Theos-Talk Archives (May 2010 Message tt00018)

Dear friends

PART 1

A few words about Prayer, Mantras and their use might be helpful to any Seeker after harmlessness and love, truth and wisdom...

I will in the following throw some quotes given by Alice A. Bailey on mantras etc. They can with advantage be compared with the quotes by H. P. Blavatsky, which follows later.

THE GREAT INVOCATION by Alice A. Bailey (Lucis Trust)
>Great Invocation Day - May 27th 2010<
http://www.lucistrust.org/en/meetings_and_events/world_invocation_day

1.
Alice A. Bailey (or her D.K.) wrote:
"1. May Christ return to Earth. This return must not be understood in its usual connotation and its well-known mystical Christian sense. Christ has never left the Earth. What is referred to is the externalization of the Hierarchy and its exoteric appearance on Earth. The Hierarchy will eventually, under its Head, the Christ, function openly and visibly on Earth. This will happen when the purpose of the divine Will, and the plan which will implement it, are better [150] understood and the period of adjustment, of world enlightenment and of reconstruction has made real headway. This period begins at the San Francisco Conference (hence its major importance), and will move very slowly at first. It will take time, but the Hierarchy thinks not in terms of years and of brief cycles (though long to humanity), but in terms of events and the expansion of consciousness."
(DNA vol. II, p. 150, april 1945)

H. B. Blavatsky wrote:
"It is, however, right that each member, once he believes in the existence of such Masters, should try to understand what their nature and powers are, to reverence Them in his heart, to draw near to Them, as much as in him lies, and to open up for himself conscious communication with the guru to whose bidding he has devoted his life. THIS CAN ONLY BE DONE BY RISING TO THE SPIRITUAL PLANE WHERE THE MASTERS ARE, AND NOT BY ATTEMPTING TO DRAW THEM DOWN TO OURS."
(BCW; Vol. XII, p. 492)
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v12/y1890_052.htm


Alice A. Bailey wrote in the book A Treatise on Cosmic Fire:
"In the case of H. P. B. this is apparent. On the tide of the present endeavor, the Secret Doctrine will be vindicated and her work justified."
("A Treatise on Cosmic Fire", page 707-8, written 1925, by Alice A. Bailey, english edition.) 


2.
Alice A. Bailey (or her D.K.) wrote:
- "To prepare the men of good will for a repetition upon a far larger scale of the "act of appeal" which took place on May 6th, 1936. Then the Great Invocation was used by millions, and of its effectiveness there can be no doubt." (EP. Vol. II, p. 646)

- "The Great Invocation should be increasingly used, and daily and hourly must the Invocation be sent forth. The gist of that which is here set forth should be rearranged and readapted for the use of the general public for it is only through constant reiteration that men learn, and these things must be said again and again before the real work of the New Group of World Servers can make itself felt." (EP. Vol. II, p. 668)

- "It is the general, widespread and intelligent use of the Great Invocation which is desired. The general public must be urged, through all possible agencies, to employ it. The radio, the press, must all be utilized, and all men of good will must be contacted, even if unenlightened from the occult angle, and even if they do not realize the guiding presence of the Hierarchy and the opportunity now offered by the united effort of the Buddha and the Christ." (EP. Vol. II, p. 694)

- "The Christ, Whom I serve as a disciple, and the spiritual Hierarchy, of which I am a member, are drawing steadily nearer to humanity; in the past I have used the statement to reassure you, "The Hierarchy stands"; today I say to you, "The Hierarchy is near."
The work that must be done in the two coming decades is as follows, and I shall not enlarge upon it because you have [641] been trained to do it; you know what to do and the responsibility is yours - as will be my unfailing help.

1. Prepare men for the reappearance of the Christ. This is your first and greatest duty. The most important part of that work is teaching men - on a large scale - to use the Invocation so that it becomes a world prayer and focuses the invocative demand of humanity." (EXH., p. 641)

- "I would again call your attention to the fact that the evocative power of the Great Invocation (now used by so many hundreds of thousands) and the sound of its mantric rhythm is increasingly responsible for this work; a great deal of the resultant effectiveness is due to the fact that humanity is using this mantram in steadily increasing numbers, and this - combined with its scientific use by the Hierarchy - is very fruitful in results. "
(EXH., p. 659)



Rudolf Steiner on the Jesuits:
Although I do not agree withn the wellmeaning Rudolf Steiner about a number of issues in the teachings he published, when he was alive. I find the following very interesting to consider, when we deal with the issue of Prayer and Invocations versus ATMA-VIDYA.

There is a lecture from Rudolf Steiner about the issue: "From Jesus to Christ" by Rudolf Steiner, October 1911. Here is a few important excerpts: 
  "The movement which interests us in connection with our spiritual-scientific point of view, and which we may call an extraordinarily dangerous error in a certain sense, is the movement known in the external world as Jesuitism. In Jesuitism we encounter a dangerous exaggeration of the Jesus-Principle. In the other movement, which for centuries has existed in Europe as Rosicrucianism, we have an inward Christ-movement which above all seeks carefully for the ways of truth." 
  ....... 

  "In reaction against many other spiritual streams in Europe, the opposite way was taken by those who are usually called Jesuits. The radical, fundamental difference between what we justifiably call the Christian way of the Spirit and the Jesuit way of the Spirit, which gives a one-sided exaggeration to the Jesus-Principle, is that the intention of the Jesuit way is to work directly, at all times, upon the Will. The difference is clearly shown in the method by which the pupil of Jesuitism is educated. Jesuitism is not to be taken lightly, or merely exoterically, but also esoterically, for it is rooted in esotericism. It is not, however, rooted in the spiritual life that is poured out through the symbol of Pentecost, but it seeks to root itself directly in the Jesus-element of the Son, which means in the Will; and thereby it exaggerates the Jesus-element of the Will." 
  ....... 

  "This will be seen when we now enquire into the esoteric part of Jesuitism, its various spiritual exercises. How were these exercises arranged? The essential point is that every single pupil of Jesuitism goes through exercises which lead into the occult life, but into the Will, and within the field of occultism they hold the Will in severe discipline; they âbreak it inâ, one might say. And the significant fact is that this discipline of the Will does not arise merely from the surface of life, but from something deeper, because the pupil has been led into the occult, in the way just indicated." 
  ....... 

  "These ideas, gathered up into a single resolution of the Will, can certainly give the Will immense strength. But we must ask: what is it in the soul-life that has been directly attacked? The element that ought to be regarded as intrinsically holy, the element that ought not to be touched â the Will-element. In so far as this Jesuit training lays hold of the Will-element, while the Jesus-idea seizes the Will-element completely, in so far is the concept of the dominion of Jesus exaggerated in the most dangerous way â dangerous because through it the Will becomes so strong that it can work directly upon the Will of another. For where the Will becomes so strong through Imaginations, which means by occult methods, it acquires the capacity for working directly upon the Will of another, and hence also along all the other occult paths to which such a Will can have recourse." 
http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA/GA0131/19111005p02.html


Alice A. Bailey wrote:
 "The Christian revelation is universal, and everything analogous to it in other religions is 
simply a part of that revelation. Christianity is not a religion of the same order as the others; 
it is, as Schleiermacher said, the religion of religions. What does it matter if within [11] 
Christianity, supposedly so different from other faiths, there is nothing original at all apart 
from the coming of Christ and His Personality; is it not precisely in this particular that the hope 
of all religions is fulfiled?
    - Freedom and the Spirit, by Nicholas Berdyaev, pp. 88-89."
 (From Bethlehem to Calvary, p. 11)
http://www.light-weaver.com/links/kingsgarden.books.htm

Alice A. Bailey (or her D.K.) wrote:
"Every great religion which arises is under the influence of one or other of the rays, but it does not necessarily follow that each successive ray should have a great far-reaching religion as its outcome. We have heard that Brahmanism is the last great religion which arose under first ray influence; we do not know what may have been the religion which was the outcome of the last second ray period; but the Chaldean, the Egyptian and the Zoroastrian religions may be taken as representing the third, the fourth, and the fifth rays respectively. Christianity and probably Buddhism were the result of sixth ray influence. Mohammedanism, which numbers so large a following, is also under sixth ray influence, but it is not a great root religion, being a hybrid offshoot of Christianity with the tinge of Judaism."
(Esoteric Psychology Vol. I, p. 167)



H. P. Blavatsky wrote:
"Students of Occultism should know that, while the Jesuits have, by their devices, contrived to make the world in general, and Englishmen in particular, think there is no such thing as MAGIC, these astute and wily schemers themselves hold magnetic circles, and form magnetic chains by the concentration of their collective will when they have any special object to affect, or any particular and important person to influence."
http://www.blavatsky.net/blavatsky/arts/TheosophyOrJesuitism.htm


H. P. Blavatsky wrote:
"ENQUIRER. But how do you explain the universal fact that all nations and peoples have prayed to, and worshipped a God or Gods? Some have adored and propitiated devils and harmful spirits, but this only proves the universality of the belief in the efficacy of prayer.

THEOSOPHIST. It is explained by that other fact that prayer has several other meanings besides that given it by the Christians. It means not only a pleading or petition, but meant, in days of old, far more an invocation and incantation. The mantra, or the rhythmically chanted prayer of the Hindus, has precisely such a meaning, as the Brahmins hold themselves higher than the common devas or "Gods." A prayer may be an appeal or an incantation for malediction, and a curse (as in the case of two armies praying simultaneously for mutual destruction) as much as for blessing. And as the great majority of people are intensely selfish, and pray only for themselves, asking to be given their "daily bread" instead of working for it, and begging God not to lead them "into temptation" but to deliver them (the memorialists only) from evil, the result is, that prayer, as now understood, is doubly pernicious: (a) It kills in man self-reliance; (b) It develops in him a still more ferocious selfishness and egotism than he is already endowed with by nature. I repeat, that we believe in "communion" and simultaneous action in unison with our "Father in secret"; and in rare moments of ecstatic bliss, in the mingling of our higher soul with the universal essence, attracted as it is towards its origin and centre, a state, called during life Samadhi, and after death, Nirvana. We refuse to pray to created finite beingsâi. e., gods, saints, angels, etc., because we regard it as idolatry. We cannot pray to the ABSOLUTE for reasons explained before; therefore, we try to replace fruitless and useless prayer by meritorious and good-producing actions."
(The Key to Theosophy, 2ed. 1890, p. 69-70)
http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/aKEY.htm


M. Sufilight says:

I am not saying that many Alice A. Bailey Seekers and Teacher are not wellmeaning.
But I find it problematic, when they seek to use the Great Invocation in the manner they intend or do, and when the Alice A. Bailey teachers promote it to be used by all human regardless of the above words or the words I mentioned in the previous e-mail - named PART 2.

I find it to be helpful to any Alice A. Bailey Seeker and other Seekers to compared the quotes I have given in PART 1 and 2, and draw their own conclusions.

I will have to oppose those Alice A. Bailey groups who do not take H. P. Blavatsky's teachings on ATMA-VIDYA into account, and those of them who do not take careful note about H. P. Blavatsky's views on fruitless prayers (and even dangerous prayers) versus theosophical action.

There are a certain danger in the Alice A. Bailey teachings in the quotes given by Alice A. Bailey, that the Alice A. Bailey followers who only read the Alice A. Bailey corpus, will be lead astray into something which has certain similarities with the Jesuits over-emphasis on the Jesus principle or an anthropomorpic version of Alice A. Bailey's "Return of Christ" in the name of an Islamic Hybrid-offshot.

These are however just my views. And I am niot fanatical about them and recognize that I might be in error, because I do not claim to know all and everything.



M. Sufilight

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