PART FOUR

Instances of Cosmic Consciousness

 

CHAPTER 1

Gautama the Buddha

IT IS NOT, of course, intended to write biographies here of the men given in this volume as cases of Cosmic Consciousness, nor, equally of course, can more than the faintest hint be given of their teaching. The facts quoted from their lives and the passages from their words are simply intended to establish and illustrate the fact that these men were illumined in the sense in which that word is used in this book.

1

SIDDHARTHA GAUTAMA was born of wealthy parents (his father being rather a great landowner than a king, as he is sometimes stated to have been), between the years 562 and 552 BC. It seems sufficiently certain that he was a case of Cosmic Consciousness, although, on account of the remoteness of his era, details of proof may be somewhat lacking. He was married very young. Ten years afterwards his only son, Rahula, was born. Shortly after Rahula’s birth, Gautama, being then in his twenty-ninth year, suddenly abandoned his home to devote himself entirely to the study of religion and philosophy. He seems to have been a very earnest minded man who, realizing keenly the miseries of the human race, desired above all things to do something to abolish, or at least lessen, them. The orthodox manner of attaining to holiness in Gautama’s age and land was through fasting and penance, and for six years he practiced extreme self mortification. He gained extraordinary fame, for which he cared nothing, but did not gain the mental peace nor the secret of human happiness, for which he strove. Seeing that that course was vain and led to nothing, he abandoned asceticism and shortly afterwards, at about the age of thirty-five, attained illumination under the celebrated Bo tree.

2

FOR OUR PRESENT purpose it is important to fix the age of the oncoming of the Cosmic Sense in this, as in other cases, as precisely as possible. A very recent and probably good authority gives it as thirty-six. Ernest de Bunsen in his work The Angel Messiah says that Buddha, like Christ, “commenced preaching at thirty-years of age. He certainly must have preached at Vaisali, for five young men became his disciples there and exhorted him to go on with his teachings. He was twenty-nine when he left that place; therefore he might well have preached at thirty. He did not turn the wheel of the law (became illumined) until after a six years’ meditation under the tree of knowledge”.

3

NOW AS TO the result of his illumination. What did he say about it? And what change did it effect in the man? The Dhamma Kakka Ppavattana Sutta is accepted by all Buddhists as a summary of the words in which the great Indian thinker and reformer for the first time successfully promulgated his new ideas. In it over and over again Gautama declares that the “noble truths” taught therein were not “among the doctrines handed down,” but that “there arose within him the eye to perceive them, the knowledge of their nature, the understanding of their cause, the wisdom that lights the true path, the light that expels darkness.” He could not well more definitely state that he did not derive his authority to teach from the merely Self Conscious, but from the Cosmic Conscious, mind – that is, from illumination or inspiration. Compare with this what Böhme says of himself in the same connection: “I am not collecting my knowledge from letters and books, but I have it within my own Self; because heaven and earth with all their inhabitants, and moreover God himself, is in man”.

No.	Name	Date of Birth	Age at Illumination	Sex
1	Moses	c.1391 BC		M
2	Gidoen	Unknown		M
3	Isaiah	c.8th cent. BC		M
4	Li R	604?		M
5	Gautama	c.4th cent. BC	35	M
6	Socrates	c.563 BC	39?	M
7	Jesus	c.469 BC	35	M
8	Paul	0	35	M
9	Plotinus	204		M
10	Mohammed	570	39	M
11	Roger Bacon	1214		M
12	Dante	1265	35	M
13	Las Casas	1474	40	M
14	John Yepes	1542	36	M
15	Francis Bacon	1561	30?	M
16	Böhme	1575	35	M
17	Pascal	1623	31½	M
18	Spinoza	1632		M
19	Mde. Guyon	1648	33	M
20	Swedenborg	1688	54	M
21	Gardiner	1688	32	M
22	Blake	1759	31	M
23	Balzac	1799	32	M
24	J. B. B.	1817	38	M
25	Whitman	1819	34	M
26	J. B.	1821	38	M
27	C. P.	1822	37	M
28	H. B.	1823		M
29	R. R.	1830	30	M
30	E. T.	1830	30	M
31	R. P.	1835		M
32	J. H. J.	1837	34	M
33	R. M. B	1837	35	M
34	T. S. R.	1840	32	M
35	W. H. W.	1842	35	M
36	Carpenter	1844	36	M
37	C. M. C.	1844	49	W
38	M. C. L.	1853	37	M
39	J. W. W.	1853	31	M
40	J. William Lloyd	1857	39	M
41	P. T.	1860	35	M
42	C. Y. E.	1864	31½	M
43	A. J. S.	1871	24	W

No.	Name	Time of year of Illumination	Age of Death
1	Moses		Old
2	Gidoen
3	Isaiah
4	Li R		Old
5	Gautama		80
6	Socrates	Summer	71?
7	Jesus	January?	38?
8	Paul		67?
9	Plotinus		66?
10	Mohammed	May	62
11	Roger Bacon		80?
12	Dante	Spring	56
13	Las Casas	June	92
14	John Yepes	Early Summer	49
15	Francis Bacon		66
16	Böhme		49
17	Pascal	November	39
18	Spinoza		45
19	Mde. Guyon	July	69
20	Swedenborg		84
21	Gardiner	July	58
22	Blake		68
23	Balzac		51
24	J. B. B.
25	Whitman	June	73
26	J. B.		73
27	C. P.
28	H. B.
29	R. R.	Early Summer	69
30	E. T.
31	R. P.
32	J. H. J.	Late Spring
33	R. M. B.	Spring
34	T. S. R.
35	W. H. W.
36	Carpenter	Spring
37	C. M. C.	September
38	M. C. L.	February
39	J. W. W.	January
40	J. William Loyd	January
41	P. T.	May
42	C. Y. E.	September
43	A. J. S.

4

IN THE Maha Vagga it is said that “during the first watch of the night following on Gautama’s victory over the evil one (the night following upon his attainment of Cosmic Consciousness) he fixed his mind upon the chain of causation; during the second watch he did the same, and during the third watch he did the same.” This tradition exists among both northern and southern Buddhists, has come down from the time before the separation of these churches, and is therefore probably genuine and from Gautama himself. But it embodies in clear and concise language one of the most fundamental phenomena belonging to the oncoming of the Cosmic Sense: most probably “the revelation of exceeding greatness” of which Paul speaks; the vision of the “eternal wheels” of Dante; “the knowledge that passes all the argument of the earth” of Whitman; the “inner illumination by which we can ultimately see things as they are, beholding all creation – the animals, the angels, the plants, the figures of our friends, and all the ranks and races of human kind – in their true being and order,” of Edward Carpenter.

5

AGAIN IN THE Akankheyya Sutta is set forth the spiritual characteristics which belong to those who possess the Cosmic Sense. No one, not having it, could have written the description which, doubtless proceeds, as claimed, directly from Gautama. Neither could any later possessor of the faculty set forth more clearly in the same number of words the distinctive marks which belong to it. For instance, it is said there that the attainment of Arhatship (supernatural insight – Nirvāna – illumination – Cosmic Consciousness) “will cause a man to become”:

Gautama’s Words

Beloved, popular, respected among his fellows, victorious over discontent and lust; over spiritual danger and dismay;^* will bestow upon him the ecstasy of contemplation;^† will enable him to reach with his body, and remain in, those stages of deliverance which are incorporeal and pass beyond phenomena;^‡ cause him to become an inheritor of the highest heavens;^§ make him being one to become multiple, being multiple to become one; will endow him with clear and heavenly ear, surpassing that of men; enable him to comprehend by his own heart the hearts of other beings, and of other men, to understand all minds, the passionate, the calm, the angry, the peaceable, the deluded, the wise, the concentrated, the ever varying, the lofty, the narrow, the sublime, the mean, the steadfast, the wavering, the free and the enslaved; give him the power to call to mind his various temporary states in days gone by; such as one birth, two births, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred, a thousand or a hundred thousand births; his births in many an eon of renovation; in many an eon of both destruction and renovation; to call to mind his temporary states in days gone by in all their modes and in all their details; to see with pure and heavenly vision surpassing that of men, beings as they pass from one state of existence and take form in others; beings base or noble, good-looking or illfavored, happy or miserable; to know and realize emancipation of heart and emancipation of mind.

Parallel Passages

6

A FEW OTHER PASSAGES alluding to the cosmic sense and having more or less close parallels in the writings of more modern illuminati may be given in further illustration, but it is almost needless to say that whoever desires light on this subject should read for himself – not once, but over and over again – the words left us by these lords of thought. Here is a passage from The Book of the Great Decease. Gautama is teaching his disciples; he speaks as follows:

So long as the brethren shall not engage in, or be fond of, or be connected with business – so long as the brethren shall not be in the habit of, or be fond of, or be partakers in idle talk – so long as the brethren shall not be addicted to, or be fond of, or indulge in slothfulness – so long as the brethren shall not frequent, or be fond of, or indulge in society – so long as the brethren shall neither have nor fall under the influence of sinful desires – so long as the brethren shall not become the friends, companions, or intimates of sinners – so long as the brethren shall not come to a stop on their way (to Nirvāna) because they have attained to any lesser thing (as riches or power) – so long may the brethren be expected not to decline, but to prosper.

It is needless to quote parallel passages from Jesus, they are so numerous and will occur to everyone. But it is worth noting that Paul uses almost the same language, referring to the same figure which is in the mind of the Buddhist writer, when he says (comparing Nirvāna, the Cosmic Sense and the things belonging to it to the prize of a race): “one thing I do, forgetting the things (the lesser things of the Buddhist text) which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize”. Compare also The Song of the Open Road, in which the same thought is elaborately worked out. Then as to the admonition against “business” and the “lesser things,” such as wealth, consider the lives of Gautama, Jesus, Paul, Whitman, and E. C., most of whom either were or might easily have been “well off,” but either turned their backs upon their wealth (as Gautama or E. C.) or simply declined to have any (as Jesus and Whitman). In commentary upon this fact read these words of Whitman:

Beyond the independence of a little sum laid aside for burial money, and of a few clapboards around and shingles overhead on a lot of American soil owned, and the easy dollars that supply the year’s plain clothing and meals, the melancholy prudence of the abandonment of such a great being as a man is to the toss and pallor of years of money-making with all their scorching days and icy nights … is the great fraud upon modern civilization.

7

THE FOLLOWING LINES are quoted as a plain allusion to the Cosmic Sense – the whole Upanishad should be read:

There lived once Svetaketu Aruneya (the grandson of Aruna). To him his father (Uddâlaka, the son of Aruna) said: “Svetaketu, go to school; for there is none belonging to our race, darling, who, not having studied (the Veda), is, as it were, a Brahmana by birth only.”

Having begun his apprenticeship with a teacher when he was twelve years of age, Svetaketu returned to his father when he was twenty-four, having studied all the Vedas, conceited, considering himself well read and stern.

His father said to him: “Svetaketu, as you are so conceited, considering yourself so well-read, and so stern, my dear, have you ever asked for that instruction by which we hear what cannot be heard, by which we perceive what cannot be perceived, by which we know what cannot be known”?

“That seeing they may see and not perceive; and hearing they may hear and not understand”; “I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and exteriors have their exteriors, and that the eyesight has another eyesight, and the hearing another hearing, and the voice another voice”.

8

IN THE SAME connection read this verse:

The teacher replies: It is the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the speech of speech, the breath of breath, and the eye of the eye.

Just one more passage:

That one (the self), though never stirring, is swifter than thought. The senses never reached it, it walked before them. Though standing still, it overtakes the others who are running. The moving spirit bestows powers upon it. It stirs and it stirs not. It is far and likewise near. It is inside of all this and it is outside of all this.

And he who beholds all beings in the self and the self in all beings, he never turns away from it. When to a man who understands, the self has become all things, what sorrow, what trouble can there be to him who once beheld that unity?

“The sense is a sense that one is those objects and things and persons that one perceives, and the whole universe”.

9

THE SPECIFIC REASONS for believing that Gautama was a case of Cosmic Consciousness are:

a.   The initial character of his mind, which seems to have been ardent, earnest, and aspiring; such, indeed, as usually (always 2) precedes the oncoming of the Cosmic Sense.

b.   The definiteness and suddenness of the change in the man from unceasing aspiration and endeavor to achievement and peace. “A religious life is well taught by me” (says Gautama). “An instantaneous, an immediate life”. And, again, Gautama is said to teach “the instantaneous, the immediate, the destruction of desire, freedom from distress, whose likeness is nowhere”.

c.   The age at which illumination is said to have been attained – the typical age for the oncoming of the Cosmic Sense – thirty-five years.

d.   The general teaching of the Suttas, said to have come from Gautama, which teachings undoubtedly spring from a mind possessed of Cosmic Consciousness.

e.   The intellectual illumination – “supernatural insight” – ascribed, and justly ascribed, to Gautama and proved by the above teachings – if these proceed from him.

f.   The moral elevation attained by Gautama which nothing but the possession of Cosmic Consciousness will account for.

g.   Gautama seems to have had the sense of eternal life which belongs to Cosmic Consciousness. The Maha Vagga is supposed to give with considerable accuracy his actual teaching on such matters. In it we find these words: “The man who has no desire, who knowingly is free from doubt, and has attained the depth of immortality, him I call a Brahmana”. It is important to note that the test is not a belief or assurance (however strong) in a future eternal life. The man, in order to be a Brahmana (to have attained Nirvāna – Cosmic Consciousness), must already have acquired eternal life.

h.   The personal magnetism exerted directly by him upon his contemporaries, and through his words upon his disciples in all ages since.

i.   There is a tradition of the characteristic change in appearance known as “transfiguration.” When he came down “from the mountain Mienmo, a staircase of glittering diamonds, seen by all, helped his descent. His appearance was blinding”. Allowing for Oriental exaggeration, a germ of truth may be contained in this tradition.

10

IF, NOW, GAUTAMA had Cosmic Consciousness, and if, as seems almost certain, it has appeared among his followers generation after generation from his time until now, then it must have a name in the copious literature of the Buddhists. There is, in fact, a word used by these people as to the exact value of which Western students have always been more or less in doubt, but if to that word we assign this meaning all difficulty seems to be ended and the passages in which that word occurs are seen to have a clear and simple signification. The word referred to is Nirvāna.

Kinza M. Hirai says: “Nirvāna is interpreted by Western nations as the actual annihilation of human desire or passion; but this is a mistake. Nirvāna is nothing else than universal reason.”

It may be doubted whether Mr. Hirai by “universal reason” means “Cosmic Consciousness,” but his intention in using the expression is the same. If he realizes or shall ever realize what Cosmic Consciousness is it is certain that he will say that Nirvāna is a name for it.

11

IN FURTHER ILLUSTRATION of this point read (as follows) part of a chapter on Nirvāna by an excellent authority – Rhys Davids:

One might fill pages with the awestruck and ecstatic praise which is lavished in Buddhist writings on this condition of mind, the Fruit of the Fourth Path, the state of an Arahat, of a man made perfect according to the Buddhist faith. But all that could be said can be included in one pregnant phrase – this is Nirvāna.

There is no suffering for him who has finished his journey, and abandoned grief, who has freed himself on all sides, and thrown off all fetters. The gods even envy him whose senses like horses well broken in by the driver, have been subdued, who is free from pride, and free from appetites. Such a one who does his duty is tolerant like the earth,* like Indra’s bolt; he is like a lake without mud; no new births are in store for him. His thought is quiet, quiet are his word and deed when he has obtained freedom by true knowledge.

They who by steadfast mind have become exempt from evil desire, and well trained in the teachings of Gautama; they, having obtained the Fruit of the Fourth Path, and immersed themselves in that Ambrosia, have received without price and are in the enjoyment of Nirvāna. Their old Karma† is exhausted, no new Karma is being produced; their hearts are free from the longing after a future life;* the cause of their existence being destroyed, and no new yearning springing up within them, they the wise are extinguished like this lamp (Ratana Sutta). That mendicant conducts himself well who has conquered (sin) by means of holiness, from whose eyes the veil of error has been removed, who is well trained in religion; and who, free from yearning, and skilled in the knowledge, has attained unto Nirvāna (Sammaparibbājanīya Sutta). What, then, is Nirvāna, which means simply blowing out – extinction;* it being quite clear from what has gone before, that this cannot be the extinction of a soul? It is the extinction of that sinful, grasping condition of mind and heart which, would otherwise, according to the great mystery of Karma, be the cause of renewed individual existence. [Italics belong to text quoted.]

That extinction is to be brought about by, and runs parallel with, the growth of the opposite condition of mind and heart; and it is complete when that opposite condition is reached. Nirvāna is therefore the same thing as a sinless, calm state of mind; and if translated at all may best, perhaps, be rendered “holiness” – holiness, that is, in the Buddhist sense – perfect peace, goodness, and wisdom.

To attempt translations of such pregnant terms is, however, always dangerous, as the new word – part of a new language which is the outcome of a different tone of thought – while it may denote the same or nearly the same idea, usually calls up together with it very different ones. This is the case here; our word holiness would often suggest the idea of love to, and awe in the felt presence of, a personal creator – ideas inconsistent with Buddhist holiness. On the other hand, Nirvāna implies the ideas of intellectual energy* and of the cessation of individual existence;† of which the former is not essential to, and the latter is quite unconnected with our idea of holiness.

Holiness and Nirvāna, in other words, may represent states of mind not greatly different; but these are due to different causes and end in different results; and, in using the words, it is impossible to confine one’s thought to the thing expressed, so as not also to think of its origin and its effect.

It is better, therefore, to retain the word Nirvāna as the name of the Buddhist summum bonum, which is a blissful holy state, a moral condition, a modification of personal character;* and we should allow the word to remind us, as it did the early Buddhists, both of the Path which leads to the extinction of sin,† and also of the break of the transfer of Karma, which the extinction of sin will bring about. That this must be the effect of Nirvāna is plain; for that state of mind which in Nirvāna is extinct (upādāna klesa, trishna) is precisely that which will, according to the great mystery of Buddhism, lead at death to the formation of a new individual, to whom the Karma of the dissolved or dead one will be transferred. That new individual would consist of certain bodily and mental qualities or tendencies, enumerated, as already explained in the five skandhas or aggregates. A comprehensive name of all five is upādi, a word derived (in allusion to the name of their cause, upādāna) from upāda, to grasp, either with the hand or the mind.* Now when a Buddhist has become an Arahat, when he has reached Nirvāna, the Fruit of the Fourth Path, he has extinguished upādāna and klesa,† but he is still alive; the upādi, the skandhas, his body with all its powers – that is to say, the fruit of his former sin – remain. These, however, are impermanent, they will soon pass away‡ there will then be nothing left to bring about the rise of a new set of skandhas, of a new individual; and the Arahat will be no longer alive or existent in any sense at all, he will have reached Parinibbana, complete extinction, or Nibbana dhatu extinction so complete that the upādi, the five skandhas, survive no longer – that is, in one word, death.

The life of man, to use a constantly recurring Buddhist simile or parable, is like the flame of an Indian lamp, a metal or earthenware saucer in which a cotton wick is laid in oil. One life is derived from another, as one flame is lit at another; it is not the same flame, but without the other it would not have been. As flame cannot exist without oil, so life, individual existence, depends on the cleaving to law and earthly things, the sin of the heart. If there is no oil in the lamp it will go out, though not until the oil which the wick has drawn up is exhausted; and then no new flame can be lighted there. And so the parts and powers of the sinless man will be dissolved, and no new being will be born to sorrow. The wise will pass away, will go out like the flame of a lamp, and their Karma will be individualized no longer.

Stars long ago extinct may be still visible to us by the light they emitted before they ceased to burn; but the rapidly vanishing effect of a no longer active cause will soon cease to strike upon our senses; and where the light was will be darkness. So the living, moving body of the perfect man is visible still, though its cause has ceased to act; but it will soon decay, and die and pass away; and, as no new body will be formed, where life was will be nothing.

Death, utter death, with no new life to follow, is then the result of, but is not, Nirvāna. The Buddhist heaven is not death, and it is not on death, but on a virtuous life here and now, that the Pitakas lavish those terms of ecstatic description which they apply to Nirvāna, as the Fruit of the Fourth Path of Arahatship.

Thus Professor Max Mueller, who was the first to point out the fact, says (Buddhaghosha’s Parables): “If we look in the Dhammapada, at every passage where Nirvāna is mentioned there is not one which would require that its meaning should be annihilation, while most, if not all, would become perfectly unintelligible if we assigned to the word Nirvāna that signification. The same thing may be said of such other parts of the Pitakas as are accessible to us in published texts. Thus the commentator on the Jataka quotes some verses from the Buddhavansa, or history of the Buddhas, which is one of the books of the second Pitaka. In those verses we have (inter alia) an argument based on the logical assumption that if a positive exists, its negative must also exist; if there is heat, there must be cold; and so on. In one of these pairs we find existence opposed, not to Nirvāna, but to non-existence; whilst in another the three fires (of lust, hatred, and delusion) are opposed to Nirvāna (Fausbøll Jataka texts). It follows, I think, that to the mind of the composer of the Buddhavansa, Nirvāna meant not the extinction, the negation of being, but the extinction, the absence, of the three fires of passion.”*

So little is known of the books of the northern Buddhist Canon, that it is difficult to discover their doctrine on any controverted point; but so far as it is possible to judge, they confirm that use of the word Nirvāna which we find in the Pitakas. In the Lalita Vistara the word occurs in a few passages, in none of which is the sense of annihilation necessary, and in all of which I take Nirvāna to mean the same as the Pāli Nibbana.†

The Tibetan rendering of the word is a long phrase, meaning, according to Burnouf, “the state of him who is delivered from sorrow,” or “the state in which one finds one’s self when one is so delivered.” This is confirmed by Mr. Beal’s comprehensive and valuable work on Chinese Buddhism, where the Chinese version of the Sanskrit Parinirvāna Sutra has the following: Nirvāna is just so. In the midst of sorrow there is no Nirvāna and in Nirvāna there is no sorrow.”

The early Sanskrit texts of the northern Buddhists, like the Pāli texts of the Pitakas, all seem to look upon Nirvāna as a moral condition, to be reached here, in the world, and in this life.

12

FINALLY, IN ORDER to show that as the word is used by those who know its meaning best it can hardly mean death and may well mean what is here called cosmic consciousness, read the following passages culled from the Dhammapada, one of the oldest and most sacred of the Buddhist scriptural books. Every passage in this book in which the word Nirvāna occurs is here given and with them parallel passages from other analogous writings:

Earnestness is the path of immortality (Nirvāna),* thoughtlessness the path of death. Those who are in earnest do not die, those who are thoughtless are as if dead already. These wise people, meditative, steady, always possessed of strong powers, attain to Nirvāna, the highest happiness. A Bhikshu (mendicant) who delights in reflection, who looks with fear on thoughtlessness, cannot fall away (from his perfect state) – he is close upon Nirvāna. “One is the road that leads to wealth, another the road that leads to Nirvāna;” if the Bhikshu, the disciple of Buddha, has learnt this, he will not yearn for honor, he will strive after separation from the world.

Men who have no riches,* who live on recognized food, who have perceived void and unconditioned freedom (Nirvāna), their path is difficult to understand, like that of birds in the air. He whose appetites are stilled, who is not absorbed in enjoyment, who has perceived void and unconditioned freedom (Nirvāna), his path is difficult to understand, like that of birds in the air. Some people are born again; evildoers go to hell; righteous people go to heaven; those who are free from all worldly desires attain Nirvāna. If, like a shattered metal plate (gong), thou utter not, then thou hast reached Nirvāna; contention is not known to thee. The Awakened call patience the highest penance, long suffering the highest Nirvāna; for he is not an anchorite (pravragita) who strikes others, he is not an ascetic (sramana) who insults others.

Hunger is the worst of diseases,* the body the greatest of pains; if one knows this truly, that is Nirvāna, the highest happiness. Health is the greatest of gifts; contentedness the best riches; trust is the best of relationships; Nirvāna the highest happiness. He in whom a desire for the Ineffable (Nirvāna) has sprung up, who is satisfied in his mind, and whose thoughts are not bewildered by love, he is called ûrdhvamsrotas (carried upward by the stream). The sages who injure nobody, and who always control their body, they will go to the unchangeable place (Nirvāna), where, if they have gone, they will suffer no more. Those who are ever watchful, who study day and night, and who strive after Nirvāna, their passions will come to an end. Cut out the love of self, like an autumn lotus, with thy hand! Cherish the road of peace. Nirvāna has been shown by Sugata (Buddha). A wise and good man who knows the meaning of this, should quickly clear the way that leads to Nirvāna. For with these animals does no man reach the untrodden country (Nirvāna), where a tamed man goes on a tamed animal – viz., on his own well-tamed self. He who having got rid of the forest (of lust) [i.e., after having reached Nirvāna], gives himself over to forest life (i.e., to lust), and who, when removed from the forest (i.e., from lust), runs to the forest (i.e., to lust), look at that man! though free, he runs into bondage. The Bhikshu who acts with kindness, who is calm in the doctrine of Buddha, will reach the quiet place (Nirvāna), cessation of natural desires, and happiness. O Bhikshu, empty this boat! If emptied, it will go quickly; having cut off passion and hatred, thou wilt go to Nirvāna. Without knowledge there is no meditation, without meditation there is no knowledge: he who has knowledge and meditation is near unto Nirvāna. As soon as he has considered the origin and destruction of the elements (khandha) of the body, he finds happiness and joy which belong to those who know the immortal (Nirvāna). The Bhikshu, full of delight, who is calm in the doctrine of Buddha, will reach the quiet place (Nirvāna), cessation of natural desires and happiness.

13

GAUTAMA, THEN, was a case of Cosmic Consciousness, and the central doctrine in his system, Nirvāna, was the doctrine of the Cosmic Sense. The whole of Buddhism is simply this: There is a mental state so happy, so glorious, that all the rest of life is worthless compared to it, a pearl of great price to buy which a wise man willingly sells all that he has; this state can be achieved. The object of all Buddhist literature is to convey some idea of this state and to guide aspirants into this glorious country, which is literally the Kingdom of God.

* “Were mankind murderous or jealous upon you my brother, my sister? I am sorry for you, they are not murderous or jealous upon me, all has been gentle with me, I keep no account with lamentation (what have I to do with lamentation?)” “The holy breath kills lust, passion and hate”.

† “Yet O my soul supreme! Knowest thou the joys of pensive thought? Joys of the free and lonesome heart, the tender, gloomy heart?”.

‡ “Tomb leaves, body leaves growing up above me, above death”.

§ “Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ”

“The other I am”. “Thou teachest how to make one twain”.

Is this not a perfect description of a large and important part of what the Cosmic Sense did, for instance, for Dante, Shakespeare, Balzac, Whitman?

“I pass death with the dying and birth with the new washed babe.” “No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before”.

Compare “Faces” where this “heavenly vision” is seen in action.

The final and supreme test.

* “Who in his spirit in any emergency neither hastens nor avoids death”.

“The earth neither lags nor hastens, does not withhold, is generous enough, the truths of the earth continually wait, they are not so concealed either, they are calm, subtle, untransmissible by print”.

† Karma – one’s action or acts considered as determining his lot after death and in a following existence.

* A man who has acquired the Cosmic Sense does not desire eternal life – he has it.

* Nir, “out,” vāna “blowing,” from root va, “blow,” with suffix āna. That Nirvāna cannot mean extinction in the sense of death is clear from the following passage:

“And erelong he attained to that supreme goal of Nirvāna – the higher life – for the sake of which men go out from all and every household gain and comfort to become homeless wanderers, yea that supreme goal did he by himself, and while yet in this visible world, bring himself to the knowledge of and continue to realize and to see face to face”.

* Would need to, if it means Cosmic Consciousness.

† Not so much cessation as the swallowing up of individual in universal existence.

* A modification of the man’s personality.

† The loss of the sense of sin is one of the most striking characteristics of the state of Cosmic Consciousness.

* In other words, desire (no matter of what) – desire in the abstract – is the basis of sin, of Karma, and is the thing that must be got rid of. But desire is inseparable from the self conscious state and only ceases with the oncoming of the Cosmic Sense.

† i.e., desire and sin.

‡ We have here the same point of view as that taken by Paul – the worthlessness, the essential sinfulness, of the flesh. To the Buddhist Nirvāna (the Cosmic Sense) is all in all; as to Paul, Christ (the Cosmic Sense) is all in all. The body is nothing or less than nothing. It is against this most natural view (for the glory of the Cosmic Sense is well calculated to throw into deep shade all the rest of life) that Whitman from first to last set himself. He saw with the eye of a true seer – with the eye of absolute sobriety and common sense – that the self conscious life was as great in its way as was that of the new sense – let that be as divine as it would; saw that nothing ever was or could be greater than simple seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, knowing – and on that he took his stand. “The other I am,” he says (the old self) “must not be abased to you” (the new sense) “and you must not be abased to the other.” Whitman has, and will always have, the eternal glory of being the first man who was so great that even the Cosmic Sense could not master him.

The man who has entered into Nirvāna (the Cosmic Sense) has eternal life – any death that can then happen is the death of something no longer wanted.

For the words “virtuous life” read “life with the Cosmic Sense.”

* And this, a life of joy and exalted intelligence, free from desire, is life with Cosmic Consciousness.

† Gautama says: “I went to Benares, where I preached the law to the five Solitaries. From that moment the Wheel of my Law has been moving, and the name of Nirvāna made its appearance in the world”. This refers to the date of Gautama’s illumination, and seems to plainly show that Nirvāna is a name of Cosmic Consciousness. Elsewhere in the same book we are told of “men who walk in the knowledge of the law after the attaining of Nirvāna.” And again: “Nirvāna is a consequence of understanding that all things are equal.” Once more: “There is no real Nirvāna without all knowingness (Cosmic Consciousness); try to reach this.” Also, Gautama speaks of himself as having explained in this world the perfect law, of having conducted to Nirvāna innumerable persons. If he explained the perfect law and conducted to Nirvāna while still living he must certainly have reached Nirvāna himself during his life. Gautama also addresses himself to men who have reached Nirvāna. How could he do so if Nirvāna was annihilation? The words of Burnouf’s translation are: “Je m’adresse á tous ces Çravakas, aux hommes qui sont parvenus á l’etat de Pratyêkabuddha, á ceux qui ont éte établis par moi dans le Nirvāna, â ceux qui sont entièrement délivrés de la succession incessante des douleurs”. So, too, Sariputra, thanking and praising Gautama, says: “Today I have reached Nirvāna – “Aujour d’hui O Bhagavat, j’ai acquis le Nirvāna.” Nirvāna, therefore, is certainly something which a man may acquire and still go on living.

* It has been many times pointed out in this volume that earnestness of mind is a sine qua non to the attainment of cosmic consciousness. The verses here quoted bring out strongly this point.

* The true place of the body and of the appetites in life can only be perceived by one having cosmic consciousness.

 

CHAPTER 2

Jesus the Christ

BALZAC SAYS THAT Jesus was a Specialist – that is, that he had Cosmic Consciousness. As Balzac was himself undoubtedly illumined, he would be high, if not absolute, authority upon the point. Paul, as soon as his own eyes were opened, recognized Jesus as belonging to a superior spiritual order – that is, as having the Cosmic Sense. But let us not take anyone’s word, but try and see for ourselves what reasons there are for including this man in the list of those having Cosmic Consciousness.

1

Jesus was born in 4 BC, and would be, according to this authority, thirty-four or thirty-five years old when he began to teach, so would have been at least thirty-three at the time of illumination – supposing him a case.

Other writers make him older. Sutherland says: “The death of Jesus occurred in the year 35.” This would make him thirty-nine at his death, thirty-six or thirty-eight when he began to teach (the former, if he taught three years, as John says; the latter, if he taught only one year, as the synoptics tell us), and, say, thirty-five or thirty-six at illumination.

All goes to show that at about the age specified a marked change took place in him; that whereas up to a certain age he was very much as others, he all at once ascended to a spiritual level quite over the heads of ordinary men. Those who knew him at home, as a boy and a young man, could not understand his superiority. “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” they ask. Or as elsewhere reported: “Is not this the carpenter the son of Mary? And they were offended at him”. This marked spiritual ascent occurring suddenly at this age is in itself almost diagnostic of the oncoming of the cosmic sense.

The earliest written and probably most authentic account of the illumination of Jesus runs as follows: “And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens rent asunder, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon him: and a voice came out of the heavens saying “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased.” And straightway the Spirit driveth him forth into the wilderness”. There is a tradition that the illumination of Jesus took place the 6th or 10th of January.

The fact that Jesus went to John to be baptized shows that his mind was directed to religion and makes it probable that he had (before illumination) the earnest temperament out of which, when at all, the Cosmic Sense springs. It is not necessary to suppose that illumination took place immediately upon the baptism or that there was any special connection between these two things. The impulse that drove Jesus to solitude after his illumination is usual, if not universal. Paul felt it and obeyed it; so did Whitman.

The expression: “He saw the heavens rent asunder,” describes well enough the oncoming of the Cosmic Sense, which is (as has been said) instantaneous, sudden, and much as if a veil were with one sharp jerk torn from the eyes of the mind, letting the sight pierce through.

So, describing this same oncoming of Cosmic Consciousness, John Yepes says (he has been inquiring whether, in this seemingly miraculous occurrence, it is God or the human soul which acts), and he concludes: “It is the soul that is moved and awakened; it is as if God drew back some of the many veils and coverings that are before it, so that it might see what he is”.

So, too, the sense of the words, “Thou art my beloved Son,” agrees perfectly with the message conveyed in all the cases. The “I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own” of Whitman; and Dante’s words: “O love that governest the heavens, who with thy light didst lift me,” being strictly parallel expressions. The (apparently) objective voice, too, is a common phenomenon; it was heard by Paul, also by Mohammed.

Another important element in the case is the so called “Temptation.” The theory here accepted is that Jesus, at the age of thirty-three, or even thirty-five, was simply an intelligent, very earnestminded mechanic, with an excellent heredity and an exceptional physique. That he was in no way distinguishable, in no way different, save in his eligibility for spiritual expansion, which was hidden in the depths of his nature even from himself, and which may equally exist in any of them, from hundreds of young mechanics in every city and town of Christendom today. Suddenly, instantaneously, the change came, and this young man felt and knew within himself the seemingly illimitable spiritual force through the exercise of which almost anything might be accomplished. How was it to be used? To gain what end? Power? Wealth? Fame? Or what?

Jesus quickly decided, as these men all decide, that the power must be used for the benefit of the race. Why should he, why should they all, decide in this sense?

Because the moral elevation, which is a part of Cosmic Consciousness, will not permit any other decision. Were it not so, were the intellectual illumination not accompanied by moral exaltation, these men would undoubtedly be in effect so many demons who would end by destroying the world. This temptation is necessarily common to all the cases, though they do not all speak of it. The essence of it is the appeal of the old self conscious self to the new power to assist it in accomplishing its old desires. The devil, therefore, is the self conscious self. The devil (Māra) appeared to Gautama as well as to Jesus and urged him not to launch out on a new path, but to keep to the old religions practices, to live quietly and comfortably. “What dost thou want with exertion?” he said to him. Māra did not seek to allure Gautama with offers of wealth and power, for these he had already possessed, and even the self conscious Gautama knew their futility. As already intimated, every man who enters Cosmic Consciousness necessarily passes through the same temptation. As all the rest, Bacon was tempted, and, as doubtless many others have fallen, he, in a sense, fell. He felt in himself such enormous capacity that he imagined he could absorb the wealth of both the Cosmic Sense and Self Consciousness – both heaven and earth. Later he bitterly repented his greed. He acknowledges the gift (from God) of the divine faculty – “the gracious talent” – which he says he “neither hoarded up unused, nor did he employ it to the best advantage, as he should have done, but misspent it in things for which (he) was least fit”.

The superiority of Jesus to ordinary men consisted (among other things) in intellectual acuteness, moral elevation, an all-embracing optimism, a sense (or the sense) of immortality.

The mental superiority thus characterized is again almost certainly confined to those who have passed into Cosmic Consciousness, and therefore, if granted, would settle the question.

The accounts given in the synoptic gospels of the transfiguration of Jesus can only be explained (if accepted) by supposing that he was seen while in the condition of Cosmic Consciousness, the change in appearance (striking enough in itself) being probably exaggerated (as it would almost certainly be) in the narration. Here are the accounts as given: “And he was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his garments became white as the light”. “And he was transfigured before them: and his garments became glistening, exceeding white; so as no fuller on earth can whiten them”. It is singular that this observer should confine his observations to the garments of Jesus. Again: “As he was praying the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment became white and dazzling”. It is believed that there is no known human condition, except that of Cosmic Consciousness, which would justify the above words. The change in the “raiment” of Jesus spoken of must be understood as reflected from his face and person.

In the Gospel according to the Hebrews occurs the following passage: “Just now my mother, the Holy Spirit, took me by one of my hairs and bore me upon the great mountain of Tabor”. Baur and Hilgenfield, it seems, hold that this is the original of the trans-figuration narrative; but if it is, it does not necessarily weaken the testimony of Mark and Luke.

There are people living today (the writer knows one of them) who have seen what is described (and well described) in the above words of the gospels.

Here there are several strong reasons for believing that Jesus had the Cosmic Sense. A further reason is (if further is needed) that Jesus stands spiritually at or near the summit of the human race, and if there is such a faculty as Cosmic Consciousness, as described in this volume, he must have possessed it, otherwise he could not occupy such a position.

2

It is most unfortunate that the world possesses no words that we can be sure this extraordinary man uttered. What a priceless possession would be a volume, howsoever small, actually written by himself! We have, however, so many sayings which are attributed to him, and apparently on such good authority, that we may be pretty certain that many of them convey with sufficient accuracy the sense of what he actually said.

If, now, Jesus had Cosmic Consciousness, he must have referred to it over and over again in his teaching, just as all other such men have done. If he did so, it should be easy for anyone who knows about the Cosmic Sense to detect the references, while for those who do not know there is such a thing these would necessarily be otherwise interpreted. It is not necessary to attribute a misinterpretation, since the words of Jesus (as those of Dante, Shakespeare, and Whitman) would carry, and doubtless would be uttered with the intention of carrying, more than one meaning.

At the same time, as Jesus did not write, and as his words were carried down by tradition (for some short time at least), and as these words (according to the present supposition) were imperfectly understood by those who passed them on, they would inevitably be altered. In some passages they certainly were, and in many others they probably were. Phrases, the meaning of which is only partially apprehended, cannot be carried down verbally intact unless they have already become sacred, as was the case with the Vedas. The incomplete meaning attributed to them would inevitably suggest and lead to more or less important changes to match it.

If, then, Jesus had the Cosmic Sense, and referred to it more or less often in his teaching, the passages in which he so referred to it would probably some, if not all, of them be more or less altered. But there is a long series of passages coming ostensibly directly from him and running especially through the synoptic gospels, which passages, even in their present form, seem to refer unmistakably to the faculty now in question. And if some of them do not so clearly as others, it may be that such divergence can be fairly accounted for as above. The passages in question are those treating of what Jesus sometimes called “the Kingdom of Heaven” and sometimes “the Kingdom of God.”

3

The following quotations embrace all the more important and significant passages in which either expression is used in the gospels when the words in question are reported as coming from the lips of Jesus:

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven†.

Whoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven;‡ but whosoever shall do and teach them he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

But seek ye first his kingdom§ (the kingdom of God) and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness; there shall be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist; yet he that is but little in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and men of violence take it by force.

But if I by the spirit of God cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God come unto you.

Unto you is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,† but to them it is not given.

The kingdom of heaven‡ is likened unto a man that sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; which indeed is less than all seeds; but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof.

The kingdom of heaven§ is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.

The kingdom of heaven± is like unto a treasure hidden in the field; which a man found and hid; and in his joy he goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field.

The kingdom of heaven§ is like unto a man that is a merchant seeking goodly pearls; and having found one pearl of great price he went and sold all he had and bought it.

Again, the kingdom of heaven** is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind; which when it was filled they drew up on the beach and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels but the bad they cast away.

I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven;* and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

In that hour came the disciples unto Jesus,* saying: Who, then, is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And he called to him a little child and said: Verily I say unto you: except ye turn and become as little children ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Therefore is the kingdom of heaven* likened unto a certain king which would make a reckoning with his servants. And when he had begun to reckon one was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents. But for as much as he had not wherewith to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made. The servant, therefore, fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord have patience with me and I will pay thee all. And the Lord of that servant being moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants which owed him a hundred pence, and he laid hold on him and took him by the throat, saying: Pay what thou owest. So his fellow servant fell down and besought him saying: Have patience with me and I will pay thee. And he would not; but went and cast him into prison until he should pay that which was due. So when his fellow servants saw what was done they were exceeding sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then his Lord called him unto him and saith unto him: Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt because thou besoughtest me: Shouldst not thou also have had mercy on thy fellow servant even as I had mercy on thee? And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due.

It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.*

The kingdom of heaven± is like unto a man that is a householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing in the market place idle; and to them he said: Go ye also into the vineyard and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing: And he saith unto them: Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him: Because no man hath hired us.

He saith unto them: Go ye also into the vineyard. And when even was come the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward: Call the laborers and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. And when the first came, they supposed they would receive more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they received it, they murmured against the householder, saying: These last have spent but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. But he answered and said to one of them: Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take up that which is thine, and go thy way: it is my will to give unto this last even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? or is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first and the first last.

A man had two sons; and he came to the first and said: Son, go work today in the vineyard. And he answered and said: I will not; but afterwards he repented himself and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said: I go, sir, and went not. Whether of the twain did the will of his father? They say the first. Jesus saith unto them: Verily I say unto you that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

The kingdom of God* shall be taken away from you and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.

And Jesus answered and spake again in parables unto them, saying: the kingdom of heaven± is likened unto a certain king which made a marriage feast for his son, and sent forth his servant to call them that were bidden to the marriage feast: and they would not come. Again he sent forth other servants, saying: Tell them that are bidden: Behold, I have made ready my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: Come to the marriage feast. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise; and the rest laid hold on his servants and entreated them shamefully, and killed them. But the king was wroth; and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then saith he to his servants: The wedding is ready, but they that were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the partings of the highways, and as many as ye shall find bid to the marriage feast. And those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all as many as they found both bad and good: And the wedding was filled with guests. But when the king came in to behold the guests he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment, and he said unto him: Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants: Bind him hand and foot and cast him out into the outer darkness; there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called but few chosen.

But woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye shut the kingdom of heaven* against men: For ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter.

Then shall the kingdom of heaven† be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were foolish and five were wise. For the foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them; but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Now, while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there is a cry: Behold the bridegroom! Come ye forth to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise: Give us of your oil; for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying: Peradventure there will not be enough for us and you: Go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves. And while they went away to buy the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage feast: And the door was shut. Afterwards came also the other virgins, saying: Lord, lord, open to us. But he answered and said: Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch, therefore, ye know not the day nor the hour.

For it (the kingdom of God) is as when a man, going into another country, called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one; to each according to his several ability; and he went on his journey. Straightway he that received the five talents went and traded with them, and made other five talents. In like manner he also that received the two gained other two. But he that received the one went away and dug in the earth, and hid his lord’s money.

Now after a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and maketh a reckoning with them. And he that received the five talents came and brought other five talents, saying: Lord, thou delivered unto me five talents: lo, I have gained other five talents. His lord said unto him: well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. And he also that received the two talents came and said: Lord, thou delivered unto me two talents; lo, I have gained other two talents. His lord said unto him: well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. And he also that had received the one talent came and said: Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou didst not sow, and gathering where thou didst not scatter: And I was afraid, and went away and hid thy talent in the earth; lo, thou hast thine own. But his lord answered and said unto him: Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knew that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I did not scatter; thou ought therefore to have put my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received mine own with interest. Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him that hath the ten talents. For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away. And cast ye out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And he said: So is the kingdom of God* is if a man should east seed upon the earth, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow he know not how.

And he said unto them: Verily I say unto you there be some here of them that stand by which shall in no wise taste of death until they see the kingdom of God† come with power.

And if thine eye cause thee to stumble, cast it out: It is good for thee to enter into the kingdom of God‡ with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. For everyone shall be salted with fire.

The law and the prophets were until John: from that time the gospel of the kingdom of God§ is preached and every man enter violently into it.

And being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God* cometh he answered them and said: The kingdom of God Cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo, here! For there, for lo, the kingdom of God is within you.

He said unto them, Verily I say unto you: There is no man that hath left house, or wife or brethren, or parents, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this time, and in the world to come eternal life.

Jesus answered and said unto him: Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born anew he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto Him: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus answered: Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Looked at from the present point of view, the objects of the teachings of Jesus, as of Gautama, were two: (a) To tell men what he had learned upon entering into Cosmic Consciousness, which things he saw it was of the very greatest importance that they should know; and (b) to lead men up into or at least towards Cosmic Consciousness, or, in his words, into the kingdom of God.

Summary

We have in this case:

a.   Some evidence of the characteristic suddenness that belongs to the oncoming of the new sense.

b.   No definite record of subjective light, though it is impossible to say what the words “Heaven rent asunder,” “Spirit as a dove descending,” and “A voice out of the heavens” really mean. As the experience was subjective, Jesus must have told someone of it, and perhaps it passed through several minds before the words we have were written down, no one (not even Jesus) having any idea as to the meaning of the experience.

c.   Presumably we have intellectual illumination.

d.   Moral elevation well-marked, though unfortunately we know nothing for certain of the personality of Jesus before the time of his illumination, when, as above stated, he was about thirty-three or thirty-five years of age.

e.   We have the sense of immortality and the extinction of the sense of sin and of the fear of death.

f.   Finally, the characteristic change of appearance which accompanies the presence of the Cosmic Sense and spoken of by the synoptics as Jesus’ “transfiguration.”

Footnotes

The Review of Reviews for January 1897, sums up the evidence bearing on the point as follows:

“One of the most eminent of living authorities on the life of Christ, Dr. Cunningham Geikie, writes in the Homiletic Review on the various attempts to fix the exact date of the birth of the Messiah.

“It is clear that the received chronology of the Abbot Dionysius the Dwarf, which dates from the first half of the sixth century, must have begun several years too late in fixing the birth of Christ as having taken place in the 754th year of Rome, since it is known that Herod died in 750, and Jesus must have been born while Herod was still reigning. Dr. Geikie points out other fundamental errors in the calculations of the Abbot Dionysius.

“Dionysius had based his calculations on the mention by St. Luke that John the Baptist, who was a little older than Jesus, began his public work in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, and that Jesus was ‘about thirty years old’ when he began to teach (Luke iii: 1–23). This fifteenth year of Tiberius would be perhaps 782 or 783, and thirty deducted from this would give 752 or 753, to the latter of which Dionysius added a year, on the supposition that Luke’s expression, ‘about thirty years,’ required him to add a year. But the vague about was a weak ground on which to go, and, besides, the reign of Tiberius may be reckoned from his association in the government with Augustus, and thus from 765 instead of from 767. The texts I have quoted from St. Luke cannot, therefore, be used to fix either the birthday or the month of the birth, or even the year. This is seen, indeed, in the varying opinions on all these points in the early church, and from the fact that the 25th of December has been accepted as the birth day only since the fourth century, when it spread from Rome, as that which was to be thus honored.”

The Most Reasonable Conclusion

“The nearest approach to a sound conclusion is, in fact, supplied by the statement that Herod was alive for some time after Christ was born. The infant Redeemer must have been six weeks old when presented in the temple, and the visit of the Magi fell we do not know how much later. That the massacre of all the children at Bethlehem from two years old and under presupposes that the Magi must have come to Jerusalem a long time after the birth of the expected King, for there would have been no sense in killing children two years old if Christ had been born only a few weeks or even months before. That there was a massacre, as told in the Gospel, is confirmed by a reference to it in a satire of Macrobius, so that the crime is historically true and the higher criticism which treated it as a fable is convicted of error. But if Christ was born two years before Herod’s death – and He may have been born even earlier – this would make the great event fall in the year 748, or six years before our era.”

If we accept the conclusions of this writer, Jesus was about thirty-five years of age at illumination.

A proud man is hardly likely to acquire the Cosmic Sense.

† Persecution would hardly lead to Cosmic Consciousness, but the latter almost inevitably leads to the former.

‡ A man leading an ill life and encouraging others to do the same, would be called “least,” as a conscientious good man would be called “great” from the point of view of the Cosmic Sense. But no man could ever enter into Cosmic Consciousness because he had kept any commandments, no matter how strictly. Unless a man’s spiritual life pass the orthodoxies and conventions he shall in no case enter into Cosmic Consciousness.

§ Let a man have the Cosmic Sense and he will not be likely to worry about worldly goods. He will probably have all he wants, be his possessions ever so little.

No man shall attain to the Cosmic Sense by prayer, but, if at all, by heredity and by a high and pure life.

It is not exclusively for the Jews, but equally for the Gentiles.

* Among the merely self conscious (among “those who are born of women” – distinguishing between those who are not and those who are “born anew”) there are none greater than John. But the least of those who have the Cosmic Sense is greater than he. From the days of John the kingdom of heaven had suffered violence (misinterpretation, etc.) in the person of Jesus.

His spiritual ascendancy was evidence that he had entered Cosmic Consciousness (the kingdom of heaven).

† Through their personal intimacy with Jesus they saw and realized the preterhuman loftiness of his mind. They saw, in him, the kingdom of heaven – the higher life.

‡ The antagonism between the Cosmic Sense and the merely self conscious mind and the final inevitable subjection of the latter to the former. A perfect image of the initial apparent insignificancy of the Cosmic Sense as it exists in one or a few obscure individuals, and of its ultimate overwhelming preponderance in view both of the universal influence of the teaching of these (say Gautama, Jesus, Paul and Mohammed), and more especially in view of the inevitable universality of the Cosmic Sense in the future.

§ If possible a still more exact simile – the Cosmic Sense leavens the individual, and is today leavening the world.

± Men who have the Cosmic Sense give up everything for it – this whole volume is proof of it.

§The same statement in other language.

** Corresponds with the simile of the wheat and tares.

* The Cosmic Sense is the final arbiter of good and ill. Jesus seems to have looked forward to the establishment of a school or sect the members of which should possess the Cosmic Sense.

* “This face,” says Whitman, “of a healthy, honest boy is the program of all good”.

* The Cosmic Sense is like a king raised far above the common self conscious mind. It has absolute charity with the latter, which constantly wars with itself, but in the end the cosmic conscious mind will utterly wipe from off the earth and replace the merely self conscious mind. Meanwhile, men on the self conscious plane are greatly wanting in patience and mercy.

* The writer has found no instance of a man absorbed in money-making entering into Cosmic Consciousness. The whole spirit of the former is antagonistic to the latter.

± The Cosmic Sense is not given for work done or according to merit, as this can be estimated by the self conscious mind. Why should Jesus, Yepes, and Böhme be chosen, and Goethe, Newton, and Aristotle left?

* By their answer the chief priests and elders condemned themselves, for they said: “I go, sir,” and went not, while the publicans and harlots professed nothing, but, as shown elsewhere in the gospel, sometimes had excellent hearts. They may be easily nearer Cosmic Consciousness than the self righteous upper class. Where, indeed, is a case of a self righteous man becoming illumined?

* The Cosmic Sense comes especially to those people who have the highest moral nature.

± The king is God, the marriage feast is Cosmic Consciousness, those who are bidden are those who have been given the best opportunities for spiritual advancement – plenty, leisure, etc. – but instead of using these for the purpose designed (spiritual growth) they became absorbed in them alone. Then God sent his prophets to persuade them that they were making a mistake, but they would not listen, and even misused the prophets. So when the well-off and the educated and the religious would not come the invitation was extended to all. But rich or poor, learned or ignorant, religious or outcast, whoever comes, must have on a wedding garment – the mind must be clothed in humility, sincerity, reverence, candor and fearlessness. Could a man secure access to the feast without these it is easily imaginable that he would be torn to pieces.

* The formal, soulless religion of the scribes and Pharisees (and the same is true of much of the Christianity of today) was antagonistic to the growth of the spirit to Cosmic Consciousness. Neither would they allow (in as far as they could prevent) of any spiritual life and growth outside the narrow limits laid down by their “law.”

† The Cosmic Sense does not come to the careless but to the earnest, who diligently use all means of spiritual advancement. The virgins all slumbered; none of them knew that “the bridegroom” was coming, but some had taken the necessary means – the others had not.

* Man is endowed with Self Consciousness, and must make the most possible of it before he can rise above it. Or in other words, and to convert the proposition into a truism, man must reach the top of the mental stratum called Self Consciousness before he can pass into the superimposed stratum called Cosmic Consciousness. Jesus, in the parable, says: God has given to each man the self conscious faculties in varying measure, whether he (any given individual) shall pass beyond Self Consciousness into the kingdom of heaven (Cosmic Consciousness) depends not so much upon the measure of these faculties as upon the use made of them. That there is much truth in this proposition is certain. If, on the other hand, the cultivation of these faculties is neglected the man remains hopelessly on the self conscious plane; there has been, is and always will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

* The seed (a life of aspiration) must be sown. We do not know what is to grow from it – days and nights pass and at some instant – in bed, walking, driving, “the guest that has waited long” appears. See above same parable from Matthew.

† There be some here present who shall enter into Cosmic Consciousness. To a man with Cosmic Consciousness it seems so simple and certain that others will enter it. “I bestow upon any man or woman (says Whitman) the entrance to all the gifts of the universe”.

‡ Allow nothing to stand in the way of spiritual advancement. Anything is better than to remain in the merely self conscious state, which is full of miseries.

§ Tries to enter violently or awkwardly into it. Tries to get in while still only self conscious. How true is this today!

* It is not outside but inside. It is a part (a faculty) of the mind itself.

Men with Cosmic Consciousness have generally been of this opinion, have often parted from their relations, and have either not married or have broken the tie – cf. Buddha, Jesus, Paul, Balzac (until the very end of his life), Whitman, Carpenter.

** This passage does not seem to need comment. It is, as it stands, as clear as words can be. The oncoming of the Cosmic Sense is a new birth into a new life.

 

CHAPTER 3

Paul

5–67

THAT THE GREAT apostle had the Cosmic Sense seems as clear and certain as that Cæsar was a great general.

He was, in fact, “great” and an “apostle” because he had it, and for no other reason whatever.

1

In his case meet all the elements both of probability and proof. As shown by his enthusiasm for the religion in which he was brought up, he had the earnest temperament which seems always to form the matrix in which the new life is brought forward to its birth. He was at the time of his (supposed) illumination probably about the age at which the Cosmic Sense usually shows itself. Sutherland has the following bearing on this point: He says that Paul:

Could not have been very much younger than Jesus. He was of an ardent and impetuous nature, and not long after the crucifixion (perhaps within two years) began to be conspicuous as a persecutor of the little companies of believers in Christ that were gathered not only in Jerusalem but in many other places. The same zeal which made him afterward such an efficient missionary of Christianity now caused him to carry his persecutions of the hated sect of the “Nazarenes” beyond Jerusalem to the cities and villages of Judea, and finally even beyond the bounds of Palestine. It was while he was on his way to the city of Damascus, a little way outside of Palestine on the northeast, bent on extirpating the new heresy there, that the remarkable event occurred which changed his whole life.

If Paul was, say, four or five years younger than Jesus, his illumination took place at the same age as that of his great predecessor.

One more word on this last point. It is a little singular that neither the apostle himself nor his historian, Luke, who was deeply interested in all that related to his personality, have let fall a single expression from which the date of Paul’s birth can be positively and definitely deduced. Speaking of his life before his illumination, however, Paul says: “I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prison both men and women.” A very young man, unless born into some place of authority, could hardly have occupied the position thus described. The leaders of the chief party of the Jews would scarcely employ a very young man as Paul was employed. Paul’s “conversion” possibly took place in the year 33. Supposing he was born shortly before the year 1, then when Philippians was written – that is, AD 61 – he would be between sixty and sixty-five years of age, which would agree very well with certain expressions in that epistle which would hardly have been uttered by a much younger man. For instance: “I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better, yet to abide in the flesh is more needful for your sake”. When writing these words it does not appear that he was sick, neither was he in any danger from the result of his trial, which was then going on. The near prospect of death must have been due to his age at the time. But if he was, say, sixty-five in AD 61, then he would be thirty-seven at the time of his illumination. He might not have been as old as that, but could hardly have been much younger.

The chronology of the early church is very obscure. Renan gives the date of Paul’s birth as AD 10 or 12, that of the stoning of Stephen 37, that of Paul’s “conversion” 38. Paul, then, would have been between twenty-six and twenty-eight on the occurrence of that event; also he would have been no more than forty-nine to fifty-one when the above passage in Philippians was written. But this, for reasons given, seems exceedingly unlikely. Weighing all probabilities (for we have nothing else) it seems likely that Paul was about four years younger than Jesus and that his illumination took place about the same length of time after that of his great predecessor.

2

We have three separate accounts of the oncoming of his new life, two of them ostensibly and probably in his own words, and each of the three containing the essential elements of the fact of illumination as positively known in other cases. Again we have elsewhere a description, certainly given by himself, of certain subjective experiences which would alone be strong, if not convincing, evidence of the fact of illumination; for it is safe to say that the words there set down could hardly have been written unless the writer of them had actually experienced the passage from self to Cosmic Consciousness. Then over and above all these evidences there exists a body of writings by this man which over and over again demonstrates the existence in the writer of the faculty in question. His conduct immediately following illumination is also characteristic. Taking the usual course, he retires for some time into more or less complete solitude; whether to the Hauran, as Renan supposes, or to the Sinaitic peninsula, as Holsten thinks, does not matter. As regards his illumination itself – his “conversion,” the oncoming of Cosmic Consciousness in his case – we are told that:

As he journeyed it came to pass that he drew nigh unto Damascus: and suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven: and he fell upon the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: but rise and enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”. And the men that journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but beholding no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing; and they led him by the hand into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and did neither eat nor drink.

The second account runs as follows:

And it came to pass, that as I made my journey, and drew nigh unto Damascus, about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, maul, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” And I answered, who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutes.” And they that were with me beheld indeed the light, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. And I said, what shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, “arise, and go into Damascus. And there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do.” And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus.

And the third account is as follows:

As I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, at midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and those that journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth I heard a voice saying unto me in the Hebrew language, “Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.” And I said, who art thou, Lord! And the Lord, said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But arise and stand upon thy feet; for to this end have I appeared unto thee, to appoint thee a minister and a witness both of the things wherein thou has seen me, and of things wherein I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom I send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.”

These three narratives, which agree well enough one with another, their slight discrepancies being of little or no consequence, give the usual sensuous phenomena that nearly always accompany the oncoming of the new sense. Next comes a recital of even, if possible, still greater importance It conveys, in few words, an account of Paul’s moral elevation and intellectual illumination during and following his “conversion.” He says:

I must needs glory, though it is not expedient; but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ,¹ fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not or whether out of the body I know not; God knoweth) such a one caught up even to the third heaven. And I know such a man (whether in the body or apart from the body I know not; God knoweth) how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words,² which it is not lawful for a man to utter. On behalf of such a one will I glory; but on mine own behalf I will not glory, save in my weaknesses. For if I should desire to glory I shall not be foolish; for I shall speak the truth; but I forbear, lest any man should account of me above that which he seeth me to be, or heareth from me. And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations – wherefore that I should not be exalted overmuch there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me.

3

To complete the case it only remains to transcribe certain utterances of Paul’s from the point of view of the Cosmic Sense; which utterances, did they stand alone, would prove that the man from whom they proceeded possessed it, since without it they could not have been made:

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.³

For I make known to you, brethren, as touching the gospel which was preached by me,⁴ that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.⁵

But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach him among the gentiles; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood; neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned unto Damascus.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.⁶ But before faith came, we were kept inward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So that the law has been our tutor to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith, but now that faith is come we are no longer under a tutor. For ye are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ.

With freedom did Christ set us free.⁷

For ye, brethren, were called for freedom.⁸

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance: against such as these there is no law. And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof.⁹

Neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.¹⁰

We speak wisdom among the perfect:¹¹ yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, which are coming to nought; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory: which none of the rulers of this world knoweth.

The spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the things of God none knoweth, save the spirit of God. But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God.¹² Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the spirit teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: For they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged.¹³ But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with meat; for ye were not yet able to bear it; nay, not even now are ye able; for ye are yet carnal.

If any man thinketh that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.¹⁴

If we sowed unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we shall reap your carnal things?¹⁵

For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me?¹⁶

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth; but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child; now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I have been known. But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.¹⁷

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.¹⁸ But each in his own order, Christ the first fruits; then they that are Christ’s, at his coming. Then cometh the end when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power.

Behold, I tell you a mystery:¹⁹ We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality, but when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

But though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal: but the things which are not seen are eternal.²⁰ For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven; if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life.

If any man is in Christ he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.²¹

There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.²² For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as offering for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after flesh but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God.

The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God; and if children then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs of Christ.²³

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.²⁴ For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good.²⁵ For I am persuaded 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. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself; save that to him who accounteth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.²⁶

To sum up: We have in this case:

a.   The characteristic suddenness that belongs to the oncoming of the New Sense. The new birth takes place at a given place and moment

b.   We have the subjective light clearly, very strongly, manifested

c.   We have intellectual illumination of the most pronounced character

d.   We have very strongly marked moral exaltation

e.   We have the conviction, the sense of immortality, the extinction of the sense of sin and the extinction of the fear of death.

1. “Christ” is Paul’s name for Cosmic Consciousness.

2. Unspeakable words, so Whitman: “When I undertake to tell the best I find I cannot, my tongue is ineffectual on its pivots; my breath will not be obedient to its organs; I become a dumb man”.

3. The usual assurances of immortality that belong to Cosmic Consciousness.

4.As regards his “Gospel,” Paul was instructed by the Cosmic Sense.

5.He knew, however, enough about Jesus and his teachings to be able to recognize (when it came to him) that the teachings of the Cosmic Sense were practically identical with the teachings of Jesus.

6.Christ is the Cosmic Sense conceived as a distinct entity or individuality. That does redeem any to whom it comes from the “curse of the law” – i.e., from the shame and fear and hate that belong to the self conscious life. Paul seems to suppose a baptism into Cosmic Consciousness (Christ). Doubtless there is such a baptism; but where is the priesthood which is able to administer it?

7.The ‘’freedom” of the Cosmic Sense is supreme. It absolves a man from his former self and makes future slavery impossible.

8.Paul loves and values freedom as keenly as does the modern American Walt Whitman. They both knew (what, alas! so few have known) what true freedom is.

9.For “The Spirit” and “Christ Jesus” read Cosmic Consciousness. Cf. M. C. L. infra. “The holy breath kills lust, etc.,” and Bhagavad Gita: “Even the taste for objects of sense departs from him who has seen the supreme.”

10.Called by Balzac: “The second existence”.

11.He speaks from the standpoint of the Cosmic Sense, which was to come when the time was ripe and has come now to him.

12.Paul is informed, not by the human (the self conscious) mind, but by the spirit of God (Cosmic Consciousness), and no man merely self conscious can judge him any more than an animal (having simple consciousness merely) can judge a (self conscious) man.

13.The merely self conscious man cannot be made to understand the things seen by the Cosmic Sense. These things, if presented, appear foolish to him. But he that has the Cosmic Sense (being, of course, also self conscious) is able to judge “all things” – i.e., the things of both regions. Paul could not therefore speak to the Corinthians as he would have liked to have done, they not having Cosmic Consciousness,

14.Paul says the wisdom of self consciousness is not wisdom to those who have the Cosmic Sense, and the wisdom of the latter is foolishness to the merely self conscious.

15.Compare Whitman’s poem, “To Rich Givers”: “What you give me I cheerfully accept, a little sustenance, a hut and garden, a little money as I rendezvous with my poems, a traveler’s lodging and a breakfast as I journey through the states. Why should I be ashamed to own such gifts? Why to advertise for them? For I myself am not one who bestows nothing upon man and woman, for I bestow upon any man or woman the entrance to all the gifts of the universe.

16.This seems to be the experience of all persons who have had the Cosmic Sense either in greater or less degree. So Blake says: “I have written this poem (‘Jerusalem’) without premeditation and even against my will.” So also Böhme “became impressed with the necessity of writing down what he saw,” though writing was far from easy with him.

17.A splendid exposition of the morality that belongs to the Cosmic Sense. The same spirit may be traced in every case – but see especially: “Give me the pay I have served for, give me to sing the song of the great idea, take all the rest, I have loved the earth, sun, animals, I have despised riches, I have given alms to everyone that asked, stood up for the stupid and crazy, devoted my income and labor to others.”

18.A comparison between the self conscious and the Cosmic Conscious states. Self Consciousness, he says, the Adamic state, is a condition of death. With “Christ” begins true life, which shall spread and become universal; that is the end of the old order. After that there shall be no more “rule,” “authority” or “power”; all shall be free, equal. “The angel borne upon the blast saith not ‘Ye dead arise,’ he saith ‘Arise, ye living’”.

19.Expresses the sense of immortality which belongs to Cosmic Consciousness. Compare: “There is that in me – I do not know what it is – but I know that it is in me. Wrenched and sweaty – calm and cool then my body becomes, I sleep, I sleep long. I do not know it – it is without name – it is a word unsaid – it is not in any dictionary, utterance, symbol. Something it swings on more than the earth I swing on, to it the creation is the friend whose embracing awakes me. Perhaps I might tell more. Outlines! I plead for my brothers and sisters. Do you see, O my brothers and sisters? It is not chaos or death, it is form, union, plan – it is eternal life – it is happiness.”

20.The writer contrasts the self with the Cosmic Conscious life. His consciousness of eternal life is made plain.

21.No expression could be clearer cut, more perfect. The man who enters Cosmic Consciousness is really a new creature, and all his surroundings “become new” – take on a new face and meaning. You get around to the other side of things, as it were; they are the same, but also entirely different. “Things are not dismissed from the places they held before. The earth is just as positive and direct as it was before. But the soul is also real; it too is positive and direct; no reasoning, no proof, has established it, undeniable growth has established it”.

22.In Cosmic Consciousness there is absolutely no sense of sin or of death, the person feels that this last is merely an incident in continuous life. The merely self conscious man cannot, by the keeping of the “law” or in any other way, destroy either sin or the sense of sin, but, “Christ” – i.e., the Cosmic Sense, can and does accomplish both.

23.All men who have Cosmic Consciousness are on the same spiritual level in the same sense that all who are self conscious are men – belong to the same species.

24.Paul speaks of the glory and joy of the Cosmic Conscious life just dawning upon the world compared with the self conscious state theretofore universal. “Vistas of glory,” says Whitman, “incessant and branching.” “Joy, always joy,” says Elukhanam. “Joy beginning but without ending,” says E. C. “When you have once,” says Seraphita [that is, Balzac] “felt the delights of the divine intoxication (illumination) then all is yours”. Compare also the following extracts from Böhme, in which he in like manner with Paul contrasts the Self with the Cosmic Conscious life: “The external world or the external life is not a valley of suffering for those who enjoy it, but only for those who know of a higher life. The animal enjoys animal life; the intellect the intellectual realm; but he who has entered into regeneration recognizes his terrestrial existence as a burden and prison. With this recognition he takes upon himself the cross of Christ”.

25.“The holy and heavenly man, hidden in the monstrous (external) man, is as much in heaven as God, and heaven is in him, and the heart or light of God is begotten and born in him. Thus is God in him and he in God. God is nearer to him than his bestial body”.

26.An expression of the optimism which belongs to Cosmic Consciousness. Compare Whitman; “Omnes! Omnes! Let others ignore what they may, I make the poem of evil also, I commemorate that part also, I am myself just as much evil as good, and my nation is, and I say there is in fact no evil”.

 

CHAPTER 4

Plotinus

AD 204–274

PLOTINUS HELD THAT in order to perfect knowledge the subject and object must be united – that the intelligent agent and the thing understood … must not be in separation.¹

He held that in order to perfect knowledge the subject and object must be united.²

Here follows a letter:

Plotinus to Flaccus

I applaud your devotion to philosophy: I rejoice to hear that your soul has set sail, like the returning Ulysses, for its native land – that glorious, that only real country – the world of unseen truth. To follow philosophy the senator Rogatianus, one of the noblest of my disciples, gave up the other day all but the whole of his patrimony, set free his slaves and surrendered all the honors of his station.

Tidings have reached us that Valerian has been defeated, and is now in the hands of Sapor. The threats of Franks and Allemanni, of Goths and Persians, are alike terrible by turns to our degenerate Rome. In days like these, crowded with incessant calamities, the inducements to a life of contemplation are more than ever strong. Even my quiet existence seems now to grow somewhat sensible of the advance of years. Age alone I am unable to debar from my retirement. I am weary already of this prison house, the body, and calmly await the day when the divine nature within me shall be set free from matter.³

The Egyptian priests used to tell us that a single touch with the wing of their holy bird could charm the crocodile into torpor; it is not thus speedily, my dear friend, that the pinions of your soul will have power to still the untamed body. The creature will yield only to watchful, strenuous constancy of habit. Purify your soul from all undue hope and fear about earthly things, mortify the body, deny self – affections as well as appetites – and the inner eye will begin to exercise its clear and solemn vision.

You ask me to tell you how we know, and what is our criterion of certainty. To write is always irksome to me. But for the continual solicitations of Porphyry I should not have left a line to survive me. For your own sake and for your father’s my reluctance shall be overcome.

External objects present us only with appearances. Concerning them, therefore, we may be said to possess opinion rather than knowledge. The distinctions in the actual world of appearance are of import only to ordinary and practical men. Our question lies with the ideal reality that exists behind appearance. How does the mind perceive these ideas? Are they without us, and is the reason, like sensation, occupied with objects external to itself? What certainty would we then have – what assurance that our perception was infallible? The object perceived would be a something different from the mind perceiving it. We should have then an image instead of reality. It would be monstrous to believe for a moment that the mind was unable to perceive ideal truth exactly as it is, and that we had not certainty and real knowledge concerning the world of intelligence. It follows, therefore, that this region of truth is not to be investigated as a thing external to us, and so only imperfectly known. It is within us. Here the objects we contemplate and that which contemplates are identical – both are thought. The subject cannot surely know an object different from itself. The world of ideas lies within our intelligence. Truth, therefore, is not the agreement of our apprehension of an external object with the object itself. It is the agreement of the mind with itself. Consciousness, therefore, is the sole basis of certainty: The mind is its own witness. Reason sees in itself that which is above itself as its source; and again, that which is below itself as still itself once more.

Knowledge has three degrees – opinion, science, and illumination. The means or instrument of the first is sense; of the second dialectic; of the third intuition. To the last I subordinate reason. It is absolute knowledge founded on the identity of the mind knowing with the object known.”⁴

There is a raying out of all orders of existence, an external emanation from the ineffable One. There is again a returning impulse, drawing all upwards and inwards towards the centre from whence all came. Love, as Plato in the “Banquet” beautifully says, is child of poverty and plenty. In the amorous quest of the soul after the good lies the painful sense of fall and deprivation.

But that love is blessing, is salvation, is our guardian genius; without it the centrifugal law would overpower us, and sweep our souls out far from their source toward the cold extremities of the material and the manifold. The wise man recognizes the idea of the good within him. This he develops by withdrawal into the holy place of his own soul. He who does not understand how the soul contains the beautiful within itself, seeks to realize beauty without by laborious production. His aim should rather be to concentrate and simplify, and so to expand his being; instead of going out into the manifold, to forsake it for the One, and so to float upwards towards the divine fount of being whose stream flows within him.

You ask, how can we know the Infinite? I answer, not by reason. It is the office of reason to distinguish and define. The Infinite, therefore, cannot be ranked among its objects. You can only apprehend the Infinite by a faculty superior to reason, by entering into a state in which you are your finite self no longer – in which the divine essence is communicated to you. This is ecstasy (Cosmic Consciousness). It is the liberation of your mind from its finite consciousness. Like only can apprehend like; when you thus cease to be finite, you become one with the Infinite. In the reduction of your soul to its simplest self, its divine essence, you realize this union – this identity.

But this sublime condition is not of permanent duration. It is only now and then that we can enjoy this elevation (mercifully made possible for us) above the limits of the body and the world. I myself have realized it but three times as yet, and Porphyry hitherto not once. All that tends to purify and elevate the mind will assist you in this attainment, and facilitate the approach and the recurrence of these happy intervals. There are, then, different roads by which this end may be reached. The love of beauty which exalts the poet; that devotion to the One and that ascent of science which makes the ambition of the philosopher, and that love and those prayers by which some devout and ardent soul tends in its moral purity towards perfection. These are the great highways conducting to that height above the actual and the particular, where we stand in the immediate presence of the Infinite, who shines out as from the deeps of the soul.⁵.

The following passage may be taken as a fair summing up of Plotinus’ philosophy as this was understood by the Neoplatonists:

The human souls which have descended into corporeality are those which have allowed themselves to be ensnared by sensuality and overpowered by lust. They now seek to cut themselves loose from their true being; and, striving after independence, they assume a false existence. They must turn back from this; and, since they have not lost their freedom, a conversion is still possible.

Here, then, we enter upon the practical philosophy. Along the same road by which it descended, the soul must retrace its steps back to the supreme Good. It must first of all return to itself. This is accomplished by the practice of virtue, which aims at likeness to God, and leads up to God. In the ethics of Plotinus all the older schemes of virtue are taken over, and arranged in a graduated series. The lowest stage is that of the civil virtues, then follow the purifying, and last of all the divine virtues. The civil virtues merely adorn the life, without elevating the soul. That is the office of the purifying virtues, by which the soul is freed from sensuality, and led back to itself, and thence to the nous. By means of ascetic observances the man becomes once more a spiritual and enduring being, free from all sin. But there is still a higher attainment; it is not enough to be sinless, one must become “God.” This is reached through contemplation of the primeval Being, the One; or, in other words, through an ecstatic approach to it. Thought cannot attain to this, for thought reaches only to the nous, and is itself a kind of motion. Thought is a mere preliminary to communion with God. It is only in a state of perfect passivity and repose that the soul can recognize and touch the primeval Being. Hence in order to this highest attainment the soul must pass through a spiritual curriculum. Beginning with the contemplation of corporeal things in their multiplicity and harmony, it then retires upon itself and withdraws into the depths of its own being, rising thence to the nous, the world of ideas. But even there it does not find the Highest, the One; it still hears a voice saying, “Not we have made ourselves.” The last stage is reached when, in the highest tension and concentration, beholding in silence and utter forgetfulness of all things, it is able as it were to lose itself. Then it may see God, the fountain of life, the source of being, the origin of all good, the root of the soul. In that moment it enjoys the highest indescribable bliss; it is as it were swallowed up of divinity, bathed in the light of eternity.

Summary

The writer has been able to learn but little of the outer life of Plotinus. Details of his illumination beyond what he tells us in the letter above quoted are equally wanting. But his own mention of the three “happy intervals,” what he says of “this sublime condition” and the character of his philosophy makes it certain that he was a genuine case of Cosmic Consciousness. Unfortunately his age at the time of first illumination is unknown. Plotinus, however, having been born 204, having commenced the study of philosophy in the year 232, at the age of twenty-eight, and having written the above letter in 260, when fifty-six years of age (it was in that year that Valerian was taken prisoner by Sapor), would probably have been between thirty and forty at the time of his first illumination.

1.”When to a man who understands, the Self has become all things”.

2.”Objects gross and the unseen soul are one”. “The perception seems to be one in which all the senses unite into one sense. In which you become the object”.

3.The sense of continued life. ‘’And as for you, death, and you bitter lung of mortality, it is idle to try to alarm me”.

4.The world of ideas divides itself into three spheres – that of instinct; that of abstractions; that of specialism”. Compare Bacon: “The first creature of God in the work of the days was the light of the sense, the last the light of reason, and His Sabbath work ever since is the illumination of His Spirit”. Plotinus, Bacon and Balzac all teach (and everyone who has had experience will agree with them) that there is as great an interval between Cosmic Consciousness and Self Consciousness as exists between the latter and Simple Consciousness.

5.Plotinus (as he tells us) had had three periods of illumination at the time of writing this letter to Flaccus – that is, by the time he was fifty-six years old. We are told by Porphyry that between the age of fifty-nine and sixty-four (that is, during the six years of their intercourse) that he had four periods, making at least seven altogether. It will be noticed that what Plotinus says as to what aids in the passage to Cosmic Consciousness is precisely what is taught by all those who have attained – by Gautama, Jesus, Paul and the rest.

 

CHAPTER 5

Mohammed

AD 570–632

THIS CASE, both in detail and ensemble, is marvelously complete. The contempt entertained towards this man by Christians is as creditable to them as is the corresponding contempt entertained towards Jesus by Muslims creditable to these. Mohammed was born in the tribe of Koreish, in August, in the year 570. His inheritance was five camels and a slave girl. His father died before his birth and his mother when he was six years old. As a boy and youth he earned his living tending sheep and goats.

Later he was a camel driver. At the age of twenty-five he married Cadijah, who was forty. The union was an eminently happy one. He was an honest, upright man, irreproachable in his domestic relations and universally esteemed by his fellow citizens, who bestowed upon him the sobriquet of El Amin – ”the trusty.” “Mohammed was a man of middle height but a commanding presence; rather thin, but with broad shoulders and a wide chest; a massive head, a frank, oval face, with a clear complexion, restless black eyes, long, heavy eyelashes, a prominent, aquiline nose, white teeth and a full, thick beard. … He was a man of highly nervous organization, thoughtful, restless, inclined to melancholy and possessing an extreme sensibility, being unable to endure the slightest unpleasant odor or the least physical pain. … He was simple in his habits, kind and courteous in his demeanor and agreeable in conversation”.

It seems that Mohammed had been, as a young and middle aged man, before his experience on Mount Hara, serious, devout, earnest and deeply religious. It also seems (as already stated) that this mental constitution is an essential prerequisite to the attainment of Cosmic Consciousness. He clearly saw that the religion of his countrymen was far from being in a satisfactory condition, and it appeared to him that the time for reform or a new departure had arrived.

We are told that he gradually absented himself from society and sought the solitude of a cavern on Mount Hara (about three leagues north of Mecca), where, in emulation of the Christian anchorites of the desert, he would remain days and nights together engaged in prayer and meditation… He became subject to visions, ecstasies and trances… At length, it is said, what had hitherto been shadowed out in dreams was made apparent and distinct by an angelic apparition and a divine annunciation.

It was in the fortieth year of his age when this famous revelation took place. Moslem writers give accounts of it, as if received from his own lips, and it is alluded to in certain passages of the Koran. He was passing, as was his wont, the month of Ramadan in the cavern of Mount Hara, endeavoring by fasting, prayer and solitary meditation to elevate his thoughts to the contemplation of divine truth.

It was on the night called by Arabs Al Kader, or The Divine Decree; a night in which, according to the Koran, angels descend to earth and Gabriel brings down the decrees of God. During that night there is peace on earth, and a holy quiet reigns over all nature until the rising of the morn.

As Mohammed, in the silent watches of the night, lay wrapped in his mantle, he heard a voice calling upon him. Uncovering his head, a flood of light broke upon him of such intolerable splendor that he swooned. On regaining his senses he beheld an angel in a human form, which, approaching from a distance, displayed a silken cloth covered with written characters. “Read!” said the angel. “I know not how to read!” replied Mohammed. “Read!” repeated the angel, “in the name of the Lord, who has created all things; who created man from a clot of blood. Read, in the name of the Most High, who taught man the use of the pen; who sheds on his soul the ray of knowledge and teaches him what before he knew not.”

Upon this Mohammed instantly felt his understanding illumined with celestial light and read what was written on the cloth, which contained the decree of God, as afterwards promulgated in the Koran. When he had finished the perusal the heavenly messenger announced: “Oh, Mohammed, of a verity thou art the prophet of God! And I am his angel Gabriel!”

Mohammed, we are told, came trembling and agitated to Cadijah in the morning, not knowing whether what he had heard and seen was indeed true, and that he was a prophet decreed to effect that reform so long the object of his meditations; or whether it might not be a mere vision, a delusion of the senses, or worse than all, the apparition of an evil spirit.

Illumination in Mohammed’s case took place in or about the month of April. It occurred in the Arabic month Ramadan. Now in the first year after the Hegira this month fell in our December. But the Mohammedan year is ten days shorter than the time actually taken by the revolution of the earth in its orbit. It is plain, therefore, that any given Mohammedan date would recur ten days earlier year by year. Now the Hegira was twelve years after Mohammed’s illumination. That is to say, if the month Ramadan corresponded with December just after the Hegira it would have corresponded with April at the time of the prophet’s illumination. That illumination, therefore, would have taken place in April.

If Mohammed was a case of Cosmic Consciousness this fact ought to appear clearly in the writings which he left to the world. Does it? As a matter of fact these are not easily understood in an English translation and from the modern, western, point of view. Note, for instance, the remarks of one reader who might be supposed competent to appreciate such a work as the Qur’an. Carlyle says of it: “It is as toilsome reading as ever I undertook. A wearisome, confused jumble, crude, incondite, endless iterations, long windedness, entanglement, insupportable stupidity in short,” and so on at some length.

In spite of all this, however, even if multiplied a thousand times, the greatness, power, spirituality of the book must be considered established by the results it has produced in the world. No effect can be greater than its cause, and the effect in this case (the spiritual elevation of many millions of men for many generations) must be admitted to have been enormous. Moreover, it seems to the writer that, in spite of the undoubted difficulty above referred to, almost any candid reader may perceive for himself, upon its perusal, that the book has great qualities, even though he may not be able to fully grasp them.

But there is another reason why we do not find just what we want for our present purpose in the Qur’an. It is written entirely from the point of view of the Cosmic Sense; as its author would say, it is all dictated by Gabriel. There are no passages in which the self conscious tells us about the cosmic conscious Mohammed – such passages as occur with great frequency in the writings of Yepes, Whitman and others – passages written from the point of view of the Shakespeare Sonnets. Nevertheless, there are here and there sentences in the Qur’an that almost certainly refer to the experience in question, as, for instance, the following:

Verily, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day, and in the ship that runneth in the sea with that which profits man, and in what water God sends down from heaven and quickens therewith the earth after its death, and spreads abroad therein all kinds of cattle, and in the shifting of the winds, and in the clouds that are pressed into service betwixt heaven and earth, are signs to people who can understand.¹

And when we said to thee, “Verily, thy Lord encompasses men!” and we made the vision which we showed thee only a cause of sedition unto men, and the cursed tree as well; for we will frighten them, but it will only increase them in great rebellion.²

They will ask thee of the spirit. Say, “The spirit comes at the bidding of my Lord, and ye are given but a little knowledge thereof.” If we had wished we would have taken away that with which we have inspired thee: then thou wouldst have found no guardian against us, unless by a mercy from thy Lord; verily, his grace towards thee is great!³

We do not descend save at the bidding of thy Lord: He is what is before us, and what is behind us, and what is between those; for thy Lord is never forgetful – the Lord of the heavens and the earth, and of what is between the two; then serve Him and persevere in His service.⁴

Verily, the hour is coming, I almost make it appear, that every soul may be recompensed for its efforts.⁵

This life of the world is nothing but a sport and a play; but, verily, the abode of the next world – that is, life. If they did but know!⁶

He who wishes for the tilth of the next world, we will increase for him the tilth; and he who desires the tilth of this world, we will give him thereof; but in the next he shall have no portion.⁷

The life of this world is but a play and a sport; but if you believe and fear God, he will give you your hire.⁸

And every soul shall come – with it a driver and a witness!

Thou wert heedless of this, and we withdrew thy veil from thee, and today is thine eyesight keen!⁹

And paradise shall be brought near to the pious – not far off.¹⁰

This is what ye are promised, to everyone who turns frequently (to God) and keeps His commandments, who fears the merciful in secret and brings a repentant heart. Enter into it in peace; this is the day of eternity!¹¹

And listen for the day when the crier shall cry from a near place – the day when they shall hear the shout in truth – that is, the day of coming forth.¹²

Know that the life of this world is but a sport, and a play, and an adornment, and something to boast of amongst yourselves; and the multiplying of children is like a rain growth, its vegetation pleases the misbelievers; then they wither away, and thou mayest see them become yellow; then they become but grit.¹³

Verily, we set it down on the Night of Power! And what shall make thee know what the Night of Power is? The Night of Power is better than a thousand months! The angels and the spirits descend therein, by the permission of their Lord with every bidding.¹⁴

In this case we have authentically reported (as it seems) all the fundamental elements required to constitute a case of Cosmic Consciousness:

a.   The subjective light

b.   The moral elevation

c.   The intellectual illumination

d.   The sense of immortality

e.   The definiteness, suddenness and unexpectedness of the oncoming of the new state

f.   The previous mental and physical character of the man.

g.   The age of illumination, in his fortieth year, later than the average, but while he was still in his prime

h.   The added charm to his personality, so that he was able to gain and hold devoted followers.

1.Mohammed is seeking to point out the (to him) certainty of an infinitely good God and eternal life. He uses here very much the same language as does Whitman in the same connection: “I hear you whispering there O stars of heaven, O suns, O grass of graves, O perpetual transfers and promotions, if you do not say anything how can I say anything”?

2.“The vision” – evidently the cosmic vision.

3.He speaks of “the spirit” who visits him – ”Gabriel,” the Cosmic Sense – and uses almost the same words as Jesus: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit”.

4.“We do not descend.” Palmer’s note to these words is: “Among various conjectures the one most usually accepted by the Mohammedan commentators is, that these are the words of the angel Gabriel in answer to Mohammed’s complaint of long intervals elapsing between the periods of revelation. Compare, in chapter on Bacon, infra Sonnet xxxiii, and comment thereon.

5.The words, “I almost make it appear,” would seem to refer to the feeling almost or quite universal with those having cosmic consciousness that universal endowment with this faculty is near, is imminent, and that an individual having the faculty can bestow it almost at will. “I bestow,” says Whitman, “upon any man or woman the entrance to all the gifts of the universe.” There is a sense, of course, in which both these propositions are true: (1) The new faculty is becoming universal and (2) these men, having the faculty, do bestow it upon such others as coming into contact with them are eligible.

6.The distinction between the self and cosmic conscious lives.

7.A rich man, from the mere fact of being such, is unlikely to enter cosmic consciousness. If he does he probably abandons his wealth, as did Gautama and E. C. If, however, a man (not having it) very earnestly desires wealth, or (having it) sets his heart upon it, such shall certainly in Cosmic Consciousness “have no portion.”

8.Insignificance of the self conscious as compared with the cosmic conscious life.

9.”Withdrew thy veil” – reference to the illumination of Mohammed. He “saw the heavens rent asunder”.

10”The kingdom of God is nigh at hand”. “The kingdom of God is within you”.

11.Illumination – the Cosmic Sense – the Brahmic bliss – the kingdom of God – is rightly called here “the day of eternity,” since the entrance to it is the entrance to immortality – eternity.

12.The suddenness and unexpectedness of the oncoming of Cosmic Consciousness is noted in the writings of nearly all of those who have experienced illumination. “That day – the day of deliverance – shall come to you in what place you know not; it shall come, but you know not the time. In the pulpit while you are preaching the sermon, behold! suddenly the ties and the bands shall drop off; in the prison One shall come, and you shall go free forever. In the field, with the plough and chain harrow; by the side of your horse in the stall; in the midst of fashionable life; in making and receiving morning calls; in your drawing room – – even there, who knows? It shall duly, at the appointed hour, come.

13.Insignificance of the merely self conscious life.

14.“It,” the Qur’an, “the Night of Power” (the night of Mohammed’s illumination), “is better than a thousand months!” So Böhme, referring to his illumination, says: “The gate was opened to me that in one quarter of an hour I saw and knew more than if I had been many years together at an university.”

 

CHAPTER 6

Dante

1265–1321

BALZAC CLEARLY INTIMATES his conviction that Dante was a “Specialist,” which is his name for a man who has Cosmic Consciousness. Balzac probably knew Dante very thoroughly, and could not be mistaken on this point, he being himself a “Specialist”; for as a musician knows of another man whether or not he is a musician, as a poet knows of another man whether or not he is a poet, as a painter knows of another man whether or not he is a painter, as a man with the sense of sight living in a country inhabited with men nearly all of whom are blind must know who among his acquaintances can see and who cannot, so today, and all days, a man who has the Cosmic Sense will know of any given man with whom he is acquainted, either personally or by his works, whether or not he also has it. We could therefore accept with confidence Balzac’s word that Dante had the Cosmic Sense, but let us not do so – let us try to see for ourselves.

1

Dante’s outward life and personality are as good as lost to us of the nineteenth century. It seems clear, however, and the character of his writings would indicate the same thing, that as Boccaccio says, even as a young man he was:

Taken by the sweetness of knowing the truth of the things concealed in heaven, and finding no other pleasure dearer to him in life, he left all other worldly care and gave himself to this alone, and, that no part of philosophy might remain unseen by him, he plunged with acute intellect into the deepest recesses of theology, and so far succeeded in his design that, caring nothing for heat or cold, or watching, or fasting, or any other bodily discomforts, by assiduous study he came to know of the divine essence and of the other separate intelligences all that the human intellect can comprehend.

And Leonardo Bruni says of him that:

By study of philosophy, of theology, astrology, arithmetic and geometry, by reading of history, by the turning over many curious books, watching and sweating in his studies, he acquired the science which he was to adorn and explain in his verses.

All of which means that Dante was of a thoughtful, studious, earnest nature, and we may interpret this fact to mean either that in his case such a life led up to a high poetic genius within the limits of self consciousness, or that it led up (as claimed here) to Cosmic Consciousness. In any case, Dante’s youth seems to have been such as we often find in men who attain illumination.

2

Now, as to the outward man, Boccaccio says:

Our poet was of middle height, and after reaching mature years he went somewhat stooping; his gait was grave and sedate; always clothed in the most becoming garments, his dress was suited to the ripeness of his years; his face was long, his nose aquiline, his eyes rather large than small, his jaw heavy and his under lip prominent; his complexion was dark, and his hair and beard thick, black and crisp, and his countenance was always sad and thoughtful. … His manners, whether in public or at home, were wonderfully composed and restrained, and in all his ways he was more courteous and civil than anyone else.

Again Charles E. Norton says of an undoubtedly authentic death mask of the poet:

The face is one of the most pathetic upon which human eyes ever looked, for it exhibits in its expression the conflict between the strong nature of the man and the hard dealings of fortune – between the idea of his life and its practical experience. Strength is the most striking attribute of the countenance, displayed alike in the broad forehead, the masculine nose, the firm lips, the heavy jaw and wide chin; and this strength, resulting from the main forms of the features, is enforced by the strength of the lines of expression. The look is grave and stern almost to grimness; there is a scornful lift to the eyebrows, and a contraction of the forehead as from painful thought; but obscured under this look, yet not lost, are the marks of tenderness, refinement and self mastery, which, in combination with more obvious characteristics, give to the countenance of the dead poet an ineffable dignity and melancholy. There is neither weakness nor failure here. It is the image of the strong fortress, of a strong soul “buttressed on conscience and impregnable will,” battered by the blows of enemies without and within, bearing upon its walls the dints of many a siege, but standing firm and unshaken against all attacks until the warfare was at an end.

3

As to the quality of Dante’s mind and of his work, it will be well to quote here, briefly, perhaps as high an authority as has lived in recent times. He says:

The Dantesque account of Hell, purgatory and Paradise is not an arbitrary or fantastic dream, but the vivid and substantial embodiment of a profound philosophy.¹

Meanwhile, leaving antiquarians to elucidate the pedigree of Dante’s ideas, we may observe that from his earliest boyhood he was familiar with dreams and visions, and that he hints himself, at the end of the Vita Nuova, that the vision of the Comedy came to him as a revelation, while he was pondering on the thought of death and upon the memory of Beatrice.²

The object of the whole work (he writes to Can Grande) is to make those who live in this life leave their state of misery and to lead them to a state of happiness.³

4

In the Divine Comedy (a book strictly parallel to the Comédie Humaine, or the Leaves of Grass, in the sense that it is a picture of the world from the point of view of the writer), Dante tells, first, in the Inferno, of human life as seen among ill doers, the “sinful,” the “wicked.” Then, in the Purgatorio – ”that second realm where the human spirit is purified and becomes worthy to ascend to heaven” – he speaks of human life as seen in those who are struggling towards the light – who are trying to lead good lives but are so far overburdened by hereditary flaws, faults committed, bad habits formed, unfortunate surroundings and other adverse circumstances. These are the better people – short of illumination. But in the Paradiso Dante treats of the new world of the Cosmic Sense – of the kingdom of God – Nirvāna.

Beatrice – “Making Happy” – is the Cosmic Sense (which, in fact, alone, makes happy). The name may have been suggested by a beautiful girl (so named). If so, the coincidence is curious.

That the meaning is as here said, seems clear from a hundred passages. Take one. Virgil says to Dante: “So much as reason seeth here can I tell thee; beyond that [beyond reason, the self conscious mind] awaits still for Beatrice”. What is beyond reason – the self conscious mind – but Cosmic Consciousness?

Dante wanders through the self conscious world (Inferno and Purgatorio) guided by Virgil (chosen as a splendid example and type of the self conscious mind, and also probably because he had really been one of Dante’s principal guides before his illumination). But Virgil was not a case of Cosmic Consciousness, and of course he cannot enter into Paradise. Beatrice (the Cosmic Sense) leads Dante into that realm and is his guide there.

Dante’s Vita Nuova, written at the end of the thirteenth century, was first published in 1309, when he was forty-four years of age. At the very end of it he seems to speak of the oncoming of Cosmic Consciousness.

The Divine Comedy was finished in 1321, the time of the action being strictly confined to the end of March and the beginning of April, 1300 at which time Dante was thirty-five years old. It seems almost certain that this was the date of his illumination. It would be at the typical age and in the typical season, and there seems nothing against the supposition. It is a reasonable presumption that the earlier book, Vita Nuova, was being written up to the early spring of 1300; that when illumination took place it was closed to give place to a greater work then to be begun; that the latter book, the Divine Comedy, was actually begun at that date.

5

The Vita Nuova closes as follows:

After this sonnet a wonderful vision appeared to me, in which I saw things which made me resolve to speak no more of this blessed one (Beatrice) until I could more worthily treat of her. And, to attain to this, I study to the utmost of my power, as she truly knows. So that, if it shall please Him through whom all things live, that my life be prolonged for some years, I hope to say of her what was never said of any woman.

6

We will now follow Dante’s experience as closely as possible in his own words, using always, as we have done above, the translation of Charles Elliot Norton. And we take first from the Purgatorio passages descriptive of Dante’s approach to the divine land. When Dante is about to enter Cosmic Consciousness Virgil says of him:

Expect no more or word or sign from me. Free, upright and sane in thine own free will, and it would be wrong not to act according to its pleasure; wherefore thee over thyself I crown and mitre.⁴

Virgil withdraws. The self conscious mind abdicates its sovereignty in presence of the greater authority. Dante comes into immediate relation with Beatrice – Cosmic Consciousness:

A lady appeared to me robed with the color of living flame. I turned me to the left with the confidence with which the little child runs to his mother when he is frightened, or when he is troubled, to say to Virgil: “Less than a drachm of blood remains in me that does not tremble, I recognize the signals of the ancient flame;” but Virgil had left us deprived of himself.⁵

And as my face stretched upward my eyes saw Beatrice. Beneath her veil and beyond the stream she seemed to me more to surpass her ancient self than she surpassed the others here when she was here.⁶

When I was near the blessed shore the beautiful lady [nature?] opened her arms, clasped my head and plunged me in where it behooved that I should swallow the water.⁷

Oh, splendor of living light eternal! who hath become so pallid under the shadow of Parnassus, or hath so drunk at its cistern that he would not seem to have his mind encumbered, trying to represent thee as thou didst appear there, where in harmony the heaven overshadows thee when in the open air thou didst thyself disclose?⁸

Beatrice (the Cosmic Sense) says to Dante:

Thou shalt be with me without end a citizen of that Rome whereof Christ is a Roman.⁹

Again Beatrice says to him:

From fear and from shame I wish that thou henceforth divest thyself.¹⁰

7

So much for the approach to the Cosmic Sense. Let us see next what Dante says of it after having entered into it.

The glory of Him who moves everything penetrates through the universe and shines in one part more and in another less. In the heaven that receives most of its light I have been, and have seen things which he who descends from there above neither knows how nor is able to recount.¹¹

On a sudden day seemed to be added to day as if he who is able had adorned the heaven with another sun.¹²

This is, of course, the subjective light seen by Mohammed, Paul and others at the moment of entrance into the Cosmic Sense.

Beatrice was standing with her eyes wholly fixed on the eternal wheels, and on her I fixed my eyes from there above removed. Looking at her, I inwardly became such as Glaucus¹³ became on tasting of the herb which made him consort in the sea of the other gods. Transhumanizing cannot be signi-fied in words; therefore, let the example¹⁴ suffice for him to whom grace reserves experience. If I were only what of me thou didst last create,¹⁵ O love that governest the heavens, thou knowest, who with thy light didst lift me.

When the revolution which thou, being desired, makest eternal¹⁶ made me attend unto itself with the harmony which thou attunest and modulatest, so much of the heaven then seemed to me enkindled by the flame of the sun, that rain or river never made so broad a lake.¹⁷

After illumination Dante wrote the Divine Comedy. In it (as a whole) must be sought the expression, such as Dante could give, of the Cosmic vision. It is, therefore, a parallel statement with the Qur’an, the Upanishads, Suttas, the Pauline Epistles, the words of Jesus, the Comédie Humaine, the Leaves of Grass, the Shakespeare plays and Sonnets, the works of Böhme, and Towards Democracy.

To sum up, we have in this case:

a.   The characteristic suddenness that belongs to the oncoming of the Cosmic Sense

b.   Illumination occurs at the typical age and time of year.

c.   The subjective light is a strongly marked feature

d.   Intellectual illumination

e.   Moral elevation

f.   The sense of immortality

g.   The extinction of the sense of sin and of shame and of fear of death.

1.This is of course necessarily true of every book that springs from, is dictated by, the Cosmic Sense.

2.The writer, while knowing nothing about Cosmic Consciousness, adopts, as it were perforce, the same theory of Dante and his work as that propounded here.

3.The main object in life in the case of every (?) man having the Cosmic Sense is to bestow it upon the race, and each feels in himself some power to so bestow it.

4.There are two points here well worthy of being noted: (1) When the Cosmic Sense comes the rules and standards belonging to self consciousness are suspended. “Confronted, turned back, laid away”, is Whitman’s expression. No man with the Cosmic Sense will take direction (in the affairs of the soul) from any other man or any so called God. In his own heart he holds the highest accessible standard, and to that he will and must adhere; that only can he obey. (2) The other is the duplication of the individual: “Thee over thyself.” Compare with these words “The other I am,” of Whitman: “’Tis thee (myself) that for myself I praise,” of Shakespeare; “If any man is in Christ he is a new creature,” of Paul; “Except a man be born anew,” of Jesus. A new individual must be born within the old one, and, being so born, will live its own distinct life.

5.The Cosmic Sense robed with the subjective light. At the threshold of the new sense Virgil (the type here of human faculty short of it) leaves Dante. Not that simple and self consciousness leave us when we enter Cosmic Consciousness, but they do cease to guide us – “the eyesight has another eyesight, the hearing another hearing, and the voice another voice”.

6.The new world is still veiled and far off, but even so its glory far transcends anything in the old world of mere self consciousness.

7.” The drinking of the waters of Lethe, which obliterate the memory of sin.” – Norton’s note. There is no sense of sin in Cosmic Consciousness.

8.The best prepared poet (on the level of self consciousness) by study and practice could not portray the new world, when it freely (in the open air) discloses itself. “No shuttered room or school can commune with me,” says the Cosmic Sense by the tongue of Whitman.

9.Dante enters into equality with Jesus. Compare Whitman’s “To him who was crucified”.

10.Compare Balzac’s “Jesus was a Specialist,” and Paul’s “Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” Neither fear nor shame can exist along with the Cosmic Sense.

11.So Paul heard “unspeakable words,” and Whitman when he “tried to tell the best” of that which he had seen became dumb.

12.“As in a swoon, one instant, another sun, ineffable, full dazzles me”.

13.Glaucus – the steersman of the ship Argo – who was changed into a god.

14. Of Glaucus.

15.If I continued to be a mere man.

16.The desire for God leads a man from self to Cosmic Consciousness, and that revolution, when effected, is eternal.

17.When Dante awoke into the Cosmic Sense, into the new Cosmos, the first thing to strike him (as it is and must be the first thing to strike everyone who so awakes) was the vision of the ‘’Eternal Wheels” – the “Chain of Causation” – the universal order – a vision infinitely beyond expression by human words. His new self – Beatrice – had its eyes fixed on this, the cosmic unfolding. Gazing thereupon the cosmic vision and the cosmic rapture transhumanized him into a god. It is this vision of the universal order coming instantaneously, lighting the world as lightning illumines the landscape, but, unlike lightning, remaining, that has led the present writer to adopt the name “Cosmic Consciousness” – a Consciousness of the Cosmos. Compare with Dante’s Gautama’s experience as given in the Maha Vagga: “During the first watch of the night he fixed his mind upon the chain of causation; during the second watch he did the same; during the third he did the same.” And, as already shown, this is among the very earliest and most reliable accounts of the illumination of the Buddha.