Download or read book The first step towards the Temple of Truth written by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and published by Philaletheians UK. This book was released on 2017-09-23 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selfishness is the root cause of every vice and sorrow. Self-love is the prime mover of every mortal sin. Vice and wickedness are an abnormal, unnatural manifestation, at this period of human evolution. But truth is often stranger than fiction. Some fictions point out to some of the most hidden ulcers in social life. For morality to exist between men and women, they must follow the Law of Chastity. Jesus did not teach Monasticism but the law of Continence. Of all vices, Vanity is the last and the most troublesome. Yet, in no class of society at large are deceit and craft considered as Divine Virtues, except in the clerical classes of theologians. In the unreal world we live in, every virtue (even a papal one) is tainted with vice. The first step towards the Temple of Truth is a clean life. Forgiveness of injuries, contentment, and pity are not exclusively Christian virtues. Still, the noble love of virtue for virtue’s own sake, of which some ancient Pagan nations were such prominent exemplars, has never blossomed in the Christian heart. Salvation by personal merit and self-forgetfulness is the greatest of all virtues and cornerstone of the teachings of Lord Buddha. For virtue cannot be spoofed or hoodwinked. One has to love her for her own sake without looking for reward or profit. The eminent ideal of virtue is the only basis of spiritual insight and attainment. One ought to despise that virtue which prudence and fear alone direct. The seven cardinal virtues are superhuman divine faculties. True virtues are faculties of the sevenfold Logoic Hierarchy. All else is burlesque and ballyhoo. They are the female counterparts of the Celestial Hierarchy. Virtues are one degree of the Hierarchy of Compassion, whose mission is to maintain righteousness on earth. They are the Four Maharajas, Kings of the Dhyani-Chohans, who preside over and rule the four Cosmical Forces. They are they who, being in this world, yet live far beyond our illusive life on earth.