And in the Christian world we have a corresponding admonition in the phrase “cleanliness is next to godliness.”

Simple as this rule of conduct is, it nevertheless embodies the key to the situation, inasmuch as we are assured that “blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

Again Jesus told his hearers that they “must become as little children,” evidently meaning that they must possess the clean, pure, guileless mind of a little child, if they would reach the goal of liberation, from strife; death (repeated incarnation); and all so-called “evil.”

To this end man is striving, whether by rites and ceremonies of religion; by worship; by contemplation; by effort and struggle; by invention; by aspiration; by sacrifice; or by whatever path, or device, or system.

What, then is the goal, and how may it be attained?

Before taking up this question, let us go back a little over the history of human life and attainment, and trace, briefly, the evolution of consciousness, from pre-historic man, to the highest examples of human devotion and wisdom, of which, happily, the world affords not a few instances.

CHAPTER III

AREAS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Consciousness may be termed, simply, “the divine spark,” which enters into every form and phase of manifested life emanating from that one Eternal Power which materialists designate as “energy” and which Occultists, both Oriental and Occidental, best define as “Aum,” God!  The Absolute—­The Divine Mind, and many other terms.

Consciousness, therefore, enters into everything—­is the life essence of everything.

The materialistic hypothesis formerly predicated the axiom that there were two distinct phases of manifestation, namely organic and inorganic.

Organic life was sentient, or conscious, while inorganic life was insensate—­a structure acted upon from forces outside itself, and dependent upon an exterior force for its action.

Other names for this differentiation, would be “matter” and “spirit.”  The point is, that the old materialistic philosophy failed to recognize the fact that consciousness, in varying degrees, characterizes all manifested life.

This fact every phase of Oriental philosophy recognized, and always has recognized.  The assumption of the Christian Science devotee, that there is anything new in the postulate that “all is spirit,” is possible only because of his ignorance of Oriental philosophy, as will be seen later on in these pages, when we take up the relative comparison between the Oriental and the Occidental systems of “salvation.”

To resume therefore, we postulate the following recognized axioms of Universal Occultism.

All life is sentient or conscious.

All life is from the one source, and therefore contains this “divine spark.”

All manifestation expresses degrees or phases of consciousness.