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study paper 3
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Introductory Study Paper 3; THE UNITY OF ALL THINGS |
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Theosophical literature presents a rich variety of themes, some of which
will be outlined in subsequent papers. Beneath this variety lie a few
basic principles which in turn are seen to be aspects of one fundamental
truth, the unity of all life.
The daily experience of our senses seems to tell us that the world around us is made up of an almost infinite number of separate things, from grains of sand to stars, from lowly mosses to giant trees, from microbes to men. The esoteric philosophy, however, teaches that ONE LIFE pervades the whole of visible Nature; more than that, it affirms that the total universe includes invisible modes of being which are similarly animated by the ONE LIFE. In one of the oldest Scriptures of the world, the Rig Veda, the ONE LIFE is recognized as transcending all human categories and hence is designated by such impersonal terms as IT or THAT. The Scripture declares: Other than IT there nothing since has been. This statement is the affirmation of a fact; there never has been anything other than the ONE, by whatever terms human language has sought to name IT. This is the rock foundation of the theosophical philosophy.
The Chinese sage Chuang Tzu wrote: Do not ask whether the Principle is in this or in that; it is in all beings; and in the writings of Yung-chia Ta-shih there occurs the identical teaching; One Nature, perfect and pervading, circulates in all natures; One Reality, all comprehensive, contains within itself all realities.
In similar terms the Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross writes of the union between God and all His creatures, without which these creatures would immediately cease to be and would fall back into nothingness.
Many more similar statements can be found throughout the literature of the Wisdom tradition, and modem theosophical writings do but restate the same underlying truth of existence. In The Secret Doctrine Mme Blavatsky insists that the essential oneness of everything, visible and invisible, throughout Nature, is the one fundamental law in Occult Science. One of her Teachers emphasised the standpoint of occult science: We recognise but ONE element in Nature (whether spiritual or physical) outside which there can be no Nature since it is Nature itself. (Note: In this literature Nature means far more than the visible universe: it is the sum total of everything visible and invisible, of forms and minds, the aggregate of the known [and unknown] causes and effects.) When once the full significance of this fundamental principle
is grasped - that ALL THINGS are but the ONE, appearing under the limitations
of time and form - certain further principles, corollaries of the first,
will become self-evident. Here some of them are briefly stated; the booklist
at the end suggests sources for their further study.
In various forms, under the guise of myths and symbols, as well as in explicit teaching to their disciples, the Wise Men of all cultures have handed down from the most ancient times their discoveries of the truths of Nature. In the theosophical tradition, such truths are not imposed for blind acceptance but are offered for investigation, study and personal corroboration by those who are willing to undertake the task. For it remains true that knowledge is a function of being, and that the ability to know depends, as in all sciences, on the willingness of the student to fulfil the necessary conditions. Hence the companion teaching which everywhere accompanies the Wisdom tradition: direct knowledge of Truth is attainable by man.
To her students in London, shortly before her death Blavatsky said: See
in study a means of exercising and developing the mind never touched
by other studies. She was here referring to the study of The Secret Doctrine,
which requires for its understanding the constant recollection of the
inner Reality within all things, the One Life. This means that the information
given in theosophical books has to be approached in a meditative attitude,
with reflection on each sentence so that its significance and implications
can be fully appreciated and its truth absorbed. In this paper, for example, there are a number of statements that could
well be meditated upon not once only but day after day, and throughout
the day, even while we go about our normal business. The truths that are
set before us should not remain mere words on a printed page; they apply
to us, here and now, and to the world in which we live. For this reason
these papers are kept short, to allow for pondering, for reading again
and again many times, for the gradual assimilation of the teaching. In theosophical study we may need to change our reading habits, to check
the tendency to go on and on, page after page. Let us profit by the advice
given by Mme Blavatsky to some of her students: If you read for ten minutes,
she said, you should think for ten hours. If that seems too demanding,
let us at least spend as much time thinking as we do reading. Let us pause
frequently in our reading, holding the thought clearly in mind, reflecting
on it before passing on to the next passage. The aim of the study is not
the superficial acquisition of information but the absorption of the teaching
so that our lives are transformed thereby. Indeed, in The Key to Theosophy the purpose of The Theosophical
Society is given in the words placed at the beginning of Paper 1 and repeated
here for their further consideration. It was formed to assist in showing to men
The Secret Doctrine - H. P. Blavatsky The Perennial Philosophy - Aldous Huxley
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'Earth,
and moon, and sun, 
In
The Perennial Philosophy, Aldous Huxley has collected together
many statements that show the universality of the Wisdom tradition.