Theos-Talk Archives (October 2003 Message tt00025)

Oct 3 2003

Dear Friends:


The following seemed to me to be of great importance

Practical idealism is explained.

Best wishes,

DTB 

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


SOME WORDS ON DAILY LIFE 

=========================
(Written by a Master of
Wisdom)


IT is divine philosophy alone, the spiritual and psychic blending of man
with nature, which, by revealing the fundamental truths that lie hidden
under the objects of sense and perception, can promote a spirit of unity
and harmony in spite of the great diversities of conflicting creeds. 

Theosophy, therefore, expects and demands from the Fellows of the
Society a great mutual toleration and charity for each other's
shortcomings, ungrudging mutual help in the search for truths in every
department of nature-moral and physical. And this ethical standard must
be unflinchingly applied to daily life.

"Theosophy should not represent merely a collection of moral verities, a
bundle of metaphysical ethics, epitomized in theoretical dissertations. 

Theosophy must be made practical; and it has, therefore, to be
disencumbered of useless digressions, in the sense of desultory orations
and fine talk. 

Let every Theosophist only do his duty, that which he can and ought to
do, and very soon the sum of human misery, within and around the areas
of every Branch of your Society, will be found visibly diminished. 

Forget SELF in working for others-and the task will become an easy and a
light one for you.

"Do not set your pride in the appreciation and acknowledgement of that
work by others. 

Why should any member of the Theosophical Society, striving to become a
Theosophist, put any value upon his neighbour's good or bad opinion of
himself and his work, so long as he himself knows it to be useful and
beneficent to other people? 

Human praise and enthusiasm are short-lived at best; the laugh of the
scoffer and condemnation of the indifferent looker-on are sure to
follow, and generally to out-weigh, the admiring praise of the friendly.


Do not despise the opinion of the world, nor provoke it uselessly to
unjust criticism. Remain rather as indifferent to the abuse as to the
praise of those who can never know you as you really are, and who ought,
therefore, to find you unmoved by either, and ever placing the approval
or condemnation of your own Inner Self higher than that of the
multitudes.

"Those of you who would know yourselves in the spirit of truth, learn to
live alone even amidst the great crowds which may some times surround
you. 

Seek communion and intercourse only with the God within your own soul;
heed only the praise or blame of that deity which can never be separated
from your true self, as it is verily that God itself: called the HIGHER
Consciousness. Put without delay your good intentions into practice,
never leaving a single one to remain only an intention-expecting,
meanwhile, neither reward nor even acknowledgement for the good you may
have done. 

Reward and acknowledgement are in yourself and in separable from you, as
it is your Inner Self alone which can appreciate them at their true
degree and value. 

For each one of you contains within the precincts of his inner
tabernacle the Supreme Court-prosecutor, defense, jury and judge-whose
sentence is the only one without appeal; since none can know you better
than you do yourself, when once you have learned to judge that Self by
the never wavering light of the inner divinity-your higher
Consciousness. Let, therefore, the masses, which can never know your
true selves, condemn your outer selves according to their own false
lights.

"The majority of the public Areopagus is generally composed of
self-appointed judges, who have never made a permanent deity of any idol
save their own personalities-their lower selves; for those who try in
their walk in life, to follow their inner light will never be found
judging, far less condemning, those weaker than themselves. What does it
matter, then, whether the former condemn or praise, whether they humble
you or exalt you on a pinnacle? They will never comprehend you one way
or the other. 

They may make an idol of you, so long as they imagine you a faithful
mirror of themselves on the pedestal or altar which they have reared for
you, and while you amuse or benefit them. You cannot expect to be
anything for them but a temporary fetish, succeeding another fetish just
overthrown, and followed in your turn by an other idol. Let, therefore,
those who have created that idol destroy it whenever they like, casting
it down with as little cause as they had for setting it up. 

Your Western Society can no more live with out its Khalif of an hour
than it can worship one for any longer period; and whenever it breaks an
idol and then besmears it with mud, it is not the model, but the
disfigured image created by its own foul fancy and which it has endowed
with its own vices, that Society dethrones and breaks.

"Theosophy can only find objective expression in an all-embracing code
of life, thoroughly impregnated with the spirit of mutual tolerance,
charity, and brotherly love, its Society, as a body, has a task before
it which, unless performed with the utmost discretion, will cause the
world of the indifferent and the selfish to rise up in arms against it. 

Theosophy has to fight intolerance, prejudice, ignorance, and
selfishness, hidden under the mantle of hypocrisy. It has to throw all
the light it can from the torch of Truth, with which its servants are
entrusted. It must do this without fear or hesitation, dreading neither
reproof nor condemnation. 

Theosophy, through its mouthpiece, the Society, has to tell the TRUTH to
the very face of LIE; to beard the tiger in its den, without thought or
fear of evil consequences, and to set at defiance calumny and threats.

As an Association, it has not only the right, but the duty to uncloak
vice and do its best to redress wrongs, whether through the voice of its
chosen lecturers or the printed word of its journals and
publications-making its accusations, however, as impersonal as possible.


But its Fellows, or Members have individually no such right, Its
followers have, first of all, to set the example of a firmly outlined
and as firmly applied morality, before they obtain the right to point
out, even in a spirit of kindness, the absence of a like ethic unity and
singleness of purpose in other associations or individuals. 

No Theosophist should blame a brother, whether within or outside of the
association; neither may he throw a slur upon another's actions or
denounce him, lest he himself lose the right to be considered a
Theosophist. For, as such, he has to turn away his gaze from the
imperfections of his neighbour, and centre rather his attention upon his
own shortcomings, in order to correct them and become wiser. Let him not
show the disparity between claim and action in another, but, whether in
the case of a brother, a neighbor, or simply a fellow man, let him
rather ever help one weaker than himself on the arduous walk of life.


"The problems of true Theosophy and its great mission are, first, the
working out of clear unequivocal conceptions of ethic ideas and duties,
such as shall best and most fully satisfy the right and altruistic
feelings in men; and, second, the modeling of these conceptions for
their adaptation into such forms of daily life, as shall offer a field
where they may be applied with most equitableness.



"Such is the common work placed before all who are willing to act on
these principles. It is a laborious task, and will require strenuous and
persevering exertion; but it must lead you insensibly to progress, and
leave you no room for any selfish aspirations outside the limits traced.
. . . Do not indulge personally in unbrotherly comparison between the
task accomplished by yourself and the work left undone by your
neighbours or brothers. 

In the fields of Theosophy none is held to weed out a larger plot of
ground than his strength and capacity will permit him. 

Do not be too severe on the merits or demerits of one who seeks
admission among your ranks, as the truth about the actual state of the
inner man can only be known to Karma, and can be dealt with justly by
that all-seeing Law alone. Even the simple presence amidst you of a
well-intentioned and sympathizing individual may help you magnetically.
.

You are the free volunteer workers on the fields of Truth, and as such
must leave no obstruction on the paths leading to that field."

* * * * *


"The degree of success or failure are the landmarks the Masters have to
follow, as they will constitute the barriers placed with your own hands
between yourselves and those whom you have asked to be your teachers.
The nearer your approach to the goal contemplated-the shorter the
distance between the student and the Master."

Lucifer, January, 1888


T A & N p. 133


Copied : Dallas TenBroeck

Some of the statements above will be found to address the nature of
"anonymity, impartiality, and universality." Also the work of
Theosophy, of the "Society," the "Member/Associate," is discussed and
defined.

Mutual appreciation, help and tolerance, are placed as important
criteria for co-association and work. This does not depend on any
particular affiliation.

The Inner GOD - the HIGHER SELF (ATMA) - is the final "judge" of each
one of us. If the "Personal Man" listens to the voice if Intuition and
of Conscience, then Theosophical work will be done. That is the voice of
the ETERNAL MAN - the MONAD - the Eternal Pilgrim which we are
spiritually.

Our incarnations are designed by Karma (the sum of our past choices) to
present us with the next step in advancement along the spiritual path.
We neglect the opportunity at our peril. "To live to benefit mankind is
the first step."

That is: practical UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD.

DTB




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