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CHAPTER I<br/>THEOSOPHY AND THE MASTERS<br/>Theosophy generally defined. The existence of highly devel<br/>oped men in the Universe. These men are the Mahatmas, Initiates,<br/>Brothers, Adepts. How they work and why they remain now con<br/>cealed. Their Lodge. They are perfected men from other periods<br/>of evolution. They have had various names in history. Apollonius,<br/>Moses, Solomon, and others were members of this fraternity.<br/>They had one single doctrine. They are possible because man<br/>may at last be as they are. They keep the true doctrine and cause<br/>it to reappear at the- right time. Pages 1 to 14.<br/>CHAPTER ir<br/>GENERAL PRINCIPLES<br/>A view of the general laws governing the Cosmos. The seven<br/>fold division in the system. Real Matter not visible and this<br/>always known to the Lodge. Mind the intelligent portion of the<br/>Cosmos. In the universal Mind the sevenfold plan of the Cosmos<br/>is contained. Evolution proceeds upon the plan in the universal<br/>Mind. Pcriod.s of Evolution come to an end; this is the Night of<br/>Brahma. The Mosaic account of Cosmogenesis has dwarfed modern<br/>conceptions. The Jews had merely one part of the doctrine taken<br/>from the ancient Egyptians. The doctrine accords with the inner<br/>meaning of Genesis. The general length of periods of Evolution.<br/>Same doctrine as Herbert Spencer's. The old Hindu chronology<br/>gives the details. The story of Solomon's Temple is that of the<br/>evolution of man. The doctrine far older than the Christian one.<br/>The real age of the world. Man is over 18,000,000 years old.<br/>Evolution is accomplished solely by the Egos within that at last<br/>become the users of human forms. Each of the seven principles<br/>of man is derived from one of the seven great divisions of the<br/>Universe. Pages 15 to 24.<br/>CHAPTER III<br/>THE EARTH CHAIN<br/>The doctrine respecting the Earth. It is sevenfold also. It<br/>is one of a chain of seven corresponding to man. The whole seven<br/>are not in a chain separated as to members, but they interpenetrate<br/>each other. The Earth chain is the reincarnation of a former old<br/>and now dead chain. This old chain was one of which our moon is<br/>the visible representative. Moon now dead and contracting. Venus,<br/>Mars, etc., are living members of other similar chains to ours. A<br/>mass of Egos for each chain. The number, though incalculable, is<br/>definite. Their course of evolution through the seven globes. In<br/>each a certain part of our nature is developed. At the fourth<br/>globe the process of condensation is begun and reaches its limit.<br/>Pages 25 to 31.<br/>CHAPTER IV<br/>SEPTENARY CONSTITUTION OF MAN<br/>The constitution of man. How the doctrine differs from the ordi<br/>nary Christian one. The real doctrine known in the first centuries<br/>of this era, but purposely withdrawn from a nation not able to bear<br/>it. The danger if the doctrine had not been withdrawn. The seven<br/>fold division. The principles classified. The divisions agree ^th<br/>the chain of seven globes. The lower man is a composite being.<br/>His higher trinity. The lower four principles transitory and<br/>perishable. Death leaves the trinity as the only persistent part of<br/>us. What the physical man is, and what the other unseen mortal<br/>man is. A second physical man not seen but still mortal. The<br/>senses pertain to the unseen man and not to the visible one.<br/>Pages 32 to 38.<br/>CHAPTER V<br/>BODY AND ASTRAL BODY<br/>the body and life principle. The mystery of life. Sleep and<br/>death are due to excess of life not bearable by the organism. The<br/>body an illusion. What is the cell. Life is universal. It is not the<br/>result of the organism. The Astral Body. What it is made of.<br/>CONTENTS<br/>Its powers and functions. As a model for the body. It is possessed<br/>by all kingdoms of nature. Its power to travel. The real sense<br/>organs are in the astral body. The place the astral body has at<br/>spiritualistic seances. The astral body accounts for telepathy, clair<br/>voyance, clairaudience, and all such psychical phenomena.<br/>Pages 39 to 50.<br/>CHAPTER VI<br/>KAMA — DESIRE<br/>The fourth principle. Kama Rupa. In English, the Passions and<br/>Desires. Kama Rupa is not produced by the body but is the cause<br/>for body. This is the balance principle of the seven. It is the basis<br/>of action and mover of the will. Right desire leads to right act.<br/>This principle has a higher and a lower aspect. The principle is in<br/>the astral body. At death it coalesces with the astral body and<br/>makes of it a shell of the man. It has powers of its own of an auto<br/>matic nature. This shell is the so-called "spirit" of seances. It is a<br/>danger to the race. Elementals help this shell at seances. No soul<br/>or conscience present. Suicides and executed criminals leave very<br/>coherent shells. The principle of desire is common to all the organ<br/>ized kingdoms. It is the brute part of man. Man is now a fully<br/>developed quaternary with the higher principles partially developed.<br/>Pages 51 to 58.<br/>CHAPTER VII<br/>MANAS<br/>Manas the fifth principle. The first of the real man. This is<br/>the thinking principle and is not the product of brain. Brain is only<br/>its instrument. How the light of mind was given to mindless men.<br/>Perfected men from older systems gave it to us as they got it from<br/>their predecessors. Manas is the storehouse of all thoughts. Manas<br/>is the seer. If the connection between" Manas and brain is broken<br/>the person is not able to cognize. The organs of the body cognize<br/>nothing. Manas is divided into upper and lower. Its four peculiari<br/>ties. Buddha, Jesus, and others had Manas fully developed. Atma<br/>the Divine Ego. The permanent individuality. This permanent indi<br/>viduality has been through every sort of experience in many bodies.<br/>X THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY<br/>Manas and matter have now a greater facility of action than in<br/>former times. Manas is bound by desire, and this makes reincarna<br/>tion a necessity. Pages 59 to 67.<br/>CHAPTER VIII<br/>OF REINCARNATION<br/>Why is man as he is, and how did he come. What the Universe<br/>is for. Spiritual and physical evolution demand reincarnation.<br/>Reincarnation on the physical plane is reimbodiment or alteration of<br/>form. The whole mass of matter of the globe will one day be men<br/>in a period far distant. The doctrine ancient. Held by the early<br/>Christians. Taught by Jesus. What reincarnates. Life's mysteries,<br/>arise from incomplete incarnation of the higher principles. It is not<br/>transmigration to lower forms. Explanation of Manu on this.<br/>Pages 68 to 78.<br/>CHAPTER IX<br/>REINCARNATION CONTINUED<br/>Objections urged. Desire cannot alter law. Early arrivals in<br/>heaven. Must they wait for us. Recognition of the soul not dep^-<br/>dent on objectivity. Heredity not an objection. What here^ty<br/>does. Divergences in heredity not recognized. History goes against<br/>heredity. Reincarnation not unjust. What is justice. We do not<br/>suffer for another's but for our own deeds. Memory. Why we do<br/>not remember other lives. Who docs? How to account for increase<br/>of population. Pages 79 to 88.<br/>CHAPTER X<br/>ARGUMENTS SUPPORTING REINCARNATION<br/>From the nature of the soul. From the laws of mind and soul.<br/>From differences in character. From the necessity for discipline and<br/>evolution. From differences of capacity and start in life at the<br/>cradle. Individual identity proves it. The probable object of life<br/>makes it necessary. One life not enough to cany out Nature's pur<br/>poses. Mere death confers no advance. A school after death is<br/>illogical. The persistence of savagery and the decay of nations give<br/>support to it. The appearance of geniuses is due to remcarnation.<br/>Inherent ideas common to man show it. Opposition to the doctrine<br/>based solely on prejudice. Pages 80 to 99.<br/>CHAPTER XI<br/>KARMA<br/>Definition of the word. An unfamiliar term. A beneficent law.<br/>How present life is affected by past acts of other lives. Each act<br/>has a thought at its root. Through Manas they react on each person<br/>al life. Why people are bom deformed or in bad circumstances.<br/>The three classes of Karma and its three fields of operation. National<br/>and Racial Karma. Individual unhappiness and happiness. The<br/>Master's words on Karma. Pages 100 to 111.<br/>CHAPTER XII<br/>KAMA LOKA<br/>The first state after death. Where and what are heaven and hell?<br/>Death of the body only the first step of death. A second death after<br/>that. Separation of the seven principles into three classes. What<br/>is Kama Loka? Origin of Christian purgatory. It is an astral sphere<br/>with numerous degrees. The Skandhas. The astral shell of man in<br/>Kama Loka. It is devoid of soul, mind, and conscience. It is the<br/>"spirit" of the seance rooms. Classification of shells in Kama Loka.<br/>Black magicians there. Fate of suicides and others. Pre-devachanic<br/>unconsciousness. Pages 112 to 122.<br/>CHAPTER XIII<br/>DEVACHAN<br/>The meaning of the term. A state of Atma-Buddhi-Manas.<br/>Operation of Kamia on Devachan. The necessity for Devachan.<br/>It is another sort of thinking with no physical body to clog it. Only<br/>two fields for operation of causes — subjective and objective.<br/>Devachan is one. No time there for the soul. Length of stay<br/>therein. Mathematics of the soul. Average stay therein is 1500<br/>mortal years. Depends on psychic impulses of life. Its use and<br/>purpose. On the last thoughts at death the devachanic state is<br/>fashioned. Devachan not meaningless. Do we see those left^behind?<br/>We bring their images before us. Entities in Devachan<br/>have a power to help those they love. Mediums cannot go to those<br/>in Devachan except in rare cases and when the person is pure.<br/>Adepts only can help those in Devachan. Pages 123 to 131.<br/>CHAPTER XIV<br/>CYCLES<br/>One of the most important doctrines. Corresponding words in<br/>the Sanskrit. Few cycles known to the West. They cause the<br/>reappearance of former living personages. They affect life and<br/>evolution. When did the first moment -come. The first rate of<br/>vibration determines the subsequent ones. When man leaves the<br/>globe the forces die. Convulsions and cataclysms. Reincarnation<br/>and karma intermixed with cyclic law. Civilizations cycle back.<br/>The cycle of Avatars. Krishna, Buddha, and others come under<br/>cycles. Minor personages and great leaders. Intersection of cycles<br/>causes convulsions. The Moon, Sun, and Sidereal cycles. Individual<br/>cycles and that of reincarnation. The motion through the constel<br/>lations, and the meaning of the story of Jonah. The Zodiacal clock.<br/>How the ideas are impressed and preserved by nations. Cause<br/>for earthquakes, Cosmic Fire, Glaciation, and Floods. The Brah*<br/>manical Cycles. Pages 132 to 143.<br/>CHAPTER XV<br/>DIFFERENTIATION OF SPECIES — MISSING LINKS<br/>■Ultimate origin of man not discoverable. Man not derived<br/>from a single pair, nor from the animals. Seven races of men<br/>appeared simultaneously on the globe. They are now amalgan^ed<br/>and will differentiate. The Anthropoid Apes. Their ongm. They<br/>came from man. They are the descendants of offspring from un<br/>natural union in the third and fourth rounds. The Delayed Races.<br/>The secret books on the question. Human featur^ of a^s accounted<br/>for. The lower kingdoms from other planets. Their differentiauon<br/>by intelligent interference by the Dhyanis. The midway pomt of<br/>evolution. Astral forms of old rounds solidified m physical rounds.<br/>Missing links, what they are and why Science cannot discover them.<br/>The aim of Nature in all this work. Pages 144 to 151.<br/>CHAPTER XVI<br/>PSYCHIC LAWS, FORCES, AND PHENOMENA<br/>No true psychology in the West. It exists in the Orient. Man<br/>the mirror of all forces. Gravitation only a half law. Importance<br/>of polarity and cohesion. Rendering objects invisible. Imagination<br/>all powerful. Mental telegraphy. Reading minds is burglary.<br/>Apportation, clairvoyance, clairaudience, and second-sight. Pictures<br/>in the Astral Light. Dreams and visions. Apparitions. Real<br/>clairvoyance. Inner stimulus makes outer impression. Astral<br/>Light the Register of everything. Pages 152 to 164.<br/>CHAPTER XVII<br/>PSYCHIC PHENOMENA AND SPIRITUALISM<br/>Spiritualism wrongly named. Should be called necromancy and<br/>the worship of the dead. This cult did not originate in America.<br/>The practice long known in India. The facts recorded deserve<br/>examination. Theosophists admit the facts but interpret them<br/>differently from the "spiritualist." The examination confined to<br/>the question of whether the dead return. The dead do not return<br/>thus. The mass of communications are from the astral shell of man.<br/>Objections stated to the claims made by mediums. The record<br/>justifies the ridicule of science. Materialization and what it is.<br/>A mass of electric magnetic matter with a picture upon it from the<br/>astral light. Or it is the astral body of the medium extruded<br/>from the living body. Analysis of the laws to be known before<br/>the phenomena can be understood. The timbre of the "independent<br/>voice." Importance of the astral realm. The Dangers of mediumship.<br/>Attempt to get these powers for money or selfish ends also<br/>dangerous. Cyclic law ordains the slackening of the force at this<br/>time. The purpose of the Lodge. Pages 165 to 173. |
