Theos-Talk Archives (December 1993 Message tl00038)

Arvind,

Thanks for your message.  My not answering your "unfair"
questions was not intentional.  I'm often under a great deal of
pressure for time, and go to theos-l as sort of a recreational
break from my responsibilities.  Sometimes I skim messages a
little too quickly and miss things, or become too involved in
responding to one question, thus forgetting about the others. So
now I will try to answer your questions as best as I can.

> (a) Which books have influenced you the most?

     That is a very difficult question to answer because I have
been moved and influenced by many books on many different levels.
I READ SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON in elementary school and somehow
grew a lot in self understanding from it at the time.  I was also
deeply influenced by AESOP'S FABLES.  The first theosophical book
I ever read from cover to cover was Jinarajadasa's FIRST
PRINCIPLES OF THEOSOPHY, and it inspired me into further
theosophical reading.  I think the three most important
theosophical books I ever read was THE SECRET DOCTRINE and THE
MAHATMA LETTERS TO A.P. Sinnett, and the THE VOICE OF THE
SILENCE, but can't rate them.  I was also inspired by the first
volume of Purucker's E.S. INSTRUCTIONS.
     But I suspect this may not answer your question, because I'm
more deeply influenced by people than books.  The most important
people in my life have been those possessing what I perceive as
deep wisdom and spirituality.

> (b) What is your current spiritual 'practice' (to put it in
> different words, how do you incorporate the 'spiritual' into
> your daily living)?

     My spiritual approach and practice is primarly Jnana and
karma yoga.  That is I incorporate the spiritual through study
and service (though I'm weaker than I ought to be on the latter).
I also consider my marriage to be a spiritual practice, and
perhaps the most important one. Further, I believe that the
complete practice of any spiritual path ultimately includes all
of the others.

> (c) What is your current 'station' (or 'occupation') in life,
> and what is your next step (or where are you going at the
> moment)?

     My current "station or occupation" are several: 1. I'm a
husband, father, and home owner. 2. I'm a student in the Masters
program at Cal. State Stanislaus.  My major is English
Literature.  3. I operate a mail order book dealership on a part
time bases, specializing in Metaphysics, Mythology and Folklore.
4. I'm associate editor of an acadenic journal called
THEOSOPHICAL HISTORY, published out of Cal. State Fullerton. 5.
I'm a researcher into Occult movements and an archivest.
     As far as where I'm going at the moment: I'm trying to get
through the Masters program in order to continue on for a Ph.D.
I'm also trying to get rid of all of the cursed Bermuda grass in
the backyard in order to plant a garden.

> Also, as I was reading one of Eldon's recent articles where he
> has mentioned
> that the efforts of the Masters are many times not 'successful',
> the thought
> occurred to me that the three books by AAB containing DK's
> instructions
> to his disciples ('Discilpleship in the New Age' Volumes I and
> II, and
> 'Glamour, A World Problem) are a result of an experiment which
> He (DK) termed
> a failure!  This comment ties into a previous comment that (I
> think) you had
> made indicating that HPB's Masters were fallible, whereas the
> Masters in other systems of esoteric studies are made to look
> like entirely 'failure-proof'.

     Yes, the Mahatma Letters have several allusions to that
effect.  In what manner were the above three books failures?

> Another comment that I want to make is with reference to the
> quote from ML ('Mahatama Letters')attributed to KH containing
> DK's name ...the >reason I cited that in my previous
> communication was that it is the very first time I saw
> a reference to DK's name by KH.  DK has stated in the
> introductory pages of
> all of the books that He has written (I think it is called
> "Extract from a
> Statement by the Tibetan') that He helps out the Masters M and
> KH whenever
> needed, and this quote from KH indicates that He (KH) was indeed
> willing and
> able to use DK as the need arose.

     D.K. shows up every now and again in the Mahatma Letters
working with M and KH.  He was a chela, and that is what chela's
do.


> I have asked some of my colleagues about this problem.  What I
> have myself
> experienced is that many times I am not able to send a message
> out to certain
> destinations 'nodes' which are restricted by our MIS department.
> I'll try
> to follow up some more on this but it appears to me that the
> problem could
> be at your end since a number of others in different cities
> (everyone except
> you) have been able to send me messages at
> exuaxk@exu.ericsson.se.  You
> know that the 'se' in this address stands for Sweden, and
> perhaps the system administrator of your node has restricted
> access to >messages going to Sweden.

     I doubt that I have any restrictions. This Internet account
is part of my "fringe benefits package" from the University for
being in the Masters program here (California), which I use for
research. I was told that I have access to the electronic
catalogue of Oxford University in England (haven't had a need to
try it yet).  As for my Peacenet account, this is also supposed
to be international.  But I will ask.

> I hope to write to David sometime in the future.  If you have a
> phone number
> for him, that will be great (much quicker to call than write)!
> What is the
> latest on discovering the book or document called 'Stanzas of
> Dzyan'?  It'd
> be great to get access to the complete work some day!

     I will send Dave's phone number to you.  Dave has identified
the general group of tantric texts that the Kiu Tie texts are
identified with.  But he is a long way from finding the Stanza of
Dzyan.  Dave feels that they are not yet public, therefore not
available unless you are a Tibetan initiate.  But you can talk to
Dave directly about that.

> For your information, Lucis trust has two compilations ready
> to go into the publishers, one on the 7 Rays ("Saptarishi')
> and the other on the 7th Ray in particular.  I donot think
> that you can
> order them just now but I can let you know when I come to know
> about their availability. BTW can I ask you for a copy of your
> most recent catalog?  My address is 3024 Landershire Ln, Plano
> TX 75023-800824.  I guarantee to buy at least some of the books
> from you sometime soon!
>
> Regarding Helena Roerich's books...they are regarded very highly
> by most Bailey students and also by Lucis Trust.  Immediately
> when I found out about the Bailey books some five years ago, I
> ordered (in great enthusiasm) ALL of the books written by Bailey
> and Helena Roerich--I did not order all of Blavatsky's books
> because Lucis does not sell them.  These Roerich books
> (published by the Agni Yoga Society) are supposed to have been
> dictated by the Master Morya.  Frankly I have not gotten around
> to reading even a single one of these Roerich books so far (but
> it is one of my aims to be able to read them at least once
> during this lifetime!)  Have you read any of these, and do you
> have any comments/guidelines on a 'reading program for potential
> theosophists'?

     My latest catalogue is being printed, and is on Health and
Healing.  I will sent it to you as soon as it is ready.
Hopefully before xmas.
     I have some of Helena Roerich's books in my library.  They
are of a very devotional genre, but they didn't capitivate me
like THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE and the first volume of Purucker's
E.S. INSTRUCTIONS.  For whatever that is worth, I question
whether Master Morya of the Mahatma Letters had anything to do
with them, because the writing style, word choice, context, and
slant are entirely different.  Maybe they were dictated by
someone else with the same name.  Any way, when you get around
to reading them, I would be interested in your comments.  I also
have Nicholas Roerich's ALTA HIMALAYA. I found that more
interesting.
     I don't have much call for Bailey's books anymore.  We use
to sell a lot about 15 years ago.  I still have a good stock of
her writings.  As for the new compilations, rather than stock
them, I will probably just order copies as I get requests.

> I asked around at Lucis Trust yesterday if they had any page
> reference numbers to quotes from SD (or any of the other HPB
> books).  They did not, at least they could not help me on the
> spot.  I started reading the SD before we started these
> discussions and as I have admitted before, indeed I donot
> remember where the quote about the psychological key to SD is
> in HPB's SD. I will keep looking but I do wish to thank Brenda
> Eldon for providing the page reference to at least one of the
> quotes that I was looking for.  I donot know whether AAB was
> better fitted than HPB (no doubt in my mind that they were
> both great Initiates), it appears that the Hierarchy uses
> anyone who has the right 'equipment' -- even a beginner on the
> probationary path can be used if the purpose can be served.

     Perhaps you can go back to Bailey's book where you first
saw the reference.  Perhaps she will have the reference in a
footnote.  Then I could take it from there.

     What is Lucis Trust's E-Mail address?

Nancy,

     Good to have you back.  I think were have alread started
comparing HPB and AAB starting with the psychological key, and
the successorship issues.  Me thinks that the discussion will go
a bit slow because it takes time to find references.  Arvind is
trying to involve others who are faster at finding them.  If he
does then things might speed up.  We haven't discovered much
yet. We had to lay a lot of ground work to make sure that we
understood each other. I think that was very important,
otherwise we would have been doing a lot of writing and no
communicating.

     Regarding swabhava and swabhavat, I studied Latin, which is
also a declined language, so I know exactly what you mean.
Purucker treats swabhava and swabhavat as two entirely different
words, not as two declinations of the same word.  Check out
Purucker's OCCULT GLOSSARY and you'll see what I mean.  On the
other hand, he gives the same verb-root to both of them.  I
would be interested if you bounced your question concerning
these as being two declinations of the same noun off of Grace.
I bet she will have a very interesting response.

     Karman appears to be a different story.  According to
Purucker, Karman is the noun form of Karma.  Purucker, added the
"n" to Karma in all of his books.  For a while the Point Loma
people encouraged the adoption of the word Karman as the more
correct spelling of karma, but finally dropped it.  H.P.B.'s
Karma is supposed to be the same as G.de P.'s Karman.  Grace can
fill you in on that, she was around then.

     What reincarnates?  Purucker says the Reincarnating Ego.
That would be the interface of Atma-Buddhi with manas, but not
kama-manas.  This also conforms with H.P.B.'s E.S. INSTRUCTIONS.
Clear as mud?

Jerry Hejka-Ekins