By W. T. S. Thackara
"Student," an ancient maxim from the Jewish Qabbalah
reads, "open wide thine eyes upon the visible, for in it
thou shalt find the invisible." Old truisms often prove wisest
and have endured because experience has demonstrated their validity.
In this particularly apt thought we find a touchstone used by
seekers of knowledge throughout history. There has never been
a people or a time when probing into the ultimate mysteries of
life in one fashion or another has not occurred. This is preeminently
true of our own scientific era in which the search for answers
about the beginnings and development of the universe and man gets
considerable encouragement and support. Yet a peculiarity of our
age, especially in the West, has been the tendency to polarize
our explorations either into the physical or metaphysical realms,
and then often to become rather dogmatic about our beliefs.
Only recently have a very few researchers, in physics, astronomy,
and the "parasciences" begun to verify what could prove
to be links between the two spheres. However promising this trend
may be, the division continues to run deep; and we still find
unresolved the whole constellation of ideas and explanations about
human and universal origins and evolution.
What is man, where did he come from, what is the pattern and purpose
of life, and what is the life worth living? Both the religious
and scientific communities have spokesmen who speak positively
for their representative views. But, for the mind trying to evaluate
these impartially, there would at times appear to be two different
realities, two mutually exclusive truths. Ever since Descartes,
many people suffering from the effects of this dichotomy have
attempted to convince themselves, and others, that the statements
of science and religion must be judged independently, although
when compared these may nullify one another. Even as experts scrutinize
the different versions separately, difficulties are found that
are yet to be sufficiently addressed. Specifically, the most vociferous
debate today involves the conflict between the Darwinian (and
later) explanations of evolution and the so-called creationist
model from the Old Testament. Neither side has persuaded the other,
nor does resolution seem likely. And most assume that no other
possible interpretations exist which will satisfy both scientific
and spiritual criteria. (See "Evolution vs. Creationism in
the Public Schools," The Humanist, January/February
1977, pp. 4-24.)
It is with these thoughts that we welcome an updated republication
of a book which, commending to everybody the advice of the ancient
Qabbalah, offers such a comprehensive alternative, and leads the
reader into an exceedingly thoughtful discussion linking man and
the universe, matter and consciousness, and science and religion.
Man in Evolution by G. de Purucker is a multifaceted
work whose luster stems from its unique approach: a coherent and
rational blending of modern scientific observations and empiric
analysis with ancient intuitions of the inner nature and esoteric
history of man. The book is also an easy-to-read essay on science
and its methods, a guide to philosophy, and an exploration of
the intrinsically spiritual possibilities within man.
Truth is shown to be one, and we are told that whether we enter
its precincts through the halls of science, philosophy or religion,
there should not be -- in fact, cannot be -- contradiction among
any of these paths. Common sense agrees. Blind faith is tabu,
and we are not required to believe, or disbelieve, in all the
conclusions of Darwin and his successors, or in a literal interpretation
of the book of Genesis. On the contrary, while basic assumptions
of both are found wanting, some points do have merit. But we are
not left in a vacuous limbo either, for the author presents the
theosophical outline of man and his history which derives from
the matured experience of generations of "philosopher-scientists"
of a different order -- adepts in wisdom whose existence has often
been intuited but who remain generally unknown in history. This
may sound novel to some in our modern, educated world, yet the
adepts' knowledge is of record and can be tested against and found
to tally with nature's facts, such as we know them.
With all this Dr. de Purucker does not hesitate to make plain
the good sense of St. Paul: for each of us to "prove all
things and hold to that which is good." Although it can be
very helpful to study the thoughts, research, and experience of
others, ultimately, the only way to really know anything of the
truth, is by individually experiencing it, by actually becoming
what we need to know. This does not condone license nor unprepared
journeys into uncharted frontiers, but suggests that we learn
by living, striving, and seeking to embody in our present circumstances
the very "higher" qualities of character by which a
genuine insight is made possible.
Yet we should not be afraid of nor doubt our ability to know truth.
In Dr. de Purucker's view, truth exists; and the universe in toto
as manifested in its structures and operations is that truth.
Man -- for that matter, every life-unit being an integral and
vital part of the universe therefore possesses in potential all
the powers and possibilities of the universe, including the ability
to unfold the faculty of understanding truth. This is a fundamental
axiom of the theosophical approach to life, and the entire exposition
of the book rests and builds on it.
Immediately we perceive a wedding of physics with metaphysics:
the whole domain of consciousness is added to the customary physical
biological interpretation of evolution, and spirit is given substance
rather than abstraction. The discussion thus turns to whether
consciousness is a phenomenon of electrochemical combinations,
or the reverse: that matter and its transformations reflect the
activities of 'mind' -- atomic, human, cosmic. The author holds
decidedly to the latter. In support, he forwards the evidence
of nature in the light of reason. With cogent logic, anthropological
and biological findings are compared with the testimony of ancient
and modern theosophical doctrine and in many respects appear to
be in agreement, revealing an extraordinarily illuminating and
hopeful picture of man and the universe.
A human being, as well as every creature, is held to be far more
than body and physical consciousness; he is essentially a spiritually
creative individual, periodically fabricating and embodying in
self-made vehicles of matter and mind so that he may express and
hence unfold his latent divinity. This is what the word evolution
literally means: the unrolling, unwrapping, making manifest what
is potential within, all according to nature's laws. To illustrate
both the key idea and the fact that the concept of evolution does
not date only from 1859 with Charles Darwin's Origin of Species,
Dr. de Purucker cites another Qabbalistic axiom: "The stone
becomes a plant; the plant a beast; the beast a man; and the man
a god." It is the inner being evolving forth and embodying
in each of these vestures who climbs the ladder of life -- not
the vesture which transforms itself into the next higher. There
is no doubt whatsoever that an evolutionary pattern encompassing
billions of years is a reality, says the author, but it is the
present scientific explanations of how it occurs and the effects
these hypotheses have on our perceptions and quality of life that
are in contention.
In the theosophical view, every unit in the universe from atom
to galaxy is instinct with life -- the organizations are also
organizers -- and the whole of it is evolving teleologically,
that is, with purpose, tending towards greater perfection both
of consciousness and the texture and form of its vehicles. For
those kingdoms which are appercepptive -- self-aware -- growth
is no longer purely automatic, but rather each individual assumes
an increasing responsibility to work out his own destiny: helped,
but not carried, by the more advanced who have traveled the "ancient
pathways" before.
The field of life on this planet earth provides the appropriate
setting where the evolutionary experience for the family of kingdoms
belonging to it can naturally occur. "Selection," "mutation,"
"adaptation," etc., are seen as secondary operations
affecting, though not fully explaining, the process. The fossil
record, sketchy and imperfect as it is, as well as other paleontological
data, do not confirm the scenario of blood, tooth, and claw in
the competitive "struggle for life" as the total picture.
On the contrary, Dr. de Purucker points out that there is as much
if not more evidence denoting mutual cooperation, upon which innumerable
life-systems depend for their existence.
Nor does the fossil record -- or embryological, molecular, or
other data -- unquestionably prove uniserial, end-on evolution
from atom up to ape, with man the direct progeny of some, up to
now unknown, pithecoid ancestor. Citing illustrations from comparative
anatomical structures in conjunction with biogenetic law, the
author perceives a quite different picture. Man's skeletal and
muscular architecture is more primitive than that of the simian
stocks, and since it seems to be one of the axioms of evolutionary
theory that specializations do not revert back to their primitive
form, a reasonable inference is that the monkeys and apes are
a departure from, rather than the progenitors of, the early human
races. Man, i.e. genus Homo, showing primacy in development, came
first.
In view of more recent findings, such as those of Finnish paleontologist
Bjorn Kurten, this deduction is far less startling to some scientists
today than in 1888 when the thesis was re-presented and clarified
in The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky. Furthermore,
it is stated that "man," not as he is now, but as he
was scores and even hundreds of millions of years ago, preceded
not only the simians, but physically was the repository of the
kingdoms below him -- the lower phyla each developing along its
own evolutionary lines away from this "protohuman" parent
trunk of the tree of life. Here, then, the vexed question of the
discontinuity, the vast gaps in the fossil record of the ascending
series of life-forms up to man finds a logical and supportable
explanation. It is to be understood, of course, that the primordial
human stock in its origins was of extremely simple structure --
more ethereal than physical, and resembling in shape the ovoid
feature recapitulated by the embryological protoplast of man today.
As he developed, new types of increasing complexity diverged from
him, becoming in time the various genera of species we are presently
familiar with. Using this as background, Dr. de Purucker then
traces man's links with all the kingdoms -- spiritual, psychological,
as well as genetic -- showing an intimacy of relation that urges
one to review seriously the responsibility he shares with everyone
else in promoting the welfare, growth and protection of all creatures
including himself.
We may well ask about the value of reading a book whose material
was originally delivered in the form of lectures in the late 1920s
-- especially in the light of the plentiful and revolutionary
discoveries in paleoanthropology, DNA research, etc., made since
that time. The author points out that theosophical principles
are unchanging, and it is these he wished primarily to relate,
comparing and contrasting them for purposes of illustration with
the then prevailing scientific theories. As a matter of fact,
the "accepted" evolutionary picture today is far more
compatible with that of theosophy. In this connection, the reader
is provided with two valuable appendices: one by Charles J. Ryan,
comparing the geological time scale of contemporary science with
the theosophical chronology; and the other by Blair A. Moffett,
summarizing recent scientific findings in various disciplines
which in many instances tend to substantiate the book's thesis.
The net effect of Man in Evolution will of course
vary with each reader, and will depend largely upon his background.
For those reared in the atmosphere of the current scientific explanations
of human origins or for those who have sought in traditional theology
the spiritual element they feel to be lacking in the former, the
theosophical history of man may present both a challenge and are
solution. Although it appears to be a radically new concept of
life, we are told that, like the heart of man, it is as old as
the living being we call earth.
More remarkable, however, is the fact that we are encouraged not
to be content even with these ideas. No matter how well they may
answer the questions we have of life, these are thoughts derived
from another's experience, not our own. Life itself, we are assured,
will be -- and indeed is -- the proof of their validity. By discriminating
search, first within ourselves, and then in nature, as well as
into the sacred and legendary lore of the world, we shall find
confirmed that all beings -- from elemental to galactic and beyond
-- are divinely-sprung creatures of infinite potential in the
process of becoming greater expressions of the divinity within.
Thus, in the very effort of search, each of us will be fulfilling,
in part, the evolutionary mandate that is ours.