Part 2 offers some advice using practical analogies of
normal life and gives some insights on the use of the will:
”There is no doubt that a man must educate himself to
perceive that which is beyond matter, just as he must educate himself to
perceive that which is in matter. Every one knows that the early life of a
child is one long process of adjustment, of learning to understand the use of
the senses with regard to their special provinces, and of practice in the exercise
of difficult, complex, yet imperfect organs entirely in reference to the
perception of the world of matter. The child is in earnest and works on without
hesitation if he means to live. Some infants born into the light of earth
shrink from it, and refuse to attack the immense task which is before them, and
which must be accomplished in order to make life in matter possible.”
”That the initial effort is a heavy one is evident,
and it is clearly a question of strength, as well as of willing activity. But there
is no way of acquiring this strength, or of using it when acquired, except by
the exercise of the will. It is vain to expect to be born into great
possessions.
In the kingdom of life there is no heredity except from the man’s
own past. He has to accumulate that which is his. This is evident to any
observer of life who uses his eyes without blinding them by prejudice; and even
when prejudice is present, it is impossible for a man of sense not to perceive
the fact.”
Relevant passages from Light on the Path:
Thus with the disciple, he must first become a disciple before he can even see the paths to choose between. This effort of creating himself as a disciple, the re-birth, he must do for himself without any teacher. (Comments, 2)
This is, of course, a faculty which indwells in that soul, which is inherent. The would-be disciple has to arouse himself to the consciousness of it by a fierce and resolute and indomitable effort of will.(Comments, 2)
There’s
quite a good entry for Will in HPB’s Theosophical Glossary:
Will. In metaphysics and occult philosophy, Will is that which governs the
manifested universes in eternity. Will is the one and sole principle of
abstract eternal MOTION, or its ensouling essence. “ The will”, says Van
Helmont, “is the first of all powers. . . . The will is the property of all
spiritual beings and displays itself in them the more actively the more they
are freed from matter.” And Paracelsus teaches that “determined will is the
beginning of all magical operations. It is because men do not perfectly imagine
and believe the result, that the (occult) arts are so uncertain, while they
might he perfectly certain.” Like all the rest, the Will is septenary in its
degrees of manifestation. Emanating from the one, eternal, abstract and purely
quiescent Will (Âtmâ in Layam), it becomes Buddhi in its Alaya state, descends
lower as Mahat (Manas), and runs down the ladder of degrees until the divine
Eros becomes, in its lower, animal manifestation, erotic desire. Will as an
eternal principle is neither spirit nor substance but everlasting ideation. As
well expressed by Schopenhauer in his Parerga, “ in sober reality there is neither
matter nor spirit. The tendency to gravitation in a stone is as unexplainable
as thought in the human brain. . . If matter can—no one knows why——fall to the
ground, then it can also—no one knows why—-think. . . . As soon, even in
mechanics, as we trespass beyond the purely mathematical, as soon as we reach
the inscrutable adhesion, gravitation, and so on, we are faced by phenomena
which are to our senses as mysterious as the WILL.”
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