English
In our next lesson — the Fifth Lesson — we shall en- deavor to make plain to you the highest teachings of the Yogi Philosophy regarding the One Reality and the Many Manifestations — the One and the Many — how the One apparently becomes Many — that great question and problem which lies at the bottom of the well of truth. In that lesson we shall present for your consideration some fundamental and startling truths, but before we reach that point in our teachings, we must fasten upon your mind the basic truth that all the THE UNITY OF LIFE. 77 various manifestations of Life that we see on all hands in the Universe are but forms of manifestation of One Universal Life which is itself an emanation of the Absolute. Speaking generally, we would say to you that the emanation of the Absolute is in the form of a grand manifestation of One Universal Life, in which the va- rious apparent separate forms of Life are but centers of Energy or Consciousness, the separation being more apparent than real, there being a bond of unity and connection underlying all the apparently separated forms. Unless the student gets this idea firmly fixed in his mind and consciousness, he will find it difficult to grasp the higher truths of the Yogi Philosophy. That all Life is One, at the last, — that all forms of mani- festation of Life are in harmonious Unity, underlying — is one of the great basic truths of the Yogi Teach- ing, and all the students of that philosophy must make this basic truth their own before they may progress further. This grasping of the truth is more than a mere matter of intellectual conception, for the intellect reports that all forms of Life are separate and dis- tinct from each other, and that there can be no unity amidst such diversity. But from the higher parts of the mind comes the message of an underlying Unity, in spite of all apparent diversity, and if one will meditate upon this idea he will soon begin to realize the truth, and will feel that he, himself, is but a center of con- sciousness in a great ocean of Life — that he and all other centers are connected by countless spiritual and 78 GNANI YOGA. mental filaments — and that all emerge from the One. He will find that the illusion of separateness is but "a working fiction of the Universe," as one writer has so aptly described it — and that All is One, at the last, and underlying all is One. Some of our students may feel that we are taking too long a path to lead up to the great basic truths of our philosophy, but we who have traveled The Path, and know its rocky places and its sharp turns, feel jus- tified in insisting that the student be led to the truth gradually and surely, instead of attempting to make short cuts across dangerous ravines and canyons. We must insist upon presenting our teachings in our own way — for this way has been tested and found good. We know that every student will come to realize that our plan is a wise one, and that he will thank us for giving him this gradual and easy approach to the won- drous and awful truth which is before us. By this gradual process, the mind becomes accustomed to the line of thought and the underlying principles, and also gradually discards wornout mental sheaths which have served their purposes, and which must be discarded because they begin to weigh heavily upon the mind as it reaches the higher altitudes of The Path of Attain- ment. Therefore, we must ask you to consider with us, in this lesson, some further teachings regarding the Unity of Life. All the schools of the higher Oriental thought, as well as many of the great philosophical minds of the Western world, have agreed upon the conception of THE UNITY OF LIFE. 79 the Unity of Life — the Oneness of All Life. The West- ern thinkers, and many of the Eastern philosophers arrived at this conclusion by means of their Intellectual powers, greatly heightened and stimulated by concen- tration and meditation, which latter process liberated the faculties of the Spiritual Mind so that it passed down knowledge to the Intellect, which then seized upon the higher knowledge which it found within it- self, and amplified and theorized upon the same. But among the Eastern Masters there are other sources of information open, and from these sources come the same report — the Oneness and Unity of Universal Life. These higher sources of information to which we have alluded, consist of the knowledge coming from those Beings who have passed on to higher planes of Life than ours, and whose awakened spiritual facul- ties and senses enable them to see things quite plainly which are quite dark to us. And from these sources, also, comes the message of the Oneness of Life — of the existence of a wonderful Universal Life includ- ing all forms of life as we know it, and many forms and phases unknown to us- -many centers in the great Ocean of Life. No matter how high the source of inquiry, the answer is the same — "All Life is One." And this One Life includes Beings as much higher than ourselves, as we afi higher than the creatures in the slime of the ocea'a-bed. Included in it are be- ings who would see<n as archangels or gods to us, and they inform us that beyond them are still higher and more radiant creatures, and so on to infinity of 80 GNANI YOGA. infinities. And yet all are but centers of Being in the One Life — all but a part of the great Universal Life, which itself is but an emanation of The Absolute. The mind of man shrinks back appalled from the contemplation of such wonders, and yet there are men who dare to attempt to speak authoritatively of the attributes and qualities of "God," as if He, the Abso- lute, were but a magnified man. Verily, indeed, "fools rush in where angels fear to tread," as the poet hath said. Those who will read our next lesson and thus gain an idea of the sublime conception of the Absolute held by the Yogi teachers may shudder at the presumption of those mortals who dare to think of the Absolute as possessing "attributes" and "qualities" like unto the meanest of things in this his emanated Universe. But even these spiritual infants are doing well — that is, they are beginning to think, and when man begins to think and question, he begins to progress. It is not the fact of these people's immature ideas that has caused these remarks on our part, but rather their tendency to set up their puny conceptions as the ab- solute truth, and then insisting upon forcing these views upon the outer world of men, whom they con- sider "poor ignorant heathen." Permit each man to think acording to his light — and help him by offer- ing to share with him the best that you possess — but do not attempt to force upon him your own views as absolute truth to be swallowed by him under threat of damnation or eternal punishment. Who are you THE UNITY OF LIFE. 81 that dares to speak of punishment and damnation, when the smell of the smoke of the hell of materialism is still upon your robes. When you realize just what spiritual infants you still are — the best of you — you will blush at these things. Hold fast to the best that you know — be generous to others who seem to wish to share your knowledge — but give without blame or feeling of superiority — for those whom you teach to- day may be your teachers tomorrow — there are many surprises of this kind along The Path. Be brave and confident, but when you begin to feel puffed up by your acquirement of some new bit of knowledge, let your prayer — our prayer, for we too are infants — be, "Lord, be merciful unto me, a fool !" The above words are for us, the students of the Yogi Philosophy — the teachers of the same — for hu- man nature is the same in spite of names, and we must avoid the "vanity of vanities" — Spiritual Pride and Arrogance — that fault which has sent many a soul tumbling headlong from a high position on The Path, and compelled it to again begin the journey, chastened and bruised. The fall of Lucifer has many correspondences upon the occult plane, and is, indeed, in itself an allegorical illustration of just this law. Re- member, always, that you are but a Centre in the Ocean of Life, and that all others are Centres in the same ocean, and that underlying both and all of you is the same calm bed of Life and Knowledge, the property of all. The highest and the lowest are part 82 GNANI YOGA. of the same One Life — each of you has the same life blood flowing through your veins — you are con- nected with every other form of life, high or low, with invisible bonds, and none is separate from an- other. We are speaking, of course, to the personali- ties of the various students who are reading these words. The Real Self of each is above the need of such advice and caution, and those who are able to reach the Real Self in consciousness have no need for these words, for they have outlived this stage of error. To many, the consciousness of the One Life — the Uni- versal Life — in which all are centres of consciousness and being — has come gradually as a final step of a long series of thought and reasoning, aided by flashes of truth from the higher regions of the mind. To others it has come as a great illumination, or flash of Truth, in which all things are seen in their proper relations and positions to each other, and all as phases of being in the One. The term "Cosmic Consciousness," which has been used in the previous series of these lessons, and by other writers, means this sudden flash of "knowing" in which all the illusionary dividing lines between persons and things are broken down and the Universal Life is seen to be actually existent as One Life.