134 NEW JERSEY. P H I Ij A D E L P H I A : J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 1891. NEW JERSEY. 'X^.L^ ^ f^ruLAjLhvjLt^ or\o^^^^j^ 7 ^-^ Kx.t . li^mH^ / PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LTPPINCOTT COMPANY. 1891. 3^ Copyright, 1891, by J. B. Lippincott Company. 4^®«., they are one in origin, and one in essence. We are putting forth no new idea; rather is it the new idea to draw arbitrary lines and shut up different "departments" of know- ledge in water-tight compartments. Knowledge is one. In the East for thousands of years, as far back as record or tradition will carry us, even up to the present day, we find no distinction arbi- trarily drawn between metaphysics, science and ethics : they are treated "religiously." A Brahman will discuss with you from the scientific standpoint the deepest problems of his religion. If you have his confidence, he will unfold to you the scientific reasons he has for his ethics. Our Western science, boring away into a groove of its own and ignoring other knowledge, has limited itself, nor can it understand science as blended with metaphysics and morality as it is pursued in the East. Our Western religion, fighting for centuries against science, and severely shattered by it, cannot understand the religious thought of the East. But the inevitable result of this antagonism is at hand, for a mutual destruction of all that is contradictory in our science and religion is proceeding apace. It will not end until the two are amalgamated ; it will not cease until the offices of our priests and scientists have become one, and from their union, with a good deal added, the teacher of the future, theologian, moral expositor and scientist of a new type, will arise. It is at this critical period when science and theology alike fail to satisfy man's cravings, that Theosophy has sprung once more into manifestation in the West it has come into manifestation again, it has not been reborn, for there is no century throughout the Christian era when it did not live in the hearts of the few, and further East is its true home where it has always been in evidence for those whose time had come to receive it. To the student of Theosophy his researches bring a vast illum- ination to bear upon the ethical codes of all the great religions of the world. THEOSOPHY AND ETHICS. 5 Pursuing science in connection with metaphysics and ethics, constantly welding these into the homogeneous whole of knowledge, which stands for him as his total of experience of life, constantly trying and chastening this knowledge by deep analysis of his own mind, thus casting out all bias, until in what he knows there is no flaw, he proceeds to ever deeper and deeper problems ; and always by conforming in thought, word and act with what he, so far, understands. Standing thus to some extent untrammelled, he may study those profound problems. Karma and Reincarnation. Whilst he has not freed his mind from prejudice, whilst he has not felt the limitations and selfishness of his personality, he may take a general view of these conceptions, but he cannot seek deep into them and understand in all their scientific and moral bearings doctrines which treat the personality honestly at its true worth and rise to questions far beyond it. Therefore fulfil what you know ; harmonize what you have of knowledge in metaphysics, science and morals ; cast out what you find does not harmonize, and start on this small stock of know- ledge as your foundation. Use many "working hypotheses;" they are the ladders and scaffold of your building, but work nothing into vour edifice that may have to come out again, if you can help it. A great Indian sage has said : "One who, having passed through the said preliminaries, desires kiioivledge for final absorption, must set himself seriously to think:' Knowledge is not produced by any means other than right tJiinkiug ; just as objects are never perceived but by the help of In another Eastern book it is said : " What a man thinks, that he inevitably becomes ; this is the old secret." The Jewish scrip- tures and the teachings of Jesus bear evidence to the same fact. Now, proceeding by the methods herein advocated, a Theo- sophist can take these statements as 2. theorem and utilizing his researches can trace in the three departments the truth of them, and each will support and blend with the other. Thoughts are things upon their own plane, and Eastern science knows this. Man is the producer of thoughts, therefore of things; he is bound to what he produces and is answerable for the good or ill caused by his productions, first on the plane of thought, then through speech, and lastly by action. A man may sit at home and feel satisfied with himself that he has done no harm ; but he thought angrily of his neighbour, and sent forth from himself, formed of his own substance, a winged thing to go out and work evil ; that evil form which he has produced and imbued with life 6 THEOSOPHY AND ETHICS. continues in existence and is part of himself, and must inevitably return and build itself into him, somevvhen, unless he recalls it and destroys it by its opposite. So thought follows thought, and these, both good and evil, clothe themselves in us, and take shape as body, moulding our features, and selecting our surroundings, which we are bound to accept and suffer or enjoy in, as our thoughts were evil or good. So I read Eastern science and ethics. Understanding thus, the field of our responsibility is enormously increased ; thought is immeasurably more far-reaching than word or deed. The greatest originators of misery and evil, to them- selves and to others, may never appear in the world as any- thing beyond quite insignificant beings ; yet the thoughts emanating from them may be intense and virulent, and scattering over the world like the spores of a disease may settle in the minds of weak, unguarded or naturally receptive people. Vast as is the mischief caused by an ambitious soldier, bringing death, disease and misery to hundreds of thousands, yet he may withal be gener- ous, open-handed and forgiving : his evil activities are mostly on the most limited plane of all — the material — and he may rank far behind some unknown, undreamed-of demon in human shape who revenges himself in thought, hates and envies with an active mind, through most of his waking consciousness. And so too the reverse of all this stands. The most far-extend- ing benefits the human race receives may come from those who are unseen and little heard of, beings whose quiet lives are spent in benevolent thought, and the consequent production of thought- forms of purity and right aspiration, which floating over the world like crystal vases filled with light, may settle wherever they -find reception, driving out the spores of evil and giving rise to hope and aspiration, and the perception of possibilities never seen before And this production of thought-forms, either good or bad, goes on unconsciously with the mass of mankind, but consciously with the few. It must not be concluded from this that seclusion, silence and external inactivity are advocated ; very far from it. The man who is starving is not saved by your wishing he had bread, but by your making your wish intention, and your intention accom- plished act. Good will must be accompanied by good activities, otherwise it becomes a mere philosophical abstraction, and with much time spent in pondering over good theories we may remain in actuality intensely selfish. ''''The road to Hell is paved ivith good intentions P With the conception of this expansion of responsibility comes the ethical necessity of controlling the thoughts, emotions and passions. With the control and right direction of the mind, sel- THEOSOPHY AND ETHICS. 7 fishness, diminishes, and the personaHty dwindles to its right proportions. But consiousness does not dwindle, it increases im- measurably ; it is expanded over thousands unseen and unknown to the personality, but seen and known as minds by the sovereign indwelling mind upon its own plane ; devoid of names, devoid of forms as we understand these, but nevertheless bcijis^s^ and beings immeasurably superior to the forms they inhabit. Thought-forms can only proceed from corresponding activities on the plane of thought, and consequently from actors on that plane. They can- not be originated there by the physical brain, which is only the register of what takes place there. Reasoning thus, we learn that there are sources of evil which man must cut off. He must crush all evil productions within himself, and he must be proof against those coming from without. By sterilizing the soil within himself he leaves nothing in which evil from without can strike root. This is only done by long effort, by abstraction from evil trains of thought and concentra- tion upon good ones. The higher at length kills the lower ; they cannot flourish on the same soil. And this effort needs method, perseverance and courage. Day following day, year by year, the effort tells and transforms the very mind of the man ; thoughts and temptations which were dangers to him no longer trouble ; they seem no longer to exist for him. And so by analogy he knows that he will continue to conquer as long as he makes effort. We find how" easily we acquire some slack habit or way of thinking ; it is because we follow our desires ; equally we may acquire good habits and the power of right thinking by following our fixed wz'll^ once we have centred it on its proper object. Will and desire are the divine and infernal manifestations of the same force. Men sacrifice time, youth and strength, love, society and friend- ship, to the satisfying of their ambition, greed or vanity, and the w^orld looks on and says nothing ; but when these things are re- nounced for the pursuit of truth, then there is an outcry of in- humanity, selfishness and the like. The world legitimatizes the former, but she loves not the latter. Her very foundations are laid in sensualism and strife, but truth is the mighty solvent which at length dissipates all this. Hence in both Buddhism and Christianity the earth is described as quaking when their respec- tive founders made their greatest conquests. To every man some especial thing has the highest value, and for that he makes his supreme sacrifice ; it may be little or great, according to his character and will. To the true Theosophist Wisdom is the jewel valuable beyond all other possessions, and for it he makes his supreme sacrifices in life. But the measure of his sacrifice is the precise measure of the price he is willing to pay THEOSOPHY AND ETHICS. for Wisdom. He himself is the price, and he offers himself up little by little as his will and his estimate of the value of truth serve him. The altar upon which he sacrifices himself is the World, for the good of the world and for the satisfaction of his expanding consciousness, whi^J^noring the selfish conditions of the personality passes beyon^Hps and lives by higher laws of its It will be seen that fronil^ Theosophical standpoint it is im- possible to treat of ethics alone, and that the New Testament^ the Bhagavad Gitd or any other book of moral teachings cannot be learnt and understood properly without the gaining of other knowledge also, gained. Ignorance must be removed if wisdom is to be E. T. Sturdy, F.T.S. -^-S" \The Theosophical Society is not responsible for the individual opinions of its members?^ •••••••••••• The objects of the Theosophical Society are : First. — To form the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity ^without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or colour. Second. — To promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religious, philosophies and sciences, and demonstrate the importance of that study. Third. — To ifwestigate unexplained laws of nature ayid the psychic powers latent in man. Full information can be obtained from the General Secretary, 17 and 19, Avenue Road, Regent's Park, London, N.W. LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 014 206 755 9 Printed on tiie H. P. B. Press. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 206 755 9 tf MX l.WJf ?^-^ .- - .. ^ . J' i- .,^ .# lit 'iH m h. .-^V' 'M '*M. ''k ■m:%'%