tktt: The Relations of the Theosophical Society to Theosophy: On Self-Improvement

“Enq:  Is moral elevation, then, the principle thing insisted upon in your Society?

 
Theo:  Undoubtedly! He who would be a true Theosophist must bring himself to live as one.

 
Enq:  If so, then, as I remarked before, the behavior of some members strangely belies this fundamental rule.

 
Theo:  Indeed it does. But this cannot be helped among us, any more than amongst those who call themselves Christians and act like fiends.

 
This is no fault of our statutes and rules, but that of human nature.

 
Even in some exoteric public branches, the members pledge themselves o their “Higher Self” to live the life prescribed by Theosophy. They have to bring their Divine Self to guide their every thought and action, every day and at every moment of their lives. A true Theosophist ought “to deal justly and walk humbly.”

 
Enq:  What do you mean by this?

 
Theo:  Simply this:  the one self has to forget itself for the many selves.

 
Let me answer you in the words of a true Philaletheian, an F.T.S., who has beautifully expressed it in the Theosophist:   “What every man needs first is to find himself, and then take an honest inventory of his subjective possessions, and, bad or bankrupt as it may be, it is not beyond redemption if we set about it in earnest.”

 
But how many do? All are willing to work for their own development and progress; very few for those of others.

 
To quote the same writer again:

“Men have been deceived and deluded long enough; they must break their idols, put away their shams, and go to work for themselves – nay, there is one little word too much or too many, for he who works for himself had better not work at all; rather let him work himself for others, for all.

For every flower of love and charity he plants in his neighbors garden, a loathsome weed will disappear from his own, and so this garden of the gods – Humanity – shall blossom as a rose.

In all Bibles, all religions, this is plainly set forth – but designing men have at first misinterpreted and finally emasculated, materialized, besotted them.

It does not require a new revelation. Let every man be a revelation unto himself. Let once man’s immortal spirit take possession of the temple of his body, drive out the money-changers and every unclean thing, and his own divine humanity will redeem him, for when he is thus at one with himself he will know the ‘builder of the Temple.'””

H. P. Blavatsky