Theos-Talk Archives (March 1998 Message tl00122)

Thanks, Mark, for explaining your meaning more fully.  While I
don't accept the Theosophical septenary model except as one among
many, and therefore can't participate wholeheartedly in a
discussion as if I thought it a genuine map of reality, your use
of that model makes sense within the universe of discourse at
hand.  Bart, your comment about 2-3 year old intelligence being
the limit observed in animals conforms to what I've read about
parrots, apes, etc. in terms of language use.  But how much do we
really know about cetaceans and their language?  There is perhaps
a lot more there than we have observed in mammals and birds.
Here I'll admit to relying on "vibes" and intuition rather than
solid evidence.

As for Geoffrey Farthing's "manifesto," it is so full of
assumptions that it would be very hard to respond to without
going into great length.  I'll just comment that his belief that
Annie Besant was somehow going against the Masters and HPB by
pursuing politics is hardly justified.  He takes a single quote
and ignores many others that show both HPB and her Masters to
have been keenly interested in politics.  My opinion is that
Annie Besant screwed up royally in her leadership of the TS, but
did pretty close to what HPB and her Masters would have wanted as
a leader of the Indian Freedom Movement and in her work for
education.

It's fine for people within or outside the Adyar TS to devote
critical examination to the claims of Krishnamurti, Besant,
Leadbeater, Bailey, etc.  But when they treat HPB as beyond that
kind of critical examination, it looks pretty darn hypocritical
to me.