Theos-Talk Archives (December 1995 Message tl00283)

In reply to Liesel of 12.14.95:

Hi Liesel --

My aplogies for the delay in getting back to you -- I've been working around
the effects of a catastrophic hard drive failure.

Regarding your guestions on the AAB tenets and your request for greater
detail: I'll give it a go but I think it is important to establish a few
"ground rules" first --- I am *not* professing to be an expert on either the
teachings of AAB or HPB and my first purpose in posting the AAB tenets was
to solicit comments from others. "Multiple Choice" tests are always easier
but "Compare and Contrast" questions generally give more information
wouldn't you agree? :

With that in mind

1 RE the teaching on Shamballa the Hierarchy and the "Center where the
Will of God is known": this to me seems to be the single biggest point of
difference between the AAB writings and "orthodox" theosophy. In the
former M KH and the other Masters of Wisdom are not singular individuals
but are parts of a "community of saints" or White Brotherhood or Hierarchy
which is comprised in part of those human individuals who have met or
surpassed that point in evolution called Transfiguration of the Personality.
That point is achieved for an individual when the integrated threefold
personality first makes contact with and is finally subject to the purpose
of the Soul; the "how to" of this is outlined in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras or
Raja Yoga. Hierarchy forms the Heart center of the "One in Whom we live and
move and have our being" while Shamballa corresponds to the Head center.

2 "Aryan people" is used in AAB's writings in the same way that "race" is
used in theosophical literature. In Jung's commentary on Richard Wilhelm's
translation of the Taoist text The Secret of the Golden Flower he says
"When faced with this problem of grasping the ideas of the East the usual
mistake of Western man is like that of the student in Faust. Misled by the
Devil he contemptuously turns his back and carried away by Eastern
occultism takes over yoga practices quite literally and becomes a pitible
imitator. Theosophy is our best example of this mistake."

Hard words but his point is that there is a fundamental difference between
the Oriental and Occidental mind and that what is "best" for one is not
necessarily correct for the other. Jung got a little carried away there
IMO but he does have a point. In the writings of AAB meditation begins
"with seed" and is formalized as opposed to say zazen.

3 In the AAB teachings about the Seven Rays or energies qualified by the
seven fundamental differentiations of the intitial manifestation of Spirit
we have one of the first substantial "splits" from the original teachings
of HPB again IMO. There are references in the SD that can be interpreted
this way but there is not a detailed body of information in that work about
it. I believe it is in one of CWL's books where the first outline is given
Masters and the Path?. The concept is central to AAB's writings.

RE your comment: For Psychology to be "all on man's side" you have to
define Mind as "all on man's side" yes?

4 I doubt that I'm the person to try and explain AAB's take on astrology. :

5 In AAB's teachings your meditation phone line should go straight to your
Soul or Higher Self or Ego -- this is one instance where a lack of
accepted standard theosophical terminology hinders. I once saw a group of
newcomers walk out of a TS study group that got sidetracked from the
scheduled topic to arguing about which subplane the Higher Self resides upon
and whether or not it encompasses the causal lotus -- sheesh.... The first
goal of significance is to completely integrate the threefold personality
with the Soul which has been incarnating for eons through various
personalities. In the AAB writings there is a sharp distinction made
between occultism and mysticism and meditation is a scientific means of
creative endeavor.

6 Fair enough close enough whatever. : The idea goes a little
farther in that what was once a *personal* relationship between Master and
chela is now one of *group identification* as a result of the transition
from Pisces to Aquarius.

7 In the AAB teaching on the coming world religion we have another of the
main differences with pre-1895 theosophy I think. In the former the
returning Piscean Avatar the Christ the Imam the Maitreya the Messiah
etc. will as the Avatar for humanity in Aquarius institute an exoteric
religious observance of presently esoteric events or Festivals. The three
main "religious holy days" are Easter the great Western festival at the
time of the full moon of spring Wesak the great Eastern festival of the
Buddha at the time of the Taurus moon and the Festival of Goodwill at the
moon of Gemini. These three anchor in human consciousness the "divine
aspects" of Will-Love-Active Intelligence the Trinity of Christianity and
the nine other festivals correspond to the "divine attributes" which are the
remaining energy qualities seeking expression through humanity or Rays 04 -
7 in AAB's parlance.

Does that address your questions somewhat? As MKRamadoss pointed out
theos-l should not be a forum for promoting a separatist agenda but rather
for exploring the ideas of theosophy. The key question as it seems to me
is whether or not the pre-1895 teachings of the founders make a complete set
of theosophical instruction or if there are other sources/ideas that are
useful to us in what we are trying to accomplish as individuals and as a
group. I look forward to reading the comments of others on this.

Jim