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CHAPTER XVII.— What Lies Beyond · Invisible Helpers

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  Chapter seventeen of Invisible Helpers. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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  are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  LibriVox dot org. Read by Helen K. Invisible Helpers by C. W.
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  Leadbeater. What lies beyond? Beyond this period? It is obvious that
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  we can know nothing of the new qualifications required for the still higher levels which
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  yet lie before the perfect man. It is abundantly clear, however, that
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  when a man has become as Sekah, he has exhausted all the possibilities of
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  moral development, so that further advancement for him can only mean still wider knowledge
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  and still more wonderful spiritual powers. We are told that when man has thus
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  attained his spiritual majority, whether in the slow course of evolution or by the
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  shorter path of self development, he assumes the fullest control of his own destinies,
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  and makes choice of his future line of evolution among seven possible paths which
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  he sees opening before him. Naturally, at our peasant level, we cannot
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  expect to understand much about these, and the faint outline of some of them,
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  which is all that can be sketched in for us conveys very little to
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  the mind, except that most of them take the adept altogether away from our
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  earth chain, which no longer affords sufficient scope for his evolution. One path
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  is that of those who, as the technical phrase goes, accept nirvana through
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  what incalculable eons they remain in that sublime condition for what work they are preparing
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  themselves and what will be their future line of evolution are questions upon which we
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  know nothing, And indeed, if information upon such points could be given,
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  tis more than likely that it would prove quite incomprehensible to us at our present
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  stage. But this much, at least we may grasp that the blessed state
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  of nirvana is not, as some have ignorantly supposed, a condition of blank
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  nothingness, but on the contrary, of far more intense and beneficent activity,
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  And that ever as man rises higher in the scale of nature, his possibilities
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  become greater, his work for others ever grander and more far reaching, And
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  that infinite wisdom and infinite power mean for him only infinite capacity for service,
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  because they are directed by infinite love. Another class chooses a spiritual evolution not
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  quite so far removed from humanity, for though not directly connected with the next
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  chain of our system, it extends through two long periods corresponding to its first
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  and second rounds, at the end of which time they also appear to accept
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  nirvana, but at the higher stage than those previously mentioned. Others joining the
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  day there evolution, whose progress lies along a grand chain consisting of seven chains,
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  like ours, each of which to them is as one world. This
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  line of evolution is spoken of as the most gradual, and therefore the least
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  arduer, of the seven causes. But though it is sometimes referred to in
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  the books as yielding to the temptation to become a god, it is only
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  in comparison with the sublime height of renunciation of the near manarchia that it can
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  be spoken of in this half disparaging manner. For the adept who chooses this
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  cause has indeed a glorious career before him, and though the path which he
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  selects is not the shortest, it is nevertheless a very noble one. Yet
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  another group are the near manarchias, those who, declining all these easier methods,
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  choose the shortest but steepest path to the heights which still lie before them,
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  they form what is poetically turned the guardian Wall, and, as the
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  voice of the silence tells us, protect the world from further and far greater
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  misery and sorrow, not indeed by warding off from it external evil influences,
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  but by devoting all their strength to the work of pouring down upon it a
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  flood of spiritual force and assistance, without which it would assuredly be in far
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  more hopeless case than now. Yet again there are those who remain even more
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  directly in association with humanity, and continue to incarnate among it, choosing the
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  path which leads through the four stages of what we have called above the official
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  period. And among these are the masters of wisdom, those from whom we
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  who study theosophy have learnt such fragments as we know of the mighty harmony of
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  evolving nature. But it was seen that only a certain comparatively small number adopt
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  this course, probably only so many as are necessary for the carrying on of
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  this physical side of the work. In hearing of these different possibilities, people
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  sometimes exclaim rashly that there could, of course be no thought in a master's
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  mind of choosing any but that course which most helps humanity, a remark which
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  greater knowledge would have prevented them from making. We should never forget that there
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  are other evolutions in the solar system besides our own, and no doubt it
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  is necessary for the carrying out of the vast plan of the Logos. There
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  should be a depths working on all the seven lines to which we have referred.
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  Surely the choice of the master would be to go wherever his work was
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  most needed, to place his services with absolute selflessness, at the disposal of
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  the powers in charge of this part of the great scheme of the earth evolution.
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  This, then, is the path which lies before us, the path
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  which each one of us should be beginning to tread. Stupendous though its heights
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  appear, we should remember that they are retained but gradually and step by step,
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  and that those who now stand near the summit once toiled in the maya
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  of the valleys. Even as we are doing. Although this path may at
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  first seem hard and toilsome, yet ever as we rise, our footing becomes
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  firmer and our outlook wider, and thus we find ourselves better able to help
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  those who are climbing beside us. Because it is at first, thus hard
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  and toilsome to the lower self. It has sometimes been called by the very
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  misleading title of the path of war. But as Missus Besant has beautifully written,
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  through all such suffering there is a deep and abiding joy, for the
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  suffering is of the lower nature, and the joy of the higher. When
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  the last shred of the personality is gone, all that can thus suffer has
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  passed away, and in the perfected adept there is unruffled peace, an everlasting
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  joy. He sees the end toward which all is working, and rejoices in
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  that end, knowing that Earth's sorrow is but a passing phase in human evolution.
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  That of which little has been said is the profound content which comes from
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  being on the path, from realizing the goal and the way to it,
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  from knowing that the power to be useful is increasing, and that the lower
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  nature is being gradually extirpated. And little has been said of the rays of
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  joy which fall upon the path from lofty lade, the dazzling glimpses of the
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  glory to be revealed, the serenity which the stones of earth cannot ruffle to
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  anyone who has entered on the path. All other ways have lost their charm,
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  and its sorrows have a deeper bliss than the best joys of the lower
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  world Veyham, Volume five twelve. Let no man therefore despair because he thinks
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  the task too great for him. What man has done, man can do,
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  and just in proportion. As we extend our aid to those whom we
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  can help, so will those who have already attained be able in their turn
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  to help us. So, from the lowest to the highest, we who
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  are treading the steps of the path are bound together by one long chain of
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  mutual service, and none need feel neglected or alone. For though sometimes the
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  lower flights of the great staircase may be wreathed in mist, we know that
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  it leads up to happier regions and purer air, where the light is always
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  shining. End of chapter seventeen. End of Invisible Help Us by C.
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  W. Lead Better