Protecting Our Inner
Connection to Truth
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
Each step ahead along
the steep and narrow path to Wisdom must be sustained - both individually and
collectively - by a stern discernment of illusions; and one must be able to act
accordingly, choosing the way to truth and rejecting falsehoods.
If we want to act
with justice in the theosophical movement - or in any movement inspired by good
will and respect for life - , we can’t treat traitors and loyal people in the
same way.
Universal
brotherhood works with the law of karma and justice. It works through it, and
not against it.
In the ancient
Chinese Analects, one can read:
“Duke Ai inquired
saying: ‘What should I do to ensure the contentment of the people?’ Confucius
replied: ‘If you promote the upright and dismiss the ill-doer the people will
be contented; but if you promote the ill-doer and dismiss the upright, the
people will be discontented’.” [1]
There must be an
utmost respect for facts and for honest research in the theosophical
movement. Otherwise, it would turn
dogmatic.
The Cause of the
movement is the search for truth. It is not the glory of any corporation. Free
research is of the essence. Yet the difference between loyalty to the Cause and
disloyalty to the Cause must be clearly seen and recognized if the movement is
to grow in a healthy way.
And so it will.
There are a few
significant reasons why Helena P. Blavatsky was attacked as a person in the 19
century. She showed that Churches and religious creeds as they are now cause
more harm than good to mankind. She demonstrated the illusions to which present-day
science attach itself, while working at the service of Money and Power.
Slandering her was
a practical way for Churches and “scientists” to protect their vested
interests. They had no other way to defend themselves because what she said was
true. Their only alternative was to organize her moral assassination.
On the other hand,
if someone within the very theosophical movement slanders its main founder -
H.P.B. -; if such a person insists in spreading editorial forgery against her
even after being warned several times, then there must be something wrong, and good-willing
people cannot avoid their ethical duty. We are in the 21st century now.
Those who think HPB
was a fraud have a right to think so; but they should not remain in the
movement - if they have any reasonable amount of self-respect.
If HPB was a fraud
in their view, what are they doing in a movement they think is based on fraud? If
they do want to belong to a movement of rascals, the theosophical movement
cannot be their home. They must go a place that is in affinity with them.
In a little-known
letter to William Q. Judge dated 19 March 1887 and written from Ostende, HPB wrote
about the ability that any living organism must have to defend itself from
destructive enemies and agents.
She wrote (and the
underlining is hers):
“When a fruit has a
worm in it, the latter does its work of destruction to the bitter end. But the
fruit can’t help it - a human fruit endowed with will,
intelligence & perambulatory powers can. If the human fruit who could
extract the damaged part 10 years ago did not do it, - for lack of resolution
& choice of either one thing or the other - of or ‘to be or not to be’ -
why could he curse his fate, the web of his own fabrication.” [2]
That was written in
the context of an individual life, but it applies to the theosophical movement
as a whole and to its limited ability (so far) to defend itself from disloyalty.
HPB also wrote, in
the same letter to William Judge:
“Make a rule that
any fellow found out slandering another - be expelled after the second
warning.” [3]
The theosophical
movement must improve its ability to have discernment - and to use it by acting
accordingly - in order to protect and to expand its inner connection to Truth.
NOTES:
[1] “The Analects”,
Confucius, Dover-Thrift Editions, Dover Publications, Mineola, N.Y., U.S.A.,
1995, 128 pp., see paragraph XIX in Book II, p.
8.
[2] “Theosophical
History” magazine, October 1994, pp. 125-126.
[3] “Theosophical
History” magazine, same issue and page.
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An initial version
of the above article was sent as a message to the E-group E-Theosophy in July 2010.
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See in our
associated websites the articles “Defending
the Old Lady” and “A Masterpiece of
Editorial Forgery”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
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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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