Theos-Talk Archives (March 2006 Message tt00685)

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BROTHERHOOD, TRUE AND FALSE

Carlos Cardoso Aveline

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Dear Friends,

Big things reflect themselves in smaller ones, and even now every student 
can have a taste of real discipleship if he TRIES to live up to the 
teaching.  Yet consciously or unconsciously many prefer to ignore the fact 
that the way to true learning  is a dangerous path. Fear, love for comfort 
and attachment to  routine usually cover themselves with beautiful ideas. 
When  the sacred path is transformed into something to be seen by others, 
people give priority to outer quietness. Then  the student may fall into the 
theosophical variety of quietism, which is kindly defined in the Mahatma 
Letters as “that utter paralysis of the soul”. (1)

Esoteric “quietists” cannot understand the vast opportunities present  even 
in the outer regions of  the probationary path, which leads to real 
knowledge. As a consequence,  they usually refuse to defend those who are 
unjustly attacked.

When they hear that HPB’s work faces new and great dangers in the first 
decade of the 21st century,  and that the libels made against her in the 
19th century  have been recently adopted as true by a couple of 
“theosophical” editors or “scholars”,  they naively shrug their shoulders. 
They think it has nothing to do with them or  with their spiritual learning.

Perhaps these outwardly peaceful souls try to locate themselves above every 
“mundane”, conflicting issue. They certainly deserve a chance to follow  
their fancies. For those who will defend truth, though, there is the 
tremendous potentiality of referring their lives in a more direct way to the 
sacred teachings which they study, and to the sacred source of those 
teachings.

No doubt, such a direct combination of theory and practice is dangerous. To 
be peaceful is one thing: to seem peaceful is another, entirely different 
one. To be spiritual is often to seem un-spiritual.The deceiving contrast 
between outer image and inner reality makes every flower along the way hide 
at least one or two thorns which can easily make the pilgrim bleed. “The 
Voice of the Silence” says of such a learning : “The name of Hall the second 
is the Hall of [Probationary] Learning. In it thy Soul will find the 
blossoms of life, but under every flower a serpent is coiled.” (2)

Indeed, the outer, easy way is the false one. It is the inner motives and 
intentions that determine which way we are going. Hence soft words are often 
the instrument of hypocrisy. In one of his New Testament lessons, the gentle 
Master Jesus helps us understand H.P. Blavatsky’s teachings on the need for 
us to defend Truth against liars, instead of doing our best to look like 
saints in  the eyes of others:

“How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! 
You clean the outside of your cup and plate, while the inside is full of  
what you have obtained by violence and selfishness. Blind Pharisee! Clean 
what is inside the cup first, and then the outside will be clean too!”(Mt, 
23: 25-26)

Those who find HPB’s manners too aggressive should regularly come back to 
these strong words of Jesus, who is often misrepresented as a man capable of 
 using only kind words:

“How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! 
You are like whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside but are full 
of bones and decaying corpses on the inside. In the same way, on the outside 
you appear good to everybody, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and 
sins.”(Mt, 23: 27-28)

Thus we can start to understand the profound difference between the outward 
show of  peace continuously staged by all kinds of “whitewashed tombs” – 
theosophical or not – and the inner spiritual probation faced by those who 
volunteer to make some real self-sacrifice. Perhaps that is the reason why 
in the “Mahatma Letters” students are invited to act like “spiritual 
warriors” (3).


Best regards,   Carlos Cardoso Aveline.

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NOTES:

(1) T.U.P.  edition, Pasadena, 1992, Letter XXVII,  p. 210.

(2) As to the Hall, in the main  text the expression is “The Hall of 
Learning”. But in a footnote H.P.B. explains it is “The Hall of Probationay 
Learning”. See The Voice of the Silence, translated and annotated by H.P. 
Blavatsky, T.P.H, Wheaton, Fragment I, p. 6.

(3) See letter  LV, page 322,  T.U.P. Edition , 1992.


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