Theos-Talk Archives (October 1993 Message tl00127)

> I agree that the writings of Alice Bailey seem to differ from those
> of HPB, that there are differences in their teachings. Although
> Bailey's writings do not appeal to me, I've known some theosophists
> that are attracted to her. I would not, speaking for myself, teach
> nor recommend her, but allow others the right to read and study her
> for whatever they find of value.

This message is in response to Eldon's comments above as well as to a
couple of other persons who seem to indicate that what Alice Bailey's
books contain is inconsistent with what is in HPB's books. I beg to
differ with this assertion and I hope that you do not mind bearing with
me as I continue my questioning. In my opinion, AAB was the person that
HPB had predicted will appear in the 20th century to carry further the
work that she (HPB) had started in the 19th century. I also, later in
this message, plan to respond to the request/comment from John Mead
regarding the book "Prophecy on Trial" by James Stephenson, written in
1983 and dealing with prophecis made in the Bailey books.

Can you, Eldon (or anyone out there reading this), point to any specific
area in which the AAB teachings differ from HPB's teaching? It appears
to me that both of them used mental processes (telepathy) to transcribe
the information that they received from the Hierarchy. I have seen
people talk about AAB's work as channeling but if you read AAB's books,
she herself has spoken strongly against using 'astral' faculties like
channeling and has cautioned disciples against the 'glamour' of
channeling as a result of premature opening of the chakras. She has
said (see the 14 rules for disciples in 'Initiation, Human and Solar')
that these faculties become available in a 'natural' way as a disciple
evolves through the practice of 'Study, Meditation and Service'. Various
authors (see for example, Lansdowne in 'Rules for spiritual
Initiation') have indicated that this happens as a disciple nears the
3rd initiation.

To give a flavor for the book on prophecy by James Stephenson
(available thru Lucic Trust), I am going to simply quote a few
sentences from the Preface to the book:

    "..It contains all the dated prophecies found in nineteen of the
    twenty four books written by Alice Bailey. ... Mrs. Bailey claims
    that these nineteen books were sent to her telepathically from
    Shigatse, Tibet, over the thirty year period from 1919 to 1949.
    Further, she believes the sender to be a Tibetan lama named Djwal
    Khul who had also worked in a similar manner with Mrs. Helena
    Petrovna Blavatsky when she wrote The Secret Doctrine, first
    published in 1888."

The book is divided into the following chapters:

1.Prophecies and Predictions in general

2.The Bailey-Tibetan phenomenon

3.Dated Prophecies - general format

4.Matured, confirmed, specific and obvious dated prophecies listed by
  subject

5.Non-determinable, dated prophecies listed by subject

6.Non-determinable, dated prophecies regarding the Aquarian Age

7.Non-determinable, dated prophecies for the far-distant future

I hope the above helps a little bit. What I particularly like about
both HPB and AAB is their emphasis on selfless service. Let me close
this with the following quote from one of the Bailey books:

    "It takes courage to obliterate one's own personal desires
    consistently and persistently. The disciple has to take himself as
    he is at any given time under any given circumstances with any
    given equipment. He then proceeds to subordinate himself, his
    affairs and his time to the needs of the hour. When he does this
    within his own consciousness and is therefore thinking along the
    line of true values, he will discover that his affairs are taken
    care of, his capacities are greatly increased and his limitations
    are forgotten."

Some words may not be exactly how they appear in the book as I have
just repeated above what I remember (I do not have the book in front
of me!)

May Light and Love and Power (will-to-good)
Restore the Plan on Earth!

Best Regards/Arvind Kumar