To the first question—“how may we effectually resist the force of bad influence of Locality operating on us from the Astral Plane?”—one way is to search for Spiritual Truth. That truth is “in the air.” It is conveyed to us by Thoughts. But a thought “from the air” is as a seed. A mustard seed planted in ice will not fructify; a spiritual thought-seed falling upon a “Human Soul” which is bound and tied to Earth by its “Animal Soul” will not fructify. The mustard seed must fall into ground properly prepared for its reception, ere by culture it can sprout, grow, and bear fruit. And so, too, must the soil of the “Human Soul,” be made ready in order that it shall afford an appropriate bed upon which the ever-present Spiritual thought-seed shall alight. On such a prepared soil it will surely fall; as surely as the magnetic needle points to its pole, and once there, by our own culture it may grow into “an everlasting tree of Holiness.”
How is that bed prepared? How is it that we become ready to receive Spiritual Truth? By right thought, right action, right speech and right meditation. It lies within our inner selves whether we shall advance in Spiritual knowledge and life, and nowhere else; it must be our purpose, our business. No dictum of the Schools can bring it about. No printed book on esoteric wisdom or on ethics, or on the multitudinous religions of man can give it to us;—belonging to the Theosophical Society does not necessarily lead us into Spiritual life. These, to the hungry “Human Soul,” may be of immense importance, but if the “Human Soul”—principle 5, be not first prepared, if we do not look upward and build upward, all these means,—Spiritual thoughts that are “in the air,” wise books, this society of yours—they are all to such a spiritually-desert soul, but as of old—“pearls before swine”—hidden light—a force shut out by ourselves from acting within us.
When we are engaged in right searching for Spiritual Truth, bad forces from the Astral Plane are inoperative upon us: Thus may we effectually resist the force of bad influence of Locality operating on ourselves from the Astral Plane.
The second question we are considering is, “How may we do something, otherwise than by precept and example, towards overcoming the evil Karma which may be affecting others?”
Surely, again, it is by right thought, and right action, speech and meditation. For, not only do they prepare the way for the reception of Spiritual Truths, but the ego, so thinking, acting, speaking and meditating, is, while so employed, disseminating Spiritual light on all sides through the Astral Plane. He is throwing out Spiritual truth-seed which is reaching far and near. Wherever a “Human Soul” is in need of it, and hungering for it, it will surely fall; for there the soil is ready for its reception. These right thoughts have gone into “the air,” and are certain to strike in somewhere for good.
Thus by right thought we may do something otherwise than by precept and example, towards obliterating the evil Karma of locality which is affecting others.
Regarding the third question; it seems to me that we all know some particular individuals to whose high needs we can minister by direct intention through the power of thought.
Who, that observes and reflects, cannot gather from his own experience the fact that thought can fly to a person at a distance? How common to say “I was thinking of one and he appeared.” It is not an uncommon experience for one to unexpectedly entertain serious, at any rate marked thoughts about another, and subsequently to find that the other was similarly occupied in mind with him at the same time. It is odd if there be not some among you who know that thought messages have been sent, received and acted on by the object-person when the receiver was in an abnormal condition to the sender. By these and other illustrations which doubtless will occur to you, we know that it is within the province of cause and effect that thought has power to operate on others at a distance by direct intention of the sender, by mental action alone.
Believing in the reality of thought—knowing the reality of thought—in its power to shield us from evil; in its power to affect others unknown to us; in our power to project it to special individuals, what opportunities it affords us for conferring high good.
But in order to do positive good to another by this direct thought unexpressed by speech or action, some certain conditions are necessary, which we may consider as milestones that shall indicate the progress of our own ascending path from materiality to spirituality. To be a power by thought influence,—(I do not refer now to thought sent by will power to a particular “sensitive” who is in subjective state to the sender—which condition is on a lower plane than that which we are now considering,) presupposes intensity of love born of and nurtured by Spirituality for those whose high good we thus seek to establish. There must first be born in us an enthusiasm for giving high and positive good to another unconciously enthusiasm, as is our enthusiasm, shall be the energy of our missive-thought; and according to the energy of that thought will be its effect upon the object to which it is sent,—the more powerfully intense the thought the deeper it will penetrate;—the longer its effects will endure.