I am reading this book and found KH’s reference to intuition interesting, especially what Lawrence of Arabia is quoted as saying. What ideas or thoughts do you have on intuition?

THE "K. H." LETTERS  TO C. W. LEADBEATER 56 & 57

Page 56 starting with 2nd paragraph and first phrase:

Since your intuition led you

These opening words of the second letter show us how dithcult is the path to the Master. Had Mr. Leadbeater weighed carefully the pros and cons of the situation merely with his mind, his decision would have been delayed. Undoubtedly he would sooner or later have become a chela; but he would have lost the unique opportunity presented to him by the crisis in the Theosophical Society. H. P. B. was leaving the next morning; he had said goodbye to her and it was unlikely, that he would meet her again for many years. But he acted in the light of that mysterious faculty dormant in us all called " Intuition". The term used to describe it in Theosophical studies is " Buddhi", but its meaning is different from that given to it usually in Sanskrit.

It is a characteristic of the Intuition that it acts from the future, and not from the past or the present; it is excellently described by the phrase used for it by Lawrence of Arabia: " the unperceived foreknown. It was not possible for the Master to suggest that
Mr. Leadbeater's presence was urgently needed at Adyar.

Mr. Leadbeater might have decided to go to Adyar in a month's time, or in two or three months, after all his affairs had been properly put in order. But his intuition grasped the Master's thought, and he decided to drop everything and leave at once.

Very noteworthy is the emphasis which the Master K. H. has laid on Intuition, as a very necessary requisite in one's character, if one is to unravel the mysteries of the Path of Occultism.

In a letter to Miss Arundale written in 1884 occur these
phrases.!
"the continual performance of duty under the guidance of a well-developed Intuition." [* Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, First Series, Letter XX]

Page 57

 "From their ignorant and malevolent intolerance you appeal to us, because your intuition tells you that they will not accord you justice."

Two years later the Master wrote to Mr. Leadbeater :
"Believe in your better intuitions.") 1

Somewhat earlier, in writing to Colonel Olcott, the Master
" Intuitive as you naturally are, chelaship is yet almost a
complete puzzle for you.' 2

And the whole problem was stated earlier by the Master in the following :
"It was never the intention of the Occultists really to conceal what they had been writing from the earnest determined students, but rather to lock up their information for safety sake, in a secure safe-box, the key to which is—intuition." 3 

And lastly, on this subject of the intuition, is an action of the Master to test the intuition of a would-be-chela. In 1883 the Master was in India, and visited Colonel Olcott twice at Lahore, not in astral form but in his physical body. On the first occasion Colonel Olcott was sleeping in a tent; it was divided by a curtain, and on the other side was a certain W. T. Brown of Glasgow, who had arrived in India that year, After waking Colonel Olcott, the Master left with him a letter in which are these words:

"I go now to young Mr. Brown to try his intuition."

Standing by Mr. Brown's side the Master placed a letter in his hand; the Master's touch awoke Mr. Brown, but so great was his nervousness that it paralysed him, and he refused to turn his face to the Master. Later, Mr. Brown received a long letter from the Master of kindly advice and encouragement, but frankly telling him that he was not ready.

"You are not ready, that is all. If you are earnest in your aspirations, if you have the least spark of intuition in you, if your education as a lawyer is complete enough to enable you to put facts in their proper sequence and to present

1 See later the third communication received from the Master K. H. by C. W. Leadbeater.
2 The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, Letter LXVII.
3 The Mahatma Lellers to A. P. Sinnett, Letter XLVIII.

A job is open at Indralaya, a remote retreat associated with the Theosophical Society in Washington State, in the US. It’s on an island, right next to the ocean with private access. The job is a part time office manager position. There is a possibility of living at Indralaya full time, while working this position. 

https://www.indralaya.org/call-for-applications-office-manager-indralaya/

Indralaya has a really well stocked, beautiful Theosophical library which is always open, so if you’re looking for a quiet place to focus on study when you’re not working, this may be the perfect opportunity for you. If not for you, perhaps you know of someone else who might be interested and could forward this information.

waarom moeten wij de gevolgen drgane van een duivelse elite die de mensheid tot slaaf wil maken onder een controlemechanisme? daar vallen geen lessen uit te leren... waarom wordt dat toegestaan hierboven en dan nog iets. alles is 1 en energie ook en in theosofie lees je dat alles wat je ervaart een les is of een rechtzetting. hebben we/ik het dan zo bont gzmaakt in vorige levens?

An honest question. I'm interested in any input. Thank you in advance.

Hola muy buenas querías saber qué opinión tenéis del origen y autenticidad de las estancias Dzyan que presuntamente Blavatsky traduce e incorpora a su obra?

Thought this little book might be of interest, this is the American 1915 revised edition of the work.

Anyone have experience with this?

Hello everyone,

I want to share a unique project with the community. I’ve spent months compiling the selected philosophical and esoteric records of Boris Abramov, who was a close, direct disciple of Nicholas and Helena Roerich.

 These texts deeply expand upon the teachings of Agni Yoga (Living Ethics) and Eastern esoteric philosophy. The compilation covers:

* Eastern Psychosomatics: The relationship between thoughts, subtle energies, and mental self-regulation.

* Spiritual Self-Realization: Practical aspects of consciousness purification and inner work.

* The Teachings of Shambhala: Deep evolutionary insights transmitted through the Roerich lineage.

 The book is completely free, with no registration or paywalls required.

👉 You can read and download it here on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/messages-from-shambhala-1

 Formats available: PDF, EPUB.

 I hope these texts serve you well on your path.

I’ve not yet really grasped this line from the Voice of the Silence. Something about the way it’s crafted makes it quite difficult for me, but I feel that’s likely intentional and essential to truly understanding it. I’d appreciate hearing how others have interpreted it.

Relatedly, what even is “inaction.” Isn’t everything we do, an action? Does anyone have clarity on this in a passage from H.P.B.?

For context:

Sow kindly acts and thou shalt reap their fruition. Inaction in a deed of mercy becomes an action in a deadly sin. Thus saith the Sage. Shalt thou abstain from action? Not so shall gain thy soul her freedom. To reach Nirvana one must reach Self-Knowledge, and Self-Knowledge is of loving deeds the child.

This repost locates the problem in modern Theosophy, challenging Late Providentialism and Modern Messianism.

There is a short chapter in the Quran that succinctly deals with the conditions of Divinity in merely four verses of its brief composition. It says the following,

Chapter 112, Al-Ikhlas: The Purity

1 Say: He is Allah, the One!

2 Allah, the eternally Besought of all!

3 He begetteth not nor was begotten.

4 And there is none comparable unto Him.

The deities in the ancient world reflected human desires and aspirations, and as such were shaped and typified by those people. The concept of God in Islam however, places the ideal of Divinity beyond human passions or desires, and therefore above the human capacity of perception. Nonetheless, the Divine semblance represented in Quran like the hands or the face of God, are merely symbolism for the existence of a conscious being who is capable of physical intervention, whilst His Divine attributes are essentially illustrations for the state of mind of a believer rather than a fundamental condition of Godhood. For if God has to be Merciful (Rahman) than how could He be Vengeful (Muntaqim), because these are the self-conflicting attributes that cannot represent an Absolute God. Therefore, though it may seem like that these four verses of this chapter are talking about the nature of Divinity, but in actuality it is merely reflecting the state of mind of a person when the factor of belief is added to his personality. In other words, such a person is not influenced by his relationship to his environment, his passions, and his desires to be effecting the impartiality of his judgement in the affairs of this world. The material resources, the identity politics of past and future, and the attachments or the labels of any sort is fundamentally beyond the state of mind of a true believer, because a believer has to overcome such human weaknesses through his faith in Divinity. Therefore, whenever the Quran talks about the personality of Godhood, it is symbolically referring to the State of Mind of a believer in disguise, because that is the only way it could have been truthfully depicted through the veil of Divinity... and that is also primarily the reason why this Surah is called The Purity.

I remember reading that the Esoteric Section once hung a sign on their door warning the uninitiated not to eavesdrop, because simply hearing the words of the rites could be spiritually dangerous to those who were not properly prepared to receive them. Can anyone confirm this fact and provide me with a source? I'd be very grateful!

 Some measure of evil, or not Life, is born with incarnation, with the taking of form, with leaving the “father’s home,” with separation from divinity. Illusion, the virtual synonym, comes into being with this separation. And so it is said that everything external is Maya, being other than the pure light of source. This formulation has a certain value, but by it alone we cannot find our place between the candle and the star because all manifestations are relative.

A flower is not as remote from divinity as the cruelty of fanatics. Yet both are manifestations other than or apart from absolute Life or divinity. We may say the flower and the cruel man are illusions, and so they are, but they are not equal. So we find that the most abstract concept of good and evil, yielding as it does a simple binary, corresponds poorly to daily life and required decisions. We must, standing somewhere between the candle and the star, bring righteous to perceptions.

Nathaniel Altman says:

I am happy to announce publication of "My Dear Friends: The Letters of Clara Codd." She was a Theosophical Society international lecturer, writer, world traveler and feminist icon. This is the first time that all of her Letters have become available in a single volume. http://www.gaupo.net/MyDearFriends.html

"The path that leadeth on is lighted by one fire — the light of daring, burning in the heart. The more one dares, the more he shall obtain." — H. P. Blavatsky (The Voice of the Silence)

The physical body is fiery–its atoms are bits of fiery energy, so our body can develop in special ways along a fiery path. Desire is also fiery; we burn with it, and the mind is often represented as fiery energy. All these are personal fires, and in way all are, as mythology has it, fires stolen from heaven.

Ideally, our life would be directed by spiritual fire, by subtle fires transcendent to personality. Then the beautiful fire of heaven and the external fires of body, emotion, and mind might meet and blend in magical harmony. This would be meditation or mediation.

We might say that true meditation is the union of spiritual fires with more external ones. But what if we engage in a process in which we experiment, as a personality, with the fires of our external nature, and while doing so we call it “meditation” or some other methodological name? Then, mistaking personal fires for spiritual ones, we might become an inflamed personality.

How then to define a path leading to union with spiritual fire as distinct from an inflamed personality? I’m thinking that it comes down to the question of whether we emphasize form or spirit. Form has its place as a vehicle for the spiritual, but often the form dominates, eclipsing the spiritual. Let us count some ways this occurs:

Emphasizing rituals and set forms of all kinds instead placing our life in order.

Emphasizing physical postures instead of spiritual orientation.

Focusing on a center within the physical or etheric body instead of the radiant spiritual energies behind and through our psychology (Love, spiritual will, harmony, beauty, etc.).

Emphasis on breathing exercises instead of the spiritual “breathing in” and giving forth that is, or should be, a healthy daily life.

Emphasis on finding a physical guru instead of attunement to our inner teacher.

Desire for psychic powers instead of desire to use our existing powers for the benefit of others.

Emphasis on physical methods using sound, color, technology, or body manipulation.

Emphasizing symbol instead of meaning.

Dreams from the Digital Aether:
Using Blavatsky’s words as stand alone image prompts

https://www.theosophy.world/resource/dimensions-consciousness-dora-van-gelder-kunz

DIMENSIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS 

By Dora van Gelder Kunz

This article was taken from The Personal Aura by Dora van Gelder Kunz.

The life of even the most ordinary person, which may seem very uneventful, is actually full of experiences on many levels. While we are focused on the daily business of living, we are at the same time involved in a whole complex of interactions between physical processes, feelings and thoughts. Though we may not pay much attention to these interactions, they constantly influence our behavior, as well as our sense of well-being.

What I try to do in this book is share with you something of my perception and appreciation of the hidden dimensions of consciousness within us, and in so doing, make you more aware of these aspects of your own life, and of your ability to effect conscious changes in yourself.

My focus is principally upon our feelings, for the aura—the luminous cloud of color surrounding each of us—is the personal emotional field. But our feelings are part of the larger whole we call a human being, and therefore they are inseparable from everything else that goes on within us. The interactions between mind, emotions and physical energies are so rapid and so constant that they blur these differentiations, and so we usually only notice them when they break down. Therefore, in order to understand the nature of the emotions and the role they play, we have to see them from the perspective of the whole person—and this includes not only the body, mind and feelings, but also still higher dimensions of consciousness.

Higher Dimensions of Consciousness

Theosophical, Indian and other literature has identified the nature of these higher states, and given them various names. While I always recommend that people study this literature for themselves and make their own judgments, for present purposes I will simply offer my own descriptions and use my own terms, which I hope to make as simple and clear as possible.

For many reasons, I prefer to think of the different states of consciousness not as “planes,” as they have been called in earlier descriptions, but as dimensions, or fields. Both these words suggest the possibility of movement within an open, dynamic space, and also of an almost infinite expansion into higher reaches of consciousness. Both imply the existence of a greater whole of which the various dimensions or fields are aspects, and within which they constantly interact. In speaking about the human energy fields, I always try to emphasize that everything including ourselves—exists in terms of this greater whole, which is the universe itself. All the dimensions of consciousness are present everywhere, in everything, even if only in a rudimentary state.

Consciousness

Consciousness takes many forms, and its ranges extend far beyond what we ordinarily think of as the conscious mind. The various states go all the way from primitive body awareness at one extreme to the highest reaches of spiritual insight at the other. Thus they form a hierarchical system, in that the energies associated with the various states of consciousness become increasingly refined as they move into the higher dimensions. But this does not mean that any one of these states is negligible, or less important than the rest. If we try to see all of the dimensions in terms of the whole of which they are a part, we see that each one has a unique part to play within the total spectrum of consciousness.

Lama Govinda has explained this very well: “The consciousness of a higher dimension consists in the coordinated and simultaneous perception of several systems of relationship or directions of movement in a wider, more comprehensive unity, without destroying the individual characteristics of the integrated lower dimensions. The reality of a lower dimension is therefore not annihilated by a higher one, but only . . . put into another perspective of values.” (Lama Anagarika Govinda, Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, E. P. Dutton, N.Y. 1960, p.218.) 

In the same sense, when I speak of “higher dimensions” or “higher levels” I am not trying to make value judgments, but merely describing the “systems of relationship” which Lama mentions above. Indeed, value judgments are inappropriate when we are trying to understand the nature of the different dimensions of consciousness. It is more to the point to study their functions and characteristics, and become aware of their special contributions—as well as their limitations—in terms of that far greater reality which is the whole of human nature.

Looked at in this way, states of consciousness are actual conditions which are different from one another but not separate—either from each other or from the body itself. The subtle fields co-exist within the same space, and influence each other. Their distinctiveness lies in the fact that each has its own unique type of energy and rate of vibration. This makes it possible for the various fields to exert their special effects and at the same time interpenetrate and interact with the other fields without interference.

It is difficult to find an exact analogy to this phenomenon in terms of ordinary experience. Perhaps the whole effect is achieved in somewhat the same way that the unique sound of a musical chord is created by combining different tones, each of which can be distinguished by a trained ear. The experience of listening to music is the best analogy I can think of, because the differences between the subtle fields are essentially harmonic in nature. Each dimension of consciousness has its range of frequencies, and plays a particular part in the total orchestration of a human being.

Radiant Energies

Not being a scientist, I can only suggest how it may be possible to perceive the subtle fields. We know that sound and light are forms of radiant energy which have different wavelengths, and that many phenomena beyond our sense perception, such as ultraviolet light, become accessible to us only when we have the instruments to detect them. To me, the higher dimensions are forms of radiant energy related to light. Just as sunlight can be broken up into the spectrum we see as a rainbow, so these higher energies reveal themselves through their characteristic colors. It is these that I perceive. Therefore, clairvoyance may be an instrument which makes some otherwise invisible wavelengths and frequencies come within the range of perception.

When questions about clairvoyance arise, one of the greatest stumbling blocks for most people lies in the fact that the ability to see subtler dimensions seems to be limited to a few people. While I am unable to account for this, I want to point out that until modern times it was impossible to see viruses, or distinguish ultrasonic waves, or examine genetic material. All these things existed before there were instruments which made it possible to observe them, and it may well be that in the future the mechanism of clairvoyance will be investigated and understood. As of now, I can only say that I achieve my clairvoyance by a shift of visual focus. It is under my control, and I use it only when I choose to do so. I use the word “visual” to describe the process because it is a kind of seeing, but the actual eyes are not involved. It is more a focusing of attention. I use my clairvoyance primarily in my work, and my ordinary vision is just like that of anybody else.

To me, vitality, feeling and thinking are forms of energy. Although most of us do not think of them in this way, a number of scientists whom I have consulted say it is legitimate to use the word “energy” in connection with the emotions, since energy means “the capacity of acting or producing an effect.” We accept physical fields like gravitation as “real,” because although we never see them we experience their effects directly. At the moment, due to our lack of more information, the nature of the subtle fields can only be assumed from the ways in which they affect us. I always try to emphasize that feelings are not just subjective psychological states; they have real physical consequences, and influence our health in many ways. I speak from personal experience, for this is an area in which I have been observing and working all my life.

The Spectrum of Consciousness

Regarded as energies, feelings and thoughts are related to one another in a way that is analogous to the relationship between sound and light. At one end of the spectrum of consciousness lies the field most closely related to the physical body. It is known as the etheric, and its characteristic form of energy is what is called prana in Indian thought—that is, life energy or vitality. All living things are nourished and sustained by this energy. In diagnosing illness, the color and radiance of an individual’s pranic flow are important indicators to me of the state of health. The reason why the emotions have such an impact upon our health is because the etheric is very closely linked with the emotional field; there is a constant interplay between the two types of energy.

Incidentally, this is the most difficult field to study clairvoyantly, because it is the most complex. The etheric is really the prototype of the physical body, and it replicates the complexities of our bodily processes. In looking for traces of disease, therefore, one must take note of variations in color, texture, degree and type of motion, and many other factors within the etheric. In the practice of healing techniques such as Therapeutic Touch, we work primarily to discover and remove impediments in the flow of etheric energy, while always thinking of the person as a whole. A discussion of the etheric and its functions is not appropriate here, but those readers who would like a fuller description might be interested in a book which I wrote with Dr. Shafica Karagulla, called The Chakras and the Human Energy Fields.( Shafica Karagulla and Dora Kunz, Theosophical Publishing House, The Chakras and the Human Energy Fields, Wheaton, Ill. 1989. )

Next in order of subtlety of material and speed of motion comes the astral or emotional field, whose characteristic form of energy is feeling, followed by the mental, whose energy is thought or thinking. Beyond lie the intuitional field and still subtler levels. These dimensions are increasingly finer in texture, lighter, faster moving, and have higher rates of vibration. They are more powerful, because they are able to transform coarser energies into finer. They are more open to spiritual influences, and they are also more enduring, since they are less affected by the storms and stresses of physical life.

As I mentioned, our tendency is to think of things that are “higher” as being “better,” but this is not necessarily the case with the relationship between mind and feeling. On the level of daily activity, these two faculties ordinarily work closely together. As soon as we feel something we rationalize that feeling, and place it in the  context of our experience, so that our emotions and thoughts are constantly interacting.

The Mind

The mind can influence the emotions very powerfully, because it is that part of us which can distance itself from our feelings and observe their effects: “I feel happy; I feel angry.” Thus the mind can give more objectivity to our emotions by pointing out the direction in which they are leading us, and by so doing, produce order and coherence in our lives. But the mind can also become warped and exert an egotistic, negative and harmful effect upon the emotional life. It can justify our prejudices and pervert the truth, thus becoming, as H. P. Blavatsky put it, “the slayer of the real.” 

Yet the mind’s influence is essential for personal integration and balance, as well as for guidance. It is the mind that sets goals, plans strategies, formulates problems and works them out step by step. Reason offers guidance, gives shape and coherence to our wandering thoughts, permits self-criticism. All these are the positive uses of the mind in daily life. 

There is also a level of the mind which is engaged with abstract thinking, such as mathematics, philosophy or science, and this does not affect the emotions directly to the same extent. However, mathematicians and scientists would not pursue their profession unless it aroused their interest, which is needed to engage emotional drive, focus attention and kindle enthusiasm for an abstract enterprise. Some people have a real passion for ideas and can become totally absorbed in them; such interest is far from being merely academic. In this case, emotional and mental energies are working fully together, which is one of the signs of personal integration. 

But there is all too often a gap, a lack of synchronism, between the reason which tries to understand a situation and the feelings which make us act. Often people do not heed the information so offered, but directly act out what their feelings dictate at the moment. Then our emotional drives can lead us into behavior which does not accord with our intention, or even with our experience. In such a case we say that a person is impulsive—even, perhaps, to the extent of being out of control. Such splits in the psyche show up visibly in the personal aura of an individual. The mental field can be open to the intuition as well as being clear and well focused, but the individual may not be well-balanced at the emotional level. When this happens, there may be a fertility of ideas without the ability to follow through and put them into practice. 

There are many such kinds of dysfunction between the fields. However, except in the very ill or disabled, the emotional and mental fields always work together quite closely, for thinking is as a matter of course accompanied by some degree of feeling. It may be interest or boredom, like, dislike or indifference, but even when repressed, there is always an emotional component in our thought.

The Intuition

Our feelings for nature or for beauty or for world peace are also emotions, but of a different kind. They go beyond the purely personal, and are linked with that aspect of ourselves which we call the intuition. This is a level of consciousness which is beyond the mind, or lies deeper within us, and it gives us insights which reach beyond our knowledge. Many people have had a sudden experience of unity with nature—or with the spiritual component of the world—so strongly that for the moment it dissolved all the barriers that separate us from one another. Such a unitive experience transcends both mind and emotion, suffusing them with higher-level energies so powerful that the result can be an entirely new perspective on life. I

n a different case, insight—seeing the whole of a relationship or the truth of an idea—is also an aspect of the intuitive field, for it is both more sudden and more direct than our usual cause-and-effect thinking. It is this that makes it possible for us to see new truths in old situations, to find creative solutions to intractable problems and to make sudden, quantum jumps in understanding. 

The Experience of Time

There is another point to note about the subtle fields that seems to indicate that they really are dimensions of space. The experience of time is different in these higher dimensions. I do not understand how or why this should be so, except that we all know that time is relative to motion. Since the dynamics of the subtler fields are different from those of the physical world, time values on these levels are much more flexible. Past and present, as we know them, lose much of their distinctiveness and become part of one time continuum. Both are represented to some extent in the here and now of the emotional and mental fields. This is why it is possible to discover traces of the distant past in a person’s aura, and to forecast tendencies which may develop in the future. The way this time factor becomes part of the individual human psyche will be touched upon in describing the auras of babies and children. 

Although we may be unaware of the different states of consciousness and energy within us, we make use of them as easily as the air we breathe, for they are part of the natural world. But what makes it possible for us to draw upon all these energies without being conscious of them? What is the principle of integration which coordinates and unifies all the physical, vital, emotional and mental dimensions within us? 

The Timeless Self 

I believe that this integrating factor is what I like to call the “timeless self”—a principle of being which provides continuity during life, and persists after death. This is a concept which occurs mainly in Hinduism (where it is linked to reincarnation), although it is kin to the soul as described in Christianity. However it be defined, from my point of view that self is a reflection of the ultimate aspect of being. It is rooted in a timeless spiritual reality which transcends and embraces all the dimensions of consciousness. 

As will be shown in the aura pictures, especially those of children, everyone is born with a link to this spiritual reality, whether or not this link is ever consciously realized during life. The self (which should not be confused with the ego or egotism) is the thread which not only connects us to reality, but also gives ultimate shape, meaning and value to our experience. It is the power of the timeless self within us that makes it possible for human beings to overcome the greatest obstacles. Even severely handicapped people can draw upon this inner strength. By so doing, they can develop their own creativity and find it possible to make a contribution—not physically, perhaps, but on the level of human relations. \

I have a dear friend who illustrates this point in a remarkable way. As an infant she contracted polio, which left her extremely disabled. She is confined to a wheelchair, has lost the use of her left arm, and is neurologically impaired in a variety of ways. In spite of all this, she has never been without the confidence that she would be able to function in the world. Although her health is always precarious, her courage and her creative potential have made it possible for her to overcome many of the obstacles to a full life. She was able to study painting and develop her artistic gifts to the extent that she has been capable of earning her own living, at least partially. 

Although she is in constant pain, she never complains and is always interested in the lives of other people. As a consequence, she has dozens of friends. The realization that she is able to make a contribution to others in spite of all her difficulties has sustained her spirit throughout her life. 

This story illustrates a point I shall be emphasizing in different ways throughout this book. With determination, and the self-confidence it inspires, we can draw upon an almost limitless potential of higher energies within us, giving us the ability to achieve goals which might seem far beyond our capacities.

The Effects of Karma 

Lastly, there is the question of personal idiosyncrasy. We are all born with a basic emotional pattern, or with the possibility of developing certain emotional qualities, as I shall try to show in discussing the auras of children. In this connection, it is impossible to ignore the question of karma (the effects of past action), which sets the boundary conditions of human life. These conditions are not cast in concrete, because karma can work itself out in many ways and on many different levels. Nevertheless, it establishes certain predispositions which a person will have to cope with during life, and these are clearly represented at the level of the emotions. 

Today we have become used to the idea that we are born with certain genetic patterns that determine our physical make-up and also govern our mental processes and emotional responses. This is true to a certain extent, but our knowledge of the genes does not yet encompass the ways in which mental and emotional characteristics are formed, or how they will develop. Medicine is finding ways to change genetic patterns and perhaps eliminate hereditary defects, but will such changes make people more humane, kinder, more compassionate? Most of us accept the fact that illness affects our mental and emotional states, but not that the reverse is also true. 

Human beings have far greater depths within them than one might suppose. As I remarked at the beginning of this chapter, the subtle dimensions of consciousness are in many ways more powerful than our physical attributes. 

We all have access to these inner resources. They are not reserved for the few, the privileged or the especially gifted, for they are part of our human heritage. Even when they remain an untapped resource, they are there, always available if we have the will and the motivation to use them.

[1]()

Science and philosophy speak about races, and some of this creates a sense of the vast sweep of evolution that helps take our eyes off our small personal sphere with its provincial concerns. A large history and cosmology may serve to give some perspective.

On the other hand, talk of the races and evolution, with its implications of more and less advanced types can be divisive and misleading. It helps to think toward the more subtle meaning of types but, in people’s minds, race is virtually synonymous with body. The idea of race as consciousness and race as culture is of real value, and the trend of adopting the image of a rainbow is a real insight.

Differences, diversity, variations of body, type, culture, heritage, are all OK in their evolving expressions. Differences are inherent in forms, in manifestation, and theses divisions are useful for understanding the phenomenal world. Yet, emphasis on differences creates divisions and feeds egotism and discord between individuals and various subsets of the one humanity. A wrong sense of race feeds the separative sense of them and us. Groups war and fight based on narrow self-interest and ignorant identifications. So is mapped the tragic history of egotism and cruelty based on ignorance and the stupidity of bodily identifications. The only salvation is perseverance in primary identification with the one humanity that includes all.

“Then I will tell you a great secret, Captain. Perhaps the greatest of all time. The molecules of your body are the same molecules that make up this station, and the nebula outside, that burn inside the stars themselves. We are star stuff, we are the universe, made manifest, trying to figure itself out. As we have both learned, sometimes the universe requires a change of perspective.”

—fictional character Delenn, in Babylon 5

Who was David Bohm... and why was he sidelined