Theos-Talk Archives (February 2000 Message tt00019)

Feb 8 2000

Dear Friends:

The MSGS below are very important and interesting.  I would like
to make some comments as answer, observation and for
consideration:


As I recall HPB said that mankind did not need any new kind of a
Church or "belief system" imposed on them.  Look around and
witness the imposition of belief systems and their results.
Rigidity, conformity and freedom of thought are at opposed
extremes.  Hence, if true, Theosophy is not a religion but only a
philosophy that seeks to be understood and offers (constantly)
proofs.

Theosophy has never promoted the formation of religious or
political bodies of any kind.  As a philosophy it exists to
assist man in developing clarity of thought by every pointing to
the roots of being and the
interaction of the whole of Nature.  Nature is EVERYTHING.  She
is a living, vibrating whole.  And we are the most sentient
aspect of those developments.  This is because we are endowed
with the powers of the MIND.  Potentially we can discover all her
secrets.  And as such we as scientists, philosophers and
psychologists are investigating her methods of cooperation.  We
already share in them;  and our existence is evidence of the
marvelous intelligence that guides all things.

Additionally, it (Theosophy) will be found to be a history
text-book as it reviews the history of our world, universe and
the place that mankind occupies in the scheme of things.  The
whole is a study in evolution.  The essential being that evolves
is the immortal MONAD.  The MONAD is an infinitesimal spec of
SPIRIT/MATTER -- a "ray" of the ABSOLUTENESS in manifestation.
It is these Monads  (see SD I 174-5fn, 618-32) that animate every
least atom, as well as Man, and, in fact, in their collectivity,
the many monads in evolution make up the ONE MONAD that is
EVERYTHING.

The Monad is the intelligence, the consciousness, the intuition,
the Perception of all events, and finally it is the intelligent
agent of nature, always providing new Monads with the kind of
"school" where they also can discover and learn the lessons of
LIFE.  WE are in this Universal School and we are immortals, each
incarnation is a "day" of learning in that ever-living School.
All "paths" lead to it.

Hence, if true, the Masters would certainly not set about
establishing some kind of a Church based on theosophy again.  WE
can all secure the same kind of information from Theosophy if we
want it and desire to study and work to acquire it.  We are not
required to join anything. And whether we do or not, the practice
of individual study determines the final eminence of any
individual student.  Many such students, all working together,
give the Theosophical Movement its age-old continuous life.

This cooperative work is called the UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD OF ALL
BEINGS.  Mankind, consisting of thinking units (with minds that
are capable of embracing universal concepts and the most minute
of the working of Karma) become the body of intelligent
cooperators who assist Nature in her many kinds of work.  We
belong to this group which is headed by the great Buddhas and
Teachers of Wisdom down the Ages.  (see SD I 570-575).

The presentation of Theosophy marks, as I think about it, a
change in the method of thinking that humanity ought to gradually
adopt.  The old way as the acceptance of authority and such
"beliefs" or "faiths" as were held out to the masses and the
crowds, is passing away.  Political and religious freedom have
permitted a relaxation of the many kinds of bonds that have
traditionally been imposed on the masses of mankind.  Each senses
this freedom and strives to make use of it.  The sense of
individuality, and the concept that we can acquire knowledge and
wisdom so that we may guide our own future is gaining increased
recognition in every part of the world.

The new spirit of our age is marked by the dynamism of
discovery -- of individual seeking -- of independent demand for
"proof."  Old values are being questioned and reviewed so that
whatever good is there may be culled, harvested and carried
forward to grow and provide the fruit and grain of the future.
There is an unbroken sequence of thought, and of learning which
needs to be seen and used.  And it will always be individuals who
develop and do this.  First individually, and then slowly the
accretions will begin of free-thinking minds which need to feed
off each others visions and intuitions.

The most that one needs is to be able to assure ones' self that
what someone else says is TRUE.  Are the sources and paths of
reasoning being offered for us to recheck by ourselves, so that
we may independently assure ourselves of their accuracy?  Is
anything being "imposed" on us?  Are we being treated as
reasonable people able to think and discriminate, or, are we
again to be treated as children who are expected to "bow before
the evident scholarship of authorities and academics -- an should
we then parrot the words and ideas of those who claim the
"authority" to explain, teach, and impose ?

There are many who know far more than we do in a variety of
subjects.  Is the price we are to pay for their teachings that of
servility?  Of respect for their claims to ling years of
discipline?  Or are they going to let us see and know how they
arrived at the conclusions that they now offer to us?

Consider the teachings of Theosophy.  What are they?  In SD I
272-3 we are told that they are the fruit of many long years of
"checking and verifying the traditions of old."  SD I 267, we may
read at the top of the page "...the Secret Doctrine teaches
history..." and if we look at a number of pages in that great
book we find that the theme of history arises again and again.

[ The study of History I mentioned. may be found in the SD in:

SD I 52 108 229 267 269 272-3 303-4fn 306-7 341 406 425 472 639
640-1 646-7 676

SD II 182 260 311 327 336 351 424 437-448 438 444 711 795-6 . ]


Nothing novel is claimed for it.  It is not a "Revelation."  But
what it does is gather together evidence -- and show us how a few
great ideas can be traced everywhere in our past -- they are at
the root of every philosophy, religion and science, and they have
been the subject of investigation, argument, and study by all
truly great thinkers down the ages.

Theosophy teaches that there is a "College" (ISIS II 98-103) of
the WISE. and all Prophets, Reformers, Avatars, Budhas, Dhyan
Chohans, etc. are "Brothers,"  Members of that great Brotherhood
of the Wise.  They declare that they were once men such as we
are, and have graduated (through self-effort and rigorous study
an application) into positions of responsibility and power in
Nature's vast economy.

Look at ISIS UNVEILED. The two volumes are a vast compendium of
facts, historical evidence, ancient and contemporary to HPB, of
the existence of the secret world which serves as the cause for
physical events and phenomena.  It shows how desire and thought
rule the world and always have.  It also shows how they have been
abused and employed to make victims of mankind in various ways.
Isis was published in 1877 -- 11 years earlier than the Secret
Doctrine -- and it paved the way for inquiry into the facts that
the SD provided in 1888.  Those facts were evoked by the
questions that ISIS generated.

Students have often said that they would like to know what
happened to the 3rd and 4th volumes of the SD.  But how can those
be made public if the present student body of inquirers into
Theosophy do not study what is already provided?

Take even so simple a text as THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.  Is it being
seriously studied and are its contents being inquired into?  Or
does everyone know them well ?  As one sees the posting from day
to day, it is clear that there is still vast unfamiliarity with
even so brief a text.

On philosophical and metaphysical points there may be
disagreement, but setting that aside, the focus of each such
separate source of interest is seen to be similar in range and
point of the considerations needed to resolve it.

This, to me, points to the areas where there is growth in all our
thinking -- we all have this capacity, we each develop it at our
own rate of progress.  But we need not be compacted into some
purely receptive, passive state of "acceptance."  We need to be
encouraged as individuals to do our own thinking and study.
Learning to think is one of the beginning requirements.  That is
not memory of other's concepts or masses of "data" but rather,
the measured and sure process of our own verification of certain
statements made.  We have to make those ideas "our own," by
thinking and reasoning them out.

It is very easy to slip into a condition of indifference and
passivity, where we allow others to frame opinions, and we
through indolence, then adopt them without any critical
appraisal.  Theosophy desires us to avoid that.

Briefly the key ideas, are the THREE FUNDAMENTALS of the SECRET
DOCTRINE and can be found in SD I 14-19.  Everything else is
derived from them. The rest of the SD provides evidence that
gives reason to the facts and processes of Nature.  This we are
invited to verify.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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



dalval@nwc.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Teos9@aol.com [mailto:Teos9@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2000 6:50 AM
To: study@blavatsky.net
Subject: [bn-study] Re: Transitions of Christianity


In a message dated 02/07/00 4:53:57 PM Eastern Standard Time,
carson@blavatsky.net writes:

<<  A long-time Theosophist
 once said to me "The masters can pull the rug out from under
Christianity at
 any time.  They don't because they want something to be ready
and in place
 before they do."   >>

Fascinating idea Reed. That would make the real work of theosophy
within the
last 125 years even more esoteric than many suspect. The notion
that one of
the by-products of the spread of Theosophy, both popular and
classical, would
be to create a deeper spirtiual/religious underpinning seems to
be supported
by the ever changing face  of traditional Christianity. Where is
the single
original St. James version of the bible that was the common study
reference
of most English speaking Christians even up thru the 50's and
60's? How many
new, or significantly edited and revised versions of twentieth
century bibles
are there? When was the last Catholic Mass heard in its original
Latin,
instead of, liberally translated forms of English? How does
Charismatic
Catholicism accommodate speaking in tongues, when in traditional
Catholicism
it was a considered a form of possession? One could go on like
this for a
long time, pointing to the many changes in traditional
Christianity that your
post here indicates, as the expected observable phenomena that
might attend
any period of major dramatic transition.

The Idea that we have been in the midst of a shifting spiritual
awareness, as
one of the goals, of the those that guide humanity on its
evolutionary path,
is filled with intuitive power and insight. Thanks for sharing.

Louis

Think Deity......
                Deity, thinks you!



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