Theos-Talk Archives (May 1998 Message tt00346)

>    Whoa!  Jerry, I was beginning to agree with most of what you wrote,
>up until this point!   I really have to differ with you here.    HPB did
>not add up every idea she encountered in the world's religions, then
>pick and choose which ones she decided would be called "theosophy," much
>less the ones she just "agreed with for reasons of her own."  Instead,
>she STARTED with the ancient wisdom teachings, and weighed the world's
>religions and philosophies against that standard.

Its pretty much the same, at least to me. You have a standard, and
then you compare other things with that standard.


> Ideas such as
>reincarnation into animals, past life reviews, etc. that do not fit with
>Tibetan Buddhism are not "disconnects!"    Theosophy is more than the
>sum of its parts.
>

Ah, but she claimed to have been initiated into Tibetan Buddhism and
to have Tibetan Buddhists as Masters (at least some). It seems to
me that she should have either incorporated their stuff into her teachings
or told us when and why she did not. I agree that Theosophical
teachings can be found in most of the world's religions if we look
real hard. But a lot of basic religious teaching is opposed to what
Theosophy teaches. Buddhism teaches that the world is created
through our own karma, and not from gods, cosmocratores, manus,
and so on, so here is yet another disconnect from her statement
that she was a Buddhist (she did join Buddhism, along with Olcott)
and what she says in the SD.

Jerry S.