Theos-Talk Archives (September 1997 Message tt00004)

Dear Nicholas Weeks:

A week or so ago you commented on the non-use of personal names
at the ULT, so some notes written around the time when the ULT
was started, could perhaps make clear its basis:

> In the work that we have undertaken together, it matters not
> whether "we" fail or succeed: Our purpose has been and will be
> that the Work shall go on. It is, then, to the Teahers that
> attention has to be called--not to ourselves who are only handing
> them on as best we can. It would be well if those who are
> interested in Theosophy would stop figuring it out for
> themselves, and get busy spreading the Philosophy, and the idea
> of service.
>
> Our work is to keep it pure as it was delivered to us, for the
> sake of those who can be helped. Theosophy pure and simple is
> the standard by which efforts may be applied and errors
> combatted, so it must always be kept in evidence as the source.
> So it is good work to search out and make available to all, those
> necessary quotations from Their writings which carry the intent
> of the Teachers. "All Theosophy is before you; take what you
> can.
>
> Our work is to call attention to the true basis for union among
> Theosophists. People need to grasp the message of Theosophy for
> itself--not because of belief in any person or ororganization.
> If students succeed in grasping and applying the philosophy, they
> will have true clairvoyance as to men, things and methods--their
> gratitude will find expression in their doing in turn for others,
> all that had contributed to their opportunity.
>
> The main work is to convey ideas. Since it is our purpose to
> draw attention to the Teachers and the Teachings (not to any
> others) it is conservation, safety, to maintain the impersonality
> of "U.L.T." Attention is thus drawn to the great underlying
> Movement. Until each clarifies their own perceptions they will
> not know "gold of Ophir" from base metal.
>
> Let the ULT flourish on its moral worth alone. Its work, and the
> knowledge it gives out, depends on no other names than those of
> the true teachers, H.P.B. and W.Q.J. Associates must learn to
> look to them, to point to them, and to the "Masters" whom they
> served. Nothing else will restore the Movement. Unity is the
> key note of this attemtpt, and living persons, if made prominent,
> will detract from that. So we will keep names out of
> consideration, the really earnest will then judge by the fruits,
> not by persons.
>
> So our work will consist in presenting ideas, that will work for
> greater good in the future, here a little and there a little,
> thus encouraging the active minds of Theosophists of every degree
> to as broad a conception of the Philosophy as possible. And all
> these activities will be educational for us too, for we will have
> to meet all kinds of minds, and so speak so as to leave an
> impression that will stick.
>
> The moral is--If anyone desires to be a Theosophist, let him or
> her study Theosophy as it was given by those who enunciated it.
> For one to accept as true what any teacher chooses to tell them,
> without any means given them by which to verify the statements
> made, or without verifying for themselves the facts alleged--is
> simply to believe on blind faith, as do so many others.
>
> Our own difficult task is to avoid all semblance of authority of
> any kind, while being at the same time sure of our ground and not
> afraid to say so. We have to give the salient points, clear and
> definite, as well as concise in statement, so that thoughts shall
> be deirected to them; to make the points so striking that they
> cannot be passed over, even by the careless, and that they shall
> stand as facts, and facts only, before the mind, verifyable by
> anyone who cares enough to do so.
>
> --Robert Crosbie

[The above quotations are taken from "The Friendly Philosopher,"
a book that consists of lettes, and transcripts of lectures by
Mr. Robert Crosbie, who was largely responsible for the founding
of the "U.L.T." The statments will be found made between pages
263 and 270 in that book.. Dallas TenBroeck ]