True Wisdom Is the Creation Within Oneself
of Harmony Between the Divine and the Human
John Garrigues
J. Garrigues (1868 - 1944)
000000000000000000000000000000000
The Function of
Theosophists
was first published in “Theosophy”
magazine, January, 1931, pp. 114-116,
with no indication as to its authorship.
An analysis of its contents and style
indicates it was written by Mr. Garrigues. [1]
(CCA)
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
“Before
undertaking to teach it is necessary
to learn, and all
too often those who are most
anxious to teach
are the most unwilling to learn.”
Theosophical names and Theosophical claims are being
given far and wide to very much that is not Theosophy - that is the antithesis
of the teachings, the aims, the objects of the Theosophical Movement.
This cannot be prevented, for copyrights do not run in the world of
ideas, nor would such exclusiveness, were it even possible, be in accord with
the genius of the Wisdom-Religion. Theosophy is for all men - for the bad quite
as much as for the good, for the foolish quite as much as for the wise. It is,
indeed, the ill-disposed, the self-seekers, the simple, who more than any
others need that correction and direction which Theosophy alone can give, in
this as in any other Age.
Assuredly any thoughtfully disposed man must admit that the various
schools of philosophy, the many castes and religious sects of the Orient, of
India in particular, have for many centuries been putting into the mouths of
the Great Teachers of old ideas and practices wholly foreign to the basic spirit
of the great Scriptures; have been quoting their words, using their great
Names, for purposes wholly alien to the One Object of all true Teachers and
Teachings. In the Western world the same misuse and abuse of Christ and his
teachings are everywhere in evidence. It is not intended to be suggested that
this world-wide and world-old degradation of the Spiritual to utilitarian, to
sectarian, to personal ends, is wilfully done. Rather, it proceeds from the
ignorance and misapprehension of the purpose of Life itself on the part of
devotees themselves more blind than those they assume to lead.
Before undertaking to teach it is necessary to learn, and all too often
those who are most anxious to teach are the most unwilling to learn. The whole
difficulty springs from the common
tendency to draw conclusions from insufficient premises, and play the oracle
before ridding oneself of that most stupefying of all psychic anaesthetics - Ignorance. [2]
Mankind has ever been what one observant writer has called “incurably
religious”, but mankind has never yet been Spiritual. Universally, the
religious instinct in all men has led them to judge of the Divine from the
Human standpoint, and so we have a long procession of personal Gods, a long
succession of personal agents of these gods - men who assume to stand as
connecting links between their God and his worshippers.
The Divine Order in Nature is thus made into a gross caricature of human
government, with its rewards to the obedient, its punishment of rebels against
the “established order”, its long, long chain of authorities from greatest to
least, its masses who pay tribute to these vested interests - all in the Name
of the highest and holiest men can conceive. Did not H.P. Blavatsky speak truly
when she called all this a psychic
anaesthetic - Ignorance, both on the part of the governors and the
governed?
It is only when a man knows for himself Why he is in the world that he
is able really to study Theosophy, or true Occultism. Few are those actually
prepared to admit that their place and condition, whether as governor or
governed, are the reaping of what they have sown - in any Spiritual sense. Each
knows for himself that his reaping is in large part undesirable, yet proceeds
headlong and headstrong to sow again from the same inner motives and basis that
have already produced these undesirable results.
We change our method of sowing and cultivating; we change the fields in
which we sow - but we go right on sowing the same seeds: the seed of the personal, the selfish, the human ideas of
Nature, of Man, of the relation between them. Each of us is constantly judging
all the others, ready to tell them what to do and what to abstain from doing,
ready and anxious to interpret for them the Law and the Gospel, whether of
Krishna, Buddha, Christ, the Masters of Wisdom, or of ordinary conduct in daily
life - knowing all the time that we are unable to govern our own motives, our
own minds, our own senses, our own bodies. Is not all this a totally false
relation with each other, a total misapprehension of duty, of the fundamental
Principles of all Evolution?
Theosophical ideas are as prevalent in the world as rain-clouds in the
sky. They always have been, whether sowed by one great Teacher or another, whether
precipitated in one era or another. Men could not live
without them - not even their mortal human existence could go on without some
true ideas of law and order, of sowing and reaping. We have all learned many of
the tricks of “spells” and the methods of using the subtler but still material
forces of psychic and physical nature: they constitute our religions and our
sciences. But have these made us any happier, any wiser, any nearer the Divine
in nature and in ourselves? Have they brought us Self-knowledge, that
realisation of the Divinity in all Nature which constitutes Universal
Brotherhood - the brotherhood that
gives the Master of Wisdom alike Compassion and his Immortality?
Theosophy pure and simple is the philosophy of the rational explanation
of things, not a nursery for forcing a supply of Occultists, nor a set of
religious doctrines or scientific tenets. Theosophy pure and simple has still
as hard a battle as ever to fight, for all the many “brotherhoods” formed and
attempted to be formed and forming in its great Name are but shams and
failures, and must continue to be, so long as Theosophists pursue their labor,
or repose, from the merely human and personal basis.
The function of Theosophists is to fit themselves by study and
application of their philosophy to the reformation of their own inner,
invisible nature and principles. Men cannot all be Occultists, but they can all
be Theosophists.
Many who have never heard of Theosophy or of any Theosophical
association by name are, none the less, Theosophists at heart and in conduct
without knowing it themselves; for the essence of Theosophy in a practical
sense is the perfect harmonizing of the divine with the human in man, the adjustment
of his god-like qualities and aspirations, and their sway over the terrestrial
or animal passions in him.
NOTES:
[1] As to the
criteria for identifying articles written by J.G. and published anonymously,
see the text “Life and Writings of John
Garrigues”, which can be found in our associated websites. (CCA)
[2] The theosophical
movement must be therefore threefold. 1) It must be a living chain of
individual and collective research along the original (Buddhic) lines and
written teachings set by the Mahatmas and H.P. Blavatsky. Such a research must aim at building a bridge
between universal teachings and actual karmic conditions situated anywhere in
space and time. 2) The movement has
to work as a magnetic field for daily life tests, connected to the research
made. 3) The movement must be a
process of brotherly sharing not only of information, but also accumulated
experience. See in our websites the text “Learning
from Each and Every Event”, by H. P. Blavatsky. (CCA)
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
