Major Works
Study Notes
Enquiries
Nexus
Site Search
|
|
|
Truth is the One Light for
All
Unperceived by the multitude, a stream of Truth
runs through the foundation of all religions, philosophies, and
ancient lore: from the infant days of humanity to the present.
It springs from the Universe's eternal fountain of Noetic Light or
“Causeless One Cause.” Here are some typical references for Truth, a
forever inconceivable, unknown, and unknowable Reality or Perfect
Consciousness: a perpetually reasoning Divinity that animates,
motivates, and sustains all that lives:
Parabrahman of the Vedantist,
That of the Chhandogya Upanishad, The
Absolute of Hegel, The One Life of the Buddhist.
Emanating from the innermost realms of sentient
existence, and irrigated by Compassion and Charity immortal, there
has always been a constant outpouring of higher knowledge to explain the
interplay of being, of not-being, and of
becoming. It is the quintessence of our spiritual
inheritance. This corpus of Divine Wisdom, or Wisdom of Love to be
more precise, has been variously
referred to as:
Archaic Wisdom-Religion, Atma-Vidya,
Eclectic Philosophy, Esoteric Knowledge, Philaletheia, Heart or
Secret Doctrine, Theosophia.
By unravelling the mysteries of Unconsciousness,
Consciousness, and Self-Consciousness, sincere and pure minds can
begin to apprehend the science of life and practise the art of
living. Or in the words of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky,
founder of the modern Theosophical Movement:
. . . one eternal Truth, and one
infinite changeless Spirit of Love, Truth and Wisdom in the
Universe, as one Light for all, in which we live and move and have
our Being. . . . We are all Brothers. Let us then love, help, and
mutually defend each other against any Spirit of untruth or
deception, “without distinction of race, creed or colour.”
These are not mere words: they are verities
eternal. They sustain heaven and earth. Their veracity has been
corroborated by the experience of an unbroken line of avatars and
adepts, mystics and thinkers. They are being promulgated from
generation to generation by word of mouth, ideograms, and certain
texts which, because of the reverence in which they are being held as
well as their antiquity, are referred to as sacred: they uplift the
mind and enlighten the heart.
When, through effortful contemplation upon the
Truth of truths and unselfish conduct, a soul sets about ascending
towards its divine counterpart, it can be said that its return
journey has begun in earnest. Mystically speaking, however, only those
of exceptional purity and virtue may approach the “Sacred
Majesty of Truth” and hear within the sanctuary of the Heart “The
Voice of the Silence.”
The Secret Doctrine
Pre-eminent in the firmament of Eternal Ideals and
Truths that have been brought into the open for the first time by
The Secret Doctrine, are three
divine conceptions, three guiding stars to light humanity’s or the “Great
Orphan’s” homeward journey. They
underpin all other worldly conceptions and approximations of Truth. Their essence and implications may be
summarised as follows:
Cosmogenesis (First Proposition).
The Universe is underpinned by an Omnipresent Reality, One and
Secondless, Attributeless, Eternal, Impersonal, Perfect
Consciousness. Though Parentless Itself, It is the Universal Parent
of All. It is the Parabrahman of the Vedantist,
That of the Chhandogya Upanishad, The
Absolute of Hegel, The
One Life of the Buddhist. That contains within Itself
(a) the root of all individualised consciousness, and (b) the
substratum of matter, different aspects of which It, the Infinite,
exhibits periodically “to the perception of finite Minds”
through:
- Unconscious universal mind (First Logos) or
Divine Intelligence in potentia, an ever-concealed fount
and origin of forces and potencies.
- Semi-conscious universal mind (Second Logos)
or Dawn of Intelligence.
- Conscious Universal
Mind
(Third Logos) or Light of Intelligence and Life
— a Son of Necessity.
On the plane of manifestation, spirit and matter
or duality par excellence are the two prime aspects of
That One Reality. They are inseparable, interdependent, and
interchangeable.
They are mere modifications of the One Consciousness, the One and only
capacity of Perception eternally reflecting upon Itself.
Law governs Universe and
Man (Second Proposition). Impulses from an
unquenchable Desire for self-analysing reflection give rise to an
eternal procession of Consciousness from Darkness to Light, bringing
aspects of Subjective Ideation into objective manifestation through
countless worlds and planets, cycles and epicycles before reabsorbing them all at the end of
time.
The appearance and disappearance of the
Universe are pictured as outbreathing and inbreathing of the
‘Great Breath,’ which is eternal, and which, being Motion, is one
of the three aspects of the Absolute — Abstract Space and Duration
being the other two.
Periodicity is indissolubly linked with Necessity.
Together with Compassion, it is the highest “deity” that that a
finite mind can possibly imagine. For, Deity is
LAW and vice versa. Its essence is
Compassion, Harmony, and Love. And the
ever-pulsating Great Heart which in contracting forgets, and in
expanding remembers the Truth of truths, brings about the “Eternity
of the Pilgrim” or Man.
Man is that noble endogenous plant
which grows, like the palm, from within without.
Amnesia and memory of the evolving One Reality
alternate within us cyclically as day and night, as consciousness
and unconsciousness. In fact, everything is going around in circles:
like the flow of blood which, when the heart contracts, is
thrust away from Be-ness; and when the heart expands, it returns the
aroma
of Being to the adytum of the Central Heart.
Anthropogenesis (Third
Proposition). Once more, from the Circle of Infinity or Zero arises
a temporary Circle of Necessity or relative Finiteness. It marks the dawn of
another Manvantara or Consciousness’ recurring march through the
deepest recesses of Objectivity onwards and upwards to ever-higher
realms of Subjectivity. By successive incarnations and through the
toils and drudgery of life, we spiral towards our divine
counterpart. Individually, we are all companions along a journey of
discovering Self through self. Collectively, we are a Son of
Necessity.
Starting upon the long journey
immaculate; descending more and more into sinful matter, and
having connected himself with every atom in manifested
Space — the Pilgrim, having struggled through
and suffered in every form of life and being, is only at the
bottom of the valley of matter, and half through his cycle, when
he has identified himself with collective Humanity. This, he
has made in his own image
. . . and acquired
individuality, first by natural impulse, and then by self-induced
and self-devised efforts (checked by its Karma).
This periodic apostasy of the Great Mind, from the
eternal harmony of unconscious subjectivity down to the discord of
conscious objectivity, endows every part with the potential of
the whole. Eventually, those who understood the intrinsic unity of
Life will begin to renounce their worldly selves by acting altruistically for
the whole, of which they are but
an infinitesimal part. Only then will they identify anew with the
“Over Soul” of Love, Truth, and Wisdom, bringing back the nectar of
individual experience to the Spiritual Heart. This onwards and upwards
march “from mineral and plant, up to the holiest archangel” is our Natural Duty,
Religion and Destiny. Metaphysically speaking, Man or Humanity at
large is an emanation of the
World’s Soul here on Earth. Mystically speaking, Man is
the “Love of Gods.”
In other words, we are dual aspects of One
Reality. Our consciousness is an individualised modification of One
Consciousness, alternating periodically between wakefulness and
dreamless sleep, forgetfulness and remembrance, life and death. Recognition of our core identity with the Soul of the
World energises the ascension of consciousness to its heavenly abode
by prolonged inward exertion, and by unselfish thoughts and deeds towards all. For, we are our brothers’ keepers. This is what
is meant by living Theosophy. A true Theosophist “is
one who makes Theosophy a living power in his life.”
Ammonius
Saccas
Sketching out the principal teachers and doctrines
of the Alexandrian School of Philosophy, Platonist Alexander Wilder
notes that:
Ammonius Saccas, the great teacher, who
would seem to have been raised up for the work of reconciling the
different systems, was a native of Alexandria, and the son of
Christian parents, although associating much with those who
adhered to the established religion of the empire. He was a man of
rare learning and endowments, of blameless life and amiable
disposition. His almost superhuman ken and many excellencies won
for him the title of theodidaktos, or God-taught; but he
followed the modest example of Pythagoras, and only assumed the
title of philaletheian, or, lover of the truth.
The name by which Ammonias Saccas,
designated himself and his disciples, was that of
Philaletheians, or, lovers of the truth. They were also
sometimes denominated Analogeticists, because of their
practice of interpreting all sacred legends and narratives, myths
and mysteries, by a rule or principle of analogy and
correspondence, so that events which were related as having
occurred in the external world were regarded as expressing
operations and experiences of the human soul. It has, however,
been usual to speak of them by the designation of
Neoplatonists or New Platonists, and, indeed, by this name
they are generally known.
Helena Petrovna
Blavatsky
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831 – 1891) is the
founder and leading exponent of the modern Theosophical Movement
re-launched in 1875, great intellectual radiance of our epoch,
acclaimed philosopher and mystic, humanity's true lover and indefatigable
servant.
Theosophy has greatly enhanced an apprehension and
appreciation of the mysteries of the Universe, Nature, and Man:
mysteries that were previously hinted at, but not disclosed, to the
public at large. Two generations after Blavatsky expounded the
world’s sciences, religions, and philosophies in Isis
Unveiled (1877), integrated them in The Secret Doctrine
(1888), and elaborated upon them in numerous articles spanning
seventeen years, eclectic thinkers are still in the process of
assimilating such an awesome outpouring of privileged knowledge.
We hope that our compilations from HP Blavatsky
Collected Writings, The Mahatma Letters to AP Sinnett,
our selections of commentaries by ancient and modern philosophers,
and our charts, diagrams, and study notes, may help fellow pilgrims
in their own quest of Truth.
. Further
aspects, epithets, and synonyms of Higher or Inner Knowledge after
HP Blavatsky: Ageless Wisdom | Aggregate of subjective &
objective facts | All-embracing Religion & Science | Altruism in
thought & deed | Ancient Ethical Worships (Paganism) |
Aryan-Chaldeo-Tibetan Doctrine | Bodhi | Brahma-Vidya | Brotherhood
in practice | Common Parent of all beliefs | Compassion, Harmony,
and Love | Divine Science | Divine teachings of all ages | Divine
Wisdom-Power-Knowledge | Dzyan | Embracing physics & metaphysics
| Entrance to inner life | Esoteric (Inner) Doctrine | Esoteric
(Inner) Science & Knowledge | Esoteric Budhism, not Buddhism! |
Esoteric Religion | Ever-acting (karma-action) | Ever-flowing
perennial fountainhead | Ever-periodically recurring (yugas-cycles)
| Ever-present compassion/sacrifice (yajna) | Faithful echo of
antiquity | Forebear of Science | Gnosis | Good Law | Gupta-Vidya
(Occultism) | Heart’s Seal | Higher Ethics | Homogeneous Sympathy |
Inner Wisdom | Jnana-Vidya | Law is Deity and Deity is Law | Love of
Humanity | Never-erring Law (karma-nemesis) | Outflow of true
religious feeling | Perennial Philosophy | Platonism &
Neo-Platonism | Quintessence of Highest Philosophy | Religion of
Reason | Renaissance of Ancient Spiritualism | Revealer of origin of
faiths | Science of Truth | Self-Sacrifice | Spiritual Knowledge |
The Changeless Law | The fundamental Law in Theosophy | The Law of
Laws | The Operating Law | True reformer and deliverer of our time |
True Spiritualism | Truth & Impartiality, not authority! |
Universal Love | Universal panacea | Universal Solvent | Wisdom of
Love | Wisdom of Truth.
. Blavatsky Collected Writings, (ONE ETERNAL TRUTH) XIII
p. 269. Cf. “For ‘In him we live, and move, and have
our being;’ as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too
are his offspring.’ ” Acts 17, 28 (Paul quoting from Aratus’
Phainomena.)
. De
Zirkoff B (Comp.). Blavatsky Collected Writings
[Unnumbered Series]: The Secret Doctrine. (1st ed. 1888).
Seventh [Adyar] ed. 1979 [3 vols.]; Madras: Theosophical Publishing
House, 1987.
. Cf.
Mahatma Letter 8 (15), p. 32; 3rd Combined ed.
Excerpted from Bartzokas CA. Compassion: the
truth at the heart of our universe. Gwernymynydd: Philaletheians, 2005;
pp.
33-35
. Secret Doctrine, II
p. 487
.
Cf. ibid. I p. 43
. Cf. Emerson: Uses of Great Men,
6; (p. 716.)
.
Cf. Secret Doctrine, I p. 268
. Cf. ibid. I
p. 17
.
Cf. ibid.
. Oxyrhynchus Papyrus, 1380.109 (ii
AD)
. Cf.
Blavatsky Collected Writings, (“GOING TO AND FROM IN THE
EARTH”) XII p. 28
. Cf. Wilder A. New Platonism and
Alchemy. Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons & Co, Printers, 1869;
p. 4. (Vide reprint ISBN 0-913510-18-1 under the
“Secret Doctrine Reference Series,” Wizards Bookshelf,
Minneapolis, 1975.) |
