Theosophy

RJM said:
Is such absolute unity possible in nature? In the material world? Or is it the absolute antithesis of nature -- a spiritual perfection?
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Before & after the SD 1:58-9 quote is this:

The first and Fundamental dogma of
Occultism is Universal Unity (or Homogeneity) under three aspects.
This led to a possible conception of Deity, which as an absolute unity
must remain forever incomprehensible to finite intellects. “ If thou
wouldest believe in the Power which acts within the root of a plant, or
imagine the root concealed under the soil, thou hast to think of its stalk
or trunk and of its leaves and flowers. Thou canst not imagine that
Power independently of these objects. Life can be known only by the
Tree of Life. . . .” (Precepts for Yoga).

[This passage follows]:

Say the Kabalists : “ The Deity is one,
because It is infinite. It is triple, because it is ever manifesting.”
This manifestation is triple in its aspects, for it requires, as Aristotle has
it, three principles for every natural body to become objective : privation,
form, and matter. Privation meant in the mind of the great
philosopher that which the Occultists call the prototypes impressed in
the Astral Light — the lowest plane and world of Anima Mundi. The
union of these three principles depends upon a fourth — the life which
radiates from the summits of the Unreachable, to become an
universally diffused Essence on the manifested planes of Existence.
 
From William Q Judge:

Among many ideas brought forward through the theosophical movement there are three which should never be lost sight of. Not speech, but thought, really rules the world; so, if these three ideas are good let them be rescued again and again from oblivion.

The first idea is, that there is a great Cause — in the sense of an enterprise — called the Cause of Sublime Perfection and Human Brotherhood. This rests upon the essential unity of the whole human family, and is a possibility because sublimity in perfectness and actual realization of brotherhood on every plane of being are one and the same thing. All efforts by Rosicrucian, Mystic, Mason and Initiate are efforts toward the convocation in the hearts and minds of men of the Order of Sublime Perfection.

The second idea is, that man is a being who may be raised up to perfection, to the stature of the Godhead, because he himself is God incarnate. This noble doctrine was in the mind of Jesus, no doubt, when he said that we must be perfect even as is the father in heaven. This is the idea of human perfectibility. It will destroy the awful theory of inherent original sin which has held and ground down the western Christian nations for centuries.

The third idea is the illustration, the proof, the high result of the others. It is, that the Masters — those who have reached up to what perfection this period of evolution and this solar system will allow — are living, veritable facts, and not abstractions cold and distant. They are, as our old H.P.B. so often said, living men. And she said, too, that a shadow of woe would come to those who should say they were not living facts, who should assert that “the Masters descend not to this plane of ours.” The Masters as living facts and high ideals will fill the soul with hope, will themselves help all who wish to raise the human race.

Let us not forget these three great ideas.
 
Nicholas Weeks said:
The second idea is, that man is a being who may be raised up to perfection, to the stature of the Godhead, because he himself is God incarnate. This noble doctrine was in the mind of Jesus, no doubt, when he said that we must be perfect even as is the father in heaven. This is the idea of human perfectibility. It will destroy the awful theory of inherent original sin which has held and ground down the western Christian nations for centuri
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To me Original Sin is the fact we live in a natural, animal body (coat of skin) within the ever changing dimension of nature that leads to death, and requires us to take other natural life to sustain our own -- even by breathing or drinking water.

It is the symbol of Christ on the cross, suspended between heaven and earth
 
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The knowledge of good and evil is The descent from the perfect eternal spiritual dimension into the natural ever changing binary dimension of space and time and birth and death, imo

The greater wheel of Spirit turns the lesser wheel of nature, but is not turned by it
 
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The origin of all religions—Judo-Christianity included—is to be found in a few primeval truths, not one of which can be explained apart from all the others, as each is a complement of the rest in some one detail. And they are all, more or less, broken rays of the same Sun of truth, and their beginnings have to be sought in the archaic records of the Wisdom-religion.

Blavatsky article - The Esoteric Character of the Gospels,
 
Theosophist & Irish mystic AE writings were reprinted this year. They were compiled by two theosophists.

The Descent of the Gods: The Mystical Writings of G.W. Russell: A.E. by George William Russell and edited by Raghavan and Nandini Iyer | White Crow Books | Books

BACK IN PRINT! Although A.E., was a poet, painter newspaper editor and political writer, working for three decades in the Irish cooperative movement, he is probably most well known today as a mystic. His writings on the subject resulting from his Hindu and Theosophical studies and his own...
whitecrowbooks.com
 
From the Iyer's Introduction to GW Russell's Descent of the Gods:
A.E.’s devotion to Theosophy was based upon a deep apprehension that its central truths were not derived from any ancient or modern sect but represented the accumulated wisdom of the ages, the unrecorded inheritance of humanity. Its vast scheme of cosmic and human evolution furnished him with the symbolic alphabet necessary to interpret his recurrent visions as well as the universal framework and metaphysical vocabulary, drawn from many mystics and seers, which enabled him to communicate his own intuitive perceptions. All of A.E.’s mystical writings are enriched by the alchemical flavour of theosophical thought.
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True Occultism or Theosophy is the “Great Renunciation of Self”, unconditionally and absolutely, in thought as in action. It is Altruism, and it throws him who practises it out of calculation of the ranks of the living altogether. “Not for himself, but for the world he lives”, as soon as he has pledged himself to the work ..... he has to become a mere beneficent force in Nature.

Blavatsky
 
My son, the wise are few; for Wisdom very seldom pleases, so that they are few who seek her. Wisdom will compel whoever entertains her to avoid all selfishness and to escape from praise. But Wisdom seeks them who are worthy, discovering some here and there, unstupefied and uncorrupted by the slime of cant, with whom thereafter is is a privilege to other men to tread the self-same earth, whether or not they know it.

Talbot Mundy, Om, the Secret of Ahbor Valley
 
Here is more testimony on the reality of the Adepts, from Echoes of the Orient, vol. III:418-20.

Mahatma of the Circle on the Theosophical Society & HP Blavatsky

The following is from a letter lately received from an Indian brother...[B.K. Lahiri] and is recommended to your attention as independent evidence of the position of H.P.B. and the connection of the Masters with the T.S.
Annie Besant, William Q. Judge March, 1893.

THE LETTER

K.B., a Brahman Yogi, recently went up to the Himalayas: on his way down to Deccan, he was kind enough to stop at my place for some days... I must mention here also that this gentleman did not know much of H.P.B. before nor of the Theosophical Society, and whenever I spoke to him about them he used to say, as it were passively, that it was a good work, no doubt, and that H.P.B. must have known the occult philosophy... that whenever the Rakshasas [demons] became powerful some goddess is sent to destroy them, and so she was sent to destroy the materialism of the all-powerful western Rakshasas.

However, now I shall relate what he told me when he came back from the Himalayas. The first thing he said was: "Go on! go on! go on! Fit yourself; you have much to do: go on, go on, and go on." The next thing he told me was, that this time he considered himself thrice blessed by the sight of a Mahatma... in the snow-covered and impassable cave of the Himalayas...

The Mahatma, he said, he saw perfectly naked; that no living soul could venture to look at his eyes; his color appeared to be of such a peculiar hue that it is not like anything worldly, but when he touched his hand (K.B.'s) between the third and fourth fingers, the latter could not stand the electric shock that ran up to his head from the extreme parts of his feet... He became almost unconscious, although he himself is a real yogi of 22 years' standing...

He said the body of the Mahatma, though it looked like butter, proved to be hard as steel, and that it was impossible for him to say of what it is made. The Mahatma does not speak, and with him only spoke where he could not make the latter understand his thought perfectly well. After he received his instruction, whatever was necessary for him, he asked: "that in India there they have established a society called the Theosophical Society, and that Madame Blavatsky started it with Col. Olcott. What is this? Is there anything real in it? Who was H.P.B.? Was she a yogi? Is Col. Olcott a yogi? What will be end of all this? Is anybody to come in the place of H.P.B.? My certain friend B.K.L. who takes much interest in the T.S. pressed me for the latter information."

He said, "The T.S. was their work: it was established to change the present current of the human mind and destroy Nastikism, [materialistic atheism]... that he was present when H.P.B. was sent by her Master from the Manasarovara Hills in Tibet... she was sent to carry out the work of the Mahatmas; -- that she was very high up there is not the least doubt, that he himself was one of the Circle, although not so high as the Guru of H.P.B.; that Col. Olcott is a good man no doubt but no yogi, he is entirely different from H.P.B. with whose name you cannot mention Olcott. That what was necessary was done by H.P.B. and the Society is successful... that hitherto the T.S. followed a particular line, but in India there should be a change in that line, but there will be no change in the West, they must go on as they do now."

Since the Svamiji has come back from the Himalayan Hills his ideas about the T.S. and H.P.B. are entirely different; instead of passive tolerance he simply says:

"Oh! I like to worship the portrait of H.P.B.; no one has done so much good for humanity, especially for India, after Buddha and Shankaracharya... The T.S. is ours, established for certain purposes by our Mahatmas; go on and go on, work and work."

I must tell you that the Svamji never knew any of these informations about the T.S., the West, or H.P.B. before he went up to the Hills. The Svamji showed me his hand where the Mahatma held it with his two fingers -- there is the white sign of inflammation still existing, and subsequently the skin was off from that place. These are the facts that are revealed to me... It appeared also that the Svamji is the chela of one of the chelas or grand chelas of a Mahatma of the Circle.
 
H.P.B. Speaks gives some of her own explanation for her life, work, motives & plans:

https://www.blavatskyarchives.com/hpbspeaks.htm

"When years ago, we first travelled over the East, we came into contact with certain men, endowed with such mysterious powers and such profound knowledge that we may truly designate them as the sages of the Orient. To their instructions we lent a ready ear."
 
It must be remembered that the Society was not founded as a nursery for forcing a supply of Occultists — as a factory for the manufactory of Adepts. It was intended to stem the current of materialism, and also that of spiritualistic phenomenalism and the worship of the Dead. It had to guide the spiritual awakening that has now begun, and not to pander to psychic cravings which are but another form of materialism. For by "materialism" is meant not only an anti-philosophical negation of pure spirit, and, even more, materialism in conduct and action — brutality, hypocrisy, and, above all, selfishness — but also the fruits of a disbelief in all but material things, a disbelief which has increased enormously during the last century, and which has led many, after a denial of all existence other than that in matter, into a blind belief in the materialization of Spirit.

HPB 1888 letter to American Convention
 
The tendency of modern civilization is a reaction towards animalism, towards a development of those qualities which conduce to the success in life of man as an animal in the struggle for animal existence. Theosophy seeks to develop the human nature in man in addition to the animal, and at the sacrifice of the superfluous animality which modern life and materialistic teachings have developed to a degree which is abnormal for the human being at this stage of his progress.
The essence of Theosophy is the perfect harmonizing of the divine with the human in man, the adjustment of his god-like qualities and aspirations, and their sway over the terrestrial or animal passions in him. Kindness, absence of every ill feeling or selfishness, charity, goodwill to all beings, and perfect justice to others as to oneself, are its chief features. He who teaches Theosophy preaches the gospel of goodwill; and the converse of this is true also — he who preaches the gospel of goodwill, teaches Theosophy.

Blavatsky, 1888 letter.
 
Theosophists are of necessity the friends of all movements in the world, whether intellectual or simply practical, for the amelioration of the condition of mankind. We are the friends of all those who fight against drunkenness, against cruelty to animals, against injustice to women, against corruption in society or in government, although we do not meddle in politics. We are the friends of those who exercise practical charity, who seek to lift a little of the tremendous weight of misery that is crushing down the poor.

HP Blavatsky, 1888 letter
 
Nicholas Weeks said:
Theosophists are of necessity the friends of all movements in the world, whether intellectual or simply practical, for the amelioration of the condition of mankind. We are the friends of all those who fight against drunkenness, against cruelty to animals, against injustice to women, against corruption in society or in government, although we do not meddle in politics. We are the friends of those who exercise practical charity, who seek to lift a little of the tremendous weight of misery that is crushing down the poor.

HP Blavatsky, 1888 letter
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Drunkenness?

Madman Blavatsky, aside from completely misunderstanding what Lucifer was/is, moved to India where she established Theosophy's international headquarters, and began gathering followers. But her reputation as a spiritualist and possessor of wisdom came to a halt in 1885. After embarking on an investigation of Blavatsky, and motivated by stories of her sensational seances replete with spiritual visions and smashed dishes that would miraculously reconstruct, the Society for Psychical Research in Cambridge declared her a FRAUD.
 
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