Category: The Key To Theosophy (1889): H. P. Blavatsky

"Enq:  You say that they accept and believe in the doctrines of Theosophy. But, as they do not belong to those Adepts you have just mentioned, then they must accept your teachings on blind faith. In what does this differ from that of conventional religions?   Theo:  As it differs on almost all other points, [...]

"Enq:  You speak of Adepts as being an exception to the rule of our general ignorance. Do they really know more than we do of Reincarnation and after states?   Theo:  They do, indeed. By the training of faculties we all possess, but which they alone have developed to perfection, they have entered in spirit [...]

"Enq:  Does this hold equally of ourselves as of others?   Theo:  Equally. As just said, the same limited vision exists for all, except those who have reached in the present incarnation the acme of spiritual vision and clairvoyance.   We can only perceive that, if things with us ought to have been different, they [...]

"Theo:  And now I advise you to compare our Theosophic views upon Karma, the law of Retribution, and say whether they are not both more philosophical and just than this cruel and idiotic dogma which makes of "God" a senseless fiend; the tenet, namely, that the "elect only" will be saved, and the rest doomed [...]

"Theo (cont):  Mr. J. H. Conelly proceeds - "The believers in a religion based upon such doctrine are willing it should be compared with one in which man's destiny for eternity is determined by the accidents of a single, brief earthly existence, during which he is cheered by the promise that 'as the tree falls [...]

"Theo (cont):  Another able Theosophic writer says (Purpose of Theosophy, by Mrs. P. Sinnett): "Every individual is making Karma either good or bad in each action and thought of his daily round, and is at the same time working out in this life the Karma brought about by the acts and desires of the last. [...]

"Theo (cont):  Quotes from the Secret Doctrine (cont): "This law, whether conscious or unconscious, predestines nothing and no one. It exists from and in eternity truly, for it is eternity itself; and as such, since no act can be coequal with eternity, it cannot be said to act, for it is action itself. It is [...]

"Theo:  Quotes from the Secret Doctrine (cont): "It is not, therefore, Karma that rewards or punishes, but it is we who reward or punish ourselves according to whether we work with, through and along with nature, abiding by the laws on which that harmony depends, or - break them. Nor would the ways of Karma [...]

"Theo (cont):  E. D. Walker, in his "Reincarnation", offers the following explanation: "Briefly, the doctrine of Karma is that we have made ourselves what we are by former actions, and are building our future eternity by present actions. There is no destiny but what we ourselves determine. There is no salvation or condemnation except what [...]

"Theo:  Some short time ago there appeared the following objection from a Christian pen: "Granting that the teaching in regard to Theosophy is correct, and that 'man must be his own saviour, must overcome self and conquer the evil that is in his dual nature, to obtain the emancipation of his soul', what is man [...]