A Few Fundamental
Teachings
From
“The Book of the Arhats”
Helena P. Blavatsky
Helena P. Blavatsky
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A 2014 Editorial
Note:
The following article gives us
useful elements to understand the future
of human evolution. It was first published at
“The
Theosophist” magazine, in its May 1883
edition, pp. 205-206. It is reproduced below from
there. In some
points, we have opened smaller
paragraphs in order to make it easier to understand.
It must be said that the version of “The Religion
of the Future”
published at the “Collected Writings”
(TPH), vol. IV,
pp. 451-453, has several changes in
punctuation; and it entirely omits, at the end of the
article, the final quotation with its three
paragraphs.
HPB’s sentence announcing the quotation was also
excluded by the TPH. Here, the article is complete.
Boris de Zirkoff,
the editor of the “Collected
Writings”, must have thought that the final paragraphs
in this text written by HPB did not deserve the readers’
attention. Boris forgot that it is better to preserve
texts as
they were written by their authors to the public. Readers
have
a right to that: editors can add identifiable
footnotes, if necessary. [1]
(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)
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Occultism
teaches us that ideas based upon fundamental truths move in the eternity in a circle, revolving around and filling
the space within the circuit of the limits allotted to our globe and the
planetary or solar system. That, not unlike Plato’s eternal, immutable
essences, they pervade the sensible world, permeating the world of thought;
and, that contrary to chemical affinities, they are attracted to, and
assimilated by, homogeneous universals in certain brains - exclusively the
product of human mind, its thoughts and intuition. That in their perpetual flow they have their
periods of intensity and activity, as their durations of morbid inactivity.
During the former, and whenever a strong impulse is imparted on some given
point of the globe to one of such fundamental truths, and a communion between
kindred eternal essences is strongly established between a philosopher’s
interior world of reflection and the exterior plane of ideas, then, cognate
brains are affected on several points, and identical ideas will be generated
and expression given to them often in almost identical terms.
The
correctness of this doctrine was often ascertained by modern occultists, and is
once more shown as something above a mere plausible conjecture just at present.
A correspondent of our contemporary, the “Indian Mirror”, writing from Italy [2], tells us that it has been his good
fortune since he came to Florence -
“To
meet with a gentleman from Philadelphia, in the United States, who has written
a work, entitled ‘The Religion of the Future’, which is still in manuscript. This gentleman, the author, was
brought up as a Quaker, but would not be considered orthodox by that body now.
His opinions have been modified so materially by his travels in England,
Germany, and elsewhere, as to make him quite heretical.”
It is
the brief summary of the manuscript of “The Religion of the Future” - as given
by the correspondent - that attracted our attention. The name of the Quaker
gentleman is not mentioned; but had we been told that the work was written by
our “Lay Chela,” who, with regard to the fundamental doctrines explained by
him, is the faithful amanuensis of one of the Himalayan MASTERS - we would have
accepted it as a matter of fact. It is most probable that when “The Religion of
the Future” is read in its completeness, there will be found more than one page
and chapter, perchance, that will appear to the correctly informed occultist as
grotesque and heterodox. Yet though it may sin in its details, it is perfectly
correct in its essential features as far as we understand it in its
presentation. Let our students of occult science judge.
“The
peculiar tenet of ‘The Religion of the Future’ is that Matter and Life are equally eternal and indestructible; that the Universal Life is the Supreme Being, not
necessarily Omnipotent, but of powers infinitely transcending anything of
which we have a conception on earth; that
man, on becoming fitted for absorption by moral purity, is absorbed into this
Universal Life or Supreme Being, being subject to frequent appearances on
earth, until that moral purity is attained; and that the sum of all the
experiences of the noblest of animated beings, from all parts of the Universe,
is added constantly to the intelligence of the Universal Life.”
We have
italicized the most striking passages. Rendered in plain language and
amplified, the Arhat esoteric doctrine teaches that -
(1) “Matter and Life
are equally eternal and indestructible”, for - they are one and identical; the
purely subjective - hence (for physical science) unprovable and unverifiable -
matter becoming the ONE life or what is generally termed “Spirit”.
(2) The hypothetical
deity (or God as a personal Being) as
something unattainable by, and incomprehensible to, logic and reason, being
never speculated upon or taught - since occult science takes nothing on faith -, it is classified with the
highest of abstractions, and perceived and accepted in what we call “UNIVERSAL
LIFE”.
(3) Omnipotent only through,
and in conjunction with the immutable, eternal Laws of Nature which are thus
the basis upon which LIFE works, it is not “necessarily Omnipotent”, per se.
(4) That man is
absorbed into, and becomes one with, the Universal Life, or Parabrahm, only
after he is entirely purified, i.e.,
disenthralled from matter and gone beyond the sphere of sense - is a doctrine
recognized alike by Buddhist, Hindu and other old Asiatic philosophies; as also
-
(5) That man is “subject
to frequent appearances on earth”, until his double evolution -moral and
physical - is achieved throughout the seven Rounds and he has reached the
ultimate perfection. The latter doctrine is carefully explained by “Lay Chela”
in the later “Fragments of Occult Truth”.
(6) And last, “the
sum of all the experiences” of man from all parts of the Universe, “is added
constantly to the intelligence of the Universal Life” - means simply this
fundamental doctrine of the Secret Science: “UNIVERSAL INTELLIGENCE is the sum
total, or the aggregate of all the intelligences, past, present and future of
the universe”. It is the Ocean of Intelligence formed of countless drops of
intelligences, which, proceed from, and return to it. If they were all taken
out, to the last drop, there would be no more Ocean.” (BOOK OF THE ARHATS, Sect.
IV, leaf 39.)
A
further description of the author is thus given by the correspondent:
“I read
his ‘Religion of the Future’ with very great interest. Without having any
knowledge of what was being done at Calcutta, in the religious world, he had
made a study of Hinduism, of Buddhism, and of Christianity, with a view to
reconcile and harmonize them. Not having any acquaintance with any of the
Eastern languages, the author of ‘The Religion of the Future’ had been obliged
to rely entirely upon translations, but of these he had made a careful and
judicious use. His admiration for the
philosophy of Hinduism is enlightened and ardent. He gives an abstract of it in
his work, and of the life and teaching of Gotama Buddha, for whom all who study
the subject must have a profound veneration.”
“The
peculiar ideas of the author are preceded by an intelligent and appreciative
review of the religious philosophy of Hinduism, of the life and teaching of
Gotama Buddha, and of the life and teaching of Christ.”
“Without
putting faith in the modern manifestations of spiritualism, the author of ‘The
Religion of the Future’ thinks there is evidence that spirits take part in
human affairs -spirits both good and bad.”
NOTES:
[1] Of course, when
one is editing personal correspondence which was never meant to be published,
there are other factors at play. A private correspondence often makes no sense and
is unintelligible to the larger public; but “The Religion of the Future” was
written by HPB to be published in its entirety. (CCA)
[2] Here H.P.B. adds these
words in parenthesis, referring to the “Indian Mirror”: “see issue of March
31, 1883”. (CCA)
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On the duty and mission of the esoteric movement in
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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