PAVLOV. THE SECRET TEACHING OF ANCIENT

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MN Pavlov T A Y N O E U CH E N I E D R E V N O S T I (the key to the mysteries of life) Introduction To the readers. I want to tell you, dear reader, in short and simple words, what my life was like before a chance encounter with the secret teaching of antiquity, and what changes took place in it after becoming acquainted with this teaching. Like each of you, I spent the first quarter of my life at school. For a number of years, I have studied a variety of subjects and sciences that should provide me with the opportunity to earn a livelihood. These sciences were supposed to give me access not to the goal of life, but to the means of living, or rather, the goal of life was to obtain means of life. As I was convinced in practice, none of the schools I passed and none of the sciences I studied taught me the science of life, that is, it taught me clearly and simply to understand the meaning, purpose and values \u200b\u200bof earthly life and did not show me the ways and the means to achieve the goals of life. After completing my education, I began to earn my own bread. But after all, every creature on earth, every animal also gets its own food. Like all my contemporaries, blindfolded I participated in a frantic pursuit of so-called earthly happiness, that is, for comforts, for comfort, for tinsel glitter, for the satisfaction of small vanity, for pleasure, for the accumulation of luxury goods , essentially superfluous, but capable of causing the envy of others. I was no better and no worse than the quite decent people around me and I found it completely natural that since life is a struggle for existence, I have every right not to help others, weaker, to fight everyone for the elements just listed. In fact, I did not commit crimes and violations of human laws, but in my thoughts I did not spare enemies, rivals, competitors in the pursuit of the blessings of life. I believed that I could have unattractive and malicious thoughts about others as much as I wanted, without ceasing to be an honest and decent person, until I put my evil thoughts about my neighbor into action ... In this blind, frantic and insane pursuit for something indefinite, unknown, eternally alluring and invariably elusive, I spent a good half of my life. When I woke up from the intoxication and looked around, I saw only emptiness around me and despondency inside; I felt only tiredness, disappointment in life and in people, my soul was only a bitter aftertaste from deceived, outraged hopes and expectations ... This is ─ life, ─ I said to myself and asked myself: is it worth living if life is like this? In one of the moments of despondency, in a dark moment, when I was already desperate, an acquaintance gave me a book to read. From this old book, I understood that in ancient times there existed and partially survived to this day a secret doctrine about the science of life, about the origin, evolution and purpose of man, about his earthly and posthumous fate, about the path to attaining knowledge not only visible phenomena of life, but also their causes and consequences, and about the right way to conquer once and for all the peace of mind, peace and happiness on earth. I rushed to look for the sources of this knowledge, swam across the sea, looking for the truth in a foreign land and at home. I visited the monuments of ancient Byzantium, the ancient monuments of Hellas incomparable in beauty, the divine Acropolis in Athens; I have been to Alexandria and Egypt many times, lived for a long time at the foot of the great pyramid in Giza and in front of the greatest monument of mankind ─ the great Sphinx, I lived in the ruins of the greatest temples in Karnak and Luxor ... I visited Asia and saw Mount Sinai, I was in Ceylon, Hindustan, Indochina, Japan, China, ─ everywhere asking about ancient monuments, temples, sanctuaries, talking with archaeologists, Egyptologists, asking, listening, reading, checking on the spot what was read in books. I talked about monks, Arabs, professors, with brahmins, with fakirs, with Buddhist bonzes and monks. I myself, unhurriedly, conscientiously, to satisfy my own thirst for knowledge studied, tested this innermost wisdom, not sparing time, work, health and funds. As I deepened into the innermost truths of this Secret Science, I felt that my horizons were gradually expanding and my life was changing completely, that it had received a goal, a meaning, that it was filled with light, a deep spiritual world, a complete absence of fear of death, tolerance for other people's beliefs and views, even, benevolent to all relationships, always clear, vigorous and cheerful mood. I felt that even my health was getting better. Since that time, my life has changed and this change I am entirely indebted to the Secret Teachings of antiquity, secret wisdom, drop by drop accumulated over the millennia and benefiting a person who takes the trouble to get to know and relate to her. And so I wanted the Secret Teachings of antiquity, which had given me so much, to spread its beneficial influence on others. As a brother, I bring you what my elder brothers gave me. Chapter I Occult traditions, or secret teachings, have always claimed that our planet has existed for over a hundred million years, which modern science has begun to confirm. Since that distant time, when the surface of the continents cooled enough for vegetation to appear on it and people could incarnate, they have always been under the supervision and care of Providence. This care was especially caring in that early period, when mankind was still in the infancy of its mental development. At the dawn of the human races, when they hourly needed protection and support. Providence sent them mentors, spiritual teachers and prophets. These people, older brothers, descendants of races who lived earlier on other planets and had already reached perfection, incarnated on our earth in different countries, at different times, among different peoples: they taught them the knowledge of the Divine, the hierarchy of heavenly forces, agriculture, crafts, science and the arts. The most capable and diligent students became priests. Thinkers, philosophers, scientists grouped around temples and sanctuaries, being the concentration of religion and all sciences, a center from which spiritual light ─ religious teaching and mental light ─ all kinds of knowledge, abstract and practical, emanated. People thirsting for knowledge rushed to the fence of temples and found enlightenment there. All great religions have and have always had an external history and an internal history: the first is visible, the second is hidden. External history should be understood as dogmas and myths taught in schools and temples publicly and included in the rite of religion. By internal history, one must understand and understand science as a deep, secret doctrine, the occult activity of the great teachers, prophets and reformers who created and supported the living spirit of the great religions. The first, the official story, which can be read everywhere, takes place in daylight, yet it is dark, confusing and contradictory. The second, which can be called a secret or secret tradition or teaching of the Mysteries, is difficult to recognize, for it flows deep in sanctuaries and temples, in closed brotherhoods. Its most important secrets were preserved by the supreme teachers and priests, who did not trust their books and parchments, but passed them on to their successors. This story, this oral tradition, now restored, is a story full of light, inner connection and harmony. It can also be called the history of a single world and eternal religion; it reveals the inner essence of things, the true content of human consciousness, while the outer history shows only its earthly forms. The secret history, or rather its result, is a secret teaching and is the subject of this book. The origins of the secret teaching are in India, in the Vedas. No less striking antiquity of sacred doctrine in Egypt in the papyrus scrolls of the Book of the Dead. The secret teaching is clearly visible in the enchanting mythology of Hellas: the occult traditions of Israel are preserved under the cover of the vague forms of Kabbalah, the innermost wisdom of Christianity shines in the Gospels, it springs from the living spring of Christ's parables. Sages, prophets and great teachers of all times and all countries have come to the same conclusions about the basics, about the primary and last reasons, through deep inner reflection and contemplation, with the complete closure of all senses to earthly impressions. They became the greatest benefactors of mankind, having pulled it out of the abyss of lives, animal nature, denial and its gradual rise to the heights of the ideal. The study of the inner history of all great religions leads to a result of the greatest importance: it establishes an unshakable fact ─ the deepest antiquity, the continuity of the basic unity of the secret teaching. The scriptures of all the great religions give the thoughtful reader something more than what is expressed in letters and words, something more than what was once made public to the general public. Every great religion has always recognized that it exists for different classes of people and that it must be able to satisfy the mental and spiritual needs of each of these classes, which are at different stages of intellectual development. Knowledge is power, great power. Knowledge in the area of \u200b\u200bthe invisible world is great power. Persons to whom higher knowledge is revealed, take on moral guarantees and well-known obligations in terms of their application for the benefit of humanity. There is no religion higher than Truth. The secret knowledge we inherited from deep antiquity does not contradict any of the great religions, on the contrary, it explains and unites them all together. It believes that all religions strive to establish the same basic truths, different from each other in form and name, only because they were proclaimed by different teachers in different epochs of the history of the world and were given by different peoples standing at different stages of development. Adepts of secret knowledge believe that the truth underlying all religions is fully accessible to the human mind. They call the meaning of this truth divine wisdom or the wisdom of the gods, that is, people who have reached the highest level (edge) of perfection on earth, in other words, supermen, and everyone can fully fulfill their purpose on earth ─ to be human in the full sense of the word. Chapter II Is there an invisible world at all? If so, what is he and where is he? The secret teaching gives quite definite answers to these questions. Yes, the invisible world exists! He exists around us, around us; it starts where our body ends and even penetrates into our body. The invisible world is in all respects as real as the physical world. It is a natural continuation of the world that we know, and the abilities with which it can be cognized is the further development of our senses. The invisible world for all remained unexplored. From the most ancient times to the present day, it was studied first by prophets and great teachers, and later by clairvoyants of all countries. The results of these studies are presented in the secret teaching. There are three well-known states of matter - solid, liquid and gaseous. Occult chemistry claims that there is another state, not gaseous, but etheric. The physical state of matter is followed by a state ─ superphysical, belonging to another world, the so-called astral plane, on which it already obeys other laws than matter on earth, ─ on the physical plane. Chapter III The secret teaching of antiquity believes that man is a complex being and that he consists of 7 elements or principles, divided into 2 groups: 3 ─ higher and 4 ─ lower principles. The three higher principles make up the undying part of man, his immortal individuality, they are the true man, incarnating on earth, what we call ─ spirit. The four lower principles make up the mortal part of man, his temporary, transient personality, what we call the soul. Each of the 7 human bodies corresponds to the 7 planes of the universe, consists of matter of the corresponding plan and must respond to vibrations related to this plan. A person consists, as it were, of 7 shells, nested one into the other, like seven envelopes included in each other, and the body itself is the outer one ─ the heaviest and densest of these shells. The body serves as an instrument with the help of which the true person, that is, the spirit, is manifested, made visible and tangible. At the same time, it is also a garment that a true person must put on in order to be able to fulfill his purpose. A person cannot use this appointment in other spheres, he must appear on earth for this. But in order to appear on earth, he needs to put on clothes, that is, in a body; besides, he needs to get an instrument to enable him to act. These are his arms, legs, ears, eyes, brain - his whole body. So, our body is nothing more than clothing and an instrument, without which a person could not act, or even appear on Earth, and it is by no means our very personality. The purpose of a person is only one: gradually, thanks to a whole series of tests or lessons experienced on Earth, to achieve purity and perfection. Since a person can receive these tests or lessons only during his earthly life, he goes to Earth. But in view of the fact that during one life a person has time and can acquire only an insignificant part of the necessary perfection, he returns to earth repeatedly and lives many times, receiving new conditions and a new body for each new life. So, the Earth is a school for a person, and the body is a uniform, without which it is impossible to come to school. Every life lived on Earth is a class passed. When all the classes are completed, the person has reached perfection and does not return to school any more, ie. frees itself from further incarnations. The sixth shell of a person is the vehicle of life, the etheric body or the etheric double, which serves as his life force. The etheric double can leave the body and move away from it for a certain distance, without causing death. The death of the body does not occur as long as the etheric double that emerged from it is connected to the body by an invisible magnetic thread, but as soon as this invisible thread is only torn, the body dies. Upon the exit of the etheric double from the body, while the invisible thread is still intact, all life processes slow down and the body plunges into a semi-lethargic sleep: it remains in this position until the etheric double returns to it. The latter is the human double that is sometimes seen by people. Many cases of the phenomenon of twins of living people have been registered and are known to people and science. The process of life leaving the body was repeatedly observed by clairvoyants from different countries and was described by them in exactly the same way. They all say that they saw a light violet vapor emerge from a dying body, how this vapor gradually thickens, takes on a form quite similar to that of an abandoned body, and how this ethereal form remains connected to the body by a shiny thread. This thread breaks only 36 hours after the apparent death of the body. Only after that, as the magnetic thread broke, the body really died, that is, the person threw off one of the 7 shells of which it consists. He became incarnate, but he did not die, because he still has 6 shells in which his essence is enclosed. After the death of the body, the etheric double (6 shell), in which the essence of the person remained, usually retires to a great distance and most often hovers over the corpse for some time in a state of peaceful half-sleep; if the body is placed in the grave, the etheric double hovers over it. Then this shell dissipates and melts in the surrounding ether, and the 5th shell (the principle of life), which it served as a conductor, returns to the common reservoir of life, from which all nature draws its life force. After the principle has disappeared, the immortal essence of man resides in another mortal shell. This 4th shell is the spiritual body of passions and desires that a person experienced in his earthly life. There is a spiritual body and there is a spiritual body. A truly immortal person is not a soul, but a spirit clothed in the soul like a veil. In essence, the spirit of man is divine, but the vanity and temptation of the earth during life at times overshadows his high essence. Our soul is so real that under certain conditions it can be visible regardless of its body in the same way, both during life and after death. The physical body is only the outer shell, only the temporary clothing of a person. We part with our body after death forever, but we also part with it temporarily every time we fall asleep. If we do fall asleep at all, it is only because a true person, clothed in his astral shell, is removed from the physical body during our sleep. There are people who can leave their body at will. Such a disincarnation ─ a transition from one plan of life to another is a fact of elementary magic. An experienced clairvoyant can see his astral body hovering over the asleep or moving away from this body at a more or less significant distance. In the astral body, the immortal essence of a person can exist after death from several hours to several centuries. The less passions and aspirations for material wealth a person experienced on Earth, the cleaner and more spiritual he lived, the less self-loving his life was, the sooner he will cast off this shell (the last) that separates him from the area of \u200b\u200bheavenly bliss ─ the abode of the spirit (Mental plane, devakan ─ ed.). The area of \u200b\u200bspace in which a person lives in a shell of desires and passions - the astral body, that is, where the person's mental body is directed, is close to the Earth. It is customary to call it purgatory, because in it a person frees his immortal essence from vices, passions and lusts that remain undefeated in earthly life. If a person lived all his life for others, if he was alien to selfishness, greed, the desire for selfish use of material goods, if during his lifetime he overcame all earthly passions and animal desires, his body of passions and desires is poorly developed (More precisely, it has a finer structure ─ ed.), and soon within a few days or even hours ─ he leaves it and is carried away to the higher spiritual spheres. If, on the contrary, on Earth he was vicious, selfish, he lived only for himself, if he indulged his lower inclinations and set earthly riches and aspirations for their acquisition by all means as the goal of his entire earthly life, his body of passions and desires is highly developed and roughly and he needs tens and hundreds of years for all these vices and passions to be blotted out and so that his higher essence can free itself from them and rise to higher regions. This shows how important it is to conquer your passions while still alive in order to shorten the time you spend in purgatory. From this region, close to the Earth, are those Spirits that the Spiritualists summon at spiritualistic seances. Only those underdeveloped spirits who are still full of passions and desires respond to these earthly appeals, and who, no longer having bodies themselves to satisfy them, strive to fulfill their desires by entering the bodies of mediums. People who suddenly lost their lives in war, from an accident or as a result of a crime, and not died from illness and old age, remain in purgatory immersed in a peaceful sleep, which continues until the date fixed in advance for their natural death. Death to itself is not a punishment, just like birth is not a reward: it is a natural and normal phenomenon. Premature death, in most cases, with the exception of war and its consequences, widespread diseases and mass catastrophes on land, sea and air, are retribution for the deeds committed in the last or in previous lives ─ for decisively every bad the deed must be atoned for. The fate of suicides is the most difficult: after the death of the body, they regain consciousness and for a long time experience the drama that led them to despair, as well as the horror of the dying hours. They can kill their body, but it was not their body that suffered, but their spirit, which cannot be killed, and their torment continues until the hour that was assigned to them from above for their natural death. The fate of criminals executed for murder is even more terrible: until the hour appointed for their natural death, they constantly experience in the astral world all the details of the brutal crime they have committed, their detention, imprisonment, interrogation, trial, etc. executions. They do not know rest and rush, obsessed with anger and a thirst for revenge, which greatly harm the living people who have remained on earth, pushing the weak and indecisive to the path of crime and bringing after death (execution) more harm than they could have done if they would not be executed. This is one of the most important arguments for the abolition of the death penalty: they destroy only the body, freeing the evil spirit of the criminal that harms living people. But for all people the day is coming when crimes and vicious inclinations, lusts, passions and aspirations for earthly affairs and interests lose their acuteness and die partly due to the action of time, partly due to the impossibility of realizing all these dark aspirations due to the lack of a body. The last mortal shell falls away, releasing his immortal, eternal essence. This last shell, i.e. the Spirit-Man himself is enclosed in two more outer covers: in the body of the higher mind and in the spiritual body. The higher mind of a person owns the memories of his past earthly lives. The memory of the past is expressed in those spiritual properties and qualities that he does not bring with him at birth and which he could not but inherit from his parents or acquire by education. The brain is the instrument of earthly memory, in which all the events of life are imprinted. After the death of the body, the brain dies, taking with it everything that was imprinted in it in this life. With the death of the brain, therefore, the earthly memory of the just lived life also perishes. When a person is incarnated again, the memory of past lives cannot be imprinted in his main brain, because this brain did not exist during those lives. The human consciousness lives in the higher mind. While the mind is swallowed up by thoughts related to the external world, to the earthly it is dazed by self-love, it awakens only the lower forces of consciousness. Only when the mind begins to comprehend the true goal of human life and love for all people, only then the conscience and higher intuition begin to work hard in consciousness, enlightening it and sometimes bringing it to the level of genius. Lofty thoughts, noble and pure thoughts, and all that good and supra-personal, to which a person aspires and what he has done for the benefit of those close to him in his earthly life, are concentrated in his consciousness. Consciousness constitutes a true person, his eternal SPIRIT and his immortal individuality. The evolution of a person is the evolution of his consciousness, it gradually expands and rises higher and higher. The shells in which man puts on or which he throws off are nothing more than a tool for this evolution. In the higher mind, all good and noble thoughts and undertakings ─ the fruits of the last incarnation of man, are centered and processed into abilities and qualities. In him, these fruits are added to the experience that has already been accumulated over all his life, and all this harvest, taken together, passes into a spiritual body, concealing in itself all the forces necessary to achieve perfection. But this perfection manifests itself in him only gradually, through long centuries and at the end of numerous incarnations. Achieving perfection means developing all of your inner qualities, and especially truthfulness, love and compassion. The most inexplicable mysteries of human existence receive a simple and reasonable explanation thanks to the secret doctrine of the evolution of the human body and spirit. It unfolds before us a huge past, during which our organism is gradually being created. One after another our senses were born and through them all the complex activity of our spirit was awakened. Millions of years ago, we were not at all what we are now. 1000 years ago we were also different and we will be different again in 1000 years and, moreover, in millions of years. Man is what he is, the magnitude is far from complete, but only a transitional stage of something very large, developing over eons, which is an immortal divine individuality. Chapter IV Living and acting simultaneously in three planes, man influences the material world with his physical body; with his astral body he lives and acts in the world of feelings, passions and desires, and with his mental body he lives and acts in the field of thought. Thoughts as light, warmth, sound ─ are vibrations of the ether, but the vibrations are infinitely very fast, they are naturally perceived by our brain, but it is impossible to trace this process through physical observation due to the subtlety of the material of thought. Each person moves in space, as if imprisoned in a cage that he has built for himself: he is surrounded by the world of his usual thoughts, he looks at everything through this environment he created, and therefore, naturally, the world seems to him colored in that color , which prevails in his thoughts: an optimist sees everything in pink, a pessimist presents everything around him in gloomy tones. Until now, until a person learns to strictly control his thoughts and feelings, he will never see things as they really exist, but will always see them through his own environment, like a bad mirror that distorts and discolors everything. The so-called gloomy mood is not something fatal, irresistible: it is the product of his thoughts, the result of the way he thinks. A person who wants to correct, to rebuild his entire character, it is not enough just to control his thoughts, he needs to forget everything around him every day, at least for 5 minutes, and to think with concentration about the quality opposite to the disadvantage he wants to get rid of. The character of a person is built along the lines of his thought. Working on himself, on his perfection, he works for eternity, he lays the foundation for his superhumanity. When a person walks down the street or is in a public place, he makes his way through the thick wall of other people's thoughts. If his mind is occupied with his own thoughts, he does not notice other people's thoughts, does not perceive them and does not respond to their vibration. But if his mind is not absorbed in his own thoughts, scraps of other people's thoughts, usually mundane, grayish and vulgar, penetrate into him and clog him with useless and sometimes harmful influences. When you are on the street or in a crowd ─ it is best to immerse your mind in beautiful thoughts or to keep it occupied by repeating beautiful poems or sayings. Wherever he is, a person fills the space around him with his thoughts. Wherever he goes or goes, his thoughts remain behind him with a long tail: all these thoughts are sowing that does not go to waste, he is perceived by him and other people, and if they were bright, kind, then they produce joy and blessing, and if they were gloomy and spiteful, then they bear sorrow and anger. People, thanks to their egoism, ignorance and negligence, have created such conditions of life on Earth, which are a heavy, unbearable burden on the vast masses of the poor working population. These conditions cause in hundreds of millions of people thoughts of envy, anger, despair. They rush from the midst of confused humanity into the astral world and respond to all kinds of calamities on Earth. Thoughts of excessive lust for power, envy and evil in the minds of the ruler of the peoples spread among the peoples and infect his minds, causing whirlwinds of passions that raise fierce wars, ruin, and bloody slaughter. The root cause lies in bloody and criminal thoughts. The only way to prevent the fatal and unfortunate consequences of bad thinking is to introduce a conscious culture in the field of thought. External culture is, perhaps, the task of society and the state, while internal culture ─ moral ─ control and purification of thoughts is the task of each of us. A man without a culture of thought, without inner truth is a savage, despite the culture of form, in spite of the outer civilization. A people without a culture of thought is a barbaric people. All people on the globe are interconnected by thousands of invisible threads of thought, which continuously sweep in all directions and bring them benefit or harm. A thought of love sent to a friend protects him from danger. Such thoughts can be sent not only to living, but also to dead people, and the latter perceive them faster and easier. If one and the same thought appears at the same time in several persons, it becomes more powerful. Ancient sorcerers, gathering in countless numbers and forming a magical chain, directed one and the same thought to the set goal and achieved amazing results in this way. Thoughts full of criticism, condemnation, and sometimes slander, infect other people's minds with suspicion, a thirst for retribution and hidden anger. A clearly and strongly expressed evil thought can not only injure, but also kill a person. In addition, the influence that we have on the thinking of people usually by the power of our thoughts, we can, with especially intense thoughts, influence their will and thus make them serve our intentions. This will no longer be a simple automatic transmission of thoughts, but a suggestion. Such suggestion is by no means permissible, because it violates the sacred, inalienable right of every person to have free will and act according to their own choice. Protect the power of your brain, do not allow an endless number of unnecessary thoughts in your mind. Modern man is constantly absorbed, dejected by all kinds of anxieties, busy with all sorts of petty everyday squabbles. All these relentless worries do not change the course of his life at all, therefore they are superfluous. But besides, they are also harmful, because they not only uselessly shake the brain of the one who allows them into himself, but also influences those around him, passing them on to his constant excitement. The true sage does not allow endless, useless disputes, which are so loved by most of his contemporaries, nor petty worries and unnecessary thoughts in his thoughts: he is distinguished by his rebellious calmness, always even mood and complete power over his thoughts. Bad thoughts and feelings directed at a person in whom there is no evil will not make any impression on him, because will not reach him. They bounce off the righteous person and fall on the one who sent them. The power of thought is infinite and it lies at the heart of magic. Instilling in themselves the erroneous notion that the main essence of a person is his body, people naturally began to fear death, they began to consider it the most fierce enemy, their nightmare, the most terrible of all horrors, the kidnapper of life and all earthly life associated with bodily life. good. For people who believe that their body is the only and main essence, and the spirit, if it exists at all, is only one of its functions - death, of course, is terrible, because it takes everything from him, leaving him nothing. For the same people who have comprehended that a person differs from an animal in that the main essence in him is the spirit, and that his body is only a guide, an instrument, only the clothing of the spirit ─ they are not afraid of the loss of their clothing or bodily shell: the body will be eaten by worms, will die forever, will never be able to resurrect in its original form, and the spirit is a particle of the immortal spirit of God, that the main and only essence of man, freed from earthly clothes, rushes to his homeland, when the time comes, to return to Earth and incarnate in a new body, which he will use to acquire new spiritual qualities. Can we really be afraid to part with old, worn out, sick, already useless bodies, if we know that after a while we will be exposed in a new, fresh, strong and healthy body, which will allow us to enjoy again all the joys of life and further improve his immortal divine spirit in striving for truth, goodness, beauty. As soon as a person remembers that he dies every night, that is, his spirit always leaves his body in a dream and rushes about in space, visiting friends, new places, a sick mother, dear children ─ in order not to be afraid of a longer sleep, which he used to call death. After that, he will wake up to life in a renewed body, which gives him the opportunity to continue the further march towards the single goal intended for man ─ to perfection. Chapter V What we call birth is not the birth of a person himself, but only the birth of a new shell for him, his body. Clairvoyants who, through systematic training, have developed the ability to see and hear what is happening behind the invisible afterlife, all unanimously confirm that on the other side of the grave there is not a gloomy abyss, but the world of another life, which can be cognized by us with such as distinctly as earthly life. It turns out that after death no external change occurs with a person: his life in the other world is only a natural continuation of earthly life. With regard to consciousness, properties and powers, a person remains after death the same as he was before it. The deceased gradually learns the change that has happened to him from the fact that he no longer feels hunger, cold, fatigue, pain. If we knew this during our earthly life, then we would not be afraid of death, and perhaps we would understand that, to tell the truth, it is we who are alive ─ who are the dead, they are the dead ─ truly alive, infinitely freer and more mobile than we are people. What we call hell and heaven is not the place we go to after death, but the state of our consciousness. Heaven and hell ─ are not anywhere, but can be experienced right there, around, near us. Frying in a skillet, burning in hell, or living in pearl gardens is a figment of the imagination. Losing his body with death, a person retains all his thoughts, inclinations and passions in the world of darkness. But with the loss of his body, he lost the ability to satisfy them. In view of the impossibility of being realized, they torment, burn and gnaw him, insatiable and unsatisfied. For a vicious and evil person ─ the impossibility of realizing his vices and evil thoughts in the afterlife ─ is a real hell. In the other world, there is and cannot be any reward or punishment imposed from outside. There, a person receives only what he has prepared for himself with his life on Earth. From the experienced striving, as well as from the all-healing time, vices and passions gradually weaken, are forgotten, die ─ a person is freed from them and purified. Just as his physical body worn out, weakened, grew old and finally died on Earth, freeing a person into the invisible world, so in this invisible world it wears out, weakens, grows old and finally dies his astral body, releasing a person into a new, higher world ─ the world of selfless thought. But this new world is new, again, not somewhere in the supra-stellar edges and is not any definite place: it represents only a new, more subtle state of our consciousness, so subtle that not even all people on Earth share enjoy such consciousness. Those who are so gross and material that for all the time of their earthly life have never experienced a high spiritual experience, have not had a single unselfish thought, cannot go to a new world, to this high state of consciousness. They remain until their next incarnation on Earth ─ in the astral plane ─ in a state of peaceful sleep. This is the lot of all primitive people who are not far from the conditions of animal life. Since all people are far from the same spiritual development, in the area of \u200b\u200bhigher consciousness after death everyone perceives just those vibrations, that share of bliss to which he is able to respond, to which his spirit has grown. Everyone comes to this world with his own cup, great and small. The more spiritual a person is, the more he is in this state. Thus, everyone determines by his thoughts and deeds in earthly life what will be his sufferings and torments in the astral world, what will be his character and what is the duration of his heavenly life. The seeds of both he sowed on Earth, and there he will only gather the fruits of what he sowed. Chapter VI Not a single thought, not a single human action is left without consequences. Now, with his thoughts and deeds, a person builds his immediate future and even his next life in a new body on Earth. It should be borne in mind that a person's thoughts are more important in their consequences than his actions. In the world of the spirit, a person is judged not by his actions, but by his thoughts, feelings and desires, as the only solid data. The fate of a person is made up of three data: 1. From the total sum of all his good and evil deeds and thoughts, accumulated during all his lives and still outstanding by him. These are the total capital (good) and the total debt (evil) attributed to a person. 2. From this part of the overall total, which he is appointed to eliminate, to extinguish in real life on Earth, his fate is taken. This part is what we call blind, unavoidable fate ─ rock (karma ─ ed). It is intended for him during his incarnation into a new life, that is, at birth. 3. From those thoughts and deeds that we create at the present moment and will create daily ─ from them our destiny of tomorrow or later is created. A person's life is not something torn off and finished, it is the result of all his previous lives and at the same time it is the seed of the future. It does not take shape by chance and blindly, but is created by us every minute, by our thought, by our every act. Man is the master of his own destiny. Inborn properties, qualities, abilities are only the result of a person's mental work in his past lives on Earth. Our thoughts build our character. Our desires determine what we will be surrounded by in the next life. Our actions determine the exact measure of our happiness. As the conscious development of the will, a person can introduce (master the leadership) new data into his blind destiny and can change it. Having cognized the truth and having developed the will to the highest degree, a person is completely freed from the clutches of predestination. Having cognized the truth, a person should and will help everyone and not think about himself. As long as a person is dependent on desires, he is not liberated, he is at work with matter. When the force that awakens to action begins to emanate from the person himself, from his enlightened mind, it becomes will. Chapter VII The secret teaching contains the basic, unshakable law of the universe, ─ it is that a person lives on Earth not once, but many times. Each of us has behind us a long series of existences, and only thanks to the experience gained from these many lives on Earth, we will be able to rise from the level of a primitive man, from the level of a savage to our modern stage of a cultured man. 60 billion souls are evolving on our Earth. The spirit, which has already acquired a store of experience and knowledge during its previous earthly existence, descends to Earth and incarnates in a child while still in the mother's womb, and the choice of a family is made not by chance, but according to a strictly outlined plan. Why don't we remember our former life? When a person develops enough to focus his consciousness in the mental or spiritual world, and not only in the physical brain, he thinks about it. Often people ask: how to explain that one person is born blind, lame or hunchback, sick or an idiot, and another is healthy and strong? One is born in a poor man's hut to a beggar mother, and the other in a magnificent palace? Why does one live for 80 years and die a natural death from old age, while the other lives for only 8 years or a few days? One dies in his bed, while the other dies on the battlefield or in a disaster? One ends his life as an honest poor man, and the other as a thief, a horse thief, a criminal, but in honor and wealth? If a person lives on Earth once, then these questions cannot be answered. To these insoluble, from our point of view, questions, the Secret Doctrine gives a simple, understandable and comprehensive answer: God is merciful and just, he is love itself, he created all souls good and innocent, they are sent to Earth to gain experience among various temptations and trials, but many souls deviate from the right path and become evil and vicious. For correction, they are sent to Earth many times and in different conditions until they are freed from vices and weaknesses. This also explains the fact that in the deepest antiquity there were people with high spiritual development: geniuses, poets, thinkers, philosophers, writers, painters, sculptors, whose immortal works serve as a model for modern mankind. We, the children of the 20th century, see around us so much barbarity, cruelty, rudeness, savagery that we feel ashamed of our culture. Human progress is moving forward very slowly. Chapter VIII Each of us is part of one powerful whole. The sense of the whole, the sense of separation, is one of the illusions of our planes of being. In the future, a person will live for the community, for the good of all. What is our role in life? There are many things we can do to hasten our attainment of the ultimate goal of light and glory. Each of us can and must become a small center that studies love and joy and, like a small sun, shine on everyone who comes in contact with it. We must try to spread the knowledge of the truth through our thoughts, words, and actions. We must remain calm, serene and unshakable amid the hustle and bustle of everyday life. We must, in the midst of all everyday worries and sorrows, preserve the highest ideal before our spiritual gaze and never allow an outburst of anger or selfish thoughts to carry him away from the stronghold on which he stands. We must try to move forward and help the world move forward by laying out these truths in front of people and thereby bringing closer the time when all people will understand each other, because they do not learn to understand the powerful system of which they are a part. Selfishness and the triumph of the strong is the law of brutal evolution. The law of evolution is self-denial and self-sacrifice. According to the teachings of the secret doctrine, a person consists of 7 principles, of which 4 are lower ─ mortals. These are the following: 1. The physical body ─ the outer and most dense of the 7 human shells ─ serves for activities on the physical plane. 2. The etheric body or etheric double man, its 6th shell. He serves as a conductor of life, vitality. 3. The principle of life or life force ─ is the 5th shell of a person. 4. The astral or spiritual body, the vehicle of all feelings, passions and desires, is the 4th shell of a person. The astral body in Christian terminology is called the soul. Then follow 3 higher, immortal principles that make up a true, immortal man, his eternal, immortal spirit: 5. The mental body or the body of thought, the higher mind or intuition is the third shell of a person. 6. Spiritual body, which is the second element of man. 7. The divine principle, the eternal self of man, that is, the spirit-man himself, his main essence and basis, are essentially one with God. Each of the 7 human bodies corresponds to the seven planes of the universe, consists of matter of the corresponding plane and must respond to vibrations related to this plane. At the present stage of development, a person responds to vibrations of only the grossest, physical plane, and very few of us respond to the vibrations of the rest, higher tones. Chapter IX The secret teaching tells us: ─ That a person is not a body, but a spirit, and therefore he should not devote all his interest, all his worries and all efforts solely to meeting the animal needs of his body, but should live mainly to develop your spirit. ─ Since he is not a body, but a spirit, death is not the end of existence for him, because the spirit cannot die, but only change the conditions of life. And therefore, since he cannot completely disappear, die, then he is not afraid of death either. ─ That after death he not only continues to live, but that in the afterlife he does not even soon notice that he is living not in the old, but in new conditions. Living many times on Earth, he has already died more than once, and therefore the prospect of dying again cannot frighten him. ─ That our loved ones, dying, are not destroyed, but continue to live and do not part with us, but remain right there, beside us, and we have not lost our loved ones at all, but have lost the opportunity to see them in a waking state, but in a dream we we meet often. ─ That thought is a great power in which a person can help both living and dead people, and from bad thoughts he himself will suffer first of all. ─ That we should beware of our darkness and our ignorance. We must strive for knowledge, for it is a higher power that will help to get out of darkness to light, that is, from sadness and anxiety to inner peace and full confidence in the ultimate well-being of man and all that exists. ─ That suffering is not a punishment sent from outside by someone, but is only the only consequence of one's own actions in a past or present life. ─ That a person's fate is in his own hands and that he can change it at his own will, as well as his character, if he so wishes. ─ That, being not a body, but a spirit, he is eternal, and that his true homeland is not Earth, but etheric space, that his one life on Earth is only one short day in his truly endless life. ─ That our Earth is a school, into which, by virtue of an unshakable law, the eternal spirit sends until it acquires all qualities in it and reaches perfection. ─ That each of a person's earthly lives is a class in which he must acquire certain knowledge, assimilate certain knowledge, acquire certain qualities and free himself to come to school forever, that is, to live on Earth. ─ That life exists not only on earth, but also on all the planets of our infinite system and on all the countless solar systems of the infinite Universe, and is regulated not by whim, not by chance and not spontaneous, but by strict unshakable laws, which the invisible world is subject to as well as and the entire visible physical world. ─ That the life of the Universe, that is, its endless evolution from simple to complex and from imperfect to perfect ─ is a mighty, all-destructive stream, in which seeming reverse flows are only an illusion, an optical illusion. These congestions or shallow eddies occur only on the surface of a general irresistible current and are carried away by it irresistibly ─ to the ultimate, originally intended goal ─ to perfection. ─ That there is neither good nor evil, but only elements of force that help evolution or try to hinder it, delay it. All obstacles are crushed by a mighty stream ─ and no person, family, society, nation or race trying to go against the general tide will not be left ─ will be swept away without a trace. Positive, creative forces will triumph over dark, negative, destructive forces: light will triumph over darkness, and good will triumph over evil, as an unshakable law of evolution. ─ That God exists, that he is just and merciful, and that he has a definite plan for the universe. This plan is evolution. Happy is the person who has been given to know God: he will no longer hinder the fulfillment of this plan, he will not hinder evolution, that is, do evil, but will try his best to help people, that is, do good. ─ What helps evolution is to reduce the world's sorrow and increase its joy. This is to provide, within the limits of our strength, material assistance to the poor and the suffering, but it is even more important than a sympathetic attitude towards someone else's grief than help with our daily bread ─ spiritual help, a cheerful word, a sympathetic attitude towards someone else's grief, sending everyone around us thoughts full of consolation, sympathy, sincere participation, radiation of sympathy for everyone. ─ That one who has decided to help evolution should not allow himself to have bad thoughts, despondency or condemnation, but should seek, find and see only good in everything and in everything. He must differ from all those around him by his even mood, unchanging to all goodwill, complete tolerance, equanimous calmness, affable clarity, invincible courage amid all kinds of difficulties and dangers and unchanging willingness to always and in everything to provide participation and help. ─ That, trying always and everywhere not to hinder, but to help evolution with all his might, man becomes one of the light, beneficent forces of nature, and no matter how small his abilities, no matter how insignificant his help, but still he became in the ranks of the endless hierarchy, rising from nature to God, he is the executor of his laws and his will on Earth. This one thought is capable of overflowing his heart with happiness, filling him with the world and illuminating his days. Conclusion This book gives the reader a certain point of view from which he can look at everything, judge everything, and also gives a certain basis for resolving all the questions raised by life. This book gives a completely definite attitude to people, to all living things, to all objects and to all manifestations of the visible, secrets of the other world: it gives a reasonable and logical explanation of our existence, which to most people seems to be a dark and difficult task or just a riddle without a solution ... As the newspaper is usually read in our time, this book is NOT to be read!

The secret teachings have always included esotericism (esotericism) and occultism.
Every person who begins to get acquainted with the ideas of esotericism and occultism sooner or later realizes that secret knowledge came from the East. And the East received this secret knowledge from more ancient civilizations.

The East has always been a place of secrets and mysteries for the West. Especially many legends and fantastic stories have spread about India, about the mysterious knowledge of Indian sages, philosophers and saints.
Indeed, many facts indicate that, in addition to the knowledge left in the ancient books of India, in its scriptures, legends, songs and myths, there is still some knowledge that cannot be gleaned from books that is not revealed to all, but the traces of which are undoubtedly visible.

It is difficult to deny that the philosophy of India and its religions are fraught with inexhaustible sources of thought. European philosophy has always used and uses these sources, but, in a strange way, never reaches those ideals of wisdom, holiness and power that are characteristic of the homeland of the Upanishads.
This was understood by the majority of Europeans who studied the religious and philosophical teachings of the East. Spiritual seekers felt that they did not get everything from books. And this led them to the idea that, in addition to the knowledge contained in the books, there is still another, secret knowledge hidden from the masses. And besides the famous wise books, there are some others, kept secret, containing a secret teaching.

Spiritual seekers of different centuries spent a lot of strength and energy in search of this secret teaching of the East. Someone found this secret knowledge, someone lightly touched it, and someone passed by without noticing them.

Secret teachings cannot be kept in the same hands, in one place, there are different secret teachings (different schools) with different terminology. But all true secret teachings grow from one common root. All secret teachings speak of the same thing, pursue the same ultimate goal, and boil down to several simple, fundamental truths (principles).

How people come to esotericism and occultism

Most people come to esotericism and occultism for the practical purpose of finding a way out of some life situation, finding ways to solve their material problems. When problems are not solved in ordinary, material ways, people look for spiritual ways to solve material problems. This is where their acquaintance (immersion) with esotericism and occultism ends.

And there are people who want to know how the world works, what laws it lives by, how to find your place in this world, how to improve your position, how to change yourself, how to develop potential abilities.

Sooner or later, thinking people come to the conclusion that out of the chaos of life, out of the labyrinth of contradictions of the material world, there is no other way out, except for a completely new path, unlike the paths that people know and which they use. That there is another reality behind the shell of the false reality of the material world, and knowledge is needed to penetrate into this unknown invisible reality. And that the search for ways to this invisible reality is more important than any things that happen and can happen in the visible material world.

Secret knowledge seems distant and inaccessible, but every person who guesses about their existence has the opportunity to find the necessary books and meet people who will help him and show the right path.

Before a person gets the opportunity to directly study esoteric ideas, he needs to learn everything he can about esotericism and occultism in the usual ways - to start with the study of history, philosophy, religion. He must prepare himself and he must seek, because only he who seeks can find.

Gradually, as information accumulates, a whole will be formed in the human mind. He will see the continuity of the line of thought and knowledge, which stretches from century to century, from era to era, from one country to another, and from one race to another. This line is deeply hidden under the layers of religions and philosophical systems, which represent a distorted and false interpretation of ideas belonging to the main line of secret knowledge.

He will see that all things in the world, all phenomena that previously seemed disparate, are interconnected by invisible threads. That everything is interconnected and forms a single whole.
So out of the chaos of life, the outlines of a whole world will begin to emerge. It will become obvious that everything in the world is connected, ordered and forms a harmonious unity.

A person's touch of secret knowledge and further immersion in esotericism and occultism allow him to understand that life is not at all what manifests itself on the surface, where most people see only themselves.