Next Step – 1
Tim Boyd - India, USA
Tim Boyd accompanied by two beautiful young ladies (daughters of a friend of his)
I would like to share a few thoughts about the Theosophical Society’s 150- year history, a history that has been momentous and challenging. Also, we are here to talk about the future and about the moment in which we find ourselves now. There is an expression with which we are all familiar: “Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” I take it as an advice, but for those who think that human nature is static and unchanging, the formula that the future equals the past is a gloomy arithmetic.
Rupert Sheldrake, a member of the Theosophical Society (TS) and also a noted scientist, was once asked: “Why are things the way they are?” His response? “Things are the way they are because they were the way they were.” For some it could be viewed as humor, or as an answer that attempts to evade the question, but his point is that in the absence of some energy which shifts, even slightly, the momentum of a thing, it continues unchanged. If you want to know what the future will be, take a look at what we are putting into the worlds of thought and action right now. It is a restatement of the idea that we must learn from the past.
Part of the function of educational systems around the world is to help us understand the past. That is the ideal, but we could ask if the methods are effective. If your educational experience resembled mine, the schools you attended placed great emphasis on memorization of data. We were taught and tested on dates, the stories of “good” people (nation builders, warriors, law makers, religious figures) and “bad” people (warriors who lost the war, who broke the laws, who attempted to divide the nation, alternative religious figures to our local culture), social, political, and economic systems, and so on.
If this is an accurate description of the educational conditioning that we have all been exposed to, it is fair to ask how has this been working? To see how our education has worked along that line, we look to the present. Have the fears related to the threat of wars diminished? Has our adverse impact on other species and global climate diminished? Has the glorification of violence, or fragmentation and separation among people and nations diminished or accelerated?
When the TS was founded in 1875 one of the greatest concerns of its inner founders was that the internal causes of an ever-increasing societal fragmentation be addressed. On the one hand the influence of an unthinking, superstitious approach to religion was having a “degrading” effect; on the other side “brutal materialism” was described as “still more degrading”. The divisive influence of conventional religion and the growing importance of a reductive science required a third, or middle way, which addressed the complete human being from a position of knowledge. The reintroduction of the Ageless Wisdom in the form of Theosophy was seen as that “leavening” influence.
Institutional education has adopted an approach to learning that is incomplete. The dependence on the cultivation of intellect alone limits one’s ability to know deeply — to understand. Albert Einstein made the statement that “Any fool can know, the point is to understand.” Anyone can pick up a book, and read it. With a good enough memory, one could quote from it, repeat it line by line, even going beyond those who might have studied it for years.
However, knowledge is surpassed by Wisdom, which is the focus of Theosophy, the Ageless Wisdom. And Wisdom manifests in a very different manner. In our attempt to learn from history the intellect has been trained, focused, and set to work on analyzing the past. It has been charged with assembling the relevant facts out of which some greater knowledge can arise.
All because we are aware that knowledge has a special value — knowledge is power. The fact that knowledge (properly applied) is power is demonstrated every day. It is our knowledge that prevents us from eating foods that are harmful to health; that allows us to follow a map’s instructions to our destination; that makes space flight and cancer research possible. But the power of knowledge is confined to its level. No one would make the mistake of asking the most knowledgeable carpenter in the world to perform brain surgery, or the best surgeon for advice on the stock market. This type of knowledge has been glorified. Understanding has been ignored.
It is not that we are being denied access to it in our normal education processes. As members of the TS, the schools we attended and the educational process we were exposed to, are the same as those that trained everyone else to glorify intellectual knowledge beyond the limits of its usefulness. It is rare for someone to have been taught by someone with a genuine understanding, someone who could recognize the existence of our latent potentials; someone capable of leading us beyond the mere activity of the intellect to an intuitive approach to learning. We believe we are learning and that we know because we are comfortable within the limitations imposed upon us by our training.
If we consider the popular saying, “No problem can be solved on the same level at which it was created,” it holds true. When we look at the problems we face in every corner of the world, there is sufficient knowledge available to address them. If knowledge is power and is sufficient to address human-created problems, why are the obvious inequalities that exist in all our societies fostered and perpetuated? Why do we live in a world where we knowingly poison the water we drink and the air we breathe; where we are destroying the life forms that have collaborated with us in shaping this world from its beginnings? How can we do this if the knowledge and approach to knowledge that has become accepted are accurate? If it ever becomes clear to us that our approach is not merely inadequate, but toxic, we are faced with a challenge.
Part of the purpose for the founding of the Theosophical Society was to address the challenge of redirecting our attention from a path of thought and action clearly leading to dire consequences. The TS was founded by individuals who were not merely intelligent or knowledgeable, but by Masters of the Wisdom, who recognized its potential as an experiment whose time had come. Regardless of its success or failure, it was worth attempting. As long as it could maintain its integrity, it could influence the misguided directions that were becoming increasingly prevalent.
A few years ago I was invited to have a conversation with Michael Murphy, an American writer and co-founder of the Esalen Institute in California, which was a leader in the Human Potential Movement in the 1960s and ’70s. An evening was set aside for Michael and me, and the assembled audience to talk about ideas. His life and work have had an enormous impact on the consciousness movement in the West, and he was full of fascinating stories. After our conversation, the audience participated in a Q&A session. At that time a gentleman stood up to ask a question. Often at such events questions can turn into lengthy statements, but in this case the question came from someone who was clearly well versed in the TS’s history. Really, it was two questions that he asked. One of them related to the TS’s focus on Unity — Universal Brotherhood. It went something like this: “In its history, the TS has experienced so many different splits and divisions within the organization. How can an organization that cannot itself remain whole claim to stand for Unity?”
My answer to the question then would be the answer I would give now: “In these supposed splits and divisions that happened over the history of the TS, most of the time it was precipitated by a sincere person, devoted to the cause and study of Theosophy and the theosophical movement; someone who had a profound vision or understanding which became so strong within them that it required a different platform in order to be shared. It has happened a number of times. What he named as splits and divisions, to me, were in fact the broadening of the theosophical movement. There were more voices in more places with various points of view to speak on specific aspects of One Universal Truth. No one person could embrace it all. A tree grows from a seed, but if it remains a seed, it does not become a tree. It puts down roots, and it puts out branches. Is a branch separate from the tree?”
The second question was preceded by a statement of fact: “So much of the foundation of the teachings of Theosophy traces back to the Masters of the Wisdom, but only a few people in the past, and no one in the present can report having seen or talked to any of the Masters. The question he asked was: “How can the theosophical movement be built upon such a questionable foundation?”
In At the Feet of the Master, written by a very young J. Krishnamurti, this statement is made: “You must trust in the Master and you must trust in yourself. If you have seen the Master, you will trust in him to the uttermost, through many lives, and many deaths.” So I ask, what does it mean to see a Master?
From her youth H. P. Blavatsky (HPB) repeatedly had visions of her Master, but not once did she have the confirmation of meeting him in the flesh. At the age of twenty she was in London, and while there, while walking on the street she encountered a parade that was passing by. It was a procession that included Rajput princes from India. While watching, for the first time, she saw and recognized the person she had seen in visions and whose presence she had felt on numerous occasions. HPB was so overcome that she was moved to rush forward and throw herself at his feet. The way it is described, he gave her an indication with his hand, preventing her from going to him. Later that evening she met and was counseled by him.
The crux of the matter is that HPB saw her Master, but she was not the sole witness. Hundreds of people lined the street, observing the parade, who saw the same man, yet they failed to recognize his true identity. To them, he was an exotically dressed prince from a distant land. They saw the body, but not the person, the Master. Clearly, that is not what Krishnamurti intended by having “seen the Master”. Although I have never laid eyes on the Buddha, Jesus, or Krishna, I have seen them. Intuitively, I have sensed their reach, touch, expression, and character through their teachings, making them as real, if not more real, than someone in a physical body. Ralph Waldo Emerson made the point: “Who you are speaks so loudly, I cannot hear a word you are saying.” We have the capacity to perceive, hear, and comprehend at levels that surpass physical sight. We acknowledge this; however, we are willing to let it remain unexpressed because we have been conditioned in a specific manner.
As members of the TS, this gentleman’s two questions crystalized important issues that we face. We seem to have a need for a physicalized Master. An exalted consciousness that associates itself with a body, if and when necessary, does not seem to satisfy our need for a person operating in the material world. Even though we “know” that the smallest fraction of the “real world” falls within the range of our five senses, we repeatedly fail to embrace that knowledge. In addition, there are the many phenomena that occurred during HPB’s time — precipitated letters, objects, and other “supernatural” occurrences. For many people these things hold immense importance. Without a doubt, phenomena point toward something deeper than normal science and practicality, but they are like a finger pointing at the moon. The finger is not important; looking in the direction it indicates is the point. If we are talking about our role in shaping the future, and about learning from the past, it would not be inaccurate to say that our dependence on externals, on people, personalities, and phenomena has been an obstacle to a deeper understanding. Our deeply engrained dependence on externals can only be addressed by cultivating an ever-increasing connection to our intuitive capacity — the gateway to wisdom.
(To be continued)
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This article was also published in The Theosophist, VOL. 147 NO. 1 OCTOBER 2025
The Theosophist is the official organ of the International President, founded by H. P. Blavatsky on 1 Oct. 1879.
To read the OCTOBER 2025 issue click HERE
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