The Ancient Wisdom - mysticknowledge.org

The Ancient Wisdom
by Annie Besant
Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar
1911
|CONTENTS |
|THE PHYSICAL PLANE |
|THE ASTRAL PLANE |
|KÂMALOKA |
|THE MENTAL PLANE |
|DEVACHAN |
|THE BUDDHIC AND NIRVANIC PLANES |
|REINCARNATION |
|REINCARNATION (CONTINUED) |
|KARMA |
|THE LAW OF SACRIFICE |
|MAN'S ASCENT |
|BUILDING A KOSMOS |
PREFACE
This book is intended to place in the hands of the general reader
an epitome of theosophical teachings, sufficiently plain to serve the
elementary student, and sufficiently full to lay a sound foundation for
further knowledge. It is hoped that it may serve as an introduction to
the profounder works of H.P.Blavatsky, and be a convenient steppingstone
to their study.
Those who have learned a little of the Ancient Wisdom know the
illumination, the peace, the joy, the strength, its lessons have brought
into their lives. That this book may win some to con its teachings,and to
prove for themselves their value, is the prayer with which it is sent
forth into the world.
Annie Besant,
August 1897
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(NOTE- At the beginning of the original print, there is introduction
explaining the underlying unity of all religions. Many readers might find
it difficult to understand terms in various religions. So this section is
given at the end in case anybody wants to read. So we start here with
first chapter The Physical Plane ) CHAPTER I
THE PHYSICAL PLANE
We have just seen that the source from which a universe proceeds
is a manifested Divine Being, to whom in the modern form of the Ancient
Wisdom the name LOGOS, or Word has been given. The name is drawn from
Greek Philosophy, but perfectly expresses the ancient idea, the Word
which emerges from the Silence, the Voice, the Sound, by which the worlds
come into being. We must now trace the evolution of spirit-matter, in
order that we may understand something of the nature of the materials
with which we have to deal on the physical plane, or physical world. For
it is in the potentialities wrapped up, involved, in the spirit-matter of
the physical world that lies the possibility of evolution. The whole
process is an unfolding, self-moved from within and aided by intelligent
beings without, who can retard or quicken evolution, but cannot transcend
the capacities inherent in the materials. Some idea of these earliest
stages of the world's "becoming" is therefore necessary, although any
attempt to go into minute details would carry us far beyond the limits of
such an elementary treatise as the present. A very cursory sketch must
suffice. (Page 41)
Coming forth from the depths of the One Existence, from the ONE
beyond all thought and all speech, a LOGOS, by imposing on Himself a
limit, circumscribing voluntarily the range of His own Being, becomes
the manifested God, and tracing the limiting sphere of His activity thus
outlines the area of His universe. Within that sphere the universe is
born, is evolved, and dies ; it lives, it moves, it has its being in Him
; its matter is His emanation ; its forces and energies are currents of
His Life ; He is immanent in every atom, all-pervading, all-sustaining,
all-evolving ; He is its source and its end, its cause and its object,
its centre and circumference ; it is built on Him as its sure foundation,
it breathes in Him as its encircling space ; He is in everything and
everything in Him. Thus have the sages of the Ancient Wisdom taught us of
the beginning of the manifested worlds.
From the same source we learn of the Self-unfolding of the LOGOS
into a threefold form ; the First LOGOS, the Root of all being ; from Him
the Second, manifesting the two aspects of Life and Form, the primal
duality, making the two poles of nature between which the web of the
universe is to be woven - Life-Form, Spirit-Matter, Positive-Negative,
Active-Receptive, Father-Mother of the worlds. Then the Third LOGOS, the
Universal Mind, that in which all archetypically exists, the source of
beings, the fount of fashioning energies, the treasure house in which are
stored up all the archetypal forms which are to be brought forth and
elaborated in lower kinds (Page 42) of matter during the evolution of the
universe. These are the fruits of past universes, brought over as seeds
for the present. The phenomenal spirit and matter of any universe are finite in their
extent and transitory in their duration, but the roots of spirit and
matter are eternal. The root of matter (Mulâprakriti ) has been said by a
profound writer to be visible to the LOGOS as a veil thrown over the One
existence, the supreme Brahman (Parabrahman) -to use the ancient name.
It is this "veil" which the LOGOS assumes for the purpose of
manifestation, using it for the self-imposed limit which makes activity
possible. From this He elaborates the matter of His universe, being
Himself its informing, guiding, and controlling life. ( Hence He is
called "The Lord of Mâyâ" in some Eastern Scriptures, Mâyâ, or illusion,
being the principle of form; form is regarded as illusory, from its
transitory nature and perpetual transformations, the life which expresses
itself under the veil of form being the reality).
Of what occurs on the two higher planes of the universe, the
seventh and sixth, we can form but the haziest conception. The energy of
the LOGOS as whirling motion of inconceivable rapidity "digs holes in
space" in this root matter, and this vortex of life encased in a film of
the root of matter is the primary atom; these and their aggregations,
spread throughout the universe, form all the subdivisions of spirit-
matter of the highest or seventh plane. The sixth plane is formed by some
of the (Page 43) countless myriads of these primary atoms, setting up a
vortex in the coarsest aggregations of their own plane, and this primary
atom en-walled with spiral strands of the coarsest combinations of the
seventh plane becomes the finest unit of spirit-matter, or atom of the
sixth plane. These sixth plane atoms and their endless combinations form
the subdivisions of the spirit-matter of the sixth plane.
The sixth-plane-atom, in its turn, sets up a vortex in the
coarsest aggregations of its own plane, and, with these coarsest
aggregations as a limiting wall, becomes the finest unit of spirit-
matter, or atom, of the fifth plane. Again, these fifth-plane atoms, and
their combinations form the subdivisions of the spirit-matter of the
fifth plane. The process is repeated to form successively the spirit-
matter of the fourth, the third, the second, and the first planes. These
are the seven great regions of the universe, so far as their material
constituents are concerned. A clearer idea of them will be gained by
analogy when we come to master the modifications of the spirit-matter of
our own physical world.
(The student may find the conception clearer if he thinks of the
fifth plane atoms as ?tm? ; those of the fourth plane as ?tm? enveloped
in Buddhi-matter ; those of the third plane as ?tm? enveloped in Buddhi
and Manas-matter ; those of the second plane as ?tm? enveloped in Buddhi-
Manas- and K?ma-matter ; those of the lowest as ?tm? enveloped in Buddhi-
Manas-K?ma and Sthûla-matter. Only the outermost is active in each, but
the inner are there, though latent, ready to come into activity on the
upward arc of evolution).
The world "spirit-matter" is used designedly. (Page 44) At
implies the fact that there is no such thing as "dead" matter ; all
matter is living, the tiniest particles are lives. Science speaks truly
in affirming : "No force without matter, no matter without force." They
are wedded together in an indissoluble marriage throughout the ages of
the life of a universe, and none can wrench them apart. Matter is form,
and there is no form which does not express a life ; spirit is life, and
there is no life that is not limited by form. Even the LOGOS, the Supreme
Lord, has during manifestation the universe as His form, and so down to
the atom.
This involution of the life of the LOGOS as the ensouling force
in every particle, and its successive enwrapping in the spirit-matter of
every plane, so that the materials of each plane have within them in a
hidden, or latent condition, all the form and force possibilities of all
the planes above them as well as those of their own - these two facts
make evolution certain and give to the very lowest particle the hidden
potentialities which will render it fit - as they become active powers -
to enter into the forms of the highest beings. In fact, evolution may be
summed up in a phrase : it is latent potentialities becoming active
powers. The second great wave of evolu