Theos-Talk Archives (August 2004 Message tt00678)

Thank you Dallas for your answers and thank
you Daniel for your comments. 

On re-reading your post, Dallas, I understand you
feeling ‘dogmatic’ about HPB authority, which was
invested upon her by her Teachers. I also appreciate
the fact that you wish to leave others free to think
differently about the same subject.

I see no problem in acknowledging HPB’s writings as
the original teachings of *modern* Theosophy. Every
theosophical author I have studied so far does that.
But internal evidence in HPB’s own writings, imo,
clearly indicates that the ORIGINAL TEACHINGS of
Theosophy as a Timeless Wisdom stretch far back into
ancient times. All HPB claimed, imo, was to re-present
them to the modern world.

Allow me to point out the passage which Daniel quoted
at the end of his post (SD, vol. I, Summing UP):

“Let us recapitulate and show, by the vastness of the
subjects expounded, how difficult, if not
impossible, it is to do them full justice.

The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated Wisdom of the
Ages, and its cosmogony alone is the most stupendous
and elaborate system: e.g., even in the exotericism
of the Purânas. But such is the mysterious power of
Occult symbolism, that the facts which have actually
occupied countless generations of initiated seers and
prophets to marshal, to set down and explain, in the
bewildering series of evolutionary progress, are all
recorded on a few pages of geometrical signs and
glyphs. The flashing gaze of those seers has
penetrated into the very kernel of matter, and
recorded the soul of things there, where an
ordinary profane, however learned, would have
perceived but the external work of form. But modern
science believes not in the “soul of things,” and
hence will reject the whole system of ancient
cosmogony. It is useless to say that the system in
question is no fancy of one or several isolated
individuals. That it is the uninterrupted record
covering thousands of generations of Seers whose
respective experiences were made to test and to
verify the traditions passed orally by one early race
to another, of the teachings of higher and exalted
beings, who watched over the childhood of Humanity. 
That for long ages, the “Wise Men” of the Fifth Race,
of the stock saved and rescued from the last cataclysm
and shifting of continents, had passed their lives in
learning, not teaching. How did they do so? It is
answered: by checking, testing, and verifying in
every department of nature the traditions of old by
the independent visions of great adepts; i.e., men who
have developed and perfected their physical, mental,
psychic, and spiritual organisations to the utmost
possible degree. No vision of one adept was accepted
till it was checked and confirmed by the visions—so
obtained as to stand as independent evidence—of other
adepts, and by centuries of experiences.”

Let us examine some of the outstanding statements
present in the above mentioned passage:

“... the facts which have actually occupied countless
generations of initiated seers and prophets to
marshal, to set down and explain...”

Does not this clearly indicate that Theosophy is a
stream of enquiry that has been in existence from time
immemorial? That it involves a process (‘marshal, set
down, explain’) which is profoundly educative? 

“It is useless to say that the system in question is
no fancy of one or several isolated individuals. That
it is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of
generations of Seers whose respective experiences were
made to test and to verify the traditions passed
orally by one early race to another, of the teachings
of higher and exalted beings, who watched over the
childhood of Humanity.”

Doesn’t this imply that the authority of the teaching
(Theosophy) does not lie with ‘isolated individuals’
but in the *process* itself, which is based on a truly
scientific method involving testing and verification?

“That for long ages, the “Wise Men” of the Fifth Race,
of the stock saved and rescued from the last cataclysm
and shifting of continents, had passed their lives in
learning, not teaching. How did they do so? It is
answered: by checking, testing, and verifying in
every department of nature the traditions of old by
the independent visions of great adepts; i.e., men who
have developed and perfected their physical, mental,
psychic, and spiritual organisations to the utmost
possible degree. No vision of one adept was accepted
till it was checked and confirmed by the visions—so
obtained as to stand as independent evidence—of other
adepts, and by centuries of experiences.”

Is there, in the whole corpus of HPB’s teachings, a
more passionate, clear and convincing evidence that
the teachings of Theosophy are not based on belief,
dependence or authority? That they are the result of
hard work based on ‘checking, testing and verifying’
as well as on independent thinking and ongoing
experience?

There is also the famous passage in “The Mahatma
Letters”, alluded to by Mr Ramadoss in a recent
posting, which clearly resonates with the lengthy SD
quote above:

“The truth is that till the neophyte attains to the
condition necessary for that degree of Illumination to
which, and for which, he is entitled and fitted, most
if not all of the Secrets are incommunicable. The
receptivity must be equal to the desire to instruct.
The illumination must come from within. Till then no
hocus pocus of incantations, or mummery of appliances,
no metaphysical lectures or discussions, no
self-imposed penance can give it. All these are but
means to an end, and all we can do is to direct the
use of such means as have been empirically found by
the experience of ages to conduce to the required
object. And this was and has been no secret for
thousands of years.”

Doesn’t this passage indicate that the entire teaching
of the Esoteric Philosophy naturally leads to a depth
of experience and realization that no book or outer
teaching can ever convey?


Pedro 






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