Theos-Talk Archives (May 1998 Message tt00321)

      Many thanks to Paul Johnson and Jerry Schueler for their
interesting and enlightening answers to my questions.
     Paul,  your point about the difference between "head learning"
(the books, articles, writings, etc.) and the "heart doctrine" (the
unspoken, occult and "unteachable" teaching)  is an important one,
especially for those of us who have made a determined effort to "go to
school" to HPB.  We owe her a great debt of appreciation, and can learn
a great deal from her writings,  but she would have been the last to
want a blind belief in the dead letter, just because "SHE said so!"   I
especially like your final point:  <<we should never confuse the
"specific tenets" with essential theosophia>>.   (If  theosophists are
upset by this, then they need to go back and **think** about what she
wrote!)
    Jerry, may I pursue a thought or two further?

    You wrote:  <<She also was not that great with English and probably
just wrote a few things wrong that seemed right to her (she knew what
she meant to say).>>     Yes, and given all the obstacles she worked
with, it's a wonder there aren't more "errors!"

      Wes asked: <<On the other hand, if you are saying that HPB did not
know
the ancient, occult doctrine, as taught to her by her Teachers, then how

do you know that?>>
      Jerry replied: <<She knew. But we have been arguing over exactly
who or what
her teachers were. Were they Tibetans? Were they Hindus?>>
    We agree on the first point  (she knew the occult doctrines), but I
must have missed the next part of the discussion:    I thought HPB's
Teachers were from the Great Lodge of Adepts.   What difference does it
make what their nationalities were?   Those great beings are such by
their inner development, not by belonging to this or that particular
outer form of race, creed, etc.   Part of HPB's work was to call
attention to the fact of the existence of the Great Lodge, not only in
historical personages, but in universally found doctrines and in our own
inner potential.

    Wes asked:  <<By what means do YOU know the truth, but HPB did
not?   How would you know what she was taught, or what the adepts of
antiquity taught, except by reading her works?>>
    Jerry replied:  <<I am at a loss to know what you mean here.>>
    Sorry I was so vague.  The second part of the question , especially,
was not well-worded.  I think Paul Johnson got my intent:
<<At one level, that of doctrines, there are vastly more sources in
print now than in HPB's time, and Jerry can know more than she
did.  At the level of the ineffable, Jerry is surely not claiming
himself to be "right" and HPB "wrong.">>
    Let me try to clarify a little further:   HPB pointed to the
"ancient, wisdom teaching" that was hidden in all the great religions,
sciences and philosophies of the past.  She said the key to
understanding them was turned once in Isis, once more in the S.D.  (I
think).  But my reference to "the adepts of antiquity" was not to the
exoteric teachings of any time or place, but rather to the "eternal
sacred science."   I think HPB knew more about that than she ever wrote
in any of her books (but she certainly gave us some tantalizing
clues!),  and far more than any of us will discover in books, even in
the most modern and scholarly works.
     Well, enough-gotta go!  Hope this helps.  Thanks for sharing your
replies.

Best Regards,

Wes