Lessons in Theosophy


Lesson 20, The Masters



      As was shown in Lesson 9 and in lesson 19, the Universe is constantly evolving forward. We have seen the levels of consciousness as they flow from mineral, to animal, and to human. We have evolved to the human level, but our progress does not stop there. We will eventually prepare to move up to the next level, to Nirvana, or another choice.

      There are those who have already traveled this path to the next level. As was shown in Chart One, they have already qualified to enter Nirvana. These “perfected humans” are called       As was also shown in Chart One, such people have seven choices before them. One group of these “perfected humans” have chosen not to enter Nirvana, but stay with humanity and assist us still-reincarnating-humans to get to the next level. These helpers are called
  • Nirmanakaya
  • Bodhisattvas (a common Buddhist term)
      As was shown in Lessons 14 and in Chart Three, these Earth-bound helpers are organized into a hierarchy, called       (Look along the left-side of Chart Three, for the words “Great White Brotherhood” written vertically.)

      Two Masters of the Great White Brotherhood are of special interest to theosophists. They are the Masters
  • Morya
  • Kuthumi
      It was these two Masters who released (actually, re-released) the ideas called the Ancient Wisdom in the 1800’s. The result was the Theosophical Society and all of its teachings.

      Will we now look at the possibility of the existence of the Brotherhood, the two Masters who started Theosophy, and a history of their interaction with Madame Blavatsky and others.



-- The Masters --



      ‘The limited number [of Adepts] who are still working directly for us may be divided into two classes — those who retain physical bodies, and those who do not. The latter are frequently spoken of under the name of Nirmanakayas. They hold themselves suspended as it were between this world and nirvana, and they devote the whole of their time and energy to the generation of spiritual force for the benefit of mankind. This force they pour into what may be described as a reservoir, upon which the Masters and their pupils can draw for the assistance of their work with humanity. The Nirmanakaya, because he remains to this extent in touch with the lower planes, has been called ‘a candidate for woe,’ but that is misleading. What is meant is that he has not the joy of the higher work, or of the nirvanic levels. He has chosen to remain upon lower planes in order to help those who still suffer. It is quite true that to came back from the higher life into this world is like going down from the fresh air and glorious sunlight into a dark and evil-smelling dungeon; but the man who does this to help some one out of that dungeon is not miserable and wretched while there, but full of the joy of helping, notwithstanding the greatness of the contrast and the terrible feeling of bondage and compression.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 2 online or hardcopy)

      ‘The still more limited number of adepts who retain physical bodies remain in even closer touch with us, in order to fill certain offices, and to do certain work necessary for our evolution; and it is to the latter that the names of the Great White Brotherhood and the Occult Hierarchy have sometimes been given. They are, then, a very small number of highly advanced men belonging not to any one nation, but to the world as a whole. On the physical plane They do not live together, though They are of course in continual communication on higher planes. Since They are beyond the necessity of rebirth, when one body wears out They can choose another wherever it may be most convenient for the work They wish to do, so that we need not attach any special importance to the nationality of the bodies which They happen to be wearing at any particular time. Just now [written in 1917], several of those bodies are Indian, one is Tibetan, one is Chinese, two at least are English, one is Italian, one Hungarian, and one Syrian, while one was born in the island of Cyprus. As I have said, the nationality of these bodies is not a matter of importance, but I mention these in order to show that it would be a mistake to think of the ruling Hierarchy as belonging exclusively to one race.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, pages 3-4 online or hardcopy)



-- Not Gods; More Like “Elder Brothers” --



      ‘It is indeed well that we should try to understand these Great Ones, not as a mere matter of curiosity and interest, but in order that we may realise them as they are, and comprehend that they are men just as we are, varying among themselves just as we vary, although at so much higher a level. Wisdom, power and love are present in all of them equally, yet they are by no means all alike. They are individuals just as we are. They are at the top of the ladder of humanity, but let us not forget that we are somewhere on its lower rungs, and that one day we also shall reach their level and stand where they stand.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 10 online or hardcopy)

      “The Masters whom Theosophy presents to us are simply high-ranking students in life's school of experience. They are members of our own evolutionary group, not visitants from the celestial spheres. They are supermen only in that they have attained knowledge of the laws of life and mastery over its forces with which we are still struggling. They are also termed by Theosophists the ‘just men made perfect,’ the finished products of our terrene experience, those more earnest souls of our own race who have pressed forward to attain the fulness of the stature of Christ, the prize of the high calling of God in Christhood. They are not Gods come down to earth, but earthly mortals risen to the status of Christs. They ask from us no reverence, no worship; they demand no allegiance but that which it is expected we shall render to the principles of Truth and Fact, and to the nobility of life. They are our ‘Elder Brothers,’ not distant deities; and will even make their presence known to us and grant us the privilege of cooperating with them when we have shown ourselves capable of working unselfishly for mankind. They are not our Masters in the sense of holding lordship over us; they are the ‘Masters of Wisdom and Compassion.’ Moved by an infinite sympathy with the whole human race they have renounced their right to go forward to more splendid conquests in the evolutionary field, and have remained in touch with man in order to throw the weight of their personal force on the side of progress.” (Alvin Boyd Kuhn, Theosophy: A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom, page 147 online or hardcopy)



-- Their Number is Small, Their Help is Immeasureable --



      ‘The number of adepts who retain physical bodies in order to help the evolution of the world is but small — perhaps some fifty or sixty in all. But it must be remembered that the great majority of these do not take pupils, as They are engaged in quite other work. Madame Blavatsky employed the term adept very loosely, for in one place she actually speaks of adepts who have been initiated, and adepts who have not been initiated. In all later writings we have reserved the word ‘initiate’ for those who have passed at least the first of the four great stages upon the Path of Holiness, and the word adept we have restricted to those who have attained the Asekha level, and so have finished the evolution required of them in this chain of worlds. The consciousness of the Asekha rests normally upon the nirvanic or atmic plane while his physical body is awake. But out of the number who have already attained adeptship only the very small proportion above-mentioned retain physical bodies, and remain in touch with the earth in order to help it; and out of this a still smaller proportion are willing under certain conditions to accept men as pupils or apprentices; and it is to these last (the smallest number) only that we give the name of Masters. Yet few though they be their office is of incalculable importance, since without their aid it would be impossible for man to enter the portals of initiation.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 12 online or hardcopy)



-- They Guide The Evolution of Our World --



      “ ... the evolution of the world is by no means left to itself, to get along as best it may, as people so often rashly suppose; on the contrary, it is being directed. For this hierarchy of adepts is actually managing it, as far as it is possible to manage it while leaving its inhabitants their own free-will. The members of the Brotherhood, through Their agents, are constantly trying to work with the important people of the world, putting advice and suggestions into their minds, endeavoring to move them onwards towards the great future of Universal Brotherhood when war shall have disappeared.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 9 online or hardcopy)



-- “Perfected Humans” --



      [The Masters] “ ... have by virtue of their own force of character mastered every human problem, perfected their growth in beauty, gained control over all the natural forces of life. They stand at the culmination of all human endeavor. They have lifted mortality up to immortality, have carried humanity aloft to divinity... Through the ... spiritual principle in them, they have reconciled the carnal nature of man, his animal soul, with the essential divinity of his higher Self. And they, if they have been lifted up, stand patiently eager to draw all men unto them.” (Alvin Boyd Kuhn, Theosophy: A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom, page 148 online or hardcopy)



-- The Two Masters, Morya and Kuthumi --



www.koothoomi.net 		     
www.morya.net


      Master Morya (often referred to as Master M.) and Master Kuthumi (often referred to as Master K.H. or Master Koot Hoomi) are the two Masters who released (re-released, actually) the ideas called the Ancient Wisdom in the 1800's. The result was the Theosophical Society and all of its teachings.

      These two Masters chose to re-release the Ancient Wisdom to the world in the 1800’s. They chose Madame Blavatsky and Henry Olcott to put together the Theosophical Society here in the physical world.



-- Why Have I Not Been Approached by a Master? --



      Many people feel that they are qualified and ready to start training for the first Initiation, yet no Master has approached them. They feel that they have been overlooked. It is important to know that nobody has been overlooked, that the Masters are constantly watching the people of the world, and that when a person is ready, they will be approached.
      “ ... a man might have many qualifications which would make him useful as an assistant, but at the same time some one great fault which would be a constant obstacle in his way, which would nullify much of the good that he might otherwise do. No Master would accept such a man as a pupil; but he might say to him: ‘Go to work and conquer that special fault of yours, and when you have succeeded I will take you as my assistant, and will train you further.’

      “So many of our earnest students are full of the most benevolent and altruistic feeling, and, knowing themselves to be in this way very different from the majority of mankind, they sometimes say to themselves, ‘I am so deeply anxious to work for humanity; why will not the Master take me in hand and train me?’

      “Let us face the facts boldly. The Master will not train you because you are still full of all sorts of minor imperfections. It is quite true, as you no doubt feel within yourselves, that your benevolence, your kindliness, your earnest wish to be helpful, are far greater things on the credit side of the account than are all these small faults on the debit side. But try to realize that there are thousands of people in the world who are benevolent and well-meaning, and that you differ from them only in the fact that you happen to have a little more knowledge, and so you are able to direct your benevolence into more definitely useful channels than those others. If these were all the qualifications required for discipleship, each Master might have thousands of pupils, and his whole time would be taken up in endeavoring to bring into shape those few thousands of people, with all their petty little faults on the astral and physical planes, and in the meantime the Master’s splendid work with the egos on the higher levels would have to be entirely neglected.

      “First of all then, to be a pupil of a Master means that one must look upon life as the Master looks upon it, solely from the point of view of what is best for the progress of the world. The pupil must be prepared absolutely to forget himself, to sink his personality entirely, and he must understand that this is not a mere poetical figure or a fashion of speech, but that it means just exactly what it says — that he must have no personal desires whatsoever, and must be willing to order the whole of his life according to the work that he has to do. How many of us are there who are wholeheartedly willing to take even this first step towards accepted discipleship?...

      “It is not because of any lack of compassion or patience that a Master could not take such a man; it is simply that it would not be a good use either of his time or his energy, and to make the best possible use of both of them is his simple duty. If a man feels himself worthy to be accepted as a pupil, and wonders why this privilege has not already been extended to him, let him watch himself closely for even a single day, and ask himself whether during that day there has been in him any single thought or feeling which would have been unworthy of the Master. Remember that not only definitely evil or unkind thoughts are unworthy of him, but also trifling thoughts, critical thoughts, irritated thoughts — above all, thoughts of self. Who of us is sufficient for these things?” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 18-20 online or hardcopy)

      Another part of the Path, which will be covered in the next lesson, is the way to the Initiations. The Masters are active in the Intitiations. If and when they choose us to be their students, they will start training us to prepare for our first Initition.

-- The Mahatma Letters --



      Much of what we know about the Masters comes from their work with the two Founders of Theosophy, Madame Blavatsky and Col. Henry Olcott. However, a source of information about them is also found in letters they wrote to Mr. A. P. Sinnet, who was living in India at the time.
      “The Theosophic case for Adept revelation rests upon a long-continued correspondence between persons (Mr. A. P. Sinnett, mainly, Mr. A. O. Hume, Damodar and others in minor degree) of good intelligence, but claiming no mystical or psychical illumination, and the two Mahatmas, K.H. and M. Sinnett, Editor of The Pioneer, at Simla in northern India, was an English journalist of distinction and ability. Although he had manifested no special temperamental disposition toward the mystical or occult, he was the particular recipient of the attention and favors of the Mahatmas over a space of three or four years, beginning about 1879. It was at his own home in Simla, later at Allahabad, that most of the letters were received, addressed to him personally. Most, if not all, were in answer to the queries which he was permitted, if not invited, to ask his respected teachers.

      “Mr. Sinnett’s book, The Occult World, was the first direct statement to the West of the existence of the Masters and their activity as sponsors for the Theosophical Society. He undertook the onerous task of vindicating, as far as argument and the phenomenal material in his hands could, the title of these supermen to the possession of surpassing knowledge and sublime wisdom. His work supplemented that of Madame Blavatsky in Isis, yet it went beyond the latter in asserting the connection of the Theosophical Society with an alleged association of perfected individuals.” (Alvin Boyd Kuhn, Theosophy: A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom, pages 150-151 online or hardcopy)
      The letters have been printed in a book, The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnet, by A.T. Barker.



-- Leadbeater‘s Book: The Masters and the Path --


      C. W. Leadbeater’s book, The Masters and the Path, is an excellent source of information on the Masters. The book explains several aspects of what the Masters do, and how we can prepare for acceptance as one of their students.



For further reading on the Masters:

For further reading on the Mahatma Letters:





Next: Lesson 21, The Path



   

 
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