New online
Short Quotes
My Purpose, Christian Larsen
Rules for Aspirants to Self-Knowledge

New online

New on Katinka Hesselink Net

• Paul Brunton and H.P. Blavatsky

New on Squidoo

• Top Spiritual Books 2008
• Astrological Calendars 2009
• Top Spiritual Books
• Buddhism Calendars, date books, pocket planners and agendas
• Motivational Calendars, planners and agendas
• Paul Brunton - life and books
• Mandala Calendars, Date Books, Agenda’s and Engagement Planners

New on All Considering

• Wu Wei - aka cleaning out the attic
• Last minute spiritual gift ideas for Christmas
• Busy week ahead - Merry Christmas everybody
• Blavatsky and music
• The place of astrology, tarot, aura reading etc. in spiritual development
• How about Music and spirituality?
• The origin of evil – the great mystery
• Is the universe morally neutral?
• Clairvoyance … illusion or reality?
• Activity & passivity - the value of ‘meditation’
• About this blog: thanking those who helped make it possible
• Blavatsky a closet socialist?
• A question about (Group) karma: below average intellect?
• Sharing inspiration
• Drugs & spirituality: thee, coffee, alcohol, smoking etc.

The rest of Lucifer7 2009

Related posts:

1. Mediumship, paramitas, Love and new blog - Lucifer7, September 2008
2. Holliday season, new online, karma, and the Lord’s Prayer…
3. monthly summary: Marion Zimmer Bradley, the spiritual path, detachment, buddhism etc.

My previous post got a lot of positive response, but one reader felt I talked lightly about the problem of poverty that is going to be dominating the lives of many more people in the West in the coming years than in previous ones. I should note that for the poor in Africa - this is one crisis that is hardly going to affect them.

For me the worldwide scale comes first. And by a worldwide scale this crisis is more than just a credit crunch: it is telling any one who didn’t know it yet that the time of Western domination (aka the USA are the most powerful country in the world) is over. Those who follow the economic news and pay attention have known for a while now that the West has actually been funded by the Chinese. When you hear ‘national debt’ or ‘national deficit’ what you should immediately think is ‘financed by the Chinese’. The Chinese are doing what people in Europe and the US were doing a century ago: saving. They still have a culture in which the consciousness of how to get rich is simple: you save. In other words: you spend less than you get in each month.

Unlike what they told us last year: that’s the kind of Calvinistic attitude that made the rich countries rich. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the current crisis comes just a year after the Dutch news reported that the Dutch had passed the point where they were loaning more than they were saving (mortgages included). I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that the current crisis comes in precisely the year that if economic growth had continued, oil production and oil usage were no longer in tandem. I saw a nice graph some time ago made by some US department. It had a line going up for oil use, and a line going up for oil production, but the one on the production side was totally fictitious. There was no real life basis for that projection, because actually oil production isn’t going to grow - within a decade or two oil production will be a trickle of what it is now (though of course the current crisis may postpone that point by five years or so).

So what are the poor supposed to do?

I was talking to my grandmother the other day. She lived through the 1930’s. She said her parents (who were factory workers) were always glad to have made it. She comes from a family of 9 kids (yes nine) and is the youngest of the bunch. Her parents managed to send the youngest three to college. Even back then the issue wasn’t so much paying for college, but not having an income to help support the rest of the family. Which says something about the Dutch educational system. If this crisis is going to be as bad as the 1930’s, my grandmother will have come full circle - though whatever happens, she is still one of those who will be making it.

Her parents also said that the rich were the ones in trouble. Only if you have a house can it be taken away from you. Only if you do invest in stock do falling stock markets affect you. The upside of poverty is that you are used to your situation, and you’ve got nothing left to loose.

Of course the new poor aren’t so happy. They are used to all the luxuries that in the West we still call normal: flat screen TV’s, i-pods, lots of clothes etc. But they can no longer find a bank to loan them the money to buy those things. Which really means the banks have gotten their sanity back.

But what are the poor supposed to do? Well, those with jobs should just do their jobs. (so should the better off, obviously). Those with jobs are the ones that, as long as they keep their jobs, are going to feel the recession the least. An uncle of mine works in a factory baking apple pies. That’s not a luxury item, people are going to keep on eating pies. So he is likely to keep his job, even though right now his factory is not actually making pies: the stocks are full. But with less people vacationing abroad, this summer they will be eating apple pie with coffee in some bar on the Dutch countryside.

The issue with poverty is that there are so few places to go. I think it’s one of the reasons why poor people are often the more generous. If you can easily see what you’ve got, you can also easily give a bit to someone who needs it more.

Unfortunately, poverty also leads to crime. Poverty leads to teen pregnancy. Poverty leads to disease. Poverty in a rich environment leads to a lot of unhappiness. I think it’s psychologically better to be poor among poor people never realizing what riches are possible. That way you don’t get to be jealous of what you don’t have.

We’ve been building our economy on greed - and the poor are the ones closest to the fact of the matter: greed is not actually something that will make you happy.

I found myself writing in response to someone’s blog post ‘the only guarantee for happiness is to be content with what you’ve got’. This is why people into The Secret talk about gratitude so much. I have talked and read about this subject for years. And people who hear that have always responded with something like ‘you are just saying people should not have ambition, that they should not dream about a better future - but how are they going to get out of bad circumstances if they don’t dream?’

There is something to that objection. But it does suppose that we are dependent on our circumstances for our happiness. Ambition is probably necessary to get ahead in this world. But it is no guarantee for happiness or even success.

So what should the poor do? I don’t know that I’m the right person to give them advice. I have bread on the table, a roof over my head etc. I don’t feel myself to be poor, though my income is certainly not high (so I’m going to be applying for a part time job soon). I have parents who aren’t among the richest rich in this world, but who do have a decent amount of money put away and not in any stock market.

But perhaps it will do poor people, people who have recently lost everything, some good to be reminded that ultimately happiness is not dependent on stuff. That shopping is not actually a good way to deal with problems. That it is better to be poor and out of debt, than living in the illusion of wealth with debt.

For more concrete advice I’d direct you to Suze Orman - you know, the financial adviser who has been telling people how to get out of debt on the Oprah show for years now. Those that listened then are in better shape now.

Related posts:

1. Money and spirituality - let’s be responsible about it
2. The Hermetic Axiom and The Secret
3. Compassion in business - aka rational giving

Skating in Holland Giclee Print
Schelfhout,…
Buy at AllPosters.com

For the first time in years we’ve had some time of freezing temperatures in day and night time. This doesn’t sound too good - but to Dutch people it means that we can skate on natural ice again. I did so yesterday and this morning. Skating on natural ice is quite the national hobby - all the more special as one can really only do it when the weather is ‘good’. We haven’t had seriously skating weather for years. Some were already saying that climate change would make an entire generation of Dutch kids grow up without learning to skate outside.

Yesterday my mom and I skated on an outside skating ring. That is: a field left under water. The outside temperature froze the water and people from all around came by car and bike to skate there. Today we did the real thing: we skated on a small lake. Shallow water is safer to skate on at first, so the larger lake that’s also near my parents house (where I’m typing this) isn’t yet safe to ice skate on.

The experience of skating on natural ice is like nothing else I’ve ever done. The ice of that lake was that black of real good ice. Some air bubbles trapped in the ice make it possible here and there to see how deep the ice went: some two inches at the least (5 cm I think) - at some places three inches. That’s a good layer of ice, so we dared skate on it. There were about a dozen people skating on the lake.

As I was skating all my experience with it came back. I saw how black the ice was and knew it was good. I saw the cracks and knew not to worry. I felt the ice crack when skating over it - and again knew it was nothing to worry about. My muscles protested at the new movements, but they also (after some resting in between) knew just how to skate as fast as possible. I even remembered how to do corners - when I wasn’t too tired.

My physical stamina really isn’t good, but I skate faster than my mom on short stretches (partly because I have better skates). Yet my mom did three rounds for my two. She just keeps going. I rest in between as cramps take over… I used to be bothered by that, but this time it was just part of the experience. Growing up is a real treat on stuff like that

During the second round I noticed that in places where I’d dare go to the shore of the lake to sit and rest between the trees there was water on the ice. This meant I no longer trusted those spots: the fact is, it was thawing ever so slightly. This didn’t make the ice go bad immediately and was in fact perfect skating weather: not too cold.

Where’s the meditation in all this? Just sitting on the shore looking out on the ice, the trees, the sky was a joy. Dealing with the cramps and the occasional bursts of fluent skating was an exercise in concentration. The combination of dealing with the body sense and the beauty and my breath (I still have to blow my nose more often than normal because of my nose issues) was a unique experience. If meditation is about facing yourself, something like this is excellent. It made memories of previous ice skating trips come back, while also keeping me focussed on the here and now - precisely because my body was so not ready to do this at all.

All and all and experience was one I could not stop myself writing about. I learned skating as a little girl on a small lake in our neighbourhood. I’ve done skating tour trips with my mom in the past. It’s a real mom and daughter family tradition based in a long time Dutch tradition. I wonder how many more such trips we’ll be able to make together. Whether the climate will cooperate…

Related posts:

1. Activity & passivity - the value of ‘meditation’
2. Natural affinity to age - old people, young people
3. Wu Wei and poverty? or more about greed

Three Chinese Teachers of Spiritual Wisdom,
Buddha Lao-Tzu and Confucius
Giclee Print; Buy at AllPosters.com

Wu Wei is a Tao concept which stands for knowing when and how to act, and the ability to act without friction.

My uncles and mother are cleaning out the attic of my grandmother’s old house. She is currently living in a retirement home and her house will be sold next year (talk about bad timing…). But the stuff she left behind… And her five kids have to figure out what to do with it all. What to throw out, what to give away, what to keep, how to divide her stuff fairly, what to sell (and how to sell it).

As the oldest grandkid, and the last person in the family to live in that house, I get to watch it all up close.

When we talk about right action in the West - we are usually talking about morality. I’ve talked about karma as a moral law on here, for instance. But the Buddhist concept of right action is so much more than that - and the Tao concept of Wu Wei illustrates that perfectly (isn’t it great that these philosophies complement each other?).

Timing is everything - an uncle of mine threw out old plates (with chips off and stuff) a few months BEFORE Christmas. He apparently forgot, or ignored, that we were scheduled to celebrate Christmas - kids and grandkids and partners all - in that old house this year. For the last time. It would have been much less fuss if the plates had still been there, however chipped. Worse: one of his brothers turned out to want the china, chips and all, for his new house.

Was it bad action that my uncle threw out those plates? Well, it was not morally bad in my book. That same uncle does more for my grandmother than the rest combined (as the rest lives further off). But the timing was off and it would have been nice if he had communicated about it. Of course my other uncle could have Emailed everyone that he wanted that china: that would also have prevented this.

Wu wei - choosing just the right action, at the right time, so there isn’t any friction… How hard is that?

The family is going through several processes right now:

1. Letting go of the old house
2. Letting go of my grandmother as a competent adult (she has Alzheimer’s disease).
3. Dealing with a portion of the inheritance

Some of the family want to just do things as quickly as possible. Others have a tendency to just postpone any decision. Everybody is emotional about it, but each person deals with those emotions differently. Avoiding friction is simply an impossibility.

One thing is clear: planning works only to some extent. People will disagree. People will act before it’s time and others will want to postpone all action.  Communication helps. And it helps that no one is in this only for themselves, everyone cares. It’s what my mom calls a warm conflict. Right now, actually, it doesn’t feel like conflict at all - but a year ago it certainly did. That’s when I was still living in that house and therefor in the middle of it all.

Moving out six months ago was right at that time, but looking back it might have been easier if I had moved out earlier. Then again, we weren’t ready earlier.

Right action is not just about timing, it’s also about taking all the forces in a situation into consideration - and then finding YOUR path through the mess. My path, as a grandkid, was to step out of the proces and let my grandmothers kids figure it out among themselves.

This time of year - the days after Christmas, the new year not yet begun, is a good time for cleaning out the attic. For taking stock of your life and letting go of responsibilities that are best left to others. Or perhaps for stepping up to the plate and taking the responsibilities that are part of your path in life. In this world - with financial institutions all over the world having taken hit after hit - we are collectively taking stock. Collectively we need to clean out the attic and find out where each of us stands. So each of us can figure out where to go next.

That takes time and in the meantime our economies will slow down. This is alright. A hospital patient needs to take it slow for some time after an operation. Similarly our economies need to slow so that the functioning parts can become visible and the redundant stuff can die off. Poverty levels will rise.

Those who can afford to can start sowing the seeds for the next spring - knowing full well that seeds don’t immediately turn into grains to be harvested.

So I wish you all wu wei for the new year: the knowledge of when and how to act without friction.

Related posts:

1. Wu Wei and poverty? or more about greed
2. Choosing a spiritual path or group
3. Caring for beginners… a mistake?

But I’ve made several pages online with spiritual gift ideas. I thought they might be appropriate to share here. Some of you may not have done all your Christmas shopping yet (assuming you do celebrate this Christian holliday). For me and my family it is more a family gathering than a Christian celebration btw.

How about giving a spiritual calendar or pocket book?

• Or a motivational year calendar?
• I found some beautiful Buddhist calendars and pocket planners.
• How about some astrological guidance for 2009?

If that’s not going to cut it, you might also want to give spiritual books. I’ve made a list of my personal favorite spiritual books as well as a list of what I consider the top spiritual books of 2008.

Now none of that may fit your family. But who doesn’t like a beautiful nature poster?

I hope that was helpful for some of you  -and not too annoying for the rest.

[Disclaimer: I make a little bit off every sale I make on those pages. So you will be giving me a bit of a Christmas bonus by buying something on one of those pages as well.]

Related posts:

1. About spiritual donations and making a living
2. The place of astrology, tarot, aura reading etc. in spiritual development
3. Are we even in the same (spiritual) conversation?

I don’t think I’ll be blogging all that much this week. So I think I’ll just say Merry Christmas now, when I still have the time. We’ve got a big Christmas celebration coming up with my family (kids and grandkids of my one still alive grandmother) - since it’s in the town where I live, I’ll be helping out a lot.

I’ve had a great time blogging these past months, so I thought I’d share the most popular posts on this blog so far. The most commented are:

• What I believe
• Group Karma and the Economic Crunch
• Are humans meant to be vegetarian?
• Was Blavatsky a closet socialist?

Aside from the many comments my blogposts are attracting (thanks everyone) this blog now has about 50 pageviews a day. Not bad for a new blog, I think.
Unfortunately google analytics only has statistics for December - so I don’t know how this compares to previous months (don’t know where the statistics went). It is clear however that one post (aside from the ones mentioned above) was very popular: Messengers of the Masters or the Great White Brotherhood.

I think that’s likely it for 2008 …

Related posts:

1. Those times when life forces rest on you…
2. World War 2 story of spiritual teachers - Interviewing my grandmother

It’s not surprising therefor that Blavatsky wrote about music as well. And given that esotericism was her main topic – music became part of her explanations on how the universe works. Going through her works looking for clues as to her main vision, I did not find that she had one overarching theory about how music works esoterically. What I found was more fragmentary, but suggestive non the less.

Perhaps most important for practical reasons is that she notes in Isis Unveiled (Vol. 1, p. 275) that certain types of music can put us in a frenzy, while others evoke religious aspirations. She uses it as an example to show that human beings respond to vibrations: music and colors.

The Mahatmas in their turn call music ‘the most divine and spiritual of arts’ (ML Chronological 85B, (8))

Blavatsky wrote thrilling spiritual stories. They are usually close to the genre of ghost stories or thrillers – but with occult ideas wrapped in. A few of them give a crucial part to music and it’s occult influence. One of her most thrilling spiritual stories is The Ensouled violin (longer version). Another story in which music plays an essential part is The Cave of the Echoes.

In Isis Unveiled (vol. 1, p. 544) H.P. Blavatsky notes that the Ancient Egyptians knew how to use music to heal nervous disorders. [I want to note that in my time as a teacher at a school for special education I found that for many of those kids music was one of their lifelines to normalcy and harmony. Indeed – some could sing very well. Pity I couldn’t have doubled as a music teacher, as the school had none. Blavatsky also discusses people using music as a cure in Isis, vol. 1, p. 215]

In her article ‘Occult or Exact Science’ she goes into a phenomenon that have come to be scientifically studied recently: that some people connect colors to sound, and hear music with certain smells and so on. The technical term is synaesthesia – and wikipedia shares that although the details vary per individual, there are indeed general trends. Higher tones will usually be seen as lighter colors for instance.  Esoterically Blavatsky connects colors to notes in her Esoteric Instructions (CW. Vol. 12, p. 561, 562)

All in all – enough food for thought, I would think .

Related posts:

1. Blavatsky on Krishna - signs of respect
2. John Algeo about the TS, Blavatsky and more: an interview
3. Belief in Magic? The theosophy of H.P. Blavatsky

All in all – for me these things are temporary. To some extent they are even diversions. I did not linger in any of them – my most persistent effort was regular I-ching readings, but those never gave me anything specific to go on. General insight was never a shortcoming of mine, so I did not really need the I-ching for that.

The TS has long ago stopped advising people to do any of these things. Yet theosophists have insisted on doing them.

Reasons? Well none of these things can replace wisdom itself as a guide. That is: through practical lifestyle changes and developing self-knowledge, tolerance and other virtues. Those who have wisdom hardly need any of this. Which means that all attempts at divination are in the long run futile. Or that’s what the rational mind says.

But in the meantime life is pretty confusing. Our world changes so fast that the way I make my living hardly existed 10 years ago and the details change by the month. This is of course due to the fact that my living is made online: designing websites and getting advertisement income off webpublishing. This field is very new and dynamic.

But life is not just confusing for me. My parents came out of college with the comfortable illusion that what they had trained to be, would define their careers. This was true for neither of them – but their generation could still believe it. When I was in teachers college students often asked themselves and each other: do you see yourself teaching in 10 years time? Even then I answered: no. I could not see that as a future (little did I know I would have to quit teaching much earlier than that).

My point? This world is way too complicated. Individuals have to thread their way through social changes that no one person can keep track of. The economy has just suffered a major hit and at the same time the public has become aware of fundamental problems with our energy use. Both problems were a long time coming, but most people could comfortably ignore them until recently.

This isn’t abstract. It goes to fundamental issues of how people go about their daily lives (by car or by public transportation), which professions students should train for, which skills will be found useful in 10, 20, 30 years time. There is no way to tell a student today whether the skills they are learning today will get them a job in 20 years time. Technology, law and medicine are traditional safe havens – however technology specialists are loosing their jobs in The Netherlands right now.

In such a confusing world it should be no surprise that people turn to traditional divination methods to figure out where to go and what to do with their lives. That is without even touching upon the traditional subject of advice: relationship advice.

To some extent of course these area’s have been taken over by psychologists. They can tell us our talents and academic skills right now. What they can’t do is chart our fundamental motives, nor the circumstances we will find ourselves in 10 or 20 years from now. Learning potential is also very difficult to measure. A good astrologer (that is: one who goes beyond the starsign of one’s birth) CAN look at all that.

What does all this have to do with spiritual development? Well – spirituality does not take place in a vacuum. Theosophists, Buddhists, Yoga practitioners – we are all human beings living in this world. We are in fact more likely to feel the weight of this issue – as we are generally more highly educated than average.

Some of you may be surprised at that statement, but it’s a fact: Alternative spirituality, whether in the shape of Wicca, Buddhism or Theosophy is largely (though not exclusively) an area for educated women and men.

The instability of our world also affects well educated people most. A carpenter is likely to remain a carpenter. Whether he keeps his job is partly up to the fates, but the most that can be expected is that he becomes the manager of a carpentry business. Educated people on the other hand can go into the field they were educated for (still usually a wide variety of possible jobs) or even venture outside it. Each career step has to be weighed. Can I learn more in this job? Does this workplace fit my personal style of working?

One has to keep on learning. But this is also very confusing. Should I develop my technical skills as a blog manager? (Should I learn PHP more?) Should I develop into more of a designer, installing photoshop on my pc and experimenting with it’s options? Should I apply for a job as webeditor, honing my skills as a writer? Those are merely the tip of the iceburg of potential career options for me personally.

Each educated professional has a similar list of options. Notice that only the first has the vaguest connection to my formal education (As math teacher I also had some IT training).

Harder to get a grip on is personal development. For each professional it is a valid question: am I hampered from moving to the next level in my career for reasons of professional training or because my personality gets in the way? If it’s the latter, can I do anything about that or should I move to a field that fits my personality better? This is the type of question a good astrologer or alternative therapist can help with.

Once these methods have proven their practical usefulness, we can’t help but adapt our world view to this fact. If astrology works, there has to be some connection between the stars and my personal life. If aura-reading works, parapsychology must be based on truth. There just might be a soul – despite what most neurologists think. There just might be life after death. There just might be more between heaven and earth…

And that makes it likely for many interested in personal development to become interested in spirituality.

So – what’s the place of divination in spiritual development? It’s often the starting point of a search for spiritual answers to life questions.

Related posts:

1. Is the universe morally neutral?
2. How about Music and spirituality?
3. Sex and spirituality - abstention?

I do however agree that our taste in music says something about who we are. My taste for classic 80’s hits was obviously born by listening to that kind of music in my teens. My taste for Carnatic music (a style from India) is said to be a sign of spiritual development. Well – so what?

Mostly I think our culture’s obsession with music is a bit weird. I’ve puzzled for some time on what to answer when online social networks ask about my taste in music. Then I found the very spiritually correct answer – I put in ‘silence’. Because really: I hardly listen to music. I never had a Walkman (which were all the craze when I was about 10). I don’t even know the slang word for portable cd-player and I don’t own either an i-pod or mp3 player. I went without speakers on my pc for years – until I caved this summer. [There are too many youtube video’s about spirituality]

The larger issue isn’t whether one’s taste in music is an expression of spiritual development – I think to some extent it probably is. But that doesn’t mean that it can be reversed: just make teenagers listen to Carnatic music and watch how angelic they become…

What’s more – I don’t think our habits can be used to predict our spiritual development. I’ve written about vegetarianism. I’ve written about addiction. These are important issues – but I don’t think they are a measure of spiritual development. I don’t think every drunk is less spiritually advanced than every sober person.

There is a story about some spiritual teacher and his students – let’s say it was Jesus

Jesus and his disciples were walking down the street. One disciple said: we’ve been discussing who amongst us was the most spiritually advanced. We couldn’t decide. Who do you think is the most spiritually advanced? Jesus answered: that person over there – pointing to a drunk lying outside some pub.

Changing our habits, avoiding meat and alcohol and crowds, are like the rod you place next to a sunflower: you put it there hoping it will not fall under it’s own weight. For those of us who are consciously working at our spiritual growth, those things become necessary disciplines.

But ultimately spiritual growth is about what happens in our soul.

When pride gets stuck there – proud of being a vegetarian, proud of not smoking, proud of abstaining from alcohol, proud of listening only to spiritual music – there is something seriously wrong. Spirituality should be about learning to see the best in everyone. We should learn to look beyond the superficial and be able to see the spiritual in that drunk on the street, or that beggar. And if we don’t yet have that ability to see where someone is at spiritually (I certainly don’t) – let’s not replace it with the fake version. Let’s not pretend spiritual growth is like a grade in school: points taken off for every bad habit.

For me listening to trance music doesn’t even count as a bad habit - though whether the trance invoked is a healthy spiritual state is a debate for another day.

Related posts:

1. Drugs & spirituality: thee, coffee, alcohol, smoking etc.
2. Money and spirituality - let’s be responsible about it
3. Attachment and addiction – about spiritual hierarchy

I let my own thoughts on the matter be for the moment, but this post may just be the place to share them.

I have explained karma in previous posts as a moral law. That is: karma rewards good and punishes evil in the long run. There is more to it than that, but this is the basis. Since karma is one of the laws of the universe, the universe is morally on the side of good.

I could stop at that, but since it’s Friday – I thought I’d look up what Blavatsky has to say on the subject. In The Secret Doctrine Blavatsky talks (p. 279, 280) about the Logos. She describes it as a collective creator or architect. The actual work of cosmic creation is done by a lower host of consciousnesses: the demiurgos, aka archangels (note) and other forces combined.

That is – the creator God is as much a unity as a forest is. As it is more correct to see a forest as a collection of trees, other vegetation and wild life – similarly the universe is constantly created and maintained by a host of beings and forces. Some of those forces are known to us, like the laws of gravity and karma. Other forces aren’t.

The point for the present discussion is: Blavatsky insists that each of these forces and consciousnesses is imperfect. In fact, there are sometimes flaws in the way nature acts. This is why, she says, the demiurgos should not be worshiped as God. However, we do owe these forces our gratitude and we ought to be working with them through the creation of ideas (the Secret anyone?) and should devote all our good actions to the Eternal Cause, while sacrificing all our bad intentions.

In other words: the best way to contribute to the spiritual evolution of mankind is by being thinking beings and doing good and giving up selfishness and sin.

In an article called ‘The Origin of Evil’ (C.W. 8, p. 110- ), Blavatsky argues that evil and sorrow are caused by ignorance and attachment. She notes that Buddha kept on living, so the overly pessimistic interpretation of his teachings is not valid. It is the attachment to living that causes so many problems. Suicide is the opposite extreme.

She says:

[Buddha's] doctrine shows evil immanent, not in matter which is eternal, but in the illusions created by it: through the changes and transformations of matter generating life—because these changes are conditioned and such life is ephemeral. At the same time those evils are shown to be not only unavoidable, but necessary. For if we would discern good from evil, light from darkness, and appreciate the former, we can do so only through the contrasts between the two. (p. 112)

In other words: it is our wrong interpretation of the world that causes evil - because we base our action on our misunderstanding and ignorance.

I think that places the responsibility for evil right where it belongs: in the hands of people. After all – an animal which kills isn’t evil. It is merely surviving. It is only humanity which kills beyond it’s need. It is only humanity that kills for ideals so called, and economic interest, and cultural clashes.

Note

I’ve replaced Blavatsky’s term ‘Dhyan Chohan’ with Archangel. The term stands for beings of the highest spiritual rank. Blavatsky explains them as former humans who have grown beyond humanity in spiritual attainment, but still take responsibility for its evolution. For instance: each theosophical root race has its own Dhyan Chohan.

Blavatsky presents the term as one indiginous to Tibetan Buddhism. However Christmas Humphreys notes in his ‘A Popular Dictionary of Buddhism’ that the term Chohan is a Rajput term for someone of high spiritual attainment. He also explains that the Dhyani Bodhisattvas and Dhyani Buddhas are parts of the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon as high spiritual beings. Untill the precise term Dhyan Chohan is found in some obscure Tibetan Text I think educated theosophists will have to assume that Blavatsky meant those two groups plus whatever other high spiritual beings might fit her definition. [I would of course be thrilled if someone versed in Tibetan Buddhism were to tell me that the term Dhyan Chohan or something very like it was in fact Tibetan.]

Related posts:

1. Wu Wei, Self-knowledge, short quotes & spiritual products - Lucifer7, January 2009
2. Mediumship, paramitas, Love and new blog - Lucifer7, September 2008
3. A short history of brotherhood, sisterhood and religious tolerance