Theos-Talk Archives (March 2005 Message tt00186)

Mar 10 2005

Dear Lenny and Doss:

I think that is well said. At least that is as I understand it from The
VOICE OF THE SILENCE and the BHAGAVAD GITA .

Best wishes,

Dallas

PS	Please see quote below THE CLAIMS OF OCCULTISM

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-----Original Message-----
From: Leon Maurer
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 1:58 AM
To: 
Subject: [bn-study] Re: Path of Occultism 


In a message dated 03/08/05 7:05: Anand G writes:

>For centuries it is tradition that every student of occultism has to 
>promise the Master that he would not tell his personal experiences to 
>others without Master's permission. This rule is still there in the 
>E.S. When Master thinks that more knowledge of secrete science should 
>be revealed for the benefit of the world, he gives permission to 
>pupil to write his experiences. But otherwise most disciples keep 
>promise of keeping personal experiences secret. 
>

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MKR quotes:

But, when one finds that the real "Master" is none other than one's own 
Higher Self -- who else is there that could give one "permission" to reveal 
(translate) whatever is necessary to explain to others (who are ready) what
has 
already been revealed by "living" Masters through HPB -- who wrote it all
down 
clearly for any "intuitive student" to grasp?  

Didn't HPB tell her disciples to write their own Secret Doctrine "in the 
language of their age"?  

As for the "rules" in the E.S... What authority does that have -- when the 
one who initiated it in the first place (for her own direct disciples)
already 
closed it when she left the scene?  

Are we to take the word of those later self chosen "teachers" who changed
the 
original teachings to fit their own egoistic and power seeking agendas, and 
claimed the abandoned E.S. as their private property? Who did they think
they 
were kidding? Was it all those poor pseudo theosophists who couldn't carry
on 
with all that HPB gave them without a living guru or "messiah" to hold their

hands?   

The only "secrecy" necessary in any esoteric teaching (by one who knows 
through their own direct experience) is to assure that the actual techniques
of 
correlating the forces and revealing the key to their application is not
exposed 
to those that might misuse such knowledge.  


(Unfortunately, all the hucksters who play with our minds in religion,
politics and advertising already know them... And, wouldn't it be a good
thing to be able to recognize those techniques so as to protect ourselves
from their machinations?)  

But, besides that, what can be wrong with explaining the practical methods 
that lead one directly to the understanding of the higher truths and the 
attainment of one's own self realization?  

HPB already gave us the tools... So, why not use them -- especially, when 
one follows the methods of study that she suggested such as, "Reading in and

around the words and between the lines"?  

Isn't it obvious that there may be where the real esoteric occult knowledge
was hidden? (Is there any wonder, then, that those later "teachers" [a.k.a.
T.S. "leaders"] who retranslated and changed those words and lines, might
have had some ulterior, self serving motives in doing so?) I wouldn't be
surprised.

So, let's forget all the past "traditions" of occult study that served
earlier ages, and which have little relevance in this far more literate and
highly educated time in our human evolution.   

All it takes is a "burning desire to know," correct instruction on the path 
to follow, a knowledge of the end in view, and concentrated perseverance in 
both study and practice.  

As Einstein said, "Genius is concentration for a long period of time on a 
single point of inquiry." I don't think any Master could have said it
better. 

So, for any of us who have had a personal experience that might help others 
in showing them the way to their own self realization -- let's hear it.  

I'm sure we can decide for ourselves, at whatever level of the path we are 
presently on, whether or not it may have some value. 

Leonardo         

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--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Zakk Duffany" wrote:

Subba Rao wrote " The other road is the precipitous path of
occultism, through a series of initiations.....Occult progress,
growth along this path, is effected by the Adept directing through
the chela various occult forces....("Esoteric Writings," p. 113)

CUT

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THE CLAIMS OF OCCULTISM --- H P B 


"It is now some years since Spiritualists were startled by the publication
of two ponderous volumes by Madame Blavatsky, under the title of ISIS
UNVEILED. 

Those who mastered the diversified contents of those large and
closely-printed pages, upwards of twelve hundred in number, bore away a
vague impression that Spiritualism had been freely handled not altogether to
its advantage, and that a portentous claim had been more or less darkly set
up for what was called Occultism. 

The book was full of material—so full that I shall probably be right in
saying that no one has mastered its contents so as to fully grasp the
author’s plan; but the material sadly needed reducing to order, and many of
the statements required elucidation, and some, perhaps, limitation.* 

Moreover, the reader wanted a guide to pilot him through the difficulties
that he encountered on every hand; and, above all, he sorely needed some
more tangible hold on the history and pretensions of the mysterious
Brotherhood for whom the author made such tremendous claims.†

It seemed vain for any seeker after truth to attempt to enter into
relations, however remote, with any adept of the order of which Madame
Blavatsky is the visible representative. All questions were met with polite
or decisive refusal to submit to any examination of the pretensions made. 

The Brothers would receive an enquirer only after he had demonstrated his
truth, honesty and courage by an indefinitely prolonged probation. They
sought no one; they promised to receive none.‡ Meantime, they rejected no
one who was persevering enough to go forward in the prescribed path of
training by which alone the divine powers of the human spirit can, they
allege, be developed.

The only palpable outcome of all this elaborate effort at human
enlightenment was the foundation in America of the Theosophical Society,
which has been the accepted, though not the prescribed, organization of the
Occult Brotherhood.§ 

They would utilize the Society, but they would not advise as to the methods
by which it should be regulated, nor guarantee it any special aid, except in
so far as to give the very guarded promise that whatever aid might at any
time be vouchsafed by them to enquiring humanity, would come, if at all,
through that channel. It must be admitted that this was a microscopically
small crumb of comfort to fall from so richly laden a table as Madame
Blavatsky had depicted. But Theosophists had to be content, or, at least,
silent; and so they betook themselves, some of them, to reflection.

What ground had they for belief in the existence of these Brothers, adepts
who had a mastery over the secrets of nature which dwarfed the results of
modern scientific research, who had gained the profoundest knowledge—"Know
thyself"—and could demonstrate by actual experiment the transcendent powers
of the human spirit, spurning time and space, and proving the existence of
soul by the methods of exact experimental science? What ground for such
claims existed outside of that on which the Theosophical Society rested?

For a long time the answer was of the vaguest. But eventually evidence was
gathered, and in this book we have Mr. Sinnett coming forward to give us the
benefit of his own researches into the matter, and especially to give us his
correspondence with Koot Hoomi, an adept and member of the Brotherhood, who
had entered into closer relations, still however of a secondary nature,**
with him than had been vouchsafed to other men. 

These letters are of an extremely striking nature, and their own intrinsic
value is high. This is greatly enhanced by the source from which they come,
and the light they throw upon the mental attitude of these Tibetan recluses
to whom the world and the things of the world are alike without interest,
save in so far as they can ameliorate man’s state, and teach him to develop
and use his powers.

Another fruitful subject of questioning among those who leaned to
theosophical study was as to the nature of these occult powers. It was
impossible to construct from Isis Unveiled any exact scheme, supported by
adequate testimony, or by sufficient evidence from any proper source, of
what was actually claimed for the adept. 

Madame Blavatsky herself, though making no pretension to having attained the
full development of those whose representative she was, possessed certain
occult powers that seemed to the Spiritualist strangely like those of
mediumship.†† This, however, she disclaimed with much indignation.

A medium, she explained, was but a poor creature, a sort of conduit through
which any foul stream might be conveyed, a gas-pipe by means of which gas of
a very low power of illumination reached this earth. And much pain was taken
to show that the water was very foul, and that the gas was derived from a
source that, if at all spiritual, was such as we, who craved true
illumination, should by no means be content with. 

It is impossible to deny that the condition of public Spiritualism in
America, at the time when these strictures were passed upon it, was such as
to warrant grave censure. It had become sullied in the minds of observers,
who viewed it from without, and who were not acquainted with its redeeming
features, by association with impurity and fraud. 

The mistake was to assume that this was the complexion of Spiritualism in
itself, and not of Spiritualism as depraved by adventitious causes. This,
however, was assumed. If we desired true light, then we were told that we
must crush out mediumship, close the doors through which the mere Spiritual
loafers come to perplex and ruin us, and seek for the true adepts who alone
could safely pilot us in our search. 

These, it was explained, had by no means given up the right of entrance to
their Spiritual house to any chance spirit that might take a fancy to enter.
They held the key and kept intruders out, while, by unaided powers of their
own, they performed wonders before which medial phenomena paled. 

This was the only method of safety; and these powers, inherent in all men,
though susceptible of development only in the purest, and then with
difficulty, were the only means by which the adept worked.

Some Theosophists demonstrated by practical experiment that there is a
foundation of truth in these pretensions. I am not aware whether anyone has
found himself able to separate quite conclusively between his own unaided
efforts and those in which external spirit has had a share. 

There is, however, one very noteworthy fact which gives a clue to the
difference between the methods of the Spiritualist and the Occultist. The
medium is a passive recipient of spirit-influence. 

The adept is an active, energizing, conscious creator of results which he
knowingly produces, and of which evidence exists and can be sifted.
Spiritualists have been slow to accept this account of what they are
familiar with in another shape. 

Theosophists have been equally slow to estimate the facts and theories of
Spiritualism with candour and patience. Mr. Sinnett records many remarkable
experiences of his own, which are well worthy of study, and which may lead
those who now approach these phenomena from opposite sides to ponder whether
there may not be a common ground on which they can meet. We do not know so
much of the working of spirit that we can afford to pass by contemptuously
any traces of its operation. 

Be we Spiritualists or Theosophists—odd names to ticket ourselves with!—we
are all looking for evidence of the whence and whither of humanity. We want
to know somewhat of the great mystery of life, and to pry a little into the
no less sublime mystery of death. We are gathering day by day more evidence
that is becoming bewildering in its minute perplexities. 

We want to get light from all sources; let us be patient, tolerant of
divergent opinion, quick to recognize the tiny hold that any one soul can
have on truth, and the multiform variety in which that which we call truth
is presented to man’s view. Is it strange that we should see various sides
of it? Can we not see that it must needs be so? Can we not wait for the
final moment of reconciliation, when we shall see with clearer eye and
understand as now we cannot?

There is much in Mr. Sinnett’s little book [THE OCCULT WORLD] that may help
those who are trying to assume this mental attitude. The philosophy that it
contains is clearly stated, and affords rich material for thought. The facts
recorded are set forth with scientific accuracy, and must profoundly impress
the careful and candid reader. 

The glimpses revealed of this silent Brotherhood, in its lonely home on one
of the slopes of the mountains of Tibet, working to solve the mighty
problem, and to confer on humanity such benefits as it can receive, are
impressive enough even to the Philistine sceptic. If they should indeed be
flashes of a greater truth, now only dimly revealed, the importance of such
revelation is not to be measured in words.

Be this, however, as it may—and there are many points on which light is
necessary before a decisive opinion may be pronounced—there is no doubt
whatever that the philosophy contained in Mr. Sinnett’s book is similar to
that which the great students of Theosophy in ages past have arrived at. It
is a mere piece of nineteenth-century arrogance to pooh-pooh it as unworthy
of attention by those on whom has flashed the dazzling light of the spirit
circle. The facts recorded are at least as scientifically conclusive as any
recorded as having happened in a dark séance, or under the ordinary
conditions of Spiritualistic investigation. 

The letters of Koot Hoomi are fruitful of suggestion, and will repay careful
study on their own merits. The whole book contains only 172 pages, and will
not, therefore, unduly tax the reader’s patience. If any instructed
Spiritualist will read it, and can say that there is nothing in it that adds
to his knowledge, he will at least have the satisfaction of having read both
sides of the question, and that should present itself to all candid thinkers
as a paramount and imperative duty.

[Review of the OCCULT WORLD -- A P Sinnett  
by "M A Oxon" quoted by HPB
in "THE CLAIMS OF OCCULTISM"
Theosophist, II, # 12, Sept. 1881


------------------Footnotes----------------------------

* It is not the first time that the just reproach is unjustly laid at my
door. It is but too true that "the material sadly needed reducing to order,"
but it never was my province to do so, as I gave out one detached chapter
after the other, and was quite ignorant, as Mr. Sinnett correctly states in
The Occult World, whether I had started upon a series of articles, one book
or two books. Neither did I much care. It was my duty to give out some
hints, to point to the dangerous phases of modern Spiritualism, and to bring
to bear upon that question all the assertions and testimony of the ancient
world and its sages that I could find, as an evidence to corroborate my
conclusions. I did the best I could and knew how. If the critics of Isis
Unveiled but consider that (1) its author had never studied the English
language, and after learning it in her childhood colloquially had not spoken
it before coming to America half-a-dozen of times during a period of many
years; (2) that most of the doctrines (or shall we say hypotheses’) given
had to be translated from an Asiatic language; and (3) that most, if not all
of the quotations from, and references to, other works—some of these out of
print, and many inaccessible but to the few—and which the author personally
had never read or seen, though the passages quoted were proved in each
instance minutely correct, then my friends would perhaps feel less
critically inclined. However, Isis Unveiled is but a natural entrée en
matière in the above article, and I must not lose time over its merits or
demerits.

† Indeed, the claims made for a "Brotherhood" of living men were never half
as pretentious as those which are daily made by the Spiritualists on behalf
of the disembodied souls of dead people.

‡ No more do they now. 

§ We beg to draw to this sentence the attention of all those of our Fellows
and friends in the West as in India, who felt inclined to either disbelieve
in, or accuse the "Brothers of the First Section" on account of the
administrative mistakes and shortcomings of the Theosophical Society. From
the first the Fellows were notified that the First Section might issue
occasionally orders to those who knew them personally, yet had never
promised to guide, or even protect, either the body or its members. 

The Occult World, by A. P. Sinnett. 

** With Mr. Sinnett, and only so far. His relations with a few other Fellows
have been as personal as they could desire.

†† Medium, in the sense of the postman who brings a letter from one living
person to another; in the sense of an assistant electrician whose master
tells him how to turn this screw and arrange that wire in the battery; never
in the sense of a spiritual medium. "Madame Blavatsky" neither needed nor
did she ever make use of either dark séance-rooms, cabinets, "trance-state,"
"harmony," nor any of the hundreds of conditions required by the passive
mediums who know not what is going to occur. She always knew beforehand, and
could state what was going to happen save infallibly answering each time for
complete success."

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