Man and the Macrocosm
From The Measure of the Universe
By John Hopkins
It is probably impossible for the finite mind to grasp, except perhaps theoretically, the full significance of infinity, because as fast as we attempt to circumscribe anything imaginable, we realise that there must always be something more beyond the limits we have just circumscribed.
Thus it is when we come to consider the limits in time and space of the universe. Esotericism is an extremely abstruse philosophy; if it were not so it would be exoteric and not esoteric. Nevertheless there is no need to be unduly vague or confused if we can learn to recognise such aspects, and there are many, which are beyond our present our present capacity to understand, and to put these on one side until we find that through perseverance and realistic imagination we have acquired an increased degree of awareness.
Sooner or later a man asks himself three questions: Who am I? What is the purpose of life and of mine in particular? Where am I going? Through religion and philosophy he seeks the answers to these age-old questions. Once a man discovers for himself for nobody can teach him this the futility of material things, and even though he stills remains attracted by them, an increased awareness of the inner Self starts him on a the long homeward journey back to his spiritual source, wiser for the experience he has gained. When this happens, and it happens to all men sooner or later, over the many lives, he instinctively seeks knowledge of his relationship with that greater whole of which he know himself to be a part.
Some may find the answers in the orthodox religions, and if this is so it is well and good. Yet still the Ageless Wisdom teaching, accompanied by meditation, and the knowledge of who we are, the purpose of our lives, and where we are heading.
A great many people hesitate to embark upon these rather abstruse philosophical concepts because they fear they may become confused in the process and so lose their simple faith in God. But what does this 'simple' faith really amount to? Some, though dedicated Church goers, have never given the subject a great deal of thought, and if you ask them what they understand by the biblical expression 'God', many will say something like 'oh' I don't know, God is to me simply, well you know 'God'. Others, particularly theologians, may explain that God is our maker and that He is a Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. As God the Father He is transcendent, meaning of a power which entirely transcends all things of this world. As god the Son he will speak of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Of God the Holy Ghost he will refer to the Spirit that is manifest and immanent in all things.
The esotericist would agree with all of this, but he might express it rather differently. We start on familiar ground in the recognition that all things, visible or invisible, tangible or intangible, are the direct or indirect result of creative activity on the part of the Creator, meaning The Absolute and Supreme Being Who is both transcendent and also immanent in all creation, Ordinary mortals can have no real comprehension of the Absolute, which is why, in the Wisdom teaching, we refer to The One about Whom naught may be said.
Monotheism is the belief in one God; pantheism is defined as the doctrine that the universe in its totality id God: the first of these is the basis of Christian Doctrine. Many an esoterist would speak of God as the Solar Logos, whilst others would have in mind the Planetary Logos the Lord of the World, Sanat Kumara referred to in the Bible as the Ancient of Days. Whether we think of God as the Absolute, or as the Solar Logos, or as the planetary Spirit or Logos, it makes little difference to ordinary mortals like ourselves. He is transcendent and also immanent in all that can possibly concern humanity at any conceivable level of consciousness, including those higher planes which we are destined eventually to know as we evolve over aeons of time, always within the limits, within the ring-pass-not, of our planet earth wherein we live and die and live again, and where are to be found our Heaven and our hell in addition to the environment of our mortal existence.
So the man who will go no further at present than to say that for him God is God, and that is that, is in a way quite right because God cannot be defined. But sooner or later the higher mind within each human being begins to assert itself, and the man is prompted to seek a clearer understanding of what he really does believe. He is approaching what the esotericist call the Path.
Every act by means of which energy is made manifest in form is an act of creation. As we develop this thought, and bear in mind that man is essentially a soul, and that he, this soul, creates a body of etheric, astral and mental energy for the purpose of each re-incarnation in physical form, we can see that this particular act of creation is a human, or soul activity. But, as all souls are part of the One Soul, the purpose is subordinate to that of the Planetary Logos. The Planetary Logos has likewise created His etheric body out of the Solar Logos. Thus all is God's creation for the manifestation of His purpose, the expression of Love-Wisdom and Intelligence in form.
Peculiar to man in this scheme of creation is his role of intermediary between the sub-human kingdoms of nature and the kingdom which is above the human plane of existence, the Kingdom of Souls.
This divine purpose is described in The Aquarian Gospel Of Jesus The Christ in a passage which is said to be a direct transcription from an ancient source:
"Perfection is the ultimate of life. A seed is perfect in its embryonic life, but it is destined to unfold, to grow. Into the soil of every plane these seeds, which were the Thoughts of God, were cast - the seeds of protoplast, of earth, of plant, of beast, of man, of angel and of cherubim; and they who sowed the seeds, though Christ, ordained that they should grow, and should return at last, by effort of un-numbered years, to the great granary of thought, and each be a perfection of its kind.
And in the boundless blessedness of Love the man was made the Lord of protoplast, of earth, of plant, of beast: and Christ proclaimed: man shall have full dominion over everything that is upon these planes of life; and it was so.
And He who gave the lordship unto man declared that he must rule by Love.
But men grew cruel and they lost their power to rule, and protoplast, and earth, and plant and beast became at enmity with man: he lost his heritage, but Christ was present to redeem.
But man had lost his consciousness of right; he could no longer comprehend the boundlessness of Love; he could see naught but self, and things of self: but Christ was there to seek the lost and save.
So that He might be close to man in all the ways of life, that man might comprehend the mighty spirit of the Love, the Christ of earth made manifest to human eyes and ears by taking His abode in some pure person, well prepared by many lives to be a fit abiding place of love.
Thus Christ made manifest Love's power to save; but men forgot too soon, and so Christ must manifest again, and then again.
And ever since man took his place in form of flesh, the Christ has been manifest in flesh at first of every age."
Keywords: Man and the Macrocosm, purpose of life , John Hopkins, Intuition, Intuitive, Articles, UK, South Africa, Cape Town,
