Theos-Talk Archives (June 2004 Message tt00161)

June 21 2004

Dear Friends:

In some posing of recent days the matter of the promulgation of
THEOSOPHY springs forward.

It is interesting to read about all the "phenomena" that HPB was
reported to have produced. The claims and counter-claims come flying
at us. But, are they important to THEOSOPHY as a philosophy, or as a
description of the history of development on our Earth?


It seems to me that THEOSOPHY is not based on phenomena but on the
Laws of Nature and some proofs thereof. The "phenomena," HPB said
were produced to show that in the sphere of "spiritualism" there were
genuine occult phenomena which none of the mediums could either
produce or control. HPB, as an Adept, produced and controlled those at
her will. This was demonstrated time and again.

There are, then, the questions: Was it possible that there existed
laws of nature that science had yet to discover? Could a human being
direct and control them? How was it done? 

The difference between Spiritualism and Mediumship (Channeling, today)
and ancient OCCULTISM was made apparent. 

As a result ISIS UNVEILED was produced and dedicated to the
THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY as a basis for study by its members.

As time progressed and as the literature of THEOSOPHY grew ( ESOTERIC
BUDDHISM, THE OCCULT WORLD, articles in THEOSOPHIST, and in the
press) it became necessary to draw together the ancient OCCULT LORE
and show how COHERENT IT IS.

ISIS UNVEILED was published in 1877. 10 years later after all the
discussion, The SECRET DOCTRINE was issued. It produced evidence of an
historical record maintained by a Lodge of Wise Men -- Sages, Magi,
Rishis, Buddhas, etc... if not as a tangible, accessible actuality to
western scholars, then at least in some form, from which excerpts
could be made.

In producing this panorama of ancient facts, and in demonstrating the
existence of the records of an age-old progress of study and recording
(on a continuous basis) of the study of evolution, we find the SECRET
DOCTRINE is based. 

The SECRET DOCTRINE (the original records) are not subject to
investigation physically by western scholars. This is frustrating.
What then remain as persuasive evidence? The coherence and evident
logic of the records made available to us.

Further, it is indicated that there is a curriculum, a study-course
available for those who desired to become students of this "occult"
Lodge.  

The SECRET DOCTRINE provided the fundamentals. The VOICE OF THE
SILENCE, that HPB wrote after the S D, shows most clearly that there
is a "Heart Doctrine" inherent in it. Intellectual study and virtuous
living are conjoined. Wisdom includes VIRTUE. Virtue is the living
and practice of universal BROTHERHOOD.

Here is a valuable article that illustrates the need for a continual
presentation of THEOSOPHY:


 
THE PROMULGATION OF THEOSOPHY


"Too much attention has been paid by several to the opinions of men in
the world who have a reputation in science and in scholarship. Their
opinions are valuable in their respective fields, but the ideas of the
world should not be permitted to dwarf our work or smother our hearts
desire. These owners of reputations do not entirely govern the
progress of the race.

The great mass of mankind are of the common people, and it is with
them we have chiefly to deal. For our message does not come only for
the scholar and the scientific man. 

In spite of scholars, in spite of science, the superstitions of the
people live on. And perhaps those very superstitions are the means of
preserving to us the almost forgotten truth. Indeed, had we listened
only to those learned in books, we would long ago have lost all touch
with our real life.

If we believe in our message and in the aim of the Society, we ought
never to tire telling the people that which they can understand. And
the rich as well as the poor are the people to whom I refer. They need
the help of Theosophy, for they are wandering very close to the
marshes of materialism. They must have a true ethic, a right
philosophy. 

Tell them of our great doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation. 

Tell of these with confidence, unshaken by opinions of others, and
that confidence of yours will beget confidence in the hearer. Science
and exact scholarship are factors in our progress, but although they
are important, the mass of the people are more important still. 

You cannot scientifically prove everything. But if you are sure, as so
many of us are, that we are immortal pilgrims, then tell the people
plainly and practically how they have been here before in other
bodies, and will be here again to suffer or enjoy just as they may
have decided in their other life, and they will believe it. They will
soon come to that belief because these laws are facts in nature, facts
in their own real experience. 

Were I to attend only to scholars, I should be able to do no other
work, while all the time my fellow-creatures--not scholars and in the
vast majority--would be deprived of the spiritual help it was my duty
to give them.

We are really working for the future, laying the foundation for a
greater day than this. We are all coming back together to carry on
this work if we now take up all our opportunities. We must act from
duty now, and thus be right for the future.

Our duty is to recognize the great human soul with which we have to
deal and for which we should work. Its progress, its experience, its
inner life, are vastly more important than all our boasted
civilization. That civilization could easily be swept away, and what
would be left? 

Your country [Great Britain] could be frozen up solidly in a few
weeks, were the Gulf Stream deflected from these shores. Mines have
honeycombed your land, and a good earthquake might easily shake all
your material glories to destruction beneath the sea. [NOTE--This
article is from an address given by Mr. Judge in London, at the close
of the European T.S. Convention, July 15, 1892.]

What then could remain save the human experience, the experience of
the soul? But no cataclysm can destroy your thoughts. They live on.
And so all the work that you do for the inner life of man can meet
with no destruction, even though records and books and all the
ingenious works upon this outer plane were swept out of existence. If
then you believe in this mighty doctrine of Reincarnation, do not be
afraid to tell it.

But do not, as Theosophists, confine yourselves to the intellect. The
dry or the interesting speculations upon all the details of cosmogony
and anthropology will not save the world. 

They do not cure sorrow nor appeal to those who feel the grinding
stones of fate, and know not why it should be so. Address yourselves
therefore to using your intellectual knowledge of these high matters,
so as to practically affect the hearts of men.

Our debt to science is very great. It has leveled the barriers and
made freedom of thought a possibility. Science is our friend, for
without its progress you would now, at the order of the bigot, all be
in the common jail. It has combated the strength and cut the claws of
bigoted churches. And even those iconoclasts, such as Robert
Ingersoll, who often violate the sentiment and ideals of many good
men, have helped in this progress, for they have done the tearing down
which must precede the building up. 

It is our place to supply the new structure, for the churches are
beginning to find that they must look into subjects which once were
kept out of sight. A sign of this was seen at a recent Council of the
Methodist Church in America, where their brightest lights declared
that they must accept evolution, or they would go down. The only
church which does not publicly as yet proclaim on these matters is the
Roman Catholic. It is so sly that I should not be surprised ere long
to hear of its throwing its mantle over all our doctrines publicly,
and saying that such had always been its doctrine. But if that step be
taken it will be the fatal one. So even that need give us no fear.

We are working with and for the great unseen, but actual, Brotherhood
of Humanity, and in our efforts, if sincere, will have the aid of
those our Brothers who have perfected themselves before us and are
ever ready to help on the human family. So if we are firmly fixed in
that belief, we can never weaken.

I have heard some words about our pretending to be undogmatic, or that
our claim to freedom is against the fact. I do not hold such an
opinion. 

Our Society is, as a body, wholly unsectarian. It must always be so.
But that does not affect the inevitable result of so many joined in
one effort. A large number of us must have come at last to a common
belief. This we can boldly say, and at the same time also that no
enquirer is obliged to subscribe to those beliefs. For this we have
the warrant, not only of our own statutes, but also that of the
oft-repeated declarations of H. P. Blavatsky. 

If I have a belief which works with all the problems that vex us so
much, then I will tell it to my fellow who has joined these ranks. If
wrong, the interchange of thought will correct me; if right, the truth
must at last prevail. In this, Brotherhood means toleration of
opinion, and not a fear of declaring the beliefs you hold, nor does
that declaration negative in the least the claim to unsectarianism.

This Society is a small germ of a nucleus for a real outer
Brotherhood. If we work aright the day must come when we shall have
accomplished our aim and formed the nucleus. 

If we had five hundred members in the Society loving one another with
true hearts, not criticizing nor condemning, and all bent on one aim
with one belief we could sweep the whole world with our thoughts. And
this is our work in the future, the work traced out for us by those
Masters in whom so many of us firmly believe.

If we only have patience, what a glorious, wide, and noble prospect
opens up before us!

W, Q, Judge

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I find this inspiring.

Best wishes,


Dallas
 

PS  

Best wishes for the second half of this year. Today is the Solstice.