The First Truth: Life	MEMORY VERSE:   “We have come in search of Truth, Trying with Theosophy Door by door of mystery, Learning from Theosophy. We are reaching through all laws To the garment hem of Cause, THAT, the endless, unbegun, The Unnamable, the One Light of all our light the Source, Life of life, and Force of force.”

Truth is simple. Truth declares itself. When one says that

a straight line is the shortest distance between two points,

we know it is so. Is there any way to argue about it? There is only one

Truth about everything----about the universe and about ourselves. No

matter how  many and differing are the explanations of truth people

give, the Truth remains ever the same, everlasting, unchanging. But, in

Theosophy, the One Truth has three “faces,” or “angles,” or “aspects.”

We call them THE THREE TRUTHS. Perhaps, our fathers and mothers

call them the “Three Fundamentals.”

But they are made of the very same ideas! However great may seem to

us now the mystery of many things, a real understanding of The Three

Truths will bring an understanding of them, and of all things else.

   Many names we have for THE FIRST TRUTH, yet not all names

together can describe it. We could name what It is forever, and still not

ld be more to count? So, the words that describe It the least are the best

words for our minds. When we say, THAT is the cause and origin of the

universe and of ourselves, we can make no picture of a thing or person

onsciousness (this last so-very-long word is one we must think about

much!), we can’t see any thing in our minds to compare those words with.

But, we can think of them together as One, and when we hear one of the

words, the others spring up with it in our minds.

   Now, if all things come from Life, Spirit, Consciousness, so did we!

But, we aren’t going to think, for all that, “my spirit,” “my consciousness,”

“my life.” Wouldn’t it be foolish for a sunbeam out on the Pacific Ocean

to say “my Sun”? Because everywhere else in the universe would be

sunbeams just as much a part of the Sun as that sunbeam. All the sun

beams come from the Sun; there would be no sunbeams without the Sun.

So, that sunbeam on the Pacific Ocean would be wiser to say joyfully to

his neighbor sunbeam on the next wave, “You, too, are from the Sun. On

the Atlantic Ocean are still more

brother sun beams. Away off in the city

streets, our brothers shine.”

   All men are our brothers, because the

Life in us is the same Life as in them.

All beasts and birds and reptiles and

plants and stones are our brothers, because they, too, are alive.
   You didn’t think stones are alive? Well, they are. Have you never seen

the spark flash from a stone, when struck by a horse’s hoof? Stones don’t

move about as we do; they are not self-moving; but, inside the stone is a

constant motion of whirling atoms. There wouldn’t be that motion

without Life. The same kind of inside motion is going on in that table

before your eyes, in the very walls of the room. Because we are very still

when we are asleep, we must not think no motion is within our bodies.

The blood is circulating; the lungs are breathing, digestion is going on—

not to mention other kinds of motion of our consciousness! Bars of iron

and of steel seem not to be “alive,” but, how can we explain, if life is not

there, that machines over-used are

said to be “tired,” and if allowed to rest

long enough, will recover their former

strength and efficiency?

   Had you realized that plants have

blood and nerves as we have? No, not the same kind of nerves and blood,

of course, but Plants Have a kind of blood (What do we call it?) that takes

nourishment as ours does, and a kind of nerves that feel hurt or kindness

as ours do. A great Hindu scientist, Sir Chundra Bhose, made

many experiments to prove this. So, we might ask ourselves how it is

that flowers will grow for one person, and for another will wither away

and die, though, apparently, both persons give the same care to the

plants. You have wondered sometimes if dogs and horses and cats think,

haven’t you? Yes, they do in their way. But, it is not as we think. When a

dog sees the stick its master has beaten it with the day before, he

cringes; but, when the stick is out of sight, there is no thinking about the

stick, nor what his master did with it. Some trainers of dogs have taught

them how to say words. But, when the trainer is out of the dog’s sight,

the dog does not heed the directions of another trying to get it to say

words. So, we have taught our hands to do many things, automatically;

but, if we are asleep—not “there”—the hands are still. When we are

“there” again, and will to have the hands do the task, then the hands

“remember.” We can say, “I think that dog is thinking.” But the dog does

not think, “That is a boy, and I am a dog. That boy thinks in another

way than I think.” The dog sees many things, but it does not to itself

think how one thing differs from another.

   The real seeing is not with the eyes, but with the mind; it is within

ourselves. When we shut our eyes and see nothing but blackness, we are

there, knowing the eyes do not see the trees and flowers and houses

which they saw but a moment ago. And then, we can remember them all,

seeing them in our mind. We can also see an idea; but, this kind of

seeing we may call “perceiving.” The dog seems to know a great deal.

But, it does not know that it knows. It sees a great deal with its physical

eyes, but it does not see with its mind. Animals It sees motions; it does

not see ideas. Its “perceiving” is for the most part in feelings of hunger,

thirst, heat and cold.

  In the dog is the same Life as in ourselves. It sees by

Light as we do, though only by certain kinds of light. It

is conscious, but is not Self-conscious.

The dog has not the kind of brain into

which the Light of mind can shine. It

can not say nor feel “I”. It can not

remember what happened last week; it

can not plan something to be done next week. An animal caught by its

leg in a trap will gnaw off its leg to get away. Then, it is not conscious of

even its bodily self. But, even a tiny baby is conscious of its body-self;

the babe knows when it is in discomfort and cries for attention. Very

early it examines its fingers and toes; the babe really sees them. We

boys and girls and men and women can see and understand all other

kinds of beings, as well as ourselves. We can see and know that all are

our brothers, because their life comes from the same One Life, the same

One Spirit, as ours does. We are Self-conscious Knowers, Perceivers,

Thinkers.

   Have you ever noticed that it is not till about three that baby sister or

brother begins to say “I”? Up to then, they speak of them selves as others

call them—perhaps, “Baby” or “Bobbie” or “Jeannie.” But, when they say

“I,” we know a real Person is with us. Have you ever wondered

about that strange being— “I”? And did you think it was your

body, and its clothes? Because it couldn’t be, or it would be a

different “I” every time you put on an other suit. Or, did you think it was

your feelings? It certainly couldn’t be your feelings, for they change so

often, and that strange “I” never changes at all. All the time, that “I”

was not your body, nor your feelings, but the One who wondered, who did

the thinking; the One you could not see nor hear nor touch.

   We never think we are someone else, do we? Some people have received

such injuries to their brain that they forgot even their names, where

they lived, and all their family. And yet, they would ask, “Who am I?”

and, when they got well, would make a new life for themselves, taking on

a new name. The “I,” the Real Self, was there, however much was

forgotten, and with It, the power to create a new world for itself. Have

you ever been so ill as to say, when you were asked a question, “I don’t

know. I can not think.” The “I” must be somewhere even beyond the

mind; It is, however little we think or know: That “I” can not be seen; It

is the Seer. It has no color, shape nor size; It has no appearance so ever.

But, it is the Real of us! It never changes. It is THAT without which

would be no life, no beings anywhere, though It can not be seen nor

touched. We can only say, “IT is, every where—always.”