Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) · 209 of 225 · tr. Nicholas Bessaraboff and Claude Bragdon
Chapter XXIII (part 11)
He does not come to believe merely; but he sees and knows that the cosmos, which to the self-conscious mind seems made up of dead matter, is in fact far otherwise—is in very truth a living presence.
He sees that in-stead of men being, as it were, patches of life scattered through an infinite sea of non-living substance, they are in reality specks of relative death in an infinite ocean of life.
He sees that the life which is in man is eternal, as all life is eternal, that the soul of man is as immortal as God is.
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A man learns infinitely much of the new.
Especially does he obtain such a conception of THE WHOLE—or at least of an immense WHOLE—as dwarfs all conception, imagination or speculation, such a conception as makes the old attempts to mentally grasp the universe and its meaning petty and even ridiculous.
This expansion of the intellect enormously increases the capacity both for learning and initiating.
______ The history of the development and appearance of cosmic consciousness in humanity is the same as that of the development of all the various psychic faculties.
These faculties appear first in certain exceptional individuals, then become more frequent, thereafter become susceptible of development in all, and at last begin to belong to all men from their birth.
Rare, exceptional, unique abilities appear in man in mature age, sometimes even in senility.
Becoming more common they manifest as "talents" in younger men.
And then they appear as "abilities" even in children.
At last they become the common property of all from their birth, and their absence is regarded as a monstrosity.
Such is the faculty of speech (i.e., the faculty of making concepts).
Probably in a distant past, at the beginning of the appearance of self-consciousness, this faculty was the gift of a few exceptional individuals and it began then to appear perhaps in senility.
After that it began to appear more frequently and to manifest itself earlier.
Probably there was a period p.
321 when speech was not a gift of all men just as are not now artistic talents, the musical sense, the sense of color and form.
Gradually it became possible for all and then inevitable and necessary, if some physical defect did not prevent its manifestation.
______ COMMENTS ON THE QUOTATIONS FROM DR.
BUCKE'S BOOK 1.
Though I am quoting Dr.
Bucke's opinion regarding three coming revolutions, let me note that I do not at all share his optimism regarding social life, which, as follows from what he says, can and must change by reason of material causes (the conquest of the air and social revolution).
The only possible ground for favorable changes in the outer life (provided such changes are generally possible) can only be changes in the inner life—i.e., those changes which Dr.
Bucke calls the psychical revolution.
This is the only thing that can create a better future for men.
All cultural conquests in the realm of the material are double-edged, may equally serve for good or for evil.
A change of consciousness can alone be a guarantee of the surcease of wilful misuses of the powers given by culture, and only thus will culture cease to be a "growth of barbarity." Democratic organization and the nominal rule of the majority guarantee nothing: on the contrary, even now, where they are realized—though only in name—they create without delay, and promise in future to create on a larger scale, violence toward the minority, the limitation of the individual, and the curtailment of freedom.
2.
Dr.
Bucke says that once human consciousness is attained, then further evolution is inevitable.
In this affirmation Dr.
Bucke makes a mistake common to all men who dogmatize about evolution.
The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.
The contrast between the 'relative death' of men and the 'infinite ocean of life' implies the embodied state is a limitation compared to the true nature of existence.
Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
The human condition is characterized as 'relative death' within life, framing the negative state as a lack or privation of the true living presence.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
[auto] The passage explicitly contrasts belief with direct seeing and knowing ('He does not come to believe merely; but he sees and knows'), emphasizing experiential realization of cosmic truth.
The doctrine of the universe as boundless and without center or circumference, populated by innumerable worlds — Bruno's rejection of the closed Aristotelian sphere; the divine and the cosmos as ontologically infinite.
The text describes the universe as an 'infinite ocean of life' and contrasts it with the limited view of dead matter, aligning with the doctrine of a boundless, living cosmos.
The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.
[auto] The author argues that favorable changes in outer life depend solely on 'changes in the inner life', locating the source of transformation within the individual.
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
[auto] The text describes the cosmos not as dead matter but as a 'living presence' and an 'infinite ocean of life', aligning with a dynamic, active divine reality.
Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
[auto] The text employs a paradoxical reversal of common perception, stating men are 'specks of relative death in an infinite ocean of life' rather than patches of life in non-living substance.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
Describing humans as 'specks of relative death' in an ocean of life implies a state of separation or deficiency from the fullness of existence.
A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.
[auto] The passage outlines an evolutionary development of psychic faculties from exceptional individuals to all humanity, describing a staged ascent of consciousness.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
[auto] The assertion that the soul is 'as immortal as God is' and humanity exists within an 'infinite ocean of life' suggests a fundamental oneness between the divine and human existence.