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The Floating Press - Annie Besant

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86 pages

English

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Annie Besant began her career as a political activist, working on issues such as suffrage, women's reproductive rights, and socialism. Along the way, she encountered the New Thought movement and developed a strong interest in spirituality. Within a few years, she had established herself as an international leader in the movement. This volume collects a series of lectures on the subject that Besant presented in London in 1907.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Philosophy of religion

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Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 décembre 2015
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781776596515
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0134€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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LONDON LECTURES OF 1907
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ANNIE BESANT

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London Lectures of 1907 First published in 1907 Epub ISBN 978-1-77659-651-5 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77659-652-2 © 2014 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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PART I Psychism and Spirituality The Place of Masters in Religions Theosophy and the Theosophical Society PART II The Place of Phenomena in the Theosophical Society Spiritual and Temporal Authority The Relation of the Masters to the Theosophical Society The Future of the Theosophical Society PART III The Value of Theosophy in the World of Thought PART IV The Field of Work of the Theosophical Society Endnotes
PART I
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Psychism and Spirituality
The Place of Masters in Religions
Theosophy and the Theosophical Society
Three public Lectures delivered in the smaller Queen's Hall,London, on 16th, 23rd, and 30th June 1907.
Psychism and Spirituality
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Our subject to-night consists of two words: psychism—spirituality. Iam going to speak to you on the subjects denoted by these two words,because there is so much confusion about them in ordinaryconversation, in ordinary literature, and out of that confusion muchof harm arises. People think of one thing and use the name of theother, and so continually fall into blunders and mislead others withwhom they talk. I want to-night to draw a sharp and intelligibledivision between psychism and spirituality; if possible, to explainvery clearly what each of them means; so that, thoroughlyunderstanding the meaning of the things, people may choose forthemselves which of the two they desire to evolve, or unfold, withinthemselves. For if a person, desiring to unfold the spiritual nature,uses the means which are only adapted for developing the psychicnature, disappointment, possibly danger, will result; while, on theother hand, if a person desires to develop the psychic nature, andthinks that he will reach that development quickly by unfolding hisspiritual powers, he also is equally doomed to disappointment; but inthe second case, only to disappointment for a time. For while it isnot true that the great psychic is necessarily a spiritual person, itis true that the great spiritual person is inevitably a psychic. Allthe powers of Nature are subject to the Spirit, and hence, when a manhas truly unfolded his spiritual nature, there is nothing in the lowerworld which is not open to him and obedient to his will. In thatsense, then, the man who follows the spiritual path will notultimately be disappointed if he is seeking psychic development, butthe very seeking for it will, on the spiritual path, act as a certainbarrier. I shall return to the point again presently, and show you inwhat sense, and why, it is true that the development of the psychicpowers may hinder the unfolding of the spiritual.
Now, to distinguish clearly between the two, I will begin with twobrief definitions. They will be expanded naturally in the course ofthe lecture, but I will define each of these two words in a singlesentence so as to make the definition clear and brief. Spirituality isthe Self-realisation of the One; psychism is the manifestation of thepowers of consciousness through organised matter. Each word of thatdefinition has its own value. We are far too apt, in our ordinarythought and talking, to limit the words "psychical," "psychic," or"psychism" in a quite illegitimate way, and the popular use of theterm is illegitimate. It is generally used amongst us to mean unusualmanifestations of the powers of consciousness, whereas, properlyspeaking, the word ought to cover every outer manifestation ofconsciousness, whether on the physical, on the astral, on the mental,or on the buddhic plane. It does not matter in what world youare moving, in what matter your consciousness is acting; so long asit is utilising organised matter for its own expression so long arethose manifestations psychic, and are properly included under the termpsychism. You may perhaps wonder why I lay stress on this. You willsee it at once if I remind you that unless we keep this definition inmind—accurate, legitimate as it is—we shall be making a divisionbetween the manifestation of the consciousness on the physical and onthe astral and mental planes, between its manifestation in thephysical and those in the astral and mental bodies; and if we do thatthe whole of our thought will be on mistaken lines. You needpractically to be pressed back to what you know of consciousness onthe physical plane, before you can thoroughly follow itsmanifestations on the astral and on the mental. If you try to separateoff manifestations which are the same in kind though differing indegree, according to the fineness of the matter which is employed, ifyou try to separate them off, you will always regard what you callpsychism—that is, astral and mental manifestations in the subtlerbodies—in an artificial and unwise manner. If, on the other hand, yourealise that consciousness is one, that its manifestation on any planeis conditioned by the matter of the plane, that it is one in essence,only varying in degree according to the lessening or the increase ofthe resistance of the matter of the planes, then you will not beinclined to take up exaggerated views with regard to what people areso fond of calling psychism. You will not denounce it in the foolishway of many people, because in denouncing it you will know that youdenounce all intellectual manifestations, an absurdity of which veryfew people are likely to be guilty; if you take your intellectualmanifestations in the physical world as admirable things, to be alwaysencouraged, strengthened, developed, then you will be compelled, byparity of reasoning, to understand that the manifestations of the sameconsciousness in finer matter, astral or mental, are equally worthy,and no more worthy, of development, of consideration. You will notfind yourself in the absurdly illogical position of declaring it agood thing to train the physical plane consciousness, while it isdangerous to cultivate the astral and mental plane consciousness. Youwill understand that all psychism is of the same kind, that on eachplane the development of psychism has its own laws; but that it isabsurd to admire the working of consciousness on the lower plane, andshrink from it as something dangerous, almost diabolical, when itappears on a plane higher than the physical.
It is this rational and common-sense view which I want to impress uponyou to-night, to get you out of the region of mystery, marvel, wonder,and fear, which to so many people surround what is called psychism; tomake you understand that you are unfolding consciousness, showing outyour powers on one plane after another according to the organisationand the fineness of the bodies in which your consciousness is working;and that if you will only keep your common sense and reason, if youwill only not allow yourself to be terrified by what at present isunusual, you may then walk along the psychic pathway in the astral ormental world, as resolutely, and with as great an absence of hysteria,as you walk along the psychic pathway in the physical world. That isthe general idea; and, of course, this is the meaning in which, afterall, the word is often used down here. When you say "psychology" youdo not mean only the workings of consciousness in astral and mentalbodies; you mean the whole consciousness of the man, the workings ofthe mind, wherever the mind is active; the whole of that you includeunder "psychology." Why, then, when you change its form, should younarrow it down, as though that which is mind on one plane is not alsomind on all planes on which the mind is able to function?
Now let us consider for a moment the workings of the mind on thephysical plane: they are familiar. There is, however, one importantpoint about them. In the materialistic science of the last century youhad very widely spread, amongst scientific men, the view that thoughtwas only the result of certain kinds of vibration in certain kinds ofmatter. I need not dwell on that. But you are aware that both inEngland, and more especially in France and Germany, most elaboratedisquisitions were written to prove that thought was only the productof nervous matter. You rarely, I think never, now find a well-trainedscientist prepared to commit himself to that position. Those whosurvive as representatives of that same school may do so, but they areliterally survivals. The mass of psychologists of to-day admit thatthe manifestations of mind cannot any longer be regarded as theresults of vibrations in the physical brain, that at least we must gobeyond these limitations when dealing with the results of the studyof consciousness, as it is now studied amongst scientific men. Theywill no longer, then, regard thought as the product of matter. Theycertainly will not be prepared to go as far as I now propose to go,and say that the thinking organism is the production of thought—thevery antithesis, you will agree, of the other position, but which isvital to the understanding of the unfolding of the powers ofconsciousness through matter. It is recognised in ordinary biologythat the function appears before the organ. There I am on safescientific ground. It is recognised that the exercise of the functiongradually builds up the organ. All the researches into the simplerforms of organisms go to prove that. It is also recognised that whenthe exercise of the function has built the organ