Five Years of Theosophy | Page 7

man more self-denying and philosophical. And
it may be mentioned that all sense of restraint--even if self-imposed--is
useless. Not only is all "goodness" that results from the compulsion of
physical force, threats, or bribes (whether of a physical or so-called
"spiritual" nature) absolutely useless to the person who exhibits it, its
hypocrisy tending to poison the moral atmosphere of the world, but the
desire to be "good" or "pure," to be efficacious must be spontaneous. It
must be a self-impulse from within, a real preference for something
higher, not an abstention from vice because of fear of the law: not a
chastity enforced by the dread of Public Opinion; not a benevolence
exercised through love of praise or dread of consequences in a
hypothetical Future Life.*
---------- * Col. Olcott clearly and succinctly explains the Buddhist
doctrine of Merit or Karma, in his "Buddhist Catechism." (Question
83).--G.M. ----------
It will be seen now in connection with the doctrine of the tendency to
the renewal of action, before discussed, that the course of
self-discipline recommended as the only road to Longevity by
Occultism is not a "visionary" theory dealing with vague "ideas," but
actually a scientifically devised system of drill. It is a system by which
each particle of the several men composing the septenary individual
receives an impulse, and a habit of doing what is necessary for certain
purposes of its own free-will and with "pleasure." Every one must be
practiced and perfect in a thing to do it with pleasure. This rule
especially applies to the case of the development of Man. "Virtue" may
be very good in its way--it may lead to the grandest results. But to
become efficacious it has to be practiced cheerfully not with reluctance
or pain. As a consequence of the above consideration the candidate for

Longevity at the commencement of his career must begin to eschew his
physical desires, not from any sentimental theory of right or wrong, but
for the following good reason. As, according to a well-known and now
established scientific theory, his visible material frame is always
renewing its particles; he will, while abstaining from the gratification
of his desires, reach the end of a certain period during which those
particles which composed the man of vice, and which were given a bad
predisposition, will have departed. At the same time, the disuse of such
functions will tend to obstruct the entry, in place of the old particles, of
new particles having a tendency to repeat the said acts. And while this
is the particular result as regards certain "vices," the general result of an
abstention from "gross" acts will be (by a modification of the
well-known Darwinian law of atrophy by non-usage) to diminish what
we may call the "relative" density and coherence of the outer shell (as a
result of its less-used molecules); while the diminution in the quantity
of its actual constituents will he "made up" (if tried by scales and
weights) by the increased admission of more ethereal particles.
What physical desires are to be abandoned and in what order? First and
foremost, he must give up alcohol in all forms; for while it supplies no
nourishment, nor any direct pleasure (beyond such sweetness or
fragrance as may be gained in the taste of wine, &c., to which alcohol,
in itself, is non-essential) to even the grossest elements of the
"physical" frame, it induces a violence of action, a rush so to speak, of
life, the stress of which can only be sustained by very dull, gross, and
dense elements, and which, by the operation of the well-known law of
Re-action (in commercial phrase, "supply and demand") tends to
summon them from the surrounding universe, and therefore directly
counteracts the object we have in view.
Next comes meat-eating, and for the very same reason, in a minor
degree. It increases the rapidity of life, the energy of action, the
violence of passions. It may be good for a hero who has to fight and die,
but not for a would-be sage who has to exist and....
Next in order come the sexual desires; for these, in addition to the great
diversion of energy (vital force) into other channels, in many different

ways, beyond the primary one (as, for instance, the waste of energy in
expectation, jealousy, &c.), are direct attractions to a certain gross
quality of the original matter of the Universe, simply because the most
pleasurable physical sensations are only possible at that stage of density.
Alongside with and extending beyond all these and other gratifications
of the senses (which include not only those things usually known as
"vicious," but all those which, though ordinarily regarded as
"innocent," have yet the disqualification of ministering to the pleasures
of the body--the most harmless to others and the least