Theos-Talk Archives (September 1999 Message tt00105)

In a message dated 9/8/99 6:13:52 PM, blafoun@azstarnet.com writes:

<< And from this bird's eye view, I must admit that Blavatsky is one
of the few writers who covers in the 10,000 + pages of her writing vast
areas on all the subjects mentioned above.  AND EVEN MORE SUBJECTS THAT I
CAN'T LIST RIGHT NOW.

Am I'm missing out on something or is there new esoteric knowledge out there
that makes the HPB/Mahatmic productions look like a naive 101 beginners
textbook? ??? >>

Daniel, I agree with your first paragraph cited above, and disagree with the 
second.  I agree that there are few in recorded Western history who have 
written as widely and as MUCH as HPB has on mystical topics, and including 
science and philosophy to boot.  I have never tried to impugn her 
achievement, and I state over and over again is it ONLY because of HPB that I 
have a spiritual life at all.

That said -- HPB never goes deeply into any topics.  (I can already hear the 
jeers and protests.)  But I think HPB would agree with me.  Reading the S.D. 
is like reading a list of topics that OUGHT to be covered, but are merely 
surveyed for now.  HPB kept saying, "more will be given out, more will be 
given out.  It will take volumes and volumes.  Behave yourselves and you'll 
get them."

I see HPB as a doorkeeper -- before her, the vast doors of the East were 
closed to the West, except for a handful of snippy scholars whom HPB rightly 
chastises for their materialism and arrogance.

NOW the situation has begun to change.  The door, at first wedged open a 
crack, then a bit more, is now flung open wide.  We should not look for a 
replacement to HPB, someone who can write even MORE widely and even MORE 
voluminously.  We now need deeper writers -- a great many of them -- who can 
deepen HPB's gifts to us on SPECIFIC ESOTERIC TOPICS.

Sure, there are scattered around in HPB's writings hints on meditation.  But 
why are we so damn afraid to take such hints to a qualified LIVING master and 
learn to APPLY?  Why are we so committed to living off hints -- is the danger 
of falling off the wagon so great?  Buddhism offers literally DOZENS of kinds 
of specific meditation techniques, from coping with grief and loss all the 
way up to absorptive union with the Absolute.  

None of these requires surrendering the personal will, independence, 
renunciation of Theosophical ties.  Only one lama I am aware of insists his 
students sweat fealty to him alone -- and that's a lama I've steered VERY 
CLEAR of.  I can't renounce my dedication to HPB and her teachers as my ROOT 
GURUS.  But I Tibetan Buddhism, one is expected to take up a great many gurus 
who specialize in various things -- all the while retaining a root guru.  
(Even the Dalai lama, a master in some domains like Kalachakra, has tutors 
and gurus who are higher than he in other domains, like Madhyamaka.)

So, Daniel, my response to your second question is, yes -- I believe you have 
missed something.  HPB's works on meditation, to take but one example, ARE 
INDEED to be considered "Meditation 101 for beginners."  Her hints on Tibetan 
wisdom are like "Tibetan Buddhism 101."  Her hints on the Vedas are now 
"Vedas 101."  Her teachings on early Christianity (in the wake of the Dead 
Sea scrolls and Gnostic libraries found) are now "Christian Origins 101."

I still think HPB is an indispensable starting point, for she sets the tone 
and the attitude which guides the beginner all the way to the end.  She puts 
the "whole picture" together for Westerners.  That will still be, for some 
time to come, I think, indispensable.  And for many people, HPB is enough.  

It just breaks my heart to see people so in love with HPB (for all the right 
reasons) that they ignore the "reinforcements" that have been set out.  I 
guess I'll just have to let sleeping dogs lie.

Rich

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