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The Inner Constitution of Man
An article
from the writings of William Quan Judge, a pioneering Theosophist and
co-founder
of the original Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875
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William Quan Judge
1851 - 1896
"We are such stuff as dreams are made
of." --
Shakespeare.
"Have perseverance as one who doth for
evermore endure, for thy shadows [personalities] live and vanish. That which in
thee shall live forever, that which in thee knows, for it is knowledge, is not
of fleeting life; it is the man that was, that is, and will be, for whom the
hour shall never strike." –
It is of these
"dreams" of which we are made, and of this man for whom "the
hour will never strike" that I have to speak to you tonight. Or, in other
words, of the inner constitution of man, divided in a sevenfold manner; called
sometimes the seven-fold constitution of man. This seven-fold constitution is
not confined, in our opinion, to man, but is shared with him by the whole of
nature also. The consideration of this subject, therefore, properly demands
that of the whole theosophical theory of evolution, so that tonight I cannot
hope to go over it, but only that part of it which particularly relates to man.
In the theosophical theory,
spirit and matter are co-existent, and coeternal. There is no spirit without
matter and, vice versa, there is no matter without
spirit. These two are the manifestations of the One Absolute reality. That is
to say, matter is at one pole of this reality and spirit at the other. In other
words, spirit contains the plan, as it were, which it impresses upon matter,
which receives this and carries out its evolution from the moment that
manifestation begins. Therefore, this evolution is on all the seven planes. The
word "plane" is used in Theosophy -- and by many others before this
-- to indicate not only a place, but also a state or condition. For instance we
have the plane of mind, of body, the spiritual, and the physical planes. This
does not mean that they are separated from each other like the compartments of
a ship, or floors of a house. These planes are conditions, or states, of which
one may interpenetrate the other, and evolution may be carried on to perfection
so far as this relates to inner planes, such as those of man's septenary
constitution.
To illustrate: Consider the
shadow from some object in an electric light, thrown in a certain direction.
Another electric light may throw a beam at right angles to this black shadow.
The shadow and the light thus cross each other, but they do not interfere. The
shadow, when it strikes an object beyond, still envelopes it in darkness,
although the electric light has shone through its center. Thus the shadow and
the bright light may exist at the place where they cross, independently,
otherwise they would negative each other, and there would be a cessation of
light or of shadow beyond the point where they met. Instead of this, both
shadow and light will continue on to their respective destinations. This
sufficiently illustrates my meaning, that the planes of evolution may proceed
within each other, and yet not interfere, and it is not necessary that they be
separated in any sense whatever. There are many illustrations which could be
drawn from science. Mr. Tyndall substantiates this with respect to the colors
of the solar spectrum. We know these are all in the solar light, unseen by us
until they are separated by the prism. And so on, in almost every direction,
are similar illustrations.
Evolution proceeds on seven
planes throughout the manifested universe. Man, in this world, is the highest
manifestation of this evolution, and therefore contains within himself its
higher seven planes, which before his advent were not perceptible, although
they existed always in the germ. Buddha declares that man is made up or formed
from thought germs. He is not alone in this assertion. Many philosophers since
his time have said the same thing; that man is a thinker, and is made up of and
the result of his thoughts. Western minds have become so accustomed to judging
him by his mortal body, and to listen to theories which teach the conditions
whereby mental states may be materially produced, that at last it has lost
sight of man as a thinker at all, and cannot understand why he is made up of
his thoughts. We admit that he has a body, and that this body is not thought,
but declare that it is the result of his thoughts. The body, now used by all
human beings, is the result of the thought of the human race in the past, which
thought, at length enabled it to so mold matter as to furnish the body in which
man, who is the thinker, really lives.
Man, the thinker, is not
divided in this seven-fold way, but man consisting of body and other elements
of his nature is so divided. This seven-fold division is not absent anywhere in
nature. The seven days of a week is an instance. The layers of the skin are
divided in a seven-fold way. In the growth of the child before birth, there are
seven distinct divisions. In the progress and construction of the great works
of man, there is even seen the seven-fold division. Of a great building, for example,
the architect first formulates the plan. The materials existing in various
states, represent a second stage; collecting them together after that, a third;
united in the building, a fourth; decorating it, a fifth; furnishing it, a
sixth; and its occupation by man, the seventh and last. And so it is with man.
The ideal plan is laid down; the materials of which are scattered through
space; these are collected; then built together in the various forms of nature,
until that of man is reached.
The first division of man is
body, composed of what is called matter, or atoms, held together in a definite
form. Have you ever reflected that your body, composed of matter, is made out
of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, and therefore you have in you portions
of the tiger and all ferocious beasts, as well as the gentle? You have also
vegetable and mineral matter collected in your body, for this represents all
that evolution on the physical plane has accomplished in the world. With the
Evolutionists of today, we admit that at one time there was only a mass of fire
mist, and, although our theory of evolution does do so, it is unnecessary to go
beyond that for our present purpose. These say there was first this fire mist,
which, by means of the processes of nature, began to revolve into a vortex, and
so continued until it became sufficiently dense for a crust to form upon it.
This kept growing thicker, until we have the world as it exists today, which
finally, without any life or intelligence of its own, produced these. That is,
from nothing came forth something.
We admit with them that this
process went on, but we assert that it was in accordance with the plan laid
down by other human beings, who evolved it as the result of the experience of
other lives on earths which they had passed through in the great wheel of
eternity. But we say further, that this fire mist, of the scientists, are
beings, carrying the plan of evolution with them. They first put this matter
through the mineral school, so to speak, residing within each particle, and
continuing the process for millions and millions of years. When this had been
sufficiently accomplished these beings then passed on; that is, pushed forward
some of this matter into the vegetable kingdom. This process was carried on for
uncountable years. Then this same collection of beings carried the evolution of
atoms up into the animal kingdom, where we are now, as mere masses of flesh,
not as human shapes. This process went on until the whole mass had received
education in the animal kingdom.
The geological history of the
world verifies these statements, excepting, of course, the presence of these
egos. I admit that its links do not give us any proof of these beings, but I
insist that a survey of the whole scheme demands their presence. In the early
ages we find only forms of trees; later, we observe enormous, or mammoth,
beasts. They have disappeared when the necessity for them passed. There isn't
even a "missing link."
The anatomist of today
insists that these were the forefathers of our animals; that such and such a
huge beast is the original of such and such a smaller one. The process of
perfecting that brought them to the stage where they now are was done by and
through these beings. Are our bodies, then, the result of this evolution? If
so, we are connected with all the lower kingdoms. Without life this body would
be useless, and the Theosophic theory is that there is no spot in space where
there is no life. We have been accustomed to talking about life as something belonging
to material bodies, but as to the intervening space, we have generally thought
of it as without life. It is undoubtedly true, I think, that in every point in
space there is the same stream of life, in which all beings exist, and hence
this Life Principle is the second division of the Theosophic classification of
man's constitution.
Now, the question arises,
what is life and what is death? Ordinarily, death is thought of as something
that comes to all beings, without exception. Theosophy denies that there is
such a thing as death at all. We don't say there is no death for this body. But
we declare that what is called death is really life; is one of its phenomena.
Man may be compared to an electric lamp, composed of carbon interposed at a
break in the wire. The current, caused to flow through this wire, reaches the
carbon, is resisted and broken until the carbon is exhausted. Man is a carbon
standing in a current of life, consisting of molecules united in such a manner
that he is capable of living -- burning -- just so long. That is, carrying the
theory into everyday life, he is capable of remaining active just so many
hours, when he becomes fatigued because life is so strong he cannot longer
resist it. In the morning he awakens, to once more renew the contest, and keeps
on so doing from year to year, until life has grown too strong for him and he
is compelled to give up the fight and abandon his home in the body. So that
there is really no such thing as death, but only a change, an abandoning of the
body. This, then, is the second division of man's nature; called in the
Sanskrit philosophy, Prana, meaning breath, because it is said that man lives
by means of breath. It is derived from the sun, which is the center of life or
being for this globe.
The next division is the
Astral body, called the Design body, or Linga Sarira, that on which the
physical structure is built; a further materialization of the ideal plan which
existed in the beginning of this evolution. Ages since, at the time animals
were going through the evolution necessary to prepare the human form, only the
Astral man existed. This Astral body was therefore first; before man existed in
material form, and, I think, represents the time when according to the
Christian Bible Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Paradise, for it
was a state of paradise to have only an astral body at a time when a physical
one would have compelled man to maintain a perpetual warfare against the
monsters of prehistoric ages.
The Theosophical theory is
that Adam was existing as an Astral Body, and having reached that point in
evolution where matter could be built into this body he received a "coat
of skin," or became a man of flesh and blood as he is today. I advert to
this because it is from the sacred book of the Christian, which has been
reviled and scoffed at because it has never been explained except in its
literal sense.
The Astral body is the shape
of man's body, but contains in itself organs which connect the man inside the
real figure with the outside organs; eyes, ears, nose, etc. Without the Astral
body it would be impossible to account for the possession of senses which are
not man's true outer senses. The somnambulist, for instance, walking with his
eyes open sees nothing; is looking at you and cannot see you. Our explanation
is, that the connection between himself in the Astral body and the outer organs
is cut off. In hypnotism, any organ or organs may be so cut off while others
remain active, thus accounting for many of its phenomena.
The Astral body therefore is
in reality more the man than the body, but is so connected with it that it is
not able to act except in certain cases. "Mediums" are such
instances. A medium is a hysterical, nervous person. We know that looking over
mediumship we find them afflicted with something akin to this; catalepsy, for
instance. The condition in which many curious things happen through mediums is
this: The proper adjustment of all the functions, nervous, material, and
mental, is really a condition of the Astral body, which is able sometimes to
manifest itself. In our opinion, nearly all the phenomena of Spiritualism may
be traced to the Astral body, are manipulations of it; and we know that when
one goes to a medium he simply awakens her Astral body and receives from it his
own thoughts in reply to his queries, and nothing more, except in some few rare
cases.
The divorce between religion
and science has been so great that the "Inner Man" has been forced to
manifest improperly and out of place, in order to keep alive the evidence that
there was such a body. Had science been united to and gone hand in hand with
spiritual philosophy, we would have had a uniform development. Since man's
investigations have been curbed he has revolted within, and he has been
manifesting this inner nature for the last forty years. The facts of
Spiritualism are thus of use, but at the same time are dangerous. They bring
back to the earth influences which ought not to return; pictures of old crimes
which produce in men once more the desire to commit them.
We come next to the division
of passions and desires, the basis of action from which men find their
incentive to do both good and evil. When a man dies and is buried his kamic
body is released. The life principle is also released from these atoms to go
into others. Then the kamic body, with all the passions and desires is set
free. We will suppose the case of a suicide. His kamic body escapes full of the
idea of suicide. Similarly, the man who has indulged in drinking and all sorts
of sensualities, goes out full of these things. A murderer who is hung is in
the same condition. Guiteau would go out full of that last scene where he
defied his accusers, and where he declared he would destroy all the people who
had anything to do with his incarceration. What happens? Man's higher
principles go on and on with evolution, finally being reincarnated. If after
death these lower elements are seized by mediums and brought back to earth,
infused with additional life, not permitted to disintegrate, it is a crime.
Everyone who goes to a medium and asks that their dead may return commits a
crime. It is a crime against the person who is dead, and against the medium; it
brings around her bad influences, for the majority that can return are full of
crime. They are of the earth, earthy. Now, when I am dead my astral body will
not have my senses; it will contain only my passions and desires, which swerve
me as they swerve you also, and if I am drawn back against my will I may do
harm. If you could actually see what occurs at a seance you would never go to
another. You would see all these vile shapes enveloping the sitters like a huge
octopus. Mediumship is nothing but communicating with the astral dead; it is
the worship of the dead, and as such it has been condemned for ages. Moses said
"Ye shall kill a witch." He prohibited his people from having
anything to do with such things.
Having considered the lower
principles of man we now come to that which is immortal, or mind, soul and
spirit, called respectively, Manas, Buddhi and Atma. Atma, or spirit, is
universal, and Buddhi its vehicle, Manas is the individualized thinker, the one
who is conscious. These three together are eternally passing through
incarnation and coming back again and again to gain experience; to reap reward
or punishment. Before birth, in the pre-natal state, man is in almost the same
condition that he is after death, so that a consideration of the post-mortem
state will serve for the pre-natal. The difference is only slight. By a simple
illustration you will probably understand the ordinary, or devachanic condition
after death, and its relation to life. Imagine a young Theosophist who is to
deliver a speech. Previous to his appearance he thinks of it continually,
perhaps for days, goes over his ideas and wonders what kind of an impression he
will make. In the evening he delivers it, in a brief time compared to that he
has spent in thinking about it. When he has delivered it, he thinks of the
impression he has made. The next day and for many days he still thinks of it.
Isn't the thought more than the act? The state of Devachan is where he is in a
similar manner thinking over the things of his last life until he returns to
rebirth.
Thus after the death of the
body we keep up this thinking, and develop this part of our nature, until the
time comes when it is exhausted, and we come back to life to continue
evolution, until the race has been perfected.
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