Theos-Talk Archives (January 2005 Message tt00682)

The misunderstanding of the term `root races' is an important one this
`mistake' comes from CWL's interpretations of the term and is in much
of the neo-theosophical writings.

Jinarajadasa's book `First principles in theosophy' is an example of
how this teaching was completely misunderstood by many theosophists.

This is the danger of only reading the simplistic versions and not
taking your study deeper.
Leadbeater also said in one of his books that a common working man
would spend less time in Devachan than a say a civil servant or some
such rot.
(that's in an early version of his book on Devachan I think.
If that isn't making class distinctions I don't know what isn't.
(does anyone know for sure which book this is in?)

Also just regarding your comment on copyright-
What I was proposing in my initial posting on this was if the Adyar TS
wanted to promote many different writers versions on theosophical
teachings surely Alice Bailey would come under that umbrella.

Many of the books on TS reading lists the society are not the
copyright holders.
But I can see the point that with the Bailey material other political
and historical areas come into play.

Cheers 

Perry


--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Bart Lidofsky <bartl@s...> wrote:
> krishtar wrote:
> > Is it possible to study both Theosophy and the books of AAB and
take advantage of it?
> > As I said, I bought some second-hand books from AAB and havent
read it yet.
> 
> Certainly. I know many AS members who are also TS members, and don't 
> feel that they have a Divine Duty to take over the TS. As long as you 
> don't take it as the One True Path(tm), it can be valuable. Also, by 
> comparing it with other works, you can often see where Alice Bailey's 
> own personal opinions shine through in the text, so you can eliminate 
> them. Of course, it's probably a good idea not to discuss Bailey's 
> prejudices with a devoted AS member, any more than it is to discuss the 
> lack of historical evidence for Jesus with a devout Christian.
> 
> People tend to be blinded by people they admire. For example, in Clara 
> Codd's THEOSOPHY AS THE MASTERS SEE IT, there is a clear strain of 
> racism. When I mentioned this to people who knew Clara Codd, they
became 
> indignant, saying that Codd didn't have a racist bone in her body. If 
> you read the book, what they probably saw was that she was a basically 
> good person, but saw non-white peoples as somehow inferior to white 
> people, and felt it was the responsibility of white people to bring the 
> non-white people up to their level (so to speak).
> 
> A basic error, in my opinion, in Leadbeater, Bailey, and Codd is the 
> mistaking of the current so-called "races" of humanity with that for 
> whom Sinnett coined the term, "root races". What we commonly call 
> "races" is a misnomer, minor genetic variations unconnected to other 
> characteristics. And, even if they were right, remember that we arrived 
> here from an involutionary rather than evolutionary path, meaning that, 
> in many ways, members of the 3rd and 4th "root races" were higher on
the 
> evolutionary ladder than we are.
> 
> Bart