Theos-Talk Archives (April 2001 Message tt00096)

Tuesday, April 17, 2001

Thanks C---------,

Much is clearer .

See some notes below

Dal

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



-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2001 6:42 PM
To: dalval14@earthlink.net
Subject: RE: [bn-study] RE: An old question from a new member

Thanks a bunch, Dallas; i do appreciate the hints you have
given...i shall
begin reading the KEY to Theosophy tonite.

DTB	Let me add a couple of good reference books to the list:
H.P.B.	THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE
Judge	LETTERS THAT HAVE HELPED ME.
I give some reasons below for you to consider -- they are, as
practical texts, useful.

===================================
DTB	IT WILL PROVE REWARDING BUT don't be in a "rush" Think
over every proposition carefully and relate it if possible to
others. At first you ought to assure yourself of the value of
the "Original" Message of Theosophy which is to be fund
exclusively in the writings of Mme. Blavatsky. All subsequent
books and articles are commentaries on the primary message.
After many years of study one comes to realize this fact that
H.P.B., the Masters of Wisdom, and a very few of H.P.B.'s close
disciples (whom she vouched for in writing) are reliable guides
for us all.
Some students think that a chosen writer will make H.P.B. more
clear to them. I say they have not been patient enough to really
read and STUDY what H.P.B. offers. Her writings awake the inner
faculty of WISDOM ( Buddhi ) in us and lead to the universal
wisdom of ATMAN. Incidentally her English usage is as good as
the best available in literature, and studying her (dictionary in
hand) reveals how precise her choice of words and expressions is.
The fact that she had to use multiple ways of expression and
explanation is because the English language has not yet developed
the literary vocabulary necessary to describe all mental and
psychological states and conditions.
These are the two permanent (immoral and eternal) Principles in
each of us -- which, in fact make for Universal Brotherhood -- if
we realize that every ATOM of LIFE is potentially, and after an
enormous period of experience, a Mind-human and eventually a
BUDDHA (a WISE SAGE). Eventually you will be using THE SECRET
DOCTRINE after you make yourself familiar with the basics of
Theosophy as are to be found in the KEY. The S.D. serves to give
a greater panorama and a historical background for the gems of
Theosophical philosophy and history to be exhibited.
All writers (me included, please) other then H.P.B., can only
give you a filtered version of Theosophy -- emphasizing those
things they feel are important. Hence your real TOUCHSTONE is
always: universality, impersonality, and common-sense. These
ought to be treasured and frequently used.
Our own VOICE OF CONSCIENCE is derived from the inner living
MONAD ( ATMA / BUDDHI) . The INTUITION is also an echo of the
interior DIVINE VOICE, and if true (as it always is filtered to
our minds through our personal and the psychic nature) and any
"intuition" ought to be tested with the "TOUCHSTONE" I have
outlined above.
============================================


One thing though-- maybe i was unclear about that last segment,
concerning
the astral world and what not...

What i was trying to say was that the dangers of dabbling there
in astral
matters is very well realized because of what i have already read
about [in
WQJs Ocean of Theosophy and HPBs Isis Unveiled]. Also my Ma is
very
psychic; her OBEs were scary to her, and she couldn't control the
occurances
in the beginning...she did finally overcome them through sheer
force of
will[!] She did the right thing intuitively, as we find out in
hind sight;
recently i told her about what i had learned about the astral
plane in the
WQJ and HPB writings. So, you could say that i have had some
idea of things
other than material in nature [i do not like saying supernatural
anymore
because it sounds like something fictional].

=======================================
DTB	UNDERSTOOD. 'Forewarned is forearmed.' She was fortunate
to "escape." It is also good that her WILL is so strong. H.P.B.
narrates something of her own struggles to do this successfully
when she was a young girl. So it is good to know that others
have emerged victorious from a similar struggle. [ In the PATH
Magazine, Vol. 8, 9, 10, Mr. Judge the Editor, published a
number of important letters written by H.P.B. -- she explains
therein to her family her work and struggles.
====================================

But my beliefs [silly ol' ego] still give me a bit of anxiety
when i think
about concentrating to get in touch with my higher self. You
know how you
pick up thoughts that are not your own, or are borne out of old
beliefs and
kind of mess up what you are trying to accomplish? Scary movies
as a child,
dumb bumps in the night that startle [you know what i mean...]
Those
feelings of aprehension are what i wish to overcome, and i am
searching for
ways to dissolve the irrational parts of my ego. I want to look
to myself
for everything...but to get there i need some encouragement you
might say.
---------------------------------
DTB Let me recommend that you get a copy of Mr. Judge's
LETTERS THAT HAVE HELPED ME. You will find there the kind of
advice you seek (available on line through
http://www.blavatsky.net) read through it, and I think you'll
notice that the resident HIGHER SELF inside each of us is the
root of our CONSCIOUSNESS. As embodied Minds we are always close
to our own HIGHER SELF (Atma) but to cement a permanent
connection the "embodied mind" has to purify itself by focusing
at all times on "Good thoughts, good words, and good deeds."
"Good" meaning spiritually disciplined. Spiritually disciplined,
means a humble but steadfast following of the LAWS OF NATURE.
That is choosing a "good" example and then following it. But as
there is a gulf between "good" and "spiritual," the usual
requirement that serves to bridge that gulf is the bridge of
WISDOM. "Wisdom" is knowledge applied impersonally and with
universal compassion as a guide and base. Lots of links to get a
meaning !

The urge to seek to "rejoin it" (and to actually practice the
virtues it supports and speaks of to us) which arises from our
embodied mind in the waking state, is an impression that IT makes
on our waking mind. We ought to heed this and sometimes it is a
struggle to give up some fond personal pleasure to do this. All
these things are evidence of the struggle of the Inner Mind of
each of us striving to get us to HUMANIZE and the UNIVERSALIZE
ourselves.

It is urging us to find the links to a constant communications
with it. If you wish to use another of H.P.B.'s texts then study
the VOICE OF THE SILENCE. It is only 78 pages but it leads the
student who is mystically and truly spiritually sensitive to
perceiving the INNER MASTER -- the "Ray" of ATMA which is active
in us. [ The explanatory FOOTNOTES ought to be carefully read
too. ][

Try to understand and use the key of the 7 Principles in Man and
Nature (see KEY TO THEOSOPHY and OCEAN -- they both give
details), It is NOT a transition to somewhere else. But, rather
it is a penetration of the active daily mind of ours -- in, and
towards the ETHICAL and the HIGHEST MOTIVATIONAL side of our own
Nature and Consciousness (when awake) -- by this I mean a
learning (and deliberately applying) of the Laws of Brotherhood
and Charity as outlined in THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE.

"Virtue" is the ability to perceive the general and uniform
Natural laws that make for charity, harmony, peacefulness and
brotherhood, and, an indifference to pleasure as to pain, because
they are seen to be temporary and hence illusions -- they
(pleasure and pain are variables), and are not the REAL SELF --
the ATMA.

When illusion is conquered, then TRUTH will be perceived.
Following that one may apply the WILL as a dauntless energy that
WILL that FIGHTS ITS WAY TO TRUTH out of the "mire of lies
terrestrial." Then follows the 6th Key: WISDOM. And finally
the ability to apply WISDOM in all one's actions -- which in the
VOICE is called Prajna. [ see VOICE OF THE SILENCE, pp 53-3 --
beginning pages of the 3rd Fragment -- the SEVEN PORTALS.

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


Knowledge IS power; the more i read, the more confidence i gain.
[the more i
re-read the more i retain!] Usually people interaction provides
me a
quickening of sorts--empowers me...keeps me in check...feels just
like
OJT...and, best is that it makes me feel good to know i am not
the only one
out here realizing what goes on in the universe.
===============================
DTB	Yes it is a kind of revelation to feel one has companions.
But I raise a caution from personal experience. A certain kind
of "pride" may cause us at times to exclaim (interiorly) "I am
unique, I know what others don't. I can "manage them."
Actually the increment in knowledge and understanding ought to
lead us to what has been described as the "conferencing method."
It is deliberately seeking and holding a dialog with others or
another whose advice and opinion is trustworthy and
disinterested. "Two minds are better than One." It is also
placing an important decision on the common table so as to secure
the best results -- but that does not absolve us of
responsibility, if the final choice is to be OURS. It has one
great value, we are forced, if sincere and honest, to place our
best thought and plans forward, if we intend to use this kind of
reinforcement and sharing. As I wrote earlier, wisdom is
everyone's property.
The danger is that we really know only the beginnings of the
WISDOM OF NATURE -- at all times we stand MIDWAY between our
"ignorant beginnings" (however remote) and our "potential
perfection." (also remote).

The PERFECTION OF POTENTIAL SPIRITUAL ACHIEVEMENT IS NOT AN
ISOLATION FROM THE world and Humanity, but a deeper involvement
in its program of progression. We learn how to participate
closely with others, for mutual and humanity's benefit.

As we learn to UNDERSTAND OUR OWN 7 PRINCIPLES, so do we perceive
them in others -- and any sense of superiority is to be avoided
because we do not yet KNOW ALL, and also, any interference we
might interject (other than requiring an adhesion to good
virtuous behavior -- which we may have to patiently explain) is
an interference with THEIR OWN DEVELOPMENT OF FREE WILL.

Our free-will leads us to study Theosophy for the wisdom it
imparts concerning ourselves and the nature that continually
surrounds and inter-penetrates us. We have to realize that this
sharing is continuous, and the "life-atoms" always are impressed
with our moral decisions and motives when and if they are
temporarily making a part of us. In this sense we are actually,
not only immortals, but we are UNIVERSAL BEINGS as well. We use
and exchange all aspects of Nature on its 7 "planes, and send
these "life-atoms" we have been or are using, out into space so
that they become part of others, and eventually return to us,
bringing with them those same impressions we gave them when we
last used them. Thus we make and receive our KARMA. This is a
continuous and inescapable process
I attach a story illustrating this hereto.
========================	story	====================

THE PERSIAN STUDENT'S DOCTRINE



BEFORE the flashing diamond in the mysterious mountain behind the
Temple began to lose its brilliance, many foreigners had visited
the Island. Among them were students who came from Persia.
[PARA][PARA]Coming that great distance they sought more
knowledge, as in their own land the truth was already beginning
to be forgotten. It was hidden under a thick crust of fanciful
interpretations of the sayings of their sages which were fast
turning into superstitious notions. And these young men thought
that in the Island, the fame of which had spread over land and
sea, they would find learning and wisdom and the way to power.
But yet while in such a frame of mind, they regarded some things
as settled even for sages. [PARA][PARA]What they said did not
have much influence on me until they began to quote some of the
old writings from the prophets of their country, attempting to
prove that men, though god-like and immortal, transmigrated
sometimes backwards into beasts and birds and insects. As some
old Buddhist monks had years before given out the same idea with
hints of mystery underneath, the sayings of these visitors began
to trouble me. [PARA][PARA]They quoted these verses from the
prophet the Great Abad:[PARA][PARA]Those who, in the season of
prosperity, experience pain and grief, suffer them on account of
their words or deeds in a former body, for which the Most Just
now punisheth them.[PARA]Whosoever is an evil doer, on him He
first inflicteth pain under the human form; for sickness, the
sufferings of children while in their mothers womb, and after
they are out of it, and suicide, and being hurt by ravenous
animals, and death, and being subjected to want from birth till
death, are all retributions for past actions; and in like manner
as to goodness.[PARA]The lion, the tiger, the leopard, the
panther, . . . with all ravenous animals, whether birds or
quadrupeds or creeping things, have once possessed authority: and
every one whom they kill hath been their aider or abetter, who
did evil by supporting, or assisting, or by the orders of, that
exalted class; and having given pain to harmless animals are now
punished by their own masters.[PARA]The horse submits to be
ridden on, and the ox, the camel, the mule, and the ass bear
burdens. And these in a former life were men who imposed burdens
on others unjustly.[PARA]Such persons as are foolish and evil
doers, being enclosed in the body of vegetables, meet with the
reward of their stupidity and misdeeds. And such as possess
illaudable knowledge and do evil are enclosed in the body of
minerals until their sins be purified; after which they are
delivered from this suffering, and are once more united to a
human body; and according as they act in it they again meet with
retribution.[PARA]These young men made such good arguments of
these texts, and dwelt so strongly upon the great attainments of
Abad, who was beyond doubt a prophet of insight, that doubts
arose in my mind. While the verses did not deny the old doctrine
of man's reincarnation, they added a new view to the matter that
had never suggested itself to me before. [PARA][PARA]The students
pointed out that there was a very wise and consistent doctrine in
those verses wherein it was declared that murderers, tyrants, and
such men would be condemned to inhabit the bodies of such
murderous beasts as lions and tigers. They made out a strong case
on the other verses also, showing that those weak but vicious men
who had aided and abetted the stronger and more violent murderers
should be condemned to precipitation out of the human cycle into
the bodies of defenseless animals, in company with ferocious
beasts, by the strength and ferocity of which they would at last
be destroyed themselves. [PARA][PARA]And thus, said these
visitors, they proceed in each other's company, lower and lower
in the scale of organized life, reaching at last those kingdoms
of nature like the mineral, where differentiation in the
direction of man is not yet visible. And from there the condemned
beings would be ground out into the great mass and slime at the
very bottom of nature's ladder.[PARA][PARA]Not wishing to admit
or accept these doctrines from strangers, I engaged in many
arguments with them on the matter, until at last they left the
Island to continue their pilgrimage.[PARA][PARA]So one day, being
troubled in mind about these sayings of Abad, which, indeed, I
heard from the students were accepted in many countries and given
by several other prophets, I sought out the old man who so often
before had solved problems for me. [PARA][PARA]He was a man of
sorrow, for although possessor of power and able to open up the
inner planes of nature, able to give to a questioner the inner
sight for a time so that one could see for himself the real truth
of material things, something ever went with him that spoke of a
sorrow he could not tell about. Perhaps he was suffering for a
fault the magnitude of which no one knew but himself; perhaps the
final truths eluded him; or maybe he had a material belief at
bottom. [PARA][PARA]But he was always kind, and ever ready to
give me the help I needed provided I had tried myself in every
way and failed to obtain it.[PARA][PARA]"Brother," I said, "do we
go into animals when we die?"[PARA][PARA]"Who said that we do?"
was his answer.[PARA][PARA]"It is declared by the old prophet
Abad of the Worshippers of Fire that we thus fall down from our
high estate gained with pain and difficulty."[PARA][PARA]"Do you
believe it; have you reasoned it out or accepted the
doctrine?"[PARA][PARA]"No," I said, "I have not accepted it. Much
as I may reason on it, there are defects in my replies, for there
seems to be consistency in the doctrine that the ferocious may go
into the ferocious and vicious into the wild animals; the one
destroying the other and man, the hunter, killing the ferocious.
Can you solve it?"[PARA][PARA]Turning on me the deep and
searching gaze he used for those who asked when he would
determine if curiosity alone moved them, he said, "I will show
you the facts and the corrupted doctrine together, on the night
of the next full moon."[PARA][PARA]Patiently I waited for the
moon to grow, wondering, supposing that the moon must be
connected with the question, because we were said to have come by
the way of the moon like a flock of birds who migrated north or
south according to their nature. At last the day came and I went
to the old man. [PARA][PARA]He was ready. Turning from the room
he took me to a small cave near the foot of the Diamond Mountain.
The light of the diamond seemed to illuminate the sky as we
paused at the entrance. We went in by the short passage in front,
and here, where I had never been before, soft footfalls of
invisible beings seemed to echo as if they were retreating before
us, and half-heard whispers floated by us out into the night. But
I had no fear. Those footfalls, though strange, had no malice,
and such faint and melodious whispering aroused no alarm. He went
to the side of the cave so that we looked at the other side. The
passage had a sharp turn near the inner entrance, and no light
fell around us. Thus we waited in silence for some
time.[PARA][PARA]"Look quietly toward the opposite wall," said
the old man, "and waver not in thought."[PARA][PARA]Fixing an
unstrained gaze in the direction of the other side, it soon
seemed to quiver, then an even vibration began across it until it
looked like a tumbling mass of clouds. This soon settled into a
grey flat surface like a painter's canvas, that was still as the
clear sky and seemingly transparent. It gave us light and made no
reflection.[PARA][PARA]"Think of your question, of your doubts,
and of the young students who have raised them; think not of
Abad, for he is but a name," whispered my guide.[PARA][PARA]Then,
as I revolved the question, a cloud arose on the surface before
me; it moved, it grew into shapes that were dim at first. They
soon became those of human beings. They were the living pictures
of my student friends. They were conversing, and I too was there
but less plain than they. [PARA][PARA]But instead of atmosphere
being around them they were surrounded with ether, and streams of
ether full of what I took to be corporeal atoms in a state of
change continually rushed from one to the other. After I had
accustomed my sight to this, the old man directed me to look at
one of the students in particular. From him the stream of ether
loaded with atoms, very dark in places and red in others, did not
always run to his fellows, but seemed to be absorbed elsewhere.
Then when I had fixed this in my mind all the other students
faded from the space, their place taken by some ferocious beasts
that prowled around the remaining student, though still appearing
to be a long distance from him. [PARA][PARA]And then I saw that
the stream of atoms from him was absorbed by those dreadful
beasts, at the same time that a mask fell off, as it were, from
his face, showing me his real ferocious, murderous
mind.[PARA][PARA]"He killed a man on the way, in secret. He is a
murderer at heart," said my guide. [PARA][PARA]"This is the truth
that Abad meant to tell. Those atoms fly from all of us at every
instant. They seek their appropriate center; that which is
similar to the character of him who evolves them. We absorb from
our fellows whatever is like unto us. It is thus that man
reincarnates in the lower kingdoms. He is the lord of nature, the
key, the focus, the highest concentrator of nature's laboratory.
[PARA][PARA]And the atoms he condemns to fall thus to beasts will
return to him in some future life for his detriment or his
sorrow. But he, as immortal man, cannot fall. That which falls is
the lower, the personal, the atomic. He is the brother and
teacher of all below him. See that you do not hinder and delay
all nature by your failure in virtue."[PARA][PARA]Then the ugly
picture faded out and a holy man, named in the air in gold
"Abad," took his place. From him the stream of atoms, full of his
virtue, his hopes, aspirations, and the impression of his
knowledge and power, flowed out to other Sages, to disciples, to
the good in every land. They even fell upon the unjust and the
ferocious, and then thoughts of virtue, of peace, of harmony grew
up where those streams flowed. [PARA][PARA]The picture faded, the
cloudy screen vibrated and rolled away. We were again in the
lonely cave. Faint footfalls echoed round the walls, and soft
whispers as of peace and hope trembled through the
air.[PARA][PARA]BRYAN KINNAVAN[PARA][PARA]Path, October, 1892


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


Thanks for letting me 'chew your ear' so to speak =o\

Take Care. I will write when i have more questions. Most likely
i should
post them to the list? But you have been giving me a lot of
direction in
your responses.
=================================
DTB	You are not the only one who ought to profit from these
views of an old student. Many who are interested ought to be
directed to what Mme. Blavatsky wrote. It will save much time if
we all try to use those teachings. They draw us closer to Her,
and to the Masters of Wisdom whom she served -- the Great
BROTHERS of mankind.
I think it is our duty to pass these ideas on, and let others
valuate them and use them if they deem it valuable to their own
advance.
Best wishes,
Dallas
=========================================

Means a lot! =o)

CUT