Theos-Talk Archives (December 1993 Message tl00143)

It is easy in a study of Theosophy to learn by taking analogies to
what we find about us in everyday life. These analogies sometimes
unlock great mysteries, and lead us to profound insights. Other times,
they can mislead us, and lead us into confusion.

One false analogy is regarding government. Our daily affairs are
subject to politics, to the government of the land that we live in.
We might assume that the inner side of life too is organized into
such a form. But there is no inner government of the world, no
government based upon initiates, Masters, and still greater beings.

After Blavatsky's time, some later writers may have taken hold of the
idea of a hidden world government based upon the Masters, but they
were in error, and did not understand Theosophy well enough to see
the problems with this idea.

The Masters do not tell people what to do, they do not give us
commands and set laws for our behavior. And they certainly do not
involve themselves in our day-to-day politics. They avoid an active
participation in our worldly affairs, like finance, commerce, and
economics. They have much better things to do with their time, and
are simply not interested in our everyday world.

There may have been a day, in the distant past, when Masters walked
openly among men, and there were Priest-Kings whom ruled over the
masses. But those were times before humanity has developed sufficient
fire of mind to have individual responsibililty for its actions, and
was not karmically self-sufficient.

The work of the hierarchy is varied. There is the aspect of the
Guardian Wall, of protecting humanity against harmful outside
influences.

There is the Tower of Infinite Thought, the aspect of preserving the
wisdom imparted to mankind by the Dhyani-Chohans, a wisdom that can
only be carried on as a living, learned tradition, passed on only from
one who knows to another who would know.

And there is the work of aiding humanity, in providing assistance to
those ready to grow and help in the work, in identifying those in
whom can be seen the buddhic splendor, those ready to start the long
path that leads to joining their ranks.

The Hierarchy of Compassion has the work of parenting, of nurtering,
of expression compassion for suffering humanity. It is not a
business organization of bosses giving orders, edicts, commands.

And at each stage of progression, at each step along the way, there is
not a single being, no one individual is appointed to a specific
task and holds a special organizational role in the overall hierarchy.
At each level, there are perhaps a few, perhaps many individuals, all
of equal stature, all participating in the work.

As one moves up the Hierarchy, it is not like being in a business
organization. Your *promotion* is not partly based upon someone at
the next level vacating a position that you can fill. You are not held
back waiting for an opening to occur. Your progress is solely determined
by the unfoldment of your inner nature, and not upon open positions
in any organizational structure.

At each level, we see classes or groups of initiates, Masters, Buddhas,
then finally of Dhyani-Chohans as well. There is never a so-called job
for a single person to fill. We all may take on different tasks, but
those tasks are self-choosen and not based upon any spiritual politics.
It would be wrong to pick out something, like the so-called seven rays,
and say that there was an individual in charge of each of the rays,
like we had appointed posts.

Even the work of the Logos itself, is of one-or-more individual
beings and not single entities. The confusion appears as we near the
top of our world, of our universe. Our world or system was created,
fashioned, brought together by the informing life of a great being.
But that being is not part of any Hierarchy and is not working in any
way with us as classes of beings. That is where the misunderstanding
can be found.

The misunderstanding comes from taking the typical monotheistic idea of
an individual, omnipotent, omnipresent creative God and applying that
idea to the informing life of that being whose existence brings our
world into being. We *are* created due to that being's existence, but
not personally so; there is no personal connection between him and us.

That informing being exists at a different *scale of being*, and is
entirely unaware of us as individuals. It is much the same as we are
unaware of our life-atoms, which make up our skandhas, which come
together to form our principles as we manifest ourselves. We are only
aware of our skandhas in a collective way, and likewise that great
being is only aware of us, the members of the kingdoms of nature, in
a collective way.

In a sense, that greater being is our creator, our God, but it is
not omnipresent, not omnipotent, it is not in individual karmic
relation to any of us. It is making that false assumption, where we
get misled in our thinking, where we try to force the Hierarchy, as
it gets higher and higher, and approaches the top-most level, to
end up with a single being, and to make that being our planetary or
solar Logos.

The top of our Hierarchy is not a single individual. It is not any
Logos. It is a smaller number, perhaps,  of individuals than at lower
levels, but there never is any level or point in the Hierarchy at
which only one individual can rise to at a single time. We do not have
to wait and take turns to exist at the highest levels; we rise as
quickly as our own merit permits; there is no bottleneck to spiritual
progress. Our only limits are self-imposed.

When we reach the top and push on, going higher, we pass out of this
world, into higher schemes of existence. We have not become planetary
Logoi, planets of our own. We rather are beings at the same scale of
being, but not existing in a higher chain, one on a much higher cosmic
plane. We have passed on to higher worlds, but have not become
ourselves a world in the process.

We may, at some distant age in the future, have progressed to the point
where we have become planets in our own right, where we are the
planetary logoi. But by that time, everything else in the kingdoms of
nature will have done so as well. We still haven't shifted our scale of
being, but the whole of existence has simply gotten bigger over time!

Forget the idea of a ruling class of beings, with Masters replacing
priests as our spiritual rulers. Forget the idea of appointed
individuals telling us what to do. Forget the suggestion that there may
be bottlenecks in our upward paths, where our progress is only by
taking turns to fill some arbitrary position in some rigid hierarchy!

The Hierarchy is one of nurturing, one of passing on of light and
inspiration and encouragement to others, so that they, *by their own
initiative* will take steps to raise themselves. They are parents in
a sense, and sometimes coaches, but never bosses or commanding
officers.

We are left up to our own device and council, right up to the last and
final initiation. It could not be otherwise. Were someone else to tell
us what to do, it would steal our merit, and prevent us from becoming
self-reliant. We need to learn to be active powers for good in the
world, originating that good *from within*, by our own choice and under
our own direction. Without this self-direction, we would not end up
much better than the elementals, being perfect agents for the will of
others.

Look to the light. Strive to live the good and noble life. Ask no one
what to do, what to think, how to live, except as that inner voice,
that inner teacher, that true nature of yourself itself suggests.
Accept no artificial barriers, no rigid scheme of thought, no
compromise to popular thought. Seek out Reality. Dwell on the Esoteric
Philosophy. Contemplate, and behold the Truth!

                         Eldon Tucker (eldon@netcom.com)