The Theosophical Society,
Writings of Ernest Egerton Wood
Masters and Men
By
Ernest Egerton Wood
An Extract from Natural Theosophy
First Published 1930
THE LIBERATED MAN
THE
theosophical world seems to be dividing itself on the old question: which is
more
important for educative purposes, environment or character? Nobody of any
consequence has ever suggested that character can be implanted by environment.
No
Theosophist proposes the method of the builder, which assumes that a man
evolves
as a house is built, that he is a vacant site to which you bring various
materials
and there build them up into a house. Nor the method of the sculptor,
which
assumes that human character is crude stone and someone must from the
outside
chip away the unwanted portions, just as a sculptor takes a block of
stone
and leaves a statue, which in a sense was in the stone all the time.
Thousands
of forms were in that stone; the sculptor chooses one. But every man is a
living being with a character of his own.
By
Masters we mean those men who have realized the goal of human life and are no
longer in bondage to things. They know the world of life. So they regard the
temporary
creations as merely a shadow-world. They may remain in that world,
using
human bodies, but they are interested as teachers in calling people to
enter
their world, which is the world of life.
Those
who recognize the life never become builders or sculptors of men, but may be
gardeners or teachers, who know that every seed will grow according to its
kind, that both the pattern that is to be made and the power with which it is
to
be
built come from within the seed itself. Therefore no thoughtful writer has
ever
suggested that Masters can give life to anybody or can evolve anybody or
can
help anybody to evolve themselves. They can give money, and have been known to
do so. And they can give thought-forms. But they cannot give growth or
evolution, understanding or love or power.
The
Theosophical Society has the same function as the Masters. Its purpose is
not
to attempt to feed the people, but to call their attention to great truths
with
which they can feed, clothe, shelter, amuse and educate themselves
as
men, without the suffering which they have been bringing upon themselves
so
long, Its first object — brotherhood — is to be understood in this deep and
essential
way. Greater than any material gift is the offering of wisdom.
Consider
understanding. It is one of the powers of our life. It is tested by
power,
for if I have made a machine, and it will not work, that tells me that my
understanding
was wrong, Let me tell a story about thought-power, which is
vouched
for by some good and honorable friends. In a certain city in
there
was over a deep gully a bridge which came popularly to be known as
“suicide
bridge”, because from it a number of people threw themselves to
destruction
every year. A group of friends who were accustomed to experimenting with
thought-power decided to meet once a week, fix their attention upon that
bridge, and think thoughts of cheerfulness, strength and hope. They told me
that since they had begun the practice, which was about two years before, there
had not been a single suicide from that bridge. I cannot personally vouch for
their accuracy, but I can easily believe in such an occurrence, because I have
had other striking experiences of the power of thought.
What
would happen in this case ? The thought-form acts as one
speaking.
It says: “Come now, things are not as bad as they have appeared, and
besides
there is a possibility of happy life, which you really want. Please do
not
lose your balance, but consider the facts.” Reason prevails, and the
would-be
suicide changes his mind. The thought-form reminds him at a critical
moment
of ideas which had been obscured in his troubled mind.
This
is good work, of course, in the way of lifting a lame dog over a stile, but
now
there is life to be lived and it must live in its own strength. Every
teacher
recognizes that, however simple may be the idea which he is putting
before
his class, no student will grasp it until he has made some effort of
attention
and of thought. There is a moment between the hearing of his words or
the
seeing of the experiment that he is doing, and the student's understanding.
In
that moment the student thinks, and nobody can do it for him.
Consider
in the same way the work of an artist. With skill he produces beauty.
Beauty
is the test of skill, as power is the test of knowledge, and both these
come
from inward effort alone. Painting pictures for a man who has no hands will not
make him into a painter — or even for a man who has hands.
Carrying
babies does not teach them to walk. On the contrary, I knew a naughty
little
boy who when about four years old would insist upon being carried up hill
when
out for a walk. He had been carried too much.
Similarly,
the guiding lines given to us when we are learning to write prevent
us
from writing straight, because they teach us to think that they are
necessary.
Only a few days ago I was writing a letter on an unruled writing
block.
Suddenly I said to myself: “Why, I am writing straight, without lines !”
From
that moment my writing became crooked. Such is the power of suggestion.
Crutches are only for cripples. You do not teach a baby to walk with crutches.
THE MASTER'S PRESENCE
If
people think they need a personal Master, by that thought they destroy their
own
power and delay their own progress. If they think they could do better with
a
personal Master than without one, it is the same thing. If they could, he
would
be there. There are two kinds of persons to whom the Masters cannot
communicate
their contribution to the common brotherhood — those who cannot get on with
them, and those who cannot get on without them. But really
there
is no need to search for a teacher, because when we start learning he is
always
there. The entire galaxy of all who have attained liberation or entered
into
the world of life is always at hand, for they are the one life, which is
also
our essential life. No one can shut that open door.
The
Masters work behind the scenes, and are not out of touch with any part of
life.
Some one wrote to Madame Blavatsky and asked to be put in connection with the
Brothers. Her reply was: “ Do you know so little of the laws of their order as
not to understand that by this very act of yours — which was entirely
unsolicited
and a spontaneous proof of your loyalty — you have drawn their
attention
to you already, and that you have established relations with them
yourself
?
“
It is not within our power to do anything for you more. Occultism is not like
Christianity,
which holds out to you the false promise of mediatorial
interference
and vicarious merit. Every one of us must work his own way up
towards
the Brothers. If you want to see them, act so as to compel them to let
you
do so. They are equally with all of us subject to the laws of attraction and
repulsion;
those who most deserve their companionship get it. Take a
half
hour each morning upon first rising, and in an undisturbed place free from
all
noises and bad influences concentrate your thoughts upon them and upon your own
higher self, and will that you shall become wise, and illuminated and
powerful.”
THE MASTER'S WORK
What
then does a Master do? He is a witness to the life beyond all appearances,
even
his own. As fire tells us not to burn ourselves, so does the Master tell us
not
to forget ourselves. People forget themselves not only in anger sometimes,
but
in a thousand things and nearly always.
The
Master's human form is beautiful because his life is true. Consider the
beautiful
limbs of a race horse They have been produced quite naturally by life
trying
to run. What would be the use of a small horse worshiping that beauty of
limb
? He must run. So the Master says to us: “ Do not worship me. Know that
there
is life which can be fulfilled in full living, and from which all beauty,
truth
and love will flow.”
I
can realize that the Masters see benefit wherever people are trying
to
express their life, even though there be grave attendant defects. Let me take
a
crude and rather painful example — that of the old practice of foot-binding in
it
is entirely our own fault.
Yet
the main point of all this, the abiding good of it, is that they show an
effort.
However ignorant they were, they were well-meant, and were therefore in
their
degree expressions of life. Whenever mankind puts itself to some trouble
for
an idea, however stupid, it is good, for there will then be progress. There
is
no room for ridicule, and little for interference or correction.
There
is great danger in what is usually called devotion. True devotion is
respect
for the beautiful, the good and the true, wherever it may be seen. It is
respect
for life. But most devotion implies disrespect for life, inasmuch as it
singles
out one expression of life for its fervent admiration, and almost
equally
despises the rest. So is God shut away, as people go into caves to
worship
the sun.
True
devotion has nothing to do with that self-abasement which makes a man think
that because he is inferior to another he must not rely on his own judgment.
However
evolved or unevolved he may be, that is exactly what he must do. The man who
does not make his own vision of the goal for himself does not awaken to the
full his own life in the present moment of living, and therefore does not make
the most use possible for him of that moment.
There
is always some danger even when virtues are extolled. Such praise implies
or
suggests that they are beyond ordinary life, and the feeling arises; “It
would
be uncommonly good of us if we did this. We are not quite expected to do it”.
In
someone
to say; “O, but that is for those who have taken the yellow robe”.
I
have come across some cases of partial mental paralysis due to misuse of the
idea
of Masters. I have heard one say; “This work has failed; that shows that
the
Masters did not want it.” It was perfectly clear to me that the cause of the
failure
was that he had not used his brains in the work under reference. Then
again,
when the thought was habitually turned to the Master as if he were a
separate
entity, in moments of difficulty, for example, when there was a blank
in
conversation, the man would find himself able to think only of the Master's
name.
And also in danger, or in any crisis, do you pray or do you keep your head ?
You cannot do both. Every occasion is a crisis, did people but recognize it.
But
what of Master's authority ? Does he not know more than we? The Master is a
witness of the light, but it is the light that lighteth every man that cometh
into
the world. His form is only an illusion; it is not our goal, but our life,
which
is also his life, is our goal. There cannot be a form of a Master. There
is
nothing unusual in this. In a chemistry class the professor is not our goal,
but
chemistry is our goal. Leaf whispers to leaf, and tells rejoicingly of the life
it feels, like lovers hand in hand looking at the same moon. It is the power of
love that with it we thus at last come to look with all eyes at all things.
And
Master's work and orders ? I see no use in them unless they are our own work
and orders at the same time. If a man does his honest best he will be doing
what the Master wants to have done. If our understanding rises to what the
Masters call their mind-plane their ideas become our ideas, we think their
thoughts with them, and there is nothing to be gained by insisting that the
ideas or purposes are theirs, not ours, which is a mode of separation of the
Masters and ourselves, and tends to prevent our union in the one life.
You
cannot have this separation in fact. You cannot have men gradually making
their
own noses perfect according to their own thoughts, feelings and actions,
and
at the same time the Masters moulding those noses according to some external
plan. Masters' work and orders are surely a question of our being attuned to
their spirit and their law, which is our own true spirit and law, In that
service
(if such it can be called) is perfect freedom, Their teaching
is
an intuition, but not usually peculiar and distinguishable from what we call
our
own thought. There is no necessity to import into the idea of our relation
to
Masters the dramatic and separative characteristics of human domination or
interference
by man with man. Masters are masters of life not masters of men.
History
of the Theosophical Society
Theosophical Society Cardiff
Lodge
The Theosophical Society,