Theos-Talk Archives (August 2004 Message tt00652)

Pedro, you wrote in part to Dallas:

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In your postings on this list you have used
frequently the expression "ORIGINAL TEACHINGS", and
linked the expression specifically to the writings of
HPB, the Mahatmas and W. Q. Judge. To a newcomer such
usage may indicate that the original teachings of
Theosophy are limited to the three sources just
mentioned. Did HPB or the Mahatmas or William Judge
include in their writings a caveat to the effect that
theirs were the original teachings or was this done by
subsequent generations of students of their works?

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I believe that both HPB and the Mahatmas indicated
that there were deviations from their original teachings.

For example, Blavatsky wrote:

"The publication of many of the facts herein stated has been rendered 
necessary by the wild and fanciful speculation in which many 
Theosophists and students of mysticism have indulged, during the last 
few years, in their endeavour to, as they imagined, work out a 
complete system of thought from the few facts previously communicated 
to them." S.D., original edition, Vol I, p. viii 

Pedro, notice the phrase: "wild and fanciful speculation."

Doesn't this suggest that there was an original teaching
and these wild and fanciful speculations were deviations from the
original?

Even the Mahatma KH wrote to Col. Olcott

"Be assured that what she [HPB] has not annotated from scientific and 
other works, we have given or suggested to her. Every mistake or 
erroneous notion, corrected and explained by her from the works of 
other theosophists was corrected by me, or under my instruction."

Every mistake or erroneous notion was corrected by me..... 

So the Master is surely saying there are correct notions of
Theosophy and then what can be called deviations --- erroneous 
notions.

Take again what HPB wrote to her esoteric students:

". . . A new and rapidly growing danger. . . is threatening . . . the 
spread of the pure Esoteric Philosophy and knowledge. . . . I 
allude to those charlatanesque imitations of Occultism and 
Theosophy. . . . By pandering to the prejudices of people, and 
especially by adopting the false ideas of a personal God and a 
personal, carnalized Saviour, as the groundwork of their teaching, 
the leaders of this 'swindle' (for such it is) are endeavoring to 
draw men to them and in particular to turn Theosophists from the true 
path."

". . . A close examination will assuredly reveal. . . materials 
largely stolen . . . from Theosophical writings. . . [and] distorted 
and falsified so as to be palmed off on the unwary as revelations of 
new and undreamed of truths. But many will neither have the time nor 
the opportunity for such a thorough investigation; and before they 
become aware of the imposture they may be led far from the 
Truth. . . . Nothing is more dangerous to Esoteric Truth than the 
garbled and distorted versions disfigured to suit the prejudices and 
tastes of men in general." 

She is contrasting "PURE Esoteric philosophy" with "charlatanesque 
IMITATIONS of Occultism and Theosophy." caps added.

And notice Pedro she writes of "the FALSE ideas of a personal God and 
a personal, carnalized Saviour."

Therefore the original teaching given in her writings are a touchstone
against such "false ideas."

Again notice:

"Nothing is more dangerous to Esoteric Truth than the garbled and 
distorted versions disfigured to suit the prejudices and tastes of 
men in general." 

Here we have a reference to the original teachings [Esoteric Truth] 
and also a reference that there can be "garbled and distorted 
versions" of the Esoteric Truth.

Also read the following:

"I dread the appearance in print of our philosophy as expounded by 
Mr. H[ume]. I read his three essays or chapters on God (?) cosmogony 
and glimpses of the origin of things in general, and had to cross out 
nearly all. He makes of us Agnostics!! We do not believe in God 
because so far, we have no proof, etc. This is preposterously 
ridiculous: if he publishes what I read, I will have H.P.B. or Djual 
Khool deny the whole thing; as I cannot permit our sacred philosophy 
to be so disfigured. He says that people will not accept the whole 
truth; that unless we humour them with a hope that there may be 
a 'loving Father and creator of all in heaven' our philosophy will be 
rejected a priori. In such a case the less such idiots hear of our 
doctrines the better for both. If they do not want the whole truth 
and nothing but the truth, they are welcome. But never will they find 
us -- (at any rate) -- compromising with, and pandering to public 
prejudices." 
Master Koot Hoomi, The Mahatma Letters, 2nd ed., Letter 54

Surely "our sacred philosophy" must refer to the true teachings of 
the Mahatmas, the original teachings given out by HPB and the 
Mahatmas.

And here we see the Master referring to expositions of their 
teachings which can DISFIGURE key tenets of the Esoteric or 
Theosophical philosophy.

Again any student who believes in the Mahatmas and HPB's claims 
should take heed of the following warnings:

"Great are the desecrations to which the names of two of the Masters 
have been subjected. There is hardly a medium who has not claimed to 
have seen them. Every BOGUS swindling Society, for commercial 
purposes, now claims to be guided and directed by 'Masters' often 
supposed to be far higher than ours!" Caps added.

Even in HPB's own time, there were false claims of contact with HPB's 
teachers. 

And in 1884 A.P. Sinnett, the Theosophist, believed he was in
contact with the Master KH via Mrs. Laura Holloway.

Yet the Master KH wrote him:

"You ask me if you can tell Miss Arundale what I told you thro' Mrs. H
[olloway]. . . . . .[But] I have never . . . communicated with you or 
any one else thro' her. . . . . She is an excellent but quite 
undeveloped clairvoyante. . . . ." The Mahatma Letters, 2nd ed., p. 
355 

Notice the Master KH said Mrs. Holloway was an excellent clairvoyant 
yet "quite undeveloped."

And notice what Master KH told Mrs. Holloway:

"Your vivid creative fancy [imagination] evokes illusive Gurus and 
chelas, and puts into their mouths words coined the instant before in 
the mint of your mind, unknown to yourself. The false appear as real, 
as the true, and you have no exact method of detection since you are 
yet prone to force your communications to agree with your 
preconceptions. . . . " 

But Sinnett refused to believe the Mahatma. Read now what happened 
starting in 1886.

In The Autobiography of Alfred Percy Sinnett, he wrote: 

"On the 26th of April 1886. . . we went . . . to the Albemarle 
Club . . . to meet a lady who was . . . desirous of making my 
acquaintance . . . . . I will give her a fictitious name and call her 
Mary. . . . shortly afterwards I tried a mesmeric experiment with her 
(in accordance with her wish) and obtained remarkable results - she 
went very easily into a trance in which she became unequivocally 
clairvoyant. . . .I became convinced that she clairvoyantly saw the 
mountain region in Tibet where the Master K.H. resided. . . . . It 
became obvious that Mary might become a link between myself and the 
Master. . . . . Mary came to stay with us . . . in February 1888 and 
our regular mesmeric sittings were resumed almost every evening, the 
Master [KH] talking to me through her in most cases. In this way I 
gathered a great deal of miscellaneous occult information. . . . . 
Mary left us to go to her own home in May 1888 having had mesmeric 
sitting almost every evening while she was with us, at most of which 
the Master spoke to me, - or rather dictated to her what he wished to 
say. She would pass into a higher condition in which she could be in 
touch with him and be enabled to repeat his words to her in reply to 
my questions or remarks." pp 33 & 38-39 

But Master KH in a letter (dated August 22, 1888) to Colonel Henry S. 
Olcott denied Sinnett's claim: 

"Since 1885 I have not written, nor caused to be written save thro' 
her [HPB's] agency, direct or remote, a letter or line to anybody in 
Europe or America, nor communicated orally with, or thro' any third 
party. Theosophists should learn it. You will understand later the 
significance of this declaration so keep it in mind. Her [HPB's] 
fidelity to our work being constant, and her sufferings having come 
upon her thro' it, neither I nor either of my Brother associates will 
desert or supplant her." Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, 
Series I, 1973

All of these statements by HPB and KH should cause students 
SERIOUS pause and reflection. 

Pedro, we find that after HPB's death in 1891, NUMEROUS individuals 
have claimed to be in contact with her Adept Teachers and have stated 
that they were new "messengers" of the Masters conveying even more 
esoteric teachings. 

In light of the "wild and fanciful speculations" made during H.P.B.'s 
own lifetime, how many MORE "wild and fanciful speculations" about 
Theosophy have been published since H.P.B.'s death when she was no 
longer around to correct or refute them? 

How many of the claims of these NUMEROUS individuals would Madame 
Blavatsky have labeled "bogus"? 

I close with the following condensed statement from the Secret 
Doctrine:

"The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated Wisdom of the Ages, and its 
cosmogony alone is the most stupendous and elaborate system. The 
facts have actually occupied countless generations of initiated seers 
and prophets to marshal, to set down and explain. The flashing gaze 
of those seers has penetrated into the very kernel of matter, and 
recorded the soul of things there. The [Esoteric] system is no fancy 
of one or several isolated individuals. It is the uninterrupted 
record covering thousands of generations of Seers whose respective 
experiences were made to test and to verify the teachings of higher 
and exalted beings, who watched over the childhood of Humanity. For 
long ages, the 'Wise Men' of the Fifth Race had passed their lives in 
learning by checking, testing, and verifying in every department of 
nature the traditions of old by the independent visions of great 
adepts; i.e., men who have developed and perfected their physical, 
mental, psychic, and spiritual organisations to the utmost possible 
degree. No vision of one adept was accepted till it was checked and 
confirmed by the visions --- so obtained as to stand as independent 
evidence --- of other adepts, and by centuries of experiences." 
H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, pp. 273-274. [These 
extracts have been transcribed from the original source but material 
not relevant to the subject has been silently deleted.]

Pedro, I hope you will respond to the basic issues I have presented 
here for your thoughtful consideration and feedback.

Daniel