Theos-Talk Archives (August 2005 Message tt00243)

Dear Cass,

> Dear Jerry
> You wrote, If any student, anywhere and at any time, wants to know what THEOSOPHY 
> is, >then why not go to the ORIGINALS? 
Actually, that was Dallas who wrote that. I was trying to say that what 
Dallas considers to be "ORIGINALS" came out of his tradition. I 
suggested that we might do better by looking at the Theosophical 
writings in terms of source and secondary works. More scholarly that way. 
> I wholeheartedly agree with you, however, one does need a solid foundation in theosophy to grasp the substance of the SD and Isis. Personally, I believe, that Isis is a great starting point for the Secret Doctrine, and find it very easy to read. However, like I said, a new student of theosophy picking up the SD wouldn't have a clue what was being said.
I never tried going from Isis to SD. Many of the ideas in Isis are 
indeed amplified in the SD, but I think of them as otherwise very 
different books. In our classes, I found that a good introduction into 
Blavatsky's ideas is the Key to Theosophy. For someone new to Theosophy 
who wants to study Blavatsky's writings, I found that this book works 
very well. From there, we often go straight to the Secret Doctrine 
without any difficulty. Rather, they find the book challenging and 
exciting. I find that students generally have more problems with the 
Mahatma letters because they only have one side of the correspondence 
and don't know anything about the people. So, I start out with a two 
hour historical presentation before we engage the book. Then, as we 
get to each letter, I open each session with an historical introduction 
of what was going on relevant to the particular letter and talk about 
the various people who are mentioned. 
> It would be like a buddhist trying to read the bible with basic english and no conception of the biblical myths. Or me reading the torah. What makes this easier for us is that many of the reference points made in the SD are able to be verified by a click of a mouse button.
Sounds like you are studying an online edition. HPB defines most of her 
terms in the first 350 pages. Unfortunately, it is too much for most of 
us to absorb in one reading. For those of us who read from the hard 
copies, I recommend that we keep a copy of Blavatsky's Theosophical 
Glossary nearby. HPB does allude to myths and monuments which the 
readers are usually not familiar. We trade off presenting sections and 
encourage everyone to google those myths and places and find out what 
they can about them. 
> What I really enjoy about GdeP is his ability to simplify many of the teachings, still, however, we need to have the basics.
Interesting. I found G de P difficult at first. Often what he is 
trying to communicate is subtle and I found that I had to read him two 
to three times before I felt that I really got it. But, since most of 
his writings are re-worked transcriptions of lectures, he does have an 
easy style of communicating. Whereas HPB's can be very dense.

> We have the internet, HPB and the Masters had the akasic records.
And both are filled with good and bad information. 
Jerry







Cass Silva wrote:

> Dear Jerry
> You wrote, If any student, anywhere and at any time, wants to know what THEOSOPHY 
> is, >then why not go to the ORIGINALS? 
> I wholeheartedly agree with you, however, one does need a solid foundation in theosophy to grasp the substance of the SD and Isis. Personally, I believe, that Isis is a great starting point for the Secret Doctrine, and find it very easy to read. However, like I said, a new student of theosophy picking up the SD wouldn't have a clue what was being said.
>
> It would be like a buddhist trying to read the bible with basic english and no conception of the biblical myths. Or me reading the torah. What makes this easier for us is that many of the reference points made in the SD are able to be verified by a click of a mouse button.
>
> What I really enjoy about GdeP is his ability to simplify many of the teachings, still, however, we need to have the basics.
>
> We have the internet, HPB and the Masters had the akasic records.
>
> Cass
>
>
>
>
> 	
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