"At all events it has neither will nor power at that time to give any thought to the living. But after its period of latency is over, and the new self enters in full consciousness the blessed region of Devachan-when all earthly mists have been dispersed, and the scenes and relations of the past life come clearly before its spiritual sight then it may, and does occasionally, when espying all it loved, and that loved it upon earth, draw up to it for communion and by the sole attraction of love, the spirits of the living, who, when returned to their normal condition, imagine that it has descended to them.

"Therefore we differ radically from the western Ro-lang-pa— spiritualists as to what they see or communicate with in their circles and through their unconscious necromancy. We say it is but the physical dregs, or spiritless remains of the late being; that which has been exuded, cast off and left behind when its finer particles passed onward into the great Beyond.

"In it linger some fragments of memory and intellect. It certainly was once a part of the being, and so possesses that modicum of interest; but it is not the being in reality and truth. Formed of matter, however etherealized, it must sooner or later be drawn away into vortices where the conditions for its atomic disintegration exist.

"From the dead body the other principles ooze out together. A few hours later the second principle-that of life-is totally extinct, and separates from both the human and ethereal envelopes. The third-the vital double-finally dissipates when the last particles of the body disintegrate. There now remain the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh principles: the body of will; the human soul; the spiritual soul, and pure spirit, which is a facet of the Eternal. The last two, joined to, or separated from, the personal self, form the everlasting individuality and cannot perish. The remainder proceeds to the state of gestation-the astral self and whatever survived in it of the will, previous to the dissolution of the physical body.

"Hence for any conscious action in this state are required the qualifications of an adept, or an intense, undying, ardent and holy love for someone whom the deceased leaves behind him on earth; as otherwise the astral ego either becomes a 'bhûta'-'ro-lang' in Tibetan-or proceeds to its further transmigrations in higher spheres.

"In the former case the Lha, or 'man-spirit,' can sojourn among the living for an indefinite time, at his own pleasure; in the latter the so-called 'spirit' will tarry and delay his final translation but for a short period; the body of desire being held compact, in proportion to the intensity of the love felt by the soul and its unwillingness to part with the loved ones.

"At the first relaxation of the will it will disperse, and the spiritual self, temporarily losing its personality and all remembrance of it, ascends to higher regions. Such is the teaching. None can overshadow mortals but the elect, the 'Accomplished,' the 'Byang

tsiub,' or the 'Bodhisatwas' alone-they who have penetrated the great secret of life and death-as they are able to prolong, at will, their stay on earth after 'dying.' Rendered into the vulgar phraseology, such overshadowing is to 'be born again and again' for the benefit of mankind."

If the spiritualists, instead of conferring the power of "controlling" and "guiding" living persons upon every wraith calling itself "John" or "Peter," limited the faculty of moving and inspiring a few chosen pure men and women only to such Bodhisatwas or holy initiates-whether born as Buddhists or Christians, Brâhmans or Mussulmans on earth-and, in very exceptional cases, to holy and saintly characters, who have a motive, a truly beneficial mission to accomplish after their departure, then would they be nearer to the truth than they are now.

To ascribe the sacred privilege, as they do, to every "elementary" and "elemental" masquerading in borrowed plumes and putting in an appearance for no better reason than to say: "How d'ye do, Mr. Snooks?" and to drink tea and eat toast, is a sacrilege and a sad sight to him who has any intuitional feeling about the awful sacredness of the mystery of physical translation, let alone the teaching of the adepts.

"Further on Della Penna writes:

""These chang-chüb-the disciples of the chief saint-have not yet become saints, but they possess in the highest degree five virtues-charity, both temporal and spiritual, perfect observance of law, great patience, great diligence in working to perfection, and the most sublime contemplation.''

We would like to know how they could have all these qualities, especially the latter-trance-were they physically dead!

"These chang-chüb have finished their course and are exempt from further transmigrations; passing from the body of one Lama to that of another; but the Lama (meaning the Dalai-Lama) is always endowed with the soul of the same chang-chüb, although he may be in other bodies for the benefit of the living to teach them the Law, which is the object of their not wishing to become saints, because then they would not be able to instruct them. Being moved by compassion and pity they wish to remain chang-chüb to instruct the living in the Law, so as to make them finish quickly the laborious course of their transmigrations. Moreover, if these chang-chüb wish, they are at liberty to transmigrate into this or other worlds, and at the same time they transmigrate into other places with the same object.

"This rather confused description yields from its inner sense two facts: first, that the Buddhist Tibetans-we speak of the educated classes do not believe in the return of the departed spirits, since, unless a soul becomes so purified upon earth as to create for itself a state of Bodhisat-hood-the highest degree of perfection next to Buddha-even saints in the ordinary acceptation of the term would not be able to instruct or control the living after their

death; and, secondly, that, rejecting as they do the theories of creation, God, soul-in its Christian and spiritualistic sense-and a future life for the personality of the deceased, they yet credit man with such a potentiality of will, that it depends on him to become a Bodhisatwa and acquire the power to regulate his future existences, whether in a physical or in a semi-material shape.

"Lamaists believe in the indestructibility of matter, as an element. They reject the immortality, and even the survival of the personal self, teaching that the individual self alone-i. e., the collective aggregation of the many personal selves that were represented by that One during the long series of various existences-may survive. The latter may even become eternal-the word eternity with them embracing but the period of a great cycle-eternal in its integral individuality, but this may be done only by becoming a Dhyan-Chohan, a 'celestial Buddha,' or what a Christian Kabbalist might call a 'planetary spirit' or one of the Elohim; a part of the 'conscious whole,' composed of the aggregate intelligences in their universal collectivity, while Nirvana is the 'unconscious whole.' He who becomes a Tong-pa-nyi-he who has attained the state of absolute freedom from any desire of living personally, the highest condition of a saint-exists in non-existence and can benefit mortals no more. He is in 'Nipang,' for he has reached the end of "Tharlam,' the path to deliverance, or salvation from transmigrations. He cannot perform Tul-pa-voluntary incarnation, whether temporary or life-long-in the body of a living human being; for he is a 'Dang-ma,' an absolutely purified soul. Henceforth he is free from the danger of 'Dal-jor,' human rebirth; for the seven forms of existence-only six are given out to the uninitiated-subject to transmigration have been safely crossed by him. 'He gazes with indifference in every sphere of upward transmigration on the whole period of time which covers the shorter periods of personal existence,' says the Book of Khiu-ti.

"But, as 'there is more courage to accept being than non-being, life than death,' there are those among the Bodhisatwas and the Lha and as rare as the flower of udambara are they to meet with-who voluntarily relinquish the blessing of the attainment of perfect freedom, and remain in their personal selves, whether in forms visible or invisible to mortal sight-to teach and help their weaker brothers.

"Some of them prolong their life on earth-though not to any supernatural limit; others become 'Dhyan-Chohans,' a class of the planetary spirits or 'devas' who, becoming, so to say, the guardian angels of men, are the only class out of the seven-classed hierarchy of spirits in our system who preserve their personality. These holy Lha, instead of reaping the fruit of their deeds, sacrifice themselves in the invisible world as the lord Sang-Gyas-Buddha-did on this earth, and remain in Devachan-the world of bliss nearest to the earth.'

H. P. BLAVATSKY.

CONVERSATIONS ON OCCULTISM*

TUDENT.—Is there not some attitude of mind which one should in truth assume in order to understand the occult in Nature?

Sage. Such attitude of mind must be attained as will enable one to look into the realities of things. The mind must escape from the mere formalities and conventions of life, even though outwardly one seems to obey all of them, and should be firmly established on the truth that Man is a copy of the Universe and has in himself a portion of the Supreme Being. To the extent this is realized will be the clearness of perception of truth. A realization of this leads inevitably to the conclusion that all other men and beings are united with us, and this removes the egotism which is the result of the notion of separateness. When the truth of Unity is understood, then distinctions due to comparisons made like the Pharisee's, that one is better than his neighbor, disappear from the mind, leaving it more pure and free to act.

Student. What would you point out as a principal foe to the mind's grasping of truth?

Sage. The principal foe of a secondary nature is what was once called phantasy; that is, the reäppearance of thoughts and images due to recollection or memory. Memory is an important power, but mind in itself is not memory. Mind is restless and wandering in its nature, and must be controlled. Its wandering disposition is necessary or stagnation would result. But it can be controlled and fixed upon an object or idea. Now as we are constantly looking at and hearing of new things, the natural restlessness of the mind becomes prominent when we set about pinning it down. Then memory of many objects, things, subjects, duties, persons, circumstances, and affairs brings up before it the various pictures and thoughts belonging to them. After these the mind at once tries to go, and we find ourselves wandering from the point. It must hence follow that the storing of a multiplicity of useless and surely-recurring thoughts is an obstacle to the acquirement of truth. And this obstacle is the very one peculiar to our present style of life.

Student. Can you mention some of the relations in which the sun stands to us and nature in respect to Occultism?

Sage. It has many such, and all important. But I would draw your attention first to the greater and more comprehensive. The sun is the center of our solar system. The life-energies of that system come to it through the sun, which is a focus or reflector for the spot in space where the real center is. And not only comes mere life through that focus, but also much more that is spiritual in its

* This article was first printed by Wm. Q. Judge in The Path, December, 1894.

essence.

The sun should therefore not only be looked at with the eye but thought of by the mind. It represents to the world what the Higher Self is to the man. It is the soul-center of the world with its six companions, as the Higher Self is the center for the six principles of man. So it supplies to those six principles of the man many spiritual essences and powers. He should for that reason think of it and not confine himself to gazing at it. So far as it acts materially in light, heat, and gravity, it will go on of itself, but man as a free agent must think upon it in order to gain what benefit can come only from his voluntary action in thought.

Student.-Will you refer to some minor one?

Sage. Well, we sit in the sun for heat and possible chemical effects. But if at the same time that we do this we also think on it as the sun in the sky and of its possible essential nature, we thereby draw from it some of its energy not otherwise touched. This can also be done on a dark day when clouds obscure the sky, and some of the benefit thus be obtained. Natural mystics, learned and ignorant, have discovered this for themselves here and there, and have often adopted the practice. But it depends, as you see, upon the mind.

Student-Does the mind actually do anything when it takes up a thought and seeks for more light?

Sage. It actually does. A thread, or a finger, or a long darting current flies out from the brain to seek for knowledge. It goes in all directions and touches all other minds it can reach so as to receive the information if possible. This is telepathically, so to say, accomplished. There are no patents on true knowledge of philosophy nor copyrights in that realm. Personal rights of personal life are fully respected, save by potential black magicians who would take anyone's property. But general truth belongs to all, and when the unseen messenger from one mind arrives and touches the real mind of another, that other gives up to it what it may have of truth about general subjects. So the mind's finger or wire flies until it gets the thought or seed-thought from the other and makes it its own. But our modern competitive system and selfish desire. for gain and fame is constantly building a wall around people's minds to everyone's detriment.

Student. Do you mean that the action you describe is natural, usual, and universal, or only done by those who know how and are conscious of it?

Sage. It is universal and whether the person is aware or not of what is going on. Very few are able to perceive it in themselves, but that makes no difference. It is done always. When you sit down to earnestly think on a philosophical or ethical matter, for instance, your mind flies off, touching other minds, and from them you get varieties of thought. If you are not well-balanced and psychically purified, you will often get thoughts that are not correct. Such is your Karma and the Karma of the race. But if you are