May 2023 Newsletter
The following articles are reproduced from the May 2023 Newsletter to members. Non-members may or may not be able to relate to the contents.
Lord Buddha
“I will first say that there can be no Planetary Spirit that was not once material or what you call human. When our great Buddha — the patron of all the adepts, the reformer and the codifier of the occult system, reached first Nirvana on earth, he became a Planetary Spirit; i.e. — his spirit could at one and the same time rove the interstellar spaces in full consciousness, and continue at will on Earth in his original and individual body. For the divine Self had so completely disfranchised itself from matter that it could create at will an inner substitute for itself, and leaving it in the human form for days, weeks, sometimes years, affect in no wise by the change either the vital principle or the physical mind of its body. By the way, that is the highest form of adeptship man can hope for on our planet.”
A Master of the Wisdom
The Great Wesak Blessing
Bishop Charles W. Leaderbeater a renowned theosophist and occultist writes:
"The Lord Gautama Buddha, instead of devoting Himself wholly to other and higher work after His Mahaparanirvana, has remained sufficiently in touch with our world to be reached by the invocation of His successor when necessary, so that His advice and help can still be obtained in any great emergency. He also undertook to return to the world once in each year and shed upon it a flood of blessing.
The Lord Buddha has His own special type of force, which He outpours when He gives His blessing to the world, and this benediction is a unique and very marvellous thing; for by His authority and position, a Buddha has access to planes of nature which are altogether beyond our reach, hence He can transmute and draw down to our level the forces peculiar to those planes. Without this mediation of the Buddha these forces would be of no use to us here in physical life; their vibrations are so tremendous, so incredibly rapid, that they would pass through us unsensed at any level we can reach, and we should never even know of their existence. But as it is, the force of the blessing is scattered all over the world; and it instantly finds for itself channels through which it can pour (just as water instantly finds an open pipe), thereby strengthening all good work and bringing peace to the hearts of those who are able to receive it.
The occasion selected for this wonderful outpouring is the full moon day of the Indian month of Vaisakh (Wesak), and usually corresponding to the month of May, the anniversary of all the momentous occurrences of His last earthly life—His birth, His attainment of Buddhahood and His departure from the physical body.
In connection with this visit of His, and quite apart from its tremendous esoteric significance, an exoteric ceremony is performed in the physical plane at which the Lord actually shows Himself in the presence of a crowd of ordinary pilgrims. All Members of the Great Occult Hierarchy, except the Lord of the World and the three Kumaras, usually attend this ceremony.
The place selected for this stupendous occasion is a small plateau surrounded by low hills, which lies on the northern side of the Himalayas, not far from the frontier of Nepal, about 400 miles west of Lhasa. This location is commonly referred to as the Wesak Valley and the occasion is referred to as the Wesak Festival."
Bishop C. W. Leadbeater gave a first-hand account from his personal participation and the Wesak Festival is described in great detail in his book The Masters And The Path which was first published in 1925. There are several entries in Geoffrey Hodson’s occult diary, Light of the Sanctuary, chronicling his attendance at the Wesak Festival. In his entry of May 30, 1949 he writes “This is a most vivid conscious experience and completely satisfies me concerning C.W. Leadbeater’s account”.
Normally this day coincides with the 15th (full-moon) day of the Fourth Month in the Chinese Lunar calendar, which is always a public holiday in Singapore. This year, Buddha Purnima falls on Friday, 5 May 2023, a month earlier than the Chinese tradition which falls on 2 June 2023. Nevertheless, we shall hold our traditional annual Wesak Day celebration on the gazetted public holiday, i.e. on Friday, 2 June 2023, at 11 a.m. at our new premises for the first time.
Geoffrey Hodson’s Chronicle of Wesak
In his occult diary, Light of the Sanctuary, under the 30 May 1949 entry, Geoffrey Hodson writes:
"Then, for the first time, I experienced, out of the body and in full consciousness on waking, the Vaishakh Ceremony of this year. I walked in the procession, saw the leading Adept of great beauty and grace, with reddish brown hair; the curved and sometimes straight lines followed by the Initiates in single file, the uplifted Rod. I heard the resounding invocation and the shouts of amazement of the pilgrims behind, saw the gold-clad, seated Figure and one rose on its stem, alive, fresh, falling close to me. All Initiates were materialized and had a curious faraway concentrated expression, with the centre of awareness on the Causal and higher planes. This is a most vivid conscious experience and completely satisfies me concerning C.W. Leadbeater’s account . . ."
White Lotus Day
Madame H. P. Blavatsky has always been a tremendous source of inspiration for all students of occultism. Not only was she well loved and remembered by members of the original Theosophical Society, she also had many friends and followers outside of the Theosophical Society. Indeed, many movements were founded outside the Theosophical Society to study her teachings. Even today, more than a century after her death, new movements are still being formed pledging personal allegiance to H.P.B. and faithfully adhering to her original teachings. This is especially true in the cyberworld of the Internet. We could almost say that many people are fiercely loyal to our founder, Madame Blavatsky.
We join all these followers and students throughout the world to commemorate the passing of Madame H.P. Blavatsky on May 8. This is the 132nd anniversary of the death of one of the greatest occultists in modern history. We call this day White Lotus Day to remember with gratitude the founder of the Theosophical Society. White Lotus Day was declared by the co-founder and President Col. H. S. Olcott in 1892 as a Day of Remembrance to "express the feeling of loving regard for her who brought us the chart of the climbing Path which leads to the summit of knowledge".
Soft Opening of Our New Premises
Our Lodge was closed for the month of April 2023 for the transition to our new premises. We have now moved and preparing for our soft opening on 6 May 2023, a most auspicious day—as it is the day right after the esoteric Wesak Festival, blessed with full intensity of the Wesak Outpouring. At the soft opening, we shall have a special talk on The Mystery of Buddha. And in the following week on 13 May 2023 we shall have a talk on Shri Shankaracharya which is a sequel to The Mystery of Buddha. We believe the new premises will be greatly consecrated with these first two talks.
The official opening will be officiated by our International President, Bro. Tim Boyd, on Sunday, 20 August 2023. Don’t miss this important event, mark this date on your calendar. In the meantime, we welcome you to our soft opening. Come and see what’s new. Enjoy presentations on the big 170” screen and check out other features of our new premises.
Esoteric Glimpses of The Lord Buddha
We are all somewhat familiar with the exoteric stories of the Lord Buddha, His Birth, His Life and His Death from the Buddhist tradition. We also read of some of His past lives from the Jātaka tales. Are we to believe the exoteric tradition wholly, literally and faithfully or are there esoteric aspects of the Lord Buddha, by and large unknown to the world?
In the esoteric tradition, the Lord Buddha transcends religions and is recognized as the first of our Humanity to attain the lofty evolutionary level He now stands at and is revered as the Patron of all Adepts. To quote Mr. A. P. Sinnett:
“The historical Buddha, as known to the custodians of the esoteric doctrine, is a personage whose birth is not invested with the quaint marvels popular story has crowded round it. Nor was his progress to adeptship traced by the literal occurrence of the supernatural struggles depicted in symbolic legend. On the other hand, the incarnation, which may outwardly be described as the birth of Buddha, is certainly not regarded by occult science as an event like any other birth, nor the spiritual development through which Buddha passed during his earth-life a mere process of intellectual evolution, like the mental history of any other philosopher…
… To know when Gautama Buddha was born, what is recorded of his teaching, and what popular legends have gathered round his biography, is to know next to nothing of the real Buddha, so much greater than either the historical moral teacher, or the fantastic demi-god of tradition.”
In our talks on The Occult Hierarchy and The Wesak Festival, we gathered some information from occult investigators on The Lord Buddha which is unknown to the traditional Buddhists. In the talks on The Mystery of Buddha and Shri Shankaracharya, we shall look at some of the writings of the Mahatmas and HPB to have further esoteric glimpses of the Lord Buddha in the esoteric tradition. These talks should be of immense interest to students engaged in theosophical studies, Buddhists and non-Buddhist alike.
What is God?
Since the beginning of time, God is an integral part of humanity. The belief in the existence of God is central to man’s life and culture. Most people believe in the existence of God in one form or another, the relatively few exceptions being the atheists and the agnostics. The former deny or disbelieve the existence of God while the latter hold the view that nothing can be known of the existence of God or of anything beyond material phenomena. In other words, barring those few exceptions, mankind has a firm belief in God. However, one’s perception of God may differ dramatically from another. Some believe that there is only one God, others believe in an entire pantheon of Gods. Religionists further demarcate their Gods and demand faith that divides humanity into different sects. Some believe that their Gods have human attributes and are capable of being angry, jealous and being offended. Some believe that their Gods have to be perpetually praised and reminded of Their own Greatness. Others believe their Gods could be placated and ingratiated with offerings in return for prayers to be answered. Some people are inculcated since young to be God-fearing. Others are reminded that only those who believe in their Gods can be saved and non-believers will suffer eternal damnation. Every tradition seems to have its distinctive God. Can there be a different God exclusively for a specific religion? Can any religion have an exclusive claim to the only ONE GOD? If not, what is God?
On 20 May 2023 at 4:30 p.m. our Hon. Secretary, Lily Chong, will give the theosophical view of God based on the comments of the Great Adepts and prominent theosophists including H. P. Blavatsky, C. W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant. Don’t miss this interesting talk.