Theos-Talk Archives (April 2001 Message tt00066)

Tuesday, April 10, 2001


Extracts from LETTERS THAT HAVE HELPED ME -- 3 --

By William Q. Judge
Volume 1 -- compiled by Jasper Niemand;

The Letters in Volume 1 originally appeared in THE PATH, December
1888 to March 1890. W. Q. Judge first published them in book form
in 1891,
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SOME EXTRACTS


>From Volume 1

"Seeking for freedom I go to that God who is the light of his own
thoughts. A man who knows him truly passes over death; there is
no other path to go." -- Upanishads

"We need a literature, not solely for highly intellectual
persons, but of a more simple character, which attempts to appeal
to ordinary common-sense minds who are really fainting for such
moral and mental assistance as is not reached by the more
pretentious works."

The experience of one student is, on the whole, the experience of
all. Details differ, however.

Some are made more instantly rich than others: they are those who
put forth more vigorous and generous effort; or they have a
Karmic store which brings aid.

Karma, or the law of spiritual action and reaction, decided this,
as it works on all the planes, physical, moral, mental,
psychical, and spiritual alike. Our Karma may be worked out on
any one of these planes when our life is chiefly concentrated
upon it.

The letters, in the hope that they may assist others, are here
published. They are hints given by one who knew that the first
need of a student is to learn how to think.

The true direction is pointed out, and the student is left to
clarify his own perceptions, to draw upon and enlarge his own
intuitions, and to develop, by his own inward exertions.
Such students have passed the point where their external
environment can affect their growth favorably. They may learn
from it, but the time has also come to resist it and turn to the
internal adjustment to higher relations only.

The brevity of these letters should not mislead. Every statement
in them is a statement of law. They point to causes of which life
is an effect. That life, arising from the action of Spirit in
Nature, is that which we must understand. It is to be manifested
within us before we can advance on the Path. -- J. N.

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Letter 3 [ Excerpts from -- ]



Say, Brother Jasper, are you tired?

I am.

Not tired of fate or of the great "Leaders of the World," but
with all these people who gape and gape and are (excuse me) so
Americanly "independent," as if men (or women) were ever
independent of each other.

You ask about the "Moment Of Choice."
It is made up of all moments. It is not in space or time, but is
the aggregation of those moments flying by us each instant. It is
referred to in ESOTERIC BUDDHISM as a period not yet arrived for
the race, when it will, as a whole, be compelled to make choice
for good or evil.
But any single individual can bring on the period for himself.
When it will or has come, the uninstructed cannot tell. For the
student of occultism it may come in the next instant, or it may
come one hundred lives after. But it cannot come this instant
unless all the previous lives have led up to it.

Yet as regards the student, even if it be presented to him and he
refuse, he will be brought to the choice in future existences,
with the whole body of his race.

Race Influences are insidious and powerful. For instance, my race
has its peculiarities deeply seated and inherited from an
extraordinary past. I must be under their influence in this body
as a necessary part of my experience. In another life I might
have been a prosaic Hottentot, or an Englishman, and in a
succeeding one I might be under the influence of other race
peculiarities. Those influences are, then, guiding me every
moment, and each thought I have adds to them now, for either my
own future use or for some other person who will come under the
power of part of the force generated now by me.


As to the Sub-Conscious Mind.
It is difficult to explain. I find constantly that I have ideas
that internally I thoroughly understand, and yet can find no
language for them. Call it subconscious if you like. It is there
and can be affected; indeed, it is affected every moment. It is a
nearness to the universal mind. So if I desire to influence --
say your mind -- I do not formulate your subconscious plane, but
firmly and kindly think of you and think of the subject I wish
you to think of. This must reach you. If I am selfish, then it
has more difficulty to get there; but if it be brotherly, then it
gets there more easily, being in harmony with the universal mind
and the Law.

The Psychical [Research] Society speaks of it, and says that the
influence "emerges into the lower mind" by one or more of the
channels. But they do not know what those "channels" are, or even
if they do exist. In fact, the whole subject of mind is only
faintly understood in the West. They say "mind," meaning the vast
range and departments of that which they call mind, whereas there
must be a need for the names of those departments. When the true
ideas are grasped, the names will follow.

Meanwhile we must be satisfied with "mind" as including the whole
thing. But it does not. Certainly it is not ordinary mental
motion -- ratiocination -- to grasp in an instant a whole
subject, premises and conclusions, without stopping to reason. It
cannot be called a picture, for with some it comes as an idea,
and not as a picture.


Memory. What is that? Is it brain-impression; or similarity of
vibration, recognized upon being repeated and then producing a
picture? If so, then the power to recognize the vibration as the
same as before is separate from the matter which vibrates. And if
the power inhere in the brain cells, how is it possible, when we
know they are constantly being changed?

Yet memory is perfect, no matter what happens. That it is above
brain is clear, because a man may be killed by having his brain
blown to atoms, and yet his "shell" can give all the incidents of
his life, and they are not taken from the brain, for that is
dead. Where, then, is the subconscious mind? And where are the
channels, and how are they connected? I think through the heart,
and that the heart is the key to it all, and that the brain is
only the servant of the heart, for remember that there is in it
the "small dwarf who sits at the centre." Think it out on that
line now for yourself -- or any other line that you may choose,
but think.

As ever,
W Q J


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