Secret Doctrine Study Group

Secret Doctrine Study Aids for 2019

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Studies in the Secret Doctrine: B.P. Wadia
Growth Through Self-Effort

Life is substantial as Spirit or as Matter, as the noumenal principle or as the phenomenal personality, as monads or as atoms. In pralayic non-manifestation or in manvantaric manifestation that LIFE is the “One homogeneous divine SUBSTANCE PRINCIPLE,…” (S.D. I, 273.) IT is Be-ness.

Involution of Spirit and evolution of Matter is one process, though it appears dual. That process can best be described as perpetual motion which never ceases, never slackens or increases its speed, not even during the interludes between the pralayas, but goes on like a mill set in motion, whether it has anything to grind or not. This is Be-coming.

The never-ending (for it never began) stream of conditioned existence is conscious; from within the dark depths of Be-ness it issues forth to show itself as the without which is the universe. That stream is composed of Beings — collectively Being — these as units oren masse are finite while the stream as a process is infinite, beginningless and endless. These finite beings, be they atoms or monads, are identical with the ever becoming Universal Over-Soul, which itself is an aspect of the Unknown Root — or the one “absolute attribute” of Be-ness (S.D. I, 2). These beings vary infinitely in their respective degrees of consciousness and intelligence. Each of them either was or prepares to become a man; therefore there are three basic types of beings: (1) Incipient men; (2) Men; and (3) Perfected men (S.D. I, 275).

The incipient monads, having never had terrestrial bodies yet, can have no sense of personality or EGO-ism…. they have no individuality in the sense in which a man says, “I am myself and no one else;” in other words, they are conscious of no such distinct separateness as men and things have on earth. Individuality is the characteristic of their respective hierarchies, not of their units;… (S.D. I, 275.)

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The initial steps of this momentous journey have to be taken now and here by every earnest student of the Wisdom.

The first of these is to reject, without any mental reservation, without any equivocation whatever, all religious, philosophic or scientific creeds which teach the existence of an Intelligent Ruler of men, Father of His children; which teach dependence on power, force or law outside of man himself; which inculcate the practice of ceremonial and ritual for appeasing powers sub- or super-human; or which encourage the notion of man becoming a ministering angel or deva with a view to propitiate the desires of mortals. To all who are in churches or mosques or schools where either or all of the above doctrines are taught, East or West, Theosophy says — “Come out from among them and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing.” (II Corinthians vi:17.)

That is the first step — the complete rejection of orthodox creeds which have to be blindly believed, or which encourage dependence on outer agencies, personal or institutional.

The next is to practise every day and in all circumstances self-reliance, to gain the habit of moving from the centre within, to energize by the power of self-determination, to make use of Will-Force to think and reason, to feel and imagine and finally to perform action. This is to save ourselves from mental darkness, though it is inflicting upon ourselves the tortures of responsibility. Through this, however, self-redemption is attained and to this reference is made in the following:

There is one eternal Law in nature, one that always tends to adjust contraries and to produce final harmony. It is owing to this law of spiritual development superseding the physical and purely intellectual, that mankind will become freed from its false gods, and find itself finally — SELF-REDEEMED. (S.D. II, 420.)

That is the second step — a sincere and persistent effort at Self-energization through the perception of the Great-Sacrifice of the Master-Soul, who is the Lord of Consuming Fire, who brings not peace but a sword of flame called Responsibility.

The next step is the recognition of the very important factor that the same Master-Soul has sacrificed for others. It is not often realized that to enable others “to come out from among them” and to help them shoulder the burden of self-responsibility and achieve self-redemption through self-correction is to prove to ourselves the measure of our own achievement. By our life and work we become channels of service to others; this in proportion as we practise the second of the rules, just as the strength and completeness of that second lies in the observance of the first rule.

That is the third step — the spiritual service of the human kingdom by assisting its members to live the Wisdom-Religion of Responsibility leading to Freedom immutable and Joy eternal.

Studies in the Secret Doctrine:
Growth Through Self-Effort B.P. Wadia

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Studies in the Secret Doctrine: B.P. Wadia

The most palpable and therefore noticeable characteristic of the universe is differentiation. The visible nature is composed of forms no two of which are exactly alike; these have evolved from within the depths of invisible because incorporeal nature made of forces, constructive and destructive. The universe of forces and that of forms are not two but one — forms cannot be built or preserved without forces; nor can forces exist without constructing and evolving forms. The variegated forces which ceaselessly build but to destroy and incessantly kill but to regenerate the myriads of forms, exist. These forces and their progeny, forms, exist — somewhere, somehow. That wherein and whereby they exist as phenomena is Existence Itself, the Noumenon.

Each one of us is different from every other human being — bodily, morally, intellectually. Yet a greater similarity subsists between individual members of the human kingdom than that which exists between the different organisms of the human body or those of the moral nature or of the mind. For example the human body of a savage is more like that of a scientist than is our brain like our heart, or our spleen like our lungs. A greater difference, because it is one of kind, exists between our sensuous perceptions and our reasoning faculties than between the sensuous perceptions of a barbarian and of an artist, which is one of degree. But all human bodies are composed of certain material elements; they all are built out of cells which function similarly in the body of an athlete or a philosopher. The properties of flesh and blood and nerve are the same just as the properties of oxygen or carbon or iron are the same wherever these differing elements are found. The purpose of the Third fundamental of The Secret Doctrine is to bring the true vision of the identity which exists in the midst of differentiation.

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Studies in the Secret Doctrine: B.P. Wadia
Growth Through Self-Effort

That is the first step — the complete rejection of orthodox creeds which have to be blindly believed, or which encourage dependence on outer agencies, personal or institutional.

The next is to practise every day and in all circumstances self-reliance, to gain the habit of moving from the centre within, to energize by the power of self-determination, to make use of Will-Force to think and reason, to feel and imagine and finally to perform action. This is to save ourselves from mental darkness, though it is inflicting upon ourselves the tortures of responsibility. Through this, however, self-redemption is attained and to this reference is made in the following:

There is one eternal Law in nature, one that always tends to adjust contraries and to produce final harmony. It is owing to this law of spiritual development superseding the physical and purely intellectual, that mankind will become freed from its false gods, and find itself finally — SELF-REDEEMED. (S.D. II, 420.)

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Studies in the Secret Doctrine:
The Law of Sacrifice

Sacrifice is a much misunderstood word. Its association with religious and ascetic notions has given it a wrong significance. In the East the conception has deteriorated till yagna or yajna for some is akin to animal-sacrifice at the altar of the gods; for others, sundry ritualistic performances. In Christendom “the sacrifice of Christ who died on the Cross for our salvation,” with its attendant vicious belief in vicarious atonement, is the corrupted expression of a sublime truth known to the world centuries before the Christian era. What the significance of Yagna-Sacrifice is for the student of the esoteric philosophy can well be gathered from the Note on Yajna in H. P. Blavatsky’s Theosophical Glossary.

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The ancient occult axiom, “Man, know thyself,” is familiar to all; but very few have apprehended the real meaning of the Delphic Oracle. We think we know our earthly pedigree when we have looked at the genealogical family-tree; science thinks it knows the physical pedigree of man and humanity, having traced his form from the protoplasm, and its growth from savagery. Neither the modern philosopher, nor the scientist, has traced the links of heredity, psychic, intellectual and spiritual; in the absence of that knowledge, it is not surprising and is very natural, that the modern estimate of the human form is altogether a mistaken one.

For all practical purposes, either of self-growth or of altruistic service, such knowledge is absolutely requisite. The intimate connection between the body, mind-soul and spirit of man has to be perceived; for then only can follow the perception of the relationship, nay the identity, which subsists between him and the triple Universe of Spirit, Intelligence, and Matter. There is an indissoluble union between man and the universe. The two are but the dual aspects of the One Substance-Principle — Absoluteness in its non-manifested aspect and Eternal Motion of the Great Breath in manifestation.

BP Wadia Studies in the Secret Doctrine: What is Man?