Theos-Talk Archives (August 2004 Message tt00198)

Hi Pedro,

Thanks for clearing that up. Doctrinally the below doesn't clash with
HPB. Always nice to see that. 

Still, to my recollection, Blavatsky and Leadbeater weren't together
much, and though this isn't stated in the text below, it is suggested
that he learned a lot from her. 

I don't think simplifying is a bad thing (I do that myself often). But
in the differences between HPB and Leadbeater the differences go much
beyond simplifying - to disfiguring and on precisely those points that
HPB was most strong in her opinions. I'll give HPB mistakes on things
like understanding the science of her day, or details of archeology
and that sort of thing. But on essential occult issues like the
survival of ghosts and stuff and what that meant to the eternal
soul... There are important differences there and they can't easily be
reconciled. It is simply one is right and the other wrong and my
bet's on HPB. 1+1 makes 2 and those who say it makes 3 are wrong -
it's very simple. Still of course everybody is free to feel CWL is right. 

But pretending that there is no difference between his position and
HPB's or that he is simply simplyfying her work - that is a very
different thing. That is called lying in my book. He may have
convinced himself, that is another issue - but then it is a lie to
himself and others as well. Doesn't make for bringing the truth out
and teaching it to people. 

Inculcating gradually doesn't mean changing the truth to fit popular
conceptions - and in the matter of life after death, that is what
Leadbeater did - consciously or unconsciously. So your reference to
that Mahatma Letter (a great letter it is too) is irrelevant to our
present discussion as Daniels recent quotes also show. 

Katinka
--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "prmoliveira" <prmoliveira@y...> wrote:
> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Katinka Hesselink" <mail@k...> 
> wrote:
> 
> > Interesting quote. Sure seems to suggest what you say it does. The
> > Mahatma Letters make it pretty clear HPB was one of a kind, and
> > according to The Key to Theosophy Only at the end of the 20th 
> century
> > would her equal come...
> > 
> > Katinka
> 
> > --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, samblo@c... wrote:
> > > Katinka, Daniel and all,
> 
> > > In reading the thread discussions in regard to Leadbeater and 
> the
> > LCC i 
> > > had gone to the posted URL for the LCC and read the Article which
> > was indicated 
> > > by the poster of same, but I also have then read several of the
> > others listed 
> > > on the Home page of the LCC. One of them:
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > http://liberalcatholic.org/Pub/CWL_Textbook_of_theosophy.asp
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > "A Textbook of Theosophy" Leadbeater 1912, makes the following 
> unique 
> > > characterization:
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > "One of these apprentices was Helena Petrovna Blavatsky â€" a 
> great
> > soul who 
> > > was sent out to offer knowledge to the world some forty years 
> ago."
> > > 
> > > ( Chapter II, para 17)
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > This rather singular usage in terming Madam Blavatsky as an
> > "apprentice" with 
> > > a small "a" caught my mind and I wondered if this reflected an 
> overtly 
> > > intentional desire to diminish the Prior Agent of Theosophy, 
> H.P.B.
> > in the eyes of 
> > > the then current readers in 1912? I wonder what the Mahatma's 
> might
> > have had as 
> > > a response to this characterization in light that they Letters 
> made
> > reference 
> > > to Blavatsky having been a Developed Adept that had residency as
> > H.P.B. ? 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > John
> 
> 
> Below are the paragraphs that place John's quotation into 
> perspective:
> 
> 
> "This august body is often called the Great White Brotherhood, but 
> its members are not a community all living together. Each of Them, 
> to a large extent, draws Himself apart from the world, and They are 
> in constant communication with one another and with Their Head; but 
> Their knowledge of higher forces (Page 14 ) is so great that this is 
> achieved without any necessity for meeting in the physical world. In 
> many cases They continue to live each in His own country, and Their 
> power remains unsuspected among those who live near Them. Any man 
> who will may attract their attention, but he can do it only by 
> showing himself worthy of Their notice. None need fear that his 
> efforts will pass unnoticed; such oversight is impossible, for the 
> man who is devoting himself to service such as this, stands out from 
> the rest of humanity like a great flame in a dark night. A few of 
> these great Adepts, who are thus working for the good of the world, 
> are willing to take on apprentices those who have resolved to devote 
> themselves utterly to the services of mankind; such Adepts are 
> called Masters.
> 
> One of these apprentices was Helena Petrovna Blavatsky – a great 
> soul who was sent out to offer knowledge to the world some forty 
> years ago [1875]. With Colonel Henry Steele Olcott she founded the 
> Theosophical Society for the spread of this knowledge which she had 
> to give. Among those who came into contact with her in those early 
> days was Mr. A. P. Sinnett, the editor of The Pioneer, and his keen 
> intellect at once grasped the magnitude and the importance of the 
> teaching which she put before him. Although Madame Blavatsky herself 
> had previously written Isis Unveiled, it had attracted but little 
> attention, and it was Mr. Sinnett who first made the teaching really 
> available for western readers in his two books, The Occult World and 
> Esoteric Buddhism.
> 
> It was through these works that I myself first came to know their 
> author, and afterwards Madame Blavatsky (Page 15) herself; from both 
> of them I learned much. When I asked Madame Blavatsky how one could 
> learn still more, how one could make definite progress along the 
> Path which she pointed out to us, she told me of the possibility 
> that other students might be accepted as apprentices by the great 
> Masters, even as she herself had been accepted, and that the only 
> way to gain such acceptance was to show oneself worthy of it by 
> earnest and altruistic work. She told me that to reach that goal a 
> man must be absolutely one-pointed in his determination; that no one 
> who tried to serve both God and Mammon could ever hope to succeed. 
> One of these Masters Himself has said: "In order to succeed, a pupil 
> must leave his own world and come into ours"."
> 
> (http://www.theosophical.ca/TextBookTheos.htm)
> 
> 
> 
> In her Preface to a series of Theosophical Manuals, first published 
> in 1896, Annie Besant wrote:
> 
> "Some have complained that our literature is at once too abstruse, 
> too technical, and too expensive for the ordinary reader, and it is 
> our hope that the present series may succeed in supplying what is a 
> very real want. Theosophy is not only for the learned; it is for 
> all. It may be that among those who in these little books catch 
> their first glimpse of its teachings, there may be a few who will be 
> led by them to penetrate more deeply into its philosophy, its 
> science, and its religion, facing its abstruser problems with the 
> student's zeal and the neophyte's ardour. But these manuals are not 
> written for the eager student, whom no initial difficulty can daunt; 
> they are written for the busy men and women of the work-a-day world, 
> and seek to make plain some of the great truths that render life 
> easier to bear and death easier to face." 
> 
> 
> Their decision to present Theosophy in a more accessible manner was 
> inspired by a communication from the Maha-Chohan, the Masters' 
> Teacher (1881):
> 
> 
> "For our doctrines to practically react on the so called moral code 
> or the ideas of truthfulness, purity, self-denial, charity, etc., we 
> have to preach and popularise a knowledge of theosophy. It is not 
> the individual and determined purpose of attaining oneself Nirvana 
> (the culmination of all knowledge and absolute wisdom) which is, 
> after all only an exalted and glorious selfishness, but the self-
> sacrificing pursuit of the best means to lead on the right path our 
> neighbour, to cause as many of our fellow creatures as we possibly 
> can to benefit by it, which constitutes the true Theosophist."
> 
> (http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/mahatma/ml-choh.htm) 
> 
> 
> Pedro
> 
> 
> P.S. No, Daniel, I have not yet received the comparative study of 
> CWL's dates of birth. My friend has a somewhat elastic sense of 
> time, so it may take a while.