cannot answer—Oh, the sorry trade!
"O Thou who didst with pitfall and with gin
Beset the Road I was to wander in,
Thou wilt not with Predestined Evil round
Enmesh, and then impute my fall to Sin!
"O Thou who Man of baser Earth didst make,
And ev'n with Paradise devise the Snake:
For all the Sin wherewith the Face of Man
Is blackened—Man's forgiveness give—and take!"
But with the dawning knowledge that the One Life, or World-Spirit, is not The Absolute, but is under Law and Laws superimposed upon it, then we have a picture of an Universal Being which suffers with us and through us; rises with us and through us; strives with us and through us; attains with us and through us; rejoices with us and through us; conquers with us and through us—and whose Life is composed of our lives; whose consciousness is composed of our consciousness. Such a Being is seen to be, at the last, one with ourselves, instead of an outside power—and consequently, such a Being is seen to be eternally making for Good-making for our good, for we are one with itself. Such a Being is seen to be but the Composite Self of all the individual selves of the Cosmos—the Real Self. And in the recognition of all this, our bitterness must die away, and a great feeling of compassion, sympathy, understanding and love must be manifested by us—and felt by us. Then must come that sense of Oneness with the All which is the great reconciler—which harmonizes the Opposites, and establishes the Cosmic Balance.
This One Life is You—and You are it. Centres of Life, apparently separate are we now—but steadily growing toward that time, phase and state of Cosmic Consciousness, in which the All shall know itself as One—and the One know itself as All. As the Ego progresses through the stages of Spiritual Evolution, its consciousness enlarges and expands, including more and more of the Cosmos within it as the Self, until the stages of Cosmic Consciousness are reached in which the Ego finds itself blending into the Whole, and the All blending into the Self. This is what is meant by Cosmic Consciousness; Spiritual Consciousness; Transcendental Consciousness; the Higher Consciousness; the Moksha, of the Brahmans; the Nirvana, of the Buddhists; the Union with God, of the Mystics; the Divine Marriage, of the Sufis; the Brahmic Splendor, of the Oriental poets—of all those transcendental states of Consciousness, in which the Self blends into the All, in varying degrees according to the development of the soul. This is the Secret of the Mystics of all times and lands—this the Mystery of Buddha—this the Divine Bliss of the Brahmans—this the "Wine" of the Sufi symbology, Even old Omar, in his bitter complaint, was true to his Sufi instincts, and recognized the One:
"Whose secret Presence, through Creation's veins
Running Quicksilver-like eludes your pains;
Taking all shapes from Mah to Mahi; and
They change and perish all—but HE remains."
And this was the thought that inspired these striking lines from an unknown poet:
"Thou great Eternal Infinite! Thou great Unbounded Whole!
Thy body is the Universe! Thy spirit is its soul!
If Thou dost fill Immensity—If Thou art All-in-All—
Then I'm in Thee, and Thou in Me, or I'm not here at all!
How can I be outside of Thee, when Thou fill Earth and Air?
There surely is no place for Me outside of Everywhere!
If Thou art ALL, and Thou dost fill Immensity of Space,
Then in Thy Being do I dwell, or else I have no place.
And if I have no place at all—what am doing Here?
Beyond the All I cannot Be—outside of Everywhere!
Then truly in Thy Self am I—and Thou must be in Me;
Or else there is no All-in-All—no Me, nor Thee, to Be!"
This One is the great Cosmic Spirit—Cosmic Will—Life Principle—One Life of The Cosmos—in which the Arcane Teachers find the Real Self and Universal Being. This is the great Principle of Life and Being, in which "we live, and move, and have our being." This is the great Cosmic Life which awakens in the Dawn of the Cosmic Day, and thence proceeds gradually to evolve into the Cosmic Consciousness of High Noon; thence on to rest in the ecstatic state of transcendental Bliss, Consciousness, and Being— sat-chit-ananda, the Hindus call it—the Kingdom of Heaven, other mystics have called it—during the Afternoon of the Cosmic day, which state extends over countless æons of time; thence passing into the dream-like slumber of the Twilight of the Cosmic Day; thence on toward the resolution into the state of Unconsciousness in the Infinity of Nothingness of the Cosmic Midnight; thence on to the Re-awakening at the first glimpses of the Dawn of the new Cosmic Day. As Above, so Below; as Below, so Above! From One, Know All!
Thus is the Great Cycle of the Cosmos—thus the Working of the Laws. And, ever over all dwells The Law, unchanged, peaceful, undisturbed—ever the same—Alone—Absolute.
Lesson VIII. Metempsychosis.
IT IS not our purpose to enter into a discussion of the world-old and world-wide doctrine of Metempsychosis, Re-Birth, Reincarnation, or Re-embodiment, or by whatever other name it may be known. The modern world has awakened to a new knowledge of this ancient doctrine and truth, but in learning it is has absorbed much error with the principle of truth. We shall not attempt to prove the doctrine of Metempsychosis. All true occultists know that every soul which ever has experienced re-embodiment or rebirth has an intuitional assurance of the truth of having lived before, some time, some where—an assurance perhaps dim, but still persistent. Those who have not this inner assurance in some degree have never experienced rebirth, although they may have rebirth awaiting them after the present earth life. To those who have not this inner assurance, it is folly to attempt to prove Metempsychosis—at the best they will receive it merely as one of a number of idle speculations on the unknowable hereafter. To those who have the inner assurance, in some degree, no other proof is necessary, although explanation and teaching regarding the same is eagerly sought after. In this, and the following lesson, we shall ask you to consider the Arcane Teaching regarding the details of Metempsychosis, Reincarnation, and Re-birth. Many of the points of the Teaching may seem strange and startling to those who have studied other teachings—but careful study and comparison will show the Truth in spite of the contradictions from without. For the first point, listen to the Aphorism:
APHORISM XIII. Know ye this first Truth of Metempsychosis: The Ego is evolved from the Personal Self. Every living thing possesses a Personal Self, but even among men, many fail to reach Egohood. Egohood is earned, not bestowed as an universal natural gift. Many personalities are born, but few Egos are evolved. Personality perishes in the Astral World, after the death of the physical body—Egohood persists in Re-embodiment and Rebirth.
This startling truth, embodied in the Aphorism, is one of the fundamental principles of the Arcane Teaching. The majority of religions and philosophies have held to the idea of the universality of immortality, although there have been some notable exceptions to the rule. The Arcane Teaching however has always held that Egohood (with survival and re-birth) is conditional
