Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind

Till in ripe years his early musings changed To inspiration and the light of soul. Then vision came, and in the light he saw What he had hoped now openly revealed ; And much besides — the inmost soul of things. And “beauty” as the crown of life itself. Ineffable, transcending mortal form ; For robed in light, no longer fantasy. Before his gaze the true “ ideal ” stood. Sublimely fair, beyond conception, clothed In beauty and divinest symmetry. Yet pined he not like him of Latmos when In dreaming ecstasy, upon the hills Beneath the moon, he saw his love unveiled ; For well he knew the crowning of his life Was in that vision and would be fulfilled. Nay, was fulfilled, for henceforth by his side A radiant being stood, his guiding light And polar star, that as a magnet held Him in the hold of ever-during love ! But how describe this being henceforth his ? What words can tell what words transcend, but say That she was fair beyond all human thought ? For who could paint those features and that form So exquisitely moulded that no art Could reach them, or convey in any mode The smile upon those rosy lips or catch And give the full expression of those eyes.

So wonderful, half veiled beneath the sweep Of soft and curving lashes, that enhanced Beyond describing the effect that flowed From out the liquid depths of those full orbs. The founts of love, so full of smouldering fire And passion, yet so tender and so chaste ? Her every movement, too, so perfect, seemed Like nature heightened by unconscious art. And all her bearing gentleness itself ; For not that majesty that overawes — That high, imperious consciousness of worth. That makes the lowly shrink abashed — was hers. But in its stead was all the winning grace And sweetness that immortal Love could add To beautify its shrine and make thereof A fitting habitation for itself : For bending forward with that wondrous look, So inexpressible, she seemed to say : “Thou art mine own, mine equal and my spouse. My complement, without whom I were nought ; So in mine eyes thou art more fair than I, For in thee only is my life fulfilled. ” Then added, in harmonious voice, aloud : “Thou long hast thought upon life’s mystery. Its vast, eternally recurring rounds Of rest and rebirth and activity. And sought therein the passage of the soul From light to dark, from dark to light again. Come then with me, and we will see in part The latter in its human phase unveiled. ”

So saying, with her presence she endowed Him with new senses, faculties and powers. That far surpassed the limits of the old. It has already been incidentally mentioned that a race entering upon the possession of a new faculty, especially if this be in the line of the direct ascent of the race, as is certainly the case with cosmic consciousness, the new faculty will necessarily be acquired at first not only by the best specimens of the race but also when these are at their best — that is, at full maturity and before the decline incident to age has set in. What, now, are the facts in his rega rd as to the coming of the cosmic sense ? They may be summarized in a few words as follows : Of thirty-four cases, n which illumination was instantaneous and the period at which it occured iis with some degree of certainty known, the age at which the person passed into cosmic consciousness was in one instance twenty-four years ; in three, thirty years ; in two, thirty-one years ; in two, thirty-one and a half years ; in three, thirty-two years ; in one, thirty-three years ; in two, thirty-four years ; in eight, thirty-five years ; in two, thirty-six years ; in two, thirtyseven years; in two, thirty-eight years; in three, thirty-nine years ; in one, forty years ; in one, forty-nine years, and, in one, fifty-four years.

From Self to Cosmic Consciousness Evidence will be given as the cases are treated individually, and the age of each person at illumination will be given below in a tabular statement, along with other facts. Cosmic Consciousness, then, appears in individuals mostly of the male sex, who are otherwise highly developed — men of good intellect, of high moral qualities, of superior physique. It appears at about that time of life when the organism is at its high watermark of efficiency, at the age of thirty to forty years. It must have been that the immediate precursor of Cosmic Consciousness — Self Consciousness — also appeared at first in mid-life, here and there, in isolated cases, in the most advanced specimens of the race, becoming more and more nearly universal (as the race grew up to it), manifesting itself at an earlier and earlier age, until (as we see) it delares itself now in every fairly constituted individual, at about the age of three years. Analogy, then, would lead us to believe that the step in promotion which is the subject of this volume also awaits the whole race — that a time will come when to be without the faculty in question will be a mark of inferiority parallel to the absence at present of the moral nature. The presumption seems to be that the new sense will become more and more common and show itself earlier in life, until after many generations it will appear in each normal individual at the age of puberty or even earlier ; then go on becoming still more universal, and appearing at a still earlier age, until, after many thousands of generations, it shows itself immediately after infancy in nearly every member of the race.

It must be clearly understood that all cases of Cosmic Consciousness are not on the same plane. Or, if we speak of Simple Consciousness, Self Consciousness and Cosmic Consciousness as each occupying a plane, then, as the range of Self Consciousness on its pla^te (where one man may be an Aristotle, a Ceesar, a Newton, or a Comte, while his neighbor on the next street may be intellectually and morally, to all appearance, little if at all above the animal in his stable) is far greater than the range of Simple Consciousness in any given species on its plane, so we must suppose that the range of Cosmic Consciousness (given millions of cases, as on the other planes), is greater than that of Self Consciousness, and it probably is in fact very much greater both in kind and degree: that is to say, given a world peopled with men having Cosmic Consciousness, they would vary both in the way of greater and less intellectual ability, and greater and less moral and spiritual elevation, and also in the way of variety of character, more than would the inhabitants of a planet on the plane of Self Consciousness. Within the plane of Cosmic Consciousness one man shall be a god while another shall not be, to casual observation, lifted so very much above ordinary humanity, however much his inward life may be exalted, strengthened and purified by the new sense. But, as the Self Conscious man (however degraded) is in fact almost infinitely above the animal with merely simple consciousness, so any man permanently endowed with the Cosmic Sense would be almost infinitely higher and nobler than any man who is Self Conscious merely.

And not only so, but the man who has had the Cosmic Sense for even a few moments only will probably never again descend to the spiritual level of the merely self conscious man, but twenty, thirty or forty years afterwards he will still feel within him the purifying, strengthening and exalting effect of that divine illumination, and many of those about him will recognize that his spiritual stature is above that of the average man.

The hypothesis adopted by the present writer requires that cases of cosmic consciousness should become more numerous from age to age, and not only so but that they should become more perfect, more pronounced. What are the facts ? Putting aside minor cases, such as must have appeared and been forgotten by hundreds in the last few millenniums, of those given above at least thirteen are so great that they can never fade from human memory — namely : Gautama, Jesus, Paul, Plotinus, Mohammed, Dante, Las Casas, John Yepes, Francis Bacon, Jacob Behmen, William Blake, Balzac, Walt Whitman. From Gautama to Dante we count eighteen hundred years, within which period we have five cases. Again from Dante to the present day we count six hundred years, in which we have eight cases. That is to say, while in the earlier period there was one case to every three hundred and sixty years, in the later there was a case to each seventy-five years. In other words, cosmic consciousness has been 4.8 times more frequent during the latter period than it was during the former. And before the time of Gautama ? There were probably no, or few and imperfectly developed, cases.

We know that, at present there are many of what maybe called lesser cases, but the number of these cannot be compared with the number of similar cases in the past, for the reason that the latter are lost. It must also From Self to Cosmic Consciousness be remembered that the thirteen “ great cases ” given above are only perhaps a small fraction of cases just as great which have occurred since the time of Gautama, for probably only a small proportion of the “ great cases” undertake and carry through work which ensures them remembrance. How easily might the memory even of Jesus have been obliterated from the minds of his contemporaries and followers almost before it was born. Many to-day think that, all else granted, if he had not been immediately followed by Paul, his work and name would have expired together almost with the generation that heard him speak. So true is this that so able a man as Auguste Comte considers St. Paul “ le vrai fondateur du Catholicisme ” (which in this connection is synonymous with “ Christianisme ”) [65 : 356], gives him the eighth month in the “ Calendrier Positiviste” [65 : 332], and does not even award a day to Jesus, so little part did this latter seem to him to have played in the evolution of religion and of the race.

And even of those who write, the work and memory must have often died and been lost. Of one of the greatest of these it may be said that had the great fire occurred only a few years earlier it might possibly have destroyed every copy of the 1623 folio and deprived the world forever of the “ Shakepeare ” drama. Either the spoken or written work of these men can only, in the nature of things, be appreciated by a select few of their contemporaries and is in almost every case exceedingly liable to be forgotten. That this is as true to-day as in the day of Gautama no one can doubt who has closely followed the career of Walt Whitman. Even in his case the written word would almost certainly have been lost if he had died (as he easily might) from accident or disease during the war, even although at that time three editions of the “ Leaves ” had been printed. He himself did not consider his message secure from extinction even almost down to the time of his death, although he had labored unremittingly for thirty-five years at the planting of it. Then as to the relative greatness of ancient and modern cases. The judgment of the world at large must necessarily be against the latter, because the time required to arrive at an appreciation of them has not elapsed. And what is reason and so-called common sense worth in such a question as this, anyway ?

As Victor Hugo says of Les Genies : “ Choisir entre ces hommes, preferer Fun a Fautre, indiquer du doigt le premier parmi ces premiers, cela ne se peut” [96 : 72-3]. What living man, indeed, is able to say, time enough having surely gone by, who was the greater, Gautama or Jesus? And if we cannot decide between these two, still less can we between either ot them and, for instance, \\diitman. Many believe to-day that the last named was the greatest spiritual force yet produced by the race — which would mean that he is the greatest case of cosmic consciousness to date. But the balance of opinion would be, of course, thousands to one averse to this contention. While its true nature has been (and necessarily so) entirely unapprehended, the fact of cosmic consciousness has been long recognized both in the Eastern and Western Worlds, and the great majority of civilized men and women in all countries to-day bow down before teachers who possessed the cosmic sense, and not only so but because they possessed the cosmic sense. And not only does the world at large look up with reverence to these men, but perhaps it would be nothing more than the simple truth to say that all uninspired teachers derive the lessons which they transmit directly or indirectly from the few who have been illumined.

It seems that in every, or nearly every, man who enters into cosmic consciousness apprehension is at first more or less excited, the person doubting whether the new sense may not be a symptom or form of insanity. Mohammed was greatly alarmed. I think it is clear that Paul was, and others to be mentioned further on were similarly affected. The first thing each person asks himself upon experiencing the new sense is : Does what I see and feel represent reality or am I suffering from a delusion ? The fact that the new experience seems even more real than the old teachings of simple and self consciousness does not at first fully reassure him, because he probably knows that delusions, when present, possess the mind just as firmly as do actual facts. True or not true, each person who has the experience in question eventually, perforce, believes in its teachings, accepting them as absolutely as any other teachings whatsoever. This, however, would not prove them true, since the same might be said of the delusions of the insane. How, then, shall we know that this is a new sense, revealing fact, and not a form of insanity, plunging its subject into delusion ? In the first place, the tendencies of the condition in question are entirely unlike, even opposite to.

From Self to Cosmic Consciousness those of mental alienation, these last being distinctly amoral or even immoral, while the former are moral in a very high degree. In the second place, while in all forms of insanity self-restraint — inhibition — is greatly reduced, sometimes even abolished, in cosmic consciousness it is enormously increased. The absolute proof of this last statement can be found in the lives of the men here cited as examples. In the third place (whatever the scoffers of religion may say) it is certain that modern civilization (speaking broadly) rests (as already said) very largely on the teachings of the new sense. The masters are taught by it and the rest of the world by them through their books, followers and disciples, so that if what is here called cosmic consciousness is a form of insanity, we are confronted by the terrible fact (were it not an absurdity) that our civilization, including all our highest religions, rests on delusion. But (in the fourth place), far from granting, or for a moment entertaining, such an awful alternative, it can be maintained that we have the same evidence of the objective reality which corresponds to this faculty that we have of the reality which tallies any other sense or faculty whatever. Sight, for instance : You know that the tree standing there, across the field, half a mile away, is real and not an hallucination, because all other persons having the sense of sight to whom you have spoken about it also see it, while if it were an hallucination it would be visible to no one but yourself.

By the same method of reasoning do we establish the reality of the objective universe tallying cosmic consciousness. Each person who has the faculty is made aware by it of essentially the same fact or facts. If three men looked at the tree and were asked half an hour afterwards to draw or describe it the three drafts or descriptions would not tally in detail, but in general outline would correspond. Just in the same way do the reports of those who have had cosmic consqiousness correspond in all essentials, though in detail they doubtless more or less diverge (but these divergences are fully as much in our misunderstanding of the reports as in the reports themselves). So there is no instance of a person who has been illumined denying or disputing the teaching of another who has passed through the same experience. Paul, however little disposed by his prepossessions to accept them, as soon as he attained to the cosmic sense saw that the teachings of Jesus were true. Mohammed accepted Jesus as not only the greatest of the prophets, but as standing on a plane distinctly above that upon which stood Adam, Noah, Moses and the rest. He says : “And we sent Noah and Abraham and placed in their seed prophecy and the book ; and some of them are guided, though many of them are workers of abomination ! Then we followed up their footsteps with our apostles ; and we followed them up with Jesus the son of Mary ; and

we gave him the gospel ; and we placed in the hearts of those who followed him kindness and compassion” [153: 269]. And Palmer testifies: “Mohammed regards our Lord with particular veneration, and even goes so far as to call him the ‘Spirit’ and ‘Word’ of God, the ‘Messiah’” [152: 51]. Walt Whitman accepts the teachings of Buddha, Jesus, Paul, Mohammed, especially of Jesus, of whom he knew the most. As he says : “Accepting the gospels, accepting him that was crucified, knowing assuredly that he is divine” [193: 69]. And if, as Whitman once wished : “The great masters might return and study me” [193 : 20], nothing is more certain than that they would each and all accept him as “a brother of the radiant summit.” So all the men known to the present writer who have been (in greater or less degree) illumined, agree in all essentials with one another, and with all past teachers who have been so. Also, it seems that all men, free from prejudice, who know something of more than one religion, recognize, as does Sir Edwin Arnold, that the great faiths are “Sisters,” or, as Arthur Lillie says, that “Buddha and Christ taught much the same doctrine” [no: 8].

As has been either said or implied already, in order that a man may enter into Cosmic Consciousness he must belong (so to speak) to the top layer of the world of Self Consciousness. Not that he need have an extraordinary intellect (this faculty is rated usually far above its real value and does not seem nearly so important, from this point of view, as do some others) though he must not be deficient in this respect, either. He must have a good physique, good health, but above all he must have an exalted moral nature, strong sympathies, a warm heart, courage, strong and earnest religious feeling. All these being granted, and the man having reached the age necessary to bring him to the top of the self conscious mental stratum, some day he enters Cosmic Consciousness. What is his experience ? Details must be given with diffidence, as they are only known to the writer in a few cases, and doubtless the phenomena are varied and diverse. What is said here, however, may be depended on as far as it goes. It is true of certain cases, and certainly touches upon the full truth in certain other cases, so that it may be looked upon as being provisionally correct.

a. The person, suddenly, without warning, has a sense of being immersed in a flame, or rose-colored cloud, or perhaps rather a sense that the mind is itself filled with such a cloud of haze. b. At the same instant he is, as it were, bathed in an emotion of joy, as- From Self to Cosmic Consciousness surance, triumph, “ salvation,” The last word is not strictly correct if taken in its ordinary sense, for the feeling, when fully developed, is not that a particular act of salvation is effected, but that no special “ salvation ” is needed, the scheme upon which the world is built being itself sufficient. It is this ecstasy, far beyond any that belongs to the merely self conscious life, with which the poets, as such, especially occupy themselves : As Gautama, in his discourses, preserved in the “Suttas”; Jesus in the “Parables”; Paul in the “ Epistles” ; Dante at the end of the “Purgatorio” and beginning of “Paradiso”; “Shakespeare” in the “Sonnets”; Balzac in “Seraphita”; Whitman in the “Leaves” ; Edward Carpenter in “Towards Democracy” ; leaving to the singers the pleasures and pains, loves and hates, joys and sorrows, peace and war, life and death, of self conscious man ; though the poets may treat of these, too, but from the new point of view, as expressed in the “ Leaves” : “I will never again mention love or death inside a house” [193 : 75] — that is, from the old point of view, with the old connotations.

c. Simultaneously or instantly following the above sense and emotional experiences there comes to the person an intellectual illumination quite impossible to describe. Like a flash there is presented to his consciousness a clear conception (a vision) in outline of the meaning and drift of the universe. He does not come to believe merely ; but he sees and knows that the cosmos, which to the self conscious mind seems made up of dead matter, is in fact far otherwise — is in very truth a living presence. He sees that instead of men being, as it were, patches of life scattered through an infinite sea of non-living substance, they are in reality specks of relative death in an infinite ocean of life. He sees that the life which is in man is eternal, as all life is eternal ; that the soul of man is as immortal as God is ; that the universe is so built and ordered that without any peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all ; that the foundation principle of the world is what we call love, and that the happiness of every individual is in the long run absolutely certain. The person who passes through this experience will learn in the few minutes, or even moments, of its continuance more than in months or years of study, and he will learn much that no study ever taught or can teach. Especially does he obtain such a conception of THE WHOLE, or at least of an immense WHOLE, as dwarfs all conception, imagination or speculation, springing from and belonging to ordinary self consciousness, such a conception as makes the old attempts to mentally grasp the universe and its meaning petty and even ridiculous.

This awakening of the intellect has been well described by a writer upon Jacob Behmen in these words : “The mysteries of which he discoursed were not reported to him, he BEHELD them. He saw the root of all mysteries, the UNGRUND or URGRUND, whence issue all contrasts and discordant principles, hardness and softness, severity and mildness, sweet and bitter, love and sorrow, heaven and hell. These he SAW in their origin ; these he attempted to describe in their issue and to reconcile in their eternal results. He saw into the being of God ; whence the birth or going forth of the divine manifestation. Nature lay unveiled to him — he was at home in the heart of things. His own book, which he himself was (so Whitman ; ‘ This is no book, who touches this touches a man ’) [193 : 382], the microcosm of man, with his threefold life, was patent to his vision ” [79 : 852]. d. Along with moral elevation and intellectual illumination comes what must be called, for want of a better term, a sense of immortality. This is not an intellectual conviction, such as comes with the solution of a problem, nor is it an experience such as learning something unknown before. It is far more simple and elementary, and could better be compared to that certainty of distinct individuality, possessed by each one, which comes with and belongs to self consciousness.

e. With illumination the fear of death which haunts so many men and women at times all their lives falls off like an old cloak — not, however, as a result of reasoning — it simply vanishes. f. The same may be said of the sense of sin. It is not that the person escapes from sin ; but he no longer sees that there is any sin in the world from which to escape. g. The instantaneousness of the illumination is one of its most striking features. It can be compared with nothing so well as with a dazzling flash of lightning in a dark night, bringing the landscape which had been hidden into clear view. h. The previous character of the man who enters the new life is an important element in the case. i. So is the age at which illumination occurs. Should we hear of a case • of cosmic consciousness occurring at twenty, for instance, we should at first doubt the truth of the account, and if forced to believe it we should expect the man (if he lived) to prove himself, in some way, a veritable spiritual giant. j. The added charm to the personality of the person who attains to cosmic consciousness is always, it is believed, a feature in the case.

k. There seems to the writer to be sufficient evidence that, with cosmic consciousness, while it is actually present, and lasting (gradually passing away) a short time thereafter, a change takes place in the appearance of the subject of illumination. This change is similar to that caused in a person’s From Self to Cosmic Consciousness appearance by great joy, but at times (that is, in pronounced cases) it seems to be much more marked than that. In these great cases in which illumination is intense the change in question is also intense and may amount to a veritable “transfiguration.” Dante says that he was “ transhumanized into a God.” There seems to be a strong probability that could he have been seen at that moment he would have exhibited what could only have been called “ transfiguration.” In subsequent chapters of this book several cases will be given in which the change in question, more or less strongly marked, occurred. The passage from self to cosmic consciousness, considered from the point of view of the intellect, seems to be a phenomenon strictly parallel to the passage from simple to self consciousness. As in the latter, so in the former, there are two chief elements :

a. Added consciousness ; a. When an organism which possesses simple consciousness only, attains to self consciousness, it becomes aware for the first time that it is a separate creature, or existing in a world which is apart from it. That is, the oncoming of the new faculty instructs it without any new experience or process of learning. b. It, at the same time, acquires enormously increased powers of accumulating knowledge and of initiating action. So when a person who was self conscious only, enters into cosmic consciousness— a. He knows without learning (from the mere fact of illumination) certain things, as, for instance: (i) that the universe is not a dead machine but a living presence ; (2) that in its essence and tendency it is infinitely good ; (3) that individual existence is continuous beyond what is called death. At the same time : b. He takes on enormously greater capacity both for learning and initiating. The parallel holds also from the point of view of the moral nature. For the animal that has simple consciousness merely cannot possibly know anything of the pure delight in simply living that is possessed (at least part of the time) by every healthy, well-constituted young or middle-aged man or woman. “ Cannot possibly,” for this feeling depends on self consciousness and without that can have no existence. The horse or dog enjoys life while experiencing an agreeable sensation or when stimulated

by an agreeable activity (really the same thing), but cannot realize that everyday calm in the enjoyment of life, independent of the senses and of outward things, which belongs to the moral nature (the basic fact, indeed, of positive side of this), starting, as may be truly said, from the central well-spring of the life of the organism (the sense of bien-etre — “well-being”) that belongs to man as man and is in truth one of his most valued heritages. This constitutes a plain or plateau, in the region of the moral nature, upon which the sentient creature steps when passing, or as it passes, from simple to self consciousness.

Corresponding with this moral ascent and with those steps, above noted, taken by the intellect from simple to self, and from self to cosmic consciousness, is the moral ascent that belongs to the passage from self to cosmic consciousness. This can only be realized, therefore only described, by those who have passed through the experience. What do they say about it? Well, read what Gautama and the illuminati of the Buddhists tell us of Nirvana ; namely, that it is the “ highest happiness ” [156 : 9]. Says the unknown, but unquestionably illumined writer, in the Mahabbharata : “ The devotee, whose happiness is within himself, and whose light [of knowledge] also is within himself, becoming one with the Brahman, obtains the Brahmic bliss” [154: 66]. Note the dicta of Jesus on the value of the “Kingdom of Heaven,” to purchase which a man sells all that he has ; remember the worth that Paul ascribes to “ Christ,” and how he was caught up into the third heaven ; reflect on Dante’s “transhumanization” from a man “into a God,” and on the name he gives the cosmic sense : Beatrice — “ Making Happy.” Here, too, is his distinct statement of the joy that belongs to it: “That which I was seeing seemed to me a smile of the universe, for my inebriation was entering through the hearing and through the sight. O joy ! O ineffable gladness ! O life entire of love and of peace ! O riches secure without longing ! ” [72 : 173]. See what Behmen says on the same subject: “ Earthly language is entirely insufficient to describe what there is of joy, happiness, and loveliness contained in the inner wonders of God. Even if the eternal Virgin pictures them to our minds, man’s constitution is too cold and dark to be able to express even a spark of it in his language” [97 : 85]. Observe Elukhanam’s oft-repeated exclamation: “Sandosiam, Sandosiam

Eppotham” — “Joy, always joy.” And again Edward Carpenter’s “All sorrow finished,” “The deep, deep ocean of joy within,” “ Being filled with joy,” From Self to Cosmic Consciousness “singing joy unending,” Above all, bear in mind the testimony of Walt Whitman — testimony unvarying, though given in ever varying language, and upon almost every page of the Leaves, covering forty years of life : “ I am satisfied — I see, dance, laugh, sing.” “Wandering, amazed at my own lightness and glee.” “ O the joy of my spirit — it is uncaged — it darts like lightning.” “I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee O death,” And that forecast of the future taken from his own heart — that future “ when through these states walk a hundred millions of superb persons” — that is, persons possessed of the cosmic sense. And finally : “ The ocean filled with joy — the atmosphere all joy ! Joy, joy, in freedom, worship, love ! Joy in the ecstasy of life : Enough to merely be ! Enough to breathe ! Joy, Joy ! All over joy” [193 : 358] ! “Well,” some one will say, “if these people see and know and feel so much, why don’t they come out with it in plain language and give the world the benefit of it ? ” This is what “ speech ” said to Whitman : “ Walt, you

contain enough, why don’t you let it out, then ? ” [193 ; 50]. But he tells us : “ When I undertake to tell the best I find I cannot, My tongue is ineffectual on its pivots, My breath will not be obedient to its organs, I become a dumb man” [193 : 179]-’ So Paul, when he was “caught up into paradise,” heard “unspeakable words.” And Dante was not able to recount the things he saw in heaven. “ My vision,” he says, “ was greater than our speech, which yields to such a sight.” [72 ; 212], And so of the rest. The fact of the matter is not difficult to understand ; it is that speech (as fully explained above) is the tally of the self conscious intellect, can express that and nothing but that, does not tally and cannot express the Cosmic Sense — or, if at all, only in so far as this may be translated into terms of the self conscious intellect. It will be well to state here (partly in recapitulation) for the benefit of the reader of the next two parts, briefly and explicitly, the marks of the Cosmic Sense. They are :

a. The subjective light. b. The moral elevation. c. The intellectual illumination. d. The sense of immortality. c. The loss of the fear of death. f. The loss of the sense of sin. g. The suddenness, instantaneousness, of the awakening. h. The previous character of the man — intellectual, moral and physical. /. The age of illumination. j. The added charm to the personality so that men and women are always (?) strongly attracted to the person. k. The transfiguration of the subject of the change as seen by others when the cosmic sense is actually present. It must not be supposed that because a man has cosmic consciousness he is therefore omniscient or infallible. The greatest of these men are in a sense in the position, though on a higher plane, of children who have just become self conscious. These men have just reached a new phase of consciousness— have not yet had time or opportunity to exploit or master this. True, they have reached a higher mental level ; but on that level there can and will be comparative wisdom and comparative foolishness, just as there is on the level of simple or of self consciousness. As a man with self consciousness may sink in morals and intelligence below the higher animal with simple consciousness merely, so we may suppose a man with cosmic consciousness may (in certain circumstances) be little if at all above another who spends his life on the plane of self consciousness.

And it must be still more evident that, however godlike the faculty may be, those who first acquire it, living in diverse ages and countries, passing the years of their self conscious life in different surroundings, brought up to view life and the interests of life from totally different points of view, must necessarily interpret somewhat differently those things which they see in the new world which they enter. The marvel is that they all see the new world for what it is as clearly as they do. The main point is that these men and this new consciousness must not be condemned because neither the men nor the new consciousness are absolute. That could not be. For should man (passing upward from plane to plane) reach an intellectual and moral position as far above that of our best men to-day as are those above the average mollusk, he would be as far from infallibility and as far from absolute goodness or absolute knowledge as he is at present. He would have the same aspiration to achieve a higher

From Self to Cosmic Consciousness Time of Year of Illumination mental position that he has to-day, and there would be as much room over his head for growth and amelioration as ever there was. As summary and introductory anticipation of the cases that are to follow, a tabular statement of those considered as probably genuine is here given. A few words upon this may be of interest. Upon glancing over it the first thing to strike the reader will be the immense preponderance of men over women among those who have had the new faculty. The second will be the, at first sight, curious fact (to be referred to again later) that in nearly all the cases in which the time of year is known illumination occurred between early spring and late summer, half of all the cases occurring in or about May and June. The third will be (and this fact is interesting from the point of view of physiology) that there appears to be a general correspondence between the age at illumination and the length of life of the individual. Thus the average age at illumination of Socrates, Mohammed, Las Casas and J. B. was 39 years, and the average age at death was 74^4 years (though one of them was executed while still hale and strong. In the case of

years, and at death only 55^4^ years, being thus (on the average) 8 years younger at illumination and years younger at death ; while Gautama, Paul, Dante, Behmen, Yepes and Whitman, who all entered cosmic consciousness at the mean age of 34 to 36, had an average life duration of 62 years, one of them, Paul, having been executed at 67. We might expect this correspondence, for, as illumination takes place at full maturity, this would of course (in a general way) correspond with the life limit of the person. It is not, of course, intended to write biographies here of the men given in this volume as cases of Cosmic Consciousness, nor, equally of course, can more than the faintest hint be given of their teaching. The facts quoted from their lives and the passages from their words are simply intended to establish and illustrate the fact that these men were illumined in the sense in which that word is used in this book. Siddhartha Gautama was born of wealthy parents (his father being rather a great landowner than a king, as he is sometimes stated to have been), between the years 562 and 552 B. C. It seems sufficiently certain that he was a case of Cosmic Consciousness, although, on account of the remoteness of his era, details of proof may be somewhat lacking. He was married very young. Ten years afterwards his only son, Rahula, was born.

Shortly after Rahula’s birth, Gautama, being then in his twenty-ninth year, suddenly abandoned his home to devote himself entirely to the study of religion and philosophy. He seems to have been a very earnest-minded man who, realizing keenly the miseries of the human race, desired above all things to do something to abolish, or at least lessen, them. The orthodox manner of attaining to holiness in Gautama’s age and land was through fasting and penance, and for six years he practiced extreme self-mortification. He gained extraordinary fame, for which he cared nothing, but did not gain the mental peace nor the secret of human happiness, for which he strove. Seeing that that course was vain and led to nothing, he abandoned asceticism and shortly afterwards, at about the age of thirty-five, attained illumination under the celebrated Bo tree.

For our present purpose it is important to fix the age of the oncoming of the Cosmic Sense in this, as in other cases, as precisely as possible. A very recent and probably good authority [6o] gives it as thirty-six. Ernest de Bunsen in his work “The Angel Messiah” says that Buddha, like Christ, “commenced preaching at thirty years of age. He certainly must have preached at Vaisali, for five young men became his disciples there and exhorted him to go on with his teachings. He was twenty-nine when he left that place ; therefore he might well have preached at thirty. He did not turn the wheel of the law (became illumined) until after a six years’ meditation under the tree of knowledge ” [109 : 44]. Now as to the result of his illumination. What did he say about it? And what change did it effect in the man ? The Dhamma-Kakka-PpavattanaSutta [159] is accepted by all Buddhists as a summary of the words in which the great Indian thinker and reformer for the first time successfully promulgated his new ideas [160 : 140]. In it over and over again Gautama declares that the “ noble truths ” taught therein were not “ among the doctrines handed down,” but that “there arose within him the eye to perceive them, the knowledge of their nature, the understanding of their cause, the wisdom that lights the true path, the light that expels darkness.” He could not well more definitely state that he did not derive his authority to teach from the merely Self Conscious, but from the Cosmic Conscious, mind — that is, from illumination or inspiration. Compare with this what Behmen says of himself in the same connection : “ I am not collecting my knowledge from letters

and books, but I have it within my own Self ; because heaven and earth with all their inhabitants, and moreover God himself, is in man ” [97 : 39]. In the Maha Vagga [162 : 208] it is said that “during the first watch of the night following on Gautama’s victory over the evil one (the night following upon his attainment of Cosmic Consciousness) he fixed his mind upon the chain of causation ; during the second watch he did the same, and during the third watch he did the same.” This tradition exists among both northern and southern Buddhists, has come down from the time before the separa- tion of these churches, and is therefore probably genuine and from Gautama himself. But it embodies in clear and concise language one of the most fundamental phenomena belonging to the oncoming of the Cosmic Sense: most probably “the revelation of exceeding greatness” of which Paul speaks; the vision of the “enternal wheels” of Dante; “the knowledge that passes all the argument of the earth” of Whitman; the “inner illumination by which we can ultimately see things as they are, beholding all creation — the animals, the angels, the plants, the figures of our friends, and all the ranks and races of human kind — in their true being and order, ” of Edward Carpenter.

Again in the Akankheyya-Sutta [161 : 210-18] is set forth the spiritual characteristics which belong to those who possess the Cosmic Sense. No one, not having it, could have written the description which, doubtless proceeds, as claimed, directly from Gautama. Neither could any later possessor of the faculty set forth more clearly in the same number of words the distinctive marks which belong to it. For instance, it is said there that the attainment of Arahatship (supernatural insight — Nirvana — illumination — Cosmic Consciousness) “will cause a man to become: Beloved, popular, respected among his fellows, victorious over discontent * and lust ; over spiritual danger and dismay ; will bestow upon him the ecstasy of contemplation ; t will enable him to reach with his body, and remain in, those stages of deliverance which are incorporeal and pass beyond phenomena ; J cause him to become an inheritor of the highest heavens ; § make him being one to become multiple, being multiple to become one ; 1| will endow him with clear and heavenly ear, surpassing that of men ; enable him to comprehend by his own heart the hearts of * “Were mankind murderous or jealous upon you my brother, my sister ? I am sorry for you, they are not murderous or jealous upon me, all has been gentle with me, I keep no account with lamentation (what have I to do with lamentation ?)’ ’ [193 : 71]. “The holy breath kills lust, passion and hate” [M. C. L. infra],

f “ Yet O my soul supreme ! Knowest thou the joys of pensive thought? Joys of the free and lonesome heart, the tender, gloomy heart ?” [193: 147]- J “ Tomb-leaves, body-leaves growing up above me, above death” [193 : 96]. g “ Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ” [19: 8-17]. II “ The other I am ” [193:32]. “ Thou teachest how to make one twain ” [176 ; 39]. other beings, and of other men, to understand all minds, the passionate, the calm, the angry, the peaceable, the deluded, the wise, the concentrated, the ever-varying, the lofty, the narrow, the sublime, the mean, the steadfast, the wavering, the free and the enslaved ; give him the power to call to mind his various temporary states in days gone by; such as one birth, two births, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty. Is this not a perfect description of a large and important part of what the Cosmic Sense did, for instance, for Dante, “Shakespeare,” Balzac, Whitman ? forty, fifty, a hundred, a thousand or a hundred thousand births ; his births in many an eon of renovation ; in many an eon of both destruction and renovation ; to call to mind his temporary states in days gone by in all their modes and in all their details ; * to see with pure and heavenly vision surpassing that of men, beings as they pass from one state of existence and take form in others ; beings base or noble, goodlooking or ill-favored, happy or miserable ; to know and realize emancipation of heart and emancipation of mind.

A few other passages alluding to the cosmic sense and having more or less close parallels in the writings of more modern illuminati may be given in further illustration, but it is almost needless to say that whoever desires light on this subject should read for himself — not once, but over and over again — the words left us by these lords of thought. Here is a passage from “The Book of the Great Decease.” Gautama is teaching his disciples; he speaks as follows : So long as the brethren shall not engage in, or be fond of, or be connected with business — so long as the brethren shall not be in the habit of, or be fond of, or be partakers in idle talk — so long as the brethren shall not be addicted to, or be fond of, or indulge in slothfulness — so long as the brethren shall not frequent, or be fond of, or indulge in society — so long as the brethren shall neither have nor fall under the influence of sinful desires — so long as the brethren shall not become the friends, companions or intimates of sinners — so long as the brethren shall not come to a stop on their way (to Nirvana) because they have attained to any lesser thing (as riches or power) — so long may the brethren be expected not to decline, but to prosper [163 : 7 et seq.] .

It is needless to quote parallel passages from Jesus, they are so numerous and will occur to everyone. But it is worth noting that Paul uses almost the same language, referring to the same figure which is in the mind of the Buddhist writer, when he says (comparing Nirvana, the Cosmic Sense and the things belonging to it to the prize of a race) : “ one thing I do, forgetting the things (the lesser things of the Buddhist text) which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize ” [24 : 3 : 13]. Compare also “ The Song of the Open Road,” in which the same thought is elaborately worked out [193 : 120]. Then as to the admonition against “business” and the “lesser things,” such as wealth, consider the lives of Gautama, Jesus, Paul, Whitman and E. C., most of whom either were or might easily have been “well off,” but either turned * “ I pass death with the dying and birth with the new washed babe.” “ No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before” [193 ; 34-37]. Compare “Faces” [193 : 353] where this “ heavenly vision ” is seen in action.

The final and supreme test. their backs upon their wealth (as Gautama or E. C.) or simply declined to have any (as Jesus and Whitman). In commentary upon this fact read these words of Whitman : Beyond the independence of a little sum laid aside for burial money, and of a few clapboards around and shingles overhead on a lot of American soil owned and the easy dollars that supply the year’s plain clothing and meals, the melancholy prudence of the abandonment of such a great being as a man is to the toss and pallor of years of money making with all their scorching days and icy nights .... is the great fraud upon modern civilization [191 : 10]. The following lines are quoted as a plain allusion to the Cosmic Sense — the whole Upanishad should be read : There lived once Svetaketu Aruneya (the grandson of Aruna). To him his father (Uddalaka, the sun of Aruna) said : “Svetaketu, go to school ; for there is none belonging to our race, darling, who, not having studied (the Veda), is, as it were, a Brahmana by birth only.’’ Having begun his apprenticeship with a teacher when he was twelve years of age, Svetaketu returned to his father when he was twenty-four, having studied all the Vedas, conceited, considering himself well read and stern.

His father said to him : “ Svetaketu, as you are so conceited, considering yourself so well read, and so stern, my dear, have you ever asked for that instruction by which we hear what cannot be heard, by which we perceive what cannot be perceived, by which we know what cannot be known ’’ [148 : 92] ? “That seeing they may see and not perceive ; and hearing they may hear and not understand ” [15 ; 4. 12]; “ I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and exteriors have their exteriors, and that the eyesight has another eyesight, and the hearing another hearing, and the voice another voice ’’ [193 : 342] . In the same connection read this verse : The teacher replies : It is the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the speech ot speech, the breath of breath, and the eye of the eye [149 : 147]- Just one more passage : That one (the self), though never stirring, is swifter than thought. The senses never reached it, it walked before them. Though standing still, it overtakes the others who are running. The moving spirit bestows powers upon it. It stirs and it stirs not. It is far and likewise near. It is inside of all

this and it is outside of all this. “ The sense is a sense that one is those objects And he who beholds all beings in the and things and persons, that one perceives, and self and the self in all beings, he never whole universe [62] . turns away from it. When to a man who understands, the self has become all things, what sorrow, what trouble can there be to him who once beheld that unity [150 : 311] ? The specific reasons for believing that Gautama was a case of Cosmic Consciousness are: a. The initial character of his mind, which seems to have been ardent, earnest and aspiring; such, indeed, as usually (always?) precedes the oncoming of the Cosmic Sense. d. The definiteness and suddenness of the change in the man from unceasing aspiration and endeavor to achievement and peace. “A religious life is well taught by me ” (says Gautama). “An instantaneous, an immediate life” [157 : 104]. And, again, Gautama is said to teach “the instantaneous, the immediate, the destruction of desire, freedom from distress, whose likeness is nowhere” [157 : 211]. c. The age at which illumination is said to have been attained — the typical age for the oncoming of the Cosmic Sense — thirty-five years.

d. The general teaching of the “ Suttas,” said to have come from Gautama, which teachings undoubtedly spring from a mind possessed of Cosmic Consciousness. e. The intellectual illumination — “supernatural insight ” [157 : 78] — ascribed, and justly ascribed, to Gautama and proved by the above teachings — if these proceed from him. /. The moral elevation attained by Gautama which nothing but the possession of Cosmic Consciousness will account for. g. Gautama seems to have had the sense of eternal life which belongs to Cosmic Consciousness. The Mahavagga is supposed to give with considerable accuracy his actual teaching in such matters [158 : ii] and [162 : 208]. In it we find these words: “The man who has no desire, who knowingly is free from doubt, and has attained the depth of immortality, him I call a Brahmana” [157 : 114]. It is important to note that the test is not a belief or assurance (however strong) in a future eternal life. The man, in order to be a Brahmana (to have attained Nirvana — Cosmic Consciousness), must already have acquired eternal life. h. The personal magnetism exerted directly by him upon his contemporaries, and through his words upon his disciples in all ages since.

i. There is a tradition of the characteristic change in appearance known as “transfiguration.” When he came down “from the mountain Mienmo a staircase of glittering diamonds, seen by all, helped his descent. His appearance was blinding ” [109 : 63]. Allowing for Oriental exaggeration, a germ of truth may be contained in this tradition. If, now, Guatama had Cosmic Consciousness, and if, as seems almost certain, it has appeared among his followers generation after generation from his time until now, then it must have a name in the copius literature of the Buddhists. There is, in fact, a word used by these people as to the exact value of which Western students have always been more or less in doubt, but if to that word we assign this meaning all difficulty seems to be ended and the passages in which that word occurs are seen to have a clear and simple signification. The word referred to is Nirvana. Kinza M. Hirai says [2 : 263] : “ Nirvana is interpreted by Western nations as the the actual annihilation of human desire or passion ; but this is a mistake. Nirvana is nothing else than universal reason.” It may be doubted whether Mr. Hirai by “universal reason” means “Cosmic Consciousness,” but his intention in using the expression is the same. If he realizes or shall ever realize what Cosmic Consciousness is it is certain that he will say that Nirvana is a name for it.

In further illustration of this point read (as follows) part of a chapter on Nirvana by an excellent authority [73 : no] — Rhys Davids: One might fill pages with the awestruck and ecstatic praise which is lavished in Buddhist writings on this condition of mind, the Fruit of the Fourth Path, the state of an Arahat, of a man made perfect according to the Buddhist faith. But all that could be said can be included in one pregnant phrase — this is Nirvana. There is no suffering for him who has finished his journey, and abandoned grief, who has freed himself on all sides, and thrown off all fetters. The gods even envy him whose senses like horses well broken in by the driver, have been subdued, who is free from pride, and free from appetites. Such a one who does his duty is tolerant like the earth,* like Indra’s bolt; he is like a lake without mud ; no new births are in store for him. His thought is quiet, quiet are his word and deed when he has obtained freedom by true knowledge [131 : 27]. They who by steadfast mind have become exempt from evil desire, and well trained in the teachings of Guatama ; they, having obtained the Fruit of the Fourth Path, and immersed themselves in that Ambrosia, have received without price and are in the enjoyment of Nirvana. Their old Karma f is exhausted, no new Karma

* “Who in his spirit in any emergency neither hastens nor avoids death ” [193 : 291]. “ The earth neither lags nor hastens, does not withold, is generous enough, the truths of the earth continually wait, they are not so concealed either, they are calm, subtle, untransmissible by print” [193 ; 176]. -j- Karma — one’s action or acts considered as determining his lot after death and in a following existence. is being produced ; their hearts are free from the longing after a future life ;* the cause of their existence being destroyed, and no new * A man who has acquired the Cosmic Sense does not desire eternal life — he has it. yearning springing up within them, they the wise are extinguished like this lamp (Ratana Sutta). That mendicant conducts himself well who has conquered (sin) by means of holiness, from whose eyes the veil of error has been removed, who is well trained in religion ; and who, free from yearning, and skilled in the knowledge, has attained unto Nirvana (Sammaparibbajanlya Sutta). What, then, is Nirvana, which means simply blowing out — extinction ;* it being quite clear from what has gone before, that this cannot be the extinction of a soul?

It is the extmctio7i of that sinful, grasping co7iditio7i of 77ti7id a7id heart which would otherwise, accordmg to the great 7nystery of Kar77ia, be the cause of re7iewed individual existe7ice. [Italics belong to text quoted.] That extinction is to be brought about by, and runs parallel with, the growth of the opposite condition of mind and heart ; *Nir, “out,” vana “blowing,” from root va, “blow,” with suffix ana. That Nirvana cannot mean extinction in the sense of death is clear from the following passage : “ And ere long he attained to that supreme goal of Nirvana — the higher life — for the sake of which men go out from all and every household gain and comfort to become homeless wanderers, yea that supreme goal did he by himself, and while yet in this visible world, bring himself to the knowledge of and continue to realize and to see face to face” [163 : no]. and it is complete when that opposite con- * Would need to, if it means Cosmic Consciousness. f Not so much cessation as the swallowing up of individual in universal existence. dition is reached. Nirvana is therefore the same thing as a sinless, calm state of mind ; and if translated at all may best, perhaps, be rendered ” holiness ” — holiness, that is, in the Buddhist sense — perfect peace, goodness and wisdo7n.

To attempt translations of such pregnant terms is, however, always dangerous, as the new word — part of a new language which is the outcome of a different tone of thought — while it may denote the same or nearly the same idea, usually calls up together with it very different ones. This is the case here ; our word holiness would often suggest the idea of love to, and awe in the felt presence of, a personal creator — ideas inconsistent with Buddhist holiness. On the other hand. Nirvana implies the ideas of intellectual energy,* and of the cessation of individual existence ; t of which the former is not essential to, and the latter is quite unconnected with, our idea of holiness. Holiness and Nirvana, in other words, may represent states of mind not greatly different ; but these are due to different causes and end in different results ; and, in using the words, it is impossible to confine one’s thought to the thing expressed, so as not also to think of its origin and its effect. It is better, therefore, to retain the word Nirvana as the name of the Buddhist summum bonum, which is a blissful holy state, a moral condition, a modification of personal character ;* and we should allow the word to remind us, as it did the early Buddhists, both of the Path which leads to the extinction of sin,f and also of the break of the transfer of Karma, which the extinction of sin will bring about. That this

* A modification of the man’s personality. f The loss of the sense of sin is one of the most striking characteristics of the state of Cosmic Consciousness. must be the effect of Nirvana is plain ; for that state of mind ■which in Nirvana is extinct (upadana klesa, trishna) is precisely that which will, according to the great mystery of Buddhism, lead at death to the formation of a new individual, to whom the Karma of the dissolved or dead one will be transferred. That new individval would consist of certain bodily and mental qualities or tendencies, enumerated, as already explained in the five Skandhas or aggregates. A comprehensive name of all five is upadi, a word derived (in allusion to the name of their cause, upadana) from upada, to grasp, either with the hand or the mind.* Now when a Buddhist has become an Arahat, when he has reached Nirvana, the Fruit of the Fourth Path, he has extinguished upadana and klesa,t but he is still alive ; the upadi, the skandhas, his body with all its powers — that is to say, the fruit of his former sin — remain. These, however, are impermanent, they will soon pass away, I there will then be nothing left to bring about the rise of a new set of skandhas, of a new individual ; and the Arahat will be no longer alive or existent in any sense at all, he will have reached Parinibbana, complete extinction, or Nir-upanasesa-Nibbana dhatu, extinction so complete that the upadi, the five skandhas, survive no longer — that is, in one word, death.

The life of man, to use a constantly recurring Buddhist simile or parable, is like the flame of an Indian lamp, a metal or earthenware saucer in which a cotton wick is laid in oil. One life is derived from another, as one flame is lit at- another ; it is not the same flame, but without the other it would not have been. As flame cannot exist without oil, so life, individual existence, depends on the cleaving to law and earthly things, the sin of the heart. If there is no oil in the lamp it will go out. though not until the oil which the wick has drawn up is exhausted ; and then no new flame can be lighted there. And so the parts and powers of the sinless man will be dissolved, and no new being will be born to sorrow. The wise will pass away, will go out like the flame of a lamp, and their Karma will be individualized no longer. Stars long ago extinct may be still visible to us by the light they emitted before they ceased to burn ; but the rapidly vanishing effect of a no longer active cause will soon cease to strike upon our senses ; and where the light was will be darkness So the living, moving body of the perfect man is visible still, though its cause has ceased to act ; but it will soon decay, and die and pass away ; and, as no new body will be formed, where life was will be nothing.

* In other words, desire (no matter of what) — desire in the abstract — is the basis of sin, of Karma, and is the thing that must be got rid of. But desire is inseparable from the self conscious state and only ceases with the oncoming of the Cosmic Sense. f i. e., desire and sin. J We have here the same point of view as that taken by Paul — the worthlessness, the essential sinfulness, of the flesh. To the Buddhist Nirvana (the Cosmic Sense) is all in all ; as to Paul, Christ (the Cosmic Sense) is all in all. The body is nothing or less than nothing. It is against this most natural view (for the glory of the Cosmic Sense is well calculated to throw into deep shade all the rest of life) that Whitman from first to last set himself He saw with the eye of a true seer — with the eye of absolute sobriety and common sense — that the self conscious life was as great in its way as was that of the new sense — let that be as divine as it would ; saw that nothing ever was or could be greater than simple seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, knowing — and on that he took his stand. “The other I am,” he says (the old self)

‘ ‘ must not be abased to you ’ ’ (the new sense) “and you must not be abased to the other.” Whitman has, and will always have, the eternal glory of being the first man who was so great that even the Cosmic Sense could not master him. Death, utter death, with no new life to follow, is then the result of, but is not, NirThe Buddhist heaven is not death, The man who has entered into Nirvana (the Cosmic Sense) has eternal life — any death that can then happen is the death of something no longer wanted. For the words “virtuous life” read “ life with the Cosmic Sense.” and it is not on death, but on a virtuous life here and now, that the Pitakas lavish those terms of ecstatic description which they apply to Nirvana, as the Fruit of the Fourth Path of Arahatship. Thus Professor Max Mueller, who was the first to point out the fact, says (Buddhaghosha’s Parables) : “ If we look in the Dhamma-pada, at every passage where Nirvana is mentioned there is not one which would require that its meaning should be annihilation, while most, if not all, would become perfectly unintelligible if we assigned to the word Nirvana that signification. The same thing may be said of such other parts of the Pitakas as are accessible to us in published texts. Thus the commentator on the Jataka quotes some verses from the Buddhavansa, or history of the Buddhas, which is one of the books of the second Pitaka.

In those verses we have (inter alia) an argument based on the logical assumption that if a positive exists, its negative must also exist ; if there is heat, there must be cold ; and so on. In one of these pairs we find existence opposed, not to Nirvana, but to non-existence ; whilst in another the three fires (of lust, hatred and delusion) are opposed to Nirvana (Fausboll Jataka texts). It follows, I think, that to the mind of the composer of the Buddhavansa, Nirvana meant not the extinction, the negation of being, but the extinction, the absence, of the three fires of passion.”*

So little is known of the books of the northern Buddhist Canon, that it is difficult to discover their doctrine on any controverted point ; but so far as it is possible to judge, they confirm that use of the word Nirvana which we find in the Pitakas In the Lalita Vistara the word occurs in a few passages, in none of which is the sense of annihilation necessary, and in all of which I take Nirvana to mean the same as the Pali Nibbana.f *And this, a life of joy and exalted intelligence, free from desire, is life with Cosmic Consciousness. f Gautama says ; “1 went to Benares, where 1 preached the law to the five Solitaries. From that moment the wheel of my law has been moving, and the name of Nirvana made its appearance in the world” [164 : 56]. This refers to the date of Gautama’s illumination, and seems to plainly show that “Nirvana” is a name of Cosmic Consciousness. Elsewhere in the same book we are told of “ men who walk in the knowledge of the law after the attaining of Nirvana [164 : 125]. And again: “Nirvana is a consequence of understanding that all things are equal ” [164 : 129]. Once more : “ There is no real Nirvana without all-knowingness (Cosmic Consciousness); try to reach this” [164 : 140]. Also, Gautama speaks of himself as having explained in this world the perfect law, of having conducted to Nirvana innumerable persons [30 : 179]. If he explained the perfect law and conducted to Nirvana while still living he must certainly have reached Nirvana himself during his life. Gautama also addresses himself to men who have reached Nirvana. How could he do so if Nirvana was annihilation ? The words of Burnouf’s translation are : “ Je m’adresse a tous ces (^ravakas, aux hommes qui sont parvenus a I’etat de Prat-

yekabuddha, a ceux qui ont 6te 6tablis par moi dans le Nirvana, a ceux qui sont entierement delivr6s de la succession incessante des douleurs” [30 : 22]. So, too, Sariputra, thanking and praising Gautama, says: “To-day I have reached Nirvana” — “Aujourd’hui 6 Bhagavat, j'ai acquis le Nirvana.” Nirvana, therefore, is certainly something which a man may acquire and still go on living. The Tibetan rendering of the word is a long phrase, meaning, according to Burnouf,* “the state of him who is delivered from sorrow,” or “the state in which one finds one’s self when one is so delivered.” This is confirmed by Mr. Beal’s compre- * Burnouf’s words are : “ L’idee d’affranchissement est la seule que les interpretes tibetains aient vue dans le mot de Nirvana car c’est la seule qu’ils ont traduite. Dans les versions qu’ils donnent des textes sanscrits du Nepal, le terme de Nirvana est rendu par les mots mya-ngan-las-hdahba, qui signifient litteralment T’etat de celui qui hensive and valuable work on Chinese est affranchi de la douleur,’ ou * 1’ etat dans lequel Buddhism, where the Chinese version of trouve quand on est ainsi affranchi the Sanskirt Parinirvana Sutra has the ‘ following : “ Nirvana is just so. In the

midst of sorrow there is no Nirvana and in Nirvana there is no sorrow.” The early Sanskrit texts of the northern Buddhists, like the Pali texts of the Pitakas, all seem to look upon Nirvana as a moral condition, to be reached here, in the world, and in this life. Finally, in order to show that as the word is used by those who know its meaning best it can hardly mean death and may well mean what is here called cosmic consciousness, read the following passages culled from the Dhamma-pada, one of the oldest and most sacred of the Buddhist scriptural books. Every passage in this book in which the word Nirvana occurs is here given and with them parallel passages from other analogous writings : Earnestness is the path of immortality It has been many times pointed out in this vol- (Nirvana), thoughtlessness the path of ume that earnestness of mind is a sine qua non to \ ,1 ir-i T . T 1 . the attainment of cosmic consciousness. The death. Those who are m earnest do not die, those who are thoughtless are as if dead already [156:9]. These wise people, meditative, steady, always possessed of strong powers, attain to Nirvana, the highest happiness [156 : 9]. A Bhikshu (mendicant) who delights in reflection, who looks with fear on thoughtlessness, cannot fall away (from his perfect state) — he is close upon Nirvana [i 56 : 1 1] . “ One is the road that leads to wealth, another the road that leads to Nirvana if the Bhikshu, the disciple of Buddha, has learnt this, he will not yearn for honor, he will strive after separation from the world [156 : 22] .

Men who have no riches, who live on recognized food, who have perceived void and unconditioned freedom (Nirvana), their path is difficult to understand, like that of birds in the air [156 : 27]. He whose appetites are stilled, who is not absorbed in enjoyment, who has perceived void and unconditioned freedom (Nirvana), his path is difficult to understand, like that of birds in the air [156 : 28]. Some people are born evil-doers go to hell ; righteous After Confucius had seen Li R he said to his disciples : “I know birds can fly, flsh swim and animals run, but the runner may be snared, the swimmer hooked and the flyer shot with the arrow. But there is the dragon ; I cannot tell how he mounts on the wind through the clouds and rises to heaven. To-day I have seen Laotsze and can only compare him to the dragon.” We might say the same in our own way of nearly any of the persons mentioned in this book as having the cosmic sense. people go to heaven ; those who are free from all worldly desires attain Nirvana [156 : 35]. If, like a shattered metal plate (gong), thou utter not, then thou hast reached Nirvana ; contention is not known to thee [156 : 37]. The Awakened call patience the highest penance, long-suffering the highest Nirvana ; for he is not an anchorite (pravragita) who strikes others, he is not an ascetic (stramana) who insults others [156 : 50]- Hunger is the worst of diseases, the

body the greatest of pains ; if one knows ^PP"'^'"" this truly, that is Nirvana, the highest happiness [156 : 54]. Health is the greatest in life can only be perceived by one having cosmic consciousness. of gifts ; contentedness the best riches ; trust is the best of relationships ; Nirvana the highest happiness [156 : 55]. He in whom a desire for the Ineffable (Nirvana) has sprung up, who is satisfied in his mind, and whose thoughts are not bewildered by love, he is called urdhvamsrotas (carried upward by the stream) [156 : 57]. The sages who injure nobody, and who always control their body, they will go to the unchangeable place (Nirvana), where, if they have gone, they will suffer no more [156 : 58]. Those who are ever watchful, who study day and night, and who strive after Nirvana, their passions will come to an end [156 : 58] . Cut out the love of self, like an autumn lotus, with thy hand ! Cherish the road of peace. Nirvana has been shown by Sugata (Buddha) [156 : 69]. A wise and good man who knows the meaning of this, should quickly clear the way that leads to Nirvana [156 : 69]. For with these animals does no man reach the untrodden country (Nirvana), where a tamed man goes on a tamed animal — viz., on his own well tamed self [156 ; 77]. He who having got rid of the forest (of lust) (i.

e. , after having reached Nirvana), gives himself over to forest-life (i. e., to lust), and who, when removed from the forest (i. e., from lust), runs to the forest (i. e., to lust), look at that man! though free, he runs into bondage [156 : 81]. The Bhikshu who acts with kindness, who is calm in the doctrine of Buddha, will reach the quiet place (Nirvana), cessation of natural desires, and happiness [156:86]. O Bhikshu, empty this boat ! if emptied, it will go quickly ; having cut off passion and hatred, thou wilt go to Nirvana [156 : 86]. Without knowledge there is no meditation, without meditation there is no knowledge : he who has knowledge and meditation is near unto Nirvana [156 : 87]. As soon as he has considered the origin and destruction of the elements (khandha) of the body, he finds happiness and joy which belong to those who know the immortal (Nirvana) [156 : 87]. The Bhikshu, full of delight, who is calm in the doctrine of Buddha, will reach the quiet place (Nirvana), cessation of natural desires and happiness [156 : 88].

Gautama, then, was a case of Cosmic Consciousness, and the central doctrine in his system. Nirvana, was the doctrine of the Cosmic Sense. The whole of Buddhism is simply this : There is a mental state so happy, so glorious, that all the rest of life is worthless compared to it, a pearl of great price to buy which a wise man willingly sells all that he has ; this state can be achieved. The object of all Buddhist literature is to convey some idea of this state and to guide aspirants into this glorious country, which is literally the Kingdom of God. Balzac says [5 : 143] that Jesus was a Specialist — that is, that he had Cosmic Consciousness. As Balzac was himself undoubtedly illumined, he would be high, if not absolute, authority upon the point. Paul, as soon as his own eyes were opened, recognized Jesus as belonging to a superior spiritual order — that is, as having the Cosmic Sense. But let us not take any one’s word, but try and see for ourselves what reasons there are for including this man in the list of those having Cosmic Consciousness. Jesus was born B. C. 4 [80], and would be, according to this authority, thirty-four or thirty-five years old when he began to teach, so would have been at least thirty-three at the time of illumination — supposing him a case.

Other writers make him older. Sutherland [143a : 140] says: “The death of Jesus occurred in the year 35.” This would make him thirty-nine at his death, thirty-six or thirty-eight when he began to teach (the former, if he taught three years, as John says ; the latter, if he taught only one year, as the synoptics tell us), and, say, thirty-five or thirty-six at illumination.* All goes to show that at about the age specified a marked change took *The Review of Reviews for January, 1897, sums up the evidence bearing on the point as follows : “One of the most eminent of living authorities on the life of Christ, Dr. Cunningham Geikie, writes in the Homiletic Review on the various attempts to fix the exact date of the birth of the Messiah. “ It is clear that the received chronology of the Abbot Dyonisius the DAvarf, which dates from the first half of the sixth century, must have begun several years too late in fixing the birth of Christ as having taken place in the 754th year of Rome, since it is known that Herod died in 750, and Jesus must have been born while Herod was still reigning. Dr. Geikie points out other fundamental errors in the calculations of the Abbot Dyonisius.

“Dyonisius had based his calculations on the mention by St. Luke that John the Baptist, who was a little older than Jesus, began his public work in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, and that Jesus was ‘ about thirty years old ’ when he began to teach (Luke iii ; 1—23). This fifteenth year of Tiberius would be perhaps 782 or 783, and thirty deducted from this would give 752 or 753, to the latter of which Dionysius added a year, on the supposition that Luke’s expression, ‘about thirty years,’ required him to add a year. But the vague ‘ about ’ was a weak ground on which to go, and, besides, the reign of Tiberius may be reckoned from his association in the government with Augustus, and thus from 765 instead of from 767. The texts I have quoted from St. Luke cannot, therefore, be used to place in him ; that whereas up to a certain age he was very much as others, he all at once ascended to a spiritual level quite over the heads of ordinary men. Those who knew him at home, as a boy and a young man, could not understand his superiority. “Is not this the carpenter’s son” [14 : 13 : 55] ? they ask. Or as elsewhere reported : “ Is not this the carpenter the son of Mary? .... and they were offended at him” [15 : 6 : 3]. This marked spiritual ascent occurring suddenly at this age is in itself almost diagnostic of the oncoming of the cosmic sense.

The earliest written and probably most authentic account of the illumination of Jesus runs as follows : “And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens rent asunder, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon him : and a voice came out of the heavens saying art Itip ,^on, in tl^CC ^ am tOCH plca^lcU, And straightway the Spirit driveth him forth into the wilderness” [15 : i : 10-12]. There is a tradition that the illumination of Jesus took place the 6th or loth of January [133a ; 63]. The fact that Jesus went to John to be baptized shows that his mind was directed to religion and makes it probable that he had (before illumination) the earnest temperament out of which, when at all, the Cosmic Sense springs. It is not necessary to suppose that illumination took place immediately upon the baptism or that there was any special connection between these two things. The impulse that drove Jesus to solitude after his illumination is usual, if not universal. Paul felt it and obeyed it ; so did Whitman. The expression: “He saw the heavens rent asunder,” describes well enough the oncoming of the Cosmic Sense, which is (as has been said)

fix either the birthday or the month of the birth, or even the year. This is seen, indeed, in the varying opinions on all these points in the early church, and from the fact that the 25th of December has been accepted as the birth date only since the fourth century, when it spread from Rome, as that which was to be thus honored.” “The nearest approach to a sound conclusion is, in fact, supplied by the statement that Herod was alive for some time after Christ was born. The infant Redeemer must have been six weeks old when presented in the temple, and the visit of the Magi fell we do not know how much later. That the massacre of all the children at Bathlehem from two years old and under presupposes that the Magi must have come to Jerusalem a long time after the birth of the expected King, for there would have been no sense in killing children two years old if Christ had been born only a few weeks or even months before. That there was a massacre, as told in the Gospel, is confirmed by a reference to it in a Satire of Macrobius (Sat. ii, 4), so that the crime is historically true and the higher criticism which treated it as a fable is convicted of error. But if Christ was born two years before Herod’s death — and He may have been born even earlier — this would make the great event fall in the year 748, or six years before our era.”

If we accept the conclusions of this writer, Jesus was about thirty-five years of age at illumination. instantaneous, sudden, and much as if a veil were with one sharp jerk torn from the eyes of the mind, letting the sight pierce through. So, describing this same oncoming of Cosmic Consciousness, John Yepes says (he has been inquiring whether, in this seemingly miraculous occurrence, it is God or the human soul which acts, and he concludes : “ It is the soul that is moved and awakened ; it is as if God drew back some of the many veils and coverings that are before it, so that it might see what he is ” [206 : 502]. So, too, the sense of the words: “ CljOU act mp hdobetl agrees perfectly with the message conveyed in all the cases. The “ I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own ” of Whitman ; and Dante’s words: “O love that governest the heavens, who with thy light didst lift me,” being strictly parallel expressions. The (apparently) objective voice, too, is a common phenomenon ; it was heard by Paul, also by Mahommed. Another important element in the case is the so-called “Temptation.” The theory here accepted is that Jesus, at the age of thirty-three, or even thirty-five, was simply an intelligent, very earnest-minded mechanic, with an excellent heredity and an exceptional physique. That he was in

no way distinguishable, in no way different, save in his eligibility for spiritual expansion, which was hidden in the depths of his nature even from himself, and which may equally exist in any of them, from hundreds of young mechanics in every city and town of Christendom to-day. Suddenly, instantaneously, the change came, and this young man felt and knew within himself the seemingly illimitable spiritual force through the exercise of which almost anything might be accomplished. How was it to be used ? To gain what end? Power? Wealth? Fame? Or what [14 : 4 : i-io] ?

Jesus quickly decided, as these men all decide, that the power must be used for the benefit of the race. Why should he, why should they all, decide in this sense? Because the moral elevation, which is a part of Cosmic Consciousness, will not permit any other decision. Were it not so, were the intellectual illumination not accompanied by moral exaltation, these men would undoubtedly be in effect so many demons who would end by destroying the world. This temptation is necessarily common to all the cases, though they do not all speak of it. The essence of it is the appeal of the old self conscious self to the new power to assist it in accomplishing its old desires. The devil, therefore, is the self conscious self. The devil (Mara) appeared’ to Gautama as well as to Jesus [157 : 69] and urged him not to launch out on a new path, but to keep to the old religious practices, to live quietly and comfort- ably. “What dost thou want with exertion?” he said to him. Mara did not seek to allure Gautama with offers of wealth and power, for these he had already possessed, and even the self conscious Gautama knew their futility. As already intimated, every man who enters Cosmic Consciousness necessarily passes through the same temptation. As all the rest. Bacon was tempted, and, as doubtless many others have fallen, he, in a sense, fell. He felt in himself such enormous capacity that he imagined he could absorb the wealth of both the Cosmic Sense and Self Consciousness — both heaven and earth. Later he bitterly repented his greed. He acknowledges the gift (from God) of the divine faculty — “the gracious talent” — which he says he “neither hoarded up unused, nor did he employ it to the best advantage, as he should have done, but misspent it in things for which (he) was least fit”

The superiority of Jesus to ordinary men consisted (among other things) in A sense (or the sense) of immortality. The mental superiority thus characterized is again almost certainly confined to those who have passed into Cosmic Consciousness, and therefore, if granted, would settle the question. The accounts given in the synoptic gospels of the transfiguration of Jesus can only be explained (if accepted) by supposing that he was seen while in the condition of Cosmic Consciousness, the change in appearance (striking enough in itself) being probably exaggerated (as it would almost certainly be) in the narration. Here are the accounts as given : “ And he was trans- figured before them : and his face did shine as the sun, and his garments became white as the light ” [14 : 17 ; 2]. “And he was transfigured before them; and his garments became glistening, exceeding white; so as no fuller on earth can whiten them ” [15:9: 2-3]. It is singular that this observer should confine his observations to the garments of Jesus. Again : “As he was praying the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment became white and dazzling” [16 : 9 : 29]. It is believed that there is no known human condition, except that of Cosmic Consciousness, which would justify the above words. The change in the “raiment” of Jesus spoken of must be understood as reflected from his face and person.

In the gospel according to the Hebrews occurs the following passage : “ Just now my mother, the Holy Spirit, took me by one of my hairs and bore me upon the great mountain of Tabor” [P09 : 63]. Baur and Hilgenfield, it seems, hold that this is the original of the transfiguration narrative ; but if it is, it does not necessarily weaken the testimony of Mark and Luke. There are people living to-day (the writer knows one of them) who have seen what is described (and well described) in the above words of the gospels. Here there are several strong reasons for believing that Jesus had the Cosmic Sense. A further reason is (if further is needed) that Jesus stands spiritually at or near the summit of the human race, and if there is such a faculty as Cosmic Consciousness, as described in this volume, he must have possessed it, otherwise he could not occupy such a position. It is most unfortunate that the world possesses no words that we can be sure this extraordinary man uttered. What a priceless possession would be a volume, howsoever small, actually written by himself! We have, however, so many sayings which are attributed to him, and apparently on such good authority, that we may be pretty certain that many of them convey with sufficient accuracy the sense of what he actually said.

If, now, Jesus had Cosmic Consciousness, he must have referred to it over and over again in his teaching, just as all other such men have done. If he did so, it should be easy for any one who knows about the Cosmic Sense to detect the references, while for those who do not know there is such a thing these would necessarily be otherwise interpreted. It is not necessary to attribute a misinterpretation, since the words of Jesus (as those of Dante, “Shakespeare” and Whitman) would carry, and doubtless would be uttered with the intention of carrying, more than one meaning. At the same time, as Jesus did not write, and as his words were carried down by tradition (for some short time at least), and as these words (according to the present supposition) were imperfectly understood by those who passed them on, they would inevitably be altered. In some passages they certainly were, and in many others they probably were. Phrases, the meaning of which is only partially apprehended, cannot be carried down verbally intact unless they have already become sacred, as was the case with the Vedas. The incomplete meaning attributed to them would inevitably suggest and lead to more or less important changes to match it.

If, then, Jesus had the Cosmic Sense, and referred to it more or less often in his teaching, the passages in which he so referred to it would probably some, if not all, of them be more or less altered. But there is a long series of passages coming ostensibly directly from him and running especially through the synoptic gospels, which passages, even in their present form, seem to refer unmistakably to the faculty now in question. And if some of them do not so clearly as others, it may be that such divergence can be fairly accounted for as above. The passages in question are those treating of what Jesus sometimes called “the Kingdom of Heaven” and sometimes “the Kingdom of God.” The following quotations embrace all the more important and significant passages in which either expression is used in the gospels when the words in question are reported as coming from the lips of Jesus : Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven * [14 : 5 : 3]. Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven t [14: 5^ 10]. Whoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them he shall be called great in the kingdom of heave7i. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven [14: 5 : 19-20].

But seek ye first his kingdom § (the kingdom of God) and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you [14: 6: 33]. Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, II but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven [14: 7: 21]. And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west and shall * A proud man is hardly likely to acquire the Cosmic Sense. -j- Persecution would hardly lead to Cosmic Consciousness, but the latter almost inevitably leads to the former. I A man leading an ill life and encouraging others to do the same, would be called “least,” as a conscientious good man would be called “great” from the point of view of the Cosmic Sense. But no man could ever enter into Cosmic Consciousness because he had kept any commandments, no matter how strictly. Unless a man’s spiritual life pass the orthodoxies and conventions he shall in no case enter into Cosmic Consciousness. § Let a man have the Cosmic Sense and he will not be likely to worry about worldly goods. He will probably have all he wants, be his possessions ever so little.

II No man shall attain to the Cosmic Sense by prayer, but, if at all, by heredity and by a high and pure life. ^ It is not exclusively for the Jews, but equally for the Gentiles. sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven ; T[ but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness; there shall be weeping and the knashing of teeth [14; 8 : ll— 12]. Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not Among the merely self conscious (among arisen a greater than John the Baptist ; yet “those who are born of women” — distinguishing he that is but little in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and men of violence take it by force [14 : ii : But if I by the spirit of God cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God * come unto you [14 : 12—28]. Unto you is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, f but to them it is not given [14 : 13 : ii].

The kingdom of heaven J is likened unto a man that sowed good seed in his field ; but while men slept his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away [14 : 13 : 24]. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sewed in his field ; which indeed is less than all seeds ; but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof [14 : 13 : 31-2]. The kingdom of heaven § is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened [14 ; 13 ; 33]. The kingdom of heaven || is like unto a treasure hidden in the field ; which a man found and hid ; and in his joy he goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field [14 : 13 : 44]. The kingdom of heaven Tf is like unto a man that is a merchant seeking goodly pearls ; and having found one pearl of great price he went and sold all he had and bought it.

Again, the kingdom of heaven ** is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind ; which when it was filled they drew up on the beach and they sat down and gathered the good into ves; between those who are not and those who are “born anew”) there are none greater than John. But the least of those who have the Cosmic Sense is greater than he. From the days of John the kingdom of heaven had suffered violence (misinterpretation, etc.) in the person of Jesus. * His spiritual ascendancy was evidence that he had entered Cosmic Consciousness (the kingdom of heaven). j Through their personal intimacy with Jesus they saw and realized the preterhuman loftiness of his mind. They saw, in him, the kingdom of heaven — the higher life. J The antagonism between the Cosmic Sense and the merely self conscious mind and the final inevitable subjection of the latter to the former. A perfect image of the initial apparent insignificancy of the Cosmic Sense as it exists in one or a few obscure individuals, and of its ultimate overwhelming preponderance in view both of the universal influence of the teaching of these (say Gautama, Jesus, Paul and Mohammed), and more especially in view of the inevitable universality of the Cosmic Sense in the future.

§ If possible a still more exact simile — the Cosmic Sense leavens the individual, and is to-day leavening the world. II Men who have the Cosmic Sense give up everything for it — this whole volume is proof of it. ][ The same statement in other language. ** Corresponds with the simile of the wheat and tares. but the bad they cast away [14 : 13 : I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; * and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven [14: 16: 19]. * The Cosmic Sense is the final arbiter of good and ill. Jesus seems to have looked forward to the establishment of a school or sect the members of which should possess the Cosmic Sense. In that hour came the desciples unto “This face,” says Whitman, “of a healthy, Jesus, sayinsf : WHio, then, is greatest in honest boy is the programme of all good ’ [193 ; the kingdom of heaven? And he called to him a little child and said : Verily I say unto you : except ye turn and become as little children ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven [14 : 18 : i].

Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would make a reckoning with his servants. And when he had begun to reckon one was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents. But for as much as he had not wherewith to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made. The servant, therefore, fell down and worshipped him, saying. Lord have patience with me and I will pay thee all. And the Lord of that servant being moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants which owed him a hundred pence, and he laid hold on him and took him by the throat, saying ; Pay what thou owest. So his fellow servant fell down and besought him saying : Have patience with me and I will pay thee. And he would not ; but went and cast him into prison until he should pay that which was due. So when his fellow servants saw what was done they were exceeding sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then his Lord called him unto him and saith unto him : Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt because thou besoughtest me : Shouldst not thou also have had mercy on thy fellow servant even as I had mercy on thee ? And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due [14 : 18 : 23-34].

* It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God [14 : 19 : 24]. The kingdom of heaven f is like unto a man that is a householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing in the market-place idle ; and to them he said : Go ye also into the vineyard and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing : And he saith unto them ; Why stand ye here all the day idle ? They say unto him : Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them ; Go ye also into the vineyard. And when even was come the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward : Call the laborers and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.

And when the first came, they supposed they would receive more ; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they received it, they murmured against the householder, saying : These last have spent but one hour, and thou hast made them * The writer has found no instance of a man absorbed in money making entering into Cosmic Consciousness. The whole spirit of the former is antagonistic to the latter. t The Cosmic Sense is not given for work done or according to merit, as this can be estimated by the self conscious mind. Why should Jesus, Yepes and Behmen be chosen, and Goethe, Newton and Aristotle left ? The Cosmic Sense is like a king raised far above the common self conscious mind. It has absolute charity with the latter, which constantly wars with itself, but in the end the cosmic conscious mind will utterly wipe from off the earth and replace the merely self conscious mind. Meanwhile, men on the self conscious plane are greatly wanting in patience and mercy. equal unto us, which have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. But he answered and said to one of them : Friend, I do thee no wrong : didst thou not agree with me for a penny ? Take up that which is thine, and go thy way : it is my will to give unto this last even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own ? or is thine eye evil, because I am good ? So the last shall be first and the first last [14 : 20 : 1-15].

A man had two sons ; and he came to By their answer the chief priests and elders the first and said : Son, go work to-day in condemned themselves, for they said ; “ I go, the vineyard. And he answered and said : I will not ; but afterwards he repented himself and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said : I go, sir, and went not. Whether of the twain did the will of his father? They say the first. Jesus saith unto them : Verily I say unto you that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you [14:21 ; 28-31]. The kingdom of God* shall be taken away from you and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof [14 : 21 : 43]. And Jesus answered and spake again in parables unto them, saying : the kingdom of heavenf is likened unto a certain king which made a marriage feast for his son, and sent forth his servant to call them that were bidden to the marriage feast : and they would not come. Again he sent forth other servants, saying : Tell them that are bidden : Behold, I have

made ready my dinner ; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready : Come to the marriage feast. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise ; and the rest laid hold on his servants and entreated them shamefully, and killed them. But the king was wroth ; and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then saith he to his servants : The wedding is ready, but they that were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the partings of the highways, and as many as ye shall find bid to the marriage feast. And those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all as many as they found both bad and good : And the wedding was filled with guests. But when the king came in to behold the guests he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment, and he said unto him : Friend, how earnest thou in thither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants : Bind him hand

and foot and cast him out into the outer darkness ; there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called but few chosen [14 : 22 : i— 14]. *The Cosmic sense comes especially to those people who have the highest moral nature. -j- The king is God, the marriage feast is Cosmic Consciousness, those who are bidden are those who have been given the best opportunities for spiritual advancement — plenty, leisure, etc. — but instead of using these for the purpose designed (spiritual growth) they became absorbed in them alone. Then God sent his prophets to persuade them that they were making a mistake, but they would not listen, and even misused the prophets. So when the well-off and the educated and the religious would not come the invitation was extended to all. But rich or poor, learned or ignorant, religious or outcast, whoever comes, must have on a wedding garment — the mind must be clothed in humility, sincerity, reverence, candor and fearlessness. Could a man secure access to the feast without these it is easily imaginable that he would be torn to pieces. sir, ana wenr not, wnue me puoncans ana narlots professed nothing, but, as shown elsewhere in the gospel, sometimes had excellent hearts. They may be easily nearer Cosmic Consciousness than the self-righteous upper class. Where, indeed, is a case of a self-righteous man becoming illumined ?

* The formal, soulless religion of the scribes and Pharisees (and the same is true of much of the Christianity of to-day) was antagonistic to the growth of the spirit to Cosmic Consciousness. Neither would they allow (in as far as they could prevent) of any spiritual life and growth outside the narrow limits laid down by their "law.” jThe Cosmic Sense does not come to the careless but to the earnest, who diligently use all means of spiritual advancement. The virgins all slumbered ; none of them knew that "the bridegroom” was coming, but some had taken the necessary means — the others had not. But woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! Because ye shut the kingdom of heaven* against men : For ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter [14 : 23 ; 13]. Then shall the kingdom of heavenf be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were foolish and five were wise. For the foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them ; but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Now, while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and

slept. But at midnight there is a cry : Behold the bridegroom ! Come ye forth to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise : Give us of your oil ; for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying : Peradventure there will not be enough for us and you ; Go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves. And while they went away to buy the bridegroom came ; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage feast : And the door was shut. Afterwards came also the other virgins, saying : Lord, lord, open to us. But he answered and said ; Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch, therefore, ye know not the day nor the hour [14 : 25 : l— 12]. For it [the kingdom of God*] is as when a man, going into another country, called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one ; to each according to his several ability ; and he went on his journey. Straightway he that received the five talents went and traded with them, and made other five talents. In like manner he also that received the two gained other two. But he that received the one went away and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money. Now after a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and maketh a reckoning with them. And he that received the five talents came and brought

* Man is endowed with self consciousness, and must make the most possible of it before he can rise above it. Or in other words, and to convert the proposition into a truism, man must reach the top of the mental stratum called self consciousness before he can pass into the superimposed stratum called Cosmic Consciousness. Jesus, in the parable, says : God has given to each man the self conscious faculties in varying measure, whether he (any given individual) shall pass beyond self consciousness into the kingdom of heaven (Cosmic Consciousness) depends not so much upon the measure of these faculties as upon the use made of them. That there is much truth in this proposition is certain. If, on the other hand, the cultivation of these faculties is neglected the man remains hopelessly on the self conscious plane ; there has been, is and always will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. other five talents, saying : Lord, thou de- liveredst unto me five talents : lo, I have gained other five talents. His lord said unto him : Well done, good and faithful servant : thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things : enter thou into the joy of thy lord. And he also that received the two talents came and said ; Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents ; lo, I have gained other two talents. His lord said unto him : Well done, good and faithful servant : thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things : enter thou into the joy of thy lord. And he also that had received the one talent came and said : Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou

didst not sow, and gathering were thou didst not scatter : And I was afraid, and went away and hid thy talent in the earth ; lo, thou hast thine own. But his lord answered and said unto him : Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I did not scatter ; thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received mine own with interest. Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him that hath the ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance : but from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away. And cast ye out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth [14; 25 : 14-30]. And he said ; So is the kingdom of God* as if a man should cast seed upon the earth, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow he knoweth not how [15: 4 : 26—7] .

And he said unto them : Verily I say unto you there be some here of them that stand by which shall in no wise taste of death until they see the kingdom of God f come with power [15: 9 : i ] . And if thine eye cause thee to stumble, cast it out ; It is good for thee to enter into the kingdom of GodJ with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell ; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. For every one shall be salted with fire [15: 9 : 47] . The law and the prophets were until John : from that time the gospel of the kingdom of God§ is preached and every man entereth violently into it [16; 16: 16]. And being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God || cometh he answered them and said : The kingdom of God cometh not with observation ; neither shall they say, Lo, here! or there, for lo, the kingdom of God is within you [16: 17: 20-1]. He said unto them. Verily I say unto you : There is no man that hath left house, or wife or brethren, or parents, or children, for the kingdom of God’sT[ sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this time, and in the world to come eternal life [16 : 18 ; 29-30].

Jesus answered and said unto him : Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born anew he cannot see the Kingdom of God.** Nicodemus saith unto Him : How can a man be born when he is old ? Can *The seed (a life of aspiration) must be sown. We do not know what is to grow from it — days and nights pass and at some instant — in bed, walking, driving, “the guest that has waited long” appears. See above same parable from Matthew. f There be some here present who shall enter into Cosmic Consciousness, To a man with Cosmic Consciousness it seems so simple and certain that others will enter it. “ I bestow upon any man or woman (says Whitman) the entrance to all the gifts of the universe ” [193 : 216]. J Allow nothing to stand in the way of spiritual advancement. Anything is better than to remain in the merely self conscious state, which is full of miseries. § Tries to enter violently or awkwardly into it. Tries to get in while still only self conscious. How true is this to-day ! II It is not outside but inside. It is a part (a faculty) of the mind itself.

][Men with Cosmic Consciousness have generally been of this opinion, have often parted from their relations, and have either not married or have broken the tie — cf. Buddha, Jesus, Paul, Balzac (until the very end of his life), Whitman, Carpenter. **This passage does not seem to need comment. It is, as it stands, as clear as words can be. The oncoming of the Cosmic Sense is a new birth into a new life. he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born ? Jesus answered : Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God [17 : 3 : 3-5]- Looked at from the present point of view, the objects of the teachings of Jesus, as of Guatama, were two : {a) To tell men what he had learned upon entering into Cosmic Consciousness, which things he saw it was of the very greatest importance that they should know ; and to lead men up into or at least towards Cosmic Consciouness, or, in his words, into the kingdom of God. We have in this case : a. Some evidence of the characteristic suddenness that belongs to the oncoming of the new sense.

No definite record of. subjective light, though it is impossible to say what the words “ Heaven rent asunder,” “ Spirit as a dove descending,” and “ A voice out of the heavens ” really mean. As the experience was subjective, Jesus must have told some one of it, and perhaps it passed through several minds before the words we have were written down, no one (not even Jesus) having any idea as to the meaning of the experience. c. Presumably we have intellectual illumination. d. Moral elevation well marked, though unfortunately we know nothing for certain of the personality of Jesus before the time of his illumination, when, as above stated, he was about thirty-three or thirty-five years of age. e. We have the sense of immortality and the extinction of the sense of sin and of the fear of death. f. Finally, the characteristic change of appearance which accompanies the presence of the Cosmic Sense and spoken of by the synoptics as Jesus’ “ transfiguration.” That the great apostle had the Cosmic Sense seems as clear and certain as that Caesar was a great general. He was, in fact, “ great ” and an “ apostle ” because he had it, and for no other reason whatever.

In his case meet all the elements both of probability and proof. As shown by his enthusiasm for the religion in which he was brought up, he had the earnest temperament which seems always to form the matrix in which the new life is brought forward to its birth. He was at the time of his (supposed) illumination probably about the age at which the Cosmic Sense usualy shows itself. Sutherland (171 : 137) has the following bearing on this point : He says that Paul : Could not have been very much younger than Jesus. He was of an ardent and impetuous nature, and not long after the crucifixion (perhaps within two years) began to be conspicuous as a persecutor of the little companies of believers in Christ that were gathered not only in Jerusalem but in many other places. The same zeal which made him afterward such an efficient missionary of Christianity now caused him to carry his persecutions of the hated sect of the “ Nazarenes ” beyond Jerusalem to the cities and villages of Judea, and finally even beyond the bounds of Palestine. It w'as while he was on his way to the city of Damascus, a little way outside of Palestine on the northeast, bent on extirpating the new heresy there, that the remarkable event occurred which changed his whole life.

If, now, Paul was, say, four or five years younger than Jesus, his illumination took place at the same age as that of his great predecessor. One word more on this last point. It is a little singular that neither the apostle himself nor his historian, Luke, who was deeply interested in all that related to his personality, have let fall a single expression from which the date of Paul’s birth can be positively and definitely deduced. Speaking of his life before his illumination, however, Paul says [18 : 22 : 4]: “I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prison both men and women.” A very young man, unless born into some place of authority, could hardly have occupied the position thus described. The leaders of the chief party of the Jews would scarcely employ a very young man as Paul was employed. Paul’s “conversion” possibly took place in the year 33 [144 : 45-6]. Supposing he was born shortly before the year i, then when Philippians was written — that is, A. D. 6i [144 : 357-8] — he would be between sixty and sixtyfive years of age, which would agree very well with certain expressions in that epistle which would hardly have been uttered by a much younger man. For instance ; “I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better:

yet to abide in the flesh is more needful for your sake” [24 : i : 23-4]. When writing these words it does not appear that he was sick, neither was he in any danger from the result of his trial, which was then going on [144 : 357-8]. The near prospect of death must have been due to his age at the time. But if he was, say, sixty-five in A. D. 61, then he would be thirty-seven at the time of his illumination. He might not have been as old as that, but could hardly have been much younger.

The chronology of the early church is very obscure. Renan [142 : 163] gives the date of Paul’s birth 10 or 12 A. D., that of the stoning of Stephen 37, that of Paul’s “conversion” 38. Paul, then, would have been between twenty-six and twenty-eight on the occurence of that event; also he would have been no more than forty-nine to fifty-one when the above passage in Philippians was written. But this, for reasons given, seems exceedingly unlikely. Weighing all probabilities (for we have nothing else) it seems likely that Paul was about four years younger than Jesus and that his illumination took place about the same length of time after that of his great predecessor. We have three separate accounts of the oncoming of his new life, two of them ostensibly and probably in his own words, and each of the three containing the essential elements of the fact of illumination as positively known in other cases. Again we have elsewhere [21 : 12 : 1-7] a description, certainly given by himself, of certain subjective experiences which would alone be strong, if not convincing, evidence of the fact of illumination ; for it is safe to say that the words there set down could hardly have been written unless the writer of them had actually experienced the passage from self to Cosmic Consciousness. Then over and above all these evidences there exists a body of writings by this man which over and over again demonstrates the existence in the writer of the faculty in question. His conduct immediately following illumination is also characteristic. Taking the usual course, he retires for some time into more or less complete solitude ; whether to the Hauran, as Renan supposes, or to the Sinaitic peninsula, as Holsten thinks, does not matter [84 : 417]. As regards his illumination itself — his “con-

version,” the oncoming of Cosmic Consciousness in his case — we are told [i8 : 9 : 3-9] that: As he journeyed it came to pass that he drew nigh unto Damascus : and suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven : and he fell upon the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, §>aul, tol)P pcrsccuteet t()ntt toe ? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, am tol)nm tI)oa persectttest : but rise anU enter into tlje citp, anlf it c^all be tolb tl)ee tol)at tI)0U mu£St HD. And the men that journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but beholding no man. And Saul arose from the earth ; and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing ; and they led him by the hand into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and did neither eat nor drink. The second account runs as follows [18 : 22 : 6-1 1] : And it came to pass, that as I made my journey, and drew nigh unto Damascus, about noon, suddenly there shown from heaven a great light round about me. And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, tol)P prrsrctitest

tljou me? And I answered. Who art thou. Lord ? And he said unto me, am ^IcEitis of jf5a|arrtl), toI)om tI)ott pcrortutcot: And they that were with me beheld indeed the light, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. And I said. What shall I do. Lord ? And the Lord said unto me, Slrioc, anb go into IDamafiCUfi!. Slnif tl)erc it £il)all be tolb tljee of all things tobitf) arc appotnteb for t|)ee to bo. And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus. And the third account [18 : 26 : 12-18] is as follows : As I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, at midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them that journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth I heard a voice saying unto me in the Hebrew language, ^atil, ^aul, tol)p pcrciccutCEit t^ou me 7 2ft l)atb for tl)ee to kick against tl)e goab. And I said. Who art thou. Lord ! And the Lord said, 3f 2fcsas tobom tl)0tt persecutest. •33nt arise anb stanb upon t^p feet; for to this enb l)aPe 2f appeareb unto tl)ce, to appoint tbec a minister anb a toitness botl^ of tl&e tl)ings toljerein tl)oii l)ast seen me, anb of tljings tol)erein 3T toill appear unto tljee ; beliPering tl)ee from tl)e people anb from tbe (Sentilcs, unto toljom 3f 6fnb tijee, to open tl)cir epcs, tl&at tl)ep map turn from barkness to ligl)t, anb from tl)c potoer of ^atan unto (Sob.

These three narratives, which agree well enough one with another, their slight discrepancies being of little or no consequence, give the usual sensuous phenomena that nearly always accompany the oncoming of the new sense. Next comes a recital of even, if possible, still greater importance [21 : 12 : 1-7]. It conveys, in few words, an account of Paul’s moral elevation and intellectual illumination during and following his “ conversion.” He says : *“ Christ” is Paul’s name for Cosmic sciousness. I must needs glory, though it is not expedient ; but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ* Fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not or whether out of the body I know not ; God knoweth) such a one caught up even to the third heaven. And I know such a man (whether in the body or apart from the body I know not ; God moweth) how that he was caught up into f Unspeakable words, so Whitman : “ When I undertake to tell the best I find I cannot, my tongue is ineffectual on its pivots ; my breath will not’ be obedient to its organs ; I become a dumb man” [193 : 179].

paradise and heard 7inspeakable words'\, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. On behalf of such a one will I glory ; but on mine own behalf I will not glory, save in my weaknesses. For if I should desire to glory I shall not be foolish ; for I shall speak the truth ; but I forbear, lest any man should account of me above that which he seeth me to be, or heareth from me. And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations — wherefore that I should not be exalted overmuch there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me. To complete the case it only remains to transcribe certain utterances of Paul’s from the point of view of the Cosmic Sense ; which utterences, did they stand alone, would prove that the man from whom they proceeded possessed it, since without it they could not have been made. For this we say unto you by the word The usual assurances of immortality that belong of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are to Cosmic Consciousness, left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in

no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God ; and the dead in Christ shall rise first : Then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words [26 : 4 : 15-18]. For I make known to you, brethren, as touching the gospel which was preached by me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ [22 : i : 11-12]. But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach him among the gentiles ; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood ; neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me ; but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned unto Damascus [22 : l : 15—17].

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law [22 ; 3 : 13]- But before faith came, Christ is the Cosmic Sense conceived as a we were kept inward under the law, shut distinct entity or individuality. That does redeem As regards his “Gospel,” Paul was instructed by the Cosmic Sense only. He knew, however enough about Jesus and his teachings to be able to recognize (when it came to him) that the teachings of the Cosmic Sense were practically identical with the teachings of Jesus. up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So that the law has been our tutor to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith ; but now that faith is come we are no longer under a tutor. For ye are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptised into Christ did put on Christ [22 : 3 : 23-27]. With freedom did Christ set us free [22 : 5 : i]. any to whom it comes from the“ curse of the law ” — i.e., from the shame and fear and hate that belong to the self conscious life. Paul seems to suppose a baptism into Cosmic Consciousness (Christ). Doubtless there is such a baptism ; but where is the priesthood which is able to administer it ?

The “freedom” of the Cosmic Sense is supreme. It absolves a man from his former self and makes future slavery impossible. For ye, brethren were called for freedom [22 ; 5 : 13] . The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance : against such as these there is no law. And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof [22 : 5 : 22-24] ■ Neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature [22 : 6: 15]. We speak wisdom among the perfect : yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, which are coming to nought ; but we speak God’s wisdom in a Paul loves and values freedom as keenly as does the modern American Walt Whitman. They both knew (what, alas ! so few have known) what true freedom is. For “The Spirit” and “Christ Jesus” read Cosmic Consciousness. Cf. M. C. L. infra. “The holy breath kills lust, etc.,” and Bhagavadgita : “ Even the taste for objects of sense departs from him who has seen the supreme.” Called by [5 ; 100].

Balzac: “The second existence' He speaks from the standpoint of the Cosmic Sense, which was to come when the time was ripe and has come now to him. mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden, which God forordained before the worlds unto our glory : which none of the rulers of this world knoweth [20 : 2 : 6—8] . Paul is informed, not by the human (the self conscious) mind, but by the spirit of God (Cosmic Consciousness), and no man merely self conscious can judge him any more than an animal (having simple consciousness merely) can judge a (self conscious) man. The spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him ? Even so the things of God none knoweth, save the spirit of God. But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God ; that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the spirit teacheth ; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God ; For they are foolishness unto him ; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him? But we have the mind of *The merely self conscious man cannot be

r'U ij ^ made to understand the things seen by the Cosmic Christ.^ And I, brethren, could not speak „ t-u -i,- -r * j r r i. ’ . . ’ V Sense. These things, if presented, appear foolish unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto car- hini. But he that has the Cosmic Sense (being, nal, as unto babes in Christ. I fed you of course, also self conscious) is able to judge “all with milk, not with meat ; for ye were not yet able to bear it ; nay, not even now are ye able ; for ye are yet carnal [20 : 2: 1016 and 3 : 1-3]. If any man thinketh that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God [20 : 3 : 18-19]. If we sowed unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we shall reap your carnal things [20: 9: ii] ? things” — i.e. , the things of both regions. Paul could not therefore speak to the Corinthians as he would have liked to have done, they not having Cosmic Consciousness,