Altruism and Spiritual Development: From Theosophy’s Sacred Teachings in “The Key to Theosophy,” Part 2 of 2

WHAT IS PRACTICAL THEOSOPHY? ON SELF-SACRIFICE

The Enquirer asked the Theosophist: “Is equal justice to all and love to every creature the highest standard of Theosophy?” The Theosophist replied: “No; there is an even far higher one.”

“The giving to others more than to oneself—self-sacrifice. Such was the standard and abounding measure which marked so pre-eminently the greatest Teachers and Masters of Humanity— for example, Gautama Buddha in History, and Jesus of Nazareth as in the Gospels. This trait alone was enough to secure to them the perpetual reverence and gratitude of the generations of men that come after them. We say, however, that self-sacrifice has to be performed with discrimination; and such a self-abandonment, if made without justice, or blindly, regardless of subsequent results, may often prove not only made in vain, but harmful.”

The Enquirer pressed further: “Then it is not true, as it is said, that no sooner does a man enter into the Theosophical Society than he begins to be gradually severed from his wife, children, and family duties?” The Theosophist expounded: “It is a groundless calumny, like so many others. The first of the Theosophical duties is to do one’s duty by all men, and especially by those to whom one’s specific responsibilities are due, because one has either voluntarily undertaken them, such as marriage ties, or because one’s destiny has allied one to them; I mean those we owe to parents or next of kin.”

The Enquirer asked: “And what may be the duty of a Theosophist to himself?” The Theosophist replied: “To control and conquer, through the Higher, the lower self. To purify himself inwardly and morally; to fear no one, and nought, save the tribunal of his own conscience. Never to do a thing by halves; in other words, if he thinks it the right thing to do, let him do it openly and boldly, and if wrong, never touch it at all.”

“No man has a right to say that he can do nothing for others, on any pretext whatever. ‘By doing the proper duty in the proper place, a man may make the world his debtor,’ says an English writer. A cup of cold water given in time to a thirsty wayfarer is a nobler duty and more worth, than a dozen of dinners given away, out of season, to men who can afford to pay for them. […] ”