True Theosophists Defined

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Theosophy and Theosophists Series · 1 page

*A single sheet, and one of the most immediately useful things in this section. Dated 4 July 2016, it is headed True Theosophists defined and described as verbatim from Blavatsky's Collected Writings* — every entry on it carries a volume and page reference, so it doubles as an index to where each statement can be found.

The sheet is landscape, on an orange ground, with three white cards ranged across it. *Attitudinally, theosophists abstain from dogmatism, bigotry and arrogance; accept nothing on faith; are entirely unsectarian; are friends of all movements for the amelioration of the conditions of mankind; are humble, silent and guarded; cannot pose as a body of philanthropists; have no dogmas and exact no blind faith; have the courage of their opinions; must be cosmopolitan in their heart; believe only when a writing, doctrine or saying is corroborated by their own reason and consciousness; swim against the current of public opinion and common thinking; and value freedom of thought above all things. Ethically, they aim at a wholly ethical revolution; are the brothers of humanity and, in their complete development, its spiritual exemplars, guides, teachers and benefactors; are the grand fruit of altruistic mercy and pity for all that lives; are imbued with altruistic feelings and a willingness to forget self; combat all exoteric cults; labour to destroy exoteric asceticism; make a nucleus of universal brotherhood; preach altruism, keep unity, mutual understanding and harmony; struggle against the egoists, the indifferent and the sectarians; tread the path worn by the footsteps of the old sages; are unconcerned whether their help benefits a man in his worldly or his spiritual progress, their first duty being to be ever ready to help if he can, without stopping to philosophise; and work for truth in accordance with their sacred pledge. Philosophically, they accept the actual existence of a Logos, in the Buddhist, Advaite, Christian Gnostic or Neo-Platonic esoteric sense, but bow to no ecclesiastical, orthodox or dogmatic interpretation; are original thinkers and investigators of the hidden side of nature; are simply a nucleus of men devoted to the search after truth; deem no pledge more binding than the word of honour; defend their most sacred beliefs; have facts, not systems; hold that the divine higher self of every mortal man is of the same essence as the essence of the higher gods; must have no personal ends to serve, no favourite hobby to propagate, no special doctrine to enforce or defend; recognise that they are under a new and swifter law of development; hold that their highest hope is to approximate the truth; take the motto to dare, to will, to achieve and keep silent*; and will never accept either a Christ made flesh or an anthropomorphic God. Down the left edge runs the Maha Chohan's line that it is not for the individual and determined purpose of attaining oneself Nirvana that the Good Law must be lived, but for the sake of one's fellow creatures.

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