Theos-Talk Archives (September 2002 Message tt00097)

Sept 17 2002

Dear Friend:

Perhaps you might excuse my breaking in here, Bill and “Wry”.

I have watched the various interchanges in which you were
involved in our group.

Our exchanges and study together are very broad based -- on the
concept that all knowledge is shareable. The reason for this is
perhaps metaphysically expressed (if you will allow the concept)
by one word: brotherhood. We share because we are trying to
learn from each other.

I understand you are specifically “studying how bulletin boards
such as this can be used as learning tools.” This bulletin board
has a specific use -- it encourages individuals to study
themselves and their surroundings in the light of Theosophy and
any other system that can add assistance and wisdom to our
search. The following will explain, but I hope it is not too
tedious.

We find it important to try and discover what each of us as
individuals can do. We try to learn about ourselves as we are.
Then try to project forward and ask: Where shall we go from
here? Are there any guide lines? Has any one gone ahead and
reported?

One of the all-important aspects of questing is to discover if,
at the end of our present life, anything is carried forward of
worth. If so, how? What is the importance of our life? Shall
we not consider this existence as a “learning experience?”

Generally, we consider the following to be a basis to start from:
As thinkers, every member of humanity, wherever and however
situated, and of whatever level of intellectual achievement, has
a certain acuity of memory, and, consequently, of projecting
foreword a kind of preview of alternative results to choices that
might be made -- and presumably, all make choices in regard to
their living and progress, based on that sharpness or dullness of
perception and interest.

But I would say that the study of mind is not the only faculty we
have in hand, as that of emotions and feelings are allied to mind
and to thought, yet separate.

Similarly, as we are embodied, our physical nature is also a
matter of consideration and, a search for its evolution is an
important aspect of this research.

One thing that is most important and that is to ascertain what
our sense of self, of individuality and of personality are. What
are We? What are we here for? What can we do? Where will we
go? Why does the universe and all its complexity exist? How are
effects related to causes? -- and so on. In view of this great
complexity, we have to assume there is a meaning for it. If so,
then can we discover it?

Theosophy considers the progress of humanity, and of its
disparate units, as the progress of immortal beings of Mind, who
labor from life to life through the various experiences that
Nature provides. For some Nature has different meanings, but it
maybe a good word to say “everything,” or the “universe,’ or our
environment.

As such Theosophy sees law and laws working everywhere, and those
who are deeply interested seek to discover their ramifications
and effect on human progress.

It appears from what you write that you are unaware of what
Theosophy covers as a philosophy. Let me subjoin a short essay
which might assist you in grasping its nature.

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

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.

By: WILLIAM Q. JUDGE

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

I hope this will give you an idea of the reason for our existence
and research.

There are several other discussion groups that consider Theosophy
in effect:

http://www.blavatsky.net

and

theos-talk@yahoogroups.com

each has its own audience.



Sincerely,

Dallas TenBroeck

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



-----Original Message-----
From: wry
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2002
To:
Subject: Re: Sangha

Hi. Just try to understand the words I'm saying on here. Feel
free to ask me any questions if there is something you do not
understand. If you do this with me and everyone else on here,
plus also contribute your own ideas. we will all benefit. I
originally got on a theosophy list by mistake, as I thought it
was about Krishnamurti, and then got on here, My other lists I
cannot advertise. If you want to know more about me, my subject
of interest, my passion, for the last ten years, is studying how
bulletin boards such as this can be used as learning tools. This
can be a very fruitful medium. I deliberately over stylize my
messages, as they have more affect this way, so why not.? To me,
communicating on a list is serious business. I do not take it
lightly. Sincerely, Wry
CUT



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