How the Path Winds
Up All the Way
Helena P.
Blavatsky
A 2014 Editorial Note:
While reading the following article, the reader must
take into consideration the fact that the original Theosophical Society ceased to exist in the
1890s, as Annie Besant broke her vows of
loyalty to Ethics and to her teacher Helena
Blavatsky. Since the 20th century the theosophical movement has had a
significant degree of diversity in organizational terms.
“Spiritual Progress” is a study in the relation
between wisdom and suffering. The life of HPB is the perfect example of
personal pain caused by a noble sort of self-sacrifice. In the Mahatma Letters
we have many an illustration of the fact that Mahatmas suffer, too - as
surprising as it may sound -, as they go to the very limits of the feasible
self-sacrifice, according to karma, in their efforts to help mankind.
The legend of Jesus in the New Testament gives us a symbolic narration
regarding the pain caused by universal compassion. Sages are not above or
beyond the first noble truth of Buddhism - Dukkha, Pain, Affliction - but they
teach us the right attitude towards it. Buddhism and Stoicism have essentially
the same teaching as to pain: one should not try to run away from it. Pain can
be transcended. There is a pain that is caused by selfishness, and another and
noble pain is caused by self-sacrifice.
(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)
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Spiritual
Progress
Helena P. Blavatsky
Christina
Rossetti’s well-known lines:
“Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
- Yes, to the very end.
Does the journey take the whole long day?
- From morn to night, my friend.” [1]
are like an epitome of the life of those who are truly
treading the path which leads to higher things. Whatever differences are to be
found in the various presentations of the Esoteric Doctrine, as in every age it
donned a fresh garment, different both in hue and texture to that which
preceded; yet in every one of them we find the fullest agreement upon one point
- the road to spiritual development. One only inflexible rule has been ever
binding upon the neophyte, as it is binding now - the complete subjugation of the lower nature by the higher. From the
Vedas and Upanishads to the recently published Light on the Path, search as we may through the bibles of every
race and cult, we find but one only way, - hard, painful, troublesome, by which
men can gain the true spiritual insight. And how can it be otherwise, since all
religions and all philosophies are but the variants of the first teachings of
the One Wisdom, imparted to men at the beginning of the cycle by the Planetary
Spirit?
The true Adept, the developed man, must, we are always
told, become - he cannot be made. The process is therefore one of growth
through evolution, and this must necessarily involve a certain amount of pain.
The main cause of pain lies in our perpetually seeking
the permanent in the impermanent, and not only seeking, but acting as if we had
already found the unchangeable in a world of which the one certain quality we
can predicate is constant change; and always, just as we fancy we have taken a
firm hold upon the permanent, it changes within our very grasp, and pain
results.
Again, the idea of growth involves also the idea of
disruption: the inner being must continually burst through its confining shell
or encasement, and such a disruption must also be accompanied by pain, not
physical but mental and intellectual.
And this is how it is, in the course of our lives. The
trouble that comes upon us is always just the one we feel to be the hardest
that could possibly happen - it is always the one thing we feel we cannot
possibly bear. If we look at it from a wider point of view, we shall see that
we are trying to burst through our shell at its one vulnerable point; that our
growth, to be real growth, and not the collective result of a series of
excrescences, must progress evenly throughout, just as the body of a child
grows, not first the head and then a hand, followed perhaps by a leg, but in
all directions at once, regularly and imperceptibly. Man’s tendency is to
cultivate each part separately, neglecting the others in the meantime - every
crushing pain is caused by the expansion of some neglected part, which
expansion is rendered more difficult by the effects of the cultivation bestowed
elsewhere.
Evil is often the result of over-anxiety, and men are
always trying to do too much, they are not content to leave well alone, to do
always just what the occasion demands and no more; they exaggerate every action
and so produce karma to be worked out in a future birth.
One of the subtlest forms of this evil is the hope and
desire of reward. Many there are who, albeit often unconsciously, are yet
spoiling all their efforts by entertaining this idea of reward, and allowing it
to become an active factor in their lives, and so leaving the door open to anxiety,
doubt, fear, despondency - failure.
The goal of the aspirant for spiritual wisdom is
entrance upon a higher plane of existence; he is to become a new man, more
perfect in every way than he is at present, and if he succeeds, his
capabilities and faculties will receive a corresponding increase of range and
power, just as in the visible world we find that each stage in the evolutionary
scale is marked by increase of capacity. This is how it is that the Adept
becomes endowed with marvellous powers that have been so often described, but
the main point to be remembered is, that these powers are the natural
accompaniments of existence on a higher plane of evolution, just as the ordinary
human faculties are the natural accompaniments of existence on the ordinary
human plane.
Many persons seem to think that adeptship is not so
much the result of radical development as of additional construction; they seem
to imagine that an Adept is a man, who, by going through a certain plainly
defined course of training, consisting of minute attention to a set of
arbitrary rules, acquires first one power and then another; and, when he has
attained a certain number of these powers is forthwith dubbed an adept. Acting
on this mistaken idea, they fancy that the first thing to be done towards attaining
adeptship is to acquire “powers” - clairvoyance and the power of leaving the
physical body and travelling to a distance are among those which fascinate the most.
To those who wish to acquire such powers for their own
private advantage, we have nothing to say; they fall under the condemnation of
all who act for purely selfish ends. But there are others, who, mistaking
effect for cause, honestly think that the acquirement of abnormal powers is the
only road to spiritual advancement. These look upon our Society as merely the
readiest means to enable them to gain knowledge in this direction, considering
it as a sort of occult academy, an institution established to afford facilities
for the instruction of would-be miracle-workers. In spite of repeated protests
and warnings, there are some minds in whom this notion seems ineradicably
fixed, and they are loud in their expressions of disappointment when they find
that what had been previously told them is perfectly true; that the Society was
founded to teach no new and easy paths to the acquisition of “powers”; and that
its only mission is to rekindle the torch of truth, so long extinguished for
all but the very few, and to keep that truth alive by the formation of a
fraternal union of mankind, the only soil in which the good seed can grow. The
Theosophical Society does indeed desire to promote the spiritual growth of
every individual who comes within its influence, but its methods are those of
the ancient Rishis, its tenets those of the oldest Esotericism; it is no
dispenser of patent nostrums composed of violent remedies which no honest
dealer would dare to use.
In this connection we would warn all our members, and
others who are seeking spiritual knowledge, to beware of persons offering to
teach them easy methods of acquiring psychic gifts; such gifts (laukika) are indeed comparatively easy
of acquirement by artificial means, but fade out as soon as the nerve-stimulus
exhausts itself. The real seership and adeptship which is accompanied by true
psychic development (lokothra), once
reached, is never lost.
It appears that various societies have sprung into
existence since the foundation of the Theosophical Society, profiting by the
interest the latter has awakened in matters of psychic research, and
endeavouring to gain members by promising them easy acquirement of psychic
powers. In India we have long been familiar with the existence of hosts of sham
ascetics of all descriptions, and we fear that there is fresh danger in this
direction, here, as well as in Europe and America. We only hope that none of
our members, dazzled by brilliant promises, will allow themselves to be taken
in by self-deluded dreamers, or, it may be, wilful deceivers.
To show that some real necessity exists for our
protests and warnings, we may mention that we have recently seen, enclosed in a
letter from Benares, copies of an advertisement put forth by a so-called
“Mahatma”. He calls for “eight men and women who know English and any of the
Indian vernaculars well”; and concludes by saying that “those who want to know
particulars of the work and the amount of
pay” should apply to his address, with enclosed postage stamps! Upon the
table before us lies a reprint of “The Divine Pymander”, published in England
last year, and which contains a notice to “Theosophists
who may have been disappointed in their expectations of Sublime Wisdom being
freely dispensed by HINDOO MAHATMAS”; cordially inviting them to send in
their names to the Editor, who will see them, “after a short probation”,
admitted into an Occult Brotherhood who “teach freely and WITHOUT RESERVE all they find worthy to receive.”
Strangely enough, we find in the very volume in question Hermes Trismegistus
saying:
“Herein is the only way which leads to Truth, which,
indeed, our ancestors trod, and by which they arrived at the attainment of the
Good. This way is beautiful and even; nevertheless, it is difficult for the
soul to walk therein so long as she is immured within the prison of the body. .
. . Therefore, abstain from the crowd, so
that by means of ignorance the vulgar may be kept within bounds, even through
fear of the unknown.”
It is perfectly true that some Theosophists have been
(through nobody’s fault but their own) greatly disappointed because we have
offered them no short cut to Yoga Vidya, and there are others who wish for
practical work. And, significantly enough, those who have done least for the
Society are loudest in fault-finding. Now, why do not these persons and all our
members who are able to do so, take up the serious study of mesmerism?
Mesmerism has been called the Key to the Occult Sciences[2], and it has this advantage that it offers peculiar
opportunities for doing good to mankind. If in each of our branches we were
able to establish a homeopathic dispensary with the addition of mesmeric
healing, such as has already been done with great success in Bombay [3], we might contribute towards
putting the science of medicine in this country on a sounder basis, and be the
means of incalculable benefit to the people at large.
There are others of our branches, besides the one at
Bombay, that have done good work in this direction, but there is room for
infinitely more to be done than has yet been attempted. And the same is the
case in the various other departments of the Society’s work. It would be a good
thing if the members of each branch would put their heads together and
seriously consult as to what tangible steps they can take to further the
declared objects of the Society. In too many cases the members of the
Theosophical Society content themselves with a somewhat superficial study of
its books, without making any real contribution to its active work. If the
Society is to be a power for good in this and other lands, it can only bring
about this result by the active cooperation of every one of its members, and we
would earnestly appeal to each of them to consider carefully what possibilities
of work are within his power, and then to earnestly
set about carrying them into effect. Right thought is a good thing, but
thought alone does not count for much unless it is translated into action.
There is not a single member in the Society who is not able to do something to aid the cause of truth and
universal brotherhood; it only depends on his own will, to make that something an accomplished fact.
Above all we would reiterate the fact that the Society
is no nursery for incipient adepts [4];
teachers cannot be provided to go round and give instruction to various
branches on the different subjects which come within the Society’s work of
investigation; the branches must study for themselves; books are to be had, and
the knowledge there put forth must be practically applied by the various members:
thus will be developed self-reliance and reasoning powers. We urge this
strongly; for appeals have reached us that any lecturer sent to branches must
be practically versed in experimental psychology and clairvoyance (i.e., looking into magic mirrors and
reading the future, etc., etc.). Now we consider that such experiments should
originate amongst members themselves to be of any value in the development of
the individual or to enable him to make progress in his “uphill” path, and
therefore earnestly recommend our members to try for themselves.
NOTES:
[1] These verses are also quoted by a Master of the
Wisdom in a letter dated 1882. See “The
Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett”, Theosophical University Press, Pasadena,
California, see Letter XLIII (43), p. 262.
In the Chronological Edition of the Mahatma Letters, see Letter 42. (CCA)
[2] “Occult Science”, in theosophy, is the science that studies
the essential aspects of the universe, which are occult to the five outer senses. Occult Science has nothing to do
with the use of “psychic powers” in the conventional sense. It is inseparable
from altruism and from an individual commitment to the happiness of all beings.
(CCA)
[3] This city is presently named Mumbai. (CCA)
[4] Adepts - in theosophy, the term refers to individuals
who are proficient in divine wisdom. (CCA)
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The article above
is here reproduced from “Theosophical Articles”, by Helena P. Blavatsky, The
Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, see Vol. II, pp. 110-114. It was published for the first time in “The Theosophist”, India, May, 1885, pp. 187-188.
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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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