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Skull 03-03-2018 01:46 PM
Death & Dying conference
 
Program of Conference in Italy, mid-October 2018:

http://europeanschooloftheosophy.eu/...ram-2018-2.pdf

Skull 02-04-2018 05:24 PM
Quote:
A child, as much as a man, resents a punishment, or even a reproof he believes to be unmerited, far more than he does a severer punishment, if he feels that it is merited. Belief in Karma is the highest reason for reconcilement to one's lot in this life, and the very strongest incentive towards effort to better the succeeding re-birth.

Blavatsky in The Key to Theosophy

Zysiphez 06-04-2018 05:40 AM
I have been interested in Theosophy for quite a while. While I never 'subscribed' to it, I've always found it to contain so many intriguing aspects as well as mysteries.

It certainly gave birth to bringing the 'ancient aliens' concept to public attention, the mahatmas, Atlantis, Aryans, comparative region, post-Buddhism, and many others.

The Secret Doctrine is absolutely a great book (regardless of what the conclusions one might or might not have over it's validity), as it The Voice Of The Silence. The mysterious and still not rediscovered "Book of the Golden Precepts/Book Of Dzyan" is also an incredibly fascinating thing (featured within those two books) to contemplate about.

Both Dion Fortune and Alice Bailey both produced some interesting Theosophical literature (even though they are generally considered "out" by orthodoxy)

inavalan 15-04-2018 01:34 AM
If you're interested, you can download (free only today):
The Key to Theosophy

Being a Clear Exposition, in the Form of Question and Answer, of the Ethics, Science, and Philosophy for the Study of Which the Theosophical Society Has Been Founded

by H. P. Blavatsky
from: https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/bo...sophy_10004474

Skull 03-05-2018 06:38 PM
Living Matrix
 
A video full of theosophic ideas & practices:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47WBh--ez_Q

As for a free Key to Theosophy, here it is along with many other free e-books on Theosophy:

https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/ts/tup-ebooks.htm

Skull 09-05-2018 08:45 PM
A good, sympathetic biography of Helena Blavatsky, who died 8 May, 1891, is now in PDF format:

https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena...ston_ebook.pdf

Skull 24-06-2018 09:18 PM
Conditional immortality
 
Immortality is possible, but only with conditions fulfilled.

Quote:
No noble thought, no grand aspiration, desire, or divine immortal love,
can come into the brain of the man of clay and settle there, except
as a direct emanation from the higher to, and through, the lower
Ego; all the rest, intellectual as it may seem, proceeds from the
‘shadow,’ the lower mind, in its association and commingling with
Kāma, [passions] and passes away and disappears for ever. But the
mental and spiritual ideations of the personal ‘I’ return to it, as parts of
the Ego’s essence, and can never fade out. Thus of the personality
that was, only its spiritual experiences, the memory of all that
is good and noble, with the consciousness of its ‘I,’ blended with
that of all the other personal ‘I’s’ that preceded it, [in previous lifetimes]
survive and become immortal.

Blavatsky

Zeke55 02-07-2018 07:18 PM
Alvin Boyd Kuhn is good.

Skull 16-07-2018 01:53 PM
Ethics over intellect & egotism is the key:

Quote:
Happiness
cannot exist where Truth is absent. Erected upon the shifting sands of
human fiction and hypotheses, happiness is merely a house of cards
tumbling down at the first whiff; it cannot exist in reality as long as
egotism reigns supreme in civilized societies. As long as intellectual
progress will refuse to accept a subordinate position to ethical progress,
and egotism will not give way to the Altruism preached by Gautama and
the true historical Jesus (the Jesus of the pagan sanctuary, not the Christ
of the Churches), happiness for all the members of humanity will remain
a Utopia.

Blavatsky

Zeke55 24-07-2018 03:06 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeke55
Alvin Boyd Kuhn is good.
Yes he is extremely knowledgeable.

Skull 04-08-2018 02:37 PM
President Tim Boyd talking about Theosophy at Singapore conference; he begins at 7 minutes:

https://youtu.be/mFGLcXOyu1s

Skull 31-08-2018 12:22 AM
The law of karma and rebirth powerfully affects human life. Here is a little from Christmas Humphreys booklet Karma and Rebirth:

Quote:
Only by studying, and to some extent grasping, an outline of the Wisdom of which Karma and Rebirth are part can the meanest vision of the doctrine be attained, and even then it is difficult to examine it apart from the Wisdom itself from which, as sunlight in the air, it is inseparable. Yet the difficulty is largely of our own making. For centuries the Western mind has been building up an utterly false notion of a separate ‘I’, and it is hard for us to grasp a view of existence in which the separative self is viewed as an illusion and the father of all suffering. It follows, whether or not the idea be pleasing to the scholar mind, that only he who treads the Way which leads to the end of separative self-hood will attain to understanding of the Wisdom wherein self, as something separate, can have no abiding-place.

Study, deep study, quiet meditation on the living principles revealed in that study, and the constant, self-regardless application of those principles to daily life, these alone will provide the final ‘proof’ of the laws of Karma and Rebirth, and only he who knows them thus will be in a position to offer to the West, by the written and the spoken word and by the force of character, the Wisdom of which the West has so abundant and so urgent need.
Christmas Humphreys, 1942

Skull 31-08-2018 04:51 PM
In 1887 Charles Johnston a Sanskrit scholar & friend of Blavatsky interviewed her:

http://www.philaletheians.co.uk/stud...s-johnston.pdf

Skull 01-09-2018 06:03 PM
Quote:
Deeply sensible of the Titanic struggle that is now in progress between materialism and the spiritual aspirations of mankind, our constant endeavor has been to gather into our several chapters, like weapons into armories, every fact and argument that can be used to aid the latter in defeating the former. Sickly and deformed child as it now is, the materialism of To-Day is born of the brutal Yesterday. Unless its growth is arrested, it may become our master. It is the ******* progeny of the French Revolution and its reaction against ages of religious bigotry and repression. To prevent the crushing of these spiritual aspirations, the blighting of these hopes, and the deadening of that intuition which teaches us of a God and a hereafter, we must show our false theologies in their naked deformity, and distinguish between divine religion and human dogmas. Our voice is raised for spiritual freedom, and our plea made for enfranchisement from all tyranny, whether of SCIENCE or THEOLOGY.

Isis Unveiled, Blavatsky's first book of 1877.

Skull 05-09-2018 08:44 PM
Quote:
Student.—How is one to know when he gets real occult information from the Self within?

Sage. [HPB]—Intuition must be developed and the matter judged from the true philosophical basis, for if it is contrary to true general rules it is wrong. It has to be known from a deep and profound analysis by which we find out what is from egotism alone and what is not; if it is due to egotism, then it is not from the Spirit and is untrue. The power to know does not come from book-study nor from mere philosophy, but mostly from the actual practice of altruism in deed, word, and thought; for that practice purifies the covers of the soul and permits that light to shine down into the brain-mind. As the brain-mind is the receiver in the waking state, it has to be purified from sense-perception, and the truest way to do this is by combining philosophy with the highest outward and inward virtue.

Student.—Tell me some ways by which intuition is to be developed.

Sage.—First of all by giving it exercise, and second by not using it for purely personal ends. Exercise means that it must be followed through mistakes and bruises until from sincere attempts at use it comes to its own strength. This does not mean that we can do wrong and leave the results, but that after establishing conscience on a right basis by following the golden rule, we give play to the intuition and add to its strength. Inevitably in this at first we will make errors, but soon if we are sincere it will grow brighter and make no mistake. We should add the study of the works of those who in the past have trodden this path and found out what is the real and what is not. They say the Self is the only reality. The brain must be given larger views of life, as by the study of the doctrine of reincarnation, since that gives a limitless field to the possibilities in store. We must not only be unselfish, but must do all the duties that Karma has given us, and thus intuition will point cut the road of duty and the true path of life.

From “Conversations on Occultism”.

Skull 08-09-2018 06:15 PM
The dual nature of our mind is an old, and true notion. So removing vice and fostering virtue is the path to realization & benefitting self & others.

Quote:
The whole of our literature proves that real Theosophists, worshipping universal wisdom, worship in reality the same wisdom which has been proclaimed by St. James in the third chapter of his Epistle [verse 17], i.e., “the wisdom that is from above (δοΦία ἄνωθεν [which] is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy,” avoiding, on the advice of the same Apostle [verse 15], wisdom that “is earthly, sensual, devilish (ψυχική δαιμονιώδης).”

Blavatsky

Skull 05-10-2018 09:28 PM
"Abuse of power, whether it proceeds from excess of wisdom or ignorance is alike obnoxious in its effects. Besides, the clergy are silenced now. Their protests would at this day [1877] be scarcely noticed in the world of science. But while theology is kept in the background, the scientists have seized the scepter of despotism with both hands, and they use it, like the cherubim and flaming sword of Eden, to keep the people away from the tree of immortal life and within this world of perishable matter."

Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled

Skull 30-01-2019 05:14 PM
About Masters
 
Modern Theosophy started with HP Blavatsky, WQ Judge and others. Here is a later follower of HPB writing on the subject of Adepts or Masters of Wisdom:

http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/...p.htm#contents

From the Introductory:

Quote:
It is our Theosophical teaching that greater men even than those geniuses to whom I have last above alluded exist in the world at the present time and existed in past times; and they have lived and taught and guided their fellowmen; and these Great Ones compose a spiritual Brotherhood of the Great Sages and Seers of the human race. These are what are called the Theosophical Mahatmans. They are the Elder Brothers of mankind. They are men, not spirits. They are men who have evolved through self-devised efforts in individual evolution, always advancing forwards and upwards until they attained the lofty supremacy that now they hold. They were not so created by any extra-cosmic Deity, but they are men who have become what they are by means of inward spiritual striving, by spiritual and intellectual yearning, by aspiration to be greater and -- better, nobler and higher. They are not what they are by any favoritism either of a god or of Fate, but have merely run ahead of the great multitude of men. There they stand; they are Helpers, they are Seers, they are Sages. They have naught that they have by way of gift. All that they have -- which means all that they are -- all that they have evolved to, all that they have become, they have gained by self-devised efforts in individual evolutionary growth.

Skull 13-03-2019 06:08 PM
Quote:
The adept hierarchy is as strictly a product of nature as a tree is: it has definite and indispensable purpose and function in the development of the human race: this function is to keep open the upward path, through which descend the light and leading, without which our race would require to make each step by the wearisome, never ending method of trial and failure in every direction, until chance showed the right way. In fact the function of the adept hierarchy is to provide religious teachers for the stumbling masses of mankind.

But this path is eminently dangerous to those who do not hold the talisman which ensures safety; this talisman is a perfectly unselfish, self-forgetting, self-annihilating devotion to the religious good of mankind, a self-abnegation, which is not temporal, but must have no end for ever, and the object of which is the religious enlightenment of the human race.

T. Subba Row (d. 1890)

Skull 30-03-2019 06:20 PM
Crime of Suicide
 
Whether imposed with legislation or embraced by practical or depressed people, suicide is a disaster in many ways. Here is one of Blavatsky's remarks about it:

Quote:
If you mean by such desire [to quit life as] "suicide," then I say, most decidedly not. Such a result can never be a "natural" one, but is ever due to a morbid brain disease, or to most decided and strong materialistic views. It is the worst of crimes and dire in its results.
But if by desire, you mean simply aspiration to reach spiritual existence, not a wish to quit the earth, then I would call it a very natural desire indeed.
Otherwise voluntary death would be an abandonment of our present post and of the duties incumbent on us, as well as an attempt to shirk Karmic responsibilities, and thus involve the creation of new Karma.

Skull 02-04-2019 02:53 PM
Many spiritual seekers think Alice Bailey is a theosophist akin to Blavatsky - not so. Bailey is weak tea and often in key areas distorts Theosophy.

http://blavatskyarchives.com/In_Theo...y_Whispers.pdf

Skull 02-04-2019 02:57 PM
Plotinus on suicide
 
Plotinus on Voluntary Death, by Elias

Quote:
Plotinus writes a treatise in one book on the reasonableness of exiting
from life and does not accept any one of the five reasons given for this.
For he says that just as god does not stop being providential for us, but
we make ourselves unfit and believe that god is far from us when he is
equally present to us, as those who are purified make clear, having seen
god themselves and consorted with him; and just as the sun shines its
light equally to all, although bats, unfit for the light, flee it and are not
illuminated by it, believing that the sun is darkness and not the source of
light, so the philosopher should imitate god and the sun, not being
careless of the body just because they care for the soul, but taking
providential care of it until such time as it becomes unfit, distancing
itself from its association with the soul. For it is absurd to exit before
one’s time, which is when the one who joined the body and soul together
loosens the bond.

Skull 09-04-2019 11:14 PM
Correspondence courses
 
Taken by email or post, here are several offerings to learn about Theosophy:

https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/ts/h_corresp.htm

Whitemage 14-04-2019 10:33 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skull
Many spiritual seekers think Alice Bailey is a theosophist akin to Blavatsky - not so. Bailey is weak tea and often in key areas distorts Theosophy.

This apparent division between Theosophy and Bailey, is purely distraction from the teachings of both, it is just peoples personalities trying to keep us locked in our lower nature.

Blavatsky, Bailey, every single being that has ever brought even the smallest amount light into the darkness works with the Spiritual Hierarchy, The Ascended Masters, the Council of God, whatever you wish to call them.

Any apparent division or separation is either an illusion of perspective, a misunderstanding or a deliberate attempt to spread disharmony.

All Lightworkers serve the same team.

Light, Love and Power to you!

Skull 14-04-2019 04:12 PM
Whitemage, as the author of the Theosophy's Shadow article wrote:

Quote:
This short piece is not about whether Bailey's writings are inspiring, wonderful or contain any truth; but simply whether HPB and AAB had the same mentors, as claimed by Bailey.

So the motives you impute to him are strictly your own. Unless you are a psychic with 100% accuracy in reading the motives of writers.

Whitemage 15-04-2019 11:45 AM
@Skull

I think you missed my point my friend, disputing this claim or that claim about whatever is true from this point of view or that point of view, is just a distraction from our lower nature and impedes us from connecting with our higher selves.

Whomever mentored who is irrelevant to the work of bringing light, and disparaging other light workers because you don't agree with or think false some claim or belief only helps deepen the darkness.

Find your own truth, if the teachings within Theosophy ring true to you discover them deeply and bring them into your heart and share your knowledge with other seekers...

Good journeys, Light, Love and Power to you!

(P.S. As I'm sure you know, no psychic is 100% accurate)

inavalan 15-04-2019 05:20 PM
A lot of confusion and frustration arises from the tone people use in their posts. You have to pay special attention to convey your tone in writing. Also, most people forget to make clear that they express their own opinions, or quote others' (to make that clear to others, and to themselves too). Many posts sound more sententious than they are meant to be, and than they should be.

FallingLeaves 19-04-2019 01:53 PM
never mind. Back to being impertinent I guess...

Skull 20-07-2019 06:46 PM
Quote:
Remember that the only God man comes in contact with is his own God, called Spirit, Soul and Mind, or Consciousness, and these three are one.

But there are weeds that must be destroyed in order that a plant may grow. We must die, said St. Paul, that we may live again. It is through destruction that we may improve, and the three powers, the preserving, the creating and the destroying, are only so many aspects of the divine spark within man.

HP Blavatsky

BigJohn 25-07-2019 02:03 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skull
Divine Wisdom (or theosophy) is timeless, but it does have eras when it is more public than others. In 1875 the Theosophical Society was formed by Helena Blavatsky. Blavatsky laid the philosophical and ethical foundation for Interfaith relations and well as much of the "New Age" teachings.

Here is a link to get one started: http://davidpratt.info/


If it wasn't for Colonel Olcott and his purse, the original theosophical society would never have gotten off the ground.

Remember, it was Madame Blavatsky who sought out Colonel Olcott.

MAYA EL 01-11-2019 10:47 PM
Blavatsky is a witch that put things into motion to allow certain people to be in power and control the minds of many people across the world. A truly destructive woman.

Skull 02-11-2019 01:15 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigJohn
Remember, it was Madame Blavatsky who sought out Colonel Olcott.

Only at the request of her Master, who said "choose Olcott". Olcott had the same Brother for Master as HPB did.

HPB was also told to found a "philosophic-religious society". So it would have happened with or without Olcott's money.

inavalan 02-11-2019 01:21 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MAYA EL
Blavatsky is a witch that put things into motion to allow certain people to be in power and control the minds of many people across the world. A truly destructive woman.

Many others, among them Einstein, have / had a different opinion about Blavatski.

Einstein and The Secret Doctrine

Quote:
... Einstein had a copy of Madame Blavatsky's book The Secret Doctrine on his table all the time. ... the book, which "was heavily notated and underlined, and that the margins were covered with scribbles and other markings ...
Have you read anything Blavatski wrote? This was a rhetorical question ... don't answer! I don't care.

MAYA EL 02-11-2019 05:17 AM
Do you know Einstein personally?

BigJohn 02-11-2019 06:11 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skull
Only at the request of her Master, who said "choose Olcott". Olcott had the same Brother for Master as HPB did.

HPB was also told to found a "philosophic-religious society". So it would have happened with or without Olcott's money.
The Masters came about later. The person who was conducting the lecture on Elementals presented such interesting information that some in the group decided to create their own organization the Theosophical Society.

Olcott was the Society's president.

Skull 02-11-2019 02:18 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigJohn
The Masters came about later. The person who was conducting the lecture on Elementals presented such interesting information that some in the group decided to create their own organization the Theosophical Society.

Olcott was the Society's president.

The Brothers were always there. The use of terms Masters or Mahatmas for them came about when Olcott & HPB moved to India.

Even before George Felt's lecture in Sept. of 1875 HPB received this order from her Master in July:

Quote:
[In H.P.B.’s Scrapbook, Vol. I, p. 58, may be found at the bottom of the page the following important note written by H.P.B. in pen and ink:] Orders received from India direct to establish a philosophico-religious Society and choose a name for it—also to choose Olcott. July 1875.

Then, around the end of August, discussion about starting this Society occurred:

Quote:
Between Aug. 28 and Sept. 4—Gathering held in H.P.B.'s rooms, 46 Irving Place, New York. In H.P.B.'s own words: “On that evening the first idea of the Theos. Society was discussed.” (Vide Rev. Dr. J. H. Wiggin's account, The Liberal Christian, Sept. 4, 1875; H.P.B.'s comments in Scrapbook, Vol. I, pp. 54-55; ODL, I, 114-15).

From HPB's Collected Writings, vol. I:180 & 66

Skull 08-11-2019 10:04 PM
HP Blavatsky the Mystery
 
This book by G. de Purucker is out of print, but some used copies may be out there. Here are the first six chapters, lightly edited from The Theosophical Path issues in 1929-30:

https://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/theos/th-hpbm.htm

Miss Hepburn 09-11-2019 12:47 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by inavalan
Many others, among them Einstein, have / had a different opinion about Blavatski.

Einstein and The Secret Doctrine
Thank you.
I never saw this thread yrs ago....I miss Bluegreen.
Gosh, the memories...I spoke at a Theosp. Society once in 1973 in FL, USA...I was sure a confident person, then...
They liked me and commented on my aura. Sweet of them.
Ah, memories. LOL :tongue: I liked them.

Skull 17-11-2019 05:50 PM
Our True Nature
 
G. de Purucker from Blavatsky the Mystery, ch. 6:

Quote:
Oh! if men and women of the Occident could only get the conviction of the existence within themselves of the individual's living god as the fountain of his noblest parts, what a revolution in human thinking it would bring about! If they could only get the conviction, as they will in time most assuredly, that at the core of each one of them, at the heart of the heart of each one of them, is this glorious Sun of consciousness: then indeed not only would their lives change immensely for the better, not only would human relations be softened and refined, not only would the horrors attending our present civilization disappear as do the mists before the morning sunlight, but to the individual himself there would come inspiration, a sense of high human dignity, a sense of well-being, and of undeveloped power -- which both intuition and instinct would then tell them could only be developed through altruistic use. And could this idea become the conviction of their minds and the persuasion of their hearts, then indeed should we be members of a new race, enlightened with an all-embracing and high racial consciousness, and the Theosophical ideal of Universal Brotherhood would follow fully and in completeness as a necessary sequence. Our fellow human beings would act, think and dwell among each other almost as a race of incarnate gods -- for that in the name of holy Truth is just what we human beings are.

Skull 19-04-2020 03:16 PM
Videos from TS
 
I still prefer books & written word, but many like videos, so here are some recent ones:

https://www.youtube.com/user/blavatskyhouse/videos


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