Masters of Wisdom (Theosophy)

"His the Form which stood beside the rack and in the flames of the burning pile, cheering His confessors and His martyrs, soothing the anguish of their pains, and filling their hearts with His peace. His the impulse which spoke in the thunder of Savonarola, which guided the calm wisdom of Erasmus, which inspired the deep ethics of the God-intoxicated Spinoza. His the energy which impelled Roger Bacon, Galileo, and Paracelsus in their searchings into nature. His the beauty that allured Fra Angelica and Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, that inspired the genius of Michelangelo... His the melody that breathed in the masses of Mozart, the sonatas of Beethoven, the oratorios of Handel, the fugues of Bach, the austere splendour of Brahms."

"They have climbed to where They stand on the same ladder of life up which we are climbing now; They have known the common household life, the joys and sorrows, the successes and the failures, which make up human experiences. They are not Gods perfect from unending ages, but men and women who have unfolded the God within themselves and have, along a toilsome road, reached the superhuman. They are the fulfilled promise of what we shall be, the glorious flowers on the plant on which we are the buds."

"How should I put that to convey exactly what I mean in clear and definite language? I must put it, I think, by giving a general principle with regard to these great Beings whom we speak of as Masters, divine men, men made perfect, which works through the whole of that great Brotherhood. They have many ways of working in the world; through Their own subtle, spiritual bodies they work, sending out floods of blessing over the whole world; but, in addition to that spiritual impulse and spiritual blessing which flow into every heart that opens itself to receive Them... the great Teacher is not only a spiritual Presence, He is a human though divine Being, who can be specifically and personally known."

"It must not be supposed that the work of the Christ for His followers was over after He had established the Mysteries, or was confined to rare appearances therein. That Mighty One who had used the body of Jesus as His vehicle, and whose guardian care extends over the whole spiritual evolution of... humanity, gave into the strong hands of the holy disciple who had surrendered to Him his body the care of the infant Church. Perfecting His human evolution, Jesus became one of the Masters of Wisdom..."

"In August, 1851... on a moonlight night, as her diary tells us, beside the Serpentine, " I met the Master of my dreams." He then told her that he had chosen her to work in a society, and some time afterwards, with her father's permission, she went into training for her future mission, passing through seven and ten years of probation, trial and hard work...."

"The teachings contained in it were given to him by his Master in preparing him for Initiation, and were written down by him from memory — slowly and laboriously, for his English last year was far less fiuent than it is now. The greater part is a reproduction of the Master's own words; that which is not such a verbal reproduction is the Master's thought clothed in His pupil 's words... If the example be followed as well as the precept, then for the reader, as for the writer, shall the great Portal swing open, and his feet be set on the Path."

"Platitudinously, the aspirant is told that "when the pupil is ready, the Master will appear". He then settles comfortably back and waits, or focusses his attention upon an attempt to attract the attention of some Master, having apparently settled in his mind that he is ready, or good enough. He naturally gives himself a spiritual prod at intervals, and attends spasmodically to the work of discipline and of purification. But steady and prolonged, undeviating effort on the part of aspirants, is rare indeed. It is indeed true that at the right moment the Master will appear, but the right moment is contingent upon certain self-induced conditions. p. 594"

"What is it, when all is accomplished, that still binds the Masters to the world of men ? Not anything that the world can offer Them. There is no knowledge on earth They have not; there is no power on earth that They wield not; there is no further experience that might enrich Their lives; there is nothing that the world can give Them, that can draw Them back to birth. And yet They come, because a divine compulsion that is from within and from without sends Them to the earth — which otherwise They might leave for ever — to help Their brethren, to labour century after century, millennium after millennium, for the joy and service that make Their love and peace ineffable with nothing that the earth can give Them, save the joy of seeing other Souls growing into Their likeness, beginning to share with them the conscious life of God."

"There is a great office above all those whom we Theosophists speak of as Masters—a Master of Masters, so to speak—the one Supreme Teacher. In Christendom you speak of him by the Greek name, a name which, as you know, was taken from the Grecian mysteries, of which a particular grade of initiation bore the name of the Christos, and the Adept who reached that grade was spoken of as the Christos. That was the name which was adopted in the early Church, according to the account in the Acts, to designate this great Teacher who had come to the world, and we should say, rightly adopted."

"And there, in our own Society, is a point we ought to pause upon. The Catholic type amongst us will be one that will readily respond to the idea of the Masters, the Puritan less quickly. The Catholic mind in the Theosophist will not only recognise the ideal of the Masters, but will be fired with a desire to tread the path that They have trodden. There will be a looking up of reverence, an outstretching of the hand for guidance; a realisation that by that dependence more rapid progress may be made than along any other line."

"His the Presence that cheered the solitary mystics, the hunted occultists, the patient seekers after truth. By persuasion and by menace, by the eloquence of a S. Francis and by the gibes of a Voltaire, by the sweet submission of a Thomas à Kempis, and the rough virility of a Luther, He sought to instruct and awaken... He has never left uncared for or unsolaced one human heart that cried to Him for help."

"We have seen that, go back as far as we may into antiquity, we find everywhere recognised the existence of a hidden teaching, a secret doctrine, given under strict and exacting conditions to approved candidates by the Masters of Wisdom. Such candidates were initiated into "The Mysteries"—a name that covers in antiquity, as we have seen, all that was most spiritual in religion, all that was most profound in philosophy, all that was most valuable in science."

"Madame Fadeeff: "...my niece spoke to me about them (the Masters of Wisdom), and that very fully, years ago. She wrote to me that she had seen and reknitted her connection with several of them before she wrote her Isis. Why should she have invented these personages? With what object ? and what good could they do her if they did not exist? Your enemies are neither wicked nor dishonest, I think; they are, if they accuse you of that, only idiotic."

"Of this same visit to Lahore, November, 1883, Damodar himself gives many details. Of the Mahatma K.H. he says: "There I was visited by Him in body, for three nights consecutively, for about three hours every time, while I myself retained full consciousness, and in one case even went to meet Him outside the house. Him whom I saw in person at Lahore was the same I had seen in astral form at the Headquarters of the Theosophical Society, and the same again whom I, in visions and trances, had seen at His house, thousands of miles off, to reach which in my astral Ego I was permitted, owing, of course, to His direct help and protection. In those instances, with my psychic powers hardly developed yet, I had always seen Him as a rather hazy form, although His features were perfectly distinct, and their remembrance was profoundly graven on my soul's eye and memory. While now at Lahore, Jammu, and elsewhere, the impression was utterly different. In the former cases, when making pranam (salutation) my hands passed through His form, while on the latter occasions they met solid garments and flesh. Here I saw a living man before me, the same in features, though far more imposing in His general appearance and bearing than Him I had so often looked upon in the portrait in Mme. Blavatsky's possession, and in the one with Mr. Sinnett..."

"In all great movements you have some thought, or aggregation of thoughts cast into the minds of the so-called idealists by... [the Masters]."

"One lesson all aspirants need to learn and to learn early, and that is, that concentration upon the personality of the Teacher, hoping for personal contact with Him, and constant visioning of that condition called "accepted chelaship" serves to postpone that contact and delay the acceptance. p. 129"

"You need ever to remember that at this time the main technique of the Hierarchy is that of conveying inspiration. The Masters are not openly lecturing or teaching in the great cities of the world; They work entirely through Their disciples and initiates. It will, however, be possible for Them to appear increasingly among men, and evoke recognition, as the influence of Aquarius is more firmly established. The Masters, in the meantime, must continue to work "within the silence of the universal Ashram", as it has been called, and from there They inspire Their workers, and these latter in their time and way, inspire the New Group of World Servers. p. 230"

"The Masters are also subject to limitation. The general idea of all aspirants is that They represent Those Who have achieved freedom, have been liberated, and are therefore held by no limiting circumstances whatsoever. This is not true, though - speaking relatively, or so far as humanity is concerned - it is a fact that the limitations by which They were held as human beings, are no longer present. But one achieved freedom only opens the door to another and wider freedom ahead, and the ring-pass-not of our planetary Life itself constitutes a powerful limitation. Speaking symbolically, somewhere in that great dividing wall of our planetary circumference, the Master must find an exit, and discover a door which will permit him to enter the Way of the Higher Evolution in its more cosmic stages. p. 389"

"Is any of you so eager for knowledge and the beneficent powers it confers, as to be ready to leave your world and come into Ours? Then let him come, but he must not think to return until the seal of the mysteries has locked his lips even against the chances of his own weakness or indiscretion. Let him come by all means as the pupil to the master, and without conditions, or let him wait, as so many others have, and be satisfied with such crumbs of knowledge as may fall in his way. And supposing you were thus to come... supposing you were to abandon all for the truth; to toil wearily for years up the hard, steep road, not daunted by obstacles, firm under every temptation; were to faithfully keep within your heart the secrets entrusted to you as a trial; had worked with all your energies and unselfishly to spread the truth and provoke men to correct thinking and a correct life..."

"I hope that at least you will understand that We (or most of Us) are far from being the heartless morally dried-up mummies some would fancy Us to be..., few of us would care to play the part in life of a desiccated pansy between the leaves of a volume of solemn poetry. We may not be quite 'the boys' to quote -----'s irreverent expression when speaking of Us, yet none of Our degree are like the stern hero of Bulwer's romance. While the facilities of observation secured to some of Us by our condition certainly give a greater breadth of view, a more pronounced and impartial, a more widely spread humaneness- for answering Addison, we might justly maintain that it is the business of "magic " to humanize our natures with compassion' -for the whole mankind as all living beings, instead of concentrating and limiting our affections to one predilected race- yet few of Us (except such as have attained the final negation of Moksha) can so far enfranchise Ourselves from the influence of our earthly connection as to be unsusceptible in various degrees to the higher pleasures, emotions, and interests of the common run of humanity."

"Of course the greater the progress towards deliverance, the less this will be the case, until, to crown all, human and purely individual personal feelings, blood-ties and friendship, patriotism and race predilection, will all give way to become blended into one universal feeling, the only true and holy, the only unselfish and eternal one - Love, an Immense Love for humanity as a whole."

"For it is humanity which is the great orphan, the only disinherited one upon this earth, my friend. And it is the duty of every man who is capable of an unselfish impulse to do something, however little, for its welfare. It reminds me of the old fable of the war between the body and its members; here, too, each limb of this huge 'orphan', fatherless and motherless, selfishly cares but for itself, The body, uncared for, suffers eternally whether the limbs are at war or at rest. Its suffering and agony never cease; and who can blame it-as your materialistic philosophers do - if, in this everlasting isolation and neglect, it has evolved gods into whom 'it ever cries for help, but is not heard.' Thus - 'Since there is hope for man only in man, I would not let one cry whom I could save. ' Yet I confess that I individually am not yet exempt from some of the terrestrial attachments. I am still attracted toward some men more than towards others, and philanthropy as preached by our great Patron"

"To Those Who Knock"

"In all the world there are only two kinds of people — those who know, and those who do not know; and this knowledge is the thing which matters. What religion a man holds, to what race he belongs — these things are not important; the really important thing is this knowledge — the knowledge of God's plan for men. For God has a plan, and that plan is evolution. When once a man has seen that and really knows it, he cannot help working for it and making himself one with it, because it is so glorious, so beautiful."

"Because he knows, he is on God's side, standing for good and resisting evil, working for evolution and not for selfishness."

"Esteemed Brother and Friend, Precisely because the test of the London newspaper would close the mouths of the skeptics—it is unthinkable. See it in what light you will—the world is yet in its first stage of disenthralment if not development, hence—unprepared. Very true, we work by natural not supernatural means and laws. But, as on the one hand Science would find itself unable (in its present state) to account for the wonders given in its name, and on the other the ignorant masses would still be left to view the phenomenon in the light of a miracle; everyone who would thus be made a witness to the occurrence would be thrown off his balance and the results would be deplorable. Believe me, it would be so—especially for yourself who originated the idea, and the devoted woman who so foolishly rushes into the wide open door leading to notoriety. This door, though opened by so friendly a hand as yours, would prove very soon a trap—and a fatal one indeed for her. Ch. I"

"You say—half London would be converted if you could deliver them a Pioneer on its day of publication. I beg to say that if the people believed the thing true they would kill you before you could make the round of Hyde Park; if it were not believed true,—the least that could happen would be the loss of your reputation and good name,—for propagating such ideas. Ch. I"

"Experimental knowledge does not quite date from 1662, when Bacon, Robert Boyle and the Bishop of Chester transformed under the royal charter their "Invisible College" into a Society for the promotion of experimental science. Ages before the Royal Society found itself becoming a reality upon the plan of the 'Prophetic Scheme' an innate longing for the hidden, a passionate love for and the study of nature had led men in every generation to try and fathom her secrets deeper than their neighbours did. Ch. I"

"Roma ante Romulum fuit—is an axiom taught to us in your English schools. Abstract enquiries into the most puzzling problems did not arise in the brain of Archimedes as a spontaneous and hitherto untouched subject, but rather as a reflection of prior enquiries in the same direction and by men separated from his days by as long a period—and far longer—than the one which separates you from the great Syracusian. The vril of the "Coming Age" was the common property of races now extinct. (Note: Roma ante Romulum fuit is Latin for "Rome existed before Romulus/the founder of Rome). Ch. I"

"And, as the very existence of those gigantic ancestors of ours is now questioned—though in the Hiniavats, on the very territory belonging to you we have a cave full of the skeletons of these giants—and their huge frames when found are invariably regarded as isolated freaks of nature, so the vril or Akds—as we call it—is looked upon as an impossibility, a myth. Ch. I"

"We doubt not but the men of your science are open to conviction; yet facts must be first demonstrated to them, they must first become their own property, have proved amenable to their own modes of investigation, before you find them ready to admit them as facts. If you but look into the Preface to the "Micrographia" you will find in Hooke's suggestions that the intimate relations of objects were of less account in his eyes than their external operation on the senses —and Newton's fine discoveries found in him their greatest opponent. The modern Hookeses are many. Like this learned but ignorant man of old your modern men of science are less anxious to suggest a physical connexion of facts which might unlock for them many an occult force in nature, as to provide a convenient 'classification of scientific experiments' so that the most essential quality of an hypothesis is not that it should be true but only plausible—in their opinion. Ch. I"

"As for human nature in general, it is the same now as it was a million of years ago: Prejudice based upon selfishness; a general unwillingness to give up an established order of things for new modes of life and thought—and occult study requires all that and much more—; pride and stubborn resistance to Truth if it but upsets their previous notions of things,—such are the characteristics of your age, and especially of the middle and lower classes. Ch. I"

"In common with many, you blame us for our great secrecy. Yet we know something of human nature for the experience of long centuries—aye, ages—has taught us. And, we know, that so long as science has anything to learn, and a shadow of religious dogmatism lingers in the hearts of the multitudes, the world's prejudices have to be conquered step by step, not at a rush. Ch. I"

"As hoary antiquity had more than one Socrates so the dim Future will give birth to more than one martyr. Enfranchised science contemptuously turned away her face from the Copernian opinion renewing the theories of Aristarchus Samius—who "affirmeth that the earth moveth circularly about her own centre" years before the Church sought to sacrifice Galileo as a holocaust to the Bible.Ch. I"

"For a larger collection of quotations, see: The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett (1923)"

"They will ask: Who gave you the Teaching? Answer: The Mahatma of the East. They will ask: Where does He live? Answer: The abode of the Teacher not only cannot be made known but cannot even be uttered... They will ask: When can I be useful? Answer: From this hour unto eternity. When should I prepare myself for labor?... Lose not an hour! And when will the call come? ...Even sleep vigilantly. How shall I work until this hour?... Enhancing the quality of labor. (preamble)"

"One must manifest discipline of spirit; without it one cannot become free. To the slave discipline of spirit will be a prison; to the liberated one it will be a wondrous healing garden. So long as the discipline of spirit is as fetters the doors are closed, for in fetters one cannot ascend the steps. You can think of discipline of the spirit as wings. Whoever understands discipline of the spirit as a light that illumines the future worlds is already prepared. (preamble)"

"Shambhala is the indispensable site where the spiritual world joins the material. In a magnet there exists a point where the attractive power is strongest; similarly, the Mountain Abode is the point into which the gates of the spiritual world open. The very height of Gaurizankar aids transmission of the magnetic current. Jacob’s Ladder is a symbol of Our Abode. 88."

"You are sure to encounter a certain kind of person who flies into a frenzy at the mere mention of the Masters. Such people are ready to put their trust in any shameless stock market speculation, they are ready to believe in any swindle, but for them the idea of the Common Good is inadmissible. Gaze into the pupils of such people’s eyes, and you will find a restless shadow. They will not be able to stand your gaze for long. These people are secret dugpas. Often they are more dangerous than their colleagues who openly practice black magic... If you brought these seemingly well-meaning people to the very edge of Our Abode, they would declare that they were seeing a mirage. It might seem that this is all due to ignorance, but the real reason is far worse. Beware of them! Most of all, protect the children. These people are the cause of many of the disorders that children suffer. They manage to get into schools. Historical fact and the law of knowledge do not exist for them. 340."

"Wayfarer, friend, let us travel together. Night is near, wild beasts are about, and our campfire may go out. But if we agree to share the night watch, we can conserve our forces. Tomorrow our path will be long and we may become exhausted. Let us walk together. We shall have joy and festivity. I shall sing for you the song your mother, wife and sister sang. You will relate for me your father’s story about a hero and his achievements. Let our path be one. Be careful not to step upon a scorpion, and warn me about any vipers. Remember, we must arrive at a certain mountain village. Traveler, be my friend."

"We are dissipating superstition, ignorance and fear. We are forging courage, will and knowledge. Every striving toward enlightenment is welcome. Every prejudice, caused by ignorance, is exposed. Thou who dost toil, are not alive in thy consciousness the roots of cooperation and community? If this flame has already illumined thy brain, adopt the signs of the Teaching of Our mountains. Thou who dost labor, do not become wearied puzzling over certain expressions. Every line is the highest measure of simplicity. Greeting to workers and seekers! Family, clan, country, union of nations—each unit strives toward peace, toward betterment of life. Each unit of cooperation and communal life needs perfecting. No one can fix the limits of evolution. By this line of reasoning a worker becomes a creator. Let us not be frightened by the problems of creativeness. Let us find for science unencumbered paths. Thus, thought about perfectionment will be a sign of joy. (preamble)"

"What more nearly compares with Our Community — a choir of psalm-singers or an armed camp? Rather the second. One can imagine how it must conform to the rules of military organization and leadership. Is it possible to establish the paths of advancement of the Community without repulse and attack? Is it possible to take a fortress by assault without knowing its situation? The conditions of defense and attack must be weighed. Needed is experienced knowledge and keen vigilance. They are wrong who consider the Community a house of prayer. They are wrong who call the Community a workshop. They are wrong who regard the Community as an exclusive laboratory. The Community is a hundred-eyed guard. The Community is the hurricane of the messenger. The Community is the banner of the conqueror. In the hour when the banner is furled, the enemy already undermines the foundation of the towers. Where, then, is your laboratory? Where is your labor and toil? Verily, one patrol left out opens ten gates. Only vigilance will provide the rampart for the Community. Victory is only an obligation. Strengthening of forces is only a manifestation of a new vortex. Realization of power is only a test. Challenge is only light-mindedness. As an ocean wave does the Community advance. As the thunder of an earthquake resounds the Teaching of immutability. Before the rising of the Sun let us proceed in ceaseless vigil. 183."

"Merging into the waves of the Infinite, we may be compared to flowers torn away by a storm. How shall we find ourselves transfigured in the ocean of the Infinite? It would be unwise to send out a boat without a rudder. But the Pilot is predestined and the creation of the heart will not be precipitated into the abyss. Like milestones on a luminous path, the Brothers of Humanity, ever alert, are standing on guard, ready to lead the traveler into the chain of ascent. Hierarchy is not coercion, it is the law of the Universe. It is not a threat, but the call of the heart and a fiery admonition directing toward the General Good. Thus let us cognize the Hierarchy of Light."

"How to transmute the most bitter into the most sweet? Naught save Hierarchy will transform life into a higher consciousness. It is impossible to imagine a bridge into the Infinite, because a bridge is in need of abutments. But Hierarchy, like the abutments of a bridge, brings one to the shore of Light. And imagine the entire effulgence that the eyes behold! And understand the Song of Light. Let us labor for Light and Hierarchy! (preface)"

"So much has been said about doctrines; yet humanity does not know how to accept the doctrine of the Brotherhood. How many distortions have been accumulated about the Truth! How many principles have been destroyed! They will ask, “On what is the Stronghold of the Brotherhood built?” Answer, “On the doctrine of the heart, the doctrine of labor, the doctrine of beauty, the doctrine of evolution, the doctrine of tension—the most vital doctrine.”"

"We are Votaries of the Infinite. Where the all-encompassing striving cannot penetrate, the Brothers of Humanity do not affirm their manifestation. We suffuse space with the flux of evolution. The Brothers of Humanity willingly renounce Paranirvana for the affirmation of human evolution, in their desire to lay the foundation for a better step. The goal is not divested of labor. The goal is not divested of sacrifice. Thus, point out the closeness of the manifestation of Maitreya. According to the prophecy of the most ancient Teachers, when humanity loses the foundation of the Teaching and sinks into obscurity, the Epoch of Maitreya will take place. Our pillars of the foundation are sent to regenerate the spirit-understanding. Thus say to those who do not understand, thus point out the doctrine of the Heart! 1."

"A Master of the Wisdom is One Who has undergone the fifth initiation. That really means that His consciousness has undergone such an expansion, that it now includes the fifth or spiritual kingdom. He has worked His way through the four lower kingdoms: the mineral, the vegetable, the animal and the human - and has, through meditation and service, expanded His centre of consciousness till it now includes the plane of the spirit."

"A Master can at any time find out anything on any possible subject without the slightest difficulty... Every expenditure of force on the part of a Master or Teacher is subjected to wise foresight and discrimination. Just as we do not put university professors to teach beginners, so the Masters Themselves work not individually with men until they have attained a certain stage of evolution, and are ready to profit by Their instruction."

"The Yoga Sutras are the basic teaching of the Trans-Himalayan School to which many of the Masters of the Wisdom belong, and many students hold that the Essenes and other schools of mystical training and thought, closely connected with the founder of Christianity and the early Christians, are based upon the same system and that their teachers were trained in the great Trans-Himalayan School."

"The work now submitted to public judgment is the fruit of a somewhat intimate acquaintance with Eastern adepts and study of Their science. It is offered to such as are willing to accept truth wherever it may be found, and to defend it, even looking popular prejudice straight in the face."