Theos-Talk Archives (June 1996 Message tl00858)

?>Soon you and I may be asked to go through an examination to recertify
>that we have *learnt* Theosophy and many of us may flunk it because we
>have not understood the official version of Theosophy.
	

Jerry>But this is exactly what Judge did.  His exams are in
Echoes of the Orient Vol III.  Most of his students flunked, which
depressed him a bit, and kept him from giving out more of the
teachings.

	Now that you say it, yes, I've read that stuff.
The students you're referring to were members of the esoteric section,
not 'ordinary' theosophists, I think.  It is hard to understand now
(at this point of time) what was the motivation of Judge to ask his
E.S. students to go through exams. It reminds me of school (brr..).

It looks like he had the idea that his students had to exercise
discipline in the matters of esoteric teaching? Well, judging from
the mess HPB's E.S.-students made I can understand his attitude, but
for our current time, I wouldn't like to pass 'exams of theosophy'
for sure. Discipline is another thing. I think it is required indeed
when one studies Raja yoga, but it should be an interior thing, something
one develops him/herself. Another thing is a correspondence course,
which many societies (TS or not) are offering. Most often people are
asked to answer some questions at regular intervals. Generally these
are not examinations, however.

Martin