William Quan Judge: Spiritual Rules and Protreptics

William Quan Judge · Down to Earth Series · 14 pages

A gathering of four numbered sets of practical rules, with a contents page at the front and closing lists of further reading from both the Down to Earth Series and the Living the Life Series. The first set, the Ten Spiritual Commandments, was published in The Theosophist Vol. I (10), July 1880, pages 254–55, where it was commended to readers as coming from a little book issued under the auspices of the Samadarshi Sabha of Lahore.

The word protreptic in the title carries its old sense of an exhortation to take up a way of life, and the document is exactly that — rules rather than argument. The Ten Spiritual Commandments set the tone in the imperative: search for truth in every department of being, test and prove and try whatever you take for truth and only then accept it; continue that search all your life and never cease to test what you deem true; search by every attainable means for the laws underlying all life and being, strive to comprehend them, live in harmony with them and make them the rule and guide of your own actions. The Ten Rules of Right follow, then Ten Injunctions for Theosophists, and finally Sixteen Cautions in Paragraphs — the last set being the longest and the most practical, dealing with the conduct of a student among other people rather than with private discipline. Because all four sets are short and numbered, the document works as something to be returned to rather than read through, which is presumably why it was assembled.

Read the full text (PDF, 1.5 MB, 14 pages)