Symbols of the Eternal Doctrine: From Shamballa to Paradise

Entertaining symbolic thoughts raises the mind to another plane of perception, and therefore, to another plane of reality. The structured discipline of symbolic thinking relies upon the awakening of our spiritual faculties: of Buddhi, spiritual intuition, which immediately apprehends the unity behind an apparent diversity, and of Higher Manas, which can grasp the complex relationships between corresponding facets of the universe. Attaining such a state of heightened spiritual consciousness (Manas-Taijasi) is integral to treading the Path of self-conscious immortality. Universal symbols are not just accidental mental constructs but are living realities that both point to spiritual dimensions far beyond themselves and profoundly embody those spiritual realities. Learning to see the world around us afresh in the light of its spiritual dimension reorients us to taking up again the age-old task of treading the Path and aids us in activating our higher spiritual capacities which, when awakened, shed the pristine light of universal Theosophy on the path of spiritual self-regeneration in the service of humanity. The 28 wide-ranging articles in this volume span a wide spectrum of human thought. These essays reveal the fundamental religious, philosophical, and scientific aspects to the most mundane and refined realities of our common, everyday world. Both the serious reflection upon and casual reading of these essays is a joyous expedition through the all-too-common truncated perceptions we have of our world to a higher level of awareness of the myriad ways in which the life of the universal Spirit is made manifest.