Theosophy

[Gukkor]

I've recently become somewhat intrigued by this complex religion, as it encompasses a great many of my thoughts as a liberal-leaning Christian and seems to harmonize the teachings of seemingly contradictory religious figures extraordinarily well (I'm far from agreeing with everything it teaches, however).

I was just looking to get some general opinions about it from those who are familiar with its teachings.

 

[TheAcidicJew]

I'll look into it, but the name of this ethical creed scares me a bit.

Hopefully Theosophy isn't to Theology as Scientology is to Science

 

[Gukkor]

lol, that's what I thought at first. Luckily, I came across the teachings before I knew the name, so I didn't have the chance to make any comparisons to dubious creeds like Scientology. *shudders*

I don't think there's much of a similarity at all, though. Theosophy is at least not in it for the profit and seems to have been founded by sincere people.

 

[SedjmNeter]

P.E.A.C.E and Blessings...

I don't know a great deal about it, but this is the opinion of one whom I hold in the highest respect. I'd trust his opinion of just about anyone.

In all honesty, I truly believe that all of the aforementioned groups (sedjmneter's note: theosophy included in the aforementioned) began with the greatest of intentions, but we all know where "good intentions" can lead us.......

The more I read/hear of BLAVATSKY, WEOR and others of a similar mind, the more I realize that they really don't know what they're talking about.

The biggest and most crucial difference between these people, and the ancient and modern teachers that are descendants/ancestors of the men and women who created and diligently practiced these ancient sciences, is just that--the former are not shining x-amples of such practice, while the latter are.

I've heard all sorts of names and titles attributed to these people: SAGE, PRIEST(ESS), ALCHEMIST, etc......

These are titles that are earned, and are done so by doing far more than just writing books about it.

Anybody can sit around and philosophize about these concepts.......It is another matter entirely to live it.

The beauty about the Way of the Feather, about I-CHING, about METU NETER, about DREAMWALKING, about QABALAH, etc, is that in order to know it, you must live it.

Everything I read from BLAVATSKY, for x-ample, leads to a dead end (or "DRY STREAM", as .... stated), because there is no indication within her works that she had become a living embodiment of those teachings.

That in fact, was the very crux of ancient SAGES like JESUS.......More over, that's what it means to be a SAGE.

SHEM HETEP

 

[Abbadon]

And it's kind of racist, once you read enough of it. Particularly the stuff on Atlantis and Lemuria, which they considered scientific, not allegorical.

Theosophy is Victorian Era Dogmatic New-age.

Blatavatsky, and most of the core Theosophical writers, lived in the Victorian era. Generally anyone living at that time was crazy or stupid, if not both. As Shem Hotep pointed out, they didn't have a clue as to what they were talking about. They basically wrote about whatever gave them warm fuzzy feelings or looked cool. And then considered anyone that wasn't like them "unenlightened."

 

[Gukkor]

Indeed. While some of their more basic points made sense to me (given that I had tentatively settled on many of the same ideas before even coming across theosophy), a deeper look at the history of the group and the less noticeable details of the doctrine smack of prejudice and stupidity. I picked up a few gems in the mess of drivel, but I think I've gotten all I can use out of studying it. Thanks for the info guys!

 

[Brimshack]

Creative anachronism at its finest. It isn't hard to read one's preconceptions into other religions and philosophies, and that's what Theosophists do best. The fact of the matter is many if not most of the world's religions CANNOT be reconciled, not without first altering them substantially.

It is not an accident, btw, that Besant, Blavatsky, etc. used to locate the physical home of the master's in a remote region of Tibet. It was important to peak interest by alluding to a place on this world that the masters would actually live, but of course that place had to be out of reach. There are elements of an outright con in the history of that tradition, one that goes hand in hand with their systematic misreading of one religious or philosophical tradition after another.

 

[Gukkor]

Creative anachronism at its finest. It isn't hard to read one's preconceptions into other religions and philosophies, and that's what Theosophists do best. The fact of the matter is many if not most of the world's religions CANNOT be reconciled, not without first altering them substantially.

It is not an accident, btw, that Besant, Blavatsky, etc. used to locate the physical home of the master's in a remote region of Tibet. It was important to peak interest by alluding to a place on this world that the masters would actually live, but of course that place had to be out of reach. There are elements of an outright con in the history of that tradition, one that goes hand in hand with their systematic misreading of one religious or philosophical tradition after another.

Indeed. One of the many reasons why I'm rarely able to bring myself to trust a religious institution, religious though I may be. Still, though, one can't help but wonder why someone would go through so much trouble just to create a con (not doubting what you said, by the way). People can be fooled by far simpler deceptions.

 

[Abbadon]

People may be fooled by far simpler deceptions, but they won't dig as deeply into thier pockets for them.

 

[Gukkor]

Quite

 

[Stinker]

I can see why the highly educated would be drawn to Theosophy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophy

 

[Abbadon]

I can see why the highly educated would be drawn to Theosophy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophy

What makes you say that?

Education, particularly in religion, would make people aware that the creators of Theosophy were misusing various religious traditions for their wallets and warm fuzzy feelings.

 

[Gukkor]

"...all religions are attempts by man to ascertain "the Divine," and as such each religion has a portion of the truth."

This is an example of one of the basic tenets of theosophy that I have held to be true for years without having encountered theosophy itself. Unfortunately, this would apparently not entirely apply to con-jobs like theosophy, but I find it to be more-or-less on the mark.

 

[Bodhicitta]

From a theosophical text:

There are three truths which are absolute, and which cannot be lost, but yet may
remain silent for lack of speech.

1. The soul of man is immortal, and its future is the future of a thing whose growth and splendour has no limit.

2. The principle which gives life dwells in us, and without us, is undying and eternally beneficent, is not heard or seen, or smelt, but is perceived by the man who desires perception.

3. Each man is his own absolute lawgiver, the dispenser of glory or gloom to himself; the decreer of his life, his reward, his punishment.

These truths, which are as great as is life itself, are as simple as the simplest mind of man. Feed the hungry with them.

 

[Bodhicitta]

"It has been always held that a true Theosophist must have no personal ends to serve, no favourite hobby to propagate, no special doctrine to enforce or to defend. For, to merit the honourable title of Theosophist one must be an altruist, above all; one ever ready to help equally foe or friend, to act, rather than to speak; and urge others to action, while never losing an opportunity to work himself. But, if no true Theosophist will ever dictate to his fellow brother or neighbour what this one should believe or disbelieve in, nor force him to act on lines which may be distasteful to him, however proper they may appear to himself, there are other duties which he has to attend to:

To warn his brother of any danger the latter may fail to see; and

To share his knowledge — if he has acquired such — with those who have been less fortunate than himself in opportunities for acquiring it."

Helena P. Blavatsky

 

[Bodhicitta]

"Human nature is so prone, when hearing about Altruism or reading about it, to imagine that it is something foreign to us, lugged into human life as a most desirable thing to follow, but, after all, highly impractical, and therefore impracticable — that it is not inherent in the characteristics of human beings to be altruistic naturally. In other words, they are all fascinated with the idea of isolated self-interest. Is not this virtually universal supposition utterly unfounded in Nature herself? For wherever we look, whatever we consider or study, we find that the individual working alone for himself is helpless; wherever we look in all the great kingdoms of the Universe, it is union of effort, cooperation in living combines, which is not only what Nature herself is working to bring about and therefore which we find everywhere; but that anything that runs counter and contrary to this fundamental law of the Universe, which is unity in action, produces disharmony, strife, and what in our own bodies we call disease. Health is that condition of bodily structure where all parts work to a common end in what we may call friendship, in what we may call union."

G de Purucker Wind of the Spirit

 

[Bodhicitta]

"There is a hunger in every human heart,
which nothing can satisfy or appease --
a hunger for something more true than ordinary
human beings wit of, a hunger for the
Real, a hunger for the Sublime. It is the
nostalgia of the soul, of the spirit-soul of
man. The source of this longing is the homesickness
brought about by the soul-memory
of our spiritual abode, whence we came and
towards which we are now on our return-journey.

Men unconsciously, intuitively, unknown
to the brain-mind, see the Vision Sublime
on the mountain-tops of the Mystic
East; and oh! this yearning homesickness
for the indescribable, for the immortal, for
the deathless, for that which brings unutterable
peace and a love which is frontierless
in its reaches! Every human heart feels this,
and it is the saving power in men, the thing
which gives them hope and aspiration, which
raises their souls with the recognition of the
glory that once was theirs."

Purucker, Golden Precepts of Esotericism

 

[Albion]

Theosophy isn't normally considered to be a religion. Whatever it is, it's basically a stew of mystical and romantic vagaries.

Well, just read the post immediately before this one and you'll see.

 

[Bodhicitta]

Theosophy isn't normally considered to be a religion. Whatever it is, it's basically a stew of mystical and romantic vagaries.

All traditional religions have at their heart a mystical, transcendent presence. That element does not 'normally' appeal to many. Yet many a Saint was rooted in that Divine Wisdom or theosophia.

 

[Albion]

All traditional religions have at their heart a mystical, transcendent presence. That element does not 'normally' appeal to many. Yet many a Saint was rooted in that Divine Wisdom or theosophia.

But this isn't a religion and therefore doesn't have the definiteness that we associate with religions. As for those saints, they--some of them--are what we call mystics but of course they were also orthodox Christians.