Mystery Is Not Unrevealed Knowledge

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Theosophy and Theosophists Series · 11 pages

Eleven pages with an abstract and train of thoughts, and a frontispiece by Sonia Chivarar. *Its argument is about the limits of writing*, and it is one of the more interesting things in this section for anyone who thinks about how knowledge is actually passed on.

The governing claim is that inner knowledge is revealed only to those of sufficient intellect, purity and discretion who are devoted to the spirit of truth wholeheartedly — that is, that the difficulty is not a lock on a door but a condition in the reader. The historical setting given for it is that in ancient times man stood in a far simpler position, and more in harmony with nature, than he does in what the file calls civilised life. From there comes the point the file is worth reading for: human thought, once written, is to a great extent ambiguous, and the written symbol, without a constant living oral tradition to infuse energy and vitality into it and give it concrete value, is absolutely dead. In ancient times, it argues, the written word was only the symbol; the oral instruction transmitted from master to pupil was the true secret treasure. That is a claim with an awkward consequence for a library of documents, and the file does not shirk it. The closing section turns to what a Western reader can nevertheless do, and the prescription is generous rather than dismissive: the study of Eastern secret philosophy requires an impartial mind, able to proceed without bigotry but with discrimination, working both analytically and synthetically, discerning similarities, making comparisons, and drawing its own conclusions as to the merit or demerit of what it finds. A page of suggested reading closes the file.

Read the full text (PDF, 0.7 MB, 11 pages)