The civilisation which is ending now in such a dramatic
way was based on the power of mind, mind dealing with matter and life. What it
has been to the world, we have not to discuss here. But a new reign is coming,
that of the Spirit: after the human, the divine. …
Yet, if we have been fortunate enough to live on earth
at such a stupendous, a unique time as this one, is it sufficient to stand and
watch the unfolding events? All those who feel that their heart extends further
than the limits of their own person and family, that their thought embraces
more than small personal interests and local conventions, all those, in short,
who realise that they belong not to themselves, or to their family, or even to
their country, but to God who manifests Himself in all countries, through
mankind, these, indeed, know that they must rise and set to work for the sake
of humanity, for the advent of the Dawn. …
Only a new spiritual influx, creating in man a new
consciousness, can overcome the enormous mass of difficulties barring the way
of the workers. A new spiritual light, a manifestation upon earth of some
divine force unknown until now, a Thought of God, new for us, descending into
this world and taking a new form here. …
Once again Nature feels one of her great impulses
towards the creation of something utterly new, something unexpected. And it is
to this impulse that we must answer and obey. Let us try first to discover
where this impulse of Nature will lead us. And the best way for that is to look
back on the lessons given to us by the Past.
We see that each progress of Nature, each manifestation
of a new capacity and principle upon earth is marked by the appearance of a new
species. In the same way, the progressive forms of the life of races, of
peoples, of individuals, follow each other through the human cycles,
ceaselessly inspired, fecundated, renewed by the efforts of the guides of
humanity. And all these forms aim at the same goal, the mysterious, the
glorious goal of Nature. …
We have already seen that the appearance of a new
species always announces the manifestation on earth of a new principle, a new
plane of consciousness, a new force or power. But, at the same time, while the
new species acquires this formerly unmanifested power or consciousness, it may
lose one or many of the perfections which were the characteristics of the
immediately preceding species. For instance, to speak only of the last step of Nature’s
development, what are the greatest differences between man and his immediate
predecessor, the ape? In the monkey we see vitality and physical ability
reaching the utmost perfection, a perfection that the new species had to
abandon. For man, there has been no more of that marvellous climbing up trees, somersaults
over abysses, jumps from summit to summit, but in exchange he acquired
intelligence, the power of reasoning, combining, constructing. Indeed with man
it is the life of mind, of intellect which appeared on earth. Man is
essentially a mental being; and if his possibilities do not stop there, if he
feels in himself other worlds, other faculties, other planes of consciousness
beyond his mental life, they are only as promises for the future, in the same
way as the mental possibilities are latent in the monkey.
It is true that some men, very few, have lived in that
world beyond, which we may call the spiritual; some have been, indeed, the
living incarnations of that world on earth, but they are the exceptions, the
forerunners showing the way to the race, leading it towards its future
realisation, not the average man. But that which was the privilege of a few
beings scattered through time and space, shall become the central
characteristic of the new type which is to appear.
At present, man governs his life through reason; all
the activities of the mind are of common use for him; his means of knowledge
are observation and deduction; it is by and through reasoning that he takes his
decision and chooses his way—or believes he does—in life.
The new race shall be governed by intuition, that is to
say, direct perception of the divine law within. Some human beings actually know
and experience intuition—as, undoubtedly, certain big gorillas of the forests
have glimpses of reasoning. In mankind, the very few who have cultivated their
inner self, who have concentrated their energies on the discovery of the true
law of their being, possess more or less the faculty of intuition. When the
mind is perfectly silent, pure like a well polished mirror, immobile as a pond
on a breezeless day, then, from above, as the light of the stars drops in the
motionless waters, so the light of the supermind, of the Truth within, shines
in the quieted mind and gives birth to intuition. Those who are accustomed to
listen to this voice out of the Silence, take it more and more as the
instigating motive of their actions; and where others, the average men, wander
along the intricate paths of reasoning, they go straight their way, guided
through the windings of life by intuition, this superior instinct, as by a
strong and unfailing hand. …
Thus, man’s road to supermanhood will be open when he
declares boldly that all he has yet developed, including the intellect of which
he is so rightly and yet so vainly proud, is now no longer sufficient for him,
and that to uncase, discover, set free this greater power within, shall be
henceforward his great preoccupation. Then will his philosophy, art, science,
ethics, social existence, vital pursuits be no longer an exercise of mind and
life for themselves, in a circle, but a means for the discovery of a greater
Truth behind mind and life and the bringing of its power into our human
existence. And this discovery is that of our real, because our highest self and
nature.
However, that self which we are not yet, but have to
become, is not the strong vital Will hymned by Nietzsche, but a spiritual self
and spiritual nature. For as soon as we speak of supermanhood we must be
careful to avoid all confusion with the strong but so superficial and
incomplete conception of Nietzsche’s superman.
Indeed, since Nietzsche invented the word superman,
when someone uses it to speak of the coming race, willingly or not, it evokes
at the same time Nietzsche’s conception. Certainly, his idea that to develop
the superman out of our present very unsatisfactory manhood is our real
business, is in itself an absolutely sound idea; certainly, his formula of our
aim,“to become ourselves”, implying, as it does, that man has not yet found all
his true self, his true nature by which he can successfully and spontaneously
live, could not be bettered; nevertheless, Nietzsche made the mistake we said
we ought to avoid: his superman is but a man aggrandised, magnified, in whom
Force has become super-dominant, crushing under its weight all the other
attributes of man. Such cannot be our ideal. We see too well at present whither
leads the exclusive worshipping of Force—to the crimes of the strong and the
ruin of continents.
No, the way to supermanhood lies in the unfolding of
the ever-perfect Spirit. All would change, all would become easy if man could
once consent to be spiritualised. The higher perfection of the spiritual life
will come by a spontaneous obedience of spiritualised man to the truth of his
own realised being, when he has become himself, found his own real nature; but
this spontaneity will not be instinctive and subconscient as in the animal, but
intuitive and fully, integrally conscient. …
As religious beliefs and cults will become secondary,
so also the ethical restrictions or prescriptions, rules of conduct or
conventions will lose their importance.
Actually, in human life, the whole moral problem is
concentrated in the conflict between the vital will with its impulses and the
mental power with its decrees. When the vital will is submitted to the mental
power, then the life of the individual or of the society becomes moral. But it
is only when both, vital will and mental power, are equally submissive to
something higher, to the supermind, that human life is exceeded, that true spiritual
life begins, the life of the superman; for his law will come from within, it
will be the divine law shining in the centre of each being and governing life
from therein, the divine law multiple in its manifestation but one in its
origin. And because of its unity this law is the law of supreme order and
harmony. …
But we must limit to these indispensable hints our
description of the superman, and push no further our attempt to picture him, as
we are convinced that any endeavour to be more precise would prove not only
vain but useless. For it is not a number of imaginings, more or less exact,
which can help us in the formation of the future type. It is by holding .rm in
our heart and mind the dynamism, the irresistible impetus given by a sincere
and ardent aspiration, by maintaining in ourselves a certain state of
enlightened receptivity towards the supreme Idea of the new race which wills to
be manifested on earth, that we can take a decisive step in the formation of
the sons of the future, and make ourselves fit to serve as intermediaries for
the creation of those who shall save Humanity.
Word of Long
Ago, CWM: Vol. 2, pp. 155 – 164