Theos-Talk Archives (August 2003 Message tt00079)

Monday, August 18, 2003

RE: "prayer/communion," Theosophy, Dallas and ...

Dear M:


Let us look into what Theosophy has to say on this subject of
"Prayer."

If we consider the meaning and use of the word "prayer" we find
that this implies a use of the desire faculty, the mind, and the
will -- so as to bring it into effect.

The Real Inner Man employs these unconsciously all the time that
he is alive and awake. In fact one might say that every moment
of our lives we are "creators." The progress of our life and its
direction is constantly regulated by our choices and decisions.
The direction of any one of these is called the "motive."

Our "motives" can be of two kinds:

1. Selfish -- for our personal benefit. [This can result in
harm and disturbance that will affect others to their detriment,
as all have a repercussion (Karma) on ourselves.] Or,

2. Unselfish. [A desire to live and act so that we will
harmonize with the patterns of life as revealed by the Karma of
our Universe, our life pattern and objectives, and the nature of
the circumstances that we are in at any given moment of time.
Added to this, we can willingly adopt a posture of deliberate
goodwill to all other beings in this vast cooperative we call
Nature and which is guided intelligently by the laws of
Brotherhood.]

>From this point of view all "prayers," are hopes and decisions
for action, and the effect of adopting these create the kind of
Karma which will lead as well as follow us into the future.

We are the "creators" of our own future. We have free choice.
But we limit our freedom very often by assumptions we have made
into our guides. Not all of these have been verified for
accuracy and basic TRUTH -- as facts or Laws of Nature (
assuming that universal Nature is consistently lawful and
purposeful).

One may say this is highly philosophical, even though this is
reviewed in a flash each time that we make a desire. In fact we
can call any desire, and any consequent thought and action, a
"manifested prayer." The results that follow depend on the power
and determination of our applied "WILL." We have to assume that
the "I" in us, the REAL BASIC SELF, is an entity that is
consubstantial as well as contemporary with the Universe as a
whole. If this is accepted the idea that we and the Universe
share the same potentials becomes reasonable.

If we assume that our Individual existence is only the temporary
physical base that our present body and brain affords, then
inevitably our views will be limited by this concept -- it is far
less in potential that one which assumes our Immortality as a
"RAY" of the Universal ONE spirit -- ATMAN.

This fact can be ascertained as follows: If one desires
something, one visualizes it as being achieved -- a result. A
goal is set. Then follows the assembly of that information needed
to create a plan of procedure. Then the plan is made and brought
into actuality by application of certain disciplines that we
apply to our mind and bodily actions. If one desires to observe
this in terms of time, then we will see that our memory of the
past is brought into selected focus now in the present, so that
our "future" may be created. Past, present and future are thus
merged by us, for the moment in the decision-making process. We
do this all the time, usually automatically and unconsciously

The devoted student of Theosophy before doing this kind of
decision making, will stop and, considering the first most
important object of living, ask : "Why is this desire to be
accomplished? Is it necessary? Who will benefit? Is there any
possibility of hurting others?

He does this because he is sure that Karma operates everywhere,
and that anything which he may do will affect the environment,
himself and ultimately others in Nature. "How," he asks himself,
"can I perform this action HARMLESSLY ? Is it LAWFUL to do? Will
I incur future ill effects. In other words, Is it ESSENTIAL ?"

In Theosophical literature there is to be found a good deal of
key information about "prayer."
As outlined above, the question of our 'motive' is sketched.
Next, the consideration of the average person's attitude towards
"prayer" is reviewed. Here are some key ideas, and as usual,
starting with some fundamental concepts on devotion and worship :

"...divine man dwelt in his animal--though externally
human--form...When moved by the law of Evolution, the Lords of
Wisdom infused into him the spark of consciousness, the first
feeling it awoke to life and activity was a sense of solidarity,
of one-ness with his spiritual creators ...DEVOTION arose out of
that feeling, and became the first and foremost motor in his
nature; for it is the only one which is natural to our heart,
which is innate in us, and which we find alike in human babe and
the young of the animal.

This feeling of irrepressible, instinctive aspiration in
primitive man is beautiful, and one may say intuitionally,
described by Carlyle.

"The great antique heart," he exclaims, "how like a child's in
its simplicity, like a man's in its extreme solemnity and depth !
heaven lies over him wheresoever he goes or stands on the earth;
making all the earth a mystic temple to him, the earth's business
all a kind of worship...Wonder, miracle encompasses the man; he
lives in an element of miracle...A great law of duty, high as
these two infinitudes (heaven and hell), dwarfing all else,
annihilating all else--it was a reality, and it is one; the
garment only of it is dead; the essence of it lives through all
times and all eternity."
SECRET DOCTRINE I 210-11.



"1. The Secret Doctrine teaches no Atheism...

2. It admits a Logos or a collective "Creator" of the Universe;
a 'Demi-urgos'--in the sense implied when one speaks of an
"Architect" as the "Creator" of an edifice, whereas that
Architect has never touched one stone of it, but while furnishing
the plan, left all the manual labour to the masons; in our case
the plan was furnished by the Ideation of the Universe, and the
constructive labour was left to the Hosts of intelligent Powers
and Forces. But that Demiurgos is no 'personal' deity--an
imperfect extra-cosmic god--but only the aggregate of the Dhyan
Chohans and other forces.

3. [these 'forces'] ...are dual in character ...(a) the
irrational 'brute energy' inherent in nature, and (b) the
intelligent soul or cosmic consciousness which directs and guides
that energy and which is the 'Dhyan-Chohanic thought reflecting
the Ideation of the Universal Mind.'

This results in a perpetual series of physical manifestations
and 'moral effects' on Earth during manvantaric periods, the
whole being subservient to Karma...therefore, neither the
collective Host (Demiurgos), nor any of the working powers
individually, are proper subjects for divine honours or worship.

All are entitled to the grateful reverence of Humanity, however,
and man ought to be ever striving to help the divine evolution of
'Ideas,' by becoming to the best of his ability a 'co-worker
with nature' in the cyclic task.

The ever unknowable and incognizable 'Karana' alone, the
'Causeless' Cause of all causes, should have its shrine and altar
on the holy and ever untrodden ground of our heart--invisible,
intangible, unmentioned, save through the still small voice of
our spiritual consciousness. Those who worship before it, ought
to do so in the silence and the sanctified solitude of their
Souls; making their spirit the sole mediator between them and
the 'Universal Spirit,' their good actions the only priests, and
their sinful intentions the only visible and objective sanctified
victims to the 'PRESENCE."
SECRET DOCTRINE I p. 279-280.



"It is the profane of the past ages who have degraded the pure
idea of cosmic creation...it is the esoteric teachings and the
initiates of the Future, whose mission it is, and will be, to
redeem and ennoble once more the primitive conception so sadly
profaned by its crude and gross application to exoteric dogmas
and personations by theological and ecclesiastical religionists.
The silent worship of abstract or 'noumenal' Nature, the only
divine manifestation, is the one ennobling religion of Humanity."
SECRET DOCTRINE I 281 footnote.



"When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are...but
enter into 'thine inner chamber and having shut thy door, pray to
thy Father which is in secret," [ Mathew vi]. Our Father is
'within us' "in Secret," our 7th principle [Atma], in the "inner
chamber" of our soul perception. "The Kingdom of Heaven" and of
god "is within us" says Jesus, not 'outside.'
SECRET DOCTRINE I 280 fn.



"Real ecstasy was defined by Plotinus as "the liberation of the
mind from its finite consciousness, becoming one and identified
with the infinite. This is the highest condition...but not one
of permanent duration, and it is reached only by the very
few...Meditation is silent and 'unuttered' prayer, or, as Plato
expressed it, "the ardent turning of the soul towards the divine;
not to ask any particular good (as in the common meaning of
prayer), but for good itself--for the universal Supreme Good" of
which we are a part on earth, and out of the essence of which we
have all emerged." KEY p. 10



"The Unknowable is capable of relations only in its parts to each
other, but it is non-existent as regards any finite relations.
The visible universe depends for its existence and phenomena on
its mutually acting forms and their laws, not on prayer or
prayers. [Q.: Do you not believe at all in the efficacy of
prayer?] ... Not in prayer taught in so many words and repeated
externally, if by prayer you mean the outward petition to an
unknown God as the addressee... [Q.: Is there any other kind of
prayer?] ... Most decidedly; we call it WILL-PRAYER, and it is
rather an internal command than a petition. [Q.: To whom, then,
do you pray...?] ... To "our Father in heaven"-- in its esoteric
meaning...An Occultist or a theosophist addresses his prayer to
his 'Father which is in secret' (read and try to understand
Matthew VI v 6), not to an extra-cosmic and therefore finite
God, and that "Father" is in man himself. [Q.: Then you make of
man a God?] ... Please say "God" and not "a God." In our sense
the inner man is the only god we can have cognizance of...We call
our "Father in heaven" the deific essence of which we are
cognizant within us, in our heart and spiritual consciousness
....
Yet, let no man anthropomorphise that essence in us...for all
are
one."	KEY p. 66-7.



These few references will give the positive aspect of prayer
viewed Theosophically. any kind of prayer that has for object a
special benefit for the one who is praying is held to be a kind
of Black-magic" or sorcery practices. [see SD I 416 467-9 ]

Best wishes,

Dallas


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



-----Original Message-----
From: Mauri
Sent:	Sunday, August 17, 2003 4:22 PM
To:
Subject:	re "prayer/communion," Theosophics, Dallas and ...

re prayer/communion

A while back Dallas and I had go at the word "prayer" as it
might be seen to relate to Theosophics: If I remember
correctly, Dallas went on to supply quotes and comments that
seemed, to me, to represent somewhat fundamental views (as if
they might've been rather exclusively
literal/traditional/orthodox views) on the subject, while I was
trying to approach the topic of "prayer" from as many
perspectives (per way of "possibly relevent applications") as I
could think of, at the time.

Then a few days ago the word/concept "communion" occurred
to me, and I've been wondering ever since if there might be
people out there for whom that word might translate in some
possibly applicatory sense:

For example, one might ask: is it "blacking magic" (whatever
that might be in whatever "more-specific terms") to "commune
with one's higher self"? That is, can the
notion/definition/action of "prayer" be converted/translated, in
practice, into what might be described, in whatever
individualistic sense, as a form of "white communing" (as
opposed to "blackish prayer"?), when one's motives are taken
into account re whatever might be defined as one's
"applicatory/relevant, individualistic context"?

I'm speculating here that there may be, for all I know, forms of
communion that may be seen, by some, in whatever
interpretive/apparent sense, as "blackish prayers," as well as
forms of communion that may be seen, by some, in whatever
"whitish sense," so ...

In any case, I suspect that whether we "commune," "pray,"
"theorize,"" Theosophize," "Scientize," or whatever, chances
are that our various individual, interpretive senses/contexts of
such activities/thoughts are more relevant (at least to
ourselves) than how others perceive such activities. Not that
Besant/Leadbeater might not have offered just such
introductory fare in promoting their version of the "Liberatl
Catholic Church," Neo-Theosophics, or whatever they
might've been promoting/representing more specifically.

While the word "communion," by itself, might not be seen to say
much, on the whole, in general, but seems to me that such a word
might be seen, in general, or by some people, to elicit a
somewhat
wider spectrum of "possibly relevant" thoughts and motives, than
might
the word
"prayer"... But ...

In other words, guys, watch out, eh, since there don't seem to
be any short cuts or any particularly easy answers, for the most
part (apparently?) on this plane.

Speculatively,
Mauri