The Higher Knowledge Must
Be Transmitted in Gradual Ways
A Master of the Wisdom
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A 2018 Editorial Note
The following
text is reproduced from Letter
49 in “The
Mahatma Letters”. The fragment
starts at the
lower half of p. 282 and goes until
two lines past
the half of p. 284. The volume with
the Letters is
available at our associated websites.[1]
The article is the
partial reproduction of one long
paragraph. It was divided
in smaller paragraphs so
as to make it
easier to have a contemplative reading.
(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)
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The Occult
Science is not one, in which secrets
can be communicated of a sudden, by a written or even verbal communication. If
so, all the “Brothers” should have to do, would be to publish a Hand-book of the art which might be
taught in schools as grammar is.
It is the common mistake of people that we willingly
wrap ourselves and our powers in mystery - that we wish to keep our knowledge
to ourselves, and of our own will refuse - “wantonly and deliberately” to
communicate it.
The truth is that till the neophyte attains to the
condition necessary for that degree of Illumination to which, and for which, he
is entitled and fitted, most if not all
of the Secrets are incommunicable.
The receptivity must be equal to the desire to instruct. The illumination must come from within. Till then no
hocus pocus of incantations, or mummery of appliances, no metaphysical lectures
or discussions, no self-imposed penance can give it. All these are but means to
an end, and all we can do is to direct the use of such means as have been
empirically found by the experience of ages to conduce to the required object.
And this was and has been no secret for thousands of years. Fasting, meditation, chastity of
thought, word, and deed; silence for certain periods of time to enable nature
herself to speak to him who comes to her for information; government of the
animal passions and impulses; utter unselfishness of intention, the use of
certain incense and fumigations for physiological purposes, have been published
as the means since the days of Plato and Iamblichus in the West, and since the
far earlier times of our Indian Rishis.
How these must be complied with to suit each individual temperament is of
course a matter for his own experiment and the watchful care of his tutor or Guru. Such is in fact part of his course
of discipline, and his Guru or initiator can but assist him with his experience
and will power but can do no more until
the last and Supreme initiation.
I am also of opinion that few candidates imagine the
degree of inconvenience - nay suffering and harm to himself - the said
initiator submits to for the sake of his pupil. The peculiar physical, moral,
and intellectual conditions of neophytes and Adepts alike vary much, as anyone
will easily understand; thus, in each case, the instructor has to adapt his
conditions to those of the pupil, and the strain is terrible for to achieve
success we have to bring ourselves into a full
rapport with the subject under training.
And as, the greater the powers of the Adept the less
he is in sympathy with the natures of the profane who often come to him
saturated with the emanations of the outside world, those animal emanations of
the selfish, brutal, crowd that we so dread - the longer he was separated from
that world and the purer he has himself become, the more difficult the
self-imposed task. Then - knowledge, can only be communicated gradually; and
some of the highest secrets - if actually formulated even in your well prepared
ear - might sound to you as insane gibberish, notwithstanding all the sincerity
of your present assurance that “absolute trust defies misunderstanding.” This
is the real cause of our reticence. This is why people so often complain with a
plausible show of reason that no new knowledge is communicated to them, though
they have toiled for it for two, three or more years.
Let those who really desire to learn abandon all and come to us, instead of
asking or expecting us to go to them. But how is this to be done in your world,
and atmosphere? “Woke up sad on the morning of the 18th.” Did you? Well, well,
patience, my good brother, patience. Something has occurred, though you have preserved no consciousness of the
event; but let this rest. Only what more can I do? How am I to give expression
to ideas for which you have as yet no language?
The finer and more susceptible heads get like
yourself, more than others do, and even when they get a little extra dose it is lost for want of words and
images to fix the floating ideas. Perhaps, and undoubtedly you know not to what
I now refer to. You will know it one
day - Patience. To give more knowledge to a man than he is yet fitted to
receive is a dangerous experiment; and furthermore, other considerations go to
restrain me.
The sudden communication of facts, so transcending the
ordinary, is in many instances fatal not only to the neophyte but to those
directly about him. It is like delivering an infernal machine or a cocked and
loaded revolver into the hands of one who had never seen such a thing. Our case
is exactly analogous. We feel that the time is approaching, and that we are
bound to choose between the triumph of Truth or the Reign of Error and -
Terror.
NOTE:
[1] Click to see “The Mahatma Letters”.
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The above text was
published at our associated websites on 4 December 2018.
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On 14 September 2016, after examining the
state of the esoteric movement worldwide, a group of students decided to found
the Independent Lodge of Theosophists. Two of the priorities
adopted by the ILT are learning from the past and building
a better future.
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