on occult philosophy.

begin by trying to conquer the habit, almost universal, of pushing yourself forward. this arises from personality. do not monopolise the conversation. keep in the background. if someone begins to tell you about himself and his doings, do not take first chance69 to tell him about yourself, but listen to him and talk solely to bring him out. and when he has finished suppress in yourself the desire to tell about yourself, your opinions and experiences. do not ask a question unless you intend to listen to the answer and inquire into its value. try to recollect that you are a very small affair in the world, and that the people around do not value you at all and grieve not when you are absent. your only true greatness lies in your inner true self and it is not desirous of obtaining the applause of others. if you will follow these directions for one week you will find they will take considerable effort, and you will begin to discover a part of the meaning of the saying, "man, know thyself."

it is not necessary to be conscious of the progress one has made. nor is the date in any sense an extinguisher, as some have styled it. in these days we are too prone to wish to know everything all at once, especially in relation to ourselves. it may be desirable and encouraging to be thus conscious, but it is not necessary. we make a good deal of progress in our inner, hidden life of which we are not at all conscious. we do not know of it until some later life. so in this case many may be quite beyond the obstacles and not be conscious of it. it is best to go on with duty, and to refrain from this trying to take stock and measuring of progress. all of our progress is in the inner nature, and not in the physical where lives the brain, and from which the present question comes. the apparent physical progress is evanescent. it is ended when the body dies, at which time, if the inner man has not been allowed to guide us, the natural record against us will be a cipher, or "failure." now, as the great adepts live in the plane of our inner nature, it must follow that they might be actively helping every one of us after the date referred to, and we, as physical brain men, not be conscious of it on this plane.

70

... i strongly advise you to give up all yoga practices, which in almost all cases have disastrous results unless guided by a competent teacher. the concussions and explosions in your head are evidences that you are in no fit condition to try yoga practices, for they result from lesions of the brain, i.e., from the bursting of the very minute brain cells. i am glad you have written to me upon this matter, that i may have an opportunity of warning you. also i advise you to discontinue concentration on the vital centres, which again may prove dangerous unless under the guidance of a teacher. you have learnt, to a certain degree, the power of concentration, and the greatest help will now come to you from concentration upon the higher self, and aspiration toward the higher self. also if you will take some subject or sentence from the bhagavat g?ta, and concentrate your mind upon that and meditate upon it, you will find much good result from it, and there is no danger in such concentration.

as to the question about the disintegration of the astral body and the length of time beforehand when it could be seen. my answer was not meant to be definite as to years, except that i gave a period of two years as a long one before the death of the physical body. there are cases—perhaps rare—in which five years before the death of the physical, a clairvoyant has seen the disintegration of the astral beginning. the idea intended to be conveyed is, that regardless of periods of time, if the man is going to die naturally (and that includes by disease), the corruption, disintegrating or breaking up of the astral body may be perceived by those who can see that way. hence the question of years is not involved. violent deaths are not included in this, because the astral in such cases does not disintegrate beforehand. and the way of seeing such a death in advance is by another method altogether.71 death from old age—which is the natural close of a cycle—is included in the answer as to death by disease, which might be called the disease of inability to fight off the ordinary breaking up of the cohesive forces.

you cannot develop the third eye. it is too difficult, and until you have cleared up a good deal more on philosophy it would be useless, and a useless sacrifice is a crime of folly. but here is advice given by many adepts: every day and as often as you can, and on going to sleep and as you wake, think, think, think, on the truth that you are not body, brain, or astral man, but that you are that, and "that" is the supreme soul. for by this practice you will gradually kill the false notion which lurks inside that the false is the true, and the true is the false. by persistence in this, by submitting your daily thoughts each night to the judgment of your higher self, you will at last gain light.

now as to the voice of the silence and the cycles of woe (undergone by the arhan who remains to help mankind) it is easy to understand. you must always remember when reading such things, that terms must be used that the reader will understand. hence speaking thus, it must be said that there are such cycles of woe—from our standpoint—just as the fact that i have no amusements but nothing but work in the t.s. seems a great penance to those who like their pleasures. i, on the contrary, take pleasure and peace in the "self-denial" as they call it. therefore it must follow that he who enters the secret path finds his peace and pleasure in endless work for ages for humanity. but, of course, with his added sight and knowledge, he must always be seeing the miseries of men self-inflicted. the mistake you make is to give the person thus "sacrificed" the same small qualities and longings as we now have, whereas the wider sweep and power72 of soul make what we call sacrifice and woe seem something different. is not this clear, then? if it were stated otherwise than as the voice has it, you would find many making the vow and then breaking it; but he who makes the vow with the full idea of its misery will keep it.

... if we can all accumulate a fund of good for all the others we will thus dissipate many clouds. the follies and the so-called sins of people are really things that are sure to come to nothing if we treat them right. we must not be so prone as the people of the day are, of whom we are some, to criticise others and forget the beam in our own eye. the bhagavad g?ta and jesus are right in that they both shew us how to do our own duty and not go into that of others. every time we think that someone else has done wrong we should ask ourselves two questions:

(1) am i the judge in this matter who is entitled to try this person?

(2) am i any better in my way, do i or do i not offend in some other way just as much as they do in this?

this will settle the matter i think. and in ... there ought to be no judgments and no criticism. if some offend then let us ask what is to be done, but only when the offence is against the whole. when an offence is against us, then let it go. this is thought by some to be "goody-goody," but i tell you the heart, the soul, and the bowels of compassion are of more consequence than intellectuality. the latter will take us all sure to hell if we let it govern only. be sure of this and try as much as you can to spread the true spirit in all directions, or else not only will there be individual failure, but also the circle h. p. b. made as a nucleus for possible growth will die, rot, fail, and come to nothing.

73

it is not possible to evade the law of evolution, but that law need not always be carried out in one way. if the same result is produced it is enough. hence in any one hour or minute the being attaining adeptship could pass through countless experiences in effect. but, as a fact, no one becomes an adept until he has in some previous time gone through the exact steps needed. if you and i, for instance, miss adeptship in this manvantara, we will emerge again to take up the work at a corresponding point in the much higher development of the next, although then we may seem low down in the scale, viewing us from the standard then to prevail.

the law is this. no man can rush on and fail to escape the counter current, and in proportion as he rushes so will be the force of the current. all members who work hard come at last to the notice of the lodge, and the moment they do so, the black lodge also takes notice, and hence questions arise, and we are tried in subtle ways that surpass sight, but are strong for the undoing of him who is not prepared by right thought and sacrifice to the higher nature for the fight. i tell you this. it may sound mysterious, but it is the truth, and at this time we are all bound to feel the forces at work, for as we grow, so the other side gets ready to oppose.

... be sure that you understand me right about the black side. i mean this: that when men work along a good while, and really raise themselves up by that, they get the attention of the black if they are of sufficient importance for it. i have their attention, and it makes a trouble now and then. what we all want to have, then, is the best armour for such a fight, and that is patience. patience is a great thing, and will work in more ways than one, not only in personal life, but in wider concerns.

74

the difficulty of remembering the things you read, and the like, may be due to one or many causes. first, it indicates the need of mental discipline in the way of compelling yourself to serious reading and thinking, even though for a short time each day. if persisted in, this will gradually change the mental action, just as one can alter the taste for different sorts of food taken into the body. again, if you have been dealing in what is known as mind cure or metaphysical healing, you should avoid it, because it will increase the difficulty you mention. it is different from good, ordinary, mental discipline. and also if you have been in any way following spiritualism or indulging in psychic thoughts or visions or experiences, these would be a cause for the trouble, and should be abandoned.

there is no need for you to be a despairer. reflect on that old verse, "what room is there for sorrow and what room for doubt in him who knows that the self is one, and that all things are the self, only differing in degree." this is a free rendering but is what it means. now, it is true that a man cannot force himself at once into a new will and into a new belief but by thinking much on the same thing—such as this—he soon gets a new will and a new belief, and from it will come strength and also light. try this plan. it is purely occult, simple, and powerful. i hope all will be well, and that as we are shaken up from time to time we shall grow strong.

----'s article strove to show that h. p. b. did not teach the doctrine of reincarnation in '77 as she did later, which is quite true so far as the public was then concerned, but she did to me and others teach it then as now, and further it seems clear what she meant, to wit, that there is no reincarnation for the astral monad, which is the astral man; and it being a theosophical75 doctrine that the astral man does not reincarnate save in exceptional cases, she taught then the same thing as she did later. personally h. p. b. told me many times of the real doctrine of reincarnation, enforced by the case of the death of my own child, so i know what she thought and believed.

i am not able to give you the definition which you ask for, as it seems to me spirit cannot be defined except in this way, that the whole universe is made of spirit and matter, both constituting together the absolute. what is not in matter is spirit, and what is not in spirit is matter; but there is no particle of matter without spirit, and no particle of spirit without matter. if this attempted definition is correct, you will see that it is impossible to define the things of the spirit, and that has always been said by the great teachers of the past.

what a petty lot of matter we spend time on, when so much is transitory. after a hundred years what will be the use of all this? better that a hundred years hence a principle of freedom and an impulse of work should have been established. the small errors of a life are nothing, but the general sum of thought is much.... i care everything for the unsectarianism that h. p. b. died to start, and now threatened in its own house. is it not true that masters have forbidden their chelas to tell under what orders they act for fear of the black shadow that follows innovations? yes....

am very sorry to hear that your health is not good. in reply to your question: a sound body is not expected, because our race is unsound everywhere. it is karma. of course a correct mental and moral position will at last bring a sound body, but the process may, and often does, involve sickness. hence sickness may be a blessing on two planes: (1) the mental and moral76 by opening the nature, and (2) on the physical as being the discharge into this plane of an inner sickness of the inner being.

the question of sex is not the most difficult. the personal one is still harder. i mean the purely personal, that relating to "me." the sexual relates really only to a low plane gratification. if nature can beat you there, then she need not try the other, and vice versa; if she fails on the personal she may attempt the other, but then with small chance of success.

we all differ and must agree to disagree, for it is only by balancing contrary things that equilibrium (harmony) is obtained. harmony does not come through likeness. if people will only let each other alone and go about their own business quietly all will be well.... it is one's duty to try and find one's own duty and not to get into the duty of another. and in this it is of the highest importance that we should detach our minds (as well as our tongues) from the duties and acts of others whenever those are outside of our own. if you can find this fine line of action and inaction you will have made great progress.

do not stop to consider your progress at all, because that is the way to stop it; but take your mind off the question of your progress and do the best you can. i hope you will be able to acquire in no long time that frame of mind which you so much desire. i think you will acquire that if you will take your mind off yourself as much as possible, and throw it into something for someone else, which would, in course of time, destroy the self impression.

i regret exceedingly all your troubles and difficulties. they are all, it goes without saying, matters of karma, and must right themselves in process of time. meantime,77 your work and duty lie in continuing patient and persevering throughout. the troubles of your friends and relatives are not your karma, though intimately associated with it by reason of the very friendship and relation. in the lives of all who aspire to higher things there is a more or less rapid precipitation of old karma, and it is this which is affecting you. it will go off shortly, and you will have gained greatly in having gotten rid of a troublesome piece of business.

as it will take many a life for one to overcome the personal nature, there is no good in imagining what things and thoughts would then be like. it is certain that, in that long journey, the whole nature changing, it is adjusted to all conditions. many of those matters which we call the woes of others are really nothing at all, and only "skin deep"; the real woe of the race is not that.

by setting apart a particular time for meditation a habit is formed, and as the time comes round the mind will, after a while, become trained, so that meditation at the particular time will become natural. hence, as far as possible, it will be well for you to keep to the same hour.

you ask if i was at —— where you saw me. let me tell you something in confidence. i am around at all places, but, of course, most at such as where you ... and others like that are, but it is not necessary for me to remember it at all, as it is done without that since this brain has enough to do here. to remember i should have to retire and devote myself to that, and it would make things no better.

a college course is not necessary for occultism. one of the best occultists i know was never in college. but if a man adds good learning to intuition and high aspiration he is naturally better off than another. i am78 constantly in the habit of consulting the dictionary and of thinking out the meanings and the correlations of words. do the same. it is good.

the old mission of the rosicrucians, though dead on the outside, is not dead, for the masters were in that as they are in this, and it may be possible to usher in a new era of western occultism devoid of folly. we should all be ready for that if it be possible.

in regard to the pictures which you see, observe them with indifference, relying always on the higher self, and looking to it for knowledge and light, pictures or no pictures.