Theos-Talk Archives (January 1995 Message tl00124)

Dear Theos-l participants--

Having long been perplexed as to the origin of HPB's ideas
about Brothers of the Shadow, adepts of the left hand path, etc.,
I posted a question about it on a mailing list with several
Islamicists.  I described various of the terms used, commenting
that Gelugpa Buddhists did not see their Nyingmapa or Kargyutpa
(redhat sects) brethren as anything other than fellow Tibetan
Buddhists to be honored and respected.  The whole "evil
brotherhood of dugpas" concept therefore seems to have come from
somewhere else and been presented as Tibetan by HPB.

Here's his answer.

According to jwalbrid@ucs.indiana.edu:

>
> In the Koran the "companions of the left hand" are the damned at
> the day of judgment.  It appears in several places in the Koran
> and then pops up as needed in later Islamic thought.
>
> There are also "red-hats" in Islam--the Qizilbash, a Turkish Sufi
> group that were the early supporters of the Safavids--but I don't
> think that they fit.
>
> John Walbridge