THE TRUE IRENICON

N one of his many homely writings addressed to students, Mr. Judge used every sincere

lover of his fellow man is the study and application of the fundamental principles of theosophy in his own life and relations.'

Now irenicon is a Greek word much favored by some of the early Church Fathers. For then, as now, many of those who became imbued with some of the ideas of the Wisdom-Religion as presented by Jesus got out of them nothing but something to quarrel over. So in the first and second and third centuries fierce and bitter controversies waged among the different and differing congregations and bishops of the early churches, over mooted points of doctrine and practice. So polemics were much more in favor and much more considered than ethics. Polemical means quarrelsome, as opposed to irenical, which means peaceful.

A few of the Fathers saw that in the fervor and fury of battles over sects, parties and interpretations, the real message, and therefore the real purpose of the teachings of Jesus were being lost in the dust of battle. They therefore urged unceasingly upon all that the true irenicon, i. e., the true basis and plan of harmony, peace and brotherhood, could only be found in study of and allegiance to the fundamental teachings of Christ, leaving interpretations and their consequent dissensions and differences of individual opinion to the individuals themselves who persisted in fighting for the predominance of their opinions and not at all for the spread of the teachings of Jesus.

H. P. B. and Mr. Judge knew well the dangers that would confront the earnest students of the philosophy they brought, for they knew that human nature now is the same as a million years ago. They knew that unless a true irenicon was steadfastly adhered to, both in principle and practice, the human nature of the students would lead them into polemics, into sects, parties, leaders and interpretations, and thus their energies would be dissipated or turned into false channels, and the precious seed entrusted to them would be scattered and lost, as has occurred with the teachings of Jesus, and many former Messengers.

They constantly urged upon the students the wisdom of assimilating the Message of Theosophy in order to acquire a firm and true basis in philosophy and ethics, and, equally, urged strict adhesion in practice to the First Object of the Theosophical Society the formation of a nucleus of Universal Brotherhood.

There can be no real and true Theosophical Society apart from the individuals who compose it. The nucleus of Universal Brotherhood, therefore, is in the individual himself and nowhere else. If it is absent from the individual, then the Society itself is nothing. but a delusion and a shain, one more of the pretentious and highsounding names, and it and its members no more represent The

osophy than the polemical sects of Christianity represent the Christ. All who love Brotherhood are parts of that great whole denominated the Theosophical Movement. He who can, to any extent, assimilate the Master, to that extent he is the representative of the Master, has the help of the Lodge in Its work, and is truly a member of the real Theosophical Society, whose existence and action does not depend on any single organization, or all of them combined, but consists in the similarity of work and aspiration of those in the world who are working for it. Thus, those of us who follow after and worship a mere organization or leader are making fetishes and worshipping a shell.

To-day, as in old times, we have those who are merely polemical students of theosophy. They have appropriated certain ideas pleasing to them, which they have altered to suit their desires, and work to enforce those ideas and their organization, and make converts and proselytes. They do not themselves study the writings of H. P. B. or Mr. Judge, or refer inquirers to them. They have lost the true irenicon, without themselves being aware of the fact. Like the Christian sects, the foundation on which they build is dissension and differences of individual opinion, and not at all the philosophy whose name they have appropriated and some of whose ideas they have capitalized.

All

They are sincere, as millions of Christian sectaries are sincere; as countless millions of Mussulmen and Hindus are sincere. have had the same original teachings of the Wisdom-Religion. What has misled and deceived them? The teaching originally imparted to them? Not that; it is the unrecognized and unsuspected power of the human nature in themselves. Too soon they have fancied themselves "a thing apart from the mass." and therefore exempt from our common human weaknesses and defects.

The true irenicon, then, for the individual student, is constant study of the writings of the Teachers; constant effort to apply those teachings in all the mental and moral changes that go on each moment in us all; constant watchfulness and supervision over the human nature in ourselves rather than in others. Human nature does not take kindly to self-discipline and self-criticism. It prefers to criticize and discipline others, and especially so when it can do this in the name of the highest and holiest.

All this, and more, had H. P. B. in mind when she addressed her farewell message to theosophists just before her death, for she knew human nature and its lures and deceptions, and what we would each one of us have to fight. She knew the lessons of the eternal past, and one who has learned the lessons of the past can give admonition as to the present and prophecy as to the future. She said to us: "Now, I have marked with pain a tendency among you to quarrel over trifles, and to allow your very devotion to the cause of Theosophy to lead you into disunion. Believe me, that apart from such natural tendency, owing to the inherent imperfections of Human Nature, advantage is often taken by our ever

watchful enemies of your noblest qualities to betray and mislead you. Sceptics will laugh at this statement, and even some of you may put small faith in the actual existence of the terrible forces of these mental, hence subjective and invisible, yet withal living and potent, influences around all of us. On those of you who are unselfishly and sincerely devoted to the Cause, they will produce little, if any, impression. On some others, those who place their personal pride higher than their pledge to their divine SELF, the effect is generally disastrous. Self-watchfulness is never more necessary than when a personal wish to lead, and wounded vanity, dress themselves in the peacock's feathers of devotion and altruistic work; a lack of self-control and watchfulness may become fatal in every case. But these diabolical attempts of our powerful enemies--the irreconcilable foes of the truths now being given out and practically asserted-may be frustrated. If every Fellow in the Society were content to be an impersonal force for good, careless of praise or blame so long as he subserved the purposes of the Brotherhood, the progress made would astonish the world." And in another message she said: "On the day when Theosophy will have accomplished its most holy and important mission-namely, to unite firmly a body of men of all nations in brotherly love and bent on a pure altruistic work, not on a labor with selfish motives-on that day only will Theosophy become higher than any nominal brotherhood of man. This will be a wonder and a miracle truly, for the realization of which Humanity is vainly waiting for the last 18 centuries, and which every association has hitherto failed to accomplish."

They failed because they first departed from and then lost forever the true irenicon. The old Theosophical Society failed for the same reason. The labor of the members was with a selfish motive. Personal pride, the personal wish to lead, wounded vanity, and the other "inherent imperfections of our Human Nature," laid us open to the unseen and powerful subjective and invisible influences that surround us all, so that advantage was taken of the noblest qualities to betray and mislead us into disunion through our very devotion to Theosophy. The lack of self-control and self-watchfulness did "become fatal in every case."

Have we learned the lesson of the past? Are we "firm in brotherly love and bent on a pure altruistic work"-to preach, promulgate, and above all practice Theosophy-or are we merely finding in our studies and "meditation" but food and weapons for polemics, for quarrels over trifles, for criticism and watchfulness over the inherent imperfections of our fellow students?

A great and earnest student once put in print these words: "I would, once for all, call upon my co-workers for the cause, to realize at every step of their study, as far as possible, the Divine Intelligence thus manifesting itself. Otherwise, how much soever you might believe or take it for granted, that the forces that govern the universe are spiritual, the belief, however deeprooted it might appear, would be of little use to you when you have to pass

through the ordeals of Chelaship; and then you are sure to succumb and exclaim that the 'Law is blind, unjust and cruel,' especially when your selfishness and personality overwhelm you."

Our real obstacles, our real barriers, our real foes to enlightenment and progress are within. Who recognizes this has found the true irenicon.

EXTRACTS FROM LUCIFER*

As the magician is not at any time affected by the magical illusion produced by himself, because it is unreal, so the Highest Self is not affected by the world-illusion.

The wise man should restrain the activity of the outer organs, such as speech, etc., and abide within the mind only; he should further restrain the mind, which is intent on doubtful external objects, within intelligence, whose characteristic mark is decision, recognising that indecision is evil; he should further restrain intelligence within the Great Self, i. e., the individual soul, or else the fundamental intellect; he should finally fix the Great Self on the Calm Self, i. e., the Highest Self, the Highest Goal.

Although one and the same Self is hidden in all beings, movable as well as immovable, yet owing to the gradual rise of excellence of the minds which form the limiting condition (of the Self), Scripture declares that the Self, although externally unchanging and uniform, reveals itself in a gradual series of beings, and so appears in forms of various dignity and power.

When a man sleeps here, then, my dear, he becomes united with the Sat, he is gone to his own (Self). Therefore they say of him, "he sleeps (svapiti), because he is gone to his own (svam apita)". (Kh-up. vi, 8, 1.) This passage explains the well-known verb "to sleep", with reference to the soul. The word "his own" denotes the Self which had been before denoted by the word Sat; to the Self he (the individual Soul) goes, i. e., into it it is resolved, according to the acknowledged sense of api-i, which means "to be resolved into". The individual soul (jiva) is called awake as long as being connected with the various external objects by means of the modifications of the mind-which thus constitute limiting adjuncts of the soul-it apprehends those external objects, and identifies itself with the gross body, which is one of those external objects. When, modified by the impressions which the external objects have left, it sees dreams, it is denoted by the term "mind." When, on the cessation of the two limiting adjuncts (i. e., the subtle and the gross bodies), and the consequent absence of the modifications due to the adjuncts, it is, in the state of deep sleep, merged in the Self as it were, then it is said to be asleep (resolved into the Self). VEDANTA SUTRA.

* These Extracts were printed by H. P. Blavatsky in Lucifer for March, 1891. The title used is our own.-ED. THEOSOPHY.

ON THE LOOKOUT

Metropolitan magazine for February contained a long article by Sinclair Lewis entitled "Spiritualist Vaudeville," and giving the writer's experiences and impressions with mediums and messages at Lily Dale, the spiritualistic earthly "summerland" in Chautauqua County, New York. That the word spiritual should be used in connection with a mixture one part phenomenalism and nine parts fraud, and be accepted and acceptable to millions of people as a philosophy and a religion is neither grotesque nor laughable. It is the self-revelation of the degradation and materialism of thought and feeling that envelops and obscures the Souls of myriads. It is one pole of the attempt of "thieves to break through and steal" the Mysteries. The other pole of the same thing was fitly illustrated in the same magazine in its January issue in an article by A. Conan Doyle, to which the author gave the name of "The New Revelation." What is the difference? What is the difference between a Russian peasant drunken with vodka, filthy, groveling, weeping sodden tears before an ikon, and a Caesar drunk with power, soaked with the blood of millions, weeping over the notes of a fiddle while the multitude acclaims him as a God? The range of prostitution is vast even in earthly human life and extends from royalty on a throne to the outcast of the gutter. But it is all prostitution. How much vaster the range and how much wider the sweep when transferred to the moral and psychic spheres of man's being through great cycles of time. Think of the two poles of materialism and superstition masquerading through the ages as science and religion. Every woe and every iniquity of mankind traces back to these two gods--the gods erected by human ignorance and human selfishness.

In the Progressive Thinker, a spiritualist organ, a discussion is going on on the subject of reincarnation. Many spiritualists believe in reincarnation just as do many christians and mohammedans. It is one of the mysteries of Lower Manas that it can hold the most contradictory ideas. "A house divided against itself cannot stand. Sooner or later we must become all slave or all free." Herein is the key to the problem of good and evil. They represent the opposed and mutually destructive phases of action and the basis of action, which is thought. A man can no more be in fact a spiritualist and a theosophist or a christian and a theosophist than he can be a "German-American," or a good evil being or an evil good being. One of the Progressive Thinker contributors says that he has read a great deal on reincarnation and always "with an open mind," but "I have always been taught that Nature is ever progressive. and if this is a fact then to my mind the doctrine of reincarnation is a fallacy." We wonder what this writer understands by "Nature?" Is nature a thing, a god, a being of some kind who or which is "progressing?" The idea that there is some being, or law, or process which is evolving of itself and which will carry us along in that progress is fast fixed in a multitude of minds. It is the idea of a personal "God" and a vicarious reaping of what we have not sown, regardless of verbiage or formulation. But, regardless of whether it is "Nature" or ourselves which is "ever progressive," how could that progression take place except through some process? Progression implies change, evolution of something through something by means of something. That series of changes cannot imply loss of identity, otherwise there would be nothing to "progress." That which progresses is Soul, the series of changes or metempsychoses is reincarnation. and the "progress" is either active or passive on the part of the Soul. If passive it must be induced from outside by other powers and forces than that of the Soul. This is the rooted human idea of "progress," and from it springs the idea of some god or devil who induces the changes, and thence the ideas of propitiation, salvation, mediums, miracles, phenomena, saviors,