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A. If one learns to observe oneself, one can find when it begins to happen, and then one must not let it go on for too long, because it will become every day more and more difficult to struggle with it. But it manifests itself differently in different cases. Q. Is that a case of acquiring a lot of knowledge without understanding? A. No. Even understanding is possible in such a case, only without action. You see, even knowledge and understanding cannot help if one docs not work on being. If will does not grow at the same time, one can understand and not be able to do anything. If people wait too long without making serious efforts or serious decisions, they may have the beginning of this double crystallization. Then they can get no results in their work, and after a time they may even get wrong results.
CHAPTER VIII Man's place in the world—Limitations of our perception and thinking— Knowledge is knowledge of all—Principles of relativity and scale—Law of Three—Four states of matter—We are third force blind—Law of Seven—Ascending and descending octaves—Observing intervals— Ray of Creation—Will of the Absolute—Ray of Creation as an instrument for new thinking—Special language—Ray of Creation as an octave— Organic life on earth—Feeding the Moon—Cosmic influences—Mechanical influence of the moon—Influences and state of being—Planetary influences and essence—Liberation from laws— Possibility of development—Man as part of organic life—Study of laws—Justice and injustice—Laws belonging to man—Working against nature—Study of cosmological ideas as help to self- remembering—Law of Three and creation—Passage of forces— Three octaves of radiations—Table of Hydrogens—Different levels of matter—Lateral octave—Possibility of evolution. WE MUST SPEAK ABOUT MAN'S PLACE IN THE WORLD, because from now onwards we must always study man in connection with his place, since there are many things about us, about what is possible for us and what is impossible, that are connected with this. In the first lecture I said that we must study man and, parallel with that, we must study the world in which man lives, in order to try to understand why man is what he is and why he cannot be any different. We cannot find answers to all these questions if we study man separately from the world in which he lives. In a certain sense man is analogous to the universe; the same laws operate in him and we shall find that it is easier to understand some of these laws by studying man, while other laws we can understand better by studying the universe. But first of all we must realize the limitations of our perception and our thinking power; so this study also includes the study of our limitations. The system enlarges our knowledge very much, but it cannot do miracles. If we try to think of the world apart from ourselves and to see it as it is, even from the physical point of view with the help of the telescope or the microscope, we shall realize how limited our capacities of perception are, for they are limited by size. And our capacity for mental seeing is infinitely more limited. Even if we were to come in contact with the source
of full knowledge, such as we are we would not be able to take it or use it, for, although we can know more than we ordinarily know, there is a definite limit in us—in our mind. So we must know all our limitations and then, when we know the power of our instrument, we shall know what we can get. The first idea of this system is that, to a certain extent, we can improve this instrument for acquiring knowledge—this is the idea of self-improvement. If you remember, I said that from the point of view of this system only knowledge of the whole can be regarded as knowledge, for knowledge of a part without its relation to the whole is not knowledge but ignorance. We can have this knowledge, only we do not realize it and do not understand that in relation to everything knowledge begins with knowledge of the whole. Take, for instance, this box of matches. If I look at it through a narrow slit I shall only see a small part of it and shall never get the idea of the box of matches as a whole. It is the same with everything. Almost all we call knowledge is not really knowledge at all, because it is merely knowledge of a small part without knowing the place of this part in the whole. There is a certain book of aphorisms which says: To know means to know all. To know a part of something means not to know. It is not difficult to know all, because in order to know all one has to know very little. But in order to know this little one has to know pretty much. So we have to start with 'pretty much', with the idea of coming to this 'very little’ which is necessary for the knowledge of all. Knowledge of all is possible with the use of two principles: the principle of relativity and the principle of scale. If we speak about the world, it is necessary to know all about the world, and we can know all we need to know about it if we take things on different scales. We can know much more than we know ordinarily if we study things commensurable with us and having a relation to us on one scale, and things which are further removed from us and which have no definite relation to us on another, a smaller scale, in a more abstract way. In this way we can get all the necessary amount of knowledge without learning too much, and this knowledge will include very few useless things, because if we learn everything indiscriminately, we will not know the necessary things. For instance, you know your own house on a scale proportionate to your body, but the town in which you live you know on a much smaller scale. Some parts you know well, other parts not so well, but there is no part of it you know as well as your own house. And England you know on a still smaller scale, Europe on a smaller scale still and so on. Now I shall remind you of what I said in the first lecture concerning the study of the world and the two fundamental laws that govern it, and shall point out what you must remember and how you must remember it. These universal laws are really beyond our mind, so with all the wish to
study them you will not understand much more than words. But even this is useful. With the help of these words you can reconstruct your views of the universe and put man in the right place in relation to different worlds. The first thing to remember is what was said about the Law of Three— that everything in the world, all manifestations of energy, all kinds of action, whether in the world or in human activity, whether internal or external, are always manifestations of three forces which exist in nature. These forces are called active, passive and neutralizing, or first, second and third. It must be understood that they do not differ from one another as activity and passivity differ in our ordinary understanding of these terms. Active and passive forces are both active, for a force cannot be passive. But there is a certain difference in their activity, and this difference makes all the variety of phenomena that exist in the world. The three forces work together, but one of them predominates in each combination. At the same time, each force which is now active can become passive or neutralizing the next moment, in another triad. When three forces meet together, things happen. If they do not come together, nothing happens. From this point of view, matter must also have certain definite denominations according to which force works through it—whether it is organic or inorganic, a chemical element or a compound. When active force passes through any kind of matter it is called Carbon. When passive force passes through it, it is called Oxygen. When neutralizing force works through it, it is called Nitrogen. And when matter is taken without relation to the force that works through it, it is called Hydrogen. At first these names should be taken simply as labels. Thus the Law of Three brings relativity into our definition of matter, for instead of one iron we have four irons, instead of one copper four coppers, and so on. Father, mother, son; carbon, oxygen, nitrogen. The family is hydrogen. The beginning of a new family is the son. In ordinary thinking we realize the existence of two forces—action and resistance, positive and negative electricity, and so on. But in this state of consciousness we do not see that three forces are always present in every event, in every phenomenon, and that only a conjunction of three forces can produce an event. Two forces cannot produce anything—they will only turn round one another without any result. It takes a long time to begin to see three forces in things—for some reason we are third force blind, although we can observe it in many chemical reactions and biological phenomena. Even when we fully understand that nothing can happen without the presence of all the three elements, in relation to ourselves we are inclined to forget or disregard it. We do not fully observe even two forces and generally expect things to happen when only one force is present. Later you will see that if you want to produce a certain effect or a certain action and one force is missing you can get no result.
In some cases it may be passive force and then nothing happens, for if there is no passive force there is no material. In another case active or neutralizing force may be missing, and so again you can do nothing. If you try to find manifestations of the first and second forces, sometimes you can find manifestations of the third. It needs observation, and it cannot be proven except by yourselves. In psychology many things can be explained by the necessity of the third force. This also explains why we cannot 'do'—we cannot bring the third force. And without the third force no action can happen, or it happens in a different way from the way we meant it to happen. Sometimes we see the neutralizing force, only we are mistaken about its nature. For instance, we often see it as result when in reality it exists before the first and the second. We make many mistakes about three forces, but it is very useful to think about it. Q. Are the three forces external—outside of oneself? A. They are in yourself and outside yourself, on our scale, on planetary scale, on universal scale, on all scales. Q. Could you give us an example of how they work? A. Suppose you want to study something. You have some material, new ideas and so on, but at the same time you have a resistance to this study, because some 'I's want it and some other 'I's do not want it. They represent active and passive forces. Suppose that this study produces some kind of emotion in you; this emotion works as neutralizing force, and then you can study. If emotion does not come, those 'I's that want it and those that do not want it will continue to argue and nothing will happen. The Law of Three explains many things that cannot be explained in the ordinary way, because we usually think about only one force. Very seldom do we take the second force, resistance, into consideration, and never the third force. Yet, in any calculation of actions it is necessary to take three forces into account. Q. Is necessity the third force? So many decisions seem to be settled by necessity. A. And many others are settled by what is not necessary. People can always do without necessary things, but to do without unnecessary things is much more difficult. So you cannot say that. But you must realize that you cannot speak about the third force without giving the first and the second. Q. Can we study the Law of Three to see why our efforts do not succeed? A. Very useful sometimes. Sometimes you can see that because of not knowing and not complying with the Law of Three people lose all the results of their efforts. Either they do not calculate resistance or they do not calculate their active force—I am speaking now about a triad where the third force is present. Very strange phenomena happen when the difference between forces is too big—the result appears completely unlike
what was expected. Suppose you want to do a certain thing, but you did not calculate resistance. Your intention meets with very strong resistance, and the result, when it comes, is absolutely different from what is wanted. In the work you can see two forces: the ideas of the system and your own resistance, your own sleep. In each particular case a certain third force enters and either helps one side or another side. Q. What is the practical value of studying forces? A. Behind all things there are cosmic laws. You cannot understand why things happen in one way or another way unless you have some idea of these laws. Q. If you take events instead of matter, can you say that they are of a different kind according to the force that works through them? A. They are different according to which triad works. For instance, we all know how the same sentence, the same words, can have quite a different meaning according to who says it. Or even the same person can say the same words at different times and the meaning will be different. We can find the teaching about three forces or three gunas in Sankhya philosophy, but in the existing literature it has seriously deteriorated, for they speak of each guna or force as remaining always the same, whereas from the point of view of the system, as I said, the activity, passivity or neutralizing power of each force appears only in relation to the two other forces. There can be seven combinations of forces, one of them incomprehensible to the human mind, since in this triad each force occupies each place. Triads refer to events, so if we speak of each event separately, whether big or small, we have to understand to which triad each of them belongs. But a succession of events proceeds according to the Law of Seven or the Law of Octaves. The Law of Seven must be understood and remembered from the point of view of intervals. Putting it briefly, the Law of Seven means that no force ever works continuously in the same direction: it works for a certain time, then diminishes in intensity and either changes its direction or undergoes an inner change. In every octave—that is, a period between a certain number of vibrations and either double or half that number—there are two places where vibrations or, to be more exact, manifestations of energy going on in space or time, or in both, undergo a certain change, slow down and then start again. If an additional shock does not enter at those places, the octave changes direction. This measured irregularity in the rate of vibrations was calculated and embodied in a certain formula. This formula, expressing a cosmic law, was later applied to music in the form of the major scale. The Law of Seven shows that no force can develop in one direction and shows the places where these changes or retardations occur. Q. Is it because of obstacles at intervals?
A. It is because of intervals. Obstacles are normal; every energy develops among obstacles. Q. Does the line always change in one direction? A. No, in any direction. When things 'happen', one can never be sure of direction. Men 1, 2 and 3 never arrive where they want to; it can only happen by accident. We think that when we do not arrive where we want to, it is an exception; we do not realize that it is a law. We cannot rely on chance to provide the right shocks at the right moments. Q. Is this process infinite? A. You cannot imagine a force that works indefinitely. It works according to the amount of energy there is. But again, octaves are different—they may be descending or ascending. An ascending octave is between a certain number of vibrations and double that number. A descending octave is between a certain number of vibrations and half that number. So speaking about a succession of events, we have to know ascending and descending octaves. Without knowing whether it is a descending or an ascending octave it is impossible to understand it, and this is what happens in ordinary thinking, because people study ascending octaves and take them for descending and vice versa. Q. Could you give an example of people taking a descending octave for an ascending one? A. Suppose we meet savages; we usually think that they are primitive, and from these primitive people there begin to develop civilization and culture. But we do not realize that in most cases they are descendants of cultured people. Very often we take degeneration for evolution. It is easiest to observe the Law of Seven in human actions. You can see how when people begin to do something—study, work—after some time, without any visible reason, their efforts diminish, work slows down, and if some special effort is not made at a given moment, the line changes its direction. There is a small but real change in inner strength. Then after some time there is again a slackening, and again, if there is no special effort, the direction changes. It can change completely and go in a diametrically opposite direction, still appearing to be the same thing. There are many phases of human activity which answer to this description. They start one way and then imperceptibly continue in exactly the opposite way. If these intervals are known and if a method of creating some special effort or arrangement is used in these intervals, it is possible to avoid breaks in the octave. Everything goes by octaves; no vibration, no movement, no activity can go on in any other way. Scales vary, so we cannot follow them, but we can see their results, the results of the Law of Seven. Even the inner physical work of the organism is under this law. With certain kinds of effort we can produce these missing semi-tones, fill the intervals and in this way change the work of our machine. For
instance, you will see later how the effort to remember oneself changes many things in the chemistry of our organism. Q. If you discover an interval in a certain action, is it likely to go on repeating? A. If you could find examples it would be easier to talk. To answer generally, if nothing is done, the interval will increase with each octave, at the same place. Q. You spoke about octaves of self-remembering. . . . A. Not exactly. I said that if you work, your work may form itself into octaves and will have intervals. If you do not know where the intervals come, your work will change. But we cannot speak of octaves in relation to self-remembering, because with us it only starts and peters out. If we manage two or three notes it will be good. We have not got enough initial energy. Yet we must start and start again until we make an octave. We have to begin afresh every day: do, re; do, re, mi. . . . For a long time we can get no further than mi. Q. If you get to mi, what happens? A. Then you stop and go back. For a long time you will not pass the interval. But after some time of study you will be able to detect intervals. You will know that in some part of your line of work an interval is approaching. Q. To see octaves, ought one to try to follow a sequence of happenings in oneself? A. Not a sequence of happenings, but you can see intervals if you begin to do something, to learn something. You will see how an activity goes on for some time in a particular direction and then deviates from the original course. Now, having all this in mind, we come to the study of the universe in order to determine what is the world for man. Man lives on the earth, but the earth is one of the planets of the solar system, so man belongs also to the planetary world. The earth occupies a certain place in the solar system, so we can say that we also belong to the sun. The sun is one of the stars of the Milky Way, so in a sense we belong also to the Milky Way. Then, ordinary science understands and admits the existence of other galaxies, similar and dissimilar to ours, so we belong also to the world of all galaxies taken together. Astronomically we cannot go any further, but philosophically we can conceive a state of things where everything is one, as an apple is one. This state we call the Absolute. So all galaxies, our galaxy, our solar system, the planets, the earth and the moon which is in the sphere of influence of the earth, are all in the Absolute. The Absolute actually creates only the world of the next order to itself
and the Will of the Absolute does not manifest itself beyond World 3. As the number of laws increases, they become more and more mechanical and complicated, and the Will of the Absolute cannot come through the intervening mechanicalness and manifest itself in the lower worlds. But it starts the ball rolling, so to speak. Try to think about it—it is very important. Q. Why should not the Will of the Absolute fill all? A. There are things impossible even for the Absolute. You see, we think that if the Absolute is a state of things to which the origin of all things belongs, the Will of the Absolute can do anything. Yet there are some things the Absolute cannot do, because he begins by creating certain laws; these laws create other laws, and these yet other laws. The Absolute creates only the first order of laws. If he wants to manifest his will on our level, he will have to destroy all these laws. We are surrounded and controlled by quantities of mechanical laws; when we begin to see that, we realize that it is impossible for the will of the Absolute to enter our level. In order to do that the Absolute would have to destroy all the intermediate worlds, since everything depends on the laws governing them. A little change would mean the destruction of the whole Ray of Creation. We can understand this to a certain extent by analogy. If we take man as the Absolute and try to find the ultimate limits that can be reached within himself by his will, even the most superficial knowledge of human physiology will give us an answer to this question. Man's will (taking it as a conditional concept) may govern the movements of the whole body, of separate limbs, of some organs and of breathing. If a man concentrates his attention on the tip of his nose, he begins to feel it. By this concentration he may even provoke a slight sensation in some tissues. But he can in no way manifest his will in relation to some separate cell in his body; cells are too small for this. Man's will can manifest itself only in relation to tissues, in relation to cells it can no longer manifest itself. If we take man as analogous to the Absolute, tissues will correspond to World 3, and cells to World 6. Or, to take another analogy, if an architect draws the plan of a house and gives it to the builders and contractors, he cannot afterwards interfere with the bricklayers, or with the people who live in the house when built, should he not like the way they behave. Try to understand that each level brings more laws, independently of the other levels. The architect has made his plan and has finished with the house. Many things did not enter into this plan: the work of the decorators, the people who will live in the house, the cats, dogs, mice and so on. It is a question of understanding the principle. Many things enter on each plane, independently of the original plan.
There is nothing new in the Ray of Creation, nothing that you do not know, only the facts are differently disposed. Disposing your material in a certain way is necessary for the solution of any problem, and the way it is done includes in itself an understanding of how this problem is to be solved. So the Ray of Creation is a kind of enunciation of the problem of how to define man's place in the world. This means not only man's exact place but also the relation of this place to as many landmarks as possible. The Ray of Creation is a help, an instrument or method for new thinking. We know about the division of man into seven categories, and everything else should be divided in the same way. Ordinary thinking is divided into thinking No. 1, 2 and 3. Thinking No. 1 is chiefly imitative; thinking No. 2 is more emotional, based on likes and dislikes; thinking No. 3 is theoretical, logical thinking, which is quite good in its place, but when it is applied to things that are beyond its power it becomes quite wrong. This is all we know in ordinary life. From the Ray of Creation begins thinking No. 4, and this you must try to understand. The Ray of Creation is not another theory, like other theories you know; it is a certain rearrangement of the material you have already. And thinking No. 4 is thinking which, little by little, disposes of all contradictions. In thinking No. 3, whatever line one takes, one immediately finds some other theory which will contradict that particular theory. In thinking No. 4, not at once but gradually, one comes to a certain understanding of the fact that it is possible, to think without contradictions, to understand that contradictions are not really contradictions. Ordinary thinking has many contradictions. For instance, if we take the world, we either think that there is a kind of divine will which creates and keeps everything, or that things just happen by themselves. Another example of ordinary thinking is will versus mechanicalness, or pre-
destination versus accident. When you study the Ray of Creation, you will see that it contains all these things. All these views are right in a sense and the Ray of Creation includes them all. There is a theory that the human mind we know cannot invent an absolute lie. It cannot invent something that has no relation to truth. Everything the human mind can invent will be a partial representation of truth. For instance, if a man tries to draw a new animal, he will have to take parts of known animals, for he has to use the material borrowed from his actual observation of life. The Ray of Creation shows you how all contradictory theories about predestination or freedom, free choice, divine will, mechanicalness and so on can be reconciled in one system, how, in their totality, these views, each of which shows one facet of the truth, do not contradict one another. In one place one thing is right, in another place another thing is right, but each, if applied to the whole, is wrong. Later you will see that certain things cannot be applied to the whole because the whole is not one—it is too varied, has too many faces. The Ray of Creation also shows that. At present the study of the Ray of Creation and of universal laws is not yet knowledge—it is only language; but with the help of this language we will be able to talk about many different things for which ordinary language lacks words, expressions, connections between things. In studying this new language, you understand the relation of things to one another, because it binds everything together—everything we know or must know or can be interested to know in the world. The value of this language is that in using some term of it you explain not only what this object is and what place it occupies in its immediate surroundings, but you also show its place in the whole universe. Taking the Ray of Creation as a succession of events, it can be regarded as an octave. It is a descending octave in the sense of expansion and differentiation. The first interval in this octave is filled by the Will of the Absolute. In order to fill the second interval, between planets and earth, a special instrument was cosmically created. This instrument is organic life on earth. Organic life on earth plays a very important part in the Ray of Creation, for it guarantees the transmission of energies and makes the growth of the Ray possible. The growing point of the Ray is the moon. The idea is that eventually the moon will become like the earth and the earth like the sun; then another moon will appear, and so growth will continue up to a certain point. But this is rather beyond us. Organic life is a sort of receiving apparatus for catching and transmitting influences coming from the planets of the solar system. At the same time as serving as a means of communication between the earth and the planets, organic life feeds the moon. Everything that lives serves the purposes of the earth; everything that dies feeds the moon. This sounds strange at first, but when we understand the laws which govern organic life, we will realize that it is based on a very hard law, the law that one
class of living beings cats another class. This not only makes organic life self supporting but also enables it to feed the moon and serve as a transmitter of energies. Thus organic life serves many purposes—those of the greater worlds, the planets, the earth and the moon. The question arises: how can we prove it? We can find certain proofs later by analogy with man, because man is built on the same principle as the Ray of Creation. There are many things which we cannot prove in an objective way, but it may be we can find proofs by studying ourselves. Q. Why does the soul at death go to the moon? A. The moon is hungry. Q. Is not the earth hungry too? A. The whole surface of the earth, its composition and structure, depend on organic life. The earth receives the body, for that is what it wants. It depends on taste and appetite. The moon wants one thing, the earth another. It is a very interesting idea. Later you will see more clearly how things are connected, how one thing makes another grow. Certain matters pass to the moon in that way which otherwise would not be able to reach it. And they come in an already digested form. Q. What is the earth? Is it alive? Where does organic life end and earth begin? A. Organic life is a quite definite thing—animals, plants, men and all micro organisms. As to the earth, it is certainly a living being only on quite a different scale. Nothing is dead in nature. Only some men are dead. Q. What is the form of communication between organic life and earth? A. There are many forms of communication. When you inhale air, for instance, this is communication. We are here on earth as part of organic life. Organic life is under certain influences coming from all the planets and, since we are part of it, these influences affect us too. We are also under certain influences coming from the sun, the Milky Way and, maybe, under the influences of All Worlds, although, naturally, influences of All Worlds on an individual man are very small. We do not know much about influences coming from the moon, but we do know that it plays a very important part in organic life and, without understanding how everything is connected and in what way the life of man on earth is connected with the planets and the sun, we cannot understand man's position and his present life as it is. For instance, without this diagram it is impossible to understand that man lives in a very bad place in the universe, and that many things which we regard as unfair, against which we rebel and try to fight, are really the result of this position of organic life on earth. If we were on the moon, it would be still worse; there would be no possibility of development. On the earth there is a possibility of development—we can develop certain parts in us. Very little of planetary influences comes to us as individuals. Generally planetary influences are only felt by masses of people; thus they are