An Introduction to the Trans-Himalayan Teachings - Jon Eden Khan
All spiritual traditions are custodians of a transmission. Essentially, that transmission embodies an assertion as to the wonder, goodness, and power of Reality. This is also the case with the Trans-Himalayan tradition. Over the course of its near 150 year history, it has made a significant though often little recognised contribution to the evolution of spirituality and consciousness on the planet.
The tradition is understood by many to have three primary phases of expression, the last of which is still to fully emerge. The Tibetan Master Djwhal Khul, in his work with Alice Bailey, described this unfolding of the teachings over time in most detail,[i] and Helena Blavatsky also hinted in The Secret Doctrine that the teachings would continue to unfold over time.[ii]
Burning of Darkness by Nicolas Roerich
Hierarchy: The Global Community of Liberated Beings
The three phases of the Trans-Himalayan teachings are understood to embody a continually unfolding revelation concerning the deepest mysteries of Reality, the kosmos, the earth and humanity. They are understood to have been transmitted to humanity by a community of enlightened and liberated beings - saints, sages, and bodhisattvas, described in the teachings as “the Hierarchy” or just “Hierarchy”.
These beings are described as dwelling principally in the Himalayas, and are understood to represent one branch of an ageless planetary lineage of wisdom, awakening, and service. This community of liberated beings is understood to have existed upon Earth as long as humanity has existed here and even before, and to have preserved the wisdom concerning the true nature of Reality, the multidimensional nature of the evolutionary kosmos, and the mysteries of soul initiation.
While the beings who have transmitted the Trans-Himalayan teachings are understood to based in the Himalayas, branches of this planetary community are said to exist all over the world, including other places of power such as those in Central and South America, Southern India, Ancient Egypt, China, Europe, Africa and Australia. The liberated beings who participate in this community are understood to have awakened through the pathways of all traditions and none, and now principally operate from the subtle planes of the soul so as to empower and guide planetary awakening and evolution.
The existence of enlightened beings operating behind the scenes of the world stage, who choose to remain within the aura of the Earth to stimulate and empower planetary awakening and evolution, is described in all major religious and spiritual traditions. This is the ‘Rijjall ul Ghaib’, or the ‘invisible world government’ of the Sufis; the Ancestors of the Shamanic and Earth-centred traditions; the Gyanganj or Siddhashrama of the Hindus; “the spirits of just men made perfect” of the Bible; the liberated buddhas and bodhisattvas of the Buddhists; the ‘Tzadikim Nistarim’ or ‘Hidden Righteous Ones’ of mystical Judaism; the ‘Xian’, or Immortals of the Taoist – the Hierarchy of the Trans-Himalayan teachings.
The “Ageless Wisdom” that these beings represent is understood to have been the esoteric heart of every global wisdom tradition. It is important to note here that we are speaking of an utterly different kind of lineage to the often mentally separative and dogmatic religious traditions within humanity. The planetary community we are speaking about here is one participated in by beings who have journeyed so deeply into the Mystery of Reality that they no longer operate through mind and mental forms of knowledge as we know them, but rather through a form of intuitive wisdom-insight that flows naturally from direct awakening to Reality once mind has been transcended and that is the property of liberated souls. In this respect, Djwhal Khul and Bruce Lyon have offered a valuable distinction between wisdom and knowledge.[iii] Knowledge is something that changes and evolves as the mind of humanity evolves. Wisdom is rooted in insight into the nature of Reality and the kosmos as they are revealed in the spaces of becoming deeper than mind. Knowledge evolves. Wisdom is, and always has been.
As such, the teaching found in the Trans-Himalayan transmission can be understood to have two sources. The first is the open release into the world of teachings that have likely been held secret and shared only with the innermost initiates of the global wisdom traditions owing to them being of such an esoteric nature. The existence of teachings that remain secret to those outside the initiated circles of a tradition, and about which those who have been initiated are forbidden to speak of, is very real, even in our modern age in which so much of the Eastern wisdom has become known to the West. Many of the Vajrayana and Hindu esoteric teachings, for instance, are written in what is called “twilight language” (sāṃdhyābhāṣā); a polysemic system of language composed of symbols and images incomprehensible to those not initiated into their meaning.
The second stream composing the Trans-Himalayan teachings could be described as information not rooted in any human tradition as yet, esoteric or exoteric. Rather, these are realisations concerning the multidimensional evolutionary kosmos, penetrated into by those beings described above whose levels of evolutionary development are so advanced in comparison to our own that it is beyond our capacity to imagine. These insights exist as the basis of their collective culture of shared wisdom and interconnection.
The Three Phase of the Trans-Himalayan Teachings
The first of the three phases of Trans-Himalayan teachings ran from approximately 1875 - 1920 and involved the work of Helena Blavatsky principally, and the founding of the Theosophical Society. It also included the work of such individuals as Alfred Sinnett, W. Q. Judge, Annie Besant, Charles Leadbeater, Mabel Collins, Francia La Due and Rudolf Steiner.
This phase of work entailed teachings concerning the expression of Absolute Reality into all cosmic manifestation; a spiritual perspective on the evolution of the kosmos and humanity; as well as the first modern spiritual and cultural exchange between Eastern and Western paths of spirituality, philosophy, and scientific thought. Indeed, the prevalence of Eastern philosophy in Western culture today, as well as the increasing interface between science and spirituality, certainly stems in large part from the pioneering work of these early Theosophists. The fact that Blavatsky was also clear that the teachings she was bringing had been shared with her by a community of liberated masters who form a planetary community guiding humanity’s collective evolution from behind the scenes was a point that also had significant impact on world culture.
The seal of the Theosophical Society – the primary embodiment of the first phase of the Trans-Himalayan tradition.
The second phase ran from approximately 1920 - 1965 involved the work of Alice Bailey, Helena Roerich and Lucille Cedercrans, all of whom received teachings from masters who described themselves as part of Hierarchy.
Alice Bailey was a former theosophist who went on to work with the Tibetan master Djwhal Khul, one of the beings whom Blavatsky had come into contact with during her phase of work.
Artist depiction of the Master Djwhal Khul
Djwhal Khul contacted Bailey telepathically in 1919, when she was 35, with the communication that she might be able to make a contribution to the evolution and awakening of humanity through their collaboration on a series of books. Bailey refused initially, as she had no interest in what she perceived to be lower psychic activity and at the time didn’t know the identity of this mysterious contact. He persisted, however, and after a trial period in which she was allowed to weigh up whether what came through was genuine and of benefit to humanity, she agreed to serve as the receiver and distributor of his teaching. This began a telepathic relationship that continued for 30 years, until Alice’s death in 1949.
Alice Bailey was keen to point out that the mode of communication was telepathic rather than channelling. Bailey shared that she did not ‘give up’ her mind, but rather was trained to align it via her soul with that of Djwhal Khul’s for the transmission to flow into her awareness clearly. Together they collaborated on 24 books of esoteric philosophy and science, while Alice and her husband, Foster Bailey, established the Lucis Trust, which still today holds under its umbrella the Arcane School – an international school of esoteric training in meditation study and service; Lucis Publishing, which still publishes the Djwhal Khul / Alice Bailey books; and World Goodwill, an educational initiative that seeks to promote right human relations over the globe.
Symbols associated with the works of Alice Bailey (left), Helena Roerich and the Agni Yoga material (centre) and the Lucille Cedercrans material (right) – three of the most prominent expressions of the second phase of the Trans-Himalayan tradition.
The second phase also involved the work of other disciples such as Helena Roerich and her husband Nicolas Roerich. Helena worked with another master of Hierarchy known as the Master Morya to put out the Agni Yoga series of books, while her husband, Nicolas, remains one of the foremost spiritually influenced artists of the 20th Century. Lucille Cedercrans is another major contributor to the second phase teachings. She worked with the Master Rakoczi on what they called the “New Thoughtform Presentation of the Wisdom”, in much the same way that Bailey worked with Djwhal Khul and Roerich worked with Morya.
The Shamballa School symbol – an expression of the emerging third phase of the Trans-Himalayan tradition
In his work with Bailey, Djwhal Khul suggested that the third phase of the teachings would emerge around the year of 2025,[iv] but that teachings preparatory to the third phase would emerge in the early part of the 21st Century.[v] In this connection, he suggested that the third phase of teachings would have the the One Life that lives in the core of all beings, Shamballa, the power and divine purpose aspect of divinity, and the universal story of becoming, within which humanity finds its place, as the primary focus. These teachings began to emerge in the form of a 10-year collaboration between Djwhal Khul and Bruce Lyon between the years 2000-2010, and a further preparatory set of teachings started to emerge in 2020 that can be found here.
The Coming Third Phase
In terms of the teachings that are projected to emerge around the year 2025, it is described that the new teaching will not be given through any one individual, but rather through a group initiate. That is, through a group of beings who have integrated the teachings given so far in a way where they know who they are as souls, are grounded in their bodies, and open to the One Life at their core.
In terms of the purpose at the heart of this third phase that is to come, that is to bring Humanity, the Earth and the Fire of kosmic Purpose held in reservoir and transmitted by those super-conscious communities of awakening into such fusion that it is eventually consumed in the flames of a global awakening. As Djwhal Khul describes it, this process will allow an even greater revelation to break like a wave upon humanity’s consciousness;[vi] a revelation concerned with the emergence of a global culture of the One; with Humanity's identification as a single being of kosmic origin; and with the cosmic Purpose that it is the destiny of the Earth to transmit in and through the kosmos.
Whether this will be the end of the tradition is open to speculation. No form is destined to last forever, and what better way to go out than by action of the Fire of realized Purpose. In the lead up to this, however, and with reference to the group initiate that we understand will receive the next phase of the teachings, it is important to point out that such a group must learn to stand as a representative of all humanity, and thus open a door to that which is to come. For such beings, the choice to stand together as one will come not from shared systems of belief or methods of work, but because it is the irrefutable call of their free and awakened hearts to do so.
The Purpose of the Three Phases
In one of the books published as a result of the collaboration between the Djwhal Khul and Bruce Lyon, Occult Cosmology, they review the Trans- Himalayan tradition in each of its phases, and suggest that each can be understood to play a particular role in the awakening of those who work with them.[vii]
The first phase, which expressed itself in the Theosophical movement, is described as orienting the individual to the spiritual realities, and this can be clearly seen to be the case with the work of the early and present day Theosophists. The focus of this group is very often on studying and learning to understand the teachings on cosmology and humanity’s place in the evolutionary process.
The second phase is described as providing a body of teaching that allows the individual to learn to participate in the evolution of consciousness and the working out of the Plan on Earth. This can be seen in the incredibly detailed picture of the evolving soul, planetary and solar ecologies within which we find our place given in these teachings, and the teachings on meditations and practices through which we can enter into relationship with that process.
The keynote of the third phase is described as transmitting a set of teachings that bring online the spirit-core of the individuals who work with them, empower their liberation, and allow them to take their place in the emerging global group so that they may begin to consciously work with and transmit the creativity, love, wisdom and divine Will of the One Life as they bridge the natural and super-human kingdoms.
Djwhal Khul lets us know to set up no barriers of separation between the three phases. He notes that souls with varying destinies will be attracted to work with one, two or all three phases, as is their calling.
[i] Alice A. Bailey, The Rays and Initiations (New York, NY: Lucis Publishing Company, 1960), 255.
[ii] Helena P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine (London, UK: Theosophical Publishing House, 1928), 22.
[iii] Bruce P. Lyon, Occult Cosmology (Palmerston North, NZ: White Stone Publishing, 2010), 2.
[iv] Alice A. Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age Volume 1 (New York, NY: Lucis Publishing House, 1944), 778.
[v] Alice A. Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age Volume 2 (New York, NY: Lucis Publishing House, 1955), 261.
[vi] Lyon, Occult Cosmology, 10.
[vii] Ibid, 7-16.