5. Knowledge might be divided into three categories:
- First, there is theoretical knowledge. This includes all knowledge of which man
is aware but which is accepted by him on the statements of other people, and by the
specialists in the various branches of knowledge. It is founded on authoritative
statements and has in it the element of trust in the writers and speakers, and in the
trained intelligences of the workers in any of the many and varied fields of thought. The
truths accepted as such have not been formulated or verified by the one who accepts them,
lacking as he does the necessary training and equipment. The dicta of science, the
theologies of religion, and the findings of the philosophers and thinkers everywhere color
the point of view and meet with a ready acquiescence from the untrained mind, and that is
the average mind.
- Then, secondly, we have discriminative knowledge, which has in it a selective
quality and which posits the intelligent appreciation and practical application of the
more specifically scientific method, and the utilization of test, the elimination of that
which cannot be proved, and the isolation of those factors which will bear investigation
and are in conformity with what is understood as law. The rational, argumentative,
scholastic, and concretizing mind is brought into play with the result that much that is
childish, impossible and unverifiable is rejected and a consequent clarifying of the
fields of thought results. This discriminating and scientific process has enabled man to
arrive at much truth in relation to the three worlds. The scientific method is, in
relation to the [15] mind of humanity, playing the same function as the occult method of
meditation (in its first two stages of concentration and prolonged concentration or
meditation) plays in relation to the individual. Through it right processes of thought are
engendered, non-essentials and incorrect formulations of truth are ultimately eliminated
or corrected, and the steady focusing of the attention either upon a seed thought, a
scientific problem, a philosophy or a world situation results in an ultimate clarifying
and the steady seeping in of right ideas and sound conclusions. The foremost thinkers in
any of the great schools of thought are simply exponents of occult meditation and the
brilliant discoveries of science, the correct interpretations of nature's laws, and the
formulations of correct conclusions whether in the fields of science, of economics, of
philosophy, psychology or elsewhere is but the registering by the mind (and subsequently
by the brain) of the eternal verities, and the indication that the race is beginning also
to bridge the gap between the objective and the subjective, between the world of form and
the world of ideas.
- This leads inevitably to the emergence of the third branch of knowledge, the
intuitive. The intuition is in reality only the appreciation by the mind of some
factor in creation, some law of manifestation and some aspect of truth, known by the soul,
emanating from the world of ideas, and being of the nature of those energies which produce
all that is known and seen. These truths are always present, and these laws are ever
active, but only as the mind is trained and developed, focused, and open-minded can they
be recognized, later understood, and finally adjusted to the needs and demands of the
cycle and time. Those who have thus trained the mind in the art of clear thinking, the
focusing of the attention, and consequent receptivity to truth have always been with us,
but hitherto have been few and far between. They [16] are the outstanding minds of the
ages. But now they are many and increasingly found. The minds of the race are in
process of training and many are hovering on the borders of a new knowledge. The intuition
which guides all advanced thinkers into the newer fields of learning is but the forerunner
of that omniscience which characterizes the soul. The truth about all things exists, and
we call it omniscience, infallibility, the "correct knowledge" of the Hindu
philosophy. When man grasps a fragment of it and absorbs it into the racial consciousness
we call it the formulation of a law, a discovery of one or other of nature's processes.
Hitherto this has been a slow and piecemeal undertaking. Later, and before so very long,
light will pour in, truth will be revealed and the race will enter upon its heritage - the
heritage of the soul.
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