Theos-Talk Archives (April 1998 Message tt00432)

April 21st 1998
 OCCULT WORLD & ESOTERIC BUDHISM
Dear Dick:

Thanks for the correction> I wrote from (fallible) memory -- all
I had to do was to get up and walk 10 feet to my library shelf
and get the sequence and the dates right! Well, bad knees is a
good excuse !

Thanks for the correction -- at least what I wrote is read by
someone.

Incidentally. I have enjoyed the last 2 issues of HIGH COUNTRY
THEOSOPHIST. Just a word of thanks to you for your good work.

Best wishes, Dallas

P S :

A posting today brings up the question as to whether HPB
"channeled" the STANZAS OF DZYAN. She says she learned them
 and those used in VOICE OF THE SILENCE ) by heart.

In another place she also mentions the fact that Emma Coulomb
stole from her a page of one of her Senzar manuscripts (and gave
it to the missionaries -- and no one could make any sense out of
it).

She says that the Senzar is the secret sacerdotal language of
antiquity and it continues to be used by the Great Lodge. In
another place
( SD I 272-3) she speaks of the whole Secret Doctrine being
resolved into a few pages of signs and glyps. Of course a key to
understanding them is needed. If one goes through the S D, and
other early writings one can find quite a few of those "signs and
glyphs" actually printed and commented on -- in fact, a great
deal of the S D and also some of her articles are commentaries on
those same signs and glyps and their basic implications.

I had to chuckle a while ago when someone brought up the subject
of the SD being difficult. Try to learn any one of our sciences,
or even take up the study of modern psychology. First there is
some history, and then a period when one has to learn the terms
that are in use, and which are particular to that science
(although, some overlap) -- in most cases mathematics is basic to
all (in one way or another).

So what is the peculiarity of Theosophy ? Perhaps it is because
Theosophy focuses on the karma that we as immortal students
develop as we make choices from moment to moment going through
the School of Evolution. It is the moral quality of those
choices, our motives, which make our future lives easier or more
difficult. We all sense this, just as surely, as we are
interiorly ( Intuitively ?) certain that we cannot escape the
effects of deliberate evil and harm done to anyone or anything.

I would dearly like to know who started that disservice to
students of Theosophy when threw that wrench (named "Too
difficult") into the machinery. It has been a fine stumbling
block for many, and especially for those who like what they hear
superficially about Theosophy but have little inclination towards
the discipline of actually studying it and finding out what it
means as theory and practice. If they are interested, then why
not prove its value to themselves ? It is as though,
deliberately, a prop was knocked out from under them. Who said
it was "Too difficult ?"

I read may expressions concerning how they "feel," about what
they hear or read, or about "vibrations" which appeal to them--
and they assume that those "vibrations" tell them what is True !
I see very little about how the logic of thought enters into a
consideration of the validity of what is being expressed, or
investigated, or discussed.

The "feelings," will all too soon, pass. The thoughts will
remain -- just as this stumbling block: " The SD is too difficult
!" has deterred the weak-willed from actually trying to read and
understand it. So, in a way, we could deplore the fact that
another incarnation is (partially) wasted !

 End of my usual verbose PS Dal.

>From: "Dick Slusser" <dslusser@indra.com>
>Date: Tuesday, April 21, 1998 8:34 AM
>Subject: Publication dates Occult World & Esoteric
Budhism

>Dallas;
>
>Where you say:
>
>>In the meanwhile, Mr. Sinnett had used selected material which
he
>>received from Them to write ESOTERIC BUDDHISM, and later THE
>>OCCULT WORLD.
>
>I believe the word "later" is in error. The first edition of
O.W.
>was published in London in June 1881; ref: B.C.W. Vol. III p.
xxiv
>Esoteric Budhism (note spelling "one d") was published in 1883
according
>to Preface to Annotated Edition reprinted by Wizards Bookshelf,
>San Diego.
>
>Respectfully, Dick Slusser ed. High Country Theosophist
>
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