We know by experience that all
visible and tangible bodies belong to the third dimension of space, nor is it
possible to imagine any other. A mathematical point is an abstract idea,
intellectually incomprehensible; because as soon as it becomes comprehensible
it ceases to be a merely mathematical point and assumes three dimensions, length,
breadth and thickness. A mathematical point has no dimension at all.
The first dimension is that represented
by a line extending from a centre in two opposite directions, and which may be
conceived as motion or as the comprehensible manifestation of a power
originating in an incomprehensible point.
We can imagine, for instance, a
magnet, sending its powers in two opposite directions, toward the positive and negative
poles; but the magnet we see is already a sum of an incalculable number of
magnets; for it is an aggregate of atoms, each of which has the magnetic
qualities represented by the whole.
The single atom itself with its
magnetic power in a latent state is inconceivable; we can only regard it in the
abstract as a centre of unmanifested force and a force which is inactive or unmanifest
has no existence for us. A power becomes conceivable only when it begins to act
or become manifest and it then acts in two directions, the centripetal and
centrifugal, or action and reaction.
The next dimension is represented
by a plane, which may be regarded as a combination of lines of motion radiating
horizontally from a common centre, but extending neither upwards nor downwards.
To the inhabitants of such a plane nothing could be comprehensible except the beings
existing in that plane, unless they could rise above or below that level; but
in that case they would step out of the two-dimensional plane and become
themselves three-dimensional beings.
It is hardly necessary to say
that such a two-dimensional world if regarded from the three-dimensional point
of view is also unimaginable and cannot be correctly represented by figures;
for even the thinnest sheet of paper which we may choose to represent such a
plane, still has a certain thickness, and all corporeal forms which we can
possibly imagine, belong to the third dimension of space.
No sane person will therefore
have any doubt that physically and corporeally considered we are three
dimensional forms, belonging to the third dimension of space, having length,
breadth and thickness. But every occultist also knows that our physical bodies
are not our real selves.
The real self of a person rests
in his or her own real self-consciousness, and this may be either an unmanifested
“mathematical point,” identical with spiritual unconsciousness, or it may be a
line, represented by vague aspirations and longings for the unknown, or a plane
on which its inhabitants are unconscious of everything that exists beyond or
below the level of everyday life, while in others their inner consciousness may
have assumed the three dimensional aspects, so that they may look down, as it were,
from the apex of a pyramid upon their own “selves” and the world of lives and
forms below.
Thus we may physically and
corporeally appear as three
dimensional beings inhabiting a three dimensional world and still in reality
and spiritually be only two dimensional,
and consequently undeveloped and imperfect beings; because perfection in the
spiritual as well as in the physical realm requires the completion of the
mystic triangle, in which the knower, the thing known and the It knowledge are
one.
To a superficial thinker all this
may appear as a useless metaphysical speculation; but to an earnest seeker for
truth the importance of its practical application will at once be plain. So
long as we live and move and have our being only at the base of the great
pyramid of knowledge, we only see the relations between the things existing
there and know nothing about the great cause that moves them all: for the whole
world may be compared to a great pyramid, from whose apex shines the light that
gives life to everything below, and the forms which wriggle at the bottom are
only the shadows produced by the reflection of that eternal light within the
transient forms of matter.
Wisdom, the recognition of
eternal truth is the apex of the great triangle (Sattwa Guna), the basis is ignorance (Tamas Guna), and the sides are desire (Rajas Guna). Without the light of the true understanding from above,
everything below remains in darkness or appears in the false light created by
the illusions themselves and their desires. Where the true light is absent,
nothing but confusion abounds.
Why is there so much confusion
and misconception in regard to religious and theosophical doctrines, except for
the reason that they are not read in the light of the true understanding which
cannot be learned from books, but which comes from above?
Of the thousands of examples which
present themselves for illustration, we will only choose one.
The Bible teaches that for the
sake of finding our own salvation we must leave father and mother, wife, son and
daughter, and everything and follow the Christ. Now those living in darkness
within the base of the pyramid, being, for want of power to recognize the
truth, incapable of realizing the true nature of Christ, see in Christ only one
of the many objects existing on their own level; the higher realm having no
existence for them.
Driven on by their own selfish
desire of obtaining something better than they have, they may be credulous and
greedy enough to begin to hate their friends and relatives and all mankind,
give up unwillingly their external possessions and join some religious order in
which they live a miserable and melancholy life in hopes of obtaining some
great reward in the problematical hereafter.
They become ascetics and fools,
dissatisfied with themselves and with everybody, shrunk within the hard shell
of their narrow-mindedness and selfishness, bigots from whom the last spark of
love has departed and only an affection for a chimera remains.
But those who are enabled by the
light of the interior perception of truth to understand the meaning of this
doctrine, which is a mystery to those who live in the dark, know that the
Christ is not one man among many; but that he is himself the light, the life
and the truth.
They know that to attain the
Christ-state, which represents divine
and therefore universal love, we must ourselves grow and unfold in that kind of
love: that far from hating or treating with contempt or indifference any being
whatsoever, we must learn to love all beings, so that our love may not only
embrace father and mother, wife and child and all creatures, but grow beyond it
into that “third dimension of eternal space,” where our self-consciousness is no
longer bound to and limited by a corporeal form.
Then will the Christ no longer appear
as an enemy of that which we love, but as including all that and still reaching
far beyond, and then, instead of being imprisoned in this world as in a dungeon
and regarding it as a place of misery from which there is no escape, we shall
be able to participate in its joys and sorrows and still live above it in
inexpressible happiness and harmony.
The above may seem to be an
extreme case, and there may not be many nowadays inclined to bury themselves in
a monastery or become intolerant ascetics, or commit similar eccentricities;
but there is not a doctrine in the Bible nor in the teachings of Theosophy
which may not be misinterpreted or misunderstood in a similar manner as
illustrated above; for those possessed by Tamas
will interpret everything according to their own ignorance, those filled with Rajas will see all things in the light
of their own desire, and only to the wise will the light of truth itself reveal
the truth.
(Revue Theosophy, September 1896,
p.180-182)
In the magazine Word there is a similar little article
from Franz Harmann with the same title:
There is no doubt that in our material aspect we are three-dimensional; because
our physical body has height, breadth and thickness; but in our spiritual
aspect the matter is open to questions. Two-dimensional beings are shadows, or
like images in a looking-glass, which if they were conscious, could have no
knowledge of any other plane than the level in which they exist; any other
extension of space being imperceptible to them. Thus it seems that animal man,
if seen from a spiritual point of view, is such a two-dimensional shadowy
being; for he knows nothing but his own personal self and the things that are
in relation to it on the same plane of egotism. He imagines himself to be the
center around which everything as in a circle moves, and sees the things on his
plane only as they are related to him and to each other. He identifies himself
with his own personality and where that personality ends, there is the end of
his space and of his existence. He lives so to say on the very base of the
pyramid of being, knowing nothing higher than that base and perceiving nothing
of the sides of the pyramid nor of its apex; for he knows nothing of himself
higher than his personality, the shadow of his unknown Higher Self.
On the other hand, spiritually enlightened man, having outgrown to a
certain extent the bonds of egotism, sees his own personality as his own shadow
moving among the other shadows in this world. He has risen up within the
pyramid and looks down from its apex upon the shadow play going on at the base,
seeing his own shadow acting among the rest. He has not necessarily lost his
interest in what is taking place below, neither has he become incapable of
seeing what is going on in the world, nor does he think of treating it with
contempt. He may be compared to a man standing before an ant hill and observing
what the ants are doing. He sees them work, but he himself is not an ant. He is
still connected with his own shadow or personality, but not identified with it.
He uses his personality as an instrument to act upon the material plane, but
does not become absorbed by it, and when his personality dies and returns to
the elements out of which it has been formed, he still remains what he was
before, an immortal, luminous, self-conscious being, no more bound to a
material form, but a soul whose shadow has disappeared like a mist before the
rising sun.
(Word, NY, December
1905, vol. 2, p.148)
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