The other thing I would add is that HPB's own way of conceptualizing things seems to have a heavy dose of freemasonry
Here, again,
why is this surprising? HPB herself, we are told, was
Cagliostro immediately prior to coming back into the body as
HPB. She learned, then from
Master Rakoczy, and this same Master taught her both
in person and
from a distance during her years of service to humanity as HPB. I think it's mildly humorous that Mr. Ananikian
comes to this realization of the Masonic influence ... without apparently having
the least idea its true origins.
The idea of a "great white brotherhood" does not seem to exist outside TS circles nor before HPB
Amazing, isn't it, that even one with
two eyes and two ears cannot seem to recognize the color ORANGE unless it is
in the form the fruit of the same name, sitting before him, or YELLOW unless someone has handed him
a banana.
The Bible tells the observant student
plenty about the Brotherhood(s) ... and we can also learn this from
every other Sacred Scripture this world has ever seen. The amazing part to me, is that
modern man (and woman) in his continued, non-ending anthropomorphizations, has yet to get around to considering the radical idea,
that God actually thought of BROTHERHOOD before WE did.
Dear God, WHAT the heck exactly does this
genius Mr. Ananikian think
Christ JESUS went around PREACHING, and demonstrating ... as the BUDDHA(s) before Him?
Again, we have the
horse, dying of thirst, as it stands next to the
Pierian Spring Itself.
HPB's astral realm, as noted by scholars and Buddhist as well as Hindu scholar-practitioners, is not found in Buddhist nor Hindu theory of planes (bhumi) nor bodies (sarira) nor sheaths (kosa).
Statements like
this, I'm afraid, just reveal the
depths of the author's ignorance ... and/or his inability to actually
read a given text ... or, if we are
most understanding, we could just say that he has
missed the teaching, entirely.
Not only does HPB demonstrate that
the astral body, and plane, is a common teaching of EVERY exoteric, as well as esoteric, tradition ... but she does this in a fashion which
even a child of five or six should be able to understand. I mean,
if all else failed, one could simply say,
"You know, that place where you go when you dream, and where you can fly, and so forth." We have even had threads at C-R about children's experience of
the astral world ... and more.
Pretty shoddy research, Mr. Ananikian.
luridly Peter Pan-like fantasy of ascended masters as a new polytheism
For this misconception, and
master-worship, in the extreme, and for the
distortions which have certainly arisen and
come into the forefront of popular consciousness ... we must, unfortunately, credit some of the Theosophical authors and less-well-educated or experienced thinkers. HPB, however,
did her utmost to prevent just this kind of travesty from occurring.
I shall say, again, that HPB stated clearly that she
bitterly resented even making the existence of the Masters known, to the public ... partly because of how much CRAP she took from people about it (like about THREE here at C-R who immediately come to mind,
and a little parade of others who occasionlly chime in to
jab and jeer, without anything original or helpful to say). The real reason that HPB resented speaking of the Masters, is because
of what she had experienced, seen, been taught and shown firsthand, and how horribly, tragically she had seen all this
misrepresented ... to the point of heartbreak, as she was forced to accept that
not one in a thousand would even really catch a clue.
Later, Alice Bailey, too, would have to deal with all of this,
even catching hell from the (later generations of) Theosophists, themselves, who had no contact with the Masters, save
in rare cases ... and thus who could only
laugh and scoff when Alice innocently stated that she'd met
`the Master in the portrait, as a child.' But in her works, Alice goes on to tell, or rather Master DK states,
that the Masters as portrayed by the `I AM' Movement ... are a travesty of the truth, and that although this has helped to make the existence of the Hierarchy better known, it is wholly inaccurate,
glamourized misinformation.
The term
`Ascended Master' NEVER appears in Theosophical writings,
NOR in the teachings of Alice Bailey. It would be well to make this notation,
in the private little Crusade that some here at C-R are waging ... since what this amounts to, philosophically, is something like
a smokescreen - and dodges the true, Theosphical teachings regarding the Masters altogether.
Notice, by the way,
our differences of approach.
On the one hand, esoteric students often question
- both the origin, as well as the interpretation, of the world's Sacred Scriptures ... but unlike children on a playground, we do not feel the need to
wrestle over our toys, refuse to share, greedily claim ownership - much less to become dogmatic and take offense because some `outsider,' the new kid on the block, has dared to come play amongst us, bringing a different background and type of understanding along with him.
What
will not happen, is that a true esoteric student will never say,
"Your tradition is pointless, your teachings are worthless, your Prophets and Saviours are all a sham ... and only an idiot would take any of this crap seriously." Every day, certainly here at C-R, someone says this about
esoteric teachings ... and usually it's the same individuals, who don't seem content to keep these opinions to themselves. Strange, this obsession they seem to have with
tearing down, rather than making the least effort to
build up.
Yet esotericists have endured this
since the times of Atlantis, for when the Wisdom and the knowledge which
frees men's spirits began to provide an
obstacle to the satisfaction of the
desires and selfish purposes of the brothers of darkness ... and to stand in the way of the triumph of materialism, fear, superstition, greed and
earthly power ... the schism which continues to this day, began to develop.
It is not
simply in the last 125 years that esotericists have been forced to suffer the
ridicule of materialistic scientists and faithless skeptics, as well as the
machinations of the ecclesiasts and
stratagems of a jealous priesthood. Nor even for just
1000 years has this oppression been
acceptable and even sanctioned by the highest authorities in all lands.
Hypatia of Alexandria, murdered by a Christian mod in 415AD, stands as a monument in the history books ... and in the hearts and minds of Pagans and esotericists everywhere ... to a
more enlightened day, in many ways, when
the esoteric Wisdom had not yet been driven so far underground - for as one author says,
"Dark with ignorance of spiritual truth were the many centuries that followed [her brutal murder]."
(Dempster)
I think it is worth noting, especially for the attention of some of us, that the
Catholic Encyclopedia provides a
beautiful and
wholly accurate statement regarding the
nature and purpose of both modern and ancient Theosophy, telling us that:
"The basic teaching of Theosophy is the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity. Hence springs the preaching of toleration to all persons and to all varieties of belief, e.g.. Buddhists, Christians and Atheists. It considers the different religions as methods adopted by man in the search for God. They are of necessity various, because men differ in temperment, type, needs and stages of evolution. Hence they are different and imperfect expressions of truth and as such it says: 'We cannot afford to lose any of the worlds religions, for each has its partial truth and its characteristic message which the perfect man must acquire.' Hence Theosophy appeals to men as the great peace maker, for it teaches that all religions mean one and the same thing, or rather that they are all branches of a single tree ... religion comes from Divine knowledge, i.e., Theosophy."
And as Mr. Dempster aptly points out, "we do not agree with them [Catholics] when they try to show, that H.P. Blavatsky was a fraud, which neither they nor anyone else has ever proved." 
