As forevermore and after

I do not think that you will take it amiss that I again intrude myself
before you. I am so far off, and the place where my old friend and
teacher–the one who pointed out to me the way that must bring us, if
followed, to the light and peace and power of truth–is so dear to me,
I would fain speak with those, my fellow-workers, who now live where
she worked, and where her mighty soul left the body she used for our
advantage. This is surely sufficient reason.

Refer to the Master’s letter in _The Occult World_ and you will find
him saying that the Masters are philanthropists and care only for
that. Hence, the very oldest F.T.S. who has been selfish, and not
philanthropic, has never come under the notice of the Masters, has
never done anything, in fact, toward the development of the soul in his
possession, nothing for the race of man. It is not membership in the
T.S., or any other mystical body, that brings us near the Masters, but
just such philanthropic work with just the pure motive.

Then I know, and say plainly–for as so close to each other we should
plainly speak–that some of us, maybe all, have waited and wondered,
and wished and hoped, for what? Variously expressed thus: one wants to
go to the Master, not knowing even if it be fitting; another wants to
know what is the vague longing inside; another says that if the inner
senses were but developed and hopes the Master would develop them, and
so on; all, however, expressed by what the Master has himself written,
“You want to find out about us, of our methods of work, and for that
you seek along the line of occultism.” Well, it is right for us to seek
and to try and to want to reach to Them, for otherwise we never will in
any age get where such Beings are. But as wise thinkers we should act
and think wisely. I know many of you and what I am saying should help
some as it does me also.

You are all on the road to Masters, but as we are now, with the weak
and hereditarily diseased bodies we have, we could not live an hour
with Masters did we jump suddenly past space to Them. Some too have
doubt and darkness, the doubt mostly as to themselves. This should not
be harboured, for it is a wile of the lower man striving to keep you
back among the mediocre of the race. When you have lifted yourself up
over that level of the race, the enemy of man strikes and strives at
all times to bring clouds of doubt and despair. You should know that
all, everyone, down to the most obscure, who are working steadily,
are as steadily creeping on to a change, and yet on and on to other
changes, and all steps to the Master. Do not allow discouragement
to come in. Time is needed for all growth, and all change, and all
development. Let time have her perfect work and do not stop it.

How may it be stopped? How many have thought of this I do not know, but
here is a fact. As a sincere student works on, his work makes him come
every day nearer to a step, and if it be an advance then it is certain
there is a sort of silence or loneliness all around in the forest of
his nature. Then he may stop all by allowing despair to come in with
various reasons and pretexts; he may thus throw himself to where he
began. This is not arbitrary law but Nature’s. It is a law of mind, and
the enemies of man take advantage of it for the undoing of the unwary
disciple. I would never let the least fear or despair come before me,
but if I cannot see the road, nor the goal for the fog, I would simply
sit down and wait; I would not allow the fog to make me think no road
was there, and that I was not to pass it. The fogs must lift.

What then is the panacea finally, the royal talisman? It is DUTY,
Selflessness. Duty persistently followed is the highest yoga, and is
better than mantrams or any posture, or any other thing. If you can do
no more than duty it will bring you to the goal. And, my dear friends,
I can swear it, the Masters are watching us all, and that without fail
when we come to the right point and really deserve They manifest to us.
At all times I know They help and try to aid us as far as we will let
Them.

Why, the Masters are anxious (to use a word of our own) that as many
as possible may reach to the state of power and love They are in. Why,
then, suppose they help not? As they are Atman and therefore the very
law of Karma itself, They are in everything in life, and every phase of
our changing days and years. If you will arouse your faith on this line
you come nearer to help from Them than you will recognise.

I send you my love and hope, and best thoughts that you may all find
the great light shining around you every day. It is there.

Your brother,
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.

II.

Once more in the absence of —- I send you a word of brotherly
greeting. I would ask you to read it impersonally in every part, as I
have no reserved thoughts and no ulterior aim in it, and have not had
any letters or news from anyone to lead me to write. We are so far away
from each other that now and then such a greeting is well, and should
be taken in the spirit it is sent. It is not possible to send to any
other household as none other exists in the Society, you being unique
in this, that you are the only one. Here we have no such thing, all
nearly living at other places, and this being merely a centre for work.

Many times have co-operative households been tried and failed. One was
tried here and is famous. It was called the Brook Farm, but it had
no such high aim and philosophy behind it as you have, and thus the
personal frictions developed at any place of close intimacy broke it
up. That should be a guide to you to enable you to watch and avoid.
Yours may alter in number and in _personnel_, but can never really
be broken up if the aim is high and the self-judgment is strict and
not self-righteous. I am not accusing you of this, but only stating
a common human danger, from which the Theosophist is not at any time
exempt. Indeed, he is in danger in your centre from the fact that
strong force revolves around it. Hence all must be ever careful, for
the personal element is one that ever has a tendency to delude us as it
hides behind various walls and clothes itself in the faults, real or
imaginary, of _others_.

Your centre being the only one as yet of such size, it is useful to
think how you may best all act as to make it truly international. Each
one has a right to his or her particular “crank,” of course, but no one
ought to think that anyone else is to be judged from not being of the
same stripe of “crank.” One eats meat, another does not. Neither is
universally right, for the kingdom of heaven does not come from meat,
or from its absence. Another smokes and another does not; these are
neither universally right nor wrong, as smoke for one is good and for
another is bad; the true cosmopolitan allows each to do in such matters
as he likes. Essentials are the only things on which true occultism
and Theosophy require an agreement, and such temporary matters as food
and other habitual daily things are not essentials. One may make
a mistake, too, of parading too much his or her particular line of
life or act. When this is done the whole world is bored, and nothing
effective or lasting is gained except a cranky impression.

In a place like yours, where so many of all sorts of nature are
together, there is a unique opportunity for gain and good in the
chance it gives one for self-discipline. There friction of personality
is inevitable, and if each one learns the great “give and take,” and
looks not for the faults of the others but for the faults he sees in
himself, because of the friction, then great progress can be made. The
Masters have said that the great step is to learn how to get out of
the rut each one has by nature and by training, and to fill up the old
grooves. This has been misconstrued by some who have applied it to mere
outer habits of life, and forgotten that its real application is to the
mental grooves and the astral ones also. Each mind has a groove, and
is not naturally willing to run in the natural groove of another mind.
Hence comes often friction and wrangle. Illustrate it by the flanged
wheel of the steam-engine running on a track. It cannot run off nor
on a track of broader or narrower gauge, and so is confined to one.
Take off the flange and make the face of the wheel broader, and then
it can run on any road that is at all possible. General human nature
is like the engine, it is flanged and run for a certain size of track,
but the occultist or the would-be one should take off the flange and
have a broad-faced wheel that will accommodate itself to the other
mind and nature. Thus in one life even we might have the benefit of
many, for the lives of other men are lived beside us unnoticed and
unused because we are too broad and flanged in wheel, or too narrow and
flanged also. This is not easy, it is true, to change, but there is no
better opportunity than is hourly presented to you in the whole world,
to make the alteration. I would gladly have such a chance, which Karma
has denied me, and I see the loss I incur each day by not having it
there or here. You have it, and from there should go out to all the
earth soon or late, men and women who are broad and free and strong for
the work of helping the world. My reminding you of all this is not a
criticism, but is due to my own want of such an opportunity, and being
at a distance I can get a clearer view of the case, and what you have
for your own benefit and also for all others.

It is natural for one to ask: “What of the future, and what of the
defined object, if any, for our work?” That can be answered in many ways.

There is, first, our own work, in and on ourselves, each one. That has
for its object the enlightenment of oneself for the good of others.
If that is pursued selfishly some enlightenment comes, but not the
amount needed for the whole work. We have to watch ourselves so as to
make of each a centre from which, in our measure, may flow out the
potentialities for good that from the adept come in large and affluent
streams. The future then, for each, will come from each present moment.
As we use the moment so we shift the future up or down for good or ill;
for the future being only a word for the present–not yet come–we have
to see to the present more than all. If the present is full of doubt or
vacillation, so will be the future; if full of confidence, calmness,
hope, courage and intelligence, thus also will be the future.

As to the broader scope of the work, that comes from united effort of
the whole mass of units. It embraces the race, and as we cannot escape
from the destiny of the race we have to dismiss doubt and continue at
work. The race is, as a whole, in a transition state, and many of its
units are kept back by the condition of the whole. We find the path
difficult because, being of the race, the general race tendencies very
strongly affect us. This we cannot do away with in a moment. It is
useless to groan over it; it is also selfish, since we, in the distant
past, had a hand in making it what it now is. The only way we can alter
it is by such action now as makes of each one a centre for good, a
force that makes “for righteousness,” and that is guided by wisdom.
From the great power of the general badness we each one have a greater
fight to wage the moment we force our inner nature up beyond the dead
level of the world. So before we attempt that forcing we should, on the
lower plane, accumulate all that we can of merit by unselfish acts,
by kind thoughts, by detaching our minds from the allurements of the
world. This will not throw us out of the world, but will make us free
from the great force which is called by Bœhme the “Turba,” by which he
meant the immense power of the unconscious and material basis of our
nature. That material base being devoid of soul is more inclined on
this plane to the lower things of life than to the higher.

Hence, until we have in some degree conquered that, it is useless for
us to be wishing, as so many of us do, to see the Masters and to be
with Them. They could not help us unless we furnish the conditions, and
a mere desire is not the needed condition. The new condition calls for
a change in thought and nature.

So the Masters have said this is a transition age, and he who has ears
to hear will hear what has thus been said. We are working for the new
cycles and centuries. What we do now in this transition age will be
like what the great Dhyan Chohans did in the transition point–the
midway point–in evolution at the time when all matter and all types
were in a transition and fluid state. They then gave the new impulse
for the new types, which resulted later in the vast varieties of
nature. In the mental development we are now at the same point and what
we now do in faith and hope for others and for ourselves will result
similarly on the plane to which it is all directed. Thus in other
centuries we will come out again and go on with it. If we neglect it
now, so much the worse for us then. Hence we are not working for some
definite organisation of the new years to come, but for a change in the
Manas and Buddhi of the Race. That is why it may seem indefinite, but
it is, nevertheless, very defined and very great in scope. Let me refer
you to that part of _The Secret Doctrine_, penned by Master Himself,
where the midway point of evolution is explained in reference to the
ungulate mammals. It should give you a glimpse of what we have to do,
and remove all vain longings for a present sojourn with our unseen
guides and brothers. The world is not free from superstition, and
we, a part of it, must have some traces left of the same thing. They
have said that a great shadow follows all innovations in the life of
humanity; the wise one will not bring on that shadow too soon and not
until some light is ready to fall at the same time for breaking up the
darkness.

Masters could give now all the light and knowledge needed, but there
is too much darkness that would swallow up all the light, except for a
few bright souls, and then a greater darkness would come on. Many of us
could not grasp nor understand all that might be given, and to us would
result a danger and new difficulty for other lives, to be worked out in
pain and sorrow. It is from kindness and love that Masters do not blind
us with the electric flash of truth complete.

But concretely there is a certain object for our general work. It is
to start up a new force, a new current in the world, whereby great and
long-gone Gnanis, or wise ones, will be attracted back to incarnate
among men here and there, and thus bring back the true life and the
true practices. Just now a pall of darkness is over all that no Gnani
will be attracted by. Here and there a few beams strike through this.
Even in India it is dark, for there, where the truth is hid, the thick
veil of theological dogma hides all; and though there is a great hope
in it the Masters cannot pierce through to minds below. We have to
educate the West so that it may appreciate the possibilities of the
East, and thus on the waiting structure in the East may be built up a
new order of things for the benefit of the whole. We have, each one of
us, to make ourselves a centre of light; a picture gallery from which
shall be projected on the astral light such scenes, such influences,
such thoughts, as may influence many for good, shall thus arouse a new
current, and then finally result in drawing back the great and the good
from other spheres from beyond the earth. This is not spiritualism at
all, for it has no reference to the denizens of spook-land in any way.

Let us then have great faith and confidence. See how many have gone
out from time to time from your centre to many and distant parts of
the world, and how many will continue to go for the good and the gain
of man of all places. They have gone to all parts, and it must be that
even if the centre should be disrupted from causes outside of you, its
power and reality will not be destroyed at all, but will ever remain,
even after all of it may have gone as far as bricks and mortar are
concerned.

I give you my best wishes and brotherly greeting for the new year and
for every year that is to come.

Affectionately yours,
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.

III.

I send you this, and you will keep it, using it later on when I give
the word. It is to be headed by me later.

The Theosophical movement was begun as a work of the Brotherhood of
which H. P. B. is a member, and in which the great Initiate, who was by
her called Master, is one of the Chiefs.

It was started among Western people by Western people, the two chief
agents being H. P. B., a Russian, and H. S. Olcott, an American. The
place where it was started was also Western–the City of New York.

But notwithstanding that the Brotherhood thus had it begun, it must, as
a Society, be kept with a free platform, while, at the same time, its
members are individually free to take and hold what belief they find
approved by conscience, provided that belief does not militate against
Universal Brotherhood. Hence they are at perfect liberty to believe in
the Lodge of that Brotherhood and in its messengers, and also to accept
their doctrines as to man, his nature, powers and destiny as given out
by the messengers on behalf of the Lodge.

The fact is significant that the Theosophical movement was thus, as
said, begun in the Western world, in the country where the preparations
for the new root race are going on, and where that new root is to
appear. This was not to give precedence to any one race or country over
another, or to reduce any race or country, but was and is according to
the law of cycles, which is a part of evolution. In the eye of that
great Law no country is first or last, new or old, high or low, but
each at the right time is appropriate for whatever the work is that
must be performed. Each country is bound up with all the others and
must assist them.

This movement has, among others, an object which should be borne in
mind. It is the union of the West with the East, the revival in the
East of those greatnesses which once were hers, the development in the
West of that Occultism which is appropriate for it, so that it may, in
its turn, hold out a helping hand to those of older blood who may have
become fixed in one idea, or degraded in spirituality.

For many centuries this union has been worked towards and workers have
been sent out through the West to lay the foundations. But not until
1875 could a wide public effort be made, and then the Theosophical
Society came into existence because the times were ripe and the workers
ready.

Organisations, like men, may fall into ruts or grooves of mental and
psychic action, which, once established, are difficult to obliterate.
To prevent those ruts or grooves in the Theosophical movement, its
guardians provided that necessary shocks should now and then interpose
so as to conduce to solidarity, to give strength such as the oak
obtains from buffetting the storm, and in order that all grooves of
mind, act, or thought, might be filled up.

It is not the desire of the Brotherhood that those members of the
Theosophical movement who have, under their rights, taken up a belief
in the messengers and the message should become pilgrims to India. To
arouse that thought was not the work nor the wish of H. P. B. Nor is
it the desire of the Lodge to have members think that Eastern methods
are to be followed, Eastern habits adopted, or the present East made
the model or the goal. The West has its own work and its duty, its own
life and development. Those it should perform, aspire to and follow,
and not try to run to other fields where the duties of other men are
to be performed. If the task of raising the spirituality of India, now
degraded and almost suffocated, were easy, and if thus easily raised
could it shine into and enlighten the whole world of the West, then,
indeed, were the time wasted in beginning in the West, when a shorter
and quicker way existed in the older land. But in fact it is more
difficult to make an entry into the hearts and minds of people who,
through much lapse of time in fixed metaphysical dogmatism, have built,
in the psychic and psycho-mental planes, a hard impervious shell around
themselves, than it is to make that entry with Westerners who, although
they may be meat eaters, yet have no fixed opinions deep laid in a
foundation of mysticism and buttressed with a pride inherited from the
past.

The new era of Western Occultism definitely began in 1875 with the
efforts of that noble woman who abandoned the body of that day not long
ago. This does not mean that the Western Occultism is to be something
wholly different from and opposed to what so many know, or think they
know, as Eastern Occultism. It is to be the Western side of the one
great whole of which the true Eastern is the other half. It has, as its
mission, largely entrusted to the hands of the Theosophical Society, to
furnish to the West that which it can never get from the East; to push
forward and raise high on the circular path of evolution now rolling
West, the light that lighteth every man who cometh into the world–the
light of the true self, who is the one true Master for every human
being; all other Masters are but servants of that true One; in it all
real Lodges have their union.

Woe is set apart–not by Masters but by Nature’s laws–for those who,
having started in the path with the aid of H. P. B. shall in any way
try to belittle her and her work, still, as yet not understood and
by many misunderstood. This does not mean that a mere person is to
be slavishly followed. But to explain her away, to belittle her, to
imagine vain explanations with which to do away with what is not liked
in that which she said, is to violate the ideal, is to spit back in
the face of the teacher through whom the knowledge and the opportunity
came, to befoul the river which brought you sweet waters. She was and
is one of those servants of the universal Lodge sent to the West to
take up the work, well knowing of the pain and obloquy and the insult
to the very soul–worst of all insults–which were certain from the
first to be hers. “Those who cannot understand her had best not try to
explain her: those who do not find themselves strong enough for the
task she plainly outlined from the beginning had best not attempt it.”
She knew, and you have been told before, that high and wise servants
of the Lodge have remained with the West since many centuries for the
purpose of helping it on to its mission and destiny. That work it
would be well for the members of the Theosophical movement to continue
without deviating, without excitement, without running to extremes,
without imagining that Truth is a matter of either longitude or
latitude: the truth of the soul’s life is in no special quarter of the
compass, it is everywhere round the whole circle, and those who look in
one quarter will not find it.

(This letter is marked in red pencil, by the hand of Mr. Judge,
“unfinished.” In fact, it ends with the word “will,” as above, but in
publishing earlier some extracts from this letter, the owner had the
permission of the writer to supply the last three words, which he had
intended to place there when called away, and in his haste for the
post, in returning, had omitted to add.)

IV.

TO THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY:

It is with great regret that I learn from recent London advices that
the Managers of the Society there think that the Tract, “Epitome of
Theosophy,” which appeared in _The Path_, is “too advanced to be
reprinted now, and that what is needed is ‘a stepping-stone from
fiction to philosophy.'”

Permit me to say that I cannot agree with this opinion, nor with the
policy which is outlined by it. The opinion is erroneous, and the
policy is weak as well as being out of accord with that of the Masters.
Those Masters have approved the project of the new Society and are
watching the unfolding of its policy.

If I had made up that Epitome wholly myself I might have some
hesitation in speaking in this way, but I did not. The general idea of
such a series of tracts was given to me some two years ago, and this
one was prepared by several students who know what the people need.
It is at once comprehensive and fundamental. It covers most of the
ground, and if any sincere reader grasps it he will have food for his
reflection of the sort needed.

If, however, we are to proceed by a mollified passage from folly (which
is fiction) to philosophy, then we at once diverge from the path
marked out for us by the Masters; and for this statement I can refer
to letters from Them in my hands. I need only draw your attention to
the fact that when those Masters began to cause Their servants to give
out matter in India, They did not begin with fiction, but with stern
facts such as are to be found in the _Fragments of Occult Truth_, which
afterwards became Mr. Sinnett’s _Esoteric Buddhism_. We are not seeking
to cater to a lot of fiction readers and curiosity hunters, but to the
pressing needs of earnest minds. Fiction readers never influenced a
nation’s progress. And these earnest minds do not desire, and ought not
to be treated to a gruel which the sentence just quoted would seem to
indicate as their fate.

Then again, I beg to remind my English brothers in this enterprise that
they should remember that the United States contain more theosophists
and possible subscribers and readers than the whole of Europe. They
do not want fiction. They want no padding in their search for truth.
They are perfectly able to grasp that which you call “too advanced.”
The Master some years ago said that the U. S. needed the help of the
English body of theosophists. That they did not get, and now do not
require it so much, and their ideas and needs must be considered by us.
We have twenty-one Branches to your three in Great Britain, and each
month, nearly, sees a new Branch. Several have written me that they
understand the T.P.S. is to give them _good_ and _valuable_ reprints
and not weak matters of fiction.

I therefore respectfully urge upon you that the weak and erroneous
policy to which I have referred shall not be followed, but that strong
lines of action be taken, and that we leave fiction to the writers who
profit by it or who think that thus people’s minds can be turned to the
Truth. If a contrary line be adopted then we will not only disappoint
the Master (if that be possible) but we will in a very large sense be
guilty of making false representations to a growing body of subscribers
here as well as elsewhere.

I am, Fraternally Yours,
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.

V.

It is a relief to turn from these eternal legal quibbles (of my
business) to say a word or two on eternal matters.

Now and then there are underlined sentences occurring in _The Path_.
These ought to be studied. One about one yogee not doing anything not
seen in another yogee’s mind will open up a subject. Reticence does not
always mean ignorance: if we dig out the knowledge we drag down at the
same time rocks and debris of other sorts, whereas, if a miner hands us
the nugget, that is all we get at the time. So a slight reticence often
results in our going at the digging ourselves.

In September _Path_ is another. Getting back the memory of other lives
is really the whole of the process, and if some people don’t understand
certain things it is either because they have not got to that point in
their other lives or because no glimmer of memory has yet come.

The communion of saints is a reality, and it often happens that those
brought up in the same school speak the same language. While not
being one, such are very like co-scholars no matter when or where.
Furthermore, there are some peculiar natures in this world who, while
they are like mirrors or sponges that reflect and absorb from others
certain information, still retain a very strong individuality of their
own. So it is with this gentleman whose letter you enclose. There is
scarcely any doubt that he, if he tells true tales, sees in the astral
light. The description of things “moving about like fishes in the sea”
is a real description of one of the manners in which many of these
elemental forms are seen. So it may, as premised above, be settled that
he sees in the astral light.

He should know that that astral light exists in all places and
interpenetrates everything, and is not simply in the free air alone.
Further should he know that to be able to see as he sees in the light
is not _all_ of the seeing thus. That is, there are many sorts of
such sight, _e.g._, he may see now certain airy shapes and yet not
see many others which at the same time are as really present there
as those he now sees. So it would seem that there are “layers” or
differences of states in the astral light. Another way to state it is
that elementals are constantly moving in the astral light–that is,
everywhere. They, so to say, show pictures to him who looks, and the
pictures they show will depend in great part upon the seer’s thoughts,
motives and development. These differences are very numerous. It
therefore follows that in this study _pride_ must be eliminated. That
pride has disappeared from ordinary life does not prove that it has
done any more than retreat a little further within. So one must be
careful of becoming even inwardly vain of being able to see any such
things; for if that happens it will follow that the one limited plane
in which one may be a seer will be accepted as the whole. That, then,
will be falsity. But if recognized as delusive because partial, then
it remains true–so far as it goes. All true things must be total,
and all totalities exist at once, each in all, while these partial
forms exist partially in those that are total. So it follows that only
those that are total reveal entire truth, and those that partake of
lower nature–or are partial–receive but a limited view of truth. The
elementals are partial forms, while the man’s individual soul is total,
and according to the power and purity of that form which it inhabits
“waits upon the Gods.”

Now our bodies, and all “false I” powers up to the individual soul, are
“partial forms” in common with the energic centres in astral light. So
that it must follow that no matter how much we and they participate
in each other the resulting view of the one Truth is partial in its
nature because the two partial forms mingling together do not produce
totality. But it intoxicates. And herein lies the danger of the
teaching of such men as P. B. Randolph, who advocates participation
with these partial beings by means of sensual excesses glorified with a
name and gilded with the pretence of a high purpose–_viz._, knowledge:
KNOWLEDGE MUST BE CAREFULLY OBTAINED WITH A PURE MOTIVE.

This motive is the point for this gentleman to study. He says that he
“will know,” and that he “desires to escape from present limitations of
this personality, which is all loneliness.”

As he did go forward on the path of knowledge, he would find that this
imaginary loneliness of which he speaks is by comparison with the utter
loneliness of that path, a howling mob, a tramping regiment.

As he is fighting alone his own fight let him carefully note his
motive in seeking to know more, and in seeking to escape from his
present “loneliness.” Must it not be true that loneliness cannot be
escaped from by abhorrence of it or even by its acceptance, but by its
recognition? What next? Well, this; and perhaps it is too simple. He
ought to assure himself that his motive in knowing and being is that he
may help all creatures. I do not say that this is not now his motive,
but for fear it should not be I refer to it. For as he appears to be on
the borderland of fearful sights and sounds he ought to know the magic
amulet which alone can protect him while he is ignorant. It is that
boundless charity of love which led Buddha to say: “Let the sins of
this dark age fall on me that the world may be saved,” and not a desire
for escape or for knowledge. It is expressed in the words: “THE FIRST
STEP IN TRUE MAGIC IS DEVOTION TO THE INTERESTS OF OTHERS.” It was
expressed by Krishna when he said: “Near to Renunciation is salvation”
(or the state of a Jivanmukta).

But he naturally will ask if he should cultivate his powers. Well,
of course he should at some time or other; but he ought to begin at
motives and purification of thought. He may, if he chooses, abandon
the ideas of this large-hearted charity and yet make great progress in
“powers,” but surely then death and ashes will be the result. That does
not concern me.

Why did he have a “horror” when he merely succeeded in going away from
his body; in being for a moment free? That is an important question.
Its solution may be found in many ways. I will mention one. If the
place, or person he wished to go to was one to which he then ought
not to have gone–or if his motive in desiring to go there was not
pure–then a horror might result that drove him back. But if even with
a bad motive he had attempted to go to a place where a similar motive
existed, then no horror would have come. If he will tell himself, or
me, just where he was wanting to go, I may say why he had a horror. But
I do not want to know.

For it is not necessarily a horror-producing thing to leave the body.
Only lately I know of a friend of mine who went out of his body a
distance of 10,000 miles and had no horror. In that case he desired to
see a friend on a common purpose which had in view the amelioration
of this dark age; and again, who left his body in the country and saw
the surrounding sweeps of wood and vale and had no horror whatever in
either case.

If one is sure of motive, and that is pure, then going out of the body
is not detrimental.

An illustration will show the dangers. Take the case of one who is able
to leave the body and who determines to go to one who is sympathetic.
The second one, however, is protected by high motive and great purity:
the first is mixed in motive in waking life, which, as soon as the
other disengaged state comes on, changes into a mere curiosity to
see the second, and perhaps with more or less sensuality, _e.g._, a
desire to see a woman much admired and to pour into her unwilling ear
pretended or real human love. The elementals (and so on) of the second
protect that soul and hurl vague horrors at the first who, if he is not
a skilled black magician is:

1. Either merely pushed back into the body: Or

2. Is assailed with fears that prevent him finding his body, and that
may be occupied by an elementary, good, bad or indifferent–and his
friends may say that he waked up insane!

Well; enough!

VI.

The letters proposed by your friend are a device of the enemy, as you
may have supposed, and which you were warned to expect in unexpected
quarters and ways. Therefore they should not be written. It is the
small rift in the lute that destroys it; in human history small and
unexpected events alter the destiny of nations.

On this plane the dark powers rely upon their ability to create a
maya. They have seen that you are not to be trapped in the prominent
lines of work and so try their hands where your currents exist in a
prominent place but with a very small matter. Let me point out.

If you issue these letters they would be an endorsement of all that
your friend might think to do, and neither you nor Y. are free from
mistakes yet. They would amount to a declaration, to the perception of
others, that you were guiding Y. in everything and were at all times
conscious of it. Do you or Y. know where this would end? Do you see
the possibilities flowing from the acceptance in full of those letters
by the others? And what would their action be? Are they free from the
curse of superstition; are they clear in the co-ordination of psychic
with brain thought? No. The result would not only be different from
what you and Y. can see, but worse. Now further.

It is true–and humanly natural–that the others (like you and _your_
friends) indulged in some slight critiques on your friend, but they
were small and coupled with sincere and kind thoughts up to their
lights, no matter how large and bitter all this was made by maya to
appear. The dark powers seized on them, enlarged them, dressed them
up, assumed the images of the thinkers, enlivened the thoughts with
elementals, all with an object, _viz._, to make your friend think it
all came from the others. Why, if that were so then those others (poor
weak mortals) are friends. But are they? No. It was wished by the dark
ones to irritate your friend, and you, so as, by the irritation, to
split a breach forever unhealable. In Y.’s very weak state they found
it easy, and hoped by distance to make you blind.

Tell your friend to remember what was long ago said; that the Master
would manage results. You must not manage, precipitate, nor force.
Beware. Let Y. assume that the others do not think harshly nor
critically, but put it all against the dark powers, and the results
will be managed by Master. As chelâs and students conceal rather than
give out your inner psychic life, for by telling of it your proper
progress is hindered. There must be silence in heaven for a time or
the dark ones rejoice to so easily get good, malleable images for
annoying you. It will be tried again either that way or some other. By
gentleness, detachment, strict attention to duty, and retiring now and
then to the quiet place bring up good currents and keep back all evil
ones. Remember it is the little things the work is done through, for they
are not noticed, while the larger ones draw the eyes and minds of all.

I think of you always as the brave soldier, made not of mud and soft
things, but made of long pieces of steel and strips of diamond and
flashes of long light that has no harshness, and a big, big spring
all the way through. That is you. And your eyes laugh now and then,
even if you do have a pain in your head. Inside you are all right, as
you know very well, don’t you? Then if you are that soldier, it means
that he will spring back as soon as the body has had time to get some
better. The body is like the heart; it has to have time to get to some
other condition. But you will get there. A steady mind and heart stands
still and quiet until the muddy stream rolls clear. Now sleep, I say;
I command you to sleep. I have tried to help you to sleep, and I wish
you to sleep, for sleep will do you good as nothing else can. I hope to
see you drop all when —- comes, and go to sleep for awhile, and far
enough from the row to be quiet. It is sleep your tired nature on the
outside wants, for sleep knits up the ravelled thread of life and makes
us young again. You have been so awake, that the power of equilibrium
between life and the body is disturbed and needs a chance. This is
fact. One can get wrought up, and then Prana is too strong; so little
children sleep much. _Be a child once._

Well, I’m near home, or rather the centre spot, for pilgrims like you
and I have no real house and don’t want it; it’s too dull and usual for
such to want a home. And perhaps the little brother is good and well?
He shall be ever present, as he always has been, in those little songs
and tales told to oneself in the dark, and is, too, the lone warrior
seen on the plain of stupid infantry, and he rides a horse whose blood
is electricity. Au revoir. Tell —- I can stand alone; it is the best
way to stand, and what I always was and shall be. Let the ripples and
the foam go on coming and going; the old river and the bed of the river
do not move for all that is on the top. Is it not so? Well, good-bye,
and good luck, and may the devas help you and also karma. Love to all,
as usual.

As forevermore,

VII.

I was very glad indeed to get your letter, but sorry to read of your
troubles. Strangely, too, a similar trouble with a very dear friend of
mine is now uppermost in my mind, and I would like to crave the favour
from you that you would tell me what kind of place the asylum is you
speak of. The only accessible one here is a mere prison, where men do
nothing, and where I do not think the influence would be other than
depressing. Do you think at the one you have in mind a man of active
mind, who merely wishes to get rid of his present trouble, would be
able to occupy himself?

I am indeed sorry that you have to tell me such matters, but they
will rest in my confidence; and I thank you and —- for your renewed
invitation.

It is best not to inquire into some of the mysteries of life, but
surely a full reliance upon the Spirit within and upon the law that
the hands that smite us are our own, will relieve the pressure of
some events that seem mysteries. I find the greatest consolation in
these reflections, and then I see that each moment is mine, and that
when gone it is passed and merged into the sum of my being: and so I
must strive to Be. Thus I may hope to become in time the conscious
possessor of the whole of Being. So I do not strive after mystery. The
great struggle must be to open up my outer self, that my higher being
may shine through, for I know that in my heart the God sits patient,
and that his pure rays are merely veiled from me by the many strivings
and illusions that I bring on outwardly. This being so, I can only look
at the Society and its work (under my lights) as the best available
channel for my actions in the effort to help others. Its methods, then,
as far as I am concerned, will be only mine, and thus I cannot attach
to it the methods of any other person.

Believe me sincerely yours.

VIII.

As for me, all that is the matter is my health, not yet full and good.
If that were all right, I would have nothing. What do I care for all
the row? It will soon be over; some will be dead; the sooner the
better, and then we shall have other fun. I look at it all as so much
fun and variety, sure; I am not joking. It is variety, and without
that what would life be? As all these asses bray we learn new notes of
the scale not known before. A heap of letters I got; but I am O.K.,
fragile, perhaps, but not brittle. I would like to be with you both and
have some sweet fun without tears or spite, but we have to be apart,
to meet now and then. Poor —-! Don’t be hard on him. He had to be
silent, you know. A small matter, but more important than he knew for
him. Let up on him, and don’t jeer. He has a hard time enough with
himself, to have any added by massage from others.

C—-‘s illusion to “suffering” opens up a vein of thought which I have
had. I have examined myself for the “uses” of this rumpus, to see if I
am properly “suffering.” Well, I can’t find it. Down in the deeps I may
be; but I find myself cheerful, happy, and anything but morose or sad.
Ergo: can I be suffering? Do you know? Positively, I do not know. Ought
I? Am I a wretch because I do not suffer, or because, being in actual
suffering, I am insensate and do not perceive it? But, on the other
hand, I feel no anger and no resentment. Really, it puzzleth me. Many
nights I do not sleep, and have used the hours (as I now do), when all
is still, in looking over all, and yet I feel all right–everywhere.
Of course, I have committed my human faults and sins, but I mean, on
the Grand Round-Up, I find nothing to “suffer me”; nothing that I shall
rush out to amend by taking the ridiculous and nasty world to my bosom
in confidence upon.

As for myself. Well. What? Nothing. I know not and care not. I am
joyful and glorious that the work thus goes. My desires are not here,
and all the racket sounds to me far off, as if miles from my ear. I am
acting as a pump-engine, and trying to force a lot on. This is not for
myself. I must find myself alone, as we all are, and then the Law will
say: “Next!” But what next I do not care and don’t want to know, for
when “Next” is said I will see what it is to do. Just now the best and
biggest work by us poor children is on this plane with the great aid
of Master, Whose simple single will keeps the whole organisation, and
acts as its support and shield. We are not big enough yet to handle the
Akasa, but we may help Them to, and that is all I want to do. I have
used the present affairs to be as a lesson to me, for it may be used
as a test to me as to pride and ambition; and I find that, no matter
how I turn it, the same result comes. I am seeking other things while
working in this. Try as I may to raise an ambition for power, and to
raise a desire to change a supposed case (non-existent in fact), I
can’t do it. So you see, my dear Comrade, I am all right.

These questions you ask me:

When the Self is first seen it is like looking into a glove; and for
how many incarnations may it not be so? The material envelope throws up
before the eye of the Soul waving fumes and clouds of illusion.

The brain is only the focus through which the forces and thoughts are
centralised that are continually coming in through the solar plexus of
the heart. Many such thoughts, therefore, are lost, just as millions of
seeds in nature are lost. It behoves to study them and to guard them
when there; but can we call them our own? Or weep over them? Let us
be as wide as great Nature concerning them, and let each go on to its
own place without colouring them with our own colour and acceptance or
adhesion.

The spiral movement is the double movement of the astral light, one
spiral inside the other. The diastole and systole of the heart are
caused by that double movement of the Akasa. But do not presumptuously
grasp the movement too soon, for often even the heart moving too
rapidly destroys the life.

The brutes unconsciously are aware of the general human opposition,
which in each human being they see focalised.

It is easier to sink back into the Eternal than to dive. The diver
must needs have the power to retain breath against the rush caused by
diving, while to sink gives time to get and keep the breath.

Nothing else greatly new. Am waiting to hear of your completer health.
Sustained on the wave you will come in with the tide in time. Best love
to —- and to —- and to thee. May you all be well sustained. I
think I have now given you all there is. Salute most noble, brave, and
diamond-hearted! May we meet after the dust settles, and we will meet
forever in the long, long manvantaras before us all. Peace! Peace! the
path of peace and not of war: such are the words.

As forevermore.

IX.

I do not know what to write, for I’ve been so occupied with people.
I am anxious about my lectures; still unprepared. I cannot naturally
reply to many of your points, because I have a retiring feeling, and
so shall not reply. Indeed, I often think how nice it would be not to
speak or write. I am no hand at those nice phrases that people like. Of
course, that does not alter my real feelings, but chickens are chickens
and often think nonsense. I want to forget and forgive all those
children and childish acts. Let us do it, and try as much as possible
to be real brothers, and thus get nearer the truth. And by work we will
defeat the enemy of Master: by still silently working.

I hope still you will emerge sooner or later all the better and the
stronger. I know you will and I do not see you dead by any means. You
are less hopeful for yourself than for others. But you have the will
and the fire to fight on to the last bone and the last moment. I only
wish I could see you all to hearten you up a little more: that is, to
talk with you, for you do not need much of the grit….

I often hear from Him now. That terrible racket cleared me up. He says
that much haste must be avoided. And that I must not let the flood
carry me off. He asks me to say to you that you have a natural rapidity
that must be guided by yourself and the best way is to wait after a
letter and to sleep on a plan. He also says that … (I am not aware of
this, but He must be right), that you have a subtle desire to be the
first to make or propose a good plan or act. Do not let this carry
you off, but be slower as to that. It is good advice, I think, for the
additional reason that one can now and then take a plan from the head
of another.

I see the clans have been gathering. Keep it up and see to it as far as
possible that partisanship is at a low ebb and that only good, steady
loyalty and work are the main motive. _And cast no one out of your
heart._

I must ask for a calmer motion at this time. It is absolutely necessary.

A word of love to —-? I sent it. I sent many. I not only sent it
visible but also the other way. What could I say? I do not know. In
what I sent my whole heart was put. Does not —- forever stand for
me and with me? How can I use words when the fibres of my heart are
involved? And what good is my philosophy if, when the actual taking of
—- off seemed so near, I indulged in mere words? I cannot do it. If
I try, then the words are mere rubbish, lies and unreal, as I am not
able to do this, no matter how much others can. Our real life is not in
words of love or hate or coldness but in the fiery depths of the heart.
And in those depths —- is and was. Could I say more? No; impossible.
And even that is small and badly said.

It is true that day by day the effect of my philosophy is more apparent
on me, as yours is and will be on you, and so with us all. I see it
myself, let alone all I hear of it from others. What a world and what
a life! Yet we are born alone and must die alone, except that in the
Eternal Space all are one, and the One Reality never dies.

If ambition creeps up slowly higher and higher it will destroy all
things, for the foundations will be weak. In the end, the Master will
win, so let us breathe deep and hold fast there, as we are. And let us
hurry nothing. Eternity is here all the time. I cannot tell you how my
heart turns to you all. You know this, but a single word will do it.
_Trust!_ That was what H. P. B. said. Did she not know? Who is greater
than our old and valiant “old Lady”? Ah, were she here, what a carnage!
Wonder, anyhow, how she, or he, or it, looks at the matter? Smiling, I
suppose, at all our struggles.

Again, in storm and shine, in heat and cold, near or afar, among
friends or foes, the same in One Work.

X.

MY DEAR COMPANION (CAMPANERO),

Your long letter and message received. All I can say is that it is
gigantically splendid, marvelously accurate. And let me then return
to you this message … that this must prove to you that you are not
standing still…. It’s all well enough to be out in the rapids as you
say I am, but what of it when I don’t hear such a message as yours
myself? Thank you. It is a bugle blast from the past. Perhaps in some
other age I taught you that and now you give it to me again. When I
said in mine that in Kali Yuga more could be done than in any other
age in the same period, I stated all you say but I didn’t know it. Now
your clear light falls upon it and I see it well. But fear not. You
got so familiar to me that I permitted myself to let out some of the
things that I now and then feel. But I swear to you that I do not let
them always so rush before me. Truly you have proved that your place is
“where the long roll finds you standing.”

Now don’t you begin to see more and more things? Don’t you feel things
that you know without anyone to tell you?

My friend Urban has shown me a letter from —- in which the latter,
feeling dark in consequence of various causes, sees no light. This is
merely the slough of despond, I tell him. We know the light is ahead,
and the experience of others shows that the darkest hour is just before
the dawn. I tell him also that strong souls are thus tried inevitably
because they rush ahead along the road to the light. In the _Finnish
Epic_ it is said that guarding a certain place are hideous serpents and
glittering spears. And so it really is.

But although such is the truth, I have also to tell him that he ought,
as far as possible, to try to ameliorate the circumstances. I will make
my meaning clear. He is living now, as you know, among people of an
opposite faith. Around them are elementals who would, if they could,
implant suspicion and distrust about those whom he reveres, or, if they
fail there, will try to cause physical ills or aggravate present ones.
In his case these have succeeded in part in causing darkness…. Now
—-, while not just in that case, is surrounded, while not strong, by
those who inwardly deplore his beliefs … and hence the elementals
are there and they quarrel with those of —- and bring on despair,
reduce strength, and so on. I tell —- those circumstances ought to be
ameliorated every now and then: for I know he would at once, if changed
to a better place, get better. And so I have written to him to make a
change as soon as he can.

It is highly important that no replies should be made to attacks. Get
the people to devote themselves to work and to ignoring attacks. The
opposing forces strain every nerve to irritate some or all of us so
that we may reply in irritation and precipitate more follies. Consider
solely how to improve old work, get up new work and infuse energy into
work. Otherwise the beneficent influences intended for all F.T.S. will
be nullified.

Cheer up —-, and from your standpoint tell him how to know the
distinction between the intellect and spiritual mind. Tell him how to
find out his spirit-will and to ignore a little the mental attitude
he takes. Do not point to particular instances of his own failure but
detail your own inner experience. It will do him good.

Upanishads. “Subsisting” here means, not that the self _exists_ by
reason of food, but that as a manifestation, as one causing the body to
be visible and to act, the self subsists in that state by means of the
food which is used. It is really a reversed translation, and ought to
read–as I think–“The self exists in close proximity to the heart and
causes the body to exist by reason of the food which it takes in for
its subsistence.” That is, continual reference is had to the doctrine
that if the self were not there the body would not exist. Yes: it also
means that the self procures vital airs from the food which the one
life causes to be digested. For note that which you know, that did
we not take food the material unit of the trinity would die and the
self be disappointed, and then would get another body to try in again.
For is it not permitted to each one to try and set up a habit in that
material unit whereby we may as incarnated beings know the self? Then
when that is done we do not live as others; but all the same, even
then, the self must subsist, so to say, while in manifestation, by
means of food, no matter if that food be of a different character,
corresponding to the new state. Even the Devas subsist by food.
You know “they enter into that colour, or sound, or savour, at the
sacrifice, they rise in that colour, etc., and by it they live.” Watch
words, —- dear; they are traps. Catch ideas and I will understand you
by the context that you are not confined to the ordinary meanings.

I am swamped in work, but my courage is up, and I feel the help sent
from the right place.

Let us go on from place to place and from year to year; no matter who
or what claims us outwardly, we are each the property of the self.

As forevermore and after.