Theos-Talk Archives (April 2003 Message tt00157)

Sunday, April 27, 2003

Dear Friend J.:


Many thanks for your confidence. But all I can offer is advice.

First: all true knowledge and spiritual WISDOM comes from
within.

[Take the concept of OMNISCIENCE attributed to “God.” It makes
it present everywhere (omnipresence) -- Hence, in us already --
as a “Ray” of the DIVINE -- and not somewhere vague “outside.” It
also gives “omnipotence,” or the power to act freely. This is
ours to use with care or to abuse rashly,]

Second. I would say (from your narrative) that you have had a
better awareness (earlier?) than most in this life-time of the
inner EGO. What does it tell you to do now, as a “fall-back”
position? What alternatives do you have, since any application
made now will inevitably take time to secure a result. What
useful saleable skills do you have for self-maintenance? Like
them or not, they are your “fall-backs.”

Third. We all, at root, are a Spiritual, and immortal entity,
and as such are “perfect.” But long ago we sacrificed our
attainment to embody (as an assistant, a “tutor,” and not as an
enforcer of ethics) a human form in which the nascent brother,
an “embodied mind-self” is seeking to attain to wisdom and to
employ that in daily life.

This embodied Self has its own Karma to meet -- and, it seems
that you have met a god deal. Now may be the time to take a kind
of repose and think over those events and their implications.
Not everything happens at the moment of generating a desire. One
could ask why this was not started earlier? Are we being pushed
by events, or, are we pushing them? Or is it an inter-play, and
if so what are the basic FACTORS? Why should you expect that if
you deserve it something will arise to assist you ? You must be
very anxious.

Your account, on review, should tell you that. But in doing so,
as a remedial position of strength, you have to impersonalize
(during that review), and detach your mind from all desire for
specific results. Assume the position that you will consider and
judge yourself totally impartially. And that you will accept as
karmic path anything that arises to assist you. Have you ever
studied the BHAGAVAD GITA? It deals with these conditions, and
offers a basis for unprejudiced self-analysis, and, brings to the
surface the potential of improvement that is always in the
aspirant’s hand and mind. He has to discover it.

Fourth. If you desire confirmation of this kind of method,
then read carefully that which is offered to us by H P B in THE
VOICE OF THE SILENCE -- “on line” at [
ttp://www.blavatsky.net ] This link will enable you to download
and then read at leisure the instructions given there to those
who desire to be disciples. Another valuable small book on
thinking and the powers of the Mind will be THE YOGA-SUTRAS of
PATANJALI [Judge translation] available at the same link.

As such, though young in body in this incarnation, you (and we)
are still faced with trials and difficulties which come to us
from our past lives. We have to learn to handle those, though
apparently, what we would like in the way of a speedy success is
delayed. It is not.

The time we spend on essentials of the moment, the kind of
life-environment that surrounds us, and without hankering after
our supposed rate of spiritual growth, gives us patience and
fortitude. Those are two of the trials. In any case “spiritual
growth” is always silent and is almost unperceived by the
“embodied-mind.” I attach below some hints on “spiritual
culture.”

If, as you say, you have had an accident, and in fact, looking at
it in your memory, you were not aware of the way in which your
body was acting, then you have an additional problem, that of
positive control of that instrument.

You cannot afford (none of us, at any time, can afford) to be
“passive.’ The body is a tool, and the way in which the
Lower-Mind (embodied mind) controls it, is by being there all the
time, by controlling the desires and passions, and avoid
“sleeping at the wheel” when it ought to be “awake.”

It is very dangerous to allow another entity (a form of
non-control?) to take-over our body even for a brief time. One
can sense this and then, exerting the WILL, exclude such a
penetration. We all have natural barriers (in the mind) to such
things, but some have allowed them to weaken. It is a struggle
then, to regain complete control. It starts with becoming aware
of the situation and then, and, to obtain recognition of it is
the first step. Thereafter one has to set up resistance,
whenever it seems to be creeping over “us.” This is called
“wakefulness,” or “attention.” We will find on review that we
all have some tendencies along that line.

The problems with your environment, and family’s religion are on
the whole minor, and as you have observed, will eventually
dissipate. If anything, this ought to encourage you to become
proficient in the knowledge, let us say, of the best aspects of
the Bible (or of your present community’s scriptures).

It is said that knowledge gives power, and it is so, but that
“power,” cannot be abused, or used as a lever to secure any
personal advantage over others. That would be selfishness and
lead to viciousness and evil. That no one wants as a personal
burden to “pay off” in the future. Nature and her laws are always
just -- we get to balance and harmonize all we do, good or evil,
and we cannot escape, or avoid, or blame any one else but
ourselves. We always know our own motives if we give ourselves
time to enquire into them. Our Higher Self, the inner “tutor,”
will always tell us -- as the “Voice of Conscience.” All we need
to do is take the time to ask and hold a dialog within the mind.

You cannot force any kind of a reform on others, or get them to
understand you on your terms. As I see, you have wisely adjusted
to dealing with them on their own. But let any and all
adjustments be based on impartiality, fairness, generosity and
charity -- compassion is the key word and idea. This does not
require you to give up your position if it is indeed impartial.
Beware of personal desires that can set themselves up as
essentials and needs. Can you carry them forward (mentally) into
a safe, honest and valuable future for life and lives to come?

Without being a sectarian, I would say that if one looks in the
Bible (and I mean that part where Jesus give us his teachings:
the NEW TESTAMENT) -- unmarred by translators’ prejudices -- you
will find expression of universal ethics that any right-minded
person would agree to. We have in other faiths similar
treatises: BHAGAVAD GITA, DHAMMAPADA, KORAN, the GATHAS and the
TAO TE KING. They are brief, but profound in value when
understood.

This is important: The individual, that each one of us is, has
to become independent of the opinions and rules of the community
he lives in, if they deviate from the honest, straight-forward
common sense that all have reposing in their own “hearts.” For
some it is more difficult to get to the “heart” than others. But
they cannot be forced. Most of us suffer from the fact that at an
early age we are not taught how to think. We are not taught that
there is an undeviating moral aspect to choice and to living with
others. It is more and more difficult if one attaches oneself to
slogans, and to the dicta of these we who claim authority (as do
priests).

As I see it, the religions of the world all teach the same
ethics, but priestly interpretations and the suppression of
emphasis on the WHOLE teaching has made the crazed patch-work of
all sects as of today.

I like the injunctions:

Hermes: “Man know thyself.” [Knowledge is power.]

Buddha: “Be a priest unto yourself.” [We are all free to
choose.]

Jesus: “Know ye not that ye are gods?” John 10: 34-5. [GOD
is within each of us.]

Theosophy: “Practise UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD.”


If you desire to continue, and have further questions do ask.
You are very helpful.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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


SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT


As to the process of spiritual development, Theosophy teaches:


First. That the essence of the process lies in the securing of
supremacy, to the highest, the spiritual, element of man's
nature.

Second. That this is attained along four 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, 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, with-out desire for reward, leaving results for
Divine law.

Third. 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.

Fourth. That an extension of this process is reached in
Adeptship, 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:


First. 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.

Second. That, however personal and interior, this process is not
unaided, being possible, in fact, only through close communion
with the supreme source of all strength.

As to the degree of advancement in incarnations it holds:

First. That even a mere intellectual acquaintance with Theosophic
truth has great value in fit-ting the individual for a step
upwards in his next earth-life, as it gives an impulse in that
direction.

Second. That still more is gained by a career of duty, piety and
beneficence.

Third. That a still greater advance is attained by the attentive
and devoted use of the means to spiritual culture heretofore
stated.

Fourth. That every race and individual of it reaches in evolution
a period known as "the moment of choice," when they decide for
themselves their future destiny 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 the 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 [moment of
choice] 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. After this period the race,
having blossomed, tends towards its dissolution. A few
individuals of it will have outstripped its progress and attained
Adeptship or Mahatmaship.

[Extracted from THE EPITOME OF THEOSOPHY (JUDGE) ]

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


-----Original Message-----
From: J
Sent: Sunday, April 27, 2003 8:08 AM
To: dalval14
Subject: Re: RELIGIONS RECONCILED

Dear Dallas,
Thank you for posting this address, given by Mr. Judge. My
appreciation is far exceeded in sentiment than can be expressed
in words and your timeliness is so apt that I believe it to be
divinely inspired. I have attached the first draft of a letter I
am preparing for * * * *
Currently I am seeking an internship with that division for the
summer for the sole purpose of trying to be nearest to where I
think this matter can be best addressed and from where
international progress can originate from.
To be perfectly honest, I am bursting at the seams of my psyche
and filled with the urgency to be of active service, but unsure
exactly how to proceed (or begin, really). Our species now finds
itself, once again, vast approaching the event horizon of another
global, religious calamity and it is my deep belief that now,
more than ever... more than a unified field theory or global
democracy, what is needed in this time is a lasting and sincere
commitment to birthing a Universal Doctrine of Religion. This is
a feat which I believe can only be achieved through patient
diplomacy and compassionate conviction. …



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