Theosophical Society,
H P Blavatsky
What is Truth ?
By
H P Blavatsky
Truth
is the Voice of Nature and of Time -
Truth
is the startling monitor within us -
Naught
is without it, it comes from the stars,
The
golden sun, and every breeze that blows. ...
Wm.
THOMPSON BACON.
[Thoughts
in Solitude.]
"Fair
Truth's immortal sun
Is
sometimes hid in clouds; not that her light
Is
in itself defective, but obscured
By
my weak prejudice, imperfect Faith
And
all the thousand causes which obstruct
The
growth of goodness."
HANNAH
MORE.
[Daniel:
A Sacred Drama,
Part
11, 98-103.]
"What
is Truth?" asked Pilate of one who, if the claims of the Christian Church
are
even approximately correct, must have known it. But He kept silent. And the
truth
which He did not divulge, remained unrevealed, for his later followers as
much
as for the Roman Governor. The silence of Jesus, however, on this and other occasions,
does not prevent his present followers from acting as though they had received
the ultimate and absolute Truth itself; and from ignoring the fact that only
such Words of Wisdom had been given to them as contained a share of the truth,
itself concealed in parables and dark, though beautiful, sayings. [Jesus says
to the "Twelve" -- "Unto you is given the mystery of the
This
policy led gradually to dogmatism and assertion. Dogmatism in churches,
dogmatism
in science, dogmatism everywhere. The possible truths, hazily
perceived
in the world of abstraction, like those inferred from observation and
experiment
in the world of matter, are forced upon the profane multitudes, too
busy
to think for themselves, under the form of Divine revelation and Scientific
authority.
But the same question stands open from the days of Socrates and
Pilate
down to our own age of wholesale negation: is there such a thing as
absolute
truth in the hands of any one party or man? Reason answers, "there
cannot
be." There is no room for absolute truth upon any subject whatsoever, in
a
world as finite and conditioned as man is himself. But there are relative
truths,
and we have to make the best we can of them.
In
every age there have been Sages who had mastered the absolute and yet could
teach
but relative truths. For none yet, born of mortal woman in our race, has,
or
could have given out, the whole and the final truth to another man, for every
one
of us has to find that (to him) final knowledge in himself. As no two minds
can
be absolutely alike, each has to receive the supreme illumination through
itself,
according to its capacity, and from no human light.
The
greatest adept living can reveal of the Universal Truth only so much as the
mind
he is impressing it upon can assimilate, and no more. Tot homines, quot
sententiae
- is an immortal truism. The sun is one, but its beams are
numberless;
and the effects produced are beneficent or maleficent, according to
the
nature and constitution of the objects they shine upon. Polarity is
universal,
but the polariser lies in our own consciousness. In proportion as our
consciousness
is elevated towards absolute truth, so do we men assimilate it
more
or less absolutely. But man's consciousness again, is only the sunflower of
the
earth. Longing for the warm ray, the plant can only turn to the sun, and
move
round and round in following the course of the unreachable luminary: its
roots
keep it fast to the soil, and half its life is passed in the shadow ....
Still
each of us can relatively reach the Sun of Truth even on this earth, and
assimilate
its warmest and most direct rays, however differentiated they may
become
after their long journey through the physical particles in space. To
achieve
this, there are two methods. On the physical plane we may use our mental polariscope;
and, analyzing the properties of each ray, choose the purest.
On
the plane of spirituality, to reach the Sun of Truth we must work in dead
earnest
for the development of our higher nature. We know that by paralyzing
gradually
within ourselves the appetites of the lower personality, and thereby
deadening
the voice of the purely physiological mind - that mind which depends
upon,
and is inseparable from, its medium or vehicle, the organic brain - the
animal
man in us may make room for the spiritual; and once aroused from its
latent
state, the highest spiritual senses and perceptions grow in us in
proportion,
and develop pari passu with the "divine man." This is what the great
adepts,
the Yogis in the East and the Mystics in the West, have always done and
are
still doing.
But
we also know, that with a few exceptions, no man of the world, no
materialist,
will ever believe in the existence of such adepts, or even in the
possibility
of such a spiritual or psychic development. "The (ancient) fool hath
said
in his heart, There is no God"; the modern says, "There are no adepts
on
earth,
they are figments of your diseased fancy." Knowing this we hasten to
reassure
our readers of the Thomas Didymus type. We beg them to turn in this
magazine
to reading more congenial to them; say to the miscellaneous papers on
Hylo-Idealism,
by various writers.
E.g.,
to the article "Autocentricism" - on the same "philosophy,"
or again, to
the
apex of the Hylo-Idealist pyramid in this Number. It is a letter of protest
by
the learned Founder of the School in question, against a mistake of ours. He
complains
of our "coupling" his name with those of Mr. Herbert Spencer, Darwin,
Huxley, and others, on the question of atheism and materialism, as the said lights
in the psychological and physical sciences are considered by Dr. Lewins too
flickering, too "compromising" and weak, to deserve the honourable
appellation
of Atheists or even Agnostics. See "Correspondence" in Double
Column,
and the reply by "The Adversary."
For
Lucifer tries to satisfy its readers of whatever "school of thought,"
and
shows
itself equally impartial to Theist and Atheist, Mystic and Agnostic,
Christian
and Gentile. Such articles as our editorials, the Comments on Light on
the
Path, etc., etc.- are not intended for Materialists. They are addressed to
Theosophists,
or readers who know in their hearts that Masters of Wisdom do
exist:
and, though absolute truth is not on earth and has to be searched for in
higher
regions, that there still are, even on this silly, ever-whirling little
globe
of ours, some things that are not even dreamt of in Western philosophy.
To
return to our subject. It thus follows that, though "general abstract
truth
is
the most precious of all blessings" for many of us, as it was for
Rousseau,
we
have, meanwhile, to be satisfied with relative truths. In sober fact, we are
a
poor set of mortals at best, ever in dread before the face of even a relative
truth,
lest it should devour ourselves and our petty little preconceptions along
with
us.
As
for an absolute truth, most of us are as incapable of seeing it as of
reaching
the moon on a bicycle. Firstly, because absolute truth is as immovable
as
the
........ the abstract
Of all perfection, which the workmanship
Of heaven hath modelled ........
In
reality he is a sorry bundle of anomalies and paradoxes, an empty wind bag
inflated
with his own importance, with contradictory and easily influenced
opinions.
He is at once an arrogant and a weak creature, which, though in
constant
dread of some authority, terrestrial or celestial, will yet -
........ like an angry ape,
Play such fantastic tricks before high Heaven
As make the angels weep."
[Shakespeare,
Measure for Measure, Act 2, scene 2.]
Now,
since truth is a multifaced jewel, the facets of which it is impossible to
perceive
all at once; and since, again, no two men, however anxious to discern
truth,
can see even one of those facets alike, what can be done to help them to
perceive
it? As physical man, limited and trammelled from every side by
illusions,
cannot reach truth by the light of his terrestrial perceptions, we
say
- develop in you the inner knowledge. From the time when the Delphic oracle said
to the enquirer "Man, know thyself," no greater or more important
truth was ever taught. Without such perception, man will remain ever blind to
even many a relative, let alone absolute, truth.
Man
has to know himself, i.e., acquire the inner perceptions which never
deceive,
before he can master any absolute truth. Absolute truth is the symbol
of
Eternity, and no finite mind can ever grasp the eternal, hence, no truth in
its
fulness can ever dawn upon it. To reach the state during which man sees and
senses
it, we have to paralyze the senses of the external man of clay. This is a
difficult
task, we may be told, and most people will, at this rate, prefer to
remain
satisfied with relative truths, no doubt.
But
to approach even terrestrial truths requires, first of all, love of truth
for
its own sake, for otherwise no recognition of it will follow. And who loves
truth
in this age for its own sake? How many of us are prepared to search for,
accept,
and carry it out, in the midst of a society in which anything that would
achieve
success has to be built on appearances, not on reality, on
self-assertion,
not on intrinsic value? We are fully aware of the difficulties
in
the way of receiving truth. The fair heavenly maiden descends only on a (to
her)
congenial soil - the soil of an impartial, unprejudiced mind, illuminated
by
pure Spiritual Consciousness; and both are truly rare dwellers in civilized
lands.
In our century of steam and electricity, when man lives at a maddening
speed
that leaves him barely time for reflection, he allows himself usually to
be
drifted down from cradle to grave, nailed to the Procrustean bed of custom
and
conventionality.
Now
conventionality - pure and simple - is a congenital LIE, as it is in every
case
a "simulation of feelings according to a received standard" (F. W.
Robertson's
definition); and where there is any simulation there cannot be any
truth.
How profound the remark made by Byron, that "truth is a gem that is found at
a great depth; whilst on the surface of this world all things are weighed by the
false scales of custom," is best known to those who are forced to live in
the
stifling atmosphere of such social conventionalism, and who, even when
willing
and anxious to learn, dare not accept the truths they long for, for fear
of
the ferocious Moloch called Society.
Look
around you, reader; study the accounts given by world-knowing travellers,
recall
the joint observations of literary thinkers, the data of science and of
statistics.
Draw the picture of modern society, of modern politics, of modern
religion
and modern life in general before your mind's eye. Remember the ways
and
customs of every cultured race and nation under the sun. Observe the doings and
the moral attitude of people in the civilized centres of
And
now, having passed in review all this, pause and reflect, and then name, if
you
can, that blessed Eldorado, that exceptional spot on the globe, where TRUTH is
the honoured guest, and LIE and SHAM the ostracised outcasts? You CANNOT. Nor can
any one else, unless he is prepared and determined to add his mite to the mass
of falsehood that reigns supreme in every department of national and social life.
"Truth!"
cried Carlyle, "truth, though the heavens crush me for following her,
no
falsehood, though a whole celestial Lubber land were the prize of
Apostasy."
Noble
words, these. But how many think, and how many will dare to speak as
Carlyle
did, in our nineteenth century day? Does not the gigantic appalling
majority
prefer to a man the "paradise of Do-nothings," the pays de Cocagne of
heartless
selfishness? It is this majority that recoils terror-stricken before
the
most shadowy outline of every new and unpopular truth, out of mere cowardly fear,
lest Mrs. Harris should denounce, and Mrs. Grundy condemn, its converts to the
torture of being rent piecemeal by her murderous tongue.
SELFISHNESS,
the first-born of Ignorance, and the fruit of the teaching which
asserts
that for every newly-born infant a new soul, separate and distinct from
the
Universal Soul, is "created" - this Selfishness is the impassable
wall
between
the personal Self and Truth. It is the prolific mother of all human
vices,
Lie being born out of the necessity for dissembling, and Hypocrisy out of
the
desire to mask Lie. It is the fungus growing and strengthening with age in
every
human heart in which it has devoured all better feelings. Selfishness
kills
every noble impulse in our natures, and is the one deity, fearing no
faithlessness
or desertion from its votaries. Hence, we see it reign supreme in
the
world and in so-called fashionable society. As a result, we live, and move,
and
have our being in this god of darkness under his trinitarian aspect of Sham,
Humbug,
and Falsehood, called RESPECTABILITY.
Is
this Truth and Fact, or is it slander? Turn whichever way you will, and you
find,
from the top of the social ladder to the bottom, deceit and hypocrisy at
work
for dear Self's sake, in every nation as in every individual. But nations,
by
tacit agreement, have decided that selfish motives in politics shall be
called
"noble national aspiration, patriotism," etc.; and the citizen views
it
in
his family circle as "domestic virtue." Nevertheless, Selfishness,
whether it
breeds
desire for aggrandizement of territory, or competition in commerce at the
expense
of one's neighbour, can never be regarded as a virtue. We see
smooth-tongued
DECEIT and BRUTE FORCE - the Jachin and Boaz (2Ch
by
a wily and deceitful tongue; and, therefore, Lucifer calls such action - a
living,
and an evident LIE.
But
it is not in politics alone that custom and selfishness have agreed to call
deceit
and lie virtue, and to reward him who lies best with public statues.
Every
class of society lives on LIE, and would fall to pieces without it.
Cultured,
God-and-law-fearing aristocracy, being as fond of the forbidden fruit
as
any plebeian, is forced to lie from morn to noon in order to cover what it is
pleased
to term its "little peccadillos," but which TRUTH regards as gross
immorality.
Society of the middle classes is honey-combed with false smiles,
false
talk, and mutual treachery. For the majority religion has become a thin
tinsel
veil thrown over the corpse of spiritual faith. The master goes to church
to
deceive his servants; the starving curate - preaching what he has ceased to
believe
in - hoodwinks his bishop; the bishop - his God. Dailies, political and
social,
might adopt with advantage for their motto Georges Dandin's immortal
query
-"Lequel de nous deux trompe-t-on ici?" - Even Science, once the
anchor of the salvation of Truth, has ceased to be the temple of naked Fact.
Almost to a
man
the Scientists strive now only to force upon their colleagues and the public
the
acceptance of some personal hobby, of some new-fangled theory, which will
shed
lustre on their name and fame. A Scientist is as ready to suppress damaging evidence
against a current scientific hypothesis in our times, as a missionary in
heathen-land, or a preacher at home, to persuade his congregation that modern geology
is a lie, and evolution but vanity and vexation of spirit.
[Georges
Dandin - Principal character in Moliere's comedy by that name; it is in
three
acts, written in prose, and was first performed on the 19th of July,
1660.-
Compiler.]
Such
is the actual state of things in 1888 A.D. and yet we are taken to task by
certain
papers for seeing this year in more than gloomy colours!
Lie
has spread to such extent - supported as it is by custom and
conventionalities
- that even chronology forces people to lie. The suffixes A.D.
and
B.C. used after the dates of the year by Jew and Heathen, in European and
even
Asiatic lands, by the Materialist and the Agnostic as much as by the
Christian,
at home, are - a lie used to sanction another LIE.
Where
then is even relative truth to be found? If, so far back as the century of
Democritus,
she appeared to him under the form of a goddess lying at the very
bottom
of a well, so deep that it gave but little hope for her release; under
the
present circumstances we have a certain right to believe her hidden, at
least,
as far off as the ever invisible dark side of the moon. This is why,
perhaps,
all the votaries of hidden truths are forthwith set down as lunatics.
However
it may be, in no case and under no threat shall Lucifer be ever forced
into
pandering to any universally and tacitly recognised, and as universally
practised
lie, but will hold to fact, pure and simple, trying to proclaim truth
whensoever
found, and under no cowardly mask.
Bigotry
and intolerance may be regarded as orthodox and sound policy, and the
encouraging
of social prejudices and personal hobbies at the cost of truth, as a
wise
course to pursue in order to secure success for a publication. Let it be
so.
The Editors of Lucifer are Theosophists, and their motto is chosen: Vera pro gratiis.
They
are quite aware that Lucifer's libations and sacrifices to the goddess
Truth
do not send a sweet savoury smoke into the noses of the lords of the
press,
nor does the bright "Son of the Morning" smell sweet in their
nostrils.
He
is ignored when not abused as - veritas odium paret. Even his friends are
beginning
to find fault with him. They cannot see why it should not be a purely
Theosophical
magazine, in other words, why it refuses to be dogmatic and
bigoted.
Instead of devoting every inch of space to theosophical and occult
teachings,
it opens its pages "to the publication of the most grotesquely
heterogeneous
elements and conflicting doctrines." This is the chief accusation,
to
which we answer - why not? Theosophy is divine knowledge, and knowledge is truth;
every true fact, every sincere word are thus part and parcel of
Theosophy.
One who is skilled in divine alchemy, or even approximately blessed with the
gift of the perception of truth, will find and extract it from an
erroneous
as much as from a correct statement. However small the particle of
gold
lost in a ton of rubbish, it is the noble metal still, and worthy of being
dug
out even at the price of some extra trouble.
As
has been said, it is often as useful to know what a thing is not, as to learn
what
it is. The average reader can hardly hope to find any fact in a sectarian
publication
under all its aspects, pro and con, for either one way or the other
its
presentation is sure to be biassed, and the scales helped to incline to that
side
to which its editor's special policy is directed.
A
Theosophical magazine is thus, perhaps, the only publication where one may
hope
to find, at any rate, the unbiassed, if still only approximate truth and
fact.
Naked truth is reflected in Lucifer under its many aspects, for no
philosophical
or religious views are excluded from its pages. And, as every
philosophy
and religion, however incomplete, unsatisfactory, and even foolish
some
may be occasionally, must be based on a truth and fact of some kind, the
reader
has thus the opportunity of comparing, analyzing, and choosing from the
several
philosophies discussed therein. Lucifer offers as many facets of the One
universal
jewel as its limited space will permit, and says to its readers:
"Choose
you this day whom ye will serve: whether the gods that were on the other side
of the flood which submerged man's reasoning powers and divine knowledge, or
the gods of the Amorites of custom and social falsehood, or again, the Lord of
(the highest) Self - the bright destroyer of the dark power of illusion?"
Surely
it is that philosophy that tends to diminish, instead of adding to, the
sum
of human misery, which is the best. At all events, the choice is there, and for
this purpose only have we opened our pages to every kind of contributor.
Therefore do you find in them the views of a Christian clergyman who believes
in his God and Christ, but rejects the wicked interpretations and the enforced
dogmas of his ambitious proud Church, along with the doctrines of the Hylo-Idealist,
who denies God, soul, and immortality, and believes in nought save himself. The
rankest Materialists will find hospitality in our jourmal; aye, even those who
have not scrupled to fill pages of it with sneers and personal remarks upon
ourselves, and abuse of the doctrines of Theosophy, so dear to us. When a
journal of free thought, conducted by an Atheist, inserts an article by a
Mystic or Theosophist in praise of his occult views and the mystery of
Parabrahman, and passes on it only a few casual remarks, then shall we say
Lucifer has found a rival.
When
a Christian periodical or missionary organ accepts an article from the pen of a
free-thinker deriding belief in Adam and his rib, and passes criticism on
Christianity - its editor's faith - in meek silence, then it will have become
worthy of Lucifer, and may be said truly to have reached that degree of
tolerance when it may be placed on a level with any Theosophical publication.
But
so long as none of these organs do something of the kind, they are all
sectarian,
bigoted, intolerant, and can never have an idea of truth and justice.
They
may throw innuendoes against Lucifer and its editors, they cannot affect
either.
In fact, the editors of that magazine feel proud of such criticism and
accusations,
as they are witnesses to the absolute absence of bigotry, or
arrogance
of any kind in theosophy, the result of the divine beauty of the
doctrines
it preaches. For, as said, Theosophy allows a hearing and a fair
chance
to all - it deems no views - if sincere - entirely destitute of truth. It
respects
thinking men, to whatever class of thought they may belong. Ever ready
to
oppose ideas and views which can only create confusion without benefiting
philosophy,
it leaves their expounders personally to believe in whatever they
please,
and does justice to their ideas when they are good. Indeed, the
conclusions
or deductions of a philosophic writer may be entirely opposed to our views and
the teachings we expound; yet his premises and statements of facts may be quite
correct, and other people may profit by the adverse philosophy, even if we
ourselves reject it, believing we have something higher and still nearer to the
truth. In any case, our profession of faith is now made plain, and all that is
said in the foregoing pages both justifies and explains our editorial policy.
To
sum up the idea, with regard to absolute and relative truth, we can only
repeat
what we said before. Outside a certain highly spiritual and elevated
state
of mind, during which Man is at one with the UNIVERSAL MIND - he can get nought
on earth but relative truth, or truths, from whatsoever philosophy or
religion.
Were even the goddess who dwells at the bottom of the well to issue
from
her place of confinement, she could give man no more than he can
assimilate.
Meanwhile, every one can sit near that well - the name of which is
KNOWLEDGE
- and gaze into its depths in the hope of seeing Truth's fair image reflected,
at least, on the dark waters. This, however, as remarked by Richter, presents a
certain danger. Some truth, to be sure, may be occasionally reflected as in a
mirror on the spot we gaze upon, and thus reward the patient student.
But,
adds the German thinker, "I have heard that some philosophers in seeking
for
Truth, to pay homage to her, have seen their own image in the water and
adored
it instead". ....
It
is to avoid such a calamity - one that has befallen every founder of a
religious
or philosophical school - that the editors are studiously careful not
to
offer the reader only those truths which they find reflected in their own
personal
brains. They offer the public a wide choice, and refuse to show bigotry
and
intolerance, which are the chief landmarks on the path of Sectarianism. But,
while
leaving the widest margin possible for comparison, our opponents cannot
hope
to find their faces reflected on the clear waters of our Lucifer, without
remarks
or just criticism upon the most prominent features thereof, if in
contrast
with theosophical views.
This,
however, only within the cover of the public magazine, and so far as
regards
the merely intellectual aspect of philosophical truths. Concerning the
deeper
spiritual, and one may almost say religious, beliefs, no true Theosophist
ought
to degrade these by subjecting them to public discussion, but ought rather
to
treasure and hide them deep within the sanctuary of his innermost soul. Such
beliefs
and doctrines should never be rashly given out, as they risk unavoidable
profanation
by the rough handling of the indifferent and the critical. Nor ought
they
to be embodied in any publication except as hypotheses offered to the
consideration
of the thinking portion of the public.
Theosophical
truths, when they transcend a certain limit of speculation, had
better
remain concealed from public view, for the "evidence of things not
seen"
is
no evidence save to him who sees, hears, and senses it. It is not to be
dragged
outside the "Holy of Holies," the temple of the impersonal divine
Ego,
or
the indwelling SELF. For, while every fact outside its perception can, as we
have
shown, be, at best, only a relative truth, a ray from the absolute truth
can
reflect itself only in the pure mirror of its own flame - our highest
SPIRITUAL
CONSCIOUSNESS. And how can the darkness (of illusion) comprehend the LIGHT that
shineth in it?
HP
Blavatsky
Cardiff Blavatsky Archive
Theosophical Society, Cardiff Lodge, 206 Newport Road,
Cardiff CF24 – 1DL