Monday, 30 September 2019
Friday, 20 September 2019
Astrology: Fall Equinox, September 23, 2019
This is the last quarter before the year 2020 which begins with a momentous Saturn-Pluto conjunction and ends with an epochal Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, marking the beginning of a new era. The Fall Equinox chart is very similar to the Summer Solstice chart, only more intense. We have two fairly difficult T-Squares, but the oppositions on both also form a Triangle of Potential, which help balance things and make them easier to deal with. See Summer Solstice post: https://theosophyproject.blogspot.com/2019/06/astrology-summer-solstice-june-21-2019.html
Conspiracy
Theories (Mars-Jupiter-Neptune T-Square)
This aspect can bring
unrealistic, deluded views and can foster extremist, fanatical tendencies. It
can even lead to foul play, slander and fraud. Religious fanaticism could be an
issue (Jupiter in Sagittarius square Neptune in Pisces). For example, there is a fanciful New Age prediction of an imminent collective shift of consciousness that is quite popular on the Internet. As always, vigilance and discrimination is encouraged.
With the Triangle of
Potential, the situation is helped with a perseverent, productive, respectful
attitude and a sense of dedication to just causes (Saturn/Pluto sextile
Neptune, Mars trine Saturn). There could be nit-picking over details (Mars in
Virgo). One also tends to have high energy, ambition and enthusiasm, but with a
domineering tendency (Mars Conjunct Sun).
Failure
to Connect (Moon-Mercury/Venus-Saturn T-square)
Although there is a general
feeling of friendliness and social graces (Mercury/Venus conjunction), there is an underlying insecurity
and fear of rejection. There is also a tendency for anxiety, harsh speech, and
a general sense of inhibition, shyness and frustration in relationships. This
can lead to a tendency for emotional manipulation and impulsive sexual
initiatives.
The Triangle of Potential
brings a sense of close family ties, a practical idealism and an effective assertiveness
to help balance things. (Moon trine Neptune, Saturn sextile Neptune) Moreover, there is another key aspect for both
T-Squares which can bring an outgoing, supportive, sympathetic attitude and an
articulate, philosophical outlook to help balance things (Venus/Mercury sextile
Jupiter).
Summary
With Pluto and Saturn opposite Cancer, lots of retrograde planets, two eclipses, and some difficult Mars aspects, the Summer may have been quite challenging. With the Fall season, the year ends in an interesting way with the year's two main aspects (Saturn sextile Neptune and Jupiter square Neptune) at their most intense. Therefore, on the one hand, we have a strong tendency for delusion and deception, fueled by extremism and fanaticism. On the other hand, there can be strong feelings of insecurity, alienation and anxiety, which can lead to manipulation and rejection. However, there are some strong, friendlier, well-placed aspects that can provide the key to providing productive resolutions of underlying issues. A T-Square is an intense, high energy aspect, and along with the Triangles of Potential, which bring positive, constructive attitudes, there is a distinct opportunity for resolving issues that can lead to personal transformation, in the sense that underlying issues can be better resolved if a catalyzing situation causes them to be brought out in the open, so they can be identified and examined.
With Pluto and Saturn opposite Cancer, lots of retrograde planets, two eclipses, and some difficult Mars aspects, the Summer may have been quite challenging. With the Fall season, the year ends in an interesting way with the year's two main aspects (Saturn sextile Neptune and Jupiter square Neptune) at their most intense. Therefore, on the one hand, we have a strong tendency for delusion and deception, fueled by extremism and fanaticism. On the other hand, there can be strong feelings of insecurity, alienation and anxiety, which can lead to manipulation and rejection. However, there are some strong, friendlier, well-placed aspects that can provide the key to providing productive resolutions of underlying issues. A T-Square is an intense, high energy aspect, and along with the Triangles of Potential, which bring positive, constructive attitudes, there is a distinct opportunity for resolving issues that can lead to personal transformation, in the sense that underlying issues can be better resolved if a catalyzing situation causes them to be brought out in the open, so they can be identified and examined.
In the last two years, I've
been focusing on the aftermath of the strong revolutionary energies (the 7
Uranus - Pluto squares) which lead to rebuilding and re-organizing for a new
phase. However, this re-building process has probably been rather slow and
sluggish and probably won't gain steam until the end of the rocky year which
2020 promises to be. Once the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction occurs at the end of
2020, things should start to move forward in a big way, as a new decade and
20-year cycle begins in a phase of Jupiterian optimism.
Friday, 13 September 2019
A Mumukshus Daily Life
Mumukshu is a Sanskrit term for one who is focused on attaining liberation, and a
seeker of knowledge and truth. This article was adapted as part of ‘’Some Practical
Suggestions for Daily Life’’, which appeared in Theosophical Siftings Vol. 3
and later became part of a popular little booklet with Blavatsky’s ‘’Practical
Occultism’’.
T H E following are some of the hints given me by one whom, of all
human beings, I revere most, about the rules which should guide an
aspirant after truth in his daily life. By this I do not mean to back these
rules by his authority, but I request my brothers to take them for w hat they
are w orth. My object in writing this is the same as that expressed in the
following lines:
If I am right, thy grace
impart,
Still in the right to stay ;
If I am wrong, O teach my
heart,
To find the better way.
“Rise at four in the morning. Rise as soon as you awake, without lying
idly in bed, rolling about, half waking and half dreaming. Then earnestly pray
that all mankind may be spiritually regenerated; that those who are struggling
on the path of truth may be encouraged by your prayers and work more
earnestly and successfully; and that you may be strengthened and not yield
to the seduction of the senses. Choose a clean spot somewhat distant from your
house, and having answered the calls of nature, cleanse your teeth. Then retire
to a quiet place in your house, and having saluted Ganesa and your master, do
as follows.
If you are a Raja yogi, picture before your mind’s eye the form of your master
as engaged in Samadhi; or of some god whose image you have seen frequently. Fix
it before you, fill in all the details, circle him thrice and prostrate
yourself before him; then worship him as you would your household god;
having prostrated again, pray that all mistakes of omission and
commission might be forgiven (all this mentally, of course). This will greatly
facilitate concentration, purify your heart and do much more. Or reflect upon
the defects of your character; thoroughly realise their evils and the transient
pleasures they give you, and firmly will that you should try your best not to
yield to them the next time. This self-analysis and bringing yourself
before the bar of your own conscience facilitates in a degree hitherto
undreamt of your spiritual progress.
Or if you practice Yoga, do so, but in practising restraint of breath,
do not allow your mind to wander on any other subject, but fix it on any p art
of your body, as for example on one of the lotuses. This concentration can
also be practised without restraint of breath. Bathe afterwards, exercising
during the whole time your will, that your moral impurities should be
washed away with those of your body. This is effected in the case of Brahmins
by the sprinkling of the magnetised water over them before bathing, and by the
Purusha Sukta and other mantras pronounced while bathing; but they should do
this with a knowledge of their meaning and their effects. Then wearing a silk cloth
or one that was not touched by others since it was dried, perform your
Sandyavandanam . Many do not know the immense spiritual truths contained in it
and the incalculable good it would do them. Perform it properly and with a
knowledge of its esoteric significance, and it forms a yogic practice in
itself. You may then enter upon your daily avocations.
In your relations with others observe the following rules :
1. Never do anything which you are not bound to do as your duty, that
is, any unnecessary thing. Before you do a thing, think whether it is your duty
to do it.
2. Never speak an unnecessary word. Think of the effects which your
words would produce, before you give utterance to them. Never allow yourself to
violate your principles by the force of your company.
3. Never allow any unnecessary or vain thought to occupy your mind. This
is easier said than done. You cannot make your mind a blank all at once. So in
the beginning try to prevent evil or idle thoughts, by occupying your mind with
the analysis of your own faults or the contemplation of the perfect ones.
4. During meals, exercise your will that the food which you take should
be properly digested and build for you a body consonant to your spiritual
aspirations, and not create evil passion and wicked thoughts. The five
oblations to the five Pranas which are offered before eating, the rule enjoined
that we should not speak during our meals and that every mouthful should be
taken after pronouncing one of the sacred names of Vishnu, effect this in the
case of the Brahmins.
Eat only when you are hungry and drink when you are
thirsty and never otherwise. If some particular preparation attracts your
palate, do not allow yourself to be seduced into taking it simply to gratify
that craving. Think that the pleasure which you derive from it had no existence
some seconds before, and it will cease to exist some seconds afterwards;
that it is a transient pleasure ; that that which is a pleasure now, will
turn into pain if you take it in large quantities; that it gives pleasure only
to your tongue ; that if you are put to a great trouble to get at that
thing ; that, if you allow yourself to be seduced by it, you will not be
ashamed at anything to get it ; that while there is another object that
can give you eternal bliss, this centering your affections on a transient
thing is sheer folly; that you are neither the body nor the sense, and as
such, the pleasures or the pains which these enjoy can never affect you really,
and so on. Practise the same train of reasoning in the case of every other
temptation, and though you will fall often, you will effect a surer success.
Do not read much. If you read ten minutes, reflect for as m any hours. Habituate
yourself to solitude, and to remain alone with your thoughts. Accustom yourself
to the thought that no one beside yourself can assist you and wean away your
affections from al things gradually. Bathe in the evening after you come
home from your labours (this is said only of those whose health would allow them
— I. N .). Before you sleep pray as you did in the morning. Review the
actions of the day, see wherein you have failed, and resolve that you will not
fail in them to-morrow.”
Iswar Nisna , B. A ., F. T. S
(The Theosophist v.10, n. 119,pp.
647-649)
Monday, 26 August 2019
The Three Stages of Christian Mysticism
From
Cassian and Dionysios to John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, the Christian
mystical path has been traditionally divided into three stages, although the
terms sometimes vary. For example Jan van Ruusbroec's Spiritual Espousals has
three parts : het "werkende leven" or
the "active life", het
"innighe, begeerlijcke leven" or the "yearning life" and het "godscouwende leven", or the
"contemplative life".
The following division made by Vallgornera
shows what these authors considered the characteristics of the three ages of
the spiritual life:
I) The purgative way or stage,
proper to beginners, in which it is a question of the active purification of
the external and internal senses, of the passions, of the intellect, and of the
will, by mortification, meditation, prayer; and finally, it is a question of
the passive purification of the senses, in which infused contemplation begins
and by means of which the soul is raised to the illuminative way, as St. John
of the Cross says.(4)
2) The illuminative way or state,
proper to proficients, in which, after a preliminary chapter on the divisions
of contemplation, are discussed the gifts of the Holy Ghost and infused
contemplation, which proceeds principally from the gifts of understanding and
wisdom, and which is declared desirable for all interior souls, as being
morally necessary for the full perfection of Christian life. This second part
of the work, after several articles relating to extraordinary graces (visions,
revelations, interior words), ends with a chapter of nine articles relative to
the passive purification of the spirit, which marks the passage to the unitive
way. This again is what St. John
of the Cross taught.(5)
3) The unitive life or stage, proper to
the perfect, in which it is a question of the intimate union of the
contemplative soul with God and of its degrees up to the transforming union. (THE THREE AGES OF THE INTERIOR LIFE, Prelude of Eternal Life, Reginald
Garrigou-Lagrange https://www.jehannedarc.org/thages1c.html)
The Christians use a term, “Orison” or degrees
of prayer. It is not the ordinary type of petition or asking for something, but
it is more of a yearning of the soul for the Divine. This orison is an
act of love or a supernatural intercourse between the soul and the divine.
Orison covers all steps from the beginning to the merging with God. It includes
all forms of prayers, meditation and contemplation. It is a discipline of the
mind, which should be cleared of external and extraneous objects into a stage
of emptiness. Going deeper and deeper into the layers of silence and emptiness
a passage will be found, and this will lead the mystic to the Divine. This
journey is sometimes dark and bare and sometimes full of light and joy. To the
mystic it seems free and easy. This training and purging is a progressive
cleaning of the mirror, a progressive self-emptying of all that is not real. It
should finally attain that consciousness that can see Reality, which ironically
is without image. It is a Void! Christians called it naked orison.
(Western mysticism 2, Dr. Tan Kheng Khoo - http://www.kktanhp.com/western_mysticism_ii.htm)
The 3 stages of the mystical path according to the Précis de Théologie Mystique et Ascétique (The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology) , Adolphe Tanquerey (1926):
1-
Purification of
the soul or purgative path
Ch.1 – 1- Prayer
2- Piety
3- Meditation
Ch. 2 - Repentance
Ch. 3 –
Mortification
1- Body; 2- senses;
3- passions; 4- spiritual faculties
Ch. 4 – Fight
against the 7 deadly sins
1- pride; 2- envy;
3-jealousy/anger; 4- gluttony; 5- luxury; 6- sloth; 7- greed
Ch. 5 - Fight
against temptations
2-
The illuminative
path
Ch. 1 – Affective
orison
Ch. 2 – Cultivate
the 7 virtues
1- prudence;
justice; 3- strength; 4- temperance (chastity, humility, gentleness); faith; 6-
hope; 7- charity
(sacred heart of Jesus)
Ch.3 – 1- Continue the
fight against the 7 deadly sins; 2- fight against apathy
3- The unitive path
Ch. 1 The simple unitive path
- 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit
1- Council; 2-
piety; 3- Strength; 4- Fear; 5- Knowledge; 6- Intelligence; 7- Wisdom
2- Orison of
simplicity
Ch. 2 – Infused contemplation
A loving, simple, permanent
attention of the spirit to divine things (F. de Sales)
1-
a- Orison of quietude (arid)
The dark night of the soul,
beginning of infused contemplation, secret, obscure, unconscious, accompanied
by anguish, pain, trials, temptations, hardships, desire for more intimate
union with god.
b-
Orison of quietude (soft)
The fourth room of Teresa
of Avila’s mystic castle, quiet orison, passive introspection, a sweet and
affectionate absorption of the intelligence and will in God, produced by a
spiritual grace of the Holy Spirit, feel the presence of God.
2-
Orison of full union
Suspension of powers,
absolute certainty of the presence of God in the soul, a very intimate union of
the soul in God, accompanied by the suspension of all the inner faculties,
ardent zeal, detachment, perfect submission to the will of God, great charity
to others.
3-
a- Ecstatic
union (Spiritual espousal) (soft)
Absorption of the soul in
God, suspension of the senses, spiritual inebriation, half hour duration, up to
seven days intermittently, 3 phases: simple, ravishment, flight of the spirit,
like a delicious wound, longing for the spouse, ravishment is impetuous and
violent, flight, souls feels transported, feeling of separation of soul from
body, perfect detachment, increasingly affectionate appreciation of the
humanity of Christ, profound patience
b-
Ecstatic union (hard)
The night of the spirit,
further purification to rid of remaining imperfections, sufferings of the
intelligence, overwhelmed by pure light of the spirit, sufferings of the will,
feeling of abandonment by God, ardent love of God, feeling of inner light,
sweet feeling of serenity and strength, progress on the 10 steps of the ladder
of love.
4-
Transformative
union or spiritual wedding
Intimate, serene, permanent
a- Vision of Jesus
– great vision of the beatitude of heaven in a transcendent, sublime mode,
becoming one with God.
b- Vision of the
Trinity, feeling that the Trinity resides in oneself, holy abandonment to God,
willingness to suffer in serenity, absence of inner pains and desires, absence
of ravishments, ardent zeal for the mortification of souls.
images thanks to
http://blog.adw.org/2016/12/freeing-spiritual-truths-st-john-cross/
http://blog.adw.org/2016/12/freeing-spiritual-truths-st-john-cross/
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/contributors/saint-teresa-avila
Monday, 19 August 2019
The 7 Attributes of the Person of Stable Wisdom in the Bhagavad Gita (Bk. 2)
(1) Satisfaction in the Self.
55. The Blessed Lord said: When a man expels, O
Partha, all desires from the mind, and is satisfied in the self by the self,
then is he called stable in intelligence.
(2) Equanimity in pleasure and pain.
56. He whose mind is undisturbed in the midst of
sorrows and amid pleasures is free from desire, from whom liking and fear and
wrath have passed away, is the sage of settled understanding.
(3) Absence of attachment, delight and aversion.
57. Who in all things is without affection though
visited by this good or that evil and neither hates nor rejoices, his
intelligence sits firmly founded in wisdom.
(4) Complete withdrawal of senses from objects.
58. Who draws away the senses from the objects of
sense, as the tortoise draws in his limbs into the shell, his intelligence sits
firmly founded in wisdom.
(5) Devotion to the Lord.
61. Having brought all the senses under control, he
must sit firm in Yoga, wholly given up to Me; for whose senses are mastered, of
him the intelligence is firmly established (in its proper seat).
69. That (higher being) which is to all creatures a
night, is to the selfmastering sage his waking (his luminous day of true being,
knowledge and power); the life of the dualities which is to them their waking
(their day, their consciousness, their bright condition of activity) is a night
(a troubled sleep and darkness of the soul) to the sage who sees.
(7) Subjugation of desire and personal self.
71. Who abandons all desires and lives and acts free
from longing, who has no "I" or "mine" (who has
extinguished his individual ego in the One and lives in that unity), he attains
to the great peace.
References:
Sri Aurobindo. Bhagavad Gita. Pondicherry. All India Books. 1986.
Sastry, Alladi Mahadeva. Bhagavad
Gita with the Commetary of Sri Sankaracharya. Madras. Samata Books. 1897/1979.
Monday, 12 August 2019
Theosophy Basics: Universal Brotherhood / Sisterhood 2/2
Simply by demonstrating on logical, philosophical, metaphysical, and even scientific grounds that: — (a) All men have spiritually and physically the same origin, which is the fundamental teaching of Theosophy. (b) As mankind is essentially of one and the same essence, and that essence is one — infinite, uncreate, and eternal, whether we call it God or Nature — nothing, therefore, can affect one nation or one man without affecting all other nations and all other men. This is as certain and as obvious as that a stone thrown into a pond will, sooner or later, set in motion every single drop of water therein. (Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy, 41)
Fundamental spiritual identity of humanity
The identity of our physical origin makes no appeal to our higher and deeper feelings. Matter, deprived of its soul and spirit, or its divine essence, cannot speak to the human heart. But the identity of the soul and spirit, of real, immortal man, as Theosophy teaches us, once proven and deep-rooted in our hearts, would lead us far on the road of real charity and brotherly goodwill. (Key, 43)
Philosophical principle of holistic, spiritual monism in a spirit of religious tolerance
By teaching that the root of all nature, objective and subjective, and everything else in the universe, visible and invisible, is, was, and ever will be one absolute essence, from which all starts, and into which everything returns. This is Aryan [Eastern]* philosophy, fully represented only by the Vedantins, and the Buddhist system. With this object in view, it is the duty of all Theosophists to promote in every practical way, and in all countries, the spread of non-sectarian education. (Key, 43-44)
First, because that which is true on the metaphysical plane must be also true on the physical. Secondly, because there is no more fertile source of hatred and strife than religious differences. When one party or another thinks himself the sole possessor of absolute truth, it becomes only natural that he should think his neighbor absolutely in the clutches of Error or the Devil. But once get a man to see that none of them has the whole truth, but that they are mutually complementary, that the complete truth can be found only in the combined views of all, after that which is false in each of them has been sifted out — then true brotherhood in religion will be established. The same applies in the physical world. (Key, 45-46)
Basic inter-connectedness of humanity. Like
the parts of a plant, if one part is hurt, it affects the whole.
A plant
consists of a root, a stem, and many shoots and leaves. As humanity, as a
whole, is the stem which grows from the spiritual root, so is the stem the
unity of the plant. Hurt the stem and it
is obvious that every shoot and leaf will suffer. So it is with mankind. (Key,
46)
Expand
the idea, carry it out to a universal application, and you will soon find that
in true philosophy every physical action has its moral and everlasting effect.
Hurt a man by doing him bodily harm; you may think that his pain and suffering
cannot spread by any means to his neighbors, least of all to men of other
nations. We affirm that it will, in good
time.
Therefore, we say, that unless every man is brought to
understand and accept as an axiomatic
truth that by wronging one man we wrong not only ourselves but the
whole of humanity in the long run, no brotherly feelings such as preached by
all the great Reformers, pre-eminently by Buddha and Jesus, are possible on
earth. (Key, 47)
*The use of the term here, I think shows, that it is very far from the later, westernized modern interpretations of the term.
Go to Part 1
images thanks to:
https://www.carloscardosoaveline.com/the-tree-of-universal-brotherhood/
https://worldatreview.blogspot.com/2017/12/
Monday, 5 August 2019
Theosophy Basics: Universal Brotherhood / Sisterhood 1/2
The first object
is considered to be the most important (the other two being complementary to
the first). It is quite an idealistic outlook, with the object of encouraging
tolerance and kindness as a means of promoting world peace and fairness for all
in a cosmopolitan spirit of philanthropy, acknowledging the spiritual nature of
all:
Two general objects, one restricted object, of
attention. Every one entering the society is supposed to sympathize with
the theory of essential brotherhood: a kinship which exists on the plane of the
higher self, not on that of the racial, social, and mental dissimilarities
and antipathies. These elements of discord pertain to the physical man and
are the result of unequal development under the law of evolution. We believe
the human body to be but the shell, cover, or veil of the real entity; and
those who accept the esoteric philosophy and the theory of
"Karma" (the universal law of ethical causation) believe that the
entity, as it travels around certain major and minor cycles of existence
with the whole mass of human beings, takes on a different body at birth, and
shells it off at death, under the operation of this Karmic law.
Yet though
it may thus clothe and reclothe itself a thousand times in a series of
reincarnations, the entity is unchanged and unchangeable. being of a divine nature,
superior to all environments on the earthly plane. It is the physical body
only which has racial type, color, sex, hatreds, ambitions, and loves. So
then, when we postulate the idea of universal brotherhood, we wish it
understood that it is held in no Utopian sense, though we do not dream of
realizing it at once on the ordinary plane of social or national
relations.
Most assuredly, if this view of the kinship of all mankind could
gain universal acceptance, the improved sense of moral responsibility it
would engender would cause most social evils and international asperities
to disappear; for a true altruism, instead of the present egoism, would be the
rule the world over. So we have written down as the first of our declared
objects this altruistic asseveration, and have been working practically to
bring about a beginning of the better law.
It is not the policy of self-preservation, not the
welfare of one or another personality in its finite and physical form that
will or can ever secure the desired object and screen the Society from the
effects of the social "hurricane" to come; but only the weakening of
the feeling of separateness in the units which compose its chief element.
And such a weakening can only be achieved by a process of inner enlightenment. It is not violence that can ever insure
bread and comfort for all; nor is the kingdom of peace and love, of mutual
help and charity and "food for all," to be conquered by a cold,
reasoning, diplomatic policy.
It is only by the close brotherly union of men's
inner SELVES, of soul-solidarity, of the growth and development of
that feeling which makes one suffer when one thinks of the suffering of
others, that the reign of Justice and equality for all can ever be
inaugurated. This is the first of the three fundamental objects for which the
Theosophical Society was established, and called the "Universal
Brotherhood of Man," without distinction of race, colour or creed. (Blavatsky, The Theosophical Society: Its
Mission and its Future, Lucifer, Vol.
II, No. 12, August, 1888, pp. 421-433, CW 10, pp. 74-75)
First of all, poor is that theosophic culture
which fails to transform simply a "good citizen" of his own native
country into a "good citizen" of the world. A true theosophist
must be a cosmopolitan in his heart. He must embrace mankind, the whole
of humanity in his philanthropic feelings. It is higher and far nobler to
be one of those who love their fellow men, without distinction of race,
creed, caste or colour, than to be merely a good patriot, or still less, a
partizan.
To mete one measure for all, is holier and more divine than to
help one's country in its private ambition of aggrandizement, strife or
bloody wars in the name of GREEDINESS and SELFISHNESS. Severe denunciation is
a duty to truth." It is; on condition, however, that one should
denounce and fight against the root
of evil and not expend one's fury by knocking down the irresponsible
blossoms of its plant. The wise horticulturist uproots the parasitic
herbs, and will hardly lose time in using his garden shears to cut off the
heads of the poisonous weeds. (Blavatsky Is Denunciation a Duty?, Lucifer,
Vol. III, No. 16, December 1888, pp. 265-273, CW 10, 199-200)
Go to part 2
Go to part 2
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