Brotherhood
Theosophy 101 - What's It All About
The Ancient Wisdom Tradition
III The Source of Life: The Unseen World
Brotherhood – The Underlying Unity of Life
Related References
(HPB, Secret Doctrine, Vol. I p. 120)
“Lift thy head, oh Lanoo; dost thou see one, or countless lights above thee, burning in the dark midnight sky?”
“I sense one Flame, oh Gurudeva, I see countless undetached sparks shining in it.”
“Thou sayest well. And now look around and into thyself. That light which burns inside thee, dost thou feel it different in anywise from the light that shines in thy Brother-men?”
“It is in no way different, though the prisoner is held in bondage by Karma, and though its outer garments delude the ignorant into saying, ‘Thy Soul and My Soul.’ “
The radical unity of the ultimate essence of each constituent part of compounds in Nature-from Star to mineral Atom, from the highest Dhyan Chohan to the smallest infusoria, in the fullest acceptation of the term, and whether applied to the spiritual, intellectual, or physical worlds-this is the one fundamental law in Occult Science.
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(HPB, Isis Unveiled, Vol. I p. 258)
. . . “All that that is upon and within the earth, all vegetable forms and all animal forms, our bodies, our brains, are formed of materials which have been drawn in from those depths of space surrounding us on all sides.” The Hermetists and the later Rosicrucians held that all things visible and invisible were produced by the contention of light with darkness, and that every particle of matter contains within itself a spark of the divine essence – or light, spirit – which, through its tendency to free itself from its entanglement and return to the central source, produced motion in the particles, and from motion forms were born.
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(Wm. Q. Judge, Articles Vol. I “Three Great Ideas”, p. 242)
The first idea is, that there is a great Cause – in the sense of an enterprise – called the Cause of Sublime Perfection and Human Brotherhood. This rests upon the essential unity of the whole human family, and is a possibility because sublimity in perfectness and actual realization of brotherhood on every plane of being are one and the same thing.
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(Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett p. 17)
The term “Universal Brotherhood” is no idle phrase. Humanity in the mass has a paramount claim upon us…It is the only secure foundation for universal morality. If it be a dream, it is at least a noble one for mankind: and it is the aspiration of the true adept.
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(HPB, Key To Theosophy p. 39)
ENQ. What are the objects of the “Theosophical Society”?
THEO. They are three, and have been so from the beginning. (1.) To form the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without distinction of race, color, or creed.
(HPB, Key To Theosophy p. 18)
“How little this principle of Universal Brotherhood is understood by the masses of mankind, how seldom its transcendent importance is recognized, may be seen in the diversity of opinion and fictitious interpretations regarding the Theosophical Society. This society was organized on this one principle, the essential Brotherhood of Man, as herein briefly outlined and imperfectly set forth.
(HPB, Key To Theosophy p. 41)
THE COMMON ORIGIN OF MAN
ENQ. How?
THEOSOPHIST. Simply by demonstrating on logical, philosophical, metaphysical, and even scientific grounds that: — (a) All men have spiritually and physically the same origin, which is the fundamental teaching of Theosophy. (b) As mankind is essentially of one and the same essence, and that essence is one — infinite, uncreate, and eternal, whether we call it God or Nature — nothing, therefore, can affect one nation or one man without affecting all other nations and all other men. This is as certain and as obvious as that a stone thrown into a pond will, sooner or later, set in motion every single drop of water therein.
(HPB, Key To Theosophy p. 45)
THEOSOPHIST. … — “The principle of the Brotherhood of Humanity is one of the eternal truths that govern the world’s progress on lines which distinguish human nature from brute nature.” What can be more Theosophical than this? But it is not enough. What is also needed is to impress men with the idea that, if the root of mankind is one, then there must also be one truth which finds expression in all the various religions.
ENQUIRER. This refers to the common origin of religions, and you may be right there. But how does it apply to practical brotherhood on the physical plane?
THEOSOPHIST. First, because that which is true on the metaphysical plane must be also true on the physical. Secondly, because there is no more fertile source of hatred and strife than religious differences. When one party or another thinks himself the sole possessor of absolute truth, it becomes only natural that he should think his neighbor absolutely in the clutches of Error or the Devil. But once get a man to see that none of them has the whole truth, but that they are mutually complementary, that the complete truth can be found only in the combined views of all, after that which is false in each of them has been sifted out — then true brotherhood in religion will be established.
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(Wm. Q. Judge, Vol. II “Theosophy and the Theosophical Society” – extracts)
Underlying the Doctrines of Theosophy is one fundamental proposition, namely, “the essential Unity of all life and being.” Manifestation of life is differentiation of this unity, the purpose of differentiation is evolution, and the destiny of evolution is the return of all manifestation into its source and original unity… On another plane of existence, a plane which partakes of a wider field of consciousness and which lies within the capability of development in every individual, that on that higher plane there is a spiritual unity, a universal brotherhood of mankind, and on that plane of being there is no separateness from homogeneous existence; and further that no permanent progress is possible through fostering the illusion of separateness, and that man’s true duty at all times and in all circumstances is the love of his kind and the preservation of harmony around him. This essential unity of all being, however, becomes only realizable in the ratio in which consciousness on a higher plane is awakened, and this superior consciousness regards our present conception of all separateness apart from the whole as an illusion, because there is no separation in reality; it only appears so to us on our present plane of consciousness. Therefore this tenet, although it is a fact in nature, is not so easily demonstrable on physical lines, because the problem itself transcends perception on this lower physical plane; in other words, it cannot be seen or heard, felt, smelt, or tasted, nor sensed with any physical instrument; still it is a fact which is at once plausible by conceding to the human being spiritual life at all, and perfectly realizable to those who have penetrated beyond the veil which surrounds gross matter.
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References for further reading
HPB Articles: “The Tidal Wave“
Wm. Q. Judge Articles: “Universal Brotherhood A Fact In Nature“
Mahatma Letters To A.P. Sinnett, p. 17