The Arcane Teaching · 7 of 21

Lesson VII. The One and the Many

We now invite you to consider the important philosophical problem of The One and The Many, as explained by the Arcane Teaching. In the philosophies which hold that The One Life is the Absolute, this problem is unexplainable, for it is impossible to conceive of the Absolute, which is immutable and indivisible, changing and dividing itself into parts, or apparently doing so. With the recognition of the fact that the Cosmic One Life is not the Absolute, but is under Law, then the difficulty vanishes. Let us listen to the Aphorism: Aphorism xii. Know ye, that in Truth, there is but One Life and not many lives. Separateness is but relative and partial—illusory—the creative fiction of the Cosmos. Who teaches otherwise, errs. In the Cosmic Will there is the One Life in which, and by which, is manifested the Many.

In the previous lessons we have seen that the Cosmic Will is the “lifeness” of all Life, just as Consciousness is its “livingness.” Back of, and under, all manifestations of Life, there is always the Cosmic Will. But the Cosmic Will precedes the particular manifestation that we call “Life,” for it existed before Life appeared in the Cosmos. The great Cosmic energies and activities which manifested in world‑building in all its phases, were but manifestations of the Cosmic Will bestirring itself. The fundamental activities show but little evidence of what we call Life—there seems to be but little Life in the mineral kingdom—but still the Will is seen in operation there, building up and tearing down; arranging and rearranging; combining and recombining. The attraction and repulsion of the atoms (and of the particles composing the atoms) shows us that the Will is present and in operation in these lowly manifestations. In Gravitation, we see a wonderful evidence of the operation of the Cosmic Will. In Chemical Affinity and Molecular Cohesion we have similar evidences. In all the great Natural Laws, in evidence throughout the Cosmos, we may see the operation of the Cosmic Will, always. The laws of Physics demonstrate clearly the existence of some great Conative power, animating, energizing, and manifesting in every part and particle of creation. One must indeed be a blind materialist to fail to see ever at work that “Something Within” manifesting as the “Something Without.” The building up of the crystal, from liquid to regular and exact geometrical form, should be sufficient to convince anyone that there is a “Something at work” in it. Even the materialist is forced to recognize these facts—and he does recognize it, and calls that Something by the name of “Nature.” We have no quarrel with names—if the term “Nature” suits you, use it by all means. But if you think clearly, you must recognize that your “Nature” is Conative, and acts and manifests as a Cosmic Will.

These fundamental activities and manifestations of the Cosmic Will or One Life, are akin to the activities and manifestations of our own lives. Stop to consider that your body was built up from a single cell by your Live Forces—not only your fleshy parts, but your hair, nails, teeth, and even the hardest bones which form your framework. And, likewise, the flint‑like shell of the clam, oyster, and other hard‑shell animals were so built up; not to speak of the harder geometrical crystal forms of the diamond and other minerals, which are but “built‑up” shapes and forms. The diamond is composed of carbon, which is but a gaseous substance which becomes solid under certain conditions. The hard ivory of the elephant’s tusk was built up from cells, by the Life Forces within the animal itself. So you see that Life can build up hard substances as well as soft ones. And the same force that builds up these hard substances, builds up the rocks and hills, and mountains, and minerals that form the body of Nature. Just as certain functions of the animal or human brain manifest in building up the body of the Cosmos.

The Cosmic Will from the beginning has sought to embody itself in objective form, in order to manifest Consciousness, which is the “livingness” of Life, as we have explained in a previous lesson. Like the Life Forces in any being, it first concerned itself in providing a body for itself, in order that it would have a substantial foundation for further and higher manifestation of its Life. In the Cosmos the material plane of activity is the one first operated upon. Then comes the slowing down of the vibrations of Motion, and the Principle of Substance produces the elementary particles which, combining, form matter. Then matter begins to evolve into higher forms, until at last there is produced the combination in which is possible the manifestation that we call Organic Life. From the lowly living cell‑like creatures in the slimy depths of the primeval ocean‑beds, arise step by step, slowly, tediously, painfully, arduously, and haltingly, but surely and steadily, form after form of higher and still higher living organisms. The modern scientific theory of Evolution—which, however, was antedated some twenty‑five hundred years by the Ancient Greek Philosophers—tells us a true tale of the slow rise and development of life forms.

At last Man—a poor, weak, brutal creature with wonderful possibilities, was evolved by the One Life in its urge toward Conscious Life. And this poor creature has advanced wonderfully. And Evolution does not stop here—for Man is but an intermediate step. On other worlds in the Cosmos, there are beings as much higher than Man, as man is higher than the earthworm. Our planet is but one of millions upon millions of millions of worlds, in which Evolution is at work. We are away down low in the scale of worlds and being. There are beings as great as man’s conceptions of the gods of old, dwelling on some of these planets and worlds. Some of us have dwelt on these brighter spheres, but have been sent back a grade or two in order to complete tasks left undone; or to gain experiences necessary; or because the fires of material desire had not yet died out in us, and we needed to “get enough of it” once more, in order to be free of the dross. There are planes of Life so transcendentally grand and exalted, that Man’s wildest imagination cannot conceive of them. And, on the other hand, there are worlds lower in the scale so sunken in materiality and foulness, that the orthodox hell would be preferable to them. Man goes where his desires take him. He travels the road of his desires and thoughts. He makes his own route—he guides his own vessel. Man is his own Destiny.

The Many Lives are but Centres of Life in the great One Life. Separateness is but the “creative fiction” of the Cosmos—illusory and relative. All Life is but One, in its fundamental nature. The entire Cosmos is but One Life, in which we are parts or centres—in its Being we “live and move and have our being.” The One Life is not far away, but is all around us, and immanent within us. While one phase of the Cosmic Paradox shows the individual to be but an infinitesimal unit in a stupendous whole, the other phase shows the individual to be identical with the Whole—connected with all by spiritual bonds and links—and sharing the infinite possibilities of the All. The life of the individual is not bounded by his personal limitations, but includes the life of the All. In this understanding and recognition there is found the reconciliation, unity and agreement between the contradictory phases of life and the universe. True spiritual advancement depends upon the increasing recognition and identification of the individual with the All.

An important point in the Arcane Teaching is that which holds that the Cosmos is, and can be, conscious only through and by means of the various centres of consciousness within itself. Without these centres of consciousness within itself—the consciousness of You and I and all the rest—the One Life would be unconscious. Just as the individual can be conscious only through his stream of units of consciousness, so can the One Life be conscious only through its stream of centres of consciousness. Destroy these centres of consciousness, and the Cosmos once more is resolved into its condition of Unconscious Nothingness. And, moreover, the One Life can live only through its centres of Life—the centres called You and I, and the rest. Will is the “lifeness” of Life—Consciousness is the “livingness” of Life—and the individual is the centre of both Will and Consciousness, and therefore of Life. As the Cosmos advances in the Cosmic Day, there is manifested a constantly increasing blending or unification of the various centres of Life—a constantly increasing identification of the individual with the All. And, thus is accomplished the approach to the Cosmic High Noon, when the One Life, as one life and consciousness, lives, wills and is conscious. Before that time comes, the illusion of Separateness is manifested—the “creative fiction” of the Cosmos operates in working out the approach to Cosmic Consciousness.

Thus it is seen that the Cosmos, or One Life, does not manifest as separate units of life in order to amuse itself, or to try experiments, or any of the various “explanations” hazarded by philosophy, metaphysics, or theology. It manifests through the centres, because it must do so in order to live and be conscious. Creation and the Universe is not a matter of whim, unreasoning desire, or arbitrary fiat of the One Life of the Cosmos. Far from that. It is the Cosmic Necessity. Just as you must live in order to be alive so must the Cosmos manifest Life in order to live and be conscious. Just as you find the imperative demand for life within yourself; so does the Cosmic Life find the imperative demand for Life within itself. The One Life is under the Law, just as you are under the Laws. The urge of “Must” is ever impelling it forward. It is not Free—it is under the Law and The Laws. The Law is ever over and above it—the Seven Laws are constantly in operation within it. The One Life is not a cruel, arbitrary master or ruler. It is your Greater Self, and subject to the same laws which govern you. It is doing the best it can, for itself, and therefore for you. When the individual realizes this fact—the fact that the One Life is doing the best it can; is bound by the Laws as much as is the individual; that there is no manifestation of arbitrary desire, or unreasoning whim in the Cosmic machinery; that One is All, and All is One; then there appears a reason and explanation for much in life which has hitherto defied explanation or reason; or theory of justice and equity. Then is there seen an explanation of that apparently arbitrary, despotic manifestation of power, which caused old Omar Khayyam to utter his rebellious protests, and cry aloud: “Into this Universe, and ‘Why’ not knowing, Nor ‘Whence,’ like Water willy‑nilly flowing; And out of it, as Wind along the Waste, I know not ‘Whither,’ willy‑nilly blowing. “What, without asking, hither hurried ‘Whence’? And, without asking, ‘Whither’ hurried hence!

Oh, many a cup of this forbidden Wine Must drown the memory of that insolence! “A moment guessed—then back behind the Fold Immerst of Darkness round the Drama rolled, Which for the pastime of Eternity He doth himself contrive, enact, behold. “We are no other than a moving row Of Magic Shadow‑shapes that come and go Round with the Sun‑illumined Lantern held In midnight by the Master of the Show. “But helpless Pieces of the Game He plays Upon His Chequer‑board of Nights and Days; Hither and Thither moves, and checks, and slays, And one by one back in the Closet lays. “The Ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes, But Here or There as strikes the Player goes; And He that tossed you down into the Field, He knows about it all—He knows—He knows.”

Many daring thinkers who setting aside “the bribe of heaven and threat of hell” have dared to look Life in the face, have been overcome by a sense of impotent subjection to an arbitrary Being who, being able to remedy conditions, and knowing of the pains of mortal life in the universe, nevertheless has deliberately imposed such conditions upon living things. Such thinkers find it impossible to reconcile the claimed qualities of Love and Good in such a Being, with the manifestations of apparent injustice, inequity, pain and suffering which made pessimists of great souls like Buddha, Lao‑tze, and the writer of the Koheleth or Ecclesiastes. Indeed, viewing Life from this viewpoint, one finds it hard to escape the conviction which inspired the bitter words of old Omar, when he cried: “What! out of senseless Nothing to provoke A conscious Something to resent the yoke Of unpermitted Pleasure, under pain Of everlasting Penalties, if broke! “What! from his helpless Creature be repaid Pure Gold for what he lent him dross‑allay’d; Sue for a debt we never did contract And cannot answer—Oh, the sorry trade! “O Thou who didst with pitfall and with gin Beset the Road I was to wander in, Thou wilt not with Predestined Evil round Enmesh, and then impute my fall to Sin! “O Thou who Man of baser Earth didst make, And ev’n with Paradise devise the Snake: For all the Sin wherewith the Face of Man Is blackened—Man’s forgiveness give—and take!”

But with the dawning knowledge that the One Life, or World‑Spirit, is not The Absolute, but is under Law and Laws superimposed upon it, then we have a picture of an Universal Being which suffers with us and through us; rises with us and through us; strives with us and through us; attains with us and through us; rejoices with us and through us; conquers with us and through us—and whose Life is composed of our lives; whose consciousness is composed of our consciousness. Such a Being is seen to be, at the last, one with ourselves, instead of an outside power—and consequently, such a Being is seen to be eternally making for Good‑making for our good, for we are one with itself. Such a Being is seen to be but the Composite Self of all the individual selves of the Cosmos—the Real Self. And in the recognition of all this, our bitterness must die away, and a great feeling of compassion, sympathy, understanding and love must be manifested by us—and felt by us. Then must come that sense of Oneness with the All which is the great reconciler—which harmonizes the Opposites, and establishes the Cosmic Balance.

This One Life is You—and You are it. Centres of Life, apparently separate are we now—but steadily growing toward that time, phase and state of Cosmic Consciousness, in which the All shall know itself as One—and the One know itself as All. As the Ego progresses through the stages of Spiritual Evolution, its consciousness enlarges and expands, including more and more of the Cosmos within it as the Self, until the stages of Cosmic Consciousness are reached in which the Ego finds itself blending into the Whole, and the All blending into the Self. This is what is meant by Cosmic Consciousness; Spiritual Consciousness; Transcendental Consciousness; the Higher Consciousness; the Moksha, of the Brahmans; the Nirvana, of the Buddhists; the Union with God, of the Mystics; the Divine Marriage, of the Sufis; the Brahmic Splendor, of the Oriental poets—of all those transcendental states of Consciousness, in which the Self blends into the All, in varying degrees according to the development of the soul. This is the Secret of the Mystics of all times and lands—this the Mystery of Buddha—this the Divine Bliss of the Brahmans—this the “Wine” of the Sufi symbology, Even old Omar, in his bitter complaint, was true to his Sufi instincts, and recognized the One: “Whose secret Presence, through Creation’s veins Running Quicksilver‑like eludes your pains; Taking all shapes from Mah to Mahi; and They change and perish all—but He remains.” And this was the thought that inspired these striking lines from an unknown poet: “Thou great Eternal Infinite! Thou great Unbounded Whole! Thy body is the Universe! Thy spirit is its soul! If Thou dost fill Immensity—If Thou art All‑in‑All— Then I’m in Thee, and Thou in Me, or I’m not here at all! How can I be outside of Thee, when Thou fill Earth and Air? There surely is no place for Me outside of Everywhere! If Thou art ALL, and Thou dost fill Immensity of Space, Then in Thy Being do I dwell, or else I have no place. And if I have no place at all—what am doing Here? Beyond the All I cannot Be—outside of Everywhere! Then truly in Thy Self am I—and Thou must be in Me; Or else there is no All‑in‑All—no Me, nor Thee, to Be!”

This One is the great Cosmic Spirit—Cosmic Will—Life Principle—One Life of The Cosmos—in which the Arcane Teachers find the Real Self and Universal Being. This is the great Principle of Life and Being, in which “we live, and move, and have our being.” This is the great Cosmic Life which awakens in the Dawn of the Cosmic Day, and thence proceeds gradually to evolve into the Cosmic Consciousness of High Noon; thence on to rest in the ecstatic state of transcendental Bliss, Consciousness, and Being— sat‑chit‑ananda, the Hindus call it—the Kingdom of Heaven, other mystics have called it—during the Afternoon of the Cosmic day, which state extends over countless æons of time; thence passing into the dream‑like slumber of the Twilight of the Cosmic Day; thence on toward the resolution into the state of Unconsciousness in the Infinity of Nothingness of the Cosmic Midnight; thence on to the Re‑awakening at the first glimpses of the Dawn of the new Cosmic Day. As Above, so Below; as Below, so Above! From One, Know All!

Thus is the Great Cycle of the Cosmos—thus the Working of the Laws. And, ever over all dwells The Law, unchanged, peaceful, undisturbed—ever the same—Alone—Absolute.