Re: Blavatsky and ideas of the New Age(*Western* Tradition)
As a note on drug usage {abundantly expounded}, while the topic is too broad to become an offshoot on this thread, unless it does, I would point out that Consciousness (as the Experiencer) must have an instrument (uphadi, vehicle, mechanism) on whatever plane of existence we are considering ... in order to be
subjectively altered by any drug to begin with.
This is what a man must first accept or acknowledge as `real' if he is to consider the possible effects of that drug.
That being acknowledged, he may then consider whether the Soul is more, or less, directly aware of, and also a factor in the consciousness of the person altered by the drug experience. Here of course I mean `Soul' in the tradition of the Ageless Wisdom, as Hall and Blavatsky taught it, or the Manasaputra, the Agnishvatta, as it is taught in the Vedic Wisdom 1000s of years ago. Socrates and Plato called this the Daimon!
Thus, an individual of extremely low competency, IQ or even spiritual advancement (if one has insight into this matter) can partake of the same chemical ritual (the circumstances of which, as well as the
desired outcome most certainly
do affect the outcome) ... and his experience will vary widely from an individual sitting right beside him who has perhaps had much formal training, education and is `considerably enlightened,' relatively, as this expression goes.
Now allow that this poor fool over here has already burned away a few too many of the neurons he needs to have the `Aha!' he's really after ... while that gal over there is so fubar'd psychologically from her traumatic childhood that she cannot think along rational lines to begin with.
The problem in making blanket statements is that it really doesn't cover matters adequately, and - unfortunately - you tend to get people under that blanket who don't really belong there.
I can, thus, from direct, firsthand, personal experience, insight, training, guidance and discretion, tell a great deal about *certain types* of altered states of consciousness ... as well as how to induce, or stay them, why some techniques are more advisable than others, why certain
areas or subjects of inquiry are unwise to approach altogether ... and also, with some trustworthy degree of good faith, be relied upon to share the best available knowledge, information, Wisdom or (with much hesitation) advice [as I would
give such to myself, though not necessarily as I would, or do follow it] when it comes to ~ this topic.
You see, there are benefits, advantages, and all sorts of short-term - if ill-gotten "gains" - which indisputably come ... (to us) through
coming into contact with DIVINITY (and this, some of in our HONESTY and, again, direct experience do know, is an ever-ascending Scale, or Ladder). The one evidenced case that many will be able to Intuit is when Christ vicariously heals a woman, even while the latter had not exactly sought out his permission, or cooperation, beforehand (though she was also, perhaps, *blameless* for her transgression).
Now compare, the man who *consciously KNOWS* that an opiate or a hallucinogen is only a HALF-Truth ... (or, more technically, can put him in
touch with Truth, of some greater degree than the brain, astral body, or mind is typically interfaced/entitled).
I do not say the offense is the same in every case; this should be clear by now. Thus for the aging hippie, or the inveterate day tripper, while the effects may be just as cumulative, and the conditioning (`body tolerance,' and worse) itself provides a resistance to the "beneficial" [if not entirely beneficent] effects {although, again, why demonize KARMA, making it Karma-Nemesis?} ... one must weigh in the balance what are the relative gains of *going straight* or cleaning up one's act.
A disciple, especially where
one knows it, risks tremendous peril *at every juncture* when continuing certain experiments in the use of the Sacred Fire(s). Read into this as ye will, and follow it(s arrow) to the obvious Conclusions.
The final note here, though it may be a red herring apparently, is that Death, to my certain knowledge, and from firsthand experience, is a Mighty Deva ... an Angel, and as all such Devas on the Evolutionary arc, cooperates directly with the Lords of Karma (and/or Lipika) who assist the Logos in determining the conditions of subsequent incarnations.
If the West will receive the Teachings as these are available already (the Lesser Mysteries), She may also help prepare the way for, and also receive her measure of ~ the Greater ... as more than one Divine Purpose is served through intuitive insight into, plus cooperation with A) the Angel of Death, as this Deva works and walks amongst us, ever doing the Lord's Work and preparing the Way for the Coming One, and B) the Angelic Hosts Whom and which work with the Hierarchy (and thus in every religion and set of ritual) to help cleanse, heal, prepare and purge the etheric and chiefly
astral aura of Humanity & the planet.
This latter group, various of the healing Devas, are especially linked with certain of the Great Ones, including the Master Who taught through Manly Hall (as the latter's chief mentor) and also with the Tibetan Master and the Master Jesus. Thus, the Work of the Lord knows no distinction on the Inner Planes between Eastern and Western Tradition
per se, but only in the specific rituals familiar to the church-goer, temple worshipper or circle-dancer do the Lords of the Dance (Devas, Angels) find their unique current, or methods of work & expression.
That swineherd, btw, verily it doth indeed possess a demon (so to speak), yet I would let sleeping dogs lie
than drive them cliffward, for I know well what wolves can do as they nip at our chins (ahhh, shins ... ahhh, chiens) ... and I will pretend my rosewood mala is just a pretty trinket if *you* will.
Here is the problem, then, in one simple formulaic expression: One man can sit with his crystal, or jade, or ivory, or wooden rosary (and already he may forget how to lose himself), count the omer, or the Om, or the omens (Ah!) ... and the guy next to him chanting the Vedas had *better be* just as holy (perhaps quite a bit more so), or else that fella with the rosary has pretty much missed the point. BACK to square one, BACK to the ABC of the Gospels, or the Gita, and BACK to the acknowledgment, by some, that those swine there aren't simply made to host a demon, any more than a sharp tongue is made to try and carve the same out of, or into, our neighbor's Heart.
Hence Humanity's WORK of cleaning up the planet [both for ourselves and for `Future GENERATIONS' ~ some seeing these as synonymous] is not merely a "good idea" ... it's OBLIGATORY, pretty much no matter WHAT you believe.
So I figure, it makes no gosh-darn difference whether you saw into the future (Peace and Lotus-Flowers) during the 60s, inherited the idea during the 70s, nursed at its watered-down pop-culture visions during the 80s, or grew into the New Millennium as a true child of the 90s. Some of us know good and well we are now simply writing one more page, perhaps a notable chapter in this
minor oeuvre ...
... yet when we look a bit closer at the page, start to detect the palimpsests and also slowly glance about us to realize ~ indeed, we have
never been alone (though seemingly so, of course) ~ it is: humbling, reassuring and often quite emotional, all at the same time.
Mind is Mind
Heart is Heart
Love is Love
and emotion is emotion
Deny any of these, and I do not envy you, remaining as you may within the outermost `shell.'
Yet to these too, Jesus ministered, and so I have seen his Appointed, in this lifetime, with my very own eyes, Minister on more than one occasion ... and the Noblest I can *ever* do is to rise to the challenge and Follow in his very footsteps (with due, yet brief pause).
Otherwise, A Great One may be in the room. And His Love, while It may descend from the same ATMAn, or Universal SPIRIT[Sophos~Christos, known by many other faces, or Persona, some contemporary, some Ancient] ... proceeds from the same SOURCE.
I commend the aspiration to get ourselves behind, on the other side of, that door, yet Someone must guard it. Someone exists to take the horns, someone to contemplate the dilemma, someone to envision the Solution and someone finally to enact it.
I once met a man who spent far too many years tilting at the knight upon the horse (and other rotary notions, and motions), but I couldn't get him to understand, that the Knight in question left this world many long centuries ago, and while he ever guards the Verbum as Nobly as he did in life/incarnation, it [his Secret] has never actually been in any danger of either premature, or certainly incomplete exposure.
At worst, as this quixotic old Friend well knows, there are wired & fired cognitive pathways which together might constitute a minor breach, thus temporarily weakening a Bridge which both men (as Souls) have long ago sought to cross together, to strengthen together, and most importantly of all, to do so
for the explicit and thusly stated sake of enabling ALL MEN to thereby pass into true, Eternal Spiritual safety, abiding forever in the Bosom of the Father, as Rev 3:12 indicates (see also Ephesians 4:13).
Drugs, I am quite certain I may say, constitute a real, imminent threat to the psychological development and personal safety, as well as to the safe and speedy passage *over* that Bridge in question
for many ... and when a man realizes that this bridge is primarily, first and foremost built
within his psychic and spiritual anatomy, or physiologically and on all planes of his periodic as well as his continued existence, I should think he would set forth
post haste and with renewed vigor to shake & purge those kleshas which yet detain him, transmuting every last fiber of spiritual or material sinew from dross into adamant, permanent Substance. He must flex, he must temper, and he must Discipline himself.
But what is my journey to you? All participate in the Glory of the One, as every advance for one is also the same for every other ... and every setback, a delay for all of Humanity.
Christ knew this, and so did Manly, and so did Blavatsky.
No man, in his ivory tower, need fear that the Planetary Lord will bulldoze his mind's creation before his/its time. Yet he can never forever deceive himself, or grow so content with the wallpaper that he shall slip into the eternal slumber, which he himself fears most greatly, deep within, when he is honest with himself. He knows, if he knows anything at all, that to Dwell Eternal(ly) with his Lord is not at all the same, as to forget Him ... or to (vainly attempt) to do so entirely.
Enough! ... as surely it is admissible to indulge one another [turn a blind eye] when the Equestrian waxes bovine, or simian, yet hardly so when we find the sophomore chiding the proverbial freshman {however customary this may be today among the uncultured}
Back to the beads
Namaskar