Theos-Talk Archives (October 1995 Message tl00304)

JRC wrote,

> H.P.B. *herself*
> never would have claimed to be teaching `source' Theosophy,
Er, well -- that's exactly what she DID claim. HPB claimed in pretty
categorical language that Masters exist, that They preserve the Wisdom of the
Ages, that They worked with her directly for about 20 years before she was
instructed to give out the teachings, and that what she gives out is
(fragments) of the actual teachings -- the SOURCE teachings, from the SOURCE.

We all are proud to say that HPB was only one of "countless" messengers, but
the first one who POINTED THIS OUT in the West anyway was Blavatsky herself.
 We owe this whole concept of "countless Messengers" to HPB, although we
might say in retrospect she only got it from her "Buddhist" teachers, for in
Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. this is a common concept.

HPB spent a great deal of time pointing to other teachers (here's 50-some
toward that list of 100 -- Plato, Socrates, Plotinus, Ammonius Saccas,
Porphyry, Proclus, Iamblichus, Pythagoras, Plutarch, Celsus, Marcus Aurelius,
Diogene Laertius, Apuleius, Apollonius of Tyana, Hypatia, Hermes
Trismegistus, Aeschylus, Euripides, Boethius, Berosus, Clement Alexandrinus,
Origen, Synesius, Valentinus, Philo Judaeus, Seneca, Pindar, Julian,
Lactantius; Gautama Buddha, Krishna, Kapila, Katyayana, Vyasa, Shankara,
Patanjali, Panini, Padmasambhava, Vasubandhu, Aryasanga, Nagarjuna,
Santirakshita, Milarepa, Tilopa, Gampopa, Tsong Kha Pa (and countless
Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan texts); Cagliostro, Anton Mesmer, Saint-Martin,
Count de Saint-Germane, Meister Eckhardt, Paracelsus, Thomas Paine, the list
could easily find 1000 candidates for messengers of wisdom or people inspired
by the Masters). When we run around saying she was one of a long line, this
does not discredit HPB. In fact we quote her and give her all the more
credit when we place her in line, because it means she was of that caliber,
and that she has a right to speak for the SOURCE tradition and tell us more
about her predecessors.

HPB did claim to teach source material, and often pointed to her books and
her work as DIRECTLY inspired by "Those Who Know."

Rich