Theos-Talk Archives (June 2006 Message tt00392)

Monday, June 26, 2006

 

I was trying to point to universal and impersonal laws of Nature ? to break
or contravene produces evil  no matter what faith or religion is involved.

 

Let me quote:

 

?.In our humble opinion, the only ?Essentials? in the Religion of Humanity
are?virtue, morality, brotherly love, and kind sympathy with every living
creature, whether human or animal. This is the common platform that our
Society offers to all to stand upon; the most fundamental differences
between religions and sects sinking into insignificance before the mighty
problem of reconciling humanity, of gathering all the various races into one
family, and of bringing them all to a conviction of the utmost necessity in
this world of sorrow to cultivate feelings of brotherly sympathy and
tolerance, if not actually love. Having taken for our motto??In these
Fundamentals?unity; in non-essentials?full liberty; in all things?charity,?
we say to all collectively and to every one individually??keep to your
forefather's religion, whatever it may be?if you feel attached to it; think
with your own brains; be by all means yourself?whatever you are. And
remember above all, that a wolf in his own skin is immeasurably more honest
than the same animal?under a sheep's clothing.?

  A FEW THOUGHTS ON SOME WISE WORDS FROM A WISE MAN [The Theosophist, Vol.
IV, No. 9, June, 1883, pp. 213 217] BLAVATSKY: COLLECTED WRITINGS, 502

 

 

 

                                                DIVINE ETHICS .DOC

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

 

 

 

? In its practical bearing, Theosophy is purely DIVINE ETHICS.?

             -- T  GLOSSARY, "Theosophia"

 

 

 ?All that was great, generous, heroic, was, in days of old, not

 only talked about and preached from pulpits as in our own time,

 but also ACTED UPON sometimes by whole nations.?

             -- THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, page 226

 

 

 

In numerous places, HPB emphasizes the importance of the practice

of Theosophical ethics by students. Theosophical ethics are not

something unique and special -- they are ancient, like the

metaphysical and philosophical doctrines of Theosophy.

 

 

"These ethics are the soul of the Wisdom-Religion, and were once

the common property of the initiates of all nations," wrote HPB.

 

 

Not only did Gautama and Jesus preach the ancient ethics, but

also with every attempt at Theosophizing any race or civilization

-- e.g., the movement founded by Ammonius Saccas -- these old

ethical principles were promulgated. 

 

The modern Movement founded by HPB in 1875 follows 

the ancient pattern in this as in all things. In THE KEY 

TO THEOSOPHY, she points out that "Theosophy

has to inculcate ethics," and in presenting moral teachings, she

uses the same principle as in offering philosophical teachings.

 

Just as she synthesized the teachings of every ancient school of

philosophy, she also did so in the sphere of ethics. She

declared:

 

 

 ?[The second of the Three Objects of the Society was] the serious

 study of the ancient world-religions for purposes of comparison

 and the selection therefrom of universal ethics.?

             --  T  GLOSSARY, "Theosophical Society"

 

 

The exercise of these ethics in daily living unfolds "the latent

DIVINE powers in man" referred to by HPB in formulating the Third

Object.

 

 

In her KEY TO THEOSOPHY, she explains:

 

 ?They are the essence and cream of the world's ethics, gathered

 from the teachings of all the world's great reformers.

 

 Therefore, you will find represented therein Confucius and

 Zoroaster, Lao-tzu, and THE BHAGAVAD-GITA, the precepts of

 Gautama Buddha and Jesus of Nazareth, of Hillel and his school,

 as of Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and their schools.?

 

 

The Moral Philosophy of the Wisdom Religion, like its living

science and its universal metaphysics, is the time-honored

expression of the Great Kosmos. The Kosmos is not only visible

and material but also is energetic and moral. If man's mind

derives from the Divine Mind, his soul is a ray of the Universal

Soul and lives by Moral Laws that manifest as Virtues.

 

 

In her FIVE MESSAGES TO AMERICAN THEOSOPHISTS, HPB states:

 

 

? The essence of Theosophy is the perfect harmonizing of the divine

 with the human in man, the adjustment of his god-like qualities

 and aspirations, and their sway over the terrestrial or animal

 passions in him.?       -- page 6

 

 

In promulgating Theosophy, it is necessary to bear this in mind:

 

 

? The function of Theosophists is to open men's hearts and

 understandings to charity, justice, and generosity, attributes

 which belong specifically to the human kingdom and are natural to

 man when he has developed the qualities of a human being.?

             -- FIVE MESSAGES from HPB  ,   page 9

 

 

So we have the task of unfolding our humanity and helping our

fellow men to do likewise. That this mission is not something

chimerical is explained thus:

 

 

 ?The life of altruism is not so much a high ideal as a matter of

 practice. Naturally, then, Theosophy finds a home in many hearts

 and minds, and strikes a resounding harmony as soon as it reaches

 the ears of those who are ready to listen. There, then, is part

 of your work: to lift high the torch of Liberty of the Soul of

 Truth that all may see it and benefit by its light.

 

 Therefore, it is that the Ethics of Theosophy are even more

 necessary to mankind than the scientific aspects of the psychic

 facts of nature and man.?       -- FIVE MESSAGES,  page 12

 

 

How is this task different from what every church pulpit and

every social-service program is trying to accomplish? 

 

First, ours is not a creedal or organizational appeal. Other 

institutions refer to Christian ethics and Hindu morality, 

and sometimes mix up religious ritualism and social 

customs with moral principles. 

 

How can churches preach Universal Ethics any more than can a

political party? They are like business houses with their chants,

exploiting the self-interest of their adherents for sectarian

purposes. The practice of the Law of Universal Brotherhood is

not encouraged.

 

Secondly, while it is true that good conduct is stressed and

ethical values are discussed, the pure first principles of

morality rooted in the soil of universal philosophy are unknown.

TRUE philosophy is absent where salaried priests are present. In

the scientific researcher, too, altruism, pure and genuine, is

absent. 

 

It has taken our civilization over half a century to

recognize what Mahatma K.H. taught in 1880:

 

 

 ?Exact experimental science has nothing to do with morality,

 virtue, philanthropy -- therefore, can make no claim upon our

 help until it blends itself with metaphysics.?

             -- U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 29, page 6

 

The use of the atom bomb to destroy two Japanese cities shocked

the conscience of almost the entire world and demonstrated man's

inhumanity to man, which the researches of modern science

encourage. 

 

Even today, the secrecy enveloping the progress of the

manufacture of destructive bombs remains unbroken. This is

not a manifestation of Universal Brotherhood founded on Universal

Ethics. 

 

Where are the scientists and where is the nation that

will break this black secrecy and compel the destruction of this

dark, destructive use of weapons? Will our India do it --

refusing to use the knowledge gained by its researchers in the

newly established research institutes, for nefarious, destructive

purposes? Will its scientists use their knowledge openly for the

constructive development of a peace-loving civilization -- not

national but international?

 

Not knowledge but heart enlightenment of a large number of men

and women will compel the national States to stop the destructive

use of the discoveries of modern science, and a similar

phenomenon must follow in the sphere of organized, creedal

religions.

 

The emergence of the international State implies international

citizenship. This must not be along politico-economic lines

only, but fundamentally along moral and spiritual lines.

 

Politics and economics will continue to be nationalistic unless

the real significance of Universal Brotherhood is perceived. For

its full perception, some practice of Divine Ethics is necessary.

Human beings must aspire to feel the Divinity within and begin to

act like shining gods, not as political animals.

 

 

[From LIVING THE LIFE, pages 72-74,  B. P. Wadia]

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

 

 ?The holy motive prompting a Bodhisattwa, a Sravaka, or Rahat to help to
the same bliss those who remain behind him, the living; in which case he
will stop to instruct them either from within or without; or, secondly,
those who, however pure, harmless and comparatively free from sin during
their lives, have been so engrossed with some particular idea in connection
with one of the human mayas as to pass away amidst that all-absorbing
thought; and, thirdly, persons in whom an intense and holy love, such as
that of a mother for her orphaned children, creates or generates an
indomitable will, fed by that boundless love, to tarry with and among the
living in their inner selves. 

 TIBETAN TEACHINGS A LONG-DELAYED PROMISE FULFILLED [Lucifer, Vol. XV, Nos.
85-86, September and October, 1894. pp. 9-17 and 97-104]  BLAVATSKY:
COLLECTED WRITINGS, p. 102

 

*******

 

Love is one of the most variable, and therefore the aspects of it are
numberless.  Spiritual love, that of a mother for her child, of an artist
for some particular art, love as pure friendship, are purely magnetic
manifestations of sympathy in congenial natures.  The magnetism of pure love
is the originator of every created thing.  In its ordinary sense love
between the sexes is electricity, and he calls it amor febris species, the
fever of species.  There are two kinds of magnetic attraction: sympathy and
fascination; the one holy and natural, the other evil and unnatural.

 THE VEIL OF ISIS-CHAPTER VII, p. 210 [BLAVATSKY: COLLECTED WRITINGS]

 

 

******* 

 

?Love of God and love of man is the essence of religion,? says Babu
Rainarain Bose elsewhere, inviting men to withdraw their attention from the
husk of religion??the non-essentials? and concentrate it upon the kernel?its
essentials. 

 A FEW THOUGHTS ON SOME WISE WORDS FROM A WISE MAN [The Theosophist, Vol.
IV, No. 9, June, 1883, pp. 213 217] BLAVATSKY: COLLECTED WRITINGS, 496

 

 

The earlier Vedic description of Kama alone gives the key-note to what he
emblematizes. Kama is the first conscious, all embracing desire for
universal good, love, and for all that lives and feels, needs help and
kindness; the first feeling of infinite tender compassion and mercy that
arose in the Consciousness of the creative ONE FORCE, as soon as it came
into life and being as a ray from the ABSOLUTE. Says the Rig Veda, ?Desire
first arose in IT, which was the primal germ of mind, and which Sages,
searching with their intellect, have discovered in their heart to be the
bond which connects Entity with non-Entity?, or Manas with pure
Atma-Buddhi.?       THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY, p. 171

 

 

          This is the complete version of the above:

 

Kamadeva (Sk.). In the popular notions the god of love, a Visvadeva, in the
Hindu Pantheon. As the Eros of Hesiod, degraded into Cupid by exoteric law,
and still more degraded by a later popular sense attributed to the term, so
is Kama a most mysterious and metaphysical subject. 

 

The earlier Vedic description of Kama alone gives the key-note to what he
emblematizes. Kama is the first conscious, all embracing desire for
universal good, love, and for all that lives and feels, needs help and
kindness; the first feeling of infinite tender compassion and mercy that
arose in the Consciousness of the creative ONE FORCE, as soon as it came
into life and being as a ray from the ABSOLUTE. 

 

Says the Rig Veda,

 

 ?Desire first arose in IT, which was the primal germ of mind, and which
Sages, searching with their intellect, have discovered in their heart to be
the bond which connects Entity with non-Entity?, or Manas with pure
Atma-Buddhi. 

 

There is no idea of sexual love in the conception. Kama is pre-eminently the
divine desire of creating happiness and love; and it is only ages later, as
mankind began to materialize by anthropomorphization its grandest ideals
into cut and dried dogmas, that Kama became the power that gratifies desire
on the animal plane. 

 

This is shown by what every Veda and some Brahmanas say. In the Atharva
Veda, Kama is represented as the Supreme Deity and Creator. In the Tailarîya
Brahmana, he is the child of Dharma, the god of Law and Justice, of Sraddha
and faith. In another account he springs from the heart of Brahmâ. Others
show him born from water, i.e., from primordial chaos, or the ?Deep?. 

 

Hence one of his many names, Irâ-ja, ?the water-born?; and Aja, ?unborn?;
and Atmabhu or ?Self-existent?. Because of the sign of Makara (Capricornus)
on his banner, he is also called ?Makara Ketu?. The allegory about Siva, the
?Great Yogin?, reducing Kama to ashes by the fire from his central (or
third) Eye, for inspiring the Mahadeva with thoughts of his wife, while he
was at his devotions--is very suggestive, as it is said that he thereby
reduced Kama to his primeval spiritual form.?   THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY, p.
171

 

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

 

Best wishes,

 

Dallas

 

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

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Elaine 

Sent: Saturday, June 24, 2006 
To: 
Subject: RE: Origin of Evil

I did not mean to imply that it is Only the fundamental Muslim community
that takes their holy book as literal, and seems to determine their current
morality, or lack thereof.  Of course the same literalism exists within the
Christian population (and other orthodox religions,)  

That said however, you do not currently find suicide bombers willing to die
to kill infidels within the findamental Christian, Jewish communities -
where parents are congratualted for the death of their child serving God,
nor do you find an acceptance of honor killings for the rape of girls, women
who have shamed their families in the same - even though shame might be
felt. This is done in the name of God in Muslim countries.  

I do question why there iseems to be no sense of inherent morality in a
culture such as that.  As someone with a deep seated sense of right vs.
wrong - feeling it has been hardwired in human beings - I'm left to
ponder..... 

Are these people simply misquided by blind faith?  Are they truly evil?  Or
are they meant to provide us with the challenge to find ways to bridge the
great divide, that grows wider every day (and for the first time in history
offers the opportunity for major devastation if not destruction of a large
part of the earth's population.)  ?

How do we challenge mainstream relgion which many revert back to in times of
fear and become rigid and fixed in their belief out of that fear?  

How do we help sprirituality evolve to full consciousness of there being
only One?  

We talk the talk, do we walk the walk?  Conversations need to be able to
take place - where people who, though coming from different places at least
share ideas in reasonable ways.  This has to take place first within our Own
communities where we can begin tearing down the walls of religiosity that
devide us and the labels the define us and begin to really see/know our
unique whole.  

Elaine





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