Theos-Talk Archives (May 2005 Message tt00194)

THEOSOPHY WHAT IS IT ? WHAT DOES IT OFFER ?


THEOSOPHY, the Wisdom-Religion, has existed from immemorial time. 

It offers us a theory as well as a history of natures evolution of life
which is founded upon observation and knowledge acquired by the Sages of the
past.  

Its higher students claim that this knowledge is not imagined or inferred,
but that it is a knowledge of facts seen and known by those who are willing
to comply with the conditions requisite for seeing and knowing.

Theosophy, means knowledge of or about God ( in the sense of divine, or
“godly” wisdom). The term “God” is universally accepted as including the
whole of both the known and the unknown, hence it follows that “Theosophy”
must imply wisdom respecting the Absolute; and, since the Absolute is
without beginning and eternal, this wisdom concerning its laws and
operations, must have existed always. 

Theosophy is sometimes called the Wisdom-Religion, because from immemorial
time it has had knowledge of all the laws governing the spiritual, the
moral, and the material divisions of Nature..

The theory of nature and of life which it offers is not one at first
speculatively laid down and then proved by adjusting facts or conclusions to
fit it; but is an explanation of existence, cosmic and individual, derived
from knowledge reached by those who have acquired the power to see behind
the curtain that hides the operations of nature from the ordinary mind. 

Such Beings are called Sages, using the term in its highest sense. Of late
they have been called Mahatmas and Adepts. In ancient times they were known
as the Wise Rishis, and Masters of Wisdom.
 
These Sages, are known to have lived in all parts of the globe, in obedience
to the cyclic laws. But as far as concerns the present development of the
human race, they are now to be found in the East.

There being of necessity various grades among the students of this
Wisdom-Religion, it stands to reason that those belonging to the lower
degrees are able to give out only so much of the knowledge as pertains to
the grade they have reached.

They may depend, for further information upon students who are higher yet.
It is these higher students for whom the claim is asserted that their
knowledge is not mere inference, but that it concerns realities seen and
known by them. 

While some of them are connected with the Theosophical Movement, they are
yet above it. 

The power to see and absolutely know such laws is surrounded by natural
inherent regulations which must be complied with as conditions precedent.
And it is, therefore, not possible to respond to the demand of the worldly
man for an immediate statement of this wisdom, insomuch as he could not
comprehend it until those conditions are fulfilled. 

As this knowledge deals with laws and states of matter, and of consciousness
undreamed of by the "practical" Western world, it can only be grasped, piece
by
piece, as the student pushes forward the demolition of his preconceived
notions, that are due either to inadequate or to erroneous theories. 

It is claimed by these higher students that, in the Occident especially, a
false method of reasoning has for many centuries prevailed, resulting in a
universal habit of mind which causes men to look upon many effects as
causes, and to regard that which is real as the unreal, putting meanwhile
the unreal in the place of the real. 

As a minor example, the phenomena of mesmerism and clairvoyance have, until
lately, been denied by Western science, yet there have always been numerous
persons who know for themselves, by incontrovertible introspective evidence,
the truth of these phenomena, and, in some instances, understand their cause
and rationale.

The following are some of the fundamental propositions of Theosophy:

The spirit in man is the only real and permanent part of his being; the rest
of his nature being variously compounded. And since decay is incident to all
composite things, everything in man but his Spirit is impermanent.

Further, the universe being one thing and not diverse, and everything within
it being connected with the whole and with every other thing therein, of
which upon the upper plane there is a perfect knowledge, no act or thought
occurs without each portion of the great whole perceiving and noting it. 

Hence all are inseparably bound together by the tie of Brotherhood.

This first fundamental proposition of Theosophy postulates that the universe
is not an aggregation of diverse unities but that it is one whole.

This whole is what is denominated "Deity" by Western Philosophers, and
"Para-Brahm" by the Hindu Vedantins. It may be called the Unmanifested,
containing within itself the potency of every form of manifestation,
together with the laws governing those manifestations. 

Further, it is taught that there is no creation of worlds in the theological
sense; but that their appearance is due strictly to evolution. 

When the time comes for the Unmanifested to manifest as an objective
Universe, which it does periodically, it emanates a Power or "The First
Cause" -- so called, because it itself is the rootless root of that Cause,
and called in the East the "Causeless Cause." 

The first Cause we may call "God," Brahma, or Ormazd, or Osiris, or by any
name we please. The projection into time of the influence, or so-called
"breath of Brahma," causes all the worlds and the beings upon them to
gradually appear.

They remain in manifestation just as long as that influence continues to
proceed forth in evolution. After long æons the outbreathing, evolutionary
influence slackens, and the universe begins to go into obscuration, or
pralaya, until, the "breath" being fully indrawn, no objects remain, because
nothing is but Brahma.

Care must be taken by the student to make a distinction between Brahma (the
impersonal Parabrahm) and Brahmâ the manifested Logos. 

This breathing-forth is known as a Manvantara, or the Manifestation of the
world between two Manus ( from Manu, and Antara "between" ) and the
completion of the inbreathing brings with it Pralaya, or destruction. 

It is from these truths that the erroneous doctrines of "creation" and the
"last judgment" have sprung. Such Manvantaras and Pralayas have eternally
occurred, and will continue to take place periodically and forever.

For the purpose of a Manvantara two so-called eternal principles are
postulated, that is, Purusha and Prakriti (or spirit and matter), because
both are ever present and conjoined in each manifestation. 

Those terms are used here because no equivalent for them exists in English.
Purusha is called "spirit," and Prakriti "matter," but this Purusha is not
the unmanifested, nor is Prakriti matter as known to science; the ancient
Aryan Sages therefore declare that there is a higher spirit still, called
Purushottama. 

The reason for this is that at the night of Brahmâ, or the so-called
indrawing of his breath, both Purusha and Prakriti are absorbed in the
Unmanifested; a conception which is the same as the idea underlying the
Biblical expression "remaining in the bosom of the Father."

This brings us to the doctrine of Universal Evolution as expounded by the
Sages of the Wisdom-Religion. 

The Spirit, or Purusha, they say, proceeds from Brahma through the various
forms of matter evolved at the same time, beginning in the world of the
spiritual from the highest and in the material world from the lowest form.
The lowest form is one unknown as yet to modern science. Thus, therefore,
the mineral, vegetable and animal forms each imprison a spark of the Divine,
a portion of the indivisible Purusha.

These sparks struggle to "return to the Father," or in other words, to
secure self-consciousness and at last come into the highest form, on Earth,
that of man, where alone self-conscious-ness is possible to them. 

The period, calculated in human time, during which this evolution goes on
embraces millions of ages. 

Each spark of divinity has, therefore, millions of ages in which to
accomplish its mission-that of obtaining complete self-consciousness while
in the form of man. 

But by this is not meant that the mere act of coming into human form of
itself confers self-consciousness upon this divine spark. That great work
may be accomplished during the Manvantara in which a Divine spark reaches
the human form, or it may not; all depends upon the individual's own will
and efforts. 

Each particular spirit thus goes through the Manvantara, or enters into
manifestation for its own enrichment and for that of the Whole. 

Mahâtmâs and Rishis are thus gradually evolved during a Manvantara, and
become, after its expiration, planetary spirits, who guide the evolution of
other future planets. 

The planetary spirits of our globe are those who in previous Manvantaras --
or days of Brahmâ-- made the efforts, and became in the course of that long
period Mahâtmâs.

Each Manvantara is for the same end and purpose, so that the Mahatmas who
have now attained those heights, or those who may become such in the
succeeding years of the present Manvantara, will probably be the planetary
spirits of the next Manvantara for this or other planets. This system is
thus seen to be based upon the identity of Spiritual Being, and, under the
name of "Universal Brotherhood," constitutes the basic idea of the
Theosophical Movement, whose object is the realization of that Brotherhood
among men.

The Sages say that Purusha (Spirit) is the basis of all manifested objects.
Without it nothing could exist or cohere. It interpenetrates everything
everywhere. It is the reality of which, or upon which, those things called
real by us are mere images. 

As Purusha reaches to and embraces all beings, they are all connected
together; and in or on the plane where that Purusha is, there is a perfect
consciousness of every act, thought, object, and circumstance, whether
supposed to occur there, or on this plane, or any other. 

For below the spirit and above the intellect is a plane of consciousness in
which experiences are noted, commonly called man's "spiritual nature;" this
is frequently said to be as susceptible of culture as his body or his
intellect.

This upper plane is the real register of all sensations and experiences,
although there are other registering planes. 

It is sometimes called the "subconscious mind." Theosophy, however, holds
that it is a misuse of terms to say that the spiritual nature can be
cultivated. The real object to be kept in view is to so open up or make
porous the lower nature that the spiritual nature may shine through it and
become the guide and ruler. It is only "cultivated" in the sense of having a
vehicle prepared for its use, into which it may descend. 

In other words, it is held that the real man, who is the Higher Self—being
the spark of the Divine before alluded to — overshadows the visible being,
which has the possibility of becoming united to that spark. 

Thus it is said that the higher Spirit is not in the man, but above him. It
is always
peaceful, unconcerned, blissful, and full of absolute knowledge. It
continually partakes of the Divine state, being continually that state
itself, "conjoined with the Gods, it feeds upon Ambrosia." The object of the
student is to let the light of that spirit shine through the lower
coverings.

This "spiritual culture" is only attainable as the grosser interests,
passions, and demands of the flesh are subordinated to the interests,
aspirations and needs of the higher nature; and this is a matter of both
system and established law.

This spirit can only become the ruler when the firm intellectual
acknowledgment or admission is first made that IT alone is. 

And, as stated above, it being not only the person concerned but also the
whole, all selfishness must be eliminated from the lower nature before its
divine state can be reached. 

So long as the smallest personal or selfish desire — even for spiritual
attainment for our own sake — remains, so long is the desired end put off.
Hence the above term "demands of the flesh" really covers also demands that
are not of the flesh, and its proper rendering would be "desires of the
personal nature, including those of the individual soul. "

When systematically trained in accordance with the aforesaid system and law,
men attain to clear insight into the immaterial, spiritual world, and their
interior faculties apprehend truth as immediately and readily as physical
faculties grasp the things of sense, or mental faculties those of reason. 

Or, in the words used by some of them, "They are able to look directly upon
ideas;" and hence their testimony to such truth is as trustworthy as is that
of scientists or philosophers to truth in their respective fields.

In the course of this spiritual training such men acquire perception of, and
control over, various forces in Nature unknown to other men, and thus are
able to perform works usually called "miraculous," though really but the
result of larger knowledge of natural law. What these powers are may be
found in Patanjali's "Yoga Philosophy."

Their testimony as to super-sensuous truth, verified by their possession of
such powers, challenges candid examination from every religious mind.

[ Part 2 to follow ]


(adapted from Theosophical texts.)

Dallas