Theos-Talk Archives (June 2006 Message tt00269)

	SHE BEING DEAD YET SPEAKETH   by H. P. Blavatsky
	

[In the will of the late H. P. Blavatsky was made the request that her
friends should assemble on the anniversary of her death and read passages
from the Bhagavad-Gita and the Light of Asia. This was accordingly done on
May 8th, in Adyar, London, New York, and other places. In New York, among
other interesting items reported at the time, Mrs. J. Campbell Keightley
read, after a few introductory remarks, extracts from the private letters of
H.P.B. In response to many requests we print these as follows. The remarks,
being extemporaneous, are quoted from memory.] 

MR. PRESIDENT, FRIENDS: 

This being the first occasion upon which I have ever spoken in public, I
will ask you to condone my inexperience while I make a few remarks upon the
extracts chosen from the letters of Madame Blavatsky to a few friends. 
In regard to Mme. Blavatsky, the world, to use a phrase of Charles Lamb, was
"the victim of imperfect sympathies." It failed to know her; that failure
was its own great loss. Among the many accusations flung at her was one
which, at the last ditch, it never failed to make; it said that Mme.
Blavatsky had no Moral Ideal. This was false. 
She had this ideal; she had also the Eastern reverence for an ideal--a
reverence to the Western world unknown. We might hence expect to find her
teaching that Ideal to a great extent under the privacy of a pledge, and
there are indications of this in all that has been published concerning the
Esoteric School. That her ideal was ever present to her mind and heart these
extracts from private letters to her friends will show. 





These statements appeared important to me:


	P. 115	Her main teachings [are]: That.


Morals have a basis in Law and in fact. 

Moral Law is Natural Law. 

Evolution makes for Righteousness. 

.the "fundamental identity of all souls with the Oversoul" renders moral
contagion possible 	through the subtle psychic medium. 

.the Spiritual Identity of all Being renders Universal Brotherhood the only
possible path for truth-	seeking men.
 

P 115	She distrusted.appeal to sentiment. She saw that existing religions
fail in it; that modern civilization frustrates it; that emotionalism is no
basis for the Will which annuls all temptations of the flesh, and the Faith
which shall make mountains move. 


P. 116	Hence she taught the scientific aspect and bearing of sin. 

	[She] Taught that 

Universal Law, in every department, rigidly opposes and avenges the
commission of sin, 
	[showed] the free will of man counterbalanced by the declaration:

	 "Vengeance is mine, saith the Law; I will repay." [Karma acting
impartially and  immutably]


	She taught that the awful responsibility of the occultist, extending
down to the least atom of substance, forever forbade our asking that
question. 


"Am I my Brother's keeper?" [We are.]

Justice she taught, and the true discrimination of it;  

Mercy, and Love. .


	she taught that 

"the pure in heart see God"; taught it as a scientific fact; .materially, as
well as spiritually possible through the spiritual laws working in the one
Substance, and, in the showing, lifted our courage higher than the visible
stars. 



P. 116	   [These are] the 

	AIMS AND PURPOSES OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 

It is a Brotherhood Of Humanity, established to make away with all and every
dogmatic religion founded on dead-letter interpretation, and.

people and every member to believe but in one impersonal God;
 
to rely upon his (man's) own powers; 

to consider himself his only saviour; 

to learn the infinitude of the occult psychological powers hidden within his
own physical man; 

to develop these powers; and 

to give him the assurance of the immortality of his divine spirit and the
survival of his soul; 

to make him regard every man of whatever race, color, or creed, [a brother]
and

the only truths revealed to man by superior men (not a god) are contained in
the Vedas 	of the ancient Aryas of India. Finally, 

to demonstrate. there never were, will be, nor are, any miracles; that 

there can be nothing 'supernatural' in this universe, and that on earth, at
least, 

the only God is man himself. 


P. 117	   "It lies within his powers to become and to continue a God after
the death of his physical body. 

Our society receives nothing the possibility of which it cannot demonstrate
at will. 

We believe in the phenomena, but we disbelieve in the constant intervention
of 'spirits' to produce such phenomena. 

We maintain that the embodied spirit has more powers to produce them than a
disembodied one. 

We believe in the existence of spirits, but of many classes, the human
spirits being but one class of the many. 


P. 117	   "The Society requires of its members but the time they can give
it without encroaching upon that due to their private affairs. 



P. 117	   There are three degrees of membership. It is but in the highest
or third that members have to devote themselves quasi entirely to the work
of the T.S.  



P. 117	   "Everyone is eligible, [to the T S] provided he is an honest,
pure man or woman, no free lover, and especially no bigoted Christian. We go
dead against idolatry, and as much against materialism." 


P. 117	   "Of the two unpardonable sins, the first is Hypocrisy... Better
one hundred mistakes through unwise, injudicious sincerity and indiscretion
than.rottenness and decay within. . . . 


P. 117	   This is not unpardonable, but very dangerous.doubt, eternal
wavering--it leads one to wreck. One little period passed without doubt,
murmuring, and despair; what a gain it would be; a period a mere tithe of
what every one of us has had to pass through. But every one forges his own
destiny." 


P. 117	   "Those who fall off from our living human Mahatmas to fall into
the Saptarishi--the Star Rishis,[identified in Ursa Major stars --S D  II
89fn, 549;  H P B Art  II  398] are no Theosophists." 


P. 117	   Let us be just and give to Caesar what is Caesar's, however
imperfect, even vicious, Caesar may be. 


P. 117	   'Blessed be the peacemakers,' said another old adept of 107 years
B.C. [Jesus -- Glos. 109 top, 156;   I U  II  389fn], and the saying is
alive and kicks to the present day amongst the MASTERS." 


		ON THE Esoteric Section 


P. 117-8   "THE ESOTERIC SECTION is to be a School for earnest Theosophists
who would learn more (than they can from published works) of the true
Esoteric tenets. . . . There is no room for despotism or ruling in it; no
money to pay or make; no glory for me, but a series of misconceptions,
slanders, suspicions, and ingratitude in almost an immediate future:  but if
out of the . . . Theosophists who have already pledged themselves. 


P. 118	   I can place on the right and true path half a dozen or so, I will
die happy. Many are called, few are chosen. Unless they comply with the
lines you speak of, traced originally by the Masters, they cannot succeed.
[I am ready to answer the call of any good Theosophist who works for
Theosophy on the lines traced by the Masters.He who would have his
inheritance before I die . . . let him ask first. What I have, or rather
what I am permitted to give, I will give."] 


P. 118	   I can only show the way to those whose eyes are open to the
truth, whose souls are full of altruism, charity, and love for the whole
creation, and who think of themselves last. The blind . . . will never
profit by these teachings. They would make of the 'strait gate' a large
public thoroughfare leading not to the Kingdom of Heaven, now and hereafter,
to the Buddha-Christos in the Sanctuary of our innermost souls, but to their
own idols with feet of clay. . . . 


P. 118	   The ESOTERIC SECTION is not of the earth, earthy; it does not
interfere with the exoteric administration of Lodges; takes no stock in
external Theosophy; has no officers or staff; needs no halls or meeting
rooms. . . Finally, it requires neither.fees nor money, for 'as I have not
so received it, I shall not so impart it,' and that I would rather starve in
the gutter than take one penny for my teaching of the sacred truths. . . 


P. 118	   "Many are called but few are chosen.Come what may, I shall die at
my post, Theosophical banner in hand, and while I live I do fervently hope
that all the splashes of mud thrown at it will reach me personally. At any
rate I mean to continue protecting the glorious truth with my old carcass so
long as it lasts. 


P. 118-9   .what has the esoteric teaching to do with the outward man? A
soldier may be stuck to his sentry box like a barnacle to its ship, and the
soldier's Ego be free to go where it likes and think what it likes best. . .
. 


P. 119	   No man is required to carry a burden heavier than he can bear;
nor do more than it is possible for him to do. 


P. 119	  A man of means, independent and free from any duty, will have to
move about and go, missionary-like, to teach Theosophy.A man tied by his
duty to one place has no right to desert it in order to fulfill another
duty.for the first duty taught in Occultism is to do one's duty
unflinchingly by every duty. 


P. 119	.he who plays truant in one thing will be faithless in another. No
real, genuine MASTER will accept a chela who sacrifices anyone except
himself to go to that Master.


P. 119	   If one cannot, owing to circumstances or his position in life,
become a full adept in this existence, let him prepare his mental luggage
for the next, so as to be ready at the first call when he is once more
reborn. 


P. 119	   What one has to do before he pledges himself irretrievably is, to
probe one's nature to the bottom, for self-discipline is based on
self-knowledge. 


P. 119	   It is said somewhere that self-discipline often leads one to a
state of self-confidence.self-confidence is the first step to that kind of
WILL which will make a mountain move:  " 'To thine own self be true, and it
must follow, as the night the day, thou can'st not then be false to any
man.'  "The question is whether Polonius meant this.for occult knowledge;
and by 'own self'.that spark in us which is but the reflection of the 'One
Universal Ego.' 


P. 120	   "To live like cats and dogs in the T.S. is positively against all
rules--and wishes of 'the Masters,' as against our Brotherhood.and all its
rules. THEY are disgusted. THEY look on, and in that look (oh Lord! if you
could only see it as I have!) there's an ocean deep of sad disgust,
contempt, and sorrow. . . . 


P. 120	   Have a large Society, the more the better; all that is chaff and
husk is bound to fall away in time; all that is grain will remain. But the
seed is in the bad and evil man as well as in the good ones--only it is more
difficult to call into life and cause it to germinate. The good husbandman
does not stop to pick out the seeds from the handful. He gives them all
their chance, and even some of the half-rotten seeds come to life when
thrown into good soil. 


P. 120	   Be that soil. . . if you fail only nine times out of ten in your
selections you are successful one time out of ten--and that's more than many
other Theosophists can say. . . Those few true souls will be the nucleus for
future success, and their children will. . . . Let us sow good--and if evil
crops up, it will be blown away by the wind like all other things in this
life--in its time." 


P.120	.I alone and to a degree . . . can serve as a lightning conductor of
Karma for [the I S]. I was asked whether I was willing, when on the point of
dying--and I said Yes--for it was the only means to save it. Therefore I
consented to live--which in my case means to suffer physically during twelve
hours of the day--mentally twelve hours of night, when I get rid of the
physical shell. . . . 


P. 120	   Try to hear the small voice within.

 
P. 120	.there are 'two persons' in me. But what of that? So there are two
in you; only mine is conscious and responsible--and yours is not. [S D  II
167]   -- [to W Q J]


p. 121	  "He may be moved to doubt--and that is the beginning of wisdom." 


[To W Q J]  "Well, sir, and my only friend, the crisis is nearing. I am
ending my Secret Doctrine, and you are going to replace me, or take my place
in America. I know you will have success if you do not lose heart; but do,
do remain true to the Masters and Their Theosophy and the names. . . . May
They help you and allow us to send you our best blessings. . . .There are
traitors, conscious and unconscious. There is falsity and there is
injudiciousness. . . . Pray do not imagine that because I hold my tongue as
bound by my oath and duty I do not know who is who. . . . I must say
nothing, however much I may be disgusted. But as the ranks thin around us,
and one after the other our best intellectual forces depart, to turn into
bitter enemies, I say-


P. 121	   Blessed are the pure-hearted who have only intuition--for
intuition is better than intellect.


P. 121	   The duty--let alone happiness--of every Theosophist--and
especially Esotericist--is certainly to help others to carry their burden;
but no Theosophist or other has the right to sacrifice himself unless he
knows for a certainty that by so doing he helps some one and does not
sacrifice himself in vain for the empty glory of the abstract virtue.. 


P. 121	  Psychic and vital energy are limited in every man. 


P. 121-2   One refuses to pledge himself not to listen without protest to
any evil thing said of a brother--as though Buddha our divine Lord-- or
Jesus--or any great initiate has ever condemned any one on hearsay. Ah,
poor, poor, blind man, not to know the difference between condemning in
words--which is uncharitable--and withdrawing in silent pity from the
culprit and thus punishing him, but still giving him a chance to repent of
his ways. 


P. 122	  No man will ever speak ill of his brother without cause and proof
of the iniquity of that brother, and he will abstain from all backbiting,
slandering, and gossip. No man should ever say behind a Brother's back what
he would not say openly to his face. 


P. 121	  Insinuations against one's neighbor are often productive of more
evil consequences than gross slander. 


P. 121	  Every Theosophist has to fight and battle against evil,--but he
must have the courage of his words and actions, and what he does must be
done openly and honestly before all.


P. 121	 "Every pledge or promise unless built upon four pillars--absolute
sincerity, unflinching determination, unselfishness of purpose, and moral
power, which makes the fourth support and equipoises the three other
pillars--is an insecure building. The pledges of those who are sure of the
strength of the fourth alone are recorded." 


P. 122	  You should never forget what a solemn thing it is for us to exert
our powers and raise the dread sentinels that lie at the threshold. They
cannot hurt us, but they can avenge themselves by precipitating themselves
upon the unprotected neophyte. You are all like so many children playing
with fire because it is pretty, when you ought to be men studying philosophy
for its own sake." 


P. 122	  That the MASTERS do in proportion to their respective temperaments
and stages of Bodhisatvic development possess such Paramitas, constitutes
their right to our reverence as our Teachers. It should be the aim of each
and all of us to strive with all the intensity of our natures to follow and
imitate Them. . . . 


P. 122	.progress is made step by step, and each step gained by heroic
effort. Withdrawal means despair or timidity.. 


P. 122	  Conquered passions, like slain tigers, can no longer turn and rend
you. 


P. 122	  With each morning's awakening try to live through the day in
harmony with the Higher Self. 


P. 122-3   'Try' is the battle-cry taught by the teacher to each pupil.
Naught else is expected of you. One who does his best does all that can be
asked. 


P. 123	  The sixteen Paramitas (virtues) are NOT for priests and yogis
alone, as said, but stand for models for us all to strive after--and neither
priest nor yogi, Chela nor Mahatma, ever attained all at once. . . . The
idea that sinners and not saints are expected to enter the Path is
emphatically stated in the VOICE OF THE SILENCE." 


P. 123	  I do not believe in the success of the . . . T.S. unless you
assimilate Master or myself; unless you work with me and THEM, hand in hand,
heart. . . . Yes; let him who offers himself to Masters as a chela,
unreservedly, . . . let him do what he can if he would ever see Them. . . . 


P. 123	  Then things were done because I alone was responsible for the
issues. I alone had to bear Karma in case of failure and no reward in case
of success. . .I had to offer myself as the Scapegoat for atonement. It is
the latter I did. The T.S. lives,--I am killed. Killed in.everything H.P.B.
held near and dear.


P. 123	I may err in my powers as H.P.B. I have not worked and toiled for
forty years, playing parts, risking my future reward, and taking karma upon
this unfortunate appearance to serve Them without being permitted to have
some voice in the matter. 


P. 123	  H.P.B. is not infallible. H.P.B. is an old, rotten, sick, worn-out
body, but it is the best I can have in this cycle. 


P. 123	  .follow the path I show, the Masters that are behind--and do not
follow me or my PATH.


P. 123	  When I am dead and gone in this body, then will you know the whole
truth. Then will you know that I have never, never, been false to any one,
nor have I deceived anyone, but had many a time to allow them to deceive
themselves, for I had no right to interfere with their Karma. 

	[extracted from 	HPB Articles, Vol. 1,  p. 115.]

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

Best wishes,

DTB