The Mysterious Third Eye, Its Rise and Fall

New Universe Awakening

THEOSOPHY teaches the progressive development of everything, “worlds as well as atoms,” according to The Secret Doctrine.

This “stupendous development,” say the ancient sages, “has neither conceivable beginning nor imaginable end.”

To them, our ‘Universe’ is “only one of an infinite number of Universes, all links in the great Cosmic chain of Universes.”

In this view, each individual cosmos, or single human life, is the effect of its predecessor. Under karmic law, “a cause as regards its successor.” 

(The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, p. 43)

If lifetimes and universes are analogous to schools, then the classrooms are stages of consciousness, pushing us to ever greater self-awareness and self-development — only if we are wise enough to pursue the path offered.

Thus our lives are complex creations, a series of  ‘progressive awakenings,’ advanced or retarded drop by drop, by our individual, family, racial, national and global karma.

Everyone, in this way, settles into his or her own unique rhythm in which a lifetime meditation empowers a mixture of past karma, and present choices.

We all must be then at slightly differing points on an ascending evolutionary arc, paying off old debts, making new ones — pushing forward or slipping back, and the mind thus ever awakens to newer realities.

Drop by Drop

The choices that shape our character each lifetime, are self-chosen—compounded of physical, sensory, emotional, mental, psychic and spiritual energies.

The ancient Egyptian after death judgement, weighed symbolically a person’s heart against the ‘feather of truth.’

The challenges of life, the occult doctrine notes, are the result of our being grounded in a personal level of consciousness, a limited world view. The Secret Doctrine 1:39-40 teaches that “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.”

Progressive Awakenings

Nothing is permanent except the one hidden absolute existence which contains in itself the noumena of all realities.

Weighing the Heart against the Feather of Truth

“Only when we shall have reached the absolute Consciousness, and blended our own with it, shall we be free from delusions.”

“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’—

(The Secret Doctrine 1:40)

The Spiritual Awakening of Humanity

The Lotus

THEOSOPHY teaches the progressive development of everything, “worlds as well as atoms,” according to The Secret Doctrine.

This “stupendous development,” say the ancient sages, “has neither conceivable beginning nor imaginable end.”

To them, our ‘Universe’ is “only one of an infinite number of Universes, all links in the great Cosmic chain of Universes.”

In this view, each individual cosmos, or single human life, is the effect of its predecessor. Under karmic law, “a cause as regards its successor.” 

(The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, p. 43)

If lifetimes and universes are analogous to schools, then the classrooms are stages of consciousness, pushing us to ever greater self-awareness and self-development — only if we are wise enough to pursue the path offered.

Thus our lives are complex creations, a series of  ‘progressive awakenings,’ advanced or retarded drop by drop, by our individual, family, racial, national and global karma.

Everyone, in this way, settles into his or her own unique rhythm in which a lifetime meditation empowers a mixture of past karma, and present choices.

We all must be then at slightly differing points on an ascending evolutionary arc, paying off old debts, making new ones — pushing forward or slipping back, and the mind thus ever awakens to newer realities.

Altruism

The choices that shape our character each lifetime, are self-chosen—compounded of physical, sensory, emotional, mental, psychic and spiritual energies.

The ancient Egyptian after death judgement, weighed symbolically a person’s heart against the ‘feather of truth.’

The challenges of life, the occult doctrine notes, are the result of our being grounded in a personal level of consciousness, a limited world view. The Secret Doctrine 1:39-40 teaches that “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.”

Progressive Awakenings

Nothing is permanent except the one hidden absolute existence which contains in itself the noumena of all realities.

Weighing the Heart against the Feather of Truth

“Only when we shall have reached the absolute Consciousness, and blended our own with it, shall we be free from delusions.”

“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’—

(The Secret Doctrine 1:40)

The Rise and Fall of the Third Eye

New Universe Awakening

THEOSOPHY teaches the progressive development of everything, “worlds as well as atoms,” according to The Secret Doctrine.

This “stupendous development,” say the ancient sages, “has neither conceivable beginning nor imaginable end.”

To them, our ‘Universe’ is “only one of an infinite number of Universes, all links in the great Cosmic chain of Universes.”

In this view, each individual cosmos, or single human life, is the effect of its predecessor. Under karmic law, “a cause as regards its successor.” 

(The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, p. 43)

If lifetimes and universes are analogous to schools, then the classrooms are stages of consciousness, pushing us to ever greater self-awareness and self-development — only if we are wise enough to pursue the path offered.

Thus our lives are complex creations, a series of  ‘progressive awakenings,’ advanced or retarded drop by drop, by our individual, family, racial, national and global karma.

Everyone, in this way, settles into his or her own unique rhythm in which a lifetime meditation empowers a mixture of past karma, and present choices.

We all must be then at slightly differing points on an ascending evolutionary arc, paying off old debts, making new ones — pushing forward or slipping back, and the mind thus ever awakens to newer realities.

Drop by Drop

The choices that shape our character each lifetime, are self-chosen—compounded of physical, sensory, emotional, mental, psychic and spiritual energies.

The ancient Egyptian after death judgement, weighed symbolically a person’s heart against the ‘feather of truth.’

The challenges of life, the occult doctrine notes, are the result of our being grounded in a personal level of consciousness, a limited world view. The Secret Doctrine 1:39-40 teaches that “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.”

Progressive Awakenings

Nothing is permanent except the one hidden absolute existence which contains in itself the noumena of all realities.

Weighing the Heart against the Feather of Truth

“Only when we shall have reached the absolute Consciousness, and blended our own with it, shall we be free from delusions.”

“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’—

(The Secret Doctrine 1:40)

The Spiritual Underpinnings of Space and Life

The Matrix

IS the apparent void of Space “an emptiness,” asks Deepak Chopra, “or could it be the womb of creation, the source of Life itself?”

This is clearly a rhetorical question by Dr. Chopra who knows well his Eastern metaphysics.

H. P. Blavatsky agreed asserting “there is not one finger’s breath of void Space in the whole Boundless Universe,” (The Secret Doctrine 1:289.)

In her day Science still believed in the existence of “Ether.” The substance, she noted, was “accepted by physical astronomy, in ordinary physics, and in chemistry. Astronomers, who first began by regarding it as a fluid of extreme tenuity and mobility — ‘its main function in modern astronomy has been to serve as a basis for hydrodynamical theories of gravitation.'”

What connects everything in this infinite boundlessness? The answer is described by ancient Seers as a “conscious spiritual quality” or “divine breath.”

It spreads as it issues from Laya throughout infinity as a colourless spiritual fluid.

Space is not Empty

In this important video, astrophysicist Dr. Michael Clarage explains the new views of “the interstellar medium,” the concept H. P. Blavatsky and her Teachers had asserted in the 19th Century. (See: A Web of Spiritual Substance Spans the Universe).

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Ether was later rejected by science in favor of mathematical models and various models proposed by Einstein and others to bolster up gravity as the primary force in the universe.

New observations in deep space challenged those theories, and now “dark matter” and “dark energy” are proposed to fill the gap. But these seem to be merely iterations of the old ‘ether’ repackaged in gravity-speak.

It may be soon that the old hypothetical models will be replaced by scientists who favor observational, empirical evidence pointing to an  electrical universe, (Holoscience.com) — which is more in sync with ancient Theosophical teachings.

“Light is Life … both are electricity,” Mme. Blavatsky wrote in her first work Isis Unveiled (1:258): — it is “the life-principle, the anima mundi, pervading the universe, the electric vivifier of all things,” she wrote explaining the occult teachings.

Progressive Awakenings: The Rise and Fall of the Third Eye

New Universe Awakening

THEOSOPHY teaches the progressive development of everything, “worlds as well as atoms,” according to The Secret Doctrine.

This “stupendous development,” say the ancient sages, “has neither conceivable beginning nor imaginable end.”

To them, our ‘Universe’ is “only one of an infinite number of Universes, all links in the great Cosmic chain of Universes.”

In this view, each individual cosmos, or single human life, is the effect of its predecessor. Under karmic law, “a cause as regards its successor.” 

(The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, p. 43)

If lifetimes and universes are analogous to schools, then the classrooms are stages of consciousness, pushing us to ever greater self-awareness and self-development — only if we are wise enough to pursue the path offered.

Thus our lives are complex creations, a series of “progressive awakenings,” advanced or retarded drop by drop, by our individual, family, racial, national and global karma.

Everyone, in this view, settles into his or her own unique rhythm in which a lifetime meditation reflects a mixture of past karma, and present choices.

We all must be then at slightly differing points on an ascending evolutionary arc, paying off old debts, making new ones — pushing forward or slipping back, and the mind thus ever awakens to newer realities.

Drop by Drop

The choices that shape our character each lifetime, are self-chosen—compounded of physical, sensory, emotional, mental, psychic and spiritual energies.

The ancient Egyptian after death judgement, weighed symbolically a person’s heart against the “feather of truth.”

The challenges of life, the occult doctrine notes, are the result of our being grounded in a personal level of consciousness, a limited world view. The Secret Doctrine 1:39-40 teaches that “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.”

Progressive Awakenings

“Nothing is permanent except the one hidden absolute existence which contains in itself the noumena of all realities.” 

Weighing the Heart against the Feather of Truth

“Only when we shall have reached the absolute Consciousness, and blended our own with it, shall we be free from delusions.”

“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’—”

(The Secret Doctrine 1:40)

Awakening: The Fall and Rise of the Third Eye

Awakening

THEOSOPHY teaches the progressive development of everything, “worlds as well as atoms,” according to The Secret Doctrine.

This “stupendous development,” say the ancient sages, “has neither conceivable beginning nor imaginable end.”

To them, our ‘Universe’ is “only one of an infinite number of Universes, all links in the great Cosmic chain of Universes.”

In this view, each individual cosmos, or single human life, is the effect of its predecessor. Under karmic law, “a cause as regards its successor.” 

(The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, p. 43)

If lifetimes and universes are analogous to schools, then the classrooms are stages of consciousness, pushing us to ever greater self-awareness and self-development — only if we are wise enough to pursue the path offered.

Thus our lives are complex creations, a series of “progressive awakenings,” advanced or retarded drop by drop, by our individual, family, racial, national and global karma.

Everyone, in this view, settles into his or her own unique rhythm in which a lifetime meditation reflects a mixture of past karma, and present choices.

We all must be then at slightly differing points on an ascending evolutionary arc, paying off old debts, making new ones — pushing forward or slipping back, and the mind thus ever awakens to newer realities.

Drop by Drop

The choices that shape our character each lifetime, are self-chosen—compounded of physical, sensory, emotional, mental, psychic and spiritual energies.

The ancient Egyptian after death judgement, weighed symbolically a person’s heart against the “feather of truth.”

The challenges of life, the occult doctrine notes, are the result of our being grounded in a personal level of consciousness, a limited world view. The Secret Doctrine 1:39-40 teaches that “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.”

Progressive Awakenings

“Nothing is permanent except the one hidden absolute existence which contains in itself the noumena of all realities.” 

Weighing the Heart against the Feather of Truth

“Only when we shall have reached the absolute Consciousness, and blended our own with it, shall we be free from delusions.”

“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’—”

(The Secret Doctrine 1:40)

The Rise and Fall of the Third Eye

New Universe Awakening

THEOSOPHY teaches the progressive development of everything, “worlds as well as atoms,” according to The Secret Doctrine.

This “stupendous development,” say the ancient sages, “has neither conceivable beginning nor imaginable end.”

To them, our ‘Universe’ is “only one of an infinite number of Universes, all links in the great Cosmic chain of Universes.”

In this view, each individual cosmos, or single human life, is the effect of its predecessor. Under karmic law, “a cause as regards its successor.” 

(The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, p. 43)

If lifetimes and universes are analogous to schools, then the classrooms are stages of consciousness, pushing us to ever greater self-awareness and self-development — only if we are wise enough to pursue the path offered.

Thus our lives are complex creations, a series of “progressive awakenings,” advanced or retarded drop by drop, by our individual, family, racial, national and global karma.

Everyone, in this view, settles into his or her own unique rhythm in which a lifetime meditation reflects a mixture of past karma, and present choices.

We all must be then at slightly differing points on an ascending evolutionary arc, paying off old debts, making new ones — pushing forward or slipping back, and the mind thus ever awakens to newer realities.

Drop by Drop

The choices that shape our character each lifetime, are self-chosen—compounded of physical, sensory, emotional, mental, psychic and spiritual energies.

The ancient Egyptian after death judgement, weighed symbolically a person’s heart against the “feather of truth.”

The challenges of life, the occult doctrine notes, are the result of our being grounded in a personal level of consciousness, a limited world view. The Secret Doctrine 1:39-40 teaches that “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.”

Progressive Awakenings

“Nothing is permanent except the one hidden absolute existence which contains in itself the noumena of all realities.” 

Weighing the Heart against the Feather of Truth

“Only when we shall have reached the absolute Consciousness, and blended our own with it, shall we be free from delusions.”

“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’—”

(The Secret Doctrine 1:40)

Hands of Healing

Morea Garcia

PARISIANS including Marie Antoinette, the wife of King Louis XVI, were in love with a man by the name of Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer.

The Paris press reported the phenomenon as “Mesmeromania.”

The gregarious Dr. Mesmer was wealthy because he married a rich widow, but also because he became a successful Viennese physician.

He lived on a well-appointed estate, and often hosted a twelve-year-old musical prodigy named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Mozart was introduced to Benjamin Franklin’s invention, the “Armonica,” by Mesmer, (who used it to ‘mesmerize’ his patients.)

The young Mozart composed a musical piece for Mesmer’s “Glass Armonica,” and later wrote a solo Armonica piece, and a larger quintet for Armonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello.

Mesmer was the darling of Parisian Elite Society in the 1780’s, a confidant of the super rich and super powerful.

Ω

All over Paris, people were throwing themselves under trees Mesmer had ‘mesmerized.’ They would flail, convulse, scream and claim healing. Mesmer said he had a healing power in his hands he called “Animal Magnetism.”

The Rise of Modern Mysticism

THEOSOPHY was not brought back to the world solely for the advancement of an elite few. The ancient wisdom aims to help re-catalyze the spiritual progress of the whole of humanity.

The Theosophical Society’s most important mission according to the American Section founder William Q. Judge (Letters, p. 71), was to uplift the hearts and minds of all, free from dogma.

“The dance between change and continuity has been at play throughout history,” notes the Journal of Consciousness Studies. “Today, we see a rapid rate of change that is calling on people to consider their worldview, and to develop different identities and ways of engaging with the world.”

“Among those skills most essential for success in this new era of global connectivity will be greater cognitive flexibility [….] and a capacity for discernment that relies equally on intellect and intuition.”

“These skills don’t spring as much from what we know, but instead from how we know it, and how we view the world.”

“It is clear that navigating life in the twenty-first century will require not simply the acquisition of new skills, but also the intentional cultivation of novel states of mind.”

“The pupil must regain the child-state he has lost.”

But there are powerful barriers to inner change, all of our own making. They are our physical senses, habits, emotions, thought sensations, embedded worldviews. They compete for our time and attention, keeping us glued to the outer surface of an ever-whirling wheel.

River of Compassion

BUDDHA never had any intention of establishing a religion 2500 years ago, at least not the sectarian kind we know today.

But it was not long before extremist followers across Asia and India split his teachings into separate branches and sects, ruled over by self-appointed lamas and monks.

The same exists today in a Hinduism that is dominated by a priestly caste of Brahmins who have co-opted the ancient wisdom religion for their own purposes.

It compares to Islam where a minority of priestly fanatics have gained dominance and political power, and who preach a severe and even violent dogmatism aimed at preserving their right to rule.

Yet Buddha’s life and teachings showed humanity the way to conscious enlightenment without priestly intermediaries,  through direct spiritual development, merit and compassion. People were inspired to rediscover and live according to the dictates of their own peaceful spiritual insights without any forced obedience to caste or creed.

The Buddha’s teaching of individual responsibility and the primacy of individual spiritual action should have saved the world from religious dogmatism. But with the persistence of the selfish side of human nature such teachings would not prevail.

Similarly, Christian religious dogmatism, with its god and invented savior, cleverly placed beyond our mere earthly domain, the ‘only son of God’ dogma secured a virtually unbreakable dominance over the soul of humanity.

Brahmin performing the Ganga Aarti

“Shun ignorance, and likewise shun illusion. Avert thy face from world deceptions” and “mistrust thy senses, they are false,” The Voice of the Silence (Fragment 2) declared. “But within thy body, the shrine of thy sensations,” it insisted,

“seek for the ‘eternal man,’ and having sought him out, look inward: thou art Buddha.”

Δ

The ancient origin of the [Upanishads], H. P. Blavatsky notes in The Secret Doctrine [Summing Up section], “proves many of the the Upanishads were written before the caste system became the tyrannical institution which it still is.”

“Half of their contents have been eliminated,” she wrote, “while some of them were rewritten and abridged.” A few brave souls today are speaking and acting out, as Blavatsky did, against dogmatic desecration and dominance.

Heal Thyself

PARISIANS including the wife of King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette, were in love with a man by the name of Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer.

“Mesmeromania” is how the Paris press reported it.

Dr. Mesmer was rich in part because he married a rich widow, but also because he became a successful Viennese physician.

He lived on a well-appointed estate and hosted the then young twelve-year-old musical prodigy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Mozart was introduced to Benjamin Franklin’s invention, the “Armonica,” by Mesmer, (who used it to ‘mesmerize’ and heal his patients.)

The young Mozart composed a musical piece for Mesmer’s “Glass Armonica,” and later wrote a solo armonica piece, and a larger quintet for armonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello.

Mesmer was the darling of Parisian Elite Society in the 1780’s, a confidant of the super rich and super powerful.

Ω

All over Paris, people were throwing themselves under trees Mesmer had ‘mesmerized.’ They would flail, convulse, scream and claim healing. Mesmer said he had a healing power in his hands he called “Animal Magnetism.”

A Mysterious Force

IS the apparent void of Space “an emptiness,” asks Deepak Chopra, “or could it be the womb of creation, the source of Life itself?”

This is clearly a rhetorical question by Dr. Chopra who knows well his Eastern metaphysics.

H. P. Blavatsky agreed asserting “there is not one finger’s breath of void Space in the whole Boundless Universe,” (The Secret Doctrine 1:289.)

In her day science still believed in the existence of “Ether.” The substance, she noted, was “accepted by physical astronomy, in ordinary physics, and in chemistry. Astronomers, who first began by regarding it as a fluid of extreme tenuity and mobility — ‘its main function in modern astronomy has been to serve as a basis for hydrodynamical theories of gravitation.'”

What connects everything in this infinite boundlessness? The answer is described by ancient seers as a “conscious spiritual quality” or “divine breath.”

“It spreads as it issues from Laya throughout infinity as a colourless spiritual fluid.”

Ether was later rejected by science in favor of mathematical models and various devices proposed by Einstein and others to bolster up gravity as the primary force in the universe.

New observations in deep space challenged those theories, and now “dark matter” and “dark energy” are proposed to fill the gap. But these seem to be merely the old ‘ether’ repackaged in science-speak.

It may be soon that the old hypothetical models will be replaced by scientists who favor observational, empirical evidence pointing to an  electrical universe, (Holoscience.com) — which is more in sync with ancient Theosophical teachings.

“Light is Life … both are electricity,” Mme. Blavatsky wrote in her first work Isis Unveiled (1:258): — it is “the life-principle, the anima mundi, pervading the universe, the electric vivifier of all things,” she wrote explaining the occult teachings.

Altered State

THEOSOPHY isn’t in the world solely for the spiritual benefit of its member groups. It aims to reach far more than helping a few individuals.

The Theosophical Society’s most important aim, William Q. Judge head of the American Section wrote (Letters, p. 71), is to “change the buddhi and manas [Sk.] of the human race,” – i.e, its heart and mind.

But there are powerful, unavoidable barriers to inner change, all of our own making. They are our physical senses, habits, emotions, thought sensations, embedded worldviews. They compete for our time and attention, keeping us glued to the outer surface of an ever-whirling wheel.

It’s a puzzle for the brain mind, because like an iceberg, the bulk of our nature lies below the surface, and only the tip is visible — just as an actor’s outer image, her costume, makeup, tone of voice, etc., sets our opinion of her.

But, in spiritual terms, the merry-go-round of personality is a trap.

The word personality itself derives from “persona,” a Latin word meaning “mask,” the appearance we present to the world — a marketing device also used by artists and musicians. Persona is also a the Jungian psychological term. 

Healing Hands

MESMEROMANIA is how the Paris press reported it.

Parisians including the wife of King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette, were in love with a man by the name of Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer.

Dr. Mesmer was rich in part because he married a rich widow, but also because he became a successful Viennese physician.

He lived on a well-appointed estate and hosted the then young twelve-year-old musical prodigy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Mozart was introduced to Benjamin Franklin’s invention, the “Armonica,” by Mesmer, (who used it to ‘mesmerize’ his patients.)

The young Mozart composed a musical piece for Mesmer’s “Glass Armonica,” and later wrote a solo armonica piece, and a larger quintet for armonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello.

 

Spiritual Beings 2

THEOSOPHY teaches the progressive development of everything, “worlds as well as atoms,” according to The Secret Doctrine.

This “stupendous development,” say these ancient sages, “has neither conceivable beginning nor imaginable end.

To them, our ‘Universe’ is “only one of an infinite number of Universes, all links in the great Cosmic chain of Universes.”

In this view, each individual cosmos, or single human life, is the effect of its predecessor, under karmic law, and “a cause as regards its successor.”

If these lifetimes and universes are like schools, then the classrooms are stages of consciousness, urging us to greater self-awareness and spiritual development, if we are wise enough to choose that path.

Thus our lives are complex creations, a series of “progressive awakenings,” drop by drop, of individual, family, racial, national karma.

ζ

What We Believe

BUDDHA never had any intention of establishing a religion 2500 years ago, at least not our sectarian kind.

Nonetheless, followers across Asia and India soon split his teachings into separate branches and sects, ruled by numerous lamas and monks.

The same today in Hinduism, dominated by a priestly caste of Brahmins at the top, convinced of their right to rule.

Buddha’s life and teachings showed humanity the way to conscious enlightenment through personal merit and compassion sans intermediaries. Humans were inspired to rediscover their inner spiritual natures, without regard to caste or creed.

The Buddha’s teaching of individual responsibility, and primacy of personal will should have saved the world from priestly dogmatism, but it did not.

Similarly, Christian religious dogmatism, with its god and invented savior, cleverly situate4d beyond our mere earthly domain. And this ‘son of God’ still has a very strong a hold on humanity.

Never Ending Life

LOOKING past our relatively short physical lives on Earth, Theosophy views the soul as eternal. Further, we don’t just ‘have’ a soul, we are souls, the wisdom tradition teaches.

There are many human beings who live to a ripe old age, and according to Wikipedia, the United Nations estimated in 2009 there were 455,000 living centenarians worldwide.

Methuselah is mentioned in the Bible as living 969 years. “But I have never heard of mortal man, layman, or Adept,”  H. P. Blavatsky says in The Key to Theosophy, “who could live even half the years allotted to Methuselah.”

“Some Adepts do exceed, by a good deal, what you would call the ordinary age — yet there is nothing miraculous in it, and very few of them care to live very long.”

She refers here to the Earthly body, not the Spiritual Body that high adepts have learned to occupy and control, thereby achieving self-conscious immortality — albeit invisible to uninitiated mankind.

Gautama, the Buddha, after reaching the goal of enlightenment, refused its fruition and remained on earth as a Teacher-Reformer, it is explained, and esoteric tradition teaches that he still remains in the world, invisibly watching over and protecting mankind.

Not only Gautama, but a “Wall of Protection” is built by the “accumulated efforts of long generations of Yogis, Saints and Adepts,those Buddhas of Compassion

who have woven for themselves glorious bodies in which they remain invisibly in the world, contributing towards man’s salvation.”

They do this “by influencing him to follow the Good Law and to tread the Path of Righteousness. Silently they impress the invisible atmosphere of our earth with their Ideation, thus keeping the balance on the side of right.”

A Modern Mesmer

MESMEROMANIA is how the Paris press reported it.

Parisians including the wife of King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette, were in love with a man by the name of Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer.

Dr. Mesmer was rich in part because he married a rich widow, but also because he became a successful Viennese physician.

He lived on a well-appointed estate and hosted the then young twelve-year-old musical prodigy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Mozart was introduced to Benjamin Franklin’s invention, the “Armonica,” by Mesmer, (who used it to ‘mesmerize’ his patients.)

The young Mozart composed a musical piece for Mesmer’s “Glass Armonica,” and later wrote a solo armonica piece, and a larger quintet for armonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello.

Ethical Alchemy

THE perennial philosophy assures us that compassion is far from a gushy sentimentalism, or an intellectual idea.

More than a gut feeling, it is rather a universal, non-sectarian, non-dual energy — the primal oneness undertone of Life.

The Voice of the Silence declares it to be foundational heart energy, “the LAW of LAWS.”

We already share, as humanity, the core values of caring for others less fortunate. Rooting for the underdog comes naturally to us.

But, the prefix ‘com’ (with: together: jointly) raises com-passion to a level far above the acquisitive passion of the selfish and greedy — and the evil desire that dries up the Earth’s human and natural resources for individual and corporate profiteering.

New Voices

“There is an urgent need for a new focus,” the global coalition Charter for Compassion seeks to remind the world — and to bring together “voices from all cultures and religions.”

The realization of universal brotherhood was championed by H. P. Blavatsky throughout her life, and is the First Object of the Theosophical Society. (Thoughts That Count)

There is, Blavatsky notes:

“A great psychic and spiritual change now taking place in the realm of the human soul.”

Free Hugs Campaign

“Sometimes, a hug is all what we need,” says The Free Hugs Campaign. “Free hugs is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, A man whose sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives.”

In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal.

Concerning our motives, in Letter 7, Helena Blavatsky’s Master wrote:

“The practical value of good motives is best seen when they take the form of deeds…”

“As this symbol of human hope spread across the city, police and officials ordered the Free Hugs campaign BANNED. What we then witness is the true spirit of humanity come together in what can only be described as awe inspiring:”

“KINDNESS, absence of every ill feeling or selfishness, charity, goodwill to all beings, and perfect justice to others as to oneself, are its chief features. He who teaches Theosophy preaches the gospel of goodwill — and the converse of this is true also — he who preaches the gospel of goodwill, teaches Theosophy.” – H. P. Blavatsky

Mme. Helena Blavatsky

Confucius and Plato, belonged psychically, mentally and spiritually to the higher planes of evolution,” Blavatsky maintained, and “Gautama Buddha —Wisdom incarnate — was still higher and greater.”

She saw that the seeds of a future Spiritual Evolution lay imprisoned alive in the heart of humanity. That growth was temporarily stifled in the Twentieth Century with the rise of wars, industrial greed, social strife, bigotry, crime and prejudice.

An indigenous materialism, strongly encamped in fundamentalist science and religion, still weaves a dark cloud that hovers precipitously over any Movement promoting change. Self-interest protects the status quo.

The Golden Rule

Now, despite it all, social reformer Karen Armstrong sees evidence of a vitalizing “ethical alchemy” on the rise.

The Charter for Compassion speaks to the Ideal in straight-forward, practical terms, as did H. P. Blavatsky, who wrote “… the essence of Theosophy is the perfect harmonizing of the divine with the human in man, the adjustment of his god-like qualities and aspirations, and their sway over the terrestrial or animal passions in him.”

The Charter brings together the voices of people from all religions. “It seeks to remind the world that while all faiths are not the same,” but “they all share the core principle of compassion, and the Golden Rule.”

“The Charter seeks to change the conversation around religion, and will be a clarion call to the world.”

Karen Armstrong

Weeks from the Charter for Compassion launch, Karen Armstrong looks at religion’s role in the 21st century: “Will its dogmas divide us? Or will it unite us for common good?” She reviews the catalysts that can drive the world’s faiths to rediscover the Golden Rule. Join the world at charterforcompassion.com to write the Charter for Compassion.

Spiritual Rights of Man

“Whoever feels his heart beating in unison with the great heart of humanity, whoever feels his interests at one with those who are poorer and less fortunate than himself,” Blavatsky wrote in The New Cycle —

“Whoever, man or woman, is ever ready to lend a helping hand to those who suffer, whoever is fully conscious of the real meaning of ‘Egoism,’ is a Theosophist by birth and by right.”

The sea change in humanity that Blavatsky foresaw “is quite remarkable” she said. It is a call to spiritual awakening which may be realized, finally, in our own Century. “Verily the Spirit in man,” she declared in her own time,

“so long hidden out of public sight has at last awakened. It now asserts itself and is loudly re-demanding its unrecognized yet ever legitimate rights. It refuses to be any longer trampled under the brutal foot of Materialism, speculated upon by the Churches.”

Peter Russell: The Global Brain

(Excerpt)

In words that are sorely needed today, she continues:

“Take advantage of, and profit by, the ‘tidal wave’ which is now happily overpowering half of Humanity,” she said, and “speak to the awakening Spirit of Humanity, to the human Spirit and the Spirit in man, these three in One and the One in All.”

Her soaring prose, however, bore a cautionary footnote. “But woe to the XXth century,” she warned, “if the now reigning school of thought prevails, for Spirit would once more be made captive and silenced till the end of the now coming age.”

The Twentieth Century indeed found humanity held hostage—by two world wars and threats of war, and by suffering, disease, poverty — culminating today in a reign of terror, remembered only in the Medieval Dark Ages of burnings and beheadings.

Activating deep yearnings of the Soul for peace and harmony, is all that can save us from extinction.

Attitudes and Limitations

The tidal wave of deeper souls,
Into our inmost being rolls,
And lifts us unawares,
Out of all meaner cares.

– LONGFELLOW

“To a large extent, the way we think determines who we are and what happens to us.”

“We cannot harbor poisonous thoughts without their effects visibly showing in our lives. If we dwell on our inadequacy and ineffectiveness, for example, circumstances will prove us correct because we will invite self-defeating events to us.

“On the other hand, replacing destructive thoughts with hope-filled, optimistic ones brings peaceful and confidence-producing circumstances to us. We will radiate competence and joy.”

Story of Compassion: Samia Shoaib, Pakistan

“We would be wise, therefore, to take the advice of twentieth century author Orison Swett Marden:

‘Stoutly determine not to harbor anything in the mind which you do not wish to become real in your life. Shun poisoned thoughts, ideas which depress and make you unhappy, as instinctively as you avoid physical danger of any find – replace all these with cheerful, hopeful, optimistic thoughts.

‘Today I will make it a habit to continually replace pessimistic thoughts with optimistic ones. I will dwell on what is uplifting so that I may increase my courage and confidence as well as better my circumstances.’

[Above are excerpts from the book The Reflecting Pond, by Liane Cordes]

The Reflecting Pond is a collection of meditations that takes one subject at a time and covers it in depth. Whether we have a concern about self-acceptance, fear, friendship, or love, there is a chapter full of understanding thoughts. Used as an extra dose of support on specific issues, this book will help us think through day-to-day living problems.

Insights and Similarities

“The second objective of the Theosophical Society is the study of the world’s religions, philosophies, and sciences,” writes David Pratt. And, “Blavatsky played a pioneering role in introducing the west to the sacred traditions of the east”:-

“She also provided insights into the deeper meaning of myth, allegory, and symbolism. When stripped of their later dogmatic accretions, the world’s religions are found to have more similarities than differences: they recognize that our essential self is fundamentally identical with the Universal Self…

“They advocate the golden rule of universal love; and they speak of enlightened teachers — Krishna, Buddha, Christ, etc. — who have appeared on earth at different times and restated some of the fundamental spiritual values.”

The Gnostic Code

Excerpt from a talk by John Algeo of The Theosophical Society explaining how religion became a hindrance to humanity’s spiritual evolution instead of a healing force.

The Tidal Wave

by H. P. Blavatsky

(Excerpts)

TODAY, the Spirit in man has returned like King Lear, from seeming insanity to its senses – and, raising its voice, it now speaks in those authoritative tones to which the men of old have listened in reverential silence through incalculable ages, until deafened by the din and roar of civilization and culture, they could hear it no longer. . . .

Look around you and behold! Think of what you see and hear, and draw therefrom your conclusions.

The age of crass materialism, of Soul insanity and blindness, is swiftly passing away.

A death struggle between Mysticism and Materialism is no longer at hand, but is already raging. And the party which will win the day at this supreme hour will become the master of the situation and of the future – i.e., it will become the autocrat and sole disposer of the millions of men already born and to be born, up to the latter end of the XXth century.

And facing the hitherto domineering flood which is still steadily carrying off into unknown abysses the fragments from the wreck of the dethroned, cast down Human Spirit, they now command:

“So far hast thou come – but thou shalt go no further!”

Amid all this external discord and disorganisation of social harmony; amid confusion and the weak and cowardly hesitations of the masses, tied down to the narrow frames of routine, propriety and cant – amid that late dead calm of public thought that had exiled from literature every reference to Soul and Spirit and their divine working during the whole of the middle period of our century – we hear a sound arising.

Like a clear, definite, far-reaching note of promise, the voice of the great human Soul proclaims, in no longer timid tones, the rise and almost the resurrection of the human Spirit in the masses.

It is now awakening in the foremost representatives of thought and learning – it speaks in the lowest as in the highest, and stimulates them all to action. The renovated, life-giving Spirit in man is boldly freeing itself from the dark fetters of the hitherto all-capturing animal life and matter.

Declan Galbraith: “Tell Me Why”

Declan was born on December 19, 1991 in ENGLAND, of Scottish AND Irish origin. More about him and his songs, can be found on his official website: http://www.declan-galbraith.co.uk/

The New Cycle

by H. P. Blavatsky

(Excerpts)

WHOEVER feels his heart beating in unison with the great heart of humanity,

WHOEVER feels his interests at one with those who are poorer and less fortunate than himself –

WHOEVER, man or woman, is ever ready to lend a helping hand to those who suffer,

WHOEVER is fully conscious of the real meaning of “Egoism,” is a Theosophist by birth and by right.

If it is objected that in it the atheist rubs elbows with the deist, and the materialist with the idealist, we answer: “What of it?”

What matters the passing form if the goal pursued is the same Eternal Essence, whether that Essence appear to human perception under the guise of a Substance, of an immaterial Breath, or of a No-thing!

Let us admit the PRESENCE, whether called Personal God or Universal Substance, and let us admit a cause, since we all see effects.

In the final analysis, the greatest of materialists, as well as the most transcendental of philosophers, admits the omnipresence of an impalpable Proteus, omnipotent in its ubiquity throughout all kingdoms of nature, including man – a Proteus indivisible in its essence, without form and yet manifesting itself in all forms—

Which is here, there, everywhere and nowhere, which is the All and the Nothing, which is all things and always One, Universal Essence which binds, limits and contains everything, and which everything contains.

Not only humanity– even though consisting of thousands of races – but all that lives and vegetates, all that in one word is, is made up of the same essence and substance, is animated by the same spirit, and that, therefore, there is solidarity throughout nature, on the physical as well as on the moral plane.

We have already said in the Theosophist:

“Born in the United States of America, the Theosophical Society was constituted on the model of its mother country. The latter, as we know, omits the name of God from its constitution, lest, said the Fathers of the Republic, this word someday afford the pretext for a State religion – for they wanted to grant absolute equality in its laws to all religions so that all would support the State and all in their turn would be protected.”

The Theosophical Society was established on this beautiful model.

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Science or Spirituality

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS are rising in many scientific circles that are beginning to hint at a new non-reductionist and spiritual view of life.

We are awed by the sincerity, wisdom and compassion of the brave men and women of these new frontier sciences.

The materialistic sciences, H. P. Blavatsky predicted “will be driven out of their position, not by spiritual, theosophical, or any other physical or even mental phenomena.”

“But simply by the enormous gaps and chasms that open daily — and will still be opening before them.”

“One discovery follows the other,” she wrote, “until they are finally knocked off their feet by the ninth wave of simple common sense.”