Theos-Talk Archives (September 1998 Message tt00230)

Sept 17th 1998

Dear Paul:

Yes the physical book the S D,  as I see it, gather together the
scattered strands of information and ideas that had been
scattered through the publishing of ISIS UNVEILED.  The phrase
"the secret doctrine" was used several times in ISIS published in
1877.

Following that were the various questions and articles that were
written part of which appeared in THEOSOPHIST, and part were in
private letters to Sinnett, Hume, and other early theosophists in
India, London and America.

Then followed the publishing in America of THE PATH magazine
(beginning April 1886), and LUCIFER in London (beginning 1897
when HPB moved there).  Also in  LOTUS, followed by LA REVUE
THEOSOPHIQUE.

We have all these old issues of magazines to consult and most of
what HPB wrote
Has been reprinted in Blavatsky COLLECTED WRITINGS.

What does the SECRET DOCTRINE do that is different ?

As I read it it gathers all that material (including what was
said in MAHATMA LETTERS and HPB's LETTERS to A. P. SINNETT) and
arranges it so that all who desired to find out what Theosophy
taught (or a synopsis of the History of our Universe, Solar
System, World, and ourselves in our triple evolution).

Theosophy teaches history.  Where is it recorded ?  In the AKASA
say the Mahatmas.  Who does the recording?  The Lipika says HPB
and the Masters.  Do they err, you ask?  Why should they if they
are entrusted with a spiritual duty and proved they are fit to
execute it.  How is the AKASA to be accessed ?  As it is the
highest aspect of the "Astral Light" it can only be accessed by a
SPIRITUAL VISION which is UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS - it is
something that you and me here and now, can acquire if : - if we
purify ours as it is now, since ours is a link to the ONE.  How
do we purify this lower aspect of it that is presently entrusted
to us ?  By universalizing and impersonalizing our natures.  This
means adopting some of the rules of spiritual and moral
development that are set out for students of esotericism and
occultism.

Some of these are outlined by HPB in PRACTICAL OCCULTISM and
OCCULTISM  vs. THE OCCULT ARTS.  [ULT HPB Articles II, pp 91,
100) and
LODGES OF MAGIC,  MAHATMAS and CHELAS,  ARE "CHELAS" MEDIUMS ?,
and CHELAS AND LAY CHELAS.  [ ULT HPB Articles I, pp. 298, 293,
295, 308 ]

It is very probable that most students do not take these
seriously as they demand patience and a change in attitude and
life if adopted at all.  But if one desires to verify first hand
[ as suggested in SD I 272-3, Item 1 ] then we have to decide
whether the prize and the goal are of sufficient value so as to
devote our lives to that kind of research.  The choice is always
ours to make.

I believe that the VOICE OF THE SILENCE and the BHAGAVAD GITA
make those rules and objectives quite clear.  But, generally they
do not please the "Lower Self."

No one either encourages or discourages, and no one can profit by
the advance in spiritual discernment of an individual, except
himself.  No fees or Gurus are engaged in this endeavor, nor can
money or sacrifice (other than one's own time and effort) bring
any final results.  One only need read carefully the pages of
MAHATMA LETTERS to assure one's self of this fact.

In ISIS UNVEILED,  vol. 2, pp. 97 - 103 gives evidence of the
ancient "schools" and "colleges of Adepts."  These have always
existed, just as our great Academies and Universities exist to
hoard and conserve and restudy the records of the past, as
events, and as evidence of the Laws that constantly operate, so
as to enable us, by analogy, make some practical application
today, to ourselves and our situations.

The rules of study are common - the effort is always unitary and
depends on the choice of the individual.  Guidance is always
available and offered to those who show by their sincerity and
patience that they deserve such contact and assistance.

Theosophy and the works of HPB and the Masters seem evidence to
me that a special attempt has been made very recently to make
this idea and opportunity
More widely available.  Hence we have the Theosophical Movement,
and the literature from Them.  Do we take the opportunity or do
we divert ?

==================================================

The only reason why we would adjust terms between each other, and
why I constantly recommend using those employed by the Masters
and HPB is that they serve to bring precision to our talks, and
they do not bind any one of us to any particular system.

You ask what I use the phrase "take into account."  I use it
because some students are in the habit of thinking of HPB as a
very subordinate kind of intelligence - perhaps as a "chela" -
and in my esteem that would be a false position, and would seem
to place the one who holds such an idea arbitrarily on a par with
her or above her --  in some sense.  She is our teacher, so in
what way can be assume to know more than she does ?  Are you
familiar at all with the "Lahiri Letter" that was published
almost 2 years after HPB's death, and that spoke of corroborative
evidence concerning HPB's position in the Theosophical work -
also, of course, we have in MAHATMA LETTERS the assessment of the
Mahatmas concerning her worth.

Best wishes to you as always,

Dallas

> From: Bazzer
> Sent:	Wednesday, September 16, 1998 10:29 AM
> Subject: Re: RE: HPB on the arrangement of SD MSS

Dallas wrote:

Paul:

> 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 typifies the fact that the spiritual
> prototypes of all
> things exist in the immaterial world before those things become
> materialized
> on Earth. (SD,I, 58).
>
> What is/was the *cause*/seed of "The Secret Doctrine"?
Whence/how
> did it
> flower; to become "materialized on Earth"?


Dallas:

> Theosophy is NOT physical, but METAPHYSICAL, even though for us
> to grasp and understand, it needs a physical vehicle.

What is "physical" is "The Secret Doctrine", the Volumes I and
II, these
being the vehicle of that which is meta-physical (in its
seven-ness).

Some refer to the distinction "The Secret Doctrine" (physical
vehicle) and
"SD" (meta-physical); S (Secret) D (Doctrine) and S (tanzas) of D
(zyan)
etc.

> The difference between these two is so vast that volumes might
> have to be written to make all points absolutely clear.  As
> students strive to learn and work with what is given they find
> that their intuition (Buddhic vision) becomes progressively
> available.  The lower mind has to become "porous" to the
meanings
> of the Higher Mind - but first the lower mind has to apprehend
> the presence of this HIGHER MIND internally.  The key is the
> BROTHERHOOD, harmony and generosity to others that is always so
> insisted on.  A morality of sharing and not grabbing.

Well said.

Paul:

> "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?

Dallas:

> Seems like a confusion of terms and ideas which could be
cleared
> up by using the THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY - HPB under those terms.

Why a "confusion of terms"?  The *different* terms being an
attempt to leave
the question open, not to fix an 'answer'; to encourage the
enquirer to ask
which is which and why such different terms exist in SD.

Paul:

> Is not to "servilely copy" an exact  - shall we call it
> *mechanical*? -
> process?   [ ML 22 ]

Dallas:

>  I am using the original edition of ML, 1923/1948 reprint.
>
> Consider what is said on ML p. 180,  40-1,  65,  about the use
of
> occult powers by the Mahatmas.  P. 51, 4, 8, 157, -the duties
and
> work of the Mahatmas.  Their restrictions p. 20.  The destiny
> planned for the T S  p. 23, 20, 24-5.  The work of the FTS  p.
80
> top, 90-1, 144.  On force and Law  pp. 140-1, 160-176,

Thank you.

Paul:

> Can Lipika/Karma be subject to error/deviation?

Dallas:

> The Lipika as described in the S D are the recorders, the
> "scribes" who record in the imperishable Akasa all that happens

Paul:

Can they (it?) err?

SD, I, 103:

The Lipi-ka, from the word lipi, "writing," means literally the
"Scribes."* Mystically, these Divine Beings are connected with
Karma, the
Law of Retribution, for they are the Recorders or Annalists who
impress on
the (to us) invisible tablets of the Astral Light, "the great
picture-gallery of eternity" -a faithful record of every act, and
even
thought, of man, of all that was, is, or ever will be, in the
phenomenal
Universe.".

SD, I, 294 (fn):

". . . the *Lipika* and the four Maharajas," the agents of Karma.

Paul:

> 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?

Dallas:

> Perhaps she was and perhaps she was not.

Sure.  It's an open question.

>  You have to also take
> into account that HPB to be and work as she did was also an
> Adept - working through the personality we know of as Helena.
P.
> Blavatsky.  The two are different, and she used the designation
> HPB to indicate this.  Few seem to have grasped this, But then,
> also, few seem to have studied the 7-fold nature of the
Universe
> and Man and grasped what the constitution of an Adept is in
> reality.

What does "also take into account" refer to?  That being an Adept
might
affect how writing is done through the vehicle "H P Blavatsky"?
Please
explain. Thanks.

> "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).

Dallas:

> And if this was said to Sinnett, does it not also apply to us ?

Most certainly (if we are attentive/awake/selfless enough?).

> The MAHATMA LETTERS is full of great and important suggestions.
> The SECRET DOCTRINE makes them clear and expands them.

Best wishes,
Paul.