Theos-Talk Archives (March 1999 Message tt00039)

Dear Darren:

You used your cipher name to sign off and it took me a while to
realize it was you.

I hope the information helped.  Many years ago I worked that out
and found it interesting going, but never had any opportunity to
use it.

Why do you say you like ISIS better than the SD ?

I think it is because it was the introduction that HPB and the
Masters launched to awaken and focus the interest in the abnormal
which  was being derided by materialism in general.

Once that was done there was a bridge established for serious
study.

SD was designed to take the process a step further and show how
the information given in ISIS had roots in the far more ancient
records of the "perennial philosophy or Wisdom Religion."

I have always thought it was a deep disservice to provide some
kind of a filter between the "ORIGINAL PRESENTATION" of these
texts and the modern student who desired to study them.  I say
"filter" because no matter how well-intentioned the changes
introduced may be, they divert attention, perhaps, from what HPB
and the Masters desired to say.  Maybe those "errors" are left
there so that they would catch the eye of the reader and either
make him pay closer attention to what was being said, or serve to
divert him from something that was inimical to his level of
progress.  I hazard this as a possibility.

If one desires to make any progress into the study of occultism
then the principles set out in greater detail in the SD will be
needed.  They are basic and will be found used in the whole
scheme without any deviation.  I mean Karma, Unity of All in ALL,
Evolution of the imperishable Monads, Mind is Soul, and this is
Mankind, the 7 principles of the universe and man, the Rounds,
Globes, Races, etc... as Cycles in time, etc., etc.

To me it is not a question of "like" but a question of "should I
not investigate" and learn what I can ?

I was soon enough struck by the barrier that separates the
self-seeker from the one that learns so as to help others.
Knowledge, like wisdom has no fee, and cannot be patented.  If
that is attempted the real value of the information or process
diminishes as others who could improve on the original discovery
have no (or restricted) access to it.  It is the selfish person
who desires to make a personal profit out of what he learns who
delays real progress.

So if anyone desires to make progress in either esoteric or
occult matters they have to make an equal and even far more basic
ethical change in their outlook.  I think it is for this reason
that the First Object of the T S was BROTHERHOOD.  And both in
ISIS and the SD this is explained as based on the UNIVERSAL ONE
SPIRIT, of which we are all aspects, or "rays."

Dal.

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