Theos-Talk Archives (November 2001 Message tt00316)

What about Shankaracharya?

Isn't he stillkicking on somewhere?

Nos



|-----Original Message-----
|From: Nisk98114@aol.com [mailto:Nisk98114@aol.com] 
|Sent: Sunday, 18 November 2001 3:10 AM
|To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
|Subject: Theos-World RE: memorable quotes
|
|
|And it would seem that also in Jewish tradition one finds 
|references to 
|Masters and no doubt many other religions as well but this particular 
|reference was handy so i'll pass it along. It also seems that the 
|theosophists aren't the only one's in on it.
|
|"And old tradition has it that the earth is sustained in
|every generation by at least 36 righteous men, known as 
|Tzaddikim. They do their good works quietly and in secret. Not 
|even their families or neighbors know who they are. But
|if it were not for them, the world would perish."  
|(NOTE: that would 
|be some "Magic" wouldn't it?)
|
|The above is in addition to Dallas's post below. 
|================================= Friday, November 16, 2001
| 
|Dear friend:
| 
|May I respond to your contribution to these exchanges?  I ask 
|you in advance 
|to excuse any abruptness you may encounter or sense in my replies
| 
| 
|1.         The existence or non existence of “masters.”
| 
| 
|You have raised important points and offered scattered quotations.
| 
|Permit m to interject some comments below in the body of your text.
| 
|Best wishes,
| 
|Dallas
|-----original message-----
|from: g--ggs m--k
|Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2001 2:38 pm
|to: 
|subject: memorable quotes
| 
| 
|Gm
|            Where ’s the proof that the Ascended Masters 
|exist? Apologists 
|point to a few letters in a museum in England supposedly written and 
|precipitated by the Masters during the 1800s . 
| 
|---------------------------------------------
| 
| 
|DTB     
| 
|            in regard to this (just above) permit meto 
|observe:  the museum 
|in London is the venerable British Museum.  (equivalent to the 
|Library of 
|Congress).
| 
|The phrase “Ascended Masters” was not used by Mme. Blavatsky.  
|One wonders 
|why and where it was developed -- perhaps by some of the later 
|groups of 
|students.  But, to my way of thinking, the important question in all 
|theosophical matters is more a question of what was said, than 
|who said it, 
|with the exception of H P B -- who was the accredited “agent” 
|of the Masters 
|and spoke for them.  
| 
|It is my conviction that the “theosophical” Adepts, or Elder 
|Brothers are 
|living in and on this earth and have much to do with its 
|progress -- as the 
|literature of theosophy makes plain.  The reasonable concept of the 
|immortality of the human spirit/soul, and of reincarnation 
|would make this a 
|certainty rather than a matter of conjecture.  Some thoughts 
|on this are 
|given below:
| 
|The interchangeable terms :  Masters, Mahatmas, Brothers, 
|Elder Brothers, 
|Adepts, Masters of Wisdom, etc…, were put into use by early 
|writers, who 
|wished to show their respect for such wise ones. 
| 
|1.         The existence of “Masters of Wisdom” does not have 
|to be proved. 
|Their presence can be deduced and evidence for that is widely 
|available to 
|those who know the importance of the  ethico-moral causes and 
|effects that 
|sweep our culture and the evolution of mankind onward. 
| 
|2.         For some, it is a logical deduction that there are 
|wise men in the 
|world.  They are under no obligation to reveal themselves to 
|us or to anyone. 
|They are busy people and cannot make time for delays, or 
|satisfy the curious. 
|Nor are They interested in forming a “church.”  
| 
|Adequate evidence of their presence and influence can be 
|traced by those who 
|are able to attune themselves to their nature -- a nature that 
|is universally 
|sensitive to the real needs of human development, and general 
|progress.  As 
|an analogy, one might consider the administrative and tutorial 
|staff -- 
|rectors, deans, professors, or presidents --  of our 
|universities. They are 
|not compelled to show themselves, or demonstrate their 
|competence to mere 
|applicants for admission, or to the hoi polloi, who could not 
|recognize their 
|ability by any means so far developed by them.  The most qualified of 
|teachers from our local university might walk right by us 
|tomorrow, and we 
|would not recognize him or her.  Our ability to meet 
|physically, or even to 
|hold a dialog with such individuals, offers no “proof” of 
|their competence.  
| 
|In some cases, if we develop the ability to understand them at 
|the level they 
|can teach, this alone demonstrates to us their competence and 
|that eminence. 
|But this personal conviction is not one we can communicate to 
|others as 
|proof. To those “others,” it may appear that we “blindly 
|believe.”   If one 
|has read the Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky, we will recall 
|the chapter 
|titled:  “The Grand Inquisitor.”  In that, Jesus appears in 
|Seville during 
|an auto-da-fe conducted by the Inquisition.  The Grand 
|Inquisitor recognizes 
|him and has him arrested and incarcerated.  That night he 
|visits him… the 
|narrative that follows contains the point I am trying to make. 
| Another book 
|that few remember was written by Upton Sinclair in the 1920s:  
|“hey Call Me 
|Carpenter.” Both these give a view of the difficulty the Church would 
|encounter if Jesus appeared in public today.
| 
|A study of their original teachings (Theosophy) can do that.  
|No one is 
|obliged to enroll themselves into any academy except by their 
|own choice.  
|The published writings of real  teachers are deemed adequate 
|proof of their 
|erudition, and their care for the evolution of the earth.  So 
|is it with 
|Theosophy.  Those who have studied it, know something of its 
|value.  This 
|kind of study can lend depth to our perception of the 
|wonderful support we 
|receive constantly from nature, and breadth to our minds and 
|aspirations. 
| 
|3.         Many persons have given independent testimony to 
|witnessing the 
|existence of “Masters of Wisdom.”  Some saw and conversed with 
|them, others 
|owe their conviction to what they have written.  The 
|conviction of their 
|possession of great wisdom, and of their existence, is always 
|one that an 
|individual develops in himself.  This can be shared with 
|others, to discover 
|if they have had similar experiences.  No one can “prove” anything to 
|another.  They can only speak of what they experienced, or of their 
|conclusions.
| 
|Whatever our several opinions may be, that which is relevant 
|is the inherent 
|worth of what has been presented for us to consider.   Each 
|one is urged to 
|make an independent determination as to value.  
| 
|When skepticism is offered  it may arouse the spirit of 
|research.  In others 
|who do not care to investigate, it may produce rejection.  
|Each one has to 
|deal with their doubts as best they can, since no one can 
|alter the mind-set 
|of another.  The more universal and impersonal our mind-view, 
|the more we may 
|be able to embrace the universe as a whole, and may begin to 
|perceive what we 
|can contribute to it.  
| 
|On the other hand:  we ought to consider the cumulative worth 
|of a 130 years 
|of evidence.  One can study the testimony offered, and, one 
|might read in H P 
|B’s ISIS UNVEILED, that there has been, evidence for the 
|existence of wise 
|men, of prophets, reformers and teachers, and that this 
|extends over many 
|more years and centuries than our abbreviated history reveals. [ ISIS 
|UNVEILED  II  pp. 97 - 103]  One may further discover that 
|they, the wise, 
|all taught the same fundamental doctrines, and the same ethics 
|to be used in 
|a setting of ideal communal living anywhere, and at any time 
|in the past or 
|present of our world.
| 
|The primary basis for theosophical doctrines (which claim this 
|antiquity and 
|universality) is their enormous span of history. (our records 
|of history, 
|presented to us in the course of our education, seem to be 
|limited to about 
|7,000 years, then, the records are seen to fade and disappear into the 
|shadows of tradition and myth)  Occasionally we find traces of 
|buildings and 
|monuments that indicate a great antiquity to the theoretical antiquity 
|ascribed to many ancient civilizations, and these, remain to 
|this day the 
|puzzles of the paleontologists and archeologists.  [See as an 
|example pages 
|151-2 in MAHATMA LETTERS (barker edition); however, the SECRET 
|DOCTRINE 
|throws light on those artifacts and the past civilizations 
|that developed 
|them.  
| 
|Theosophy, delving into the sources of  religions, 
|philosophies, myths and 
|sects of our past and present, offers the concept that:  the original, 
|primitive spirit of wisdom, when embodied, generates the process of 
|evolution, so that the least being in existence may, some day, 
|attain to the 
|wisdom implicit in the wisest of all natures’ excellences --  
|(Deity) --  as 
|Sublime Perfection, and, an equality of intelligence for all.  
|This forms the 
|primary basis for the “first object:”   Universal Brotherhood.
| 
|It is sublime, because it denies this wisdom to none.  It 
|encourages the 
|concept of brotherly regard and practice as a necessary 
|process that will 
|lead to all beings becoming eventually wise.  Wisdom may be 
|defined as the 
|ability to make knowledge universally beneficent.
| 
|It therefore posits (to repeat) as a basic principle, the 
|concept that every 
|being is in fact an immortal, and never “dies.”  One might 
|say, starting 
|with atomic and sub-atomic entities, that each has a fraction, however 
|minute, of the ONE, the original, the universal and 
|all-pervasive SPIRIT 
|residing in it.  Around it, it attracts the necessary forms (atoms, 
|molecules, cells, etc…)  to give it embodiment in our material 
|environment.  
|The doctrine of the “seven principles” in nature and in man 
|emerges from 
|this necessity. [ see  KEY TO THEOSOPHY (HPB) and SECRET 
|DOCTRINE,  vol. I  
|p. 157, and,  II,  p.  596 ]
| 
|If this is acceptable, then it becomes possible to see how 
|through a vast 
|process of repeated experience, every such unit (or monad) 
|experiences life 
|and purposive, conscious living through all forms.  Obviously 
|evolution is 
|not limited to the formal embodiments we all know and are 
|familiar with in 
|this solitary life.  Our science recognizes the immutability 
|as well as the 
|continual transmigration of all atoms throughout the universe 
|over a vast 
|period of time.  It endows, conceptually, each atom with the 
|quality of 
|immortality calling it a “perpetual motion machine.”
| 
|As said above: the logical outcome of this concept is that 
|total evolution 
|has, and will, always be made available to every unit, until 
|every such 
|entity eventually attains to the level of intelligence 
|represented by the 
|manifestation of the one consciousness through the focus we call:  
|spirit/soul/mind which animates (and is the cause for) each 
|unit of mankind.  
|In a sensitive and caring universe no single unit in its whole vast 
|constituency will be denied the opportunity to succeed and 
|graduate from this 
|school of experience, in which we all share.
| 
|It posits logically, that every human started its evolution at 
|the same basic 
|stage;  and has been directing it, for itself, under the general and 
|impartial laws of the universe, at its own rate of advance 
|ever since.  More 
|important:  it posits that every being (from low to high, from 
|small to 
|great) is an independently cooperative immortal.  It lives and 
|has lived with 
|all other beings, and its choices either assist or delay the 
|joint progress 
|of the whole of nature. 
| 
|Each such immortal monad, uses many bodies under the general 
|process known as 
|reincarnation, and this proceeds under karma, or the universal 
|law of equity 
|and fair justice for all.  Surely, there can be nothing more 
|democratic than 
|this “equal opportunity” universe ?
|
| 
|
|Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to 
|http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 
|
|