Try!
General description
"Try!" is an injunction frequently found in occult theosophical literature. In a general sense, it is used to encourage the aspirant to keep trying in his treading of the Occult Path.
Between the months of March and August of 1875 Colonel Olcott began to receive various letters from an adept known as Master Serapis who was known for his simple exhortation – "Try".[1] A message from this Adept transmitted by Master Master Hilarion closes with the words: "Try, try—try!"
In a letter to A. P. Sinnett Master K.H. wrote: "We have one word for all aspirants: TRY".[2] And then again in another letter:
. . .at all events Try. “Nothing was ever lost by trying.” . . . We have our own peculiar modes of expression and what lies behind the fence of words is even more important than what you read. But still — TRY.[3]
Similarly, in a letter to Mohini the Master says ". . . go forward to your end thro’ all obstacles and overbearing all opposition. Try and you will succeed".[4]
A similar example can be found in the closing of a letter to Francesca Arundale: "Try, child, HOPE, and accept my blessings".[5]
Mme. Blavatsky, in one of her instructions to the members of the Esoteric Section quotes the words of one of the Masters: "THINK; and thinking, TRY: the goal is indeed worth all the possible effort".[6]
The occult truth conveyed by this injunction is the idea that what the aspirant has to do is to earnestly live the spiritual life, regardless of how successful he is in his attempt. Failure come from causes generated in the past and are inevitable, but if the aspirant keeps trying earnestly, he is doing all he is expected to do, and will eventually succeed in his endeavors. In Mme. Blavatsky's words:
With each morning's awakening try to live through the day in harmony with the Higher Self. "Try" is the battle-cry taught by the Teachers to each pupil. Naught else is expected of you. One who does his best does all that can be asked.[7]
. . . be not discouraged, but try, ever keep trying; twenty failures are not irremediable if followed by as many undaunted struggles upward.[8]
Specific uses
Finding the Master
A more specific way in which this exhortation was used in these letters was in regards to the possibility of entering in relationship with the Masters of Wisdom. For example, in one of the earliest letters the Master wrote: "He who seeks us finds us. TRY."[9]
About the same time, Mme. Blavatsky used the injunction in a similar way in a publication that she called "My first Occult shot". In an article signed by "Hiraf", doubts were expressed whether there were in existence "regular colleges for the neophytes of this Secret Science". In her answer she wrote:
As in the primitive days of Socrates and other sages of antiquity, so now, those who are willing to learn the Great Truth will find the chance if they only “try” to meet someone to lead them to the door of one “who knows when and how.”[10]
A few months later she repeated:
To fervent and persevering candidates for the above science, I have to offer but one word of advice, "Try and become".[11]
Will-Power
In other instances, this exhortation seems to be a call to the aspirant's will power. In a letter from Master Serapis to Colonel Olcott we read:
For he who hopes to solve in time the great problems of the Macrocosmal World and conquer face to face the Dweller, taking thus by violence the threshold on which lie buried nature’s most mysterious secrets, must Try, first, the energy of his Will power, the indomitable resolution to succeed, and bringing out to light all the hidden mental faculties of his Atma and highest intelligence, get at the problems of Man’s Nature and solve first the mysteries of his heart.[12]
Treading the Path
Mme. Blavatsky wrote:
A Rosicrucian had to struggle ALONE, and toil long years to find some of the preliminary secrets—the A B C of the great Cabala—only on account of his ordeal, during which were to be tried all his mental and physical energies. After that, if found worthy, the word “Try” was repeated to him for the last time before the final ceremony of the ordeal. When the High Priests of the Temple of Osiris, of Serapis, and others, brought the neophyte before the dreaded Goddess Isis, the word “Try” was pronounced for the last time; and then, if the neophyte could withstand that final mystery, the most dreaded as well as the most trying of all horrors for him who knew not what was in store for him; if he bravely “lifted the veil of Isis,” he became an initiate, and had naught to fear more. He had passed the last ordeal, and no longer dreaded to meet face to face the inhabitants from “over the dark river.”[13]
Notes
- ↑ Jeffrey D, Lavoie, "The Theosophical Society: The History of a Spiritualist Movement" (Boca Raton, FL: BrownWalker Press, 2012), 56.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 54 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 148.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 111 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 381.
- ↑ Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa, Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom First Series No. 23 (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 61.
- ↑ Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa, Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom First Series No. 20 (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 56.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. XII (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1980), 591.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1980), 505.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. XII (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1980), 640.
- ↑ Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa, Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom Second Series No. 3 (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1977), 11.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. I (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 103.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. I (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 133.
- ↑ Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa, Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom Second Series No. 3 (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1977), 38.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. I (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 115.