From the Mahatma Letters; giving the utterly selfless keynote required for reaching the noblest peak of the Theosophical Path.

In the Mahatma Letters is a concise layout of the prime elements in the Path

The Path is called an "obligatory pilgrimage" in The Secret Doctrine:

Many articles of varied quality on the Path:

http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/path/sp-selec.htm

The Path is a wonderful one, but the ignoring of it has horrid consequences as G d Purucker mentions:

As always, thanks for posting pointers such as this. I think it's true but find it hard work. Maybe thats the beauty of it

Well, as we are also sharing links on the spiritual path, my Esoteric Studies Guide is very relevant. It starts with the basics: practical wisdom and progresses through practical occultism, chelaship, mahatmas to the Esoteric Section as it was in Blavatsky's time (I'm not a member of the current one). This is the oldest part of my website, but since the material is old and deep it doesn't get as many visitors as some of the newer sections do. Still, the main issues of the spiritual path are right there, I think.

Now focusing on the "utter unselfishness of intention" that is basic to the Path, here are some example of vows or aspirations from the Mahayana tradition that express that intent.

The first one is from the Avatamsaka Sutra, chapter 39 near the end.

http://community.palouse.net/lotus/kingprayer.htm

The general bodhisattva vows know in East Asia may have come from these lines from the sutra section mentioned above.

May I purify an ocean of realms,
May I liberate an ocean of sentient beings,
May I see an ocean of truths,
And may I realize an ocean of wisdom.

May I perform an ocean of perfect deeds,
May I perfect an ocean of prayers,
May I revere an ocean of buddhas,

One version of the vows, from around or before 800 CE, has five vows instead of the four known today.

Beings are countless. I vow to liberate them all.
Merit & wisdom are boundless. I vow to accumulate them.
The Dharma of the Buddha is boundless. I vow to master it.
The Tathagatas are infinite in number. I vow to serve them.
I vow to realize full Buddhahood.

There are mainly two specific sets of vows that Buddhists take in formal settings nowadays, although every Mahayana aspirant is encourged to make individual vows too.

One set is from the Brahma Net Sutra and followed in China, Japan & Korea & the rest of East Asia. http://www.purifymind.com/BrahmaNetSutra.htm

The other is used by the Tibetan & Mongolian Mahayanists of Central Asia.
http://buddhism.kalachakranet.org/resource...attva_vows.html

Hi everybody!

When I think of the Path, there is one quote that always jumps into my mind.

"But by degrees you will become so full of thought for the helping of others that there will be no room, no time, for any thought about yourself."

- Alcyone (Krisnamurti), At The Feet Of The Master

http://www.katinkahesselink.net/other/alcyone.htm

This idea of being motivated only altruism, without any thought of self, is, to me, the essence of the Path.

Hi everybody part 2!

Here is the other quote that always jumps into my mind when thinking about the Path.


"Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
seek to be consoled as to console,
not so much to be understood as to understand,
not so much to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we awake to eternal life."

- St. Francis of Assisi

http://www.beliefnet.com/prayeroftheday/pr...ne.asp?pid=1813

I am not a follower of Christianity in any way, shape, or form, but this prayer has always jumped out at me and spoke of the Path, no matter what ecclesiastical chasm may exist.

Hi everybody, part 3.

Here is a post I found on being an Aspirant to getting on the Path.

http://www.theosophical.ca/AspectsDivineLaw.htm#aspirant

which includes the following quote:

"Imperfect and faulty is my [H.P.B.’s] nature; many and glaring are my shortcomings - and for this my Karma is heavier than that of any other Theosophist..... as soon as one steps on the Path leading to the Ashrum of the blessed Masters ... his Karma, instead of having to be distributed throughout his long life, falls upon him in a block and crushes him with its whole weight."

[C.W.VII, 247]

To me, this means that we must remove all of our bad karma before we can make full progress along the Path. Some people feel that we can get to Enlightenment before we have dealt with our bad karma, and I disagree.

I don't think it means we have to get rid of all karma, before stepping on the path. I think it means the first step on the path involves facing your karmic dept and working through that. Or in the words of a now anonymous internet user years ago: stepping onto the path, means stepping up to the lords of karma and saying: 'check please' - though of course there are no such things as actual 'Lords of Karma'.

Hi,

I've taken the liberty of adding some of the above to my website (some of it was already on there).

See:
The prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
and
Mahayana Buddhist vows.

Thanks a lot.

Actually Katinka, there are "Lords of Karma". Here is part of a definition:

Lipika (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root lip to write] A scribe; divine beings connected with karma, recorders who impress on the astral light a record of every act and thought, great or small, in the phenomenal universe. The lipika are active cosmic karmic intelligences, the highest class of architects, which lay down from manvantara to manvantara the tracks of karmic evolution to be followed by all evolving entities within the manvantara about to begin; and these tracks are rigidly begun, and their direction controlled, by the endpoint of the paths of karmic achievement in the preceding manvantara....

Katinka,

You said,

"I don't think it means we have to get rid of all karma, before stepping on the path. I think it means the first step on the path involves facing your karmic [debt] and working through that."

--> I think you and I have the same idea. I meant that all bad karma must be removed before the end of the Path (the taking of the fifth Initiation). It seems that taking the first step on the Path means taking on more bad karma. I believe either HPB or Annie Besant called it the "quickening" of karma at the early stages of being on the Path.

You said,

"... of course there are no such things as actual 'Lords of Karma'."

--> Do you think HPB was referring to such 'Lords of Karma' as mythological beings, or something like that?

I don't think it means taking on more bad karma. I do think it means going through our own karma more quickly.

At a later stage, when the choice needs to be permanently made to either work for humanity (or all sentient beings) or just personal salvation, the result will be the taking on of more karma... At least: in the sense that to keep interacting with sinning humanity, when you are ultimately already beyond those sins, inevitably rubs off a bit. The masters become responsible for the mistakes of the students, so when we become masters, we will have to learn to deal with taking on the sins of our students (which obviously does mean selecting the students carefully, but that's another story).

Katinka,

You said,


"... when the choice needs to be permanently made to either work for humanity (or all sentient beings) or just personal salvation...."

--> I think you are referring to the clasic distinction between Mahayana Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism. I just wanted to say that one form of Theosophy (Leadbeater's version) does not see it that way, at least during the time before we take the Fifth Initiation. (In this version, the choice of becoming a Dharmakaya or Nirmanakaya is available after the Fifth Intiation, which is what I think you are referring to.)

Leadbeater teaches that everyone applying for the Fifth Initiation must provide examples of working for humanity. In this theory, not helping humanity, and just doing some serious meditation or whatever does not work. This theory stresses that three things are necessry for application for the Fifth Intiation:

* a minimun level of spirituality

* a removal of all bad karma

* a record of service

The idea is that all three are required for application for the Fifth Initation.

This, of course, is just one person's best quess as to what really is going on. Do you see all of this happening in a different way?

Spiritual Progress
By H. P. Blavatsky

Christian Rossetti's well-known lines:

Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.

are like an epitome of the life of those who are truly treading the path which leads to higher things. Whatever differences are to be found in the various presentations of the Esoteric Doctrine, as in every age it donned a fresh garment, different both in hue and texture to that which preceded, yet in every one of them we find the fullest agreement upon one point -- the road to spiritual development. One only inflexible rule has been ever binding upon the neophyte, as it is binding now -- the complete subjugation of the lower nature by the higher. From the Vedas and Upanishads to the recently published Light on the Path, search as we may through the bibles of every race and cult, we find but one only way, -- hard, painful, troublesome, by which man can gain the true spiritual insight. And how can it be otherwise since all religions and all philosophies are but the variants of the first teachings of the One Wisdom, imparted to men at the beginning of the cycle by the Planetary Spirit?
The true Adept, the developed man, must, we are always told, become -- he cannot be made. The process is therefore one of growth through evolution, and this must necessarily involve a certain amount of pain.
The main cause of pain lies in our perpetually seeking the permanent in the impermanent, and not only seeking, but acting as if we had already found the unchangeable, in a world of which the one certain quality we can predicate is constant change, and always, just as we fancy we have taken a firm hold upon the permanent, it changes within our very grasp, and pain results.
Again, the idea of growth involves also the idea of disruption, the inner being must continually burst through its confining shell or encasement, and such a disruption must also be accompanied by pain, not physical but mental and intellectual.
And this is how it is, in the course of our lives, the trouble that comes upon us is always just the one we feel to be the hardest that could possibly happen -- it is always the one thing we feel we cannot possibly bear. If we look at it from a wider point of view, we shall see that we are trying to burst through our shell at its one vulnerable point; that our growth, to be real growth, and not the collective result of a series of excrescences, must progress evenly throughout, just as the body of a child grows, not first the head and then a hand, followed perhaps by a leg; but in all directions at once, regularly and imperceptibly. Man's tendency is to cultivate each part separately, neglecting the others in the meantime -- every crushing pain is caused by the expansion of some neglected part, which expansion is rendered more difficult by the effects of the cultivation bestowed elsewhere.
Evil is often the result of over-anxiety, and men are always trying to do too much, they are not content to leave well alone, to do always just what the occasion demands and no more, they exaggerate every action and so produce karma to be worked out in a future birth.
One of the subtlest forms of this evil is the hope and desire of reward. Many there are who, albeit often unconsciously, are yet spoiling all their efforts by entertaining this idea of reward, and allowing it to become an active factor in their lives and so leaving the door open to anxiety, doubt, fear, despondency -- failure.
The goal of the aspirant for spiritual wisdom, is entrance upon a higher plane of existence; he is to become a new man, more perfect in every way than he is at present, and if he succeeds, his capabilities and faculties will receive a corresponding increase of range and power, just as in the visible world we find that each stage in the evolutionary scale is marked by increase of capacity. This is how it is that the Adept becomes endowed with marvellous powers that have been so often described, but the main point to be remembered is, that these powers are the natural accompaniments of existence on a higher plane of evolution, just as the ordinary human faculties are the natural accompaniments of existence on the ordinary human plane.
Many persons seem to think that adeptship is not so much the result of radical development as of additional construction; they seem to imagine that an Adept is a man, who, by going through a certain plainly defined course of training, consisting of minute attention to a set of arbitrary rules, acquires first one power and then another and when he has attained a certain number of these powers is forthwith dubbed an adept. Acting on this mistaken idea they fancy that the first thing to be done towards attaining adeptship is to acquire "powers" -- clairvoyance and the power of leaving the physical body and travelling to a distance, are among those which fascinate the most.
To those who wish to acquire such powers for their own private advantage, we have nothing to say, they fall under the condemnation of all who act for purely selfish ends. But there are others, who, mistaking effect for cause, honestly think that the acquirement of abnormal powers is the only road to spiritual advancement. These look upon our Society as merely the readiest means to enable them to gain knowledge in this direction, considering it as a sort of occult academy, an institution established to afford facilities for the instruction of would-be miracle-workers. In spite of repeated protests and warnings, there are some minds in whom this notion seems ineradicably fixed, and they are loud in their expressions of disappointment when they find that what had been previously told them is perfectly true; that the Society was founded to teach no new and easy paths to the acquisition of "powers"; and that its only mission is to re-kindle the torch of truth, so long extinguished for all but the very few, and to keep that truth alive by the formation of a fraternal union of mankind, the only soil in which the good seed can grow. The Theosophical Society does indeed desire to promote the spiritual growth of every individual who comes within its influence, but its methods are those of the ancient Rishis, its tenets those of the oldest Esotericism; it is no dispenser of patent nostrums composed of violent remedies which no honest healer would dare to use.
It appears that various societies have sprung into existence since the foundation of the Theosophical Society, profiting by the interest the latter has awakened in matters of psychic research, and endeavouring to gain members by promising them easy acquirement of psychic powers. In India we have long been familiar with the existence of hosts of sham ascetics of all descriptions, and we fear that there is fresh danger in this direction, here, as well as in Europe and America.
In this connection we would warn all our members, and others who are seeking spiritual knowledge, to beware of persons offering to teach them easy methods of acquiring psychic gifts, such gifts (laukika)are indeed comparatively easy of acquirement by artificial means, but fade out as soon as the nerve-stimulus exhausts itself. The real seership and adeptship which is accompanied by true psychic development (lokottara), once reached is never lost.

[*Laukika (Sanskrit): "worldly, temporal"; lokottara (Sanskrit): "excelling or surpassing the world."]...........

I liked this part of the quote:

"From the Vedas and Upanishads to the recently published Light on the Path, search as we may through the bibles of every race and cult, we find but one only way, -- hard, painful, troublesome, by which man can gain the true spiritual insight. And how can it be otherwise since all religions and all philosophies are but the variants of the first teachings of the One Wisdom, imparted to men at the beginning of the cycle by the Planetary Spirit?

"The true Adept, the developed man, must, we are always told, become -- he cannot be made. The process is therefore one of growth through evolution, and this must necessarily involve a certain amount of pain."

The full article can be found at

http://www.theosophical.ca/SpiritualProgress.htm

I like the quote further down the page:

"... teachers cannot be provided to go round and give instruction to various branches on the different subjects which come within the Society's work of investigation; the Branches must study for themselves; books are to be had, and the knowledge there put forth must be practically applied by the various members: thus will be developed self-reliance and reasoning powers."

Part of GdP's writings (from Purucker's Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy, ch. 16) on the dangers of losing one's soul by being a "soulless being" for too long a time. Also much more important teachings on this subject in HPB & Purucker's other writings.
===================

There is an immense difference between "lost souls" and "soulless beings." A lost soul is one in whom the "golden thread" uniting the lower thinking entity with its higher self is completely ruptured, broken off from its higher essence or root, its true self. The case here is hopeless, virtually; there can be no more union for that lower self which, at the moment of final rupture, commences sinking immediately into the Eighth Sphere, the so-called Planet of Death. A soulless being, a soulless man, is one in whom the thread has been worn, so to speak, very thin; or, rather, where the spiritual and impersonal aspirations in this life and in other lives have been so few, the attempts to unite with the higher part of the self have been so weak, that slowly the spiritual ray has been withdrawing itself from the lower part; but it is not yet ruptured completely. It still remains; and even one single holy and impersonal aspiration may cause reunion. It is not a lost soul; but so far as the human entity is practically concerned, it is properly called a soulless being, for the entity lives almost wholly in his lower principles. Soulless beings furnish those cases which are popularly spoken of as "men and women without conscience." They seem to have no moral sense, although their mental and psychical faculties may still be strong and keen.

These are the worst cases of soulless human beings. Other cases are those of men and women who merely do not seem to care for anything that is good and beautiful and true, noble and high and lofty; their desires are of the earth, earthly; their passions are strong and their intuitions are weak. These cases are very common indeed; so much so that H. P. Blavatsky says in her Isis Unveiled that we "shoulder soulless men" every day of our lives. Look into the faces of the men and the women whom you see on the streets. Go to town; go anywhere; the situation actually is a terrible one. There is a full possibility that a weak-souled human being, perhaps beginning merely in giving way to the lusts of the will, and to the passions of the mind, and to the instincts of the lower nature, may, little by little, but inevitably and surely, starve out, or wear away by attrition, all the attachments of the higher ray which bind it into the lower nature, and which, if they were fully strong and active, would make the man (or woman) a walking god among us; verily, a god in the flesh. Instead of this, in the worst cases of the soulless being, you would have before you little more than a human shell (alive, but spiritually almost dead) in the man or the woman, as the case may be. A soulless being was once an insouled man or woman who, before the former state, had the same chance successfully to run the race that we all have. This is indeed a solemn verity, and one which H. P. Blavatsky has told us should be taught and reiterated in our teaching, because it is truly helpful as a warning. Not one of us is absolutely safe at this midway stage of our evolutionary journey; for not one of us knows what he is capable of, either for good or ill.

There is the truth; and it is no trifling matter. Is there any reason for wonder that all our teachers have told us repeatedly that every teaching that is given in the School is founded upon what men commonly call ethical principles of conduct, and must be studied in that light? It is the only thing that, put into sincere practice, will save us surely; for these principles come first and in the middle and at the end of our studies.

In future studies we shall have to trace to the end the destiny of these two classes of beings; but it may be well to say a few words now of the fate of the lost soul. There are two general classes of these: the lower, but not the worse; and the higher, the worse. In order to make the meaning of this very difficult subject more clear, I shall have to go into a new but collateral thought, which is the key: man is a composite being. On this fact of human nature reposes a most wonderful truth which is at the foundation of the marvelous psychological doctrines of the Lord Gautama Buddha. It is as follows: there is no abiding principle whatsoever in "man." Fix this like steel into the core of your minds. It will save you from myriad dangers if rightly understood. "Man" is not his higher nature; "man" is that which is called the "human nature." Do you realize how greatly men and women live in what the Hebrews call the nephesh, i.e., live in their astral souls? To a certain extent such unison with our lower principles is necessary; but to follow the beautiful old simile of the ancient philosophers, the astral soul should be our vehicle, our bearer; so to say, it should be made a horse to carry us on our journey; or, to change the figure, a chariot in which we should ride; a horse which we must drive. We, the inner self, should govern and drive our astral steed, but should never allow it to control us.....

Hi,

I know too little of the differences between Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism on initiation, nor do I know enough about what Leadbeater says.

What you say Leadbeater says sounds reasonable enough - but in general there is evidence that certain types of spiritual growth don't really require a record of service to humanity, so for now I tend to agree with how I understand Blavatsky: there is a path which leads to annihilation of the ego (in practical fact, if not actually) in which bad karma is erased (always necessary), but no active service beyond that is given to humanity. This teaching is given in her Voice of the Silence. She implies that the soul isn't exactly anihilated, but since it no longer interacts with any other being in the universe, it might as well be... She called that the Pratyeka Buddha. I'm not (yet) versed enough in Buddhist teachings to know whether that is a reflection of Theravada or Mahayana teachings (or both or neither).

HPB's fondess for the bodhisattvic, altruistic life made her too harsh and mistaken in her view of the Pratekya Buddha. This stage of bodhi is found in all schools of Buddhism. The bodhi of this buddha is not full & complete like a Perfect Buddha, nor does he have great compassion of a bodhisattva. But he does have compassion, just limited verbal skills in teaching others.

Here is a snip from Buddha Net regarding a great disciple of Buddha who was inspired by meeting a Pratekya Buddha:

"He [Mogallana] was actually a fisherman in his previous life. Later he realised that earning his livelihood by catching fish was a karma of great suffering. He also felt that one must cultivate merits for a better future life; therefore, he decided to change his line. Then one day, he met a Pratyeka-buddha and was impressed with his dignified manner. With reverence, he invited the Pratyeka-buddha to his house to receive offerings. As the Pratyeka-buddha was not good in preaching, he could only use his divine powers to save the world. After his meal, he jumped into the air and moved freely in all directions. Mogallana was so impressed that he vowed to attain supernatural powers in his next life."

Katinka,

You have brought up an interesting topic: Is a record of minimum service to society required, in order to gain the Fifth Initiation? Certainly, in the Besant/Leadbeater literature, such an idea is upheld. However, what does HPB say?

Altruism is definitely a key teaching in the eyes of HPB:

“Until the master chooses you to come to him, be with humanity, and unselfishly work for its progress and advancement. This alone can bring true satisfaction.”

“He who does not practice altruism, he who is not prepared to share his last morsel [ This must be taken in its widest sense also, i.e., spiritual knowledge, etc. ] with a weaker or poorer than himself, he who neglects to help his brother man, of whatever race, nation, or creed, wherever and whenever he meets suffering, and who turns a deaf ear to the cry of human misery; he who hears an innocent person slandered, and does not undertake his defense as he would undertake his own, is no Theosophist.”

“The most direct and certain way of reaching this higher plane is the cultivation of the principle of altruism, both in thought and life.”

-HPB, Some Practical Suggestions for Daily Life
http://www.theosophical.ca/DailyLife.htm

However, I do not see where HPB says such altruism is required in order to gain the Fifth Initiation. I'll dig around, and see what I come up with.

Here is a compilation by David Pratt from the writings of Blavatsky, Judge, Tingley & Purucker:
====================

The Spiritual Path

Abbreviations: BCW H.P. Blavatsky: Collected Writings, TPH, 1950-91
Echoes Echoes of the Orient, W.Q. Judge, PLP, 1975-87
EST Esoteric Teachings, G. de Purucker, PLP, 1987
FSO Fountain-Source of Occultism, G. de Purucker, TUP, 1974
Key The Key to Theosophy, H.P. Blavatsky, TUP, 1972 (1889)
OG Occult Glossary, G. de Purucker, TUP, 2nd ed., 1996
ML The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett, A. Trevor Barker (comp.), TUP, 2nd ed., 1926
PoC The Path of Compassion, G. de Purucker, TUP, 1986
SD The Secret Doctrine, H.P. Blavatsky, TUP, 1977 (1888)
TPM Theosophy: The Path of the Mystic, Katherine Tingley, TUP, 3rd ed., 1977
Voice The Voice of the Silence, H.P. Blavatsky, TUP, 1976 (1889)
WoH The Wisdom of the Heart, Katherine Tingley, PLP, 1978
WoS Wind of the Spirit, G. de Purucker, TUP, 2nd ed., 1984



'Universal nature, our great parent, exists inseparably in each one of us, in each entity everywhere, and no separation of the part from the whole, of the individual from the kosmos, is possible in any other than a purely illusory sense. This . . . directs us to the sublime path to utter reality. It is the path inwards, ever onwards within, which is endless and which leads into vast inner realms of wisdom and knowledge; for, as all the great world philosophies tell us so truly, if you know yourself you then know the universe, because each one of you is an inseparable part of it and it is all in you, its child.
'[C]onsciousness and understanding come to the evolving entity in only one way -- by unwrapping or unfolding the intrinsic faculties or powers of that entity's own inner being. . . . There is no other pathway for you individually than the pathway leading ever inwards towards your own inner god. . . . All tread the same pathway, but each man must tread it himself . . .' (OG 126)

'The pivotal doctrine of the Esoteric philosophy admits no privileges or special gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego through personal effort and merit throughout a long series of metempsychoses and reincarnations.' (SD 1:17)

'Karma creates nothing, nor does it design. It is man who plans and creates causes, and Karmic law adjusts the effects; which adjustment is not an act, but universal harmony, tending ever to resume its original position, like a bough, which, bent down too forcibly, rebounds with corresponding vigour. . . . It is not, therefore, Karma that rewards or punishes, but it is we, who reward or punish ourselves according to whether we work with, through and along with nature, abiding by the laws on which that Harmony depends, or -- break them. . . . [T]here is not an accident in our lives, not a misshapen day, or a misfortune, that could not be traced back to our own doings in this or in another life.' (SD 2:305, 1:643-4)

'[T]he first of the steps of gold which mount toward the Temple of Truth is -- A CLEAN LIFE. This means a purity of body, and a still greater purity of mind, heart, and spirit.' (BCW 12:596)

'Every kindly act you do marks you as by that much ensouled, if it is an act which springs from the heart and not merely from the egoistic wish to show off. Every time you conquer a temptation, which if yielded to you know perfectly well will debase you in your own eyes, even if your fellows do not know of your fall; every time you conquer it you live in the human soul, you are by so much ensouling yourself. Every time you conquer an impulse to do a selfish act, a deed with selfish thought for your own benefit, then you are by so much ensouling yourself.' (WoS 104-5)

Mahatma KH to A.P. Sinnett: 'Does it seem to you a small thing that the past year has been spent only in your "family duties"? [W]hat better cause for reward, what better discipline, than the daily and hourly performance of duty? [T]he man or woman who is placed by Karma in the midst of small plain duties and sacrifices and loving-kindnesses, will through these faithfully fulfilled rise to the larger measure of Duty, Sacrifice and Charity to all Humanity -- what better path towards the enlightenment you are striving after than the daily conquest of Self, the perseverance in spite of want of visible psychic progress, the bearing of ill-fortune with that serene fortitude which turns it to spiritual advantage . . .' (ML 372)

'One of [the] surmountable and unnecessary hindrances [to the doing of good work] is the prevalent habit of reading trashy and sensational literature, both in newspaper and other form. This stupefies and degrades the mind, wastes time and energy, and makes the brain a storehouse of mere brute force rather than what it should be -- a generator of cosmic power. . . . Sensation temporarily succeeds in drowning the voice of conscience and the pressure that comes from the soul that so many people unintelligently feel. So they seek acute sensation in a thousand different ways, while others strive to attain the same end by killing both sensation and consciousness with the help of drugs or alcohol. Reading of a certain sort is simply the alcohol habit removed to another plane . . . People are responsible for the use they make of their brains, for the brain can be used for the noblest purposes and can evolve the most refined quality of energy . . . This does not mean that the news of the day should be ignored, for those who live in the world should keep themselves acquainted with the world's doings: but a fair test is that nothing not worth remembering is worth reading. . . .
'The usual worldly custom is to bring up for conversation unimportant matters, often in regard to persons, not infrequently to their detriment, or in regard to transient events, and to discuss these without relating them to permanent and basic principles. Many people talk for the sake of talking, as others read for the sake of reading . . . To babble out words does not help on the evolution of humanity or inspire any other idea but the natural one that such conversation borders on the idiotic. Nor is there any reason why conversation should not be at once interesting and instructive. . . . There is a right time and a wrong time for the discussion of games, clothes, food, and so forth, and there is a decided limit to the usefulness of such discussion. Other topics should be dealt with when fellow students are so fortunate as to meet together. They at least should never part without conversing on some ennobling and uplifting subject . . .' (Echoes 1:483-4)

'There is a road, steep and thorny, beset with perils of every kind, but yet a road, and it leads to the very heart of the Universe: I can tell you how to find those who will show you the secret gateway that opens inward only, and closes fast behind the neophyte for evermore. There is no danger that dauntless courage cannot conquer; there is no trial that spotless purity cannot pass through; there is no difficulty that strong intellect cannot surmount. For those who win onwards there is reward past all telling -- the power to bless and save humanity; for those who fail, there are other lives in which success may come.' (BCW 13:219)

'[Many theosophists] feel an irresistible attraction toward occultism and the Higher Life, and yet are too personal and self-opinionated, too much in love with the deceptive allurements of mundane life and the world's ephemeral pleasures, to give them up; and so lose their chance in their present birth.' (Key 217-8)

'[The will] is the one irresistible power in nature and in the psychic world; whatever the phantom or demon, it may be swept into nothingness by concentrating upon it this Will and bidding it go.' (BCW 12:713)

'Conquered passions, like slain tigers, can no longer turn and rend you. Be hopeful, then, not despairing. With each morning's awakening try to live through the day in harmony with the Higher Self. "Try" is the battle-cry taught by the Teachers to each pupil. Naught else is expected of you. One who does his best does all that can be asked. There is a moment when even a Buddha ceases to be a sinning mortal and takes his first step toward Buddhahood. . . . It should be the aim of each and all of us to strive with all the intensity of our natures to follow and imitate [the masters].' (BCW 12:504-5)

'[S]elf-criticism prevents unkind criticism of others, and those who know their own weaknesses, and are striving to mend them, are always the most compassionate towards the weaknesses of others.' (Echoes 3:384)

'We may "fail" in specific acts or endeavor, but so long as we continue to persevere such are not "failures" but lessons necessary in themselves. Through resistance and effort we acquire fresh strength; we gather to ourselves -- and by occult laws -- all the strength we have gained by overcoming. Entire "success" is not for us now, but continuous, persistent effort is, and that is success and not the mere carrying out of all our plans or attempts. Moreover no matter how high we go in Nature, there are always new rungs of the ladder to mount -- that ladder whose rungs are all mounted in labor and in pain, but also in the great joy of conscious strength and will. Even the Adept sees fresh trials before him. Remember also when we say "I have failed" it shows that we have had and still have aspiration. And while this is so, while we have before us loftier heights of perfection to scale, Nature will never desert us. We are mounting, and aspiring and the sense of failure is the surest proof of this. But Nature has no use for anyone who has reached the limits of, or outlived, his aspirations. So that every "failure is a success." At the outset the greater your aspirations the greater the difficulties you will encounter. Forget not then that to continue to try even when one constantly fails is the only way to come to real success.' (W.Q. Judge, FSO / PoC 55)

'Do not stop to mourn over your faults; recognize them and seek to learn from each its lesson. Do not become vain of your success. So shall you gradually attain self-knowledge, and self-knowledge shall develop self-mastery.' (W.Q. Judge, EST 1:48)

'Know yourself, control yourself, and then you will be a Master of Life.' (EST 2:76)


* * *

The Voice of the Silence
'Before the soul can see, the Harmony within must be attained, and fleshly eyes be rendered blind to all illusion. . . .

'If through the Hall of Wisdom, thou would'st reach the Vale of Bliss, Disciple, close fast thy senses against the great dire heresy of separateness that weans thee from the rest. . . .

'The Self of matter and the SELF of Spirit can never meet. One of the twain must disappear; there is no place for both. Ere thy Soul's mind can understand, the bud of personality must be crushed out, the worm of sense destroyed past resurrection. Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become that Path itself.

'Let thy Soul lend its ear to every cry of pain like as the lotus bares its heart to drink the morning sun. Let not the fierce Sun dry one tear of pain before thyself hast wiped it from the sufferer's eye. . . .

'Desire nothing. Chafe not at Karma, nor at Nature's changeless laws. But struggle only with the personal, the transitory, the evanescent and the perishable. Help Nature and work on with her; and Nature will regard thee as one of her creators and make obeisance. . . .

'Kill thy desires, Lanoo, make thy vices impotent, ere the first step is taken on the solemn journey. Strangle thy sins, and make them dumb for ever, before thou dost lift one foot to mount the ladder. Silence thy thoughts and fix thy whole attention on thy Master whom yet thou dost not see, but whom thou feelest. . . .

'[B]e of clean heart before thou startest on thy journey. Before thou takest thy first step learn to discern the real from the false, the ever-fleeting from the ever-lasting. Learn above all to separate Head-learning from Soul-Wisdom, the "Eye" from the "Heart" doctrine. . . . For mind is like a mirror; it gathers dust while it reflects. It needs the gentle breezes of Soul-Wisdom to brush away the dust of our illusions. Seek O beginner, to blend thy Mind and Soul.

'Shun ignorance, and likewise shun illusion. Avert thy face from world deceptions; mistrust thy senses, they are false. But within thy body -- the shrine of thy sensations -- seek in the Impersonal for the "eternal man"; and having sought him out, look inward: thou art Buddha. . . .

'Sow kindly acts and thou shalt reap their fruition. Inaction in a deed of mercy becomes an action in a deadly sin. . . .

'Shalt thou abstain from action? Not so shall gain thy soul her freedom. To reach Nirvâna one must reach Self-Knowledge, and Self-Knowledge is of loving deeds the child. . . .

'The Selfish devotee lives to no purpose. The man who does not go through his appointed work in life -- has lived in vain. Follow the wheel of life; follow the wheel of duty to race and kin, to friend and foe, and close thy mind to pleasures as to pain. . . .

'Prepare thyself, for thou wilt have to travel on alone. The Teacher can but point the way. The Path is one for all, the means to reach the goal must vary with the Pilgrims. . . . Of teachers there are many; the MASTER-SOUL is one, Alaya, the Universal Soul. Live in that MASTER as ITS ray in thee. Live in thy fellows as they live in IT. . . . Hast thou attuned thy heart and mind to the great mind and heart of all mankind? . . . Hast thou attuned thy being to Humanity's great pain, O candidate for light? . . .

'The more thou dost advance, the more thy feet pitfalls will meet. The path that leadeth on, is lighted by one fire -- the light of daring, burning in the heart. The more one dares, the more he shall obtain. The more he fears, the more that light shall pale -- and that alone can guide. . . .

'The PATH is one, Disciple, yet in the end, twofold. . . . At one end -- bliss immediate, and at the other -- bliss deferred. Both are of merit the reward: the choice is thine. . . . The Open PATH leads to the changeless change -- Nirvâna, the glorious state of Absoluteness, the Bliss past human thought. Thus the first Path is LIBERATION. But Path the Second is -- renunciation, and therefore called the "Path of Woe." . . .

'Now bend thy head and listen well, O Bodhisattva -- Compassion speaks and saith: "Can there be bliss when all that lives must suffer? Shalt thou be saved and hear the whole world cry?" . . .

'Sweet are the fruits of Rest and Liberation for the sake of Self; but sweeter still the fruits of long and bitter duty. Aye, Renunciation for the sake of others, of suffering fellow men. . . . The Bodhisattva who has won the battle, who holds the prize within his palm, yet says in his divine compassion: "For others' sake this great reward I yield" -- accomplishes the greater Renunciation. A SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD is he. . . .

'Thou art enlightened -- Choose thy way.'

(Voice, 2, 8-9, 12-14, 16, 25-6, 31, 35-6, 45, 49-51, 54, 41, 71, 43-4)


* * *

The Path of the Mystic
'[H]uman nature is dual and . . . a battle is ever going on between the higher self and the lower, the angel and the demon in man. . . One of these in the end must prevail over the other, and one or the other is strengthened by every act and thought of his life. . . . When the higher, immortal part dominates, there is knowledge and there is peace. When the lower rules, all the dark despairing elements of human life rush in upon the unguarded soul. . . .

'Victories are won first in thought; and the habit of substituting a good thought or picture that arouses compassion or any part of the spiritual nature, or a grander idea in any way going beyond the limited selfhood, for a selfish or personal or sensual one, is easily learned. . . .

'Visualize! You touch a mystic law when you create in imagination the picture of mighty things, for you open a door to new powers within yourself. Something in the way of potent energies is awakened and called into life and strength both without you and within. If you aspire, visualize your aspirations. Make a mind-picture of your spiritual ideals, . . . and carry that picture with you day by day. . . . Before you know it the ideal has become the real and you have taken your place as a creator, truly, in the great, divine scheme of life. . . .

'You must take time for self-analysis. There must be time for the calm, reflective attitude of mind. Study the conditions surrounding you, the motives that actuate you in this or that effort or work, and determine with absolute honesty, whether they are selfish, unselfish, or mixed. This will be an uplifting, a clarifying process, for the conscience is at work. It is a confession, really, to the higher self, the divinity within you. . . .

'Dismiss the things of the world, its ways, its interests and its limited habits of thought. Kill out in yourselves the desire for these and find the larger life. Truly, these selfish desires and demands are but phantoms placed in your way by karma, called up by karma out of the past of yourselves and revivified with a false and seeming life by the very force of your aspirations. Why not recognize them as such, see them for what they are, dismiss them once and for all, and look through the mists of self and desire to the sublime reality beyond?

'The very fact that you find stumbling blocks in your way should give you an influx of courage, a positive joy, because of the opportunity thus presented to you to cast them away forever. Self-conquest! Is that not what you are here for? . . . Every time you compromise on this vital point, remember, you are holding back the world's great reconstructive work and just so many more hungry souls are left starving for the bread of the spirit. Move away from limitations and delusions and step into the larger life! . . .

'Fear nothing, for every renewed effort raises all former failures into lessons, all sins into experiences. . . . Not for thousands of years have the opposing forces been so accentuated. Not one of you can remain neutral; if you think you can, and seek to do so, in reality you are adding your powers to those of darkness and lending your strength to the forces of evil. The cry has gone out to each, and each must choose. This is your opportunity. . . .

'To gain freedom, you will have to accentuate the spirit of brotherly love; to gain it you will have to work for it, also, and work understandingly. And yet it is so easy, so simple. If you hold close to duty, and keep a sweet, impersonal love burning in your heart, all the rest will come; and that has its practical application in many ways. For example, if you do not like another, if you do not like to work with him when it is a duty to do so, consider that a challenge, and stand up and meet the test. That is practical brotherhood. . . .

'It matters not how much money we may accumulate, how much scholastic learning we may possess, how many magnificent structures we may erect in the name of civilization. Unless we arrive at a better understanding of brotherly toleration, we are working in vain for the future. . . .

'In offering suggestions to others, remember that every suggestion carries in it a measure of criticism. Let your criticism begin at home. As H.P. Blavatsky says: "Be more severe with yourself than with others; be more charitable towards others than towards yourself." . . .

'In studying themselves men and women should first of all study their nature in its duality -- the play and interplay of the higher and the lower self. This step taken, they should then search out their greatest weaknesses, as revealed in the light of such study, and courageously begin to overcome them. This initiates a great process of purification . . .

'The path of the mystic is a path of self-mastery and service. . . . Climb! Ever keep climbing! The path winds upward -- this wonderful path of self-mastery -- but to the unselfish and courageous it is a path of victory and joy.'
(TPM 17, 21, 30, 46-7, 50-1, 63-4, 68-70, 85-6, 75, 122, 108, 77)

'A pure, strong, unselfish thought, beaming in the mind, lifts the whole being to the heights of Light. From this point can be discerned, to a degree, the sacredness of the moment and the day. . . .

'Rest within yourself. Do not depend upon another for your happiness. . . .

'When rising in the morning our first thought shall be, I shall make the day one of sunshine. I shall put into each duty no matter how small unselfish thought. . . . Remember how great is the creative power of the imagination. Build up with it, upon waking, a picture of hope and joy. Lay aside all that belongs to the lower self, and going up into the temple of the heart, dedicate the day to self-purification. Do this and you invite an invasion of the gods. But rise with the brain-mind dominant, and a day of perplexing difficulties awaits you. . . .

'At night it is helpful to go over the day in thought. It is the old neophyte way. You will suffer in noting lapses and omissions; but if your motive is pure and unselfish you will learn and pass on. . . . We cannot reap the real benefit of sleep if we enter upon it negatively, in ignorance, carrying to bed with us our fretfulness and dislikes, despairs or hatreds. Let us end the day with more power of thought for self-conquest than we had at the beginning of the day. Let us close our eyes tonight with a clean conscience and with a feeling of generous love for all that breathes . . .'
(WoH 61, 55, 51-2, 55-6)


* * *

The Path of Compassion
'Anyone can enter upon the path, if his will, his devotion and yearnings are directed toward being of greater service to others. The only thing that prevents him from taking that most beautiful step is his convictions, his psychological and mental prejudices which distort his perspective. We are all learners, all of us have illusions. . . . The quickest way to overcome these illusions is to cut the root of them, and that root is selfishness in its multimyriad forms. Even the . . . ambition to succeed, unless it be washed clean of all personality, will inevitably defeat itself, for the way of inner growth is self-forgetfulness, a giving up of personal ambitions and longings of any and every kind, and a becoming an impersonal servitor of all that lives. . . .

'The lower self must be wiped out -- not killed, but wiped out, which means withdrawn inwards and absorbed by the higher self. . . . To give up the things that belittle, that make one small, petty, and mean, is to cast away our fetters and take on freedom, the richness of the inner life and, above everything else, self-conscious recognition of one's essential unity with the All. . . . [B]y allying ourselves with the noblest within we are allying ourselves with the spiritual forces which control and govern the universe. . . .

'The neophyte's life is a very beautiful one, and grows steadily more and more so as self-forgetfulness comes into the life in ever-larger degree. It is also a very sad one at times, and the sadness arises out of his inability to forget himself. He realizes that he is very, very lonely; that his heart is yearning for companionship. In other words, the human part of him longs to lean. But it is just the absence of these weaknesses that makes the master of life: the ability to stand alone, erect and strong in all circumstances. . . .

'[T]he grandest rule of life is to foster within one's own being undying compassion for all that is, thus bringing about the winning of selflessness . . .

'All the mysteries of the universe lie latent within us, all its secrets are there, and all progress in esoteric knowledge and wisdom is but an unfolding of what is already within.

'How little our human troubles which plague us so greatly -- such a burden of sorrow -- seem when we allow our minds to dwell upon these infinitely comforting realities. . . . Even this world of phantasmagoria and shadows is an intrinsic and inseparable part of the Boundless from which we sprang, and towards the divine heart of which we shall one day return on the wings of the experiences that we have been through, wings that will carry us over the valleys to the distant mountain peaks of the spirit. . . .

'[T]he West is being misled by psychical teachings . . . He who enters the path with the hope of gaining powers of any kind, regarding them as something of paramount importance, is destined to failure. Indeed, he is embarking upon a very hazardous and questionable road, which at worst could lead to sorcery and black magic, and at best will bring to him only the Dead Sea fruit of disappointment. Powers as such, whether spiritual, intellectual, or psychic, will develop in due course and in a perfectly natural way as we progress, provided that we have the unflinching determination to achieve, and, above all, that our heart is forever brightened and filled with compassionate love . . .

'No chela is ever permitted to cultivate any psychical powers at any time, until the great foundation has been laid in the evocation of the spiritual and intellectual energies and faculties: vision, will power, utter self-control, and a heart filled with love for all. . . .

'Chelaship is exchanging the darkness of personality for the glorious sunlight of impersonality. It is a passing out of the mire of material existence, with its phantasms of thought and emotions, into the clear splendor of the inner spiritual sun, leading ultimately to a becoming-at-one with the soul of the universe. It is the age-old path that will lead the aspirant to become at one with his own spiritual essence, which means the attaining of an enormously increased range of consciousness and life. . . . We reach the heart of the universe by losing ourself in order to gain the cosmic Self seated in our inmost essence. The pathway that we travel is long and may be arduous, but it is also bright with joy, and lighted with the fires of the spirit. . . .

'The basis of . . . discipline is self-forgetfulness, which is the same as impersonality; and in order to achieve this, other minor rules have been introduced . . . One such rule is never to strike back, never to retaliate; better to suffer injustice in silence. Another is never to justify oneself, to have patience, and leave the karma to the higher law to adjust. And still another, and perhaps the greatest rule of this discipline, is to learn to forgive and to love. Then all else will come naturally, stealing into the consciousness silently, and one will know the rules intuitively, will be long suffering in patience, compassionate, and great of heart. . . .

'Among other good and simple rules is to think impersonally all the time; in our daily acts to try to detach our interest from them so far as any benefit to our own person is concerned. . . .

'[W]hen we are bothered, tormented perhaps, with selfish and personal impulses and thoughts, we should immediately think of their opposites, holding them steadily in our mind's eye. If we have a thought of hate, we should conjure up a picture of affection and kindness; if of evil-doing, vision a magnanimous and splendid act; if a selfish thought, then imagine ourselves as doing some deed of benevolence, and at all times doing this impersonally. . . .

'Impersonality, altruism and selflessness: these are magical in their effect upon our fellow men. When we can learn truly to forgive, and to love, the longing of our soul will be self-forgetful service for mankind. . . . Singlehanded we may have the world to battle; but even though we go down again and again, we can stand up and remember that the forces of the universe are back of us and on our side. The very heart of Being is with us and we shall win, ultimately, for nothing can withstand the subtle and all-penetrating fire of impersonal love. . . .

'Esoteric training . . . means accelerated growth . . . It is painful at times because, instead of slowly growing to see the beauty and harmony of life everywhere, one must learn to master oneself with an iron will; to forget oneself utterly, to serve all: to give up one's self for the universal self, to die daily so that one can live the cosmic life. . . .

'One cannot trifle with occultism with impunity. The entire nature is aroused, and the battle with the lower self at times may take on the character of desperation, for the neophyte instinctively feels that he must conquer or fail. But if he perform faithfully the first duty that comes to hand, no matter how humble and simple, that is his path. In conquering our own weaknesses, we help not only our own nature, but all mankind; more, we help every sentient, living thing, for we are at one with the very forces which are the circulations of the universe. . . .

'All the great sages have taught the same verity: "Man, know thyself," which means going inwards in thought and feeling, in ever-greater measure allying ourselves self-consciously with the divinity at the core of our being -- the divinity which also is the very heart of the universe.'
(FSO / PoC 14-19, 10, 30, 26, 31-2, 34-6, 54, 61-2)

'[T]he first rule of chelaship is "To live to benefit mankind," combined with a pure life, a clean heart, an eager intellect, an unveiled spiritual perception. Where these are, there you will find the Masters with you.' (EST 2:108)

From Letters That Have Helped Me by William Q Judge; Z = Judge and Jasper = Julia Keightley. The entire book is useful for aspirants.
====================

Letter 1

My Dear Jasper:

Now let me elevate a signal. Do not think much of me, please. Think kindly of me; but oh, my friend, direct your thoughts to the Eternal Truth. I am, like you, struggling on the road. Perhaps a veil might in an instant fall down from your spirit, and you would be long ahead of us all. The reason you have had help is that in other lives you gave it to others. In every effort you made to lighten another mind and open it to Truth, you were helped yourself. Those pearls you found for another and gave to him, you really retained for yourself in the act of benevolence. For when one lives thus to help others, he is thereby putting in practice the rule to try and "kill out all sense of separateness," and thus gets little by little in possession of the true light.

Never lose, then, that attitude of mind. Hold fast in silence to all that is your own, for you will need it in the fight; but never, never desire to get knowledge or power for any other purpose than to give it on the altar, for thus alone can it be saved to you.

So many are there around me who are ardent desirers and seekers, devotees; but they are doing it because the possession seems valuable. Perhaps I see in you -- I hope I mistake not -- a pure desire to seek Knowledge for its own sake, and that all others may be benefitted. So I would point out to you the only royal road, the one vehicle. Do all those acts, physical, mental, moral, for the reason that they must be done, instantly resigning all interest in them, offering them up upon the altar. What altar? Why, the great spiritual altar, which is, if one desires it, in the heart. Yet still use earthly discrimination, prudence, and wisdom.

It is not that you must rush madly or boldly out to do, to do. Do what you find to do. Desire ardently to do it, and even when you shall not have succeeded in carrying anything out but some small duties, some words of warning, your strong desire will strike like Vulcan upon other hearts in the world, and suddenly you will find that done which you had longed to be the doer of. Then rejoice that another had been so fortunate as to make such a meritorious Karma. Thus, like the rivers running into the unswelling, passive ocean, will your desires enter into your heart.

I find all your remarks just; and besides, there seems to be a real spirit behind them. Do not fear nor fail because you feel dark and heavy. The very rage you feel will break the shrine that covers the mystery after a while. No one can really help you. No one can open your doors. You locked them up, and only you can open them. When you open any door, beyond it you find others standing there who had passed you long ago, but now, unable to proceed, they are there waiting; others are there waiting for you. Then you come, and, opening a door, those waiting disciples perhaps may pass on; thus on and on. What a privilege this, to reflect that we may perhaps be able to help those who seemed greater than ourselves!

O, what a groan Nature gives to see the heavy Karma which man has piled upon himself and all the creatures of the three worlds! That deep sigh pierces through my heart. How can the load be lifted? Am I to stand for myself, while the few strong hands of Blessed Masters and Their friends hold back the awful cloud? Such a vow I registered ages ago to help them, and I must. Would to great Karma I could do more! And you! do what you can.

Place your only faith, reliance, and trust on Karma. -- Z.

Discussion of the actual levels of initiation - and what's required for which - is confusing, as I don't think Blavatsky said much about that.

KH,

Blavatsky did not give a lot of information on the different Initiations. Here is something I found.

“There are four grades of initiation mentioned in exoteric works, which are known respectively in Sanskrit as ‘Scrotapanna,’ ‘Sagardagan,’ ‘Anagamin,’ and ‘Arhan’ [Arhat] — the four paths to Nirvana, in this, our fourth Round, bearing the same appellations. The Arhan [Arhat], though he can see the Past, the Present, and the Future, is not yet the highest Initiate; for the Adept himself, the initiated candidate, becomes chela (pupil) to a higher Initiate. Three further higher grades have to be conquered by the Arhan [Arhat] who would reach the apex of the ladder of Arhatship.” (SD vol I p. 206)

--> I think the idea is, we will receive all needed information (at a particular Initiation) in order to move up to the next Initiation. For those of us who have not take any Initiation, all we can do is read Theosophical books that explain how to prepare for the First Initiation.

Blavatsky has much profound to say about initiation scattered through her writings. Not surprisingly, HPB & Leadbeater have very different views of the subject.

Here is a snippet from CW 14 by HPB:

================

....The gradation of the Mysteries is given us by Proclus in the fourth book of his Theology of Plato.‡

The perfective rite, [teletç] precedes in order the initiation [muesis], and initiation, the final apocalypse, epopteia.

Theon of Smyrna, in Mathematica, also divides the mystic rites into five parts:

The first of which is the previous purification; for neither are the Mysteries communicated to all who are willing to receive them; but there are certain persons who are prevented by the voice of the crier . . . . . . since it is necessary that such as are not expelled from the Mysteries should first be refined by certain purifications; but after purification, the reception of the sacred rites succeeds. The third part is denominated epopteia, or reception. And the fourth, which is the end and design of the revelation, is [the investiture] the binding of the head and fixing of
––––––––––
* [De Mysteriis . . ., I, ch. xi.]
† [Divine Legation of Moses . . ., II, p. 172.]
‡ [Taylor’s ed. London, 1816, p. 220.]
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276 BLAVATSKY: COLLECTED WRITINGS


the crowns* . . . whether after this he [the initiated person] becomes a torchbearer, or an hierophant of the Mysteries, or sustains some other part of the sacerdotal office. But the fifth, which is produced from all these, is friendship and interior communion with God.†

And this was the last and most awful of all the Mysteries.
The chief objects of the Mysteries, represented as diabolical by the Christian Fathers and ridiculed by modern writers, were instituted with the highest and the most moral purpose in view. There is no need to repeat here that which has been already described in Isis Unveiled‡ that whether through temple Initiation or the private study of Theurgy, every student obtained the proof of the immortality of his Spirit, and the survival of his Soul. What the last epopteia was is alluded to by Plato in Phaedrus [250 B.C.]:

Being initiated in those Mysteries, which it is lawful to call the most blessed of all Mysteries . . . we were freed from the molestations of evils which otherwise await us in a future period of time. Likewise, in consequence of this divine initiation, we become spectators of entire, simple, immovable, and blessed visions, resident in a pure light.§

This veiled confession shows that the Initiates enjoyed Theophany—saw visions of Gods and of real immortal Spirits. As Taylor correctly infers:

The most sublime part of the [epopteia] or final revealing, consisted in beholding the gods [the high Planetary Spirits] themselves invested with a resplendent light.||

The statement of Proclus upon the subject is unequivocal:
––––––––––
* This expression must not be understood simply literally; for, as in the initiation of certain Brotherhoods, it has a secret meaning that we have just explained; it was hinted at by Pythagoras, when he describes his feelings after the Initiation, and says that he was crowned by the Gods in whose presence he had drunk “the waters of life”—in the Hindu Mysteries there was the fount of life, and soma, the sacred drink.
† Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, T. Taylor, p. 46, 47.
‡ II, 111; 113.
§ Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, p. 63.
|| Op.cit., p. 65.
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THE OBJECTS OF THE MYSTERIES 277


In all the initiations and Mysteries, the gods exhibit many forms of themselves, and appear in a variety of shapes; and sometimes, indeed, a formless light of themselves is held forth to the view; sometimes this light is according to a human form and sometimes it proceeds into a different shape.*

Again we have

Whatever is on earth is the resemblance and shadow of something that is in the Sphere. While that resplendent thing [the prototype of the Soul-Spirit] remaineth in unchangeable condition, it is well also with its shadow. When that resplendent one removeth far from its shadow, life removeth [from the latter] to a distance. Again, that light is the shadow of something more resplendent than itself.†

Thus speaks the Desâtîr, in the Book of Shet the Prophet Zirtûsht, thereby showing the identity of its Esoteric doctrines with those of the Greek Philosophers.
The second statement of Plato confirms the view that the Mysteries of the Ancients were identical with the Initiations practised even now among the Buddhist and the Hindu Adepts. The higher visions, the most truthful, were produced through a regular discipline of gradual Initiations, and the development of psychical powers. In Europe and Egypt the Mystae were brought into close union with those whom Proclus calls “mystical natures,” “resplendent Gods,” because, as Plato says:

[We] were ourselves pure and immaculate, being liberated from this surrounding vestment, which we denominate body, and to which we are now bound like an oyster to its shell.‡

As to the East,

The doctrine of planetary and terrestrial Pitris was revealed entirely in ancient India, as well as now, only at the last moment of initiation, and to the adepts of superior degrees.§––––––––––
* On Plato’s Republic, p. 380; quoted by Taylor, p. 66.
† Verses 35-38. [See: The Desatir or the Sacred Writings of the Ancient Prophets, tr. by Mulla Firuz Bin Kaus, Bombay, 1818, 2 vols.; with additional notes by Dhunjeebhoy Jamsetjee Medhora, Bombay, 1888; rpr. by Wizard’s Bookshelf, Minneapolis, 1975; 1979.—Compiler.]
‡ Phaedrus, 250 C, q. by Taylor, p. 64.
§ Isis Unveiled, Vol. II, p. 114.
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278 BLAVATSKY: COLLECTED WRITINGS


The word Pitris may now be explained and something else added. In India the chela of the third degree of Initiation has two Gurus: One, the living Adept; the other the disembodied and glorified Mahâtma, who remains the adviser or instructor of even the high Adepts. Few are the accepted chelas who even see their living Master, their Guru, till the day and hour of their final and for ever binding vow.....
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As for the number of stages - HPB mentions that the three degrees of pratyekabuddha, bodhisattva and perfect buddha are the basis.
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For on these three chief degrees are based the seven and twelve degrees of the Hierarchy of Adeptship. The first are those who have attained the Bodhi (wisdom) of the Buddhas, but do not become Teachers. The human Bodhisattvas are candidates, so to say, for perfect Buddhaship (in Kalpas to come), and with the option of using their powers now if need be. “Perfect” Buddhas are simply “perfect” Initiates. All these are men, and not disembodied Beings.....

The three primary qualities needed for the path, which correspond to the pratyeka, bodhisattva & buddha levels are: 1) Renunciation - meaning to renounce attachment to our craving, vices and the resulting automatic cycle of birth-death; 2) Bodhichitta - meaning the aspiration to buddhahood in order to help all beings become buddhas; 3) Shunyata - meaning the direct insight into the real empty nature of all.

I have been thinking about this a bit. Though I haven't studied the various interpretations of the Pratyeka Buddha yet (I'd love to read a good article on that though - hint) , I do feel the centrality of the Bodhisattva Vow in Mahayana Buddhism can hardly be overstated. Even the people only just starting on the Mahayana Buddhist path, whether in Zen Buddhism or Tibetan Buddhism, are stimulated to meditate on these vows, repeat them daily etc. Blavatsky's love for that vow is shared by many who only know a little of Buddhism...

Blavatsky made it very clear, that's how I read The Voice of the Silence anyhow, that there are two paths to Nirvana. The Pratyeka Buddha is the end-result of one of those paths. So it is pretty clear that however way you look at it - from classic theosophy or Buddhism in its many forms, the Pratyeka Buddha is a an actual Buddha and therefore (for instance) by definition higher than an arhat and also pretty high up on the path. We should wish to be there. But if arhats are blamed in Mahayana Buddhist scriptures of selfishness, the same argument should apply to Pratyeka Buddhas as well, shouldn't it? Therevada Buddhists would certainly not agree, but that's another story. They would stress that we each have to make our way to Nirvana anyhow - and in a sense they would be right...

On the other hand, as the content of most of this thread signifies, compassion is central to the theosophical and Buddhist paths. If everybody is supposed to try to become a Bodhisattva - which is what Mahayana Buddhist practice certainly seems to suggest - then those who become Pratyeka Buddha's are in some sense missing the boat (or rather: taking the boat too early).

The idea that it takes the ability to teach to be a Bodhisattva fits nicely with the second generation theosophical idea of the seven rays. That theme was started in abstract by both Blavatsky and Subba Row, but elaborated into psychological types by (most famously and clearly) Ernest Wood. The point being in this case: only about a seventh of souls are meant to teach - other souls have other ultimate tasks waiting for them.
Rereading Subba Row on the Seven Rays now I find that Subba Row accepts that there are seven types of adepts, but since they all incarnate on earth, it seems to me they might also each teach... which is certainly not how Ernest Wood or Leadbeater would put it.

I have not studied the Bhumis (Tibetan Buddhist idea, if I'm not mistaken?) so I would be very interested how all that fits into all of this - if it fits at all...

There is no doubt that original Theosophy & the Mahayana agree that the bodhisattva path is most needed and superior to the pratyeka path. But those theosophists who suggest that the pratyeka path is the left hand path of sorcery and pratyekas are selfish, are badly mistaken.

All of Mahayana respects & reveres shravakas & pratyekabuddhas. When they do seem to be harsh on the lesser vehicle it is because of possible backsliding Mahayanists. It is one thing to know that you lack what it takes and are not willing to try to gain those qualities of a bodhisattva and thus settle on a lesser goal. But to start out on the Mahayana path and then give up and retreat to the smaller vehicle is very bad karma; personally & for the rest of humanity.

While pratyekas are not selfish, they are not altruistic. Selfishness means seeking spiritual insights, virtues & powers to use them for making one stand out & above others - that is the left path of black magic. Self-centeredness is being so enraptured & attracted by the divine qualities, virtues, insights & powers of the path that one is rarely aware of others or their needs - that is closer to the pratyeka attitude.

The ten grounds or bhumis are the stages of the bodhisattva path, each one corresponding to the 10 paramitas. Chapter 26 of the Avatamsaka sutra is devoted to the subject.

Here is a snip from Purucker on the pratyekas; from his Dialogues:
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Student -- Do the pratyeka buddhas belong to the White Lodge, or have they their own organization; or have they no organizations, and go their own solitary way?

G. de P. -- In the beginning, and for a fairly long time afterwards, they may be said to be organized, and I will explain this statement in a moment or two; but the time comes when the very essence of their purpose, their quality of growth, the type of beings that they are, leads them into individual pathways, and hence they are called the solitaries. There is a technical term, rhinoceros, by which I think they are even called. An example of this, in a small way, you will find in the various churches or religions. The Church of Rome, or the Eastern Orthodox Church as instances, have produced and can produce, on account of the moral teachings they have and their peculiar kind of mystical aspiration, men and women often of saintly lives, of aspiring character, doing deeds of good, relatively holy men and women. So also is it in Brahmanism, and in all other religious churches or beliefs. But all through these, throughout all the efforts of these people, the aim is increase in spirituality or holiness for the one so striving, for the striver; whereas our teaching, that of the buddhas of compassion, is from the very beginning to learn to be self-forgetful. Don't strive to become holy for yourself. Strive to become holy as others strive to become holy, but only that you can forget yourself for others. This is the teaching also of Light on the Path. That little book contained the same idea. Work as those work, who work most strenuously for self. But you work not for self but for all.

Student -- The pratyeka buddha then is the very acme of self-righteousness, is it not so?

G. de P. -- I would phrase it a little differently. I would not say self-righteousness. It is the very acme, to use your words, of a human soul seeking improvement for self. This phrasing just describes it. I do not know that you could find better words. You see how difficult it is to understand this explanation, because all the universal rules of ethics are for the individual to become more spiritual. Well, all such universal rules are true, they are right, it is our duty to follow them. Nevertheless, after that is said, then comes the important corollary, that all such rules of ethics and all such striving must be not for yourself alone, but only that you may lay all that you become and are and gain on the altar of service to humanity. Strive indeed to become more spiritual, not for yourself, but solely in order that you may become more spiritual for the sake of helping others.

It is the quality of the effort, of the striving, which makes the difference between the pratyeka buddha and the buddha of compassion. The one does it for self and therefore it is a spiritual selfishness, however high; and the other does it so that he may become an impersonal instrument of the heart of cosmic compassion, of the universal life, which is the cement, the binding power, in the universe. Love never seeks self for self. Love always seeks to give.....

As in the beautiful prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

MAHATMAS AND CHELAS
by H. P. Blavatsky

A MAHATMA is a personage, who, by special training and education, has evolved those higher faculties and has attained that spiritual knowledge, which ordinary humanity will acquire after passing through numberless series of reincarnations during the process of cosmic evolution, provided, of course, that they do not go, in the meanwhile, against the purposes of Nature and thus bring on their own annihilation. This process of the self-evolution of the MAHATMA extends over a number of "incarnations," although, comparatively speaking, they are very few.

Now, what is it that incarnates? The occult doctrine, so far as it is given out, shows that the first three principles die more or less with what is called the physical death. The fourth principle, together with the lower portions of the fifth, in which reside the animal propensities, has Kama Loka for its abode, where it suffers the throes of disintegration in proportion to the intensity of those lower desires; while it is the higher Manas, the pure man, which is associated with the sixth and seventh principles, that goes into Devachan to enjoy there the effects of its good Karma, and then to be reincarnated as a higher individuality. Now, an entity, that is passing through the occult training in its successive births, gradually has less and less (in each incarnation) of that lower Manas until there arrives a time when its whole Manas, being of an entirely elevated character, is centered in the higher individuality, when such a person may be said to have become a MAHATMA.

At the time of his physical death, all the lower four principles perish without any suffering, for these are, in fact, to him like a piece of wearing apparel which he puts on and off at will. The real MAHATMA is then not his physical body but that higher Manas which is inseparably linked to the Atma and its vehicle (the sixth principle)-a union effected by him in a comparatively very short period by passing through the process of self-evolution laid down by the Occult Philosophy.

When, therefore, people express a desire to "see a MAHATMA," they really do not seem to understand what it is they ask for. How can they, by their physical eyes, hope to see that which transcends that sight? Is it the body--a mere shell or mask-they crave or hunt after? And supposing they see the body of a MAHATMA, how can they know that behind that mask is concealed an exalted entity? By what standard are they to judge whether the Maya before them reflects the image of a true MAHATMA or not? And who will say that the physical is not a Maya? Higher things can be perceived only by a sense pertaining to those higher things. And whoever therefore wants to see the real MAHATMA, must use his intellectual sight. He must so elevate his Manas that its perception will be clear and all mists created by Maya must be dispelled. His vision will then be bright and he will see the MAHATMAS wherever he may be, for, being merged into the sixth and the seventh principles, which are ubiquitous and omnipresent, the MAHATMAS may be said to be everywhere.

But, at the same time, just as we may be standing on a mountain top and have within our sight the whole plain, and yet not be cognisant of any particular tree or spot, because from that elevated position all below is nearly identical, and as our attention may be drawn to something which may be dissimilar to its surroundings--so in the same manner, although the whole of humanity is within the mental vision of the MAHATMAS, they cannot be expected to take special note of every human being, unless that being by his special acts draws their particular attention to himself. The highest interest of humanity, as a whole, is their special concern, for they have identified themselves with that Universal Soul which runs through Humanity, and he, who would draw their attention, must do so through that Soul which pervades everywhere.

This perception of the Manas may be called "faith" which should not be confounded with blind belief. "Blind faith" is an expression sometimes used to indicate belief without perception or understanding; while the true perception of the Manas is that enlightened belief, which is the real meaning of the word "faith." This belief should at the same time be accompanied by knowledge, i.e., experience, for "true knowledge brings with it faith." Faith is the perception of the Manas (the fifth principle), while knowledge, in the true sense of the term, is the capacity of the Intellect, i.e., it is spiritual perception.

In short, the higher individuality of man, composed of his higher Manas, the sixth and the seventh principles, should work as a unity, and then only can it obtain "divine wisdom," for divine things can be sensed only by divine faculties. Thus the desire, which should prompt one to apply for chelaship, is to so far understand the operations of the Law of Cosmic Evolution as will enable him to work in harmonious accord with Nature, instead of going against its purposes through ignorance.


Theosophist, July, 1884

Nicholas,

Thanks for the quote. I thought the readers might like a little more information on the seven principles that are being referred to:


--- The Three Higher Principles ---


7th: Atma “the Seventh — the Crown” (SD vol I p. 31)
[The Seventh (principle in Man) is] “... Atma ... Spirit....” (SD vol I p. 119)

6th: Buddhi
“The Sixth [principle in Man] [is] Buddhi, the Divine Soul....” (SD vol I p. 119)

5th: Manas
“In Egypt, the defunct man ... is the ‘Dragon of Wisdom’ or Manas, the ‘Human Soul,’ Mind, the Intelligent principle, called in our esoteric philosophy the ‘Fifth" principle.’ ” (SD vol I p. 219)


--- The Four Lower Principles ---


4th: Passions and Animal Desires (“Kama”)
“The astral through Kama (desire) is ever drawing Manas down into the sphere of material passions and desires. ” (SD vol I p. 244)

3rd: The Life-Principle (“Prana”)
“Prana [is] LIFE, the active power producing all vital phenomena.” (SD vol ii p. 593)

2nd: Astral Body (“Linga Sarira”)

1st: Physical Body (“Sthula-Sarira”)



(graphic adapted from SD vol I p. 242)

reply added as a test

http://theosophy-forum.com/index.php?showtopic=219&st=0&

From The Golden Precepts of Esotericism, chapter one:

Path to the Heart of the Universe

One of the greatest Adepts ever, was Adi Shankara. Here is an excerpt from his Crest Jewel of Wisdom (Vivekacudamani), tr. by Charles Johnston. These verses give the foundation of discipline and virtue needed for treading the Path.

HPB on the need for selfless motive:

No “wisdom from above” descends on any one save on the sine qua non condition of leaving at the threshold of the Occult every atom of selfishness, or desire for personal ends and benefit... This is an old, very old truism. Nature gives up her innermost secrets and imparts true wisdom only to him, who seeks truth for its own sake, and who craves for knowledge in order to confer benefits on others, not on his own unimportant personality.

From The Dual Aspect of Wisdom article

To all readers

A few views:

I just came across the following, and thought about this place.

Here are the words:



A letter from Damodar K. Mavalankar (1857- ?)
"to William Q. Judge. On October 5, 1879, two months after entering the Theosophical Society, Damodar advised:

• Your only desire should be to do everything for humanity and not for yourself, i.e. although you are in the world, your inner man should be out of it. When you do this much, you will know other means of accomplishing your aim from the Adepts."

- - -

Added:
I saw a few words on the issue Pratyeka Buddhas and Nirvana.
Here is a good source of info on it, which I would offer to consideration:
Yoga and Yoga Discipline: A Theosophical Interpretation" - Ryan


M. Sufilight

Unless the [Spiritual] Ego takes refuge in the Atman, the All-Spirit, and merges entirely into the essence thereof, the personal Ego may goad it to the bitter end.

The Secret Doctrine

A band of students of the Esoteric Doctrines, who would reap any profits spiritually, must be in perfect harmony and unity of thought. Each one individually and collectively has to be utterly unselfish, kind, and full of goodwill towards each other at least -- leaving humanity out of the question; there must be no party spirit among the band, no backbiting, no ill-will, or envy or jealousy, contempt or anger. What hurts one ought to hurt the other; that which rejoices A must feel with pleasure B.

Morya

HPB once mentioned that Jnana (Wisdom) Yoga was best for those of us in the West. One of the important tools of thinking toward wisdom is dialectic or Q & A or dialogue. Here is a bit from the Catholic Encyclopedia:

A good introduction to the Platonic wisdom tradition is The Unfolding Wings by Tim Addey. A USA online bookseller is carrying it. They also carry the Prometheus Trust, Thomas Taylor series of translations of Proclus, Plato, Aristotle and other sages.

Opening Mind