Theosophy Has to Tell The
TRUTH to The Very Face of LIE
A Master
of the Wisdom
An image from the Himalayas,
in a painting by Nicholas Roerich
000000000000000000000000000000000
A 2012 Editorial Note:
First
published in 1888, the following
document
clarifies a few fundamental
aspects
of the modern theosophical effort.
In
order to make it easier to read the text
from
a contemplative point of view, we have
divided
some of the paragraphs in smaller ones.
(CCA)
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
“Remain rather as indifferent to
the abuse as to the praise of those who
can never know you as you really are…”
“Human praise and enthusiasm are short-lived
at best; the laugh of the scoffer and condemnation
of the indifferent looker-on are sure to follow, and
generally to out-weigh the admiring praise of the friendly.”
It is divine philosophy alone, the spiritual
and psychic blending of man with nature, which, by revealing the fundamental
truths, that lie hidden under the objects of sense and perception, can promote
a spirit of unity and harmony in spite of the great diversities of conflicting
creeds.
Theosophy,
therefore, expects and demands from the Fellows of the Society [1] a great mutual toleration and
charity for each other’s shortcomings, ungrudging mutual help in the search for
truths in every department of nature - moral and physical. And this ethical
standard must be unflinchingly applied to daily life.[2]
Theosophy should not
represent merely a collection of moral verities, a bundle of metaphysical
ethics, epitomized in theoretical dissertations. Theosophy must be made
practical; and it has, therefore, to be disencumbered of useless
digressions, in the sense of desultory orations and fine talk.
Let every
Theosophist only do his duty, that which
he can and ought to do, and very soon the sum of human misery, within and
around the areas of every Branch of your Society, will be found visibly
diminished. Forget SELF in working for others - and the task will become an
easy and a light one for you. . . . . . . . .
Do not set your
pride in the appreciation and acknowledgment of that work by others. Why should
any member of the Theosophical Society [3],
striving to become a Theosophist, put any value upon his neighbours’ good or
bad opinion of himself and his work, so long as he himself knows it to be
useful and beneficent to other people? Human praise and enthusiasm are
short-lived at best; the laugh of the scoffer and condemnation of the
indifferent looker-on are sure to follow, and generally to out-weigh the
admiring praise of the friendly. Do not despise the opinion of the world, nor
provoke it uselessly to unjust criticism. Remain rather as indifferent to the
abuse as to the praise of those who can never know you as you really are, and
who ought, therefore, to find you unmoved by either, and ever placing the
approval or condemnation of your own Inner Self higher than that of the
multitudes.
Those of you who
would know yourselves in the spirit of truth, learn to live alone even amidst
the great crowds which may sometimes surround you. Seek communion and
intercourse only with the God within your own soul; heed only the praise or
blame of that deity which can never be separated from your true self, as
it is verily that God itself: called the HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS.
Put without delay
your good intentions into practice, never leaving a single one to remain only
an intention - expecting, meanwhile, neither reward nor even acknowledgment for
the good you may have done. Reward and acknowledgment are in yourself and
inseparable from you, as it is your Inner Self alone which can appreciate them
at their true degree and value. For each one of you contains within the
precincts of his inner tabernacle the Supreme Court - prosecutor, defence, jury
and judge - whose sentence is the only one without appeal; since none can know
you better than you do yourself, when once you have learned to judge that Self
by the never wavering light of the inner divinity - your higher Consciousness.
Let, therefore, the masses, which can never know your true selves, condemn your
outer selves according to their own false lights. . . . . . .
The majority of the
public Areopagus is generally composed of self-appointed judges, who have never
made a permanent deity of any idol save their own personalities - their lower
selves; for those who try in their walk in life, to follow their inner light
will never be found judging, far less condemning, those weaker than themselves.
What does it matter then, whether the former condemn or praise, whether they
humble you or exalt you on a pinnacle?
They will never
comprehend you one way or the other. They may make an idol of you, so long as
they imagine you a faithful mirror of themselves on the pedestal or altar which
they have reared for you, and while you amuse or benefit them. You cannot
expect to be anything for them but a temporary fetish, succeeding
another fetish just overthrown, and followed in your turn by another idol. Let,
therefore, those who have created that idol destroy it whenever they like,
casting it down with as little cause as they had for setting it up.
Your Western Society
can no more live without its Khalif [4]
of an hour than it can worship one for any longer period; and whenever it
breaks an idol and then besmears it with mud, it is not the model, but the
disfigured image created by its own foul fancy and which it has endowed with
its own vices, that Society dethrones and breaks.
Theosophy can only
find objective expression in an all-embracing code of life thoroughly
impregnated with the spirit of mutual tolerance, charity and brotherly love.
Its Society, as a body [5], has a
task before it which, unless performed with the utmost discretion, will cause
the world of the indifferent and the selfish to rise up in arms against it.
Theosophy has to
fight intolerance, prejudice, ignorance and selfishness, hidden under the
mantle of hypocrisy. It has to throw all the light it can from the torch of
Truth, with which its servants are entrusted. It must do this without fear or
hesitation, dreading neither reproof nor condemnation.
Theosophy, through
its mouthpiece, the Society, has to tell the TRUTH to the very face of LIE; to
beard the tiger in its den, without thought or fear of evil consequences, and
to set at defiance calumny and threats.
As an Association, it has not only the right, but the duty to
uncloak vice and do its best to redress wrongs, whether through the voice of
its chosen lecturers or the printed word of its journals and publications -
making its accusations, however, as impersonal as possible. But its Fellows, or
Members, have individually no such right.
Its followers have,
first of all, to set the example of a firmly outlined and as firmly applied
morality, before they get the right to point out, even in a spirit of kindness,
the absence of a like ethic unity and singleness of purpose in other
associations or individuals. No Theosophist should blame a brother, whether
within or outside of the association; neither may he throw a slur upon another’s
actions or denounce him, lest he himself lose the right to be considered a
Theosophist. For, as such, he has to turn away his gaze from the imperfections
of his neighbour, and centre rather his attention upon his own shortcomings in
order to correct them and become wiser. Let him not show the disparity between
claim and action in another, but, whether in the case of a brother, a neighbour
or simply a fellow man, let him rather ever help one weaker than himself on the
arduous walk of life.
The problems of true
Theosophy and its great mission are, first, the working out of clear
unequivocal conceptions of ethic ideas and duties, such as shall best and most
fully satisfy the right and altruistic feelings in men; and second, the
modelling of these conceptions for their adaptation into such forms of daily
life, as shall offer a field where they may be applied with most equitableness.
Such is the common
work placed before all who are willing to act on these principles. It is a
laborious task, and will require strenuous and persevering exertion; but it must
lead you insensibly to progress, and leave you no room for any selfish
aspirations outside the limits traced. .
. . . . .
Do not indulge
personally in unbrotherly comparison between the task accomplished by yourself
and the work left undone by your neighbours or brothers. In the fields of
Theosophy, none is held to weed out a larger plot of ground than his
strength and capacity will permit him.
Do not be too severe
on the merits or demerits of one who seeks admission among your ranks, as the
truth about the actual state of the inner man can only be known to Karma, and
can be dealt with justly by that all-seeing LAW alone.
Even the simple
presence amidst you of a well-intentioned and sympathising individual may help
you magnetically. . . . . . . You are the free volunteer workers on the fields
of Truth, and as such must leave no obstruction on the paths leading to that
field.
. . . . . . . . . .
. . .
The degree of
success or failure are the landmarks the masters have to follow, as they will
constitute the barriers placed with your own hands between yourselves and those
whom you have asked to be your teachers. The nearer your approach to the goal
contemplated - the shorter the distance between the student and the Master.
NOTES:
[1] “Fellows of the Society”, that is, “members of the theosophical
movement”. The original theosophical
society ceased to exist during the 1890s. (CCA)
[2] In his
book “Man for Himself”, Erich Fromm writes:
“It is impossible to understand man and his emotional
and mental disturbances without understanding the nature of value and moral
conflicts. The progress of psychology lies not in the direction of divorcing an
alleged ‘natural’ from an alleged ‘spiritual’ realm and focusing attention on
the former, but in the return to the great tradition of humanistic ethics which
looked at man in his physico-spiritual totality, believing that man’s aim is to be himself and that the condition for
attaining this goal is that man be for
himself.” (“Man for Himself”, Erich Fromm, Holt,
Rinehart and Winston Ltd., New York, USA, 1960, 254 pp., see p. 7.) (CCA)
[3] Id est,
Theosophical Movement. (CCA)
[4] Khalif, or Caliph: a person who rules or commands. (CCA)
[5] Or its Movement and associations, as bodies. (CCA)
000
“Some Words on Daily
Life” is reproduced from “Lucifer” magazine, London, UK, January 1888
edition, pp. 344-346. It can also be found in “The Collected Writings”,
H. P. Blavatsky, T.P.H., volume VII, pp. 173-175. “Lucifer” is
the ancient name of planet Venus. Since the Middle Ages, the meaning of
the word has been distorted by ill-advised priests.
The editor of the magazine, H. P. Blavatsky, wrote that “Some Words
on Daily Life” was written by a Master of Wisdom. Mr. C. Jinarajadasa
has published the same text, with a few differences and commentaries, as Letter
82 in “Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom”, Second Series, T.P.H.,
Adyar, India, 1925 / 1973.
000
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.
000
