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Annie Besant
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Let us, first of all, ask ourselves, looking at the world around us, what it is that the history of the world signifies. When we read history, what does the history tell us? It seems to be a moving panorama of people and events, but it is really only a dance of shadows; the people are shadows, not realities, the kings and statesmen, the ministers and armies; and the events the battles and revolutions, the rises and falls of states are the most shadowlike dance of all.
The famous mystic sees modern problems being solved through ancient wisdom.
Those who have learned a little of the Ancient Wisdom know the illumination, the peace, the joy, the strength, its lessons have brought into their lives. That this book may win some to use its teachings, and to prove for themselves their value, is the prayer with which it is sent forth into the world.
This famous Theosophist studies into the Ancient Wisdom and knowledge upon which Theosophy was originally founded upon.
After reading this, it can be said, that one who attempts to define the Avataras simply, must be an unlearned fool.
Must religion and morals go together? Can one be taught without the other? It is a practical question for educationists, and France tried to answer it in the dreariest little cut and dry kind of catechism ever given to boys to make them long to be wicked. But apart from education, the question of the bedrock on which morals rest, the foundation on which a moral edifice can be built that will stand secure against the storms of life-that is a question of perennial interest, and it must be answered by each of us, if we would have a test of Right and Wrong, would know why Right is Right, why Wrong is Wrong.
The lady mystic traces the progress of the soul.
Ms. Besant teaches the Indian philosophy about how the Kosmos came into being from the Puranas and Vedic writings.
The origin of all religions, and the ignorance which is the root of the God-idea, having been dealt with in Part I. of this Text-Book, it now becomes our duty to investigate the evidences of the origin and of the growth of Christianity, to examine its morality and its dogmas, to study the history of its supposed founder, to trace out its symbols and its ceremonies; in fine, to show cause for its utter rejection by the Freethinker.
Who does not remember the story of the Christian missionary in Britain, sitting one evening in the vast hall of a Saxon king, surrounded by his thanes, having come thither to preach the gospel of his Master; and as he spoke of life and death and immortality, a bird flew in through an unglazed window, circled the hall in its flight, and flew out once more into the darkness of the night. The Christian priest bade the king see in the flight of the bird within the hall the transitory life of man, and claimed for his faith that it showed the soul, in passing from the hall of life, winging its way not into the darkness of night, but into the sunlit radiance of a more glorious world.
Dharma the word that sums up the whole into one. Annie Besant can explain difficult concepts in fewer words than nearly any teacher I've read.
How to prepare one's body, life, and soul while limited to the Outer Court, for entry into the Inner Court, that few have attained.
Ms. Besant teaches why initiation is an important step into the mysteries.
Intuitional and astral travel is believed to be the future science, and how man finds his place in the universe of creation.