Theos-Talk Archives (March 2007 Message tt00112)

Daniel puts forward a challenge to understand the Theosophical Society
as HPB envisioned it.

As HPB was the originator of the TS and one of its co-founders, there
does not exist anyone with more right to describe what the TS is
supposed to be.  For those that believe in her Masters, they could argue
that it is really the Masters who were the originators of the idea, but
from a standpoint of the membership, the Masters are merely a premise of
HPB's.  HPB is the historically verified individual whom we look to for
the final word as to what the TS is supposed to be.

Let's put the ES aside as many would argue that there is no legitimate
ES in existence today.  All that we have is the movement itself 
comprised of unaligned and often independent members, and those members
that belong to the various Societies.  Let's take the simplest case, the
individual member.  The beauty of the Theosophical Society is that it is
modeled after the individual searcher for truth.  The beliefs of any one
individual are many just as the belief systems that populate the
theosophical society are many. By adopting one or more of the Objects of
the Movement and adhering to the motto of "There is no religion higher
than Truth", the individual is forced to evolve.  Universal Brotherhood
leads one to do good works and try to help his fellow man.  The study of
comparative religion, science, and philosophy forces one beyond the
limitations of his own belief system.  Delving into the unexplained laws
of Nature and powers latent in Man leads to the development of
intuition.  HPB suggests that lying at the centre of all this is the
esoteric.  The Secret Doctrine, The Voice of the Silence, etc. lay at
the spiritual centre of the Movement.  The member who understands and
practices these doctrines is the member who will be drawn into that
Brotherhood that watches over all Humanity.

The Theosophical Movement is simply the mind of the theosophist writ
large.  As theosophists move to that centre, they begin to empower the
Movement as a whole by strengthening the bond between the Masters of
Wisdom and the Movement.  Within this argument, the more members that
move to the centre and into the light of the Masters, the stronger will
be the Society.

Any body needs a spiritual centre, and the body of the Theosophical
Movement is no different.  Its spiritual centre is the right
understanding of "the Wisdom-Religion or the Archaic Doctrine" as
outlined by HPB and her teachers.  No individual member has to believe
theses doctrines, they can believe what they will.  However, the Society
was established by HPB and if she avers that they are the centre, then
who is anyone else to say differently.  If you want a different centre,
then why not go found your own Movement.

You can start from any system of beliefs that you want but there can be
only one centre.  Besant tried to create a second centre which paved the
way for multiple centres and the destruction of the Society.  It is this
that the leaders of the Movement must recognize if they are going to
save it.

Bruce

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "danielhcaldwell"
<danielhcaldwell@...> wrote:
>
> Exoteric and Esoteric Theosophy????
> & the Tower of Babel???
> ======================================================
>
> I quote BELOW specific extracts from two sections of H.P. Blavatsky's
> THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.
>
> I believe that these two extracts WHEN TAKEN TOGETHER throw some
> light on one of the issues raised by Bruce.
>
> What was H.P.B.'s thinking as shown in these two extracts?
>
> Bruce, what do you think?  And what do other readers think?
>
> I will be more than happy to clarify what I think these two extracts
> show us.
>
> Daniel




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]