Theos-Talk Archives (October 2001 Message tt00062)

Thursday, October 04, 2001


Dear Joao:

There is no direct answer to your question. No one can tell you if or not
the Masters continue to place their will and hands behind the THEOSOPHICAL
SOCIETY -- or any organization, or any Individual. In a way they have
already said that their Will, will preserve it.

But the THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY is at least three things:

1st. it is the SPIRITUAL CONCEPT of UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD made universal
and practical.

2nd. It is the discipline of individual devotion to a discipline that
leads the embodied brain-mind inward to its source the ABSOLUTE from which
all that is manifested is derived.

3rd, . It is place where any one who desires to become wise can enter
freely and partake of the treasures available there.

As a result the true THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY will not be a place where
precedent and authority play any part. It will not allow disruption caused
by petty personal opinions and objectives that seek to enslave and “guide”
others. It will encourage free speech, free will, the practice of virtue
all the time, If one reviews the basic Rules for the THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
established in 1875, all these will be found implied there. Compare those
with the present Rules and By-Laws and see if there still exists that
original spirit. If you can obtain this article, by Mme. Blavatsky, then
secure a copy to read it or go to BLAVATSKY NET where it is available on
line. Read her article A PUZZLE FROM ADYAR. This was published in LUCIFER
for August 1889, (Vol. 4, p. 506)

This kind of examination has to be done individually in the light of
universality and impersonality. The “officers of the THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY”
have one single and imperative duty: to conduct themselves as Theosophists
and to exemplify Theosophy in their daily lives. This is the only way in
which the Masters influence can be made “a living power” for all to draw
from. It is not something that is attached to the physical THEOSOPHICAL
SOCIETY . It is something that each MEMBER attracts, providing he
transforms him or herself into a brother to all men and women and a true
servant of Humanity, which the Masters say that They are servants to.

They (and all of us) alone will know in the depths of their conscience
whether they are successful. or not. And this is a rule that applies to
everyone, No one, whether in or out of the organized THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
is ever exempt from this. Not even the Masters are exempt. They are
MASTERS because they embody virtue as a way of life. Therefore another
criterion is : “No one can or ought to judge any one else.”

If we are all BROTHERS, then there are no differences, and assistance to
each other is mandatory. This is a universal criterion, and you will find
it not only in modern organizations, but it is at the root of the most
ancient of religious systems -- I mean those that rely on WISDOM AND TRUTH,
not those that go by pomp, show, and rituals.

Every Great Teacher (like H P B) came as a reformer. Her reform is
constituted in a great effort (And the Masters have written that they
support it) to get all humans to THINK FOR THEMSELVES, independently of
what any one else might say, or offer as a sample of excellence. On has to
remember that all KARMA is attached to the motive that the Individual
Selects. There is where the test of devotion to virtue becomes crucial. It
always enhances the right of the individual to excel or to fail in his
ability to discriminate. The criterion is always: “What can I do
impartially and whole heartedly for others?”

The reason is plain. If any one said either “yes,” or “no,” to your
question, then they say also that they KNOW. Who of us can boast of such a
connection one way or the other? How would we dare to boast of connections
to the MASTERS of WISDOM, if we are not masters of our own discriminative
faculty. and that is BUDDHI, the “vehicle” of ATMA -- UNIVERSAL SPIRITUAL
WISDOM and LIFE. The secret is in the Gayatri verse. That has to be most
carefully studied and Theosophy alone provides the individual with the
necessary keys.

This is why I gave you, by way of answer, such parts as I am aware of, of
the necessary criteria whereby you can work out the puzzle for yourself.
Each one of us has to make of himself a center of SPIRITUAL FORCE in the
common daily world.

First of all you will not be able to guess at, nor decide what you want to
know, unless you are sure by study and testing yourself as to your own
virtue is, and its capacity for development and application. Everything has
to be done by ones’ self. There are no shortcuts, nor can any one place
their hands on your head or your heart and endow those organs with WISDOM.
Each of us has that power because the ONE SPIRIT is interior to us.

This sounds, probably, very strange, very mystical, to us, these days when
“VIRTUE” is largely avoided as a subject for discussion. We also avoidthe
question of LAW, and whether it is our DUTY to live a pure and virtuous,
holly and wise life. Read and study the KEY TO THEOSOPHY (HPB) as you will
find there that everything I now write here is directly from that wonderful
book, and from The SECRET DOCTRINE .

No one can answer these questions for another. But they can point to their
own efforts and to places and sources where each student can do the work for
themselves.

Cast your mind back to when you were a student in school or college. The
classes and the Text-books were made available to all who came. the response
of the pupils was their own individual interest. Everyone there made their
level of interest the ladder on which they climbed to mastery of the
subject -- so as to pass on to the next stage in learning. it is so all the
way through life. And the impetus to become truly WISE is one that persists
over many lives. Only the imperishable EGO within each of us is able to
evaluate the successes of the embodied mind-soul.

So, as I said. the only test is: “By their works you shall know them.”The
decision and the adventure to learn what true SPIRITUALITY ( not
“spiritism, ”or “psychism”) is the pilgrimage of our lives. We have to
learn to discriminate between the immortal and the permanent and that which
changes constantly in us. Which do you think is most valuable? Is it
worthwhile to attach ones’ self to a “form” which eventually dissolves and
perishes, or attach ones’ self to the IMMORTAL? You ask about the Masters,
their work and their influence. They are all around us. Not far, but we
keep them at a distance because we have yet to grasp the concept that we can
make ourselves their devotees by serving the aims and purposes that they
have pointed to and explained.

You seem, from what you write, to be a relatively new student in
theosophical discovery in this life. Yet, like everyone else, the “ray” of
the ONE SPIRIT is in you, as it is in me, in every one else, and in the
Masters. The main difference as I see it concerning the Masters, is that
they EMBODY IT FULLY, and their persona made of purified matter, allows it
(the ONE SPIRIT) to work in and through them.

But until such time as we are able to purify our natures and attune
ourselves to THEIR LEVEL OF WISDOM, we will not be able to know them, except
very vaguely, as distant IDEALS. It is for this purpose they remain in the
world. They stand as IDEALS. They say that once they were men and women
such as we are now, and that by great effort they have transformed
Themselves..

As we pursue our life and do good deeds, and seek to learn the many lessons
open to our understanding, we make ourselves (our lower personal self) more
“porous” to the interior wisdom.

There is a saying that we ought to treasure, each of us: “Look inward, THOU
ART BUDDHA.” It is from the VOICE OF THE SILENCE, by H P B which she says
is translated from the Book of Dzyan (WISDOM),” and that is a book which
every aspirant to know and work for the Masters, ought to make his or her
daily companion.

Answering your last question. H P B was one of the latest of their
Messengers, but I would say that she was not the “last.” If she were the
last -- that is a claim she never made. In fact if you read her works you
will discover that she always gave credit to the Masters of Wisdom for
anything she wrote or said.

The formula is: “Thus have I heard….” The Masters never ‘spoke tothe
Society” through H P B but they spoke to us all through her writings. There
does exist a certificate which they gave to Dr. Hubbe Schleiden
Reproduced in the magazine THE PATH, Vol. 8, p. 1-3 ) whereby they
declared that the book The SECRET DOCTRINE was the triple production of
themselves and H P B. I offer this as an example.

I do hope this makes sense and proves to be of help.

Best wishes in your studies and work,


DTB

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

>From dalval.earthlink



Such contact if it at all is made, obviously is always secret and INTERNAL
and is not subject to any outward determination, least of all to any
self-claims as might be made.


Thank you for answering my e-mail, but I feel that the most important direct
and simple questions was left unanswered! Does the Theosophical Society
still share the living connection with the Masters of Wisdom LIKE BLAVATSKY
ANS MANY OTHERS MEMBERS USED TO HAVE?


I have read some of the Theosophical literature, including the key to
Theosophy, and I feel myself fortunate to be able to have that Knowledge as
part of my daily living (my favorite books are The Voice of the Silence and
at the feet of the Masters). But Throughout the years, I have studied the
Life history of the Society, Its trials and successes. And along the way, I
found the contact with the Master's phenomena very interesting specially
because except those that had a living connection with Them can testify of
their existence. And those that don't, just don't! (probably they [those
that don't have the connection] would believe that those that do [have a
connection] is doing so by self-claim.


When was the last time that the Masters publicly spoke to the Society (like
They used to do through Blavatsky) ? Or was Blavatsky the last of Their
great Messengers?




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