Theos-Talk Archives (September 2004 Message tt00493)

Anand,

You wrote:

"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."

I like that phrase of yours:

"sweet name of 'original teaching'"

Let's look at this word ORIGINAL.

Here are a few dictionary definitions:

"1 : of, relating to, or constituting an origin or beginning : 
INITIAL <the original part of the house>
2 a : not secondary, derivative, or imitative b : being the first 
instance or source from which a copy, reproduction, or translation is 
or can be made"

Anand, consider the following questions:

Would you agree with the statement that HPB gave the INITIAL claim 
that the Masters M. and KH. existed, that she was in communication 
with them and that she was their agent to the "outside world"?

In other words, who was the first person in modern times to make 
those claims?

In 1877 , HPB wrote:

". . .we came into contact with certain men, endowed with such 
mysterious powers and such profound knowledge that we may truly 
designate them as the sages of the Orient. To their instructions we 
lent a ready ear." 

"The work now submitted to public judgment is the fruit of a somewhat 
intimate acquaintance with Eastern adepts and study of their 
science." 

In 1891, HPB wrote:

". . . every word of [esoteric] information found in this work [Isis 
Unveiled] or in my later writings, comes from the teachings of our 
Eastern Masters [Master KH, Master M and others]; and . . . many a 
passage in these works has been written by me under their dictation."

Who BEFORE HPB made this claim??

Therefore, Anand, would you not agree that HPB made the ORIGINAL 
claims?

Moving on...

Master KH wrote to Sinnett:

". . . Our [esoteric or theosophical ] doctrine . . . is now being 
partially taught to Europeans for the first time."

This was written in 1882. 

Anand, who was teaching the Masters' "doctrine" at this time to 
Europeans??

Leadbeater? Besant? 

Were Leadbeater and Besant teachers of Theosophy in 1882?

In 1882 HPB and the Masters themselves were teaching several students.

In the first volume of HPB's SECRET DOCTRINE, she writes:

". . . the SECRET DOCTRINE is not a treatise, or a series of vague 
theories, but contains all [the teachings] that can be given out to 
the world in this century." The Secret Doctrine, 1888, Vol I, p. 
xxxviii (original edition) 

And a few lines above, one reads:

". . . But it will take centuries before much more is given from it 
[the Secret Archaic Doctrine]. . . . " 

So did not HPB give out the teachings of the Masters?

If so, her presentation is the original one in modern times.

All later presentations are in that sense secondary (immediately 
derived from something original, primary, or basic).

Would it be correct or true to say that:

Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater were the first persons in modern 
times to write about Theosophy?

Madame Blavatsky derived her teachings from Mrs. Besant and Mr. 
Leadbeater?

If after HPB died in 1891, no other book had ever been written by 
anyone about Theosophy, we would still have the original writings and 
teachings given by HPB. Don't you agree?

ORIGIN-al

Daniel
http://hpb.cc