Following The Wheel of The Good Law

Compassion is no attribute. It is the LAW of laws – eternal Harmony…

The Voice of the Silence

Dharma Wheel (Dharmachakra, Wheel of Law)

Dharmachakra

So much “original” writing is done today, so much “self-expression” is indulged in that, in the glamour that is raised, the chants of the Gods remain unheard. One of our tasks is to bring home the truth that it is not derogatory to respect the old age facts of the science of the soul.

The study of the wise ancients convinces us that our forefathers knew better and more than we do. …It is one of the tasks of this journal to awaken an intelligent appreciation of the hoary past so that an intelligent adaptation of some of the old truths to modern life and conditions may take place. -B.P.Wadia, “The Aryan Path”

THE KARMIC HEART

False learning is rejected by the Wise, and scattered to the Winds by the good Law. Its wheel revolves for all, the humble and the proud. … The wheel of the good Law moves swiftly on. It grinds by night and day. The worthless husks it drives from out the golden grain, the refuse from the flour. The hand of Karma guides the wheel; the revolutions mark the beatings of the Karmic heart.

True knowledge is the flour, false learning is the husk. If thou would’st eat the bread of Wisdom, thy flour thou hast to knead with Amrita’s [immortality] clear waters. But if thou kneadest husks with Maya’s dew, thou canst create but food for the black doves of death, the birds of birth, decay and sorrow. … Follow the wheel of life; follow the wheel of duty to race and kin, to friend and foe, and close thy mind to pleasures as to pain. Exhaust the law of Karmic retribution. Gain Siddhis for thy future birth. -The Voice of the Silence

THE SACRIFICE

Sri Krishna

“Those who dress their meat but for themselves eat the bread of sin, being themselves sin incarnate. Beings are nourished by food, food is produced by rain, rain comes from sacrifice, and sacrifice is performed by action. Know that action comes from the Supreme Spirit who is one; wherefore the all-pervading Spirit is at all times present in the sacrifice.”

The Bhagavad-Gita – Krishna, Chapter 3, “Devotion Through The Right Performance of Action.”

“This Law — whether Conscious or Unconscious,” says H. P. Blavatsky, “predestines nothing and no one. It exists from and in Eternity, truly, for it is ETERNITY itself; and as such, since no act can be co-equal with eternity, it cannot be said to act, for it is ACTION itself…Karma creates nothing, nor does it design. It is man who plans and creates causes, and Karmic law adjusts the effects; which adjustment is not an act, but universal harmony, tending ever to resume its original position.”

– H. P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine 2:304-5

At this time of “Thanksgiving,” all students of Theosophy feel an extra impulse to recognize the sacredness of life, and teach by example. To perform “sacrifice” by action, as Krishna says,  we avoid the unnecessary suffering and destruction of living beings. When the fruits and vegetables provided by Mother Gaia are so plentiful and nutritious, is it necessary to butcher millions of helpless animals for our sensory pleasure? Just a question, and we would be remiss if we did not raise the question on Theosophically inspired pages.

Each of us, semi-self-conscious humans, has the power of choice that other beings living here with us do not. With that comes moral responsibility. We were shamed, and strongly impressed by a Mike Adams article in NaturalNews.com dated Dec. ’07 “Revenge of The Christmas Trees.” Sorry if this seems raw, but the occasional straight talk can be a useful wake up call:

I’ve noticed that the people who are killing all the trees are the same people eating all the meat at Christmas dinners, too! How do those Christmas dinner prayers really work for meat eaters and tree harvesters, anyway? “God, please bless this family, bless this house, bless all the people on Earth… but MURDER ALL THE FREAKING TREES AND ANIMALS!” I guess those people believe God somehow supports animal factory farms that produce mass suffering and mass animal murder just so they can have their pretty nitrite-enhanced Christmas ham dinner.

THE WHEEL OF RECIPROCITY

“In other places and ages food is produced, but it does not in everything come up to the required standard. In this age we have to submit to these difficulties, and can overcome them by following Krishna’s instructions….

“In the verse above quoted the distinction is made between food naturally produced without, and that due to, sacrifice, for Krishna says, “For, being nourished by sacrifices, the gods will give you the desired food.”

“They are not the mere idols and imaginary beings … but are certain powers and properties of nature which leave the world when the Kali-yuga or dark age, as this is called, has fully set in.

“There is, however, another meaning to the “revolution of the wheel” spoken of by Krishna. He makes it very clear that he refers to the principle of reciprocity or brotherhood. And this he declares must be kept revolving; that is, each being must live according to that rule, or else he lives a life of sin to no purpose.

“And we can easily believe that in these days this principle, while admired as a fine theory, is not that which moves the people. They are, on the contrary, spurred by the personal selfish idea of each one becoming better, greater, richer than his neighbor. …

“And it was to counteract this that the Theosophical Society was founded, with the object of inducing men to once more revolve this wheel of brotherly love.”

Notes on the Bhagavad-Gita, Ch. 3, William Q. Judge

Wife of Billionaire T. Boone Pickens Plots to Save Wild Horses From Slaughter

Wild Horses

Sacred Tribe of Heroes

YOU must not think that the gods are without employment, explained Synesius, the Greek bishop of Ptolemais.

The idea is developed by theosophist W. Q. Judge in his article “Cycles,” about the duty of the ancient gods to watch over humanity:

“For they descend according to orderly periods of time,” Synesius wrote,

“… for the purpose of imparting a beneficent impulse in the republics of mankind.”

“For this providence is divine and most ample, which frequently through one man pays attention to and affects countless multitudes of men.”

Please note: This post has been updated and republished. Click the link below:

Descent of the Gods

ξ

Our Green Horizon

Ferry Farm, Artist's rendering by L. H. Barker © 2008

WE would like to introduce a series on the practical necessity and spiritual implications of going “green.” Whether or not you voted for President-elect Obama, there is great anticipation that as our new president, he will change policies and laws to support the environment and sustainable agriculture. Let’s hope so.

But he won’t be the first president to go green. Our first president, George Washington, truly had a vision for agriculture as part of America’s future. In fact, he was really into compost as a basis for a successful farm.

We know from William Quan Judge’s writings, that the Adepts inspired key individuals behind the American Revolution. George Washington was a mason, as were a number of revolutionary luminaries with him. HPB noted that Masonry was the “Theosophy” of its era, “the Theosophists of Ammonias Saccas and the later Neo-Platonists, were all virtually Masons.”

And Judge himself, an April 5, 1896 New York Times article tells us, embodied as one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

As the Adepts continue to inspire and guide us, what is Their ideal for a Green Horizon?

Let’s start with George Washington.

“Our lands…were originally very good; but use, and abuse, have made them quite otherwise.”

-George Washington (1732-1799)

President George Washington was one of the most innovative farmers of his era. Instead of wearing out soil and then moving elsewhere to farm, he believed in restoring soil through adding compost, using “green manure,” and rotating crops on his 8,000-acre plantation at Mount Vernon.

Washington kept up with the latest agriculture practices in England and experimented with more than 60 different crops along with various fertilizers, techniques, and tools to increase yields.

Washington prized those who could make good compost; when looking for a new farm manager from England, he wrote to a friend for help stipulating that above all else, the manager had to be

“Midas-like, or who can convert every thing he touches into manure, as the first transmutation towards Gold.”

Washington built an unusual 31- by 12-foot building, probably the first of its kind in America, to compost manure and other materials into fertilizer, and instructed workers to “rake, and scrape up all the trash, of every sort and kind about the houses, and in the holes and corners,” to add to the compost.

Buckwheat Field

He also experimented adding creek mud, fish heads, marine fossil clay, ashes, and plaster of Paris to nourish soil. Instead of letting fields idle to try to restore the soil–as was the practice of the time, Washington planted depleted fields with clover, peas, buckwheat, and grasses. When he plowed them under, green plants fed essential nutrients to revitalize the soil; thus the name, “green manure.”

Washington also devised portable fences to manage cattle grazing and manuring fields directly.

Before the mid-1760s, Washington grew tobacco as his main cash crop, but it had so depleted the soil, he stopped and grew wheat and other crops instead. He experimented growing peas and potatoes between rows of corn, and varied the distance between rows to see what worked best.

To keep his soil fertile, Washington rotated his crops. He carefully mapped out, for example, what would successively grow in each of his seven fields from 1793 to 1799. He assigned one field for corn and potatoes, one field for buckwheat, two fields for wheat, and three fields for clover or grass.

The next year, the crops would be planted in different fields. Washington wrote to his farm manager:

“My object is to recover the fields from the exhausted state into which they have fallen,” but two ways will enable me to accomplish this. This first is to cover them with as much manure as possible (winter and summer). The 2d a judicious succession of crops.”

While he emphasized self-reliance, Washington reveled in the latest farm tools to increase productivity and yields. In 1791, Washington and Thomas Jefferson traveled to a farm near Philadelphia to see a new threshing machine in action. Jefferson later built his own version of the machine.

Washington told Jefferson in a letter:

“If you can bring a movable threshing Machine, constructed upon simple principles to perfection, it will be among the most valuable institutions in this Country.”

Washington believed agriculture was the foundation of America’s economy and future:

“I hope some day or another, we shall become a storehouse and granary for the world.”

In his first State of the Union Address in 1790, he said:

“The advancement of agriculture, commerce and manufactures, by all proper means, will not, I trust, need recommendation. But I cannot forbear intimating to you the expediency of giving effectual encouragement as well to the introduction of new and useful inventions from abroad, as to the exertions of skill and genius in producing them at home…”

George Washington delivered the State of the Union message aloud.

Washington’s own farming repertoire included a threshing machine, an array of plows, drills to plant seeds, and other tools—some sent by his friend, British agriculturist Arthur Young, who thought Washington was as good a farmer as he was a general.

Just a few days before he died, Washington was absorbed in planning future operations for his farms. His zeal as a farmer was not only to succeed, but also to be the example for other farmers. He wrote:

“Nothing in my opinion would contribute more to the welfare of these States, than the proper management of our lands,” and nothing, in this State particularly, seems to be less understood. The present mode of cropping practiced among us, is destructive to landed property; and must, if persisted in much longer ultimately ruin the holders of it.”

(Excerpt from Kara LeBeau’s Writing Seminars master’s thesis, Natural Farming: A Dire Improvement Mandate and Planetary Solution Conscientious in Integrated Principles, at Johns Hopkins University.)

© Kara LeBeau 2003, 2008. All rights reserved.

Real Human Solidarity

Luna: Dancing Krishna

WHEN we have stopped dancing, singing, being enchanted by stories, or finding comfort in silence we experience the loss of soul, many shamanic societies  say.

“Dancing, singing, storytelling, and silence, Gabrielle Roth attests, “are the four universal healing salves.”

For Roth physical movement, according to an Huffpost article, “is key to unlocking the spirit.”

She was an incredibly influential teacher of meditative dance and the creator of the 5Rhythms movement practice.”

“Roth dedicated her life, heart and soul to exploring how to engage her spirit and creativity through dance and movement — and helping others to do the same. The effect of her influence is palpable.”

“Dance is the fastest, most direct route to the truth,”  she claimed. It is notable in this regard that two of the most powerful ancient gods, Krishna and Shiva, are so often depicted as dancing, and Krishna additionally is shown at the same time playing the flute.