Theos-Talk Archives (December 2003 Message tt00296)

Part II


H P B and the MASTERS



"The theory is widely known among the members of the Society that at the
close of each century a spiritual movement is made in the world by the
Mahatmas, which begins with the last 25 years of the century and does
not in that form begin after the close of 25 years until the last
quarter of the following period...The Masters are governed by the law of
action and reaction and are wise enough always not to do that which
might result in undoing all their prior work. The law of reaction
applies as much to the mind of man as to physical things and forces. ...
In the West, following the historical cycles, a great and definite
effort is made among the people--for instance, as the Theosophical
Society--so as to aid the psychical and spiritual development in man..."


"At the end of the 25 years the Masters will not send out in such wide
and sweeping volume the force they send during the 25 years. But that
does not mean they will withdraw. They will leave the ideas to
germinate in the minds of people at large, but never will they take away
from those who deserve it the help that is due and given to all...
During all the centuries there have been many persons who have had
direct and valuable help from Masters, and to suppose that at the end of
our first 25 years all of that will be finished is an absurdity in
itself."	WQJ ART II 76-7


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


MASTERS AND THEIR "POSITION"



"We have offered to exhume the primeval strata of man's being, his basic
nature, and lay bare the wonderful complications of his inner Self...and
demonstrate it scientifically...It is our mission to plunge and bring
the pearls of Truth to the surface...For countless generations hath the
adept builded a fane of imperishable rocks, a giant's Tower of INFINITE
THOUGHT, wherein the Titan dwelt...emerging from it but at the end of
every cycle, to invite the elect of mankind to cooperate with him and
help in his turn enlighten superstitious man...until that day when the
foundations of a new continent of thought are so firmly built that no
amount of opposition and ignorant malice guided by the Brethren of the
Shadow will be found to prevail. But until that day of final triumph,
someone has to be sacrificed--though we accept but voluntary victims.
The ungrateful task did lay her [HPB] low and desolate in the ruins of
misery, misapprehension, and isolation: but she will have her reward in
the hereafter for we never were ungrateful..." M L 51


"...our true progress lies in fidelity to Masters as ideals and
facts."...I think a constant reliance on Masters as such ideals and
facts--or either--will lead the T S on to greater work...I belong to
that class of persons in the T S who out of their own experience know
that the Masters exist and actually help the T S...I am not acting
impulsively in my many public statements as to the existence of Masters
and help from Them. It is done under an old order of Theirs and under a
law of mind. The existence of Masters being a fact, the assertion of
that fact so often made in America has opened up channels in men's minds
which would have remained closed had silence been observed about the
existence of those Beings...Experience has shown that a springing up of
interest in Theosophy has followed declaration, and men's minds are more
powerfully drawn away from the blank Materialism teaching."	WQJ ART
II 43


"Concentrate the mind upon the Masters as ideals and facts--living,
active, beneficent Beings, working in and on the plane of causes.
Meditate upon this exclusively, and try to reach up to Them in thought."
F P 13-14


"...no worker, however feeble or insignificant, is outside the range of
Master's eye and help."	WQJ ART II 47


"...I can swear it, the Masters are watching us all, and, without fail,
when we come to the right point and really deserve, They manifest to us.
At all times I know They help and try to aid us as far as we will let
Them. Why, the Masters are anxious (to use a word of our own) that as
many as possible may reach to the state of power and love They are in.
Why, then, suppose They help not? As They are Atman and therefore the
very law of Karma itself, They are in everything in life, and in every
phase of our changing days and years. If you will arouse your faith on
this line you come nearer to help from Them than you will recognize."
LETTERS THAT HAVE HELPED ME - Judge, p. 68


"...fix your thoughts again on Those Elder Brothers, work for Them,
serve Them, and They will help through the right appropriate means and
no other. To meditate on the Higher Self is difficult. Seek, then, the
bridge--the Masters."		
LETTERS p. 112


"...the great Adepts live in the plane of our inner nature, it must
follow that they might be actively helping every one of us after the
date referred to, and we, as physical brain men, not be conscious of it
on this plane."	LETTERS , p. 115



"...between adept and chela--Master and Pupil--there gradually forms a
closer tie; for the psychic interchange is regulated
scientifically...as the water in a full tank runs into an empty one
which it is connected with; and as the common level will be sooner or
later reached according to the capacity of the feed-pipe, so does the
knowledge of the adept flow to the chela; and the chela attains the
adept-level according to his receptive capacities. At the same time the
chela, being an individual, a separate evolution, unconsciously imparts
to the Master the quality of his accumulated mentality. [ we ] always
ascertain independently and for ourselves whether the ideas so reflected
in us are right or wrong."	LETTERS from the Masters of
Wisdom, (I), p. 82-3



".the Master-Soul is one"...[Thou art THAT.] VOICE , p. 54



"...the light of the ONE MASTER, the one unfading golden light of
Spirit, shoots its effulgent beams on the Disciple from the very first.
Its rays thread through the thick dark clouds of matter..."	VOICE
p. 19



" .the best and most important teacher is one's seventh principle [Atma]
centred in the sixth [Buddhi]." LETTERS p. 96



"The Masters are not Eastern nor Western, but universal." LETTERS p.
109



"And whoever therefore wants to see the real MAHATMA, must use his
intellectual sight. He must so elevate his Manas that its perception
will be clear...His vision will then be bright and he will see the
MAHATMAS wherever he may be, for, being merged into the sixth and
seventh principles, which are ubiquitous and omnipresent, the MAHATMAS
may be said to be everywhere." HPB ART I 294


"Just now the best and biggest work by us poor children is on this plane
with the great aid of Master, Whose simple single will keeps the whole
organization [in being], and acts as its support and shield." LETTERS
p. 87


".the image of the Master is the best protection against lower
influences; think of the Master as a living man within you." LETTERS
p. 164


"The whole sweep, meaning, and possibility of evolution are contained in
the word Mahatma...those great souls who have triumphed before us...but
just because they are of the human race." WQJ ART II 39


"A Mahatma is not only an Adept, but much more...This does not mean a
noble-hearted man merely, but a perfected being, one who has attained to
the state...when time and space are no obstacles to sight, to action, to
knowledge or to consciousness...to possess information of a decidedly
practical character concerning the laws of nature, including that
mystery for science --the meaning, operation and constitution of life
itself..."
ECHOES p. 23


"...more help could be given to the movement in America because the fact
of their existence was not concealed from motives of either fear or
doubt...Occult help from Masters requires a channel just as much as any
other help does...the persons to be acted on must take part in making
the channel or line for the force to act, for if we will not have it
they cannot give it.

Now as we are dealing with the mind and nature of man, we have to throw
out the words which will arouse the ideas connected with the forces we
desire to have employed. In this case the words are those which bring
up the doctrine of the existence of Adepts, Mahatmas, Masters of wisdom.
Hence the value of the declaration of our beliefs."	WQJ ART II 41



Q.:--	"What then are the Adepts doing?

A.:-- (a) Assisting all good movements by acting on men from behind
the scenes through mental influence.
(b) Preparing as many men and women who are fit for it so
that they may, in their next incarnation, appear in the world as active
devotees to the good of the Human Family.
(c) Spreading now, through impulses given in many places
which must not be mentioned, a philosophy of life which will gradually
affect the race mind, and in particular the active, conquering Western
peoples, thus preparing the whole people to change and evolve yet
further and further until evils disappear and better days and people
reappear." WQJ ARTICLES II 53-4


"...if it were possible to alter the state of things and to make a
peaceful earth and a right humanity without following the law of
evolution, they would willingly do it, but mankind can only be altered
step by step. [The Masters] have also stated that they do not make
themselves objectively known to believers in them except in those cases
where those believers are ready in all parts of their nature, are
definitely pledged to them, with the full understanding of the meaning
of the pledge. But they have also stated that they help all earnest
seekers after truth, and that it is not necessary for those seekers to
know from where the help comes so long as it is received...The Masters
do help powerfully, though unseen, all those who earnestly work and
sincerely trust in their higher nature, while they follow the voice of
conscience without doubt or cavil."
FORUM ANSWERS, 75-76



"...remember what was long ago said--that the Master would manage
results. You must not manage, precipitate, nor force...As chelas and
students conceal rather than give out your inner psychic life, for by
telling of it your proper progress is hindered...By gentleness,
detachment, strict attention to duty, and retiring now and then to the
quiet place, bring up good currents and keep back all evil ones...A
steady mind and heart stands still and quiet until the muddy stream
rolls clear."	
WQJ LETTERS p. 84



"The Occult Science is not one in which secrets can be communicated of a
sudden...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...Fasting, meditation, chastity of thought word
and deed; silence for certain periods 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..."	
M L p. 282-3





THE INNER MASTER -- SELF-DEVELOPMENT



"Every form on earth and every speck (atom) in Space strives in its
efforts towards self-formation to follow the model placed for it in the
"Heavenly Man"...Its [atom's] involution and evolution, its external and
internal growth and development, have all one and the same object--man;
man is the highest physical and ultimate form on this earth; the MONAD
in the absolute totality and awakened condition--as the culmination of
the divine incarnations on Earth."	S D I 183


"This 'Conscious Entity' Occultism says, comes from, nay, in many cases
is, the very entire essence and esse of the high Intelligences
condemned, by the undeviating law of Karmic evolution, to reincarnate
in the manvantara." S D II 248


"Rudimentary man...becomes the perfect man...when, with the development
of "Spiritual fire,"...he acquires from his inner Self, or Instructor,
the Wisdom of Self-Consciousness, which he does not possess in the
beginning." S D II 113



"The pivotal doctrine of the Esoteric philosophy admits of no privileges
or special gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego through personal
effort and merit throughout a long series of metempsychoses and
reincarnations."	S D I 17



"...our own work, in and on ourselves, each one...has for its object the
enlightenment of oneself for the good of others...so as to make of each
a centre from which...may flow out the potentialities for good that from
the adept come in large and affluent streams...As we use the moment, so
we shift the future up or down for good or ill; the future being only a
word for the present, not yet come, we have to see to the present more
than all...The race is in a transition state...the only way we can alter
it is by such action now as makes of each one a centre for good, a force
that makes "for righteousness," and that is guided by wisdom...we each
one have a greater fight to wage the moment we force our inner nature
up beyond the dead level of the world..."
LETTERS THAT HAVE HELPED ME - Judge, 71



"Self-Consciousness belongs alone to man and proceeds from the SELF, the
Higher MANAS...whereas the psychic element (or Kama-Manas) is common to
both animal and human being...no physiologist...will ever be able to
solve the mystery of the human mind, in its highest spiritual
manifestations, or in its dual aspect of the psychic and the noetic (or
the manasic)...unless he knows something of, and is prepared to admit
this dual element...to admit a lower (animal), and a higher (or divine)
mind in man...the "personal" and the "impersonal" Egos."	HPB ART
II 9-10



"...conscious communication with one's Master can only be accomplished
after long training and study. What a student has to do is to fit
himself to receive this training."	LETTERS THAT HAVE HELPED ME -
Judge, 111


"...he who enters the secret Path finds his peace and pleasure in
endless work for ages for Humanity...with his added sight and knowledge,
he must always be seeing the self-inflicted miseries of men...the wider
sweep and power of soul make what we call sacrifice and woe seem
something different."	LETTERS 116



"It is not high learning that is needed, but solely devotion to
humanity, faith in Masters, in the Higher Self."	LETTERS
97



"...the door is always opened to the right man who knocks. And we
invariably welcome the newcomer;--only instead of going over to him he
has to come to us. More than that: unless he has reached that point in
the path of occultism from which return is impossible, by his having
irrevocably pledged himself to our association, we never--except in
cases of utmost moment--visit him or even cross the threshold of his
door in visible appearance." M L (Barker) p. 8-9


"...whenever and whatever is possible will always be done for you
unurged; hence never to either ask for, or suggest it, yourself--
(avoid my having to refuse a friend) ...to teach (others in
Britain)...through your kind agency...I have never undertaken to
convince them of the extent of our powers or even of our personal
existence."	M L 337


"Every human being contains within himself vast potentialities, and it
is the duty of adepts to surround the would-be chela with circumstances
which shall enable him to take the "right-hand path," if he have the
ability in him...until he has passed that period [of probation] we leave
him to fight out his battles as best he may; and have to do so
occasionally with higher and initiated chelas such as H.P.B., once that
they are allowed to work in the world, that all of us more or less
avoid...We were all so tested; and while Moorad Ali--failed--I,
succeeded. The victor's crown is only for him who proves himself worthy
to wear it; for him who attacks Mara single handed and conquers the
demon of lust and earthly passions; and not we but he himself puts it
on his brow...there is no such other difficult struggle. If it were not
so, adeptship would be but a cheap acquirement."	M L 318


"...let him rid himself of the Maya that any man living can set up
"claims" upon Adepts. He may create irresistible attractions and compel
their attention, but they will be spiritual, not mental or
intellectual...nothing draws us to any outsider save his evolving
spirituality... The supreme energy resides in the Buddhi, latent--when
wedded to Atman alone, active and irresistible when galvanized by the
essence of "Manas" and when none of the dross of the latter commingles
with that pure essence to weigh it down by its finite nature...When the
ancient founders of your philosophical schools came East, to acquire the
lore of our predecessors, they filed no claims, except the single one of
a sincere and unselfish hunger for truth."	M L 341-2


"Masters never cease working, but they cease at times from such public
efforts as were made at the establishment of the T.S. Before that they
were working with individuals" [ WQJ quoted by RC, F P 388 ] ...In this
work, natures are intensified, good and bad come to the surface. The
"cleaning-up" process is gradual and each must do his own work of
elimination when such work is seen to be needed. The barriers to help
from Masters are in ourselves and nowhere else."	F P 399
	


"At times they come to nations as great teachers and "saviours," who
only repromulgate the old truths and systems of ethics. This therefore
holds that humanity is capable of infinite perfection both in time and
quality, the saviours and adepts being held up as examples of that
possibility."

"From this living and presently acting body of perfected men
H.P.Blavatsky declared she received the impulse to once more bring
forward the old ideas, and from them also received several keys to
ancient and modern doctrines. Added...to the testimony through all time
found in the records of all nations we have this modern explicit
assertion that the ancient learned and humanitarian body of adepts still
exists on this earth and takes an interest in the development of the
race."  	
WQJ ARTICLES I pp. 1-2



"Under the protection and assistance and guidance of this Society of
Adepts are the disciples of each one of its members. These disciples
are divided into different degrees, corresponding to the various stages
of development; the least developed disciples are assisted by those who
are in advance of them, and the latter in a similar manner by others,
until the grade of disciple is reached where direct intercourse with the
Adepts is possible. At the same time, each Adept keeps a supervisory
eye upon all his disciples. Through the agency of the disciples of
Adepts many effects are brought about in human thought and affairs, for
from the higher grades are often sent those who, without disclosing
their connection with mysticism, influence individuals who are known to
be main factors in events about to occur."	ECHOES 29



"...the disciple of the Adept knows that...he is supposed to concentrate
into a few lives the experience and practice which it takes ordinary men
countless incarnations to acquire....he leaves behind the hope for
reward so common in all undertakings. Nothing is gained by favor, but
all depends upon his actual merit. As the end to be reached is
self-dependence with perfect calmness and clearness, he is from the
beginning made to stand alone...solely in his own company. But this
produces no selfishness, because, being accompanied by constant
meditation upon the unseen, the knowledge is acquired that the
loneliness felt is only in respect to the personality."	 
ECHOES 32-33



"But, hiding themselves under an exterior which does not attract
attention, there are many of the real disciples in the world. They are
studying themselves and other human hearts. They have no diplomas, but
there resides in them a consciousness of constant help and a clear
knowledge of the true Lodge which meets in real secrecy and is never
found mentioned in any directory. Their whole life is a persistent
pursuit of the fast-moving soul which, although appearing to stand
still, can distance the lightning; and their death is only another step
forward to greater knowledge through better physical bodies in new
lives."	ECHOES 33


	
"The real object to be kept in view is to so open up or make porous the
lower nature that the spiritual nature may shine through it and become
the guide and the ruler...it is the real man, who is the HIGHER
SELF--being the spark of the Divine--overshadows the visible being,
which has the possibility of becoming united to that spark. Thus it is
said that the higher Spirit is not in the man, but above him...The
object of the student is to let the light of that spirit shine through
the lower covering...all selfishness must be eliminated from the lower
nature before its divine state can be reached...When systematically
trained in accordance with the aforesaid system and law, men attain to
clear insight into the immaterial, spiritual world, and their interior
faculties apprehend truth as immediately and readily as physical
faculties grasp the things of sense, or mental faculties those of
reason..."They are able to look directly upon ideas."	EPITOME
13-14


"...the members of our Great Lodge have full information unknown to
those outside the Lodge, of the "conscious efforts to obtain knowledge
of principles and laws" on the part of good men and women, and in this
search that help is frequently extended but is not seen or recognized,
although it is felt and has its results."	FORUM ANSWERS 50


".since the MAHATMA is but an advanced occultist, who has so far
controlled his lower "self" as to hold it more or less 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. No
sooner does he allow his "personal self" to assert itself, than he
ceases to be a MAHATMA...The law of Cosmic evolution is ever operating
to achieve its purpose of ultimate unity and to carry the phenomenal
into the noumenal plane, and the MAHATMAS, being en rapport with it, are
assisting that purpose...they alone have got to the basic knowledge
which can determine the right course and exercise proper discrimination.
And for us...it will be evident that, as soon as the least feeling of
selfishness tries to assert itself, the vision of the spiritual sense,
which is the only perception of the MAHATMA, becomes clouded and he
looses 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..."	THEOS.
MVT. Vol. X, p. 138-9



"A perfect man is not made to order but is a product of evolution.
Wisdom is not a matter of book-learning but of growth. General rules
for conduct can be given, but to apply them properly, the power of
discrimination is necessary...A virtue, practiced without moderation,
becomes a crime. To know how to find the point of equilibrium is the
great secret of the Adept, that cannot be told but must be learned by
experience, when sagacity and goodness will be united in wisdom."
HPB -- THEOSOPHIST 1885, Reprint: THEOSOPHY, Vol. 47, pp. 441-2



"The whole individuality is centred in the three middle Principles or
third (MANAS), and fifth (ASTRAL BODY) principles. During earthly life
it is all in the fourth (KAMA-MANAS), the center of energy,
volition--will...the individuality survives...to run its seven-fold and
upward course [ it ] has to assimilate to itself the eternal-life power
residing but in the seventh (ATMA), and then blend the three (4th, 5th &
7th) into one--the 6th (BUDDHI). Those who succeed in doing so become
Buddhas, Dhyan Chohans, etc... The chief object of our struggle and
initiations is to achieve this union while yet on this earth."	M L 77-8



"Happy the man physically pure, for his external soul (astral body, the
image of the body) is pure, it will strengthen the second (the lower
Manas), or the soul which is termed by him the higher mortal soul,
which, though liable to err from its own motives, will always side with
the reason against the animal proclivities of the body. In other words,
the ray of our Higher Ego, the lower Manas, has its higher light, the
reason or rational powers of the Nous, to help it in the struggle with
Kamic desires."	HPB ART I 27-8



"Force any one of the "Masters" you may happen to choose; do good works
in his name and for the love of mankind; be pure and resolute in the
path of righteousness (as laid out in our rules); be honest and
unselfish; forget your self but to remember the good of other
people--and you will have forced that "Master" to accept you."	
Letters from the Masters of Wisdom Series (I), p. 33




THEOSOPHICAL OBJECTIVES



"...the chief object of the T S is not so much to gratify individual
aspirations as to serve our fellow men...in our view the highest
aspirations for the welfare of humanity become tainted with selfishness
if, in the mind of the philanthropist there lurks the shadow of desire
for self benefit or a tendency to do injustice, even when these exist
unconsciously to himself." M L 7-8


"...we are not working for some definite organization of the new years
to come, but for a change in the Manas and Buddhi of the Race...Masters
could give now all the light and knowledge needed, but there is too much
darkness that would swallow up the light, except for a few bright souls,
and then a greater darkness would come on."	LETTERS p. 72



"At present the main fundamental object of the Society is to sow germs
in the hearts of men, which may in time sprout, and under more
propitious circumstances lead to a healthy reform, conductive of more
happiness to the masses than they have hitherto enjoyed." HPB
KEY 257



"It is the rich who have to be regenerated, if we would do good to the
poor...Work, therefore, to bring about the moral regeneration of the
cultured classes before you attempt to do the same for ignorant younger
brethren..."	HPB ART I 103-5



"[ The T S has as its mission ] to furnish to the West that which it can
never get from the East; to push forward and raise high on the circular
path of evolution now rolling West, the light that lighteth every man
who cometh into the world--the light of the true Self, who is the one
true Master for every human being; all other Masters are but servants
of that true One; in it all real Lodges have their union." LETTERS p.
75



"As a change in thought of a people who have been tending to gross
atheism is one always desired by the Sages of the Wisdom Religion, it
may be supposed that the wave of spiritualistic phenomena resulting now
quite clearly in a tendency back to a universal acknowledgment of the
soul, has been aided by the Nirmanakayas. They are in it and of it;
they push on the progress of a psychic deluge over great masses of
people. The result is seen in the literature, the religion and the
drama of today. Slowly but surely the tide creeps up and covers the
once dry shore of Materialism..."	ECHOES 28



"Essentials are the only things on which true occultism and Theosophy
require an agreement..."	LETTERS 70



"There must be an adherence to the program of the Masters. That can
only be ascertained by consulting her [HPB] and the letters given out by
her as from Those to whom she refers. There is not much doubt about
that program."..."This is the moment to guide the recurrent impulse
which must soon come and which will push the age toward extreme atheism
or drag it back to extreme sacerdotalism, if it is not led to the
primitive, soul-satisfying philosophy of the Aryans."..."We must follow
this program and supply the world with a system of philosophy which
gives a sure and logical basis for ethics, and that can only be gotten
from those to which I adverted." ..."By our unity the smallest effort
made by us will have ten-fold the power of any obstacle before us or any
opposition offered by the world."..."Our destiny is to continue the wide
work of the past in affecting literature and thought throughout the
world, while our ranks see many changing quantities but always holding
those who remain true to the program, and refuse to become dogmatic or
give up common sense in Theosophy. Thus we will wait for the new
messenger, striving to keep the organization alive that he may use it." 
WQJ - THE FUTURE AND THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY -   
quoted by RC, F P, p. 153 -- [WQJ ART II p. 145-6]


"A band of students of the Esoteric Doctrines, who would reap any profit
spiritually must be in perfect harmony and unity of thought. Each one
individually and collectively has to be utterly unselfish, kind and full
of good-will towards each other at least--leaving humanity out of the
question; there must be no party spirit among the band, no backbiting,
no ill-will, or envy or jealousy, contempt or anger." 
L M W (I) p. 16-7