Theos-Talk Archives (July 2006 Message tt00526)

7/26/2006 5:49 AM

	CORRECTED AND RESENT

Dear J and Friends:

I th several “chat groups” generally we may say – screened they may be for
inappropriate postings. In such cases a sender is advised.


We may say therefore that there are no specific “leaders” or “moderators.”  

The object of “blavatsky.net and B-Study” as I see them operate,  is to
encourage individuals to  discover what THEOSOPHY teaches to everyone.  

We can research and test it and ask questions  -- not about people, but
about principles., testimony and evidence, so that we may practice more
carefully the learning process of FACTS without the varnish of personal
opinions.  This is important, because the “opinions” can go wrong.

We “learn”  ( and puzzle out, or remember) all that we are interested in.
We usually reject items of information  we are not “interested” in.  Thus we
remain ignorant in those areas until the need to know arises..  

In such cases (where we neglect learning because of OUR interest) the links
to the wide connections of the Cosmos and other minds may be distorted or
interrupted.

Recommendations are always available.  But they are not always “pleasant.” 

I recommend:  STUDY they ORIGINAL  recordings of THEOSOPHY   Primarily HPB
and the other students, who following her closely, enlarge accurately on her
themes and information.

WE HAVE TO DO THE WORK.  It cannot be done for us.”

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

see what HPB says:

HPB on STUDYING the S.D.    (BOWEN)
			
Since most of the quotes that we will discuss come from SD, I hope the
following extracts from Robert Bowen's notes of personal teachings given by
H.P.B. to private pupils during the years 1888 to 1891 on how to study SD
may be of some help.

"At last we have managed to get H.P.B. to put us right on the matter of the
study of the S.D. Let me get it down while it is all fresh in mind.
Reading the S.D. page by page as one reads any other book (she says) will
only end us in confusion. The first thing to do, even if it takes years, is
to get some grasp of the "Three Fundamental Principles" given in the Proem.
Follow that up by study of the Recapitulation -- the numbered items in the
Summing Up to Vol. I. (Part 1.). Then take the Preliminary Notes (Vol. II.)
and the Conclusion (Vol. II.)...... 

She talked a good deal about the "Fundamental Principle." She says: If one
imagines that one is going to get a satisfactory picture of the constitution
of the Universe from the S.D. one will get only confusion from its study. It
is not meant to give any such final verdict on existence, but to LEAD
TOWARDS THE TRUTH. She repeated this latter expression many times.  

It is worse than useless going to those whom we imagine to be advanced
students (she said) and asking them to give us an "interpretation" of the
S.D. They cannot do it. If they try, all they give are cut and dried
exoteric renderings which do not remotely resemble the Truth. To accept such
interpretation means anchoring ourselves to fixed ideas, whereas Truth lies
beyond any ideas we can formulate or express.

Exoteric interpretations are all very well, and she does not condemn them so
long as they are taken as pointers for beginners, and are not accepted by
them as anything more. Many persons who are in, or who will in the future be
in the T.S. are of course potentially incapable of any advance beyond the
range of a common exoteric conception. But there are, and will be others,
and for them she sets out the following and true way of approach to the S.D.


Come to the S.D. (she says) without any hope of getting the final Truth of
existence from it, or with any idea other than seeing how far it may lead
TOWARDS the Truth. See in study a means of exercising and developing the
mind never touched by other studies. Observe the following rules: 

1. No matter what one may study in the S.D. let the mind hold fast, as the
basis of its ideation to the following ideas 

(a) The FUNDAMENTAL UNITY OF ALL EXISTENCE. This unity is a thing altogether
different from the common notion of unity -- as when we say that a nation or
an army is united; or that this planet is united to that by lines of
magnetic force or the like. The teaching is not that.  It is that existence
is ONE THING, not any collection of things linked together. 

Fundamentally there is ONE BEING. 

This Being has two aspects, positive and negative. The positive is Spirit,
or CONSCIOUSNESS. The negative is SUBSTANCE, the subject of consciousness. 

This Being is the Absolute in its primary manifestation. Being absolute
there is nothing outside it. It is All-Being. It is indivisible, else it
would not be absolute. 

If a portion could be separated, that remaining could not be absolute,
because there would at once arise the question of COMPARISON between it and
the separated part. Comparison is incompatible with any idea of
absoluteness. Therefore it is clear that this fundamental One Existence, or
Absolute Being must be the Reality in every form there is. 

I said that though this was clear to me I did not think that many in the
Lodges would grasp it. 

"Theosophy," she said, "is for those who can think, or for those who can
drive themselves to think, not mental sluggards." H.P.B. has grown very mild
of late. "Dumskulls!" used to be her name for the average student.  

4 Fundamental Ideas     Given by HPB 

(a)The Atom, the Man, the God (she says) are each separately, as well as all
collectively, Absolute Being in their last analysis, that is their REAL
INDIVIDUALITY. It is this idea which must be held always in the background
of the mind to form the basis for every conception that arises from study of
the S.D. The moment one lets it go (and it is most easy to do so when
engaged in any of the many intricate aspects of the Esoteric Philosophy) the
idea of SEPARATION supervenes, and the study loses its value.  


(b) The second idea to hold fast to is that THERE IS NO DEAD MATTER.  Every
last atom is alive. It cannot be otherwise since every atom is itself
fundamentally Absolute Being. Therefore there is no such thing as "spaces"
of Ether, or Akasha, or call it what you like, in which angels and
elementals disport themselves like trout in water. That's the common idea.
The true idea shows every atom of substance no matter of what plane to be in
itself a LIFE. 

(c) The third basic idea to be held is that Man is the MICROCOSM. As he is
so, then all the Hierarchies of the Heavens exist within him.  But in truth
there is neither Macrocosm nor Microcosm but ONE EXISTENCE. Great and small
are such only as viewed by a limited consciousness. 

(d) Fourth and last basic idea to be held is that expressed in the Great
Hermetic Axiom. It really sums up and synthesizes all the others. 

“As is the Inner, so is the Outer; as is the Great so is the Small; as it is
above, so it is below; there is but One Life and Law; and he that worketh it
is ONE. Nothing is Inner, nothing is Outer; nothing is Great, nothing is
Small; nothing is High, nothing is Low, in the Divine Economy. “

No matter what one takes as study in the S.D. one must correlate it with
those basic ideas."


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

Best wishes,

Dallas


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

-----Original Message-----
From: Janet Sumner/Dayowl [mailto:dayowl13@yahoo.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 4:09 PM
To: study@blavatsky.net
Subject: [bn-study] more questions



We have had conversation here of church and hierarchy and such and I am
wondering as a matter of organization how one gets titles in theosophy or in
the theosophical net or blavatsky.net.  I have noticed that we have editors,
how many and what are their titles how did they achieve them (not that I am
challenging it I am genuinely interested in the group that I am
participating in).  Certainly I am not projecting onto any one individual of
the whole either but it does seem counter to the arguments just posited
regarding why we/you do not have churches.    Could someone explain please 
Dallas, Gary, Odin, anyone.....................
 
 
TY
 
Janet
  

See the all-new, redesigned Yahoo.com. Check it out.
------------------------------------------
Visit Seekerbooks.com and get great deals on books, music and videos.
Seekerbooks.com is the bookstore for Blavatsky Net, your purchases help
promote and sustain this site. Distributed by Blavatsky Net P.O. Box 847
Blue Ridge, GA 30513 You are currently subscribed to bn-study as:
[dalval14@earthlink.net] To unsubscribe, forward this message to
leave-bn-study-7560482L@lists.lyris.net