We Asiatics, have a proverb, probably handed down to us, and by the Hindus repeated ignorantly as to its esoteric meaning.  It has been known ever since the old Rishis mingled familiarly with the simple and noble people they taught and led on.  The Devas had whispered into every man’s ear—­Thou only—­if thou wilt—­art “immortal.”  Combine with this the saying of a Western author that if any man could just realize for an instant, that he had to die some day, he would die that instant.  The Illuminated will perceive that between these two sayings, rightly understood, stands revealed the whole secret of Longevity.  We only die when our will ceases to be strong enough to make us live.  In the majority of cases, death comes when the torture and vital exhaustion accompanying a rapid change in our physical conditions becomes so intense as to weaken, for one single instant, our “clutch on life,” or the tenacity of the will to exist.  Till then, however severe may be the disease, however sharp the pang, we are only sick or wounded, as the case may be.

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* Dhatu—­the seven principal substances of the human body—­chyle, flesh,
blood, fat, bones, marrow, semen.
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This explains the cases of sudden deaths from joy, fright, pain, grief or such other causes.  The sense of a life-task consummated, of the worthlessness of one’s existence, if strongly realized, produced death as surely as poison or a rifle-bullet.  On the other hand, a stern determination to continue to live, has, in fact, carried many through the crises of the most severe diseases, in perfect safety.

First, then, must be the determination—­the Will—­the conviction of certainty, to survive and continue.* Without that, all else is useless.  And to be efficient for the purpose, it must be, not only a passing resolution of the moment, a single fierce desire of short duration, but a settled and continued strain, as nearly as can be continued and concentrated without one single moment’s relaxation.  In a word, the would-be “Immortal” must be on his watch night and day, guarding self against-himself.  To live—­to live—­to live—­must be his unswerving resolve.  He must as little as possible allow himself to be turned aside from it.  It may be said that this is the most concentrated form of selfishness,—­that it is utterly opposed to our Theosophic professions of benevolence, and disinterestedness, and regard for the good of humanity.  Well, viewed in a short-sighted way, it is so.  But to do good, as in everything else, a man must have time and materials to work with, and this is a necessary means to the acquirement of powers by which infinitely more good can be done than without them.

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* Col.  Olcott has epigrammatically explained the creative or rather the
re-creative power of the Will, in his “Buddhist Catechism.”   He there
shows—­of course, speaking on behalf of the Southern Buddhists—­that
this Will to live, if not extinguished in the present life, leaps over
the chasm of bodily death, and recombines the Skandhas, or groups of
qualities that made up the individual into a new personality.   Man is,
therefore, reborn as the result of his own unsatisfied yearning for
objective existence.   Col.  Olcott puts it in this way: 

Q. 123.  What is that, in man, which gives him the impression of having a permanent individuality?