Blavatsky Blogger
Taking Theosophical
ideas
into the 21st
century
Spiritual Progress
By
H P Blavatsky
From "The Theosophist" Volume VI
CHRISTINA
ROSSETTI's well-known lines:
Does the road
wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to
the very endDoes the journey take the whole long day?
From morn
to night, my friend.
are like
an epitome of the life of those who are truly treading the path which leads to
higher things. Whatever differences are to be found in the various
presentations of the Esoteric Doctrine, as in every age it donned a fresh
garment, different both in hue and texture to that which preceded; yet in every
one of them we find the fullest agreement upon one point -- the road to spiritual
development. One only inflexible rule has been ever binding upon the neophyte,
as it is binding now -- the complete subjugation of the lower nature by the
higher.
From the
Vedas and Upanishads (Upanishats) to the recently published Light on the Path,
search as we may through the bibles of every race and cult, we find but one
only way, -- hard, painful, troublesome, by which men can gain the true
spiritual insight. And how can it be otherwise, since all religions and all
philosophies are but the variants of the first teachings of the One Wisdom,
imparted to men at the beginning of the cycle by the Planetary Spirit?
The true
Adept, the developed man, must, we are always told, become -- he cannot be
made. The process is therefore one of growth through evolution, and this must necessarily
involve a certain amount of pain.
The main
cause of pain lies in our perpetually seeking the permanent in the impermanent,
and not only seeking, but acting as if we had already found the unchangeable in
a world of which the one certain quality we can predicate is
constant
change; and always, just as we fancy we have taken a firm hold upon the permanent,
it changes within our very grasp, and pain results.
Again, the
idea of growth involves also the idea of disruption: the inner being must
continually burst through its confining shell or encasement, and such a disruption
must also be accompanied by pain, not physical but mental and intellectual.
And this
is how it is, in the course of our lives, the trouble that comes upon us is
always just the one we feel to be the hardest that could possibly happen -- it
is always the one thing we feel we cannot possibly bear. If we look at it from
a wider point of view, we shall see that we are trying to burst through our shell
at its one vulnerable point; that our growth, to be real growth, and not
the
collective result of a series of excrescence, must progress evenly throughout,
just as the body of a child grows, not first the head and then a hand, followed
perhaps by a leg, but in all directions at once, regularly and imperceptibly.
Man's
tendency is to cultivate each part separately, neglecting the others in the
meantime -- every crushing pain is caused by the expansion of
some
neglected part, which expansion is rendered more difficult by the effects of
the cultivation bestowed elsewhere.
Evil is
often the result of over-anxiety, and men are always trying to do too much,
they are not content to leave well alone, to do always just what the
occasion demands
and no more; they exaggerate every action and so produce karma to be worked out
in a future birth.
One of the
subtlest forms of this evil is the hope and desire of reward. Many there are
who, albeit often unconsciously, are yet spoiling all their efforts by entertaining
this idea of reward, and allowing it to become an active factor in their lives,
and so leaving the door open to anxiety, doubt, fear, despondency -- failure.
The goal
of the aspirant for spiritual wisdom is entrance upon a higher plane of existence;
he is to become a new man, more perfect in every way than he is at present, and
if he succeeds, his capabilities and faculties will receive a corresponding
increase of range and power, just as in the visible world we find that each
stage in the evolutionary scale is marked by increase of capacity.
This is
how it is that the Adept becomes endowed with marvellous powers that have been
so often described, but the main point to be remembered is, that these powers
are the natural accompaniments of existence on a higher plane of evolution,
just as the ordinary human faculties are the natural accompaniments of
existence on the ordinary human plane.
Many
persons seem to think that adeptship is not so much the result of radical development
as of additional construction; they seem to imagine that an Adept is a man,
who, by going through a certain plainly defined course of training, consisting
of minute attention to a set of arbitrary rules, acquires first one power and
then another; and, when he has attained a certain number of these
powers is
forthwith dubbed an adept. Acting on this mistaken idea, they fancy that the
first thing to be done towards attaining adeptship is to acquire
"powers"--clairvoyance
and the power of leaving the physical body and travelling to a distance are
among those which fascinate the most.
To those
who wish to acquire such powers for their own private advantage, we have
nothing to say; they fall under the condemnation of all who act for purely selfish
ends. But there are others, who, mistaking effect for cause, honestly think
that the acquirement of abnormal powers is the only road to spiritual advancement.
These look
upon our Society as merely the readiest means to enable them to gain knowledge
in this direction, considering it as a sort of occult
academy,
an institution established to afford facilities for the instruction of would-be
miracle-workers. In spite of repeated protests and warnings, there are some
minds in whom this notion seems ineradicably fixed, and they are loud in their
expressions of disappointment when they find that what had been previously told
them is perfectly true; that the Society was founded to teach no new and easy
paths to the acquisition of "powers"; and that its only mission is to
rekindle the torch of truth, so long extinguished for all but the very few, and
to keep that truth alive by the formation of a fraternal union of mankind, the
only soil
in which the good seed can grow.
The
Theosophical Society does indeed desire to promote the spiritual growth of
every individual who comes within its influence, but its methods are those of
the ancient Rishis (Rshis) , its tenets
those of
the oldest Esotericism; it is no dispenser of patent nostrums composed of
violent remedies which no honest dealer would dare to use.
In this
connection we would warn all our members, and others who are seeking spiritual
knowledge, to beware of persons offering to teach them easy methods of acquiring
psychic gifts; such gifts (laukika) are indeed comparatively easy of
acquirement
by artificial means, but fade out as soon as the nerve-stimulus
exhausts
itself.
The real
seership and Adeptship which is accompanied by true psychic development
(lokothra) (sometimes lokottara) , once reached, is never lost.
It appears
that various societies have sprung into existence since the foundation of the
Theosophical Society, profiting by the interest the latter has
awakened
in matters of psychic research, and endeavouring to gain members by promising
them easy acquirement of psychic powers. In
promises,
will allow themselves to be taken in by self-deluded dreamers, or, it may be,
wilful deceivers.
To show
that some real necessity exists for our protests and warnings, we may mention
that we have recently seen, enclosed in a letter from
women who
know English and any of the Indian vernaculars well"; and concludes by saying
that "those who want to know particulars of the work and the amount of pay"
should apply to his address, with enclosed postage stamps! Upon the table before
us lies a reprint of "The Divine Pymander," published in
year, and
which contains a notice to "Theosophists who may have been disappointed in
their expectations of Sublime Wisdom being freely dispensed by HINDOO
MAHATMAS"; cordially inviting them to send in their names to the Editor,
who will
see them, "after a short probation," admitted into an Occult Brotherhood
who "teach freely and WITHOUT RESERVE all they find worthy to receive."
Strangely enough, we find in the very volume in question Hermes Trismegistus
saying:
"For
this only, O Son, is the way to Truth, which our progenitors traveled in; and
by which making their journey, they a length attained to the good. It is a venerable
way and plain, but hard and difficult for the soul to go in that is in the
body.
"Werefore
we must look warily to such kind of people, that being in ignorance they may be
less evil for fear of that which is hidden and secret."
It is
perfectly true that some Theosophists have been (through nobody's fault but
their own) greatly disappointed because we have offered them no short cut to Yoga
Vidya, and there are others who wish for practical work. And, significantly
enough,
those who have done least for the Society are loudest in fault-finding.
Now, why
do not these persons and all our members who are able to do so, take up the
serious study of mesmerism? Mesmerism has been called the Key to the Occult Sciences,
and it has this advantage that it offers peculiar opportunities for
doing good
to mankind. If in each of our branches we were able to establish a homeopathic
dispensary with the addition of mesmeric healing, such as has
already
been done with great success in
There are
others of our branches, besides the one at Bombay, that have done good work in
this direction, but there is room for infinitely more to be done than has yet
been attempted. And the same is the case in the various other departments of
the Society's work. It would be a good thing if the members of each branch
would put their heads together and seriously consult as to what
tangible
steps they can take to further the declared objects of the Society.
In too
many cases the members of the Theosophical Society content themselves with a somewhat
superficial study of its books, without making any real contribution to its
active work. If the Society is to be a power for good in this and other lands,
it can only bring about this result by the active cooperation of every one of
its members, and we would earnestly appeal to each of them to consider
carefully
what possibilities of work are within his power, and then to earnestly set
about carrying them into effect. Right thought is a good thing, but thought alone
does not count for much unless it is translated into action.
There is
not a single member in the Society who is not able to do something to aid the
cause of truth and universal brotherhood; it only depends on his own will, to
make that something an accomplished fact.
Above all
we would reiterate the fact that the Society is no nursery for incipient
Adepts; teachers cannot be provided to go round and give instruction to various
branches on the different subjects which come within the Society's
work of
investigation; the Branches must study for themselves; books are to be had, and
the knowledge there put forth must be practically applied by the various
members: thus will be developed self-reliance and reasoning powers. We
urge this
strongly; for appeals have reached us that any lecturer sent to Branches must
be practically versed in experimental psychology and clairvoyance (i.e.,
looking into magic mirrors and reading the future, etc., etc.).
Now we consider
that such experiments should originate amongst members themselves to be
of any
value in the development of the individual or to enable him to make progress in
his "uphill" path, and therefore earnestly recommend our members to try
for them.
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