510TH ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING. MONDAY, JANUARY 9TH, 1911, 4.30 P.M. DR. A. T. SCHOFIELD IN THE CHAIR. The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed. MEMBER Rev. J. J. B. Coles, M.A. ASSOCIATES: Rev. Samuel Roberts; H. Lance Gray, Esq.; H. Nugent Sharp, Esq. The CHAIRMAN, in introducing the lecturer, said that Mr. Coles was a gentleman of profound study; the subject has depths perhaps few of us realised. Anything that comes from him comes with authority. The following paper was then read by the author : L THEOSOPHY. By the Rev. J. J. B. COLES. Θεοῦ σοφίαν ἐν μυστηρίῳ τὴν ἀποκεκρυμμένην. 1 Cor. ii, 7. ET me first give in outline a brief summary of Theosophical teaching. BRIEF SUMMARY. "The word Theosophy means not the 'Wisdom of God' but the 'wisdom of the gods,' or Universal Wisdom. This wisdom is the inner, hidden, spiritual truth which underlies all the outward forms of religion, and its central thought is the belief that the Universe is in its essence spiritual, that man is a spiritual being in a state of evolution and development, and that by proper physical, mental, and spiritual training humanity can so progress on this path of evolution as to develop faculties and powers which will enable it to get behind the outward veil of what we call matter and to enter into conscious relations with the underlying Reality. To the Theosophist, man is composed of seven principles, which are resolvable into the lower and the higher parts of his nature, the four lower principles forming the personality, which is his non-permanent side, disintegrating after death, and the three higher forming the individuality, the intelligent and spiritual side, which is permanent and eternal. "The whole Universe is in a continual state of progression; the spiritual, having descended into matter, is ever and always working its way upwards, and the duty of man is to assist this upward evolution by every means in his power. So far as regards himself, this evolution cannot be completed in one lifetime, and the Theosophist therefore believes in Reincarnation. That part of man's intelligent nature which reincarnates in successive personalities and lives is called the Reincarnating Ego. The spirit or monad has to pass through all the stages of evolution, mineral, vegetable and animal. In man, self-consciousness and moral responsibility are attained, and the duty then at once arises to subordinate the animal and passional part of the nature and to develop the spiritual, so as to prepare for the next incarnation. At the change, which is called death, the Reincarnating Ego passes, not into any particular place, like heaven or hell, but into a state of subjective consciousness called Devachan, remaining thus for a longer or shorter period according to the way in which the earth life has been passed. When the time comes for it to take up another body the Ego again incarnates, and this goes on till all experience has been gained, and till by spiritual advancement the necessity for reincarnation ceases, the ultimate destiny of the higher spiritual principle in man being its conscious union with the Absolute, the Universal All. The whole of this evolution and reincarnation are governed by law, for the Theosophist does not believe in anything miraculous or supernatural. This law is called Karma, and its meaning is that as a man sows so shall he reap; that every life depends on and has to work itself out in accordance with what has been done in previous lives, and that the whole Universe is one unbroken chain of cause and effect. It is especially to be remembered that this holds good in the moral and spiritual realms which are the reality, thought being the vital and the moulding force. The "The great fundamental idea of Theosophy is universal brotherhood, and this is based on the spiritual unity of man. Theosophical Society is the outward expression of Theosophy, and the only pledge which is asked of its members is that they should faithfully and loyally work, by thought and action, for the realization of this brotherhood, which does not depend on race, sex, creed, caste, or colour, but on the imperishable spiritual unity of mankind." Theosophy teaches a profound Pantheism which recognises that in manifestation intelligence is everywhere, guiding, moulding, controlling matter. It holds that the devas of the Hindu and the angels of the Christian have their places and work in the Universe, but jealously guards from all limitations that source of which the centre is everywhere and the circumference nowhere, in which the immeasurable universe is but as a grain of sand, and which is yet the life of the spirit in man. In the matter of divine incarnation Theosophy teaches that the Krishna of the Hindu, the Buddha of the Buddhist, the Christ of the Christian are not antagonistic concepts, but complementary aspects of a fact in nature. While each is looked on as unique by the adherents of each religion, all are looked on as repeated examples of the same truth by the follower of the Wisdom Religion. Every man is regarded as the incarnation of God, and the work of evolution is the gradual manifestation of that divine nature. The Supreme Teachers of the race, the Divine Founders of great religions, are men who, during ages of evolutionary progress, and reincarnations have so purified and sublimed their human nature that it has become translucent to the God within. The Buddhist should see in every man a potential Buddha and the Christian in every man a potential Christ. To recognise this esoteric truth under the exoteric veil will not only soften religious antagonism, but will help religious teachers to appeal to the divine nature in man instead of treating man as being naturally inclined to evil and only to be held back by threats. The above short explanation of this Wisdom Religion almost in the very words of its principal teachers, is intended, as will be seen, for anyone who may take up this paper without having had any previous acquaintance with Theosophy. In order to interest those who for many years have been students of Theosophy, and especially the Members and Associates of the Victoria Institute who may wish for suggestions as to the proper attitude which an educated Christian should assume towards it, we shall now consider the claims of Theosophy to be a science, a philosophy and a religion. In Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, by Madame Blavatsky; A Study in Consciousness and Esoteric Christianity, by Annie Besant; Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, and The Gospel and The Gospels, by G. R. S. Mead; Man Visible and Invisible, by C. W. Leadbeater, and Thought Forms and Occult Chemistry, by Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater-not to mention many other works such as Nature's Finer Forces, by Râma Prâsad, and The Perfect Way and Clothed with the Sun, by Dr. Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland-we have a fair and ample selection from Theosophical writings on which to form our judgment as to this attempt at a synthesis of all knowledge relating to God, Man and the Universe. Let us turn over the pages of Occult Chemistry, a series of Clairvoyant Observations on the Chemical Elements, by Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater. I give a few extracts— "The first thing which is noticed by an observer, when he turns his attention to the chemical atoms, is that they show certain definite forms, and that within these forms modified in various ways, sub-groupings are observable which recur in connection with the same modified form." (p. 11.) "The tetrahedron seems to be one of the favourite forms of nature, and repeatedly appears in the internal arrangements. contains no less than 20 tetrahedra.' 'Gold "The Cube appears to be the form of triads." The Octahedron -the simplest example of this is carbon. "We have a regular series of the Platonic solids, and the question suggests itself, will further evolution develop elements shaped to the dodecahedron and the icosahedron ?" Those of us who have studied the Geometrical Philosophy of the ancients, and who are aware that Moses, the writer of the Pentateuch, was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and that he introduced in an esoteric manner, into Genesis, the science of geometrical form and number, will have read this book of Occult Chemistry with very great interest. On my writing table before me I have three of the regular polyhedra or platonic solids, the icosahedron being one of them. Some of us will remember Lord Kelvin's Molecular Tactics of a Crystal and the diagram representing a small sphere in the centre of twelve other similar spheres, and we note with close attention this reference to the dodecahedron and icosahedron in connection with the suggestion as to further evolution. Many of us have but little doubt that this further evolution will soon be an accomplished fact. But let us continue our perusal of this interesting book, all the more interesting from the fact that at a recent meeting of scientists in Milan, a well-known Professor of Chemistry, Dr. Ubaldo Antony, spoke very favourably of the results of this clairvoyant excursion into a hitherto unoccupied field. After noticing the diagram of radium on p. 89 and the allusion to the "extraordinary vivid and living" complex central sphere, "so rapid that continued accurate observation is very difficult," let us turn to the Appendix on the Æther of Space. "Much discussion has taken place, especially between physicists and chemists, over the nature of the substance with which all space must, according to scientific hypothesis, be filled. One side contends that it is infinitely thinner than the thinnest gas, absolutely frictionless and without weight: the other asserts that it is denser than the densest solid. In this substance the ultimate atoms of ether are thought to float, like motes in a sunbeam, and light, heat and electricity are supposed to be its vibrations. Theosophical investigators, using methods not at the disposal of physical science, have found that this hypothesis includes under one head two entirely different and widely separated sets of phenomena. They have been able to deal with states of matter higher than the gaseous, and have observed that it is by means of vibrations of this finer matter that light, heat and electricity manifest themselves to us. Seeing that matter in these higher states thus performs the functions attributed to the ether of science, they have (perhaps unadvisedly) called these states etheric, and have thus left themselves without a convenient name for that substance which fulfils the other part of the scientific requirements. "Let us for the moment name this substance koilon, since it fills what we are in the habit of calling empty space. What mulaprakrti or 'mother-matter' is to the inconceivable totality of universes, koilon is to our particular universe, not to our solar system merely, but to the vast unit which includes all visible suns. "To any power of sight which we can bring to bear upon it, this koilon appears to be homogeneous, though it is probably nothing of the kind, since homogeneity can belong to the mother substance alone. "It is out of all proportion denser than any other substance known to us, infinitely denser-if we may be pardoned the expression; so much denser that it seems to belong to another type or order of density. "But now comes the startling part of the investigation; we might expect matter to be a densification of this koilon; it is nothing of the kind. Matter is not koilon, but the absence of koilon, and at first sight, matter and space, appear to have changed places, and emptiness has become solidity, solidity has become emptiness!" [A recent address on the New Elements in Chemistry by Sir William Crookes adds interest to these extracts. See note on p. 45.] But time and space will not admit of any further quotations from this engrossing Appendix, save only the following: "To us, Theosophists, it is the Breath of the Logos-we know not whether of the Logos of this solar system or of a yet Mightier Being; the latter would seem the more likely." Christians might here venture to quote the words of that great initiate the Apostle Paul. "Whom therefore ye ignorantly |