Happiness is an attitude of mind. "Do you realize that happiness is truly an inside job? It frees the heart from hatred and the mind from worry....Happiness is something you decide ahead of time, so deposit a lot of happiness in your Memory Bank and make constant withdrawals," writes Eckhart Tolle (Sunday Times of India, November 21). If we carry unspoken resentment towards a person, we are contaminating ourselves as well as others around us. We are responsible for our inner state, which is contagious. He writes:

Your unhappiness is polluting not only your own inner being and those around you but also the collective human psyche of which you are an inseparable part. The pollution of the planet is only an outward reflection of an inner psychic pollution: millions of unconscious individuals not taking responsibility for their inner space....

Anything that is done with negative energy will become contaminated by it and in time give rise to more pain, more unhappiness. Further, any negative inner state is contagious: Unhappiness spreads more easily than a disease. Through the law of resonance, it triggers and feeds latent negativity in others, unless they are immune—that is, highly conscious.

Inner peace and contentment are the keys to happiness. It is useless to seek happiness by changing locations, as we carry with us our inner atmosphere. We invite unhappiness by our inflexibility and rigidity in thinking and behaviour. We must cultivate the capacity to revise our map of reality by incorporating new information.

We are connected on the inner plane and affecting others around us by our thoughts, feelings and actions. Mr. Judge explains how our negative inner state contaminates the minds of others. Thus:

The thought [having become an active entity by its association with an elemental] is attracted wherever there is similar vibration, or let us say, a suitable soil, just as a winged thistle-seed floats off and sows itself in this spot and not in that, in the soil of its natural selection. Thus the man of virtue, by admitting a material or sensual thought into his mind, even though he expel it, sends it forth to swell the evil impulses of the man of vice from whom he imagines himself separated by a wide gulf, and to whom he may have just given a fresh impulse to sin. Many men are like sponges, porous and bibulous, ready to suck up every element of the order preferred by their nature. We all have more or less of this quality: we attract what we love, and we may derive a greater strength from the vitality of thoughts infused from without than from those self-reproduced within us at a time when our nervous vitality is exhausted. It is a solemn thought, this, of our responsibility for the impulse of another. (Letters That Have Helped Me)

Mr. Crosbie suggests that our cheerfulness and depression are both contagious. What should be our inner attitude in the midst of adverse circumstances? He writes:

We must, then, assure ourselves that nothing can possibly overwhelm us. It is better to assume a cheerful attitude, to cultivate in one's self a feeling of confidence, and endeavour to impart it to our nearest. Our anxiety and inner fears, as well as our outward expression of them, may go a great way in depressing those who love us and whom we love. (The Friendly Philosopher, p. 10)

As for changing the external environment for inner peace, Mr. Crosbie writes:

True strength lies within and can only be aroused and used by ceasing to think that anything in particular of an external nature is necessary for us, in the ordinary acceptation of the word. (Ibid, p. 125)

At a conference hosted by the Aspen Institute in August 2004, several distinguished scientists participated in the discussion about Albert Einstein's impact on science, society, and culture, E. L. Doctorow, a great American novelist, described the nature of Einstein's creative genius. Writing in Discover (December 2004), Doctorow states: "Creative genius in both science and the arts is a heightened state of perception that transforms the very pulses of the air into revelations." Einstein's explanation of his genius, "In science...the work of the individual is so bound up with that of his scientific predecessors and contemporaries that it appears almost as an impersonal product of his generation," is more than an expression of modesty, says Doctorow. Einstein grew up in a culture where many scientists in Europe—Albert Michelson, Edward Morley, Hermann Helmholtz, etc.—had been indirectly hinting at the theory of relativity by questioning the concepts of absolute motion and absolute rest. These concepts were the building blocks and provided Einstein with the tools with which to think. The English poet and essayist Matthew Arnold says that the work of literary genius is the combination of the power of man and the power of the moment, i.e., of a certain intellectual and spiritual atmosphere.

Creativity is the result of a flash that occurs at impersonal moments when the personality and the psyche is "released from itself in the transcendental freedom of revelation." Henry James describes the literary genius as the novelist's ability "to guess the unseen from the seen." Doctorow writes:

Whether the creative mind feels it is dutifully transcribing a silent dictation, or that its work appears almost as an impersonal product of a generation, or that it is serving as a medium for the voice of God, what is always involved is a release from personality, liberation, an unshackling from the self.

A genius is not made but is born. It is the fruition of the Ego's efforts in past lives and cannot be explained in terms of heredity. The intuitive flash of an artist or a scientist is the result of a temporary conjunction of Manas with Buddhi and the receptivity of the brain cells helps to receive and manifest the impressions from within without. H.P.B. explains the phenomenon of genius thus:

What we call "the manifestations of genius" in a person, are only the more or less successful efforts of the EGO to assert itself on the outward plane of its objective form—the man of clay—in the matter-of-fact, daily life of the latter. The EGOS of a Newton, an Aeschylus, or a Shakespeare, are of the same essence and substance as the Egos of a yokel, an ignoramus, a fool, or even an idiot; and the self-assertion of their informing genii depends on the physiological and material construction of the physical man. No Ego differs from another Ego, in its primordial or original essence and nature. That which makes one mortal a great man and of another a vulgar, silly person, is, as said, the quality and make-up of the physical shell or casing, and the adequacy or inadequacy of brain and body to transmit and give expression to the light of the real, Inner man; and this aptness or inaptness is, in its turn, the result of Karma. (U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 13, pp. 2-3)

Theosophy affirms Einstein's view that the scientific work of an individual is the "impersonal product of his generation." The process of creativity is described in Through the Gates of Gold:

If the mind of man is turned upon any given subject with a sufficient concentration, he obtains illumination with regard to it sooner or later. The particular individual in whom the final illumination appears is called a genius, an inventor, one inspired; but he is only the crown of a great mental work created by unknown men about him, and receding back from him through long vistas of distance. Without them he would not have his material to deal with. Even the poet requires innumerable poetasters to feed upon. He is the essence of the poetic power of his time, and of the times before him. It is impossible to separate an individual of any species from his kin. (p. 12)

Some time back there was a debate in the United States: should the public schools teach the Darwinian theory of natural selection, or the antievolutionary theory known as Intelligent Design (ID), or both? The ID theory is the revival of an argument made by British philosopher William Paley in 1802, that unlike the stone, a watch appears purposely assembled and would not function without its precise combination of parts. Hence, "the watch must have a maker." Paley argued that along similar lines, the complexity of certain biological structures implies design. Darwin's answer to Paley's argument was that natural selection could create the appearance of design. Stephen Meyer and Jonathan Wells, defenders of ID theory from the Discovery Institute in Seattle, argue: "Biological life contains elements so complex—the mammalian blood-clotting mechanism, the bacterial flagellum—that they cannot be explained by natural selection." ID theory proposes that we must be products of an intelligent designer, but that "designer" is not God, writes Evan Ratliff (Wired, October 2004). George Gilder of Discovery Institute argues that the cell is not a simple lump of protoplasm as Darwin believed, but it is a complex information-processing machine. A human body contains 60 trillion such cells. Even mutations occurring in cells, at a very fast rate, could not have brought about such complex structure as a human being. He observes:

Intelligent design theory begins by recognizing that everywhere in nature, information is hierarchical and precedes its embodiment. The concept precedes the concrete. The contrary notion that the world of mind, including science itself, bubbled up randomly from a prebiotic brew has inspired all the reductionist futilities of the 20th century, from Marx's obtuse materialism to environmental weather panic to zero-sum Malthusian fears over population.

The evolutionary theory put forward by Theosophy admits of both intelligence and pattern. The whole Kosmos is guided, controlled and animated by an endless series of Hierarchies of sentient beings or conscious Divine Powers who are agents of Karmic and Cosmic Laws and they are "intelligent Beings who adjust and control evolution."

In the article, "Which is Vague, Theosophy or Science?," Mr. Judge quotes Haeckel, who explains that Darwin replaced a conscious creative force working in accordance with a designed plan, by a series of natural forces working blindly—without aim and without design. Mr. Judge describes this as a wild and fanciful theory. There is not a single proof in the present life, in any of the lower kingdoms, of blind forces beginning work without design and finally producing a beautiful design, visible in the smallest form we see.

H.P.B. explains that the Darwinian theory of natural selection is a pure myth when resorted to as an explanation of the origin of species. Natural selection is the phrase for describing the mode in which the survival of the fit and elimination of the unfit is brought about in the struggle for existence. All "useful variations" are perpetuated and progressively improved. However, natural selection cannot explain "what CAUSE—combined with other secondary causes—produces the 'variations' in the organisms themselves." (S.D., II, 648). "The true solution of the mystery is to be found in the impersonal Divine Wisdom, in its IDEATION—reflected through matter."(S.D., II, 299 fn.)

Modern man has forgotten the art of enjoying the beauty of nature and of living in harmony with it. To stay in tune with ourselves, we must stay in tune with Nature and its rhythm, writes Shammi Paranjape (The Times of India, December 17). Further:

Appreciation of the beauty of God's creation nourishes our inner spirit beacause Nature is a reflection of God and revering Nature is to revere the Creator: It was the belief that God is sarva-vyapi [omnipresent] and resides in every atom of creation that impelled our ancients to worship Nature and its five elements.

Ultimately, Nature is the best teacher. Sathya Sai Baba says:

Humanity is a limb of Nature and Nature is the limb of the divine...Imbibe wisdom from the sky, the clouds, the mountains, the rivers, the seasons, in fact from all beings and things. Education is no book affair. The universe is the university for those who care to watch and learn.

In The Key to Theosophy, H.P.B. explains the real meaning of Nature and Pantheism. She explains that Nature is not just visible physical nature. She writes:

When we speak of Deity and make it identical, hence coeval, with Nature, the eternal and uncreate nature is meant. Our DEITY is neither in a paradise, nor in a particular tree, building, or mountain; it is everywhere, in every atom of the visible as of the invisible Cosmos, in, over and around every invisible atom and divisible molecule; for IT is the mysterious power of involution and evolution. (p. 64)

To those who work in harmony with Nature, she lays bare all her hidden treasures. Says Light on the Path:

Inquire of the earth, the air, and the water, of the secrets they hold for you. The development of your inner senses will enable you to do this. (p. 13)

Well, let us say nothing is good and nothing is bad, but all is opportunity—the very best opportunity, because the soul knows what it needs for increasing its powers and keeping its energy. We sometimes do not recognize our opportunities, for they are occurring every moment of the time. Every single event is an opportunity—even the passing of people on the street and the thoughts and feelings they stir up in us; whatever we feel toward others, our relations with them, our touch with them, our family relations, our social, our business, and our national relations—all these are opportunities to be taken advantage of in every way; every one of them constitutes Karma. Our touch with Theosophy is a Karmic opportunity.

—Robert Crosbie