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
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
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.
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
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
Theosophy 206 Biography of William Q Judge
Theosophy Cardiff’s Face Book of Great Theosophists
____________________________
Cardiff
Theosophical Society
Mission
Statement
The dominant
and core activity of Cardiff Theosophical Society
is to
promote and assist the study of Theosophical Teachings
as
defined by the writings of Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky,
William Quan Judge, Alfred Percy Sinnett and
their lineage.
This
Mission Statement does not preclude non Theosophical
activities
but these must be of a spiritual nature
and/or
compatible with the Objects of the Society.
____________________________
कार्डिफ थियोसोफिकल सोसायटी
मिशन स्टेटमेंट
कार्डिफ थियोसोफिकल सोसायटी के प्रमुख और मुख्य गतिविधि
थियोसोफिकल शिक्षाओं का अध्ययन को बढ़ावा देने के लिए और सहायता के लिए है
के रूप में Helena Petrovna Blavatsky के लेखन से परिभाषित,
William Quan Judge, Alfred Percy Sinnett और उनके वंश.
इस मिशन स्टेटमेंट बाधा नहीं थियोसोफिकल गैर
गतिविधियों लेकिन ये एक आध्यात्मिक प्रकृति की होनी चाहिए
और / या सोसायटी की वस्तुओं के साथ संगत.
Kārḍipha
thiyōsōphikala sōsāyaṭī
Miśana sṭēṭamēṇṭa
Kārḍipha thiyōsōphikala
sōsāyaṭī kē pramukha aura mukhya
gatividhiThiyōsōphikala
śikṣā'ōṁ kā adhyayana kō
baṛhāvā dēnē
kē li'ē aura sahāyatā
kē li'ē haiKē rūpa mēṁ
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky kē
lēkhanasē paribhāṣita
William Quan Judge, Alfred Percy
Sinnett, Aura unakē vanśa.
Isa miśana sṭēṭamēṇṭa bādhā
nahīṁ thiyōsōphikala gaira
Gatividhiyōṁ lēkina yē ēka ādhyātmika
prakr̥ti kī hōnī cāhi'ē
Aura/ yā sōsāyaṭī kī vastu'ōṁ kē
sātha saṅgata.