Theos-Talk Archives (May 2005 Message tt00372)

May 12 2005

Dear K:

Many thanks for help. I had hoped for something more substantial. -- some
documents ? Not just an "educated" guess -- well is it worth perpetuating?

At that rate everything is suspect -- but of course it ought to be, as no
one ought to take anything on "authority" or on "faith." 

Separately I am posting some quotes on "authority." 

I think we ought to spend our time on learning. Criticism is necessary when
logic fails.

In this case I've read the Bowen notes on the SECRET DOCTRINE study many
times -- and I have followed them and recommended them -- they always
seemed to be a reasonable recommendation, such as HPB might make. 

Best wishes as always,

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

THE SECRET DOCTRINE: PURPOSE, LAYOUT, VALUE



A NOTE:


>From its Title Page the scope of The Secret Doctrine is indicated. It is
not "a," nor "the," but, "The Synthesis of Science, Religion and
Philosophy." It is not synthetic, but relying on universal Law, it
demonstrates and shows the adjustment of observed effects to primal and
metaphysical causes.

It offers unification of knowledge, a knowledge obtained by the use of the
senses physical and super-physical, and the power of observation on many
planes more subtle than the physical or the astral. [Therefore, we need to
sharpen our power to observe around and inside of ourselves.]  

"The Soul is the Perceiver, and looks directly on ideas." (Patanjali) Being
central in each individual, everything moves around it. It observes,
considers and records. It notes the deductive processes of the mind and the
inductive results of intuition at work, and draws them into a united,
living, and consistent whole. It sifts through detail and seeks the cause,
the core of events, and handles the value of opinions. It deals with
purposes and powers, with thoughts and urgings, with joys and sorrows,
always seeking the "Why ?" of things.

The propositions of philosophy science and religion assembled by HPB in The
Secret Doctrine do not clash, but blend into a harmonious whole at all
points. In this way we receive one more proof of the fact (as claimed on SD
I 272-3), that this book is an historical report of the observations made,
tested and verified by an enormous number of researchers who have labored
together or separately in all ages, from the dimmest of pasts up to and
including the present, in every department of nature, visible and invisible.

It proceeds from an observation of both the metaphysics and the actual
process of the development of the Universal, to the details of the physical
and the personal realities. The whole reveals the relation of the many
parts to each other and to IT. In addition it reveals the lines of force,
the energies and powers that actuate those subjective planes we call the
psychic, the volitional, and the spiritual, or ideal. "As above, so below,"
is seen to operate as analogy and correspondence in its multitude of
applications here. This is the method of teaching used in all ancient
esoteric schools.  

Both the inductive and the deductive systems of reasoning are found
interblended, as they are inseparable, just as a magnet has polar opposites,
so exist Spirit, eternally indispensable to matter. A grasp of the
implications of the Pythagorean Decad gives a key that can be applied
everywhere in understanding the Secret Doctrine [ see SD I p. 200 ].
Analogy is said to be a sure clue--a guiding thread that leads the pupil to
understand Nature's economy. "Analogy is the guiding law in Nature, the
only true Ariadne's thread that can lead us, through the inextricable paths
of her domain, towards the primal and final mysteries." SD II 153

"From Gods to man, from Worlds to atoms, from a star to a rush light, from
the Sun or the vital heat of the meanest organic being--the world of Form
and Existence is an immense chain, whose links are all connected. The law
of Analogy is the first key to the world-problem, and those links have to be
studied coordinately in their occult relations to each other."	SD I 604


Although HPB repeatedly disclaims any completeness in her writing and
presentation, the salvation of the reader lies in the paradoxical fact that
it is complete in its incompleteness. The faithful student, applying
everywhere the law of analogy and correspondence, and bearing in mind the
relations of the "principles" in man to nature, will grasp the most
difficult concepts without trouble. But an understanding of those
fundamentals has to be secured: the "Three" "fundamentals" [SD I 14-19],
and the "7" "principles" of man and nature. [SD I 157, II 593,
596]


QUOTATIONS FROM HPB:


"The Secret Doctrine merely asserts that a system known as the Wisdom
Religion, the work of generations of adepts and seers, the sacred heirloom
of pre-historic times--actually exists, though hitherto preserved in the
greatest secrecy by the present Initiates; and it points to various
corroborations of its existence to this very day, to be found in ancient and
modern works. Giving a few fragments only, it there shows how these explain
the religious dogmas of the present day, and how they might serve Western
religions, philosophies and science, as sign-posts along the untrodden paths
of discovery. The work is essentially fragmentary, giving statements of
sundry facts taught in the esoteric schools--kept, so far, secret--by which
the ancient symbolism of various nations is interpreted. It does not even
give the keys to it, but merely opens a few of the hitherto secret drawers.

No new philosophy is set up in the Secret Doctrine, only the hidden meaning
of some of the religious allegories of antiquity is given, light being
thrown on these by the esoteric sciences, and the common source is pointed
out, whence all the world-religions and philosophies have sprung.

Its chief attempt is to show, that however divergent the respective
doctrines and systems of old may seem on their external or objective side,
the agreement between all becomes perfect, so soon as the esoteric or inner
side of these beliefs and their symbology is examined and a careful
comparison is made.
 

It is also maintained that its doctrines and sciences, which form an
integral cycle of universal cosmic facts and metaphysical axioms and truths,
represent a complete and unbroken system; and that he who is brave and
persevering enough, ready to crush the animal in himself, and forgetting the
human self, sacrifices it to his Higher Ego, can always find his way to
become initiated into these mysteries.  

This is all the Secret Doctrine claims.

Are not a few facts and self-evident truths, found in these volumes--all the
literary defects of the exposition notwithstanding--truths already proved
practically to some, better than the most ingenious "working" hypotheses,
liable to be upset any day, than the unexplainable mysteries of religious
dogmas, or the most seemingly profound philosophical speculations ? Can the
grandest among these speculations be really profound...when they are limited
and conditioned by their author's brain-mind, hence dwarfed and
crippled...cut down to fit limited sensuous perceptions, which will not
allow the intellect to go beyond their enchanted circle?..." 
--HPB-The Babel of Modern Thought - HPB Art III 44-5


[ HPB gives Sinnett the purpose and plan of the SD. ]
HPB to APS, p. 88-9

"The Secret Doctrine will explain many things, set to right more than one
perplexed student."	ML 289


"The Secret Doctrine is not a treatise, or a series of vague theories, but
contains all that can be given out to the world in this century."	SD I
xxxviii


"These truths are in no sense put forward as a revelation; nor does the
author claim the position of a revealer of mystic lore. now made public for
the first time in the world's history."	SD I vii

"Is it a new religion, we are asked? By no means; it is not a religion,
nor is its philosophy new...it is as old as thinking man. Its tenets are
not now published for the first time, but have been cautiously given out to,
and taught by, more than one European Initiate--especially by the late
Ragon."	SD I xxxvi


" The latter," The Secret Doctrine "though giving out many fundamental
tenets from the Secret Doctrine of the East, raise but a small corner of the
dark veil. For no one, not even the greatest living adept, would be
permitted to, or could--even if he would--give out promiscuously, to a
mocking, unbelieving world, that which has been so effectually concealed
from it for long aeons and ages."	SD I xvi
 

"...it is perhaps desirable to state unequivocally that the teachings,
however fragmentary and incomplete, contained in these volumes, belong
neither to the Hindu, the Zoroastrian, the Chaldean nor Christianity
exclusively. The Secret Doctrine is the essence of all these. Sprung from
it in their origins, the various religious schemes are not made to merge
back into their original element, out of which every mystery and dogma has
grown, developed, and become materialized."	SD I viii


"If coming events are said to cast their shadows before, past events cannot
fail to leave their impress behind them. It is, then by those shadows of
the hoary Past and their fantastic silhouettes on the external screen of
religion and philosophy, that we can, by checking them as we go along, and
comparing them, trace out finally the body that produced them. There must
be truth and fact in that which every people of antiquity accepted and made
the foundation of its religions and its faith."	SD II 794


"For in the 20th century of our era scholars will begin to recognize that
the S D has neither been invented nor exaggerated, but on the contrary,
simply outlined; and finally, that its teachings antedate the Vedas."	SD I
xxxvii


"It is only in the XXth century that portions, if not the whole, of the
present work will be vindicated."	SD II 442


"We give facts, and show land-marks: let the wayfarer follow them. What is
given here is amply sufficient for this century."	SD II 742


HPB's Preface to the Voice of the Silence: "The work which I here translate
forms part of the same series as that from which the "Stanzas" of the Book
of Dzyan were taken, on which the Secret Doctrine is based." Voice p. i


	
AUTHORSHIP OF THE S D 


"I have also noted your thoughts about the Secret Doctrine. Be assured
that what she has not annotated from scientific and other works, we have
given or suggested to her. Every mistake or erroneous notion, corrected and
explained by her from the works of other Theosophists was corrected by me or
under my instructions. It is a more valuable work than its predecessor, an
epitome of occult truths that will make it a source of information and
instruction for the earnest student for long years to come."
--K.H. Letters from the Masters of Wisdom, 1st Series, p. 54
[see also Path, Vol. 8, p. 1]
 

[HPB on the method of seeing the SD references in the Astral 
Light.]	HPB to APS, Letters, p. 194-5
[ see also Path, Vol. 9, pp 266-270, 297-302 ]



S D AND OCCULTISM


"...this work is written for the instruction of students of Occultism."
SD I 23


"An adept must refuse to impart the conditions and means that lead to a
correlations of elements, whether psychic or physical, that may produce a
hurtful result as well as a beneficent one. But he is ever ready to impart
to the earnest student the secret of the ancient thought in anything that
regards history concealed under mythological symbolism, and thus to furnish
a few more land-marks towards a retrospective view of the past, as
containing useful information with regard to the origin of man, the
evolution of the races and geognosy...a mass of facts is given in the
present work. And now the origin of man, the evolution of the globe and the
races, human and animal, are as fully treated here as the writer is able to
treat them." S D I 306-7



ANTIQUITY OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE


"The Secret Doctrine [not the book] was the universally diffused religion of
the ancient and prehistoric world." SD I xxxvi


[ HPB claims incredible antiquity for SD sources.  
SD II 438-9, 449, 200-201, ]



STUDYING THE S D


HPB on method of instruction used in the SD	SD II 81



AUTHORITY IN THEOSOPHY


"As all Theosophists have to be judged by their deeds and not by what they
may write or say, so all Theosophical books must be accepted on their
merits, and not according to any claim to authority which they may put
forward."
Key, p. 300


"It is above everything important to keep in mind that no theosophical book
acquires the least additional value from pretended authority."	SD I xix


"...there are proofs of a certain character which become irrefutable and are
undeniable in the long run, to every earnest and unprejudiced mind...such
were offered to her [HPB]...But, this is the personal view of the writer;
and her orthodoxy cannot be expected to have any more weight than any other
"doxy."...Therefore are we, Occultists, fully prepared for such questions as
these: "How does he know that the writer has not invented the whole scheme?
And supposing she has not, how can one tell that the whole foregoing [scheme
of evolution--Rounds, Globes, Races, etc...], as given in the Stanzas, is
not the product of the imagination of the ancients? How could they have
preserved the records of such an immense, such an incredible antiquity? The
answer that the history of the world since its formation and to its end "is
written in the stars," i.e., is recorded in the Zodiac and the Universal
Symbolism whose keys are in the keeping of the Initiates, will hardly
satisfy the doubters...So are our data based upon the same readings [of the
Assyrian tiles, cuneiform fragments, and Egyptian hieroglyphics], in
addition to the almost inexhaustible number of Secret works of which Europe
knows nothing--plus the perfect knowledge by the initiates of the symbolism
of every word so recorded..."	S D II 438-9


"To the mentally lazy or obtuse, Theosophy must remain a riddle; for in the
world mental as in the world spiritual each man must progress by his own
efforts. The writer cannot do the reader's thinking for him, nor would the
latter be any the better off if such vicarious thought were possible."
Key, Preface. 



2nd AND 3rd VOLUMES OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


"Two years ago, the writer promised in the S D [ Vol. II, p. 798], a third
and even a fourth volume of that work. This third volume (now almost ready)
treats of the ancient Mysteries of Initiation, gives sketches--from the
esoteric stand-point--of many of the most famous and historically known
philosophers and hierophants...from the archaic down to the Christian era,
and traces the teachings of all these sages to one and the same source of
all knowledge and science--the esoteric doctrine of Wisdom Religion...Now
the main point of Vol. III of the S D is to prove by tracing the blinds in
the works of ancient Indian, Greek, and other philosophers of note, and also
in all the ancient Scriptures --the presence of an uninterrupted esoteric
allegorical method and symbolism; to show, as far as lawful, that with the
keys of interpretation as taught in the Eastern Hindu-Buddhistic Canon of
Occultism, the Upanishads, the Puranas, the Sutras, the Epic poems of India
and Greece, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Scandinavian Eddas, as well
as the Hebrew Bible, and even the classical writings of Initiates (such as
Plato, among others)--all, from first to last, yield a meaning quite
different from their dead-letter texts. That is flatly denied by some of
the foremost scholars of the day. They have not got the key, ergo--no such
keys can exist..."	HPB Art. II 80-81
"The Negators of Science" Lucifer April 1891



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


AVAILABLE AIDS TO STUDYING THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


Index	a separate book

Theosophical Glossary	Explains Words used in Theosophy
and ancient language terms 

Isis Unveiled	should first be read as it gives a
survey of evidence which is
developed in the SD.

Index to Isis	Separate book

Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge	
covers questions asked of HPB by her students 
for the first 200 pages

Studies in The SECRET DOCTRINE (2 Vols)	
Series of articles first published
in Theosophy Vols. 11, 12, 13.
In Theosophical Movement V. 5, 6,
29, 30, 31 (now in a book)

Articles on the Study of the SD

"Authorship of the SD"	HPB and 2 Mahatmas	
WQJ Art II 57
[ Path, Vol. 8, p. 1 ]

"A Word on the SD"	WQJ Art II 60

"Esoteric Buddhism & the SD"	.	.	HPB Art III 18

"Mistaken Notions on the SD"	.	.	HPB Art I 485

"Hidden Hints in the SD"	
articles by WQJ - end of Vol. 1 of
WQJ Articles. Covers points
of special interest in first 
220 pages of Vol. 1. 

"Seeming Discrepancies"	.	.	HPB Art I 488
"The Babel of Modern Thought"	.	HPB Art III 35
"My Books".	.	.	.	.	HPB Art I 475
"Science and the SD"	.	.	Series in Theosophy
"Isis and the SD"	.	.	.	Thy 6, p. 179
HPB's Method in the SD	.	.	Thy 22, p. 217

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


HPB's Mission and Work


In musing over these pages, one may feel this discloses one of the important
aspects of HPB's mission and work:

A gap had been created in Europe between the wisdom of antiquity and the
knowledge that has been recorded in the West following the Renaissance in
the 13-14th Century in the effort to overthrow the bonds of creedalism and
dogmatism placed by the Church on the West.

She shows that our modern knowledge suffers from this information gap, and
in Isis and the S D as well as in her many articles, she shows its root
preservation is in records kept in the Orient. 

To create this 1,000 year gap, between the 3rd to the 14th Centuries,
fanatics of Christianity and Islam, systematically sought for and destroyed
any records they could find relating to the wisdom of antiquity. Europe,
and America her child, lost their traditional and ancestral lore by this
process.  

Platonism, alone, served as a guide beacon in the West as a counter-balance
to blind dogmatism and materialism. Periodically we can trace its return in
the Neo-Platonists, the Florentine Renaissance, the Cambridge Platonists and
the Transcendentalists of New England, and finally the Theosophists of this
century.

A knowledge of the moral factor had to be restored to psychology. As a
basis for the freedom of the individual. And this led to a consideration of
the Fundamental Truths, Karma, Reincarnation and Brotherhood.

HPB's mission is the restoration of this link, the establishing of a bridge
of understanding between modern thought based on observation of our physical
and psychic environment, and the ancient source- record of scientific
thought, study and work preserved in the East.  

For this reason, HPB starts the SD with an exposition of the Fundamentals
and the sequence of development starting on metaphysical planes at the onset
of evolution. One may surmise that those fundamentals are analogous to
processes proceeding first, in Kosmos, in a Solar System (Cosmos), in a
human, and in the Monad, or "life-atomic" entity.  

She declares that the source of the information offered is the archaic
heritage of all mankind.

DTB

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

-----Original Message-----

From: Katinka Hesselink [mailto:katinka_hesselink@yahoo.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 5:42 AM
To: dalval14@earthlink.net; Daniel Caldwel
Subject: RE: Theos-World The Bowen Notes and Dallas's request

Hi Dallas,

If I had them, they would be online. I haven't heard from
Barry since the TH conference in 2001. As it is there are
merely some doubts about whether the text is real. But
given the quality of the text in question I personally feel
that those doubts need to be substantiated. 

Henk Spierenburg felt that it wasn't surprising that there
wasn't an original to these notes, because the Irish
theosophists had removed all material not directly related
to defending W.Q. Judge. (this quote is by memory) 

All in all, just because proof is absent, doesn't mean the
source isn't HPB. 

I think it would take someone who has knowledge of how the
English language has evolved since the 1890's up to the
1930's to make a reasonable educated guess. But even if the
text as published was edited to have more upto date English
- that still doesn't mean the content wasn't originally
notes made by the elder Bowen. Finding out whether the
specific translation (or rewrite) of the Hermetic Axiom in
the Bowen-text has been found anywhere else before this
pamphlet was published might also make dating it possible
(or more likely). Can Bowen be placed in London and around
HPB? 

More questions than answers, unfortunately. 

Best wishes,
Katinka Hesselink 

(and feel free to post this to whatever mailinglist you may
feel it is relevant for)
--- "W.Dallas TenBroeck" <dalval14@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Thanks Daniel
> 
> Dal
> 
> 
> =================================
> 
> Dear KATINKA   
> 
> MAY I HAVE A COPY ? of
> Barry Thompson's research on the Bowen notes.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Dal
> 
> ==========