Musings on the True Theosophist's Path, Part I - William Q. Judge

Here's one that has become something of a classic, although perhaps not as popular as it might be, because it aims to tell the truth about the difficult realities of the path in a frank, uncompromising way. Inspired by the great spiritual classic, Light on the Path, Mabel Collins:

"The way of inward peace is in all things to conform to the pleasure and disposition of the Divine Will. Such as would have all things succeed and come to pass according to their own fancy, are not come to know this way; and therefore lead a harsh and bitter life; always restless and out of humor, without treading the way of peace."

Know then, oh Man, that he who seeks the hidden way, can only find it through the door of life. In the hearts of all, at some time, there arises the desire for knowledge. He who thinks his desire will be fulfilled, as the little bird in the nest, who has only to open his mouth to be fed; will very truly be disappointed.

In all nature we can find no instance where effort of some kind is not required. We find there is a natural result from such effort. He who would live the life or find wisdom can only do so by continued effort. If one becomes a student, and learns to look partially within the veil, or has found within his own being something that is greater than his outer self, it gives no authority for one to sit down in idleness or fence himself in from contact with the world. Because one sees the gleam of the light ahead he cannot say to his fellow "I am holier than thou" or draw the mantle of seclusion around himself.

The soul develops like the flower, in God's sunlight, and unconsciously to the soil in which it grows. Shut out the light and the soil grows damp and sterile, the flower withers or grows pale and sickly. Each and every one is here for a good and wise reason. If we find partially the why we are here, then is there the more reason that we should by intelligent contact with life, seek in it the further elucidation of the problem. It is not the study of ourselves so much, as the thought for others that opens this door. The events of life and their causes lead to knowledge. They must be studied when they are manifested in daily life.

There is no idleness for the Mystic. He finds his daily life among the roughest and hardest of the labors and trials of the world perhaps, but goes his way with smiling face and joyful heart, nor grows too sensitive for association with his fellows, nor so extremely spiritual as to forget that some other body is perhaps hungering for food.

It was said by one who pretended to teach the mysteries, "It is needful that I have a pleasant location and beautiful surroundings." He who is a true Theosophist will wait for nothing of the sort, either before teaching; or what is first needful, learning. It would perhaps, be agreeable, but if the Divine Inspiration comes only under those conditions, then indeed is the Divine afar from the most of us. He only can be a factor for good or teach how to approach the way, who forgetting his own surroundings, strives to beautify and illumine those of others. The effort must be for the good of others, not the gratifying of our own senses, or love for the agreeable or pleasant.
Giving thought to self will most truly prevent and overthrow your aims and objects, particularly when directed toward the occult.

Again there arises the thought "I am a student, a holder of a portion of the mystic lore." Insidiously there steals in the thought "Behold I am a little more than other men, who have not penetrated so far." Know then, oh man, that you are not as great even as they. He who thinks he is wise is the most ignorant of men, and he who begins to believe he is wise is in greater danger than any other man who lives.

You think, oh man, that because you have obtained a portion of occult knowledge, that it entitles you to withdraw from contact with the rest of mankind. It is not so. If you have obtained true knowledge it forces you to meet all men not only half way, but more than that to seek them. It urges you not to retire but, seeking contact, to plunge into the misery and sorrow of the world, and with your cheering word, if you have no more (the Mystic has little else) strive to lighten the burden for some struggling soul.

You dream of fame. We know no such thing as fame. He who seeks the upward path finds that all is truth; that evil is the good gone astray. Why should we ask for fame? It is only the commendation of those we strive to help.

Desire neither notice, fame nor wealth. Unknown you are in retirement. Being fameless you are undisturbed in your seclusion, and can walk the broad face of the earth fulfilling your duty, as commanded, unrecognized.

If the duty grows hard, or you faint by the way, be not discouraged, fearful or weary of the world. Remember that "Thou may'st look for silence in tumult, solitude in company, light in darkness, forgetfulness in pressures, vigor in despondency, courage in fear, resistance in temptation, peace in war, and quiet in tribulation."

The Path, Aug 1886 pp. 155-156 

It opens with a quote from Miguel de Molinos - here's a full version-
The Spiritual Guide which Disentangles the Soul Miguel de Molinos The PREFACE. Fourth Advertisement. The Burden of this Book consisting in rooting out the Rebellion of our own Will, that we may attain to internal Peace. 29. The way of inward Peace, is in all things to be conform to the pleasure and disposition of the Divine Will. (Hugo Cardinalisin Pf.13.) In omnibus debemus subjicere volis tatem nostram voluntatis divine hæc est enim pax voluntati nostra ut sit per omnia confirmis voluntati divine. Such as would have all things succeed and come to pass according to their own fancy, are not come to know this way, Viam pacis non cognos verunt, and therefore lead a harsh and bitter life, always restless and out of humour without treading the way of Peace, which consists in a total conformity to the will of God. 30. This conformity is the sweet yoke that introduces us into the regions of internal Peace and serenity. Hence we may know, that the rebellion of our Will is the chief occasion of our disquiet; and that because we will not submit to the sweet yoke of the Divine Will, we suffer so many streights and perturbations. O Soul! if we submitted our own to the Divine Will, and to all his Disposition, what tranquility should we feel! what sweet peace! what inward serenity! what supreme felicity and earnest of bliss!. This then is to be the burden of this Book: May it please God to give me his Divine Light, for discovering the secret Paths of this Inward Way, and chief Felicity of perfect Peace.

Part 2

What is the "Daily Initiation"?

Here's a short text that, that, I think, embodies a philosophy of daily life,  a kind of mindfullness:

"It is supposed by some that initiation is always and in every case a set and solemn occasion for which the candidate is prepared and notified in advance. While there are some initiations surrounded by such solemnities as these, the daily one, without success in which no aspirant will  ever have the chance to try for those that are higher, comes to the disciple with almost each moment. 

 

It is met in our relations with our fellows, and in the effects upon us of all the circumstances of life. And if we fail in these, we never get to the point where greater ones are offered. If we cannot bear momentary defeat, or if a chance word that strikes our self-love finds us unprepared, or if we give way to the desire to harshly judge others, or if we remain in ignorance of some of our most apparent faults, we do not build up that knowledge and strength imperatively demanded from whoever is to be master of nature.

It is in the life of every one to have a moment of choice, but that moment is not set for any particular day. It is the sum total of all days; and it may be put off until the day of death, and then it is beyond our power, for the choice has been fixed by all the acts and thoughts of our lifetime. We are self-doomed at that hour to just the sort of life, body, environment, and tendencies which will best carry out our karma. This is a thing solemn enough, and one that makes the "daily initiation" of the very greatest importance to each earnest student. But all of this has been said before, and it is a pity that students persist in ignoring the good advice they receive.

Do you think that if a Master accepted you He would put you to some strange test? No, He would not, but simply permitting the small events of your life to have their course, the result would determine your standing. It may be a child's school, but it takes a man to go through it."

The Path, Sept. 1889, pp. 187-88, Hadji Erinn (William Q. Judge)

Since this is a 19th century text, 'man' can be considered gender neutral.

Part 2 

Links of Interest 2 - Theosophy & Rosetta Comet Mission

Rosetta comet mission copacetic with esoteric cosmology:

In H.P. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine (1888), there are ideas about the cosmological role of comets that are intriguingly similar to today's theories:

"(II.) “That it does not regard the Comets as involved in that particular evolution which has produced the solar system.” (Esoteric doctrine does.) (It does, because it, too, recognises the comets as forms of cosmic existence co-ordinated with earlier stages of nebular evolution; and it actually assigns to them chiefly the formation of all worlds.)" SD I, 599

Similar modern theories can be found voiced in the article below:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/10/tech/innovation/rosetta-comet-landing-experts/index.html

Recent discoveries have human life up to 1 million years ago:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/news/the-millionyearold-family-human-footprints-found-in-britain-are-oldest-ever-seen-outside-of-africa-9114151.html

http://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/09-archaeologists-find-earliest-evidence-of-humans-cooking-with-fire

http://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/1.551898

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/human/human_evolution/first_europeans1.shtml

A very clever multi-media experiment based on Kepler's Harmonice Mundi:

http://www.calderon-online.com/trabajos/kepler/harmonicemundi.swf

Remarkable new finds at the every-mysterious Stonehenge:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/10/stonehenge-discovery-site-stones-size_n_5797062.html

Persephone and Hades mystery mural unearthed:
http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/greek-tomb-mural-depicts-abduction-of-persephone-141016.htm?AID=11732244&PID=6151052&SID=1ofblklk6nub5&URL=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.discovery.com%2Fhistory%2Farchaeology%2Fgreek-tomb-mural-depicts-abduction-of-persephone-141016.htm&ecid=AFF-7975437&pa=affcj&PCID=2470763

Blavatsky on Sufism / Sufi Wisdom

Suffism (Gr.). From the root of Sophia, “Wisdom ”. A mystical sect in Persia something like the Vedantins; though very strong in numbers, none but very intelligent men join it. They claim, and very justly, the possession of the esoteric philosophy and doctrine of true Mohammedanism. The Suffi (or Sofi) doctrine is a good deal in touch with Theosophy, inasmuch as it preaches one universal creed, and outward respect and tolerance for every popular exoteric faith. It is also in touch with Masonry. The Suffis have four degrees and four stages of initiation:1st, probationary, with a strict outward observance of Mussulman rites, the hidden meaning of each ceremony and dogma being explained to the candidate; 2nd, metaphysical training; 3rd, the “Wisdom” degree, when the candidate is initiated into the innermost nature of things; and 4th final Truth, when the Adept attains divine powers, and complete union with the One Universal Deity in ecstacy or Samâdhi. (Theosophical Glossary, p. 311)

Plato states that the mystic Magian religion, known under the name of Machagistia, is the most uncorrupted form of worship in things divine. Later, the Mysteries of the Chaldean sanctuaries were added to it by one of the Zoroasters and Darius Hystaspes. The latter completed and perfected it still more with the help of the knowledge obtained by him from the learned ascetics of India, whose rites were identical with those of the initiated Magi.
Ammian, in his history of Julian's Persian expedition, gives the story by stating that one day Hystaspes, as he was boldly penetrating into the unknown regions of Upper India, had come upon a certain wooded solitude, the tranquil recesses of which were "occupied by those exalted sages, the Brachmanes (or Shamans). Instructed by their teaching in the science of the motions of the world and of the heavenly bodies, and in pure religious rites . . . he transfused them into the creed of the Magi. The latter, coupling these doctrines with their own peculiar science of foretelling the future, have handed down the whole through their descendants to succeeding ages."***

It is from these descendants that the Sufis, chiefly composed of Persians and Syrians, acquired their proficient knowledge in astrology, medicine, and the esoteric doctrine of the ages. "The Sufi doctrine," says C. W. King, "involved the grand idea of one universal creed which could be secretly held under any profession of an outward faith; and, in fact, took virtually the same view of religious systems as that in which the ancient philosophers had regarded such matters."**** The mysterious Druzes of Mount Lebanon are the descendants of all these.

Solitary Copts, earnest students scattered hither and thither throughout the sandy solitudes of Egypt, Arabia, Petraea, Palestine, and the impenetrable forests of Abyssinia, though rarely met with, may sometimes be seen. Many and various are the nationalities to which belong the disciples of that mysterious school, and many the side-shoots of that one primitive stock. The secresy preserved by these sub-lodges, as well as by the one and supreme great lodge, has ever been proportionate to the activity of religious persecutions; and now, in the face of the growing materialism, their very existence is becoming a mystery. (Isis Unveiled 2, p. 307)

Blavatsky & the Vivekachudamani / Crown Jewel of Discrimination, Sankara

Blavatsky herself noticed Mohini Chatterji's pioneering 1886 translation in her Secret Doctrine, in the section "On the Elements and Atoms". She gives some admirably subtle metaphysical interpretations of some passages and makes a rather intricate comparison with a passage from the Gospel of John:

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-3-11.htm

”The monad — a truly “indivisible thing,” as defined by Good, who did not give it the sense we now do — is here rendered as the Atma in conjunction with Buddhi and the higher Manas. This trinity is one and eternal, the latter being absorbed in the former at the termination of all conditioned and illusive life. The monad, then, can be traced through the course of its pilgrimage and its changes of transitory vehicles only from the incipient stage of the manifested Universe. In Pralaya, or the intermediate period between two manvantaras, it loses its name, as it loses it when the real one self of man merges into Brahm in cases of high Samadhi (the Turiya state) or final Nirvana; “when the disciple” in the words of Sankara, “having attained that primeval consciousness, absolute bliss, of which the nature is truth, which is without form and action, abandons this illusive body that has been assumed by the atma just as an actor (abandons) the dress (put on).” For Buddhi (the Anandamaya sheath) is but a mirror which reflects absolute bliss; and, moreover, that reflection itself is yet not free from ignorance, and is not the Supreme Spirit, being subject to conditions, being a spiritual modification of Prakriti, and an effect; Atma alone is the one real and eternal substratum of all — the essence and absolute knowledge — the Kshetragna.† It is called in the Esoteric philosophy “the One Witness,”and, while it rests in Devachan, is referred to as “the Three Witnesses to Karma.”(SD1, XI, p. 570)

The Fourfold prerequisites of the Vivekachudamani were important concepts in early Theosophy : 
http://theosophy.katinkahesselink.net/man-fragments/13_occult.htm

Qualifications for Chelaship, Theosophist, September, 1884:
http://www.universaltheosophy.com/articles/chatterji/qualifications-for-chelaship/

Atmanatma-Viveka, “Discrimination of Spirit and Not-Spirit”, Translated by Mohini M. Chatterji
http://www.universaltheosophy.com/articles/chatterji/atmanatma-viveka/

Even Krishnamurti's At the Feet of the Master is based on these notions.

PS. The section "On the Elements and Atoms" can be considered one of the more essential sections, and a good place to start reading the Secret Doctrine.

Vivekachudamani / Crest Jewel of Discrimination, Sankara 5

Question – what is consciousness, perceiver and perceived, pot and clay, reality and existence, the universe not different from the absolute, non-duality, slaying of residual impressions, establishing mind in Self, destroying false self, giving up attachment, egoism (214-360)
Meditation, detachment (361-389)
The Self, the mature of supreme reality, realization of bliss (390-424)
Liberation, merging in the absolute while in body (425-453)
Accumulation of past actions (454-479)
Student becomes established in supreme absolute (480-581) 

As the wise man looks at the sun itself and not the jar, the water or the reflection; so also the wise man looks towards the self-illumined \Atman through which the three (\upaadhis) are manifested. (221)

Therefore there is no real existence of the universe, distinct from the supreme \Atman; its distinct perception is as unreal as that of the serpent in the rope. What reality can there be in that which is merely manifest through ignorance?(237)

The wise know that as the supreme truth which is absolute consciousness, in which are united the knower, the known and the knowledge, infinite and unchangeable. (241)

The ascetic possessed of \shama, dama, supreme uparati, and \kshhaanti (endurance), and devoted to \samaadhi, perceives the state of the Logos and through that completely burns down all vikalpa (error) produced by \avidyaa and dwells in bliss in Brahman free from vikalpa and action. (356)

Know meditation to be a hundred times (superior) to listening, assimilation to be a hundred thousand times (superior) to meditation, and \nirvikalpa-samaadhi to be infinitely (superior) to assimilation. (365)

For him who is possessed of excessive dispassion there is \samaadhi, for him in \samaadhi there is unwavering spiritual perception. For him who has perceived the essential reality there is liberation, and for the liberated \Atman there is realization of eternal bliss. (375)

Verily all this universe, known through mind and speech, is the spirit; verily nothing is except the spirit which lies on the other side of \prakriti. Are the various kinds of earthen vessels different from the earth? The embodied ego, deluded by the wine of \maayaa, speaks of "I" and "you". (392)

He who is perfectly at rest (in this wisdom) is said to be firm in wisdom. He who is firm in wisdom, whose bliss is uninterrupted and by whom the objective universe is well nigh forgotten, is regarded as \jiivanmukta.(429)

The weariness produced by the burning heat of changing existence being removed by drinking the sweet moonlight of thy glance, I attained, in a moment, the imperishable abode of \Atman whose glory and bliss are indestructible.(488)

Neither the relinquishment of of the body, nor of the staff, nor of the water-pot is \mokshha; but \mokshha is the happiness untying the knot of ignorance in the heart.(559)

He neither applies his senses to objects nor removes them therefrom, but remains a mere spectator. He whose mind is intoxicated with excessive draughts of bliss does not pay even the slightest attention to Karmic effect.(553)

Part 6

Vivekachudamani / Crest Jewel of Discrimination, Sankara 4

This part starts a question and answer phase that deals with the discrimination between the real and the unreal - there's a general statement that faith, devotion, meditation, and action are the basic practices of the path:

"It is directly pointed out by the sayings of the Scriptures that \shraddhaa, bhakti, \dhyaana and Yoga, are the causes which bring about emancipation. Whoever abides by these, attains emancipation from the bondage of incarnated existence." (48)

Here's a basic summary of Advaita Vedanta, in a nutshell:

"By reason of ignorance a connection between you who are \Paramaatman and that which is not \Atman is brought about and hence this wheel of embodied existence. By the fire of wisdom arising from this discrimination the growth of ignorance is burnt up to its very roots." (49)

The practical nature of the path and the importance of self-reliance is indicated:

"The nature of the one reality must be known by one's own clear spiritual perception and not through a pandit (learned man); the form of the moon must be known through one's own eye, how can it be known through (the medium of) others?" (56)

Ditto:

"If the supreme truth remains unknown, the study of scriptures is fruitless, even if the supreme truth is known the study of the scriptures is useless (the study of the letter alone is useless, the spirit must be sought out by intuition)." (61)

Hidden treasure does not come out at (utterance of) the simple word "out", but there must be trustworthy information, digging and removal of stones; similarly, the pure truth, itself transcending the operation of \maayaa (\maayaa here meaning the force of evolution) is not obtained without the instruction of the knowers of the supreme, together with reflection, meditation, and so forth, and not by illogical inferences. (67)

The chief cause of liberation of the mind is said to be complete detachment of the mind from transitory objects; after that (the acquirement of) \shama, dama, \titikshhaa, and a thorough renunciation of all Karma (religious and other acts of the attainment of any personal desire). (71)

He who is free from the great bondage of desires, so difficult to avoid, is alone capable of liberation; not another, even though versed in the six systems of philosophy. (79)

Those only sentimentally desirous of liberation and only apparently free from passion, seeking to cross the ocean of conditioned existence, are seized by the shark of desire, being caught by the neck, forcibly dragged into the middle and drowned. (81)

He only who slays the shark of desire with the sword of supreme dispassion, reaches without obstacles the other side of the ocean of conditioned existence. (82)

If the desire for liberation exists in thee, sensuous objects must be left at a great distance as if they were poison, thou must constantly and fervently seek contentment as if it were ambrosia, also kindness, forgiveness, sincerity, tranquility and self-control. (84)

Part 5