Re: Theos-World Jerry, Cooper & the Slanders
Apr 18, 2006 07:01 PM
by Jerry Hejka-Ekins
Dear Carlos,
I mentioned facts in my posting. Sorry.
No, you did not mention facts in your posting. You do not know the facts.
If you got personally offended because you consider late John Cooper a friend of yours, sorry --
I am deeply offended because you are demeaning others who did important
work for the Theosophical Movement, while you have done nothing but
broadcast untrue information about them based upon information which you
do not understand and know nothing about. Yes, I am proud to have called
Cooper and de Zirkoff friends, but that is not why I have spoken up. If
the information you are spreading were true, I would have remained
silent. But, it is my duty to stand up for those who are being falsely
demeaned. Therefore, I must speak up.
If you want facts, here are four which you can verify on your own,
providing you know who to talk to:
1) I worked closely with John Cooper assisting in his research for the
Blavatsky letters. Not a single word of John Cooper's research (nor
mine) was included in vol. 1 of the "Letters of H.P. Blavatsky" edited
by John Algeo.
2) After John Cooper died, John Algeo declared his contract with Cooper
concerning the letters null and void. Whatever decisions John Algeo and
his reformed "committee" make concerning the publication of those
letters, had nothing to do with any previous agreements with Cooper, nor
was Cooper's research included in that volume.
3) "The Letters from the Masters of Wisdom" was originally edited by C.
Jinarajadasa. Not John Cooper.
4) I knew Boris--and for a time, was seeing him on a monthly bases. I
studied for 18 years with his editorial assistant, who, before she died,
was training me to assist him in his work. Therefore I was in a position
to follow incident by incident the problems concerning the production of
the Collected writings. Boris was a careful scholar, but near the end,
he too, did not have complete control of the publication of his works.
Do not blame those who have passed on for the mistakes of those who took
up the work.
Regards
Jerry
carlosaveline wrote:
Dear Jerry,
I mentioned facts in my posting. Sorry.
I have no clear criticism with regard to Boris. I have a high opinion of him.
In fact, by some coincidence, two of the PATH volumes (1894-95) which belonged to Zirkoff happen to be in my personal library right now.
As Ifirst looked at his personal handwritten notes in those old pages, I could see how careful he was in checking things.
As to J. Cooper, it is true that he did, in my opinion, a lousy editorial work with the "Letters From the Masters of the Wisdom" while he was in Adyar.
But I am not saying Cooper would publish the libels against HPB without proper identification. I am only stating the obvious facts -- Caldwell and Algeo did do this unproper and disloyal publishing.
If you got personally offended because you consider late John Cooper a friend of yours, sorry -- but I have a sincere admiration for HPB.
Regards, Carlos.
De:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Para:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Cópia:
Data:Tue, 18 Apr 2006 14:49:17 -0700
Assunto:Re: Theos-World John Cooper & the Slanders
Dear Carlos,
You write,
In general terms, such a policy was announced in 1991 by John Cooper, who was first chosen to edit the HPB Letters, after Boris de Zirkoff´s death.
Frankly Carlos, you don't know what you are talking about. You never met
John Cooper or Boris de Zirkoff. You never worked with them, and you do
not know the work they did for the Theosophical Movement and the
personal sacrifices they made to do that work. Further, you certainly
understand nothing about what happened after they died. John Cooper and
Boris de Zirkoff devoted their lives to assuring that Blavatsky's
writings be preserved unaltered and be made available for future
generations of students. It is time that you cease making your ignorant
slanders against them.
Further, I am deeply saddened that this discussion board has been
allowed to become so degraded that it has become dominated by someone
like you who has nothing but disrespect for those very past workers whom
you owe a great deal. It is very odd that you give lip service to
preserving HPB's actual writings, yet devalue those very people who
devoted their lives to doing just that.
As I suggest to you before. You would do well to listen and think very
carefully before posting messages. Who knows, if you begin doing this,
perhaps, some day, you will post something that is worth reading.
Regards,
Jerry
carlosaveline wrote:
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An Uncomfortable Question
PUBLISHING SLANDERS AGAINST H.P.B:
SHOULD WE ALL SHARE THE BLAME?
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Dear Friends,
It would not be correct to ascribe solely to John Algeo the decision of absorbing many false and slanderous documents as part of the HPB Letters.
True, Mr. Algeo is the main responsible for the first volume of H.P. Blavatsky´s personal correspondence (TPH, Wheaton, 2003, 634 pp.), which includes dozens of shameful libels. But he is not the only responsible for the adoption of those forgeries in the book. In general terms, such a policy was announced in 1991 by John Cooper, who was first chosen to edit the HPB Letters, after Boris de Zirkoff´s death.
Coincidence or not, it was in 1991 that Daniel Calwell published his sad book "The Occult World of Madame Blavatsky". Caldwell included in it a collection of the worst slanders against H. P. Blavatsky and the Masters. He also had the nerve to present those slanders as "testimonies" and "acounts".
That same year, "The Canadian Theosophist" published a letter by Mr. John Cooper entitled "The Collected Letters of H.P. Blavatsky" (1).
The text starts thus:
"Through the kindness of those who are carrying on the work of Boris de Zirkoff, I have been engaged by the Theosophical Publishing House to prepare a critical edition of "The Collected Letters of H. P. Blavatsky".
And then John Cooper proceeds to reveal "some of the editorial principles that will be followed in preparing the letters for publication". It is here that the letter shows a remarkable absence of common sense, for the very first "principle" says:
"All letters written by H.P.B. will be included. These will include letters whose authenticity is doubtful, as will be indicated in the editorial apparatus."
Which is obviously tantamount to say:
"All letters written by H. P. Blavatsky will be published, including those which have not been written by her."
These two short sentences are a magnificent example of the "double-thinking" denounced by George Orwell in his famous novel entitled "1984". Translated into English, the sentences meant that Mr. John Cooper intended to publish both true and false letters, those witten by HPB and those written by the 19th century forgers who were her enemies and slanderers.
As long as I know, John Cooper´s decision and announcement was not challenged or opposed.
Of course, John Algeo, who succeeded Cooper in the task, could have corrected that decision. In fact, Nicholas Weeks, a member of Algeo´s "Editorial Committee", told Algeo that he should not accept as true the letters forged by Mr. Vsevolod Soloviof. But the warning was in vain - as Ms. Dara Eklund, also a member of the Editorial Committee, reported to me in a 2004 letter.
Besides Soloviof´s forgeries, John Algeo decided to include many other slanderous letters, with some very modest aknowledgements that they had ... "poor legitimacy".
Algeo has been for some years the international vice-president of the Adyar Society, and from the viewpoint of political power, he might have strong reasons to use those old slanders as instruments to attack HPB at the moral ground. It would be a cunning way to help prevent Adyar Society members from rediscovering true Theosophy, or from getting rid of the ritualistic fancies and authoritarian power-structure created by C. W. Leadbeater.
John Algeo is, no doubt, the main responsible for such an attempt to absorb dozens of slanderous texts into the heart of the theosophical literature - nay, into the very body of HPB´s writings. Yet one could say that this was not his idea. After all, he only put it into practice. In a way, it all started with John Cooper back in 1991, or even earlier with Boris de Zirkoff.
In fact, the attempt to adopt slanders as pa rt of our literature developed gradually.
First., there was no need for Zirkoff to translate many of those "letters" from the Russian, as he did, or at least to plan to publish them, if he planned indeed. Why publishing and circulating forgeries?
During the 1980s, there was a new and strong evidence that those "materials" should be abandoned: it was the self-criticism of the Society for Psychic Research, SPR. The same institution which used those forgeries to "comdemn" Blavatsky as a fraud in 1885 withdrew all charges against HPB in 1986, after experts´ examination of the documents showed that the "process" against HPB was biased and fraudulent, while HPB was innocent and a victim of persecution. In spite of this, Daniel Caldwell decided to include the slanders in his 1991 book on HPB. The libels were not clearly identified as such by Caldwell. Also in 1991, John Cooper announced his intention to publish the forged texts as part of H.P.B. Letters.
The ethical defense of truth started in 2004, soon after the publication of the false HPB letters. In 2005, "The Aquarian Theosophist" announced it intendedf to publish a first volume with the authentic Letters of HPB - "a volume containing no slanders against the founder of the modern esoteric movement".
Better late than never. But since 1991, when John Cooper announced the future publication of the slanders and Daniel Caldwell actually published many of them, up to 2004, when r eactimon started, there was some sort of paralysis in the movement´s ability to defend truth - and, to defend itself.
This is something for us to think about.
Perhaps we should humbly share part of the responsibility for such a collective lack of common sense and absence of respect for the main founder of the modern esoteric movement.
One of the great souls who help humanity, Helena Petrovna´s work will only help us more, if we are able to understand the truth about her wisdom, decency and generosity.
We will certainly have more to do about that in the years ahead.
Best regards, Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
NOTE:
(1) "The Canadian Theosophist", Toronto, March/April 1991, p. 21.
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