Teachings of the Masters

By Douglas M. Baker

TEACHINGS OF THE MASTERS:

THREE GREAT TRUTHS

• "Hear me, my brother," he said. "There are three truths which are absolute, and which cannot be lost, but yet may remain silent for lack of speech.
• "The soul of man is immortal, and its future is the future of a thing whose growth and splendour has no limit.
• "The principle which gives life dwells in us and without us, is undying and eternally beneficent, is not heard or seen, or smelt, but is perceived by the man who desires perception.
• "Each man is his own absolute lawgiver, the dispenser of glory or gloom to himself; the decreer of his life, his reward, his punishment.
• "These truths, which are as great as is life itself, are as simple as the simplest mind of man. Feed the hungry with them."

—from "The Idyll of the White Lotus".
 

No better précis of the Teachings of the Masters exists than the beautiful words above. These teachings have many forms and many different names, yet the central theme remains the same: that a spiritual reality exists and only through an understanding of humanity's holistic nature will we discover the answers to the great questions of existence.

In this compilation you will find extracts from the works of a selection of authors. They all have one thing in common - they were inspired by members of the spiritual hierarchy of the planet, Masters of the Wisdom, the custodians, past, present and future, of humanity's spiritual inheritance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker eBooks Publishing
• Release date: Apr 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781625690388

Douglas M. Baker

Dr. Douglas M. Baker. English born and raised in South Africa has done extensive scientific research into those hinterlands of the mind which one might call psi-semantics. He graduated in the Arts & Humanities in South Africa and qualified in medicine at Sheffield University (UK) in 1964. Having taught in the East End schools of London for 10 years, he began his tour of the Western world giving lectures and seminars in Esoteric Healing, Esoteric Anatomy, Esoteric Astrology, Esoteric Psychology, Esoteric Science and Metaphysics. He, more than any other, set in motion the trends towards alternative methods of medicine which have transformed that field in Britain today. As medical advisor to the De la Warr laboratories in Oxford, he undertook research into Biomagnetism and quantum physics their effects on the human aura and dark matter, producing the book by the same name in conjunction with George de la Warr. Through the years he has given more than 15,000 lectures and attracted people from all over the world to his Esoteric Science Festivals and International Summer Schools staged in America, Canada, England, Switzerland, Italy, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. His transformative experiences during the Second World War, when twice severely wounded, set the pattern for his life long investigations into the Powers Latent in Man. His extensive esoteric writings are said to be the largest collection in the world produced by a living author. He has written over 100 books, many of which have been translated into the 9 European languages at https://www.douglasbaker.com, and his list of downloadable MP3 audio lectures available at www.douglasbaker.org, include 500 live lectures given around the world and on a vast range of subjects. He has led the field in esoteric astrology, producing with a team, his magnum opus, a Dictionary of Astrology for the 21st Century in three volumes. This is in addition to the already existing 11 volume set of books on the same subject.

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Table of Contents

Teachings of the Masters

Special Note

Belief in the Masters

Difficulties Constitute Opportunities

TEACHINGS OF THE MASTERS

The Caduceus Symbol

The Body as an Energy Transformer

THe Collective Unconscious

The River and the Rope

The Thirst for KnoWLEdge and the Search for Wisdom

Karma

The Karma of Future Rebirths

The English Master

Knowledge of the Higher Worlds

The Death of Sir Thomas More

Esoteric Comment

The Morning Exercise

The Importance of Silence

Children in the Summerlands

Meditation for Promoting Opposites

Some Glimpses of the Future

Power and Pollution

PARACELSUS DOCTOR AND OCCULTIST

How Many Lives on Earth?

Man’s Dual Origin

DEVACHAN

TEACHINGS OF THE MASTERS

(to 1960)

Compiled by

Dr. Douglas M. Baker

B.A., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P.

Printed edition ISBN: 9780906006870

First Edition; 1965

This Edition: 1994

Printed version published by

BAKER PUBLICATIONS ‘LITTLE ELEPHANT’

HIGH ROAD, ESSENDON, HERTS., ENGLAND

This is the only authorised eBook of the printed edition.

© Copyright Dr. Douglas M. Baker 2013

ISBN 9781625690388

Published by Baker eBooks Publishing

Many audio lectures and some of the images and charts used here can be downloaded in higher definition for free from our website https://www.douglasbaker.org.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form, binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

SPECIAL NOTE

Nothing in this universe is static. All things change and evolve. The Masters too, continue to evolve. Having completed the human stage of their evolution they have, classically, 7 paths open to them. Only one of these paths involves continued involvement with our human evolution— the Nirmanakaya vesture. The Masters involved with the establishment of the Theosophical Society at the end of the last century, and those working through Alice Bailey during the early part of this century have all moved on to higher realms of expression and activity, and other members of humanity, having achieved Adepthood, have risen to take their place.

Say not the struggle naught availeth,

The labour and the wounds are vain,

The enemy faints not, nor faileth,

And as things have been they remain.

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;

It may be, in yon smoke concealed,

Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers,

And, but for you, posses the field.

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,

Seem here no painful inch to gain,

Far back, through creeks, and inlets making,

Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

And not by eastern windows only,

When daylight comes, comes in light;

In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly;

But westward, look, the land is bright!

Arthur Hugh Clough

THREE GREAT TRUTHS

Hear me, my brother he said. "There are three truths which are absolute, and which cannot be lost, but yet may remain silent for lack of speech.

"The soul of man is immortal, and its future is the future of a thing whose growth and splendour has no limit.

"The principle which gives life dwells in us and without us, is undying and eternally beneficent, is not heard or seen, or smelt, but is perceived by the man who desires perception.

"Each man is his own absolute lawgiver, the dispenser of glory or gloom to himself; the decreer of his life, his reward, his punishment.

"These truths, which are as great as is life itself, are as simple as the simplest mind of man. Feed the hungry with them. "

— from The Idyll of the White Lotus.

BELIEF IN THE MASTERS

by Annie Besant

There was a time in the Roman Empire, at the beginning of the present era, when Christianity was persecuted, when Christians were spoken of with insult, when monstrous crimes were imputed to them, when they were charged with practising immorality at their sacred feasts, and with being worshippers of an ass’s head. That did not rebound on Christianity to injure it, but it re-acted on the ancient Paganism to destroy it. And that is what always happens, for truth cannot be killed by persecution; it is the persecutor who always, in the end, is slain.

Now I will not answer abuse by abuse; I believe that pain is inflicted for the most part ignorantly and thoughtlessly; I believe in that great excuse spoken by the Christ when His enemies slew Him: Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. I would try to explain our beliefs rather than strike back at our assailants, and it is because of that, that I come among you this afternoon, simply to lay before you something of what I believe and know of the Masters of the Wisdom. Then you may judge, after listening to our side of the question, how far such belief is either superstitious as regards religion, or harmful to the State or the community in which such a belief may prevail.

And first, in order to make quite clear what I mean, I may define the word ‘Master’. For it is a term which has been specially adopted by us who are Theosophists to indicate a certain definite status in Occultism. ‘Master’ is an English equivalent of a name more familiar here, the name Jivanmukta, the liberated Spirit. We mean a man who has become perfect; it is not equivalent to the Hindu Avatara, not to the Christian Divine Incarnation—a coming down of God in human form; but it indicates, on the contrary, a slow climbing up by man in life after life, until the God within him has become manifest and shines out through a perfect humanity to the world; a man who through hundreds of past lives has struggled and has fought; a man who, having reached a high point in human evolution, has then placed his feet on the Path, of which later I shall have something to say; who has trodden that Path of Holiness step by step; who has passed Initiation after Initiation: and who has finally reached human perfection, but remains in touch with the world of men, in order to help others tread the Path which He has trodden, and to reach the perfection which He has reached. That is what the Theosophist means when he speaks of a Master. A perfect Man in whom the divine Spirit is unfolded.

If you realise that that is the thought underlying the word, you will recognise at once that there is nothing in it repellent in any way, or possibly harmful. I ought perhaps to say that no member of the Society is asked to believe in the existence of these Masters. We do not ask that any one joining us shall affirm belief in the existence of these perfect Men. But at the same time I am bound to say that where that belief is strong, there the Society goes forward, and where it is weak, there the Society is of little effect. For so inspiring is the conception, so ennobling is the idea, so truly does it make one realise that what man has done man can do, that the very thought uplifts. For These are not Gods of a different nature from ourselves, who have done what we cannot do; but They are bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, human with our humanity, having lived on earth as we are living to-day. Out of that imperfection They have climbed, step by step, with toil and struggle and anguish, and now having reached the liberation which opens to Them the gateway of Nirvana—of that which the Christian would call final Salvation—They have turned back from its threshold for the helping of Their weaker brethren, in order that they too may find the Peace, that their weakness may be aided by the strength which These have achieved. That is meant by the name ‘Master’.

And now to explain the rest of the title. I will take ‘superstitious’ to mean—for the time, it is not a full definition—a belief which is not founded upon reason. The fuller explanation would be: A belief which, being irrational, takes the unessential as the essential. But the absence of a rational basis for a belief may serve as a fair working definition of a superstition. The man does not know why he believes it; he has no evidence for it; neither by the testimony of his senses nor by logic of his reason is he able to justify his belief. My duty is, then, to answer the question: Is belief in the Masters a superstition?

There are two ways in which you may regard this idea of Masters, one general and one particular. Both are important in the forming of your judgment. In the first place, the general, we seek to discover whether there are, in the history of the world, Men who have fulfilled the conception which I have just sketched to you, Men who have become perfect and yet have remained in touch with man. Now if we look at the history of the great religions, we shall find mention made of such men in every sacred literature, Men who embody divine perfection in a human form. You cannot read any of the ancient books of the Hindus without finding the mention