Theos-Talk Archives (November 1999 Message tt00047)

Nov 16th 1999

As we approach November 17th -- a date which commemorates the
public Inauguration (124 years ago) of the Theosophical Society
in New York city, Nov. 17th 1875.  These Ideas and quotations are
offered for reflection and consideration.



"Theosophy is the sub-stratum and basis of all the
world-religions and philosophies, taught and practised by a few
elect ever since man became a thinking being."  T. Glossary
"THEOSOPHIA"


"The "WISDOM RELIGION" was ever one, and being the last word of
possible human knowledge , was, therefore, carefully preserved.
It preceded by long ages the Alexandrian Theosophists, reached
the modern, and will survive every other religion and
philosophy."	KEY TO THEOSOPHY, pp. 7-8


"Proofs of its diffusion, authentic records of its history, a
complete chain of documents, showing its character and presence
in every land, together with the teachings of all its great
Adepts, exist to this day in the secret crypts of libraries
belonging to the Occult Fraternity."   	SD I xxxiv


"The members of several esoteric schools...claim to have in their
possession the sum total of sacred and philosophical works in MSS
and type:  all the works in fact, that have ever been written ,
in whatever language or characters, down to the alphabet of
Cadmus and the Devanagri."  	SD  I  xxiii


"The work now submitted to public judgment is the fruit of a
somewhat intimate acquaintance with Eastern adepts and study of
their science."	ISIS UNVEILED,  Vol. I, p. v


"The writer [H.P.B.] loves them [the Ancients] and therefore
believes in the ancients, and the modern heirs to their Wisdom.
And believing in both, she now transmits that which she has
received and learnt herself to all those who will accept it."
SECRET DOCTRINE  I xxxvii


"What I do believe in is (1)  the unbroken oral teachings
revealed by living 'divine' men during the infancy of mankind to
the elect among men;  (2)  that it has reached us 'unaltered;'
and, (3)  that the MASTERS are thoroughly versed in the science
based on such uninterrupted teaching."
LUCIFER, October 1889, p. 157.


"The SECRET DOCTRINE is not a treatise or a series of vague
theories, but contains all that can be given out to the world in
this century."	SECRET DOCTRINE  Vol. I xxxviii


"No Master of Wisdom from the East will himself appear or send
anyone to Europe or America...until 1975."		"Preliminary
Memorandum"  Quoted in THEOSOPHY, Vol. 1, p. 455



AUTHORSHIP OF SECRET DOCTRINE

A good deal has been said about the writing of Isis Unveiled, and
later of the Secret Doctrine, both by H. P. Blavatsky. A writer
in the spiritualistic journals took great pains to show how many
books the first work seems to quote from, and the conclusion to
be arrived at after reading his diatribes is that H.P.B. had an
enormous library at her disposal, and of course in her house, for
she never went out, or that she had agents at great expense
copying books, or, lastly, that by some process or power not
known to the world was able to read books at a distance, as, for
instance, in the Vatican at Rome and the British Museum. The last
is the fact. She lived in a small flat when writing the first
book and had very few works on hand, all she had being of the
ordinary common sort.

She herself very often told how she gained her information as to
modern books. No secret was made of it, for those who were with
her saw day after day that she could gaze with ease into the
astral light and glean whatever she wanted. But in the early days
she did not say precisely to the public that she was in fact
helped in that work by the Masters, who gave from time to time
certain facts she could not get otherwise.

The Secret Doctrine, however, makes no disguise of the real help,
and she asserts, as also many of us believe, that the Masters had
a hand in that great production. The letters sent to Mr. Sinnett
formed the ground for Esoteric Buddhism, as was intended, but as
time went on it was seen that some more of the veil had to be
lifted and certain misconceptions cleared up; hence the Secret
Doctrine was written, and mostly by the Masters themselves,
except that she did the arranging of it.

For some time it was too much the custom of those who had
received at the hands of H.P.B. words and letters from her
Masters to please themselves with the imagination that she was no
more in touch with the original fount, and that, forsooth, these
people could decide for themselves what was from her brain and
what from the Masters.

But it is now time to give out a certificate given when the
Secret Doctrine was being written, a certificate signed by the
Masters who have given out all that is new in our theosophical
books. It was sent to one who had then a few doubts, and at the
same time copies were given from the same source to others for
use in the future, which is now.

The first certificate runs thus:

	"I wonder if this note of mine is worthy of occupying a select
spot with the documents reproduced, and which of the
peculiarities of the "Blavatskian" style of writing it will be
found to most resemble? The present is simply to satisfy the
Doctor [Hubbe-Schleiden] that "the more proof given the less
believed." Let him take my advice and not make these two
documents public. It is for his own satisfaction the undersigned
is happy to assure him that the Secret Doctrine, when ready, will
be the triple production of [here are the names of one of the
Masters and of H.P.B.] and _______ most humble servant, [signed
by the other.] "

On the back of this was the following, signed by the Master who
is mentioned in the above:

	"If this can be of any use or help to _____, though I doubt it,
I, the humble undersigned Faquir, certify that the Secret
Doctrine is dictated to [name of H.P.B.], partly by myself and
partly by my brother ______. "

A year after this, certain doubts having arisen in the minds of
individuals, another letter from one of the signers of the
foregoing was sent and reads as follows.

	"As the prophecy in it has come true, it is now the time to
publish it for the benefit of those who know something of how to
take and understand such letters. For the outside it will all be
so much nonsense.

	The certificate given last year saying the Secret Doctrine would
be when finished the triple production of [H.P.B.'s name],
________, and myself was and is correct, although some have
doubted not only the facts given in it but also the authenticity
of the message in which it was contained. Copy this and also keep
the copy of the aforesaid certificate. You will find them both of
use on the day when you shall, as will happen without your
asking, receive from the hands of the very person to whom the
certificate was given, the original for the purpose of allowing
you to copy it; and then you can verify the correctness of this
presently forwarded copy. And it may then be well to indicate to
those wishing to know what portions in the Secret Doctrine have
been copied by the pen of [H.P.B.'s name] into its pages, though
without quotation marks, from my own manuscript and perhaps from
______, though the last is more difficult from the rarity of his
known writing and greater ignorance of his style. All this and
more will be found necessary as time goes on, but for which you
are well qualified to wait."

ONE OF THE STAFF  [W. Q. Judge]  --  PATH, April, 1893,  Vol. 8,
p. 1.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------


"No Being is guiding this evolution.  It is all beings.  No Being
is sending it in this, that, or other direction, nor turning
aside the results of our individual wrong doings.  All is caused
within ourselves, and the reaction depends upon ourselves.  It is
true that all effects come to us through other beings, but those
effects are from causes that we set in motion.  So, if we have
enemies, they are our own enemies.  If we have friends, they are
our own friends.  "Beings," of a high degree are not doing for
us, what we alone can do for ourselves.  The law does not exist
outside of man.  He is his own law.  He acts from within.  We
exist among many, many different kinds of beings, but it is our
attitude towards them that determines the reaction from them.
The making of the coming race, then, is within our own hands, and
nowhere else."    -- R.C.


Offered by

Dallas TenBroeck
dalval@nwc.net 


-- THEOSOPHY WORLD -- Theosophical Talk -- theos-talk@theosophy.com

Letters to the Editor, and discussion of theosophical ideas and
teachings. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message consisting of
"subscribe" or "unsubscribe" to theos-talk-request@theosophy.com.