Theos-Talk Archives (September 2006 Message tt00105)

It occurs to me that one possible reason for the teaching about
visualizing improved conditions for humanity, such as world peace,
might pertain to the fact that we may, in a future incarnation, have
something to do with furthering that cause in a more substantial way.
If we have laid some mental groundwork, so to speak, our future
selves might find it a bit easier to function effectively. Examples
can be found in daily living. If I want to make a dress, it behooves
me to have a pattern, to understand completely the process as far as
I might, before I cut the fabric, or I will end up wasting material
and time and effort. "As above, so below," is another useful
aphorism.

Adelasie

____________________________

Hello,

Perhaps.

I understand the urge of wanting to do more for the world; at the same
time, I am reminded that Reality looks very different from my present
vantage point.  Hopefully, the continual renunciation of the self and
devotion to wisdom has a purifying effect on the environment. In the
pledge to the work, the process transforms a student to be a beneficent
force in nature, and everyone and things will benefit from it.

Sincerely,

barbara

This is the only kind of Occultism that any Theosophist who admires
"Light on the Path", and who would be wise and unselfish, ought
to strive after. All the rest is some branch of the "Occult
Sciences", i.e., arts based on the knowledge of the ultimate essence
of all things in the Kingdoms of Nature — such as minerals, plants
and animals — hence of things pertaining to the realm of material
nature, however invisible that essence may be, and howsoever much it has
hitherto eluded the grasp of Science. Alchemy, Astrology, Occult
Physiology, Chiromancy, exist in Nature, and the exact Sciences —
perhaps so called, because they are found in this age of paradoxical
philosophies the reverse — have already discovered not a few of the
secret of the above arts. But clairvoyance, symbolized in India as the
"Eye of Siva", called in Japan, "Infinite Vision", is
not Hypnotism, the illegitimate son of Mesmerism, and is not to be
acquired by such arts. All the others may be mastered and results
obtained, whether good, bad, or indifferent; but Atma-Vidya sets small
value on them. It includes them all and may even use them occasionally,
[highlighted by me] but it does so after purifying them of their dross,
for beneficent purposes, and taking care to deprive them of every
element of selfish motive. Let us explain: Any man or woman can set
himself or herself to study one or all of the above specified
"Occult Arts" without any great previous preparation, and even
without adopting any too restraining mode of life.



>From OCCULTISM VERSUS THE OCCULT ARTS by H.P.BLAVATSKY





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