Theos-Talk Archives (July 1997 Message tl00099)

"JOSEPH PRICE" <JKEITHPRICE@msn.com> wrote:

>      Is it to be wondered that so few reach the goal, that so
> many are called, but so few are chosen? Is not the reason for
> this explained in three lines on page 27 of the "Voice of the
> Silence"? These say that while "The first repeat in pride 'Behold,
> I know,' the last, they who in humbleness have garnered, low
> confess, 'thus have I heard' "; and hence, become the only
> "chosen."
>  
> Lucifer, June 1890  "Mistaken Notions on the 'Secret Doctrine'"
>  H.P. BLAVATSKY
> 
> 
> Keith:  I am confused by this quotation.  I would assume that those following 
> the path must test everything with their own consciousness, thus saying like 
> Jung:  "I don't believe, I KNOW"   This is the tradition of the gnostic who 
> has experienced the spiritual for himself.  
> 
> To say humbly, this is what I have heard, and that makes one "chosen" to be a 
> student of the Masters, seems strangely antiquated, outdated.  Perhaps this 
> quotation is taken out of context and she was being ironic or maybe not.
> 
> Do the Masters really want a bunch of vegetarian brown noses?

I think both Keith and HPB are right. Eventually you must be able to say, "I
know." But not too soon. And you certainly shouldn't predicate your quest on
only what you have proved. An initial leap of faith is needed.

HPB is saying the following:

Sublime truths brought by avatars cannot be understood by saying, "Oh, that
means nothing but so-and-so." It is human nature to want to hear what you
already know and pour the new wine into old bottles. "Behold, I know."

The meaning of new wisdom truths can only be discovered by having an intuition
that they are true (even though you really don't understand them fully yet)
and then perservering at trying to apply them and get at their true meaning.
It can take years with little or no results before you succeed. Along the
way, the best you can say is, "Thus, I have heard."

To use Jung as an example, he studied Alchemy on a hint for quite a while with
out any results at all. He thought, "This is meaningless and silly." But he
accepted the intimations of the Unconscious on a kind of faith. Along the way,
he must have grumbled frequenly "Thus, I have heard." (Perhaps from his
Philemon?)

With some it is a matter of pride to not act on anything they haven't already
proved to themselves. That is the ego which only wants to run around in the
narrow little circle of what it thinks it knows.