Theos-Talk Archives (November 2012 Message tt00066)

KH writes to Mr. Sinnett:

"...there comes a moment in the life of an adept, when the hardships he has passed through are a thousandfold rewarded. In order to acquire further knowledge, he has no more to go through a minute and slow process of investigation and comparison of various objects, but is accorded an instantaneous, implicit insight into every first truth.... the adept sees and feels and lives in the very source of all fundamental truths ? the Universal Spiritual Essence of Nature...."

But until we each arrive at that "moment", each of us much travel the path of acquiring further knowledge "through a minute and slow process of investigation."

And it might be wise to remember what KH said to one of the more difficult and inpatient inquirers that Kh had to deal with:

""For the life of me I cannot make out how I could ever impart to you that which I know [of the Occult Doctrine] since the very A.B.C. of what I know. . . .  is contradicted by you invariably and a priori. . . . either we know something or we do not know anything. In the first case what is the use of your learning, since you think you know better? In the second case why should you lose your time?. . . . You know that in order to enable you to read you have first to learn your letters [of the alphabet]. . . . I tell you plainly you are unfit to learn, for your mind is too full, and there is not a corner vacant from whence a previous occupant would not arise, to struggle with and drive away the newcomer. . . . I. . . give you time to reflect and deduce and first learn well what was already given you before you seize on something else. . . . Learn first our laws and educate your perceptions. . . . Control your involuntary powers and develop in the right direction your will and you will become a teacher instead of a learner. . . . I had to study for fifteen years before I came to. . . [certain] doctrines. . . and had to learn simpler things at first."

But we should take "comfort" in also what the Masters also suggested:

"Knowledge for the mind, like food for the body, is intended to feed and help to growth, but it requires to be well digested and the more thoroughly and slowly the process is carried out the better both for body and mind." Master M.

"For a clearer comprehension of the extremely abstruse and at first incomprehensible theories of our occult doctrine never allow the serenity of your mind to be disturbed during your hours of literary labour, nor before you set to work. It is upon the serene and placid surface of the unruffled mind that the visions gathered from the invisible find a representation in the visible world. Otherwise you would vainly seek those visions, those flashes of sudden light . . . which alone can bring the truth before the eye of the soul. It is with jealous care that we have to guard our mind-plane from all the adverse influences which daily arise in our passage through earth-life."  Master K.H.

"On close observation, you will find that it was never the intention of the Occultists really to conceal what they had been writing from the earnest determined students, but rather to lock up their information for safety-sake, in a secure safe-box, the key to which is - intuition. The degree of diligence and zeal with which the hidden meaning is sought by the student, is generally the test - how far he is entitled to the possession of the so buried treasure."  Master K.H.

And goodness there is more than enough material for years and years of study, discussion, application, etc.  

Just consider the material listed in these three links below:

http://blavatskyarchives.com/introductory.htm

http://blavatskyarchives.com/introductions_to_theosophy222.htm

http://blavatskyarchives.com/hpbwritings.htm

As to the more practical and spiritual applications, consider what KH writes:

"Once we are upon the topic, I wish you would impress upon your London friends some wholesome truths that they are but too apt to forget, even, when they have been told of them over and over again. 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....."

Where to start on this endeavor?

HPB in THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE gives more than hints about what the student and seeker should try to do.  The summary given in this link should help:

http://blavatskyarchives.com/voiceselectedextracts.htm

And two good books full of much practical advice are:

L.W. Rogers' book "Hints to Young Students of Occultism" which you can read online at:
http://blavatskyarchives.com/theosophypdfs/rogers_hints_to_young_students.pdf

and 

Christmas Humphreys's book CONCENTRATION AND MEDITATION.

Master KH gives good advice in what he wrote to Laura Holloway:

"How can you know the real from the unreal, the true from the false? Only by self-development. How get that? By first carefully guarding yourself against the causes of self-deception....And then by spending a certain fixed hour or hours each day, all alone in self-contemplation, writing, reading, the purification of your motives, the study and correction of your faults, the planning of your work in the external life. These hours should be sacredly reserved for this purpose, and no one, not even your most intimate friend or friends, should be with you then. Little by little your sight will clear, you will find the mists pass away, your interior faculties strengthen...."

And of course in daily life, practising mindfullness and trying to learn to live in the "here and now" and enjoying and appreciating  and making the most of each day we live and learning in even small things and in our daily interactions with others to try to practice love, kindness and compassion.....

Daniel
http://hpb.cc