Theos-Talk Archives (June 2003 Message tt00001)

Sunday, June 01, 2003

Dear Friend:

In my studies in Theosophy I came across some interesting
definitions that help understand these questions (see below).

No one can deny freedom to others.

No one can do another's study and decision making for them.

Hence each is free to decide their own course of action.

As an example: take our universal experience in school and later
in life work. All we have become is a result of our choices and
taking advantage of the opportunities offered. Somethings we
used and others we rejected. It is important to review this:
acceptance, use and rejection. Why did we act in such a way ?
This reveals to us our own nature and character.

It is futile to blame others. WE ARE, ETERNALLY, THE FREE
CHOOSERS. If someone tries to "lead" then those who choose to
follow abrogate their decision making faculty for some reason
that THEY CHOOSE Perhaps we ought to reexamine these choices and
the nature of the "leader" we elected to "follow."

However I find that Theosophy teaches:

Consistently and forever, WE MAKE OURSELVES -- by our choices.

It is also one of the proofs of our Divine Nature as immortal
Egos. And the fact that Nature supports us, and this present
life, is a part of the universal "School curriculum." The
"School" in which we all are, today, in the bodies that are now
ours, enable us to learn and determine our own speed and rate of
learning. If we are stupid, or ignorant, we have only ourselves
to thank. But we also have the power to change that. Don't we?

Our Immortal Self has to power to know everything, given time to
learn -- as in many lives, and also the power to change our way
of life if we will it. But we cannot blame others! Note that it
is our memory, used every day that alters. WE DO NOT ALTER, the
memory and our usage of it does.

The rules and laws of the Universe are ancient and consistent in
this as in other matters. They arrange for the improvement and
education of all beings (immortal Monads). We are an example of
one of these ETERNAL AND IMMORTAL UNITS that has reached the
stage of self-consciousness and self-choosing. Where do we go
from here?

The progress that the ONE desires -- as of good will to all --
BROTHERHOOD -- is at the root of all Theosophical metaphysics and
work. It reflects the condition of the UNIVERSE as always in
action towards general and individual improvement, as one in
which the acquiring of wisdom is encouraged. It also implies
justice, mercy, generosity, charity and compassion. The Universe
readjusts distortions and disharmonies by means of HARMONY which
is impartial and ever-acting KARMA. We in fact can be said to
live in a harmony of discords.

In Theosophy no one is a "Leader" save H P B and the Masters. We
are all student/teachers, offering what we have learned, so that
others might review that and perhaps build upon it.

I believe the following statements, culled from various
Theosophical texts may be answers to some of your observations.
But do check them out for coherency and meaning. I will be glad
to answer any questions that arise, if I can.

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

"...THERE IS ONE ABSOLUTE REALITY which antecedes all manifested,
conditioned, being. This Infinite and Eternal Cause--dimly
formulated in the "Unconscious" and "Unknowable"...is the
rootless root of "all that was, is, or ever shall be." It is of
course devoid of all attributes and is essentially without any
relation to manifested, finite Being. It is "Be-ness" rather
than Being (in Sanskrit, Sat), and is beyond all thought or
speculation...Thus, then, the first fundamental axiom of the
Secret Doctrine is this metaphysical ONE
ABSOLUTE--BE-NESS--symbolized by finite intelligence as the
theological trinity." Secret Doctrine I p. 14


"THE CAUSES OF EXISTENCE...refers to the last Manvantara, or age
of Brahmâ, but the cause which makes the Wheel of Time and Space
run into Eternity, which is out of Space and Time, has nothing to
do with the finite causes or what we call the Nidanas...This one
eternal causeless and therefore "causeless cause" is immutable
and has nothing to do with the causes on any of the planes which
are concerned with finite and conditioned being. The cause can
therefore by no means be a finite consciousness or desire. It is
an absurdity to postulate desire or necessity of the Absolute;
the striking of a clock does not suggest the desire of the clock
to strike...the Absolute containing both clock and Winder, once
it is the Absolute; the only difference is that the former is
would up in Space and Time and the latter out of Space and Time,
that is to say, in Eternity...Parabrahm is not a cause, neither
is there any cause that can compel it to emanate or create.
Strictly speaking, Parabrahm is not even the Absolute, but
Absoluteness. Parabrahm is not a cause, but causality, or the
propelling but not volitional power, in every manifesting Cause.
We may have some hazy idea that there is such a thing as this
eternal Causeless Cause or Causality. But to define it is
impossible..."	Trans. 40-1


"...to the follower of the true Eastern archaic Wisdom, to him
who worships in spirit nought outside the absolute Unity, THAT
EVER PULSATING GREAT "HEART" THAT BEATS THROUGHOUT, AS IN EVERY
ATOM OF NATURE, each such atom contains a germ from which he may
raise the Tree of Knowledge, whose fruits give life eternal and
not physical life alone...the Force which directs its [the
seeds'] growth, the ever mysterious, as the ever unknown...THIS
IS THE ONLY FORCE THAT HAS A REALITY FOR HIM, AS IT IS THE
NEVER-DYING BREATH OF LIFE." SD II 588-9


"EVERY LIVING CREATURE, OF WHATEVER DESCRIPTION, WAS, IS, OR WILL
BECOME A HUMAN BEING IN ONE OR ANOTHER MANVANTARA." Trans. 23


"FREE WILL CAN ONLY EXIST IN A MAN WHO HAS BOTH MIND AND
CONSCIOUSNESS, which act and make him perceive things both within
and without himself."	Trans. 25


"...OUR EGO IS A RAY OF THE UNIVERSAL MIND, individualized for
the space of a cosmic life-cycle, during which space of time it
gets experience in almost numberless reincarnations or rebirths,
after which it returns to its Parent-Source. The Occultist would
call the "Higher Ego" the immortal Entity, whose shadow and
reflection is the human Manas, the mind limited by its physical
senses. The two may be well compared to the Master-artist and
the pupil-musician...In the course of natural evolution our
"brain-mind" will be replaced by a finer organism, and helped by
the 6th [Buddhi] and the 7th [Atma] senses..."	Theos. Articles &
Notes, p. 208


"THE HUMAN BRAIN IS AN EXHAUSTLESS GENERATOR OF THE MOST REFINED
QUALITY OF COSMIC FORCE out of the low, brute energy of Nature;
and the complete adept has made himself a center from which
radiate potentialities that beget correlations upon correlations
through AEons of time to come.'	Theos. Art. & Notes, p. 291


"...WE ALL REGARD OURSELVES AS UNITS, ALTHOUGH ESSENTIALLY WE ARE
ONE INDIVISIBLE UNIT, drops in the ocean of Being, not to be
distinguished from other drops. Having then produced this cause,
the whole discord of life follows immediately as an effect; in
reality it is the endeavor of nature to restore harmony and
maintain equilibrium. It is the sense of separateness which is
the root of all evil."	Trans. 30


"OUR "MEMORY" IS BUT A GENERAL AGENT, and its "tablets," with
their indelible impressions, but a figure of speech; the
"brain-tablets" serve only as a upadhi or a vahan (basis or
vehicle) for reflecting at a given moment the memory of one or
another thing. The record of past events, of every minutest
action, and of passing thoughts, in fact, are really impressed on
the imperishable waves of the Astral Light, around us, and
everywhere, not in the brain alone; and these mental pictures,
images, and sounds, pass from these waves in the consciousness of
the personal Ego or Mind (the lower Manas) whose grosser essence
is astral, into the "cerebral reflectors," so to say, of our
brain, whence they are delivered by the psychic to the sensuous
consciousness. This at every moment of the day, and even during
sleep."
Theos. Articles & Notes, p. 209


"The term "Pantheism" is again one of...many abused terms, whose
real and primitive meaning has been distorted by blind prejudice
and a one-sided view of it. If you accept the Christian
etymology of this compound word, and form it of pan, "all," and
theos, "god," and then imagine and teach that every stone and
every tree in Nature is a God or the ONE God, then...you
will...make of Pantheists fetish-worshipers, in addition to their
legitimate name.

But you will hardly be as successful if you etymologize the word
Pantheism esoterically....WHEN WE SPEAK OF THE DEITY AND MAKE IT
IDENTICAL, AND HENCE COEVAL, WITH NATURE, THE ETERNAL AND
UNCREATE NATURE IS MEANT, AND NOT YOUR AGGREGATE OF FLITTING
SHADOWS AND FINITE UNREALITIES...Our DEITY is neither in a
paradise, nor in a particular tree, building, or mountain: it is
everywhere, in every atom of the visible as of the invisible
Cosmos, in, over, and around every invisible atom and divisible
molecule; for IT is the mysterious power of evolution and
involution, the omnipresent, omnipotent, and even omniscient
creative potentiality." Key To Theosophy, pages 63-4


"Pantheism may be "physically rediscovered." It was known, seen,
and felt by the whole of antiquity. Pantheism manifests itself
in the vast expanse of the starry heavens, in the breathing of
the seas and oceans and the quiver of life of the smallest blade
of grass. PHILOSOPHY REJECTS THE ONE FINITE AND IMPERFECT GOD IN
THE UNIVERSE...It repudiates in its name of Philo-Theo-Sophia the
grotesque idea that infinite, Absolute Deity should, or rather
could, have any, whether direct or indirect, relation to finite
evolutions of matter, and therefore cannot imagine a universe
outside that Deity, or the latter absent from the smallest speck
of animate or inanimate substance."	Secret Doctrine I, 533


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

You seem to adopt the commonly accepted meaning for "Lucifer."
Here is what Theosophy says:

-----------------------
"Lucifer," is the pale morning-star, the precursor of the full
blaze of the noon-day sun--the "Eosphoros" of the Greeks. It
shines timidly at dawn to gather forces and dazzle the eye after
sunset as its own brother "Hesperos"--the radiant evening star,
or the planet Venus. No fitter symbol exists for the proposed
work [of Theosophy] -- that of throwing a ray of truth on
everything hidden by the darkness of prejudice, by social or
religious misconceptions; especially by that idiotic routine in
life, which, once that a certain action, a thing, a name... Such
an endeavour then, to force the weak-hearted to look truth
straight in the face, is helped most efficaciously by a title
belonging to the category of branded names...

So deeply rooted, indeed, is this preconception and aversion to
the name of Lucifer--meaning no worse than "light-bringer" (from
lux, lucis, "light," and ferre "to bring")1--even among the
educated classes, that by adopting it for the title of their
magazine the editors have the prospect of a long strife with
public prejudice before them...how came Satan to be called a
light-bringer, unless the silvery rays of the morning-star can in
any way be made suggestive of the glare of the infernal flames.
It is simply, as Henderson showed, "one of those gross
perversions of sacred writ which so extensively obtain, and which
are to be traced to a proneness to seek for more in a given
passage than it really contains--a disposition to be influenced
by sound rather than sense, and an implicit faith in received
interpretation"... A glimpse into the real and primitive
character of Lucifer can do them no harm and may, perchance, cure
them of a bit of ridiculous prejudice. They ought to study their
Homer and Hesiod's Theogony if they would do justice to Lucifer,
"Eosphoros and Hesperos," the Morning and the Evening beautiful
star...

But their sacred writ is the first to contradict their
interpretations and the association of Lucifer, the Morning Star,
with Satan. Chapter XXII of Revelation, verse 16th, says: "I,
Jesus . . . am the root. . . and the bright and Morning Star"
"early rising"): hence Eosphoros, or the Latin Lucifer. The or
probrium attached to this name is of such a very late date, the
Roman Church found itself forced to screen the theological
slander behind a two-sided interpretation--as usual. Christ, we
are told, is the "Morning Star," the divine Lucifer; and Satan
the usurpator of the Verbum, the "infernal Lucifer." "The great
Archangel Michael, the conqueror of Satan, is identical in
paganism with Mercury-Mithra, to whom, after defending the Sun
(symbolical of God) from the attacks of Venus-Lucifer, was given
the possession of this planet, et datus est ei locus Luciferi And
since the Archangel Michael is the 'Angel of the Face,' and 'the
Vicar of the Verbum' he is now considered in the Roman Church as
the regent of that planet Venus which 'the vanquished fiend had
usurped'." Angelus faciei Dei sedem superbi humilis Obtinuit,
says Cornelius à Lapide (in Vol. VI, p. 229).

This gives the reason why one of the early Popes was called
Lucifer, as Yonge and ecclesiastical records prove. It thus
follows that the title chosen for our magazine is as much
associated with divine and pious ideas as with the supposed
rebellion of the hero of Milton's "Paradise Lost." By choosing
it, we throw the first ray of light and truth on a ridiculous
prejudice which ought to have no room made for it in this our
"age of facts and discovery."

We work for true Religion and Science, in the interest of fact as
against fiction and prejudice. It is our duty, as it is that of
physical Science--professedly its mission--to throw light or
facts in Nature hitherto surrounded by the darkness of ignorance
And since ignorance is justly regarded as the chief promoter of
superstition, that work is, therefore, a noble and beneficent
work But natural Sciences are only one aspect of SCIENCE and
TRUTH.

Psychological and moral Sciences, or theosophy, the knowledge of
divine truth, wheresoever found, are, still more important in
human affairs, and real Science should not be limited simply to
the physical aspect of life and nature.
Science is an abstract of every fact, a comprehension of every
truth within the scope of human research and intelligence.
"Shakespeare's deep and accurate science in mental philosophy"
(Coleridge), has proved more beneficent to the true philosopher
in the study of the human heart--therefore, in the promotion of
truth--than the more accurate, but certainly less deep, science
of any Fellow of the Royal Institution.

Those readers, however, who do not find themselves convinced that
the Church had no right to throw a slur upon a beautiful star,
and that it did so through a mere necessity of accounting for one
of its numerous loans from Paganism with all its poetical
conceptions of the truths in Nature, are asked to read our
article "THE HISTORY OF A PLANET."

-- H P B [ From: WHAT'S IN A NAME ? Lucifer, Sept 1887. ]

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

Best wishes,

Dallas

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



-----Original Message-----
From: Morten
Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2003 2:30 PM
To:
Subject: Re: Lucifer's latest trick...?

Hi Dallas and all of you,

My views:

Thanks for your kind and well put answer.

BUT - according to me, -

The wise adepts of wisdom sort of "elects" Kings, Popes,
Presidents and political leaders - chairmen and chairwoman as
well - even if they themselves are not aware of it.

This can be done by stimulating certain energies at the right
time and place under given circumstances. Sometimes, they don't
interfer and sometimes they do. And always with the heart of
compassion. So clever is the wise, that it is no match for the
less developed mind and intellect to understand - the law of
Karma and the Free-will issues involved.

My knowledge is:


Before we incarnate - there has been laid a time-space plan so to
speak for what we are going to experience. This plan is in a
quite special manner moving through time - and therefore sort of
'changes' while we incarnate. One could say, that our free-will
are as high as our combined level of
consciousness and compassion. And yet in fact it is all there -
for everyone to see, exactly what the
future brings - if they have the heart of compassion to do that.


The word "development" is a term, which fits the lower or even
higher mental mind, depending on the readers view. On the highest
levels of consciousness - the term "development" is not the issue
of importance. The term "development" has then been transcended.
That is what I know.

My view:


"Lucifer" is in this case the one who tempts the seeker to
promote war !
Lucifer is also 'something' else.

How does Theosophy as a Organisation create peace by continuing
with Business as usual - day after day ?


I just don't get it.


Something has to happen. Something has to happen with the Bailey
groups and their dangerous almost Jesuitic manners.

HPB would certainly have reacted to such a newsletter as the one
in mention:
http://www.lucistrust.org/goodwill/nl/2003/2/index.shtml
(Lucis Trust - Newslettter no. 2, year 2003)

Maybe this could spark something:
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/hpb-am/hpb-am1.htm
("Letter to the Second Annual Convention 22-23. april 1888" by
HPB).

Quoting the fitting words above:


"It must be remembered that the Society was not founded as a
nursery for
forcing a supply of Occultists -- as a factory for the
manufactory of
Adepts. It was intended to stem the current of materialism, and
also that of
spiritualistic phenomenalism and the worship of the Dead. It had
to guide
the spiritual awakening that has now begun, and not to pander to
psychic
cravings which are but another form of materialism. For by
"materialism" is
meant not only an anti-philosophical negation of pure spirit,
and, even
more, materialism in conduct and action -- brutality, hypocrisy,
and, above
all, selfishness -- but also the fruits of a disbelief in all but
material
things, a disbelief which has increased enormously during the
last century,
and which has led many, after a denial of all existence other
than that in
matter, into a blind belief in the materialization of Spirit. "

And today we have the Tarot Cards, the crystal gazings, the
14-days-get-clairvoyant-exercises, and clairvoyant-sceances
etc...
And the Journalists and the public ? - They love it !
(I.e. "Do'nt think", "Relax - enjoy - we will do the thinking for
you". And
the politicians always talking about war - make it important).
Theosophy ? Well, the journalists have never heard of it. And
often they
find the issue boring. You see: Journalists does'nt seem to like
spiritual
moral !

But HPB knew how to provoke people - and get their attention.
Theosophists of today ? Do they know how to do that ? No !
The most of them look like the Sad Faced United, - always at the
bottom not
getting any points. They should instead laern something about
giving to
others what they need - something about how to promote Theosophy.


What happens today ?

The Theosophical leaders - says:

Let us promote Theosophy.


And then they do --- eeehm NOTHING !


Allright: They promote some few phamplets - and very discrete
place them together with the hundred others from other
organiztions !!!


Maybe they are often to few - and can't agree upon anything - not
even the pamphlets. So nothing happens.
You will have to agree, - That is NOT promotion !

If seven men and women at a meeting about, what to do about the
sinking ship -
can't find a solution - then they are stupid. S - T - U - P - I -
D.
And if they hav'nt seen, that the ship is sinking - they are
ignorant.

And just like other past organizations it will wanish. And
another word more fitting
will be used by the masters of wisdom.


Ignorants are not fit as leaders of A true Theosophical Society.


from
M. Sufilight with peace and love...