Five Years of Theosophy | Page 8

"gross" being the
criterion for those to be last abandoned in each case)--must be carried
on the moral purification.
Nor must it be imagined that "austerities" as commonly understood can,
in the majority of cases, avail much to hasten the "etherealizing"
process. That is the rock on which many of the Eastern esoteric sects
have foundered, and the reason why they have degenerated into
degrading superstitions. The Western monks and the Eastern Yogees,
who think they will reach the apex of powers by concentrating their
thought on their navel, or by standing on one leg, are practicing
exercises which serve no other purpose than to strengthen the
willpower, which is sometimes applied to the basest purposes. These
are examples of this one-sided and dwarf development. It is no use to
fast as long as you require food. The ceasing of desire for food without
impairment of health is the sign which indicates that it should be taken
in lesser and ever decreasing quantities until the extreme limit
compatible with life is reached. A stage will be finally attained where
only water will be required.
Nor is it of any use for this particular purpose of longevity to abstain
from immorality so long as you are craving for it in your heart; and so
on with all other unsatisfied inward cravings. To get rid of the inward
desire is the essential thing, and to mimic the real thing without it is
barefaced hypocrisy and useless slavery.
So it must be with the moral purification of the heart. The "basest"
inclinations must go first--then the others. First avarice, then fear, then
envy, worldly pride, uncharitableness, hatred; last of all ambition and

curiosity must be abandoned successively. The strengthening of the
more ethereal and so-called "spiritual" parts of the man must go on at
the same time. Reasoning from the known to the unknown, meditation
must be practiced and encouraged. Meditation is the inexpressible
yearning of the inner Man to "go out towards the infinite," which in the
olden time was the real meaning of adoration, but which has now no
synonym in the European languages, because the thing no longer exists
in the West, and its name has been vulgarized to the make-believe
shams known as prayer, glorification, and repentance. Through all
stages of training the equilibrium of the consciousness--the assurance
that all must be right in the Kosmos, and therefore with you a portion
of it--must be retained. The process of life must not be hurried but
retarded, if possible; to do otherwise may do good to others-- perhaps
even to yourself in other spheres, but it will hasten your dissolution in
this.
Nor must the externals be neglected in this first stage. Remember that
an adept, though "existing" so as to convey to ordinary minds the idea
of his being immortal, is not also invulnerable to agencies from without.
The training to prolong life does not, in itself, secure one from
accidents. As far as any physical preparation goes, the sword may still
cut, the disease enter, the poison disarrange. This case is very clearly
and beautifully put in "Zanoni," and it is correctly put and must be so,
unless all "adeptism" is a baseless lie. The adept may be more secure
from ordinary dangers than the common mortal, but he is so by virtue
of the superior knowledge, calmness, coolness and penetration which
his lengthened existence and its necessary concomitants have enabled
him to acquire; not by virtue of any preservative power in the process
itself. He is secure as a man armed with a rifle is more secure than a
naked baboon; not secure in the sense in which the deva (god) was
supposed to be securer than a man.
If this is so in the case of the high adept, how much more necessary is it
that the neophyte should be not only protected but that he himself
should use all possible means to ensure for himself the necessary
duration of life to complete the process of mastering the phenomena we
call death! It may be said, why do not the higher adepts protect him?

Perhaps they do to some extent, but the child must learn to walk alone;
to make him independent of his own efforts in respect to safety, would
be destroying one element necessary to his development--the sense of
responsibility. What courage or conduct would be called for in a man
sent to fight when armed with irresistible weapons and clothed in
impenetrable armour? Hence the neophyte should endeavour, as far as
possible, to fulfill every true canon of sanitary law as laid down by
modern scientists. Pure air, pure water, pure food, gentle exercise,
regular hours, pleasant occupations and surroundings, are all, if not
indispensable, at least serviceable to his progress. It is to secure