many truths to people which, if I had not had the privilege of attending these meetings, and having had my eyes opened to the realization of these truths, I would not be able to pass on to my fellow beings.
I believe you will be given power. We do not want to tax you. We are willing to stop when you say so. I think I can say that truthfully for every soul in this room. You have been sent to give the message, and we should prepare ourselves to receive and retain as much as possible of it. If you feel that you can continue and it is right that you should, I am sure that we will all welcome the words of truth which will come from your lips.
G. de P. — Thank you.
Well, Companions, I think, then, that the consensus of opinion is that these meetings had better continue as we have been holding them. May I ask, however, that in case any one does feel that he or she is becoming bewildered or tired — I mean in a mental sense, you understand — he or she will please to let me know, and I will then come to some arrangement with such companions, either by suggesting a temporary withdrawal until new interest and strength have come back, or by suggesting some other arrangement.
I think that we will close the meeting now. A few moments of silence, please.
[Sounding of the gong. Silence.]