Theos-Talk Archives (December 1999 Message tt00016)

Dec 17th 1999

Dear Friends:

May I offer a few of HPB's thoughts and words to you?


HPB was answering a correspondent in Oct. 1889:


"...the undersigned [HPB] accepts for her views and walk in life
no authority dead or living, no system of philosophy or religion
but one--namely, the esoteric teachings of ethics and philosophy
of those she calls "MASTERS"...Nothing of that which is conducive
to help man, collectively or individually to live--not
"happily"--but less "unhappily" in this world, ought to be
indifferent to the Theosophist-Occultist...his first duty is to
be ever ready to help if he can, without stopping to
philosophize...there may be those who are starving for truth in
every department of the science of nature, and who consequently
are yearning to learn the esoteric views about "cosmology, the
evolution of man and of the Universe."	HPB -  WHAT SHALL WE DO
FOR OUR FELLOW MEN?  October 1889
	HPB Articles I, pp. 459-60.



"...these pages are not written for the masses...They are
addressed only to those who are ready to understand them, to
those who suffer, to those who are thirsty and hungry for any
reality in this world of shifting shadows...No one is so busy or
so poor that he cannot be inspired by a noble ideal to follow.
Why hesitate to blaze a trail towards that ideal through all
obstacles, all hindrances, all the  daily considerations of
social life, and to advance boldly until it is reached?  Ah!
Those who would make this effort would soon find that the "narrow
gate" and "the thorny path" lead to spacious valleys with
unlimited horizons, to a state without death, for one rebecomes a
God!

It is true that the first requisites for getting there are
absolute unselfishness and unlimited devotion to the interests of
others, and complete indifference as to the world and its
opinions.  To take the first step on this ideal path requires a
perfectly pure motive;  no frivolous thought must be allowed to
divert our eyes from the goal;  no hesitation, no doubt must
fetter our feet.

Yet, there are men and women perfectly capable of all this, and
whose only desire is to live under the aegis of their Divine
Nature.  Let these...have the courage to live this life and not
to hide it from the sight of others!  No one's opinion could ever
be above the rulings of our own conscience, so let that
conscience, arrived at its highest development, be our guide in
all our common daily tasks!

As to our inner life, let us concentrate all our attention on our
chosen Ideal, and let us ever look "beyond" without ever casting
a glance at the mud at our feet...Those capable of such an effort
are true Theosophists..."   HPB -- THE NEW CYCLE March 1889.
HPB Articles I, pp. 407-8



"I speak "with absolute certainty" only so far as my own personal
belief is concerned.  Those who have not the same warrant for
their belief as I have, would be very credulous and foolish to
accept it on blind faith.  Nor does the writer believe...in any
"authority" ...I need not rely...on my intuition, as there is no
infallible intuition.  But 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."
	HPB -- [Idem.] p. 461	[see SD I 272-3]


"The Western disciples and followers of the Lord Buddha's ethics
lay very little stress on the dead letter (and often fanciful)
translations of Buddhist "Sutras" by European Orientalists.  From
such scholars as Messers. Max Muller and Weber, down to the last
amateur Orientalist who dabbles in Buddhism disfigured by
translation and proudly boasts of his knowledge, no Sanskrit or
Pali scholar has so far understood correctly that which is
taught;  witness Monier Williams' fallacious assumption that
Buddha never taught anything "esoteric!" ...Nagarjuna laid it
down, as a rule that "every Buddha has both a revealed and a
mystic doctrine."  The :exoteric is for the multitudes and new
disciples"...Edkins...says in his "Chinese Buddhism": ..."The
esoteric was for the Bodhisattvas, and advanced pupils such as
Kashiapa.  It is not communicated in the form of definite
language, and could not, therefore, be transmitted by Anadas as
definite doctrine among the Sutras. Yet, it is virtually
contained in the Sutras...the "Sutra of the Lotus of the good
Law"...is regarded as containing the cream of the revealed
doctrine, is to be viewed as a sort of original document "of the
esoteric teachings, while it is in its form exoteric."  -- HPB --
WORLD IMPROVEMENT, July 1889
	HPB Articles I pp. 448-9,  Footnote by HPB


Best wishes for the Sun's Day and a new year.

Dallas



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