Theos-Talk Archives (March 2007 Message tt00065)

"WITHIN CERTAIN LIMITS" most likely means within the bounds of logical 
reasoning and known facts.   If such is the case, then there is no discrepancies in 
anything that HPB says in the excerpts below.   Since there is no religion 
higher than truth, the truth alone must govern the validity of all theosophical 
teachings. 

LHM


In a message dated 3/3/07 1:04:02 PM, danielhcaldwell@yahoo.com writes:


> Dear ___________,
> 
> Concerning the two extracts you gave from Mme. Blavatsky,
> I ask you how you would reconcile what Blavatsky says
> in those 2 extracts (which I have numbered as EXTRACTS
> 1 and 2 below) with the additional 5 extracts I also
> give below from Blavatsky and Koot Hoomi.
> 
> Is Blavatsky saying CONTRADICTORY things in
> them with EXTRACTS 3 thru 7?
> 
> Or are we comparing apples to oranges when looking at
> the meaning or various meanings of the 7 extracts?
> 
> Or should we view all of these extracts from some other
> vantage point?
> 
> It seems to me that on one hand that we should avoid setting
> up "dogmas" but to go to the other extreme of letting any
> vagary be called Theosophy or Theosophical is also not
> desirable.
> 
> I also call your attention to the three words WITHIN
> CERTAIN LIMITS in EXTRACT 2. Do these three words
> qualify the meaning of the extract overall? And if so,
> how?
> 
> Daniel
> 
> EXTRACT 1
> 
> "We are all fellow-students, more or less advanced;
> but no one belonging to the Theosophical Society
> ought to count himself as more than, at best, a
> pupil-teacher—one who has no right to dogmatize."
> (Letter to the Second American Convention, 1888)
> 
> EXTRACT 2
> 
> "Orthodoxy in Theosophy is a thing neither possible
> nor desirable. It is diversity of opinion, WITHIN
> CERTAIN LIMITS, that keeps the Theosophical Society
> a living and a healthy body, its many other
> ugly features notwithstanding. Were it not, also,
> for the existence of a large amount of uncertainty
> in the minds of students of Theosophy, such healthy
> divergencies would be impossible, and the Society
> would degenerate into a sect, in which a narrow and
> stereotyped creed would take the place of the living
> and breathing spirit of Truth and an ever growing
> Knowledge." (same source as above)caps ADDED.
> 
> EXTRACT 3
> 
> ". . . A new and rapidly growing danger. . . is threatening . . . the
> spread of the pure Esoteric Philosophy and knowledge. . . . I
> allude to those charlatanesque imitations of Occultism and
> Theosophy. . . . By pandering to the prejudices of people, and
> especially by adopting the false ideas of a personal God and a
> personal, carnalized Saviour, as the groundwork of their teaching,
> the leaders of this 'swindle' (for such it is) are endeavoring to
> draw men to them and in particular to turn Theosophists from the true
> path."
> 
> ". . . A close examination will assuredly reveal. . . materials
> largely stolen . . . from Theosophical writings. . . [and] distorted
> and falsified so as to be palmed off on the unwary as revelations of
> new and undreamed of truths. But many will neither have the time nor
> the opportunity for such a thorough investigation; and before they
> become aware of the imposture they may be led far from the
> Truth. . . . Nothing is more dangerous to Esoteric Truth than the
> garbled and distorted versions disfigured to suit the prejudices and
> tastes of men in general."
> H. P. Blavatsky, E.S. Instruction No. I., 1889.
> 
> 
> 




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