COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS The Man-God Whom We Await by ALI NOMAD 1915 CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE NEW BIRTH; WHAT IT IS; INSTANCES DESCRIBED The religions and philosophies of the Orient and the Occident compared; their chief difference; The mistaken idea of death. Cosmic Consciousness not common in the Orient. Why? What the earnest disciple strives for. The Real and the unreal. Buddha's agonized yearnings; why he was moved by them with such irresistible power; the ultimate victory. The identity of The Absolute; The Oriental teachings; "The Spiritual Maxims of Brother Lawrence;" The seemingly miraculous power of the Oriental initiate; does he really "talk" to birds and animals? How they learn to know and read "the heart of the world." The inner temples throughout Japan. The strange experience of a Zen (a Holy Order of Japan), student-priest in attaining _mukti_. The key to Realization. An address by Manikyavasayar, one of the great Tamil saints of Southern India. The Hindu conception of Cosmic Consciousness. The Japanese idea of the state. The Buddhist "Life-saving" monasteries; how the priests extend their consciousness to immeasurable distances at will. The last incarnation of God in India. His marvelous insight. The urge of the spiritual yearning for the "Voice of the Mother." His twelve years of struggle. His final illumination. The unutterable bliss pictured in his own words. What the Persian mystics allusion to "union with the Beloved" signifies; its exoteric and its esoteric meaning. The "Way of the Gods." The chief difference between the message of Jesus and that of other holy men. The famous "Song of Solomon" and the different interpretations; a new version. A French writer's evident glimpses of the new birth. Man's relation to the universe. CHAPTER II. MAN'S RELATION TO GOD AND TO HIS FELLOW-MEN The great riddle and a new solution. The persistence of the ideal of Perfected Man; Has it any basis in history? The superlative faculty of spiritual sight as depicted by artists, painters and sculptors. Symbols of consciousness. The way in which the higher consciousness expresses itself. Certain peculiar traits which distinguish those destined to the influx. The abode of the gods; The conditioned promise of godhood in Man. What is Nirvana? The Vedantan idea. The Christian idea. Did Jesus teach the kingdom of God on earth? Is there a basis for belief in physical immortality? A new explanation. The perilous paths. Those who "will see God." Evolution of consciousness from prehistoric man to the highest developed beings. CHAPTER III AREAS OF CONSCIOUSNESS