The Science of Opportunities, and
the Karma of Theosophical Groups
No victory can ever
be taken for granted.
1. How Indulgence Reincarnates
* Life is an infinite collection of wave motions, large and small. Indulgence can be defined as the absence of a correct self-discipline or an attachment to pleasant habits. It reincarnates at remarkably short intervals, and each time it gets born it adopts different appearances.
* Quite often the pilgrim can only recognize the resurrection of indulgence once the illusions are already mature and their negative aspects became painfully visible. Then the pilgrim must create a new wave of self-discipline; a renewed undulatory motion of conscious effort in the right direction.
* Having proper self-discipline means creating correct waves of thought, and feeling, and action. One’s duty is to avoid the apparently sweet but deadly harmful waves whose effects destroy the energy that comes from the spiritual soul. In other words, one must ceaselessly choose the right forms of action which lead to a quiet victory.
2. The Astral Currents of Human Existence
* Life works therefore like an unlimited Ocean.
* The initiatory path consists of studying and understanding the larger or universal vibratory currents, from the point of view of one’s existential unity with them. Yet this must be done without forgetting the smaller currents. The pilgrim has to perceive first-hand the essential unity of all waves of life and Karma, in the infinite ocean of life. He keeps his feet firmly on the ground, and his head high in the sky. He must be an expression on a small scale of Jacob’s ladder.
* The microcosm is inseparable from the macrocosm. Forgetting such a fact constitutes one of the main Flowers in the garden of Unnecessary Ignorance. Its odor is far from pleasant.
* The blessed odors, in turn, flow eternally from the heavenly Garden in which the spiritual soul dwells. The paradise of the spirit is made of pure blessing, but has no outward form.
3. The Science of Opportunities
* Are there psychological, astral and spiritual forms of surfing? We certainly have at our disposal a practical science which allows us to take better advantage of the healthy opportunities that life offers us all the time. Actually locating blissful opportunities, however, depends on being in syntony with the substance of inner happiness.
* Developing the ability to accept contentment is harder than it sounds. Human beings tend to become attached to their favorite forms of suffering, including the several “personal dramas” that may go along through pain.
* Attachment to past suffering is popularly known as “trauma”. On the other hand, Serendipity is possible any time, as long as there is pure Attention in the search for truth. [1]
4. The Assumptions and the Horizon
* Every thought is largely conditioned by its premises or starting points.
* The many subconscious forms of hope, illusion and fear help determine the complex territory in which premises and assumptions are established and influence one’s actions.
* Along the road to knowledge, one’s thinking needs to be regularly reexamined from the point of view of the One Law of Equilibrium. Thus the premises of our thought-process get gradually improved and become more universal, overcoming the lower obstacles one by one.
* Every experienced pilgrim knows that it is a privilege to constantly expand his horizon. The painful loss of his previous guiding lights allows him to obtain broader and more realistic points of view. The initiatory experience brought about by this constant widening tends to take place every day, if one has enough spiritual self-confidence to accept it. One must remember: subconscious fear tries to prevent consciousness from honestly looking at truth.
* As the pilgrim overcomes the obstacles brought about by his own naiveté, the expansion of his consciousness gains momentum. The process of reducing one’s ignorance takes place not only according to astrological cycles; it also acts in combination with the flow of the various layers of collective Karma, local, national, civilizational and global.
5. An Exercise in Self-Discipline
* It is helpful to build a practical indifference to the subtle poisons that surround everyone in materialistic societies.
* A daily exercise in self-discipline consists in objectively imagining yourself as someone who is free from avidity and greed; who does not suffer from curiosity; who is not in a hurry, does not say thoughtless words and rejects the idea of absorbing superficial information. Such a practice creates an attitude that encourages five abstentions. The citizen sees himself as someone who can live: 1) without gluttony; 2) without undue curiosity; 3) without haste; 4) without vulgarity; 5) without being psychologically dependent on the conventional Western media. [2]
6. The Karma of Theosophical Groups
* The law of Karma rules everything in the universe – subjective and objective, dense and subtle. [3] Therefore, theosophical lodges and societies have their own Karma on various levels of consciousness and existence.
* That means that the actions and reactions of a lodge generate a chain of causation which can be seen as its Karma. The established goals of a lodge are its pledges, around which its Karma gets organized.
* Taking into consideration Helena Blavatsky’s text “A Warning to All Esotericists” [4], students may ask:
* What is the Karma of a theosophical lodge or society which remains Loyal to its own sources of inspiration?
* And what is its Karma if it becomes disloyal to, or forgetful of, the spirit of its original and noble goals?
* The topic demands careful analysis and is not easy to describe in words. However, a couple of things can be shared here with interested students.
* ONE.
* In the first place, the Karma and duty of every theosophical group created to help humanity (which is the great orphan according to the Mahatmas) is to check and verify that it remains loyal to its goals and inner sources of inspiration. For the Karma of every theosophical lodge or society that fails is to become irrelevant regarding the future of mankind. And that happens as soon as a lodge forgets its original and inner commitment.
* Such an institution might become worse than irrelevant, if its action misleads honest, good-willing souls into the traps of pseudo-esotericism and spiritual vanity. However, there is an extenuating factor in this issue, which is expressed by the Jesus of the New Testament in Luke, 23:34:
* “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
* Ultimately, the Karma of disloyalty is the Karma of spiritual ignorance; and, regarding ignorance, each one must fight mainly his own.
* TWO.
* On the other hand, we have the Karma of those groups – often smaller – that remain loyal to their own pledges and did not innerly give up their original and declared inner goals.
* Their Karma will not be an easy one.
* They will have a generous amount of self-renewing difficulties, tests and traps which they will have to face as best they can.
* Their choice is for the narrow uphill path. [5] Their victory and progress will be hardly visible for quite some time.
* There seems to be no spiritual vanity or personal glory involved in their victory, for they have studied, understood and renounced such illusions and even find them a little bit ridiculous. But even that depends on their remaining vigilant at all times. No victory can ever be taken for granted.
NOTES:
[1] See the article Sacred Aspects of Serendipity.
[2] These two paragraphs also occur in the article “Ideias ao Longo do Caminho – 50”.
[3] See “Are There Conditions Under Which Karma Does Not Exist?”, “Annotations on Karma”, “Immortal Sages Humbly Obey the Law” and “M.C.’s Text on Karma, Annotated”.
[4] A Warning to All Esotericists.
[5] Take a look at texts The Vertical Side of a Journey and The Up-hill Road (the Theosophy of a Poem by Christina Rossetti).
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The article “Thoughts Along the Road – 98” was published on the websites of the Independent Lodge of Theosophists on 20 July 2026. An initial version of it is part of the September 2023 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, pp. 16-19.
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Helena Blavatsky (photo) wrote these words: “Deserve, then desire”.
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