Theos-Talk Archives (June 2005 Message tt00363)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "W.Dallas TenBroeck" 
<dalval14@e...> wrote:


> I believe the statement exists: "Theosophist is who THEOSOPHY does."
> 
> People may call (or be designated by others) themselves members of 
any sect,
> creed, religion, society, association, country, race, nation, what-
not ---
> they still at heart remain what they truly ARE. I mean, the 
universally
> diffused Higher Self linked to the Higher Mind ( Buddhi-Manas).
> 
> The external veneer or layer, if not penetrated, serves as a 
barrier to true
> understanding. Each one of us, (as I see it) knows who and what we 
are
> morally worth, and this is a secret no one else save the Master 
knows. 
> 
> As you observe, if this Letter 10 has, by internal evidence, the 
quality of
> the Master's mind and hand, then the purely physical means of its 
conveyance
> are secondary matters and if these are considered of significance, 
they may
> divert (in the case of some people) attention from the inner TRUTH.
> 
> Each such "meeting," in my view, is one of the tests of 
the "chela's"
> progress, I believe. May we all succeed and benefit humanity.


Dear Dallas:

Thank you very much once again for your thoughtful reply. If a 
Theosophist, as you mentioned, quoting HPB, is one who DOES 
Theosophy, then he or she may be virtually anywhere and be a member 
of any community, religious or otherwise. Would you agree? I really 
appreciate your emphasis on embodying - living - the teaching. That, 
seems to me, was the essential message HPB was trying to put forth 
towards the end of her life as her messages to the American 
Conventions so clearly show.

Many years ago, when I struggled with Letter 10 - probably because of 
my Christian background - I found a great deal of comfort in the Maha-
Chohan's words. Both M. and K.H., in the MAHATMA LETTERS, acknowledge 
him as their Teacher. This is the passage that seems to complement 
the radical (and inspiring) views expressed in Letter 10:


"For as everyone knows, total emancipation from authority of the one 
all pervading power or law called God by the Theists -- Buddha, 
Divine Wisdom and Enlightenment or Theosophy by the philosophers of 
all ages -- means also the emancipation from that of human law. Once 
unfettered [and] delivered from their dead weight of dogmatic 
interpretations, personal names, anthropomorphic conceptions and 
salaried priests, the fundamental doctrines of all religions will be 
proved identical in their esoteric meaning. Osiris, Chrishna, Buddha, 
Christ, will be shown as different means for one and [the] same royal 
highway to final bliss Nirvana. Mystical christianity, that is to say 
that christianity which teaches self redemption through one's own 
seventh principle -- the liberated Para-atma (Augoeides) called by 
the one Christ, by others Buddha, and equivalent to regeneration or 
rebirth in spirit -- will be found just the same truth as the Nirvana 
of mystical Buddhism. All of us have to get rid of our own Ego, the 
illusory apparent self, to recognise our true self in a 
transcendental divine life."

(http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/mahatma/ml-choh.htm)


Paraphrasing your last sentence, may we all succeed in living 
Theosophy and benefit humanity. Dear Dallas, you are an inspiration.

With every good wish,


pedro