Read the secret doctrine of Blavatsky's library. Helena Blavatsky The Secret Doctrine Volume III Esoteric Teaching

Secret Doctrine
synthesis of science, religion and philosophy
E.P. BLAVATSKY

SATYÂT NÂSTI PARO DHARMAH
THERE IS NO RELIGION HIGHER THAN TRUTH
The Secret Doctrine
The Synthesis Of Science, Religion
And Philosophy
BY H. P. BLAVATSKY
VOLUME III

The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, First printing, London, 1897

It should be taken into account that the third volume of “T. D." was published after the death of H.P.B. and it includes many of her early articles, which she, of course, would not have published without reviewing again And not nOfilling them with additional explanationseniyami.

The third volume of "T. Doctrines" was compiled without proofreading by H.P.B. In addition, one cannot place complete confidence in the notes of students, often unchecked by H.P.B. herself.

From Letters to E.I.R.

Preface

The task of preparing this volume for publication was a difficult and hectic one, and it is therefore necessary to say clearly what has actually been done. The manuscripts handed over to me by H.P.B. were not selected and had no discernible system: I have therefore taken each manuscript as a separate Section and arranged them as consistently as possible. With the exception of the correction of grammatical errors and the removal of apparently un-English idioms, the manuscripts remain as HPB left them, unless otherwise noted. In a few cases I have filled in missing passages, but each such addition is enclosed in square brackets to distinguish it from the text. An additional difficulty arose in The Secret of the Buddha: some parts were rewritten four or five times, and each version contained several phrases that were not in the others; I collected all these options, taking the most complete one as a basis, and put everything added in the other options there. However, not without some hesitation, I included these departments in "The Secret Doctrine". Along with some very significant thoughts, they contain numerous errors of fact and many statements based on exoteric scriptures rather than on esoteric knowledge. They have been placed in my hands for publication as part of the third volume "The Secret Doctrine" and therefore I do not feel justified in coming between the author and the public, either by altering the statements to make them conform to the facts, or by withdrawing these Sections. She said that she acted entirely on her own decision, and it will be obvious to any informed reader that she (perhaps deliberately) presents many messages so confusingly that they are mere disguises; other messages (perhaps accidentally) are so that there is nothing more in them than just an exoteric, incorrect understanding of esoteric truths. Here, therefore, as elsewhere, the reader must use his own judgment; but, feeling obliged to publish these Sections, I cannot do this without warning that much in them is undoubtedly erroneous. Undoubtedly, if the author had published this book herself, she would have completely rewritten these sections; in the same state, it seemed best to publish everything she said in various versions, and leave it unfinished, since students would rather have what she said in the form she said it, although it may be in In this case, they will have to go deeper into it than they would have had to if she had finished her work herself.

Quotations provided have been sought to the extent possible and precise references have been provided; In this labor-intensive work, a whole galaxy of the most serious and diligent researchers under the leadership of Mrs. Cooper-Oakley served as voluntary assistants. Without their help it would not have been possible to give accurate references, since it was often necessary to skim through an entire book to find a quotation of just a few lines.

This volume completes the materials remaining after H. P. B., with the exception of a few scattered articles that still remain and will be published in her journal "Lucifer". Her students know well that there are few in the present generation who will pay tribute to the occult knowledge of H. P. B. and her amazing flight of thought, but how can she wait until future generations to justify her greatness, both teachers and her students can afford to wait for their trust to be justified.

Annie Besant

As for what you have heard from others who convince the masses that the soul, being from the body, does not suffer... from evil and is unconscious - I know that you are too well versed in the teachings we received from our ancestors, and in the sacred mysteries of Dionysus in order to believe them, for the mystical symbols are well known to us who belong to the Brotherhood.

Plutarch

The problem of life is man. Magic, or rather wisdom, is a developed knowledge of the forces of the inner being of man - these forces are divine emanations - since intuition is the perception of their beginning, and initiation is our introduction to this knowledge... We begin with instinct, we end with omniscience.

A. Wilder

Introduction

“Power belongs to the one who has knowledge”; this is a very old axiom. Knowledge - the first step to which is the ability to comprehend the truth, to distinguish the real from the false - exists only for those who, having freed themselves from all prejudices and conquered their human conceit and selfishness, are ready to accept each and every truth if it has been shown to them. There are very few of them. Most people judge a work according to the similar prejudices of its critics, who in turn are guided more by the popularity or unpopularity of the author than by the shortcomings or merits of the work itself. Therefore, outside the circle of Theosophists, this volume is guaranteed an even colder reception from the general public than the previous two. Nowadays, no claim can expect to be judged fairly, or even listened to, unless its arguments follow the lines of legitimate and accepted research, strictly within the boundaries of established science or orthodox theology.

Our age is a paradoxical anomaly. He is predominantly materialistic and equally pious. Our literature, our modern thought and so-called progress both run along these two parallel lines, so absurdly dissimilar, and yet so popular and so orthodox, each in its own way. Anyone who dares to draw a third line as a connecting line of reconciliation between them must fully prepare for the worst. Reviewers will misrepresent his work; sycophants from science and the church will ridicule him; it will be misquoted by opponents, and even pious libraries will reject it. The absurd misconceptions that arose in the so-called cultural circles of society about the ancient wisdom religion (Bodhism) after the admirably clear and scientific explanations appeared in "Esoteric booddisme", are a good example of this. They might serve as a warning even to those Theosophists who, hardened by almost a lifelong struggle in the service of their Cause, are not afraid to put forward their pen and are not in the least afraid of dogmatic assumption or scientific authority. And yet, no matter how hard theosophical writers try, neither materialism nor doctrinal pietism will listen honestly to their philosophy. Their doctrines will be systematically rejected and their theories will not be given a place even in the ranks of scientific fly-by-nights, forever replacing one another with “working hypotheses” of our days. For the proponent of the “animalistic” theory, our cosmogenic and anthropogenic theories are at best only “fairy tales.” For those who would like to shirk any moral responsibility, it is undoubtedly much more convenient to recognize the descent of man from a common simian ancestor and see his brother in the dumb, tailless baboon, than to recognize the paternity of the Pitris, the "Sons of God", and identify in as his brother starving from the slums.

“Get back, don’t come closer!” - the Pietists shout in turn. “You will never make esoteric Buddhists out of respectable, church-going Christians!”

In truth, we are not at all eager to accomplish this metamorphosis. But this cannot and should not prevent Theosophists from saying what they have to say, especially those who, in opposing our teaching to modern science, do so not for its own sake, but only to ensure the success of their own passions and personal glorification . If we cannot prove many of our propositions, then neither can they; yet we can show how, instead of pointing out historical and scientific facts - for the edification of those who, knowing less than themselves, look to scientists to think and help them form their opinions - the majority of our scientists seem to exclusively direct their efforts to destroy ancient facts or to distort them in order to transform them into supports for their own special views. This would be entirely out of the spirit of malicious attack or even criticism, since the writer of these lines readily admits that most of those in whom she finds errors are immeasurably superior to herself in learning. But great learning does not at all exclude partiality and prejudice and also does not serve as a protective wall against self-conceit, but rather the opposite. Moreover, it is only for the sake of the legitimate defense of our own claims, that is, for the sake of the rehabilitation of ancient wisdom and its great truths, that we intend to test our “great authorities.”

Indeed, if we do not take the precaution to answer in advance some objections to the main provisions of this work - objections that will undoubtedly be raised on the basis of the statements of one or another scientist regarding the esoteric nature of all archaic and ancient works on philosophy - then our statements will once again be objected to they will even be discredited. One of the main points in this Volume is to point out the presence in the writings of the ancient Aryans, Greeks and other eminent philosophers, as well as in all the sacred writings of the world, of deeply esoteric allegory and symbolism. Another purpose is to prove that the key to interpretation, as given by the Eastern Hindu-Buddhist canon of occultism, applies to the Christian gospels as well as to the archaic Egyptian, Greek, Chaldean, Persian and even Hebrew Moiseev books – must be common to all peoples, no matter how different their respective methods and exoteric “disguises” may be. These claims of ours are met with fierce rebuff from some of the leading scientists of our time. In his Edinburgh Lectures, Prof. Max Müller rejected this basic assertion of the Theosophists, pointing to Hindu Shastras and pandits who know nothing of such esotericism. This learned Sanskrit scholar has stated in so many words that there is no esoteric element, no hidden meaning or "disguise" in any "Puranaha" neither in "Upanishads". Whereas the word "UpanAndshada" means when translated “The Secret Doctrine”, such a statement is, to put it mildly, strange. Sir M. Monier Williams again holds the same opinion about Buddhism. To listen to him is to admit that Gautama Buddha was an enemy of any claim to esoteric teachings. He never taught them himself! All such “claims” for occult knowledge and “magical powers” owe their origin to the later arhats, the followers of the “Light of Asia”! Prof. B. Jovet, in turn, also contemptuously passes over in silence the “absurd” interpretations of Plato’s “Timaeus” and Books of Moses Neoplatonists. In Plato's Dialogues there is not even a whiff of any Eastern (Gnostic) spirit of mysticism or any approach to science, says Regius, a professor of Greek. Finally, to top it all off, Assyriologist Prof. Says, although he does not deny the presence of hidden meaning in Assyrian tablets and cuneiform literature -

Many of the sacred texts... are written in such a way that only initiates can understand them -

yet insists that the “keys and interpretations” to them are now in the hands of Assyriologists. Modern scholars, he argues, hold the keys to the interpretation of esoteric records,

Which even the dedicated priests (Chaldeans) did not possess.

Thus, according to the scientific assessment of our modern Orientalists and professors, in the days of the Egyptian and Chaldean astronomers, science was in its infant stage. Ianini, the greatest grammarian in the world, was not familiar with the art of writing. Likewise the Lord Buddha and all others in India down to 300 BC. The greatest ignorance reigned in the days of the Indian Rishis and even in the days of Thales, Pythagoras and Plato. Indeed, Theosophists must be superstitious ignoramuses to speak as they do in the face of such learned evidence to the contrary.

Truly, it looks as if from the creation of the world there was only one century of true knowledge on earth - this is our century. In the hazy twilight, at the gray dawn of history, stand the pale shadows of the sages of antiquity, famous throughout the world. They searched hopelessly for the true meaning of their own mysteries, the spirit of which left them without being revealed to the hierophants, and remained latent in space until the advent of the initiates of modern science and research. The midday brightness of the light of knowledge has only now come to the “Know-It-All”, who, basking in the dazzling sun of induction, is engaged in his Penelopean work of “working hypotheses” and loudly declares his right to all-encompassing knowledge. Can anyone then be surprised that, according to modern views, the learning of the ancient philosopher, and sometimes of his immediate successors in past centuries, has always been useless to the world and worthless to himself? For, as has been repeatedly and clearly explained, while the Rishis and ancient sages moved far beyond the arid fields of myth and superstition, the medieval scholar and even the average eighteenth-century scholar were always more or less constrained by their "supernatural" religion and beliefs. It is true that some of the ancient and also medieval scientists, such as Pythagoras, Plato, Paracelsus and Roger Bacon, followed by a host of illustrious names, indeed left quite a few milestones in the precious mines of philosophy and the unexplored deposits of physical science. But then, the actual excavation of them, the smelting of gold and silver, the polishing of the precious stones contained in them - we owe all this to the persistent labors of the modern man of science. And is it not to his unsurpassed genius that we owe that the ignorant and hitherto deceived world is now indebted to him for the true knowledge of the true nature of the cosmos, the real origin of the universe and of man, as revealed in the automatic and mechanical theories of the physicists, in accordance with strictly scientific philosophy? Before our cultural era, science was just a name; philosophy is a delusion and a trap. According to these modest claims of modern authorities to the possession of real science and philosophy, the Tree of Knowledge has only now grown out of the dead weeds of superstition, as a beautiful moth emerges from an ugly chrysalis. Therefore, we have nothing to thank our forefathers for. At best, the ancients only prepared the fertile soil, but it was the contemporaries who became the sowers who planted the seeds of knowledge and carefully cultivated those beautiful plants whose name is stupid denial and sterile agnosticism.

However, this is not the view of the Theosophists. They repeat what was said twenty years ago. It is not enough to talk about absurd concepts of an uncultured past” (Tyndall); O "parler enfantin" Vedic poets (Max Müller); about the “absurdities” of the Neoplatonists (Jovet); and the ignorance of the Chaldeo-Assyrian initiated priests regarding their own symbols compared with the knowledge of the same symbols by the British Orientalists (Says). Such statements must be proven by something more substantial than the bare words of these scientists. For no amount of boastful arrogance can hide those intellectual mines from the materials of which the ideas of so many modern philosophers and scientists are chiseled. How many of those among the most eminent European scientists have acquired honor and respect for the mere disguise of the ideas of these ancient philosophers, which they are always ready to treat with disdain - this is left to impartial posterity to judge. Therefore, the statement in "Isis Unveiled" about some Orientalists and scholars of now unused languages, that in their boundless arrogance and conceit they would rather lose logic and the ability to reason than agree that the ancient philosophers knew anything that our contemporaries do not know.

Since part of the present work treats of initiates and the secret knowledge communicated during the Mysteries, it is first necessary to consider the statements of those who, contrary to the fact that Plato was an initiate, declare that it is impossible to find any hidden mysticism in his works. There are too many scholars of Greek and Sanskrit literature today who are inclined to abandon facts in favor of their own preconceived theories based on personal prejudice. At every opportunity they conveniently forget not only the numerous changes in language, but also that the allegorical style of the writings of the ancient philosophers and the secrecy of the mystics had their raison d'être; that both pre-Christian and post-Christian classical writers - at least most of them - gave a sacred pledge never to betray the solemn secrets that were communicated to them in the sanctuaries, and that this alone is enough to annoyingly mislead their translators and profane critics . But, as will soon become clear, these critics admit nothing of the kind.

For more than twenty-two centuries, everyone who read Plato realized that he, like most other prominent Greek philosophers, was an initiate; that therefore, being bound by the Sodal Oath, he could speak of certain things only by means of veiled allegories. His respect for the mysteries is unlimited; he openly admits that he writes “cryptically,” and we see him take great precautions to conceal the true meaning of his words. Whenever the subject of speech concerns the highest secrets of Eastern wisdom - the cosmogony of the universe, or the ideal pre-existing world - Plato shrouds his philosophy in the deepest darkness. His Timaeus is so complicated that no one but an initiate will understand its hidden meaning. As already said in "OnceOBlessed Isis":

Plato's discourse in the Symposium on the creation, or rather evolution, of the first men, and the essay on cosmogony in the Timaeus, must be taken allegorically if we accept them at all. It is this hidden Pythagorean meaning of the Timaeus, Cratylus, and Parmenides, and several other trilogues and dialogues, that represents what the Neoplatonists dared to expound, since their theurgic vow of secrecy allowed them to do so. The Pythagorean doctrine that God is the Universal Mind, spreading throughout all things, and the dogma of the immortality of the soul, are the main characteristic features in these seemingly absurd teachings. His piety and the great respect he had for the mysteries are sufficient guarantees that Plato would not allow imprudence to triumph over that deep sense of responsibility which every adept feels. “Constantly improving oneself in the perfect mysteries, a person only becomes truly perfect in them,” he says in "Phaedre."

He did not hide his dissatisfaction that the mysteries had become less sacred than before. Instead of profaning them by admitting multitudes there, he would have protected them with his own zeal from all but the most serious and worthy of his students. While he mentions the gods on every page, his monotheism remains beyond doubt, since the whole thread of his reasoning indicates that by the term "gods" he means a class of beings lower than the deities, and standing only a degree higher than man. . Even Joseph sensed and acknowledged this fact, despite the inherent prejudice of his tribe. In his famous attack on Apion, this historian says: “Those among the Greeks, however, who philosophized according to truth were not ignorant of anything... nor did they fail to sense the tarnished surfaces of mythical allegories, in consequence of which they justly despised them. .. Having been affected by this, Plato says that there is no need to admit any of the other poets into the “State”, and he categorically rejects Homer after crowning him and burning incense before him, and this, in fact, is for this purpose so that he with your myths did not destroy the orthodox belief in one God."

And this is the “God” of all philosophers. God is infinite and impersonal. All this and much more, which we cannot quote here for lack of space, leads to the unshakable conviction that, (A) since all sciences and philosophies were in the hands of the temple hierophants, Plato, as initiated by them, should have known them, and (b) that the logical conclusion from this alone is quite enough to admit that any person is right in considering Plato’s works as allegories and “dark sayings” that veiled truths that he had no right to express.

Once this has been established, how is it that one of the best experts on Greek literature in England, Prof. Jowett, the modern translator of Plato's works, is trying to prove that none of the dialogues - even the Timaeus - contain any elements of Eastern mysticism? Those who are able to discern the true spirit of Plato's philosophy will hardly be convinced by the arguments which the head of Balliol College puts before his readers. For him, undoubtedly, the Timaeus may be “obscure and repulsive,” but it is also certain that this obscurity did not arise, as the professor tells his audience, “in the infancy of physical science,” but rather in the days of its secrecy; not from “a confusion of theological, mathematical and physiological concepts,” or “from a desire to embrace the whole of nature without possessing a corresponding knowledge of its parts.” For mathematics and geometry were the backbone of occult cosmogony and therefore also of “theology,” and the physiological concepts of the ancient sages are daily confirmed by the science of our age, at least for those who know how to read and understand the ancient esoteric writings. "Knowledge of the parts" helps us little if this knowledge leads us only to great ignorance of the Whole, or of "the nature and intelligence of the Universal," as Plato calls the divinity, and causes us to commit the greatest errors in the most flagrant manner through the application of our vaunted inductive methods. Plato may have been "incapable of applying the inductive method or generalization in the modern sense"; he may have been ignorant of the circulation of blood, which, we are told, "was absolutely unknown to him," but there is nothing to disprove that he knew what blood was There is, and this is more than any modern physiologist or biologist can claim.

Although prof. Jowett gives the "physical philosopher" a more generous share of knowledge than any other modern commentator and critic, yet his criticisms far outweigh his praises - his own words may be quoted to clearly show his partiality. So, he says:

Put feelings under the control of the mind; to find some path in the labyrinth or chaos of appearances, be it the high road of mathematics or the more deviating paths suggested by the analogy between man and the world, the world and man; to understand that everything has its cause and everything strives for its completion - this is the spirit of the ancient physical philosopher. But we do not give high praise to the conditions of knowledge to which he was subject, nor do the ideas to which his imagination clung have the same influence on us. For he hovers between matter and mind; he is under the power of abstractions; his impressions are taken almost at random from external nature; he sees the light, but does not see those objects that are revealed by the light; and he brings close together things that seem so far from each other to us, like two poles, since he finds nothing between them.

The penultimate statement is obviously not to the taste of the modern “physical philosopher,” who sees “objects” in front of him, but does not see the light of the Universal Mind that reveals them, i.e., acts in the diametrically opposite way. Therefore, the learned professor comes to the conclusion that the ancient philosopher, whom he now judges from Plato’s Timaeus, must have acted in a completely unphilosophical manner and even acted unreasonably. For:

He suddenly goes from faces to ideas and numbers, and from ideas and numbers to faces, he confuses the subject with the object, first and last reasons and, daydreaming about geometric figures, gets lost in a rush of feelings. And now it takes mental effort on our part in order to understand his double language, or comprehend unclear nature of knowledge and the genius of the ancient philosophers, who, under such conditions (?), seems to have foreseen the truth in many cases by divine power.

Whether by “under such conditions” the presence of ignorance and mental dullness in the “genius of the ancient philosophers” is meant, or something else, we do not know. But the meaning of the phrases we underlined is completely clear to us. Whether or not the Regius Professor of Greek believes in the hidden meaning of geometric figures and in esoteric “jargon,” he nevertheless recognizes the presence of a “double language” in the writings of these philosophers. It follows that he admits the existence of a hidden meaning, which had to have its own interpretation. Why then does he decisively contradict himself on the next page? And why should he deny the Timaeus - this predominantly Pythagorean (mystical) dialogue - any occult significance, and try so hard to convince his readers that

The influence that the Timaeus had on subsequent generations was due in part to a misunderstanding.

The following quotation from his Introduction is in direct contradiction to the previous paragraph quoted above:

In the supposed depths of this dialogue, the Neoplatonists found hidden meanings and connections with the Jewish and Christian scriptures, and from there they derived doctrines completely at odds with the spirit of Plato. Believing that he was inspired by the Holy Spirit or received his wisdom from Moses, they seem to have discovered in his writings the Christian Trinity, the Word, the Church... and the Neoplatonists had a method of interpretation by which they could extract any meaning from any words . Indeed, they were not able to distinguish the opinions of one philosopher from another, or to distinguish Plato's serious thoughts from his fleeting fantasies. ... (But) there is no danger that modern commentators on the Timaeus will repeat the absurdity of the Neoplatonists.

There is, of course, no danger for the simple reason that modern commentators have never had the key to occult research. But before we say another word in defense of Plato and the Neoplatonists, we must respectfully ask the learned head of Balliol College what he knows or can know about the esoteric canon of interpretation? The term "canon" here means the key that was transmitted orally, "mouth to ear", by a Teacher to his disciple or a hierophant to a candidate for initiation; this has been done for centuries from time immemorial, when the internal - not public - mysteries were the most sacred institution in every country. Without such a key, there can be no correct interpretation of either Plato's Dialogues or any sacred scripture, from the Vedas to Homer and from "Zend-Avesta" before Books of Moses, impossible. How, then, did the venerable Dr. Jowett know that the interpretations of the various sacred books of nations made by the Neoplatonists are “absurdities”? And again - where did he get the opportunity to study these “interpretations”? History tells us that all such works were destroyed by the fathers of the Christian Church and their fanatic converts wherever they came across them. To say that men like Ammonius, a genius and saint, whose learning and holy life earned him the title of Theodidact ("god-taught"), or Plotinus, Porphyry and Proclus, were "incapable of distinguishing the opinions of one philosopher from another, or of distinguishing the serious thoughts of Plato from his imagination” means putting oneself, as a scientist, in an absurd position. This is equivalent to saying that A) dozens of the most famous philosophers, the greatest scientists and sages of Greece and the Roman Empire were dull-witted fools and b) that all other commentators, lovers of Greek philosophy, some of them the keenest minds of our age, who disagree with Dr. Jowett, are also fools and no better than those whom they admire. The patronizing tone of the above paragraph speaks of a very naive arrogance, remarkable even in our age of self-glorification and mutual admiration cliques. We must compare the views of this professor with the views of some other scientists.

Professor Alexander Wilder of New York, one of the best Platonic scholars of our time, touching Ammonius, the founder of the school of Neoplatonists, says:

His deep spiritual intuition, his extensive learning, his acquaintance with the fathers of the Christian church, Panten, Clement and Athenagoras, and with the most learned philosophers of the time, all made him most suitable for the work which he so carefully performed. He managed to attract to his views the greatest scientists and public figures of the Roman Empire, who were little inclined to waste time on dialectical sophistications or superstitious rituals. The results of his activities are still noticeable in all countries of the Christian world; every distinguished system of doctrine now bears the marks of his sculpting hand. Every ancient philosophy had its adherents among our contemporaries: and even Judaism... made changes in itself, suggested to him by the “god-taught” Alexandrian... He was a man of rare learning and talents, led an impeccable life and was very attractive. His almost superhuman outlook and many excellences earned him the title of Theodidact, but he followed the humble example of Pythagoras and accepted only the title of Philalethean, or lover of truth.

It would be a blessing for truth and fact if our modern scientists would just as modestly follow in the footsteps of their great predecessors. But they are not Philaletheans!

Nowadays most pandits know nothing of esoteric philosophy because they have lost the key to it; yet not one of them, if honest, will deny that the Upanishads, and especially the Puranas, are allegorical and symbolic; also that there are still a few great scholars left in India who could, if they wished, give them the key to such interpretations. Nor do they deny the actual existence of Mahatmas - dedicated yogis and adepts - even in this age of Kaliyuga.

This statement is clearly confirmed by Plato himself, who wrote: “You say that in my previous discussions I did not sufficiently explain to you the essence of the First. I deliberately spoke cryptically, so that if something happened to the tablet on land or sea, then a person without prior knowledge of this subject would not be able to understand its contents.” (Plato, Ep., II, 312; Corey, Ancient Fragments, p. 304.)

. Plato's Dialogues, translated by B. Jowett, Regius Professor of Greek, Oxford University, III, 523.

This definition (unintentionally, of course) places the ancient "physical philosopher" many cubits above his modern "physical" confrère, since the latter's ultima thule is to make humanity believe that neither the universe nor man has any cause - reasonable, in any case - and that they owe their appearance to blind chance and the senseless whirling of atoms. Which of the two hypotheses is more reasonable and logical is left to the decision of the impartial reader.

Highlighted by me. Every newcomer to Eastern philosophy, every Kabbalist will see the reason for this association of personalities with ideas, numbers and geometric figures. For number, as Philolaus says, “is the predominant and self-created connection of the eternal duration of things.” The modern scientist alone remains blind to this great truth.

Here again the ancient philosopher seems to have outstripped the modern one. For he only "confuses... the first and the final causes" (which confusion is denied by those who know the spirit of the ancient teaching), while his modern heir is admittedly and absolutely ignorant of both. Mr. Tyndall shows that science is “powerless” to solve even one of the final problems of nature and “the disciplined (read modern, materialistic) imagination retreats in confusion from contemplating the problems” of the material world. He even doubts whether the modern men of science "possess those intellectual elements which would enable them to comprehend the primary structural energies of nature." But for Plato and his disciples the lower types were only concrete images of the higher abstract types; The immortal Soul has an arithmetic principle, just as the body has a geometric one. This beginning, like a reflection of the great universal Archaeus (Anima Mundi), is self-moving, and from the center it spreads throughout the entire body of the Macrocosm.

The Neoplatonists were never guilty of such absurdity. The learned professor of Greek must have had in mind two forged works attributed by Eusebius and St. Jerome to Ammonius Saccas, who wrote nothing; or he confused the Neoplatonists with Philo the Jews. But Philo lived more than 130 years before the birth of the founder of Neoplatonism. He belonged to the school of Aristobulus the Jew, who lived in the time of Ptolemy Philometer (150 B.C.), and he is said to have inaugurated a movement which sought to prove that Platonic and even Peripatetic philosophy were derived from the "revelation" of the Books of Moses. Walkener tries to prove that Aristobulus, Ptolemy's sycophant, was not the author of the Commentaries on the Books of Moses. But whoever he was, he was not a Neoplatonist, but lived either before or during the days of Philo Judaeus, since the latter seems to know his heaps and adhere to his methods.

Such was only Clement of Alexandria, a Christian Neoplatonist and a very fantastic writer.

Helena Blavatsky

Secret Doctrine

COSMOGENESIS

SCIENCES, RELIGIONS, AND PHILOSOPHIES

SATYВT NВSTI PARO DHARMAH

"NO RELIGION IS HIGHER THAN TRUTH"

From the translator

Foreign words included in this work are conveyed, if possible, in the currently existing transcription in Russian literature.

Helena Roerich

Preface to the first edition

Should the present volumes meet with favorable reception, every effort will be made to carry out the purpose of this work in its entirety.

It should be added that such a task was not envisaged when the production of this work was first announced. According to the original plan Secret Doctrine was supposed to be a corrected and expanded edition " Isis Unveiled" It soon became clear, however, that the explanations which might be added to those already given in the above-mentioned work and others relating to Esoteric Science were such as to require a different method of presentation, and as a result the present volumes contain no more than twenty pages taken from " Isis Unveiled».

The author does not consider it necessary to ask for the indulgence of readers and critics for the imperfections of the English language and for the many shortcomings of literary style that may be encountered in these pages. Being a foreigner, her knowledge of this language was acquired in later years of her life; English is used here because it is the most widely used medium for the transmission of truths, which it has become its duty to make public.

These truths, in no case, are presented as revelation, nor does the author claim to be the exposer of mystical knowledge being made public for the first time in the history of the world. For what is contained in this work may be found scattered among thousands of volumes containing the Scriptures of the great Asiatic and early European religions, hidden in glyphs and symbols and, by virtue of this veil, hitherto neglected. Now an attempt is being made to bring together the most ancient foundations and make of them one harmonious and inseparable whole. The only advantage that the writer has over her predecessors is that she does not have to resort to personal speculations and theories. For this work is a partial statement of what she herself has learned from those who are more knowledgeable, and added in some detail by the results of her personal study and observation. The publication of many of the facts here given was made necessary by the appearance of the wild and chimerical theories which theosophists and students of Mysticism have indulged in during the last few years in their endeavors, as they imagined, to develop an integral system of thought from the few facts previously communicated to them.

It is unnecessary to explain that this book is not the Secret Doctrine in its entirety, but only a select number of fragments of its main provisions. Particular attention is paid to some facts, seized by various writers and distorted beyond any semblance of Truth.

But it may be useful to affirm with all clearness that the teachings contained in these volumes, although fragmentary and incomplete, do not belong to any one religion, such as the Hindus, Zoroaster, Chaldeans and Egyptians, nor to Buddhism, Islam, Judaism or Christianity, exclusively. The Secret Doctrine is the essence of them all. Born from it in their beginnings, the various religious systems now return to their original element, from which every mystery and dogma arose, developed and materialized.

It is more than likely that this book will be considered by the majority as the wildest fable, for who has ever heard of the Book of Dzyan?

The writer of these lines is therefore quite ready to accept full responsibility for the content of this work and is not even afraid of the accusation that everything is just her invention. She is fully aware that this work has many shortcomings. And she only claims that no matter how fantastic the content of this work may seem to many, its logical coherence and consistency give the right to this new Genesis to stand, in any case, on a level with the “working hypotheses” so openly accepted by modern science. Further, this work demands attention, not because of any appeal to dogmatic authority, but because it is closely related to Nature and follows the laws of unity and analogy.

The purpose of this work can be defined as follows: to prove that Nature is not a “random combination of atoms” and to show man his rightful place in the scheme of the Universe; save archaic truths, which are the basis of all religions, from corruption; to reveal to some extent the basic unity from which they all originated; finally, to show that the occult side of Nature has never before been accessible to the science of modern civilization.

If this is accomplished to some extent, the writer is satisfied. This work was written in the service of humanity, and must be judged by humanity and future generations. Its author does not recognize the lesser court of appeal. She is accustomed to insults; she encounters slander every day; She smiles at slander in silent contempt.

De minimis non curat lex.

H.P.B.

London, October, 1888.

Preface to the third and revised edition

Unfortunate expressions due to imperfect knowledge of the English language have been corrected; most of the excerpts from other works have been checked and accurately referenced - a task that required a lot of work, since the references in previous editions were often inaccurate; a uniform system for transcribing Sanskrit words was also adopted. We have abandoned the transcription adopted by Western Orientalists as misleading to the general reader, and have rendered consonants not found in the English alphabet in combinations which approximately correspond to the sound meaning, and have carefully marked the length of the vowels. On a few occasions we inserted notes into the text itself, but this was done very rarely and only when the notes formed part of the text.

Annie Besant

G. R. S. Meeed

London, 1893.

Introduction

“Listen meekly, judge kindly.”

Old truisms are often the wisest. The human mind can hardly remain entirely free from prejudice, and decisive, settled opinions are often formed before a thorough investigation of the subject in all its aspects has been made. What has been said refers to the prevailing error, which, on the one hand, limits Theosophy to Buddhism; and on the other hand, he confuses the provisions of the religious philosophy preached by Gotama Buddha with the doctrines broadly sketched in “ Esoteric Buddhism"Mr. Sinnett. It's hard to imagine anything more wrong than this. This made it possible for our enemies to acquire a strong weapon against Theosophy, for, as one famous scientist very sharply put it, there was “neither Esotericism nor Buddhism” in the mentioned volume. The esoteric truths presented in Mr. Sinnett's work ceased to be esoteric from the moment of their publication; also the book does not contain the religion of the Buddha, but simply only a few provisions of the hitherto secret teaching, which in the present volumes are explained and added by many others. But even the latter, although they reveal many of the main theses of the SECRET DOCTRINE of the East, still only slightly lift the edge of the dense cover. For no one, not even the greatest living Adept, could - even if he wanted to - indiscriminately expose to the ridicule of the unbelieving world that which had been so carefully hidden from it for long eons and centuries.

Elena Petrovna Blavatsky left us a large literary legacy, which includes articles, letters, notes, interviews, and most importantly, interesting books. They surprise, excite, irritate some, even enrage, but without them our life would be boring and not fully conscious. Her works on philosophy, theosophy, mysticism, occultism, magic, and religion brought her worldwide fame. Blavatsky's first great work that shook the world was Isis Unveiled, a solid two-volume work in which a deep analysis of various religious teachings and secret sciences of the West and East was made. The book compares the ideas and achievements of antiquity with the achievements of the 19th century, and convincingly shows that the truth is on the side of the ancients.

The main creation, as if the result of E.P.’s enormous intellectual work, was the book “The Secret Doctrine”, a work that became a classic on the problems of space, the history of mankind, its mental life, as well as its hidden forces - occultism, esotericism and mysticism, which gave rise to a lot of discussions in society. The book has a subtitle: “Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy.” In fact, it was a great work on the esoteric philosophy of the East, covering the formation and development of the world throughout its history. Blavatsky's wisdom is based on the wisdom of the Great Himalayan Teachers, the harbingers of progress of the 20th and 21st centuries. The huge three-volume “Secret Doctrine” was a bottomless storehouse of various knowledge that constituted the pinnacle of human wisdom. The “Secret Doctrine,” as we understand, is not the entire Secret Doctrine of the East, but only a small part of it. Knowledge of the complete Doctrine, according to Blavatsky, is possessed only by the Great Teachers of Wisdom - the Mahatmas. It is not difficult to notice that the origins of their knowledge go deep not only into our planet, where our older brothers in mind founded the fabulous country of Shambhala, but also into the solar system. Their minds extend further, to other planets, other solar systems, where perhaps life has other forms, greater and more beautiful, where disease and death are absent. Blavatsky plunged headlong into this fantastic kingdom and saw our future in it. Therefore, he boldly says that the time will come when man will master other planets and other solar systems, experience another life and unite with the Universal Mind for new creation and eternal life.

There is no need to remind that Blavatsky was a messenger of the Eastern Teachers - the Mahatmas, about whom the Western world had no idea. Mahatmas are Teachers, Adepts, Great Souls, the personification of wisdom and masters of many sciences, including mysticism, Kabbalah and esotericism. They live in the inaccessible regions of the Himalayas, where the road is closed to ordinary adventurers. It was they, our Teachers, who passed on part of their knowledge to the greatest thinkers and sages of all times and peoples.

Blavatsky, as the main theosophist, was given a specific task - to transfer the consciousness of Europeans to a different plane from materialism - to idealism and to show that the World Spirit is primary, and Nature is secondary, although it has the same power as it. And prove that crude materialism must give way to enchanting metaphysics, magic, idealism, sciences free from dogmatic materialism. Blavatsky considered materialists' conversations about the laws of nature, life and death to be not entirely truthful, twisted, and turned upside down. They did not allow new thinking to break through and slowed down spiritual progress. The “Secret Doctrine” must demonstrate to people that Theosophy is a new idea of the development of the Cosmos, Earth and Humanity. It is in it that a solid foundation is laid for the sciences of the future - cosmology, philosophy, gerontology, astrophysics, medicine, new technology and Living Ethics. It contains knowledge about development and mutual assistance in the Cosmos, other worlds and solar systems, about cyclicality, the strict pattern of everything that happens, the infinity of life and the endless aspirations of all things for improvement, Unity and Harmony.

The “Secret Doctrine” confirmed that Unity is the law on which the whole world stands: science and culture, religion and philosophy. It provides an idea of a single source of knowledge about where everything came from and how it spread; how new ideas penetrated into human consciousness, how they strive to change the world and people. With her books, Blavatsky made a revolution in the material and spiritual world. She boldly entered into polemics with all the outstanding scientists of her and the future centuries, philosophers, religious scholars, astrologers, physicists and chemists on various issues of existence, supporting her ideas and theories with excerpts from the works of ancient authors. Although it is not news to us that in her works not everything is as smooth as it seems at first glance. In some ways she is wrong, in some ways she is not entirely consistent, she is not always as convincing as we would like, and in some ways she goes too far. But the fact that the “Secret Doctrine” made a profound revolution in human consciousness, made a synthesis of the ancient teachings of the East and West, their symbolism, touched upon a huge range of problems from Space to man, gives us reason to assert that this book is a world popular science textbook on human wisdom.

And we see that it is based on the encrypted formulas of the twelve stanzas of the “Book of Dzyan”, which are more than a million years old. In her time, no one, not a single scientist in the world, saw them. And even if I had seen it, I would have thrown up my hands: I could neither read it due to the difficulty of the language, nor understand what it was talking about. We are surprised by Elena Petrovna’s performance. After all, the “Secret Doctrine,” numbering more than two thousand pages, was written in just two years, which is a record in the world history of the creation of scientific treatises. This time would only be enough to rewrite books, and not to create them, which means that what Blavatsky so candidly talked about in her book happened: a miracle happened.

Creation of the "Secret Doctrine"

In August 1882, Mahatma Koot Hoomi wrote in a letter to Sinnett: “Don't you see that everything you find in Isis is barely outlined, barely sketched - nothing completed or fully revealed. Okay, the time has come, but where are the workers for such a huge task? (1) (Letter 72. “Letters of the Mahatmas”). Thus, the Teachers had the idea not so much to rewrite Isis, which has many significant shortcomings, but to create a new book that would be slimmer, more compact, with a clearly expressed idea and theme. The leaders of the Theosophical Society determined that the new book would be published in twenty-four parts, each seventy pages long. However, in January 1885, on the orders of Mahatma Kuta Humi, plans were changed.

Having received the instructions, Elena Petrovna sat down at her desk for a long time: the matter was gaining new momentum. About the work of H.P.B. Judge reported on the new book in his letter from Paris in the spring of 1884. He writes that he is helping E.P. in the process of working on a book, it will be called "The Secret Doctrine", and that its publication has already been announced in the Theosophist magazine. Bertram Keightley reports that in early 1887 he visited Blavatsky in Ostend. She asked him to look over the manuscripts of a new work called The Secret Doctrine. Upon review, Keightley realized that this book was destined to become "the most important contribution of this century to the literature of occultism." Although he was aware that the manuscript would undergo a thorough revision and difficult editing before it was submitted for publication. When Blavatsky moved to England, settling in a new place (Macotte), she handed over to Dr. Archibald Keightley (his uncle), and personally to him - Bertram, a part of the manuscript that had been finalized at that time for reading, correcting punctuation, language, various footnotes, grammatical errors. She offered to treat this work as if it were her own.

“Both of us,” writes B. Keightley in his report, “carefully read the manuscript. It was a pile of paper, a meter high, they corrected the English and punctuation, other errors and told Blavatsky that the book was chaotic. It needs to be arranged according to some specific plan, tied to ideas, otherwise it will turn out to be another “Isis Unveiled.” Surprisingly, Blavatsky sent them to hell and ordered them to do as they wanted. B. Keightley writes: “We set out before her our plan, which was suggested to us by the nature of the subject itself, namely, to make the work four volumes, with each volume being divided into three parts: 1) Stanzas and commentaries on them; 2) Symbolism; 3) Science. Further, instead of making the first volume, as she intended, a history of some of the great occultists, we advised her to follow the natural order of presentation. To begin with the evolution of the cosmos, from there to the evolution of man, and then, in the third volume, to take up the historical part, examining the lives of the Great Occultists, and finally to talk about practical occultism in the fourth volume - if she is able to write it at all. (2) (Report by B. Keightley on the "Secret Doctrine").

Blavatsky approved the plan of Archibald and Bertram Keightley. The next step of the conscientious assistants was to distribute the material on cosmogony and anthropology, which make up the first two volumes. This was also done without comment.

But we know that the architecture of the grandiose plan was in the hands of several people - the Himalayan Mahatmas, the Great Teachers of Wisdom, who guided Blavatsky on the right path. HPB herself talks about this. “Every morning,” she writes, “a new place and a new event appear. I'm leading a double life again. The Master finds it too difficult for me to look at the astral light while working on my "Secret Doctrine" while conscious, and therefore for about two weeks now I have been observing everything that I need, as if in a dream. I see huge, long rolls of paper on which everything is written, and then I reconstruct everything from memory...” (3) (Letters from Blavatsky to Sinnett). Blavatsky reports that if she needed to consult and obtain information from a book, she concentrated her mind to create an astral copy of the book that was needed.

Dr. Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden, who was present in Würzburg with Blavatsky, left a certificate of her work on the book. He saw many corrections and notes made in blue pencil, in the Kuta Hoomi handwriting that was familiar to him. The manuscripts of the book were on the desk, so it was easy for him to remember everything. The doctor noticed everything and recorded it on paper. He slept on the couch in her workroom. The couch was just a few steps away from the desk. Therefore, he remembers well his surprise when one morning he discovered a great many pages, full size, covered with blue pencil. The sheets lay next to pages written by Blavatsky herself. The doctor had no idea how these pages got there. He knows for sure that no one entered the room: he sleeps lightly.

History has left us testimonies from various individuals confirming how the “Secret Doctrine” was created. All of them indicate that the authors of most of the articles were Great Mahatmas. To establish the truth about how this book was created, Charles Johnson scrupulously studied the handwriting of the Mahatmas who took part in the work on this tome. He didn't want to make any mistakes in this matter. Johnson found that a man with a soft and even character and great willpower writes with a blue pencil. He thinks logically, is kind, and is ready to make every effort to make his thoughts understandable. Johnson believes that this is the handwriting of a highly cultured and tactful person. The handwriting of the other co-author, who wrote in red, was completely different. His style is assertive, sharp, authoritative and strong. It looks like lava erupting from a volcano. For him, the first author is water, and the second is fire. History has preserved their names - these are Kut Hoomi and Moriah. In addition to the Mahatmas, Blavatsky had many other assistants, all of them worked conscientiously, by the sweat of their brow, with knowledge of the matter, and they worked day and night, without complaining of fatigue.

The Secret Doctrine scholar, Bertram Keightley, reports that the quotations for The Secret Doctrine were taken from various sources that were not in Blavatsky's room. All the rare books were in the British Museum, and in a single copy, so there was no way to use them. He can testify to this under oath. All books corresponded to their authors and their purpose.

E.D. made a significant contribution to the work on the book. Fawcett, who gave Blavatsky many quotations from his scientific works. He also helped to verify manuscripts and occult doctrines taken by Blavatsky from various rarities. It is also impossible to remain silent about the main assistant E.P. in work on the book - Colonel Olcott G.S. His knowledge, painstaking work, friendly participation and support helped Blavatsky overcome all the difficulties that befell her. A whole book could be written about his dedicated work. Later, in the article “My Books,” Blavatsky will tell how about half a dozen Theosophists worked on editing the book, helping to organize the material, correct imperfect English and prepare it for publication. But not one of them can say, says HPB, that the Secret Doctrine is not her creation. This is her hard-earned, painfully born, fateful book.

The essence of the "Secret Doctrine"

The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky's main work, was published in 1888. It was originally published in 2 volumes. The third volume was published after her death in 1897. Many of her early articles are included there, which she, of course, would not have included without looking at them again and adding additional explanations to them.

Much of it is unclear and may be misleading. After all, she was constantly learning and expanding her knowledge. Not all pages of the Secret Doctrine were written exclusively under the dictation of the Great Teachers.

In the book, Blavatsky sets out the main principles of esoteric philosophy, not entirely revealed in Isis Unveiled, and shows the greatness of the ancient sciences, their advantage over the sciences of the 19th century. If in “Isis Unveiled” the main questions of Being, Cosmos, and personality are described somewhat schematically, one might say hastily, then in “The Secret Doctrine” everything is thought out, justified and convincing.

According to Elena Petrovna, the “Secret Doctrine” is just a small fragment of an esoteric teaching that embraces the world, the Universe, with all visible and invisible laws known only to Adepts. It contains exactly as much information as the world will be able to perceive in the coming century. Blavatsky does not claim to be the ultimate Truth; The book is not a revelation, not a exposer of various sciences. The Secret Doctrine is a synthesis of many sciences, it also has three fundamental provisions, four main ideas, six numbered points, five proven facts and ten points showing the essence of Isis Unveiled. In addition to all the problems posed in the book, Blavatsky brings to the fore the main idea - the One in everything. It is from it that everything arose, everything exists in it, everything returns to its beginning. Without understanding the One, it is impossible to understand the essence of the science of Theosophy and other occult sciences.

The Secret Doctrine establishes three basic provisions that are the main ones. First: this is the Eternal and Infinite Principle, about which no reasoning is possible. It is beyond human understanding and any attempts to express it and compare it with something lead to its belittlement. He is the One and Absolute in everything, the Infinite and Eternal Cause of everything that was, is and ever will be.

Second: this is the Eternity of the Universe generally, as a periodic arena of countless universes manifesting and disappearing. They testify to the absolute universal law of periodicity, ebb and flow, increase and decrease, recorded by science in all areas of nature. This alternation extends to day and night, life and death, sleep and wakefulness and other phenomena, which makes it one of the most absolute and fundamental Laws of the Universe.

Third: - this is the fundamental identity of all shower with the World Over-Soul, which is one of the aspects of the Unknown Root. No divine soul can have an independent existence until it has fulfilled the following requirements: a) has passed through every primary form of the phenomenal world; b) will not acquire individuality controlled by karma.

If the reader has understood them and grasped the light they shed on every problem of life, then no further proof is needed.

Blavatsky puts forward a universal formula for cosmic evolution. She admits that transferred to dances the history of cosmic evolution is an abstract formula of all evolution. Starting from the first stanza and ending with the seventh, Blavatsky shows the awakening of the Universe, its formation into a sevenfold hierarchy of conscious Divine Forces, the formation of numerous worlds, including one of them in which we live, and ends her analysis with the descent of life before the appearance of man.

Using ancient sources, Blavatsky explains that everything in the Universe is interconnected and endowed with consciousness, including animate and inanimate objects. For esoteric philosophy there is no “dead” or “blind” matter; any matter is alive and breathing. She is endowed with consciousness. Consequently, the world is the diversity of life in all its manifestations. The universe is created and is directed from the inside to the outside. As above, so below, as in heaven, so on earth, and man - a microcosm, a miniature copy of the macrocosm, is a living testimony to this universal law and the way it operates. The entire Cosmos is governed, controlled and animated by endless series of hierarchies of conscious beings, each of which has its own purpose. All of them are executors of the laws of Karma and Cosmos. They are not pure spirits, each of them was human in previous Manwantaurs. It is characteristic that Elena Petrovna in her work constantly exalts man, endows him with reason, strength, will, and the ability to create a new State or Society of Equals, in which human life will be transformed and become equal to Heavenly Paradise.

In the Preface to The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky writes: “The purpose of this work may be defined as follows: to prove that Nature is not a “random combination of atoms,” and to show man his rightful place in the scheme of the Universe; save archaic truths, which are the basis of all religions, from corruption; to reveal to some extent the basic unity from which they all originated; finally, to show that the occult side of Nature has never before been accessible to the science of modern civilization.” (4) ("Secret Doctrine", vol. 1, p. 19). Blavatsky emphasizes that her work was performed in the service of humanity, and must be judged by humanity and future generations.

We see that this book raises as many problems as our inquisitive mind can comprehend, and we know that it will take more than one century to resolve them. Let us dwell on only one of them, this is “Evolution of Cycles and Karma”. It is interesting for us because it covers the issues of Karma, the teaching that is accepted by all followers of the ancient religions of the East. The basis of their philosophy is that every being, every creature on earth, no matter how insignificant and small it may be, is an immortal particle of immortal matter. The main thing is that everything is subject to Karma. “Replace this word with God,” writes Blavatsky, “and it will become an axiom.” Speaking about man as a free individual, capable of weaving around himself the pure robe of the righteous, H.P.B. cites the saying of the ancients that “Our destiny is written in the stars,” although he adds that “man is a free agent during his stay on Earth.” Free, we say, and active, but not completely. We cannot escape the leading role of Fate, although we have a choice of two paths leading us into the depths of Being. A person can reach the limit of happiness or the limit of misfortune, if it is intended for him: either to be in the pure robes of the righteous, or in the filthy robes of evil. There are internal and external conditions that influence a person’s decisions and actions. Although a person can change them by the power of his will.

Whoever believes in Karma, Blavatsky emphasizes, must believe in Fate, which from birth to death each of us weaves thread by thread around us, like a spider its yarn. And this destiny is directed either by the heavenly voice of the invisible Prototype, or by the astral voice, or by our inner “I”. When the last thread is woven, and a person is, as it were, wrapped in his actions, he sees himself entirely in the power of fate, created by himself. And then he depends entirely on her decision. It is not Karma that punishes and rewards a person, but the person himself rewards or punishes himself, with his actions, with his way of life.

New provisions in anthropogenesis

The Secret Doctrine revolutionized anthropogenesis. In connection with human evolution, Blavatsky's book puts forward three new propositions that are completely at odds with both modern science and existing religious dogmas. Let's name them. The first is the simultaneous evolution of seven human groups in seven different parts of our planet. Second: birth astral body in front physical, and the first serves as a model for the second. And third: the precedence of man in this Circle to all mammals. Blavatsky names four great races that were the predecessors of our Aryan race. These four races had many archaic and esoteric names. They changed according to the language of the people named in the ancient scriptures. HPB names the continents on which the Races developed:

1) An indestructible sacred country. This name is based on the assertion that this “Indestructible Sacred Country” never shared the fate of the other continents. She is the only one of all who is destined to exist from the beginning to the end of the manvantara, throughout each round.

2) Hyperborea. This is the name of the second continent and the country that extended in the southern and western directions from the north pole. The remains of this continent are now known as Northern Asia.

3)Lemuria. This name is given to the third continent. The continent included part of the regions of present-day Africa. Basically, this giant continent, stretching from the Indian Ocean to Australia, was completely submerged under the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

4) Atlantis- fourth continent. It would be the first historical country about which we have some knowledge. Atlantis was first mentioned in Plato’s book “The State”, where a description of this country was also given.

5) Europe. In fact, America was the fifth continent. But, since it is located in the opposite hemisphere, Indo-Aryan occultists call contemporary Europe and Asia Minor the fifth continent. Since the sequence of continents is considered by Blavatsky in the order of evolution of races, from the First to the Fifth, our Aryan root race, then Europe should be considered the Fifth great continent. (6).

Human races, according to Blavatsky, are born from one another. E, P, B. said: “There is neither APPEARANCE nor DISAPPEARANCE, but there is only eternal BECOMING.” The Fourth Root Race still exists. The same is the case with the Third, and the Second, and the First, since one can observe their manifestations on our present material plane.” (8) If modern science, and behind it philosophy, do not dispute the fact that the human family consists of different, clearly defined types and races, it is only because it is impossible to deny. E.P. I don’t believe that there is a person who would argue that there is no external difference between an Englishman, an African Negro, a Japanese or a Chinese. She does not understand the motives of some naturalists who deny the formation of mixed human races in our days. She does not believe their claims that in the future, humanity will not face any changes. For her, such a theory is absurd and unprovable. On the contrary, she says, humanity will change for the better: there will be no cruelty, violence, prisons and premature deaths.

The world's evil comes out of hiding

E.P. Blavatsky brings into the arena of world history the evil spirit - Lucifer. In ancient times Lucifer, or Luciferus, was the name of the Angelic Being who presided over the light of truth, as well as the light of day. Lucifer is the Logos in his highest aspect, and the “Adversary” in his lowest. Both of these aspects are reflected in our consciousness, in the Ego itself. The legend of the fallen angels, as it is set out in many teachings widespread in the West, reflects the Cosmic Law of the evolution of the highest Beings of Light in the bodies of people. The physical manifested world cannot be left to itself; it cannot exist autonomously from the entire Creation. And due to the large presence of the forces of chaos in the manifested world, it requires constant care and guardianship from the higher manifested worlds of this Universe. The process of the descent of the Highest Spirits into the bodies of people is a necessary stage of evolutionary development. Millions of years ago, angels or higher Beings of Light descended into the bodies of people on Earth, who endowed man with mind and became part of his Supreme body.

In The Secret Doctrine we learn that Satan, or the Red Fire Dragon, the Demon and Lucifer, or the Light-Bearer, is within ourselves: it is our mind, our tempter and redeemer, our rational liberator and savior from pure animality. Without this principle - an emanation of the very essence of pure divine Mind, emanating directly from the Divine Mind - we would certainly be no better than animals. “Fallen Angels,” says Blavatsky, “are all of humanity. The demon of pride, lust, resentment and hatred had no place for himself before the appearance of being, a physical and conscious man. It was man who gave birth to and nurtured this enemy and allowed him to take up residence in his heart. He dishonored and desecrated the God who dwells within himself. If the Kabbalistic saying “The Demon is the inversion of God” finds metaphysical confirmation in the duality of Nature itself, then the practical application of this unclean thing is found only in man himself. The Secret Doctrine proves that the Angels of heaven are identical with their fallen souls. All of them were in prehistoric times the people and souls of their carriers.

However, Lucifer was indeed one of the eight Sons of Light who came from the Higher planets to our Earth and incarnated in various races to accelerate the mental development of humanity. The fall of Lucifer began from the time of Atlantis. His downfall was that he went against the law of evolution, or the Will of the Cosmos. At the end of the Third Race, people were divided into two classes - the “Sons of the Night” or Darkness and the “Sons of the Sun” or Light. Lucifer became their leader. It happened as follows. “Everyone, being gifted with divine powers and feeling within himself internal God, realized that by nature he was a God-man, although an animal in his physical self. The struggle between these two natures began from the very day they ate the fruit of the Tree of Wisdom; the struggle for life between the spiritual and the mental, the mental and the physical. Those who defeated the lower “principles”, taming their flesh, joined the “Sons of Light”; those who fell victim to their lower natures became slaves of Matter. From the "Sons of Light and Reason" they ended up becoming the "Sons of Darkness". They fell in the struggle between mortal life and Immortal Life, and all who fell in this way became the seed of the coming generations of Atlanteans.

<…>Thus the first races of the Atlanteans, born on the continent of Lemuria, were divided, starting from their earliest tribes, into the righteous and the unrighteous; on those who worshiped the single invisible Spirit of Nature, the Ray of which man feels within himself - or pantheists, and on those who provided fanatical worship to the spirits of the Earth, the dark, cosmic, anthropomorphized Forces with which they entered into an alliance.” (TD2.ch.I.Comments, Stanza X, verse 40-42)

Elena Ivanovna Roerich, who translated the “Secret Doctrine” into Russian at the direction of the Teacher, wrote: “As it is said, the struggle of despair changed the Bearer of Light, and his ruby aura was filled with a scarlet glow. His followers, truly, began to resort to shameful means that only delay the deadlines, but do not exhaust fate.” (18.01.36 Roerich E.I. Letters. 1929-1938 v.2)

“The great battle in the fourth race between the Sons of Light and the sons of darkness, mentioned in all ancient traditions, vividly marked this great drama of our planet. The drama is that Lucifer, according to cosmic law, is the true Master of our Earth. The grain of his spirit potentially contains all the energies inherent in the core of our planet, therefore one can easily imagine how the Master of the Earth knows its depths and how all its energies are subordinated to him. Whereas the other Great Sons of Light who arrived on our planet belong to higher Worlds. The highest among Them took responsibility for the planet. He stands on permanent Watch.” (28.12.35 Roerich E.I. Letters. 1929-1938 v.2)

The Secret Doctrine was received enthusiastically by society. Theosophists and their supporters - admirers of Eastern wisdom and secret sciences - were especially jubilant. They called this book “epochal,” “brilliant,” “the book of the century,” and one that would become “a model of wisdom for other generations.” Most newspapers in Europe, Asian countries, and America wrote about the greatest phenomenon created by a Russian woman, a theosophist, who published such an epoch-making book. Blavatsky's work was rated very highly. But those were only newspaper notes and small articles. There were no solid articles in which the main problems of the book were analyzed in detail, neither in newspapers nor in magazines. The book turned out to be too tough for either positivists, theologians, or theosophists themselves. They were all silent in unison.

"Critic" of the "Secret Doctrine" got punched in the teeth

After the laudatory odes addressed to Blavatsky with the release of The Secret Doctrine, there were “experts” who questioned not only the knowledge, but also the very integrity of the author in such profound questions of Being. For example, in 1893, a certain W. E. Coleman attempted to prove that Blavatsky's books, especially The Secret Doctrine, were complete plagiarism. The critic claimed that over the past three years he had made a “more or less exhaustive analysis” of Madame Blavatsky’s writings and traced the sources from which she borrowed her quotations, bibliography and various footnotes. Coleman stated that by quoting liberally from authorities, both past and present, Blavatsky tries to present herself as “an incredibly well-read man of vast erudition,” when in reality “she was a complete ignoramus in all fields of knowledge.” Moreover, a meticulous critic began to argue that Blavatsky took the main material of the Secret Doctrine from two sources: Wilson's translation of the Vishnu Purana, and the World Life by Alexander Winchell, professor of geology and paleontology at the University of Michigan. However, when the text of “World Life” was compared with the text of “TD”, it was possible to find only a few borrowings without reference to a secondary source. And not seventy, as Coleman claimed, but only six. The notes to the English edition describe these six passages in detail. Three of them set out the specific views of Leucipus and Democritus, Kepler and Empedocles, and facts from modern astronomy. In two borrowings, Blavatsky gives a link to the original source quoted by Winchell. In yet another instance, where two quotes from Winchell are given without reference to him, he and his book are mentioned at the beginning and end of The Secret Doctrine. So the arguments of the meticulous critic W.E. Coleman, turned out to be untenable. (7).

Academic science was also skeptical, to say the least, about the “Secret Doctrine”. Scientists did not so much criticize the book as try to ignore it. In a word, most of them took water into their mouths. For Elena Petrovna, the silence of the “wise men” was worse than death. She could not believe that her fundamental work had remained on the sidelines of the development of scientific and philosophical thought. And this is at the end of the 19th century. Even her friends and colleagues could not understand why the venerable scientists whom she knew and with whom she corresponded did not say a single word about the book: neither positive nor negative. It turns out there were plenty of reasons for silence. The first of them was that the esoteric orientation of theosophical doctrine and its enthusiastic attitude towards occult wisdom - mysticism, occultism, esotericism, and other secret sciences, did not fit into the academic scientific paradigm at all. The dominant cult of matter and “positive” knowledge was not suitable for comprehending Blavatsky’s book. It is no secret that Western science and philosophy from the very beginning of modern times developed under the slogan of the struggle against metaphysics, idealism and dogmatic theology of past centuries. The world of classical science was surprisingly simple: everything was subject to materialism and mechanism. And the world of secret knowledge, occultists and esotericists, was beyond their minds.

The “Secret Doctrine” is thoroughly saturated with secret sciences, metaphysical ideas that exploded all mechanism and crude materialism. To recognize the spiritual principle as primary, and the material as secondary, was worse than a catastrophe for them. Blavatsky's book rehabilitated all the spiritual truths that were in persecution, it cleared the way for the hidden, unknown spiritual forces of the universe and dealt a heavy blow to the apologists of classical scientific theories. Later, as we know, science will confirm many of the philosophical and scientific predictions of the Mahatmas. It is no coincidence that many scientists, including Albert Einstein, will constantly turn to the ideas of the “Secret Doctrine”, which will become consonant with their own ideas. But the main thing was different - the theosophical picture of the world contradicted the main postulates of the ruling ideology.

Secondly, the “Secret Doctrine” turned out to be too difficult for narrow specialists who have no idea about the extensive knowledge of Eastern philosophy, history, religion, and other sciences. Their Western education did not fit into Eastern mythology, culture, science and art. Occultism, Kabbalah, magic - for European science they were terrible words and enemies. The book turned out to be very difficult for theosophists themselves, experts in the secret sciences. Some scientists even tried to write commentaries on this book, to adapt it to the popular presentation, but the nut was too tough: “The Secret Doctrine” remained a book with seven seals. Blavatsky was aware that her book was indeed overloaded with secondary facts and side lines of the narrative. I understood that this complicated the overall perception of the text. But she couldn’t do anything. And we know that it is no coincidence that half a century after the book was published, Mahatma Moriah suggested that Helena Roerich, his student and translator of the “Secret Doctrine” into Russian, write an independent short commentary on the stanzas of the book Dzian, without side lines of the narrative. However, this work was not completed.

How to read an epoch-making book

As Blavatsky explained, the Secret Doctrine is just a small fragment of that esoteric knowledge known to the highest members of the occult brotherhoods. She put into it as much information or knowledge as the human brain could perceive. She left us her recommendations for how to read the Secret Doctrine, written down by theosophist Robert Bowen a few days before her death. We quote her words: “Reading TD page by page, like reading any other book, will inevitably end in confusion and confusion. First of all, even if it takes years, it is necessary to understand the three fundamental principles discussed in the Prologue. Let this be followed by a study of a brief repetition - the numbered points in the “Summary” section to the 1st part of the 1st volume. Then take the “Preliminary Notes” in Volume 2 and the “Conclusion” (Vol. 2)” (8). (R. Bowen).

HPB convinces us that we should not cling to her as the final authority, but rather rely on our own perceptions. 19 days before her death, Blavatsky told her students: “If anyone imagines that from the Secret Doctrine he can get a satisfactory picture of the structure of the Universe, then as a result of studying this book he will only become completely confused. The Secret Doctrine was created not at all in order to make a final verdict on all questions of existence, but only to lead to the truth.” (8). She repeated the last word many times. Therefore, we must perceive it as a means of exercising and developing our mind.

Bowen writes that H.P. convinced her listeners and readers of the futility of turning to those who are called “advanced students”, to various commentators and interpreters for “explanations of “TD”. They are not able to give a sensible explanation of her ideas. If someone tries to do this, then the listeners will hear nothing of substance from them, except fragmentary and emasculated exoteric interpretations, which will be far from the truth. By assimilating such interpretations, the listeners will focus only on fixed ideas, while Truth exceeds all ideas for which there are no boundaries. For Blavatsky , all exoteric interpretations are good, she does not condemn them if they serve only as pointers to beginners and are not perceived by them as something more. HPB is aware that many of those who have already joined or will join the Theosophical Society are not able to overcome the framework of generally accepted exoteric concepts, but I am sure that there are and will be others who need to be recommended the only correct approach to the “Secret Doctrine”.

Therefore, she recommends to her students, readers and listeners to approach “TD” without any hope that the final truth of existence can be gleaned from it. For her, this point of view is wrong. The book must be studied without any other goals than the desire to find out for yourself how much it can bring the reader closer to the Truth. "TD" should be considered as one of the ways to develop the mind, untouched by other important problems. When reading, the following rules must be observed: regardless of what is studied in the “Secret Doctrine”, what goals the reader pursues, what ideas and articles are close to his understanding, each of us must take the following ideas as a basis:

a) The Basic Unity of all things. This unity has nothing to do with the generally accepted idea of unity, which the reader has in mind when he says, for example, that a nation or an army is united, or that our planet is united with others by the force of gravity. She sees the essence of the teaching as a friend. It lies in the fact that everything that exists is One Whole, and not just a collection of interconnected things. At the basis of the One Whole, there is a Single Being, which has two aspects - positive and negative. The positive aspect is Spirit, or Consciousness. Negative is Matter, the object of consciousness. Being is the Absolute in its primary manifestation. Since it is absolute, nothing exists beyond it. This is All-Being, it is inseparable, otherwise it would not be absolute. If some part could be separated from it, then what remained would not be absolute, since the question of comparing it with the separated part would immediately arise. Comparison is incompatible with any idea of absoluteness. Thus, it becomes clear to the reader that this fundamental One Existence, or Absolute Being, must be present as Reality in any of the existing forms.

b) The second idea that he recommends adhering to is that there is no Dead Matter. Even the smallest atom is endowed with life. It cannot be otherwise, since each atom represents Absolute Being. Thus, there are no “spaces” of Ether, or Akasha - they can be called differently - in which angels and elementals frolic like trout in a river. For Blavatsky, this is a widely held view. Indeed, the correct idea is that every atom of matter, regardless of what plane it is on, is essentially Life.

c) The third main idea to remember. It consists in the fact that Man is a Microcosm. And if so, then all the Heavenly Hierarchies exist in him. In reality, there is neither macrocosm nor microcosm, but only One Existing. Only to a limited consciousness does the great seem great, and the small - small.

d) The fourth and last of all the fundamental ideas which she recommends to be remembered is expressed in the Great Axiom of Hermeticism. It summarizes and synthesizes all other ideas. As there is Internal, so is External; as there is Great, so there is Small; as there is above, so there is below: there is only One Life and One Law; and the One who controls them is the One. Nothing is either Internal or External; nothing is neither Great nor Small, nothing is neither high nor low in the Divine Order.

Regardless of what is taught in TD, the reader should always relate its study to these core ideas. However, Blavatsky warns that when studying her book one should not be a fool: do not drive yourself to a madhouse by intending to comprehend too much at once. This is unacceptable. Our brain is the instrument of waking consciousness. And the formation of any conscious mental image generates change and destruction of the atoms of the brain. “Therefore, writes H.P.B. - you need to think within the limits of the possible. Ordinary human intellectual activity proceeds quite steadily, without forcing the brain to make sudden changes in the composition of its substance, it does not cause destruction. Only strong mental stress leads to the emergence of “new directions of brain activity”, to a restructuring of the organization of brain cells. Carelessly accelerating such a process can cause great physical damage to the brain” (9). Blavatsky so that after reading her book, each of us remains in our own mind and health. For a person of weak mind, such a cosmic load can damage his health.

Ramacharaka recommends approaching Blavatsky's book with caution. He believes that the main goal of such a person is to know himself. This is all science and all wisdom: to know and find yourself, to merge your higher and lower “I” into one. If a person accomplishes this, he will be an Initiate. And the symbol of the Initiate who managed to do this is a snake crawling on the ground. “It is a straight line or sine wave, and this line is always limited. But a snake biting its tail becomes a circle, and a circle is infinity, limitlessness, eternity. A person who has succeeded in realizing in himself the symbol of the circle enters a world where boundaries no longer exist, where all distinctions between up and down are erased, since all the powers, wealth and virtues that the true higher “I” possesses merge with his lower self. "I". The small and the large form a unity, and man becomes the Divine.” (10). Therefore, in order to know the science of the “Secret Doctrine”, a person must know himself. To be pure body and soul, wise and the personification of holiness, according to the requirements of Jnani Yoga. Of course, such a requirement is unacceptable for most of our readers.

The Indians call the way of thinking presented by Blavatsky Jnani - yoga. India, for Blavatsky, is the country of Great Wisdom, the birthplace of Sanskrit, the indigenous language of the world, the mother of all religions and all philosophy of the world. In India all the verbal symbols arose that made serious thinking and the expression of deep thoughts possible. It was from the thinkers and teachers of India that great ideas came to the Europeans, from which all the philosophical systems and religions of the world grew. And Blavatsky is one of such teachers and thinkers, who gave the world the wisdom of the Indian people and the peoples of the East.

Walking along the path of Jnani yoga, Blavatsky writes, a person feels how new concepts arise in him, which he is aware of, without being able to either express them or give them the form of a mental image. Over time, these concepts will take the form of mental images. During such a period, one should be especially careful not to be misled by the idea that this newfound image is an image of reality. This is not entirely true. Blavatsky leads the reader to the fact that, continuing his work, a person discovers a strange metamorphosis: the image that once delighted him begins to fade, ceases to satisfy him, and, in the end, it is completely erased and disappears. “Here another danger awaits him, because at the moment when a person finds himself, as it were, in emptiness and deprived of any concept that can support him, he may succumb to the temptation to revive the discarded image in order to gain more reliable support. However, a true disciple, not paying attention to this, will continue his work.” (eleven).

In the end, Elena Petrovna writes, an unclear light will again appear before him, from which, over time, an image will again emerge, more majestic and more beautiful than before. But now the student will already know that no image can be considered an image of the Truth. This one - the last and magnificent - will also fade and be erased, like the others. This will continue until, finally, both the mind and the images created by it are left behind, and the student enters the World without Form and remains in this world as a pale reflection of the form itself. This path is the True Path of the Western student. And in order to give the reader a pointer on such a Path, so that we do not get lost in the kingdom of thought, the “Secret Doctrine” was written.

Lacking the opportunity, strength and time, health and energy, a person, nevertheless, with all his might joins this wisdom. After looking through the recordings of theosophist Robert Bowen, who asked her questions, Elena Petrovna called him a “moron” and doubted that anything could be correctly expressed in words. In general, she approved of the recording and stated that Bowen recorded her thoughts much better than she could have done it herself.

Bowen interviewed Blavatsky shortly before her death. He saw that she had changed a lot since he met her two years ago. It was amazing to him how bravely she looked into the face of a terrible disease. If she were to meet a man who knows nothing and believes in nothing, he says, Blavatsky would convince even him that she resides somewhere beyond her body and brain. During the last meetings with her, when physically H.P.B. became helpless, Bowen had the feeling that Theosophists were receiving these teachings from some other, higher sphere. It seems to him, he feels and knows that she speaks completely differently “than he hears with his own ears.” Under his document, Bowen wrote the date: April 19, 1891.

Scientific predictions of E.P. Blavatsky

Elena Petrovna left numerous scientific predictions in her books, from which it follows that the future of humanity was for her a matter of life and death. As a true scientist, thinker and seer, Blavatsky wanted to look beyond the horizon and see what would be there; What can humanity expect in its future? What discoveries will be made in the world of science? What will happen to our world? Will people discover new planets? Will man fly into space? Will human life expectancy increase? Will good prevail over evil, and truth over lies? We have selected some of her statements so that readers can see how the problems of the whole world have become her personal problems. Here are some of them, conveyed by us verbatim:

“The process of preparation for the Sixth Root Race will continue throughout the sixth and seventh sub-races. But latest the remains of the Fifth Continent will not disappear immediately after birth New race but only when a new home, the Sixth Continent, appears above the new waters on the surface of our planet to receive the new newcomer. Everyone who is lucky enough to escape the general disaster will move and settle there.” (12).

When will this be - H.P.B. does not report, just as the author of the Apocalypse does not report. But, since nature does not act in sudden leaps, the final cataclysm will be preceded by many small dives and destructions, both by water and by underground volcanic fires. In the heart of the race, now located in the American zone, there will be a “triumphant pulse beating rapidly,” but by the appearance of the Sixth Race, there will be no more Americans left than Europeans. By this time they will be A new race and many new peoples. The fifth race will not die out; it will live for some time, coexisting with the new race for many millennia. Although he will change both mentally and physically, and will change his height.

This is what it says in the “Secret Doctrine,” but here is what Elena Ivanovna Roerich wrote about this: “Now your question is about the sixth race. Yes, in many theosophical books, even in the Secret Doctrine, one can find an indication that the sixth race is gathering in America. But, precisely, in the “Secret Doctrine” I encountered a contradiction - in one place it is said that the sixth subrace the fifth race, and in the other - the sixth race. Of course, the difference in these concepts of sub-race and root race is enormous. The possibility of a typo should also be taken into account. At the birth of America, most of the settlers belonged to the sixth and even seventh classes. subrace fifth race. It is very curious that no one pays attention to the strange circumstance that the Theosophist. literature almost nowhere mentions our country, as if a sixth of the Light has no place in the cosmic plan and evolution. Almost no one asks the question, what is the matter, where is the reason for this? I will answer you - everything secret is especially protected, and if it had been announced ahead of time that this country had a great future ahead of it, it would have been torn to pieces. And the Teaching of the “Secret Doctrine” would not have been accepted. But as for the sixth race, individuals belonging to it, of course, are born in all countries, and by a certain time the majority of them will be collected in the main and safe places. The seeds of the fifth race were saved, the seeds of the sixth race will be protected." (18.06.36 Roerich E.I. Letters. 1929-1938 v.2)

“No great truth was ever accepted a priori, and it usually took a century or two before glimpses of it began to flash into human consciousness as a possible truth. And real work will be justified partially or entirely only in the 20th century. We will wait for our time."(13) (T.D., vol. II). The prediction was justified. The Secret Doctrine has become a reference book for most scientists in the world.

Reading Blavatsky’s books, we are once again convinced that theosophy fought not with science, not with truth, but with the monopoly of that scientific worldview, which in our time has led humanity to the brink of a global catastrophe. Blavatsky called not for a return to the old and outdated, but for a revision of those ancient doctrines that contain precious grains of our future. Without denying the need to revise individual sciences, she warned that science would not go far on old dogmas. We urgently need to take care of revealing the boundless energy of the spirit, that eternal engine that has propelled science at all times. Blavatsky attacked Darwin's theory and Newton's law of gravitation with all her courage in The Secret Doctrine. “Someday it will be found that this scientific hypothesis is unsatisfactory. We call the forces acting under this name consequences, and even very secondary ones... Gravity does not exist, at least not in the form that science teaches... "(T.D. vol. 1, part III, section 3. Is there a law of gravity?). (14).

In her criticism, Blavatsky spares neither famous physicists nor biologists for their dogmatism and stagnation of thought. He considers them slow-witted and stagnant people. She rehabilitated the Ancient Wisdom, the greatest exponents of which were Hermes Trismegistus, Pythagoras and Plato. Her criticism of the leaders of 19th century science did not refute the theory of natural selection and the law of gravity. It only pointed out their shortsightedness in matters of insight and efficiency. Scientists have become convinced that Newton’s idea of the universe is valid only within the framework of a special case of Einstein’s concept.

Modern science has confirmed that it is currently impossible to explain the origin of life and intelligence. “All dilemmas in science and philosophy are defective, because the essence of the dilemma is either-or, a product of Aristotle’s flat logic, and they are not viable. There is no dilemma - either a supernatural act of creation, or natural selection, just as there is no dilemma - light is a wave process, or discrete. The last dilemma is the subject of a dispute between Newton and Leibniz, which once ended in Newton’s favor (the temporary triumph of the wave theory), and in the 20s. of our century, in the scientific duel between Heisenberg and de Broglie - a draw. It has been proven that light has both a wave and discrete nature. This is the statement of our scientists.” However, half a century before this discovery, which meant a revolution in physics, Blavatsky knew that there was no dilemma: “The theory of waves or the corpuscular theory is All One, for these are judgments based on an aspect of the phenomenon, but not on the basis of knowledge of the essence of the nature of the cause.”(15 ) (T.D., vol. 1, part III, section 3).

The key to the mystery of humanoid aliens, their mysterious UFO appearances and instantaneous disappearances is offered to us by H.P.B. in the following such picture of the interpenetration of worlds; "There are millions and millions of worlds... invisible to us; and an even greater number beyond those visible to the telescope, and many of the latter kind do not belong to our objective sphere of existence... they are with us, near us, within our own world, as material for their inhabitants as our world is for us... Their inhabitants... can... pass through us and around us, like you through empty space, their homes and countries are intertwined with our homes and countries, however less, they do not interfere with our vision..." (16) (T. D., vol. 1, part 3, Science).

Blavatsky writes: “The sun, with each revolution, contracts as rhythmically as the human heart. Only... solar blood takes 11 years to pass through the cavity of the heart, before it washes the lungs, and then returns to the large arteries and veins of the system " (T.D., part III, section III). Scientists claim that the physics of the Sun has made great strides in recent decades and has moved significantly closer to understanding our Sun as a rhythmically pulsating living organ. People learned that the Sun breathes. But the seer Blavatsky also knew about this.

It is known that ultrasound entered science in the 20th century. And Blavatsky knew about him in 1888. “We... affirm,” she writes, “that sound is... a terrible force. Sound can be produced of such a quality that the Cheops pyramid would rise into the air. This is a vibrational force... Atoms in Occultism are called Vibrations: so but by Sound - collectively" (17) (T. D., vol. 1, part III).

Blavatsky anticipated the advent of atomic energy and its terrible destructive force - the atomic bomb. And this power was hidden in the smallest particle - the atom, which she writes about in her book. In the structure of the Universe and matter, matter, atoms are depicted in the form of “wheels” around which cosmic energy grows. "Wheels" are the prototype of atoms, each of which exhibits an increasing tendency towards rotational motion. The “God” becomes a “vortex”; the “vortex” gives rise to a spiral movement. From time immemorial, the Universe was symbolically expressed by a spiral, that is, a vortex movement.

In her book we find ancient texts about an unknown weapon - Agniastra. It was "made of seven elements." Scientists assumed that we were talking about a rocket, but Blavatsky warned that their secret would be revealed not in the 19th century, or even the 20th, but much later. This weapon, “in addition to bringing down fire from the sky,” causes rain, a storm, and also paralyzes the enemy, plunging his senses into deep sleep. Scientists are just beginning to discover such weapons.

An interesting article is posted on the Adamant portal - “Scientific predictions of E.P. Blavatsky" Yu.I. Dolgikh. We recommend that all lovers of Blavatsky's work familiarize themselves with it.

There is no need to further analyze and comment on the two volumes of TD, for the simple reason that this epoch-making work is not for one article. We refer lovers of the study of Cosmosogenesis and Anthropogenesis to other sources, of which there are plenty. There they will find answers to all their questions.

Elena Petrovna had great happiness: she took part in the secret knowledge of the ancient worlds, which gave her the opportunity to anticipate many events of the future, realizing that the 19th century was not ready to accept her “inconvenient truths” due to its limited mental and physical abilities. She knew that this Century would even condemn her, brand her with shame for her courage to speak the truth, but this would not last long: the next century would recognize the “Secret Doctrine”, appreciate it and establish that the “Secret Doctrine” is an epoch-making book and it is intended for everyone peoples of the world, both today and the distant future. The “Secret Doctrine” is destined for the fate of the books of ancient authors, as well as such as the Bible and Kabbalah. Her book is not fictional, not invented by humanoids or other aliens from outer space, nor is it a magical phenomenon. This book is the product of her brain, physical and spiritual powers, and it is built on real facts, on true history, on the books of ancient sages.

Everything repeats itself in history. Nowadays, we are plunging deeper into the mysterious knowledge of the ancients, more carefully studying ancient history, past civilizations, their sciences and culture in order not to repeat their mistakes, and to apply all the best that they created in our modern life. Blavatsky's books help us expand the horizon of our knowledge, delve deeper into the achievements of past centuries, seek the truth in everything, strive through our work to contribute to the flourishing of a new civilization, the civilization of the 21st century. If we take into account how many works Blavatsky wrote, both scientific and popular science, her complex physical and spiritual life, filled with torment and various knowledge, surprises and adventures, a mission to distant countries, her organizational and scientific abilities as a scientist, a major public figure, her knowledge of the occult and other secret sciences, then one cannot help but recognize Elena Petrovna as the greatest scientist in the world in the field of all secret sciences and the direct guide of the Himalayan Mahatma Brotherhood.

Friends and associates about E.P. Blavatsky

Charles Johnston, American writer and translator from Sanskrit: “My very first impression of Madame Blavatsky is the power and magnitude of her individuality; I seemed to be in the presence of some primordial force of Nature... But at the same time, I did not experience the feeling of my own insignificance that arises next to a great personality who suppresses those around him and despotically tramples on their independence. It was, rather, a feeling of a deep, all-encompassing reality, a truly inexhaustible supply of strength - it was a spirit that had passed through the crucible of Nature and reached the eternal principles of Truth. But gradually, through the dominant feeling of power, her enormous tenderness and kindness emerged, her constant readiness to completely forget about herself and devote herself wholeheartedly to serving people” (18).

Henry Olcott, Blavatsky’s closest collaborator: “No one who knew H.P. Blavatsky cannot forget her gifts, but no one has all her gifts. Her life, as I have come to know her over the past seventeen years as a friend, comrade and collaborator, has been one of continuous martyrdom for the love of people. She burned with jealousy for their spiritual welfare, for their spiritual freedom and, far from any selfish motive, devoted her life and strength to the cause of love, without expecting either gratitude or reward. For this she was persecuted by the slander of bigots and Pharisees until her death, which they hastened with their malice...” (19).

Annie Besant, follower of Blavatsky, President of the TO: “I saw her in the presence of her worst enemy, who came to her in a moment of need, and I saw how an unearthly light of compassion illuminated her face. If only her enemies knew who they were throwing dirt at. (..) Her truthfulness and purity of her intentions were amazing, and at the same time, the strength of her character did not succumb to any blows of fate. She was so poor that she was constantly in need of money, and when she had money, it immediately disappeared. Her generosity was truly royal. Everything she had: things, money, clothes - everything was given to the first person she met who was in need. (...) I always found it funny when they talked about her ability to make mistakes in people and trust those who subsequently deceived her. They did not understand that she considered it her duty to give every person the opportunity to improve and was not at all interested in the fact that in case of failure she might find herself in an uncomfortable position” (20).

Our great and holy Elena Ivanovna Roerich said wonderful words about Elena Petrovna. Here they are:

“Let us also remember our much slandered Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, who spent three years in one of the Ashrams of Tibet, bringing great knowledge and the bright News of the Great Mahatmas. If it were not for the anger and envy of those around her, she would have written two more volumes of The Secret Doctrine, which would have included pages from the lives of the Great Teachers. But people chose to kill her, and the work remained unfinished (21). (F.A. Butsen, 03/25/35, vol. 3, p. 154)

“It was Elena Petrovna Blavatsky who was the Fiery Messenger of the White Brotherhood. It was she who was the Bearer of the Knowledge entrusted to her. Of all the Theosophists, only Helena Petrovna Blavatsky had the good fortune to receive the Teaching directly from the Great Teachers in one of Their Ashrams in Tibet. It was she who was the Great Spirit who took upon herself the heavy Assignment - to give a shift to the consciousness of humanity, entangled in the dead snares of dogma and atheism rushing into the dead end... I bow before the great spirit and fiery heart of our compatriot and I know that in the future Russia her name will be put on due level of veneration. E.P. Blavatsky is truly our national pride. Great Martyr for Light and Truth. Eternal Glory to her!” (22). (E.I. Roerich V.A. Dukshta-Dukshinskaya, 09/08/34, vol. 2, p. 355)

“...such a brilliant soul deserves the most careful treatment, and even more so for revealing it to the Russian people, who know almost nothing about it. She was a great patriot and suffered that she would have to live and die in a foreign land. Her feat was great: alone, persecuted by everyone, suspected of everything and everyone, without means, without knowing the language, she arrived in America to show the world the most beautiful Sacred Teaching, to give for the first time a religious and philosophical synthesis of all times and peoples, to create an international Fraternal Union, to give the greatest happiness of knowledge about the existence of the Great Guardians and Leaders of our humanity and the path to Them. Who will not bow before her, who took upon herself such a feat amid the abyss of ignorant denials, suspicions and persecutions? Truly, she was a martyr for the new salvation she revealed to humanity in an era of suffocating and corrupting materialism. But this torment wove her a new beautiful CROWN. Let us send her our admiration, our gratitude and our love” (23). (E.I. Roerich V.L. Dutko, 05/14/45, vol. 7, pp. 233-234)

We are finally closing a wonderful book - Blavatsky’s “Secret Doctrine”. Let's be honest: we were not able to fully understand everything in it. Most of her articles were not reviewed as we would have liked, but for some reason we didn’t have time and patience at a gallop. For some, we walked through it with a pencil in our hands, while others skipped it altogether. Probably for the first time, this is normal, this is probably how it should be. After all, we promised ourselves to return to this book a little later, when we realize what we read and our daring thoughts subside, when silence reigns in the house. And when this will happen, and whether it will happen at all, we ourselves don’t know.

Literature

1. Letters of the Mahatmas. Letter 72. M. Eksmo, 2010.
2. Keithley Bertram. How the Secret Doctrine was written. Internet.
3. Blavatskaya E.P. Letters to Sinnett. M. Sfera, 2002.
4. Blavatskaya E.P. The Secret Doctrine. T. 1. P. 19. M. Eksmo, 2010.
5. Sylvia Cranston. Life and work of E.P. Blavatsky. Riga, Ligitma, 1999.
6. Blavatskaya E.P. The Secret Doctrine. T. 2, pp. - M. Eksmo, 2010.
7. Sylvia Cranston. Life and work of E.P. Blavatsky. Riga, Ligitma, 1999..
8. Bowen R. Madame Blavatsky on the study of Theosophy. "The Secret Doctrine" and its study. Internet.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Blavatskaya E.P. The Secret Doctrine. T. 1. M. 2010.
13. Blavatskaya E.P. The Secret Doctrine. T. 2. M. 2010.
14. Blavatskaya E.P. The Secret Doctrine. T.1, part III, department 3.M. 2010.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Johnson about Blavatsky. Internet.
19. Olcott. Sheets of an old diary. In Mary Naf's book. Personal memoirs of E.P. Blavatsky. M. Sfera, 1991.
20. A. Besant. E.P. Blavatsky and the Teachers of Wisdom.
21. Roerich E.I. Letter from F.A. Butsen, 03/25/35, vol. 3, p. 154.
22. Roerich E.I. Letter from V.A. Dukshta-Dukshinskaya, 09/08/34, vol. 2, p. 355.
23. Roerich E.I. Letter from V.L. Dutko, 05/14/45, vol. 7, pp. 233-234.
24. Corson R. E.P. Blavatsky and predictions of scientific discoveries of the twentieth century. Portal "Adamant".
25. Dolgikh Yu.I. Scientific predictions of E.P. Blavatsky. // “Bulletin of Theosophy”, No. 1, 1992.

Max Handel

Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine

About the book:

She did what no orientalist with all his learning would have done, what all orientalists together would not have done, with all their knowledge of oriental languages and their studies of the literature of the East. None of them could synthesize such an important work from a material with such a variety of colors. None of them was able to create space out of that chaos - but a Russian woman with a low level of education did it. Without being a scientist and without claiming this title, she somewhere received knowledge that allowed her to do something that no one else would have done: neither a scientist nor an amateur.

Introduction

If this short essay about H.P. Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine had not been published, all students of metaphysics and mysticism would have suffered real harm.

Max Handel, a Christian mystic, pays tribute to Helena Blavatsky, an Eastern occultist. He pays no attention to the small differences that separate West and East, and admires the great wisdom that abounds in Asia, richly saturating the fields of world thought. Great is the mind that rejoices in the greatness of other minds. Max Handel’s tribute to the memory of Blavatsky’s work and her Teachers is truly a wonderful gesture for our world, which, alas, is stingy with such good impulses.

We live by norms of criticism and condemnation, with little respect for the work of others. Sects and creeds build walls around themselves, and only heroic souls in whom spiritual perception is truly awakened can rise above these apparent limitations. Think back to the books you've read and remember how rarely any writer has spoken well of another. Every person who is unyielding in his own convictions has little regard for the opinions of others. There are many teachers in this world who teach with words, but only a few who teach by noble example of generous deeds.

In his textbook of Christian metaphysics, The Rosicrucian Cosmoconception, Max Handel refers to H.P. Blavatsky as a “devoted disciple of the Eastern Teachers,” and in the same paragraph he writes about her great book “The Secret Doctrine” as an “unsurpassed work.” With deep respect for spiritual values, Max Handel demonstrates the highest degree of his competence, recognizing the fundamental dignity of the work of H.P. Blavatsky. The Christian mystic is revealed here as a true student of Eastern occultism. His summary of the "Secret Doctrine" in the last part of this book shows a surprisingly deep understanding of the monumental spiritual traditions of Asia. In a few laconic and simple words Mr. Handel summed up cosmogenesis, the formation of the world, and anthropogenesis, the formation of man. Both Rosicrucians and Theosophists, if they are truly genuine students of the occult sciences, will benefit from an analysis of this summary.

The manuscript of this book should be considered the first literary achievement of Max Handel. It was the beginning of a noteworthy metaphysical literature devoted to the application of mystical idealism to the existing problems of painfully suffering humanity. It said that “the first will be last.” This small book brought to print only the remainder of Max Handel's unpublished manuscript. The manuscript originally consisted of notes from two lectures given before the Theosophical Society in Los Angeles. During the years spent preparing these lectures, Max Handel significantly increased his level of mystical knowledge and rightfully earned recognition as America's foremost Christian mystic. However, his reverence and respect for Blavatsky did not change in any way over time, and until the day of his death he always spoke of her with words of the highest admiration. This was the merit of Blavatsky’s books, from which Max Handel received the first knowledge of the occult sciences in his life. He regarded gratitude as the cardinal law of occultism, and his pure soul retained to the end a wonderful spirit of gratitude for the inspiration and teaching he received from the Secret Doctrine.

Both Madame Blavatsky and Mr. Handel dedicated their lives to the service of humanity. Each of them was dedicated to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge. They were rewarded, for the most part, with ingratitude, persecution and misunderstanding. They suffered from the deceit of friends and learned how cruel the world can be to those who seek to instruct and improve it. Only the leader of a spiritual movement can imagine how difficult the responsibility of a leader can be. Helena Blavatsky had already passed into the invisible world when Max Handel began his ministry. They never met on the physical plane. Max Handel came to understand Blavatsky through years of similar service to the same highest ideals. He came to understand her as only a mystic can, and his appreciation of her fidelity and her patience was all the more profound because of the misfortunes he himself had suffered.

As E.P. Blavatsky as well as Max Handel gave their lives to remarkable service to the spiritual needs of the race. They went to their graves equally early, broken by responsibility and persecution. Each left, as a legacy to the future generation, metaphysical literature that will survive the vicissitudes of fate.

The true aims of mysticism are to perpetuate, explain and apply the idealism of race. A person turns to religion for guidance, support and consolation. We want religion to stand behind us as we try to live honestly.

We need to know that somewhere there is a close-knit group of people who adhere to spiritual values in a collapsing material world. We are all looking for inspiration. We crave ideals. We want a worthy goal that unites our activities. We wish to establish in this vale of tears a spiritual system that will rise above everyday life. We want to come to a life that recognizes our spiritual organizations as oases in the desert of materialism.

Civilization is undergoing the throes of a great period of transformation. Man, as never before in history, is looking for solutions to urgent and serious problems. Church and state alike realize that they can unite as the world they know fades into oblivion.

In all parts of the civilized world there are men and women devoted to the mystical explanation of life. These men and women follow a code of spiritual ethics based on two great principles: the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. Students, for the most part, are organized into various groups, large and small, for the purpose of self-improvement and social advancement. Such groups can be divided into two types: the first, whose inspiration is essentially Christian; and the second, essentially eastern. Although these groups are separate, the main goals they strive for are identical for all enlightened religious movements, since their main goal and intention is the rebirth of man and humanity.

Max Handel was a pioneer in Christian mysticism, and Blavatsky was a pioneer in Eastern occultism. Both created systems of thought that spread throughout poor-spirited humanity. They left not only their organizations, but also the seeds they sowed in the hearts of people, which subsequently sprouted and bore fruit in many parts of the world, where other organizations were created in the same vein. For this reason there is a significant body of mystics and occultists in America, and their numbers are increasing daily by sincere men and women whose hearts and minds are in need of some reasonable explanation of the changes taking place in society.

Almost all students of the occult sciences in America are familiar with the work done by Helena Blavatsky and Max Handel. The lives of these two religious founders are a constant example for greater spiritual effort and selfless giving. When we admire these great leaders, we are motivated to continue their work by intellectually perpetuating their doctrines through our words and deeds. During the great world war, however, the metaphysicians lost the opportunity of making their permanent contribution to the race due to internal dissensions and disputes. Organizations that were supposed to selflessly serve humanity instead wasted their energy on useless debates over personal issues of little or no significance.

Our current crisis is much more important than a world war. The entire civilized world is in poverty against the backdrop of selfishness and corruption. There are new opportunities to apply spiritual methods to solve material problems. It is the duty of all spiritually enlightened people to forget all differences, sacrifice all personal ambitions and reaffirm their commitment to the great ideals that their orders and societies have called upon to implement.

During the great boom immediately preceding the present economic crisis, even mystical organizations were infected with the bacilli of enrichment, consumption and personal ambition. Personalities eclipsed principles, and then both organizations and individuals retreated from the simple truths that are the foundations of intelligent life. Then came the crash. Material values were thrown into the bottomless depths, like lead. Ambitions were scattered with the wind, and the race was forced to face problems that can only be solved by a revaluation of spiritual values and the conversion of people and organizations to the principles of enlightenment and truth.

Imagine that on this very day E.P. Blavatsky, the lioness of the Theosophical Society, returned from the Amenti of the Sages and demanded a due account from the Society she founded. Who could, standing in front of her, honestly say: “Beloved teacher, we made every effort, we are also faithful to you and the Teachers you spoke about”? How many of them could say: “We were honest, kind, fair and impartial; We...

Helena Blavatsky

Secret Doctrine
Volume I
COSMOGENESIS

I dedicate this work to all the true Theosophists of every country and every race, for they called it forth and for them it is written.

SCIENCES, RELIGIONS, AND PHILOSOPHIES

E. P. BLAVATSKY

AUTHOR OF "ISIS UNVEILED"

SATYВT NВSTI PARO DHARMAH

"NO RELIGION IS HIGHER THAN TRUTH"

From the translator

When starting to translate the Secret Doctrine, we set ourselves the task of adhering to the original text with all accuracy and thereby protecting the nature of the presentation. Most of the capital letters found in the text were also retained.
Foreign words included in this work are conveyed, if possible, in the currently existing transcription in Russian literature.
Helena Roerich

Preface to the first edition

The author - or rather the writer - considers it necessary to apologize for the long delay in the publication of this work. This delay occurred due to ill health and the extensiveness of the undertaking. Even the two volumes now published do not complete the task and do not comprehensively treat the subjects presented in them. A large amount of material has already been collected concerning the history of Occultism, contained in the lives of the great Adepts of the Aryan Race and proving the connection of Occult Philosophy with the feat of life, as it is and as it should be.
Should the present volumes meet with favorable reception, every effort will be made to carry out the purpose of this work in its entirety.
It should be added that such a task was not envisaged when the production of this work was first announced. According to the original plan Secret Doctrine was supposed to be a corrected and expanded edition " Isis Unveiled" It soon became clear, however, that the explanations which might be added to those already given in the above-mentioned work and others relating to Esoteric Science were such as to require a different method of presentation, and as a result the present volumes contain no more than twenty pages taken from " Isis Unveiled».
The author does not consider it necessary to ask for the indulgence of readers and critics for the imperfections of the English language and for the many shortcomings of literary style that may be encountered in these pages. Being a foreigner, her knowledge of this language was acquired in later years of her life; English is used here because it is the most widely used medium for the transmission of truths, which it has become its duty to make public.
These truths, in no case, are presented as revelation, nor does the author claim to be the exposer of mystical knowledge being made public for the first time in the history of the world. For what is contained in this work may be found scattered among thousands of volumes containing the Scriptures of the great Asiatic and early European religions, hidden in glyphs and symbols and, by virtue of this veil, hitherto neglected. Now an attempt is being made to bring together the most ancient foundations and make of them one harmonious and inseparable whole. The only advantage that the writer has over her predecessors is that she does not have to resort to personal speculations and theories. For this work is a partial statement of what she herself has learned from those who are more knowledgeable, and added in some detail by the results of her personal study and observation. The publication of many of the facts here given was made necessary by the appearance of the wild and chimerical theories which theosophists and students of Mysticism have indulged in during the last few years in their endeavors, as they imagined, to develop an integral system of thought from the few facts previously communicated to them.
It is unnecessary to explain that this book is not the Secret Doctrine in its entirety, but only a select number of fragments of its main provisions. Particular attention is paid to some facts, seized by various writers and distorted beyond any semblance of Truth.
But it may be useful to affirm with all clearness that the teachings contained in these volumes, although fragmentary and incomplete, do not belong to any one religion, such as the Hindus, Zoroaster, Chaldeans and Egyptians, nor to Buddhism, Islam, Judaism or Christianity, exclusively. The Secret Doctrine is the essence of them all. Born from it in their beginnings, the various religious systems now return to their original element, from which every mystery and dogma arose, developed and materialized.
It is more than likely that this book will be considered by the majority as the wildest fable, for who has ever heard of the Book of Dzyan?
The writer of these lines is therefore quite ready to accept full responsibility for the content of this work and is not even afraid of the accusation that everything is just her invention. She is fully aware that this work has many shortcomings. And she only claims that no matter how fantastic the content of this work may seem to many, its logical coherence and consistency give the right to this new Genesis to stand, in any case, on a level with the “working hypotheses” so openly accepted by modern science. Further, this work demands attention, not because of any appeal to dogmatic authority, but because it is closely related to Nature and follows the laws of unity and analogy.
The purpose of this work can be defined as follows: to prove that Nature is not a “random combination of atoms” and to show man his rightful place in the scheme of the Universe; save archaic truths, which are the basis of all religions, from corruption; to reveal to some extent the basic unity from which they all originated; finally, to show that the occult side of Nature has never before been accessible to the science of modern civilization.
If this is accomplished to some extent, the writer is satisfied. This work was written in the service of humanity, and must be judged by humanity and future generations. Its author does not recognize the lesser court of appeal. She is accustomed to insults; she encounters slander every day; She smiles at slander in silent contempt.

De minimis non curat lex.

H.P.B.
London, October, 1888.

Preface to the third and revised edition

In preparing this edition for publication, we have sought to correct minor details of literary style without touching on more important issues. If H. P. Blavatsky had lived to see the new edition, she would undoubtedly have corrected and significantly expanded this work. The fact that this was not done is one of the many lesser losses caused by this great loss.
Unfortunate expressions due to imperfect knowledge of the English language have been corrected; most of the excerpts from other works have been checked and accurately referenced - a task that required a lot of work, since the references in previous editions were often inaccurate; a uniform system for transcribing Sanskrit words was also adopted. We have abandoned the transcription adopted by Western Orientalists as misleading to the general reader, and have rendered consonants not found in the English alphabet in combinations which approximately correspond to the sound meaning, and have carefully marked the length of the vowels. On a few occasions we inserted notes into the text itself, but this was done very rarely and only when the notes formed part of the text.
We have added a voluminous Index to assist students, and have bound it separately for easy reference. For this great work, we and all students are grateful to A. J. Folding.
Annie Besant
G. R. S. Meeed
London, 1893.

Introduction

“Listen meekly, judge kindly.”

With the advent of Theosophical literature in England, it became customary to call this teaching " Esoteric Buddhism" And having become a habit, it confirmed the old proverb, based on daily experience, “error rolls down an inclined plane, while truth must laboriously make its way uphill.”
Old truisms are often the wisest. The human mind can hardly remain entirely free from prejudice, and decisive, settled opinions are often formed before a thorough investigation of the subject in all its aspects has been made. What has been said refers to the prevailing error, which, on the one hand, limits Theosophy to Buddhism; and on the other hand, he confuses the provisions of the religious philosophy preached by Gotama Buddha with the doctrines broadly sketched in “ Esoteric Buddhism"Mr. Sinnett. It's hard to imagine anything more wrong than this. This made it possible for our enemies to acquire a strong weapon against Theosophy, for, as one famous scientist very sharply put it, there was “neither Esotericism nor Buddhism” in the mentioned volume. The esoteric truths presented in Mr. Sinnett's work ceased to be esoteric from the moment of their publication; also the book does not contain the religion of the Buddha, but simply only a few provisions of the hitherto secret teaching, which in the present volumes are explained and added by many others. But even the latter, although they reveal many of the main theses of the SECRET DOCTRINE of the East, still only slightly lift the edge of the dense cover. For no one, not even the greatest living Adept, could - even if he wanted to - indiscriminately expose to the ridicule of the unbelieving world that which had been so carefully hidden from it for long eons and centuries.
« Esoteric Buddhism“was an excellent work with a very unfortunate title, although the title meant the same as the table of contents of the present work - “THE SECRET DOCTRINE.” It proved unsuccessful because people are in the habit of always judging things by their appearance rather than by their meaning, and because this error has become so general that even members of the Theosophical Society have fallen prey to the same erroneous idea. However, from the very beginning, Brahmins and many others protested against such a table of contents. And, in fairness, I must add that " Esoteric Buddhism"was presented to me in its finished form and I was completely unaware of how the author intended to write the word "Budh"ism."
The responsibility for this error falls on those who first attracted public attention to these topics and did not bother to point out the difference between “Buddhism,” the religious system of ethics preached by Lord Gotama and named after his title Buddha - Illuminated - and “Buddhism” from Budha - Wisdom or Knowledge (Vidyā) the ability of cognition, from the Sanskrit root budh - to know. We ourselves, the Theosophists of India, are the true culprits, although we have since made every effort to correct the mistake. It was easy to avoid this sad misunderstanding: with mutual consent, it was only necessary to change the spelling of the word and write “Buddhism” instead of “Buddhism.” But this term is also incorrect, because in English one should write and pronounce “Buddaism”, and its followers should be called “Buddaists”.
This explanation is absolutely necessary when starting such a work as the present one. The Wisdom Religion is the heritage of the peoples of the whole world, despite what has been done in “ Esoteric Buddhism", the statement that "two years ago (in 1883) not only I, but not a single living European, did not even know the ABCs of science, which were first presented here in scientific form” ... etc. This misconception must have crept in through an oversight. The writer of the present knew everything that was “published” in “ Esoteric Buddhism"and much more, many years before it became her duty to transmit a small part of the Secret Doctrine to two Europeans, one of whom was the author of " Esoteric Buddhism"; and of course, the writer of these lines has the undeniable, although for herself rather ambiguous, advantage of being of European origin and education. Moreover, much of the philosophy expounded by Sinnett was taught in America even before the publication of " Isis Unveiled", two Europeans and my colleague, Colonel G. S. Olcott. Of the Three Teachers that H. S. Olcott had, the first was a Hungarian Initiate, the second an Egyptian, the third a Hindu. By special permission Colonel Olcott conveyed certain teachings in various ways. If the other two did not do the same, it was simply because they were not allowed to do so, because their time for public work had not yet come. But for others it has come, and Mr. Sinnett’s interesting works are proof of this. Moreover, the most important thing to keep in mind is that not a single theosophical book acquires the slightest added value by presenting authority.
Adi or Adhi Budha, the One or Primary and Supreme Wisdom is a term used by Aryasanga in his secret writings, now by all the mystics of Northern Buddhism. It is a Sanskrit term and the name given by the earliest Aryans to the Unknowable Deity. The word "Brahma" does not appear in any Vedas, nor in other early works, it signifies Absolute Wisdom, and Adibhuta is translated by Fitzedward-Hall as "the Eternal, Uncreated Cause of all." Aeons of ineffable extension must have passed before the epithet Buddha became so, so to speak, humanized that this term could be admitted to application to mortals, and finally be given to the One whose incomparable virtues and knowledge earned Him the title “Buddha of Unshakable Wisdom.” Bodha" means the innate possession of divine intelligence or understanding; Buddha- mastery of this through personal effort and merit, while Budhi there is the faculty of cognition, the channel through which divine knowledge reaches the Ego, the discrimination of good and evil, also the divine conscience and the Spiritual Soul, which is the vehicle for the Atma. “When Buddhi consumes our Egotism (destroys it) with all its Vikaras, Avalokiteshvara becomes manifest to us, and Nirvana or Mukti is achieved.” Mukti is the same as Nirvana, liberation from the snares of Maya or Illusion. Bodhi there is also a name for a special state of trance called Samadhi, during which the subject reaches the highest degree of spiritual knowledge.
Mad are those who, in their blind and untimely hatred of Buddhism in our era and in reaction to Buddhism, deny its esoteric teachings, which are also the teachings of the Brahmins, only because they associate this name with the principles which they, being monotheists, viewed as harmful doctrines. Crazy, in this case, is the correct term. For in our era of crude and anti-logical materialism, Esoteric Philosophy alone is able to withstand repeated attacks on everything that man considers most dear and hidden in his inner spiritual life. The true philosopher who studies Esoteric Wisdom is completely freed from personalities, dogmatic beliefs and special religions. Besides. Esoteric Philosophy reconciles all religions and, removing from each its outer shell, human, indicates the identity of the root of each with the basis of every other great religion. It proves the necessity of the Divine and Absolute Principle in Nature. She also does not deny the Divinity, like the Sun. Esoteric Philosophy has never rejected “God in Nature”, just like the Divinity, as absolute and abstract Essence. It only refuses to recognize the gods, the so-called monotheistic religions, created by man in his own image and likeness, the blasphemous and sad caricatures of the Eternally Unknowable. Moreover, the records that we propose to reveal to the reader embrace the esoteric doctrines of the whole world from the very beginning of the origin of mankind, and the Occultism of Buddhism occupies in them only its rightful place, but no more.
Verily, the hidden parts Dan or Gianna (Dhyana), The metaphysics of Gotama - no matter how lofty they may seem to one not familiar with the doctrines of the ancient Wisdom Religion - are only a small part of the whole. The Hindu Reformer limited his general Teachings to the purely moral and physiological aspect of Wisdom-Religion, ethics and man. The things “invisible and immaterial”, the secrets of Existence beyond our earthly sphere, were left completely untouched by the Great Teacher in his appeals to the masses, preserving the Sacred Truths for a select circle of his Arhats. The latter received initiation in the famous Saptaparna Cave (Sattapanni Mahavansa), near Mount Baibhar (Webhara in the Pali Manuscripts). This cave was located at Rajagriha, in the ancient capital of Magadha, and was the same Cheta cave mentioned by the Chinese pilgrim Fa-hsien, as is correctly assumed by some archaeologists.
Time and human imagination quickly corrupted the purity and philosophy of this teaching, after it had been transferred from the secret and sacred circle of the Arhats during their proselytizing activities to soil less prepared than India for metaphysical ideas, such as China, Japan, Siam and Burma. How the primary purity of these great revelations was dealt with can be seen by studying the so-called “esoteric” Buddhist schools of antiquity in their modern garb, not only in China and other Buddhist countries in general, but even in many schools of Tibet, left to the care of the uninitiated lamas and Mongolian innovators.
Therefore, the reader should keep in mind the very important difference that exists between orthodox Buddhism, i.e. the general teachings of Gotama Buddha and His Esoteric Buddhism. However, His Secret Doctrine was no different from that of the initiated Brahmins of His day. Buddha was a native of the Land of the Aryans, a Hindu by birth and Kshatriya caste, and a disciple of the "twice-born" (initiated Brahmins) or Movement. His teaching could not differ from their doctrines because the entire Buddhist reform consisted only in revealing part of what had been kept secret from everyone except the enchanted circle of hermits and Temple Initiates. Not being able, by virtue of his vow, to convey All, what was communicated to Him, Buddha, although he taught a philosophy built on the basis of true Esoteric Knowledge, nevertheless, gave the world only its external material appearance and preserved its soul for his chosen ones. Many Chinese scholars among orientalists have heard of the “Doctrine of the Soul.” But no one understood its true meaning and significance.
This doctrine was guarded - perhaps too secretly - in the sanctuaries. The mystery that shrouded its main dogma and aspiration - Nirvana - so tempted and aroused the curiosity of the scientists who studied it that, being unable to solve it logically and satisfactorily, having untied its Gordian knot, they cut it, declaring that Nirvana means absolute destruction.
Towards the end of the first quarter of this century a special type of literature appeared, which every year becomes more definite in its tendency. Being founded so to speak, on the scientific research of Sanskritologists and Orientalists in general, this literature was considered scientific. Hindu, Egyptian and other ancient religions, myths and emblems, betrayed only what the symbolists wanted to see in them and, thus, instead internal meaning, often only crude external form. Remarkable works for their inventive conclusions and theories circulus vitiosus- prejudicial conclusions usually took the place of premises in the syllogisms of many Sanskrit and Pali scholars - quickly appeared and successively filled the libraries with contradictory dissertations, more on phallic and sexual worship than on true symbolism.
Perhaps this is the true reason why, after a long, deepest silence and mystery of millennia, hints of some basic truths from the Secret Teachings of Archaic Times are now being revealed. I say this on purpose" some truth,” for what must remain unsaid cannot be contained in a hundred similar volumes, nor can it be entrusted to the present generation of Sadducees. But even the little that is given now is better than complete silence about these life truths. The world of the present day, in its ardent rush towards the unknown - which physicists are too hasty to confuse with the Unknowable whenever a problem goes beyond their understanding - is rapidly advancing on the opposite plane towards the plane of spirituality. Now before us is a vast field, a veritable valley of discord and endless struggle; an entire Necropolis where the highest and most sacred aspirations of our Spirit-Soul lie buried. With each new generation this Soul becomes more paralyzed and atrophied. “Dear secular pagans and complete debauchees,” about whom he speaks Grills, care little about revival deceased sciences of the past; but there is a fine minority of serious students who are entitled to learn some of the truths that can now be given to them. AND Now this is much more necessary than ten years ago, when “ Isis Unveiled” or even when later attempts to explain the secrets of esoteric science were published.
One of the greatest and perhaps the most serious objections to the reliability of this work and the credibility of it will be the preliminary Stanzas. How can the statements contained in them be verified? It is true that most of the Sanskrit, Chinese and Mongolian works mentioned in the present volumes are known to some Orientalists, however, the main work from which the Stanzas are taken is not available in European libraries. THE BOOK OF DZIAN (or DZAN) is completely unknown to our philologists, or, in any case, they have never heard of it under this name. This is, of course, a great disadvantage to them who follow in their research the prescribed methods of official science, but for students of Occultism and for all true occultists this is of little importance. The main basis of this Doctrine is found in hundreds and thousands of Sanskrit manuscripts, some of which have already been translated and, as usual, distorted by interpretation, while others are still awaiting their turn. Therefore, each student has the opportunity to verify the statements made here as well as check most of the excerpts given. Only a few new facts, new only to the uninitiated Orientalist, and passages taken from the Commentary will be difficult to trace to their source. Moreover, some of the teachings are still taught orally, but nevertheless, allusions to them are found in every case in almost all the countless volumes of the temple literature of the Brahmins, China and Tibet.
In any case, no matter what unkind criticism holds in store for the author of this work in the future, one fact is completely reliable. Members of several esoteric schools - whose seat is beyond the Himalayas and whose ramifications can be found in China, Japan, India and Tibet and even in Syria, not counting South America - claim to possess all the sacred and philosophical works in manuscript and print, in a word, all works that have ever been written have been in languages and styles from the very beginning of the art of writing, from hieroglyphs to the alphabet of Cadmus and Devanagari.
It has been constantly asserted that from the very time of the destruction of the library of Alexandria, every work which could, by its content, lead the uninitiated to the final discovery and understanding of some of the secrets of the Sacred Science, was assiduously sought out by the united efforts of the members of this Brotherhood. Moreover, it is added by those who know that all such works, once found, were destroyed with the exception of three copies of each, which were kept and hidden in safety. In India, the last of these precious Manuscripts were obtained and hidden during the reign of Emperor Akbar.
Professor Max Müller points out that no amount of bribery or threats from Akbar could have extracted the original text Ved from the Brahmins, and yet boasts that the European Orientalists possess it! It is highly doubtful that Europe will have full text, and the future may have some very unpleasant surprises in store for orientalists.
Moreover, it is asserted that every sacred book of similar content, the text of which was not sufficiently hidden in symbols, or which had any direct connection with the ancient mysteries, was first copied in a secret script that could withstand the art of the best and most skilful paleographers, and then destroyed until the last copy. During the reign of Akbar, several fanatical courtiers, dissatisfied with the Emperor’s sinful inquisitiveness towards the religions of the wicked, themselves helped the Brahmins to hide their Manuscripts. Such was Badaoni, who fed undisguised horror before Akbar's mania for idolatrous religions. This Badaoni in his: Muntakhab"t Tawurikh, writes.