The Theosophical Path

THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH KATHERINE TINGLEY, EDITOR VOL. XXXV, NO. 2 AUGUST 1928 "BY combining science with religion, the existence of God and immortality of man's spirit may be demonstrated like a problem of Euclid."- H. P. BLAVATSKY THEOSOPHY AND MODERN SCIENCE G. v. PUR1JCKER, M. A., D. LITT. (Stenographic report of the twelfth of a series of Lectures on the above subject. These were delivered at the request of Katherine Tingley the Theosophical Leader and Teach er, in the Temple of Peace, International Theosophical Headquarters, Point Loma, California, at the regular Sunday afternoon services. Others will be printed in THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH in due course. The following was delivered on September 11, 1927, and broadcast, by remote control, through station KFSD San Diego-680-440.9) ��RIQ� ENDS: During the But now, this afternoon, we are ,,,,,,,� course of our series of going to take up the purely Theo W� � lectures, entitled 'Theo- sophical line of thought, turning to ' ��l sophy and Modern Sci higher and nobler themes than those ence,' we promised on a number of with which we have been dealing. occasions more specifically to bring We have chosen, of course, those out certain Theosophical teachings, Theosophical doctrines which are explanations of the scientific facts, explanatory of what we have been rather, which we have been dealing speaking about to you on the Sun with up to the present; and on each days preceding today. occasion, on each Sunday, when we We promised first to explain to attempted to bring out these Theo you what the Theosophist believes sophical explanations, we found so as regards the origin of the Primates, many side-issues of thought neces that is, the apes and the monkeys, sary to consider, and each one im from which creatures, as you know, portant in its way, that we were in the orthodox scientist derives the consequence impelled to deal with human stock in rectilinear descent, these side-issues before the others. or ascent, that is to say, in a THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH straight line and in an alleged end indeed on last Sunday, we likewise on evolution. We have in other pointed out certain extremely in lectures given the reasons why the teresting scientific doctrines ori Theosophist rejects these alleged ginating with the German professor, ancestors of man, reasons based on Dr. August Weismann, and we the grounds of accepted biological called your attention to the fact science itself. that when the doctrines of Weis Second, we promised an explana mann are properly understood, that tion of the origin of the mammals is, when there is a clear picture of lower than man; and, likewise, to the method of that thinker held in tell you whence came the other great the mind, we have some approxima stocks - the Reptiles, the Birds, tion to, some adumbration of, what the Amphibians, and the Fishes, the Theosophical philosophy teaches and all the great welter of inverte in so far as the origination of evo brate forms lower than the fishes. lutionary stocks is concerned, as We have pointed out that ac well as of the origin of variation, of cording to the Theosophical teach specificvariation, which our modern ings, all these stocks of animate biologists say is the real method or entities, all these living below man, mechanical procedure, if we can use sprang originally from the human that term, of the working of evo stock, and we gave certain reasons lution. why we felt compelled to accept We have pointed out in a former these explanations as necessary, be lecture that the human body is an cause, as a matter of fact, outside exceedingly fascinating subject of of the logical force of the Theoso study, in any consideration of the phical teachings themselves, we manner in which evolution works. showed that they were based on the Evolution, indeed, deals with it, biological grounds of proof as given but in a secondary or effectual man by the scientists themselves, yes, ner, not in a primary or causal given by them as arguments for manner. I mean by this, that the the evolutionary theory in the form human body merely reflects the first promulgated by Charles Dar various changes in progressive de win and faithfully followed by his velopment which actually proceed admirers. on interior or causal planes. We pointed out, as preparatory We have already pointed out to our study of today, just what that evolution, as we use the word, was meant by the modern doctrine means the unfolding, the unwrap of Mendelism, a very interesting ping, of that which previously had body of discoveries, which were been infolded and inwrapped as first investigated and demonstrated potencies in the structure of the by the Austrian, Gregor Mendel. cells of which the body is composed. On Sunday before last, or was it The human body on an average 106 THEOSOPHY AND MODERN SCIENCE is estimated to contain sometwenty into two, if cut into halves, become six thousand billion cells! --- an un two complete worms in the follow figurable number; and each one of ing fashion : the forward end of these cells is a living entity, a phy the hinder half will grow a new siological organ, with inherent capa head ; and the hinder end of the cities, inherent tendencies, each such forward half will grow a new tail. capacity or tendency possessing its But this cannot happen in our own inherent urge or drive towards period of evolution with the entities self-expression. According to our standing higher in the scale of life; teachings, this inherent urge or and on last Sunday we hinted at drive originates in the invisible en the reason for this, as given in our tity from which it proceeds; be Theosophical teachings, and as more cause, unless there were some co or less adumbrated or foreshadowed hering power, some force of co or intuited in the doctrines of Pro herence working in the structure of fessor August Weismann; I mean the individual, no such thing as that the cellular structure, the in even a simple cell could exist; it herent tendencies or potencies of could not even come into physical the cells belonging to the bodies of being or manifestation. It is held the higher creatures. have the pos together and controlled by the in sibility of following only that par visible entity behind it, as I have ticular line of unfoldment or of just said. growth, which the dominant entity A cell, as you know, is a living of which these cells form the body, entity, composed mainly of proto allows it to have. plasmic substance; and it contains It is a case where the individual two general parts; a central part swabhava, as we Theosophists call called the nucleus, and a surround it, or individual capacities or latent ing plasm or protoplasm, which is tendencies of the cell, are submerged commonly called the cytoplasm, by the overlordship or dominance, which latter is the larger part of so to say, of the inner invisible en the substance of the cell itself. tity which works through those You have also heard that m cells; the consequence being that some of the lower creatures there these, the cell's, own individual exists a faculty of self-repair which potencies, can express themselves, the scientist calls the reproduction if at all, only when the power of of lost parts, that is to say, that the dominating entity is withdrawn; such a creature in our days, low in perhaps not even then if the sub the scale of animate beings, if it mergence of the cell or native cellu lose a limb, a tail for instance, will lar potencies has been too great; reproduce for itself a new limb or in this last case they die. tail. A certain kind of worm, well Now in the lower creatures I known to Zoologists, will, if divided have spoken of as possessing the 107 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH power of self-repair, the faculty of del's term, that is to say, they are dominance or the dominant, as completely submerged and have be Mendel called it, is still weak in its come latent, sleeping. control over the entire cellular struc We Theosophists divide the life ture of the body through which it atoms, as we call them, into two works, and each cell composing that classes - those which are active, or body, if left to itself-- or perhaps if alert and working, which we call you could take such a cell out of kinetic; and the others we call the body of one of these lower latent or dormant or sleeping life creatures and give it appropriate atoms. Each of such atoms is a food and environment -would 'soul ' or rather the vehicle of a have an exceedingly good chance soul · - not necessarily a human of starting upon a line of evolution soul, but a soul of its own type and of its own, following its own in kind, so to say, of its own genus and herent tendency or potency or urge, family and order. and thus bringing forth some new Let us now turn for a few mo stock. ments to a consideration of a few But as this case rarely now or interesting facts in chemistry. In perhaps never arises, the cells are former studies we have pointed out impelled to follow the reproductive that the physical atom of chemistry tendency of the limb only to which is now known to be a miniature they belong. But so far as the solar system, consisting of a 'pro scientists know, so far as we know, ton,' as it is sometimes called, no injured limb, or no amputated which is the nucleus or the atomic limb, of one of the entities of the sun, and of smaller bodies circling higher stocks, can reproduce itself or whirling with vertiginous rapidi in that manner and follow its own ty around that central nucleus, and line of growth; nor, on the other these latter bodies are called 'elec hand, can the body from which trons.' We have further pointed such limb was amputated, repro out that atoms, like everything else, duce a new limb to replace the old; have their life-cycle, and at its end the reason being, as I have just follows a course of slow disintegra said, that the dominant entity over tion or decay.

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