Theos-Talk Archives (October 1999 Message tl00322)

Oct 23

Randy:

Certainly if you desire to compare your speculations or studies with
theosophy you can.

But to make it easier on you try and get a copy of W. Q. Judge's AN
EPITOME of THEOSOPHY.  It is about 30 pages -- or less than an hours'
reading, (and "food" for several years of serious study).

At least you will get an idea of the scope of Theosophy.  Then take
any statement and apply it to your own work.

Since you seem unaware of this I append a brief survey -- If you agree
to read it it will tell you what and how the philosophy of theosophy
views our world and being.

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Here goes:

THEOSOPHY GENERALLY STATED

	[From the Official Report, World's Parliament of Religions, 1893,
Chicago.]

"The claim is made that an impartial study of history, religion and
literature will show the existence from ancient times of a great body
of philosophical, scientific and ethical doctrine forming the basis
and origin of all similar thought in modern systems. It is at once
religious and scientific, asserting that religion and science should
never be separated.  It puts forward sublime religious and ideal
teachings, but at the same time shows that all of it can be
demonstrated to reason, and that authority other than that has no
place, thus preventing the hypocrisy which  arises from asserting
dogmas on authority which no one can show as resting on reason.

This ancient body of doctrine is known as the "Wisdom Religion" and
was always taught by adepts or initiates therein who preserve it
through all time.  Hence, and from other doctrines demonstrated, it is
shown that man, being spirit and immortal, is able to perpetuate his
real life and consciousness, and has done so during all time in the
persons of those higher flowers of the human race who are members of
an ancient and high  brotherhood who concern themselves with the soul
development of man, held by them to include every process of evolution
on all planes.

The initiates, being bound by the law of evolution, must work with
humanity as its development permits. Therefore from time to time they
give out again and again the same doctrine which from time to time
grows obscured in various nations and places.  This is the wisdom
religion, and they are the keepers of it.  At times they come to
nations as great teachers and "saviours," who only re-promulgate the
old truths and system of ethics.  This therefore holds that humanity
is capable of infinite perfection both in time and quality, the
saviours and adepts being held up as examples of that possibility.

>From this living and presently acting body of perfected men H. P.
Blavatsky declared she received the impulse to once more bring forward
the old ideas, and from them also received several keys to ancient and
modern doctrines that had been lost during modern struggles toward
civilization, and also that she was furnished by them with some
doctrines really ancient but entirely new to the present day in any
exoteric shape.  These she wrote among the other keys furnished by her
to her fellow members and the world at large.  Added, then, to the
testimony through all time found in records of all nations we have
this modern explicit assertion that the ancient learned and
humanitarian body of adepts still exists on this earth and takes an
interest in the development of the race.

Theosophy postulates an eternal principle called the unknown, which
can never be cognized except through its manifestations. This eternal
principle is in and is every thing and being;  t periodically and
eternally manifests itself and recedes again from manifestation. In
this ebb and flow evolution proceeds and itself is the progress of the
manifestation.

The perceived universe is the manifestation of this unknown, including
spirit and matter,  for Theosophy holds that those are but the two
opposite poles of the one unknown principle.  They coexist, are not
separate nor separable from each other, or, as the Hindu scriptures
say, there is no particle of matter without spirit, and no particle of
spirit without matter.

In manifesting itself the spirit-matter differentiates on seven
planes, each more dense on the way down to the plane of our senses
than its predecessors the substance in all being the same, only
differing in degree.  Therefore from this view  the whole universe is
alive, not one atom of it being in any sense dead.  It is also
conscious and intelligent, its consciousness and intelligence being
resent on all planes though obscured on this one.  On this plane of
ours the spirit focalizes itself in all human beings who choose to
permit it to do so, and the refusal to permit it is the cause of
ignorance, of sin. of all sorrow and suffering.

In all ages some have come to this high state, have grown to be as
gods, are partakers actively in the work of nature, and go on from
century to century widening their consciousness and  increasing the
scope of their government in nature.  This is the  destiny of all
beings, and hence at the outset Theosophy postulates this
perfectibility of the race, removes the idea of innate un-regenerable
wickedness, and offers a purpose and an aim for life which is
consonant with the longings of the soul and with its real nature,
tending at the same time to destroy pessimism with its companion,
despair.

In Theosophy the world is held to be the product of the evolution of
the principle spoken of from the very lowest first forms of life
guided as it proceeded by intelligent perfected beings from other and
older evolutions, and compounded also of the egos or individual
spirits for and by whom it emanates.  Hence man as we know him is held
to be a conscious spirit, the flower of  evolution, with other and
lower classes of egos below him in the lower kingdoms, all however
coming up and destined one day to be on the same human stage as we now
are, we then being higher still.

Man's consciousness being thus more perfect is able to pass from one
to another of the planes of differentiation mentioned.  If he mistakes
any one of them for the reality that he is in his essence, he is
deluded;  the object of evolution then is to give  him complete
self-consciousness so that he may go on to higher stages in the
progress of the universe.  His evolution after coming on the human
stage is for the getting of experience, and in order to so raise up
and purify the various planes of matter with which he has to do, that
the voice of the spirit may be fully heard and comprehended.

He is a religious being because he is a spirit encased in matter,
which is in turn itself spiritual in essence.  Being a spirit he
requires vehicles with which to come in touch with all the planes of
nature included in evolution, and it is these vehicles that make of
him an intricate, composite being, liable to error, but at the same
time able to rise above all delusions and  conquer the highest place.
He is in miniature the universe, for he is as spirit, manifesting
himself to himself by means of seven differentiations. Therefore is he
known in Theosophy as a sevenfold being.

The Christian division of body, soul, and spirit is  accurate so far
as it goes, but will not answer to the problems of life and nature,
unless, as is not the case, those three divisions are each held to be
composed of others, which would raise the possible total to seven.
The spirit stands alone at the top, next comes the spiritual soul or
Buddhi as it is called in Sanskrit. This partakes more of the spirit
than any below it, and is connected with Manas or mind, these three
being the real trinity of  man, the imperishable part, the real
thinking entity living on the earth in the other and denser vehicles
by its evolution.

Below in  order of quality is the plane of the desires and passions
shared with the animal kingdom,  unintelligent, and the producer of
ignorance flowing from delusion.  It is distinct from the will and
judgment, and must therefore be given its own place.  On this plane is
gross life, manifesting, not as spirit from which it  derives its
essence, but as energy and motion on this plane.  It being common to
the whole objective plane and being everywhere, is also to be classed
by itself, the portion used by man being given up at the death of the
body.  Then last, before the objective body, is the model or double of
the outer physical case.

This double is the astral body belonging to the astral plane of
matter, not so dense as physical molecules, but more tenuous and much
stronger, as well as lasting.  It is the original of the body
permitting the physical molecules to arrange and show themselves
thereon, allowing them to go and come from day to day as they are
known to do, yet ever retaining the fixed shape and contour given by
the astral double within.

These lower four principles or sheaths are the transitory perishable
part of man, not himself, but in every sense the instrument he uses,
given up at the hour of death like an old garment, and rebuilt out of
the general reservoir at every new birth.  The trinity is the real
man, the  thinker, the individuality that passes from house to house,
gaining experience at each rebirth, while it suffers and enjoys
according to its deeds--it is the one central man, the living
spirit-soul.

Now this spiritual man, having always existed, being intimately
concerned in evolution, dominated by the law of cause and effect,
because in himself he is that very law, showing moreover  on this
plane varieties of force of character, capacity, and opportunity, his
very presence must be explained, while the differences noted have to
be accounted for.  The doctrine of reincarnation  does all this.  It
means that man as a thinker, composed of soul, mind and spirit,
occupies body after body in life after life on the earth which is the
scene of his evolution, and where he must, under the very laws of his
being, complete that evolution, once it has been begun.  In any one
life he is known to others as a personality, but in the whole stretch
of eternity he is one individual, feeling in himself an identity not
dependent on name, form, or recollection.

This doctrine is the very base of Theosophy, for it explains life and
nature.  It is one aspect of evolution, for as it is reembodiment in
meaning, and as evolution could not go on without reembodiment, it is
evolution itself, as applied to the human soul.  But it is also a
doctrine believed in at the time given to Jesus and taught in the
early ages of Christianity, being now as much necessary to that
religion as it is to any other to explain texts, to reconcile the
justice of God with the rough and merciless aspect of nature and life
to most mortals, and to throw a light perceptible by reason on all the
problems that vex us in our journey through this world.

The vast, and under any other doctrine unjust, difference between the
savage and the civilized man as to both capacity, character, and
opportunity can be understood only through this doctrine, and coming
to our own stratum the  differences of the same kind may only thus be
explained.  It vindicates Nature and God, and removes from religion
the blot thrown by men who have postulated creeds which paint the
creator as a demon.

Each man's life and character are the outcome of his previous lives
and thoughts. Each is his own judge, his own  executioner, for it is
his own hand that forges the weapon which works for his punishment,
and each by his own life reaches reward, rises to heights of knowledge
and power for the good of all who may be left behind him.  Nothing is
left to chance, favour, or partiality, but all is under the governance
of law.

Man is a  thinker, and by his thoughts he makes the causes for woe or
bliss;  for his thoughts produce his acts.  He is the centre for any
disturbance of the universal harmony, and to him as the  centre, the
disturbance must return so as to bring about equilibrium;  for nature
always works towards harmony.  Man is always carrying on a series of
thoughts, which extend back to the remote past, continually making
action and reaction.  He is thus responsible for all his thoughts and
acts, and in that his complete responsibility is established;  his own
spirit is the essence of this law and provides for ever compensation
for every disturbance and adjustment for all effects.  This is the law
of Karma or justice, sometimes called the ethical law of causation.

It is not foreign to the Christian scriptures, for both Jesus and St.
Paul clearly enunciated it.  Jesus said we should be judged as we gave
judgment and should receive the measure meted to others.  St. Paul
said:  "Brethren, be not  deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever
a man soweth that also shall he reap."  And that sowing and reaping
can only be possible under the doctrines of Karma and reincarnation.

But what of death and after?  Is heaven a place or is it not?
Theosophy teaches, as may be found in all sacred books, that after
death the soul reaps a rest.  This is from its own nature.  It is a
thinker, and cannot during life fulfill and carry out all nor even a
small part of the myriads of thoughts entertained.  Hence when at
death it casts off the body and the astral body, and is released from
the passions and desires, its natural forces have immediate sway and
it thinks its thoughts out on the soul plane, clothed in a finer body
suitable to that existence.  This is called Devachan.  It is the very
state that has brought about the descriptions of heaven common to all
religions, but this doctrine is very clearly put in the Buddhist and
Hindu religions.  It is a time of rest, because the physical body
being absent the consciousness is not in the completer touch with
visible nature which is possible on the material plane. But it is a
real existence, and no more illusionary than earth life;  it is where
the essence of the thoughts of life that were as high as character
permitted, expands and is garnered by the soul and mind.

When the force of these thoughts is fully exhausted the soul is drawn
back once more to earth, to that environment which is sufficiently
like unto itself to give it the proper further evolution. This
alternation from state to state goes on until the being rises from
repeated experiences above ignorance, and realizes in itself the
actual unity of all spiritual beings. Then it passes on to higher and
greater steps on the evolutionary road.

 	No new ethics are presented by Theosophy, as it is held that right
ethics are for ever the same.  But in the doctrines of Theosophy are
to be found the philosophical and reasonable basis for ethics and the
natural enforcement of them in practice.  Universal brotherhood is
that which will result in doing unto others as you would have them do
unto you, and in your loving your neighbour as yourself--declared as
right by all teachers in the great religions of the world.
  WILLIAM Q. JUDGE

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Dallas
dalval@nwc.net=A0

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-----Original Message-----
> From: WLR7D@aol.com [mailto:WLR7D@aol.com]
> Date: Saturday, October 23, 1999 7:46 AM
> Subject: Randy to Jerry/karma

Jerry--I agree we are responsible for our own mess.  Who is
responsible for
the cruelty within nature over which we have no control?

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DTB.	If the spirit/soul in man is an immortal being then the continued
responsibility that results in reincarnation, as a process makes us
jointly responsible for "this mess."  No one else and nothing else
could have done it -- fairly and logically.

Theosophy holds that we have both the knowledge (intuition if you
wish) and the power to choose to live righteously and fairly with and
for all, whether we are under public scrutiny or not.

In my view, the question ought to be changed and perhaps we ought to
be asking how it happens that we have been so trained in hypocrisy
that we give automatic lip-service to the "good" and the
"cooperative," and yet fear to be discovered to be selfish, tyrannical
and oppressive ?  That quirk of character needs discovery and
explanation.

Dal

Thanks, Randy

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