THEOSOPHY
KARMA
A Study in
Karma
by
Annie Besant
Published in
1917
Annie Besant
1847 - 1933
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Family Karma
Let us
consider the collective karma of a family. The family has a thought-atmosphere of
its own, into the colouring of which enter family traditions and customs,
family ways of regarding the external world, family pride in the past, a strong
sense of family honour. All the thought-forms of a member of the family will be
influenced by these conditions, built up perhaps through hundreds of years, and
shaping, moulding, colouring, all the thoughts, desires and activities of the
individual newly born into it.
Tendencies in
him that conflict with family traditions will be suppressed, all unconsciously
to him; the things "a fellow cannot do" will have for him no
attraction; he will be lifted above various temptations, and the seeds of evil
which such
temptations
might have vivified in him will quietly atrophy away.
The
collective karma of the family will provide him with opportunities for
distinction, open out avenues of usefulness, bring him advantages in the
struggle for life, and ensure his
success. How
has he come into conditions so favourable? It may be by a personal tie with
some one already there, a service rendered in a previous life, a bond of
affection, an unexhausted relationship. This avails to draw him into the
circle, and he then profits by the various karmic results which belong to the
family in
virtue of its collective past, of the courage, ability, usefulness of some of
its members, that have left an inheritance of social consideration as a family
heirloom.
Where the
family karma is bad the individual born into it suffers, as in the former case
he profits, and the collective karma hinders, as in the former instance it
promoted, his welfare.
In both cases
the individual will usually have built up in himself
characteristics
which demand for their full exercise the
environment
provided by the family. But a very strong personal tie, or unusual service,
might, without this, draw a man into a family wherein was his beneficiary, and
so give him an
opportunity
which, generally, he has not deserved, but had won by this special act of his
past.
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THEOSOPHY
KARMA
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The Ocean of Theosophy
William Quan Judge
Preface
Theosophy and the Masters General Principles
The Earth Chain Body and Astral Body Kama – Desire
Manas Of Reincarnation Reincarnation Continued
Karma Kama Loka
Devachan
Cycles
Septenary Constitution Of Man
Arguments Supporting Reincarnation
Differentiation Of Species Missing Links
Psychic Laws, Forces, and Phenomena
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Theosophy
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Quick Explanations
with Links to More Detailed Info
What is Theosophy ? Theosophy Defined (More Detail)
Three Fundamental Propositions Key Concepts of Theosophy
Cosmogenesis Anthropogenesis Root Races
Ascended Masters After Death States
The Seven Principles of Man Karma
Reincarnation Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott William Quan Judge
The Start of the Theosophical
Society
History of the Theosophical Society
Theosophical Society Presidents
History of the Theosophical
Society in Wales
The Three Objectives of the
Theosophical Society
Explanation of the Theosophical
Society Emblem
The Theosophical Order of
Service (TOS)
Ocean
of Theosophy
William Quan Judge
Glossaries of Theosophical Terms
Worldwide Theosophical Links
Elementary Theosophy
An Outstanding
Introduction to Theosophy
By a student of
Katherine Tingley
Elementary Theosophy Who is the Man? Body and Soul
Body, Soul and Spirit Reincarnation Karma
The Seven in Man and Nature
The Meaning of Death
Quotes
from the Writings of
Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky
Blavatsky Quotation
That which is to be
shunned is pain not yet come. The past cannot be changed or amended; that which
belongs to the experience of the present cannot and should not be shunned; but alike to be shunned are
disturbing anticipations or fears of the
future, and every act or impulse that may cause present or future pain to
ourselves or others.
Practical
Occultism, Page 87
Blavatsky Quotation
Perfection, to be
fully such, must be born out of imperfection, the incorruptible must grow out
of the corruptible, having the latter as its vehicle and basis and contrast
The Secret Doctrine
, Volume 2, Page 100
Blavatsky Quotation
It is only by the
attractive force of the contrasts that the two opposites — Spirit and Matter — can be cemented
together on Earth, and, smelted in the fire of self-conscious experience and suffering, find
themselves wedded in Eternity.
The Secret Doctrine
, Volume 2, Page 108
Blavatsky Quotation
Strength to step
forward is the primary need of him who has chosen his path. Where is this to be
found? Looking round, it is not hard to see where other men find their
strength. Its source is profound conviction.
Practical
Occultism, Page 67
Blavatsky Quotation
It is the motive,
and the motive alone, which makes any exercise of power become black, malignant, or white,
beneficent Magic. It is impossible to employ spiritual forces if there is the
slightest tinge of selfishness remaining in the operator .... The powers and
forces of animal nature can equally be used by the selfish and revengeful, as
by the unselfish and the all-forgiving; the powers and forces of spirit lend
themselves only to the perfectly pure in heart — and this is Divine Magic.
Practical
Occultism, Page 7
Blavatsky Quotation
Finite reason
agrees with science, and says: “There is no God”. But, on the other hand, our
Ego, that which lives and thinks and feels independently of us in our mortal casket,
does more than believe. It knows that there exists a God in nature, for the
sole and invincible Artificer of all lives in us as we live in Him. No dogmatic
faith or exact science is able to uproot that intuitional feeling inherent in
man, when he has once fully realised it in himself.
Isis Unveiled,
Volume 1, Page 36
Blavatsky Quotation
It may be a pleasant dream to attempt to conceive of
the beauties of the spirit world; but the time can be spent more profitably in
a study of the spirit itself, and it is not necessary that the subject for
study should be in the spirit world.
Modern Panarion
Page 70
Blavatsky Quotation
Physical existence
is subservient to the spiritual, and all physical improvement and progress are
only the auxiliaries of spiritual progress, without which there could be no
physical progress.
Modern Panarion
Page 78
Blavatsky Quotation
Mankind — the majority at any rate — hates to think
for itself. It resents as an insult the humblest invitation to step for a
moment outside the old well-beaten tracks and, judging for itself, to enter
into a new path in some fresh direction.
The Secret Doctrine
, Volume 3, Page 14
Blavatsky Quotation
Even ignorance is better than
Head-learning with no Soul-wisdom to illuminate and guide it.
The Voice of the Silence, Page 43
Blavatsky Quotation
Many theosophists
have had slight conscious relations with elementals, but always without their
will acting, and upon trying to make elementals see, hear or act for them, a
total indifference on the part of the nature spirit is all they have got in
return. These failures are due to the fact that the elemental cannot understand
the thought of the person; it can only be reached when the exact scale of being
to which it belongs is vibrated, whether it be that of colour, form, sound, or
whatever else
Annotation - The
Path, May, 1888
Blavatsky Quotation
Parabrahman is not
“God” because It is not a God. “It is that which is supreme, and not supreme”.
....It is supreme as cause, not supreme as effect.
The Secret Doctrine
, Proem [Volume 1], Page 35
Blavatsky Quotation
The ancients .....
fully realised the fact that the reciprocal relations between the planetary bodies
is as perfect as those between the corpuscles of the blood, which float in a
common fluid; and that each one is affected by the combined influence of all
the rest, as each in its turn affects each of the others.
Isis, Volume 1,
Page 275
Blavatsky Quotation
Strength to step
forward is the primary need of him who has chosen his path. Where is this to be
found? Looking round, it is not hard to see where other men find their
strength. Its source is profound conviction.
Practical
Occultism, Page 67
Blavatsky Quotation
There are two kinds
of magnetic attraction: sympathy and fascination; the one holy and natural, the
other evil and unnatural.
Isis Unveiled,
Volume 1, Page 210
Blavatsky Quotation
In the phenomenal
and Cosmic World Fohat is that occult, electric, vital power, which, under the
Will of the Creative Logos, unites and brings together all forms, giving them
the first impulse, which in time becomes law.
The Secret Doctrine
, Volume 1, Page 134
Blavatsky Quotation
Oaths will never be
binding till each man will fully understand that humanity is the highest
manifestation on earth of the Unseen Supreme Deity, and each man an
incarnation of his
God; and when the sense of personal responsibility will be so
developed in him
that he will consider forswearing the greatest possible insult to himself, as
well as to humanity. No oath is now binding, unless taken by one who, without
any oath at all, would solemnly keep his simple promise of honour.
Isis Unveiled,
Volume 2, Page 374
Blavatsky Quotation
It is the motive,
and the motive alone, which makes any exercise of power become
black, malignant,
or white, beneficent Magic. It is impossible to employ spiritual forces if
there is the slightest tinge of selfishness remaining in the operator .... The
powers and forces of animal nature can equally be used by the selfish and
revengeful, as by the unselfish and the all-forgiving; the powers and forces of
spirit lend themselves only to the perfectly pure in heart — and this is Divine
Magic.
Practical
Occultism, Page 7
Blavatsky Quotation
Woe to those who
live without suffering. Stagnation and death is the future of all that
vegetates without change. And how can there be any change for the better
without proportionate suffering during the preceding stage?
The Secret Doctrine
, Volume 2, Page 498
Blavatsky Quotation
The person who is
endowed with this faculty of thinking about even the most trifling things from
the higher plane of thought has, by virtue of that gift which he possesses, a
plastic power of formation, so to say, in his very imagination. Whatever such a
person may think about, his thought will be so far more intense than the
thought of an ordinary person, that by this very intensity it obtains the power
of creation.
Lucifer, December,
1888
Blavatsky Quotation
Finite reason
agrees with science, and says: “There is no God”. But, on the other hand, our
Ego, that which lives and thinks and feels independently of us in our mortal
casket, does more than believe. It knows that there exists a God in nature, for
the sole and invincible Artificer of all lives in us as we live in Him. No
dogmatic faith or exact science is able to uproot that intuitional feeling
inherent in man, when he has once fully realised it in himself.
Isis Unveiled,
Volume 1, Page 36
Blavatsky Quotation
Our voice is raised
for spiritual freedom, and our plea made for enfranchisement from all tyranny, whether of Science of
Theology.
Isis Unveiled,
Volume 1, I2.
Blavatsky Quotation
If through the Hall
of Wisdom thou wouldst reach the Vale of Bliss, Disciple, close fast thy senses
against the great dire heresy of Separateness that weans thee from the rest.
Voice of the
Silence, Page 23
Blavatsky Quotation
From strength to
strength, from the beauty and perfection of one plane to the
greater beauty and
perfection of another, with accessions of new glory, of fresh
knowledge and power
in each cycle, such is the destiny of every Ego, which thus
becomes its own
saviour in each world and incarnation.
The Key to
Theosophy, Page 105
Blavatsky Quotation
The assertion that
“Theosophy is not a Religion” , by no means excludes the fact that “Theosophy
is Religion” itself. A religion in the true and only correct sense is a bond
uniting men together — not a particular set of dogmas and beliefs. Now
Religion, per se, in its widest meaning is that which binds not only all Men
but also all Beings and all things in the entire Universe into one grand whole.
Lucifer, November,
1888
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