Cosmic Consciousness

ries, than of European. The long night through which the earth passed during that time and since, but foreshadowed a coming dawn. In the still very imperfect light o

icity of Truth causes

penetrating power of spiritual insight, there seems to be a great complexity in Oriental philos

tal students, is the problem of the preservation, of the Self, and t

ire consciousness and

study, we find the oft-repeated declaration that liberation can never be

hich has given rise to the erroneous concept

y must "absorb the self into the whole, the cosmos, if they would never die," and

tion and death because of his espousal of Christianity, would be rewarded in th

onal self; it is far from being consisten

his own possessions were the price therefore, can not lose his life. Such a one is fit for immortality

awareness of this kind of selfhood, this personal self, is like looking at one's reflection in the mirror and saying, "Ah, I have on a becoming attire," or "my face looks sickly to-day." It is the same "I" that looked yesterday and fo

self blocks the way of Illumination which uncovers

difference of interpretation as to the meaning of mukti, liberation. It sounds paradoxical to s

ion into a state of bliss." How may the Self realize a state of

, can correctly answer this question, and by what may be term

he might gain the higher, fuller life, his sacrifice would be in vain because it wou

or punishment, or that it was devised by the gods, as a method of initiation-a test of fit

d analysis of the way and wherefro

ances of liberation (cosmic consciousness attained), been vague, but they have necessarily suffered from the impossibility of describing that which is indescri

best but cl

is voiceless

s nothing is excluded. Exclusiveness is a concomitant of the state of consciousness pertinent to the personal self, which state is not excluded from the consciousness described a

long as there is water in it. When the water is evaporated it ceases to make further noise. The soul of the seeker after Brahman may be compared to fresh butter. Discussions and argumentations of a seeker are like the noise caused duri

of the word "noise" w

dition in which the soul becomes an?sthetized as it were, but a state of know

better expresses

ney. As soon as it tastes of the honey all buzzing is at an end. Similarly all noise of discussion ceases wh

sfied when he has found and drank of the h

though we were as "like as two peas in a pod," it is well to note that the two peas are

mon effort to establish harmony, while we permit to each individual the freedom of mind; of tast

mean an absorption into the Universal, the Absolute, Brahm, to the extent of annihilation of identity. And we claim that this

na, the Bud

food, and also the passion due to that taste; while he who is f

nd logical interpretation, means a calm and peaceful consciousness, undisturbed by passion. But we shoul

f Buddha, nor can there be. The same is true of Confucius; of Mohammed; of Kr

iscussions as to what even so modern a writer as Emerson or Whitman, or N

yutta Nika

Self clear, keep that S

it has been so interpreted by many students. On the contrary, instead of losing co

ss. We cannot acquire consciousness as we accumulate things. We can not add one iota to the sum of co

he Dha

fe from afar; in like manner his good deeds receive him who has done good, and who

except that good deeds in themselves bring happiness, but if the bringing of happiness did not also bring with it a lar

f the universe; to the boundaries of time and space; that shall lift you up into a new plane far beyond, outside all mean and miserable care for self. Why stand shrinking there? Give up the fool's paradise of 'This i

and since this assurance of union is further described as an enlargement of the horizon of your being, it is evident that your being can not be enlarged by becoming annihilated, or even absorbed into The Absol

sorption of consciousness far beyond this s

d this plane, or place, is inhabited by "gods," for a definite period, approximating thousands of years, but that the final conclusion must be, absorption of identity into the universal reservoir of mind, or consciousness. But we may readily see that beyo

tes of consciousness. That is, the devious pathway by which the advanced and progressive individual has reached his present state or realization of consciousness, is shrouded in oblivion. From this it is not unnatu

omprehension, and may or may not be true. The answer is as yet inexplica

ss, we still maintain that this fact would not be proof sufficient upon which to postulate this conclusion, for the very obvious reason that the present era promises w

stones and debris in the catches; even so that which is infinitely fine substance becomes lost

e Absolute, as is frequently understood by Occidental translators of Buddhistic writings, announces a calm and unquestioning conviction in

at these vary, even as the Christian sects vary in their interpretations and presentments of the instructions of the Master, Jesus of Nazareth,

aders through devious ways, namely, from the Sanskrit into Chinese, and from the Chinese

us experiences, or what modern thought terms Metaphysics. Only within very recent times, appr

have made this a necessity, while, when it comes to an attempt at clarifying t

essing his s

here my father is, lay it reverently before

that all Oriental languages give power to gems, perfumes and talismanic symbols. This fact makes direct translation of Oriental

ling of affection, and say that I, to escape from birth and

of bitterness, but Only that I may escape this weight of sorrow; the accumulated long-night weight of covetous desi

ove. O grieve not for your son. The five desires of sense beget the sorrow; those held by lust themselves induce sorrow; my ver

of Oriental monarchs, the young prince felt that he had inherited much that would retard his soul's freedom. The examples of kings and

ned their vested rights bequeathing to their progeny the same desires; the same covetousness of world

Eternal Oneness of life, was no easy task for the inheritor of suc

scape reincarnation-a theory or convic

he fleeting joy of a few short earthly years of companionship, while the larger and more perfect love would bi

ogically be interpreted to mean, that liberation from the hypnotisms of externality (mukti) insures the possession and power of the gods-power over physical life and

ct that Buddha, like many of the Oriental Masters, sought the seclusion of the forest; the isolation, and simplicity of the hermit,-has given rise to the

t of sacrifice or punishment. The Christian monk almost invariably retires to a monastery, not for the purpose of consciously attaining to that enlarged area of consciousness which insures liberation, mukti, but as an "outwa

d-Gita, we fin

better than renunciation of action. He who is harmonized by yoga, the self-purified, self-ruled, the s

eternal, abandoning attachment, is unaffec

n as, among an audience of ten thousand persons, we may find almost a

ve friends, relatives, and lovers, abandoning them as one would abandon

cept this in

emies is equivalent to leaving one's companions on a sinking raft and,

than love of each other. "Greater love hath no man

e distrusted, if that philosophy prescribes the abandonment of lover, friend, relative, neighbor, brother,

n avatar

tating to say that until all human life shall accept and realize the fullness of th

hat the Oriental doctrine is

h the idea of sacrifice (using the word in its old sense of paying a debt), which prevailed throughout all the cent

he Illumined One said was a "new commandment," and

give unto you, that

much or little, according as the soul is

desires not possession, but union. There is

s man, and free from

kris

and by regarding the effect as the real, instead of realizing the incompleten

tisfying, while the soul that has caught a glimpse of that won

tainty, all who have experienced the consciousness we are consi