HPB-SB-12-185

H. P. Blavatsky Scrapbooks

from Adyar archives of the International Theosophical Society

T i

vol. 12, p. 185

vol. 12

page 185

 

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Spirit Teachings

Second Series

This series of Spirit-Teachings, like the former, is made up of selections from a great mass which have been automatically written during a series of years. They are selected on no other principle than that of printing what has been valuable to the person for whom they were originally given, in so far as this can be done without trenching on what is merely of personal and private application. The latter consideration excludes a great mass of what would otherwise be interesting and valuable matter. The phraseology has been preserved, as far as possible, intact, names only being omitted. The series follows directly on the first, from which, indeed, it is separated only by the accident of its publication in another journal, and after some considerable interval of time. The publication is resumed in deference to many repeated requests.

M.A. (Oxon.)

No. XVIII

Is the Chief here?

The blessing of the Supreme be on you. I am with you.

I want to know about some problems that are in my mind.

We see, but you are ever too hasty. You are but approaching the bounds of hidden truth, your foot is not yet on the threshold, and you would have us reveal to you the innermost mysteries. Be content to wait.

Content or not, I must. But tell me, does “Zanoni” give any fair idea of the subject of which it treats, or is it romance?

It is, as we have said, romance founded on fact, so much of fact as its author knew. But he had not penetrated beyond the threshold, being indeed too sensual ever to reach far into the sublime mysteries. He was, as most are, the union of two contradictory natures; the outer one proud, selfish, self-seeking, self-indulgent: the inner aspiring and grasping after knowledge which is power, and full of overmastering ambition. The seeker after truth was cramped and fettered by the selfish sensualist. Not to such is any deep insight possible. The will must be unchained; the body must be subdued; the flesh must be subdued to the spirit before the aspirant can gain truth. It is not given to such as he to gain more than that illicit knowledge which is no blessing to its owner. Such is only half-knowledge, and that half the most dangerous.

Yes, but he did penetrate to some extent, and saw a good deal. Is what he says true?

He did not penetrate far; nor did he gain any absolute truth. What he got was relative only. Hence his descriptions are only relatively true. Absolute truth could not be so written.

His opium eating was fatal to progress?

Yes; all his life was a prolonged sensualism, and that is fatal. The aspirant to true spiritual knowledge must be pure in all things; brave in spirit as well as in body; single-minded in the search for truth; and self-contained. Dependence on the external mars the upward aspiration, and prevents true progress. No two souls need the same; no two are on the same exact plane, and no two can walk together in all things. Hence the aspirant after spiritual truth must learn first to know his own needs, and to be independent of all sublunary aid. He must stand alone, and fear not to gaze into his own soul, and learn by introspection and meditative contemplation the secrets that lurk there, before he can know of those which are hidden behind the Veil. Purity, simplicity, singleness of purpose, and love of progress and truth—these conduct the aspirant to the domain of spiritual knowledge. But for the impure, whose sensual nature dominates the spiritual; for the selfish, who would use the knowledge for base ends; for the coward, who would fear to confront the hidden mysteries, and would tremble before the guardians; for the ignoble and sluggish, who would loiter on the way and long for inglorious ease; for the half-hearted, who would cast back lingering looks on the Cities of the Plain,—for these there is in the pursuit danger deep and real. Many unstable minds are attracted by the mysterious. They fancy that they would like to penetrate the veil from mere curiosity. They are vain, and would fain have a power and knowledge which others have not, and so they seek to pry. Better for them that they had courted annihilation than have forced themselves into hidden mysteries which are too deep for them. To such is danger. To the truth seeker there is none. He gains, if he be worthy, the knowledge which is power. Ask no more of this.

+Imperator.

<Untitled> (Man at birth takes...)

Man at birth takes on the grosser substances of nature, his body consisting of such. These grosser substances by death he puts off, but retains the purer substances of nature, which are next to those that are spiritual. These purer substances serve thereafter as his body, the continent and expression of his life.— Swedenborg.

A Debate on Re-Incarnation

(Continued from page 105.)

Dr. Anna Kingsford said it was strange that a Chinese philosopher coming from the East, and who must have had so many opportunities of acquainting himself with the religions of the East, should not have taken into consideration the fact that all the great religions that preceded Christianity were based on the doctrine of Re-Incarnation, or Metempsychosis. It was found under various forms, in the doctrines of Buddhism and Brahminism, which covered the whole continent of Asia. The basis of Christianity was in many respects Pythagorean, and Pythagoras taught the doctrine as an essential part of his philosophy. They could not conveniently thrust aside the history of the human past and ignore all the teachings of its great ones, while claiming friendship and affinity with them. Those men represented the great minds of the time, and in this age we had few minds to compare with theirs. It was curious to hear the philosopher saying that he wanted a proof of Re-Incarnation when the proof was at hand. It was stated of Buddha that when he at last attained the “perfect way” he recollected his past existences; and that was the history of all who entered the perfect way. Buddha was stated to have recollected 550 of his incarnations, many of which did not represent historical characters. He remembered amongst others having been a merchant, and in one of his incarnations he is said to have remembered being a tiger. She had some experience of her own in the matter, but she had neither time nor wish to speak of it in that place. It had been asked how it was that the Spirits returned so seldom to speak of Re-Incarnation. The whole matter would be understood if only the theory of the relation of those Spirits to the soul of man was understood. Man was a fourfold being. In nine cases out of ten that which returned was not the true soul, but the “ruach.” Allan Kardec had called the “ruach” the peri-soul, which was an equivalent word. It was the “ruach” which constantly returned, and not the progressive soul. With regard to the fact of a man being a fourfold being, she would briefly refer to the miracle plays of old. In the time of the Mysteries that was fully understood, and indeed it was the basis of our common pantomime with its four characters of “harlequin,” “columbine,” “clown,” and “pantaloon.” The “harlequin” in the pantomime represented the spirit; he carried a baton or rod, and transmitted the forms of things; symbolising thus the Will of the Divine Spirit. The soul was represented by the columbine, the woman or angel. Next was the “ruach,” Nephesh, or outer soul, known to the ancients as the “Shade,” or “Manes,” or “Lares and Penates,” and that was represented by the “clown.” The “pantaloon,” the body, was the tumbledown house, that shuffled about the stage and was the laughing stock of all. The same thing was represented by the common playing cards, which were fourfold. The ace was the spirit, the beginning of all things; it was the unit which took all the tricks, like the Spirit which was the prime mover of the human system. When talking about the “souls” of the dead coming back it ought clearly to be understood what those souls were with whom converse was held. She did not speak in any uncertain way; she claimed to know the method of transmigration. She knew it from those alone who could tell her, those who had been for the last few years her guides and directors.

Mr. Pearson, referring to the observations of Dr. Anna Kingsford, said he believed the Spirits who returned were, as they professed to be, the Spirits of our friends, who were frequently identified. Those Spirits stated that they could progress in the Spiritual world without a physical body. They frequently asked their friends to pray for them, and at some subsequent period they came again, stating that they had progressed, and expressed thanks for the efforts made by their friends to help them. That, he thought, made Re-Incarnation a superfluity.

Mr. E. Maitland reminded Mr. Pearson that Dr. Anna Kingsford explained that the Spirit that returned was not the soul which was re-incarnated, but the exterior fluidic casing of the soul, or ruach, which ordinarily manifested at séances. He agreed with Dr. Nichols that the matter was one of fact rather than one of argument. Mr. Morse’s Control had said that everything depended upon individual consciousness or memory. No person had ever said, “I remember not having lived before,” but a great many had said, “I remember having lived before,” and one positive assertion outweighed any number of negations. For himself he knew that he had lived before in different parts of the world, and it was to him no more surprising that the soul should have memory of past experiences than that the <... continues on page 12-186 >

Editor's notes

Sources

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  Light, v. 2, No. 62, March 11, 1882, p. 111