Secret Doctrine Study Group

Well, to my view, if we wish to try to reduce the theosophical philosophy down to one essential idea, that idea would be Universal Brotherhood. The study of the nature of reality is, in a certain sense, but a means to better realize the essential unity of all beings; and a greater understanding of the Secret Doctrine ought to pave the way for a…[Read more]

Yes, my question was this: for those more seasoned students of the SD, if you were to speak to someone who was less seasoned and steeped in that study, what would you say, in this simplest and clearest possible terms, constitutes its essential idea so to speak. And apart from that essential idea, does a familiarization with the elaborated form of…[Read more]

I don’t understand the question. Can you simplify and restate it please?

What is the essence of the essence of the Secret Doctrine, and do the details matter, and if so, why?

Affirmative 🙂

“AN Archaic Manuscript — a collection of palm leaves made impermeable to water, fire, and air, by some specific unknown process — is before the writer’s eye.”

Apparently before her clairvoyant eye rather than her physical eye.

Life is consciousness but is not self-conscious in every form; only in man it attains the state, plane or condition of self-consciousness, and when by self-induced and self-devised efforts it becomes a Self-Conscious Being, it gains for itself the greatest of all opportunities, the attainment of Universal Self-Consciousness. Then man has become…[Read more]

SD book i page 1

PAGES FROM A PRE-HISTORIC PERIOD.

AN Archaic Manuscript — a collection of palm leaves made impermeable to water, fire, and air, by some specific unknown process — is before the writer’s eye. On the first page is an immaculate white disk within a dull black ground. On the following page, the same disk, but with a central poi…[Read more]

From B.P. Wadia’s Studies in the Secret Doctrine

Deity in Nature

The Secret Doctrine rejects the notion that in any part of Nature God exists. Deity and Nature are not separate but the One Reality. God is neither male nor female; it is not a person, nor even a personality. Deity is the One universal principle — LIFE, immutable and “…[Read more]

Thanks, Pierre, for finding and posting a digital copy of Pargiter’s book. It is great that so many books can now be easily accessed this way. Makes research a lot more efficient.

It seems that there are several references, by K.H. and Damodar, et al, to this capacity of adepts – and in particular the Maha Chohan – to see the future as in an “open book” or “open page”.

re #5365: A friend helped me find the statement about the Maha-Chohan. I hadn’t remembered the correct words. It should have been:

“I came to you not alone of my own accord and wish, but also by order of the Maha Chohan, to whose insight the future lies like an open page.”

K.H. to Olcott. “Letters from the Masters of Wisdom 1st series”: Let…[Read more]

Thanks for that information David.

I imagine you may have a physical copy of Pargiter’s work, nevertheless a pdf of that work can be found here for those interested:

The Purāṇa Text of the Dynasties of the Kali Age by F.E. Pargiter

https://archive.org/details/pts_puranatextofdyna_3720-1089

It sometimes sounds a little bit disheartening to fi…[Read more]

Yup, couldn’t find it either in the ML, and besides a few refs to it, neither on the internet.
“…to whom the past, present and future lie like an open book,”

Of all the books mentioned as being compiled from the “very old book” (S.D. vol. 1, p. xliii), the Puranas seem to include the closest parallels to the contents of the stanzas we have from the Book of Dzyan. Blavatsky there in The Secret Doctrine continues:

“The old book, having described Cosmic Evolution and explained the origin of everything…[Read more]

That’s an interesting question, Pierre. I’m sorry to say I have only a few poor thoughts to offer.

Normally a cycle of any kind has a period of arising up until it reaches its peak, followed by a period of decline. The periods of arising and decline could be the two figures you mention of 2500 years each. It may be that it is only after its…[Read more]

“None of its possessors regard it as very ancient” & “namely, about 5,000 years”. Speaking about the relativity of time! 🙂

I wonder however how this whole paragraph is to be understood in terms of dividing up those chapters?

“there exists another book” + “about 5,000 years” + “In about nine years hence, the first cycle of the first five…[Read more]

SD i page xxliv

But there exists another book. None of its possessors regard it as very ancient, as it was born with, and is only as old as the Black Age,namely, about 5,000 years. In about nine years hence, the first cycle of the first five millenniums, that began with the great cycle of the Kali-Yuga, will end. And then the last prophecy…[Read more]

Thanks a lot, Pierre, for finding these links. I am checking them out. We will see what they have turned up.