Los Angeles herald., 1892-05-16
THEOSOPHYS FEATURES,
A Plain Statement OF Its
Teachings.
1t Attempts to. Reconcile All Reli-
giOns and Sciences.
A Claim That 1t Offers the Only solu5
tion OF Life's Mysteries = A
Paper Prepared by
an Expert.

H. T. Edge, fellow of the Theosoph-
ical society, has prepared the following
stetement about Theosophy which will
serve to answer a number OF queries re-
Gently addressed to the HERALD regard
ing this new faith fad:
"Theosophy is a system designed to
reconcile all religions, PHILOSOPHERS and
sciences under one common system of
ethics based on eternal verities." This
is stock definition, and to those who
are accustomed to hear big words used
to express small ideas or to define empty
dogmas they may seem pretentious; but
a little application will remove this OBJ
lection. People may say: "How can all
religions be reconciled under one sys-
tenn when they are SO opposed to one
answer is that Theosophy does not
are merely the external forms OF re-
ligions, due variously to differences of
intellectual development, age, climate,
the age in which they were promul-
gated, and to the perversions OF priests.
In days long gone by, before that
event took place which is described in
the Bible as the ''fall of man." and is
known by Theosophists as the fall of
spirit into matter, the human race was
said to have been more spiritual and
GUd-like than at present, and the con-
fueion of races, nations and creeds did
not exist, for the curse of separateness
and selfshness had not yet descended,
and man was harmonious brotherhood.
The knowledge of God, of the
universe, of life, had not become
degraded to mere speculation
as it is at present, when everyone is at
liberty to build up religion or philoso-
ply of his own. Neither were the as
pirations of the heart severed from the
intellect and the science of life divided
into two halvee-religion and science
as at the present day. There was one
single system of knowledge, embracing
all departments of inquiry, whether
ethical, social or scientific or what not,
and it has been called the "wisdom
religion or the secret doctrine, or the
divine gnosis."
The wisdom religion is like the trunk
of a great tree, from which all the re-
ligions and religious philosophies have
sprung as branches. These religions
have each fed the various races and
nations to which they came with their
spiritual and moral food as the branches
Of tree feed it's leaves.
Theosophy comes from the same
source and offers the only complete
solution of life's mysteries accessible to
the present age. Our theology, if true,
is unsatisfactory and not understood.
Our science deals only with the mater
1al, ignoring or denying the spiritual.
To such an age Theosophy comes like q
IN hn iuta kn
spiration to the soul.
The chief teachings of Theosophy are
as follows:
ID The universe is not an aggrega
tion 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 consciousness and all forms of
manifestation, or in other words the
ultimate spiritual basis of the universe.
This Deity (Par a-Brahm) exists alter
nately in q state of rest and state of
activity. In the former state the whole
universe is sunmanifested and, go to say,
asleep; in the latter state the Deity as
sumes 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.
~ Man consists mainly of two parts,
a spiritual part which is q spark from
Deity and is ''made in the image of
God," and 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 incarna-
tions on earth, during which it at first
inevitably goes astray, but ultimately
conquers sin and matter and reassumes
it's divine state of purity.
(3) Our present earth life is only one
of a long series of similar ones under
gone by our Higher Ego in accordance
with the above law. The conditions OF
wealth, station and happiness in which
we are born in any given life or incarna-
ton are regulated by a law known as the
law of Karma, or merit. This may be
described as the law of cause and effect
in the moral world, and provides that
Gins bring their own punishment and
virtues their own reward, not according
to the decision of a personal God, but as
matter of necessity and inevitable
ness, 80 that q man who breaks natures
laws in one life incurs the penalty either
in the same life or q subsequent one,
Just as drunkard gets headache next
morning. 1t will be seen that this law
accounts for the difference in worldly
condition which must otherwise be put
down to the caprice of a personal Deity,
teaches US self-reliance, and does away
with the doctrine of eternal punishment.
a. The present stage of human de-
velopment Is comparatively low one,
and man is destined to evolve higher
and higher till he reaches that state of
divine manhood which is his ultimate
goal, and which we see exemplified in
Jesus. We have achieved wonderful
power over the material world, but
there are higher worlds than this. The
body functions on the physical plane,
the soul on the psychic plane, and the
spiritual plane. Life on these planes is
much fuller and involves the possession
Of far higher powers and faculties than
we at present possess.
Practical Theosophy teaches how to
cultivate oui higher nature, and trans
fer our coneciousness and power OF &C.
tion to the corresponding planes. But
the road to power lies only through re-
nunciation of self and worldly attrac-
tions, and is usually the work of many
incarnations. Some great souls have
outstripped the run of humanity and