Dr G de Purucker

I am teaching two courses based on his books. My mentor and teacher grew up at Point Loma and was taught by Dr Purucker and Catherine Tingley. Dr Purucker and Catherine Tingley took over after the death of Blavatsky . Dr Purucker's books are so beautiful, the words seem to speak to each individual.


http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/theos/th-gdpbio.htm

Here is a tiny sample of Purucker's theosophical view:

EVERY THEOSOPHIST A LEADER
G. de Purucker
Pertinent excerpts from an address delivered at the New York Lodge, September 16, 1932.

Every one of you is a Theosophical headquarters, and not only as our beloved Judge explained it: Make each one of you to in yourself a center of the Movement, a lodge of one: but I tell you more: each one of you should be and actually is a leader, a leader of men, a Theosophical leader, one more or less trained to guide his fellows. Oh! I pray that you do not forget this; for if this idea prevail among us, no matter what one may say about the relatively small number of adherents that the Theosophical Society at present has as compared with the many millions of humanity if this spirit prevails, I repeat, we Theosophists shall be not merely the leaven raising the general average of humanity, but verily you will be leaders, guides, teachers: and that is what each genuine Theosophist should aspire to be. Tell yourselves and tell each other that you are leaders. Your present leader by his position merely exemplifies that fact the spirit of self-devotion to a grandiose Cause: and every one of you could have that same spirit, and I believe you actually have it. ... It is the duty of every Theosophist to be a leader, to be a guide, to be a teacher, and to give full-handed and in measure overflowing of what he himself has flowing forth from his heart. Any man who does this is a natural leader of his fellowmen ... Nothing can daunt this spirit of self-devotion. It will prevail over everything, because its fountain is love, love of mankind, love of all that is ... Love is no mere sentimental emotion: love is vision; love is harmony; love is that which flows forth from one to others; and when a man or woman has this in his heart or in her heart, then he or she is a natural leader. I desire you all to be leaders. Don't be ashamed of this lofty calling. Proclaim yourselves as aspiring to be true leaders. No one in the T.S. is too humble to help someone else, to show the way, and the way-shower is the leader, the guide, and the teacher.

Dr. Purucker was born twenty miles from where i lived. i had the good fortune to visit the lodge in NYC. Dr Purucker could take the most complex subject and write it so anyone could understand. yes everyone is a theosophist, but not everyone acts or lives their lives as a theosophist, too many times greed, fear, and self preservation takes over.

For a great many years GdeP has been like a guide, a light on the Path. All of his books are worth shelving for deep reference applicable even in shallow waters, no mater what our point of view - or frame of mind. These few words below I believe to be important and are taken from the article Occultism and Psychic Phenomena reprinted in Studies in Occult Philosophy .

"The running after psychic practices and phenomena, so-called, and a devotion of one's energies and faculties to them, amounts really to a deplorable waste of precious time; the concentration of one's faculties on these things simply reverses the inner machinery of one's consciousness, so to speak, and, to adopt a phrase that will be readily understood today, throws the psychical engine into reverse, and one goes backwards rather than forwards. The occult arts are easy to practice once one knows the secrets of them, and these secrets are easily discovered; and the causes of psychic phenomena are even more easily found out -- such phenomena as the petty clairvoyance, the fallible and often fallacious clairaudience, the insignificant thought-readings. Things like these are psychical results belonging merely to our intermediate human sheath of consciousness -- and the worst of it all is that these are just the things that seem to fascinate the minds of men today. People are running after them, often losing their direction in the chase, if not indeed losing their mental balance; and at the end of the frantic course there looms the insane asylum, or perchance, what is much worse, there yawns the suicide's grave. Count, if you will and can, the broken hearts and distracted minds on either hand along the way. There is naught that is spiritually and intellectually inspiring, there is naught that shines with the holy flame of impersonal devotion to abstract truth, in following these practices -- naught. Contrast them with the simple grandeur of the teaching of the ancient Sages and Seers, the Masters of the genuine Occultism of the ages of old: O, man, know thyself, for within thee lie all the secrets of the Universe and therefore of destiny, for thou thyself art that Universe, and its destiny is thine, and thine is its."

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/soph/sop-hp.htm

Right you & Purucker are snowman. The original Theosophy of Blavatsky, Judge, Tingley, Wadia et al, clearly emphasized right thought & philosophy, never psychism.

Going far back to the time of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras the same emphasis on philosophy and warnings to not try to develop psychic powers without a solid altruistic & holy persona are made.

Here is Charles Johnston a Sanskrit knowing Theosophist, (who married HPB's niece) giving his introduction to his translation of the Yoga Sutras, book III:


The third book of the Sutras is the Book of Spiritual Powers. In considering these spiritual powers, two things must be understood and kept in memory. The first of these is this: These spiritual powers can only be gained when the development described in the first and second books has been measurably attained; when the Commandments have been kept, the Rules faithfully followed, and the experiences which are described have been passed through. For only after this is the spiritual man so far grown, so far disentangled from the psychical bandages and veils which have confined and blinded him, that he can use his proper powers and faculties. For this is the secret of all spiritual powers: they are in no sense an abnormal or supernatural overgrowth upon the material man, but are rather the powers and faculties inherent in the spiritual man, entirely natural to him, and coming naturally into activity, as the spiritual man is disentangled and liberated from psychical bondage, through keeping the Commandments and Rules already set forth.

As the personal man is the limitation and inversion of the spiritual man, all his faculties and powers are inversions of the powers of the spiritual man. In a single phrase, his self seeking is the inversion of the Self-seeking which is the very being of the spiritual man: the ceaseless search after the divine and august Self of all beings. This inversion is corrected by keeping the Commandments and Rules, and gradually, as the inversion is overcome, the spiritual man is extricated, and comes into possession and free exercise of his powers. The spiritual powers, therefore, are the powers of the grown and liberated spiritual man. They can only be developed and used as the spiritual man grows and attains liberation through obedience. This is the first thing to be kept in mind, in all that is said of spiritual powers in the third and fourth books of the Sutras. The second thing to be understood and kept in mind is this:

Just as our modern sages have discerned and taught that all matter is ultimately one and eternal, definitely related throughout the whole wide universe; just as they have discerned and taught that all force is one and eternal, so coordinated throughout the whole universe that whatever affects any atom measurably affects the whole boundless realm of matter and force, to the most distant star or nebula on the dim confines of space; so the ancient sages had discerned and taught that all consciousness is one, immortal, indivisible, infinite; so finely correlated and continuous that whatever is perceived by any consciousness is, whether actually or potentially, within the reach of all consciousness, and therefore within the reach of any consciousness. This has been well expressed by saying that all souls are fundamentally one with the Oversoul; that the Son of God, and all Sons of God, are fundamentally one with the Father. When the consciousness is cleared of psychic bonds and veils, when the spiritual man is able to stand, to see, then this superb law comes into effect: whatever is within the knowledge of any consciousness, and this includes the whole infinite universe, is within his reach, and may, if he wills, be made a part of his consciousness. This he may attain through his fundamental unity with the Oversoul, by raising himself toward the consciousness above him, and drawing on its resources. The Son, if he would work miracles, whether of perception or of action, must come often into the presence of the Father. This is the birthright of the spiritual man; through it he comes into possession of his splendid and immortal powers. Let it be clearly kept in mind that what is here to be related of the spiritual man, and his exalted powers, must in no wise be detached from what has gone before. The being, the very inception, of the spiritual man depends on the purification and moral attainment already detailed, and can in no wise dispense with these or curtail them.

Let no one imagine that the true life, the true powers of the spiritual man, can be attained by any way except the hard way of sacrifice, of trial, of renunciation, of selfless self-conquest and genuine devotion to the weal of all others. Only thus can the golden gates be reached and entered. Only thus can we attain to that pure world wherein the spiritual man lives, and moves, and has his being. Nothing impure, nothing unholy can ever cross that threshold, least of all impure motives or self seeking desires. These must be burnt away before an entrance to that world can be gained.

But where there is light, there is shadow; and the lofty light of the soul casts upon the clouds of the mid-world the shadow of the spiritual man and of his powers; the bastard vesture and the bastard powers of psychism are easily attained; yet, even when attained, they are a delusion, the very essence of unreality.

Therefore ponder well the earlier rules, and lay a firm foundation of courage, sacrifice, selflessness, holiness.

well i have to take issue with that, not only did they emphasize thought and philosophy but occultism and developing psychic. powers without developing the psychic powers and the latent abilities, one will never be able to become a god and live in the astral. one needs all three to understand the laws of nature. it is not how i was taught, and not what i ascribe to. what you are proposing is new age thought and that was clearly not on blavatsky, puruckers, judge's mind. in order to become beyond what is part of the human physical as Hermes stated, we must through the alchemical transformation be able to live out of the physical and to do that it is not just right living it is developing innate psychic powers and abilities including the rise of the kundalini to rise from the physical into the non physical the body of light.

I agree with you Bella. I am not a Buddhist and this is Buddhist thought. I consider myself an occultist who wants to more more of Theosophy but I'm not interested in anything other than the basic principles and the occult aspect of it. Mabel Collins knew that in order to ascend the psychic powers had to be developed and so did H P Blavatsky. You can't move forward if you stay in one place, and since I come from an occult background I'm not interested in Buddhism, or whether I am right or wrong. I want to open up my horizons.

Lily wrote:

I agree with you Bella. I am not a Buddhist and this is Buddhist thought. I consider myself an occultist who wants to more more of Theosophy but I'm not interested in anything other than the basic principles and the occult aspect of it. Mabel Collins knew that in order to ascend the psychic powers had to be developed and so did H P Blavatsky. You can't move forward if you stay in one place, and since I come from an occult background I'm not interested in Buddhism, or whether I am right or wrong. I want to open up my horizons.

I am not a Buddhist, I am an Occultist and a Christian Witch. this is not a Buddhist forum, so don't worry about it. i was taught by the finest teachers in the physical and the astral , still am being taught and the first thing i was told was develop the psychic powers for in order to hear the sounds and the voices of the masters one must be open and the way to do that is to not only open the third eye, but the astral body in order to travel to the divine realm. this will not only help one in their studies but it will help one be a better person, right thought and right action is important, but to open the cauldron and the light within one must feed the mind, body and spirit and this is knowledge right living and to develop the powers of nature, without that you are just spouting words that have no meaning and preaching from a pulpit through a veil that is not only hazy, it is dormant. this forum is for beginners, and ones who want to know more than words on a page and for occultists who know there is more to this earth than just proselytising and a closed mind. remember lily to always give credit, because if you don't the masters will take your powers away.

An individual can of course feel however they desire about their own particular path of so-called "occultism"; there are a very many occult paths. However, as far as I can see, in any teaching of "theosophy' presented by Blavatsky, Judge, Katherine Tingley and G. de Purucker as viewed in any of their published works; and also if one takes the time to read The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett - one will see an unfolding picture of a core theosophical presentation that aims at the "non-development" of powers except those that come to a person naturally, over possibly many lives. This is because, as I am led to believe from Blavatsky and Company - as well as my own experiences with countless people, that the seeking of "powers" can be, and often are - selfish actions and thereby, backward steps. Even dangerous steps. Selflessness is, apparently, the occult path from a core theosophical point of view. An interesting article - THE ASTRAL LIGHT by a fellow (H. T. Edge) who not only worked with W. Q. Judge, K. Tingley and G. de Purucker, but was also a personal student of H. P. Blavatsky is posted in a link below. There are indeed true powers, I feel however, that those powers earned by way of selfless acts, are never, as we learn from Blavatsky's teachers through their letters, are never used for personal gain. Intent is everything. Of course we all fail at this practice, I do every day. Each to their own devices.

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/gdpmanu/astral/astral.htm

Blavatsky and her gurus did not deny the existence of psychic powers, nor that they can be useful in the service of beings in the future when we have killed our sense of ego and become a selfless Initiate. But before that time our self-centeredness will spoil and pervert the powers. We will slide backwards on the Path. So the Masters of HPB made clear that psychic powers should be left to develop naturally as we become more selfless & altruistic. That is the safe way; without holiness & selflessness disaster awaits the ambitious in some lifetime.

WQ Judge taught:

The Masters and Their chelas are engaged in fanning the flame of spiritual illumination wherever they find it among the T.S. members. Their influence is not exerted because of wealth or personal prominence, but upon any
one of any class who has tried to understand theosophy for the sake of others and in order that he may communicate to others in his turn. Not only has this been asserted by the leaders in the movement, but in the
experience of many of us we have seen help extended to those who are in earnest for their fellow-man.

And this is peculiarly and more strongly applicable to those members who have as one of their aims the acquisition of psychic and abnormal powers. These powers cannot be safely found and used by the man who desires them for himself, and his mere statement in his heart or in words that he desires them for others goes for naught unless the deeper and inner motive and object coincide with the high one which is expressed. Our members, new and old, might as well become acquainted with the bald and naked truth on this subject now, as to
wait for years of bitter experience to burn it into them. There are such powers and man may acquire them, but each age and each race has its limitations that it is not possible for the average man to overcome.

Hardly any member who has desires for these would admit that he would be willing to become a black magician in order to acquire them, that is, would sacrifice his chances for emancipation for their sake. Yet without altruism one cannot get them except as a black magician. One has to deliberately make up his mind that he will sacrifice everything and everybody else to his design if it is his intention to obtain them without following the rules laid down by the White Adepts inculcating truth, purity, charity, and all the virtues — in fact, altruism.

in brief what is being taught and achieved will unfold when the Masters teachers feel that the Chela is ready and those that try to force the abilities to open can a will cause physical as well as mental harm to themselves

one of the things that has been tossed around that one has to become a Buddhist this is not entirely correct, the Master's Chose Blavatsky who wasn't a Buddhist but also drank and smoked but the Masters saw the the pure intent of the soul and this is why she was chosen for the work to be done

This is why Blavatsky's body was the way it was, because the Master's worked through her channeling the information and the energies to the people who were also the chosen ones one can say

We are mere energy in a physical body and when we can separate the Astral form the physical that is when we will be taught in the Halls of Learning

Speak from the heart anyone can take from a book

Frater O M wrote:

in brief what is being taught and achieved will unfold when the Masters teachers feel that the Chela is ready and those that try to force the abilities to open can a will cause physical as well as mental harm to themselves

one of the things that has been tossed around that one has to become a Buddhist this is not entirely correct, the Master's Chose Blavatsky who wasn't a Buddhist but also drank and smoked but the Masters saw the the pure intent of the soul and this is why she was chosen for the work to be done

This is why Blavatsky's body was the way it was, because the Master's worked through her channeling the information and the energies to the people who were also the chosen ones one can say

We are mere energy in a physical body and when we can separate the Astral form the physical that is when we will be taught in the Halls of Learning

Speak from the heart anyone can take from a book

Right Frater OM; forcing development is harmful. There is no need to be a Buddhist or Christian or any religion at all. When a book speaks to the heart, why not use the existing words? There is no reason to act special; karma & the Masters know one's intention.

two articles of Blavatsky's take on the astral and adepts and the pineal gland third eye which needs to be open or one can not understand the teaching are Propositions of Psychology, and Reincarnation and Immortality. the books of theosophy only touch the surface and do not convey the true intentions. once a teacher or teachers appear, the secrets are revealed. books are just that books, but when the teacher opens one's eyes to the meaning and the masters become part of you, what was just glossed over regarding psychic powers , the third eye or astral travel , the student who only reads the words at the beginning starts to see what Blavatsky and Purucker meant for them to know. you will not enter the halls of learning if you do not open the third eye and become adept at astral travel, and that is in the teachings.

It is true that Books are only books and that anyone can take from a book. Well, anyone who can read or who will read. Blavatsky too points this out about her own books as did the subject of this particular exchange, that is - Purucker. Both of them reinforce the teaching NOT to believe a particular something, a particular anything, anything, just because it is stated by any authority, or in a book. They both point out that their books cannot show the Truth, but that we need to search and rout out truth on our own using, if we so choose, what they have brought forth, yes, in books. They both encourage the use of our own visions of truth (in the Bowen notes about Blavatsky's teaching this is referred to, apparently by H.P.B. herself - as a Jnana Yoga method - which practice does not mean one is a Hindu or a Buddhist). Jnana Yoga is explained there as an understanding of our own individual "picture of truth" to guide us. It is also taught that our "pictures of truth" will change and that we need to be prepared to accept change in however we perceive truth. I know that my "pictures" have changed now countless times. Seven Keys. Seven Jewels. Seven times Seven and really, by the time we evolve up and out of the dregs of matter in which we now find our selves saturated, what we are learning now will almost certainly seem to those beings we will have become, gods if you will (if of course we - as G. de Purucker says repeatedly- if we "run the race successfully" and do not drop our lower natures, thus being forced to start again, that is, build a new person having lost the one we had); if we reach these higher spheres, apparently countless imbodiments from now, these teachings we review here in our current time period will probably seem as a soft drink compared to fire.

Offline, over some length of time, I have seen far too much folly at best, madness and even utter destruction at worse, resulting from the attempts to force occult powers into play using various methods. As a result, I do take a stand and reissue, wherever I might be, when invited to do so, the warnings given out by the founders and serious workers of the modern theosophical movement to date. Still, I do not intend to push my views as a stumbling block into another’s path as we must all decide for ourselves which truth makes us whole.

I have written on this particular exchange (this page) because I have read and explored the ideas penned and spoken by Purucker, if not all of his words, then most of them - deeply over many years. And I do not think in any way that I know the final "truth", nobody does, not even the Masters, how could they? They too are evolving. However I do think that concerning Purucker's work and his re-presentations of the teachings of Blavatsky and Judge (both of whom I am also well acquainted) and the Brothers who jump started the movement that, to some degree I catch" his "thought".

I am not a Buddhist, or a Hindu, and certainly not a Christian. Not a member of any particular religion. I like and dislike them all when they are organized. However, I think history has shown that Blavatsky and Olcott became Buddhist in Ceylon. Not that that really matters.

people pick books up in theosophy for many reasons, some do for the titles, covers, or they have heard about theosophy and think it is a quick fix, and when they look through the book, they are either disappointed as it is not chaos magi ck, or the guide to become all powerful, so they brush the subject off as religion and put the book down. there are others like me who before i found the little ad visited the Hague and found myself staring at a beautiful building Theosophical Headquarters, had no idea what it was about, but it stuck in my memory. the books are written in parables and the real words are hidden, and though you read them and take notes and understand what you read or think you understand, the words change and what you read as a curiosity seeker changes when you find a teacher. the world opens up and the teacher is there to guide, instructs, and gives you papers and teachings that you won't find any where else. they are meant for the chela's eyes only. once you start the third eye opens up naturally, as the psychic powers, and the ability to travel to the halls of learning, and that is what HPB and other theosophists wanted along with the masters. they will not put it out there in the books, even though it is in the books and will appear when it is time. it is why a teacher and mentor is needed as if you are reading one day and you pick up the book the next and the words change, how frightening is that for someone who clearly does not understand, it happens infrequently but it happens. it is why one must be guided and taught. in order to be able to read the secrets of the books, one must open the innate psychic powers or the books will be beautiful books and the secrets of the universe will stay secret. i can not make it any clearer, so it is why i am teaching on the forum, but in a school hidden on the forum.