Daily Theosophy

The deeper properties and knowledge of chemistry and physics will probably not be discovered in our time, because we don’t have the keys to that knowledge – it’s just too dangerous for us (at least for some among us).

(93)

(Psychology)

 PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology comes from the Greek word psyche, which means soul. The word ‘soul’ is used in many ways in modern literature, but here we mean with psyche or soul ‘the middle principle’ of a human being. The ‘bottom principle’ then is his body, and his ‘top principle’ is what we have called his heart – his real pure heart, which is everyone’s essence, and at one with Adi’s heart. It knows no suffering. So psychology is about this ‘middle principle.’ In the paragraph following this one we will talk about the nature of the ‘top principle, that means we will be talking about ethics.

The psyche is that part of us where we have our feelings, emotions, and thoughts – and these may be positive or pleasant, negative or unpleasant or somewhere in between, let’s say neutral. Because our feelings and emotions are part of it, it is this soul or psyche where we feel happy or unhappy, good or bad, where we experience suffering and joy. Even when our body is painful or super healthy, the feeling of misery or happiness derived from it is part of our soul. In other words, when our soul is happy, even pains of the body are much easier to bear. On the other hand, when we feel unhappiness, frustration, depression, anger, hated, jealousy in our soul, we can not even feel happy in a most healthy body (So much so that in the long turn the body loses its health and sicknesses arise). So in that sense, understanding psychology is even more important than understanding the body, and a good psychologist would be able to prevent a lot of physical suffering to even arise.

As everything influences everything, and everything in nature is there to help everything else, the three principles are very much interlinked. The top principle is like the silent voice that always wants to teach us truth and true ethics, the body principle always asks for satisfaction (like eating, sex, comfort, etc.) and in this way tries to draw the psyche down. Of course the body needs food and sex and tenderness – otherwise we could not live in bodies at all. But, like when we are feeding our pet, we should never give it more than is good and necessary for it. Over-indulgence in physical feelings brings the psyche down and causes sadness and stupidity. So keep that in your mind in daily life.

The psyche includes our thoughts and desires and feelings, and thus can be directed upward or downward. That is everyone’s choice. It really is a choice made by yourself, and nobody or nothing else is responsible for your psychological happiness or sadness. Outside circumstances may work as triggers, but it is you who make the choice. I have heard about millionaires committing suicide (perhaps out of jealousy with someone still richer), and there are street beggars in the poorest countries who look radiating and happy. Because their feelings are not in their purse or their bank account, but in their soul – and everyone is the ruler of their own soul.

When you watch our mind, you will notice that it is moving everywhere. Sometimes it thinks of something unpleasant, and you feel gloomy, or it turns to some person you don’t like, and you feel anger or irritation. Another time it turns to something you like, and you feel happy. Most small children (and even much bigger ones) can be made happy with an ice-cream or a candy – because these give satisfaction to the taste and hunger feelings of their body – but it lasts only until a little after the ice cream or candy is finished. The same ice-cream can evoke jealousy or anger with another child who doesn’t get it, so it is not the character of the ice-cream which makes happy, but how his own mind looks at it. But there are also children who have the right mind to be happy for others, and can be happy when another child gets an ice-cream even when he himself they doesn’t get one. She or he has a great psyche, and if everyone could develop the psyche to be happy with somebody else’s luck, a tremendous amount of suffering would disappear for always from humankind.

The obvious reason why people become psychologically unhappy is because of weakness or laziness to make the right choices in their thinking mind. That is because we have learned to belief that we can not help what we think and feel or that they are determined by DNA-molecules – that thoughts and feelings come by themselves, and that we can do little about it. But that is a great mistake. Just as much as we choose what to eat tonight, we can choose to think this or think that, and either allow or forbid your thoughts to be carried away by your feelings. You can also control your feelings by your mind. As soon as you realize that a particular feeling is useless you can decide to put your mind somewhere else. You could do so with every feeling that arises and every thought that follows it, you could control yourselves, and though it may take time of practice, or it is done at once, you get rid of every psychological problem, such as depression and frustration. Depressions and frustrations may even have reflected themselves in the stream of information, forward and back inside your nervous system. They have, from psychological become physiological, and these are not easy to conquer. Some medicines can be of help then. But ultimately you have to conquer your own mind. You will never allow yourself to feel yourself a victim or a stupid being inwardly, even though outwardly everyone tries to humiliate you, insult you, speak bad words about you, destroys your happy feelings with unpleasant remarks, or even by bringing messages that are really unpleasant – such as that you have failed an exam, or a friend has got an accident, or doctors fund a serious disease, or many of such things at the same time. That you get these problems only shows that you have latent courage, that inwardly, actually you are more courageous then many leaders and dominating characters, and that your courage can become active. Nothing of all this bring actual damage to your soul. Therefore you should from young age train yourself to be a hero, and if you are not, try to become one. With hero I mean a self-hero. Not somebody who conquers or dominates other people or animals, but somebody who dares to be master over his own thoughts and feelings.

Don’t you agree? And do you think it is easy? Well, it is easy, but most people think that it is difficult, and therefore do not even try. They rather go to a doctor or a psychologist or a psychiatrist than try to look at and steer their own thoughts and feelings.

(94)

(Meditation)

Meditation

Praja was of course very aware about the fact that this is difficult for untrained people,