I can’t believe I’m putting up another post devoted to the World Conference, but Edi Bilimoria sent me the slides from his lecture there this summer and I got around to looking at them just now. [edit]They’re actually from the Venice European School of Theosophy [/edit] And they’re good. I’d forgotten how good. 🙂 Sharing with you all the best tidbits from those slides. He quotes nicely from the Mahatma letters to make his points, so the below can’t be ignored all out by theosophical fundamentalists. I wonder though if they’ll listen… Note that the headings in caps are by Edi, even if they’re not indented. Otherwise anything not indented is by yours truly.
He starts out with (his words I presume)
THE PURPOSE BEHIND THE LAUNCHING OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IS….
- To bequeath to humanity certain deeper truths of life that are needed for taking the next step in human evolution.
- To instill fundamental guiding principles, such as Brotherhood, Karma, Evolution into the general thought atmosphere so that it may become possible to usher in a better world order.
- To provide Agents in the outer world who understand the Plan in a general way and can thus qualify consciously to co-operate with the Elder Brethren in the work which they are doing for the betterment of the human race.
He quotes the Mahatmas as follows:
You have offered yourself for the Red Cross; but, Sister, there are sicknesses and wounds of the Soul that no Surgeon’s art can cure. Shall you help us teach mankind that the soul-sick must heal themselves?
Mahatma M. Letter to Frau Mary Gebhard
Then says:
The FOCUS of Theosophical Wisdom and its transmission through The Theosophical Society is….
Primarily to heal souls and deal with the causes of sorrow
and
Secondarily only to deal with the consequences of suffering
by
- Study of Eternal Verities
- Contemplation of their meaning and import
- Application of the teachings for both personal development, and service to others by the means most suited to our individual disposition and personal circumstances
and following on from this…………..
THE PRIMARY FUNCTION OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IS…
- To change contemporary thoughts attitudes and outlook so that humanity can take the next step forward in its evolution.
- The greater the clarity, the less we waste time and energy chasing down dead ends and useless byways however economically glamorous.
- Clear aim focuses and coordinates the widely flung and highly diverse activities of The Theosophical Society.
A TREMENDOUS RESPONSIBILITY LIES IN A FEW HANDS
SOPHIA ATTITUDE TO OUR SECOND OBJECT – WITH SOME HELP FROM LEIBNIZ AND LIGHT
“Most philosophical schools are largely right in what they assert, but not so much in what they deny. The commonest failing is the sectarian spirit in which people diminish themselves by rejecting others.”
Leibniz, G.W., Die Philosophischen Schriften
Therefore since each side had part of the truth and was wrong in failing to recognize what was true in the opposing position, Leibniz asserted that:
Truth was best served, not by accumulating facts or arguments to one side or another, (like adding pieces of a jigsaw puzzle) but by finding a framework to maximize the compatibility of the various points of view – a reconciling “system of harmony”.
All kinds of fools gathered under the banner of Theosophy. It was a hotch potch.It was an effort to create a synthesis out of all the religions, but no such synthesis is possible, and if you try you only make corpse, not a living body. It is as if you have many women. One with beautiful eyes and you cut that eye out; another with a lovely nose and you cut off the nose. Put all the parts together and you have killed twenty women to make a corpse and that is utter stupidity. This is what theosophy has done to Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, etc.
Osho (abridged) (Do empty vessels make the most noise?)
So far as I know this volume is unique. I know of no other which sets forth the vast process of cosmogenesis and anthropogenesis, not as a pastiche of doctrine found in one form or another in the religions of the world, but as their common source. Not all their scriptures combined describe with the clarity and totality of The Secret Doctrine the Wisdom of which each is a partial and generally mangled expression.
Christmas Humpreys who co-authored an abridgement of The Secret Doctrine
The bee makes its honey from several flowers
Krishnamurti
Honey is not a corpse-like synthesis of many flowers. It is the essence of flowers.
Honey has tremendous vitality. Try eating Manuka Honey!!
THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY OF THEOSOPHY TRUTH is our ““religion””
- Brotherhood (not Cronyism) (which means more than just hugging those who vote for you and ignoring those who don’t)
- Universality : No political or religious affiliations WHATSOEVER whilst sensing and tuning in to their ONE SOURCE . Note: – Theosophy is the CORNERSTONE (not capstone) of all religions – The lesser is always subsumed in the Greater (a key test of a speaker’s theosophical qualification)
- Core Doctrine (proven by sages by personal experience over centuries of experience in every department of nature)
THE IMPORTANCE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF BROTHERHOOD
Not just a woolly phrase but of grave significance because –
A. Metaphysical reasons – there is only ONE Substance-Principle
B. Practical reasons Physical Plane Effects – ping pong – only stings – cricket balls – hurts more – nuclear weapons – destroys and kills
Intellectual Plane Effects academic and political gladiatorial combat. With minds sharpened like spear points – more harm
Emotional Plane Effects emotional weapons such as manipulation, guilt, control freak, etc.
Spiritual/Occult Plane Effects with spiritual and occult science dealing with nature’s HIDDEN laws the propensity for misuse and the consequences of such misuse are appalling. Hence importance of brotherhood and harmony which does not mean agreeing with each other.
WHAT POLLUTES OUR ENERGIES???
- Husband/wife, close friends and birds of similar political feather on one committee makes a nonsense of objectivity, impartiality and confidentiality.
Your vote is emotionally driven by who you like – the subject of the vote is immaterial.- Shrinking number of highly capable and dedicated VOLUNTEER workers stretched in all directions in some areas in which they are not suited
- Amateurs
(no insult – I’m an amateur in finance)- Websites and e-mails (recently)
enormous time~energy dissipated in sorting out half-digested guff from facts- The imbalance between time and content at meetings
- Lack of a “central nervous system” to focus and co-ordinate all the limbs of our activities as one organic whole
[I’m not sure I agree with the implications of the above, however, this is Edi Belimoria’s talk, not mine 😉 These are definitely issues worth considering and taking into account.]
SOME BITING TRUTHS WITH A SWEET STING
Every such attempt as the [previous] Theosophical Society has ended in failure because, sooner or later, it has degenerated into a sect, set up hard and fast dogmas of its own and so lost by imperceptible degrees that vitality which living truth alone can impart.
H. P. Blavatsky in The Key to Theosophy
This note of devotion to truth, NOT TO ANY PERSONALITIES OR SET OF DOCTRINES OR CONCEPTS, sounded by Madame Blavatsky and taken up by our leaders is far too often overlooked.
(Jeanine Miller – Insight 1999)
She taught Theosophy not as a mere form of doctrine, not as a religion or a philosophy, or a creed, or a working hypothesis, but as a living power in our lives.
(William Kingsland)
Neither the Masters nor Blavatsky ever instructed us to clone ourselves on them, or to grow stem cells out of The Secret Doctrine.
(Edi Bilimoria)
The Theosophical Society can continue to be a force for good, only to the extent that Theosophy does not become (just) another set of concepts or beliefs.
Back to Edi himself:
COROLLARY AND IMPLICATIONS
The example of a person’e life is vastly greater than any books he may write. Supreme examples: HPB, Annie Besant
Divine Wisdom cannot tolerate fossilized custodians.
Theosophy cannot become just another set of concepts and beliefs to replace pre-existing ones.
Mental arthritis?? We must respond to other ways of formulating the same truths and so resort to translating other approaches and ideas into theosophical terms. Brain rehashing of what others have said/written simply will not do.
Fountainhead of spiritual truth is not contained in any one, single book. HPB herself told us that The Secret Doctrine lifts only a corner of the veil – that it must be drawn out and lived through the human soul.
‘Man Know Thyself’ is something we seem to have forgotten about. It is only through right meditation that this can be remedied.
Last but not least:
SECRECY IS CONVENIENTLY REFERRED TO AS ‘CONFIDENTIALITY’
“MISLEADING SECRECY HAS GIVEN THE DEATH BLOW TO NUMEROUSORGANIZATIONS”
We must inculcate an attitude of total TRANSPARENCY (Edi Belimoria in closing)