The Theosophical Forum – March 1939

THEOSOPHY AN OBJECTIVE IDEALISM — Abbott Clark

Among philosophies, Theosophy is an Objective Idealism an Idealism because it recognises the fundamental Reality as spiritual and teaches that all manifestation, spiritual as well as physical, inner as well as outer, is guided by Divine Ideation. Yet it is not a pure Idealism, because it acknowledges the objective world to have a relative or transitory reality — for to beings in a manifested world objective things are very real while they last.

The Universe is one living, throbbing, vibrating whole: Divine in origin, essential nature, and destiny. From the One Divine Reality all manifestation proceeds as an emanational unfolding. From plane to plane, from world to world, and from loka to loka, the process is a condensation from Spirit into matter, from reality to illusion, on the descending arc, until matter predominates over spirit and the beings enmeshed in the material spheres suffer the limitations of matter with its "pairs of opposites" — including intense oscillations from pleasure to pain, from joy to sorrow. The material worlds are the "hell" worlds, and the more material the state the lower the hell.

On the returning or ascending arc the process is reversed. From the lowest material sphere to the highest spiritual worlds is a succession of awakenings. From state to state, from plane to plane or world, the transition can be likened to a series of initiations or awakenings from a lower to a higher state, from ignorance and illusion to a greater and ever greater realization of Truth and Reality. There is an ever-growing expansion of consciousness, a quickening of perception, and an increase in intelligence. There is a greater development of Individuality, a greater nobility of character, a larger sympathy and more universal love. There is an ever-increasing degree of the power and freedom of the Will, as man rises above the plane of contention, antagonism and hate, into love and peace, into harmony and co-operation with the universal Divine Order. During the long process of evolution the man, or Monad, passes from the purity and innocence of ignorance to a greater purity of enlightenment and wisdom, from the status of an elemental workman to that of a cosmic creative Architect.

As the objective and the subjective become one, the ideal becomes the Real, the Maya is resolved, the consciousness attains Truth and Reality.



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