THEOSOPHY

CARDIFF

 

 

Cardiff Theosophical Society

206 Newport Road,

Cardiff, Wales, UK, CF24 1DL

 

The Scott Memorial, Roath Park Lake

A familiar Cardiff landmark

 

 

Theosophy Cardiff are pleased to present

an outstanding introductory work on

Theosophy by a Student of Katherine Tingley entitled “Elementary Theosophy”

 

Katherine Tingley

1847 – 1929

Founder & President of the

Point Loma Theosophical Society 1896 -1929

She and her students produced a series of informative

Theosophical works in the early years of the 20th century

 

 

ELEMENTARY

THEOSOPHY

By

A Student of Katherine Tingley

 

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Chapter 6

 

Karma

 

 

"A man's deeds come back to him," "that which a man sows, that shall he also reap," "cast thy bread upon the waters and it shall come back after many days," are three sayings which contain a law belonging as sister to reincarnation, known as karma.

 

The punishment aspect of it the Greeks called Nemesis; but that is only half of it. It belongs to reincarnation because there is not time in any one life for all the deeds a man does therein tocome back to him. They come back to him because they are his.

 

Whenever we do anything at all, purposefully, we do three things, though we ordinarily think of one only. Consider, for example, theft.

 

(a) The thing visibly done is the taking of some one else's property.

 

(b) Invisibly, a change of character for the worse is made; this shows itself in the fact that whatever is done once is easier to do the second time.

 

(c) The third thing, also invisible, is that the world's atmosphere, in which we all share, in which our minds live as our bodies live in the common air, is poisoned.

 

An evil wave has been sent into it. This wave, in however slight degree, does act on and affect the minds of all other men. The world is hard enough, cold enough, selfish enough as it is; this wave worsens it. The minds of men become by it, in however slight degree, more suspicious, more grasping, harder. They feel, though without noticing it, an increase in what we might call the thief element.

 

Of course the wave sent out by one single act of theft is very slight. But when we multiply it by millions every year, we can understand why the world is as it is. Each of the millions has broken the harmony that should have been, the harmony between men in act and thought, which must some time come about.

 

A whole life may be spent in undetected and unpunished theft. But it was all registered; the successive acts were written deeper and deeper on the man's character; and they sent successive waves into the world's atmosphere. To that atmosphere, which he helped to make, with that character, which he entirely made, the man comes back. The echo of his own past deeds returns to him, finding an exactly answering echo in his nature. All the world tendencies, the effects of all the deeds ever done by man, come flooding in upon him, as they do on all of us. Some find no echo in his character -- he may, for example, have no tendency to murder. He will be tempted only by those that do have their echo in his character.

 

All is now ready for the opportunity. When that comes, what will happen? What is likely to happen? He falls under the load of impulse he built into himself.

 

The luck not to be found out (if it can be called luck) which he enjoyed before, some time or other now fails -- perhaps on the very first occasion. Then there is a calamity, disgrace. By that he may learn to reform, or many such may be necessary, extending perhaps over more than one life. They go on happening until at last he is strong enough to receive out of the world's atmosphere his own current, find its echo in his own nature, and yet refuse to yield. When there is no longer that echo, the battle is finally won there.

 

The man has fought and neutralized that much evil; he has cleared the world's atmosphere of that much of the stain which he made in his thefts.

 

This is one aspect of karma, the coming back of evil deeds. The law cannot forgive anything, for that would be to leave our characters still weak.

True forgiveness is done by man himself when he turns so strongly to his higher nature that he becomes at one with it. After that he can face the echoes of his own deeds without fear; they find no answer in his own nature.

 

There are many other aspects, for the law is really an explanation of life. Good deeds come back as certainly as bad ones. He who does a good deed sweetens the world's atmosphere and his own character. The current comes back as an urge to repeat them, finds an echo in his character, and goes back to others with the benediction of some new good deed. The world is bettered, its burdens eased a little. The man has the inner joy and peace of harmony with his divine nature; just as, by the other kind of action, he has unrest within and without. Ill deeds bring inner unrest and outer pain; good deeds, inner peace and outer harmony. With both hands this law helps us on to our greater destiny, to the real life to come.

 

But karma goes even deeper; it replies to defects of character which are not seen to injure others. We shall understand if we remember that its aim is to develop, to restore us to our proper and highest nature. It meets our weaknesses with tonics, and tonics are sometimes bitter. Wiser eyes than those of ordinary men are needed to follow its work in individual cases; but the general principles are easy enough for a child to grasp. Some men meet seemingly unmerited disgrace. Where is the justice of it?

 

Others close their lives in the prolonged pain of some slow malady. Where here is justice? In man's own former thoughts and deeds. It is nature's response to character.

 

We must try to take nature's long view if we would understand her work in its beneficence. In such cases as we have supposed, there must be a failure somewhere needing correction, some flaw in character needing strengthening. Some characters only bring forth their finest flower after great pain.

 

The pain is transient, the flower eternal; and it was the flower that nature wanted to secure. Perhaps there was a latent love of others' good opinion, which, uncured, remained a weakness and might have led on to all kinds of evil, hypocrisy, ambition, vanity.

 

The weed is now uprooted. But in the last life it may have been very luxuriant -- leading, it may be, to some marked sin or crime. Karma carried that over to the next page of her ledger, the next life. But the possibilities in details are endless.

 

Physical pain, again, often calls forth the most magnificent endurance, strengthening the will in some cases as nothing else can. In such a case it could be crudely described as punishment for the lack of endurance and patience; or, more correctly, as a difficult bit of nature's beneficent training. A good deal of the work of karma is to call our attention to failings of which we were before unconscious, and give us the opportunity to correct them.

 

So the theosophist sees in the workings of karma a law which is wholly beneficent, which punishes and rewards for one sole purpose: the evocation of the soul. It works behind and through every event of our lives. Nor are its ways inscrutable.

 

If we watched all that happened to us from day to day and from year to year, noted what duties came up to be done, what pains and pleasures came into our path, what accidents befell us -- if we watched instead of complaining, we should find that at every turn we were being offered opportunity for growth of will, of mind, of character.

 

If outer life is monotonous, there is the opportunity to light up the outer life with the radiance of the inner life, with the companionship of the divine. If outer life is painful, it is the opportunity to develop will and endurance. And if we stop the fierce wish to escape pain and procure pleasure, putting that much force into compassionate deed and thought, we should find our minds grow steadily clearer in comprehension of this law and its purpose. There are no accidents. Whatever happens we have ourselves brought about in this or some other life. We have done, or left undone, and the effects of both constitute our environment and the stream of events.

 

Our deeds of yesterday are the parents of the events of today, and events are the mask of opportunity. They press on us from without, as our divine will does from within both in the same direction. Karma waits at our side and when we have acted or not acted, she adjusts the effect so as to teach and train us. We have freewill; the future is absolutely in our hands.

 

Karma, if we so choose, will show us her face as friend; it is always inner peacefor those who walk with her. She is always the friend of those who make themselves the friends of humanity, who develop every faculty and talent and strength of their nature that they may serve humanity the better.

 

 

 

 

 

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Cardiff Theosophical Society

206 Newport Road,

Cardiff, Wales, UK, CF24 1DL

 

 

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Death & How to Get Through It

Lentil burgers, a thousand press ups before breakfast and

the daily 25 mile run may put it off for a while but death

seems to get most of us in the end. We are pleased to

present for your consideration, a definitive work on the

subject by a Student of Katherine Tingley entitled

“Man After Death”

 

Blavatsky Blogger

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Quick Blasts of Theosophy

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Great Theosophists

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The Most Basic Theosophy Website in the Universe

If you run a Theosophy Group you can use

this as an introductory handout

 

Theosophy and Reincarnation

A selection of articles on Reincarnation

by Theosophical writers

Provided in response to the large number

of enquiries we receive on this subject

 

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Theosophy in Cardiff

 

Theosophy

Nirvana

 

The Blavatsky Blogger’s

Instant Guide To

Death & The Afterlife

 

Theosophy

The New Rock ‘n Roll

 

The Key to Theosophy

 

The Voice of the Silence

 

The Akashic Records

It’s all “water under the bridge” but everything you do

makes an imprint on the Space-Time Continuum.

 

Theosophy and the Number Seven

A selection of articles relating to the esoteric

significance of the Number 7 in Theosophy

 

The South of Heaven Guide to

 Theosophy and Devachan

 

The South of Heaven Guide

To Theosophy and Dreams

 

The South of Heaven Guide

To Theosophy and Angels

 

Theosophy and Help From

The Universe

 

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H P Blavatsky’s Heavy Duty

Theosophical Glossary

Published 1892

A B C D EFG H IJ KL M N OP QR S T UV WXYZ

 

Complete Theosophical Glossary in Plain Text Format

1.22MB

 

 

A Text Book of Theosophy

Charles Webster Leadbeater

 

What Theosophy Is  From the Absolute to Man

 

The Formation of a Solar System  The Evolution of Life

 

The Constitution of Man  After Death  Reincarnation

 

The Purpose of Life  The Planetary Chains

 

The Result of Theosophical Study

 

 

The Occult World

By Alfred Percy Sinnett

 

Preface to the American Edition    Introduction

 

Occultism and its Adepts    The Theosophical Society

 

First Occult Experiences   Teachings of Occult Philosophy

 

Later Occult Phenomena    Appendix

 

 

The Ocean of Theosophy

William Quan Judge

 

Preface    Theosophy and the Masters    General Principles

 

The Earth Chain    Body and Astral Body    Kama – Desire

 

Manas    Of Reincarnation    Reincarnation Continued

 

Karma    Kama Loka    Devachan    Cycles

 

Septenary Constitution Of Man

 

Arguments Supporting Reincarnation

 

Differentiation Of Species Missing Links

 

Psychic Laws, Forces, and Phenomena

 

Psychic Phenomena and Spiritualism

 

 

Instant Guide to Theosophy

Quick Explanations with Links to More Detailed Info

 

What is Theosophy ? Theosophy Defined (More Detail)

 

Three Fundamental Propositions  Key Concepts of Theosophy

 

Cosmogenesis  Anthropogenesis  Root Races  Karma

 

Ascended Masters  After Death States  Reincarnation

 

The Seven Principles of Man  Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

 

  Colonel Henry Steel Olcott William Quan Judge

 

The Start of the Theosophical Society Theosophical Society Presidents

 

History of the Theosophical Society  Glossaries of Theosophical Terms

 

History of the Theosophical Society in Wales

 

The Three Objectives of the Theosophical Society

 

Explanation of the Theosophical Society Emblem

 

 

A Study in Karma

Annie Besant

 

Karma  Fundamental Principles  Laws: Natural and Man-Made  The Law of Laws 

 

The Eternal Now  Succession  Causation The Laws of Nature  A Lesson of The Law

 

  Karma Does Not Crush  Apply This Law  Man in The Three Worlds  Understand The Truth

 

Man and His Surroundings  The Three Fates  The Pair of Triplets  Thought, The Builder

 

  Practical Meditation  Will and Desire  The Mastery of Desire  Two Other Points

 

  The Third Thread  Perfect Justice  Our Environment  Our Kith and Kin  Our Nation

 

The Light for a Good Man  Knowledge of Law  The Opposing Schools

 

The More Modern View  Self-Examination  Out of the Past

 

Old Friendships  We Grow By Giving  Collective Karma  Family Karma

 

National Karma  India’s Karma  National Disasters

 

 

 

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WALES

Pages about Wales

General pages about Wales, Welsh History

and The History of Theosophy in Wales

 

Wales is a Principality within the United Kingdom and

has an eastern border with England.

The land area is just over 8,000 square miles.

Snowdon in North Wales is the highest mountain at 3,650 feet.

The coastline is almost 750 miles long.

The population of Wales as at the 2001 census is 2,946,200.

                                                                                                        

 

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Cardiff Theosophical Society,

206 Newport Road,

Cardiff, Wales, UK, CF24 – 1DL

 

 


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