Theos-Talk Archives (May 2012 Message tt00109)

Dear friends

My views are:

Is the Theosophical Society a cult (or sect)?

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Here are some views from a Christian website...

Theosophical Society (TS) ? The earth is getting better?
http://www.allaboutcults.org/theosophical-society.htm
http://www.allaboutcults.org/radha-burnier-and-the-theosophical-society-faq.htm


"Religious Cults: The Christian Perspective
Christians define religious cults from a different perspective. Simply, a cult is any religious group that deviates from the fundamental teachings of the historic, Bible-based, Christian faith as confirmed through the ancient ecumenical creeds."
http://www.allaboutcults.org/religious-cults.htm

Now is the Theosophical Society defining cults in the samme manner?
And how can it be that so many persons get the impression, that The Theosophical Society - has beliefs or a faith, or a core doctrine for the members to follow - while it claims freedom of thought with the one hand - while it with the other - so very clealry (???) promotes orthodox Theosophical teachings - only allowing certain authors to get into the limelight?


Theosophists and Religion, Radha Burnier, 1978
ON THE WATCH TOWER
"Credulity Versus Faith

The technical and material progress of the present age are the outcome of the scientific spirit. Scientific enquiry and knowledge are based on well formulated principles of testing and strictly logical deductions. Blind belief, prejudgements and prejudices have no place in the scientific approach to truth. In the age of science, and in countries where science and technology have so revolutionized daily life that travelling from the ?developed? to the ?undeveloped? countries one has the impression of journeying into a different world, it is interesting to note the widespread growth of credulity. Charlatans of many kinds are able to foist a variety of cults and beliefs on eager devotees who are willing victims. Self-styled gods are many in number because their claims are accepted without question by a sufficient congregation. UFO enthusiasts relate not only observed phenomena, but append wild tales which appear to be all the more convincing to believers because they are so far removed from the normal and the rational. On the one hand there is legitimate enquiry into how far scientific knowledge can lead and what its limits are; on the other there is the craze for abandoning all rational parameters and adopting a passive role of acceptance before a ?guru.? ?Gurus? in diverse garbs have mushroomed to pander to the hidden desire of the believers to abdicate responsibility, the guise of dispenser of truth being an essential part of the make-believe. Credulity is becoming as much a symptom of the times as scientific progress."
.......
"H. P. B. also wrote: ? What is needed is not that we should convert each other, but that each of us should deepen and spiritualise his own religion and find out its value for himself. As that spirit spreads over the world, surely the emergence of a world-religion becomes possible.?" [I can see Annie Besant wrote it, in "The Immediate Future". But where did Blavatsky write it? Anyone?]
.......
"The above statements suggest that the Theosophist has to examine and regard his own religion in the light of Theosophy and that, stripping it of dead-letter encrustations, he should deepen and spiritualise it as a preparation for the emergence of a world religion.

Some decades ago, there was a strong movement among Theosophists to try to do this. The light of Theosophy was turned upon the major religions of the world and public attention was aroused to the possibility of restoring to the faiths their pristine splendour. The interest which many Theosophists took in the Bharata Samaja in India and the Liberal Catholic Church in the West was symptomatic of a strongly felt need for reform, and for deepening and spiritualising the religious consciousness.

Although H. P. B.?s words still remain valid, it is to be regretted that so many members of the Theosophical Society still remain conventional, if not orthodox, adherents of their particular religion. A Theosophist cannot be conventional, for true Theosophy stimulates the reasoning powers and the capacity to discriminate between the false and the real. It is when Theosophy itself becomes a dead letter or a lip philosophy that there is no vital change in one?s outlook whether it be in the religious, social, educational or any other sphere."
http://theosophy.katinkahesselink.net/radha-burnier/WatchTower1978a.htm


WHAT IS OUR AIM?
-- Radha Burnier --- On the Watch-Tower, The Theosophist, April 2009
"People are apt to forget the core teachings of the Theosophical Society, and of Theosophical work, after more than one hundred and thirty years which have passed since the Society was founded. Many things have happened in the Society, and all around the world, during this fairly long peroid. Therefore, a number of members are not conscious of the central purpose of the Society, and are completely ignorant of the Society's aims and its support from the inner worlds."
.......
"The Theosophical Society seeks to communicate to people that there is this mighty work which is being done. It is not being done by human beings who believe that they are at the top and nothing further beyond them can be found. In fact, all old philosophies and myths indicate that there is a vast life around us, and that there are many aspects to the fulfilling of the divine objects, which we may easily ignore as most human beings do.

There are hierarchies of various realms, some of which have been called angels, devas, etc., and all have a work to do in the vast process. We who are on this plane understand very little, but can have a concept that there is a purpose, a plan, a glory, of which we do not know much. Dr.Taimni says that there are at least some functions we can note. As humanity we have to understand a little bit of the fact that the journey does not stop here; it proceeds far beyond. In fact "Light on The Path" refers to it in mystic terms:

"When the final secret of this great lesson is told, in it is opened the mystery of the new way -- a path which leads out of all experience, and which is utterly beyond human perception or imagination."
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/other/Burnier-aim-theosophy.html

THE  INTERNATIONAL THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY - website
A New Era Begins
With Mrs Besant a new era began.  She gave a great lead in making Theosophy practical, urging members 
to apply the light of Theosophy to the various fields of human activity: religious, social, economic, political,"
http://www.ts-adyar.org/content/early-history#A_New_Era_Begins


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NOW COMPARE CAREFULLY THE ABOVE WITH THE BELOW WORDS...!

Excerpts from the old Consitution of the Theosophical Society, 1890 -----NOW DELETED in the present day Consitution of the Theosophical Society of year 2012 - and at least since the year 1910.

The Constitution of the Theosophical Society
"The Theosophical Society is absolutely unsectarian"
.......
"ARTICLE XIII
Offences

1. Any Fellow who shall in any way attempt to involve the Society In political disputes shall be immediately expelled.

2. No Fellow, Officer, or Council of the Theosophical Society, or of any Section or Branch thereof, shall promulgate or maintain any doctrines being that advanced, or advocated by the Society."
http://www.teozofija.info/tsmembers/Rules_1890.htm

DICTIONARY DEFITIONITION OF THE WORD SECT and SECTARIAN:
"1. A group of people forming a distinct unit within a larger group by virtue of certain refinements or distinctions of belief or practice.
2. A religious body, especially one that has separated from a larger denomination.
3. A faction united by common interests or beliefs."
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sect
(United by Theosophical Ortodoxy -? Only some authors are accepted others not?)


"1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a sect.
2. Adhering or confined to the dogmatic limits of a sect or denomination; partisan.
3. Narrow-minded; parochial.
n.
1. A member of a sect.
2. One characterized by bigoted adherence to a factional viewpoint."
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Sectarian

A few comments forwarding my own view:
For instance a viewpoint called - theosophy - first and foremost - among those whom WE (the administrative leaders - and - Leading Theosophists???) ALLOW to be called THEOSOPHISTS?
The Esoteric Section was never meant to Boos the Exoteric Section of the Theosophical Society. And RAdha Burnier seem to forget this in her above views on cults, UFO's and what not ---- while she only respect orthodox Theosophy according to her own - so-called Esoteric Viewpoints (! !) - Just as Masters never was made an article of Faith or belief within the Theosophical Society --- angels and hierachies was neither --- in an ABSOLUETLY UNSECTARIAN Society.



I will let each sincere and honest reader draw their own conclusions...


All the above are of course just my views. I present them from my heart seeking to promote altruism.
I will gladly change them if someone are able to prove them wrong or irrelevant.




M. Sufilight








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