Theosophy Northwest ViewTheosophy Northwest ViewThe Newsletter of the Northwest Branch of the Theosophical Society
May 2000 Vol. 3 Issue 3
Love is the cement of the universe; it holds all things in place and in eternal keeping; its very nature is celestial peace, its very characteristic is cosmic harmony, permeating all things, boundless, deathless, infinite, eternal. It is everywhere, and is the very heart of the heart of all that is.
Love shows the way and lights the path; love is the flowing forth of the permeant light, the Buddhic splendor, the Christ light, at the heart of the universe - that love which, working in gods and men, teaches us to know beauty when we see it, especially inner beauty, to recognize greatness and splendor in others, from knowing the greatness and splendor in our own inmost being.
Love is the most beauteous, the holiest, thing known to human beings. It gives to man hope; it holds his heart in aspiration; it stimulates the noblest qualities of the human being, such as the sacrifice of self for others; it brings about self-forgetfulness; it brings also peace and joy that know no bounds. It is the noblest thing in the universe.
"Love ye one another" - a beautiful saying this, for it is an appeal to the very core of your nature, to the divine within you, to the inner god, whose essence is a celestial splendor. The essential light of you is almighty love.
Love is protective; love is puissant; it is all-penetrating; and the more impersonal it is, the higher it is and the more powerful. It knows no barriers either of space or of time, for it is nature's fundamental activity, nature's fundamental law, and it is the universal bond of union among all things. It will not only eat away the obstinacy of the stoniest of human hearts and dissolve the substance of the most adamantine of human minds, but it will slowly infuse its life-giving warmth everywhere.
Personal love is but a reflection of it; and personal love is fallible, because the ray is so feeble. Anything that has as its motivating cause the desire for personal benefit is not true love.
Love is peace; love is harmony; love is self-forgetfulness; love is strength; it is power; it is vision; it is evolution. Its power so expands the inner nature that slowly you become sympathetic, because you become at one with the entire home-universe in which you live and move and have your being; and because it is harmony itself, and because it is of the very essence of the core of the universe, you become at one with the divinity in the heart of all things. - G. de Purucker
Website Update
Questions We All Ask, a series of 84 lectures given by G. de Purucker from 1929 to 1931, are now being published by Theosophical University Press on its website, starting in May with the first twenty lectures. Purucker, leader of the Theosophical Society from 1929 to 1942, is being featured in the April/May issue of Sunrise: Theosophic Perspectives, which contains 80 pages of material on his life, work, and ideas, and is also available free online at www.theosociety.org.
The Northwest Branch website is expanding its section on William Q. Judge, leader of the Society from 1891 to 1896, by adding about 80 of his articles, speeches, and interviews, plus links to almost 150 of his articles in English already on the Internet on other sites. We have also added his answers to questions published in The Theosophical Forum, The Vahan, and The Path.
Another addition to the Branch site is Theosophy and Some of the Vital Problems of the Day by Katherine Tingley. Long out of print, this book contains a series of her inspirational speeches delivered in 1915 when San Diego was hosting the Panama-California Exposition.
Monthly Discussion Group
"Evolution: Unfolding Inner Potential" is our subject. We will be discussing such questions as: What does it mean to be a human being, and what is the purpose of human evolution? How does evolution relate to the psychological and spiritual aspects of man and the universe? What are our inner potentials? Where do they come from? How can we develop them? Come and share your ideas!
Open to the public, unsectarian, non-political, no charge.
Upcoming TopicsJune 8 - Do We Need a Spiritual Teacher?
Evolution from the theosophic point of view extends through repeated reimbodiments, not only in the human kingdom, but for animals, plants, atoms, and worlds. All this presupposes an enduring part that lives in each person, each planet, each atom, something within that survives and gradually evolves through repeated reimbodiments - in our case, a higher self or reincarnating ego in which is stored the wisdom of experience. Evolution, thus, is the process by which the potentials of this divine essence may unfold. Because we have unfolded that which makes us human, we are at the human stage of our evolution. The animals have unfolded that which makes of them animals, and so forth.
The ancients divided human history into many cycles related to the cosmic clock. In modern theosophy these periods are called root-races, subraces, family races, tribes, nations - cycles of five hundred, a thousand, many thousands of years. Blavatsky projected the life cycle of humanity on this physical globe as divided into seven primary human stocks or root-races. Each root-race is divided into seven subraces, and each subrace into seven family races. These in turn consist of seven national cycles, each of which is built of seven tribal races.
One way to calculate the races and their subdivisions is to start with a figure for the ideal life of a human being (some 72 years) somewhat as follows: seven generations of men make up a nation, a cycle of some 500 years. Seven of these national cycles in turn go to form a tribal race, which endures some 3,600 years. An example of a tribal race would be the Slavs, including the Russians, Poles, Czechs, and so forth.
Seven tribal races form what Blavatsky termed a national race, enduring for a precessional cycle of some 25,920 years. An example would be the European national race, including all the races of Europe. Seven of these national races constitute a family race, which endures some 180,000 years. One family race would be the original inhabitants of the Americas - pre-Inca, pre-Aztec, and Mayan - which in its lifespan included the lesser cycles we have discussed. Seven such family races form a subrace, and seven subraces form a root-race.
All great civilizations result from the mixture of peoples - there is no such thing as a pure race. The Americas in general are in process of creating new races of various types: perhaps another cycle of some 25,920 years will commence, or possibly another family race of 180,000 years will arise, composed of various tribal and national units, each of which will have its day in the sun.
Going back to the beginning of mankind, Blavatsky suggests that the first two root-races were more astral than physical, and their life-span was much longer than that of the subsequent root-races. By the middle of the third root-race two remarkable events took place: the division into the two sexes and the awakening of man's inner nature, in particular the mind. This was achieved by the incarnation in each individual of his own higher self, thus inflaming the nascent mind into self-consciousness, a characteristic that differentiates us from the animals.
It is said that the fourth or Atlantean root-race was the most material of the races. They produced magnificent civilizations, as hinted by Plato. As Atlantis approached its mid-point, the seeds of our present or fifth root-race began to appear, because it is from the midpoint of the previous race that springs the following race.
Our fifth root-race had its home in Central Asia, and in the course of thousands of years a variety of civilizations flowered there during the halcyon time of its golden, silver, and part of its bronze age. We are approaching the midpoint of the fifth root-race and have entered its iron age, or kali yuga, which commenced according to Hindu figures with the death of Krishna in 3102 BC. This iron age is due to last 432,000 years. In the course of time forerunners of the sixth root-race will begin to appear in increasing numbers. In contrast with our fifth root-race, where the mental principle predominates, the sixth race will unfold more of buddhi or spiritual insight. Races overlap one another. The new race is born from the midpoint of its parent, and the two coexist side by side through a blurred and gradual transition.
What is the future of mankind? The human race will begin gradually to achieve its potentials; to become truly human and then bring into human life the wise influence of its innate divinity. The examples of the Christs and Buddhas illustrate what we too may one day become.