Theos-Talk Archives (December 2004 Message tt00387)

Dec 28 2004


Dear Mauri:


HPB is with us if we only go to her and try to find out what she already
said:  

For instance: 

Have you observed that the THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY was originated to fulfil
three objects? [The T S is not THEOSOPHY ! The T S was supposed to
promulgate it as a set of impersonal principles that could be applied.]


"ENQUIRER. What are the objects of the "Theosophical Society"? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. They are three, and have been so from the beginning.

(1.) To form the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without
distinction of race, colour, or creed. 

2.) To promote the study of Aryan and other Scriptures, of the World's
religion and sciences, and to vindicate the importance of old Asiatic
literature, namely, of the Brahmanical, Buddhist, and Zoroastrian
philosophies. 

(3.) To investigate the hidden mysteries of Nature under every aspect
possible, and the psychic and spiritual powers latent in man especially. 

These are, broadly stated, the three chief objects of the Theosophical
Society."
The KEY TO THEOSOPHY p. 39.


If one desires to discover what THEOSOPHY is, then by studying the basic
books and articles written by Mme. H P Blavatsky, the accredited Agent of
the Masters of Wisdom, you may discover a part of the following:


FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES OF THEOSOPHY   


1.) the individual immortality of all Monads that fill the entirety of
Space, this includes the least as well as the highest of Spiritual Souls; 

2.) the common bond of Karma (law) which serves as a basis for all
interaction, as it unites the causal motives for all action, done by
anything or anyone, with the exact results returning to the individual being
that generated them;  

3.) a process of evolution that is continuous and extends from the
smallest part of the vast UNIVERSE to its utmost limits, the least has the
same potentials of the most advanced; and is for ever in contact with every
other entity or part of the whole Universe;
 
4.) a common goal for all units has been called: SPIRITUAL PERFECTION.
It is open for all, and embraces all that can be known of the Universe and
its uncountable components. That is: Maha-Buddhi, or, Universal WISDOM.

Early in the KEY to THEOSOPHY, H. P. Blavatsky writes to establish some
basis in the mind of the reader of what Theosophy stands for. 

In part, she states:


THEOSOPHY IS GODLIKE WISDOM, the word "Theosophy" was found used by
Pythagoras, a contemporary of Gautama the Buddha. It is divine knowledge or
science, such as that possessed by the "Gods."

ITS FIRST OBJECT IS TO INCULCATE CERTAIN GREAT MORAL TRUTHS upon its
disciples.  

Other objects are: TO RECONCILE ALL RELIGIONS.under a common system of
ethics, based on eternal verities. 

And by demonstrating their identical origin, to establish one universal
creed based on ethics. Additionally it aims to reinstate and restore to its
primitive integrity the wisdom of the ancients.

The WISDOM RELIGION (Theosophy) was ever one, and being the last word of
possible human thought, was therefore carefully preserved It will survive
every other religion and philosophy.


Ancient theosophists claimed that the divine essence could be communicated
to the higher Spiritual Self in a state of ecstasy. The latter (also named
"samadhi") is practised by its devotees. It is an incessant endeavour to
purify and elevate the mind. It is: "the ardent turning of the soul,
towards the divine;" not to ask for any particular good, but for the
universal Supreme Good for ALL.  


It states that those ETHICS ARE THE SOUL OF THE WISDOM RELIGION, and are the
common property of the initiates of all nations. Sri Krishna the great
Avatar proclaimed them at the beginning of the present "Kali Yuga" in his
"Gita - song" -- teaching them to Arjuna. And we are all "Arjunas," His
pupils. 


But Gautama Buddha was the first to embody those in his public teachings. It
is the ethics of the Universe, that have always been the most insisted upon.


All these are now called "Theosophical doctrines," because they form part of
the knowledge of the initiates. 


These doctrines belong exclusively to no religion, and are confined to no
society or time. They are the birthright of every human soul. Those who
have imagined Theosophy to be a new religion have hunted in vain for its
creed and ritual. 


Its creed is Loyalty to Truth, and its ritual "To honor every truth by use."



The THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY was organized on this one principle, the essential
Brotherhood of Man. We hold to no religion, as to no philosophy in
particular: we cull the good we find in each. The T S was established as a
philanthropic and scientific body for the propagation of the ideas of
brotherhood on a practical instead of theoretical lines.

The T S cannot make a Theosophist of one who has no sense for the divine
fitness of things.  


"THEOSOPHIST IS, WHO THEOSOPHY DOES."


How is this to be accomplished by those individuals who determine to adopt
this as their personally policy of life?  

It is a difficult undertaking, as the foremost rule is the entire
renunciation of one's personality. He has to become a thorough altruist,
never to think of himself, and to forget his own vanity and pride in the
thought of the good of his fellow creatures, to live a life of abstinence in
everything, of self-denial and strict morality, doing his duty by all men.

If one asks what advantages are received from such a program, the answer is
given: "deriving much strength from mutual aid and sympathy."   

UNION IS STRENGTH AND HARMONY, AND WELL-REGULATED SIMULTANEOUS EFFORTS
PRODUCE WONDERS.  

This has been the secret of all associations and communities since mankind
existed. Its aims and true goal are several, primarily the relief of human
suffering, moral as well as physical. Theosophy has to inculcate ethics; it
has to purify the soul, if it would relieve the physical body. 


AN OCCULTIST PRACTICES SCIENTIFIC THEOSOPHY, BASED ON AN ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE
OF NATURE'S SECRET WORKINGS.  


The divine spark in man being one and identical in its essence with the
Universal Spirit, our "spiritual Self" is practically omniscient, but it
cannot manifest its knowledge owing to the impediments of matter. The more
these impediments are removed, the physical body paralyzed, as to its own
independent activity and consciousness, the more fully can the Inner Self
manifest on this plane. 


OUR BELIEFS ARE ALL FOUNDED ON THAT IMMORTAL INDIVIDUALITY.  


Spirit is potential matter, and matter is simply crystallized Spirit, yet
the original and eternal condition of all is not Spirit, but META-SPIRIT
(visible and solid matter being simply its periodical manifestations) we
maintain that the term Spirit can only be applied to the True Individuality.


SELFISHNESS IS ESSENTIALLY CONSERVATIVE and hates being disturbed. The
power of mental inertia is great in anything that does not promise immediate
benefit and reward. Our age is predominately unspiritual, and matter of
fact.  


Some Theosophical doctrines contradict flatly many of the human vagaries
cherished by sectarians -- vagaries and errors which have eaten into the
core, the very heart of popular beliefs. 


The result is that AN ENTIRELY UNSELFISH CODE APPEALS TO A VERY LIMITED
CLASS -- thus producing slow, up-hill results. 


It is essentially the philosophy of those who suffer, and have lost all hope
of being helped out of the mire of life by any other means.


To me it is important that the philosophy and the logic of Nature be exposed
and referred to, rather than any opinion, mine or another's. Opinions
fluctuate. Facts are stable.


In a sentence: We are born this life into a condition, a nation, a
community, which enables us under karma (which we created for ourselves by
past choosing) to receive and make the best learning change for our own
advance.


Additionally, with knowledge that is true and universal, our choices can be
molded to assist all we are connected to. In this we will be true brothers
and helpful as a quiet example to all.


To 'understand' another means to be able to mentally step into their "shoes"
and perceive their source of opinion. Then weighing ours and theirs
(opinions) we can refer them to an ideal -- a moral norm. From that we can
derive at least for ourselves what we ought to do.

Another approach may be observed here:

Esoteric and Exoteric aspects of the Theosophical Movement exist. 


Hitherto in all discussions and answering, we have usually been concerned
with the survey of the Theosophical Movement from its public aspects: a part
of it is a recital of a series of historical and well documented events more
or less in relation with each other and with the sum of human activities,
together with such reflections on their bearings and significance as to us
appear logical and consistent. 

An attempt has been made to show clearly that the vicissitudes both of the
Theosophical Society and Madame Blavatsky's teachings of Theosophy were
inevitable and but a repetition of the varying fortunes which have attended
every former effort to introduce a system of thought and action at variance
with the ideas, customs, and practices still firmly entrenched in the mind
of the race. 

So far, all that we have discussed is accessible in all its detail to any
inquiring student, and the ordinary mind will find nothing beyond the range
of common observation and experience. 

The student will have both the advantage and the disadvantage of the
familiar multitude of conflicting testimony and opinion that attends every
inquiry into human affairs. He will find nothing that transcends the
possibility of reconciliation or explanation on his habitual lines of
thought, without greatly deranging his fundamental preconceptions regarding
God, Nature, Man, and the course of evolution.


ESOTERIC THEOSOPHY


But, as we have early intimated, the Theosophical Movement has an esoteric
as well as an exoteric side, and here the Western student is without guide,
chart, or compass, either in his own memorial experience or in any as 
credited testimony of the race to which he belongs. 


Not only so, but he will find himself confronted, both in himself and in the
race, with a deeply imbedded incredulity which derides and despises the very
possibility, even, of intellectual and spiritual evolution within and behind
physical evolution. 


SPIRITUAL LAWS AND PROGRESS


The student of the esoteric side of the Theosophical Movement has then
literally to take the position of a Columbus. 


He has to postulate the existence of the spiritual and mental world or
worlds, independent of and superior to our familiar universe, yet
inter-penetrating it at every point, standing in relation to it as a cause
to an effect, and, in man, almost inextricably interwoven and interblended
in his embodied existence. 


He has to admit the fundamental assumption that spiritual and intellectual
evolution is as much under Law in its processes and resultants as physical
evolution, and that the latter is but the shadow and the reflex of the
mental, as the mental is of the spiritual. 


He has to recognize the inevitable corollary of these propositions, that
Life, individual as well as collective, is continuous, and that the infinite
course of spiritual, mental, and physical evolution has produced Beings as
much superior to man as man is superior to a black beetle -- and, finally,
that these Beings take an active part in "the government of the natural
order of things."


The student will find that Western religious history and Western tradition
and myth do, indeed, present an immense literature dealing with gods,
angels, demons, fairies, and so on, and with their relations to human beings
and human affairs, but such beings and their interventions are regarded
either as miraculous or fictitious, and belief in them rests either on the
grounds of "revelation" or of mere opinions ingrained from childhood, or of
some misunderstood personal psychological experience. 


ADEPTS, KARMA, REINCARNATION, LAWS OF EVOLUTION 


Nowhere is there any philosophy, any scientific, any logical, any historical
evidence or basis for the existence and action of superhuman and subhuman
entities as the product of evolutionary Law. 


Such a theory or such a fact is as unknown or as derided in the West, as
foreign to its basic concepts, as the ideas of pre-existence,
metempsychosis, reincarnation, Karma, continuous immortality - all integral
and inseparable parts of the fundamental assumptions connected with the
esoteric aspects of the Theosophical Movement. 


Only when all these are recognized, at least as a working hypothesis, does
the expression, "the esoteric side of the Theosophical Movement," become
tolerable in any but a materialistic sense. 


The student is compelled to turn aside from the religion, philosophy, and
thought of the day and familiarize himself with the recorded philosophy of
Theosophy, if he is to view the facts of record in any other light than that
of the well-nigh universal preconceptions of the Western race.

 
It is only through the most careful and conscientious study and application
of the teachings of Theosophy that the student can hope to penetrate beyond
the visible aspects of the Theosophical Movement to the arcana of the
intellectual and spiritual factors and forces which constitute the Occult
side of that Movement. 


ADEPTS


The first direct affirmation of the existence of Adepts, Beings perfected
spiritually, intellectually, and physically, the flower of human and all
evolution, is, so far as the Western world is concerned, to be found in the
opening sentence of "Isis Unveiled." 

>From beginning to end that work is strewn with evidences, arguments, and
declarations regarding Adepts and their doctrines. Theosophy is declared to
be a portion of Their Wisdom; its teachings are presented for the
examination and study of the world and of the Fellows of the Theosophical
Society.


I hope this is of help,

Best wishes,


Dallas

==================================
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Mauri 
Sent: Monday, December 27, 2004 
To: 
Subject: re karma in relation to expression, Theosophy



Sometimes I wish HPB were available for 
comment on this list. Every so often I 
find myself wanting to send some 
speculative tangent her way in response 
to something she wrote. Not that she 
might particularly want to be on the 
receiving end of my speculative 
tangents, but ... On the other hand I 
think I would prefer some updated 
version of HPB, generally speaking. 
While I feel that some things haven't 
changed since the 19th century, I feel 
that some things have changed enough so 
that a somewhat different approach 
toward Theosophical topics in general 
might be generally or occasionally seen 
as somewhat more applicable. Not that 
I'm referring to my speculative tangents 
as an example of that kind of "different 
approach," in that I suspect we all have 
our own notions about how to be 
applicable, Theosophical, etc (obviously 
enough ...). Besides, in my case, 
"applicability" might occasionally get 
somewhat spculatively tangentialized, 
among other things, I suspect. I seem to 
think that, occasionally, some of the 
things I try to express in print might 
be more important to me (if not to 
anybody else) than would be my attempts 
at making "serious compromises" towards 
being "understandable enough" or "more 
understandable" for everybody. On the 
other hand, or first hand ... ^:-/ ... 
As far as I can see or speculate, the 
exoteric/literal interpretive aspects of 
Theosophy appear to generally lead to 
dead or neutral ends, basically, (in 
their "dead letter" sense, as HPB 
might've put it ...), though I'm not at 
all sure about whether the "average 
student of Theosophy," eg, might be all 
that literal in their interpretations 
(contrary to some "outward appearances," 
maybe ...). What if the various 
"apparent literal interpretations" were 
seen as the products of those who were 
unable to express themselves any other 
way so that, while they may have had 
"other/deeper insights," say, what if 
they were unable to express themselves 
other than in ways suggestive of certain 
kinds of literal interpretations to some 
people ... I suspect that some people 
may have evolved towards values and 
forms of expression that may appear to 
be "outwardly" different than might be 
expressed by way of mainstream or more- 
traditional or "more esoteric" 
Theosophical terminology, but that, 
aside from those differences, the core 
values might be essentially similar or 
same in some cases. If one is willing 
to consider that possibility, wouldn't 
one be equally willing to at least keep 
an open mind when encountering various 
forms of expression ... I suspect that 
HPB's statement to the effect that 
"Theosophy is altruism pure and simple" 
might have been in reference to a kind 
of broader perspective that, in its way, 
when understood, might in a way 
"beneficially transcend" some or many of 
one's existing, comparatively 
more-limited interpretive 
habits/patterns. I feel that the same 
kind of reasoning might be applied in 
principle, in some cases, by some 
people, to various kinds of literature 
that may at first not appear to be 
particularly or at all compatible with 
Theosophy.

Speculatively,
Mauri