Theos-Talk Archives (January 2002 Message tt00018)

PART 2 ===	AVATARS - ADEPTS -- MAHATMAS == etc.


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BUDDHA (Sk.)	"The Enlightened." The highest degree of
knowledge. To become a Buddha one has to break through the
bondage of sense and personality; to acquire a complete
perception of the REAL SELF and learn not to separate it from all
other selves; to learn (65) by experience the utter unreality of
all phenomena of the visible Kosmos foremost of all; to reach a
complete detachment from all that is evanescent and finite, and
live while yet on Earth in the immortal and the everlasting
alone, in a supreme state of holiness."	GLOS 64-5



BUDDHA SIDDARTHA (Sk.)	The name given to Gautama, the Prince of
Kapilavastu, at his birth...he would not have been a mortal man,
had he not passed through hundreds and thousands of births
previous to his last...through every stage of transmigration from
the lowest animate and inanimate atom and insect, up to the
highest--man, ...the hidden symbolism in the sequence of these
re-births (jataka) contains simply [that] every human being who
has ever existed has passed through the same evolution...as soon
as Gautama had reached the human form he began exhibiting in
every personality the utmost unselfishness, self-sacrifice and
charity...the 4th of the Sapta (7) Buddhas and Sapta Tathagatas
...Esoteric teachings claim that he renounced Nirvana and gave up
the Dharmakaya vesture to remain a "Buddha of compassion" within
the reach of the miseries of this world. And the religious
philosophy he left to it has produced for over 2,000 years
generations of good and unselfish men. His is the only
absolutely bloodless religion among all existing religions...[if
the] simple, humane and philosophical code of daily life left to
us by the greatest Man-Reformer ever known, should ever come to
be adopted by mankind at large, then indeed an era of bliss and
peace would dawn on Humanity."	GLOS 65-67


"...human consciousness" is but a Ray of the Divine. Our Manas,
or Ego, proceeds from, and is the Son (figuratively) of Mahat.
Vaivaswata Manu (the Manu of our fifth race and Humanity in
general) is the chief personified representative of the thinking
Humanity of the fifth Root-race; and therefore he is represented
as the eldest Son of the Sun and an Agnishwatta
Ancestor...Thought in its action on human brains is endless.
Thus Manu is, and contains the potentiality of all the thinking
forms which will be developed on earth from this particular
source. In the esoteric teaching he is the beginning of this
earth , and from him and his daughter Ila humanity is born; he
is a unity which contains all the pluralities and their
modifications. Every manvantara has its own Manu, and from this
Manu the various Manus or rather all the Manasa of the Kalpas
will proceed...he may be compared to the white light which
contains all the other rays, giving birth to them by passing
through the prism of differentiation and evolution."	TRAN. 99




The Mahatma is the Higher Manas --
Inseparable from the Atma


"The real Mahatma is then not his physical body but that higher
Manas which is inseparably linked to the Atma and its vehicle
(6th principle) -- a union effected by him in a comparatively
very short period by passing through the self-evolution laid down
by the Occult Philosophy." HPB ART I 293




Masters and Adepts are Everywhere: --
Historically & Now


"There are scattered throughout the world, a handful of
thoughtful and solitary students, who pass their lives in
obscurity, far from the rumors of the world, studying the great
problems of the physical and spiritual universes. They have
their secret records in which are preserved the fruits of the
scholastic labors of the long line of recluses whose successors
they are. The knowledge of their early ancestors, the sages of
India, Babylon, Nineveh, and the imperial Thebes; the legends
and traditions commented upon by the masters of Solon,
Pythagoras, and Plato, in the (558) marble halls of Heliopolis
and Sais; traditions which in their days, already seemed to
hardly glimmer from behind the foggy curtain of the past;--all
this, and much more, is recorded on indestructible parchment, and
passed with jealous care from one adept to another. These men
believe the story of Atlantis to be no fable...In those submerged
temples and libraries the archaeologist would find, could he but
explore them, the materials for filling the gaps that now exist
in what we imagine is history."	ISIS I 557-558;




MANAS MUST BE MORALLY PURIFIED TO SEE
THE MAHATMAS EVERYWHERE

"Whoever...wants to see the real Mahatma, must use his
intellectual sight. He must so elevate his Manas that its
perceptions will be clear and all mists created by Maya must be
dispelled. His vision will then be bright and he will see the
MAHATMAS wherever he may be, for, being merged into the 6th and
the 7th principles, which are ubiquitous and omnipresent, the
MAHATMAS may be said to be everywhere." HPB ART I 294


BODHA: - WISDOM -- BUDDHI: -
COGNITION & DISCRIMINATION


"Bodha means the innate possession of divine intellect or
"understanding;" "Buddha," the acquirement of it by personal
efforts and merit; while Buddhi is the faculty of cognizing the
channel through which divine knowledge reaches the "Ego," the
discernment of good and evil, "divine conscience" also; and
"Spiritual Soul," which is the vehicle of Atma. "When Buddhi
absorbs our EGO-tism (destroys it) with all its Vikara,
Avalokiteshvara becomes manifested to us, and Nirvana, or Mukti,
is reached," "Mukti" being the same as Nirvana, i.e., freedom
from the trammels of "Maya" or illusion.

"Bodhi" is likewise the name of a particular state of trance
condition, called Samadhi, during which the subject reaches the
culmination of spiritual knowledge."	SD I xix


"Most of us believe in the survival of the Spiritual Ego, in
Planetary Spirits and Nirmanakayas, those great Adepts of the
past ages, who, renouncing their right to Nirvana, remain in our
spheres of being, not as "spirits" but as complete spiritual
human Beings. Save their corporeal, visible envelope, which they
leave behind, they remain as they were, in order to help poor
humanity, as far as can be done without sinning against Karmic
law. This is the "Great Renunciation," indeed; an incessant,
conscious self-sacrifice throughout aeons and ages till that day
when the eyes of blind mankind will open and, instead of the few,
all will see the universal truth. These Beings may well be
regarded as God and Gods--if they would but allow the fire in our
hearts, at the thought of that purest of all sacrifices, to be
fanned into the flame of adoration, or the smallest altar in
their honor. But they will not. Verily, "the secret heart is
fair Devotion's (only) temple," and any other in this case, would
be no better than profane ostentation."
HPB ARTICLES III 204



NIRMANAKAYA - BODHISATTVA


"Remember, thou that fightest for man's liberation,* each failure
is success and each sincere attempt wins its reward in time."
_______________________________________
* This is an allusion to a well-known belief in the East...that
every additional Buddha or Saint is a new soldier in the army of
those who work for the liberation, or salvation of mankind. In
Northern Buddhist countries, where the doctrine of the
Nirmanakayas--those Bodhisattvas who renounce well-earned Nirvana
or the Dharmakaya vesture (both of which shut them out forever
from the world of men) in order to invisibly assist mankind and
lead it finally to Paranirvana--is taught, every new Bodhisattva,
or initiated great Adept, is called the "liberator of mankind."
VOICE OF THE SILENCE, p. 69


"A Bodhisattva is, in the hierarchy, less than a "perfect
Buddha." In the exoteric parlance these two are very much
confused. Yet the innate and right popular perception, owing to
that self-sacrifice has placed a Bodhisattva higher in its
reverence than a Buddha.

This same popular reverence calls "Buddhas of Compassion" those
Bodhisattvas who, having reached the rank of an Arhat (i.e., have
completed the fourth or seventh Path), refuse to pass into the
Nirvanic state or "don the Dharmakaya robe and cross to the other
shore," as it would then become beyond their power to assist men
even so little as Karma permits. They prefer to remain invisibly
(in Spirit, so to speak) in the world, and contribute towards
man's salvation by influencing them to follow the Good Law, i.e.,
lead them on the Path of Righteousness..."	VOICE OF THE SILENCE,
p. 77



ADEPT WORK: ASSISTING ALL GOOD MOVEMENTS
and INDIVIDUALS


Q.:--	"What then are the Adepts doing?

A.:-- (a) Assisting all good movements by acting on men from
behind the scenes through mental influence.

(b) Preparing as many men and women who are fit for it
so that they may, in their next incarnation, appear in the world
as active devotees to the good of the Human Family.

(c) Spreading now, through impulses given in many
places which must not be mentioned, a philosophy of life which
will gradually affect the race mind, and in particular the
active, conquering Western peoples, thus preparing the whole
people to change and evolve yet further and further until evils
disappear and better days and people reappear." WQJ ARTICLES
II 53-4



THE SECRET DOCTRINE or ORIENTAL KABALA


"...the Oriental, or the universal Kabala ! Its adepts are few;
but these heirs elect of the sages who first discovered "the
starry truths"... have solved the "absolute" and are now resting
from their grand labor...no one, not even these elect can go
beyond that which is given to mortals of this earth to know...can
trespass beyond the line drawn my the finger of the Divinity
itself. Travelers have met these adepts...they have been seen
but seldom recognized...They may be found everywhere, but make
themselves known only to those who have devoted their lives to
unselfish study, and are not likely to turn back." ISIS I 17



THE SECRET DOCTRINE ORIGINATED IN INDIA
THEN SPREAD ELSEWHERE


"...certain "adepts"...show that the "secret doctrine" has
originated in India from whence it was brought to Chaldea,
passing subsequently into the hands of the Hebrew
"Tanaim,"...King Solomon got all his kabalistic lore from
India...and his friend Hiram..." ISIS I 136 fn



YOGIS AND MAHATMAS


"...from "yug"--to join. A real Yogi is a person who, having
entirely divorced himself from the world, its (166) attractions
and pleasures, has succeeded after a more or less long period of
training, to re-unite his soul with the "Universal Soul" or to
"join" with Parabrahm...one who has linked his 7th and 6th
principles or Atman and Buddhi and placed thereby his lower
principles or Manas (the animal soul and the personal ego) en
rapport with the Universal Principle, then...He may be classified
with the Mahatmas, since this word means simply a "great soul"...
The Rishis--at any rate those who can be proved to have actually
lived (since many of those who are mentioned...are more or less
mythical) were of course "Mahatmas," in the broad sense of the
word...The real Yogis, the heirs to the wisdom of the Aryan
Rishis, are not to be met, however, in the world mixing with the
profane and allowing themselves to be known as Yogis. Happy are
they to whom the whole world is open, and who know it from their
inaccessible ashrams; while the world (with the exception of a
very few) knowing them not, denies their very existence... The
exposition of "Occultism"... has been clear enough to show that
it is the Science by the study and practice of which the student
can become a MAHATMA. The articles "The Elixir of Life" [ FIVE
YEARS OF THEOSOPHY, p. 1 ] and...are clear enough on this point.
They also explain scientifically the necessity of being a
vegetarian for the purposes of psychic development. Read and
study, and you will find why Vegetarianism, Celibacy, and
especially total abstinence from wine and spirituous drink are
strictly necessary for "the development of Occult knowledge"...
HPB ARTICLES III 165-167



SPIRITUAL PROGENITORS: LOGOS IN TRADITION


"...Avalokiteshvara, Chenresi, "the great Logos,"...the
progenitor (in a spiritual sense) of men. Padmapani -
Avalokiteshvara...is called exoterically Bodhisattva (or Dhyan
Chohan)...Chenresi Vachung..." SD II 178



WISDOM RELIGION PRESERVED SINCE ANTIQUITY -- ADEPTS WORK
WITH HUMANITY AS CYCLES AND KARMA PERMIT


"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 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...this is the wisdom religion, and they are the keepers
of it."	WQJ ARTICLES I pp. 1 - 2



SAVIOURS OF NATIONS AND OF MEN --
TEACHERS OF TRUTH -- ALIVE NOW



"At times they come to nations as great teachers and "saviours,"
who only repromulgate the old truths and systems 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. Added...to the testimony
through all time found in the 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." WQJ ARTICLES I
PP. 1-2



FINAL CHOICE OF NIRVANA OR RENUNCIATION
AS A NIRMANAKAYA)


"... we know that at a certain period of progress, far above this
sublunary world, the adept reaches a point when he may, if he so
chooses, formulate a wish that he might be one of the Devas, one
of the bright host of beings of whose pleasure and glory and
power we can have no idea. The mere formulation of the wish is
enough. At that moment he becomes one of the Devas. He then for
a period of time which in its extent is incalculable, enjoys that
condition--then what? Then he has to begin again low down on the
scale, in a mode and for a purpose which it would be useless to
detail here, because it could not be understood..." WQJ
ARTICLES I pp 8-9



"Nirmanakaya...is that ethereal form which one would assume when
leaving his physical he would appear in his astral body--having
in addition all the knowledge of an Adept. The Bodhisattva
develops it in himself as he proceeds on the Path. Having
reached the goal and refused its fruition, he remains on Earth,
as an Adept; and when he dies, instead of going into Nirvana, he
remains in that glorious body he has woven for himself, invisible
to uninitiated mankind, to watch over and protect it...Thus, to
be enabled to help humanity, an Arhat who has won the right to
Nirvana, "renounces the Dharmakaya body" in mystic parlance;
keeps, of the Sambhogakaya, only the great and complete
knowledge, and remains in his Nirmanakaya body. The Esoteric
School teaches that Gautama Buddha, with several of his Arhats,
is such a Nirmanakaya higher than whom, on account of the great
renunciation and sacrifice for mankind, there is none known."
VOICE 77-8


INDIVIDUALITY PERSISTS THROUGH ANY PRALAYA
TO THE NEXT MANVANTARA



"...I maintain as an occultist on the authority of the Secret
Doctrine, that though merged entirely into Parabrahm, man's
spirit while not individual per se, yet preserves its distinct
individuality in Paranirvana, owing to the accumulation in it of
the aggregates, or skandhas that have survived after each death,
from the highest faculties of the Manas. The most
spiritual--i.e., the highest and divinest aspirations of every
personality follow Buddhi and the Seventh Principle into Devachan
(Swarga) after the death of the Monad...the individuality of the
spirit-soul...is preserved to the end of the great cycle
(Maha-Manwantara) when each Ego enters Paranirvana, or is merged
in Parabrahm...however long the "night of Brahma" or even the
Universal Pralaya...yet, when it ends, the same individual Divine
Monad resumes its majestic path of evolution, though on a higher,
hundredfold perfected and more pure chain of earths (266) than
before, and brings with it all the essence of compound
spiritualities from its previous countless rebirths."	HPB
ARTICLES III 265-6



MAN'S IMMORTAL MANVANTARIC BODY --
THINKING, ACTING, RECORDING


"We should remember that we were self-conscious beings when this
planet began; some even were self-conscious when this solar
system began; for there is a difference in degree of development
among human beings. If the planet or solar system began in a
state of primordial substance or nebulous matter ... then we must
have had bodies of that state of substance, In that finest
substance there are all the possibilities of every grade of
matter, and hence it is that within the true body of primordial
matter all the changes of coarser and coarser substance have been
brought about; and within that body is all experience. Our
birth is within that body--a body of a nature which does not
change throughout the whole Manvantara. Each one has such a body
of finest substance, of the inner nature, which is the real
container for the individual. In it he lives and moves and has
his being, and yet even the great glory and fineness of that body
is not the man; it is merely the highest vesture of the Soul.
The Real Man we are is the Man that was, that is, and that ever
shall be, for whom the hour will never strike--Man, the thinker;
Man, the perceiver--always thinking, continually acting...We are
that One Spirit, each standing in a vast assemblage of beings in
this great universe, seeing and knowing what he can through the
instrument he has. We are the Trinity--the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost; or, in theosophical parlance, we are Atma,
Buddhi, and Manas. Atma is the One Spirit, not belonging to any
one, but to all. Buddhi is the sublimated experience of all the
past. Manas is the thinking power, the thinker, the man, the
immortal man. There is no man without the Spirit..."	RC -- FP p.
237



ANUPADAKA -- "SELF-CREATOR" -- DHYANI-BUDDHAS


"The term Anupadaka, "parentless," or without progenitors, is a
mystical designation...[of] celestial beings, the Dhyan-Chohans
or Dhyani-Buddhas, are generally meant. But as these correspond
mystically to the human Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, known as the
"Manushi (or, human) Buddhas," the latter are also designated
"Anupadaka," once that their whole personality is merged in their
compound 6th and 7th principles--or Atma-Buddhi, and that they
have become the "diamond-souled" (Vajra-sattvas), the full
Mahatmas...The mystery in the hierarchy of the Anupadaka is
great, its apex being the universal Spirit-Soul, and the lower
rung the Manushi-Buddha; and even every Soul-endowed man is an
Anupadaka is a latent state."	SD I 52 [GLOS 25]


VISVAKARMA -- THE "CARPENTER" --
"ARTIFICER OF THE "GODS"


"...remember the allegory of Visvakarma, the creative power, the
great architect of the world, called in the Veda "the all-seeing
god," who "sacrifices himself to himself" (the Spiritual Egos of
mortals are his own essence, one with him, therefore)...	he is
called Deva Vardhika "the builder of the gods" and that it is he
who ties (the Sun) Surya, his son-in-law, on his lathe, in the
exoteric allegory; on the Swastika, in esoteric tradition, as on
earth he is the Hierophant Initiator, and cuts away a portion of
his brightness. Visvakarma...is the Son of Yoga-Siddha, i.e.,
the holy power of Yoga, and the fabricator of the "fiery weapon;"
the magic Agneyastra..."	SD II 559


THE RITES OF INITIATION --
"LOWER-SELF" CONTROL -- PURIFICATION


"...the allegory of Visvakarma, the "Omnificent," the Vedic God,
the architect of the world, who sacrificed himself to himself for
the world, after having offered up all worlds, which are himself,
in a "Sarva Madha" (general sacrifice)--and ponder over it. In
the Puranic allegory, his [mother] Yoga-siddha [and of his
daughter Sanjana] "Spiritual consciousness," the wife of Surya,
the Sun, complains to him of the too great effulgence of her
husband; and Visvakarma, in his character of Takshaka, "wood
cutter and carpenter," placing the Sun upon his lathe cuts away a
part of his brightness. Surya looks, after this, crowned with
dark thorns instead of rays, and becomes Vikarttana ("shorn of
his rays"). All these names are terms which were used by the
candidates when going through the trials of Initiation. The
Hierophant-Initiator personated Viswakarman; the father, and the
general artificer of the gods (the adepts on earth), and the
candidate--Surya, the Sun, who had to kill all his fiery passions
and wear the crown of thorns while crucifying his body before he
could rise and be re-born into a new life as the glorified "Light
of the World"--Christos."	HPB ARTICLES III 191 fn



"The Secret Doctrine teaches that "He who is the first to appear
at Renovation will be the last to come before Re-absorption
(pralaya)." Thus the logoi of all nations, from the Vedic
Visvakarma of the Mysteries down to the Saviour of the present
civilized nations, are the "Word" who was "in the beginning" (or
the reawakening of the energizing powers of Nature) with the One
ABSOLUTE. Born of Fire and Water, before these became distinct
elements, IT was the "Maker" (fashioner or modeler) of all
things; "without him was not anything made that was made;" "in
whom was life, and the life was the light of men;" and who
finally may be called, as he has ever been, the Alpha and the
Omega of manifested Nature...(471) Kwan-Shi-Yin is
Avalokiteshvara, and both are forms of the 7th Universal
Principle; while in its highest metaphysical character this
deity is the synthetic aggregation of all the planetary Spirits,
Dhyani Chohans..."the universal Saviour of all living
beings."..."the divine SELF perceived by Self" (the human)--the
Atman or 7th principle merged in the Universal, perceived by, or
the object of perception to, Buddhi, the 6th principle or divine
Soul in man. In a still higher sense,
Avalokiteshvara --Kwan-Shi-Yin, referred to as the 7th Universal
principle, is the Logos (472) perceived by the Universal
Buddhi--or Soul, as the synthetic aggregate of the Dhyani
Buddhas: and is...the omnipresent universal Spirit manifested in
the temple of Kosmos or Nature...He is called the "Dragon of
Wisdom"...as all the Logoi of all the ancient religious systems
are connected with, and symbolized by, serpents...Kwan-Shi-Yin
and Kwan-Yin are the two aspects (male and female) of the same
principle in Kosmos, Nature and Man, of divine wisdom and
intelligence. They are the "Christos-Sophia" of the mystic
Gnostics--the Logos and its Sakti..."	SD I 471-3



THE RITES OF INITIATION --
"LOWER-SELF" CONTROL -- PURIFICATION


"...the allegory of Visvakarma, the "Omnificent," the Vedic God,
the architect of the world, who sacrificed himself to himself for
the world, after having offered up all worlds, which are himself,
in a "Sarva Madha" (general sacrifice)--and ponder over it. In
the Puranic allegory, his [mother] Yoga-siddha [and of his
daughter Sanjana] "Spiritual consciousness," the wife of Surya,
the Sun, complains to him of the too great effulgence of her
husband; and Visvakarma, in his character of Takshaka, "wood
cutter and carpenter," placing the Sun upon his lathe cuts away a
part of his brightness. Surya looks, after this, crowned with
dark thorns instead of rays, and becomes Vikarttana ("shorn of
his rays"). All these names are terms which were used by the
candidates when going through the trials of Initiation. The
Hierophant-Initiator personated Viswakarman; the father, and the
general artificer of the gods (the adepts on earth), and the
candidate--Surya, the Sun, who had to kill all his fiery passions
and wear the crown of thorns while crucifying his body before he
could rise and be re-born into a new life as the glorified "Light
of the World"--Christos."	HPB ARTICLES III 191 fn



PROGRESSIVE INITIATIONS


"In a secret work upon the Mysteries and the rites of Initiation,
in which very rough but correct prints are given of the
sacramental postures, and of the trials to which the postulant
was subjected, the following details are found:

(1)	The neophyte--representing the Sun, as "Sahasrakirana" [GLOS
284] "he of the 1,000 rays"--is shown kneeling before the
"Hierophant." The latter is in the act of cutting off seven
locks of the neophyte's long hair, (fn:--...the esoteric truth
that the 7 locks symbolize the septenary physical or terrestrial
man, thus cut off and separated from the spiritual...) and in the
following--

(2)--illustration, the postulant's bright crown of golden beams
is thrown off, and replaced by a wreath of sharp ligneous spines,
symbolizing the loss. (fn.:--...Sanjana--pure spiritual
conscience--is the inner perception of the neophyte (or chela)
and Initiate; the scorching of it by the too ardent beams of the
Sun being symbolical of the 7 cardinal sins, and as to the 7
cardinal virtues--to be gained by the Sakridagamin (the candidate
"for new birth"), they could be attained by him only through
severe trial and suffering)...

In order to become a "Perfect One," the Sakridagamin ("he who
will receive new birth," lit.) had, among other trials, to
descend into Patala, the "nether world," after which process only
he could hope to become an "Anagamin"--one who will be reborn no
more." The full Initiate had the option of either entering this
2nd Path by appearing at will in the world of men under a human
form, or he could choose to first rest in the world of Gods (the
Devachan of the Initiates), and then only be reborn on this our
earth. Thus, the next stage shows the postulant preparing for
this journey.

(3)	Every kind of temptation--we have no right to enumerate
these or speak of them--was being placed on his way. If he came
out victorious over these, then the further Initiation was
proceeded with; if he fell---it was delayed, often entirely lost
for him.

These rites lasted 7 days."

HPB ARTICLES II 528-9



RULES OF INITIATION


"...we have our schools, our neophytes and shaberons (superior
adepts), and the door is always opened to the right man who
knocks. And we invariably welcome the new comer;--only, instead
of going over to him he has to come to us. More than that:
unless he has reached the point in the path of occultism from
which return is impossible, by his having irrevocably pledged
himself to our association (9), we never--except in cases of
utmost moment--visit him or even cross the threshold of his door
in visible appearance."	MAHAT. LET. 8-9


"Ages ago our people began to make certain rules, according to
which they intended to live. All these rules have now become
LAW. Our predecessors had to learn everything they knew by
themselves, only the foundation was laid for them. We offer to
lay for you such a foundation..." M.L. 207


"We may yet meet: but if at all, it has to be along and
on--those "adamantine rocks with which our occult rules surround
us"--never outside them, however bitterly we may complain...Yea,
verily, the motley crowd of candidates may shout for an eternity
to come, for the Sesam to open. It never will, so long as they
keep outside those rules. Vainly do your modern seers and their
prophetesses, creep into every cleft and crevice without outlet
or continuity they chance to see; and still more vainly, when
once within do they lift up their voices and loudly cry: "Eureka
! We (274) have gotten a revelation from the Lord !"--for verily
have they nothing of the kind... Doubt not, my friend: it is but
from the very top of those "adamantine rocks" of ours, not at
their foot, that one is ever enabled to perceive the whole Truth,
by embracing the whole limitless horizon...[you] have
intuitionally recognized in them the outcome of ages of wisdom.
Nevertheless, were one but to obediently follow them out, they
could be made to gradually yield to one's desire and give to him
all he asks of them. But no one could ever violently break them,
without becoming the first victim to his guilt; yea, to the
extent of risking to lose his own, his hard won share of
immortality, here and now. Remember: too anxious expectation is
not only tedious, but dangerous too...The passions, the
affections are not to be indulged in by him, who seeks TO KNOW;
for they "wear out the earthly body with their own secret power;
and he, who would gain his aim--must be cold." He must not even
desire too earnestly, or too passionately the object he would
reach: else, the very wish will prevent the possibility of its
fulfillment, at best--retard and throw it back..."	MAHAT. LET.
273-4

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