Theos-Talk Archives (September 1995 Message tl00289)

According to Geraldjs@aol.com:
>
> Rich:<She rejects PLENTY, and teaches a very positive, well-defined path.>
> I agree that she rejects plenty (most all of exoteric Christianty,
> BTW), but I have a hard time swallowing the idea that she gave us a clear and
> well-defined path to tread. In fact, I have found very little that she
> offered us as a path. Be compassionate toward others, and do good deeds, and
> so forth, and so on. She also said that Raja Yoga was helpful. What else?
> She did give us a long laundry list of do's and dont's for "chelas" who
> serve "Masters" as taught in Eastern occultism, but this is of little help to
> us in the mid-nineties in the USA. What else? I would suggest that her
> teachings in fact go the other direction - they are deliberately vague to
> allow a great deal of flexibility, because the Path must be tread by each
> individual in his or her own way, and there are no "right" rules to follow.
>
> Jerry S.

Perhaps we need to break down "the path" into several
constituent meanings to get at the heart of this. At one
level, HPB definitely does not offer a well-defined path. How
and when should we meditate? What about diet? Which forms of
psychic experimentation are most dangerous? Safest? HPB
provides clues. If by "path" we mean "personal spiritual
evolutionary practice" then I think HPB tells us that Theosophy
is a meeting place for people following many different paths.

But if by "path" we mean guidelines for the TS, what it should
stand for and do; or the direction of human evolution
at the collective level, then she does provide plenty of
guidance. It just takes a lot of work to extrapolate individual
practice from the general guidance she does provide. I've
found many other teachers-- Gurdjieff, Jung, Cayce,
astrological writers-- to be more helpful at the level of
daily life.
>