Theos-Talk Archives (March 2003 Message tt00319)

Friday, March 14, 2003

Dear Friends:

May I butt in here a moment?

The question of the morality of using prayer to invoke "God's"
blessing on a country going into war or at war, has been discussed (I
offer some quotes below).

Rites and rituals are to my understanding sacred gestures and
movements performed on the physical plane.

Mantrams ought only be used by those who know the correlations of
sound to the times of cycles, and the invisible psychic and spiritual
influences that sweep over our earth and peoples. Those directly
affect both sets of principles: the principles of man and nature, or,
the environment in which he lives and of which he is a vital part.
Most particularly the principles of passion and desire (Kama) and
those of the WISDOM OF EXPERIENCE (Buddhi) are the focus for this.
The free mind that views and chooses is the wielder of the will and
the final actor. From those decisions Karma flows.

All these (rites, rituals, prayers, mantrams, etc...) cannot be used
for any personal advantage or they become SORCERY. And if these are
developed by a priesthood, over time into religious ritualism and
incantations or "prayers," the original purpose of the Prophet or
Reformer will be found to have been reversed if not entirely
obstructed. [As an example, view our civilization and our daily
commercial and personal practices in the light of the precepts offered
in the SERMON ON THE MOUNT.] How can people claim to be Christians,
and follow Jesus ... if they do not honor their own Prophet by
obeying all his "commandments" ?

Perhaps (rites, rituals, etc...) were originally instituted to remind
us of certain truths that relate to interior and invisible planes of
being. As for instance the currents of prana, chi, life force,
etc...And the great periods of planetary and System intersection that
bear on our lives.

Any one who studies the history of religions closely will discover
that they all honor the same "festivals." Also that the rites and
rituals observed have a very close and interesting similarity. Should
we wonder? It merely goes to prove again that all religions emanated
from a single source WISDOMISM. H P B points this out in the
introductory pages of both ISIS UNVEILED and The SECRET DOCTRINE

But these are of little worth if the inner motive and purpose of the
operator or the audience is not focused on those inner and ancient
meanings. And many who intone prayers have little or no knowledge of
the terrible potentials available and stirred by intense will and
desire.

As Peter says: they have to be done wisely: with a sense of the
sacred.

"Spiritually" is a designation that needs precision, since in many
cases a psychic feeling or sense of well being may be mistaken for the
true spiritual. Spiritual is knowledge and wisdom and capacity to fit
ones' will-desires into the fabric of KARMA without causing terrible
damage, to self and others.

"SPIRITUAL" is always in tune with the ultimates and the fundamentals,
it is impartial, universal, generous, tolerant. Yet the laws of Truth
and Wisdom that drive the occasion, and take advantage of certain
coincidences in time and space on our plane of matter, are rigid as
steel for those who know what and why such actions or words are being
done or used.

I find in Theosophical literature (as for instance in the dialogs in
CAVES & JUNGLES OF HINDOOSTAN) that the mind and the will have to be
used with knowledge and discretion. They stand behind any true rites
and ritualism..

Best wishes,

Dallas

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

QUOTES


The intensity of our ardent aspirations changes prayer into the
"philosopher's stone," or that which transmutes lead into pure gold.
The only homogeneous essence, our "will-prayer" becomes the active or
creative force, producing effects according to our desire.

ENQUIRER. Do you mean to say that prayer is an occult process bringing
about physical results?

THEOSOPHIST. I do. Will-Power becomes a living power. But woe unto
those Occultists and Theosophists, who, instead of crushing out the
desires of the lower personal ego or physical man, and saying,
addressing their Higher Spiritual EGO immersed in Atma-Buddhic light,
"Thy will be done, not mine," etc., send up waves of will-power for
selfish or unholy purposes! For this is black magic, abomination, and
spiritual sorcery.

Unfortunately, all this is the favourite occupation of our Christian
statesmen and generals, especially when the latter are sending two
armies to murder each other. Both indulge before action in a bit of
such sorcery, by offering respectively prayers to the same God of
Hosts, each entreating his help to cut its enemies' throats. ... Key
69-70



ENQUIRER. But how do you explain the universal fact that all nations
and peoples have prayed to, and worshipped a God or Gods? Some have
adored and propitiated devils and harmful spirits, but this only
proves the universality of the belief in the efficacy of prayer.

THEOSOPHIST. It is explained by that other fact that prayer has
several other meanings besides that given it by the Christians. It
means not only a pleading or petition, but meant, in days of old, far
more an invocation and incantation. The mantra, or the rhythmically
chanted prayer of the Hindus, has precisely such a meaning, as the
Brahmins hold themselves higher than the common devas or "Gods." A
prayer may be an appeal or an incantation for malediction, and a curse
(as in the case of two armies praying simultaneously for mutual
destruction) as much as for blessing. And as the great majority of
people are intensely selfish, and pray only for themselves, asking to
be given their "daily bread" instead of working for it, and begging
God not to lead them "into temptation" but to deliver them (the
memorialists only) from evil, the result is, that prayer, as now
understood, is doubly pernicious: (a) It kills in man self-reliance;
(b) It develops in him a still more ferocious selfishness and egotism
than he is already endowed with by nature. I repeat, that we believe
in "communion" and simultaneous action in unison with our "Father in
secret"; and in rare moments of ecstatic bliss, in the mingling of our
higher soul with the universal essence, attracted as it is towards its
origin and centre, a state, called during life Samadhi, and after
death, Nirvana. We refuse to pray to created finite beings? i. e.,
gods, saints, angels, etc., because we regard it as idolatry. We
cannot pray to the ABSOLUTE for reasons explained before; therefore,
we try to replace fruitless and useless prayer by meritorious and
good-producing actions. "
Key 69-70

"To pronounce a word is to evoke a thought, and make it present: the
magnetic potency of the human speech is the commencement of every
manifestation in the Occult World. To utter a Name is not only to
define a Being (an Entity), but to place it under and condemn it
through the emission of the Word (Verbum), to the influence of one or
more Occult potencies. Things are, for every one of us, that which it
(the Word) makes them while naming them. The Word (Verbum) or the
speech of every man is, quite unconsciously to himself, a BLESSING or
a CURSE; this is why our present ignorance about the properties or
attributes of the IDEA as well as about the attributes and properties
of MATTER, is often fatal to us.

"Yes, names (and words) are either BENEFICENT or MALEFICENT; they are,
in a certain sense, either venomous or health-giving, according to the
hidden influences attached by Supreme Wisdom to their elements, that
is to say, to the LETTERS which compose them, and the NUMBERS
correlative to these letters."

This is strictly true as an esoteric teaching accepted by all the
Eastern Schools of Occultism. In the Sanskrit, as also in the Hebrew
and all other alphabets, every letter has its occult meaning and its
rationale; it is a cause and an effect of a preceding cause and a
combination of these very often produces the most magical effect. The
vowels, especially, contain the most occult and formidable potencies.
The Mantras (esoterically, magical rather than religious) are chanted
by the Brahmins and so are the Vedas and other Scriptures. .... This
... is at the root of the Occult law, which prescribes silence upon
the knowledge of certain secret and invisible things perceptible only
to the spiritual mind (the 6th sense), and which cannot be expressed
by "noisy" or uttered speech. This chapter of Anugita explains, says
Arjuna Misra, Pranayama, or regulation of the breath in Yoga
practices. This mode, however, without the previous acquisition of, or
at least full understanding of the two higher senses, of which there
are seven, as will be shown, pertains rather to the lower Yoga. The
Hatha so called was and still is discountenanced by the Arhats. It is
injurious to the health and alone can never develop into Raj Yoga.	S D
I 93-5


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

-----Original Message-----
From: peter.m
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2003 1:51 PM
To:
Subject: [bn-study] RE: War and Buddhism

Hello Arturo,

you wrote,
<< good point, Larry! Buddha Himself never taught ritual..it is just
one
more example of man made religion. >>

Perhaps he did. How would we know? Perhaps there are some important
rituals which, when done consciously and with a sense of 'the sacred'
in
mind, have a profound and genuinely uplifting spiritual effect on
those
involved and others?

Peter