Theos-Talk Archives (September 1998 Message tt00212)

Daniel wrote:

> (3)  At the time when HPB writes about the mechanical arrangement of her
> SD MSS, she is not necessarily talking about the mechanical arrangement,
> physical layout, etc. of the finished product (the twp physical volumes
> published in 1888).  Is she ?

Not *necessarily*; yet effect follows cause.

Let us, maybe, continue to explore the question: WHY the "*mechanical*
arrangement"?

". . . .. the Lotus-seed contains within itself a perfect miniature of the
future plant, which typefies the fact that the spiritual prototypes of all
things exist in the immaterial world before those things become materialised
on Earth. (SD,I, 58).

What is/was the *cause*/seed of "The Secret Doctrine"? Whence/how did it
flower; to become "materialised on Earth"?

"But you must know and remember one thing: we but follow and *servilely copy
nature* in her works." (Letter VI, ML's).  Is "The Secret Doctrine" itself
a/the servile copy of nature (Masters = Nature)?  If so, what is its
"spiritual prototype"?  A'kasha? Dzyan? Stanzas *of* Dzyan? Sen-zar? Senzar?

Is not to "servilely copy" an exact  - shall we call it *mechanical*? -
process?  Can Lipika/Karma be subject to error/deviation?

Was HPB cutting/shifting/pasting at her own (personal) whim and fancy; or
was she obeying ORDERS?  Was she ORDERED to cut/shift/paste until miserable,
sick of it, for a reason?  Why could not the *final* MSS, once "mechanically
arranged", be those as presented to the printer for the plates?

"Yourself, some fine morning, while poring over its [Journal] crooked
columns with the sharpened wits of a well rested brain, peering into what
you now view as hazy, impalpable speculations, having only the consistency
of vapour, - yourself may, perchance, perceive in them the unexpected
solution of an old, blurred, forgotten "dream" of yours, which once
*recalled* will impress itself in an indelible image upon your *outer* from
your inner memory, to never fade out from it again.  All this is possible
and *may* happen; for our ways *are* the ways of "Madmen"  . .  ." (Letter
XLVIII, ML's).

Kindest regards,
Paul