Theos-Talk Archives (July 2006 Message tt00484)

Dear Dallas,


Thanks a lot.

I guess B. P. Wadia was one of  the most important theosophists in the twenty century. 

He wrote many significant texts, one of which you brought us here.  


Regards,   Carlos.  

 
De:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com

Para:"AA-BNStudy" study@blavatsky.net

Cópia:

Data:Sat, 22 Jul 2006 17:36:16 -0700

Assunto:[Spam] Theos-World ESOTERIC AND EXOTERIC

> 7/22/2006 5:28 PM
> 
> 
> 
> ESOTERIC AND EXOTERIC
> 
> By B.P. Wadia
> 
> 
> Soul builds body. The nature of the one is occult, as that of
> the other is phenomenal. Of unchanging reality is life, while
> form is but the evanescent Maya that is non-existent in fact.
> 
> From 1851 to 1871, Wisdom was energizing in the inner planes of
> being propelling towards the outer world. Then HPB emerged from
> the Great Lodge for the service of our world, and ever since,
> especially after 1877 when her ISIS UNVEILED was published,
> certain hitherto, unfamiliar words came into prominence. Among
> these were esoteric and esotericism, exoteric and exotericism.
> 
> She was the first since the days of the Alexandrian
> Neo-Platonists who unhesitatingly and emphatically declared that
> a secret body of Teaching and Teachers existed. 
> 
> From the very start, she claimed a somewhat intimate acquaintance with both.
> She labored in the Cause for which those Teachings and Teachers
> stood, for 20 years -- from 1871 to 1891.
> 
> Among the important missions entrusted to her was the drawing of
> the attention of the world to the existence of the Teaching and
> the Teachers; only a part of the former, under instructions from
> the latter, was put forward in discreet installments. 
> 
> This process was affected by the growth or the hindrance, especially
> among the aspirants to Chelaship, in recognizing the truth of the
> esoteric nature of both the knowledge imparted and its Wise
> Custodians. 
> 
> It is apparent to the insight of the student of
> HPB's teachings that she tried to prepare a body of students wise
> enough to value silence and learn the art of assimilation of the
> philosophy and through it of its Master-Proficients.
> 
> HPB's mission was not only dissemination of knowledge to the
> world at large and the service of the century that opened with
> 1875. 
> 
> She also had to prepare a band of student-servers of the
> Sacred and Secret Wisdom, who were capable of transmitting the
> same Charge to succeeding generations, and thus purify by life
> and labor the mind of the race until her successors in 1975
> arrived before the public to complete that which she began.
> 
> Men's minds had to be prepared for the reception of the Teaching.
> 
> Grades of students is what she aimed at; those knowing less,
> learning from the group who knew a little more, until there would
> be two or three who in direct contact with the perfected Adepts
> remained also in touch with the world through their coworkers and
> helpers. 
> 
> A veritable Antahkarana-Bridge was planned to be
> erected between the World of Masters and the world of mortals.
> For this purpose and towards this aim, she advised that the
> esoteric nature of matter and man be truly recognized by her
> students and especially by her intimate pupils.
> 
> The public that perused her writings was callous to her hints and
> suggestions in proportion as her intimate associates and students
> were heedless of her direct and unequivocal injunctions.
> 
> Indiscretions about the esoteric nature of the Lodge of Masters
> and Its Wisdom among other things led to the collapse of the
> almost complete Bridge. A very small end of it that extended
> from the side of the Masters' World remained and will ever remain
> intact. 
> 
> As modern students purify themselves by the energy of
> study and ensoul themselves by the power of service, more of the
> Bridge will be restored. Devotion and intelligence that create
> are the necessary requisites and the few builders look, watch,
> and exclaim, "Who is on our side? Who will help us?"
> 
> It is essential that students should intelligently recognize that
> Esotericism is a fact in Theosophy. Pythagoras termed it the
> gnosis of things that are and spoke of it in secrecy to his inner
> circle while Confucius refused to explain publicly his "Great
> Extreme." 
> 
> The Rishis of India, the Magians of Persia and Babylon,
> the Hierophants of Egypt and Arabia, and the Prophets of Israel
> taught as Jesus did in these strange words to his elect:
> 
> "Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God:
> but unto them that are without, all these things are done in
> parables: that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing
> they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should
> be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them."
> 
> Ammonius Saccas obligated his disciples by oath not to divulge
> his higher doctrines, except to those who had been "exercised."
> 
> Our own HPB, following in the footsteps of her Predecessors,
> warned: 
> 
> "Woe be to him who divulges unlawfully the words
> whispered into the ear of Manushi by the First Initiator." 
> 
> She affirmed, through hints, obscure yet broad, the intimate nature
> of Esoteric Wisdom to be practiced, while she loudly proclaimed
> that Primeval Knowledge and the Heirs to the Ancient of Days
> lived and labored for mankind. 
> 
> She gathered in her writings the radiant jewels of 
> the many mines -- the diamond of India, the sapphire of 
> Buddha-land, the ruby of Persia, the opal of Chaldea,
> the emerald of Egypt, the amethyst of Greece, and the moonstone
> of Judea and set them all in the exquisite platinum of our own
> era that she secured from her Masters. She made this necklace
> for the daughter of time named the 19th-20th century.
> 
> HPB pointed out that the secret teachings of the Sanctuaries have
> not remained without witness. They have burst upon the world in
> hundreds of volumes full of the quaint phraseology of the
> Alchemists; they have flown like irrepressible cataracts of
> Occult-mystic lore from the pens of poets and bards. Whence did
> Ariosto, in his ORLANDO FURIOSO, obtain his conception of that
> valley in the moon, where after death we can find the ideas and
> images of all that exists on earth? How came Dante to imagine the
> many descriptions given in his INFERNO of his visit and communion
> with the souls of the seven spheres?
> 
> The dark secrets of the Wisdom were allowed to see the light of
> day as people learnt to use them with genuine discrimination,
> with selfless dispassion. 
> 
> Personal selfishness develops and urges man on to 
> abuse his knowledge and power. Thus during the last 
> few centuries, as human selfishness grew, the Light of
> Wisdom diminished and those few Elect whose inner natures had
> remained unaffected by the march of the world became the sole
> guardians of the Esoteric Knowledge, passing it only to those fit
> to receive it, and keeping it inaccessible to others.
> 
> HPB burst upon the world with her direct message. It was not
> poetical imagery, symbolic tales, nor dramatized versions of
> Esoteric Truths. 
> 
> She wrote in the language of precision, simple and clear-cut, 
> as one having authority. 
> 
> She appealed to those around her to preserve 
> inviolable secrecy about certain information and 
> teaching and await her cue from time to time to
> declare exoteric that hitherto given to the few to learn and
> assimilate. 
> 
> Her wise injunctions were disregarded; followed
> desecration of the sacred; that which was holy was given unto the
> dogs of the press, and the pearls were cast before the swine of
> an egotistic, selfish public; press and public trampled them
> under 'their feet, turned on HPB, and rent her.
> 
> With the return of the Cycle, the responsibility of her true
> students and followers assumes a grave proportion.
> 
> In this world of Maya, Spirit and Matter are looked upon as two
> different things and so are Esoteric Wisdom and Exoteric
> Knowledge. Nature is one and so is Theosophy. 
> 
> The secret of Nature is in particles of dust and in constellations of 
> stars and both are visible and yet -- invisible. The writings of HPB 
> are at once exoteric and esoteric. Their occultism is perceived only
> by those whose inner natures have unfolded.
> 
> One of the qualifications unfolding that inner faculty that
> reveals the hidden side of the known phenomenal world is the
> power to keep inviolate the secrets entrusted to us by Nature or
> otherwise. 
> 
> Often in the enthusiasm to help and serve our fellows, 
> we scatter on the highway the seeds gathered from our
> study of Theosophy and our meditations on the facts of the
> philosophy. This is due to egotism, often of a very subtle type.
> 
> To train them in the art of keeping secrets, many a wise teacher
> has devised ways and means whereby innocuous facts and fictions
> were given to students for the practice of keeping them private
> and learning how to avoid revealing them directly and indirectly
> in answering questions and in conversations.
> 
> It is a wise practice to impose on oneself the obligation of
> secrecy in reference to certain metaphysical and psychical
> teachings or spiritual and mystical practices. In doing so, care
> must be taken that the student does not fall prey to the assuming
> of a mysterious attitude, which is still another form of egotism.
> 
> "What thou hast to do, do it in quietude though a multitude
> surroundeth thee; what thy right hand receiveth or what thy left
> hand giveth let only thy Hidden Heart know" -- such is the
> aphorism of old, and the rules of the spiritual Path are the same
> today as of yore.
> 
> Corpses exist, but a living body has always a soul. Corpses of
> knowledge exist, but the Science of Life has the Master-Soul
> behind it. 
> 
> The mystery of the living body and the mysteries of the
> Science of Life are esoteric; these mysteries show themselves
> mystically in the visible body, in the recorded Teachings of the
> Master-Souls. 
> 
> The esotericism of the Gita is within the eighteen
> discourses, and there is no need to look for a nineteenth
> discourse. 
> 
> In the recorded message of HPB, all her Esoteric Wisdom 
> lies buried. Her students and pupils will discover in her
> teachings that which is esoteric; silence and secrecy preserved
> will lead to further and nobler knowledge of the Inner Temple.
> 
> To gain entrance, every student has to become the Path that is
> Life Eternal. He has not only to find the Path but also to make
> the Path. 
> 
> Between the student and the Golden Wisdom of the
> Masters that he is seeking, there exists a gulf -- the abyss of
> separation. He has to find that Antahkarana-Bridge on which
> silently, secretly, faithfully, some may be building, building,
> building -- who knows?
> 
> [From LIVING THE LIFE, pages 33-38.]
> 
> --------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> THE MEANING OF A PLEDGE 
> 
> from LUCIFER Vol. 3, p. 63 [1889- 90]
> 
> 
> Concerning this article, it has been attributed to Dr. Archibald Keightley
> (?). 
> 
> 
> One notices that he uses the word "factor" instead of "power" in the first
> Clause. The Dictionary say a "factor" is either an "agent," "an element
> of," or a "constituent." The word "power" is defined as "ability to act,".
> "a faculty.thinking . willing .a controlling influence . authority able to
> control .exert energy or force .apply to work.." Power" defines a greater
> instrument and potential than "factor" when so used.
> 
> In the article the HIGHER SELF is defined as ATMA -- "universal and
> secondless..the JIVA and the MONAD." 
> 
> It implies that the HIGHER SELF is common to all of us. 
> 
> Using a determined WILL, the higher aspect of the personal man (Kama-Manas)
> calls upon IT, and by this appeal it places itself under the "protection of
> the active and beneficent powers that are the direct rays of the Absolute
> Higher Secondless Self." 
> 
> We ought to meditate on this -- in TRANSACTIONS we find H P B discussing
> this in the section on "dreams" between pp 66 and 77.
> 
> A betrayal of this Pledge by the personal man, opens the doors to personal
> isolation and a loss of the great power of the Pledge, which invokes the
> HIGHER SELF, to protect. 
> 
> There is a statement that if we "fail," such a "failure" is not final if we
> pick ourselves up, and renew the resolve to TRY the practice again. 
> 
> The effort to improve morally is the deciding factor. "I will do" is the
> right attitude to always maintain.
> 
> The Pledge enjoins activity and a positive outlook.
> 
> 1
> The first step is to learn what Theosophy teaches. 
> 
> 2
> The second is to discover what we are in potential and in fact. This removes
> our ignorance. It opens the door to making noble and altruistic decisions
> (such as always acting as a "brother to all that lives") and, "making
> Theosophy as the only active living power in our personal lives." 
> 
> 
> Since we are brothers in Spirit we have no basis for condemning any one. We
> have no basis for doubting or being suspicious of the motives or methods of
> another. The best we can do is offer active support through consultation
> and cooperation. 
> 
> This unity can never be broken except by our adopting a position of personal
> separateness. In such a case, we cease assisting the Movement in that
> particular way and eventually we may separate ourselves from its benevolent
> influence. To help and teach others is our sole doorway to advancement and
> self-improvement.
> 
> The condition of manifestation starts with a pair of opposites: such as
> Spirit and Matter; wisdom and ignorance, action and inertia. A
> "zero-point" (of balance or a fulcrum) lies between these, and we can
> perceive and learn that the active MIND of man is able to cross from the
> negative into the positive. 
> 
> They explain themselves and show the correspondences between man the
> microcosm and the universal MACROCOSM. But in finality it is we, the
> embodied mind, wrapped in desire (kama) which has to make of the Pledge a
> basis for establishing in itself a "living power," and ruthlessly cut all
> ignorance and false values with the "sword of spiritual discernment." 
> 
> In this we see why a "stern resolution" is essential. This is how the
> "School" serves to inspires us to support the THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT and
> work in harmonious cooperation with the Masters of Wisdom, Those are the
> real FOUNDERS of the THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT, and, of all the bodies which
> support and promulgate Theosophy. But the difference between the IDEAL
> THEOSOPHY, and its vehicles (the societies) is also made plain.
> 
> The article concludes with the important statement: 
> 
> "It is necessary to "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" the truths of
> Theosophy. Then and not till then, shall all men and women be brothers and
> sisters-- Universal brotherhood will be a reality, and the guide of all
> existence..
> 
> 
> =======================================
> 
> 
> See also THE SIGNING OF A PLEDGE
> 
> Jasper Niemand
> 
> PATH Feb 1889 , Vol. 3, p. 333
> 
> =======================================
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Dallas
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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