Theosophy

"KH is one of the senior Masters and, with His qualifications of Love and Wisdom, is being trained as the future successor to the World Teacher for, when the sixth root-race becomes established, the Christ will vacate His present office to proceed with even more advanced work on higher planes. Under the circumstances KH works in close association with the Christ, and has also acquired the right to free entry and consultation in the 'Courts of Shamballa'. Masters of lesser degree are allowed such contact only at stated intervals."

"One of the special projects on which Master KH is at present engaged, in close collaboration with the Masters Morya and Jesus, is to find a basis for the synthesis of Eastern and Western religious thought, with the objective of eventually developing the One World Religion, which will serve as the common bond for the unification of humanity."

"From time to time the Master Kuthumi rides on a big bay horse, and occasionally, when Their work lies together, He is accompanied by the Master Morya, who always rides a magnificent white horse. Our Master regularly visits some of the monasteries, and sometimes goes up a great pass to a lonely monastery in the hills. Riding in the course of His duties seems to be His principal exercise, but He sometimes walks with the Master Djwal Kul, who lives in a little cabin which He built with His own hands, quite near to the great crag on the way up to the plateau."

"We have no need of fakirs who stand on their heads. We have no need of sorcerers with a halo of clairvoyance, selling their crumbs of prognostication for money. We wish a true Yogi to be a good sower, a servant of the Common Good. This entreaty must be remembered, for people forget the simplest, most urgent advice. (953)"

"Sometimes our Master plays on the organ which is in the large room in His house. He had it made in Tibet under His direction, and it is in fact a combined piano and organ, with a keyboard like those which we have in the West, on which He can play all our western music. It is unlike any other instrument with which I am acquainted, for it is in a sense double-fronted, as it can be played either from the sitting-room or the library...."

"The Master Kuthumi Himself once said smilingly, when some one spoke of the enormous change that the Theosophical knowledge had made in our lives, and of the wonderful comprehensiveness of the doctrine of reincarnation: “Yes, but we have lifted only a very small corner of the veil as yet.” When we have thoroughly assimilated the knowledge given us, and are all living up to its teaching, the Brotherhood will be ready to lift the veil further; but only when we have complied with those conditions."

"Although Mr. Krishnamurti puts this book before the world, the words which it contains are almost entirely those of the Master Kuthumi. “These are not my words,” the author says in his Foreword; “they are the words of the Master who taught me.” When the book was written, Mr. Krishnamurti's body was thirteen years old, and it was necessary for the Master's plans that the knowledge requisite for Initiation should be conveyed to him as quickly as possible. The words contained in the book are those in which the Master tried to convey the whole essence of the necessary teaching in the simplest and briefest form. The story of how this little book came to be written is comparatively simple. Every night I had to take this boy in his astral body to the house of the Master, that instruction might be given him. The Master devoted perhaps fifteen minutes each night to talking to him, but at the end of each talk He always gathered up the main points of what He had said into a single sentence, or a few sentences, thus making an easy little summary which was repeated to the boy, so that he learnt it by heart. He remembered that summary in the morning and wrote it down."

"The Thinker said, “There will come a new scientist, bold and unlimited.” (934)"

"Far from our thoughts may it ever be to erect a new hierarchy for the future oppression of a priest ridden world. p 2"

"Brother Rakoczy (Count of St. Germain) himself fulfilled the highest measure of love for humanity and was rejected by those whom He tried to save. His actions were recorded in well-known extant memoirs, but still certain liars call him the father of the French Revolution... Our warning was rejected; nevertheless, it is Our duty to warn the nations... (6)"

"Man has always been afraid of anything mysterious, forgetting that the key to the mystery is within himself. One must free oneself from all impeding conditions or circumstances, which are different for everyone. Progress depends upon free will that is directed toward good... People may laugh, but ideas do rule the world. (2)"

"On all continents Our healing solicitude is often felt. People receive help and sense a sudden recovery but do not understand whence came the help... a conscious acceptance of Our help increases the beneficial effect.... The ignorant assert that We provoke revolutions and sedition, but actually We have tried many times to prevent murder and destruction. (6)"

"...in our Brotherhood, all personalities sink into one idea — abstract right and absolute practical justice for all. And that, though we may not say with the Christians, return good for evil — we repeat with Confucius — return good for good, for evil — justice. p. 401"

"Some, most unjustly, try to make H.S.O. and H.P.B., solely responsible for the state of things, those two are, say, far from perfect — in some respects, quite the opposite. But they have that in them (pardon the eternal repetition but it is being as constantly overlooked) which we have but too rarely found elsewhere —Unselfishness, and an eager readiness for self-sacrifice for the good of others; what a multitude of sins does not this cover! It is but a truism, yet I say it, that in adversity alone can we discover the real man. It is a true manhood when one boldly accepts one's share of the collective Karma of the group one works with, and does not permit oneself to be embittered, and to see others in blacker colours than reality, or to throw all blame upon some one "black sheep," a victim, specially selected. Such a true man as that we will ever protect and despite his shortcomings, assist to develop the good he has in him. Such an one is sublimely unselfish; he sinks his personality in his cause, and takes no heed of discomforts or personal obloquy unjustly fastened upon him. (370)"

"Do not be impatient—good friend, I will answer to-morrow. When you learn one day the difficulties that are in my way you will see how mistaken you are at times in your notions about my movements. p. 401"

"When a man begins to talk about creation and the origin of man, he is butting against the facts incessantly. Go on saying, Our planet and man were created — and you will be fighting against hard facts for ever, analyzing and losing time over trifling details — unable to even grasp the whole. But once admit that... both planets and man are — states for a given time; that their present appearance — geological and anthropological — is transitory and but a condition concomitant of that stage of evolution at which they have arrived in the descending cycle — and all will become plain. You will easily understand what is meant by the one and only element or principle in the universe and that androgynous; the seven-headed serpent Ananda of Vishnu, the Nag around Buddha, the great dragon eternity biting with its active head, its passive tail, from the emanations of which spring worlds, beings and things. You will comprehend the reason why the first philosopher proclaimed all — maya... p. 75-76"

"There is a tone of complaint in your question whether there will ever be a renewal of the vision you had, the night before the picnic day. Methinks, were you to have a vision nightly, you would soon cease to treasure them at all. But there is a far weightier reason why you should not have a surfeit—it would be a waste of our strength. As often as I, or any of us can communicate with you, whether by dreams, waking impressions, letters (in or out of pillows) or personal visits in astral form— it will be done. But remember that Simla is 7,000 feet higher than Allahabad, and the difficulties to be surmounted at the latter are tremendous. I abstain from encouraging you to expect too much, for, like yourself, I am loathe to promise what, for various reasons, I may not be able to perform. p. 17"

"Nature spews the luke - warm out of her mouth means only that she annihilates their personal Egos (not the shells, nor yet the sixth principle) in the Kama Loka and the Deva Chan. This does not prevent them from being immediately reborn — and, if their lives were not very very bad, — there is no reason why the eternal Monad should not find the page of that life intact in the Book of Life. p. 134"

"Friend, how can we discuss the Supermundane if energy is not yet realized as the foundation of Existence? Many will not understand at all what is meant by this, while others may think that they understand the significance of fundamental energy, but cannot think about it with clarity. It is necessary to train one's thought upon the idea of energy until the feeling of it becomes as real as the feeling about any solid object. We speak about feeling, because knowledge alone cannot provide an understanding of energy. (Introduction)"

"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). p. 2"

"And now after making due allowance for evils that are natural and cannot be avoided... I will point out the greatest, the chief cause of nearly two-thirds of the evils that pursue humanity ever since that cause became a power. It is religion under whatever form and in whatsoever nation. It is the sacerdotal caste, the priesthood and the Churches; it is in those illusions that man looks upon as sacred, that he has to search out the source of that multitude of evils which is the great curse of humanity, and that almost overwhelms mankind. Ignorance created Gods, and cunning took advantage of the opportunity. p. 2"

"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. p. 3"

"Every thought of man upon being evolved passes, into the inner world, and becomes an active entity by associating itself coalescing see might term it, with an elemental —that is to say, with one of the semi-intelligent forces of the kingdoms. It survives as an active intelligence creature of the mind’s begetting for a longer or shorter period proportionate with the original intensity of the cerebral action which generated it. Thus, a good thought is perpetuated as an active, beneficent power, an evil one as a maleficent demon. And so man is continually peopling his current in space with a world of his own, crowded with the offsprings of his fancies, desires, impulses, and passions; a current which re-acts upon any sensitive or nervous organization which comes in contact with it, in proportion to its dynamic intensity. p. 90"

"The men of this other world of ours, untutored in your modes of thought, and who find it very hard at times to follow and appreciate the latter, can hardly be blamed for not responding as heartily to your suggestions as in your opinion they deserve. The first and most important of our objections is to be found in our rules. True, we have Our schools and teachers, our neophytes and 'Shaberons' (superior adepts) and the door is always opened to the right man who knocks. And We invariably welcome the newcomer; only, instead of going over to him, he has to come to Us. More than that, unless he has reached that point in the path of occultism from which return is impossible by his having irrevocably pledged himself to our Association, We never - except in cases of utmost moment visit him or even cross the threshold of his door in visible appearance. p. 73"

"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. p. 103"

"Olcott is doubtless out of time with the feelings of English people of both classes; but nevertheless more in time with us than either. Him we can trust under all circumstances, and his faithful service is pledged to us come well — come ill... my voice is the echo of impartial justice. Where can we find an equal devotion? He is one who never questions, but obeys; who may make innumerable mistakes out of excessive zeal but never is unwilling to repair his fault even at the cost of the greatest self-humiliation; who esteems the sacrifice of comfort and even life something to be cheerfully risked whenever necessary; who will eat any food, or even go without; sleep on any bed, work in any place, fraternise with any outcast, endure any privation for the cause... p. 14"

"Even if man accepts the truth that fundamentally there is only one energy, this alone will not be enough for progress—one must also learn to picture to oneself its innumerable qualities. Man's customary narrowness of thought limits his perception of the properties of this energy, and thus limits his understanding. (Introduction)"

"You ask me – “what rules I must observe during this time of probation, and how soon I might venture to hope that it could begin”. I answer: you have the making of your own future, in your own hands as shown above, and every day you may be weaving its woof. If I were to demand that you should do one thing or the other, instead of simply advising, I would be responsible for every effect that might flow from the step and you acquire but a secondary merit. Think, and you will see that this is true. So cast the lot yourself into the lap of Justice, never fearing but that its response will be absolutely true. Chelaship is an educational as well as probationary stage and the chela alone can determine whether it shall end in adeptship or failure. Chelas form a mistaken idea of our system too often watch and wait for orders, wasting precious time which should be taken up with personal effort. Our cause needs missionaries, devotees, agents, even martyrs perhaps. But it cannot demand of any man to make himself either. So now choose and grasp your own destiny, and may our Lord’s the Tathgata’s memory aid you to decide for the best."

"If they do their whole duty, the progress of materialism, the increase of dangerous self-indulgence, and the tendency towards spiritual suicide can be checked. The theory of vicarious atonement has brought about its inevitable reaction: only the knowledge of karma can offset it. The pendulum has swung from the extreme of blind faith towards the extreme materialistic skepticism, and nothing can stop it save Theosophy. Is not this a thing worth working for, to save those nations from the doom their ignorance is preparing for them?"

"I welcome you with peculiar pleasure; you have all worked with me in the past, and I hope you will do so again this time. I want you to be of us before the Lord comes, so I am beginning with you very early. Remember, this that you wish to undertake is the most glorious of all tasks, but it is not an easy one, because you must gain perfect control over these little bodies; you must forget yourselves entirely and live only to be a blessing to others, and to do the work which is given us to do.... Can you do that?... Then I take you as my pupil on probation, and I hope that you will soon come into closer relationship with me, and therefore I give you my blessing, in order that you may pass it on to others."

"As we find the world now, whether Christian, Mussalman or Pagan, justice is disregarded and honour and mercy both flung to the winds."

"To be true, religion and philosophy must offer the solution of every problem. That the world is in such a bad condition morally is a conclusive evidence that none of its religions and philosophies, those of the civilised races less than any other, have ever possessed the truth. The right and logical explanations on the subject of the problems of the great dual principles — right and wrong, good and evil, liberty and despotism, pain and pleasure, egotism and altruism — are as impossible to them now as they were 1881 years ago... To these there must be somewhere a consistent solution, and if our doctrines will show their competence to offer it, then the world will be the first one to confess that must be the true philosophy, the true religion, the true light, which gives truth and nothing but the truth."

"The doctrine we promulgate... must - supported by such evidence as we are preparing to give - become ultimately triumphant as every other truth. Yet it is absolutely necessary to inculcate it gradually enforcing its theories, unimpeachable facts for those who know, with direct inferences deducted from and corroborated by the evidence furnished by modern exact science. That is why Col. H.S.O. who works but to revive Buddhism may be regarded as one who labours in the true path of theosophy, far more than any other man who chooses as his goal the gratification of his own ardent aspirations for occult knowledge. Buddhism stripped of its superstitions is eternal truth, and he who strives for the latter is striving for theo-sophia - Divine Wisdom, which is a synonym of truth."

"Now that you have attained the immediate goal of your aspiration, I would exhort you at once to turn your attention to the far greater requirements of the next step. That for which you have now to prepare, the ‘entering upon the stream’ which the Christians call salvation, will be the salient point in the long line of your earthly existences, the culmination of seven hundred lives. Ages ago, by individualization, you entered the human kingdom; in a future which I trust is not remote, you will quit it by the door of Adeptship, and become a Superman; between these two extremes is no point of greater importance than that Initiation towards which you should now turn your thoughts. Not only will it make you safe for ever, but it will admit you to that Brotherhood which exists from eternity unto eternity—the Brotherhood which helps the world. Think then with how great care so wondrous an event should be approached. I would have you keep the glory and the beauty of it constantly before your mind, that you may live in the light of its ideals. Your body is young for so mighty an effort, but you have a rare and splendid opportunity; I want you to take it to the full."

"Those who think of the Supermundane as the very Highest are correct. “As below, so above.” Let this ancient saying serve as a guide to cognition of the forces of the Supermundane. (Introduction)"

"The powers with which occultism invests its adepts include, to begin with, a control over various forces in Nature which ordinary science knows nothing about, and by means of which an adept can hold conversation with any other adept, whatever intervals on the earth's surface may lie between them. This psychological telegraphy is wholly independent of all mechanic^ conditions or appHances whatever. And the clairvoyant faculties of the adept are so perfect and complete that they amount to a species of omniscience as regards mundane affairs. The body is the prison of the soul or ordinary mortals. Ch. I, Occultism and it's Adepts, p. 11"

"For our doctrines to practically re-act on the so-called moral code or the ideas of truthfulness, purity, self-denial, charity, etc., we have to preach and popularise a knowledge of Theosophy. It is not the individual and determined purpose of attaining oneself Nirvana (the culmination of all knowledge and absolute wisdom) which is, after all only an exalted and glorious selfishness, but the self-sacrificing pursuit of the best means to lead on the right path our neighbour, to cause as many of our fellow creatures as we possibly can to benefit by it, which constitutes the true Theosophist."

"...total emancipation from authority of the one all pervading power or law called God by the Theists — Buddha, Divine Wisdom and Enlightenment or Theosophy by the philosophers of all ages — means also the emancipation from that of human law. Once unfettered [and] delivered from their dead weight of dogmatic interpretations, personal names, anthropomorphic conceptions and salaried priests, the fundamental doctrines of all religions will be proved identical in their esoteric meaning. Osiris, Chrishna, Buddha, Christ, will be shown as different means for one and [the] same royal highway to final bliss, Nirvana.]]"

"The process of self-purification is not the work of a moment, nor of a few months but of years – nay, extending over a series of lives. The later a man begins the living of a higher life, the longer must be his period of probation, for he has to undo the effects of a long number of years spent in objects diametrically opposed to the real goal. The more strenuous his efforts and the brighter the result of his work, the nearer he comes to the threshold. If his aspiration is genuine – a settled conviction and not a sentimental flash of the moment – he transfer from one body to another the determination which finally leads him to the attainment of his desire."

"But remember: we are not public scribes or clerks, with time to be continually writing notes and answers to individual correspondents about every trifling personal matter that they should answer for themselves... Time enough to discuss the terms of chelaship when the aspirant has digested what has already been given out, and mastered his most palpable vices and weaknesses... If the members in Europe wish well to the Mother Society, they should help to circulate its publications, and to have them translated into other languages when worthy of it... you may tell your fellow-members – and kind words count for little with us. Deeds are what we want and demand."

"Think you truth has been shown to you for your sole advantage? That we have broken the silence of centuries for the profit of a handful of dreamers only? The converging lines of your karma have drawn each and all of you into this Society as to a common focus, that you may each help to work out the results of your interrupted beginnings in the last birth. None of you can be so blind as to suppose that this is your first dealing with Theosophy? You surely must realize that this would be the same as to say that effects came without causes. Know then that it depends now upon each of you whether you shall henceforth struggle alone after spiritual wisdom thro’ this and the next incarnate life, or, in company of your present associates and greatly helped by the mutual sympathy and aspiration. Blessing to all — deserving them."

"To accept any man as a chela does not depend on my personal will. It can only be the result of one’s personal merit and exertions in that direction. Force any one of the “Masters” you may happen to choose; do good works in His name and for the love of mankind; be pure and resolute in the path of righteousness [as laid out in Our rules]; be honest and unselfish; forget your Self but to remember the good of other people – and you will have forced that “Master” to accept you."

"The whole edifice of occultism from basement to roof is so utterly strange to ordinaiy conceptions that it is difficult to know how to begin an explanation of its contents...The occultists for ages... have accomplished results in connection... which are absolutely bewildering in their magnificence; but suddenly introduced to some of these, the prosaic intelligence is staggered and feels in a world of miracle and enchantment."

"Suppose that civilized Europe had not come into contact with the Chinese till lately, and suppose that the Chinamen, very much brighter in intelligence than they really are, had developed some branch of physical science to the point it actually has reached with us; suppose that particular branch had been entirely neglected amongst us, the surprise we should feel at taking up the Chinese discoveries in their refined development without having gradually grown familiar with their small beginnings would be very great. Now this is exactly the situation as regards occult science."

"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... p. 73"

"We see a vast difference between the two qualities of two equal amounts of energy expended by two men, of whom one, let us suppose, is on his way to his daily quiet work, and another on his way to denounce a fellow-creature at the police station, while the men of science see none ; and we, not they — see a specific difference between the energy in the motion of the wind and that of a revolving wheel. p. 89"

"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. p. 103"

"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. p. 104"

"There is no distinction here between the kinds of service, provided they are unselfish, strenuous, moved by the ideal to help and serve... I cannot give you one by one the numerous divisions of the Way of Service. Anything that is of value to human life is included on that way. Choose then what way you will, because of your capacities and your opportunities; it matters not as regards the treading of the first steps. p. 20"

"There is the first condition, the sine quanon. For the selfish no such advance is possible; for the unselfish such advance is certain. And in whatever life the man begins to think more of the common good than of his own individual gain, whether it be in the service of the town, of the community, of the nation, of the wider joinings of nations together, right up to the service of humanity itself, every one of those is a step towards the Path, and is preparing the man to set his feet thereon."