Cosmic Consciousness | Page 6

this earth will know
freedom from strife and suffering. Even the elements which have
hitherto been regarded as beyond the boundaries of man's will, may be
completely controlled; not may be, but will be. Manual labor will cease.
National Eugenic societies will put a stop to war, when they come to
the inevitable conclusion, that no race can by any possibility be
improved, while the most perfect physical species are reserved for
armies.

Awakening woman will refuse--indeed they are now refusing--to bear
children to be shot down in warfare, and crushed under the juggernaut
of commercial competition.
Those who realize the signs of the times, look for the birth of cosmic
consciousness as a race-consciousness, foreshadowing the new day; the
"second coming of Christ," not as a personal, vicarious sacrifice, but as
a factor in human attainment.
"For I am persuaded," said St. Paul, "that neither death nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to
separate us from the love of God."
If we interpret this in the light of cosmic consciousness, we realize that
we shall know, and experience that boundless, deathless, perfect,
satisfying, complete and all-embracing love which is the goal of
immortality; which is an attribute (we may say the one attribute) of
God.
We are not looking for the birth of a Christ-child, but of the
Christ-child; we are not looking for a second coming of a man who
shall be as Jesus was, but we are anticipating the coming of the man
(homo), who shall be cosmically conscious, even as was Jesus of
Nazareth; as was Guatama, the Buddha.
That there may be one man and one woman who shall first achieve this
consciousness and realization is barely possible, but the preponderance
of evidence is for a more general awakening to the light of
Illumination.
"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the twinkling of
an eye," said St. Paul.
The prophecy of "the woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon
under her feet," is not of a woman, but of Woman, in the light of a race
of men who have attained cosmic consciousness.
Nothing more is needed to make a heaven of earth, than that the great
light and love that comes of Illumination, shall become dominant.
It will solve all problems, because problems arise only because we are
groping in the dark. The elimination of selfishness; of condemnation;
of fear and anger, and doubt, must have far greater power for universal
happiness and well-being than all the systems which theology or
science or politics could devise. Indeed, all these systems are sporadic

and empirical attempts to express the vague dawning of Illumination.
In the fullness of its light, the need for systems will have passed away.

CHAPTER I
THE NEW BIRTH: WHAT IT IS: INSTANCES DESCRIBED
The chief difference between the religions and the philosophies of the
Orient and those of the Occident, lies in the fact that the Oriental
systems, methods, and practices, emphasize the assumption that the
goal of these efforts, is attainable at any moment, as it were.
That is, Oriental religion--speaking in the broad sense--teaches that the
disciple need not wait for the experience called death to liberate the
Self, the atman, from the enchantment or delusion, the maya, of the
external world. Indeed, the Oriental devotee well knows that physical
death, mrityu, is not a guarantee of liberation; does not necessarily
bring with it immortality.
He well recognizes that physical death is but a procedure in existence.
Death does not of itself, change the condition of maya, in which the
disciple is bound until such a time, as he has earned liberation--mukti,
which condition may be defined as immunity from further incarnation.
Immortality is our rightful heritage but it must be claimed,--yea, it must
be earned.
It is a mistake to imagine that death makes man immortal. Immortality
is an attribute of the gods. But since all souls possess a spark of the
divine essence of Brahman (The Absolute), mukti may be attained by
earnest seeking, and thus immortality be realized.
This condition of awakening, is variously named among Oriental sages
and chelas, such for instance as glimpsing the _Brahmic splendor;
mutki; samadhi; moksha; entering Nirvana_; becoming "_twice-born_."
In recent years there have come to light in the Occident a number of

instances of the attainment of this state, and these have been described
as "cosmic consciousness;" "illumination;" "liberation;" the "baptism of
the Holy Ghost;" and becoming "immersed in the great white light."
Baptism, which is a ceremony very generally incorporated into
religious systems, is a symbol of this esoteric truth, namely the
necessity for Illumination in order that the soul may be