The Theosophical Society,
From The Absolute to Man
From
A Textbook of Theosophy
By
C
Of
the Absolute, the Infinite, the All-embracing, we can at our present stage
know
nothing, except that It is; we can say nothing that is not a limitation,
and
therefore inaccurate.
In
It are innumerable universes; in each universe countless solar systems. Each
solar
system is the expression of a mighty Being, whom we call the Logos, the
Word
of God, the Solar Deity. He is to it all that men mean by God. He permeates it;
there is nothing in it which is not He; it is the manifestation of Him in such
matter as we can see. Yet He exists above it and outside it, living a
stupendous
life of His own among His Peers. As is said in Eastern Scripture:
“Having
permeated this whole universe with one fragment of Myself, I remain”.
Of
this higher life of His we can know nothing. But of the fragment of His life
which
energizes His system we may know something in the lower levels of its
manifestation.
We may not see Him, but we may see His power at work. No one who is clairvoyant
can be atheistic; the evidence is too tremendous.
Out
of Himself He has called this mighty system into being. We who are in it are
evolving
fragments of His life, Sparks of His divine Fire; from Him we all have
come;
into Him we shall all return.
Many
have asked why He as done this; why He (Page 10) has emanated from Himself all
this system; why He has sent us forth to face the storms of life. We cannot
know, nor is the question practical; suffice it that we are here, and we must
do our best. Yet many philosophers have speculated on this point and many
suggestions have been made. The most beautiful that I know is that of a Gnostic
philosopher:
“God
is Love, but Love itself cannot be perfect unless it has those upon whom it can
be lavished and by whom it can be returned. Therefore He put forth of
Himself
into matter, and He limited His glory, in order that through this natural and
slow process of evolution we might come into being; and we in turn according to
His will are to develop until we reach even His own level, and then
the
very love of God itself will become more perfect, because it will then be
lavished
on those, His own children, who will fully understand and return it,
and
so His great scheme will be realized and His Will be done”.
At
what stupendous elevation His consciousness abides we know not, nor can we know
its true nature as it shows itself there. But when He puts Himself down
into
such conditions as are within our reach, His manifestation is ever
threefold,
and so all religions have imaged Him as a Trinity. Three, yet
fundamentally
One; Three Persons (for person means a mask) yet one God, showing Himself in
those Three Aspects. Three to us, looking at Them from below, because Their
functions are different; one to Him, because He knows Them to be but facets of
Himself.
All
three of these Aspects are concerned in the evolution of the solar System;
all
Three are also concerned (Page 11) in the evolution of man. This evolution
is
His will; the method of it is His plan.
Next
below this Solar Deity, yet also in some mysterious manner part of Him,
come
His seven Ministers, sometimes called the Planetary Spirits. Using an
analogy
drawn from the physiology of our own body, Their relation to Him is like that
of the ganglia or the nerve centers of the brain. All evolution which comes
forth from Him comes through one or other of Them.
Under
Them in turn come vast hosts or order of spiritual beings, whom we call
angels
or devas. We do not yet know all the functions which
They fulfill in
different
parts of this wonderful scheme, but we find some of them intimately
connected
with the building of the system and the unfolding of life within it.
Here
in our world there is a great Official who represents the Solar Deity, and
is
in absolute control of all the evolution that takes place upon this planet.
We
may image Him as the true King of this world, and under Him are ministers in
charge of different departments. One of these departments is concerned with the
evolution of the different races of humanity, so that for each great race there
is
a Head who founds it, differentiates it from all others, and watches over its
development.
Another department is that of religion and education, and it is
from
this that all the greatest teachers of
history have come – that all
religions
have been sent forth. The great Official at the head of this
department
either comes Himself or sends one of His pupils to found a new
religion
when He decides that one is needed.
Therefore
all religions, at the time of their first presentation to the world, have
contained a definite statement of the Truth, and in its fundamentals this Truth
has been always the same. The presentations of it have varied because of
differences in the races to who it was offered. The condition of
civilization and the degree of evolution
obtained by various races have made it desirable to present this one Truth in
divers forms. But the inner Truth is always the same, and the source from which
it comes is the same, even though the external phases may appear to be
different and even contradictory. It is foolish for men to wrangle over the
question of the superiority of one teacher or one form of teaching to another,
for the teacher is always one sent by the Great Brotherhood of Adepts, and in
all its important points, in its ethical and moral principles, the teaching has
always been the same.
There
is in the world a body of Truth which lies at the back of all these religions, and
represents the facts of nature as far as they are at present known to man. In
the outer world, because of their ignorance of this, people are always
disputing and arguing about whether there is a God; whether man survives death;
whether definite progress is possible for him, and what is his relation to the
universe.
These
questions are ever present in the mind of man as soon as intelligence is
awakened. They are not unanswerable, as is frequently supposed; the answers to
them are within the reach of anyone who will make proper efforts to find them.
The truth is obtainable, and the conditions of its attainment are possible of
achievement by anyone who will make the effort.
In
the earlier stages of the development of humanity, the great Officials of the
Hierarchy
are provided from outside, from other and more highly evolved parts of the
system, but as soon as men can be trained to the necessary level of power
and
wisdom these offices are held by them. In order to be fit to hold such an
office
a man must raise himself to a very high level, and must become what is
called
an adept – a being of goodness, power and wisdom so great that He towers above
the rest of humanity, for He has already attained the summit of ordinary human
evolution; He has achieved what the plan of the Deity marked out for Him to
achieve during this age or dispensation. But His evolution later on continues
beyond that level – continues to divinity.
A
large number of men have attained the Adept level – men not of one nation, but
of all the leading nations of the world – rare souls who with indomitable
courage
have stormed the fortresses of nature, and captured her innermost
secrets,
and so have truly earned the right to be called Adepts. Among Them
there
are many degrees and many lines of activity; but always some of Them
remain
within touch of our earth as members of this Hierarchy which has in
charge
the administration of the affairs of our world and of the spiritual
evolution
of our humanity.
This
august body is often called the Great White Brotherhood, but its members
are
not a community all living together. Each of Them, to a large extent, draws
Himself
apart from the world, and They are in constant communication with one
another
and with Their Head; but Their knowledge of higher forces (Page 14 ) is
so
great that this is achieved without any necessity for meeting in the physical
world.
In many cases They continue to live each in His own country, and Their
power
remains unsuspected among those who live near Them. Any man who will may
attract their attention, but he can do it only by showing himself worthy of
Their notice. None need fear that his efforts will pass unnoticed; such
oversight
is impossible, for the man who is devoting himself to service such as
this,
stands out from the rest of humanity like a great flame in a dark night. A
few
of these great Adepts, who are thus working for the good of the world, are
willing
to take on apprentices those who have resolved to devote themselves
utterly
to the services of mankind; such Adepts are called Masters.
One
of these apprentices was Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky – a great soul who was
sent
out to offer knowledge to the world some forty years ago [1875]. With
Colonel
Henry Steele Olcott she founded the Theosophical Society for the spread of this
knowledge which she had to give. Among those who came into contact with her in
those early days was Mr. A. P. Sinnett, the editor of
The Pioneer, and his keen intellect at once grasped the magnitude and the
importance of the teaching which she put before him. Although Madame Blavatsky
herself had previously written Isis Unveiled, it had attracted but little
attention, and it
was
Mr. Sinnett who first made the teaching really
available for western readers
in
his two books, The Occult World and Esoteric Buddhism.
It
was through these works that I myself first came to know their author, and
afterwards
Madame Blavatsky (Page 15) herself; from both of them I learned much. When I
asked Madame Blavatsky how one could learn still more, how one could make
definite progress along the Path which she pointed out to us, she told me of
the possibility that other students might be accepted as
apprentices
by the great Masters, even as she herself had been accepted, and that the only
way to gain such acceptance was to show oneself worthy of it by earnest and
altruistic work.
She
told me that to reach that goal a man must be absolutely one-pointed in his
determination;
that no one who tried to serve both God and Mammon could ever hope to succeed.
One of these Masters Himself has said: “In order to succeed, a pupil must leave
his own world and come into ours”.
This
means that he must cease to be one of the majority who live for wealth and
power,
and must join the tiny majority who care nothing for such things, but
live
only in order to devote themselves selflessly to the good of the world. She
warned
us clearly that the way was difficult to tread, that we should be
misunderstood
and reviled by those who still lived in the world, and that we had
nothing
to look forward to but the hardest of hard work; and though the result
was
sure, no one could foretell how long it would take to arrive at it. Some of
us
accepted these conditions joyfully, and we have never for a moment regretted
the
decision.
After
some years of work I had the privilege of coming into contact with these
great
Masters of the Wisdom; from Them I learnt many things – among others, how to
verify for myself at first hand most (Page 16) of the teachings which They had
given. So that, in this matter, I write of what I know, and what I have seen
for myself. Certain points are mentioned in the teaching, for the verification
of
which powers are required far beyond anything which I have gained so far. Of
them, I can only say that they are consistent with what I do know, and in many
cases are necessary as hypotheses to account for what I have seen. They came to
me along with the rest of the theosophical system upon the authority of these
mighty Teachers. Since then I have learned to examine for myself by far the
greater part of what I was told, and I have found the information given to me
to be correct in every particular; therefore I am justified in assuming the
probability
that that other part, which as yet I cannot verify, will also prove
to
be correct when I arrive at its level.
To
attain the honour of being accepted as an apprentice of one of the Masters of
the
Wisdom is the object set before himself by every earnest Theosophical
student.
But it means a determined effort. There have always been men who were willing
to make the necessary effort, and therefore there have always been men who
knew. The knowledge is so transcendent that when a man grasps it fully he
becomes more than man, and he passes beyond our ken.
But
there are stages in the acquirement of this knowledge, and we may learn
much,
if we will, from those who themselves are still in process of learning;
for
all human beings stand on one or other of the rungs of the ladder of
evolution.
The primitive stand at its foot; we who are civilized beings have
already
(Page 17) climbed part of the way. But though we can look back and see
rungs
of the ladder below us which we have already passed, we may also look up and
see many rungs above us to which we have not yet attained. Just as men are
standing even now on each of the rungs below us, so that we can see the stages
by which man has mounted, so also are there men standing on each of the rungs
above us, so that from studying them we may see how man shall mount in the
future. Precisely because we see men on every step of this ladder, which leads
up to a glory which as yet we have no words to express, we know that the ascent
to that glory is possible for us. Those who stand high above us, so high that
They seem to us as gods in Their marvellous knowledge
and power, tell us that They stood not long since where we are standing now,
and They indicate to us clearly the steps which lie between, which we also must
tread if we would be as They
The Theosophical Society,