Theosophy

[Skylar]

Philosophy requires at lease One.

There could be more though.

The paradox of One is that He/She/It must have existed forever.

But there is another paradox wherein all of us existed forever.

If One can exist forever then logical all can also exist forever.

ANd that's the kicker. Any philosophy that is predicated on the divine breaks if applied monotheistically. There doesn't need to be ONE prime mover. There could be two, or trillions, or infinity movers.

Worse, the entire concept of the eternally existing 'prime mover' defeats its own premise. As it demonstrates, if true, that eternal stuff exists. If the prime mover, why not everything?

Worse still, there are no particular moral implications of a prime mover. It could be evil as fuck and still move first.

ANd it still gets worse. As there's no intelligence implications. Something need only move. A photon could be a prime mover. Sentience is entirely optional.

All attributes assigned to a prime mover beyond moving first....are anthropomorphism.

 

[Skull]

The universe is the combination of a thousand elements, and yet the expression of a single spirit — a chaos to the senses, a cosmos to the reason.

Isis Unveiled, Volume 1

 

[FredVegbarfuss]

ANd that's the kicker. Any philosophy that is predicated on the divine breaks if applied monotheistically. There doesn't need to be ONE prime mover. There could be two, or trillions, or infinity movers.

Worse, the entire concept of the eternally existing 'prime mover' defeats its own premise. As it demonstrates, if true, that eternal stuff exists. If the prime mover, why not everything?

Worse still, there are no particular moral implications of a prime mover. It could be evil as fuck and still move first.

ANd it still gets worse. As there's no intelligence implications. Something need only move. A photon could be a prime mover. Sentience is entirely optional.

All attributes assigned to a prime mover beyond moving first....are anthropomorphism.

Why? Why should necessary being that explains all things that are caused to be yet be divided? Necessary being should not be limited, with breaks, which divisions are.

 

[Skylar]

Why? Why should necessary being that explains all things that are caused to be yet be divided? Necessary being should not be limited, with breaks, which divisions are.

Because the 'necessary being' isn't necessary. The argument being offered is that something or somethings moved first. That's the only attribute that is necessary.

You don't need a being for that. You don't need morality for that. You don't need to be singular for that. You don't need to be good for that. You don't need to have intelligence for that. You don't need sentience for that.

A photon could be the 'prime mover' and it matches the prime mover argument as well as any supreme being you could imagine.

 

[Skull]

From William Q Judge:

Among many ideas brought forward through the theosophical movement there are three which should never be lost sight of. Not speech, but thought, really rules the world; so, if these three ideas are good let them be rescued again and again from oblivion.

The first idea is, that there is a great Cause — in the sense of an enterprise — called the Cause of Sublime Perfection and Human Brotherhood. This rests upon the essential unity of the whole human family, and is a possibility because sublimity in perfectness and actual realization of brotherhood on every plane of being are one and the same thing. All efforts by Rosicrucian, Mystic, Mason and Initiate are efforts toward the convocation in the hearts and minds of men of the Order of Sublime Perfection.

The second idea is, that man is a being who may be raised up to perfection, to the stature of the Godhead, because he himself is God incarnate. This noble doctrine was in the mind of Jesus, no doubt, when he said that we must be perfect even as is the father in heaven. This is the idea of human perfectibility. It will destroy the awful theory of inherent original sin which has held and ground down the western Christian nations for centuries.

The third idea is the illustration, the proof, the high result of the others. It is, that the Masters — those who have reached up to what perfection this period of evolution and this solar system will allow — are living, veritable facts, and not abstractions cold and distant. They are, as our old H.P.B. so often said, living men. And she said, too, that a shadow of woe would come to those who should say they were not living facts, who should assert that “the Masters descend not to this plane of ours.” The Masters as living facts and high ideals will fill the soul with hope, will themselves help all who wish to raise the human race.

Let us not forget these three great ideas.

 

[Skull]

One year of quotes from WQ Judge:

https://theosophy-ult.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/A-Book-of-Quotations-W-Q-Judge.pdf

 

[Skull]

The unity of God, the immortality of the spirit. belief in salvation only through our works, merit and demerit; such are the principal articles of faith of the Wisdom-religion.

Blavatsky - Isis Unveiled,

 

[Skull]

Maxims on Karma collected by WQ Judge:

Aphorisms on Karma — William Q. Judge

 

[Skull]

Here is more testimony on the reality of the Adepts, from Echoes of the Orient, vol. III:418-20.

Mahatma of the Circle on the Theosophical Society & HP Blavatsky

The following is from a letter lately received from an Indian brother...[B.K. Lahiri] and is recommended to your attention as independent evidence of the position of H.P.B. and the connection of the Masters with the T.S.
Annie Besant, William Q. Judge March, 1893.

THE LETTER

K.B., a Brahman Yogi, recently went up to the Himalayas: on his way down to Deccan, he was kind enough to stop at my place for some days... I must mention here also that this gentleman did not know much of H.P.B. before nor of the Theosophical Society, and whenever I spoke to him about them he used to say, as it were passively, that it was a good work, no doubt, and that H.P.B. must have known the occult philosophy... that whenever the Rakshasas [demons] became powerful some goddess is sent to destroy them, and so she was sent to destroy the materialism of the all-powerful western Rakshasas.

However, now I shall relate what he told me when he came back from the Himalayas. The first thing he said was: "Go on! go on! go on! Fit yourself; you have much to do: go on, go on, and go on." The next thing he told me was, that this time he considered himself thrice blessed by the sight of a Mahatma... in the snow-covered and impassable cave of the Himalayas...

The Mahatma, he said, he saw perfectly naked; that no living soul could venture to look at his eyes; his color appeared to be of such a peculiar hue that it is not like anything worldly, but when he touched his hand (K.B.'s) between the third and fourth fingers, the latter could not stand the electric shock that ran up to his head from the extreme parts of his feet... He became almost unconscious, although he himself is a real yogi of 22 years' standing...

He said the body of the Mahatma, though it looked like butter, proved to be hard as steel, and that it was impossible for him to say of what it is made. The Mahatma does not speak, and with him only spoke where he could not make the latter understand his thought perfectly well. After he received his instruction, whatever was necessary for him, he asked: "that in India there they have established a society called the Theosophical Society, and that Madame Blavatsky started it with Col. Olcott. What is this? Is there anything real in it? Who was H.P.B.? Was she a yogi? Is Col. Olcott a yogi? What will be end of all this? Is anybody to come in the place of H.P.B.? My certain friend B.K.L. who takes much interest in the T.S. pressed me for the latter information."

He said, "The T.S. was their work: it was established to change the present current of the human mind and destroy Nastikism, [materialistic atheism]... that he was present when H.P.B. was sent by her Master from the Manasarovara Hills in Tibet... she was sent to carry out the work of the Mahatmas; -- that she was very high up there is not the least doubt, that he himself was one of the Circle, although not so high as the Guru of H.P.B.; that Col. Olcott is a good man no doubt but no yogi, he is entirely different from H.P.B. with whose name you cannot mention Olcott. That what was necessary was done by H.P.B. and the Society is successful... that hitherto the T.S. followed a particular line, but in India there should be a change in that line, but there will be no change in the West, they must go on as they do now."

Since the Svamiji has come back from the Himalayan Hills his ideas about the T.S. and H.P.B. are entirely different; instead of passive tolerance he simply says:

"Oh! I like to worship the portrait of H.P.B.; no one has done so much good for humanity, especially for India, after Buddha and Shankaracharya... The T.S. is ours, established for certain purposes by our Mahatmas; go on and go on, work and work."

I must tell you that the Svamji never knew any of these informations about the T.S., the West, or H.P.B. before he went up to the Hills. The Svamji showed me his hand where the Mahatma held it with his two fingers -- there is the white sign of inflammation still existing, and subsequently the skin was off from that place. These are the facts that are revealed to me... It appeared also that the Svamji is the chela of one of the chelas or grand chelas of a Mahatma of the Circle

 

[Skull]

True Occultism or Theosophy is the “Great Renunciation of Self”, unconditionally and absolutely, in thought as in action. It is Altruism, and it throws him who practises it out of calculation of the ranks of the living altogether. “Not for himself, but for the world he lives”, as soon as he has pledged himself to the work ..... he has to become a mere beneficent force in Nature.

Blavatsky

 

[Skull]

For a government,' said the god, 'is nothing but a mirror of your minds--tyrannical for tyrants--hypocritical for hypocrites --corrupt for those who are indifferent--extravagant and wasteful for the selfish--strong and honorable only toward honest men.

I heard, when I was in Delhi, that the men of the West are studying the construction of the atom, and have guessed at the force imprisoned in it. Wait until they have learned how to explode the atom, and then see what they will do to one another.

Talbot Mundy, Om, the Secret of Ahbor Valley, published in 1924.

 

[Skull]

This work in three parts is "Dedicated to the Few":

The Voice of the Silence | Universal Theosophy

 

[Skull]

It must be remembered that the Society was not founded as a nursery for forcing a supply of Occultists — as a factory for the manufactory of Adepts. It was intended to stem the current of materialism, and also that of spiritualistic phenomenalism and the worship of the Dead. It had to guide the spiritual awakening that has now begun, and not to pander to psychic cravings which are but another form of materialism. For by "materialism" is meant not only an anti-philosophical negation of pure spirit, and, even more, materialism in conduct and action — brutality, hypocrisy, and, above all, selfishness — but also the fruits of a disbelief in all but material things, a disbelief which has increased enormously during the last century, and which has led many, after a denial of all existence other than that in matter, into a blind belief in the materialization of Spirit.

HPB 1888 letter to American Convention

 

[Skull]

The tendency of modern civilization is a reaction towards animalism, towards a development of those
qualities which conduce to the success in life of man as an animal in the struggle for animal existence.
Theosophy seeks to develop the human nature in man in addition to the animal, and at the sacrifice of the superfluous animality which modern life and materialistic teachings have developed to a degree which is abnormal for the human being at this stage of his progress.
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. Kindness, absence of every ill feeling or selfishness, charity, goodwill to all beings, and perfect justice to others as to oneself, are its chief features. He who teaches Theosophy preaches the gospel of goodwill; and the converse of this is true also — he who preaches the gospel of goodwill, teaches Theosophy.

Blavatsky, 1888 letter.

 

[Skull]

Theosophists are of necessity the friends of all movements in the world, whether intellectual or simply practical, for the amelioration of the condition of mankind. We are the friends of all those who fight against drunkenness, against cruelty to animals, against injustice to women, against corruption in society or in government, although we do not meddle in politics. We are the friends of those who exercise practical charity, who seek to lift a little of the tremendous weight of misery that is crushing down the poor.

HP Blavatsky, 1888 letter

 

[Skull]

Recent issue of Lucifer magazine from TS Pt Loma:

https://blavatskyhouse.org/uploads/files/Lucifer_EN/lucifer-en-2023-3.pdf

 

[Skull]

If people knew what is coming to them after death, in the ordinary course of events as the reward of evil living; of giving way to vice and the appetites of the lower mind such as hatred and anger, fear, and dislike, if they knew, out of sheer fear, from self-protective interest, human lives would be radically changed. Nature is rigidly accurate in her justice in these matters. A man is a free agent, and therefore he will reap in retribution or in recompense, what he has made for himself, neither more nor less. It is extremely necessary to preserve during lifetime an aspiring mind, a detachment from things and experiences of the gross personal earth-life. Morals are not human conventions, but are based on the soundest and most far-reaching vision of the sages. They are founded on nature's own noblest operations.

G. de Purucker, In The Temple pp 108-9

 

[Skull]

A booklet "What is Theosophy":

https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/gdpmanu/ryan-wh/man_what_is_theosophy.pdf

 

[Skull]

Another way of thinking about Theosophy by knowing the harmony of religion, philosophy & science:

Perennial Wisdom

 

[Skull]

One of the Masters of Wisdom that HPB knew gave the basic virtues needed for an aspirant to divine wisdom or theosophia:

"Behold the Truth before you: a clean life, an open mind, a pure heart, an eager intellect, an unveiled spiritual perception, a brotherliness for one's co-disciple, a readiness to give and receive advice and instruction, a loyal sense of duty to the Teacher, a willing obedience to the behests of TRUTH, once we have placed our confidence in and believe that Teacher to be in possession of it; a courageous endurance of personal injustice, a brave declaration of principles, a valiant defense of those who are unjustly attacked, and a constant eye to the ideal of human progression and perfection which the Secret Science (Gupta-Vidyā) depicts - these are the golden stairs up the steps of which the learner may climb to the temple of Divine Wisdom."

Sanskrit - Gupta-vidyā [from gupta from the verbal root gup to conceal, preserve + vidyā knowledge, wisdom].
Secret knowledge, secret wisdom; the source of all religions and philosophies known to the world: theosophy, the ancient wisdom-religion, the esoteric philosophy.