Theos-Talk Archives (April 2005 Message tt01742)

4 26 05

Dear Cass:

This may interest you: You mentioned this in one of your notes and I
partially answered it.

This gives more detail.


THE DWELLER OF THE THRESHOLD


HAS such a being any existence? Has any one ever seen it? Are there many or
several, and has it any sex? 

Such are the questions asked by nearly all students who read theosophical
books. Some of those who all their life believed in fairies in secret and in
the old tales of giants, have proceeded to test the question by calling upon
the horrid shade to appear and freeze their blood with the awful eyes that
Bulwer Lytton has made so famous in his "ZANONI." But the Dweller is not to
be wooed in such a way, and has not appeared at all, but by absolute silence
leads the invoker to at last scout the idea altogether.

But this same inquirer then studies theosophical books with diligence, and
enters after a time on the attempt to find out his own inner nature. 

All this while the Dweller has waited, and, indeed, we may say, in complete
ignorance as yet of the neophyte's existence. When the study has proceeded
far enough to wake up long dormant senses and tendencies, the Dweller begins
to feel that such a person as this student is at work. 

Certain influences are then felt, but not always with clearness, and at
first never ascribed to the agency of what had long ago been relegated to
the lumber-room of exploded superstitions. The study goes still farther and
yet farther, until the awful Thing has revealed itself; and when that
happens, it is not a superstition nor is it disbelieved. It can then never
be gotten rid of, but will stay as a constant menace until it is triumphed
over and left behind.

When Glyndon was left by Mejnour in the old castle in Italy, he found two
vases which he had received direction not to open. But disobeying these he
took out the stoppers, and at once the room was filled with intoxication,
and soon the awful, loathsome creature appeared whose blazing eyes shone
with malignant glare and penetrated to Glyndon's soul with a rush of horror
such as he had never known.

In this story Lytton desired to show that the opening of the vases is like
the approach of an enquirer to the secret recesses of his own nature. 

He opens the receptacles, and at first is full of joy and a sort of
intoxication due to the new solutions offered for every problem in life and
to the dimly seen vistas of power and advancement that open before him. 

If the vases are kept open long enough, the Dweller of the Threshold surely
appears, and no man is exempt from the sight. 

Goodness is not sufficient to prevent its appearance, because even the good
man who finds a muddy place in the way to his destination must of necessity
pass through it to reach the end.

We must ask next, WHAT is the Dweller? 

It is the combined evil influence that is the result of the wicked thoughts
and acts of the age in which any one may live, and it assumes to each
student a definite shape at each appearance, being always either of one sort
or changing each time. 

So that with one it may be as Bulwer Lytton pictured it, or with another
only a dread horror, or even of any other sort of shape. It is specialized
for each student and given its form by the tendencies and natural physical
and psychical combinations that belong to his family and nation.

Where, then, does it dwell? is the very natural inquiry which will follow.
It dwells in its own plane, and that may be understood in this manner.

Around each person are planes or zones, beginning with spirit and running
down to gross matter. These zones extend, within their lateral boundaries,
all around the being. That is to say, if we figure ourselves as being in the
center of a sphere, we will find that there is no way of escaping or
skipping any one zone, because it extends in every direction until we pass
its lateral boundary.

When the student has at last gotten hold of a real aspiration and some
glimmer of the blazing goal of truth where Masters stand, and has also
aroused the determination to know and to be, the whole bent of his nature,
day and night, is to reach out beyond the limitations that hitherto had
fettered his soul. No sooner does he begin thus to step a little forward,
than he reaches the zone just beyond mere bodily and mental sensations. 

At first the minor dwellers of the threshold are aroused, and they in
temptation, in bewilderment, in doubt or confusion, assail him. He only
feels the effect, for they do not reveal themselves as shapes. 

But persistence in the work takes the inner man farther along, and with that
progress comes a realization to the outer mind of the experiences met, until
at last he has waked up the whole force of the evil power that naturally is
arrayed against the good end he has set before him. Then the Dweller takes
what form it may. That it does take some definite shape or impress itself
with palpable horror is a fact testified to by many students.

One of those related to me that he saw it as an enormous slug with evil eyes
whose malignancy could not be described. As he retreated - that is, grew
fearful -it seemed joyful and portentous, and when retreat was complete it
was not. Then he fell further back in thought and action, having
occasionally moments of determination to retrieve his lost ground. Whenever
these came to him, the dreadful slug again appeared, only to leave him when
he had given up again his aspirations. And he knew that he was only making
the fight, if ever he should take it up again, all the harder.

Another says that he has seen the Dweller concentrated in the apparent form
of a dark and sinister-looking man, whose slightest motions, whose merest
glance, expressed the intention and ability to destroy the student's reason,
and only the strongest effort of will and faith could dispel the evil
influence. And the same student at other times has felt it as a vague, yet
terrible, horror that seemed to enwrap him in its folds. Before this he has
retreated for the time to prepare himself by strong self-study to be pure
and brave for the next attack.

These things are not the same as the temptations of Saint Anthony. In his
case he seems to have induced an hysterical erotic condition, in which the
unvanquished secret thoughts of his own heart found visible appearance.

The Dweller of the Threshold is not the product of the brain, but is an
influence found in a plane that is extraneous to the student, but in which
his success or failure will be due to his own purity. It is not a thing to
be dreaded by mere dilettanti theosophists; and no earnest one who feels
himself absolutely called to work persistently to the highest planes of
development for the good of humanity, and not for his own, need fear aught
that heaven or hell holds.

Eusebio Urban

PATH, December, 1888


=====================================

It is we as immortal pilgrims - Monads - who by our long ago lawless
feelings and thoughts, distort the monads of lesser experience, (the Little
lives) and we thus create our own "Dwellers."  

Now with this knowledge, we need to set to work to undo the evil we have
done. THEOSOPHY begins the effort to help us, as it provides accurate
knowledge. 

Best wishes,

Dallas