Theos-Talk Archives (June 2004 Message tt00082)

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PART II	


CYCLIC IMPRESSION AND RETURN AND OUR EVOLUTION

Lecture, April 25, 1892, before the convention
By William Q. Judge

>From Part I]


I think in America is the evidence that this old civilization is
coming back, for in the theosophical theory nothing is lost. If we
were left to records, buildings and the like, they would soon
disappear and nothing could ever be recovered; there never would be
any progress. But each individual in the civilization, wherever it may
be, puts the record in himself, and when he comes into the favorable
circumstances described by Patanjali, an old Hindoo, when he gets the
apparatus, he will bring out the old impression. The ancients say each
act has a thought under it, and each thought makes a mental
impression; and when the apparatus is provided, there will then arise
that new condition, in rank, place and endowment.

So we retain in ourselves the impression of all the things that we
have done, and when the time comes that we have cycled back, over and
over again, through the middle ages perhaps, into England, into
Germany, into France, we come at last to an environment such as is
provided here, just the thing physically and every other way to enable
us to do well, and to enable the others who are coming after us. I can
almost see them; they are coming in a little army from the countries
of the old world to endeavor to improve this one; for here ages ago
there was a civilization also, perhaps we were in it then, perhaps
anterior to the ancient Egyptians. It disappeared from here, when we
do not know, and it left this land arid for many thousands of years
until it was discovered once more by the Europeans. 

The ancient world, I mean Europe, has been poisoned, the land has been
soaked with the emanations, poisoned by the emanations of the people
who have lived upon it; the air above it is consequently poisoned by
the emanations from the land; but here in America, just the place for
the new race, is an arable land which has had time over and over again
to destroy the poisons that were planted here ages and ages ago. It
gives us a new land, with vibrations in the air that stir up every
particle in a man who breathes it, and thus we find the people coming
from the old world seeming to receive through their feet the
impressions of an American country. All this bears upon our
civilization and race.

We are here a new race in a new cycle, and persons who know say that a
cycle is going to end in a few years and a new one begin, and that
that ending and beginning will be accompanied by convulsions of
society and of nature. We can all almost see it coming. The events are
very complete in the sky. You remember Daniel says, "A time, half a
time, and a time," and so on, and people in the Christian system have
been trying to find out the time when the time began, and that is just
the difficulty. We do not know when the time began. 

And the only person who in all these many years has made a direct
statement is Madame Blavatsky, and she said, "A cycle is ending in a
few years, you must prepare." So that it was like the old prophets who
came to the people and said, "Prepare for a new era of things, get
ready for what you have to do." That is just what this civilization is
doing. It is the highest, although the crudest, civilization now on
the earth. It is the beginning of the great civilization that is to
come, when old Europe has been destroyed: when the civilizations of
Europe are unable to do any more, then this will be the place where
the new great civilization will begin to put out a hand once more to
grasp that of the ancient East, who has sat there silently doing
nothing all these years, holding in her ancient crypts and libraries
and records the philosophy which the world wants, and it is this
philosophy and this ethics that the Theosophical Society is trying to
give you. It is a philosophy you can understand and practice.


Perfection and Renunciation

It is well enough to say to a man, Do right, but after a while, in
this superstitious era, he will say, Why should I do right, unless I
feel like it? When you are showing these laws, that he must come back
in his cycle; that he is subject to evolution; that he is a
reincarnated pilgrim soul, then he will see the reason why, and then
in order to get him a secure basis, he accepts the philosophy, and
that is what the theosophical society and the theosophical movement
are trying to do. Brother George Mead said the other day, in speaking
of a subject like this, that the great end and aim is the great
renunciation. 

That is, that after progressing to great heights, which you can only
do by unselfishness, at last you say to yourself, "I may take the ease
to which I am entitled." For what prevails in one place must prevail
in another, and in the course of progress we must come at last to a
time when we can take our ease, but if you say to yourself, "I will
not take it, but as I know this world and all the people on it are
bound to live and last for many thousand years more, and if not helped
perhaps might fail, I will not take it but I will stay here and I will
suffer, because of having greater knowledge and greater
sensitiveness"--this is the great renunciation as theosophy tells us.
I know we do not often talk this way, because many of us think that
the people will say to us at once when we talk of the great
renunciation, "I don't want it; it is too much trouble." So generally
we talk about the fine progress, and how you will at last escape the
necessity of reincarnation, and at last escape the necessity of doing
this or that and the other, but if you do your duty, you must make up
your mind when you reach the height, when you know all, when you
participate in the government of the world--not of a town, but the
actual government of the world and the people upon it--instead of
sleeping away your time, you will stay to help those who are left
behind, and that is the great renunciation. That is what is told of
Buddha, and of Jesus. 

Doubtless the whole story about Jesus, which cannot be proved
historically to my mind, is based upon the same thing that we call
renunciation. He was crucified after two or three years work. But we
say it means that this being divine resolves he will crucify himself
in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of others, so that he can save
men. Buddha did the same thing long before Jesus is said to have been
born. The story that he made the great renunciation just means that
which I have been telling you, instead of escaping from this horrible
place, as it seems to us. For this is indeed horrible, as we look at
it, surrounded by obstructions, liable to defeat at any moment, liable
to wake up in the morning after planning a great reform, and see it
dashed to the ground. Instead of escaping all that, he remained in the
world and started his doctrine, which he knew at least would be
adhered to by some. But this great doctrine of renunciation teaches
that instead of working for yourself, you will work to know
everything, to do everything in your power for those who may be left
behind you, just as Madame Blavatsky says in the Voice of the Silence,
"Step out of the sunshine into the shade, to make more room for
others."

Isn't that better than a heaven which is reached at the price of the
damnation of those of your relatives who will not believe a dogma? Is
this not a great philosophy and a great religion which includes the
salvation and regeneration, the scientific upraising and perfecting of
the whole human family, and every particle in the whole universe,
instead of imagining that a few miserable beings after seventy years
of life shall enter into paradise, and then they look behind to see
the torments in hell of those who would not accept a dogma?

What are these other religions compared with that? How any man can
continue to believe such an idea as the usual one of damnation for
merely unbelief I cannot comprehend. I had rather--if I had to
choose--be an idolator of the most pronounced kind, who believed in
Indra, and be left with my common reasoning, than believe in such a
doctrine as that which permits me to suppose that my brother who does
not believe a dogma is sizzling in hell while I, by simply believing,
may enjoy myself in heaven.

Theosophists, if they will learn the doctrine and try to explain it,
will reform this world. It will percolate everywhere, infiltrate into
every stratum of society and prevent the need of legislation. It will
alter the people, whereas you go on legislating and leaving this
world's people as they are, and you will have just what happened in
France. Capitalists in that day, in the day of the revolution--that is
the royalists--oppressed the people. At last the people rose up and
philosophers of the day instituted the reign of reason, and out of the
reign of reason--mind you they had introduced there a beautiful idea
of mankind, that idea struck root in a soil that was not
prepared--came the practice of murdering other people by the wholesale
until streams of blood ran all over France. 

So you see if something is not done to raise the people what the
result will be. We have seen in Chicago the result of such acts, the
mutterings of such a storm if the theosophical philosophy--call it by
any other name you like--is not preached and understood. But if these
old doctrines are not taught to the race you will have a revolution,
and instead of making progress in a steady, normal fashion, you will
come up to better things through storm, trouble and sorrow. You will
come up, of course, for even out of revolutions and blood there comes
progress, but isn't it better to have progress without that? And that
is what the theosophical philosophy is intended for. 

That is why the Mahatmas we were talking about, directing their
servant H. P. Blavatsky, as they have directed many before, came out
at a time when materialism was fighting religion and was about getting
the upper hand, and once more everything moved forward in its cyclic
way and these old doctrines were revivified under the guidance of the
theosophical movement. They are doctrines that explain all problems
and in the universal scheme give man a place as a potential god.
 
W Q Judge
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Best wishes,

Dallas
 
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-----Original Message-----
From: Mary W
Sent: Saturday, June 12, 2004 10:15 PM
To: 
Subject: RE: brief conclusion to theosophy

Dallas, thank you so much for this quote from WQJ! I'm sure each
generation
has unique challenges regarding how best "to spread, explain, and
illustrate
the laws of KARMA and REINCARNATION so that they may enter into the
lives of
the people."

"The practical theosophist will do well if he follows the advice of
the Masters now many years in print, to spread, explain, and
illustrate the laws of KARMA and REINCARNATION so that they may enter
into the lives of the people. Technical occultism and all the
allurements of the Astral Light may be left for other times. Men's
thoughts must be affected, and this can only be done now by giving
them these two great laws. They not only explain many things, but they
have also an inherent power due to their truth and their intimate
connection with man, to compel attention. " -- W Q J --
"Practical Theosophy"