Theos-Talk Archives (September 1997 Message tl00048)

Hey Gang,

We just got in a new book that should interest theos-l
readers.  The author, Andrew Rawlinson, is a retired university
professor in England who attended at least one Theosophical
History conference in the 1980s.  I went with him and Leslie
Price to examine the Mahatma letters in the British Museum one
afternoon.  Now he has produced an amazing cornucopia of
information, which his subtitle describes as "Western Teachers
in Eastern Traditions."  Almost 500 pages of the book is an
alphabetical listing of Westerners who became teachers in
Eastern spiritual lineages and some of their Eastern
initiators.  HPB is listed but almost all of the many subjects
of the book are more recent.

The first 150 pages, which I haven't examined as thoroughly
yet, is an introduction to spiritual teachers in various
traditions followed by an explanation of how Westerners entered
those lineages and a discussion of the issues raised by this
change.

It's a bit pricey, $29.95 for a large paperback, but if you
can't afford it try to find it at a library.  This is a
wonderful survey of the results of the East/West opening
inaugurated by HPB and her teachers, and any Theosophist or
admirer of HPB should enjoy it.