Nick the Pilot
Well-Known Member
Seeing as how this is Easter Week, here is an article by otownley, from theosophywatch.com, addressing the issue of Jesus, which is an ongoing issue (and source of contention) among some Theosophists.
http://theosophywatch.com/2009/04/10/real-jesus
EASTER week is Christianity’s “Jesus week,” and now the secular media-mob have been waging an unprecedented, virulent assault on Christian beliefs. We decided to enter the fray as peace-makers instead.
The cover of NEWSWEEK (April 4th) is emblazoned “The Decline and Fall of Christian America.”
As a result, that runner-up news magazine was forced to disable comments on Jon Meacham’s lead article.
“The End of Christian America” received over 5,000 comments, blogger Kurt Soller reported, “making the site wobbly.”
(See Colleen Raezler’s column For the media, it’s un-Holy Week if you want all the bloody details.)
It is true that Theosophy’s H. P. Blavatsky, took no prisoners attacking the faults of what she called “Churchianity.” But she always sided with the “true Christians,” whose “faith in their respective churches is pure and sincere.”
The difference between Christian theology and Theosophy,” she writes, is that the “former enforces belief in the Descent of the Spiritual Ego into the Lower Self,” and Theosophy “inculcates the necessity of endeavouring to elevate oneself to the Christos, or Buddhi state.”
This will not be a scholarly tome or an historical argument. We have too little time and space. (But for an important study, please be sure to read David Pratt’s impeccably researched Who Was the Real Jesus?)
The rest of this article is entirely in the words of Blavatsky, (with emphasis added), from Isis Unveiled, her first major work, is subtitled “A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology.”
From Chapter III, Isis Unveiled (Vol. 2, p. 123):
The motive of Jesus was evidently like that of Gautama-Buddha, to benefit humanity at large by producing a religious reform which should give it a religion of pure ethics—the true knowledge of God and nature having remained until then solely in the hands of the esoteric sects, and their adepts.
When we use the term Buddhists, we do not mean to imply by it either the exoteric Buddhism instituted by the followers of Gautama-Buddha, nor the modern Buddhistic religion, but the secret philosophy of Sakyamuni, which in its essence is certainly identical with the ancient wisdom-religion of the sanctuary, the pre-Vedic Brahmanism.
Perfected Living Masters
Thus, in common with Pythagoras and other hierophant reformers, Jesus divided his teachings into exoteric and esoteric.
Except a handful of self-styled Christians who subsequently won the day, all the civilized portion of the Pagans who knew of Jesus honored him as a philosopher, an adept whom they placed on the same level with Pythagoras and Apollonius.
Whence such a veneration on their part for a man, were he simply, as represented by the Synoptics, a poor, unknown Jewish carpenter from Nazareth? As an incarnated God there is no single record of him on this earth capable of withstanding the critical examination of science…
As one of the greatest reformers, an inveterate enemy of every theological dogmatism, a persecutor of bigotry, a teacher of one of the most sublime codes of ethics, Jesus is one of the grandest and most clearly-defined figures on the panorama of human history.
We see that the Golden Rule was not original with Jesus — that its birth-place was India. … the doctrines of Manu and Gautama harmonized exactly with his own philosophy.
Christ Not a Person
With the Christians, Christ another name for Jesus. The philosophy of the Gnostics, the initiates, and hierophants understood it otherwise. The word Christos, (Christos), like all Greek words, must be sought in its philological origin — the Sanskrit.
God-like beings as Gautama-Buddha, Jesus, Tissoo, Christna, and a few others had united themselves with their spirits permanently — hence, they became gods on earth.
Others, such as Moses, Pythagoras, Apollonius, Plotinus, Confucius, Plato, Iamblichus, and some Christian saints, having at intervals been so united, have taken rank in history as demi-gods and leaders of mankind.
When unburdened of their terrestrial tabernacles, their freed souls, henceforth united forever with their spirits, rejoin the whole shining host, which is bound together in one spiritual solidarity of thought and deed, and called “the anointed.”
Hence, the meaning of the Gnostics, who, by saying that “Christos” suffered spiritually for humanity, implied that his Divine Spirit suffered mostly.
From The Preface to Part II - Isis Unveiled [Vol. 2, Page iii-iv]:
WERE it possible, we would keep this work out of the hands of many Christians whom its perusal would not benefit, and for whom it was not written.
We allude to those whose faith in their respective churches is pure and sincere, and those whose sinless lives reflect the glorious example of that Prophet of Nazareth, by whose mouth the spirit of truth spake loudly to humanity.
Such there have been at all times. History preserves the names of many as heroes, philosophers, philanthropists, martyrs, and holy men and women — but how many more have lived and died, unknown but to their intimate acquaintance, unblessed but by their humble beneficiaries!
These have ennobled Christianity, but would have shed the same lustre upon any other faith they might have professed — for they were higher than their creed.
And yet, in comparison with the millions who have been accounted Christians, such have always formed a small minority. They are to be found at this day, in pulpit and pew, in palace and cottage — but the increasing materialism, worldliness and hypocrisy are fast diminishing their proportionate number.
Their charity, and simple, child-like faith in the infallibility of their Bible, their dogmas, and their clergy, bring into full activity all the virtues that are implanted in our common nature.
Faith and Immortality
We have personally known such God-fearing priests and clergymen, and we have always avoided debate with them, lest we might be guilty of the cruelty of hurting their feelings — nor would we rob a single layman of his blind confidence, if it alone made possible for him holy living and serene dying.
An analysis of religious beliefs in general, this volume is in particular directed against theological Christianity, the chief opponent of free thought.
[Isis Unveiled] contains not one word against the pure teachings of Jesus, but unsparingly denounces their debasement into pernicious ecclesiastical systems that are ruinous to man’s faith in his immortality and his God, and subversive of all moral restraint.
Jesus of The Future
His age may, with every day, be receding farther and farther back into the gloomy and hazy mists of the past — and his theology — based on human fancy and supported by untenable dogmas [theology] must with every day lose more of its unmerited prestige …
Alone the grand figure of the philosopher and moral reformer instead of growing paler will become with every century more pronounced and more clearly defined.
It will reign supreme and universal only on that day when the whole of humanity recognizes but one father — the UNKNOWN ONE above — and one brother — the whole of mankind below.
http://theosophywatch.com/2009/04/10/real-jesus
EASTER week is Christianity’s “Jesus week,” and now the secular media-mob have been waging an unprecedented, virulent assault on Christian beliefs. We decided to enter the fray as peace-makers instead.
The cover of NEWSWEEK (April 4th) is emblazoned “The Decline and Fall of Christian America.”
As a result, that runner-up news magazine was forced to disable comments on Jon Meacham’s lead article.
“The End of Christian America” received over 5,000 comments, blogger Kurt Soller reported, “making the site wobbly.”
(See Colleen Raezler’s column For the media, it’s un-Holy Week if you want all the bloody details.)
It is true that Theosophy’s H. P. Blavatsky, took no prisoners attacking the faults of what she called “Churchianity.” But she always sided with the “true Christians,” whose “faith in their respective churches is pure and sincere.”
The difference between Christian theology and Theosophy,” she writes, is that the “former enforces belief in the Descent of the Spiritual Ego into the Lower Self,” and Theosophy “inculcates the necessity of endeavouring to elevate oneself to the Christos, or Buddhi state.”
This will not be a scholarly tome or an historical argument. We have too little time and space. (But for an important study, please be sure to read David Pratt’s impeccably researched Who Was the Real Jesus?)
The rest of this article is entirely in the words of Blavatsky, (with emphasis added), from Isis Unveiled, her first major work, is subtitled “A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology.”
From Chapter III, Isis Unveiled (Vol. 2, p. 123):
The motive of Jesus was evidently like that of Gautama-Buddha, to benefit humanity at large by producing a religious reform which should give it a religion of pure ethics—the true knowledge of God and nature having remained until then solely in the hands of the esoteric sects, and their adepts.
When we use the term Buddhists, we do not mean to imply by it either the exoteric Buddhism instituted by the followers of Gautama-Buddha, nor the modern Buddhistic religion, but the secret philosophy of Sakyamuni, which in its essence is certainly identical with the ancient wisdom-religion of the sanctuary, the pre-Vedic Brahmanism.
Perfected Living Masters
Thus, in common with Pythagoras and other hierophant reformers, Jesus divided his teachings into exoteric and esoteric.
Except a handful of self-styled Christians who subsequently won the day, all the civilized portion of the Pagans who knew of Jesus honored him as a philosopher, an adept whom they placed on the same level with Pythagoras and Apollonius.
Whence such a veneration on their part for a man, were he simply, as represented by the Synoptics, a poor, unknown Jewish carpenter from Nazareth? As an incarnated God there is no single record of him on this earth capable of withstanding the critical examination of science…
As one of the greatest reformers, an inveterate enemy of every theological dogmatism, a persecutor of bigotry, a teacher of one of the most sublime codes of ethics, Jesus is one of the grandest and most clearly-defined figures on the panorama of human history.
We see that the Golden Rule was not original with Jesus — that its birth-place was India. … the doctrines of Manu and Gautama harmonized exactly with his own philosophy.
Christ Not a Person
With the Christians, Christ another name for Jesus. The philosophy of the Gnostics, the initiates, and hierophants understood it otherwise. The word Christos, (Christos), like all Greek words, must be sought in its philological origin — the Sanskrit.
God-like beings as Gautama-Buddha, Jesus, Tissoo, Christna, and a few others had united themselves with their spirits permanently — hence, they became gods on earth.
Others, such as Moses, Pythagoras, Apollonius, Plotinus, Confucius, Plato, Iamblichus, and some Christian saints, having at intervals been so united, have taken rank in history as demi-gods and leaders of mankind.
When unburdened of their terrestrial tabernacles, their freed souls, henceforth united forever with their spirits, rejoin the whole shining host, which is bound together in one spiritual solidarity of thought and deed, and called “the anointed.”
Hence, the meaning of the Gnostics, who, by saying that “Christos” suffered spiritually for humanity, implied that his Divine Spirit suffered mostly.
From The Preface to Part II - Isis Unveiled [Vol. 2, Page iii-iv]:
WERE it possible, we would keep this work out of the hands of many Christians whom its perusal would not benefit, and for whom it was not written.
We allude to those whose faith in their respective churches is pure and sincere, and those whose sinless lives reflect the glorious example of that Prophet of Nazareth, by whose mouth the spirit of truth spake loudly to humanity.
Such there have been at all times. History preserves the names of many as heroes, philosophers, philanthropists, martyrs, and holy men and women — but how many more have lived and died, unknown but to their intimate acquaintance, unblessed but by their humble beneficiaries!
These have ennobled Christianity, but would have shed the same lustre upon any other faith they might have professed — for they were higher than their creed.
And yet, in comparison with the millions who have been accounted Christians, such have always formed a small minority. They are to be found at this day, in pulpit and pew, in palace and cottage — but the increasing materialism, worldliness and hypocrisy are fast diminishing their proportionate number.
Their charity, and simple, child-like faith in the infallibility of their Bible, their dogmas, and their clergy, bring into full activity all the virtues that are implanted in our common nature.
Faith and Immortality
We have personally known such God-fearing priests and clergymen, and we have always avoided debate with them, lest we might be guilty of the cruelty of hurting their feelings — nor would we rob a single layman of his blind confidence, if it alone made possible for him holy living and serene dying.
An analysis of religious beliefs in general, this volume is in particular directed against theological Christianity, the chief opponent of free thought.
[Isis Unveiled] contains not one word against the pure teachings of Jesus, but unsparingly denounces their debasement into pernicious ecclesiastical systems that are ruinous to man’s faith in his immortality and his God, and subversive of all moral restraint.
Jesus of The Future
His age may, with every day, be receding farther and farther back into the gloomy and hazy mists of the past — and his theology — based on human fancy and supported by untenable dogmas [theology] must with every day lose more of its unmerited prestige …
Alone the grand figure of the philosopher and moral reformer instead of growing paler will become with every century more pronounced and more clearly defined.
It will reign supreme and universal only on that day when the whole of humanity recognizes but one father — the UNKNOWN ONE above — and one brother — the whole of mankind below.
