READING in the Sacred Books of the East, I came upon these lines :—
“He lets
his mind pervade one quarter of the world with thoughts
of Love, and so the second, and so the third, and so the
fourth. And thus the whole wide world, above, below. around
and everywhere, does he continue to pervade with heart
of Love, far reaching grown great and beyond measure.
“Just as a mighty trumpeter makes himself heard, and
that without difficulty — in all
the four directions — even so of all things that have
shape or life, there is not one that he passes by or leaves
aside, but regards them all with mind set free, and deep-felt
Love. Verily this is the way to a state of union with Brahma.
"And he lets his mind pervade one quarter of the world
with thoughts of pity, sympathy and equanimity, and so the
second, and so the third, and so the fourth. And thus the
whole round world, above, below, around and everywhere, does
he continue to pervade with heart of pity, sympathy, and
equanimity, far reaching, grown great and beyond measure.”
For this Scriptural injunction there is, of course, a reason;
The mighty energy thus diffused through space not only attracts
the divine, but it gives, it informs, it creates. On every
plane it has its perfect work. On the highest, it becomes
the messenger of the Perfect Law which is a Law of Love.
Its processes can be scientifically considered and demonstrated
in Theosophical thought. Its rule and subjection of the lower
astral plane can be clearly shown. But what seems to concern
us most with the opening of a new year, is its effect on
the plane best known to the average man, or its application
in daily life.
As Theosophists, we have given our adherence
to the principles of Universal Brotherhood and a search for
Truth. The most indifferent [Page 12] member
of our Society has still signed such a pledge, calling his
word of honour to attest its reality. Some of us have gone
much further than this.
A consideration which presents itself to all alike, a reality
which is no respecter of persons, is this: Are we or are
we not conforming to the spirit and letter of that pledge
? Are we endeavouring to form a real Brotherhood ? I do not
need to point out that intellectual enlightenment is only
a means, and one of several means, to that benign end. It
will be apparent to any thinking person that the intellectual
germs which are the bearers of Truth must sprout and bear
in our lives; must be transformed into deeds and thoughts
impersonal, fraternal, and informed with universal love,
or else they are mere withered husks which only encumber
the mind that has received them. We may send our literature
into every home; we may find our facts upon every man's tongue;
and still our Society will be an utter failure as a vital,
living Brotherhood if the spirit and activity of universal
Love is not infused into it. No one can so infuse it but
ourselves. Each individual is responsible for its absence,
if it be absent, for it alone adequately represents our pledge.
We have not given the attestation of our honour to a mere
formalism, but to a Reality; to an unlimited energic Charity,
without which we are indeed as brass and tinkling cymbals.
Hence no more urgent question now presents itself to the
earnest student (or even to those whose "honour " keeps
its pledges) than this one, namely: How shall I convert this
philosophy into a working force which shall prove useful
in daily life ? It is true that the Theosophical code of
ethics, were it followed by every individual, would change
the face
of the world in a day. It also follows that such influence
must be of the greatest practical as well as moral use. If
each one of us believed that every wrong done would as surely
react upon us as that a ball thrown against a wall will rebound,
and that what injures one man injures all, it is certain
that all our ways of living and thinking would change, and
that we should enter a wider sphere, a larger spirit of Life.
We should then experience a spiritual, ethical, and practical
consolidation or Brotherhood.
At the same time, this study and personal practice of the
philosophy does not wholly fulfil our pledge. We are still
in the world; its ties are more or less interwoven with our
daily life, and for this world as it now stands we are largely
responsible. All about us are wrongs and sorrows which only
a change in the inner nature of mankind can exterminate.
We know this change is far off in point of time and concerns
the race, while our own personal efforts show us how difficult
is its accomplishment. It is indeed not to be accomplished
until we regard the entire universe [Page
13] with
thoughts of Equanimity and Love. What then shall we do ?
Shall we wait patiently for this change, striving meanwhile
to lift ourselves and such comrades as may be drawn to hear
our words to a higher inner life ? If we do this much only,
the change will never come. We have taken up the attitude
of separation unconsciously, and the estranged world feels
that we have deserted it in a need which the soul realizes,
though the individual may not. In the inner attitude we are
to stand aloof from the fever, the doubt, the selfishness,
and carnival of desire; but the outer man must also fulfil
his duty, and he does that by drawing close to his fellowmen
and by working among them. Until the intuition of the race
shall be more highly developed, men need to see our personal
presence and activity before they can realize our spiritual
sympathy. Just as we give object-lessons to a child, so our
work explains to them the reality of our pledge and belief.
Spiritual advancement is not a result of mechanical (so to
call it) cyclic progress, nor yet a result of the will of
the gods. The progress of Law must be reinforced by human
will and effort before the personal soul can be benefited
by it. The way of the race is devious and long; it is accomplished
through individual effort, and each real reform in institutions,
in morals, in every department of Life, brings us one step
nearer the goal. These things, external though they appear,
may each be made the vehicle of higher powers, through the
energy of universal Love. As witnesses to the expanding heart
of man and to the vital growth of his belief in human and
divine consolidation, they bring us inwardly as well as outwardly
into closer relations with one another.
There are of course
exceptions in the cases of persons who through their inward
fitness have been called away from the world to enter upon
a special-course of training and service which shall fit
them for duties upon other lines and planes than those known
to individual life. All such persons have, at some time,
worked ardently in the primary fields, and have, through
such work, developed into more impersonal and more divine
uses. They stood once where we now stand, and through proportional
efforts in all directions, they have passed on. It is our
part to follow them, and while we are still in the world
we may be sure that a part of our work lies in it, and includes
every practical as well as every spiritual effort towards
realizing the highest conception of Universal Brotherhood.
There are many Theosophists who do not grasp the urgency
of this question concerning the utilization of Theosophy
in daily life. Perhaps some of them feel their own ignorance,
their unfitness to teach, and wait to know more before they
speak to other men. They forget that he who cannot teach
can work. Our work teaches. Moreover, through unselfish [Page
14] work we are taught.
To learn intellectually, some may wait in vain; and indeed
none will truly learn in any sense until they convert what
little they do know into working force, just as our food
is useless to us until its digestion has set free some amount
of nervous energy, for whose translation into work Nature
herself provides. All these natural processes are copies
of those of the spiritual world, and thus all things bear
witness to that Truth which is their Being. Other Theosophists
are struggling with material cares; others do not stop to
think of the real bearing of their professions of Brotherhood.
In short, as many reasons for indifference prevail as were
sent to the Biblical King when he bade his neighbours come
to the wedding feast. Still, I believe the chief of these
is the want of co-ordinated thought. Not so long ago an earnest
student wrote to the American Headquarters to say that through
an appeal made to him for assistance in some work which was
being done he had come to realize the necessity of such work
and the lack of it that he was sure many others, like himself,
were so preoccupied by daily cares that they had not waked
up to the importance of helping the Theosophical movement
in some direction, and he offered money to print an edition
of a tract addressed to indifferent Theosophists, if some
one would write it. These pages are the outcome, in second
remove, of that work which stimulated him. As we light a
fire by communicating to it the vibrations of a flame, so
contact with the earnest effort of another sets free a corresponding
and latent energy in the heart prepared for higher development.
These considerations are all the more pressing today. We
are nearing the end of the cycle, and all events move more
rapidly. Effort made now will have a far greater result than
it would have later on. The momentum of a moving object depends
upon the energy expended at its start, and those Theosophists,
who are sufficiently intuitive to take advantage of cyclic
currents and to work ardently with them and with the Great
Powers, will find that they have laid up treasures there,
where, to quote Emerson, compound interest is the rate of
the exchequer. The credit of this exchequer is not personal
man, but Humanity: what we give as individuals is repaid
to the race. This is just, for from that race
we spring in part. One year's work done now may fructify
far more rapidly for this cause which is our own, than might
ten years' work done at a less propitious time. It is true
that materiality is now at its highest rate of progress,
but with a latent downward tendency; while spiritual activity
is accelerating with an upward tendency due to the present
curve of progress. Can we doubt which will prevail ? It is
now in our power to secure the prevalence of spiritual activity
in individual lives, just as the Law has already provided
for its prevalence in the Universal Scheme. [Page
15] There is scarcely one of us so poor that he
cannot make some willing sacrifice, or has not some time
or energy to give. Quantity does not matter so much as quality;
it is the spirit of unselfish Love that works all wonders.
These thoughts
accepted, the student asks himself where he shall begin,
to what work lay his hand. For his personal life he alone
can answer. If he be a member of the Theosophical Society,
it will be well for him to work with and through his Branch;
the greater the centre the greater the energy. Energy is
proportionate to the square of the numbers producing it.
The sum of energy produced by three united persons is nine
times as great as that evolved by a single person. This ratio
is due to the correlations of the forces employed. Where
Theosophists have not joined the Society, they would do well
to reflect on these facts. We are responsible for our latent
possibilities. If we neglect to develop and enlarge them
by joining a body pledged to Humanity, we must certainly
be losers by our determined attitude of separation. We owe
ourselves to others, if only for the encouragement of our
external presence and support.
Turning our attention from individuals to the corporate Body
itself, we find that we are reproached, and justly reproached,
with doing little, if any, practical work. As we do not believe
in indiscriminate missionary labours and argumentative conversion,
we must seek other fields. Are there no children among us
to be rescued from the doubts and confusion
of our time ? Where are our Branch Sunday Schools, where
music, story and object teaching of spirit through natural
lessons, may give the little ones a happy and valued hour?
Where are our Branch free libraries, with one member told
off weekly to attend them, open of an evening to all comers
? Can we do nothing to help those social outcasts, so rarely
rescued by formal religion, because, " the deed of virtue
is without the love that should shine through it". It
is vain to try to stop those who are on the fatally swift
descent of sin, by assurances that some other, however divine,
is responsible for them. If we can grapple their minds with
the thought that they themselves are their own saviours and
that we are integrally and actually their Brothers and Sisters,
then indeed we may recover lost ground for the race. Everywhere
great questions and great issues are confronting us and in
some one of these each Branch should have a share. Not only
should we join with outsiders in such good deeds as they
have found to do, but we ought to have some distinctively
Theosophical work of our own, first as individuals, next
as Branches.
For example, the competitive struggle and system of monopolies
are working as much — if not more — injury as
the use of intoxicating liquors. Everywhere thinkers of benevolent
aspirations are [Page 16] inaugurating
co-operative colonies or works. One such is the Credit Foncier
of Sinaloa, a colony established in Mexico on co-operative
principles, having excellent privileges from the Mexican
Government. The colonists own the land, railroads and industries
in common. All public property is so held, but the home is
a private institution. The colony is governed by a body of
elected Directors. The women vote equally
with the men. No corporate churches are allowed; each man
is free to worship as he may please in his own home. No intoxicating
drinks are made or sold; no gambling or other houses of ill-repute
allowed within the colony precincts. All persons are employed
by the colony itself; labour is interchanged, and the net
gain is divided among colonists according to their shares
of stock. This is, perhaps, the largest co-operative venture
ever made, and has unprecedented advantages of harbour, situation
and climate; but, above all, its ethical principles are integral
and vital. At one time a colonist wrote on behalf of a betrayed
and deserted woman, against whom the doors of our civilization
were closed, when she tried to return to the path of moral
duty.
The directors promptly responded by the gift of a share of
stock and the assurance that all who endeavoured to live
honestly and in a spirit of true fraternity were welcome
to Sinaloa
whatever might be the mistakes of their past. No more Theosophical
deed than this is known to me. It would seem as if colonies
founded upon a more liberal and just division of labour and
profit, upon a more enlightened system of interchange and
inter-dependence, would tend to facilitate the advance of
the race. All persons may not be able to join them, but they
can help them. Clubs are already founded to assist co-operation,
and such might be started in Branches interested in seeing
justice established as the regulator of human institutions.
It is not division of property that the honest man wants,
but a division of labour and profits other than that awarded
by a system which regards money as the chief factor of prosperity,
and energy — the great life force — as its underling
and slave. While I am well
aware that physical energy is but one division of that life
force, as regards the value of such energy and that expended
for the amassing of personal wealth and for persona! and
selfish indulgences, I submit that the former is far higher
than the latter and should not be underpaid. The motive
determines the value and quality of energy as well as the
Plane on which it operates. That other Theosophists think
with me is proved by the interest of others in co-operative
principles, while the fact that these principles, and the
life they give rise to, lead thoughtful minds into a more
distinctly Theosophical line of thought, is evidenced by
two directors and some members of the above-mentioned colony
having joined the T. S.. Godin, the great co-operator of
Guise, also became a Theosophist. [Page
17]
These are some of the opportunities of work which present
themselves, and which may be carried on at the same time
with that inward work of self-conquest and self-purification
undertaken in the silence of the heart by all true students.
I would urge that this subject of Theosophical work be held
under special consideration at our next annual convention.
The time has come for us to make good our pledge; to ask
ourselves whether we shall be a Brotherhood in every vital
sense, a working army united by a harmonious, charitable,
unprejudiced spirit of sympathy and love, or a mere formal
organization interested in intellectual pursuits. Let each
one of us ask himself this question, and ask until he finds
the, answer: Am I working to the full extent of my powers
and in every possible direction for that Universal Brotherhood
to which I am pledged, and in whose future realization I
implicitly believe — witness my "word of honour" ?
Else honour, loyalty, and Brotherhood are empty echoes of
an idle and fantastic dream.