Theos-Talk Archives (May 2004 Message tt00103)

While in India, in the mid 1990's, I had the
opportunity of meeting and having discussions with a
former professor of the Benares Hindu University who
is also an earnest student and practitioner of Tibetan
Buddhism of the Gelugpa school. He goes to Dharamsala
regularly and has contact with senior lamas there.

I wanted to know particularly his view on "The Voice
of the Silence". He said he had read it and that it
certainly contained teachings related to the
Bodhisattva Path, like the Paramitas or transcendental
virtues. But he also said that because Madame
Blavatsky did not give clear indications about the
source text of "The Voice" (The Book of the Golden
Precepts), nor had anyone seen it or been able to
study it, it could not be considered to be a book
belonging to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
Apparently, in that tradition any teaching needs to be
validated by expounding doctrines originally contained
in a "root text" like, for example, the Prajnaparamita
Sutras, the Madhyamikakarika, the Heart Sutra, etc.

I am aware that in the Peking edition of "The Voice of
the Silence" Alice Leighton Cleather claims that the
teaching in "The Voice" had the seal approval of the
then Panchen Lama. It is doubtful that Buddhist
scholars from within the tradition would uphold the
same view nowadays.

I am also aware of the efforts of David Reigle in
trying to trace the geographical location of the Book
of Dzyan. As far as I know, there are no successful
results yet.

Modern scholarship seems to frown upon the idea of any
book being kept secret for esoteric reasons. Perhaps
scholars may consider that until the source of HPB's
teachings - "The Book of the Golden Precepts" - is
produced before the world, her teachings may not be
considered valid and authentic.

But what scholars seem to ignore is that the teachings
in "The Voice of the Silence" harmonize and resonate
so profoundly with the classics of world spirituality,
like the Bhagavad Gita, parts of the New Testament,
the Dhammapada and the writings of mystics from many
cultures, that they find their intrinsic validation in
the universal and all-compassionate ethics that they
both embody and express. After all, "The Voice" is a
book on mysticism and it points to a depth of
experience and insight that can never be reached by
the discursive intellect. In other words, HPB's
sources may be unfathomable.

Pedro 









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