Theos-Talk Archives (July 2004 Message tt00063)

July 4 2003

Dear Friend:

If you want an introduction to THEOSOPHY I attach hereto an epitome that
ought to be useful as a survey..

HPB's The KEY TO THEOSOPHY (310 pages, in Answer to Question format) ought
to be read carefully and notes taken of those ideas and items you are
already interested in.

Mr. Judge's The OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY gives a review of these and also supplies
in its brief compass (190 pages) a survey of the important teachings found
in the SECRET DOCTRINE.

ISIS UNVEILED provides a survey of evidence and history concerning un
explained events and laws already chronicled but not yet investigated by
Academicians. Many of the gaps of science and history are closed.

The SECRET DOCTRINE provides a very wide and far deeper survey of the
fundamental laws and evolutionary progress of our Universe, of our World and
of mankind.  

It views the Universe, Earth and Man as a continuous, a living, a learning,
and a harmonious whole. They are designed, because of the basic composition
of each "Life," to exhibit and display individually, the same innate and
potential qualities one finds if one considers these to be, taken all
together, to be a class of immortal students / inquirers. The interruption
of "death" is bridged by "reincarnation." All those who live and study
together return to resume that work again and again. 

The "School" includes all living things and humanity. It is life and
living. 

The "class-room" is our present life on this Earth and in this Universe. 

The "curriculum" is everything that has and is occurring in and around us,
since our character and psychology as an individual always accurately
reflects our capacity, and makes clear to those who are observant what the
next steps in our particular learning are. In this regard study, honesty,
clarity, deep thinking, and care for our brother students are mandatory.
This demands a far deeper perception of the moral and virtuous requirements
and qualities of all our life-relationships -- in family, community,
nationally and to the rest of the World. 

The "teachings and doctrines" offered are the result of the continuous
study, and the participation in this work, by a band of advanced Scholars
and Scientists (sometimes designated "Prophets," or "Saviours of Humanity")
who have always worked together (as might the faculty of a University) down
the ages. They all belong to that group who are the Sage "Instructors of
Mankind." It is they, who have periodically left a record of their
observations and the method to be used to enter and participate in that
important study. It is those who have followed them who have made up
"religions." 

Anyone who grasps the all-inclusive nature of this work is invited to join,
to intermesh with all members of this group, and provide the highest kind of
impartial, brotherly, and interested Intelligence they are capable of.
There is no coercion or rules or orders in this method. Everything is
voluntary.

This is what you will find in the SECRET DOCTRINE - and it is also in The
KEY TO THEOSOPHY .

I hope this may answer your inquiry.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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THEOSOPHY SIMPLY STATED


THEOSOPHY, as the Wisdom-Religion, has existed from immemorial time. It
offers us a theory of nature and of life which is founded upon knowledge
acquired by the Sages of the past; and its higher students claim that this
knowledge is not imagined or inferred, but that it is a knowledge of facts
seen and known by those who are willing to comply with the conditions
requisite for seeing and knowing. As the oldest tradition of human wisdom,
Theosophy has been expressed in different ages by such as Krishna and Buddha
in the East, by Pythagoras, Plato and Jesus in the West. Following these
teachers, lesser voices have supported the central tenet of the philosophy -
immortality through reincarnation or rebirth. Bruno van Helmont, Goethe and
Schopenhauer, Shelley, Kipling and Masefield, Emerson and Whitman, to name
but a few, have all upheld the doctrine given its full philosophical import
in the Theosophy presented by H. P. Blavatsky.

Theosophy is not a "Faith," for "Faiths" may be changed; but, being
knowledge which each can make his own, it is not dependent upon dogma or
revelation. Theosophists do not demand acceptance of Theosophy; they point
out its principles and their applications. Theosophy makes certain
statements, but not as statements to be believed. The object of Theosophy is
to teach man what he is, through showing him the necessity of knowing for
himself and becoming his own authority.
 
THEOSOPHY DEFINED

Although Theosophy contains by derivation the name God and thus may seem at
first sight to embrace religion alone, it does not neglect science. It is
the Science of sciences, for no science is complete which leaves out any
department of nature, whether visible or invisible. Conversely, that
religion which, depending solely on an assumed revelation, turns away from
things and the laws which govern them, is nothing but a delusion, a foe to
progress, and an obstacle in the way of man's advancement toward happiness.
Embracing both the scientific and the religious, Theosophy is a scientific
religion and a religious science.

No new ethics are presented by Theosophy, as it is held that right ethics
are forever the same. But in the doctrines of Theosophy are to be found the
philosophical and reasonable basis for ethics and the natural enforcement of
them in practice. The ideas we entertain of Deity and of the Self, of
Nature's Laws, and of Evolution, govern the actions we perform. We are now
acting, either consciously or unconsciously, according to the philosophical
ideas we hold. Are they the best and highest possible!

Theosophy is to be explained by reference to the three great principles
which underlie all life, as well as every religion and every philosophy that
ever has been, or ever can be. 

They may be briefly named: 

(1) The Self, as reality in man; 

(2) Law, as the processes by which man evolves both in form and

(3) soul Evolution, as the design of life in terms of meaning and purpose.

 
FIRST FUNDAMENTAL IDEA


--DEITY - THE UNIVERSE

As to Self, and the Source of Life, the great Theosophists, both ancient and
modern, have recorded that there is One Infinite Principle, which is the
Cause of all that was or ever shall be. Thus this causal Self, the only true
"Deity," can be absent from no point of space, and we are inseparable from
it. Each one is a ray from and one with that Absolute Principle. This is the
one realization which immediately sets our minds in order: we are, in
essence, THAT which is unchangeable and unchanging. Behind all perceiving
and knowing and experiencing is the One undivided Self. The power in us to
perceive, to know, to experience - apart from anything that is seen, known
or experienced - is the One Self, the one Consciousness, shared by all
alike, the Power of every being. Herein lies the true basis of Brotherhood -
the unifying bond for all above man and for all below man.

 
SECOND FUNDAMENTAL IDEA
 
- KARMA - LAW

The second great principle - law, is referred to in Theosophy as Karma.
Karma is the law of recurring cycles in Nature and the constant tendency to
restore disturbed equilibrium. Applied to man's moral life it is the law of
ethical causation, of justice, reward and punishment, the cause for birth
and rebirth. Viewed from another standpoint it is simply effect flowing from
cause, action and reaction, exact result for every thought and act. It is
act and the result of act; for the word's literal meaning is action.
Theosophy views the Universe as an intelligent whole, hence every motion in
the universe is an action leading to results, which themselves become causes
for further results. We are all reaping what we have sown, individually and
collectively; we never act alone. We always act on and in connection with
others, affecting them for good or evil, and we get the necessary reaction
from the causes set in motion by ourselves. This presents to us the idea of
absolute Justice, in accordance with which each being receives exactly what
he gives - the essence of free-will.

 
- REINCARNATION - TOTAL EVOLUTION


Indissolubly connected with Karma is another aspect of the law of cycles -
Reincarnation. It means that man as a thinker, composed of soul, mind and
spirit, occupies body after body in life after life on the earth which is
the scene of his evolution, and where he must, under the very laws of his
being, complete that evolution, once it has been begun. In any one life he
is known to others as a personality, but in the whole stretch of eternity he
is one individual, feeling in himself an identity not dependent on name,
form, or recollection. The physical body is merely the shell of man, made of
matter of the earth, from the three lower kingdoms - mineral, vegetable, and
animal - and is being constantly renewed and worn out from day to day. Man,
himself, is that invisible entity which inhabits the body, which is the
cause of its present construction and development from lower forms of
consciousness. The body is but one instrument of the man within. Other
divisions are the psychic, mental and intuitional natures. Each of these
"instruments" is composed of intelligent "lives," and when the controlling
being withdraws at death, the "instruments" and "lives" separate, only to be
later re-assembled. In this separation of the instruments of man lies the
explanation of "spirit-manifestations" - which are nothing more than the
automatic reflexes of "lives" impressed by the departed soul with psychic
impulses.
The doctrine of Reincarnation is the very base of Theosophy, for it explains
life and nature. It is one aspect of evolution, since evolution could not go
on without reembodiment. Reincarnation was believed in at the time of Jesus
and taught by some of the early Christian Fathers. According to the view
offered by Karma and Reincarnation, each is his own judge, and his own
executioner; one's own hand forges the weapon which works for his
punishment, and each earns his own reward. Reincarnation banishes the fear
and sorrow of death, for as sleep is a release from the body, during which
we have dreams, so death is a rest and release, after which we are again
incarnated in a new body on earth. We come once more into what we call
waking existence, and meet again and again the various Egos whom we have
known in prior births, that the causes generated in company with them may be
worked out. Schopenhauer once wrote that this doctrine "presents itself as
the natural conviction of man whenever he reflects at all in an unprejudiced
manner."
 

THIRD FUNDAMENTAL IDEA


EVOLUTION IS FOR ALL BEINGS

Reincarnation brings us to the doctrine of Universal Evolution as expounded
by the Sages of the Wisdom-Religion. The third fundamental principle of
Theosophy points to the fact that all beings in the universe have evolved
from lower points of perception into greater and greater individualization;
that beings above man have gone through our stage; that there never can be a
stoppage to evolution in an infinite universe of infinite possibilities;
that whatever stage of perfection may be reached in any race, on any planet,
or in any solar system, there are always greater opportunities beyond.

Viewing life and its probable object, with all the varied experience
possible for man, one must be forced to the conclusion that a single life is
not enough for carrying out all that is intended by Nature, to say nothing
of what man himself desires to do. The scale of variety in experience is
enormous; every form of evolving intelligence in nature either is now a man,
has been a man, or will become a man. Further there is a vast range of
powers latent in man which may be developed under lawful conditions.
Knowledge infinite in scope and diversity lies before us, although we
perceive that we have no time to reach up to the measure of our high
aspirations. To say that we have but one life here with such possibilities
put before us and impossible of development is to make of the universe and
life a huge and cruel joke.

 
THE TEACHING OF HOPE

The two teachings that the West is most urgently in need of are those of
Karma and Reincarnation, the doctrines of hope and responsibility. Karma,
the doctrine of responsibility, means that whatever a man sows he shall also
reap. Reincarnation, the doctrine of hope, means that whatever be is
reaping, he may yet sow better seed. The very fact of suffering is a
blessing. Karma and Reincarnation show us that suffering is brought about by
wrong thought and action; through our suffering we may be brought to a
realization that a wrong course has been pursued. We learn through our
suffering.

 
WHAT THEOSOPHY EXPLAINS

Theosophy is the only system of religion and philosophy which gives
satisfactory explanation of such problems as these:

First. The contrasts and unions of the world's faiths, and the common
foundation underlying them all.

Second. The existence of evil, suffering, sorrow - a hopeless puzzle to the
mere philanthropist or theologian.

Third. The inequalities in social condition and privilege; the sharp
contrasts between wealth and poverty, intelligence and stupidity, culture
and ignorance, virtue and vileness; the appearance of men of genius in
families destitute of it, as well as other facts in conflict with the theory
of heredity; the frequent cases of unfitness of environment around
individuals, so sore as to embitter disposition, hamper aspiration, and
paralyze endeavor; the violent antithesis between character and condition;
the occurrence of accident, misfortune and untimely death - all of them
problems solvable only by the Theosophic doctrines of Karma and
Reincarnation.

Fourth. The possession by individuals of psychic powers - clairvoyance,
clairaudience, etc.

Fifth. The true nature of genuine phenomena in spiritualism, and the proper
antidote to superstition and to exaggerated expectation.

Sixth. The failure of conventional religions to extend their areas, reform
abuses, re-organize society, expand the idea of brotherhood, abate
discontent, diminish crime, and elevate humanity; and an apparent inadequacy
to realize in individual lives the ideal they professedly uphold.

>From the perspective of Theosophy, life is one grand school of Being, and we
have come to that stage where it is time for us to learn to understand the
purpose of existence; to grasp our whole nature firmly; to use every means
in our power in every direction - waking, dreaming, sleeping, or in any
other state - to bring the whole of our nature into accord, so that our
lower instrument may be "in line" and thus more fully reflect our divine
inner nature.
 

THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT

The Theosophical Movement, broadly considered, is to be found in all times
and in all nations. Wherever thought has struggled to be free, wherever
spiritual ideas, as opposed to forms and dogmatism, have been promulgated,
there the great movement is to be discerned, for noble action is inspired by
noble thought, and Theosophy represents the principles of such thought.

The Theosophical movement begun by Madame Blavatsky in 1875 has passed
through many changes - changes unavoidable in a period of transition and
among people whose heredity and training are obstacles in the way of right
appreciation and application. But out of all these confusions must come the
nucleus of brotherhood among all men and nations, the formation of which
these teachers had in view from the very first.

 
CENTERS FOR STUDY AND WORK

There are today, in America and elsewhere, lodges of working students
without organizational affiliations of any kind, engaged in obtaining a
Theosophical education and in making Theosophy available to the community.
The name chosen for this common endeavor is "The United Lodge of
Theosophists," under which the work of public meetings, study classes, and
distribution of literature is conducted.

The United Lodge of Theosophists is an integral part of the Theosophical
Movement begun in New York in 1875. It is - as the name implies - an
association of theosophists irrespective of organization, who are bound
together by the tie of common aim, purpose and teaching. Theosophy, being
the origin, basis and genius of every Theosophical organization forms in
itself a common ground of interest and effort, above and beyond all
differences of opinion as to persons or methods. Theosophy is the philosophy
of Unity, and it calls for the essential union of those who profess and
promulgate it.

U. L. T. Lodges holding regular public meetings exist in a number of the
larger cities of the United States, among them New York, Philadelphia,
Washington D.C., San Francisco, Phoenix, San Diego, Sarasota, and Los
Angeles. Besides these and other Lodges, (London, U.K., London, Ont.,
Malmo, Antwerp, Paris, Bombay, Bangalore) there are numerous smaller groups
meeting for study and discussion of the Theosophical philosophy. 

The U L T invites correspondence concerning Theosophy, lodges or study group
most conveniently located for inquirers. The meetings and classes are free
to all, and all are welcome. Attendance involves no fees, dues or
collections; the work of the United Lodge of Theosophists is supported
entirely by voluntary contributions.

The Theosophy Company of Los Angeles (245 West 33rd St.) works cooperatively
with U. L. T. for the purpose of publishing authentic, original Theosophical
literature, and also serves as a center for information regarding
Theosophical activities. 
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Dallas
 

-----Original Message-----
From: bway
Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2004 2:43 PM
To: 
Subject: starting point for studying Theosophy

i have both Isis Unveiled and the Secret Doctrine. would you consider
these to be a good starting point, or would you recommend something
simpler?