Theos-Talk Archives (July 2004 Message tt00428)

Hello Pedro, 
To my knowledge I haven't heard anyone here suggest the writings of 
HPB and the Mahatmas are the last word quite the opposite infact.
The issue as it presents itself for me at any rate is very simple.
If we can challenge and criticize HPBs and the Mahatmas writings in 
the society and I haven't heard anyone saying that we should not.
If we are serious we will and infact we are obliged to – that being 
the case
Why does it seem the Adyar society does not allow any legitimate 
critical challenges to CW Leadbeater Annie Beasant … in its writings 
and journals ect.?
Is this a policy? If so what intellectual or spiritual rational does 
it give for this policy? And how does that fit into its mandate?

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Pedro Oliveira <prmoliveira@y...> 
wrote:
> Recent postings on this list refer to the approach to
> Theosophy in the Adyar TS as being, among other
> things, distorted by not coinciding with the teachings
> of HPB and the Mahatmas.
> 
> Below is a brief collection of views on Theosophy by
> some well-known members of the Adyar Society.
> 
> 
> Pedro
> 
> 
> 
> &#65279;"Theosophy is the wisdom arising from the
> study of the evolution of life and form. This
> wisdom already exists, because the study has been
> pursued for long ages by properly equipped
> investigators into nature's mysteries. The
> investigators, who are called the Masters of the
> Wisdom, are souls who in the evolutionary processes
> have passed beyond the stage of man to
> that next higher, that of the "Adept". As man evolves
> to Adept, he gains knowledge by
> investigation and experiment. The knowledge so far
> gained by an unbroken line of Adepts is
> Theosophy, the Ancient Wisdom. ...
> 
> It [Theosophy] cannot but be a hypothesis at first to
> whomsoever it is offered; it can become
> one's own personal knowledge only by experiment and
> experience.
> 
> In Theosophy to-day, we have not the fullness of
> knowledge of all facts. Only a few main facts
> and laws have been told us, sufficient to spur us on
> to study and discovery; but innumerable
> gaps remain to be filled. They are being filled in by
> individual workers in our midst, but what
> we have of knowledge is as a drop in the ocean to what
> lies undiscovered or unrevealed.
> Nevertheless, the little we have is of wonderful
> fascination, and it reveals new inspiration and
> beauty everywhere."
> 
> (From
> the Introduction of "First Principles of
> Theosophy" by C. Jinarajadasa, 1938 ed., TPH Adyar)
> 
> 
> 
> "Theosophy, as the word indicates, is the Divine
> Wisdom, and we can have some conception
> of that Wisdom only in so far as it comes within our
> purview. For our purposes, then , it may
> be defined as the Wisdom declared in all things in
> Nature, a Wisdom which must have a
> relation to the things we observe, to our practical
> experience of life. ...
> 
> Our knowledge of the Divine Wisdom must be necessarily
> partial and limited. Our horizon,
> from any eminence we can command, must be a tiny
> segment of an infinite sphere. Yet the
> view we obtain can be for us a complete, making a
> rounded outline. That outline has been
> given the name of Theosophy, and into it we can paint
> whatever details or knowledge may
> come to us. It puts all our knowledge into a certain
> order, giving us an ever fuller idea of the
> meaning of the processes in which we are involved.
> This comprehension has to be of both life
> and form. For life or Spirit is the synthesising
> agent. And knowledge of life can come only
> through awareness of others, a sensitive, sympathetic
> and imaginative understanding free from
> bondage to one's limited and separated self."
> 
> 
>  
> (From "Theosophy, A Comprehensive Synthesis" in "An
> Approach to Reality" by N. Sri Ram, 1951 ed., TPH
> Adyar)
> 
> 
> 
> "A great deal has been written, directly or
> indirectly, by the leaders of the Theosophical
> Society on this subject and many people in the Society
> are inclined to think that it is
> unnecessary to give any further thought to it. If we
> want to know what Theosophy is, all we
> have to do is to read what H. P. Blavatsky, Annie
> Besant, C. W. Leadbeater and others have
> written on the subject. This attitude is based on the
> misconception that Theosophy is a set of
> ideas which can be acquired by reading books or
> hearing lectures and assimilated by deep
> thought and reflection on them. A little careful
> consideration of the nature of man, the
> universe and the Reality which underlies both will
> show that this kind of approach to the
> problem of understanding Theosophy is quite
> unsatisfactory and inadequate. It cannot by its
> very nature lead us to a through knowledge of
> Theosophy. On the other hand, by producing
> confusion and complacence in our minds it will tend to
> prevent us from adopting those means
> which alone can lead us to true knowledge. The first
> step in acquiring true knowledge is to
> know that we do not know. ...
> 
> It hardly needs pointing out that this question [what
> is Theosophy?] should never be
> considered as closed, and if there are any members who
> are inclined to consider it as such,
> they should think over the problem deeply and see
> whether it is not possible to adopt a more
> flexible attitude towards it. In fact, it is the duty
> of the Theosophical Society as a whole to
> keep this question open and maintain an atmosphere
> which will encourage every member to
> answer this question himself, not once for all, in a
> purely academic spirit, but in an unending
> series of inner illuminations."
> 
> 
> (I. K. Taimni, "What is Theosophy?", The Theosophist,
> November 1963)
> 
> 
> 
> "Home I carried my burden, and sat me down to read. As
> I turned over page after page the
> interest became absorbing; but how familiar it seemed;
> how my mind leapt forward to presage
> the conclusions, how natural it was, how coherent, how
> subtle, and yet how intelligible. I was
> dazzled, blinded by the light in which disjointed
> facts were seen as parts of a mighty whole,
> and all my puzzles, riddles, problems, seemed to
> disappear. The effect was partially illusory in
> one sense, in that they all had to be slowly
> unravelled later, the brain gradually assimilating
> that which the swift intuition had grasped as truth.
> But the light had been seen, and in that
> flash of illumination I knew that the weary search was
> over and the very Truth was found."
> 
>  
> (Annie Besant's impressions after reading "The Secret
> Doctrine" in "An Autobiography", 1983 ed. TPH Adyar) 
> 
> 
> 
> "The broad ideas must be assimilated first, and they
> must be realized as facts in Nature. The
> most important thing about Theosophy is its effect
> upon practical life; and to obtain that, a
> man must put himself into the Theosophical attitude
> towards his surroundings and should learn
> to look at everything from the Theosophical point of
> view."
> 
> (From a letter by C. W. Leadbeater, written in January
> 1923, as an answer to an enquirer as to how to
> undertake the study of Theosophy. Published in The
> Theosophist, October 1967.)    
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 		
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