A FREE INTRO TO THEOSOPHY
A Rough
Outline of Theosophy
By
Annie
Besant
First Published
November 1921
IN dealing with a great theme within narrow limits one has always to
make a choice of evils: one must either substantiate each point, buttress it up
with arguments, and thus fail to give any roughly complete idea of the
whole; or one must make an outline of the whole, leaving out the proofs which
bring conviction of the truth of the teaching. As the main object of this paper
is to place before the average man or woman an idea of Theosophy as a whole, I
elect to take the inconvenience of the latter alternative, and use the
expository instead of the controversial method. Those who are sufficiently
interested in the subject to desire further knowledge can easily pass on into
the
investigation of evidences, evidences that are within the reach of all
who have patience, power of thought and courage.
We, who are Theosophists, allege that there exists a great body of
doctrine philosophical, scientific and ethical, which forms the basis of, and
includes
all that is accurate in, the philosophies, sciences, and religions of
the ancient and modern worlds.
This body of doctrine is a philosophy and a
science more than a religion in the ordinary sense of the word, for it
does not impose dogmas as necessary to be believed under any kind of
supernatural penalties, as do the various Churches of the world. It is indeed a
religion, if religion be the binding of life by a sublime ideal; but it puts
forward its teachings as capable of demonstration, not on authority which it is
blasphemy to
challenge or deny.
That some great body of doctrine did exist in antiquity, and was
transmitted from generation to generation, is patent to any investigator. It
was this which was taught in the Mysteries, of which Dr. Warburton wrote: “The
wisest and best men in the Pagan world are unanimous in this, that the
Mysteries were instituted pure, and proposed the noblest ends by the worthiest
means”. To speak of the Initiates is to speak of the greatest men of old; in
their ranks we find Plato and Pythagoras, Euclid and Democritus, Thales and
Solon, Apollonius and lamblichus. In the Mysteries
unveiled, they learned their wisdom, and gave out to the world such fragments
of it as their oath allowed. But those fragments have fed the world for
centuries, and even yet the learned of the modern West sit at the feet of these
elder sons of wisdom.
Among the teachers of the early Christian Church some of these men were
found; they held Christianity in its esoteric meaning, and used exoteric dogmas
merely as veils to cover the hidden
truth. “Unto you it is given”, said Jesus, “to know the mystery of the
parables” (Mark, iv, 2). Clemens Alexandrinus
and Origen both recognised the esoteric nature of the
underlying truths of Christianity, as before them did Paul. In West as in East,
exoteric religions were but the popular representations of the Secret Wisdom.
But with the triumph of ecclesiasticism, the Secret Wisdom drew back
further and further into the shade, until its very existence slowly faded from
the minds of men. Now and then one of its disciples appeared in Christendom,
and gave to the world some discovery which started thought on some new and
fruitful line; thus Paracelsus, with his discovery of hydrogen, his magnetic
treatment for the core of disease, and his many hints at secrets of nature not
even yet worked out.
Trace through the Middle Ages, too often by the lurid light of flames blazing
round a human body, the path along which the pioneers of Science toiled, and it
will be found that the magicians and wizards were the finger-posts that marked
the way. Passing strange it is to note how the minds of men have changed in
their aspect to the guardians of the Hidden Wisdom. Of old, in their passionate
gratitude, men regarded them as well nigh divine, thinking no honours too great to pay to those who had won the right of
entrance into the temple of the Unveiled Truth. In the Middle Ages, when men,
having turned from the light, saw devils everywhere in the darkness, the adepts
of the Right-Hand Path were dreaded as those of the Left, and where-ever new
knowledge appeared and obscure regions of nature were made visible, cries of
terror and wrath rent the air, and men paid their benefactors with torture and
with death, In our own time, secure in the completeness of our knowledge,
certain that our philosophy embraces all things possible in heaven and earth,
we neither honour the teachers as Gods nor denounce
them as devils: with a shrug of contempt and a sniff of derision we turn from
them, as they come to us with outstretched hands full of priceless gifts, and
we mutter, “Frauds, charlatans!” entrenched as we are in our modern conceit
that only our century is wise.
Theosophy claims to be this Secret Wisdom, this great body of doctrine,
and it alleges that this precious deposit, enriched with the results of the
investigations of generations of Seers and Sages, verified by countless
experiments, is today, as of old, in the hands of a mighty Brotherhood,
variously spoken of as Adepts, Arhats,
Masters. Mahatmas, Brothers, who are living men, evolved further than average
humanity, who work ever for the service of their race with a perfect and selfless
devotion, holding their high powers in
trust for the common good, content to be without recognition, having
passed beyond all desires of the personal self.
The claim is a lofty one, but it can be substantiated by evidence. I
leave it as a mere statement of the position taken up. Coming to the Western
world today, Theosophy speaks far more openly than it has ever done before,
owing to the simple fact that, with the evolution of the race, man has become
more and more fitted to be the recipient of such knowledge, so that what would
once be taught
to only a small minority may now find a wider field. Some of the
doctrine is now thrown broadcast, so that all who can receive it may; but the
keys which unlock the Mysteries are still committed but to few hands, hands too
well tried to
tremble under their weight, or to let them slip from either weakness or
treachery.
As of old, so now, the Secret Wisdom is guarded, not by the arbitrary
consent or refusal of the Teachers to impart instruction, but by the capacity
of the student to understand and to assimilate.
Theosophy postulates the existence of an eternal Principle, known only
through its effects. No words can describe It, for words imply discrimination,
and This is ALL. We murmur, Absolute, Infinite, Unconditioned — but the words
mean
naught. SAT, the Wise speak of: BE-NESS, not even Being, nor Existence.
Only as the Manifested becomes, can language be used with meaning; but the
appearance of the Manifested implies the Unmanifested,
for the Manifested is transitory and mutable, and there must be Something that
eternally endures. This Eternal must be postulated, else whence the existences
around us ? It must contain within Itself That which is the essence of the germ
of all possibilities, all potencies: Space is the only conception that can even
faintly mirror It without preposterous distortion, but silence least offends in
these high regions where the wings of thought beat faintly, and lips can only
falter, not pronounce.
The universe is, in Theosophy, the manifestation of an aspect of SAT.
Rhythmically succeed each other periods of activity and periods of repose,
periods of manifestation and periods of absorption, the expiration and
inspiration of the Great Breath, in the figurative and most expressive
phraseology of the East. The outbreathing is the
manifested world; the inbreathing terminates the period of activity.
The Root-Substance differentiates into spirit-matter, whereof the
universe, visible and invisible, is built up, evolving into seven stages, or
planes, of manifestation, each denser than its predecessor; the substance is
the same in all, but the degrees of its density differ. So the chemist may have
in his receiver water held invisible: he may condense it into a faint
mist-cloud, condense it further into vapour, further
yet into liquid, further yet into solid; throughout he has the same chemical
compound, though he changes its condition. Now it is well to remember
that the chemist is dealing with facts in Nature and that his results may therefore
throw light on natural methods, working in larger fields; we may at least learn
from such an illustration to clarify our conceptions of the past course of
evolution.
Thus, from the Theosophical standpoint, spirit and matter are
essentially one, and the universe one living whole from center to
circumference, not a molecule in it that is not instinct with life. Hence the
difficulty that scientists have always found in defining life. Every definition
they have made has broken down as excluding some phenomena that they were
compelled to recognize as those of life. Sentiency, in our meaning of the word
there may not be, say in the mineral; but is it therefore dead ? Its particles
cohere, they vibrate, they attract and they repel: what are these but manifestations
of that living energy which rolls the worlds in their courses, flashes from
continent to continent, thrills from root to summit of the plant, pulses in the
animal, reasons in the man ?
One Life and therefore One Law, everywhere, not a Chaos of warring atoms
but a Kosmos of ordered growth. Death itself is but a
change in life-manifestation, life which has outworn one garment, and, rending
it in pieces, clothes itself anew. When the thoughtless say, “He is dead”, the
wise know that the countless lives of which the human body is built up have
become charged with more energy than the bodily structure can stand, that the
strain has become too great, that disruption must ensue. But death is only
transformation not destruction, and every molecule has pure life essence at its
core with the material garment it has woven round itself of its own substance
for action on the objective plane.
Each of the seven Kosmic planes of
manifestation is marked off by its own characteristics; in the first pure
spirit, the primary emanation of the ONE,
subtlest, rarest, of all manifestations, incognisable
even by the highest of Adepts save as present in its vehicle, the Spiritual
Soul: without form, without
intelligence, as we use the word — these matters are too high, “I cannot
attain unto them”. Next comes the plane of Mind, of loftiest spiritual
intelligence, where first entity as entity can be postulated; individualism
begins, the Ego
first appears. Rare and subtle is matter on that plane, yet form is
there possible, for the individual implies the presence of limitation, the
separation
of the “I” from the “not I”. Fourth, still densifying,
comes the plane of animal passions and desires, actual forms on their own
plane. Then, fifthly, that of the vivid animating life-principle, as absorbed
in forms. Sixthly, the astral plane, in which matter is but slightly rarer than
with ourselves. Seventhly, the plane familiar to all of us, that of the
objective universe.
Let us delay for a moment over this question of planes, for on the
understanding of it hinges our grasp of the philosophical aspect of Theosophy.
A plane may be defined as a state marked off by clear characteristics; it must
not be thought of as a place, as though the universe were made up of shells one
within the other like the coats of an onion. The conception is metaphysical,
not
physical, the consciousness acting on each plane in fashion appropriate
to each.
Thus a man may pass from the plane of the objective in which his
consciousness is generally acting, on to the other planes: he may pass into the
astral in sleep, under mesmerism, under the influence of various drugs; his
consciousness may be removed from the physical plane, his body passive, his
brain inert; an electric light leaves his eyes unaffected, a gong beaten at his
ear cannot rouse the organ of hearing; the organs through which his
consciousness normally acts in the physical universe are all useless, for the
consciousness that uses them is transferred to another plane.
But he can see, hear, understand, on the astral plane, see sights
invisible to physical eyes, hear sounds inaudible to physical ears. Not real ?
What is real ? Some people confine the real to the tangible, and only believe
in the existence of a thing that can knock them down with a lesion to prove the
striking. But an emotion can slay as swiftly as an arrow; a thought can cure
with as much certainty as a drug. All the mightiest forces are those which are
invisible on this plane, visible though they be to senses subtler than our own.
Take the case of a soldier who, in the mad passion of slaughter, the lust for
blood, is wounded in the onward charge, and knows not the wounding till his
passions cool and the fight is over; his consciousness during the fight is
transferred to the fourth plane, that of the emotions and passions, and it is
not till it returns from that to the plane of the physical body that pain is
felt. So again will a great philosopher, his consciousness rising to the plane
of intelligence, becomes wholly abstracted — as we well say — from the physical
plane; brooding over some deep problem, he forgets all physical wants, all
bodily appetites, and becomes concentrated entirely on the thought-plane, the
fifth, in Theosophic parlance.
Now the consciousness of man can thus pass from plane to plane because
he is himself the universe in miniature, and is built up himself of these seven
principles, as they are sometimes called, or better, is himself a
differentiation of consciousness on seven planes. It may be well, at this stage,
to give to these states of consciousness the names by which they are
known in Theosophical literature, for although some people shrink from names
that are unfamiliar, there are, after all, only seven of them, and the use of
them enables one to avoid the continual repetition of clumsy and inexact
descriptive sentences. To Macrocosm and Microcosm alike the names apply,
although they are most often found in relation to man. The Spirit in man is
named Âtmă, cognizable only in its vehicle Buddhi, the Spiritual Soul; these are the reflections in
man of the highest planes in the universe.
The Spiritual Intelligence is Manas, the Ego
in man, the 1immortal entity, the link between Âtmă-Buddhi
and the temporary personality. Below these come in order
These seven states are grouped under two heads: Âtma-Buddhi-Manas
make up the trinity in man, imperishable, immortal, the pilgrim that passes
through countless lives; the Individual, the True Man. Kâma,
Prâna, Lińga Sharîra, and Sthűla Sharîra form the quaternary, the transitory part of the
human being, the person, which perishes gradually, onwards from the death of
the physical body.
This disintegrates, the molecules of physical, astral, kămic matter finding all new forms into which they are
built, and the more quickly they are all resolved into their elements the
better for all concerned. The consciousness of the normal man
resides chiefly on the physical, astral and kamic
planes, with the lower portion of the Mănasic. In
flashes of genius, in loftiest aspirations, he is touched for a moment by the
light from the higher Mănasic regions, but this comes
— only comes — to the few, and to these but in rare moments of sublime
abstraction.
Happy they who even thus catch a glimpse of the Divine Augoeides, the immortal Ego within them. To none born of
women, save the Masters, is it at the present time given by the law of
evolution to rise to the Âtmic-Buddhic planes in man;
thither the race will climb millenniums hence, but at present it boots not to
speak thereof.
Each of these planes has its own organisms, its own phenomena, the laws
of its own manifestation; and each can be investigated as exactly, as
scientifically, as experimentally, as the objective plane with which we are
most familiar. All that is necessary is that we should use our appropriate
organs of sensation, and appropriate methods of investigation. On the objective
plane we are already able to obey this rule; we do not use our eyes to listen
to sounds, and then deny that sounds exist because our eyes cannot hear them
nor do we take in hand the microscope to examine a distant nebula, and then say
that the nebula is not there because the field of the microscope is dark.
A very slight knowledge of our own objective universe will place us in
the right mental attitude towards the unknown. Why do we see, hear, taste, feel
? Merely because our physical body is capable of receiving certain impressions
from without by way of the avenues of senses.
But there are myriads of phenomena, as real as those we familiarly
cognize, which are to us non-existent, for the very simple reason that our
organs of sensation are not adapted to receive them. Take the air-vibrations
which, translated into terms of consciousness, we call sound. If an instrument
that emits successive notes be sounded in a room with a dozen people, as
the notes become shriller and shriller one person after another drops out
of the circle of auditors and is wrapped in silence while still a note
is sounding, audible to others there; at last a pipe speaks that no one hears,
and
though all the air be throbbing with its vibrations, silence complete
reigns in the room. The vibration-waves have become so short and rapid that the
mechanism of the human ear cannot vibrate in unison with them; the objective phenomenon
is there, but the subjective does not respond to it, so that for man it does
not exist.
Similar illustrations might be drawn in connection with every sense, and
it is surely not too much to claim that if, on the plane to which our bodies
are
correlated, phenomena constantly escape our dull perceptions, men shall
not found on their ignorance of other planes the absolute denial of their
existence.
Only informed opinion is of any weight in discussion, and in Occult
Science, as in every other, the mere chatter and vituperation of uninformed
criticism do not count. The Occultist can be no more moved thereby than
Professor Huxley by the assertions of a fourth-standard schoolboy.
Those who have time, ability, and courage, can develop in themselves the
senses and the capacities which enable the consciousness to come into touch
with the higher planes, senses and capacities already evolved and fully at work
in some, and to be in the course of ages the common inheritance of every child
of man. I know that the exercise of these powers often arouses in the minds of
people convinced of their reality an eager desire to possess them, but only
those who will pay the price can attain possession. And the first installment
of that price is the absolute renunciation of all that men prize and long for
here on earth; complete self-abnegation; perfect devotion to the service of
others; destruction of all personal desires; detachment from all earthly
things. Such is the first step on the Right-Hand Path, and until that step is
taken it is idle to talk of further progress along that thorny road. Occultism
wears no crown save that of thorns, and its scepter of command is the
seven-knotted wand, in which each knot marks the payment of a price from which
the normal man or woman would turn shuddering away. It is because of this that
it is not worth while to deal with this aspect of Theosophy at any length. What
does concern us is the general plan of evolution, the pilgrimage of the Ego, of
the individual, encased in the outer shell of the personality.
The evolution of man consists in the acquirement by the Ego of
experience, and the gradual moulding of the physical
nature into a form which can readily respond to every prompting of the Spirit
within. This evolution is carried on by the repeated incarnation of the Ego,
overshadowed by the Spirit, in successive personalities, through which it lives
and acts on the objective plane. The task
before it when it starts on the wheel of life on this earth; during the
present cycle, is to acquire and assimilate all experience, and so to energize
and sublimate the objective form of man that it may become a fit instrument and
dwelling for the Spirit; the complete assimilation of the Ego with the Spirit,
of Manas with Âtma-Buddhi,
being the final goal of the long and painful pilgrimage. It is obvious that
such work cannot be accomplished in one lifetime, or in a few. For such a
gigantic task countless lives must be required, each life but one step in the
long climbing upward. Each life should
garner some fresh experience, should add some new capacity or strengthen
some budding force; thus is built up through numberless generations the Perfect
Man. Hence the doctrine of Reincarnation is the very core and essence of
Theosophy, and according to the hold this belief has on life, so will be the
grasp of the learner on all Theosophic truth.
There is no doctrine in the range of philosophy which throws so much
light on the tangled web of human life as does this doctrine of Reincarnation.
Take, for instance, the immense difference in capacity and in character found
within the limits of the human race. In all plants and in all animals the
characteristic qualities of species may vary, but within comparatively narrow
limits; so also with man, so far as his outer form, his instincts and his
animal passions are concerned. They vary of course, as those of the brute vary,
but their broad
outline remains the same.
But when we come to study the difference of mental capacity and moral
character, we are struck with the vast distances that separate man from man.
Between the savage, counting five upon his fingers,
and the Newton who calculates the movements of a planet and predicts its
course, how wide and deep a gulf as to intellect! Between a barbarian dancing
gleefully round the bleeding body of his foe, as he mangles and torments the
living tissues, and the Howard who gives his life to save and aid the lowest
fallen of his people, how vast the difference as to character ! And this leaves
out of account those living men, who are as far ahead of Newton and of Howard
as these are above the least evolved of our race. Whence the great divergences,
unparalleled among the rest of the organisms on our globe ? Why is man
alone so diverse ! Theosophy points in answer to the reincarnation of the Ego,
and sees in the differing stages of experience reached by that Ego the
explanation of the differing intellectual and moral capacities of the
personality. Baby Egos — as I have heard H. P. Blavatsky call them with
reference to their lack of human experience — inform the little-evolved
humanity, while those who dwell in the more highly developed races are those
who have already garnered much rich harvest of past experience and have thereby
become capable of more rapid growth.
The Ego that has completed a span of earth-life, and has shaken off the
worn-out personality 1that it informed, passes into a subjective state of rest,
ere reassuming “the burden of the flesh”. Thus it remains for a period varying
in length according to the stage of evolution it has reached. When that period
is exhausted, it is drawn back to earth-life, to such environment as is
suitable for the growing of the seed it has sown in its past.
As surely as hydrogen and oxygen rush into union under certain
conditions of temperature and of pressure, is the Ego drawn by irresistible
affinity to the circumstances that yield opening for its further evolution.
Suitable environment, suitable parents to provide a suitable physical body, such
are some of the conditions that guide the place and time of reincarnation.
The desire for sentient life, the desire for objective expression, that
desire which set the universe a-building, impels the Ego to seek renewed
manifestation; it is drawn to the surroundings which its own past has made
necessary for its further progress. Nor is this all. I have spoken of the fact
that each plane has its own organisms, its own laws; the Mănasic
plane is the plane on which thoughts take forms, objective to all who are able
to perceive on that plane. All the experiences of a life, gathered up after
death, and the essence, as it were, extracted, have their appropriate
thought-forms on the Mănasic plane; as the time for
the reincarnation of the Ego approaches, these, with previous unexhausted
similar thought-forms, pass to the astral plane, clothe themselves in astral
matter, and mould the astral body into the form suitable for the working out of
their own natural results.
Into this astral body the physical is built, molecule by molecule, the
astral mould thus, in its turn, moulding the
physical. Through the physical body, including its brain, the reincarnated Ego
has to work for the term of that incarnation, and thus it dwells in a
tabernacle of its own construction, the
inevitable resultant of its own past earth lives.
To how many of the problems that vex thinkers today by the apparent
hopelessness of their solution, is an explanation suggested if, for the moment,
Reincarnation be accepted even as a possible hypothesis. Within the limits of a
family, hereditary physical likeness, often joined by startling mental and
moral divergences; twins, alike as far as regards heredity and pre-natal
environment, yet showing in some cases strong resemblance, in others no less dissimilarity.
Cases of precocity, where the infant brain manifests the rarest
capacities precedent to all instruction. Cases of rapid gain of knowledge,
where the knowledge seems to be remembered rather than acquired, recognized
rather than
learned. Cases of intuition, startling in their swiftness and lucidity,
insight clear and rapid into complicated problems without guide or teacher to
show the way. All these and many other similar puzzles receive light from the
idea of the
persistent individual that informs each personality, and it is a
well-known principle in seeking for some general law underlying a mass of
apparently unrelated phenomena that the hypothesis which explains most, brings
most into accord with an intelligible sequence, is the one most likely to repay
further investigation.
To those, again, who shrink from the idea that the Universe is one vast
embodiment of injustice, the doctrine of Reincarnation comes as a mental relief
from a well nigh unbearable strain. When we see the eager mind imprisoned in an
inefficient body; when we note the differences of mental and moral capacity
that make all achievement easy to one, impossible to others; when we come
across what seem to be undeserved suffering, disadvantageous circumstances;
when we feel longings after heights unattainable for lack of strength; then the
knowledge that we create our own character, that we have made our own strength
or our own weakness, that we are not the sport of an arbitrary God or of a
soulless Destiny, but are verily and indeed the creators of ourselves and of
our lot in
life — this knowledge comes to us as a support and an inspiration,
giving energy to improve and courage to endure.
This immutable law of cause and effect is spoken of as Karma (action) in
Theosophy. Each action — using the word to include all forms of activity,
mental, moral, physical — is a cause and must work out its full effect.
Effect as regards the past, it is cause as regards the future, and under this
sway of karmic law moves the whole life of man as of all worlds. Every
debt incurred must be duly paid in this or in some other life, and as the wheel
of life turns round, it brings with it the fruit of every seed that we have
sown. Reincarnation under karmic law, such is the message of Theosophy to a
Christendom which relies on a vicarious atonement and a swift escape to
Paradise when the grave closes on the dead. Reincarnation under karmic law,
until the fruit of every experience has been gathered, every blunder rectified,
every fault eradicated, until compassion has been made perfect, strength
unbreakable, tenderness complete, self-abnegation the law of life, renunciation
for others the natural and joyous impulse of the whole nature.
But how, it may be asked, can you urge to effort, or press
responsibility, if you regard every action as one link in an infrangible chain of cause and effect
? The answer lies in the sevenfold nature of man, in the action of the
higher on the lower. The freewill of man on this plane is lodged in the Mănasic entity, which acts on his lower nature. Absolute
freewill is there none, save in the
Unconditioned. When manifestation begins, the Universal Will becomes
bound and limited by the laws of Its own manifestation, by the fashion of the
expression It has chosen as Its temporary vehicle. Conditioned, it is limited
by the conditions It has imposed on Itself, manifesting under the garb of the
universe in which it wills to body Itself forth.
On each plane Its expression is limited by the capacities of Its
embodiments. Now the Manasic entity in its own sphere
is the reflection, the image, of the Universal Will in Kosmos.
So far as
the personality is concerned, the promptings, the impulses, from the Mănasic plane are spontaneous, have every mark of freedom,
and if we start from the lowest plane of objective nature, we shall see how
relative freedom is possible.
If a man be loaded with chains, his muscles will be limited in their
power of movement. They are constrained in their expression by the dead weight
of iron pressing upon them; yet the muscular force is there, though denied
outward expression, and the iron cannot prevent the straining of the fibers
against the force used in their subdual. Again, some strong emotion, some powerful
impulse
from the kăma-mănasic plane, may hold rigid
the muscles under lesion that would make every fibre
contract and pull the limb away from the knife. The muscles are compelled from
the plane above them, the personal will being free to hold them rigid or leave
them to their natural reaction against injury.
From the standpoint of the muscles the personal will is free, and it
cannot be controlled save as to its material expression on the material plane.
When the Mănasic entity sends an impulse downwards to
the lower nature with which it is linked, conflict arises between the animal
desire and the human will. Its interferences appear to the personality as
spontaneous, free, uncaused by any
actions on the lower plane; and so they are, for the causes that work on
it are of the higher not the lower planes.
The animal passions and desires may limit its effective expression on
their own plane, but they cannot either prompt or prevent its impulses: man's
true freedom is found when his lower nature puts itself into line with the
higher, and gives free course to the will of the higher Ego. And so with that
Ego itself: able to act freely on the planes below it, it finds its own best
freedom as channel of the Universal Will from which it springs, the conscious
willing harmony with the All of which it is part. An effect cannot be altered
when the cause has appeared; but that effect is itself to be a cause, and here
the will can act. Suppose a great sorrow falls on some shrinking human heart;
the effect is there, it cannot be avoided, but its future result as cause may
be one of two things; Kâma may rebel, the whole
personal nature may rise in passionate revolt, and so, warring against the
Higher Will, the new cause generated will be of disharmony, bearing in its womb
new evil to be born in days to come. But Kâma may
range itself obediently with karmic action; it may patiently accept the pain,
joyfully unite itself to the Higher Will, and so make the effect as cause to be
pregnant with future good.
Remains but space for one last word on that which is Theosophy in action
— the Universal Brotherhood of Man. This teaching is the inevitable outcome of
the doctrines of the One Universal Spirit common to all humanity, Reincarnation
and Karma. Every distinction of race and sex,
of class and creed, fades away before the essential unity of the indwelling
Spirit, before the countless incarnations under all forms of outward garmenture, making the experience of prince and beggar part
of the training of all in turn. Here is to be found the motive spring of action
— love for all mankind. In each child of man the true Theosophist recognises a brother to be loved and served, and in the
Theosophical Society, Theosophists, under the direction of the Masters, have
formed a nucleus for such Brotherhood of Humanity and have made its recognition
the only obligation binding on all who enter. Amid class hatreds and warring
sects it raises this sublime banner of human love, a continual reminder that
essentially all humanity is one, and that the goal to which we travel is the
same for all.
Without this recognition of Brotherhood all science is useless and all
religion is hypocrisy. Deeper than all diversity, mightier than all animosity, is
that
Holy Spirit of Love. The Self of each is the Higher Self of all, and
that bond is one which nothing in all worlds can avail to break. That which
raises one raises all; that which degrades one degrades all. The sin and crime
of our races are our sin and crime, and only as we save our brethren can we
save ourselves. One in our inception, one in our goal, we must needs be one in
our progress; the “curse of separateness” that is on us, it is ours to remove,
and Theosophy, alike as religion and philosophy, will be a failure save as it
is the embodiment of the life of Love.
For more info on Theosophy
Try these
Cardiff
Theosophical Society meetings are informal
and there’s always a
cup of tea afterwards
The Cardiff Theosophical Society Website
The National Wales Theosophy Website
Dave’s Streetwise Theosophy Boards
This is for everybody not just people in Wales
Theosophy Cardiff’s Instant Guide to Theosophy
General pages about Wales, Welsh History
and The History of Theosophy in Wales
Teosofia en Cardiff (Página en Espańol)
One Liners & Quick Explanations
Theosophy Cardiff Nirvana Pages
The Most Basic Theosophy Website in the Universe
If you run a Theosophy Study
Group you can use
this as an introductory handout
The
South of Heaven Guide to
Theosophy and Devachan
The preparation of this Website
The Spiritual Home of Urban Theosophy
The Earth Base for Evolutionary Theosophy
National Wales Centre for Theosophy
Blavatsky Wales Theosophy Group
______________________
_______________________
Theosophy Cardiff Cancels its Affiliation
to
the Adyar Based Theosophical Society
and becomes an independent body within
the Worldwide Theosophical Movement
Theosophy Birmingham (England)
The Birmingham Annie Besant Lodge
Theosophy Cardiff has links with the
__________________
The Theosophy
The Theosophy Cardiff Guide to
The Theosophy Cardiff Guide to
The Theosophy Cardiff Guide to
The Terraced Maze of Glastonbury Tor
Glastonbury and
Joseph of Arimathea
The Grave of King Arthur & Guinevere
Views of Glastonbury High Street
The Theosophy Cardiff Guide to
__________________
Camberley, Surrey, England
GU15 2LF
Concerns about
the fate of the wildlife as
Tekels Park is to be Sold to a Developer
Concerns are
raised about the fate of the
wildlife as The Spiritual
Retreat,
Tekels Park in Camberley, Surrey,
England is to be
sold to a developer.
Tekels Park is a 50 acre woodland park,
purchased
for the Adyar
Theosophical
In addition to
concern about the park,
many are worried about the
future
of the Tekels Park Deer as they
Confusion as the Theoversity moves out of
Tekels Park to
Southampton, Glastonbury &
Chorley in Lancashire while the
leadership claim
that the Theosophical
Society will carry on using
Tekels Park despite its sale to a developer
Anyone planning a
“Spiritual” stay at the
Tekels Park Guest House should be aware of the sale.
It doesn’t
require a Diploma in Finance or even
a Diploma in
Anything to know that this is a
bad time economically to sell Tekels Park
Future of Tekels Park Badgers in
Doubt
Party On! Tekels Park Theosophy
NOT
Tekels Park & the Loch Ness Monster
A Satirical view
of the sale of Tekels Park
in Camberley, Surrey to a developer
The Toff’s Guide to the Sale of Tekels Park
What the men in
top hats have to
say about the sale
of Tekels Park
____________________
Classic
Introductory Theosophy Text
A Text Book of
Theosophy By C W Leadbeater
What Theosophy Is
From the Absolute to Man
The Formation of a Solar System The Evolution of Life
The Constitution of Man After Death
Reincarnation
The Purpose of Life
The Planetary Chains
The Result of Theosophical Study
An Outstanding
Introduction to Theosophy
By a student of
Katherine Tingley
Elementary Theosophy Who is the Man? Body and Soul
Body, Soul and Spirit Reincarnation Karma
Preface to the American Edition Introduction
Occultism and its Adepts The Theosophical Society
First Occult Experiences Teachings of Occult Philosophy
Later Occult Phenomena Appendix
Preface
Theosophy and the Masters General Principles
The Earth Chain Body and Astral Body Kama – Desire
Manas Of
Reincarnation Reincarnation Continued
Karma Kama Loka Devachan Cycles
Arguments Supporting Reincarnation
Differentiation Of Species Missing Links
Psychic Laws, Forces, and Phenomena
Psychic Phenomena and Spiritualism
Karma Fundamental Principles Laws: Natural and Man-Made The Law of Laws
The Eternal Now
Succession
Causation The Laws of Nature A Lesson of The Law
Karma Does Not Crush Apply This Law
Man in The Three Worlds Understand The Truth
Man and His Surroundings The Three Fates The Pair of Triplets Thought, The Builder
Practical Meditation Will and Desire
The Mastery of Desire Two Other Points
The Third Thread Perfect Justice
Our Environment
Our Kith and Kin Our Nation
The Light for a Good Man Knowledge of Law The Opposing Schools
The More Modern View Self-Examination Out of the Past
Old Friendships
We Grow By Giving Collective Karma Family Karma
National Karma
India’s Karma
National Disasters
Try these if you are looking for a
local Theosophy Group or Centre
UK Listing of Theosophical Groups
Please tell us about your UK Theosophy Group
Worldwide Directory of Theosophical Links
General pages
about Wales, Welsh History
and The History of
Theosophy in Wales
Bangor On Dee / Bangor Is-Y-Coed
North Wales on the Border with England
Holyhead Mountain, Anglesey,
North West Wales
Wales is a
Principality within the United Kingdom
and has an eastern
border with England. The land
area is just over 8,000
square miles. Snowdon in
North Wales is the
highest mountain at 3,650 feet.
The coastline is
almost 750 miles long. The population
of Wales as at the 2001 census is 2,946,200.
__________________________________________
into categories and
presented according to relevance of website.
All Wales Guide to Theosophy
Instant Guide to Theosophy
Theosophy Wales Hornet
Theosophy Wales Now
Cardiff Theosophical Archive Elementary Theosophy
Basic Theosophy Theosophy in Cardiff Theosophy in Wales
Hey Look! Theosophy in Cardiff
Streetwise Theosophy
Grand Tour Theosophy Aardvark Theosophy Starts Here
Theosophy206 Theosophy Introduction
Theosophy Cardiff’s Face Book of
Great Theosophists
Theosophy Evolution Theosophy Generally Stated
Biography of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Dave Marsland’s guide to
starting
your own Independent Theosophy Group
THEOSOPHY MEETINGS
Please click here for Current Theosophical
Events in Cardiff
Theosophy has no dogma, no priesthood
or diploma elite and
recognizes no spiritual head.
All ideas presented at meetings are for consideration.
Please click here for Current
Theosophical Events in Cardiff
Webpage posted by Dave
Marsland
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