Theos-Talk Archives (April 1999 Message tl00007)

April 2nd

Here are some ideas that Theosophy offers.

I hope they will prove valuable to consider.

Dallas
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	ON TRUTH

"...the Buddhists hold that nothing which is contradicted by
sound reason can be a true doctrine..."	-- Buddhist tenet  KEY TO
THEOSOPHY p. 199

"Wisdom and truth are synonymous terms, and that which is false
or pernicious cannot be wise."		HPB Articles II 34

"The nature of truth is universal ;  its possessors in any degree
will be found to be appliers of universality in thought, speech
and action."
FP 363

"Truth is known but to the few;  the rest, unwilling to withdraw
the veil from their own hearts, imagine it blinding the eyes of
their neighbor."
ISIS I 307.

"Realizing, as they do, the boundlessness of the absolute truth,
Theosophists repudiate all claim to infallibility.  The most
cherished pre-conceptions, the most "pious hope," the strongest
"mature passion," they sweep aside like dust from their path,
when their error is pointed out.  Their highest hope is to
approximate to the truth...Theosophists are ever ready to abandon
every idea that is proved erroneous upon strictly logical
deductions..."  --  HPB		Modern Panarion, pp. 193-4

"The present Theosophical movement [whose] doctrines belong
exclusively to no religion, are confined to no society or time.
They are the birthright of every human soul...Those who have
imagined Theosophy to be a new religion have hunted in vain for
its creed and its ritual.  Its creed is Loyalty to Truth and its
ritual 'To honor every truth by use...[It] was organized on...the
essential Brotherhood of Man."		KEY p. 18

"Humanity is a great Brotherhood by virtue of the sameness of the
material from which it is formed physically and morally.  Unless
however, it becomes a Brotherhood also intellectually, it is no
better than a superior genus of animals."  ---HPB Theos. Glossary
p. 146

"The Beacon-light of Truth is Nature without the veil of the
senses.  It can be reached only when the adept has become
absolute master of his personal self, able to control all his
physical and psychic senses by the aid of his "seventh sense,"
through which he is gifted also with the true wisdom of the
gods-Theosophia."
--HPB  Le Phare de l'Inconnu  HPB Articles I 424

	Truth and Reality

"All of you who waver on the golden threshold of Truth, the only
Truth, still open to you, since all the others have failed, one
after the other-look at the Great Reality now offering itself to
you straight in the face...This thought...is identical with what
was the keynote and the keystone of every century, especially the
last one:  "absolute Freedom of Human thought."		HPB Articles I
405-6

"...Absolute Truth is the eternal Reality which survives all
transient phenomena...Language belongs to the world of
relativity, while Truth is the Absolute Reality.  It is therefore
vain to suppose that any language, however ancient or sublime,
can express Absolute Truth.  The latter exists in the world of
ideas, and the ideal can be perceived by the sense belonging to
that world...no number of words can convey an idea to one who is
incapable of perceiving it.  Every one of us has within him the
latent capacity or sense dormant in us, which can take cognizance
of Abstract Truth, although...the assimilation of our intellect
with that higher sense, may vary in different persons, according
to circumstances, education and discipline.  That higher sense
which is the potential capacity of every human being is in
eternal contact with Reality..."	--DKM	  T A & N  p. 49

"There is, and can be, but one absolute truth in Kosmos.
[and]...if it is absolute it must also be omnipresent and
universal;  and that in such case, it must be underlying every
word-religion-the product of the thought and knowledge of
numberless generations of thinking men...Our object is not to
destroy any religion but rather to help to filter each, thus
ridding them of their respective impurities."     --HPB Articles,
I p. 281

"If one imagines that one is going to get a satisfactory picture
of the constitution of the Universe from the S.D. one will get
only confusion from its study.  It is not meant to give any such
final verdict on existence, but to lead towards the truth."	--
HPB	T A & N p. 272

	Reaching for the TRUTH -- Wisdom

"True philosophy and divine truth are convertible terms."  A
religion which dreads the light cannot be a religion based on
either truth or philosophy-hence, it must be false."	ISIS II p.
121

"Mental evolution progresses pari passu with physical evolution,
and both advance towards the One Truth,-- which is the heart of
the system of Humanity, as evolution is its blood...Let every man
inclined to go on find his ideal,-- a star before him to guide.
Let him follow it without ever deviating from his path;  and he
is almost certain to reach the Beacon-light of life-the
Truth."	--HPB Articles I 436-7

"The Infinite cannot be known to our reason, which can only
distinguish and define; -- but we can always conceive the
abstract idea thereof, thanks to that faculty higher than our
reason - intuition, or the spiritual instinct...Only the great
initiates, who have the rare power of throwing themselves into
the state of Samadhi... ecstasy ...a state in which one ceases to
be the conditioned and personal "I," and becomes one with the
All, -- only those can boast of having been in contact with the
infinite;  but no more than other mortals can they describe that
state in words."
--HPB Articles,  I  432-3.

"Man has to know himself, i.e., acquire the inner perceptions
which never deceive, before he can master any absolute truth.
Absolute truth is the symbol of Eternity,  and no finite mind can
ever grasp the eternal, hence no truth in its fullness can ever
dawn upon it.  To reach the state during which man sees and
senses it, we have to paralyze the senses of the external man of
clay.  This is a difficult task...But to approach even
terrestrial truths requires, first of all, love of truth for its
own sake, for otherwise no recognition of it will follow...the
fair heavenly maiden descends only on a (to her) congenial
soil-the soil of an impartial, unprejudiced mind, illuminated by
pure Spiritual Consciousness..."
	HPB Articles I p. 4

"...our Society may be truly called the "Republic of
Conscience."...All of us must work for the liberation of human
thought, for the elimination of selfish and sectarian
superstitions, and for the discovery of all the truths that are
within the reach of the human mind."
	The New Cycle - HPB Articles I p. 402

"Theosophy is divine knowledge, and knowledge is truth, every
true fact, every sincere word are thus part and parcel of
Theosophy. Theosophy allows a hearing and a fair chance to all.
It deems no views-if sincere-entirely destitute of truth.  It
respects thinking man, to whatever class of thought they may
belong."  -- HPB	HPB Articles I pp. 8-9

"Theosophy is the shoreless ocean of universal truth, love and
wisdom."  HPB  Key to Theosophy, p. 56

"...the first point of Wisdom is to discern that which is false,
and the second, to know that which is true...Wisdom is, at best,
an elastic word...thus we find "Wisdom" as the characteristic of
both divine inspiration and also the terrestrial cunning and
craft...as meaning the Secret Knowledge of the Esoteric Sciences,
and also blind faith:  the "fear of the Lord..."	HPB  "The Dual
Aspect of Wisdom"  --- HPB	HPB Articles II 30

"...divine Wisdom being diffused throughout the infinite
Universe, and our impersonal Higher Self being an integral part
of it, the atmic light of the latter can be centered only in that
which though eternal is still individualized-i.e., the noetic
Principle, the manifested God within each rational being, or our
Higher Manas at one with Buddhi.
"The Dual Aspect of Wisdom"  ---HPB Articles II p. 31

	The Practice

"In every age there have been Sages who had mastered the absolute
and yet could teach but relative truths...every one of us has to
find that (to him) final knowledge in himself...no two minds can
be absolutely alike, each has to receive the supreme illumination
through itself, according to its capacity, and from no human
light.  The greatest adept living can reveal of the Universal
Truth only so much as the mind he is impressing it upon can
assimilate, and no more...Polarity is universal, but the
polariser lies in our own consciousness.  In proportion as our
consciousness is elevated towards truth, so do we men assimilate
it more or less absolutely...Still each of us can relatively
reach the Sun of Truth even on this earth, and assimilate its
warmest and most direct rays, however differentiated they may
become...On the plane of spirituality, to reach the Sun of Truth
we must work in dead earnest for the development of our higher
nature."
--- HPB  "What is Truth ?"	HPB Articles  I  p. 2

"No one is so busy or so poor that he cannot be inspired by a
noble ideal to follow...It is true that the first requisites for
getting there are absolute unselfishness and unlimited devotion
to the interests of others, and complete indifference as to the
world and its opinions.  To take the first step on this ideal
path requires a perfectly pure motive; no frivolous thought must
be allowed to divert our eyes from the goal;  no hesitation, no
doubt must fetter our feet...As to our inner life, let us
concentrate all our attention on our chosen Ideal, and let us
ever book beyond ...Those capable of such an effort are true
Theosophists."	--
	HPB Articles I, p. 408

"...there are two kinds of even "terrestrial" wisdom on our globe
of mud-the real and the apparent...So strong is human
selfishness, that whenever there is the smallest personal
interest at stake, there men become deaf and blind to the truth,
as often consciously as not...There was a time when the
acquirement of Divine Wisdom (Sapienta) required the sacrifice
and devotion of a man's whole life.

It depended on such things as the purity of the candidate's
motives, on his fearlessness and independence of spirit...no
"wisdom from above" descends on any one save on the sine qua non
condition of leaving at the threshold of the Occult every atom of
selfishness, or desire for personal ends and benefit...Nature
gives up her innermost secrets and imparts true wisdom only to
him who seeks truth for its own sake, and who craves knowledge in
order to confer benefits on others, not on his own unimportant
personality."	"The Dual Aspect of Wisdom"  	HPB Articles II 32-3

"Selfishness, the first-born of Ignorance, and the fruit of the
teaching which asserts that for each newly-born infant a new soul
separate and distinct from the Universal Soul, is "created"-this
Selfishness is the impassable wall between the personal Self and
Truth.  It is the prolific mother of all human
vices...Selfishness kills every noble impulse in our natures..."
HPB Articles I p. 5-6.

"...ancient truths of the Wisdom Religion...{when tested] in the
use of them they prove themselves true.  And truth...always
explains.  When we have the explanation, we have the truth.

Each has to make his own verifications of the truth, but the fact
remains that there is truth, and it has always existed.

It has come to us from Beings higher than we, because they turned
their faces in the right direction and pursued the course pointed
out to them as leading to spiritual, divine perfection.  They
know all that has been known.  They know us, although we may not
know them.  They know our needs, although we may be densely
ignorant of them.  They come again and again to present the
truths of life to man, hoping that some echo may be aroused in
his soul so that he, too, shall arrive at a realizations of Self,
or spirit-which is Knowledge."  FP, pp. 308-9

"Theosophy is Truth and as such can have no alliance with any
form of error and remain Truth.  Compromise with diluted
Theosophy is not tolerance, is not brotherhood."	-- Theos.
Movement Mag. Vol. 30, July 1960.

	Fundamental Ideas -- Truths

"It is worse than useless going to those whom we imagine to be
advanced students and asking them to give us an "interpretation"
of the S.D.  They cannot do it.  If they try, all they give are
cut and dried exoteric renderings which do not remotely resemble
the Truth.  To accept such interpretations means anchoring
ourselves to fixed ideas, whereas Truth lies beyond any ideas we
can formulate or express.  Exoteric interpretations...[can be]
taken as pointers for beginners, and are not accepted by them as
anything more...

	Come to the SD without any hope of getting the final Truth of
existence from it, or with any idea other than seeing how far it
may lead towards the Truth...

"...let the mind hold fast, as a basis of its ideation to the
following ideas:

1. The fundamental unity of all existence...

Fundamentally, there Is ONE BEING.

This has two poles, positive and negative.  The positive is
Spirit, or consciousness.  The negative is substance, the subject
of consciousness.

This Being is the ABSOLUTE in its primary manifestation.  Being
absolute, there is nothing outside of it.  It is ALL BEING.

It is indivisible, else it would not be absolute.  If a portion
could be separated, that remaining could not be absolute, because
there would at once arise the question of comparison between it
and the separated part.  Comparison is incompatible with any idea
of absoluteness.  Therefore it is clear that this fundamental One
Existence, or absolute Being, must be the Reality in every form
that is...

The Atom, the Man, the God are each separately, as well as
collectively, Absolute Being in their last analysis, that is in
their individuality.  It is this idea that must be held always in
the background of the mind to form the basis for every conception
that arises from study of the SD.  The moment one lets it
go...the idea of separation supervenes, and the study loses its
value."

2.	There is no dead matter.  Every last atom is alive...since
every atom is itself fundamentally Absolute Being...every atom of
substance, no matter of what plane...[is] a life.

3.	Man is the microcosm...all the Hierarchies of the Heavens
exist within him.  But in truth there is neither Macrocosm nor
Microcosm but One Existence.

4.	"As is the inner, so is the outer;  as is the great, so is the
small;  as it is above, so it is below;  there is but One Life
and Law:  and he that worketh it is One.  Nothing is inner,
nothing is outer;  nothing is great, nothing is small;  nothing
is high, nothing is low, in the Divine Economy."	--HPB   T. A. &
N p. 272-3

"Outside a certain highly spiritual and elevated state of mind,
during which Man is at one with the Universal Mind-he can get
nought on earth but relative truth, or truths, from whatsoever
philosophy or religion...Meanwhile every one can sit near that
well-the name of which is Knowledge-and gaze into its depths in
the hope of seeing Truth's fair image reflected at least, on the
dark waters...Concerning the deeper spiritual...beliefs, no true
Theosophist ought to degrade these by subjecting them to public
discussion, but ought rather to treasure and hide them deep
within the sanctuary of his innermost soul...the "Holy of
Holies," the temple of the impersonal divine Ego, or the
indwelling Self.  For, while every fact outside its perception
can...be at best, only a relative truth. A ray from the absolute
truth can reflect itself only in the pure mirror of its own
flame-our highest Spiritual Consciousness.  And how can the
darkness (of illusion) comprehend the Light that shineth in it ?"
HPB Articles, I 10-11.

"As to the process of spiritual development, Theosophy teaches:

First. That the essence of the process lies in the securing of
supremacy, to the highest, the spiritual, element of man's
nature.

Second. That this is attained along four lines, among others,

[a] The entire eradication of selfishness in all forms, and the
cultivation of broad, generous sympathy in, and effort for the
good of others.

(b) The absolute cultivation of the inner, spiritual man by
meditation, by reaching to and communion with the Divine, and by
exercise of the kind described by Patanjali, i. e., incessant
striving to an ideal end.

(c) The control of fleshly appetites and desires, all lower,
material interests being deliberately subordinated to the behests
of the spirit.

(d) The careful performance of every duty belonging to one's
station in life, with-out desire for reward, leaving results for
Divine law.

Third. That while the above is incumbent on and practicable by
all religiously disposed men, a yet higher plane of spiritual
attainment is conditioned upon a specific course of training,
physical, intellectual and spiritual, by which the internal
faculties are first aroused and then developed.

Fourth. That an extension of this process is reached in
Adeptship, Mahatmaship, or the states of Rishis, Sages and Dhyan
Chohans, which are all exalted stages, attained by laborious
self-discipline and hardship, protracted through possibly many
incarnations, and with many degrees of initiation and preferment,
beyond which are yet other stages ever approaching the Divine.

As to the rationale of spiritual development it asserts:

First. That the process takes place entirely within the
individual himself, the motive, the effort, and the result
proceeding from his own inner nature, along the lines of
self-evolution.

Second. That, however personal and interior, this process is not
unaided, being possible, in fact, only through close communion
with the supreme source of all strength.

As to the degree of advancement in incarnations it holds:

First. That even a mere intellectual acquaintance with Theosophic
truth has great value in fit-ting the individual for a step
upwards in his next earth-life, as it gives an impulse in that
direction.

Second. That still more is gained by a career of duty, piety and
beneficence.

Third. That a still greater advance is attained by the attentive
and devoted use of the means to spiritual culture heretofore
stated.

Fourth. That every race and individual of it reaches in evolution
a period known as "the moment of choice," when they decide for
themselves their future destiny by a deliberate and conscious
choice between eternal life and death, and that this right of
choice is the peculiar appanage of the free soul. It cannot be
exercised until the man has realized the soul within him, and
until that soul has attained some measure of self-conscious-ness
in the body. The moment of choice is not a fixed period of time;
it is made up of all moments. It cannot come unless all the
previous lives have led up to it. For the race as a whole it has
not yet come. Any individual can hasten the advent of this period
for himself under the previously stated law of the ripening of
Karma."	WQJ -
AN EPITOME OF THEOSOPHY, p. 25-6.