Theos-Talk Archives (March 2005 Message tt00589)

Mar 25 2005

Dear Friends:


Shall we get moving?

If yes, then Where? How? and: Why?

Let us assume we are serious students of THEOSOPHY, and in the course of our
life we have devoted time to understanding it through study and discussion,
and also let us assume we have come to realise that its philosophy and basis
are reasonable and logical and worth using.  

We find it answers questions that our education and worldly seeking have not
yet fully satisfied.

We select some of the theosophical tenets and doctrines and then, go on
using those ideas and testing them as we go, for we all have as a basis,
admitted or otherwise, that we will take nothing on the basis solely of
claims made for it, or on credulous "blind faith." 

As time proceeds more experience brings to us a conviction that they work,
are fair and true, and what is more important, they supply answers that are
worthy of being passed on to others -- they have proved helpful to up, and
possibly to some of our friends.

Among the sayings that have touched our attention for personal work and also
a responsibility is hinted at: it is an injunction to "promulgate
THEOSOPHY"

If we now desire to "get to work," then our way ought to be clear : To pass
on, whenever reasonable or asked for, those principles and logic that we
have found useful and helpful -- and, above all, avoid any pose of
"authority." 

If we start doing this it gets us "off the dime."

Let us also suppose that we have adopted some Theosophical text book as a
good base of reference because it expresses to us, clearly, issues and
problems others had.

As an instance, we find that over 100 years ago the same kind of situation
is handled by HPB in The KEY TO THEOSOPHY (p. 272-279)

"...Theosophy is the most serious movement of this age; and one, moreover,
which threatens the very life of most of the time-honoured humbugs,
prejudices, and social evils of the day — those evils which fatten and make
happy the upper
ten and their imitators and sycophants, the wealthy dozens of the middle
classes, while they positively crush and starve out of existence the
millions of the poor. 

Think of this, and you will easily understand the reason of such a
relentless persecution by those others who, more observant and
perspicacious, do see the true nature of Theosophy, and therefore dread it. 
 
ENQUIRER. Do you mean to tell me that it is because a few have understood
what Theosophy leads to, that they try to crush the movement? 

But if Theosophy leads only to good, surely you cannot be prepared to utter
such a terrible accusation of perfidious heartlessness and treachery even
against those few? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. I am so prepared, on the contrary. I do not call the enemies
we have had to battle with during the first nine or ten years of the
Society's existence either powerful or "dangerous"; but only those who have
arisen against us in the last...years. 

And these neither speak, write nor preach against Theosophy, but work in
silence and behind the backs of the foolish puppets who act as their visible
marionettes. Yet, if invisible to most of the members of our Society, they
are well known to the true "Founders" and the protectors of our Society. But
they must remain for certain reasons unnamed at present. 
 
ENQUIRER. And are they known to many of you, or to yourself alone? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. I never said I knew them. I may or may not know them— butI
know of them, and this is sufficient; and I defy them to do their worst....
 
Apart from these truly dangerous enemies -- "dangerous," however, only to
those Theosophists who are unworthy of the name, and whose place is rather
outside than within the T. S.— the number of our opponents is more than
considerable. 
 
ENQUIRER. Can you name these, at least, if you will not speak of the
others? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. Of course I can. We have to contend against (1) the hatred
of the Spiritualists, American, English, and French; (2) the constant
opposition of the clergy of all denominations; (3) especially the relentless
hatred and persecution of the missionaries in India; (4) this led to the
famous and infamous attack on our Theosophical Society by the "Society for
Psychical Research" [1893-4], an attack which was stirred up by a regular
conspiracy organized by the missionaries in India. Lastly, we must count the
defection of various prominent (?) members, for reasons I have already
explained, all of whom have contributed their utmost to increase the
prejudice against us. 
 
ENQUIRER. Cannot you give me more details about these, so that I may know
what to answer when asked -- a brief history of the Society, in short; and
why the world believes all this? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. The reason is simple. Most outsiders knew absolutely nothing
of the Society itself, its motives, objects or beliefs. From its very
beginning the world has seen in Theosophy nothing but certain marvellous
phenomena, in which two-thirds of the non-spiritualists do not believe. 

Very soon the Society came to be regarded as a body pretending to the
possession of "miraculous" powers. 

The world never realised that the Society taught absolute disbelief in
miracle or even the possibility of such; that in the Society there were only
a few people who possessed such psychic powers and but few who cared for
them. 

Nor did it understand that the phenomena were never produced publicly, but
only privately for friends, and merely given as an accessory, to prove by
direct demonstration that such things could be produced without dark rooms,
spirits, mediums, or any of the usual paraphernalia. 

Unfortunately, this misconception was greatly strengthened and exaggerated
by the first book on the subject which excited much attention in Europe— Mr.
Sinnett's "OCCULT WORLD." If this work did much to bring the Society into
prominence, it attracted still more obloquy, derision and misrepresentation
upon the hapless heroes and heroine thereof. Of this the author was more
than warned in the OCCULT WORLD, but did not pay attention to the prophecy
-- for such it was, though half-veiled. ...
  
ENQUIRER. But why should the clergy be hostile to you, when, after all,
the main tendency of the Theosophical doctrines is opposed to Materialism,
the great enemy of all forms of religion in our day? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. The Clergy opposed us on the general principle that "He who
is not with me is against me." Since Theosophy does not agree with any one
Sect or Creed, it is considered the enemy of all alike, because it teaches
that they are all, more or less, mistaken....
 
ENQUIRER. And what led the S. P. R. to take the field against you? You
were both pursuing the same line of study, in some respects, and several of
the Psychic Researchers belonged to your society. 
 
THEOSOPHIST. First of all we were very good friends with the leaders of
the S. P. R.; but when the attack on the phenomena appeared in the Christian
College Magazine, supported by the pretended revelations of a menial, the S.
P. R. found that they had compromised themselves by publishing in their
"Proceedings" too many of the phenomena which had occurred in connection
with the T. S. 

Their ambition is to pose as an authoritative and strictly scientific body;
so that they had to choose between retaining that position by throwing
overboard the T. S. and even trying to destroy it, and seeing themselves
merged, in the opinion of the Sadducees of the grand monde, with the
"credulous" Theosophists and Spiritualists. 

There was no way for them out of it, no two choices, and they chose to throw
us overboard. It was a matter of dire necessity for them. 

But so hard pressed were they to find any apparently reasonable motive for
the life of devotion and ceaseless labour led by the two Founders, and for
the complete absence of any pecuniary profit or other advantage to them,
that our enemies were obliged to resort to the thrice-absurd, eminently
ridiculous, and now famous "Russian spy theory," to explain this devotion. 

But the old saying, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,"
proved once more correct. After the first shock of this attack, the T. S.
doubled and tripled its numbers, but the bad impression produced still
remains. 

A French author was right in saying, "Calomniez, calomniez toujours et
encore, il en restera toujours quelque chose." Therefore it is, that unjust
prejudices are current, and that everything connected with the T. S., and
especially with its Founders, is so falsely distorted, because based on
malicious hearsay alone. 
 
ENQUIRER. Yet in the 14 years during which the Society has existed, you
must have had ample time and opportunity to show yourselves and your work in
their true light? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. How, or when, have we been given such an opportunity? Our
most prominent members had an aversion to anything that looked like publicly
justifying themselves. 

Their policy has ever been: "We must live it down;" and "What does it matter
what the newspapers say, or people think?" 

The Society was too poor to send out public lecturers, and therefore the
expositions of our views and doctrines were confined to a few Theosophical
works that met with success, but which people often misunderstood, or only
knew of through hearsay. 


CALUMNY and LIES

Our journals were, and still are, boycotted; our literary works ignored; and
to this day no one seems even to feel quite certain whether the Theosophists
are a kind of Serpent-and-Devil worshippers, or simply "Esoteric Buddhists"
— whatever that may mean. 


It was useless for us to go on denying, day after day and year after year,
every kind of inconceivable cock-and-bull stories about us; for, no sooner
was one disposed of, than another, a still more absurd and malicious one,
was born out of the ashes of the first. 

Unfortunately, human nature is so constituted that any good said of a person
is immediately forgotten and never repeated. But one has only to utter a
calumny, or to start a story— no matter how absurd, false or incredible it
may be, if only it is connected with some unpopular character— for it to be
successful and forthwith accepted as a historical fact. 

Like Don Basilio's "CALUMNIA," the rumour springs up, at first, as a soft
gentle breeze hardly stirring the grass under your feet, and arising no one
knows whence; then, in the shortest space of time, it is transformed into a
strong wind, begins to blow a gale, and forthwith becomes a roaring storm! 

A calumny among news, is what an octopus is among fishes; it sucks into
one's mind, fastens upon our memory, which feeds upon it, leaving indelible
marks even after the calumny has been bodily destroyed. A calumnious lie is
the only master key that will open any and every brain. It is sure to
receive welcome and hospitality in every human mind, the highest as the
lowest, if only a little prejudiced, and no matter from however base a
quarter and motive it has started. 
 
ENQUIRER. Don't you think your assertion altogether too sweeping? The
Englishman has never been over-ready to believe in anything said, and our
nation is proverbially known for its love of fair play. A lie has no legs to
stand upon for long, and -- 
 
THEOSOPHIST. The Englishman is as ready to believe evil as a man of any
other nation; for it is human nature, and not a national feature. 

As to lies, if they have no legs to stand upon, according to the proverb,
they have exceedingly rapid wings; and they can and do fly farther and wider
than any other kind of news, in England as elsewhere. Remember lies and
calumny are the only kind of literature we can always get gratis, and
without paying any subscription.

We can make the experiment if you like. Will you, who are so interested in
Theosophical matters, and have heard so much about us, will you put me
questions on as many of these rumours and "hearsays" as you can think of? I
will answer you the truth, and nothing but the truth, subject to the
strictest verification. 


PHALLIC and SEX WORSHIP
 
ENQUIRER. Before we change the subject, let us have the whole truth on
this one. Now, some writers have called your teachings "immoral and
pernicious"; others, on the ground that many so-called "authorities" and
Orientalists find in the Indian religions nothing but sex-worship in its
many forms, accuse you of teaching nothing better than Phallic worship. 

They say that since modern Theosophy is so closely allied with Eastern, and
particularly Indian, thought, it cannot be free from this taint.
Occasionally, even, they go so far as to accuse European Theosophists of
reviving the practices connected with this cult. How about this? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. I have heard and read about this before; and I answer that
no more utterly baseless and lying calumny has ever been invented and
circulated. "Silly people can see but silly dreams," says a Russian proverb.


It makes one's blood boil to hear such vile accusations made without the
slightest foundation, and on the strength of mere inferences. Ask the
hundreds of honourable English men and women who have been members of the
Theosophical Society for years whether an immoral precept or a pernicious
doctrine was ever taught to them. 

Open the SECRET DOCTRINE, and you will find page after page denouncing the
Jews and other nations precisely on account of this devotion to Phallic
rites, due to the dead letter interpretation of nature symbolism, and the
grossly materialistic conceptions of her dualism in all the exoteric creeds.
Such ceaseless and malicious misrepresentation of our teachings and beliefs
is really disgraceful. 
 
ENQUIRER. But you cannot deny that the Phallic element does exist in the
religions of the East? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. Nor do I deny it; only I maintain that this proves no more
than does its presence in Christianity, the religion of the West. Read
Hargrave Jenning's Rosicrucians..."	Key 272-9


I hope this will show that the methods and procedures of attack are found to
continue as before.

But, then we, the modern students of THEOSOPHY are the ones who are
responsible for making accurate responses.

Best wishes, 

Dallas

=========================
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Drpsionic
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 8:11 PM
To: Theosophy Study List

Subject: Re: WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW?

In a message dated 3/24/05 4:18:49 PM Central Standard Time, 
meredith_bill@earthlink.net writes:

<< What shall I do and what shall I not do? >>

I would imagine the answer to the last is very simple. Whatever I want to
do 
that I am able to do and get away with doing.

One needs no teachings, ancient or modern. All one needs is a brain and the

willing ness to use it.

Lately I've found myself rather taken with the disturbingly prophetic short 
story by E. M. Forster, THE MACHINE STOPS, written in 1909.  


In it, humanity has reduced itself to living in underground cubicles, having
no direct contact but communicating through the machine that provides its
existence. People lecture online, quite literally and spread ideas, in fact
ideas are greatly 
valued, but they DO nothing. And of course in the end the machine stops,
everything falls apart and they all die, which is to be expected in that
type of 
fiction. Nevertheless, the emphasis on empty ideas, the valuing of empty
ideas is 
the part I find most perturbing, because it is a tendency I find not only in

Theosophy, which has been empty for a long time now (is anyone so foolish as
to 
think that the nonsense about rounds and chains could actually matter in 
somebody's life?) but in so many other areas of life where one would think
that it 
would be experience that would take priority.

I seriously wonder if anyone is actually willing to get off their rears and 
do something, anything, any more.

Chuck the Heretic