Lucifer7, May 2009

Contents

New online

• Sorrow, stress and spirituality 
• Intelligence and wisdom: not the same thing 
• If you see the Buddha, Kill Him - an old Zen koan 
• About being observant of life… poverty and riches 
• Work as those who are ambitious… 
• Sharing Inspiration 
• 7 most popular spiritual posts on All Considering
• Big Bang or Cyclical Universe? Why not both! 

• Best J. Krishnamurti Books
• Most popular Buddhism Books 2009
• Theosophy Books - theosophical inspiration
• Best Books about karma and reincarnation
• Alternative Christianity Books
• Best books and movies about the Dalai Lama
• W.Q. Judge - theosophy Books
• Islamic Muslim Jewelry

Short Quotes

N. Sri Ram, Thoughts For Aspirants, Second Series

Paul Brunton, The Secret Path, Chapter VII

Annie Besant

The Gospel of Buddha

Theosophical stuff

Theosophical Promotion and Theosophical Work, Katinka Hesselink (about the General Council discussion, which has continued online)

The Buddha Taught Action

R.F.H., Canadian Theosophist, Volume 23, #9 (1942)

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought:  it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.  If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.
"All that we are is the result of what we have thought:  it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.  If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him."

St. Paul's Alleged False Metaphor

A.E.S.S., Canadian Theosophist, Volume 27, #9 (1946)

    St. Paul cannot too often be defended against the reproach cast upon him fifty years ago by Dr. Goldwin Smith, touching the argument about the seed sown in the ground that it must die before the new life can appear.  The Church would rather let St. Paul suffer in literary reputation as the author of I Corinthians than sacrifice their dogma.  St. Paul was too well versed in rhetoric to go before the clever scholars of Corinth with a false metaphor and he did not do so.  Goldwin Smith did not bring his knowledge of Greek to bear upon the passage, but accepted the interpretation of the Church that the corpse, already dead, was the seed sown in the earth that would spring to life again.  The Church has made a graveyard discourse of this chapter, which St. Paul could not possibly have intended as verse 50 makes evident.  As a graveyard exhortation to those who blindly believe in the resurrection of the physical body, could a more bitter mockery be conceived than the closing verses:  "O grave where is thy victory, O death where is thy sting?"

    What a difference when the chapter is read as St. Paul intended it to be:  a paean of jubilant life and birth, of life more abundantly, of birth and rebirth on the physical earth, of birth in the psychic world, of birth in the noetic or spiritual world.  All this is concealed from the English-speaking reader by mistranslation of important words and the apparent transposition of one or two verses.  One Greek word in particular appears to have gained the enmity of the theologians.  It is the word psuche, or psyche in English, the butterfly, applied by the Greeks to the human soul, which flits and flutters from flower to flower of the desires of life, so that a man changes from hour to hour, from day to day and from year to year, so that he is never the same at one period of life that he was at another.  Jesus and Paul both use the word to represent the human soul or personality, but the translators do their utmost to conceal or camouflage this fact, because "saving the soul" is the great mission of the evangelical preacher, though Jesus taught that he who would seek to save his soul would lose it, the changeable personality having to be abandoned so that the stable spiritual Self, the ever present Christ principle, available to every man, may become the basic reality of his existence.  The translators make Jesus say that "he who would seek to save his life shall lose it," which is nonsense. (See Luke ix. 24, and kindred passages for the substitution of life for soul.)  A similar deception as found in the writings of St. Paul. Verse 44 of this 15 chapter of I Corinthians may be studied as the basis of Goldwin Smith's charge of false metaphor.  The Authorized Version reads:  "It is sown a natural body;  it is raised a spiritual body.  There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."  The word "Natural" should be "psychic," and is so rendered in the margin of the Revised Versions of 1881-1886.  "Natural" conveys to people generally the meaning of common or ordinary, so that the corpse is understood to be meant as what is "sown" in the burial of a dead body.  This is an entire misconception of Paul's teaching.  Burial in a grave of a dead body was not in his mind at all.  What he speaks of is the psychic body, sown at birth in a physical body, to be raised in its reincarnation or resurrection, the conditions mentioned duly applying to the psychic body which the experiences of the disciple must change it into a more glorious spiritual body or if he fails try again in another incarnation.  These conditions obviously do not apply to a body of flesh and blood as verse 50 makes plain.  It, that is, the psychic body, is sown in corruption:  it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor (how can this apply to the mortal bodies of our beloved ones?):  it is raised in glory:  it is sown in weakness:  it is raised in power:  it is sown a psychic body:  it is raised a spiritual body.  There is a psychic body and there is a spiritual body.  It depends wholly on the disciple himself of what kind of flesh his next body shall consist of if he reincarnates, whether he shall have a terrestrial or a celestial body;  whether he shall share the glory of the sun or that of the moon or a star.  If he is able to transcend the psychic world he will become a quickening spirit, for the "second man is the Lord from heaven."

    It is clear enough from all this that Paul used no false metaphor.  The psychic seed, which is the personality must die, as Jesus taught:  "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whosoever will save his soul (psuche, personality) will lose it;  but whosoever will lose his soul for my sake, the same shall save it."  (Luke ix. 23, 24).

    "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.  With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love;  endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace . . . till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God;  unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (Ephesians iv. 1, 2, 3, 13) .

I want to thank all of you who support me, whether financially, by asking questions, commenting or just be reading and enjoying what I put online. To those who wonder: no, I don't mind if people link to my website(s). In fact: it's appreciated. For instance: my blog will find new readers faster if people share it with friends and link to it. 

Katinka Hesselink Net, spirituality, religion and webdesign
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/
http://www.allconsidering.com/

Lucifer7, April 2009

New Online

New on Katinka Hesselink Net

• Self Sacrifice quotes, H.P. Blavatsky

New on squidoo

• Dalai Lama Books
• Dalai Lama DVDs
• Make a mandala
• Essential Ken Wilber Books
• Books by H.P. Blavatsky
• Yoga Sutras by Patanjali, Taimni commentary
• Religious gifts and spiritual products (like books)

New on All Considering

• Desire & spiritual development, some thoughts 
• Disadvantages to kindness… 
• Levels of meditation: relaxation, concentration, contemplation, awareness… 
• The difference between spiritual growth and personal development? 
• Honesty is the best policy… except… 
• Truth and lies - right and wrong? 
• Bliss, Atman, Brahman - Jnana Yoga Q&A 
• The Dalai Lama - a peaceful response to violence 
• Blavatsky on Atlantis 
• Learning from contrasts or sticking to ONE spiritual path? 

Short Quotes

Emerson

Better be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo.  The condition which high friendship demands is, ability to do without it.  To be capable of that high office requires great and sublime parts.  There must be very two, before there can be very one.

Buddha, Dhammapada, Translation Juan Mascaro

348:  "Leave the past behind; leave the future behind; leave the present behind.  Thou art then ready to do to the other shore.  Never more shalt thou return to a life that ends in death."

The Key To Theosophy, by Madame Blavatsky, p. 33

Hurt a man by doing him bodily harm; you may think that his pain and suffering cannot spread by any means to his neighbors, least of all to men of other nations. We affirm that it will, in good time. Therefore, we say, that unless every man is brought to understand and accept as an axiomatic truth that by wronging one man we wrong not only ourselves but the whole of humanity in the long run, no brotherly feelings such as preached by all the great Reformers, pre-eminently by Buddha and Jesus, are possible on earth.

Canadian Theosophist, Volume 20, #10

The student of Occultism abhors dogma, but he cannot ignore facts, and this is a distinction many students overlook.

Erich Gutkind

The stupendous fact that we stand in the midst of reality will always be something far more wonderful than anything we do.

The Immortality of the Soul

A. E. S. S. in the Canadian Theosophist, Volume 16, #2, (1935)

A Master wrote to Mr. A.P. Sinnett (page 341, Mahatma Letters) 

- "Once separated from the common influences of Society, nothing draws us to any outsider save his evolving spirituality.  He may be a Bacon or an Aristotle in knowledge, and still not make his current felt a feather's weight by us, if his power is confined to the Manas (intellectual mind) . . . . Manas, pure and simple, is of a lower degree, and of the earth earthly:  and so your greatest men count but as nonentities in the area where greatness is measured by the standard of spiritual development."

We may add to this the testimony of Subba Row, in a letter just reprinted by The Point Loma Theosophical Forum, that he knew of "many chelas, high chelas too, very near initiation, who are ignorant of the art of reading and writing."

"You must be up and doing if you want to secure your immortality," he adds, and "This is impressed in the mind of every Occult student by his Guru.  Mere goody-goodness, and irreproachable life will not help us.  We must swim against the current and by dint of perseverance mount higher.  If not, we will be left where we are to vegetate and rot in the scale to which we may have come.  The Kingdom of Heaven ought to be taken by force.  Will, irresistible, indomitable will alone carry upward an Occult student.  If he has not got that, he has no chance whatever.  Only one who toils hard can ascend a mountain peak." (*)

Which is only another way of saying, "Many are called, but few are chosen," and "Strait is the gate and few there be that enter in thereat."

Evangelical Christianity seeks to convince people that it is all as easy as getting entered on a voting list, but the difficulties have never been minimized by the real Teachers.

Theosophists have never stated, so far as I know, that adepts alone attain immortality. The condition ultimately reached by ordinary man after going through all the planetary rounds during countless number of ages in the gradual ascending order of material objective existence is reached by the adept within a comparitively shorter time; but every human being, unless he is utterly 'wicked and depraved', may hope to reach that state sooner or later according to his merits and karma.

Canadian Theosophist, Volume 16, #3 (1935)

    "We call `immortal' but the one LIFE in its universal collectivity and entire or Absolute Abstraction;  that which has neither beginning nor end, nor any break in its continuity." - M.L. 129.

But K.H. - the Mahatma just quoted - also points out that there is the possibility of achieving a qualified immortality and in other letters where the word is used in reference to human immortality, it carries this qualified meaning.

    "Therefore the earliest Chaldeans had several prefixes to the word immortality, one of which is the Greek, rarely-used term - pan-aeonic immortality, i.e. beginning with the manvantara and ending with the pralaya of our Solar Universe.  It lasts the aeon or the `period' of our Pan, or 'all nature'.  Immortal then is he in the pan-aeonic immortality, whose distinct consciousness and perception of Self under whatever form - undergoes no disjunction at any time.  Not for one second during the period of his Egoship ....Suffice for you, for the present to know, that a man, an Ego like yours or mine, may be immortal from one to the other round.  Let us say I begin my immortality at the present fourth round, i.e. having become a full adept (which unhappily I am not,) I arrest the hands of Death at will, and am finally obliged to submit to it, my knowledge of the secrets of nature put me in a position to retain my consciousness and distinct perception of Self as an object to my own reflective consciousness and cognition;  and thus avoid all such dismemberments of principles, that as a rule take place after the physical death of average humanity, I remain as Koot Hoomi in my Ego throughout the whole series of births and lives across the seven worlds and Arupa-lokas until finally I land again on this earth among the fifth race men of the full fifth Round beings.  I would have been, in such a case, 'immortal' for an inconceivable (to you) long period, embracing many milliards of years.  And yet am 'I' truly immortal, for all that?  Unless I make the same, efforts as I now do, to secure for myself another such furlough from Nature's law, Koot Hoomi will vanish and may become a Mr. Smith or an innocent Babu, when his leave expires."  - M.L. 129 and 130.

And again on page 276.  "When the Seeress" (Mrs. A.B. Kingsford) is made to reveal that 'Immortality is by no means a matter of course for all' that `souls shrink away and expire' . . . . she is delivering herself of actual incontrovertible facts".

The Spirit in man, the Atma, is Immortal, is one with the Eternal Life, the Absolute which has no beginning nor end, but the continuing consciousness of the Ego, its `qualified immortality' must be achieved and retained through the power of immortability - for which word we thank Dr. McConnell.

I want to thank all of you who support me, whether financially, by asking questions, commenting or just be reading and enjoying what I put online. To those who wonder: no, I don't mind if people link to my website(s). In fact: it's appreciated. For instance: my blog will find new readers faster if people share it with friends and link to it. 

Lucifer7, March 2009

New online

All Considering

• When are you ready to be a ’spiritual teacher’? 
• Sharing inspiration 
• Seduction, advertisement and black magic… 
• Spirituality fun? Think again! Spirituality as a hard road 
• Tidbits about enlightenment - neurologically & spiritually 
• Environmentally aware - spiritual virtue no. 7 
• Inspiration and intuition - spiritual value no.6 
• Generosity and detachment - spiritual virtue no. 5 
• Follow your own path - spiritual virtue no.4 
• Blavatsky a medium? about consciousness, channeling and more 
• Gratitude - spiritual virtue 3 
• Thinking for yourself - spiritual virtue no. 2 
• Freedom - spiritual virtue, value or norm no. 1 
• Spiritual virtues / values / norms: perspective on alternative spirituality 

On Squidoo

• Consciousness: an Introduction, by Susan Blackmore
• Religious quotes - from various religions
• Spiritual Quotes on Life
• Spiritual Gift Ideas
• Pagan Calendars, Planners, Date books and Engagement planners
• Best books on Buddhism
• Llewellyn books, calendars, magical supplies and spells
• Religious Planners, Date Books, Engagement Planners and Agenda Books
• Astrology jewelry
• Religious and Spiritual Posters 2009
• Islamic and Arabian Jewelry
• Spiritual Quotes Gift Ideas
• Zen Calendars, Planners, Date Books and Engagement Organisers
• Favorite Witches Sayings
• Rumi sayings and quotes

• Christianity
• Interfaith - religious dialog
• Buddha & Buddhism
• Hinduism and Yoga
• Spiritual Growth, Healing, Awareness and Self Help

Short Quotes

N. Sri Ram, Thoughts For Aspirants, Second Series

A man becomes wise as he realizes fully his true relation to the universe of which he is a part.

Light On The Path

The whole nature of man must be used wisely by the one who desires to enter the way.

Gautama Buddha

Rituals have no efficacy, prayers are but vain words, incantations have no saving power. To abandon covetousness and lust, to become free from evil desires, to renounce hatred and ill will, this is true worship.

Canadian Theosophist, Volume 24, #8, 1943

Refusal to discuss an issue or to debate an argument is one way of concealing the disagreeable questions in review from the people who ought to be informed. 

A State of Mind

William Macneile Dixon in Fortune

Canadian Theosophist, Volume 24, #3 - 1943

If any subject occupies the public mind today it is education. But what kind of education have we in view? To educate the mind is difficult enough, but how much more troublesome the education of the emotions.  Accuracy of thinking is not, as is commonly supposed, a rarer thing than refinement or delicacy of sensibility. In my belief it is much more widely distributed and more highly appreciated. Far more care is given by the state to the education of the intellect than of the feelings. The values of quick wits, a good memory, sharp intelligence, and exact thinking are universally recognized. But where are we to look for a similar recognition of the values of right feeling, of taste, of delicate discernment, of quality rather than force of mind, of sensitivity and sympathy in social intercourse, which are powers and faculties of the soul?  By his taste we distinguish the scholar from the pedant, by his possession of taste, the gentleman from the barbarian. It is the standard of refinement prevailing among its citizens that exalts a nation, and by which a civilization may be judged. Brains and knowledge you may have in abundance and yet remain a savage.  Examples are not far to seek in the world today. Look around and you will, I think, become vividly aware that to educate and discipline the soul is of no less vital consequence in any society than to accumulate information or add a cubit to intellectual stature.

I want to thank all of you who support me, whether financially, by asking questions, commenting or just be reading and enjoying what I put online. To those who wonder: no, I don't mind if people link to my website(s). In fact: it's appreciated. For instance: my blog will find new readers faster if people share it with friends and link to it. 

Lucifer7, February 2009

Contents

New online

New Dutch blog: Overpeinzende

• Blavatsky on Yoga 
• What Our Economic Woes Can Teach Us 
• Religion, what is it? Spirituality? 
• Can spirituality be fun? about spiritual group work 
• Looking at the body spiritually 
• The illusions of fame - for each of us… 
• Online marketing and the ego 
• States of consciousness: from divine to normal 
• Individualism: spiritual or not? 
• Good and Evil - useful categories? 
• A spiritual perspective on extraterrestrial life - aka intelligence in the universe 
• Nature is healthy - the city isn’t! 
• Wu Wei, Self-knowledge, short quotes & spiritual products - Lucifer7, January 2009 
• Wu Wei and poverty? or more about greed 
• Skating on natural ice - Meditating on nature 

• Mandala Calendars, Date Books, Agenda's and Engagement Planners
• Mandala Posters
• Goddess Art Posters
• Witches and Wicca calendars, date books, day planners and agenda books
• Pagan Calendars, Planners, Date books and Engagement planners
• Spiritual gift ideas for him: your spiritual man
• The Voice of the Silence, by H.P. Blavatsky: review
• Nature calendars, Posters, Date books, Planners
• Spiritual cards
• Spiritual Oracle Cards
• Spiritual Quotes Calendars
• The Occult Roots of Nazism, by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke review

• Spiritual and religious calendars
• Planners, date books and agendas
• Wall calendars and Poster calendars

Short Quotes

N. Sri Ram, Thoughts For Aspirants, Second Series

Olive Harcourt, Canadian Theosophist, Vol. 24, #12 - 1944

1. Limited and Unlimited.
2. Odd and Even.
3. One and Many.
4. Right and Left.
5. Masculine and Feminine.
6. Rest and Motion.
7. Straight and Crooked.
8. Light and Darkness.
9. Square and Oblong.
10. Good and Evil.

Bacon

Paul Brunton, The Inner Reality, Chapter IX

The body is transient and may be killed, but you are eternal.

...

Grief can only come if you identify yourself wholly with the lesser part, the body.

Faith, Hope and Charity

Atlanto-Aryan Teaching, XI, Canadian Theosophist, Volume 23, #11, 1943.

Remember and repeat often the golden words of the Initiate from Tarsos:  "Now abideth Faith, Hope and Charity, these three; but the greatest of them is Charity." Faith is needed in all kinds of actions.  Men have called it Confidence. That is one of the meanings of the Greek word PISTIS. Without hope there is little use of keeping up any kind of work. You must hope for better understanding, more knowledge.  The Greek word ELPIS means Expectation. "Charity" is a misnomer. The Greek word AGAPE stands for voluntary, friendly Helpfulness, not for hypocritic slumming. It stands for Love - a word nowadays mostly used as a synonym for procreative activity. This belongs to involvement in matter and hence to Samsara, the body, and not the Soul. True Love is nirvanic Bliss, the Ananda of the Hindus.

Sometimes it is imagined that the saying "Charity begins at home" is an expression of selfishness and therefore evil. Charity, or rather Love, must begin at home, or else, how can it widen its circle of helpfulness and joy? But it must not be limited to the home. The only so called love that is wrong and must be limited is self-love. Let nothing make you hesitate doing good to any one that you can reach. But do not take from some one else what is his and give it to some one that you want to help.

Buddhism - An Attitude of Mind

Madame Alexandra David Neel, From The Maha-Bodhi, May-June, 1946.

    Siddharta Gautama, the Buddha, has not escaped the universal fate of all philosophers, expounders of a doctrine and founders of religions.  Like all of them, he has been betrayed.

    During his life time some of his Disciples had already attempted to "improve" in their own way - that is to say to distort - his teaching and his discipline.  Buddhist Scriptures mention Devadatta as heading an attempt of that kind;  he was certainly not the only one.

    What did he and his likes want?  They wanted more binding rules, they wanted more peremptory commands regarding what they had to believe and what they had not to believe;  they revolted against freedom.

    And when the Teacher was gone and centuries had elapsed dimming the memory of what he really had been, small-minded devotees, puerile, emotional bhaktas, metaphysicians, philosophers, small or lofty, all took part in the great betrayal of that which had been a clear, simple and bright doctrine of liberation through Knowledge.

    Pseudo-dogmas appeared though the Master had rejected opinions and expressly declared:

    "If you are asked, O disciples, `what opinion does your Master hold ?', answer, `Our Master holds no opinion;  he has freed himself of all opinions.' "

    Ritualistic performances, worship of images and of relics appeared, though the Master had condemned them and declared that the belief in the efficacy of religious ceremonies and in all kind of cults prevented salvation.

    Has not the "I", the jiva, the permanent self traveling through series of reincarnations, found a place in the beliefs of the large majority of self-styled Buddhists though the Buddha has taught the instantaneousness, the essential momentariness of all formations, of all Dharmas, the effect being produced by the destruction of the cause.

    Do not the stories of the Jatakas play, amongst the common lot of Buddhists, the same part as the "Golden Legend" the lives of the saints, play amongst the alike common lot of the Roman -Catholic countries?

    We must agree that the Buddha has not preached for the simpletons.  Those may lead virtuous, happy lives under other Masters:  Teachers for children's schools.

    The Buddha has preached for the few capable of understanding him;  for the few lotuses which lift their heads above the water of the pond, according to the similitude in the Mahavagga.

    There are such ones;  why do they not come forward to re-preach the Dhamma for the conquest of evil and suffering through Right views.

    Reliance on men who stand forth as leaders of their fellow creatures;  reliance on gods never freed anybody, nor mankind as a whole of the manifold ills to which they are a prey.  Most of those are self inflicted and none but ourselves are capable of eradicating them.

    Be your own light.  Be your own refuge.  Such is the advice the Buddha has given us.

    Tibetans have chosen a very good term as synonym of enlightenment, it is lhag thong, that is to say, "to see more."  It is exactly what is needed, to see more than the many who remain satisfied with a superficial look at things.

    It is more needed than ever in the present political, economic and moral chaos into which men are staggering.  It is needed to see more in order to detect the foolishness of attempting to build a new world with the rotten materials of the old one.

    Buddhism is decidedly neither a religion, not a set system of undemonstrable theories.  It is an attitude of mind.  The attitude of one who challenges the man made evils of the world and knows that through Right views, Right knowledge, and only through them, these evils can be overcome.

    Men who have made theirs that "attitude of mind" are wanted to promulgate again the much forgotten, genuine Dhamma of the wisest of all Masters.

I want to thank all of you who support me, whether financially, by asking questions, commenting or just be reading and enjoying what I put online. To those who wonder: no, I don't mind if people link to my website(s). In fact: it's appreciated. For instance: my blog will find new readers faster if people aren't afraid to share it with friends and link to it. 

Katinka Hesselink Net, spirituality, religion and webdesign
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/
http://www.allconsidering.com/

Lucifer7, January 2009

Contents

New online

• Paul Brunton and H.P. Blavatsky

• Top Spiritual Books 2008
• Astrological Calendars 2009
• Top Spiritual Books
• Buddhism Calendars, date books, pocket planners and agendas
• Motivational Calendars, planners and agendas
• Paul Brunton - life and books
• Mandala Calendars, Date Books, Agenda's and Engagement Planners

New on All Considering

• Wu Wei - aka cleaning out the attic
• Last minute spiritual gift ideas for Christmas
• Busy week ahead - Merry Christmas everybody
• Blavatsky and music 
• The place of astrology, tarot, aura reading etc. in spiritual development 
• How about Music and spirituality? 
• The origin of evil – the great mystery 
• Is the universe morally neutral? 
• Clairvoyance … illusion or reality? 
• Activity & passivity - the value of ‘meditation’ 
• About this blog: thanking those who helped make it possible 
• Blavatsky a closet socialist? 
• A question about (Group) karma: below average intellect? 
• Sharing inspiration 
• Drugs & spirituality: thee, coffee, alcohol, smoking etc.

Short Quotes

N. Sri Ram, Thoughts For Aspirants, Second Series

Miguel De Cervantes

Paul Brunton, The Inner Reality, Chapter V

Tirukkural 28:279

C. G. Jung, CW 7: 409

Anyone who wants to know the human psyche will learn next to nothing from experimental psychology. He would be better advised to put away his scholar's gown, bid farewell to his study, and wander with human heart through the world. There in the horrors of prisons, lunatic asylums and hospitals, in drab suburban pubs, in brothels and gambling halls, in the salons of the elegant, the stock exchanges, Socialist meetings, churches, revivalist gatherings, and ecstatic sects, through love and hate, through the experience  of passion in every form in his own body, he would reap richer stores in knowledge than textbooks a  foot thick could give him, and he will know how to doctor the sick with real knowledge of the human soul."

My Purpose

Christian Larsen, Canadian Theosophist, Volume 24, #7

Rules for Aspirants to Self-Knowledge

source unknown. - Eirenicon for Aug.-Sept. Canadian Theosophist, Vol. 24, #8, 1943

I want to thank all of you who support me, whether financially, by asking questions, commenting or just be reading and enjoying what I put online. To those who wonder: no, I don't mind if people link to my website(s). In fact: it's appreciated. For instance: my blog will find new readers faster if people aren't afraid to share it with friends and link to it. 

Lucifer7, December 2008

Contents

New online

New on squidoo

• Christian Spiritual Quotes
• 2009 Spiritual Calendars
• Hidden secrets - spiritual inspiration you weren't looking for

On all Considering in November

• 6 random things about me - I’ve been tagged (7)
• Biology & sex - who are we meant to be? (0)
• Does biology determine who we are? (3)
• Good karma and money (2)
• Karma and learning from life (2)
• Are humans meant to be vegetarian? (9)
• Messengers of the Masters or the Great White Brotherhood (2)
• Karma and right action (0)
• Karma and Time (0)
• Karma and Harmony (0)
• Group Karma and the Economic Crunch (11)
• Group Karma and Barack Obama (4)
• Today is a new day (1)
• “Love is the opposite of fear” ? (2)
• Sharing Inspiration (6)
• Reiki and healing without money as a motive? (2)
• Caring for beginners… a mistake? (2)

Short Quotes

Talbot Mundy (Theosophical Path, April, 1924)

"We are all afraid. Our lower nature, which persists in every one of us (or we should be invisible to mortal eyes and functioning on vastly higher planes of being) dreads its own destruction and deceives us - even the best of us - with arguments of ever-increasing subtility, of which a favorite one is that we should be at the mercy of the lower nature of others unless ready at all times to use dishonest methods for our own defense. But the truth is that the only absolute protection against treachery is honesty. The slightest compromise with dishonesty provides an opening through which the darkest forces surge and gain control of us. It is not the other man's dishonesty, but our own that endangers us as individuals. In other words, if we admit one trace of insincerity into our reasoning the effect is similar to that of poison introduced into a well; it does not poison one part of the water, but all of it; and the more colorless and unnoticeable it is, the more deadly the results."

Buddha, Dhammapada, Translation Juan Mascaro

63 If a fool can see his own folly, he in this at least is wise; but the fool who thinks he is wise, he indeed is the real fool.

H.P. Blavatsky

(..)According to our theosophical tenets, every man or woman is endowed, more or less, with a magnetic potentiality, which when helped by a sincere, and especially by an intense and indomitable will--is the most effective of magic levers placed by Nature in human hands--for woe as for weal. Let us then, Theosophists, use that will to send a sincere greeting and a wish of good luck for the New Year to every living creature under the sun--enemies and relentless traducers included. Let us try and feel especially kindly and forgiving to our foes and persecutors, honest or dishonest, lest some of us should send unconsciously an "evil eye" greeting instead of a blessing.(...)

Paul Brunton, The Spiritual Crisis of Man, Chapter XII

What does spiritual progress mean? Does it mean to have more and more visions, raptures or strange happenings? No! It means that every year a man shall feel more control of himself, more improvement in his character, more watchful of and obedient to his intuitions, more devoted to his higher self. 

Editorial

The Lord's Prayer

Canadian Theosophist, Volume 25, #9 - 1944

Our Father who art in the Over-world, thy Name be intoned, thy Realm return, thy WILL arise.
As in the Firmament, so on the Earth.
That Bread of the coming day give us today:  and free us from our obligations, as we also have freed those under obligation to us;  and bring us not to the test, but deliver us from uselessness.
For thine is the Realm, the Force and the Radiance, throughout the Life-cycles.  Amen.

I want to thank all of you who support me, whether financially, by asking questions, commenting or just be reading and enjoying what I put online. To those who wonder: no, I don't mind if people link to my website(s). In fact: it's appreciated. For instance: my blog will find new readers faster if people aren't afraid to share it with friends and link to it. 

Lucifer7, November 2008

Contents

New Online

• Marion Zimmer Bradley's writings
• Marion Zimmer Bradley as a churchgoer
• Marion Zimmer Bradley: a biography

• Who Is Marion Zimmer Bradley?
• Is Buddhism a Religion or a Philosophy?
• Strength out of suffering - France Pastorelli
• John Hick - philosopher of religion

• Right Intentions or Right Actions …
• Easier for a sinner to go into heaven…
• Intention and Karma
• The science of gossip - some moral consequences…
• Some words on daily life - a theosophical classic
• A universal and mature spirituality - what is it?
• Attachment - an overview
• Attachment and addiction – about spiritual hierarchy
• Attachment, addiction and dependence: tv versus the internet
• A short history of brotherhood, sisterhood and religious tolerance
• On being our best self - letting in the Higher Self
• Those times when life forces rest on you…
• Detachment - some spiritual dimensions
• On being authentic - spiritual fiction?
• Cycles: ancient or modern thought?
• On spiritual experiences - what are they worth?
• About spiritual donations and making a living
• Money and spirituality - let’s be responsible about it
• My disillusionment with Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Some recommendations for spiritual growth
• God, or the Logos, or the intelligence in the universe…
• Following the news & spirituality
• Compassion in business - aka rational giving

Short Quotes

Incarnations of the Deity, H.P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, ii. 535.

No orthodox Brahmans and Buddhists would deny the Christian incarnation; only, they understand it in their own philosophical way, and how could they deny it? The very cornerstone of their religious system is periodical incarnations of the Deity. Whenever humanity is about merging into materialism and moral degradation, a Supreme Spirit incarnates himself in his creatures selected for the purpose. The "Messenger of the Highest" links with the duality of matter and soul, and the triad being thus completed by the union of its Crown, a saviour is born, who helps restore humanity to the path of truth and virtue.  The early Christian Church, all imbued with Asiatic philosophy, evidently shared the same belief - otherwise it would have neither erected into an article of faith the second advent, nor cunningly invented the fable of Anti-Christ as a precaution against possible future incarnations.  Neither could they have imagined that Melchisedek was an avatar of Christ.  They had only to turn to the Bhagavad Gita to find Krishna saying to Arjuna:  "He who follows me is saved by wisdom and even by works . . . As often as virtue declines in the world, I make myself manifest to save it."

Niels Bohr

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

N. Sri Ram, Thoughts For Aspirants, Second Series

It is only by translating into action what is perceived as truth that one fully realizes its nature. 

Paul Brunton, The Secret Path, Chapter IV

Each man has a private door opening on to the eternal brightness.

Light Exists and May be Found

Some notes from an Orpheus Lodge meeting on "Laying the foundation for the spiritual life". 

Canadian Theosophist, Volume 16, #10 (1935)

Three things are necessary in the laying of a foundation for the spiritual life.  Aspiration, a real impersonal interest in something outside oneself, the motive;  Concentration, which is the means to power, and Sincerity, that inner sense of truth with oneself;  a growing capacity at every step of the way to detect and face self-deception in its more and more subtle forms.  This is the only safeguard on a difficult, and dangerous road.  Each of these requirements is equally essential, and to neglect any one spells futility if nothing worse.

The following are some notes of a discussion on the first of these qualities.

Every individual who has a real interest in the welfare of Humanity has something in common with every other person who is working for the Race.  This common interest in Humanity is the true basis, and provides real values in the approach to spiritual matters.

Two things are required, however, before an individual can take a step toward the true Path.  He must realize as the result of his own examination and reflection that the life he knows is totally unsatisfactory as an ends in itself.  And, he must have the conviction that Light exists;  that it may be attained, and that when found it will justify itself.

Whatever true impersonal interest we possess is the germ of spirituality within us.  This is the one sound spot ins our being;  the one link with the unawakened powers of our spiritual nature.  We have to discover it, clarify and define it, and free it from sentimentality and self-deceiving illusions as far as we are able.

The starting point then is to look deep within ourselves, and discover what this impersonal interest is, which we value more than anything else in all life.  We shall pass in review many fine and great qualities, some of which are so great that we and everybody else assent that there can be none greater, but we have to discover not what others may consider important, but what value makes the greatest appeal to us, and draws out our energy as nothing else can.

It will help to clarify this search if we ask ourselves this question;  "If to-morrow I had to give my life in exchange for one of these qualities, which should I choose?"  If we ask ourselves, "What quality in human life will I be fully satisfied to have lived and worked for when I come to the end of my life?"  In this way we shall discover what in the deepest part of our nature we value the highest, the form which our link (however small) with the `Great Life of the Universe' takes the form of impersonal living to which we have given allegiance in the past.   It will be seen that it becomes a matter of tremendous importance that we acquire a growing capacity to discriminate between self-interest, no matter how beautifully disguised, and true impersonality.

As a result of increasing awareness and clarity regarding our values, we shall seek for evidences of them in ourselves, in those about us, in literature, and history, and we shall discover as our perceptions become more acute that very much that passes for fineness and greatness in human life is but a tawdry imitation;  it is not the power to give without asking, it is not the power of Self-Mastery, it is not the disinterested love of Truth, it is not compassion which we shall usually find, but subtly disguised barter masquerading as these things.  We shall realize that Beauty, Truth, and true Greatness, even in a small way, are very rare indeed, and when we do discover them, as we certainly shall, if we look for them, our whole being will go out to them and feed on them, and the germ of spirituality awake in us will expand in their radiance.  "Grow as the flower grows, unconsciously but eagerly anxious to open its soul to the air.  So must you press forward to open your Soul to the Eternal."

All this is the first step, a negative one.  The neophyte has discovered what those one or two things are which he values more than anything else in life, which he would gladly give his life for if he had the power.  He has cleared away vagueness and obscurity, sentimentality and self-deception, so that his value stands out clear and well-defined in his mind, so that he could formulate it at any time, at a moment's notice.

The next step is to put oneself in training in order to get the power to dedicate whatever of his life he has made his own, to his chosen value.  This preparatory work of self-discipline is to give him the power to take a positive and much more difficult step, to commit himself unreservedly, unconditionally and with all the force at his command, to his values.  This must be done coolly and without dependence upon emotional enthusiasm, knowing as well as it is possible for him to know what it means and will mean to him.  If he succeeds in doing this, he has thrown the challenge to his lower nature and the first battle in the long war for Self Conquest is on.

Lucifer7, October 2008

Contents

• DRAFT PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE SOCIETY'S RULES AND REGULATIONS: will change the way the TS President is elected. (but seem to not even go before the general council meeting)

• My e-mail about this issue to many of you. It's hosted on Erica Letzerlich's new blog. Check out the other letters about this issue, the draft proposal, the current regulations etc.
• Keeping up to date on the discussion regarding this issue is made easier
• My poll about the issues in the proposal (not just whether members keep the right to vote the next president of the TS)

• Karmic debt - what I owe the theosophical movement
• The Hermetic Axiom and The Secret
• Time - linear or psychological - in relation to spiritual growth
• Are we even in the same (spiritual) conversation?
• The Law of Attraction explained for newbies
• No Labels? No Spiritual Path? Beyond Concepts?
• In the sky there is no distinction of ‘East’ and ‘West’…
• Belief in Magic? The theosophy of H.P. Blavatsky
• Sex and spirituality - abstention?
• The purpose of reincarnation
• Natural affinity to age - old people, young people
• Choosing a spiritual path or group
• Going beyond spiritualism - Blavatsky’s first occult shot
• John Algeo about the TS, Blavatsky and more: an interview
• The Secret applied to Young Muslims
• Spirituality and worshiping personalities - a blogging perspective?
• Pride: how about the ego?
• Labelless spirituality - an interview with Mimi
• Elementals & Elementaries: various types of spirits
• Spiritual Growth and Sunyata
• Samsara, Nirvana and Sunyata
• To my Buddhist (and semi-Buddhist) readers
• More theosophy

• Vedas - ancient religious texts from India
• The Upanishads
• Near Death Experiences Video Showcase
• Theosophy Blogs & Forums: The Wisest Spirituality online Ever
• Holistic Consciousness Video Showcase
• Who Is Severn Suzuki: Environmental activist, scientist and speaker
• Nature Pictures
• The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky, Volume One (Letters of H.P. Blavatsky)

Short Quotes

H.P. Blavatsky (BCW IV, 502-3)

N. Sri Ram, Thoughts For Aspirants, Second Series

Paul Brunton, The Secret Path, Chapter IV

Arthur C. Clarke's First Law

"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."

Marie Edith Beynon

We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand... and melting like a snowflake. Let us use it before it's too late. 

Editorial: election matters & poll results

The past week has been something of a rollercoaster in theosophical circles. First we hear that there is a proposal before the general council (sort of the theosophical senate) to take away the voting rights of the members and have the president elected by the general council. I started a poll which shows that out of 52 people to vote a large majority 88.5% agree that the members should decide who the next president should be. 

The other issues I put up for voting were:

Should the general council only meet when more than half its members are present? A majority thought that was a reasonable rule change: 87% out of 46 votes.

Karma From a Buddhist Standpoint

By A. Beresford Holmes, Canadian Theosophist, Vol. 24, #6 (1943)

There are many kinds of Karma according to the Buddhist scriptures.

That which bears fruit in the present existence.

That which bears fruit in rebirth.

That which bears fruit at no fixed time.

By-gone karma, weighty, abundant, close-at-hand, productive, supportive, counteractive and destructive.

Karma may be likened to a seed which produces fruit of its own kind, as for instance the acorn which can only produce an oak tree; so each kind of Karma bears fruit of its own kind, good or bad, immediate or delayed, weak or powerful. 

I do not think it is possible to understand the Buddhist idea of Karma from the exoteric scriptures alone.  It would appear from those available to us in the West, that there is no ego after death.  Therefore what is it that reincarnates, and of what avail is Karma?  It is often stated that only Karma remains, but if there were no relatively permanent reincarnating unit, how did Buddha achieve Buddhahood as the result of innumerable lives of effort, or be able to look back upon his past lives?  A continuing entity is a logical necessity.

In the writer's opinion, the Buddhist scriptures are not to be taken too literally.  Like all sacred scriptures, they were written for the profane, while the inner teaching was reserved for the elect, those who were capable of understanding the deeper meaning behind the facade of apparent contradiction.  One must remember, too, that innumerable commentaries have been written in interpretation of Buddha's teaching, and not all by wise men.

We must, therefore, in interpreting the Buddhist scriptures, put them before the bar of reason, and avoid the mistake common to so many adherents of Buddhism, of becoming confused about the theory of non-ego.  The fact that Buddha is said to have maintained silence on both questions, ego or non-ego, obviously implies that the ego was not denied.

Karma is one of the basic teachings of Buddhism, and must logically rest upon the necessity of a reincarnating unit.  A great deal of Buddhist thought deals with the law of cause and effect, and why there should have arisen confusion of thought about the permanence of the Self or Ego, it is difficult to understand, except as a result of corrupt teaching.

The higher ego is called, by the Hindus, the thread-soul, the sutratma.  It is this which reincarnates and inherits its own karma, and only the lower personality which perishes at death, as each of its lower principles disintegrate.  It is upon the thread-soul that rests the karmc responsibility of all its lower lives, and even though it dwells upon its own higher plane and only sends down a Ray to dwell in denser layers of matter, it yet assimilates the experience of all these lower lives.

Theosophy explains a great deal that is obscure in the Buddhist scriptures and particularly so in regard to Karma and the nature of the Self.  While the lower self has no permanency, changing from life to life, the real Self never dies, because it has always been;  it has no beginning and no end.  For vast, and to us incalculable periods of time, the reincarnating units exist as separate entities, to be ultimately absorbed into the parent source.  (This is a great cosmic mystery which can only be fully understood when we reach the threshold of Nirvana).

With a continuing spiritual entity carrying responsibility from life to life, one can understand the theory of Karma, the reason for existence, the struggle between good and evil, the striving to reach the goal of perfect knowledge, the successes and failures of evolution.

To return to the Buddhist scriptures.  Some of them enumerate twelve kinds of Karma which I append for the reader's reflection.

KARMA WHICH BEARS FRUIT IN THE PRESENT INCARNATION.  This results from actions in the present life.  (If we burn our fingers, we have not to wait until another life before we feel the pain).  Accidents in this life may be the result of present carelessness irrespective of the past.  We can set fresh causes in motion at any moment.  On the other hand it may be the result of our immediate past life or of one much earlier.  It is said that the Karma of humanity is so heavy from Atlantean times that a great deal of it is held back by the Elder Brothers of the race until there is strength to bear it.  Those who have entered the Path find their lives full of trouble and pain, because before they can become perfect, they must exhaust their bad Karma.  Therefore, Karma that would in the ordinary way be spread over a number of lives is concentrated into one.  No one is immune from this law.  One can realize the accumulation of weighty Karma that is being liquidated by greatly suffering egos during this war, and indeed during the period preceding it.  Unfortunately a fresh set of weighty Karma is being engendered by those who are the instruments of Karma.  "Needs must that evil comes, but woe unto him by whom it cometh."  Bad karma generating bad karma is a vicious circle which can only be broken by knowledge and forgiveness.

KARMA WHICH BEARS FRUIT IN REBIRTH.  This is the Karma which we are making at every moment of our present lives and which may have to wait for circumstances of future births before it can be worked out.

KARMA WHICH BEARS FRUIT AT NO FIXED TIME.  This is often called fluidic karma, i.e., our thoughts and actions may bring upon us karma that would not otherwise have fallen upon us.  (It bears fruit whenever it can find an opportunity).  We can modify past karma by our reactions to life.  We can neutralize it by setting other forces in motion.

By-gone Karma is dealt with above.

WEIGHTY KARMA WHETHER GOOD OR BAD such as cruelty, murder, suicide, or lofty deeds, bears fruit before lighter karma.  H.P.B. stated in the Secret Doctrine that Patriotism and great actions in national service are not altogether good from the point of view of the highest.  To benefit a portion of humanity is good, but to do so at the expense of others is bad.  Therefore, in patriotism, the venom is present with the good.  In this war, therefore, however patriotic the instincts of the fighting men may be, they are inevitably creating bad karma by the violent deeds they have to perform.  War brings out all the worst in human nature, and few are pure and passionless enough to act without attachment to their deeds.

ABUNDANT KARMA bears fruit before that which is not abundant.  This presumably means that continuous acts will produce abundant karma, isolated acts "not abundant".

CLOSE AT HAND.  Karma remembered at point of death.  The karma which a man remembers at death springs up with him in rebirth.

HABITUAL KARMA.  That which has become habitual through much repetition.  This will produce endless rebirths.

PRODUCTIVE OR SUPPORTIVE KARMA either good or bad. Supportive karma is not supposed to produce fruit, but when rebirth is the result of other karma, it supports the ensuing happiness or misery.

COUNTERACTIVE KARMA. Often counteracts fruit of other karma, suppresses it or does not suffer it to continue.

DESTRUCTIVE KARMA. Destroys weak karma, preventing it from bearing fruit and makes room for its own fruition.

The insight into Karma and the fruit of karma possessed by the Buddhas was not shared by their disciples.

There is individual karma, sex karma, or race karma.  Egos are magnetically attracted to those races and countries where their special characteristics can find an outlet.

With regard to sex karma, egos are born into both sexes according to the needs of their karma.  Some students say three lives in a man and three in a woman, but I question a fixed number of lives in each sex, everything depending upon individual karmic obligations.  It is certain that the wrongs inflicted by one sex upon the other will be expiated.  Experience in both sexes is necessary for complete evolution.

There are also distinct differences between physical, emotional, mental and spiritual karma.  Each works out in its own plane.  It is possible to suffer physical pain as a result of past physical karma, yet to inherit good emotional and mental karma, so that despite physical handicaps, a good deal of happiness is enjoyed. The emotional and mental states of past lives govern our emotional and mental opportunities in this one, and our reactions to these opportunities will govern our future lives.  There is a never ceasing play of cause and effect.

The only karma that frees the ego from rebirth is PASSIONLESS KARMA, deeds without attachment.  The ideal conduct is to be "In sorrow not dejected, in joy not overjoyed, dwelling outside the stress of passion, fear and anger."  To be without attachment breaks the round of births and deaths.  Therefore, it is enjoined upon us to act without thought of merit.  Good karma is as binding as bad, and a good man far removed from a Wise one.

The two potent causes of rebirth are Love and Hate.  We are drawn life after life into incarnation with those we have either loved or hated.  It may be that the hatred is only on one side.  Personal love has to be transmuted into universal compassion, for it is as binding as hate and will create rebirth.  The great battle ground for the spirit is Mother Earth.  Spirit is deeply encased in matter while on earth and has to free itself by knowledge and lack of attachment.

The Buddhist ideal of conduct is lofty indeed, and has shone like a jewel throughout the centuries.  It is difficult to achieve a passionless state, yet it is the only way to freedom from rebirth and suffering.  To begin even in a small way to destroy the fruits of action, is to achieve a peace that is not easily shaken.  It is a test that everyone can apply to himself.

It is certain that in every present moment lies the Karma of the distant future, as well as the karma of the past.  H.P.B. stated that every one of our egos has the karma of past Manvantaras behind.

The Ministry of Christ

Henry Drummond

Christ sets His followers no tasks. He appoints no hours. He allots no sphere. He Himself simply went about and did good. He did not stop life to do some special thing which should be called religious. His life was His religion. Each day as it came brought round in the ordinary course its natural ministry. Each village along the highway had someone waiting to be helped. His pulpit was the hillside, His congregation a woman at a well. The poor, wherever He met them, were His clients; the sick, as often as He found them, His opportunity. His work was everywhere; His workshop was the world.

Bridge Out

A priest and a pastor from the local churches are standing by the road, pounding a sign into the ground, that read:  

The End is Near!
Turn Yourself Around Now
Before it's Too Late!

As a car sped past them, the driver yelled, "Leave us alone, you religious nuts!"
 
From the curve they heard screeching tires and a big splash.
 
The priest turns to the pastor and asks, "Do you think the sign should just say, 'Bridge Out'?"

I want to thank all of you who support me, whether financially, by commenting or just be reading and enjoying what I put online. To those who wonder: no, I don't mind if people link to my website(s). In fact: it's appreciated. For instance: my blog will find new readers faster if people aren't afraid to share it with friends and link to it. 

Lucifer7, September 2008

Contents

New online

• World War 2 story of spiritual teachers - Interviewing my grandmother
• Blavatsky on Krishna - signs of respect
• What I Believe
• On being personal - or impersonal
• Can a person live on a vegan diet?
• My spiritual path: pondering (or jnana yoga)
• Dreaming your life - or living it?
• Concerning ‘loving your neighbours’

• Transcending the self… serving humanity,  August 5, 2008 by Katinka Hesselink

Short Quotes

Talbot Mundy, Queen Cleopatra

"This little life we lead on earth is but a school for courage. If we learn more courage when the game is losing, or is lost, should we then envy the apparent winner?"

The Sikh Japji

"Men do not become saints and sinner by merely calling themselves so.
The recording angels take with them a record of man's acts.
It is he himself soweth, and he himself eateth."

Buddha, Dhammapada, Translation Juan Mascaro

334 If a man watches not for NIRVANA, his cravings grow like a creeper and he jumps from death to death like a monkey in the forest from one tree without fruit to another.

H.P. Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy

Children should above all be taught self-reliance, love for all men, altruism, mutual charity, and, more than anything else, to think and reason for themselves.  We would reduce the purely mechanical work of the memory to an absolute minimum, and devote the time to the development and training of the inner senses, faculties and latent capacities . . . . We should aim at creating free men and women, free intellectually, free morally, unprejudiced in all respects, and, above all things, unselfish.

Mediumship a Physiological Phenomenon

The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky, Volume 1, p. 306-7

Mediumism is by no means an indication of a man's holiness. It is merely a physiological phenomenon. Usually, the better the medium, the more delicate he is; yet it is not disease that comes as a result of mediumism, but the latter as a result of bodily weakness, of shattered nerves. The walls of the prison being down, the soul will find it easier to tear itself away and go forth into free space. A man may be a blackguard, like H---, and be the greatest of mediums, but in this case his soul will be obsessed by other souls, more or less sinful, in accord with the quality of his own; as is the pastor, so is the parish. But there are thousands of shades of mediumism, and they cannot all be enumerated in a letter. All the ancient philosophers knew this, and shunned mediumism to such an extent that it was strictly forbidden to admit mediums to the Eleusinian and other Mysteries: those who had a "familiar spirit." Socrates was higher and purer than Plato; yet the latter was initiated into the Mysteries, while Socrates was rejected, and in the course of time he was even doomed to die, because, though not initiated into the Mysteries, he revealed a part of them to the world through the agency of his daimonion, of which he himself was not consciously aware.

Dana Paramita - The Perfection Beyond Giving

Muriel Daw, Paramitas Of Perfection, Blavatsky Lecture 1987, TPH-London, p. 7

[The Paramitas are 10 virtues as enumerated in Buddhist literature. H.P. Blavatsky, one of the founders of the Theosophical Society, uses six of these (adding a seventh that is not usually in the list of paramitas) in her classic 'The Voice of the Silence'. Muriel Daw, comments on the ten Buddhist virtues using references from Blavatsky.

The Dana Paramita is the paramita of giving, or generosity.]

To Know Theosophy

The Path, February, 1888.

You say that for three years you have been endeavoring to study Theosophy. Such being the case, you will meet with but little success. Divine Wisdom can not be a subject for study, but it may be an object of search. With the love for this same wisdom uppermost in our hearts, we ask you if it would not be wiser to lay aside the study of so called Theosophy, and study youself.  Knowing yourself you know all men, the worlds seen and occult, and find Theo-Sophia. One cannot absorb Theosophy as a sponge does water, to be expelled at the slightest touch.  Our conception of Theosophy is apt to be based upon the idea that it is an especial line of teaching - a larger, wider, and greater doctrine than others perhaps, but still a doctrine, and therefore limited. We must bear in mind that the true Theosophist belongs to no cult or sect, yet belongs to each and all;  that he can find the true object of his search equally well in the Hebrew bible and in the Yoga philosophy, in the New Testament as well as in the Bhagavad-Gita.

Inner Strength

If you can start the day without caffeine or pep pills,

If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,

If you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it,

If you can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time,

If you can overlook when people take things out on you when,

through no fault of yours, something goes wrong,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,

If you can face the world without lies and deceit,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor,

If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

If you can do all these things,

Then you are probably the family dog.

Correspondence on Love

Michael Evans

    Just a note to say hello and thank you for all the effort you have put into this site. real generosity, greatly appreciated. have you read R.D. Liang's book The Politics of Experience? Could not a different path of conditioning our children bring about a world attitude in time that could be the very essence of what people like Krishnamurti comment about. Knowing who we are, what we are doing and why we are doing it? Is the quote below valid to you. Think Liang is correct here in what he says:

    "In order to rationalize our industrial-military complex, we have to destroy our capacity to see clearly any more what is in front of, and to imagine what is beyond, our noses. Long before a thermonuclear war can come about, we have had to lay waste to our own sanity. We begin with the children. It is imperative to catch them in time. Without the most thorough and rapid brainwashing their minds would see through our dirty tricks. Children are not yet fools, but we shall turn them into imbeciles like ourselves, with high I.Q.'s, if possible.

   From the moment of birth, when the Stone Age baby confronts the twentieth-century mother, the baby is subjected to those forces of violence, called love, as its mother and father, and their parents and their parents before them, have been. These forces are mainly concerned with destroying most of its potentialities, and on the whole this enterprise is successful. By the time the new human being is fifteen or so, we are left with a being like ourselves, a half-crazed creature more or less adjusted to a mad world. This is normality in our present age.

    Love and violence, properly speaking, are polar opposites. Love lets the other be, but with affection and concern. Violence attempts to constrain the other's freedom, to force him to act in the way we desire, but with ultimate lack of concern, with indifference to the other's own existence or destiny.

    We are effectively destroying ourselves by violence masquerading as love."

    So much we do is done without any reflection at all. Reaction. So many aspects of life are just overlooked. We use words to communicate, give them meaning which, in many cases, is not accurate. So many examples. Take the word Justice. In America with its Christian roots that word means to be right, to be fair. That is how a dictionary would define justice. So here in the USA, when the state executes a condemned man, they say "Justice has been done." Where is the rightness and fairness in killing a living being? How do those that loved the condemned man get justice from his death? How do those that loved the victim realize justice by the state killing someone? So, in the USA we use the word justice when in fact we mean punishment, extracting a pound of flesh for a perceived wrong, retribution, vengeance, etc. As H. I. Khan said "justice is knowing when to say I must not do. this." Is that alone not fair and right? If we are going to take the path of conditioning folks let us at least do it so that at least some of the skills to live a life full of love and understanding have been placed into our childrens minds?

    Thanks again for the lovely site. me ke aloha pumehana, michael evans

I want to thank all of you who support me, whether financially, by commenting or just be reading and enjoying what I put online. To those who wonder: no, I don't mind if people link to my website(s). In fact: it's appreciated. For instance: my blog will find new readers faster if people aren't afraid to share it with friends and link to it. 

Lucifer7, August 2008

Contents

New online

• The Blavatsky Collected Writings online again
• What is Spiritual Growth? What is wisdom? discuss
• Zen Buddhism - an introduction
• Tibetan Buddhism - an introduction
• Introducing THE biography of H.P. Blavatsky

Short Quotes

Rights, Duties, Privileges, Henry T. Edge

Fragment of this article from Protogonos #25, June, 1996

      On August 4, 1789, a large and unruly Parliament of excited men sat in a hall at Versailles. It was the National Assembly of revolutionary France, and it was framing a new constitution for the country. But what was agitating the assembly at the moment was the preamble to that constitution - a Declaration the Rights of Man. Suddenly one of the members interposed with an amendment. He proposed that the Declaration of Rights of Man should also be a Declaration of the Duties of Man. His amendment was impatiently rejected, the majority being 575 against 433; and the assembly proceeded to adopt almost unanimously the motion that preamble should consist only of a Declaration Rights.

       Human nature has not changed much since then. We still hear much about the rights of man. About the duties we do not hear quite so much. The lesson is applicable to the present situation, if at all.

        When we demand our rights, or promise other people their rights, the motive concerned is self-interest, the self-interest of an individual or of a class. When duties are spoken of, it is conscience that is appealed to. Which is better for the welfare and progress of the individual - self-interest or conscience? Which is better for the welfare of the community?

Paul Brunton, Essays on the Quest, Chapter X

The truth brings with it great serenity and also great independence. He is no longer at the mercy of others for his happiness.

Buddhist Meditation, Samdhong Rinpoche, p. 14

It cannot be emphasized too often that meditation is not easy and can often become dangerous, leading the slipshod meditator into an abnormal life.

H.P.Blavatsky, Lucifer Vol. 4, No. 22; June 15, 1889.

Occultism is concerned with the inner man, who must be strengthened and freed from the dominion of the physical body and its surroundings, which must become its servants. Hence the first and chief necessity of Chelaship is a spirit of absolute unselfishness and devotion to Truth;  then follow self-knowledge and self-mastery.

Getting the Blavatsky Collected Writings indexed in Google

• Get your local lodge, your personal myspace page, your facebook profile, or any other website you have relations with (where it's appropriate) to link to my website or specifically to http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/
  You can use for instance the following code: <a href="http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/">H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Online</a>. (copy paste it) This will work on myspace, and on most blogs. If you don't know how to put a link on your website, or your lodge website - go ask the person who can. 
• If you want to go a step further, link to your favorite article of the Blavatsky Collected Writings, or your favorite volume, or all of them. This will help make sure that particular article will be indexed by Google, or that particular volume will.

• Let anyone who might be interested know that the Collected Writings are online again. Most theosophical forums have been notified, but if you know of esoteric or occult online forums that haven't - let them know. 

If many of you do this, the Collected Writings will be indexed faster. It may still take some time, but that's just the way Google works. 

The Shekinah of Israel

Olive Harcourt, Canadian Theosophist, Volume 29, #3, 1948

"Open Thou mine eyes, that I may see wondrous things out of The Law".

The Song of Solomon is one of the holiest portions of the Old Testament, for it represents in poetry the Union of the Father-GOD with the Mother or Love Aspect, His Complementary Opposite, His Completion and Perfection, the Shekinah of Israel.  The word Shekinah is derived from the verb shachan, to dwell within.  The Shekinah is the Inhabiting Glory, the Indwelling Light.  Her chief symbol is all-permeating, Universal Illumination, seen clairvoyantly in olden days around the Ark of the Covenant.

A vision of the Shekinah is similar to the vision of the Holy Grail, in that it comes only to him who lives a pure and spiritual life. When Moses descended from Mt. Sinai after his great vision of God in His Fullness, during which he became powerfully clairvoyant and clairaudient, his face was seen to be illuminated by the Holy Light, all that remained of his contact with the Ineffable Glory. According to tradition the Light was seen of old to shine forth from between the shoulders and the fingers of the officiating Priest in the Temple at the moment when he spoke the words recorded in Numbers VI, "The Lord make His Face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you."

The exquisite perfumes which occasionally pervade a house or a person are thought by some occult students to be due to a temporary presence of the Shekinah, perhaps indicating that goodness spreads around an appropriate atmosphere, for many persons of fine character have been known to give out sweet odours - notably Walt Whitman, some of whose friends have testified to the fragrance shed abroad by his body.

There are two aspects of the Mother, the Higher and the Lower Shekinah - the Supernal Shekinah and that which  manifests in Matter.  If we accept the teaching of the Levitical Doctrine (now-a-days being marvelously justified by the findings of modern science), that there is Divine Intelligence in every particle of matter, we see that the Shekinah is universally indwelling, permeating all things.  She is Spirit, dwelling within both Man and Nature.  She is Tebunah, Understanding, Intelligence, Insight, Intuition, illuminated by Love.  She is the passive, negative aspect, the Darkness, the Sheltering Mother in Whom all things come to birth.  And yet she is Light, the Inhabiting Glory.

The Supernal Mother never descends to the Material Plane, but puts forth into it a reflection of herself, an eidolon, called in the Kabalah the Spouse, the Bride or the Queen, and sometimes the Daughter.

She manifests as Sound as well as Light.  "Bas Qol", the Voice of the Daughter, is the Divine Music caused by the stars and planets as they plunge through space.  Plato, who learned much from his study of the Kabalah, called it "the Music of the Spheres".

In manifestation on the earth plane, Shekinah is still the Spouse of GOD, His Complementary Opposite, the feminine aspect of Nature and Man.

The Zohar, one of the most important portions of the Kabalistic writings, tells us of Four Worlds of Being: -

    I. The World of Creation.

    II. The World of Emanation.

    III. The World of Formation.

    IV. The World of Manifestation in Matter.

In the Worlds of Creation and Emanation there is no difference between the Shekinah and GOD, for They are One, it is in the Worlds of Formation and Manifestation that separation occurs, and manifestation on the Material Plane becomes infinitely complex and varied.

G.R.S. Mead writes of:

    "GOD the Father-Causative Essence.

    "GOD the Mother-Formative Essence".

But the Shekinah remains the Complementary Opposite of Deity (without Whom He could not manifest), no matter how lowly her manifestations, for in all material things there is Spirit enclosed and enchained.

The Emperor Hadrian said to a great Rabbi named Joshua, that he would like to see the Shekinah.  Joshua told him to gaze upon the Sun.  "I cannot," said the Emperor.  "Then if you cannot look upon GOD'S servant the Sun, how can you expect to see the Shekinah?"

The Great Mother of Israel was adopted by the Roman Church together with many of her symbols and attributes and incorporated in the Virgin Mary.

Isis, the Egyptian equivalent of Shekinah, was sometimes portrayed black in color to symbolize the Sheltering Mother in whose body all things came to growth in darkness and in mystery.  In the Mystery Plays of the Middle Ages the woman who took the part of the Virgin was clad in black garments, and black images of the Virgin are still to be found in Churches in Central Europe, usually credited with supernatural powers of Healing.  There is one such just over the borders between Saxony and Czecho-Slovakia.  On a table near the image are laid out reproductions of different parts of the human body - legs, arms, eyes, ears, hands and so forth, as well as discarded crutches, bandages, etc.  The statue itself is hung with valuable jewels offered by grateful invalids.

The feminine aspect of God the Father has been largely eliminated from the Christian doctrine - so much the worse for the world.  For it is pointed out in the Zohar that the world will never be free from poverty, misery and war until man and woman, masculine and feminine rule the world in perfect equality.

The doctrine of the existence of the Shekinah does not conflict with the strictly monotheistic faith of the Israelites, to whom the Deity was Duality in Unity.  The very last words spoken by a Jew in this world - or spoken for him if he is incapable of speech - are:

"Hear ye, Israel, the Lord our GOD is One."

In spite of the belief that the Higher Aspect of Shekinah never descends, she is said traditionally to have been present at important moments in the history of Israel - for example, on Mt. Sinai during the interview between GOD and Moses.  In her Light Aspect she was present in the Pillar of Fire and in the Burning Bush.  She is invoked in the Night Prayers of little children in Jewish homes - "On my four sides four Angels, above my head the Shekinah".  When Israel sins she departs from her, and "he who walks haughtily crowds out her feet."

Tradition tells us that the Shekinah, when manifesting in form, had wings, and that when Moses died, he was symbolically laid to rest amid her feathers.

This reminds us of the passage in the 91st Psalm: -

"He shall cover thee with His feathers and under His Wings shalt thou trust."

No human being leaves this world without a vision of the Shekinah, it is she who bestows the Living Spirit upon the newly risen to the Life of Heaven.  Then the soul is given a new vestment.  In the case of the "justified", or righteous, it is a garment of Light, seen at the Ascension by the followers of the Lord Jesus, the sign of "Man made Perfect."

The risen spirit, having crossed the River of Death, is received on the further shore by the Holy Mother, the Dweller in the Supernal and is given the Sacred Kiss, the Kiss of Infinite Love.

The Perverse in Human Nature

Edgar Allan Poe, from The Black Cat

... When reason returned with the morning - when I had slept off the fumes of the night's debauch - I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse, for the crime of which I had been guilty; but it was, at best, a feeble and equivocal feeling, and the soul remained untouched. I again plunged into excess, and soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed.

In the meantime the cat slowly recovered. The socket of the lost eye presented, it is true, a frightful appearance, but he no longer appeared to suffer any pain. He went about the house as usual, but, as might be expected, fled in extreme terror at my approach. I had so much of my old heart left, as to be at first grieved by this evident dislike on the part of a creature which had once so loved me. But this feeling soon gave place to irritation. And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of PERVERSENESS. Of this spirit philosophy takes no account. Phrenology finds no place for it among its organs. Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart - one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such? This spirit of perverseness, I say, came to my final overthrow. It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself - to offer violence to its own nature - to do wrong for the wrong's sake only - that urged me to continue and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute. One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; - hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart; - hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offence; - hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin - a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it - if such a thing were possible - even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God...

I want to thank all of you who have supported my web endeavours by donating money, linking to any of my online projects, forwarding this newsletter, spreading the news, generally encouraging me and letting me know about mistakes. It's all appreciated even if I can't thank every one of you personally.

Lucifer7, July 2008

Contents

Short Quotes

Talbot Mundy, Queen Cleopatra

The wise will ever modify a plan, and only fools are obstinate. But what the gods have disapproved they wipe out utterly.

H.P. Blavatsky, Voice of the Silence, 17.

Saith the Great Law:  "In order to become the knower of ALL-SELF, thou hast first of Self to be the knower.

N. Sri Ram, Thoughts For Aspirants, Second Series

Self-knowledge, even in its beginnings, gives rise to wisdom.

Paul Brunton, The Inner Reality, Chapter V

The kingdom of heaven is nothing more or less than a condition of inward freedom.

Marie Beljan

Real kindness requires realism.

New on Katinka Hesselink Net

• (Funny) Buddhist terms your guru never taught you, By Gary L. Ray

New spirituality on squidoo

• My favorite Spiritual weblogs
• Vegetarian Health Tips
• Buddhism: practice and philosophy
• Why Vegetarian? Spiritual reasons as well as the environment & cruelty to animals

I made giant squid! This means an editorial team decided my 65 pages on squidoo were of excellent quality (or at least fifty were).

Theosophical Elections: Radha Burnier for another 7 years

Katinka Hesselink

I confess myself disappointed: the results of the elections are in, and Radha Burnier won again. I guess this means John Algeo will remain vice president. It's to be hoped that come next election some younger candidates (say in their fifties or something) will be nominated. I hope we aren't heading for a situation where it's tradition for the president to die before a new one gets instated.

What is the Self?

H. T. Edge, Theosophical Forum, February, 1941

"A self is not something you are endowed with at birth. It is something you are continually creating as you live your day-to-day life."

The above was found in The Reader's Digest, and is given as being adapted from a book called The Self You Have to Live With, by Winfred Rhoades. As we do not know what else the author may have said, we cannot presume to comment on his views; but the quotation serves as a convenient text for remarks on the problem of what constitutes a Self.

There are those who argue that the Self is simply the sum-total of out mental states, built up bit by bit in the way described. In this case however the Self would be a mere abstraction, a noun of multitude as the grammarians might say. Or at best it would be a machine, made by assembling parts, instead of being an organism with parts built around a vital germ. No organism can be created by the mere assemblage of parts. We need to know who or what it is that brings all these various elements together and unites them into a whole. The mental states, habits, ideas, emotions, memories, etc., do not constitute the Self, they display it. They are the garments in which the Self clothes itself. When dissolution takes place, it is certain that the phantasmagoria which we have been calling ourself will dissolve; but this does not mean that nothing will be left. It means a change similar to what we undergo during life, but of a greater degree. Myself of today is the same, and yet not the same, as myself of forty years ago. No doubt the ultimate Self, the Atman, is a universal principle; but we know that in each man this Self gathers to itself skandhas or attributes or vehicles (one is obliged to use vague words), which give to each human being his own distinct individuality. When the attributes peculiar to physical life are dispersed, there still remain attributes proper to other planes. Our attempts to imagine this Self, as it will be after physical death, will remain deceptive and futile until we have lifted some veils of initiation; and even then it will not be possible to put what we see into ideas understandable to the ordinary intellect. What we learn in books is like a map of the country which we shall enter; it points the way but does not reveal the details.

Zen Story

Source unknown, from D.P., Protogonos 33, September 1998

There once lived a great warrior. Though quite old, he still was able to defeat any challenger. His reputation extended far and wide throughout the land and many students gathered to study under him.

One day an infamous young warrior arrived at the village. He was determined to be the first man to defeat the great master. Along with his strength, he had an uncanny ability to spot and exploit any weakness in an opponent. He would wait for his opponent to make the first move, thus revealing a weakness, and then would strike with merciless force and lightning speed. No one had ever lasted with him in a match beyond the first move,

Much against the advice of his concerned students, the old master gladly accepted the young warrior's challenge. As the two squared off for battle, the young warrior began to hurl insults at the old master. He threw dirt and spit in his face. For hours he verbally assaulted him with every curse and insult known to mankind. But the old warrior merely stood there motionless and calm. Finally, the young warrior exhausted himself. Knowing he was defeated, he left feeling shamed.

Somewhat disappointed that he did not fight the insolent youth, the students gathered around the old master and questioned him. "How could you endure such an indignity? How did you drive him away?"

"If someone comes to give you a gift and you do not receive it," the master replied, "to whom does the gift belong?"

Correspondence

Just a note to say hello and thank you for all the effort you have put into this site. real generosity, greatly appreciated. have you read R.D. Liang's book The Politics of Experience? Could not a different path of conditioning our children bring about a world attitude in time that could be the very essence of what people like Krishnamurti comment about. Knowing who we are, what we are doing and why we are doing it? Is the quote below valid to you. Think Liang is correct here in what he says:

"In order to rationalize our industrial-military complex, we have to destroy our capacity to see clearly any more what is in front of, and to imagine what is beyond, our noses. Long before a thermonuclear war can come about, we have had to lay waste to our own sanity. We begin with the children. It is imperative to catch them in time. Without the most thorough and rapid brainwashing their minds would see through our dirty tricks. Children are not yet fools, but we shall turn them into imbeciles like ourselves, with high I.Q.'s, if possible.

From the moment of birth, when the Stone Age baby confronts the twentieth-century mother, the baby is subjected to those forces of violence, called love, as its mother and father, and their parents and their parents before them, have been. These forces are mainly concerned with destroying most of its potentialities, and on the whole this enterprise is successful. By the time the new human being is fifteen or so, we are left with a being like ourselves, a half-crazed creature more or less adjusted to a mad world. This is normality in our present age.

Love and violence, properly speaking, are polar opposites. Love lets the other be, but with affection and concern. Violence attempts to constrain the other's freedom, to force him to act in the way we desire, but with ultimate lack of concern, with indifference to the other's own existence or destiny.

We are effectively destroying ourselves by violence masquerading as love."

So much we do is done without any reflection at all. Reaction. So many aspects of life are just overlooked. We use words to communicate, give them meaning which, in many cases, is not accurate. So many examples. Take the word Justice. In America with its Christian roots that word means to be right, to be fair. That is how a dictionary would define justice. So here in the USA, when the state executes a condemned man, they say "Justice has been done." Where is the rightness and fairness in killing a living being? How do those that loved the condemned man get justice from his death? How do those that loved the victim realize justice by the state killing someone? So, in the USA we use the word justice when in fact we mean punishment, extracting a pound of flesh for a perceived wrong, retribution, vengeance, etc. As H. I. Khan said "justice is knowing when to say I must not do. this." Is that alone not fair and right? If we are going to take the path of conditioning folks let us at least do it so that at least some of the skills to live a life full of love and understanding have been placed into our childrens minds?

Thanks again for the lovely site. me ke aloha pumehana, michael evans

Previous issues of Lucifer7 can be found at the online index of Lucifer7

If you appreciate the content of this newsletter, please consider donating to Katinka Hesselink

Lucifer7, June 2008

Contents

New on Katinka Hesselink Net

• Expanding Our Centre of Consciousness, Pablo Sender
• From Within Outwards: the Way of the Universe, John Algeo
• White Lotus Day and Its Meaning, John Algeo

New Online

My adventure at squidoo just seems to go on and on. Here are my latest spiritual lenses:

• Spiritual teachers and gurus
• Katinka Hesselink Net on squidoo (all my religious and spiritual lenses)
• The Ultimate Questions: spiritual debate where you can join in
• Poll Questions about 'God' - what's (s)he like?
• Is God Omniscient ? If so, do we have free will? (I don't believe in a personal God, but this is a topic in my philosophy of religion class and I just couldn't help but make a lens out of it)
• Yoga - history and tradition from India
• Wisdom Quotes: The Wisest Quotes Ever
• Who Is Rupert Sheldrake?
• Who Is Annie Besant?
• God in the Bible - quotes
• What is God? What's SHE like?
• What is an Ashram?
• Who Is Gautama Buddha?
• Who is Khalil Gibran?
• Who is Karen Armstrong?
• Who was William James?
• What are miracles?

International Theosophical Conference

There is an international theosophical conference coming up - the website is a bit of a mess. Details on where, when and how are scattered throughout. It seems to be held in Philadelphia, USA, August 7th through August 10th, 2008. I'm not sure about this, because the website also mentions something about Athens, Greece (which is in Europe, right?). 

These are some of the subjects I'm interested in myself, so I'm very sorry I won't be attending.

Short Quotes

Mental Slavery, Blavatsky, (BCW III, 225)

"Alive to the truism that every path may eventually lead to the highway as every river to the ocean, we never reject a contribution simply because we do not believe in the subject it treats upon, or disagree with its conclusions. Contrast alone can enable us to appreciate things at their right value; and unless a judge compares notes and hears both sides he can hardly come to a correct decision. Dun vitant stulti vitia, in contraria currunt ['while striving to shun one vice, fools run into its opposite.'] - is our motto; and we seek to prudently walk between many ditches without rushing into either. For one man to demand from another that he shall believe like himself, whether in a question of religion or science is supremely unjust and despotic. Besides, it is absurd. For it amounts to exacting that the brains of the convert, his organs of perception, his whole organization, in short, be reconstructed precisely on the model of that of his teacher, and that he shall have the same temperament and mental faculties as the other has. And why not his nose and eyes, in such a case? Mental slavery is the worst of all slaveries. It is a state which, as brutal force has no real power, always denotes either an abject cowardice or a great intellectual weakness."

N. Sri Ram, Thoughts For Aspirants, Second Series

The first step in self-knowledge is to become aware of that hard shell in our natures, which is compounded of our settled habits of thought and action, a thing of shadows opaque to the rays of our own understanding. The very awareness of its existence makes way for the rays of one's intelligence and starts the process of its dissolution.

Paul Brunton, The Secret Path, Chapter XI

Once you have placed yourself in the hands of the Overself within, your life will begin to flow more serenely and more sweetly.

...

You may falter or even fail in applying this knowledge, but the Overself is infinitely patient and will be ready to assist you in its own way when you are ready to invoke its presence.

...

You must refer inwards to the Overself until the habit becomes first thought, second nature and sixth sense.

Masters and Men

Ernest E. Wood, Canadian Theosophist, Volume 29, #2 (1948)

Reading over and over again the many statements that have been made and suggested about the relation of masters, or adepts, or nirvanees, or liberated men, to unliberated men or reincarnating men, I have often thought of trying to formulate some principles. We have a great deal of information before us in the Mahatma Letters to Mr. Sinnett, and various Mahatma Letters to other persons, and suggestions and reports from various sources.  Out of these certain main principles clearly arise.

(1) Masters do not interfere with personal karma. They do not act so as to reduce the impacts of any particular karmas upon us. To take an example, they do not protect us from our enemies. The reason for this is perfectly clear. We need our karma. We need our enemies. If I am to attain the highest power of love I certainly need those enemies. Some love I can develop in relation to my friends and to those who are kind to me. That is an easy matter, but to rise to the full height of love is another matter. For the completion of my realization of unity in feeling I need the opportunity which only my enemies can give.

This is a thought that applies to the development of the mind and of the will as well as to the development of love. It will be asked why in that case we should extol the conduct of any unliberated man who protects us from our enemies. The answer is that we unliberated men are living together in one world. We are doing things together and gradually forming that kind of society which is integrated by love. Just as every act of creative mind on materials of various kinds brings them into a unity of form and relationship, so does the creative act that we call love bring varied human, beings into a unity that we call society, or social order. It is imperative in such an order that the elements or parts must be different. If I am not different from my neighbor I cannot perform a special part in that organism. Briefly, variety is necessary to unity. It is when a man has harmonized his love to all varieties of men that he attains liberation.

The Masters as liberated men are no longer engaged in the karmic business of forming parts of a social organism. That is a work which is not an end in itself, but for each of us fitting in to that organism is really an act of self-fulfillment. Just as a painter paints a picture under the impulse of a central urge in his own life and while making the picture really makes himself, so that when the picture is done he no longer needs it and puts it aside, yet retains in himself all the awakening or growth that he has attained by the effort, so also the production of social harmony through love is only an external work, not an end in itself, and it remains forever an eternal effort for all unliberated men. This is no work for masters, since it is no end in itself and has no intrinsic value. It belongs to the karmic world, outside their precincts.

(2) Masters, it is said, can influence the minds of men, but they do not do this. Inasmuch as every man's growth depends upon the exercise of his own thought, love and will, upon the objects of his own experience, that is, upon his own karma, there would be no point in inoculating him with a foreign strength for that purpose. Man is not in a school built for him by somebody else, and made to go through a series of tests devised by a mind other than his own, but he is at all times faced with his own particular karma exactly suited to his needs because it is the expression of his own imperfect work in the past.  An artist painted a picture yesterday, putting all his best into it.  Today he looks at it and says, "Not good enough." That is so because in putting all his power into the effort - his thought, feeling and will - he became a better artist than before.  Now, looking at his picture, he will find it painful in some degree and will set about altering it or painting a new one. There is no disharmony between man and the world of his experience, it is the perfect method of self education. If some greater artist were to come in and do the artist's next picture for him, it would be no real help to him.

(3) If Masters do not save us from our karmas, and do not strengthen our minds, what do they do? I have been much impressed by the statement that their function in relation to unliberated mankind is to remind that mankind of its spiritual origin and power. Not more than that.  That is indeed a karma that men deserve, but what use they will make of it depends upon themselves. All environment is only opportunity. This, too, is opportunity, and Masters are our environment to this extent.

No doubt in the past thousands upon thousands of men have passed from the unliberated to the liberated state. They have not done that without the aid of unliberated men. In their day they had their enemies, and with the aid of those enemies they developed the love which was part of their attainment. That is one example of what those liberated men owe to us who were their enemies away in the past. They are not separated from us.

The function of reminding mankind of their spiritual power and destiny does not interfere with either karmas or minds.  Inasmuch, therefore, as any one of us opens himself up to the reception of that piece of environment, turns his attention fully upon it with thought and love and the intuition of the will, he is "in touch with the master".

(4) I think of nirvana, or the beyond, or the state of the liberated men, as a world in which the very sands of the seashore are living Buddhas. I think of that world as not far away but as close and intimate to us as any kingdom of nature that we know, as in its own manner enfolding us and pressing upon us as much as the earth's atmosphere presses in its own way upon our bodies all the time.

We can perhaps understand this better if we remember that we are in contact with life in every kingdom of nature.  A very undeveloped man does not know much of the life in his fellowman. To him other people are merely animated objects in his environment. He has not paused to see the inside of them, to feel their feelings and to say to himself, "There is a man in there". But as we become more developed we find ourselves living among fellowmen who incidentally have bodies.

In course of time and as a result of our education our experience or perception of life increases, so that we are aware of it in animals and plants, and even in the minerals to some extent.  I compare the following pictures: First, I am sitting on a nice green carpet;  secondly, I am sitting on a lawn. Why am I so much happier sitting on the lawn than sitting on the green carpet? What is it that gives me this feeling? When I look at this matter closely I find that when sitting on the lawn I have some fellow-feeling with the grass and the bushes and trees that are around. It is because I am in some degree aware of life in these things that they mean so much more to me and can teach me such a better lesson.  This is true of the animals also and even of the minerals. When I walk on the earth I ought to feel that as a companionship and I believe I do if at any time I go into the garden with my bare feet. I do not mean that in any of these things we should people the earth and the woodlands with all sorts of gnomes and fairies in our imagination. That is an extra thing.  It is important to us that we are living with life.  The animals, the plants and the mineral world are life; their forms are only incidental.

When you come to think of it the mineral and other forms that we see are only the karmic production of those lives, and as their karmic productions are the outposts of their consciousness just as our karmic productions are outposts of ours, really we are dealing with life only, and living among life. And as it is with feeling rising to the height of love that we become conscious of life in our fellowmen, so it is that the treatment of all these things with the feeling consciousness, not merely with the thinking mind, will give us our knowledge of reality.

(5) Apart from and in addition to the reminders that we get from the Masters, we have always an open channel to their world in what we call the will. The Masters have been called the Inner Government of the World. Let us understand that word "inner", and let us never confuse it with any conception of the outer government of the world. It is true that each one of us is the complete and utter slave of that inner government of the world. Each one of us has an inner urge which sends him through his cycle of experiences in a certain manner, in a certain order, particular for each, and that urge comes into us from our Archetypes, which are our real selves resident in the beyond in perfect harmony with all liberated men. There is our point of rest, our point of strength, our unchanging basis, the unity in all our varieties of experience, that stamps its character and mark on every true act of our will.

I must resort to an illustration. My hand and arm act in obedience to their own nature and quality. They carry out the behests of the brain without any constraint of their own nature. Such action is indeed the advancement and fulfillment of their own character. Thus do my fingers act in a service which is perfect freedom for them because it is the fulfillment of their own nature, and indeed my fingers become better fingers, more supple and delicate and sensitive in the performance of this work well-directed from within. But if some strong man were to come along and take hold of my arm with his hand and pull it here and there, directing it from the outside what to do, there would indeed be bondage and the negation of arm-progress.

Similarly, when the will in me that directs my whole embodied being responds with intuition to the impulses of that archetype of which the beings of the liberated world are the custodians, in a sense, for me, so that I follow the correct cycles of effort in my embodied existence, there is no bondage. I am being myself.  But if some other man from the outside, acting and speaking in the world of karmas and mind activities, tries to tell me what decisions I must make, what loves I must have, and what thoughts I must think, he is my enemy, my worst of enemies. To try to get between men and the Master or between me and the Master's world, and pull me about from the outside, is the worst thing that anybody can do. But if I have the intuition of the will, that man will be my beloved enemy.

"CATHOLIC GASOLINE"

Sister Mary Ann, who worked for a home health agency, was out making her rounds visiting homebound patients when she ran out of gas. As luck would have it, an Exxon Gasoline station was just a block away.

She walked to the station to borrow a gas can and buy some gas. The attendant told her that the only gas can he owned had been loaned out, but she could wait until it was returned. Since Sister Mary Ann was on the way to see a patient, she decided not to wait and walked back to her car.

She looked for something in her car that she could fill with gas and spotted the bedpan she was taking to the patient.  Always resourceful, Sister Mary Ann carried the bedpan to the station, filled it with gasoline, and carried the full bedpan back to her car.

As she was pouring the gas into her tank, two Baptists watched from across the street. One of them turned to the other and said, 'If it starts, I'm turning Catholic!"

Previous issues of Lucifer7 can be found at the online index of Lucifer7

If you appreciate the content of this newsletter, please consider donating to Katinka Hesselink

Lucifer7, May 2008

Contents

Seasonal: White Lotusday (May 8th)

Short Quotes

N. Sri Ram, Thoughts For Aspirants, Second Series

Before one can come to the truth, there has to be an attitude of humility, absence of conceit, a recognition of his own limitations and willingness to learn. 

Talbot Mundy, Queen Cleopatra

Blame is easy to lay and no man or no woman is perfect. Commonly the greatest fools and hypocrites are readiest to cast aspersion; and the wisest and most honorable are the slowest, ever qualifying accusation and withholding judgment, knowing that themselves in like predicament might blunder worse than the accused and might achieve less.

Paul Brunton, The Secret Path, Chapter VII

We may say that the person exists by virtue of, through the life force of, and by permission of the Overself.

Theosophical Elections

John Algeo and Radha Burnier are both running for president of the Theosophical Society with headquarters at Adyar.

John Algeo has a website and gives his vision of the work of the Theosophical Society which reads like the perfect mix between conserving what's best from the past and moving forward into the 21st century. John Algeo is a retired professor of English, who's written a book on the differences between American-English and British-English. His scientific approach shines through in his work on 'The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky', volume 1 - which caused a storm among fundamentalist Blavatskyan theosophists who felt too many letters had been published there which they felt had not actually been written by Blavatsky. I have personally felt for years that he was the only likely candidate to step in Radha Burnier's shoes. John Algeo is less of a Krishnamurti enthusiast and as the articles published (with his permission) on my website show, more of a Blavatsky man. This really ought to please members of the other theosophical organizations, but we can be sure they will find some fault or other with him nonetheless.

There are several documents relating to this election online at teozofia.info. There is discussion about Radha Burnier's Health as well as about John Algeo's willingness to live at Adyar. On my website there is a lot of information on the goals and aims of the Theosophical Society.

Personally I feel that Radha Burnier has served the TS long enough and that her health and age are such that it is a very bad idea that she be president for another tenure. I have not yet received the election-ballots yet - but I will be voting for John Algeo as the only serious candidate. I was of the impression that a person can only be president for two terms. Since our terms are seven years long, Radha has been at the helm of the TS for fourteen years now. She has done the TS good with uniting of Krishnamurti's and Blavatsky's messages, but her negative attitude towards the Internet slowed the TS down considerably when it the Internet was coming up a few years ago. While she has since grown less vocal about this, I feel she is not the right person to move the Theosophical Society into the 21st century. In her letter (as published on Theos-talk) she says we need someone younger - well, nobody younger was nominated. We will have to wait seven years for that. Meanwhile: John Algeo is younger than Radha Burnier, though 78 according to Radha's e-mail.

Radha's Health

The reports are mixed: some say her health is fine. Others say her memory isn't what it used to be and the stroke she had roughly a year ago has left its mark. 

John's inability to live at Adyar

Radha makes a lot of John Algeo's likely preference for living somewhere other than at the Adyar estate in Southern India. Since the headquarters have been at Adyar most of the time since the Adyar estate was bought in the 19th century, this would go against tradition. The main reason for John not living there would be the health of his wife Adele. Let's not make too much of this though: presidents of the Theosophical Society generally don't live at Adyar year round anyhow: they travel too much for lectures and connections to the various sections of the TS. The place of any non-Indian president on the Estate is going to be different from Radha's position. Radha speaks Tamil, which is the mother tongue of the local people. Any Western president would have to rely on aids for the running of the estate because of that language barrier. 

Radha Burnier's aversion to the Internet

Radha has gone on record against the Internet. She said at one point that it could not replace face to face contact. This is really besides the point. Books don't replace face to face contact either. I'm not sure what her current position on this issue is, but she certainly isn't an Internet advocate. In contrast: John Algeo has his own website.

Open versus closed

Unfortunately both candidates have been accused (I feel with reason) of being closed off in their connection to ordinary members and the world. But of the two, Radha is the most isolationist, I feel. Her position on the Internet is a case in point. John addresses the issue of communication on his website and therefore shows awareness of that point. Of the two candidates Radha has been of the opinion that PR is just not spiritually sound (it should not be necessary, because if we live theosophy, we radiate it). John shows far more awareness of PR as something that should at least be on the agenda. A modern organization just can't do without some publicity - and this is something Blavatsky and Olcott (both journalists) knew very well.

Some other issues are:

Blavatsky versus Krishnamurti

John Algeo is more of a Blavatsky based theosophist, while Radha is more of a Krishnamurti person. Radha also quotes Blavatsky regularly though. John has been known to comment on fantasy works like the Harry Potter series. John Algeo was responsible for creating the first volume of the Collected Letters of Blavatsky. 

Spiritual teaching versus administration

Radha is very much a spiritual teacher as well as an administrator. John Algeo's strengths include scholarship and administration, but I don't think many would describe him as a spiritual teacher. This is really the only sound reason to elect Radha Burnier that I can think of. 

India versus the world

The Theosophical Society is a world-wide organization, with headquarters in India. John Algeo is an American. I feel that it is good for the TS to have a mix of Indian and international presidents. Radha has given the Indian voice a strong place in her presidency, as she would: she is Indian, she knows Sanskrit. I feel it's time for the rest of the world to have its say.

The procedure appears to be a direct vote. This means that all members should vote, as it is my impression that this is a tight race. I will personally vote for John Algeo as he is younger, healthier and more modern.

Hail to the Unborn

From Chicago TIME, January 25. Found in the Canadian Theosophist, Vol. 24, #1 (1943)

In a small town in Yugoslavia there lived a man named Peter.  He read many books, dabbled in politics and married a girl named Maria.

When Maria was heavy with child, the Germans occupied Peter's village and took over his home and his business.  Peter left to fight in the woods with the Yugoslav Partisans.  He was shot several weeks later but before he died he took a stub of pencil and wrote a letter to his unborn son.

Partisans found Peter's body and the letter.  While they waited for a chance to deliver it, the letter was passed from hand to hand and became in time a part of guerrilla folklore.  By now it may have been sharpened by the literacy of other men and given added eloquence by the nobility of other men's minds.  But what it said was as true when it was scrawled on a scrap of paper in a great whispering forest as it was when last week it reached London and the outside world.

My child, sleeping now in the dark and gathering strength for the struggle of birth, I wish you well.  At present you have no proper shape, and you do not breathe, and you are blind.  Yet, when your time comes, your time and the time of your mother, whom I deeply love, there will be something in you that will give you power to fight for air and light.  Such is your heritage, such is your destiny as a child born of woman - to fight for light and hold on without knowing why.

May the flame that tempers the bright steel of your youth never die, but burn always;  so that when your work is done and your long day ended, you may still be like a watchman's fire at the end of a lonely road - loved and cherished for your gracious glow by all good wayfarers who need light in their darkness and warmth for their comfort.

The spirit of wonder and adventure, the token of immortality, will be given to you as a child.  May you keep it forever, with that in your heart which always seeks the gold beyond the rainbow, the pasture beyond the desert, the dawn beyond the sea, the light beyond the dark.

May you seek always and strive always in good faith and high courage, in this world where men grow so tired.

Keep your capacity for faith and belief, but let your judgment watch what you believe.

Keep your power to receive everything;  only learn to select what your instinct tells you is right.

Keep your love of life, but throw away your fear of death.  Life must be loved or it is lost;  but it should never be loved too well.

Keep your delight in friendship;  only learn to know your friends.

Keep your intolerance - only save it for what your heart tells you is bad.

Keep your wonder at great and noble things like sunlight and thunder, the rain and the stars, the wind and the sea, the growth of trees and the return of harvests, and the greatness of heroes.

Keep your heart hungry for new knowledge;  keep your hatred of a lie;  and keep your power of indignation.

Now I know I must die, and you must be born to stand upon the rubbish heap of my errors.  Forgive me for this.  I am ashamed to leave you an untidy, uncomfortable world.  But so it must be.

In thought, as a last benediction, I kiss your forehead.  Good night to you - and good morning and a clear dawn.

Previous issues of Lucifer7 can be found at the online index of Lucifer7

If you appreciate the content of this newsletter, please consider donating to Katinka Hesselink

Lucifer7, April 2008

Contents

New on Katinka Hesselink Net

• Theosophical Abbreviations - what do they mean? Katinka Hesselink
• The boy and the king, a butter and milk story - Hinduism
• Early history of the Theosophical Seal - new information added
• A miserable man with a sack of stuff: sufi story
• Rudolf Steiner Quotes
• On Intuition, H.P. Blavatsky

New theosophical weblog: http://theosophist.wordpress.com/

A weblog by a few young theosophists (well, in our thirties and forties so far). I've contributed a few posts and so have Chris Richardson and Pablo Sender. So far I've shared some of my ideas on religion, spirituality and theosophy that are not yet christalized enough for full blown articles on my own website. I will try to keep up links to my posts on this blog on my page with all my spiritual articles. 

See also these two weblogs on myspace: Blavatsky blog, Theosophical Society weblog

Found online

• Mind Over Genes: The New Biology, Bruce Lipton (thanks Jim Rodak)
• Petition for peace in Tibet and support for the Dalai Lama 
  Theosophical contacts in Tibet report that violence there does go both ways: Chinese people get attacked by Tibetans and Tibetans get attacked by the Chinese government. At the same time some people do have friendly relations across the 'racial' divide. The longer violence continues, the harder that will become, obviously.

Short Quotes

H.P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine I, p. 56

"No man is conscious of more than that portion of his knowledge that happens to have been recalled to his mind at any particular time, yet such is the poverty of language that we have no term to distinguish the knowledge not actively thought of, from knowledge we are unable to recall to memory. To forget is synonymous with not to remember." 

Shvetashvatara Upanishad From The Upanishads, translated by Eknath Easwaran, 1987. Reprinted from Nilgiri Press.

He is the eternal Reality, sing the scriptures,
And the ground of existence.
Those who perceive him in every creature
Merge in him and are released from the wheel
Of birth and death.

Buddha, Dhammapada, Translation Juan Mascaro

327:  "Find joy in watchfulness; guard well your mind. Uplift yourself from your lower self, even as an elephant draws himself out of a muddy swamp."

Mary Beljan

Life is unpredictable. Karma is just one of the ways chaos is organized.

Karma Now and Karma Then 

J.J. Protogonos, number 24, March 1996

In the big view of things it is impossible to wrong anyone. The negative act and later positive "reward" or justice for the victim is really all one action. The later justice is inherent in being victimized. Cause and effect is "one thing" or one event in space-time, so to speak. While three dimensions has time being passed through in an infinite concantination of cause in effect. If one were to see things in four dimensions, or in which all time is in a stasis, or eternity, or in which time is an already complete dimension of space - then a cause and effect "unit" might be seen as an existence or thing in itself.

Mr. X banging Mr. Y over the head in 1996 C.E. exists as a single unit with both reincarnating in 3150 C.E., getting into an aero-car accident, with Mr. X going, to the hospital and Mr. Y from insurance getting a new aero-car to replace his junker.

So in the big picture it is impossible to wrong anyone, which isn't an excuse to do bad things because of course the wrong-doer still pays the karma. In the short term, using machiavellian methods often pays off because karma is usually a slow mover. This makes it hard to maintain the high ground because in the short run ethical behavior is more often than not a loser to the unethical. The individual or personality who is wronged may never in this incarnation and personality see justice, because karma is so slow moving. So the individual who strives to maintain the ethical high ground is almost sure to be a martyr just based on the karma from one lifetime. So when someone finds himself wronged - from one side of the question, it is a cause for joy, because something good also just happened to him in the eventuality of time. You can't fool Mother Nature.

Karma as a Cure for Trouble (quote from this article)

By the Late Rev. Alex. Fullerton, Wilkesbarre, Pa.

Canadian Theosophist, Volume 26, #11 (1946)

"Yet how can this be?" it is honestly asked. "Do poverty or riches, feebleness or power, obscurity or rank, indicate the merit or demerit I have gained?" "Not at all," answers Theosophy; but your degree of happiness does. Happiness does not depend on wealth or station; sorrow does not heedfully follow small means or small influence. Joy and sadness are conditions of the mind, influenced, no doubt, by bodily surroundings, but not determined by them. The rich are not always happy, hence not the standards of past good;  the poor are not always wretched, hence not the standards of past wrong-doing. It is the state of the mind, not the state of the purse, which shows what Karma implies in any case."

If any man once clearly sees that his present condition is but the result of his conduct in prior lives; that it means and expresses, not merely what he has done, but what he is; that it is not an accident or a freak or a miscarriage, but a necessary effect through invariable law, he has taken the greatest step towards contentment, harmony, and a better future. For note what clouds this conception clears away, and what impulses towards improvement it at once begets. The sense of injustice disappears. He may not, cannot, know the past careers of which he feels the now effects, but he knows what their quality must have been from the quality of those effects. He reaps as he has sown. It may be sad or pitiable or distracting, but at least it is just. Envy disappears also. Why should he envy the greater happiness of those who, after all, have a right to it, and which might have been his too if he had earned it? Bitterness is assuaged. There is no room for such when it is seen that the causes for it do not exist, and that the only person meriting condemnation is oneself. Best of all, there dies out resentment at Divine favoritism, that peculiarly galling belief that the Supreme Being is willful or capricious, dealing out joys and sorrows for mere whim, petting one child and chastising another without regard to moral worth or life's deserts.  In such a being confidence is impossible, and the only theory which can restore it is the theory of Karmic Law, a law which is no respecter of persons, regards each man precisely as any other man, notes the very smallest acts in its complete account book, enters their value in the precisest terms, and when the time of settlement arrives - be it in the same incarnation or in one far off on the great chain - pays it with scrupulous fidelity. Centering thus responsibility for each man's lot in himself alone, Karma acquits Providence, calms resentment, abates discontent, and vindicates justice.

But it does even more than this;  it stimulates endeavor. If we are now what we have made ourselves, we shall be what we make ourselves. The mold of the future is in our hands today. The quality of later incarnations does not arise from chance, or from a Superior Will, but is simply such as we impart to them through our present. Responsibility, power, are ours alone. It is just as certain that rebirth will be upon the lines we trace in this life, as that the later part of this life will be upon the lines traced in the former part.  Rebirth is, in fact, an expression of character, and character expresses what we are and do.  He, then, who desires a better reincarnation must better his present incarnation.  Let him perceive the faults which mar his life - the sloth, the repining, the rashness, the thoughtlessness, the covetous spirit, the evil of hatred or uncharity - and let him master them. Above other faults, and embracing all, is that of selfishness, the sad love of personal desire as against the rights, the privileges, the happiness of brother men, a love which inflames every lower element in the human constitution, and kills all higher and richer sentiment. He who would prepare for himself a happier rebirth, may begin by making happier the lives of others. He may respect their rights, consult their feelings, extend their pleasures, generously sacrificing himself that they may profit.  As he so does, his own higher nature is manifested, and finer satisfaction greet him with an unalloyed delight. By a blessed law of being, he who thus loses his life shall save it; for he not only tastes richer pleasure than any possible through selfish effort, but he molds his character in the grace and beauty of true manliness, and he molds, too, that new incarnation which is to fit the nature formed in this.

Certainly a principle which quickens the highest motives in human nature may well be the regenerator of human life. He who sees his present as the product of his past self, who foresees that his future will be the product of his present, who finds in Karma the unfailing treasury for every effort and every toil, who desires that rebirth shall have less of pain and more of gladness than he knows of here, will seek in generous service to fellowmen the highest happiness of his highest faculties, and trust for brighter incarnation to that law which cannot break, that force which cannot fail.

Heat and Cold

-- Tom Brown Jr, from Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking (online source)

I once asked Stalking Wolf, "Grandfather, how come you're not cold in the winter or hot in the summer?"

He said, "I am, but heat and cold do not bother me."

I asked why not, and after a long pause in which he seemed to be weighing whether or not I was ready for his answer, he said, 

"Because they're real."

Previous issues of Lucifer7 can be found at the online index of Lucifer7

If you appreciate the content of this newsletter, please consider donating to Katinka Hesselink

Lucifer7, March 2008

Contents

New on Katinka Hesselink Net

• The Flower Sermon (Zen Buddhist)
• Pablo Sender
• Krishnamurti’s Teachings and Theosophy
• Theosophical Leaders who inspire me
• What is Theosophy?
• Annie Besant as an Early Theosophical Leader
• Colonel Olcott, an ever inspiring example
• Theosophy and Gnosticism
• Important footnote on authorship added to: The Judge Case - A Conspiracy Which Ruined the Theosophical Cause

New on Squidoo

• We DO have a soul - a debate run by spirituality (that is: yours truly): please feel free to agree or disagree in this debate. That's what it's a debate for. 

Short Quotes

Buddha, Dhammapada, Translation Juan Mascaro

N. Sri Ram, Thoughts For Aspirants, Second Series

Richard Tangye

Talbot Mundy, Queen Cleopatra

"What superiority may we attain to without stirring enmity in others? Has it not been written on the face of nature? Wisdom counsels us to seem inferior, in secret gathering our spiritual strength, since enmity is aimed at virtue, seeking to reduce us to a common level with the human herd; whereas we should rise to an equal level with the gods."

Paul Brunton, The Secret Path, Chapter VIII

Once we push the gate of the mind slightly ajar and let the light stream in, the meaning of life becomes silently revealed to us.

What About Jesus?

Canadian Theosophist, Volume 26, #6 (1945)

This is a question frequently put by those who have been approached by Theosophical propagandists.  The man on the street, who rarely goes to church save on some high festival, often has more latent loyalty to the Nazarene than the professing church-goer. He senses something wrong with church teaching, he does not know what, and he is no student or scholar with ability to put things right. But reverence for Jesus comes natural to him, and he feels he can trust Jesus whatever the preachers may say, or threaten him with.

Whenever he opens his New Testament the first thing he reads is: "His name shall be called Immanuel," which, the church says, means God is with us, when it obviously means God is in us. There is the first difference between church doctrine and the teaching of Jesus . . . Jesus taught that the kingdom of Ouranos (the Greek word) is within you. The church translates Ouranos as Heaven and places it up in the sky or off somewhere in space. Somewhere, at any rate, not accessible by ordinary earthly means of communication. That jars the man on the street, for he dislikes second-hand methods of doing business. The preacher tells him to pray for what he wants and his prayer will be answered. This does not stand experiment. The unanswered prayers are so far ahead of the answered ones that an answered prayer is always given publicity in the newspapers, like a testimonial for Soap.

Moreover, the man in the street believes in fair play, and agrees that if he is to pray it ought to be as Jesus stipulates. So he turns to The Lord's Prayer, and finds that there are only two things to be prayed for that have to do with earthly life, and on inquiry he learns from a friend that daily bread is a mistranslation and that the petition is for "the bread of the Coming Day," or as some preachers would say, "for the heavenly manna." As for daily bread and butter, he remembers that Jesus said that "your heavenly father knoweth that ye have need of these things" and it is needless to remind him. Never-the-less, the man on the street has often heard the preachers reminding God of his duties and giving him explicit instructions how he should act under the most complicated circumstances. The congregation always feels that with such a preacher God is in safe hands. The man in the street notes, however, that Jesus never attempts to advise God, but says, "NOT my will but thine be done, O Lord." The man in the street sees that Jesus is a positive and not a negative character, and must busy himself trying to find out what the will of God is, and concludes that Jesus expects him to do the same. That is what prayer is meant to do and why it should be done in secret, and not on the street corners like the Pharisees.

Another thing about Jesus that pleases the man in the street is that Jesus is no accuser. He leaves that to the Adversary. Decent men do not need to be accused. They will readily acknowledge their faults and make good any damage they may have done. Jesus only found fault with one class of men - the Hypocrites. Woe unto them, he said. They deceive themselves more than others, and the truth is not in them. To be lacking in truth, so that one cannot trust one's own judgment, is to be in a sorry case. Jesus was all truth, and the man in the street, in his weakness, swears by him.

The other thing in the Lord's Prayer, which was a request of a personal kind was "Deliver us from evil."  He found on inquiry, that there were two Greek words used for evil or sin. One meant failure or missing the mark and implies that a man has at least been trying. No blame attaches to the man who honestly tries.  The other word is the one used in the Lord's prayer - Deliver us from uselessness or worthlessness. That is a prayer indeed and few honest men fail to have it in mind at all times. The man in the street likes fair play and has no objection to the other petition with a condition bound to it - Forgive us our transgressions as we forgive those who transgress against us. This is a prayer for war times and for all who engage in war, there is no other way to wipe the slate clean. A fair bargain, thinks the man in the street.

All the rest is easy if we can fulfill these few rules. We need to do so before we can hear the Hallowed Name, or expect the Kingdom to come or the Will of the Father to govern the earth.  The man in the street had yet one more problem about God and Jesus who had said that "I and my Father are one." That must mean one in mind and heart, for it was not in things one could see that such unity could be possible.  Then he read what Paul had written to the Corinthians: "Know ye not that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you be reprobate?"  That settled it. He read again: "Let that mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus." It was all a matter of mind and heart. They being right, the body would obey.  So it is all in man himself, whether he enshrines the Divine man in himself or not.  God is love.  Love is not outside us but in our hearts. God is light.  Light is not outside us for Light is Wisdom and Knowledge and enlightens the mind within us. God is spirit, and spirit is Breath and Life and is our very Being within us. None of the high and glorious things of life are outside us. God is in us. That is the precious secret that priests and soothsayers have tried to hide from us for centuries. So it may be that the man in the street, a toil-worn pilgrim like Jesus himself, may become perfect even as the Father in the inner kingdom is perfect. For his is the power and the glory.

Out of the way, you miserable wretch!

A dervish was sitting by the roadside when a haughty courtier with his retinue, riding past in the opposite direction, struck him with a cane, shouting:  ‘Out of the way, you miserable wretch!’

When they had swept past, the dervish rose and called after them:  ‘May you attain all that you desire in the world, even up to its highest ranks!’

A bystander, much impressed by this scene, approached the devout man and said to him:   ‘Please tell me whether your words were motivated by generosity of spirit, or because the desires of the world will undoubtedly corrupt that man even more?’

Found online

Previous issues of Lucifer7 can be found at the online index of Lucifer7

If you appreciate the content of this newsletter, please consider donating to Katinka Hesselink 

Lucifer7, February 2008

Contents

New on Katinka Hesselink Net

• Harry Potter and Maximizing Cyclic Opportunities, By William W. Quinn
• The Secret Doctrine as Spiritual Practice, by Pablo D. Sender

Short Quotes

R. Rose, The Albigen Papers

...the Law of the Ladder. The ladder is here used as a symbol to show that there should be a selective giving of goods, energy, or spiritual help. The Law of the Ladder simply says that you should not reach below the rung upon which you stand, except to the first rung below you - in order to help people. If you reach down too low, your efforts will be wasted, and you may be hurt. Or crucified.

Free after H.P. Blavatsky, Letters, Volume 1, p. 102

Paul Brunton, The Inner Reality, Chapter IX

Dutch proverb found online

A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.

[If someone can tell me which Dutch proverb this is a translation of, I would be very grateful. I sure don't recognize it.]

Early Morning Thoughts II

R. L. A., Protogonos, March 1997

A battle has begun for some. It lies not on some distant shore, but within. The weapons are not of metal, but of emotions, desires and greed.

The Foe is not of man, but his ego supported by illusion. It is raging day and night, day after day. The Warrior travels not out, but within. 'Constantly bombarded by inprints planted throughout his lifetime in the form of samskaras, blinding the Warrior from his SELF, from that which we all are.

But fear not noble Warrior, your plight is not a lonely one. Your allies lie just beyond the veil of deception. There you will find your Strength, your Love and your Light.

Every moment Maya, like a seductive woman, temps you with her fruits. But have caution for her fruits are like chains that bind you from the SELF. Taste not this fruit noble warrior, for thou will fall victim to her illusions.

She bares beauty, passion, and she feeds the ego. She builds a fortress around the mind, holding you back from your True Self. But caution noble warrior, have not pride in your Quest, for this too is your foe.

Humility is your sword, kindness your shield, and discipline your strength. These are all the weapons you will need.

Meditation and passivity

Buddhist Meditation, Samdhong Rinpoche, p. 57

It is dangerous to put the mind into a state of dullness. Some people think that if they immerse themselves in an object and slide into a sort of doze, that is meditation, and because their mind is no longer scattered they think that they have stabilized it. But one does not stabilize one's mind by letting it get absorbed in this manner; on the contrary, it is the wrong approach to meditation because clarity and attentiveness of mind are lost in this practice. Sometimes, by sinking into this sort of drowsiness, after a period, people may achieve a kind of peacefulness or a pleasurable feeling of physical and mental well-being and relaxation. And if this state is maintained for a longer period, the breathing may even stop for some time and they may even think that they have reached the state of samadhi, but that is not so. If people are in such a doze that the attentiveness, alertness, active participation and clarity of mind are lost, concentration has no meaning or value. Moreover, the positive qualities of mind will be lost and it will become forgetful, inactive and lazy. We must, therefore, take every precaution, right from the beginning [of meditation-practice], that concentration on the object is accompanied by attentiveness, alertness, clarity, and the active force of a participating mind. When it is left unguarded, the mind behaves like a monkey. It never rests on one point, but constantly moves hither and thither. When the mind is steadied by concentration on one object this activity begins to subside. It is important that the energy of the mind should be channeled and directed to one object. During the process of concentration the mind should not be lost or scattered but watched to see that it does not move in different directions.

"Without a Parable Spoke He Not Unto Them"

Mathew xiii. 34.

A.E.S.S., Canadian Theosophist, Volume 27, #11, 1947

Preachers have fallen into the habit of treating the Parables of Jesus as literal historic narratives, those timed in the future being interpreted as prophetic descriptions of what will actually occur. The cumulative effect is to build up a conception of unreality about life which is fatal to the impressive character of the lessons to be taught. Many will say this is all nonsense, that everybody knows they are parables, and cannot make any mistake. But usually this is just where a very serious mistake is made, for they are applied to the outside world objectively, and not recognized as Parables of the Kingdom which is within us and subjective. I have heard hundreds of sermons in the last eighty years and am still hearing them on the radio in which the appeal is entirely objective without any attempt to indicate the subjective nature of the field of consciousness in which all real religion has its foundation. Children are very rarely instructed on this matter, and I have vivid recollections of sermons on the Parable of the Last Judgment when, as a child, I was on one occasion, so impressed with the elaborate detail and expansion of the spectacle that as far as I was concerned our eternal destiny was settled then and there. I was quite resigned being a Goat as I did not like the people who believed themselves to be Sheep. It was years before I began to understand that such preaching was all illusion, fabulous, or as we say today, Maya. The whole thing is in minds, the Goat temperament, the Sheep character, with all the habits, vices and virtues, growing together, under the judgment of the Master in our hearts, impartially deciding, as our will determines, what the desires we have cherished will produce. The Prodigal Son is in each one of us, and both the Elder Brother and the Fatted Calf, as well as the loving Father whom we scarcely ever fully recognize.  We pray to our Father in Heaven, but he is nearer than the firmament. The man who had not on a wedding garment may be oneself in a business suit. The five foolish virgins are all within us, and the wise ones too, but we must elect which company we are going to keep if we expect to be at the marriage feast of the Son. The Priest and the Levite are going strong in us, especially when our help is needed, but the Good Samaritan is in us too, even if he be a bit slow sometimes in getting to the spot. These familiar stories are confined to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. St. John substitutes Miracles for the Parables and with the same intension of conveying spiritual truth in the only way that things spiritual can be given meaning in earthly terms;  pictorially, or by example, dynamically. St. Paul, ever practical, treats the Old Testament as allegory, and in this way it becomes a golden lexicon by which the hidden things of the Eternal may be translated into the language of time. 

Previous issues of Lucifer7 can be found at the online index of Lucifer7

If you appreciate the content of this newsletter, please consider donating to Katinka Hesselink 

Lucifer7, January 2008

Contents

New on Katinka Hesselink Net

• John Algeo
• Harry Potter's Quest in The Chamber of Secrets
• Harry Potter's Four Fathers, The Quest for the Father in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Ancient Wisdom
• Harry Potter and the Dugpa; Looking forward to 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'
• Annie Besant as Instructor and Educator
• Olcott and Blavatsky: Theosophical Twins, An Essay in Archetypes
• Harry Potter and the Perennial Quest, By Helene Vachet
• Patience Quotes
• What is White Lotusday?, Katinka Hesselink
• Rudolf Steiner on the Theosophical Society

In the November issue there was unfortunately a link that pointed to the wrong page. Here is the correct link: G. de Purucker on In times of crisis (about World War II)

Found Online

The Dalai Lama wants to put it to the vote: Do his people want him to reincarnate? I have a hard time not smiling because if his people say 'yes', he says he is considering appointing his reincarnation when he is still alive. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2955350.ece

Short Quotes

Talbot Mundy, Queen Cleopatra

"Now because there is a law of opposites it must appear that there are two ways of arriving at a given goal. The one is violent, the other not; and each way has a multitude of bypaths that may lead into inertia, but none of which connects the way of bloodshed with the way of peace. For they are separate, although their courses appear parallel; but that is only an appearance. One way leads toward the true goal, peace and patience begetting patience and peace, albeit often after many perils narrowly avoided. But he who travels by that other way sees nothing but a false goal that recedes as he advances, every act of violence inevitably giving impulse to another of its kind."

James Morgan Pryse, from The Canadian Theosophist, March 15th, 1926 

"The spiritual truths of the past are identically the spiritual truths of the present and the future.  Time cannot swallow that which is eternal."

Buddha, Dhammapada, Translation Juan Mascaro

141 Neither nakedness, nor entangled hair, nor uncleanliness, nor fasting, nor sleeping on the ground, nor covering the body with ashes, nor ever-squatting, can purify a man who is not pure from doubts and desires.
142 But although a man may wear fine clothing, if he lives peacefully; and is good, self-possessed, has faith and is pure; and if he does not hurt any living being, he is a holy Brahmin, a hermit of seclusion, a monk called Bhikkhu.

Paul Brunton, The Inner Reality, Chapter VI

Heaven can be entered after death only if we have already entered it while alive. This is the value of life in the flesh; there is no other worthwhile value that I know.

Editorial

Friends and foes! Criticism is the sole salvation for intellectual salvation. It is the beneficent goad which stimulates to life and action-hence to healthy changes-the heavy ruminants called Routine and Prejudice. In private as in social life, adverse opinions are like conflicting winds which brush from the quiet surface of a lake the green scum that tends to settle upon still waters.
 
H.P. Blavatsky, Literary Jottings, CW XIII page 243.

In this year when the USA will perhaps vote a woman or a black man to be its president (I do so hope for a Democratic president) - I wish you all a happy and healthy 2008!

Katinka Hesselink

The Secret Doctrine

Alex Wayman, Canadian Theosophist, Volume 27, #8 (1946)

"On close observation, you will find that it was never the intention of the Occultists really to conceal what they had been writing from the earnest determined students, but rather to lock up their information for safety-sake, in a secure safe-box, the key to which is - intuition.  The degree of diligence and zeal with which the hidden meaning is sought by the student, is generally the test - how far he is entitled to the possession of the so buried treasure." (Mahatma Letters)

"Indeed it must be remembered that all these Stanzas appeal to the inner faculties rather than to the ordinary comprehension of the physical brain."  (Proem to The Secret Doctrine)

So it is apparent that The Secret Doctrine is difficult, not because H.P.B. was individually obscure, but because it is not possible to present Theosophy in a language which "all who run may read."

St. Paul's Alleged False Metaphor

A.E.S.S., Canadian Theosophist, Vol. 27, #9 (1946)

St. Paul cannot too often be defended against the reproach cast upon him fifty years ago by Dr. Goldwin Smith, touching the argument about the seed sown in the ground that it must die before the new life can appear. The Church would rather let St. Paul suffer in literary reputation as the author of I Corinthians than sacrifice their dogma. St. Paul was too well versed in rhetoric to go before the clever scholars of Corinth with a false metaphor and he did not do so. Goldwin Smith did not bring his knowledge of Greek to bear upon the passage, but accepted the interpretation of the Church that the corpse, already dead, was the seed sown in the earth that would spring to life again. The Church has made a graveyard discourse of this chapter, which St. Paul could not possibly have intended as verse 50 makes evident. As a graveyard exhortation to those who blindly believe in the resurrection of the physical body, could a more bitter mockery be conceived than the closing verses: "O grave where is thy victory, O death where is thy sting?"

What a difference when the chapter is read as St. Paul intended it to be: a paean of jubilant life and birth, of life more abundantly, of birth and rebirth on the physical earth, of birth in the psychic world, of birth in the noetic or spiritual world. All this is concealed from the English-speaking reader by mistranslation of important words and the apparent transposition of one or two verses.  One Greek word in particular appears to have gained the enmity of the theologians. It is the word psuche, or psyche in English, the butterfly, applied by the Greeks to the human soul, which flits and flutters from flower to flower of the desires of life, so that a man changes from hour to hour, from day to day and from year to year, so that he is never the same at one period of life that he was at another. Jesus and Paul both use the word to represent the human soul or personality, but the translators do their utmost to conceal or camouflage this fact, because "saving the soul" is the great mission of the evangelical preacher, though Jesus taught that he who would seek to save his soul would lose it, the changeable personality having to be abandoned so that the stable spiritual Self, the ever present Christ principle, available to every man, may become the basic reality of his existence.  The translators make Jesus say that "he who would seek to save his life shall lose it," which is nonsense. (See Luke ix. 24, and kindred passages for the substitution of life for soul.)  A similar deception as found in the writings of St. Paul. Verse 44 of this 15 chapter of I Corinthians may be studied as the basis of Goldwin Smith's charge of false metaphor. The Authorized Version reads:  "It is sown a natural body;  it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."  The word "Natural" should be "psychic," and is so rendered in the margin of the Revised Versions of 1881-1886. "Natural" conveys to people generally the meaning of common or ordinary, so that the corpse is understood to be meant as what is "sown" in the burial of a dead body. This is an entire misconception of Paul's teaching. Burial in a grave of a dead body was not in his mind at all. What he speaks of is the psychic body, sown at birth in a physical body, to be raised in its reincarnation or resurrection, the conditions mentioned duly applying to the psychic body which the experiences of the disciple must change it into a more glorious spiritual body or if he fails try again in another incarnation. These conditions obviously do not apply to a body of flesh and blood as verse 50 makes plain. It, that is, the psychic body, is sown in corruption: it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor (how can this apply to the mortal bodies of our beloved ones?): it is raised in glory:  it is sown in weakness: it is raised in power: it is sown a psychic body: it is raised a spiritual body. There is a psychic body and there is a spiritual body. It depends wholly on the disciple himself of what kind of flesh his next body shall consist of if he reincarnates, whether he shall have a terrestrial or a celestial body; whether he shall share the glory of the sun or that of the moon or a star. If he is able to transcend the psychic world he will become a quickening spirit, for the "second man is the Lord from heaven."

It is clear enough from all this that Paul used no false metaphor. The psychic seed, which is the personality must die, as Jesus taught: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whosoever will save his soul (psuche, personality) will lose it; but whosoever will lose his soul for my sake, the same shall save it." (Luke ix. 23, 24).

"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace . . . till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God; unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (Ephesians iv. 1, 2, 3, 13).

Previous issues of Lucifer7 can be found at the online index of Lucifer7

If you appreciate the content of this newsletter, please consider donating to Katinka Hesselink 

Lucifer7, December 2007

Contents

New on Katinka Hesselink Net

• Advice from me to myself, Patrul Rinpoche
• On vegetarianism and abstaining from alcohol (reminder for the holidays), H.P. Blavatsky
• Jiddu Krishnamurti quotes and lectures
• Aloneness Beyond Loneliness - from "Commentaries on Living, 3rd series"
• Attention - quotes from the flame of attention
• How to study the work of Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Contradiction
• Education and the significance of Life - Quotes
• What is Love - Krishnamurti in India
• Relationships and Love - a Krishnamurti lecture and Q&A
• Quotes from Lectures by J. Krishnamurti
• Krishnamurti on Love, Relationships and marriage

Online

• How rich are you? Compare yourself to the richest and poorest people on the planet. Real good wakeup call: here I was worrying about money and yet the test puts me in the top 12%

Short Quotes

W.Q. Judge in The Vahan, August, 1891

Mercy and forgiveness should have the highest place in that branch of Theosophy which treats of ethics as applied to our conduct.  And were it not for the perfect mercifulness of Karma - which is merciful because it is just - we ought long ago to have been wiped out of existence.  The very fact that the oppressor, the unjust, the wicked, live out their lives is proof of mercy in the great heart of Nature.  They are thus given chance after chance to retrieve their errors and climb, if even on the ladder of pain, to the height of perfection.  It is true that Karma is just, because it exacts payment to the last farthing, but on the other hand, it is eternally merciful, since it unerringly pays out its compensations.  Nor is the shielding from necessary pain true mercy, but is indeed the opposite, for sometimes it is only through pain that the soul acquires the precise knowledge and strength it requires.  In my view, mercy and justice go hand in hand when Karma issues its decrees, because that law is accurate, faithful, powerful, and not subject to the weakness, the failure in judgment, the ignorance that always accompany the workings of the ordinary human judgment and action.

Buddha, Dhammapada, Translation Juan Mascaro

61 - If on the great journey of life a man cannot find one who is better or at least as good as himself, let him joyfully travel alone: a fool cannot help him on his journey.

Paul Brunton, The Spiritual Crisis of Man, Chapter XII

No man may rightly say that he has had a full experience of life if he has not had any spiritual experience during life.

Practical Occultism 74.

Virtue and wisdom are sublime things, but if they create pride and a consciousness of separateness from the rest of humanity, they are only the snakes of self reappearing in a finer form.

Obituary - Ton den Hartog

As most of you know, Ton den Hartog was responsible for putting the Collected Writings of  HPB online.  Not having heard from him recently, I wrote a few days ago.  His parents responded with the saddening news than Ton passed beyond on 21 September.

Nicholas Weeks

California Fires burn theosophical archives

Ken Small reports on the website of Point Loma Publications, an independent theosophical publishing house, that their archives have suffered major losses in the recent fires in California - specifically San Diego. In response they are starting an effort to digitalize the remaining material. Please consider helping them. Here's the complete message on the Point Loma Publications Website:

I have very unfortunate news. The recent fire consumed virtually all of PLP's back inventory (95% of its published in print books)  and 85% of the library, etc. (Some books and all the archive of photos and art work are safe and some archive originals at another location.) Additionally a complete copy of the archive was made about 6 years ago, but much original material was lost. A complete overview of the loss will be accomplished during the next 1-2 weeks. The fire storm came through at 1000 degrees+ so everything burned from the inside out with near 100 mph winds according to the fire department Sunday night October 21. This fire burned around 80,000 acres during last week in San Diego County. A second fire burned almost 200,000 acres in the north part of the county.

Such is the impermanent nature of things, and though the wisdom lives on, there is the importance and necessity of safeguarding and maintaining for future generations the literature of the Theosophical Movement  in an accessible way as well. To that end we are initiating with the cooperation of Theosophical friends and groups in the US and Europe a project to digitally scan the entire Point Loma Theosophical literary heritage. Those interested in more information about this or contributing to its support may contact us at info@.... Direct financial contributions may be made via paypal (CLICK HERE). (Donations are tax deductible.) As this project develops we will also be re-building the library and collaborating with others in establishing  long term centers in different location(s) for Theosophical study, research and practice. 

Maya or Illusion

H.P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine I, p. 39, 40

Maya or illusion is an element which enters into all finite things, for everything that exists has only a relative, not an absolute, reality, since the appearance which the hidden noumenon assumes for any observer depends upon his power of cognition.  To the untrained eye of the savage, a painting is at first an unmeaning confusion of streaks and daubs of colour, while an educated eye sees instantly a face or a landscape.  Nothing is permanent except the one hidden absolute existence which contains in itself the noumena of all realities.  The existences belonging to every plane of being, up to the highest Dhyan-Chohans, are, in degree, of the nature of shadows cast by a magic lantern on a colourless screen; but all things are relatively real, for the cogniser is also a reflection, and the things cognised are therefore as real to him as himself.  Whatever reality things possess must be looked for in them before or after they have passed like a flash through the material world; but we cannot cognise any such existence directly, so long as we have sense-instruments which bring only material existence into the field of our consciousness.  Whatever plane our consciousness may be acting in, both we and the things belonging to that plane are, for the time being, our only realities.  As we rise in the scale of development we perceive that during the stages through which we have passed we mistook shadows for realities, and the upward progress of the Ego is a series of progressive awakenings, each advance bringing with it the idea that now, at last, we have reached “reality;” but only when we shall have reached the absolute Consciousness, and blended our own with it, shall we be free from the delusions produced by Maya.

Progressive Revelation

George E. Creed, M.Sc., Canadian Theosophist, Volume 29, #5, 1948

Theologians proclaim that the whole Bible is the inspired word of God and an infallible guide for Christian conduct.

Such teachings become quite difficult to accept however, when one reads in the Old Testament such statements as God's command to Saul:  "Thus saith the Lord of hosts . . . now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass" ( I Samuel 15:3.)   And again, (in Jeremiah 13:14): "And I will dash them one against the other, even the fathers and the sons together, said the Lord;  I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them." - hardly the words of a benevolent God.

In an effort to find a way out of the dilemma and to explain away the obvious contradiction, the theory of "progressive revelation" has been put forth. That is to say, inquirers are told that the Bible is a record of man's gradually changing and developing ideas concerning the nature of God.

If that be the true explanation, it is equivalent to stating that large portions of the Bible were not divinely inspired at all but were written by ignorant, cruel and semi-barbarous humans who did not understand the truth.

If the theologians are correct in what they claim, large portions of the Old Testament ought to be scrapped as quickly as possible. Or, assuming the theory of progressive revelation to be correct, the teaching of the Bible ought to be accompanied by a clear explanation that large portions of it must on no account be considered as being the word of God but only as a collection of man's crude ideas concerning God.

It is significant to note that in spite of the theologians' claims concerning progressive revelation, the Bible continues to be taught in our Sunday Schools and churches as being divinely inspired from cover to cover. It is only when our religious leaders are forced into a corner, so to speak, that they resort to the theory of progressive revelation. Then, when the pressure is removed, almost invariably they spring back to their original contention that the whole Bible is the inspired word of God.

What would we think of a medical college where the students were required to study from a textbook, two-thirds of which advocated such medieval medical practices as burning holes in the patient with red hot irons to let out the evil spirits, administering portions of powdered skulls as a remedy for fever, and so on? Then, towards the end of the book the best and most modern methods of treatment would be described, but with nothing to indicate that all the teachings in the book were not equally valid. Then, when thoughtful students objected to swallowing it all blindly, the professor would explain: "Well, you see, it is progressive revelation."

Actually, the Bible was not dictated for us by God, neither is it the work of semi-barbarous men.  It is a collection of the teachings of men who lived in ancient times, men who attained to the most exalted wisdom in spiritual affairs and who have passed on their knowledge to us in the form of allegories, which serve as containers for sublime truth.

The error of the Christian church for the past sixteen centuries has been in mistaking these allegories for literal history and thus turning large portions of the Bible into fantastic nonsense.

When the true esoteric interpretation of the Bible is restored to its rightful place in our churches and Sunday Schools, there will be no need to resort to the theory of "progressive revelation" - that alibi for misunderstanding.

Previous issues of Lucifer7 can be found at the online index of Lucifer7

If you appreciate the content of this newsletter, please consider donating to Katinka Hesselink 

Lucifer7, November 2007

Content

New on Katinka Hesselink Net

• Gottfried de Purucker 
• The Buddhas of Compassion and the Pratyeka Buddhas
• Cremation or burial?
• In times of crisis (about World War II)
• More about healing
• Quotes on the Theosophical Movement
• J. Krishnamurti on Religion
• Theosophy and after Death States, Devachan and spiritualism; Blavatsky and Leadbeater by Barry Thompson
• Sentient Beings explained, Katinka Hesselink

Short Quotes

H.P. Blavatsky, Letter to the Second American Convention, 1888, C.W. IX, p. 243-44

Orthodoxy in Theosophy is a thing neither possible nor desirable. It is diversity of opinion, within certain limits, that keeps the Theosophical Society a living and a healthy body, its many other ugly features notwithstanding. Were it not, also, for the existence of a large amount of uncertainty in the minds of students of Theosophy, such healthy divergences would be impossible, and the Society would degenerate into a sect, in which a narrow and stereotyped creed would take the place of the living and breathing spirit of Truth and an ever growing Knowledge.

N. Sri Ram, Thoughts For Aspirants, Second Series

When the whole of one's outer nature becomes a manifestation of the inner, spiritual man, the truth as well as the beauty that was latent in him will shine out through every action, every movement of thought and feeling and every relationship in his life. 

Paul Brunton, The Secret Path, Chapter IV

The only way to understand the meaning of meditation is to practice it.

Leonardo da Vinci

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well-used brings happy death.

The Communion of the Saints

By the Editor of the Canadian Theosophist, Vol. 26, #4 (1945)

Church of England people who attend church regularly declare their belief constantly in the Communion of the Saints but if you ask them to explain what they mean by it they will probably refer you to their rector, or to the curate if you are not socially prominent. Any such reference is not likely to bring much light, if indeed you are not reproved for an exhibition of morbid curiosity.

The saints according to the New Testament are full members of the Church who have made some progress in acquiring the Christian virtues, and perhaps in developing some of the gifts or powers enumerated by St. Paul in I Corinthians xii. New Testament Christianity implies in those who profess it some degree of communion or relationship with what is technically known as the Holy Ghost, which is really the Christos consciousness, recognized by some as intuition, but more definitely available than what is known by this term, and actually and reliably useful to speakers and writers. Jesus warned his apostles not to worry about what they should say as the Holy Ghost would supply them with words. A Roman Catholic preacher recently said that the promptings of the Holy Ghost did not interfere with the free will of the person affected, who could use his judgment in selecting or rejecting what came to him. It thus depends upon the sensitiveness and the intelligence of the speaker or writer how he will interpret or present what he is given. To put it in another way the consciousness of the Holy Ghost is an extension of the ordinary consciousness to a higher or deeper level than that on which the ordinary mind functions.

It will be understood, then, that like all our consciousness, it is from within that we gain access to it.  Heaven is a most deceiving word for the ordinary man, for he thinks of it as a place or sphere away off in space somewhere, while it is always with him, within. Jesus is reported to have said that the Kingdom of heaven is within you.  "Inside you," is the meaning of the Greek word entos. St. Paul says - "Jesus Christ is in you." (II Cor. xiii. 5).  For the mysteries of life and their solution we must look within.

The Church has constantly drilled its members from childhood onwards to think of "Heaven", as up in the sky away off in space somewhere instead of in their own hearts and consciousness. Hence the difficulty of understanding as St. John tells us that God is Love, God is Light, God is Spirit, that is, Life or Breath.  If these principles are within us they may be identified and become familiar.  We know what Love is, but how often do we think of it as God?  We know what Life is, but do we make a rule of thinking that we share it with God? So also with Light, which is intelligence or knowledge or recognition in its various forms.

When we lose our friends in what we call death we should not associate them with their dead bodies or the graveyard. "He is not here; he is risen," is a lucid instruction. If instead of meditating among the tombs, like so many, we resolved before we slept each night, to prepare ourselves for communion with the saints, our dear ones, our "lost" ones, our spiritual pastors and Masters, how joyfully we would arise every morning with hearts full of blessing, with minds enriched and solaced and strengthened with the thoughts, even the words, and with that strange and happy awareness, not of the "coming", but of the "presence" of the blessed Ones of the Kingdom.

Change your course!

This is the transcript of an actual radio conversation of a US naval ship with Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995.

Radio conversation released by the Chief of Naval Operations on November 10, 1995.

Americans: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.

Canadians: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.

Canadians: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course.

Americans: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES' ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS, AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH, THAT'S ONE FIVE DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER-MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.

Canadians: This is a lighthouse. Your call.

Previous issues of Lucifer7 can be found at the online index of Lucifer7

If you appreciate the content of this newsletter, please consider donating to Katinka Hesselink 

Lucifer7, October 2007

Contents

New on Katinka Hesselink Net

• New central page for Theosophy on Katinka Hesselink Net
• Responsibility quotes
• The practice of Tonglen, Pema Chodron
• Olcott Bibliography, Katinka Hesselink
• True Confessions of an internet junky (true), Katinka Hesselink
• Blavatsky on numbers and numerology
• Canadian Theosophist - online archive
• Dawn - online archive
• Interview with Michael Gomes, Michael Gomes: Bibliography of Publications

Burma: online petition

 News in Australia, Canada, UK and many other countries, have in the first page the comments of Stallone:

“Sylvester Stallone has revealed he and the film crew from his Rambo sequel witnessed atrocities while filming along the Burmese border.

"I witnessed the aftermath - survivors with legs cut off and all kinds of land mine injuries, maggot-infested wounds and ears cut off. We saw many elephants with blown off legs. We hear about Vietnam and Cambodia and this was more horrific," Stallone said in a telephone interview.

He returned eight days ago from shooting John Rambo, the fourth film in the action series, on the Salween River separating Thailand and Burma. He said it was "a hellhole beyond your wildest dreams".

The scenes he described occurred before the crackdown against large pro-democracy protests when soldiers responded by opening fire with automatic weapons on unarmed demonstrators.

For decades, Burma's army has waged a war against ethnic groups in which soldiers have razed villages, raped women and killed civilians.

http://entertainment.aol.co.uk/stallone-tells-of-burma-atrocities/article/20071001160209990013

 "Stallone's next challenge is trying to get an "R" rating from the MPAA.
"This is full scale genocide. I want an 'R' and I want the violence in there because it is reality. It would be a whitewashing not to show what's over there,'' he told Associated Press."I think there is a story that needs to be told," Stallone said."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22517232-2,00.html

Meanwhile in Yahoo news we find the follow:

 "Soldiers responded last week by shooting at unarmed demonstrators. The government says 10 people were killed, but dissident groups say anywhere from several dozen to as many as 200 died in the crackdown. Dissident groups say up to 200 protesters were slain and 6,000 detained in the junta's crackdown, compared to the regime's report of 10 deaths..."

The Top news in the first page of yahoo is about the Giant Snakes a reporter saw, in a Chinese lake... no comments....

http://www.yahoo.com/

The UN expected Gambari, to solve diplomatically the problem. That is ridiculous and obvious Gambari, who waited days and days to be received by the government in Burma, would not have any possibility to have a positive result.

The petition, An appeal to the UN Security Council to protect the people of Burma, Has until now only 27 thousand signatures.
http://www.petitiononline.com/9848/petition.html

The second petition asking: UN must act, Call for action on Myanmar Military Government ,Now !!!! Has only 7 thousand signatures.

http://www.petitiononline.com/kha8954b/petition.html

While other petition as for sample: Remove JewWatch.com from the Google Search Engine! Got in no time 377981 Total Signatures.

http://www.petitiononline.com/rjw23/petition.html

And the petition: Christians Say, "Enough Is Enough!" has 70437 Total Signatures.

http://www.petitiononline.com/miram/petition.html

Is this an inversion of values or what? Of course any group must fight for their rights, and any religion to defend their principles. But what shocks me most, is the great indifference for what is happening in Burma.   Such indifference from part of the authorities is barbarian.  The worker of a hospital in Burma called the owner of a web site in tears, saying that they were removing injured monks from the hospital, and incinerating them still alive!!!!!".

The United Nations have the following agreement:

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the U.N. General Assembly on 9 December 1948.
Entry into force: 12 January 1951.

 Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.

Article IV: Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.

Article V: The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention, and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III.

Article VI: Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.

http://www.preventgenocide.org/law/convention/text.htm

Unfortunately the UN can be considered the major responsible, for the continuing state of terror and chaos that exist in Burma. Is Burma eventually going to have the same end Tibet did? For as it seems China supports the dictator leader of Burma. Consequently its  obvious that no military interference will happen from the UN in Burma, is obvious that the monks and the people will continually be living in a state of terror, its obvious that many more will die, their bodies left in the middle of the jungle or incinerated, that many more will be beaten to death, tortured, etc. Burma is not USA or Israel so why the authorities would take any immediate action?

The point is we as persons, who are deeply shocked with what is happening there, what can we do? To raise our voice, sign the petitions, denounce the indifference and criticize it, just do not remain silent in front of such crime.

Erica Letzerich Georgiadis (reprinted from a private e-mail with permission)

Short Quotes

Talbot Mundy, Queen Cleopatra

Paul Brunton, The Secret Path, Chapter IV

N. Sri Ram, Thoughts For Aspirants, Second Series

"The Things That Are Unseen", Canadian Theosophist, vol 27, #7 (1946)

St. Paul has written one of the very great texts of the Bible in the words: "The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are unseen are eternal." This is true for religion, but also for philosophy, and for science as well.

The kingdom of heaven is within you, invisible, uncreate. No man can reveal his heaven to his brother; it is an apocalyptic vision for his self alone. Know ye not, says St. Paul again, that Jesus Christ is in you?  Closer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet, is the assurance of Tennyson who had the vision splendid if any man ever had.

The Ideal and the Actual

Iverson L. Harris, Theosophical Forum, October, 1937

The most vital teachings of religion, philosophy, and science, are those which throw light on human relationships - family, community, nation and humanity; in other words, on life as it is on earth, here and now, in all its phases, physical, mental, and spiritual. There is a perpetual ebb and flow between emphasis on the ideal and emphasis on the actual - represented in ancient China by Lao-Tse and Confucius, in Greece by Plato and Aristotle, at the dawn of Christianity by Christ and Ceasar, and in the Nineteenth Century possibly by Blavatsky and Darwin.

When the ideal is divorced from the actual, it becomes at best quixotic or sentimental, and at worst fantastic, superstitious, or fanatic. It is then rightly branded as 'the opiate of the people'; for, instead of giving men the spiritual elixir of an awakened mind, which brings 'the peace that passeth all understanding', it puts them to sleep with the soporifics of blind faith, emotionalism, or credulity. On the other hand, when the actual turns its back on the ideal it degenerates into sordid selfishness - a poisonous bootleg that drives men mad.

The woods are full of both kinds of addicts at the present time - on the one hand, people drugged with the opiates of dogmatism or fantastic pseudo-mysticism, and on the other hand, people mad with the moonshine of unilluminated theories and half-truths about economics and politics. It is part of the mission of Theosophy to teach men to follow 'The Middle Way'  pointed out by the Buddha and the Christ - 'to render unto Caesar those things which are Caesar's and to render unto God those things which are God's.'

All men may be divided or they daily and hourly divide themselves into two classes: those who think and those who merely react. Few of us are wise enough always to enroll with the thinkers; few are so far divorced from the human thinking principle innate in all of us that we never do any thinking for ourselves at all. But those who keep always in touch with actuality and yet ever use their divine power of thought and reason in striving towards the ideal, are the salt of the earth. They are on their way to becoming the Philosopher-Kings of who Plato wrote in his Republic.

Those who merely react to the impact of their environment and the stimuli of their personal desires and animal propensities are they who will always have to be regimented; and it is they who make necessary the endless series of laws and rules and regulations which so afflict our modern world. The mass of mankind will always be forcing upon themselves additional restrictions of their liberties, in order to prevent them from injuring their neighbors. But the wise man is truly free, because his desires are few and the world that he lives in is limited only by the scope of his own thoughts. The greatest minds of all ages are his confreres and his home is the Universe. In the words of Vergil:

Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,
Quique metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum,
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari -

"Happy the man who has learned the causes of things, and has put under his feet all fears, and inexorable fate, and the noisy strife of the hell of greed."

King James bible. The Second General Epistle of Peter; Chapter 1

A mental problem...

It doesn't hurt to take a hard look at yourself from time to time, and this should help get you started. During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director what the criterion was which defined whether or not a patient should be institutionalized.

"Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub."

"Oh, I understand," said the visitor. " A normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup."

"No." said the Director, "A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?"

Previous issues of Lucifer7 can be found at the online index of Lucifer7

If you appreciate the content of this newsletter, please consider donating to Katinka Hesselink 

Lucifer7, September 2007

Contents

New on Katinka Hesselink Net

• My article on Blavatsky and Nazism has been updated, check it out.
• Transforming desire, channeling Kuan Yin, Hope Bradford
• The various forms of Buddhism as relating to each other according to Tibetan Buddhism, Lama Ole Nydahl
• Myspace as a spiritual resource, Katinka Hesselink
• Responsibility quotes
• Henry David Thoreau Quotes
• Tao Te Ching quotes, Lao Tse

Coming Up

• Exclusive interview with Michael Gomes: things you always wanted to know and even a scoop. For those who don't know Michael Gomes: he's the most knowledgeable theosophical historian inside the Theosophical Society and an inspiring theosophical teacher. The interview was taken during the English Theosophical Summer School at Oadby. I expect to have it online before the next issue of Lucifer7.
• I've been working on putting online those issues of the Canadian Theosophist that Jake Jaqua digitalized. For the occasion I will also put up a new central page where all material related to theosophy on my website is referenced. 
• The librarian of the English TS headquarters in London, Barry Thompson, gave a lecture on Tibetan Buddhism, the after death states and the Mahatma Letters. I thought the material he presented relating to the after death states in the Mahatma Letters was so good that I'm working with Barry Thompson on putting that material online. I hope to have it online before the next issue of Lucifer7.

Religious News

• In Ethiopia, one man's model for a just society: Ethiopian farmer founded and co chairs Awra Amba, a commune where men cook, women plow, and religion has no place.

Short Quotes

Talbot Mundy, Queen Cleopatra

Strength of purpose has no part in obstinacy. Obstinacy clings to what it sees, denying what it sees not. Strength of purpose, daughter of imagination, can deny what seems to be, because it knows what is. Men speak to one another of protection, but what do they mean by it? I myself have treated many a wound that might have been a mere scratch had its victim not worn armor. And the medicines of many a physician are a deadlier preventive of recovery than a disease itself. If a man's own soul protect him not, where shall he look for safety from the multitudes of dangers that beset him on every side? But if he hide within the glory of his own soul, how shall any dark destroyer find him?"

Heart of Rama, Lucknow. (Canadian Theosophist, 1935)

N. Sri Ram, Thoughts For Aspirants, Second Series

When there is no gap between the knower and the known, between the subject that perceives and experiences, and its object, there is knowledge by identity, absolute and direct. 

Spiritual Monopolies, Canadian Theosophist, Volume 24, #1 (1943)

It should not surprise us, in this age of business monopolies, that the commercial world, the world of affairs, the only world of which many people have any consciousness, that the general habit of mind should be extended to the world of religion, so that the Christian Church members act as though they had patent rights on Jesus, the Buddhists of some stripes wish to claim the world for Buddha, the Mahometans [Muslims] hold their territory as sole agents for The Prophet, and the Brahmins also claim exclusive privileges. Of course it is little men who assert these rights, which, after all, only become tangible in the collection of royalties. 

Truth - Notes From Orpheus Lodge Meeting, September, 1922

Canadian Theosophist, Volume 26, #11 (1946)

The ordeal of discriminating Truth from untruth devolves upon those who accept Theosophy, whether as individuals or as a body.  It is this ordeal which the T.S. as a body has failed in, together with most of its members as individuals.  In order to sustain successfully this ordeal two things are essential.  A deep and exacting Sincerity, - an inner honesty so drastic and of such long life that it has become second nature, - and Intelligence.  This power of Intelligence implies the ability to bring the impartial critical rationalistic faculty to bear coupled with Intuition, a Spiritual faculty existing as more than a germ in only the very few.  It is through the passing of this ordeal that this Spiritual faculty of divining Truth is born.

Theosophical teachings are chiefly of value to the sincere Seeker for Truth, for whom the main objective is Spiritual regeneration.  From the application of its principles he may evolve a science of wise living which each individual can apply in his own life at the place in the scale of being at which he finds himself.  A wide knowledge of the basic principles of Theosophy and of their practical application in the life of the individual is by far the greatest need in the world today.

Asceticism [a few quotes from this article]

H.S. Olcott, http://www.theosophical.ca/Ascetism.htm

"Nobody even dreams how hard is the task of self-conquest, the subjugation of passion and appetite, the liberation of the flesh-prisoned Higher Self, until he has tried. Every such struggle is a tragedy, full of the most painful interest, and provocation of sympathy in the hearts of "good men and angels". That is what Jesus meant when he said there was more joy in heaven over one sinner that repented than over ninety and nine just men that needed no repentance. And yet how bitterly uncharitable is the world- the world of concealed sinners and respectable, undetected hypocrites, usually- over the failure of a poor soul to scale the spiritual mountains in consequence of lack of reserved power of will at a critical moment. How these undetected ones patronizingly condemn the vanquished, who at least have done what many of them have not, made a brave fight for the divine prize. How they strut about in fancied impregnability, like the street-praying Pharisee of Jerusalem, thanking fortune that their private sins are still hidden, and redoubling their prayers, postures, canting moralities, and asceticism in diet, to deceive their neighbour and themselves!

And the devil did grin, for his darling sin
Is pride that apes humility.

Shakespeare made a man like that say:

And thus I clothe my villainy with old odd ends, stol'n out of holy writ, and seem a saint when most I play the devil"

"I got a stinging reproach once in Bombay from a Master, when I hesitated to admit to membership an earnest man who had been persecuted, even sent to prison, by Christian bigots, on a pretext. I was bidden to look through my whole body of colleagues and see how, despite their wealth of good intention, nine-tenths of them were secret sinners through weak moral fibres. It was a life lesson to me, and ever since then I have abstained from thinking the worse of my associates, many no weaker or more imperfect than myself, who if they could not climb the mountain were at least, like myself, earnestly struggling and stumbling onward. Years ago- when we first came to Bombay,- I was told by H.P.B. that several of the Mahatmas, being met together, cause to drift by them in the astral light the psychical reflections of the then Indian members of the Theosophical Society. She asked me to guess which one's image was brightest. I mentioned a young Parsi of Bombay, then a pre-eminently active and devoted member. She said, laughing, that on the contrary he was not bright at all, the morally brightest being a poor Bengali gentleman who had become a drunkard. The Parsi afterwards deserted us and became an active opponent, the Bengali reformed and is now a pious ascetic! She explained then that many vicious habits and sensual gratifications often affect the physical self, without leaving deep permanent scars on the inner-self. In such cases the spiritual nature is so vigorous as to throw off these external blotches after a brief struggle."

"But if encouraged and persisted in, evil habits at last overcome the soul's resisting power, and the whole man becomes corrupted. Some tantrikas, Indian and European, have preached the accursed doctrine that the occult postulant can best kill out desire by gratifying and exhausting it. To deliberately gratify lust, or pride, or avarice, or ambition, or hatred, or anger- all equally perilous to the psychic- is quite another matter from falling now and then, through no pre-arrangement and simply because of moral weakness in a particular crisis, into one of those sins. From the latter, recovery is always possible, and may be comparatively easy where the average moral fibre is strong; but deliberate vicious indulgence leads inevitably to moral degradation and a fall into the depths."

News:  Religious intolerance (China, Egypt and The Netherlands)

This is one of those months when too much happens. Some of the things I will cover below are so out there, that I have had doubts about whether it should be covered at all. But I guess it has to, since religious intolerance is growing all over the world. Religions represent a lot of what people hold dear: their identities, their dreams, their hopes, their fears. 

In Egypt one has to give one's religion when applying for documents like birth certificates and passports. Only three religions are allowed: Muslim, Christian and Jew. Legally, people who aren't one of those religions don't exist. The Dutch newspaper that covered this story, focused mainly on the Baha'i. On the old handwritten documents papers, government workers would sometimes just leave open the 'religion' field. With electronically generated identity cards becoming mandatory, Baha'i's are left with quite a quandary. The default way to fill in the form means being registered as Muslim. But if fundamentalist Muslims find that out, they feel the right to assault people for being untrue to their faith (the Islam). Living without an identity cards leaves kids without education, vaccination and parents without the ability to buy a house.

Over to China. The Chinese Government has once again shown that it isn't interested in freedom of religion by stating that Tibetan monks can only reincarnate with permission of the government. The political aspect of this is clearly that they want a say in who will be seen as the next Dalai Lama. 

Then The Netherlands. Given our constitutional freedom of religion, and the general trust with which the Dutch still regard their government (well, relatively speaking that is) - the following story is more like a comic interlude, but a very sad one. The current most vocal proponent of anti-Islam views in the Netherlands is Geert Wilders. He recently made international headlines in a way that made me think he had lost his mind. He wants to ban the Quran. There is only one banned book in the Netherlands: 'Mein Kampf' by Adolf Hitler. According to Wilders the Quran is as bad as that. He also wants to change the constitution, to get rid of the freedom of religion. Banning the Quran would have that effect also. If Mosques can't carry the Quran, Muslims are effectively banned from exercising their weekly prayers. To change the constitution the parliament would have to get a very large majority in favour of this. There isn't a majority at all, so the Dutch news reports today. Most parties believe in freedom of religion and changing the constitution like this would go against all kinds of international and EU laws. 

Theosophists have stood for freedom of religion from the time Olcott and Blavatsky landed in India. Olcott in particular fought for freedom of religion for the Buddhists in Ceylon. He made sure they could marry according to their own faiths, have their own Buddhist schools and Buddhist religious holidays. All this when Ceylon (currently Sri Lanka) was still part of the British Empire. The Quran doesn't contain more politically incorrect material than the Bible does, so banning that book would open the door to banning all kinds of things that are dear to some and offensive to others. Religions cannot be forced on people. Conversion is a very personal process that governments should not interfere with unless the general good is at stake. Governments need to make sure that Muslim terrorism doesn't grow, but they should not alienate Muslims in general. Most Muslims are just ordinary people with jobs, kids and mortgages. The same is true for Tibetan Lama's, and Baha'i's, and people of other religions. As long as criminal law isn't broken, governments should stay out of people's right to decide for themselves what to believe and how to live. 

Sources

• Egypt: only three religions allowed on passport (2006)
• NRC Handelsblad, p. 4, september 4th 2007
• China tells living Buddhas to obtain permission before they reincarnate
• The Next Lama: The Dalai Lama says he won't reincarnate in Tibet
• Geert Wilders wants a ban on the Quran, but doesn't stand a chance (and knows it)

Healing - The English Summer school July 2007

I have just returned from the English Summer school of the Theosophical Society Adyar at Leicester University Grounds. The Highpoint of the week was Michael Gomes in the Blavatsky Lecture. There were a hundred people there, which is not at all bad for a theosophical lecturer. Michael Gomes is turning into quite the theosophical celebrity. He's very good on the stage, keeping us awake and entertained. He's also well grounded in theosophical history which is what this lecture was about, as well as in practical theosophy: the subject of his public lecture on Wednesday. It has to be said: he did a superb job in his Blavatsky lecture on Olcott and Healing. It had material on healing in the 19th century that I haven't seen before and on Olcott's earlier interests in the subject. Much of it was the result of looking up the references to books on healing that Olcott referenced in his Old Diary Leaves - something most people would never even dream of doing. The workshops he did in the second half of the week were the best attended with I think 50 people there the time he did a walking meditation. Quite a sight: 50 people walking slowly in a line from the lecture-building snaking their way to the lovely park. I didn't attend that workshop, but didn't hear too many complaints. 

The week was very full with lectures that struck me and a few that frankly didn't do much for me. For this review I'll just ignore the latter, because the whole thing was good mainly because of the variety. As for workshops - there were too many to mention (which was great, but I obviously didn't attend all of them). There was (hatha) yoga in the mornings, yoga nidra and pranayama yoga. I did the hatha yoga and the pranayama yoga - which was weird because this week I somehow developed a difficulty in breathing during this sort of exercise. I'm pretty sure it was me, not the exercises. There were workshops on kinesiology, reflexology, shiatsu and Edgar Cayce remedies. I attended the kinesiology and got diagnosed with a B-complex deficiency. Dana Eaton gave me a B-vitamin shot through no physical means. Not being sure she was successful, I decided to make sure I got enough yogurt during the means of the rest of the week. In the reflexology workshop we did a massage of each other's feet and I slept very well that night. Reflexology is to do with massaging the feet and through the meridians there diagnosing and treating problems in the upper body. 

During the study groups I chose to attend the 'astrology for the 21st century' workshop with Ted Capstick. He's a very good esoteric astrologer. This means that he's into the astrology that has been developed from the work of Alice Bailey. People were impressed with the accuracy of his reading of their lives from reading their charts. He looked at people's charts for free and even did progressions to look at present and future problems. He hardly had a moment to himself all week. It all looked to me to be very useful to the people who did get their chart done. Being (as I thought at the time) at a relatively calm period in my life myself, I didn't take the opportunity - perhaps I should have... 

Professor Ram Gokal lectured on the general theme of spirituality and health. His main point was that our thoughts influence our health and that we have to take responsibility for our health. He went into the law of attraction and is clearly influenced by what is currently referred to as 'the secret'. He drew quite a crowd on Monday morning and his workshop on pranayama yoga was well attended. For me personally his lecture was a stark contrast to the informal talk a few of us heard on Tibetan Healing on Tuesday. In that workshop the power of the mind was also stressed, but the conclusion was mainly that we need to work on ourselves to get rid of anger, desire and closed minds. On Monday evening there was a slide show on the work Dr. Trevor Ford had done in the Grand Canyon researching old stone layers visible there. Robert Woolley did a presentation on Tuesday on Sacred Gardens as Therapy. He showed us his own experiments in the area of creating a sacred garden using symbolism in the design. The result obviously had more to do with getting to know the energies and healing one's spirit, rather than one's body. 

One of the highlights for me personally was the lecture Barry Thompson, the librarian of the London headquarters and one of the younger members, gave on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. He contrasted the work by Blavatsky on the after death states with that done by C.W. Leadbeater. Then he went on to look at the Tibetan Book of the Dead. I hope to publish more on that on my website - stay tuned. When most people were attending the workshop by Michael Gomes, I went to the one by Hugh Agnew. He had a whole folder prepared for us and as we discussed various themes we went back and forth reading his prepared quotes - which included material that he wrote himself as well as spiritual stories, Blavatsky quotes and more. We were a small group, but the conversations were very good and some of the material Hugh collected will come back on this website in one form or another. 

On Thursday Susan Bayliss gave a talk on 'The Healing Power of Thought'. It was mainly a summing up of some of the healing methods she uses herself, like stones. The best part were the paintings she had made of her own observations of the aura. Most of it was old stuff for people familiar with the work by C.W. Leadbeater, but it was good to see how real it all was to her. I was struck with her picture of the result on the deeper planes of negative thoughts. She showed what she saw when someone a friend of hers had a quarrel with someone else. That someone was outside in the car and Susan saw black and red arrows go to her friend and later found out that they had in fact been quarreling. To me it was a good reminder of the fact that our thoughts, especially when charged with emotion, can have tremendous effect on people - whether present or not. 

Thursday night I was part of a play that Alan Hughes had created for the school on The Wonderful Story of the Mahatma Letters. I played Patience Sinnett and had the closing lines. Colyn Price played my husband: A.P. Sinnett. Michael Gomes was A.O. Hume and Cornelia Price was A.P. Blavatsky. It was good fun. 

On Friday Chaganti V.K. Maithreya, for whom this was the last lecture in a series, showed us a video on the TOS work after the Tsunami in India. His lecture accompanying that was mainly on the importance of yama and niyama (good behavior mainly) for yoga. 

I think all present will agree that we had a great week. The atmosphere was happy, even playful, because Michael Gomes joked with everyone he met. This set the tone of the whole summer school. The program had something for everybody - and because there was also practical work (workshops) our minds didn't come out quite as overloaded as they usually do after a theosophical school. There was not just a good balance between practical and theoretical, but also a good balance between Blavatskyan theosophy and other lines of spirituality. This school showed, in my opinion, how good a theosophical week can be. There is tremendous potential for inspiration and learning in the combination of various perspectives. That potential certainly came out in this school. 

Previous issues of Lucifer7 can be found at the online index of Lucifer7

If you appreciate the content of this newsletter, please consider donating to Katinka Hesselink 

Lucifer7, August 2007

Contents

New on Katinka Hesselink Net

• The Bible: the world most dangerous book, Alan Watts
• Duty (Dharma) in the Bhagavad Gita, Ram Das
• Blavatsky on Akasha
• The tempo of modern life and spiritual evolution, I.K. Taimni

Short Quotes

Mabel Collins, Light on the Path.

Life is after all the great teacher. We return to study it, after we have acquired power over it, just as the master in chemistry learns more in the laboratory than his pupil does. There are persons so near the door of knowledge that life itself prepares them for it, and no individual hand has to invoke the hideous guardian of the entrance. These must naturally be keen and powerful organizations, capable of the most vivid pleasure; then pain comes and fills its great duty. The most intense forms of suffering fall on such a nature, till at last it arouses from its stupor of consciousness, and by the force of its internal vitality steps over the threshold into a place of peace.

Adi Granth

"Thou art in the tree, Thou art in its leaves.
Thou art space, Thou art time,
Thou art fasting, Thou art wisdom,
Thou alone art, Thou alone art."

Mr. D.S. Sarma, The Gita and Spiritual Life 

Revelation, ii. 23. Moffatt translation.

"I am the searcher of the inmost heart;  I will requite each of you according to what you have done."

Mr. D.S. Sarma, The Gita and Spiritual Life 

Editorial - Harry Potter

Must Find Real Causes

Canadian Theosophist, April 15th, 1926

Investigation that will redirect educational processes was urged on the Religious Education Association at the convention held in Toronto in mid-March by Dr. Goodwin B. Watson, of Columbia University.  He told the final session of the convention bluntly that much of the present talk and planning was futile until research had discovered the real causes of desirable and undesirable attitudes towards other races and creeds.

From his experience as instructor in educational psychology at Teachers' College, New York, Dr. Watson said that character and good-will did not produce, but rather were effects of attitudes.  World-mindedness was not traceable to inborn intelligence and only partially to right information.  The causes of deeper attitudes were obscure, and attitudes, he said, were extremely difficult to alter, hence a pressing need for investigation before the force of religious education were loosed too far in any one direction.

Reporting on the confessions of 500 college students as to the experiences which seemed responsible for their attitudes towards other peoples and nationalities, Dr. Watson listed school experiences, reading material, personal encounters and home attitudes as vital factors in determining attitudes of persons and groups.

"Bright people may be more or less prejudiced than dull people," said the speaker, disposing of the contention that brains make for breadth of sympathy and understanding.

"People who are honest are not necessarily considerate," he said. "People prejudiced about religion may not he prejudiced about the War."

Knowledge, he admitted, did affect feeling, but it had to be well-balanced or antagonism might follow. To learn good about foreigners from a disliked person might have unanticipated effects.

Previous issues of Lucifer7 can be found at the online index of Lucifer7

If you appreciate the content of this newsletter, please consider donating to Katinka Hesselink 

Lucifer7, July 2007

Contents

New on Katinka Hesselink Net

• Aum or Om: the sacred Indian mantra, Katinka Hesselink
• To Oprah: the limitations of 'The Secret', Katinka Hesselink
• Three questions, Leo Tolstoy
• Meditation quotes from Buddhism
• Thich Nhat Hanh: what are your views on capital punishment? Suppose someone has killed ten children. Why should he be allowed to live on?
• Thich Nhat Hanh, what do you mean when you say to go back to our religious roots? How can we do that and continue to study and practice Buddhism, which is so practical and helpful?
• Thich Nhat Hanh, Can you please elaborate on what is space inside of us? Why is this good? I feel lonely sometimes. This feels like emptiness or space inside, but it does not feel good.
• Thich Nhat Hanh, When I go home, I return to my husband who is a hunter. He goes into our beautiful woods to shoot birds. He brings them home to show our seven-year-old twins, who want to be like daddy. What can I do to stop him from this habit of killing?
• Thich Nhat Hanh, What are your views on abortion?
• Thich Nhat Hanh, In regard to television news and newspapers, how can we balance not taking in toxins with not closing our eyes to suffering?
• Thich Nhat Hanh, Why do we cling to suffering?
• Thich Nhat Hanh, Could tell us about the benefits of silence and how we could bring that home with us from this retreat?
• Thich Nhat Hanh, How do you maintain mindfulness in a busy work environment? At times it seems there is not even enough time to breathe mindfully.
• Mindfulness of breathing, from the Anapanasati Sutta. Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
• Buddhist wisdom quotes on Love and attachment

Elsewhere online

• On visualisation as a peak performance tool
• On food: nourishing the body-mind

• Theosophical Society (Adyar) on squidoo
• Bodhisattva's unselfishness explained
• Karma, rebirth and reincarnation
• Aum, the sacred Indian Mantra (also Om and Ohm)
• The Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso)
• Jiddu Krishnamurti on squidoo
• Spiritual quotes and wisdom sayings on squidoo

Short Quotes

Theosophical Notes, November, 1956

The road begins in the dull swamp where we live;  not on the mountain top where we are not.

Buddha, Dhammapada, Translation Juan Mascaro

160 Only a man himself can be the master of himself: who else from the outside could be his master? When the master and servant are one, then there is true help and self-possession.

N. Sri Ram, Thoughts For Aspirants, Second Series

Self-reliance implies non-dependence psychologically on anything external to oneself. Such non-dependence abolishes fear and invests with a dignity that is wholly natural to him who achieves that condition.

Paul Brunton, The Inner Reality, Chapter V

We are not here to live for ever, and therefore all mortal possessions and earthly glories should be wisely used and wisely understood; they should not make us captive. 

H.P. Blavatsky

The efforts of those members who benefit the Cause should never be impeded by criticism on the part of others who do nothing, but all should be encouraged and as much help given as is possible, even if that assistance be limited through circumstances to mere encouragement. Every sincere effort for Theosophy will bear good fruit, no matter how inappropriate it may appear in the eyes of those members who have set to themselves and everybodyelse only one definite plan of action.

The Nature of Self-Forgetfulness

Leoline L. Wright, The Theosophical Forum, VOL. IX, No. 2, August, 1936 

HOW few, even among the thoughtful, ever suspect the real and intense happiness which follows upon the determined practice of self-forgetfulness!  In our wrong-headed civilization the very words have come to signify an outworn if not impossible ideal.  Yet self -forgetfulness actually results not only in the power to bless and bestow but in the transmutation of our ignorance, unrest, and miseries into knowledge, power, and peace.  For we have the assurance that the wise practice of daily self-forgetfulness will bring to us a sacred companionship with the Inner God and set our feet upon the pathway to divine adventure in the inner worlds.

There are, however, certain states of mind which might pass for self-forgetfulness with the unthinking but which are most emphatically the opposite.  One of these is a practice which has become nearly universal, in this day at least, and that is self-evasion.  We are all familiar enough in our own experience and that of our associates with the itch to escape from ourselves.  And the insane lavishness of this mechanical civilization pours out the means:  novels, cinemas, auto-trips, 'parties,' the bridge game, and a hundred other diversions. Yet most of our amusements are legitimate enough when they are intelli-gently used.  They are harmful only when allowed to become a demanding habit.  Even philanthropic work, if undertaken as such a soporific, is but another road to self-evasion.  It is motive that colors the deed and automatically brings about the result.  Service of others is naturally better for anyone than slavery to amusements, but in the case of using it to evade our own problems it is a neglect of one's essential duty.  It may even result in a worse tangle of our personal affairs than before.

Why not say to ourselves when some of our intimate problems torment us by our inability to solve them:  "Well, after all, does it matter so much about me?  Isn't it the burden of the world that really matters - the tragedy of crime, the miseries of the poor, seeking hearts everywhere that cry out for light and help?  Here is Theosophy with its grand diagnosis, its power of prevention and cure.  I will set aside for a time this trouble of my own heart and see what I can do for the spreading of a knowledge of this panacea, acting in the meanwhile also as a good neighbor, a sympathetic 'home-fellow and friend.' "  When a Theosophist, or anyone else for that matter, carries such a thought into action, mysteriously his personal problem is likely to begin to solve itself.  This happens often.  Nature objects to our constantly pulling the plant up by the roots to see how it is coming on.  But if we trust her with a divine impersonal carelessness as to our own well-being, and will work unselfishly for others, she will come to make obeisance and work on our side.

Here the motive creates the apparent contradiction and gives to service that is truly self-forgetful, but never self-evasive, its often immediate reward.  And the further 'rewards' which accrue more slowly, flow from the crystal fount of the Cosmic Heart - a beautiful happiness and a serenity whose harmonies pervade in blessing and help the lives of all about us.  And some day, suddenly, we ourselves shall awaken to a new dawn breaking in splendor before our inner vision, and discover that our feet are set upon Amrita-Yana, the secret pathway to the gods.

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