Theos-Talk Archives (March 2006 Message tt01463)

Dear Friends:

I do not make any pretense to distinguish between "exoteric" and "esoteric."
I doubt if anyone can do this with accuracy.  But one can say that
underlying any statement concerning KARMA -- the GREAT LAW OF NATURE  (THE
UNIVERSE -- "GOD" ) there has to be an explanation and a causal source.  

What are those ? 

Where does KARMA start ?

When do MONADS commence ?

If THEOSOPHY gives us 7 "keys" to discover and to use, what are they and how
are they to be used?

Are 7 and 10 "virtues" ( I mean those that are common to the ancient
religions) reasonable and applicable?  

Why would a free individual adopt, consider and use them ? 

Are any of the virtues, vices  and the 3 "gunas " (qualities of Nature)
parts of Man's independence and responsibility (as a Monad presently engaged
in that work?) ?

Concerning the position of religions vs. THEOSOPHY :  I often feel that when
we read of Karma, it made me think that a frightened humanity seems to
almost defy the possibilities of the destruction of his "Lower Self",  so
that some exterior being is invoked or created mentally to "save" us (from
the 'evil Lower Self') ?  It seems to me to be an ignorant way to deal with
Karma as Nemesis. [We assume that "Nemesis" is the personification in NATURE
of the 'rights, duties and personal responsibilities' of other Monads who
continually surround and impact us.  We also assume that all Monads have
free and equal qualities and positions of responsibility.

I am of the opinion, having studied a number of religions, that the basis
from which each  started  --  the sayings and deeds of a very WISE personage
-- is uniform.  This would lend credence to a single Brotherhood of ADEPTS
who have verified and who now use the same rules and regulations.  

It would be from this group [a single Brotherhood of WISE ADEPTS ] that now
and again a member of the same body incarnates [ as did Jesus, Apollonius,
Pythagoras, Buddha, Krishna, etc..., ] that those of his disciples who chose
to perpetuate his injunctions and copy his actions have gradually acted to
pervert them.  The reasons for this sad state are various.  

The uniformity of those several original teachings conforms with the
teachings HPB offered: THEOSOPHY -- the same principles are there.  In
THEOSOPHY we find additional explanations and logical concepts offered. She
carefully traces the brotherhood of religions for us.

Instead of illuminating and encouraging all their adherents to study
independently, and become themselves knowledgeable and wise, they have
gradually concealed under ritual, rote and ceremony the basic freedom of
individual search and application that is implicit in the "originals."  They
have caused to arise as a matter of "duty," a dependence on their "services"
to become mandatory, or the threat of expulsion from the "congregation," and
an isolation from the "True God" was invoked.

Of course any inquiry into their priestly doings and authority is resisted
vigorously.

Consider with me, if you will, the basis all organized money making and
power wielding priesthoods are found to have adopted.  

I will use the 3 universal qualities that are equipoised in Nature (the
Universe we live in, and the Earth we live on, in particular).  These are
the 3 "Gunas:"  Sattva - Rajas and Tamas, or Truth, Action and Inertia, or
Spirit, Mind and Matter -- spoken of in the BHAGAVAD GITA  (Chapters : 12,
14, 17)

Let us use these few statements concerning Deity (God) as an impersonal and
Universal Base-Principle  --  They will be found to be the prime principles
which all religions are based on:  

The Omnipresence, Omniscience and Omnipotence, of the Deity  -- 


1	"God" is  PRESENT  EVERYWHERE 

--  IT in the "heart" and essence of all --  no exceptions.  

--  Therefore "God" desires their existence. No one has the right, or duty,
to terminate another's living for any reason.  

--  "God" lives closest to us in our own "heart," and does not need
"priests" to be contacted, when we think.


2	"God" -  KNOWS  ALL 

--  therefore, there are no secrets, no "hiding places,"  

--  What we do and are, good or bad, is clearly known to "IT."  

--  "Nature" and the "Universe" are synonyms for "God" or "Deity."  

--  Logically, therefore, there is no isolated "Personal God"  separate from
ITS Universe or from anything, (including every human) in it.

--  Every "religion" has sprung from these single prime facts. It has become
a creed because of rigidity in rites, rote, and ceremonies instituted by a
priesthood.


3	"God" -  SUPERVISES  EVERYTHING  


--  that is essential and needed to support life and harmonious relations
among all beings large or small, near or far.


4	God is honest, merciful and just -- not a tyrant, but demands that
we know these qualities and powers and live our lives in harmony with all.



	A	TAMAS  -  inertia, lethargy


1.	Mental lethargy  --  avoid thinking and learning TRUTH

2	Ignorance, doubt  --  avoid learning and responsibility

3	Faith substituted for knowledge

4	Fear  -  of effects that will pain or harm ourselves

5	Forgiveness for wrongs done deliberately or carelessly

6	Securing special unmerited advantages, desire, passion, 

7	Hate, haughtiness, domination, and ruling over others,

8	Pride, fame, ostentation, adulation,  

9	Greed for possessions, life to be prolonged, 

10	Self-righteousness, lack of humility, concealing ignorance 



	B	RAJAS	 -  Wrongful actions


1	Pretense to wisdom and power, connection to "god"

2	Can "fix" and avoid due retribution

3	Demands ceremonial respect and sacrifices

4	Keeps people ignorant of LAW (Karma) and fearful

5	Greed for wealth, false justice and power

6	Theft, extortion, lying, torture (physical and mental),  

7	Murder, wars, 



	C	SATTVA  -  


1	Spiritual selfishness and isolation

2	Refusal to assist others,  isolation,

3	Acquisition of wisdom for selfish use


No everyone is acquainted with "Nemesis" the Greek Goddess of retribution
which simply stated says every choice we make produces an inescapable
effect.  

THEOSOPHY states (as does every other religion) that a human is in  reality
a seven-fold entity:

(1)  Spirit or "God's" presence within him / her.

(2)  Wisdom accumulated through experience over many incarnations

(3)  Thinking and the power to think -- Mind.  Decision making, Free choice.


	In your comment you call these three:  "the Spiritual Man." 


(4)  Emotion, desire passion, urges, moods, sensitivities to our
environment.

(5)  Life-force that sustains the body.

(6)  Electro-magnetic pattern or model body, underlying all physical
structures in

(7)  The physical body we all know and live in.


	If I understand you rightly, you have called these 4 the "personal
man."

To make this analysis simple we can say that every human ("Spiritual Man")
is an immortal Spiritual entity (called in THEOSOPHY a "Monad").  

It accumulates a fund of wisdom / experience / memory over many
incarnations.  

Endowed (by its Elder Brothers, Men who have graduated earlier, now act as
its mentors) with an independent Mind, it (we) thinks independently and
makes free choices.  

It is often confronted with its desires and emotions which may run against
its knowledge of what is "best to do." Such conflicts require thought and
are the tests set by Nature to enable its individual progress as an immortal
human being. 

This is the "field of battle" -- "Kuru-kshetra" in the BHAGAVAD GITA .

The life force, model body and physical body are the vehicles of this
process and also serve as the field of experience for innumerable "monads"
of lesser experience to develop.  Each human is as a parent to these, and
responsible for their advance and development.  They serve as the vehicles
-- the "carriers" of karmic effects.
 

------------------------------------------------


				VIRTUE    (some quotes) 


"Virtue leads only to heaven, wisdom leads to union with the whole. 

But Wisdom must at last have virtue as companion. 

Virtue pursued and practiced through many lives will lead at last to wisdom,
yet wisdom first attained makes the cultivation of virtue easier. 

The highest development cannot be attained in any single incarnation.

The teachers say that we must seek the company of those who are pure and
wise, who lead holy lives, and that we must look for knowledge with
persistency, humbleness, and faith, and that thus setting our feet upon the
path the goal will loom in sight after many weary struggles."
FORUM ANSWERS  p. 23



"Virtue leads only to heaven. Wisdom leads to union with the whole." What is
here meant by virtue?

W.Q.J.-According to the dictionaries the radical meaning of virtue is
strength. Other meanings are bravery, efficacy, valor, moral goodness, the
abstaining from vice, or conforming to the moral law. In this last sense the
word is used. There is nothing synonymous between virtue and wisdom. 

In the Christian scheme fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. There is the
mere wisdom of erudition, but properly wisdom means having knowledge or to
know; or skilled in arts, science, or philosophy, or in magic and
divination. (2 Samuel XIV.) 

In homely language, then, to be virtuous is to be good; to be wise is to
possess knowledge.

If the kingdom of God is the perfectness of evolution, then knowledge is
what leads to it sooner than virtue. Of course these terms are used with the
theosophical scheme of man and nature in view, and in that light it appears
that in addition to virtue we must have knowledge, for a life of virtue
leads to pleasures of devachan, with good karma for next life and thus
through many lives; but knowledge added to virtue shows how to use virtue
and its results in finding and treading the path leading to the Supreme
which is ALL."		F. Answers  27-8



	In the BHAGAVAD GITA 

"Subtle perception, spiritual knowledge, right judgment, patience, truth,
self-mastery; pleasure and pain, prosperity and adversity; birth and death,
danger and security, fear and equanimity, satisfaction, restraint of body
and mind, alms-giving, inoffensiveness, zeal and glory and ignominy, all
these the various dispositions of creatures come from me. . 

I am the origin of all; all things proceed from me; believing me to be thus,
the wise gifted with spiritual wisdom worship me; their very hearts and
minds are in me; enlightening one another and constantly speaking of me,
they are full of enjoyment and satisfaction. To them thus always devoted to
me, who worship me with love, I give that mental devotion by which they come
to me. For them do I out of my compassion, standing within their hearts,
destroy the darkness which springs from ignorance by the brilliant lamp of
spiritual discernment."  
 	Ch. 10,  BHAGAVAD  GITA,   pp.  70-1


"My devotee who is free from enmity, well-disposed towards all creatures,
merciful, wholly exempt from pride and selfishness, the same in pain and
pleasure, patient of wrongs, contented, constantly devout, self-governed,
firm in resolves, and whose mind and heart are fixed on me alone, is dear
unto me. He also is my beloved of whom mankind is not afraid and who has no
fear of man; who is free from joy, from despondency and the dread of harm. 

My devotee who is unexpecting,* pure, just, impartial, devoid of fear, and
who hath forsaken interest in the results of action, is dear unto me. He
also is worthy of my love who neither rejoiceth nor findeth fault, who
neither lamenteth nor coveteth, and being my servant hath forsaken interest
in both good and evil results. 

He also is my beloved servant who is equal-minded to friend or foe, the same
in honor and dishonor, in cold and heat, in pain and pleasure, and is
unsolicitous about the event of things; to whom praise and blame are as one;
who is of little speech, content with whatever cometh to pass, who hath no
fixed habitation, and whose heart, full of devotion, is firmly fixed. But
those who seek this sacred ambrosia— the religion of immortality— even as I
have explained it, full of faith, intent on me above all others, and united
to devotion, are my most beloved." 	 Ch. 12,   BHAGAVAD GITA   p.  91-2



"Fearlessness, sincerity, assiduity in devotion, generosity, self-restraint,
piety, and alms-givings, study, mortification, and rectitude; harmlessness,
veracity, and freedom from anger, resignation, equanimity, and not speaking
of the faults of others, universal compassion, modesty, and mildness;
patience, power, fortitude, and purity, discretion, dignity,
unrevengefulness, and freedom from conceit— these are the marks of him whose
virtues are of a godlike character, O son of Bharata. Those, O son of
Pritha, who are born with demoniacal dispositions are marked by hypocrisy,
pride, anger, presumption, harshness of speech, and ignorance. The destiny
of those whose attributes are godlike is final liberation." 
  	 Ch. 16,   BHAGAVAD GITA   p.  110


"Honoring the gods, the brahmans, the teachers, and the wise, purity,
rectitude, chastity, and harmlessness are called mortification of the body.
Gentle speech which causes no anxiety, which is truthful and friendly, and
diligence in the reading of the Scriptures, are said to be austerities of
speech. Serenity of mind, mildness of temper, silence, self-restraint,
absolute straightforwardness of conduct, are called mortification of the
mind. This threefold mortification or austerity practiced with supreme faith
and by those who long not for a reward is of the sattva quality. "
BHAGAVAD GITA   	Ch. 17,   pp. 117-8



----------------------------------------------------
I hope some of these ideas are found useful,

Best wishes,

Dallas

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Gerald Schueler ] 
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 2:46 PM
To: 
Subject: RE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT -- COMPENSATION

In a recent post with this title, Dallas has presented in great detail what
can be called the exoteric teaching about karma. It this presentation,
karma is a law, and it is one of endless cause and effect, with no
conceivable end. The problem with exotericism as presented by my fellow
Theosophists is that it totally ignores the esoteric teachings about karma.
I find the exoteric teaching of endless causation to be terribly
depressing, and not one that I would care to subscribe to.  Fortunately, I
don't have to.

An esoteric view of karma also exists. In this view, the last two of
Buddha's Four Nobel Truths are considered.  The exoteric teaching, as
presented by Dallas, acknowleges the first two Nobel Truths, that suffering
exists in the world and that it is caused by karma.  The last two tells us
that there is an end to suffering, an end to karma, and that this end can
be reached by a Path. Buddha outlined the Path that leads to the end of
karmic suffering, and he called it the doctrine of mukti or liberation;
that we can be liberated while living. Unfortunately, if we accept the
exotericism in the post by Dallas, then libertaion will have no place. In
this situation, liberation will be viewed as an escape through the ruse of
a short-cut, which denigrates Buddha's teachings. But Buddha gave us four
Nobel Truths, not two. And Theosophy will continue to reduce esoteric
teachings to exotericism at a great price - the death of the TM.

Jerry S.