17

”Blend Thy Mind And Soul”

[from the book LIVING THE LIFE ]
 
by B.P. Wadia 
 
© 2009 Online Teosofiska Kompaniet Malmö 

The Book of the Golden Precepts advises the aspiring devotee to ”search for the Paths.” The Inner Life begins with enquiry and search (cf. the Bhagavad-Gita, IV. 34). The roads of a city like all material ways lead outwards, and the rotundity of our earth brings the wayfarer back to the place he started from. The religious pilgrim bound for Kashi or Mecca also returns to his home to continue the routine of his former living.
    
The Esoteric Philosophy confirms the intuition of the mystic that the Path to Soul-life is an Inner Path. Sages have taught in allegories that the Inner Ways exist, and that there are milestones in the inner world as in the outer.
     
The Voice of the Silence refers to the Path of Liberation and of Renunciation; also to the Paramita Path and the Aryahata Path. The would-be chela is asked to begin the” search for the Paths ”; but there are conditions for the very search :–

        Search for the Paths. But, O Lanoo, be of clean heart
          before thou startest on thy journey. Before thou takest thy
          first step, learn to discern the real from the false, the ever-fleeting
          from the everlasting. Learn above all to separate Head-learning
          from Soul-wisdom, the ”Eye” from the ”Heart” doctrine.    

Preparation for the Inner Pilgrimage should not begin unless we have cleansed our heart in needful measure. The ” heart” of the embodied soul is his ”discerning power,” which is tamasic, dull and befogged, obscure and mistaken; or rajasic, incapable of deciding what should be eschewed and what accepted; or sattvic, having knowledge of what to do and how, and also of how to hold fast and how to set the soul free. Therefore the cleansing of the heart consists in purifying our perceptions, in acquiring the pure and true power of discernment.
    
Now our passage names three pairs: (I) the real and the false; (2) the ever-fleeting and the everlasting; and (3) Head-learning and Soul-wisdom, or the” Eye” and the” Heart” Doctrine.
    
To overcome the limitations of worldly perception and to unfold higher discernment is the preliminary task; this preparation for the journey is necessary before the first step is taken on the Path that winds uphill all the way. This preliminary task involves the discarding of useless belongings that would make the journey almost impossible, and the making ready of our mental luggage.
    
Self-purification depends upon Discrimination, Viveka, which is the first necessary mental quality named by the great Shankara in his Crest-jewel of Wisdom. What is the Real? The Changeless is the Real. Truth is changeless; it is everlasting; it does not pertain to the past, the present or the future, but to timeless duration, the Eternal Now.
    
There are two types of knowledge, designated as Head-learning and Soul-wisdom. The former is called the ”Eye” Doctrine, for the personal man uses his mind depending upon the data his senses supply. Soul-wisdom is called the” Heart” Doctrine, for it is In the Heart that the inner Wisdom of the Soul, the Silent Thinker and Watcher, springs up spontaneously. The Man” for whom the hour shall never strike” ”knows, for it is knowledge.” The great Meister Eckhart's statement is illuminating in this context :–
 
        Hearing draws in more, seeing leads out more, the very act
          of seeing. In eternal life we are far more happy in our ability
          to hear than in our power. to see, because the act of hearing
          the eternal Word is in me, whereas the act of seeing goes
          forth from me: hearing, I am receptive; seeing, I am active.
    
Ignorance is a hindrance and a handicap for the mundane man who desires to get on in this world. To compete and win the race in ordinary life – that is his objective. Correspondentially, Head-learning is a handicap for the aspirant who strives to obtain Soul-wisdom, to retreat within to the cave of the Heart.
 
An ignorant man can get at his innate ideas and divine intuitions, but a man of Head-learning cannot do so. His false knowledge, relative knowledge, partial knowledge, is different in kind from Soul-knowledge. The latter is not an extension of Head-learning. Head learning hinders the aspirant; for him it is worse than ignorance. There is one aspect of relative knowledge which may aid the mind seeking Soul-wisdom. The latter can act as a guide and an illuminator by showing what is true in relative knowledge.

        The seeds of Wisdom cannot sprout and grow in airless space.
          To live and reap experience, the mind needs breadth and depth
          and points to draw it towards the Diamond Soul. Seek not those
          points in Maya's realm; but soar beyond illusions, search the eternal
          and the changeless SAT, mistrusting fancy's false suggestions.
    
The unified wisdom is registered in Akasha, the Divine Astral. Its beams reflected on earth are the seeds of Wisdom. Every human mind is a ray of the Soul, and in every incarnated existence that mind carries within itself the seeds of Wisdom. The weeds of passions, prides and prejudices prevent their sprouting. The atmosphere necessary for the action of the seminal principle in the seed is absent. Men and women do not live; they only exist and go through life; they pass through numerous experiences but fail to learn the lessons. The mind requires the breadth of vision resulting from the assimilation of universal ideas. It also requires the depth and the insight born of noble feelings which are impersonal. Thirdly, the mind needs the beneficent influence of the Magnetic Star of the World of Spirit. The navigator using his compass is aided by the polestar; the incarnated soul must learn to use the Spiritual Firmament, Akasha or the Divine Astral, which moves majestically and infallibly round the Spiritual Magnetic Pole, the Logos, Verbum, Shabda Brahman. There flow to humanity on earth from the Akashic firmament rays of Wisdom-Light which issue from the Diamond Soul. ”the Lord of all Mysteries.” These rays may well be called Lines of Force. Just as from the sun innumerable beams stream forth, so from the Diamond Soul rays of Wisdom radiate. Their collective manifestation is Akasha.
    
The human mind is compared to a mirror. It is a ray of the Shining Soul. The mirror would reflect the light, but the dust of false knowledge, the dirt of passions, the ashes of moral death, are allowed to cover the mirror. Nothing but knowledge of the Occult Science or the Esoteric Philosophy enables a man to brush away the dust and wash away the dirt and the earnest neophyte can use the very ashes of death to polish the mirror and make it reflect the True.
    
The beginner is advised to seek the process which will enable him to blend his Mind and Soul. In this process the exercise of self-examination plays an important part. It is said that ”one looking at his face reflected in a dirty mirror becomes anxious and opines,
 ‘I am he.‘”

When in self-examination we see our ugliness, viciousness and falsehoods, have we the courage born of intellectual honesty and moral probity to face them? If we have not, we shall fail. But if we say, ”Out of this ugliness beauty shall be created; out of this viciousness moral power shall arise; out of these falsehoods the voice of truth will be heard,” then the day of our redemption draweth nigh.
    
Theosophy is instinct with the grand Power of Masters' Ideation; in the recorded writings of H. P. Blavatsky, William Quan Judge and Robert Crosbie is to be found that Power, easily available for the men and women of this cycle. In these writings we must not merely seek information, or even instruction; we must try to tap the Power of the Great Ones enshrined in the records. And then we shall be able to appreciate the heart-pouring of the devoted disciple :–

        When I was blinded by the dark fiend of ignorance, Thou,
          a Lord! opened my eyes with the  stick of Wisdom.
          Salutations to Thee, a Master.

 B.P. WADIA

__________________________________________________________________

| till toppen av sidan |  till B P Wadia Online huvudindex  |   till ULTs hemsida   | 

Copyright © 1998-2014 Stiftelsen Teosofiska Kompaniet Malmö   
Uppdaterad 2014-03-23