Theos-Talk Archives (October 2001 Message tt00287)

Thursday, October 18, 2001


Dear Friends::

I do not think that when one considers the possibility of Wise
Men one excludes from that list individuals who down the ages,
have been noted for their extraordinary knowledge and generosity.
The list is a long one and includes individuals from every race
and religio.

Would it not be preferable to ask how they are identified? I
do not think that THEOSOPHY in any way depends on whether we or
someone else makes a claim on behalf of any one.

I am of the opinion that any one, all of us, are potentially
equipped in mental capacity and acuity to discover and decide on
the validity of any question or writing or opinion. This is
because we share in the universal power to think and discover how
principles and laws are in Nature and in ourselves.

Claims are not proof. Nor does a valid science or theory depend
on the one who proclaims it. Claims and proof are the result of
testing the value of what is offered. The real proof of sagacity
and value is in the words and life of the individual concerned.

Nor is it possible to rate a philosophy by those who are hailed
as its supporters. The value of any science, philosophy,
religion or political aim is in the way on which it benefits
others.

If you want to know anything about the individuals concerned with
the ORIGINAL PROMULGATION of THEOSOPHY as a philosophy, (and whom
Mme. Blavatsky called her "Masters" ) then you and all other
inquirers ought to go direct to the MAHATMA LETTERS and read and
think about what is offered there.

If you are interested in the history of the development of
philosophy and religion down the eras, then go to a good
Encyclopedia and look up that history of their development and
main tenets. But that is only one author's opinion. Better still
go to the original texts.

If you wish to evaluate Theosophy go to ISIS UNVEILED and The
SECRET DOCTRINE and to H.P.Blavatsky's Articles. Read the KEY
TO THEOSOPHY (HPB) and the VOICE OF THE SILENCE and form you own
opinion.

If you are in a hurry and wish to use others view points then how
can you be sure they are accurate? Who can you trust?

Consider the process of higher education: It is personal
research that counts.

Now as to the Theosophical Mahatmas. The concept is first of all
that none of them desires to draw specific attention to
themselves, because if that were done, the importunities of the
curious would end in disrupting their quiet work.

ISIS UNVEILED does give us a view of the actual existence of an
ancient Lodge of wise Men. Look at ISIS UNVEILED Vol. II, pp 97
to 105, and you will find some details about this.

Let me quote to you a statement made in March 1888 in the PATH:

"...the THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY ..was ordered to be started in 1875
by those beings who have since been variously designated as
Adepts, Mahatmas, Masters, and Brothers. In 1875 we knew them by
the name "Brothers;" and now, as then, we pin our faith upon
their knowledge, wisdom, power, and Justice. [nor did we allow
insinuations of fraud or delusion]... to alter our faith in Them
and in the Supreme Law that carries us into existence, governing
us there with mercy and giving peace when we submit completely to
it...and we would have no one misunderstand how we look upon H.
P. Blavatsky. She is the greatest woman in this world in our
opinion, and greater than any man now moving among men....each
member of the Society has to thank her for the store of knowledge
an spiritual help that has lifted so many of us from doubt to
certainty of where and how Truth might be found; lovers of truth
and seekers after occultism will know her worth only when she has
passed from this earth..." [ W Q J Articles II, pp 580-1 ] The
above was written by one of the founders of the THEOSOPHICAL
SOCIETY Mr. Wm. Q. Judge.

It is not from the "astral plane" or through "mediums" and
"channelers" that we will receive any corroboration of the value
of Theosophy, or of those Great KNOWERS of UNIVERSAL LAW, who
have endeavored to make it known to us. They do not say:
"Follow." They say" Study and Seek, and when you know then
TEST, and PROVE its statements for yourself."

Suppose one of us wishes to study at some great University. Do we
demand to know the credentials of the President, and the Faculty?
And, prior to our enrolment do we insist on interviewing them
personally and criticizing the curriculum and the system of
instruction? We may look over the courses so as t select those
we desire to learn. We may use the Library for information, and
research, past and present. But from that first commencement do
we demand to have the president visit us, so that we may assure
ourselves of the validity of the arts and sciences we are going
to learn?

So why do we expect the Masters t manifest if at present we have
made little effort to study. Let us say what do we know of the
KEY TO THEOSOPHY (HPB) or of the VOICE OF THE SILENCE ? With at
least a reading of these in our heads, have our opinions and
prejudices been enhanced or dispelled?

Theosophy has never asked for adherents, it has always
encouraged those who seek t discover for themselves with an
unprejudiced and open mind. And especially these with a desire
to penetrate to the core of things (the 1st level of testimony)
and not be satisfied with "2nd or 3rd level" testimony.

But I think enough is said. Except for a few more notes appended
below, which might be of use

Best wishes,

Dallas.

========================================
APPENDIX



Reflections on Monadic Evolution, Masters, and
The value of Theosophy


"It is on the right comprehension of the primeval Evolution of
Spirit-Matter and its real essence that the student has to depend
for the further elucidation in his mind of the Occult Cosmogony,
and for the only sure clue which can guide his subsequent
studies. "
-- Secret Doctrine Vol I page 277.


"It is the Spiritual evolution of the inner, immortal man that
forms the fundamental tenet in the Occult Sciences...the student
has to believe a) in the ONE Universal Life, independent of
matter...and,
b) in the individual intelligences that animate the various
manifestations of this Principle."
-- SD I 634


"The ONE LIFE is closely related to the One Law, which governs
the World of Being--KARMA... action," or rather "an
effect-producing cause."...in its far-reaching moral effects. It
is the unerring LAW of RETRIBUTION."...eternal and
mutable..." -- SD I 634


"...man is a free agent during his stay on earth. He cannot
escape his ruling Destiny...which from birth to death every man
is weaving thread by thread around himself; and this destiny is
guided either by the heavenly voice of the invisible prototype
outside of us, or by the evil genius of our more intimate astral,
or inner man."	-- SD I 639


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


If one considers that the entire MANIFESTATION is made up of
imperishable (immortal) MONADS and, each one is a compound that
cannot be separated of SPIRIT/MATTER, then it is possible to
consider another deduction: INTELLIGENCE is a mark of the
individual progress of each MONAD as it wends its eternal journey
through the experiences that manifestation gives. Every least
"atom" is intelligent, and that intelligence is ever-growing as
it lives through experience in all the many successive planes of
nature.

"The SECRET DOCTRINE teaches the progressive development of
everything, worlds, as well as atoms; and this stupendous
development has neither conceivable beginning not imaginable
end." (SD I 43)

CONSCIOUSNESS is the PERCEPTIVE power which it the Real Man, uses
to experience on the 7 planes of Nature -- using the 7
"principles" of its nature as a basis for making this contact,
and it stores the memory of those experiences. "Mind is the name
given to the sum of the states of Consciousness grouped under
Thought, Will and Feeling." (SD I 38) ...

"Whatever plane our consciousness may be acting in, both we and
the things belonging to that plane, are for the time being, our
only realities...the upward progress of the Ego is a series of
progressive awakenings..." (SD I 40)

But that MEMORY is not always available to the Mind
(Lower-Manas), that we use every day while awake, and it is
embodied in our time-limited personalities. This makes the
progress we seek (in the here and now) a process of purifying our
mind-nature of the psychic impressions we have imposed on it and
on the living matter (skandhas) that we have drawn together to
make up these bodies of ours.

The "path" of this purification would seem to direct us to
recommend that all our efforts be focused on the application of
virtue: that which is honorable, fair, true, and the most honest
method of living with and dealing with other beings, whether
those be men or other aggregates of skandhaic intelligence that
we might call stones, plants, animals or men.

In other words we voluntarily decide to order our lives so as to
harmonize with nature to the best possible extent. Obviously for
our personal consciousness (arising out of the animal and placed
in coadunition with a Mind) it is seemingly a great discipline.
The "conflict" in the psychic nature is intense. (SD II 79-80,
93-4, 167, 247)

The MONAD ( the REAL MAN, in itself) is unaffected. But it draws
SKANDHAS (or Monads of lesser experience around it and to it)
They "hook up to it." They choose it to be the center of their
progress. They form the highest and best vehicle for it to begin
to manifest CONSCIOUSLY on the lower planes of MANIFESTATION --
of which there are the 7 we know (both in Nature and in Man).

"The Monads are the Souls of the Atoms, both are the fabric in
which the Chohans (Dhyanis, gods) clothe themselves when a form
is needed." -- SD I 619.

To be brief we call the MONAD when it is in the mineral stage the
"MINERAL-MONAD." When it is in the animal stage of its
evolution, we call it the "ANIMAL-MONAD." And when it finally
reaches the Human stage, we call it the "HUMAN-MONAD." And when
the purely human is transcended we might call the MONAD, one that
has returned to its primitive Divine state--it is the Dhyan
Chohan. It has attained Universal Self-consciousness. It lives
with and works with Karma. It therefore can choose to return to
the limited conditions provided by the 'Lighting up of Manas" and
again inspire another developing MONAD to achieve its
perfection, to awaken its own universal self-consciousness.

If one considers the scope of Theosophical doctrines we can see
that this can be applied everywhere -- if we use the concept
that everything is a Monad that is constantly engaged in its own
way as a developing pupil of the great Law. Karma is a process
that is enormously sensitive, and it operates at all times and
on all beings to adjust any disturbance and restore harmony.

"Bad" karma is the effect of any choice that has selfish motives
inherent in it. The Monadic being that created the disharmony has
to be brought (by Nature using Karmic law) to "teach himself" or
"to become a volunteer for the good." All the situations he is
placed in are framed so as to awaken his questioning
intelligence, to make him reflect on his advantages and
limitations, and finally to ask: Why am I here? What can I to
do? Where should I be going? "Is there a final GOAL?"

This leads the thoughtful man out of any blind following of
leaders in religion, philosophy, politics or science into
deciding what he should study and accept as his own guiding
principles. The closer that those are to universal morality and
ethics, the more perfect will he make his living.

We could say that Theosophy is a record of the HISTORY OF THE
UNIVERSE in terms of universal experience. It is like a great
wall. We can not "bite" it. It shows us the "reality" we are
looking for. Now we have to find out how it works, and what is
that final objective of manifested existence. How does our MONAD
reunite with the universal MONAD in which it all beings are
dwelling, perhaps unconsciously for aeons of time? "The whole
past of our globe is nothing but an unfolding present." -- SD I
639.

If one looks closely at religion and politics one soon finds that
they deal with temporary things, and limited personal and selfish
objectives. Theosophy as a fund of actual data from the past (a
record), and a body of history is unassailable. It is a record
of the observations of facts, events, results of events down the
ages -- so the cycles of effect that follow causes and thus are
Laws, become apparent. When the complexity of the Universe and
Nature is apparent to us, and as our perceptions and intelligence
grow we will grasp the fact that we are the ones who drive that.
We are the immortal CHOOSERS.

The differences of our many starting points in life and education
in this present incarnation, do not matter, we find that all
conflict arises only over DIFFERENCES of outlook. Once that we
all are looking at the same thing, on a voluntary basis, all
conflicts disappear and we see each other's view-points as well
as our own.

Similarity can never to be identity. That is impossible. Hence
logically, there are no "leaders," and no "authorities." Our
true leader and authority (for our own selves) is the Divine
MONAD within (ATMA-BUDDHI), also called: THE HIGHER SELF. And
our MONAD is no different form any other MONAD. ["Every monad
reflects every other. Every monad is a living mirror of the
Universe within its own sphere." -- SD I 631.]

We do exhibit a great degree of intelligence and have
corresponding great responsibilities. Using the process of
introspection and observation of our own natures, thoughts and
acts, we gradually become conscious of their power, and then it
is that we notice the conflict that arises between the
"necessary" and the "pleasant" (to the personality -- which
cannot see with the "instinct" alone, the inevitable suffering
that indulging the "pleasant" entails). Alone the awakened Mind
can see this potential and guard against it. It is a power we
have that is superior to our feelings and desires.

In practical life one finds that all systems and methods embody
inefficiencies. This is a saving grace. There should never be
any imposition of "personal efficiency" on others. Each has to
create their own. In the meantime in cooperation with others we
learn to tolerate the inefficiencies of others, and work in and
around them. What do we need to find and use for the study of
Theosophy ? -- Ideally we need the "original teachings."
Additionally we need to find a forum in which we can join with
others to discuss the philosophy and its applications.

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


-----Original Message-----
From: M----a S----i
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2001 11:29 AM
To:
Subject: Re: The Mahatma letters.

--- In theos-talk@..., --- ---- wrote::
> Where's the proof that the Masters exist?
More importantly, who are the real Masters? It makes a person
think
twice before accepting the words of anyone who claims to
"channel"
the Masters.

> Students of the Masters become very egocentric. The world is
full
> of signs and portents, they become imbued with a sense of
extreme
> self-importance. Thoughtful review will show that feelings,
> emotions, and belief of realness do not automatically grant
> autenticity to the experiences.

Spiritual narcissism is a real and insidious disease of the soul
that
is prevalent among various spiritual paths. It has been my
understanding that a servant of the Hierarchy is free from
prejudice,
vanity, ego and pride. These are diseases associated with the
lower
mental plane.

Feelings and emotions belong to the astral plane. If one wants
any
reassurance of the authenticity of their experiences, one would
need
to get above the maya, glamor and illusion and contact the higher
mental and intuitional planes.

M----a