MAN’S RELATION TO GOD AND TO HIS FELLOW-MEN

The riddle of the Sphinx is no riddle at all. The strange figure, the lower part animal; the upper part human; and the sprouting wings epitomize the growth and development of man from the animal, or physical (carnal), consciousness to the soul consciousness, represented by woman’s head and breast, to the supra-conscious, winged god.

No higher conception of life has ever emanated from any source, than the concept of man developed to a state of perfection represented by wings (a symbol of freedom). These winged humans are sometimes called angels and sometimes gods, although the words may not be synonymous.

The point is, that no theory of life and its purposes seems more general or more unescapable than that of man’s growth from sin (limitations) to god-hood-freedom.

Whether this consummation is brought about through an unbroken chain of upward tendencies from the lowest forms of life to the highest; or whether it is symbolized by the old theologic idea of man’s fall from godhood to sin, the fact remains that we know no other ideal than that represented by perfected man; and we know no lower idea than that of man still in the animal stage of consciousness.

Artists, painters, sculptors, wishing to depict the beauty of spiritual things, must still use the human idea for a model-refined, spiritualized, supra-human, but still man.

It is a truism that man epitomizes the universe. Therefore, the law of growth, which science names evolution, may be studied and applied with equal precision and accuracy to the individual; to a body of individuals called a nation; and to worlds, or planets.

The evolution of an individual is accomplished when he has learned through the various avenues of experience, the fact of his own godhood; and when he has established his union with that indescribable spiritual essence which is called Om; God; Nirvana; Samadhi; Brahm; Kami; Allah; and the Absolute.

A Japanese term is Dai Zikaku. The Zen sect of Japanese Buddhists say Daigo Tettei, and one who has attained to this superior phase of consciousness is called Sho-Nin, meaning literally “above man.”

Emerson, the great American seer, expressed this Nameless One, as The Oversoul, and Herbert Spencer, the intellectual giant of England, used the term Universal Energy.

Emerson was a seer; Spencer was a scientist, which word, until recently, was a synonym for materialist.

But what are words?

Mere symbols of consciousness, and subject to change and evolvement, as man’s consciousness evolves. The student of truth will recognize in these different words, exactly the same meaning. The “eternal energy from which all things proceed” is a phrase identical with “The Oversoul,” or “The Absolute,” from which all manifestation comes.

Man’s evolution, then, is an evolution in consciousness, from the subjective awareness of the monad to a realization of the entire cosmos.

Each phase of life is a specific degree of consciousness and each successive degree brings the individual nearer to the realization of the sum of all degrees of consciousness, into godhood-the highest degree which we can conceive.

Such, briefly, is a statement of that phenomenon which is attracting the attention of occidental students of psychology, and which has been fittingly termed “the attainment of cosmic consciousness.”

The phrase expresses a degree of consciousness which includes the entire cosmos-not only this planet called earth, and everything thereon, but also the spheres of the Constellation.

Not that this degree of consciousness carries with it the power to express in words, that which it is. In fact, the one who has had this marvelous awakening, cannot adequately describe, or even retain, a full comprehension of what it signifies.

All-inclusive knowledge would indeed, preclude the possibility of expression. Therefore, even if it were possible to retain in the finite mind, the full realization of cosmic consciousness, words could not be found in which to express it to others.

Thought is the creator of words, but thought is but the material which the mind employs, and cosmic consciousness transcends the mind, engulfs the soul, and reaches to the trackless areas of Spirit.

It may be doubted if any one may retain a full realization of cosmic consciousness, and remain in the physical body.

Great and wonderful as have been the experiences of those who have sought to relate their sensations, it is probable that these flashes of insight have been in the nature of cosmic perception, and have lacked full realization.

Of those who have had glimpses of that larger area of consciousness which includes an awareness of eternal unity with the cosmos, there are, we believe, many more than students of the subject have any idea of.

This century marks a distinct epoch in what is called evolution.

The end of a kalpa, or cycle of manifestation, is symbolized by the presence on a planet of many avatars, masters, and angels.

By their very presence these enlightened ones arouse in all who are ready for the experience a glimpse of that state of being to which all souls are destined, and to which all shall ultimately attain.

A time when “gods shall walk the earth” is a prophecy which all nations have heard and looked forward to.

That time is now. We see the effect of their presence in Peace Conferences; in abolition of child labor; in prison reform; in the amalgamation of the races; in attempts at social equality; in National Eugenic Societies, and above all, as we have before stated, in the Emancipation of Woman. In fact, it is seen in all the various ways in which the higher consciousness finds expression.

One of the characteristic signs of this awakening, the Millénium Dawn, as it has been named, lies in a very general optimism shining through the mists of doubt and unrest and inexpressible desire, which accompany the new birth in consciousness.

Amid the seeming chaos of present day conditions is it not easy to discern the coming of that dawn of which all great ones of earth have foretold-a time when “the earth shall be made a fit habitation for the gods”?

“The heavens” is a term employed to specify the Constellation which is composed of planets and stars, but we use the term “Heaven” also to mean a state of happiness and bliss attainable through certain methods, a consideration of which we will take up later.

The immediate point is that this planet is being prepared for a position in the solar system consistent with that which is the abode of the gods-Heaven.

This proposition is made in its literal meaning. Corroborative of this statement, which is consistent with all prophecies, is the information recently given to the world, by Camille Flammarion, and other great astronomers, that “the earth is changing its position in the heavens at an astonishing rate.” The idea that “there shall be no night there,” is foreshadowed by the estimate that this change will give to the earth a perpetual and uniform light, and heat.

The New Thought preachment of physical immortality is but a faint and imperfect perception of this time, when “there shall be no death,” because the animal man, subject to change, shall give place to the changeless, deathless, spiritual man; not through cataclysms, and destruction, but through the natural birth into a higher consciousness.

The Occidental mind is easily affrighted by a name. Perhaps we should not specify the Occidental mind, but rather the mind of man among all races is easily put to sleep by the hypnotism of a word.

The word Pantheism is a bugaboo to the Occidentalist. He fears the destruction of the Monistic faith, if he admits that man is in essence a god, and that therefore there are many gods in the one God, even as there are many members to the one physical organism.

Nevertheless all literature, whether sacred or profane, teaches the attainment of godhood by Man. This can not mean other than the attainment of realization of godhood, by the individual and the retention of this realization to the end that reincarnation shall cease and identity with the cosmic, principle, be established, beyond further loss, or doubt, or strife, or death.

This is what it means to attain to cosmic consciousness. It is inclusive consciousness. It is not absorption into the vast unknown, in the sense of annihilation of identity. It is consciousness plus, not minus.

An ancient writing says:

“And thou shalt awake as from a long dream. Thou shalt be like the perfume arising from the flower in which it has been so long enclosed. And thou wilt float above the opened flower. And thou wilt say ’There is time before me in eternity.’”

There is nothing in the testimony of those who have described, as best they could, their emotions upon attainment of this consciousness, which would argue the absorption of the individual soul into The Absolute.

There is no testimony to argue that the attainment of cosmic consciousness, carries with it anything approaching annihilation of sentiency.

Rather it would seem to testify to an acceleration of all the higher faculties.

That this would be a more apt interpretation may be seen by comparing the different reports of those experiencing the phenomenon of Illumination.

Nevertheless there has been much controversy regarding the meaning of the terms nirvana; samadhi; dai zikaku, etc.-words expressing the condition which we are considering under the phrase cosmic consciousness.

WHAT IS NIRVANA?

Let us consider briefly, what is meant by Nirvana, and see if it is not highly probable that the word describes the state of consciousness which we are considering, referring later on to the question, and its interpretation by the various schools of religion and philosophy.

It is apparent that the most learned sages of the Orient fail to agree as to the exact meaning of Nirvana. Occidental writers and leaders of the Theosophical philosophy, differ somewhat as to its import, but at the same time we find enough unity on this point to make it evident that the state of Nirvana is a desirable attainment-the goal of the religious enthusiast.

Going back for a moment, to a consideration of the earliest recorded religion of Japan, we find that Sintoism means literally “the way of the gods,” meaning the way in which men who have become god-like, found the path that led thereunto, but as to exactly what conditions are represented by godhood, how indeed, is it possible for man to know, much less to express?

Since we are conscious of a divine and irresistible urge toward the attainment of this state of being, it is hardly consistent with what we know of merely human nature, that the way lies in the direction of loss of identity, or in other words, in what is popularly comprehended as absorption. That this idea prevails in many Oriental sects of Buddhism and Vedanta we are aware, but we are confident that this idea is erroneous, and comes from the fact that it is impossible to describe the condition of consciousness enjoyed by the initiate into Nirvana, which term we believe, is identical, or at least comparable with cosmic consciousness.

The very fact that external life represents so universal a struggle for attainment of this state of being, or higher consciousness, indicates at least, even if it does not actually guarantee a fuller, deeper, more complete state of consciousness than hitherto enjoyed, rather than an absorption or annihilation of any of that dearly bought consciousness which distinguishes the self from its environment, and which says with conviction “I am.”

It is admitted that those who have experienced liberation, illumination, mukti, have reported their sensations with such relative vagueness and with such apparent variance of conclusion as regards the meaning of the experience that the reader is left to his own interpretation of the character of that state of being, other than a general uniformity of description.

Referring to the pleasure which the lower nature feels under certain conditions, the late Swami Vivekananda says:

“The whole idea of this nature is to make the soul know that it is entirely separate from nature and when the soul knows this, nature has no more attraction for it. But the whole of nature vanishes only for that man who has become free. There will always remain an infinite number of others for whom nature will go on working.”

But did Vivekananda employ the phrase “nature has no more attraction for him,” to describe the sensation of unappreciativeness of the wonders of the natural world? We think not. Rather the gentle-hearted sage meant to report the fact that the soul is no longer held in bondage to the external world, when it has once attained supra-consciousness.

If this expression referred to the pleasure the true lover of nature feels in the out-of-doors, he might well say “I trust that I shall never attain to that state of consciousness. Or if attainment be compulsory, then shall I prolong the time of accomplishment as long as possible.”

And who would blame him? Why should we strive for the attainment of a state of being described so unattractively as to give us the impression of entire loss of so enjoyable and unselfish a sensation as love of nature?

The Vedantic idea, according to interpreted translations is that out of The Absolute, the All (Om), we come, and therefore back to it we go, being now in our present state of consciousness, en route, as it were to return.

But returning to what? That is the unanswerable problem of all religions; all philosophies; all science. If we return to a void, such as some interpreters of the Védas declare, then surely this urge within mankind toward this annihilatory state would hardly be expected. It would be inconsistent with that instinct of self-preservation which we are told is the first law of nature.

Compared to this Vedantic concept of the Absolute, the Christian’s simple, and very empirical ideal of eternal happiness is preferable.

To walk streets paved with gold and play a harp incessantly while chanting doleful praises to a Deity who ought to become wearied of the never-ceasing adulation, would still be a more desirable goal of our strife, than that so inaccurately and unattractively described by many students of Oriental religions and philosophies as the state nirvana, or samadhi.

Again quoting from Vivekananda’s Raja Yoga:

“There are not wanting persons who think that this manifest state (our present existence) is the highest state of man. Thinkers of great caliber are of the opinion that we are manifested specimens of undifferentiated Being, and this differentiated state is higher than the Absolute.”

Although as Vivekananda says there are thinkers who make this claim, the idea does not find ready acceptance among theologians, either Eastern, or Western. Neither do philosophers, as a general thing incline to adopt this view. The reason for this general disinclination is not difficult of discovery. It is due to the present state of man on this planet.

If man, as we see and know mankind, is the highest state of Being (not merely of manifestation, but of Being) “then,” they say, “we have nothing to hope for.”

But have we not? May we not hope that man will manifest, on this planet a fuller realization, of that which he is in Being, and that, far from dissolving what consciousness he has, he will but plus this consciousness by a larger-an all-embracing consciousness that shall make earth a fit habitation for god-like men?

In Vivekananda’s Raja Yoga we find the following:

“There was an old solution that man, after death, remained the same; that all his good sides, minus his evil sides, remained forever. Logically stated, this means that man’s goal is the world; this world meaning earth carried to a state higher and with elimination of its evils is the state they call heaven. This theory, on the face of it, is absurd and puerile because it cannot be. There cannot be good without evil, or evil without good. To live in a world where there is all good and no evil, is what Sanskrit logicians call a ‘dream in the air.’”

It is not necessary to argue here that there is no such thing as positive evil.

St. Paul said: “I know and am persuaded that nothing is unclean of itself; save that to him who accounteth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.”

And again we are assured that “there is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so;” which means that evil has no more foundation in reality than has thought, and thought is ever-changing; transitory. Evil therefore may be entirely eliminated by thought, since it is created by thought.

That there is a condition of mankind which has been alluded to as “evil” is self-evident. The term has been employed to describe a condition of either an individual, or a society, or a nation or a race, wherein there is in harmony; disease; unhappiness. Anything that makes for suffering on any plane of consciousness, may be termed “evil” as here used.

Let us consider for a moment if it be illogical to imagine a world in which this in harmony has been eliminated. Imagine a family in which all the members radiate love and unselfish consideration. Add to this, or we may say complementary to this, we have perfect health and prosperity; and over and above all we have a conviction of immortality, eliminating doubt and fear and worry as to future sorrows or partings, with no knowledge that there are others in the world suffering.

Do we not find it quite possible, to say the least, and even desirable, to live in such a family, particularly if we had previously acquired a knowledge of that which is evil and that which is good-merely terms used to describe limited, or enlarged consciousness.

If we admit the desirability of living in such a family, why not in such a world? “Logically stated,” says the Hindu swami, “this means that man’s goal is this world (earth planet); carried to a state higher and with the elimination of its evils, this world is the state (place) they call heaven.”

Again we must question. Why not?

This planet we call earth, is a great and marvelous work, whether it be the work of an abstract God, or whether it be the work of the god in Man.

And whether this earth be the gift of an abstract God, or whether it be the generating bed of the life now upon it, the fact remains that we have no business to despise the gift, or the work of self-generation. Our business is to enhance its beauties and eliminate its ugliness. Why have we prayed that the will of God which is Love, “be done on earth as it is in the heavens,” if we despise the planet and hope to leave it?

Although the general impression given in all religious systems is that the perfected soul leaves this earth, yet there is nothing in any of them to prove that it does so, or if it has hitherto, that it shall continue so to do. We have no right to assume that the outer life-the external, manifested life which we perceive with our physical senses, is all there is to this earth and that when we leave this outer life, we go to some other place. The invisible life on this planet is unquestionably far greater than the visible but both visible and invisible doubtless belong to the planet earth.

The Absolute, presumably occupies all space, and therefore it may as reasonably be postulated that this state of Nirvana or Samadhi, may be entered within the area of this planet’s vibrations, as in that of the other planets. The finite mind cannot conceive of a state of being apart from motion, space or time, even though these concepts are crude in their relation to the state of consciousness to which the sum of all consciousness is tending, whether the individual would, or not.

We speak of “the heavens” when we refer to the immeasurable, and little known region of the solar system, and we use the same term when we refer to a state of being in which the perfected soul of man will finally enter. And this term implies that when we are thus in heaven, we are with God, if not absorbed into God.

Jesus, the master, taught the coming of the kingdom of God on earth and urged mankind to pray for its coming, asking that the will of God (or gods) be done on earth as it is in the heavens, from which it is not illogical to infer that the earth itself, as a planet, is not outside the pale of that blissful state which we ascribe to God, and which, at the same time, we expect to enter without being swallowed up in the sense that we lose that consciousness which cognizes itself as an eternal verity.

If then, the “heavens” as applied to the planets revolving above the earth in the solar system, and “Heaven” as a term used to describe a state of happiness, bliss, samadhi, nirvana, or “life with God,” be synonymous it may reasonably be inferred that in the solar system are planets upon which live sentient beings, in a state to which we on earth, are seeking to attain; a state wherein so-called evil has been eliminated and the good retained.

In fact, we may see with none too prophetic eyes the elimination of evil right here in the visible. All who have attained a glimpse of Illumination have reported the loss of the “sense of sin and death,” and have retained this feeling of security and “all-is-well-ness” as long as they have lived thereafter.

From the old conception of “evil” as a positive, opposing and independent force, modern thought, in all its branches, namely science; religion; social evolution, and philosophy, has arrived at the conclusion that evil is not a power or force in and of itself, but that it is evidence of a limited degree of consciousness which sees only one side of a subject-only a limited area of an infinitely wide and varied manifestation of the one supreme consciousness. Therefore, it is, that evil per se, does not exist as power, but that it is the effect of a misapplication of power.

The cure then, for this state of Relativity, is found logically enough, in an extension of individual consciousness.

That this idea is logical may be deduced from the fact that as the mind expands, through the various channels of learning; observation; contact with each other, and by the many roads of Experience, altruism becomes more general. Almost every one readily admits that the world is “growing better,” as they express it.

This means that the individual consciousness is becoming broadened, deepened, enlarged; and this enlargement makes it possible to show that the happiness of each one, means the happiness of all, and that no one human life can reach the goal of freedom and eternal life (mukti, which can mean nothing less than godhood) unless he does so by some one of the many paths of selflessness.

Up through the perilous paths and the devious ways of brute consciousness toward a more or less perfect perception of that blissful state which the Illumined have sought to describe, each individual has come to his present state; and it is only by virtue of the ability to look back over the path, and to look onward a little into relative futurity, that each may record the fact of his gain in consciousness, and what this gain means to the future of this earth.

But who is there who cannot see that each step in attainment of consciousness brings with it a corresponding freedom from suffering?

The planet itself does not make us suffer. The latest discoveries of astronomers indicate that as the standard of morality (using the term “morality” in its true sense), becomes higher, the position of the earth itself becomes changed, in its relation to the solar system.

In this way, it is expected that a uniform temperature will prevail all over the earth’s surface; and with the cessation of war, and of competition (which is mental warfare) cataclysms, storms, and earthquakes will cease. When we come, as we will, in succeeding chapters of this book, to a review of the experiences of those who have attained cosmic consciousness (mukti) we will find that, in each instance, there has come a realization of the nothingness of sin and consequent suffering.

The trouble then, is not with the earth as a planet, but with the lack of consciousness of earth’s inhabitants, which lack makes possible all the suffering which afflicts human life.

Those who have attained to the state of cosmic consciousness in both Occidental and Oriental instances of this perception, have reported an abiding sense of rest and peace and satisfaction-a condition which we associate with accepted ideals of heaven as taught in Occidental creeds and among some schools of Oriental philosophers, and sects of religious worship.

There is a far greater unity of idea between the Oriental and the Occidental methods and systems, as to the goal of ultimate attainment than is generally believed, or understood.

The highest expression of Japanese Buddhism differs from Hindu Buddhism and from Vedanta, and the many other forms of Hindu philosophy and religion, in the same way that the Japanese, as a nation, differ from their Hindu brothers.

The Japanese emphasize, more than do the Hindus, the preservation of the nation, and to this end, they are called more “practical” minded, but with the Japanese, as with all the Orientals, we find an intense contempt for any one who would seek to preserve his physical existence, or hesitate at any personal sacrifice.

This unwritten code has its origin, as have all Oriental traditions and concepts, in the teachings of religious systems. According to Oriental ethics, the person is very low in the scale of consciousness, when he considers his physical body as of comparative consequence, when the question of expediency, or of the welfare of his country, is in the balance.

Nevertheless, Japan has offered, far more than has India, a fertile field for the growth of materialism, owing to the fact that underlying the apparent observance of and loyalty to, religious practices, the Japanese temperament inclines to a practical application of the wisdom attained through religious instruction.

Therefore we find among the Illumined Ones of Japanese history, sages who taught the attainment of liberation through paths which are not generally accepted by interpreters of Hinduism.

For example, among the orthodox Sintoists, (the original religion of the Japanese, before the advent of Buddhism), we find that cleanliness of mind and body, was taught as the prime essential to attainment of unity with Kami, rather than contemplation, meditation and isolation, as with the Hindus.

And in the Christian world we have a corresponding admonition in the phrase “cleanliness is next to godliness.”

Simple as this rule of conduct is, it nevertheless embodies the key to the situation, inasmuch as we are assured that “blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

Again Jesus told his hearers that they “must become as little children,” evidently meaning that they must possess the clean, pure, guileless mind of a little child, if they would reach the goal of liberation, from strife; death (repeated incarnation); and all so-called “evil.”

To this end man is striving, whether by rites and ceremonies of religion; by worship; by contemplation; by effort and struggle; by invention; by aspiration; by sacrifice; or by whatever path, or device, or system.

What, then is the goal, and how may it be attained?

Before taking up this question, let us go back a little over the history of human life and attainment, and trace, briefly, the evolution of consciousness, from pre-historic man, to the highest examples of human devotion and wisdom, of which, happily, the world affords not a few instances.