Studies in Occultism
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"In the East the spirit of "non-separateness" is inculcated as steadily from childhood up, as in the West the spirit of rivalry. Personal ambition, personal feelings and desires, are not encouraged to grow so rampant there. When the soil is naturally good, it is cultivated in the right way, and the child grows into a man in whom the habit of subordination of one's lower to one's Higher Self is strong and powerful. In the West men think that their own likes and dislikes of other men and things are guiding principles for them to act upon, even when they do not make of them the law of their lives and seek to impose them upon others." |
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"There are those whose reasoning powers have been so distorted
by foreign influences that they imagine that animal passions can be so sublimated and elevated
that their fury, force, and fire can, so to speak, be turned inwards; that they can be stored and
shut up in one's breast, until their energy is, not expended, but turned toward higher and more
holy purposes: namely, until their collective and unexpended strength enables their possessor to
enter the true Sanctuary of the Soul and stand therein in the presence of the Master - the Higher Self! For this purpose they will not struggle with their passions nor slay them. They
will simply, by a strong effort of will, put down the fierce flames and keep them at bay within
their natures, allowing the fire to smolder under a thin layer of ashes. They submit joyfully to the
torture of the Spartan boy who allowed the fox to devour his entrails rather than part with it. Oh,
poor blind visionaries!" |
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"The "Master" in the Sanctuary of our souls is "the Higher Self" -- the divine spirit whose
consciousness is based upon and derived solely (at any rate during the mortal life of the man in
whom it is captive) from the Mind, which we have agreed to call the Human Soul (the "Spiritual
Soul" being the vehicle of the Spirit). In its turn the former (the personal or human soul) is a
compound in its highest form, of spiritual aspirations, volitions, and divine love; and in its lower
aspects, of animal desires and terrestrial passions imparted to it by its associations with its
vehicle, the seat of all these." |
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"The "Higher Self" or Spirit is as unable to assimilate such feelings as water to get
mixed with oil or unclean liquid tallow. It is thus the mind alone, the sole link and medium
between the man of earth and the Higher Self -- that is the only sufferer, and which is in the
incessant danger of being dragged down by those passions that may be re-awakened at any
moment, and perish in the abyss of matter." |
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"It is only when the
power of the passions is dead altogether, and when they have been crushed and annihilated in the
retort of an unflinching will; when not only all the lusts and longings of the flesh are dead, but
also the recognition of the personal Self is killed out and the "astral" has been reduced in
consequence to a cipher, that the Union with the "Higher Self" can take place. Then when the
"Astral" reflects only the conquered man, the still living but no more the longing, selfish
personality, then the brilliant Augoeides, the divine SELF, can vibrate in conscious harmony with
both the poles of the human Entity -- the man of matter purified, and the ever pure Spiritual Soul
-- and stand in the presence of the MASTER SELF, the Christos of the mystic Gnostic, blended,
merged into, and one with IT for ever." |
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"Now by "psychic" individuality we mean that self-determining power which enables man to
override circumstances. Place half a dozen animals of the same species under the same
circumstances, and their actions while not identical, will be closely similar; place half a dozen
men under the same circumstances and their actions will be as different as their characters, i.e.,
their psychic individuality.
But if instead of "psychic" we call it the Higher Self-conscious Will, then having been shown by
the science of psycho-physiology itself that will has no special organ, how will the materialists
connect it with "molecular" motion at all?" |
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"But the Eastern Occultist employs the mystic term only when referring to the
reincarnating higher Ego. For, divine Wisdom being diffused throughout the infinite Universe,
and our impersonal Higher Self being an integral part of it, the atmic light of the latter can be
centered only in that which though eternal is still individualized -- i.e., the noetic Principle, the
manifested God within each rational being, or our Higher Manas at one with Buddhi." |
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