Theos-Talk Archives (August 1995 Message tl00251)

Liesel: "I think the idea, which I take to be part of Theosophy, that one
can be a Theosophist & belong to any of the world's
religions is a good one, & a viable one."

Rich: Liesel, you are saying two different things here. You are saying one
may be a good Theosophist AND belong to a religion. That is quite true, and
I have never made any noise to the opposite.

But just because one is a Buddhist AND and Theosophist, like myself, does not
make Buddhism the SAME as Theosophy. That's the problem. We can work out
any little personal synthesis we like, and I have, as you probably have too.
 I see a lot of "connection" between Buddhism and Theosophy.

But I could NEVER conscience presenting to a newcomer my "buddhist synthesis"
as Theosophy pure and simple. There is a reason why U.L.T. and Pasadena and
Pt. Loma stick to the lines laid down (and all three associations agree on
this): Because the original message was one of the rare occurrences where
Initiates spoke to the world at large, and their message is precious and not
to be tinkered with, watered down, or corrupted, or IT WILL BE LOST as has
happened to every other world tradition. They become formalized along lines
that were DIFFERENT from the Founder's presentation.

U.L.T. does not do this. We have no rituals, holidays, interpretive texts,
formal creeds, or anything else to distract from what was originally given
out by the Masters. We don't add or take away, we simply try to CONCENTRATE
on the teachings as they were given, and use photographic facsimiles to be
sure we are getting the original, un-edited works. (Most Theosophists follow
this U.L.T. practice nowadays, but eariler in the century, they didn't. It
was hard to find the original S.D. for instance.)

U.L.T. is not opposed to individual exploration. In my lodge we have several
Buddhists and Christians, a Vedantin, a Bailey student, a Besant/Leadbetter
student, a few scientific atheists, some people who don't really have any
separate tradition, and some who are "just" Theosophists. These personal
traditions come up now and again during meetings as a person explains their
understanding of this or that idea, but we concentrate almost entirely on the
Theosophical teaching before us, mostly in the form of study classes on the
original books. There is no exclusion, you see, only focus. All are
welcome, from any background, with any creed, to join in the study.

To me, THAT is the essence of brotherhood, coming together to study and
learn. Brotherhood doesn't mean that anything and everything is Theosophy.

Rich