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Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism434
be had through the Spiritual Mind as the consciousness unfolds so as to
admit its rays. Although a little ahead of that part of our subject, we think
it better to make the following statement in order that the student’s mind
may rest for a moment in the asking of the question that must inevitably
come after a consideration of the above eleven statements. The question
we mean is this, coming from Man: “And where am I in this Absolute and
Relative?” Or, as an American recently asked: “Where do I come in?” The
question will be taken up in our final lesson, but we have this to say here:
Man, as he seems to himself to-day, has within him both the Absolute; the
Relative. This is what we mean, he has within him, his Real Self, Spirit, which
is Absolute. This Spirit is surrounded with a mass of the Relative, viz.: (1)
Matter; (2) Energy or Force; (3) Mind. The Sanscrit terms for the above are:
Atman, meaning Spirit, or the Eternal Self; Akasa, meaning Matter, or the all
pervading material of the universe; Prana, meaning Force, Energy, etc., and
Chitta, meaning “Mind-substance.” The Yogi Philosophy teaches that these
four things are found in all things in the Universe of Universes. The Atman
or Spirit being the Reality, is present everywhere, in everything. But not in
the way of being shut off, or separate, or a piece allotted to every particular
object. It may be described as “brooding” over the Universe and being in,
under, around, and all about everything. We may speak (and we have in
these lessons), as Man having within him (or else, as “being”), a “drop from
the Ocean of Spirit; a Spark from the Divine Flame,” “a Ray from the Sun of
Spirit,” etc., but these are mere figures of speech, for there is no separation
of Spirit—there cannot be (see Statement viii). Instead of individual men
being like pearls having a bit of gold in their center, they are like pearls
strung upon a gold chain, the same chain being in and through each. This is a
most clumsy illustration, but may give a faint idea of the essential difference
between the two conceptions.
Each relative entity, or center of consciousness, or atom, or thing (call it
what you will), rests upon this golden chain of Spirit, is a point on that chain,
in fact. The pearls passing along the chain are composed of Matter (Akasa);