Theos-Talk Archives (October 2008 Message tt00870)

Mahatma Koot Hoomi wrote to A.P. Sinnett:

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The Occult Science is not one, in which secrets can be communicated 
of a sudden, by a written or even verbal communication. If so, all 
the "Brothers" should have to do, would be to publish a Hand-book of 
the art which might be taught in schools as grammar is. It is the 
common mistake of people that we willingly wrap ourselves and our 
powers in mystery -- that we wish to keep our knowledge to ourselves, 
and of our own will refuse -- "wantonly and deliberately" to 
communicate it. The truth is that till the neophyte attains to the 
condition necessary for that degree of Illumination to which, and for 
which, he is entitled and fitted, most if not all of the Secrets are 
incommunicable. The receptivity must be equal to the desire to 
instruct. The illumination must come from within. Till then no hocus 
pocus of incantations, or mummery of appliances, no metaphysical 
lectures or discussions, no self-imposed penance can give it. All 
these are but means to an end, and all we can do is to direct the use 
of such means as have been empirically found by the experience of 
ages to conduce to the required object. And this was and has been no 
secret for thousands of years. Fasting, meditation, chastity of 
thought, word, and deed; silence for certain periods of time to 
enable nature herself to speak to him who comes to her for 
information; government of the animal passions and impulses; utter 
unselfishness of intention, the use of certain incense and 
fumigations for physiological purposes, have been published as the 
means since the days of Plato and Iamblichus in the West, and since 
the far earlier times of our Indian Rishis. How these must be 
complied with to suit each individual temperament is of course a 
matter for his own experiment and the watchful care of his tutor or 
Guru. Such is in fact part of his course of discipline, and his Guru 
or initiator can but assist him with his experience and will power 
but can do no more until the last and Supreme initiation. I am also 
of opinion that few candidates imagine the degree of inconvenience -- 
nay suffering and harm to himself -- the said initiator submits to 
for the sake of his pupil. The peculiar physical, moral, and 
intellectual conditions of neophytes and Adepts alike vary much, as 
anyone will easily understand; thus, in each case, the instructor has 
to adapt his conditions to those of the pupil, and the strain is 
terrible for to achieve success we have to bring ourselves into a 
full rapport with the subject under training. And as, the greater the 
powers of the Adept the less he is in sympathy with the natures of 
the profane who often come to him saturated with the emanations of 
the outside world, those animal emanations of the selfish, brutal, 
crowd that we so dread -- the longer he was separated from that world 
and the purer he has himself become, the more difficult the self-
imposed task. Then -- knowledge, can only be communicated gradually; 
and some of the highest secrets -- if actually formulated even in 
your well prepared ear -- might sound to you as insane gibberish, 
notwithstanding all the sincerity of your present assurance 
that "absolute trust defies misunderstanding." This is the real cause 
of our reticence.
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Quoted from:
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/mahatma/ml-49.htm

For more on THE MAHATMA LETTERS TO A.P. SINNETT, see:

http://mahatmaletters.net

Daniel
Blavatsky Study Center
http:blavatskyarchives.com
http://hpb.cc
http://blavatsky.info

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