Theos-Talk Archives (June 2003 Message tt00323)

In a letter (Aug. 1881) to A.P. Sinnett, Master Koot
Hoomi wrote as follows about the Occult Science:

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The Occult Science is not one, in which secrets 
can be communicated of a sudden, by a written 
or even verbal communication. If so, all the
"Brothers" should have to do, would be 
to publish a Hand-book of the art which might 
be taught in schools as grammar is. It is the 
common mistake of people that we willingly 
wrap ourselves and our powers in mystery -- 
that we wish to keep our knowledge to ourselves, 
and of our own will refuse -- "wantonly and
deliberately" to communicate it. The truth 
is that till the neophyte attains to the 
condition necessary for that degree of 
Illumination to which, and for which, 
he is entitled and fitted, most if not 
all of the Secrets are incommunicable. 
The receptivity must be equal to the 
desire to instruct. The illumination 
must come from within. Till then no hocus 
pocus of incantations, or mummery of 
appliances, no metaphysical lectures or 
discussions, no self-imposed penance can 
give it. All these are but means to an 
end, and all we can do is to direct the 
use of such means as have been empirically 
found by the experience of ages to conduce 
to the required object. And this was and 
has been no secret for thousands of years. 
Fasting, meditation, chastity of thought, 
word, and deed; silence for certain 
periods of time to enable nature herself 
to speak to him who comes to her for 
information; government of the animal 
passions and impulses; utter unselfishness 
of intention, the use of certain incense 
and fumigations for physiological purposes, 
have been published as the means since 
the days of Plato and Iamblichus in the 
West, and since the far earlier times 
of our Indian Rishis. How these must be 
complied with to suit each individual 
temperament is of course a matter for 
his own experiment and the watchful 
care of his tutor or Guru. Such is in 
fact part of his course of discipline, 
and his Guru or initiator can but assist 
him with his experience and will power 
but can do no more until the last and 
Supreme initiation. I am also of opinion 
that few candidates imagine the degree of
inconvenience -- nay suffering and harm 
to himself -- the said initiator submits 
to for the sake of his pupil. The peculiar 
physical, moral, and intellectual conditions 
of neophytes and Adepts alike vary much, as 
anyone will easily understand; thus, in each 
case, the instructor has to adapt his 
conditions to those of the pupil, and 
the strain is terrible for to achieve 
success we have to bring ourselves into 
a full rapport with the subject under 
training. And as, the greater the powers 
of the Adept the less he is in sympathy 
with the natures of the profane who often 
come to him saturated with the emanations 
of the outside world, those animal emanations 
of the selfish, brutal, crowd that we so 
dread -- the longer he was separated from 
that world and the purer he has himself 
become, the more difficult the self-imposed 
task. Then -- knowledge, can only be 
communicated gradually; and some of 
the highest secrets -- if actually 
formulated even in your well prepared 
ear -- might sound to you as insane 
gibberish, notwithstanding all the 
sincerity of your present assurance 
that "absolute trust defies misunderstanding." 
This is the real cause of our reticence.
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Quoted from:
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/mahatma/ml-49.htm

Daniel H. Caldwell
BLAVATSKY STUDY CENTER/BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
http://www.blavatskyarchives.com