Ali Ritsema - The Netherlands
Theosophy Forward is a well chosen title.
Yes, Theosophy will move forward, it always will. The question for the Theosophical Society as a channel for Theosophy is how to move forward? How can the Theosophical Society serve best as a vehicle? What is the real mission of the Theosophical Society?
Very clear statements have been made by the Mahatmas and H.P.B. which can help us or strengthen us in our search for how to move forward.
In Mahatma Letter 112 (chronological, or 81 in the 1st to 3rd editions) KH refers to a stifling grey fog, symbolizing the vicious state of India in 1883, which—no doubt—in the rest of the world will not be much better nowadays, and he states: “Here and there twinkles a point of light which marks a nature still somewhat spiritual, a person who aspires and struggles after the higher knowledge. If the beacon of Aryan occultism shall ever be kindled again, these scattered sparks must be combined to make its flame. And this is the task of the T.S.”
In letter 140 (chronological, or 141 in the 1st to 3rd editions) H.P.B. points out that “it is not so much the quantity we are in need of, but the quality, to make the Society a success.”
In a letter from H. P. Blavatsky (Collected Writings 9:242) to the second American Convention, April 1888, she gives the following advice:
The multiplication of local centres should be a foremost consideration in your minds, and each man should strive to be a centre of work in himself. When his inner development has reached a certain point, he will naturally draw those with whom he is in contact under the same influence; a nucleus will be formed, round which other people will gather, forming a centre from which information and spiritual influence radiate, and towards which higher influences are directed. . . .
. . . But there are others among us who realize intuitionally that the recognition of pure Theosophy—the rational explanation of things and not the tenets—is of the most vital importance in the Society, inasmuch as it alone can furnish the beacon-light needed to guide humanity on its true path.
It seems clear that the aspiration and struggle for higher knowledge can provide the necessary quality to form a “magnetic” centre as a beacon light to guide humanity. This can be done by a person, by a group, by a section, and by the Society worldwide.
According to the preface of Raja-Yoga, or Occultism, it was H.P.B.’s work to create an organization to which human egos would be drawn by a natural attraction to its principles and rules, and in which they would undertake the heavy labor of self-purification, self-education, and self-attainment. Are the members of the Theosophical Society willing to undertake such heavy labor and to realize the first and most important object of Universal Brotherhood and thereby to make the Theosophical Society a success?
I hope these thoughts will further inquiry and discussion about how to move forward in this century.
