1
What they seldom see is that spiritual illumination
and psychical error can and do exist in the same mind at the same time.
(16-3.77)
2
He will lose nothing and gain much if he tries to
know scientifically why these experiences arise. And he will be a better mystic
if he can relate them to the rest of life, if he can move forward to a fuller
understanding of his place in the universal scheme, if he can reach an explicit
and self-conscious comprehension of his own mysticism. If we grant that he can
successfully attain his mystical goal without this definite knowledge, he cannot
become an effective teacher and guide without it. So long as his interest is
confined to himself this need not matter, but as soon as he seeks to serve
mankind it does matter. For then only can he present the way and the goal in the
detail and with the clarity that helps to convince others. (16-2.196)
3
It is true that to analyse with scientific
detachment these most intimate and precious experiences, visions, and messages
could if imprudently done easily destroy their value or prevent their
recurrence. Yet this is precisely what he has to do if he is to protect himself
against illusions. (16-12.40)
4
God will appear to us in Spirit alone, never in
Space. To see him is to see the playing and posturing of our own mind.
(16-15.41)
5
The only elementals are vivified thought-forms. If
they are evil and attack you, oppose them with thoughts of an opposite
character. If your thoughts are strong enough and sustained enough, the
elementals will eventually vanish. (16-14.16)
6
If he can catch any of these psychic manifestations
at the very moment when they begin, that is the best time to prevent their
arisal altogether, for then they are at their weakest. That is the proper time
to nip them in the bud. (16-12.42)
7
If the voices which he hears are audible in the same
way that one hears the voices of people through the ears, it is merely psychic
and undesirable. If, however, it is a very strong mental impression and also
very clear, then it is the mystic phenomenon known as the "Interior Word" which
is on a truly spiritual plane and therefore is desirable. (16-15.29)
8
H.P.B.'s Voice of the Silence tells of seven
mystical sounds which are heard by the aspirant. The first is like the
nightingale's voice, whereas the sixth is like a thunder-cloud. This passage has
been much misunderstood both by novices and by unphilosophical mystics, whilst
in India and Tibet whole systems of yoga have been built up on their supposed
psychic existence. The sounds are not actually heard. The reference to them is
merely metaphorical. It speaks rather of the silent intuitive feeling of the
Overself's existence which becomes progressively stronger with time, until
finally, in H.P.B.'s own eloquent words, "The seventh swallows all the other
sounds. They die, and then are heard no more." This represents the stage where
the voice of the ego is completely unified with the voice of the Overself, where
occasional realization is converted into a constant one. (16-15.30)
9
All occult experiences and spirit visions are
mental, and not spiritual, in the sense that the mind has various latent powers
which pertain to the ego, not Overself. The question which is real can be
answered differently according to standpoint. He need not trouble about the
occult side, which would be a degeneration for him. His chief aim must be to
realize pure B-e-i-n-g, not to see or experience anything outside it. Only after
this has been done is it safe or wise to concern himself with anything occult.
(16-12.4)
10
Tantrika Yoga: Its methods are physical,
ceremonial, sensual, and dangerous; its aims are the arousal of sleeping occult
strength. In its highest phase, where the motive is pure and egoless, it is an
attempt to take the kingdom of heaven by violence. But few men have such an
exalted motive, as few are pure enough to dabble in such dangerous practices.
Consequently, it need hardly be said that in most cases this road easily leads
straight down to the abyss of black magic. This indeed is what has happened in
its own history in Bengal and Tibet. (16-13.70)
11
A part of the illumination does not rise from
within. It is implanted from without. It is not a contribution from divine
wisdom, but a suggestion from human thought. It is really an activation by the
soul's newly found power of ideas put into the mind previously by others. For
example, many Indian yogis actually hear the word "aum" sounding through the
mind in their deep and prolonged meditation. A few, belonging to a particular
sect, hear the word "Radhasoami" in the same condition. Why is it that no
Western mystic, uninitiated into Eastern Yoga, has ever recorded hearing either
of these words? This phenomenon is really due in one group of cases to hypnotic
suggestion by a guru, and in the other group to unconscious suggestion by a
tradition. All that does not however negate its actuality and genuineness, nor
detract from its value in first, strengthening the aspirant's religious faith,
second, promoting his mystical endeavours, and third--which is the most
important of all--providing him with a diving board whence to plunge into the
vast silence of the Void, where no words can be formulated and no sounds can be
heard, because it is too deep for them or anything else. These, being the most
advanced form of psychic phenomena, occur in the last stage of meditation and
just before contemplation proper begins. (16-15.102)
12
One fact about most mystical phenomena is that
they are transient. Strains of heavenly music may be heard by the inner ear and
intoxicate the heart with their unearthly beauty--but they will pass away.
Clairvoyant visions of Christ-like beings or of other worlds may present
themselves to the inner sight--but they will not remain. A mysterious force may
enter the body and travel transformingly and enthrallingly through it from the
soles of the feet to the crown of the head--but it will soon vanish. Only
through the ultramystic fourfold path can an enduring result be achieved.
(16-2.10)
13
He must test these experiences not only by their
internal evidences but also by their external results. Do they make him humbler
or prouder? Do they improve the balance of his faculties or disturb it?
(16-14.128)
14
Philosophy rejects such psychic, occult,
mediumistic, or trance experiences when imagination runs unbraked into them, or
emotion heaves hysterically in them. It is then time to stop the dangerous
tendency by applying a firm will and cold reason. Philosophy welcomes only a
single mystic experience--that of the Void (Nirvikalpa Samadhi), where every
separate form and individual consciousness vanishes, whereas all other mystic
experiences retain them. This is the difference. (16-3.90)
15
Students must guard against faulty technique. They
misuse meditation when they force it to serve their fantasies and errors,
ascetic phobias and religious fanaticisms. Then they become bogged in their own
conceptions or in idealized projections of their own selves. It is easy to
mistake the voice of the ego for the voice of the Overself. And it is not hard
for the meditators to see things in their imagination which have no reality
corresponding to them or to cook a deceptive mixture of fact and imagination.
The sceptic's doubts--whether in this condition one acquires spiritual affinity with the Divine or merely creates a hallucination--are not infrequently justified. Much that passes for mystical experience is mere hallucination. Even where there is genuine mystical experience, it is often mixed with hallucinatory experience at the same time. The subconscious mind easily formulates prepossessions, preconceived notions, externally received suggestions, and so on, into visual or auditory experiences which emphatically confirm the ideas or beliefs with which the meditator originally started. Instead of liberating him from errors and delusions, mysticism thus practised may only cause him to sink deeper and firmer into them. For he will convert what formerly he held on mere faith to what he now holds as assured mystical realization. In the course of an extensive experience, we have found that meditation, unchecked by reason and unbalanced by activity, has not infrequently produced monomaniacs. A "pure" experience is rare and belongs to a highly advanced stage. Only where there has been the proper preparation, self-purification, and mental discipline can a genuinely pure experience arise.
If these twisted truths and disguised emotions are such common fruit of mystical orchards, may it not be because they are inescapable corollaries of mystical attitudes? With a higher criterion, could they even come into existence? (16-2.30)
16
It was our own widening experience and personal
disillusionments that forced us to examine not only the profits of yoga and the
successes of its followers, but also the deficiencies of yoga and the failures
of its followers. Thus in this reconsideration there developed an attempt at a
more scientific approach to the subject. And such were the practical
observations which arose out of these experiences and out of the analysis of
these failures, that they compelled us and must one day compel other seekers
also to look for a corrective for the maladies which have affected the body of
mysticism, as well as to discover a purgative for the primitive errors which
have secured lodgement under its name.
17
How simple is the path itself, how complex is the
pseudo-path offered by occultism and exaggerated asceticism. "All that God asks
of them," writes Thomas Merton, "is to be quiet and keep themselves at peace,
attentive to the secret work that He is beginning in their souls." (16-3.93)
18
There are fourteen signs of the mediumistic
condition. The medium suffers from: (1) loss of memory, (2) inability to keep
mind on conversation, (3) frequent mental introversion, (4) decreasing power of
prolonged concentration, study, thought, analysis, and intellectual work, (5)
increasing emotionality, (6) weakened willpower, (7) greater sensitivity to
trifles, with nervous irritability and silly vanity resulting therefrom, (8)
more suspicions of others in his environment, (9) more self-centered and
egotistic, (10) frequent glassy stare of the eyes, (11) increased sexual
passion, (12) appearance of hysteria or uncontrollable temper where previously
absent, (13) disappearance of moral courage, (14) the feeling at times that some
unseen entity takes possession of him. (16-13.111)
19
It is only after the mystic has felt human desires
and known human joys, come up against intellectual limitations, suffered worldly
disappointments, that he can evaluate. If he has not had sufficient experience
of common life, he may not adequately assess the values indicated by mystical
intuitions nor properly understand the meaning of his mystical experiences
themselves. Thus, what he gets out of both depends to some extent on what he
brings to them. If he brings too little or too lopsided a contribution, then his
higher self will gradually lead him to seek development along the lines of
deficiency. And to compel him to make the diversion when he fails to respond to
the inner leading, it will throw the terrible gloom of the dark night over him
for a time. (16-14.86)
20
The intrusion of the thinking intellect or the
egoistic emotion into the intuitive experience presents a danger for all
mystics. And it is a danger that constantly remains for the more advanced as for
the mere neophyte, although in a different way. It is the source of flattering
illusions which offer themselves as authentic infallible intuitions. It crowns
commonplace ideas which happen to enter the mind with a regality that does not
belong to them. The prudent mystic must be on his guard against and watch out
for this peril. He must resist its appeals to vanity, its destruction of truth.
(16-9.89)
21
Make it a definite rule in every single instance
to check your intuitions by the light of reason. (16-14.129)
22
Even where sensitivity of telepathic reception has
been developed, the ego still cunningly interferes with accurate reception. It
will take the current of inspiration from the master and, by adding what was
never contained in it, give a highly personal, vanity-flattering colour to it.
It will take the message of guidance from the higher self and, by twisting it to
conform to the shape of personal desire, render it misleading. It will take a
psychical or intuitive reading of a situation and, in its eager seeking of
wish-fulfilment, confuse the reading and delude itself. It may even, by
introducing very strong emotional complexes, create absolutely false suggestions
and suppose them to be emanating from the master or the higher self. (16-9.95)
23
No matter how he try, the mystic will not be able
to express his inspiration on a higher intellectual level than the one on which
he habitually finds himself. This has been plain enough in the past when
over-ambitious attempts have brought ridicule to an otherwise inspired message.
This is why the best prophet to reach the educated classes is an educated man
who possesses the proper mental equipment to do it, and why uneducated masses
are best reached by one of themselves. What is communicated--and even the very
language in which this is done--always indicates on what levels of human
intellect, character, and experience the mystic dwells, as it also indicates
what level of mystical consciousness he has succeeded in touching. (16-9.54)
24
Revelations come from the Overself; messages are
transmitted to us and they are true enough in their beginning. But personal
desires seize on them instantly, change and fashion them to suit the ego.
25
We should distinguish the theories and doctrines
woven round the mystic's experience from the significant features of the
experience itself. And those features are: the awareness of another and deeper
life, a sacred presence within the heart, the certitude of having found the
Real, the gladness and freshness which follow the sense of this discovery.
26
If the personality has been unevenly developed, if
its forces have not been properly harmonized with each other and defects remain
in thinking, feeling, and willing, then at the threshold of illumination these
defects will become magnified and overstimulated by the upwelling soul power and
lead to adverse psychical results. (16-7.112)
27
All occult and psychic powers are either
extensions of man's human capacity or of his animal senses. They are still
semi-materialistic, because connected with his ego or his body. All truly
spiritual powers are on a far higher and quite different plane. They belong to
his divine self. (16-3.78)
28
The mystic seeks to stifle all thinking activity
by a deliberate effort of willpower and thus arrive at a sense of oneness with
the inner being which lies behind it. When his practice of the exercise draws to
a successful end, the object upon which he concentrates vanishes from his field
of focus but attention remains firmly fixed and does not wander to anything
else. The consequence is that his consciousness is centered and this is true
whether he feels it to be withdrawn into a pin-point within his head, as results
from the commoner methods, or bathed in a blissful spot within his heart, as
results from other ones. (16-2.254)
29
He cannot obtain from ordinary mystical experience
alone, precise information upon such matters as the universe's evolution, God's
nature, or the history of man. This is because it really does lack an
intellectual content. The only reliable increment of knowledge he can obtain
from it is an answer to the question "What am I?"--an affirmation of the
existence of man as divine soul apart from his existence as body. Apart from
that his inner experience only improves the quality and increases the intensity
of his life, does not constitute a way to new knowledge about what extends
beyond it. (16-2.253)
30
There are likely to be many who will reject these
criticisms and revaluations of yoga because they emanate from one who is a
Westerner and who is therefore supposed not to know what he is talking about in
such an exotic matter. Let us therefore learn what some competent Indian
authorities themselves say. His late Highness, The Maharaja of Baroda, who was
famous for his frequent association and patronage of the most learned Indian
pundits, scholars, philosophers, and yogis, said in his inaugural address to the
Third Indian Philosophical Congress held in Bombay in 1927: "The Yoga system in
its essence is a series of practical means to be adopted as a preliminary to the
attainment of the highest knowledge. . . . what the yoga system may have to
teach us as to the preparation for the attainment of true philosophic insight
needs to be disassociated from the fantastic and the magical." And at the same
Congress, the general president, Sir S. Radhakrishnan, did not hesitate to
declare that "the Indian tradition gives the first place to the pursuit
of philosophy." (16-2.231)
31
We do not need to seek our vindication in the
witness of contemporary conditions and inside ashrams; it exists in the writings
of mystics themselves and as far back as the Middle Ages. Suso, Tauler, Guyon,
Saint Teresa, Saint John of the Cross, Ramakrishna, and others have all had
occasion to observe the same sad consequences which we also have observed, and
they have passed caustic comments upon their fellow aspirants in their own
writings. One of the most illustrious and advanced of medieval mystics, John
Ruysbroeck, vigorously criticized his fellow mystics for defects he had observed
among them. He denounced those who mistook mere laziness for meditative
sanctity, as well as those who take every impulse to be a divine one. (See E.
Underhill's Mysticism, page 335, for a quote from Mme. Guyon criticizing
visionary experiences of mysticism.) The Spanish Saint John of the Cross wrote:
"It is very foolish, when spiritual sweetness and delight fail, to imagine that
God has failed us also; and to imagine that because we have such sweetness we
have God also."
Four centuries ago another Spanish mystic perceived the subtle selfishness which underlay this attitude. He was Saint Pedro de Alcantara, who wrote that such devotees of spiritual joy "are much rather loving themselves than God." Even many a genuine mystic of high achievement is not altogether exempt from this charge of spiritual selfishness. His ineffable ecstasies deceive him by their very sweetness into barring himself from concern with the woes of the outside world. This often arises quite innocently because the sense of joy which follows success in meditation is easily misinterpreted to mean the end of the quest. It may indeed be the end of most mystical quests, but it is only the beginning of the ultimate one! Only a few of the wisest and most advanced mystics have placed it where it rightly belongs. The danger was so clearly seen by Buddha that he specifically warned his disciples not to stop at any of the four degrees of rapt meditation, where, he said, they might easily be deceived into thinking that the goal had been attained. It was seen too by Sri Ramakrishna, the renowned Bengali yogi. He once disclosed to a disciple: "Mystic ecstasy is not final." He severely chided his famous pupil, the monk Swami Vivekananda, when the latter replied to a question about his ideal in life with the words: "To remain absorbed in meditative trance." His master exclaimed, "Can you be so small-minded as that? Go beyond trance; it is a trifling thing for you." (16-2.69)
32
The mystic is on a loftier plane than the
occultist and psychic. The various systems of occultism, theosophy, and psychism
are all objective to the true Self of man, and hence distract him from the
straight and narrow path. Yet they are useful and necessary for those egoistic
and over-intellectualized natures who cannot aspire to the rarefied reaches of
the real Truth. Everything--including the fascinating systems of knowledge and
practice that comprise ancient and modern occult teachings--which distracts man
from becoming the truly spiritual, distracts him from the real path. Only when
all objective things and thoughts have disappeared into the subject, the self or
the seer, can man achieve his highest purpose. All other activities simply cause
him to stray from the highest truth. So I have abandoned the study and practice
of occultism. I have given it up unwillingly, for the power it promises is not
to be despised. Yet I recognize that my past is strewn with errors and mistakes.
I imagined that a great personal experience of the psychic and mysterious side
of Nature would bring me nearer Truth. As a fact, it has taken me farther from
it. Once I enjoyed frequent glimpses of a great bliss and intense state of
samadhi; then I was unfortunate enough to come into contact with theosophists
and others of that ilk who subtly supplanted my real inward happiness with
intellectual systems and theories upon which I was thenceforward to ponder.
Alas! I was too young and too green to know what was happening. The bliss went
before long; the samadhis stopped, and I was cast upon the shore of the Finite,
an unhappy and problem-puzzled bit of human wreckage! No promise of wonderful
initiations at some future time will lure me to trust my life into the care of a
so-called guru who is either unable to or unwilling to give me a glimpse of the
God-consciousness he claims to possess. I am not inclined to follow a trail
which may land me somewhere out in the middle of the desert, bereft of reason,
hope, and fortune. (16-3.95)
33
If a man spends a total of six hours a day in
meditation practices, as some I have known have done, but is unable to perceive
the truth about the character of other men with whom he is brought into contact,
then it is absurd to believe that he is able to perceive the truth about the
immeasurably more remote, more intangible and ineffable Transcendental Reality.
(16-2.92)
34
He will be all the better and not worse if he
brings to his mystical path a scientific method of approach, a large historical
acquaintance with the comparative mysticisms of many countries, a scientific
knowledge of psychology, and a practical experience of the world. He will be all
the better and not worse if he learns in advance, and in theory, what every step
of the way into the holy of holies will be like. (16-2.179)
35
If there were nothing other than our ideas of
things, and if it were impossible to cross their boundaries, all that we could
discover would never be anything more than an exploration from our own
imaginings and conceptions. Then, everything holy and divine would be robbed of
its value and meaning. But mystical experience intrudes here to show us a world
beyond thoughts, a reality beyond ideas. (16-1.49)
36
The more I travel the world of living men and
study the recorded experiences of dead ones, the more I am convinced that
mystical powers, religious devotion, intellectual capacity, and ascetic
hardihood do not possess anything like the value of noble character. I no longer
admire a man because he has spent twenty years in the practice of yoga or the
study of metaphysics; I admire him because he has brought compassion, tolerance,
rectitude, and dependability into his conduct. (16-2.90)
37
If those who have hitherto given their faith and
thought to the ordinary presentations of yoga will now give further faith and
more thought to the higher teaching here offered, they need lose nothing of
their earlier understanding but will rather amplify it. Nor is anyone being
called upon to renounce meditation; those who criticize me for this are as
mistaken as they are unjust. What is really being asked for is the purging of
meditation, the putting aside as of secondary and temporary interest those
phases of yoga experience which are not fundamental and universal. But
meditation itself should and must continue, for without it the Ultimate can
never be realized. Only let it be directed rightly. Hence the inferior yogas are
not for a moment to be despised, but it should be recognized that they are only
relative methods useful at a particular stage only. Thus they will take their
place as fit means leading towards the ultramystic practices and not be
confounded with them. (16-2.232)
38
The quietistic condition got by ordinary yoga is
got by withdrawing from the five senses. But the hidden prenatal thought
tendencies which are the secret origin of these senses still remain, and the
yogi has not withdrawn from them because his attention has been directed to
vacating the body. Thus the trance-condition he attains is only a
temporary, external inactivity of the senses. Their internal roots
still abide within him as mental energies which have evolved since time
immemorial. Without adequate insight into the true nature of sense operations,
which are fundamentally exteriorizations of interior mental ones, the yogi has
only deceived himself when he thinks he has conquered them. (16-2.256)
39
So long as the mystic is unable to function fully
in his intellect, why should he expect to function clearly in what is beyond
intellect? (16-2.151)
40
However essential this seeking of the spiritual
self must obviously be, however splendid the attainment of such a peace-filled,
desire-free state must and will always seem, it cannot in itself constitute an
adequate goal. Two important elements are lacking in it. The first is knowledge
and the second is compassion. The first would show precisely what is the place
of such an attainment in the full pattern of human existence; the second would
bring it into active relation with the rest of social existence. Whilst these
are lacking, this state can only partially understand itself and only negatively
affect others. It keeps its own peace by ignoring the world's suffering.
41
The mystic who overbalances himself with ephemeral
ecstasies pays for them by deep moods of depression. This is worth noting, but
it is not all. If there is not a rationally thought-out metaphysical foundation
to give constant and steady support to his intuitions of truth, he may find
these intuitions telling him one thing this year and the opposite next year. But
this foundation must be a scientific and not merely a speculative metaphysics,
which means that it must itself be irrefragable, gathering its facts not with
the critical intellect alone, but also with the spontaneous intuition and above
all with the insight. Such a system exists only in the metaphysics of truth.
(16-2.152)
42
When the whole world lies stretched out before
them, how dare they go on ignoring it, or else dismissing it as a device of
Satan to entrap and ensnare them! We must enquire into the world which the
senses contact no less than into the self which is viewing that world. How can
the ascetic obtain the knowledge of the All when he gives up such a huge portion
of it? Giving up the world does not lead to Reality, but it leads to peace of
mind. Men who lack intelligence, who possess little brains, must take to
mysticism and yoga, but only the mature and developed mind can enter the quest
of enquiry into Truth. This means therefore that pupils are generally not
initiated into this enquiry by gurus prematurely. They must first have developed
their egos and their minds to a high degree, and only after that should they be
taught to renounce what has been fostered with so much pain. This is evolution:
although Truth is ideally attainable here and now, technically it is attainable
only at the end of the pageant of evolution, when the whole being of man has
been highly developed and is ripe to receive the greatest of all gifts.
(16-2.124)
43
There are three major and progressive goals open
to the mystic. The first is to become conscious of the fringe or aura of his
divine soul, the Overself. Most mystics, elated by the emotional thrill of its
discovery, stop here. The second is to penetrate to its serene centre and pass
during trance into the undifferentiated void of its non-sensed, non-thinged
essence. The more intelligent and superior mystics, who are naturally much fewer
in number than the first kind, are not satisfied until they reach this
attainment. It is upon this world-vanishing experience that most Indian yogic
metaphysicians base their theory that the universe is an illusion. To the
ordinary yogi, this is the summit of achievement and represents for him the goal
of human existence. But the trance itself is only temporary. How can a mental
self-abstraction, however prolonged, a merely temporary condition, be a final
goal for mankind? This is the problem which indeed was stated in The Hidden
Teaching Beyond Yoga. All such theories merely show that such mystics have
their limitations, however admirable may be their capacity to enter into and
sustain the trance state. The third goal is to bring the true self, the
essential emptiness and the universal manifestation, into a harmonious, unified
experience during full normal wakefulness. This last is philosophical mysticism.
Being a complex and complete attainment, it naturally calls for a complex and
complete effort. Careful analytical and historical study of mystical practices
and mystical biographies will show that it is these three different goals which
have always been pursued or achieved, no matter to what external religion,
country, or race individual mystics may themselves have belonged. Thus the
ordinary mystic's account of the Overself is true but incomplete, his experience
of it authentic but insufficient. He has yet to undergo the whole, the complete
experience which mysticism can yield. But then, if he does so, if he refuses to
remain satisfied with an incomplete and imperfect attainment, he will no longer
remain a mystic. He will become a philosopher. (16-2.71)
44
The successful mystic certainly comes into contact
with his real "I." But if this contact is dependent upon meditational trance, it
is necessarily an intermittent one. He cannot obtain a permanent contact unless
he proceeds further and widens his aspiration to achieve contact with the
universal "I." There is therefore a difference between the interior "I" and the
universal "I," but it is a difference only of degree, not of kind, for the
latter includes the former. (16-2.257)
45
The mystical ideal of finding his relationship to
the spiritual self must be broadened out to include the metaphysical ideal of
finding his relationship to the universe.
46
At a time like the present when the world is
passing though a critical phase of wholesale reconstruction, every opponent of
reason and proponent of superstition is rendering a serious disservice to
mankind. (16-3.47)
47
It would be a grave mistake to believe that the
following of ascetic regimes and the stilling of wandering thoughts
causes the higher consciousness to supervene. What they really do is to
permit it to supervene. Desires and distraction are hindrances to its
attainment and they merely remove the hindrances. This makes possible the
recognition of what we really are beneath them. If however we do nothing more
than this, which is called yoga, we get only an inferior attainment, often only
a temporary one. For unless we also engage in the rooting out of the ego, which
is called philosophy, we do not get the final and superior transcendental state.
(16-2.258)
48
From the point of view of yoga practice,
the yogi gradually succeeds in bringing his field of awareness to a single
centre, which is at first located in the head and later in the heart. This
achievement is so unusual that he experiences great peace and exaltation as a
result--something utterly different from his normal condition. For him this is
the soul, the kingdom of heaven, the Overself. But from the point of view of
the philosophy of Truth, any physical localization of the Overself is
impossible, because space itself is entirely within the mind, and the mind is
therefore beyond any limits of here and there, and the Overself and Pure Mind
(unindividualized) holds all bodies within it without being touched by them.
(16-2.255)
49
We personally believe that Gandhi is as
self-realized a mystic as his contemporaries like Ramana Maharishi, Aurobindo,
and Ramdas. His whole life and thought, his writing and speech, his deeds and
service proclaim it. He himself has declared that he feels "the indefinable
mysterious power that pervades everything" and that he is "surer of His
existence than of the fact that you and I are sitting in this room." Then why is
it that Gandhi's view of the world war was so widely different from Sri
Aurobindo's, if both are divinely inspired men? The answer is that in Gandhi we
find a perfect illustration of the defects of ordinary mysticism, of the
insufficiency of its spiritual self-realization, and of the need for
philosophical mysticism. There is no need to doubt, as so many doubt, that he is
a genuine saint turned to the genuine service of humanity. But he has carried
into that service the unbalance, the fanaticism, and the impracticality which
mark so many saints throughout history. This conclusion may be unpalatable to
some, but it is unavoidable. Perfect mystics are not the same as perfect beings.
They are liable to error. (16-2.91)
50
Edgar Cayce was not a mystic, he was a psychic.
Although he brought much knowledge of a curious or interesting kind from his
psychic experiences, it would be an error to regard them all as reliable, for
most psychics can be misled. (16-13.46)
51
Mystical experience does not yield a cosmogony,
hence does not tell us something new about the universe or about God's relation
to the universe, even though it does tell us something gloriously new about
ourselves--that is, about man. In such experience, it is not the universe that
reveals the inner mysteries of its own nature, but man. (16-2.252)
52
An important query now arises, although hardly a
mystic ever conceives the challenge of its existence and consequently ever seeks
its answer. We have to enquire about what really happens during the highest
effort of the meditator, when thought is so overcome that it appears as if about
to lapse. Will he enter a higher dimension of existence as he believes? Will the
self-revelation of the hidden reality really occur? Is this thrilling ecstasy or
this stilled peace, which has begun to supervene, the peculiar sign of a
revolutionary shifting of spiritual gravity from mortal concerns to eternal
life, from mere appearance to basic reality? Many mystics think that the mere
elimination of thoughts during self-absorption is a sufficient achievement. The
world is then forgotten and with it all the personal cares. This state really
arises from the extreme diminution of the working and tempo of thought, with the
consequent diminution of attention to the man's own personality, to its varied
cares and affairs, as well as to the external world with its insistent claims
and constant demands. Thus it is simply one of exquisite relief from human
burdens (whether of pain or pleasure, for here there is no distinction between
both), from attention to the external world, and from the strain of supporting a
continuous series of thoughts. The result is a delightful lightness and soothing
peace. But the feeling of peace is alone no guarantee of the attainment of true
realization. Peace is admittedly one of its signs. But there are different
grades of peace, ranging from the negative stillness of the tomb to the positive
mind-mastery of the sage. The arrestation of thoughts touches the fringe of the
transcendental state, but not more than the fringe. When I wrote in The
Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga (page 309, British edition) that the mystic only
penetrates to illusion of reality, I referred to visions of forms and ecstasies
of emotion. If however the mystic does achieve a visionless serene unexcited
be-ness, then it is the Overself, for he touches the Void wherein is no form and
no thoughts; then he does touch reality. I admit this. But his task is still
incomplete, because this experience which occurs in trance is transient; hence
the need of gaining metaphysical insight also for permanency.
The developed mystic needs but neglects the undeveloped thinker within himself, just as the thinker needs but neglects the mystic. It is not enough to arrive at truth through mystical feelings; we must also arrive at it through metaphysical thinking. The liability to strive for unrealizable ends, as well as the tendency to mistake in his hurry mere reflection of reality for the Real itself, will then be eliminated. Truth can never suffer from the proper activity of human reason and experiment, but only from their improper or unbalanced activity. The moment the mystic seeks to convey his experience to others, when his trance, ecstasy, or inspiration is over, that moment he has to begin to analyse it. If he lacks the proper intellectual equipment to do this with scientific objectivity and precision, he will convey it faultily, insufficiently, and to some extent ineffectively. This is most often the case, unfortunately, because the distaste for intellectual activity is one of the customary reasons why a number of men have taken to mysticism. Without such equipment, the aspirant will be unable to extract the precise significance of his own mystical experiences, as he will be unable to check the correctness of his opinions upon them; whereas with it in his possession, he will be able to examine any such experience and any such opinion by the light of a systematic, thoroughly tested world view. The vagueness of his concepts, the looseness of his thinking, the confusion of his facts,--and the partisan character of his conception of life all combine to render the average mystic's understanding of the truth about his own inner experience often unsatisfactory and his evaluation of other men's vaunted occult claims often untenable. We must distinguish between ebullient emotion and deep love. Those whose aspirations are still in the region of the first may sneer at any other spiritual path than the devotional one, yet if an aspirant is really devoted to the Divine, as he says, he ought not to object to learning all he can about his beloved, which is to say that he ought not to be averse to study of the metaphysics of truth, however difficult and strange it is likely to be. (16-2.70) (16-2.142)
53
Beware of cults and their exaggerated claims. The
IS is not an ISM. (16-10.75)
54
All religious occupations lend themselves to
hypocrisy, and this is no exception. The twentieth-century mystics are often
pious impostors, playing upon the credulity of their ignorant following. There
exists among them a solid, saving remnant of noble men who are making arduous
and genuine efforts to attain the superhuman wisdom which mysticism promises to
devotees. (16-5.15)
55
The great error of all these worldly-happiness
Spiritual teachings like New Thought, Unity, Christian Science, and especially
Dr. Peale's "Power of Positive Thinking" is that they have no place for pain,
sorrow, adversity, and misfortune in their idea of God's world. They are utterly
ignorant of the tremendous truth, voiced by every great prophet, that by
divine decree the human lot mixes good and bad fortune, health, events,
situations, and conditions; that suffering has been incorporated into the scheme
of things to prevent man from becoming fully satisfied with a sensual existence.
They demand only the pleasant side of experience. If this demand were granted,
they would be deprived of the chance to learn all those valuable and necessary
lessons which the unpleasant side affords and thus deprived of the chance ever
to attain a full knowledge of spiritual truth. It is the ego which is the real
source of such a limited teaching. Its desire to indulge itself rather than
surrender itself is at the bottom of the appeal which these cults have for their
unwary followers. These cults keep the aspirant tied captive within his personal
ego, limit him to its desires. Of course, the ego in this case is disguised
under a mask of spirituality. (16-8.37)
56
Since all things have come out of the primal
Source, all that I really need can directly come out of it to me if I put myself
in perfect harmony with the Source and stay therein. This is the truth behind
the fallacy of these cults. For to put myself into such harmony, it is not
enough to pronounce the words, or to hold the thought, or to visualize the
things themselves. More than this must be done--no less a thing than all that
labour of overcoming the ego which is comprised in the Quest. How many of the
followers of the cults have even understood that, and all its implications in
connection with their desires? How many of them have tried to overcome the ego?
If they have not succeeded in understanding and complying with the divine law
governing this matter, why should the divine power be at their beck and call to
bring what they want? If they have not sought and largely attained that mastery
of the animal propensities and that deep concentration in the centre of
consciousness which the Quest seeks, is it not impertinent to expect to reach
that power with their voice? (16-7.43)