Theos-Talk Archives (June 2006 Message tt00251)

Dear Friends,
 
I quote from the Editorial, in the Spring 2001 issue of the Edmonton T.S. magazine: 
 
?FOHAT has tried to air in its pages the festering wounds of the [Theosophical] Society in hope that they would finally be addressed.  The Editor has been criticized for being overly harsh weith respect to a historian who claims Blavatsky, with the help of others, created the Masters and deceived theosophists and the world into believing in their existence. If members believe that the Society was founded on deception, then why do they continue to be members of that Society? The most basic of occult laws indicate that the tree is in  the seed and if  the seed is deformed, so will the  tree be deformed. Either you believe the Society to be rooted in deception  or you do not, and if you do not then it is your duty to  rebuff all attempts to smear the good name of the founders and by extension the Society.?    
 
 
So, if any theosophists believe that the movement was (or ?may have been?) founded on fraud and deception, then why do they continue to lose time with something they do not consider authentic?? 
 
Paul Johnson, who is probably the ?historian? mentioned in this editorial,  was at least careful enough not to call himself a theosophist, and not try to speak in the name of  Theosophy.  This is something I respect.  
 
The case with Trojan horses is not so simple. Trojan horses are a much bigger challenge for the movement than its open and daylight critics, and therefore the lessons  to learn from them  are deeper and more important. 
 
The Masters of the Wisdom stick to truth. Truthfulness is their method, and  truth is the goal of their students with no exception.    
 
Masters allow their chelas, lay chelas and aspirants to discipleship to be ?temporily deceived? by tricksters, ?to afford them means never to be deceived  hereafter, and to see the whole evil of  falsity  and untruth, not alone in this but in many of their after lives.? (1) 
 
The theosophical movement can be seen, itself, as a lay chela to the Mahatmas.  Technically, the situation is the same. It is natural, then,  that the movement be deceived by many illusions until it gradually learns to get  rid of them.   
 
Wisdom must emerge from within. This can only happen in some ?probationary situation?.  A probationary situation is established by the living and challenging  contrast between two key factors, which are: a sincere though partial understanding of the Esoteric Wisdom, on one hand,  and the daily life karmic conditions, with its ignorance (individual and collective), on the other hand.
 
So, the theosophical movement as a whole is on probation since 1891, and  its defeats and self-delusions since then are part of its own  learning and growth.     This, to me, is a healthy, stimulating situation.  
 
Best regards,    Carlos Cardoso Aveline 
 
NOTE:
(1) THE MAHATMA LETTERS,  Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, CA, USA, 1992, Letter XXX, p. 231. 
 
 


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