Theos-Talk Archives (August 2008 Message tt00107)

To all readers

My views are:

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"The God of the Theologians is simply and imaginary power, un loup garou as d'Holbach expressed it -- a power which has never yet manifested itself. Our chief aim is to deliver humanity of this nightmare"...
". . . We are not Adwaitees, but our teaching respecting the one life is identical with that of the Adwaitee with regard to Parabrahm. And no true philosophically brained Adwaitee will ever call himself an agnostic, for he knows that he is Parabrahm and identical in every respect with the universal life and soul -- the macrocosm is the microcosm and he knows that there is no God apart from himself, no creator as no being. Having found Gnosis we cannot turn our backs on it and become agnostics." (Master K. H. to A. P. Sinnett - letter no. 10)

"HE WHO WIPETH NOT AWAY THE FILTH WITH WHICH THE PARENT'S BODY MAY HAVE BEEN DEFILED BY AN ENEMY, NEITHER LOVES THE PARENT NOR HONOURS HIMSELF." (H. P. Blavatsky - Esoteric Instructions - 1890).


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Just to help the readers remembering it all...


"In 1890, in England, a second Preliminary Memorandum* was published, this being extracts from H.P.B.'s "Preliminary Explanations to No. III of the Instructions," plus the penultimate paragraph of that Instruction. The Aryan Press in New York also published this second Preliminary Memorandum in an eight-page pamphlet. Its text is as follows:
Strictly private and confidential.

ESOTERIC SECTION

PRELIMINARY MEMORANDUM

"If thou canst not fulfil thy pledge, refuse to take it, but once thou hast bound thyself to any promise, carry it out, even if thou hast to die for it."

Membership in the E. S., and "pledges" sent, accepted and signed, are no warrants for a high success, nor do these pledges aim at making of every student an adept or a magician. They are simply the seeds in which lurks the potentiality of every truth, the germ of that progress which will be the heirloom of only the seventh perfect Race. A handful of such seeds was entrusted to me by the keepers of these truths, and it is my duty to sow them there, where I perceive a possibility of growth. It is the parable of the Sower put once more into practice, and a fresh lesson to be derived from its new application. The seeds that fall into good ground will bring forth fruit an hundredfold, and thus repay in each case the waste of those seeds which will have fallen by the wayside, on stony hearts and among the thorns of human passions. It is the duty of the Sower to choose the best soil for the future crops. But he is held responsible only so far as that ability is directly

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* This second Preliminary Memorandum was included in a further edition of the Book of Rules issued in late 1891 by Annie Besant and William Q. Judge as joint Heads of the E.S.
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connected with the failures, and that such are solely due to it; it is the Karma of the individuals who receive the seeds by asking for them, that will repay or punish those who fail in their duties to their HIGHER SELF.

(From the "Book of Discipline" in the schools of "Dzyan.")

"1. TO THE EARNEST DISCIPLE HIS TEACHER TAKES THE PLACE OF FATHER AND MOTHER. FOR, WHEREAS THEY GAVE HIM HIS BODY AND ITS FACULTIES, ITS LIFE AND CASUAL FORM, THE TEACHER SHOWS HIM HOW TO DEVELOP THE INNER FACULTIES FOR THE ACQUISITION OF THE ETERNAL WISDOM.
"2. TO THE DISCIPLE EACH FELLOW-DISCIPLE BECOMES A BROTHER AND SISTER, A PORTION OF HIMSELF,* FOR HIS INTERESTS AND ASPIRATIONS ARE THEIRS, HIS WELFARE INTERWOVEN WITH THEIRS, HIS PROGRESS HELPED OR HINDERED BY THEIR INTELLIGENCE, MORALITY, AND BEHAVIOR THROUGH THE INTIMACY BROUGHT ABOUT BY THEIR CO-DISCIPLESHIP.
"3. A CO-DISCIPLE OR ASSOCIATE CANNOT BACKSLIDE OR FALL OUT OF THE LINE WITHOUT AFFECTING THOSE WHO STAND FIRM THROUGH THE SYMPATHETIC TIE BETWEEN THEMSELVES AND THE PSYCHICAL CURRENTS BETWEEN THEM AND THEIR TEACHER.
"4. WOE TO THE DESERTER, WOE ALSO TO ALL WHO HELP TO BRING HIS SOUL TO THE POINT WHERE DESERTION FIRST PRESENTS ITSELF BEFORE HIS MIND'S EYE, AS THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS. GOLD IN THE CRUCIBLE IS HE WHO STANDS THE MELTING HEAT OF TRIAL, AND LETS ONLY THE DROSS BE BURNT OUT OF HIS HEART; ACCURSED BY KARMIC ACTION WILL FIND HIMSELF HE WHO THROWS DROSS INTO THE MELTING-POT OF DISCIPLESHIP FOR THE DEBASEMENT OF HIS FELLOW-PUPIL. AS THE MEMBERS TO THE BODY, SO ARE THE DISCIPLES TO EACH OTHER, AND TO THE HEAD AND HEART WHICH TEACH AND NOURISH THEM WITH THE LIFE- STREAM OF TRUTH.
"5. AS THE LIMBS DEFEND THE HEAD AND HEART OF THE BODY THEY BELONG TO, SO HAVE THE DISCIPLES TO DEFEND THE HEAD AND THE HEART OF THE BODY THEY BELONG TO (in this case Theosophy) FROM INJURY.

(From the Letter of a Master.)

. . . . AND IF THE LIMBS HAVE TO DEFEND THE HEAD AND HEART OF 
THEIR BODY, THEN WHY NOT SO, ALSO, THE DISCIPLES THEIR TEACHERS AS REPRESENTING THE SCIENCE OF THEOSOPHY WHICH CONTAINS AND
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* "So shalt thou be in full accord with all that lives; bear love to men as though they were thy brother-pupils, disciples of one Teacher, the sons of one sweet mother." (Vide Fragment III, in Voice of the Silence, p. 49.)
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INCLUDES THE 'HEAD' OF THEIR PRIVILEGE, THE 'HEART' OF THEIR SPIRITUAL GROWTH? SAITH THE SCRIPTURE:-
"HE WHO WIPETH NOT AWAY THE FILTH WITH WHICH THE PARENT'S BODY MAY HAVE BEEN DEFILED BY AN ENEMY, NEITHER LOVES THE PARENT NOR HONOURS HIMSELF. HE WHO DEFENDETH NOT THE PERSECUTED AND THE HELPLESS, WHO GIVETH NOT OF HIS FOOD TO THE STARVING NOR DRAWETH WATER FROM HIS WELL FOR THE THIRSTY, HATH BEEN BORN TOO SOON IN HUMAN SHAPE.
"BEHOLD THE TRUTH BEFORE YOU: A CLEAN LIFE, AN OPEN MIND, A PURE HEART, AN EAGER INTELLECT, AN UNVEILED SPIRITUAL PERCEPTION, A BROTHERLINESS FOR ONE'S CO-DISCIPLE, A READINESS TO GIVE AND RECEIVE ADVICE AND INSTRUCTION, A LOYAL SENSE OF DUTY TO THE TEACHER, A WILLING OBEDIENCE TO THE BEHESTS OF TRUTH, ONCE WE HAVE PLACED OUR CONFIDENCE IN, AND BELIEVE THAT TEACHER TO BE IN POSSESSION OF IT; A COURAGEOUS ENDURANCE OF PERSONAL INJUSTICE, A BRAVE DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES, A VALIANT DEFENCE OF THOSE WHO ARE UNJUSTLY ATTACKED, AND A CONSTANT EYE TO THE IDEAL OF HUMAN PROGRESSION AND PERFECTION WHICH THE SECRET SCIENCE (Gupta-Vidyâ) DEPICTS--THESE ARE THE GOLDEN STAIRS UP THE STEPS OF WHICH THE LEARNER MAY CLIMB TO THE TEMPLE OF DIVINE WISDOM."

(From No. III of the Instructions.)

Good and evil are relative, and are intensified or lessened according to the conditions by which man is surrounded. One who belongs to that which we call the "useless portion of mankind," i.e., the lay majority, is in many cases irresponsible. Crimes committed in Avidyâ (ignorance) involve physical but not moral responsibilities or Karma. Take, for example, the case of idiots, children, savages, and other people who know no better. But the case of each of you, pledged to the HIGHER SELF, is quite another matter. You cannot invoke this divine Witness with impunity, and once that you have put yourselves under its tutelage, you have asked the Radiant Light to shine into and search through all the dark corners of your being; consciously you have invoked the divine justice of Karma to take note of your motives, to scrutinize your actions, and to enter up all in your account. The step is as irrevocable as that of the infant taking birth. Never again can you force yourself back into the Matrix of Avidyâ and irresponsibility. Resignation and return of your pledges will not help you. Though you flee to the uttermost parts of the earth, and hide yourselves from the sight of men, or seek oblivion in the tumult of the social whirl, that Light will find you out and lighten your every thought, word, and deed. Are any of you so foolish as to suppose that it is to poor, miserable H.P.B. you are giving your pledge? All she can do is to send to each earnest one among you a most sincerely fraternal sympathy and hope for a good outcome to your endeavors. Nevertheless, be not discouraged, but try, ever keep trying;* twenty failures are not irremediable if followed by as many undaunted struggles upward: is it not so that mountains are climbed? And know further that if Karma relentlessly records in the Esotericist's account bad deeds that in the ignorant would be overlooked, yet equally true is it that each of his good deeds is, by reason of his association with the Higher Self, an hundredfold intensified as a potentiality for good.

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In the latter part of 1889, the following communication was addressed by H.P.B. to her Esotericists:

E.S.T.S. Strictly Private and Confidential.

The following has been received by me, with orders to send a copy to all members of the Section.
William Quan Judge,
Sec. to H.P.B.
Esoteric Section
[T.S. Seal]
17 Lansdowne Road,
London,
November 29, 1889.
H. P. Blavatsky"
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v12/y1890_052.htm



M. Sufilight


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