Theos-Talk Archives (November 2008 Message tt00339)

I haven't posted here for a while, but what comes to mind Anand, is 
the whole idea of having creeds.  My primary influence in Theosophy 
comes from reading the first six years of the Theosophist magazine.  
The one thing so amazing about the Theosophist was how involved it was 
in asking questions, and the discussion those questions fomented.  It 
reminds me very much of the site www.edge.org insofar as it 
represented the cutting edge of thought for the day.  

Right now, I hate to say this boys and girls, but as a movement we're 
hardly relevant to anything.  It's really sad because our culture is 
about to really go through some bad stuff with technology (like 3rd & 
4th RR stuff...self-destruction and the like), and perhaps 
Theosophists are the best positioned to ask the right questions and 
help steer the thought into something that may not be so destructive.  

But its ok, keep arguing about stuff that nobody cares about, and 
while you're doing that make sure to play the song "One Tin Soldier", 
by Coven.

Therefore, it seems that the Theosophical movement would do best to 
ask questions, concentrate more on promoting the study of comparative 
religion, philosophy and science, and the investigation of the 
"unexplained laws" of nature.  The whole "Masters" thing is little 
more than a distraction to our work as a public movement, and the 
advice given to Besant in 1908 by KH seems to be as appropriate as 
ever.  This is, after all, a movement of ideas!

Joe

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Anand" <AnandGholap@...> wrote:
>
> 
> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Anton Rozman" <anton_rozman@>
> wrote:
> >
> > Dear Anand,
> > 
> > As I find the topic in discussion crucial for the understanding of 
> > the role of the Theosophical Society I would like to express some 
> > personal views. 
> > 
> > In what sense was the Theosophical Society meant to be vehicle for 
> > the spiritual movement? Can "spiritual movement" express itself 
> > through an organization which is an artificial form of association 
of 
> > different individuals and not by itself a body capable to express 
> > some "spiritual truth"? Can not spiritual truths, ideas, express 
> > themselves only through individuals? If this is the case, and it 
> > certainly is, then these expressions are necessarily different as 
> > individuals are different. The organization can promote some 
> > uniform "spiritual truth" only when its individual members decide 
to 
> > give up to their individual expressions and subdue themselves, for 
> > whatever reason, to some other individual expression of "spiritual 
> > truth" or "teaching" transforming it into dogma. 
> 
> Theosophical Society may be proud of not having any creed. And it 
may
> also become proud of not having distinctions based on caste, creed,
> sex etc.
> But then why should we meet in Theosophical lodge? 
> Person can go to any club to pass time. Or he can join a library 
where
> there will be many books on different religions. He can borrow those
> books and study, or he can join some Theology course. 
> So, despite fantastic idea of not having creed, I feel that members 
of
> TS come to TS to study Theosophy, which is composed of writings of
> main Theosophists. For these students writings of these favorite
> Theosophists is creed. You can see students of Blavatsky believing 
in
> writings of Blavatsky like creed. And some others believing in
> writings of Besant and Leadbeater like creed. So I think despite
> official statements of no creed, there do exist some creeds in TS. 
And
> if people are not interested in those creeds, i.e. writings of
> favorite Theosophists, they will not come to TS. 
> That means even if TS has not declared officially any creed, there 
are
> 3-4 unofficial creeds in existence. And if even these unofficial
> creeds are removed, then there does not remain any reason for people
> to come to the Theosophical Society.
> My problem is related to this issue. I want to spread creed of 
Besant
> and Leadbeater. Because Blavatsky and Krishnamurti were connected to
> the TS, when I spread creed of Leadbeater, I indirectly give impulse
> to other creeds of Blavatsky and Krishnamurti. Now, I don't agree 
with
> writings of Blavatsky and Krishnamurti and I don't want to be
> responsible for spreading creeds of Blavatsky and Krishnamurti. How
> can I do that? One solution I found is to reject Krishnamurti by
> expressly writing in my article. I think I should show mistakes of
> Blavatsky and reject that teaching expressly. 
> This message gives some idea of how unofficial creeds exist in TS 
and
> their dynamics.
> 
> Best
> Anand Gholap
>