Theos-Talk Archives (February 2008 Message tt00088)

Lol, I agree with Chuck the Heretic!
Most of the theosophists in our world don't even know
they are, while the ones who claim they are, are
mostly arsetalkers. They like to look what we do to be
a theosophist and instead of at least trying to do it
themselves, they like to be on their own island in
their own nir-wana.

My 2 farts :-)


--- Morten Nymann Olesen
<global-theosophy@stofanet.dk> wrote:

> Aha!
> That was why you became a Heretic and a member of
> this forum?
> 
> 
> 
> M. Sufilight
> 
> 
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Drpsionic@aol.com 
>   To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com 
>   Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 4:37 PM
>   Subject: Re: Theos-World What is Theosophy
> 
> 
>   No one knows what Theosophy is, least of all
> Theosophists.
> 
>   Chuck the Heretic
> 
>   http://www.geocities.com/c_cosimano 
> 
>   -----Original Message-----
>   From: Pablo Sender <pasender@yahoo.com.ar>
>   To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
>   Sent: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 10:34 pm
>   Subject: Theos-World What is Theosophy
> 
>   "What is Theosophy?" is one of the most frequently
> asked
>   questions in the theosophical milieu and, since
> the word
>   `theosophy' remains without an official
> definition, it will
>   always be a matter to ponder over. To answer this
> question, I will quote
>   H. P. Blavatsky's words, because the theosophical
> movement as a
>   whole accepts her as a common source of
> inspiration. Nevertheless, the
>   same concepts may be found in many other
> theosophical writers.
> 
>   The term theosophia apparently was first recorded
> during the 3rd century
>   of our era by Porphyry, a well-known Alexandrian
> philosopher who
>   belonged to the Neo-Platonic school. It is
> composed of two Greek words:
>   theos, meaning `god' or `divine'; and sophia, or
>   `wisdom', which may also be translated as the
> `wisdom of the
>   gods', `wisdom in things divine', or `divine
>   wisdom'. The term flourished among Neo-Platonists
> down to the 6th c.
>   and was also used by certain Christians. In the
> course of time, several
>   people and movements spiritually inclined also
> adopted the denomination
>   of `theosophers' or `theosophists' for themselves.
> That
>   was the case of Meister Eckhart in the 14th c., a
> group of Renaissance
>   philosophers such as Paracelsus in the 16th c.,
> Robert Fludd, Thomas
>   Vaughan, and Jacob Boehme in the 17th; and Emanuel
> Swedenborg and Karl
>   von Eckartshausen in the 18th c., among others.
> Finally, the
>   theosophical movement reappeared in the 19th c.
> with the founding of the
>   Theosophical Society in 1875 by H. P. Blavatsky,
> H. S. Olcott, and
>   others. Through it, certain eternal truths were
> presented again in a
>   suitable fashion to modern times and a rich
> literature has been produced
>   by Theosophical Society members in its more than
> 130 years of activity.
> 
>   But then the question arises: Is theosophy what
> the founders of the TS
>   taught? Is it what every leader of the TS wrote?
> What is the
>   relationship between the teachings given through
> the TS and those older
>   ones also known as theosophy? Since people with
> different religious and
>   philosophical backgrounds used the same word
> `theosophist' to
>   call themselves, the term `theosophy' must
> represent something
>   that unites them beyond concepts and beliefs.
> 
>   Theosophia as a state of consciousness
> 
>   In her article `What is Theosophy?' HPB attempts
> an explanation
>   of the term `theosophy', describing who a
> theosophist is. To
>   that end, she quotes Vaughan's definition:
> 
>   A Theosophistâ??he saysâ??is one who gives you a
> theory of God or
>   the works of God, which has not revelation, but an
> inspiration of his
>   own for its basis. [i]
> 
>   A theosophist's knowledge about the Divine does
> not come from any
>   external source. He does not gather information
> from books, teachers,
>   etc., but from his own inmost nature. In fact, an
> essential common
>   feature of every theosophist is his teaching about
> the possibility for a
>   human being to reach the Divine at the moment of
> real ecstasy, or what
>   is known as samâdhi in Eastern philosophy. In her
> article `The
>   Beacon of the Unknown', HPB speaks about this as
> being a
>   `transcendental Theosophy', which, according to
> her, `is
>   true Theosophy, inner Theosophy, that of the
> soul':
> 
>   The infinite cannot be known to our reason, which
> can only distinguish
>   and define; but we can always conceive the
> abstract idea thereof, thanks
>   to that faculty higher than our
> reasonâ??intuition, or the spiritual
>   instinct of which I have spoken. The great
> initiates, who have the rare
>   power of throwing themselves into the state of
> samâdhiâ??which can
>   be but imperfectly translated by the word ecstasy,
> a state in which one
>   ceases to be the conditioned and personal `I', and
> becomes one
>   with the ALLâ??are the only ones who can boast of
> having been in
>   contact with the infinite; but no more than other
> mortals can they
>   describe that state in words . . . .
> 
>   These few characteristics of true Theosophy and
> its practice have been
>   sketched for the small number of our readers who
> are gifted with the
>   desired intuition. [ii]
> 
>   And HPB herself had access to this kind of Divine
> Wisdom. Let us see
>   what she wrote about her own source of knowledge:
> 
>   Knowledge comes in visions, first in dreams and
> then in pictures
>   presented to the inner eye during meditation. Thus
> have I been taught
>   the whole system. . . . Not a word was spoken to
> me of all this in the
>   ordinary way . . . nothing taught me in writing.
> And knowledge so
>   obtained is so clear . . . that all other sources
> of information, all
>   other methods of teaching with which we are
> familiar dwindle into
>   insignificance in comparison with this. [iii]
> 
>   This kind of knowledge is much deeper than that
> acquired through books
>   and lectures, because one deals with reality in a
> more direct way than
>   through ideasâ??this perception is
> supra-conceptual. From this point
>   of view, theosophy, essentially, is not a limited
> body of concepts, but
>   transcends any verbal formulation. It is a state
> of Divine Wisdom, which
>   is potentially in every human being. A
> theosophist, in his turn, is one
>   who realizes that state of inner enlightenment,
> irrespective of his
>   culture, time, or language:
> 
>   In this view every great thinker and philosopher,
> especially every
>   founder of a new religion, school of philosophy,
> or sect, is necessarily
>   a Theosophist. Hence, Theosophy and Theosophists
> have existed ever since
>   the first glimmering of nascent thought made man
> seek instinctively for
>   the means of expressing his own independent
> opinions. [iv]
> 
>   Theosophia and theosophical teachings
> 
> 
=== message truncated ===



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