The first of these topics will be made the object of the present chapter. I have,
then, taken place in my Sanctum in the Grand Lodge
of the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, after
conforming to the very simple rites of purification and, after an intense
visualization, I am at this moment in
the Cathedral of the Soul before the Master who grants me the privilege
of instructing me. My soul rejoices on noticing that today it is the Benevolent
Master who is there — not that I have any preference for him
(the adept of the eternal truths reveres all the Masters of knowledge to
the same degree), but he with whom I am now in spiritual attunement
always
impresses on my consciousness such a strong desire to understand in spite
of everything, and to love others unconditionally, that all my thoughts
and all my acts are powerfully influenced by him on my return to the
world. But the Benevolent Master is already addressing my attentive
soul:
-
"You have been told this, and I repeat it again: life is one, the
Cosmic is all, and
all
is in everything. You have learnt, through others,
that there is only one soul, the Universal Soul, which is, like life, an
attribute of the Cosmic. That means that the Cosmic includes life and
the
Universal Soul. So, in order to understand, the human intellect should
not 'differentiate', it should clothe everything in a single word 'Cosmic',
because the 'Cosmic' is the manifestation of the
'Supreme law on all planes. You may even - Consider things in this way:
God is energy, and the Cosmic is this energy in movement, in action,
taking innumerable forms or, if you wish, manifesting itself to infinity
in the visible and the invisible. Man calls 'laws' the manifestations
of
this energy which he is learning to know, to have an intimation of, or
to perceive, but these 'laws' are not secondary. They are a particular
effect
of the unique energy in action.
- "Since the Cosmic is all, and everything is in it, man is naturally in it, but so also is the animal, the plant, and everything that exists, and, as a ! result, life and the Universal Soul enter into the smallest fragment of creation. Life and the Universal Soul are consequently in man, certainly, but also in the most microscopic germs and, of course, in grain, plant, and animal. What man calls 'inanimate' thus also possesses a soul and life, and it would thus be much more suitable not to distinguish beings and things as 'animate' or inanimate' but simply between 'endowed with movement' and 'inert'. But give me all your attention so that you will not commit an error and not arrive at false conclusions. Everything lives and everything has a soul from the Cosmic point of view; that does not mean that everything has consciousness, that each being or each thing is conscious of self and thus has a soul-characteristic personality. Personality is developed in the breast of the Universal Soul in the course of its manifestation in beings and things. It is very evident that in rock, for example, 'personality' is not created, properly speaking, because the rock does not meet any experience which permits it to know itself, 'to have consciousness of self. In vegetable life, on the other hand, a form of consciousness begins to develop, to an infinitesimal degree, obviously, and varying with the quality of the plants. That is what concerns the inert, and I will add on this subject that this 'inert' is, in a certain measure, influenced by its environment and by man. There exists a form of collective aura for each 'kingdom' and this aura, of a vibratory nature as you know, comes under the influence of the aura of other 'kingdoms', especially of higher kingdoms. This influence may even be individual. You are aware that some plants 'love' those who take care of them.
- "On the other hand, we have beings endowed with movement; the microbe itself is 0ne. There also a form of consciousness develops, infinitesimal or much more advanced. It is wrong to call this form of consciousness 'instinct' because if this term is used, one should also use it to refer to man, in whom certain 'reactions, are y visibly due to the attributes of his species (or 'kingdom), and are, because of that, common to both. Nevertheless, just as some men are more developed than others, with a greater consciousness, likewise the form of consciousness in some beings endowed with movement varies in degree, partly with the species and partly within each Species. Whatever it may be, a 'personality' is formed in the breast of the Universal Soul embodied in beings endowed with movement, and this personality begins a cycle of evolution of thousands of years which will be fulfilled in man and will then carry on in man its new evolutionary stage because, having arrived at the human stage, there is no longer any return for the soul-characteristic personality.
Having
decided to seek the light that the Cathedral of the Soul can give on this
question, I planned the
precise limits which my visualization should assume in order to be
assured of success in my Cosmic contacts on this subject, and I came to the
conclusion that three 'topics' would again be necessary: The first would
deal definitely with 'the soul of animals';
the second would treat of 'successive lives'; and the third would concern
'the Law of Compensation or Karma'.
