Theos-Talk Archives (May 2000 Message tt00077)

WHITE LOTUS DAY 2000


Tomorrow is White Lotus Day.

Let us remember HPB and let us help her and her work.

A wise man wrote in answer to a question:  "If Masters really
exist, why do they not make themselves known to earnest seekers
after truth...why do they not effectuate peace on earth...?

"...if it were possible to alter the state of things and to make
a peaceful earth and a right humanity without following the law
of evolution, they would willingly do it, but mankind can only be
altered step by step.  [The Masters] have also stated that they
do not make themselves objectively known to believers in them
except in those cases where those believers are ready in all
parts of their nature, are definitely pledged to them, with the
full understanding of the meaning of the pledge.  But they have
also stated  that they help all earnest seekers after truth, and
that it is not necessary for those seekers to know from where the
help comes so long as it is received...The Masters do help
powerfully, though unseen, all those who earnestly work and
sincerely trust in their higher nature, while they follow the
voice of conscience without doubt or cavil."	  FORUM ANSWERS
75-76


"...the door is always opened to the right man who knocks.  And
we invariably welcome the newcomer; -- only instead of going over
to him he has to come to us.  More than that:  unless he has
reached that point in the path of occultism from which return is
impossible, by his having irrevocably pledged himself to our
association, we never--except in cases of utmost moment--visit
him or even cross the threshold of his door in visible
appearance."
 	Mahatma  Letters,  p.  8-9


"...remember what was long ago said--that the Master would manage
results.  You must not manage, precipitate, nor force...As chelas
and students conceal rather than give out your inner psychic
life, for by telling of it your proper progress is hindered...By
gentleness, detachment, strict attention to duty, and retiring
now and then to the quiet place, bring up good currents and keep
back all evil ones...A steady mind and heart stands still and
quiet until the muddy stream rolls clear."		WQJ  LETTERS 84


"The Occult Science is not one in which secrets can be
communicated of a sudden...till the neophyte attains to the
condition necessary for that degree of illumination to which, and
for which, he is entitled and fitted, most if not all of the
Secrets are incommunicable.  The receptivity must be equal to the
desire to instruct.  The illumination must come from
within...Fasting, meditation, chastity of thought word and deed;
silence for certain periods to enable nature herself to speak to
him who comes to her for information;  government of the animal
passions and impulses;  utter unselfishness of intention, the use
of certain incense and fumigations for physiological purposes,
have been published as the means since the days of Plato and
Iamblichus in the West..."	M L 282-3



We have work to do in and upon ourselves so as to gain access to
:

   THE INNER MASTER  --  through:    	SELF-DEVELOPMENT


"Every form on earth and every speck (atom) in Space strives in
its efforts towards self-formation to follow the model placed for
it in the "Heavenly Man"...Its [atom's] involution and evolution,
its external and internal growth and development, have all one
and the same object--man;  man is the highest physical and
ultimate form on this earth;  the MONAD in the absolute totality
and awakened condition--as the culmination of the divine
incarnations on Earth."	  SD  I  183


"This 'Conscious Entity' Occultism says, comes from, nay, in many
cases is, the very entire essence and esse of the high
Intelligences condemned, by the undeviating law of Karmic
evolution, to reincarnate in the manvantara."    S D  II  248


"Rudimentary man...becomes the perfect man...when, with the
development of "Spiritual fire,"...he acquires from his inner
Self, or Instructor, the Wisdom of Self-Consciousness, which he
does not possess in the beginning."    S D  II  113


"The pivotal doctrine of the Esoteric philosophy admits of no
privileges or special gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego
through personal effort and merit throughout a long series of
metempsychoses and reincarnations."	S D   I   17


"...our own work, in and on ourselves, each one...has for its
object the enlightenment of oneself for the good of others...so
as to make of each a centre from which...may flow out the
potentialities for good that from the adept come in large and
affluent streams...As we use the moment, so we shift the future
up or down for good or ill;  the future being only a word for the
present, not yet come, we have to see to the present more than
all...The race is in a transition state...the only way we can
alter it is by such action now as makes of each one a centre for
good, a force that makes "for righteousness," and that is guided
by wisdom...we each one have a greater fight to  wage the moment
we force our inner nature up beyond the dead level of the
world..."	LETTERS 71


"Self-Consciousness belongs alone to man and proceeds from the
SELF, the Higher MANAS...whereas the psychic element (or
Kama-Manas) is common to both animal and human being...no
physiologist...will ever be able to solve the mystery of the
human mind, in its highest spiritual manifestations, or in its
dual aspect of the psychic and the noetic (or the
manasic)...unless he knows something of, and is prepared to admit
this dual element...to admit a lower (animal), and a higher (or
divine) mind in man...the "personal" and the "impersonal" Egos."
	HPB ART II 9-10


"...conscious communication with one's Master can only be
accomplished after long training and study.  What a student has
to do is to fit himself to receive this training."	LETTERS 111


"...he who enters the secret Path finds his peace and pleasure in
endless work for ages for Humanity...with his added sight and
knowledge, he must always be seeing the self-inflicted miseries
of men...the wider sweep and power of soul make what we call
sacrifice and woe seem something different."	LETTERS 116


"It is not high learning that is needed, but solely devotion to
humanity, faith in Masters, in the Higher Self."	LETTERS 97


"...the door is always opened to the right man who knocks.  And
we invariably welcome the newcomer; -- only instead of going over
to him he has to come to us.  More than that:  unless he has
reached that point in the path of occultism from which return is
impossible, by his having irrevocably pledged himself to our
association, we never--except in cases of utmost moment--visit
him or even cross the threshold of his door in visible
appearance."
 	M L 8-9


"...whenever and whatever is possible will always be done for you
unurged;   hence never to either ask for, or suggest it,
yourself-- (avoid my having to refuse a friend) ...to teach
(others in Britain)...through your kind agency...I have never
undertaken to convince them of the extent of our powers or even
of our personal existence."	M L 337


"Every human being contains within himself vast potentialities,
and it is the duty of adepts to surround the would-be chela with
circumstances which shall enable him to take the "right-hand
path," if he have the ability in him...until he has passed that
period [of probation] we leave him to fight out his battles as
best he may;  and have to do so occasionally with higher and
initiated chelas such as H.P.B., once that they are allowed to
work in the world, that all of us more or less avoid...We were
all so tested... The victor's crown is only for him who proves
himself worthy to wear it;  for him who attacks Mara single
handed and conquers the demon of lust and earthly passions;  and
not we but he himself puts it on his brow...there is no such
other difficult struggle.  If it were not so, adeptship would be
but a cheap acquirement."	M L 318


"...let him rid himself of the Maya that any man living can set
up "claims" upon Adepts.  He may create irresistible attractions
and compel their attention, but they will be spiritual, not
mental or intellectual...nothing draws us to any outsider save
his evolving spirituality... The supreme energy resides in the
Buddhi, latent--when wedded to Atman alone, active and
irresistible when galvanized by the essence of "Manas" and when
none of the dross of the latter commingles with that pure essence
to weigh it down by its finite nature...When the ancient founders
of your philosophical schools came East, to acquire the lore of
our predecessors, they filed no claims, except the single one of
a sincere and unselfish hunger for truth."	M L 341-2


"Masters never cease working, but they cease at times from such
public efforts as were made at the establishment of the T.S.
Before that they were working with individuals"  [ WQJ quoted by
RC,
FP 388 ] ...In this work, natures are intensified, good and bad
come to the surface.  The "cleaning-up" process is gradual and
each must do his own work of elimination when such work is seen
to be needed.  The barriers to help from Masters are in
our-selves and nowhere else."	F P 399


"At times they come to nations as great teachers and "saviours,"
who only repromulgate the old truths and systems of ethics.  This
therefore holds that humanity is capable of infinite perfection
both in time and quality, the saviours and adepts being held up
as examples of that possibility."

"From this living and presently acting body of perfected men
H.P.Blavatsky declared she received the impulse to once more
bring forward the old ideas, and from them also received several
keys to ancient and modern doctrines. Added...to the testimony
through all time found in the records of all nations we have this
modern explicit assertion that the ancient learned and
humanitar-ian body of adepts still exists on this earth and takes
an interest in the development of the race."
	WQJ Articles, I, pp. 1-2


   Some more statements of how contemporaries views HPB and her
work:  (Part II)


Lane-Fox,  St G.  --  quotes Dr. A. B. Kingsford on HPB  (April
1895):
"[ Dr. Kingsford:]  We must not condemn her, she is engaged upon
a great work, and already she has been an immense service to
mankind;  her life may be far from perfect, but she is honestly
seeking the way, and the way must be found before the life can be
lived."   (969)


Lahiri, Rai Bahadur, B. K. --  Lucifer, Vol. 8,  p. 46,  June 15
1891:
"She has succeeded in getting the key of the true Hindu and
therefore of the subsequent Buddhist Sacred Philosophy, there can
be no question, no doubt and no hesitation about it...Is it not
sufficient for the Westerns to know that a proud Brahmin, who
knows not how to bend his body before any mortal being in this
world, except his superiors in relation or religion, joins his
hands like a submissive child before the white Yogini of the
West."   (968)


The TRIBUNE, New York, (May 10, 1891, p. 6):
"Few women in our time have been more persistently
misrepresented, slandered, and defamed than Madame Blavatsky, but
though malice and ignorance did their worst upon her there are
abundant indications that her life-work will vindicate itself;
that it will endure;  and that is will operate for good."
(998)


Maeterlinck, M.  "The Great Secret"  (1922):
"ISIS UNVEILED, THE SECRET DOCTRINE and the rest of Madame
Blavatsky's very numerous works form a stupendous and
ill-balanced monument, or rather a sort of colossal builder's
yard, into which the highest wisdom, the widest and most
exceptional scholarship, the most dubious odds and ends of
science, legend and history, the most impressive and most
unfounded hypotheses, the most precise and improbable statements
of fact, the most plausible and most chimerical ideas, the
noblest dreams, and the most incoherent fancies are poured
pell-mell by inexhaustible truck-loads."  (1007)

Mead, G. R. S. --  ( May 1891 -- Speech at Woking, London.)
"Theosophist,"  Aug. 1931.:
"The one great purpose of our teacher's life in this her present
incarnation, a purpose which she pursued with such complete
unselfishness and singleness of motive, was to restore to mankind
the knowledge of those great spiritual truths we to-day call
Theosophy.  Her unvarying fidelity to her great mission, from
which neither contumely nor misrepresentation ever made her
swerve, was the keynote of her strong and fearless nature."
(1016)


Merchant, F. "Messenger of the Mahatmas: H. P. Blavatsky"  "Great
Images" (1967):
"Mme. Blavatsky proposed to restore man to a place of dignity and
responsibility in the universe in opposition to efforts of
authoritarian theology and materialist science.  She ascribed
meaning to the human experience...Beyond man, she declared,
stands superman, that is, the person who has resolved the
conflict of contending forces within himself and achieved
wisdom."  (1024)


"Pall Mall Gazette" --  Interview with HPB,  printed April 26,
1884.  [ Supplement to "Theosophist" for July 1884]
"Whatever may be thought of her philosophy or Theosophy, whatever
credence may be attached to the account of the mysterious powers
she claims to possess--powers upon which, it is fair to say, she
lays no stress, nay, appears to regard with the supremest
unconcern--she is a woman, who regarded from the purely
intellectual standpoint, deserves more attention than she has
hitherto received." (1032)


Neufeldt, R.  --  "In Search of Utopia:  Karma and Rebirth in the
Theosophical Movement." (1986):
"Throughout her writings one finds constant criticism of
spiritists, Christians, and materialists who are regarded as
spreaders of doom and gloom and blasphemers of the sacred.
Against these she places theosophists who are preachers of truth,
hope, and responsibility through their doctrines of karma and
rebirth."   (1056)


Oderberg, I. M.  --   "H. P. Blavatsky's Influence in
Literature."  (Jan. 1992):
"Dr. Saurat made the mistake-- as others before him have done--of
regarding the quotations and references in THE SECRET DOCTRINE as
indications of source material instead of being, or providing
evidence for her claim to the universality of the concepts."
(1059)


Old, W. R. -- "Mme. Blavatsky:  A Personal Reminiscence."
"Occult Review" Mar 1914.:
"She was ever an early riser. Frequently commencing work before
daylight.  Indeed one would suspect her of sometimes having
worked the whole night through, for I have myself often enough
put in an appearance at seven o'clock, to find, to my
astonishment, that she was hard at work and still adding to the
pile of manuscript which appeared to have risen during the
night."  (1079)


"Pall Mall Gazette,"  --  "The Prophetess of the Buried Tea-Cup."
( May 9th 1891)
"It is not possible to doubt that the strange, mysterious woman
who has now found, let us hope, the blessed Nirvana of the creed
she preached, was one of the most remarkable women of our
generation...She started an impulse that was felt from West to
East by beginning a new miracle-religion at the end of the
nineteenth century."  (1096)


Ransom, J.  --  "H.P.Blavatsky:  A Sketch of her Life."  TPH
1938:
"She was a true iconoclast--tearing to pieces the wrappings which
hid the Real from view.  But since the majority were attached to
the conventional wrappings, and were unfamiliar with the Real,
they attacked and reviled H.P.B. for her daring and courage in
unveiling what it seemed blasphemy to reveal."  (1118)


Saxon, E. L.  --  "Madame Blavatsky,  Her Opinions and her
Books."  "The Daily Picayunne" New Orleans,  Nov. 4, 1877.:
"I shall long remember with pleasure the cordial geniality of
this woman.  Here is a grand, brave nature, a mighty identity,
and feeling its own power, scorns the bonds of the little,
indifferent to the yelping curs."  (1145)


Stead, W. T.  --  "The Review of Reviews," London June 1891.
"Madame Blavatsky.":
"She widened the horizon of the mind, and she brought something
of the infinite sense of vast, illimitable mystery which
characterizes some of the Eastern religions into the very heart
of Europe in the nineteenth century.  To have done all this, and
to have done it almost single-handed, in the face of the almost
insuperable obstacles interposed by her own defect, renders
comprehensible the theory that Madame Blavatsky had help the
world could neither see nor take away."  (1160)


"The World," New York.  --  "Theosophy in New York. Facts About
Mme. Blavatsky,  Her Powers and Religion."  (Sept. 12 1886):
"She explicitly disavowed any belief in Spiritualism in the
common sense, or any claims to mediumistic power.  'It is my own
spirit and not the spirits of those who have gone from earth,'
she declared, 'that does these things.  What ever powers I
possess are simply the result of the complete power of my will
that I have acquired."  (1175)


Vest, P. M. --  "Madame Blavatsky--The First Theosophist."
"Fate" (Evanston,  Oct. 1951):
"No less an authority than the Dalai Lama has attested in writing
that 'Madame Blavatsky spent at least four years at Shigatse, the
Lamasery of the Teshu Lama of Tibet.' "  (1189)


Wachmeister, C. --  "At Wurzburg and Ostende."  "Lucifer,"  June
15, 1891:
"At times such a bright childish nature seemed to beam around
her, and a spirit of joyous fun would sparkle in her whole
countenance, and cause the most winning expression that I have
ever seen on a human face."  (1194)


Wilder,  Dr. A.  --  "How ISIS UNVEILED was Written."  "The
Word,"  N. Y.,  May 1908. :
"I stated [to J. W. Bouton] that the manuscript was the product
of great research, and that so far as related to current thinking
there was a revolution in it, but I added that I deemed it too
long for remunerative publishing...Anybody who was familiar with
her, would upon reading the first volume of ISIS UNVEILED, not
have any difficulty in recognizing her as the author."   (1208)


Witte,  Count S. Y. de  --   "Memoirs of Count Witte," Page &
Co., 1921.:
"Katkov, famous in the annals of Russian journalism spoke to me
in the highest praise about her literary gifts, as evidenced in
the tales entitled 'From the Jungles of Hindoostan' which she
contributed to his magazine, "The Russian Messenger."  (1214)


Xifre, J. --  "H.P.B."  "Lucifer,"  Aug 15 1891.:
"She gave me hope for the future;  she inspired me with her own
noble and devoted principles, and transformed my everyday
existence by holding up a high ideal of life for attainment;  the
ideal being the chief object of the T. S., i.e., to work for the
good and well-being of humanity."  (1222)


Yarker, J. --  "Madame Blavatsky and Masonry."  Letter to
"Light," London,  Oct. 10, 1891:
"I gave to Madame Blavatsky no degree beyond what she was
entitled to receive by all the international rules and
regulations of what is called high-grade Masonry.  At the same
time I am quite well aware that from older sources she was in
possession of much that was not given her by myself."
[In addition to bestowing the highest rank of Adoptive Masonry to
H.P.B., that of a Crowned Princess 12#, Yarker, who was Grand
Master of the ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis and Mizraim,
reveals that he had also sent her in 1877 a "Certificate of the
female branch of the Sat Bhai," a fringe-Masonic order organized
at Benares."]   (1223, 1224)


[ With thanks and appreciation of the use of these source
bio-quotes to M. Gomes: THEOSOPHY IN THE 19TH CENTURY,  Garland
Reference, N. Y., 1944 ]



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