Theos-Talk Archives (January 2005 Message tt00377)

Jan 13 2005

Re: Meeting or Seeing a Master --

Dear Bill and friends:


May I butt in and offer? 

Isn't it a question of necessity? I recall a maxim: "When the pupil is
ready, the Teacher will be found ready too." 

I also recall this question (early in the history of the THEOSOPHICAL
MOVEMENT) of someone asking what to do if another presented themselves as a
"teacher or master," and the answer was that such a claim could only be made
out of vanity, or falsely with a desire to dominate in an authorial way.  

The Karma of the disciple has also to be considered. He has to make himself
a worthwhile vehicle for the benefit of the Family of Man. "First deserve,
then desire."

As to proof ? (see below)

The spiritual touchstones are to my knowledge:

Unselfishness, appropriateness to the time and place, impersonality, purity
in motive, universality, generosity, charity, righteousness, and the
granting of entire freedom to test and examine anything offered -- all true
and honest virtues. 

We are also advised to consider the 7 principles of man:  

The "Voice" says: "Look inward thou art Buddha."  

Each human is a Monad consisting of ATMA and BUDDHI conjoined, (SPIRIT --
as a "Ray" from the UNIVERSAL SPIRIT in which we all bathe, and, the
purest, highest Root Matter -- Mulaprakriti, the fruit of all experience -
WISDOM, or Maha-Buddhi). Manas (mind) is the link between these.

We might also ask ourselves a question: Why should any Master of 
Wisdom trouble themselves with us, unless we are busy doing good for
humanity, and a karmic need is there for such a visitation ? 

Best wishes


Dallas

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


M A H A T M A , A D E P T , I N I T I A T I O N  

2
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MAHATMA


"A visitor from one of the other planets of the solar system who might learn
the term Mahatma after arriving here would certainly suppose that the
etymology of the word undoubtedly inspired the believers in Mahatmas with
the devotion, fearlessness, hope, and energy which such an ideal should
arouse in those who have the welfare of the human race at heart...The whole
sweep, meaning, and possibility of evolution are contained in the word
Mahatma. Maha is "great," Atma is "soul," and both compounded into one mean
those great souls who have triumphed before us not because they are made of
different stuff and are of some strange family, but just because they are of
the human race.

Reincarnation, karma, the sevenfold division, retribution, reward, struggle,
failure, success, illumination, power, and a vast embracing love for man,
all these lie in that single word.

The soul emerges from the unknown, begins to work in and with matter, is
reborn again and again, makes karma, develops the 6 vehicles for itself,
meets retribution for sin and punishment for mistake, grows strong by
suffering, succeeds in bursting through the gloom, is enlightened by true
illumination, grasps power, retains charity, expands with love for orphaned
humanity, and thenceforth helps all others who remain in darkness until all
may be raised up to the place with the "Father in Heaven" who is the Higher
Self."	WQJ -- ART. II, p. 39-40



SECLUSION OF THE ADEPT


"Through all time the wise men have lived apart from the mass. [ That the
chief body of these wise ones should be understood to dwell beyond the
fastnesses of the Himalayas...p. 70 ] And even when some temporary purpose
or object induces one of them to come into the midst of human life, his
seclusion and safety is preserved as completely as ever... they are only
known as mystics by those who have the power to recognize; the power given
by the conquering of self. Otherwise how could they exist, even for an
hour, in such a mental and psychic atmosphere as is created by the confusion
and disorder of a city ? Unless protected and made safe their own growth
would be interfered with, their work injured. And the neophyte may meet an
adept in the flesh, may live in the same house with him, and yet be unable
to recognize him, and unable to make his own voice heard by him... No voice
penetrates to his inner hearing till it has become a divine voice, a voice
which gives no utterance to the cries of self... Until a man has become, in
heart and spirit a disciple, he has no existence for those who are teachers
of disciples. And he becomes this by one method only--the surrender of his
personal humanity."	L ON P p. 74-5



"If, for generations we have "shut out the world from the Knowledge of our
Knowledge," it is on account of its absolute unfitness; and if,
notwithstanding proofs given, it still refuses yielding to evidence, then
will we at the End of this cycle retire into solitude and our kingdom of
silence once more...We have offered to exhume the primeval strata of man's
being, his basic nature, and lay bare the wonderful complications or his
inner Self...and demonstrate it scientifically...It is our mission to plunge
and bring the pearls of Truth to the surface...For countless generations
hath the adept builded a fane of imperishable rocks, a giant's Tower of
Infinite Thought, wherein the Titan dwelt, and will yet, if need be, dwell
alone, emerging from it but at the end of every cycle, to invite the elect
of mankind to co-operate with him and help in his turn enlighten
superstitious man. And we will go on in that periodical work of ours; we
will not allow ourselves to be baffled in our philanthropic attempts until
that day when the foundations of a new continent of thought are so firmly
built that no amount of opposition and ignorant malice guided by the
Brethren of the Shadow will be found to prevail."	M L
p. 50-1



HARMONY OF THE ADEPT - CHELA


"...an adept may be compared to that one key which contains all the keys in
the great harmony of nature. He has the synthesis of all keys in his
thoughts, whereas the ordinary man has the same key as a basis, but only
acts and thinks on one or a few changes of this great key, producing in his
brain only a few chords out of the whole great possible harmony...the brain
of the chela is attuned by training to the brain of the Master. His
vibrations synchronize with those of the Adept...so the chela's brain is
abnormal...the adept sees all the colors in every color and yet does not
confuse them together...the highest adepts [ have raised their vibrations so
as to have them the same as those of nature as a whole ]...He can produce a
sound which will alter a color. It is the sound which produces the color,
and not the other or opposite. By correlating the vibrations of a sound in
the proper way a new color is made...on the astral plane every sound always
produces a color...these are invisible because not yet correlated by the
human brain so as to become visible on the earth plane....His astral senses
may see the true color, but the physical eye has its own vibrations, and
these, being on the outer plane, overcome the others for the time, and the
astral man is compelled to report to the brain that it saw correctly. For
in each case the outer stimulus is sent to the inner man, who then is
forced, as it were, to accept the message and to confirm it for the time so
far as it goes. But there are cases where the inner man is able to even
then overcome the outer defect and to make the brain see the difference...."
WQJ ARTICLES, Vol. I, p. 423-426.



ADEPT LIVES TO SERVE THE WORLD


"[The Adept]...serves humanity and identifies himself with the whole world;
he is ready to make vicarious sacrifice for it at any moment--by living not
by dying for it. Why should he not die for it? Because he is part of the
whole, and one of the most valuable parts of it. Because he lives under
laws of order which he does not desire to break. His life is not his own,
but that of the forces which work behind him. He is the flower of humanity,
the bloom which contains the divine seed. He is, in his own person, a
treasure of the universal nature. which is guarded and made safe in order
that the fruition shall be perfected. It is only at definite periods of the
world's history that he is al lowed to go among the herd of men as their
redeemer."	LIGHT ON THE PATH p. 72-3



DAILY AND HOURLY INITIATIONS -- TESTS OF DAILY LIFE


"It is supposed by some that initiation is always and in every case a set
and solemn occasion for which the candidate is prepared and notified in
advance. While there are some initiations surrounded by such solemnities as
these, the daily one, without success in which no aspirant will ever have
the chance to try for those that are higher, comes to the disciple with
almost each moment. It is met in our relations with our fellows, and in the
effects upon us of all the circumstances of life. And if we fail in these,
we never get to the point where greater ones are offered. If we cannot bear
momentary defeat, or if a chance word that strikes our self-love finds us
unprepared, or if we give way to the desire to harshly judge others, or if
we remain in igno rance of some of our most apparent faults, we do not build
up that knowledge and strength imperatively demanded from whoever is to be
master of nature."	WQJ ART II 497-8



MOMENTS OF CHOICE
   

"It is in the life of every one to have a moment of choice, but that moment
is not set for any particular day. It is the sum total of all days; and it
may be put off until the day of death, and then it is beyond our power, for
the choice has been fixed by all the acts and thoughts of the lifetime. We
are self-doomed at that hour to just the sort of life, body, environment,
and tendencies which will best carry out our karma. This is a thing solemn
enough, and one that makes the "daily initiation" of the very greatest
importance to each earnest student."	
WQJ ART II 497-8



UNIVERSE OF CONSCIOUSNESS -- RANGE OF THE INITIATE


"That High Spirits work on Earth in bodies of men, while those spirits are
still in the highest spheres [ see SD I 233-4 &fn, 235fn ]...it is clearly
explained that the author [HPB] does not mean that which is called among the
spiritualists "control" of mediums by a spirit, but the actual continuance
of the status and functions of the incarnated spirit in the supersensuous
regions, while actually using as its own and working in a mortal envelope on
earth. So that, according to her, there are certain persons on this earth,
living and working as ordinary human beings and members of society. whose
informing divine part is so immeasurably high in development that they as
such high beings have a definite status and function in the "supersensuous
regions."  

We should say...that she herself was such a case, and that "H.P.B.," whether
hourly in the day and night when all around was still, had a status and
functions" in their spheres where she consciously carried on the work of
that high station, whatever it was.  

There were many events in her daily life known to those who were intimate
with her that this hint may reveal, or at least shed much light upon. And
in one of her letters the sentence appears--in substance--"The difference
between you and me is that you are not conscious except at day, while I am
conscious day and night, and have much to do and to endure in both of these
exist ences from which you, being thus half-conscious, are happily saved."

In the Hindu books and teachings there is a reference to this when the speak
of high gnanees --that is, persons full of knowledge and spiritual
power--being attracted to this earth by certain acts and at certain times in
the history of nation, race or city."	"Hidden Hints in the S. D."	WQJ
Art I 615-6



"If it is true that "the whole universe is an aggregate of states of
consciousness," it would seem to follow that the real difference between one
who is an initiate and one who is not lies in the fact that the former looks
at all things from a totally different stand point to the majority of
men...that he is on a higher plane of consciousness altogether. If such a
higher plane has been attained, it will follow that his whole range of ideas
will differ from that of others and he will be sensible of the operation of
causes of a more far-reaching character than those cognized by others. He
will be as it were in the possession of higher and superior information and
so will be able to form juster conclusions and this fact alone will give him
enormous power."	T A & N 60



"The action of the entire universe is but a detailed manifestation and
example of the action of mind on matter, governed at the highest point by
the action of the universal mind. Between the finite human mind of the
ordinary uninitiated individual and this universal mind lie an infinite
number of gradually ascending degrees, and the higher the plane of
consciousness the nearer is the approach to the universal mind which is, as
it were, the mainspring of the whole." --"Alpha" THEOS ART & NOTES,
p. 60-1



"BRAIN" of the MANIFESTED UNIVERSE


"Occult philosophy reconciles the absurdity of postulating in the manifested
Universe an active Mind without an organ, with that worse absurdity, an
objective Universe evolved as everything else in it, by blind chance, by
giving to this Universe an organ of thought, a "brain." The latter,
although not objective to our senses, is nonetheless existing; it is to be
found in the Entity called Kosmos (Adam Kadmon, in the Kabala)."  

"As in the Microcosm, Man, so in the Macrocosm, of the Universe. Every
"organ" in it is a sentient entity, and every particle of matter or
substance, from the physical molecule up to the spiritual atom, is a cell, a
nerve center, which communicates."	T A & N 208



MAN'S EGO -- ATMA-BUDDHI -- A RAY OF UNIVERSAL MIND


"This is precisely what occult philosophy claims: our Ego is a ray of the
Universal Mind, individualized for the space of a cosmic life-cycle, during
which space of time it gets experience in almost numberless reincarnations
or rebirths, after which it returns to its Parent-Source.

"The Occultist would call the "Higher Ego" the immortal Entity, whose shadow
and reflection is the human Manas, the mind, limited by its physical senses.
The two may be well compared to the Master-artist and the pupil-musician.  

"In the course of natural evolution our "brain-mind" will be replaced by a
finer organism, and helped by the 6th and the 7th senses.

"The "sensing principle" in us is an entity capable of acting outside as
inside its material body; and it is certainly independent of any organ in
particular, in its actions, although during its incarnation it manifests
itself through its physical organs.	T A & N 208-9



MEMORY is impressed in IMPERISHABLE WAVES OF ASTRAL LIGHT 


"Our "memory" is but a general agent, and its "tablets," with their
indelible impressions, but a figure of speech; the "brain-tablets" serve
only as a upadhi or a vahan (basis or vehicle) for reflecting at a given
moment the memory of one or another thing. The records of past events, of
even minutest action, and of passing thoughts, in fact, are really impressed
on the imperishable waves of the ASTRAL LIGHT, around us and every where,
not in the brain alone; and these mental pictures, images, and sounds, pass
from these waves via the consciousness of the personal Ego or Mind (the
lower Manas) whose grosser essence is astral, into the "cerebral
reflectors," so to say, or our brain, whence they are delivered by the
psychic to the sensuous consciousness. This at every moment of the day, and
even during sleep."	
HPB FOOTNOTE IN LUCIFER THEOS ART & NOTES, p. 208-9



PURE MIND GUIDE OF THE HIGHEST FACULTIES


"..."Mind" is manas, or rather its lower reflection, which whenever it
disconnects itself, for the time being, with kama, becomes the guide of the
highest mental faculties, and is the organ of the free-will in physical
man...." HPB ARTICLES, Vol. II, p. 13


"Mankind usually receives a thousand impressions through the senses to one
through the spiritual nature. Adeptship means reversing the proportion." --
H.S.Olcott	PATH 3, 109



SPIRITUAL STAR OF THE SOUL


"...every class of adept has its own bond of spiritual communion...by
bringing oneself within the influence of the Spiritual light which radiates
from one's own Logos. ... such communion is only possible between persons
whose souls derive their life and sustenance from the same divine RAY, and
that, as seven distinct rays radiate from the 'Central Spiritual Sun,' all
adepts and Dhyan Chohans are divisible into seven classes, each of which is
guided, controlled, and overshadowed by one of the seven forms or
manifestations of the divine Wisdom."
S Row quoted by HPB, SD I 574.



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


About H.P.B.



"In 1875, in the City of New York, I first met H.P.B. in this life...It was
her eye that attracted me, the eye of one whom I must have known in lives
long passed away. She looked at me in recognition at that first hour, and
never since has that look changed...Not as a questioner of philosophies did
I come before her...but as one, wandering many periods through the corridors
of life, was seeking the friends who could show where the designs for the
work had been hidden. And true to the call she responded, revealing the
plans once again, and speaking no words to explain, simply pointed then out
and went on with the task. It was as if but the evening before we had
parted, leaving yet to be done some detail of a task taken up with one
common end; it was teacher and pupil, elder brother and younger, both bent
on the one single end, but she with the power and the knowledge that belong
but to lions and sages.

Others I know have looked with suspicion on an appearance they could not
fathom, and though it is true they adduce many proofs which hugged to the
breast, would damn sages and gods, yet it is only through blindness they
failed to see the lion's glance, the diamond heart of H.P.B...she was laying
down the lines of force all over the land...

The explanation has been offered by some too anxious friends that the
earlier phenomena were mistakes in judgment, attempted to be rectified in
later years by confining their area and limit ing their number, but...I
shall hold to her own explanation made in advance and never changed. That I
have given above. For it is easier to take refuge behind a charge of bad
judgment than to understand the strange and powerful laws which control in
matters such as these.

Amid all the turmoil of her life, above all the din produced by those who
charged her with deceit and fraud and others who defended, while month after
month, and year after year, witnessed men and women entering the
theosophical movement only to leave it soon with malignant phrases for
H.P.B., there stands a fact we all might consider--devotion absolute to her
Master. "It was He," she writes, "who told me to devote myself to this, and
I will never disobey and never turn back."...

...she ever was devoted to Theosophy and the Society organ ized to carry out
a programme embracing the world in its scope. Willing in the service of the
cause to offer up hope, money, reputation, life itself, provided the Society
might be saved from every hurt, whether small or great. And thus bound body
and soul to this entity called the T. S., bound to protect it at all
hazards, and in the face of every loss, she often incurred the resentment of
many who became her friends but would not always care for the infant
organization as she had sworn to do. And when they acted as it opposed to
the Society, her instant opposition seemed to them to nullify professions of
friendship. Thus she had but few friends, for it required a keen insight,
untinged with personal feeling, to see even a small part of the real
H.P.Blavatsky...

She worked under directors who, operating from behind the scene, knew that
the T. S. was, and was to be, the nucleus from which help might be spread to
all the people of the day, without thanks and without acknowledgment...I
asked her what was the chance of drawing people into the Society...she
said:--"When you consider those days in 1875 and after, in which you could
not find any people interested in your thoughts, and now look at the
wide-spreading influence of theosophical ideas--however labeled--it is not
so bad. WE are not working that people may call them selves Theosophists,
but that the doctrines we cherish may affect and leaven the whole mind of
this century. This alone can be accomplished by a small earnest band of
workers, who work for no human reward, no earthly recognition, but who,
supported and sustained by a belief in that Universal Brotherhood of which
our Masters are a part, work steadily, faithfully, in understanding and
putting forth for consideration the doctrines of life and duty that have
come down to us from immemorial time. Falter not so long as a few devoted
ones will work to keep the nucleus existing. You were not directed to found
and realise a Universal Brotherhood, but to form the nucleus for one; for
it is only when the nucleus it formed that the accumulations can begin that
will end in future years, however far, in the formation of that body which
we have in view."

H.P.B. had a lion heart, and on the work traced out for her she had a lion's
grasp, let us...sustain ourselves in carrying out the designs laid down on
the trestle-board, by the memory of her devotion and the consciousness that
behind her task stood, and still remain, those Elder Brothers who, above the
clatter and the din of our battle, ever see the end and direct the forces
distributed in array for the salvation of "that great orphan--Humanity."
W. Q. Judge	
Yours till Death and After, H.P.B..." Judge Articles, II p. 1



"This article is meant for members of the T.S...Those members who believe
that such beings as the Masters may exist must come to one of two
conclusions in regard to H.P.B.: either that she invented her Masters, who
therefore have no real existence, or that she did not invent them but spoke
in the names and by the orders of such beings.

If we say she invented the Mahatmas, then, of course, as so often was said
by her, all that she has taught and written is the product of her own brain,
from which we would be bound to conclude that her position on the roll of
great and powerful persons must be higher than people have been willing to
place her.

But I take it most of us believe in the truth of her statement that
she had those teachers whom she called Masters and that they are more
powerful beings than ordinary men.

The case I wish to deal with...is this: H.P.B. and her relations to the
Masters and to us; her books and teachings; the general question of
disciples and chelas...Chelas and disciples are of many grades, and some of
the Adepts are themselves the chelas of higher Adepts...[they are those who
have] devoted himself or herself to the service of mankind and the pursuit
of knowledge of the Self...[Some] have gained through knowledge and
discipline those powers over mind, matter, space, and time which to us are
the glittering prizes of the future...So much being laid down, we may next
ask how we are to look at H.P.B.

...every one has the right to place her if he pleases for himself on the
highest plane...But taking her own sayings, she was a chela or disciple of
the Masters, and therefore stood in relation to them as one who might be
chided or corrected or reproved. She called them her Masters, and
asseverated a devotion to their behests and a respect and confidence in and
for their utterances which the chelas has always for one who is high enough
to be his Master.

But looking at her powers exhibited to the world, and as to which one of her
Masters wrote that they had puzzled and astonished the brightest minds of
the age, we see that compared with ourselves she was an Adept...

...Subba Row [said to the writer] in 1884: "The Mahatmas are in fact some
of the great Rishis and Sages of the past, and people have been too much in
the habit of lowering them to the petty standard of this age." But with
this reverence for her teachers she had for them at the same time a love and
friendship not often found on earth. All this indicates her chelaship to
Them, but in no way lowers her to us or warrants us in deciding that we are
right in a hurried or modern judgment of her.

Now some Theosophist ask if there are other letters extant from her Masters
in which she is called to account, is called their chela, and is chided now
and then, besides those published. Perhaps yes. And what of it ? Let them
be published by all means, and let us have the full and complete record of
all letters sent during her life; those put forward as dated after her
death will count for naught...since the Masters do not indulge in any
criticisms on the disciples who have gone from earth. As she has herself
published letters and parts of letters from the Masters to her in which she
is called a chela and is chided, it certainly matte if we know of others of
the same sort.

For over against all such we have common sense, and also the declarations of
her Masters that she was the sole instrument possible for the work to be
done, that They sent her to do it, and that They approved in general all she
did. And she was the first direct channel to and from the Lodge, and the
only one to date through which came the objective presence of the Adepts.
We cannot ignore the messenger, take the message, and laugh at or give scorn
to the one who brought it to us. There is nothing new in the idea that
letters are still unpublished wherein the Masters put her below them, and
there is no cause for any apprehension. But it certainly is true that not a
single such letter has anything in it putting her below us; she must ever
remain the greatest of the chelas...

There only remains...the position taken by some and without a knowledge of
the rules governing these matters, that chelas sometimes write messages
claimed to be from the Masters when they are not. this is an artificial
position not supportable by law or rule. It is due to ignorance of what is
and is not chelaship, and also to confusion between grades in discipleship.
It has been used as to H.P.B. The false conclusion has first been made that
an accepted chela of high grade may become accustomed to dictation by the
Master and then may fall into the false pre tense of giving something from
himself and pretending it is from the Master. It is impossible. The bond
in her case was not of such a character to be dealt with thus. One instance
of it would destroy the possibility of any more communication from the teach
er. It may be quite true that probationers now and then have imagined
themselves as ordered to say so and so, but that is not the case of an
accepted and high chela who is irrevocably pledged...This idea, then, ought
to be abandoned; it is absurd, contrary to law, to rule, and to what must
be the case when such relations are established as existed between H.P.B.
and her Masters."	W.
Q. Judge
"Masters, Adepts, Teachers and Disciples"	WQJ Art. II p. 9


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

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill 
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 5:17 PM
To: 
Subject: Re: Christianity or not...


Hi Cass,  

you say:

1. HPB says believe nothing, including the SD until you can prove it for 
yourself.

2. I am basing my belief in the Masters on her word and the belief that 
there is a higher intelligence out there than mine.

**************

I understand you to be saying that you have proven for yourself the 
existence of masters even though you are only giving HPB's authority and 
your belief in "higher intelligence out there" as evidence.

Also, I am discussing the concept of the theosophical masters as perfected 
men which to me is a different notion than non-perfect beings with "higher 
intelligence" - especially since I have met many higher intelligences than 
mine in just this lifetime alone.

I agree with you and HPB that we need not believe or disbelieve anything 
until we can prove or disprove it for ourselves. Where I tend to differ 
with you is that I don't accept anyone else's descriptions of perfected men 
as proof that they exist.

If there are any perfected men in the neighborhood reading this, then you 
are certainly invited over to prove yourself, but if I have to believe in 
you before you will prove yourself then thanks, but no thanks.


bill

CUT