On this subject the researcher John Schofield wrote
the following:
« During my early
studies of Theosophy I was impressed, and somewhat puzzled by the lack of any
reference to the body and its care and culture.
On my way to Theosophy I had examined
"New Thought," and found that most of these cults advocated physical
culture and emphasized systematic breathing and other exercises for physical
development and health. Some of these also believed that certain bodily
postures and movements were necessary for mental and psychic development.
Among the first Theosophists that
I became acquainted with were some who almost seemed to ignore the body. One
for whom I had great reverence and affection did not seem to care when he got
his meals, nor what they consisted of, so long as they did not contain animal
food. He was a strict vegetarian. About all the exercise he got was to walk
from his office (where he slept) to the courthouse and back, or to the meeting
of the Theosophical Society.
My physical health was never
robust until I was over twenty years of age, and I had always attributed my
gradually increasing strength and endurance to the study and practice of the
laws of health.
From the time I was ten years of
age I devoted myself to the study of physiology and hygiene, and carefully
followed the simpler rules of health— cleanliness, simple diet, using neither
alcohol nor tobacco, and using my best judgment in the matter of exercise and
rest. The results of this method of life seemed to me quite satisfactory.
I have met some extremists among
the new thought people who declare that breathing and other exercises were of no
value, but true thought was everything and all-sufficient to keep the body in
perfect health.
I did not change my manner of
living either for the strong affirmations of the New Thoughters, or the
carelessness of Theosophists. I took notice of both, kept on observing, and
studying the subject, until at last it was clear to me that the teaching I had
followed found confirmation in the lives of my Theosophical friends, as well as
in that of my New Thought acquaintances.
I noticed, further, that some Spiritualists
and New Thoughters who joined the Theosophical Society were greatly
disappointed that there was no instruction in healing and psychic development
generally.
Some of them thought Theosophy
was inferior in this respect to the cults they had formerly been connected
with, and all were puzzled by this, and by the fact that healing by drugs was not
condemned but practiced by the leaders of Society.
Among all classes to-day physical
culture is popular, and most parents are anxious to have their boys and girls
well trained in this respect.
Are they wrong?
Does Theosophy discountenance the care of health and the culture of the
physical organs?
Perhaps there are some who have
recently begun the study of Theosophy and who are not quite clear on these
points, and it may be that what I have to say on this may be helpful to them. While
they may not reach the same conclusions, my experience may help them nearer to
the reality than I have reached myself.
Theosophy informs us what our
bodies are, and what they are for, and a careful study of this teaching should
lead us to right ways of living so far as the physical life is concerned.
The real man is entirely out of
touch with the physical plane and with molecular consciousness, and in order
that it may reach this it must have a body composed of molecules capable of
receiving impressions from other molecules and molecular forces. Only in this
way could the real man assimilate molecular consciousness. The office of the
body, then, is to relate the soul to matter as at present constituted on this earth,
through which it may gain experience from molecular states.
The body is built up on countless
hosts of the molecules synthesized into cells by units of consciousness which
receive their energy and vitality from what the Secret Doctrine calls "fiery lives."
These cells are synthesized into
other centers of consciousness that we call organs, such as the heart, stomach,
liver, etc., and the more perfect these organs are the more clearly does the
soul see, and express its purposes, and learn its lessons.
For example, if the physical
organ of sight be imperfect the soul does not see clearly. If the brain, which
is the instrument of thinking, feeling, and imagining, be impaired, these
functions are not perfectly performed and all life is changed for the soul. It
therefore becomes a very important question how we shall keep this physical
body in the best possible condition for doing its work.
There is a passage in the Bhagavad Gita, Book VI, 16, that is very
interesting. Perhaps some of the older students may say that it has a much
deeper meaning, which may be true, but I think it also applies to the physical
life:
- "Union is not for him who
eats too much, nor for him who eats not at all: it is not for him who is dreamy,
nor for him who is too full of waking life."
Here we have one key to health
and the highest development of the body, and our everyday experience will
confirm its truth. We see that men suffer from too much air and from too little:
from over feeding and under feeding: from excessive sleep and from too little
sleep: from too violent exercise and from too little exercise. So we must not
only know what our bodies need but also how much.
This does not mean that one rule
of life is as good for one man as for another. No. The old proverb, "What
is one man's meat is another man's poison," has some truth in it, for each
body has its own peculiar conditions of health, and we must know ourselves.
If we suffer from over eating or
from eating too little, our first duty is to find out just how much is necessary,
and then take care not to go beyond or fall short of that quantity. If we find that certain kinds of food overtax
our digestive power and yet yield little energy, we should in a measure, at
least, discard these foods and select others that we can digest with little
outlay of vital force and that at the same time impart to the body a great deal
of energy.
In other words select a diet that
will economize digestive energy and at the same time supply the body with the
largest amount of nutriment. This is one of the most important points to be
noted in making the body an efficient servant of the soul.
Perhaps there are few of us who
realize the importance of the function of respiration, through which the body is
supplied with oxygen and freed from one poisonous product — carbon dioxide. A little
observation will convince us that the large and active chest, with the straight
spine and the erect carriage are unfailing signs of great vitality.
In one way, nature has been
generous to us, for of all the functions of the body, breathing is the one most
easily developed. If the lungs are small and feeble and the chest contracted
the vitality will be low, but a few weeks of breathing exercises wisely
directed will make a wonderful difference in the size and activity of the
lungs, and also in the general vitality. It is through the breath that we draw
from the inexhaustible ocean of Prana the vital force we need.
Sleep and rest are helpers in
this, for they seem to open up all parts of the organism so that vitality can
flow in and pervade every organ and every cell. Some people seem to think that
the more you sleep the more rested you are, but this is not the case. We can
have too much sleep, and we can have the wrong kind, too. If we sleep with
muscles tensed we do not awake rested but tired, and sometimes exhausted.
As in the matter of food, so it is
with sleep, some people require more than others, but if after eight hour's
sleep we awake unrefreshed we have not slept well, and we should find out what is
the matter. Before we can have really restful sleep we must learn to relax all
voluntary muscles, and the involuntary ones, so far that they work without haste
and without friction. To know how to sleep is an art, but we may all learn it,
and it is our duty to do so.
Exercise is also necessary if we
are to keep the body in a healthy, vigorous condition and develop its powers.
But here again, wisdom and moderation are necessary. An immense amount of
attention is given to physical culture. Some of this time is wasted, and some
worse than wasted, for there are few who have an adequate idea of what it
really means.
There are some who desire to be
strong and seek to develop large muscles, not knowing that size is not always strength,
nor that an over-development of the muscular system is destructive of health.
What we should do is to train our muscles so that all their movements are made
with the least possible outlay of energy. If the movements are made in a jerky
way, or if they be awkward and angular we are wasting strength. If we do this in
fifty acts a day an amount of vital force is wasted which would if conserved
make all the difference between weakness and strength, and sometimes, between
sickness and health.
It is worth while to practice the
"dead-still" exercises of
the physical culturists, and it is also worth an effort to make all movements
in curves instead of angles. It is worth while for the sake of the health of
the body, and also because this is the secret of endurance, of grace, and precision
of movement. Children are generally graceful in their movements and also
manifest remarkable endurance, so that parents often express their surprise, as
a mother did the other day by saying:
- "Well! I don't know how that
child can stand on his feet for he has been a “perpetual motion” machine all
day."
The secret is, that he
instinctively uses for each movement as much force as is necessary, but no
more. We need to learn this lesson from the child, not only for the sake of our
physical health, but also for other reasons. From the beginning we have been
told to meditate, and also that meditation is the key to spiritual development.
But how can we meditate if we are unable to sit still, but are fidgety and fail
to control the muscular system?
Control must begin with the body,
and for this physical culture is required. In all this, care is required, for
there is great danger of going to excess, and so producing mental and physical
overstrain.
This explains in a large measure
why athletes die early, and why they are considered bad risks by insurance
companies. It is also a well known fact that the development of muscular tissue
beyond a certain point will be a source of weakness instead of strength, by
depleting the vitality which is the source of all mental and physical power.
The Theosophist knows something
of the power of mind over body but, so far as I know, there is no school of
healing connected with the Theosophical Society. On the other hand all the
teaching seems to be opposed to all the methods of mental and spiritual healing,
now so much in vogue. The student of Theosophy who is in touch with modern life
will regret that with alarming frequency the leaders of great business
interests are collapsing from overstrain.
There is a feverish strife for
business and social supremacy, and tens of thousands of men and women are
living a life of physical and mental strain that is suicidal. This ceaseless
anxiety, worry, and needless hurry, bring a brood of symptoms that are familiar
to us in these days under the name of neurasthenia, psychasthenia, and hysteria
— pitiable specimens of human wreckage.
Such men and women soon discover
the uselessness of drugs, and if not too despondent they turn to Christian Science,
or to mental healers of some kind and expect the miracle of a speedy cure.
Have Theosophists no compassion on these, and does Theosophy provide no
cure?
It has something to say. The
mental faculties are tangled in worry that is the product of indecision and
fear. They must be set free by cultivating the positive faculties of hope and
cheerfulness. As light drives out darkness, so the cultivation of Love, Faith, Patience,
Sympathy, Obedience, will bring in a flood of rest and peace that will banish
the darkness of fear, anxiety, indecision, and worry, and the mind will be
stilled and purified.
Of course, the patients must be
willing to carry over to the next day any work which can not be finished in a
reasonable number of hours out of the twenty-four. There must be an alternation
of rest and activity; congenial exercises of any kind will be an immense
advantage in restoring the equilibrium of the nervous system.
Let us bear in mind that the consciousness
of the body is below the plane of self-consciousness, which is the reason we
are not conscious of the functions of digestion, of waste and repair and other such
things, all of which are done under the supervision of the elementals in our
bodies. It is possible for man to transfer his consciousness to these cells and
to control them as Indian Yogis do who pierce themselves with knives, the
wounds immediately healing.
It is said that Christian
Scientists sometimes cure by centering the higher, divine consciousness into
the performance of purely physical functions, which are the normal duties of
entities far below the human plane. Disease can thus be cured if the will is
sufficiently developed to transfer the divine, creative consciousness to the
physical plane, but the process is abnormal and degrading to the higher
consciousness, and must react injuriously in this or succeeding incarnations.
Let us treat our bodies as we would
treat a favorite horse, for instance, with kindness and firmness, supplying it
with all that is needful for health and well-being, and training it to be the
most perfect expression possible of the soul. So will our bodies become fit and
efficient instruments for bringing the real man into contact with the molecular
plane and the highest interests of both body and soul will be served, for we
want to live through it rather than in it. »
(Editor note: Theosophy also mentions the importance of living a healthy life, but it is not something that it addressed in its teachings because the Theosophical Masters preferred to focus on the reappearance of occult knowledge; besides people can study the subject of health in the other teachings that had already very well addressed this topic.)
(The Theosophical Quarterly,
October 1909, vol. 7, p.177-181)
