Họp Thông Thiên Học chiều 30 tháng 7 năm 2011

SECTION II

Modern Criticism and the Ancients

(Page 30) THE Secret Doctrine of the Aryan East is found repeated under Egyptian symbolism and phraseology in the Book of Hermes. At, or near, the beginning of the present century, all the books called Hermetic were, in the opinion of the average man of Science unworthy of serious attention. They were set down and loudly proclaimed as simply a collection of tales, of fraudulent pretences and most absurd claims. They "never existed before the Christian era," it was said: "they were all written with the triple object of speculation, deceiving and pious fraud;" they were all, even the best of them, silly apocrypha. [ See in this connection, Pneumatologie des Esprits, by the Marquis de Mirville, who devotes six enormous volumes to show the absurdity of those who deny the reality of Satan and Magic, or the Occult Sciences - the two being with him synonymous.] In this respect the nineteenth century proved a most worthy scion of the eighteenth, for, in the age of Voltaire as well as in this century, everything, save what emanated direct from the Royal Academy, was false, superstitious, foolish. Belief in the wisdom of the Ancients was laughed to scorn, perhaps more so even than it is now. The very thought of accepting as authentic the works and vagaries of "a false Hermes, a false Orpheus, a false Zoroaster," of false Oracles, false Sibyls, and a thrice false Mesmer and his absurd fluid, was tabooed all along the line. Thus all that had its genesis outside the learned and dogmatic precincts of Oxford and Cambridge, [ We think we see the sidereal phantom of the old Philosopher and Mystic - once of Cambridge University - Henry More, moving about in the astral mist over the old moss-covered roofs of the ancient town in which he wrote his famous letter to Glanvil about "witches." The "soul" seems restless and indignant, as on that day of May, 1678, when the doctor complained so bitterly to the author of Sadducismus Triumphatus of Scot, Adie and Webster. "Our new inspired saints," the soul is heard to mutter, "sworn advocates of the witches. . . . who against all sense and reason . . . Will have no Samuel but a confederate knave . . . these in-blown buffoons, puffed up with . . . ignorance, vanity and stupid infidelity!" (See "Letter to Glanvil," and Isis Unveiled, i, 205, 206) ] or the Academy of France, was denounced in those days as ‘unscientific," and "ridiculously absurd." This tendency has survived to the present day.

All Honour to Genuine Scientists - (Page 31) Nothing can be further from the intention of any true Occultist - who stands possessed, by virtue of his higher psychic development, of instruments of research far more penetrating in their power than any as yet in the hands of physical experimentalists - than to look unsympathetically on the efforts that are being made in the area of physical enquiry. The exertions and labours undertaken to solve as many as possible of the problems of Nature have always been holy in his sight. The spirit in which Sir Isaac Newton remarked that at the end of all his astronomical work he felt a mere child picking up shells beside the Ocean of Knowledge, is one of reverence for the boundlessness of Nature which Occult Philosophy itself cannot eclipse. And it may freely be recognised that the attitude of mind which this famous simile describes is one which fairly represents that of the great majority of genuine Scientists in regard to all the phenomena of the physical plane of Nature. In dealing with this they are often caution and moderation itself. They observe facts with a patience that cannot be surpassed. They are slow to cast these into theories, with a prudence that cannot be too highly commended. And, subject to the limitations under which they serve Nature, they are beautifully accurate in the record of their observations. Moreover, it may be conceded further that modern Scientists are exceedingly improbable that any discovery will ever conflict with such or such a theory, now supported by such and such an aggregation of recorded facts. But even in reference to the broadest generalizations - which pass into a dogmatic form only in brief popular text books of scientific knowledge - the tone of "Science" itself, if that abstraction may be held to be embodied in the persons of its most distinguished representatives, is one of reserve and often of modesty.

Page 34 The Secret Doctrine, Volume 3 by H.P. Blavatsky Far, therefore, from being disposed to scoff at the errors into which the limitations of their methods may betray men of Science, the true Occultist will rather appreciate the pathos of a situation in which great industry and thirst for truth are condemned to disappointment, and often to confusion. That which is to be deplored, however, in respect to Modern Science, is in itself an evil manifestation of the excessive caution which in its most favourable aspect protects Science from over-hasty conclusions: (Page 32) namely, the tardiness of Scientists to recognise that other instruments of research may be applicable to the mysteries of Nature besides those of the physical plane, and that it may consequently be impossible to appreciate the phenomena of any one plane correctly without observing them as well from the points of view afforded by others. In so far then as they wilfully shut their eyes to evidence which ought to have shown them clearly that Nature is more complex than physical phenomena alone would suggest, that there are means by which the faculties of human perception can pass sometimes from one plane to the other, and that their energy is being misdirected while they turn it exclusively on the minutiae of physical structure or force, they are less entitled to sympathy than to blame.

One feels dwarfed and humbled in reading what M. Renan, that learned modern "destroyer" of every religious belief, past, present and future, has to say of poor humanity and its powers of discernment. He believes

Mankind has but a very narrow mind; and the number of men capable of seizing acutely (finement) the true analogy of things, is quite imperceptible. [ Études Religieuses.]

Upon comparing, however, this statement with another opinion expressed by the same author, namely, that:

The mind of the critic should yield to facts, hand and feet bound, to be dragged by them wherever they may lead him. [ Études Historiques.]

one feels relieved. When, moreover, these two philosophical statements are strengthened by a third enunciation of the famous Academician, which declares that:

Tout parti pris a priori, doit etre banni de la science, [ Mémoire read at the Academie des Inscriptions des Belles Lettres, in 1859.]

there remains little to fear. Unfortunately M. Renan is the first to break this golden rule. The evidence of Herodotus - called, sarcastically no doubt, the "Father of History," since in every question upon which Modern Thought disagrees with him, his testimony goes for nought - the sober and earnest assurances in the philosophical narratives of Plato and Thucydides, Polybius, and Plutarch, and even certain statements of Aristotle himself, are invariably laid aside whenever they are involved in what modern criticism is pleased to regard as myth. It is some time since Strauss proclaimed that:

  What is a Myth? -

(Page 33) The presence of a supernatural element or miracle in a narrative is an infallible sign of the presence in it of a myth;

and such is the canon of criticism tacitly adopted by every modern critic. But what is a myth - μυθος- to begin with? Are we not told distinctly by ancient writers that the word means tradition? Was not the Latin term fabula, a fable, synonymous with something told, as having happened in pre-historic times, and not necessarily an invention. With such autocrats of criticism and despotic rulers as are most of the French, English, and German Orientalists, there may, then, be no end of historical, geographical, ethnological and philological surprises in store for the century to come. Travesties in Philosophy have become so common of late, that the public can be startled by nothing in this direction. It has already been stated by one learned speculator that Homer was simply "a mythical personification of the épopée"; [ See Alfred Maury's Histoire des Religions de la Grèce. i. 248: and the speculations of Holzmann in Zeitschriftfur Vergleichende Sprach forschung, ann. 1882, p.487. sq.] by another, that Hippocrates, son of Esculapius, "could only be a chimera"; that the Asclepiades, their seven hundred years of duration notwithstanding, might after all prove simply a "fiction"; that "the city of Troy (Dr. Schliemann to the contrary) existed only on the maps." etc. Why should not the world be invited after this to regard every hitherto historical character of days of old as a myth? Were not Alexander the Great needed by Philology as a sledgehammer wherewith to break the heads of Brahmanical chronological pretensions, he would have become long ago simply "a symbol for annexation," or "a genius of conquest," as has been already suggested by some French writer.

Blank denial is the only refuge left to the critics. It is the most secure asylum for some time to come in which to shelter the last of the sceptics. For one who denies unconditionally, the trouble of arguing is unnecessary, and he also thus avoids what is worse, having to yield occasionally a point or two before the irrefutable arguments and facts of his opponent. Creuzer, the greatest of all the modern Symbologists, the most learned among the masses of erudite German Mythologists, must have envied the placid self-confidence of certain sceptics, when he found himself forced in a moment of desperate perplexity to admit that:

We are compelled to return to the theories of trolls and genii, as they were understood by the ancients; [it is a doctrine] without which it becomes absolutely impossible to explain to oneself anything with regard to the Mysteries. [ Creuzer's Introduction des Mystères,iii, 456.] of the Ancients, which Mysteries are undeniable.

(Page 34) Roman Catholics, who are guilty of precisely the same worship, and to the very letter - having borrowed it from the later Chaldaeans, the Lebanon Nabathaeans, and the baptized Sabaeans, [ The later Nabathaeans adhered to the same belief as the Nazarenes and the Sabaeans, honoured John the Baptist, and used Baptistm. (See Isis Unveiled, ii.127: Munck, Palestine, p.525; Dunlap, Sid, the Son of Man. etc.) ] and not from the learned Astronomers and Initiates of the days of old - would now, by anathematizing it, hide the source from which it came. Theology and Churchianism would fain trouble the clear fountain that fed them from the first, to prevent posterity from looking into it, and thus seeing their original prototype. The Occultists, however, believe the time has come to give everyone his due. As to our other opponents - the modern sceptic and the Epicurean, the cynic and the Sadducee - they may find an answer to their denials in our earlier volumes. As to many unjust aspersions on the ancient doctrines, the reason for them is given in these words in Isis Unveiled:

The thought of the present-day commentator and critic as to the ancient learning, is limited to and runs round the exoterism of the temples; his insight is either unwilling or unable to penetrate into the solemn adyta of old, where the hierophant instructed the neophyte to regard the public worship in its true light. No ancient sage would have taught that man is the king of creation, and that the starry heaven and our mother earth were created for his sake. [i.535.]

When we find such works as Phallicism [ By Hargrave Jennings.] appearing in our day in print, it is easy to see that the day of concealment and travesty has passed away. Science, in Philology, Symbolism and Comparative Religion, has progressed too far to make wholesale denials any longer, and the Church is too wise and cautious not to be now making the best of the situation. Meanwhile, the "rhombs of Hecate" and the "wheels of Lucifer," [ See de Mirville's Pneumatologie, iii, 267 et seq.] daily exhumed on the sites of Babylonia, can no longer be used as clear evidence of a Satan-worship, since the same symbols are shown in the ritual of the Latin Church. The latter is too learned to be ignorant of the fact that even the later Chaldaeans, who had gradually fallen into dualism, reducing all things to two primal Principles, never worshipped Satan or idols, any more than did the Zoroastrians, who now lie under the same accusation, but that their Religion was as highly philosophical as any; their dual and exoteric Theosophy became the heirloom of the Jews, who, in their turn, were forced to share it with the Christians. Parsis are to this day charged with Heliolatry, and yet in the Chaldean Oracles, under the "Magical and Philosophical Precepts of Zoroaster" one finds the following:

Chaldean Oracles - 
Direct not thy mind to the vast measures of the earth;
For the plant of truth is not upon ground.
Nor measure the measures of the sun, collecting rules,
For he is carried by the eternal will of the Father, not for your sake.
Dismiss the impetuous course of the moon; for she runs always by work of necessity.
The progression of the stars was not generated for your sake.
 

There was a vast difference between the true worship taught to those who showed themselves worthy, and the state religions. The Magians are accused of all kinds of superstition, but this is what the same Chaldaean Oracle says:
The wide aerial flight of birds is not true,
Nor the dissections of the entrails of victims; they are all mere toys,
The basis of mercenary fraud; flee from these
If you would open the sacred paradise of piety,
Where virtue, wisdom, and equity are assembled.
[ Psellus, 4: in Cory's Ancient Fragments. 269.]
As we say in our former work:

Surely it is not those who warn people against "mercenary fraud" who can be accused of it; and if they accomplished acts which seem miraculous, who can with fairness presume to deny that it was done merely because they possessed a knowledge of natural philosophy and psychological science to a degree unknown to our schools? [ Isis Unveiled, i, 535, 536.] The above quoted stanzas are a rather strange teaching to come from those who are universally believed to have worshipped the sun, and moon, and the starry hosts, as Gods. The sublime profundity of the Magian precepts being beyond the reach of modern materialistic thought, the Chaldean Philosophers are accused of Sabaeanism and Sun-worship, which was the religion only of the uneducated masses.

[7/30/2011 6:05:49 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://hoangvan.net/thongthienhoc/audioASTDD/ 
[7/30/2011 6:35:43 PM] Thuan Thi Do: Tren Internet bay gio co nhieu bai cua Thong Thien Hoc bang tieng Anh hay qua, xem khong kip
[7/30/2011 6:36:01 PM] Phuc: o VN con bi 1 truong hop: internet chay cham qua skype khong cho ket noi
[7/30/2011 6:45:07 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://hoangvan.net/thongthienhoc/audio/
[7/30/2011 6:49:01 PM] Thuan Thi Do: [Saturday, July 30, 2011 6:05 PM] Thuan Thi Do:

<<< http://hoangvan.net/thongthienhoc/audioASTDD/
[7/30/2011 6:49:18 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://hoangvan.net/thongthienhoc/audioASTDD/
[7/30/2011 7:04:14 PM] Thuan Thi Do:
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-2-01.htm
[7/30/2011 7:10:27 PM] minhhoa270: Micro bi hong , xin loi ko noi duoc
[7/30/2011 7:11:56 PM] Thuan Thi Do: ok anh
[7/30/2011 7:30:48 PM] Thuan Thi Do: Chao anh Thuan
[7/30/2011 7:31:44 PM] NGUYEN HUYEN MON: chao chi Thuan va cac ban
[7/30/2011 7:32:01 PM] Phuc: hello anh T
[7/30/2011 7:32:11 PM] NGUYEN HUYEN MON: chao anh Phuc
[7/30/2011 7:32:53 PM] minhhoa270: Chao anh Nguyen huyen mon
[7/30/2011 7:33:19 PM] NGUYEN HUYEN MON: chao minhhoa270
[7/30/2011 7:41:10 PM] Thuan Thi Do: Day moi la bai anh Hai giang hom nay: http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-2-04.htm
[7/30/2011 7:47:06 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://www.theosophicalinstitute.org/medialibrary/medialibrary.php
[7/30/2011 8:13:24 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://www.edgarcayce.org/2012/
[7/30/2011 8:15:50 PM] Thuan Thi Do: Kevin Todeschi: Well, the bottom line is, the numbers 2012 are not in the Edgar Cayce readings. What Edgar Cayce did talk about is the change of an age, or the New Age, the Aquarian Age. He gave quite a bit of information on what this New Age will be about, what this transitional period is all about, and what we can expect.
[7/30/2011 8:36:35 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-2-05.htm
[7/30/2011 8:38:05 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd-hp.htm
[7/30/2011 8:40:44 PM] Phuc: 1 lat nua co ai_nhan la nguoi quen cua Phuc goi co Thuan, co Thuan cho vao room
[7/30/2011 8:40:48 PM] Van Atman: 279) Con đã đoạn tuyệt với những đối tượng của giác quan, con đã trải qua con đường của thính giác và con đường của thị giác và con đứng vững trong ánh sáng của tri thức. Bây giờ con đã đạt đến trạng thái Titiksha.
280)Hỡi Narjol, con đã được bình an.
Như chúng ta đã thấy, cũng danh từ titiksha nầy đã được dùng để chỉ một trong các đức tánh cần phải có, một trong các yếu tố của hạnh kiểm tốt, có nghĩa là nhẫn nại. Danh từ nầy còn được sử dụng ở trình độ cao hơn nữa. Trong một chú thích của Bà Blavatsky cho nó là "sự lãnh đạm tuyệt đối" ; sự khắc phục nếu cần, đối với cái mà người ta gọi là lạc thú và đau khổ của mọi người, nhưng không phải lấy sự khắc phục đó để thỏa thích hoặc đau khổ - nói tóm lại đó là trở nên lãnh đạm và vô cảm đối với lạc thú cũng như đau khổ về phương diện thể xác, tinh thần và tình cảm.
Tất cả những điều nầy được diễn tả không thật rõ ràng. Thí sinh không hành động vì sung sướng hay đau khổ. Y chỉ làm những gì y cho là bổn phận của mình. Cũng như tất cả những người khác, y còn cảm thấy sung sướng và đau khổ trong các thể của y. Nhưng người ta có thể nói rằng ở trình độ đó sự an vui của y thật lớn lao, tư tưởng của y chú định rất vững chắc trên mục đích, và sự vui sướng hay đau khổ không còn chi phối y nữa. Ðấng Christ vẫn cảm động khi Ngài thốt lên "Chúa ơi! Chúa ơi ! Sao Chúa lại bỏ con ? " rồi trong lòng Ngài lại vang lên những lời khác : " Chúa ơi ! Chúa ơi ! Chúa đã làm cho con vinh quang biết bao ! " Ðó là những gì tôi đã giải thích trong quyển Chơn Sư và Thánh Ðạo, khi viết về cuộc Ðiểm Ðạo lần thứ Tư.MỤC LỤC
[7/30/2011 8:41:43 PM] Phuc: 1 lat nua co ai_nhan la nguoi quen cua Phuc goi co Thuan, co Thuan cho vao room
[7/30/2011 8:42:07 PM] Thuan Thi Do: ok
[7/30/2011 8:42:37 PM] Phuc: ai_nhan = huynh tran hoai duc
[7/30/2011 8:44:23 PM] *** Conference call ***
[7/30/2011 8:46:07 PM] Thuan Thi Do: anh Van add huynh tran hoai duc
[7/30/2011 8:46:33 PM] Phuc: skype name = ai_nhan
[7/30/2011 8:46:41 PM] Phuc: ai_nhan = huynh tran hoai duc
[7/30/2011 8:47:32 PM] *** Van Atman added huynh tran hoai duc ***
[7/30/2011 8:49:59 PM] Phuc: Duc dang o Tay ninh, theo dao Cao dai, rat gioi ve ly thuyet va thuc hanh thien dinh
[7/30/2011 8:52:18 PM] Phuc: Duc da doc qua nhieu sach cua TTH, Phuc da gioi thieu web TTH de doc them
[7/30/2011 8:52:48 PM] Thuan Thi Do: Chao ban Duc
[7/30/2011 8:53:35 PM] Phuc: neu duoc cau Van add chi Tuyen = thanhheo30
[7/30/2011 8:55:28 PM] Phuc: skype name = thanhheo30 = Ngo Thanh Thanh
[7/30/2011 9:00:33 PM] minhhoa270: chao Trab hoai Duc
[7/30/2011 9:03:05 PM] Phuc: qua dien thoai thi Duc su dung skype chua quen, nen khong thay tin nhan, chac de Phuc huong dan them
[7/30/2011 9:07:36 PM] minhhoa270: Minh hoa vua duoc biet Duc o TN theo Cao Dai MH muon lam quen va hoc hoi them ve i Phap bi truyen xin Huynh Duc giup do
[7/30/2011 9:08:40 PM] Phuc: neu minhhoa270 muon lien lac voi Duc thi them skype name cua Duc = ai_nhan
[7/30/2011 9:08:47 PM] Van Atman: cau van da add thanhheo30 vao nhieu lan ma khong duoc
[7/30/2011 9:09:04 PM] Phuc: chac co roi
[7/30/2011 9:09:21 PM] Van Atman: da add thanh heo nhieu lan ma khong duoc
[7/30/2011 9:09:44 PM] Van Atman: da add thanh heo30 nhieu lan ma khong duoc
[7/30/2011 9:25:05 PM] Van Atman: thanhheo30 co the dung skype moi de duoc add vao
[7/30/2011 9:25:43 PM] Phuc: da, de con alo noi voi chi Tuyen
[7/30/2011 9:28:01 PM] minhhoa270: Duc cho co Minhhoa 270 so Phone de iwn he
[7/30/2011 9:30:25 PM] minhhoa270: Minh hoa270 o VN Phu Yen
[7/30/2011 9:44:39 PM] minhhoa270: anh Van cho toi line Giao ly bi truyen
[7/30/2011 9:45:02 PM] minhhoa270: may toi hu micro
[7/30/2011 9:48:29 PM] Van Atman: SD3 pdf:
[7/30/2011 9:48:33 PM] Van Atman: http://www.theosophical.ca/books/SecretDoctrine,The_HPBlavatsky.pdf
[7/30/2011 11:23:57 PM] *** Call ended, duration 2:39:30 ***