Theos-Talk Archives (July 2001 Message tt00276)

Leon:

Do you really find H.P.B's English so difficult? Isn't it about Occultism
and Theosophy. Isn't that what is important? Morya couldn't speak English
(or write it for that matter), and yet look at those letters he
*precipitated* (not wrote) in English, and the wisdom that flows from them.

Did H.P.B. really edit the Masters? Was that what she was doing while
writing the S.D.? In the sense that all she brought was the string that
ties, it can be seen like that (although that may better be seen as
Ariadne's thread). It is worth considering the other view. That the
Masters were editing (doesn't seem the right word to use) H.P.B. Reading
through Countess Wachtmeister's "Reminiscences" certainly gives the latter
perspective.

Remember the discussion about "thin oblong squares" (In The Voice of the
Silence.)? Did you put it down to her English rather than really thinking
about what she was writing? At first you were saying how ridiculous it was,
and trying to justify the alteration to "thin oblongs" made by Annie
Besant/Mead, and perpetuated by Judge.

You write:
<<<Thus, the version of the Voice of the Silence, for example, edited and
annotated by WQJ -- which is far more clearly written and more easily
understandable than the original manuscript by HPB -- is the edition of
choice I would recommend to beginning students... >>>

Is it far easier to understand, is this actually true? And even if it was
true, is this the measure by which to recommend? It may be easier to
understand the meaning of "thin oblongs" than the meaning of "thin oblong
squares", but does that make it a good reason to alter it. It goes towards
altering the underlying structure of the whole work. Surely the thinking
mind would prefer the True edition? As you wrote: "But, generally, I have
found in my own studies, that whatever may have seemed difficult to
understand at the beginning of the original SD, has always been sufficiently
clarified in later passages. . . " Surely this is similarly true with "The
Voice of the Silence."

Tony

-----Original Message-----
From: leonmaurer@aol.com [mailto:leonmaurer@aol.com]
Sent: 26 July 2001 8:01 am
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com; Yahseyes@aol.com
Subject: Re: Theos-World Katinka's questions about verbatim editions



In a message dated 07/25/01 9:57:24 AM, blavatskyarchives@yahoo.com writes:

>The moral of this story is that one should carefully
>examine all editions of HPB's writings REGARDLESS of
>the publisher and try to ascertain if they are
>facsimiles of the originals and if not facsimiles,
>then are they truly verbatim with HPB's originals,etc.

If this were a forum devoted solely to scholars interested in determining
originality and authenticity, without interest in the meaning or context of
the work in question, I couldn't agree with you more.

However, if there are readers here who are interested in studying the truths
of theosophy, I think that the only judgments to be made as to the validity
of a particular edition, whether original, revised, edited or not, is
whether
or not the reader can understand the teachings as they are tested against,
correlate, and are consistent with a profound prior knowledge and
understanding of the Three Fundamental Principles (which, as HPB stated,
must
come before any study of doctrinal theosophy itself). This, of course,
would
apply to spiritual and meditative teachings, as well.

In my view, since HPB admitted that she may have made mistakes or committed
obfuscation's, due to her foreign usage of the English language in which she
wrote, certain changes initiated by her trusted direct students, especially
WQJ and, for example, his direct student, RC (without excluding Besant,
Mead,
Perucker, etc.) -- all of whom had much better command of the English
language than she had -- might be quite justified (depending on the level of
understanding of the particular editor).

Accordingly, my recommendation to the discerning student or chela is -- with
relation to the Secret Doctrine in particular, which was originally edited
prior to publication by HPB -- to study only the originally published or a
facsimile edition, and that whenever a particular point of theosophical
teaching is in any way difficult to understand, or seems inconsistent --
when
tested against a profound knowledge and understanding of the three
fundamental principles -- to compare the statement with another, later
edited
version of the same book.

But, generally, I have found in my own studies, that whatever may have
seemed
difficult to understand at the beginning of the original SD, has always been
sufficiently clarified in later passages, so that such referrals to revised
or post edited editions have never been necessary. In fact, when I did make
such comparisons, for purposes of answering the questions of students
working
with post HPB edited or revised versions of the SD, I found the edited
version sometimes added further obfuscation's that led to inconsistencies
with the fundamental truths (which must be taken as a priori axioms -- if
one
is to make any sense out of further studies of the theosophical synthesis of
science religion and philosophy).

However, in the case of books or writings of HPB edited by WQJ, in
particular
-- whom HPB trusted beyond any other of her later disciples (Vide, his
excellent and easily understandable condensation of the SD in the Ocean of
Theosophy) -- I would say that his edited version of any of HPB's writings
would be the one to choose for initial study. Thus, the version of the
Voice
of the Silence, for example, edited and annotated by WQJ -- which is far
more
clearly written and more easily understandable than the original manuscript
by HPB -- is the edition of choice I would recommend to beginning
students...
As I would further recommend WQJ's transliterations of the Bhagavad Gita, as
well as Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms, over any other English translations of
the original Sanskrit versions -- including those of some well respected
Hindu gurus and European scholars.

LHM



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