Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00710)

Dec 27 2002,

Dear Giovanna:

Your comments are most useful thank you.

Theosophy (as I read and understand it) looks at the development
of mankind as universal --are round the world, -- no exclusions.
Malta is in the “Northern Hemisphere” (which begins with the
equator. The southern hemisphere with a reverse climate seems to
have different festival times, and a reverse magnetic polarity

Theosophy teaches mankind is one. The great Men of old who are
our Elder Brothers -- graduates of previous periods of
evolution -- are said to have given mankind the arts and sciences
millions of years ago when their evolutionary entrance into the
school of Earth experience began. That teaching then, and
subsequently has always been the same::

1. The spiritual Universe is reflected in the material
one. It is the basis for world unity and for the progress of
every being, high or low. Brotherhood is its expression -- as a
general statement might put it.

2. Each human Soul is an immortal being pursuing a long
line of educational endeavors which lead to a complete knowledge
of the world, its laws, and the Universal unity of all beings. As
immortals all humans are brothers and sisters. The Soul has no
sex, even if, under Karma, the bodily forms does.

3. The process of acquiring this knowledge is through
reincarnation, each life period being like a “day” in School. No
one life can provide all the time needed to acquire such total
knowledge.

4. Karma is the just and fair law of all life It
balances all and harmonizes all. It considers all beings have
their due place and deserve respect and fair treatment. One
might say that the Universe is a harmony of diversities. The one
just and true LAW adjusts all differences.

5. The Spiritual Universe is total, is ONE, and hence no
being or human is without the space in which SPIRIT ( Deity) is
present.

6. Evil and good are defined by the adherence of the
human being to the laws of nature. To break or to disrupt those
laws causes suffering and sorrow, and mankind calls those advents
evils. Good comes from obeying the Laws of nature.

7. The maturing of the human psyche (the Personal soul,
the feeling-thinking nature of our waking life) is the object of
this evolutionary experience.

Theosophy present a reasoned expression of these views. The
following is a brief review of its main tenets

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


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.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE

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






-----Original Message-----
From: Giovanna Z [
Sent: Friday, December 27, 2002 7:51 AM
To:
Subject: RE: SUN and EARTH CYCLES -- FESTIVALS

Hello there,

Best of the solstice season to everyone.

I am a new student here, so forgive me for boundaries I may
unknowingly breech in this post.

I read the below message today and have been moved to respond to
some of the comments, if I may.

My own comments will begin with my initials "GZ".


CUT



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