Theos-Talk Archives (February 2000 Message tt00014)

re: "Adepts"

There are, as has been pointed out, many articles on this subject in
Theosophical literature, especially by H.P.B. & W.Q. Judge.  Two of the
ideas that have interested me are the notions of "resting adepts" (e.g.,
P.B. Shelley), and the notion that "an adept is not at all times acting as
an adept ..."



----- Original Message -----
From: "W. Dallas TenBroeck" <dalval@nwc.net>
To: <basic@blavatsky.net>
Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2000 6:34 AM
Subject: Theos-World RE: DTB = M [bn-basic] On "Adepts"


> 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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>
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