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* The astral body, so called.
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Professor Tyndall in his excellent papers on what he calls the “Germ Theory,” comes to the following conclusions as the result of a series of well-planned experiments:—­Even in a very small volume of space there are myriads of protoplasmic germs floating in ether.  If, for instance, say water (clear water) is exposed to them, and if they fall into it, some form of life or other will be evolved out of them.  Now, what are the agencies for the bringing of this life into existence?  Evidently—­

I. The water, which is the field, so to say, for the growth of life.

II.  The protoplasmic germ, out of which life or a living organism is to be evolved or developed.  And lastly—­

III.  The power, energy, force, or tendency which springs into activity at the touch or combination of the protoplasmic germ and the water, and which evolves or develops life and its natural attributes.

Similarly, there are three primary causes which bring the human being into existence.  I shall call them, for the purpose of discussion, by the following names

(1) Parabrahmam, the Universal Spirit.

(2) Sakti, the crown of the astral light, combining in itself all the powers of Nature.

(3) Prakriti, which in its original or primary shape is represented by Akasa. (Really every form of matter is finally reducible to Akasa.)*

It is ordinarily stated that Prakriti or Akasa is the Kshetram, or the basis which corresponds to water in the example we have taken Brahmam the germ, and Sakti, the power or energy that comes into existence at their union or contact.**

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* The Tibetan esoteric Buddhist doctrine teaches that Prakriti is cosmic
matter, out of which all visible forms are produced;  and Akasa, that
same cosmic matter, but still more subjective—­its spirit, as it were. 
Prakriti being the body or substance, and Akasa Sakti its soul or
energy.

** Or, in other words, “Prakriti, Swabhavat, or Akasa, is space, as the Tibetans have it; Space filled with whatsoever substance or no substance at all—­i.e., with substance so imperceptible as to be only metaphysically conceivable.  Brahman, then, would be the germ thrown into the soil of that field, and Sakti, that mysterious energy or force which develops it, and which is called by the Buddhist Arahat of Tibet, Fohat.  That which we call form (rupa) is not different from that which we call space (sunyata)....  Space is not different from form.  Form is the same as space; space is the same as form.  And so with the other skandhas, whether vedana, or sanjna, or sanskara, or vijnana, they are each the same as their opposite.” .... (Book of Sin-king, or the “Heart Sutra.”  Chinese translation of the “Maha-Prajna-Paramita-Hridaya-Sutra,” chapter on the “Avalokiteshwara,” or the manifested Buddha.) So that the Aryan and Tibetan or Arhat doctrines agree perfectly in substance, differing but in names given and the way of putting it. ---------