Life After Death & How Theosophy Unveils It

8/14/2019 Life After Death & How Theosophy Unveils It

1/82:

UC-NRLF


2/82


3/82


4/82


5/82

THE RIDDLE OF LIFE SERIESNo. 2

MI41i

I3i

i

THELIFE AFTERDEATHANDHOW THEOSOPHYUNVEILS IT

BYC. W.|j-.EADBEATERWith an Additional Ct-- -

* ^ Thoughts abe T:itnjs, 'ANNIE BESANT

PRICE 25 CENTS


6/82

THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETYOBJECTS

1.To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Hu-manity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color.

2.To encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophyand science.3.To investigate unexplained laws of nature and the powers

latent in man.

The Theasophical Society is composed of students, belongingto any religion in the world or to none, who are urited by theirapproval of the above objects, by their wish to remove religiousantagonisms and to draw together men of good will, whatsoevertheir religious opinions, and by their desire to study religious truthsand to share the results of their studies with others. Their bondof union is not the profession of a common belief, but a commonsearch and aspiration for Truth. They hold that Truth should besought by study, by reflection, by purity of life, by devotion tohigh ideals, and they regard Truth as a prize to be striven for, notas a dogma to be imposed by authority. They consider that beliefshould be the result of individual study or intuition, and not itsantecedent, and should rest on knowledge, not on assertion. Theyextend tolerance to all, even to the intolerant, not as a privilegethey bestow, but as a duty they perform, and they seek to removeignorance, not to punish it. They see every religion as an ex-pression of the Divine Wisdom, and prefer its study to its con-demnation, and its practice to proselytism. Peace is their watch-word, as Truth is their aim.

Theosophy is the body of truths which forms the basis of allreligions, and which cannot be claimed as the exclusive possessionof any. It offers a philosophy which renders life intelligible, andwhich demonstrates the justice and the love which guide its evolu-tion. It puts death in its rightful place, as a recurring incidentin an endless life, opening the gate-way of a fuller and moreradiant existence. It restores to the world the Science of theSpirit, teaching man to know the Spirit as himself, and the mindand body as his servants. It illuminates the scriptures and doc-trines of religions by unveiling their hidden meanings, and thusjustifying them at the bar of intelligence, as they are ever justifiedin the eyes of intuition.

Members of the Theosophical Society study these truths, andTheosophists endeavor to live them. Every one willing to study,to be tolerant, to aim high, and to work perseveringly, is welcomed


7/82


8/82


9/82

ZL, ' )

TKE MIDDLE OF LIFE SEilES-^Noi e' >,,:',,, :

THE LIFE AFTER DEATHAND HOW THEOSOPHY

UNVEILS IT

By C. W. JjEADBEATER

4r /

WITH AN ADDITIONAL CHAPTERON "THOUGHTS ARE THINGS,"By Annie Besant

Theosophical Publishing HouseKrotonaHollywood, Los Angeles, Cal.


10/82

PUBLISHER'S NOTE.

The following chapters are reprinted, with kindpermission, from pamphlets issued by The TheosophicalPublishing Committee, of Harrogate, and from an articlein Lucifer for September, 1896. The reception given tothe first of this Series, ' ' The Eiddle of Life, ' ' of which30,000 copies have now been printed, leads us to think thatthe present booklet, which gives a rational picture of theactual facts of the after life, will be warmly welcomed.


11/82

CONTENTSCHAPTER PAGE

I. Is There Any Certain Knowledge? 1IL The True Facts 5

III. Purgatory 10IV. The Heaven-World 19V. Many Mansions 26

VI. Our Friends in Heaven. 31VII. Guardian Angels 37VIII. Human Workers in the Unseen 43IX. Helping the Dead 49X. Thoughts are Things 53

490.270


12/82

ILLUSTRATIONSNO. PAGE

i. A Noble Thought Frontispieceii. Devotional Feeling 12

iii. Intense Devotion 12iv. Affection 28V. Deep Love 28

vi. Pure Eeason 44vii. Ambition 44


13/82

CHAPTER I.IS THERE ANY CERTAIN KNOWLEDGE?This subject of life after death is one of great inter-

est to all of us, not only because we ourselves must cer-tainly one day die, but far more because there canscarcely be any one among us, except perhaps the veryyoung, who has not lost (as we call it) by death someone or more of those who are near and dear to us. So ifthere be any information available with regard to thelife after death, we are naturally very anxious to have it.

But the first thought which arises in the mind of theman who sees such a title as this is usually ^*Can any-thing be certainly known as to life after death?" Wehave all had various theories put before us on the sub-ject by the various religious bodies, and yet even themost devoted followers of these sects seem hardly to be-lieve their teachings about this matter, for they stillspeak of death as *^the king of terrors," and seem toregard the whole question as surrounded by mysteryand horror. They may use the term ^^ falling asleep inJesus," but they still employ the black dresses andplumes, the horrible crepe and the odious black-edgednote-paper, they still surround death with all the trap-pings of woe, and with everything calculated to make itseem darker and more terrible. We have an evil hered-ity behind us in this matter; we have inherited thesefunereal horrors from our forefathers, and so we areused to them, and do not see the absurdity and mon-strosity of it all. The ancients wei*e in this respect wiserthan we, for they did not associate all these nightmaresof gloom with the death of the bodypartly perhaps


14/82


15/82

IS THERE ANY CERTAIN KNOWLEDGE?really so?" You may know it in many ways; there isplenty of evidence ready to the hand of any one who willtake the trouble to gather it together. Shakespeare'sstatement is really a remarkable one when we considerthat ever since the dawn of history, and in every countryof which we know anything, travellers have always beenreturning from that bourne, and showing themselves totheir fellow-men. There is any amount of evidence forsuch apparitions, as they have been called. At one timeit was fashionable to ridicule all such stories; now it isno longer so, since scientitic men like Sir WilliamCrookes, the discoverer of the metal thallium and theinventor of Crooke's radiometer; and Sir Oliver Lodge,the great electrician, and eminent public men like Mr.Balfour, the late Premier of England, have joined andactively worked with a society instituted for the investi-gation of such phenomena. Read the reports of the workof that Society for Psychical Research, and you will seesomething of the testimony which exists as to the returnof the dead. Read books like Mr. Stead's **Real GhostStories," or Camille Flammarion's ^^L'lnconnu," andyou will find there plenty of accounts of apparitions,showing themselves not centuries ago in some far-awayland, but here and now among ourselves, to persons stillliving, who can be questioned and can testify to thereality of their experiences.

Another line of testimony to the life after death isthe study of Modern Spiritualism. I know that manypeople think that there is nothing to be found alongthat line but fraud and deception ; but I can myself bearpersonal witness that this is not so. Fraud and decep-tion there may have beennay, there has beenin cer-tain cases ; but nevertheless I fearlessly assert that thereare great truths behind, which may be discovered by anyman who is willing to devote the necessary time and pa-tience to their unfolding. Here again there is a vast


16/82

THE LIFE AFTEB DEATHMany men may not be willing to take that trouble orto devote so much time; very well, that is their affair,but unless they will examine, they have no right to scoffat those who have seen, and therefore know that thesethings are true.A third line of evidence, which is the one most con-mending itself to Theosophical students, is that of di-rect investigation. Every man has within himself latentfaculties, undeveloped senses, by means of which theunseen world can be directly cognized, and to any onewho will take the trouble to evolve these powers thewhole world beyond the grave will lie open as the day.A good many Theosophical students have already un-folded these inner senses, and it is the evidence thus ob-tained that I wish to lay before you. I know very wellthat this is a considerable claim to makea claim whichwould not be made by any minister of any church whenhe gave you his version of the states after death. Hewill say, ' ^ The church teaches this, ' ' or * ^ The Bible tellsus so," but he will never say, ^^I who speak to you, Imyself have seen this, and know it to be true." But inTheosophy we are able to say to you quite definitely thatmany of us know personally that of which we speak, forwe are dealing with a definite series of facts which wehave investigated, and which you yourselves may inves-tigate in turn. "We offer you what we know, yet we sayto you ^^ Unless this commends itself to you as utterlyreasonable, do not rest contented with our assertion;look into these things for yourselves as fully as you can,and then you will be in a position to speak to others asauthoritatively as we do, ' ' But what are the facts whichare disclosed to us by these investigations?


17/82

CHAPTER II.THE TRUE FACTS.

The state of affairs found as actually existing is muchmore rational than most of the current theories. It isnot found that any sudden change takes place in man atdeath, or that he is spirited away to some heaven beyondthe stars. On the contrary man remains after deathexactly what he was before itthe same in inteEect, thesame in his qualities and powers; and the conditions inwhich he finds himself are those which his own thoughtsand desires have already created for him. There is noreward or punishment from outside, but only the actualresult of what the man himself has done and said andthought while here on earth. In fact, the man makes hisbed during earth-life and afterwards he has to lie on it.

This is the first and most prominent factthat wehave not here a strange new life, but a continuation ofthe present one. We are not separated from the dead,for they are here about us all the time. The only sepa-ration is the limitation of our consciousness, so that wehave lost, not our loved ones, but the power to see them.It is quite possible for us so to raise our consciousness,that we can see them and talk with them as before, andall of us constantly do that, though we only rarely re-member it fully. A man may learn to focus his con-sciousness in his astral body while his physical body isstill awake, but that needs special development, and in thecase of the average man would take much time. But dur-ing the sleep of his physical body every man uses hisastral vehicle to a greater or less extent, and in that waywe are daily with our departed friends. Sometimes wehave a partial remembrance of meeting them, and then


18/82

THE LIFE AFTER DEATHhave no recollection of such encounters and remainignorant that they have taken place. Yet it is a definitefact that the ties of affection are still as strong as ever,and so the moment the man is freed from the chains ofhis physical encasement he naturally seeks the companyof those whom he loves. So that in truth the onlychange is that he spends the night with them instead ofthe day, and he is conscious of them astrally instead ofphysically.

The bringing through of the memory from the astralplane to the physical is another and quite separate con-sideration, which in no way affects our consciousness onthat other plane, nor our ability to function upon it withperfect ease and freedom. Whether you recollect themor not, they are still living their life close to you, andthe only difference is that they have taken off this robeof flesh which we call the body. That makes no changein them, any more than it makes a change in your per-sonality when you remove your overcoat. You aresomewhat freer, indeed, because you have less weight tocarry, and precisely the same is the case with them. Theman's passions, affections, emotions, and intellect arenot in the least affected when he died, for none of thesebelong to the physical body which he has laid aside. Hehas dropped this vesture and is living in another, but heis still able to think and to feel just as before.

I know how difficult it is for the average mind tograsp the reality of that which we cannot see with ourphysical eyes. It is very hard for us to realize how verypartial our sight isto understand that we are living ina vast world of which we see only a tiny partX Yetscience tells us with no uncertain voice that this is so,for it describes to us whole worlds of minute life ofwhose very existence we should be entirely ignorant asfar as our senses are concerned. Nor are the creaturesof those worlds unimportant because minute, for upon aknowledge of the condition and habits of some of those


19/82

THE TEUE FACTS.many cases life itself. But our senses are limited inanother direction. We cannot see the very air that sur-rounds us ; our senses would give us no indication of itsexistence, except that when it is in motion we are awareof it by the sense of touch. Yet in it there is a forcethat can wreck our mightiest vessels and throw downour strongest buildings. You see how all about us thereare mighty forces which yet elude our poor and partialsenses; so obviously we must beware of falling into thefatally common error of supposing that what we see isall there is to see.We are, as it were, shut up in a tower, and our sensesare tiny windows opening out in certain directions. Inmany other directions we are entirely shut in, but clair-voyance or astral sight opens for us one or two addition-al windows, and so enlarges our prospect, and spreadsbefore us a new and wider world, which is yet part ofthe old one, though before we did not know of it.Looking out into this new world, what should wefirst see? Supposing that one of us transferred his con-sciousness to the astral plane, what changes would be thefirst to strike him? To the first glance there wouldprobably be very little difference, and he would supposehimself to be looking upon the same world as before.Let me explain, to you why this is sopartially at least,for to explain fully would need a whole treatise uponastral physics* Just as we have different conditions ofmatter here, the solid, the liquid, the gaseous, so are theredifferent conditions or degrees of density of astral mat-ter, and each degree is attracted by and corresponds tothat which is similar to it on the physical plane. So thatyour friend would still see the walls and the furnitureto which he was accustomed, for though the physicalmatter of which they are composed would no longer bevisible to him, the densest type of astral matter wouldstill outline them for him as clearly as ever. True, if^Fuller details on this may be found in my ''The Other Side of


20/82

THE LIFE AFTER DEATHhe examined the object closely he would perceive thatall the particles were visibly in rapid motion, instead ofonly invisibly, as is the case on this plane ; but very fewmen do observe closely, and so a man who dies often doesnot know at first that any change has come over him.He looks about him, and sees the same rooms withwhich he is familiar, peoplejvstill by those whom he hasknown and lovedfor they also have astral bodies, whichare within the range of his new vision. Only by degreesdoes he realize that in some ways there is a difference.For example, he soon finds that for him all pain andfatigue have passed away. If you can at all realizewhat that means, you will begin to have some idea ofwhat the higher life truly is. Think of it, you who havescarcely ever a comfortable moment, you who in thestress of your busy life can hardly remember when youlast felt free from fatigue ; what would it be to you neveragain to know the meaning of the words weariness andpain? We have so mismanaged our teaching in thesewestern countries on the subject of immortality thatusually a dead man finds it difficult to believe that he isdead, simply because he still sees and hears, thinks andfeels. ^^I am not dead,'' he will often say, **I am aliveas much as ever, and better than I ever was before."Of course he is; but that is exactly what he ought tohave expected, if he had been properly taught.

Realization may perhaps come to him in this way.He sees his friends about him, but he soon discovers thathe cannot always communicate with them. Sometimeshe speaks to them, and they do not seem to hear; hetries to touch them, and finds that he can make no im-pression upon them. Even then, for some time he per-suades himself that he is dreaming, and will presentlyawake, for at other times (when they are what we callasleep) his friends are perfectly conscious of him, andtalk with him as of old. But gradually he discovers thefact that he is after all dead, and then he usually begins


21/82

THE TRUE FACTS.tive teaching which he has received. He does not under-stand where he is, or what has happened, since his situa-tion is not what he expected from the orthodox stand-point. As an English general once said on this occas-ion, **But if I am dead, where am I? If this is heavenI don't think much of it; and if it is hell, it is betterthan I expected!"


22/82

CHAPTER m.PURGATORY.

A great deal of totally unnecessary uneasiness andeven acute suffering has been caused by those who stillcontinue to teach the world silly fables about non-exis-tent bugbears instead of using reason and common sense.The baseless and blasphemous hell-fire theory has donemore harm than even its promoters know, for it hasworked evil beyond the grave as well as on this side. Butpresently the *^dead^' man will meet with some otherdead person who has been more sensibly instructed, andwill learn from him that there is no cause for fear, andthat there is a rational life to be lived in this new worldjust as there was in the old one.He will find by degrees that there is very much thatis new as well as much that is a counterpart of thatwhich he already knows; for in this astral worldthoughts and desires express themselves in visible forms,though these are composed mostly of the finer matter ofthe plane. As his astral life proceeds, these become moreand more prominent, for we must remember that he isall the while steadily withdrawing further and furtherinto himself. The entire period of an incarnation is inreality occupied by the ego in first putting himself forthinto matter, and then in drawing back again with theresults of his effort. If the ordinary man were asked todraw a line symbolical of life, he would probably makeit a straight one, beginning at birth and ending at deathbut the Theosophical student should rather representthe life as a great ellipse, starting from the ego on thehigher mental level and returning to him. The linewould descend into the lower part of the mental plane,


23/82

PUEGATOEY.tively, at the bottom of the ellipse, would be upon thephysical plane, and the line would very soon reascendinto the astral and mental planes. The physical lifewould therefore be represented only by that small por-tion of the curve which lay below the line which indi-cated the boundary between the astral and physicalplanes, and birth and death would simply be the pointsat which the curve crossed that lineobviously by nomeans the most important points of the whole.

The real central point would clearly be that furthestremoved from the egothe turning point, as it werewhat in astronomy we should call the aphelion. That isneither birth nor death, but should be a middle point inthe physical life, when the force from the ego has ex-pended its outward rush, and turns to begin the longprocess of withdrawal. Gradually his thoughts shouldturn upward, he cares less and less for merely physicalmatters, and presently he drops the dense body alto-gether. His life on the astral plane commences, but dur-ing the whole of it the process of withdrawal continues.The result of this is that as time passes he pays less andless attention to the lower matter of which counterpartsof physical objects are composed, and is more and moreoccupied with that higher matter of which thought-forms are builtso far, that is, as thought-forms appearon the astral plane at all. So his life becomes more andmore a life in a world of thought, and the counterpartof the world which he has left fades from his view, notthat he has changed his location in space, but that hisinterest is shifting its center. His desires still persist,and the forms surrounding him will be very largely theexpression of these desires, and whether his life is one ofhappiness or discomfort will depend chiefly upon thenature of these.A study of this astral life shows us very clearly thereason for many ethical precepts. Most men recognizethat sins which injure others are definitely and obviously


24/82

THE LIFE AFTEE DEATHto be wrong for them to feel jealousy, or hatred, or am-bition, so long as they do not allow themselves to mani-fest these feelings outwardly in deed or in speech. Aglimpse at this after-world shows us exactly how suchfeelings injure the man who harbors them, and howthey would cause him suffering of the most acute char-acter after his death. We shall understand this betterif we examine a few typical cases of astral life, and seewhat their principal characteristics will be.

Let us think first of the ordinary colorless man, whois neither specially good, nor specially bad, nor indeedspecially anything in particular. The man is in no waychanged, so colorlessness will remain his principal char-acteristic (if we can call it one) after his death. He willhave no special suffering and no special joy, and mayvery probably find astral life rather dull, because he hasnot during his time on earth developed any rationalinterests. If he has had no ideas beyond gossip or whatis called sport, or nothing beyond his business or hisdress, he is likely to find time hang heavy on his handswhen all such things are no longer possible. But thecase of a man who has had strong desires of a low mate-rial type, such as could be satisfied only on the physicalplane, is an even worse one. Think of the case of thedrunkard or the sensualist. He has been the slave ofovermastering craving during earth-life, and it still re-mains undiminished after deathrather, it is strongerthan ever, since its vibrations have no longer the heavyphysical particles to set in motion. But the possibilityof gratifying this terrible thirst is for ever removed,because the body, through which alone it could be satis-fied, is gone. We see that the fires of purgatory are noinapt symbols for the vibrations of such a torturing de-sire as this. It may endure for a quite long time, sinceit passes only by gradually wearing itself out, and theman's fate is undoubtedly a terrible one. Yet there aretwo points that we should bear in mind in considering


25/82

Fig. 2.


26/82


27/82

PUEGATORY.and determined the exact degree of its power and itsduration. If he had controlled that desire during lifethere would have been just so much the less of it totrouble him after death. Secondly, it is the only wayin which he can get rid of the vice. If he could passfrom a life of sensuality and drunkenness directly intohis next incarnation, he would be born a slave to his viceit would dominate him from the beginning, and therewould be for him no possibility of escape. But now thatthe desire has worn itself out, he will begin his newcareer without that burden, and the soul, having had sosevere a lesson, will make every possible effort to re-strain its lower vehicles from repeating such a mistake.

All this was known to the world even as lately asclassical times. "We see it clearly imaged for us in themyth of Tantalus, who suffered always with ragingthirst, yet was doomed for ever to see the water recedejust as it was about to touch his lips. Many another sinproduces its result in a manner just as gruesome, al-though each is peculiar to itself. See how the miser willsuffer when he can no longer hoard his gold, when heperhaps knows that it is being spent by alien hands.Think how the jealous man will continue to suffer fromhis jealousy, knowing that he has now no power to inter-fere upon the physical plane, yet feeling more stronglythan ever. Remember the fate of Sisyphus in Greekmythhow he was condemned forever to roll a heavyrock up to the summit of a mountain, only to see it rolldown again the moment that success seemed within hisreach. See how exactly this typified the after-life of theman of worldly ambition. He has all his life been inthe habit of forming selfish plans, and therefore he con-tinues to do so in the astral world; he carefully buildsup his plot until it is perfect in his mind, and only thenrealizes that he has lost the physical body which is neces-sary for its achievement. Down fall his hopes ; yet so in-grained is the habit that he continues again and again


28/82

THE LIFE AFTER DEATHuntil the vice is worn out. Then at last he realizes thathe need not roll his rock, and lets it rest in peace at thebottom of the hill.

.We have considered the case of the ordinary man,and of the man who dii3Pers from the ordinary becauseof his gross and selfish desires. Now let us examine thecase of the man who differs from the ordinary in theother directionwho has some interests of a rationalnature. In order to understand how the after-life ap-pears to him, we must bear in mind that the majorityof men spend the greater part of their waking life andmost of their strength in work that they do not reallylike, that they would not do at all if it were not necessaryin order to earn their living, or support those who are de-pendent upon them. Kealize the condition of the manwhen all necessity for this grinding toil is over, when itis no longer needful to earn a living, since the astralbody requires no food nor clothing nor lodging. Thenfor the first time since earliest childhood that man isfree to do precisely what he likes, and can devote hiswhole time to whatever may be his chosen occupationso long, that is, as it is of such a nature as to be capableof realization without physical matter. Suppose that aman 's greatest delight is in music ; upon the astral planehe has the opportunity of listening to all the grandestmusic that earth can produce, and is even able underthese new conditions to hear far more in it than before,since here other and fuller harmonies than our dull earscan grasp are now within his reach. The man whose de-light is in art, who loves beauty in form and color, hasall the loveliness of this higher world before him fromwhich to choose. If his delight is in beauty in Nature, hehas unequalled possibilities for indulging it; for he canreadily and rapidly move from place to place, and enjoyin quick succession wonders of Nature which the physicalman would need years to visit. If his fancy turns to-wards science or history, the libraries and the labora-


29/82

PURGATORY.hension of processes in chemistry and biology would befar fuller than ever before, for now he could see theinner as well as the outer workings, and many of thecauses as well as the effects. And in all these cases thereis the wonderful additional delight that no fatigue ispossible. Here we know how constantly, when we aremaking some progress in our studies or our experiments,we are unable to carry them on because our brain willnot bear more than a certain amount of strain; outsideof the physical no fatigue seems to exist, for it is inreality the brain and not the mind that tires.All this time I have been speaking of mere selfishgratification, even though it be of the rational and intel-lectual kind. But there are those among us who wouldnot be satisfied without something higher than thiswhose greatest joy in any life would consist in servingtheir fellow-men. What has the astral life in store forthem? They will pursue their philanthropy more vigo-rously than ever, and under better conditions than onthis lower plane. There are thousands whom they canhelp, and with far greater certainty of really being ableto do good than we usually attain in this life. Somedevote themselves thus to the general good; some areespecially occupied with cases among their own familyor friends, either living or dead. It is a strange inver-sion of the facts, this employment of those words livingand dead ; for surely we are the dead, we who are buriedin these gross, cramping physical bodies; and they aretruly the living, who are so much freer and more capa-.ble, because less hampered. Often the mother who haspassed into that higher life will still watch over herchild, and be to him a veritable guardian angel; oftenthe ^'dead'^ husband still remains within reach, and intouch with his sorrowing wife, thankful if even now andthen he is able to make her feel that he lives in strengthand love beside her as of yore.

If all this be so, you may think, then surely the sooner


30/82


31/82

PUEGATORY.and helpful learns much in many ways through thework which he is able to do in that astral life; he willreturn to earth with many additional powers and qual-ities because of the practice he has had in unselfish ef-fort. So we need have no fear as to this question ofprogress.

Another point often raised is, shall we recognize ourloved ones who have passed on before us ? Assuredly weshall, for neither they nor we shall be changed; why,,then, should we not recognize them? The attraction isstill there, and will act as a magnet to draw togetherthose who feel it, more readily and more surely therethan here. True, that if the loved one has left this earthvery long ago, he may have already passed beyond theastral plane, and entered the heaven-life; in that casewe must wait until we also reach that level before wecan rejoin him, but when that is gained we shall possessour friend more perfectly than in this prison-house wecan ever realize. But of this be sure, that those whomyou have loved are not lost ; if they have died recently,then you will find them on the astral plane; if theyhave died long ago, you will find them in the heaven-life, but in any case the reunion is sure where the af-fection exists. For love is one of the mightiest powersof the universe, whether it be in life or in death.There is an infinity of interesting information to begiven about this higher life. You should read the liter-ature; read Mrs. Besant's '^ Death and After," and myown books on ^^The AstraLi'lane, ' ' and "The Other Sideof Death." It is very well worth your while to studytliis subject, for the knowledge of the truth takes awayall fear of death, and makes life easier to live, becausewe understand its object and its end. Death brings nosuffering, but only joy, for those who live the true, theunselfish life. The old Latin saying is literally trueMors janua vitaedeath is the gate of life. That is ex-actly what it isa gate into a fuller and higher life.


32/82

THE LIFE AFTER DEATHthe great law of Divine Justice, and we can trust as im-plicity there as here to the action of that law, with re-gard both to ourselves and to those we love.


33/82

CHAPTER IV.THE HEAVEN-WORLD

All religions agree in declaring the existence ofheaven, and in stating that the enjoyment of its blissfollows upon a well-spent earthly life. Christianity andMohammedanism speak of it as a reward assigned byGod to those who have pleased Him, but most otherfaiths describe it rather as the necessary result of thegood life, exactly as we should from the Theosophicalpoint of view. Yet though all religions agree in paintingthis happy life in glowing terms, none of them havesucceeded in producing an impression of reality in theirdescriptions. All that is written about heaven is soabsolutely unlike anything that we have known, thatmany of the descriptions seem almost grotesque to us.We should hesitate to admit this with regard to thelegends familiar to us from our infancy, but if thestories of one of the other great religions were read to us,we should see it readily enough. In Buddhist or Hindubooks you will find magniloquent accounts of intermin-able gardens, in which the trees are all of gold and silver,and their fruits of various kinds of jewels, and youmight be tempted to smile, unless the thought occurredto you that after all, to the Buddhist or Hindu our talesof streets of gold and gates of pearl might in truth seemquite as improbable. The fact is that the ridiculous ele-ment is imported into these accounts only when we takethem literally, and fail to realize that each scribe is try-


34/82

THE LIFE AFTER DEATHutterly indescribable. The Hindu writer had no doubtseen some of the gorgeous gardens of the Indian kings,where just such decorations as he describes are com-monly employed. The Jewish scribe had no familiaritywith such things, but he dwelt in a great and magnificentcityprobably Alexandria; and so his conception ofsplendor was a city, but made unlike anything on earthby the costliness of its material and its decorations. Soeach is trying to paint a truth which is too grand forwords by employing such similes as are familiar to hismind.

There have been those since that day who have seenthe glory of heaven, and have tried in their feeble wayto describe it. Some of our own students have beenamong these, and in the Theosophical Manual No. 6*you may find an effort of my own in that direction. Wedo not speak now of gold and silver, of rubies and dia-monds, when we wish to convey the idea of the greatestpossible refinement and beauty of color and form; wedraw our similes rather from the colors of the sunset,and from all the glories of sea and sky, because to usthese are the more heavenly. Yet those of us who haveseen the truth know well that in all our attempts atdescription we have failed as utterly as the Orientalscribes to convey any idea of a reality which no wordscan ever picture, though every man one day shall seeit and know it for himself.

For this heaven is not a dream; it is a radiant real-ity; but to comprehend anything of it we must firstchange one of our initial ideas on the subject. Heavenis not a place, but a state of consciousness. If you askme *'Where is heaven?" I must answer you that it ishereround you at this very moment, near to you asthe air you breathe. The light is all about you, as theBuddha said so long ago; you have only to cast thebandage from your eyes and look. But what is this cast-ing away of a bandage? Of what is it symbolical? It


35/82

THE HEAVEN-WORLD.is simply a question of raising the consciousness to ahigher level, of learning to focus it in the vehicle offiner matter. I have already spoken of the possibilityof doing this with regard to the astral body, therebyseeing the astral world; this needs simply a furtherstage of the same process, the raising of the conscious-ness to the mental plane, for man has a body for thatlevel also, through which he may receive its vibrations,and so live in the glowing splendor of heaven whilestill possessing a physical bodythough indeed aftersuch an experience he will have little relish for thereturn to the latter.

The ordinary man reaches this state of bliss onlyafter death, and not immediately after it except in veryrare cases. I have explained how after death the Egosteadily withdrew into himself. The whole astral life isin fact a constant process of withdrawal, and when incourse of time the soul reaches the limit of that plane,he dies to it in just the same way as he did to the physicalplane. That is to say, he casts off the body of that plane,and leaves it behind him while he passes on to higher andstill fuller life. No pain or suffering of any kind pre-cedes this second death, but just as with the first, thereis usually a period of unconsciousness, from which theman awakes gradually. Some years ago I wrote a bookcalled ^^The Devachanic Plane,'' in which I endeavoredto some extent to describe what he would see, and totabulate as far as I could the various subdivisions ofthis glorious Land of Light, giving instances which hadbeen observed in the course of our investigations in con-nection with this heaven-life. For the moment I shalltry to put the matter before you from another point ofview, and those who wish may supplement the informa-tion by reading the book as well.

Perhaps the most comprehensive opening statementis that this is the plane of the Divine mind, that here we


36/82

THE LIFE AFTEE DEATHreality. We labor under a great disadvantage from ourhabit of regarding material things as real, and thosewhich are not material as dream-like and therefore un-real; whereas the fact is that everything which is ma-terial is buried and hidden in this matter, and so what-ever of reality it may possess is far less obvious andrecognizable than it would be when regarded from ahigher standpoint. So that when we hear of a world ofthought, we immediately think of an unreal world, builtout of ^^such stuff as dreams are made of,'' as the poetsays.

Try to realize that when a man leaves his physicalbody and opens his consciousness to astral life, his firstsensation is of the intense vividness and reality of thatlife, so that he thinks *'Now for the first time I knowwhat it is to live. ' ' But when in turn he leaves that lifefor the higher one, he exactly repeats the same experi-ence, for this life is in turn so much fuller and widerand more intense than the astral that once more nocomparison is possible. And yet there is another lifeyet, beyond all this, unto which even this is but as moon-light unto sunlight; but it is useless at present to thinkof that.

There may be many to whom it sounds absurd thata realm of thought should be more real than the physi-cal world; well, it must remain so for them until theyhave some experience of a life higher than this, and thenin one moment they will know far more than any wordscan ever tell them.On this plane, then, we find existing the infinite ful-ness of the Divine Mind, open in all its limitless affluenceto every soul, just in proportion as that soul has qualifiedhimself to receive. If man had already completed hisdestined evolution, if he had fully realized and unfoldedthe divinity whose germ is within him, the whole of thisglory would be within his reach; but since none of us


37/82

THE HEAVEN-WORLD.as yet can grasp that entirely, but each draws from itand cognizes only so much as he has by previous effortprepared himself to take. Different individuals bringvery different capabilities; as the Eastern simile has it,each man brings his own cup, and some of the cups arelarge and some are small, but, small or large, every cupis filled to its utmost capacity ; the sea of bliss holds farmore than enough for all.

All religions have spoken of this bliss of heaven, yetfew of them have put before us with suffiicient clearnessand precision this leading idea which alone explains ra-tionally how for all alike such bliss is possiblewhich is,indeed, the key-note of the conceptionthe fact thateach man makes his own heaven by selection from the in-effable splendors of the Thought of God Himself. Aman decides for himself both the length and characterof his heaven-life by the causes which he himself gener-ates during his earth-life ; therefore he cannot but haveexactly the amount which he has deserved, and exactlythe quality of joy which is best suited to his idiosyn-crasies, for this is a world in which every being must,from the very fact of his consciousness there, be enjoyingthe highest spiritual bliss of which he is capableworld whose power of response to his aspirations islimited only by his capacity to aspire.He had made himself an astral body by his desiresandpassions during earth-life, and he had to live in it dur-ing his astral existence, and that time was happy ormiserable for him according to its character. Now thistime of purgatory is over, for that lower part of hisnature has burnt itself away ; now there remain only thehigher and more refined thoughts, the noble and unselfishaspirations that he poured out during earth-life. Thesecluster round him, and make a sort of shell about him,through the medium of which he is able to respond tocertain types of vibration in this refined matter. These


38/82

THE LIFE AFTEE DEATHfinds it to be a storehouse of infinite extent upon whichhe is able to draw just according to the power of thosethoughts and aspirations which he generated in thephysical and astral life. All the highest of his affectionand his devotion is now producing its results, for thereis nothing else left; all that was selfish or grasping hasbeen left behind in the plane of desire.

For there are two kinds of affection. There is one,hardly worthy of so sublime a name, which thinks al-ways of how much love it is receiving in return for itsinvestment of attachment, which is ever worrying as tothe exact amount of affection which the other person isshowing for it, and so is constantly entangled in the evilmeshes of jealousy and suspicion. Such feeling, grasp-ing and full of greed, will work out its results of doubtand misery upon the plane of desire, to which it so clear-ly belongs. But there is another kind of love, whichnever stays to think how much it is loved, but has onlythe one object of pouring itself out unreservedly at thefeet of the object of its affection, and considers only howbest it can express in action the feeling which fills itsheart so utterly. Here there is no limitation, becausethere is no grasping, no drawing towards the self, nothought of return, and just because of that there is atremendous outpouring of force, which no astral mattercould express, nor could the dimensions of the astralplane contain it. It needs the finer matter and the widerspace of the higher level, and so the energy generatedbelongs to the mental world. Just so there is a religiousdevotion which thinks mainly of what it will get for itsprayers, and lowers its worship into a species of bargain-ing ; while there is also a genuine devotion, which forgetsitself absolutely in the contemplation of its deity. Weall know well that in our highest devotion there issomething which has never yet been satisfied, that ourgrandest aspirations have never yet been realized, that


39/82

THE HEAVEN-WORLD.profound emotion stirred within our hearts by thenoblest music or the most perfect art reaches to heightsand depths unknown to this dull earth. Yet all this isa wondrous force of power beyond our calculation, and itmust produce its result somewhere, somehow, for the lawof the conservation of energy holds good upon the higherplanes of thought and aspiration just as surely as inordinary mechanics. But since it must react upon himwho set it in motion, and yet it cannot work upon thephysical plane because of its narrowness and compara-tive grossness of matter, how and when can it produceits inevitable result? It simply waits for the man untilit reaches its level ; it remains as so much stored-up ener-gy until its opportunity arrives. While this conscious-ness is focussed upon the physical and astral planes itcannot react upon him, but as soon as he transfers him-self entirely to the mental it is ready for him, its flood-gates are opened, and its action commences. So perfectjustice is done, and nothing is ever lost, even though tous in this lower world it seems to have missed its aimand come to nothing.


40/82

CHAPTER V.MANY MANSIONS.

The key-note of the conception is the comprehensionof how man makes his own heaven. Here upon thisplane of the Divine Mind exists, as we have said, allbeauty and glory conceivable ; but the man can look outupon it all only through the windows he himself hasmade. Every one of his thought-forms is such a window,through which response may come to him from the forceswithout. If he has chiefly regarded physical things dur-ing his earth-life, then he has made for himself but fewwindows through which this higher glory can shine inupon him. Yet every man will have had some touch ofpure, unselfish feeling, even if it were but once in all hislife, and that will be a window for him now. Every man,except the utter savage at a very early stage, will surelyhave something of this wonderful time of bliss. Insteadof saying, as orthodoxy does, that some men will go toheaven and some to hell, it would be far more correct tosay that all men will have their share of both states (ifwe are to call even the lowest astral life by so horrible aname as hell), and it is only their relative proportionswhich differ. It must be borne in mind that the soul ofthe ordinary man is as yet but at an early stage of hisdevelopment. He has learnt to use his physical vehiclewith comparative ease, and he can also function toler-ably freely in his astral body, though he is rarely ableto carry through the memory of its activities to his physi-


41/82

MANY MANSIONS.those lower bodies, cannot travel about in it, nor employ-its senses for the reception of information in the normalway.

We must not think of him, therefore, as in a condi-tion of any great activity, or as able to move about free-ly, as he did upon the astral levels. His condition hereis chiefly receptive, and his communication with theworld outside him is only through his own windows, andtherefore exceedingly limited. The man who can putforth full activity there is already almost more thanman, for he must be a glorified spirit, a great and highly-evolved entity. He would have full consciousness there,and would use his mental vehicle as freely as the ordi-nary man employs his physical body, and through itvast fields of higher knowledge would lie open to him.But we are thinking of one as yet less developed thanthisone who has his windows, and sees only throughthem. In order to understand his heaven we must con-sider two points: His relation to the plane itself, andhis relation to his friends. The question of his relationto his surroundings upon the plane divides itself intotwo parts, for we have to think first of the matter ofthe plane as moulded by his thought, and secondly of theforces of the plane as evoked in answer to his aspirations.

I have mentioned how man surrounds himself withthought-forms; here on this plane we are in the veryhome of thought, so naturally those forms are all-im-portant in connection with both these considerations.There are living forces about him, mighty angelic'in-habitants of the plane, and many of their orders arevery sensitive to certain aspirations of man, and readilyrespond to them. But naturally both his thoughts andhis aspirations are only along the lines which he hasalready prepared during earth-life. It might seem thatwhen he was transferred to a plane of such transcendentforce and vitality, he might well be stirred up to en-tirely new activities along hitherto unwonted lines; but


42/82

THE LIFE AFTEB DEATHmeans the same order as his lower vehicles, and is by nomeans so fully under his control. All through a past ofmany lives, it has been accustomed to receive its im-pressions and incitements to action from below, throughthe lower vehicles, chiefly from the physical body, andsometimes from the astral; it has done very little inthe way of receiving direct mental vibrations at its ownlevel, and it cannot suddenly begin to accept and respondto them. Practically, then, the man does not initiate anynew thoughts, but those which he has already formthe windows through which he looks out on his newworld.

With regard to these windows there are two possi-bilities of variationthe direction in which they look,and the kind of glass of which they are composed. Thereare very many directions which the higher thought maytake. Some of these, such as affection and devotion, areso generally of a personal character that it is perhapsbetter to consider them in connection with the man's re-lation to other people ; let us rather take first an examplewhere that element does not come inwhere we have todeal only with the influence of his surroundings. Sup-pose that one of his windows into heaven is that ofmusic. Here we have a very mighty force; you knowhow wonderfully music can uplift a man, can make himfor the time a new being in a new world; if you haveever experienced its effect you will realize that here weare in the presence of the stupendous power. The manthat has no music in his soul has no window open in thatdirection ; but a man who has a musical window will re-ceive through it three entirely distinct sets of impres-sions, all of which, however, will be modified by the kindof glass he has in his window. It is obvious that his glassmay be a great limitation to his view ; it may be colored,and so admit only certain rays of light, or it may be ofpoor material, and so distort and darken all the rays as


43/82

Fig. 4.

Fig. 5.


44/82


45/82

MANY MANSIONS.and so on. But suppose his musical window to be a goodone, what will he receive through it?

First, he will sense that music which is the expressionof the ordered movement of the forces of the plane.There was a definite fact behind the poetic idea of themusic of the spheres, for on these higher planes all move-ment and action of any kind produces glorious harmon-ies both of sound and color. All thought expresses itselfin this way^his own as well as that of others^in alovely yet indescribable series of everchanging chords,as of a thousand JEolian harps. This musical manifes-tation of the vivid and glowing life of heaven wouldbe for him a kind of ever-present and ever-delightfulbackground to all his other experiences.

Secondly, there is among the inhabitants of the planeone class of entitiesone great order of angels, as ourChristian friends would call them, who are specially de-voted to music, and habitually express themselves byits means to a far fuller extent than the rest. They arespoken of in old Hindu books under the name of Gand-harvas. The man whose soul is in tune with music willcertainly attract their attention, and will draw himselfinto connection with some of them, and so will learnwith ever-increasing enjoyment all the marvellous newcombinations which they employ. Thirdly, he will bea keenly appreciative listener to the music made by hisfellow-men in the heaven-world. Think how many greatcomposers have preceded him: Bach, Beethoven, Men-delssohn, Handel, Mozart, Rossiniall are there, notdead but full of vigorous life, and ever pouring forthfar grander strains, far more glorious harmonies, thanany which they knew on earth. Each of these is indeeda fountain of wondrous melody, and many an inspira-tion of our earthly musicians is in reality but a faint andfar-off echo of the sweetness of their song. Very farmore than we realize of the genius of this lower world isnaught but a reflection of the untrammelled powers of


46/82

THE LIFE AFTEE DEATHthe man who is receptive here can catch some thoughtfrom them, and reproduce it, so far as may be possible,in this lower sphere. Great masters of music have toldus how they sometimes hear the whole of some grandoratorio, some stately march, some noble chorus in oneresounding chord ; how it is in this way that the inspira-tion comes to them, though when they try to write itdown in notes, many pages of music may be necessaryto express it. That exactly expresses the manner inwhich the heavenly music differs from that which weknow here; one mighty chord there will convey whathere would take hours to render far less effectively.

Very similar would be the experiences of the manwhose window was art. He also would have the samethree possibilities of delight, for the order of the planeexpresses itself in color as well as in sound, and all Theo-sophical students are familiar with the fact that thereis a color language of the Devasan order of spiritswhose very communication one with another is by flash-ings of splendid color. Again, all the great artists ofmediaeval times are working stillnot with brush andcanvas, but with the far easier, yet infinitely more satis-factory moulding of mental matter by the power ofthought. Every artist knows how far below the concep-tion in his mind is the most successful expression of itupon paper or canvas; but here to think is to realize,and disappointment is impossible. The same thing istrue of all directions of thought, so that there is in truthan infinity to enjoy and to learn, far beyond all that ourlimited minds can grasp down here.


47/82

CHAPTER VI.OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.

But let us turn to the second part of our subject, the \question of the man's relations with persons whom heloves, or with those for whom he feels devotion or adora-tion. Again and again people ask us whether they willmeet and know their loved ones in this grander life,whether amid all this unimaginable splendor they willlook in vain for the familiar faces without which all \would for them seem vanity. Happily to this question 1the answer is clear and unqualified; the friends will jbe there without the least shadow of doubt, and far more /fully, far more really, than ever they have been with us !yet.

Yet again, men often ask **what of our friends al-ready in the enjoyment of the heaven-life ; can they seeus here below? Are they watching us and waiting forus?'' Hardly; for there would be difficulties in theway of either of these theories. How could the dead behappy if he looked back and saw those whom he loved insorrow or suffering, or, far worse still, in the commissionof sin? And if we adopt the other alternative, that hedoes not see, but is waiting, the case is scarcely better.For then the man will have a long and wearisome periodof waiting, a painful time of suspense, often extendingover many years, while the friend would in many casesarrive so much changed as to be no longer sympathetic.On the system so wisely provided for us by nature allthese difficulties are avoided; those whom the man lovesmost he has ever with him, and always at their noblest


48/82

THE LIFE AFTER DEATHcome between them, since he receives from them all thetime exactly what he wishes. The arrangement is in-finitely superior to anything which the imagination ofman has been able to offer us in its placeas indeed wemight have expectedfor all those speculations wereman's idea of what is best, but the truth is God's idea.Let me try to explain it.

Whenever we love a person very deeply we form astrong mental image of him, and he is often present inour mind. Inevitably we take his mental image into theheaven-world with us, because it is to that level of matterthat it naturally belongs. But the love which forms andretains such an image is a very powerful forcea forcewhich is strong enough to reach and act upon the soul ofthat friend, the real man whom we love. That soul atonce and eagerly responds, and pours himself into thethought-form which we have made for him, and in thatway we find our friend truly present with us, more vivid-ly than ever before. Remember, it is the soul we love,not the body ; and it is the soul that we have with us here.It may be said, **Yes, that would be so if the friend werealso dead ; but suppose he is still alive ; he cannot be intwo places at once.'' The fact is that, as far as this isconcerned, he can be in two places at once, and oftenmany more than two; and whether he is what we com-monly call living, or what we commonly call dead, makesnot the slightest difference. Let us try to understandwhat a soul really is, and. we shall see better how thismay be.

The soul belongs to a higher plane, and is a muchgreater and grander thing "than any manifestation of itcan be. Its relation to its manifestations is that of onedimension to another^that of a line to a square, or asquare to a cube. No number of squares could evermake a cube, because the square has only two dimen-sions, while the cube has three. So no number of ex-pressions on any lower plane can ever exhaust the ful-


49/82

OUE FEIENDS IN HEAVEN.higher level . He puts down a small portion of himselfinto a physical body in order to acquire experiencewhich can only be had on this plane; he can take onlyone such body at a time, for that is the law; but if hecould take a thousand, they would not be sufficient toexpress what he really is. He may have only one physi-cal body, but if he has evoked such love from a friend,that that friend has a strong mental image of him al-ways present in his thought, then he is able to respondto that love by pouring into that thought-form his ownlife, and so vivifying it into a real expression of him onthis level which is two whole planes higher than thephysical, and therefore so much the better able to expresshis qualities.

If it still seems difficult to realize how his conscious-ness can be active in that manifestation as well as inthis, compare with this an ordinary physical experience.Each of us, as he sits in his chair, is conscious at thesame instant of several physical contacts. He touchesthe seat of the chair, his feet rest on the ground, hishands feel the arms of the chair, or perhaps hold a bookand yet his brain had no difficulty in realizing all thesecontacts at once ; why, then should it be harder for thesoul, which is so much greater than the mere physicalconsciousness, to be conscious simultaneously in morethan one of these manifestations on planes so entirelybelow him ? It is really the one man who feels all thosedifferent contacts ; it is really the one man who feels allthese different thought-images, and is real, living andloving in all of them. You have him there always at hisbest, for this is a far fuller expression than the physicalplane could ever give, even under the best of circum-stances.

Will this affect the evolution of the friend in anyway, it may be asked? Certainly it will, for it allowshim an additional opportunity of manifestation. If hehas a physical body he is already learning physical les-


50/82

THE LIFE AFTER DEATHtime to develop the quality of affection much more rapid-ly through the form on the mental plane which you havegiven him. So your love for him is doing great thingsfor him. As we have said, the soul may manifest inmany images if he is fortunate enough to have themmade for him. One who is much loved by many peoplemay have part in many heavens simultaneously, and somay evolve with far greater rapidity; but this vast ad-ditional opportunity is the direct result and reward ofthose lovable qualities which drew towards him the af-fectionate regard of so many of his fellowmen. So notonly does he receive love from all these, but through thatreceiving he himself grows in love, whether these friendsbe living or dead.We should observe, however, that there are two possi-ble limitations to the perfection of this intercourse.First, your image of your friend may be partial and im-perfect, so that many of his higher qualities may not berepresented, and may therefore be unable to show them-selves forth through it. Then, secondly, there may besome difficulty from your friend's side. You may haveformed a conception somewhat inaccurately; if yourfriend be as yet not a highly evolved soul, it is possiblethat you may even have overrated him in some direction,and in that case there might be some aspect of yourthought image which he could not completely fill. This,however, is unlikely, and could only take place when aquite unworthy object had been unwisely idolized. Eventhen the man who made the image would not find anychange or lack in his friend, for the latter is at leastbetter able to fulfil his ideal than he has ever been duringphysical life. Being undeveloped, he may not be per-fect, but at least he is better than ever before, so nothingis wanting to the joy of the dweller in heaven. Yourfriend can fill hundreds of images with those qualitieswhich he possesses, but when a quality is as yet unde-veloped in him, he does not suddenly evolve it because


51/82

OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.Here is the enormous advantage which those have whoform images only of those who cannot disappoint themor, since there could be no disappointment, we shouldrather say, of those capable of rising above even thehighest conception that the lower mind can form of them.The Theosophist who forms in his mind the image ofthe Master knows that all the inadequacy will be on hisown side, for he is drawing there upon a depth of loveand power which his mental plummet can never sound.

But, it may be asked, since the soul spends so largea proportion of his time in the enjoyment of the blissof this heaven-world, what are his opportunities of de-velopment during his stay there ? They may be dividedinto three classes, though of each there may be manyvarieties. First, tlirough certain qualities in himself hehas opened certain windows into this heaven-world; bythe continued exercise of those qualities through so longa time he will greatly strengthen them, and will return toearth for his next incarnation very richly dowered inthat respect. All thoughts are intensified by reiteration,and the man who spends a thousand years principally inpouring forth unselfish affection will assuredly at theend of that period know how to love strongly and well.

Secondly, if through his window he pours forth anaspiration which brings him into contact with one ofthe great orders of spirits, he will certainly acquire muchfrom his intercourse with them. In music they will useall kinds of overtones and variants which were previ-ously unknown to him; in art they are familiar with athousand types of which he has had no conception. Butall of these will gradually impress themselves upon him,and in this way also he will come out of that gloriousheaven-life richer far than he entered it.

Thirdly, he will gain additional information throughthe mental images which he has made, if these peoplethemselves are sufficiently developed to be able to teachhim. Once more, the Theosophist who has made the


52/82

THE LIFE APTEB DEATHhelp through it, and in a lesser degree this is possiblewith lesser people.

Above and beyond all this comes the life of the soulor ego in his own causal body^the vehicle which hecarries on with him from life to life, unchanging exceptfor its gradual evolution. There comes an end even tothat glorious heaven-life, and then the mental body inits turn drops away as the others have done, and thelife in the causal begins. Here the soul needs no win-dows, for this is his true home, and here all his wallshave fallen away. The majority of men have as yet butvery little consciousness at such a height as this: theyrest, dreamily unobservant and scarcely awake, but suchvision as they have is true, however limited by theirlack of development. Still, every time they return theselimitations will be smaller, and they themselves will begreater, so that this truest life will be wider and fuller

" for them. As the improvement continues, this causallife grows longer and longer, assuming an ever largerproportion, as compared to the existence at lower levels.And as he grows the man becomes capable not only ofreceiving, but of giving. Then, indeed, is his triumphapproaching, for he is learning the lesson of the Christ,learning the crowning glory of sacrifice, the supreme de-light of pouring out all his life for the helping of hisfellow-men, the devotion of the self to the all, of celes-tial strength to human service, of all these splendidheavenly forces to the aid of struggling sons of earth.That is part of the life that lies before us; these aresome of the steps which even we, who are as yet at thevery bottom of the golden ladder, may see rising above us,so that we may report them to you who have not seenthem yet, in order that you, too,may open your eyes to theunimaginable splendor which surrounds you here andnow in this dull daily life. This is part of the gospelwhich Theosophy brings to youthe certainty of thissublime future for all. It is certain because it is here


53/82

CHAPTER VII.GUARDIAN ANGELS.

To my mind it is one of the most beautiful pointsabout our Theosophical teaching that it gives back toa man all the most useful and helpful beliefs of the re-ligions which he has outgrown. There are many who,though they feel that they cannot bring themselves toaccept much that they used to take as a matter of course,nevertheless look back with a certain amount of regret tosome of the prettier ideas of their mental childhood.They have come up out of the twilight into fuller light,and they are thankful for the fact, and they could notreturn into their former attitude if they would; yetsome of the dreams of the twilight were lovely, and thefuller light seems sometimes a little hard in comparisonwith its softer tints. Theosophy comes to their rescuehere, and shows them that all the glory and the beautyand the poetry, glimpses of which they used dimly tocatch in their twilight, exists as a living reality, andthat instead of disappearing before the noonday glow,its splendor will be only the more vividly displayedthereby. But our teaching gives them back their poetryon quite a new basisa basis of scientific fact instead ofuncertain tradition. A very good example of such abelief is to be found under our title of *' GuardianAngels." There are many graceful traditions of spirit-ual guardianship and angelic intervention which we


54/82

THE LIFE AFTEE. DEATHour way to accept them rationally, and I hope to explainthat to a very large extent we may do this.

The belief in such intervention is a very old one.Among the earliest Indian legends we find accounts ofthe occasional appearances of minor deities at criticalpoints in human affairs ; the Greek epics are full of simi-lar stories, and in the history of Rome itself we read howthe heavenly twins. Castor and Pollux, led the armiesof the infant republic at the battle of Lake Regillus. Inmediaeval days St. James is recorded to have led theSpanish troops to victory, and there are many tales ofangels who watched over the pious wayfarer, or inter-fered at the right moment to protect him from harm.^* Merely a popular superstition,^' the superior personwill say ; perhaps, but wherever we encounter a popularsuperstition which is widely-spread and persistent, wealmost invariably find some kernal of truth behind itdistorted and exaggerated often, yet a truth still. Andthis is a case in point.

Most religions speak to men of guardian angels, whostand by them in times of sorrow and trouble ; andChristianity was no exception to this rule. But for itssins there came upon Christendom the blight which byan extraordinary inversion of truth was called the Re-formation, and in that ghastly upheaval very much waslost that for the majority of us has not even yet beenregained. That terrible abuses existed, and that a re-form was needed in the church I should be the last todeny: yet surely the Reformation was a very heavyjudgment for the sins which had preceded it. What iscalled Protestantism has emptied and darkened theworld for its votaries, for among many strange andgloomy falsehoods it has endeavored to propagate thetheory that nothing exists to occupy the infinity ofstages between the divine and the human. It offers usthe amazing conception of a constant capricious inter-ference by the Ruler of the universe with the working


55/82

GUARDIAN ANGELSthis usually at the request of His creatures, who are ap-parently supposed to know better than He what is goodfor them. It would be impossible, if one could ever cometo believe this, to divest one 's mind of the idea that suchinterference might be and indeed must be, partial andunjust. In Theosophy we have no such thought, for wehold the belief in perfect Divine justice, and thereforewe recognize that there can be no intervention unless theperson involved has deserved such help. Even then, itwould come to him through agents, and never by directDivine interposition. We know from our study, andmany of us from our experience also, that many inter-mediate stages exist between the human and the Divine.The old belief in angels and archangels is justified bythe facts, for just as there are various kingdoms belowhumanity, so there are also kingdoms above it in evolu-tion. We find next above us, holding much the sameposition with regard to us that we in turn hold to theanimal kingdom, the great kingdom of the devas orangels, and above them again an evolution which hasbeen called that of the Dhyan Chohans, or archangels(though the names given to these orders matter little),and so onward and upward to the very feet of Divinity.All is one graduated life, from God Himself to the verydust beneath our feetone long ladder, of which hu-manity occupies only one of the steps. There are manysteps below us and above us, and every one of them isoccupied. It would indeed be absurd for us to supposethat we constitute the highest possible form of develop-mentthe ultimate achievement of evolution. The oc-casional appearance among humanity of men much fur-ther advanced shows us our next stage, and furnishesus with an example to follow. Men such as the Buddhaand the Christ, and many other lesser teachers, exhibitbefore our eyes a grand ideal towards which we maywork, however far from its attainment we may find our-selves at the present moment.


56/82

THE LIFE AFTEE DEATHtake place, is it then to the angelic hosts that we maylook as the probable agents employed in them? Per-haps sometimes, but very rarely, for these higher beingshave their own work to do, connected with their placein the mighty scheme of things, and they are little likelyeither to notice or to interfere with us. Man is uncon-sciously so extraordinarily conceited that he is prone tothink that all the greater powers in the universe oughtto be watching over him, and ready to help him when-ever he suffers through his own folly or ignorance. Heforgets that he is not engaged in acting as a beneficentprovidence to the kingdoms below him, or going out ofhis way to look after and help the wild animals. Some-times he plays to them the part of the orthodox devil,and breaks into their innocent and harmles lives withtorture and wanton destruction, merely to gratify hisown degraded lust of cruelty, which he chooses to de-nominate * * sport ' ' ; sometimes he holds animals in bond-age, and takes a certain amount of care of them, butit is only that they may work for himnot that he mayforward their evolution in the abstract. How can heexpect from those above him a type of supervision whichhe is so very far from giving to those below him? Itmay well be that the angelic kingdom goes about its ownbusiness, taking little more notice of us than we takeof the sparrows in the trees. It may now and thenhappen that an angel becomes aware of some humansorrow or difficulty which moves his pity, and he maytry to help us, just as we might try to assist an animalin distress; but certainly his wider vision would recog-nize the fact that at the present stage of evolution suchinterpositions would in the vast majority of cases beproductive of infinitely more harm than good. In thefar-distant past man was frequently assisted by thesenon-human agencies because then there were none asyet among our infant humanity capable of taking thelead as teachers ; but now that we are attaining our ado-


57/82

GUAEDIAN ANGELSwhen we can provide leaders and helpers from amongour own ranks.

There is another kingdom of nature of which little isknownthat of nature-spirits or fairies. Here againpopular tradition has preserved a trace of the existenceof an order of beings unknown to science. They havebeen spoken of under many namespixies, gnomes, ko-bolds, brownies, sylphs, undines, good people, etc., andthere are few lands in whose folk-lore they do not playa part. They are beings possessing either astral oretheric bodies, and consequently it is only rarely andunder peculiar circumstances that they become visibleto man. They usually avoid his neighborhood, for theydislike his wild outbursts of passion and desire, so thatwhen they are seen it is generally in some lonely spot,and by some mountaineer or shepherd whose work takeshim far from the busy haunts of the crowd. It has some-times happened that one of these creatures has becomeattached to some human being, and devoted himself tohis service, as will be found in stories of the ScottishHighlands ; but as a rule intelligent assistance is hardlyto be expected from entities of this class.Then there are the great adepts, the Masters of Wis-dommen like ourselves, yet so much more highlyevolved that to us they seem as gods in power, in wis-dom and in compassion. Their whole life is devoted tothe work of helping evolution ; would they therefore belikely to intervene sometimes in human affairs? Possi-bly occasionally, but only very rarely, because they haveother and far greater work to do. The ignorant some-times have suggested that the Adepts ought to comedown into our great towns and succor the poorthe ig-norant, I say, because only one who is exceedingly ig-norant and incredibly presumptuous ever ventures tocriticize thus the action of those so infinitely wiser andgreater than himself. The sensible and modest manrealizes that what they do they must have good reason


58/82

THE LIFE AFTER DEATHheight of stupidity and ingratitude. They have theirown work, on planes far higher than we can reach ; theydeal directly with the souls of men, and shine upon themas sunlight upon a flower, drawing them upwards andonwards, and filling them with power and life ; and thatis a grander work by far than healing or caring for orfeeding their bodies, good though this also may be in itsplace. To employ them in working on the physicalplane would be a waste of force infinitely greater thanit would be to set our most learned men of science to thelabor of breaking stones upon the road, upon the pleathat that was a physical work for the good of all, whilescientific work was not immediately profitable to thepoor! It is not from the Adept that physical interven-tion is likely to come, for he is far more usefully em-ployed.


59/82

CHAPTER Vm.HUMAN WORKERS IN THE UNSEEN.

There are two classes from whom intervention inhuman affairs may come, and in both cases they are menlike ourselves, and not far removed from our own level.The first class consists of those whom we call the dead.We think of them as far away, but that Is a delusion;they are very near us, and though in their new life theycannot usually see our physical bodies, they can and dosee our astral vehicles, and therefore they know all ourfeelings and emotions. So they know when we are introuble, and when we need help, and it sometimes hap-pens that they are able to give it. Here,. then, we havean enormous number of possible helpers, who may occas-ionally intervene in human affairs. ( Occasionally, butnot very often; for the dead man is all the while stead-ily withdrawing into himself, and therefore passingrapidly out of touch with earthly things; and the mosthighly developed, and therefore the most helpful of men,are precisely those who must pass away from earth mostquickly. > Still there are undoubted cases in which thedead have intervened in human affairs; indeed, perhapssuch cases are more numerous than we imagine, for invery many of them the work done is only the puttingof a suggestion into the mind of some person still livingon the physical plane, and he often remains unconsciousof the source of his happy inspiration. Sometimes it isnecessary for the dead man's purpose that he shouldshow himself, and it is only then that we who are so


60/82

THE LIFE AFTEE DEATHhe cannot always show himself at will; there may bemany times when he tries to help, but is unable to doso, and we all the time know nothing of his offer. Stillthere are such cases, and some of them will be found re-counted in my book on The Other Side of Death,The second class among which helpers may be foundconsists of those who are able to function consciouslyupon the astral plane while still livingor perhaps wehad better say, while still in the physical body, for thewords ** living'' and **dead" are in reality ludicrouslymisapplied in ordinary parlance.It is we, immeshed as we are in this physical matter,buried in the dark and noisome mist of earth-life, blind-ed by the heavy veil that shuts out from us so much ofthe light and the glory that are shining around usit issurely we who are the dead; not those who, having castoff for the time the burden of the flesh, stand amongstus radiant, rejoicing, strong, so much freer, so muchmore capable than we.

These who, while still in the physical world, havelearnt to use their astral bodies, and in some cases theirmental bodies also, are usually the pupils of the greatAdepts before-mentioned. They cannot do the workwhich the Master does, for their powers are not de-veloped; they cannot yet function freely on those loftyplanes where He can produce such magnificent results;but they can do something at lower levels, and they arethankful to serve in whatever way He thinks best forthem, and to undertake such work as is within theirpower. So sometimes it happens that they see somehuman trouble or suffering which they are able to allevi-ate, and they gladly try to do what they can. They areoften able to help both the living and the dead, but itmust always be remembered that they work under condi-tions. When such power and such training are given toa man, they are given to him under restrictions. Hemust never use them selfishly, never display them to


61/82

Fi.e:. 6.


62/82


63/82

HUMAN WORKERS IN THE UNSEEN.business of others, never give what at Spiritualistic se-ances are called teststhat is to say, he must never doanything which can be proved as a phenomenon on thephysical plane. He might if he chose take a message toa dead man, but it would be beyond his province to bringback a reply from the dead to the living, unless it wereunder direct instructions from the Master. Thus theband of invisible helpers does not constitute itself into adetective office, nor into an astral information bureau,but it simply and quietly does such work as is given toit to do, or as comes in its way.

Let us see how a man is able to do such work and givesuch help as we have described, so that we may under-stand what are the limits of this power, and see how weourselves may to some extent attain it. We must firstthink how a man leaves his body in sleep. He abandonsthe physical body, in order that it may have completerest ; but he himself, the soul, needs no rest, for he feelsno fatigue. It is only the physical body that ever be-comes tired. When we speak of mental fatigue it is inreality a misnomer, for it is the brain and not the mindthat is tired. In sleep, then, the man is simply using hisastral body instead of his physical, and it is only thatbody that is asleep, not the man himself. If weexamine a sleeping savage with clairvoyant sight, in-deed, we shall probably find that he is nearly as muchasleep as his bodythat he has very little definite con-sciousness in the astral vehicle which he is inhabiting.He is unable to move away from the immediate neigh-borhood of the sleeping physical body, and if an attemptwere made to draw him away he would wake in terror.

If we examine a more civilized man, as for exampleone of ourselves, we shall find a very great difference.In this case the man in his astral body is by no meansunconscious, but quite actively thinking. Nevertheless,he may be taking very little more notice of his surround-

the though not at all


64/82

THE LIFE AFTER DEATHman is so wrapped up in his own thought that he doesnot see, though he could. He has behind him the im-memorial custom of a long series of lives in which theastral faculties have not been used, for these facultieshave been gradually growing inside a shell, somethingas a chicken grows inside the egg. {^he shell is composedof the great mass of self-centered thought in which theordinary man is so hopelessly entombed. ) Whatever mayhave been the thoughts chiefly engaging his mind duringthe past day, he usually continues them when fallingasleep, and he is thus surrounded by so dense a wall ofhis own making that he practically knows nothing ofwhat is going on outside. Occasionally some violent im-pact from without, or some strong desire of his own fromwithin, may tear aside this curtain of mist for themoment and permit him to receive some definite im-pression; but even then the fog closes in again almostimmediately, and he dreams on unobservantly as before.Can he be awakened, you will say? Yes, that mayhappen to him in four different ways. First in the far-distant future the slow but sure evolution of the manwill undoubtedly gradually dissipate the curtain of themist ; Secondly, the man himself, having learnt the factsof the case, may by steady and persistent effort clearaway the mist from within, and by degrees overcomethe inertia resulting from ages of inactivity. He mayresolve before going to sleep to try when he leaves hisbody to awaken himself and see something. This ismerely a hastening of the natural process, and there willbe no harm in it if the man has previously developedcommon sense and the moral qualities. If these are de-fective, he may come very sadly to grief, for he runsthe double danger of misusing such powers as he mayacquire, and of being overwhelmed by fear in the pres-ence of forces which he can neither understand nor con-trol. Thirdly, it has sometimes happened that some ac-cident, or some unlawful use of magical ceremonies,


65/82

HUMAN WORKERS IN THE UNSEEN.again. In such a case the man may be left in the terri-ble condition so well described by Madame Blavatsky inher story of A Bewitched Life, or by Lord Lytton in hispowerful novel Zanoni. Fourthly, some friend whoknows the man thoroughly, and believes him capable offacing the dangers of the astral plane and doing goodunselfish work there, may act upon this cloud-shell fromwithout and gradually arouse the man to his higher pos-sibilities. But he will never do this unless he feels abso-lutely sure of him, of his courage and devotion, and ofhis possession of the necessary qualifications for goodwork. If in all these ways he is judged satisfactory, hemay thus be invited and enabled to join the band ofhelpers.

Now, as to the work such helpers can do. I havegiven many illustrations of this in the little book which Ihave written, bearing the title of Invisible Helpers, so Iwill not repeat those stories now, but rather give you afew leading ideas as to the different types of work whichare most usually done. Naturally it is of varied kinds, andmost of it is not in any way physical; perhaps it maybest be divided into work with the living, and workwith the dead.

The giving of comfort and consolation in sorrow orsickness at once suggests itself as a comparatively easytask, and one that can constantly be performed withoutanyone knowing who does it.

Often efforts are made to patch up quarrels^to ef-fect a reconciliation between those who long have beenseparated by some difference of opinions or of interests.Sometimes it has been possible to warn men of somegreat danger which impended over their heads, and thusto avert an accident. There have been cases in whichthis has been done even with regard to a purely physi-cal matter, though more generally it is against moraldanger that such warnings are given. Occasionally ithas been permissible to offer a solemn warning to one


66/82

THE LIFE AFTER DEATHinto the path of rectitude. If the helpers happen to knowof a time of special trouble for a friend, they will en-deavor to stand by him through it, and to give himstrength and comfort.In great catastrophes, too, there is often much thatcan be done by those whose work is unrecognized by theouter world. Sometimes it may be permitted that someone or two persons may be saved; and so it comes thatin accounts of terrible wholesale destruction we hearnow and then of escapes which are esteemed miraculous.But this is only when among those who are in dangerthere is one who is not to die in that wayone who owesto the Divine law no debt that can be paid in thatfashion. In the gre

Life After Death & How Theosophy Unveils It

Documents

Transcript of Life After Death & How Theosophy Unveils It