Theos-Talk Archives (August 2002 Message tt00010)

Does Theosophy Have Core Doctrines?
Compiled by Daniel H. Caldwell

Some theosophical students have written that true Theosophy does not 
have core teachings. These students have characterized those who 
believe Theosophy has definite teachings as "Core Theosophists" and 
labeled them as "dogmatists", "fundamentalists", and with other 
negative terms. 

In response, I've appended excerpts from an 1975 article by Boris de 
Zirkoff, the editor of The Blavatsky Collected Writings. I believe 
Mr. de Zirkoff's word reflect common sense and a practical approach 
to the study of Theosophy. I've also appended a number of excerpts 
from H.P.B.'s first great work, Isis Unveiled, which, in my opinion, 
confirm much of what Mr. de Zirkoff has written. 

First, Boris de Zirkoff: 

For some years past, a tendency has existed among some [theosophical] 
students ... to consider theosophy as some sort of generalized 
approach to truth, a tradition, often somewhat uncertain, concerning 
various aspects of the Universe and man, a system of ideas and 
concepts which can hardly be defined with any degree of exactness or 
clarity. It is most likely that this tendency owes its origin to a 
desire to avoid any dogmatic attitude or the creation of any kind of 
creed. The motive may have been laudable, but the methods employed 
have been rather dubious. 

We should never lose sight of the fact that the Esoteric Philosophy 
is a very definite doctrine, a system of thought based on specific 
postulates, on well-defined propositions ... Even a cursory glance at 
the pages of The Secret Doctrine would confirm this fact. That work 
contains innumerable instances where H.P.B. (and the Adept-Brothers 
speaking through her) uses such expressions as: "the Secret Doctrine 
teaches," "secret records declare," "The Esoteric Philosophy states 
that ... ," "it is the teaching of the ancient occult doctrine," and 
others. If the student cared to underline these passages and then 
read them consecutively, or place them in juxtaposition, he would see 
at a glance that the "Secret Doctrine," as a system of thought, is 
about as definite as any science or philosophy is ever apt to be, and 
stands in direct opposition to a large number of other ideas which 
have become current in the world under the name of one or another 
religion or philosophy. 

It is perfectly true that the objects of the organized body known as 
The Theosophical Society have never contained any definition of what 
Theosophy is or is not; but it is equally true that the teachings 
promulgated by the Founders and their Superiors are defined in no 
uncertain language throughout the length and breadth of the original 
theosophical literature, leaving no room whatsoever for doubt as to 
what the system of thought known as theosophy is all about, what it 
teaches and what it does not. 

If this state of affairs is at any time considered to be credal in 
nature, and therefore dogmatic, then we will have to assume that the 
statement of 'two and two making four' is also a creed, or that the 
laws governing gravitational and magnetic energies are dogmatic. 

The propositions of the Esoteric Philosophy may seem to be dogmatic 
or may be interpreted as a creed by those of us — probably the 
overwhelming majority of us — -who are yet unable to prove them
to ourselves experimentally. This situation is not much different 
from the fact that a beginner in chemistry can hardly prove to 
himself the alleged fact that water is H2O, until he has grasped the 
methods necessary to verify it experimentally. 

If we are prepared to comply with the conditions necessary for a 
personal investigation of the facts of nature defined by the Occult 
Doctrine, we shall be in a position to prove to ourselves 
experimentally the validity of its propositions. How many of us are 
ready to do so? 

In the meantime — and far from any acceptance of ideas on merely
a blind belief — we can investigate the coherence of that system
of thought, its logical interrelatedness, its appeal to both reason 
and intuition, its application in both great and small ways, and its 
practical value in relation to others. Thereby we may become 
gradually convinced of the truth of the propositions and postulates 
of the Esoteric Philosophy, long before the time when it will have 
become possible for us to undertake a 'clinical' investigation of the 
laws involved therein and to manipulate the forces and energies of 
the occult aspects of Nature. 

And from Isis Unveiled by H.P. Blavatsky: 

The work now submitted to public judgment is the fruit of a somewhat 
intimate acquaintance with Eastern Adepts and study of their 
science ... we came into contact with certain men, endowed with such 
mysterious powers and such profound knowledge that we may truly 
designate them as the sages of the Orient. To their instructions we 
lent a ready ear ... (I, v, vi) 

... from the first ages of man, the fundamental truths of all that we 
are permitted to know on earth was in the safe keeping of the adepts 
of the sanctuary ... those guardians of the primitive divine 
revelation, who had solved every problem that is within the grasp of 
human intellect, were bound together by a universal freemasonry of 
science and philosophy, which formed one unbroken chain around the 
globe. (I, 37-38) 

There are, scattered throughout the world, a handful of thoughtful 
and solitary students, who pass their lives in obscurity, far from 
the rumors of the world, studying the great problems of the physical 
and spiritual universes. They have their secret records in which are 
preserved the fruits of the scholastic labors of the long line of 
recluses whose successors they are ... (I, 557) 

The esoteric doctrine ... teaches ... that the one infinite and 
unknown Essence exists from all eternity, and in regular and 
harmonious successions is either passive or active. In the poetical 
phraseology of Manu these conditions are called the 'day' and 
the 'night' of Brahma. The latter is either 'awake' or 'asleep.' ... 
Upon inaugurating an active period, says The Secret Doctrine, an 
expansion of this Divine essence, from within out- wardly, occurs in 
obedience to eternal and immutable law, and the phenomenal or visible 
universe is the ultimate result of the long chain of cosmical forces 
thus progressively set in motion. In like manner, when the passive 
condition is resumed, a contraction of the Divine essence takes 
place, and the previous work of creation is gradually and 
progressively undone. The visible universe becomes disintegrated, its 
material dispersed; and 'darkness,' solitary and alone, broods once 
more over the face of the 'deep.' To use a metaphor which will convey 
the idea still more clearly, an out breathing of the 'unknown 
essence' produces the world; and an inhalation causes it to 
disappear. This process has been going on from all eternity, and our 
present universe is but one of an infinite series which had no 
beginning and will have no end. (II, pp. 264-265) 

Gautama, no less than all other great reformers, had a doctrine for 
his 'elect' and another for the outside masses ... Gautama left the 
esoteric and most dangerous portion of the 'secret knowledge' 
untouched ... (II, 319) 

... the Secret Doctrine is the Truth ... (II, 292) 

... many are those who ... will remain in doubt and mortal agony as 
to whether, when man dies, he will live again, although the question 
has been solved by long bygone generations of sages ... except the 
initiates, no one has understood the mystic writing. The key was in 
the keeping of those who knew how to commune with the invisible 
Presence, and who had received, from the lips of mother Nature 
herself, her grand truths ... (I, 573) 

... This 'secret doctrine' contains the alpha and omega of universal 
science; therein lies the corner and the keystone of all the ancient 
and modern knowledge; and alone in this ... doctrine remains buried 
the absolute in the philosophy of the dark problems of life and 
death ... (I, 511) 

Thus is it that all the religious monuments of old, in whatever land 
or under whatever climate, are the expression of the same identical 
thoughts, the key to which is in the esoteric doctrine ... And the 
clergy of every nation, though practicing rites and ceremonies which 
may have differed externally, had evidently been initiated into the 
same traditional mysteries which were taught all over the world ... 
(I, 561) 

... the Northern seSwedenborg, advises people to search for the lost 
word among the hierophants of Tartary, China and Thibet; for it is 
there, and only there now ... 

... the four Vedas; the Books of Hermes; the Chaldean Book of 
Numbers; the Nazarene Codex; the Kabala ... ; the Sepher Jezira; the 
Book of Wisdom ... ; the Brahmanas; the Stan-gyour, of the Thibetans; 
all these volumes have the same ground-work. Varying but in 
allegories they teach the same secret doctrine which ... will prove 
to be the Ultima Thule of true philosophy, and disclose what is this 
lost word. (I, 580) 

... the 'secret doctrine' or wisdom was identical in every 
country ... (I, 444) 

... What we desire to prove is, that underlying every ancient popular 
religion was the same ancient wisdom- doctrine, one and identical, 
professed and practiced by the initiates of every country, who alone 
were aware of its existence and importance ... A single glance ... is 
enough to assure one that it could not have attained the marvelous 
perfection in which we find it pictured to us in the relics of the 
various esoteric systems, except after a succession of ages. A 
philosophy so profound, a moral code so ennobling, and practical 
results so conclusive and so uniformly demonstrable is not the growth 
of a generation, or even a single epoch. Fact must have been piled 
upon fact, deduction upon deduction, science have begotten science, 
and myriads of the brightest human intellects have reflected upon the 
laws of nature, before this ancient doctrine had taken concrete 
shape. The proofs of this identity of fundamental doctrine in the old 
religions are found in the prevalence of a system of initiation; in 
the secret sacerdotal castes who had the guardianship of mystical 
words of power, and a public display of a phenomenal control over 
natural forces, indicating association with preterhuman beings ... 

As we proceed, we will point out the evidences of this identity of 
vows, formulas, rites, and doctrines, between the ancient faiths. We 
will also show that not only their memory is still preserved in 
India, but also that the Secret Association is still alive and as 
active as ever ... the chief pontiff and hierophant, the Brahmatma, 
is still accessible to those 'who know,' though perhaps recognized by 
another name; and that the ramifications of his influence extend 
throughout the world ... (II, 99-100) 

Our examination of the multitudinous religious faiths that mankind, 
early and late, have professed, most assuredly indicates that they 
have all been derived from one primitive source. It would seem as if 
they were all but different modes of expressing the yearning of the 
imprisoned human soul for intercourse with supernal spheres. As the 
while ray of light is decomposed by the prism into the various colors 
of the solar spectrum, so the beam of divine truth, in passing 
through the three-sided prism of man's nature, has been broken up 
into vari-colored fragments called religions. And, as the rays of the 
spectrum, by imperceptible shadings, merge into each other, so the 
great theologies that have appeared at different degrees of 
divergence from the original source, have been connected by minor 
schisms, schools, and off-shoots from the one side or the other. 
Combined, their aggregate represents one eternal truth; separate, 
they are but shades of human error and the signs of 
imperfection ... " "What has been contemptuously termed Paganism, was 
ancient wisdom replete with Deity; and Judaism and its offspring, 
Christianity and Islamism, derived whatever of inspiration they 
contained from this ethic parent. Pre-Vedic Brahmanism and Buddhism 
are the double source from which all religions sprung; Nirvana is the 
ocean to which all tend. (II, 639) 

End of article.
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