Theos-Talk Archives (March 2005 Message tt00576)

Mar 25 2005

Re: VIRTUES, VICES and the 3 GUNAS (qualities of Nature)
Man's independence and responsibility ?


Dear Steve:

You write concerning the position of religions vs. THEOSOPHY :

"When you wrote of Karma, it made me think that a frightened
humanity seems to nearly deify the possibilities of destruction, so that
some being exterior from us needs to save us (from the 'devil') ? It seems
an ignorant way to deal with Karma as Nemesis. 

"This form of religion seems to be lacking in the light necessary
for humans to save themselves from their own Nemesis. Something I think
Theosophy would like to change."

I think you are right.

I am of the opinion, having studied a number of religions, that the basis
from which they started -- the sayings and deeds of a very WISE personage
-- is uniform. And, that those of his disciples who chose to perpetuate his
injunctions and copy his actions have gradually acted to pervert them. The
reasons for this sad state are various.  

The uniformity of those several original teachings conforms with the
teachings HPB offered: THEOSOPHY -- the same principles are there. In
THEOSOPHY we find additional explanations and logical concepts offered. She
carefully traces the brotherhood of religions for us.

Instead of illuminating and encouraging all their adherents to study
independently, and become themselves knowledgeable and wise, they have
gradually concealed under ritual, rote and ceremony the basic freedom of
individual search and application that is implicit in the "originals." They
have caused to arise as a matter of "duty," a dependence on their "services"
to become mandatory, or the threat of expulsion from the "congregation," and
an isolation from the "True God" was invoked.

Of course any inquiry into their priestly doings and authority is resisted
vigorously.

Consider the basis all priesthoods are found to have adopted.  

I will use the 3 universal qualities that are equipoised in Nature (the
Universe we live in, and the Earth we live on, in particular). These are
the 3 "Gunas:" Sattva - Rajas and Tamas, or Truth, Action and Inertia, or
Spirit, Mind and Matter -- spoken of in the BHAGAVAD GITA (Chapters : 12,
14, 17)

Let us use these few statements concerning Deity (God) as an impersonal and
Universal Base-Principle -- They will be found to be the prime principles
which all religions are based on:  

The Omnipresence, Omniscience and Omnipotence, of the Deity -- 


1	"God" is PRESENT EVERYWHERE 

-- IT in the "heart" and essence of all -- no exceptions.  

-- Therefore "God" desires their existence. No one has the right, or duty,
to terminate another's living for any reason.  

-- "God" lives closest to us in our own "heart," and does not need
"priests" to be contacted, when we think.


2	"God" - KNOWS ALL 

-- therefore, there are no secrets, no "hiding places,"  

-- What we do and are, good or bad, is clearly known to "IT."  

-- "Nature" and the "Universe" are synonyms for "God" or "Deity."  

-- Logically, therefore, there is no isolated "Personal God" separate from
ITS Universe or from anything, (including every human) in it.

-- Every "religion" has sprung from these single prime facts. It has become
a creed because of rigidity in rites, rote, and ceremonies instituted by a
priesthood.


3	"God" - SUPERVISES EVERYTHING  

-- that is essential and needed to support life and harmonious relations
among all beings large or small, near or far.


4	God is honest, merciful and just -- not a tyrant, but demands that
we know these qualities and powers and live our lives in harmony with all.


A	TAMAS - inertia, lethargy


1.	Mental lethargy -- avoid thinking and learning TRUTH

2	Ignorance, doubt -- avoid learning and responsibility

3	Faith substituted for knowledge

4	Fear - of effects that will pain or harm ourselves

5	Forgiveness for wrongs done deliberately or carelessly

6	Securing special unmerited advantages, desire, passion, 

7	Hate, haughtiness, domination, and ruling over others,

8	Pride, fame, ostentation, adulation,  

9	Greed for possessions, life to be prolonged, 

10	Self-righteousness, lack of humility, concealing ignorance 


B	RAJAS	- Wrongful actions


1	Pretense to wisdom and power, connection to "god"

2	Can "fix" and avoid due retribution

3	Demands ceremonial respect and sacrifices

4	Keeps people ignorant of LAW (Karma) and fearful

5	Greed for wealth, false justice and power

6	Theft, extortion, lying, torture (physical and mental),  

7	Murder, wars, 


C	SATTVA -  


1	Spiritual selfishness and isolation

2	Refusal to assist others, isolation,

3	Acquisition of wisdom for selfish use


No everyone is acquainted with "Nemesis" the Greek Goddess of retribution
which simply stated says every choice we make produces an inescapable
effect.  

THEOSOPHY states (as does every other religion) that a human is in reality
a seven-fold entity:

(1) Spirit or "God's" presence within him / her.
(2) Wisdom accumulated through experience over many incarnations
(3) Thinking and the power to think -- Mind. Decision making, Free choice.

In your comment you call these three: "the Spiritual Man." 


(4) Emotion, desire passion, urges, moods, sensitivities to our
environment.
(5) Life-force that sustains the body.
(6) Electro-magnetic pattern or model body, underlying all physical
structures in
(7) The physical body we all know and live in.

If I understand you rightly, you have called these 4 the "personal
man."

To make this analysis simple we can say that every human ("Spiritual Man")
is an immortal Spiritual entity (called in THEOSOPHY a "Monad").  

It accumulates a fund of wisdom / experience / memory over many
incarnations.  

Endowed (by its Elder Brothers, Men who have graduated earlier, now act as
its mentors) with an independent Mind, it (we) thinks independently and
makes free choices.  

It is often confronted with its desires and emotions which may run against
its knowledge of what is "best to do." Such conflicts require thought and
are the tests set by Nature to enable its individual progress as an immortal
human being. 

This is the "field of battle" -- "Kurukshetra" in the BHAGAVAD GITA .

The life force, model body and physical body are the vehicles of this
process and also serve as the field of experience for innumerable "monads"
of lesser experience to develop. Each human is as a parent to these, and
responsible for their advance and development. They serve as the vehicles
-- the "carriers" of karmic effects.

I hope this survey provided in THEOSOPHY is of help, as for me, it answers
many difficult questions.

Best wishes,

Dallas
 
============================================


-----Original Message-----
From: Steven 
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 12:30 PM
To: 
Subject: Re: Welcome Spring



Dal-

Then, if I have seen what you are pointing to, the religions of
man have always been the best attempts of the day, to either focus
upon the Higher Man and its natural affiliations for the focus of our
devotions, or, as cultures materialize, we focus upon the "personal
man," in the place of the "Spiritual Man," because we are then hiding
form ourselves, out of the blindness caused by dependence upon
external senses.

When you wrote of Karma, it made me think that a frightened
humanity seems to nearly deify the possiblities of destruction (the
devil), so that some being exterior from us needs to save us. It seems
an ignorant way to deal with Karma as Nemesis. 

This form of religion seems to be lacking in the light neccesary for humans
to save themselves from their own Nemesis. Something I think Theosophy would
like to change.

Steve  

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

--- In theosophia@yahoogroups.com, "W.Dallas TenBroeck"
dalval14@e...> wrote:
Mar 23, 2005
 
Spring thoughts -- Whence religions? Do they lack anything? 
 
 
Dear S and friends:
 
 
You encouraged me to look up some basic ideas and here they are:
 
What, I ask myself, is the source of religions? I go to the S D .
 
"What was the religion of the Third and Fourth Races? In the common
acceptation of the term, neither the Lemurians, nor yet their
progeny, the Lemuro-Atlanteans, had any, as they knew no dogma, nor had
they to
believe on faith. 
 
No sooner had the mental eye of man been opened to understanding,
than the Third Race felt itself one with the ever-present as the ever to be
unknown and invisible ALL, the One Universal Deity. Endowed with divine
Powers, and feeling in himself his inner God, each felt he was a Man-God in
his
nature, though an animal in his physical Self. 
 
The struggle between the two began from the very day they tasted of the
fruit of the Tree of Wisdom; a struggle for life between the
spiritual and the psychic, the psychic and the physical. Those who
conquered the lower
principles by obtaining mastery over the body, joined the "Sons of
Light."
Those who fell victims to their lower natures, became the slaves of
Matter. 
 
 
 
CUT