Theos-Talk Archives (March 2000 Message tt00026)

Part II:  The Teachings....  unbroken... un-altered 
.....  uninterrrupted... 



Peter wrote:

"Now, what do HPB and the Masters (the Occult
Brotherhood) say and believe about themselves?"
----------------------------------------------------

Steve replies:

"Why, the same thing I say and believe, naturally."

"The statement you quote from HPB regarding "teachings
revealed by living *divine* men during the infancy of
mankind to the elect among men" is an explicit
reference to the PWR.. . ."

"That there is an "unbroken oral teaching" I explained
above.  I find it IMPOSSIBLE to share her belief "that
it has reached us un-altered." "  Caps added

-----------------------------------------------------

Daniel replies:

Ah, here's part of the rub.  Steve you say:  "[HPB and
the Masters say and believe] the same thing I say and
believe, NATURALLY."  

But almost in the same breath you then say:  "I find
it impossible to share her belief 'that it has reached
us un-altered.'"

Steve, here is where I do not understand your thinking
on the subject.

If you can believe in the existence of Masters such as
Koot Hoomi, Morya, Hilarion, Serapis, Narayan, and
others who belong to an existing Occult Brotherhood or
Association, why is it so difficult or "impossible"
for you to believe that this SECRET ASSOCIATION has
been in existence for centuries if not untold
millennia and that the  existing occult, esoteric,
theosophical teachings of THIS brotherhood as found in
THE SECRET DOCTRINE and THE MAHATMA LETTERS has
been preserved un-altered for that same period of
time?

Of course, you may differentiate BETWEEN the knowledge
of the current day brotherhood of adepts and the
primitive wisdom religion


Well here again is what HPB writes in the Oct. 1889
issue of Lucifer and following that I have placed a
number of other quotations from ISIS, the SD and the
Mahatma Letters for students to read and study.  I
believe the same recurring theme is to be found in
all these quotes spanning from 1877 thru 1889.  Seems
very consistent and reasonable to me.

First HPB in 1889:
  
"... 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 *un-altered*; and 

(3) that the MASTERS are
thoroughly versed in the science based on such
uninterrupted teaching.."
(Collected Writings,vol.11, pages 466-467)


Now the other quotes for careful study and
comparision:

"The Secret Doctrine will show what were the ideas of
all antiquity
with regard to the primeval instructors of primitive
man and his three
earlier races.  The genesis of that WISDOM-RELIGION,
in which all
theosophists believe, dates from that period.  
So-called "Occultism," or rather
Esoteric Science, has to be traced in its origin to
those Beings who, led
by Karma, have incarnated in our humanity, and thus
struck the
key-note of that secret Science which countless
generations of subsequent
adepts have expanded since then in every age, while
they checked its
doctrines by personal observation and experience.  The
bulk of this
knowledge - which no man is able to possess in its
fullness - constitutes that
which we now call Theosophy or "divine knowledge."
(CW X: 166)


"Fear not; although we do "cling superstitiously to
the relics of the Past" our knowledge will not pass
away from the sight of man. It is the "gift of the
gods" and the most precious relic of all. The keepers
of the sacred Light did not safely cross so many ages
but to find themselves wrecked on the rocks of modern
scepticism." KH in Mahatma Letters

Notice here that KH writes that "our knowledge" is
the GIFT OF THE GODS.  What "gods" is he referring to?
Notice that KH writes that the keepers crossed "many
ages".

"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. . . . For
countless generations hath the adept builded a fane of
imperishable rocks, a giant's Tower of INFINITE
THOUGHT. . . ."  KH in Mahatma Letters


"So far as we know the corroboration of it by modern
science receiving but little consideration -- so far
as the highest Planetary Spirits have ascertained (who
remember well have the same relations with the
trans-cosmical world, penetrating behind the primitive
veil of cosmic matter as we have to go behind the veil
of this, our gross physical world --) the infinite
mind displays to them as to us no more than the
regular unconscious throbbings of the eternal and
universal pulse of Nature, throughout the myriads of
worlds within as without the primitive veil of our
solar system.

So far -- WE KNOW. Within and to the utmost limit, to
the very edge of the cosmic veil we know the fact to
be correct -- owing to personal experience; for the
information gathered as to what takes place beyond --
we are indebted to the Planetary Spirits, to our
blessed Lord Buddha."  KH in Mahatma Letters

We are indebted to the Planetary Spirits, KH writes.  
What are other terms for these beings?  And what
are the implications of KH's statement to this effect?


"And to show you how exact a science is occultism let
me tell you that the means we avail ourselves of are
all laid down for us in a code as old as humanity to
the minutest detail, but everyone of us has to begin
from the beginning, not from the end. Our laws are as
immutable as those of Nature, and they were known to
man an eternity before this strutting game cock,
modern science, was hatched. If I have not given you
the modus operandi or begun by the wrong end, I have
at least shown you that we build OUR PHILOSOPHY upon
experiment and deduction -- unless you choose to
question and dispute this fact equally with all
others."  caps added  KH in Mahatma Letters


"...from the first ages of man, the fundamental truths
of all that we are permitted to know on earth was in
the safe keeping of the adepts of the sanctuary; that
the difference in creeds and religious practice was
only external; and that those guardians of the
primitive divine revelation, who had solved every
problem that is within the grasp of human intellect,
were bound together by a universal freemasonry of
science and philosophy, which formed one unbroken
chain around the globe. ISIS UNVEILED, Vol. 1,
Pages37-8.


"The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated Wisdom of the
Ages,
and its cosmogony alone is the most stupendous and
elaborate
system. . . . It is useless to say that the system in
question is
no fancy of one or several isolated. That it is the
uninterrupted
record covering thousands of generations of Seers
whose respective experiences were made to test and to
verify the traditions passed orally by one early race
to another, of the teachings of higher and exalted
beings, who watched over the childhood of Humanity.
That for long ages, the "Wise Men" of the Fifth Race,
of the stock saved and rescued from the last cataclysm
and shifting of continents, had passed their lives in
learning, not teaching. How did they do so? It is
answered: by checking, testing, and verifying in every
department of nature the traditions of old by the
independent visions of great adepts; i.e., men who
have developed and perfected their physical, mental,
psychic, and spiritual organisations to the utmost
possible degree. No vision of one adept was accepted
till it was checked and confirmed by the visions -- so
obtained as to stand as independent evidence -- of
other adepts, and by centuries of experiences." The
Secret Doctrine, Volume I, pages 272-273

Who are the "higher and exalted beings, who watched 
over the childhood of Humanity"?

Also compare all that is written by HPB and KH with
the quotes I culled from Isis Unveiled in Part I of
this.





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