Theos-Talk Archives (March 2011 Message tt00165)

Dear friends

My views are:

To MKR: Thanks for reminding me and others about it.

I had quite interestingly just translated an article by Blavatsky, which are very much in parallel with this article by Carlos you just posted.


Here is an excerpt of it....

SPIRITUAL PROGRESS
"The goal of the aspirant for spiritual wisdom is entrance upon a higher plane of existence; he is to become a new man, more perfect in every way than he is at present, and if he succeeds, his capabilities and faculties will receive a corresponding increase of range and power, just as in the visible world we find that each stage in the evolutionary scale is marked by increase of capacity. This is how it is that the Adept becomes endowed with marvellous powers that have been so often described, but the main point to be remembered is, that these powers are the natural accompaniments of existence on a higher plane of evolution, just as the ordinary human faculties are the natural accompaniments of existence on the ordinary human plane. 

Many persons seem to think that adeptship is not so much the result of radical development as of additional construction; they seem to imagine that an Adept is a man who, by going through a certain plainly defined course of training, consisting of minute attention to a set of arbitrary rules, acquires first one power and then another; and when he has attained a certain number of these powers is forthwith dubbed an adept. Acting on this mistaken idea they fancy that the first thing to be done towards attaining adeptship is to acquire "powers"--clairvoyance and the power of leaving the physical body and travelling to a distance, are among those which fascinate the most.
To those who wish to acquire such powers for their own private advantage, we have nothing to say; they fall under the condemnation of all who act for purely selfish ends. But there are others, who, mistaking effect for cause, honestly think that the acquirement of abnormal powers is the only road to spiritual advancement. These look upon our Society as merely the readiest means to enable them to gain knowledge in this direction, considering it as a sort of occult academy, an institution established to afford facilities for the instruction of would-be miracle-workers. In spite of repeated protests and warnings, there are some minds in whom this notion seems ineradicably fixed, and they are loud in their expressions of disappointment when they find that what had been previously told them is perfectly true; that the Society was founded to teach no new and easy paths to the acquisition of "powers"; and that its only mission is to re-kindle the torch of truth so long extinguished for all but the very few, and to keep that truth alive by the formation of a fraternal union of mankind, the only soil in which the good seed can grow. 

The Theosophical Society does indeed desire to promote the spiritual growth of every individual who comes within its influence, but its methods are those of the ancient Rishis, its tenets those of the oldest Esotericism; it is no dispenser of patent nostrums composed of violent remedies which no honest healer would dare to use. 
In this connection we would warn all our members, and others who are seeking spiritual knowledge, to beware of persons offering to teach them easy methods of acquiring psychic gifts; such gifts (laukika) are indeed comparatively easy of acquirement by artificial means, but fade out as soon as the nerve-stimulus exhausts itself. The real seership and adeptship which is accompanied by true psychic development (lokothra), once reached, is never lost.

It appears that various societies have sprung into existence since the foundation of the Theosophical Society, profiting by the interest the latter has awakened in matters of psychic research, and endeavouring to gain members by promising them easy acquirement of psychic powers. In India we have long been familiar with the existence of hosts of sham ascetics of all descriptions, and we fear that there is fresh danger in this direction, here, as well as in Europe and America. We only hope that none of our members, dazzled by brilliant promises, will allow themselves to be taken in by self-deluded dreamers, or, it may be, wilful deceivers. "
[The Theosophist, Vol. VI, No. 8(68), May, 1885, pp. 187-88]
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v6/y1885_006.htm




M. Sufilight says:
It seems, to me, that ever since the Krishnamurti - Messiah emotionalism in the 1911-1929, many a theosophical group have found it difficult to understand what the Theosophical Society was all about - namely altruism (and not secterian Messiah-emotionalism) and that it was a non-secterian body etc. etc. - and that it was not an Occult Academi so to train seekers in the develoment of clairvoyance. And that the leader of an Esoteric Section was not allowed to make it a secterian body. If so - a new one under a different name, would out of compassion be created by the help of the Masters, who ever watch this planet and the spheres of the earth chain.
 So to "reconcile all religions, sects and nations under a common system of ethics, based on eternal verities. " (The Key to Theosophy). Because that is what the core object of the Society was and is about - when we speak about - altrusism. And that it therefore was - and aught to be - non-political legislatively speaking in all its aims.

But, these are just my views.



M. Sufilight


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: MKR 
  To: theos-talk 
  Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2011 2:50 PM
  Subject: theos-talk THE FUTURE OF ADYAR SOCIETY - An Article


    
  Some months ago, an article on the topic of the Future of Adyar Society was
  published in a theosophical forum. It contains some interesting information
  and you can read it at the following link and come to your own
  conclusions/opinions. Here is the link:

  <http://www.esoteric-philosophy.com/2010/10/future-of-adyar-society_18.html>

  MKR

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