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ON PSEUDO-THEOSOPHY

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 19:07:00 +0000

We Do Not Believe in Allowing The

Presence of Sham Elements in Theosophy

Helena P. Blavatsky

Mrs. Blavatsky is Rather Frank in

Writing About Modern Esoteric Pinocchios

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A 2012 Editorial Note:

The following article is especially helpful for those

students of theosophy who think that: (a)one must

not use his own discernment between right and

wrong; (b) it would be unbrotherly and “dangerous”

to uncover the presence of illusion and treason in the

history of the theosophical movement; and (c)one

should never utter a word about the well-known existence

of false literature circulating as “theosophical” in various

circles of the esoteric movement. Although the validity of

the text “On Pseudo-Theosophy” may be especially great

for these students, it is not limited to any specific group of

readers. It is universal; it is of importance to all people, any

time, for everyone’s life is a probationary process demanding

a constant choice between right and wrong, truth and illusion.

The article is more transcendent than it may appear to be

at first sight. It helps one to understand the subtle forces

and challenges at play, in the meeting point between the

energy field of the Initiates and the energy fieldof present

mankind. It deserves therefore a careful analysis, on one

hand, and a contemplative observation, on the other. While

every paragraph in it has great significance, students will see

that the lines under the subtitle “Ignorance Not Altogether

Bliss” bring decisive lessons to the students of 21^st century.

We reproduce the text from “Theosophical Articles”,

by Helena P. Blavatsky, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles,

Vol. I, pp. 161-175. We have compared in a few instances

this correct transcription with the original version as

published in H.P.B.’s London magazine, in March

1889. All subtitles belong to the original text.

(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)

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The more honesty a man has, the less he

affects the air of a saint. The affectation of

sanctity is a blotch on the face of devotion.

--LAVATER

The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself .

--THALES

SHALL WE WINNOW THE CORN, BUT FEED UPON THE CHAFF?

The presiding genius in the Daily News Office runs amuck at “Lucifer” [1] in his issue of February 16th. He makes merry over the presumed distress of some theosophists who see in our serial novel, “The Talking Image of Urur” - by our colleague, Dr. F. Hartmann - an attempt to poke fun at the Theosophical Society. Thereupon, the witty editor quizzes “Madame Blavatsky” for observing that she “does not agree with the view” taken by some pessimists; and ends by expressing fear that “the misgivings that have been awakened will not easily be laid to rest.”

Ride, si sapis. [2] It is precisely because it is our desire that the “misgivings” awakened should reach those in whom the sense of personality and conceit has not yet entirely stifled their better feelings, and force them to recognize themselves in the mirror offered to them in the “Talking Image”, that we publish the “satirical” novel.

This proceeding of ours - rather unusual, to be sure, for editors - to publish a satire, which seems to the short-sighted to be aimed at their gods and parties only because they are unable to sense the underlying philosophy and moral in them, has created quite a stir in the dailies.

The various Metropolitan Press Cutting Agencies are pouring every morning on our breakfast-table their load of criticism, advice, and comment upon the rather novel policy. So, for instance, a kindly-disposed correspondent of the LancashireEvening Post (February 18) writes as follows:

“The editor of LUCIFER has done a bold thing. She is publishing a story called ‘The Talking Image of Urur’, which is designed to satirise the false prophets of Theosophy in order that the true prophets may be justified. I appreciate the motive entirely, but, unfortunately, there are weak-minded theosophists who can see nothing in Dr. Hartmann’s spirited talk but a caricature of their whole belief. So they have remonstrated with Madame Blavatsky, and she replies in LUCIFER that ‘the story casts more just ridicule upon the enemies and detractors of the Theosophic Society than upon the few theosophists whose enthusiasm may have carried them into extremes’. Unfortunately, this is not strictly accurate. The hero of the tale, a certain Pancho, is one of these enthusiasts, and it is upon him and upon the mock ‘adepts’ who deceive him that the ridicule is thrown. But it never seems to have occurred to Madame Blavatsky and Dr. Hartmann that the moment you begin to ridicule one element, even though it be a false element, in the faith, you are apt to shake the confidence of many if not most believers, for the simple reason that they have no sense of humour. The high priestess of the cult may have this sense for obvious reasons [3], but her disciples are likely to be lost if they begin to laugh, and if they can’t laugh they will be bewildered and indignant. I offer this explanation with all humility to Madame Blavatsky, who has had some experience of the effects of satire.”

The more so as, according to those members of the T.S. who have read the whole story, it is precisely “Madame Blavatsky” against whom its satire is the most directed. And if “Mme. Blavatsky” - presumably “the Talking Image” - does not object to finding herself represented as a kind of mediumistic poll parrot, why should other “theosophists” object? A theosophist above all men ought ever to bear in mind the advice of Epictetus: “If evil be said of thee, and if it be true, correct thyself; if it be a lie, laugh at it”. We welcome a witty satire always, and defy ridicule or any efforts in this direction to kill the Theosophical Society, so long as it, as a body, remains true to its original principles.

As to the other dangers so kindly urged by the Post, the “high priestess” acknowledges the benevolent objections by answering and giving her reasons, which are these: The chosen motto of the Theosophical Society has been for years - “There is no religion higher than truth”; the object of LUCIFER is in the epigraph on its cover, which is “to bring to light the hidden things of darkness”. If the editor of LUCIFER and the Theosophists would not belie these two propositions and be true to their colours, they have to deal with perfect impartiality, sparing no more themselves than outsiders, or even their enemies. As to the “weak-minded theosophists”- if any - they can take care of themselves in the way they please.

If the “false prophets of Theosophy” are to be left untouched, the true prophets will be very soon - as they have already been - confused with the false. It is nigh time to winnow our corn and cast away the chaff. The T.S. is becoming enormous in its numbers, and if the false prophets, the pretenders (e.g., the “H.B. of L.”, exposed in Yorkshire by Theosophists two years ago, and the “G.N.K.R.” just exposed in America), or even the weak-minded dupes, are left alone, then the Society threatens to become very soon a fanatical body split into three hundred sects - like Protestantism - each hating the other, and all bent on destroying the truth by monstrous exaggerations and idiotic schemes and shams. We do not believe in allowing the presence of sham elements in Theosophy, because of the fear, forsooth, that if even “a false element in the faith” is ridiculed, the latter “is apt to shake the confidence” in the whole. At this rate Christianity would be the first to die out centuries ago under the sledge-hammer blows dealt to its various churches by its many reformers. No philosopher, no mystic or student of symbolism, can ever laugh at or disbelieve in the sublime allegory and conception of the “Second Advent - whether in the person of Christ, Krishna, Sosiosh, or Buddha.

The Kalki Avatar, or last (not “second”) Advent, to wit, the appearance of the “Saviour of Humanity” or the “Faithful” light of Truth, on the White Horse of Death - death to falsehood, illusion, and idol, or self-worship - is a universal belief. Shall we for all that abstain from denouncing the behaviour of certain “Second Adventists” (as in America)? What true Christians shall see their co-religionists making fools of themselves, or disgracing their faith, and still abstain from rebuking them publicly as privately, for fear lest this false element should throw out of Christianity the rest of the believers? Can any of them praise his co-religionists for climbing periodically, in a state of paradisiacal detachment [4] , on the top of their houses, trees, and high places, there to await the “advent”? No doubt those who hope by stealing a march on their slower Brethren to find themselves hooked up the first, and carried bodily into Heaven, are as good Christians as any. Should they not be rebuked for their folly all the same? Strange logic!

THE WISE MAN COURTS TRUTH; THE FOOL, FLATTERY

However it may be, let rather our ranks be made thinner, than the Theosophical Society go on being made a spectacle to the world through the exaggerations of some fanatics, and the attempts of various charlatans to profit by a ready-made programme. These, by disfiguring and adapting Occultism to their own filthy and immoral ends, bring disgrace upon the whole movement. Some writer remarked that if one would know the enemy against whom he has to guard himself the most, the looking-glass will give him the best likeness of his face. This is quite true. If the first object of our Society be not to study one’s own self, but to find fault with all except that self, then, indeed, the T.S. is doomed to become - and it already has in certain centres - a Society for mutual admiration; a fit subject for the satire of so acute an observer as we know the author of “The Talking Image of Urur” to be. This is our view and our policy. “And be it, indeed, that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.”

That such, however, is the policy of no other paper we know of - whether a daily, a weekly, a monthly, or a quarterly - we are quite aware. But, then, they are the public organs of the masses. Each has to pander to this or that other faction of politics or Society, and is doomed “to howl with the wolves”, whether it likes or not. But our organs - LUCIFER pre-eminently - are, or ought to be, the phonographs, so to speak, of the Theosophical Society, a body which is placed outside and beyond all centres of forced policy. We are painfully conscious that “he who tells the truth is turned out of nine cities”; that truth is unpalatable to most men; and that - since men must learn to love the truth before they thoroughly believe it - the truths we utter in our magazine are often as bitter as gall to many. This cannot be helped. Were we to adopt any other kind of policy, not only LUCIFER - a very humble organ of Theosophy - but the Theosophical Society itself, would soon lose all its raison d’être and become an anomaly.

But “who shall sit in the seat of the scorner?” Is it the timid in heart, who tremble at every opinion too boldly expressed in LUCIFER lest it should displease this faction of readers or give offense to that other class of subscribers? Is it the “self-admirers”, who resent every remark, however kindly expressed, if it happens to clash with their notions, or fails to show respect to their hobbies?

. . . I am Sir Oracle

And when I open my lips, let no dog bark!

Surely we learn better and profit more by criticism than by flattery, and we amend our ways more through the abuse of our enemies than the blind pandering of friends. Such satires as the “Fallen Idol”, and such chelas as Nebelsen, have done more good to our Society, and certain of its members, than any “theosophical” novel; for they have shown up and touched au vif the foolish exaggerations of more than one enthusiast.

Self abnegation is possible only to those who have learnt to know themselves; to such as will never mistake the echo of their own inner voice - that of selfish desire or passion - for the voice of divine inspiration or an appeal from their MASTER. Nor is chelaship consonant with mediumistic sensitiveness and its hallucinations; and therefore all the sensitives who have hitherto forced themselves into discipleship have generally made fools of themselves, and, sooner or later, thrown ridicule upon the T.S. But after the publication of the “Fallen Idol” more than one such exhibition was stopped. “The Talking Image of Urur” may then render the same, if not better, service. If some traits in its various dramatis personae fit in some particulars certain members who still belong to the Society, other characters - and the most successful of them - resemble rather certain EX-members; fanatics, in the past, bitter enemies now - conceited fools at all times. Furthermore “Puffer” is a compound and very vivid photograph. It may be that of several members of the T.S., but it looks also like a deluded victim of other bogus Esoteric and Occult Societies. One of such just sprung up at Boston U.S.A., is now being nipped in the bud and exposed by our own Theosophists.

These are the “Solar adepts” spoken of in our January editorial, the âmes damnées of shameful commercial enterprises. No event could vindicate the policy of our journal better than the timely exposure of these pseudo-adepts, those “Sages of the Ages” who bethought themselves of trading upon the public hunger for the marvellous ad absurdum. We did well to speak of them in the editorial as we have. It was timely and lucky for us to have pointed to the ringleaders of that shameful speculation - the sale of bogus occult knowledge. For we have averted thereby a great and new danger to the Society - namely that of unscrupulous charlatans being taken for Theosophists.

Misled by their lies and their publications filled with terms from Eastern philosophy and with ideas they had bodily stolen from us only to disfigure and misapply them - the American press has already referred to them as Theosophists. Whether out of sheer flippancy, or actual malice, some dailies have headed their sensational articles with “Theosophic Knaves”, and “Pantognomostic Theosophs”, etc., etc. This is pure fiction. The editor of the “Esoteric” had never been at any time a member of our society, or of any of its numerous Branches. “ADHY-APAKA, alias the Hellenic ETHNOMEDON and ENPHORON, alias the Greco-Tibetan, Ens-movens OM mane padmi AUM” (sic) was our enemy from the beginning of his career. As impudently stated by him to a reporter, we theosophists hated him for his “many virtues”! Nor has the Sage “bent under the weight of centuries”, the VIDYA NYAIKA, said to be represented by a person called Eli Ohmart, had anything to do with the T.S. The two worthies had, like two venomous wily spiders, spread their webs far and wide, and numerous are the Yankee flies caught in them. But thanks to the energy of some of our Boston Members, the two hideous desecrators of Eastern philosophy are exposed. In the words of the “Boston Globe”, this is the -

“WEIRD TALE WHICH MAY HAVE A SEQUEL IN COURT.”

“ ‘If there are no arrests made, I shall go right on with the work; but if they make trouble, I shall stay and face the music’.”

“Hiram Erastus Butler, the esoteric philosopher of 478 Shawmut avenue, uttered the foregoing sentiment to a GLOBE reporter last evening as calmly as one would make a casual remark about the weather.”

“Thereby hangs a tale, a long, complicated, involuted, weird, mystical, scientific, hysterical tale - a tale of love and intrigue, of adventure, of alleged and to some extent of admitted swindling, of charges of a horrible and unspeakable immorality, of communion with embodied and disembodied spirits, and especially of money. In short, a tale that would make your head weary and your heart faint if you attempted to follow out all its labyrinthine details and count the cogs on its wheels within wheels. A tale that quite possibly may find its sequel in the courts, where judge, jury, and counsel will have a chance to cudgel their brains over almost every mystery in the known universe.”

These are the heroes whom certain timid Theosophists - those who raised their voices against the publication of the “Talking Image of Urur” - advised us to leave alone. Had it not been for that unwillingness to expose even impersonal things and deeds, our editorial would have been more explicit. Far from us be the desire to “attack” or “expose” even our enemies, so long as they harm only ourselves, personally and individually. But here the whole of the Theosophical body - already so maligned, opposed, and persecuted - was endangered, and its destinies were hanging in the balance, because of that impudent pseudo esoteric speculation. He, therefore, who maintains in the face of the Boston scandal, that we did not act rightly in tearing off the sanctimonious mask of Pecksniffian [5] piety and the “Wisdom of the Ages” which covered the grimacing face of a most bestial immorality, of insatiable greediness for lucre and impudence, fire, water, and police proof - is no true Theosophist.

How minds, even of an average intelligence, could be caught by such transparent snares as these publicly exhibited by the two worthies, to wit: Adhy-Apaka and Vidya Nyaika - traced by the American press to one Hiram E. Butler and Eli Ohmart - passes all comprehension! Suffice to read the pamphlet issued by the two confederates, to see at the first glance that it was a mere repetition - more enlarged and barefaced, and with a wider, bolder programme, still a repetition - of the now defunct “H.B. of L.” with its mysterious appeals of four years ago to the “Dissatisfied” with “the Theosophical Mahatmas”. The two hundred pages of the wildest balderdash constitute their “Appeal from the Unseen and the Unknown” and the “Interior of the Inmost” (?) to “the Awakened”. Pantognomos and Ekphoron offer to teach the unwary “the laws of ENS, MOVENS, and OM”, and appeal for money. Vidya Nyaika and Ethnomedon propose to initiate the ignorant into the “a priori Sambudhistic (?) philosophy of Kapila” and - beg for hard cash. The story is so sickening that we dislike to stain our pages with its details. But now to the moral of the fable.

YE SPURNED THE SUBSTANCE AND HAVE CLUTCHED THE SHADOW

For fourteen years our Theosophical Society has been before the public. Born with the three-fold object of infusing a little more mutual brotherly feeling in mankind; of investigating the mysteries of nature from the Spiritual and Psychic aspect; and, of doing a tardy justice to the civilizations and Wisdom of Eastern pre-Christian nations and literature, if it did not do all the good that a richer Society might, it certainly did no harm. It appealed only to those who found no help for their perplexities anywhere else. To those lost in the psychic riddles of Spiritualism, or such, again, as, unable to stand the morbid atmosphere of modern unbelief, and seeking light in vain from the unfathomable mysteries taught by the theology of the thousand and one Christian sects, had given up all hope of solving any of the problems of life. There was no entrance fee during the first two years of the Society’s existence; afterwards, when the correspondence and postage alone demanded hundreds of pounds a year, new members had to pay one pound for their diploma.

Unless one wanted to support the movement, one could remain a Fellow all his life without being asked for a penny, and two-thirds of our members have never put their hand in their pocket, nor were they asked to do so. Those who supported the cause were from the first a few devoted Theosophists who laboured without conditions or any hope for reward. Yet no association was more insulted and laughed at than was the Theosophical Society. No members of any body were spoken of in more contemptuous terms than the Fellows of the T.S. from the first. The Society was born in America, and therefore it was regarded in England with disfavour and suspicion. We were considered as fools and knaves, victims and frauds before the benevolent interference of the Psychic Research Society, which tried to build its reputation on the downfall of Theosophy and Spiritualism, but really harmed neither. Nevertheless, when our enemies got the upper hand, and by dint of slander and inventions had most maliciously succeeded in placing before the credulous public, ever hungry for scandals and sensations, mere conjectures as undeniable and proven facts, it was the American press which became the most bitter in its denunciations of Theosophy, and the American public the most willing to drink in and giggle over the undeserved calumnies upon the Founders of the T.S. Yet it is they who were the first told, through our Society, of the actual existence of Eastern Adepts in Occult Sciences. But both the English and the Americans spurned and scoffed at the very idea, while even the Spiritualists and Mystics, who ought to have known better, would, with a few exceptions, have nothing to do with heathen Masters of Wisdom. The latter were, they maintained, “invented by the Theosophists”: it was all “moonshine”. For these “Masters”, whom no member was ever asked to accept, unless he liked to do so himself, on whose behalf no supernatural claim was ever made, unless, perhaps, in the too ardent imagination of enthusiasts; these Masters who gave to, and often helped with money, poor Theosophists, but never asked anything of the rich - these MASTERS were too much like real men. They neither claimed to be gods nor spirits, nor did they pander to people’s gush and sentimental creeds. And now those Americans have got at last what their hearts yearned for: a bona fide ideal of an adept and magician. A creature several thousand years old. A true-blue “Buddhist-Brahmin” who appeals to Jehovah, or Jahveh, speaks of Christ and the Messianic cycle, and blesses them with an AMEN and an “OM MANE PADMI HUM” in the same breath, relieving them at the same time of 40,000 dollars before they are a month old in their worship of him . . . Wullahy! Allah is great and - “Vidya Nyaika” is his only prophet. Indeed we feel little pity for the victims. What is the psychology that some Theosophists are accused of exercising over their victims in comparison with this? And this necessitates a few words of explanation.

IGNORANCE NOT ALTOGETHER BLISS

All know that there is a tacit, often openly-expressed, belief among a few of the Fellows of the T.S. that a certain prominent Theosophist among the leaders of the Society psychologizes all those who happen to come within the area of that individual’s influence. Dozens, nay, hundreds, were, and still are, “psychologized”. The hypnotic effect seems so strong as to virtually transform all such “unfortunates” into irresponsible nincompoops, mere cyphers and tools of that theosophical Circe [6]. This idiotic belief was originally started by some “wise men” of the West. Unwilling to admit that the said person had either any knowledge or powers, bent on discrediting their victim, and yet unable to explain certain abnormal occurrences, they hit upon this happy and logical loop-hole to get out of their difficulties. The theory found a grateful and fruitful soil. Henceforth, whenever any Fellows connected theosophically with the said “psychologizer” happen to disagree in their views upon questions, metaphysical or even purely administrative, with some other member - “on despotism bent”, forthwith the latter comes out with the favourite solution: “Oh, they are psychologized!” The magic WORD springs out on the arena of discussion like a Jack-in-a-box, and forthwith the attitude of the “rebels” is explained and plausibly accounted for.

Of course the alleged “psychology” has really no existence outside the imagination of those who are too vain to allow any opposition to their all-wise and autocratic decrees on any other ground than phenomenal - nay, magical - interference with their will. A short analysis of the Karmic effects that would be produced by the exercise of such powers may prove interesting to theosophists.

Even on the terrestrial, purely physical plane, moral irresponsibility ensures impunity. Parents are answerable for their children, tutors and guardians for their pupils and wards, and even the Supreme Courts have admitted extenuating circumstances for criminals who are proved to have been led to crime by a will or influences stronger than their own. How much more forcibly this law of simple retributive justice must act on the psychic plane; and what, therefore, may be the responsibility incurred by using such psychological powers, in the face of Karma and its punitive laws, may be easily inferred. Is it not evident that, if even human justice recognizes the impossibility of punishing an irrational idiot, a child, a minor, etc., taking into account even hereditary causes and bad family influences - that the divine Law of Retribution, which we call KARMA, must visit with hundredfold severity one who deprives reasonable, thinking men of their free will and powers of ratiocination? From the occult standpoint, the charge is simply one of black magic, of envoûtement.

Alone a Dugpa, with “Avitchi” [7] yawning at the further end of his life cycle, could risk such a thing. Have those so prompt to hurl the charge at the head of persons in their way, ever understood the whole terrible meaning implied in the accusation? We doubt it. No occultist, no intelligent student of the mysterious laws of the “night side of Nature”, no one who knows anything of Karma, would ever suggest such an explanation. What adept or even a moderately-informed chela would ever risk an endless future by interfering with, and therefore taking upon himself, the Karmic debit of all those whom he would so psychologize as to make of them merely the tools of his own sweet will!

This fact seems so evident and palpably flagrant, that it is absurd to have to recall it to those who boast of knowing all about Karma.

Is it not enough to bear the burden of the knowledge that from birth to death, the least, the most unimportant, unit of the human family exercises an influence over, and receives in his turn, as unconsciously as he breathes, that of every other unit whom he approaches, or who comes in contact with him? Each of us either adds to or diminishes the sum total of human happiness and human misery, “not only of the present, but of every subsequent age of humanity”, as shown so ably by Elihu Burritt, who says:

“There is no sequestered spot in the Universe, no dark niche along the disc of non-existence, from which he (man) can retreat from his relations to others, where he can withdraw the influence of his existence upon the moral destiny of the world; everywhere his presence or absence will be felt - everywhere he will have companions who will be better or worse for his influence. It is an old saying, and one of fearful and fathoming import, that we are forming characters for eternity. Forming characters! Whose? Our own or others’? Both - and in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence. Who is sufficient for the thought? Thousands of my fellow-beings will yearly enter eternity [8] with characters differing from those they would have carried thither had I never lived. The sunlight of that world will reveal my finger-marks in their primary formations, and in their successive strata of thought and life.”

These are the words of a profound thinker. And if the simple fact of our living changes the sum of human weal and woe - in a way for which we are, owing to our ignorance, entirely irresponsible - what must be the Karmic decree in the matter of influencing hundreds of people by an act perpetrated and carried on for years in premeditation and the full consciousness of what we are doing!

Verily the man or woman in the unconscious possession of such dangerous powers had much better never be born. The Occultist who exercises them consciously will be caught up by the whirlwind of successive rebirths, without even an hour of rest. Woe to him, then, in that ceaseless, dreary series of terrestrial Avitchis; in that interminable aeon of torture, suffering, and despair, during which, like the squirrel doomed to turn the wheel at every motion, he will launch from one life of misery into another, only to awake each time with a fresh burden of other people’s Karma, which he will have drawn upon himself! Is it not enough, indeed, to be regarded as “frauds, cranks, and infidels”, by the outsiders, without being identified with wizards and witches by our own members!

THE GENUS “INFIDEL” AND ITS VARIETIES

It is true to say that the varieties of infidels are many, and that one “infidel” differs from another infidel as a Danish boar-hound differs from the street mongrel. A man may be the most heterodox infidel with regard to orthodox dogmas. Yet, provided he proclaims himself loudly a Christian, that heterodoxy - when even going to the length of saying that “revealed religion is an imposture” - will be regarded by some as simply “of that exalted kind which rises above all human forms.” [9]

A “Christian” of such a kind may - as the late Laurence Oliphant has - give vent to a still more startling theory. He may affirm that he considers that “from time to time the Divine Influence emanates itself, so to speak, in phenomenal persons. Sakyamouni was such; Christ was such; and such I consider Mr. (Lake) Harris to be - in fact, he is a new avatar” [10], and still remain a Christian of an “exalted kind” in the sight of the “Upper Ten”. But let an “infidel” of the Theosophical Society say just the same (minus the absurdity of including the American Lake Harris in the list of the Avatars), and no contumely heaped upon him by clergy and servile newspapers will ever be found too strong!

But this belongs properly to the paradoxes of the Age; though the Avataric idea has much to do with Karma and rebirth, and that belief in reincarnation has nothing in it that can militate against the teachings of Christ. We affirm, furthermore, that the great Nazarene Adept distinctly taught it. So did Paul and the Synoptics, and nearly all the earliest Church Fathers, with scarcely an exception, accepted it, while some actually taught the doctrine.

DO NOT START TWO HARES AT ONCE

From the sublime to the ridiculous there is but one step, and Karma acts along every line, on nations as on men. The Japanese Mikado [11] is tottering towards his end for having played too long at hide and seek with his worshippers. Hundreds of shrewd Americans have been taken in through disbelieving in truths and lending a too credulous ear to bold lies. A French abbé has fallen under Karmic penalty for coquetting too openly with Theosophy, and attempted to mirror himself, like a modern clerical Narcissus, in the too deep waters of Eastern Occultism. The Abbé Roca, an honourary chanoine (canon) in the diocese of Perpignan, our old friend and irrepressible adversary in the French Lotus [12] a year ago - has come to grief. Yet his ambition was quite an innocent one, if rather difficult of realization. It was founded on a dream of his; a reconciliation between Pantheistic Theosophy and a Socialistic Latin Church, with a fancy Pope at the head of it. He longed to see the Masters of Wisdom of old India and Eastern Occultism under the sway of Rome regenerated, and amused himself with predicting the same. Hence a frantic race between his meridional phantasy and the clerical bent of his thought. Poor, eloquent abbé! Did he not already perceive the Kingdom of Heaven in the new Rome-Jerusalem? A new Pontiff seated on a throne made out of the cranium of Macroprosopus [13], with the Zohar in his right pocket, Chochmah, the male Sephiroth (transformed by the good abbé into the Mother of God), in his left, and a “Lamb” stuffed with dynamite, in the paternal Popish embrace. The “Wise Men” of the East were even now, he said, crossing the Himalayas, and, “led by the Star” of Theosophy, would soon be worshipping at the shrine of the reformed Pope and Lamb. It was a glorious dream - alas, still but a dream. But he persisted in calling us the “greatest of Christian-Buddhists”. (Lotus, February, 1888.) Unfortunately for himself he also called the Pope of the “Caesaro-papal Rome” “the Satan of the seven hills”, in the same number. Result: Pope Leo XIII asserts once more the proverbial ingratitude of theological Rome. He has just deprived our poetical and eloquent friend and adversary, the Abbé Roca, of the –

“…Exercise of all his functions in Holy Orders, as also of his living, for refusing to submit to a decree by which his works were placed on the Index Expurgatorius. These works bore the titles of ‘Christ, the Pope, and the Democracy’; ‘The Fatal Crisis and the Salvation of Europe’’; and ‘The End of the World’. Even in the face of the present papal decision, he is advertising the appearance of a fourth work, entitled ‘Glorieux Centenaire’, 1889, ‘Monde Nouveau, ‘Nouveaux Cieux, nouvelle Terre’.”

According to Galignani - (and his own articles and letters in theosophical organs, we may add) the fearless -

“Abbé has for some time”, (says Galignani), “been denouncing the Papacy as a creature of Caesar, and as wholly preoccupied with the question of its temporalities in face of the crying needs of humanity. According to his view, the Divine aid was promised the Church until the end of the world, or of the age; and the Caesarean age having passed away, all things are to be made new. He looks forward to a spiritual coming of Christ by the spread of the modern sentiment of ‘liberty, equality, fraternity, toleration, solidarity, and mutuality’, in the atmosphere of the Gospel. Although his views do not appear to be very clear, he argues that the Gospel is passing from ‘the mystico-sentimental phase to the organico-social phase’, thanks to the progress of science, which will illumine everything.” (The Globe.)

This is only what had to be expected. The Abbé would not accept our joint warnings and took no heed of them. The sad epilogue of our polemics is given (not altogether correctly as regards the present writer) in the same Globe, wherein the news is wound up in the following words:

“He has been contending, in the Lotus, in favour of a union of the East and the West by means of a fusion between Buddhism and the Christian Gospel; but Mdme. Blavatsky, the foremost European convert to the Indian religion, has emphatically repudiated all attempts at such union, because she cannot or will not accept the authority of Christ. The Abbé Roca is therefore left out in the cold.”

This is not so. What “Mdme. Blavatsky” replied in the Lotus (December 1887) to the Abbé’s assertions that the said fusion between his Church and Theosophy would surely come, was this:

. . . “We are not as optimistic as he (the Abbé Roca) is. His church sees in vain her greatest ‘mysteries’ unmasked and the fact proclaimed in every country by scholars versed in Orientalism and Symbology as by Theosophists; and we refuse to believe that she will ever accept our truths or confess her errors. And as, on the other hand, no true theosophist will accept any more a carnalised Christ according to the Latin dogma than an anthropomorphic God, and still less a ‘Pastor’ in the person of a Pope, it is not the adepts who will ever go toward ‘the Mount of Salvation’, (as invited by the Abbé). They will rather wait that the Mahomet of Rome should go to the trouble of taking the path which leads to Mount Meru.” (…..)

This is not rejecting “the authority of Christ” if the latter be regarded as we and Laurence Oliphant regarded Him, i.e. as an Avatar like Gautama Buddha and other great adepts who became the vehicles or Reincarnations of the “one” Divine influence. What most of us will never accept is the anthropomorphized “charmant docteur” of Renan [14], or the Christ of Torquemada and Calvin rolled into one. Jesus, the Adept we believe in, taught our Eastern doctrines, KARMA and REINCARNATION foremost of all. When the so-called Christians will have learnt to read the New Testament between the lines, their eyes will be opened and - they will see.

We propose to deal with the subject of Karma and Reincarnation in our next issue. Meanwhile, we are happy to see that a fair wind is blowing over Christendom and propels European thought more and more Eastward.

(Lucifer magazine, March, 1889)

NOTES:

[1] “Lucifer”; a reference to “Lucifer” magazine, which H.P.B. edited in London. The Latin word “Lucifer” means “the light bringer”, and is the ancient name for the planet Venus, the “star” of the morning. The term has been distorted, though, by ignorant theologians since the middle ages. (C. C. A.)

[2] Ride, si sapis; a Latin phrase meaning “Laugh, if you are wise.” (C. C. A.)

[3] (Note by H.P. Blavatsky:)The “obvious reasons” so delicately worded are these: “the high priestess of the cult” is almost universally supposed, outside of the T.S., to have exercised her own satirical powers and “sense of humour” on her alleged and numerous victims by bamboozling them into a belief of her own invention. So be it. The tree is known by its fruits, and it is posterity which will have to decide on the nature of the fruit.

[4] Detachment; in the original edition of the article there is a misspelled French word which the broad sense of “detachment”. (C. C.A.)

[5] Pecksniffian; hypocritical. From Pecksniff, a literary character created by Charles Dickens. (C. C. A.)

[6] Circe; in Greek mythology, a minor goddess, who is described in Homer’s Odyssey. Circe transformed her enemies into animals. (C. C. A.)

[7] Avitchi; a state and not a place; the term comes from the Sanskrit, meaning literally “uninterrupted hell”. It is a state of soul-less men. It can happen on Earth and not necessarily between two physical lives. (“Theosophical Glossary”.) (C. C. A.)

[8] (Note by H.P. Blavatsky:) Devachan, rather; the entr’acte between two incarnations.

[9] (Note by H.P. Blavatsky:) Vide Lady Grant Duff's article “Laurence Oliphant” in the Contemporary Review for February: pages 185 and 188.

[10] (Note by H.P. Blavatsky:) Ibid. Quoted from Sir Thomas Wade’s notes, by Lady Grant Duff - page 186.

[11] Mikado; a title of the Japanese Emperor; also, the door of the imperial palace in Japan. (Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary, 1989 edition.) (C. C. A.)

[12] French Lotus; a reference to the theosophical magazine in Francein the 1880s. (C. C. A.)

[13] Macroprosopus; from the Greek. Literally, an individual with an abnormally large face. The term is used in the Kabalah. A title of Kether, the Crown, the highest Sephira. (“Theosophical Glossary”) (C. C.A.)

[14] A reference to the French historian and philosopher Ernest Renan (1823-1892).

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WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO JUDGE?

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Tue, 29 May 2012 21:41:00 +0000

Life Shows That There Is No Authority, No

Leadership, And no Power, Higher Than Truth

Carlos Cardoso Aveline

“If the ‘false prophets of Theosophy’ are to

be left untouched, the true prophets will be very

soon - as they have been already - confused with the false.

It is nigh time to winnow our corn and cast away the chaff.”

Helena Blavatsky [1]

Geoffrey Farthing (1909-2004)

Once they are confronted with some challenging texts and news of the existence of falsehood in theosophical literature, new readers and students often ask these questions:

“But who is it that can say what part of the theosophical literature is good for reading, and what part has no value? What are the criteria to judge that? And who invented the idea that there is such a thing as pseudo-theosophy?”

An answer is then typically given to them:

If one reads the book “The Voice of the Silence”, one sees the distinction between the Doctrine of the Heart and the Doctrine of the Eye. It is the same distinction between essence and form, fact and appearances, authenticity and falsehood, Theosophy and Pseudo-Theosophy. The first to use the expression Pseudo-Theosophy was H.P. Blavatsky, who gave the theosophical movement “The Voice of the Silence”.

Who is to forbid people from freely debating what books are fraud and what books are not, inside theosophical literature?

Who is it that can forbid, in these Internet times, members of any theosophical association from knowing that Annie Besant declared she had attained the ideal of human perfection, final liberation and was, therefore, a Master of the Wisdom? Or that she talked to all kinds of imaginary Masters and even “Mr. Christ”, who she herself invented? And this, narrated by Krishnamurti’s official biographer, Mary Lutyens? [2]

Who can forbid the members of the Adyar Society from thinking of the importance of William Judge’s writings, or from being amazed at the details of the 2007-2008 disgusting coup d’etat against Radha Burnier - an ethical woman -, through a smear campaign based on lies about her health; and this, minutely detailed by Mr. Pedro Oliveira himself? Who can prevent people from knowing the truth now at these Internet times, or make sure people don’t have the courage to read Mr. José Ramón Sordo’s personal testimonyon his disappointment with the ritualistic illusions at Adyar?

Everyone must judge, evaluate and decide what to read and what not to read. Some study the original theosophy, while many others are dedicated to whatever other fields of interest they may have. Yet the rhythm with which members of the Adyar Society are awakening from the old Vatican-like and wild “talking-to-masters” pseudo-theosophy of the 1900-1934 period is getting faster. And this is good for all of the esoteric movement, in its various ramifications.

The roots of decay and paralysis are in a false literature and ritualism. Who is it that should try to forbid people from showing facts about that? True, there may be also decay and paralysis among students of the original teachings of theosophy. In this case, the root seems to be a sort of church-like, memorizing, unquestioning, lifeless study.

The whole of the movement is now taking the first steps out of the 20th century.

There can be no brotherhood without truthfulness, ethics and sincerity. Truth is often uncomfortable; and sometimes, even painful. Yet there are dozens of thousands of valuable students inside the movement. Many of them are friends and readers of our websites [3], or read the monthly journal “The Aquarian Theosophist”. They are making a difference as they gradually awaken from the 1900-1934 cloud of pseudo-theosophical illusions.

In theosophy, it is incorrect to feel or think that “there is no truth higher than our authorities”. The fact is that there is no authority, or leadership, or power, higher than truth.

Everyone can read for instance the texts by British author Geoffrey Farthing, and see one of the main leaders of Adyar in the last century making a clear description of Annie Besant’s Society and a correct proposal for it to recover from illusion. Farthing has pointed out the way, and in one of his texts he frankly discusses the past and future of the Esoteric School.

Of course, what is true about Adyar Society is basically true of any other theosophical association. No one is above mistakes. The path to illusion and the path to wisdom are two possibilities everywhere, and at all time.

NOTES:

[1] H.P. Blavatsky in her article “Pseudo-Theosophy”, published at “Theosophical Articles”, H.P.B., Theosophy Company, Los Angeles, volume I, p. 163.

[2] The present text names Mary Lutyens, José Ramón Sordo, Pedro Oliveira and Geoffrey Farthing. These four thinkers have important articles on mayavic or delusive practices in the theosophical movement, which are published at www.TheosophyOnline.com , www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com. It is easy to locate their names at the List of Texts By Author, or, in the case of www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com, at the Lista de Textos por Autor.

[3] Our websites are named at the previous note. The original teachings of theosophy can be found at many other places as well, among them www.phx-ult-lodge.org , www.theosociety.org, www.theosophytrust.org, www.ult.org , www.ultindia.org, www.blavatsky.gr , www.theosophie.fr, www.blavatskytrust.org.uk , www.ultlon.freeserve.co.uk and www.teosofiskakompaniet.net.

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Always visit www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com , www.TheosophyOnline.com and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com. See the monthly magazine “The Aquarian” at www.TheAquarianTheosophist.com.

If you want to have access to a daily study of the original teachings of Theosophy,

write to lutbr@terra.com.br and ask for information on the e-group E-Theosophy.

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THE AQUARIAN THEOSOPHIST, MAY 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Thu, 24 May 2012 23:32:00 +0000

Volume XII, Number 5

The journal opens with a text on “The Use of One’s Energies - a key to the mystery of human dharma”. The article provides with a criterion to calculate the actual size of the esoteric movement. On pages 3 and 4, a discussion on the real center of Pascal’s Sphere, as mentioned in “The Secret Doctrine”. The edition includes two brief notes by Dr. N. C. Ramanujachary, from Adyar, Chennai. There is a theosophical approach to our food habits, and a view of the relation between Effortand Blessing.

Steven H. Levy, a U.L.T. associate in the U.S.A., has a bibliographically documented discussion with W.Q. Judge’s viewpoint, on The Mission of Helena Blavatsky. On p. 14, the relative precariousness of theosophical institutions is examined. Then we have two sensitive paragraphs by Robert Crosbie and a brief discussion on open-mindedness. The final text, on optimism and theosophy, is entitled “The Pedagogy of Confidence.”

Best regards, the Editors.

Click Here to Read “The Aquarian”, May, 2012

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THE TELL-TALE PICTURE GALLERY

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:04:00 +0000

Twenty-One Occult Stories By Two

Founders of the Modern Esoteric Movement

H. P. Blavatsky and W. Q. Judge

Front Cover of the 1984 Edition

A 2012 Note to the Present Online Edition

Being universal wisdom, Theosophy cannot be limited to any outward form of study, perception or transmission.

It must speak to the multiple areas of human brain. It has to enlighten every nook and corner of one’s soul.

From its first edition, “The Theosophist” - the magazine founded by H.P. Blavatsky in 1879 - was “devoted to Oriental Philosophy, Art, Literature and Occultism”. Theosophical books and magazines typically include stories and poems.

In her writings, H.P.B. often quotes poets. She extensively discusses Russian novelists like Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and Turgenev, and sometimes she translated texts by them. She defined French writer Balzac as “an unconscious Occultist”, and among her articles on the relation between theosophy and fiction literature one can find “The Tidal Wave”, where she comments:

“Dickens and Thackeray both born a century too late - or a century too early - came between two tidal waves of human spiritual thought, and though they have done yeoman service individually and induced certain partial reforms, yet they failed to touch Society and the masses at large. What the European world now needs is a dozen writers such as Dostoyevsky, the Russian author, whose works, though terra incognita for most, are still well known on the Continent, as also in England and America among the cultured classes.”

Many of the following stories by H. P. Blavatsky and W. Q. Judge study, describe and dismantle subconscious mechanisms of ignorance and fear in human psyche. Readers who are more inclined to look for optimism than depression have nothing to lose in carefully reading and reflecting about them, even when the narratives show the dark side of human life, for they help one get rid of the causes of emotional suffering.

One of such stories, “The Ensouled Violin”[1],has an earlier and shorter version written by a Master of the Wisdom. This was published in “The Theosophist”, January 1880, pp. 95-97, being signed by “Hillarion Smerdis, F.T.S.” , and dated “Cyprus, October 1^st, 1879”. [2]

Boris de Zirkoff highlighted the fact that on letter 20 of the “Letters From the Masters of the Wisdom” (TPH), First Series, a Mahatma writes, while referring to Ms. Laura Holloway:

“…She will have in good time the help of the adept who writes stories with H.P.B.”

There can be no doubt that this was a mention to Master H.

We must thank the Theosophy Company (India) for the authorization to publish the present book in our websites www.TheosophyOnline.com, www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com . On May 7^th, 2012, the United Lodge of Theosophists sent us this message from India:

“Dear friend -, You have our permission to publish online the version of “Tell Tale Picture Gallery” published and Printed by Theosophy Co (India) Pvt. Ltd., the latest edition of which is June 1984. With best wishes, U. L. T. Mumbai”.

Every story in this collection provides the reader with a valuable lesson in theosophy. The book includes an Appendix on Oriental Psychology (p. 234) and a Glossary starting at page 239.

The Editors.

Click Here to Read “Tell-Tale Picture Gallery”

NOTES:

[1] This particular story is full of symbolism, and its lessons can be applied to various situations according to the law of analogy. Another story of great interest to long-standing students of H.P.B. is the Cagliostrian tale “An Unsolved Mystery”. Good research done by Boris de Zirkoff on “An Unsolved Mystery” can be seen at “The Collected Writings of H.P. Blavatsky”, TPH, vol. V, pp. 159-162. Regarding Cagliostro, the “unsolved” inconsistencies present in that story should be seen as “blinds”.

[2] The same central idea of “The Ensouled Violin” inspires the 1998 Warner Brothers motion picture “The Red Violin”, 130 m., directed by François Girard. The film is available in DVD.

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THE ISLANDS OF THE MIND-READERS

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:14:00 +0000

An Unusual Short-Story on the Challenge of

Sincerity, Addressed “To Whom This May Come”

Edward Bellamy

H.P. Blavatsky (1831-1891)

and Edward Bellamy (1850-1898)

“…Among the mind-readers, politeness

never can extend to the point of insincerity…”

“…Let me now predict, though ages may elapse

before the slow event shall justify me, that in no way

will the mutual vision of minds, when at last it shall be

perfected, so enhance the blessedness of mankind as

by rending the veil of self, and leaving no spot of darkness

in the mind for lies to hide in. Then shall the soul no longer be

a coal smoking among ashes, but a star set in a crystal sphere.”

(Edward Bellamy)

A 2012 Editorial Note

In January 1889, as H. P. Blavatsky was in a meeting with her Londonstudents, this question was asked:

“I wonder if anyone has read a story in the last number of Harper’s Magazine, a story of a sailor who had been cast away on an island in one of the Archipelagoes, in the South Seas, and finds a race of people who have entirely lost the art of talking. They understand each other and see what they think, but they regard sound as a very gross way of communicating thought.”

This was a reference to the present tale by Edward Bellamy, and H. P. B. said:

“It would be a ‘Palace of Truth’. You could not say then, ‘How happy I am to see you’, and send them to all kinds of disagreeable places in your mind. They communicated in such a way as that in the olden times. Their thoughts took objective form.” [1]

In “The Secret Doctrine”, H.P.B. writes about the beginnings of human speech. She says that before the initial monosyllabic speech - used by the “first approximately fully developed human beings at the close of the Third Root-Race” - men still communicated “through what would now be called thought-transference.” [2]

One of the main reasons why it is fascinating to have access to such glimpses of a distant past is that large-scale thought-transference is more than a fact belonging to archaic times. It will be a reality again in our humanity, and such a moment is not too far away now.

Life is cyclic, and it is worthwhile to investigate the dawning of the future which we are living in the period between the 18th century of “Enlightenment”, and the 23rd century.

The motto of the theosophical movement - “There is no religion higher than Truth”- aims at paving the way for Transparency to emerge once more as a revealing Sun amidst human minds. And this is beginning to happen already, whether humans are ethically prepared for it or not.

Transparency is dangerous, however, as long as thoughts and intentions are impure, or the environment in which they have to move is unworthy. The task of the theosophical movement is to help make the awakening of transparency take place without unnecessary suffering. The best way to do this is to teach by words and by example the lesson of how to combine sincerity and brotherhood, or truthfulness and goodwill. H.P.B. wrote:

“The time is not distant when the World of Science will be forced to acknowledge that there exists as much interaction between one mind and another, no matter at what distance, as between one body and another in closest contact. When two minds are sympathetically related, and the instruments through which they function are tuned to respond magnetically and electrically to one another, there is nothing which will prevent the transmission of thoughts…” [3]

There can be no brotherhood without utter sincerity, and the theosophical movement is a long-term effort in this direction. Such a goal may seem rather obvious, but it is not easy to attain, and a conscious commitment to it is necessary. On November 12, 1890, for instance, the members of the Inner Group of H.P.B.’s Esoteric School, in London, took a new, special pledge. It had four clauses. The last two of them said:

* “We pledge ourselves to refer to the judgement of our Body any private matter that may directly, or indirectly, affect our common interest - Theosophy.”

* “We pledge ourselves to be ready to give a frank explanation to our Body on any matter which has given rise to question, and generally to cultivate frankness of dealing with each other.” [4]

Such a policy is expressed in many a text of the original literature. In a letter from HPB’s Master, one can see these words:

“A band of students of the Esot. Doctrines, who would reap any profits spiritually must be in perfect harmony and unity of thought.” [5]

The same pedagogical approach is further explained in a letter from H.P.B. to a group of Londontheosophists:

“…. It is the first rule in the daily life of a student in occultism, namely, to never take off your attention from the smallest circumstances that may happen, whether in your own or your fellow-workers’ lives; to record and place them in order on those records, whether they may or may not be connected with your spiritual pursuits, and then bind (religare) them together by comparing notes with the records of the others, and thus extract from them their inner meaning. This you ought to do at least once a week. It is from these totals that you would find out the direction and path to pursue. It is the phenomenon of “thought-transference” (….) applied to the events in life.” [6]

Can the theosophical movement actually learn to develop such a communion of sincere thought, and effectively discharge its duty regarding the future of mankind? One must not get deceived by appearances: impressive as it may be, every failure in that department - from 1875 to 2075 and beyond - is an active part of the learning process.

Open-mindedness and open-heartedness do lead to spontaneous mind-reading, and to mind-readability. And this constitutes the best foundation of universal brotherhood, as suggested by the following narrative. Bellamy’s tale is an extraordinary study in the process of mental and emotional communion.

The original title of “The Islands of the Mind-Readers” was “To Whom This May Come”.

We reproduce it from “Theosophy” magazine, July 1938 edition, pp. 398-403 (first part), and August 1938 edition, pp. 445-453 (second and final part). [7]

(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)

NOTES:

[1] “The Secret Doctrine Commentaries, the Unpublished 1889 Instructions”, by H. P. Blavatsky, I.S.I.S. Foundation, The Hague, The Netherlands, 687 pp., 2010, p. 91. Another version of the same dialogue can be seen at “Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge”, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, 149 pp., 1923, p. 45.

[2] “The Secret Doctrine”, H. P. Blavatsky, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, volume II, pp. 198-199.

[3] “The Key to Theosophy”, H. P. Blavatsky, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, 1987, see p. 291.

[4] “The Inner Group Teachings of H. P. Blavatsky”, Point Loma Publications, San Diego, California, 188 pp., 1985, see pp. 26-27.

[5] “Letters From the Masters of the Wisdom”, First Series, transcribed by C. Jinarajadasa, TPH, Adyar, 1973, see Letter 3, pp. 13-14.

[6] This is a quotation from the text “Learning From Each and Every Event”, by H. P. Blavatsky (subtitle: “A Letter to London Students, on the Concatenation of Causes and Effects in Daily Life”). The text can be found at the List of Texts in Alphabetical Order in the websites www.TheosophyOnline.com and www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com, or at the Lista de Textos por Ordem Alfabética, in the website www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com. In paper, see “The Theosophist”, Adyar, July 1988, pp. 386-389, where it was published under the title “Extract of a Letter to a London Group, 1887”.

[7] In the 20th century, North-American author George P. McCallum wrote “The Island of Truth”, a short-story which has many an element in common with Edward Bellamy’s narrative. See the volume entitled “The Island of Truth”, Collier-MacMillan English Readers, 122 pp., copyright 1964, pp. 1-15.

The Islands of the Mind-Readers

(“To Whom This May Come”)

Edward Bellamy

Part I

It is now about a year since I took passage at Calcutta in the ship Adelaide for New York. We had baffling weather till New Amsterdam Islandwas sighted, where we took a new point of departure. Three days later a terrible gale struck us. Four days we flew before it, whither, no one knew, for neither sun, moon, nor stars were at any time visible, and we could take no observation.

Toward midnight of the fourth day the glare of lightning revealed the Adelaide in a hopeless position, close in upon a low-lying shore, and driving straight toward it. All around and astern far out to sea was such a maze of rocks and shoals that it was a miracle we had come so far. Presently the ship struck, and almost instantly went to pieces, so great was the violence of the sea. I gave myself up for lost, and was indeed already past the worst of drowning when I was recalled to consciousness by being thrown with a tremendous shock upon the beach. I had just strength enough to drag myself above the reach of the waves, and then I fell down and knew no more.

When I awoke, the storm was over. The sun, already half-way up the sky, had dried my clothing and renewed the vigor of my bruised and aching limbs. On sea or shore I saw no vestige of my ship or my companions, of whom I appeared the sole survivor. I was not, however, alone. A group of persons, apparently the inhabitants of the country, stood near, observing me with looks of friendliness which at once freed me from apprehension as to my treatment at their hands. They were a white and handsome people, evidently of a high order of civilization, though I recognized in them the traits of no race with which I was familiar.

Seeing that it was evidently their idea of etiquette to leave it to strangers to open conversation, I addressed them in English, but failed to elicit any response beyond deprecating smiles. I then accosted them successively in the French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese tongues, but with no better results. I began to be very much puzzled as to what could possibly be the nationality of a white and evidently civilized race to which no one of the tongues of the great seafaring nations was intelligible. The oddest thing of all was the unbroken silence with which they contemplated my efforts to open communication with them. It was as if they were agreed not to give me a clue to their language by even a whisper, for while they regarded one another with looks of smiling intelligence, they did not once open their lips. But if this behavior suggested that they were amusing themselves at my expense, that presumption was negatived by unmistakable friendliness and sympathy which their whole bearing expressed.

A most extraordinary conjecture occurred to me. Could it be that these strange people were dumb? Such a freak of nature as an entire race thus afflicted had never been heard of, but who could say what wonders the unexplored vasts of the Great Southern Ocean might thus far have hid from human ken?

Now among the scraps of useless information which lumbered my mind was an acquaintance with the deaf-and-dumb alphabet, and forthwith I began to spell out with my fingers some of the phrases I had already uttered to so little effect. My resort to the sign language overcame the last remnant of gravity in the already profusely smiling group. The small boys now rolled on the ground in convulsions of mirth, while the grave and reverend seniors, who had hitherto kept them in check, were fain momentarily to avert their faces, and I could see their bodies shaking with laughter. The greatest clown in the world never received a more flattering tribute to his powers to amuse than had been called forth by mine to make myself understood. Naturally, however, I was not flattered, but, on the contrary, entirely discomfited. Angry I could not well be, for the deprecating manner in which all, excepting of course the boys, yielded to their perception of the ridiculous, and the distress they showed at their failure in self-control, made me seem the aggressor. It was as if they were very sorry for me, and ready to put themselves wholly at my service if I would only refrain from reducing them to a state of disability by being so exquisitely absurd. Certainly this evidently amiable race had a very embarrassing way of receiving strangers.

Just at this moment, when my bewilderment was fast verging on exasperation, relief came. The circle opened, and a little elderly man, who had evidently come in haste, confronted me, and bowing very politely, addressed me in English. His voice was the most pitiable abortion of a voice I had ever heard. While having all the defects in articulation of a child’s who is just beginning to talk, it was not even a child’s in strength of tone, being in fact a mere alternation of squeaks and whispers inaudible a rod away. With some difficulty I was, however, able to follow him pretty nearly.

“As the official interpreter,” he said, “I extend you a cordial welcome to these islands. I was sent for as soon as you were discovered, but being at some distance, I was unable to arrive until this moment. I regret this, as my presence would have saved you embarrassment. My countrymen desire me to intercede with you to pardon the wholly involuntary and uncontrollable mirth provoked by your attempts to communicate with them. You see, they understood you perfectly well, but could not answer you.”

“Merciful heavens!” I exclaimed, horrified to find my surmise correct; “can it be that they are all thus afflicted? Is it possible that you are the only man among them who has the power of speech?”

Again it appeared that, quite unintentionally, I had said something excruciatingly funny, for at my speech there arose a sound of gentle laughter from the group, now augmented to quite an assemblage, which drowned the plashing of the waves on the beach at our feet. Even the interpreter smiled.

“Do they think it so amusing to be dumb?” I asked.

“They find it very amusing”, replied the interpreter, “that their inability to speak should be regarded by any one as an affliction, for it is by the voluntary disuse of the organs of articulation that they have lost the power of speech, and as a consequence the ability even to understand speech.”

“But,” said I, somewhat puzzled by this statement, “didn’t you just tell me that they understood me, though they could not reply, and are they not laughing now at what I just said?”

“It is you they understood, not your words,” answered the interpreter. “Our speech now is gibberish to them, as unintelligible in itself as the growling of animals; but they know what we are saying because they know our thoughts. You must know that these are the islands of the mind-readers.”

Such were the circumstances of my introduction to this extraordinary people. The official interpreter being charged by virtue of his office with the first entertainment of shipwrecked members of the talking nations, I became his guest, and passed a number of days under his roof before going out to any considerable extent among the people. My first impression had been the somewhat oppressive one that the power to read the thoughts of others could only be possessed by beings of a superior order to man. It was the first effort of the interpreter to disabuse me of this notion. It appeared from his account that the experience of the mind-readers was a case simply of a slight acceleration from special causes of the course of universal human evolution, which in time was destined to lead to the disuse of speech and the substitution of direct mental vision on the part of all races. This rapid evolution of these islanders was accounted for by their peculiar origin and circumstances.

Some three centuries before Christ, one of the Parthian kings of Persia, of the dynasty of the Arsacidae, undertook a persecution of the soothsayers and magicians in his realms. These people were credited with supernatural powers by popular prejudice, but in fact were merely persons of especial gifts in the way of hypnotizing, mind-reading, thought-transference, and such arts, which they exercised for their own gain.

Too much in awe of the soothsayers to do them outright violence, the king resolved to banish them, and to this end put them, with their families, on ships and sent them to Ceylon. When, however, the fleet was in the neighborhood of that island, a great storm scattered it, and one of the ships, after being driven for many days before the tempest, was wrecked upon one of an archipelago of uninhabited islands far to the south where the survivors settled. Naturally the posterity of parents possessed of such peculiar gifts had developed extraordinary psychical powers.

Having set before them the end of evolving a new and advanced order of humanity, they had aided the development of these powers by a rigid system of stirpiculture [1]. The result was that after a few centuries mind-reading became so general that language fell into disuse as a means of communicating ideas.

For many generations the power of speech still remained voluntary, but gradually the vocal organs had become atrophied, and for several hundred years the power of articulation had been wholly lost. Infants for a few month after birth did, indeed, still emit inarticulate cries, but at an age when in less advanced races these cries began to be articulate, the children of the mind-readers developed the power of direct mental vision, and ceased to attempt to use the voice.

The fact that the existence of the mind-readers had never been found out by the rest of the world was explained by two considerations. In the first place, the group of islands was small, and occupied a corner of the Indian Ocean quite out of the ordinary track of ships. In the second place, the approach to the islands was rendered so desperately perilous by terrible currents and the maze of outlying rocks and shoals that it was next to impossible for any ship to touch their shores save as a wreck. No ship at least had ever done so in the two thousand years since the mind-readers’ own arrival, and the Adelaide had made the one hundred and twenty-third such wreck.

Apart from motives of humanity, the mind-readers made strenuous efforts to rescue shipwrecked persons, for from them alone through the interpreters could they obtain information of the outside world. Little enough this proved when, as often happened, the sole survivor of a shipwreck was some ignorant sailor, who had no news to communicate beyond the latest varieties of forecastle blasphemy. My hosts gratefully assured me that as a person of some little education they considered me a veritable godsend. No less a task was mine than to relate to them the history of the world for the past two centuries, and often did I wish, for their sakes, that I had made a more exact study of it.

It is solely for the purpose of communicating with shipwrecked strangers of the talking nations that the office of the interpreters exists. When, as from time to time happens, a child is born with some powers of articulation, he is set apart and trained to talk in the interpreters’ college. Of course the partial atrophy of the vocal organs, from which even the best interpreters suffer, renders many of the sounds of language impossible for them. None, for instance, can pronounce v, f, or s, and as to the sound represented by th, it is five generations since the last interpreter lived who could utter it. But for the occasional intermarriage of shipwrecked strangers with the islanders it is probable that the supply of interpreters would have long ere this quite failed.

I imagine that the very unpleasant sensations which followed the realization that I was among people who, while inscrutable to me, knew my every thought, were very much what any one would have experienced in the same case. They were very comparable to the panic which accidental nudity causes a person among races whose custom it is to conceal the figure with drapery. I wanted to run away and hide myself. If I analyzed my feeling, it did not seem to arise so much from the consciousness of any particularly heinous secrets, as from the knowledge of a swarm of fatuous, ill-natured, and unseemly thoughts and half-thoughts concerning those around me and concerning myself, which it was insufferable that any person should peruse in however benevolent a spirit.

But while my chagrin and distress on this account were at first intense, they were also very short-lived, for almost immediately I discovered that the very knowledge that my mind was overlooked by others operated to check thoughts that might be painful to them, and that, too, without more effort of the will than a kindly person exerts to check the utterance of disagreeable remarks. As a very few lessons in the elements of courtesy cures a decent person of inconsiderate speaking, so a brief experience among the mind-readers went far in my case to check inconsiderate thinking.

It must not be supposed, however, that courtesy among the mind-readers prevents them from thinking pointedly and freely concerning one another upon serious occasions, any more than the finest courtesy among the talking races restrains them from speaking to one another with entire plainness when it is desirable to do so. Indeed, among the mind-readers, politeness never can extend to the point of insincerity, as among talking nations, seeing that it is always one another’s real and inmost thought that they read. I may fitly mention here, though it was not till later that I fully understood why it must necessarily be so, that one need feel far less chagrin at the complete revelation of his weaknesses to a mind-reader than at the slightest betrayal of them to one of another race.

For the very reason that the mind-reader reads all your thoughts, particular thoughts are judged with reference to the general tenor of thought. Your characteristic and habitual frame of mind is what he takes account of. No one need fear being misjudged by a mind-reader on account of the sentiments or emotions which are not representative of the real character or general attitude. Justice may indeed be said to be a necessary consequence of mind-reader.

Part II

As regards the interpreter himself, the instinct of courtesy was not long needed to check wanton or offensive thoughts. In all my life before I had been very slow to form friendships, but before I had been three days in the company of this stranger of a strange race I had become enthusiastically devoted to him. It was impossible not to be. The peculiar joy of friendship is the sense of being understood by our friend as we are not by others, and yet of being loved in spite of the understanding. Now here was one whose every word testified to a knowledge of my secret thoughts and motives which the oldest and nearest of my former friends had never, and could never, have approximated. Had such a knowledge bred in him contempt of me, I should neither have blamed him nor been at all surprised. Judge, then, whether the cordial friendliness which he showed was likely to leave me indifferent.

Imagine my incredulity when he informed me that our friendship was not based upon more than ordinary mutual suitability of temperaments. The faculty of mind-reading, he explained, brought minds close together, and so heightened sympathy, that the lowest order of friendships between mind-readers implied a mutual delight such as only rare friends enjoyed among other races. He assured me that later on, when I came to know others of his race, I should find, by the far greater intensity of sympathy and affection I should conceive for some of them, how true this saying was.

It may be inquired how, on beginning to mingle with the mind-readers in general, I managed to communicate with them, seeing that while they could read my thoughts, they could not, like the interpreter, respond to them by speech. I must here explain that while these people have no use for a spoken language, a written language is needful for purposes of record. They consequently all know how to write. Do they, then, write Persian? Luckily for me, no. It appears that for a long period after mind-reading was fully developed, not only was spoken language disused, but also written, no records whatever having been kept during this period. The delight of the people in the newly found power of direct mind-to-mind vision, whereby pictures of the total mental state were communicated, instead of the imperfect descriptions of single thoughts which words at best could give, induced an invincible distaste for the laborious impotence of language.

When, however, the first intellectual intoxication had, after several generations, somewhat sobered down, it was recognized that records of the past were desirable, and that the despised medium of words was needful to preserve it. Persian had meantime been wholly forgotten. In order to avoid the prodigious task of inventing a complete new language, the institution of the interpreters was now set up, with the idea of acquiring through them a knowledge of some of the languages of the outside world from the mariners wrecked on the islands.

Owing to the fact that most of the castaway ships were English, a better knowledge of that tongue was acquired than of any other, and it was adopted as the written language of the people. As a rule, my acquaintances wrote slowly and laboriously and yet the fact that they knew exactly what was in my mind rendered their responses so apt that, in my conversations with the slowest speller of them all, the interchange of thought was a rapid and incomparably more accurate and satisfactory than the fastest of talkers attain to.

It was but a very short time after I had begun to extend my acquaintance among the mind-readers before I discovered how truly the interpreter had told me that I should find others to whom, on account of greater natural congeniality, I should become more strongly attached than I had been to him. This was in no wise, however, because I loved him less, but them more. I would fain write particularly of some of these beloved friends, comrades of my heart, from whom I first learned the undreamed-of possibilities of human friendship, and how ravishing the satisfactions of sympathy may be. Who among those who read this has not known that sense of a gulf fixed between soul and soul which mocks love! Who has not felt that loneliness which oppresses the heart when strained to the heart that loves it best! Think no longer that this gulf is eternally fixed, or is any necessity of human nature. It has no existence for the race of our fellow-men which I describe, and by that fact we may be assured that eventually it will be bridged also for us. Like the touch of shoulder to shoulder, like the clasping of hands, is the contact of their minds and their sensation of sympathy.

I say that I would fain speak more particularly of some of my friends, but waning strength forbids, and moreover, now that I think of it, another consideration would render any comparison of their characters rather confusing than instructive to a reader. This is the fact that, in common with the rest of the mind-readers, they had no names. Every one has, indeed, an arbitrary sign of his designation in records, but it has no sound value. A register of these names is kept, so that they can at any time be ascertained, but it is very common to meet persons who have forgotten titles which are used solely for biographical and official purposes. For social intercourse names are of course superfluous, for these people accost one another merely by a mental act of attention, and refer to third persons by transferring their mental pictures - something as dumb persons might by means of photographs. Something so, I say, for in the pictures of one another’s personalities which the mind-readers conceive, the physical aspect, as might be expected with people who directly contemplate each other´s minds and hearts, is a subordinate element.

I have already told how my first qualms of morbid self-consciousness at knowing that my mind was an open book to all around me disappeared as I learned that the very completeness of the disclosure of my thoughts and motives was a guarantee that I would be judged with a fairness and a sympathy such as even self-judgment cannot pretend to, affected as that is by so many subtle reactions.

The assurance of being so judged by every one might well seem an inestimable privilege to one accustomed to a world in which not even the tenderest love is any pledge of comprehension, and yet I soon discovered that open-mindedness had a still greater profit than this. How shall I describe the delightful exhilaration of moral health and cleanness, the breezy oxygenated mental condition, which resulted from the consciousness that I had absolutely nothing concealed!

Truly I may say that I enjoyed myself. I think surely that no one needs to have had my marvelous experience to sympathize with this portion of it. Are we not all ready to agree that this having a curtained chamber where we may go grovel, out of sight of our fellows, troubled only by a vague apprehension that God may look over the top, is the most demoralizing incident in the human condition? It is the existence within the soul of this secure refuge of lies which has always been the despair of the saint and the exultation of the knave. It is the foul cellar which taints the whole house above, be it never so fine.

What stronger testimony could there be to the instinctive consciousness that concealment is debauching, and openness our only cure, than the world-old conviction of the virtue of confession for the soul, and that the uttermost exposing of one’s worst and foulest is the first step toward moral health?

The wickedest man, if he could but somehow attain to writhe himself inside out as to his soul, so that its full sickness could be seen, would feel ready for a new life. Nevertheless, owing to the utter impotence of words to convey mental conditions in their totality, or to give other than mere distortions of them, confession is, we must needs admit, but a mockery of that longing for self-revelation to which it testifies. But think what health and soundness there must be for souls among a people who see in every face a conscience which, unlike their own, they cannot sophisticate, who confess one another with a glance, and shrive with a smile! Ah, friends, let me now predict, though ages may elapse before the slow event shall justify me, that in no way will the mutual vision of minds, when at last it shall be perfected, so enhance the blessedness of mankind as by rending the veil of self, and leaving no spot of darkness in the mind for lies to hide in. Then shall the soul no longer be a coal smoking among ashes, but a star set in a crystal sphere.

From what I have said of the delights which friendship among the mind-readers derives from the perfection of the mental rapport, it may be imagined how intoxicating must be the experience when one of the friends is a women, and the subtle attractions and correspondences of sex touch with passion the intellectual sympathy. With my first venturing into society I had begun, to their extreme amusement, to fall in love with the women right and left. In the perfect frankness which is the condition of all intercourse among this people, these adorable women told me that what I felt was only friendship, which was a very good thing, but wholly different from love, as I should well know if I were beloved. It was difficult to believe that the melting emotions which I had experienced in their company were the result merely of the friendly and kindly attitude of their minds toward mine, but when I found that I was affected in the same way by every gracious woman I met, I had to make up my mind that they must be right about it, and that I should have to adapt myself to a world in which friendship being a passion, love must needs be nothing less than a rapture.

The homely proverb, “Every Jack has his Jill,” may, I suppose, be taken to mean that for all men there are certain women expressly suited by mental and moral as by physical constitution. It is a thought painful, rather than cheering, that this may be the truth, so altogether do the chances preponderate against the ability of these elect ones to recognize each other even if they meet, seeing that speech is so inadequate and so misleading a medium of self-revelation. But among the mind-readers the search for one’s ideal mate is a quest reasonably sure of being crowned with success, and no one dreams of wedding unless it be, for so to do, they consider, would be to throw away the choicest blessing of life, and not alone to wrong themselves and their unfound mates, but likewise those whom they themselves and those undiscovered mates might wed. Therefore, passionate pilgrims, they go from isle to isle till they find each other, and as the population of the islands is but small, the pilgrimage is not often long.

When I met her first we were in company, and I was struck by the sudden stir and the looks of touched and smiling interest with which all around turned and regarded us, the women with moistened eyes. They had read her thought when she saw me, but this I did not know, neither what the custom was in these matters, till afterward. But I knew from the moment she first fixed her eyes on me, and I felt her mind brooding upon mine, how truly I had been told by those other women that the feeling with which they had inspired me was not love.

With people who become acquainted at a glance, and old friends in an hour, wooing is naturally not a long process. Indeed it may be said that between lovers among the mind-readers there is no wooing, but merely recognition. The day after we met she became mine.

Perhaps I cannot better illustrate how subordinate the merely physical element is in the impression which mind-readers form of their friends than by mentioning an incident that occurred some months after our union. This was my discovery, wholly by accident, that my love, in whose society I had almost constantly been, had not the least idea what was the color of my eyes, or whether my hair and complexion were light or dark. Of course, as soon as I asked her the question, she read the answer in my mind, but she admitted that she had previously had no distinct impression on those points. On the other hand, if in the blackest midnight I should come to her, she would not need to ask who the comer was. It is by the mind, not the eye, that these people know one another. It is really only in their relations to soulless and inanimate things that they need eyes at all.

It must not be supposed that their disregard of one another’s bodily aspect grows out of any ascetic sentiment. It is merely a necessary consequence of their power of directly apprehending mind, that whenever mind is closely associated with matter the latter is comparatively neglected on account of the greater interest of the former, suffering as lesser things always do when placed in immediate contrast with greater. Art is with them confined to the inanimate, the human form having, for the reason mentioned, ceased to inspire the artist. It will be naturally and quite correctly inferred that among such a race physical beauty is not the important factor in human fortune and felicity that it elsewhere is. The absolute openness of their minds and hearts to one another makes their happiness far more dependent on the moral and mental qualities of their companions than upon their physical. A genial temperament, a wide-grasping, godlike intellect, a poet soul, are incomparably more fascinating to them than the most dazzling combination conceivable of mere bodily graces.

A woman of mind and heart has no more need of beauty to win love in these islands than a beauty elsewhere, of mind and heart. I should mention here perhaps that this race which makes so little account of physical beauty is itself a singularly handsome one. This is owing doubtless in part to the absolute compatibility of temperaments in all the marriages, and partly also to the reaction upon the body of a state of ideal mental and moral health and placidity.

Not being myself a mind-reader, the fact that my love was rarely beautiful in form and face had doubtless no little part in attracting my devotion. This, of course, she knew, as she knew all my thoughts, and knowing my limitations, tolerated and forgave the element of sensuousness in my passion. But if it must have seemed to her so little worthy in comparison with the high spiritual communion which her race know as love, to me it became, by virtue of her almost superhuman relation to me, an ecstasy more ravishing surely than any lover of my race tasted before. The ache at the heart of the intensest love is the impotence of words to make it perfectly understood to its object. But my passion was without this pang, for my heart was absolutely open to her I loved. Lovers may imagine, but I cannot describe, the ecstatic thrill of communion into which this consciousness transformed every tender emotion. As I considered what mutual love must be where both are mind-readers, I realized the high communion which my sweet companion had sacrificed for me. She might indeed comprehend her lover and his love for her, but the yet higher satisfaction of knowing that she was comprehended by him and her love understood she had foregone. For that I should ever attain the power of mind-reading was out of the question, the faculty never having been developed in a single lifetime.

Why my inability should move my dear companion to such depths of pity I was not able fully to understand until I learned that mind-reading is chiefly held desirable, not for the knowledge of others which it gives its possessors, but for the self-knowledge which is its reflex effect. Of all they see in the minds of others, that which concerns them most is the reflection of themselves, the photographs of their own characters. The most obvious consequence of the self-knowledge thus forced upon them is to render them alike incapable of self-conceit or self-depreciation. Every one must needs always think of himself as he is, being no more able to do otherwise than is a man in a hall of mirrors to cherish delusions as to his personal appearance.

But self-knowledge means to the mind-readers much more than this: nothing less, indeed, than a shifting of the sense of the identity. When a man sees himself in a mirror he is compelled to distinguish between the bodily self he sees and his real self, the mental and moral self, which is within and unseen. When in turn the mind-reader comes to see the mental and moral self reflected in other minds as in mirrors, the same thing happens. He is compelled to distinguish between this mental and moral self which has been made objective to him, and can be contemplated by him as impartially as if it were another’s from the inner ego which still remains subjective, unseen, and undefinable. In this inner ego the mind-readers recognize the essential identity and being, the noumenal self, the core of the soul , and the true hiding of its eternal life, to which the mind as well as the body is but the garment of a day.

The effect of such a philosophy as this - which indeed with the mind-readers is rather an instinctive consciousness than a philosophy - must obviously be to impart a sense of wonderful superiority to the vicissitudes of this earthly state, and a singular serenity in the midst of the haps and mishaps which threaten or befall the personality. They did indeed appear to me, as I never dreamed men could attain to be, lords of themselves.

It was because I MIGHT NOT hope to attain this enfranchisement from the false ego of the apparent self, without which life seemed to her race scarcely worth living, that my love so pitied me.

But I must hasten on, leaving a thousand things unsaid, to relate the lamentable catastrophe to which it is owing that instead of being still a resident of those blessed islands, in the full enjoyment of that intimate and ravishing companionship which by contrast would forever dim the pleasures of all other human society, I recall the bright picture as a memory under other skies.

Among a people who are compelled by the very constitution of their minds to put themselves in the places of others, the sympathy which is the inevitable consequence of perfect comprehension renders envy, hatred, and uncharitableness impossible. But of course there are people less genially constituted than others, and these are necessarily the objects of a certain distaste on the part of associates. Now, owing to the unhindered impact of minds upon one another, the anguish of persons so regarded, despite the tenderest consideration of those about them, is so great that they beg the grace of exile, that, being out of the way, people may think less frequently upon them.

There are numerous small islets, scarcely more than rocks, lying to the North of the Archipelago, and on these the unfortunates are permitted to live. Only one lives on each islet, as they cannot endure each other even as well as the more happily constituted can endure them. From time to time supplies of food are taken to them, and of course, at any time they wish to take the risk they are permitted to return to society.

Now, as I have said, the fact which, even more than their out-of-the-way location, makes the islands of the mind-readers unapproachable, is the violence with which the great antarctic current, owing probably to some peculiar configuration of the ocean-bed, together with the innumerable rocks and shoals, flows through and about the Archipelago.

Ships making the island from the southward are caught by this current and drawn among the rocks, to their almost certain destruction, while owing to the violence with which the current sets to the North, it is not possible to approach from that direction, or at least it has never been accomplished. Indeed, so powerful are the currents, that even the boats which cross the narrow straits between the main islands and the islets of the unfortunate to carry the latter their supplies, are ferried over by cables, not trusting to oar or sail.

The brother of my love had charge of one of the boats engaged in this transportation, and being desirous of visiting the islets, I accepted an invitation to accompany him on one of his trips. I know nothing of how the accident happened but in the fiercest parts of the currents of the straits we parted from the cable, and were swept out to sea. There was no question of stemming the boiling current, our utmost endeavors barely sufficing to avoid being dashed to pieces on the rocks. From the first there was no hope of our winning back to the land. So swiftly did we drift that by noon - the accident having befallen in the morning - the islands, which are low-lying, had sunk beneath the southeastern horizon.

Among these mind-readers distance is not an insuperable obstacle to the transfer of thought. My companion was in communication with our friends, and from time to time conveyed to me messages of anguish from my dear love; for being well aware of the nature of the currents and the unapproachableness of the islands, those we had left behind as well as we ourselves knew well we should see each other’s faces no more. For five days we continued to drift to the north-west, in no danger of starvation, owing to our lading of provisions, but constrained to unintermitting watch and ward by the roughness of the weather. On the fifth day my companion died from exposure and exhaustion. He died very quietly- indeed, with great appearance of relief. The life of the mind-readers while yet they are in the body is so largely spiritual that the idea of an existence wholly so, which seems vague and chill to us, suggests to them a state only slightly more refined than they already know on earth.

After that I suppose I must have fallen into an unconscious state, from which I roused to find myself on an American ship bound for New York, surrounded by people whose only means of communicating with one another is to keep up while together a constant clatter of hissing, gutteral, and explosive noises, eked out by all manner of facial contortions and bodily gestures. I frequently find myself staring open-mouthed at those who address me, too much struck by their grotesque appearance to bethink myself of replying.

I find that I shall not live out the voyage, and I do not care to. From my experience of the people on the ship I can judge how I should fare on land amid the stunning Babelof a nation of talkers. And my friends - God bless them! - how lonely I should feel in their very presence! Nay, what satisfaction or consolation, what but bitter mockery, could I ever more find in such human sympathy and companionship as suffice others and once sufficed me - I who have seen and known what I have seen and known!

Ah, yes, doubtless it is far better I should die; but the knowledge of the things that I have seen I feel should not perish with me. For hope’s sake men should not miss this glimpse of the higher, sun-bathed reaches of the upward path they plod. So thinking, I have written out some account of my wonderful experience, though briefer far, by reason of my weakness, than fits the greatness of the matter. The captain seems an honest, well-meaning man, and to him I shall confide the narrative, charging him, on touching shore, to see it safely in the hands of some one who will bring it to the world’s ear.

[ NOTE: The extent of my own connection with the foregoing documents is sufficiently indicated by the author himself in the final paragraph. E. B. ]

(The end)

NOTE:

[1] Stirpiculture: the production of special stocks by careful breeding. (C.C.A.)

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Always visit www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com , www.TheosophyOnline.com and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com .

If you want to have access to a daily study of the original teachings of Theosophy, write to lutbr@terra.com.br and ask for information on the e-group E-Theosophy.

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ESOTERIC WRITINGS

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Sun, 13 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

T. Subba Row

Front cover of the 2002

Edition of “Esoteric Writings”

Introduction to the 2012 Online Edition

N. C. Ramanujachary

Sri Tallapragada Subba Row (1856-1890) had a very short period of life and yet his contribution to the work of the Theosophical Association is highly rich and commendable. It not only was interwoven with the Founders of the Movement but too equally with Sir S. Subramania Iyer and Sri Tukaram Tatia who were the principal instruments to bring his writings under covers of print.

“A Collection of Esoteric Writings of T. Subba Row, F.T.S., B.A., B.L.” was brought out, posthumously, by the Bombay Theosophical Publication Fund in 1895, and this underwent two reprints thereafter. Some articles therein were also issued out by different publishing agencies, over the years, as pamphlets and booklets.

In his preface to the original edition of “Esoteric Writings”, Sri Tukaram writes thus:

“Whilst presenting this little volume to the public, we cannot but pay tribute to the memory of one who had done such good service to the cause of Occult Science. (….) Blavatsky used always to consult him whenever there were difficult and intricate problems to be solved. She had at one time sent the manuscripts of her most valuable work “The Secret Doctrine” to him for correction and alteration; but he declined to undertake the work because he believed the world was not yet prepared to accept the disclosures of those secrets which had been, for good reason, hitherto kept within the knowledge of the sacred few. (….) Though most of the articles reproduced here are of controversial character, the reader will find them of sterling worth and merit on account of the originality of thought displayed and the able treatment of the various points controverted. And, moreover, they teem with learned and useful suggestions for progress of the students of Occult Science. (….) Besides these articles, we are in possession of several notes of a miscellaneous character, regarding the private instructions given by Mr. T. Subba Row to the “chosen few” who had the good fortune to be in close contact with him. [1] He had also made contributions to the local newspapers and magazines, but we think it unnecessary to reprint these, as they are solely on questions political and social…..”

There are groups of keen students of Occult and theosophical studies, the world over, studying his writings in depth and further the methods of research indicated by him. As envisaged by him elsewhere, “it ought to be the duty of every one of us to try to enlighten our men on the philosophy of religion, and endeavor to lead them back to a purer faith - a faith which, no doubt, did exist in former times, but which now lives in name or in the pages of forgotten book.”

It is a very pleasing and heartening factor for me that his precious writings are now being brought online through the websites www.TheosophyOnline.com, www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com . The discerning readers will surely be benefitted by this benevolent action.

Dr. N. C. Ramanujachary

Adyar, Chennai, 04 May 2012.

NOTE:

[1] These notes have been procured later by Sri C. Jinarajadasa, who brought out in 1931 the revised and enlarged edition of the 1895 book under the present title “Esoteric Writings”. There was a reprint in 1980, and another edition in 2002, which is presently published online in PDF. The 2002 edition mistakenly reports that the first edition occurred in 1951, while in fact the 1980 reprint correctly reported: “First edition, 1895; Second Edition, Revised & Enlarged, 1931; Third Printing, 1980.”

Click Here to Read Part I (Up to p. 276) of "Esoteric Writings", by T. S. Row

Click Here To Read Part II (From p. 277) of "Esoteric Writings", by T.S. Row

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Dr. N. C. Ramanujachary is currently the Joint General Secretary & Director of Studies for the Indian Section of the (Adyar) Theosophical Society. He wrote the book “The Lonely Disciple”, a Monograph on T. Subba Row, which is published online and can be found in the List of Texts in Alphabetical Order at www.TheosophyOnline.com and www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com , or at the Lista de Textos Por Ordem Alfabética at www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com.

If you want to have access to a daily study of the original teachings of Theosophy, write to lutbr@terra.com.br and ask for information on the e-group E-Theosophy.

Always visit www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com , www.TheosophyOnline.com and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com .

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FROM LONDON TO INDIA - 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Fri, 11 May 2012 22:14:00 +0000

An Open Letter on Justice,

From London, UK, to Mrs. Radha Burnier

Various Students

Mrs. Radha Burnier,

International President,

The Theosophical Society,

Adyar, Chennai 600 020, India

Dear Mrs. Burnier, April, 2012.

Along with many other students we greatly respect the founders’ teachings of Theosophy since we reliably know of their real source, the Masters who stood - and without doubt still stand - behind those we know as Mme H. P. Blavatsky and William Q Judge.

Judge was not only a chela of HPB but it is reliably shown he also established his own inner connection with the Masters and they regularly used him to pass on their messages to others in the

USA

. Naturally Judge knew the risk he ran of acting as the ‘postbox’ - that there was no external proof these letters came from the Masters. But as a loyal servant to the Cause he did as he was asked regardless to the personal risk to himself.

As we now know he was attacked in just this way, an attack against which he had little or no defence, short of asking the Masters to intervene in person which they would only consider in the last resort, if at all. All along they had let it be known the Society must stand or fall on its own merits without their direct intervention.

It is well known there have never been any proofs of the charges made against him and no documents produced that substantiate the charge of having forged Masters’ letters.

So we respectfully request the Adyar Theosophical Society leadership to come together and re-consider his quite exemplary life and to re-value the important legacy he left.

As HPB’s co-founder in the cause of universal brotherhood, he deserves such justice: it requires all that is untrue - after being shown so - is overturned and that truth is returned to her rightful place, with his name added to the list of the great workers for the Movement where it rightfully belongs.

Therefore you will understand why it is that William Judge’s work deserves fresh asking this year and each year again and again… and if necessary without ceasing on into the future, until justice is laid at the door of one who set such a fine and blameless example. He was truly called by one of his chelas “the greatest of the exiles.” Is it not high time to invite him back in from the cold?

Yours in brotherly union,

David Kolton
Vladimir Baskgyev
Loli Ramerez
Narguess Khushru
Jatinder Samra
Linda Seale

Click Here to See the PDF Image of this Letter’s Original

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THE STORY OF ALCOHOLIC DRINKS

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Sun, 06 May 2012 23:04:00 +0000

Blavatsky Translates a Tale by Tolstoy,

On the Moral Effects of Whiskey and Wines

Leo Tolstoy

Helena Blavatsky and Leo Tolstoy

A 2012 Editorial Note:

The following story was translated from the Russian by Helena P. Blavatsky and first published by her in “Lucifer” magazine, London, November, 1889 edition, pp. 195-98. Its general title was “Russian Popular Tracts - Selections from Count L. N. Tolstoy’s Tales”. The story itself was entitled “How a Devil’s Imp Redeemed his Loaf; or the First Distiller”.

“Lucifer” (literally, “light-bringer”) is the ancient name for the sacred planet Venus, the “elder sister” of our planet Earth and the “star of the morning”. The meaning of the word has been distorted by medieval theologians so as to be a synonym to another theological fiction made popular by them, “the devil”. Tolstoy’s story uses this same popular idea of personalized devils to symbolize those lower energies in human psyche which create tests and obstacles to human evolution.

The tale does more than reveal the moral effects of alcoholic beverages, and it couldn’t be more updated, today. While alcoholism is still a problem in almost every country, the reality shown by Tolstoy essentially includes all sorts of 21st century drugs and chemical substances which violate or destroy the natural process of self-determination in the human consciousness. The concluding paragraphs share an all-encompassing axiom of the art of living and a key principle for the ethics and the economics of sustainable development: voluntary simplicity, or desirelessness with regard to that which is not necessary. Thus, in speaking to his “boss”, the assistant-devil acknowledges:

“The wild beast’s blood is ever present in man, but it remains latent and finds no issue so long as he has no more bread than he needs for his food”.

(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)

A 1889 Note By H.P. Blavatsky:

Since the West has shown such due appreciation of the writings of the greatest novelist and mystic of Russia of today, his best works have all been translated. The Russian, however, recognizes in none of these translations that popular national spirit which pervades the original tales and stories.

Pregnant as these are with popular mysticism and the spirit of theosophical altruism, some of them are charming but most difficult to render into a foreign language. Yet, one may try. One thing is certain: no foreign translator, however able, unless born and bred in Russia and acquainted with Russian peasant life, will be able to do them justice, or even to convey to the reader their full meaning, owing to their absolutely national idiomatic language. If the genius of the Russian literary language is so sui generis as to be most difficult to render in translation, the Russian of the lower classes - the speech of small tradesmen, peasants and labourers, is ten times more so. Difficult as it may seem to a foreigner, yet a born Russian may attempt it, perhaps, with a little more success. At all events, as said, one may try.

Selecting therefore, from such popular tracts, - allegories and moral stories in the form of popular tales - we have translated some for the readers of “Lucifer”. The Christmas Numbers, December, January and February, will contain charming little stories, well worthy of a new translation. [1] Two of them, “Wherein is Love, Therein is God”; “God is in Right, and not in Might”, and some others are stamped with the spirit of truly religious mysticism. Each deserves to be read by the admirers of this great Russian author. For this number, however, we have selected one of a less mystical but more satirical spirit; a cap calculated to fit the head of any drinking Christian nation ad libitum, and we only hope its title, translated verbatim et literatim, will not shock still more the susceptibilities of the opponents of the title of this magazine.

Russia is afflicted with the demon of drink, as much as, though not more than, England or any other country; yet it is not so much the Karma of the nation, as that of their respective governments, whose Karmic burden is growing heavier and more terrible with every year. This curse and universal incubus, drink, is the direct and legitimate progeny of the Rulers; it is begotten by their greed for money, and FORCED by them on the unfortunate masses. Why, in Karma’s name, should the latter be made to suffer here, and hereafter?

(H. P. B.)

How a Devil’s Imp Redeemed

His Loaf; or - the First Distiller

Leo Tolstoy

A poor peasant went out early to plough; and as he was leaving home without breaking his fast, he carried along with him a loaf of bread. Once in the field he turned over his plough, adjusted the ploughtail, put the ropes under a bush, and over them his loaf of black bread, and covered the whole with his caftan. At last, the horse got tired and the moojikfelt hungry. Then he stopped his plough in the furrow, unhitched his horse, and leaving it to graze, moved toward his caftan for his meal. But when he had lifted it up - lo, no loaf was to be seen. Our moojik searched for it here, and he searched for it there he shook his garment and turned it hither and thither - no loaf! He felt surprised. Marvellous doings! No one around, and yet the loaf is carried away by someone. That someone, in truth, was an Imp, who, while the peasant was ploughing, had stolen his loaf and was now hiding behind a bush, preparing to note down the man’s profanity, when he would begin to swear and take the devil’s name. The peasant felt a little sore. “But, after all,” said he, “this won’t starve me; and he who carried away my bread, perchance needed it. Let him eat it then, and good luck to him.”

So, going to the well he drank some water, rested a bit, then catching his horse, he hitched it again to the plough and returned quietly to his work. The Imp felt considerably troubled at such a failure in tempting man to sin and forthwith proceeding home to hell, he narrated to his Elder - the Chief Devil - how he had robbed the moojik of his loaf, who instead of cursing, had only said “to his good luck!” Satan felt very angry at this. “If,” he argued, “the moojik had the best of thee, in this business, then it must be thine own fault; thou didst not know how to bring the thing about. It would be a bad job for us,” he added, “if the peasants, and after them their women, were to take such tricks: no life would become possible for us after this, and such an event cannot be left disregarded. “Go,” continued Satan, “and make up for the failure of the loaf. And if at the end of three years thou shalt not have the best of that man, I will bathe thee in holy water.”

The Imp got terribly frightened at this threat, and running up to earth again, he set himself to thinking how to atone for his guilt. Thus he thought, thought still, and thought more, and went on thinking until he had found what he had to do. Assuming the appearance of a good fellow, he offered himself as a labourer to the poor peasant; and as it happened to be a drought, he advised him to sow his seed in a swamp. Hence, while the fields of all the other peasants were parched, and their harvests burnt by the sun, the crop of the poor peasant grew high and thick, full and grainy. His household had bread to their heart’s content up to the next harvest, and the surplus proved considerable. The following year, the summer being wet, the imp taught the peasant to sow his seed on the mountains. While his neighbours’ corn was blasted, fell down and got rotten, the peasant’s field on the hills brought forth the richest harvest. The moojikstored still more of the corn; and did not know what to do with it.

Then his labouring man taught him to press the corn and distill it into spirit. Having distilled plenty of it, the moojik took to drinking and making others drink thereof. One day the Imp returned to the Elder boasting that he had redeemed his loaf. The Chief went up to see for himself.

Then came the Elder to the moojik, and found that having invited the richest and wealthiest of his neighbours, he was entertaining them with whiskey. There was the mistress carrying the glasses to her guests. Hardly had she begun her round when stumbling over the table, she upset the drink. Out at her flew the moojik abusing his wife to his fill.

“Behold,” he cried, “the devil’s fool. Takest thou good drink for slops? Thou, heavy-handed stupid, to spill on the earth such treasure!”

Here the Imp poked the Elder in the ribs, “Observe,” said he, “and see, if he won’t grudge a loaf now.”

Having abused his wife, the moojik began offering the drink himself. Just then a poor labourer returning from work happened to drop in, unasked, and wishing a merry day to all, he took a seat. Seeing the company drinking, he too, craved to have a drop after his hard day’s work. There he sat, smacking his lips time after time, but the host would offer him nought, only keeping on grumbling: “Who can afford to furnish with whiskey all of you!”

This pleased the chief Devil immensely; as to the Imp, he boasted more than ever: “You wait and see what will come next!” he whispered.

Thus drank the rich peasants, thus drank the host, pandering to each other, and flattering each other, with sweet words, making honeyed and false speeches. Listened the Elder to these, and praised the Imp for this, also. “Without all peradventure,” said he, “this drink making them turn into such foxes, they will take to cheating each other next; and at this rate they will soon fall, everyone of them, into our hands.”

“Wait and see,” said the Imp, “what will come next, when each has one glass more. Now they are only like unto cunning foxes; given time, and they will get transformed into ferocious wolves.”

The peasants had each one glass more, and forthwith their talk became louder and more brutal. Instead of honeyed speeches, they proceeded to abuse each other, and turning gradually fiercer, they ended by getting into a free fight and damaging each other’s noses badly. Then the host took also a turn and got soundly thrashed.’

As the Elder looked on, he felt much pleased with this too. “ ’Tis good,” saith he, “very, very good.”

“Wait and see,” said the Imp, “something still better is in store, as soon as they will have emptied their third glass. Now they are fighting like hungry wolves, at the third glass they will have become like swine.”

The peasants had their third round, and quite lost their reason. Grumbling and hiccupping, shouting at each other, and knowing not what they said, they rushed out, some alone, some in couples, and some in triplets, and scattered in the streets. The host trying to see his guests off, fell with his nose in a mud-puddle, rolled in it and unable to rise, lay there grunting like a hog . . . . This pleased the Elder Devil most of all.

“Well,” saith he, “thou hast invented a fine drink, indeed, and redeemed thy loaf! Tell me,” he added, “how hast thou managed to compound it? Surely thou must have fermented it first, with the blood of the fox; thence the craft of the drunken peasant, who becomes forthwith a fox himself. Then thou hast distilled it with wolf’s blood, which makes him as wicked as a wolf? Finally, thou hast mixed the whole with the blood of the swine; therefore has the peasant become like a hog.”

“Not so,” quoth the Imp. “I only helped him to get some extra cereals. The wild beast’s blood is ever present in man, but it remains latent and finds no issue so long as he has no more bread than he needs for his food, and then it is that he does not grudge to another his last morsel of bread. But no sooner did man get more corn than he needed, than he took to inventing things wherewith to gratify his passions. Then it was that I taught him the enjoyment - of intoxicating drink. And no sooner had he commenced to distill the gift of God into spirit, for his gratification, than his original foxish, wolfish and swinish blood arose in him. Let him now only go on drinking wine and liquor, and he will remain for ever a beast.”

For which invention the Elder Devil freely praised his Devil’s Imp, forgave him his failure with the stolen loaf, and promoted him in Hell.

NOTE:

[1] Boris de Zirkoff, the editor of the Collected Writings of Mrs. Blavatsky, reports that, contrary to this announced intention, no other stories were published in the succeeding issues of “Lucifer”.

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THE SCANDINAVIAN DESTINY

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Wed, 02 May 2012 23:44:00 +0000

How The Future of Nations Can Be No

Less Interesting Than That of Individuals

Jorge Luis Borges

A Norwegian fiord or fjord (photo). A fiord is a long, narrow

inlet with steep sides or cliffs, in a valley carved by glacial activity.

A 2012 Editorial Note:

What is the theosophical importance of lands situated relatively near the North Pole?

Such regions have the geological memory of distant points in the timeline of our planet’s life. The North Pole represents Atma, the seventh and highest principle of human consciousness in theosophy. Nations living near the North polar region deserve special attention. They may have a natural, involuntary relation to some higher levels of planetary consciousness which are also present in every part of the Earth. In some mysterious, indirect ways, these countries seem to help open a path to the common future of all nations.

In her work “The Secret Doctrine”, Helena P. Blavatsky explains:

“….It is the north pole, the country of ‘Meru’, which is the seventh division, as it answers to the Seventh principle (or fourth metaphysically), of the occult calculation, for it represents the region of Atma, of pure soul, and Spirituality. Hence Pushkara is shown as the seventh zone, or dwipa, which encompasses the Kshira Ocean, or Ocean of milk…. [1]

Just as the other main regions of the planet, Scandinavia has accompanied present humanity for ages. In his text below, Jorge Luis Borges suggests - giving us a few practical examples - that Scandinavian countries live things before they are lived by humanity at large. In a conversation in Buenos Aires in the late 1970s, Borges said Swedish and Norwegians live in a way a few centuries in advance as regards other regions of the Earth.

It is not difficult to see that present day Scandinavian culture is marked by social justice and humanitarian activities often having a planetary dimension. Life in the Nordic countries seems to anticipate in more than one aspect the future humanity whose guiding principle will be universal brotherhood.

The long past of Scandinavian region is equally inspiring, and H.P. Blavatsky explained in the late 1880s:

“Rudbeck, a Swedish scientist, tried to prove about two centuries ago that Swedenwas the Atlantis of Plato. He thought, even, that he had found in the configuration of ancient Upsala, the situation and measurements given by the Greek sage of the capital of ‘Atlantis’. As Bailly proved, Rudbeck was mistaken; but so was Bailly likewise, and still more. For Sweden and Norwayhad formed part and parcel of ancient Lemuria, and also of Atlantis on the European side, just as Eastern and Western Siberiaand Kamschatka had belonged to it, on the Asiatic.” [2]

Writing about the “Land of the Eternal Sun”, H. P. B. said:

“…The main point for us lies not in the agreement or disagreement of the Naturalists as to the duration of geological periods, but rather in their perfect accord on one point, for a wonder, and this a very important one. They all agree that during ‘The Miocene Age’ - whether one or ten million years ago - Greenland and even Spitzbergen, the remnants of our Second or Hyperborean Continent, ‘had almost a tropical climate.’ Now the pre-Homeric Greeks had preserved a vivid tradition of this ‘Land of the Eternal Sun’, whither their Apollo journeyed yearly. ‘During the Miocene Age, Greenland (in N. Lat. 70 degrees) developed an abundance of trees, such as the Yew, the Redwood, the Sequoia, allied to the Californian species, Beeches, Planes, Willows, Oaks, Poplars and Walnuts, as well as a Magnolia and a Zamia’, says Science; in short Greenland had Southern plants unknown to Northern regions.” [3]

Such a North-South climate connection will be significant for those interested in the changes of location that take place from time to time regarding the polar regions of our Earth, and which are unavoidably related to stronger climate changes.

As to the literary connection between ancient Scandinavia and the ancient Greeks, it is commented upon by H.P.B. in her work “Isis Unveiled”, and she says:

“Homer’s Odysseysurpasses in fantastic nonsense all the tales of the Arabian Nights combined; and notwithstanding that, many of his myths are now proved to be something else besides the creation of the old poet’s fancy. The Laestrygonians, who devoured the companions of Ulysses, are traced to the huge cannibal [4] race, said in primitive days to inhabit the caves of Norway. Geology verified through her discoveries some of the assertions of Homer, supposed for so many ages to have been but poetical hallucinations. The perpetual daylight enjoyed by this race of Laestrygonians indicates that they were inhabitants of the North Cape, where, during the whole summer, there is perpetual daylight. The Norwegian fiords are perfectly described by Homer in his Odyssey, x. 110; and the gigantic stature of the Laestrygonians is demonstrated by human bones of unusual size found in caves situated near this region, and which the geologists suppose to have belonged to a race extinct long before the Aryan immigration. Charybdis, as we have seen, has been recognized in the maëlstrom; and the Wandering Rocks [5] in the enormous icebergs of the Arctic seas. [6]

On the blessed “Hyperborean” land, H.P.B. comments:

“(….) And now this natural question rises. If the Greeks knew, in the days of Homer, of a Hyperborean land, i.e., a blessed land beyond the reach of Boreas, the god of winter and of the hurricane, an ideal region which the later Greeks and their classics have vainly tried to locate by searching for it beyond Scythia, a country where nights were short and days long, and beyond that land a country where the sun never set and the palm grew freely - if they knew of all this, who then told them of it? In their day, and for ages previously, Greenlandmust certainly have been already covered with perpetual snows, with never-thawing ice, just as it is now. Everything tends to show that the land of the short nights and the long days was Norway or Scandinavia, beyond which was the blessed land of eternal light and summer; and to know of this, their tradition must have descended to the Greeks from some people more ancient than themselves, who were acquainted with those climatic details of which the Greeks themselves could know nothing. Even in our day, science suspects beyond the Polar seas, at the very circle of the Arctic Pole, the existence of a sea which never freezes and a continent which is ever green. The archaic teachings, and likewise the Puranas - for one who understands the allegories of the latter - contain the same statements. Suffice, then, to us the strong probability that a people, now unknown to history, lived during the Miocene period of modern science, at a time when Greenland was an almost tropical land.” [7]

“The Scandinavian Destiny”, the thought-provoking text by Borges, is reproduced from “Selected Non-Fictions”, J.L.B., edited by Eliot Weinberger, Penguin Books, UK, 560 pp., 1999, pp. 377-381.

In order to better understand both H.P.B. and Borges and the numerous implications of many a sentence written by them, readers often say that they must be read more slowly and with a deeper attention than conventional authors.

(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)

NOTES:

[1] “The Secret Doctrine”. Helena Blavatsky, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, Volume II, p. 403.

[2] “The Secret Doctrine”, Volume II, p. 402. As to Siberia, Russia and Scandinavia, in the following text Jorge Luis Borges refers to the fact that Russiawas founded by a Scandinavian man named Rurik.

[3] “The Secret Doctrine”, Vol. II, pp. 11.

[4] Note by H. P. Blavatsky: “Why not to the sacrifices of men in ancient worship?”

[5] Note by H. P. Blavatsky: “Odyssey, XII, 71.”

[6] “Isis Unveiled”, H. P. Blavatsky, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, Vol. I, p. 549.

[7] “The Secret Doctrine”, Vol. II, pp. 11-12. Information on the distant future of present humanity can also be obtained in Scandinavian traditions. See “The Secret Doctrine”, by H.P.B., Vol. II, p. 100. On Scandinavia, see also “The Secret Doctrine”, Vol. II, p. 7; p. 97; pp. 345-347; and pp. 423-424. These, however, are but a few references made by HPB on Scandinavia. There are others.

The Scandinavian Destiny

Jorge Luis Borges

That the destiny of nations can be no less interesting and poignant than that of individuals is a thing Homer did not know, but Virgil did, and the Hebrews felt it intensely. Another problem (the Platonic problem) is that of investigating whether nations exist in a verbal or a real way, whether they are collective words or eternal entities; the fact is that we can imagine them, and Troy´s misfortune can touch us more than Priam’s. Lines such as this one from the Purgatorio:

Vieni a veder la tua Roma chepiagne

[Come see your Rome that weeps]

are proof of the poignancy of the generic, and Manuel Machado has successfully lamented, in an unquestionably beautiful poem, the melancholy destiny of the Arab lineages “que todo lo tuvieron y todo lo perdieron” [who had everything and lost everything]. Here, we might briefly recall the differential traits of this destiny: the revelation of Divine Unity that almost fourteen centuries ago brought together the shepherds in a desert and plunged them into a battle that has not ceased and whose limits were Aquitaine and the Ganges; the cult of Aristotle, which the Arabs taught Europe, perhaps without entirely understanding it, as if they were repeating or transcribing a coded message…. All that aside, it is the common vicissitude of peoples to have and to lose. To be on the verge of having everything and to lose everything is the tragic destiny of Germany. Rarer and more dreamlike is the Scandinavian destiny, which I shall attempt to define.

Jordanes, towards the middle of the sixth century, said of Scandinavia that this island (the Latin cartographers and historians took it for an island) was like the workshop or seedpod of nations; Scandinavia’s sudden eruptions at the most heterogenous points of the globe would seem to confirm this viewpoint, from which De Quincey inherited the phrase officinia gentium. In the ninth century, the Vikings invaded London, demanded from Paris a tribute of seven thousand pounds of silver, and pillaged the ports of Lisbon, Bordeaux, and Seville. Hasting, by a wily strategem, took control of Luna, in Etruria, put its defenders to the knife, and burned down the city, in the belief that he had seized Rome. Thorgils, chief of the White Foreigners (Finn Gaill), ruled the north of Ireland; after the libraries were destroyed, the clerics fled; one of the exiles was John Scotus Erigena. Rurik, a Swede, founded the kingdomof Russia, whose capital city, before it was called Novgorod, was called Holmgard.[1] Toward the year 1000, the Scandinavians, under Leif Eriksson, reached the coast of America. No one bothered them, but one morning (as Erik the Red’s Saga tells it) many men disembarked from canoes made of leather and stared at them in a kind of stupor. “They were dark and very ill-looking, and the hair on their heads was ugly; they had large eyes and broad cheeks.” The Scandinavians gave them the name of skraelingar, inferior people. Neither the Scandinavians nor the Eskimos knew that the moment was historic; America and Europe looked upon each other in all innocence. A century later, disease and the inferior people had done away with the colonists. The annals of Iceland say: “In 1121, Erik, Bishop of Greenland, departed in search of Vinland.” We know nothing of his fate; both the bishop and Vinland (America) were lost.

Viking epitaphs are scattered across the face of the earth on runic stones. One of them reads:

“Tola erected this stone in memory of his son Harald, brother of Ingvar. They departed in search of gold, and went far and sated the eagle in the East. They died in the South, in Arabia”.

Another says:

“May God have pity on the souls of Orm and Gunnlaug, but their bodies lie in London.”

This one was found on an island in the Black Sea:

“Grani built this barrow in memory of Karl, his friend.”

And this one was engraved on a marble lion found in Piraeus, which was moved to Venice:

“Warriors carved the runic letters…. Men of Swedenput it on the lion.”

Conversely, Greek and Arab coins and gold chains and old jewels brought from the Orient are often discovered in Norway.

Snorri Sturluson, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, wrote a series of biographies of the Kings of the North; the geographic nomenclature of this work, which covers four centuries of history, is another testimony to the breadth of the Scandinavian sphere; its pages speak of Jorvik (York); of Biarmaland, which is Archangel or the Urals; of Nörvesuud (Gibraltar); of Serkland (Land of the Saracens), which borders the Islamic kingdoms; of Blaaland (Blue Land, Land of Blacks), which is Africa; of Saxland or Saxony, which is Germany, of Helluland (Land of Smooth Stones), which is Labrador; of Markland (Land of Forests), which is Newfoundland; and of Miklagard (Large Population), which is Constantinople, where, until the fall of the East, the Byzantine Emperor’s guardsmen were Swedes and Anglo-Saxons. Despite the vastness of this list, the work is not the epic of a Scandinavian empire. Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro conquered lands for their king: the Vikings’ prolonged expeditions were individual. “They lacked political ambitions,” as Douglas Jerrold explains. After a century, the Normans (men of the North) who, under Rolf, settled in the province of Normandyand gave it their name, had forgotten their language, and were speaking French….

Medieval art is inherently allegorical; thus, in the Vita nuova, an autobiographical narrative, the chronology of events is subordinated to the number 9, and Dante speculated that Beatrice herself was a nine, “that is, a miracle, whose root is the Trinity.” That happened around 1292; a hundred years earlier, the Icelanders had written the first sagas [2], which are realism in its most perfect form, as this sober passage from Grettir’s Saga proves:

“Days before St. John’s eve, Thorbjörn rode his horse to Bjarg. He had a helmet on his head, a sword in his belt, and a lance in his hand, with a very wide blade. At daybreak it rained. Among Atli’s serfs, some were reaping hay; others had gone fishing to the North, to Hornstrandir. Atli was in his house, with few other people. Thorbjörn arrived around midday. Alone, he rode to the door. It was closed and there was no one outside. Thorbjörn knocked and hid behind the house so as not to be seen from the door. The servants heard the knock and a woman went to open the door. Thorbjörn saw her but did not let himself be seen, because he had another purpose. The woman returned to the chamber. Atli asked who was outside. She said she had seen no one and as they were speaking of it, Thorbjörn pounded forcefully.”

“Then Atli said: ‘Someone is looking for me and bringing a message that must be very urgent’. He opened the door and looked out: there was no one. By now it was raining very hard, so Atli did not go out; with a hand on the doorframe, he looked all around. At that moment, Thorbjörn jumped out and with both hands thrust the lance into the middle of his body.”

“As he took the blow, Atli said: ‘The blades they use now are so wide’. Then he fell face down on the threshold. The women came out and found him dead. From his horse, Thorbjörn shouted that he was the killer and returned home.”

The classical rigor of this prose coexist (the fact is remarkable) with a baroque poetry; the poets did not say “raven” but “red swan” or “bloody swan”; they did not say “corpse” but “meat” or “corn” of “the bloody swan”. “Sword’s water” or “death’s dew” were their words for blood; “pirate’s moon” for a shield….

The realism of the Spanish picaresque suffers from a sermonizing tone and a certain prudishness regarding sexual matters, though not with respect to excrement; French realism oscillates between erotic stimulation and what Paul Groussac termed “garbage dump photography”; the realism of the United States goes from mawkishness to cruelty; that of the sagas [3]represents an impartial observation. With fitting exaltation, William Paton Ker wrote: “The great achievement of the older world in its final days was in the prose histories of Iceland, which had virtue enough in them to change the whole world, if they had only been known and understood” (English Literature, Medieval, 1912), and on another page of another book he recalled “the great Icelandic school, the school that died without an heir until all its methods were reinvented, independently, by the great novelists, after centuries of floundering and uncertainty” (Epic and Romance, 1896).

These facts suffice, in my understanding, to define the strange and futile destiny of the Scandinavian people. In universal history, the wars and books of Scandinaviaare as if they had never existed; everything remains isolated and without a trace, as if it had come to pass in a dream or in the crystal balls where clairvoyants gaze. In the twelfth century, the Icelanders discovered the novel - the art of Flaubert, the Norman - and this discovery is as secret and sterile, [4]for the economy of the world, as their discovery of America.

[1953] [Translation, Esther Allen]

NOTES:

[1] On Scandinavia, Siberia and Russia, see note [2] at “A 2012 Editorial Note”. (C. C. A.)

[2] (Note by Borges:) The Dictionary of the Royal Academy of Spain(1947) reads: “Saga (from the German sage, legend) f. Each one of the poetic legends contained mainly in the two collections of early heroic and mythological traditions of ancient Scandinavia, called the Eddas.” This entry is an almost inextricable amalgamation of errors. Sagais derived from the Icelandic verb segja(to say), not from sage, a word which did not mean “legend” in medieval German; the sagas are prose narratives, not poetical legends; they are not contained in “los dos Eddas” [the two Eddas] (and whose gender is feminine). The most ancient songs of the Edda date from the ninth century; the most ancient sagas, from the twelfth.

[3] The Eddas and the sagas are often discussed in theosophy. H. P. B. made references to them in various places in the works “Isis Unveiled” and “The Secret Doctrine”. See also “The Collected Writings of H. P. Blavatsky”, TPH, volume XV, p. 161, “Edda”. (C. C. A.)

[4] “Sterile”. With the appearance of a criticism, Borges closes his article without obviously expressing his admiration for Scandinavian nations. This is a writing technique used to bring to a text a sense of “perceived balance”. From a theosophical viewpoint, however, such a “sterile” action and influence over human history is occultly more fruitful, precisely because in a outward dimension it does avoid “denser levels of karma”. The Vikings linked many points of the globe together, but they did not make formal colonies or provoke long bloody colonial wars. There is no need to say that Borges admired them for this. (C. C. A.)

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MASTERS TEACH THAT THERE IS NO GOD

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:36:00 +0000

Letter Ten in the Mahatma Letters Explains:

“God” is But a Sad Fabrication, Made by Priests

A Mahatma of the Himalayas

The Himalayas, in a painting by Nicholas Roerich

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The present letter from a Mahatma

was received by Alfred P. Sinnett at Simla,

India

, in 1882. It was transcribed from a copy

in Mr. Sinnett’s handwriting and published in “The

Mahatma Letters” as Letter number 10, or X. In the

Chronological edition of the Mahatma Letters, it is

Letter 88. It constitutes one of the most important

texts in the theosophical literature of all time.

(The editors of www.TheosophyOnline.com )

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“The God of the Theologians is simply an imaginary

power,un loup garou as d’Holbach expressed it - a

power which has never yet manifested itself. Our chief

aim is to deliver humanity of this nightmare, to teach man

virtue for its own sake, and to walk in life relying on himself

instead of leaning on a theological crutch, that for countless

ages was the direct cause of nearly all human misery.”

“Remember the sum of human misery will never

be diminished unto that day when the better portion of

humanity destroys in the name of Truth, morality, and

universal charity, the altars of their false gods.”

“…He who reads our Buddhist scriptures written

for the superstitious masses will fail to find in them a demon

so vindictive, unjust, so cruel and so stupid as the celestial

tyrant upon whom the Christians prodigally lavish their servile

worship and on whom their theologians heap those perfections

that are contradicted on every page of their Bible.”

“In other words we believe in MATTER alone, in matter as

visible nature and matter in its invisibility as the invisible

omnipresent omnipotent Proteus with its unceasing motion

which is its life, and which nature draws from herself since

she is the great whole outside of which nothing can exist.”

“The existence of matter then is a fact; the existence of motion

is another fact, their self existence and eternity or indestructibility

is a third fact. And the idea of pure spirit as a Being or an Existence -

give it whatever name you will - is a chimera, a gigantic absurdity.”

(A Mahatma of the Himalayas)

NOTES BY K.H. ON A “PRELIMINARY CHAPTER” HEADED “GOD” BY HUME,

INTENDED TO PREFACE AN EXPOSITION OF OCCULT PHILOSOPHY (ABRIDGED).

Neither our philosophy nor ourselves believe in a God, least of all in one whose pronoun necessitates a capital H. Our philosophy falls under the definition of Hobbes. It is preeminently the science of effects by their causes and of causes by their effects, and since it is also the science of things deduced from first principle, as Bacon defines it, before we admit any such principle we must know it, and have no right to admit even its possibility. Your whole explanation is based upon one solitary admission made simply for argument’s sake in October last. You were told that our knowledge was limited to this our solar system: ergo as philosophers who desired to remain worthy of the name we could not either deny or affirm the existence of what you termed a supreme, omnipotent, intelligent being of some sort beyond the limits of that solar system. But if such an existence is not absolutely impossible, yet unless the uniformity of nature’s law breaks at those limits we maintain that it is highly improbable. Nevertheless we deny most emphatically the position of agnosticism in this direction, and as regards the solar system. Our doctrine knows no compromises. It either affirms or denies, for it never teaches but that which it knows to be the truth. Therefore, we deny God both as philosophers and as Buddhists. We know there are planetary and other spiritual lives, and we know there is in our system no such thing as God, either personal or impersonal. Parabrahm is not a God, but absolute immutable law, and Ishwar is the effect of Avidya and Maya, ignorance based upon the great delusion. The word “God” was invented to designate the unknown cause of those effects which man has either admired or dreaded without understanding them, and since we claim and that we are able to prove what we claim - i.e. the knowledge of that cause and causes we are in a position to maintain there is no God or Gods behind them.

The idea of God is not an innate but an acquired notion, and we have but one thing in common with theologies - we reveal the infinite. But while we assign to all the phenomena that proceed from the infinite and limitless space, duration and motion, material, natural, sensible and known (to us at least) cause, the theists assign them spiritual, super-naturaland unintelligible and un-known causes. The God of the Theologians is simply an imaginary power, un loup garou as d’Holbach expressed it - a power which has never yet manifested itself. Our chief aim is to deliver humanity of this nightmare, to teach man virtue for its own sake, and to walk in life relying on himself instead of leaning on a theological crutch, that for countless ages was the direct cause of nearly all human misery. Pantheistic we may be called -- agnostic NEVER. If people are willing to accept and to regard as God our ONE LIFE immutable and unconscious in its eternity they may do so and thus keep to one more gigantic misnomer. But then they will have to say with Spinoza that there is not and that we cannot conceive any other substance than God; or as that famous and unfortunate philosopher says in his fourteenth proposition, “praeter Deum neque dari neque concepi potest substantia” - and thus become Pantheists . . . . who but a Theologian nursed on mystery and the most absurd super-naturalism can imagine a self existent being of necessity infinite and omnipresent outside the manifested boundlessuniverse. The word infinite is but a negative which excludes the idea of bounds. It is evident that a being independent and omnipresent cannot be limited by anything which is outside of himself; that there can be nothing exterior to himself - not even vacuum, then where is there room for matter? for that manifested universe even though the latter limited. If we ask the theist is your God vacuum, space or matter, they will reply no. And yet they hold that their God penetrates matter though he is not himself matter. When we speak of our One Life we also say that it penetrates, nay is the essence of every atom of matter; and that therefore it not only has correspondence with matter but has all its properties likewise, etc. - hence is material, is matter itself. How can intelligence proceed or emanate from non-intelligence - you kept asking last year. How could a highly intelligent humanity, man the crown of reason, be evolved out of blind unintelligent law or force! But once we reason on that line, I may ask in my turn, how could congenital idiots, non-reasoning animals, and the rest of “creation” have been created by or evoluted from, absolute Wisdom, if the latter is a thinking intelligent being, the author and ruler of the Universe? How? says Dr. Clarke in his examination of the proof of the existence of the Divinity. “God who hath made the eye, shall he not see? God who hath made the ear shall he not hear?” But according to this mode of reasoning they would have to admit that in creating an idiot God is an idiot; that he who made so many irrational beings, so many physical and moral monsters, must be an irrational being. . . .

. . . We are not Adwaitees, but our teaching respecting the one life is identical with that of the Adwaitee with regard to Parabrahm. And no true philosophically brained Adwaitee will ever call himself an agnostic, for he knows that he is Parabrahm and identical in every respect with the universal life and soul - the macrocosm is the microcosm and he knows that there is no God apart from himself, no creator as no being. Having found Gnosis we cannot turn our backs on it and become agnostics.

. . . . Were we to admit that even the highest Dyan Chohans are liable to err under a delusion, then there would be no reality for us indeed and the occult sciences would be as great a chimera as that God. If there is an absurdity in denying that which we do not know it is still more extravagant to assign to it unknown laws.

According to logic “nothing” is that of which everything can truly be denied and nothing can truly be affirmed. The idea therefore either of a finite or infinite nothing is a contradiction in terms. And yet according to theologians “God, the self existent being is a most simple, unchangeable, incorruptible being; without parts, figure, motion, divisibility, or any other such properties as we find in matter. For all such things so plainly and necessarily imply finiteness in their very notion and are utterly inconsistent with complete infinity.” Therefore the God here offered to the adoration of the XIXth century lacks every quality upon which man’s mind is capable of fixing any judgment. What is this in fact but a being of whom they can affirm nothingthat is not instantly contradicted. Their own Bible their Revelation destroys all the moral perceptions they heap upon him, unless indeed they call those qualities perfections that every other man’s reason and common sense call imperfections, odious vices and brutal wickedness. Nay more he who reads our Buddhist scriptures written for the superstitious masses will fail to find in them a demon so vindictive, unjust, so cruel and so stupid as the celestial tyrant upon whom the Christians prodigally lavish their servile worship and on whom their theologians heap those perfections that are contradicted on every page of their Bible. Truly and veritably your theology has created her God but to destroy him piecemeal. Your church is the fabulous Saturn, who begets children but to devour them.

(The Universal Mind) - A few reflections and arguments ought to support every new idea - for instance we are sure to be taken to task for the following apparent contradictions. (1) We deny the existence of a thinking conscious God, on the grounds that such a God must either be conditioned, limited and subject to change, therefore not infinite, or (2) if he is represented to us as an eternal unchangeable and independent being, with not a particle of matter in him, then we answer that it is no being but an immutable blind principle, a law. And yet, they will say, we believe in Dyans, or Planetaries (“spirits” also), and endow them with a universal mind, and this must be explained.

Our reasons may be briefly summed up thus:

(1) We deny the absurd proposition that there can be, even in a boundless and eternal universe - two infinite eternal and omni-present existences.

(2) Matter we know to be eternal, i.e., having had no beginning (a) because matter is Nature herself (b) because that which cannot annihilate itself and is indestructible exists necessarily -and therefore it could not begin to be, nor can it cease to be (c) because the accumulated experience of countless ages, and that of exact science show to us matter (or nature) acting by her own peculiar energy, of which not an atom is ever in an absolute state of rest, and therefore it must have always existed, i.e., its materials ever changing form, combinations and properties, but its principles or elements being absolutely indestructible.

(3) As to God - since no one has ever or at any time seen him or it - unless he or it is the very essence and nature of this boundless eternal matter, its energy and motion, we cannot regard him as either eternal or infinite or yet self existing. We refuse to admit a being or an existence of which we know absolutely nothing; because (a) there is no room for him in the presence of that matter whose undeniable properties and qualities we know thoroughly well (b) because if he or it is but a part of that matter it is ridiculous to maintain that he is the mover and ruler of that of which he is but a dependent part and (c) because if they tell us that God is a self existent pure spirit independent of matter - an extra-cosmic deity, we answer that admitting even the possibility of such an impossibility, i.e., his existence, we yet hold that a purely immaterial spirit cannot be an intelligent conscious ruler nor can he have any of the attributes bestowed upon him by theology and thus such a God becomes again but a blind force. Intelligence as found in our Dyan Chohans, is a faculty that can appertain but to organized or animated being - however imponderable or rather invisible the materials of their organizations. Intelligence requires the necessity of thinking; to think one must have ideas; ideas suppose senses which are physical material, and how can anything material belong to pure spirit? If it be objected that thought cannot be a property of matter, we will ask the reason why? We must have an unanswerable proof of this assumption, before we can accept it. Of the theologian we would enquire what was there to prevent his God, since he is the alleged creator of all - to endow matter with the faculty of thought; and when answered that evidently it has not pleased Him to do so, that it is a mystery as well as an impossibility, we would insist upon being told why it is more impossible that matter should produce spirit and thought, than spirit or the thought of God should produce and create matter.

We do not bow our heads in the dust before the mystery of mind - for we have solved it ages ago. Rejecting with contempt the theistic theory we reject as much the automaton theory, teaching that states of consciousness are produced by the marshalling of the molecules of the brain; and we feel as little respect for that other hypothesis - the production of molecular motion by consciousness. Then what do we believe in? Well, we believe in the much laughed at phlogiston (see article “What is force and what is matter?” Theosophist, September), and in what some natural philosophers would call nisus the incessant though perfectly imperceptible (to the ordinary senses) motion or efforts one body is making on another - the pulsations of inert matter - its life. The bodies of the Planetary spirits are formed of that which Priestley and others called Phlogiston and for which we have another name - this essence in its highest seventh state forming that matter of which the organisms of the highest and purest Dyans are composed, and in its lowest or densest form (so impalpable yet that science calls it energy and force) serving as a cover to the Planetaries of the 1st or lowest degree. In other words we believe in MATTER alone, in matter as visible nature and matter in its invisibility as the invisible omnipresent omnipotent Proteus with its unceasing motion which is its life, and which nature draws from herself since she is the great whole outside of which nothing can exist. For as Bellinger truly asserts “motion is a manner of existence that flows necessarily out of the essence of matter; that matter moves by its own peculiar energies; that its motion is due to the force which is inherent in itself; that the variety of motion and the phenomena that result proceed from the diversity of the properties of the qualities and of the combinations which are originally found in the primitive matter” of which nature is the assemblage and of which your science knows less than one of our Tibetan Yak-drivers of Kant’s metaphysics.

The existence of matter then is a fact; the existence of motion is another fact, their self existence and eternity or indestructibility is a third fact. And the idea of pure spirit as a Being or an Existence - give it whatever name you will - is a chimera, a gigantic absurdity.

Our ideas on Evil. Evil has no existence per se and is but the absence of good and exists but for him who is made its victim. It proceeds from two causes, and no more than good is it an independent cause in nature. Nature is destitute of goodness or malice; she follows only immutable laws when she either gives life and joy, or sends suffering [and] death, and destroys what she has created. Nature has an antidote for every poison and her

laws a reward for every suffering. The butterfly devoured by a bird becomes that bird, and the little bird killed by an animal goes into a higher form. It is the blind law of necessity and the eternal fitness of things, and hence cannot be called Evil in Nature. The real evil proceeds from human intelligence and its origin rests entirely with reasoning man who dissociates himself from Nature. Humanity then alone is the true source of evil. Evil is the exaggeration of good, the progeny of human selfishness and greediness. Think profoundly and you will find that save death - which is no evil but a necessary law, and accidents which will always find their reward in a future life - the origin of every evil whether small or great is in human action, in man whose intelligence makes him the one free agent in Nature. It is not nature that creates diseases, but man. The latter’s mission and destiny in the economy of nature is to die his natural death brought by old age; save accident, neither a savage nor a wild (free) animal die of disease. Food, sexual relations, drink, are all natural necessities of life; yet excess in them brings on disease, misery, suffering, mental and physical, and the latter are transmitted as the greatest evils to future generations, the progeny of the culprits. Ambition, the desire of securing happiness and comfort for those we love, by obtaining honours and riches, are praiseworthy natural feelings but when they transform man into an ambitious cruel tyrant, a miser, a selfish egotist they bring untold misery on those around him; on nations as well as on individuals. All this then - food, wealth, ambition, and a thousand other things we have to leave unmentioned, becomes the source and cause of evil whether in its abundance or through its absence. Become a glutton, a debauchee, a tyrant, and you become the originator of diseases, of human suffering and misery. Lack all this and you starve, you are despised as a nobody and the majority of the herd, your fellow men, make of you a sufferer your whole life. Therefore it is neither nature nor an imaginary Deity that has to be blamed, but human nature made vile by selfishness. Think well over these few words; work out every cause of evil you can think of and trace it to its origin and you will have solved one-third of the problem of evil. And now, after making due allowance for evils that are natural and cannot be avoided, - and so few are they that I challenge the whole host of Western metaphysicians to call them evils or to trace them directly to an independent cause - I will point out the greatest, the chief cause of nearly two thirds of the evils that pursue humanity ever since that cause became a power. It is religion under whatever form and in whatsoever nation. It is the sacerdotal caste, the priesthood and the churches; it is in those illusions that man looks upon as sacred, that he has to search out the source of that multitude of evils which is the great curse of humanity and that almost overwhelms mankind. Ignorance created Gods and cunning took advantage of the opportunity. Look at Indiaand look at Christendom and Islam, at Judaism and Fetichism. It is priestly imposture that rendered these Gods so terrible to man; it is religion that makes of him the selfish bigot, the fanatic that hates all mankind out of his own sect without rendering him any better or more moral for it. It is belief in God and Gods that makes two-thirds of humanity the slaves of a handful of those who deceive them under the false pretence of saving them. Is not man ever ready to commit any kind of evil if told that his God or Gods demand the crime?; voluntary victim of an illusionary God, the abject slave of his crafty ministers. The Irish, Italian and Slavonian peasant will starve himself and see his family starving and naked to feed and clothe his padre and pope. For two thousand years Indiagroaned under the weight of caste, Brahmins alone feeding on the fat of the land, and to-day the followers of Christ and those of Mahomet are cutting each other's throats in the names of and for the greater glory of their respective myths. Remember the sum of human misery will never be diminished unto that day when the better portion of humanity destroys in the name of Truth, morality, and universal charity, the altars of their false gods.

If it is objected that we too have temples, we too have priests and that our lamas also live on charity . . . let them know that the objects above named have in common with their Western equivalents, but the name. Thus in our temples there is neither a god nor gods worshipped, only the thrice sacred memory of the greatest as the holiest man that ever lived. If our lamas to honour the fraternity of the Bhikkhus established by our blessed master himself, go out to be fed by the laity, the latter often to the number of 5 to 25,000 is fed and taken care of by the Samgha (the fraternity of lamaic monks) the lamassery providing for the wants of the poor, the sick, the afflicted. Our lamas accept food, never money, and it is in those temples that the origin of evil is preached and impressed upon the people. There they are taught the four noble truths - ariya sakka, and the chain of causation, (the 12 nidanas) gives them a solution of the problem of the origin and destruction of suffering.

Read the Mahavagga and try to understand not with the prejudiced Western mind but the spirit of intuition and truth what the Fully Enlightened one says in the 1st Khandhaka. Allow me to translate it for you.

“At the time the blessed Buddha was at Uruvella on the shores of the river Nerovigara as he rested under the Boddhi tree of wisdom after he had become Sambuddha, at the end of the seventh day having his mind fixed on the chain of causation he spake thus: ‘from Ignorance spring the samkharas of threefold nature - productions of body, of speech, of thought. From the samkharas springs consciousness, from consciousness springs name and form, from this spring the six regions (of the six senses the seventh being the property of but the enlightened); from these springs contact from this sensation; from this springs thirst (or desire, Kama, tanha) from thirst attachment, existence, birth, old age and death, grief, lamentation, suffering, dejection and despair. Again by the destruction of ignorance, the Sankharas are destroyed, and their consciousness name and form, the six regions, contact, sensation, thirst, attachment (selfishness), existence, birth, old age, death, grief, lamentation, suffering, dejection, and despair are destroyed. Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering.”

Knowing this the blessed one uttered this solemn utterance. “When the real nature of things becomes clear to the meditating Bikshu, then all his doubts fade away since he has learned what is that nature and what its cause. From ignorance spring all the evils. From knowledge comes the cessation of this mass of misery, and then the meditating Brahmana stands dispelling the hosts of Mara like the sun that illuminates the sky.”

Meditation here means the superhuman (not supernatural) qualities, or arhatship in its highest of spiritual powers.

(Copied out Simla, Sept. 28, 1882.)

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THREE THEOSOPHICAL TEXTS

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 23:48:00 +0000

On Cosmic Contemplation, Universal Brotherhood

And the Need of Getting Rid of Belief in Monotheistic Gods

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

A 2012 Editorial Note:

In her article “What Are the Theosophists?”, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891) wrote:

“….Once that a student abandons the old and trodden highway of routine, and enters upon the solitary path of independent thought - Godward - he is a Theosophist; an original thinker, a seeker after the eternal truth with ‘an inspiration of his own’ to solve the universal problems.”

And she added:

“With every man that is earnestly searching in his own way after a knowledge of the Divine Principle, of man’s relations to it, and nature’s manifestations of it, Theosophy is allied. It is likewise the ally of honest science, as distinguished from much that passes for exact, physical science, so long as the latter does not poach on the domains of psychology and metaphysics. And it is also the ally of every honest religion - to wit, a religion willing to be judged by the same tests as it applies to the others.”

According to this definition, Einstein was a theosophist. He was also a long-standing personal reader of Helena Blavatsky’s. [1]

The three fragments that follow are reproduced from pp. 40-49 of the volume “Ideas and Opinions”, by Albert Einstein. The book is based on Mein Weltbild, edited by Carl Seelig, with new translations and revisions by Sonja Bargmann. It was published by Bonanza Books, New York, in 1954, with 378 pp.

The first and brief fragment describes the higher, contemplative aspect of scientific activities. The second one includes an investigation on the sort of intelligence that leads individuals to perceive the law of universal brotherhood.

The third text coincides with the Letter 10 of “The Mahatma Letters” (TUP edition), and with Buddhism, Taoism, and Spinoza’s philosophy, in demonstrating the utter impossibility of such a fiction as a monotheistic God. Einstein shows, just as Helena Blavatsky did, that the various forms of true religious spirit must get rid of “God” and other superstitious ideas in order to help mankind into its next evolutionary step, towards universal brotherhood and a deeper respect for Life.

(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)

NOTE:

[1] Sylvia Cranston demonstrated that Einstein was a long-time student of “The Secret Doctrine”, the masterpiece written by Mrs. Blavatsky. See “HPB - The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky, Founder of the Modern Theosophical Movement”, by Sylvia Cranston, a Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam Book, published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1994, 648 pp.. See preface, p. XX; pp. 434-435; and note 22 to Part 7 of the book, at pp. 605-606. (CCA)

1.The Religious Spirit of Science

[Mein Weltbild, Amsterdam: QueridoVerlag, 1934.]

You will hardly find one among the profounder sort of scientific minds without a religious feeling of his own. But it is different from the religiosity of the naïve man. For the latter, God is a being from whose care one hopes to benefit and whose punishment one fears; a sublimation of a feeling similar to that of a child for its father, a being to whom one stands, so to speak, in a personal relation, however deeply it may be tinged with awe.

But the scientist is possessed by the sense of universal causation. The future, to him, is every whit as necessary and determined as the past. There is nothing divine about morality; it is a purely human affair. His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work, in so far as he succeeds in keeping himself from the shackles of selfish desire. It is beyond question closely akin to that which has possessed the religious geniuses of all ages.

2. Science and Religion - Part I

[ Part I of “Science and Religion” is from an address at Princeton Theological Seminary, May 19, 1939. It is also published in “Out of My Later Years”, Albert Einstein, New York, Philosophical Library, 1950, pp. 19-22. ]

During the last century, and part of the one before, it was widely held that there was an unreconcilable conflict between knowledge and belief. The opinion prevailed among advanced minds that it was time that belief should be replaced increasingly by knowledge; belief that did not itself rest on knowledge was superstition, and as such had to be opposed. According to this conception, the sole function of education was to open the way to thinking and knowing, and the school, as the outstanding organ for the people’s education, must serve that end exclusively.

One will probably find but rarely, if at all, the rationalistic standpoint expressed in such crass form; for any sensible man would see at once how one-sided is such a statement of the position. But it is just as well to state a thesis starkly and nakedly, if one wants to clear up one’s mind as to its nature.

It is true that convictions can best be supported with experience and clear thinking. On this point one must agree unreservedly with the extreme rationalist. The weak point of his conception is, however, this, that those convictions which are necessary and determinant for our conduct and judgments cannot be found solely along this solid scientific way.

For the scientific method can teach us nothing else beyond how facts are related to, and conditioned by, each other. The aspiration toward such objective knowledge belongs to the highest of which man is capable, and you will certainly not suspect me of wishing to belittle the achievements and the heroic efforts of man in this sphere. Yet it is equally clear that knowledge of whatis does not open the door directly to what should be. One can have the clearest and most complete knowledge of what is, and yet not be able to deduct from that what should be the goalof our human aspirations.

Objective knowledge provides us with powerful instruments for the achievements of certain ends, but the ultimate goal itself and the longing to reach it must come from another source. And it is hardly necessary to argue for the view that our existence and our activity acquire meaning only by the setting up of such a goal and of corresponding values. The knowledge of truth as such is wonderful, but it is so little capable of acting as a guide that it cannot prove even the justification and the value of the aspiration toward that very knowledge of truth. Here we face, therefore, the limits of the purely rational conception of our existence.

But it must not be assumed that intelligent thinking can play no part in the formation of the goal and of ethical judgments. When someone realizes that for the achievement of an end certain means would be useful, the means itself becomes thereby an end. Intelligence makes clear to us the interrelation of means and ends. But mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental ends. To make clear these fundamental ends and valuations, and to set them fast in the emotional life of the individual, seems to me precisely the most important function which religion has to perform in the social life of man. And if one asks whence derives the authority of such fundamental ends, since they cannot be stated and justified merely by reason, one can only answer: they exist in a healthy society as powerful traditions, which act upon the conduct and aspirations and judgments of the individuals; they are there, that is, as something living, without its being necessary to find justification for their existence. They come into being not through demonstration but through revelation, through the medium of powerful personalities. One must not attempt to justify them, but rather to sense their nature simply and clearly.

The highest principles for our aspirations and judgments are given to us in the Jewish--Christian religious tradition. It is a very high goal which, with our weak powers, we can reach only very inadequately, but which gives a sure foundation to our aspirations and valuations. If one were to take that goal out of its religious form and look merely at its purely human side, one might state it perhaps thus: free and responsible development of the individual, so that he may place his powers freely and gladly in the service of all mankind.

There is no room in this for the divinization of a nation, of a class, let alone of an individual. Are we not all children of one father, as it is said in religious language? Indeed, even the divinization of humanity, as an abstract totality, would not be in the spirit of that ideal. It is only to the individual that a soul is given. And the high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule, or to impose himself in any other way.

If one looks at the substance rather than at the form, then one can take these words as expressing also the fundamental democratic position. The true democrat can worship his nation as little as can the man who is religious, in our sense of the term.

What, then, in all this, is the function of education and of the school? They should help the young person to grow up in such a spirit that these fundamental principles should be to him as the air which he breathes. Teaching alone cannot do that.

If one holds these high principles clearly before one’s eyes, and compares them with the life and spirit of our times, then it appears glaringly that civilized mankind finds itself at present in grave danger. In the totalitarian states it is the rules themselves who strive actually to destroy that spirit of humanity. In less threatened parts it is nationalism and intolerance, as well as the oppression of the individuals by economic means, which threaten to choke these most precious traditions. [1]

A realization of how great is the danger is spreading, however, among thinking people, and there is much search for means with which to meet the danger - means in the field of national and international politics, of legislation, or organization in general. Such efforts are, no doubt, greatly needed. Yet the ancients knew something which we seem to have forgotten.

All means prove but a blunt instrument, if they have not behind them a living spirit. But if the longing for the achievement of the goal is powerfully alive within us, then shall we not lack the strength to find the means for reaching the goal and for translating it into deeds.

3. Science and Religion - Part II

[Part II is from “Science, Philosophy and Religion, A Symposium”, published by the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, Inc., New York, 1941. Also published at “Out of My Later Years”, Albert Einstein, pp. 22-28.]

It would not be difficult to come to an agreement as to what we understand by science. Science is the century-old endeavor to bring together by means of systematic thought the perceptible phenomena of this world into as thoroughgoing an association as possible. To put it boldly, it is the attempt at the posterior reconstruction of existence by the process of conceptualization. But when asking myself what religion is I cannot think of the answer so easily. And even after finding an answer which may satisfy me at this particular moment, I still remain convinced that I never under any circumstances bring together, even to a slight extent, the thoughts of all those who have given this question serious consideration.

At first, then, instead of asking what religion is I should prefer to ask what characterizes the aspirations of a person who gives me the impression of being religious: a person who is religiously enlightened appears to me to be one who has, to the best of his ability, liberated himself from the fetters of his selfish desires and is preoccupied with thoughts, feelings, and aspirations to which he clings because of their superpersonal value. It seems to me that what is important is the force of this superpersonal content and the depth of the conviction concerning its overpowering meaningfulness, regardless of whether any attempt is made to unite this content with a divine Being, for otherwise it would not be possible to count Buddha and Spinoza as religious personalities.

Accordingly, a religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance and loftiness of those superpersonal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation. They exist with the same necessity and matter-of-factness as he himself. In this sense religion is the age-old endeavor of mankind to become clearly and completely conscious of these values and goals and constantly to strengthen and extend their effect. If one conceives of religion and science according to these definitions then a conflict between them appears impossible. For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgments of all kinds remain necessary. Religion, on the other hand, deals only with evaluations of human thought and action: it cannot justifiably speak of facts and relationships between facts. According to this interpretation the well-known conflicts between religion and science in the past must all be ascribed to a misapprehension of the situation which has been described.

For example, a conflict arises when a religious community insists on the absolute truthfulness of all statements recorded in the Bible. This means an intervention on the part of religion into the sphere of science; this is where the struggle of the Church against the doctrines of Galileo and Darwin belongs. On the other hand, representatives of science have often made an attempt to arrive at fundamental judgments with respect to values and ends on the basis of scientific method, and in this way have set themselves in opposition to religion. These conflicts have all sprung from fatal errors.

Now, even though the realms of religion and science in themselves are clearly marked off from each other, nevertheless there exist between the two strong reciprocal relationships and dependencies. Though religion may be that which determines the goal, it has, nevertheless, learned from science, in the broadest sense, what means will contribute to the attainment of the goals it has set up. But science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration toward truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion. To this there also belongs the faith in the possibility that the regulations valid for the world of existence are rational, that is, comprehensible to reason. I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith. The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

Though I have asserted above that in truth a legitimate conflict between religion and science cannot exist, I must nevertheless qualify this assertion once again on an essential point, with reference to the actual content of historical religions. This qualification has to do with the concept of God.

During the youthful period of mankind’s spiritual evolution human fantasy created gods in man’s own image, who, by the operations of their will were supposed to determine, or at any rate to influence, the phenomenal world. Man sought to alter the disposition of these gods in his own favor by means of magic and prayer. The idea of God in the religions taught at present is a sublimation of that old concept of the gods. Its anthropomorphic character is shown, for instance, by the fact that men appeal to the Divine Being in prayers and plead for the fulfillment of their wishes.

Nobody, certainly, will deny that idea of the existence of an omnipotent, just, and omnibeneficent personal God is able to accord man solace, help, and guidance; also, by virtue of its simplicity it is accessible to the most undeveloped mind. But, on the other hand, there are decisive weaknesses attached to this idea itself, which have been painfully felt since the beginning of history. That is, if this being is omnipotent, then every occurrence, including every human action, every human thought, and every human feeling and aspiration is also His work; how is it possible to think of holding men responsible for their deeds and thoughts before such an almighty Being? In giving out punishment and rewards He would to a certain extent be passing judgment on Himself. How can this be combined with the goodness and righteousness ascribed to Him?

The main source of the present-day conflicts between the spheres of religion and of science lies in this concept of a personal God. It is the aim of science to establish general rules which determine the reciprocal connection of objects and events in time and space. For these rules, or laws of nature, absolutely general validity is required - not proven. It is mainly a program, and faith in the possibility of its accomplishment in principle is only founded on partial successes. But hardly anyone could be found who would deny these partial successes and ascribe them to human self-deception. The fact that on the basis of such laws we are able to predict the temporal behavior of phenomena in certain domains with great precision and certainly is deeply embedded in the consciousness of the modern man, even though he may have grasped very little of the contents of those laws. He need only consider that planetary courses within the solar system may be calculated in advance with great exactitude on the basis of a limited number of simple laws. In a similar way, though not with the same precision, it is possible to calculate in advance the mode of operation of an electric motor, a transmission system, or of a wireless apparatus, even when dealing with a novel development.

To be sure, when the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological complex is too large, scientific method in most cases fails us. One need only think of the weather, in which case prediction even for a few days ahead is impossible. Nevertheless no one doubts that we are confronted with a causal connection whose casual components are in the main known to us. Occurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction because of the variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in nature.

We have penetrated far less deeply into the regularities obtaining within the realm of living things, but deeply enough nevertheless to sense at least the rule of fixed necessity. One need only think of the systematic order in heredity, and in the effect of poisons, as for instance alcohol, on the behavior of organic beings. What is still lacking here is a grasp of connections of profound generality, but not a knowledge of order in itself.

The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events the firmer becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side of this ordered regularity for causes of a different nature. For him neither the rule of human nor the rule of divine will exists as an independent cause of natural events. To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering with natural events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for this doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set foot.

But I am persuaded that such behavior on the part of the representatives of religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal. For a doctrine which is able to maintain itself not in clear light but only in the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with incalculable harm to human progress. In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vast power in the hands of priests. In their labors they will have to avail themselves of those forces which are capable of cultivating the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in humanity itself. This is, to be sure, a more difficult but an incomparably more worthy task.[2] After religious teachers accomplish the refining process indicated they will surely recognize with joy that true religion has been ennoble and made more profound by scientific knowledge.

If it is one of the goals of religion to liberate mankind as far as possible from the bondage of egocentric cravings, desires, and fears, scientific reasoning can aid religion in yet another sense. Although it is true that it is the goal of science to discover rules which permit the association and foretelling of facts, this is not its only aim. It also seeks to reduce the connections discovered to the smallest possible number of mutually independent conceptual elements. It is in this striving after the rational unification of the manifold that it encounters its greatest successes, even though it is precisely this attempt which causes it to run the greatest risk of falling a prey to illusions. But whoever has undergone the intense experience of successful advances made in this domain is moved by profound reverence for the rationality made manifest in existence. By way of the understanding he achieves a far-reaching emancipation from the shackles of personal hopes and desires, and thereby attains that humble attitude of mind toward the grandeur of reason incarnate in existence, and which, in its profoundest depths, is inaccessible to man. This attitude, however, appears to me to be religious, in the highest sense of the word. And so it seems to me that science not only purifies the religious impulse of the dross of its anthropomorphism but also contributes to a religious spiritualization of our understanding of life.

The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge. In this sense I believe that the priest must become a teacher if he wishes to do justice to his lofty educational mission.

NOTES:

[1] Science and Religion (Part I) is a speech delivered in 1939. Yet the idea expressed in this paragraph remains fundamentally updated in the first half of 21st century. (C.C.A.)

[2] Note by Einstein: “This thought is convincingly presented in Herbert Samuel’s book, Belief and Action.”

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THE AQUARIAN THEOSOPHIST, APRIL 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:21:00 +0000

Volume XII, Number 4

April edition opens with a dialogue across the ocean of time between ULT associate Steven Levy and William Q. Judge - through Judge’s writings. It goes on with a 1885 theosophical collection of Jewish Aphorisms, and a Sufi tale written down by Hazrat Inayat Khan.

Dr. N. C. Ramanujachary, the vice-president of the Adyar Society in India, examines the first letters from a Mahatma to A. P. Sinnett. John Garrigues discusses how to read “Between the Lines” while studying the theosophical classics. The edition reports on the 2012 European Schoolof Theosophy, in the Netherlands, and discusses the right relationship between Masonry and the Theosophical Movement.

Click here to see the April 2012 edition of "The AquarianTheosophist"

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www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com .

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RESPECT FOR THE LOWER SELF

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:07:00 +0000

A Deeper Look at the Path to Wisdom

Carlos Cardoso Aveline

In ancient India, a Rajpoot Warrior

took an oath by his sword, and his shield

It is not enough to stick to correct ideas.

It is also necessary to examine how we look at them. For a superficial or mechanistic view of correct philosophical concepts is more than enough to provoke disasters along the way.

People often talk, for instance, about the need for selflessness and self-forgetfulness in theosophy. These are two important ideas, which we must handle with care, because their foundations are a thorough knowledge and a careful control of oneself.

It is at “Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom” that a Mahatma quotes Alfred Tennyson while referring to three decisive factors in any theosophical effort:

“Self-respect, self-knowledge, and self-control.” [1]

True, a complete self-forgetfulness applies to one’s goals in life. At the same time, the lower self is the main outer instrument to be used by one’s selflessness, and it must be taken good care of. It is only the ignorance temporarily present in the lower self that must be calmly fought, and gradually, peacefully annihilated. True self-respect implies having the right consideration for the vehicle which we call “personality”, since it is a most valuable level of intelligence, loyally trying to serve our highest consciousness.

Can we laugh at our own mistakes? Yes, sometimes. But this should be done with moderation. The thoughts and actions of our personality must be in an expanding harmony with its sacred duty as the vehicle of an immortal Soul. Our lower self is more than a “mask” and a “shell”. It is a shrine which can be protected from destructive influences and thoughts. And H. P. Blavatsky wrote:

“The ever unknowable and incognizable Karana alone, the Causelesscause of all

causes, should have its shrine and altar on the holy and ever untrodden ground of our heart.” [2]

One’s “lower” personality is therefore the temple and the tool of a sacred life. An important aspect of self-respect means that one must care for his lower self and for the state of its thoughts and feelings. It will improve not by hate. It will improve by esteem and consideration. Feelings, actions and ideas that are hostile to the personality’s role as a vehicle of the higher self should be recognized as disrespectful towards life.

Self-respect produces respect for all. It also demands a deeper consideration from anyone who is in a position to be accepted as one’s friend. In every circumstance of life, the right relationship between one’s personality and other individuals must be based on the principle of mutual respect, not as mere social courtesy, but at the heart-level.

A decisive aspect of self-respect is directed at one’s monad. It is the feeling that one naturally has for the voice of his own conscience, for his spiritual soul, the essence of his being, his immortal Atma.

Like any other form of light, respect must go in every direction. Self-respect is the basis of that brotherly feeling one must have for all beings. Celestial and terrestrial aspects of human life both deserve a friendly care, and these two dimensions of respect are inseparable. In a way, human beings can be said to be the antahkarana, the bridge, among higher and lower levels of love for Life. The “individual” is above all the focus of that living consciousness which oscillates throughout the whole field of his own aura, and which includes it all.

If one adopts this multi-layered concept of self-respect, it becomes easy to see that self-discipline is not an act of force. It is not an imposition from the outside. It is instead an action which emerges from affinity with the idea of a correct life, a life dedicated to the sowing of good karma. Thus the practice of self-discipline can only express respect for one’s own personality. To despise one’s lower self would be to show disrespect towards a sacred vehicle of universal life.

Rescued by a Master from a half-forgotten poem by Tennyson, these three factors of life seem to be a summary of the whole path to Raja Yoga: self-respect, self-knowledge and self-control. Yet real progress is seldom effortless. Mind is like a sword, according to Zen-Buddhist tradition. In ancient India, a Rajpoot Warrior would take an oath by his sword and his shield. [3] And the Dhammapada teaches:

“Just as a fletcher makes straight his arrow, the wise man makes straight his crooked thinking.” [4]

The fact of the matter about theosophy is that, while a true warrior loves his sword, an archer his bow, and a boatman his boat, a theosophist learns to love, respect and train his own lower self.

NOTES:

[1] Letter IV to Laura Holloway, at “Letters From the Masters of the Wisdom”, two volumes, compiled by C. Jinarajadasa, TPH, India.

[2] “The Secret Doctrine”, Helena P. Blavatsky, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, volume I, p. 280.

[3] See for instance the book “Annals & Antiquities of Rajasthan”, by James Tod.

[4] “The Dhammapada”, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, Chapter 3, “Mind”, verse one.

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The illustration that opens the present article is reproduced from the book “Annals & Antiquities of Rajashtan”, by James Tod, Selected and Abridged by E. Jaiwant Paul, Roli Books, New Delhi, India, 2008, 141 pp.

Always visit www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com , www.TheosophyOnline.com and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com .

If you want to have access to a daily study of the original teachings of Theosophy, write to lutbr@terra.com.br and ask for information on the e-group E-Theosophy.

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THE THEOSOPHY OF ALBERT EINSTEIN

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:47:00 +0000

Philosophical Ideas of an Ethical Scientist

Carlos Cardoso Aveline

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

1. False Scholars Can’t Read the Classics

One of the hallmarks of modern pseudo-theosophy and superficial thought at all times is to make believe that it is not necessary to read the classics. Weak and lazy minds try to convince themselves and others that it is enough to take a look at the works of contemporary authors.

As a result, in the two main varieties of pseudo-theosophy - the 1920s Besantian pseudo-Masonic ritualism and the 1990s pseudo-academic “modernizing” skepticism - the false idea has been adopted that H.P. Blavatsky’s works are “outdated”, and their Ethics unnecessary or at least inconvenient.

One could as well say that Shakespeare, Plato, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, or the Bhagavad Gita, the Dhammapada, the Upanishads and the very search for truth in itself are all “out of fashion”.

Classical authors are contemporary to every time,and the main problem with lazy minds is that they suffer from a form of blindness. Albert Einstein wrote these wise words about ancient and recent thought:

“Somebody who reads only newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else. And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous.”

Einstein added:

“There are only a few enlightened people with a lucid mind and style and with good taste within a century. What has been preserved of their work belongs among the most precious possessions of mankind. We owe it to a few writers of antiquity that the people in the Middle Ages could slowly extricate themselves from the superstitions and ignorance that had darkened life for more than half a millennium.”

He got to this final conclusion:

“Nothing is more needed to overcome than the modernist’s snobbishness.” [1]

Indeed, true ethics and theosophy are hard to grasp from the point of view of those shallow thinkers and would-be scholars who can’t read the classics or think by themselves.

2. Ethics and the Purpose of Life

Sylvia Cranston demonstrated that Einstein was a careful reader of Helena Blavatsky’s masterpiece “The Secret Doctrine”. [2]

In philosophical matters, he was, of course, no mere reader. He developed his own theosophical approach to life and the universe. He became a true philosopher of altruism, as every theosophist must learn to be in one way or another. In 1934, Einstein wrote on the need of freedom from selfishness:

“The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.” [3]

And he added:

“I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause. The example of great and pure individuals is the only thing that can lead us to noble thoughts and deeds. Money only appeals to selfishness and irresistibly invites abuse. Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus, or Gandhi armed with (…) money-bags (…)?” [4]

3. Gandhi or the Sociology of Brotherhood

Einstein dedicated the last part of his life to the ideal of a weapon-free, universal brotherhood among nations. He was intensely active in working for the establishment of a planetary democracy, and felt a profound admiration for “Mahatma” Gandhi.

He wrote on the Indian activist and thinker:

“A leader of his people, unsupported by any outward authority: a politician whose success rests not upon craft nor the mastery of technical devices, but simply on the convincing power of his personality; a victorious fighter who has always scorned the use of force; a man of wisdom and humility, armed with resolve and inflexible consistency, who has devoted all his strength to the uplifting of his people and the betterment of their lot; a man who has confronted the brutality of Europe [5] with the dignity of the simple human being, and thus at all times risen superior. Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.” [6]

4. The Limits of the Intellect

Einstein made his own individual bridge between Buddhi, the spiritual soul, and Manas, or mind. His science was Buddhi-Manasic. He instinctively struggled for ethics because there can be no “spiritual soul” in the absence of ethics.

Einstein’s intellectual view of life was powerful enough to be also intuitive and spiritual. He wrote:

“Our age is proud of the progress it has made in man’s intellectual development. The search and striving for truth and knowledge is one of the highest of man’s qualities - though often the pride is most loudly voiced by those who strive the least. And certainly we should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. It cannot lead, it can only serve; and it is not fastidious in its choices of a leader. This characteristic is reflected in the qualities of its priests, the intellectuals. The intellect has a sharp eye for methods and tools, but is blind to ends and values. So it is no wonder that this fatal blindness is handed from old to young and today involves a whole generation.” [7]

5. Universal Brotherhood Preserves Diversity

When citizens share a humanistic intention, diversity of thought is acknowledged as an enriching factor in life. There is a subtle yet fundamental difference between brotherhood and uniformity of thought. Albert Einstein saw the need for free individual thinking, combined to mutual help mechanisms. He wrote:

“Only the individual can think, and thereby create new values for society, nay, even set up new moral standards to which the life of the community conforms. Without creative personalities able to think and judge independently, the upward development of society is as unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the community.”

He added:

“The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close social cohesion. It has rightly been said that the very basis of Graeco-European-American culture, and in particular of its brilliant flowering in Italian Renaissance, has been the liberation and comparative isolation of the individual.” [8]

Elsewhere, the scientist and philosopher said:

“To see with one’s own eyes, to feel and judge without succumbing to the suggestive power of the fashion of the day, to be able to express what one has seen and felt in a trim sentence or even in a cunningly wrought word - is that not glorious? Is it not a proper subject for congratulation?” [9]

What determines real unity in any theosophical association or humanistic movement is not uniformity of thought but shared intentions, motives, and methods. Thus one is able to handle differences in a creative way and can turn diversity and contrast into advantages along the common path.

Mutual reliability is the indispensable basis of cooperation. Those who want to live in a better civilization must start the desired change by being reliable. Their example will be followed in due time. Of course, a deep sense of self-confidence is the foundation of altruism and cooperation, and self-confidence is associated to self-knowledge. There are numerous reasons to be confident about oneself and about life. All living beings result from and are sustained by the process of affinity and cooperation in Nature, and Albert Einstein wrote:

“When we survey our lives and endeavors, we soon observe that almost the whole of our actions and desires are bound up with the existence of other human beings. We notice that our whole nature resembles that of other social animals. We eat food that others have produced, wear clothes that others have made, live in houses that others have built. The greater part of our knowledge and beliefs has been communicated to us by other people through the medium of a language which others have created. Without language our mental capacities would be poor indeed, comparable to those of the higher animals; we have, therefore, to admit that we owe our principal advantage over the beasts to the fact of living in human society. The individual, if left alone from birth, would remain primitive and beastlike in his thoughts and feelings to a degree that we can hardly conceive.[10] The individual is what he is and has the significance that he has not so much in virtue of his individuality, but rather as a member of a great human community, which directs his material and spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave.”

“A men’s value to the community depends primarily on how far his feelings, thoughts, and actions are directed toward promoting the good of his fellows. We call him good or bad according to his attitude in this respect. It looks at first sight as if our estimate of a man depended entirely on his social qualities. And yet such an attitude would be wrong. It can easily be seen that all the valuable achievements, material, spiritual, and moral, which we receive from society have been brought about in the course of countless generations by creative individuals. Someone once discovered the use of fire, someone the cultivation of edible plants, and someone the steam engine.” [11]

Human progress is provoked into a great extent by the relatively Few who prefer to think by themselves, who decide to be creative, and who make self-devised efforts with a noble intention.

6. Competition Produces Decadence

Cooperation sustains life, and the competitive “struggle for existence” of modern science provokes the decay of civilization.

Fortunately, the illusion of selfishness is but a passing dream and those who know the Law of life have reasons to be optimistic. Einstein wrote:

“No wonder there is no lack of prophets who prophesy the early eclipse of our civilization. I am not one of these pessimists; I believe that better times are coming. Let me briefly state my reasons for such confidence.”

He then added:

“In my opinion, the present manifestations of decadence are explained by the fact that economic and technologic developments have highly intensified the struggle for existence, greatly to the detriment of the free development of the individual. But the development of technology means that less and less work is needed from the individual for the satisfaction of the community’s needs. A planned division of labor is becoming more and more of a crying necessity, and this division will lead to the material security of the individual. This security and the spare time and energy which the individual will have at his disposal can be turned to the development of his personality. In this way the community may regain its health, and we will hope that future historians will explain the morbid symptoms of present-day society as the childhood ailments of an aspiring humanity, due entirely to the excessive speed at which civilization was advancing.” [12]

Realism shows us that the way ahead leads to universal brotherhood.

It would be an impossible utopian dream indeed to imagine that a materialistic civilization could go on forever and cause endless pain to human population.

7. The Elevation of Mankind

While all forms of generosity may inspire admiration, the best way to actually help people is to respect their autonomy and give them the means to elevate themselves by their own merit.

Therefore Einstein wrote:

“It is right in principle that those should be the best loved who have contributed most to the elevation of the human race and human life. But if one goes on to ask who they are, one finds oneself in no inconsiderable difficulties. In the case of political, and even of religious, leaders it is often very doubtful whether they have done more good or harm. Hence I most seriously believe that one does people the best service by giving them some elevating work to do and thus indirectly elevating them. This applies most of all to the great artist, but also in a lesser degree to the scientist. To be sure, it is not the fruits of scientific research that elevate a man and enrich his nature, but the urge to understand, the intellectual work, creative or receptive.” [13]

NOTES:

[1] “Ideas and Opinions”, Albert Einstein, based on “Mein Weltbild” and other sources, Bonanza Books, New York, 1954, 374 pp., see pp. 64-65.

[2] “HPB - The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky, Founder of the Modern Theosophical Movement”, by Sylvia Cranston, a Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam Book, published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1994, 648 pp.. See preface, p. XX; pp. 434-435; and note 22 to Part 7 of the book, at pp. 605-606.

[3] “Ideas and Opinions”, Albert Einstein, p. 12.

[4] “Ideas and Opinions”, Albert Einstein, pp. 12-13.

[5] As Einstein was born in Europe, he had a right to say so.

[6] “Ideas and Opinions”, Albert Einstein, 1954, 374 pp., see pp. 77-78.

[7] “Out of My Later Years”, Albert Einstein, Wings Books, New York, 1996, 280 pp., see p. 260.

[8] “Ideas and Opinions”, Albert Einstein, p. 14.

[9] “Ideas and Opinions”, p. 17.

[10] Human education and interaction, and the contact with one’s elders play a central role in the awakening of one’s higher principles of consciousness, within the limits of one’s possibilities.

[11] “Ideas and Opinions”, pp. 13-14.

[12] “Ideas and Opinions”, p. 15.

[13] “Ideas and Opinions”, p. 12.

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If you want to have access to a daily study of the original teachings of Theosophy, write to lutbr@terra.com.br and ask for information on the e-group E-Theosophy.

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FROM AN INDIAN STUDENT, TO INDIA

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 22:36:00 +0000

A 2012 Letter Defending One of the

Founders of the Theosophical Movement

B. D. Munshi

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B.D. Munshi lives at 139, Camp, in Belgaum,

India

. This letter, however, was written and sent

during a visit of its author to the United States.

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Dear President of the Theosophical Society, April 2012

Chennai 600 020

India

Although Mr. W. Q. Judge, one of the original founders of the Theosophical Society, does not find mention among members of the present T.S. we at least request to sample one or two of his writings just to check whether they are in accord or in variation with the teachings of H. P. Blavatsky, the agent of the Masters:

(…..)

Click Here to Read the Whole Letter in PDF

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If you want to have access to a daily study of the original teachings of Theosophy, write to lutbr@terra.com.br and ask for information on the e-group E-Theosophy.

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A NEW AND BRIGHTER SCENARIO

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:18:00 +0000

A 2012 Open Letter to the President to the Adyar Society

Carlos Cardoso Aveline

Main building of the Headquarters of the Adyar TS, in Chennai, India

Mrs. Radha Burnier

International President,

The Theosophical Society,

Adyar, Chennai 600 020

India

Brazlândia, 12 April 2012.

Dear Mrs. Burnier,

Fraternal greetings from Brazil.

I’m glad to write you this year about the dynamic unity and living dialogue we seem to need in the theosophical movement. Brotherly unity must be based on a common search for truth. Its true foundation includes frankness, justice, and ethics.

There are by now a few signs announcing the possibility of a new springtime for the theosophical movement as a whole, which must include the Adyar Society.

As you know, one or two followers of Mr. Vladimir Soloviof created an almost unprecedented crisis in your Society in the 2007-2011 period. They are much calmer now from a political viewpoint: your own moderate political leadership seems to be stronger since the second semester of 2011.

Such a renewed scenario in 2012 is good news for the entire theosophical movement. There can be no actual separation between the various theosophical schools of thought. Therefore the movement can have no one slandering the Founders in the name of any theosophical publishing house or association. Respect for truth and for each other is a practical principle to be followed everywhere. We are all essentially one. We have no popes and no bishops. No frauds are “eternal” or “sacred” among us; and it is our duty to show them all for everyone to see.

In order to experience the occult unity existing among all theosophists and to promote the living of universal brotherhood while actively searching for truth, one must renounce personal attachment to such sad illusions like personal power or corporate interests. This is an often uncomfortable, yet unavoidable challenge: it is also a key to the future.

We can illustrate the point with a historical fact or two.

It was in August 1925 that Mrs. Annie Besant, after having many a personal talk with the King of the World, with the Manu of present humanity, with her favorite “Lord Christ” and all sorts of imaginary individuals, finally announced to her closest associates that she herself, and Mr. Leadbeater, Mr. Arundale and several others, were all Adepts, id est, Masters of the Wisdom. A detailed narrative of this extraordinary event can be found at the book “Life and Death of Krishnamurti”, by Mary Lutyens (Krishnamurti Foundation India, 1990, pp. 53-58).

If we go back some thirty years from that memorable occasion in 1925, we can see Annie Besant skillfully organizing in1895 her political campaign against William Judge. While accusing Judge of “forging messages from the Mahatmas”, Mrs. Besant, however, was taking part in mesmeric and mediumnistic “séances” at the London Lodge of the T.S., and talking to “Masters” in meetings presided by her new close associate Mr. Alfred Sinnett, who candidly reveals the facts in his Autobiography.

Should we, Mrs. Burnier, make believe such events never happened?

Of course not. In theosophy, there are no political aims higher than truth.

Does it make any sense, then, for anyone to try and sustain the old “conspiracy of silence” around the life and work of William Judge?

Of course not. Unlike Annie Besant and other Adyar leaders in the 1895-1934 period, William Q. Judge never lost his common sense. He was one of the main founders of the movement in 1875. He never had absurd “talks to Masters”. He never created a Catholic Church within the movement. He never made a Circus of the movement by theatrically announcing the return of a Christ. He always kept loyal to the original teachings of Theosophy. He led an ethical life to the end. His numerous writings have great practical value in the 21st century.

The Adyar Society is extremely important and valuable to the movement. As a result, it cannot be left for any indefinite length of time under the spell of illusions of whatever kind.

As one who has for decades felt respect and admiration for your dedication to the Theosophical Cause, I would like to submit a suggestion or two to your kind consideration.

Let’s accept, if you please, the need for renewing the movement on the basis of respect for truth.

The 21st century is a time to aim at the sacred potentialities of ethics in the common theosophical effort.

Let’s think of the year 2075 and beyond from a truthful point of view. Let’s acknowledge the farces, follies and mistakes of pseudo-theosophy. May we look ahead in a constructive way. It’s no good denying History.

We must get rid of those false rituals based on talks to imaginary Masters. Let’s take into consideration that no fraud can deceive everyone, all the time. Let’s choose sincerity instead of forgery and do justice to William Judge and H. P. Blavatsky.

It is within our reach to celebrate a non-bureaucratic view of the theosophical movement, as proposed, for instance, in Judge’s article “The Theosophical Movement”. Let’s remember that even a poor dialogue, once it is frank and sincere, is better than no dialogue and healthier than false courtesy. Let’s try and accelerate the process by which both the Adyar TS members and the associates of other theosophical groups can renew their ever challenging commitment to truth, while gradually liberating themselves from blind routine and ritualistic conditioning.

Your father, Mr. N. Sri Ram, took a few cautious yet real steps in the right direction.

He was the first Outer Head of your Esoteric School to stop having imaginary contacts with Masters. You have followed his example in this.

He firmly supported the publication of H.P. Blavatsky’s Collected Writings and other books of authentic theosophy. Among them, one finds “Damodar and the Pioneers…”, by Sven Eek, a book which also does justice to William Judge.

During the 1966 World Congress of your Society, N. Sri Ram firmly opposed the practice of tampering with theosophical literature. The unfortunate editorial policy of tampering with books - first inaugurated by Annie Besant in the 1890s through her edition of “The Secret Doctrine”- was in 1966 again openly defended by various U.S.A. ritualistic leaders of the Adyar TS. You must remember the occasion, for you were there yourself, and you shared your father’s view of the challenge. The discussion about that was duly documented by him in the pages of “The Theosophist”.

Life unceasingly renews itself. Other steps and new measures need to be taken in the 21st century toward the goal of placing truth and ethics above politics and ritual in our movement. Progress in that direction depends not only on you, but also on all earnest students around the world, whether they belong to any theosophical association or to none of them.

You, Mrs. Burnier, certainly deserve thanks and congratulations for having done your best since 1980 and before. It is believed, however, that you can do much more in the right direction. It should not be too difficult to follow the trajectory adopted by your father and take new strong steps ahead, thus going further away from falsehoods and towards common sense.

Sincerely yours,

Carlos Cardoso Aveline

Caixa Postal 5111,

Ag. Brazlândia

CEP 72.705-970 Brasília, DF

Brazil.

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LESSONS FROM WILLIAM JUDGE

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:55:00 +0000

A 2012 Letter to Mrs. Radha Burnier, on Gratitude

Steven H. Levy, M.D.

Mrs. Radha Burnier

Mrs. Radha Burnier
International President,
The Theosophical Society,
Adyar, Chennai 600 020, India

April 7, 2012

The time has come once again to express in words the gratitude constantly felt for one of the great teachers of Theosophy in the history of the Modern Theosophical Movement, William Q. Judge (W.Q.J.). However, gratitude is not just a sentiment. It is a fundamental law. It is the operation of justice. It is the reaction due to others who have performed acts of sacrifice for us.

The law of sacrifice and gratitude is mirrored by sentient beings in all departments of nature in a manner appropriate to their degree of consciousness. Only human beings, possessed of self-consciousness, are capable of tracing the lines of cause and effect that have led to the favorable state of their current conditions and choose to act in a self-induced and self-devised way to repay their debts to those to whom they owe so much. Only human beings possessed of free-will, can choose to ignore their duty to others. Karma repays, with unerring justice, the acts of those who work with nature to restore harmony and balance or work against the forward progress of nature. It is not necessary for any Theosophist to judge another. Nevertheless, for those who would call themselves Theosophists, it seems that it would be in our mutual best interest to strengthen and practice the virtue of gratitude so that we may make progress in our united effort to perform a true service to humanity, without invoking any karmic obstacles.

In “The Voice of the Silence” it is written: “Of teachers there are many; the Master-Soul is one, Alaya, the Universal Soul.” The rays of the spiritual wisdom and influence inherent to that universal principle can illuminate the receptive heart and mind. These self-evident initiations may come in a flash of intuition and conscience, a dream, or through the words of another human being. There are many teachers of soul wisdom, so in expressing and demonstrating gratitude to one of them, such as W.Q.J., the object of gratitude is not only for the individual personality, it is primarily for the vital spiritual lessons that came to us through that personage.

To neglect or ignore gratitude and justice regarding that individual’s service to us is equivalent to being unjust to the wisdom that is the source of their inspiration. Can we remain receptive and deserving of more spiritual instruction and influence if we do not show gratitude for what is already received? Of expressions of gratitude and justice there are many, but the intent of them is one. The ways and means may vary with the Theosophist; however, the purpose is to be just to the teacher of wisdom. It is timely for us to remember how and why every Theosophist living today has a debt of gratitude and justice to W.Q.J.

During the birth and infancy of the modern Theosophical Movement, he was a teacher of vital lessons for all Theosophists of that generation through the example of his life and in the words of his numerous letters and articles. They set a tone, established a tendency, and lit a small flame of awareness that if followed by more Theosophists of that day would have kept the Theosophical Society safe from its subsequent errors and failings.

For Theosophists living today, the only real failure would be to repeat these errors and give up trying to correct the errors of the past. Nevertheless, there were a few Theosophists from different Theosophical organizations who learned the vital lessons he taught and kept the link unbroken. Whatever success the Movement has today and whatever integrity and adherence to the lines laid down by the Great Founders of the Theosophical Movement exists today, it is due in part to the individual and collective efforts of students from Theosophical organizations all over the world who learned these lessons directly or indirectly from the life and writings of W.Q.J.

It is beyond the scope of this letter to go into the historical significance, meaning and application of all these lessons. It is enough to highlight some of these vital lessons for the benefit of others.

1. Preserve independent devotion to the cause of Theosophy while remaining united in brotherly thought and feeling with all other organized associations and methods of Theosophical work.

2. Remember that success gradually comes by persistent effort that does not yield to external and internal conditions and from the endurance of suffering and personal injustice.

3. The true service of humanity is to offer a path of hope by investigating and promulgating the truths that reveal the meaning and fact of universal brotherhood and the spiritual condition of the human being.

4. Disseminate the fundamental principles of Theosophy pure and simple without becoming dogmatic. These principles, along with practical application of them, are the unassailable basis of unity in the Movement.

5. The right motivation for the aim and purpose of our work is the unselfish desire to work for the benefit of others.

Some Theosophists choose to show gratitude and justice toward W.Q.J., a teacher of these vital lessons, by emulating the example set and spreading broadcast a correct understanding of the teachings of Theosophy pure and simple that may be found in his writings. Others fulfill their debt of gratitude by calling for justice when the teacher has been slandered or misrepresented. A few theosophists, such as you, are in a unique position to help correct the misconceptions regarding W.Q.J. and thereby contribute greatly to the unity and progress of the Movement in our times. All these methods of gratitude and “Justice to Judge” are necessary. Not one can be overlooked. All one can hope is that each does what they can.

Best regards to you and our continued mutual work,

Steven Levy, MD.
United Lodge of Theosophists
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.

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If you want to have access to a daily study of the original teachings of Theosophy, write to lutbr@terra.com.br and ask for information on the e-group E-Theosophy.

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THE HPB DEFENSE FUND 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:23:00 +0000

A Report On Its Activities Since June 2005

Carlos Cardoso Aveline

“If the ‘false prophets of Theosophy’ are to be left

untouched, the true prophets will be very soon - as

they have already been - confused with the false. It is

nigh time to winnow our corn and cast away the chaff.”

Helena P. Blavatsky

“It is the duty of esoteric students to unmask error and hypocrisy;

to face lie with truth; not as personal criticisms but as facts against

mis-statements.(…) The custodians of Truth voice it in the face of lie,

ignorance and error (…). Theosophy is in the world for that purpose.”

Robert Crosbie

It was in December 2003 that John Algeo and the USA/TPH published “The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky, Volume I, 1861-1879”. The book had 634 pages and was presented as part of the Collected Writings of H.P. Blavatsky.

I received a copy of it by the end of April 2004 and saw in its pages many of the worst libels invented against HPB by Vsevolod Soloviof and others.

In the following months I sent some 38 air mail letters stating the facts to theosophical students and leaders around the world.

Among those who answered to the document were Ms. Radha Burnier, Mr. John Algeo, Ms. Dara Eklund and Ms. Joy Mills. Ms. Radha wrote that the letters in question were “obviously spurious”. Ms. Dara Eklund’s position was less clear. Joy Mills and John Algeo avoided admitting the facts. None of them thought it was necessary to do something to stop the circulation of falsehoods against the honor and the character of the founder of the movement.

José Ramón Sordo, from Mexico, and the Fohat magazine, from Canada, were among the first to act. Fohat published an updated version of my circular letter under the title of “Defending the Old Lady”.

In March 2005, Jerome Wheeler, then editor of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, asked my permission to publish the text “Defending the Old lady”.

From then on, both “Fohat” and “The Aquarian” were in the frontline of HPB’s defense. The two magazines published a number of articles on this topic, as well as on the future of the theosophical movement and related issues. “Theosophy” magazine, from Los Angeles[1], and “Sunrise” magazine, from Pasadena[2], published short notes on the efforts being developed.

After consulting with us, in June 2005 Jerome Wheeler and “The Aquarian Theosophist” announced the creation of the “HPB Defense Fund”. Every month the magazine reported on the Fund’s progress in the pages of “The Aquarian”. The stated goal was to counteract the fraudulent volume published by John Algeo. Canadian magazine Fohat, edited by the Edmonton Theosophical Society, gave full support to the Fund. From the United States, Mr. Dallas TenBroeck supported the project and made valuable suggestions.

A number of donors emerged from around the world, including India. In May 2006 “The Aquarian Theosophist” announced that the money aimed at – some 10,000 US dollars - was already available and complete in a bank account in Los Angeles. Donations should therefore stop.

There was bad news by the end of 2006, when Mr. Wheeler left the coordination of the project due to health problems. Some time after that, the money of the Fund was transferred, as requested by Wheeler, to an account controlled by The Theosophy Co., Los Angeles. Since then the Theosophy Co. has made it clear that it is not concerned with the destination and use of the money. Its sole purpose is safekeeping it, upon request of “The Aquarian Theosophist”.

For three years, in 2007, 2008 and 2009, a small group of friends exchanged ideas as how to proceed with the work. Among them, Will Windham, the new editor of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, two or three ULT associates in the USA, and myself. Dialogues were useful and provided insights. We took our time to think matters over.

In December 2009, after consultations, I felt it was time that someone took a more practical decision. I announced that from January 2010 I would act, on a voluntary basis, as the editor of the HPB Defense Project. There was no opposition in the group: by then we were entering the seventh year since the publication of the libels by John Algeo and the TPH/USA. Portuguese donors, responsible for almost 25% of the Fund’s donations, had been asking for some time for a public statement about the future book.

Since the second semester of 2009, I gradually invited more people to the group of those who accompany the effort. It was important to have other students sharing the process, at least as “friendly witnesses”. As a result, in February 2011 the small group included friends from Canada, Brazil, Portugal, USA, UK, Mexico and Sweden.

The Portuguese-Brazilian ULT Lodge - registered in Los Angeles in November 2009 - decided to support the project and started expanding its English-language work. We felt it was not only a question of having a paper book published. More importantly, it was a question of developing a living and active relationship with the reading public. We saw we had to make a self-devised effort that could grow as living organisms do. We should start publishing the book independently from money, and online.

In 2011, the Portuguese-Brazilian ULT has three websites with texts in English: www.TheosophyOnline.com, www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com . The number of their readers is significant and has been growing.

Some 70 to 90 per cent of the future book are published online. The material can be found under sections “Truth and Falsehood in the Theosophical Literature” and “The Letters of Helena P. Blavatsky As Edited by W.Q. Judge”, in our websites. A few texts of the future book are already published in other sections. Several texts are ready but not published. Others still require a considerable amount of research.

Portuguese theosophist José Manuel Anacleto felt in December 2010 that time enough had passed and something should be done to offer the public a paper book with the texts already published. He asked the money of Portuguese donations to be returned, so that the possibility of a small edition in paper could be considered from Lisbon. The Theosophy Company immediately said it would give the money back.

On February the 2^nd, 2011, a formal decision was announced by Portuguese donors to support the present online effort and to use their donations to make a small paper edition. In their message to the “HPB Letters Group”, the Portuguese friends declare that the editorial line of the material already published is in harmony with the policy announced by Jerome Wheeler in 2005. They add that it was for just such a project that the money was donated.

The presence of the 2,400 US dollars in the donors’ bank account in Lisbon was confirmed on February 9^th, 2011.

With that money available and the clear support from Portuguese donors, the editorial effort could then be more clearly focused in the direction of a book in paper.

The intention is to prepare a small first edition, probably with numbered copies. The approximate date is 2013 - perhaps before.

By publishing the present report in February 2011, the project gets once more in contact with the wider public. In this, we act in strict accordance with the policy announced and developed by “The Aquarian Theosophist” in 2005 and 2006. We believe it is likely that in the end - and hopefully sooner than later - the present editors of “The Aquarian Theosophist” will give full support to the on-going effort. Regardless of that, the editors of www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com, www.TheosophyOnline.com and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com have much more views in common with “The Aquarian” than not.

We are prepared to live diversity in unity. We have respect and admiration for the work of present editors of “The Aquarian”, with whom we cooperate in a number of issues, including several of the tasks related to the HPB Letters Project.

True, there has been a difference of viewpoints as to the question of how best to defend the theosophical movement against the action of those who commit fraud and circulate slanders while presenting themselves as theosophists. We are confident that such a difference of views will disappear with the natural flow of events. While we make progress towards that point in time, we know that such a difference will continue to be mutually accepted as a source of lessons on the universal principle of unity in diversity.

We must take into consideration that not everyone has the duty to remember these words by H.P. Blavatsky:

“If the ‘false prophets of Theosophy’ are to be left untouched, the true prophets will be very soon - as they have already been - confused with the false. It is nigh time to winnow our corn and cast away the chaff.” [3]

Not everyone has to pay attention to the fact that Mr. Robert Crosbie wrote:

“It is the duty of esoteric students to unmask error and hypocrisy; to face lie with truth; not as personal criticisms but as facts against mis-statements. (…) The custodians of Truth voice it in the face of lie, ignorance and error (…). Theosophy is in the world for that purpose.” [4]

One thing is not too difficult to see, though. Preserving respect for the truth about H.P. Blavatsky, especially within theosophical circles, is not an irrelevant issue for it relates to the very center of the magnetic aura of the theosophical movement as a whole. It constitutes therefore a decisive factor as to the future Karma and Dharma of the movement.

March 2011.

While diversity and contrast strengthen the theosophical movement, by the end of February differences of opinion as to how to make decisions were rapidly disappearing, as a member of the Board of the Theosophy Company clarified that the money belonging to the HPB Fund is available in Los Angeles and can be used for the book to be published in paper. A message with this clarification was shared March 1st in the “HPB Letters Group” and at the “E-Theosophy” Yahoo e-group. The fact makes it easier to have the volume published by 2013 or before.

Any new developments will be added to the present report as they occur.

Volunteer workers for the HPB project are welcome: there are a number of tasks to be done in several fronts - both present and future.

Commentaries to this Report are welcome any time. Those who want to make suggestions or take part in the HPB Defense Projectshould write to lutbr@terra.com.br .

June 2012.

The world scenario of the theosophical movement changed for the better in the second semester of 2011. A clear political victory occurred of those sectors within the Adyar Theosophical Society which show respect for Helena Blavatsky, and which are of course more directly linked to the international President, Mrs. Radha Burnier.

It seems the radical party of pseudo-scholar skeptics which circulates slanders against H.P.B., and which was involved in one way or another in the attacks against Mrs. Radha Burnier in the 2007-2010 period has been defeated for the time being. Such an improvement happened in the United States, too. This and other factors in the renewed scenario seem to create real opportunities for a deeper re-awakening in the movement towards an effective fulfillment of its 21^st century duties regarding humanity.

As to HPH Defense Fund, in February 2012 Will Windham, the London, UK, theosophist who served as the main editor of “The Aquarian Theosophist” since 2006, invited the editors of www.TheosophyOnline.com, www.Esoteric-Philosophy.comand www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com to take over the responsibilities of editing and publishing the electronic journal. The first edition produced by the new editors appeared in March 2012. The complete collection of “The Aquarian Theosophical” can be found at www.TheosophyOnline.com, and the link to new blog of the publication is www.TheAquarianTheosophist.com.

From March 2012 on, the editing of “The Aquarian Theosophist” and the coordination of the HPB Defense Project and Fund are therefore once more in the same hands. The book or books on HPB Letters should appear some time between November 2012 and December 2013.

The greater part of financial resources originally belonging to the HPB Defense Fund, and raised by “The Aquarian”, are still in a Los Angeles bank under the care of the Theosophy Company.

In June 2012 it finally became clear that these resources will not be used for the original purpose of publishing a book in defense of H. P. Blavatsky.

In order to know the exact amount of that money and its destination, the donors and those interested should write to the Theosophy Company, Los Angeles, whose e-mail is theosco@sbcglobal.net .

As stated above, the other part of the resources - some 2,400 U.S. dollars - has been duly returned to its Portuguese donors. This was done in February 2011 by Theosophy Company, Los Angeles, upon request of the Portuguese donors, that is, “Biosofia” magazine, Lisbon.

“Biosofia” editors work in cooperation with the present coordinators of the HPB Defense Project and editors of “The Aquarian Theosophist”.

NOTES:

[1] “Theosophy” magazine, November / December 2005, p. 32. The note is entitled “Questionable Letters and the Blavatsky Defense Fund”.

[2] “Sunrise” magazine, edited by the Pasadena Theosophical Society, February / March 2005 edition, p. 82.

[3] “On Pseudo-Theosophy”, an 1889 text included in “Theosophical Articles”, Helena P. Blavatsky, Theosophy Company, Los Angeles, 1981, volume I, p. 161-175. See p. 163.

[4] “The Friendly Philosopher”, by Robert Crosbie, Theosophy Company, Los Angeles, 1945, 416 pp.; see p. 181.

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Always visit www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com , www.TheosophyOnline.com and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com .

If you want to have access to a daily study of the original teachings of Theosophy, write to lutbr@terra.com.br and ask for information on the e-group E-THEOSOPHY.

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EASTER: A TIME OF RE-AWAKENING

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 15:10:00 +0000

The Secret Doctrine for the 21st Century

Steven H. Levy, M.D.

Sun God images from Hindu (left) Christian (center) and Ancient Roman traditions

Easter is the time of resurrection of all nature in the spring of Northern Hemisphere. For Christians it is a time to reverently celebrate the resurrection of their savior. The earliest depictions of Christ show him with a solar orb radiating above his head, identifying him as a sun god. It is natural for Christians to identify the resurrection of their savior with the sun which seems to awaken in the spring in all its glory after the “death” of winter, in the northern region of the globe. [1]

In the Vishnu Purana, Book 1, the Hindu savior is reverently invoked:

“Glory to the unchangeable, holy, eternal Supreme Vishnu, of one universal nature, the mighty over all;…to Vishnu the cause of final emancipation, the cause of creation, existence, the end of the world; who the root of the world, and who consists of the world.”

The Hindus also associate their savior with the sun and declare that the sun is of a sevenfold nature. It is written in the Vishnu Purana, Book ll., Chap. II:

“Vishnu in the form of Solar active energy, neither ever rises nor sets, and is at once, the sevenfold Sun and distinct from it.” [2]

In the “Summing Up” section of “The Secret Doctrine” an extract from a private commentary, previously secret, discloses some of the real Hindu ideas on the nature of the sun, which are said to be esoteric.

As the matter of our Solar System is septenary and graduated into seven degrees of density, the Sun, the central star of our system, is also sevenfold in nature. However, as the universe is sevenfold, it should be understood that all central stars of solar systems, are sevenfold. The objective physical sun that we see is composed in its substance of the lowest state of matter of our system. Therefore, it is a reflection of the “real sun”, the universal Presence which is the first manifestation of the ever unmanifested One Absolute All. The substance of the real concealed sun is the seventh and highest of our system. It is the germ, egg or nucleus of undifferentiated primordial substance which is the heart of all the existing forces in our solar system. As the heart pumps and circulates blood throughout the body, the sevenfold forces of nature proceed from the solar heart and spread throughout the entire sevenfold solar system, only to return to the concealed sun on the highest plane.

According to the Esoteric Philosophy, the real hidden sun is the Christos principle within the “inner man” or concealed immortal Ego. It is possible for every human being to find the light of his inner higher self which becomes the creator and preserver of immortal life in spirit, as well as the destroyer of illusion and regenerator of true spiritual knowledge in the mind. Vishnu, the real hidden sun, that can never be seen, is the savior within, the “cause of final emancipation” and “liberator” of his devotees.

At Easter time we are reminded that the power and wisdom inherent to the One Self in each and all, is potentially available to every human being regardless of their race, creed, sex or condition. This special time in the yearly cycle also serves to remind us that, like the sun, every Theosophist can be a center in their little solar system from which proceeds spiritual influence and wisdom for the benefit of all.

NOTES:

[1] Life is symmetrical. In the Southern Hemisphere, the springtime brought by Easter must be inner and occult, just as every outer springtime brings with it the promise of a autumn, and winter contains the seeds of summer, and summer those of winter. (Note by the editors of www.TheosophyOnline.com)

[2] “The Secret Doctrine, Helena P. Blavatsky, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, 1982, Vol. I, p. 290 fn.

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Steven H. Levy is an Associate of the United Lodge of Theosophists, ULT, in the

United States

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A SHORT POEM TO RADHA BURNIER

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 22:01:00 +0000

A Simple and Sincere

Request of Justice to William Judge

Will Windham

William Judge (1851 - 1896) and Radha Burnier

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Since April 2006, theosophists from several

countries send yearly open letters to the President

of the Adyar Society suggesting that the 1894-1895

“Case” against William Judge should be reopened and

his innocence acknowledged. Judge was then accused

by Annie Besant of forging messages from Mahatmas.

Although unfair, the accusation was politically efficient

and it provoked the first formal division in the modern

theosophical movement. In the following letter, the

ex-editor of “The Aquarian Theosophist” innovates by

sending his request to India in the form of a poem.

(The Editors of www.TheosophyOnline.com )

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Mrs. Radha Burnier

International President,

The Theosophical Society,

Adyar, Chennai 600 020, India

21^stMarch 2012.

Dear Mrs. Burnier

In sending you this short request, we wish it resounds in your heart and strengthens your fairness.

“We, who are students of the theosophical life,

studying together in unity yet diverse, but n’ere in strife,

we respectfully stand together to send you this token,

to which we sign our name to repair another’s broken.

From the deep well of our respect that calls us to his behest,

we act for him through this simple request

in asking for your kindness, charity and justice for Will’m Judge.”

In sincerity and fraternity,

Will Windham

The Garden Flat

31 Marylands Road

London W9 2DU, UK.

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BESANT ANNOUNCES SHE IS AN ADEPT

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:34:00 +0000

In 1925, Various Adyar Leaders Come to

The Conclusion That They Are Now Mahatmas

Mary Lutyens

Mrs. Annie Besant (photo) was naïve enough to

think and announce that she had attained Adepthood

A 2012 Editorial Note:

In 1894-95, Mrs. Annie Besant obtained a significant amount of political power over the Adyar Theosophical Society. Although she was comparatively new to the movement, she achieved it by accusing one of the its main founders, William Q. Judge, of forging messages from the Mahatmas.

At the same time as she accused Judge, though, Mrs. Besant was herself taking part in mediumnistic talks with false Masters from June 1894, during meetings presided by Mr. Alfred Sinnett. Mr. Sinnett was proud to state the fact in writing, and he has never been contradicted.[1] Instead, he was nominated by Mrs. Besant and elected as international Vice-President of the Adyar Society.

In her mediumnistic activities, Mrs. Besant was accompanied by Mr. C. W. Leadbeater. It should be also taken into consideration that Mr. Leadbeater was not a member of H.P. Blavatsky’s Esoteric Schoolas long as H.P.B. lived. He had ceased to be a disciple before the creation of the E.S. in 1888. During the late 1880s and early 1890s, Mr. Leadbeater was a leading member of that mediumnistic “inner group” of the London Lodge which worked under the direction of Alfred Sinnett. By then Sinnett already followed a line directly opposed to the work of Helena Blavatsky.

It was in that environment that Mrs. Annie Besant sought for inspiration after H.P.B.’s death in 1891. There she developed her “psychic powers” and started to talk to various false Adepts. When the last living Founder of the movement - Henry Olcott - died in 1907, Mrs. Annie Besant was finally free to accelerate her talks to imaginary Adepts.

Karma is not always slow in its ripening. A few years after accusing Mr. Judge of “forging false contacts”, Mrs. Besant started organizing a Catholic Church, adopted various neomasonic rituals, and announced the immediate Return of the Christ. She also had personal talks with the Manu of the present humanity, and to the “King of the World”.

In the opening paragraph of her 18 pp. “Adyar Pamphlet” No. 135, published in Indiain 1930 under the title of “The Work of the Ruler and the Teacher”, she writes:

“When first the charge to work for the Freedom of India was given to me - in 1909, by the King at Shamballa (..…)”. (p. 1) This was a reference to her “King of the World”. At p. 2 of the same pamphlet, she refers to the personal contacts she had had with the Rishi Agastya since 1913.

Statements like these are but a tip of the iceberg. Five years earlier, in 1925, Mrs. Besant had announced she was herself an Adept or Mahatma, along with other Adyar leaders. This episode and its context are narrated in the following text by Ms. Mary Lutyens, the official biographer of Mr. Jiddu Krishnamurti.

It was not enough for Mrs. Besant to have talks with imagined Adepts; she wanted to think she was One of Them herself. Krishnamurti was supposed to play the role of “Mr. Christ” as ascribed to him by Besant and Leadbeater. After much hesitation, he refused to do so from 1929 on. In the following paragraphs by Ms. Lutyens, the expression “The Lord” is a reference the “returned Christ” created by Mrs. Besant and who Krishnamurti was still making an effort in 1925 to impersonate before the public.

The text is reproduced from Mary Lutyens’ book “The Life and Death of Krishnamurti”, published by Krishnamurti Foundation India, at Chennai, first edition 1990, 232 pp., Chapter 7, pp. 54-56. Ms. Lutyens refers to Krishnamurti with the word “Krishna”. In the transcription below, we use his full name. We add a few explanatory notes.

(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)

NOTE:

[1] See for instance the volume “Autobiography”, by Alfred P. Sinnett, Theosophical History Centre, London, 1986, 64 pp., p. 48.

Besant Announces She Is An Adept

[A Fragment from the book “The Life and Death of Krishnamurti”]

Mary Lutyens

Parcels of land had been given to Krishnamurti for his work in many parts of

Australia

, and a great white stone amphitheatre had just been built on a glorious site on the edge of the harbour at Balmoral, close to The Manor, where it was expected the Lord would speak when he came. This and the land were held by different trusts at Krishnamurti’s request.

By June the specialist considered Nitya [1] well enough to travel. When the brothers sailed for San Franciscoon 24 June [1925], with Rosalind and a Theosophical Swedish doctor, I felt that the light had gone out of my life forever. My mother [2], who had supposedly passed her first initiation in Sidney, had already returned to England, leaving Helen, Ruth, Betty and me at The Manor.

It was a fearful voyage as Nitya grew weaker and weaker. Towards the end of it Krishnamurti wrote to Mrs. Besant: “We will pull through and Nitya will be well once again. It has been and is a most anxious time, my own beloved mother, but you and the Masters and there.” After only a fortnight at Ojai of daily Abrams’ treatment, Nitya’s condition had improved. The remission was short-lived, however, and for the next three months all Krishnamurti’s energies were taken up in nursing him as he became too ill to get out of bed at all. Krishnamurti would have despaired if he had not been assured by both Mrs. Besant and Leadbeater that the Masters would not allow Nitya to die; his life was too valuable.

In the meantime Mrs. Besant had gone to England with Shiva Rao to give lectures at the Queen’s Hall. George Arundale, who had been on a world tour with his wife, Rukmini, was staying at a Theosophical community at Huizen in Holland, not far from Castle Eerde, run by a Theosophical bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church, James Ingall Wedgwood. A young Norwegian called Oscar Kollerstrom, a former pupil of Leadbeater in Sidneyand a priest in the Liberal Catholic Church, was also at Huizen.

Arundale telegraphed to Mrs. Besant in London to say that amazing things were taking place: Oscar had just taken his third initiation, Wedgwood his second and Rukmini her first; kundalinihad just been awoken in Wedgwood and Rukmini. (Arundale was already a second initiate and he and Oscar both claimed clairvoyance.) After another exciting telegram, Mrs. Besant cancelled her Queen’s Hall lectures and went to Huizen, accompanied by Esther Bright, Lady Emily, Shiva Rao and Rajagopal.

Two days after Mrs. Besant arrived, on 26 July, Arundale was ordained a priest, Miss Bright, Lady Emily and Rajagopal were said to have taken their second initiation, and on the night of 1 August, Arundale and Wedgwood took their third initiation and Rukmini her second. On the 4th, Arundale was consecrated a bishop. Leadbeater’s consent for this step had been requested by cable; when no reply came, Arundale asserted that he had received Leadbeater’s “cordial consent” on the astral plane. When they returned from the ceremony Mrs. Besant found a cable from Leadbeater strongly disapproving of the step. None of the Huizen steps was ever confirmed by Leadbeater.

Arundale kept on “bringing through” instructions from the Masters; no initiate was to share a room with a non-initiate; silk underwear must be worn by all Liberal Catholic priests (this was very hard on the poor ones, Lady Emily noted); copes were to be carefully chosen but no hats worn (for the first time Miss Dodge struck when she was asked to buy gorgeous vestments for the bishops); Mrs. Besant, Wedgwood and the Arundales were to give up eating eggs in any form. (According to Lady Emily, Mrs. Besant was the only one who adhered to this instruction, with the consequence that she was half starved from then onwards.)

On the night of 7 August, Krishnamurti (at Ojai), Jinarajadasa in India [3], Arundale and Wedgwood were said by Arundale to have taken their fourth or Arhat initiation, and two nights later Arundale “brought through” the names of ten of what he said were to be the Lord’s twelve apostles. These were Mrs. Besant, Leadbeater, Jinarajadasa, Arundale, Wedgwood, Rukmini, Nitya, Lady Emily, Rajagopal and Oscar Kollerstrom. Krishnamurti had not been consulted but it was taken for granted that he would know all about it on the astral plane.

In the June issue of the Herald [4] Arundale had announced that Krishnamurti would not be able to attend the Ommen camp that year because of Nitya’s health but that Mrs. Besant and he would be there and he hoped that everyone would consider it a special duty to attend. There were few cancellations, therefore, and on 10 August the Huizen party moved to Ommen where the camp and Congress were opened that afternoon (Mrs. Besant stayed in the Castle).

At a talk next day Mrs. Besant announced publicly that the Lord had already chosen his apostles but that she was only allowed to give out the names of seven of them, those who had already become Arhats - herself and Leadbeater, Jinarajadasa, Arundale, Krishnamurti, Oscar Kollerstrom and Rukmini who, she was assured, was to become Arhat in a few days’ time. It was not until it was pointed out to her afterwards that she realized she had left out Wedgwood and named Krishnamurti as one of his own apostles.

She rectified these mistakes in another public talk on the 14th. The camp broke up that day and the Huizen party returned there. Arundale kept saying excitedly, “I know something else has happened but it seems impossible.” The next morning Mrs. Besant called Esther Bright, Lady Emily, Rukmini and Shiva Rao into her room and shyly told them she, Leadbeater, Krishnamurti, Jinarajadasa, Arundale, Wedgwood and Oscar had all taken their fifth and final initiation on the night of the 13th, but it was to make no difference to the way they were to be treated.

Lady Emily had been caught up in the hysteria of that time at Huizen and had written enthusiastically to Krishnamurti about it. He cabled back, asking whether Leadbeater had confirmed all these happenings. She cabled in reply that Mrs. Besant herself was making the announcements, adding “Put your faith in her”.

When Lady Emily returned to London she found a very unhappy letter from Krishnamurti full of scepticism. She destroyed, at his request, all his letters to her during this crazy period; he feared they might fall into other hands and hurt Mrs. Besant who was writing to him begging him to confirm all that Arundale had “brought through”. Not wanting to wound her, he merely replied that he had been far too busy looking after Nitya to be conscious of any of it. [5]

NOTES:

[1] Nitya: Krishnamurti’s brother, who was ill and who would soon die in spite of false Masters saying they would cure him.

[2] Lady Emily Lutyens.

[3] Jinarajadasa. In her book, Mary Lutyens uses the abbreviated form “Raja” to refer to C. Jinarajadasa.

[4] “The Herald of the Star”, the magazine especially created for the theosophical “Christ”, or “the Lord”.

[5] In order to go on trying to play the social role of Christ, it was of course not convenient for Jiddu Krishnamurti to tell the public the truth about the false initiations ascribed to himself and others.

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HELENA ANDREEVNA HAHN

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 15:59:00 +0000

The Mother of Helena P. Blavatsky

Was a Russian Writer and a Pioneer Thinker

Lydia

Bobritsky (comp.)

Helena Andreevna Hahn (1814-1843)

“The man with a higher intellect is

intolerable enough to this world, but the

position of a woman, who has been placed by

Nature itself above the crowd is verily desperate.”

(Helena Andreevna Hahn)

A 2012 Editorial Note:

Life could be quick in the 19^th century.

Helena Andreevna Fadeev was born 11 January 1814. At 16, she got married to Captain Peter Hahn. She was only 17 years old when her daughter Helena Petrovna, later Helena Blavatsky, was born in 1831.

With little more than 20 years of age, Helena Andreevna Hahn was considered the leading female writer of prose fiction in Russia. [1] Celebrated critics as A. Belinsky dedicated articles on her. Then, at 28, she died on June 24, 1843.

Belinsky wrote this epitaph to her:

“Peace be unto your ashes, extraordinary woman, victim of the rich talents of your own lofty nature! ….. We thank you for your short life. Not in vain did it bloom like a luxurious, fragrant flower of profound feelings and lofty thoughts. Your soul is in this flower and there will be no death for it!” [2]

In her novels and short stories, Helena Andreevna wrote about the organized selfishness of society.

She said:

“Every outstanding woman, especially a writer, will be persecuted by the world … Her gifts of intellect, her talents all are in vain before the crowd; she will be like a criminal rejected by society.” [3] Helena Petrovna would soon challenge the world in a similar way as her mother did, and would experience the meaning of those sad words; for such were the conditions in the 19^th century.

We reproduce in PDF the article “Helena Andreevna Hahn” from the magazine “The Theosophical Forum”, August 1948 edition pp. 449-457. The text was translated and compiled by Lydia Bobritsky from the Preface to the “Complete Works of Elena A. Hahn”, published in 1905.

(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)

Click Here to Read “Helena Andreevna Hahn” in PDF

NOTES:

[1] “Dictionary of Russian Women Writers”, available online.

[2] “HPB – The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky, Founder of the Modern Theosophical Movement”, Sylvia Cranston, published by Jeremy Tarcher / G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New Work, USA, 1993, 648 pp., p. 23.

[3] “HPB – The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky, Founder of the Modern Theosophical Movement”, Sylvia Cranston, p. 24.

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THE LONELY DISCIPLE

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:57:00 +0000

Monograph on T. Subba Row, 1856-1890

N. C. Ramanujachary

Mr. T. Subba Row

Introduction to the 2012 Online Edition

T. Subba Row (1856-90) was an earlier member of the Theosophical Society. He was greatly impressed by the work of Madame Blavatsky’s “Isis Unveiled”, and entered into correspondence with her. His article “The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac” was written and published in the monthly journal “The Theosophist”, well before he formally joined as a member. He was instrumental for the visit of the Founders to Madras (now Chennai) and the formulation of the Society’s policies later on.

Having traced his Life and Work in a span of few years (1881-90) in two slim volumes, viz. “A Lonely Disciple” and “An Enduring Philosopher”, I am now working on his Ten Letters to his associates and am also attempting to abridge his “Lectures on Bhagavad-Gita”, which hopefully will be ready during the current year. His writings and philosophy need a close, insightful look.

It is rejoicing news that www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com, www.Theosophyonline.com and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com are placing the book “A Lonely Disciple” on digital mode, so that the contents are accessible to all interested in the history of the early days of the Movement and the pristine character of its philosophy. The “Forgotten pages” need revival and our continued attention.

Dr. N. C. Ramanujachary

Adyar, Chennai, 25 March 2012.

Click Here to Read the book “The Lonely Disciple” in PDF

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Dr N. C. Ramanujachary is currently the Joint General Secretary & Director of Studies for the Indian Section of the (Adyar) Theosophical Society. A member of the T.S. since 1958, his particular areas of study are H. P. Blavatsky, T. Subba Row and J. Krishnamurti. His doctoral thesis is on “Nine-fold Relationship between Humanity and Divinity, according to Madame Blavatsky and Sri Pilla Lokacharya (A Visishtadwaita exponent)”. He wrote a series of seven books under the caption “Theosophy: Approach Books”.

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THE MAIN OBJECT OF OUR LOYALTY

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 22:36:00 +0000

Examining a Shakespearean Struggle

In the Soul of the Theosophical Movement

Carlos Cardoso Aveline

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

During the practice of self-observation, it is often useful to examine the quality of our strongest loyalties.

For loyalty is made of affinity, and one naturally tends to be loyal to that with which, or those with whom, one identifies oneself.

Are we, by any chance, loyal above all to outer shells and personalities? To passing, selfish desires? Or perhaps to bureaucratic, ritualistic structures? And how do we handle the conflicts between different orders of loyalty and commitment in our lives?

These are not easy questions to answer, and the evolution of the theosophical movement faithfully reflects the contradictions of human soul. Its inner history reads like a play by William Shakespeare. Both loyalty and treason are easy to find in it.

Understanding the struggle between these two trends leads one to a transcendental view of human life and of the drama of the soul divided between Spirit and Matter. The fruits of such a constant “conflict” are directly related to the state of one’s own Antahkarana; the bridge or the Jacob’s ladder between spiritual “celestial” soul and the lower “terrestrial” principles of consciousness.

When one looks deeply enough at the question of loyalty versus treason in the esoteric movement - as in any nonprofit organization -, one sees that perhaps the main conflict can be better described, not as a choice between loyalty and its opposite, but as a choice between loyalty to that which is elevated and loyalty to that which belongs to the lower levels of Nature.

For facts show that even a “dishonest” people is usually most “loyal” to his own dreams of apparent greatness , or to his pet-fancies of personal happiness ; he is disloyal to nobler feelings, out of loyaltyto the lower ones.

The main question to ask ourselves is, then, not so much whether we are loyal people. Everybody is more or less loyal to something, since everyone follows his or her own affinities. Instead the key question to be asked is probably:

“To what, and to whom, are we truly loyal in our hearts?”

And also:

“Are we honest with ourselves, with our higher souls and the principles of universal truth and ethics?”

In his play “Hamlet”, Shakespeare wrote these axiomatic lines:

“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” [1]

As to loyalty to impersonal principles, a Master of the Wisdom wrote in 1884:

“However little we might care for personal subserviency to us, the accepted leaders of the Founders of the Parent Theosophical Society, we can never approve or tolerate disloyalty in any member of whatsoever Branch to the fundamental principles represented by the Parent Organization. The rules of the mother-body must be lived up to by those composing its Branches; provided of course, that they do not transcend the three declared objects of the organization.” [2]

The original organization of the movement ceased to exist soon after H. P. Blavatsky’s death in 1891.

The various Theosophical Societies radically changed their rules, while the United Lodge of Theosophists has no formal structure whatsoever - except a commitment to original theosophy. The movement survived with a considerable amount of outer diversity. On the other hand, the “fundamental principles” are precisely identical in the 21st century as they were in 1884.

Universals do not change with the passing of millennia. Nor does loyalty to the principles of truth: it passes from one incarnation to another. Honesty towards one’s own conscience and respect for universal principles keep the theosophical movement alive and make humanity go ahead in its evolutionary journey.

This, of course, transcends personal attachment to courtesy rules, rituals, social position and other aspects of material life.

NOTES:

[1] Polonius says so to his son Laertes in Act I, Scene III.

[2] “The Mahatma Letters”, TUP, Pasadena, California, USA, Letter LXXXVII, p. 408.

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Date of publication, March 2012.

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THE 2007-2008 EVENTS IN ADYAR

noreply@blogger.com (Joaquim Soares) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:37:00 +0000

A Timeline of the Facts, and

An Open Letter to John Algeo

Pedro R. M. de Oliveira

Pedro Oliveira and Radha Burnier

A 2012 Editorial Note:

The strange idea that one does not have to learn from one’s own mistakes, individual and collective, and that the past does not need to be accepted as a source of lessons, is one of the naïve illusions unnecessarily adopted as true in some theosophical circles.

From this mistaken notion results a denial of past events.

Then the wrong ideas emerge that the past is not inevitably linked to the future, and that the Karma Law and the Law of Cycles can be completely ignored in theosophy, especially when they are uncomfortable and not helpful to our own short-term political career. One then makes an effort to erase one’s responsibility for past and future facts, and often for present events as well.

In reality, though, life is not about making rituals. It is not about short-term politics, either. Life is about learning, and that includes respect for facts. Learning is a historical process. History is the record of collective karma. Trying to erase past events does not help one’s search for truth. It is by learning from them that we make real progress and build a better future.

Mr. Pedro Rogério Moreno de Oliveira is a sincere and lifelong theosophist. He also has an extensive international experience. Born in the Rio Grande do SulState, in Brazil, he served as the international secretary of the Adyar Theosophical Society in the early 1990s, and played a key role in the 2007-2010 institutional crisis in the Adyar Society.

The two texts reproduced below have been public since they were first widely circulated by Pedro himself in 2008. They are important for several reasons: 1) They have been written by someone who is in direct and existential contact with the whole process of Adyar leadership since the 1990s. 2) They are objective texts. They show facts. 3) They reveal an intense and blind search for short-term political power as a goal in itself.

The struggle for power lucidly described by Mr. Oliveira is not a causeless event. It is the karmic result of a historical process in which Adyar abandoned the ethics and the teachings of true theosophy.

The 2007-2010 power struggle went beyond ignoring the concept of brotherhood. It left aside all respect for the life and health of the international president of the Adyar Society, herself. Every human being, in any circumstance, deserves more respect than Mrs. Burnier got from her political opponents between 2007 and 2009. And Mrs. Radha Burnier is a sincere human being, an idealist woman and thinker, and a theosophist worthy of respect and consideration from all. On the other hand, and from a wider perspective, the unjust attacks against her are also a symptom.

It is a fortunate circumstance that in the short term political chessboard, the unethical political campaign against Mrs. Burnier was defeated in the second semester of 2011. Yet the same disrespect practiced against her is still taking place regarding the main founder of the theosophical movement, Helena Blavatsky. Mr. John Algeo, to whom Pedro Oliveira writes his 2008 Open Letter, is the same editor who since 2003 circulates false letters against H. P. Blavatsky. Mr. Algeo’s methods - and the whole context where his “methods” could be adopted - are worthy of consideration.

One must impersonally study even the most disgusting mistakes in the history of the theosophical movement, so that they can be avoided in the future. This helps us get rid of the Causes of disloyalty. In this learning process, one must accept the fact that the theosophical movement is but one. There is no occult “separation” between different associations or societies, for there is no separation in Nature, and the movement cannot be an exception to such a rule.

We all must learn from each other, and different events are connected in various ways. In order for us to fully understand the lack of ethics which sustains the on-going circulation of gross lies against H.P. Blavatsky in the name of a theosophical publishing house, one needs to study, the 2007-2010 political campaign against Radha Burnier.

There is but one short step from slandering the founder of the movement and slandering its present-day leaders. And loyalty is not a “selective” feeling: one who is loyal to his own conscience is inevitably loyal to all.

We hope the Adyar Society as a whole will soon make further progress in learning from historical experience, thus being able to help the movement go ahead from falsehood and pseudo-theosophy, and to fulfill its sacred duty towards humanity. In doing this it will be more inspired than ever by the original teachings and Ethics of theosophy. These, of course, do not belong to the past. They are meant for the future.

Some of the Internet links indicated by Pedro Oliveira in the texts below may be outdated. By the end of March, 2012, as the present material is published, every important document relating to the 2007-2008 events is available at the website http://teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/Elections_2008.htm, including the two following texts.

(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)

1. Timeline of TS (Adyar) Presidential Election

[Originally published by Pedro Oliveira in Yahoo E-Groups in 28 April 2008, and available in March 2012 from http://teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/Elections_2008.htm . ]

11 November 2006 – Radha Burnier, President of the Theosophical Society, suffers a mild stroke at her residence in Adyar. She herself telephoned her doctor who recommended rest.

26 December 2006 – Radha Burnier declares the 131st International Convention at Adyar open. The Presidential Address is delivered in part by the Vice-President, Dr John Algeo, and by the International Secretary, Mary Anderson. Mrs. Burnier attended a number of Convention events.

27 February 2007 – The Vice-President, Dr John Algeo, issues an electronic newsletter entitled MESSAGE FROM THE VICE-PRESIDENT, which was sent out to all General Secretaries, Presidential Representatives, Organising Secretaries of the TS world wide, plus a number of individual members. He commented on the President’s condition:

“As you have doubtless heard, the President had a light stroke in November. It did not affect her body or her mind except for a slight and temporary memory loss with respect to names. Her doctor predicts a full recovery, which will take several months. At present she is progressing nicely and doing very well. She attended all the major meetings during Convention, although she let others do some of the speaking and presiding that she normally does. She has taken a short time off (which she well deserves) to recuperate, free from the demands on her at headquarters, but she is now back at Adyar and attending to business. While I was at Adyar in December and January, I had extensive discussions with her about Theosophical business around the world, and she is on top of all the facts and her judgment is as sharp as ever. The outlook is very favorable for a full recovery. The Adyar staff responded in exemplary fashion during convention, and all went very well indeed.”

1 to 18 July 2007 – Having recovered from the mild stroke, Mrs. Burnier undertook an European tour, visiting and lecturing in several countries, including Slovenia, Hungary and Finland. In this last country she, together with Ven. Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, Prime-Minister of the Tibetan Governement in Exile, were the guests of honour at the triennial European Congress of the TS, which included the Centennial Celebration of the Finnish Section.

19 December 2007 – Elvira Carbonell, then assistant to the International Secretary, Mary Anderson, sends out an email letter to members of the General Council, the day after official Nomination papers were issued by the International Secretary by ordinary mail. Among other things the letter says:

“Since there has been uncertainty about the state of our President’s health and our Vice-President’s willingness and ability to accept nominations for the upcoming Presidential election, several of us at Adyar feel the need to write to the members of the General Council to share the following information.”

“We have learned that our Vice-President has been asked if he will accept nominations, and have confirmation from him that although he is not eager to run for President, he will do what seems to be in the best interest of the Society when the time comes, and he will accept nominations. We have also received confirmation from him that he feels Adyar has to remain the international Headquarters of the TS, for both practical and symbolical reasons.”

4 March 2008 - Radha Burnier was awarded the Chennaionline Golden Lotus Award 2008 for her lifetime achievements in theosophy at a function in Chennai. Her work inspires “human regeneration, self-knowledge, truth, beauty and goodness,” said Latha Rajendran, secretary and correspondent of Dr. MGR Janaki College of Arts and Science for Women. The function was organised by Chennaionline as part of the International Women’s Day celebrations.

12 March 2008 – Radha Burnier writes a letter, by ordinary mail, in her personal letterhead, to all General Secretaries of the TS, stating her personal views about the nomination process and highlighting the importance of Presidents of the TS to reside at Adyar. The full text of her letter can be seen here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/43516

19 March 2008 – Mrs. Betty Bland, National President of the TS in America, circulates an email message to all General Secretaries, accusing Radha Burnier of blatant electioneering. Among other things she says: “Her memory and clarity are inconsistent, sometimes right on, and sometimes far afield—as is the case for all of us when aging, especially by stroke, takes its toll.” Bland includes in her email message John Algeo’s personal, and multilingual, website. The full text of her letter can be seen here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/43531

20 March 2008 – Miss Tran Thi Kim Dieu, Chairman of the European Federation of the TS, circularizes an email message for wide distribution. Commenting on Radha’s letter, Kim Dieu says, among other things: “What a pity that such a great soul now errs because of the misfunctioning of the brain!”

29 March 2008 – The French TS Board issues a circular letter, signed by Mme. Maxence Ondet, to all TS members in France, which are 387, with several statements about Radha’s health, including: “In November 2006, she had a serious stroke which left her unable to speak for at least a month and deprived her of a large part of her memory. Her recovery was slow and incomplete, especially as far as short term memory and recall of names are concerned. In conversation, she no longer understands anything but short and simple sentences.”

The French letter also said: “The leaders of several Sections in the world present at the Convention at Adyar in December 2007 noticed with sadness and embarrassment the great difficulty with which she delivered her principal Convention address, an address that was wandering and repetitive, and showed a weakened mind or brain damage.”

The full text of the French TS Board letter can be seen here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-l/message/2275

11 April 2008 – Betty Bland issues a personal letter to American TS member before the ballot papers were sent to them. In it she says: “Radha seems to be recovering physically from the stroke she suffered over a year ago, but, given her age, she still has periods of low energy and her memory is inconsistent. While I have deep respect for the wonderful service she has given to the Society and feel she can continue to be useful as a wise elder, it is for the good of the whole that the leadership pass smoothly to John Algeo, who currently serves as the international Vice-president.” She then concludes: “I hope you seriously consider this information when casting your vote.”

According to the official 2007 Annual Report of the TS, published by the International Secretary at Adyar, the American Section of the TS has 4,072 members.

19 April 2008 – The Election Committee at Adyar issues a letter to Mrs. Nano (Jeannine) Leguay, General Secretary, The Theosophical Society in France. Enclosing two medical certificates from Radha’s doctors that attest to her complete recovery from her mild stroke of November 2006 and that she was allowed to drive a car. After pointing out a number of untruths in the French Board letter, the Committee stated: "If the General Council and the Executive Committee of the Society had thought that her mental condition affected the Society's work, they would have said so and considered her candidature a liability. The fact that many Sections agreed to nominate her proves her suitability and not the contrary." The Committee further instructs the French General Secretary to “take immediate action to counteract the impression created in the letter from Maxence Ondet dated 29 March 2008.”

The full text of Radha’s doctors’ certificates can be seen here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/43632

23 April 2008 – John Algeo adds a Hindi web page to his website.

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2. Pedro’s Open Letter to John Algeo

[ Originally published by Pedro R. M. de Oliveira in Yahoo E-Groups in 8 may 2008, and available in March 2012 from http://teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/Elections_2008.htm.]

Dear John,

Is well known that Radha Burnier nominated you for the position of Vice-President of the TS three times: in 2001, 2004 and 2007. Nominating the same person three times for such an important position implies a great deal of trust in the person thus nominated. Even after suffering a stroke in November 2006, and having recovered from it, she still chose to nominate you as the Vice-President of the Society.

I was very relieved, and reassured, when I received the MESSAGE FROM THE VICE-PRESIDENT, which you kindly sent, electronically, on 24 February 2007, to all General Secretaries, Presidential Representatives, Organising Secretaries plus a number of individual members around the world. This information was important not only because it came from our Vice-President but also because you had met with and talked to Radha at Adyar a little more than a month after her stroke. I reproduce the relevant part of your message:

"As you have doubtless heard, the President had a light stroke in November. It did not affect her body or her mind except for a slight and temporary memory loss with respect to names. Her doctor predicts a full recovery, which will take several months. At present she is progressing nicely and doing very well. She attended all the major meetings during Convention, although she let others do some of the speaking and presiding that she normally does. She has taken a short time off (which she well deserves) to recuperate, free from the demands on her at headquarters, but she is now back at Adyar and attending to business. While I was at Adyar in December and January, I had extensive discussions with her about Theosophical business around the world, and she is on top of all the facts and her judgment is as sharp as ever. The outlook is very favorable for a full recovery. The Adyar staff responded in exemplary fashion during convention, and all went very well indeed."

When I arrived at Adyar, last December, something had changed for I soon became aware that some workers there were preparing to send out a letter to the members of the General Council, both about Radha's health as well as informing them that you had agreed to accept nominations for the office of President. Later on I was able to obtain a copy of Elvira Carbonell’s letter to a General Council member. The letter, dated 19 December 2007, clearly indicates that you had accepted to be a candidate even before the official nomination papers had reached the great majority of General Council members residing overseas. As you know, I did protest at Elvira's letter in my own letter to the General Council, saying that it "is a clear attempt to interfere with the constitutional election for President of the TS."

After the nomination phase was over, signs of a wider and active campaign in your favour started to appear. On 29 March 2008, Mme. Maxence Ondet, Secretary to the French TS Board, sent out a letter to all TS members in France. She says, among other things, that Radha, after the stroke, was “unable to speak for at least a month and [it] deprived her of a large part of her memory. Her recovery was slow and incomplete, especially as far as short term memory and recall of names are concerned. In conversation, she no longer understands anything but short and simple sentences.” If we compare Mme. Ondet’s statements to your abovementioned report about Radha’s condition the discrepancies in the French letter become self-evident.

Mme. Ondet went on to say that those present “at the Convention at Adyar in December 2007 noticed with sadness and embarrassment the great difficulty with which she delivered her principal Convention address, an address that was wandering and repetitive, and showed a weakened mind or brain damage.” The same letter states that “she no longer writes speeches; someone does them for her. Since the stroke, the editorials of the international magazine ‘The Adyar Theosophist’ are no longer written by her.”

While at Adyar, last December, I visited Radha almost everyday for a period of almost eighteen days and can therefore attest that the above description of her condition is utterly false. I also saw proofs of an upcoming issue of The Theosophist on the coffee table in her living room. She reads every article that is submitted for publication. As a matter of fact, the table was full of theosophical magazines and books, the same way it was when I used to visit her when I worked at Adyar more than twelve years ago. Although you, Mary Anderson and Surendra Narayan wrote the “On the Watch-Tower” notes in The Theosophist for the first few months last year, Radha resumed writing them in May and we can again see her own style in the magazine which she edits.

The closing paragraph of Mme. Ondet’s letter is even more revealing (italics mine):

“For sure, we loved Radha. We probably still do. And this has perhaps nothing to do with her mental state. Even so, we think that the destiny of the Theosophical Society would be even more shaken if Radha were to take on a fifth term of office. We therefore invite you to reflect seriously before the forthcoming election which will be crucial for the future direction of the Theosophical Society. Most fraternally,”

What is there of fraternal in this most unkind, biased and untruthful communication?

What has shocked, and continues to shock, many of us is that the President of the Theosophical Society is the subject of an immoral and utterly unbrotherly attack by the executive body of a National Society, and yet members world wide have not heard a word from their Vice-President about it. Your continued silence raises many questions: do you object to the immoral attacks at the President which distort, disfigure and blatantly lie about her real condition which you saw at Adyar soon after the stroke and which now has been confirmed by her doctors? Do you consider appropriate, as our Vice-President, for the executive body of a National Society to issue such a letter as Mme. Ondet’s to all its members on the eve of their voting in the international election?

Then we saw Betty Bland’s letter of 11 April 2008 sent to thousands of members of the American Section. In it she says:

“Radha seems to be recovering physically from the stroke she suffered over a year ago, but, given her age, she stills has periods of low energy and her memory is inconsistent. While I have a deep respect for the wonderful service she has given to the Society and feel that she can continue to be useful as a wise elder, it is for the good of the whole that the leadership pass smoothly to John Algeo, who currently serves as the international Vice-president.”

She concludes her letter by encouraging members to see your personal website, which since 23 April 2008 has a Hindi webpage in its “Theosophical” page, and adds: “I hope you seriously consider this information when casting your vote.”

In an election with only two candidates, does not Betty’s letter come across as visible electioneering in your favour? Has she the right to condition or influence the choice of the American members in an election? When some of your supporters say that you are not campaigning, is not Betty's letter an active and widespread campaign on your behalf that hurts the freedom and fairness of the most important election in the TS? I am aware of Radha’s letter to the General Secretaries, which was sent by ordinary mail. She had the right of reply after being misrepresented and placed into disadvantage by Elvira’s letter which was sent a day after the official nomination papers were issued by the International Secretary at Adyar.

Given your continued silence I have no reasons to believe that you will address the questions I have asked you in this letter. But as a member I needed to tell you, personally, that the actions of your supporters have cast a thick cloud over the electoral process as they have violated cherished and time-honoured principles of our Society. And your continued silence is disappointing and disturbing.

Those of us who have followed your serialized studies on The Voice of the Silence, which are being published by Radha in The Theosophist, cannot help but remember one of the poignant verses in that great book: “Sow kindly acts and thou shalt reap their fruition. Inaction in a deed of mercy becomes action in a deadly sin. Thus saith the Sage.” (II, 135)

Radha, as a legitimate successor of Col. Olcott in the office of President, deserves much more respect and courtesy than your supporters have dispensed to her in this election. The Theosophical Society is now poorer because of their actions which have desecrated the institution of the Presidency and what it stands for.

I just could not remain silent.

With sincere sadness,

Pedro

[Pedro Rogério Moreno de Oliveira]

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