Theos-Talk Archives (May 2001 Message tt00208)

Thursday, May 31, 2001

Dear Gopi Chari

If you have a specific interest or want to ask questions just go
ahead and ask. You will receive answers.

If you wish to survey the activities and the list of literature
already available free to students, then visit the
http://www.blavatsky.net page and you will have enough for a good
long and very interesting time.

If you want an introduction to THEOSOPHY and its coverage, then
go to

H. P. Blavatsky -- THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

Or to

W. Q. Judge -- THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY. Or to
== do ==	AN EPITOME OF THEOSOPHY

Best wishes,

Dallas

========	HERE IS A HELPFUL ARTICLE =================



THEOSOPHY GENERALLY STATED



"The claim is made that an impartial study of history, religion
and literature will show the existence from ancient times of a
great body of philosophical, scientific and ethical doctrine
forming the basis and origin of all similar thought in modern
systems. It is at once religious and scientific, asserting that
religion and science should never be separated. It puts forward
sublime religious and ideal teachings, but at the same time shows
that all of it can be demonstrated to reason, and that authority
other than that has no place, thus preventing the hypocrisy which
arises from asserting dogmas on authority which no one can show
as resting on reason. This ancient body of doctrine is known as
the "Wisdom Religion" and was always taught by adepts or
initiates therein who preserve it through all time. Hence, and
from other doctrines demonstrated, it is shown that man, being
spirit and immortal, is able to perpetuate his real life and
consciousness, and has done so during all time in the persons of
those higher flowers of the human race who are members of an
ancient and high brotherhood who concern themselves with the
soul development of man, held by them to include every process of
evolution on all planes. The initiates, being bound by the law
of evolution, must work with humanity as its development permits.
Therefore from time to time they give out again and again the
same doctrine which from time to time grows obscured in various
nations and places. This is the wisdom religion, and they are
the keepers of it. At times they come to nations as great
teachers and "saviours," who only re-promulgate the old truths
and system 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 that had been lost during modern
struggles toward civilization, and also that she was furnished by
them with some doctrines really ancient but entirely new to the
present day in any exoteric shape. These she wrote among the
other keys furnished by her to her fellow members and the world
at large. Added, then, to the testimony through all time found
in records of all nations we have this modern explicit assertion
that the ancient learned and humanitarian body of adepts still
exists on this earth and takes an interest in the development of
the race.

Theosophy postulates an eternal principle called the unknown,
which can never be cognized except through its manifestations.
This eternal principle is in and is every thing and being; t
periodically and eternally manifests itself and recedes again
from manifestation. In this ebb and flow evolution proceeds and
itself is the progress of the manifestation. The perceived
universe is the manifestation of this unknown, including spirit
and matter, for Theosophy holds that those are but the two
opposite poles of the one unknown principle. They coexist, are
not separate nor separable from each other, or, as the Hindu
scriptures say, there is no particle of matter without spirit,
and no particle of spirit without matter. In manifesting itself
the spirit-matter differentiates on seven planes, each more dense
on the way down to the plane of our senses than its predecessors
the substance in all being the same, only differing in degree.
Therefore from this view the whole universe is alive, not one
atom of it being in any sense dead. It is also conscious and
intelligent, its consciousness and intelligence being resent on
all planes though obscured on this one. On this plane of ours
the spirit focalizes itself in all human beings who choose to
permit it to do so, and the refusal to permit it is the cause of
ignorance, of sin. of all sorrow and suffering.

In all ages some have come to this high state, have grown to be
as gods, are partakers actively in the work of nature, and go on
from century to century widening their consciousness and
increasing the scope of their government in nature. This is the
destiny of all beings, and hence at the outset Theosophy
postulates this perfectibility of the race, removes the idea of
innate un-regenerable wickedness, and offers a purpose and an aim
for life which is consonant with the longings of the soul and
with its real nature, tending at the same time to destroy
pessimism with its companion, despair.

In Theosophy the world is held to be the product of the
evolution of the principle spoken of from the very lowest first
forms of life guided as it proceeded by intelligent perfected
beings from other and older evolutions, and compounded also of
the egos or individual spirits for and by whom it emanates.
Hence man as we know him is held to be a conscious spirit, the
flower of evolution, with other and lower classes of egos below
him in the lower kingdoms, all however coming up and destined one
day to be on the same human stage as we now are, we then being
higher still. Man's consciousness being thus more perfect is able
to pass from one to another of the planes of differentiation
mentioned. If he mistakes any one of them for the reality that
he is in his essence, he is deluded; the object of evolution
then is to give him complete self-consciousness so that he may
go on to higher stages in the progress of the universe. His
evolution after coming on the human stage is for the getting of
experience, and in order to so raise up and purify the various
planes of matter with which he has to do, that the voice of the
spirit may be fully heard and comprehended.

He is a religious being because he is a spirit encased in
matter, which is in turn itself spiritual in essence. Being a
spirit he requires vehicles with which to come in touch with all
the planes of nature included in evolution, and it is these
vehicles that make of him an intricate, composite being, liable
to error, but at the same time able to rise above all delusions
and conquer the highest place. He is in miniature the universe,
for he is as spirit, manifesting himself to himself by means of
seven differentiations. Therefore is he known in Theosophy as a
sevenfold being. The Christian division of body, soul, and
spirit is accurate so far as it goes, but will not answer to the
problems of life and nature, unless, as is not the case, those
three divisions are each held to be composed of others, which
would raise the possible total to seven. The spirit stands alone
at the top, next comes the spiritual soul or Buddhi as it is
called in Sanskrit. This partakes more of the spirit than any
below it, and is connected with Manas or mind, these three being
the real trinity of man, the imperishable part, the real
thinking entity living on the earth in the other and denser
vehicles by its evolution. Below in order of quality is the
plane of the desires and passions shared with the animal kingdom,
unintelligent, and the producer of ignorance flowing from
delusion. It is distinct from the will and judgment, and must
therefore be given its own place. On this plane is gross life,
manifesting, not as spirit from which it derives its essence,
but as energy and motion on this plane. It being common to the
whole objective plane and being everywhere, is also to be classed
by itself, the portion used by man being given up at the death of
the body. Then last, before the objective body, is the model or
double of the outer physical case. This double is the astral
body belonging to the astral plane of matter, not so dense as
physical molecules, but more tenuous and much stronger, as well
as lasting. It is the original of the body permitting the
physical molecules to arrange and show themselves thereon,
allowing them to go and come from day to day as they are known to
do, yet ever retaining the fixed shape and contour given by the
astral double within. These lower four principles or sheaths are
the transitory perishable part of man, not himself, but in every
sense the instrument he uses, given up at the hour of death like
an old garment, and rebuilt out of the general reservoir at every
new birth. The trinity is the real man, the thinker, the
individuality that passes from house to house, gaining experience
at each rebirth, while it suffers and enjoys according to its
deeds--it is the one central man, the living spirit-soul.

Now this spiritual man, having always existed, being intimately
concerned in evolution, dominated by the law of cause and effect,
because in himself he is that very law, showing moreover on this
plane varieties of force of character, capacity, and opportunity,
his very presence must be explained, while the differences noted
have to be accounted for. The doctrine of reincarnation does
all this. It means that man as a thinker, composed of soul, mind
and spirit, occupies body after body in life after life on the
earth which is the scene of his evolution, and where he must,
under the very laws of his being, complete that evolution, once
it has been begun. In any one life he is known to others as a
personality, but in the whole stretch of eternity he is one
individual, feeling in himself an identity not dependent on name,
form, or recollection.

This doctrine is the very base of Theosophy, for it explains
life and nature. It is one aspect of evolution, for as it is
reembodiment in meaning, and as evolution could not go on without
reembodiment, it is evolution itself, as applied to the human
soul. But it is also a doctrine believed in at the time given to
Jesus and taught in the early ages of Christianity, being now as
much necessary to that religion as it is to any other to explain
texts, to reconcile the justice of God with the rough and
merciless aspect of nature and life to most mortals, and to throw
a light perceptible by reason on all the problems that vex us in
our journey through this world. The vast, and under any other
doctrine unjust, difference between the savage and the civilized
man as to both capacity, character, and opportunity can be
understood only through this doctrine, and coming to our own
stratum the differences of the same kind may only thus be
explained. It vindicates Nature and God, and removes from
religion the blot thrown by men who have postulated creeds which
paint the creator as a demon. Each man's life and character are
the outcome of his previous lives and thoughts. Each is his own
judge, his own executioner, for it is his own hand that forges
the weapon which works for his punishment, and each by his own
life reaches reward, rises to heights of knowledge and power for
the good of all who may be left behind him. Nothing is left to
chance, favour, or partiality, but all is under the governance of
law. Man is a thinker, and by his thoughts he makes the causes
for woe or bliss; for his thoughts produce his acts. He is the
centre for any disturbance of the universal harmony, and to him
as the centre, the disturbance must return so as to bring about
equilibrium; for nature always works towards harmony. Man is
always carrying on a series of thoughts, which extend back to the
remote past, continually making action and reaction. He is thus
responsible for all his thoughts and acts, and in that his
complete responsibility is established; his own spirit is the
essence of this law and provides for ever compensation for every
disturbance and adjustment for all effects. This is the law of
Karma or justice, sometimes called the ethical law of causation.
It is not foreign to the Christian scriptures, for both Jesus and
St. Paul clearly enunciated it. Jesus said we should be judged
as we gave judgment and should receive the measure meted to
others. St. Paul said: "Brethren, be not deceived, God is not
mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that also shall he reap."
And that sowing and reaping can only be possible under the
doctrines of Karma and reincarnation.

But what of death and after? Is heaven a place or is it not?
Theosophy teaches, as may be found in all sacred books, that
after death the soul reaps a rest. This is from its own nature.
It is a thinker, and cannot during life fulfill and carry out all
nor even a small part of the myriads of thoughts entertained.
Hence when at death it casts off the body and the astral body,
and is released from the passions and desires, its natural forces
have immediate sway and it thinks its thoughts out on the soul
plane, clothed in a finer body suitable to that existence. This
is called Devachan. It is the very state that has brought about
the descriptions of heaven common to all religions, but this
doctrine is very clearly put in the Buddhist and Hindu religions.
It is a time of rest, because the physical body being absent the
consciousness is not in the completer touch with visible nature
which is possible on the material plane. But it is a real
existence, and no more illusionary than earth life; it is where
the essence of the thoughts of life that were as high as
character permitted, expands and is garnered by the soul and
mind. When the force of these thoughts is fully exhausted the
soul is drawn back once more to earth, to that environment which
is sufficiently like unto itself to give it the proper further
evolution. This alternation from state to state goes on until the
being rises from repeated experiences above ignorance, and
realizes in itself the actual unity of all spiritual beings. Then
it passes on to higher and greater steps on the evolutionary
road.

No new ethics are presented by Theosophy, as it is held that
right ethics are for ever the same. But in the doctrines of
Theosophy are to be found the philosophical and reasonable basis
for ethics and the natural enforcement of them in practice.
Universal brotherhood is that which will result in doing unto
others as you would have them do unto you, and in your
loving your neighbour as yourself--declared as right by all
teachers in the great religions of the world.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE


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-----Original Message-----
From: Gopi Chari
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 12:25 PM
Subject: Re: Part (c) of Stanza I, sloka 6. S.D. I pp 44 - 46

I just signed up and this is the first time I received the e-mail
dialogue and trust this reply goes to the appropriate place. How
do I
access the tons of dialogue you must have on this subject?

Gopi