Theos-Talk Archives (February 2004 Message tt00110)

Feb 19 2004

Re: Ideas about the "secret" in The SECRET DOCTRINE 


Dear Friends:

In recent days some queries arose as to the vale of the word "secret"
used by HPB in her great book published in 1888 and named The SECRET
DOCTRINE.

Here are some interesting statements that seem to throw light on this.

More will be found under such headings as: "Occultism," "the Esoteric
Philosophy teaches," and "The Heart Doctrine." The concept that we are
immortals pursuing a common path of pilgrimage towards ONE goal: the
"perfection of all our faculties!" is important. Without those high
aims living and experiencing is rather pointless. 

In my opinion, it is the transition from "head learning" to "Soul
Wisdom" - something of the nature of volition and will that proceeds
through, and develops by the practical application of Universal
Brotherhood. It is the adoption, as a primary objective, of a moral
quality of a spiritual kind -- in all our activities, be they thinking,
desiring, or acting -- that leads to individual and joint success in
solving this "secret." 

Best wishes.

Dallas
-----------------------------------------------------




SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT THE SECRET DOCTRINE 


>From its Title Page its scope is indicated.  

It is not "a," nor "the," but, 

"The Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy."  

It is not synthetic, but relying on universal Law, it seeks to show the
adjustment of observed effects to their primal causes.

HPB declres in the SECRET DOCTRINE that there is a "deathless race" of
wise men who have assumed the duty of assisting the whole of mankind.
They assisted in writing the SECRET DOCTRINE :---


AUTHORSHIP OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE  


"I have also noted your thoughts about the Secret Doctrine. Be assured
that what she has not annotated from scientific and other works, we have
given or suggested to her. Every mistake or erroneous notion, corrected
and explained by her from the works of other Theosophists was corrected
by me or under my instructions. It is a more valuable work than its
predecessor, an epitome of occult truths that will make it a source of
information and instruction for the earnest student for long years to
come."
--K.H. LETTERS FROM THE MASTERS OF WISDOM, 1st Series. p. 54
[see also Path, Vol. 8, p. 1; S D II 275fn, 281, 67, 173,
271,]

[HPB on the method of seeing the SD references in the Astral Light.]
HPB to APS, Letters, p. 194-5
[ see also Path, Vol. 9, pp 266-270, 297-302 ]



ANTIQUITY OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE


"The Secret Doctrine [not the book] was the universally diffused
religion of the ancient and prehistoric world." SD I
xxxvi


[ HPB claims incredible antiquity for SD sources. SD I 272-3; II
438-9, 449, 200-201, ]


It is the unification of knowledge obtained by the use of the senses
physical and super-physical. and their power of observation.
[Therefore, we need to sharpen our observations around and inside of
ourselves.] The Soul is the Perceiver. Everything moves around it. It
observes, considers and records. It notes the deductive processes of
the brain-mind, and the inductive results of intuition (the Higher Mind)
at work, and draws them into a united living, and consistent whole. It
sifts through details and seeks the moral cause, the core of events, and
the value of opinions. It deals with purposes and powers, with thoughts
and urgings, with joys and sorrows, always seeking the "Why ?" of
things.

The propositions of philosophy science and religion assembled by HPB in
The Secret Doctrine do not clash, but blend into a harmonious whole at
all points. In this way we receive one more proof of the fact (as
claimed on
SD I 272-3), that this book is a true report on the observations made
tested and verified by an enormous number of researchers who have
labored together or separately in all ages, from the dimmest of pasts up
to and including the present, into every department of nature, visible
and invisible.

It proceeds from the metaphysics of the Universal to the details of the
physical and the personal. The whole reveals the relation of the many
parts to each other and to IT. In addition it reveals the lines of
force, the energies and powers that actu ate those subjective planes we
call the psychic, the volitional, and the spiritual, or ideal. "As
above, so below," is seen in its multitude of applications here. This
is the method of teach ing found in all true esoteric schools.  

Both the inductive and the deductive systems of reasoning are found
interblended, as they are inseparable, just as they form the polar
opposites of a magnet, or exist as spirit, eternally indispensable to
matter. A grasp of the implications of the Pythagorean Decad gives a
key that can be applied everywhere in understanding the Secret Doctrine
[ see SD I p. 200 ]. Analogy is said to be a sure clue--a guiding
thread that leads the pupil to understand Nature's economy. "Analogy is
the guiding law in Nature, the only true Ariadne's thread that can lead
us, through the inextricable paths of her domain, towards the primal and
final mysteries." SD II 153

"From Gods to man, from Worlds to atoms, from a star to a rush light,
from the Sun or the vital heat of the meanest organic being--the world
of Form and Existence is an immense chain, whose links are all
connected. The law of Analogy is the first key to the world-problem,
and those links have to be studied coordinately in their occult
relations to each other."	SD I 604


Although HPB repeatedly disclaims any completeness in her writing and
presentation, the salvation of the reader lies in the paradoxical fact
that it is complete in its incompleteness. The faithful student,
applying everywhere the law of analogy and correspondence, and bearing
in mind the relations of the "principles" in man to nature, will grasp
the most difficult concepts without trouble. But an understanding of
those fundamentals has to be secured: the "3" "fundamentals" [SD I
14-19], and the "7" "principles" of man and nature. [SD I 157, II
593, 596].
		
"The Secret Doctrine merely asserts that a system known as the Wisdom
Religion, the work of generations of adepts and seers, the sacred
heirloom of pre-historic times--actually exists, though hitherto
preserved in the greatest secrecy by the present Initiates; and it
points to various corroborations of its existence to this very day, to
be found in ancient and modern works. Giving a few fragments only, it
there shows how these explain the religious dogmas of the present day,
and how they might serve Western religions, philosophies and science, as
sign-posts along the untrodden paths of discovery. The work is
essentially fragmentary, giving statements of sundry facts taught in the
esoteric schools--kept, so far, secret--by which the ancient symbolism
of various nations is interpreted. it does not even give the keys to
it, but merely opens a few of the hitherto secret drawers.

No new philosophy is set up in the Secret Doctrine, only the hidden
meaning of some of the religious allegories of antiquity is given, light
being thrown on these by the esoteric sciences, and the common source is
pointed out, whence all the world-religions and philosophies have
sprung.

Its chief attempt is to show, that however divergent the respective
doctrines and systems of old may seem on their external or objective
side, the agreement between all becomes perfect, so soon as the esoteric
or inner side of these beliefs and their symbology is examined and a
careful comparison is made.

It is also maintained that its doctrines and sciences, which form an
integral cycle of universal cosmic facts and metaphysical axioms and
truths, represent a complete and unbroken system; and that he who is
brave and persevering enough, ready to crush the animal in himself, and
forgetting the human self, sacrifices it to his Higher Ego, can always
find his way to become initiated into these mysteries.  

"Are not a few facts and self-evident truths, found in these
volumes--all the literary defects of the exposition
notwithstanding--truths already proved practically to some, better than
the most ingenious "working" hypotheses, liable to be upset any day,
than the unexplainable mysteries of religious dogmas, or the most
seemingly profound philosophical speculations ? Can the grandest among
these speculations be really profound...when they are limited and
conditioned by their author's brain -mind, hence dwarfed and
crippled...cut down to fit limited sensuous perceptions, which will not
allow the intellect to go beyond their enchanted circle?..." 
--HPB-The Babel of Modern Thought - HPB Art III
44-5


SECRET DOCTRINE AND OCCULTISM


"...this work is written for the instruction of students of Occultism."
SD I 23


"An adept must refuse to impart the conditions and means that lead to a
correlations of elements, whether psychic or physical, that may produce
a hurtful result as well as a beneficent one. But he is ever ready to
impart to the earnest student the secret of the ancient thought in
anything that regards history concealed under mythological symbolism,
and thus to furnish a few more land-marks towards a retrospective view
of the past, as containing useful information with regard to the origin
of man, the evolution of the races and geognosy...a mass of facts is
given in the present work. And now the origin of man, the evolution of
the globe and the races, human and animal, are as fully treated here as
the writer is able to treat them."	SD I 306-7



		
STUDYING THE S D


HPB on how to study the SD. Notes by Bowen.	Pamphlet.


HPB on method of instruction used in the SD	SD II 81



AUTHORITY IN THEOSOPHY


"As all Theosophists have to be judged by their deeds and not by what
they may write or say, so all Theosophical books must be accepted on
their merits, and not according to any claim to authority which they may
put forward."	Key, p. 300


"It is above everything important to keep in mind that no theosophical
book acquires the least additional value from pre tended authority."
SD I xix


"...there are proofs of a certain character which become irrefutable and
are undeniable in the long run, to every earnest and unprejudiced
mind...such were offered to her [HPB]...But, this is the personal view
of the writer; and her orthodoxy can not be expected to have any more
weight than any other "doxy."...Therefore are we, Occultists, fully
prepared for such questions as these: "How does he know that the writer
has not invented the whole scheme? And supposing she has not, how can
one tell that the whole foregoing [scheme of evolution--Rounds, Globes,
Races, etc...], as given in the Stanzas, is not the pro duct of the
imagination of the ancients? How could they have preserved the records
of such an immense, such an incredible antiquity? The answer that the
history of the world since its formation and to its end "is written in
the stars," i.e., is record ed in the Zodiac and the Universal Symbolism
whose keys are in the keeping of the Initiates, will hardly satisfy the
doubters...So are our data based upon the same readings [of the Assyrian
tiles, cuneiform fragments, and Egyptian hieroglyphics], in addition to
the almost inexhaustible number of Secret works of which Europe knows
nothing--plus the perfect knowledge by the initiates of the symbolism of
every word so recorded..."	SD II 438-9


"To the mentally lazy or obtuse, Theosophy must remain a riddle;
for in the world mental as in the world spiritual each man must progress
by his own efforts. The writer cannot do the reader's thinking for him,
nor would the latter be any the better off if such vicarious thought
were possible." Key, Preface. 


"The Secret Doctrine will explain many things, set to right more than
one perplexed student."	ML 289


"The Secret Doctrine is not a treatise, or a series of vague theories,
but contains all that can be given out to the world in this century."
SD I xxxviii


"These truths are in no sense put forward as a revelation; nor does the
author claim the position of a revealer of mystic lore. now made public
for the first time in the world's history."
SD I vii


"Is it a new religion, we are asked? By no means; it is not a religion
, nor is its philosophy new...it is as old as thinking man. Its tenets
are not now published for the first time, but have been cautiously given
out to, and taught by, more than one European Initiate--especially by
the late Ragon."	SD I xxxvi


" The latter," The Secret Doctrine "though giving out many fundamental
tenets from the Secret Doctrine of the East, raise but a small corner of
the dark veil. For no one, not even the greatest living adept, would be
permitted to, or could--even if he would--give out promiscuously, to a
mocking, unbelieving world, that which has been so effectually concealed
from it for long aeons and ages."	SD I xvi


"...it is perhaps desirable to state unequivocally that the teachings,
however fragmentary and incomplete, contained in these volumes, belong
neither to the Hindu, the Zoroastrian, the Chaldean nor Christianity
exclusively. The Secret Doctrine is the essence of all these. Sprung
from it in their origins, the various religious schemes are not made to
merge back into their original element, out of which every mystery and
dogma has grown, developed, and become materialized."	SD I
viii


"If coming events are said to cast their shadows before, past events
cannot fail to leave their impress behind them. It is, then by those
shadows of the hoary Past and their fantastic silhouettes on the
external screen of religion and philosophy, that we can, by checking
them as we go along, and comparing them, trace out finally the body that
produced them. There must be truth and fact in that which every people
of antiquity accepted and made the foundation of its religions and its
faith."	SD II 794


"For in the 20th century of our era scholars will begin to recognize
that the S D has neither been invented nor exaggerated, but on the
contrary, simply outlined; and finally, that its teachings antedate the
Vedas."	SD I xxxvii


"It is only in the XXth century that portions, if not the whole, of the
present work will be vindicated."	SD II
442

"We give facts, and show land-marks: let the wayfarer follow them.
What is given here is amply sufficient for this century."	SD II
742


[ HPB gives Sinnett the purpose and plan of the SD. ]	HPB to APS, p.
88-9


HPB's Preface to the Voice of the Silence: "The work which I here
translate forms part of the same series as that from which the "Stanzas"
of the Book of Dzyan were taken, on which the Secret Doctrine is based."
Voice p. i


2nd and 3rd Volumes of the Secret Doctrine.


"Two years ago [1888], the writer promised in the S D [ Vol. II, p.
798], a third and even a fourth volume of that work. This third volume
(now almost ready) treats of the ancient Mysteries of Initiation, gives
sketches--from the esoteric stand-point--of many of the most famous and
historically known philosophers and hierophants...from the archaic down
to the Christian era, and traces the teachings of all these sages to one
and the same source of all knowledge and science--the esoteric doctrine
of Wisdom Religion...Now the main point of Vol. III of the S D is to
prove by tracing the blinds in the works of ancient Indian, Greek, and
other philosophers of note, and also in all the ancient Scriptures --the
presence of an uninterrupted esoteric allegorical method and symbolism;
to show, as far as lawful, that with the keys of interpretation as
taught in the Eastern Hindu-Buddhistic Canon of Occultism, the
Upanishads, the Puranas, the Sutras, the Epic poems of India and Greece,
the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Scandinavian Eddas, as well as the
Hebrew Bible , and even the classical writings of Initiates (such as
Plato, among others)--all, from first to last, yield a meaning quite
different from their dead-letter texts. That is flatly denied by some
of the foremost scholars of the day. They have not got the key,
ergo--no such keys can exist..."		
HPB Art. II 80-81
"The Negators of Science" Lucifer April 1891


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


HPB'S MISSION AND WORK


In musing over these pages, one may feel this discloses one of the
important aspects of HPB's mission and work:

A gap had been created in Europe between the wisdom of antiquity and the
knowledge that has been recorded in the West following the Renaissance
in the 13-14th Century in the effort to overthrow the bonds of
creedalism and dogmatism placed by the Church on the West.

She shows that our modern knowledge suffers from this in formation gap,
and in Isis and the S D as well as in her many articles, she shows its
root preservation is in records kept in the Orient. 

To create this 1,000 year gap, between the 3rd to the 14th Centuries,
fanatics of Christianity and Islam, systematically sought for and
destroyed any records they could find relating to the wisdom of
antiquity. Europe, and America her child, lost their traditional and
ancestral lore by this process.  

Platonism, alone, served as a guide beacon in the West as a
counter-balance to blind dogmatism and materialism. Periodically we can
trace its return in the Neo-Platonists, the Florentine Renaissance, the
Cambridge Platonists and the Transcendentalists of New England, and
finally the Theosophists of this century.

A knowledge of the moral factor had to be restored to psychology. As a
basis for the freedom of the individual. And this led to a
consideration of the Fundamental Truths, Karma, Reincarnation and
Brotherhood.

HPB's mission is the restoration of this link, the establishing of a
bridge of understanding between modern thought based on observation of
our physical and psychic environment, and the ancient source- record of
scientific thought, study and work pre served in the East.  

For this reason, HPB starts the SD with an exposition of the
Fundamentals and the sequence of development starting on meta physical
planes at the onset of evolution. One may surmise that those
fundamentals are analogous to processes proceeding first, in Kosmos, in
a Solar System (Cosmos), in a human, and in the Monad, or "life-atomic"
entity.  

She declares that the source of the information offered is the archaic
heritage of all mankind.

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

Other important testimony


SECRET DOCTRINE -- Dr. T Hyatt on unique work


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


HPB'S REFERENCES

[DTB narrates:]


In October 1940, when I was living in Bombay, I met Dr. Thaddeus
P. Hyatt of Stamford, Connecticut. He was an old-time student of
Theosophy and a friend of Mr. Judge.

Together with his associate Dr. Franklin N. Davenport these two
gentlemen set themselves to trace and verify the many citations that HPB
gives in the 2 volumes of THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

He had just published when he passed through Bombay, India, the
first of a 2 volume set titled:

A CHECK LIST OF SOME OF THE BOOKS AND AUTHORS 
QUOTED OR REFERRED TO IN THE TWO VOLUMES OF 
"The Secret Doctrine." [ I have a copy. ]

The 2nd volume was to complete this list and also include some of
those citations that related to the two volumes of ISIS UNVEILED,
also by Mme. Blavatsky. [ Never published.]

Dr. Hyatt used 93 subject classifications; and a separate
alphabetical listing of authors and book titles made it easy to
locate any reference. The relevant pages(s) of the original 1888
edition of the SD were used in this work.

In his Introduction to the 1st volume he has published, Dr. Hyatt
wrote:

"It is difficult to appreciate the wealth of material quoted and
the diversity of subjects included, when they are scattered
throughout the thousands of pages in the two volumes. It is
hoped that this check list ...will make manifest one of the most
remarkable features of the "The Secret Doctrine."

He adds:

"[so that]... many may gain a better understanding or the
inclusiveness of all the different aspects of each subject
presented, and that the "Secret Doctrine" is not the dogmatic
presentation of any one religion or any one philosophy, or of any
one science.

I might be well to recall that which Mr. Judge, who was present
and a frequent visitor to HPB when ISIS UNVEILED was being
written: [in THE ESOTERIC SHE, New York SUN Sept. 26th 1892
ULT Judge Articles, vol. 2, p. 32...] - wrote: --

"I and many others can testify as eye-witnesses to the production
of the book, that the writer had no library in which to make
researches and possessed no notes of investigation or reading
previously done. All was written straight out of hand. And yet
it is full of references to books in the British Museum and other
great libraries, and every reference is correct. Either then, we
have, as to that book, a woman who was capable of storing in her
memory a mass of facts, dates, numbers, titles and subjects such
as no other human being every was capable of, or her claim to
help from unseen sources is just."

Writing to Mr. Sinnett from Wurzburg in 1886, HPB said:

"As for philosophy and doctrine invented the S.D. shall show.
Now I am here alone with the Countess [Wachtmeister] for witness. I
have no books no one to help me. And I tell you that the SECRET
DOCTRINE will be 20 times as learned, philosophical and better
than ISIS."

Dr Hyatt's book is available at Theosophical and other large
reference libraries and will help to prove to the skeptical
HPB's bona fides. His book is a valuable service to the cause of
Theosophy.

[ Extracted from an article in the monthly magazine THE
THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT, Bombay for December 1940, p 23. ]

--------------------------------------------------------

QUESTION


The issue of how the Secret Doctrine was written has come up.

S= = = has put forward some comments that I think are quite
wrong, contrary to the facts, and misleading to newcomers. I don't feel
like repeating the slanders. His basis is the writings of William
Coleman of the last century. You should know that Coleman was a
"leading spiritualist" of that time. HPB did indeed rankle and offend 
not only the Church, the established science, but also "leading 
spiritualists" of that time. They were at times motivated to discredit
her 
and in some cases their efforts survive and are repeated today.

A succinct rebuttal of Coleman is contained in Sylvia Cranston's 
biography of HPB on pages 379-384. On the BN site there is a click on 
the bottom of the homepage for "refutation". I generally don't like to
take 
the defensive posture so by far most of the site is positive not
defensive.  
Nevertheless, a number of slurs by authors of newer 
books are dealt with. Though Coleman has been now resurrected,
and on this site, possibly I should place those pages of Cranston on the
site. I will have to address that question later along with the
copyright
issues. Meanwhile I suggest anyone interested read those pages in that
book. It is the definitive biography of HPB with a heavy emphasis on
documentation.

Of the material I have read on this subject I highly recommend
"How the Secret Doctrine was Written" by Boris De Zirkoff.  
know.

One of the things it points out is that HPB had about 30 books in
her room while writing the Secret Doctrine. She references or
quotes from some 700 books in the SD. Phenomenal. How did she 
do it? Was it through the normal academic means of producing a
book? Also one might want to consult a William Q. Judge article 
entitled: AUTHORSHIP OF SECRET DOCTRINE


In part it references the Coleman issue:

A good deal has been said about the writing of Isis Unveiled, and
later of the Secret Doctrine, both by H. P. Blavatsky. A writer
in the spiritualistic journals took great pains to show how many books
the first work seems to quote from, and the conclusion to be arrived at
after
reading his diatribes is that H.P.B. had an enormous library at her
disposal,
and of course in her house, for she never went out, or that she had
agents at great expense copying books, or, lastly, that by some process
or power
not known to the world was able to read books at a distance, as, for
instance, in the Vatican at Rome and the British Museum. The last is the
fact.
She lived in a small flat when writing the first book and had very few
works on hand, all she had being of the ordinary common sort. She
herself very
often told how she gained her information as to modern books. No secret
was
made of it, for those who were with her saw day after day that she could
gaze with ease into the astral light and glean whatever she wanted.
But in the early days she did not say precisely to the public that she
was in fact
Helped in that work by the Masters, who gave from time to time certain
facts she could not get otherwise. The Secret Doctrine, however, makes
no
disguise of the real help, and she asserts, as also many of us believe,
that the
Masters had a hand in that great production. The letters sent to Mr.
Sinnett
formed the ground for Esoteric Buddhism, as was intended, but as time
went
on it was seen that some more of the veil had to be lifted and certain
misconceptions cleared up; hence the Secret Doctrine was written, and
mostly by
the Masters themselves, except that she did the arranging of it.
_________


You may also want to check another Judge article entitled: A WORD
ON THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

This is an article that shows the text of KH, one of the masters
of HPB, and signed by him in the original. He explains that the Secret
Doctrine is the result of the combined work of HPB plus her two
teachers.
(I think I am missing here one other letter from the masters saying
effectively the same.) [PATH , Vol. 8, p. 1-3]

See also HOW "ISIS UNVEILED" WAS WRITTEN. By Alexander Wilder, 
M. D. Wilder was an academic individual. He was asked by the publisher
of Isis Unveiled to edit it. He took his task in earnest. The
article is quite interesting and he says in part:

I would hesitate, likewise, to be considered in any noteworthy
sense as an editor of the work. It is true that after Mr. Bouton
had agreed to become the publisher, I was asked to read the proof 
sheets and make sure that the Hebrew words and terms belonging to 
other languages were correctly given by the printer, but I added
nothing, 
and do not remember that I ventured to control anything that was 
contributed to the work. Without her knowledge and approval, such action

would have been reprehensible.

Also online is: "THE WRITING OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE by 
Kirby Van Mater.

Here is an interesting quote from it:

"Even on the open sea, she received "pages of manuscript
referring to THE SECRET DOCTRINE." (5) She stayed about three months in
Italy, at Torre del Greco and Rome, and later in Switzerland, finally
settling at Wurzburg, Germany in early August. On October 28, 1885, 
HPB wrote Olcott that she had "not much time now . . . but shall in a 
month or two send you the first six sections." (ODL, III: 3I7).

Also a letter from the Masters: 
"But we employ agents - the best available. Of these, for the
last thirty years, the chief has been the personality known as
H.P.B. to the world (but otherwise to us). Imperfect and very 
"troublesome" no doubt she proves to some; nevertheless there is no 
likelihood of our finding a better one for years to come, and your 
Theosophists should be made to understand it. . . . "
(also M L p. 203-4, 263)

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



AVAILABLE AIDS TO STUDYING THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


Index	(Kirby Van Matter)	a separate book

Theosophical Glossary	Explains Words used in Theosophy
and ancient language terms

Isis Unveiled	should first be read as it gives
a
survey of evidence which is
developed in the SD.
Index to Isis

Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge	covers questions
asked of HPB by her students 
for the first 200 pages

Studies in the SD	Series of articles published
in Theosophy Vols. 11, 12, 13.
In Theosophical Movement V. 5,
6,
29, 30, 31 (now in a
book)


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