The Doctrine of the Heart · 1

Learn to discern the real from the false, the ever-fleeting from the everlasting. Learn, above all, to separate Head-learning from Soul-wisdom, the "Eye" from the "Heart" Doctrine- Voice of the Silence

Extracts from Hindu Letters with a foreword-- BY-- ANNIE BESANT AS PUBLISHED BY THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE IN ADYAR, MADRAS in 1920

FOREWORD

FOREWORD

1. Under the title of THE DOCTRINE OF THE HEART are here printed a series of papers, consisting chiefly of extracts of letters received from Indian friends. They are not given as being of any "authority", but merely as containing thoughts that some of us have found helpful and that we wish to share with others. They are intended only for those who are resolutely seeking to live the Higher Life, and are addressed to those especially who know that this life leads to a definite entering on the Path of Discipleship under the Great Ones who trod it in the past, and who remain on earth to help others to tread it in their turn. The thoughts in these letters are thoughts that belong to all religions, but the phrases and the sentiment are Indian. The devotion is of that noble and intense kind known in the East as Bahkti- the devotion that surrenders itself wholly and unreservedly to God and to the Divine Man through whom God is manifest in the flesh to the devotee. This Bhakti has nowhere found more perfect expression than in Hinduism, and the writers of these letters are Hindus, accustomed to the luxuriant richness of the Sanskrit,and tuning the harsher English into some faint harmony with the poetical sweetness of their mother-tongue. The chill and reserved dignity of the Anglo-Saxon and his emotional reticence are wholly alien from the outflowing of religious feeling that wells up from the Eastern heart as naturally as song from the lark. Here and there in the West we find a true Bhakta (devotee), such as S.Thomas à Kempis, S.Theresa, S. John of the Cross, S.Francis of Assisi, S.Elizabeth of Hungary. But for the most part, religious feeling in the West, however deep and true, tends to silence and seeks to hide itself. To those who shrink from the expression of religious feeling these letters will not be helpful, and for them they are not intended.

2. Let us now turn to the consideration of one of the marked contrasts of the Higher Life. We have all of us recognised the fact that Occultism makes on us demands of a character which necessitates a certain isolation and a rigid self-discipline. Both from our much-loved and revered Teacher, H.P.Blavatsky, and from the traditions of the Occult Life, we have learned that renunciation and stern self-control are required from him who would pass through the gateway of the Temple. The Bhagavad-Gitâ constantly reiterates the teaching of indifference to pain and pleasure,of the perfect balance under all circumstances without which no true Yoga is possible. This side of the Occult Life is recognised in theory by all, and some are obediently striving to mould themselves into its likeness. The other side of the Occult Life is dwelt upon in The Voice of the Silence, and consists of that sympathy with all that fells, that swift response to every human need, the perfect expression of which in Those we serve has given Them as title "The Masters of Compassion". It is this, in its practical, everyday aspect, to which these letters direct our thoughts, and it is this which we overlook most in our lives, however much the beauty of it, in its perfection, may touch our hearts.

3. The true Occultist, while he is to himself the sternest of judges, the most rigid of taskmasters, is to all around him the most sympathising of friends, the gentlest of helpers. To reach this gentleness and power of sympathy should, then, be the aim of each of us, and it can only be gained by unremitting practice of such gentleness and sympathy towards all, without exception, who surround us. Every would-be Occultist should be the one person, in his own home and circle, to whom every one most readily turns in sorrow, in anxiety,in sin- sure of sympathy, sure of help. The most unattractive, the most dull, the most stupid,the most repellent should feel that in him, at least, they have a friend. Every yearning towards a better life, every budding desire towards unselfish service, every half-formed wish to live more nobly, should find in him one ready to encourage and strengthen,so that every germ of good may begin to grow under the warming and stimulating presence of his loving nature.

4. To reach this power of service is a matter of self-training in daily life. First we need to recognise that the SELF in all is one; so that in each person with whom we come into contact, we shall ignore all that is unlovely in the outer casing, and recognise the SELF seated in the heart. The next thing is to realise- in feeling, not only in theory- that the SELF is endeavouring to express itself through the casings that obstruct it, and that the inner nature is altogether lovely, and is distorted to us by the envelopes that surround it. Then we should identify ourselves with that SELF, which is indeed ourself in its essence,and co-operate with it in its warfare against the lower elements that stifle its expression. And since we have to work through our own lower nature on our brother, the only way to effectually help is to see things as that brother sees them, with his limitations,his prejudices,his distorted vision; and thus seeing them, and being affected by them in our lower nature, help him in his way and not in ours, for thus only can real help be given. Here comes in the Occult training. We learn to withdraw ourselves from our lower nature,to study it, to feel its feelings without being thereby affected, and so, while emotionally we experience,intellectually we judge.

5. We must utilise this method for our brother's help, and while we feel as he feels, as the synchronised string gives out the note of its fellow, we must use our disengaged "I" to judge, to advise, to raise, but always so using it that our brother shall be conscious that it is his better nature that is uttering itself by our lips. We must desire to share our best; not to keep, but to give, is the life of the Spirit. Often our "best" would be unattractive to the one we are trying to help, as noble poetry to a little child; then we must give the best he can assimilate, withholding the other, not because we grudge it, but because he does not yet want it. Thus do the Masters of Compassion help us who are as children to Them, and in like fashion must we seek to help those who are younger than we are in the life of the Spirit. Nor let us forget that the person who happens to be with us at any moment is the person given to us by the Master to serve at that moment. If by carelessness, by impatience, by indifference, we fail to help him, we have failed in our Master's work. We often miss this immediate duty by absorption in other work, failing to understand that the helping of the human soul sent to us is our work of the moment; and we need to remind ourselves of this danger, the subtler because duty is used to mask duty, and failure of insight is failure in accomplishment. We must not be attached even to work of any particular description; always at work indeed, but with the soul free and "at attention", ready to catch the slightest whisper from Him, who may need from us service of some helpless one whom, through us, He wills to help. The sternness to the lower self, spoken of above,is a condition of this helpful service; for only the one who has no cares of his own, who is for himself indifferent to pleasure and pain, is sufficiently free to give perfect sympathy to others. Needing nothing he can give everything. With no love for himself, be becomes love incarnate to others. In Occultism the book of life is the one to which we turn our chief attention. We study other books merely in order that we may live. For study, even of Occult works, is only a means to spirituality if we are striving to live the Occult Life; it is the life and not the knowledge, the purified heart, not the well-filed head, that leads us to our Master's Feet. The word "devotion" is the key to all true progress in the spiritual life. If in working we seek the growth of the spiritual movement and not gratifying success, the service of the Master's and not our own Self-gratulation, we cannot be discouraged by temporary failures, nor by the clouds and deadness that we may experience in our own inner life. To serve for the sake of service, and not for the pleasure we take in serving, is to make a distinct step forward, for we then begin to gain that balance, that equilibrium, which enables us to serve as contentedly in failure as in success, in inner darkness as in inner light. When we have succeeded in dominating the personality so far as to feel real pleasure in doing work for the Master which is painful to the lower nature, the next step is to do it as heartily and fully when this pleasure disappears and all the joy and light are clouded over. Otherwise in serving the Holy Ones we may be serving self- serving for what we get from Them, instead of for pure love's sake. So long as this subtle form of self-seeking prevails, we are in danger of falling away from service if darkness remain long around us, and if we feel dead inside and hopeless. It is in this night of the spirit that the noblest service is rendered, and the last snares of the lower self are broken through. We lay this stress on devotion, because everywhere we find that aspirants are endangered, and the progress of the Master's work is hindered, by the predominance of the personal self. Here is our enemy, here our battleground. Once seeing this, the aspirant should welcome everything in his daily life that chips a bit off the personality,and should be grateful to all the "unpleasant persons" who tread on his toes and jar his sensibilities and ruffle his self-love. They are his best friends, his most useful helpers, and should never be regarded with anything but gratitude for the services they render in bruising our most dangerous enemy. Looking thus on daily life,it becomes a school of Occultism, and we begin to learn that perfect balance which is required in the higher walks of discipleship, ere deeper knowledge,and therefore power, can be placed in our hands. Where there is not calm self-mastery, indifference to personal matters, serene devotion to work for others, there is no true Occultism, no really spiritual life. The lower psychism demands none of these qualities, and is, therefore, eagerly grasped at by pseudo-Occultists; but the White Lodge demands these of its postulants, and makes their acquirement the condition of entrance into the Neophytes' Court. Let the aim of every aspirant be, therefore, to train himself that he may serve, to practice stern self-discipline that when the Master looks into the heart He may see no stain therein". Then will He take him by the hand and lead him onward.

6. Annie Besant

7. THE DOCTRINE OF THE HEART

8. DISASTER hangs over the head of the man who pins his faith on external paraphernalia rather than on the peace of the inner life, which depends not on the mode of the outer life. In fact, the more untoward the circumstances, and the greater the sacrifice involved by living among them, the nearer does one come to the final goal from the very nature of the trials one has to overcome. It is unwise, therefore, to be attracted too much by any outward manifestation of religious life, for anything that is on the plane of matter is ephemeral and illusive, and must lead to disappointment. Anyone who is drawn powerfully to any external modes of living has to learn sooner or later the comparative insignificance of all outer things. And the sooner one passes through experiences necessitated by past Karma, the better it is for the individual. It is unwelcome indeed to be suddenly thrown off one's ground, but the cup which cures folly is every bitter, and must be tasted if the disease is to be eradicated. When the gentle breeze coming from Their Lotus Feet blows over the soul, then you know that the worst external surroundings are not powerful enough to mar the music that charms within.

9. Just as a European who is drawn to Occultism feels nearer to the Great Ones when he lands in India, so does an Indian feel when he ascends the heights of his snowy Himavat. And yet it is quite an illusion, for one approaches not the Lords of Purity by physical locomotion, but by making oneself purer and stronger through constant suffering for the welfare of the world. As for the ignorance of the poor deluded world regarding our revered Lords, I am reminded of the words: "The hissing of the serpent does more harm to the sublime Himavat, than the slander and abuse of the world to any of us".

10. If it be once admitted, as it must be by all who have any knowledge of Occultism, that there are hosts of invisible agencies constantly taking part in human affairs,Elementals and Elementaries of all grades breeding all sorts of illusion and masquerading in all garbs, as well as members of the Black Lodge who delight in gulling and deluding the votaries of true wisdom- one must also recognise that Nature, in her great mercy and absolute justice, must have endowed man with some faculty to discriminate between the voices of these aerial denizens and that of the Masters. And I fancy that it will be agreed on all hands that reason,intuition and conscience are our highest faculties, the only means by which we can know the true from the false, good from evil, right from wrong. That being so, it follows that nothing which fails to illumine the reason and satisfy the most scrupulous claims of the moral nature should ever be regarded as a communication from the Masters.

11. It must also be remembered that the Masters are the Masters of Wisdom and Compassion,that Their words illumine and expand,never confound and harass the mind; they soothe,not disturb; they elevate, not degrade. Never to They use methods which wither and paralyse reason and intuition alike. What would be the inevitable result if these Lords of Love and Light were to force on Their disciples communications revolting equally to the reason and the ethical sense? Blind credulity would take the place of intelligent faith, moral palsy instead of spiritual growth would ensure,and the Neophytes would be left quite helpless, with nothing to guide them, constantly at the mercy of every frolicsome nymph, and worse still, of every vicious Dugpa.

12. Is this the fate of discipleship? Can such be the way of Love and Wisdom? I do not think that any reasonable man can believe it for any length of time, although for a moment a glamour may be thrown upon him and he may be made to swallow the veriest absurdities.

13. Among the many doubts thrown into the mind of the disciple to cause him distress, is the doubt whether physical weakness may be a bar to spiritual progress. The process of assimilation of spiritual nourishment involves no drain upon physical energies, and spiritual progress can go on while the body suffers. It is an entire fallacy,due to lack of knowledge and of balance, to suppose that the torture and starvation of the body make it responsive to spiritual experiences. It is by doing that which best serves the purpose of the Holy Ones that steady and real progress is made. When the right time comes for spiritual experiences to be impressed on the brain-consciousness, the body cannot stand in the way. The little difficulty that can be raised by the body can be swept away in a second. It is a delusion that any physical effort can advance spiritual progress by a single step. The way to approach Them is to do that which best furthers Their wish, and this done, nothing else needs to be done.

14. It seems to me that there is a peculiar sweetness in being resignedly patient, in gladly sacrificing one's own will to the will of Those who know better and always guide aright. There is no such thing as personal wish in the life of the Spirit. So the disciple may gladly sacrifice his own personal bliss, while They find occasion to work through him for others. He may sometimes feel as though forsaken when he is alone, but he will always find Them at his side when work has to be done. Periods of night must alternate with those of day, and it is surely well that darkness should come at a time when it affects ourselves alone,even though our personal pain should be thereby intensified. To feel Their presence and influence is indeed the divinest gift imaginable, but even that we should be willing to sacrifice, if by renouncing what we deem the highest and best, the final good of the world be made easier of attainment.

15. Try and realise the beauty of suffering, when suffering only makes one better fitted for work. Surely we can never crave for peace if in strife the world must be helped. Try and feel that though darkness seems to be all round you, yet it is not real. If They sometimes veil Themselves in an outer Maya of indifference, it is but to shed Their blessings with greater luxuriance when the season is ripe. Words avail not much when the darkness is overshadowing, yet the disciple should try to keep unshaken his faith in the nearness of the Great Ones, and to feel that though the light is temporarily withdrawn from the mind-consciousness, yet,under Their wise and merciful dispensation, it is growing daily within. When the mind again becomes sensitive,it recognises with surprise and joy how the spiritual work has gone on without its having had any consciousness of the details. We know the Law. In the spiritual world nights of greater or less horror invariably follow the day, and the wise one, recognising the darkness to be the outcome of a natural law, ceases to fret. We can rest assured that the darkness, in its turn, will lift. Remember always that behind the thickest smoke is ever the light from the Lotus Feet of the Great Lords of the earth. Stand firm and never lose faith in Them, and there is then nothing to fear. Trials you may, and indeed must have, but you will be sure to withstand them. When the darkness that hangs like a pall over the Soul's lifts, then we are able to see how really shadowy and illusive it was. Yet this darkness, as long as it lasts, is real enough to bring ruin to many a noble soul that has not yet acquired strength enough to endure.

16. Spiritual life and love are not exhausted by being spent. Expenditure only adds to the store and makes it richer and intenser. Try and be as happy and contented as you can, because in joy is the real spiritual life, and sorrow is but the result of our ignorance and absence of clear vision. So you should resist, as much as you can, the feeling of sadness: it clouds the spiritual atmosphere. And though you cannot entirely stop its coming, yet you should not altogether yield to it. For remember that at the very heart of the universe is Beatitude.

17. Despair should find no room in the heart of the devoted disciple, for it weakens faith and devotion, and thus furnishes an arena for the Dark Powers to wrestle in. The feeling is a glamour cast by them to torture the disciple, and if possible to reap some advantage for themselves out of the illusion. I have learned form the bitterest experience that self-reliance is quite unavailing and even deceptive under trials of this nature, and the only way to escape unscathed from these illusions is to devote oneself completely to Them. The reason of this, too, is plain enough. The force, in order to be effective in its opposition, must be on the same plane as that on which the power to be counteracted plays. Now as these troubles and illusions come not from the self, the self is powerless against them. Proceeding as they do from the Dark Ones,they can only be neutralised by the White Brothers. Therefore it is necessary for safety to surrender ourselves- our separated selves- and to be freed from All Ahamkara.

18. Knowing as we do that the The Theosophical Society- or, for the matter of that, every movement of any consequence - is under the watch and ward of vastly wiser and higher Powers than our little selves, we need not concern ourselves much about the ultimate destiny of the Society, but rest content with doing our duty by it conscientiously and diligently, playing the part assigned to us according to our best light and abilities. Care and solitude have, no doubt,their own functions in the economy of Nature. In ordinary men they set the brains to work, and even the muscles to motion, and were it not for these the world would not make half the progress is has done in the physical and intellectual planes. But at a certain stage of human evolution these are replaced by a sense of duty and a love of Truth, and the clearness of vision and impetus to work thus attained can never be furnished by any amount of molecular energy and nervous vigour. Therefore shake off all despondency, and with your Soul turned towards the Fountain of Light work on to that great end for which you are here, your heart embracing all mankind, but perfectly resigned as to the result of your labours. Thus have our Sages taught, thus did Shri Krshna exhort Arjuna on the battlefield, and thus shall we direct our energies.

19. My own feelings with regard to the sufferings of the world are precisely the same as yours. There is nothing which pains me more than the blind and frantic manner in which a vast majority of our fellow beings pursue the pleasures of the senses, and the utterly blank and erroneous view they take of life. The sight of this ignorance and madness touches my heart much more tenderly than the physical hardships that people undergo. And although Rantideva's noble prayer moved me deeply years ago, with the glimpse that I have since been allowed into the nature of things, I regard the Buddha's sentiments as wiser and more transcendental. And though I would gladly suffer agony to relieve a disciple of the torture to which he is subjected,yet having regard to the causes as well as the intimate consequences of a disciple's suffering, my grief for them is not half so intense as it is for the misery of those ignorant wretches who unintelligently pay the mere penalty of their past misdeeds.

20. The functions of intellect are merely comparison and ratiocination; spiritual knowledge is far beyond its scope. You are probably quite surfeited with intellectual subtleties in your present surroundings; but the world is, after all, only a school, a training academy, and no experience, however painful or ridiculous, is without its uses and value to the thoughtful man. The evils that we come across only make us wiser, and the very blunders we make serve us in good stead for the future. So we need not grumble at any lot, however outwardly unenviable.

21. Karma, as taught in the Gita and Yoga Vasishta, means acts and volitions proceeding from Vasana, or desire. It is distinctly laid down in those ethical codes that nothing done from a pure sense of duty, nothing prompted by a feeling of "oughtness", so to say, can taint the moral nature of the doer, even if he be mistaken in his conception of duty and propriety. The mistake, of course, has to be expiated by suffering, which must be proportionate to the consequences of the error; but certainly it cannot degrade the character or tarnish the Jivatma (The Individualised Self.)

22. It is well to use all the events of life as lessons to be turned to advantage, and the pain caused by separation from friends we love may thus be used. What are space and time on the plane of the Spirit? Illusions of the brain, nonentities merely, acquiring a semblance of reality from the impotency of the mind, the involucra which imprisons the Jivatma. The suffering merely gives a fresh and more potent impulse to live altogether in the Spirit. Good will come in the end to every one of us out of the pain, and so we must not murmur. Nay, knowing that to disciples nothing of any consequence can happen which is not the will of their Lords, we must look upon every painful incident as a step towards spiritual progress, as a means to that inner development, which will enable us to serve Them, and hence Humanity, better.

23. If we can but serve Them, if through all storms and conflagrations our Souls turn to their Lotus Feet, what matter the pain and the sufferings that these inflict on our transitory wrappings? Let us understand a little of the inner meanings of these sufferings,these vicissitudes of outer circumstances- how so much pain endured means so much bad Karma worked out, so much power of service gained, such a good lesson learned - are not these thoughts sufficient to support us through any amount of these illusory miseries?

24. How sweet it is to suffer when one knows and has faith; how different from the wretchedness of the ignorant, and the sceptic, and the unbeliever. One could almost wish that all the suffering and misery of the world were ours in order that the rest of our kind might be liberated and be happy. The crucifixion of Jesus symbolises this phase of the disciple's mind. Do you not think so? Only be always firm in faith and devotion,and swerve not from the sacred path of Love and Truth. This is your part - the rest shall be done for you by the Merciful Lords you serve. You know all this, and if I speak of it, it is only to strengthen you in your knowledge; for we often forget some of our best lessons, and in times of trouble the duty of a friend is more to remind you of your own sayings than to inculcate new truths. Thus it is that Draupadi often consoled her sage husband Yudhisthira, when dire misfortune would for a moment overthrow his usual serenity, and thus Vasishtha himself had to be smoothed and comforted when torn with the pangs of his children's death. Truly unspeakable is the Maya side of this world? How beautiful and romantic on the one hand, and yet how terrible and wretched on the other! Yes, Maya is the mystery of all mysteries, and one who has understood Maya has found his own unity with BRAHMAN- the Supreme Bliss and the Supreme Light.

25. The startling picture of Kali standing on the prostrate SHIVA is an illustration of the utility - the higher use - of Anger and Hatred. The black complexion represents Anger; with the sword it also means physical prowess; and the whole figure means that so long as a man has anger and hatred and physical strength, he should use them for the suppression of the other passions,the massacre of the desires of the flesh. It also represents what really happens when first the mind turns towards the higher life. As yet we are wanting in wisdom and in mental equilibrium, and so we crush our desires with our passions; our anger we direct against our own vices, and thus suppress them; our pride also we employ against the unworthy tendencies of the body and mind alike,and thus gain the first rung of the ladder. The prostrate SHIVA shows that when one is engaged in a warfare like this,he pays no heed to his highest principle, the Atma - nay, he actually tramples upon it, and not until he has slain the last enemy of his Self does he come to recognise his actual position during the fight with regard to the Atma. Thus, Kali finds SHIVA at her feet only when she has killed the last Daitya, the personification of Ahamkara, and then she blues at her insane fury. So long as the passions have not all been subdued, we must use them for their own suppression,neutralising the force of one with that of another,and thus alone can we at first succeed in killing out selfishness,and in catching the first glimpse of our true Atma - the Shiva within us - which we ignore while desires rage in the heart.

26. Well may we always lay aside our own short-sighted personal wish in order to serve Them faithfully; it is my experience that in thus following Their guidance alone, one always avoids some dangerous precipice towards which one was unconsciously running. For the moment it seems hard to break away from one's likings, but in the end nothing but joy results from such sacrifice. There is no training better than the few brief years of one's life when one is driven by sheer disappointment to seek shelter under the blessed Feet of the Lords, for nowhere else is there room for rest. And then there grows in the disciple a habit of thinking always that his only refuge is in Them, and whenever the thinks not of Them he feels miserable and forlorn. Thus from the very darkness of despair burns out for him a light that never afterwards grows dim. Those whose eyes penetrate the stretches of the far-off future,which are veiled from our mortal eyes, have done and will do what is best for the world. Immediate results and temporary satisfactions must be sacrificed, if the end is to be secured without a chance of failure. The stronger we desire to make the chances of intimate success, the less should we crave for the reapings of the day. Only by pain can we attain to perfection and purity; only by pain can we make ourselves fit servants of the Orphan that cries incessantly for food spiritual. Life is only worth having as it is sacrificed at Their Feet.