Theos-Talk Archives (December 1998 Message tt00059)

Nicholas Weeks writes:

>Somewhere in the Mahatma Letters(?) one says that we
>occidentals can try to practice a little study of metaphysics and try to
>meditate -- but that is all.

Does anyone know which letter this is?
>
>Twenty or 25 years ago Je Tsongkhapa's tantric stages of the path treatise
>was two-thirds translated.  It is still in print.  The titles were
>changed, but I think they are: TANTRA IN TIBET & YOGA OF TIBET.  Both had
>comments by the present Dalai Lama.  Also a reliable version of
>TSONGKHAPA'S SIX YOGAS OF NAROPA and READINGS ON THE SIX YOGAS OF NAROPA
>have just come out from Snow Lion; translated by Glenn Mullin.

It would be very interesting to know the comments of the Tashi Lama, if any.
>
>>Take for comparison the word "pranayama".  Many schools of yoga take
>>this as part of the means or road to enlightenment, but look at what
>>Blavatsky and her Masters say in their writings about pranayama.  And
>>see the interpretation that HPB gives to this word "pranayama" in her
>>E.S. Instructions.
>
>The ES teachings were (as was the TS) mainly aimed at the West -- and the
>West is not ready for real pranayama, which Patanjali made an intergral
>part of yoga.

HPB says very little about Patanjali.  Remember a remark somewhere.  Was the
TS in fact mainly aimed at the West considering HPB set up base in India,
all the different religions in India, caste system, etc.  The first object
had caste in it.  And the "pranayama" reference in the Mahatma Letters is to
an Indian?  Damodar is said to be the only chela who succeeded.  An Indian.
That is some achievement.
>
>The human ego (Western or Eastern) is such that a spiritual teaching or
>practice must be called "supreme" or "esoteric" before most people will
>pay attention to it.  When we are told the plainest of truths, that our
>qualifications fit us only for the kindergarten variety of spirituality,
>most of us chafe and huff about it.
>
>I think it was a disaster for the Tibetans' to introduce tantra to the
>West.  The Stages of the Path and Mind Training teachings they have are
>adequate for 99.9 per cent of us.

Why a disaster for the Tibetans'?  For Karmic reasons? The exoteric schools?
>
Tony