Theos-Talk Archives (September 2004 Message tt00489)

Sept 17 2004

Dear Bill 

Let me comment below by inserting some remarks in your inquiry

Thanks

Best wishes.

Dallas
 
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-----Original Message-----
From: Bill M
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2004 8:35 AM
To: 
Subject: : Some Random Remarks on one of Perry's Comments

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> Dear Dallas,  


BM	you seem to equate theosophy and the study of theosophy with
reading books and comparing and contrasting later material with Blavatsky,
Judge, and Mahatma "original programme" material.

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DTB	That is what is available as the most recent "message."

It has been attested to, and discussed by a number of thoughtful persons.

Additionally there are for reference a number of good translations of
ancient texts, philosophical and religious

I find a number of good references describing THEOSOPHY in those sources.

It is important to define to ourselves what THEOSOPHY is.

In this there will be 2 categories:

1	The fundamentals of THEOSOPHY

2	Opinions about THEOSOPHY and what it may be.

Finally one has to use one's own common sense. That should
always be treated with reserve and flexibility -- in the sense that one's
earlier ideas should never be treated as "final." Recognize that they may
be modified by new data and explanations. Always be sensitive and
responsive to others' views and conclusions.

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BM	Your comment below that, " I have fully checked out the
documentation and 
seen them. -- "dependency on mere books" is a problem when one has 
nothing to go on." is very telling.  

Might a person be able to intuit beyond the book and even beyond the
documentation, since both are but materialistic representations of a truth,
to experience the truth of things with the eye of dangma which neither
reads books nor needs the material documentation behind books?

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DTB	Here we tread on an individual's confabulations with their own inner
HIGHER SELF -- ATMA. It is well to remember that in such cases it is the
embodied and limited "brain-mind -- the 'Lower Self' " that attempts to
remember the information and instructions from a far higher, interior plane
of it own being. [see S D II 167 as an instance ]

HPB on being asked about one's intuition averred it ought to be treated with
respect and with common sense -- in other words, she is reputed to have
said: "Make sure it is not the intuition of a fool." 

Now that is a stopper. How should we receive intuitive ideas? If we are
well founded in the fundamentals of THEOSOPHY, then we need only check those
conclusions with what has already been reasoned out. If it disagrees, then
a revision of one's own work is needed. One has to realize that we are
eternal students. We ought to be receptive to changes -- then, to verify
their validity. No one ought to allow their sense of vanity to raise a
barrier between their older conclusions and any new, more widening and
impersonalizing ideas that are made available to it. 

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BM	Further you comment that, " The ability to think things through
depends 
largely on the extent of one's study." Can you expand upon this thought? 

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DTB	There are several way of studying

1	Taking advantage of the work done by others. Verifying it. Trying
to determine how much truth or delusion is there. Seeing if it agrees with
the FUNDAMENTALS of the world, universe and experience.

2	Being keenly attentive to events surrounding us, and especially to
ideas that come into our minds. 

3	Constantly trying to simplify and universalize and impersonalize our
understanding. In other words instead of the analytical nit-picking work of
the Lower Mind (Kama-Manas), try to use the power of universality and of
lawfulness inherent in the Higher Mind (Buddhi-Manas). This is where
THEOSOPHY is most important.

4	Always be attentive to seeming jumps, gaps and "leaps of faith."
These can delude. Always relate anything back to the fundamentals:
IMPERSONALITY, UNIVERSALITY, LAWFULNESS, REGULARITY, INTER-DEPENDENCE,
COOPERATION, all are include in THE ONE RADICAL UNITY. It is like the
hebdomad in symbology. Let me quote



THEOSOPHICAL SYMBOL


"Does your --------- know the meaning of the white and black interlaced
triangles, of the Parent Society's seal that it has also adopted? Shall I
explain? -- the double triangle viewed by the Jewish Kabalists as Solomon's
Seal, is, as many of you doubtless know the Sri-antara of the archaic Aryan
Temple, the "mystery of Mysteries," a geometrical synthesis of the whole
occult doctrine. 

The two interlaced triangles are the Buddhangums of Creation. They contain
the "squaring of the circle," the "philosophical stone," the great problems
of Life and Death, and -- the Mystery of Evil. The chela who can explain
this sign from every one of its aspects -- is virtually an adept. 

How is it then that the only one among you, who has come so near to
unravelling the mystery is also the only one who got none of her ideas from
books? Unconsciously she gives out -- to him who has the key -- the first
syllable of the Ineffable name! Of course you know that the double-triangle
-- the Satkiri Chakram of Vishnu -- or the six-pointed star, is the perfect
seven. In all the old Sanskrit works -- Vedic and Tantrik -- you find the
number 6 mentioned more often than the 7 -- this last figure, the central
point being implied, for it is the germ of the six and their matrix. It is
then thus . . . 

[At this point in the original there is a rough drawing of the interlaced
triangles inscribed in a circle. -- ED.]

-- the central point standing for seventh, and the circle, the Mahakasha --
endless space -- for the seventh Universal Principle. In one sense, both are
viewed as Avalokitesvara, for they are respectively the Macrocosm and the
microcosm. 

The interlaced triangles -- the upper pointing one -- is Wisdom concealed,
and the downward pointing one -- Wisdom revealed (in the phenomenal world).
The circle indicates the bounding, circumscribing quality of the All, the
Universal Principle which, from any given point expands so as to embrace all
things, while embodying the potentiality of every action in the Cosmos. 

As the point then is the centre round which the circle is traced -- they are
identical and one, and though from the standpoint of Maya and Avidya --
(illusion and ignorance) -- one is separated from the other by the
manifested triangle, the 3 sides of which represent the three gunas --
finite attributes. In symbology the central point is Jivatma (the 7th
principle), and hence Avalokitesvara, the Kwan-Shai-yin, the manifested
"Voice" (or Logos), the germ point of manifested activity; -- hence -- in
the phraseology of the Christian Kabalists "the Son of the Father and
Mother," and agreeably to ours -- "the Self manifested in Self -- Yih-sin,
the "one form of existence," the child of Dharmakaya (the universally
diffused Essence), both male and female. 

Parabrahm or "Adi-Buddha" while acting through that germ point outwardly as
an active force, reacts from the circumference inwardly as the Supreme but
latent Potency. 

The double triangles symbolize the Great Passive and the Great Active; the
male and female; Purusha and Prakriti. Each triangle is a Trinity because
presenting a triple aspect. The white represents in its straight lines:
Gnanam -- (Knowledge); Gnata -- (the Knower); and Gnayam -- (that which is
known). The black-form, colour, and substance, also the creative,
preservative, and destructive forces and are mutually correlating, etc.,
etc. 

Well may you admire and more should you wonder at the marvellous lucidity of
that remarkable seeress, who ignorant of Sanskrit or Pali, and thus shut out
from their metaphysical treasures, has yet seen a great light shining from
behind the dark bills of exoteric religions. How, think you, did ...come to
know that Adonai was the Son and not the Father; or that the third Person of
the Christian Trinity is -- female? 

Verily, they lay in that work several times their hands upon the keystone of
Occultism. Only does the lady -- who persists using without an explanation
the misleading term "God" in her writings -- know how nearly she comes up to
our doctrine when saying: -- "Having for Father, Spirit which is Life (the
endless Circle or Parabrahm) and for Mother the Great Deep, which is
Substance (Prakriti in its undifferentiated condition) -- Adonai possesses
the potency of both and wields the dual powers of all things." 

We would say triple, but in the sense as given this will do. Pythagoras had
a reason for never using the finite, useless figure -- 2, and for altogether
discarding it. 

The ONE, can, when manifesting, become only 3. The unmanifested when a
simple duality remains passive and concealed. The dual monad (the 7th and
6th principles) has, in order to manifest itself as a Logos, the
"Kwan-shai-yin" to first become a triad (7th, 6th and half of the 5th);
then, on the bosom of the "Great Deep" attracting within itself the One
Circle -- form out of it the perfect Square, thus "squaring the circle" --
the greatest of all the mysteries, friend -- and inscribing within the
latter the -- WORD (the Ineffable name) -- otherwise the duality could never
tarry as such, and would have to be reabsorbed into the ONE. The "Deep" is
Space -- both male and female. "Purush (as Brahma) breathes in the Eternity:
when 'he' in-breathes -- Prakriti (as manifested Substance) disappears in
his bosom; when 'he' out-breathes she reappears as Maya," says the Sloka.
The One reality is Mulaprakriti (undifferentiated Substance) -- the
"Rootless root," the. . . MAHATMA LETTERS 345-7

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BM	In the previous paragraph you give me directions to locate a book
on 
theosophical history. Are you equating the ability to think things 
through with book study? Are you saying that without books and the 
attendant documentation, "one has nothing to go on.?"

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DTB	If you want to study history then get the best information you can
locate. In this case a reputable book helps.

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BM	Can one be in touch with the Higher Self, without having read a
theosophy 
book? Once the link with the Higher Self is established, does one
strengthen that link by reading books?

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DTB	Consider the evidence of the immortality of the Human Spirit/Ego,
and reincarnation. None of us have contacted THEOSOPHY for the first time
in this incarnation. 

That the Mahatmas have always had their chelas struggling, incarnation after
incarnation, in various places (according to their Karma) to acquire Divine
Wisdom is a fact. 

For this resent personality this may appear to the present brain-mind to be
the first time we have such an encounter -- and with the accumulated work of
the past -- as our personal karma of this life -- we may have an easy or a
difficult time unloading the current trends of misinformation. A study of
The KEY TO THEOSOPHY, The OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY and the SECRET DOCTRINE helps a
lot. Yes they are books. But after seeing what was done and thought about,
how does our mind react?  

In this process we realize that WE (our true immovable and antique SELF) are
an impartial or a remote observer of our own mental processes, and we value
them as disinterestedly or as interestedly as we are inclined  

Our inclinations are important. They are NOT thoughts -- they are desires,
emotions, passions. They have tremendous power. Also they are to be most
guardedly and closely watched, since they show the way in which our desire
(kamic) nature is going. It (Kama) can help or interfere, but it ought to be
recognized as assistant or impediment. 

We ought to be very keenly aware of the qualities and existence of the 7
principles of every human being. I trust you have done that -- it is
described in The OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY. Again from a book -- yes, but where
else of you get the accumulation of ideas that can be studied and used or
discarded ? 

Best wishes as always

Dal

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Thank you for your comments. They are valuable to me.

regards,

Bill