Theos-Talk Archives (July 2004 Message tt00340)

In a message dated 7/25/04 2:51:14 PM Central Daylight Time, 
prmoliveira@yahoo.com writes:

<< May I ask Oraganon, Chuck and Mauri to share their
views about current discussions on this list? We seem
to be suffering from an excess of 'informed opinions'.

Pedro >>

I'm just sitting back and watching the fur fly. I'm not a great fan of 
Leadbeater's ideas though I do find him the most entertaining of Theosophical 
writers. And the ideas really are more important than the person saying them. If 
something is true, then it does not matter if the person saying it lives the 
most dreadful of lives and if it is utter nonsense than no amount of personal 
virtue will change that.

Much of the Leadbeater material does not stand the test of time very well. 
It is difficult to take seriously the descriptions in the Masters and the Path 
for example. And if we land on Mars I doubt we will find the people he 
describes waiting for us. In spite of that there is the occasional gem, such as his 
book on Clairvoyance, which when you strip away the Edwardian culture has 
some really useful stuff. 

Like all of the older writers, he has to be taken in the context of his time 
and his culture. There were things he said and did which cause me to laugh or 
give me the willies. But there are things I say and do that would cause him, 
if he were alive, to hang garlic around his windows and hide under his bed 
with a large crucifix.

So we must view Leadbeater and the others as what they were, people living in 
their time with the culture of their time, occasionally saying something that 
may be timeless, but still very human, with very human failings.

As I have often said, having no virtues of my own, I am in no position to 
judge the relative merits of anyone else's.

Chuck the Heretic