Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00026)

Dear Dallas,

Thank you very much for the below passage. WQJ showed
a lot of clarity in that article. However, I still
remain a little sceptical. The basis of Theosophy, as
I interpreted it, is the commonness between all
religions and modes of thought that have been passed
down throughout the ages. Assuming that this is
correct, how do we know that the knowledge passed down
through the ages is not just some human psychological
condition to explain the unknown? Just as all humans
have sense and perception limitations that can lead to
illusions, could not we also have some thinking
limitation that blinds us and leads all to the same
conclusion? Up to about 2 years ago I considered
religion as the invention of the elite to conserve
their lot. Perhaps my experience with Christianity up
to that point in time led to that conclusion. But can
you see where I am coming from? How do we truly know
that we are not merely deluding ourselves with a
delusion that is ageless as man himself? 

Regards,
Mic


--- dalval14@earthlink.net wrote:
> Dec 28 2002
> 
> Dear Mic:
> 
> Re:	Concerning the study of Philosophy at the
> University level
> 
> At the risk of being thrown out of court, let me
> offer you to read if
> you have not already a synopsis of Theosophical
> Philosophy. And ask
> you to compare it with the description you make of
> philosophy taught
> at college. I recall going through a somewhat
> similar experience
> (40s) at Bombay University. I switched to Science.
> 
> This made sense to me and also gave me a "starting
> point." Inquire,
> inquire and seek the source and base of any
> observation or statement
> made. Continually ask WHY.
> 
> The theories and hypotheses are constructs. They
> are hopes and
> imaginings. What trust can we give to their
> actuality?
> 
> We have to confine our study to observation and
> common sense, not
> speculate on anything which we are not directly
> cognizant of. There
> has to be honesty and sincerity, and rigorous logic.
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Dallas
> 
> see what you think of this:
> 
> --------------------
> 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.
> 
> 
=== message truncated ===


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