THE THEOSOPHIST VOL. 137 NO. 9 JUNE 2016 CONTENTS Self-Responsibility 5 Tim Boyd Mountain and Summit as the Path and Its Goal 12 William Wilson Quinn Perception and Interpretation of Reality 22 Trân-Thi-Kim-Diêu ‘A Union of Those Who Love in the Service of All That Suffers’ 29 Nancy Secrest Books of Interest 33 A Talk to Prisoners 35 C. Jinarajadasa-- Theosophical Work around the World 41 International Directory 42 Editor: Mr Tim Boyd NOTE: Articles for publication in The Theosophist should be sent to the Editorial Office. Cover: Statue of Gautama Buddha, whose birthday, enlightenment, and passing are celebrated as Buddha Purnima or Vaisakha Purnima, referring to the Full Moon of the Indian month of Vaisakha, which fell on 21 May this year. Official organ of the President, founded by H. P. Blavatsky, 1879. The Theosophical Society is responsible only for official notices appearing in this magazine. 3 THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY Founded 17 November 1875 President: Mr Tim Boyd Vice-President: Dr Chittaranjan Satapathy Secretary: Ms Marja Artamaa Treasurer: Mr K. Narasimha Rao Headquarters: ADYAR, CHENNAI (MADRAS) 600 020, INDIA Vice-President: [email protected] Secretary: [email protected] Treasurer: [email protected] Adyar Library and Research Centre: [email protected] Theosophical Publishing House: [email protected] & [email protected] Editorial Office: [email protected], Website: http://www.ts-adyar.org The Theosophical Society is composed of students, belonging to any religion in the world or to none, who are united by their approval of the Society’s Objects, by their wish to remove religious antagonisms and to draw together men of goodwill, whatsoever their religious opinions, and by their desire to study religious truths and to share the results of their studies with others. Their bond of union is not the profession of a common belief, but a common search and aspiration for Truth. They hold that Truth should be sought by study, by reflection, by purity of life, by devotion to high ideals, and they regard Truth as a prize to be striven for, not as a dogma to be imposed by authority. They consider that belief should be the result of individual study or intuition, and not its antecedent, and should rest on knowledge, not on assertion. They extend tolerance to all, even to the intolerant, not as a privilege they bestow but as a duty they perform, and they seek to remove ignorance, not punish it. They see every religion as an expression of the Divine Wisdom and prefer its study to its condemnation, and its practice to proselytism. Peace is their watchword, as Truth is their aim. Theosophy is the body of truths which forms the basis of all religions, and which cannot be claimed as the exclusive possession of any. It offers a philosophy which renders life intelligible, and which demonstrates the justice and the love which guide its evolution. It puts death in its rightful place, as a recurring incident in an endless life, opening the gateway to a fuller and more radiant existence. It restores to the world the Science of the Spirit, teaching man to know the Spirit as himself and the mind and body as his servants. It illuminates the scriptures and doctrines of religions by unveiling their hidden meanings, and thus justifying them at the bar of intelligence, as they are ever justified in the eyes of intuition. Members of the Theosophical Society study these truths, and theosophists endeavour to live them. Everyone willing to study, to be tolerant, to aim high, and to work perseveringly, is welcomed as a member, and it rests with the member to become a true theosophist. 4 The Theosophist Self-Responsibility Self-Responsibility TIM BOYD MANY teachings in theosophical when we reach a stage where we actually literature relate to our individual re- become self-aware. It is really only at that sponsibility for unfoldment. This is point that we are able to make genuine expressed beautifully in the small book, choices. Prior to that, we are merely The Idyll of the White Lotus, by Mabel reacting to the circumstances that sur- Collins. It is a short story, rich in meaning, round us in life and in Nature. With the at the end of which the ‘Three Truths’ advent of awareness we can actually are described. One of those Truths relates choose for the first time. This is the stage to the principle of self-responsibility: in which we all find ourselves. ‘Each person is his absolute lawgiver, the One of the facts of our being is that dispenser of glory or gloom to himself; we find within us tendencies towards the decreer of his life, his reward, his greatness arising from the divine seed punishment.’ It is clearly stated, and places that is planted within every one of us. the burden of effort on each of us. It is We have these tendencies, and when we intended to counteract the idea that in see them exhibited in others around us, some way the various things and events we respond. When we hear the words, we encounter in our lives are determined teachings, and stories of the lives of the by some force, or power, or being outside Great Ones who have lived among us, of ourselves. That idea weakens us, even we respond wholeheartedly. In a similar in our approach to Divinity. way, we have all of the ‘negative’ ten- When we speak about the principle of dencies within us as well. When we look Oneness, the essential idea is that we are at someone who is perhaps not living to not disconnected or separated from the their fullest, people often say: ‘Except for principle described as God, the Ultimate, the grace of God, there go I.’ We need to the Divine, or whatever the words that recognize that each of us has tendencies our temperament allows us to say. The and possibilities of greatness, but at the process of mentally looking towards same time we have tendencies that could something else to determine the course take us far away from that course. and direction of our lives is a mistaken When we plant a garden, we either idea. Each one of us has this respon- want great food or beautiful flowers. sibility. It becomes all the more important No matter how careful we are, we always June 2016 The Theosophist 5 Self-Responsibility find the presence of plants that we behaviour were regulated by the in- do not want — weeds — which left un- fluence of the communities where we attended will grow and choke out the lived and the cultures that surrounded us. plants that we are looking to harvest. An Every culture encourages and discourages important part of cultivating a garden certain values and behaviours. Throughout involves continually pulling up those history, this has led to the flourishing weeds. Some people will just break off of a particular type of mind in one place, the part of the weed above the ground and of something quite different in an- and believe that the weed is gone. But other. One of the conditions of life in our the root remains beneath the surface. time is that now we are exposed to a range Certainly it will grow again, and it will of influences that would have been im- come back even stronger. There are some possible previously. In cities around the types of weeds that you can pull up by world people from unfamiliar cultures, the root, but if there is even the smallest along with their traditions, customs, and fragment of that root left in the soil, then ideas are interacting, often in conflicting that plant will come back again. Within and confusing ways. Beyond the physical us there is a process of cultivation that is atmosphere, we all share the atmosphere similar to the attention that we pay to a of thought. garden, except that this is the garden of Powerful thoughts influence people our hearts and minds. It is the rare wherever they find themselves. We find individual who, through their many lives examples of this in the history of inven- of self-discipline and attention to these tions such as the airplane. The Wright matters, is completely beyond the reach brothers in the United States get credit of the temptations that take us off for that invention because theirs was the track. the first plane to leave the ground and There are seeds planted in the desert remain in the air. Within months follow- in an environment where conditions ing that event, in other parts of the world provide no possibility for them to grow. airplanes began taking flight. When I was Some of these seeds will remain dormant in high school I remember reading about until the exact combination of conditions the theory that the human body was appears. It may take years, but when incapable of running a mile in less than the proper combination of sun, rain, and four minutes. Some athletes had gotten humidity appears, suddenly the land close to four minutes, but the greatest that was barren and lifeless becomes athletes in the world could not break it. filled with flowers, because the condi- One day a man named Roger Bannister tions that allow the seeds to grow have ran a mile-race in under four minutes. He been provided. broke the barrier that was deemed impos- In previous times, the conditions that sible for the human constitution. Within would promote all kinds of distractive a very short time, sub-four-minute miles 6 The Theosophist Vol.