(Jasper Niemand was the main collaborator of William Judge, and about this subject she mentioned the following.)
Before going further into the
subject of this paper, it may be well to state that it is not purposed to
attempt to explain either Theosophy or Christianity, but to indicate a method whereby
we may be helped towards an understanding of either one, or both.
There are two main aspects in
which we may consider the question:
1)
The first aspect is
the analytical mode; that is to say, by considering the difference between
Theosophy and Christianity.
2)
The second aspect is
the synthetic method; that is to say, consideration of the underlying identity
of Theosophy and Christianity.
In the present brief paper we
shall glance succinctly at both these aspects; they represent the polar
extremes of one truth. But before we enter upon these polar aspects, however,
we must first define what we mean by the words "Theosophy" and
"Christianity," respectively.
The latter term — the word
"Christianity" is of simple definition. The term represents that
aspect of truth which was taught by Jesus of Nazareth — whom some men called
"The Christ," the Founder of the true Christianity, pure and
undefiled.
Of his teaching we have today
only fragmentary portions, which portions, — so far as the public at large has
them, — have passed through the prism of various minds; the minds, for the most
part, of simple and uneducated — uninstructed — men; and, at much later dates,
from one to another language or languages, under the intellectual criticism of
scholars, and the bias of some among churchmen.
The term "Theosophy" is
of no less simple definition. But people in general greatly misunderstand the
meaning and scope of the word. Just as the Christianity of our day differs
greatly from that of the era which saw the birth of this great religion, so Theosophy
also differs from the popular idea of it. The term is misapplied to a definite series of
ideas, to a fixed belief or creed. Yet Theosophy has no creed, but throws an
impartial light upon all Life and all thought: to it, Life is the universal
shrine of light and truth.
Those portions of the esoteric
teachings, both religious and scientific, of the East, which were put forward
by Mme. Blavatsky and also expounded by Mr. Sinnett, Mr. W. Q. Judge and
others, have been rounded into a creed and styled "Theosophy" by the public
at large. When the subject was newly reborn and startled the century just past,
this rough and ready misconception was passed over, without much objection, in
the rush and fervor of propaganda and other work.
Pioneers work axe in hand, clearing
away dense and well nigh impenetrable and insurmountable obstructions to the passage
of life and light, and as such workers, they are obliged to tolerate much which
the calm survey of a less strenuous period must gradually remove.
That it was not the purpose of
the Pioneer of last century, — Mme. Blavatsky, — to found a new creed, is shown
conclusively by her statement in the Key
to Theosophy. In a closing chapter, devoted to the consideration of
"The Future of the Theosophical Society,"
Mme. Blavatsky says:
« Every such attempt as the
Theosophical Society has hitherto ended in failure, because, sooner or later,
it has degenerated into a sect, set up hard-and-fast dogmas of its own, and so
lost by imperceptible degrees that vitality which living truth alone can
impart. You must remember that all our members
have been bred and born in some creed or religion, that all are more or less of
their generation both physically and mentally, and consequently that their judgment
is but too likely to be warped and unconsciously biased by some or all of these
influences. »
To the further question as to
what will occur if this danger can be averted, the author says:
« Then the Society will live
on into and through the twentieth century. It will gradually leaven and
permeate the great mass of thinking and intelligent people with its
large-minded and noble ideas of Religion, Duty, and Philanthropy. Slowly but
surely it will burst asunder the iron fetters of creeds and dogmas, of social and
caste prejudices: it will break down racial and national antipathies and
barriers, and will open the way to the practical realization of the Brotherhood
of all men. Through its teaching, through the philosophy which it has rendered
accessible and intelligible to the modern mind, the West will learn to understand
and appreciate the East at its true value. »
The author then follows on with a
description of further results of the spread of theosophical teaching, but
enough has been quoted to show that she specifically warned us of the dangers
of a lapse into a creed.
Prolonged study of the works
written by this Pioneer, makes clear the point that Mme. Blavatsky had two things
in mind.
- First: To establish a Theosophical Society based upon certain fundamental and universal truths.
- Second: To contribute to the specific study of religions certain ancient data quite lost to our era, and unknown, practically to the whole western world.
In striking the key-note of universal
Truth for the last century, Mme. Blavatsky strongly insisted upon three points.
1.
That the universe is
pervaded by a universal, omnipresent and boundless Principle of Life. This
point establishes, if followed up, the truth of Re-incarnation.
2.
The universal
prevalence of the Law of Periodicity, of flux and reflux. This point leads on
to the Law of Karma.
3.
The identity of all
souls with the Oversoul. This point establishes the truth of Universal Brotherhood.
It is nowhere stated by her that the term "all souls" comprises the
human race alone. Nor is her ideal Brotherhood confined to the plane of
physical life; on the contrary it is universal, hence spiritual.
In putting forward these three
universal Principles, side by side with the injunction that Theosophy should
not be hardened into a creed, we are naturally led to the conclusion that there
is a fundamental identity — a reality — underlying all religions and sciences; that
Science is really the study and art of Life itself, and that Religion is the
study of the Life and aspirations of the Soul.
A deeper study and insight
demonstrates that Life and the Soul are one and the same — the Soul being, as
it were, a nucleus of centralized, organized and individualized Life, each Soul
being, as it were, a spark of the Oversoul. Since these universal truths are to
be found underlying all religions, we cannot claim that they of them selves
constitute Theosophy, or Christianity. They are universal both in action and in
application.
Theosophia is the wisdom of the
gods; or wisdom about God; or Divine Wisdom — call it as you will; the fact
remains that many students amongst us think that we can best explain our use of
the term "Theosophy" by saying that it is a spirit of Life, a way of looking
at and of investigating all Life in the light of the fundamental unity of
Being, as well as a way of living the Life.
In short, the Theosophy of the
thoughtful student is a spirit of unity
applied to the study and the action of Life as a whole. In this spirit we can
study Life both by analysis and by synthesis. Analysis individualizes — for the
purpose of the moment, of the next step, that which must afterwards be synthesized
for the purposes of the whole; it is in the light of unity that our view is
rounded and made entire.
Let us take, for the sake of
illustration, this question of Theosophy and Christianity. The public at large
is often found to suppose that a member of the Theosophical Society would
naturally compare the teachings of the Secret
Doctrine and other books of the eastern wisdom with the teachings of the Bible
of the West, and would insist upon the fundamental differences between them as
differences between two creeds or articles of belief, and would then go on to
demonstrate the superiority of his own mode of belief.
This erroneous idea outlines the
method of the bigot and the fanatic, and is a method which has divided mankind
and has been productive of the most bitter wars and the most hideous cruelties
known to history, perpetrated by man upon mankind. Already in the sweet light
which we now see spreading slowly but steadily over the West (the light of
charity and the concept of unity), this error of thought is gradually passing away.
We are coming to understand that
the true theosophist is he who remembers that the Principle of Life is
omnipresent, eternal, divine. Hence it is all wise and everywhere to be found;
is conscious and beneficent; working always in the law that makes for righteousness;
evolving, uplifting, unifying and sustaining all.
This truth being present to his
understanding, it would gradually penetrate to his heart, finding there the intuitive
faith of the heart in the unity of Life. In such wise would he study all
religions, with a view to discerning — not their points of difference, but
their oneness in teaching of the divine eternal Life and of the Soul. The hair splitting
of creeds would be a thing utterly foreign to his thought; as he became more
and more wise in study, in Life, in experience.
He would carry this method into
all the daily acts of his individual life, dealing with that life and its
contact with other lives from this standpoint of their fundamental identity:
identity of origin in the Great Ocean of Spirit; identity of goal in the
conscious enrichment of Being and return to the Divine Bourne of the Oversoul;
identity of experience as well, now and here, in that all human beings are alike
subject to the Law of Evolution, and every atom and ion of Cosmos must be
subject to it as well. In this way our interest is identical and we are all
bound together by this Fact of our physical, psychic and spiritual Evolution;
we have identity of experience and of our larger Life.
Evolving on the one hand, we
involve or draw in, on the other hand, that spiritual Life which we individualize
and render self-conscious within us, furthering thus that return to the Father
which was taught by Jesus the Christ.
Christianity, when viewed in the
spirit of synthesis, of Theosophy, is seen to be one of the great
World-Religions. And, as such, it is of especial interest as being that aspect
of the One Truth which is largely accepted by the world in which we live today
— the western world. To the West, and to
its forms of Thought we have under Karma a duty, for Karma placed us there. We
are aware that it is impossible to reduce the movement of spiritual Life to a
formula or to imprison it in a creed.
Our studies have accustomed us to
take into account the periodic returns of the religious spirit, and to see the
movement of the Law underlying these periodic manifestations as one always
governing them and the Great Teachers which that Law calls forth. Each such
Teacher has been obliged, in the nature of things, to specialize, to lay stress
upon some one of the many aspects of Truth. Thus it has been said that Krishna taught
Devotion. Buddha taught Brotherhood, love of all men and of all creatures.
Jesus combined the two, but the
distinctive note of his teaching was the relation of son to father between Man and
Divinity. We can now see that if we study the teaching of Jesus along this line, we shall fathom many a
point which at first seems either too obscure or too trite when interpreted by
some creedal obligation. The Christian Gospels are full of the ideas and the
ideals known to all theosophical students, once we take hold of this clue. And
how should it be otherwise if we are to view the Evolution of the religious
nature of Mankind as a fact?
Must it not be that there exists
a body of divine men who have the evolution of the human soul closely at heart,
and who are moved from time to time by the holy Spirit of Life — by God, as we
Christians say — to work upon the visible plane as well as behind the veil of
Nature, for the spiritual welfare of Man?
As cycles and periods alter, as
Humanity comes under the operation of periodic Law, the teachings given for the
evolution of the human mind and the human soul into the divine soul must
inevitably change their aspects, but they are forever and fundamentally one and
the same.
Each Great Teacher has given his disciples
to understand that beyond the main aspects of his teaching were other aspects
no less great, so that tolerance, charity, compassion, liberality of mind and
entire sweetness of heart — a spirit of unity, in short — must prevail among
men who desired to learn the god-like wisdom, the Truth about God. Buddha
taught this truth by his silence when certain questions were asked of him:
Jesus taught it when He said that
his Father's house has many mansions, which mansions many of us understand to
represent states of Consciousness. There are many other sayings of the Great Founder
of Christianity which are less overlaid by the obscurities of time and much
confusion of thought and of facts. As a help to such study, two books published
of late are almost unequalled in the clearness and the helpful quality of their
suggestive thought.
The Creed of Christ and The Creed of Buddha are written by an author
whose name is unknown to the world at large. Those who do know it tell us that
this writer is not a Theosophist. But surely no mind so enlightened as that
which illuminates the pages of these profoundly interesting and helpful books
can be other than truly theosophical in the real sense.
Each Great Teacher of Religion must
have in mind the limitations of the era in which he appears upon the human
scene, and must suit his teachings to the necessity of removing these especial crystallizations
of human thought before his teachings can take effect. In this way the
teachings, read at some much later period of time, and by men whose very modes
of thought are different, may appear to disagree.
But the synthetic method with its
spirit of unity, and the tolerance of a wider outlook upon Life, puts an end to
discord; behind the apparent diversity we discover the fundamental identity
with the other Religions which we have studied and in this way we draw nearer
to the happy discovery that the Spirit of Religion is ever one and the same, no
matter what aspect of that Spirit and Its Laws may be presented to the minds of
men in any given era.
We can take up the study of Christianity
in this spirit — and what study can be more important to us as Theosophists
than the Religion of the world in which we are now embodied and to which we owe
a duty, the duty of assisting the further Evolution of its religious instincts (in
which we must include our own) and its search for the Soul and the life of the
Soul?
We are wise if we speak in the
religious terminology best known to the West, and if we seek within the
Scriptures which are our present birthright, the divine truths of all religions
and of all Time. If we cannot find them there, we can find them nowhere, for
Karma, regulating the movement of the Law of Periodicity, has placed us where
we can find with ease and spread with love the spiritual food best suited to
our present needs and the needs of our generation.
That Law of Periodicity, of flux
and reflux, we must remember governs all the occurrences of each human life, as
well as the action of the worlds in space: it has placed us where the light of
Theosophy has come to us, to aid our search and to broaden our ideas.
We should be the interpreters of
Religions, able to reveal to each religionist some truth as yet undiscovered by
him within his own Religion, something beautiful and holy which unites him to
all the religious aspirations of his era, and all eras. What a high office, to
thus hold up the torch of Truth, assisting the spread of those soft and gentle
rays which ever seek to penetrate the hearts of men, assuring us of the unity of
Life, of the omnipresence of the Law of Love!
Many of us believe the doctrine
of Avatars to be one of the great truths; that the Spirit of Divine Truth has
its especial incarnations, from time to time, overshadowing or indwelling with
the great spiritual Teachers. We look upon these holy ones as Masters, as Members
of the Spiritual Lodge, and believe that Jesus the Christ was one of those.
When we search the Scriptures put
forth in His name, we are naturally guided by the clue of this fundamental identity
of all Religions. Hence we discover within these Scriptures, statements of
spiritual laws. Who can read the Sermon on the Mount without being struck with
its revelations of Karma; of the laws governing spiritual action; of the nature
of the One Substance and the Soul? Who
but finds in the Parables the teaching of the Principles? Who but recognizes the Voice speaking through
those pages, as the Voice of the Silence,
and what is their Light but the Light on
the Path?
Let us then study those
Scriptures themselves, fragmentary though they be, rather than the creeds and the
ideas of other men about them: let us study and reflect for ourselves at first
hand. Let us do this in the spirit of devotion and meditation, conscious that
there is a true and sufficient reason why this Religion of the West has been
put forward and embraced by the peoples of the present era, in this, our western
world.
Then the exquisite spirit and love
of that Master of Compassion whom we name as Jesus, in all its human sympathy
and god-like self-sacrifice shall penetrate our darkened understandings as a
light from the inner heavens, and we shall see in part why that life which
seemed to fail so utterly was in its sacrifice and complete surrender the greatest
triumph which the heart can conceive.
Surely we shall then comprehend
that One who endured to the end in order to carry to mankind the appointed teaching
in the appointed time of that God Who so loves the world that He sends from era
to era His beloved Sons to bless and save those who will accept the gift of
spiritual food so freely offered — that One such as this could never leave us
straying in the wilderness of this earthy world, and must be with us in spirit
and in immanent Compassion and aid, "to the end of the world," even
as He promised to be.
By the light of the theosophical
spirit we shall see that this which now we call "Theosophy" is the
very Soul and core of His teaching; that the spirit of Christianity and of
Theosophy is one and the same, and that every Religion has one identical
object. That object — and each one of us may make it his own — that object is:
The restoration of the Christ.
(The Theosophical Quarterly,
January 1910, vol. 7, p.241-247)
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