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capability of doing work.
27 The Secret Doctrine, Vol. II, p. 517.
28 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 328.
29 Ibid., p. 330.
CHAPTER IX EVOLUTION, REBIRTH AND KARMA
1 "Growth is regarded as having an end instead of being and end. . . . In
reality there is nothing to which growth is relative save more growth."-John
Dewey: Democracy and Education.
2 Sir Edwin Arnold, The Light of Asia.
3 See Ogden and Richards, The Meaning of Meaning.
4 Article in The Atlantic Monthly, May, 1926.
5 The instantaneous (from our point of view) retrospect of our whole past life
in elaborate detail recounted by thousands of persons who had drowned or
suffocated or fallen or been struck a blow, and lived to tell the tale, are, say
Theosophists, instances of the vision falling this side of death. Nor is the
phenomenon wanting with persons who pass out peacefully on their beds. The
rapturous prevision of heaven usually includes elements of a life review.
6 Persons who have slept but ten seconds of clock time have told of the richness
and vividness of this type of consciousness, in which the events of a lifetime
are reviewed, weighed, and morally judged in a moment.
7 On page 646 of Vol. I, our seeress makes what looks like a prophecy of the
World War of 1914: "Europe in general is threatened with, or rather is on the
eve of, a cataclysm which her own cycle of racial Karma has led her to."
CHAPTER X ESOTERIC WISOM AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE
1 The Secret Doctrine, Vol. II, p. 650.
2 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 654.
3 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 170.
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4 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 262.
5 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 478.
6 A. S. Eddington: The Nature of the Physical World (Cambridge, 1928). Madame
Blavatsky had long ago hypothecated this dual nature of light. See The Secret
Doctrine, passim.
7 Section XI of the Introduction to the Principia.
8 The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 517.
9 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 520.
10 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 541. Prof. Millikan's recent conclusions as to the constant
refueling of the spheres by the influx of atomic structures "fixated" out of the
ether of space may perhaps be regarded as in some sense corroborative of Madame
Blavatsky's statement on this subject.
11 The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 547.
12 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 631.13 The magazine Theosophy, published monthly by The
United Lodge of Theosophists, runs a "Lookout Section" in which for fifteen or
more years comment has been made upon the argument of current scientific
discovery with Madame Blavatsky's systemology.
CHAPTER XI THEOSOPHY IN ETHICAL PRACTICE
1 Yajnavidya in Sanskrit means "knowledge of (or through) sacrifice;" but in the
Vedanta and the Upanishads it ranks low in the scheme of wisdom. Madame
Blavatsky in the Glossary gives Yajna as meaning "sacrifice" and describes it as
"one of the forms of Akasa within which the mystic Word (or its underlying
'sound') calls it into existence. Pronounced by the Priest-Initiate or Yogi this
word receives creative powers and is communicated as an impulse on the
terrestrial plane through a trained Will-Power."
2 In Sanskrit mahavidya means "great or exalted knowledge;" it ranks high in the
scheme of wisdom. Madame Blavatsky calls it the great esoteric science and says
that the highest Initiates alone are in possession of it. It embraces almost
universal knowledge.
3 In Sanskrit this term means "knowledge to be hidden, esoteric knowledge,"
especially of the use of incantations and spells. Madame Blavatsky so describes
it in the Glossary.
4 Atma (Sanskrit "breath, soul") and Vidya. The term connotes knowledge of the
Soul or Supreme Spirit in man. This is in agreement with Madame Blavatsky's use
of the term.
5 "The knowledge of them is obligatory in that School the teachings of which are
accepted by many Theosophists."-From the Preface.
6 The term Yoga is commonly taken to mean union and its root is the same as that
of our word yoke. However, Sanskrit dictionaries give other meanings of the
word, several of which have relevance to its use to denote a system of spiritual
practice. So far as the use of the word in Indian philosophy goes, it is a
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matter of dispute whether yoga is union of the individual soul with Brahma or
the subjection of the human senses and emotions. Madame Blavatsky characterizes
it as the practice of meditation as leading to spiritual liberation.
7 In Sanskrit jivatman means "the living or personal or individual soul" as
distinguished from paramatma, the universal soul. By Theosophists, too, it is
applied only to the individual.
8 Raja Yoga is thus characterized in The Light of the Soul, a commentary on the
Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali, by Alice A. Bailey: "Raja Yoga stands by itself and
is the king science of them all; it is the summation of all the others, it is
the climax of the work of development in the human kingdom. It is the science of
the mind and the purposeful will, and brings the higher of man's sheaths under
the subjection of the inner Ruler. This science coördinates the entire lower
threefold man, forcing him into a position where he is nothing but the vehicle
for the soul, or the God within. It includes the other Yogas and profits by
their achievements. It synthesizes the work of evolution and crowns man as
king."
9 Alice A. Bailey, The Light of the Soul, p. 164.
10 Page 65.
11 Ibid., p. 60.
12 The Light of the Soul, p. 234.
13 Ibid., p. 241.
14 Bhagavad Gita, p. 177.
15 John Ruskin, English art critic and economist, labored to impress this theory
on modern attention.
CHAPTER XII LATER THEOSOPHICAL HISTORY
1 The material of this chapter has been drawn largely from the anonymous work,
The Theosophical Movement, the statements in which are fortified throughout with
an abundance of documentary data, and from the Theosophic periodical literature
of the years covered by the narrative, as well as in a number of instances from
the author's first-hand acquaintance with the events narrated.
2 Evidence arrived at by comparison of dates and known facts as to Madame
Blavatsky's slight acquaintance with Miss Collins before 1887, and the testimony
of prefatory remarks in each of the four books in question, leads to the
definite conclusion that Miss Collins did herself ascribe the source of her
books to Mahatmic or other high dictation, and that she had taken this position
without any influence whatever from H.P.B. The whole matter is set forth in
elaborate detail in The Theosophical Movement, pp. 195-210.
3 See statement of A. Trevor Barker, in his Introduction to Letters of H.P. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]