Theos-Talk Archives (January 2006 Message tt00023)

1/2/2006 3:56 AM

Dear Aspasia:

ROUNDS AND RACES was drawn from The OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY by Mr. Judge.
Not mine !  

He is indeed magnificent and The OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY ought to be read and
used by all devoted students. It gives reliable information. It can be
made the basis for talks on almost any subject theosophically considered.  

See also The EPITOME OF THEOSOPHY and SYNTHESIS OF OCCULT SCIENCE, both by
Mr. Judge.

Here is another one to consider:

 
THEOSOPHY GENERALLY STATED

[From the Official Report, World's Parliament of Religions, 1893]
 
THE claim is made that an impartial study of history, religion and
literature will show the existence from ancient times of a great body of
philosophical, scientific and ethical doctrine forming the basis and origin
of all similar thought in modern systems. 

It is at once religious and scientific, asserting that religion and science
should never be separated. It puts forward sublime religious and ideal
teachings, but at the same time shows that all of it can be demonstrated to
reason, and that authority other than that has no place, thus preventing the
hypocrisy which arises from asserting dogmas on authority which no one can
show as resting on reason. 

This ancient body of doctrine is known as the "Wisdom Religion" and was
always taught by adepts or initiates therein who preserve it through all
time. 

Hence, and from other doctrines demonstrated, it is shown that man, being
spirit and immortal, is able to perpetuate his real life and consciousness,
and has done so during all time in the persons of those higher flowers of
the human race who are members of an ancient and high brotherhood who
concern themselves with the soul development of man, held by them to include
every process of evolution on all planes. 

The initiates, being bound by the law of evolution, must work with humanity
as its development permits. Therefore from time to time they give out again
and again the same doctrine which from time to time grows obscured in
various nations and places. This is the wisdom religion, and they are the
keepers of it. 

At times they come to nations as great teachers and "saviours," who only
re-promulgate the old truths and system of ethics. This therefore holds that
humanity is capable of infinite perfection both in time and quality, the
saviours and adepts being held up as examples of that possibility.

>From this living and presently acting body of perfected men H.P.Blavatsky
declared she received the impulse to once more bring forward the old ideas,
and from them also received several keys to ancient and modern doctrines
that had been lost during modern struggles toward civilization, and also
that she was furnished by them with some doctrines really ancient but
entirely new to the present day in any exoteric shape. These she wrote among
the other keys furnished by her to her fellow members and the world at
large. Added, then, to the testimony through all time found in records of
all nations we have this modern explicit assertion that the ancient learned
and humanitarian body of adepts still exists on this earth and takes an
interest in the development of the race.

Theosophy postulates an eternal principle called the unknown, which can
never be cognized except through its manifestations. This eternal principle
is in and is every thing and being; it periodically and eternally manifests
itself and recedes again from manifestation. In this ebb and flow evolution
proceeds and itself is the progress of the manifestation. 

The perceived universe is the manifestation of this unknown, including
spirit and matter, for Theosophy holds that those are but the two opposite
poles of the one unknown principle. They coexist, are not separate nor
separable from each other, or, as the Hindu scriptures say, there is no
particle of matter without spirit, and no particle of spirit without matter.


In manifesting itself the spirit-matter differentiates on seven planes, each
more dense on the way down to the plane of our senses than its predecessor,
the substance in all being the same only differing in degree. Therefore from
this view the whole universe is alive, not one atom of it being in any sense
dead. It is also conscious and intelligent, its consciousness and
intelligence being present on all planes though obscured on this one. 

On this plane of ours the spirit focalizes itself in all human beings who
choose to permit it to do so, and the refusal to permit it is the cause of
ignorance, of sin, of all sorrow and suffering.
In all ages some have come to this high state, have grown to be as gods, are
partakers actively in the work of nature, and go on from century to century
widening their consciousness and increasing the scope of their government in
nature. 

This is the destiny of all beings, and hence at the outset Theosophy
postulates this perfectibility of the race, removes the idea of innate
unregenerable wickedness, and offers a purpose and an aim for life which is
consonant with the longings of the soul and with its real nature, tending at
the same time to destroy pessimism with its companion, despair.

In Theosophy the world is held to be the product of the evolution of the
principle spoken of from the very lowest first forms of life guided as it
proceeded by intelligent perfected beings from other and older evolutions,
and compounded also of the egos or individual spirits for and by whom it
emanates. Hence man as we know him is held to be a conscious spirit, the
flower of evolution, with other and lower classes of egos below him in the
lower kingdoms, all however coming up and destined one day to be on the same
human stage as we now are, we then being higher still. 

Man's consciousness being thus more perfect is able to pass from one to
another of the planes of differentiation mentioned. If he mistakes any one
of them for the reality that he is in his essence, he is deluded; the object
of evolution then is to give him complete self-consciousness so that he may
go on to higher stages in the progress of the universe. 

His evolution after coming on the human stage is for the getting of
experience, and in order to so raise up and purify the various planes of
matter with which he has to do, that the voice of the spirit may be fully
heard and comprehended.

He is a religious being because he is a spirit encased in matter, which is
in turn itself spiritual in essence. Being a spirit he requires vehicles
with which to come in touch with all the planes of nature included in
evolution, and it is these vehicles that make of him an intricate, composite
being, liable to error, but at the same time able to rise above all
delusions and conquer the highest place. He is in miniature the universe,
for he is as spirit, manifesting himself to himself by means of seven
differentiations. 

Therefore is he known in Theosophy as a sevenfold being. The Christian
division of body, soul, and spirit is accurate so far as it goes, but will
not answer to the problems of life and nature, unless, as is not the case,
those three divisions are each held to be composed of others, which would
raise the possible total to seven. 

The spirit stands alone at the top, next comes the spiritual soul or Buddhi
as it is called in Sanskrit. This partakes more of the spirit than any below
it, and is connected with Manas or mind, these three being the real trinity
of man, the imperishable part, the real thinking entity living on the earth
in the other and denser vehicles by its evolution. 

Below in order of quality is the plane of the desires and passions shared
with the animal kingdom, unintelligent, and the producer of ignorance
flowing from delusion. It is distinct from the will and judgment, and must
therefore be given its own place. 

On this plane is gross life, manifesting, not as spirit from which it
derives its essence, but as energy and motion on this plane. It being common
to the whole objective plane and being everywhere, is also to be classed by
itself, the portion used by man being given up at the death of the body. 

Then last, before the objective body, is the model or double of the outer
physical case. This double is the astral body belonging to the astral plane
of matter, not so dense as physical molecules, but more tenuous and much
stronger, as well as lasting. It is the original of the body permitting the
physical molecules to arrange and show themselves thereon, allowing them to
go and come from day to day as they are known to do, yet ever retaining the
fixed shape and contour given by the astral double within. 

These lower four principles or sheaths are the transitory perishable part of
man, not himself, but in every sense the instrument he uses, given up at the
hour of death like an old garment, and rebuilt out of the general reservoir
at every new birth. 

The trinity is the real man, the thinker, the individuality that passes from
house to house, gaining experience at each rebirth, while it suffers and
enjoys according to its deeds - it is the one central man, the living
spirit-soul.

Now this spiritual man, having always existed, being intimately concerned in
evolution, dominated by the law of cause and effect, because in himself he
is that very law, showing moreover on this plane varieties of force of
character, capacity, and opportunity, his very presence must be explained,
while the differences noted have to be accounted for. 

The doctrine of reincarnation does all this. It means that man as a thinker,
composed of soul, mind and spirit, occupies body after body in life after
life on the earth which is the scene of his evolution, and where he must,
under the very laws of his being, complete that evolution, once it has been
begun. In any one life he is known to others as a personality, but in the
whole stretch of eternity he is one individual, feeling in himself an
identity not dependent on name, form, or recollection.

This doctrine is the very base of Theosophy, for it explains life and
nature. It is one aspect of evolution, for as it is re-embodiment in
meaning, and as evolution could not go on without re-embodiment, it is
evolution itself, as applied to the human soul. 

But it is also a doctrine believed in at the time given to Jesus and taught
in the early ages of Christianity, being now as much necessary to that
religion as it is to any other to explain texts, to reconcile the justice of
God with the rough and merciless aspect of nature and life to most mortals,
and to throw a light perceptible by reason on all the problems that vex us
in our journey through this world. 

The vast, and under any other doctrine unjust, difference between the savage
and the civilized man as to both capacity, character, and opportunity can be
understood only through this doctrine, and coming to our own stratum the
differences of the same kind may only thus be explained. It vindicates
Nature and God, and removes from religion the blot thrown by men who have
postulated creeds which paint the creator as a demon. 

Each man's life and character are the outcome of his previous lives and
thoughts. Each is his own judge, his own executioner, for it is his own hand
that forges the weapon which works for his punishment, and each by his own
life reaches reward, rises to heights of knowledge and power for the good of
all who may be left behind him. 

Nothing is left to chance, favor, or partiality, but all is under the
governance of law. Man is a thinker, and by his thoughts he makes the causes
for woe or bliss; for his thoughts produce his acts. He is the centre for
any disturbance of the universal harmony, and to him as the centre the
disturbance must return so as to bring about equilibrium, for nature always
works towards harmony. 

Man is always carrying on a series of thoughts, which extend back to the
remote past, continually making action and reaction. He is thus responsible
for all his thoughts and acts, and in that his complete responsibility is
established; his own spirit is the essence of this law and provides for ever
compensation for every disturbance and adjustment for all effects. 

This is the law of Karma or justice, sometimes called the ethical law of
causation. It is not foreign to the Christian scriptures, for both Jesus and
St. Paul clearly enunciated it. Jesus said we should be judged as we gave
judgment and should receive the measure meted to others. St. Paul said:
"Brethren, be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth
that also shall he reap." And that sowing and reaping can only be possible
under the doctrines of Karma and reincarnation.

But what of death and after? Is heaven a place or is it not? Theosophy
teaches, as may be found in all sacred books, that after death the soul
reaps a rest. This is from its own nature. It is a thinker, and cannot
during life fulfill and carry out all nor even a small part of the myriads
of thoughts entertained.

Hence when at death it casts off the body and the astral body, and is
released from the passions and desires, its natural forces have immediate
sway and it thinks its thoughts out on the soul plane, clothed in a finer
body suitable to that existence. This is called Devachan. It is the very
state that has brought about the descriptions of heaven common to all
religions, but this doctrine is very clearly put in the Buddhist and Hindu
religions. 

It is a time of rest, because the physical body being absent the
consciousness is not in the completer touch with visible nature which is
possible on the material plane. But it is a real existence, and no more
illusionary than earth life; it is where the essence of the thoughts of life
that were as high as character permitted, expands and is garnered by the
soul and mind. When the force of these thoughts is fully exhausted the soul
is drawn back once more to earth, to that environment which is sufficiently
like unto itself to give it the proper further evolution. 

This alternation from state to state goes on until the being rises from
repeated experiences above ignorance, and realizes in itself the actual
unity of all spiritual beings. Then it passes on to higher and greater steps
on the evolutionary road.

No new ethics are presented by Theosophy, as it is held that right ethics
are for ever the same. But in the doctrines of Theosophy are to be found the
philosophical and reasonable basis for ethics and the natural enforcement of
them in practice. Universal brotherhood is that which will result in doing
unto others as you would have them do unto you, and in your loving your
neighbour as yourself - declared as right by all teachers in the great
religions of the world.

WILLIAM Q JUDGE Lucifer, December, 1893
 
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Best wishes for 2006 

and may 

Athens UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS prosper and grow,
you have a good list of monthly lectures outlined.  

How are the study classes going ?


Dallas

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-----Original Message-----
From: Aspasia [mailto:aspasia@theosophy.gr] 
Sent: Monday, January 02, 2006 3:42 AM
To: 
Subject: Athens U L T  


Dear Dal,

In return to your wishes for the New Year I also wish you all the best

Your latest email, 31/12/05, on "Rounds And Races" is magnificent.