July 1964 to September 1964
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Pages 127-128 – The Theosophical Movement – July 1964 (pp. 351-352)
You are dead right many aspire but know not after what. Such there are even among “students” of Theosophy. We do not call ourselves Theosophists but students, but how many who speak of themselves as such are students? Many do not know what or how to study.
Each, one of us has to find himself, teach and educate himself, discipline himself and finally energize himself. Buddhas and Mahatmas can but point the way. Whatever one does, home duties or business or any thing else, can be untheosophical, non-theosophical or theosophical; it is for each student-soul to make it truly spiritual. In this, study plays a highly important part.
It is a natural desire to know about the various religions, but do believe me, this is not necessary, save and except to see the ancient landmarks of the Wisdom-Religion, 18 million years old. It is a vast study and quickly acquired by the piecemeal method through the study of Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine. It is more pressing that you know more about the line of teaching which the textbook of the 20th century reveals.
Every man has some problem or other which he is always anxious to solve. If we can find out what that problem is and give him the light of Theosophy, so that he is able to appreciate the teachings of Theosophy, much good will be achieved. Your method is right. You should draw out people and find out what their thoughts and feelings are and in that way you may be able to bring round the conversation to their own intimate problem.
The problem of contacting the wider public is important, but, in my opinion, what is more pressing is a co-ordination and a better understanding between the few who at present are keeping the Fire burning.
Co-operation in action with a friendly spirit will do wonders for the Cause. Do set an example.
The art of helping others is the most difficult of arts. I see more and more that even when very earnest students forgather in a social way, if they do not watch they all too suddenly slip into action which becomes regrettable.
Try to help the permanent and soul part of people rather than the passing body part and you will be on the right track.
There are many who take from Theosophy all that they can get and do nothing for it in return, but it is their Karma and we must not mind it. All that we can do is to follow the path of duty as we see it and leave others to do their best.
Discipline in you will produce discipline in others. Detachment in you will create respect from others. Learning in you, from a universal point of view, and the ability to show analogies with Nature, will bring application and enthusiasm from others. Self-discipline, justice and generosity will be the natural result of the perception of Law.
About not telling that one is a Theosophist when applying for a job: This subject pertains to the psycho-philosophy of the Esoteric Wisdom-Religion. We have known of good friends who hold the same or a similar viewpoint about holding back their intimate relation to Theosophy and its Great Cause. Such consider their attitude as expressing the wisdom of the serpent. Personally we think that such a policy is weakening to the aspirant’s consciousness and will prove injurious when the employer finds out his employee’s intimacy with Theosophy. Then, not only is the person concerned blamed but also the philosophy. No, we do not want to parade and make an exhibition of our Theosophy, but, on the other hand, we should not be nervous or fearful to be frank and courageous, whenever occasion demands, to state: “I am a student of Theosophy.” Of course, always, in our case, we have to add that we do not mean the Adyar brand of Theosophy and to explain what we stand for — the Three Objects, which may lead to the Three Fundamental Propositions. All this has happened in our experience. Now, it is possible to conjecture that in some special and extraordinary circumstance we may for good reasons wish to hold our tongue; but never to deny our relation to the philosophy and its Movement.
You speak of your attitude towards your colleagues who are not interested in spiritual matters. In this as in other matters it is necessary to adopt an attitude of tolerance. No true Theosophist will ever endeavour to force his ideas upon his fellow brother or to dictate to him what he should believe or disbelieve in. Every man has to prove his own work, as H.P.B. said, and we will never gain our point as Theosophists by looking upon all those who do not agree with us as “silly,” though it is our duty to point out to others holding different views any errors of statement or of fact.
Pages 129-131 – The Theosophical Movement – August 1964 (pp. 392-394)
The heart quality is a rare force. The personality-heart is so active that the Real Heart remains dormant. The curbing of egotism is not practised because so many like to indulge in it. Many are unconscious of the fact that they are rooted in personality, surrounded by its forces. It is an uphill path and human joints and legs arc weak and desire the easy way, and Tamas lets Time conquer the Soul. Knowledge will compel thought and understanding and then feeling will awaken. If it is fast awakening in you, is it not because understanding and discernment came? Of course Karma aided, but you took advantage of Karma. Let us have patience — active patience, and also faith. It is Their Movement and They will reward our enthusiasm, patience and faith. The fire of faith burns bright only when weaknesses, like wood, burn down to ashes. Sandalwood is costly; ordinary wood is found in abundance. In the fire of Knowledge ignorance is consumed and then the fragrance of heart virtue is bound to be inhaled.
One may know the philosophy mentally; one’s knowledge may be wide but not deep. The horizon of the mind is wide and extensive and elastic; but the cave of the heart is deep. The subject of the Guru, the “little guru” of whom Judge speaks, the chain of gurus, etc., is not fully understood. Why? It is a subject of heart understanding and people want mental satisfaction. How can a hungry man satisfy himself by listening to a lecture on food values? Heart-hunger is not felt, for the heart is tamasically or rajasically engaged. Between recognition of knowledge, i.e., understanding, and realization, i.e., experiencing, there is a gulf, not a mere difference of degree. The first result of the lighting up of Manas was Devotion — the heart quality. Theosophy’s lighting up of the Heart (the Tathagata Light) is an event in and by itself. The “infant” man did not comprehend the Manas-lighting; he felt it. Fortunate the person whose feeling is aroused for Theosophy ere the light of knowledge comes.
About the heart: It is fine that you see the value of it; self-knowledge is of loving deeds the child and this applies both to the personality and the Individuality. Our loving deeds as a mere personality reveal the lower quaternary’s good aspect; but the Individuality performs its own loving deeds by the power of the Paramitas. There are three hearts: one by which evil and selfish deeds are done; the second by which a man does good; and the third by which a man radiates spirituality. The first is animal instinctuality; the second is human goodness: but the last is Divine Radiance. Kama-Manas is the source of the first two. but Manas Taijasi and Manas-Buddhi is the instrument and avenue for the last, the true Heart. At present we shift from one to the other; we are animal or we are human, and the highest aspect of the human is saintliness. It is the Sage who has developed his Real Heart. The Antahkarana has to rise to the plane of its Parent Manas, the Ego. and fight as the warrior the personality, and finally win the Grace of Buddhi for itself. You have here a plan of the whole human evolution. Work out for yourself the aspect of each in terms of the three gunas, you will get more light and the practical task will become more clear. Instinct, intelligence, intuition and inspiration are also related to this process of human unfoldment.
The spiritual Heart has become passive or negative and has to be awakened. The human heart is misguided, having fallen under the dominance of the animal heart; it needs to be educated and the purification of the animal nature becomes necessary. Our emotions are not purely human; they arc coloured by animal selfishness and egotism. Good, i.e., unselfish or non-egotistic emotions have to come to birth. Study, application, promulgation does it.
Who is the aspirant? How does he grow into a devotee? These are basic questions. What was said you have correctly comprehended; it is well put and is worth repeating: “By the mind freeing itself from feelings and desires and uniting with Buddhi.” Here are the process and the goal: (1) At present our consciousness is Kama-Manasic; (2) it must become Manasic, i.e., Antahkaranic; (3) Antahkarana must move towards and become Higher Manasic: (4) finally, the awakening of Buddhi should be completed. The awakening of Buddhi is in two stages: (a) The good man, to become spiritual now and here, must tend to theosophize himself — impersonate himself. Impersonate your feelings: do not kill them. We are hot in feelings; do not extinguish the fire: let it go down to the ember stage and then fan the flame to adequate warmth. Love and compassion and all the children that spring from the higher mind and Buddhi should be cultivated now and here, (b) Buddhi must be activated; see the footnote in The Voice of the Silence (p. 10). Study and meditation provide the motor-power; the daily routine of life provides the method.
At the present hour Buddhi is passive in all who-are the children of the fifth Race in the fourth Round on this fourth Globe, the Earth. We have to activate it. Buddhi is the Eternal Substance — the casket of Atma. Even when activated, the nature of its activity is different from what we call action — hustle and bustle and doing this and that. There is order, rhythm, the eternal fitness of things, not only observed but understood, and so there are calmness and light, patience and strength — slow quickness. But you must recall an intuition which you have had and try to evaluate it. By looking at how Buddhi functions, even in directly, you will get an idea of what should be done. Remember, the lower Manasic ray which incarnates in the body has within it a basis of Buddhi (Wisdom-Compassion) and also of Atma (Will). This lower Manas is exploited and enslaved by Kama. When Manas is extricated from Kama it carries, as the Antahkaranic being, this basis of Atma and Buddhi. This is the plank of our salvation — separation from animalism The taming of the lower nature from wildness and vileness to use and service is a long process, but if we remain conscious and deliberate we hasten the change.
Book study will not activate Buddhi but it helps the aspirant to learn how to do it. Altruism in thought depends on our understanding of Brotherhood. Judge’s letter. No. 4 in the first volume of Letters That Have Helped Me, lays down a most excellent basis. Application without right study leads people astray. The philosophical formula is necessary and that must be right.
We cannot pray to get Buddhi. Buddhi is to be studied as a principle and very soon we find out that it is passive and can be activated by the right kind of effort. It is not so developed or awakened by people because they are involved by the rajoguna as the closing portion of the third chapter of the Gila points out.
Manas has the faculty of viveka or discrimination. The faculty of discernment which comes out of detachment or dispassion is vairagya and brings into operation the intuition. Viveka and vairagya, discrimination and discernment, are qualities respectively of Manas and Buddhi. But H.P.B. points out that Buddhi is at the moment passive in most men and it has to be activated. Without Manas, Buddhi cannot be activated. Self-consciousness comes with Manas, and it begins to operate directly through the moral choice which is within the province of Manas. In making moral choice the embodied self, lower Manas, gets entangled with desires and therefore its moral choice goes wrong. The freedom of Manas from Kama brings it into closer proximity with Buddhi.
“Intuition means “direct cognition and comprehension,” without reasoning from premises to conclusions; it is a power that every human being has, either latent, or operative in some degree. It is beyond or above the reasoning faculty; the bar to its operation is our tendency to depend upon our reasoning powers, based as they are upon our superficial and incomplete common knowledge. This common knowledge is based upon our personalities in their relation to the external world, and does not take into account the spiritual nature of Man, who is the real Seer and Thinker. To arouse the Intuition, the false views of Man and Nature so generally held have to be replaced by the knowledge of these that Theosophy imparts. Not only has the mental perception to be gained. but all our thinking must be based upon this right knowledge. We will then stand as the Immortal, changeless Thinker, who witnesses all appearances as changing expressions of conscious beings, and can see beyond any and all expressions to the essential spiritual nature of every entity. – Robert Crosbie.
Pages 132-133 – The Theosophical Movement – September 1964 (pp. 433-434)
One peculiar feature of the Kali-Yuga is that the individual has greater chances than have masses of men. It is the Yuga or Age of single combat between the divine and the carnal man. More individuals can become Golden-Age men. In other ages, the forces of Karma and of the cycle are along the line of natural impulse; i.e., mortals are good because such is their nature; and in the Golden Age masses arc like children, innocent and ignorant, blissful of darkness, and sleep the sound sleep of sushupti, and so on. Now and here we have dual knowledge — how to fight and overcome evil and personality and selfishness, and how to unfold Light and Peace. Therefore it is our ideation and imagination which determine for us how the Kshatriya will fight in us, overcoming the trading, competing, money-getting nature of craftiness and pride, and how the pure Brahmana nature will unfold piety and poverty, humility and self-confidence, and all sattvic attributes— all those sattvas described in the Gita, i.e., sattvic Buddhi, sattvic food and charity and sacrifice, etc. Sattva must be developed ere real and complete discipleship is ours.
The effect on us of the Kali-Yuga, as of night hours, depends on what we do in it. Robbers and thieves use the night for degrading purposes; students for their studies; Sages are bright, day and night. So, we must do what we can with the speed and all the rest of it of this Yuga.
The rapidity of the Kali-Yuga is the opportunity of the true aspirant and devotee. He is called upon to conquer speed and gain steady, rhythmic movement. The Kali-Yuga's motions are rapid but jerky: the sun and the moon during Kali-Yuga arc not so in their motions. Here again is something for our application. Time waits for no man; we suffer from boredom killing time, on the one hand, and again we suffer because there are only 24 hours to the day! We lose in two ways and the Esoteric Philosophy teaches that we should fuse the two and create steadfastness and harmony.
In our Kali-Yuga the so-called contentment of the people is tamas of mind. We have very fat minds which do not like to move — fat made out of rich food for the body, rich gossip for the tongue, rich selfishness for the feelings and sense-tickling reading for the mind. Even serious things are taken as sense-pleasures. Seeking, enquiring, etc. — well, that does not interest.
I am afraid we will not have Ram-Rajya in our lifetime. The Kali-Yuga must run its course for any and all who will not think for them- selves, will not try to know themselves, will not make use of the cycle to rise, and instead allow themselves to be overcome by its downward spiral motion. The conquest of Time is a requirement of chelaship. Impurity of space has to be overcome and purity restored, and for that time is essential. Karma and cycle correspond to space and time. To know the Cycle of Necessity is to know the ultimate division of time. So, in our hourly lives minutes count. The art of wedging in work appropriately and punctually is a great art.
I have read with considerable interest your remarks about the present cycle, etc. We must not consider our age unique because we have only our historical records to go by. We have not yet reached the bottom of selfishness, sensuality and egotism which the Atlantean group of people reached, committing the awful blunder recorded in The Secret Doctrine. What we have to keep also in mind is that, on account of our own internal vicissitudes since the days of H.P.B., the Theosophical Movement has not been able to take full advantage of the good thoughts inherent in humanity and to bring them out in an exact organized form. I personally do not think that we are going to have a big catastrophe in the near future. I think that the very intensity of feeling against a new war, etc., indicates a kind of a safeguard. What we have to do is constructive, positive work to change the fear complex of modern humanity into a calm confidence. Our metaphysical and psychological teachings ought to be of real value at least theoretically, even though many people do not practise them. I do feel very strongly that, imperfect as we are in the U.L.T., we have a very important mission to fulfil inasmuch as we believe in the infallible Message of the Masters, recorded in the writings of H. P. Blavatsky and William Quan Judge, and in the emphasis put in that Message on the freedom of will, which is to be respected in every direction and in every event.
“We are in the Kali Yuga and its fatal influence is a thousandfold more powerful in the West than it is in the East; hence the easy preys made by the Powers of the Age of Darkness in this cyclic struggle, and the many delusions under which the world is now labouring. One of these is the relative facility with which men fancy they can get at the “Gate” and cross the threshold of Occultism without any great sacrifice. It is the dream of most Theosophists, one inspired by desire for power and personal selfishness, and it is not such feelings that can ever lead them to the coveted goal. For, as well said by one believed to have sacrificed himself for Humanity — “narrow is the gate and straightened the way that leadeth unto life” eternal, and therefore “few be thev that find it.” —H. P. Blavatsky
