To the Self by the Self
Let us look at this a little more closely, with its appropriate
methods. The path on which the faculty of Buddhi is used predominantly
is, as just said, the path of the metaphysician. It is the path of the
philosopher. He turns inwards, ever seeking to find the Self by diving
into the recesses of his own nature. Knowing that the Self is within
him, he tries to strip away vesture after vesture, envelope after
envelope, and by a process of rejecting them he reaches the glory of
the unveiled Self. To begin this, he must give up concrete thinking
and dwell amidst abstractions. His method, then, must be strenuous,
long-sustained, patient meditation. Nothing else will serve his end;
strenuous, hard thinking, by which he rises away from the concrete
into the abstract regions of the mind; strenuous, hard thinking,
further continued, by which he reaches from the abstract region of the
mind up to the region of Buddhi, where unity is sensed; still by
strenuous thinking, climbing yet further, until Buddhi as it were
opens out into Atma, until the Self is seen in his splendour, with
only a film of atmic matter, the envelope of Atma in the manifested
fivefold world. It is along that difficult and strenuous path that the
Self must be found by way of the Self.
Such a man must utterly disregard the Not-Self. He must shut his
senses against the outside world. The world must no longer be able to
touch him. The senses must be closed against all the vibrations that
come from without, and he must turn a deaf ear, a blind eye, to all
the allurements of matter, to all the diversity of objects, which make
up the universe of the Not-Self. Seclusion will help him, until he is
strong enough to close himself against the outer stimuli or
allurements. The contemplative orders in the Roman Catholic Church
offer a good environment for this path. They put the outer world away,
as far away as possible. It is a snare, a temptation, a hindrance.
Always turning away from the world, the Yogi must fix his thought, his
attention, upon the Self. Hence for those who walk along this road,
what are called the Siddhis are direct obstacles, and not helps. But
that statement that you find so often, that the Siddhis are things to
be avoided, is far more sweeping than some of our modern Theosophists
are apt to imagine. They declare that the Siddhis are to be avoided,
but forget that the Indian who says this also avoids the use of the
physical senses. He closes physical eyes and ears as hindrances. But
some Theosophists urge avoidance of all use of the astral senses and
mental senses, but they do not object to the free use of the physical
senses, or dream that they are hindrances. Why not? If the senses are
obstacles in their finer forms, they are also obstacles in their
grosser manifestations. To the man who would find the Self by the
Self, every sense is a hindrance and an obstacle, and there is no
logic, no reason, in denouncing the subtler senses only, while
forgetting the temptations of the physical senses, impediments as much
as the other. No such division exists for the man who tries to
understand the universe in which he is. In the search for the Self by
the Self, all that is not Self is an obstacle. Your eyes, your ears,
everything that puts you into contact with the outer world, is just as
much an obstacle as the subtler forms of the same senses which put you
into touch with the subtler worlds of matter, which you call astral
and mental. This exaggerated fear of the Siddhis is only a passing
reaction, not based on understanding but on lack of understanding; and
those who denounce the Siddhis should rise to the logical position of
the Hindu Yogi, or of the Roman Catholic recluse, who denounces all
the senses, and all the objects of the senses, as obstacles in the
way. Many Theosophists here, and more in the West, think that much is
gained by acuteness of the physical senses, and of the other faculties
in the physical brain; but the moment the senses are acute enough to
be astral, or the faculties begin to work in astral matter, they treat
them as objects of denunciation. That is not rational. It is not
logical. Obstacles, then, are all the senses, whether you call them
Siddhis or not, in the search for the Self by turning away from the
Not-Self.
It is necessary for the man who seeks the Self by the Self to have
the quality which is called "faith," in the sense in which I defined
it before--the profound, intense conviction, that nothing can shake,
of the reality of the Self within you. That is the one thing that is
worthy to be dignified by the name of faith. Truly it is beyond
reason, for not by reason may the Self be known as real. Truly it is
not based on argument, for not by reasoning may the Self be
discovered. It is the witness of the Self within you to his own
supreme reality, and that unshakable conviction, which is shraddha, is
necessary for the treading of this path. It is necessary, because
without it the human mind would fail, the human courage would be
daunted, the human perseverance would break, with the difficulties of
the seeking for the Self. Only that imperious conviction that the Self
is, only that can cheer the pilgrim in the darkness that comes down
upon him, in the void that he must cross before--the life of the lower
being thrown away--the life of the higher is realised. This imperious
faith is to the Yogi on this path what experience and knowledge are to
the Yogi on the other.
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