Theos-Talk Archives (July 2006 Message tt00339)

7/18/2006 6:36 AM

Friends:

This appears most helpful to me.

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 					     H  P  B   on

				    RULES IN OCCULTISM

			       [WQJ  report on conversation with  HPB]

Student. - Are there any rules, binding on all, in white magic or good
occultism? I mean rules similar to the ten commandments of the Christians,
or the rules for the protection of life, liberty, and property recognized by
human law.

Sage. - There are such rules of the most stringent character, the breaking
of which is never wiped out save by expiation. Those rules are not made up
by some brain or mind, but flow from the laws of nature, of mind, and of
soul. Hence they are impossible of nullification. One may break them and
seem to escape for a whole life or for more than a life; but the very
breaking of them sets in motion at once other causes which begin to make
effects, and most unerringly those effects at last react on the violator.
Karma here acts as it does elsewhere, and becomes a Nemesis who, though
sometimes slow, is fate itself in its certainty.


Student. - It is not, then, the case that when an occultist violates a rule
some other adept or agent starts out like a detective or policeman and
brings the culprit to justice at a bar or tribunal such as we sometimes read
of in the imaginative works of mystical writers or novelists?

Sage. - No, there is no such pursuit. On the contrary, all the fellow-adepts
or students are but too willing to aid the offender, not in escaping
punishment, but in sincerely trying to set counteracting causes in motion
for the good of all. For the sin of one reacts on the whole human family.
If, however, the culprit does not wish to do the amount of counteracting
good, he is merely left alone to the law of nature, which is in fact that of
his own inner life from which there can be no escape. 

In Lytton's novel, ZANONI, you will notice the grave Master, Mejnour, trying
to aid Zanoni, even at the time when the latter was falling slowly but
surely into the meshes twisted by himself that ended in his destruction. 

Mejnour knew the law and so did Zanoni. The latter was suffering from some
former error which he had to work out; the former, if himself too stern and
unkind, would later on come to the appropriate grief for such a mistake. But
meanwhile he was bound to help his friend, as are all those who really
believe in brotherhood.


Student. - What one of those rules in any way corresponds to "Thou shalt not
steal"?

Sage. - That one which was long ago expressed by the ancient sage in the
words, "Do not covet the wealth of any creature." This is better than "Thou
shalt not steal," for you cannot steal unless you covet. If you steal for
hunger you may be forgiven, but you coveted the food for a purpose, just as
another covets merely for the sake of possession. The wealth of others
includes all their possessions, and does not mean mere money alone. Their
ideas, their private thoughts, their mental forces, powers, and faculties,
their psychic powers - all, indeed, on all planes that they own or have.
While they in that realm are willing to give it all away, it must not be
coveted by another.

You have no right, therefore, to enter into the mind of another who has not
given the permission and take from him what is not yours. You become a
burglar on the mental and psychic plane when you break this rule. 

You are forbidden taking anything for personal gain, profit, advantage, or
use. But you may take what is for general good, if you are far enough
advanced and good enough to be able to extricate the personal element from
it. 

This rule would, you can see, cut off all those who are well known to every
observer, who want psychic powers for themselves and their own uses. If such
persons had those powers of inner sight and hearing that they so much want,
no power could prevent them from committing theft on the unseen planes
wherever they met a nature that was not protected. And as most of us are
very far from perfect, so far, indeed, that we must work for many lives, yet
the Masters of Wisdom do not aid our defective natures in the getting of
weapons that would cut our own hands. 

For the law acts implacably, and the breaches made would find their end and
result in long after years. The Black Lodge, however, is very willing to let
any poor, weak, or sinful mortal get such power, because that would swell
the number of victims they so much require.


Student. - Is there any rule corresponding to "Thou shalt not bear false
witness"?

Sage. - Yes; the one which requires you never to inject into the brain of
another a false or untrue thought. As we can project our thoughts to
another's mind, we must not throw untrue ones to another. It comes before
him, and he, overcome by its strength perhaps, finds it echoing in him, and
it is a false witness speaking falsely within, confusing and confounding the
inner spectator who lives on thought.


Student. - How can one prevent the natural action of the mind when pictures
of the private lives of others rise before one?

Sage. - That is difficult for the run of men. Hence the mass have not the
power in general; it is kept back as much as possible. But when the trained
soul looks about in the realm of soul it is also able to direct its sight,
and when it finds rising up a picture of what it should not voluntarily
take, it turns its face away. 

A warning comes with all such pictures which must be obeyed. This is not a
rare rule or piece of information, for there are many natural clairvoyants
who know it very well, though many of them do not think that others have the
same knowledge.


Student. - What do you mean by a warning coming with the picture?

Sage. - In this realm the slightest thought becomes a voice or a picture.
All thoughts make pictures. Every person has his private thoughts and
desires. Around these he makes also a picture of his wish for privacy, and
that to the clairvoyant becomes a voice or picture of warning which seems to
say it must be let alone. With some it may assume the form of a person who
says not to approach, with others it will be a voice, with still others a
simple but certain knowledge that the matter is sacred. All these varieties
depend on the psychological idiosyncrasies of the seer.


Student. - What kind of thought or knowledge is excepted from these rules?

Sage. - General, and philosophical, religious, and moral. That is to say,
there is no law of copyright or patent which is purely human in invention
and belongs to the competitive system. When a man thinks out truly a
philosophical problem it is not his under the laws of nature; it belongs to
all; he is not in this realm entitled to any glory, to any profit, to any
private use in it. Hence the seer may take as much of it as he pleases, but
must on his part not claim it or use it for himself. Similarly with other
generally beneficial matters. They are for all. If a Spencer thinks out a
long series of wise things good for all men, the seer can take them all.
Indeed, but few thinkers do any original thinking. They pride themselves on
doing so, but in fact their seeking minds go out all over the world of mind
and take from those of slower movement what is good and true, and then make
them their own, sometimes gaining glory, sometimes money, and in this age
claiming all as theirs and profiting by it.

WQJ  report on conversation with  HPB,  PATH, January, 1895


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

-----Original Message-----
From: theosophia@yahoogroups.com [mailto:theosophia@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Steven Levey
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 5:55 AM
To: theosophia@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [theosophia] Re: The power of lower manas



Laura,

SL writes  --

    I've just gotten to work, opened up your question and realized 
that, having been stimulated by your question, I had'nt recently 
considered this interesting fact regarding the principles. The 
principles, regardlese of the system used (Taraka Raja Yoga, Esoteric 
Buddhism or HPB's older enumeration), that each of them are septenary-
this being the basis in each of us for the 49 fires. 


Really, when you consider this, it makes a great deal of sense. For our
understanding 
and intuition regarding the awareness we have, seems to inform us of 
our own unbroken integrity of being (even if integrity is 
psychologically difficult to experience). Then, perhaps, even those 
seven squared, have each the other principles in them, but not in a 
potent enough way to be considered a fire (perhaps these sevenths 
would only be seen as reflections). 


None the less, this serves to give us an image, at least, of how 
at our most subtle yet most potent and Spiritual center, 
we are one being, represented in sevenths for 
the purpose (one supposes) of incarnation and the Good Law as it 
reflects the greater Universal Sevenths.

    So, Manas being septenary, therefore contains an aspect of 
Buddhi, as Buddhi, being similarly septenary, contains an aspect of 
Manas. Using this perspective allows for the Path in us to be always 
complete, but not always travelled, as in the Antaskarana. 


    Therefore, when considering that "Buddhi becomes conscious of 
itself, through the accretions of the mind during incarnation and at 
the time of death.?" Perhaps the term "conscious" needs to be seen 
as "I", or that unitary sense of egoity, which is the Monadic 
consciousness mostly not consciously experienced during incarnation, 
and only poorly refelcted in lower Manas as "I". 


So, Buddhi may not so much become conscious as a unit in it self (because it
really 
cannot be seen as such a unit, even if we inumerate it as one of the 
principles), as much as the "I" taking up residence in Buddhi, so 
that Buddhic perception becomes the "eye", if you will, of egoity. 
Ergo, "Man Know Thyself".


     Well back to work, but the interlude, as provoked by your 
question, is much appreciated.

Steve

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


--- In theosophia@yahoogroups.com, "John Gray" <classiccontours@...> 
wrote:

 What is required for discernment?   How do we move past the power 
of the lower manas?  It is drawn to activities of judgement like a 
fish to water!!  Then the lower manas waxes strong.
 
 What comes to mind is the "Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali"  That the 
mind becomes the liberator of the soul once the soul knows that it is 
not the mind.
 
 "The mind is merely a tool, instrument, or means, by which the soul 
acquires experiences and knowledge.  In each incarnation the mind is, 
as it were new.  It is a portion of the apparatus furnished to the 
the soul through innumerable lives for obtaining experience and 
reaping the fruit of works performed.  The notion that the mind is 
either knower or experiencer is a false one, which is to be removed 
before emancipation can be reached by the soul.  It was therefore 
said that the mind operates or exists for the carrying out of the 
soul's salvation, and not the soul for the mind's sake.  When this is 
fully understood, the permanency of soul is seen, and all the evils 
flowing from false ideas begin to disappear."
	 Pg 70 of Judge's Interpretation.

 If this does not help put it on a shelf for another day but i 
wonder --   How do we get this mind of ours to such a point of 
Isolation, how do we move it towards discernment?  What does it mean 
to cease to hear the many and only discern the One as indicated in 
the Voice of the Silence?
 
We have such a huge task before us as a humanity, we need to stop 
putting the breaks on with controversy and focus on the Teacher's 
Intention.  Theosophy it seems will ever remain a mystery if we do 
not contemplate what is between the lines.  
 
 Emerson stated that Truth cannot be concealed, it cannot be 
revealed, it can only be indicated. 
 
 The writings of Blavatsky give us the full opportunity to unlock 
the knowledge and wisdom within the heart and mind, with no 
limitations, from within each student.  It is with devotion to Truth 
that students come to be devoted to the life and work of HPB and to 
the Teacher Herself.  
 
If anyone can remember where in the Secret Doctrine this quote 
below  (i think, as i wrote it down so long ago) comes from.  I have 
been looking for weeks.

  Any helpful comments on this would be appreciated as well.  
 
 Thank you. 
 
 Laura Gray