“self-knowledge,” is that the knowledge obtained in our schools is
exclusively of an artificial kind. We read that which other men have
believed and known and we imagine we know it. We fill our minds with
the thoughts of others and find little time to think for ourselves.
We seek to arrive at a conviction of the existence of this or that
object by means of arguments and inferences, while we refuse to open
our eyes and to see ourselves the very thing about whose existence we
argue. Thus from a theosophical point of view we should appear to a
higher being like a nation of people with closed eyes arguing about
the existence of the sun and unable or unwilling to look at it for
ourselves.
There is only one way to arrive at real self-knowledge, and this is
_Experience_. By external experience we attain knowledge of external
circumstances; by experiencing internal powers we attain internal
knowledge of them. _To know_ in reality means _to be_. By becoming
material we learn the laws ruling in matter; by becoming spiritual we
learn the laws of the spirit; our will is free to guide us in either
direction. We cannot know truth in any other way than by becoming
true, nor wisdom except by becoming wise. We can know any external
or internal power, be it heat or light, love or justice, only by the
effects which we experience from its action upon or within our own self.
Man’s life in his present condition resembles a dream, and the dreams
of humanity as a whole, no less than those of the individual, repeat
themselves over and over again. They come and go and come again,
appearing perhaps in changed forms, like clouds floating upon the sky
and assuming different shapes, but representing the old, ever-returning
illusions. While above them, unseen and unknown, shines the sunlight
of eternal, unchanging truth, whose presence may be felt like the warm
rays of the sun penetrating the clouds, but which to be known requires
to be seen. The temple of nature is open to everyone who is able to
enter; its light is free to everyone who is able to see; everything
is a manifestation of truth, but it requires the presence of truth
in ourselves to enable us to perceive it. That which hinders us from
entering the temple of nature, from seeing the light and perceiving the
truth, are the shadows which we ourselves have created. The real object
of the lights kindled by science is not to reveal the truth—which
requires no artificial light to be seen, and whose own light is quite
sufficient for that purpose—but to destroy the fogs which hinder us
from seeing the truth. No one would think of examining the sun by
the light of a candle; but the candle-light may guide us through the
dark passages of the labyrinth of matter to the door which opens upon
the surface, where after the daylight is seen, artificial help is no
longer required. But as in seeking our way through a tunnel the best
guide is the light that shines from afar through the entrance, so a
perception of truth in the heart is the only reliable guiding star in
the labyrinth of ever-changing illusions.
All the scientific lights in which this light of eternal truth
is not reflected, however radiant they may be, are only so many
will-o’-the-wisps misleading the wanderer. All scientific theories
and hypotheses based upon a non-recognition of the inner constitution
of man and denying his super-terrestrial origin are founded on a
misconception of truth. Such opinions are continually subject to
change, and no new theory of that kind exists at present which has
not existed in some similar shape before. But the truth itself is
independent of these opinions, it has always existed and there have
always been some who were capable of recognising it, and others
who, unwilling or unable to see it, based their knowledge upon
misconceptions and superstitious beliefs founded upon other men’s
assertions.
Modern medical science, with all its modern aids and paraphernalia,
has only succeeded in working itself up to a more detailed knowledge
of some less important phenomena in the kingdom of matter; while a
great number of far more important things that were known to the
ancients have been forgotten. As to the power of the soul over the
body, tremendous as it is, almost nothing is known; because the souls
of those who live entirely in the kingdom of speculations evolved by
their brain, are asleep and unconscious. An unconscious soul can no
more exert any power than an unconscious body; its motions can at best
be instinctive, because deprived of the light of intelligence. It is
far more important to the progress of real science that the soul of man
should awaken to a recognition of its own higher nature, than that the
treasures of a science dealing with the illusions of life should be
enriched by any new theories in which there is no recognition of the
one foundation of truth. All that any sound theory or any reliable book
can possibly do, is to displace a false theory which prevents man from
seeing correctly; but the truth itself can be exhibited or revealed
by no man and no theory, it can be seen only by the eye of the true
understanding, when it reveals itself in its own light.
It has been said that it is not within the reach of science to enter
the realm of noumena which underlie all phenomena and are their cause
of manifestation; but without a recognition of the _noumenon_ from
which all phenomena spring, a true science (from _scio_, to know)
will be as impossible as a system of mathematics with an ignoring
of the existence of the number _one_ from which all other numbers
take their origin and without which no number exists. The soul in
us is fundamentally identical with the One from which all phenomena
originate. The soul which _is_ can know that which is, while that in
us which merely _appears_ to be belongs to and deals with the realm of
appearances.
The acquisition of this higher science therefore requires less an
exertion of the speculative faculties of the brain than an awakening of
the soul; is advanced less by an evolution of thoughts of various kinds
than by the development of the inner man who is doing the thinking and
causing the evolution of thoughts, for if that which is able to know in
man does not know its own self, all the thoughts and ideas inhabiting
the sphere of man’s mind will have no legitimate owner, but exist there
merely as the reflections of the thoughts of other men, gathered around
an illusion called the personal self.
The more the mind analyses a thing and enters into its minor details
the easier does it lose sight of the whole; the more man’s attention
is divided into many parts, the more will he step out of his own
unity and become complicated himself. Only a great and strong spirit
can remain dwelling within its own self-consciousness, and, like the
sun, which shines into many things without becoming absorbed by them,
looks into the minor details of phenomena without losing sight of the
truth which includes the whole. The most simple truths are usually
the ones which are the most difficult to be grasped by the learned,
because the perception of a simple truth requires a simple mind. In
the kaleidoscope of ever-varying phenomena the underlying truth cannot
be seen upon the surface. As the intellect becomes more and more
immersed in matter, the eye of the spirit becomes closed; truths which
in times of old were self-evident have now been forgotten, and even
the meaning of the terms signifying spiritual powers has become lost
in proportion as mankind has ceased to exercise these powers. Owing to
the conceit of our age of selfishness, which seeks to drag spiritual
truths down to the scientific conception of a narrow-sighted animal
rationalism, instead of rising up to their level, the character of
modern popular science is shown in the amount of cleverness with which
illusory self-interests are protected; “faith,” the all-saving power
of spiritual knowledge, is believed to be superstition; “benevolence”
folly, “love” means selfish desires, “hope” is now greed, “life” the
creation of a mechanical process, “soul” a term without meaning,
“spirit” a nonentity, “matter” a thing of which nothing is known, etc.
All this has been written to no purpose, if we have not succeeded in
making it clear that real progress in the knowledge of human nature is
only possible by means of a higher development of the inner nature of
the physician himself. No one can attain any real knowledge of man’s
higher state unless he attains to it himself by purity of motive and
nobility of character. Only by recognising his body as a vehicle for
the development and manifestation of a superior intelligence will he be
able to realise the meaning of the words of Carlyle, who tells us that
man in his innermost nature is a divine being, and that whoever puts
his hand upon a human form touches heaven.
Wisdom must be the Master, science the servant. Science is the handmaid
of wisdom; wisdom the queen. Science is a product of man’s imagination;
wisdom the spiritual recognition of truth. Material science is a
product of the essentially selfish desire to know; wisdom recognises no
separation of interests, it is the self-recognition of universal and
eternal truth in man. Science, guided by wisdom, can enter into the
deepest mysteries of universal being by entering into the Unity of the
All; but if science attempts to employ wisdom for the gratification
of curiosity or other selfish ends, it is in opposition to wisdom and
becomes folly. Therefore a favourite motto of the ancient Rosicrucians
(of which Theophrastus Paracelsus was one), but which is understood by
only a few, said: “_I know nothing, I desire nothing, I love nothing,
I enjoy nothing in heaven or upon the earth but Jesus Christ and him
crucified._” This did not mean that they resolved to remain ignorant,
or to lose themselves in pious reveries and dreams of past events, for
Paracelsus also said: “God does not desire us to be ignorant blockheads
and stupid fools”—but it meant that they had given up the whole of the
illusion of self with all its necessarily illusive knowledge, desires,
attractions and joys, and entered into the consciousness of that divine
intelligence which during this earth-life is as it were crucified in
man, and by entering into the higher spiritual state they had become
one with Him, who is Himself the Truth in themselves and the source of
all knowledge in heaven and upon the earth.
Forever the truth shines in the eternal kingdom of Light but the world
of mind wherein our terrestrial nature moves, has its astrological
laws, comparable to those that rule in the visible world and are
known to astronomy. As the earth recedes from the sun in winter time
and approaches it in the summer, so the spiritual evolution of man
has its periods of spiritual enlightenment and of mental darkness,
and there are little periods within the large periods, as here are
days and nights in the year. Man, whether considered as representing
humanity as a whole, a nation a people, a family, or an individual,
resembles a planet revolving around its own axis between the two poles
of birth and decay. That which is uppermost turns down and that which
is below rises again to the surface. Truths disappear and are forgotten
only to reappear again embodied in new and perhaps improved forms.
Civilizations, systems of philosophy, religion and science come and go
and come again, the absurdities of fashion that have been the pride
of our parents and were laughed at by us become again the objects of
admiration for our children, and the forgotten wisdom of the past will
be again the wisdom of future generations. Thus the wheel would ever
revolve in a circle, there would be no progress and no object of life,
if the presence of the eternal sun of Divine Wisdom acting upon the
centre of the wheel did not attract it towards itself and thus in the
course of ages gradually transform the circular motion into a spiral
gyration. At every turn of the great wheel its axis moves imperceptibly
a little nearer to the source of all Life, although every period of
evolution begins again at the foot of the ladder. The ladder upon which
we are climbing stands perhaps upon a little higher ground than the one
upon which our ancestors climbed, or which we climbed ourselves during
previous incarnations; but there are many steps upon it which our
forefathers have ascended and which we shall have to reach. The science
of medicine forms no exception to this general rule, and we may safely
assert that _the system of medicine of Theophrastus Paracelsus, in its
recognition of fundamental laws of nature is of such a high character
that it will be for the medical science of the coming centuries to grow
up to its understanding_, nor will this advance in science be possible
without a corresponding development, and this development will be
inaugurated by a correct conception of the constitution of man.
While modern medical science has become degraded almost into a mere
trade, flourishing under the protection of its self-interests which
it receives from Governments, the medicine of the ancients was a holy
art, requiring no artificial protection, because, standing upon its
own merit, it rested upon its own success. The adept-physicians of
the past performed cures which whenever exceptionally performed at
present are called miraculous, and their possibility is denied by the
majority of the learned; because they are not in possession of the
spiritual powers required for their accomplishment, and consequently
cannot conceive of the existence of such powers. Where is the
physician of the present day who knows the extent of the power of the
spiritually-awakened will acting at a distance of thousands of miles,
or the power which human thought can exercise over the imagination of
nature? Where is the professor of science who can consciously transfer
his soul to a distant place by the power of thought and act there as
if he were bodily present? The proof that these things have been done
and are done even now is established as much as any other fact resting
upon observation and logic; nevertheless it is popularly considered
“scientific” to deny such facts and to treat the theory which explains
them with contempt. The finer forces of nature are so thoroughly
unknown to gross material minds that to mention their existence raises
a roar of merriment among those who, being ignorant of the extent of
the powers hidden in the constitution of man, require a sledge-hammer
to kill a fly and a cannon to shoot at a sparrow.
While the eyes of material science are directed downwards, seeking
within the bowels of matter and finding only perishing treasures,
the sentimental idealist revels in dreams without substance. Being
habituated to objective contemplation, the idealist obtains nothing
real; for keeping distant from the object of his research for the
purpose of seeing it objectively, he prevents himself from becoming
identified with that object, and he cannot have any self-knowledge of
that which he is not himself. Neither can the materialist who denies
the existence of Spirit in the universe have any real knowledge, for
he ignores that which alone is real and deals only with the relations
existing between phenomena which the unknown spirit produces.
Real knowledge such as is the product not of mere knowing, but of
_becoming_, ought to be the basis of all true science. This it is which
constitutes that _Theosophia or Self-recognition of Truth_, which will
be the guiding star of the physician in the future as it has been in
the past.
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FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: _Jacob Boehme_ says: “If an essence (a form of
will-substance) enters into another whose nature is of a different
character, an antagonism is created and a strife for supremacy ensues.
One quality disrupts the other, which ultimately causes the death of
the form; for whatever is not in harmony cannot live eternally; but
whatever is in perfect harmony has no elements of destruction within
itself; for in such an organism all the elements love each other, and
love is the creator and preserver of life.”—“Mysterium magnum,” xxi. 5.]
[Footnote 2: Let it be clearly understood that by using the term
“religious” we do not refer to any of the existing systems of religious
doctrines or forms of worship; but to the spiritual recognition of
divine truth.]
[Footnote 3: The order here adopted is to facilitate the comparison
with the above given classification; the planets not being stationary,
but shifting their positions and significations according to the
aspects we take.]
[Footnote 4: Even of his cotemporaneous disciples there were few
capable of grasping his ideas and of leading the life necessary for
that purpose. He says: “Twenty-one of my servants have become victims
of the executioner (the spirit of this world); Gode may help them! Only
a few have thus far remained with me.” (“Defensio,” VI.)]
[Footnote 5: See “The Life of Theophrastus Paracelsus,” London, 1887.]
[Footnote 6: This is not correct; Paracelsus says: “The anatomy of man
is twofold. One aspect consists in dissecting the body, so as to find
out the position of its bones, muscles, veins, &c.; but this is the
least important; the other is more important, and means to introduce
a new life into the human organism; to see the transmutations taking
place therein, to know what the blood is and what kind of {symbol},
{symbol} and {symbol} (Sulphur, Salt and Mercury) it contains.”
(“Paramirum,” Lib. I. Cap. 6.)]
[Footnote 7: Prof. Rud. Virchow’s lecture on Pathology, delivered in
London, March 6th, 1893.]
[Footnote 8: The word “contemplation”—from _con_=with, and
_templum_=temple—means evidently not mere objective observation,
but an indwelling in the same temple with the truth which is to be
known, an identification of subject and object in the light of divine
wisdom, the temple of truth. The attainment of knowledge by such a
contemplation is only possible for those whose spiritual perception
is open. A blind person may dwell forever in the temple of truth
without being able to know it. To those who by an unfoldment of their
spirituality have attained this power of contemplation, its sufficiency
for the attainment of spiritual knowledge is self-evident and requires
no arguments. Those who do not possess this power will find it
difficult to understand the meaning of this term, and suppose it to be
imagination.]
[Footnote 9: Herder.]