The All
Getting Started in
Theosophy
(And its all Free Stuff )
People outside
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
1831 – 1891
____________________
From The Absolute to Man
From
A Textbook of Theosophy
By
C
Of the
Absolute, the Infinite, the All-embracing, we can at our present stage know
nothing, except that It is; we can say nothing that is
not a limitation,
and therefore inaccurate.
In It are
innumerable universes; in each universe countless solar systems. Each solar system
is the expression of a mighty Being, whom we call the Logos, the Word of God,
the Solar Deity. He is to it all that men mean by God. He permeates it; there
is nothing in it which is not He; it is the manifestation of Him in such matter
as we can see. Yet He exists above it and outside it, living a stupendous life
of His own among His Peers. As is said in Eastern Scripture:
“Having permeated this whole universe with one fragment of Myself, I remain”.
Of this
higher life of His we can know nothing. But of the fragment of His life which
energizes His system we may know something in the lower levels of its
manifestation. We may not see Him, but we may see His power at work. No one who
is clairvoyant can be atheistic; the evidence is too tremendous.
Out of
Himself He has called this mighty system into being. We who are in it are
evolving fragments of His life, Sparks of His divine Fire; from Him we all have
come; into Him we shall all return.
Many have
asked why He as done this; why He has emanated from Himself all this system;
why He has sent us forth to face the storms of life. We cannot know, nor is the
question practical; suffice it that we are here, and we must do our best. Yet
many philosophers have speculated on this point and many suggestions have been
made. The most beautiful that I know is that of a Gnostic philosopher:
“God is
Love, but Love itself cannot be perfect unless it has those upon whom it can be
lavished and by whom it can be returned. Therefore He put forth of Himself into
matter, and He limited His glory, in order that through this natural and slow
process of evolution we might come into being; and we in turn according to His
will are to develop until we reach even His own level, and then the very love
of God itself will become more perfect, because it will then be lavished on
those, His own children, who will fully understand and return it, and so His
great scheme will be realized and His Will be done”.
At what
stupendous elevation His consciousness abides we know not, nor can we know its
true nature as it shows itself there. But when He puts Himself down into such
conditions as are within our reach, His manifestation is ever threefold, and so
all religions have imaged Him as a Trinity. Three, yet fundamentally One; Three Persons (for person means a mask) yet one God,
showing Himself in those Three Aspects. Three to us, looking at Them from below, because Their functions are different; one
to Him, because He knows Them to be but facets of Himself.
All three
of these Aspects are concerned in the evolution of the solar System; all Three
are also concerned in the evolution of man. This evolution is His will; the
method of it is His plan.
Next below
this Solar Deity, yet also in some mysterious manner part of Him, come His
seven Ministers, sometimes called the Planetary Spirits. Using an analogy drawn
from the physiology of our own body, Their relation to
Him is like that of the ganglia or the nerve centers of the brain. All
evolution which comes forth from Him comes through one or other of Them.
Under Them in turn come vast hosts or order of spiritual beings,
whom we call angels or devas. We do not yet know all
the functions which They fulfill in different parts of
this wonderful scheme, but we find some of them intimately connected with the
building of the system and the unfolding of life within it.
Here in
our world there is a great Official who represents the Solar Deity, and is in
absolute control of all the evolution that takes place upon this planet.
We may
image Him as the true King of this world, and under Him are ministers in charge
of different departments. One of these departments is concerned with the
evolution of the different races of humanity, so that for each great race there
is a Head who founds it, differentiates it from
all others, and watches over its development. Another department is that of
religion and education, and it is from this that all the greatest teachers of history have come
– that all religions have been sent forth. The great Official at the head of this
department either comes Himself or sends one of His pupils to found a new
religion when He decides that one is needed.
Therefore
all religions, at the time of their first presentation to the world, have
contained a definite statement of the Truth, and in its fundamentals this Truth
has been always the same. The presentations of it have varied because of
differences in the races to who it was offered. The
condition of civilization
and the degree of evolution obtained by various races have made
it desirable to present this one Truth in divers forms. But the inner Truth is
always the same, and the source from which it comes is the same, even though
the external phases may appear to be different and even contradictory. It is
foolish for men to wrangle over the question of the superiority of one teacher
or one form of teaching to another, for the teacher is always one sent by the
Great Brotherhood of Adepts, and in all its important points, in its ethical
and moral principles, the teaching has always been the same.
There is
in the world a body of Truth which lies at the back of all these religions, and
represents the facts of nature as far as they are at present known to man. In
the outer world, because of their ignorance of this, people are always
disputing and arguing about whether there is a God; whether man survives death;
whether definite progress is possible for him, and what is his relation to the
universe.
These
questions are ever present in the mind of man as soon as intelligence is
awakened. They are not unanswerable, as is frequently supposed; the answers to
them are within the reach of anyone who will make proper efforts to find them.
The truth is obtainable, and the conditions of its attainment are possible of
achievement by anyone who will make the effort.
In the
earlier stages of the development of humanity, the great Officials of the
Hierarchy
are provided from outside, from other and more highly evolved parts of the system,
but as soon as men can be trained to the necessary level of power and wisdom
these offices are held by them. In order to be fit to hold such an office a man
must raise himself to a very high level, and must become what is called an
adept – a being of goodness, power and wisdom so great that He towers above the
rest of humanity, for He has already attained the summit of ordinary human
evolution; He has achieved what the plan of the Deity marked out for Him to
achieve during this age or dispensation. But His evolution later on continues
beyond that level – continues to divinity.
A large
number of men have attained the Adept level – men not of one nation, but of all
the leading nations of the world – rare souls who with indomitable courage have
stormed the fortresses of nature, and captured her innermost secrets, and so
have truly earned the right to be called Adepts. Among Them
there are many degrees and many lines of activity; but always some of Them
remain within touch of our earth as members of this Hierarchy which has in
charge the administration of the affairs of our world and of the spiritual
evolution of our humanity.
This
august body is often called the Great White Brotherhood, but its members are
not a community all living together. Each of Them, to
a large extent, draws Himself apart from the world, and They are in constant
communication with one another and with Their Head; but Their knowledge of
higher forces is so great that this is achieved without any necessity for
meeting in the physical world. In many cases They
continue to live each in His own country, and Their power remains unsuspected
among those who live near Them. Any man who will may attract their attention,
but he can do it only by showing himself worthy of Their
notice. None need fear that his efforts will pass unnoticed; such oversight is
impossible, for the man who is devoting himself to service such as this, stands
out from the rest of humanity like a great flame in a dark night. A few of
these great Adepts, who are thus working for the good of the world, are willing
to take on apprentices those who have resolved to devote themselves utterly to
the services of mankind; such Adepts are called Masters.
One of
these apprentices was Helena Petrovna Blavatsky – a great soul who
was sent out to offer knowledge to the world some forty years ago [1875]. With
Colonel Henry Steele Olcott she founded the Theosophical Society for the spread
of this knowledge which she had to give. Among those who came into contact with
her in those early days was Mr. A. P. Sinnett, the editor of The Pioneer, and
his keen intellect at once grasped the magnitude and the importance of the
teaching which she put before him. Although Madame Blavatsky herself had
previously written Isis Unveiled, it had attracted but little attention, and it
was Mr. Sinnett who first made the teaching really available for western
readers in his two books, The Occult World and Esoteric Buddhism.
It was
through these works that I myself first came to know their author, and
afterwards Madame Blavatsky herself; from both of them I learned much. When I
asked Madame Blavatsky how one could learn still more, how one could make
definite progress along the Path which she pointed out to us, she told me of
the possibility that other students might be accepted as
apprentices by the great Masters, even as she herself had
been accepted, and that the only way to gain such acceptance was to show oneself
worthy of it by earnest and altruistic work.
She told
me that to reach that goal a man must be absolutely one-pointed in his
determination; that no one who tried to serve both God and Mammon could ever
hope to succeed. One of these Masters Himself has said: “In order to succeed, a
pupil must leave his own world and come into ours”.
This means
that he must cease to be one of the majority who live
for wealth and power, and must join the tiny majority who care nothing for such
things, but live only in order to devote themselves selflessly to the good of
the world. She warned us clearly that the way was difficult to tread, that we
should be misunderstood and reviled by those who still lived in the world, and
that we had nothing to look forward to but the hardest of hard work; and though
the result was sure, no one could foretell how long it would take to arrive at
it. Some of us accepted these conditions joyfully, and we have never for a
moment regretted the decision.
After some
years of work I had the privilege of coming into contact with these great
Masters of the Wisdom; from Them I learnt many things – among others, how to
verify for myself at first hand most of the teachings which They had given. So
that, in this matter, I write of what I know, and what I have seen for myself.
Certain points are mentioned in the teaching, for the verification of which
powers are required far beyond anything which I have gained so far. Of them, I
can only say that they are consistent with what I do know, and in many cases
are necessary as hypotheses to account for what I have seen. They came to me
along with the rest of the theosophical system upon the authority of these
mighty Teachers. Since then I have learned to examine for myself by far the
greater part of what I was told, and I have found the information given to me
to be correct in every particular; therefore I am justified in assuming the
probability that that other part, which as yet I cannot
verify, will also prove to be correct when I arrive at its level.
To attain
the honour of being accepted as an apprentice of one of the Masters of the
Wisdom is the object set before himself by every earnest Theosophical student.
But it means a determined effort. There have always been men who were willing
to make the necessary effort, and therefore there have always been men who
knew. The knowledge is so transcendent that when a man grasps it fully he
becomes more than man, and he passes beyond our ken.
But there
are stages in the acquirement of this knowledge, and we may learn much, if we
will, from those who themselves are still in process of learning; for all human
beings stand on one or other of the rungs of the ladder of evolution. The
primitive stand at its foot; we who are civilized beings have already climbed
part of the way. But though we can look back and see rungs of the ladder below
us which we have already passed, we may also look up and see many rungs above
us to which we have not yet attained. Just as men are standing even now on each
of the rungs below us, so that we can see the stages by which man has mounted,
so also are there men standing on each of the rungs above us, so that from
studying them we may see how man shall mount in the future. Precisely because
we see men on every step of this ladder, which leads up to a glory which as yet
we have no words to express, we know that the ascent to that glory is possible
for us. Those who stand high above us, so high that They seem to us as gods in
Their marvellous knowledge and power, tell us that They stood not long since
where we are standing now, and They indicate to us clearly the steps which lie
between, which we also must tread if we would be as They
______________________
The All
Guide to
Getting Started in
Theosophy
_______________________
Find out more about
Theosophy with these links
Independent Theosophical Blog
One liners and quick explanations
About aspects of Theosophy
H P Blavatsky is usually
the only
Theosophist that most
people have ever
heard
of. Let’s put that right
The Voice of the Silence Website
An
Independent Theosophical Republic
Links
to Free Online Theosophy
Study
Resources; Courses, Writings,
This is actually an
introductory handout for study
groups
which can you print off and read at your leisure.
No
Aardvarks were harmed in the
The Spiritual Home of Urban Theosophy
The Earth Base for Evolutionary Theosophy
Try these if you are looking
for a
Local Theosophy Group or Centre
UK Listing of Theosophical Groups