7rcTIX1xP

Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism444
twin folly of many metaphysicians and idealists, who would make of Matter
a base thing, a Devil, or even “Nothing.”
We did not intend to take you into the details regarding Akasa in this
lesson, but we may mention this much at this point. The essence or finest
principle of Akasa is of so fine a form of Matter that it cannot be sensed
by any except the highest form of intelligences—it is unknown to all except
the highly evolved souls who use this form of Akasa as a vehicle or body.
It is the thin veil of substance separating those advanced minds from the
Universal Mind, but there is no real separation, and such Minds are in the
closest contact with the Universal Mind. This form of Akasa is the highest
form of Matter—some Yogi writers call it “Matter Itself.” At the beginning
of the several great periods of life in the various parts of the Universe—
or in the various Universes, if you prefer the term—the only form of
Matter manifested is Akasa in its finest form. Then the Absolute, using its
manifestation of the Universal Mind, sets into operation Force, Energy or
Prana which plays upon, or acts upon, this Akasa, and causes it to become
each of the lower six forms of “ether” in succession. That is, causes it to send
forth a part of itself in those forms. Then, in succession it becomes manifested
in the shape of the finer vapors; gases; air; liquids; solids, etc., until there is a
manifestation of each form of Akasa from the highest (or Akasic Essence) to
the densest solid. At the end of a world cycle, or as it progresses toward its
end, there is a gradual “drawing in” of the forms of Akasa, the densest forms
disappearing, and being followed (after ages) by the next in line, until solids
disappear; then liquids; then gases and vapors; and so on until all Akasa is
drawn into itself, and only its essence, the principle of Akasa, remains, until
it is again set into motion at the beginning of a new cycle.
The attentive and thoughtful student may ask himself whether, by analogy,
he may not suppose that in some great Cosmic Cycle, there might not
come a time when the Akasa would be drawn into the Prana and the Prana
into the Chitta, and the Chitta into the Absolute itself. And whether the
statement that these things are manifestations of the Absolute manifestor,