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(September 1888)
Publications:
- The Path, vol. III, no. 6, September 1888, pp. 192-195
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DATA
Title for references: Buck JD - Who are Theosophists
Short description:
On the Theosophical Society's deliberate policy of admitting all who wish to join rather than testing for worthiness, since each member's own motive tries and judges him; and on the true Theosophist as one who serves Truth selflessly, without seeking recognition, power, or reward.
192
Who are Theosophists?
To the inquiry "Who and what are theosophists?" various answers will be given, according to the relation of him who answers to the subject in hand.
Some will offer the ready answer, "Theosophists are members of the Theosophical Society." This answer, however, has little meaning for those who know, for the lines from the beginning have been drawn so as to ad193mit all who desire to enter the society, rather than to exclude the unworthy and incompetent. It does not follow, however, that tests are not applied and issues drawn; but by whom? By the candidate himself, who unconsciously embodies within himself the office of judge, jury, and executioner. His life is on trial; indeed, he is on trial for life. The trial and the verdict reached are absolutely just. There can by no possibility be any tampering with either jury or witnesses. No "special pleading" availeth anything. Here is the one ordeal that tries the soul. Hence every person is left absolutely free to enter the lists or to remain outside. Those who enter the society may be divided into three classes. First, they divide as to motive, whether selfish or unselfish, whether enlisting to serve the truth for their own sake or for its own sake; and Second, they divide as to zeal or apathy. This latter quality is determined by temperament rather than by motive, but in this temperament or complexion of the soul motive has already had much to do. It hardly seems to have occurred to the majority, even in the society, that the lines in all directions are drawn by this one word—Brotherhood, and that, in making this the sole test for admission, it is also the touch-stone of all that is to follow. The intelligence with which this principle is conceived, and the earnestness with which it is held, cover the entire ground of the society. But even here judgment is not passed by his fellows upon a member, but by himself alone. If he has the elements of failure, he is sure to fail; if of success, he will surely win. If in place of a right spirit, suppose he is moved solely by a desire for occult knowledge and power; he is then sure to fail, whether his desire be granted or not. If it be not granted, he will ere long drop out from disappointment and vote the whole thing a mistake and a delusion; and this is by far the best thing that can happen to him under the circumstances. If his desire be granted, two courses are open to him, insanity or obsession if he be a weakling, sorcery and black magic if he be strong of soul and unscrupulous; a season of power, working mischief; a return of suffering and despair.
Measure for measure must he pay his debt, and render reward for his evil compact with the powers of darkness. The powers and possibilities in this direction lie, moreover, within narrow bounds, the very substratum of animal existence, influencing only the lowest beings in the lowest sphere of existence. Beyond this realm the black magician is blind and helpless; the merest child is not only beyond his reach, but infinitely superior in power. With feet anchored in mud and slime he is unable to rise, blind and helpless as the beings in Dante's Inferno, and at last overpowered and devoured by the very forces of which he imagined himself once master. The measure of suffering is every cry of anguish, every throb of pain, every drop of blood he has drawn from his helpless, perhaps unsuspecting, vic194tims. The great body of these sorcerers are as yet unconscious tyros, bunglers. Yet are they in training of their own unholy desires and selfish ambitions. Soon or late they must reach the place where two roads meet, and they will understand the solemn injunction, "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." Then must they either painfully retrace every step, or, cut off from all retreat, go down to destruction.
In these higher realms one may be an unconscious sorcerer, but he cannot for one moment be unconscious of his purposes of evil and indifference to the welfare of others. Even the exercise of the power of "animal magnetism," or the practice of so-called "Christian Science" for unworthy motives and selfish ends, comes under this very head of sorcery. He who carelessly subdues a weaker will and impresses upon it his own individuality becomes doubly responsible, and, if his motive be selfish, doubly guilty. Disarming the individual of his own natural powers and responsibility, he in turn becomes himself responsible, and is liable to impress on the sensitive his own evil thoughts and impulses, and so engender for himself a double load of evil Karma by compound interest.
Again I say, ignorance of this law cannot be urged as excuse, for the motive has already located the act. Fortunately in the Theosophical Society there have been few composed of the stuff of which black magicians are made, and these few are in no danger of sinning through ignorance, for they have been warned again and again. The luke-warm and indifferent, mere curiosity-hunters, comprise the greater number of the few who have dropped off and drifted elsewhere. By and by these will return with fresh discouragement over the "beggarly elements of the world," for another flirtation with occultism, flitting like moths around the light, only to come off with scorched and blackened wings, purposeless, aimless, indifferent souls, good or bad according to the shifting winds of fate or fashion. Nature is kind to such and absorbs them into her maternal bosom, or, "because they are neither hot nor cold, spews them out of her mouth." None of these are in any sense Theosophists, though they join the Theosophical Society with every change of the moon. They bring from the T. S. just what they carried into it, though the harvest may be quickened by contact with the sun of truth, which burns, warms, or destroys, or pushes to quick fruitage.
The Theosophist is he who works patiently, faithfully, and unceasingly for the cause of truth and humanity, and finds his reward in so doing. His course is determined by no fee or reward, no recognition that comes to him or his work, for he rather shrinks from than covets such recognition which hinders and trammels him. He needs it not, desires it not. Nor is his course shaped by the apparent success or failure even of Truth itself or the cause it espouses, for there can be neither success or failure, but only Truth. He loves195 it because it is truth, and serves it because he cannot help it, just as the flowers open toward the sun, leaning toward its genial warmth and responding to its balmy breath with beauty and perfume. Each is a part of the other. He is often reminded that the veils are getting thinner, and now and then one is blown entirely aside, as a bride uncovers her beauty in the presence of her husband, saying, "It is only my husband and he is myself." He gets glimpses that startle him, yet he sees them as though he saw them not; he does not even try to retain them, for they must have liberty to go and come. Down deep in his soul is the consciousness that he is becoming other than he was; he pauses not either to rejoice or to mourn, but presses forward. There is joy in the center of his house, and he knows that darkness is fleeing before him. Yet he pauses not even to covet the light. If he is checked and restrained, he waits; he desires nothing, and all things are at his command. He makes no bluster, creates no noise, but he silently aspires and inspires and encourages by his very presence. The silent clasp of his hand is more than words, and the gentle beaming of his eye is more than pity. He removes obstacles by not seeing them. He feels that Truth relies upon him, and he would rather die than disappoint her. He seeks no power or place and desires none, since he sees that place and pains go hand in hand; and yet he shirks neither, well knowing that with larger place come larger duty and opportunity. If he were selfish, he is wise enough to escape them all, rather than wait blindly for the dead-sea apples which drop from the decayed branches of satisfied ambition.
Such and more is the true Theosophist, and their number is not legion. There were not found ten righteous men in Sodom, and Sodom was destroyed, yet was not righteousness left without a witness.
J. D. Buck.
Footnotes