Theos-Talk Archives (August 2004 Message tt00752)

Are the words quoted below of someone who is encouraging free and open
minds or someone who was demanding blind belief?
Was CWL a hero and martyr of the cause of freedom of thought or did he
try to turn the TS into a church complete with Bishops, priests
Messiahs and a compliant flock.
Let him speak for himself and let us listen to his fatherly advise :

"What can I say to you of your President [Annie
Besant] that you do not know already? Her colossal
intellect, her unfailing wisdom, her unrivalled
eloquence, her splendid forgetfulness of self,
her untiring devotion of work for others - all
these are but a small part of her greatness;
they are on the surface, they may be seen by all,
they leap to the eyes. But there are other qualities,
other powers, of which you cannot know, because they
pertain to the secrets of Initiation. She is a
pupil of our Masters; from the fount of Their
archaic wisdom she derives her own, the plans which
she is carrying out are Their plans for the welfare
of the world. THINK THEREFORE, HOW GREAT AN
HONOUR IT IS FOR YOU that you should be permitted
to work under her, for in doing so you are virtually
working under Them. THINK HOW WATCHFUL YOU SHOULD
BE TO MISS NO HINT WHICH FALLS FROM HER LIPS, to carry
out EXACTLY whatever instructions she may give to you.

Remember...there will be times when you cannot
understand her motives, for she is taking into account
many things which you cannot see and of which
she must not tell you. BUT WHETHER YOU UNDERSTAND
OR NOT, YOU WILL BE WISE TO FOLLOW HER IMPLICITLY, JUST
BECAUSE SHE KNOWS.

THIS IS NOT MERE SUPPOSITION ON MY PART, NO MERE
FLIGHT OF THE IMAGINATION; I HAVE STOOD BESIDE YOUR
PRESIDENT IN THE PRESENCE OF THE SUPREME DIRECTOR
OF EVOLUTION ON THIS GLOBE, AND I KNOW WHEREOF I
SPEAK. Let the wise hear my words, and act accordingly."
Caps added. Adyar Album, p. 45.



I know its stepping out of my place to question the great and glorious
Leadbeater who STOOD?!?! before the supreme director (a bloke on a
throne for goodness sake) but sometimes the cracks in an argument
become great chasms that we can't ignore no matter how clever the
diversion. 

Perry




--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "prmoliveira" <prmoliveira@y...> wrote:
> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel H. Caldwell" 
> <danielhcaldwell@y...> wrote:
> 
> 
> > But as far as I can tell, you have chosen to
> > ignore the serious issues to be found in what both
> > Madame Blavatsky and the Mahatma Koot Hoomi
> > wrote about:
> > 
> > "wild and fanciful speculation" about Theosophy
> > 
> > "erroneous notions" about Theosophy
> > 
> > "garbled and distorted versions" of Theosophy
> > 
> > "false ideas" grafted onto Theosophy
> > 
> > "disfigured" expositions of Theosophy
> > 
> > "imitations of Occultism and Theosophy"
> > 
> > I again invite your atttention to what they
> > wrote which has been posted at:
> > 
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/18249
> 
> 
> An independent observer might see that your attitude to Theosophy and 
> its 'original teachings' is becoming increasingly theological, 
> sectarian and crystallized. It seems to replicate, for example, the 
> Church's attitude to the different Gnostics groups in the early 
> Christian era by establishing a definitive and granite-like Theology 
> that must be accepted as the only true and real benchmark of the 
> Christian tradition.
> 
> In one of her letters to the American Conventions (April 1888), 
> Madame Blavstky wrote:
> 
> "Orthodoxy in Theosophy is a thing neither possible nor desirable. It 
> is diversity of opinion, within certain limits, that keeps the 
> Theosophical Society a living and a healthy body, its many other ugly 
> features notwithstanding. Were it not, also, for the existence of a 
> large amount of uncertainty in the minds of students of Theosophy, 
> such healthy divergencies would be impossible, and the Society would 
> degenerate into a sect, in which a narrow and stereotyped creed would 
> take the place of the living and breathing spirit of Truth and an 
> ever growing Knowledge."
> 
> You may go on with your campaign to denounce the writings of Annie 
> Besant and C. W. Leadbeater as "garbled and distorted versions" of 
> Theosophy, but please don't expect me to be a part of it.
> 
> Personally, I find useful as a guideline in my studies the advice 
> given by St. Paul (and quoted by Madame Blavatsky in "Isis Unveiled", 
> vol. II, p. 84): 
> 
> "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." (1 Thess. 5.21)
> 
> 
> Pedro