Godolphin Mitford was a member of the Theosophical Society
(FTS) and for a period he was on probation to become a disciple of the masters,
but he failed; and at that time he wrote the following article in which he
gives some hints of the techniques used in the occultism to prolong physical
life.
THE "ELIXIR OF LIFE"
FROM A
CHELA’S DIARY (1)
by G___ M___, F.T.S.
“And Enoch walked with the Elohim,
and the Elohim took him.”
(Genesis)
Introduction
The curious information — or
whatsoever else the world may think of it, it will doubtless be acknowledged to
be that— contained in the article that follows, merits a few words of
introduction. The details given in it on the subject of what has always been
considered as one of the darkest and most strictly guarded of the mysteries of
the initiation into occultism —from the days of the Rishis until those of the
Theosophical Society— came to the knowledge of the author in a way that would
seem to the ordinary run of Europeans strange and supernatural.
He himself, however, we may assure
the reader, is a most thorough disbeliever in the Supernatural, though
he has learned too much to limit the capabilities of the natural as some
do. Further, he has to make the following confession of his own belief. It will
be apparent, from a careful perusal of the facts, that if the matter be really
as stated therein, the author cannot himself be an adept of high grade, as the
article in such a case would never have been written. Nor does he
pretend to be one. He is, or rather was, for a few years an humble Chela. Hence,
the converse must consequently be also true, that as regards the higher stages
of the mystery he can have no personal experience, but speaks of it only as a
close observer left to his own surmises — and no more.
He may, therefore, boldly state that
during, and notwithstanding, his unfortunately rather too short stay with some
adepts, he has by actual experiment and observation verified some of the less
transcendental or incipient parts of the “Course.” And, though it will
be impossible for him to give positive testimony as to what lies beyond, he may
yet mention that all his own course of study, training and experience, long,
severe and dangerous as it has often been, leads him to the conviction that
everything is really as stated, save some details purposely veiled. For
causes which cannot be explained to the public, he himself may he unable or
unwilling to use the secret he has gained access to.
Still he is permitted by one to whom
all his reverential affection and gratitude are due —his last guru— to
divulge for the benefit of Science and Man, and specially for the good of those
who are courageous enough to personally make the experiment, the following
astounding particulars of the occult methods for prolonging life to a period
far beyond the common. — G. M.
The reality behind the legends
Probably one of the first
considerations which move the worldly-minded at present to solicit initiation
into Theosophy is the belief, or hope, that, immediately on joining, some
extraordinary advantage over the rest of mankind will be conferred upon the
candidate. Some even think that the ultimate result of their initiation will
perhaps be exemption from that dissolution which is called the common lot of
mankind.
The traditions of the “Elixir of
Life,” said to be in the possession of Kabalists and Alchemists, are still
cherished by students of Medieval Occultism — in Europe. The allegory of the Ab-è
Hyat or Water of Life, is still credited as a fact by the degraded
remnants of the Asiatic esoteric sects ignorant of the real GREAT
SECRET. The “pungent and fiery Essence,” by which Zanoni renewed his existence,
still fires the imagination of modern visionaries as a possible scientific
discovery of the future.
Theosophically, though the fact is
distinctly declared to be true, the above-named conceptions of the mode of
procedure leading to the realization of the fact, are known to be false.
The reader may or may not believe it; but as a matter of fact, Theosophical
Occultists claim to have communication with (living) Intelligences possessing
an infinitely wider range of observation than is contemplated even by the
loftiest aspirations of modern science, all the present “Adepts” of Europe and
America —dabblers in the Kabala— notwithstanding. But far even as those
superior Intelligences have investigated (or, if preferred, are alleged to have
investigated), and remotely as they may have searched by the help of inference
and analogy, even They have failed to discover in the Infinity anything
permanent but — SPACE.
ALL IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
Reflection, therefore, will easily suggest to the reader the further logical
inference that in a Universe which is essentially impermanent in its
conditions, nothing can confer permanency. Therefore, no possible substance,
even if drawn from the depths of Infinity; no imaginable combination of drugs,
whether of our earth or any other, though compounded by even the Highest
Intelligence; no system of life or discipline though directed by the sternest
determination and skill, could possibly produce Immutability.
For in the universe of solar
systems, wherever and however investigated, Immutability necessitates
“Non-Being” in the physical sense given it by the Theists —Non-Being which is nothing
in the narrow conceptions of Western Religionists— a reductio ad
absurdum. This is a gratuitous insult even when applied to the
pseudo-Christian or ecclesiastical Jehovite idea of God.
Consequently, it will be seen that
the common ideal conception of “Immortality” is not only essentially wrong, but
a physical and metaphysical impossibility. The idea, whether cherished by
Theosophists or non-Theosophists, by Christians or Spiritualists, by
Materialists or Idealists, is a chimerical illusion. But the actual
prolongation of human life is possible for a time so long as to appear
miraculous and incredible to those who regard our span of existence as
necessarily limited to at most a couple of hundred years.
We may break, as it were, the shock
of Death, and instead of dying, change a sudden plunge into darkness to a
transition into a brighter light. And this may be made so gradual that the
passage from one state of existence to another shall have its friction
minimised, so as to be practically imperceptible.
Preliminary explanation
This is a very different matter, and
quite within the reach of Occult Science. In this, as in all other cases, means
properly directed will gain their ends, and causes produce effects. Of course,
the only question is, what are these causes, and how, in their turn, are they
to be produced. To lift, as far as may be allowed, the veil from this aspect of
Occultism, is the object of the present paper.
We must premise by reminding the
reader of two Theosophic doctrines, constantly inculcated in “Isis” and in
other mystic works —namely, (a) that ultimately the Kosmos is One— one
under infinite variations and manifestations, and (b) that the so-called man
is a “compound being” — composite not only in the exoteric scientific sense
of being a congeries of living so-called material Units, but also in the
esoteric sense of being a succession of seven forms or parts of itself,
interblended with each other.
To put it more clearly we might say
that the more ethereal forms are but duplicates of the same aspect,—each finer
one lying within the inter-atomic spaces of the next grosser. We would have the
reader understand that these are no subtleties, no “spiritualities” at all in
the Christo-Spiritualistic sense.
In the actual man reflected in your
mirror are really several men, or several parts of one composite man; each the
exact counterpart of the other, but the “atomic conditions” (for want of a
better word) of each of which are so arranged that its atoms interpenetrate those
of the next “grosser” form.
It does not, for our present
purpose, matter how the Theosophists, Spiritualists, Buddhists, Kabalists, or
Vedantists, count, separate, classify, arrange or name these, as that war of
terms may be postponed to another occasion. Neither does it matter what
relation each of these men has to the various “elements” of the Kosmos of which
he forms a part.
This knowledge, though of vital
importance in other respects, need not be explained or discussed now. Nor does
it much more concern us that the Scientists deny the existence of such an
arrangement, because their instruments are inadequate to make their senses
perceive it. We will simply reply — “get better instruments and keener senses,
and eventually you will.”
All we have to say is that if you
are anxious to drink of the “Elixir of Life,” and live a thousand years or so,
you must take our word for the matter at present, and proceed on the
assumption. For esoteric science does not give the faintest possible hope that
the desired end will ever be attained by any other way; while modern, or
so-called exact science — laughs at it.
The initial procedure that is required to
be carried out
So, then, we have arrived at the
point where we have determined—literally, not metaphorically — to crack
the outer shell known as the mortal coil or body, and hatch out of it, clothed
in our next. This “next” is not spiritual, but only a more ethereal form.
Having by a long training and preparation adapted it for a life in this
atmosphere, during which time we have gradually made the outward shell to die
off through a certain process (hints of which will be found further on) we have
to prepare for this physiological transformation.
How are we to do it?
In the first place we have the
actual, visible, material body —Man, so called; though, in fact, but his outer
shell— to deal with. Let us bear in mind that science teaches us that in about
every seven years we change skin as effectually as any serpent; and this
so gradually and imperceptibly that, had not science after years of unremitting
study and observation assured us of it, no one would have had the slightest suspicion
of the fact.
We see, moreover, that in process of
time any cut or lesion upon the body, however deep, has a tendency to repair
the loss and reunite; a piece of lost skin is very soon replaced by another.
Hence, if a man, partially flayed alive, may sometimes survive and be covered
with a new skin, so our astral, vital body — the fourth of the seven (having
attracted and assimilated to itself the second) and which is so much more
ethereal than the physical one — may be made to harden its particles to the atmospheric
changes.
The whole secret is to succeed in
evolving it out, and separating it from the visible; and while its generally
invisible atoms proceed to concrete themselves into a compact mass, to
gradually get rid of the old particles of our visible frame so as to make them
die and disappear before the new set has had time to evolve and replace them.
(Cid's
observation: here Godolphin Mitford mixes the astral body with the vitality
body, but in reality he is referring to the elaboration of the permanent
astral, see link.)
We can say no more. The Magdalene is
not the only one who could be accused of having “seven spirits” in her,
though men who have a lesser number of spirits (what a misnomer that word!) in
them, are not few or exceptional; they are the frequent failures of nature — the
incomplete men and women. (2)
Each of these has in turn to survive
the preceding and more dense one, and then die. The exception is the
sixth when absorbed into and blended with the seventh. The “Dhatu” (3) of the old Hindu physiologist had a
dual meaning, the esoteric side of which corresponds with the Tibetan “Zung”
(seven principles of the body).
The necessity to develop the will
We Asiatics, have a proverb,
probably handed down to us, and by the Hindus repeated ignorantly as to its
esoteric meaning. It has been known ever since the old Rishis mingled
familiarly with the simple and noble people they taught and led on. The Devas
had whispered into every man’s ear:
« Thou only — if thou wilt — art “immortal.” »
Combine with this the saying of a
Western author that if any man could just realize for an instant, that he had
to die some day, he would die that instant. The Illuminated will
perceive that between these two sayings, rightly understood, stands revealed
the whole secret of Longevity. We only die when our will ceases to be strong
enough to make us live.
In the majority of cases, death
comes when the torture and vital exhaustion accompanying a rapid change in our
physical conditions becomes so intense as to weaken, for one single instant,
our “clutch on life,” or the tenacity of the will to exist. Till then, however
severe may be the disease, however sharp the pang, we are only sick or wounded,
as the case may be.
This explains the cases of sudden
deaths from joy, fright, pain, grief or such other causes. The sense of a
life-task consummated, of the worthlessness of one’s existence, if strongly
realized, produced death as surely as poison or a rifle-bullet. On the
other hand, a stern determination to continue to live, has, in fact, carried
many through the crises of the most severe diseases, in perfect safety.
First, then, must be the
determination —the Will— the conviction of certainty, to survive and continue. (4)
Without that, all else is useless. And to be efficient for the purpose,
it must be, not only a passing resolution of the moment, a single fierce desire
of short duration, but a settled and
continued strain, as nearly as can be continued and concentrated without one
single moment’s relaxation.
The choice to make
In a word, the would-be “Immortal”
must be on his watch night and day, guarding self against — himself. To live, to
live, to live — must be his unswerving resolve. He must as little as possible
allow himself to be turned aside from it. It may be said that this is the most
concentrated form of selfishness, — that it is utterly opposed to our
Theosophic professions of benevolence, and disinterestedness, and regard for
the good of humanity. Well, viewed in a short-sighted way, it is so. But to do
good, as in everything else, a man must have time and materials to work
with, and this is a necessary means to the acquirement of powers by which
infinitely more good can be done than without them.
When these are once mastered, the
opportunities to use them will arrive, for there comes a moment when further
watch and exertion are no longer needed: — the moment when the turning-point is
safely passed. For the present as we deal with aspirants and not with advanced chelas,
in the first stage a determined, dogged resolution, and an enlightened
concentration of self on self, are all that is absolutely necessary. It must
not, however, be considered that the candidate is required to be unhuman or
brutal in his negligence of others. Such a recklessly selfish course would be
as injurious to him as the contrary one of expending his vital energy on the
gratification of his physical desires.
All that is required from him is a
purely negative attitude. Until the turning-point is reached, he must not “lay
out” his energy in lavish or fiery devotion to any cause, however noble,
however “good,” however elevated. (5) Such, we can
solemnly assure the reader, would bring its reward in many ways — perhaps in
another life, perhaps in this world, but it would tend to shorten the existence
it is desired to preserve, as surely as self-indulgence and profligacy.
That is why very few of the truly
great men of the world (of course, the unprincipled adventurers who have
applied great powers to bad uses are out of the question) —the martyrs, the
heroes, the founders of religions, the liberators of nations, the leaders of
reforms— ever became members of the long-lived “Brotherhood of Adepts” who were
by some and for long years accused of selfishness.
(And that is also why the Yogis, and
the Fakirs of modern India — most of whom are acting now but on the dead-letter
tradition, are required if they would be considered living up to the
principles of their profession — to appear entirely dead to every inward
feeling or emotion.)
Notwithstanding the purity of their
hearts, the greatness of their aspirations, the disinterestedness of their
self-sacrifice, they could not live for they had missed the hour.
They may at times have exercised
powers which the world called miraculous; they may have electrified man and
subdued Nature by fiery and self-devoted Will; they may have been possessed of
a so-called superhuman intelligence; they may have even had knowledge of, and
communion with, members of our own occult Brotherhood; but, having deliberately
resolved to devote their vital energy to the welfare of others, rather than to
themselves, they have surrendered life; and, when perishing on the cross or the
scaffold, or falling, sword in hand, upon the battle-field, or sinking
exhausted after a successful consummation of the life-object, on death-beds in
their chambers, they have all alike had to cry out at last:
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!”
Explanation of cases that seem to
contradict this
So far so good. But, given the will to live, however
powerful, we have seen that, in the ordinary course of mundane life, the throes
of dissolution cannot be checked. The desperate, and again and again renewed
struggle of the Kosmic elements to proceed with a career of change despite the
will that is checking them, like a pair of runaway horses struggling against
the determined driver holding them in, are so cumulatively powerful, that the
utmost efforts of the untrained human will acting within an unprepared
body become ultimately useless.
The highest intrepidity of the
bravest soldier; the interest desire of the yearning lover; the hungry greed of
the unsatisfied miser; the most undoubting faith of the sternest fanatic; the
practised insensibility to pain of the hardiest red Indian brave or
half-trained Hindu Yogi; the most deliberate philosophy of the calmest thinker —
all alike fail at last. Indeed, sceptics will allege in opposition to the
verities of this article that, as a matter of experience, it is often observed
that the mildest and most irresolute of minds and the weakest of physical
frames are often seen to resist “Death” longer than the powerful will of the
high-spirited and obstinately-egotistic man, and the iron frame of the
labourer, the warrior and the athlete.
In reality, however, the key to the
secret of these apparently contradictory phenomena is the true conception of
the very thing we have already said. If the physical development of the gross
“outer shell” proceeds on parallel lines and at an equal rate with that of the
will, it stands to reason that no advantage for the purpose of overcoming
it, is attained by the latter.
The acquisition of improved
breechloaders by one modern army confers no absolute superiority if the enemy
also becomes possessed of them. Consequently it will be at once apparent, to
those who think on the subject, that much of the training by which what is
known as “a powerful and determined nature,” perfects itself for its own
purpose on the stage of the visible world, necessitating and being useless without
a parallel development of the “gross” and so-called animal frame, is, in short,
neutralized, for the purpose at present treated of, by the fact that its own
action has armed the enemy with weapons equal to its own.
The force of the impulse to
dissolution is rendered equal to the will to oppose it; and being cumulative,
subdues the will-power and triumphs at last. On the other hand, it may happen
that an apparently weak and vacillating will-power residing in a weak and undeveloped
physical frame, may be so reinforced by some unsatisfied desire —the Ichcha
(wish)— as it
is called by the Indian Occultists (for instance, a mother’s heart-yearning to
remain and support her fatherless children) — as to keep down and vanquish, for
a short time, the physical throes of a body to which it has become temporarily
superior.
In summary
The whole rationale then, of
the first condition of continued existence in this world, is:
a) the
development of a Will so powerful as to overcome the hereditary (in a Darwinian
sense) tendencies of the atoms composing the “gross” and palpable animal frame,
to hurry on at a particular period in a certain course of Kosmic change; and
b) to
so weaken the concrete action of that animal frame as to make it more amenable
to the power of the Will. To defeat an army, you must demoralize and throw
it into disorder.
To do this then, is the real object
of all the rites, ceremonies, fasts, “prayers,” meditations, initiations and
procedures of self-discipline enjoined by various esoteric Eastern sects, from
that course of pure and elevated aspiration which leads to the higher phases of
Adeptism Real, down to the fearful and disgusting ordeals which the adherent of
the “Left-hand-Road” has to pass through, all the time maintaining his
equilibrium.
The procedures have their merits and
their demerits, their separate uses and abuses, their essential and
non-essential parts, their various veils, mummeries, and labyrinths. But in
all, the result aimed at is reached, if by different processes. The Will is
strengthened, encouraged and directed, and the elements opposing its action are
demoralized.
The phenomenon of habit
Now, to any one who has thought out
and connected the various evolution theories, as taken, not from any occult
source, but from the ordinary scientific manual accessible to all —from the
hypothesis of the latest variation in the habits of species— say, the
acquisition of carnivorous habits by the New Zealand parrot, for instance — to
the farthest glimpses backwards into Space and Eternity afforded by the “Fire
Mist” doctrine, it will be apparent that they all rest on one basis. That
basis is, that the impulse once given to a hypothetical Unit has a tendency to
continue; and consequently, that anything “done” by something at a certain time
and certain place tends to repeat itself at other times and places.
Such is the admitted rationale of
heredity and atavism. That the same things apply to our ordinary conduct is
apparent from the notorious ease with which “habits,” —bad or good, as the case
may be— are acquired, and it will not be questioned that this applies, as a
rule, as much to the moral and intellectual, as to the physical world.
Furthermore, History and Science
teach us plainly that certain physical habits conduce to certain moral and
intellectual results. There never yet was a conquering nation of vegetarians.
Even in the old Aryan times, we do not learn that the very Rishis, from whose
lore and practice we gain the knowledge of Occultism, ever interdicted the Kshetriya
(military) caste from hunting or a carnivorous diet. Filling, as they did,
a certain place in the body politic in the actual condition of the world, the
Rishis as little thought of interfering with them, as of restraining the tigers
of the jungle from their habits. That did not affect what the Rishis did
themselves.
Practical aspects
The aspirant to longevity then must
be on his guard against two dangers. He must beware especially of impure
and animal (6) thoughts. For Science shows that
thought is dynamic, and the thought-force evolved by nervous action expanding
outwardly, must affect the molecular relations of the physical man. The inner
men, (7) however sublimated their organism
may be, are still composed of actual, not hypothetical, particles, and
are still subject to the law that an “action” has a tendency to repeat itself;
a tendency to set up analogous action in the grosser “shell” they are in
contact with, and concealed within.
And, on the other hand, certain
actions have a tendency to produce actual physical conditions unfavourable to
pure thoughts, hence to the state required for developing the supremacy of the
inner man.
To return to the practical process.
A normally healthy mind, in a normally healthy body, is a good starting-point.
Though exceptionally powerful and self-devoted natures may sometimes recover
the ground lost by mental degradation or physical misuse, by employing proper
means, under the direction of unswerving resolution, yet often things may have
gone so far that there is no longer stamina enough to sustain the conflict
sufficiently long to perpetuate this life; though what in Eastern parlance is
called the “merit” of the effort will help to ameliorate conditions and improve
matters in another.
However this may be, the prescribed
course of self-discipline commences here. It may be stated briefly that its
essence is a course of moral, mental, and physical development, carried on in
parallel lines — one being useless without the other. The physical man must be
rendered more ethereal and sensitive; the mental man more penetrating and
profound; the moral man more self-denying and philosophical. And it may be
mentioned that all sense of restraint —even if self-imposed— is useless.
Not only is all “goodness” that
results from the compulsion of physical force, threats, or bribes (whether of a
physical or so-called “spiritual’ nature) absolutely useless to the person who
exhibits it, its hypocrisy tending to poison the moral atmosphere of the world,
but the desire to be “good” or “pure,” to be efficacious must be spontaneous.
It must be a self-impulse from within, a real preference for something higher,
not an abstention from vice because of fear of the law: not a chastity enforced
by the dread of Public Opinion; not a benevolence exercised through love of
praise or dread of consequences in a hypothetical Future Life. (8)
It will be seen now in connection
with the doctrine of the tendency to the renewal of action, before discussed,
that the course of self-discipline recommended as the only road to Longevity by
Occultism is not a “visionary” theory dealing with vague “ideas,” but
actually a scientifically devised system of drill. It is a system by which each
particle of the several men composing the septenary individual receives an
impulse, and a habit of doing what is necessary for certain purposes of its own
free-will and with “pleasure.”
Every one must be practised and
perfect in a thing to do it with pleasure. This rule especially applies to the
case of the development of Man. “Virtue” may be very good in its way—it may
lead to the grandest results. But to become efficacious it has to be practised
cheerfully not with reluctance or pain.
As a consequence of the above
consideration the candidate for Longevity at the commencement of his career
must begin to eschew his physical desires, not from any sentimental theory of
right or wrong, but for the following good reason. As, according to a
well-known and now established scientific theory, his visible material frame is
always renewing its particles; he will, while abstaining from the gratification
of his desires, reach the end of a certain period during which those
particles which composed the man of vice, and which were given a bad predisposition,
will have departed.
At the same time, the disuse of such
functions will tend to obstruct the entry, in place of the old particles, of
new particles having a tendency to repeat the said acts. And while this is the particular
result as regards certain “vices,” the general result of an abstention from
“gross” acts will be (by a modification of the well-known Darwinian law of
atrophy by non-usage) to diminish what we may call the “relative” density and
coherence of the outer shell (as a result of its less-used molecules); while
the diminution in the quantity of its actual constituents will be “made up” (if
tried by scales and weights) by the increased admission of more ethereal
particles.
What physical desires are
to be abandoned and in what order?
1. First and foremost, he must
give up alcohol in all forms; for while it supplies no nourishment, nor any
direct pleasure (beyond such sweetness or fragrance as may be gained in the
taste of wine, etc., to which alcohol, in itself, is non-essential) to even the
grossest elements of the “physical” frame, it induces a violence of action, a
rush so to speak, of life, the stress of which can only be sustained by very
dull, gross, and dense elements, and which, by the operation of the well-known
law of Re-action (in commercial phrase, “supply and demand”) tends to summon
them from the surrounding universe, and therefore directly counteracts the
object we have in view.
2. Next comes meat-eating, and
for the very same reason, in a minor degree. It increases the rapidity of life,
the energy of action, the violence of passions. It may be good for a hero who
has to fight and die, but not for a would-be sage who has to exist and . . .
3. Next in order come the
sexual desires; for these, in addition to the great diversion of energy (vital
force) into other channels, in many different ways, beyond the primary one (as,
for instance, the waste of energy in expectation, jealousy, etc.), are direct
attractions to a certain gross quality of the original matter of the Universe,
simply because the most pleasurable physical sensations are only possible at
that stage of density.
Alongside with and extending beyond
all these and other gratifications of the senses (which include not only those
things usually known as “vicious,” but all those which, though ordinarily
regarded as “innocent,” have yet the disqualification of ministering to the
pleasures of the body —the most harmless to others and the least “gross” being
the criterion for those to be last abandoned in each case)— must be carried on
the moral purification.
Nor must it be imagined that “austerities”
as commonly understood can, in the majority of cases, avail much to hasten the
“etherealizing” process. That is the rock on which many of the Eastern esoteric
sects have foundered, and the reason why they have degenerated into degrading
superstitions.
The Western monks and the Eastern
Yogees, who think they will reach the apex of powers by concentrating their
thought on their navel, or by standing on one leg, are practising exercises
which serve no other purpose than to strengthen the willpower, which is
sometimes applied to the basest purposes. These are examples of this one-sided
and dwarf development. It is no use to fast as long as you require food.
The ceasing of desire for food
without impairment of health is the sign which indicates that it should be
taken in lesser and ever decreasing quantities until the extreme limit
compatible with life is reached. A stage will be finally attained where only
water will be required.
Nor is it of any use for this
particular purpose of longevity to abstain from immorality so long as you are
craving for it in your heart; and so on with all other unsatisfied inward
cravings. To get rid of the inward desire is the essential thing, and to mimic
the real thing without it is barefaced hypocrisy and useless slavery.
4. So it must be with the moral
purification of the heart. The “basest” inclinations must go first— then the
others. First avarice, then fear, then envy, worldly pride, uncharitableness,
hatred; last of all ambition and curiosity must be abandoned successively.
What has to be cultivated?
The strengthening of the more
ethereal and so-called “spiritual” parts of the man must go on at the same
time. Reasoning from the known to the unknown, meditation must be practised and
encouraged. Meditation is the inexpressible yearning of the inner Man to “go
out towards the infinite,” which in the olden time was the real meaning of
adoration, but which has now no synonym in the European languages, because the
thing no longer exists in the West, and its name has been vulgarized to the
make-believe shams known as prayer, glorification, and repentance.
Through all stages of training the
equilibrium of the consciousness —the assurance that all must be right
in the Kosmos, and therefore with you a portion of it— must be retained.
The process of life must not be hurried but retarded, if possible; to do
otherwise may do good to others — perhaps even to yourself in other spheres,
but it will hasten your dissolution in this.
Nor must the externals be neglected
in this first stage. Remember that an adept, though “existing” so as to convey
to ordinary minds the idea of his being immortal, is not also invulnerable to
agencies from without.
The importance of taking care of yourself
The training to prolong life does
not, in itself, secure one from accidents. As far as any physical preparation
goes, the sword may still cut, the disease enter, the poison disarrange. This
case is very clearly and beautifully put in “Zanoni,” and it is correctly put
and must be so, unless all “adeptism” is a baseless lie.
The adept may be more secure from
ordinary dangers than the common mortal, but he is so by virtue of the superior
knowledge, calmness, coolness and penetration which his lengthened existence
and its necessary concomitants have enabled him to acquire; not by virtue of
any preservative power in the process itself. He is secure as a man armed with
a rifle is more secure than a naked baboon; not secure in the sense in which
the deva (god) was supposed to be securer than a man.
If this is so in the case of the high
adept, how much more necessary is it that the neophyte should be not only
protected but that he himself should use all possible means to ensure for
himself the necessary duration of life to complete the process of mastering the
phenomena we call death!
It may be said, why do not the
higher adepts protect him?
Perhaps they do to some
extent, but the child must learn to walk alone; to make him independent of his
own efforts in respect to safety, would be destroying one element necessary to
his development — the sense of responsibility.
What courage or conduct would be
called for in a man sent to fight when armed with irresistible weapons and clothed
in impenetrable armour?
Hence the neophyte should endeavour,
as far as possible, to fulfill every true canon of sanitary law as laid down by
modern scientists. Pure air, pure water, pure food, gentle exercise, regular
hours, pleasant occupations and surroundings, are all, if not indispensable, at
least serviceable to his progress. It is to secure these, at least as much as
silence and solitude, that the Gods, Sages, Occultists of all ages have retired
as much as possible to the quiet of the country, the cool cave, the depths of
the forest, the expanse of the desert, or the heights of the mountains.
Is it not suggestive that the Gods
have always loved the “high places”; and that in the present day the highest
section of the Occult Brotherhood on earth inhabits the highest mountain
plateaux of the earth? (9)
Nor must the beginner disdain the
assistance of medicine and good medical regimen. He is still an ordinary
mortal, and he requires the aid of an ordinary mortal.
What happens next?
“Suppose, however, all the
conditions required, or which will be understood as required (for the details
and varieties of treatment requisite, are too numerous to be detailed here),
are fulfilled, what is the next step?” the reader will ask. Well if there have
been no backslidings or remissness in the procedure indicated, the following
physical results will follow:
First the neophyte will take more
pleasure in things spiritual and pure. Gradually gross and material occupations
will become not only uncraved for or forbidden, but simply and literally
repulsive to him. He will take more pleasure in the simple sensations of
Nature—the sort of feeling one can remember to have experienced as a child. He
will feel more light-hearted, confident, happy. Let him take care the sensation
of renewed youth does not mislead, or he will yet risk a fall into his old
baser life and even lower depths. “Action and Re-action are equal.”
Now the desire for food will begin
to cease. Let it be left off gradually — no fasting is required. Take what you
feel you require. The food craved for will be the most innocent and simple.
Fruit and milk will usually be the best. Then as till now, you have been
simplifying the quality of your food, gradually —very gradually— as you feel
capable of it diminish the quantity.
You will ask:
“Can a man exist without food?”
No, but before you mock, consider
the character of the process alluded to. It is a notorious fact that many of
the lowest and simplest organisms have no excretions. The common guinea-worm is
a very good instance. It has rather a complicated organism, but it has no
ejaculatory duct. All it consumes —the poorest essences of the human body— is
applied to its growth and propagation. Living as it does in human tissue, it
passes no digested food away.
The human neophyte, at a certain
stage of his development, is in a somewhat analogous condition, with this
difference or differences, that he does excrete, but it is through the
pores of his skin, and by those too enter other etherealized particles of
matter to contribute towards his support. (10)
Otherwise, all the food and drink is
sufficient only to keep in equilibrium those “gross” parts of his physical body
which still remain to repair their cuticle-waste through the medium of the
blood. Later on, the process of cell-development in his frame will undergo a
change; a change for the better, the opposite of that in disease for the
worse—he will become all living and sensitive, and will derive
nourishment from the Ether (Akas). But that epoch for our neophyte is yet far
distant.
Probably, long before that period
has arrived, other results, no less surprising than incredible to the
uninitiated will have ensued to give our neophyte courage and consolation in
his difficult task. It would be but a truism to repeat what has been again
alleged (in ignorance of its real rationale) by hundreds and hundreds of
writers as to the happiness and content conferred by a life of innocence and
purity. But often at the very commencement of the process some real physical
result, unexpected and unthought of by the neophyte, occurs. Some lingering
disease, hitherto deemed hopeless, may take a favourable turn; or he may
develop healing mesmeric powers himself; or some hitherto unknown sharpening of
his senses may delight him.
The rationale of these things
is, as we have said, neither miraculous nor difficult of comprehension. In the
first place, the sudden change in the direction of the vital energy (which,
whatever view we take of it and its origin, is acknowledged by all schools of
philosophy as most recondite, and as the motive power) must produce results of
some kind. In the second, Theosophy shows, as we said before, that a man
consists of several men pervading each other, and on this view (although it is
very difficult to express the idea in language) it is but natural that the
progressive etherealization of the densest and most gross of all should leave
the others literally more at liberty.
A troop of horses may be blocked by
a mob and have much difficulty in fighting its way through; but if every one of
the mob could be changed suddenly into a ghost, there would be little to retard
it. And as each interior entity is more rare, active, and volatile than the
outer and as each has relation with different elements, spaces, and properties
of the Kosmos which are treated of in other articles on Occultism, the mind of
the reader may conceive —though the pen of the writer could not express it in a
dozen volumes— the magnificent possibilities gradually unfolded to the
neophyte.
Many of the opportunities thus
suggested may be taken advantage of by the neophyte for his own safety,
amusement, and the good of those around him; but the way in which he
does this is one adapted to his fitness — a part of the ordeal he has to pass
through, and misuse of these powers will certainly entail the loss of them as a
natural result. The Itchcha (or desire) evoked anew by the vistas they
open up will retard or throw back his progress.
Exceeding genetic limits
But there is another portion of the
Great Secret to which we must allude, and which is now, for the first,
in a long series of ages, allowed to be given out to the world, as the hour for
it is come.
The educated reader need not be
reminded again that one of the great discoveries which has immortalized the
name of Darwin is the law that an organism has always a tendency to repeat, at
an analogous period in its life, the action of its progenitors, the more surely
and completely in proportion to their proximity in the scale of life.
One result of this is, that, in
general, organized beings usually die at a period (on an average) the same as
that of their progenitors. It is true that there is a great difference between
the actual ages at which individuals of any species die. Disease,
accidents and famine are the main agents in causing this. But there is, in each
species, a well-known limit within which the Race-life lies, and none are known
to survive beyond it.
This applies to the human species as
well as any other. Now, supposing that every possible sanitary condition had
been complied with, and every accident and disease avoided by a man of ordinary
frame, in some particular case there would still, as is known to medical men,
come a time when the particles of the body would feel the hereditary tendency
to do that which leads inevitably to dissolution, and would obey it.
It must be obvious to any reflecting
man that, if by any procedure this critical climacteric could be once
thoroughly passed over, the subsequent danger of “Death” would be proportionally
less as the years progressed. Now this, which no ordinary and unprepared mind
and body can do, is possible sometimes for the will and the frame of one who
has been specially prepared. There are fewer of the grosser particles present
to feel the hereditary bias—there is the assistance of the reinforced “interior
men” (whose normal duration is always greater even in natural death) to the
visible outer shell, and there is the drilled and indomitable Will to direct
and wield the whole. (11)
From that time forward the course of
the aspirant is clearer. He has conquered “the Dweller of the Threshold”—the
hereditary enemy of his race, and, though still exposed to ever-new dangers in
his progress towards Nirvana, he is flushed with victory, and with new
confidence and new powers to second it, can press onwards to perfection.
For, it must be remembered, that
nature everywhere acts by Law, and that the process of purification we have
been describing in the visible material body, also takes place in those which
are interior, and not visible to the scientist by modifications of the same
process. All is on the change, and the metamorphoses of the more ethereal
bodies imitate, though in successively multiplied duration, the career of the
grosser, gaining an increasing wider range of relations with the surrounding
kosmos, till in Nirvana the most rarefied Individuality is merged at last into
the INFINITE TOTALITY.
This process in the Adepts
From the above description of the
process, it will be inferred why it is that “Adepts” are so seldom seen in
ordinary life; for, pari passu, with the etherealization of their bodies
and the development of their power, grows an increasing distaste, and a
so-to-speak, “contempt” for the things of our ordinary mundane existence. Like
the fugitive who successively casts away in his flight those articles which
incommode his progress, beginning with the heaviest, so the aspirant eluding
“Death” abandons all on which the latter can take hold. In the progress of
Negation everything got rid of is a help.
As we said before, the adept does
not become “immortal” as the word is ordinarily understood. By or about the
time when the Death-limit of his race is passed he is actually dead, in
the ordinary sense, that is to say, he has relieved himself of all or nearly
all such material particles as would have necessitated in disruption the agony
of dying. He has been dying gradually during the whole period of his
Initiation.
The catastrophe cannot happen twice
over. He has only spread over a number of years the mild process of dissolution
which others endure from a brief moment to a few hours. The highest Adept is,
in fact, dead to, and absolutely unconscious of, the world; he is oblivious of
its pleasures, careless of its miseries, in so far as sentimentalism goes, for
the stern sense of DUTY never leaves him blind to its very existence.
For the new ethereal senses opening
to wider spheres are to ours much in the relation of ours to the Infinitely
Little. New desires and enjoyments, new dangers and new hindrances arise, with
new sensations and new perceptions; and far away down in the mist —both
literally and metaphorically— is our dirty little earth left below by those who
have virtually “gone to join the gods.”
(Cid's
observation: Mitford is here referring to selfish Buddhas, as this process
of prolonging life also serves to hasten our entry into Nirvana. But once you
enter Nirvana you can no longer help humanity, and that is why Buddhas of
Compassion renounce for a very long period to Nirvana in order to continue
helping humans.
But Buddhas of Compassion do not directly help people because although
they love humanity so much that they would be willing to sacrifice to save each
of its members, they know that they produce a much greater beneficial effect if
they work for humanity as a whole, that if they work to help humans
individually.)
And from this account too, it will
be perceptible how foolish it is for people to ask the Theosophist to “procure
for them communication with the highest Adepts.” It is with the utmost
difficulty that one or two can be induced, even by the throes of a world, to
injure their own progress by meddling with mundane affairs. The ordinary reader
will say:
“This is not god-like. This
is the acme of selfishness.” . . . But let him realize that a very
high Adept, undertaking to reform the world, would necessarily have to once
more submit to Incarnation. And is the result of all that have gone before in
that line sufficiently encouraging to prompt a renewal of the attempt?
Paranormal powers and faculties
A deep consideration of all that we
have written, will also give the Theosophists an idea of what they demand when
they ask to be put in the way of gaining practically “higher powers.”
Well, there, as plainly as words can put it, is the PATH . . . can
they tread it?
Nor must it be disguised that what
to the ordinary mortal are unexpected dangers, temptations and enemies also
beset the way of the neophyte. And that for no fanciful cause, but the simple
reason that he is, in fact, acquiring new senses, has yet no practice in their
use, and has never before seen the things he sees. A man born blind
suddenly endowed with vision would not at once master the meaning of
perspective, but would, like a baby, imagine in one case, the moon to be within
his reach, and, in the other, grasp a live coal with the most reckless
confidence.
Conclusion
And what, it may be asked, is to
recompense this abnegation of all the pleasures of life, this cold surrender of
all mundane interests, this stretching forward to an unknown goal which seems
ever more unattainable?
For, unlike some of the
anthropomorphic creeds, Occultism offers to its votaries no eternally permanent
heaven of material pleasure, to be gained at once by one quick dash through the
grave. As has, in fact, often been the case many would be prepared willingly to
die now for the sake of the paradise hereafter. But Occultism gives no
such prospect of cheaply and immediately gained infinitude of pleasure, wisdom
and existence. It only promises extensions of these, stretching in successive
arches obscured by successive veils, in an unbroken series up the long vista
which leads to NIRVANA. And this too, qualified by the necessity that new
powers entail new responsibilities, and that the capacity of increased pleasure
entails the capacity of increased sensibility to pain.
To this, the only answer that can be
given is two-fold:
(1st) the consciousness of Power is
itself the most exquisite of pleasures, and is unceasingly gratified in the
progress onwards with new means for its exercise and
(2ndly) as has been already said — THIS
is the only road by which there is the faintest scientific likelihood that
“Death” can be avoided, perpetual memory secured, infinite wisdom attained, and
hence an immense helping of mankind made possible, once that the adept has safely
crossed the turning-point.
Physical as well as metaphysical logic
requires and endorses the fact that only by gradual absorption into infinity
can the Part become acquainted with the Whole, and that that which is now
something can only feel, know, and enjoy EVERYTHING when lost in Absolute
Totality in the vortex of that Unalterable Circle wherein our Knowledge
becomes Ignorance, and the Everything itself is identified with the NOTHING.
Notes
1. A Chela is the pupil and disciple of an initiated Guru or
Master. (ED.)
2. This is not to be taken as meaning that such persons are thoroughly
destitute of some one or several of the seven principles; a man born without an
arm has still its ethereal counterpart; but that they are so latent that they
cannot be developed, and consequently are to be considered as non-existing. (ED.
Theos.)
3. Dhatu —the seven principal substances of the human body— chyle,
flesh, blood, fat, bones, marrow, semen.
4. Col. Olcott has epigrammatically explained the creative or rather the
re-creative power of the Will, in his “Buddhist Catechism.” He there shows —of
course, speaking on behalf of the Southern Buddhists— that this Will to live,
if not extinguished in the present life, leaps over the chasm of bodily death,
and recombines the Skandhas, or groups of qualities that made up the
individual into a new personality. Man is, therefore, reborn as the result of
his own unsatisfied yearning for objective existence. Col. Olcott puts it in
this way:
Q. 123. . . . What is that, in
man, which gives him the impression of having a permanent individuality?
A. Tanha, or the
unsatisfied desire for existence. The being having done that for which he must
be rewarded or punished in future, and having Tanha, will have a rebirth through the influence of Karma.
Q. 124. What is it that is
reborn?
A. A new aggregation of Skandhas, or individuality, caused by the last
yearning of the dying person.
Q. 128. To what cause must we
attribute the differences in the combination of the Five Skandhas has which
makes every individual different from every other individual?
A. To the Karma of the
individual in the next preceding birth.
Q. 129. What is the force or
energy that is at work, under the guidance of Karma, to produce the new being?
A. Tanha—the “Will to
Live.”
5. On page 151 of Mr. Sinnett’s “Occult World,” the author’s much
abused, and still more doubted correspondent assures him that none yet of his
“degree are like the stern hero of Bulwer’s” Zanoni . . . “the heartless
morally dried up mummies some would fancy us to be” . . . and adds that few of
them “would care to play the part in life of a desiccated pansy between the
leaves of a volume of solemn poetry.” But our adept omits saying that one or
two degrees higher, and he will have to submit for a period of years to
such a mummifying process unless, indeed, he would voluntarily give up a
life-long labour and — Die. (ED.)
6. In other words, the thought tends to provoke the deed. (G.M.)
7. We use the word in the plural, reminding the reader that, according
to our doctrine, man is septenary. (G.M.)
8. Col. Olcott clearly and succinctly explains the Buddhistic doctrine
of Merit or Karma, in his “Buddhist Catechism” [Question 83]. (G.M.)
9. The stern prohibition to the Jews to serve “their gods upon the high
mountains and upon the hills” is traced back to the unwillingness of their
ancient elders to allow people in most cases unfit for adeptship to choose a
life of celibacy and asceticism, or in other words, to pursue adeptship. This
prohibition had an esoteric meaning before it became the prohibition, incomprehensible
in its dead-letter sense: for it is not India alone whose sons accorded divine
honours to the Wise Ones, but all nations regarded their adepts and initiates
as divine. (G.M.)
10. He is in a state similar to the physical state of a fœtus before
birth into the world. (G.M.)
11. In this connection we may as well show what modern science, and
especially physiology has to say as to the power of the human will. “The
force of will is a potent element in determining longevity. This single point
must he granted without argument, that of two men every way alike and similarly
circumstanced, the one who has the greater courage and grit will be
longer-lived. One does not need to practise medicine long to learn that men die
who might just as well live if they resolved to live, and that myriads who are
invalids could become strong if they had the native or acquired will to vow
they would do so. Those who have no other quality favourable to life, whose
bodily organs are nearly all diseased, to whom each day is a day of pain, who
are beset by life-shortening influences, yet do live by will alone.” (Dr George M. Beard.)
(Theosophist,
March and April 1882, pp. 140-142 and 168-171)
OBSERVATIONS
The masters
explained that through occult techniques and a special development of the
person, physical life can be prolonged for several centuries. But this
procedure has its limitations, and that is why William Judge indicated that the
greatest Adepts can only prolong their lives up to almost 400 years, but we are
already talking about very high levels of development.
And from
what Colonel Olcott mentioned in his memories, Blavatsky was psychically
guiding Mr. Mitford during the
preparation of this article, in which he gave some indications of how to
proceed to extend physical life, but as expected, he did not disclose the most
advanced information because it is kept secret (in fact, it is most likely that
Mr. Mitford did not know it).
Blavatsky later wrote an article where she clarified more on this
subject, and the explanation that she gave can be read in this other article (see link).
And in the Mahatma Letters, Master Kuthumi twice mentioned this Mitford
article.
In March
1882, the master wrote to Mr. Sinnett:
« You will find in the forth-coming number, two articles which you must
read, I need not tell you why, as I leave it with your intuitions. As usual, it
is an indiscretion, which however, I have allowed to remain as there are few,
if any, who will understand the hint contained — but you. There are more than
one such hint though; hence your attention is asked to the [G. Mitford]“Elixir of Life” and W. Oxley’s “Philosophy of Spirit.”
The former contains references and explanations, the haziness of which
may remind you of a man who stealthily approaching one gives him a hit upon his
back, and then runs away; as they most undeniably belong to the genus of those
“Fortunes” that come to one like the thief by night and during one’s sleep, and
go back, finding no one to respond to the offer — of which you complain in your
letter to Brother. This time, you are warned, good friend, so complain no more. »
(ML
48, p.274)
Mr. Sinnett
complained himself that he wanted to become an accepted chela, but Master
Kuthumi explained him that this was not possible because it involved sacrifices
that Mr. Sinnett could not make.
And a few
months later Mr. Sinnett complained again saying that Master Morya was very
rude to him, to which Master Kuthumi wrote in August 1882 the following:
« Would you think more of him, were he to conceal his anger; to lie to
himself and the outsiders, and so permit them to credit him with a virtue he
has not? If it is a meritorious act to extirpate with the roots all feelings of
anger, so as to never feel the slightest paroxysm of a passion we all consider
sinful, it is a still greater sin with us [the adepts] to pretend that it is so
extirpated.
Please read over the "Elixir of Life" No. 2 (April, p. 169
col. 1, paras. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6). [For us, honesty is more important than the image we
present to others]. And yet in the ideas of the West,
everything is brought down to appearances. »
(ML
30, p.233)
The
paragraphs indicated by the master Kuthumi correspond to the text that begins
by "it may be mentioned that all sense of restraint —even
if self-imposed— is useless." And ends by "To get rid of the inward desire is the essential thing, and to mimic the
real thing without it is barefaced hypocrisy and useless slavery."
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