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When years ago, we first travelled over the East, we came into contact with certain men, endowed with such mysterious powers and such profound knowledge that we may truly designate them as the sages of the Orient. To their instructions we lent a ready ear.
It must be remembered that the Society was not founded as a nursery for forcing a supply of Occultists — as a factory for the manufactory of Adepts. It was intended to stem the current of materialism, and also that of spiritualistic phenomenalism and the worship of the Dead. It had to guide the spiritual awakening that has now begun, and not to pander to psychic cravings which are but another form of materialism. For by "materialism" is meant not only an anti-philosophical negation of pure spirit, and, even more, materialism in conduct and action — brutality, hypocrisy, and, above all, selfishness — but also the fruits of a disbelief in all but material things, a disbelief which has increased enormously during the last century, and which has led many, after a denial of all existence other than that in matter, into a blind belief in the materialization of Spirit.
The tendency of modern civilization is a reaction towards animalism, towards a development of those qualities which conduce to the success in life of man as an animal in the struggle for animal existence. Theosophy seeks to develop the human nature in man in addition to the animal, and at the sacrifice of the superfluous animality which modern life and materialistic teachings have developed to a degree which is abnormal for the human being at this stage of his progress.
The essence of Theosophy is the perfect harmonizing of the divine with the human in man, the adjustment of his god-like qualities and aspirations, and their sway over the terrestrial or animal passions in him. Kindness, absence of every ill feeling or selfishness, charity, goodwill to all beings, and perfect justice to others as to oneself, are its chief features. He who teaches Theosophy preaches the gospel of goodwill; and the converse of this is true also — he who preaches the gospel of goodwill, teaches Theosophy.
In America your Karma as a nation has brought Theosophy home to you. The life of the Soul, the psychic side of nature, is open to many of you. The life of altruism is not so much a high ideal as a matter of practice. Naturally, then, Theosophy finds a home in many hearts and minds, and strikes a resounding harmony as soon as it reaches the ears of those who are ready to listen. There, then, is part of your work: to lift high the torch of the liberty of the Soul of Truth that all may see it and benefit by its light. Therefore it is that the Ethics of Theosophy are even more necessary to mankind than the scientific aspects of the psychic facts of nature and man.
Mahayana, I want to thank you for your postings. While they do not provoke direct responses to their content, I find them exceedingly insightful and in many ways compatible with many of my own views.
Mahayana, I want to thank you for your postings. While they do not provoke direct responses to their content, I find them exceedingly insightful and in many ways compatible with many of my own views.
In these days heavy with conflicts that ignore or scoff at noble, even divine virtues that are innate to humans, it is good to hear some folks appreciate theosophical notions!
If people knew what is coming to them after death, in the ordinary course of events as the reward of evil living; of giving way to vice and the appetites of the lower mind such as hatred and anger, fear, and dislike, if they knew, out of sheer fear, from self-protective interest, human lives would be radically changed.
Nature is rigidly accurate in her justice in these matters. A man is a free agent, and therefore he will reap in retribution or in recompense, what he has made for himself, neither more nor less. It is extremely necessary to preserve during lifetime an aspiring mind, a detachment from things and experiences of the gross personal earth-life. Morals are not human conventions, but are based on the soundest and most far-reaching vision of the sages. They are founded on nature's own noblest operations.
G. de Purucker, In The Temple pp 108-9
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