Theos-Talk Archives (May 2009 Message tt00819)

Dear friends

My views are:

MKR wrote:
"So the Indian section must be doing something right and the West can learn
some lessons from India. No one in the West seems to be interested."


My view is:
That is a huge assumption if you ask me. 

Just because the number of members in a given group is climbing, it is not necessarily because they are doing something right. The opposite could just as easily be the truth. Try Islam or Christianity. Theosophists measure through quality. True theosophy will most often not collect a great number of Seekers and members, because people in general are like animals in a forrest, who bumb into a new tree every other second because they are narrowminded and cannot see the esoteric one. And what they in fact crave and want is something else than theosophical teachings; and that is something they easily will find in todays new invention: The New Age market. :-)

Yet we can agree that TS has problems. One of the more important reasons stem from the J. Krishnamurti split and the strange manouvers performed by Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater. The only real wise writer, which goes scott free is H. P. Blavatsky despite all the mud thrown at her, - especially by those who do not understand that theosophical teachings given by high initiates are depending on time, place, people, circumstances and importantly culture.

H. P. Blavatsky analyzed and compared her teachings with contemporary theosophists, scholars and earlier esotericists. She rejected and criticized parts of A. P. Sinnett's books, parts of Messey's teachings, and Max Muller got his cup of tea, and the Pope the same, and others as well. Take for instance Dyanand and Eliphas Levi into the group as well.

A few question to consider:
1. So why on earth should we who lives in 21th century be banned in TS from comparing and even criticizing J. Krishnamurti's teachings with H. P. Blavatsky's, and J. Krishnamurti's teachings with W. C. Leadbeaters and Annie Besants teachings, and H. P. Blavatsky's teachings with Leadbeaters and Annie Besants teachings etc. etc.??? And from doing that in the TS Magazines?
2. Why, of all things, should certain comparative studies be kept down in a straight-jacket by TS?
3. Why are Masters allowed, when UFO's and Aliens are no more to be written about in TS, and only HPB allowed to do it?
4. Has TS teachers for instance ever written anything clear and comprehensive about why its leadership deemed it necessary to throw out the Alice A. Bailey groups, and that Cyril Scott's view about J. Krishnamurti was wrong? Is a short more or less blunt statement enough?
5. Has TS teachers for instance ever written anything clear and comprehensive about why H. P. Blavatsky's ideas about theosophical teachings needed to be replanted by Annie Besants "no moral code" ideas and structural reforms, and the later reforms???


Just a few views and questions.


M. Sufilight


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: MKR 
  To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com ; theos-l 
  Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 4:02 PM
  Subject: Theos-World Membership Numbers in TSA Speak





  Membership Numbers in TSA Speak
  .
  Talk of leaders from the USA after last years' election in which the
  candidate from the USA did not win, has centered on the need to change the
  international rules and the ill fated attempt to change them to seize
  control of the appointment of the president by the GC by secretly
  disenfranchising the members world-wide. The GC members (especially from
  small sections) are the ones who will benefit by making the international
  president a puppet of a handful of GC members. Thanks for the good luck of
  TS and its members, the plan was discovered in time and with the help of
  Internet, members became aware and enraged at what the leaders are upto.
  .
  The real big elephant in the room is the poor member recruitment and
  retention outside India. I just looked up the member statistics. Thanks to
  Tillett's thesis, because the annual reports are hard to find, and no one
  knows why.
  .
  Here are the figures for the USA in 1912 and 1913. They are 3368 and 4145.
  The current count is around 4000. So, in spite of the increase in population
  over nearly a century, the lack of growth says that something is seriously
  wrong. We may have a number of retired professors, academics, scholars, and
  daily meditators active in the TSA leadership, but the statistics speaks for
  itself.
  .
  TS is organized with full autonomy at lodge and section levels. So,
  responsibility for the poor numbers falls squarely on the leaders in the TSA
  in the recent decades. They may be talking the talk, but totally ineffective
  on the bottom line.
  .
  On the other hand, the membership in India is steadily growing and this
  confirms the wise decision taken by the Inner Founders to move TS to India
  from the USA at a time when travel and living conditions in India were very
  difficult.
  .
  So the Indian section must be doing something right and the West can learn
  some lessons from India. No one in the West seems to be interested. In the
  circumstances, the Indians can legitimately view the rules change move by
  leaders from the West as simply an end run trying to reduce the voting
  influence of the Indian members and marginalize the importance of the
  president.
  .
  It is time that independent thinking members see the facts as they are and
  understand what is going on and what is at stake for TS and its members. It
  is the indifference of members that seems to have lead to the current state
  of affairs after the ill fated attempt to defeat the sitting president by
  alleging that she is sick, both mentally and physically, which seems to
  continue even today.
  .
  Let us all wake up and be vigilant. Let us talk about these issues when we
  get together with our theosophical friends. Such discussions will result in
  a change in priorities and only then we will see constructive results.
  .
  .
  MKR

  There is no religion higher than Truth

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