Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00479)

----- Original Message -----
From: <dalval14@earthlink.net>
To: "AA-B-Study" <study@blavatsky.net>
Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2002 9:42 AM
Subject: Theos-World Some important statments on the S D


> Dec 14 2002
>
> Dear Friends:
>
> As we approach the solstice, some of these thoughts might have special
> meaning for us
>
> Best wishes for the New Year
>
> DTB
>
JC. I appreciate this compilation Dallas. Excellent.


>
> HIDDEN HINTS IN THE SECRET DOCTRINE VOL. 1
>
> _________________
>
>
> PURPOSE OF THE BOOK: THE SECRET DOCTRINE
>
>
> "The synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy"
> SD I Title Page
>
>
> "There is no Religion Higher than Truth."
> SD I Title Page
>
>
> "This Work I dedicate to all True Theosophists, In every
> Country, and of every Race, for They called it forth, and for Them it
> was Recorded."
> SD I Dedication
>
>
> "...this work is written for the instruction of students of
> Occultism..."
> SD I 23
>
>
> "These truths are in no sense put forward as a revelation ...what is
> contained [here] is to be found scattered throughout thousands
> of...scriptures of the great Asiatic and early European
> religions...What is now attempted is to gather the oldest tenets
> together and to make of them one harmonious whole...The Secret
> Doctrine is the essence of all these...its logical coherence and
> consistency entitles this new Genesis to rank...on a level with the
> "working hypotheses" so freely accepted by modern science...because it
> closely adheres to Nature, and follows the laws of uniformity and
> analogy." SD I Preface vii-viii
>
>
>
> "THE AIM OF THIS WORK [IS]...
>
> [ 1.] to show that nature is not "a fortuitous
> concurrence of atoms," and
> [ 2.] to assign to man his rightful place in the scheme
> of the Universe;
> [ 3.] to rescue from degradation the archaic truths
> which are the basis of all religions; and
> [ 4.] to uncover...the fundamental unity from which
> they spring; finally,
> [ 5.] to show that the occult side of nature has never
> been approached by the Science of modern
> civilization." SD I Preface viii
>
>
>
> "The Secret Doctrine, in the Stanzas given here, occupies itself
> chiefly, if not entirely, with our Solar system, and especially with
> our planetary chain." SD I 60
>
>
> "The Wisdom-Religion is the inheritance of all the nations, the world
> over..." SD I xviii
>
>
> "...no theosophical book acquires the least additional value from
> pretended authority."
> SD I xix
>
>
>
> THE ESOTERIC PHILOSOPHY: OCCULTISM
>
>
> "Esoteric Philosophy is alone calculated to withstand...the repeated
> attacks on all and everything that man holds most dear and sacred, in
> his inner spiritual life...[it] reconciles all religions...It proves
> the necessity of an absolute Divine Principle in nature [and]...denies
> Deity no more than it does the Sun...the records we mean to place
> before the reader embrace the esoteric tenets of the whole world since
> the beginning of our humanity..." SD I xx
>
>
> "...the Secret Doctrine of the Archaic ages is now permitted to see
> the light, after long millenniums of the most profound silence and
> secrecy..." SD I xxii
>
>
>
> ARCHAIC ESOTERIC SCHOOLS
>
>
> "The members of several esoteric schools...claim to have in their
> possession the sum total of sacred and philosophical works in MSS, and
> type...once found, save three copies left and stored carefully away,
> such works were all destroyed and hidden during the reign of the
> Emperor Akbar [1562-1603]." SD I xxiii
>
>
> "There was a "primeval revelation" [ granted to the fathers of the
> human race ] and it still exists; nor will it ever be lost to the
> world, but will reappear..." SD I xxx
>
>
> "The Secret Doctrine was the universally diffused religion of the
> ancient and prehistoric world."
> SD I xxxiv
>
>
> "[ The Secret Doctrine]...is not a religion, nor is its philosophy
> new...it is as old as thinking man. Its tenets have been cautiously
> given out to, and taught by, more than one European Initiate...[such
> as] Ragon" SD I xxxvi
>
>
>
> THE SECRET DOCTRINE IN THIS CENTURY
>
>
>
> "...in the 20th century...scholars will begin to recognize that the
> Secret Doctrine has...[been] simply outlined...[it] contains all that
> can be given out to the world in this century"
> SD I xxxvii-viii
>
>
> "...it will take centuries before much more is given from it...once
> the door permitted to be kept a little ajar, it will be opened wider
> with every new century." SD I xxxviii & Fn
>
>
>
> "[ A new 5,000 year cycle is dawning--1897/98 ]...Fragments have
> survived geological and political cataclysms...{and} show that the now
> Secret Wisdom was once the one fountain head, the ever-flowing
> perennial source...unobscured by the hand of bigotry and fanaticism."
> SD I xliv-xlv
>
>
>
> "In the present work, detailed Cosmogony and the evolution of the four
> races that preceded our Fifth race Humanity are given work from which
> the many volumes of the Kiu-ti...Siphra Dzeniouta...Sepher
> Jezirah...Shu-king [and] the sacred volumes of the Egyptian
> Thoth-Hermes, the Puranas in India, and the Chaldean Book of Numbers
> and the Pentateuch itself [were derived]...taken down in Senzar, the
> secret sacerdotal tongue, from the words of the Divine Beings, who
> dictated it to the Sons of Light, in Central Asia, at the very
> beginning of our (5th) race..." SD I xliii
>
>
>
> "...knowledge of the Occult and the powers it confers on man, are not
> altogether fictions, but that they are as old as the world itself."
> SD I xlv
>
>
>
> H P B'S "POSITION"
>
>
> "I have here made only a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought
> nothing of my own but the string that ties them." SD I xlvi
>
>
> "Every reader will inevitably judge the statements made from the
> stand-point of his own knowledge, experience and consciousness, based
> on what he has already learnt." SD I xlvi
>
>
>
> STATEMENTS FROM THE SECRET DOCTRINE
>
>
> A Universal Basis
>
>
> "The first and Fundamental dogma of Occultism is Universal Unity (or
> Homogeneity) under three aspects." SD I 58
>
>
> "...Universe, the All...the abstract, ever incognizable Presence, and
> its plane the Universal Soul..." SD I p. 1
>
>
> "The One Life, eternal, invisible, yet Omnipresent, without beginning
> or end, yet periodical in its regular manifestations ...eternal
> ceaseless Motion...the "Great Breath"...in limitless, ever-present
> Space..." SD I p. 2
>
>
> "Occultism sums up the "one Existence" thus: "Deity is an arcane,
> living (or moving) Fire, and the eternal witness to this unseen
> Presence are Light, Heat, Moisture..." SD I 2
>
>
> "...there is but One Universal Element, which is infinite, unborn, and
> undying, and that all the rest...are but so many various
> differentiated aspects and transformations (correlations)...of that
> One...then the first and chief difficulty will disappear and Occult
> Cosmology may be mastered." SD I 75
>
>
> "The esoteric doctrine teaches...like even the Kabala, that the one
> infinite and unknown Essence exists from all eternity, and in regular
> and harmonious successions is either passive or active." [ Isis II
> 264 ] SD I 3
>
>
> FOHAT
>
>
>
> "...Fohat...is the "bridge" by which the "Ideas" existing in the
> "Divine Thought" are impressed on Cosmic substance as the "laws of
> nature." Fohat is thus the dynamic energy of Cosmic Ideation; or,
> regarded from the other side, it is the intelligent medium, the
> guiding power of all manifestation, made manifest through the Dhyan
> Chohans, the Architects of the visible World...Fohat in its various
> manifestations is the mysterious link between Mind and Matter, the
> animating principle electrifying every atom into life." SD I 16
>
>
> "...the "Son," cosmically Fohat, for it is Cosmic Electricity. "Fohat
> hardens and scatters the seven brothers."...the primordial Electric
> Entity...electrifies into life, and separates primordial stuff or
> pregenetic matter into atoms, themselves the source of all life and
> consciousness." SD I 76
>
>
>
> THREE FUNDAMENTAL PROPOSITIONS
>
>
> [ Three Fundamentals - no apology is required for asking the reader to
> make himself familiar with them first...these basic ideas are few in
> number, and on their clear apprehension depends the understanding of
> all that follows...] SD I 14 - 19
>
>
> 1. FIRST FUNDAMENTAL: "Be-ness"
>
>
> 1. the Absolute...both Absolute Being and Non-Being.
>
> 2. First manifestation...unmanifested Logos, the precursor of the
> "manifested"...the "First Cause"...the "Unconscious"
>
> 3. Spirit-matter, Life; the "Spirit of the Universe,"
> Purusha and Prakriti, or the second Logos.
>
> 4. Cosmic Ideation, Mahat or Intelligence, the Universal World-soul;
> the Cosmic Noumenon of Matter, the basis of the intelligent operations
> in and of Nature, also called Maha-Buddhi.
>
> THE ONE REALITY; its dual aspects in the conditioned Universe."
> SD I 16
>
>
>
> 2. SECOND FUNDAMENTAL: "Becoming"
>
>
> "The Eternity of the Universe in toto as a boundless plane;
> periodically, "the playground of numberless Universes incessantly
> manifesting and disappearing," called the "manifesting stars," and the
> "sparks of Eternity."...The absolute universality of that law of
> periodicity, of flux and reflux, ebb and flow...an alternation...so
> perfectly universal and without exception, that it is easy to
> comprehend that in it we see one of the absolutely fundamental laws of
> the universe." SD I 16-17
>
>
>
> 3. THIRD FUNDAMENTAL: "Being"
>
>
> "The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over Soul,
> the latter being itself an aspect of the Unknown root; and the
> obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul--a spark of the former--through
> the Cycle of Incarnation (or "Necessity")...The pivotal doctrine of
> the Esoteric philosophy admits no privileges or special gifts in man,
> save those won by his own Ego through personal effort and merit
> throughout a long series of metempsychoses and reincarnations." SD I
> 17
>
>
>
> SPACE -- THE ONE INFINITE WE SHARE ALL AROUND US.
>
>
> "...the One All is like Space...Space is neither a "limitless void,"
> nor a "conditioned fullness"... SD I 8
>
>
> "Space is called in the esoteric symbolism "the Seven-Skinned Eternal
> Mother-Father." SD I 9
>
>
> "...there can neither be two Infinities nor two Absolutes in a
> Universe supposed to be Boundless..." SD I 7
>
>
> "...not even the highest Dhyani-Chohans have ever penetrated the
> mysteries beyond the boundaries that separate the milliards of Solar
> systems from the "Central Sun," as it is called."
> [ see SD I 142 ] SD I 13
>
>
> "The One Eternal Element...is Space, dimensionless in every sense;
> co-existent with which are--endless duration, primordial (hence
> indestructible) Matter, and motion--absolute "perpetual motion" which
> is the "breath" of the "One" Element." SD I 55
>
>
>
> MOTION: LIFE - LAW - PROGRESS [NO "CHANCE" IN NATURE]
>
>
> "...universal motion, the thrill of the creative Breath in Nature."
> SD I 2
>
>
> "Intra-Cosmic motion is eternal and ceaseless; cosmic motion (the
> visible, or that which is subject to perception) is finite and
> periodical. As an eternal abstraction it is the
> ever-present...Kosmos--the Noumenon--has nought to do with the causal
> relations of the phenomenal World." SD I 3
>
>
> "This process has been going on from all eternity, and our present
> universe is but one of an infinite series, which had no beginning and
> will have no end." [ Isis II 265 ] SD I 4
>
>
> "...atoms actuated by a ceaseless motion...the idea of affinity--an
> occult teaching." SD I 2
>
>
> "The ray of the "Ever Darkness" becomes, as it is emitted, a ray of
> effulgent light or life, and flashes into the "Germ"--the point in the
> Mundane Egg...matter in its abstract sense...a germ exists in the
> center of every atom, and these collectively form "the Germ"...the
> collectivity of these forms the noumenon of eternal and indestructible
> matter." SD I 57
>
>
>
> UNIVERSAL MIND: INTELLIGENCE -- MANKIND -- PROGRESS
>
>
> "...the universal mystery, the doctrine of the identity of man's
> essence with god-essence..." SD I 78
>
>
> "...the term "Divine Thought," like that of "Universal Mind,"...would
> mean absolute Wisdom..." SD I 1fn
>
>
> "...entities called Primordial Man, Dhyani-Buddhas, or Dhyan-Chohans,
> the "Rishi-Prajapati" of the Hindus, the Elohim...the Planetary
> Spirits of all nations..." SD I 10
>
>
> "The "Builders," the "Sons of Manvantaric Dawn," are the real creators
> of the Universe...they are the architects [of our Planetary System,
> and ]...are also called the "Watchers" of the Seven Spheres, which
> exoterically are the seven earths or spheres (planets) of our
> chain..."
> SD I 53
>
>
> "...Absolute Consciousness".. .behind phenomena...is only termed
> unconsciousness in the absence of any element of personality...Only
> the liberated Spirit is able to faintly realize the nature of the
> source whence it sprung and wither it must eventually return...as the
> highest Dhyan-Chohan...can but bow in ignorance before the awful
> mystery of Absolute Being...the Finite cannot conceive the Infinite,
> nor can it apply to it its own standards of mental experiences...the
> Occultist would say that it applies perfectly to the awakened Mahat,
> the Universal Mind already projected into the phenomenal world as the
> first aspect of the changeless Absolute..."Spirit and Matter...are but
> the two primeval aspects of the One and Secondless..." SD I 51
>
>
> "The idea that things can cease to exist and still be, is a
> fundamental one in Eastern psychology." SD I 54
>
>
> "...the "Son," cosmically Fohat, for it is Cosmic Electricity. "Fohat
> hardens and scatters the seven brothers."...the primordial Electric
> Entity...electrifies into life, and separates primordial stuff or
> pregenetic matter into atoms, themselves the source of all life and
> consciousness." SD I 76
>
>
> "The "Divine Thought" does not imply the idea of a Divine thinker.
> The Universe, not only past, present, and future--which is a human and
> finite idea expressed by finite thought--but in its totality, the
> Sat...the absolute being, with the Past and Future crystallized in an
> eternal Present, is that Thought itself reflected in a secondary or
> manifest cause." SD I 61
>
>
>
> MIND - INTELLIGENCE - CONSCIOUSNESS
>
>
> "Esoteric philosophy teaches that everything lives and is
> conscious..." SD I 49
>
>
> "Mind is a name given to the sum of the states of Consciousness
> grouped under thought, Will, and Feeling..."Universal Mind" remains as
> a permanent possibility of mental action..."
> SD I 38
>
>
> "Dreamless sleep is one of the seven states of consciousness..."
> SD I 47
>
>
> "...Mundane Intelligence...Nous, the principle that...is absolutely
> separated and was free from matter and acts on design, was called
> Motion, the One Life, or Jivatma..." SD I 50
>
>
> "To know itself or oneself, necessitates consciousness and perception
> (both limited faculties in relation to any subject except Parabrahm
> [the Absolute], to be cognized...The Boundless can have no relation to
> the bounded and conditioned...Concrete consciousness cannot be
> predicated of abstract Consciousness...Consciousness implies
> limitations and qualifications; something to be conscious of, and
> someone to be conscious of it. But Absolute Consciousness contains
> the cognizer, the thing cognized and the cognition, all three in
> itself and all three one."
> S D I 56
>
>
> "To forget is synonymous with not to remember...We call absolute
> consciousness "unconsciousness," because it seems to us that it must
> necessarily be so, just as we call the Absolute, "Darkness," because
> to our finite understanding it appears quite impenetrable, yet we
> recognize that our perception...does not do them justice..." SD I 56
>
>
> "The Mahat (Understanding, Universal Mind, Thought, etc...) before it
> manifests as Brahmaa or Siva, appears as Vishnu [Krishna]...Mahat has
> several aspects...[and] is called the Lord, in the Primary Creation,
> and is, in this sense, Universal Cognition or Thought Divine;
> but...when Mahat develops into the feeling of
> Self-Consciousness--I--then it assumes the name of
> Ego-ism...translated into our esoteric phraseology, means when Mahat
> is transferred into the human Manas...and becomes Aham-ship" S D I
> 75
>
> [ I am that I am -- explained numerically SD I 78 ]
>
>
> MANIFESTATION AS A PERIODICAL PROCESS
>
>
>
> "The idea of Eternal Non-Being, which is the One Being...is the
> noumenon of all the noumena which we know must underlie phenomena, and
> give them whatever shadow of reality they possess, but which we have
> hot the senses or the intellect to cognize at present." SD I 45
>
>
> "Spirit is the first differentiation from That, the causeless cause of
> both Spirit and Matter." SD I 35
>
>
> "...Akasa, Father-Mother, the Spirit and soul of Ether, or the plane
> on the surface of the circle." SD I 18
>
>
> "In the Kabala it is...Father-Mother-Son..."Atma-Buddhi-Manas"
> (Spirit, Soul, Intelligence), the triad branching off and dividing
> into seven cosmical and seven human principles..." SD I 18
>
>
> "The Secret Doctrine...postulates a "One Form of Existence" as the
> basis and source of all things...the place whence emerges the
> origination, and into which is the resolution of all things." SD I 46
>
>
>
> EVOLUTION - PROGRESS OF INDIVIDUALIZED IMMORTALS
>
> [ From the "life-atom" to the "Galaxy" ]
>
>
> "The Secret Doctrine teaches the progressive development of
> everything, worlds as well as atoms; and this stupendous development
> has neither conceivable beginning nor imaginable end. Our "Universe"
> is only one of an infinite number of Universes, all of them "Sons of
> Necessity," because links in the great Cosmic chain..." SD I 43
>
>
> "...the upward progress of the Ego is a series of progressive
> awakenings, each advance bringing with it the idea that now, at last,
> we have reached "reality;" but only when we shall have reached the
> absolute Consciousness, and blended our own with it, shall we be free
> from the delusions produced by Maya [illusion]." SD I 40
>
>
>
> A SEVENFOLD UNIVERSE
>
>
> "...any septenary division at once gives a clue to tremendous occult
> powers, the abuse of which would cause incalculable evil to humanity."
> SD I xxxv
>
>
> "[ "keys"]...The said key must be turned seven times before the whole
> system is divulged...Happy he, who understands the whole!" SD I
> xxxviii
>
>
> "Wise is he who holds to the golden mid-point, who believes in the
> eternal justice of things." SD I xli
>
>
> "...Occult Science recognizes Seven Cosmical Elements--four entirely
> physical, and the fifth (Ether) semi-material, as it will become
> visible in the air towards the end of our Fourth Round..." SD I 12
>
>
> "The 7 Stanzas given...represent the 7 terms of this abstract formula
> [which can be applied...to all evolution...] SD I 21
>
>
> "...the septenary hierarchy of conscious Divine Powers, who are the
> active manifestations of the One Supreme Energy. SD I 22
>
>
>
> RECIPROCAL INFLUENCES BETWEEN PLANETS AND MANKIND
>
>
> "...one has first of all to admit the postulate of a universally
> diffused, omnipresent, eternal Deity in Nature; secondly, to have
> fathomed the mystery of electricity in its true essence; and thirdly,
> to credit man with being a septenary symbol, on the terrestrial plane,
> of the One Great Unit (the Logos), which is Itself the Seven-vowelled
> sign, the Breath crystallized into the Word. He who believes in this,
> has also to believe in the multiple combination of the seven planets
> of Occultism and of the Kabala, with the twelve zodiacal signs; to
> attribute...to each planet and to each constellation an influence
> which..."is proper to it, beneficent or maleficent, and this, after
> the planetary Spirit which rules it, who, in his turn is capable of
> influencing men and things which are found in harmony with him and
> with which he has any affinity." S D I 79
>
>
>
> MATTER AND SUBSTANCE -- MANIFESTATION
>
>
>
> "...while Mulaprakriti [root substance] the noumenon, is self-existing
> and without any origin--is...parentless (Anupadaka)--Prakriti, its
> phenomenon [tangible matter], is periodical and no better than a
> phantasm of the former, so Mahat [Universal Mind], with the
> Occultists, the first-born of Gnana (or gnosis) knowledge, wisdom or
> the Logos--is a phantasm reflected from the Absolute [quality-less]
> Parabrahm..." S D I 62
>
>
> "...the "last vibration of the Seventh Eternity"...without reference
> to size or limitation or area means the development of limitless
> subjectivity into as limitless objectivity...a change of
> condition...the temporary reflection, the shadow of the eternal ideal
> prototype in Divine thought...(as the Hermetic "Pymander")..." S D I
> 63
>
>
> "...the "Son," cosmically Fohat, for it is Cosmic Electricity. "Fohat
> hardens and scatters the seven brothers."...the primordial Electric
> Entity...electrifies into life, and separates primordial stuff or
> pregenetic matter into atoms, themselves the source of all life and
> consciousness." SD I 76
>
>
>
> SYMBOLOGY -- NUMBERS -- UNIVERSAL GEOMETRY
>
>
> [ Universal Symbology is introduced as a development of primordial
> ideas: Circle, Line, Triangle, Cross" SD I pp. 4-5
>
>
> "...Quaternary (Father, Mother, Son, as a Unity, and...as a living
> manifestation)...is purely astronomical, mathematical, and
> pre-eminently metaphysical...Horus, Or Osiris, etc...is born through,
> not from an immaculate source, personified by the "Mother"...the
> abstract Deity being sexless, and not even a Being but Be-ness, or
> Life itself..." SD I 59
>
>
> "...Jehovah, or Jod-he-vau-he is androgyne, or both male and female.
> Above, the Son is the whole Kosmos; below, he is Mankind." SD I 60
>
>
> "The "Mundane Egg" is...one of the most universally adopted symbols,
> highly suggestive as it is, equally in the spiritual physiological,
> and cosmological sense. Therefore, it is found in every
> world-theogony...associated with the serpent symbol...an emblem of
> eternity, infinitude, regeneration, and rejuvenation, as well as of
> wisdom..." SD I 65
>
>
> "In the "Book of Dzyan," as in the Kabala, there are two kinds of
> numerals to be studied--the figures, often simple blinds, and the
> Sacred Numbers, the values of which are known to the Occultists
> through Initiation. The former is but a conventional glyph, the
> latter is the basic symbol of all...one is purely physical, the other
> purely metaphysical, the two standing in relation to each other as
> matter stands to spirit--the extreme poles of the One Substance."
> SD I 66
>
> * = 1
> * * = 2
> * * * = 3
> * * * * = 4 Sum Total = 10
>
>
>
> LIGHT AND DARKNESS
>
>
> "The "Light" is the same Omnipresent Spiritual Ray, which has entered
> and now fecundated the divine Egg, and calls cosmic matter to begin
> its long series of differentiations. The curds are the first...and
> probably refer to that cosmic matter which is supposed to be the
> origin of the "Milky Way"--the matter we know." SD I 69
>
>
> "Darkness adopted illumination in order to make itself visible...[in]
> Eastern Occultism, Darkness is the one true actuality, the basis and
> root of light, without which the latter could never manifest itself,
> nor even exist. Light is matter, and Darkness pure Spirit. Darkness
> in its radical, metaphysical basis, is subjective and absolute
> light..." SD I 70
>
>
>
> THE WORD -- SACRED SOUND
>
>
> "Oeaohoo is rendered "Father-Mother of the Gods"...or the six in one,
> or the septenary root from which all proceeds. All depends upon the
> accent given to these seven vowels, which may be pronounced as one,
> three, or even seven syllables...without a thorough mastery of its
> triple pronunciation it remains for ever ineffectual." SD I 68
>
>
> "...Oeaohoo the younger, (the new life"), to become, to the end of the
> life-cycle, the germ of all things. He is "the Incorporeal man who
> contains in himself the divine Idea." SD I 71
>
>
> "He who bathes in the light of Oeaohoo will never be deceived by the
> veil of Maya." SD I 72
>
>
>
> TIME AND DURATION
>
>
> "Time is only an illusion produced by the succession of our states of
> consciousness as we travel through eternal duration, and it does not
> exist where no consciousness exists in which the illusion can be
> produced, but "lies asleep." SD I 37
>
>
> "The Past time is the Present time, as also the Future, which, though
> it has not come into existence, still is"...Time...but the panoramic
> succession of our states of consciousness..." SD I 43-44
>
>
>
> REALITY - PERMANENCY
>
>
> "Nothing is permanent except the one hidden absolute existence which
> contains in itself the noumena of all realities...but all things are
> relatively real, for the cognizer is also a reflection, and the things
> cognized are therefore as real to him as himself." SD I 39
>
>
>
> DEATH AND REGENERATION
>
>
> "[Brahmins]...no philosopher among them will view "death" in any other
> sense than as a temporary disappearance from the manifested plane of
> existence, or as a periodical rest."
> S D I 8
>
>
>
> TOTAL EVOLUTION : -- SPIRITUAL TRAINING
>
>
> "The process of evolution up to reunion with the Divine is and
> includes successive elevation from rank to rank of power and
> usefulness. The most exalted beings still in the flesh are known as
> Sages, Rishis, Brothers, Masters. Their great functions being the
> preservation at all times, and when cyclic laws permit, the extension
> of spiritual knowledge and influence.
>
> As to the process of spiritual development, Theosophy teaches:
>
> 1. That the essence of the process lies in the securing of supremacy
> to the highest, the spiritual, element of man's nature.
>
> 2. That this is attained along 4 lines, among others, --
>
> A. The entire eradication of selfishness in all forms, and the
> cultivation of broad, generous sympathy in, and effort for the good of
> others.
>
> B. The absolute cultivation of the inner, spiritual man by
> meditation, by reaching to and communion with the Divine [within], and
> by exercise of the kind described by Patanjali, i.e., incessant
> striving to an ideal end.
>
> C. The control of fleshly appetites and desires, all lower, material
> interests being deliberately subordinated to the behests of the
> spirit.
>
> D. The careful performance of every duty belonging to one's station
> in life, without desire for reward, leaving results for Divine law.
>
> 3. That while the above is incumbent on and practicable by all
> religiously disposed men, a yet higher plane of spiritual attainment
> is conditioned upon a specific course of training, physical,
> intellectual and spiritual, by which the internal faculties are first
> aroused and then developed.
>
> 4. That an extension of this process is reached in Arhatship,
> Mahatmaship, or the states of Rishis, Sages and Dhyan Chohans,
> which are all exalted stages, attained by laborious self-discipline
> and hardship protracted through possibly many incarnations, and with
> many degrees of initiation and preferment, beyond which are yet other
> stages ever approaching the Divine.
>
> As to the rationale of spiritual development it asserts:
>
> 1. That the process takes place entirely within the individual
> himself, the motive, the effort, and the result proceeding from his
> own inner nature, along the lines of self-evolution.
>
> 2. That still more is gained by a career of duty, piety and
> beneficence.
>
> 3. That a still greater advance is attained by the attentive and
> devoted use of the means to spiritual culture heretofore stated.
>
> 4. That every race and individual of it reaches in evolution a period
> known as "the moment of choice," when they decided for themselves
> their future by a deliberate and conscious choice between eternal life
> and death, and that this right of choice is the peculiar appanage of
> the free soul. It cannot be exercised until the man has realized the
> soul within him, and until that soul has attained some measure of
> self-consciousness in the body. The moment of choice is not a fixed
> period of time; it is made up of all moments. It cannot come unless
> all previous lives have led up to it. For the race as a whole it has
> not yet come. Any individual can hasten the advent of this period
> for himself under the previously stated law of the ripening of Karma.
> Should he then fail to choose right he is not wholly condemned, for
> the economy of nature provides that he shall again and again have the
> opportunity of choice when the moment arrives for the whole race..."
> WQJ -- An Epitome of Theosophy, p. 25-27
>
>
> HOW TO "PERFECT" OURSELVES
>
>
> "There is no difference between the teachings of Jesus and the
> teachings of the Buddha, although those teachings are recorded in
> different languages and an interval of six hundred years separated the
> two great Teachers. What is true of these two is likewise true of all
> the other many Saviors of different times and peoples--they all taught
> the same fundamental ideas.
>
> This fact suggests that there is a body of Men, of perfected men,
> product of past civilizations and evolution, our Elder Brothers, in
> fact, who have acquired and are Custodians of the knowledge and
> experience gained through aeons of time. Their knowledge is actually
> the Science of Life, for it enters into every department of existence,
> of nature...We have each of us the same power to know that is Theirs.
> But they have ex-tended (270) the faculties of the instruments which
> they possess. They have improved what they have. They have better
> brains. They have better bodies. How did they acquire them? By
> fulfilling every duty which faced them, regardless of what came to
> themselves. They thought nothing of acquiring power and knowledge for
> themselves; they thought only of gaining power that they might expend
> it for the benefit of every living creature. in so doing they opened
> the doors to the full play of the power of the Spirit within...
>
> The great work of evolution proceeds from within outwards. The Soul
> is the Perceiver; it looks directly on ideas. The action of the will
> is through ideas. The ideas give the direction. Small ideas, small
> force; large ideas, large force; the Force itself is illimitable,
> for it is the force of Spirit, infinite and exhaustless. What we lack
> are universal ideas..."
> R C -- Friendly Philosopher, p. 269-270
>
>
>
> ========================
>
> Best wishes for 2003
>
> Dallas
>
>
>
>
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