THEOSOPHY
START-UP
CARDIFF THEOSOPHICAL
SOCIETY IN WALES
206 NEWPORT ROAD,
CARDIFF, WALES, UK. CF24-1DL
A FREE INTRO TO THEOSOPHY
A Rough Outline of Theosophy
By
Annie Besant
First Published November 1921
IN dealing with
a great theme within narrow limits one has always to make a choice of evils:
one must either substantiate each point, buttress it up
with
arguments, and thus fail to give any roughly complete idea of the whole; or one
must make an outline of the whole, leaving out the proofs which bring
conviction of the truth of the teaching. As the main object of this paper is to
place before the average man or woman an idea of Theosophy as a whole, I elect
to take the inconvenience of the latter alternative, and use the expository
instead of the controversial method. Those who are sufficiently interested in
the subject to desire further knowledge can easily pass on into the
investigation
of evidences, evidences that are within the reach of all who have patience, power
of thought and courage.
We, who are
Theosophists, allege that there exists a great body of doctrine philosophical,
scientific and ethical, which forms the basis of, and includes
all that is
accurate in, the philosophies, sciences, and religions of the ancient and
modern worlds.
This body of
doctrine is a philosophy and a
science more
than a religion in the ordinary sense of the word, for it does not impose
dogmas as necessary to be believed under any kind of supernatural penalties, as
do the various Churches of the world. It is indeed a religion, if religion be
the binding of life by a sublime ideal; but it puts forward its teachings as
capable of demonstration, not on authority which it is blasphemy to
challenge or
deny.
That some
great body of doctrine did exist in antiquity, and was transmitted from
generation to generation, is patent to any investigator. It was this which was
taught in the Mysteries, of which Dr. Warburton wrote: “The wisest and best men
in the Pagan world are unanimous in this, that the Mysteries were instituted
pure, and proposed the noblest ends by the worthiest means”. To speak of the
Initiates is to speak of the greatest men of old; in their ranks we find Plato
and Pythagoras, Euclid and Democritus, Thales and Solon, Apollonius and
lamblichus. In the Mysteries unveiled, they learned their wisdom, and gave out
to the world such fragments of it as their oath allowed. But those fragments
have fed the world for centuries, and even yet the learned of the modern West
sit at the feet of these elder sons of wisdom.
Among the
teachers of the early Christian Church some of these men were found; they held
Christianity in its esoteric meaning, and used exoteric dogmas merely as veils
to cover the hidden
truth. “Unto you
it is given”, said Jesus, “to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto
them that are without, all these things are done in
parables”
(Mark, iv, 2). Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen both recognised the esoteric
nature of the underlying truths of Christianity, as before them did Paul. In
West as in East, exoteric religions were but the popular representations of the
Secret Wisdom.
But with the
triumph of ecclesiasticism, the Secret Wisdom drew back further and further
into the shade, until its very existence slowly faded from the minds of men.
Now and then one of its disciples appeared in Christendom, and gave to the
world some discovery which started thought on some new and fruitful line; thus
Paracelsus, with his discovery of hydrogen, his magnetic treatment for the core
of disease, and his many hints at secrets of nature not even yet worked out.
Trace through
the Middle Ages, too often by the lurid light of flames blazing round a human
body, the path along which the pioneers of Science toiled, and it will be found
that the magicians and wizards were the finger-posts that marked the way.
Passing strange it is to note how the minds of men have changed in their aspect
to the guardians of the Hidden Wisdom. Of old, in their passionate gratitude, men
regarded them as well nigh divine, thinking no honours too great to pay to
those who had won the right of entrance into the temple of the Unveiled Truth.
In the Middle Ages, when men, having turned from the light, saw devils
everywhere in the darkness, the adepts of the Right-Hand Path were dreaded as
those of the Left, and where-ever new knowledge appeared and obscure regions of
nature were made visible, cries of terror and wrath rent the air, and men paid
their benefactors with torture and with death, In our own time, secure in the
completeness of our knowledge, certain that our philosophy embraces all things
possible in heaven and earth, we neither honour the teachers as Gods nor
denounce them as devils: with a shrug of contempt and a sniff of derision we
turn from them, as they come to us with outstretched hands full of priceless
gifts, and we mutter, “Frauds, charlatans!” entrenched as we are in our modern
conceit that only our century is wise.
Theosophy
claims to be this Secret Wisdom, this great body of doctrine, and it alleges
that this precious deposit, enriched with the results of the
investigations
of generations of Seers and Sages, verified by countless experiments, is today,
as of old, in the hands of a mighty Brotherhood,
variously
spoken of as Adepts, Arhats, Masters. Mahatmas, Brothers, who are living men,
evolved further than average humanity, who work ever for the service of their
race with a perfect and selfless devotion, holding their high powers in
trust for the
common good, content to be without recognition, having passed beyond all
desires of the personal self.
The claim is
a lofty one, but it can be substantiated by evidence. I leave it as a mere
statement of the position taken up. Coming to the Western world today,
Theosophy speaks far more openly than it has ever done before, owing to the
simple fact that, with the evolution of the race, man has become more and more
fitted to be the recipient of such knowledge, so that what would once be taught
to only a
small minority may now find a wider field. Some of the doctrine is now thrown
broadcast, so that all who can receive it may; but the keys which unlock the
Mysteries are still committed but to few hands, hands too well tried to
tremble under
their weight, or to let them slip from either weakness or treachery.
As of old, so
now, the Secret Wisdom is guarded, not by the arbitrary consent or refusal of
the Teachers to impart instruction, but by the capacity of the student to
understand and to assimilate.
Theosophy
postulates the existence of an eternal Principle, known only through its
effects. No words can describe It, for words imply discrimination, and This is
ALL. We murmur, Absolute, Infinite, Unconditioned — but the words mean
naught. SAT,
the Wise speak of: BE-NESS, not even Being, nor Existence. Only as the
Manifested becomes, can language be used with meaning; but the appearance of
the Manifested implies the Unmanifested, for the Manifested is transitory and
mutable, and there must be Something that eternally endures. This Eternal must
be postulated, else whence the existences around us ? It must contain within
Itself That which is the essence of the germ of all possibilities, all
potencies: Space is the only conception that can even faintly mirror It without
preposterous distortion, but silence least offends in these high regions where
the wings of thought beat faintly, and lips can only falter, not pronounce.
The universe
is, in Theosophy, the manifestation of an aspect of SAT. Rhythmically succeed
each other periods of activity and periods of repose, periods of manifestation
and periods of absorption, the expiration and inspiration of the Great Breath,
in the figurative and most expressive phraseology of the East. The outbreathing
is the manifested world; the inbreathing terminates the period of activity.
The
Root-Substance differentiates into spirit-matter, whereof the universe, visible
and invisible, is built up, evolving into seven stages, or planes, of
manifestation, each denser than its predecessor; the substance is the same in
all, but the degrees of its density differ. So the chemist may have in his
receiver water held invisible: he may condense it into a faint mist-cloud,
condense it further into vapour, further yet into liquid, further yet into
solid; throughout he has the same chemical
compound,
though he changes its condition. Now it is well to remember that the chemist is
dealing with facts in Nature and that his results may therefore throw light on
natural methods, working in larger fields; we may at least learn from such an
illustration to clarify our conceptions of the past course of evolution.
Thus, from
the Theosophical standpoint, spirit and matter are essentially one, and the
universe one living whole from center to circumference, not a molecule in it that
is not instinct with life. Hence the difficulty that scientists have always
found in defining life. Every definition they have made has broken down as
excluding some phenomena that they were compelled to recognize as those of
life. Sentiency, in our meaning of the word there may not be, say in the
mineral; but is it therefore dead ? Its particles cohere, they vibrate, they
attract and they repel: what are these but manifestations of that living energy
which rolls the worlds in their courses, flashes from continent to continent,
thrills from root to summit of the plant, pulses in the animal, reasons in the
man ?
One Life and
therefore One Law, everywhere, not a Chaos of warring atoms but a Kosmos of ordered
growth. Death itself is but a change in life-manifestation, life which has
outworn one garment, and, rending it in pieces, clothes itself anew. When the
thoughtless say, “He is dead”, the wise know that the countless lives of which
the human body is built up have become charged with more energy than the bodily
structure can stand, that the strain has become too great, that disruption must
ensue. But death is only transformation not destruction, and every molecule has
pure life essence at its core with the material garment it has woven round
itself of its own substance for action on the objective plane.
Each of the
seven Kosmic planes of manifestation is marked off by its own characteristics;
in the first pure spirit, the primary emanation of the ONE,
subtlest,
rarest, of all manifestations, incognisable even by the highest of Adepts save
as present in its vehicle, the Spiritual Soul: without form, without
intelligence,
as we use the word — these matters are too high, “I cannot attain unto them”.
Next comes the plane of Mind, of loftiest spiritual intelligence, where first
entity as entity can be postulated; individualism begins, the Ego
first
appears. Rare and subtle is matter on that plane, yet form is there possible,
for the individual implies the presence of limitation, the separation
of the “I”
from the “not I”. Fourth, still densifying, comes the plane of animal passions
and desires, actual forms on their own plane. Then, fifthly, that of the vivid
animating life-principle, as absorbed in forms. Sixthly, the astral plane, in
which matter is but slightly rarer than with ourselves. Seventhly, the plane
familiar to all of us, that of the objective universe.
Let us delay
for a moment over this question of planes, for on the understanding of it hinges
our grasp of the philosophical aspect of Theosophy. A plane may be defined as a
state marked off by clear characteristics; it must not be thought of as a
place, as though the universe were made up of shells one within the other like
the coats of an onion. The conception is metaphysical, not
physical, the
consciousness acting on each plane in fashion appropriate to each.
Thus a man
may pass from the plane of the objective in which his consciousness is
generally acting, on to the other planes: he may pass into the astral in sleep,
under mesmerism, under the influence of various drugs; his consciousness may be
removed from the physical plane, his body passive, his brain inert; an electric
light leaves his eyes unaffected, a gong beaten at his ear cannot rouse the
organ of hearing; the organs through which his consciousness normally acts in
the physical universe are all useless, for the consciousness that uses them is
transferred to another plane.
But he can
see, hear, understand, on the astral plane, see sights invisible to physical
eyes, hear sounds inaudible to physical ears. Not real ? What is real ? Some
people confine the real to the tangible, and only believe in the existence of a
thing that can knock them down with a lesion to prove the striking. But an
emotion can slay as swiftly as an arrow; a thought can cure with as much
certainty as a drug. All the mightiest forces are those which are invisible on
this plane, visible though they be to senses subtler than our own. Take the
case of a soldier who, in the mad passion of slaughter, the lust for blood, is
wounded in the onward charge, and knows not the wounding till his passions cool
and the fight is over; his consciousness during the fight is transferred to the
fourth plane, that of the emotions and passions, and it is not till it returns
from that to the plane of the physical body that pain is felt. So again will a
great philosopher, his consciousness rising to the plane of intelligence,
becomes wholly abstracted — as we well say — from the physical plane; brooding
over some deep problem, he forgets all physical wants, all bodily appetites,
and becomes concentrated entirely on the thought-plane, the fifth, in
Theosophic parlance.
Now the
consciousness of man can thus pass from plane to plane because he is himself
the universe in miniature, and is built up himself of these seven
principles,
as they are sometimes called, or better, is himself a differentiation of
consciousness on seven planes. It may be well, at this stage,
to give to
these states of consciousness the names by which they are known in Theosophical
literature, for although some people shrink from names that are unfamiliar,
there are, after all, only seven of them, and the use of them enables one to
avoid the continual repetition of clumsy and inexact descriptive sentences. To
Macrocosm and Microcosm alike the names apply, although they are most often
found in relation to man. The Spirit in man is named Âtmă, cognizable only in
its vehicle Buddhi, the Spiritual Soul; these are the reflections in man of the
highest planes in the universe.
The Spiritual
Intelligence is Manas, the Ego in man, the 1immortal entity, the link between
Âtmă-Buddhi and the temporary personality. Below these come in order Kama, the
emotional and passional nature; Prâna, the animating life-principle of the
personality; Lińga Sharîra, the astral body the double of the physical, but
formed of the somewhat more ethereal astral matter; lastly, Stűla Sharîra, the
physical body.
These seven
states are grouped under two heads: Âtma-Buddhi-Manas make up the trinity in
man, imperishable, immortal, the pilgrim that passes through countless lives;
the Individual, the True Man. Kâma, Prâna, Lińga Sharîra, and Sthűla Sharîra
form the quaternary, the transitory part of the human being, the person, which
perishes gradually, onwards from the death of the physical body.
This
disintegrates, the molecules of physical, astral, kămic matter finding all new
forms into which they are built, and the more quickly they are all resolved into
their elements the better for all concerned. The consciousness of the normal
man
resides
chiefly on the physical, astral and kamic planes, with the lower portion of the
Mănasic. In flashes of genius, in loftiest aspirations, he is touched for a
moment by the light from the higher Mănasic regions, but this comes — only
comes — to the few, and to these but in rare moments of sublime abstraction.
Happy they
who even thus catch a glimpse of the Divine Augoeides, the immortal Ego within
them. To none born of women, save the Masters, is it at the present time given
by the law of evolution to rise to the Âtmic-Buddhic planes in man; thither the
race will climb millenniums hence, but at present it boots not to speak
thereof.
Each of these
planes has its own organisms, its own phenomena, the laws of its own
manifestation; and each can be investigated as exactly, as scientifically, as
experimentally, as the objective plane with which we are most familiar. All
that is necessary is that we should use our appropriate organs of sensation,
and appropriate methods of investigation. On the objective plane we are already
able to obey this rule; we do not use our eyes to listen to sounds, and then
deny that sounds exist because our eyes cannot hear them nor do we take in hand
the microscope to examine a distant nebula, and then say that the nebula is not
there because the field of the microscope is dark.
A very slight
knowledge of our own objective universe will place us in the right mental attitude
towards the unknown. Why do we see, hear, taste, feel ? Merely because our
physical body is capable of receiving certain impressions from without by way
of the avenues of senses.
But there are
myriads of phenomena, as real as those we familiarly cognize, which are to us
non-existent, for the very simple reason that our organs of sensation are not
adapted to receive them. Take the air-vibrations which, translated into terms
of consciousness, we call sound. If an instrument
that emits
successive notes be sounded in a room with a dozen people, as the notes become
shriller and shriller one person after another drops out
of the circle
of auditors and is wrapped in silence while still a note is sounding, audible
to others there; at last a pipe speaks that no one hears, and
though all
the air be throbbing with its vibrations, silence complete reigns in the room.
The vibration-waves have become so short and rapid that the mechanism of the
human ear cannot vibrate in unison with them; the objective phenomenon is
there, but the subjective does not respond to it, so that for man it does not
exist.
Similar
illustrations might be drawn in connection with every sense, and it is surely
not too much to claim that if, on the plane to which our bodies are
correlated,
phenomena constantly escape our dull perceptions, men shall not found on their
ignorance of other planes the absolute denial of their existence.
Only informed
opinion is of any weight in discussion, and in Occult Science, as in every
other, the mere chatter and vituperation of uninformed criticism do not count.
The Occultist can be no more moved thereby than Professor Huxley by the
assertions of a fourth-standard schoolboy.
Those who
have time, ability, and courage, can develop in themselves the senses and the
capacities which enable the consciousness to come into touch with the higher
planes, senses and capacities already evolved and fully at work in some, and to
be in the course of ages the common inheritance of every child of man. I know
that the exercise of these powers often arouses in the minds of people
convinced of their reality an eager desire to possess them, but only those who
will pay the price can attain possession. And the first installment of that
price is the absolute renunciation of all that men prize and long for here on
earth; complete self-abnegation; perfect devotion to the service of others;
destruction of all personal desires; detachment from all earthly things. Such
is the first step on the Right-Hand Path, and until that step is taken it is
idle to talk of further progress along that thorny road. Occultism wears no
crown save that of thorns, and its scepter of command is the seven-knotted
wand, in which each knot marks the payment of a price from which the normal man
or woman would turn shuddering away. It is because of this that it is not worth
while to deal with this aspect of Theosophy at any length. What does concern us
is the general plan of evolution, the pilgrimage of the Ego, of the individual,
encased in the outer shell of the personality.
The evolution
of man consists in the acquirement by the Ego of experience, and the gradual
moulding of the physical nature into a form which can readily respond to every
prompting of the Spirit within. This evolution is carried on by the repeated
incarnation of the Ego, overshadowed by the Spirit, in successive
personalities, through which it lives and acts on the objective plane. The task
before it
when it starts on the wheel of life on this earth; during the present cycle, is
to acquire and assimilate all experience, and so to energize and sublimate the
objective form of man that it may become a fit instrument and dwelling for the
Spirit; the complete assimilation of the Ego with the Spirit, of Manas with
Âtma-Buddhi, being the final goal of the long and painful pilgrimage. It is
obvious that such work cannot be accomplished in one lifetime, or in a few. For
such a gigantic task countless lives must be required, each life but one step
in the long climbing upward. Each life should
garner some
fresh experience, should add some new capacity or strengthen some budding
force; thus is built up through numberless generations the Perfect Man. Hence
the doctrine of Reincarnation is the very core and essence of Theosophy, and
according to the hold this belief has on life, so will be the grasp of the
learner on all Theosophic truth.
There is no
doctrine in the range of philosophy which throws so much light on the tangled
web of human life as does this doctrine of Reincarnation. Take, for instance,
the immense difference in capacity and in character found within the limits of
the human race. In all plants and in all animals the characteristic qualities
of species may vary, but within comparatively narrow limits; so also with man,
so far as his outer form, his instincts and his animal passions are concerned.
They vary of course, as those of the brute vary, but their broad
outline
remains the same.
But when we
come to study the difference of mental capacity and moral character, we are
struck with the vast distances that separate man from man. Between the savage,
counting five upon his fingers,
and the
Newton who calculates the movements of a planet and predicts its course, how
wide and deep a gulf as to intellect! Between a barbarian dancing gleefully
round the bleeding body of his foe, as he mangles and torments the living
tissues, and the Howard who gives his life to save and aid the lowest fallen of
his people, how vast the difference as to character ! And this leaves out of
account those living men, who are as far ahead of Newton and of Howard as these
are above the least evolved of our race. Whence the great divergences,
unparalleled
among the rest of the organisms on our globe ? Why is man alone so diverse !
Theosophy points in answer to the reincarnation of the Ego, and sees in the
differing stages of experience reached by that Ego the explanation of the
differing intellectual and moral capacities of the personality. Baby Egos — as
I have heard H. P. Blavatsky call them with reference to their lack of human
experience — inform the little-evolved humanity, while those who dwell in the
more highly developed races are those who have already garnered much rich
harvest of past experience and have thereby become capable of more rapid
growth.
The Ego that
has completed a span of earth-life, and has shaken off the worn-out personality
1that it informed, passes into a subjective state of rest, ere reassuming “the
burden of the flesh”. Thus it remains for a period varying in length according
to the stage of evolution it has reached. When that period is exhausted, it is
drawn back to earth-life, to such environment as is suitable for the growing of
the seed it has sown in its past.
As surely as
hydrogen and oxygen rush into union under certain conditions of temperature and
of pressure, is the Ego drawn by irresistible affinity to the circumstances
that yield opening for its further evolution. Suitable environment, suitable
parents to provide a suitable physical body, such are some of the conditions that
guide the place and time of reincarnation.
The desire
for sentient life, the desire for objective expression, that desire which set
the universe a-building, impels the Ego to seek renewed manifestation; it is drawn
to the surroundings which its own past has made necessary for its further
progress. Nor is this all. I have spoken of the fact that each plane has its
own organisms, its own laws; the Mănasic plane is the plane on which thoughts
take forms, objective to all who are able to perceive on that plane. All the
experiences of a life, gathered up after death, and the essence, as it were,
extracted, have their appropriate thought-forms on the Mănasic plane; as the
time for the reincarnation of the Ego approaches, these, with previous
unexhausted similar thought-forms, pass to the astral plane, clothe themselves
in astral matter, and mould the astral body into the form suitable for the
working out of their own natural results.
Into this
astral body the physical is built, molecule by molecule, the astral mould thus,
in its turn, moulding the physical. Through the physical body, including its
brain, the reincarnated Ego has to work for the term of that incarnation, and
thus it dwells in a tabernacle of its own construction, the
inevitable
resultant of its own past earth lives.
To how many
of the problems that vex thinkers today by the apparent hopelessness of their
solution, is an explanation suggested if, for the moment, Reincarnation be
accepted even as a possible hypothesis. Within the limits of a family,
hereditary physical likeness, often joined by startling mental and moral
divergences; twins, alike as far as regards heredity and pre-natal environment,
yet showing in some cases strong resemblance, in others no less dissimilarity.
Cases of
precocity, where the infant brain manifests the rarest capacities precedent to
all instruction. Cases of rapid gain of knowledge, where the knowledge seems to
be remembered rather than acquired, recognized rather than
learned.
Cases of intuition, startling in their swiftness and lucidity, insight clear
and rapid into complicated problems without guide or teacher to show the way.
All these and many other similar puzzles receive light from the idea of the
persistent
individual that informs each personality, and it is a well-known principle in
seeking for some general law underlying a mass of apparently unrelated
phenomena that the hypothesis which explains most, brings most into accord with
an intelligible sequence, is the one most likely to repay
further
investigation.
To those,
again, who shrink from the idea that the Universe is one vast embodiment of
injustice, the doctrine of Reincarnation comes as a mental relief from a well
nigh unbearable strain. When we see the eager mind imprisoned in an inefficient
body; when we note the differences of mental and moral capacity that make all
achievement easy to one, impossible to others; when we come across what seem to
be undeserved suffering, disadvantageous circumstances; when we feel longings
after heights unattainable for lack of strength; then the knowledge that we
create our own character, that we have made our own strength or our own
weakness, that we are not the sport of an arbitrary God or of a soulless
Destiny, but are verily and indeed the creators of ourselves and of our lot in
life — this
knowledge comes to us as a support and an inspiration, giving energy to improve
and courage to endure.
This
immutable law of cause and effect is spoken of as Karma (action) in Theosophy.
Each action — using the word to include all forms of activity,
mental,
moral, physical — is a cause and must work out its full effect. Effect as
regards the past, it is cause as regards the future, and under this
sway of
karmic law moves the whole life of man as of all worlds. Every debt incurred
must be duly paid in this or in some other life, and as the wheel of life turns
round, it brings with it the fruit of every seed that we have sown.
Reincarnation under karmic law, such is the message of Theosophy to a
Christendom
which relies on a vicarious atonement and a swift escape to Paradise when the
grave closes on the dead. Reincarnation under karmic law, until the fruit of
every experience has been gathered, every blunder rectified, every fault eradicated,
until compassion has been made perfect, strength unbreakable, tenderness
complete, self-abnegation the law of life, renunciation for others the natural
and joyous impulse of the whole nature.
But how, it
may be asked, can you urge to effort, or press responsibility, if you regard
every action as one link in an infrangible chain of cause and effect
? The answer
lies in the sevenfold nature of man, in the action of the higher on the lower.
The freewill of man on this plane is lodged in the Mănasic entity, which acts
on his lower nature. Absolute freewill is there none, save in the
Unconditioned.
When manifestation begins, the Universal Will becomes bound and limited by the
laws of Its own manifestation, by the fashion of the expression It has chosen
as Its temporary vehicle. Conditioned, it is limited by the conditions It has
imposed on Itself, manifesting under the garb of the universe in which it wills
to body Itself forth.
On each plane
Its expression is limited by the capacities of Its embodiments. Now the Manasic
entity in its own sphere is the reflection, the image, of the Universal Will in
Kosmos. So far as
the
personality is concerned, the promptings, the impulses, from the Mănasic plane
are spontaneous, have every mark of freedom, and if we start from the lowest
plane of objective nature, we shall see how relative freedom is possible.
If a man be
loaded with chains, his muscles will be limited in their power of movement.
They are constrained in their expression by the dead weight of iron pressing
upon them; yet the muscular force is there, though denied outward expression,
and the iron cannot prevent the straining of the fibers against the force used
in their subdual. Again, some strong emotion, some powerful impulse
from the kăma-mănasic
plane, may hold rigid the muscles under lesion that would make every fibre
contract and pull the limb away from the knife. The muscles are compelled from
the plane above them, the personal will being free to hold them rigid or leave
them to their natural reaction against injury.
From the
standpoint of the muscles the personal will is free, and it cannot be
controlled save as to its material expression on the material plane. When the
Mănasic entity sends an impulse downwards to the lower nature with which it is
linked, conflict arises between the animal desire and the human will. Its
interferences appear to the personality as spontaneous, free, uncaused by any
actions on
the lower plane; and so they are, for the causes that work on it are of the
higher not the lower planes.
The animal
passions and desires may limit its effective expression on their own plane, but
they cannot either prompt or prevent its impulses: man's true freedom is found
when his lower nature puts itself into line with the higher, and gives free
course to the will of the higher Ego. And so with that Ego itself: able to act
freely on the planes below it, it finds its own best freedom as channel of the
Universal Will from which it springs, the conscious willing harmony with the
All of which it is part. An effect cannot be altered when the cause has
appeared; but that effect is itself to be a cause, and here the will can act.
Suppose a great sorrow falls on some shrinking human heart; the effect is
there, it cannot be avoided, but its future result as cause may be one of two
things; Kâma may rebel, the whole personal nature may rise in passionate
revolt, and so, warring against the Higher Will, the new cause generated will
be of disharmony, bearing in its womb new evil to be born in days to come. But
Kâma may range itself obediently with karmic action; it may patiently accept
the pain, joyfully unite itself to the Higher Will, and so make the effect as
cause to be pregnant with future good.
Remains but
space for one last word on that which is Theosophy in action — the Universal
Brotherhood of Man. This teaching is the inevitable outcome of the doctrines of
the One Universal Spirit common to all humanity, Reincarnation and Karma. Every distinction of race and sex,
of class and creed, fades away before the essential unity of the indwelling
Spirit, before the countless incarnations under all forms of outward
garmenture, making the experience of prince and beggar part of the training of
all in turn. Here is to be found the motive spring of action — love for all
mankind. In each child of man the true Theosophist recognises a brother to be
loved and served, and in the Theosophical Society, Theosophists, under the
direction of the Masters, have formed a nucleus for such Brotherhood of
Humanity and have made its recognition the only obligation binding on all who
enter. Amid class hatreds and warring sects it raises this sublime banner of
human love, a continual reminder that essentially all humanity is one, and that
the goal to which we travel is the same for all.
Without this
recognition of Brotherhood all science is useless and all religion is
hypocrisy. Deeper than all diversity, mightier than all animosity, is that
Holy Spirit
of Love. The Self of each is the Higher Self of all, and that bond is one which
nothing in all worlds can avail to break. That which raises one raises all;
that which degrades one degrades all. The sin and crime of our races are our
sin and crime, and only as we save our brethren can we save ourselves. One in
our inception, one in our goal, we must needs be one in our progress; the
“curse of separateness” that is on us, it is ours to remove, and Theosophy,
alike as religion and philosophy, will be a failure save as it is the
embodiment of the life of Love.
206 Newport Road,
Cardiff, Wales, UK, CF24 – 1DL.
For more info on Theosophy
Try these
Cardiff Theosophical Society meetings
are informal
and there’s always
a cup of tea afterwards
The
Cardiff Theosophical Society Website
The
National Wales Theosophy Website
Dave’s
Streetwise Theosophy Boards
This is for
everybody not just people in Wales
Theosophy Cardiff’s Instant Guide to Theosophy
General pages about Wales, Welsh History
and The History of Theosophy in Wales
Teosofia en Cardiff (Página en Espańol)
One Liners & Quick Explanations
The Most Basic Theosophy Website in the Universe
If you run a Theosophy Study Group you can use
this as an introductory handout
The
South of Heaven Guide to
Theosophy and Devachan
The
preparation of this Website
The Spiritual Home of Urban Theosophy
The Earth Base for Evolutionary Theosophy
Classic Introductory
Theosophy Text
A Text Book of Theosophy By C
What Theosophy Is From the Absolute to Man
The Formation of a Solar System The Evolution of Life
The Constitution of Man After Death Reincarnation
The Purpose of Life The Planetary Chains
The Result of Theosophical Study
An Outstanding Introduction
to Theosophy
By a student of
Katherine Tingley
Elementary Theosophy Who is the Man? Body and Soul
Body, Soul and Spirit Reincarnation Karma
Preface to the American Edition Introduction
Occultism and its Adepts The Theosophical Society
First Occult Experiences Teachings of Occult Philosophy
Later Occult Phenomena Appendix
Preface
Theosophy and the Masters General Principles
The Earth Chain Body and Astral Body Kama – Desire
Manas Of Reincarnation Reincarnation Continued
Karma Kama Loka
Devachan
Cycles
Arguments Supporting Reincarnation
Differentiation Of Species Missing Links
Psychic Laws, Forces, and Phenomena
Psychic Phenomena and Spiritualism
Karma Fundamental Principles Laws: Natural and Man-Made The Law of Laws
The Eternal Now
Succession
Causation The Laws of Nature A Lesson of The Law
Karma Does Not Crush Apply This Law
Man in The Three Worlds Understand The Truth
Man and His Surroundings The Three Fates
The Pair of Triplets Thought, The Builder
Practical Meditation Will and Desire
The Mastery of Desire Two Other Points
The Third Thread Perfect Justice
Our Environment
Our Kith and Kin Our Nation
The Light for a Good Man Knowledge of Law The Opposing Schools
The More Modern View Self-Examination Out of the Past
Old Friendships
We Grow By Giving Collective Karma Family Karma
National Karma
India’s Karma
National Disasters
Wales Theosophy Links Summary
Hey Look! Theosophy in Cardiff
Try these if you are looking
for a
local Theosophy Group or
Centre
UK Listing of Theosophical Groups
Please tell us about your UK Theosophy Group
Worldwide Directory of Theosophical Links
General pages
about Wales, Welsh History
and The History
of Theosophy in Wales
Wales is a
Principality within the United Kingdom
and has an eastern
border with England. The land
area is just over 8,000
square miles. Snowdon in
North Wales is the
highest mountain at 3,650 feet.
The coastline is
almost 750 miles long. The population
of Wales as at the 2001 census is 2,946,200.
__________________________________________
into categories and presented according to relevance of
website.