Theos-Talk Archives (July 2007 Message tt00111)

Using Sinnett's "Esoteric Buddhism" 
as a Gateway to Further Study of HPB's Writings

In previous postings at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/40879
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/40888
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/40889
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/40900

I have tried to show that A.P. Sinnett's book "Esoteric
Buddhism" is a good place to start one's study of
Theosophy.

"Esoteric Buddhism" was the first simple exposition
of what is known as "Modern Theosophy" to appear on 
the public scene.  The book gives a good overview, bird's
eyeview and survey of the basic ideas or teachings of Theosophy.

Reading the book several times will help one's understanding
of the teachings.

Once this is done, then one can supplement one's study of
Theosophy by using the material in the following sources:

(1)  HPB's ISIS UNVEILED
(2)  HPB's articles in the Theosophist (1879-1885)
(3)  THE MAHATMA LETTERS
(4)  THE SECRET DOCTRINE
(5)  THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY
(6)  THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE
(7)  HPB's 3 ESOTERIC INSTRUCTIONS
(8)  THE INNER GROUP TEACHINGS.

One method would be to "annotate" Esoteric Buddhism using the
above works.  

For example, there is a goldmine of material in ISIS UNVEILED
that illuminates what is written in ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.

Let me take just three quotations from Isis to illustrate this.

If you turn to page 263 of volume II of ISIS, you find this remarkable
paragraph:

---------------------------------------------------------------
The grand cycle . . . includes the progress of mankind from its germ 
in the primordial man of spiritual form to the deepest depth of 
degradation he can reach -- each successive step in the descent being 
accompanied by a greater strength and grossness of the physical form 
than its precursor -- and ends with the Flood. But while the grand 
cycle, or age, is running its course, seven minor cycles are passed, 
each marking the evolution of a new race out of the preceding one, on 
a new world. And each of these races, or grand types of humanity, 
breaks up into subdivisions of families, and they again into nations 
and tribes, as we see the earth's inhabitants subdivided to-day into 
Mongols, Caucasians, Indians, etc. 
---------------------------------------------------------------

This paragraph certainly illuminates what Mr. Sinnett has written on
the Root Races in ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.

Or take these passages from Isis, Volume 1, pp. 1-2:
-------------------------------------------------------------
...matter has in time become, through sin, more gross and dense than 
it was at man's first formation; that, at the beginning, the human 
body was of a half-ethereal nature; and that, before the fall, 
mankind communed freely with the now unseen universes. But since that 
time matter has become the formidable barrier between us and the 
world of spirits. The oldest esoteric traditions also teach that, 
before the mystic Adam, many races of human beings lived and died 
out, each giving place in its turn to another....

As the cycle proceeded, man's eyes were more and more opened, until 
he came to know "good and evil" as well as the Elohim themselves. 
Having reached its summit, the cycle began to go downward. When the 
arc attained a certain point which brought it parallel with the fixed 
line of our terrestrial plane, the man was furnished by nature 
with "coats of skin," and the Lord God "clothed them."...
-------------------------------------------------------------

Or on the planetary chain of globes given in ESOTERIC BUDDHISM, 
consider the following from ISIS, Vol. I, pp. 348-249:

-------------------------------------------------------------
Imagine a given point in space as the primordial one; then with 
compasses draw a circle around this point; where the beginning and 
the end unite together, emanation and reabsorption meet. The circle 
itself is composed of innumerable smaller circles, like the rings of 
a bracelet, and each of these minor rings forms the belt of the 
goddess which represents that sphere. As the curve of the arc 
approaches the ultimate point of the semi-circle -- the nadir of the 
grand cycle -- at which is placed our planet by the mystical painter, 
the face of each successive goddess becomes more dark and hideous 
than European imagination is able to conceive. Every belt is covered 
with the representations of plants, animals, and human beings, 
belonging to the fauna, flora, and anthropology of that particular 
sphere. There is a certain distance between each of the spheres, 
purposely marked; for, after the accomplishment of the circles 
through various transmigrations, the soul is allowed a time of 
temporary nirvana, during which space of time the atma loses all 
remembrance of past sorrows. The intermediate ethereal space is 
filled with strange beings. Those between the highest ether and the 
earth below are the creatures of a "middle nature"; nature-spirits, 
or, as the kabalists term it sometimes, the elementary. 
--------------------------------------------------------------- 

By taking various subjects and terms used in ESOTERIC BUDDHISM, one 
can then consult the 139 page index to the COLLECTED WRITING'S 
edition of ISIS UNVEILED and look up these subjects and find relevant 
material in ISIS to annotate and illuminate what Mr. Sinnett has 
written.

By using this method one can find a goldmine of relevant material in 
ISIS.

This same method can be used on the other source literature mentioned 
above:  THE MAHATMA LETTERS, THE SECRET DOCTRINE, etc.

Hope some of the above helps some inquirers and students.

Daniel
http://hpb.cc