Theos-Talk Archives (February 2004 Message tt00118)

Feb 22 2004

Dear Tony: and Friends:

In an altogether too brief answer to your query about the statements
made on 
S D II 81, I had in mind: "...man is an animal PLUS A LIVING GOD..."
as an idea that resonated for me.  

This is the problem with lists and quotes: they are all biased by a
student's personal inclinations, opinions and study.  

Each one ought to make up their own .lists.

I had sent in answer to:

"Subject: [bn-study] The "secret" in SD

On	Feb 19 2004

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


Dear Friends:

In recent days some queries arose as to the value 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...."

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

These were taken from a longer list: (below) but none of these is
exhaustive and they are only offered as an example of some of the gems
in the SECRET DOCTRINE -- to encourage further search.

Best wishes,

Dallas


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


S D OR ESOTERIC PHILOSOPHY TEACHES

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


Some few quotations


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


"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 to Thy., Preface. 


SOME CONSIDERATIONS:


In musing over the early pages in The Secret Doctrine, one may feel this
discloses one of the important aspects of HPB's mission and work:

A gap of about 1,000 years had been created in Europe, beginning around
the 3rd Century, between the wisdom of antiquity, and the increment in
knowledge that has been studied ever more freely and recorded in the
West, following the Renaissance in the 13-14th Century, when a concerted
effort was made to effect the overthrow of the bonds of creedalism and
dogmatism placed by the Church on the European nations and their
successors.

HPB shows that our modern knowledge suffers from this information gap,
and in Isis and the S D as well as in her many articles, she shows that
its preservation is in actual "root" records and these have been kept
secure in the Orient. 

To create this 1,000 year gap, between the 3rd to the 14th Centuries,
fanatics of Christianity and Islam, securing "political sanction" for
the destruction of the records of ancient science and philosophy,
systematically sought for and destroyed any records they could find
relating to the ancient wisdom. Europe, and America her child, lost the
benefit of the transmission of this traditional, ancestral lore.  

Platonism, alone, served as a beacon guide in the "West," and as a
counter-balance to blind dogmatism and materialism. Periodically we can
trace its cyclic return starting with the Neo-Platonists, then, 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, based on the Perennial Philosophy had
to be restored to psychology. This, when understood, serves as a basis
for the freedom of the mind of every individual. And this led to a
search for and a consideration of the Fundamental Truths: Universal
Unity, and Universal Causation; 
persistence of individual Egoic consciousness--the immortality
intuition; universal equity, law and justice; in brief:
Fundamental Unity of all in ALL, Karma, Reincarnation and Universal
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, psychic and spiritual environment, and the ancient
source--record of scientific thought, study and work preserved in the
World, particularly in the "East" with respect to Europe, where the
fresh wave of civilization rises.

For this reason, HPB starts the SD with an exposition of the
Fundamentals and the sequence of development starting on metaphysical
planes at the onset of evolution. One may surmise that those
fundamentals are analogous to processes proceeding first, in the great
and universal, invisible Kosmos, and these are found mirrored in every
Solar System or Cosmos, then in every man-bearing World, in every
independent human Mind (Manas), and finally in the living, intelligent
"building blocks" of all Nature: the Monad, or "life-atom" entity.  

She declares that the source of the information offered is the archaic
heritage of all mankind and of every human being.



UNITY OF ALL BEINGS - FUNDAMENTAL SHARING


"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



SECRET DOCTRINE -- ACCUMULATED WISDOM


"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.  

This is not all the Secret Doctrine claims.

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



THE BOOK : THE SECRET DOCTRINE


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


" 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


"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

"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, ]



TRUTH AND "REVELATION"


"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


"...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



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 pretended authority."
SD I xix



SYMBOLISM -- ANALOGY AND CORRESPONDENCE


"...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 cannot 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 product 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
recorded 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




SOME The KEY TO THEOSOPHY IDEAS IN SECRET DOCTRINE VOL. I


"This work is written for the instruction of students of occultism." SD
I 22


".the Oldest Tenets -- Gathered together into a harmonious and
un-broken whole. S D I vii



AIM OF The SECRET DOCTRINE 		

1.	That: Nature is not a "fortuitous concurrence of atoms.
2.	to Assign to Man his rightful place.
3.	to Rescues archaic Truths from degradation.
- basis of all Religions.
4.	to Uncovers their fundamental Unity of origin.
5.	the Occult side of Nature has never been approached by our
Science.
S D I viii [ see HPB Art II 48-50 ]  	


"It is the Spiritual evolution of the inner, immortal man that forms the
fundamental tenet in the Occult Sciences."
SD I 634


"Initial existence...is a conscious spiritual quality." SD I 289


"The closer the approach to one's Prototype, "in Heaven," the better for
the mortal whose personality was chosen by his own personal deity (the
seventh principle), as its terrestrial abode. For, with every effort of
will towards purification and unity with that "Self-god," one of the
lower rays breaks and the spiritual entity of man is drawn higher and
ever higher to th ray that supersedes the first, until, from ray to ray,
the inner man is drawn into the one and highest beam of the Parent Sun."
SD I 638-9



"Devotion" the first and foremost motor in his nature, for it is the
only one that is natural in our heart, which is innate in us...This
feeling of irrepressible, instinctive aspiration in primitive man..." 
"The Great Sacrifice" ( I 207-8) SD I 210


"...the first fundamental dogma of Occultism is Universal Unity (or
Homogeneity) under three aspects."	SD i 58


"Esoteric Philosophy teaches that every thing lives and is conscious,
but not that all life and consciousness are similar to those of human or
even animal beings. Life we look upon as the one form of existence."
SD I 49


"...circular motion, a fundamental dogma... SD I 116-7


"...a fundamental law in Occultism, that there is no rest or cessation
of motion in Nature..."	SD I 97


"Space, however viewed--...is as the "Unknown Causeless Cause," is the
oldest dogma in Occultism."	SD I 9
	

" Nature abhors a vacuum..."	SD I 495


"The radical unity of the ultimate essence of each constituent part of
the compounds of Nature--from Star to mineral Atom, from the highest
Dhyan Chohan to the smallest infusoria--this is the one fundamental law
in Occult Science."	SD I 120


"There is no "chance" in Nature, wherein everything is mathematically
co-ordinate and mutually related in its units." [see SD I 97 ]
SD I 653


"...it is...a fundamental principle of Occult philosophy, the same
homogeneity of matter, and immortality of natural law..."	SD I 640


"...perfect analogy, as a fundamental law in Occultism." SD I
586fn


"The Occultist sees in the manifestation of every force in Nature, the
action of the quality, or the special characteristic of its noumenon,
which noumenon is a distinct and intelligent Individuality on the other
side of the manifested mechanical Universe."	SD I 493


"Metaphysically and esoterically there is but One Element in Nature, and
at the root of it is the Deity."	SD I 460


"Occult Science has its changeless traditions from prehistoric times.
It may err in particulars; it can never become guilty of a mistake in
questions of Universal laws."	SD I 516


"It is on the doctrine of the illusive nature of matter and the infinite
divisibility of the atom, that the whole science of Occultism is built."
SD I 520


"The homogeneous primordial Element is simple and single only on the
terrestrial plane of consciousness and sensation, since matter, after
all, is nothing else than the sequence of our own states of
consciousness, and Spirit an idea of psychic intuition."	SD I 542


"Collectively, men are the handiwork of hosts of various spirits,
distributively, the tabernacles of those hosts, and occasionally, and
singly, the vehicles of some of them." SD I 224


"Draw a deep line in your thought between that ever incognizable
essence, and the, as invisible, yet comprehensible Presence
(Mulaprakriti), or Schekinah, from beyond and through which vibrates the
Sound of the Verbum, and from which evolve the numberless hierarchies of
intelligent Egos, of conscious as of semi-conscious, perceptive and
apperceptive Beings, whose essence is spiritual Force, whose Substance
is the Elements and whose Bodies (when needed) are the atoms--and our
doctrine is there...reality in the manifested world is composed of a
unity of units, so to say, immaterial...and infinite..."
SD I 629




AIDS AVAILABLE IN STUDYING THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


Index	a separate book

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

Index to Isis

Theosophical Glossary	Explains Words used in Theosophy
and ancient language terms

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 first
published
in Theosophy Vols. 11, 12, 13.
In Theosophical Movement V. 5,
6,
29, 30, 31 (now in a book)




ARTICLES ON THE STUDY OF THE SD


"Authorship of the SD"	HPB and 2 Mahatmas	WQJ Art II 57
[ Path, Vol. 8,
p. 1 
]
"A Word on the SD"	WQJ Art II 60

"Esoteric Buddhism & the SD"	.	.	HPB Art III 18

"Mistaken Notions on the SD"	.	.	HPB Art I 485

"Hidden Hints in the SD"	articles by WQJ - end of Vol. 1
of
WQJ Articles.  
Covers points of special
interest 
in first 220 pages of Vol. 1. 

"Seeming Discrepancies"	.	.	HPB Art I 488

"The Babel of Modern Thought"	.	HPB Art III 35

"My Books".	.	.	.	.	HPB Art I 475

"Science and the SD"	Series in Theosophy Magazine

"Isis and the SD"	.	.	.	Thy 6, p. 179

HPB's Method in the SD	.	.	Thy 22, p. 217