Theos-Talk Archives (December 2003 Message tt00246)

Dear Roberto:



Hope these might help you.



Dallas



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Articles: ARE CHELAS "MEDIUMS"? Article by H. P. Blavatsky


H P B Articles I p. 295








CHELAS by H. P. Blavatsky, H P B Articles I 299.











CAN THE MAHATMAS BE SELFISH? by H. P. Blavatsky


H P B Articles Vol. I, p. 321





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Here are some phrases I consider important in these
articles:





Dallas





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1


ARE CHELAS "MEDIUMS"? Article by H. P. Blavatsky


H P B Articles I p. 295










P. 295 The spirits of "the deceased" cannot and do
not come down and communicate with us





P. 295 It would be extremely difficult to find on
earth a human being, who could not be more or less influenced by the
"Animal Magnetism" or by the active Will (which sends out that
"Magnetism") of another.only he, who is no medium at all and therefore
insensible to epidemic or endemic moral influences, will make an
exception, [and] assert his independence...





P. 296 There is no man, except [one] whose emotions
and consequently whose actions cannot be influenced in some way or
other, and thereby the action of another be manifested or transmitted
through him. All men and all women and children are therefore Mediums,
and a person who is not a Medium is a monster, an abortion of nature;
because he stands without the pale of humanity. 





P. 296 "A medium is a person through whom the action
of another being is said to be manifested and transmitted to an abnormal
extent by the consciously or unconsciously active will of that other
being." .it will be just as difficult to determine who is a medium and
who is not a medium, as it is to say where sanity ends and where
insanity begins. 





P. 296 Every man has his little "weaknesses," and
every man has his little "mediumship"; that is to say, some vulnerable
point by which he may be taken unawares. 





P. 296 .only such persons shall be considered
mediums, who allow other beings to influence them.to such an extent that
they lose their self-control and have no more power or will of their own
to regulate their own actions.such a relinquishing of self-control may
be either active or passive, conscious or unconscious, voluntary or
involuntary, and differs according to the nature of the beings, who
exercise the said active influence over the medium. 









P. 297 A person may consciously and voluntarily
submit his will to another being and become his slave. This other being
may be 



1. a human being, and the medium will then be his obedient
servant and may be used by him for good or for bad purposes. This other
"being" may be 



2. an idea, such as love, greediness, hate, jealousy,
avarice, or some other passion, and the effect on the medium will be
proportionate to the strength of the idea and the amount of self-control
left in the medium. This "other being" may be 



3. an elementary or an elemental, and the poor medium become
a epileptic, a maniac or a criminal. [ He may become a prey to
Elementaries or Elementals, even without knowing the meaning of these
words, and he may consequently become a thief, a murderer, a ravisher, a
drunkard or a cut-throat, and it has often enough been proved that
crimes frequently become epidemic; or again he may by certain invisible
influences be made to accomplish acts which are not at all consistent
with his character such as previously known. He may be a great liar and
for once by some unseen influence be induced to speak the truth; he may
be ordinarily very much afraid and yet on some great occasion and on the
spur of the moment commit an act of heroism; he may be a street-robber
and vagabond and suddenly do an act of generosity, etc. ] This "other
being" may 



4. be the man's own higher principle, either alone or put
into rapport with another ray of the collective universal spiritual
principle, and the "medium" will then be a great genius, a writer, a
poet, an artist, a musician, an inventor, and so on. [ He may be
under the influence of his own seventh principle [ATMA] and imagine to
be in communication with a personal Jesus Christ, or a saint. ] This
"other being" may 



5. be one of those exalted beings, called Mahatmas, and the
conscious and voluntary medium will then be called their "Chela." [P.
298 .whether a Chela, who consciously and willingly lends for a time
his mental faculties to a superior being, whom he knows, and in whose
purity of motives, honesty of purpose, intelligence, wisdom and power he
has full confidence, can be considered a "Medium" in the vulgar
acceptation of the term, is a question which had better be left to the
reader--after a due consideration of the above--to decide for himself. ]





P. 297 .a medium may know the sources from which the
influence comes."the nature of the being, whose action is transmitted
through him," or he may not know it. 





P. 298 .the exercise of mediumship consists in the
.complete giving up of self-control.whether this exercise is good or
bad, depends entirely on the use that is made of it and the purpose for
which it is done. This.depends on the degree of knowledge which the
mediumistic person possesses, in regard to the nature of the being to
whose care he either voluntarily or involuntarily relinquishes for a
time the guardianship of his physical or intellectual powers. 





P. 298 A person who entrusts indiscriminately those
faculties to the influence of every unknown power, is undoubtedly a
"crank," and [can be] considered.insane.they are usually known by their
idiotic stare and by the fanaticism with which they cling to their
ignorance. Such people ought to be pitied instead of blamed, and if it
were possible, they should be enlightened in regard to the danger which
they incur





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2








CHELAS by H. P. Blavatsky





H P B Articles I 299.





:








P. 299 The word "Chela" simply means a disciple; 





P. 299 There are Chelas and Chelas, just as there are
MAHATMAS and MAHATMAS. There are MAHATMAS in fact who are themselves the
Chelas of those who are higher yet. But no one. would confound a Chela
who has just begun his journey with that greater Chela who is a MAHATMA.






P. 299 .the Chela is a . man who has entered upon "a
path not manifest" .he really forces his way into a guarded enclosure,
and has from that moment to fight and conquer--or die. Instead of
accepting he has to be worthy of acceptance. Nor must he offer himself.
One of the Mahatmas has. written -- "Never thrust yourself upon us for
Chelaship; wait until it descends upon you." [see MAHATMA LETTERS 337,
370, L M W Vol. I, p 66]



P. 300 And having been accepted as a Chela, it is not
true that he is merely the instrument of his Guru. He speaks as ordinary
men then as before.the cases in fact are rare in which the masters speak
through a Chela. 



P. 300 The powers of Chelas vary with their progress;
and know that if a Chela has any "powers," he is not permitted to use
them save in rare and exceptional cases, and never may he boast of their
possession. 



P. 300 .the goal set before the Chela is. to divest
himself of that overmastering sense of personality which is the thick
veil that hides from sight our immortal part--the real man. 



P. 300 . a Chela. His work is hard, his road stony,
the end far away. With sentimentality merely he will not advance at all.
And so, as he is not to clothe himself in sentiment, the public must
not, when they wish to consider him, throw a false veil of
sentimentality over all his actions and words. 



. 



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3








CAN THE MAHATMAS BE SELFISH? by H. P. Blavatsky





H P B Articles Vol. I, p. 321













P. 321 .unselfishness is a sine qua non for success in
occultism.the development of an unselfish feeling is in itself the
primary training which brings with it "knowledge which is power" as a
necessary accessory. [322 If, therefore, selfishness limits one to
narrow personalities, absolute knowledge is impossible so long as
selfishness is not got rid of. ]



P. 321 ."knowledge," .comes.as a matter of course, in
consequence of his having removed the veil, which screens true knowledge
from his view. 



P. 321 The basis of knowledge exists everywhere. true
knowledge consists in getting at the root of all phenomena, and thus
arriving at a correct understanding of the primal cause, the "rootless
root," which is not an effect in its turn. 



P. 321 To perceive anything correctly, one can use only
those senses or instruments which correspond to the nature of that
object. Hence, to comprehend the noumenal, a noumenal sense is a
pre-requisite; while the transient phenomena can be perceived by senses
corresponding to the nature of those phenomena. 



P. 321 Occult Philosophy teaches us that the seventh
principle is the only eternal Reality, while the rest, belonging as they
do to the "world of forms" which are non-permanent, are illusive in the
sense that they are transient. 



P. 321 .it is only the seventh sense, which pertains to the
noumenal world, that can comprehend the Abstract Reality underlying all
phenomena. As this seventh principle is all-pervading, it exists
potentially in all of us; and he, who would arrive at true knowledge,
has to develop that sense in him, or rather he must remove those veils
which obscure its manifestation. 



P. 321-2 All sense of personality is limited only to these
lower six principles, for the former relates only to the "world of
forms." Consequently, true "knowledge" can be obtained only by tearing
away all the curtains of Maya raised by a sense of personality before
the impersonal Atma



P. 322 .selfishness is that feeling which seeks after the
aggrandizement of one's own egotistic personality to the exclusion of
others..in that personality.is centered selfishness, or rather the
latter creates the former and vice versa, since they mutually act and
react upon each other. ..So long,.as we are in this world of phenomena,
we cannot be entirely rid of a sense of personality, however exalted
that feeling may be in the sense that no feeling of personal
aggrandizement or ambition remains. 





P. 322 We are, by our constitution and state of evolution,
placed in the "World of Relativity," 







GOAL OF MANIFESTATION





P. 322 .IMPERSONALITY AND NON-DUALITY IS THE ULTIMATE END
OF COSMIC EVOLUTION



P. 322 .WE HAVE TO ENDEAVOR TO WORK ALONG WITH NATURE, and
not place ourselves in opposition to its inherent impulse which must
ultimately assert itself. To oppose it, must necessitate suffering,
since a weaker force, in its egotism, tries to array itself against the
UNIVERSAL LAW. 



P. 322 .the occultist hastens this process, by allowing his
Will to act in unison with the Cosmic Will or the Demiurgic Mind, which
can be done by successfully checking the vain attempt of personality to
assert itself in opposition to the former. 



P. 322 .the MAHATMA is.. an advanced occultist, who has so
far controlled his lower "self" as to hold it.in complete subjection to
the Cosmic impulse, it is in the nature of things impossible for him to
act in any other but an unselfish manner. 



P. 322 Those.[who] still entangled in the web
of the delusive sense of personality charge the MAHATMAS with
"selfishness" in withholding "knowledge"-- do not consider what they are
talking about. The Law of Cosmic evolution is ever operating to achieve
its purpose of ultimate unity and to carry the phenomenal into the
noumenal plane.



P. 322 .the MAHATMAS, being en rapport with it [The Law of
Cosmic evolution], are assisting that purpose. They therefore know best
what knowledge is best for mankind at a particular stage of its
evolution, and none else is competent to judge of that matter, since
they alone have got to the basic knowledge which can determine the right
course and exercise proper discrimination. 



P. 323 the vision of the spiritual sense... is the only
perception of the MAHATMA





CHELAS' DUTY



P. 323 For, it will be evident that, as soon as the least
feeling of selfishness tries to assert itself, the vision of the
spiritual sense.becomes clouded and he loses the "power" which abstract
"knowledge" alone can confer. 



Hence, the vigilant watch of the "Will" we have constantly
to exercise to prevent our lower nature from coming up to the surface,
which it does in our present undeveloped state; and thus extreme
activity and not passivity is the essential condition with which the
student has to commence. 



First his activity is directed to check the opposing
influence of the "lower self"; and, when that is conquered, 



[Second] his untrammeled Will centered in his higher
(real) "self," continues to work most efficaciously and actively in
unison with the cosmic ideation in the "Divine Mind." 







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



-----Original Message-----
From: Roberto C
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2003 3:39 AM
To: 
Subject: [bn-study] Re: Mediums & Mediumship



Jerome,



Where can I find the full text of "Are chelas mediums?"

Roberto

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Jerome Wheeler <mailto:ultinla@juno.com> 

To: study@blavatsky.net 

Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2003 6:32 PM

Subject: [bn-study] Re: Mediums & Mediumship



A person may never in his life have heard the word "Medium" and still be
a strong Medium, although entirely unconscious of the fact. His actions
may be more or less influenced unconsciously by his visible or invisible
surroundings. He may become a prey to Elementaries or Elementals, even
without knowing the meaning of these words, and he may consequently
become a thief, a murderer, a ravisher, a drunkard or a cut-throat, and
it has often enough been proved that crimes frequently become epidemic;
or again he may by certain invisible influences be made to accomplish
acts which are not at all consistent with his character such as
previously known. He may be a great liar and for once by some unseen
influence be induced to speak the truth; he may be ordinarily very much
afraid and yet on some great occasion and on the spur of the moment
commit an act of heroism; he may be a street-robber and vagabond and
suddenly do an act of generosity, etc.



Furthermore, a medium may know the sources from which the influence
comes, or in more explicit terms, the nature of the being, whose action
is transmitted through him, or he may not know it. He may be under the
influence of his own seventh principle and imagine to be in
communication with a personal Jesus Christ, or a saint; he may be in
rapport with the "intellectual" ray of Shakespeare and write
Shakespearean poetry, and at the same time imagine that the personal
spirit of Shakespeare is writing through him, and the simple fact of his
believing this or that, would make his poetry neither better nor worse.
He may be influenced by some Adept to write a great scientific work and
be entirely ignorant of the source of his inspiration, or perhaps
imagine that it was the "spirit" of Faraday or Lord Bacon that is
writing through him, while all the while he would be acting as a
"Chela," although ignorant of the fact.



>From all this it follows that the exercise of mediumship consists in the
more or less complete giving up of self-control, and whether this
exercise is good or bad, depends entirely on the use that is made of it
and the purpose for which it is done. This again depends on the degree
of knowledge which the mediumistic person possesses, in regard to the
nature of the being to whose care he either voluntarily or involuntarily
relinquishes for a time the guardianship of his physical or intellectual
powers. A person who entrusts indiscriminately those faculties to the
influences of every unknown power, is undoubtedly a "crank," and cannot
be considered less insane than the one who would entrust his money and
valuables to the first stranger or vagabond that would ask him for the
same. We meet occasionally such people, although they are comparatively
rare, and they are usually known by their idiotic stare and by the
fanaticism with which they cling to their ignorance. Such people ought
to be pitied instead of blamed, and if it were possible, they should be
enlightened in regard to the danger which they incur; but whether a
Chela, who consciously and willingly lends for a time his mental
faculties to a superior being, whom he knows, and in whose purity of
motives, honesty of purpose, intelligence, wisdom and power he has full
confidence, can be considered a "Medium" in the vulgar acceptation of
the term, is a question which had better be left to the reader-after due
consideration of the above to decide for himself.



(from "Are Chelas "Mediums"?)





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