Theos-Talk Archives (February 2005 Message tt00125)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Perry Coles" <perrycoles@y...> 
wrote:



> Can you give us some examples where "he [CWL] admitted frankly that 
his
> information sometimes does not match the teachings given by HPB."

Dear Perry,

I still could find only one quotation, where he speaks like that,
but I meant some other place where he speaks more openly. The search
is difficult for I don't remember the wording exactly; nor I have
all of his books in electronic form.


"Never forget that the spiritualists are entirely with us on some most
important points. They all hold (a) life after death as an actual
vivid ever-present certainty, and (b) eternal progress and ultimate
happiness for everyone; good and bad alike. Now these two items are of
such tremendous, such paramount importance — they constitute so
enormous an advance from the ordinary orthodox position — that I for
one should be well content to join hands with them on such a platform,
and postpone the discussion of the minor points upon which we differ
until we have converted the world at large to that much of the truth.
I always feel that there is plenty of room for both of us.

People who want to see phenomena, people who cannot believe anything
without ocular demonstration, will obtain no satisfaction with us,
while from the spiritualists they will get exactly what they want. On
the other hand, people who want more philosophy than spiritualism
usually provides will naturally gravitate in our direction. Those who
admire the average trance-address certainly would not appreciate
Theosophy, while those who enjoy Theosophical teaching would never be
satisfied with the trance-address. We both cater for the liberal, the
open-minded, but for quite different types of them; meantime, we
surely need not quarrel.

In what Madame Blavatsky wrote on the subject she laid great stress
on the utter uncertainty of the whole thing, and the preponderance
of personations over real appearances. My own personal experience has
been more favourable than that. I spent some years in experimenting
with spiritualism, and I suppose there is hardly a phenomenon of which
you may read in the books which I have not repeatedly seen. I have
encountered many personations, but still in my experience a distinct
majority of the apparitions have been genuine, and therefore I am
bound to bear testimony to the fact. The messages which they give
are often uninteresting, and their religious teaching is usually
Christianity and water, but still it is liberal as far as it goes,
and anything is an advance upon the bigoted orthodox position.

Not that some spiritualists are not bigoted also — narrow and
intolerant as any sectarian — when it comes to discussing (say) the
question of reincarnation! The majority of English and American
spiritualists do not yet know of that fact, but the French spiritists,
the followers of Allan Kardec, hold it, and also the school of Madame
d'Esperance in England. Many students wonder that dead people should
not all know and recognize the fact of reincarnation; but after all
why should they? When a man dies he resorts to the company of those
whom he has known on earth; he moves among exactly the same kind of
people as during physical life. The average country grocer is no more
likely after death than before it to come into contact with any one
who can give him information about reincarnation. Most men are shut
in from all new ideas by a host of prejudices; they carry these
prejudices into the astral world with them, and are no more amenable
to reason and common sense there than here.

True, a man who is really open-minded can learn a great deal on the
astral plane; he may speedily acquaint himself with the whole of the
Theosophical teaching, and there are dead men who do this. Therefore
it often happens that scraps of Theosophy are found among spirit
communications.

("Inner Life", section 2)


To all abovesaid I could add that the dead grandmas and grandpas
better succeeded in proving their identity than the mahatmas whom
no one has seen and whose very existence can be doubted.

Moreover, I would trust rather to a more humble spirit who says
that he is a dead grocer that to those who say that they are the
adepts & mahatmas :)