Cosmic Consciousness

SUMMARY.

THE SELF AND SYMBOL

  Thou most Divine! above all women

  Above all men in consciousness.

  Thou in thy nearness to me

  Hast shown me paths of love.

  Yea; walks that lead from hell

  To the great light; where life and love

    Do ever reign.

  Thou hast taught to me a patience

  To behold whatever state;

  However beautiful and joyful; however ugly and sorrowful.

  To know that these are—all!—but

  The glimmerings of the greater life—

  Expressions of the infinite.

  According to the finality of that moment

  Now to come; in the eternal now, which thou

  Sweet Presence, hast awakened me to—

  I see the light—the way.

  An everlasting illumination

  That takes me to the gate; the open door

  To the house of God.

  There I find most priceless jewels;

  The key to all the ways,

  That lead from Om to thee.

  A mistake—an off-turn from the apparent road of right

  Is but the bruising of thy temple,

  Calling thy Self—thy soul—

  The God within; showing thee,

  The nita of it all; which is but the half of me.

  And as thy consciousness of the two

  The nita and the ita, comes to thee

  A three is formed—the trinity is found.

  Through thee the Deity hast spoken

  Uniting the two in the one;

  Revealing the illusion of mortality

  The message of Om to the Illumined.

—Ali Nomad.

ARGUMENT

Man is essentially a spiritual being.

The source of this spiritual Omniscience we may not, in our finite intelligence, fully cognize, because full cognition would preclude the possibility of finite expression.

The destiny of man is perfection.

Man perfected becomes a god.

Only the gods are immortal, we are told.

Let us consider what this means, supposing it to be an axiom of truth.

Mortality is subject to change and death. Mortality is the manifest—the stage upon which man in his life plays many parts.

Immortality, is what the word says it is—godhood re-cognized in the mortal. Im or, Om—the more general term—stands for the Changeless. Birthless. Deathless. Unnamable Power that holds the worlds in space, and puts intelligence into man.

Biologists, even though they were to succeed in reproducing life by chemical processes from so-called lifeless (sterilized) matter, making so high a form of manifestation as man himself, yet could never name the power by which they accomplished it.

Always there must remain the Unknownable—the Absolute.

Om, therefore, is the word we use to express this Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent power.

The term mortal we have already defined. The compound immortal, applied to individual man, stands for one who has made his at-one-ment with Om, and who has, while still in the mortal body, re-cognized himself as one with Om.

This is what it means to escape the second death, to which the merely mortal consciousness is subject.

This is the goal of every human life; this is the essence, the substance of all religious systems and all philosophies.

The only chance for disputation among theologians and philosophers, lies in the way of accomplishing this at-one-ment. There is not the slightest opportunity for a difference of opinion as what they wish to accomplish.

Admitting then, that the goal of every soul is the same—immortality—(the mortal consciousness cognizing itself as Om), we come to a consideration of the evidence we may find in support of this axiom. This evidence we do not find satisfactory, in spirit communication; in psychic experiences; in hypnotic phenomena; and astral trips; important, and reliable as these many psychic research phenomena are.

These are not satisfactory or convincing evidences of our at-one-ment with Om, because they do not preclude the probability of the second death; but on the contrary, they verify it.

However, aside from all these psychic phenomena, there is a phase of human experience, much more rare but becoming somewhat general, that transcends phenomena of every kind.

The western world has given to these experiences the term cosmic consciousness, which term is self explanatory.

The Orientals have long known of this goal of the soul, and they have terms to express this, varying with the many types of the Oriental mind, but all meaning the same thing. This meaning, from our Occidental viewpoint, is best translated in the term liberation, signifying to be set free from the limitations of sense, and of self-consciousness, and to have glimpsed the larger area of consciousness, that takes in the very cosmos.

This experience is accompanied by a great light, whether this light is manifested as spiritual, or as intellectual power, determines its expression.

The object of this book is to call attention to some of the more pronounced instances of this Illumination, and to classify them, according as they have been expressed through religions enthusiasm; poetical fervor; or great intellectual power.

But we have also one other argument to make, and this we present with a conviction of its truth, while conceding that it must remain a theory, until proven, each individual, man or woman, for himself and herself. The postulate is this: immortality (i.e. godhood) is bi-sexual. No male person can by any possibility become an immortal god, in, of and by himself; no female person can be complete without the other half that makes the ONE.

Each and every SOUL, therefore, has its spiritual counterpart—its other half, with which it unites on the spiritual plane, when the time comes for attainment of immortality.

Sex is an eternal verity. The entire Cosmos is bi-sexual. Everything in the visible universe; in the manifest, is the result of this universal principle. As above so below, is a safe rule, as far as the IDEA goes. This hypothesis does not preclude perfection above, of that which we find below, but any radical reversion or repudiation of nature is inconceivable.

Male and female created he them. This being true, male and female must they return to the source from which they sprung, completing the circle, and gaining what?

Consciousness of godhood; of completeness in counterpartal union. Not absorption of consciousness, but union, which is quite a different idea.

Out of this counterpartal union a race of gods will be born, and these supermen, shall inherit the earth making it a fit dwelling place for the gods.

This earth is now being made fit. This fact may seem a far distant hope if we do not judge with the eyes of the seer, but its proof lies in the emancipation of woman. Its evidences are many and varied, but the awakening of woman is the cause.

This awakening of woman constitutes the first rays of the dawn—that long-looked for Millenium, which many of us have regarded as a mere figure of speech, instead of as a literal truth.

The argument is not that there has been no individual awakening until the present time; but that never before in the finite history of the world has there been such a general awakening, and as it is self evident that conditions will reflect the idea of the majority, the fact that woman is being given her rightful place in the sense-conscious life, proves that the earth will be a fit dwelling place for a higher order of beings than have hitherto constituted the majority.

The numerous instances of Illumination, or cosmic consciousness which are forcing attention at the present time, prove that there is a race-awakening to a realization of our unity with Om.

Another point which we trust these pages will make clear is this: So-called revelation is neither a personal discovery, nor any special act of a divine power. God spake thus and so to me, is a phrase which the self-conscious initiate employs, because he has lost sight of the cosmic light, or because he finds it expedient to use that phraseology in delivering the message of cosmic consciousness.

If we will substitute the term "initiation, for the term revelation," we will have a clearer idea of the truth.

Perhaps some of our readers will feel that the terms mean the same, but for the most part, those who have employed the word revelation, have used it as implying that the plan of the cosmos was unfinished, and that the Creator, having found some person suitable to convey the latest decision to mankind, natural laws had been suspended and the revelation made.

It is to correct this view, that we emphasize the distinction between the two words.

The cosmos is complete. As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever shall be, worlds without end.

A circle is without beginning or end. We, in our individual consciousness may traverse this circle, but our failure to realize its completeness does not change the fact that it is finished.

We can not add to the universal consciousness; nor take away therefrom.

But we can extend our own area of consciousness from the narrow limits of the personal self, into the heights and depths of the atman and who shall set limitations to the power of the atman, the higher Self, when it has attained at-one-ment with Om?

It is not the purpose of this book to trace the spiritual ascent of man further than to point out the wide gulf between the degrees of consciousness manifested in the lower animals and that of human consciousness; again tracing in the human, the ever-widening area of his cognition of the personal self, and its needs, to the awakening of the soul and its needs; which needs include the welfare of all living things as an absolute necessity to individual happiness.

Altruism, therefore, is not a virtue. It is a means of self-preservation—without this degree of initiation into the boundless area of universal, or cosmic consciousness, we may not escape the karmic law.

The revelations, therefore, upon which are founded the numerous religious systems, are comparable with the many and various degrees of initiation into THAT WHICH IS.

They represent the degree which the initiate has taken in the lodge.

It may be argued that this fact of individual initiation into the ever-present truth of Being, as into a lodge, offers no proof that this earth is to ultimately become a heaven. It may be that this planet is the outer-most lodge room and that there will never be a sufficient number of initiates to make the earth a fit dwelling place for a higher order of beings than now inhabit it. This may, indeed, be true. But all evidence tends toward the hope that even the planet itself will come under the regenerating power of Illumination.

All prophecies embody this promise; all that we know of what materialists call evolution and occultists might well name uncovering of consciousness, points to a time when God's will, shall be done on earth as it is in heaven.

All who have attained to cosmic consciousness in whatever degree, have prophecied a time, when this blessing would descend upon every one; but the difficulty in adequately explaining this great gift seems also to have been the burden of their cry.

Jesus sought repeatedly to describe to his hearers the wonders of the cosmic sense, but realized that he was too far in advance of the cyclic end; but even as at that time, a number of disciples were capable of receiving the Illumination, so to-day, a larger number are capable of attainment. If this number is great enough to bring about the regeneration—the perfecting—of the earth conditions, then it must be accomplished.

We believe that it is. We make the claim that the Millenium has dawned; and although it may be many years before the light of the morning breaks into the full light of the day, yet the rays of the dawn are dispelling the world's long night.

In his powerful and prophetic story In the Days of the Comet, H.G. Wells, tells of a great change that comes over the world following an atmospheric phenomenon in which a green vapor is generated in the clouds and falls upon the earth with instantaneous effect.

As this peculiar vapor descends, it has the effect of putting every one to sleep; this sleep continues for three days and when people finally awake, their interior nature has undergone a complete change.

Where before they saw dimly, they now see clearly; the petty differences and quarrels are perceived in their true perspective. Instead of place, and power, and influence, and wealth, being all-important goals of ambition as before the change, every one now strives to be of service to the world. Love and kindness become greater factors than commercial expediency and business success.

In many respects, Wells' description of the great change and its effect upon people, corresponds with the effect of Illumination.

The sense of entering into the very heart of things; of growing plants; the birds and the little wood animals; the intense sympathy and understanding of life described by him, sounds like the effect of cosmic consciousness, as related by nearly all who have attained it.

How the world's activities are resumed after the change, and under what vastly different incentives people work, form a part of the story, which is written as fiction, but which contains the seed of a great truth.

This truth is expressed in science, as human achievement, and in religion as fulfilled prophecy, but the truth is the same.

Both religion and science point to a time when this earth will know freedom from strife and suffering. Even the elements which have hitherto been regarded as beyond the boundaries of man's will, may be completely controlled; not may be, but will be. Manual labor will cease. National Eugenic societies will put a stop to war, when they come to the inevitable conclusion, that no race can by any possibility be improved, while the most perfect physical species are reserved for armies.

Awakening woman will refuse—indeed they are now refusing—to bear children to be shot down in warfare, and crushed under the juggernaut of commercial competition.

Those who realize the signs of the times, look for the birth of cosmic consciousness as a race-consciousness, foreshadowing the new day; the second coming of Christ, not as a personal, vicarious sacrifice, but as a factor in human attainment.

For I am persuaded, said St. Paul, that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God.

If we interpret this in the light of cosmic consciousness, we realize that we shall know, and experience that boundless, deathless, perfect, satisfying, complete and all-embracing love which is the goal of immortality; which is an attribute (we may say the one attribute) of God.

We are not looking for the birth of a Christ-child, but of the Christ-child; we are not looking for a second coming of a man who shall be as Jesus was, but we are anticipating the coming of the man (homo), who shall be cosmically conscious, even as was Jesus of Nazareth; as was Guatama, the Buddha.

That there may be one man and one woman who shall first achieve this consciousness and realization is barely possible, but the preponderance of evidence is for a more general awakening to the light of Illumination.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the twinkling of an eye, said St. Paul.

The prophecy of the woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, is not of a woman, but of Woman, in the light of a race of men who have attained cosmic consciousness.

Nothing more is needed to make a heaven of earth, than that the great light and love that comes of Illumination, shall become dominant.

It will solve all problems, because problems arise only because we are groping in the dark. The elimination of selfishness; of condemnation; of fear and anger, and doubt, must have far greater power for universal happiness and well-being than all the systems which theology or science or politics could devise. Indeed, all these systems are sporadic and empirical attempts to express the vague dawning of Illumination.

In the fullness of its light, the need for systems will have passed away.

CHAPTER I

THE NEW BIRTH: WHAT IT IS: INSTANCES DESCRIBED

The chief difference between the religions and the philosophies of the Orient and those of the Occident, lies in the fact that the Oriental systems, methods, and practices, emphasize the assumption that the goal of these efforts, is attainable at any moment, as it were.

That is, Oriental religion—speaking in the broad sense—teaches that the disciple need not wait for the experience called death to liberate the Self, the atman, from the enchantment or delusion, the maya, of the external world. Indeed, the Oriental devotee well knows that physical death, mrityu, is not a guarantee of liberation; does not necessarily bring with it immortality.

He well recognizes that physical death is but a procedure in existence. Death does not of itself, change the condition of maya, in which the disciple is bound until such a time, as he has earned liberation—mukti, which condition may be defined as immunity from further incarnation.

Immortality is our rightful heritage but it must be claimed,—yea, it must be earned.

It is a mistake to imagine that death makes man immortal. Immortality is an attribute of the gods. But since all souls possess a spark of the divine essence of Brahman (The Absolute), mukti may be attained by earnest seeking, and thus immortality be realized.

This condition of awakening, is variously named among Oriental sages and chelas, such for instance as glimpsing the Brahmic splendor; mutki; samadhi; moksha; entering Nirvana; becoming "twice-born."

In recent years there have come to light in the Occident a number of instances of the attainment of this state, and these have been described as cosmic consciousness; illumination; liberation; the baptism of the Holy Ghost; and becoming immersed in the great white light.

Baptism, which is a ceremony very generally incorporated into religious systems, is a symbol of this esoteric truth, namely the necessity for Illumination in order that the soul may be saved from further incarnations—from further experience.

The term cosmic consciousness as well describes this condition of the disciple, as any words can, perhaps, although the term liberation is more literal, since the influx of this state of being, is actually the liberation of the atman, the eternal Self, from the illusion of the external, or maya.

Contrary to the general belief, instances of cosmic consciousness are not extremely rare, although they are not at all general. Particularly is this true in the Orient, where the chief concern as it were, of the people has for centuries been the realization of this state of liberation.

The Oriental initiate in the study of religious practices, realizes that these devotions are for the sole purpose of attaining mukti, whereas in the Occident, the very general idea held by the religious devotee, is one of penance; of propitiation of Deity. This truth applies essentially to the initiate, the aspirant for priesthood, or guru-ship. No qualified priest or guru of