Texts and
Fragments On a Decisive Task
Helena P. Blavatsky
Helena P. Blavatsky
Bust of H. P. Blavatsky (1831-1891), made by Alexey Leonov
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A 2016 Editorial Note:
The following
material deserves being read once and
again in a calm,
thoughtful way. The topic is not easy:
students must
remember that as long the motive is not pure
and elevated, it
is better that the will remains weak. Thus, at
least, the fall
and the defeat will be smaller. Before one’s will
gets strong, it
must be responsible, constant, and must be
firmly established
in the world of altruism and universal truth.
A worthwhile
intention is inseparable from ethics and brotherhood.
(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)
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1. Will and Desire
Will is the exclusive possession of man on this our
plane of consciousness. It divides him from the brute in whom instinctive
desire only is active.
Desire, in its widest application, is the one creative
force in the Universe. In this sense it is indistinguishable from Will; but we
men never know desire under this form while we remain only men. Therefore Will
and Desire are here considered as opposed.
Thus Will is the offspring of the Divine, the God in
man; Desire the motive power of the animal life.
Most men live in and by desire, mistaking it for will.
But he who would achieve must separate will from desire, and make his will the
ruler; for desire is unstable and ever changing, while will is steady and
constant.
Both will and desire are absolute creators, forming the man himself and his surroundings. But will
creates intelligently - desire blindly and unconsciously. The man, therefore,
makes himself in the image of his desires, unless he creates himself in the
likeness of the Divine, through his will, the child of the light.
His task is twofold: to awaken the will, to strengthen
it by use and conquest, to make it absolute ruler within his body; and,
parallel with this, to purify desire.
Knowledge and will are the tools for the
accomplishment of this purification. [1]
2. Desire Made Pure
When desire is for the purely abstract - when it has
lost all trace or tinge of “self” - then it has become pure.
The first step towards this purity is to kill out the
desire for the things of matter, since these can only be enjoyed by the separated personality.
The second is to cease from desiring for oneself even
such abstractions as power, knowledge, love, happiness, or fame; for they are
but selfishness after all.
Life itself teaches these lessons; for all such
objects of desire are found Dead Sea fruit in the moment of attainment. This
much we learn from experience. Intuitive perception seizes on the positive truth that satisfaction is
attainable only in the infinite; the will makes that conviction an actual fact
of consciousness, till at last all desire is centred on the Eternal. [2]
3. Two
Fragments From “Isis Unveiled”
* The will creates; for the will in motion is force, and force produces matter. [3]
* Eliphas Levi, the modern magician, describes the
astral light in the following sentence: “We have said that to acquire magical
power, two things are necessary: to disengage the will from all servitude, and
to exercise it in control.” [4]
4.
Selected Sentences From Various Articles
[Quotations
will be found in the “Collected Writings”, H. P. Blavatsky, TPH, USA. Volume
and page are indicated at the end of each excerpt.]
* Admitting even that the will of man is not the direct cause of magnetic effects, it yet, as
Monsieur Donato, the celebrated magnetizer of Paris, remarks, ‘plays upon and
guides many a mysterious force in nature, the mere existence of which is
totally unknown to science’. (Vol. II, p. 282.)
* …Does our friend suppose any Adept ever became such
without making himself one, without breaking through every impediment through
sheer force of WILL and SOUL-POWER?
Such adeptship would be a mere farce. ‘AN ADEPT BECOMES, HE IS
NOT MADE’,
was the motto of the ancient Rosicrucians. (Vol. III, p. 28.)
* Genuine unselfish LOVE
combined with WILL,
is a ‘power’ in itself. (Vol. IX, p. 286.)
* Regularity in life consists of regularity in speech
and action, and these cannot exist apart from regularity in thought and
feeling. In Practical Theosophy, therefore, it is necessary that these five
conditions should coexist viz. RIGHT THOUGHT, RIGHT FEELING, RIGHT SPEECH,
RIGHT ACTION, RIGHT LIVING. (Vol. XII, p. 213.)
* Prayer and contemplation added to asceticism are the
best means of discipline in order to become a Theurgist, where there is no
regular initiation. For intense prayer for the accomplishment of some object is
only intense will and desire,
resulting in unconscious Magic. (Vol. XIV, p. 116.)
* Colonel Olcott [5]
was never an atheist “to our knowledge”, but an esoteric Buddhist, rejecting a personal God. Nor was genuine prayer - i.e., the exercise of one’s intense will over events (commonly
brought about by blind chance) to determine their direction - ever repugnant to
him. Even prayers as commonly understood, are not “repugnant” in his sight, but
simply useless, when not absurd and ridiculous as in the case of prayers to
either stop or bring about rain, etc. By “prayer” he means - WILL,
the desire or command magnetically
expressed that such and such a thing beneficent to ourselves or others
should come to pass. (Vol. IV, pp. 519-520.)
NOTES:
[1]
From
“Collected Writings”, H.P. Blavatsky, TPH, USA, volume VIII, page 109.
[2]
From
“Collected Writings”, H.P. Blavatsky, TPH, USA, volume VIII, page 129.
[3]
“Isis Unveiled”, H. P. Blavatsky, Theosophy Company, volume I, p. 140.
[4]
“Isis Unveiled”, Theosophy Co., volume I, p. 137.
[5] A
reference to Henry S. Olcott, co-founder of the modern theosophical movement in
1875, in New York.
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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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