Theos-Talk Archives (February 2006 Message tt00245)

2/13/2006 2:33 AM

Friends: Excellent (see below).

However none of us (and we are all students of the WISDOM RELIGION of which
HPB was transmitter or the "P T R " -- are qualified to voice opinions about
the status and the work of HPB.


THE MASTERS named her their COLLEAGUE.

To us, she is our GURU.  We owe THEOSOPHY to Her sacrifices [sacred acts ] .

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Consider this analogy from antiquity  -- we find it in ISIS UNVEILED, Vol.
II,  pp. 93 :

"One of the principal heroes of the manuscript, who is constantly referred
to as "the Judean Illuminator" or Initiate,  Teleiotes , is made to
communicate but with his Patar; the latter being written in Chaldaic
characters  [ P  T  R ]. Once the latter word is coupled with the name
Shimeon. 

Several times, the "Illuminator," who rarely breaks his contemplative
solitude, is shown inhabiting a  Krupte  (cave), and teaching the multitudes
of eager scholars standing outside, not orally, but through this Patar. 

The latter receives the words of wisdom by applying his ear to a circular
hole in a partition which conceals the teacher from the listeners, and then
conveys them, with explanations and glossaries, to the crowd. This, with a
slight change, was the method used by Pythagoras, who, as we know, never
allowed his neophytes to see him during the years of probation, but
instructed them from behind a curtain in his cave... 

The word Patar or Peter locates both master and disciple in the circle of
initiation, and connects them with the "Secret Doctrine." The great
hierophant of the ancient Mysteries never allowed the candidates to see or
hear him personally. He was the Deus-ex-Machina, the presiding but invisible
Deity, uttering his will and instructions through a second party; and 2,000
years later, we discover that the Dalai-Lamas of Thibet had been following
for centuries the same traditional programme during the most important
religious mysteries of lamaism.  "  	I  U  II  93

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"And now we will try to give a clear insight into one of the chief objects
of this work. 

What we desire to prove is, that underlying every ancient popular religion
was the same ancient wisdom-doctrine, one and identical, professed and
practiced by the initiates of every country, who alone were aware of its
existence and importance. 

To ascertain its origin, and the precise age in which it was matured, is now
beyond human possibility. 

A single glance, however, is enough to assure one that it could not have
attained the marvellous perfection in which we find it pictured to us in the
relics of the various esoteric systems, except after a succession of ages. 

A philosophy so profound, a moral code so ennobling, and practical results
so conclusive and so uniformly demonstrable is not the growth of a
generation, or even a single epoch. 

Fact must have been piled upon fact, deduction upon deduction, science have
begotten science, and myriads of the brightest human intellects have
reflected upon the laws of nature, before this ancient doctrine had taken
concrete shape. 

The proofs of this identity of fundamental doctrine in the old religions are
found in the prevalence of a system of initiation; in the secret sacerdotal
castes who had the guardianship of mystical words of power, and a public
display of a phenomenal control over natural forces, indicating association
with preterhuman beings. 

Every approach to the Mysteries of all these nations was guarded with the
same jealous care, and in all, the penalty of death was inflicted upon
initiates of any degree who divulged the secrets entrusted to them. We have
seen that such was the case in the Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, among
the Chaldean Magi, and the Egyptian hierophants; while with the Hindus, from
whom they were all derived, the same rule has prevailed from time
immemorial. We are left in no doubt upon this point; for the Agrushada
Parikshai says explicitly, "Every initiate, to whatever degree he may
belong, who reveals the great sacred formula, must be put to death." 

Naturally enough, this same extreme penalty was prescribed in all the
multifarious sects and brotherhoods which at different periods have sprung
from the ancient stock. 

We find it with the early Essenes, Gnostics, theurgic Neo-platonists, and
mediaeval philosophers; and in our day, even the Masons perpetuate the
memory of the old obligations in the penalties of throat-cutting,
dismemberment, and disemboweling, with which the candidate is threatened. 

As the Masonic "master's word" is communicated only at "low breath," so the
selfsame precaution is prescribed in the Chaldean Book of Numbers and the
Jewish Mercaba. ...

As we proceed, we will point out the evidences of this identity of vows,
formulas, rites, and doctrines, between the ancient faiths. 

We will also show that not only their memory is still preserved in India,
but also that 
THE SECRET ASSOCIATION IS STILL ALIVE AND AS ACTIVE AS EVER. 

That, after reading what we have to say, it may be inferred that the chief
pontiff and hierophants, the Brahmâtma, is still accessible to those "who
know," though perhaps recognized by another name; and that the ramifications
of his influence extend throughout the world. ...

It is positively absurd to judge the ancients from our own standpoint of
propriety and virtue. ...  When men like Pythagoras, Plato, and Iamblichus,
renowned for their severe morality, took part in the Mysteries, and spoke of
them with veneration, it ill behooves our modern critics to judge them so
rashly upon their merely external aspects. Iamblichus explains the worst;
and his explanation, for an unprejudiced mind, ought to [101] perfectly
plausible. "Exhibitions of this kind," he says, "in the Mysteries were
designed to free us from licentious passions, by gratifying the sight, and
at the same time vanquishing all evil thought, through the awful sanctity
with which these rites were accompanied." * "The wisest and best men in the
Pagan world," adds Dr. Warburton, "are unanimous in this, that the Mysteries
were instituted pure, and proposed the noblest ends by the worthiest means."


In these celebrated rites, although persons of both sexes and all classes
were allowed to take a part, and a participation in them was even
obligatory, very few indeed attained the higher and final initiation. 

The gradation of the Mysteries is given us by Proclus in the fourth book of
his Theology of Plato....

The third part is denominated epopteia or reception. And the fourth, which
is the end and design of the revelation, is the binding of the head and
fixing of the crowns  ‡ . . . whether after this he (the initiated person)
becomes . . . an hierophant or sustains some other part of the sacerdotal
office. But the fifth, which is produced from all these, is friendship and
interior communion with God." ...  There are writers who have often wondered
at the meaning of this claim to a "friendship and interior communion with
God." [ F Note:  "This expression must not be understood literally; for as
in the initiation of certain Brotherhoods it has a secret meaning, hinted at
by Pythagoras, when he describes his feelings after the initiation and tells
that he was crowned by the gods in whose presence he had drunk "the waters
of life" — in Hindu, â-bi-hayât, fount of life. "] ...

[102] From the birth of the solemn and majestic conception of the unrevealed
Deity of the ancient adepts to such caricatured descriptions of him who died
on the Cross for his philanthropic devotion to humanity, long centuries have
intervened...   But, although the Greek epoptai are no more, we have now, in
our own age, a people far more ancient than the oldest Hellenes, who
practice the so-called "preterhuman" gifts to the same extent as did their
ancestors far earlier than the days of Troy. It is to this people that we
draw the attention of the psychologist and philosopher. ...

 There is a pervading tone of conscious superiority, a ring of contempt in
the treatment of Hindu metaphysics, as though the European mind is alone
enlightened enough to polish the rough diamond of the old Sanscrit writers,
and separate right from wrong for the benefit of their descendants. We see
them disputing over the external forms of expression without a conception of
the great vital truths these hide from the profane view. 

"As a rule, the Brahmans," says Jacolliot, "rarely go beyond the class of
grihesta [priests of the vulgar castes] and purahita [exorcisers, divines,
prophets, and evocators of spirits]. And yet, we shall see . . . once that
we have touched upon the question and study of manifestations and phenomena,
that these initiates of the first degree (the lowest) attribute to
themselves, and in appearance possess faculties developed to a degree which
has never been equaled in Europe. As to the initiates of the second and
especially of the third category, they pretend to be enabled to ignore time,
space, and to command life and death." 

Such initiates as these M. Jacolliot did not meet; for, as he says himself,
they only appear on the most solemn occasions, and when the faith of the
multitudes has to be strengthened by phenomena of a superior order. "They
are never seen, either in the neighborhood of, or even inside the temples,
except at the grand quinquennial festival of the fire. On that occasion,
they appear about the middle of the night, on a platform erected in the
centre of the sacred lake, like so many phantoms, and by their conjurations
they illumine the space. A fiery column of light ascends from around them,
rushing from earth to heaven. Unfamiliar sounds vibrate through the air, and
five or six hundred thousand Hindus, gathered from every part of India to
contemplate these demi-gods, throw themselves with their faces buried in the
dust, invoking the souls of their ancestors." [ 104 ] ...  "Never," he says,
"have we succeeded in detecting a single one in the act of deceit." ...

"We unhesitatingly avow that we have not met, either in India or in Ceylon,
a single European, even among the oldest residents, who has been able to
indicate the means employed by these devotees for the production of these
phenomena!"  ..."All that our most diligent inquiries of the Pourohitas
could elicit from them respecting the acts of their superiors (the invisible
initiates of the temples), amounts to very little." ...  [105 ] ...


"Oh Brahma! what is this mystery which takes place every night? . . . When
lying on the matting, with eyes closed, the body is lost sight of, and the
soul escapes to enter into conversation with the Pitris. . . . Watch over
it, O Brahma, when, forsaking the resting body, it goes away to hover over
the waters, to wander in the immensity of heaven, and penetrate into the
dark and mysterious nooks of the valleys and grand forests of the Hymavat! "
(Agroushada Parikshai.) 

   The fakirs, when belonging to some particular temple, never act but under
orders. Not one of them, unless he has reached a degree of extraordinary
sanctity, is freed from the influence and guidance of his guru, his teacher,
who first initiated and instructed him in the mysteries of the occult
sciences. 

Like the subject of the European mesmerizer, the average fakir can never rid
himself entirely of the psychological influence exercised on him by his
guru. Having passed two or three hours in the silence and solitude of the
inner temple in prayer and meditation, the fakir, when he emerges thence, is
mesmerically strengthened and prepared; he produces wonders far more varied
and powerful than before he entered. The "master" has laid his hands upon
him, and the fakir feels strong. 

It may be shown, on the authority of many Brahmanical and Buddhist sacred
books, that there has ever existed a great difference between  [106] adepts
of the higher order, and purely psychological subjects — like many of these
fakirs, who are mediums in a certain qualified sense. True, the fakir is
ever talking of Pitris, and this is natural; for they are his protecting
deities. But are the Pitris disembodied human beings of our race? ."	I U
II pp. 98 -  106 


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Best wishes,

Dallas


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-----Original Message-----
From: carlosaveline 
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2006 4:21 PM
To: 
Subject: The Universe and Us


Dear , .....

If we take HPB's philosophy seriously and at heart, then we have to work
ourselves into something constantly better than we were.

It is a steep, narrow and dangerous, but true,  path to inner peace.

But we can also keep looking at see HPB in her    "shortcomings ?"   only,
and 
forget she was an old woman under pressure, alone in the world, having 
difficulties of all sorts, challenging as a single woman in that 
authoritarian 19th century world all the religious and "scientific" dogmas 
of the day, surrounded by open enemies and false friends, attacked by people

in Spíritualism and in the most different religions, because she showed 
falsehoods in all of them.

This second choice, seeing and perhaps imagining faults in her,  might be a 
cozy, comfortable excuse for us not to try to walk along the steep and 
narrow path to self-knowledge which is indicated by her.

On the other hand, studying and living esoteric philosophy leads us into an 
interesting vibration rate which shows us the real HPB, someone who can 
never he known by mere three-dimensional,  personalistic speculations...

Now, as a matter of fact, from the viewpoint of any reasonable Historian, 
Mr. Vsevolod  Solovyof, Mrs. Eleanor Sidgwick and the Coulombs have, let's 
admit, about the same legitimacy as our more modern "David Green", that 
close friend of Daniel's... if "David" is not a product of Daniel's own 
fertile imagination. Something which  ==== has brilliantly suggested, or 
shown. Time will clarify.

This is a fact, then:  Solovyov, the Coulombs, Eleanor are NO SOURCES with 
regard to HPB.  No decent journalist, no reasonable editor, would publish 
their "materials" about HPB.

And, friends, take away their lies, and there is nothing against her. She 
was morally crucified because she challenged the roots of our colective 
ignorance.

Now, I am not saying that she was, in her lower self, better than any 
sincere and honest average citizen. Yes, she did many   "mistakes ?"   and
in the 
Mahatma Letters we see the Masters defending her from her own errors.  BUT 
-- no ill will. ...

Our main focus in approaching her, though, can also be established in her 
SOUL,  and in her Philosophy,  and in her invitation for us to open our 
minds to a broader picture of the universe and of ourselves...

And that is question of locating in ourselves the place of our infinite 
potentiality.

Best regards,

Carlos.


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