East and West

In the 19th and throughout much of the 20th century, it was common to divide the world into East and West and humanity into Eastern and Western and to emphasise these distinctions.

It is surely a good thing that as the New Age of Aquarius has progressed and the internet, television, and international travel become so widespread, the age-old dichotomy between “East and West” has largely faded out in the conceptions of the vast majority of people. Geographical facts remain unchanged, of course, but it has become extremely rare for people of the present day to either think or speak in such terms as “the people of the East” or “we Westerners” or “the division between East and West.” Instead, most people prefer to avoid making separations or barriers between different sides of the world and prefer to adopt all-embracing attitudes, with at least some degree of universality and global outlook.

During the time of H. P. Blavatsky and her closest colleague William Q. Judge, this was by no means the case and so we often find them tending to speak in the language of their day.

Nowadays such statements as the following strike much more of a chord with most people:

“East and West are no more than names. Human beings are the same everywhere. He who wants to will conduct himself with decency. . . . If we look into the future, is it not a heritage that we have to leave to posterity, that all the different races commingle and produce a civilisation that perhaps the world has not yet seen?” (Mahatma Gandhi)

It is hard to deny that the West as we knew it has died, never to return, and that the East as it once was has ceased to be. Though many political and military divisions still remain between nations, we have entered the era of One World, One Humanity.

The principal aim for which the Theosophical Movement was founded was to help bring about the actualisation of Universal Brotherhood among humanity, without any distinctions or differences between races, nationalities, skin colours, genders, religions, castes, or anything else being given any weight. This is possibly still centuries away but we are getting there. Each person can contribute towards this goal by adopting such outlooks and attitudes within themselves and towards all who they encounter.

Although today we do not typically emphasise the distinctions between East and West, Theosophy nonetheless maintains that as Eastern civilisation is the older and was where our present Fifth Root Race – the Indo-Caucasian – began, the fullness of Truth lies in Eastern Esoteric Wisdom. While Theosophy also promotes Western esotericism, its main emphasis has always been on the Eastern, believing that this is what will provide the greatest help for both the West and East of today.

The following passages may help to clarify some of these points. It should be borne in mind while reading them that the word “Aryan,” which appears in some of these excerpts, does not at all mean a “perfect race” of blonde haired, blue eyed, fair skinned people. It was some decades after HPB’s passing that “Aryan” was misappropriated and misrepresented and given this false meaning. In its actual and historical sense, the word “Aryan” is a synonym for “Indian,” though literally and originally it means “noble” and “worthy.”

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“As it is one of the tasks of the T.S. [i.e. Theosophical Society] to draw together the East and the West, so that each may supply the qualities lacking in the other and develop more fraternal feelings among nations so various, this literary intercourse will, I hope, prove of the utmost service in Aryanising Western thought.” (H. P. Blavatsky, “Five Messages from H. P. Blavatsky to The American Theosophists” p. 30)

“Through its teaching, through the philosophy which it has rendered accessible and intelligible to the modern mind, the West will learn to understand and appreciate the East at its true value.” (H. P. Blavatsky, “The Key to Theosophy” p. 305-306)

“In the East Theosophy has to be revived among the masses; in the West the crowds have never known it. Theosophy is a natural plant of Asia; it has to become naturalized everywhere else.” (“Aryanizing Western Thought,” “Theosophy” Magazine, December 1923)

“. . . The Voice of the Silence gives a specific recipe that is indispensable. It is emphasized in every authentic spiritual tradition and it is central to the New Cycle and the Aryanization of the West. It is put in terms of the metaphor of the mango fruit. One must become as tender as the pulp of the mango towards the faults of others, feeling with them their suffering and pain. Yet one must also learn to be as hard as the mango stone towards one’s own faults. One must give no quarter to excuse-making or shilly-shallying [i.e. indecisiveness]. Instead, one must fully accept what one thinks to be one’s own particular pain, while recognizing that it is, at its core, nothing but a manifestation of delusive self-grasping. The mango metaphor sums up all the elements involved in the preparation for deep dhyana – continuous uninterrupted meditation.” (Raghavan Iyer, “The Mahamudra of Voidness”)

“It is not the “priesthood of India” that attempts to bring the Occident [i.e. the West] back to the ancient wisdom, but rather a few Occidentals from Europe-America who, led by their Karma to the happiness of knowing certain Adepts of the secret Himalayan Brotherhood, attempt, under the inspiration of these Masters, to lead the priesthood of India back to the primitive and divine esotericism.” (H. P. Blavatsky, “Misconceptions” article)

“The Masters . . . They find it very hard to break down the walls of theological and other prejudices in the East; . . . the Egos of the West include many who helped to make the religion, the philosophy, and the civilization of the ancient East; . . . the new race is being prepared for in the West, and to divert thought back to the teachers of today in the East would be dangerous; . . . many Initiates have remained with the West as Nirmanakayas for its help in its destiny, and . . . through the great work in the West the whole East as well as West will be benefited.” (William Q. Judge)

“Whither can we turn to trace these theosophic ideas to their very root – better than to old Indian wisdom? We say it again: archaic Occultism would remain incomprehensible to all, if it were rendered otherwise than through the channels of Buddhism and Hinduism. For the former is the emanation of the latter; and both are children of one mother – ancient Lemuro-Atlantean Wisdom.” (H. P. Blavatsky, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 668)

[Note: This should not be taken to mean that aspiring occultists are to become Buddhists or Hindus but is a reference to why the language and terminology of those two religious philosophies is that most used as a “channel” by HPB for presenting and trying to make comprehensible the archaic Esoteric or Occult Philosophy.]

“India was the Alma-Mater, not only of the civilization, arts, and sciences, but also of all the great religions of antiquity; Judaism, and hence Christianity, included.” (H. P. Blavatsky, “Isis Unveiled” Vol. 2, p. 30)

“For as at first she [i.e. India] was a receptacle from which was taken an enormous treasure in material wealth and goods, so at the last her treasures of literature and philosophy are destined to cover the lands of English-speaking peoples, to infiltrate into the western mind, and finally drive out the puerile, degrading dogmas of Christendom, replacing them with a noble and elevating scheme of philosophy which alone can save the world.” (William Q. Judge, “India a Storehouse For Us” article)

“One single journey to the Orient, made in the proper spirit, and the possible emergencies arising from the meeting of what may seem no more than the chance acquaintances and adventures of any traveller, may quite as likely as not throw wide open to the zealous student the heretofore closed doors of the final mysteries. I will go farther and say that such a journey, performed with the omnipresent idea of the one object, and with the help of a fervent will, is sure to produce more rapid, better, and far more practical results, than the most diligent study of Occultism in books – even though one were to devote to it dozens of years.” (H. P. Blavatsky, “The Search after Occultism”)

“You can do immense good by helping to give the Western nations a secure basis upon which to reconstruct their crumbling faith. And what they need is the evidence that Asiatic psychology alone supplies. Give this, and you will confer happiness of mind on thousands. The era of blind faith is gone; that of inquiry is here. . . . This is the moment to guide the recurrent impulse which must soon come, and which will push the age towards extreme atheism, or drag it back to extreme sacerdotalism, if it is not led to the primitive soul-satisfying philosophy of the Aryans.” (Master K.H. to A. O. Hume, “A Master’s Letter” p. 9-10, ULT Pamphlet No. 29)

“The exact extent, depth, breadth, and length of the mysteries of Nature are to be found only in Eastern esoteric sciences.” (H. P. Blavatsky, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 611)

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“The cycle of Nationalism has run its course; the wheel of progress and of evolution, the Great Chakra of Vishnu, has rolled forward to enter the cycle of Internationalism, of One World; of Humanitarianism and Universal Brotherhood; of Cosmopolitanism and the true religion of Right and Righteous Living. The Democracies should unite in the first instance, not to fight Russian and other autocracies, but to labour constructively for the creation of the real “Parliament of man, the Federation of the World.” . . . The Humanities are more needed than technology is in the civilization of today. The Religion of Life and not organized religions; Soul education which enables man to master the machine which at present is enslaving man; the conviction of the need for a Brotherhood in actu and altruism not simply in name; these are some of the means to bring into being One World, One Humanity.” (B. P. Wadia, “Towards One World,” “Thus Have I Heard” p. 318, 319)

“The individual Human Soul occupies a unique place in the scheme of things and the knowledge which helps that Human Soul to realize the truth of One World, or Universal Brotherhood, is the Wisdom of the Esoteric Philosophy. Not by State legislation but by self-discipline can our humanity reach, in a speedy manner, the ideal of true Internationalism.” (B. P. Wadia, “Towards Internationalism By The Ancient Way,” “The Theosophical Movement” October 1949)

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