Theos-Talk Archives (February 2000 Message tt00013)

Feb 6th 2000

Dear Mauri:

Your comments and queries on Adepts (seen below) seem to show
that you might like to read some words that earlier students of
Theosophy had to offer on this important subject.  There are many
concepts to consider.  Let me introduce them here:

The word "Mahatma" or "great Soul" is often used.  One may wonder
how a "soul" becomes great:

Mr. Judge observes:  "A visitor from one of the other planets of
the solar system who might learn the term Mahatma after arriving
here would certainly suppose that the etymology of the word
undoubtedly inspired the believers in Mahatmas with the devotion,
fearlessness, hope, and energy which such an ideal should arouse
in those who have the welfare of the human race at heart...The
whole sweep, meaning, and possibility of evolution are contained
in the word Mahatma.  Maha is "great," Atma is "soul," and both
compounded into one mean those great souls who have triumphed
before us not because they are made of different stuff and are of
some strange family, but just because they are of the human race.

	Reincarnation, karma, the sevenfold division, retribution,
reward, struggle, failure, success, illumination, power, and a
vast embracing love for man, all these lie in that single word.

	The soul emerges from the unknown, begins to work in and with
matter, is reborn again and again, makes karma, develops the 6
vehicles for itself, meets retribution for sin and punishment for
mistake, grows strong by suffering, succeeds in bursting through
the gloom, is enlightened by true illumination, grasps power,
retains charity, expands with love for orphaned humanity, and
thenceforth helps all others who remain in darkness until all may
be raised up to the place with the "Father in Heaven" who is the
Higher Self."		WQJ -- ARTICLES. Vol. II, p. 39-40


There is in Theosophy the concept that each "soul" is a Monad.
And the Monad is a unit of Spirit and Matter (or ATMA and BUDDHI
eternally conjoined to Manas -- the "mind --or, "soul.").  There
is also the concept that in each human being there is an aspect
of the Universal Spirit, which, being everywhere, is closest to
him in his own innermost Nature -- it is his "secret Self."
Also, it has been called the  Spiritual Star of the Soul.  Here
is a quotation that supports this:    "...every class of adept
has its own bond of spiritual communion...by bringing oneself
within the influence of the Spiritual light which radiates from
one's own Logos... such communion is only possible between
persons whose souls derive their life and sustenance from the
same divine RAY, and that, as seven distinct rays radiate from
the 'Central Spiritual Sun,' all adepts and Dhyan Chohans are
divisible into seven classes, each of which is guided,
controlled, and overshadowed by one of the seven forms or
manifestations of the divine Wisdom."  S Row quoted by HPB,  SD I
574.

It is therefore considered that there is in the Universe, One
Source:  and 7 Aspects, or the  Primary Rays of that Self that
serve as the basis for all manifestation. This is metaphysics,
but the concept and philosophical base is ancient.  Consider
this, even though it is very technically expressed:  "The divine,
purely Adi-Buddhic [PRIMORDIAL and UNIVERSAL] monad manifests as
the universal Buddhi (the Mahabuddhi or Mahat [UNIVERSAL
MIND]...)  the spiritual omniscient and omnipotent root of divine
intelligence, the highest anima mundi or the Logos.  This
descends "like a flame spreading from the eternal Fire,
immovable...ever the same to the end" of the cycle of existence,
and becomes universal life on the Mundane Plane.  From this Plane
(the logoi of Life);  then the Dhyani-Buddhas of contemplation;
the concrete forms of their formless Fathers -- the Seven Sons of
Light, still themselves, ... "Thou art 'THAT' -- Brahm."  It is
from these Dhyani-Buddhas that emanate their chhayas (Shadows)
the Bodhisattvas, and of the terrestrial Buddhas, and finally of
men.  The "Seven Sons of Light" are also called "Stars."

The Secret Doctrine then adds concerning each of us, humans:

"The star under which a human Entity is born, says the Occult
teaching, will remain for ever its star, throughout the whole
cycle of its incarnations in one Manvantara.  But this is not his
astrological star.  The latter is concerned and connected with
the personality, the former with the INDIVIDUALITY.  The "Angel"
of that Star, or the Dhyani-Buddha will be either the guiding or
simply the presiding "Angel," so to say, in every new rebirth of
the monad, which is part of its own essence. though his vehicle,
man, may remain for ever ignorant of this fact.  The adepts have
each their Dhyani-Buddha, their elder "twin Soul," and they know
it, calling it "Father-Soul," and "Father-Fire." ...  The Logos,
or both the unmanifested and the manifest-ed WORD, is called by
the Hindus, Iswara...the highest conscious-ness in  nature..
There are seven chief groups of such Dhyan Chohans, which groups
will be found and recognized in every religion, for they are the
primeval SEVEN Rays.  Humanity...is divided into seven distinct
groups and their sub-divisions, mental, spiritual, and physical *
[ Fn.:-- Hence the 7 chief planets, the spheres of the indwelling
7 spirits, under each of which is born one of the human groups
which is guided and influenced thereby.  There are only 7 planets
(specially connected with earth), and 12 houses, but the possible
combinations of their aspects are countless. ... as infinite as
the spiritual, psychic, mental, and physical capacities in the
numberless varieties-ties of the genus homo, each of which...is
born under on of the 7 planets and one of the said countless
planetary combinations.  See Theosophist for August l886]"	S. D.
VOL. I, p. 572-3

It is also claimed that it is possible to attune our minds to the
Seven Chords represented above:

"... Whenever you are able to attune your consciousness to any of
the seven chords of 'Universal Consciousness,' those chords that
run along the sounding-board of Kosmos, vibrating from one
Eternity to another;  when you have studied thoroughly 'the music
of the Spheres," then only will you become quite free to share
your knowledge with those with whom it is safe to do so... Do not
give out the great Truths that are the inheritance of the future
Races, to our present generation.  Do not attempt to unveil the
secret of being and non-being to those unable to see the hidden
meaning of Apollo's HEPTACHORD--the lyre of the radiant god, in
each of the seven strings of which dwelleth the Spirit, Soul and
Astral body of the Kosmos, whose shell only has now fallen into
the hands of Modern Science..."	 S D I 167

Thus you will find that degrees of progress are taken for granted
as man's knowledge and capacity to live productively in the
external world, he may in time graduate to the higher levels of
responsibility which are designated in past systems, for
instance, as :   ARAHAT  (Sk.)  Also...Arhat, Arhan, Rahat, etc.,
"the worthy one," lit. "deserving divine honors"...first given to
the Jain and subsequently to the Buddhist holy men initiated into
the esoteric mysteries.  The Arhat is one who has entered the
best and highest path, and is thus emancipated from re-berth."
(Theos. GLOS.  28)

And the term   ALAYA (Sk.)  The Universal Soul (See SD I 47,
GLOS.  14 ought to be grasped:
"Alaya is literally the "Soul of the World" or Anima Mundi, the
"Over-Soul" of Emerson, and according to esoteric teaching it
changes periodically its nature.  Alaya though eternal and
changeless in its inner essence on the planes which are
unreachable by either men of Cosmic Gods (Dhyani Buddhas), alters
during the active life-period with respect to the lower planes,
ours included.  During that time not only the Dhyani-Buddhas are
one with Alaya in Soul and Essence, but even the man strong in
the Yoga(mystic meditation) "is able to merge his soul with it"
(Aryasangha, the Bumapa school).  This is not Nirvana, but a
condition next to it.  Hence the disagreement.  Thus, while the
Yogacharyas (of the Mahayana school) say that Alaya is the
personification of the Voidness, and yet Alaya (Nyingpo and Tsang
in Tibetan) is the basis of every visible and invisible thing,
and that, though it is eternal and immutable in its essence, it
reflects itself in every object of the Universe "like the moon in
clear tranquil water;"  other schools dispute the statement.  The
same for Paramartha..."	SD  I  47

Here are some more terms -- not to confuse, but which later will
be used - to give you an idea of the way in which this important
subject ramifies through Nature.

	BHIKSHU	(Sk.)	In Pali Bhikku.  the first followers of Sakyamuni
Buddha ... "mendicant scholar"... 2 classes:  Sramanas ...
esoteric mendicants who control their nature by the (religious)
law, and exoteric mendicants who control their nature by diet..."
GLOS 56

	SRAMANA	(Sk.)	Buddhist priests, ascetics and postulants for
Nirvana, "they who have to place a restraint on their thoughts."
GLOS 307

	MAHATMA	(Sk.)	Lit., "great soul."  An adept of the highest
order.  Exalted beings who, having attained to the mastery over
their lower principles are thus living unimpeded by the "man of
flesh," and are in possession of knowledge and power commensurate
with the stage they have reached in their spiritual evolution.
Called in Pali Rahats and Arhats."	GLOS 201

	MAHAYANA	(Pal.)	A school: lit. "the great vehicle."  A mystical
system founded by Nagarjuna.  Its books were written in the 2nd
cent. A.D."		GLOS 201-2

	NAGARJUNA	(Sk.)	An Arhat, a hermit (a native of Western India)
converted to Buddhism by Kapimala...famous for his dialectical
subtlety in metaphysical arguments;  and was the first teacher of
the Amitabha doctrine and a representative of the Mahayana
School.  Viewed as the greatest philosopher of the Buddhists, he
was referred to as "one of the four suns which illumine the
world."  He was born 223 BC, and going to China after his
conversion converted in his turn the whole country to Buddhism."
(THY MAG 24-271)	GLOS 223

	PATANJALI	(Sk.)	founder of the Yoga philosophy....Occultists
[assign his date] nearer to 700 than 600 BC...a contemporary of
Panini."	Glos, 251

	PANINI	(Sk.)	celebrated grammarian, author of...Paniniyama;  a
Rishi, supposed to have received his work from the god Siva
...600BC"	GLOS 248

In regard to Initiation it is said:  "The degrees of an Adept's
initiation mark the seven stages at which he discovers the secret
of the sevenfold principles in nature and man and awakens his
dormant powers."   M.L. 99

All true Adept live to serve the world.  The concept is that this
is a vast cooperative Universe and each one of us occupies a
necessary position in it and can serve voluntarily as an
assistant to the progress of others and of ourselves.  the idea
is that any service offered to another enhances our own level of
progress.  We are all immortals (as Monads) and so we are going
to be running into one another frequently.  The idea of
friendship, service and brotherhood is built into this.  We don't
have to elbow other out of the way, as Karma always provides
adequate "living space" for all.

This is expressed as : "[The Adept]...serves humanity and
identifies himself with the whole world;  he is ready to make
vicarious sacrifice for it at any moment--by living not by dying
for it.  Why should he not die for it?  Because he is part of the
whole, and one of the most valuable parts of it.  Because he
lives under laws of order which he does not desire to break.  His
life is not his own, but that of the forces which work behind
him.  He is the flower of humanity, the bloom which contains the
divine seed.  He is, in his own person, a treasure of the
universal nature. which is guarded and made safe in order that
the fruition shall be perfected.  It is only at definite periods
of the world's history that he is al-lowed to go among the herd
of men as their redeemer."	LIGHT ON THE PATH p. 72-3

The question is often asked:  Where are the Adepts ?  Are they
near or far?  Do they "watch" over us, or do they stay so far
that they have no actual contact with our struggles?  and so
on...  Let us wee what was written:

	"Through all time the wise men have lived apart from the mass.
 That the chief body of these wise ones should be understood to
dwell beyond the fastnesses of the Himalayas...p. 70 ]  And even
when some temporary purpose or object induces one of them to come
into the midst of human life, his seclusion and safety is
preserved as completely as ever... they are only known as mystics
by those who have the power to recognize;  the power given by the
conquering of self.  Otherwise how could they exist, even for an
hour, in such a mental and psychic atmosphere as is created by
the confusion and disorder of a city ?  Unless protected and made
safe their own growth would be interfered with, their work
injured.  And the neophyte may meet an adept in the flesh, may
live in the same house with him, and yet be unable to recognize
him, and unable to make his own voice heard by him... No voice
penetrates to his inner hearing till it has become a divine
voice, a voice which gives no utterance to the cries of self...
Until a man has become, in heart and spirit a disciple, he has no
existence for those who are teachers of disciples.  And he
becomes this by one method only--the surrender of his personal
humanity."	L ON P p. 74-5

One of the Masters of Wisdom wrote:  "If, for generations we have
"shut out the world from the Knowledge of our Knowledge," it is
on account of its absolute unfitness;  and if, notwithstanding
proofs given, it still refuses yielding to evidence, then will we
at the End of this cycle retire into solitude and our kingdom of
silence once more...We have offered to exhume the primeval strata
of man's being, his basic nature, and lay bare the wonderful
complications or his inner Self...and demonstrate it
scientifically...It is our mission to plunge and bring the pearls
of Truth to the surface...For  countless generations hath the
adept builded a fane of imperishable rocks, a giant's Tower of
Infinite Thought, wherein the Titan dwelt, and will yet, if need
be, dwell alone, emerging from it but at the end of every cycle,
to invite the elect of mankind to cooperate with him and help in
his turn enlighten superstitious man.  And we will go on in that
periodical work of ours;  we will not allow ourselves to be
baffled in our philanthropic attempts until that day when the
foundations of a new continent of thought are so firmly built
that no amount of opposition and ignorant malice guided by the
Brethren of the Shadow will be found to prevail."	  M L p. 50-1

Passing then, from this consideration, one might ask about the
state of harmony of the Adept and of the disciples, called the
Chelas.  and answer is provided in:  "...an adept may be compared
to that one key which contains all the keys in the great harmony
of nature.  He has the synthesis of all keys in his thoughts,
whereas the ordinary man has the same key as a basis, but only
acts and thinks on one or a few changes of this great key,
producing in his brain only a few chords out of the whole great
possible harmony...the brain of the chela is attuned by training
to the brain of the Master.  His vibrations synchronize with
those of the Adept...so the chela's brain is abnormal...the adept
sees all the colors in every color and yet does not confuse them
together...the highest adepts [ have raised their vibrations so
as to have them the same as those of nature as a whole ]...He can
produce a sound which will alter a color.  It is the sound which
produces the color, and not the other or opposite.  By
correlating the vibrations of a sound in the proper way a new
color is made...on the astral plane every sound always produces a
color...these are invisible because not yet correlated by the
human brain so as to become visible on the earth plane....His
astral senses may see the true color, but the physical eye has
its own vibrations, and these, being on the outer plane, overcome
the others for the time, and the astral man is compelled to
report to the brain that it saw correctly.  For in each case the
outer stimulus is sent to the inner man, who then is forced, as
it were, to accept the message and to confirm it for the time so
far as it goes.  But there are cases where the inner man is able
to even then overcome the outer defect and to make the brain see
the difference...."
	WQJ ARTICLES, Vol. I, p. 423-426.

Let us also consider something about the process of becoming a
chela, and from that step, to eventually becoming an Adept.
Thinking about this and our daily living one is able to see that
all our lives we are confronted in our "inner private life" with
a series of daily and hourly initiations.  Not everyone is aware
of this.  Consider that during the period when we went to school
we were not told and yet imperceptibly we were under the tests of
daily life in the education environment.  This does not come to
an end, but continues today, and it has been so for all our many
lives.

	"It is supposed by some that initiation is always and in every
case a set and solemn occasion for which the candidate is
prepared and notified in advance.  While there are some
initiations surrounded by such solemnities as these, the daily
one, without success in which no aspirant will ever have the
chance to try for those that are higher, comes to the disciple
with almost each moment.  It is met in our relations with our
fellows, and in the effects upon us of all the circumstances of
life.  And if we fail in these, we never get to the point where
greater ones are offered.  If we cannot bear momentary defeat, or
if a chance word that strikes our self-love finds us unprepared,
or if we give way to the desire to harshly judge others, or if we
remain in ignorance of some of our most apparent faults, we do
not build up that knowledge and strength imperatively demanded
from whoever is to be master of nature."	WQJ ART II 497-8

In other words we are constantly faced with moments of choice.
This is covered in the following :  "It is in the life of every
one to have a moment of choice, but that moment is not set for
any particular day.  It is the sum total of all days;  and it may
be put off until the day of death, and then it is beyond our
power, for the choice has been fixed by all the acts and thoughts
of the lifetime.  We are self-doomed at that hour to just the
sort of life, body, environment, and tendencies which will best
carry out our karma.  This is a thing solemn enough, and one that
makes the "daily initiation" of the very greatest importance to
each earnest student."	WQJ ART II 497-8

One gradually becomes aware that in Theosophical philosophy it is
held that our universe is one in which all beings are conscious.
and the measure of progress is of the level of consciousness that
we can use.  This relates to the Adepts and the Initiates;  it
was written:

"That High Spirits work on Earth in bodies of men, while those
spirits are still in the highest spheres [ see SD I 233-4 &fn,
235fn ]...it is clearly explained that the author [HPB] does not
mean that which is called among the spiritualists "control" of
mediums by a spirit, but the actual continuance of the status and
functions of the incarnated spirit in the supersensuous regions,
while actually using as its own and working in a mortal envelope
on earth.  So that, according to her, there are certain persons
on this earth, living and working as ordinary human beings and
members of society. whose informing divine part is so
immeasurably high in development that they as such high beings
have a definite status and function in the "supersensuous
regions."

	We should say...that she herself was such a case, and that
"H.P.B.," whether hourly in the day and night when all around was
still, had a status and functions" in their spheres where she
consciously carried on the work of that high station, whatever it
was.

	There were many events in her daily life known to those who were
intimate with her that this hint may reveal, or at least shed
much light upon.  And in one of her letters the sentence
appears--in substance--"The difference between you and me is that
you are not conscious except at day, while I am conscious day and
night, and have much to do and to endure in both of these
existences from which you, being thus half-conscious, are happily
saved."

	In the Hindu books and teachings there is a reference to this
when the speak of high gnanees--that is, persons full of
knowledge and spiritual power--being attracted to this earth by
certain acts and at certain times in the history of nation, race
or city."
("Hidden Hints in the S. D."	WQJ Articles,  I p.  615-6)

	"If it is true that "the whole universe is an aggregate of
states of consciousness," it would seem to follow that the real
difference between one who is an initiate and one who is not lies
in the fact that the former looks at all things from a totally
different stand point to the majority of men...that he is on a
higher plane of consciousness altogether.  If such a higher plane
has been attained, it will follow that his whole range of ideas
will differ from that of others and he will be sensible of the
operation of causes of a more far-reaching character than those
cognized by others.  He will be as it were in the possession of
higher and superior information and  so will be able to form
juster conclusions and this fact alone will give him enormous
power."	T A & N  60

	"The action of the entire universe is but a detailed
manifestation and example of the action of mind on matter,
governed at the highest point by the action of the universal
mind.  Between the finite human mind of the ordinary uninitiated
individual and this universal mind lie an infinite number of
gradually ascending degrees, and the higher the plane of
consciousness the nearer is the approach to the universal mind
which is, as it were, the mainspring of the whole." --"Alpha"
THEOS ART & NOTES, p. 60-1

Let us to this by observing that the whole Universe is sentient
and like a gigantic human it has a brain" which is may be said to
be functional along the following lines:  "Occult philosophy
reconciles the absurdity of postulating in the manifested
Universe an active Mind without an organ, with that worse
absurdity, an objective Universe evolved as everything else in
it, by blind chance, by giving to this Universe an organ of
thought, a "brain."  The latter, although not objective to our
senses, is nonetheless existing;  it is to be found in the Entity
called Kosmos (Adam Kadmon, in the Kabala)."

	"As in the Microcosm, Man, so in the Macrocosm, of the Universe.
Every "organ" in it is a sentient entity, and every particle of
matter or substance, from the physical molecule up to the
spiritual atom, is a cell, a nerve center, which communicates."	T
A & N  208

This discussion brings us back to one of the main points we spoke
of at the outset:  Man's Inner Self the  Real Ego, or the Monad
(Atma-Buddhi) is a ray of the Universal  Mind.  "This is
precisely what occult philosophy claims:  our Ego is a ray of the
Universal Mind, individualized for the space of a cosmic
life-cycle, during which space of time it gets experience in
almost numberless reincarnations or rebirths, after which it
returns to its Parent-Source.  "The Occultist would call the
"Higher Ego" the immortal Entity, whose shadow and reflection is
the human Manas, the mind, limited by its physical senses.  The
two may be well compared to the Master-artist and the
pupil-musician.   "In the course of natural evolution our
"brain-mind" will be replaced by a finer organism, and helped by
the 6th and the 7th senses.  "The "sensing principle" in us is an
entity capable of acting outside as inside its material body;
and it is certainly independent of any organ in particular, in
its actions, although during its incarnation it manifests itself
through its physical organs.	T A & N 208-9

But, one may ask,  How is it possible to remember all these
details?  Here is a philosophy that truly makes one's mind spin.
It demands a study of the history of philosophy and religions
which rarely anyone has to do.  Furthermore, where can we store
the memory of all this information?  There is an interesting
statement that seems to provide an answer to this:  "Our "memory"
 is but a general agent, and its "tablets," with their indelible
impressions, but a figure of speech;  the "brain-tablets" serve
only as a upadhi or a vahan (basis or vehicle) for reflecting at
a given moment the memory of one or another thing.  The records
of past events, of even minutest action, and of passing thoughts,
in fact, are really impressed on the imperishable waves of the
ASTRAL LIGHT, around us and every-where, not in the brain alone;
and these mental pictures, images, and sounds, pass from these
waves via the consciousness of the personal Ego or Mind (the
lower Manas) whose grosser essence is astral, into the "cerebral
reflectors," so to say, or our brain, whence they are delivered
by the psychic to the sensuous consciousness.  This at every
moment of the day, and even during sleep."	HPB (Footnote in
Lucifer -- THEOS ART & NOTES, p. 208-9)

 "..."Mind" is manas, or rather its lower reflection, which
whenever it disconnects itself, for the time being, with kama,
becomes the guide of the highest mental faculties, and is the
organ of the free-will in physical man...."     (HPB ARTICLES,
Vol. II, p. 13)   "Mankind usually receives a thousand
impressions through the senses to one through the spiritual
nature.  Adeptship means reversing the proportion." -- H.S.Olcott
(PATH 3, 109)

Mr. Judge writes about HPB and her work and calls her an Adept
living and working in our world.  he wrote:

	"In 1875, in the City of New York, I first met H.P.B. in this
life...It was her eye that attracted me, the eye of one whom I
must have known in lives long passed away.  She looked at me in
recognition at that first hour, and never since has that look
changed...Not as a questioner of philosophies did I come before
her...but as one, wandering many periods through the corridors of
life, was seeking the friends who could show where the designs
for the work had been hidden.  And true to the call she
responded, revealing the plans once again, and speaking no words
to explain, simply pointed then out and went on with the task.
It was as if but the evening before we had parted, leaving yet to
be done some detail of a task taken up with one common end;  it
was teacher and pupil, elder brother and younger, both bent on
the one single end, but she with the power and the
knowledge that belong but to lions and sages.

	Others I know have looked with suspicion on an appearance they
could not fathom, and though it is true they adduce many proofs
which hugged to the breast, would damn sages and gods, yet it is
only through blindness they failed to see the lion's glance, the
diamond heart of H.P.B...she was laying down the lines of force
all over the land...

	The explanation has been offered by some too anxious friends
that the earlier phenomena were mistakes in judgment, attempted
to be rectified in later years by confining their area and
limit-ing their number, but...I shall hold to her own explanation
made in advance and never changed.  That I have given above.  For
it is easier to take refuge behind a charge of bad judgment than
to understand the strange and powerful laws which control in
matters such as these.

	Amid all the turmoil of her life, above all the din produced by
those who charged her with deceit and fraud and others who
defended, while month after month, and year after year, witnessed
men and women entering the theosophical movement only to leave it
soon with malignant phrases for H.P.B., there stands a fact we
all might consider--devotion absolute to her Master.  "It was
He," she writes, "who told me to devote myself to this, and I
will never disobey and never turn back."...

	Willing in the service of the cause to offer up hope, money,
reputation, life itself, provided the Society might be saved from
every hurt, whether small or great.  And thus bound body and soul
to this entity called the T. S., bound to protect it at all
hazards, and in the face of every loss, she often incurred the
resentment of many who became her friends but would not always
care for the infant organization as she had sworn to do.  And
when they acted as it opposed to the Society, her instant
opposition seemed to them to nullify professions of friendship.
Thus she had but few friends, for it required a keen insight,
untinged with personal feeling, to see even a small part of the
real H.P.Blavatsky...

	She worked under directors who, operating from behind the scene,
knew that the T. S. was, and was to be, the nucleus from which
help might be spread to all the people of the day, without thanks
and without acknowledgment...I asked her what was the chance of
drawing people into the Society...she said:--"When you consider
those days in 1875 and after, in which you could not find any
people interested in your thoughts, and now look at the
wide-spreading influence of theosophical ideas--however labeled--
it is not so bad.  We are not working that people may call
them-selves Theosophists, but that the doctrines we cherish may
affect and leaven the whole mind of this century.  This alone can
be accomplished by a small earnest band of workers, who work for
no human reward, no earthly recognition, but who, supported and
sustained by a belief in that Universal Brotherhood of which our
Masters are a part, work steadily, faithfully, in understanding
and putting forth for consideration the doctrines of life and
duty that have come down to us from immemorial time.  Falter not
so long as a few devoted ones will work to keep the nucleus
existing.  You were not directed to found and realise a Universal
Brotherhood, but to form the nucleus for one;  for it is only
when the nucleus it formed that the accumulations can begin that
will end in future years, however far, in the formation of that
body which we have in view."

	H.P.B. had a lion heart, and on the work traced out for her she
had a lion's grasp, let us...sustain ourselves in carrying out
the designs laid down on the trestle-board, by the memory of her
devotion and the consciousness that behind her task stood, and
still remain, those Elder Brothers who, above the clatter and the
din of our battle, ever see the end and direct the forces
distributed in array for the salvation of "that great
orphan--Humanity."		W. Q. Judge
   (Yours till Death and After, H.P.B..." Judge Articles, II p.
1)

	"...in 1875 she told me that she was then embarking on a work
that would draw upon her unmerited slander, implacable malice,
uninterrupted misunderstanding, constant work, and no worldly
reward.  Yet in the face of this her lion heart carried her
on...Much has been said of her "phenomena," some denying them,
others alleging trick and device.  Knowing her for so many years
so well, and having seen at her hands in private the production
of more and more varied phenomena that it has been the good
fortune of all others of her friends put together to seem I know
for myself that she had control of hidden powerful laws of nature
not known to our science, and I also know that she never boasted
of her powers, never advertised their possession, never publicly
advised anyone to attempt their acquirement, but always turned
the eyes of those who could understand her to a life of altruism
based on a knowledge of true philosophy.

	If the world thinks that her days were spent in deluding her
followers by pretended phenomena, it is solely because her
injudicious friends, against her expressed wish, gave out
wonderful stories of her "miracles" which can not be proved to a
skeptical public and which are not the aim of the Society nor
were ever more than mere incidents in the life of H.P.Blavatsky.

	Her aim was to elevate the race.  Her method was to deal with
the mind of the century as she found it, by trying to lead it on
step by step;  to seek out and educate a few who, appreciating
the majesty of the Secret Science and devoted to "the great
orphan Humanity," could carry on her work with zeal and wisdom;
to found a Society whose efforts--however small itself might
be--would inject into the thought of the day the ideas, the
doctrines, the nomenclature of the Wisdom Religion, so that when
the next century shall have seen its 75th years the new messenger
coming again into the world would find the Society still at work,
the ideas sown broadcast, the nomenclature ready to give
expression and body to the immutable truth, and thus to make easy
the task which for her since 1875 was so difficult and so
encompassed with obstacles in the very paucity of the
language--obstacles harder than all else to work against."		W. Q.
Judge
( "H.P.B.--A Lion-hearted Colleague Passes"  WQJ Articles II p.
5)

I trust that this may prove to be of use in this regard.

Best wishes,

Dallas

dalval@nwc.net

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Mauri
Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2000 2:25 PM
Subject: [bn-basic] Re: "Adepts" & Adepts


Dennis:  Your response on whether and how an Adept might reply to
a
question posed by someone (as by a list writer/s) surprised me in
that I
was under the impression that the Adepts were . . . well, in
hiding, or too
advanced to even be here on this earth plane since, aside from
HPB’s
mention of Koot Humi and ? whoever, few of the  current writers
(if any?)
have recounted any kind of communications with Adepts (that I
know of, at
any rate.) So it seems that my notions about "Adepts" have been a
little
off,  on a tangent, to say the least.   And since you, Dennis,
use
parentheses on the word "Adept," you seem to be saying that the
term is
open to interpretation.  To what extent?  Are you saying that an
Adept is
anybody who is particularly adept at something,   (to what
extent, and in
what way?)  thereby earning the capital A?  Looking  in a
theosophical
glossary, I found this:  "OG Adept -- The word means one who is
"skilled";
hence, even in our ordinary life, a chemist, a physician, a
theologian, a
mechanic, an engineer, a teacher of languages, an astronomer, are
all
"adepts," persons who are skilled, each in his own profession. In
theosophical writings, however, an Adept is one who is skilled in
the
esoteric wisdom, in the teachings of life. "
And: "FY Adept, one who, through the development of his spirit,
has
attained to transcendental knowledge and powers."
And: "KT Adept (Lat. adeptus). In Occultism, one who has reached
the stage
of initiation and become a master in the Science of Esoteric
Philosophy."
So it looks like I should start using quotation marks, like you,
when
referring to "Adepts," since for all I know the "Adept" could be
any of
those.

Since there are degrees of "Adeptship," the next question tends
to be,
Which "Adepts" might be more likely to communicate normally (as
in the English language,
as by way of  postings on a discussion forum), as opposed to
those exalted
"Adepts  up in the sky"  who, I gather, work differently, less
understandably (at least on the conscious level)?  And on a scale
of ten, what position might that earth-based, normally
behaving, wingless "Adept" have?

=========	SNIP	==================



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