The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1892-04-04

laws of Nature and the psychical
powers of man.
The reason for the second object
is that the East is the present repo-
STORY of the Wisdom-Religion. The
reason for the last is that the higher
development of man lies in the
direction of the awakening of the
powers and faculties of his soul and
spirit, and the knowledge of the
planes of Nature upon which these
powers act.
The two heads of the Society were
Col. Olcott, an American gentleman
of considerable experience of the
world and Madame Blavatsky, Rus
sian lady whose checkered and ro-
mantle life and passion for the mys-
tic require a separate article. The
early years of the Society were spent
in India, arousing the Hindoos to the
knowledge of the esoteric truths of
their own religion. They had neg
lected the true sources of knowledge
and degenerated into Journalism and
external worship; but they respond
ed eagerly to the call to study their
religion esoterically, and many nuclei
of the Theosophical Society were
formed in India and Ceylon. Later,
in 1884, they came to Europe and
founded centres in several countries,
and in 1887 Madame Blavatsky took
up her residence in London, the
journal Lucifer was started in Eng
land and The Path in America, and
the Society swelled to its present di
mansions, which include over 265
Branches in India, America, Britain,
and other countries.
THE CHIEF TEACHINGS OF THEosoPHY
are as follows:
CD The Universe is not an aggre-
CATION of separate parts, but is one
whole, and this whole or sum-total
of all that exists is Deity. Thus our
God is not personality; it is the
sum-total Of all states of conscious
ness and all forms of manifestation,
or in other words the ultimate spirit
ual basis of the Universe. This
Deity (Pard-Brdhm) exists alter
nately in a state of rest and
a state of activity. In the form
er state the whole universe is
unmanifested and, so to say, asleep ;
in the latter state the Deity assumes
creative power and the Universe is
evolved according to philosophical
principles too abstruse to enter into
here. Both these states last billions
of years, and the latter one prevails
of course now.
CD Man consists mainly of two
parts, a spiritual part which is a
spark from Deity and is "made in
the image of God" and a lower part
which is animal and of the world.
The divine part, or Higher Ego, is in
its original state good from want of
power to commit evil; it is part OF
the divine scheme of evolution that
it should acquire experience, or the
knowledge of good and evil, so as to
perfect its nature; therefore it has
to pass through a long series OF in
carnations on earth, during which il
at first inevitably goes astray, but III,
timately conquers sin and matter and
reassumes its divine state of purity.
60 Our present earth-life is only
one of long series of similar ones
undergone by our Higher Ego in ac,
cordance with the above law. The
conditions of wealth, station, anG
happiness in which we are born il
any given life or incarnation are
regulated by law known as the
law of RdlDcd, or merit. This may
be described as the law of
CAUSE AND EFFECT IN THE MORAL
WORLD,
and provides that sins bring their OWL
punishment and virtues their own re
ward, not according to the decision
of personal Cod but as matte
of necessity and inevitabeness, 81
that a man who breaks natures law
in one life incurs the penalty eithe
in that same life or subsequent one
just as drunkard gets headache
next morning. 1t will be seen tina
this law accounts for the difference
in worldly condition which must 9th
erwise be put down to the caprice 0
personal Deity, teaches us self
reliance, and does away with the doc
trine of eternal punishment.
(4) The present stage of human
development is a comparatively 10y
one, and man is destined to evolv
higher and higher till he reaches tina
state of divine manhood which is hi
ultimate goal and which we see ex
empllied in Jesus. We have achieve,
wonderful power over the materia
world, but there are higher world
than this. The body functions on tn
physical plane, the soul on the psychi
plane, and the spiritual on the spirit
ual plane. Life on these planes j
much fuller and involves the posses
sion cf far higher powers and facul
ties than we at present possess.
Practical Theosophy teaches hoy
to cultivate our higher nature, AM
transfer our consciousness and powe
of action To the pOrresDOndinp nlanas