Theos-Talk Archives (October 2001 Message tt00293)

Dallas - Quick aside - Seriously How do you find the Time to write so
much? ;)

Cheers

NOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

|-----Original Message-----
|From: dalval14@earthlink.net [mailto:dalval14@earthlink.net] 
|Sent: Friday, 19 October 2001 9:22 AM
|To: AA-B-Study
|Subject: Theos-World RE: The Mahatma letters.
|
|
|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
|
|
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