Theos-Talk Archives (October 2000 Message tt00185)

The discussion regarding who was what level of initiation be it second,
sixth or seventh seems to me to bring disrepute on Theosophy. Most
students in the East as well as the West today of oriental philosophy
will have little to do with these occult findings. Years ago there was
an understanding that Theosophy was a kind of Lodge oragnizaion and
people associate secrecy and levels of initiation with Lodges as in
Rosicrucian Orders and so forth, but these things I think have been
brought into disrepute.

What I am trying to articulate is that during the early theosophy
movement there was the beginning of exposure to early translations of
Buddhist, Hindu scriptures and philosophy and people in the West began
to color these philosophys with their earlier exposure to western
esoteric traditions as well as spiritualism and such. To me this is the
excess backage of our movemnet that needs to be shucked off. We can
still refer to it as an interesting historical antedote but it really
as no place in relating to current discoveries in the fields of
religious studies.

There are many fine products of study of Tibetan Buddhism and other
fields and so on that we have today and they do not confirm much of the
romantic occultism that was used a hundred years ago. 


With all due respect to the efforts of our seers and their
contributions, I think much of what they have written should be
dispensed with or relegated to a section of historical interest and
leave it at that.


- Art

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"Nothing is higher than Mount Meru nor anything more expansive than the sky. Similarly know that no Dharma is equal to Ahimsa in this world."

- Bhakta-Parijna: 91

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