Theos-Talk Archives (March 2004 Message tt00626)

March 26 2004

Re Were / are the Mahatmas Buddhists?

Dear Pedro:

Allow me to offer for your consideration some of the ideas on this
subject I have so far developed : I would ask you to see if they have
relevance to your questions --

As I see it, then: In THEOSOPHY these [ATMA and BUDDHI] are
philosophical terms.

Also Gautama the Buddha is considered by the Mahatmas as the great
"Patron of the Adept Brotherhood." 

If we turn in the SECRET DOCTRINE , Vol.. I, to pp. 207 -210 we are
given a survey of the duties and responsibilities of a great Being
["Great Sacrifice"] who supports and oversees evolution and
manifestation for our Earth and world -- as a part of the universal
harmony -- 

All Buddhas, Mahatmas and ADEPTS are said in the SECRET DOCTRINE in
several places to belong to what is there called the "Undying Race."
(see S D II 275fn, 281)

The concept of reincarnation, karma and the perfectibility of Man
implies this. In essence every human being belongs to that race but
needs to become aware of it as an implied method of living and
progressing. 

The Great "Path" is open to all, but each "pilgrim" has to choose his
own "way." 

But your questions, I firmly believe, have to be answered finally and
satisfactorily by your own study, as none of us who may be personally
convinced of the reality of mankind's perfectibility -- and those (the
Adepts and the Mahatmas -- who are living, not dead) who have advanced
farther on that PATH -- have never benefited of its philosophical and
logical reasons and facts, except through their own efforts and the
proofs they have discovered for themselves. Examples can be offered,
but cannot be enforced. Law and Harmony can be spoken of but proof is
always individual -- examination, study and application.

Example: Why believe me or anyone? You have to do the work and find out
for yourself. 

We may be either deceiving ourselves and others, or we may be actually
pointing to a "path and a process" in Nature that anyone who wills to
discover them can find. 

One of the primary ideas is that "science, esotericism, occultism, etc.
are NOT FOR SALE. Anyone who pretends to offer a course of study or a
school of development may be asked some fundamental questions: How
have you benefited from your work? Why do you offer to teach it for
money? If it is of benefit, then why are you making such a paltry thing
of it?

If you study THEOSOPHY you will soon find that you are in fact reviewing
all that is known about the operation of the world, and especially the
question of the subtle but strong relationships we call virtues and
vices -- and the ethics of spiritual living and of thinking in a
compassionate and benevolent way with and for others all around us. 

No one can do another's work for them. All proof-discovery is
individual. But, one can take advantage of the work that others -- our
glorious predecessors -- have done. We have from HPB and her Masters --
the "Masters of Wisdom" -- The KEY TO THEOSOPHY and we have ISIS
UNVEILED, also the SECRET DOCTRINE -- and those who have benefited from
THEOSOPHY have discovered that there is to be found there a record of
enormous research carried on for many thousands if not millions of years
-- a scientific achievement we cannot conceive of -- as an unbroken
whole. (see SECRET DOCTRINE I 272-3) We have found it to be useful
and practical as a basis of a universally coherent philosophy, it is one
that embraces science, religion, philosophy, ethics, and offers a
logical purpose for existence and its potential goal -- a perfection of
wisdom and knowledge. 

In other words it is able to logically show the bridges of reason, law
and responsibility that span the gaps that our science, psychology and
philosophy expose to any thinking and sincere searcher for TRUTH. 

Let us be entirely clear: TRUTH provides single coherent answers.
Opinions provide confusion through illogical and diverse unconnected
speculations, views, and incoherent observation and thinking thereon. We
can spend our lives eliminating opinions and yet we can also spend those
same time-periods in studying the coherence of the great life ocean that
surrounds and supports us all. 

We need only look closely at the organization of our own physical bodies
to see an example of a "multum in parvo." ( A multitude living in
harmony -- air, water, food, shelter, and a vast harmony of intelligent
entities, whether we call them cells, bones, muscles, neurons, etc..
they work and living in harmony, they provide us with a basis for our
personal life. How is this done? Why is it done?.) Going further into
our world and universe we see there the same careful and impersonal yet
vastly harmonious coherence -- working silently on may planes and in
many ways, to organize a purposeful universe. Why? How ? Is it not
for us to discover that? And are we to think we are the only race, or
the only human that has tried to do this -- for the last 300 or so
years? One needs t use ISIS UNVEILED as a window to review some aspects
of the Past and its wonderful panorama of practical wisdom -- of which
so few relics remain -- yet, those stand as proofs if we carefully
analyze their existence. 

One needs to study the MAHATMA LETTERS and the SECRET DOCTRINE so that
the meaning of ATMA and BUDDHI as used in THEOSOPHY become clear.

ATMA for instance, seems to relate to "SPIRIT' or,
everything-all-together, whether manifested or unmanifested. It is a
philosophical and a metaphysical term, as also one that embraces cause,
source, and supervision of all processes of life and living --
everywhere -- and not a religious or a physically limited term. In
meaning it easily transcends "wishful-thinking" or "hope."

See THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY p. 41, 249, 377 ; 67, (Atma,
Paramatma, Universal SPIRIT, etc...)
SECRET DOCTRINE I XIX, (Buddhi, Bodha, etc... WISDOM,
Knowledge, etc...)

This is one of the most significant studies in our world and THEOSOPHY
stands as one of its gateways. Be welcome to this band of self-selected
seekers.

Let us say at the outset, the UNIVERSE (or NATURE) is "God" in
manifestation -- all beings have inherently a "ray" of the ONE SPIRIT
within themselves, and ought to recognize this same "ray" of the SAME
UNITY derived individually, as well as personally, from the ONE ALL in
all other beings, whether atoms, men, monads, or SUNS. Logically, if
GOD is everywhere, then LAW and PRESENCE is uniformly discernable
everywhere. No SPACE anywhere is without the presence of that LAW-GOD.


Forms of matter change constantly (maya) but that which stands behind
(and organizes) the "form" is far more stable, organized and much
stronger in terms of permanence. It is this aspect of philosophical
Buddhism (not sectarianism) that has to be grasped as a philosophical
basis for life, progress and reasonable continuity for all. Buddhism is
not a religion but it was made into one gradually as years passed. It
is essentially philosophical, and an expression of the methods that can
be used in examining and researching that which NATURE (the UNIVERSE)
already provides and has in place. 

Best wishes,

Dallas

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-----Original Message-----
From: Pedro O
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2004 4:24 AM
To: 
Subject:: Were the Mahatmas Buddhists?

One of the puzzles in theosophical history and
literature is that HPB's Teachers, the Mahatmas,
declared themselves to be Buddhists, as in this
well-known passage from the Mahatma Letters:

"Therefore, we deny God both as philosophers and as
Buddhists." (ML 88, chronological)

And yet, the system they taught, sometimes called
"Aryan-Arhat Esoteric Doctrine", includes as one of
its pivotal points Atma, or the seventh principle, the
One Self, as well as Soul.

Apparently, there are no known school in Buddhism that
accepts Atma as a fundamental reality. The denial of
Atma is one of the cardinal principles in Buddhist
philosophy. Two well-known scholars explain why:

"Buddhism stands unique in the history of human
thought in denying the existence of such a Soul , Self
or Atman. According to the teaching of the Buddha, 
the idea of self is an imaginary, false belief which
has no corresponding reality." (Walpola Rahula, "What
the Buddha Taught")

"Sakkayaditthi (Substance-view) is avidya (ignorance)
par excellence, and from it proceed all passions.
Denial of Satkaya (atman or Substance) is the very
pivot of the Buddhist metaphysics and doctrine of
salvation." (T.R.V. Murti, "The Central Philosophy of
Buddhism - A Study of the Madhyamika System") 

Can someone explain which Buddhism the Mahatmas
subscribed to?

Pedro