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An Outline of Theosophy
By
Charles Webster Leadbeater
Charles Webster Leadbeater
1858? - 1934
Cause and Effect
In previous chapters we
have constantly had to take into consideration this mighty law of action and
reaction under which every man necessarily receives his just deserts; for
without this law the rest of the Divine scheme would be incomprehensible to us.
It is well worth our while to try to obtain a true appreciation of this law,
and the first step towards doing that is to disabuse
our minds entirely of the
ecclesiastical idea of reward and punishment as following upon human action.
It is inevitable that we
should connect with that idea the thought of a judge administering such reward
or punishment, and then at once follows the further possibility that the judge
may be more lenient in one case than in another, that he may be swayed by
circumstances, that an appeal may be made to him, and that in that way the
incidence of the law may be modified or even escaped
altogether.
Every one of these
suggestions is in the highest degree misleading, and the whole body of thought
to which they belong must be exorcised and utterly cast out before we can
arrive at any real understanding of facts.
If a man put his hand on a
bar of red-hot iron, under ordinary circumstances he would be badly burnt; yet
it would not occur to him to say that God had punished him for putting his hand
on the bar. He would realise that what had happened was precisely what might
have been expected under the action of
the laws of Nature, and that one who understood what heat is and how it acts
could explain exactly the production of the burn.
It is to be observed that
the man’s intention in no way affects the physical result; whether he seized
that bar in order to do some harm with it or in order to save someone else from
injury, he would be burnt just the same. Of course, in other and higher ways
the results would be quite different; in
the one case he would have done a noble deed, and would have the approval of
his conscience,
while in the other he
could feel only remorse. But the physical burn would be there in one case just
as much as in the other.
To obtain a true
conception of the working of this law of cause and effect we must think of it
as acting automatically in exactly the same way. If we have a
heavy weight hanging from
the ceiling by a rope, and I exert a certain amount of force in pushing against
that weight, we know by the laws of mechanics that the weight will press back
against my hand with exactly the same amount of force;
and this reaction will
operate without the slightest reference to my disturbing its equilibrium.
Similarly the man who commits an evil action disturbs the equilibrium of the
great current of evolution; and that mighty current invariably adjusts that
equilibrium at his expense.
It must not be therefore
supposed for a moment that the intention of the action makes no difference; on
the contrary it is the most important factor connected with it, even
though it does not affect the result
upon the physical plane. We
are apt to forget that the
intention is itself a force, and a force acting upon the mental plane, where
the matter is so much finer and vibrates so much more rapidly than on our lower
level, that the same amount of energy
will produce enormously greater effect.
The physical action will
produce its result on the physical plane, but the mental energy of the
intention will work out its own result simultaneously in the matter of the
mental plane, totally irrespective of the other; and its effect is certain to
be very much the more important of the two. In this way it will be seen that an
absolutely perfect adjustment is always achieved; for however mixed the motives
may be, and however good and evil may be mingled in the physical results, the
equilibrium will always be perfectly readjusted, and along every line perfect
justice must be done.
We must not forget, that
it is the man himself and no other who builds his future character as well as
produces his future circumstances. Speaking very
generally, it may be said
that, while his actions in one life produce his environment in the next, his
thoughts in the one life are the chief factors in
the evolution of his
character in the next. The method by which all this works is an exceedingly
interesting study, but it would take far too long to detail it here; it maybe
found very fully elaborated in Mrs. Besant’s manual on Karma, and also in the
chapter referring to this subject in her Ancient Wisdom, and in Mr. Sinnett’s
Esoteric Buddhism, to which the reader may be referred.
It is obvious that all
these facts furnish us with exceedingly good reason for many of our ethical
precepts. If thought be a mighty power capable of producing upon its own plane
results far more important than any that can be achieved in physical life, then
the necessity that man should control that force immediately becomes apparent.
Not only is the man building his own future character by means of his thought,
but he is also constantly and inevitably affecting those around him by its
means.
Hence there lies upon him
a very serious responsibility as to the use which he makes of this power. If
the feeling of annoyance or hatred arises in the heart of the ordinary man, his
natural impulse is to express it in some way either in
word or in action. The
ordinary rules of civilised society, however, forbid him to do that, and
dictate that he should as far as possible repress all outward sign of his
feelings.
If he succeeds in doing
this he is apt to congratulate himself, and to consider that he has done the
whole of his duty. The occult student, however, knows that it is necessary for
him to carry his self-control a great deal further than that, and that he must
absolutely repress the thought of irritation as well as its outward expression.
For he knows that his feelings set in motion tremendous forces upon the astral
plane, that these will act against the object of his irritation just as surely
as a blow struck upon the physical plane, and that in many cases the results
produced will be far more serious and lasting.
It is true in a very real
sense that thoughts are things. To clairvoyant sight thoughts take definite
form and colour, the latter, of course depending upon the rate of vibration
connected with them.
The study of these forms
and colours is of great interest. A description of them illustrated with
coloured drawings will be found in the book entitled Thought Forms.
These considerations open
up to us possibilities in various
directions. Since it is easily possible to do harm by thought, it is also
possible to do good by
it. Currents may be set in
motion which will carry mental help and comfort to many a suffering friend, and
in this way a whole new world of usefulness opens before us. Many a grateful
soul has been oppressed by a feeling that for want of
physical wealth he was
unable to do anything in return for the kindness lavished upon him by another;
but here is the method by which he can be of the greatest service to him in a
realm where physical wealth or its absence makes no difference.
All who can think can help
others: and all who can help others ought to help. In this case, as in every
other, knowledge is power, and those who
understand the law can use the law. Knowing
what effects upon themselves and upon others will be produced by certain
thoughts, they can deliberately arrange to produce these results. In this way a
man can not only steadily mould his character in his
present life, but can
decide exactly what it shall be in the next.
For a thought is a
vibrations in the matter of the mental body, and the same thought persistently
repeated evokes corresponding vibrations (an octave higher, as it were) in the
matter of the causal body. In this way qualities are gradually built into the
soul itself, and they will certainly reappear as part of the stock-in-trade
with which he commences his next incarnation.
It is in this way, by
working from below upwards, that the faculties and qualities of the soul are
gradually evolved, and thus man takes his evolution largely into his own hands
and begins to co-operate intelligently in the great scheme of the Deity. For
further information on this subject the best book to study is Mrs. Besant’s
Thought Power, its Control and Culture.
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