Theos-Talk Archives (October 2005 Message tt00110)

Oct 20 2005

Dear Steve:


Excellent thoughts . Thanks.


I was running over some notes on the SECRET DOCTRINE and noted these: 

seemed appropriate to our talks


Have you noticed the following important points made there ?


"Devotion" the first and foremost motor in his nature, for it is the only
one that is natural in our heart, which is innate in us...This feeling of
irrepressible, instinctive aspiration in primitive man..." " Read: The
Great Sacrifice" ( S D I 207-8) SD I 210

THE AIM OF The SECRET DOCTRINE IS  
 
            
1. That: Nature is not a "fortuitous concurrence of atoms.

2. to Assign to Man his rightful place.

3. to Rescue archaic Truths from degradation.
- basis of all Religions.

4. to Uncovers their fundamental Unity of origin.

5. the Occult side of Nature has never been approached by our
Science.
S D I viii [ see HPB Art II 48-50 ]    
 
 
"It is the Spiritual evolution of the inner, immortal man that forms the
fundamental tenet in the Occult Sciences."	SD I 634
  
"Initial existence...is a conscious spiritual quality." SD I 289
  
"The closer the approach to one's Prototype, "in Heaven," the better for the
mortal whose personality was chosen by his own personal deity (the seventh
principle), as its terrestrial abode. For, with every effort of will
towards purification and unity with that "Self-god," one of the lower rays
breaks and the spiritual entity of man is drawn higher and ever higher to th
ray that supersedes the first, until, from ray to ray, the inner man is
drawn into the one and highest beam of the Parent Sun." SD I 638-9
  
 
"...the first fundamental dogma of Occultism is Universal Unity (or
Homogeneity) under three aspects." [SPIRIT, ASTRAL SOUL, and PHYSICAL
MATTER] SECRET DOCTRINE i 58
  
"Esoteric Philosophy teaches that every thing lives and is conscious, but
not that all life and consciousness are similar to those of human or even
animal beings. Life we look upon as the one form of existence."
SD I 49
  
"...circular motion, a fundamental dogma... SD I 116-7
  
"...a fundamental law in Occultism, that there is no rest or cessation of
motion in Nature..." SD I 97
  
"Space, however viewed--...is as the "Unknown Causeless Cause," is the
oldest dogma in Occultism." SD I 9
 
" Nature abhors a vacuum..." SD I 495
  
"The radical unity of the ultimate essence of each constituent part of the
compounds of Nature--from Star to mineral Atom, from the highest Dhyan
Chohan to the smallest infusoria--this is the one fundamental law in Occult
Science." SD I 120
  
"There is no "chance" in Nature, wherein everything is mathematically
co-ordinate and mutually related in its units." [see SD I 97 ] SD
I 653
  
"...it is...a fundamental principle of Occult philosophy, the same
homogeneity of matter, and immortality of natural law..."	SD I
640
  
"...perfect analogy, as a fundamental law in Occultism."	SD
I 586fn
  
"The Occultist sees in the manifestation of every force in Nature, the
action of the quality, or the special characteristic of its noumenon, which
noumenon is a distinct and intelligent Individuality on the other side of
the manifested mechanical Universe." SD I 493
  
"Metaphysically and esoterically there is but One Element in Nature, and at
the root of it is the Deity." SD I 460
  
"Occult Science has its changeless traditions from prehistoric times. It
may err in particulars; it can never become guilty of a mistake in
questions of Universal laws." SD I 516
  
"It is on the doctrine of the illusive nature of matter and the infinite
divisibility of the atom, that the whole science of Occultism is built."
SD I 520
  
"The homogeneous primordial Element is simple and single only on the
terrestrial plane of consciousness and sensation, since matter, after all,
is nothing else than the sequence of our own states of consciousness, and
Spirit an idea of psychic intuition." SD I 542
  
"Collectively, men are the handiwork of hosts of various spirits,
distributively, the tabernacles of those hosts, and occasionally, and
singly, the vehicles of some of them." SD I 224
  
   
In musing over the early pages in The Secret Doctrine, one may find how this
discloses one of the important aspects of HPB's mission and work:
 
A gap of about 1,000 years had been created in Europe, beginning around the
3rd Century, between the wisdom of antiquity, and the increment in knowledge
that has been studied ever more freely and recorded in the West, following
the Renaissance in the 13-14th Century, when a concerted effort was made to
effect the overthrow of the bonds of creedalism and dogmatism placed by the
Church on the European nations and their successors.
 
HPB 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 that its
preservation is in actual "root" records and these have been kept secure in
the Orient. 
 
To create this 1,000 year gap, between the 3rd to the 14th Centuries,
fanatics of Christianity and Islam, securing "political sanction" for the
destruction of the records of ancient science and philosophy, systematically
sought for and destroyed any records they could find relating to the ancient
wisdom. Europe, and America her child, lost the benefit of the transmission
of this traditional, ancestral lore.  
 
Platonism, alone, served as a beacon guide in the "West," and as a
counter-balance to blind dogmatism and materialism. Periodically we can
trace its cyclic return starting with the Neo-Platonists, then, 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, based on the Perennial Philosophy had to be
restored to psychology. This, when understood, serves as a basis for the
freedom of the mind of every individual. And this led to a search for and a
consideration of the Fundamental Truths: Universal Unity, and Universal
Causation; persistence of individual Egoic consciousness--the immortality
intuition; universal equity, law and justice; in brief: Fundamental Unity
of all in ALL, Karma, Reincarnation and Universal 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, psychic and spiritual environment, and the ancient source--record
of scientific thought, study and work preserved in the World, particularly
in the "East" with respect to Europe, where the fresh wave of civilization
rises.
 
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 the great and universal, invisible Kosmos,
and these are found mirrored in every Solar System or Cosmos, then in every
man-bearing World, in every independent human Mind (Manas), and finally in
the living, intelligent "building blocks" of all Nature: the Monad, or
"life-atom" entity.  
 
She declares that the source of the information offered is the archaic
heritage of all mankind and of every human being.
 
 
"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."
SECRET DOCTRINE I 604
 
  
"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 not 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
 
    
"The Secret Doctrine will explain many things, set to right more than one
perplexed student."         
M L 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
  
" 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
  
"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
  
"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
 
"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. Look up what is written on
pages: SECRET DOCTRINE I 272-3, SECRET DOCTRINE II 438-9, 449,
200-201.
  
"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
  
"...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
  
"...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..." 
SD II 438-9
 
 
"Draw a deep line in your thought between that ever incognizable essence,
and the, as invisible, yet comprehensible Presence (Mulaprakriti), or
Schekinah, from beyond and through which vibrates the Sound of the Verbum,
and from which evolve the numberless hierarchies of intelligent Egos, of
conscious as of semi-conscious, perceptive and apperceptive Beings, whose
essence is spiritual Force, whose Substance is the Elements and whose Bodies
(when needed) are the atoms--and our doctrine is there...reality in the
manifested world is composed of a unity of units, so to say,
immaterial...and infinite..." SD I 629

Best wishes, 

Dallas
 

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



-----Original Message-----
From: Steven 
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 6:25 AM
To: 
Subject: [bn-study] RE: Theosophy - Religion and Authority SCOPE

Dal/Gerry

I think, as you, that Gerald's request for honesty is a valued thing. 
But, I know that he misconstrues the actions and essays of students for 
Natural pre-existent Truth. 


That is, and as you say, why can't there be a lodge of beings as HPB
proposes, and in fact nature must arrive at that if we follow its (Natures)
workings to their natural conclusions. 


That, and why can't there be an all consuming Truth, which Nature must
include as regards 
her workings, which there must be. Its name just happens to be Theosophy in 
our time (as tiresome that may be for some)

The issue regarding Theosophy in our time and perhaps all times, is; how

well can students maintain the original vision and Truth of such a Movement?

But their inability to do that does not condemn the original outpouring to 
invalidity. 


It only makes it difficult for such a Movement to spread and be 
unpresumptuously known through its faulty professors. 


But, because such a 
Lodge of Mahatmas and the wisdom they know does exist, no matter how faulty 
our awareness through the error of our ways, that movement of theirs will 
always have a core around which to continuously reform new outward 
movements.

This is not some overly exaggerated sense of optimism. This situation 
has been this way and always will, which knowledge is easily discernable 
through clear and open minded study.

Steve

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