Theos-Talk Archives (August 2003 Message tt00096)

In an attempt to throw some light on the Besant/Leadbeater 
tangents following the passing of HPB and Olcott, I offer the 
following quote from H.P. BLAVATSKY, A GREAT 
BETRAYAL, by A.L. Cleather, pages 73.74, (Annie Besant 
took over as "President of the Theosophical Society" after 
Olcott's passing in 1907): 

<<Mrs. Besant's partiality for the Pratyeka Buddha, however, 
may possibly be explained by some words that H.P.B. once wrote 
of her to Mr. Judge:---"She is not psychic or spiritual in the 
least---all intellect." For H.P.B. opens her paragraph in the 
Theosophical Glossary on the Pratyeka Buddha with these 
words:--- "The Pratyeka Buddha is a degree which belongs 
exclusively to the Yogacharya school .... one of high 
intellectual development with no true spirituality." (Italics 
mine.) Moreover, we have the authority of the Maha Chohan 
Himself (the Head of the Trans-Himalayan Brotherhood) for the 
statement that even nirvana is, "after all, but an exalted and 
glorious selfishness.">>

======end of quote

As I see it, those who are lacking in true spirituality in terms of 
the Esoteric Tradition cannot make up for it with intellectualism, 
alone. Seems to me that intellectualism without true spirituality 
might be compared, in terms of the Esoteric Tradition, to a ship 
at sea without a captain, pilot, charts, sextant, expertise, 
experience, etc.