Theos-Talk Archives (November 1998 Message tt00438)

SUBJECT:  "We build our philosophy upon experiment and deduction --
unless you choose to question and dispute this fact equally with all
others."

Master K.H. wrote to A.O. Hume the following:

"As you say this need 'make no difference between us' -- personally. But
it does make a world of difference if you propose to learn and offer me
to teach. For the life of me I cannot make out how I could ever impart
to you that which I know since the very A.B.C. of what I know, the rock
upon which the secrets of the occult universe, whether on this or that
side of the veil, are encrusted, is contradicted by you invariably and a
priori. My very dear Brother, either we know something or we do not know
anything. In the first case what is the use of your learning, since you
think you know better? In the second case why should you lose your time?
You say it matters nothing whether these laws are the expression of the
will of an intelligent conscious God, as you think, or constitute the
inevitable attributes of an unintelligent, unconscious "God," as I hold.
I say, it matters everything, and since you earnestly believe that these
fundamental questions (of spirit and matter -- of God or no God) "are
admittedly beyond both of us" -- in other words that neither I nor yet
our greatest adepts can know no more than you do, then what is there on
earth that I could teach you? You know that in order to enable you to
read you have first to learn your letters -- yet you want to know the
course of events before and after the Pralayas, of every event here on
this globe on the opening of a new cycle, namely a mystery imparted at
one of the last initiations, as Mr. Sinnett was told, -- for my letter
to him upon the Planetary Spirits was simply incidental -- brought out
by a question of his. And now you will say I am evading the direct
issue. I have discoursed upon collateral points, but have not explained
to you all you want to know and asked me to tell you. I "dodge" as I
always do. Pardon me for contradicting you, but it is nothing of the
kind. There are a thousand questions I will never be permitted to
answer, and it would be dodging were I to answer you otherwise than I
do. I tell you plainly you are unfit to learn, for your mind is too full
and there is not a corner vacant from whence a previous occupant would
not arise, to struggle with and drive away the newcomer. Therefore I do
not evade, I only give you time to reflect and deduce and first learn
well what was already given you before you seize on something else. The
world of force, is the world of Occultism and the only one whither the
highest initiate goes to probe the secrets of being. Hence no-one but
such an initiate can know anything of these secrets. Guided by his Guru
the chela first discovers this world, then its laws, then their
centrifugal evolutions into the world of matter. To become a perfect
adept takes him long years, but at last he becomes the master. The
hidden things have become patent, and mystery and miracle have fled from
his sight forever. He sees how to guide force in this direction or that
-- to produce desirable effects. The secret chemical, electric or odic
properties of plants, herbs, roots, minerals, animal tissue, are as
familiar to him as the feathers of your birds are to you. No change in
the etheric vibrations can escape him. He applies his knowledge, and
behold a miracle! And he who started with the repudiation of the very
idea that miracle is possible, is straightway classed as a miracle
worker and either worshipped by the fools as a demi-god or repudiated by
still greater fools as a charlatan! And to show you how exact a science
is occultism let me tell you that the means we avail ourselves of are
all laid down for us in a code as old as humanity to the minutest
detail, but everyone of us has to begin from the beginning, not from the
end. Our laws are as immutable as those of Nature, and they were known
to man an eternity before this strutting game cock, modern science, was
hatched. If I have not given you the modus operandi or begun by the
wrong end, I have at least shown you that we build our philosophy upon
experiment and deduction -- unless you choose to question and dispute
this fact equally with all others. Learn first our laws and educate your
perceptions, dear Brother. Control your involuntary powers and develop
in the right direction your will and you will become a teacher instead
of a learner. I would not refuse what I have a right to teach. Only I
had to study for fifteen years before I came to the doctrines of cycles
and had to learn simpler things at first."  Extracted from Mahatma
Letter #22 (as numbered in first 3 editions).