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I The
Secret Doctrine,
H.
P. Blavatsky &
the Stanzas of Dzyan “… the occult side of
Nature has never been approached by the science of
modern civilization.” “... the Secret teachings ...
must be contrasted with the speculations
of modern science. Archaic axioms must be placed side by side with
modern
hypotheses and comparison left to the sagacious reader.” (p.480)
Blavatsky, The Secret
Doctrine, 1888
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The Secret Doctrine (1888) is a massive, almost
incomprehensible document. It is
composed of two volumes: the first, Cosmogenesis,
deals with the “genesis” of the “cosmos” –the origin and creation of
the
universe. Cosmogenesis outlines
the laws of cosmology, physics and metaphysics from an esoteric and
occult
perspective. Blavatsky made every effort
in her work to represent the essence of the ancient mystical teachings
about
cosmogenesis and metaphysics, while contrasting these with the
scientific
theories of her day. Volume II, Anthropogenesis,
deals with the creation (genesis) and evolution of humanity through
various
dimensions of existence and rounds (cycles) of life.
The Secret Doctrine provides a
sweeping view of the nature of life from the first moments of the
awakening of
the Kosmos to the final destiny of humankind and the Universe. In her Magnus
opus of the literature of the modern world, occultist Blavatsky
provides a
tour of the cosmos substantially different from that of her
contemporary
scientists and science philosophers, and from that yet offered in the
twenty
first century.
Anyone
who closely examines The Secret Doctrine must be impressed and
perhaps
overwhelmed by the author’s erudition and knowledge.
Madame Blavatsky draws material from many
sources including ancient mystical and occult works, mythologies,
religions,
science and philosophy. Most
importantly, The Secret Doctrine is based upon Stanzas from the
Book
of Dzyan, an ancient poetic text of Tibetan origin which apart from
Blavatsky’s writings seems largely unknown to modern scholarship.
Blavatsky
commented: “The Book of Dzyan (or “Dzan”) is utterly unknown to our
Philologists, or at any rate was never heard of by them under its
present
name.” (p. xxii) The
Stanzas
of Dzyan are described as “the heart of the sacred books of
Kiu-ti,” once
known only to Tibetan mystics.
Blavatsky describes a “very old Book” originally
recorded in
Senzar—the “sacred sacerdotal tongue” and
derived from “the words of the Divine Beings, who dictated it to
the sons of Light, in Central Asia, at the very beginning of the 5th
(our) race.” (p. xliii) Certainly, these are unusual claims and the
origin of the Stanzas seems largely lost in antiquity. In
fact, there are many things about The
Secret Doctrine and the Book of Dzyan which are shrouded in
mystery
and enigma–as befits an individual as enigmatic and mysterious as H. P.
B.
herself.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was born in a Ukrainian town of
Ekaterinoslav, Russia in the early morning of August 12, 1831 and died
in May
of 1891 in London, England. Through her
extraordinary life, she travelled widely throughout the world—from the
lands
and pyramids of Egypt, the Caucasus and
Middle East, to the mountains of Tibet and the lands of
India, within Europe,
as well as North, central and South America.
She demonstrated psychical and unusual powers throughout
her life and
was involved in broad investigations of paranormal phenomena,
particularly
Spiritualism in America. Blavatsky was
exposed to a wealth of the world’s mystical, occult and spiritual
practices,
teachings and traditions. In addition, she
was knowledgeable of the sciences of her day. The Theosophical
Society was officially
founded in the United States on November 17, 1875.
Blavatsky moved on to establish the
Theosophical Society in India and within Europe. Today,
her teachings are studied throughout
the world by varied theosophical societies.
Madame Blavatsky is regarded as the grandmother of modern
western
occultism, a unique synthesizer of the ancient wisdom teachings and a
dramatic
individualist who challenged the materialist and mechanistic science
philosophy
of the day, as well as social and religious conventions. Historically,
her work
introduced eastern mystical teachings to western audiences and she
uncovered keys
to numerous wisdom teachings of the early western traditions. Madame
Blavatsky claimed to have contact with Adepts or Masters of the
Trans-Himalayan
Brotherhood and to have partially acted as an ‘amanuensis’
for her superiors in the occult hierarchy, who aided
in her preparation of The Secret Doctrine.
In modern terms, amanuensis might
be labelled as ‘channelling’ but
was described by H.P.B. as a form
of psychological telepathy based on an electromagnetic connection
existing between a Mahatma (a master) and his
chelas (or students). Blavatsky also
claimed to employ her trained spiritual perception and intuitive
consciousness
to draw from the Akashic record, the storehouse of knowledge
and
spiritual wisdom. In Sylvia Cranston’s biography, The
Extraordinary Life & Influence of
Helena Blavatsky, Founder of the modern theosophical movement, she
quotes
the prominent editor
of an English newspaper, W. Stead, who wrote to Blavatsky in 1888 after
receiving a copy of her work. His letter
nicely captures the extraordinary character of Blavatsky and the
remarkable
nature of her Magnus opus–The Secret Doctrine.
“You are a very great
woman and I do not think that
anyone but yourself (either man or woman) could have written The
Secret
Doctrine, nor do I feel competent, from the depths of my ignorance,
even to
express an opinion upon its extraordinary contents ... I do not profess
to
understand you, for you inhabit space of more dimensions than I can
even
conceive, but I am not so great a fool as to be unable to see that you
have a
genius quite transcendent....”
(Cranston, 1994, p. 361)
The Secret Doctrine provides keys to the original
mystery teachings about the origin of the universe and the metaphysical
nature
of life and creation. We must take this
so-called “Magnus opus of the literature of modern world” and
consider
the metaphysical and cosmological viewpoints espoused, while comparing
the
ancient wisdom teachings with the theories, facts and paradigm of
modern
science. No matter what the origin of
the Book of Dzyan, or how The Secret Doctrine was
produced, and despite
the controversy surrounding Blavatsky as an individual, it is possible
to
examine the ideas, theories and claims of The Secret Doctrine
in their
own right as scientific hypotheses and theories. In
fact, it is profoundly important to do
so–insofar as The Secret Doctrine provides an intriguing
perspective on
many of the most profound questions confronting modern science. How does The Secret Doctrine completed
in 1888 compare with the theories, data and paradigm of modern science
a
century later?
In the preface to The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky
explained three major aims of her work: The first was “to show that
Nature
is not ‘a fortuitous concurrence of atoms,’ and to assign to man his
rightful
place in the scheme of the Universe….” (p. viii)
This aim expressed Blavatsky’s desire to
oppose the mechanistic and materialist science philosophy dominant in 19th
century–a philosophy that regarded the origin of the universe and
mankind as due
to nothing more than fortuitous “accidents” which proceeded blindly
through the
laws governing material nature. Blavatsky
characterized the “holy creative Trinity”
of materialist science as that of “Inert
Matter, Senseless Force and Blind Chance.” (p. 505) This is the
scientific
paradigm still evident today in the writings of popular science
writers–such as
Drs. Sagan, Asimov and Hawking, Stenger and among the majority of
physicists,
natural scientists, psychologists and philosophers.
In the modern view, the formation of life is
an inherently random or accidental (fortuitous) process, and creation
and
evolution are regarded as having occurred within a godless
Universe—devoid of
spirit, demigods, spiritual intelligence or consciousness.
The notions of randomness, uncertainty and accidental
happenings are cornerstones of contemporary science philosophy. In contrast,
Blavatsky argues that there is nothing in nature which is truly random
or
fortuitous. Everything involves creation
by design in a Universe full of meaning, life and
interconnectedness. She quotes the poet
Coleridge: “Chance is
but the pseudonym for God (or Nature), for those particular cases which
He does
not choose to subscribe openly with His sign manual.”
In Blavatsky’s teachings, there are a
hierarchy of creative intelligences who mathematically sculpt the void
and
whose influences are manifest as the laws of nature.
She wrote: “Nature geometrizes universally in
all her manifestations … Nature
correlates her geometrical forms, and later, also, her compound
elements; and
in which there is no place for accident or chance.”
(p. 97) Blavatsky provides keys to
understanding a remarkable model of Intelligent Design inherent to the
ancient
wisdom traditions. Further, a human
being is not simply a soul-less, biological organism, but has a
profound deep
connection into the grounds of being and thereby to the larger Cosmos.
The second aim of The Secret Doctrine was “to
rescue from degradation the archaic truths which are the basis of all
religions; and to uncover, to some extent, the fundamental unity from
which
they all spring.” Blavatsky explains that the ideas in The
Secret
Doctrine are not simply something which she has invented but which
are scattered
throughout eastern and western religions and mystery schools. The sacred scriptures of all times embody the
same teachings, although “hidden under glyph and symbol” and
unnoticed
because of “this veil.” Blavatsky
claims that the basic ideas of the secret doctrine are the essence of
Hindu,
Zoroastrian, Chaldean, Egyptian, Buddhist, Islamic, Judaic and
Christian
belief, all of which are said to have emerged from one original “parent
document.” She writes: “the
Secret Wisdom was once the fountain head, the ever-flowing perennial
source, at
which were fed all its streamlets–the religions of all nations–from the
first
down to the last.” (p.viii) The
second aim of the S.D. is to “rescue from
degradation the archaic truths.” In
fact, these secret teachings have still eluded the mainstream of modern
science, education and culture.
The third aim of The Secret Doctrine was to
demonstrate that “the occult side of Nature has never been
approached by the
Science of modern civilization.” (p.viii) Unfortunately,
a century later, this is
largely still the case. Despite the fact
that a few scientists and individuals search for the soul or explore
mysticism
and the new physics, scientists have hardly begun to scratch the
surface of the
ancient wisdom teachings. Indeed,
scientists
generally do not know of or understand the occult teachings. Beyond this pervasive ignorance, there is a
more fundamental fear of mystical teachings, as mainstream scientists
do not
want to see their so-called real science mixed up with mystical
nonsense, vague metaphysical speculations and superstitions. However, Blavatsky regarded scientists’
attitudes towards mysticism as being indefensible.
She bluntly accused them of being
irrationally close-minded, noting that, “... in our days, Scientists
are
more self-opinionated and bigoted than even the clergy.”(p. 509). At the
start of the new millennium, this is still largely the case and
contrary views
are marginalized within science.
Madame Blavatsky did not regard science and occultism as
incompatible. Rather, her view was that
as science advanced, it must come to validate mystical
teachings: There can be no possible
conflict between the
teachings of occult and so-called exact Science, where the conclusions
of the
latter are grounded on a substratum of unassailable fact. ... Science
can, it
is true, collect, classify, and generalize upon phenomena; but the
occultist,
arguing from admitted metaphysical data, declares that the daring
explorer, who
would probe the inmost secrets of Nature, must transcend the narrow
limitations
of sense, and transfer his consciousness into the region of noumena and
the
sphere of primal causes. To effect this, he must develop faculties
which are
absolutely dormant—save in a few rare and exceptional cases—in the
constitution
of the off-shots of our present Fifth Root-race in Europe and America. (pp. 477-8) Blavatsky explains that when so-called
“exact”
science really achieves a correct understanding of the nature of life,
it will
confirm the claims of mystic seers who attained such dormant faculties
and directly
apprehend the underlying or innermost side of creation.
Blavatsky
was aggressive in her attacks on the scientific opinion of her day, but
not
because of a disrespect for the aims of the scientists.
Her concern was with the advancement of
science and in The Secret Doctrine, she goes to great lengths
to demonstrate
the relationships between the ancient teachings and the prevalent
scientific
views. She notes: ... the Secret Teachings ... must be
contrasted with
the speculations of modern science, Archaic axioms must be placed side
by side
with modern hypotheses and comparisons left to the sagacious reader. (p.480) According to Blavatsky, the
problem with the scientific theories is most simply that they are
“wrong.” Scientists deal only with the
observable side
of phenomena, rather than the underlying noumena, or causes–because
they
exclude consideration of the spiritual and metaphysical side of life. Eventually, this always leads to perplexities
and unresolved issues: To make of Science an
integral whole necessitates,
indeed, the study of spiritual and psychic, as well as physical Nature.
... Without metaphysics, real science is
inadmissible. (p. 588) All science must ultimately
lead to metaphysics and supernatural causes–because these exist!
In God, Science & The Secret Doctrine, we
particularly examine the ancient wisdom in four major areas of inquiry,
regarding: 1) cosmogenesis–the genesis or
creation of
the Universe; 2) the relationship of the laws of physics to ancient
metaphysics–to explain the ultimate nature of matter, energy, time and
space,
and the mechanisms of the laws of nature; 3) evolution–which needs to
be
considered from a spiritual and metaphysical perspective, in addition
to the
biological; and 4) human consciousness–which originates out of deep
metaphysical realities. According to an
occult perspective, “without metaphysics, real science is
inadmissible”
(p. 588) and this applies to scientific study within each of these
areas.
It is over a hundred years since the publication of The
Secret Doctrine and there has been little change in the strict
materialist
perspective which dominates science philosophy.
Many scientists, like Carl Sagan, imagine that believing
in the
spiritual nature of life, or in mysticism and ancient wisdom, involves
believing in an old, long bearded man who sits up in heaven counting
sparrows
or talking to flowers. These scientists have no idea of the profound
metaphysical philosophies embodied within the ancient wisdom teachings. The Secret
Doctrine
does not contradict the facts of science. Rather,
it is scientists’ rigid adherence to
a simplistic, mechanistic and materialist science philosophy which
leads them
to prejudge and mindlessly dismiss mystical claims of metaphysics and
higher
dimensions. Blavatsky noted in this regard: Occultism does not deny
the certainty
of the mechanical origin of the Universe; it only claims the absolute
necessity
of mechanicians of some sort behind those Elements (or within)–a
dogma
with us. ... It is easy for an astronomer ... to build a theory of the
emergence of the universe out of chaos, by simply applying to it the
principles
of mechanics. But such a universe will
always prove, with respect to its scientific human creator, a
Frankenstein’s
monster; it will lead him into endless perplexities.
The application of the mechanical laws only
can never carry the speculator beyond the objective world: nor will it
unveil
to men the origin and final destiny of Kosmos. (1888, p. 594)
Normally, scientists simply close
their eyes to these endless perplexities in science and psychology,
instead of
venturing into the unknown. However,
essential ideas from The Secret Doctrine provide a remarkable
alternative
approach to interpreting the facts and theories of science itself, and
to
understanding additional contemporary scientific enigmas.
Everything takes on new significance if the
parts are considered in relationship to the whole and in relationship
to
underlying metaphysical causes. Mystical
and spiritual teachings do provide all kinds of testable hypotheses, if
we are
ingenious enough to begin from first principles and draw out the
implications
and applications of such theories within different domains of
scientific inquiry.
Most
importantly, mystical studies entail self-study, the awakening of
consciousness
and the transformation of the human heart.
In this way, the most advanced scientific methods require
the individual
process of psycho-spiritual transformation and include the scientist in
the
equation. Ordinary science is limited by
the ordinary state of egoic consciousness and the commonly conditioned
psychopathology of humankind. In
contrast, mystical science includes the scientist him/herself in the
equation
and demands more, not less, from the seeker after truth.
The key to the mysteries lies in
understanding the nature of consciousness within oneself–by inner
experience,
sensation and taste. This might enable
one to develop those “faculties which are absolutely dormant—save
in a few
rare and exceptional cases—in the constitution of the off-shots of our
present
Fifth Root-race in Europe and America,” as described by
Blavatsky.
It is more than a hundred years since Blavatsky completed
The Secret Doctrine and unfortunately, scientists are
still far from
having taken up her challenge of exploring the “occult side of
Nature.” Her comments from 1888 thus
hold true today: Occultists believe they
have a right to present their
philosophy, however misunderstood and ostracised it may be at present.
... (the) failure of the scientists to
discover
the truth is entirely due to their materialism and contempt for
transcendental
sciences. (p.600)
H. P. Blavatsky did not expect The Secret Doctrine
to be seriously studied by scientists and scholars in her day. In fact, she predicted: ... the rejection of
these
teachings may be expected, and must be accepted beforehand. No one styling himself a “scholar,” in
whatever department of exact science, will be permitted to regard these
teachings seriously. They will be
derided and rejected a priori in this century; but only in this
one. For in the twentieth century of our
era scholars will begin to recognize that the Secret Doctrine
has
neither been invented nor exaggerated, but, on the contrary, simply
outlined…. (Introduction, p. xxxvii) In 1888, Blavatsky’s explanations of the creation of the Universe and of the laws of physics and metaphysics, offered a viewpoint totally incomprehensible in terms of what were the fashionable scientific viewpoints and theories. The Secret Doctrine was bound to be ignored and dismissed. As it happens however, in this strange universe, a century of scientific advances and the profound “new physics” and cosmology of twenty first century are beginning to vindicate Blavatsky’s utterly awesome work on cosmic origins and ancient wisdom teachings. Ancient mystical maxims and modern scientific theories can be placed side by side to draw comparisons. When it comes to the ultimate questions of the origin of the Cosmos and the laws of nature, science and mysticism are not such a world apart. Science is beginning to arrive at those levels of reality spoken of by the mystics who penetrate the Heart and soul to the grounds of Being. |
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