A Plurality of Integrated Steps

Walking on Earth While Living in the Sky

Carlos Cardoso Aveline

The student of philosophy may feel that he is “one”: he is not.

He is one and many. Even his vision of himself changes more often than he perceives. He has contradictory thoughts and feelings about his own being, on various levels of perception and across the different moments of life.

All states of mind, emotional factors, physical habits, circumstances and aspects of his karma are interconnected in an immediate way. “He” includes them all.

In this sense he is one.

Yet being “one” in such a context does not mean he exists as a separate being. The feeling of individual separation is a wild, if not hilarious, sort of illusion. The student is one with the universe: he is unique, but not separate. He is an individual, and yet exists in a living, dynamic unity with his solar system and the Milky Way. Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter are alive in his soul together with other celestial gods. And he is the Earth and the sand, too. He is the soil, and the sower. He must plant Good in himself and others, as he learns to practice the ancient science of divine Agriculture. Saturn, the celestial Master, teaches students to have respect for the soil.

It is unnecessarily dangerous for students to search too much for the nameless sky of contemplation. To each step towards the abstract realms of celestial Nature, there must be one step in self-purification, self-knowledge, humbleness and self-responsibility in the earthly aspects of one’s soul.

Quietism, theosophical or not, is not the way. The student must act. His outward work should be dedicated to the goal of Contemplation, and the other way around: his contemplative moments must be submitted to the daily commitment to right living on the lower planes of life.

There can be no divorce between Earth and Sky in his consciousness. There is no opposition between the soil and the stars. Our planet has always been part of the cosmic Ocean. It is a feminine celestial body in the making, who travels with her co-disciples and their Master, the Sun, through the amazing center of a little known galaxy. Our true self is part of the Sun, and the Sun gives life to all beings in our system. 

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The article “A Plurality of Integrated Steps” was first published in the September 2014 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist”. It had no indication as to its author.

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On the role of the esoteric movement in the ethical awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire and Light of Theosophical Literature”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline.  

Published in 2013 by The Aquarian Theosophist, the volume has 255 pages and can be obtained through Amazon Books.

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The Aquarian Theosophist, December 2015

The opening thought of the December edition says:      

“A sense of peace comes from simplicity of heart.”

On pp. 1-2, there is an article on “The Centrality of Jerusalem” in present human karma. Page 3 brings “Fragment From the Secret Doctrine: The Mystery of Eternity”. The note “Various Levels of Reading: Perceiving the Inner Silence Above Though” is on page 4.

Pages 5 and 6 present a few paragraphs from Helena P. Blavatsky on “Monotheism and Violence”. She says that There Has Never Been a Religion With Such a Bloody Record as Christianity.

These are other topics in the December edition:  

* An Opportunity to Awaken: a countdown is ticking;

* Truth and the Law of Love: three Fragments From Alexei Khomiakov;

* The Use of Knowledge;

* The Power of Music: Ave Maria, with Helene Fischer;

* The Gradual Process of Victory: Self-Forgetfulness and Bliss;

* Saturn, the Master of Karma: a Time for Learning Self-Discipline;

* Before a Bright Dawning;

* Human Transmutation Towards 2023;

* The Cornerstones of Time;

* Thoughts Along the Road;

* “Taking Possession of Our Own Nature”, by Ivan Il’in;

* Inaugurating 2016: a New Horizon to All;

* A video on Christmas: what happens as the external Christmas takes place? ; and

* A broadening mind, according to the Yoga of Patanjali.

The 19 pp. edition includes the List of New Texts  in our websites.

Click Here to Read

“The Aquarian”, December 2015

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You can find the entire collection of “The Aquarian Theosophist” in our associated websites.

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On the role of the esoteric movement in the ethical awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire and Light of Theosophical Literature”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline.  

Published in 2013 by The Aquarian Theosophist, the volume has 255 pages and can be obtained through Amazon Books.

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What the Media Do Not Say, and Why

True Peace Hopefully

Belongs to the Present Century

Carlos Cardoso Aveline

Erich Fromm (1900-1980)

Sometimes factors are left unexamined which are more important than those everyone talks about.  

While the conventional media often report on spectacular and theatrical military operations on the part of terror organizations, few are those who ask themselves:

“What are the political and economic interests that prevent journalists from fulfilling their duty and investigating the Causes of these short term events?”

A few examples should be given.

Everyone can see that Islamic terrorists are well funded. They need millions of dollars to keep and expand their worldwide networks of suicide-murderers. They use huge fortunes and expensive weapons, in order to present their shows of killing innocent civilians in choreographic and media-attractive ways. Negative events can fascinate entire nations. Mass hypnotism is on the agenda, and the conventional media is eager to follow the lead of those who hate mankind and furnish them with catastrophic images. Other facts, however, are scarcely known:

* What banks do terrorists use?

* How exactly do they get such fortunes as they have been using?

* Who sells weapons to them? 

* What factories make their weapons?

* Who is willing to investigate and reveal the truth behind the show, and who is not, and why?

There must be a reason for the media to systematically avoid discussing the authoritarian character of mainstream Islamic ideology, according to which every “unbeliever” should be killed, women must be treated as slaves, and Jews have to be expelled from their ancient and modern home, Israel.  

Active and hysterical forms of despise for life, as the Nazi-Fascism of the 20th century and the radical Islam of recent years, cannot live on their own.  They must feed on passive or silent forms of despise for other beings. Implicit love of death makes it possible for an aggressive feeling of hate for life to occur and to spread.   

The present-day cult of machines and robots belongs to the passive side of collective disconnection from life. The worship of money, of fame and short-term pleasure constitutes another factor. These deviations lead to a comfortable yet disastrous denial of human duties towards the natural environment, animals, forests, trees, our children, the rights of generations yet-to-be-born and the whole creation.

Despise for life has been a cyclic event in human history. It usually leads to the end of societies which have ceased to serve the evolutionary purpose. Erich Fromm wrote:

“Lewis Mumford has shown the connection between destructiveness and power-centered ‘megamachines’ as they existed in Mesopotamia and Egypt some five thousand years ago, societies that have, as he has pointed out, much in common with the megamachines of Europe and North America today.” [1]

Could beautiful cars become gods? 

Referring to the daily worship of machines and the voluntary degradation of life in our time, Fromm mentioned the subconscious devotion to money:  

“All over the industrialized world there are men who feel more tender toward, and are more interested in, their automobiles than their wives. They are proud of their car; they cherish it; they wash it (even many of those who could pay to have this job done), and in some countries many give it a loving nickname; they observe it and are concerned at the slightest symptom of a dysfunction. To be sure a car is not a sexual object - but it is an object of love; life without a car seems to some more intolerable than life without a woman. Is this attachment to automobiles not somewhat peculiar, or even perverse?” [2]

Fromm wrote decisive pages on Necrophilia or the worship of death and of lifeless objects. He showed how disrespect for life lies at the source of the apparently innocent cult of technology and machines.

Taking his point of view into consideration, it is not too difficult to see that phenomena as Terror, War, Corporate Disrespect for Democracy and Financial Frauds are not entirely separated.  They all put money and power above Life. They must be rigorously fought through multidimensional efforts which address their Causes, too, and do not remain limited to effects.   

While fighting the effects has great importance, this is not enough; for terror leads to War, and War is big business. Military conflicts provide huge profits for more than one economic group, and some of them are politically influential. 

It won’t be easy to get rid of such a vicious circle, but there is no other way to follow. Appeasing terror or its religious ideology is not the way. Appeasing the merchants behind the terrorists is not, either.

True peace hopefully belongs to the present century.  In order to obtain it, however, mankind needs among other tasks to improve the ethical substance of its economy. And the main foundation of a sustainable economy is the consistent practice of respect for all life.   

NOTES:

[1] “The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness”, Erich Fromm, copyright 1973, Fawcett Publications, Greenwich, Connecticut, USA, 576 pp., see p. 380.  See his books “The Heart of Man, its genius for good and evil” (copyright 1964), and “Escape from Freedom” (copyright 1941 and 1965).

[2] “The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness”, Erich Fromm, p. 381.

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One might also take into consideration Sigmund Freud’s essays “Thoughts for the Times on War and Death” (1915), and “Civilization and Its Discontents” (1929).

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The above article was first published on 17 November, 2015, in our blog at “The Times of Israel”.

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In September 2016, after a careful analysis of the state of the esoteric movement worldwide, a group of students decided to form the Independent Lodge of Theosophists, whose priorities include the building of a better future in the different dimensions of life.  

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Fragments From Stoic Philosophy

The Ethical Theosophy of Ancient Western World

Musonius Rufus

Hard work is not a bad thing, says the neo-stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus

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An Editorial Note:

The following twelve fragments were selected

and translated from the volume “Tabla de Cebes -

Musonio Rufo, Disertaciones, Fragmentos Menores,

Epicteto, Manual, Fragmentos”, Editorial Gredos,

Madrid, 1995, 250 pp. We indicate the page number

at the end of each quotation. Stoic philosopher

Musonius Rufus lived from 28 C.E. through 100 C.E.

We add commentaries to items 5 and 12, in italics.

(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)

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1) To be a philosopher is the same as to be good. (p. 60)

2) Philosophy consists in dedicating oneself to perfect honesty and nothing else. (p. 59) 

3) Virtue is not a theoretical science, only. It is also practical, just like Medicine and Music are. (p. 59) 

4) Why should men research and investigate how to live better, which is the aim of philosophy, and not women? Is it perchance convenient that men should be good, and women should not? (p. 77) 

5) It is not possible to live today in a correct manner unless we live it as if it were our last day alive. (p. 149) 

This sentence by Musonius Rufus got famous since it was adopted by Marcus Aurelius, the emperor-philosopher of Ancient Rome, in his “Meditations”. In fact, Musonius taught Epictetus (55 C.E.-135 C.E.), and Epictetus taught Marcus Aurelius (121 C.E.-180 C.E.). In the 20h century, Carlos Castaneda adopted the same idea in his own books. 

6) Why do we complain about politicians, if we are often worse than them? We have similar impulses to theirs, in different contexts. (p. 149) 

7) You will deserve the respect of all, if you start by having respect for yourself in the first place. (p. 151) 

8) If you want to stay above all within that which is correct, don’t get sad or irritated by circumstances. Think of the many things that have happened to you not according to your wishes, but according to what is correct. (p. 150) 

9) That pleasure is not good in itself is not easily perceived at once, because pleasure stimulates desire as if it were a good thing. But if we adopt as a main and known premise the idea that every good thing is preferable, and if we add to it a second, known premise, which says that some pleasures are not preferable, we will have demonstrated then that pleasure is not good in itself. (p. 72) 

10) ... And the fact that hard work is not an evil thing does not seem to be acceptable at first; the opposite seems to be more convincing; that to work is a bad thing. But if we adopt a major and self-evident premise, that one ought to avoid every evil, and we add to it another and even more evident premise, that many forms of work must not be avoided, then we come to the conclusion that hard work is not a bad thing. (p. 72) 

11) It is not necessary for the master of a philosopher to teach a great amount of reasonings and demonstrations; but he should talk about each topic in the right time. He must adjust his speech to the discernment of the students. He must use effective ideas that cannot be easily refuted, and above all, he must talk about that which is most useful, and act in accordance with what he talks. This is the way to lead his hearers. (p. 74) 

12)  ... As to the student, he must concentrate on what is said to him [by the teacher]. On one hand his goal must be not to allow a mistake to remain unseen, and to admit his own mistakes; and on the other hand - by Zeus! -, he must not wish to listen to long demonstrations regarding truth, but clear demonstrations instead. (p. 74) 

“Not to allow a mistake to remain unseen”. That must include mistakes made by the teacher. The student is not supposed to renounce his own discernment (limited as it may be). True teachers respect that; and they never pose as perfect.

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The above Fragments were first published as such in the December 2014 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist” (pp. 6-7).

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See here a one-minute video produced by our associated websites:

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The Silent Soul

Living in the World of Eternal Wisdom

John Garrigues

To speak of the formless Soul is to materialize it - is to give it a form. To speak of silence is to abandon it. To think of the Soul in the silence is to intrude and find it not.

Not alone the clangor of the senses makes this a world of strife, of bafflements to meditation. It is comparatively easy to shut in the house of life, close fast the outward portals, so that the din of kings and commons struggling for precedence is ruled out. When this has been intentionally done, then, indeed, does one discover that within one’s Self, and not without, is the real field of battle.

Memory, imagination, desire, thought, and feeling, are found to be no mere servants for the Soul’s use, but usurpers, traitors, instinctive, rampant, quick with life of their own, which crucify him who is seeking entrance into the silence - the “Hall of Wisdom which lies beyond”.

He who cannot command them with the sacramental phrase “peace, be still”, must needs taste the bitterness of defeat and despair; must needs go, indeed, into the only silence known to ordinary man, the silence of sleep or death - from which there is no other issue than an unconscious one. Whatever Meditation may mean to the bewildered, this is certain, that it means a conscious entering of the silence.

Who can remain at attention while the outer and inner warfare of the Soul goes on - may hope, yet Hope itself but lures the Soul along one or another corridor whose only exit is once more upon the arena of that which is not Soul.

The conscious silence which is Meditation is that unknown world peopled by Soul alone - in which the Soul is a Spectator without a spectacle. Yet, this is a way of speaking of the Un-speakable, in opposed commitments, for silence is beyond any speech, as Soul is beyond all action.

To those whose heart is set on speech, to whom action of some kind is life, Silence is empty - a void. To him whose heart is set on the world’s end, on the journey’s end, Silence is the Soul’s habitation.  Who enters the silence returns to his own place. The Un-speakable Self there knows that Time, Space, and Causality are but triple names for Silence - the Silence in which is woven the triple thread of all three worlds. In that Silence the “Soul grows as does the holy flower upon the still lagoon”.

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The above text was first published as an anonymous note at the December 1929 edition of “Theosophy” magazine, Los Angeles, p. 84. An analysis of its contents, style and historical context shows the author is John Garrigues. It was reproduced with Garrigues’ name in the December 2014 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist”.

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On the role of the esoteric movement in the ethical awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire and Light of Theosophical Literature”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline.  

Published in 2013 by The Aquarian Theosophist, the volume has 255 pages and can be obtained through Amazon Books.

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