Theos-Talk Archives (March 2004 Message tt00398)

March 19th 2004

Dear Friends:

Re 108th Anniversary of W Q J's death.



As we approach the 108th anniversary of W Q JUDGE'S death (in 1896), 

I thought of your representing his 


The EPITOME OF THEOSOPHY 


As it is over your 30,000 word limit [ 44,100] I send this to you to see
if you might agree to forward it to subscribers.


If not, let me know and I will sectionalize it. (2 PARTS)


Best wishes,

Dallas

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THE EPITOME OF THEOSOPHY (JUDGE)				


by William Q. Judge


Historical Note

AN EPITOME OF THEOSOPHY is the earliest as it remains the best,
condensed, yet withal substantive treatment of the Great Message of the
doctrines of the Wisdom-Religion, or Theosophy.


It was originally issued as “A Theosophical Tract” by the Aryan
Theosophical Society of New York City in December, 1887. This “Tract”
was printed in full in Mr. Judge’s magazine, The Path, Volume II, No.
10, January, 1888,—a brief or digest of six pages, rather than a
treatment; a table rather than its contents.


The foundation of The Path, the return of Madame Blavatsky to active
effort in the West by her residence in London and the commencement of
her magazine, Lucifer; the public announcement of the Esoteric Section
of the Theosophical Society; the foundation of the Blavatsky Lodge at
London; the publication of The Secret Doctrine; the organization of the
American Section of the Theosophical Society—all these occurred
contemporaneously in the years 1886-1888, and be-tokened a new orbit of
action, a great revival of Theosophy pure and simple in the Western
World. An Epitome of Theosophy, even in its original immature form, had
no small share in this revival. So great was its circulation in the
United States, so great the need elsewhere, that the Theosophical
Publication Society in England requested Mr. Judge to revise the leaflet
for issuance in Great Britain.


Mr. Judge accordingly re-wrote entirely the original Tract as put
together at his suggestion by Mr. Alexander Fullerton and others,
enlarging it to a booklet, and sent the manuscript to the Theosophical
Publication Society at London. Its managers wrote back that the
treatment was entirely too “deep” for the average mind; that what was
needed was something “light.” Mr. Judge replied to this criticism in
characteristic fashion. His answer will be found in Volume II of the
Letters That Have Helped Me, in No.IV of that book. He says (in part):


“It is with great regret that I learn from recent London advices that
the Managers of the Society there think that the Tract, ‘Epitome of
Theosophy,’ which appeared in The Path, is ‘too advanced to be reprinted
now, and that what is needed is a ‘stepping-stone from fiction to
philosophy.’

“Permit me to say that I cannot agree with this opinion, nor with the
policy which is outlined by it. The opinion is erroneous, and the policy
is weak as well as being out of accord with that of the Masters.


“If I had made up that Epitome wholly myself I might have some
hesitation in speaking this way, but I did not. The general idea of such
a series of tracts was given to me some two years ago, and this one was
prepared by several students who know what the people need. It is at
once comprehensive and fundamental. It covers most of the ground, and if
any sincere reader grasps it he will have food for his reflection of the
sort needed.


“If, however, we are to proceed by a mollified passage from folly
(which is fiction) to philosophy, then we at once diverge from the path
marked out for us by the Masters; and for this statement I can refer to
letters from Them in my hands. I need only draw your attention to the
fact that when those Masters began to cause Their servants to give out
matter in India, They did not begin with fiction, but with stern facts.
We are not seeking to cater to a lot of fiction readers and curiosity
hunters, but to the pressing needs of earnest minds. Fiction readers
never influenced a nation’s progress. And these earnest minds do not
desire, and ought not to be treated to a gruel which the sentence just
quoted would seem to indicate as their fate.
“I therefore respectfully urge upon you that the weak and erroneous
policy to which I have referred shall not be followed, but that strong
lines of action be taken, and that we leave fiction to the writers who
profit by it or who think that thus people’s minds can be turned to the
Truth. If a contrary line be adopted then we will not only disappoint
the Master (if that be possible) but we will in a very large sense be
guilty of making false representations to a growing body of subscribers
here as elsewhere.”


These wise counsels of Mr. Judge, fortified by the advice of Madame
Blavatsky, prevailed with the Managers of the T.P.S., and the Epitome
was accordingly issued in the summer of 1888. Subsequently the work has
been reissued and circulated by various Theosophical bodies.
As we feel that the present cycle of effort in the Theosophical Movement
closely parallels the beginnings of the great renaissance of 1886-1888,
and that a whole new generation of incarnated Souls are wrestling with
the same problems, and suffer from the same needs, we think it timely
and fitting to make available to them this wonderful Epitome of the only
doctrines which have power to heal, by teaching, the nations. Hence the
present Edition.

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AN EPITOME OF THEOSOPHY



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 imagined or
inferred, but that it is a knowledge of facts seen and known by those
who are willing to comply with the conditions requisite for seeing and
knowing.

Theosophy, meaning knowledge of or about God (not in the sense of a
personal anthropomorphic God, but in that of divine “godly” wisdom), and
the term “God” being universally accepted as including the whole of both
the known and the unknown, it follows that “Theosophy” must imply wisdom
respecting the absolute; and, since the absolute is without beginning
and eternal, this wisdom must have existed always. Hence Theosophy is
sometimes called the Wisdom-Religion, because from immemorial time it
has had knowledge of all the laws governing the spiritual, the moral,
and the material.

The theory of nature and of life which it offers is not one that was at
first speculatively laid down and then proved by adjusting facts or
conclusions to fit it; but is an explanation of existence, cosmic and
individual, derived from knowledge reached by those who have acquired
the power to see behind the curtain that hides the operations of nature
from the ordinary mind. Such Beings are called Sages, using the term in
its highest sense. Of late
they have been called Mahatmas and Adepts. In ancient times they were
known as the Rishis and Mahârishis-the last being a word that means
Great Rishis.
 
It is not claimed that these exalted beings, or Sages, have existed
only in
the East. They are known to have lived in all parts of the globe, in
obedience
to the cyclic laws referred to below. But as far as concerns the present
development of the human race on this planet, they are now to be found
in
the East, although the fact may be that some of them had, in remote
times,
retreated from even the American shores.

There being of necessity various grades among the students of this
Wisdom-Religion, it stands to reason that those belonging to the lower
degrees are able to give out only so much of the knowledge as is the
appanage of the grade they have reached, and depend, to some extent, for
further information upon students who are higher yet. It is these higher
students for whom the claim is asserted that their knowledge is not mere
inference, but that it concerns realities seen and known by them. While
some of them are connected with the Theosophical Society, they are yet
above it. The power to see and absolutely know such laws

is surrounded by natural inherent regulations which must be complied
with as conditions precedent; and it is, therefore, not possible to
respond to the demand of the worldly man for an immediate statement of
this wisdom, insomuch as he could not comprehend it until those
conditions are fulfilled. As this knowledge deals with laws and states
of matter, and of consciousness undreamed of by the "practical" Western
world, it can only be grasped, piece by
8
piece, as the student pushes forward the demolition of his preconceived
notions, that are due either to inadequate or to erroneous theories. It
is claimed by these higher students that, in the Occident especially, a
false method of reasoning has for many centuries prevailed, resulting in
a universal habit of mind which causes men to look upon many effects as
causes, and to regard that which is real as the unreal, putting
meanwhile the unreal in the place of the real. As a minor example, the
phenomena of mesmerism and clairvoyance have, until lately, been denied
by Western science, yet there have always been numerous persons who know
for themselves, by incontrovertible introspective evidence, the truth of
these phenomena, and, in some instances, understand their cause and
rationale.

The following are some of the fundamental propositions of Theosophy:

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

Further, the universe being one thing and not diverse, and everything
within it being connected with the whole and with every other thing
therein, of which upon the upper plane (below 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.

This first fundamental proposition of Theosophy postulates that the
universe is not an aggregation of diverse unities but that it is one
whole. This whole is what is denominated "Deity" by Western
Philosophers, and "Para-Brahm" by the Hindu Vedantins. It may be called
the Unmanifested, containing within itself the potency of every form of
manifestation, together with the laws governing those manifestations.
Further, it is taught that there is no creation of worlds in the
theological sense; but that their appearance is due strictly to
evolution. When the time comes for the Unmanifested to manifest as an
objective Universe, which it does periodically, it emanates a Power or
"The First Cause"-so called because it itself is the rootless root of
that Cause, and called in the East the "Causeless Cause." The first
Cause we may call Brahma, or Ormazd, or Osiris, or by any name we
please. The projection into time of the influence or so-called "breath
of Brahma" causes all the worlds and the beings upon them to gradually
appear. They remain in manifestation just as long as that influence
continues to proceed forth in evolution. 

After long ćons the outbreathing, evolutionary influence slackens, and
the universe begins to go into obscuration, or pralaya, until, the
"breath" being fully indrawn, no objects remain, because nothing is but
Brahma. Care must be taken by the student to make a distinction between
Brahma (the impersonal Parabrahm) and Brahmâ the manifested Logos. A
discussion of the means used by this power in acting would be out of
place in this Epitome, but of those means Theosophy also treats.

This breathing-forth is known as a Manvantara, or the Manifestation of
the world between two Manus ( from Manu,and Antara "between" ) and the
completion of the inbreathing brings with
it Pralaya, or destruction. It is from these truths that the erroneous
doctrines of "creation" and the "last judgment" have sprung. Such
Manvantaras and Pralayas have eternally occurred, and will continue to
take place periodically and forever.

For the purpose of a Manvantara two so-called eternal principles are
postulated, that is, Purusha and Prakriti (or spirit and matter),
because both are ever present and conjoined in each manifestation. Those
terms are used here because no equivalent for them exists in English.
Purusha is called "spirit," and Prakriti "matter," but this Purusha is
not the unmanifested, nor is Prakriti matter as known to science; the
Aryan Sages therefore declare that there is a higher spirit still,
called Purushottama. The reason for this is that at the night of Brahmâ,
or the so-called indrawing of his breath, both Purusha and Prakriti are
absorbed in the Unmanifested; a conception which is the same as the idea
underlying the Biblical expression "remaining in the bosom of the
Father."

This brings us to the doctrine of Universal Evolution as expounded by
the Sages of the Wisdom-Religion. The Spirit, or Purusha, they say,
proceeds from Brahma through the various forms of matter evolved at the
same time, beginning in the world of the spiritual from the highest and
in the material world from the lowest form. The lowest form is one
unknown as yet to modern science. Thus, therefore, the mineral,
vegetable and animal forms each imprison a spark of the Divine, a
portion of the indivisible Purusha.

These sparks struggle to "return to the Father," or in other words, to
secure self-con-
sciousness and at last come into the highest form, on Earth, that of
man, where alone self-conscious-ness is possible to them. The period,
calculated in human time, during which this evolution goes on embraces
millions of ages. Each spark of divinity has, therefore, millions of
ages in which to accomplish its mission-that of obtaining complete
self-consciousness while in the form of man. But by this is not meant
that the mere act of coming into human form of itself confers
self-consciousness upon this divine spark. That great work may be
accomplished during the Manvantara in which a Divine spark reaches the
human form, or it may not; all depends upon the individual's own will
and efforts. Each particular spirit thus goes through the Manvantara, or
enters into manifestation for its own enrichment and for that of the
Whole. Mahâtmâs and Rishis are thus gradually evolved during a
Manvantara, and become, after its expiration, planetary spirits, who
guide the evolutions of other future planets. The planetary spirits of
our globe are those who in previous Manvantaras-or days of Brahmâ- made
the efforts, and became in the course of that long period Mahâtmâs.

Each Manvantara is for the same end and purpose, so that the Mahatmas
who have now attained those heights, or those who may become such in the
succeeding years of the present Manvantara, will probably be the
planetary spirits of the next Manvantara for this or other planets. This
system is thus seen to be based upon the identity of Spiritual Being,
and, under the name of "Universal Brotherhood," constitutes the basic
idea of the Theosophical Society, whose object is the realization of
that Brotherhood among men.

The Sages say that this Purusha is the basis of all manifested objects.
Without it nothing could exist or cohere. It interpenetrates everything
everywhere. It is the reality of which, or upon which, those things
called real by us are mere images. As Purusha reaches to and embraces
all beings, they are all connected together; and in or on the plane
where that Purusha is, there is a perfect consciousness of every act,
thought, object, and circumstance, whether supposed to occur there, or
on this plane, or any other. For below the spirit and above the
intellect is a plane of consciousness in which experiences are noted,
commonly called man's "spiritual nature;" this is frequently said to be
as susceptible of culture as his body or his intellect.

This upper plane is the real register of all sensations and experiences,
although there are other registering planes. It is sometimes called the
"subconscious mind." Theosophy, however, holds that it is a misuse of
terms to say that the spiritual nature can be cultivated. The real
object to be kept in view is to so open up or make porous the lower
nature that the spiritual nature may shine through it and become the
guide and ruler. It is only "cultivated" in
the sense of having a vehicle prepared for its use, into which it may
descend. In other words, it is held that the real man, who is the higher
self—being the spark of the Divine before alluded to—overshadows the
visible being, which has the possibility of becoming united to that
spark. Thus it is said that the higher Spirit is not in the man, but
above him. It is always peaceful, unconcerned, blissful, and full of
absolute knowledge. It continually partakes of the Divine state, being
continually that state itself, "conjoined with the Gods, it feeds upon
Ambrosia." The object of the student is to let the light of that spirit
shine through the lower coverings.

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 this is a matter of both
system and established law.

This spirit can only become the ruler when the firm intellectual
acknowledgment or admission is first made that IT alone is. And, as
stated above, it being not only the person concerned but also the whole,
all selfishness must be eliminated from the lower nature before its
divine state can be reached. So long as the smallest personal or selfish
desire—even for spiritual attainment for our own sake—remains, so long
is the desired end put off. Hence the above term "demands of the flesh"
really covers also demands that are not of the flesh, and its proper
rendering would be "desires of the personal nature, including those of
the individual soul. "

When systematically trained in accordance with the aforesaid system and
law, men attain to clear insight into the immaterial, spiritual world,
and their interior faculties apprehend truth as immediately and readily
as physical faculties grasp the things of sense, or mental faculties
those of reason. Or, in the words used by some of them, "They are able
to look directly upon ideas;" and hence their testimony to such truth is
as trustworthy as is that of scientists or philosophers to truth in
their respective fields.

In the course of this spiritual training such men acquire perception of,
and control over, various forces in Nature unknown to other men, and
thus are able to perform works usually called "miraculous," though
really but the result of larger knowledge of natural law. What these
powers are may be found in Patanjali's "Yoga Philosophy."

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, in the
first place, an account of cosmogony, the past and future of this earth
and other planets, the evolution of life through elemental, mineral,
vegetable, animal and human forms, as they are called.

These "passive life elementals" are unknown to modern science, though
sometimes approached by it as a subtle material agent in the production
of life, whereas they are a form of life itself.

Each Kalpa, or grand period, is divided into four ages or yugas, each
lasting many thousands of years, and each one being marked by a
predominant characteristic. These are the Satya-yuga (or age of truth),
the Tretya-yuga, the Dvâpara-yuga, and our present Kali-yuga (or age of
darkness), which began five thousand years back. The word "darkness"
here refers to spiritual and not material darkness. In this age,
however, all causes bring about their effects much more rapidly than in
any other age—a fact due to the intensified momentum of "evil," as the
course of its cycle is about rounding towards that of a new cycle of
truth. Thus a sincere lover of the race can accomplish more in three
incarnations during Kali-Yuga, than he could in a much greater number in
any other age. The darkness of this age is not absolute, but is greater
than that of other ages; its main tendency being towards materiality,
while having some mitigation in occasional ethical or scientific advance
conducive to the well-being of the race, by the removal of immediate
causes of crime or disease.

Our earth is one of a chain of seven planets, it alone being on the
visible plane, while the six others are on different planes, and
therefore invisible. (The other planets of our solar system belong each
to a chain of seven.) And the life-wave passes from the higher to the
lower in the chain until it reaches our earth, and then ascends and
passes to the three others on the opposite arc, and thus seven times.
The evolution of forms is coincident with this progress, the
tide of life bearing with it the mineral and vegetable forms, until each
globe in turn is ready to receive the human life wave. Of these globes
our earth is the fourth.

Humanity passes from globe to globe in a series of Rounds, first
circling about each globe, and reincarnating upon it a fixed number of
times. Concerning the human evolution on the concealed planets or globes
little is permitted to be said. We have to concern ourselves with our
Earth alone. The latter, when the wave of humanity has reached it for
the last time (in this, our Fourth Round), began to evolute man,
subdividing him into races. Each of these races when it has, through
evolution, reached the period known as "the moment of choice" and
decided its future destiny as an individual race, begins to disappear.
The races are separated, moreover, from each other by catastrophes of
nature, such as the subsidence of continents and great natural
convulsions. Coincidentally with the development of races the
development of specialized senses takes place; thus our fifth race has
so far developed five senses.

The Sages further tell us that the affairs of this world and its people
are subject to cyclic laws, and during any one cycle the rate or quality
of progress appertaining to a different cycle is not possible. These
cyclic laws operate in each age. As the ages grow darker the same laws
prevail, only the cycles are shorter; that is, they are the same length
in the absolute sense, but go over the given limit in a shorter period
of time. These laws impose restrictions on
the progress of the race. In a cycle, where all is ascending and
descending, the Adepts must wait until the time comes before they can
aid the race to ascend. They cannot, and must not, interfere with Karmic
law. Thus they begin to work actively again in the spiritual sense, when
the cycle is known by them to be approaching its turning point.

At the same time these cycles have no hard lines or points of departure
or inception, inasmuch as one may be ending or drawing to a close for
sometime after another has already begun. They thus overlap and shade
into one another, as day does into night; and it is only when the one
has completely ended and the other has really begun by bringing out its
blossoms, that we can say we are in a new cycle. It may be illustrated
by comparing two adjacent cycles to two interlaced circles, where the
circumference of one touches the center of the other, so that the moment
where one ended and the other began would be at the point where the
circumferences intersected each other. Or by imagining a man as
representing, in the act of walking, the progress of the cycles; his
rate of advancement can only be obtained by taking the distance covered
by his paces, the points at the middle of each pace, between the feet,
being the beginning of cycles and their ending.

The cyclic progress is assisted, or the deterioration further permitted,
in this way; at a time when the cycle is ascending, developed and
progressed Beings, known in Sanskrit by the term "Jńânis," descend to
this earth from other spheres where the cycle is going down, in order
that they may also help the spiritual progress of this globe. In like
manner they leave this sphere when our cycle approaches darkness. These
Jńânis must not, however, be confounded with the Mahâtmâs and Adepts
mentioned above. The right aim of true Theosophists should, therefore,
be so to live that their influence may be conducive for the dispelling
of darkness to the end that such Jńânis may turn again towards this
sphere.

Theosophy also teaches the existence of a universal diffused and highly
ethereal medium, which has been called the "Astral Light" and "Akâsa."
It is the repository of all past, present, and future events, and in it
are recorded the effects of spiritual causes, and of all acts and
thoughts from the direction of either spirit or matter. It may be called
the Book of the Recording Angel.  

Akâsa, however, is a misnomer when it is confused with Ether or the
astral light of the Kabalists. Akâsa is the noumenon of the phenomenal
Ether or astral light proper, for Akâsa is infinite, impartite,
intangible, its only production being Sound.*

And this astral light is material and not spirit. It is, in fact, the
lower principle of that cosmic body of which akâsa is the highest. It
has the power of retaining all images. This includes a statement that
each thought as well as word and act makes an image there. These images
may be said to have two lives. First. Their own as an image. Second. The
impress left by them in the matrix of the astral light. In the upper
realm of this light there is no such thing as space or time in the human
sense. All future events are the thoughts and acts of
men; these are producers in advance of the picture of the event which is
to occur. Ordinary men continually, recklessly, and wickedly, are making
these events sure to come to pass, but the Sages, Mahâtmâs, and the
Adepts of the good law, make only such pictures as are in accordance
with Divine law, because they control the production of their thought.
In the astral light are all the differentiated sounds as well. The
elementals are energic centers in it. The shades of departed human
beings and animals are also there. Hence, any seer or
entranced person can see in it all that anyone has done or said, as well
as that which has happened to anyone with whom he is connected. Hence,
also, the identity of 
--------FOOTNOTE------------------

* Akâsa in the mysticism of the Esoteric Philosophy is, properly
speaking, the female "Holy Ghost;" "Sound" or speech being the Logos -
the manifested Verbum of the unmanifested Mother. See Sânkhyasâra,"
Preface, page 33 et seq.
-------------------------------------------
deceased persons—who are supposed to report specially out of this
plane—is not to be concluded from the giving of forgotten or unknown
words, facts, or ideas. Out of this plane of matter can be taken the
pictures of all who have ever lived, and then reflected on a suitable
magneto-electrical surface, so as to seem like the apparition of the
deceased, producing all the sensations of weight, hardness, and
extension.

Through the means of the Astral Light and the help of Elementals, the
various material elements may be drawn down and precipitated from the
atmosphere upon either a plane surface or in the form of a solid object;
this precipitation may be made permanent, or it may be of such a light
cohesive power as soon to fade away. But the help of the elementals can
only be obtained by a strong will added to a complete knowledge of the
laws which govern the being or the elementals. It is useless to give
further details on this point; first, because the untrained student
cannot understand; and second, the complete explanation is not
permitted, were it even possible in this space.


The world of the elementals is an important factor in our world and in
the course of the student. Each thought as it is evolved by a man
coalesces instantly with an elemental, and is then beyond the man's
power.

It can be easily seen that this process is going on every instant.
Therefore, each thought exists as an entity. Its length of life depends
on two things: (a) The original force of the person's will and
thought; (b) The power of the elemental which coalesced with it, the
latter being determined by the class to which the elemental belongs.


This is the case with good and bad thoughts alike, and as the will
beneath the generality of wicked thoughts is usually powerful, we can
see that the result is very important, because the elemental has no
conscience and obtains its constitution and direction from the thought
it may from time to time carry.

Each human being has his own elementals that partake of his nature and
his thoughts. If you fix your thoughts upon a person in anger, or in
critical, uncharitable judgment, you attract to yourself a number of
those elementals that belong to, generate, and are generated by this
particular fault or failing, and they precipitate themselves upon you.
Hence, through the injustice of your merely human condemnation, which
cannot know the source and causes of the action of another, you at once
become a sharer of his fault or failing by your own act, and the spirit
expelled returns "with seven devils worse than himself."

This is the origin of the popular saying that "curses, like chickens,
come home to roost," and has its root in the laws governing magnetic
affinity.

In the Kali-Yuga we are hypnotized by the effect of the immense body of
images in the Astral Light, compounded of all the deeds, thoughts, and
so forth of our ancestors, whose lives tended in a material direction.
These images influence the inner man—who is conscious of them—by
suggestion. In a brighter age the influence of such images would be
towards Truth. The effect of the Astral Light, as thus molded and
painted by us, will remain so long as we continue to place those images
there, and it thus becomes our judge and our executioner. Every
universal law thus contains within itself the means for its own
accomplishment and the punishment for its violation, and requires no
further authority to postulate it or to carry out its decrees.

The Astral Light by its inherent action both evolves and destroys forms.
It is the universal register. Its chief office is that of a vehicle for
the operation of the laws of Karma, or the progress of the principle of
life, and it is thus in a deep spiritual sense a medium or "mediator"
between man and his Deity—his higher spirit.

Theosophy also tells of the origin, history, development and destiny of
mankind.

Upon the subject of Man it teaches:

First. That each spirit is a manifestation of the One Spirit, and thus a
part of all. It passes through a series of experiences in incarnation,
and is destined to ultimate reunion with the Divine.

Second. That this incarnation is not single but repeated, each
individuality becoming re-embodied during numerous existences in
successive races and planets of our chain, and accumulating the
experiences of each incarnation towards its perfection.

Third. That between adjacent incarnations, after grosser elements are
first purged away, comes a period of comparative rest and refreshment,
called Devachan—the soul being therein prepared for its next advent into
material life.

The constitution of man is subdivided in a septenary manner, the main
divisions being those of body, soul and spirit. These divisions and
their relative development govern his subjective condition after death.
The real division cannot be understood, and must for a time remain
esoteric, because it requires certain senses not usually developed for
its understanding. If the present seven-fold division, as given by
Theosophical writers is adhered to strictly and without any conditional
statement, it will give rise to controversy or error.
For instance, Spirit is not a seventh principle. It is the synthesis, or
the whole, and is equally present in the other six. The present various
divisions can only be used as a general working hypothesis, to be
developed and corrected as students advance and themselves develop.

The state of spiritual but comparative rest known as Devachan is not an
eternal one, and so is not the same as the eternal heaven of
Christianity. Nor does "hell" correspond to the state known to
Theosophical writers as Avitchi.

All such painful states are transitory and purificatory states. When
those are passed the individual goes into Devachan.

"Hell" and Avitchi are thus not the same. Avitchi is the same as the
"second death," as it is in fact annihilation that only comes to the
"black Magician" or spiritually wicked, as will be seen further on.

The nature of each incarnation depends upon the balance as struck of the
merit and demerit of the previous life or lives—upon the way in which
the man has lived and thought; and this law is inflexible and wholly
just.

"Karma"—a term signifying two things, the law of ethical causation
(Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap); and the balance or
excess of merit or demerit in any individual, determines also the main
experiences of joy and sorrow in each incarnation, so that what we call
"luck" is in reality "desert"—desert acquired in past existence.

Karma is not all exhausted in a single life, nor IS a person necessarily
in this life experiencing the effect of all his previous Karma; for some
may be held back by various causes. The principle cause is the failure
of the Ego to acquire a body which will furnish the instrument or
apparatus in and by which the meditation or thoughts of previous lives
can have their effect and be ripened. Hence it is held that there is a
mysterious power in the man's thoughts during a
life, sure to bring about its results in either an immediately
succeeding life or in one many lives distant; that is, in whatever life
the Ego obtains a body cap-able of being the focus, apparatus, or
instrument for the ripening of past Karma. There is also a swaying or
diverging power in Karma in its effects upon the soul, for a certain
course of life—or thought—will influence the soul in that direction for
sometimes three lives, before the beneficial or bad effect of any other
sort of Karma can be felt. Nor does it follow that every minute portion
of Karma must be felt in the same detail as when produced. for several
sorts of Karma may come to a head together at one point in the life,
and, by their combined effect, produce a result which, while, as a
whole, accurately representing all the elements in it, still is a
different Karma from each single component part. This may be known as
the nullification of the postulated effect of the classes of Karma
involved.

The process of evolution up to reunion with the Divine is and includes
successive elevation from rank to rank of power and usefulness. The most
exalted beings still in the flesh are known as Sages, Rishis, Brothers,
Masters. Their great function being the preservation at all times, and
when cyclic laws permit, the extension of spiritual knowledge and
influence.

When union with the Divine is effected, all the events and experiences
of each incarnation are known.

As to the process of spiritual development, Theosophy teaches:

First. That the essence of the process lies in the securing of
supremacy, to the highest, the spiritual, element of man's nature.

Second. That this is attained along four lines, among others,—
[a] The entire eradication of selfishness in all forms, and the
cultivation of broad, generous sympathy in, and effort for the good of
others.

(b) The absolute cultivation of the inner, spiritual man by meditation,
by reaching to and communion with the Divine, and by exercise of the
kind described by Patanjali, i.e., incessant striving to an ideal end.

(c) The control of fleshly appetites and desires, all lower, material
interests being deliberately subordinated to the behests of the spirit.

(d) The careful performance of every duty belonging to one's station in
life, without desire for reward, leaving results for Divine law.

Third. That while the above is incumbent on and practicable by all
religiously disposed men, a yet higher plane of spiritual attainment is
conditioned upon a specific course of training, physical, intellectual
and spiritual, by which the internal faculties are first aroused and
then developed.

Fourth. That an extension of this process is reached in Adeptship,
Mahâtmâship, or the states of Rishis, Sages and Dhyan Chohans, which are
all exalted stages, attained by laborious self-discipline and hardship,
protracted through possibly many incarnations, and with many degrees of
initiation and preferment, beyond which are yet other stages ever
approaching the Divine.

As to the rationale of spiritual development it asserts:

First. That the process takes place entirely within the individual
himself, the motive, the effort, and the result proceeding from his own
inner nature, along the lines of self-evolution.

Second. That, however personal and interior, this process is not
unaided, being possible, in fact, only through close communion with the
supreme source of all strength.

As to the degree of advancement in incarnations it holds:

First. That even a mere intellectual acquaintance with Theosophic truth
has great value in fitting the individual for a step upwards in his next
earth-life, as it gives an impulse in that direction.

Second. That still more is gained by a career of duty, piety and
beneficence.

Third. That a still greater advance is attained by the attentive and
devoted use of the means to spiritual culture heretofore stated.

Fourth. That every race and individual of it reaches in evolution a
period known as "the moment of choice," when they decide for themselves
their future destiny by a deliberate and conscious choice between
eternal life and death, and that this right of choice is the peculiar
appanage of the free soul. It cannot be exercised until the man has
realized the soul within him, and until that soul has attained some
measure of self-conscious-ness in the body. The moment of choice is not
a fixed period of time; it is made up of all moments. It cannot come
unless all the previous lives have led up to it. For the race as a whole
it has not yet come. Any individual can hasten the advent of this period
for himself under the previously stated law of the ripening of Karma.
Should he then fail to choose right he is not wholly condemned, for the
economy of nature provides that he shall again and again have the
opportunity of choice when the moment arrives for the whole race. After
this period the race, having blossomed, tends towards its dissolution. A
few individuals of it will have outstripped its progress and attained
Adeptship or Mahâtmâship. The main body, who have chosen aright, but who
have not attained salvation, pass into the subjective condition, there
to await the influx of the human life wave into the next globe, which
they are the first souls to people; the deliberate choosers of evil,
whose lives are passed in great spiritual wicked-ness (for evil done for
the sheer love of evil per se), sever the connection with the Divine
Spirit, or the Monad, which forever abandons the human Ego. Such Egos
pass into the misery of the eighth sphere, as far as we understand,
there to remain until the separation between what they had thus
cultivated and the personal Ishwara or divine spark is complete. But
this tenet has never been explained to us by the Masters, who have
always refused to answer and to explain it conclusively. At the next
Manvantara that Divine Spark will probably begin again the long
evolutionary journey, being cast into the stream of life at the source
and passing upward again through all the lower forms.

So long as the connection with the Divine Monad is not severed, this
annihilation of personality cannot take place. Something of that
personality will always remain attached to the immortal Ego. Even after
such severance the human being may live on, a man among men—a soulless
being. This disappointment, so to call it, of the Divine Spark by
depriving it of its chosen vehicle constitutes the "sin against the Holy
Ghost," which its very nature forbade it to pardon, because it cannot
continue an association with principles which have become degraded and
vitiated in the absolute sense, so that they no longer respond to cyclic
or evolutionary impulses, but, weighted by their own nature, sink to the
lowest depths of matter. The connection, once wholly broken, cannot in
the nature of Being be resumed. But innumerable opportunities for return
offer themselves throughout the dissolving process, which lasts
thousands of years.

There is also a fate that comes to even Adepts of the Good Law which is
somewhat similar to a loss of "heaven" after its enjoyment for
incalculable periods of time. When the Adept has reached a certain very
high point in his evolution he may by a mere wish, become what the
Hindus call a "Deva"—or lesser god. If he does this, then, although he
will enjoy the bliss and power of that state for a vast length of time,
he will not at the next Pralaya partake of the conscious life "in the
bosom of the Father," but has to pass down into matter at the next new
"creation," performing certain functions that could not now be made
clear, and has to come up again through the elemental world; but this
fate is not like that of the Black Magician who falls into Avitchi. And
again between the two he can choose the middle state and become a
Nirmânakâya—one who gives up the bliss of Nirvâna and remains in
conscious existence outside of his body after its death; in order to
help Humanity. This is the greatest sacrifice he can do for mankind. By
advancement from one degree of interest and comparative attainment to
another as above stated, the student hastens the advent of the moment of
choice, after which his rate of progress is greatly intensified.

It may be added that Theosophy is the only system of religion and
philosophy which gives satisfactory explanation of such problems as
these:

First. The object, use, and inhabitation of other planets than this
earth, which planets serve to complete and prolong the evolutionary
course, and to fill the required measure of the universal experience of
souls.

Second. The geological cataclysms of earth; the frequent absence of
intermediate types in its fauna; the occurrence of architectural and
other relics of races now lost, and as to which ordinary science has
nothing but vain conjecture; the nature of extinct civilizations and the
causes of their extinction; the persistence of savagery and the unequal
development of existing civilizations; the differences, physical and
internal, between the various races of men; the line of future
development. Third. The contrasts and unisons of the world's faiths, and
the common foundation underlying them all.

Fourth. The existence of evil, of suffering, and of sorrow—a hopeless
puzzle to the mere philanthropist or theologian.

Fifth. The inequalities in social condition and privilege; the sharp
contrasts between wealth and poverty, intelligence and stupidity,
culture and ignorance, virtue and vileness; the appearance of men of
genius in families destitute of it, as well as other facts in conflict
with the law of heredity; the frequent cases of unfitness of environment
around individuals, so sore as to embitter disposition, hamper
aspiration, and paralyze endeavor; the violent antithesis
between character and condition; the occurrence of accident, misfortune
and untimely death—all of them problems solvable only by either the
conventional theory of Divine caprice or the Theosophic doctrines of
Karma and Reincarnation.

Sixth. The possession by individuals of psychic powers—clairvoyance,
clairaudience, etc., as well as the phenomena of psychometry and
statuvolism.

Seventh. The true nature of genuine phenomena in spiritualism, and the
proper antidote to superstition and to exaggerated expectation.

Eighth. The failure of conventional religions to greatly extend their
areas, reform abuses, reorganize society, expand the idea of
brotherhood, abate discontent, diminish crime, and elevate humanity; and
an apparent inadequacy to realize in individual lives the ideal they
professedly uphold.

W. Q. JUDGE

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