Theos-Talk Archives (September 2004 Message tt00490)

Sept. 17 2004

Re: "Creating authority under sweet name of original teaching"
Posting by A. Gholap


Dear Friends:

I have to disagree with the specious characterization offered by this
posting .  

Read what Daniel has posted -- carefully -- and the message that HPB
conveys in that quotation.  

What is there in that to fear or to give warning about? 

Why is it necessary for such a statement to be made by anyone?

Who profits or benefits from it?

It seems to me that only one who is unfamiliar with HPB's and the Mahatma's
writings, or one who does not understand them, [or, perhaps he understands
them only too well ?] would write such a note.

Daniel is NOT trying (any more than I am) to create any kind of "authority."


If authority there is, then it is innate in the reasonableness and logic of
what is to be found in the ORIGINAL TEACHINGS.  

That is something diligent, truth-seeking individuals alone will discover.  

The flurry of opinions will be no more than the passing gale - vanish and
disappear, as have all such flurries in the past -- our brief history over
the last 129 years shows this in great detail. [Read the HISTORY OF THE
THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT (1875-1950) $ 7.50, for details and documents.
Published by: Theosophy Company, Los Angeles.] 


Freedom -- is freedom. Who would contest it?


I therefore respond as I do here. I say: study and find out for yourself. 


Members of the THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY (as well as all those interested) have
had both the unedited and the "edited" "Original Teachings" to read and
compare.

Why is it necessary to make such a point of this? I wonder.

Consider with me, please: -- 

The ORIGINAL TEACHINGS of THEOSOPHY are, and will remain, the same ORIGINAL
TEACHINGS of THEOSOPHY regardless of anyone else's opinions. Thank the
"Lords of Karma" that we still have them easily available, (and especially
on the Internet, where the potential audience is far wider. It has become a
more universal "study-Class.")

"Their logic and coherence is indisputable." That is to be proved, or
disproved but not by reading opinions. The "foundations" need to be secure.
What are they?

On the other hand anyone who is FAMILIAR with those "teachings," and can
freely compare them with what CWL, and the later writings of Annie Besant
(after HPB's death) offered, will immediately detect the differences and
inconsistencies of what they have opined with the ORIGINALS..

That work is (I repeat) to be done by every one of the "free" members for
themselves so as to satisfy themselves of the veracity of things. 

It is a matter, also, of becoming thoroughly familiar with the history and
development (as well as the literature down the years), of the THEOSOPHICAL
MOVEMENT. 

It is of course age-old (as HPB shows in both ISIS UNVEILED and the SECRET
DOCTRINE) but since its rebirth and re-introduction in 1875, only 129 years
have passed. And such is the rapidity of the Kali Yuga we have seen several
rapid waves of study and opinion expressed.  

Who gets confused? Only those who do not study for themselves and seek the
short-cuts of others apparently valid conclusions. That is how sects are
founded. The fanatics who do no research, but are in search of gullible
supporters, seize upon that nebulous structure and build fancy "castles in
Spain" -- which evaporate on close analysis. 

Needless to say, no one ought to take any pronouncement from anyone (myself
included) as a finality or an authority. Under Karma and the Law of
individual development the freedom to choose is inalienable. The need to
study and then decide is a matter of individual "progress" and individual
"growth" in spiritual discrimination.  

THEOSOPHY lies at the threshold of esotericism and occultism. It offers for
study the few laws of the Universe we all live in for consideration. It
fills the "gaps" left by "scientists" who, in seeking to speculate on the
probable origins and relations of the past, have built an empirical
structure of irreconcilable improbabilities and possibilities. The 2nd vol.
of the SECRET DOCTRINE covers this as well today as it did when published.
The points made there are still unanswered. 

It is the eternal battle between the Self of SPIRIT and the self of Matter.

One leads to Wisdom then other to confusion and futility. And what this
more, the loss of precious time.

Ask a single question: After this body of ours and the personality dies,
what happens to the work and the knowledge acquired?


What are the "simple ideas and laws THEOSOPHY offers?"

1	The Universe is a life-giving WHOLE with unerring Laws that are the
same for all. "What you get now is the result of your past choices. Do unto
others what you would have them do unto you."

2	Law (Karma) rules all evolution impartially and unerringly. Our
"present" results from our past choices, and what we opt for now, frames our
future. There is no "personal God" anywhere that can break those uniform
laws.

3	In evolution all are equally involved. We are, as units of life,
immortals. We as humans are "Monads" [Beings composed of: SPIRIT, Matter
and Mind] engaged in learning how to think independently. This is crucial
to further "advance on the Path."  

As time and events roll by, and we draw to ourselves the results of all our
experience. The accretion of this is called "Wisdom" -- the ability to do
this is called "Intuition."  

In this philosophy, the expression, "death" is banished from our mind; and
fear of death from our concept of the future. We are all -- immortals --
on a joint Pilgrimage that leads to "Supreme Perfection." Death is sleep,
and sleep is death.

4	The brotherhood of all beings is a fact. To establish a "nucleus"
of this concept is the first object of the THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. We are a
brotherhood of un-dying spiritual entities, and the whole of Nature is
composed of our "younger brothers" -- all equally immortals. But each on
their particular path and level of development -- (and those paths and
levels we have already experienced). 

THEOSOPHY through the "ORIGINAL TEACHINGS" opens our minds to a vision that
comprehends INFINITY -- and makes us surer of our continuity and value to
the whole. We never "die." 

Read, compare and decide. What would you have: a passing pleasure or an
infinite future?

Best wishes, 

Dallas

===================================
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Anand Gholap 
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2004 3:59 AM
To: 
Subject: Creating authority under sweet name of original teaching


Masters and HPB never claimed infallibility or authority. According 
to them in TS everybody is free to accept or reject any writing 
including SD and Isis. So Daniel's efforts of creating authority 
under sweet name of 'original teaching' are ridiculous. 


--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel H. Caldwell" 
<danielhcaldwell@y...> wrote:
> 
> =====================================================
> Question: Should we take H.P.B. as an
> infallible authority?
> 
> Answer: Absolutely not....
> 
> But there is another side to the question.
> We have to remember that the modern
> Theosophical movement owes its very existence
> to H.P.B. and the Masters, whose faithful
> agent she claimed to be. It would be
> extremely unwise to reject the teachings given
> through her without understanding what those
> teachings really were in the first place. And how
> can we acquire this understanding if we do not
> study her writings? We don't have to blindly
> accept what she says or take her views as the last
> word, but at least we should become familiar with
> those views firsthand. Then we can reject or
> accept intelligently. When the works of other
> and later writers who claim to be continuing
> the work begun by H.P.B. present viewpoints and
> "revelations" which are at direct variance with
> the original lines of teaching, we may feel
> justified in questioning the source of the newer
> pronouncements. A familiarity with the
> original writings, therefore, provides a criterion
> for intelligent judgment.
> ==============================================
> 
> Quoted from:
> AN INTRODUCTION TO ESOTERIC PRINCIPLES: A STUDY COURSE, p. 37
> by William Doss McDavid
> http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=265
> 
> Daniel