Theos-Talk Archives (December 2004 Message tt00323)

Dec 24 2004



Dear Friend:  

I am not a prophet and cannot pretend to interpret HPB.

I am sure my friend Leon Maurer may want to comment on this also so I am
sending him a copy of this. (Dear Lenny: Have you the time? )

When HPB deals with the future (our present ?) she points to general
principles.

Materialism is already being altered. The discovery of radio-activity and
sub-atomic particles (1887/90) has led Sconce to the realm of forces and
energies as well as to magnetic spheres of interacting force at near and far
distances, and under unusual stresses.  

The evidence is being sifted actively. We have as a result:
"Indeterminacy," "Chaos theory," and "String theory." There is a continued
attempt being made to arrive at a "unified Field theory" 0r " A theory of
Everything." I believe HPB predicts that unless the moral factor is added,
these discoveries, and re-proving of facts known to ancient philosophers,
will not be successful.  

These are both philosophical and experimental.  

Further, the investigation of deep Space has added greatly to our
understanding of our particular position as a very small Earth in a very
large Universe, and the respect that LIFE has for the least of its
components -- all guided by trustworthy laws.  

What we need to learn is that LAWS govern the individual advance of every
human being. This advance depends on their ability to choose freely. This
capacity to choose makes the Mind grow. Also, a self-energised and
self-chosen course of personal action -- such, as will best assist and
comply with the well being of all others around him or her -- will prove to
be the best for the individual and the community, near and far. This may
sound like vague "goody-goody-ness" but it is not It is most serious. There
is a MORAL FIELD and it can be defined as "good-will" in all cases, to and
fr everyone. 

Continued attempts to discover a "Unified Field Theory" that will encompass
both close and distant phenomena and reconcile all forms of "attraction and
repulsion" with "say, "Gravity" are evidence of this.  

The application has to be humanized, (moralized ?) as well as, seen to be
rigid, faithful and true in the realm of physics, chemistry, engineering,
spatial mechanics, economics, as well as in social and political areas,
etc... In other words "Karma" works for all, and in every field, without
any favorites.

What does THEOSOPHY do? It describes the Laws of Nature and speaks of a
common goal for all: SUBLIME INDIVIDUAL PERFECTION. In this process (see
the closing 10 Pages of The VOICE OF THE SILENCE) each "man-mind" becomes
a "God-Man" with a mind that encompasses all factors. No wonder immortality
entails a number of incarnations to finally achieve such eminence.   

It posits a unified and determined Universal Plenum which, like SPACE cannot
be defined or time-determined.  

It states that the whole Universe is pervaded with the duality of (1) SPIRIT
(or TRUTH and LAW, and (2) MATTER (which is constituted of innumerable
intelligent but continually altering forms that intelligently coalesce,
disintegrate and then reintegrate --- making for "Chaos, Illusion and
"Maya).

The Universe has no, and yet it also has all, time-frames. The Universe is
pervaded with (3) intelligence and consciousness as a whole, and also has
this present individually in its constituent units. The Units have been
named "Monads, ( or spirit/matter dualities ).  

In "manifestation" are the opportunities for advancement and learning.
Between manifestations, the Universe sleeps and assimilates the experience
acquired, and then, it reawakens to re-begin its vast Pilgrimage.  

A third essential Presence is required here, as there is the need for a
"conscious" (a perceptive, analytical) bridge between these two extremes
(SPIRIT / MATTER), and that is: (3) "Mind." 

Vast periods of time are consumed in "manifestation," as intelligence works
in and through continually changing forms. These tremendously complicated
processes are all guided by their inherent LAWS. 

Intelligence and consciousness have to be studied in all forms as well as
laws that lead to conscious "god-hood" as an objective for every human. One
of the philosophical conditions THEOSOPHY states, is that the realm of
SPIRIT is that of an impartial, UNIVERSAL DEITY. Every "Monad" has this
"deity" within itself as an essential component. The process of
evolutionary experience and reincarnation allows this inner "God" to
blossom; and, as the material envelope is purified, it is enabled to shine
through. 

The experience of such contacts and actions through reincarnation and
independent individual life has three broad phases:  

(1) Unconsciousness (or the instincts that are developed lover ages in and
through the 'lower' kingdoms of the Universe -- monadic-essence,
elementals, minerals, vegetables and animals); 

(2) Self-Consciousness ( or the condition of mankind everywhere -- during
which phase, the MIND is developed -- the objective being to give it a
knowledge, over many incarnations, of the whole functioning of the Universe
and its many Laws, which can be summed up in a single word or idea:
BROTHERHOOD ), and, 

(3) Universal Self-Consciousness (the condition of those who have achieved a
complete knowledge of the workings of the Universe as a whole, and also in
its many divisions and parts -- this results in compassion and love for all
that lives, These are known to us vaguely as the Adepts, Initiates, Sages,
Mahatmas, Buddhas, Magi, Bodhisattvas, Rishis, Dhyanis, Avatars, etc...
This condition is one of GUARDIANSHIP and INSTRUCTION -- a careful nurturing
care for all humans, everywhere in the Universe, regardless of the kind of
"form" they use. -- see S D I 272-3, 207-210 )

The third group (Adepts, Buddhas, etc., ) is aware of the laws of the
Universe which support life everywhere, and They are universally sensitive
to the needs of the least of its many components.  

You will find that THEOSOPHY supports this essential aspect of development
as part of the Mind-phase of progress for every Monad.  

Call it, one might say, the learning of the distinction between virtue
(which is life-giving) and vice (which produces the death of the Mind-soul).
Put it in another way: It is between sharing wisdom and the pleasure of
complete generosity, and the terrible selfishness of personal isolation. 

You will see how this view of the Universe, our World, and our purpose as
humans (that can use their minds and choose freely and independently), here,
as immortal reincarnating Monads, all comes together in what some call
Philosophy or Mysticism. 

The uncertainty implied in mysticism revolves around reincarnation, and the
ultimate purpose of living. It also obscures the fact that inherently we
are Divine, God-like Pilgrims, and individually we are all bent on
self-improvement as well as on sharing what we learn with others. The
"God-within" is forever seeking ways to awaken us from our personal darkness
-- a darkness of matter, that isolates it from the friendship of a love
that encompasses all around it. 

Ignorance and neglect of this last factor will produce a "flood" that will
carry away those who fail to grasp this essential purpose of all evolution.
This is a psychological, and intellectual "flood," and not necessarily a
physical "flood. 

This is what we need to assure ourselves of. It can only be done through a
most careful analysis of our own nature and specifically of our usual tend
of personal desires and objectives. Find out what their true worth is. Do
they tend to make us immortals, or do they relate to our present life alone,
and perish when this body dies? The great Buddha said: "Those who are wise
live eternally, the foolish and selfish ones are already dead." DHAMMAPADA 

What attitude of living gives us immortality? What kind brings our
particular life-string to cessation and death? This is a command that we
neglect at our peril. 

I hope this is of help.

Dallas

P S Have a look at this correlate:


LEARNING and TEACHING

Learning: don't you think it is a matter of first "desire," and then, of
"attention?"

Desire focuses a "wish to learn." Attention then directs the various senses
of the body to contribute their abilities to viewing and recording what is
desired to be learned?

Pleasure or amusement is a matter of "desire" or "liking." Anyone who has a
"passion" for a special subject knows how strong this can be. It is faculty
different from mind and reasoning, isn't it?  

Some love to learn -- anything. Others channel their interest in personal
objectives.  

But if we look at the world around us, we see that it keeps the areas of
learning in all areas open to those who desire to find out. The Universe
(which supports all life everywhere) has to keep all options open, so that
the vast diversity of human interest may be satisfied, as also, the harmony
of its diversities may be able to run cooperatively.

If we look back in history we note that certain personages stand out because
they devoted their lives to learning and then telling others about what they
discovered in nature, it (Nature, or the Universe) being established there
since the beginning of time. Some were great scientists, religious
reformers, artists, geniuses, political and administration reformers. One
outstanding characteristic of all is their willingness to teach others, and
to sacrifice their lives for the truths they discovered and practised.


VIRTUE AND VICE

It is interesting to note that all people KNOW innately the truth and
fairness of life and events. But they do not always practice openly that
which they know is true. This separation makes for evil and vice. Those who
are evil-natured try to pretend to others, and to the world, that they are
honest and upright citizens. Some who fancy their "might" is their right,
may choose to become tyrants of various kinds in government, politics,
illicit and immoral trades, arms, drugs, and other illicit business.

But look at the whole scene:

Is it another proof of the three things that are basic to every person and
every situation -- that are needed ?


1. An Ego or Mind that grows by learning.

2. The "Desire" that keeps attention to learning focussed -- in
this case learning, would be also pleasure.

3. The necessary tools, eyes, ears, touch (fingers ?), smell,
taste, etc.. are sharpened and trained to do the contacting, recording and
the learning.  

Finally the mind, as a storage place for impressions, is made an ever more
keen storage place for those memories. To the extent that we can
impersonalize our desires, to that extent our memories remain true to that
which was observed.

Memory always deals with the past. Anticipation and hope are for the future.

But there has to be an effort to avoid prejudging, or the events we observe
in the future are likely to be colored by our prejudices. They will, then,
not be true.

But of necessity there is always in every one of us, the central EGO -- that
which directs the mind and controls the limits of the desire faculty. The
EGO (Buddhi-Manas) or the higher Mind is the immortal entity in each of us
-- the REINCARNATING SELF -- it uses many bodies progressively, THEOSOPHY
teaches. So as we pass from life to life there is always the possibility of
improving the moral nature, and showing it outwardly more fearlessly and
boldly. 


-----------------------------------------------

3

Then there is this, as a broad view of Education:


THEOSOPHY AND EDUCATION. 

ENQUIRER. One of your strongest arguments for the inadequacy of the existing
forms of religion in the West, as also to some extent the materialistic
philosophy which is now so popular, but which you seem to consider as an
abomination of desolation, is the large amount of misery and wretchedness
which undeniably exists, especially in our great cities. But surely you must
recognise how much has been, and is being done to remedy this state of
things by the spread of education and the diffusion of intelligence.

THEOSOPHIST. The future generations will hardly thank you for such a
"diffusion of intelligence," nor will your present education do much good to
the poor starving masses. 
 
ENQUIRER. Ah! but you must give us time. It is only a few years since we
began to educate the people. 
 
THEOSOPHIST. And what, pray, has your Christian religion been doing ever
since the fifteenth century, once you acknowledge that the education of the
masses has not been attempted till now — the very work, if ever there could
be one, which a Christian, i. e., a Christ-following church and people,
ought to perform? 
 
ENQUIRER. Well, you may be right; but now—  
 
THEOSOPHIST. Just let us consider this question of education from a broad
standpoint, and I will prove to you that you are doing harm not good, with
many of your boasted improvements. The schools for the poorer children,
though far less useful than they ought to be, are good in contrast with the
vile surroundings to which they are doomed by your modern Society. The
infusion of a little practical Theosophy would help a hundred times more in
life the poor suffering masses than all this infusion of (useless)
intelligence. 
 
ENQUIRER. But, really—  
 
THEOSOPHIST. Let me finish, please. You have opened a subject on which we
Theosophists feel deeply, and I must have my say. I quite agree that there
is a great advantage to a small child bred in the slums, having the gutter
for playground, and living amid continued coarseness of gesture and word, in
being placed daily in a bright, clean school-room hung with pictures, and
often gay with flowers. There it is taught to be clean, gentle, orderly;
there it learns to sing and to play; has toys that awaken its intelligence;
learns to use its fingers deftly; is spoken to with a smile instead of a
frown; is gently rebuked or coaxed instead of cursed. All this humanizes the
children, arouses their brains, and renders them susceptible to intellectual
and moral influences. The schools are not all they might be and ought to be;
but, compared with the homes, they are paradises; and they slowly are
re-acting on the homes. But while this is true of many of the Board schools,
your system deserves the worst one can say of it. 
 
ENQUIRER. So be it; go on. 
 
THEOSOPHIST. What is the real object of modern education? Is it to cultivate
and develop the mind in the right direction; to teach the disinherited and
hapless people to carry with fortitude the burden of life (allotted them by
Karma); to strengthen their will; to inculcate in them the love of one's
neighbour and the feeling of mutual interdependence and brotherhood; and
thus to train and form the character for practical life? Not a bit of it.
And yet, these are undeniably the objects of all true education. No one
denies it; all your educationalists admit it, and talk very big indeed on
the subject. But what is the practical result of their action? 

Every young man and boy, nay, every one of the younger generation of
schoolmasters will answer: "The object of modern education is to pass
examinations," a system not to develop right emulation, but to generate and
breed jealousy, envy, hatred almost, in young people for one another, and
thus train them for a life of ferocious selfishness and struggle for honours
and emoluments instead of kindly feeling. 
 
ENQUIRER. I must admit you are right there. 
 
THEOSOPHIST. And what are these examinations— the terror of modern boyhood
and youth? They are simply a method of classification by which the results
of your school teaching are tabulated. In other words, they form the
practical application of the modern science method to the genus homo, qua
intellection. 

Now "science" teaches that intellect is a result of the
mechanical interaction of the brain-stuff; therefore it is only logical that
modern education should be almost entirely mechanical -- a sort of automatic
machine for the fabrication of intellect by the ton. Very little experience
of examinations is enough to show that the education they produce is simply
a training of the physical memory, and, sooner or later, all your schools
will sink to this level. 
	

THINKING

As to any real, sound cultivation of the thinking
and reasoning power, it is simply impossible while everything has to be
judged by the results as tested by competitive examinations. Again, school
training is of the very greatest importance in forming character, especially
in its moral bearing. Now, from first to last, your modern system is based
on the so-called scientific revelations: "The struggle for existence" and
the "survival of the fittest." All through his early life, every man has
these driven into him by practical example and experience, as well as by
direct teaching, till it is impossible to eradicate from his mind the idea
that "self," the lower, personal, animal self, is the end-all, and be-all,
of life. Here you get the great source of all the after--misery, crime, and
heartless selfishness, which you admit as much as I do. Selfishness, as said
over and over again, is the curse of humanity, and the prolific parent of
all the evils and crimes in this life; and it is your schools which are the
hot-beds of such selfishness. 
 
ENQUIRER. That is all very fine as generalities, but I should like a few
facts, and to learn also how this can be remedied. 
 
THEOSOPHIST. Very well, I will try and satisfy you. There are three great
divisions of scholastic establishments, board, middle-class and public
schools, running up the scale from the most grossly commercial to the
idealistic classical, with many permutations and combinations. The practical
commercial begets the modern side, and the ancient and orthodox classical
reflects its heavy respectability even as far as the School Board pupil
teacher's establishments. Here we plainly see the scientific and material
commercial supplanting the effete orthodox and classical. Neither is the
reason very far to seek. The objects of this branch of education are, then,
pounds, shillings, and pence, the summum bonum of the XIXth century. Thus,
the energies generated by the brain molecules of its adherents are all
concentrated on one point, and are, therefore, to some extent, an organized
army of educated and speculative intellects of the minority of men, trained
against the hosts of the ignorant, simple-minded masses doomed to be
vampirised, lived and sat upon by their intellectually stronger brethren.
Such training is not only untheosophical, it is simply UNCHRISTIAN. Result:
The direct outcome of this branch of education is an over flooding of the
market with money-making machines, with heartless selfish men— animals — who
have been most carefully trained to prey on their fellows and take advantage
of the ignorance of their weaker brethren! 
 
ENQUIRER. Well, but you cannot assert that of our great public schools, at
any rate? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. Not exactly, it is true. But though the form is different, the
animating spirit is the same: untheosophical and unchristian, whether Eton
and Harrow turn out scientists or divines and theologians. 
 
ENQUIRER. Surely you don't mean to call Eton and Harrow "commercial"? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. No. Of course the Classical system is above all things
respectable, and in the present day is productive of some good. It does
still remain the favourite at our great public schools, where not only an
intellectual, but also a social education is obtainable. It is, therefore,
of prime importance that the dull boys of aristocratic and wealthy parents
should go to such schools to meet the rest of the young life of the "blood"
and money classes. But unfortunately there is a huge competition even for
entrance; for the moneyed classes are increasing, and poor but clever boys
seek to enter the public schools by the rich scholarships, both at the
schools themselves and from them to the Universities. 
 
ENQUIRER. According to this view, the wealthier "dullards" have to work even
harder than their poorer fellows? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. It is so. But, strange to say, the faithful of the cult of the
"Survival of the fittest" do not practice their creed; for their whole
exertion is to make the naturally unfit supplant the fit. Thus, by bribes of
large sums of money, they allure the best teachers from their natural pupils
to mechanicalize their naturally unfit progeny into professions which they
uselessly overcrowd. 
 
ENQUIRER. And you attribute all this to what? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. All this is owing to the perniciousness of a system which turns
out goods to order, irrespective of the natural proclivities and talents of
the youth. The poor little candidate for this progressive paradise of
learning, comes almost straight from the nursery to the treadmill of a
preparatory school for sons of gentlemen. Here he is immediately seized upon
by the workmen of the materio-intellectual factory, and crammed with Latin,
French and Greek Accidence, Dates and Tables, so that if he have any natural
genius it is rapidly squeezed out of him by the rollers of what Carlyle has
so well called "dead vocables." 
 
ENQUIRER. But surely he is taught something besides "dead vocables," and
much of that which may lead him direct to Theosophy, if not entirely into
the Theosophical Society? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. Not much. For of history, he will attain only sufficient
knowledge of his own particular nation to fit him with a steel armour of
prejudice against all other peoples, and be steeped in the foul cesspools of
chronicled national hate and blood-thirstiness; and surely, you would not
call that— Theosophy? 
 
ENQUIRER. What are your further objections? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. Added to this is a smattering of selected, so-called, Biblical
facts, from the study of which all intellect is eliminated. It is simply a
memory lesson, the "Why" of the teacher being a "Why" of circumstances and
not of reason.
 
ENQUIRER. Yes; but I have heard you congratulate yourself at the
ever-increasing number of the Agnostics and Atheists in our day, so that it
appears that even people trained in the system you abuse so heartily do
learn to think and reason for themselves. 
 
THEOSOPHIST. Yes; but it is rather owing to a healthy reaction from that
system than due to it. We prefer immeasurably more in our Society Agnostics,
and even rank Atheists, to bigots of whatever religion. An Agnostic's mind
is ever opened to the truth; whereas the latter blinds the bigot like the
sun does an owl. The best -- i. e., the most truth-loving, philanthropic,
and honest -- of our Fellows were, and are, Agnostics and Atheists
(disbelievers in a personal God). But there are no free-thinking boys and
girls, and generally early training will leave its mark behind in the shape
of a cramped and distorted mind. A proper and sane system of education
should produce the most vigorous and liberal mind, strictly trained in
logical and accurate thought, and not in blind faith. How can you ever
expect good results, while you pervert the reasoning faculty of your
children by bidding them believe in the miracles of the Bible on Sunday,
while for the six other days of the week you teach them that such things are
scientifically impossible? 
 
ENQUIRER. What would you have, then? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. If we had money, we would found schools which would turn out
something else than reading and writing candidates for starvation. Children
should above all be taught self-reliance, love for all men, altruism, mutual
charity, and more than anything else, to think and reason for themselves. We
would reduce the purely mechanical work of the memory to an absolute
minimum, and devote the time to the development and training of the inner
senses, faculties and latent capacities. We would endeavour to deal with
each child as a unit, and to educate it so as to produce the most harmonious
and equal unfoldment of its powers, in order that its special aptitudes
should find their full natural development. We should aim at creating free
men and women, free intellectually, free morally, unprejudiced in all
respects, and above all things, unselfish. And we believe that much if not
all of this could be obtained by proper and truly theosophical education."

Key to Theosophy p. 263 - 271..... 

=============================================== 


-----Original Message-----
From: cassilva48
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 5:43 PM
To: 
Subject: [bn-study] Re: 2005 A NEW CYCLE


Dear Dallas,


I have extracted this section on THE FUTURE, and was wondering, what you
imagine HPB's message is.  

Other than Philosophy and Mysticism in this century will defeat Materialism
and Fanaticism,(which is wonderful) it seems a gloomy future for those who
practice Materialism and Fanaticism?

Or perhaps she is saying that the truth will show that all those attached
to materialistic or fanatic pursuits will be shown to be false prophets
and can either join the ark of humanity with the self realization that
they were misguided, or else will be drowned (I presume she is talking
here about psychological drowning) in the illusion of their own reality?

And not another Flood devastating the world.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.  

Cass  

----------------------------------------------------

P S

HPB wrote:


"Let us prepare, and let us study Truth in all its aspects, trying not to
ignore any of them, if we do not wish, when the hour will have struck, to
fall into the abyss of the unknown. It is useless to rely on chance, and
to await the approaching intellectual and psychic crisis with indifference
if
not with total incredulity, saying to oneself that if worse comes to
worst, the tide will carry us quite naturally to the shore; for there is a
strong
likelihood of the tide stranding but a corpse! The battle will be fierce,
in any case, between brutal materialism and blind fanaticism on the one
hand,
and on the other philosophy and mysticism--that more or less thick veil of
the Eternal Truth. 

It is not materialism that will have the upper hand. Everyone fanatically
clinging to an idea isolating him from the universal axiom -- "There is no
Religion higher than Truth" -- will find himself separated like a rotten
plank from the new ark called Humanity. Tossed by the waves, chased by the
winds, buffeted by this element so terrible because unknown, he will soon
find himself swallowed up

Yes, thus it must be, and it cannot be otherwise when the flame of modern
materialism, artificial and cold, will be extinguished for lack of fuel.
Those who cannot conceive of a spiritual Ego, of a living Soul, and of an
eternal Spirit, within their material shell (which owes its illusory life
only to these principles); those for whom the great wave of hope in a life
beyond the grave is a bitter draught, the symbol of an unknown quantity,
or else the subject of a belief sui generis, the result of mediumistic or
theological hallucinations--those will do well to be prepared for the
keenest of disappointments the future could have in store for them. 

For, from the depths of the muddy black waters of matter, hiding from them
on all sides the horizons of the great beyond, a mystic force is rising
towards the closing years of this century. A mere touch, at the most,
until now, but a superhuman touch, "supernatural" only for the superstitious
and
the ignorant. 

The Spirit of Truth is at this moment moving upon the face of these black
waters, and, separating them, forces them to yield their spiritual
treasures. This spirit is a force that cannot be either checked or
stopped. Those who recognize it and feel that this is the supreme moment of
their salvation, will be carried by it beyond the illusions of the great
astral
serpent. 

The bliss they will experience will be so sharp and so keen that were they
not in spirit detached from their bodies of flesh, this beatitude would
wound them like a sharpened blade. 

It is not pleasure that they will feel, but a bliss which is a foretaste
Of the wisdom of the gods, of the knowledge of good and evil, and of the
fruits of the Tree of Life. " -- HPB